Ramblin' with Roger

Since Americans can’t be bothered to vote, don’t they deserve the government they get?

“We are their victims. We are weak and pathetic. But only by choice.”

Arthur asked the question above, and I’m compelled to respond to it.

My answer is “NO.”

Interestingly, I subsequently found, on Arthur’s Facebook, a link to this Inequality Tower, with his note, “Yep, this is pretty much New Zealand today—and most other Western democracies. Do you care? Do you vote as IF you care?”

A lot of people have been trained NOT to care, to believe “they” are all scoundrels, and it doesn’t make a difference. Gary Kroeger, former cast member of Saturday Night Live, and now running for Congress as a Democrat made an interesting observation:

“The disenfranchised non-intellectuals who now have a voice and are actually moving the needle. The uninformed now have a much bigger voice. They’re louder. By non-intellectuals I don’t mean stupid, I just mean those who just don’t want to engage in the minutia, pull up their sleeves, and do the math. They are from-the-hip voters.”

It’s not just many of the Republican candidates for President, it can even be CEOs of companies. So I could let THEM determine my fate, but I choose to at least try to fight back.

Voting matters. Why else would Ann Coulter and others suggest bringing back ‘literacy tests’ so voting is ‘a little more difficult’, even though it’s unconstitutional? You could be from Harvard and fail the 1964 Louisiana literacy test.

The state of Oregon has a new automatic voter registration. As someone said, in a comment about the new law: “Let’s start swinging the voting pendulum the OTHER way, instead of the recent years of ‘What? Brown people are actually VOTING? WE MUST STOP THIS!!!’ shenanigans like voter ID laws.”

Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to effect change. In Ferguson, MO, where they tripled the minority representation, “29% of eligible voters [were] casting more than 3,700 ballots. That’s more than double the 12% of eligible voters that came out for last April’s mayoral election.” Think about that for a minute: 29% was a GOOD turnout.

If people mobilize and actually vote in their self-interest, and arithmetically, there are far more on the bottom of the economic pyramid than the top, change CAN be made.

And if not, I’m becoming more convinced of a bad outcome for our country, and possibly other countries where contracts with zero hours of work guaranteed are not uncommon, and the vast number of poor are shamed. I came across As the Country Falls Apart, It’s Time for Our Revolution; a call to arms from Ted Rall’s “Anti-American Manifesto”:

Government exists to serve economic power. In the U.S. and globally, economic power is concentrated in business, namely the large corporations whose profits account for more than ten percent of the nation’s gross domestic product…. Corporations… ae parasites, vampires, hideous monsters that underpay and overcharge us and get fat on the spread. Who are we then?

We are their victims. We are weak and pathetic. But only by choice.

We can wait for the system to collapse of its own accord, for the rage of the downtrodden and dispossessed to build, for chaos of some sort to expose and destroy it. But implosion might take a long time. And when it happens, we may find ourselves even more powerless than we are now.

[It gets drearier.]

Not necessarily accepting the scenario fully, but Rall certainly has many valid points. So yes, I try to stay engaged in the political process, as exhausting and irritating as it is. And it’s because NONE of us deserve the government we have that gives more rights to corporations than people.

The library meme

I don’t think there’s a book EVERYONE should read.

Per Chuck Miller, my fellow Times Union blogger:

“The System”: In the main, the books on music, movies, television are on the shelf in front of me. Behind me: almanacs/trivia; church/faith/religion, including hymnals; the recently acquired unread; bio/autobio; classics (Shakespeare, Grimm, Twain); politics; Beatles. Off to the right, and also upstairs, comic book/comic strip stuff (Marvel Masterworks, Doonesbury collections, Elfquest collections, Life Is Hell). This is imperfect, and I’m much less fussy than I used to be.

Favorite female writer: Rachel Carson. She changed my life.

Favorite male writer: Nelson George.

Bought on location (where the writer lived, the book takes place, the movie adaptation was shot): I often buy a book at the museum shop: some book on FDR, e.g., though I don’t always READ them. Of course, I own some books about Albany: O Albany! by William Kennedy, Old Albany, Mayor Corning by Paul Grondahl, Ed Dague’s autobiography (he was a local newscaster).

The largest and the smallest book you own: Some Beatles coffee table thing is the largest. Perhaps, Baseball: Our Game by John Thorn is the smallest, though I used to have a tinier one that is MIA.

Complete works of one author: At one point, it was Russell Baker. All I have now are books cited as complete works, Billy Shakes, Twain, Grimm.

Favorite poetry collection: This series of periodicals called Washout, co-edited by an ex-girlfriend.

Favorite biography: I’ve read so many Beatles bios, they’ve blended together. I’ll say Gandhi, An Autobiography.

Favorite cookbook: Some Betty Crocker thing from c. 1964.

Favorite graphic novel: Maus. I used to know Art Spiegelman when he’d come up to Albany to promote his publication RAW.

A book you didn’t understand at all: Some science fiction book I gave up on, no doubt.

“One of these things is not like the others” (inconsistent editions within a series): There are features in some reference books, Top Pop Singles, Top Pop Albums, and The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, for three, that I’ve had to hold onto earlier editions because they had info that subsequent versions did not. For instance, Top Pop Albums used to have the songs of the albums, but now, for space reasons, it does not.

Best bargain: I’ve gotten a lot of free or cheap books. Somehow, I got a review copy of Freddie & Me by Mike Dawson, and I really liked it.

Most recent purchase: The Opposite of Everything by David Kalish; I went to a reading at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza.

Favorite layout design: probably The Dark Knight graphic novel.

Book you bought because of the title: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, which I knew The Daughter would appreciate.

Book you bought because of the cover design. Probably happened, but no example comes to mind.

Multiple translations of the same work: The Bible.

Multiple copies of the same work: I have a Complete Shakespeare, and my wife does. That count?

The funniest book you own: probably some Dave Berry book about music.

The most expensive book you own: It may be that coffee-table Beatles book. It’s also the heaviest.

A recurring interest/theme. Anything about the music of the 1940s until the end of the century: musician bios, Billboard charts.

A book you read so many times that it fell apart: Some I Spy novelization I had as a kid.

A book you think everyone should read: I don’t, actually, mostly because I wouldn’t want to be likewise dictated to. One reads a book when ready, or does not.

A book that made you cry: Diary of Anne Frank. Unoriginal choice, I suppose.

A book you would prescribe for an aspiring author: Life Itself by Roger Ebert.

A cover design you hate: Those from most romance novels.

A book that was a waste of your time. I don’t think that’s happened. I read a book, I don’t get engaged, I put it down. There are other books.

Favorite book from your childhood: Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Speaking truth to power.

The book with the most pages in your collection: Maybe The People’s Almanac, which has 1400 pages or so.

And there you have it. Feel free to take this list and add your own library to it.

Harriet Tubman is my choice for the $20 bill

Previously I mentioned Put a woman on the $20 bill when trying to winnow the list down from 15 choices. At the time, I voted for Margaret Sanger, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. My bias was against voting for anyone born in the 20th century, although I gave consideration to Rachel Carson.

From the website: “Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks were named by as many as half of the voters in the Primary Round as one of their top three! Because of strong public sentiment that people should have the choice of a Native American to replace Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller, was added to the final ballot.”

In the final round, I remain disinclined to vote for people who were alive in my lifetime. Wilma Mankiller (b. 1945), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and first elected female Chief of a Native nation in modern times, died only in 2010, and I know relatively little about her.

While I admire Rosa Parks (b. 1913), I’ve thought that, as she was hardly the first person to refuse to go to the back of the bus, though she was the “proper” choice. Moreover, she died in 2005.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) actually died in my lifetime as well, but I’m such a fan, I seriously considered her. A friend of mine was opposed to her because she served from a position of privilege, but I LIKE it when the well-to-do act to help those less fortunate.

Still, Harriet Tubman (c.1822 – 1913) was remarkable.

She returned to the South an estimated 19 times to rescue her family and others from bondage as a “conductor” on… the Underground Railroad, an elaborate secret network of safe houses leading to freedom in the North. Later, with her intimate knowledge of the geography and transportation systems of the South, she became a valuable asset to the Union army as a spy and scout.

After the war, Tubman continued her service to others. She advocated for education and property for freed slaves in the South and she cared for the elderly and poor. Later, she joined the early campaigners for women’s equality and suffrage.

Her Herculean accomplishments were attributed to extraordinary courage, shrewdness and determination. The Quaker Thomas Garrett said of her, “If she had been a white woman, she would have been heralded as the greatest woman of her age.”

I don’t know how long the voting will last. The previous round lasted five weeks, from March 1st to April 5th. I assume this final round will end soon, so vote now.

Not a snowball’s chance in hell climate change will be addressed in the USA in a timely fashion

This past winter was the warmest on record

Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it will require states seeking billions of dollars in U.S. preparedness funds to sign off on plans to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“The policy doesn’t affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood, or other disaster. Specifically, beginning in March 2016, states seeking preparedness money will have to assess how climate change threatens their communities. Governors will have to sign off on hazard mitigation plans.”

One of the governors who this will affect is Rick Scott of Florida, who not only denies there is man-made climate change but has barred officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from using the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” “in any official communications, emails, or reports since shortly after he came into office in 2011.” At least one employee was ordered to get a medical evaluation for considering “climate change.”

Even though President Obama noted this month that climate change is hurting our health, I don’t see that anything substantial will happen on this front in the United States any time soon. The moment which crystallized that belief for me happened in February 2015, when Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, used a snowball as a prop on the Senate floor… “to show the recent spate of cold weather in the Northeast is a sign that human activity isn’t causing climate change.”

Yes, it snowed in Washington, DC, in February, and it was cold, too. However, the fact, is that this past winter was the warmest on record, and 2015 had the second warmest February on record, despite what happened in the eastern US.

Moreover, a majority of Americans don’t think climate change will affect them personally, even though it already is.

It may already be too late for Vanuatu, the Pacific island nation, which was devastated by the deadly typhoon Pam last month. Moreover, big shelves of Antarctic ice are melting faster than scientists thought.

Happy Earth Day.

O for Older

“The fastest-growing segment of the total population is the oldest old—those 80 and over.”

One of the perks of getting older is that some stuff gets cheaper. For the US, here’s a list of Senior Discounts for Restaurants. Last year’s Best List Of Senior Discounts For 2014, I assume, is still largely still valid.

And one doesn’t have to wait to be a sexagenarian to cash in. 50 Is the New 65 for Earning ‘Senior’ Discounts. I happen to think that’s crazy. Census figures note that the average age of Americans moved from 37.2 in 2010 to 37.6 in 2013. If anything, businesses might consider RAISING the threshold for the discounts. I’m going to still USE these age-driven perks, mind you.

At the same time, the baby boomers are rejecting any suggestion that they are getting older. Sixty is the new forty, and so forth.

Now demographers have new strata for the old:

The “Young Old” 65-74
“The first wave of aging Baby Boomers reached full retirement age in 2011. For the next 20 years, 74 million Boomers will retire.”

The “Old” 74-84

The “Oldest-Old” 85+
“The fastest-growing segment of the total population is the oldest old—those 80 and over. Their growth rate is twice that of those 65 and over and almost 4-times that for the total population. In the United States, this group now represents 10% of the older population and will more than triple from 5.7 million in 2010 to over 19 million by 2050.”

I’m curious whether older people in other countries receive such perks.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16