Do The Right Thing

The other day, I read an interesting personal remembrance of Greg Peters by Mark Moseley on TheLensNOLA internet news site. It reminded me of several points I've been meaning to make regarding the nature of positive social change, and the necessary energy behind it.

The first is that it never happens as a result of parlor talk, debate, or argument among the elites alone. Mind you, there are always two types of elites: the dispossessed elites (DE) and the elites in possession (EP). Curiously enough, a common criticism the DE hurl at the EP is that they constantly screw things up and screw people around precisely because they see themselves as the elite among us, and are incapable of seeing their own failings and foibles. Meanwhile, the DE never confess themselves elites, but they are. Being dispossessed, they lack the standing and privilege which comes from the power the EP hold, jealously guard, and use to unfair advantage. The result: dissatisfaction and demands for various types of adjustments in the way our civil society operates.

The DE endlessly importune the EP to scale back their abuses and loosen their grip on power and privilege. The DE blog, they tweet, they write letters, make cartoons, skewer, ridicule, and propagandize their little asses off, but they rarely actually ever do anything. Typically, nothing or very little happens.

Still, on occasion the EP will placate and appease the DE with gestures they insincerely label "reforms."  This episodic parlor game charade almost always ends with the EP enjoying even more social power and leverage, only dressed up a bit differently. Meanwhile the DE wrongly and smugly imagine they have done something good. Nothing could be further from the truth because real social power is never surrendered through persuasion alone, but only when wrested away under some form of compulsion. Hence, the memorable LBJ telephone conversation quote to MLK as he was trying to line-up support for Civil Rights legislation, "Make me (meaning us) do this."

MLK delivered big time with significant, if peaceful, social unrest and the pounding thunder of moral compulsion. Great positive social change was achieved as the result of massive activism by legions of non-elites, not simply by way of  debate among elites and horse trading among politicians. So great in fact is the power of civil unrest and mass activism, that by 1968 MLK had converted his already hugely successful civil rights campaign into a full-fledged economic crusade on behalf of all poor people.  He was well on the way to restructuring the manner in which we conduct business with a blind eye towards worker abuse. Had he not been murdered, we surely would never have had to suffer the yawning inequity and inequality of economic conditions which now beset our country, indeed our world. One may be forgiven for thinking that that must have been going a bit too far. And today we are living with the pitiful proof economically that political assassination occurs even in a so-called free society because it works. More on those thoughts some other time, perhaps. All of the foregoing was intended to demonstrate what is required to effect positive change in a supposedly open and democratic society such as ours. What about other places?

Yes, of course, you've guessed it. I'm thinking of those dark, cramped and closed, prison camp style societies around the globe in which dictators use secret police, the military, or chemical weapons to oppress their own people, and maintain their bloody grip on power. And that's only when they're being well enough behaved to keep their evil ambitions at home. Sometimes these assholes are rash enough to heap their loving, tender mercies upon the whole damn neighborhood. Often, existential horrors such as these can only be resisted, restrained or stopped by greater force. It is always bloody, it is always ugly, it is always brutal, it is always messy, unfair, unjust, unspeakable, and unacceptable except in regard to all other alternatives.

Frank Deford Is Wrong

Wait, another football post, you ask?  Well, yes, but very quickly, and for the single purpose of putting a finer point on what the NFL really fears in the coming legal crisis it faces regarding brain-deadening and life-threatening concussions.

The NFL fears becoming a third-tier backwater, a disreputable sporting operation on a par with modern day prize fighting.  That is what is at stake in these court room battles, not simply the dollar value, staggering though it will be - case by case or in total - to ordinary mortals.

These billionaires can afford the tab, and, indeed, ultimately fob-off the burden on future TV and fan rip-off revenue sources, as long as the game itself is not permanently damaged.  But that is what is going to happen.

Even though I recently heard Frank Deford, the best sports writer still working, broadcast a commentary on NPR which staked-out a contrary position, I'm convinced that the NFL is attempting to play a desperate game of catch-up, with no time left on the clock. 

Science is a tough customer, tougher even than 300 lb. to nearly 400 lb. behemoths crashing into one another at near Olympic sprinter speed.  Science is also patient.  As has been said, facts are stubborn things.  Even though popular opinion and/or fashion wishes to deny reality, eventually sunlight finds a way to crash through with greater force than the heaviest hitter in football.  Game over. 

Fact based testimony, under oath, in these cases will hold out in bold relief the devastating brain damage inflicted not only on the pro level, but even in biddy-ball.  Soon enough, parents will do the right thing.  Popular opinion will turn away in revulsion, and there will be no overtime.

The arc of change will not only track that of the shunning of tobacco, it will be speed-of-light faster.

But do not despair.  Things change. Do not merely get over it, embrace it.  There are alternatives.  Surely everyone remembers "Play Ball!"

Why It Hurts

Finally free from the conscripted duties of toiling in the trenches every waking hour seven days a week to finish the huge new addition to the National WWII Museum in time to welcome this year's Super Bowl visitors to New Orleans, I shall once again endeavor to take some notice of matters which seem to matter, here in this little space.  This particular piece may appear at first far afield from our usual concerns, but as it has to do with the abuse of power in service of raw greed, it, in fact, seems entirely appropriate to your somewhat worn out, yet still intrepid, loyal labor correspondent.

The pain referenced in the title to this piece has been occasioned by the rape of New Orleans, its good name, and all of our citizens by Mr. Roger Goodell and the NFL.  Mr. Goodell is the Commissioner of the NFL, and on behalf of the team owners which comprise that organization regularly exercises virtually autocratic powers of vast variety in a consistently narrow manner to mercilessly protect and advance the greedy interests of the NFL, screw everything else.

Here are the facts.  The NFL has been pushed hard up against a serious health and financial crisis occasioned by the life-threatening and debilitating consequences of serious concussions which result from the very nature of the way the brutal game of football is played, especially on the pro level, and the awesome legal and monetary claims now being lodged by the victims and their families. So, it is natural that the NFL would be anxious to contrive to convincingly project an aura of  concern for player safety, and adopt the posture of safety standard enforcer in ways it never has before.  It is also the case that not only is New Orleans the site for this year's Super Bowl, but absent any significant negative externalities, the New Orleans Saints football team likely had as good a chance as, nay, really better than, any other NFC team of being in the contest. But that would not be the most welcome or best financial payoff for the NFL.  This is so because the residents of the host city are going to be tuned-in to the broadcast of the event in huge proportions, just because it's in their town; and the viewership overall is greatly enhanced by having teams from two other major markets participate. That means a hell of a lot of money is on the line.  Simple arithmetic (thank you Bill Clinton).

Enter the negative extrenalities in the form of Roger Goodell and his so-called "Bounty Gate" accusations against the Saints organization for encouraging the infliction of injuries - especially head injuries - on members of opposing teams.  This cost the Saints the services of its head coach and defensive coordinator for the season, numerous key starting players for many games, any chance for a run at the NFC championship, and, hence, a berth in the Super Bowl.  Early on in this drama, there was the release of a rather incendiary recording of the defensive coordinator apparently importuning his charges to "kill the head" of this or that player on the other team.  I will admit it even briefly persuaded me that the Saints were guilty.  But there was scant or no other "evidence" produced.  Then came the passionate denials by Jonathan Vilma and others, as well as the very persuasive legal and logical rebuttals they advanced, which effectively erased and overturned the simplistic conclusions that had hastily been drawn from the above referenced incendiary tape of the defensive coordinator in full-throated, flagrant, not to taken seriously or literally, coach-speak.  To top it all off, there has not been even a single player injury referenced as a result of the "head hunting" tactics supposedly undertaken by Saints players.  Rather, comments and attestations from players around the whole league assert that the Saints played the game no differently than any other team.

But how convenient it was for Goodell and the NFL to screw New Orleans in order to affect a grave pretense for player safety heretofore never evinced - and in fact contravened by the refusal to recognize any connection between concussions and long-term brain impairment.  No doubt the early stages of a PR campaign to shield the NFL from gigantic financial legal judgements looming as a result of the few cases already filed, with tons more to come.  And into the bargain Goodell and company took the opportunity to knock New Orleans out of contention for a Super Bowl appearance in their own home town, so as to insure the highest viewership possible, all for the money, baby, all for the money.  These guys are greedy bastards who care not how many innocent they hurt, nor how hurt their employees are by the brutality of the game which makes them so rich and powerful.

I am not the most rabid football fan by any accounting, although I do like the game, and will watch the Saints play whenever I can.  As a kid I participated in organized playground football, and was pretty good.  I was fast.  In our little age group and neighborhood, there were none faster. And I could catch; a skill acquired I'm sure during the countless afternoons my buddies and I swarmed around my dad upon his return from work, and pressed him into quaterbacking duties for both teams in our pick-up games. 

He had the hands of an artist: large and strong, yet supple with long, almost feminine looking fingers.  His spirals rivaled those of any QB you've ever seen on TV.  I can still see him releasing them from his outstretched, uplifted fingers as gently as introducing a baby bird to its first free flight.  His passes rose on a carousel spin, not rapid or drilling, but with a smooth and musical rhythm.  It was almost impossible not to catch his perfect throws.  So I guess it led me to believe I could catch anything, and go on to snatch from the air even stuff  I had no business holding on to, what with having inherited my mother's rather stubby and blunt Germanic fingers.

When I was a relatively young teen, I was lucky enough to attend the Sugar Bowl with my dad in the old Tulane University stadium, when Archie Manning starred for Ole Miss. That was the pre-Superdome era. By high school, I was too rebellious to be interested in anything organizied, especially sports.  But the years have their way with all of us, and soon enough I was working, married, and with children.  In the early 1970s I worked with my father on the electrical installation at the Superdome.  By 1988 my wife, two boys (ages 13 and 9), and I were in attendance at the Dome for the Saints first playoff game.  It started well for the Saints, and my kids were ecstatic.  But it turned into a virtual runaway win for the Vikings, and tears for the kids.  A tough lesson in how to take it on the chin and keep going.  Both my sons are really strong Saints fans, along with my wife.  The older son, who played football thoughout his high school years, has season tickets.  He and my daughter-in-law make most of the home games. 

These few facts, while superficially distinct from, are not unlike the simple reality lived by most long time New Orleanians.  After decades of loyally loving and supporting football's answer to baseball's Cubs, Saints fans finally were rewarded with a Super Bowl appearance and victory in 2010.  That game was played in Miami.  This year it could have happened here.  And it probably would have.

The odds against having a team good and lucky enough to get to the big game in one of those rare years when the game is played here suggests that no one now living in New Orleans will ever have the chance to see it happen again.  Read against the background of a script written by lifelong memories, this is unforgettable.  It is unforgivable. 

Cynical and Consistent

Charles Krauthammer has favored us with his miraculous two step Republican rehab program.  It is of a piece with the same old prescriptive cynicism we're accustomed to hearing from him and his ilk.  Krauthammer offers up a wondrously instantaneous and pain free way to remove what he apparently sees as the only obstacle to resurgent Republican electoral dominance, i.e., the pissed off Latino vote. 

Are you ready?  Grant amnesty to those already here illegally, thereby allowing them to remain as guest workers, and ending the ominous threat of economic desperation leading to self-deportation.  Combine that with a rock solid seal of the border, slowing any future illegal crossing to a trickle or drying it up altogether.  This is the cynical equivalent of saying, "Welcome aboard, enjoy the rest of your cruise through life, but pay no attention to those left drowning in the deep and putrid economic and civil swamps of your homelands." 

Notice there is no commitment to any sure and relatively short path to full citizenship, which would make them less susceptible to abuse by their employers and situate them to maturely and confidently choose the option to join or form unions.  Absent that guarantee, even those selfish enough to turn their backs on their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, or generally desperate and suffering brethren, would themselves actually be punching their own ticket to continue on cruising for an ultimate bruising. 

This prescription is nothing short of a crass and unprincipled copy of the equally ugly and bogus bribe offered to seniors regarding Social Security and Medicare.  The Republican pitch to them is, "If you're already old, you can keep Medicare and Social Security, but only if you let us cut your kids out.  Don't worry, they're young and can make other plans, meanwhile you'll be protected."

If seniors in general are either scared or selfish enough to make such a deal with the devil, they too will utltimately wind up with a pitchfork run right through the heart and meat of the benefits they so desperately want to preserve.  And they forever will be remembered for having made a bad deal for themselves and a hell of a future for their kids.

I think American seniors and illegal immigrant workers alike are better than the cynical Republican strategists think.  But I worry about zerObama.

A Smooth Ride and A Safe Landing?

Well, at least we didn't crash and burn, as I feared we might.  I really expected and was prepared for a long election night, followed by a drawn out legal donnybrook of court filings in several critical, closely contested states.   I said as much in the last two posts.  But it didn't happen, so I was happily wrong.

I also explicitly indicated that this opinion was not reflective of any disagreement with statistician par excellance, Nate Silver, who called the outcome more or less on the nose.  Quite the contrary, I have no quarrel whatsoever with empirical evidence, or the proven methods of uncovering it.  Rather, my expressed concern was that experience had shown there is decidedly more to determining election results in our system than a straight counting of the votes cast and/or the votes which were meant to be cast.  In other words, there is a whole hell of a lot of cheating and illusion that goes on in this, the beacon of liberty and freedom, and gold standard of democracy.  A whole hell of a lot. 

I won't tediously rehearse, but will at least briefly refresh memories of relevant instances, to wit: the blatantly stolen, Supreme Court determined 2000 presidential election, along with the still mysteriously "wrong" exit polls in the 2004 presidential contest, which had Kerry besting Bush all day long.  So, go figure.

And that is indeed the point.  Elections here are not a numbers game alone; they are a numbers, people, and power contrivance.  This is the ground upon which I stand, and have not one inch been pushed from.  In fact, the outcome of this race ironically solidifies the foundation of that view. 

The internal plutocrat machine apparently suffered from a raft of  Karl Rove/Ralph Reed  OZ-like conclusions, manufactured exclusively in the interest of the producers at the expense of the consumers of the information.  In the end, Romney was more the victim of his own PR than the Obama campaign.

Certainly this was reflected in the last Romney/Obama debate, wherein Romney behaved as though he had the lead and didn't want to blow it, as opposed to the aggressive, lying, brute he had demonstrated a talent for being in previous meetings.  He really thought it would be an outright decision in his favor, or at least close enough to steal.  The Romney campaign was all lawyered-up and ready to go into at least four of the most important battle-ground states to take a close race.  In the end, it was caught off guard and mistakenly at ease.

If you depart from this outlook, fair enough.  But just consider that the treasure trove of electoral votes, known as Florida, has not been officially awarded as this is written, on the Saturday following the Tuesday election.  If the margins had been almost infinitesimally closer in at least two of the other seven or so battle-ground states, this contest would be undecided today.

Speaking of today, it is the first day of another too brief, chore filled weekend during which I am tasked by sundry calls other than blog posting.  So, enough for now.  But there are several subjects waiting and needing address.  They include the signals of continuing Republican reactionary policy essayed by customary suspects such as Charles Krauthammer, and signs of more limp-wristed, hand-wringing capitulation from zerObama.  Hope to get to it this evening.

Stay tuned. 

Hanging Fire

Really hope I'm wrong, but I think you can forget Tuesday.  It won't be over.  Not for a long time.

A big part of me wants to say it could have been decided then, had ZerO at least shown up for the first debate; but probably not.  The fascist machine was going to have to pull out all the stops to try to steal this election, no matter what.  How come?

It's their last chance under even the slimmest imitation of a democratic process, that's how come.  Their racist reactionary base, both in absolute and proportional terms, is shrinking, thank God.  This is, in raw demographic terms, their last stand.  It literally is now or never.  Lose now, and next time it's brass knuckles.

But the brain dead 2000 Bush versus Gore  experience alone demonstrated this electoral system is sufficiently screwy that even a home grown, three county, country bumpkin itinerant  legal mouthpiece could tangle it up indefinitely, if asked.

So, you can laugh, go ahead. I hope this call is wildly wide of the mark, but be forewarned that you should keep the seat belt fastened, and hunker down for a rough ride.

.

Out On A Pretty Fat Limb

Nate Silver is not wrong, he is insufficient.  So are his smug, genotronic acolytes.

Data don't vote.  Data are not grains of sand on the beach, nor levees - the water's edge.  Data don't steal elections. 

And in recent times, the last 50 or 60 years anyway, it has been the plutocratic/crypto-fascist interests which have stolen both national and local elections.  As a convenient, down-and-dirty shorthand explanation and support for this claim, I'd simply reference the relative decline and disappearance of urban, populist accented political machines, and their replacement by the wall-to-wall, blinding white noise dominance of money.  I won't bore you with a recitation of specifics.  Readers of this blog know what I'm talking about.

This is not to say that I think ZerObama will lose.  God forbid he does.  But he well may.  By now, those of us paying attention should all understand that God gets the hell out of the way, and demurs acting to forbid things we should.  He is painfully patient.

In 2000, the Supreme Court blatantly stole the presidential election for Bush, and there was no price. No price other than human loss and suffering.  No price for the plutocrats.  No loud declamations. No demonstrations.  No civil unrest.  Nothing but slavish acquiescence.  No opposition to the slaughter of countless innocents, civilian men, women and children, victims of warrant less war in far off lands.  God did not intervene.

The plutocrats got what they wanted.  The thinnest margin of privileged Americans have been made extravagantly wealthier.  99.9% of Americans have been punished with cheaper and cheapening employment, and the threat of hopeless demotion to membership among the  ranks of the utterly discarded.

 Of course, you can also absolutely forget the survival of  public education - even on the grade school level- and the  overarching reach of a meaningful social safety net.  This is a rich irony given the line of rhetoric that many working class - white, black and brown - people have swallowed regarding even the price of being a union member.

The dollar cost of union dues is tiny, especially compared to almost any regular voluntary expense that can be brought to mind.  I mean, com'on, let's get real.  Think cell phone, cable, or almost any other superfluous splurge spending by knuckle headed, genotronic age, pseudo-gastronome, with-it twitter-ite smart asses.  Utterly clueless.

More to the point, union dues today are social.  Completely.  In the past few decades, when a relatively ascendant liberal outlook reigned as a result of hard won, street fought battles, the burden of being a union member was regarded as more or less a gratuity-styled financial chipping-in.

But not now.  The flame throwing, lying right wing would have us believe that union membership is economically onerous.  However, every serious study continues to report that union workers are far better compensated than their unorganized counterparts.  Moreover, unionized workers enjoy a rights protected working relationship with their employer completely absent in the naked "at will" employment regime inscribed in state law.   Into the bargain, being fired from a  job for union organizing activity today is, financially, as likely a blessing as a hardship.

But the genotronics are better than us.  They think.  They are tragically wrong.  I would spare them unintentional ignorance, but theirs is disreputably willful.
 
So, we come to the only question that matters:  Is this thing close enough to steal?  Yes.

Why?  Well, 3 or 4 things: Money and power - those can be counted 1 & 2 or just the same thing, next comes bigotry, and then simple vanilla ignorance and genotronic smugness.

So, if it happens, don't tell me, "we was robbed."  You done throwed it all away, smart guys.