Jobs with Dignity

It is an odd thing about perception- dignity in the workplace.  A man with a broom in the blue light aisle at Walmart has no dignity.  He works for low wages and his employers, most customers and probably his family make sure he has low self esteem, a lowered sense of worth than even these meager circumstances bring.  Same man as the owner of a small shoppe( i add the  e  to show class  or classe ;)) and he has a job with dignity. His employer- himself- regards him as essential to success and every minor task is a brick in the wall of this solid business.So may this be a key to the economic future of the US ?  Dignity means being in the ownership-- somewhere, some how--  to justify all of the rest that we may endure.

 The politics of this day are tawdry, one political party has been essentially sold to the low bidder, the Republicans now exist as the man with the broom for a polyglot of rich- mostly white- men.  Some of these right -wing angels ( really devil is more like it) simply have an exalted sense of self - fed by billions- and surrounded by ass-kissers, think that every bit of verbal drool from their lips should be etched and handed to Moses.  Well, Moses in this case is a political Party leading us INTO BONDAGE.  Some want to abolish the minimum wage so that we can be paid as Chinese or Indian workers( maybe $3.00 per hour)  or be free to compete with each other to work more for less- the Crab pot theory.  I have not heard a return to Chattel Slavery but this is the crew that would do it for a buck,--Republicans may be high priced whores but they deliver. It is difficult to imagine the voter base that supports unbridled warfare abroad and enforced poverty at home, I would like to meet some of these people-- check for a strong aroma of Sulfur!

Thus, the equation must self correct. This would be a powerful move for the federal government to boost employment.  Rescue some of the skeletons in our dying industrial base.  The goal would be that more and more, small companies grow large and would be run by people who invest care and give fair incomes to their worker/partners.  More and more employees will own companies. Some will buy their employers out- Employee Stock Options and purchases; some will arrive as cooperatives, where everyone pushes a broom but also has a seat in the company Board room- a trend that bodes well for employment but also for healthy competition for employees who have been systematically downsized into people who will pretty much do or take anything to get a paycheck
There is an awful trend in the US and it comes from globalization.  If we reward companies for seeking low wage labor abroad, then eventually they demand low wage labor here.  We do not wish to be agents of our own demise, and lowering wages is economic demise.  Wage earners are the job creators in America. 

Who Really... Benefits

 

The Republicans campaign on the idea that too many Americans receive benefits, Romney and his famous 47% condemnation of America, will probably doom national Republican candidates for decades to come. There is another side to this-the idea that 47% of Americans are hopeless dependent on federal handouts because they are poor. The targets of this message are people who receive a great deal of government benefits ( a great deal more than the poor) and persist to condemn the poor for the same conduct.

 

Paul  Ryan was the poster child for this hypocrisy: social security was critical to his path; but the voters who "buy in" get subsidies too- big ones- public golf courses, marinas, exceptional care of streets and cleanups; exceptional police and fire protection, world class hospitals-- all of these things are subsidized by government and taxpayers not to mention the business side- judicial enforcement of intellectual property, protection of creditors rights-- all of these things to which the wealthy feel entitled, not dependent, and really in this age seem to constantly ask/demand more-- people in Detroit pay property taxes through the nose and can barely get trash pickups, potholes that loosen fillings. It is the overall hypocrisy of the message that makes it fail-- derivatives trades and traders get more government benefits that people on welfare by far-- they have a protected/sheltered enterprise bigger than the economies of most countries. The full faith and credit of the United States is not just a product of tax and spend balances, it is everything.  The people who fight our wars, fill the ranks of civil service, civil defense; the people who support laws and civil conduct here.  It is the parents who raise families by sacrifice and keep kids in school to learn to be productive and leaders. 

 

There are lies and then there are damned lies, and people have a way- like a sensitive sense of smell- to detect the rottened GOP core here...hdm

Gun Owners the new Lunatic Fringe

Yes, this includes a lot of friends, people I enjoy laughing and working with( yes i know it is poor grammar but it is something up with which i will put).  Point is my fellow gun owner citizens are making America unsafe, and those with assault weapons are part of a lunatic fringe that thinks it is getting ready to go to combat against the US Army/Navy/Marines/Coast Guard-- ahh you get the idea.  They say they will kill anyone who takes away their guns which are used to keep us all safe hmmmmmmm.  That is the lunatic part. 
There is no right of individuals to have weapons if that possession and potential use is a danger to us.  Like anything else we do,  it can be regulated by US  the American Government- We THE PEOPLE   or as the said in my favorite Star Trek episode  VEE DEE PEOOOPULLY-- you had to have ben there never mind!

The Second Amendment was for States to have militias and for Slave owners. The Slave plantations in the south were prisons, people held against their will by force of death.  They dint want to pay for protection so the Slavers made every white man better than the Black man and an armed deputy; required him to go catch and return or kill escaped slaves- also known as humans seeking freedom. It had nothing to do with owning guns because well everybody who wanted a black powder musket to hunt or self defend could have one  unless it was illegal.  Towns and cities or even saloons declared no guns, a State could do it- you as head of your home could do it- we as a nation can do it- except for the other part of the lunatic fringe- the legal and business establishment of gunsters.

Yes, they have created a right to bear arms which includes the latest hot things they make and sell---now, I know the Founding Fathers were a horny, and resourceful lot of men ( well a few were Gentlemen, most believed women were inferior as well as most men, a few were rapists, most were slavers which meant they were completely immoral i.e.  would buy, sell, or kill a human for a $) but they were not lunatic enough to think everybody should have a machine gun, and neither are we.  The vast majority of Americans believe we should ban assault weapons, the vast majority of TV commercials paid by gunsters comprises the only consensus in favor of more deadly weapons.  Hunting and self defense ownership -after investigation and some serious taxes- im thinking minimum tax of $1,000 per year per handgun.   I don't own one and won't. I would not allow one in my home unless by a police officer or soldier.  I don't want anyone to have one.  I think we should all learn karate or jujitsu and settle our disagreements by beating the shit out of each other with our bare hands, and if you lose go get a baseball bat and bat .400.

Fact is, many more will survive to hate each other tomorrow, that is the American way- fuss and fight and come back again  and try to be friends- this idea of slaughter is not us.  It is the gun makers, the fear sellers, those who want to believe that Whites are a dying breed-- so much bullshit associated with guns-- but when you see them at the target range- putting holes in the heart of the target-- just remember it is a rehearsal for a killing-- and why do we need to do that... why do we need to do so much of that...hdm

the Game Changer

A corporate takeover of the US government has been a mere suspicion until now, for in the news cycle of early January comes a precise method for carrying out the plan.  Backstep a bit to the Republican nomination for President, Mitt Romney and the cascade of money; the carpet bombing of the public with false claims.  Romney was a vulture capitalist- one of the small army at war with US economy and US business, ripping apart companies and selling them of to the highest -usually foreign - bidder.  They have bankers and investment groups and are a new wave of economic drain; an activity that builds nothing, takes away everything and leaves the US economy worse off for everyone except the small group of vultures that feed on the events.

Now fast forward to the next election for President, and the Democrat nominee, will probably get many more votes than the pro-Corporation opponent, but the Democrat has no chance of winning.  Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of congressional districts. Congressional districts that have been carefully carved to be Republican.  Many more voters in the State and indeed the entire nation will not vote Republican but they will be carved into fewer electoral districts and fewer electoral votes will come.  The Constitution envisioned State-wide elections when assigning the role to Electors chosen on the basis of States which cannot be carved to favor one or the other Party any more than they are now--but districts, can be shaped and designed to include and exclude specific voter characteristics.  This is how we have a Republican Majority in the House that has a popularity in the range of 20%. This is how we will have a completely un- representative Presidency too.  The weakness in the system is the State- corporate money can buy local elections quite cheaply- it is the blind spot of the Democratic party in many key states, it is now the place where the Revolution will not be televised, where Corporate America becomes- the American government, and citizens become an unwanted nuisance.

Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day was an anticlimax for me, probably for millions-- oh there was the staff Ball and the donor Balls, there was probably $300 million spent to celebrate the election which costs would exceed $3 Billion. But still for me, an anticlimax-- the joy was felt most  two days before the election when -in the critical aftermath of an epic storm- America blinked into focus, and the charlatan and all of his guise became transparent, there were people in the water, in dire peril;  and there was a hand reaching to them with sincerity and kindness-- and finally for America, the color of the hand became the color of rescue, of care, of love and compassion--the color of hope and faith, life in abundance-- yes all of these things have a color.

There was white fright, universal flight away from the rantings of a hollow man and suddenly we saw a human...He was there all the time, and many finally saw him as if for the first time.

Now, Inauguration Day was also Dr. King's Day and as I remember him, he would smile on this day, in his heart he would know, the could have been few better ways to celebrate the principles of his life, than to stand together and celebrate a vision of hope and change, set voyage to a place of greater abundance for all Americans.  It is the sad-sweet burden of men like Dr. King- they sacrificed so much so that we can be as good and bad as we choose-- freedom is that to do all things- to save lives, to collect machine guns and hope for a chance to use them-- yes, this is America, not as we wish it to be, but as it is...flawed and fabulous; cold and compassionate drunk in  anger and somehow loving in the sobered afterglow-- we are so many things and w ask so much of our leaders-- and none more than the man inaugurated  on King Day.   hdm

Django

Django

there is an issue here which should not be.  The issue basically is the reverence we feel to historical truth and accuracy, a sort of holy grail- an artifact so long lost it is a fiction and as a practical matter does not exist.   Quentin Tarantino seems to use his films to snatch and claim some characteristic of Black life as he sees it in America- the thug styles in pulp fiction, how he made the phrases M***F**** seem like a punctuation mark in nouveau Black-speak  ( let me tel you if you hang around enough Black men you see he has a point--ahhhhmeiii!)

Now the movie-- Django
It is about exploits and they appeal to people with a mindset towards video games, amazing film special effects, or movies in general which oversize physical abilities ( Iron Man, Spider man, Batman, Bourne parts 1- 100, "24"  -which i loved_-- you get the pattern). Now the Black elites seem divided , some boycott the film find its historic faults (Spike Lee, i am a huge fan). Equivocate over its artistic merits by finding difficulties in the historic record ( like Angela Rye, i am a fan- she is smart). But to many in the masses it is earth shattering,  mind expanding -gratefully received heroism.

Quaere: Why would we back away from that--???!!!
 
First one sees there are other aspects of Black history-(1) we are not the only group who can see the record or interpret it; another sobering fact- there were so many years, month and days of Tarantino's career before now when someone could have told a Django without the excesses of bad language and historical inaccuracy.  There ought to be some gratitude for an event which focuses young minds on an old history which is still very much in our everyday in America but forgotten like a campaign slogan from a lost campaign. ( The 2nd Amendment some think is about owning a machine gun, was about militias who chased down and sometime executed Black people who escaped from plantation- prison camps) . James Madison was a slave owner who hanged 30 men recaptured trying to escape from his prison camp plantation( later became president with a smalllll  p ) and was one of the drafters of the 2nd Amendment.
For example, Affirmative action ended not because Black people chose, but because the historic record was left fallow-  there are lives in being that were touched by ex-slaves, children of parents who knew their slave predecessors by witness of Mother and Father.  My Grandmother, knew her slave ancestors and she raised me- so  to say there are no present effects of slavery- well neither mule nor the 40 acres have yet arrived, and as far as I know those who were paid reparations for slavery and abolition were slave owners in the South who started this garbage to begin with.

My point is not reparations, nor Affirmative Action- my point is history and how the record is lost until found by someone like Tarantino, or Oprah, a film Producer--then the historical accuracy voices are raised when they seemed conspicuously absent in more meaningful events- like tracing the loss of wealth in Black families from the enslavement (kidnap and murder) of our slave ancestors when making public policy designed to overcome the effects of slavery...anyway

Django viewers have come to speak to me, among people i know, people I ask- hardly a scientific poll, more like random comments and rumors- like good evidence at a trial by jury  ; ) ) . I have been told that it  has appeal to people who can go to a movie, pay a lot for popcorn, and see a Black man do the wild and heroic stuff that we rarely see done by a Black man even in the imagination of fiction; and for what it is worth- for some it raises the idea of self esteem, and group esteem for many others.

Perhaps it raises an opportunity for Black leadership to promote some of those historically accurate facts and events-- you know  while so many are looking, and hungry for popcorn...hdm

the arithmetic of Gun Control

There is a flaw in the theory of the gunseller, a flaw in the mathematics.  It takes some advance calculus to catch it  but once one does it becomes obvious:  the scales of human slaughter are out of balance.
One killer's life is not the balance of an innocent- the killing of a murderer does not restore the victims, does not ease the weight of our grief-- it does nothing but give us a bad bargain- a wasted life for a precious one.  Then there is the calculus of the machine gun, the teeny centimeter pull of a trigger that can take 100 lives- innocent lives.  The twitch of a muscle that makes orphans from happy children, widows of passionate loving women; childless grief of proud parents-- who would never want to see their children dead-- we are not made for that--yet, that is the offer. The bare effort that turned a movie theater into a deathtrap and a kindergarten classroom into something I still can not speak...

Gun sellers make the White Woman of America feel safe, he -for she and her safety- must own weaponry, an arsenal!   She relishes the power of the jolt and boom. Knowing, that if someone kills her, he will die too.  Wait --No, she feels safe because no one will kill her because if they do-- they die too.  Nooo wait, there is safety in this somewhere...it can't just be  an illusion

let's see  bullets fly from bad guy, killing innocent people, and a good guy (who is passing by and sees the scene) shoots and hits the bad guy-- ok that is safety-- the bad guy dies after some innocents  die in fear and agony-- wondering of their loved ones-- the unsaid good byes on their stilled lips.
Well I am just thick, and dont get the trick.  The Second Amendment is our freedom to be safe by gunshot death--
So as we consider limiting machine guns, and trying to curtail the epidemic of mass murder sweeping over our country, we must consider that we have the power to make laws to stop killings.  Nothing in our Constitution requires abject stupidity in the face of slaughter.  We can ban assault weapons and limit gun ownership in ways we can agree-- by will of the people.  We do not owe more lives to the profits of gun sellers, we do not owe more lives to the myth that everyone has an unlimited right to instruments of destruction.  We owe it to ourselves and our children to prevent the killers from killing, as much as we can, as soon as we can- and to be more vigilant of the threat posed by businesses that sell deadly devices.