Just started reading this guy's stuff this summer with Deer Hunting With Jesus. Now I find out he's dead. That's really not at all what I wanted to hear. We could really use his ongoing class-based no-nonsense analysis and essay-writing. Not that I agree with what I've read so far 100 percent - but when is that likely to happen?
P.S. Speaking of summer reading, Chavs.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Godsavethequeen - we mean it, man!
Attended a Royalist tea party the other day. Friendly neighbors of in-laws in England celebrating 60 years of Elizabeth's rule. Wandering down the street and they waved us up to join them. You have to wonder why anybody would celebrate. Ten million pounds (over $15 million) just for the celebration, not to mention the day-to-day upkeep of the whole in-bred family. Then there's the recession and all. Kinda like a hurricane party, I guess.
But the very nice man whose patio we were on said, grinning from ear to ear, "Somebody said to me the other day, I didn't know you were a Royalist. I said, I thought we all were!" I was fascinated. "She pledged herself to us 60 years ago," he beamed, "and she has never wavered from that."
Hm. "Well," I offered cautiously, "what else would she do if she left that position?"
"Eh?" asked her enthusiast, looking as if he must not have heard me right.
"I mean, she's not going to get a job washing dishes, is she?"
He stared at me. "She meets with the Prime Minister every week," he said cheerily, pointing at the corners of his mouth, "and she has to smile..."
Ah, well. "It is a long time," I said.
Later someone was describing a choir of black children singing for the Queen, and how beautiful it was. "Reminds you of the Old Empire," interjected my enthusiatic friend above. Ugh.
Strange, someone else told me later, the same hard-working man had been spotted on a train once before trying to persuade someone to go on strike with him. The assumption was that the guy was bright, knew what time it was, and was anything but a brainless bootlicking lemming. And all that may yet be.
Just goes to show, just because someobody knows what side of the bread their butter is on one day, the next day they may well cheer with the mob at their own hanging - if the executioner waves the right flag.
But the very nice man whose patio we were on said, grinning from ear to ear, "Somebody said to me the other day, I didn't know you were a Royalist. I said, I thought we all were!" I was fascinated. "She pledged herself to us 60 years ago," he beamed, "and she has never wavered from that."
Hm. "Well," I offered cautiously, "what else would she do if she left that position?"
"Eh?" asked her enthusiast, looking as if he must not have heard me right.
"I mean, she's not going to get a job washing dishes, is she?"
He stared at me. "She meets with the Prime Minister every week," he said cheerily, pointing at the corners of his mouth, "and she has to smile..."
Ah, well. "It is a long time," I said.
Later someone was describing a choir of black children singing for the Queen, and how beautiful it was. "Reminds you of the Old Empire," interjected my enthusiatic friend above. Ugh.
Strange, someone else told me later, the same hard-working man had been spotted on a train once before trying to persuade someone to go on strike with him. The assumption was that the guy was bright, knew what time it was, and was anything but a brainless bootlicking lemming. And all that may yet be.
Just goes to show, just because someobody knows what side of the bread their butter is on one day, the next day they may well cheer with the mob at their own hanging - if the executioner waves the right flag.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Sickness in Health Care - A True Fable
If you were lucky enough to get the word and have the availability to attend a recent lecture by Ralph Martire of the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, you got a real faceful of yucky-tasting-but-very-good-for-you info. And excellent economic analysis. No chewy, hard-to-digest economese, just plain talk and the facts to back it up. It's a wonder he hasn't been drone-targetted yet.
One side comment was a particularly nasty piece of news. Ready? I don't think you are:
So Ill-annoy is famously in a budget crisis. A manufactured one, created by years of toadying to the rich by suck-up politicians, but a crisis nonetheless. One of our less-than-inspiring "Democrat" governor's latest ingenius schemes, you may have heard, is to cut Medicaid - and reduce Medicaid payments to hospitals.
Background flash: Illinois earns big bucks through Medicaid by the following unbelievable (unless you're an Illinois-news-watcher) shell game: local governments pay the State money for services to Medicaid patients. The State then pays the exact amount back to local governments. Why? Because, the instant they pay out, the State is eligible for federal MATCHING FUNDS. No shingle. Really. So the State makes millions by pretending to pay for services to poor people.
This game is smarter than some politicians, however, who routinely cry publicly about how much the State's Medicaid obligations are costing. So how do Medicaid cuts actually help the State when it means that we lose federal matching funds? Oh, you naive little things! It 'helps' the State only if the State = the rich. That is, people with lower incomes are required to serve the rich in any capacity the rich need at the time. But if they have a certain economic safety net, they will - well, not exactly refuse to serve, but they will draw a line - say, at leaving small children at home to go out and slave for pennies in dirty jobs that destroy their health. Things like that. But if the State reduces their benefits ... ah, now you begin to see, my pretty, eh?
But this is only half the healthcare skullduggery deal currently unfolding in the halls of power and influence in Springfield. Hospitals, you see, are unhappy with their rates being cut. And the hospital associations get access to political ears about a million light years ahead of the poor who stand to have their services cut. After all, what's a mere loss of life or health, compared to a negatively impacted corporate bottom line? (You see, we do understand them!)
So how do politicians get the hospitals to go along with this plan? Hmm... Aha! What if the hospitals were offered something else they want? Like an easing-up on their charitable obligations, their obligation to treat a certain volume of charity cases in order to keep their tax-exempt status? Hmm...
It would be a double-whammy on the poor, in other words, an extra bonus for the rich! Ta-da! Nothing up the sleeves.
Background flash: for Urbana residents, we know all about this, don't we? Our hospitals have been failing to meet these obligations, and face a big fat tax bill (ironic, and giggly for anyone who has ever been badgered by them for not paying a bill to the hospital). But now, there's an opportunity to make it all go away. And all the hospitals have to do is screw its neediest patients. Easy choice there.
Yep, you guessed it. They're bringing out the big stamp of approval for this one. It's a little-known exception to the Hypocratic Oath: you can kich whoever to the curb if it means big bucks for you and your identified social class.
And that, children, is how a state budget crisis is a VERY useful thing to have around and why you'd really, really want one (if you're filthy rich). Welcome to reality. Sorry it sucks.
One side comment was a particularly nasty piece of news. Ready? I don't think you are:
So Ill-annoy is famously in a budget crisis. A manufactured one, created by years of toadying to the rich by suck-up politicians, but a crisis nonetheless. One of our less-than-inspiring "Democrat" governor's latest ingenius schemes, you may have heard, is to cut Medicaid - and reduce Medicaid payments to hospitals.
Background flash: Illinois earns big bucks through Medicaid by the following unbelievable (unless you're an Illinois-news-watcher) shell game: local governments pay the State money for services to Medicaid patients. The State then pays the exact amount back to local governments. Why? Because, the instant they pay out, the State is eligible for federal MATCHING FUNDS. No shingle. Really. So the State makes millions by pretending to pay for services to poor people.
This game is smarter than some politicians, however, who routinely cry publicly about how much the State's Medicaid obligations are costing. So how do Medicaid cuts actually help the State when it means that we lose federal matching funds? Oh, you naive little things! It 'helps' the State only if the State = the rich. That is, people with lower incomes are required to serve the rich in any capacity the rich need at the time. But if they have a certain economic safety net, they will - well, not exactly refuse to serve, but they will draw a line - say, at leaving small children at home to go out and slave for pennies in dirty jobs that destroy their health. Things like that. But if the State reduces their benefits ... ah, now you begin to see, my pretty, eh?
But this is only half the healthcare skullduggery deal currently unfolding in the halls of power and influence in Springfield. Hospitals, you see, are unhappy with their rates being cut. And the hospital associations get access to political ears about a million light years ahead of the poor who stand to have their services cut. After all, what's a mere loss of life or health, compared to a negatively impacted corporate bottom line? (You see, we do understand them!)
So how do politicians get the hospitals to go along with this plan? Hmm... Aha! What if the hospitals were offered something else they want? Like an easing-up on their charitable obligations, their obligation to treat a certain volume of charity cases in order to keep their tax-exempt status? Hmm...
It would be a double-whammy on the poor, in other words, an extra bonus for the rich! Ta-da! Nothing up the sleeves.
Background flash: for Urbana residents, we know all about this, don't we? Our hospitals have been failing to meet these obligations, and face a big fat tax bill (ironic, and giggly for anyone who has ever been badgered by them for not paying a bill to the hospital). But now, there's an opportunity to make it all go away. And all the hospitals have to do is screw its neediest patients. Easy choice there.
Yep, you guessed it. They're bringing out the big stamp of approval for this one. It's a little-known exception to the Hypocratic Oath: you can kich whoever to the curb if it means big bucks for you and your identified social class.
And that, children, is how a state budget crisis is a VERY useful thing to have around and why you'd really, really want one (if you're filthy rich). Welcome to reality. Sorry it sucks.
Time versus Money
I owe an explanation, I think, to anybody who actually reads this stuff. For the long gap, I mean. Well, it's the time to write. Nothing more complicated that that. In the current economic order, we often face a choice: time or money. You can work more to earn more money and you will not have enough time to do some of the things you love, spend time with loved ones, etc. If you work less, by choice or not, you may have more time, but unless you are very lucky you will face a bloodless economic reality. Well, nobody ever said life (in a world ruled by rich plutocrats) was fair.
I've been working more. But I'm going to try to find time to blog a little more. On the off-chance that anybody's listening. And if you are, thanks.
I've been working more. But I'm going to try to find time to blog a little more. On the off-chance that anybody's listening. And if you are, thanks.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Krugman: Obama gives away the store
Um, what he said.
Not that the Dems have given us much reason to care if they win lately ... like in the last, oh, 30 years. At least. (Even then, in the South, well ... ) [OK, maybe never. Sorry, Krugman.]
But in a way in the last few years the Donkeys've seized almost every last parcel of previously Elephant territory now. (... the GOP having mostly vacated their old political home, not to mention their original one around the American Civil War period, for their new home in Outer Space.) And, yeah, it looks like this Democrats-to-the-right rebound just keeps happening.
Oops, I forgot: we elected these clowns. Well, sort of. Funny how many people I run into, and how many people that people I know run into, in kitchens and on docks and at the gas station and the grocery store and bus stop, everywhere really, who come up with the same idea: throw 'em all out and start over.
Of course, we'd have to be ready and organized or we'd just get the same Shinola, different day. Hm. Maybe could start getting that way now.
Not that the Dems have given us much reason to care if they win lately ... like in the last, oh, 30 years. At least. (Even then, in the South, well ... ) [OK, maybe never. Sorry, Krugman.]
But in a way in the last few years the Donkeys've seized almost every last parcel of previously Elephant territory now. (... the GOP having mostly vacated their old political home, not to mention their original one around the American Civil War period, for their new home in Outer Space.) And, yeah, it looks like this Democrats-to-the-right rebound just keeps happening.
Oops, I forgot: we elected these clowns. Well, sort of. Funny how many people I run into, and how many people that people I know run into, in kitchens and on docks and at the gas station and the grocery store and bus stop, everywhere really, who come up with the same idea: throw 'em all out and start over.
Of course, we'd have to be ready and organized or we'd just get the same Shinola, different day. Hm. Maybe could start getting that way now.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Satan sandwiches over a barrel
So, let me get this straight -- Obama gives away half the store, and still loses the AAA rating?
IMF protesters used to get at least honorable mention in the small presses on the problem with "Third World debt". No matter what we learned in high school about democracy of the marketplace, and so on, Haitian slaves and others who overthrew their European overlords found themselves unable to buy goods they needed, not for lack of money, but because most traders simply wouldn't sell to them, or demanded punitive prices ... and because former colonial governments insisted that the newly freed peoples should pay the debts of (you guessed it) the former colonial governments, international loan sharks made up phony debts or jacked up interest rates specially for the liberees. You might call it a conspiracy, or just co-piracy, but either way these folks suddenly didn't care so much about supply and demand, and sellers and buyers in an open marketplace: they just wanted to stick it to the little guy.
Sound familiar? It should. The US economy is being held hostage, and the coolest thing about negotiating with hostage-takers is, paying them often fuels the fire. We talk about investors, bankers, capital gains recipients -- it amounts to one thing: the rich. For 40 years the rich have been demanding, and getting, deeper and deeper tax cuts. That has not been enough. Union busting has run rampant. Private sector unions have dropped to less than 10 percent of the workforce, which means they have little effect any more on anyone's wages outside their own membership. Bad. For everybody, union or no. Cuts to social services (what the government does for the poor and working people) soon followed. The rich and their own politicians thinly justify the cuts based on reduced revenues and increased debt (which of course is a result a result of the tax cuts, etc.), and then these reductions impact working people's ability to spend an pay taxes, and so on, and so on, and so on.
They have us over a barrel. I would argue it's not necessary or permanent, but there it is. They crash, we bail them out. We crash, they say sorry but we'll have to raise our interest rates because you cats aren't buying enough of our (friends') garbage. So we have a phony debt crisis. And we bargain. Obama seems to have no desire to fight, at least not for us. And we lose big, with no tax increases, etc., from the other side. Whew, crisis averted, right? Wrong. They are just getting started with this little shakedown. And if we have any sense at all, we will have just begun to fight it.
IMF protesters used to get at least honorable mention in the small presses on the problem with "Third World debt". No matter what we learned in high school about democracy of the marketplace, and so on, Haitian slaves and others who overthrew their European overlords found themselves unable to buy goods they needed, not for lack of money, but because most traders simply wouldn't sell to them, or demanded punitive prices ... and because former colonial governments insisted that the newly freed peoples should pay the debts of (you guessed it) the former colonial governments, international loan sharks made up phony debts or jacked up interest rates specially for the liberees. You might call it a conspiracy, or just co-piracy, but either way these folks suddenly didn't care so much about supply and demand, and sellers and buyers in an open marketplace: they just wanted to stick it to the little guy.
Sound familiar? It should. The US economy is being held hostage, and the coolest thing about negotiating with hostage-takers is, paying them often fuels the fire. We talk about investors, bankers, capital gains recipients -- it amounts to one thing: the rich. For 40 years the rich have been demanding, and getting, deeper and deeper tax cuts. That has not been enough. Union busting has run rampant. Private sector unions have dropped to less than 10 percent of the workforce, which means they have little effect any more on anyone's wages outside their own membership. Bad. For everybody, union or no. Cuts to social services (what the government does for the poor and working people) soon followed. The rich and their own politicians thinly justify the cuts based on reduced revenues and increased debt (which of course is a result a result of the tax cuts, etc.), and then these reductions impact working people's ability to spend an pay taxes, and so on, and so on, and so on.
They have us over a barrel. I would argue it's not necessary or permanent, but there it is. They crash, we bail them out. We crash, they say sorry but we'll have to raise our interest rates because you cats aren't buying enough of our (friends') garbage. So we have a phony debt crisis. And we bargain. Obama seems to have no desire to fight, at least not for us. And we lose big, with no tax increases, etc., from the other side. Whew, crisis averted, right? Wrong. They are just getting started with this little shakedown. And if we have any sense at all, we will have just begun to fight it.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
SEIU stands up at UI
I may have mentioned before how proud I am to have worked for ACORN. I am also proud to work for SEIU once again, this time for ass-kicking Local 73 in Illinois and Indiana.
Recently I had the honor of working with approximately 750 building service and food service workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who were fighting back against an Administration that has been crying broke and at the same time handing out fat, juicy raises to top administrators and coaches, raising tuition every year, raising student fees, and dropping millions on pet projects. (Did they think we wouldn't notice?)
But we did, we stuck together, we fought back, and we won!
Recently I had the honor of working with approximately 750 building service and food service workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who were fighting back against an Administration that has been crying broke and at the same time handing out fat, juicy raises to top administrators and coaches, raising tuition every year, raising student fees, and dropping millions on pet projects. (Did they think we wouldn't notice?)
But we did, we stuck together, we fought back, and we won!
Friday, March 18, 2011
BP lessons for Japanese horror
A lot of disasters these days. Shouldn't be an excuse to forget that the consequences of earlier disasters are ongoing -- like BP. Just the opposite. There are lessons for our ongoing disasters from the past, though I know that is a potentially disturbing thought in our nation of goldfish.
Rachel Maddow is right about what Obama should have done (on a long list of things he should have done!), but there is still something we should do, too.
BP should cease to exist. Shut down. The consequences of its activity and inactivity should not be underestimated, and their responsibility should be made clear to everyone who is in that business. People died. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, not even close to recovered from Hurricane Katrina, is devastated economically, biologically, psychologically, and so on. The goal should be fear. Abject fear for anybody in the business of offshore drilling -- or really any other business as potentially deadly as BP -- in case they might even consider cutting corners on safety, lobbying for deregulation, or playing fast and loose with people's lives for profit in any way.
There is only one way to ensure that goal: shut down BP. Don't buy anything BP or BP-affiliated. Don't let their lobbyists in the door. Fine them. Fine them again. And then fine them some more. Then make the liable for all damages and cleanup. Sink them. Completely. Wipe them from the face of the earth.
Then take a hard look at nuclear power plants. And mines. And let's take a look at that list of deadly industries ... make them think a lot more than twice...
Rachel Maddow is right about what Obama should have done (on a long list of things he should have done!), but there is still something we should do, too.
BP should cease to exist. Shut down. The consequences of its activity and inactivity should not be underestimated, and their responsibility should be made clear to everyone who is in that business. People died. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, not even close to recovered from Hurricane Katrina, is devastated economically, biologically, psychologically, and so on. The goal should be fear. Abject fear for anybody in the business of offshore drilling -- or really any other business as potentially deadly as BP -- in case they might even consider cutting corners on safety, lobbying for deregulation, or playing fast and loose with people's lives for profit in any way.
There is only one way to ensure that goal: shut down BP. Don't buy anything BP or BP-affiliated. Don't let their lobbyists in the door. Fine them. Fine them again. And then fine them some more. Then make the liable for all damages and cleanup. Sink them. Completely. Wipe them from the face of the earth.
Then take a hard look at nuclear power plants. And mines. And let's take a look at that list of deadly industries ... make them think a lot more than twice...
Friday, February 25, 2011
Wisconsin, Indiana union-busting
Somebody said to me recently, "the Democrats are at their best when they are not there." Actually, I think that's a little harsh, but there is an important point there. Workers in this country have only rarely been able to count on politicians of any political stripe to back us up, much less pitch in with improvements.
Most often we have to fight like hell just to not get robbed, for example in the state sector when workers' contributions to their own pensions are used -- we should say "stolen" -- to pay the employer's other bills. (Somehow this little tidbit gets lost when the public debate begins over public employee pensions, along with the "pension holidays" we get in Illinois for example when the employer doesn't have to pay its obligations: maybe because so many in office are guilty of this legal racketeering?)
Democrats are often as guilty as Republicans on that score, sometimes moreso.
But these legislators who have fled their states to deny quorum to these reprehensible anti-worker bills are very close to heroes at the moment, , like a kind of more creative Mr.-Smith-goes-to-Washington-type-filibuster. See them as a suit-and-tie 300 in the pass at Thermopylae, if you like. (I actually think of the workers in Wisconsin more that way.) But these legislators are not avoiding their responsibilities, which are after all not to the governor and his nutcase agenda, or to some misbegotten sense of decorum, but to the people.
Don't let anyone tell you they are avoiding anything. They are doing the only responsible thing.
Most often we have to fight like hell just to not get robbed, for example in the state sector when workers' contributions to their own pensions are used -- we should say "stolen" -- to pay the employer's other bills. (Somehow this little tidbit gets lost when the public debate begins over public employee pensions, along with the "pension holidays" we get in Illinois for example when the employer doesn't have to pay its obligations: maybe because so many in office are guilty of this legal racketeering?)
Democrats are often as guilty as Republicans on that score, sometimes moreso.
But these legislators who have fled their states to deny quorum to these reprehensible anti-worker bills are very close to heroes at the moment, , like a kind of more creative Mr.-Smith-goes-to-Washington-type-filibuster. See them as a suit-and-tie 300 in the pass at Thermopylae, if you like. (I actually think of the workers in Wisconsin more that way.) But these legislators are not avoiding their responsibilities, which are after all not to the governor and his nutcase agenda, or to some misbegotten sense of decorum, but to the people.
Don't let anyone tell you they are avoiding anything. They are doing the only responsible thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)