Ramsayings

As nation­al­is­tic fer­vor gets whipped up in back­wa­ters across the coun­try, we’ve seen the return of the “jobs that Amer­i­cans won’t do” trope. Not only is this patent­ly false, as there are plen­ty of cit­i­zens cur­rent­ly work­ing ter­ri­ble, dis­gust­ing jobs every­where, but it relies on a false sense of how labor mar­kets are actu­al­ly constructed.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “A brief note on labor markets.”

Apolo­gies for the extend­ed absence. Late­ly I’ve been fol­low­ing one of The New York Times’ sev­er­al blogs, Deal­Book in par­tic­u­lar. In lieu of access to Wall Street Jour­nal, this offers up inter­est­ing tid­bits per­ti­nent to Marx­ist cri­tique. Every­thing is mon­ey, you see, and there are no exemptions.

Recent nota­bles includ­ed an inter­est­ing look at the art world on the occa­sion of a Picas­so sold at auc­tion for a record price as well as some insight into what’s hap­pen­ing in music own­er­ship and pub­lish­ing rights. Sure­ly this isn’t every­one’s cup of tea, but unlike less pro­fes­sion­al blogs at Philadel­phi­a’s local paper, these are gen­uine­ly use­ful and gen­er­al­ly inter­est­ing to the layper­son. Think of it as my way of say­ing hats off to the late Louis Rukeyser, who entered my child­hood as I watched my father scrib­ble notes care­ful­ly as he spoke.

Because Scors­ese clings so des­per­ate­ly to nar­ra­tive that it dis­torts our belief in style.

Word is that an indict­ment will come down short­ly for Karl Rove for his involve­ment in the Valerie Plame affair. But don’t yelp your war whoop just yet. As help­ful as it may be for this admin­is­tra­tion to crum­ble beneath the weight of its own hubris and cor­rup­tion, it’s those fac­tors and not any mean­ing­ful oppo­si­tion that’s bring­ing them down. There will be protests this week­end and nei­ther par­ty will be very inter­est­ed in the goings-on, as much as their rank and file will be.

So breathe a sigh of relief if Rove is actu­al­ly indict­ed, know­ing that his career of chi­canery has end­ed for the time being. Remem­ber Ollie North?

As the Amer­i­can pub­lic slow­ly lum­bers toward apa­thy about the cur­rent polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion, both domes­tic and abroad, there are folks whol­ly ded­i­cat­ed to protest­ing the mil­i­tary-indus­tri­al com­plex before it can rend asun­der all the val­ues it intends to protect.

Peo­ple often ask ques­tions about the seem­ing hope­less­ness of the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion as though the same prac­ti­cal obsta­cles did­n’t exist in the past. It may be true that giv­en the ongo­ing frag­men­ta­tion of Amer­i­can polit­i­cal life that it’s become hard­er to orga­nize around water­shed events. But crim­i­nal wars con­duct­ed by scan­dal-plagued admin­is­tra­tions, rub­ber-stamped by a Know-Noth­ing Con­gress must be confronted.

Recent­ly, Doug Hen­wood’s radio pro­gram fea­tured a seg­ment on prac­ti­cal response to orga­niz­ing an oppo­si­tion as well as giv­ing voice to sol­diers returned from Afghanistan and Iraq. The New York­er’s Guide to Mil­i­tary Recruit­ment in the 5 Bor­oughs offers much need­ed insight into the insid­i­ous mar­ket­ing prac­tices and unre­al­is­tic offers being made would-be sol­diers as recruiters maraud at high school’s and neigh­bor­hoods look­ing for can­non fod­der. Although it seems that the inter­net is the only way, every­thing about this effort speaks to the com­mon sense under­gird­ing Amer­i­ca’s rich his­to­ry of pamphleteering.

Jose Vasquez illu­mi­nates the enlist­ed side as a activist with Iraq Vet­er­ans Against the War, giv­ing voice to dis­il­lu­sioned vet­er­ans as well as coun­ter­ing the notion that Amer­i­ca’s mil­i­tary stands whole­heart­ed­ly behind the Com­man­der-in-Chief and his cronies. Some vet­er­ans spoke at Jan­u­ary’s screen­ing of Occu­pa­tion: Dream­land, mak­ing clear­er the con­fu­sion that reigns for sol­diers torn between duty and conviction.

This week’s pro­gram also fea­tured a brief con­ver­sa­tion with Repub­li­can con­sul­tant turned author Kevin Phillips on the uneasy con­flu­ence of mil­i­tant busi­ness and reli­gious prac­tice that ani­mate Amer­i­can pol­i­tics in his new book Amer­i­can Theoc­ra­cy. His is a tale of a declin­ing super­pow­er, a trope in Amer­i­can polit­i­cal com­men­tary dat­ing back to the Carter Admin­is­tra­tion and one he sought to cul­ti­vate. Look­ing back on his suc­cess can best be described as bit­ter­sweet, if not deeply trou­bling as the par­ty changed hands from one war mon­ger­er to anoth­er. From the inter­view it was clear that Phillips is clear­head­ed on cur­rent Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and like most of us sees no easy solu­tion from either major party.
In short, if you haven’t already sub­scribed to Doug Hen­wood’s radio show pod­cast, Behind the News, then you should hur­ry up and do so imme­di­ate­ly. Thought provoking…and portable!