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Three on Greece

Thu, 3 Nov 2011, 12:00 AM (-06:00)

So what’s with Greece? Three data points that are refreshingly free of smoke.

1. Kevin Drum has a conversation on Greece and explains how this is not about fixing things but rather a struggle between Greece and its creditors over the huge loses from a train wreck that’s inevitably coming.

2.Yves Smith’s interprets Papandreou’s recent call for a popular referendum on the “rescue plan” that the creditors thought was a done deal is a way to stick it to them, and how the trap is about to snap shut.

3. Barry Ritholtz summarizes the argument that Greece should pull an Iceland, in which they guarantee bank deposits but let the creditors get the soaking their reckless greed deserves.

So Many Words

Tue, 1 Nov 2011, 06:39 PM (-06:00)

We were trying to figure out what to say. What to put into the memo. What was important. And what was not.

I was at the whiteboard jotting down ideas, drawing pictures of how our argument should look. She was typing into a laptop and poking holes in my scribbles and sketches, adding points that I had forgotten.

Then we switched places.

She stood at the board for a while. I sat at the table and typed. And then, having finished the bulk of our work, we switched places again.

“Can we go home?” I asked.

She looked at what I had written.

“Not yet. I need to insert a few commas. So many words, you know.”

I turned to look at her—whatever. I wanted to go home. So I turned to the blackboard and erased our trails while she sat back at the laptop.

When I finished and the board was clean again, I turned around.

“Hmph,” she said. “It doesn’t need commas, afterall.”

And then we went home.

William

Tue, 1 Nov 2011, 06:26 PM (-06:00)

He has white hair and a long, white beard. If it were Christmas time, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in a big, red suit.

He talks with a friendly drawl: a tone and way of speaking that makes him easy to listen to. Listening to him, you want to be his friend. And he dresses down: blue jeans, tennis shoes, never a tie. He looks like he sounds: pleasant, low-key, easy to get along with.

So we had a big meeting the other day.

It had been on our calendars for a very long time. A meeting in a big, fancy room with big, fancy monitors on the walls and microphones within the reach of everyone. A meeting with higher-ups seated around a long table that encircled a podium. A meeting where the presenters all wore ties.

William was one of the presenters.

We passed him in the hallway beforehand. He was wearing dress slacks and a long-sleeved dress shirt. And he was wearing a tie. A tie! William was wearing a tie! But as he passed, we noticed that he was also wearing running shoes. Running shoes with his tie.

You know, you gotta draw the line somewhere, otherwise folks might begin to wonder.

As I Sat at My Desk

Mon, 31 Oct 2011, 09:34 PM (-06:00)

As I sat at my desk, I looked out the window.

A Squirrel was out there, sitting on the old Ash tree stump, bushy tail curled once, curled twice, eating a found pecan. A Monarch fluttered among the yellow Cowpen Daisy blossoms. Lesser Goldfinches splashed in the birdbaths sitting on the ground beneath the Lacey Oak. A bee was flying about the red Salvia Gregii blossoms beneath the Texas Persimmon. A Grackled chased a Mockingbird away.

I looked back at my computer screen to finish composing my email message.

Being Consistent

Mon, 31 Oct 2011, 09:24 PM (-06:00)

I looked over at him sitting at the table next to me as he opened his laptop. It wasn’t his usual black monstrosity. It was silver and sleek and had a white bitten-out Apple on the cover.

“You have a Mac!”

He turned slowly and said, “That’s what you said three weeks ago.”

Right. Credit for being consistent?

Beginning to Wonder

Thu, 20 Oct 2011, 07:22 AM (-06:00)

“What are you doing, man?”

“What do you mean?”

“That Occupy Austin thing. Why on Earth are you wasting your time with that?”

He stands there thinking for a while.

“It’s a movement,” he said. “A movement that captures the spirit of what I think is wonderful with this country to characterize what has me most depressed about this country. It’s a movement…”

“No, no, no. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m worried about what you’ve been doing down there. I mean you said you brought home a horse!“

He stands there for a moment and then sighs.

“For heaven’s sake. I didn’t bring home a horse. I came home hoarse. It was a typo. I’ve fixed it.”

“Oh. That’s a relief. I was beginning to wonder.”

Occupy Ruminations

Wed, 19 Oct 2011, 06:16 PM (-06:00)

It must be said that you don’t see these folks toting guns. And you don’t see race-baiting or talk about Jews and ovens or faces of Obama superimposed on fascist uniforms. There are no screaming claims of sodomy or socialism or jokes about Obama rhyming with Osama or pokes at having Hussein as a middle name. There was a sign that read “Not So Fast You Greedy Bastards” which I suppose has an air of meanness about it. Still, this isn’t a movement rooted in hatred.

It’s a movement built of people who are just tired of the way the game is rigged for those at the top, and they are trying to say they’ve had enough.

I confess, I’m an engineer, and I see the world in terms of well defined problems to be solved by specific solutions. And so my instinct is to wonder where the problem definitions are. Where are the proposed solutions? What are their demands?

But to ask those questions is to get ahead of where we really need to be. The first step is admitting you have a problem. And this is my take on what to make of all of this. We have a very big problem, and we have to admit it before we can do anything about it.

This, as I see it, is why the Occupy movement is important. Before we argue about specific demands, before we craft specific legislation, before we call for specific regulations, before all that, we need to see into the heart of this broken wreck.

occupyaustin frames the problem like this:

1. Our democracy is broken. Corporate influence in the guise of corporate personhood and the role of lobbying and money our political process is stifling the voice of the people. This movement is about democracy.

2. Our economy is broken. Four words: too big to fail. This movement is about economic security.

3. There are no consequences for financial recklessness. There need to be repercussions for corporations and financial institutions who bring this nation to its knees. This movement is about corporate responsibility.

4. The rich get richer while the gilded age returns. Corporations and the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. This movement is about financial fairness.

occupygeorge frames the problem like this:

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These are broad terms that can pull together many people. The 99%. With a critical mass of people behind an acknowledgment like this of the problems our system faces, perhaps then the elite and powerful can turn their attention to steering a system that runs consistently with the principles our republic was founded on.

Clearly if they don’t get slapped in the face with the farce that is the current game, they don’t plan to do anything other than what they have been doing all along.

Occupy is that slap.

Occupy Impressions

Tue, 18 Oct 2011, 09:03 PM (-06:00)

It was 10:30 in the morning. I thought I was late, but the march wasn’t supposed to start for an hour.

“Do you need any help?” I asked.

“We’ve got it covered,” the girl behind the table told me. But just then someone walked up who did need help.

So I filled up helium balloons. Big, yellow balloons with yellow ribbons for any little kids who might happen by. Actually, I helped Aurora, a girl standing next to me, do the helium filling. I got to tie the knots and attach the ribbons. And a heavyset woman standing next to us put each balloon/ribbon pair around her wrist and started joking that she was just the person for the job, because she was not about to float away.

The gathering was on the plaza in front of City Hall, along César Chavez Street, looking out across the river to the south side of town. People were sitting in the grass. They were on benches. They were napping in the shade under the trees and under the solar-panel bedecked awning that covers the grandstand build into the side of City Hall.

There were people here with dreadlocks. There were people with no shirts and no shoes. There were people with plaid shirts and fancy shoes. There were young people. There were old people. There were people registering other people to vote. There was child care and a welcome table. There were big postcards to sign to send to Zuccotti Park. There were people talking on the stage.

There were people raising their “sparkly hands” in support of the speakers on stage. And when the PA went out, they would fall back to the “human microphone” that is not only useful (is not only useful) as a fallback (as a fallback) but has the amazing effect (but has the amazing effect) of making you understand the words better (of making you understand the words better), since they are literally passing (since they are literally passing) in your ears and out your own mouth (in your ears and out your own mouth).

You could pick up a pen and write your own sign on poster board and tape it to wooden sticks. Or there were signs leaning against the wall that you could use. There were people standing by the street waving arms and smiling at the cars passing by. And there were cars honking support. And trucks with hollering guys telling us to go get a job. (On Saturday, they yelled this, evidently forgetting what day most people work on.)

And at 11:30 sharp there was the march to Chase Bank for people to close their accounts and then on to the Texas Capitol. A march with more people than would fit the sidewalks. Enough people that the police blocked traffic for us and let us walk in the streets. Enough people that the chants rolled over each other as one cadence from the back caught up with another one moving to the back.

I came home hoarse that night.

I Saw Your Smile

Tue, 18 Oct 2011, 04:08 PM (-06:00)

I sat in the chair with my arms over my head and my legs on the footrest. In just minutes I fell asleep, hastened by the full-body soreness of a day of lifting rocks.

It was a deep sleep that lasted only a few minutes but left me feeling like a new person (although the soreness persisted). And as I woke, I opened my eyes and saw you across the room in the yellow glow of the lamp reading something on your laptop.

I saw you reading and smiling as you sat that golden light, and I thanked the world for this life at this moment in this place with you.

occupyaustin people

Sat, 15 Oct 2011, 09:52 PM (-06:00)

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish…