Oligarchs Paradise

“I know not why it should be a matter of congratulation that persons who are already richer than any one needs to be, should have doubled their means of consuming things which give little or no pleasure except as representative of wealth.” J.S. Mill

Slick Willie still has balls. It takes a hefty pair to stand in front of a crowd in Philadelphia and tell African-American protestors that government policies that hurt them and their communities were really, at heart, for their benefit.

Your lives mattered so much to my administration that I made them a living hell. I had to destroy your communities in order to save them.

No apology required.

Bill Clinton’s crime bill, passed back in the mid-90’s, was not designed to protect the lives of African-American teenagers; the intent was to allay the fears of white people who thought black gangs like the Crips and Bloods were about to overrun suburbia, and to demonstrate that Bill Clinton was as tough on crime as any Republican.

The Clintons triangulate everything for political advantage. Yes, I physically beat you to a pulp, but surely you can see it was for your own good? Turn the tables, blame the victims. The Clintons have made this tactic into an art form.

The thought of another Clinton administration is nauseating. We deserve better than someone who has used her position in government to enrich herself. Who asks us to believe that Wall Street banks are happy to pay her upwards of $200,000 for a single speech without expecting anything in return. This is insulting -- we know how the world works.

Our democracy is a democracy in name only because the political system, at least at the national level, is deaf to the needs of average citizens. How many times have I written this or something similar on this blog? The disconnect between the rulers and the ruled is severe. It’s clear that people from all walks of life and circumstances want peace, decent jobs, some measure of economic security, safe drinking water, breathable air, food that isn’t laced with poison, and a voice. The political machinery produces few of these things because to do so would require the rulers who own and operate the machinery to give up their privilege, and that never happens.  

As Robert McChesney and John Nichols note in their new book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy,  the solution to all these issues is political. Income inequality is about distribution of wealth, and that involves politics; climate change is all politics; the impact of technology on employment opportunities for our children is about government policy. But we have to understand that from the very beginning, the leading lights of the American colony, and then the American nation, feared the masses, the passions of the mob, and protected private property, the landed, and the slave owners. If the status quo is going to change, we cannot ask politely and wait for an answer -- we must demand.

Repeatedly.

Democracy is messy and unpredictable. The alternative, however, is what we see happening now: environmental degradation, extreme income inequality, political paralysis, a weak and debased corporate media that only serves to distract citizens from reality, and wars abroad that go on for decades. Poll after poll shows that this is not the America people want.

I know it’s not the America I want. I want this country to live up to its ideals, and I’d like my children to have half a shot at lives that are not reduced to toil, want and insecurity.

Hey, Bartender

Don’t ignore the little people; don’t look right through us as if we are wearing Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. I can assure you that our money is as good, and our thirst as pronounced, as the strapping gentleman, or the buxom female, who garners all your attention.

What am I talking about you ask. Fair question. The other night my wife and I went to a well known music club in Santa Barbara to hear Eric Hutchinson and his band. The place wasn’t crowded when we arrived; we stood at the bar trying to decide what libations we fancied. Two bartenders on duty. One of them, bearded, wearing a white shirt and gray vest, was talking wine with a couple seated at the bar. The other was rinsing glasses two feet from us. Neither acknowledged us or made eye contact. Being polite types, we waited patiently. Surely one of them would raise his head and take our order. Nope. The first guy kept talking, the second kept rinsing glasses. We may as well have been invisible.

I was immediately transported back several months, to the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I was attending a conference and staying at the hotel, and one evening I went down to the casino and sat at the bar, less than three feet from a bartender who did everything but look at me or acknowledge my existence. I was so stunned by his absolute indifference that I didn’t say anything -- I just sat there and waited, fascinated to see how long he could go without acknowledging me. After seven and a half minutes -- yes, I timed it with the stop- watch on my iPhone -- I gave up.

This happened to me three times at the Westgate, which says more about that crappy joint than it does about me. After the third time I strolled over to the concierge and asked to speak to a manager. An African-American woman listened to my tale, told me that the hotel was under new management, and promised to relay my concerns during the next all-staff meeting. No apology, no chit for a drink, not even a smile, now that I think of it.

I’m not a tall man, I’m a runt, and this I think, more than anything else, explains the troubles I’ve experienced with bartenders. The two examples I note here are not the only times I have failed to get service; this happens frequently, in establishments all over my hometown. My wife is convinced that I bear some sort of secret marking visible only to bartenders. Now, I know that some of you are thinking that this dilemma (which, in the big scheme of life is really, really minor, boo-hoo can’t get a drink,) is easily solved if I adopt a more forceful approach, call out to the bartender, tap my debit card on the bar or wave a fistful of dollars to get his or her attention (to be fair to female bartenders, I can say that they ignore me less often than do their male counterparts). But here’s my point: tall men don’t need to resort to these kinds of histrionics -- they step up and are served -- or are at least recognized.

That’s all I want, really, to be recognized, acknowledged, noticed. As a rule, I’m very appreciative of servers and bartenders and busboys, their work isn’t easy and customers can be a pain in the ass. My wife and I tip well because we are working-class people ourselves. I don’t expect anyone to kiss my ass; I do expect people in service businesses to provide service.

So, bartenders, don’t overlook us short people. Like I said, our money is good.

My Interview with Amy Goodman - Santa Barbara Independent - April 5, 2016

Amy Goodman Talks 20 Years of Independent Journalism

Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now, the only public media program that airs simultaneously on radio, cable, satellite television, and the Internet, will be speaking at UCSB on April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Goodman, along with longtime writing partners Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, are on a 100-city book tour to promote their latest book, Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America. 

UCSB

Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman’s list of journalism awards and accolades is too lengthy to mention. Suffice it to say that Goodman has walked the walk in war zones and areas wrecked by natural disasters, and has been on the ground to cover major stories such as the recent Paris climate negotiations and the Black Lives Matter movement. 


Brian Tanguay caught up with Amy Goodman on the eve of her book tour. 

When you started the broadcast back in 1996, did you have any idea it would become what it is today?We thought it would be a nine-month project, ending with the election, however that turned out. We were the only daily election coverage in public broadcasting. But there was more demand the day after the election than before. More and more stations wanted to pick us up. First it was community radio stations, then NPR, and public access television stations. Then PBS stations asked to air us. It just grew and grew. We’re translated into Spanish and Democracy Now is now carried on 1,400 public stations. Our growth is an indication of the hunger for independent voices.

Democracy Now started at a time when media consolidation in the United States was gathering momentum. Did the prospect of trying to establish an authentic voice in a corporate-dominated environment give you pause? Sadly, they have left such a huge niche — in fact, the corporate broadcasters are now niche broadcasters. These corporate networks feature such a small circle of pundits who know so little about so much. Our work at Democracy Now is giving voice to the vast majority of people whose voices are not represented. That’s what gives us our authenticity.

You and your team at Democracy Now have profiled, featured, and interviewed people that the corporate media ignore. I’m thinking of Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Scahill, Angela Davis, Arundhati Roy — a long list of important voices that the average American knows little if anything about. Was providing a platform for voices like these part of your original vision or did that evolve? These are voices that need to be heard. I won’t say these voices have been blacked-out — maybe whited-out is more accurate — but we’re talking about thinkers and grassroots leaders, and people closest to the issues that impact their lives and communities and nations. 

Of all the interviews you’ve done and events covered, is there one that stands out more than the rest? No, it’s more the inspiration of so many different voices. Our team at Democracy Now uses all its skill and diligence to give voice to people closest to the issues. This is critical in a democracy.

Can you recall the number of times you’ve been arrested in the course of reporting? (Laughs.) I don’t have the exact number, but I will say that it’s unacceptable that police arrest reporters. Our job is to be in the streets covering events and talking to people who are excluded from the conversation. 

Which corporate media broadcasts do you watch? As many as I can. It’s important to understand how events are framed, and what questions aren’t being asked. 

What unsettles you when you look at the contemporary political landscape, particularly the election coverage? The lack of diversity. 

What gives you hope? The movement. There’s no question about it. This book, written with my colleagues Denis Moynihan and my brother David Goodman, is about people all over the world who are challenging discrimination against immigrants or fighting for gay and lesbian rights or economic and environmental justice. The persistence and dedication and ingenuity of these people is inspiring.

I have to ask you this question, Amy, because it’s one of the most important questions of our time. Have you seen Hamilton? I can’t believe you’re asking me this question! It’s as if you have a little lens into my life. I have been wanting to see Hamilton, but of course there’s no way because the show is sold out for months. But then a week ago a friend of mine came into town for my birthday bearing tickets for the show! It’s an unbelievable work that is changing the face of Broadway. Who would have thought American history could be told through hip-hop and rap?

Reefer Madness Redux

“When the Great Scorer comes to list the main downers of our time, the Nixon Inauguration will have to be ranked Number One.” Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ‘72

Like many people of my generation, I detested Richard Nixon and just about everything he ever stood for. Nixon was an evil dude, and he surrounded himself with authoritarian creeps like H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson. Bad times, unrest in the cities and on college campuses. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. King had been murdered and the heart seemed to have been ripped from the nation.

Like Donald Trump today, Nixon was a Law & Order guy, a tough talking high sheriff who would lock criminals up and bury the key. To rid the nation of the scourge of dangerous drugs, Nixon and his henchman launched the War on Drugs. This bad idea is still with us, all these years later, and our prisons, many of them operated by corporations for profit,  are filled to bursting with former users and junkies.

Nixon’s War on Drugs was erected on a foundation of out and out racism. An interview with John Ehrlichman that came to light recently makes the real intent of the War on Drugs crystal clear. Here’s Ehrlichman, speaking with breathtaking candor in the mid 1990’s:

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

There it is, in all its sinister glory. A diabolical scheme hatched by a paranoid government to put white, pot-toking hippies and black smack junkies back in their boxes and slam the lid. Only Nixon, I think, only that rat bastard was evil enough to conceive of such a plan, and the consequences plague the nation -- not to mention Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, to name a few -- to this day. Obama came out the other day and said that drug use and abuse is more of a health issue than a criminal one, a good start, albeit way too late, but I wonder if he would have said anything if record numbers of white folk weren’t getting hooked on heroin and prescription opioids. When a social problem impacts the pale skins, the government acts and money begins to flow toward solutions.

God, why am I thinking about Nixon? It’s a lovely day outside my window and I’m free of the work clock, there’s lots of cold Lagunitas in the fridge, a couple of bags of sunflower seeds, but more to the point, the current political circus is awful enough without drifting back to our dark past. If I start thinking about Nixon I will invariably think about Henry Kissinger and Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Millions of people killed. Nixon and Kissinger, W. Bush and Cheney -- a gallery of unindicted war criminals. I’m not sure the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Kissinger is considered a sage in some circles; W and Cheney run free still, make speeches for good money, and never bother to hang their heads in shame.

The horror, the horror, the horror!