Almost half a millennium ago, Montaigne, in his wisdom, was telling us that “sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all.” [Essays III.ix]. He could have been addressing what would eventually be American democracy, its captive politics, and the fantasy that voters are making a meaningful choice when casting their ballots for either Tweedledum or Tweedledee. And those fictional characters of the English nursery rhyme are but the twins in our political midst: Democrats and Republicans, who alternatively control American politics from the Right . . . whether from the Center Right, the Extreme Right, or a point somewhere in between. Continue reading →
After two intense weeks of quadrennial Olympic sport events, London emptied itself of 906 medals-–302 gold; 302 silver; and 302 bronze—and declared the XXX Olympiad a great success regardless of what that “idiotic” presidential candidate from America, Mitt Romney, had said during his recent visit to the city. Continue reading →
On Wednesday, July 4, Ricky “My-T-Mouth” Johnson, an obscure ghost lyricist in the rap-music world, and also an acquaintance from the early Occupy days, showed up at the porch of my historical townhouse at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. He had brought his family from Portland (Oregon) to see our famed fireworks’ display, he told me and, knowing that I live here, maybe take time to rap a little about the upcoming presidential election. Continue reading →
After having been part of the American electoral process for the past 12 presidential elections, I have made a vow to make my contribution count this 13th time around, and not gift my vote once again to one of the two political parties which duopolistically keep the American voter subservient to powerful interests which corrupt America’s legislative process through their lobbies. During the next four months my columns will follow a consistent theme: why the reelection of Barack Obama will be detrimental, in the long run, to the political and social well-being of the American citizenry; not all its citizenry, that’s true, just the impoverished, or soon to be impoverished, 80 percent majority. Continue reading →
Oh, irony of ironies! We have been accusing the Chinese Mainlanders for years of stealing Americans’ intellectual property with predictably inscrutable results. Now that they have come into possession of the American Dream—some might say, lock, stock and barrel—will our embassy in Beijing present the latest rulers of the Mao Zedong dynasty—Mao Tse-tung to those of us who still romanize Beijing as Peking—with a formal complaint . . . asking perhaps, to have our Dream back or, at the very least, have them forgive most of the 1.2 trillion dollars which the United States owes them? Continue reading →
The sobs we have in mind are neither short, audible gasps of breath of those who are invested in Facebook stock, nor are they intended as a bastardly reference of those who, inside and/or outside of the company, put together and took to fruition this much-awaited IPO (Initial Public Offering). These mnemonic sobs we have in mind represent simply Shares-Of-Bubbly-Stock. For that’s what those 421.2 million shares of Facebook were: Overpriced, bubbly stock. Continue reading →
I have always looked at government subsidies with suspicion . . . trying to identify whether they are designed to assist (those in need) or to render support (for a cause). And looking at housing subsidies has been no different. Continue reading →
“Cuba will be free” has been the political battle-cry promise by politicians residing in or visiting Florida, not just Republicans but their not quite identical twins, Democrats. It’s a tradition that goes back to the massive naturalization days which took place during the latter part of the decade which followed the Bay of Pigs’ failed invasion. Expecting Romney and Gingrich to adhere to that time-tested cause was a no-brainer for the top two current contenders for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Continue reading →
Capitalism has come a long way since Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital. And so has the language in which it’s spoken: economics. Left behind are those early languages by Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes that for awhile were lingua franca . . . branching out in many languages now transformed into cults followed by schools of economists which comprise a spectrum ranging from high liturgy to voodoo rituals, the latter better described as trickle-down economics, the language of choice for Ronald Reagan and every conservative in American politics since his inauguration in 1981. Continue reading →
I prefer the Spanish word “perogrullada” to its English equivalent: truism or platitude. During my youth, we had something closer in meaning to perogrullada when we would confront someone expressing the obvious, saying “no kidding, Dick Tracy!” (Dick Tracy was then a very popular comic strip detective and crime solver.) Continue reading →
Just as businesses in some countries keep two sets of books, we in the United States live with two economies, even if we acknowledge only one. One real that few people in the un-fine art of economics, or the press, care to report on; and one imaginary, passed on to the public as real by the US government and Wall Street: the only one that Homo americanus, in his sempiternal gullibility, is supposed to believe. Continue reading →
Freedom’s Three R’s: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
Posted on May 1, 2012 by Ben Tanosborn
April 29 marked a score since the “Los Angeles Riots,” sparked by a “not guilty” verdict rendered on four policemen accused of beating a black man, Rodney King, to a pulp. Continue reading →