Sunday Funnies and Arts

As always, click to enlarge...

I left this comment on Time Goes By, Ronni Bennett's excellent elder blog. It's in response to a look back at the 1934 midterm elections:

One major difference between now and 1934 is that New Deal programs were for the most part segregated or designed only for white Americans. African-Americans were second class citizens in the north and virtually slaves in the south. There was no significant Hispanic population, and the country was a third the size of today.

The teabaggers perceive the stimulus and HCR as a transfer of white tax dollars to minorities. (Never mind that whites will benefit from the stimulus and HCR and that minorities pay taxes.) Glen Beck even called HCR the first step to reparations.

Moreover, Roosevelt was helped immeasurably by an organized and active independent left in the form of the labor movement. Today's left is a hodgepodge of policy papers and snarky commentaries that has little positive influence outside of its own circle. ("Mostly morons," a Trotskyite friend tells me.)

Overall, Obama is faced with a much more complex society than FDR, one that has many more entrenched special interests. For example, at the time of the Depression, there was not an insurance industry, no Big Pharma, or anything resembling the scope and complexity of the modern financial sector. [Nor was there a military-industrial complex.] And few if any of the industries that existed were globalized.

Although times were worse, it's arguable that Roosevelt had an easier job in front him than Barack Obama. Even though he hasn't been perfect -- mistakes are inevitable anyway -- I admire the president's persistence...

Nevada teabagger and Republican senate candidate Sharon Angle now says that she opposes privatizing the Veteran's Administration. It seems to me, though, that there's no middle ground on privatization of health care. If you believe that the free market will provide better health care than the government, then you want to privatize the VA, as that will provide veterans with the best health care. So, if you don't want to privatize the VA, it follows that you must believe that the government can do a better job than the free market. If that's true for veterans, why isn't it true for the rest of us? And if the government can provide better care for the rest of us, why would anyone -- regardless of their politics -- support free market-based health care?

Virtually every country in the developed world (save one; guess which) has followed this chain of logic and concluded that an unregulated market cannot supply adequate health care for its populace. Virtually every country in the developed world (save one; guess which) has developed a health care system that maximizes access, obtains impressive outcomes, and controls costs...

Dino Rossi, Patty Murray's Republican opponent in the Washington state senate campaign, grew up in public housing and was raised by a public school teacher. In other words, he can thank the public sector for giving him a life. But, like all Republicans theses days, he would turn on those who come after him, once even proposing spending cuts for nursing homes and programs to aid the developmentally disabled. (Incidentally, programs like the ones for the developmentally disabled are typically high value because they require little in the way of buildings, expensive medical expertise, or administrative costs.)...

GOD/ALLAH/BUDDHA/HIGHER POWER OF YOUR CHOICE HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES DEPT.: If your travels take you to Ireland, consider a stay at Holly Hill...

ART GALLERY

Art of the Poster: Allen Ginsburg...

French Quarter mosaic...

Night vision...

Crocodiles in paradise (Costa Rica, in this case. And talk about a metaphor for unrestricted corporate campaign spending!)...

One handsome Dutchman sets off on a new life...

UP freight cars, Lakeview, OR...

Walking home from school...

FROM THE JUKEBOX

If, like me, you've ever wondered what Bruce Springsteen could do were he freed from the anodyne, soul-sapping clutches of producer Brendan O'Brien, look no further than John Mellencamp's No Better Than This. While it would be easy to call No Better pessimistic, it's actually gives voice to the (mostly) men left behind by the false promises of the American free market. Throughout, Mellencamp casts a cold eye on the gauze of nostalgia and the false hope that springs from platitudes, nonetheless holding on to his conviction that we should all "save some time to dream" while allowing for the inevitability of sorrow and failure. A significant work from a mature, honest intelligence. And there are plenty of opportunities to sing along, too. Highly recommended...

Stupid and Contagious on John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels"...

Bayou Creole previews Lafayette's Festival Acadiens and offers another one of her great recipes...

R.I.P., Solomon Burke...

Here, he goes "Up to the Mountain" with Patty Griffin:

And don't miss him holding on with Emmylou Harris...