As I write this, the United States Congress has less than three hours
to do its duty, as defined in the Constitution, and pass a continuing
resolution to fund the government for a little while longer. The
consensus opinion is that they will fail miserably and that at the
stroke of midnight the government of the most powerful nation in the
world will slow to a halt. Again. This curious phenomenon has not been
observed since 1995, when it happened twice under President Clinton
after he vetoed the budget the Republican-dominated Congress passed
(Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House at the time).
This is not a
particularly novel phenomenon; according to the Congressional Research Service the
government has shutdown 17 times since 1977. Some lasted less than a day, and almost all lasted less than 3 days. The longest shutdown on record is also the most recent, lasting 21 days from December 16, 1995 to early January 6, 1996. There are, however, differences between the looming shutdown and the 1995 event. By the time the 1995 shutdown occurred, Congress had passed a baker's dozen of appropriation bills to allow for continued funding of certain activities. This time around they have only approved a military pay bill to allow payroll for the armed forces and certain Department of Defense personnel.
The effects
of a shutdown have been described along a sliding scale ranging from a
literally negligible effect to loss of livelihood, income and security,
depending on who is doing the describing.
National parks, museums and other attractions will be closed down. Veterans will begin losing benefits fairly quickly, affecting over 3 and a half million veterans, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs. Nearly a million government workers who are deemed non-essential could be furloughed. Economists expect a short shutdown to have only a moderate negative effect on the economy, but a longer term event could have significant implications on economic growth, at a time when the real-world effects of the economic slowdown are still reverberating through vulnerable communities.
More troubling still is the impending debt ceiling fight promised by Speaker Boehner. The United States has never defaulted on its debts, and the consequences would be global in impact. Raising the debt limit is necessary to provide funding to pay debts that the government has already incurred, and failing to do so would leave the government high and dry with respect to paying its bills.
Polls suggest that the public will lay more blame at the feet of the Republicans than the Democrats, but that hardly seems a fitting gauge for the measure of disappoint, disenchantment and disgust felt by so many Americans for the actions of their government. It seems that this iteration of the American government, in all its tripartite glory, seems hellbent on riding the republic directly into the abyss. This Congress is completely dysfunctional and its shortcomings are so well documented in all forms of media as to need no mention here. The Executive Branch has seen fit to wage a quiet electronic war against the privacy rights of its own citizens of such scope and breadth that we are still uncovering the intimacies of its violations. The Supreme Court has become a partisan creature, and its Citizens United decision is an abomination and an affront to common sense notions of fairness and democracy.
The cyclical dance performed by the two dominant political parties in America presently amounts to little more than puppet theater, the candidates thin shadows cast on a wall, childish, false and devoid of substance. Neither party seems able to generate ideas powerful enough to muscle us out of the quagmire we find ourselves floundering in, and neither is independent of the will of the puppetmaster - the rich and affluent corporations and individuals who wield disproportionate influence in our society.
A third political party may be the only option for those citizens more interested in solving problems and seeking solutions than promoting ideology and catering to plutocrats. Third parties have not fared particularly well recently, but they can have an effect on the overall atmosphere of political discourse. The obstacles erected to prevent easy ballot access for third-party candidates are formidable and require strong political organization. We saw the the potential raw material for such a movement in the chaos of the Occupy movement that temporarily captivated the public space. The question now becomes - Is there anyone that can harness that raw material, organize it intelligently and efficiently into an electoral missile and launch it into the heart of the two-headed corporate behemoth that sits astride the republic?
Until then, I humbly suggest everyone strap in and keep trays in an upright position. It looks like this is going to be a bumpy ride into the holiday season.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 2013
The Speed of Life
Usain Bolt is the fastest human on record, with a foot speed
of almost 28 mph. The speed of sound is about 770 mph in dry air. The
circumference of the earth that we whip about on is about 25,000 miles. An
object that wants to leave earth must achieve escape velocity, around 25,000
mph. The speed of light in a vacuum is about 187,000 miles per SECOND.
According to relativity, this is the ultimate speed limit of this universe;
nothing can actually achieve it, except light.
The sun is 96 million miles from all us, which means that it
takes a ray of sunlight about 8 minutes to travel through space to poke you in
the eye on the drive home. A light year is actually a measure of distance, it
is the distance that light travels in a year, or 5.87849981 × 1012 miles.
Big number, huh?
But not really. In astronomy, distances are measured in
parsecs, equal to about 3.25 light-years, kiloparsecs, megaparsecs (1 million
parsecs) and gigaparsecs, which represent a billion.
Sounds like a lot of Han Solo talk, right? This is the basic
language needed to describe the largest scale structures of our home, this
universe - filaments, sheets and walls, formed by patterns in gigantic clusters
of BILLIONS OF GALAXIES, which are separated by mind-bogglingly immense voids,
creating a web or sponge-like structure...made of stars. We could reverse the process and visit the molecular, atomic and quantum worlds.
I went through all of that as sort of an exercise for all of
us to appreciate a few things. The first is the idea that structure and
symmetry exist on the most immense scales imaginable – look at some of the
images of the galactic superstructures, they are quite beautiful. The second
thing it brings to mind is the immensity of this place, this ever expanding
universe that we share, and the tremendous capacity for knowledge and
understanding we acquire through the instruments and techniques of reason. We
should never surrender the capacity for investigation and the right to question
traditional explanations.
We have the power to solve our problems. We have the capacity to understand them and
the power to resolve them. Perhaps we can look to our children for the wisdom
to not repeat them. But it is up to us to deal with those hostile, nihilistic
voices in our global community who do not seek solutions, those who profit from
problems and treat our one and only spaceship as their private property, with
no regard for progression of ancestors stretching behind us, nor the children
waiting to be born.
We all love Star Trek and Star Wars, right? Those incredible
programs that used the power of imagination to show us what is possible, to
show us ourselves among the stars….
I am telling you that we will never reach the stars until we
deal with the less evolved here on Earth. It is not okay to be hateful or cruel or
discriminatory because of outdated superstitious customs or ethnic vendettas. It
is not okay to own the earth and let many starve so that a traitorous few may
rule. It’s not okay to not evolve, to want to return to the image of a past
that never was. It's not okay to pretend corporations are people, or that people are disposable, or that the planet can be replaced.
Let’s proceed, instead, into the future, together…
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Navy Yard Shooting
America has been rocked by yet another mass shooting, this time inside the heart of the nation's capital, within a highly secure military facility. Aaron Alexis, a former Navy reservist who was being employed as a civilian contractor, entered the Washington Navy Yard with a shotgun recently purchased in neighboring Virginia. He used the weapon, along with others acquired along the way, to wage a campaign of murder that would end with twelve fatalities and numerous injuries.
Alexis apparently suffered from documented mental health issues, including a tip from Rhode Island police to their Navy counterparts that Alexis reported "hearing voices" and that unseen assailants were using a microwave device to send vibrations into his body. Despite this, and past incidents involving firearms, Alexis was allowed to keep his security clearance. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admits that there were red flags ignored in the Alexis case, and has ordered a review of military procedures regarding security clearances.
There is no indication that Congress will move on so-called gun control legislation, despite the president's urging; there have been more than a dozen shootings involving four or more fatalities, the FBI's standard for a mass shooting, since he took office. Even legislation requiring background checks, which is polling extraordinarily high among the American people, cannot get traction in this legislative environment. It is not clear how effective such legislation would be in stopping this type of violence even if it could be made law.
So we are left with a renewal of the cycle of the left calling for gun reform, the right hoisting the second amendment up like a Spartan shield, and the blood spilling in the streets, schools, churches and workplaces of the nation.
The scars from having the children and teachers of Sandy Hook taken from us have not even had a chance to harden - we are still sore from grief, numb from horror, shocked by evil.
This is the truest terrorism, is it not? The sure knowledge, planted like a darkling seed in the deep soil of your heart, that there is no place of safety, anywhere. There is no time that your children and wife can't be slaughtered like animals, for no discernible reason.
This is the truth of America, and anyone telling you differently is selling something or running for office. "It's not just America, people kill each other everywhere" says the peanut gallery.
"Yes, Peanut. That is true. But Americans have a gift and a flair for killing, and it is not slowed a step when turned against other Americans. Look at the Civil War - bloodiest damned scrap this country has ever been in, and we were fighting ourselves."
True story.
Where does this bloodthirstiness come from? Why do we raise a fist when in the past we would have raised a voice? Why do we raise a gun when we would have raised a fist? Why kill so many, so wantonly, with such a vicious remorselessness that even the youngest among us are not exempt?
Just, why? Our politicians, law enforcement personnel, mental health professionals and assorted clergy all do their best to answer that question, yet obviously they come up woefully short, the lot of them. These people killing us are us...our brothers, husbands and sons. Where are we losing our boys? They watch the same movies, play the same games, tell the same jokes...yet...some of them kill. Why?
If we can find an answer to that...an answer to the rage that bubbles beneath the surface of so many in these 50 states...an answer to a cultural fascination with violence that is older than the nation itself...an answer to the paranoiac distrust that Americans feel for each other...the isolation...the dissolution...the growing sense of inevitability that this is simply the way it is here now...the way our children and their children will have to live...if...if only...
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned"
-W.B. Yeats
Alexis apparently suffered from documented mental health issues, including a tip from Rhode Island police to their Navy counterparts that Alexis reported "hearing voices" and that unseen assailants were using a microwave device to send vibrations into his body. Despite this, and past incidents involving firearms, Alexis was allowed to keep his security clearance. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admits that there were red flags ignored in the Alexis case, and has ordered a review of military procedures regarding security clearances.
There is no indication that Congress will move on so-called gun control legislation, despite the president's urging; there have been more than a dozen shootings involving four or more fatalities, the FBI's standard for a mass shooting, since he took office. Even legislation requiring background checks, which is polling extraordinarily high among the American people, cannot get traction in this legislative environment. It is not clear how effective such legislation would be in stopping this type of violence even if it could be made law.
So we are left with a renewal of the cycle of the left calling for gun reform, the right hoisting the second amendment up like a Spartan shield, and the blood spilling in the streets, schools, churches and workplaces of the nation.
The scars from having the children and teachers of Sandy Hook taken from us have not even had a chance to harden - we are still sore from grief, numb from horror, shocked by evil.
This is the truest terrorism, is it not? The sure knowledge, planted like a darkling seed in the deep soil of your heart, that there is no place of safety, anywhere. There is no time that your children and wife can't be slaughtered like animals, for no discernible reason.
This is the truth of America, and anyone telling you differently is selling something or running for office. "It's not just America, people kill each other everywhere" says the peanut gallery.
"Yes, Peanut. That is true. But Americans have a gift and a flair for killing, and it is not slowed a step when turned against other Americans. Look at the Civil War - bloodiest damned scrap this country has ever been in, and we were fighting ourselves."
True story.
Where does this bloodthirstiness come from? Why do we raise a fist when in the past we would have raised a voice? Why do we raise a gun when we would have raised a fist? Why kill so many, so wantonly, with such a vicious remorselessness that even the youngest among us are not exempt?
Just, why? Our politicians, law enforcement personnel, mental health professionals and assorted clergy all do their best to answer that question, yet obviously they come up woefully short, the lot of them. These people killing us are us...our brothers, husbands and sons. Where are we losing our boys? They watch the same movies, play the same games, tell the same jokes...yet...some of them kill. Why?
If we can find an answer to that...an answer to the rage that bubbles beneath the surface of so many in these 50 states...an answer to a cultural fascination with violence that is older than the nation itself...an answer to the paranoiac distrust that Americans feel for each other...the isolation...the dissolution...the growing sense of inevitability that this is simply the way it is here now...the way our children and their children will have to live...if...if only...
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned"
-W.B. Yeats
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Bloomberg's Vision for New York
"Wouldn't it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here [New York]?"
Yes, Mayor Bloomberg, it really would be just great.
The soon-to-be-Ex-Mayor of New York posed this question to New York Magazine's Chris Smith during an interview conducted for the Magazine in August 2013 (read the full article here). The mayor was posing the question rhetorically as part of his argument that the rich, read here as the top 20 percent of earners in NYC, pay for everyone else's services.
This seems like a standard observation of the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, which states that, for any given system, 80% of observable effects are traceable to just 20% of the possible causes.
It also might be an insight into the gross economic inequality between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else in the economy that the bottom percentages have so little wealth to tax. Hence, instead of working to construct a solid rapport with the "regular" folks in the city, Bloomberg seeks to lure more Russian billionaires to the Upper West Side.
"Air-conditioning in the schools, the subways. Are you crazy? Now, by most of the world’s standards, you ain’t poor...I’m not being cavalier about it, but most places in the world our poor are wealthy."
It is instructive to pay attention to how the Mayor approaches issues like income inequality in the city. The implication of his statement is that there are actually no poor people in America, due to the fact that, as the world's most powerful nation, we have established something of a socioeconomic safety-net, to catch less fortunate citizens and at least slow their descent into personal catastrophe. We are undoubtedly lucky to live in a nation that has decided to mitigate the destitution of its citizenry, and it is likely better to be homeless and unemployed here in the States than in many other places around the globe - you will get no argument from me on these points. Yet I still don't see how any of that affects the observation of economic patterns WITHIN the socioeconomic framework that defines the lives of those of us who live and work here. Not to mention the validity of observations of the role of the American plutocrats and corporatists in the economic conditions observable around the world.
"...this city is not two groups, and if to some extent it is, it’s one group paying for services for the other."
This is the culmination of a sequence the Mayor began by calling Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's election campaign, which feature his biracial son Dante and his Black wife, "racist" as well as an example of class-warfare. The Mayor goes on to defend the "stop-and-frisk" practice that has come under criticism and constitutional scrutiny.
"We have not racial-profiled, we’ve gone where the crime is."
The program has been shown to be minimally effective at removing weapons from the street, and again the implication here is that there is no crime in non-Black neighborhoods. I have it on good authority that a large robbery was committed by a group of men on Wall Street. Might want to check that out.
Seriously, the epidemic of gun crimes in the Black community needs to be addressed on several fronts, but the data shows that the stop-and-frisk tactics are not effective policy, and they certainly do nothing to address any of the core socioeconomic realities that create the situation on the ground in the ghetto. The para-militarization of urban police departments and the promulgation of an "us-against-them" mentality among "peace officers" denies the possibility of gaining support for community policing of a qualitatively different nature. If communities all too often have reason to view the police as shift-working mercenaries bussed in from outside the community to harass and detain, there is little chance of the reciprocal action that is so critical to understanding what is really happening in the streets. It is a fundamental difference in philosophy.
And that is the ultimate story with Bloomberg, and his predecessor Rudolph Giuliani; they have a fundamentally different philosophy than many New Yorkers, and they see the city very differently than many who grew up there. We don't all have a vision of the city as a mecca for billionaires, with the economy built around them.
There was dream called New York...once. A city where every imaginable race, religion and political persuasion rubbed shoulders on the subway, forming the backbone of a magnificent specimen of urban democracy. Messy? You better believe it. Worth the hassle? More so than any city in the solar system...
Thank you for you service, Mayor Bloomberg.
Yes, Mayor Bloomberg, it really would be just great.
The soon-to-be-Ex-Mayor of New York posed this question to New York Magazine's Chris Smith during an interview conducted for the Magazine in August 2013 (read the full article here). The mayor was posing the question rhetorically as part of his argument that the rich, read here as the top 20 percent of earners in NYC, pay for everyone else's services.
This seems like a standard observation of the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, which states that, for any given system, 80% of observable effects are traceable to just 20% of the possible causes.
It also might be an insight into the gross economic inequality between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else in the economy that the bottom percentages have so little wealth to tax. Hence, instead of working to construct a solid rapport with the "regular" folks in the city, Bloomberg seeks to lure more Russian billionaires to the Upper West Side.
"Air-conditioning in the schools, the subways. Are you crazy? Now, by most of the world’s standards, you ain’t poor...I’m not being cavalier about it, but most places in the world our poor are wealthy."
It is instructive to pay attention to how the Mayor approaches issues like income inequality in the city. The implication of his statement is that there are actually no poor people in America, due to the fact that, as the world's most powerful nation, we have established something of a socioeconomic safety-net, to catch less fortunate citizens and at least slow their descent into personal catastrophe. We are undoubtedly lucky to live in a nation that has decided to mitigate the destitution of its citizenry, and it is likely better to be homeless and unemployed here in the States than in many other places around the globe - you will get no argument from me on these points. Yet I still don't see how any of that affects the observation of economic patterns WITHIN the socioeconomic framework that defines the lives of those of us who live and work here. Not to mention the validity of observations of the role of the American plutocrats and corporatists in the economic conditions observable around the world.
"...this city is not two groups, and if to some extent it is, it’s one group paying for services for the other."
This is the culmination of a sequence the Mayor began by calling Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's election campaign, which feature his biracial son Dante and his Black wife, "racist" as well as an example of class-warfare. The Mayor goes on to defend the "stop-and-frisk" practice that has come under criticism and constitutional scrutiny.
"We have not racial-profiled, we’ve gone where the crime is."
The program has been shown to be minimally effective at removing weapons from the street, and again the implication here is that there is no crime in non-Black neighborhoods. I have it on good authority that a large robbery was committed by a group of men on Wall Street. Might want to check that out.
Seriously, the epidemic of gun crimes in the Black community needs to be addressed on several fronts, but the data shows that the stop-and-frisk tactics are not effective policy, and they certainly do nothing to address any of the core socioeconomic realities that create the situation on the ground in the ghetto. The para-militarization of urban police departments and the promulgation of an "us-against-them" mentality among "peace officers" denies the possibility of gaining support for community policing of a qualitatively different nature. If communities all too often have reason to view the police as shift-working mercenaries bussed in from outside the community to harass and detain, there is little chance of the reciprocal action that is so critical to understanding what is really happening in the streets. It is a fundamental difference in philosophy.
And that is the ultimate story with Bloomberg, and his predecessor Rudolph Giuliani; they have a fundamentally different philosophy than many New Yorkers, and they see the city very differently than many who grew up there. We don't all have a vision of the city as a mecca for billionaires, with the economy built around them.
There was dream called New York...once. A city where every imaginable race, religion and political persuasion rubbed shoulders on the subway, forming the backbone of a magnificent specimen of urban democracy. Messy? You better believe it. Worth the hassle? More so than any city in the solar system...
Thank you for you service, Mayor Bloomberg.
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