I'm watching with great interest what is happening in Egypt.
The conventional wisdom is that this is pent up frustration with Mubarak and his 30 years of rule. I wonder if it is an economic protest with broader implications.
From what I've learned, there are, in Egypt, the super wealthy, who apparently have gotten that way during Mubarak's rule, and the very poor, earning and living on less than two dollars a day.
The protesters are not the super wealthy. They are the poor.hey are the unemployed and under employed. They have nothing to lose.
Isn't this the natural result of the aggregation of wealth in the hands of a few? The super wealthy are not the unemployed (other than in the sense that life at the country club, clipping coupons and taking calls from one's broker isn't really being employed-[in a further aside, here in the US we don't think of this as employed, either, since these folks don't pay social security taxes on this kind of income, and it's treated more favorably for income tax purposes]).
The transfer of wealth from the middle class here to the wealthy continues. We are back to where the country was with the robber barons. The ascendancy of the middle class is over. Will there come a time when we are so fed up and frustrated that we take to the streets?
Even though they seem to be the most energized protesters, the Tea Party will not lead this revolution. Their efforts have been funded by the super wealthy and are aimed at aggregation of even more wealth at the top with their support for tax breaks, deregulation (so the super wealthy can take even more) and lower government budgets. It is sad that they don't recognize how they are being used.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Snowing to Beat the Band
Whatever "beat the band" is supposed to mean.
This is a great day to stay home! I was up at 6:30, there wasn't even a hint of snow. At 7:30 there was no snow. Our Wednesday breakfast get together was a go, so out I went, and it was just starting to snow. I cleared maybe five inches of snow off the car at 10, came home. By 11 there was about a foot of snow--in three hours!!!!
The plow got here shortly after 11, cleared the driveway and parking area, and now, by 12:30, there is another4 or 5 inches, and it is still snowing.
I started a fire in the fireplace, have a book, coffee, snacks.....I'm all set.
[Maine story: I hadn't really heard the expression "I'm all set" in such common use until I got to Maine. Then, I heard it promoted to another plane when a waitress told me, while taking away a nearly empty plate, "You're all set."]
This is a great day to stay home! I was up at 6:30, there wasn't even a hint of snow. At 7:30 there was no snow. Our Wednesday breakfast get together was a go, so out I went, and it was just starting to snow. I cleared maybe five inches of snow off the car at 10, came home. By 11 there was about a foot of snow--in three hours!!!!
The plow got here shortly after 11, cleared the driveway and parking area, and now, by 12:30, there is another4 or 5 inches, and it is still snowing.
I started a fire in the fireplace, have a book, coffee, snacks.....I'm all set.
[Maine story: I hadn't really heard the expression "I'm all set" in such common use until I got to Maine. Then, I heard it promoted to another plane when a waitress told me, while taking away a nearly empty plate, "You're all set."]
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A Change of Pace
Tomorrow is supposed to bring another blizzard to mid-coast Maine. The last one was pretty impressive, by Maine standards, but didn't really hold a candle to the blizzards that sometimes sweep Colorado.
Still, I'm counting on hunkering down tomorrow, after my usual Wednesday breakfast with my friends. We meet and talk. Almost anything goes, but it is often politics. There is range of opinions, and when we add the three or four summer-only guys, the scale tips to the right. We do listen to each other, and I think we have all learned something from others' contributions.
These guys are a talented bunch, and I feel privileged to know them.
Oh! I have a new profile on Newcastle Square Realty's website. Check it out.
Still, I'm counting on hunkering down tomorrow, after my usual Wednesday breakfast with my friends. We meet and talk. Almost anything goes, but it is often politics. There is range of opinions, and when we add the three or four summer-only guys, the scale tips to the right. We do listen to each other, and I think we have all learned something from others' contributions.
These guys are a talented bunch, and I feel privileged to know them.
Oh! I have a new profile on Newcastle Square Realty's website. Check it out.
Monday, January 10, 2011
New Dawn
Today is a new day, the sun came up, will probably go down on the other side of the world.
As it crosses Arizona I'll be thinking of the six who were killed. John Green, father of Christina Green, was on one of the morning shows this morning, barely and bravely holding it together. Watching him brought tears to my eyes.
Those who incite anger, violence by their rhetoric are to blame, no question. Do they think their words have no effect? Then why are they saying what they do?
I think this rhetoric began with the election of Obama-at least it came to the forefront. It seems to come from those who are angry that the world-the US-is changing. They feel threatened that their ideas and their supremacy for the last centuries are waning. In a few decades they will be a minority, and people of color will be a majority.
Many have adjusted to the changes in our society, some have not. What will it take for them? Realization of the consequences of their words, actions? Or, will we see more of what happened in Arizona?
Where do the rest of us start? I know the starting point is love. I'm working on how to do that.
As it crosses Arizona I'll be thinking of the six who were killed. John Green, father of Christina Green, was on one of the morning shows this morning, barely and bravely holding it together. Watching him brought tears to my eyes.
Those who incite anger, violence by their rhetoric are to blame, no question. Do they think their words have no effect? Then why are they saying what they do?
I think this rhetoric began with the election of Obama-at least it came to the forefront. It seems to come from those who are angry that the world-the US-is changing. They feel threatened that their ideas and their supremacy for the last centuries are waning. In a few decades they will be a minority, and people of color will be a majority.
Many have adjusted to the changes in our society, some have not. What will it take for them? Realization of the consequences of their words, actions? Or, will we see more of what happened in Arizona?
Where do the rest of us start? I know the starting point is love. I'm working on how to do that.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Great Sadness
What happened in Arizona is so sad.
It also makes me angry!
The rhetoric from the right is incendiary. The Tea Partiers can't be allowed to write this off as the act of a deranged person. They put the ideas out there-guns at public events, school board meetings, shopping centers-bulls eye targets on candidates for office-political rallies where you can shoot AK-47s-pitchforks, guns, guns, guns.
I already see the cry to tone down the rhetoric on both sides. I'm sorry, it's the right wing rhetoric that is violent, and will lead to acts like this. I don't hear left wing rhetoric supporting or encouraging violence. There is not an equivalency. "We all need to calm down" would have the left share the blame for this, and the blame should not be shared. It is right wing blame-Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Malkin,....you know the Fox News lineup.
It also makes me angry!
The rhetoric from the right is incendiary. The Tea Partiers can't be allowed to write this off as the act of a deranged person. They put the ideas out there-guns at public events, school board meetings, shopping centers-bulls eye targets on candidates for office-political rallies where you can shoot AK-47s-pitchforks, guns, guns, guns.
I already see the cry to tone down the rhetoric on both sides. I'm sorry, it's the right wing rhetoric that is violent, and will lead to acts like this. I don't hear left wing rhetoric supporting or encouraging violence. There is not an equivalency. "We all need to calm down" would have the left share the blame for this, and the blame should not be shared. It is right wing blame-Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Malkin,....you know the Fox News lineup.
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