Elites got richer and angrier
By Jesus Rivas
Lexington Herald Leader: Dec 26, 2010
When I was a child, I learned from my old man the right way to eliminate a
hornet's nest.
He put a big plastic bag around the whole nest and closed the bag over it.
Then, he detached the nest from the ceiling and the nest fell inside the
closed bag. I could hear the enraged hornets flying and buzzing inside the
bag, but they could not do any harm.
There is another way to eliminate a hornet's nest, though. One can start
chipping away little pieces of the nest with a dull spoon, one little piece
at a time.
This latter method also moves you toward the greater goal of eliminating the
hornet's nest; but, needless to say, you will pay the consequences.
This seems to be what President Barack Obama did, attempting to rein in the
political power that big corporations have accrued. He took a few measures
that did not make a big difference in neutralizing their power, or gaining
him popular support; but he did just enough to provoke the rage of corporate
elites who came out in droves against his administration.
Consider the financial system. Obama gave big handouts to Wall Street, and
allowed the same irresponsible unregulated behavior. Banks continued
foreclosing on poor families, despite the suffering it was causing to so
many people (and the fact that some foreclosures were not even legal).
The financial system made more money during Obama's presidency than it had
made in recorded history.
But he added a few regulations on credit card companies and took away the
control of the student loans from banks. He included enough regulation to
taunt the economic elites who came out with millions of dollars in smear
money to cost many Democrats re-election.
We also have the health care bill that includes big handouts to insurance
companies, with insufficient regulations.
However, on some obscure page, there is a clause that says that, at some
time in the future, insurance companies have to use 80 to 85 percent of the
premiums to pay for medical expenses or give rebates.
Fifteen percent for the companies is not bad, but it is a lot less than the
23 to 30 percent they are making now. This was another scraping of the
hornet's nest.
The insurance sector came after the Democrats with hornet-like rage, but
they failed to provide universal health care for the American people. So,
the Democratic base was not there for them on Election Day.
Unfortunately, Obama learned nothing from it. In his epic capitulation to
Republican demands to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, Obama does not seem to
realize he is helping his base very little and the hornets will not be any
more grateful than they have been.
In the last days of this Congress, Democrats have been successful
demonstrating that Republicans are willing to go against the very
conservative values they profess, the interest of the American people and
even the country itself. Clearly, the Democrats hope this would cost
Republicans dearly in the next elections.
What the Democrats do not seem to realize is that people who pay that much
attention to politics already vote Democratic, and the great majority of
Americans will only see that the party failed to deliver on most of its
promises, despite having the largest majority in decades.
With another $1 trillion in debt, how is Obama going to protect Medicaid,
Medicare, Social Security and all other social services the hornets are
eager to destroy?
Obama talks about "the hard choices we will have to make," referring to the
inevitable butchering of all social programs.
When are we going to ask the billionaires to make hard choices?
Why are the financial elites, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and the
oil conglomerates always spared from "biting the bullet," while the poor
people have been using bullets as staple food for years?
Our senior citizens devoted their lives to build this country up. They don't
have a lot of choices left to make. How can the people who lost their houses
and lost their jobs make hard choices?
Why are we asking hard choices of those who don't have any choice?
Jesus Rivas is an assistant professor at Somerset Community College. Reach
him at anaconda@prodigy.net.
Read more:
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/12/26/1579194/elites-got-richer-and-angrier.html#more#ixzz19Iu1aHnf
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/opinion/25herbert.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
Thinking of Aretha
Bob Herbert
NY Times Op-Ed: December 25, 2010
Nineteen sixty-seven was a tough year in many respects - riots, protests, an
unwinnable war - but I can't think of it without thinking of the glory of
Aretha Franklin, a woman in her mid-20s, introverted and somewhat shy, who
sang soul and rock 'n' roll with the power and beauty of a heavenly choir.
Newark and Detroit went up in flames in 1967, and neither city was ever to
recover. Muhammad Ali, a perfect physical specimen in his absolute athletic
prime, was convicted of dodging the draft and stripped of his world
heavyweight championship. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. endured a
hurricane of criticism when he came out publicly against the war in Vietnam
and called the United States government "the greatest purveyor of violence
in the world today."
If you were lucky, you could close the door on the din, at least for a
little while, and reach for the record album with the head and shoulder shot
of Aretha positioned at a precarious angle on the cover. The album was
called "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You," and if you listened
closely, if you paid attention, it would just thrill you, take you to a
place of exquisite human feeling. A region of laughter and tears. Of love
and joyous possibilities.
I would turn the volume up and up and up, and just ride the music: "You're
no good, heartbreaker ..." "Don't let me lose this dream ..." "R-e-s-p-e-c-t
..."
You could hear the gospel influence, and the blues, as you allowed that
voice of hers, the most gifted of the era, to carry you beyond the ordinary.
Aretha, now 68, recently had surgery and is very ill, reportedly with
pancreatic cancer. I spoke a few days ago with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who
is very close to the Franklin family. He was reluctant to speak in detail,
saying only that Aretha is home from the hospital, that the surgery was
"successful" and she is "recovering nicely."
For someone with such an abundance of talent and fame and riches, Aretha has
had an extremely difficult life. Tragedy seemed to stalk her. Her mother,
Barbara, an accomplished gospel singer, left the family when Aretha was just
6 and died a few years later. Aretha and her siblings, including an older
sister, Erma, and a younger sister, Carolyn, both talented musicians, were
raised by the formidable C.L. Franklin, a renowned preacher and close friend
of some of the biggest names in black music. (Frequent household guests
included the gospel singers Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, and the
remarkable Sam Cooke.)
Reverend Franklin was shot in the head by someone who broke into his home in
1979 and remained in a coma for five years until his death. Carolyn
Franklin, who wrote the transcendentally beautiful "Ain't No Way" for
Aretha, died of cancer in 1988 at the age of 43. Erma Franklin, a singer who
had a hit with the song "Piece of My Heart" (later recorded by Janis
Joplin), died in 2002.
Aretha suffered through rough relationships with men, chronic weight
problems and bouts of despondency. But always there was the music, the
splendor and artistry and grace of Aretha when she was at her best, which
was often. As the author Peter Guralnick has put it: "Aretha staked out a
claim for the ecstatic transcendence of the imagination."
Rolling Stone magazine ranked her No. 1 on its list of the 100 greatest
singers of the rock era, calling her "a gift from God."
My sister Sandy's 18th birthday and high school prom happened to fall on the
same day in 1967, so there was a big party at our house after the prom. One
song after another from "I Never Loved a Man" was played loudly, again and
again, and all these beautiful teenagers, their lives about to get going in
earnest, were doing intricate dance routines to the music. Aretha was an
ecstatic presence in the house as surely as if she'd been there in person.
She was like a sister to every one of the kids.
Aretha has had a lifetime of musical success, but it's difficult to
overstate both the greatness and the stunning impact of that one album.
Guralnick described it as Aretha virtually exploding on the soul scene. In a
telephone interview this week, he recalled hearing the title song from the
album on a speaker outside a record shop in the Roxbury section of Boston.
It was a cold day, and strangers, moved by this exciting new record, were
dancing on the sidewalk with one another. They were thrilled, like so many
others, by the music of this great American artist.
So a toast or a prayer for Aretha this holiday season would be terrific -
just a moment of appreciation and a wish that she continue recovering
nicely.
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