America's Top Welfare Recipients

No story here. Just a list. Whenever someone talks about -in code of course- about the takers of society I always find it helpful to look at this list. The takers are, of course, not really the elderly, rural Whites, our veterans, people who serve in the Armed forces. The takers are largely code of Black and Latino people, single mothers, and those seen as being a drag on our society.

This list is where most of the surplus and hundreds of billions of dollars went to, in order to prop up billionaire and trillion dollar corporations This is where a large percentage of government money goes to every year, much more than hungry children and the 'inner city problem.'

And these are their assets. Yet we blame illegal immigrants, single mothers, and the elderly which represent a fraction of our costs and have an infinitesimal amount of assets.

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)

Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)

Romney's Nation: Is Poverty Now Un-American and Immoral?

There's a popular clip of Mitt Romney talking privately to donors

The belief is that half of the country doesn't pay federal income tax and, therefore, are freeloaders and portray themselves as victims.

The math doesn't work. Over half of America doesn't pay taxes for a variety reasons.

1. many are children
2. even more are elderly who have worked their whole life and now are in retirement
3. many more are homeless and/or are so poor that they have no income that can be federally taxed
4. and finally even more are working poor: which means these are families who usually have one or two people who are working jobs that are so bad, that they don't even qualify for taxes. These are millions of Americans who work and still go hungry.

It's often been stated by socialists, that American remains oddly independent even as the wealth gap explodes. That's because a significant amount of the working poor have been convinced that they're poor but are going to get rich real soon.  Yet, upward mobility has been stagnating for a generation which means the more likely you are to have the misfortune of being born poor, then more likely you are to remain there.

The logic is beyond Republican and Democrat, conservative vs. liberal. It's a belief that half of the people are leeches, which means the concept of giving is doused in condescension. The poor are to be pitied at best but mostly ignored because they are illogical and immoral.

The greater concept is that poverty is now being equated with being 'Un-American' and unethical, similar to how being a Communist was considered un-American or how being gay is un-Christian. This fits in with the trajectory of the culture: wealth makes right. Corporations are people, and freedom of money is equal to freedom of speech. Therefore the wealthy have more freedom of speech than the middle class.

The logical conclusion of this ideology has been growing for half a century and now comes to light in this video. But it's not shocking. It's completely logical within the Rand-ian concept of rugged individualism and corporate capitalism. Mitt Romney is merely carrying out the philosophy to its dead-end suicide pact.

We are watching a philosophy implode on its own cruelty, craven power lust, and un-Christian, un-religious, utilitarian talking points. The question is how much longer will we endure the death throes of politicized hatred and demonization of the poor? It wasn't long ago that poverty was considered a social problem to be fixed, not to be condemned.

9/11 Memories and Deja Vu

This year I haven't thought that much about 9/11. To be completely honest, I found myself unable to conjure up anything authentic. What runs through my mind is memorial niceties and historical platitudes: we will never forget, I will always remember, etc.

I flew back to Miami this morning to visit my parents. The flight from LaGuardia was mostly empty and the Ft. Lauderdale airport was quiet. I wondered if the tranquil atmosphere was due to it being a lazy Tuesday or if it was a superstition about air travel on this day. But I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind as I moved through the desolate terminal and baggage claim.

A few hours after settling in, having lunch, I stood by the kitchen bar trying to collect my thoughts. My mom asked me, "do you remember where you were on that day?" I didn't roll my eyes or numbly recite a laundry list. I suddenly became aware: 11 yrs ago on this day I was in almost the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing.

I was in between undergrad and grad school in 2001. I had moved back home to save money and was working two jobs as a managing editor for a business magazine and a documentary filmmaker. On Tuesday, I had finished working out at the gym and jogging. I was putting on my socks and trying to call into New York City to set up an interview and all the phone lines were busy. I found this highly unusual and that had never happened before and has never happened since that fateful day. Unable to do any reporting work, I stood by the kitchen bar collecting my thoughts. Both my parents were at work and I debated going into the magazine office or continuing to find a way to make phone calls. I decided against that and -instead- I turned on the TV to see if there was some news to explain the busy phone signals in New York. I didn't know that a lot of the cell phone signals were bounced off the WTC antennae.

Eleven years later I scratched my head by the same kitchen bar in a completely different world. I'm visiting my parents now and in my 30s. In 2001 my Dad was well enough to work, walk, and drive.  Today he's bed-bound from a decade of strokes and health complications. My mom and him were making plans to travel after retirement.

In 2001 I was bored with my work, but young and full of ideas to 'break out.' I was tossing the idea in my head of what it would take to become a creative writer: perhaps movies, maybe plays. I had connected with someone working at an Army magazine about jobs. There was a vague buzz when I thought about New York City. Now I've been living in the Big Apple on and off for the last 9 years.

When I speak with my New York friends, many of them are worried these days. Not about terrorist attacks but about something much bigger that's about to happen. More than a few people have moved out of New York. A few spiritual healers have said that a big disaster is about to happen and that the city will be underwater. Perhaps an earthquake that will trigger a flood. Perhaps a storm.  We will see how future 9/11's will make us feel and make us remember.

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

I've been doing research for a few projects and keep coming across the Malcolm X/Martin Luther King debate. Last week I was walking through Crown Heights, when I stopped in on a arts gallery with paintings about protests throughout the world. The artist, Mildred Beltre, had several packets of Martin Luther King's speeches next to Malcolm X's, as if they were engaging in a dialogue by the close proximity they shared.

I took one speech from each and read through them on the subway. Two Black men were sitting next to me talking about the evils and corruption of the unions that controlled the Coca-Cola factory. One of the men was older and looked back on his troubles, while the younger one seemed to be living through the conflict. I wanted to hand them Malcolm X's speech to the workers about unity.

The main crux of the debate between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King revolves around love. How we as a people see and express love. How is love used and given? If love is seen as a burden, a passive allowed, taken by the strong, then Malcolm X's call to arms sounds appealing. As Blacks are continually called to 'love' those who seek to kill and beat them it seems demeaning and weak from this perspective. Love is like a mother or a vessel which allows itself to be filled.

If love is seen as strength, then Martin Luther King's position is more favorable. If love is stronger than hate, wiser than ignorance, bigger than fear, then love is the way. As King said, 'love is NOT bondage.'  Love is like a father or protector who guides and gives.

Of course love is neither one of these things. Love is God. It doesn't pick sides or gender pronouns. Love is total, all there is and the greatest force. The application of love to political movements is something done by man. Once love is taken from its God-like placed and used in the world of binary concepts then it must be one thing or the other: masculine or feminine, aggressive or passive, gay or straight, Black or White.

After all these years, the beauty of MLK and Malcolm X's argument is that they are both right deceptively and both wrong ultimately. And I have a feeling they both were aware of this. In the deceptive world of social movements, love can be big or small. It can be hunger strikes and sticking flowers in rifle barrels. Love can be Gandhi, bringing an empire to its knees from the lotus posture of meditation. And when the time is right, even Gandhi himself stood up and marched. But he didn't march to the capital or march to the army bases. He went to the sea. Deceptively he was fighting for the rights of Indians to make their own products such as salt and clothes and that was the reason for the march to water. But ultimately he was reminding people of that even an empire can't stop us from going to the water. He was tapping into people's instinctive power that is as vast as an ocean. He was walking to a body of water to bathe, eat, pray, and Be.

MLK's walks through the south had a similar tone of surface goal combined with a greater theme. Marching to the schools to prove that learning trumps even the greatest intolerance. Marching over the bridge to show that there is a path to bring people together. Sitting at the lunch counter to eat. Love can become a marching force as much as a sitting posture.

The two were reflecting different aspects of the same jewel. And as their lives progressed they moved toward each other. Reluctantly, Martin Luther King stood up for peace protests against the Vietnam War. He was slammed by many Black and liberal leaders for taking a strong stance against violence abroad. Conversely, Malcolm X had his epiphany on love at Mecca. And he realized that things weren't black and white any more than having to choose between night or day.

Love transformed both great leaders because it came from someplace higher.

Eastwood'ing It: Fall Predictions and Ramblings (Sans Chair)

I recorded this in my backyard two weeks ago when I had a free moment. Maybe this will be a time capsule for failed or successful predictions and hopes.  And yes, I know, I say 'ah' too much. But I'm new to the vblogging stuff. I intend on getting better.

In the Kitchen: Azure D. Osborne Lee (video)

I love talking to Azure. But most of the time he's running around or I'm off doing something weird in some funky place with other likeminded weirdos. Hence the lack of face time. So we tried using Google Hangout to get that long-overdue promise of interviewing him and getting the word out about Roots and River Production and Half Moon House. I think it went pretty well.

This is my first time trying to use google hangout as an actual conversation. I used it before to talk with Matt Vorzimer, e-cussionist but I literally was learning on the fly when we were talking.

If anyone has any better suggestions on how to use google hangout or another chat service I'm all ears. For now I'll continue learning about this potentially exciting video service. 

Real Stories and the 2012 Election

I have stories. I didn't ask for them or seek them out. I have stories that were given to me by people who often think they don't count. These were personal stories that people told me as they struggled with their lives.

After the first night of the 2012 DNC convention, I feel overwhelmed. The organizers have brilliantly focused on personal stories and how they have been changed. It made me think about how the banners and parades DO have an effect on people's lives. It made me remember all the people who have directly been effected by policy decisions made over the last 10 years.

1. I remember a woman I worked with in college in 2000. She was a single mother who had a laser-beam intense focus for her job. She was naturalized citizen raising a family on her own. Her dedication to her job was so extreme that she developed carpal tunnel syndrome. At first she wore a wrist brace. Then a more extensive brace. By the time graduation rolled around she was taking days off because her condition had degenerated so much. President Clinton passed a bill to ensure greater health care coverage for people with work-related injuries that would have covered her. When Bush got into office, he repealed this bill in his first 100 days. That's when I first became of the direct impact of policy on a person's health and ability to live and work.

2. One of my friends was diagnosed with a rare and insidious form of breast cancer last year in 2011. This was the kind of cancer that kills and she didn't have proper health care coverage. But because Obamacare she was able to get rare and expensive treatment at Bellevue Hospital. If it wasn't for new, expansive cancer programs funded by the government she would be dead. And yes, she works a job, pays her taxes, and deserves a chance.

3. Last month I met a man in Clifton, PA. He's in his 50s and worked a job in a warehouse while dealing with serious health issues. His job had safety violations that he reported to his boss. Since he wasn't in a union and had no recourse, the company fired him. His company fired him for reporting on a safety issue that was jeopardizing the lives of many workers because they wanted to keep a clean record with OSHA. I sat there as he made phone calls, desperately seeking another job. He's a warehouse worker in his 50s, with a daughter, a bad back, and no other experience.  I wonder what he's supposed to do, where is he supposed to go?

4. My Dad no longer has a donut hole in his Medicare coverage. He has suffered several strokes and has had to deal with ridiculous health care laws. Obamacare in under a year has changed his life. He no longer has to worry about coverage and paying thousands out of pocket on a technicality.

When his wheelchair broke, my mom spent weeks arguing on the phone with insurance companies. He depends on this wheelchair. But the insurance company deemed it 'not a necessity' on their calendar and schedule. A friend had to go out and find a broken wheelchair, repair it, fix it up for them, and bring it over.

5. I have a friend from school who lost his father. He died of a heart attack. His father went into the hospital for chest pains but the doctors told him how much it would cost to do the full set of exams. He was unemployed and unable to pay. Instead he went home to sleep it off. He died in his sleep from a preventable heart attack because he was scared of getting a huge medical bill.

6. My mom was sexually harassed and underpaid for most of her career at work. And at the threat of being fired, she had to keep quiet. Eventually she persevered but not without many nights of tears and prayers. No woman should have to be vulnerable and scared because of their gender. The pay gap is real. The inequality is real. Policy does matter.