Category Archives: Opinion

Jim’s observations and opinions on things

America is Diseased: Mocking the Dying, Profiting off the Work of Uninsured Artists

America is Diseased: Mocking the Dying, Profiting off the Work of Uninsured Artists |

How did we get this way?

Or is it only an illusion or myth that we were, collectively, any other way – other than selfish, self-centered bastards only out for Number One?

I used to be insulted at the concept of the “Greatest Generation” – basically those people who grew to adulthood during the Depression then fought World War II and either died for their country or came back and built the economic powerhouse that was the American Middle Class. I was insulted because that was not my generation, those born in the generation after, we Baby Boomers, those of us who reaped the success of the most robust economy the world has ever known.

But now I really do see the point of the adulation and see that it’s accurate. These were people, many of whom probably did not agree with the war effort, who nonetheless selflessly joined the effort to defeat the fascists because they realized that a group effort would work, this national project would work, that the alternative was hell.

Consequently, they returned home and kept that “we’re all in this together” spirit of the battlefield, realizing that the collective building of schools, of roads, sewers, hospitals and all of that was for the good of everybody, and that nobody got to where they did only because of their own sweat or their own grace. These people knew this. They felt it in their bones.

How did we forget? Because the infrastructure was built. Somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s we, as a country, decided the U.S. was built as far as it was going to be and now it was time to take the spoils, to be greedy, to get as much for ourselves as we could before it all came crashing down, and hopefully we’d either be set or we’d be dead by then.

It’s really not a pretty picture, and didn’t have to turn out this way. I have no idea how we can recapture that essence in this country. Still, I hope it’s not a lost cause. Any ideas?

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Off the rails – the case for taxing the rich

 

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Honestly, from where I sit, the huge greed crisis we find ourselves in now began with the Republican rise in the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan and his cronies. That’s also when we saw the first large groups of homeless people on our streets. If you were born after 1980, or even the mid-70s, you would never remember that once this was a very different country.

I’d really urge you to watch this as he makes the case in a quite entertaining way, and also really illustrates the difference between the left and the current incarnation of Republican thinking. Spread and discuss.

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Murder on the Red Line

You don’t want to be Todd Martens.

Red Line train at Union Station

Above, first-hand account by Los Angeles Times staffer Todd Martens on the murder that took place on the subway car he was riding in last week.

I’d read the stories in the Times earlier, but this blog account is much more detailed and written in a way that any of us might write it if we were witnesses, as opposed to being journalist-witnesses.

I hadn’t realized that the murder took place in the first car in front – directly behind the operator cage.

This is usually the car I choose to ride in if I can – I know it’s got an empty wall for bikes, and usually there’s fewer people – though certainly not at rush hours. Also, like Todd points out in his post, you can see through the front windows of the train in that car and actually see what the tunnels look like, what the stations look like from afar, etc.
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Which is why a father took his small son to that car that day for his first train ride. This, almost impossible to believe. Who wants to bet that was the first and last train ride this kid will ever have?

This stabbing murder last week was the first homicide on Metro since it started. Since then, there’s been another stabbing, this one in Pasadena, so far not fatal.

It’s not going to make me stop riding Metro – I saw that as one of the advantages in moving back to Los Angeles from Palm Springs, that I wouldn’t need to use a car for every single trip anywhere.

But it does give you pause. The other night I entered the Red Line in that first car with my bike on a fairly quick trip home to Valley Village, only 5 quick stations between Sunset/Vermont and North Hollywood, the end of the line. Like it’s said, you never know what you’re going to get, and what I got was a really loud drunk man (another “transient” – don’t know – dirty backpacks, skateboards – what is it with the weaponization of skateboards? – and scary looking pit bull, who was not a service animal… you get the idea) who was trying to encourage the train occupants to sing Happy Birthday to him, or to “party” with him in some way. He didn’t appear to physically threaten anybody and the dog was, I have to say, well behaved, probably embarrassed for its owner. But this guy was verbally frightening, especially considering the recent events. And we were trapped in a moving train, buried beneath the bloody earth of Hollywood. I thought most of the passengers did their best to ignore him, looking out the windows at the black walls shooting past, or at their shoes. As I’d hoped, he, the dog and another companion left the train at Hollywood and Highland, which seems to be an area with a lot of these types anyway. The train car was again silent, and sped away into the night.

 

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Donut Hole?

Worker charged with prostitution at Dunkin Donuts

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I wonder if there’s more to the story than the short item in the Times would seem to indicate. Knowing that the police and donuts go together like cream and coffee, I’m wondering if the alleged donut whore rubbed someone – the wrong someone – the wrong way. (So to speak.)

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Canada’s Leader of the ‘Tea Party North’

Canada’s Leader of the ‘Tea Party North’

I always thought, if it ever gets bad enough here, and the Right takes over everything and totally destroys the country (and they appear to be well on the way!) – I could always go north to Canada.

Well, that fantasy has been shattered. Meet Rob Ford, honorary head of Tea Partay North! Here he is in this linked article, trying to privatize garbage collection in Toronto.

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It’s hard to like some fool who is anti-bike. Looks like chubby Rob could get some of those bike benefits himself, like a reduced weight, lower blood pressure, etc. But he doesn’t care, obviously.

Is this the new political adoration, a la this Chris Christie model? Looks like he’s had more of a french fry party than a tea party, hey? I know, cheap shot, but don’t you know, at the “end of the day, it’s his own fault.”

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Inland Empire seniors have nation’s second-worst access to public transit… and don’t try and cross a street, either, sucka

Inland Empire seniors have nation’s second-worst access to public transit, study says –

Inland Empire, from Julia Takes Pictures

Not that I was surprised to hear this, yet it is sad.

Makes you wonder what they were thinking when they planned the interurban sprawl of freeways and suburbs back in the 50s and 60s. That cars, no matter how many, would always be the solution. That internal combustion engines, no matter how polluting, would never exceed the capacity for the environment to clean itself from their toxins.

I suppose it must have seemed like nirvana at the time, all this cheap land away from from noise and problems of the city. Of course, now that nirvana is a nightmare.

As long as I’ve had a place in Palm Springs, we have been promised daily train service between the desert and Los Angeles. It’s been 10 years now, and so far it hasn’t happened. I, for one, am not holding my breath. Even though I’m moving back to the city from the desert, I still hope we see that one day as an option – not just for seniors, but for everyone.

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Out Of Service: Milwaukee Budget Cuts Hit Bus Lines: keep the residents from working, please!

Link to: Out Of Service: Milwaukee Budget Cuts Hit Bus Lines — And Keep Residents From Jobs.

Milwaukee bus heading west on Wisconsin Avenue

Interesting piece on cutbacks/fail of public transit in Milwaukee. This, on top of the failure of the new governor to see the future and accept federal money for a high speed rail link through the great state of Wisconsin.

When you cut back public transport – and assuming you’d still like the population to be working, to be paying those taxes you don’t have to if you’re a corporation or a rich person – what you’re really saying is that you’d like to require everyone to own a car.

That, or to live within walking or crawling distance of their employment, or to only work at companies fortunate enough to be on the bus lines that remain. And this is from the party of individual rights and freedoms? It seems contradictory to me. Taking away transit options actually makes people less free. So you’re against requiring folks to buy health insurance, but you’re all for making them own cars?

This, to me, is just another tactic from the right, following their usual playbook of “you’re on your own, buddy, get yourself a bike, take a cab, but don’t you ever rely on your nanny county government to provide a bus for you” (which, by the way, you help pay for with your taxes and your fares).

I never needed to own a car in Milwaukee when I lived there. The bus went everywhere. Not anymore.

(By the way, I used to work at that large building in the background when I was in college, when it was still First Wisconsin National Bank [long gone].)

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What MediCal Budget Cuts Mean To One Man

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF1_3HfIBks[/youtube]

*****UPDATE OCTOBER 7, 2011: I’m sorry to report that Jim died on October 1, 2011 of respiratory failure. Please see this link for a complete obit and memorial service information. *****

This is what state budget cuts can mean on a personal level. This video, made by actor/writer/producer Jim Troesh, tells what will happen to him and other people with similar disabilities should funding be cut from the California state budget for home health caregivers.

I know Jim from an L.A. industry networking group I belong to. When someone takes the time to make something like this, it immediately translates the generic, the mundane, the numbers – into something deeply human and immediate.

I dare you to watch this and remain unaffected. If so moved, you can contact politicians at the links below to express your wishes.
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The below links are for the best way to contact Brown, Feinstein and Boxer via e-mail.
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
http://boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm
For Brown – http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php
Fill out and mark that you need help and that you want a reply, that way the office will get back to you. When they do respond, send them the link to the video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF1_3HfIBks

 

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Recession and workers: One person’s lessons from an economic downturn

link to: Recession and workers: One person’s lessons from an economic downturn

derelict business, location, Texas panhandle

Postcards from the Recession: I really loved this opinion piece from Ann Brenoff, which appeared in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. She talks about how her life has changed since a layoff, what it’s meant money-wise to her and her family, and also about how priorities have changed.

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I’ll have more on that in future post – something like the “Two Facebooks” I’ve detected – but for now urge you to take a couple of minutes to read Ann’s piece – so that even if you are lucky enough to have a job and it does go away sometime, know there is a life – and a very satisfying one – after.

 

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A Tour Of Abandoned Detroit Neighborhoods

I’m reading Richard Florida’s “The Great Reset,” which is his take on how economic upheavals (like the one we’re going through) lead to a huge change in how capitalism works – what and how things are consumed, where and how people live, etc. Hence, a “re-set.”

He spent a good deal of time discussing Detroit, a great city which rose out of a Long Depression in the 19th century, and the perils that can and do befall localities too heavily dependent on one industry. He directed readers to YouTube to see videos of Detroit’s Urban Decay.

This is one of the videos I found. There are more – some compilations of hauntingly beautiful stills of abandoned theaters, train stations and factories; others, like this one, a drive-by compilation of desolation set to music.

I’ve read about this decay for years but have never been to Detroit. I’ve also never seen video like this. If nothing else, it was the enormity of the area and what must have been the human toll there – neighborhoods shattered, families uprooted and displaced, nature finally taking over everything once the rest is gone (urban prairie – complete with raccoons, pheasant and a real-life beaver). Continue reading

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