The Fire This Time ... Or ... Skip The Vote

In The Blood Drenched Hand,  posted here on Thursday morning, I cited the sad fact that only 16.6% of voters turned out to cast a ballot last Saturday in a very important citywide election.  I was in that number, as I almost always am.  What else are you going to do, set yourself or something else on fire?  Well, sadly, some may.

I voted for zerObama last time.  And I will do it again.  But I had no illusions then, and have none now.  We got what I expected from zerO, and if he wins again we will no doubt get more of the same: a false liberal sell-out to the plutocrats, slightly diluted by a messy thin gruel of limp progressivism for the rest of us. I give you the Obamacare morass.  'Nough said.

So, as crazy as the Republicans are, they may well find a way to win next time.  Of course, it will be mostly a corrupt victory, as so many are, not least of which was the stolen 2000 presidential election.  This time it will come on the strength of the countrywide plutocrat funded (read Koch brothers and ALEC) state level disenfranchisement of the poor, minorities, and college students living away from home. If it happens, it will be another asterisk emblazoned win with all the brutal attendant consequences, just the same as before.  I give you George W. Bush.  'Nough said.

Nothing describes the trashing we have handed democracy or any notion of self-government better than a paraphrase of Oscar Wilde, to wit: We are a nation of 300 million politicians, the worst of which are in elective office.

And so we come to the push behind this post.  On Thursday evening, as usual, I took an after work bicycle jaunt.  Bounding through the side-gate, I pumped straight for Central City: New Orleans' urban heart beat,  the pulsating neighborhood next door to mine.

Permanently precarious, planted deep in the intersection of peril and persistence, it is pound for pound pure community syncopation: a symphony of shifting accents on social currents.  Cruising down the home grown shock and awe venue ironically named Felicity Street,  I engaged in an interior dialogue regarding where to stop for a cold one.  Smiling and waving greetings, people everywhere, it seemed the whole of the neighborhood had turned out on the side-walks and street sides to greet me like some ridiculous Lone Ranger style second line on two wheels. I passed through a flood of memories pooled in the boarded-up, abandoned home of Podna's  Bar-B-Q at the corner of Magnolia;  a now disappeared stand-up/take out lunch counter type sandwich joint and restaurant, owned by the large Sicilian immigrant family of my boyhood friend, Lenny Rizzuto.  I rode on, listening via headphones to my Android, tuned to some west coast NPR radio station broadcast of the BBC World Briefing program.

The World Briefing reported the deepening economic crisis visiting hardship and austerity in Spain, and the protests occurring there.  It went on to an even more disturbing story about two recent instances of self-immolation by Italian citizens, pummeled into utter desperation by the punishing effects of the severely austere economic policies insisted upon by the autocrats of the Euorzone financial structure.  The shocking images of Vietnamese Buddhist monks setting themselves ablaze in protest of our napalm fueled rape of that country in the 1960s came to mind.  And I thought, yep, while the modality of violence laid down on an innocent people may be different in kind, the effect is as unjust, devastating and intolerable.

Central City spilled out like a brusquely decanted canto of an epic tragedy.  It grew more lyrical by the block.  LuLu, a watery-eyed, well lubricated and happy soul greeted me at the Claiborne Avenue Discount Zone convenience store with congratulations for locking my bike before going in  to get a beer.  On the Martin Luther King Blvd. neutral ground (median, for non-New Orleanians), an itinerant preacher was megaphoning the Gospel and group prayer to his not inconsiderable, spontaneously assembled flock, while volunteer apostle stumpers passed out hand-folded and home-printed invitations to join the congregation among those of us on the periphery.  Blocks on, Kimmie, a too neatly tight and prim guy offered hotel comp bar soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, and knock-off "glam" clothing on the cheap.  Next, Walter and I passed half a block together as he walked his newly "found" bike with two flats, and I slowed to make another friend. 

My "peeps" live in Central City.  Yeah, my neighborhood is next door.  But it is literally just blocks down the street, and from my porch it's easy to see what's coming.  There will be no high-energy, pumped-up "rock the vote" movement of the kind that helped zerO get elected the first time.  It more likely will be a "skip the vote" experience.  And the fire this time will not be suicidal.

The Blood Drenched Hand

While I really never thought I'd talk about this here, I love football.  That's right, even professional football, the ugliest kind.  But make no mistake, it is a money game and a blood sport.  I guess, even with my relentlessly advancing years, I'm not suffering low "T" yet.  I still feel a charge every time they tee up the ball.

Nevertheless, I am on record other places as being rather stridently insistent that we pay far too much attention to such nonsense, wasting time and precious resources which should be expended on more important matters.  Case in point: last Saturday the election for one of only two At-Large City Council seats in New Orleans enjoyed a scant turnout of 16.6% of the eligible voters.  In other words, hardly anybody gives a hoot about participatory democracy anymore.  I guess it's just too quaint.  Conversely, on at least 8 Sundays a year, even more if you count the pre-season or times when the team is successful enough to earn a home stand in the playoffs, the huge Superdome Stadium is packed to capacity with citizens who have to pay to get in.  One is almost tempted to think maybe if we bring back the poll-tax more people would vote.

But here are the important points.  First of all, if anyone really wants to argue that some mystical "invisible hand" of pristinely virginal market forces somehow always allocates social resources most efficiently and efficaciously, I give you the blood drenched hand of the NFL, along with our empty voting booths and crowded Coliseums.  Secondly, the recent trashing of our city, however indirectly, by NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, in singling out our Saints organization as somehow uniquely violent, beyond the typical and long accepted norms of that gruesome blood sport, is not only hypocritical and self-serving, it is unforgivable and begs an appropriate response.

Having a living icon of the blood sport, Bill Parcells, step-in as interim head coach this year, since Goodell has benched ours, is an appropriately concussive answer.  If Parcells agrees to do it, I am signing on right now to erect a statue of him on the apron of our Superdome, assuming Mercedes will permit it. 

That's just one more galling thing about this money game blood sport.  An elitist upper crust (some say former Nazi-Fascist  collaborationist)  luxury car company has high-jacked our taxpayer half-billion dollar stadium investment for a piddling ten million dollars, just so they can affix their logo to it: something rather like the caviar of graffiti.

Can You Believe It?

An attorney representing the racist Florida murderer was interviewed on television tonight.  Among the many scandalously ridiculous claims he made on behalf of his client was that the racist murderer's use of the term "coon" in reference to his victim may not be evidence of the murderer's racism.  After all, he said, there are many people in some areas of this country who proudly refer to themselves as "coonasses." 

As one of those people, let me say that, yes, in fact many of us in south Louisiana are indeed proud to call ourselves coonasses.  And my pride in being a coonass is perhaps exceeded only by my relief in not being a member of the legal profession, and so not having to be, however tenuously, somewhat associated with such an idiot.  For those who are completely unaware of Louisiana history, the origin and use of the term coonass carries absolutely no racial connotations whatsoever.  It has no resemblance at all to the epithet the racist Florida murderer issued in reference to the innocent young victim he chased down and killed in cold blood.  Moreover, it hardly makes sense that the murderer would have been using some praiseworthy, if rather obscure, term to characterize the victim he only seconds earlier had called an asshole.  This kind of nonsense makes Johnny Cochran's infamous "if the glove doesn't fit, you must aquit" defense of O.J. Simpson sound like the highest achievement in the annals of American jurisprudence.

Don't get me wrong, everyone deserves a defense.  And if this is the best the racist Florida murderer can do for one, then in my opinion he's getting exactly what he deserves.  But I recount the substance of the television interview to make a larger point, which is that no plausible or objective basis exists for anyone to believe anything other than that this was a racially motivated murderous incident, made all the worse by police complicity.  Yet there is quite a bit of divided opinion on the matter.

And no surprise, we find the conservative media mouthpieces working overtime to entertain their benighted audiences with the kind of right-wing claptrap and bullshit they just love to gulp down when it comes to gun-toting fantasies of justifiable self-defense, even in this case of  vigilante chase and kill performed against an unarmed, under-aged, and perfectly innocent citizen.  And so if you wonder why I am proud to be a liberal, as well as a coonass, it is because in this country most conservatives are ignorant, immoral, and racist asses.  That you can believe.

The Unreal Right

Herewith a brief meditation on the dysfunctional conservative mind.  That's all it deserves, and more than most can abide anyway. But I should at least note that the catalog of examples which could be presented on this subject is inexhaustible.  Fortunately, what elicits these thoughts will help keep a fairly limited focus. 

Elections to fill a variety of city and parish offices here in Louisiana, as well as determine the favorite among those running for the Republican presidential nomination, were conducted Saturday.  A particularly egregious example of the perversity of the conservative world view was on display in the race for the councilperson-at-large seat in New Orleans.  Two of the three candidates, Stacy Head and Austin Badon, signed a  Grover Norquist style pledge to lock themselves into voting a certain way on a whole host of issues during their prospective term of office.  A business lobby with the Orwellian name Forward New Orleans  extorted this abdication of responsibility to the representative democratic process.  If you want to immediately understand what any business or conservative lobbing outfit is really striving to accomplish, just impute the opposite motive to that stated in the name of their cause.  One of the backward positions this group insists candidates commit to is a prohibition on ever requiring firms doing business with the city to recognize labor agreements.

The record will show, both here in Louisiana and around the country, that project labor agreements are a common feature of major public and private construction developments.  They provide for a comprehensive organizational and financial framework which proves mutually beneficial to the various craft employers and their workers, as well as the customer.  Of course, conservatives almost uniformly oppose the very existence of labor unions, and so they understandably look unfavorably upon the idea of such arrangements.  That is their prerogative.  However, the practice of attempting to lock down a promise by an elected official to always stand in opposition to or in favor of this or that proposition, whatever it may be, no matter the circumstances, is another question.  It is anathema to the democratic process, as well as at odds with a healthy appreciation for the nature of reality itself.

Let me give you an example of why I say this, and why it is that liberals in general have a much better handle on reality.  A former governor, Edwin Edwards, always enjoyed the support of organized labor in his many election campaigns.  I served many years as an officer both of the IBEW and Louisiana AFL-CIO, and as such participated in the process of evaluating and selecting the candidates labor would endorse.  Interviews with those seeking the endorsement were conducted by a panel of officers representing many different unions.  Long discussions covering many areas of social, political and economic concerns would transpire with each candidate.  Never, let me repeat - NEVER, was anyone asked to commit to any specific public action in exchange for our support.  No, rather the object was always to judge the overall political philosophy of the folks who came before us. 

As a result, sometimes candidates carrying our endorsement would take stands on issues while in office which on the surface might seem at odds with our best interests.  Edwards, for instance, signed a heinous "right-to-work" law during one his terms as governor.  Such a law is aimed at destroying organized labor and good paying jobs, despite its name.  At the end of the day, however, Edwards did the right thing because at the time our opponents had the power to shove the provision into the Constitution had he not signed it as a simple statute.  We understood that, and Edwards subsequently continued to enjoy our support throughout his entire career.  Such is the nature of reality, and the limits of the conservative outlook on it.

Still Crazy ... Yeah, You Know The Rest

Paul Simon put the poetry in pain, expressed in the song alluded to in the title of this post, "I fear I'll do some damage one fine day." 

Damage is strewn about, and spreading.  It starts with oppression, always.  It sometimes runs cycles of relief and return.  It spills out the end of angst, austerity, fear, and punishment.  It can even show up in mass killings in places like Sweden and France; no Konys there, right?  Vigilante neighborhood protection thugs chase down and murder children of a different race in the "Beacon of Liberty."

But some persist in pushing the people harder: kill their unions, take their rights, darken their future and hopes for their children, drive them without mercy, beat them down, scare them ... scare them I tell you!

That will work, uh huh.  The right is not only wrong; it is a full out menace.  It is painful, and there is no poetry in it.

The Zloty Rules

No joke.  The zloty is the currency of Poland. Back in 2004, when the Poles joined the Eurozone, they agreed to eventually give it up in favor of the euro.  They have not yet gotten around to committing that mistake, and "eventually" may never eventuate.

I say that not because I still believe there is a better than even chance the euro itself may ultimately go away, but because Poland today is growing faster than every one of the other 27 members of the zone. In fact, it may be the only one growing at all.  And that is owing to its continuing use of an independent currency, which shields it from the wrong-headed dictates of the austerity fools running the continent into the ground.  You know, the brethren and kindred spirits of the right wing Republican zealots who are out to destroy our middle class.

All of this is bound-up in the arguments made here before about the question of government debt and deficits.  Once again, the liberals are being proven right by reality.  And as Paul Krugman says, it's not deficits that matter, but economic performance.

Moreover, as Krugman also demonstrates, the public itself doesn't even know whether deficits are going up or down at any particular period of time.  They just tend to believe whatever the mainstream propaganda machine keeps shoveling out on their heads to scare them into killing off safety net programs and giving tax breaks to billionaires.  After all, recent research shows that a plurality of all voters, and an absolute majority of Republicans, believe that debt and deficits were increasing during the Clinton administration, a time when in fact the surplus George Bush burned up in Iraq and gave away to his oil drenched billionaire buddies was being built up. 

It's the stupidity, stupid.  Put that one under the zloty rules.

Good Luck

Three recent major polls show a declining job approval level for President Obama.  Gee, just when I thought we were going all warm and fuzzy over the recovering economy.  What's up  here?

Turns out the polls do reflect a rising sense that things are getting better and moving in the right direction.  But that may be a rather shallow and mixed feeling of relief, of a type occasioned by the brief but welcome intermissions during a lengthy waterboarding session, which insure the victim doesn't actually expire.  After all, many of the newly hired, even those in the manufacturing sector, are being brought on board at a relatively steep discount, compared to the compensation levels which obtained for similar positions and experience just a generation ago.  So, business is getting what it has wanted all along: cheap labor.

Most people, including first time employees, know this at least intuitively if no other way.  And even though being hired on the cheap is better by far than being cast overboard and left to drown, it's not like sailing away to paradise island.  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) today released findings reflecting the fact that male college graduates aged 23 to 29 saw their starting salaries reduced some 11% (inflation adjusted) over the last decade.   And there remain almost 4 job seekers for every available opening.  EPI also supplied data which gives lie to recent mischaracterizations by the formerly honest and reliable Wasthington Post newspaper and others that China's growing middle class was creating increased demand for our finished manufactured products, as well as agricultural surpluses.  In fact, our exports - what there are of them - continue to be predominantly scrap metals and raw materials, which China turns into high-end, value added goods they sell back to us, displacing more good jobs and piling up greater trade deficits. 

Past all of this sad news, consider a decidedly more ominous measurement reflected in current polls: seventy-five percent of Americans regard the country's financial shape as  "fairly bad" or "very bad."  This is the root of our and Obama's dilemma.    Indeed, the widespread - and wrong - public perception of national debt says a lot about the continuing global economic predicament writ large. 

In the first instance, the current level of national debt is not the "mother of all burdens" drag on the economy.  Just the opposite is the case.  What we really need is more - lots more - of it.  Government borrowing is not crowding out private investment.  There simply is no strong private investment demand for capital, largely because there remains too little consumer demand for the output of expanded production.  That is an undeniable fact.  But it is only one-half of the story.  The other part is that money continues to be very cheap by any measure.  Historically low interest rates prevail as they have for the last five years, giving lie to every prediction and pronouncement of imminent calamity from wrong-headed right-wingers and Republicans.  More than that, the failure to take advantage of almost free money now to use as infrastruture and other much needed public investment is not only a sin, but in the long-run self-defeating.  It will cause even slower growth going forward, along with an ironically and consequently higher debt.  The only greater public policy sin popular today is the gluttonous and greedy insistence that the pain creators continue to be allowed to shirk their responsiblity as American citizens by refusing to pay anything remotely resembling a fair tax rate.

And the only worse overall scenario possible is that a truly crazy president might actually replace the current lame one.  May the luck of the Irish be with us, we are going to need it.  Happy St. Patrick's Day.  Hope to resume a respectable pace of posting following today's celebrations.  See you there.

Dip Two ... Europe And ...

Paul Krugman and other liberal economists have long been arguing that cutting government spending and brutally extracting austere sacrifices from average citizens would only worsen the collapse occassioned by the reckless bizzarro financial rackets of the world-wide plutocrat class.  They are being proven right.  No surprise, they have gotten this whole crisis analysis right from the very beginning. Every conservative claim and prediction has been overturned by experience.  That, my friends, is the great difference between liberals and conservatives: we are right and they are wrong.  The other significant difference is they just lie, lie, lie their asses off all the time.

Europe is now officially in a second recession.  China's vaunted supernatural economic growth engine is emitting sputtering sounds.  And our supposed recovery is weak, tepid, fragile, and suspect.

So, what is the conservative advice?  More punishment for the average Joe and expanded tax/regulatory relief for the plutocrats.  In other words, the very things which crashed the economy in the first place:  neutered unions, declining wages, elimination of private pensions, threats to Social Security and Medicare, and of course the end of unemployment compensation, minimum wage, and - some still say - the prohibition on child labor.  By the way, those lucky enough to have a job should plan to work all the way to the grave.

Meanwhile, the financial pirates are to remain free to pillage and plunder whatever little holdings the average citizen may desperately try to improve in that shooting gallery known as Wall Street. 

There is little room for error here.  It wouldn't take much to burn this whole place down, again. 

Cuckoo's Nest Economics

Any sane person would have to be crazy to put up with this crap.  There are so many aspects of our civil society which could prompt that observation, but I'm not thinking about the right wing political circus of a Republican nominating process, or the U.S. Catholic Bishops' peculiar interest in women's private reproductive rights, or even right wing talk radio.  No, it's the continuing acquiescence to diminished economic prospects which should worry us about our collective mental health.

This persistently constrained economy is the equivalent of a lobotomized future for the American people.  It gives one to wonder if we've all had the prosperity and progress lobes lopped from our cranial cavities.  The scars are everywhere, but everyone seems relieved that the scalpel mercifully stopped short of decapitation.

Generations have been thrown on the permanently un- and under-employed trash heap.  Life-long workers have been separated from decent jobs and made to scrape along in reduced employment circumstances until time finally brings their misery to some sort of an end, and those on Medicare and Social Security are in the cross-hairs. 

The best forecasts hold that at this rate of growth the unemployment rate four years from now will still be around five and a half percent.  And some have the nerve to call this recovery.  Someone needs to rip up the plumbing fixtures, tear off the bars holding us back, and break us free of this asylum.

The Pain Creators

The gravest and most debilitating malady afflicting our economy is the chronic cycle of decline followed by anemic recovery, at least as far as working people are concerned.  The average worker or citizen is almost never returned to the prior level of economic well-being and security.  Once or twice over the last thirty to forty odd years, full recovery for the average worker following a dip has technically occurred, only to be wiped out and blown away like dust in the next downturn.  But this is not to suggest that the country as a whole has steadily gotten poorer.

No, the opposite is the case.  The overall wealth of the U.S. has continued to outgrow the dips on the upstrokes during this entire period.  As a result the country continues to boast the largest and richest economy in the world.  What is ominous and remarkable about this entire one-third century of economic experience is the dramatic stair-step descent and decay that has been recorded against the middle class ledger, while the plutocrats, who have come to own nearly all the real wealth, have rocketed to the economic stratosphere with all of the productive gains during that time. 

It's like a subtle yet tenacious and slow growing cancer, which goes through brief periods of remission, but never fully disappears.  Then it returns to do more damage and bring us ever closer to absolute social and civil collapse.  As a result, the last two generations or more have been left insidiously short of economic opportunity.  The incumbent constituency of the middle class has been pounded and hollowed out.  And the elderly are under the gun.  If the Santorums of this greed infested world really wanted to address the social decline they decry in a constructive manner, they would get their heads out of the clouds and look more closely at the gluttony of their ruling class puppeteers.  This is entirely fixable, but we first have to be honest about the problem.