Trib A Game still missing from West, South Side protests

A visitor from another planet reading the Trib editorial 'A protest sure to provoke: Anger? Yes. Solutions? We'll See.' would have no idea of the unfolding daily tragedy on Chicago's South and West Sides. "Participants will rally to demand safer, more hopeful communities on the South and West sides with better schools and more job opportunities", just doesn't cut it. Where are the dozen folks murdered and several dozen more wounded by largely illegal guns every week? Were are the miles of wasteland, the Depression era unemployment rates, the revolving prison door, the third world drug trade? Instead we get this pablum: Protesters will "be marching in envy of the neighborhoods that will surround them as they proceed." When one of those protesters is watching their child bleed out in a drive by shooting they're not experiencing envy. The real audience for this editorial are the Chicagoans of privilege captured by the line "The more Chicagoans engage and push for positive changes, the more this next election becomes a referendum on ways to make Chicago a more successful, livable city for all residents." The protesters are not looking at the big picture of 'making Chicago a more successful, livable city'. They marching for survival by coming part of the Chicago which sustains life. The Trib's hope that the ten mayoral candidates will be inspired to offer real solutions outside of their pet project comfort zones is preposterous. This human crisis cannot be solved at the city level. It must involve the state and federal government working with city officials in a massive investment of many billions to undue a century of racism, neglect and disinvestment. Kicking the can of improvement 208 days down the road till election day is a non-starter. The protesters will be voting for change on Lake Shore Drive and at Wrigley Field today. They should be.

Yemen in the time of cholera - Part 6

We've learned recently that the US is considering selling death dealing drones to Saudi Arabia in their criminal and US enabled war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. While we sell the Saudis just about everything else to wage war, earning billions for the munitions industry, we've been reluctant to add less manageable drones. But since China has moved into the void, Uncle Sam is loathe to cede easy profits to an economic adversary. If you're surprised to read this, don't be. US mainstream media has put an embargo on virtually any mention of Yemen as the 24 million suffering under US bombs and US planes flown by Saudis are in the middle of our proxy war against Iran being fought by Saudi Arabia against the Shi'ite Houthi rebels aligned with Iran. In a choice between our most demonized pretend enemy Iran and our best weapons buyer Saudi Arabia, mainstream media goes along with Uncle Sam who whispers 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' of Yemen in their news access starved ear.

Speaking of embargoes, besides devastating US bombs raining down on them, the 24 million Yemenis reel from the US enabled Saudi embargo of food and medicine that has caused a million cases of cholera, 2 million refugees, half a million on the brink of starvation, and 22 million looking for their next meal.

Saudi Arabia cannot commit these grotesque war crimes against Yemen without US support. And the US cannot maintain this support without the unquestioned cooperation of a media, print and electronic, which daily subvert and disgrace the function of a free press.