Blue Collar Jobs Used to be Fun and Rewarding

It is really sad to see so many workers being shafted now -- not old enough for social Security and Medicare, but too old to get jobs.

When I was in college, I used to work at new jobs each summer which ranged from building houses and working with scrap metal to writing for the Time Inc. publications. Later I did the same when I needed extra money at Oxford. I had a choice between writing for Time Inc., but committing for a year, or being a heavy freight porter at the Oxford Station. The principal of my college was a sweet person, but he had estimated costs as they were when he was at Oxford. Had a fun moment when he was getting off a train from London and I asked, "Carry your bag, Sir?" which left him stunned. He had no idea I was working at the station -- university students did not do that sort of thing. But I could put in overtime and not do badly.

I found friendships at all of my blue collar jobs -- a little testing out to make sure I was not a snob, but then ok. Got my British mates sharing cigarettes which was not their practice there. At the American factory my buddies got quite protective when they realized I was working two full time jobs six days a week -- to save money for our year at Oxford. I was exhausted and would fall asleep at lunch hour, and they would stack bales around me to let me sleep on a bit. I was a year into divinity school so I was called "preacher." One day this huge guy came at me and accused me of flirting with his wife -- who that was, I did not know. But suddenly he backed off and and when I turned around my buddies were putting their switch knives back in their pockets. Life was good for them. One had his own small plane. Another was a boater.

These days are a nightmare in comparison. No certainty that a factory will not suddenly close down and move over 'there' somewhere. Whole towns are left stranded. We live in terribly divided classes -- rich versus poor and just making it.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Another Contrast with the U.S. -- Our failing Educational Systems

During my teen year as an exchange student in the early '50s, I also took the opportunity to visit my pen pal in Northern France. His father was a teacher and I was intrigued to learn that teachers in France were viewed as a part of the elite along with doctors and judges.

Even in the days of my youth, U.S. teachers were down at the bottom of the professional scale even though there were some excellent ones before women's lib opened their doors to the status professions -- medicine, law, etc. The reason that we had excellent teachers at the lower levels was that nursing and teaching were the primary fields open to talented women. I will never forget my own first through third grade teacher, Miss Loretti who became Mrs. Batista along the way. She really got me launched with engaging teaching about the world.

With the budge freezes now, the U.S., which used to be the world's educational leader, has faded drastically:

"U.S. students' average scores in international comparisons have often been below the average of developed countries. In the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment 2003, 15 year olds ranked 24th of 38 in mathematics, 19th of 38 in science, 12th of 38 in reading, and 26th of 38 in problem solving.[103] In the 2006 assessment, the U.S. ranked 35th out of 57 in mathematics and 29th out of 57 in science. Reading scores could not be reported due to printing errors in the instructions of the U.S. test booklets. U.S. scores were behind those of most other developed nations.[104] While US teens' performance was mediocre in the Programme for International Student Assessment tests, which emphasizes problem solving, US fourth and eighth graders tested above average on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests, which emphasizes traditional learning.[105]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005021.pdf

And with the Republicans now in control of Congress and bent of budget freezes, one can only imagine things getting worse -- education, eligibility for jobs, etc., etc.

Already violent crimes look to be on the rise -- at least in NYC. People are desperate and see no hope for their futures. What else are they to do but steal what they need for themselves and their children?

Let us be honest here, we, not our president, are responsible for these gross failures. We are tragically being Palinized.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Living and Working in a Class Bound Society

When I graduated from secondary school in the U.S., I was awarded what was then called a British American Schoolboy Scholarship by the English Speaking Union:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-Speaking_Union

I gather that the ESU's activities have since widened broadly in doing good works.

I happened to be assigned to the Uppingham School in Rutland County in the Midlands -- probably because it was known for its music and I had been president of my American school glee club -- my singing ability was and is terrible.

My year in Britain exposed me to all levels of its class system. So-called 'public' schools were really privates and to my knowledge offered no scholarships apart from that I had won. During breaks in the school year I also did a variety of things such as working in a community center in Bethnal Green, East London, its poorest section. I also hiked down the Rhine with a mixed group of British public school students and German technical school ones -- with excellent training, incidentally. So I met up with the lower classes in Germany as well as those in Britain.

The fact of class divisions was accepted in both countries and one tended to remain in the one into which one was born. There were a few so-called 'grammar' schools in Britain where extremely able poor kids might get an education sufficient to make it into one of Britain's relatively few universities at that time.

As an American, I had not infrequently worked summers in blue collar jobs during my college years -- construction, timber clearing, scrap metal sorting, blasting, etc. But my fellow public school Brits and a few from elsewhere in the then British Empire would no way think of doing such 'low class' work.

Incidentally, there was no such thing as co-ed education and my fellow students were fascinated by the fact that I had a girl friend who later became my beloved wife. Possibly the wide gap between the sexes encouraged gay relationships. When my wife and I later attended Oxford we were a rare student married couple -- the only one at my college.

One notices these days developing prejudices in most of the European nations against lower class immigrants. Some are expelling or restricting same in cruel ways.

When I read Bob Herbert's Op-Ed today, "Winning the Class War," I was reminded of the taken for granted class distinctions that I experienced in Europe as a teen. I fear that we are slipping backwards -- not just one but two centuries -- the late 19th and early 20th when such distinctions were the American way of life.

Perhaps it is time for another revolution, if we are to keep democracy alive here?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Black 'Tuesday'

In four days millions of Americans will be facing black 'Tuesday' -- November 30 when unemployment benefits begin to run out. If the Republicans stick to their game plan of freezing our budgets, little can be done to rescue millions of Americans unemployed, cut off from monies for basics -- food and their homes:

http://budget.senate.gov/republican/

I cannot imagine what the consequences will be. Violent crimes are now on the increase in NYC. What would you do if you could not feed your family and it had been evicted from its home?

My guess is that we are going to see more violence of various crimes -- robberies, wife abuse, and, sadly, suicides. We have seen the last item increased among our overstressed military:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49971

I hope this will not extend to our over stressed ousted from homes and cut off from food for their families.

Ironically our TV reports today show people lined up outside stores offering black Friday bargains. There is little or no mention of the crises facing millions of Americans and their children as a consequence of their control of Congress gained with the recent election.

I get scolded by people claiming that I despise Republicans. I don't. I view them as people who have been terribly misled by their leaders for many decades. It is so easy to believe a lie that one thinks is to one's personal benefit and to hold in contempt people who are suffering by blaming them for their unavoidable emergencies.

Let's face it, with our global economy working people's jobs have been shipped overseas where exploitation is rife of workers. We cannot maintain our standards of living under such conditions. A good number of CEOs have laid off people simply to raise stock prices in their companies which they control and which pay them massive bonuses. And then there is the insider stuff that is being reported.

We are (sadly) a nation terribly divided. Obama has tried repeatedly to bring us together, but has faced endless attacks for his efforts. We need the truth told, but our TV would rather cover Black Friday bargain hunting as Black Tuesday approaches all too quickly.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

American Diversity?

The U.S. differs from its European counterparts in that we are a nation of diverse groups. Interesting enough our largest ethnic group is German American, not British:

"In 2008, German Americans (16.5%), Irish Americans (11.9%),English Americans (9.0%) and Italian Americans (6.4) were the four largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States.[4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_American

It is little wonder that in times of stress we have difficulty in keeping all on board. Happily, as we have no dominant group, we should be able to assist each other. As we can see from our history, unfortunately the latest low status groups all too often turn against their successors. In my youth Irish and Italian Americans were the newcomers. Jews faced considerable resistance and with it exclusions.
Fortunately the horrors of the Holocaust changed that.

The other type of diversion is economic: super wealthy, reasonably well off, hard-pressed, and poverty-stricken. Our last election was a peculiar mixing of these with some voting in their own interests and others ironically voting against themselves, as they will most likely discover all too soon.

The word is loose, but 'liberal' generally refers to those who would include all of us when measuring social justice. I fear that the so-called 'conservatives' are either out for themselves or opposed to the interests of others, e.g. abortion and universal medical care.

Personally my family tradition was in various ways liberal. One grandfather ran away from home at age 12 when a step mother accused him of getting into the sugar barrel. He became a successful small businessman in Hanover, NH, where he fought against the Klan when it briefly had spread throughout the nation. My other grandfather, Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature at Yale, opened the doors to graduate education to those who had previously been excluded (e.g. Jews). He died early and before I met him with a long list of scholarly publications left behind -- I can look up from my computer and see some of them -- major studies of Biblical texts.

My bottom line here is that in times of great stress such as we are experiencing now, it is critical for those who care for others to do what we can to help heal the splits and wounds. I am a blogger for this reason, as some health problems keep me largely at home, so that I can only publicize events, not join in with them as I would have a few years ago.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Thanksgiving -- For Some

I imagine that a majority of American families are holding traditional Thanksgiving celebrations -- turkey and all the fixings. This is so of my three children and four grandchildren.

But lest we forget, the recent election is going to exacerbate the sufferings of many millions of Americans -- particularly children. We have a huge death rate for people without medical insurance:

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"Death Rate of Uninsured Americans
Nearly 45,000 Die Annually Due to Lack of Health Insurance"

http://www.suite101.com/content/death-rate-of-uninsured-americans-a179646

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Poverty which affects many millions of Americans -- particularly -- children -- is bound to rise with the Republican Congress refusing funds:

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Statistics on poverty &
food wastage in America
By Samana Siddiqi

Poverty in America? One of the richest countries in the world?

Yes, poverty is a reality in America, just as it is for millions of other human beings on the planet. According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children.

http://www.soundvision.com/Info/poor/statistics.asp

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The further horror is that millions are about to run out of government unemployment funding assistance November 30:

GRAND RAPIDS — Once again, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and family advocacy groups are pleading with Congress to extend unemployment benefits set to expire Nov. 30.

“Now is not the time to pull the rug out from those who need assistance to provide for their families,” Granholm wrote in a letter to House and Senate leaders in Washington, D.C.

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/11/with_unemployment_benefits_to.html

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An old estimate is that private funding can cope with about a tenth of such massive needs. In the midst of our current economic crisis, this calculation may be optimistic.

Our pets will probably do better.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

What Could We Do If North Korea Invaded South Korea?

The posts below report the relative numbers of troops respectively of the U.S. and North Korea and the block on nuclear retaliation to a North Korean attack.

To speculate a bit, our U.S. military has been exhausting itself with unwinnable wars in the Middle East. Consequently, should North Korea decide to invade South Korea, there is not much that we could do about it. We could not attack it with nuclear weapons which would spread dangerous radioactivity throughout the area -- particularly threatening China. Let us not forget the disastrous effects of Chernobyl!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

The aggressive acts of North Korea, killing people on a ship it sank, firing back and forth, cannot but make one wonder what more its enigmatic leadership has in mind. With a sudden attack, could it not finish off the Korean war by capturing South Korea with all its valuable resources? This seems to be an act of madness, but the North has been warning us that it has also nuclear capacity as well as its massive military.

***************************

737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.

http://www.alternet.org/story/47998

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North Korea is the most militarized country in the world today,[4] having the fourth largest army in the world, at about 1,106,000 armed personnel, with about 20% of men ages 17–54 in the regular armed forces.[5] It also has a reserve force comprising 8,200,000 personnel. It operates an enormous network of military facilities scattered around the country, a large weapons production basis, a dense air defense system, the third largest chemical weapons stockpile in the world,[6] and includes the largest Special Forces contingent (numbering 180,000 men).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_People%27s_Army

I wonder whether our security people are beginning to speculate along similar lines?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Who Runs Our Government -- Elected Representatives or Security Operatives?

One of the first examples of security reps running things I learned from an excellent high school teacher when I was a junior. An example at the time was the undermining of Iranian early stages of democracy to keep control of its oil by the Brits and our C.I.A.

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Mohammad Mosaddegh (Persian: محمد مصدّق, IPA: [mohæmˈmæd(-e) mosædˈdeɣ] ( listen)* also Mossadegh, Mosaddeq, Mossadeq, Mosadeck, or Musaddiq) (19 May 1882 – 5 March 1967) was the democratically elected[1][2][3][4] Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953 when he was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh

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Mosaedegh was replaced by a brutal Shah who was selected because he was for us and against the Soviet Union and because Mosaedegh was demanding Iran's share of its oil profits. His eventual overthrow in turn left us with Iran on the 'other' side.

**************************************

"The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic clash between Iran and the United States. 52 US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis

Americans remember the latter event -- which brought Reagan into office. Iranians are focused on the earlier CIA intervention.

The upshot is that whistle blowers among our half million or so with high security clearance are subject to arrest and imprisonment, if not mysterious deaths.

****************************************

WikiLeaks has announced an important release on their Twitter account, claiming it’ll be 7 times bigger than the Iraq war logs, which are widely considered to be the biggest military leak in history.

“Next release is 7x the size of the Iraq War Logs. intense pressure over it for months. Keep us strong” was the message posted to the Wikileaks Twitter account earlier today.

The message was followed by an even bolder statement two hours later: “The coming months will see a new world, where global history is redefined.”

http://mashable.com/2010/11/22/wikileaks-release/

****************************************

Unhappily the American public rarely hears of security maneuvers until long after they have affected our policies. It is no small wonder that we are held suspect in many parts of the world: the Middle East, South Asia, most of Latin America, and some of Africa. It is time for us to stop our neo-colonial interventions. We can't afford them and they only generate hostility towards us.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Altzheimers or Just Aging?

Many years ago when a colleague and I were teaching at Vassar College we both decided to take on a summer course at a local community college and for fun traded fields -- psychology versus philosophy -- so I got to teach a psychology course from a pre-selected text. I recall that in a section on aging it stressed that recall tends to slow or delay with age -- something like skiing down a slope with a rise at the bottom over which one must get which was like the slow down in recall that most of us experience as we hit advanced years (I am now 77 and retired several years ago when I realized I was fading in my evening class). I gather that we cannot really determine whether one has had alzheiners until a brain autopsy can be done. The following website contrasts the 10 indications of Alzheimers with the parallel and normal age related symptoms.

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp

Given that one is constantly reminded by TV ads of the hazards of health - cancer, alzheimers, etc., I figure that it might give some relief to know that if they, as I, have to wait to a recall some word which I want to use in the blogs that I do for enjoyment and to continue my 'teaching'.

I am a worried critic of our national crises -- wars, economic health, poverty, hunger, etc. I am sometimes attacked as being anti-American. The same results from criticisms of Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians and neighboring states. For the record -- as the Chair of the Yale Daily News, I exposed its anti-Semitic admission policies way back when and Yale became the leader of the Ivies in opening its doors to minorities. My class of 1,000 had admitted two or three African Americans -- one a grad of a leading prep school and the other a good basketball player who dropped out. When I started teaching at Vassar in 1963, 3 lonely African Americans were enrolled in the whole college.

Back to Alzheimers don't begin to panic if one's memory begins to give one a rough time. You are just getting older. And as Socrates said when he was being executed for antagonizing the local establishment, when I die, I will either have the best sleep ever or meet up with my dear friends who have proceeded me.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

What Most of Us Are Missing - No Answers to Our Problems

[I am taking the liberty here of sending out as a blog a portion of Bob Herbert's NY Times Op-Ed today which recognizes that the U.S. is in big trouble, but fails as most to see that there is no solution such as he intimates that will rescue us from our massive array of problems.

The main point that Bob Herbert is missing here is that we are now competing in a global economy which (along with our corporations) is shipping our jobs 'over there'. We will never recover employment, education, security as long as our competitors are abusing their workers with low wages and benefits. I doubt that the European conservatives see that they are in the same boat. We and the other colonial powers are deeply resented by those whom we used to exploit, e.g. Latin America, East Asia, Middle East, etc. They have no reason but self-interest to play with us anymore. And with the internet and spying our original ideas are all too often implemented before we can started with them. Ed Kent]

Op-Ed Columnist
Hiding From Reality
By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 19, 2010

"However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore.

"Wherever you choose to look — at the economy and jobs, the public schools, the budget deficits, the nonstop warfare overseas — you’ll see a country in sad shape. Standards of living are declining, and American parents increasingly believe that their children will inherit a very bad deal.

"We’re in denial about the extent of the rot in the system, and the effort that would be required to turn things around. It will likely take many years, perhaps a decade or more, to get employment back to a level at which one could fairly say the economy is thriving."

Fiddling the Figures

As I read and watch comments on our financial situation, I am constantly startled by the bold lies and manipulations of who has what.

It is pretty obvious that our superrich are getting more so -- and perhaps even more than any of us know. If one can afford clever accountants and lawyers and has access to where the global monies lie and/or can be hidden, one can really make out big time.

But official reports from various sources indicate that most of us are losing income with some facing extinction with no income or homes for themselves or their children. Or imagine the frail elderly person who is evicted from his/her home with no place to go and personal possessions scattered on the sidewalks to be collected by whomever or trashed?

I certainly remember the horrors of racism in my childhood. I had been taught to be polite and one time with my mother (not a racist) on a bus I stood up to allow an African American lady (presumably on her way to a household job) to sit down and I recall my mother's embarrassment as other passengers indicated their disapproval. This was in West Hartford, CT -- not the South. One family scrap metal business (where I worked one summer) gave fair employment to African American men in Hartford. They were Jewish and sensitive to prejudice -- it was near the beginning of WW2. They were the only employers to my knowledge of African American men and even sent some of their workers on to college. African Americans lived in a small ghetto in Hartford, I discovered by accident, when we boy scouts were taking bundles of newspapers nearby for the war effort.

Needless to say particularly African American men are suffering the most from the job shortage today. Many have prison records rather than high school degrees.

What really scares me is the apparent return to similar attitudes and the indifference of many in this country to the suffering of their fellow humans. The figure fiddling comes in at this point to cast blame on those who need it least. Remember Reagan's welfare lady picking up the check from her Cadillac? Republican lying about such things is not a new phenomenon.

Any suggestions as to how we can cope with this moral monstrosity?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Election Lost, Not Won

The Republicans or Tea Party did not win the last election. It was lost by those eligible who did not vote. The U.S. has been constantly shrinking in percentages of eligible voters who do not vote -- particularly these days younger Americans. The figures posted at the conclusion of this report tell the story -- and contrasts with comparable nations though 1995. Things have gotten worse since. People simply do not see their votes as making a difference in outcomes.

As I have repeatedly reported, our nation is in bad shape. We do not pay sufficient taxes to meet our commitments. I fear for those increasing numbers of hungry -- millions of children-- and those losing their homes. Older people cannot get jobs and yet the Republicans talk of raising the age for eligibility for social security, if not destroying it as a system of support for those retired. As one who did physical labor summers as a student and had former workers injured on their jobs in my Brooklyn classes, I cringe at such policies.

In my recent postings by Ted Honderich he pondered the whys of lack of care for all members of a nation -- we can add the global disasters such as Haiti as well.

The upshot is that anyone who does not vote is not living in a democracy. We shall see the outcome of this election soon. Will it wake some non voters up? And I hope we do not destroy Obama's medical reforms. Already each year about 145,000 Americans die needlessly because they can not afford medical care -- speaking of killing off the elderly, which may be part of the conservative strategy. Unfortunately about as many children as adults are dying for this reason.

I cringe at what I see our nation becoming.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout#Trends_of_decreasing_turnout

Turnout in national lower house elections, 1960–1995 Country↓ Compulsory↓ №↓ Turnout↓
Australia Y 14 95%
Malta N 6 94%
Chile Y 2 93%†
Austria N 9 92%
Belgium Y 12 91%
Italy N 9 90%
Luxembourg N 7 90%
Iceland N 10 89%
New Zealand N 12 88%
Denmark N 14 87%
Germany N 9 86%
Sweden N 14 86%
Greece Y 10 86%
Venezuela N* 7 85%
Czech Republic N 2 85%
Brazil Y 3 83%
Netherlands N** 7 83%
Costa Rica N 8 81%
Norway N 9 81%
Romania N 2 81%
Bulgaria N 2 80%
Israel N 9 80%
Portugal N 9 79%
Finland N 10 78%
Canada N 11 76%
France N 9 76%
United Kingdom N 9 76%
South Korea N 11 75%
Ireland N 11 74%
Spain N 6 73%
Japan N 12 71%
Estonia N 2 69%
Hungary N 2 66%
Russia N 2 61%
India N 6 58%
United States N 9 54%***
Switzerland N 8 54%
Poland N 2 51%
*Compulsory voting until 1998
**Excludes pre-1968 elections, when voting was compulsory.
***Only Congressional elections held the same year as presidential ones.
Turnout rates for off-year elections are approximately 10–15 percentage
points lower than the general election immediately preceding it.
Statistics from Mark N. Franklin's "Electoral Participation", found in
Controversies in Voting Behavior (2001). Includes only "free" elections.
†Excludes pre-1989 elections. Sources: Electoral Service, Election Qualifying Court
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Will Body Scanners Put Frequent Flyers at Risk for Cancer?

[When I was a young child, shoe stores briefly used X-ray gadgets to observe whether feet were fitting properly into shoes. The usual practice was that the shoe clerk would demonstrate with his own foot the machine before the buyer tried it. The practice was discontinued when shoe store clerks began to develop foot cancer.

The major promoter of body scans has been Michael Chertoff, former security secretary under Bush who has stock in one of the major producers, Rapiscan. Pilots have been objecting to the practice for themselves. Ed Kent]

*******************************

* After the 'bombing attempt' Chertoff made a flurry of media appearances suggesting that the “attempted bombing incident” could have been avoided if all airports were using full body scanners.

* The Washington Post printed an article on January 1, 2010, calling Chertoff out for using his government credentials to promote a product that benefits his clients. It was revealed that Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of the naked body scanner Chertoff was recommending, was a client of Chertoff's security consulting agency.

* Rapiscan has since received over $250 million in scanner orders.

http://www.examiner.com/coast-to-coast-radio-in-national/revealing-the-truth-behind-airport-body-scanners-and-the-pat-down

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"Michael Chertoff, while he was the Head of Homeland Security under Bush, advocated and pushed for installation and implementation of these new full-body scanners at our airports. Once he was out of "public service", Chertoff's consulting company (Read: Lobbying Company) landed as a client (Surprise!), Rapsican, the company that makes the scanners. He is now a much richer person, I'm sure."

http://www.wcvarones.com/2010/11/tsas-nude-scanners-former-homeland.html
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

TV News: Rangel and Palin, Palin and Rangel

By chance I watched the early news today and it repetitiously covered the two names in the subject heading -- over and over again. Slipped in were a few bits on Karsai and mass deaths here and there.

I guess that all of us who give a damn about human welfare feel the same frustrations with the lack of real reporting on TV. I wonder what the superrich owners of the TV networks will do now that they have a mixed bag of Republicans/Tea Party honchos, i.e. those in the background such as the Koch brothers secretly funding their plutocratic programs? Will they get away with yet another tax break? They sure don't need one.

On our subject headings, Palin is a joke and Rangel is a sad case who has messed up an otherwise honorable career. I worked with J. Raymond Jones, the "Harlem Fox," when he was running Charlie in his first local election. Ray's slogan was "get off the plantation" and he worked hard to bring decent leaders to Harlem to replace the sellouts. Charlie was
horrified when someone did a smear job on his primary competitor. I haven't seen him since we were both buying a fish sandwich at a shop now closed at B'way and W. 110th St. The reports on his recent gaffs do not look good. And his actions look to me as though he is losing it a bit at 80.

Back to the TV news it seems to be reporting that we are planning to hang around Iraq and Afghanistan for a few more years. I'll be damned if I can figure out why. We have lost the respect of both the Iraqis and Afghans and much of the rest of the world as well with our wars without ends. Better the less said, I guess, for our TV biggies.

For the record I think a number is being done on Obama who inherited the economic and military messes. I shall be curious to see whether he can and will now fight back.

And so it goes -- pretty depressing.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Unfair Taxes and Other Failings!

Not so long ago we had representational taxation. One paid taxes in proportion to one's income. Since the 19th century Republicans have been attacking taxes in general and promoting domination of our democracy by the superrich. The Roosevelts, Teddy and FDR, rescued our democracy from plutocracy, i.e. rule by the wealthy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy

This departure from democratic justice has been long in the picture, but was given its current boost by Reagan's attack on government regulation and the Bush/Cheney set up for an economic disaster by their tax cuts and war spending.

Obama is not an economist and his choices to direct our economy were not good. He needs a whole new game plan if he and our nation are to survive, let alone prosper. People who are going to be hurt by the freeze on economic assistance unhappily stayed home and did not vote. A freeze on our budgets is going to harm our most needed instrumentalities -- medicine (45,000 of us die each year because we can not afford medical care). Our education systems are crashing. We are wasting monies on unwinnable wars. The drastic cut in police will further put our security at risk. The animosities generated against Muslims will silence them when we most need their information. A failure to admit non heterosexuals to our military will block some of our most talented people who know the languages of nations with which we are dealing.

I listen to npr to get to sleep nights, but the early reports by the BBC
are totally depressing and so I migrate to our computer where the news is at least more detailed, if as depressing. I wonder where Obama gets his sources of information? At least Bush had the smarts to replace a failing team. Obama had no time to adjust to the disasters left behind, so he tended to follow the leads already started by his predecessors -- wars and minimal expenditure of funds, much more of which were need from government to get us moving at a faster pace.

Needless to say we have been enduring additional disasters -- BP, bridges falling, and the Republican claim that they have kept us secure -- totally omitting 9/11 about which Bush/Cheney were warned by a bi-party study as they came into office. I would hate to tally the lives needlessly lost during those eight years -- nor want to guess how many will be lost during the next several. A nuclear bomb exploded in the middle of one of our major cities or the drastic failure of one of our aging nuclear plants ... one in Vermont and Indian Point just north of NYC had to be shut down the other day because of failures.

I would hate to be in Obama's shoes now -- or those of any American President in these hard and dangerous times.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Finding Jobs

One of my lists is entitled Finding Humane jobs:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs

I try to post there interesting job prospects that come in my daily emails. I figure it is a small contribution that I can make to our major domestic problem.

Frankly, I don't see any big time solution to this problem. We are competing in a global economy in which other nations keep their worker costs far below our practices and we buy their goods at our discount houses.

Possibly lowering the value of the dollar will help for a bit, but is no long term solution in the global competition.

What we need to do is cut unnecessary government jobs while putting whatever funds we can into repairing our costly deteriorating infrastructures. Our systems are out of date and I was startled to learn that a minor earthquake in Southern CA could bring down the dam that holds water for some twenty million people living below it. It would take several years to rebuild.

A program on our infrastructure potential failures on the History channel a month of so ago was terrifying. We built key systems without knowledge of the proper supports -- bridges, dams -- and things are blowing up from gas lines hidden near homes. Sewers feed into water drains and pollute our rivers.

We shall probably lose more lives from these infrastructure failures than from terrorists. We had two nuclear plant failures the other day that obliged their closing -- Vermont and Indian Point several dozen miles north of NYC.

Whatever it takes in the way of borrowing, we should follow the FDR example and use public funds to put people to work fixing things that desperately need it rather than spending more on military junk.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Democracy Without Voters?

The reports indicate that a considerable percentage (more than half) of eligible American voters stayed home or at their jobs this past election. If such is the case, we are scarcely living in a democracy. A recent posting I sent out indicated 16 lies apparently bought by many who did vote. I could have added about as many again. These lies were promulgated presumably by the super rich and some of the evangelicals threatened by social issues. Secrecy was the name of the game in getting this deceptive stuff distributed -- by the Koch brothers and others.

Unfortunately our unions have been vastly weakened either by the shipping of jobs overseas where things can be produced cheaply by exploited workers to be sold in our Costco and WalMart bargain stores and the smaller ones now being driven out of business at least in the Upper West side of Manhattan. They say that one in twenty new ventures succeeds, so our banks are either failing (the small local ones) or holding their monies for sure things. That is a bit of a joke, as nothing is exactly certain right now in our global economy.

Obama is still liked as a person and, perhaps, if he gets tough at last with those with whom he has been trying to negotiate, he can pull us out of our current cesspool economy. As they say, nice guys all too often finish last. I hope that will not be his fate. One can be a decent person and tough at the same time. There are some signs he was moving in that direction at the G-20 Summit with his criticism of China:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/business/global/13group.html?ref=todayspaper

The same tactic should work with the Tea Party/Republicans? Hopefully it will bring out his supporters at the next election!

I deeply regret the large numbers of Americans who will be going without food and driven out of their homes during this next two years of stasis. This is no way for a just democracy to work. Even the European conservatives look to be backing down a bit in the face of massive crowds of critical opponents.

Perhaps we can learn from them -- if we can keep the FBI off their backs.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Stasis and Suffering

Apart from whatever reforms the Democrats are able to pass while still formally in office, I see disaster for the U.S. ahead -- stasis and suffering for increasing numbers -- vets, the sick unable to afford medical care, the evicted, the millions of hungry (particularly our children), etc., etc. The rich will get richer and the rest of us will lose more and more of the supports necessary for a decent life. Imagine running out of money with children to feed or being too elderly to work or find other assistance with support programs frozen.

The U.S. is well on becoming a model of how not to do it and we are losing support from around the globe. Obama's trip to the Far East is an example of the resistance to our proposals and needs. I feel for the guy. He has done his best and it has not overcome the constant resistance from our extreme conservatives who are defaming us globally.

We were once the nation to emulate -- in the last century. Now we are a model of self-destruction. The statistics of people (particularly children) who are hungry are shocking. We are about 50th in premature deaths of people who cannot afford doctors. Our big banks are biding their time to see where the profits will lie. Smaller banks are going bankrupt. Taxes are what we pay. Big institutions dodge them or hide them in such as Switzerland. Our women now seek high level professions --medicine, law, etc., so we no longer can hire decent teachers (or keep the idealistic ones) with minimum pay and threatened benefits.

I saw this pattern when I was still teaching and in reports from disgruntled students who had shifted careers. And so we fall further behind in competence and expenses ranging from emergency room visits of the desperate to the vast numbers in jail -- about 1/4 of the world's total.

Buy a gun or learn to shoplift. Our suicide rates are a disgrace.

What happened to the democracy I knew as a child and student through the Ph.D.?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

U.S. Civil War -- Again!

I don't see much emerging from the recent election beyond civil wars -- Democrats versus Republicans and, perhaps, Republicans versus Tea Party.

There may be some positive outcomes -- our getting out of the Middle East which we have been trying to dominate.

There also may be some disasters here as well as in the Middle East -- mass killings of innocents. It looks as though we have had some near misses of late. And sooner or later terror will slip through. In the meantime our Constitutional protections are being riddled with security violations of ordinary privacy. I now and again send one of my critical posts to our local FBI. I don't know whether or not I am on some list to be monitored. I try to be completely open with my criticisms of things out of whack here.

Of what I am sure is that most reforms and supports for people in need here and abroad will be crippled. The current recession plus the weird election will ensure that. Those poor people in need who voted republican or not at all will soon realize that they have increased the suffering. What will families do when monies are cut off and they are evicted from their homes? I don't think that private charity can handle the load and without a caring relative one is ousted to the streets. I worry particularly about both children and the elderly who cannot care for themselves. Supposedly the wealthiest nation in the world, it looks as though we may also add the most suffering to our largest in the world percentage of imprisoned!

Buy a gun or learn to shoplift.

Some of my email colleagues accuse me of being anti American, anti Semitic, etc. I am in fact a retired legal philosopher with many sources not covered by our TV who is trying to tell it where we are going astray. Our national Apocalypse may not be far away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Shannon Tavarez Passes Away at 11

[There are so many reports of children disappearing or being killed that I generally find myself passing them by looking for solid political news. But I must confess that the death of Shannon Tavarez stopped me short. I recall the efforts earlier to assist her with an umbilical-cord transplant in late August. Had that succeeded and she had lived on, she would undoubtedly have been a star. And how many must have seen her in her Broadway role. This struck me as a legitimate report and not just the sordid entertainment made of harms to children on so many occasions.

The Apollo Theater in Harlem is not far from where we lived (and still do). If her death was reported earlier, I somehow missed it.

Ordinarily I only cite fragments as backups to blogs that I do, but in this instance I am going to run the entire report. Living near the Apollo we had many ties with Harlem beginning when we were grad students in the l960s. Our hearts go out to Shannon's family and all who knew her. How much talent manifested at such a young age! If there is a heaven, I hope she is happily enjoying continuing the expression of her talents there. Ed Kent]

********************************

Shannon Tavarez Passes Away at 11

Monday, November 1, 2010; Posted: 09:11 PM - by BWW News Desk

LION_KINGs_Tavarez_to_Receive_Lifesaving_Luekemia_Treatment_20010101

BroadwayWorld.com has learned the sad news that, 11 year old Shannon Tavarez who received an umbilical-cord transplant in late August to combat her acute myeloid leukemia has passed away. The soprano from Queens recently played Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway.

Serving as an alternative to a bone-marrow transplant, Shannon received the umbilical-cord blood from an anonymous donor, as doctors were unable to find a bone marrow match. Since her diagnosis last spring, she had been through extensive chemotherapy and had spent most of her days and nights in the children's ward of a hospital in New York. She has recently been in a children's ICU struggling to stabilize.

Shannon got the role of Young Nala after her first open audition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She attended Harlem School of the Arts for vocals and piano from the age of 3. Her coach was the person who encouraged her to audition. She made her Broadway debut in September of 2009, and she played four of eight shows a week until April when her symptoms began.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Shannon's friends, family and all who knew and loved her.

And, to further Shannon's mission and Shannon's family's devotion to recruiting donors, click here to find out about GetSwabbed.org.

Read more: http://broadwayworld.com/article/Shannon_Tavarez_Passes_Away_at_11_20101101#ixzz14i1Ez1o7
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

A war is just if there is no alternative!

Quoting Livy cited by Machiavelli, IMHO it is time for us to get our troops out of the Middle East. The Colonialists went there in the first place (as others) to exploit resources. South America had that experience with us, including our support of dictators to run them during the Soviet conflict who were trained at our School of the Americas and who are in some instances still out there killing innocent people.

Needless to say, I, as most of us, worry about what the Taliban would do to women in Afghanistan if we leave it to them. But they are abusing women even with our presence there and the Afghans will have to resolve their own problems.

I recall a conference at which an Egyptian was joking that one could divorce a wife by saying so once rather than three times. I pointed out that the loss of women's contributions was precisely what was causing Egypt's economic failures.

Our own loss has been school teachers as women enter the professions rather than having nursing, school teaching, etc. as options.

But we cannot impose democracy on nations resistant to it simply by throwing more troops at them and increasing the loss of lives of all involved. People have to evolve within their own frames of reference and our wars have largely had the effect of driving out educated people from both Iraq and Afghanistan who were being killed and exploited by the remaining crudely uneducated, poverty-stricken, remnants.

We are fully aware of our failures in both of these nations, but do not want to think about them or let them be publicized by our TV channels from which most harassed Americans get their news -- thus the Tea Party and the recent election outcomes.

Where we go from here, I cannot guess. It looks as though stasis will be the name of the game as the U.S. falls ever further behind our global competitors.

Obama had better start moving before it is too late.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Where Will the Conservatives Try to Take Us?

So far as I can see the new conservatives are anti rather than pro people and social justice -- minorities, women, hungry children, Muslims, etc., etc. I don't think Americans are going to buy these negatives and hopefully Obama and the Dems generally will expose them for what they are.

Needless to say we need jobs and hopefully Obama will make some progress with his Far East trip. We are losing jobs for two reasons: 1) our greedy corporations are shipping them overseas and 2) our competitors are abusing their workers with low pay and no benefits. Many of them -- ranging from China to Israel -- are dividing wealth between the super rich with the crumbs left over for the rest of us. The internet passes along to our competitors our original ideas for new and better ways to do things. China, for example, is producing energy saving products which we are just beginning to contemplate and will not able to compete with the recent election.

We should be welcoming in the skilled people that we are educating rather than shipping them home. We need all the skilled people we can attract to compete in a global economy -- not more wasteful wars. The times have changed and we, as usual, are still living in the previous century.

I would not want to be a Republican leader trying to cohere a vastly divided party -- all those Tea Party types funded by the Koch brothers and others behind the scenes. And things will get worse as the Republicans have done well with local governments which can redistrict to their benefit. This new conservatism leads back at least to Reagan's cuts in government monitoring. The rest of the world can see this even if our TV media cannot.

I place my hopes in our youngest generation which will presumably see facts rather than just opinions and hopefully begin to restore American democracy as their generation comes to power. All those starving children and elderly may have its impact on them. There is no free lunch and we need to pay for what we need with taxes and hopefully better deals with our global economic competitors.

And so America goes -- some hard times ahead until we get our act together.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

From Full to Part Time

I am on the list where part-timers express their concerns. Before I stopped teaching at Brooklyn College we were already beginning to assign advanced courses to part-timers as our budgets shrank -- in the past the state and city had carried tuition.

I watched one of my former philosophy teachers assign himself an income of about 1/2 million as CEO of a Boston area college. He had been one of my most arrogant and biased teachers at Yale.

Needless to say American education is declining drastically in comparison with our global competitors -- and we are paying the price in loss of jobs in all areas.

Needless to say, our military endeavors are failing as the rest of the world adjusts to a global economy. Muslims are not our new 'Soviet' enemy.

With the recent election we must anticipate that things will grow far worse as social and economic justice are sabotaged. We will increasingly become a nation divided between those who have too much and those millions of hungry -- cheated of food and homes.

We already by far have vastly more than our (costly) share of prisoners. America is becoming a jail rather than a democracy. Most of us are trapped in it as the super rich take over the remnants of our economy.

During my teaching career I have watched us changing from a democratic nation to a plutocracy. The substitution of part-timers has made teaching a precarious profession. And the liberation of women has ironically taken them out of the classroom and brought them into law and medicine -- and profitable business roles.

The leader of the 20th century is now the loser of this one. We may yet begin to see reverse migration to escape our travails here.

And so we went -- down a sewage drain.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Voting Feelings Versus Facts

According to one report only 42% of Americans voted Tuesday. Needless to say 57% of us are left with the results. I have read several dozen explanations of the vote results in the past hour or so. But my own theory is that scared Americans are voting their feelings and have been cut off from the basic facts that will do them harm with a freeze on assistance to those in need and other much needed reforms for American democracy.

We have been deluged with Tea Party/Republican lies on our TV screens which are the primary source of information for many, if not most Americans. If one is scared one votes one's feelings, even if they threaten the very interests that are at risk.

Obama should not blame himself for the economic mess that he inherited. He has, perhaps, saved us from a major Depression. But he cannot create American jobs when our corporations are shipping them to the cheapest producers in our global economy -- China, etc. I wish that he had gotten us out of our costly wars to nowhere. Perhaps he still will, if he can. Iraq looks ready to exploded into civil war again. Troops will not halt the Taliban in Afghanistan. Iran is still smarting over our destruction of its Mossadeq attempts to democratize in the Eisenhower years.

There is no point in blaming Americans generally or Obama in particular for what has happened. Fear makes people do irrational things and the increased number of suicides by our troops is emblematic of where we are now. The world looks on in wonder as we shoot ourselves in the foot or other vulnerable body locations. Our younger people look to be heading in good directions, but can't be reached with a cell phone communication system. Hope for the future lies with them and the facts are out there for them to discover. My heart does go out to our blue collar workers (with whom I worked summers as a student) who should be being put to work on repairing our dangerously deteriorating infrastructures. One major dam failure and Southern California will lose its water supply -- 20 million people. And an earthquake will do it.

I do put my hopes in the younger generation. I see hope in my children and grand children who are doing effective public service now. There are many good people in this country. It is too bad that many of them did not vote.

I hope Obama will fight and not flee. The super rich should be paying back some of their ill-gotten gains. There used to be a 90% tax on the most wealthy and no hide outs behind accountant tricks and in Swiss banks.

It is time we we who care helped those hungry children and others in need.

************************************

Changing Minds, Or Changing Voters? [NPR source]

Individual voters may not change their partisan voting habits very often. But different groups of voters are likely to turn up at the polls on any given Election Day. And the mood of the people who show up to vote has proven very different from one election to the next.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131049116
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Election -- No More Jobs, But Much U.S. Suffering

When FDR turned from government funded jobs to a budget freeze the U.S. economy nose-dived -- only to be rescued by WW2. We shall most likely seeing a comparable national economy failure with the Republicans blocking public spending, cutting taxes for the super rich, and wasting monies on hopeless wars.

We should be putting people to work repairing our dangerously deteriorating infrastructure. Failures of it -- key bridges falling, major dams giving way, explosive fires from hidden natural gas lines, pollution of water supplies by careless mining, etc. -- will cost us far more in the long run than providing public jobs for those who need them, ranging from teachers to construction workers as well as our police who are a key element in security against terrorist WMD used against us. We were lucky to catch some of these of late, but it is only a matter of time before a key dam or means of transportation is blown with great harms to innocent people. The radical Muslims kill more of their own than us now. But the tides may be turning.

Our economy is no longer competitive as is our education. The internet passes along our discoveries before we can mobilize them. The standard of living for the middle class is dropping while the super rich make out like bandits. Smart accountants can hide monies here, there, and in Switzerland. Our most wealthy used to pay up to 90% of their profits in taxes. Now they do better than their secretaries on the tax front -- and all the cheating by the profit makers, much funded by our taxes -- drug companies, for profit medical insurance, etc. And our corporations are shipping our jobs overseas where labor costs are far less.

How many of us do not know people who were once comfortable now suffering from loss of jobs and homes? How many millions of hungry kids are we going to allow in this nation? Ask the Republican House leaders who have announced budget freezes and a focus of attacks on Obama. The new speaker of the House, by the way, is third in line for the presidency. Will assassination become the new game in town?

Down, down, down we go!

Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Our Fast Track to Inequality

When I studied American property as a grad student in the early 1960s, there existed more or less a balance between business and labor with the government playing the role of referee between the two. The super rich faced taxes as high as 90% on their profits.

The election today may be slamming the door shut on American democracy as the time we introduced social security and medicare, loosened the racist barriers, etc.

Since Reagan cut back the regulation of business during his presidency and with Bush's tax cuts and the Supreme Court opening the doors to unlimited secretive contributions to candidates, we have seen a vast change also stimulated by the global economy which allows nations to exploit their workers to keep prices lower than what we can offer while still maintaining our worker benefits.

We are the the nation that is falling behind and apart -- education, no free medical care paid by taxes, military wars rather than economic competition, increasing ethnic prejudices -- particularly against Latin Americans and Muslims as well as our African Americans.

Bob Herbert's Op-Ed Title today says it all. We Americans are on the "Fast Track to Inequality." His opening paragraphs give us the how:

"The clearest explanation yet of the forces that converged over the past three decades or so to undermine the economic well-being of ordinary Americans is contained in the new book, “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.”

"The authors, political scientists Jacob Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of the University of California, Berkeley, argue persuasively that the economic struggles of the middle and working classes in the U.S. since the late-1970s were not primarily the result of globalization and technological changes but rather a long series of policy changes in government that overwhelmingly favored the very rich."

I will get myself out to vote today because two of our NY candidates who were sure winners last week are now running neck and neck with their Republican competitors -- Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General and Tom Dinapoli for Comptroller.

Who could have guessed that liberal NY would find itself being whipped by this new game in town? Needless to say things are worse where Obama had his major wins in the face of the threatening depression. The Republican/Tea Party people are clear that their program apart from widening the gap between America's super rich and the rest of us is a running two year attack on Obama.

And so American democracy may have ended -- not with a bang, but with the whispers of our secretive greedies.

Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Evictions ---> Bank Failures?

People are not buying homes in large numbers now. Evictions by banks, thus, diminish their own assets and are causing increasing numbers of bank failures. I have just unloaded a rented two family house where an older woman was dying and the other's husband was in jail. Neither had been able to pay rent for more than a year. One now is dead and the second has moved in with a sister. I am freed of about $1000.00 a month in expenses.

My experience makes me wonder whether even our largest banks are threatening their own assets through evictions. There are a number of alternatives for them. Turn these homes into rentals. Reduce increasing mortgage rates, help evicted to find alternative homes -- the humane things to do. But stupid greed seems to be the name of this game. Grab it while you can. And, of course, many of the abandoned homes are now being trashed.

Krugman's Op-Ed today tells it as it is: "The moralizers have persuaded many that they should not help friends and neighbors in trouble: 'How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?' That’s the question CNBC’s Rick Santelli famously asked in 2009, in a rant widely credited with giving birth to the Tea Party movement."

But the consequences of such moralizing are redounding on those who join this mob of Tea Party greedies:

2008–2010 bank failures in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The late 2000s financial crisis led to the failure of a number of banks in the United States. Twenty-five banks failed and were taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2008, while 140 failed in 2009.[1] In contrast, in the five years prior to 2008, only 11 banks had failed.[1][2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932010_bank_failures_in_the_United_States

I hate to guess where all this greedy moralizing is taking our nation. We are failing in educating, stimulating racism and contempt for those in need. And military wars are not the way to go with our 21st. century global economy. Our unions are fading while our corporate CEOs take over the country. But even they may see their assets degrading with our failing economy. I was talking to some bank executives Friday who recommended investing outside of the U.S.

Having been raised by an honest broker, I know that one cannot trust the public reports on corporations which all too often are fudging the facts about their prospects. Who wants to be Enroned?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

For now I will keep charge of my assets and not blindly follow the choices of my bankers.

Good luck with the election -- looking to be a takeover of our assets with great risk in this greed. China is way ahead of us, lest we forget.

Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]