AMERICA, LAND OF EXTREME POVERTY.

       I often go on about the poverty being inflicted on the people of Greece by the financial Mafia, and believe me it is extreme. However when people think of poverty they never look in the direction of that pinnacle of capitalism, that land of freedom and opportunity, the good ol' US of A. It is to the wonder of propaganda that the myth, that America is a land of plenty was created and still persists. The illusion that is pumped out to the world that we should all follow the American corporate example and we will live well in a prosperous country. The truth of course is that millions in America live in extreme poverty and recent figures are quite startling. In America in 1996, approximately 600,000 children were living in what is classed as extreme poverty, $2 or less a day. That figure has shot up to approximately 1,400,000 in 2011. That is the advance that capitalism has made in that land of opportunity.

      The following is short extract from a rather long, but well worth reading article from Mother Jones:

This story was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
      Two years ago, Harvard professor Kathryn Edin was in Baltimore interviewing public housing residents about how they got by. As a sociologist who had spent a quarter century studying poverty, she was no stranger to the trappings of life on the edge: families doubling or tripling up in apartments, relying on handouts from friends and relatives, selling blood plasma for cash. But as her fieldwork progressed, Edin began to notice a disturbing pattern. "Nobody was working and nobody was getting welfare," she says. Her research subjects were always pretty strapped, but "this was different. These people had nothing coming in."
     Edin shared her observations with H. Luke Shaefer, a colleague from the University of Michigan. While the income numbers weren't literally nothing, they were pretty darn close. Families were subsisting on just a few thousand bucks a year. "We pretty much assumed that incomes this low are really, really rare," Shaefer told me. "It hadn't occurred to us to even look."
      Curious, they began pulling together detailed household Census data for the past 15 years. There was reason for pessimism. Welfare reform had placed strict time limits on general assistance and America's ongoing economic woes were demonstrating just how far the jobless could fall in the absence of a strong safety net. The researchers were already aware of a rise in "deep poverty," a term used to describe households living at less than half of the federal poverty threshold, or $11,000 a year for a family of four. Since 2000, the number of people in that category has grown to more than 20 million—a whopping 60 percent increase. And the rate has grown from 4.5 percent of the population to 6.6 percent in 2011, the highest in recent memory save 2010, which was just a tad worse (6.7 percent).
But Edin and Shaefer wanted to see just how deep that poverty went. In doing so, they relied on a World Bank marker used to study the poor in developing nations: This designation, which they dubbed "extreme" poverty, makes deep poverty look like a cakewalk. It means scraping by on less than $2 per person per day, or $2,920 per year for a family of four.
     In a report (PDF) published earlier this year by the University of Michigan's National Poverty Center, Edin and Shaefer estimated that nearly 1 in 5 low-income American households were living in extreme povery; since 1996, the number of households in that category had increased by about 130 percent (118 percent if you use the latest numbers available). Among the truly destitute were 2.8 million children. Even if you counted food stamps as cash, half of those kids were still being raised in homes whose weekly take wasn't enough to cover a trip to Applebee's.

Read the full article HERE:

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A SOCIETY THAT SPAWNS KILLINGS.

    I seldom comment on such horrors as the most recent mass shooting in America. It is always difficult to find the right words, and in this particular event, as a parent, I am numbed and can't even imagine what those parents are going through. The matter is extremely complex and requires an analysis of the type of society that exists, and a look at alternatives. Of course that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, will have a field day of pouring over the heart rendering misery of the people involved, displaying it like a tapestry of emotion for public consumption, but never a deeper analysis as to the why. Below are two paragraphs from an article that I think puts it better than I ever could.

This from SoleOne:

 

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     Before the tears that fell from the presidents face hit the podium and the Us troops deployed to Turkish borders could learn to pronounce "Ahmadinejad " everyone had an opinion on the Connecticut shooting.   Celebrities and politicians all lined up, either to propose stricter gun laws or to say, "now is not the time to politicize."  Even as the details from the Aurora shooting continue to fill news pages and blogs after almost 3 months,  Once again we are trapped in a 9600+ hour news cycle where we will be bludgeoned with every  detail to emerge from the shooting as  hack journalists pontificating back and forth on "how" but never look deeper then family/personal issues as to the "why."--------

       There are a million factors that contributed to this, but I'd be remised if i didn't point out the hypocrisy and jingoistic nature of most of these responses.  This is the shit we fund in Gaza, this is what our drones do daily throughout Islamic World.  Tens of thousands of thousands of people have been killed by the American Empire in the past 10 years, and you'd be hard pressed to find as many American  tears for our victims overseas.  That is not to take anything away from this tragedy or equivocate, this was an utterly horrific act.  If we really want to put an end to end to the mass shootings, we must begin to heal the society and culture that spawns them.

Read the full article HERE:

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LIVING OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM.

      The only news we get about Greece from that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, is about the bailout, will they get it, won't they get it, have they done enough to get it. Have they sorted out their lazy workers and cut their wages and pensions enough to merit the European financial Mafia giving the Greek banks more cash, with which to pay back the European financial Mafia?? Very little or nothing appears about how this game of shuffling imaginary money around affects the ordinary people of Greece. Poverty, deprivation, massive unemployment, especially among the young, increase alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides, mental health problems, homelessness and broken families.      

     However, as always the ingenuity and imagination of the ordinary people in the face of adversity, comes up with solutions. Let's hope that they will continue this imaginative alternative and organise it to its rightful conclusion and bring about the collapse of the stinking system responsible for all their ills.

This from Red Pepper:

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    Greeks queue to buy cheap sacks of potatoes sold directly by farmers at cost price in the northern town of Thessaloniki. Farmers in northern Greece have joined forces with local residents to provide cheap produce for the people. Photo: Alexandros Michailidis

    The first problem is that in Greece now we have 25 per cent unemployment, with youth unemployment reaching 58 per cent and unemployment in areas that used to be highly industrialised sometimes reaching 70-80 per cent. Many industries either close because we have very low consumption or, as in the case of the big multinationals like Coca-Cola, they are leaving.
     Around 170,000 small companies have closed in the past three years. It is almost impossible to set up a new company today in Greece because you can’t get the finance. The banks are taking 80 per cent of the money that Greece is getting from the EU and IMF. But they are not lending a euro to the people.
     Unemployment benefit only lasts for one year, and then you get nothing to survive on – only help from friends and family, from social networks and working for very little in the black economy. The problem up to now hasn’t been as severe as it could have been because of very strong family and friendship networks – if someone had difficulty in paying bills, for example, others would support them. But it isn’t possible to sustain this kind of support indefinitely.

Read the full article HERE:

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       I am a keen cyclist, yes even at my age, and as such I admire Bradley Wiggins, the man and what he has achieved. However I was disappointed and saddened at the thought of him becoming one of those kneeling and touching forelock individuals that think that Sir, in front of your name makes you a better person. So it is with that in mind and the hope that this message may reach him, that I post this article. So if you know him, pass it on. From A World to Win:

Me, not Wiggo.

Don't do it, Wiggo!

       Bradley Wiggins, heroic winner of the Tour de France, Olympic gold medallist and BBC sports personality of the year, with sideburns that help mark him out from the crowd, is reported to have accepted a knighthood. My message to him is simple: don’t do it Wiggo!

     Don’t let us see a picture of you kneeling before the Queen to become Sir Bradley. Do what Olympic opening ceremony creator Danny Boyle has done and say “No”.

       You were brought up by your mum in a small flat in Kilburn, north London. Your absent father’s passion for cycling rubbed off on you and the legendary Herne Hill velodrome in south London, was where you started out.

      You became popular through your common touch, your rapport with ordinary people. So much so that the French took you to their hearts, especially when you made jokes in their language.

       So why join the establishment? Why join the elite? Why help out the ConDem government, which is recommending you to Buckingham Palace? As US baseball fans might respond, “say it ain’t so, Wiggo”.

Read the full article HERE:

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DEFYING A CURFEW.

     A massive act of defiance of a curfew as people take back their community.

      On Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 the residents of the Borel favela (Morro do Borel, occupied since 1921 in Rio de Janeiro) went out in the streets in a collective effort to break the curfew that the cops of the local UPP (‘Police Pacification Unit’) have imposed in the area since November 28th.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE FIRST TO STARVE, THE FIRST TO DIE.

     This one might not be new, but I like it, and it is always nice to relax with a pleasant piece of music that has honest lyrics.

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JUSTIFIED KILLING.

      This is probably the worst case of police killing I have heard of, by what appears to be a trigger happy cop. 13 bullets as the guy is getting out of the car. The behaviour after the killing looked like nobody seemed to know what they were doing and apart from the cop high on adrenalin or something, it all seemed so casual. And the killing was ruled as justified??

The story is from Reason.com:

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RAISE TAXES -- RAISE AIR POLLUTION!!

       The best laid plans of mice and men---- The Greek governments super plan to raise revenue by a 40% hike in fuel oil tax, seems to have back-fired somewhat. Once again it is the economics of the insane, thinking that in a country where there is extreme poverty and massive unemployment, you can still raise revenue by taxing the poor who don't have any surplus cash to hand over. The only thing they seem to have raised is the level of air pollution.

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:
         Nowadays it's now known as fuel poverty, but to older generations it is huddling in cold, damp rooms round an inadequate fire hoping that either the weather will get better or that you'll have enough money to see out the cold spell. With temperatures in Greece dropping below zero in the mountainous northern regions, one of the government's most hated tax measures is starting to take effect. The decision by Athens to raise heating oil taxation by 40% seems to have backfired as millions decided not to turn on their oil fired central heating and turned to other sources, most notably, wood burning stoves, leaving the government with 790 million euro shortfall.
       In the northern region of Kozani heating oil whole sellers reported an 85% drop in demand in comparison with last year, whilst businesses supplying wood, sometimes logged illegally are seeing a roaring trade as Greeks seek to heat their homes using traditional wood burning stoves known as soumbes.

Read the full article HERE:

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YOU KNOW IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!

        Although crime is falling in this country, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, always fill your mind with horrible crimes, giving the authorities an excuse to put in place more surveillance and more control over the ordinary people. Cameras everywhere, stop and search, ID cards, everything to keep tabs on you, to make sure they know who you are, where you are, why your there and have you got permission to be there. However we haven't yet gone as far as the good sheriff of Paragould in Arkansas, who has declared marshal law on the good citizens of his patch.

This from Paragould Daily Press:

       In response to a recent increase in crime, Paragould Mayor Mike Gaskill and Police Chief Todd Stovall offered residents at a town hall meeting Thursday night at West View Baptist Church what could be considered an extreme solution — armed officers patrolling the streets on foot. Stovall told the group of almost 40 residents that beginning in 2013, the department would deploy a new street crimes unit to high crime areas on foot to take back the streets.
      "[Police are] going to be in SWAT gear and have AR-15s around their neck," Stovall said. "If you're out walking, we're going to stop you, ask why you're out walking, check for your ID."
     Stovall said while some people may be offended by the actions of his department, they should not be. "We're going to do it to everybody," he said. "Criminals don't like being talked to."

Read the full article HERE:

And a Happy New Year to you lot!!

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A MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PEOPLE OF GREECE.

      It is obvious that the Greek government is determined to see that the Greek people have a merry Christmas. This is a no expense spared exercise to keep the Christmas spirit of goodwill alive. I think it is Syntagma Square, Athens but not sure.

       And how the people of Athens showed their feelings regarding austerity and goodwill at Christmas a couple of years ago.

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THE STATE, EXPERT PURVEYORS OF VIOLENCE.

       These words could apply to the events of today but were written about Ravachol and his times, by Octave Mirbeau  16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917

And this begs the question...

        Who is it --throughout this endless procession of tortures which has been the history of the human race --who is it that sheds the blood, always the same, relentlessly, without any pause for the sake of mercy? Governments, religions, industries, forced labor camps, all of these are drenched in blood. The murder is weary of their laws, their prayers, and their progress. Again just recently, there were the frenzied butchers who turned Paris into a slaughterhouse as the Commune perished. There were pointless massacres, such as at Fourmies where the bodies of innocent women and little kids tried out the ballistic virtues of the Lebels machine gun for the first time. And there are always the mines in which fifty, a hundred, or five hundred poor devils are suffocated, swallowed in a single moment of horrible destruction, their charred bodies never to see daylight again. And there are also the horrid conquests of distant countries where happy races, unknown and peaceful, groan under the boot of that robber of continents, that filthy rapist of forest communities and virgin lands, the western slave trader.

Each footstep taken in this society bristles with privileges, and is marked with a bloodstain; each turn of the government machinery grinds the tumbling, gasping flesh of the poor; and tears are running from everywhere in the impenetrable night of suffering. Facing these endless murders and continuous tortures, what's the meaning of society, this crumbling wall, this collapsing staircase?

We live in ugly times. The misery has never been worse, because it's never been more obvious, and it's never stood closer to the spectacle of wasted riches and the promised land of well-being from which it is relentlessly turned away. Never has the law, which protects only the banks, pressed so hard upon the tortured shoulders of the poor. Capitalism is insatiable, and the wage system compounds the evils of ancient slavery. The shops are packed full of clothing, and there are those who go about completely naked; the indifferent rich are puking up food, while others perish from hunger in their doorways. No cry is heeded: whenever a single, louder complaint penetrates the din of sad murmurs, the Lebels is loaded and the troops are mobilized.

And that's not all.

       A population does not live solely on its stomach. It also has a life of the mind. Its intellectual joys are just as necessary as its physical joys. It has a right to beauty just as it has a right to bread. Indeed, those who could give it its higher pleasures, those who could introduce to the people this vital beauty are treated like public enemies, hunted down as criminals, hounded for being anarchists and beaten like beggars. They are reduced to a solitary life. An enormous barrier separates them from the crowd, by whom they are regarded as repulsive spectacles, and over whom there is spread the enormous, sordid, impenetrable veil of triumphant stupidity. We are witnessing an incredible social moment: at this time, while abundant with great thinkers, the public taste has never been so degraded, nor has ignorance ever enjoyed such base pleasures. Surely, if the hour in which we live is hideous, it is formidable as well: it's the hour of popular awakening. And this hour is full of uncertainty. The patience of the downtrodden and the dispossessed has lasted long enough. They want to live, they want to enjoy, they want their share of all the happiness and sunshine. Whatever the rulers do, reacting to their worst fears, they will not forestall the inevitable course of events. We're touching upon a decisive moment in human history. The old world is collapsing under the weight of its own crimes, and is itself lighting the fuse of the bomb that will blast it all away. This bomb will be all the more terrible because it will contain neither gunpowder nor dynamite. It'll contain compassion and an idea; two forces against which nothing can be done. 

Read the full article HERE:

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ENDLESS, POINTLESS WAR.

Think about it?

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YOU DECIDE!!

      I don't suppose this year will be much different, that's capitalism for you.

This from Imgur.com:

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DRONES AND MASS KILLINGS.

   
  A relevant comment from "An Elegant Feast":

  

      The media has another sensationalist story about gun violence to push, and they are going to push it, hard.  And of course, anytime a child dies, it’s a tragedy.  When it occurs with violent, brutal force, it is especially repulsive.  But there is something even more disgusting than this.  When we only concentrate on the deaths of american children that are murdered by a mentally disturbed individual, we offer silent complicity to the scores of children that the US government murders in cold, rational, calculation.  According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the US government has killed 176 children with drone strikes in Pakistan.  Where is the outrage for those deaths?  I guess when it occurs at the hand of Obama and Clinton, it becomes convenient for the media and the so-called american left to look the other way.  The consummate celebrity, Obama had a press conference to show his tears to anyone who could stomach them.  If the sight of a crass, unrelenting killer is so upsetting for the president, someone needs to quickly remove every mirror from the white house.

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A STATE WITHIN A STATE IS THE STATE.

       There is often talk of a state within a state, but no matter how you put it, it is still the state, one can't function without the other. It is not an anomaly, it is the way that any state functions. There is the public face of "respectability" and there is the slithering shadowy unseen apparatus that functions to keep the whole show on the road. The British state is probably the most polished and sophisticated in this process of keeping that slithering shadowy aspect concealed from public view. Now and again a tip of it slips into public view for a brief moment and then quietly slithers back into the background and the smiling suits once again take front stage.

This from A World to Win:

Finucane's murder by the state within the state

     A state within a state signifies the fact that sections of the armed forces, police or intelligence services are running their own agenda, often with deadly consequences. They take it upon themselves to defeat perceived enemies of the state.
Britain is home to such a state, as is clear from the de Silva report into the murder of the lawyer Pat Finucane in 1989. Although the report is only a review of documents and not the public inquiry the family wanted, it is devastating enough.

    The report uses the term “collusion” to describe the role of the RUC Special Branch, the British army’s agent-running section (FRU) and the intelligence service MI5. But it amounts to a state conspiracy to kill Finucane, who acted for Republicans in Northern Ireland.

Read the full article HERE:

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CHARITY AND SLAVE LABOUR CAN'T GO TOGETHER.

       The government's gift of slave labour to the corporate world still trundles on, though resistance is growing. However it is not just the corporate greed machine that is taking advantage with free labour workfare scheme, charities are up there among the greed merchants taking advantage of the disadvantaged. These charity shops rely on the public handing in stuff and donations and yet the will screw the same public by taking on unpaid labour. Lots of charities are withdrawing from the slave labour scheme but there are still those that are hanging in there making a cheap buck.

 This from Boycott Workfare:

 The continued exodus of charity shops from the Government’s workfare schemes leaves the Mandatory Work Activity scheme looking perilously close to collapse.
Oxfam, Marie Curie and Shelter, who all refused workfare in their stores, have now been joined by others. Scope say they are ending mandatory work schemes as have Age UK (though not necessarily in their independent stores). Cancer Research UK have said they are pulling out of mandatory work activity placements. Meanwhile British Heart Foundation have said they are ‘moving away’ from mandated work, though have continued to take placements in their stores.
It now seems that the largest providers of mandated workfare are likely to be conservation and environmental charities such as The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), a mis-named charity who have been quietly building an army of unpaid workers.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE USUAL CORPORATE IMPERIALIST HYPOCRISY.

      Once again we see the West talk with forked tongue. It preaches democracy in the Middle East while backing the Muslim Brotherhood in both Syria and Egypt, of course, hypocrisy is standard for imperialism. In recognising the "rebels" in Syria it will see the demise of the Assad regime, another regime that wouldn't play ball with the Western corporate world. Any nation that doesn't allow the mighty dollar to dominate their country is demonised and enters the "axis of evil", marking them out as "to be sorted".  Iraq and Libya have been sorted, Syria is almost sorted, that leaves Iran and North Korea to be brought to chaos, allowing the mighty dollar to walk in and make a killing. (literally and figuratively). What probably saves North Korea, for the time being, is its big pal, China, though as the West becomes more desperate, that may not put them off forever. The Western corporate world can gain from war and chaos.

From CounterPunch, a little more detail on the West's relations with the Muslim Brotherhood.

     The complexities of the Arab Spring and the struggle for political freedom throughout the Arab world should not obscure what has now become an absolutely essential understanding for all anti-imperialists: the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most powerful weapons of the Western ruling class in the Muslim world. While that may be a difficult pill for some to swallow for emotional or psychological reasons, one need look no further than the insidious role the organization is playing in Syria and the abuses of power and human rights of the government of Egypt. In the US-NATO sponsored war against the Assad government, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the leading western-sanctioned force, the avant-garde of the imperialist assault. While, in Egypt, President Morsi and the Brotherhood government seek to destroy what had been, little more than a year ago, the promise of the revolution.

Read the full article HERE:

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IN THE CORPORATE WORLD, MISERY IS JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS.

      Anybody with a brain cell knows that charity in this capitalist society will never be an answer. Poverty is part and parcel of corporate capitalism, aid packages always come with strings that suit the donor. In this world of corporatism, misery, malnutrition,deprivation and death are just statistics, indicators to where to put your money. Somebody's misery is can be a beneficial tax dodge, a hedge fund's opportunity. These bank accounts don't carry the smell of deprivation into the homes of the owners. As long as the lack of money means the lack of the necessities of life, we will have deprivation and death from malnutrition. Sort out that part and we can start to sort out the malnutrition, misery and deprivation.  

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COMING TO A BUS NEAR YOU.

      The surveillance society is well and truly established here and else where. You can't walk about your city without being observed, photoed, tracked and the information stored. The local bus stop at the bottom of our street has SIX cameras mounted on it, you enter the bus and you are recorded. I have counted as many as six cameras on some buses. Dotted around town are cameras with speakers mounted, you will be instructed what to do if you are seen to be doing something THEY deem to be wrong. Now it seems that this is not enough, in some cities in America they are fitting voice recording equipment on public transport buses, to record your conversations and store them. Where America goes today, we go tomorrow. How long before all new build houses will have a camera and sound recording fitted at the construction stage? Far fetched? How long ago was it that you would have been laughed at if you said that the bus stop will have six cameras fitted? Of course you know it is all for your own good and safety. Oh George, we should have listened.

This from The Stranger:

      When people worry about drones, they worry that the information gathered by the little fliers will be stored forever as a blanket violation of Fourth Amendment protections—a warrantless search with wings. (That's what people in the US worry about, anyway. People in other countries worry that drones will kill them.)
Looks like drones are the least of the Fourth Amendment's worries. From Wired.com:
      Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.
The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

Read the full article HERE:

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BE YOURSELF? DOWNRIGHT SHOCKING!!!

       Recently the Guardian reviewed a children's book, "A Rule is to Break", a child's guide to anarchy, apparently it was deemed downright shocking by the Tea Party in America. Perhaps we should start to hand the book out free. It seems that its main message is to teach kids to think for themselves, now that really is "downright shocking". I really like the name of the publisher, "Manic D Press".

     The gently humorous children's book A Rule Is to Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy, which exhorts kids to "Think for Yourself", "Give Away Stuff for Free" and "Do What You Want", has come under fire from the Tea Party.
    Originally self-published, A Rule is to Break was released late last month by small San Francisco publisher Manic D Press. Written and illustrated by husband-and-wife team John Seven and Jana Christy, it follows the story of Wild Child "as she learns about just being herself and how that translates into kid autonomy". Advice includes "don't look like everybody else! Be you", and "Paint pictures on your TV! Forget about grocery stores and get dirty in your garden!"
    A review in Publishers Weekly suggested that "even adult readers taken aback by lines like 'when someone says 'Work!', you say Why?' and 'No baths ever again!' will be able to get behind suggestions to 'Educate yourself. Use your brain' and "Listen to the tiniest voice'", calling the book "the softer side of anarchy, with an emphasis on fun and independence, but also community and kindness".

Read the full review HERE:

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