I awoke yesterday to turn on CNN and find that overnight an earthquake of almost unimaginable power had struck some 200 miles from the Capital of Chile. By almost unimaginable, to put that oft overused term into perspective, the quake in Chile was 800 times stronger than the recent quake that devastated Haiti. Eight hundred times more powerful.
Yet in retrospect, the disaster in Chile was minimal. In Haiti, thousands upon thousands died. Many of those will never be found or buried except either in mass graves or in trashheaps of rubble on Port Au Prince's outskirts.
That Haiti is, and has long been, a kleptocracy is an unavoidable conclusion. It's government, both when it speaks, or when it acts, has zero credibility.
Chile, on the other hand, seems to have the kind of infrastructure and building codes that have helped minimize the disaster there. Four of the top ten earthquakes of all time occurred in Chile - number one was 9.5 on the Richter scale, in 1960 - so it can be inferred that Chileans are well prepared for quakes, even bad ones. Chileans are educated, vastly more so than the Haitians, and despite political turmoil that saw Pinochet and the Facha* generals there ruling for a number of years,
they seem to have a country that is handling this disaster with poise and strength.
Not a bad thing.
We might learn from them.
Facha - a Spanish slang term for fascists, that is members of the fascist party in Spain.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Two years later
It's odd, taking a look at what I wrote a bit more than a year ago, just after the hurricane. Gas was pricey as hell. Obama wasn't yet president. The Teabaggers wasn't a term that rolled off the tongue.
It's probably a good thing that Obama got handed his ass politically. I voted for him, but, I have to say, one thing that he didn't quite get - but I hope he now is getting - is that politics is a very old game. (It's also the only blood sport that's still legal, with bows to Hockey and professional wrestling, of course) You can talk changing Washington all you want, but Washington isn't going to just change. What you have to do is play the game better. It's making slimy deals. It's
throwing in the pork. Yes it is.
I am hopeful that we get universal insurance. Personally, and people can call me a commie rat bastard socialist if they want, I'd like to see single payer insurance.
What I find interesting is that there are two groups of little guys that need to start listening and respecting each other.
On one side are the "Face the facts, you'll probably be working for a big ass company all your life, so join the union, band together, and wake up" crowd. I can sympathize. I've been a member of the teachers' union in Texas, where the teachers' unions have the power/pull/push of an overweight smart kid who just won't go away. I've also been a member of the teachers' union in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the first teachers union in the nation started - and where unionism is still going strong, and where nobody took shit from the bosses.
Lots of people piss on unions. They shouldn't. Without unions, we wouldn't have paid vacation, forty hour weeks or overtime. Without unions we wouldn't have many of the perks that we take for granted and that give work dignity.
On the other side are the "I owns a small business, or dream of owning my own business - small or large - and it really pisses me off when big government steals my money via taxes, or stupid wrong headed regulations that defy common sense, and what especially pisses me off is how they are spending money like drunken sailors, especially when that money is MY MONEY that was stolen from me via taxes."
One side thinks of themselves romantically as workers, and when they think of government they think of the New Deal, and Medicaid, and Social Security and New Deal Projects like
dams and buildings and parks and bridges. When such folks think of Big Business, they know and are offended by rich guys who trash workers, then pay themselves
outlandish, criminal bonuses.
The other side thinks of themselves romantically as small businesspersons or as pioneers. They dream of a world in which, like the pioneers they depend only on themselves and their families, and they keep a gun around the house because they know those a^&$#@holes in Washington. They dream of a government that defends the borders, delivers the mail, and otherwise, stays the hell out of their lives. They know in their bones how hard it is, and how heavy the responsibility lies on someone who has ever had to make a payroll. They don't pay very well, but they employ a hell of a lot of people, and they try to do it as well and as morally as they can. Most of the first group live in New York and California and up East. Most of the second group lives in the South and West.
They have a lot in common.
They really do.
One thing the first groups needs to do is admit that some people are lazy, don't work, and feed off the public trough. But I don't think it's very many, but that groups is there. (For folks who think that that group are black and browns, lets not even speak of the hidden or overt racism there. Please go back and see/read the Christmas Carol. When Dickens wrote "Are there no workhouses?" and had it coming out of Scrooges mouth, he was talking to you folks.)
One thing the second groups needs to do is recognize that Socialism isn't such a monstrous thing. Think of the Army/Navy/Marines/Air Force. Do they have socialism? Yep they do. Do they promise free medical not only to soldier/sailors/marines/airmen but also to their families. Yes they do. Are our military folks commies and socialist reds?
But most especially, what both groups need to start doing is listen.
They are just saying different things. It's like they are standing on two sides of the same mountain, insisting their view is the one and only.
The shame is we don't have a show like 30 Days that takes a union worker and a small business owner and make them swap jobs for 30 days.
Somehow I think at the end of it they'd shake hands, look each other in the eye and say: you know what? You make some damned good points about things.
Another is that they both need to expand their idea of who the rat bastards are.
For the first group it's big business and fat cat rich guys.
For the second groups it's big government and Wallstreet/Bankers fat cat rich guys.
They are both somewhat right, but it's like both groups have their fingers in their ears and are going NAH NAH NAH NAH when the other sides speaks.
Take your damned fingers out. Suspend judgment.
Wake up. Listen for a change. You might learn something.
One thing you can say about Obama is that he has that part right. Both sides love America, and they all want the best for the country.
What Obama hasn't done is get himself into the trenches, a la LBJ, and do the hard part. The arm twisting, the deal making. The slimy deals for the good of the country.
First and foremost, the insurance bill should be about making it universal. Next it should be cheap and worthwhile. It should require the use of one universal form. It should require not paying more than 6% (which is what Germany and Japan pay their insurance companies for the same) for administrative costs. Next, it should include tort reform, which would save another 20%. Next it should absolutely wrestle with big pharmaceutical companies about prices, and say, guess what? Here is our list of drugs, and this is what we are going to pay. And if you don't like it, then up yours, we will buy overseas, just like every other first and second world government in the world does. After all, big business sends it's factories abroad to get cheap, why shouldn't the federal government?
Lastly, it needs to deal with the opt in/ opt out thing.
Do we opt out of taxes? Or social security? Or Medicaid? Or do we pay?
Personally, I think people should be allowed to opt out. But if they do, then they can't opt in for a period of two years. So you are a wrong headed idiot about your family and you don't pay for insurance, then you get to deal with paying full price for two years should your wife get cancer or your child have a car accident.
I also think that we need to speak to the other 800 pound gorilla in the room - illegal immigrants - by making them legal guest workers for a period of 20 years. Yep you can stay, yep you can work, yep you have to pay taxes, have a drivers license, pay social security, medicaid, school and county taxes, but no you don't have the rights of a citizen because you aren't citizens. Also, all immigrants have to pay a 20% get out of Dodge tax, which will be taken from them and put into interest bearing accounts. When the twenty years is up, that 20% will begin to be paid out to each guest worker in their home country. Guest workers who sneak back lose it all. Guest workers who come here, work hard, put in their twenty years and go back get to live off their twenty per cent in their own countries. But that's another story, for another post.
What puzzles me is that while it is easy/convenient to demonize idiotic government and stupid regulations, there is an 800 pound gorilla in the room that neither side is talking about, or seemingly even seeing.
That is big businesses. Multi National Corporations. Specifically, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, because they have the biggest dogs in this fight.
Do either side really think that large pharmaceutical companies have our best interests at heart? Do they really think that large pharmaceutical and large insurance companies really give a crap about the little guy?
And, do people really think that the Tea Party Crowd - most of whom, though lilly white, I think are earnest, honest and really saying what they believe - isn't being organized/paid for by the large Pharmaceuticals and large insurance companies?
Ever heard of Dick Armey? He may paint himself as being the hero of less government (odd, you know, after having been in the house for 18 years. Hm... I wonder if ole Dick has refused his government pension and government insurance for his family. His
"organizing" of such things as the T party crowd is bought and paid for by big corporations. DUUUUUH!)
So, as it looks now, insurance reform is stalled and once again, the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have managed to stave off change. People who can easily think of the Narcotraficante's crowd and Big Tobacco as the bad guys, but think of insurance companies and pharmos as the good guys need to pull their u know whats out of their u know wheres. It's dark in there. Wake up.
We don't have the best medical care in the world. We have the most expensive medical care in the world.
I don't know.
I'm with Whoopie Goldberg, who says she just wants the insurance deal that the members of the Senate and House of Representatives have.
She's got a hell of a point.
It's probably a good thing that Obama got handed his ass politically. I voted for him, but, I have to say, one thing that he didn't quite get - but I hope he now is getting - is that politics is a very old game. (It's also the only blood sport that's still legal, with bows to Hockey and professional wrestling, of course) You can talk changing Washington all you want, but Washington isn't going to just change. What you have to do is play the game better. It's making slimy deals. It's
throwing in the pork. Yes it is.
I am hopeful that we get universal insurance. Personally, and people can call me a commie rat bastard socialist if they want, I'd like to see single payer insurance.
What I find interesting is that there are two groups of little guys that need to start listening and respecting each other.
On one side are the "Face the facts, you'll probably be working for a big ass company all your life, so join the union, band together, and wake up" crowd. I can sympathize. I've been a member of the teachers' union in Texas, where the teachers' unions have the power/pull/push of an overweight smart kid who just won't go away. I've also been a member of the teachers' union in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the first teachers union in the nation started - and where unionism is still going strong, and where nobody took shit from the bosses.
Lots of people piss on unions. They shouldn't. Without unions, we wouldn't have paid vacation, forty hour weeks or overtime. Without unions we wouldn't have many of the perks that we take for granted and that give work dignity.
On the other side are the "I owns a small business, or dream of owning my own business - small or large - and it really pisses me off when big government steals my money via taxes, or stupid wrong headed regulations that defy common sense, and what especially pisses me off is how they are spending money like drunken sailors, especially when that money is MY MONEY that was stolen from me via taxes."
One side thinks of themselves romantically as workers, and when they think of government they think of the New Deal, and Medicaid, and Social Security and New Deal Projects like
dams and buildings and parks and bridges. When such folks think of Big Business, they know and are offended by rich guys who trash workers, then pay themselves
outlandish, criminal bonuses.
The other side thinks of themselves romantically as small businesspersons or as pioneers. They dream of a world in which, like the pioneers they depend only on themselves and their families, and they keep a gun around the house because they know those a^&$#@holes in Washington. They dream of a government that defends the borders, delivers the mail, and otherwise, stays the hell out of their lives. They know in their bones how hard it is, and how heavy the responsibility lies on someone who has ever had to make a payroll. They don't pay very well, but they employ a hell of a lot of people, and they try to do it as well and as morally as they can. Most of the first group live in New York and California and up East. Most of the second group lives in the South and West.
They have a lot in common.
They really do.
One thing the first groups needs to do is admit that some people are lazy, don't work, and feed off the public trough. But I don't think it's very many, but that groups is there. (For folks who think that that group are black and browns, lets not even speak of the hidden or overt racism there. Please go back and see/read the Christmas Carol. When Dickens wrote "Are there no workhouses?" and had it coming out of Scrooges mouth, he was talking to you folks.)
One thing the second groups needs to do is recognize that Socialism isn't such a monstrous thing. Think of the Army/Navy/Marines/Air Force. Do they have socialism? Yep they do. Do they promise free medical not only to soldier/sailors/marines/airmen but also to their families. Yes they do. Are our military folks commies and socialist reds?
But most especially, what both groups need to start doing is listen.
They are just saying different things. It's like they are standing on two sides of the same mountain, insisting their view is the one and only.
The shame is we don't have a show like 30 Days that takes a union worker and a small business owner and make them swap jobs for 30 days.
Somehow I think at the end of it they'd shake hands, look each other in the eye and say: you know what? You make some damned good points about things.
Another is that they both need to expand their idea of who the rat bastards are.
For the first group it's big business and fat cat rich guys.
For the second groups it's big government and Wallstreet/Bankers fat cat rich guys.
They are both somewhat right, but it's like both groups have their fingers in their ears and are going NAH NAH NAH NAH when the other sides speaks.
Take your damned fingers out. Suspend judgment.
Wake up. Listen for a change. You might learn something.
One thing you can say about Obama is that he has that part right. Both sides love America, and they all want the best for the country.
What Obama hasn't done is get himself into the trenches, a la LBJ, and do the hard part. The arm twisting, the deal making. The slimy deals for the good of the country.
First and foremost, the insurance bill should be about making it universal. Next it should be cheap and worthwhile. It should require the use of one universal form. It should require not paying more than 6% (which is what Germany and Japan pay their insurance companies for the same) for administrative costs. Next, it should include tort reform, which would save another 20%. Next it should absolutely wrestle with big pharmaceutical companies about prices, and say, guess what? Here is our list of drugs, and this is what we are going to pay. And if you don't like it, then up yours, we will buy overseas, just like every other first and second world government in the world does. After all, big business sends it's factories abroad to get cheap, why shouldn't the federal government?
Lastly, it needs to deal with the opt in/ opt out thing.
Do we opt out of taxes? Or social security? Or Medicaid? Or do we pay?
Personally, I think people should be allowed to opt out. But if they do, then they can't opt in for a period of two years. So you are a wrong headed idiot about your family and you don't pay for insurance, then you get to deal with paying full price for two years should your wife get cancer or your child have a car accident.
I also think that we need to speak to the other 800 pound gorilla in the room - illegal immigrants - by making them legal guest workers for a period of 20 years. Yep you can stay, yep you can work, yep you have to pay taxes, have a drivers license, pay social security, medicaid, school and county taxes, but no you don't have the rights of a citizen because you aren't citizens. Also, all immigrants have to pay a 20% get out of Dodge tax, which will be taken from them and put into interest bearing accounts. When the twenty years is up, that 20% will begin to be paid out to each guest worker in their home country. Guest workers who sneak back lose it all. Guest workers who come here, work hard, put in their twenty years and go back get to live off their twenty per cent in their own countries. But that's another story, for another post.
What puzzles me is that while it is easy/convenient to demonize idiotic government and stupid regulations, there is an 800 pound gorilla in the room that neither side is talking about, or seemingly even seeing.
That is big businesses. Multi National Corporations. Specifically, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, because they have the biggest dogs in this fight.
Do either side really think that large pharmaceutical companies have our best interests at heart? Do they really think that large pharmaceutical and large insurance companies really give a crap about the little guy?
And, do people really think that the Tea Party Crowd - most of whom, though lilly white, I think are earnest, honest and really saying what they believe - isn't being organized/paid for by the large Pharmaceuticals and large insurance companies?
Ever heard of Dick Armey? He may paint himself as being the hero of less government (odd, you know, after having been in the house for 18 years. Hm... I wonder if ole Dick has refused his government pension and government insurance for his family. His
"organizing" of such things as the T party crowd is bought and paid for by big corporations. DUUUUUH!)
So, as it looks now, insurance reform is stalled and once again, the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have managed to stave off change. People who can easily think of the Narcotraficante's crowd and Big Tobacco as the bad guys, but think of insurance companies and pharmos as the good guys need to pull their u know whats out of their u know wheres. It's dark in there. Wake up.
We don't have the best medical care in the world. We have the most expensive medical care in the world.
I don't know.
I'm with Whoopie Goldberg, who says she just wants the insurance deal that the members of the Senate and House of Representatives have.
She's got a hell of a point.
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