David Speigner

Leaves are starting to turn here in the NE USA (Southern New England.) Here is a nice one from last year in October. Tropical Storm Irene fortunately did not strip off that many leaves and branches here, so I am hoping for some great "leaf peeping" and beautiful images this year.

Great article about what is really wrong in the United States as we all retreat into cynicism, simplistic ideology, selfishness, civility, decency, greed and lack of empathy. This is the result of what we have done and value. It is WAY beyond politics and civics. it is a fundamental decline in our values and realization, that ultimately we are all in this together. (Even the rich can't beat the grim reaper...the great equalizer.) "Far beyond official Washington, we would seem to be witnessing a fraying of the bonds of empathy, decency, common purpose. It is becoming a country in which people more than disagree. They fail to see each other. They think in types about others, and assume the worst of types not their own. It takes some effort these days to remember that the United States is still one nation. It doesn’t feel like one nation when a company like Amazon, with such resources to its name, treats vulnerable people so badly just because it can. Or when members of a presidential debate audience cheer for a hypothetical 30-year-old man to die because he lacks health insurance. Or when schoolteachers in Chicago cling to their union perks and resist an effort to lengthen the hours of instruction for children that the system is failing. Or when an activist publicly labels the U.S. military, recently made safe for open homosexuals, a “San Francisco military.” Or when most of the television pundits go on with prefabricated scripts to eviscerate their rivals, instead of doing us the honor of actually thinking. The more I travel, the more I observe that Americans are becoming foreigners to each other. People in Texas speak of people in New York the way certain Sunnis speak of Shiites, and vice versa in New York. Many liberals I know take for granted that anyone conservative is either racist or under-informed. People who run companies like Amazon operate as though it never occurred to them that it could have been them crawling through the aisles. And the people who run labor unions possess little empathy for how difficult and risky and remarkable it is to build something like Amazon. What is creeping into the culture is simple dehumanization, a failure to imagine the lives others lead. Fellow citizens become caricatures. People retreat into their own safe realms. And decency, that great American virtue, falls away.

I have to say, I usually lament the political morass and influence of money on the political process, but today, I have a different target. I am so glad to be out of the legal system. There is something very, very wrong with a system that lets Casey Anthony walk, allows Troy Davis to be executed when there is ample evidence of doubt and allows the US Supreme Court to be a tool of the corporations. To paraphrase Will Rogers: "We have the best legal system money can buy." I am not sure about "best," but all this chest thumping about our great legal system rings hollow. Also, in case you thin I am off base, here is another nugget on the decline of our freedom and the continued erosion of the Bill of Rights: "In a massive coordinated information-seeking campaign, 34 ACLU affiliates are filing over 375 requests in 31 states across the country with local law enforcement agencies large and small that seek to uncover when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans.... The requests, being filed under the states' freedom of information laws, are an effort to strip away the secrecy that has surrounded law enforcement use of cell phone tracking capabilities." Yeah, the US is on a big slide downward to an authoritarian, oligarchical, fear ruled state where citizens spy on citizens, kinda like the old East Germany.

Great post from Professor Robert Reich (Cal Berkeley) "...The Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, Medicare, an American landing on the moon - and before that an interstate highway system, expansion of higher education, GI Bill - and before that, The New Deal and World War II - all had engraved in the public's mind the sense that government was something to be proud of, an entity that we could rely on when times got tough. Times are tough again, but the Weapon of Mass Cynicism has convinced most Americans they can't rely on government to help them out now. The nation is even entertaining the possibility of cutting Medicare and Medicaid, college aid, food stamps, Head Start. Perry calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, and many are ready to believe him. But if we can't trust government at a time like this, whom can we trust? Corporations? Wall Street? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett? Or is each of us now simply on our own?"

After my last post, you may want to mix a drink, even at this hour as you realize how broken and depressing the political situation is (and will be.) Well, if you have an android smartphone, I share this app via Lifehacker, Bartender for Android. Pour me a double...

Wow, Obama may be clueless, tone deaf and governs through polling, (approval in polls at 39% according to Gallup) but Congress, this is where the ideas and leadership abides? (Cantor, Boehner, Ryan, etc.?) Please! 12% is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less than 39%. Know the corporate masters don't give a SH%^, but please stop saying that bromide "the Amurkan People," they ain't with you.

Remember me hearties, Monday September 19, 2011 is "International Talk like a Pirate Day!" Shiver me timbers how will ye be celebrating? Find an event near you:

Great new album from the Jayhawks! Definite purchase for me by a fave band, Give it a listen on stream: 'Acclaimed Minneapolis-based alt-country and rock band the Jayhawks have returned and are releasing their latest album, Mockingbird Time, on September 20th. The album is the first full-length studio release featuring founding members Gary Louris and Mark Olson since 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass. Louris and Olson co-wrote every song on the record, and Louris assumed production duties." Exclusive Album Stream: The Jayhawks' 'Mockingbird Time' | Rolling Stone Music http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-album-stream-the-jayhawks-mockingbird-time-20110913

"Lofgren's piece raises fascinating and terrifying questions about the future of our political system and the increasing possibility that we are headed toward something like a civil war, or a constitutional crisis. Lofgren, in describing the reasons for his defection from the Republican party, describes a Republican camp that increasingly acts not like a traditional peacetime political organization, but more like an apocalyptic cult or one of the authoritarian movements from early 20th century European history."

"The Census Bureau reports the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, a 27-year high. About 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, were in poverty. That’s up from 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009. It was the highest level since 1983. The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 49.9 million, a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures. Losses were due mostly to working-age Americans who lost employer-provided insurance in the weak economy." Something to be proud of? Guess the crumbs or trickle down from the top 2% is not coming down to the masses where they can scramble for it. This is what happens with a corporate and hedge funded "pay to play" system.