Tim O'Brien

Why Are Two Slates of Good Democrats Asking Me to Choose Between Them? - New Britain Progressive Newspaper By Tim O’Brien On many levels, I am glad that former Mayor, Senator and state Commissioner Don DeFronzo, with support and editing by John McNamara, penned the important history of the 1989 mayoral election. Watershed, serialized in the New Britain Progressive, tells the story of how a conservative...

Alton Brooks-The Voice of a Visionary - New Britain Progressive Newspaper Interview with Mr. Alton Brooks-102 years old 1/13/2024 By Rev. Brian K. Riley  Mr. Alton Brooks (102 years old) is a longtime community activist, friend to many, and a mentor to countless individuals.  Mr. Brooks has a well-rounded foundation that includes spirituality, social justice and politic...

Concerned Voices Confront New Britain City Council About Homelessness - New Britain Progressive Newspaper Following a Monday rally organized by the Racial Justice coalition for housing justice, dozens of people experiencing homelessness and their advocates converged in significant and historical testimonial, at the City Council on Wednesday December 13th. They urged the city to take strong actions to he...

What's in New Britain City Council Meeting Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - New Britain Progressive Newspaper The New Britain City Council will meet on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. The agenda for the meeting includes: Public participation: available in person at 7:00 pm or by phone calling begins 6:55 pm at 339-209-6176 Watch common council meeting live streaming at: https://www.newbritainct.gov/meetings o...

Opinion: By Electing John McNamara, Ward 4 Can Have a Truly Good Person Representing Them - New Britain Progressive Dear Friends, I feel very comfortable in saying that there are many people, across party and political divides, who would agree with me that Mr. John McNamara is decent and good-hearted human being. He genuine, caring, honorable and devoted. John has among the strongest of convictions of people I kn...

Good luck John McNamara

New Britain’s McNamara Rejoins Political Fray in Run For Council NEW BRITAIN – After years of sitting on the political sidelines, former long-time New Britain Democratic Town Committee Chairman and 2015 mayoral candidate John McNamara is looking to make a comeback. McNamara, who served as town committee chairman from 1994 to 2016, hasn’t held elected office f...

New Britain's Union Organizing History Is Worth Retelling On Labor Day 2023 - New Britain Progressive 1991 Saturday Night Club Paper Recounts City’s Labor Movement Past By John McNamara Labor Day is not a time to be nostalgic about the struggles of the last century to organize factory floors that turned New Britain into a “union town” with its many thousands of factory jobs, most of which have...

Gov. DeSantis bears responsibility for this terrorist act because of his politics of "anti-woke" bigotry and pro-gun terrorism.

National NAACP Condemns Act of Hate in Jacksonville, Florida - New Britain NAACP The national NAACP released the following statement today (8/26/2023): WASHINGTON – Earlier today, during the continuation of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a white supremacist follower in Jacksonville claimed the lives of three Black Americans at a Dollar General store. NAAC...

Threads (1984 film) - Wikipedia Threads is a 1984 British-Australian apocalyptic war drama television film jointly produced by the BBC, Nine Network and Western-World Television Inc. Written by Barry Hines and directed and produced by Mick Jackson, it is a dramatic account of nuclear war and its effects in Britain, specifically on...

Prof. Jannette Carey Is Commencement Speaker At CCSU Saturday - New Britain Progressive Alumna Is Prominent Researcher in Biophysical Chemistry; Advocate For Access To STEM Education By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – Scientist Jannette Carey, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at Princeton University, will address Central Connecticut State University’s gradua...

New Britain Leads Polish Day At State Capitol - New Britain Progressive Staff Reports HARTFORD – State leaders, honorees and a large contingent of attendees from New Britain’s Polish community crowded into the state Capitol’s North lobby Wednesday, May 3, to mark the anniversary of Polish Day At The Capitol. The event, catered with coffee and dozens of paczki (Po...

MLK Remembered At Memorial Wreath Laying To Mark Anniversary Of Assassination - New Britain Progressive Next Step For MLK Corridor Initiative Announced By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – The Mary McLeod Bethune Club, the Black Ministerial Alliance and the City of New Britain joined together on Saturday, April 8th, for the annual memorial wreath laying marking the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther ...

Far Right Student Group's Anti-BLM Film Disrupted At CCSU Campus - New Britain Progressive Protestors Call ‘The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and The Rise of The BLM’ “Hate Speech” By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – Dozens of Central CT State University (CCSU) students disrupted the showing of the controversial film The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and The Rise Of The...

'Strengthening Local Journalism' Is Topic at Community Meeting On January 28 - New Britain Progressive New Britain Progressive invites participation to strengthen local coverage NEW BRITAIN – The New Britain Progressive’s Board of Directors will host a 2023 Kick Off meeting January 28th focusing on strengthening local journalism at the online, volunteer community newspaper now in its seventh year...

Lawmakers Will Discuss Legislative Issues, Priorities For 2023 Session - New Britain Progressive NB League of Women Voters Hosts Public Forum at Library January 21 Staff Reports NEW BRITAIN – The New Britain area League of Women Voters (NB-LWV) invite the public to ask questions and hear from local lawmakers at “2023 Legislative Conversations” on Saturday, January 21st, at 10 a.m. The for...

City Commemorates Life Of Rev. King at Smalley Academy Program - New Britain Progressive Staff Reports NEW BRITAIN – Led by the city’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO), residents, students and community leaders celebrated the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday at the Smalley Academy. The official city Commemoration for Martin Luther Ki...

Martin Luther King and the Economic and Social Bill of Rights This weekend, our nation, state and communities celebrate and remember the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his accomplishments.

Council Committee Agrees To Compromise On Tax Break For Myrtle Street Housing Development - New Britain Progressive Incentive Drops From 26 To 13 Years In Amended Resolution That Goes To Common Council For Approval By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN- The Common Council’s Committee on Administration, Finance and Law (AFL) unanimously approved a “compromise” tax break at a January 4th meeting for Avon Towers LLC to...

2022 Campaign Activists Recognized At New Britain Working Families Party Celebration - New Britain Progressive WFP Ballot Line Boosted U.S. Rep. Hayes in 5th Congressional District Staff Reports NEW BRITAIN – The Connecticut Working Families Party (CT-WFP), the union-backed third party instrumental in U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes’ (D-5) narrow victory in November, celebrated election year wins across the state...

North/Oak NRZ Turkey Drive Helps Families At Thanksgiving - New Britain Progressive Group Holds Meeting To “Re-Brand” For 2023 Organizing Staff Reports NEW BRITAIN – Resident leaders of the North/Oak Neighborhood Revitalization Zone (NRZ) held a “rebranding” meeting on November 17th at the Howey House on North Street to plan outreach activities that will engage more neigh...

Hey 60 Minutes: Angry politics are actually the result of billions of dollars spent by wealthy interests to promote a right-wing, bigoted and neoliberal agenda and the accurate progressive objection to that.

The real culprit is a broken campaign finance system that treats rich people buying elections via dumping money through the media (including social media) on our systems of communication as if it is free speech (while also refusing to acknowledge the right to vote as protected free speech). The Supreme Court is where the problem emanates, but far from its only cause.

It looks like 60 Minutes is engaging, here, in a cheap distraction on behalf of the wealthy persons' world of which its corporate owners are a part. How much money has the corporation owning 60 Minutes made on political ads? How much do their top executives and biggest shareholders believe in those messages and benefit from the wealthy purchasing election outcomes?

'Pay no attention to the real problem,' 60 Minutes says, 'look at this shiny object, instead.' The corporate press thinks you are stupid! Don't prove them correct.

It is telling that the main source quoted in this article appears to prefer a version of social media in which the government (or maybe some other powerful interest, like the corporate press???) dictate information people have access to. Very transparently bad, 60 Minutes!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-political-polarization-60-minutes-2022-11-06/

By the way, in case you are thinking I am a defender of big social media, like Facebook, (NOT!), scroll down my page a bit. I think that the real solution to the very real problems of social media is to stop any social media outfit from getting more than a certain market share.

But baloney like this article deserves to be called out.

Social media's role in America's polarized political climate The co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology tells Bill Whitaker social media companies are profiting off Americans' online anger.

Permanent Daylight Savings Time: Bad for kids, making them go to school in the dark. It robs daylight from children to give adults more evening daylight. It is a bad idea that failed before and should never see the light of day again. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/health/permanent-daylight-savings-health-harms-wellness/index.html

"When President Richard Nixon signed a permanent Daylight Saving Time into law in January 1974, it was a popular move. But by the end of the month Florida’s governor had called for the law’s repeal after eight schoolchildren were hit by cars in the dark. Schools across the country delayed start times until the sun came up."

Permanent Daylight Saving Time will hurt our health, experts say | CNN Daylight Saving Time all year round? There's a push by the US Senate to make it so, but it's a terrible idea that may ruin our health, sleep experts say.

Confederate Flag Removed From Registrar of Voters Office - New Britain Progressive CCSU Students Confront A “Hurtful” Symbol of Racism At City Hall By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – Taina Manick, a senior and President of the Social Work Club at Central Connecticut State University, didn’t expect to see what she saw at the Registrar of Voters office on Monday. Taina went to C...

So New Britain Republicans are, "socially liberal," huh?

Board of Education To Reconsider "Indigenous Peoples Day" A Republican Board of Education member is reportedly proposing that the Board consider renaming Indigenous Peoples Day.

Primary on Tuesday Will Decide Contested Party Nominations Voters registered to vote in primaries will chose Democratic and Republican candidates for statewide offices and U.S. Senate on Tues, Aug 9th.

My deepest condolences to the Geragosian family. Harold Geragosian has been one of the greatest people in New Britain and an important part of our city's history. He was a strong advocate, with strong progressive values, and, with his wife Harriet Geragosian, have been a bedrock of New Britain's progressive community for decades. Thank you, Harold! (The linked article is a tribute to Harold Geragosian by John McNamara in the New Britain Progressive.)

Attorney Geragosian Remembered As Passionate Defender, Advocate For Social Justice - New Britain Progressive For Geragosian, alongside his wife, Realtor Harriet Geragosian, social and economic justice have lasted a life time.

Here is my new demand of state and local elected officials: Ignore SCOTUS. Stop treating that stolen, partisan panel like it is more than the Republican Party subcommittee that it is. Ensure and enforce laws at the state and local level, whether the Republicans on SCOTUS agree with them or not, that protect a woman's right to choose, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, real campaign finance reform, economic equality and other moral policies, like the right to not be shot with a gun, and don't let the extremist, right-wing Trumpists' decades long drive to use that unelected, unaccountable, nine member panel to overrule democracy and people's rights succeed.

To voters, I say TOSS OUT ALL REPUBLICANS at every level, indefinitely. They think everyday peoples' views should not matter, so treat them like their line on the ballot does not exist.

SCOTUS finally made it official: Roe is dead The court officially ruled to let a Mississippi law stand that bans abortion after 15 weeks—overturning decades of precedent and threatening your constitutional rights.

Much ado about the wrong question. The real question is the market concentration of certain social online social media companies (mostly Facebook). Social media companies should be limited to a certain market share of users (10%, perhaps). If they exceed that, governments should shut them down (looking at you, Facebook, including all of Meta as your market share).

I don't want the places where I go to communicate with others online to be replete with the verbal effluent of the bigoted and right wing. I lament that social media, going back to the days of comment threads on the bottom of online newspaper articles, has been the province of right-wing, bigoted, obnoxious thugs, who strive to shout people down until they dominate the space. But I also don't want the editorial policies of a few, or one, company being tantamount to the governmental regulation of speech in society.

That is why limiting the size of social media companies is the best path for all concerned. It would provide greater choice of people to choose communication platforms they prefer, free of content they find offensive or harmful. And it also would mean that we would not be forced to choose between corporate social media control of speech and right wing politicians trying to force those social media platforms to circulate vile content.

By the way, it is time that we turn back at the, now, decades of history of social media and state the obvious. Social media is not a good thing. It's emergence has not been a gain. Its existence does not present a mixed bag of good and bad. It is just, plain, bad. There is nothing that can prevent social media as a thing from being, "repositories of vile, graphic, harmful, hateful, and fraudulent content, of no utility to the individuals who currently engage in those communities." That is what they are.

It is also false to say that social media as it has existed is the only way that the promise of free communication online could have or could yet exist. That Facebook became predominant is more a story of predatory market manipulation than of what is possible from a truly decentralized online communication ecosystem.

I believe that shutting down of all social media companies that get over a certain market share would open the market to a newer, decentralized, creative, better future.

Supreme Court temporarily blocks Texas's social media moderation law

"'The last two years have dramatized and clarified what has been true for some time now, which is an elite plutocratic class is not just leaving the rest of the world behind, but is thriving precisely by stepping on the necks of everybody else,' said Anand Giridharadas."

Davos is back and the world has changed. Have the global elite noticed? The last time top politicians, CEOs and billionaires gathered in a Swiss mountain village to discuss society's biggest problems and pitch their solutions, the coronavirus outbreak in China was little more than a remote threat. The economy was humming, and a major armed conflict in Europe was on nobo...