Unions & Democrats, Alexandr Dugin and our Election, a New Chrissy Frost Story

                                   

As I work my way through the ninth decade of my life, it occurs to me that I will not be around to see the fruition of many of the good things which are on our country’s plate. They won’t happen overnight, but they will happen.  

Of course, it all will take place within our political environment which can either expedite or delay them, and that depends upon whom we elect to office.  For example, I wonder how successful our efforts to deal with climate change will be.  And in view of the addition of millions of Asians, Indians, Africans and Latinos to our ethnic melting pot, I also wonder what a typical American will look like two or three generations hence.  What will health care in this country be in the future?

So, it’s time to try to turn down the heat a bit and shift just  a little bit away from a focus on politics and devote some time to art, music, theatre, literature, history and the many other things which our species is capable of appreciating.    The Middle East and the threat of nuclear destruction can be ignored if one tries hard enough.  You may note this direction in future blog postings.  Of course, rest assured that we won’t totally abandon the imperfect science of economics which is both the cause of and the remedy for much of our nation’s challenges.

                                                     

What Happens When Unions Fade Away?

From Franklin Delano Roosevelt until the beginning of this century, the Democratic Party has been the party of the working man.  In filling this role, they usually had the full support of the labor union movement with which the Party’s political operation had been closely linked.  But unions, as we know, have declined in number, membership and power over the past two decades.  Except for those serving government employees, they have become weaker and weaker.  With the appearance of anti-union “Right to Work” laws, they have been able to do less and less in the interest of working people, and this has been accentuated by job loss resulting from the outsourcing of manufacturing and labor-reducing technological advances.  


The bottom line is that the Democratic Party, missing the support of strong unions, seems to be no longer capable of being the party of the working man.  The Party may not realize it, but the working person does.  


In his 1984 hit, “Allentown,” Billy Joel sings, “And we're waiting here in Allentown,

But they've taken all the coal from the ground, And the union people crawled away.” 


That says it all.

Some Marxists, and other economists, believe that labor is the source of wealth. Even without fully accepting this theory, the idea that a person’s labor has value cannot be denied. In our economy today, where there are great disparities in the distribution of wealth as well as vast differences in compensation paid to those at the top and at the bottom of the economic ladder, the working person is looking for someone to protect their interests, to maintain a fair value for their labor.  They want, and deserve, a fair slice of the pie. 


Many working people have concluded that they can no longer look to the weakened unions and as a consequence, the weakened Democratic Party, to do this.  So, where does the working person turn.  Who will act in his or her interest?

The answer to this question can be found in the results of the Presidential election. Pollsters, pundits and this blog did not fully recognize that in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, unions which always had been counted on to marshall the working people into a solid base of Democratic voters were no more than a shadow of their former selves. Many working people had lost faith in the unions’ ability to look out for their interests and in the Democratic Party’s role in enabling them to do so.  So they voted Republican. There may have been other reasons for them to do so, but I believe that was the major one, and the results in these three States determined the final outcome of the election.

(A little story:  Back in 1964, I was campaigning in New Jersey for Lyndon Johnson in his Presidential race with Barry Goldwater.  I distributed literature, worked on a sound truck and generally helped the local campaign.  One night, when Goldwater was speaking at a local college gymnasium, I was assigned to check out the parking lot for our G.O.P. congressman’s car.  In our district, overtly supporting Goldwater would hurt him.  After the campaign was over, I was retroactively put on the payroll of the paid campaign staff, and received a check for about $40 for my work, I recall.  The punch line:  The check came from an account of the United Auto Workers.  This is the kind of support the unions used to give the Democrats.  This year in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, it was missing.)

These working people are now expecting the claims of Republican Party whom they voted for, and of Donald Trump in particular, to produce the results that enticed them to desert the Democrats.
  
1. Can manufacturing jobs be brought back from Asia (and China in particular) and Mexico?  
2. Can the products manufactured overseas using low-cost labor be made here without making them far more expensive?  
3. Can new technology enable this to be done without diminishing the number of jobs brought back?  
4. Can tariffs be imposed on imports from overseas manufacturers while not pricing these products out of the reach of many consumers, including working people?   
5. Can regulations on business be removed or loosened without endangering the health and life of consumers and working people.  
6. Can energy costs be lowered by the use of solar, wind, natural gas and newly available petroleum sources without depriving even more coal miners of their jobs? 
7. Can health care really be provided to all Americans more efficiently and less expensively through entirely private systems than the Affordable Care Act provides?   

If the Republicans can deliver on these promises, the working people in those formerly union-dominated states, and in effect the nation, will have made a wise choice, at least for themselves in regard to at least these issues. 

But if the new Administration cannot, they will look elsewhere for answers, and in a world where technology is rapidly changing the need for and the nature of the labor provided by working people, such answers may be very hard to come by, at least within the framework of American democracy. 

(And with such changes in the need for and in the nature of labor, the Marxist idea that labor is the source of wealth would be proven to be false.  Technology, fueled by capital, will more likely be the future source of wealth, labor being relegated to a minor aspect of accessing such technology.)

JL

Orwell, Dugin and a Great Threat to the United States

In George Orwell’s famous futurist novel “1984,” published 35 years before that date, the author imagined the existence of three world super-states, perpetually at war with one another.  They were Eurasia, East Asia and Oceania, the last consisting of the Western Hemisphere plus the British Isles.  In today’s Russia, there is a geo-political philosophy advocating that Russia expand so that it dominates all of what amounts to Orwell’s “Eurasia.” That includes all of Europe reaching eastward over the Ural Mountains far into central Asia, restoring what once was the historic Russian Empire.

 An artists version of the world in Orwell's "1984."

The philosopher who inspires these beliefs is Alexandr Dugin, who has significant influence in the Kremlin and among the Russian military.  He does not rule out the use of military force as well as other strategies in achieving Eurasian goals as well as in keeping Oceania and East Asia at bay.  We are Oceania!  Vladimir Putin follows

Dugin’s philosophy when he seizes the Crimea
from the Ukraine and supports pro-Russian (Eurasian) rebels in Ukraine itself.  He is doing it by the book, Dugin’s book.

  Dugin

In line with keeping the other super-states at bay, particularly Oceania (remember, that’s us!), Putin is happy with any measures which would weaken NATO, which at present is a thorn in his side offering protection to states reluctant to become part of a Russian-dominated Eurasia.  That is why he was thrilled when Donald Trump challenged the continued financial support of NATO by the United States.  He immediately saw it to be in the interest of Russia nationalism as expounded by Dugin and others in his government, therefore, to prefer Trump to Clinton in our Presidential election.

The presence of Paul Manafort at the top of Trump’s campaign, until his departure, fit it well with this.  Manafort was a political adviser to the pro-Russian, Ukrainian President who was deposed by the current Ukrainian government. 

In addition, the release of the emails included in the “Wikileaks” revelations were obviously aimed at hurting the Democratic Party and the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.  This clearly was a boon to the campaign of Donald Trump.  Because of his anti-NATO position, his election would be extremely reassuring to the Russians, in line with their goal of Russian dominance of Eurasia.

Intelligence experts in this country from seventeen U.S. Government agencies recognized that the hacking of these emails was far beyond the technical capabilities of Julian Assange, who runs Wikileaks, and attributed them to the Russian Government in whose interest it was to do what they could to damage Hillary Clinton in the Presidential race, with the aim of getting Trump into the White House. 

Read about this in USA Today by clicking here.

Furthermore, a Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has just indicated that the Russian officials were in contact with Donald Trump’s “entourage” during the Presidential campaign in the United States.  Read a New York Times article about this not totally unexpected news, in view of the other material cited above, by clicking here.

But getting back to the philosophy of Eurasia Party founder Alexandr Dugin, his views have been described by some as fascist, and he also has been criticized for advocating “all out war” in achieving his goals.  This cannot be ignored by the United States Government.  Vladimir Putin seems to listen to him and his mark is all over some of the things addressed above which have been part of our Presidential campaign.
JL

The Good Life – Another Chrissy Frost Story

Jack Lippman

(This is the fourth of a series of very short stories featuring Chrissy Frost.  Who knows, I may combine them into a book.  For the first three installments, check out the postings of July 11, July 27 and September 6.  Become a Chrissy Frost fan!)

When Chrissy Frost decided to keep her waning career as a vocalist going by becoming the Queen of the Florida Condo Circuit, she had moved in with her widowed sister-in-law, Stella, in her roomy home in Valencia Heights, a new 1,000 dwelling gated community at the edge of a swamp.  It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but 2,200 square feet, two bath rooms and three bedrooms proved very adequate for both of them.  And it was nice to have someone to talk to once in a while, even though days might go by without their seeing one another.

Chrissy’s brother, Lou, had been a detective on the Jersey City police force.  Five years before his scheduled retirement, he was gunned down in a shoot-out with some trash who were attempting to rob a gasoline station on the approach to the Holland Tunnel where he happened to be filling up.  His pistol was no match for their assault rifles.  But the settlement from the Detective’s Benevolent Society, the city and an insurance policy he had bought some years earlier left Stella well-fixed financially.  Their only son, who she saw every two years or so, lived with his family in Seattle where he owned a plant making expresso machines.

Chrissy, whose two marriages had ended in disasters, gave little thought to re-entering the social scene, particularly among Palm Beach County’s numerous widowers and occasional divorcees.  Stella, on the other hand, was a social butterfly.  Her relationships usually lasted no more than two or three months, but she was rarely without a silver-haired or bald gentleman to convoy her around the latest hot spots in Boca Raton, Delray or Palm Beach.

Her latest, a sharp-dressing Italian-looking gentleman admitted to being in his mid-seventies.  When he came to pick Stella up in his Bentley for an evening out, Chrissy would smile politely, almost choking on the aroma of his cologne.

Rocky Levine was his name, and as they chatted superficially one evening while waiting for Stella to finish “dolling up,” she learned that at one time he had been a professional wrestler, using the name “Young Sampson,” had been the proprietor of numerous saloons up north, and now, he boasted, he was “living very comfortably in Boca off of some wise investments he had made.”

“Gee, I wish I had done that,” Chrissy said.  “I’ve never been able to save a buck, although I’ve always made a nice living off of my voice.  ‘Young Sampson,’ I like that,” she said, as Stella paraded into the room wearing a tight fitting pink dress designed for someone at least one third her age.

Rocky smiled. “Maybe I can help you, Chrissy.  I know a lotta good people,” he answered as he pecked Stella on the cheek, taking her arm as they headed for the door.  “See ya, later.”

On the phone the next day with Herman Schultz, her old agent back in New York, Chrissy mentioned Rocky and Herm indeed recalled “Young Sampson” and even remembered having booked a couple of bouts for him in places like Elmira or Utica where the rubes went for that kind of stuff in those days.

“But how are you doing down there, Chrissy?” Herman asked.  “I’ve been hearing good things.”

“Just fine.  I get a couple of bookings a week, and at $5,000 a pop, I’m making it.  You should know that anyhow since I’m sure you’re getting a piece of the action my agent down here is ripping me off for.  Yeah, all these folks want are the oldies.  Thank God they don’t want rap or hop-hip.”

“It’s hip-hop, Chrissy.  But as for Rocky Levine, or whatever he is calling himself these days, keep your eyes open.  I hear he is ‘connected.’”

“Oh? she replied.  “Thanks for the tip.  I remember that kind from Vegas.  I’ll keep an eye on Stella.”

    *    *    *

The idea of double-dating with Stella and Rocky had never occurred to Chrissy until Rocky showed up one afternoon with Nutsy.

Turns out that Nutsy, who came from the Bronx, which he pronounced as if it had two syllables, was the guy who had set Rocky up with some of the wise investments he had told Chrissy about when they first met.  Turns out they consisted of part ownership in a couple of massage parlors and strip joints somewhere in Broward County and a “sober home” in Delray Beach.

 

Nutsy Buttsky, for that was his full name, explained to Chrissy what a sober home was when she asked, never having heard that expression before.  It turns out that sober homes are rooming houses where recovering addicts stay, with their heavily padded bill being paid by their rich parents up north, or more often by their insurance companies or the government, while they go to private rehab centers in the area each day for so long as their insurance lasts.  Nutsy proudly added that when sober home residents need to arrange for their rehab treatment, the sober home is glad to refer them to one of the places that provide it, usually the one that kicks back the biggest percentage of what they get from the insurance or the government.  That was where the big money was.  But Nutsy didn’t drive a Bentley like Rocky did.  His ride was a Maserati.

So the two couples went out to dinner, and then went to a black dance club in a part of Delray to which she had never been.  Nutsy was tall, good-looking, muscular and fun to be with and Chrissy, for the first time since she had come to Florida, had a good time going out on a date.  But she knew, from what Herm up north had told her about “Young Sampson,” and from the “investments” which Nutsy wasn’t in the least reluctant to brag about, that both of them were probably somewhere on the shady side of the law.

Chrissy had gone out with Nutsy about a half-dozen times, sometimes along with Stella and Rocky and sometimes just the two of them.  And she was having a good time.  Nutsy occasionally showed up at her performances and usually applauded longer than anyone else in the audience until those sitting near him started staring at him.  He would eventually stop clapping, but only after he stuck his tongue out at them or aimed an imaginary pistol he formed with his fist and extended forefinger at them, but always with a smile on his face.  The relationship wasn’t going anywhere, she knew, but she always had a lot of fun when he was around.   The two of them, along with Stella and Rocky, were having a ball when they went out, hitting the hot spots in Palm Beach County and even venturing down to South Beach occasionally.  This was the good life.

Or at least that was what Chrissy thought it was until that day when an Assistant State Attorney for Palm Beach County left a message for her on her answering machine.

                                                      

*    *    *

(Watch for the continuing saga of Chrissy Frost in Florida on a forthcoming posting of this blog.)

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