american hunger

Is it possible we live in a broken country where children go hungry, and there is no political will to fight this or merely a state in which the two major "sides" have no ability, interest, or need to do so?

Of course, the DJIA has continued to improve upon its record close of yesterday, and in national newspapers we're joking about the "snowquester," so it's possible everything will be fine.

Or, near fine, at the very least. I suppose we should note that James Joyce's children also lived in poverty. Quite often, I think.

bargain or betrayal?

I couldn't help but notice that President Obama's new "signaling" that he is prepared to discuss cuts to the social safety net, and such programs as social security and medicaid, is exactly what Bill Black has been terming the administration's marketed Grand Bargain which in essence is a Great Betrayal for the vast majority of Americans.

Black, and many others, suggest that both parties are responsible, perhaps equally, for the Sequester and its impending "austerity" that will indeed hurt the less fortunate much more than the "haves." It's all very reminscent of President Clinton's "successful" reform, termed Welfare-to-Work, but I wouldn't want President Bush's No Child Left Behind to feel neglected here. I suppose it's just crazy fun that all these nifty new programs appear effective when the economy is on the rise or on the mend.

Alas, unlike Clinton's boom years and even Bush's housing bubble "good times," this "recovery," is a recovery of corporate profits and not one that is producing jobs that real living "regular" Americans can or will do. As everyone has noted, though, we are producing drones, food stamps, and the novelty of concurrent rising student-debt default rates and relief programs. Hey, we may not have the cure for all the debt burdens plaguing the median American, but at least we can rest easy knowing that President Obama has chosen a budget specialist straight out of Made-in-the-USA Wal-Mart to help heal our national wounds.

But what else is new?

Health coverage, or so we can hope.

the poetics of pensions

Dow 14,000 or not, according to plenty of sources, we're in a persistent recession for black Americans, older workers, and more or less, the rest of the country.

With an impending sequester and the promise of a million or more job cuts, things could get even worse before they get better, or possibly, they won't ever get better for most human beings on the planet. So to recap, that'd be worse and then worse again. . . maybe a meandering, a lull between worses upon occasion, but we'll see.

Somehow it all reminded me of this Kevin Varrone poem* posted on the homepage of the Pennsylvania Book Center. I'll be sure to hit him up for some cash if I ever run into him in Philly.

*The Kevin Varrone poem has disappeared with the Pennsylvania Book Center, so I found a replacement poem by Varrone.