Peron, the Media, a Folk Song, Friedman on the TPP, a Letter, a Pig, a Frog and the Hip-Hop Revolution

We Write Letters

Here's the text of a letter I wrote last week to the Palm Beach Post.  It appeard in today's (7/3/17) paper.  Let me share it with you.   Do you agree with me?  What are your ideas?

Recently, a letter touted a “free-market system” being best for health care, and looked forward to our getting “the opportunity to see how well a free-market system works in the coming years.”  We already have had that opportunity, and the nation was not satisfied with what it produced.  

That’s why Medicare was instituted for seniors in 1965, and finally, the Affordable Care Act, with all its of shortcomings, was passed in 2010.  

Even that is better than the free-market system for many millions of Americans.  

Insofar as health care is concerned, the free-market system is a proven  failure.  

Sooner or later there will be Medicare for all.  All we need do is lower the age of eligibility.  There is nothing magical about age 65 any longer.   

Jack Lippman

La Prensa, Peron and a Pete Seegar Tune

Politics in Latin America has always been tumultuous, often with our southern neighbors failing to, or not even trying to, emulate the democratic principles upon which the United States is based.  Argentina is an example of this.  When Juan Peron became that country’s dictator in the middle of the last century, one of the first things he attacked was La Prensa, the Buenos Aires newspaper which had a long and respected history of objectivity and of standing up for democratic principles. 

His authoritarian government and such a newspaper could not co-exist. Peron’s attacks on La Prensa grew and finally, the government took over the newspaper, making it into its own propaganda mouthpiece.  After the fall of the Peron regime, La Prensa returned to a more normal operation, continuing to survive as Argentina went through some terrible times, including the domestic terror of the “Dirty War” period of the 1980s.  It is still published today and the Encyclopedia Brittanica refers to it as being “widely regarded as the finest Spanish-language newspaper in the world.” 

During the Peron regime, its exiled editor, Alberto Gainza Paz, was quoted by an upstate New York newspaper as saying, “I am not saying that what happened in my country might someday happen here, but I will warn you that it is much easier to fight to keep the freedoms you have than to fight to regain the freedoms you have lost."

So when “government” attacks a nation’s media, which once was just ‘the press’ but is now more widely defined, it is time for great vigilance. I am reminded of the wonderful lyrics of the folk song written by Lee Hays and Pete Seegar a couple of generations ago, and popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary, whom some of you I hope still remember.  They are pertinent today, particularly in the light of what happened to La Prensa in 1951 and some of the threatening words coming out of Washington today. 

If I Had a Hammer

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land, oh …

If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening
All over this land
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land, oh …

If I had a song
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
I'd sing out danger
I'd sing out a warning

I'd sing out love between

My brothers and my sisters
All over this land, oh …

Well, I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land
It's a hammer of justice
It's a bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.

Lyrics © T.R.O. Inc.

And that’s what this blog, more or less, is trying to do.    

Enjoy your Fourth of July holiday, and perhaps recall what it stands for:  the hammer of justice, the bell of freedom and love between all of us ... all over this land!

Jack Lippman

Friedman on Trump, the Chump!

Last Wednesday’s New York Times carried a column by Thomas Friedman, admittedly an ardent globalist, in which he called our President, Donald Trump, a “chump.”  It’s about the ramifications of his pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).   tRump campaigned vigorously against the TPP claiming that such trade agreements cost Americans jobs. 

Actually, the opposite is true. (Hillary Clinton, belatedly, took the same position saying that the TPP had to be modified, but she only did this to counteract the effect tRump’s opposition to it was having on an unbelievably gullible electorate, which didn’t like her anyway.)   

Beyond calling the president a “chump,” Friedman contends that the Chinese consider him a “sucker,” easily flattered and are capitalizing greatly on our withdrawal from the TPP.   What is most unbelievable is that somewhere in the administration there is not a trade expert willing to point these things to the “chump,” “sucker” or whatever you want to call the sleazy real-estate developer who occupies the White House.  But enough of me. Read Friedman's column now by clicking here.  Afterwards, pass it on to any Republican friends you may have left and see if they can disagree with it using intelligent arguments.

JL

Popular Music, Hip-Hop and "Hamilton"

Over the past century, popular music in this country has gone through many stages.  As with the life cycle of creatures such as butterflies, they seem to be part of a continuum, one stage growing out of another into a new more developed stage.

 

American popular music has been derived from the sorrowful laments of the Black people brought to this country as slaves, the more cheerful tunes they developed to brighten their lives as well as the songs of the immigrants to this country, Irish, Italian but primarily Jewish who settled in New York.  Out of this, aided by the development of the recording industry and radio, and the parallel growth of the musical theatre, arose the successive and overlapping eras of swing, jazz, rhythm and blues, country music, rock and most recently, hip-hop.  All of these styles still have their loyal adherents who are satisfied to pay little heed to what may have evolved after their favorite style’s heyday.

 

It’s hard to believe that the latest fashion in music, hip-hop, has been around since the 1980s.  Derived from rhythm and blues and rock and roll, hip-hop draws heavily upon the sometimes coarse language and life styles of urban dwellers of Latino background as well as Blacks with whom they often share neighborhoods. (or should I, using their language, say “hoods”?)  This is not unlike the role earlier immigrants played in the development of swing and jazz.  

During its forty-year lifetime, hip-hop has been ignored by many followers of earlier styles of American music.  It was left to and for the Black and Latino minorities, and the young people of all races, to enjoy.  As these fans grew up, it has come to dominate the music heard on radio and available to all through the electronic media which appeared over the past few decades.  It is achieving respectability in the minds of those who hadn’t previously bothered to even listen to it.  

Acclaimed hip-hop artist Jay-Z has sold over 100 million records!  He has been around for years and he is the dominant hip-hop performer of this century in the eyes of many.

Hip-hop consists of a strong rhythmic percussion “back-beat’ over which meaningful rhyming lyrics, often based on street language, are rapidly recited.  There’s a tune, alright, but it is secondary to the words and the beat.  Because a lot of this music is played as well as developed by DJs, their skills in electronic mixing, blending and supplementing sounds, are part of the mix which ends up as hip-hop.  The way a song is recorded, and the way a DJ (sometimes also a recording artist) plays it is just as much a part of it as the words and music.  The person twirling the buttons in the control room is part of the artistry of hip-hop as much as the vocalists and musicians. Hence, one artist rarely will perform an actual hip-hop piece originated by another, although they are not reluctant to borrow techniques from one another. Some enthusiasts go a bit further and cannot fully disconnect hip-hop from street break dancing  and grafitti. 

Why am I writing about this, a subject I really know relatively little about, you might ask?  The answer is simple.  Hamilton!  Hamilton!  Hamilton!

The Tony award-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda is mostly hip-hop. It also reminds me of the "recitatifs" one hears in opera between arias. But instead of dealing with what happens on the streets of an urban ghetto, (as did Miranda’s earlier hip-hop musical, “In the Heights), it is about the American Revolution, the founding of our nation and the role that Alexander Hamilton played in it.   Not incidental to the plot is that Hamilton was an immigrant, subject to the same pressures that immigrants and blacks, mentioned above, felt. This is also the background of Miranda’s family and of hip-hop.

                                                                        Lin-Manuel Miranda

Alelxander Hamilton was a revolutionary, but the use of hip-hop as the medium for “Hamilton” is in itself revolutionary. The rise of hip-hop itself, hip-hop artists and techniques to the top of our popular music pyramid may also be part of a revolution.  “Hamilton” puts all of this together.  If "Hamilton" had been done in the style of a 1950s or 1960s musical, it would have dealt with the Revolutionary War, but it in itself would not have been "revolutionary" in the ways that Lin-Manuel Miranda's production and hip-hop itself is.  And it probably would have closed after a run of six or seven months.

Sure, Gershwin, Rogers, Hammerstein and Berlin were great ... and please continue to enjoy them … but today’s music, undeniably, is hip-hop.  If you have an open and active mind, you should venture into its world.  Gingerly at first, ready to retreat, but please, taste of it!   Incidentally, one might ask what will come next?

Here's a taste of "Hamilton." This particular bit takes place at the end of the Revolutionary War, the victory at Yorktown.  There's a lot of hip-hop in these lyrics, more than in some of the other songs in the show, but it is representative of what a theatregoer sees and hears at "Hamilton."  CLICK HERE TO SEE AND HEAR IT SUNG ON THE BROADWAY STAGE.   

You will find other excerpts from "Hamilton" on Youtube if you search diligently. Some are not from the Broadway stage performance, but the important thing is what you will hear.

Tickets to "Hamilton" are very expensive.  If you plan on seeing it, I suggest you first get yourself a libretto to study so that you are at least familiar with the words that they are singing.  It's a fast moving show!  And hip-hop is sung "fast."  

(For practice in listening to hip-hop, try listening to one of the many radio stations carrying it.  Ignore the commercials and the obvious orientation toward minority listeners and the emphasis on sex and violence which earlier popular music styles have skipped over. They won't be playing "Hamilton" but  what they play will help attune your ears, and mind, to what is dominant in American popular music today. Don't ignore it.)
JL

Boiled Frog

The other night, I heard two TV “pundits’ commenting on the current state of politics in this country allude to the story of the frog and the pot of boiling water.  They seemed to know what they were talking about, but I didn’t so I checked it out. 

It seems this legend explains that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will immediately recognize the danger he faces and leap out of the pot.  If, however, you throw a frog into a pot of merely tepid water, and slowly, over a period of time, increase the heat under it until it comes to a boil, the frog won’t recognize the growing danger he faces until it is too late, and consequently, the frog dies.

JL

Further Defining the President

In the previous posting on this blog, I pointed out that Donald tRump is more to be pitied than to be hated.  I explained that “he is what he is.”  Now, however, after reading his recent vile tweeting about an MSNBC host who has been critical of him and recalling his comment of a few years ago regarding starlets whom he could paw, wherever he wanted, it looks like “what he is” can now be much more specifically defined. 

Nevertheless, this pathetic, ignorant and blustery little man, far out of his depth in the presidency, is still more to pitied than to be scorned.  Save that for the high tax bracket conservatives his election has greatly pleased and the legislators who take their money and who take advantage of him and care little for the rest of America. 

Neither are the gullible people out there, still under his spell and who continue to support him, to be scorned.  Pity them as well for, as the biblical quote goes,  "they know not what they do."

JL

             

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Beer, Macaroni, tRump's Latest Lawyer, the Phillips Curve and Hatred vs.Pity

Beer Thoughts

My favorite beer is Funky Buddah’s Floridian, a German-style wheat beer brewed locally by a Fort Lauderdale (actually Oakland Park) brewery.  I pick it up at gas stations and occasionally at supermarkets.  Some of the restaurants I visit around here even have it on their menus.  The slogan on their bottle reads “Find the goodness within.”  An added feature is when you remove the bottle cap (it doesn’t just twist off, you need an old fashioned opener), there is always a message on the cap’s inside.  Today’s message was “Seek Truth,” and with that in mind, and twelve ounces of Floridian in my stomach, let’s start today’s blog posting.

Jack Lippman

Overheard on an Island

Some Russians were sitting around talking in a café on one of the Greek islands:

How much did he stiff you for, Gregor?

In rubles or dollars?

Let’s keep it in dollars?  (Thinking to himself, Jack may put this on his blog.)

Okay, about 30 million.  It was to enable him to clean up some outstanding paper he was responsible for and which ended up in the hands of the Columbian drug people.

You mean he dealt with those people?

No, no.  He owed it to some South American Bank.  Originally, it was to finance some huge hotel in Antarctica, I think.  They had given up on his ever paying them back, so they sold it to a bad-debt broker in Bogota and he must have passed it on to the drug guys.  Nobody likes to deal with those people.  They’re animals.  The chop off fingers.  That’s why I ‘m sure he must have been hugely relieved when I lent him the 30 million to clear that one up.

But he still owes it to you, right?   You should have asked me first.  Do you regret lending it to him?

Yes, sort of, but Moscow tells me not to worry about it and keep my mouth shut about it, and if worse comes to worst, they’ll take care of me.  But I really don't want to have to do that.  Really.  That could be another big problem. Actually, I shouldn’t even be talking to you about it.

C’mon, I’m your father!  But look who’s here.

Hi, fellows.   Let me order a round of drinks.  Just got off a plane.  Waiter!  Another bottle of vodka!

They got an airport here?  I usually take the water taxi from Chios.  Where were you?

Cyprus, checking on the bank.  Those guys are crooked as the day is long.  They’re even worse than the ones in the Caribbean, Iceland or Africa.   They’re robbing me blind.

I know, I have done business with them, but it’s a wonderful way of moving money around with no real record of who’s at either end of the transaction.  Better than Switzerland. 

You know, Gregor, while I was there I bought some outstanding paper, mostly bad debts, a couple of billion worth, at a real bargain price.  One piece of it was that 30 million he owes you.  I didn’t know you gave it out to them for collection.  I paid five million for it, so if he ever pays up, I stand to make a nice profit.  Doubt that he ever will though.  I figure that’s why they got rid of it so cheaply.

That was supposed to be confidential, but, hey, how do I get paid? 

Look for a letter from Cyprus is about a week.  They'll probably offer you two or three million, take it or leave it.

Screw them.

Better than nothing, son.  Doubt if he’ll ever come through.

Look, we can’t sit around all evening.  When is that lawyer guy going to show up?   You know, the one the man who runs that big macaroni company in the States is sending.   And how much is he willing to pay for us to talk to him?

JL

The President's New Lawyer ... and he is a Doozie!

Whether or not he is being investigated, or is turning up in the investigation of others … such as Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort … the president has seen fit to hire a lawyer to look out for his interests.  Because tRump’s “regular” attorney, Marc Kasowitz,  is without Supreme Court experience nor work in the area of Federal investigations, the new addition was sorely needed.  But the president really reached into the depths of the right-wing sewer which irrigates his administration to find Jay Sekulow.  Chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (hold your breath when you look up that group’s pedigree) and a long time champion of evangelical and conservative Christian causes, Jay Sekulow is a media pro who has called himself a “reasonable fanatic.” That’s just what the pursuit of justice needs, more right-wing fanaticism.  Read all about it in a great article in a recent issue of the Forward. Click right here, right now!

JL

Economic Thoughts

The Fed just raised the prime interest rate a quarter of a point (25 basis points).  That means that it will cost more, primarily for businesses (which cannot exist without credit), to borrow.  The increase was justified because the unemployment rate has dropped significantly and that means employees will be harder to find, and that should result in wages going up.  With more spendable money resulting from these higher wages, consumers should create increased demand for products, raising prices, resulting in inflation.   Businesses will need to borrow to meet this demand, regardless of the slightly higher interest rate.  

This kind of logic, whereby less unemployment results in higher wages is known to economists as the Phillips Curve.  As the preceding paragraph suggests, this can lead to inflation.  The Federal Reserve can keep a lid on inflation by raising that prime rate, which is what banks pay to get the money they lend out.  A little inflation is desirable, but too much is no good.  Then no one can afford to buy things, regardless of how much money is in their pockets.  So that interest rate is a tool to control inflation.  Raising it too high will discourage businesses from borrowing, slowing down expansion, reducing hiring and bringing back unemployment.  Keeping it too low will discourage banks from lending, with that same result.  They will just sit on their assets.  It’s something that must be finely tuned.

Oddly, however, despite reduced unemployment and an increased need for employees, wages have not really increased.  This may be due to technology changing the jobs which are available, requiring different, perhaps lower-paying, skills than were historically in demand, the outsourcing of certain jobs, the presence of low-paid immigrant labor as well as the decreased involvement of unions in fighting for higher wages for employees.  Hence, a crucial element resulting from the Phillips Curve theory, increased demand, may be missing, throwing a monkey wrench into the whole theory.  Increased demand historically causes the inflation which theoretically can be harnessed or balanced by raising the prime interest rate. That’s where I get lost.  And economists start to disagree with one another.

Okay.  Confused?  This is why I have always believed that economists are in a class with alchemists and astrologers, and since scholars in that field (Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson) with diametrically opposing views have both won Nobel prizes, I take all of this with a grain of salt.  (I won't even get involved with Keynes and Hayek, both of whom have irreconcilable differences and loyal believers.)

What I do know, however, is that what our country needs are jobs resulting from economic growth, regardless of monetary policy.  Whether the fruits of that economic growth go to the already wealthy and the businesses which created it or to the American people in terms of real wages and benefits, including health care, is the crucial question of the first half of this century.  What starts out as an economic issue becomes a political issue, with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other.

Both agree that economic growth benefits the American people.  Democrats tend to believe that income redistribution (though they will never use that word) through higher taxes on business and the wealthy to provide augmented government support for education and safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as well as what is broadly referred to as “welfare” for those who need it is the way to go. 

Republicans believe that the same goals can be achieved through the private sector, with the benefits of growth generously “trickling down” to the American public through higher paying jobs, with as little government involvement as possible.  Of course, both of these positions are over-simplifications.  Your thoughts are welcome.

JL

American Hatred - Perhaps "Pity" Would be Better

It’s a short step from political disagreement to political hatred.  Many of those who disagree with the position of the President on many issues have let their opposition blossom into outright hatred of the President.  They feel justified in manifesting this hatred because of what they view as a presidency and an administration based on lies, misrepresentation, highly questionable objectives and grounded in profound ignorance of the issues with which a nation must deal.  In their mind, these things warrant their hatred.

Similarly, Barack Obama was hated by many because of a belief that the changes he brought about were contrary to their ideas about what traditional American values were, changes which to them were alien or even subversive.  (There also may have been a racial component to this hatred on the part of some.)  Both Obama and Trump were bringing about changes which then seemed and now seem very, very misguided to their opponents, so very basically wrong that their disagreement quickly changed into hatred.  Similar hatred, with similar justifications, was directed at Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930’s.  In their minds, these presidents crossed a line and were deserving of hatred.

Most other recent presidents may have been exposed to an opposition which disagreed with them, but few have experienced such bitter hatred by their opponents.  In American history, the only presidents which have been exposed to the depth of hatred with which Trump, Obama and FDR have had to deal with may have been Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.  And today’s communication techniques greatly magnify that hatred beyond the limits of previous centuries.  But in our governmental system, it is really wrong to “hate” the president, our legally elected head of state.  

I suppose that I am among those who “hate” Donald Trump.  He has told so many lies to his gullible supporters, insulted so many of his countrymen, appointed so many ill-suited individuals to important government jobs and so damaged our relationships with the nation’s traditional allies that I have felt that he deserves my hatred.

Maybe I am wrong.  Perhaps he deserves pity more than he warrants hatred.  He is what he is and cannot be blamed for that.  Here we have a born-wealthy, fairly bright man, whose entire upbringing and life experience have been in a part of the business world where ethics are not quite the same as those observed by others.  For example, physicians and lawyers follow professional codes which supposedly govern their behavior.  Even those in banking and on Wall Street try to profess belief in some sort of ethical rules of behavior.  

Real estate developers follow different rules.  If it is legal and they can get away with something, it becomes acceptable.  It is a dog eat dog world where exaggeration, misrepresentation and chicanery are the tools one carries with them every day and where successes are judged by material acquisition, and not by the benefit one might provide to others.  It has been that way for him from day one.  He even wrote a book about this way of thinking.

Are these sufficient reasons “to cut him some slack”?   Sadly, they are not when the welfare and future of America’s citizens are at stake.  But they may be sufficient to suggest that we treat the president with pity rather than hatred.

 

This pitiful man knows no better and in his mind, really believes that what he is doing is right and that his critics are wrong.  And by positioning himself with a family of beautiful people in palatial surroundings, he reinforces his convictions.  He has done this his entire life.  “Look at me,” he says to himself.  “If I were wrong, I wouldn’t be where I am today!”  And just as this approach was enough to create Donald Trump’s successful career, it also succeeded in convincing enough voters to get him into the White House.   

This has set up the president as fair game for some truly evil people to take advantage of him to further their nefarious and far from democratic goals.  Unlike Donald Trump, who may deserve our pity, they are the ones who deserve our hatred. Some of them are in his cabinet.  Many have been elected to office by people who should, but don't, know better.  Others are deeply involved in financing the causes his party espouses, the ramifications of which he might not even fully comprehend.

If we want to talk about hatred, these people harbor it for their fellow citizens, including those who put them into office!  Look at the laws they propose!  See whom they will benefit.  See whom they will hurt.  Ignore the lies they spout daily.  And I wager YOU know who they are!   Unlike the President, they do not deserve your pity. They only deserve the return of their hatred of toward YOU!  It is okay to hate THEM.  They are up to no good.

JL                

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

Many readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears.  If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by clicking on Riart1@aol.com and sending me an Email.  

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACK'S POTPOURRI. 

BY CLICKING ON THAT SAME ADDRESS, Riart1@aol.com   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end.)

MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT www.jackspotpourri.com IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICES IN A MODIFIED, EASY-TO-READ, FORMAT?   

HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

To view older postings on this blog, just click on the appropriate date in the “Blog Archive” midway down the column off to the right, or scroll down until you see the “Older Posts” notation at the very bottom of this posting.  The “Search Box” in the right side of the posting also may be helpful in locating a posting topic for which you are looking.

HOW TO FORWARD POSTINGS.

To send this posting to a friend, or enemy for that matter, whom you think might be interested in it, just click on the envelope with the arrow on the "Comments" line directly below, enabling you to send them an Email providing a link directly to this posting.  You might also want to let me know their Email address so that they may be alerted to future postings.

Jack Lippman