The Hippocratic Joke: Congress Hates you and Loves Insurance Companies

It is estimated by the Institute of Medicine that 18,000 Americans die every year becuase they don't have health insurance. In the last 12 months six million people have lost health coverage. That's just about seventeen thousand every day. These are the worries of working people in America. The current situation in this country is a tragedy. People are forced to choose between medical bills or their children's education, forced to choose between spending time with their family or working a second job to get "adequate" health coverage, forced to choose between maxing out credit cards on emergency room visits, or just letting the wounds or diseases, or fractures heal themselves.

In one of his latest pieces published in the Wall Street Journal Columnist Greg Zerzan wrote about the fiscal contention between a public health care option and the U.S.'s
current military budget. He articulated his worry saying "a nation's government can fund a military with worldwide presence and state of the art weaponry, or operate a nationalized health-care system. It can't do both." Multiple polls confirm that the same percentage of people who oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq want universal health care. It's obvious to a large majority that it's time for a reallocation of resources in America.

The 'free' market has us in chains, it's unsustainable and undemocratic. "There are...no examples of successful health care based on the principles of the free market...in health care, the free market just doesn’t work. And people who say that the market is the answer are flying in the face of both theory and overwhelming evidence." This is a quote from Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman, he was honored in 2008 for his analysis of trade patterns. This isn't Karl Marx bellowing from the pages of Capital this is a left-leaning capitalist saying no to the free market! We need to stop engaging in debates with people who regurgitate anachronistic free market slogans, or people who storm town hall meetings and scream that with government-run health care "death councils," bureaucracies, and lack of freedom in choosing doctors go hand-in-hand. The irony is that we already have a system like this in place, they're called health insurance companies.

The question remains: how do we get single-payer health care like Europe or Canada? Democrats have proven to be cowardly, unorganized, and unreliable when push comes to shove on policy. When a bill is advocated it is a train-wreck full of loopholes and compromises. The latest plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposes undermines the "public option" from the get go. Instead of having the new health care system make payments at the adjusted medicare rates they'll have their fees equated with large insurance companies. This is completely convoluted, 31% of every dollar you spend on insurance goes to CEO salaries, profits, paperwork, and overhead this accounts for the exorbitant rates you and I pay for 'health coverage.' Canada's national health care systems overhead is 1%. It's time for the people to organize for a better system.

Television Worth Watching.

There is a tremendous amount of T.V. going on right now and you're missing it. Fuck this blog, don't read it. It's 2:34 PM and you're wasting your precious T.V.-watching potential time on reading this dribble when you could be watching King of Queens re-runs on TBS, or Judge Joe Brown laying it down. I'm glad the cliche of T.V. rotting your brain has been laid to rest. This signifies a qualitative change in television, and not just in television but also on the silver screen as well. I'd like to take the time to list some of the show I've been enjoying recently. (Re-Runs included)

The Jon Dore Television Show:
Dry Humor. Deadpan delivery of some fucked up one-liners. It's scripted like a sketch comedy show, but has some reality tv aspects as well (uncomfortable interviews with army sergeants, health advocates, adult-film directors, etc.)
The basic framework of the show and all episodes revolve around Jon facing a personal crisis, or worse a world problem. Each episode plays out a like "a day in the life of Jon" mockumentary...I just wish Canada would export their single-payer healthcare like they do their comedians.

Favorite bit:

IFC Independent Film Channel





The Whitest Kid's U'Know:
Outlandish, rugged, obscene, twisted comedy troupe, I love them. Bless their little hearts. After being on Fuse for a while, they set sail for bigger and better things on IFC. Seriously who cares about Fuse? It's a true sketch comedy show, and usually never runs over 15 minutes. Their jokes and bits are unique and unforgettable, I see these guys becoming comedy classics over a short period of time, most likely to get a movie deal by August 2010.... Callin' it*.

Favorite bit:

IFC Independent Film Channel

Real Time With Bill Maher:
Other than the Daily Show, this is pretty much the only show that really discusses political issues. Bill Maher for all my disagreements with him, asks poignant questions about domestic and foreign policy, and he's pretty much right on the ball about Obama's performance lately. Also he has been having some legit guests on recently I sat down with Jon and Steve (Kenny Bloggins!)
to watch Real Time...
...and Paul Krugman (Nobel Laureate in Economics) Michael Moore (Radical filmmaker extraordinaire) and Jon Waters (writer, director, trendsetter)and sigh* Eliot Spitzer (lame ass self-promoting douchetard politician)were on one episode together. It's insane I mean...Leno can get Kanye and a nobody to show up on his show, but can he get Kanye, Jay-Z, and Christopher Walken to just stroll in all on one night? Hardly. Maher makes it happen, and he's funnier than shit too.

Favorite bit:

HBO Home Box Office

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Shows that should be Syndicated until the Sun Explodes.

The Nanny:
I have a strange attraction to Fran Dreshcer and her psychedelic color schemes framed with mod fashion sense. But what's really appealing to me is her character's lack of pretensions, endless amounts of scheming, and "amirite?" humor. The casting of this show was pretty damn good, with the exception of the children who you couldn't care less about. (perhaps this is also the fault of the writers) Niles (I'm sorry to say) takes a shit on Jeffrey from Fresh Prince. He's wittier, much more maniacal, bitter and Niles (though native born) plays a more convincing Brit to boot! The cast has great chemistry, and the writers did a great job with them.

King of Queens
This is the holiest of holys. One of the greatest shows to ever grace the Television screen. It is vital. It is real. Show me a mouth that criticizes this show, and I'll show a mouth that doesn't deserve to eat.King of Queens has a deep bench: Jerry Stiller, Kevin James, Patton Oswald, Leah Remini,Alex Skuby Victor Williams, Gary Valentine, Lou Ferrigno (as a side character!)Doug and Carry Heffernon are a couple sketched by realists, they play games with each other, they plot against their friends, they're (in my mind) an inseparable duo, their love is a spectacle I cannot look away from. Arthur (Carry's father) is a definite crowd favorite, and the chemistry between Victor (Deacon) and Doug is phenomenal. The satire of office life (Carry as a secretary), and the alienating experience of labor (Doug as delivery man)is a telling account of the politics of working life. Even the writer's of King of Queens addressed the UPS strike in a series of episodes. Even Economist Paul Krugman mentioned King of Queens the other night in a serious political discussion... c'mon give it up King of Queens haters!

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
This is a no brainer. When our sun swallows up Mercury and disintegrates Venus I think it would be a shame that the charred remains of humanity don't enjoy a little bit of Will Smith smacking Carlton in the back of the head. Fresh Prince was genius, if I were to meet the main writers of the show right now, I'd probably attempt to shake their hand but would most likely slip in the puddle of urine that streamed down by nervous legs. Philip Banks was the reflection of my scary ass dad. Will was the model of sophisticated 'coolness' 'freshness' 'dopeness' that I would never be. Carlton was the family member we all want to kill due to their numerous character flaws but still love them because it's not really their fault. Hillary is just someone you want to ignore, and I did since she as a comic character never worked for me. In fact all Legally Blonde-esque archetypical retards NEVER make me laugh. this show captured the dynamics of family, and pressure youth face in real terms, not bullshit 7th Heaven terms. Fresh Prince was radical and on the right side of history when it came to racial issues. The late 80's and 90's saw an explosion of racial tension in the U.S. especially in Los Angeles and New York. (Where the PD's were most notorious)If I am not mistaken, (which I am not) the first episode of The Fresh Prince had will wearing a Malcolm X hat. That's fucking insane. I can't imagine white America's reaction to that at the time. But I cannot help but conclude that it occurred radical to whites and obvious to blacks. What is obvious to both, then and now is that this show was a masterpiece. There will never be a Prince so dear and near.

Reviews in Short: The Decline of the English Murder

What is indicated (at least in some of the more politically cynical group of essays) is that Orwell has had a profound impact on our contemporary and faithful opportunist Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens' prose as well as many of his quirks are quite easily traced back to Orwell's vitriol filled ink well. However I think that Orwell (as history has demonstrated) was no opportunist, he was quite justifiably disillusioned with left-wing politics, but at least he had hope.

My first impression is that Orwell has completely misread Trotskyism, or perhaps I have misread what Orwell's stances are on it. He couples Trotskyism with nationalism as one in the same...which quite frankly given the internationalist tendencies of "permanent revolution", I don't see how one could be so mistaken. In an eerie way his essays on politics and the British and American Intelligentsia mirror Hitchens' rants about "Islamofascism", (terrible term) and theocratic-friendly press and intelligentsia. Orwell employed the term "Russophile" ad nauseum in two of his essays. An immediately contemptuous term, "Russophile" applied to those who in his eyes blindly accepted the new religion of Marxism as it had been expressed in the Communist Party of Russia. He blanketed this term upon Anglo and American Stalinists, Trotskyists, and Communists...which is of course absurd, given the actual tendencies of these different groups. Both the substance and direction of these political entities (especially in the case of Stalinism and Trotskyism)were quite different.

On a lighter note, his criticism of Salvador Dali as a human being and an artist was riveting. Though it was rigorous in the decimation of his character, it oddly had me much more interested in Dali as a person and artist as nothing else did before. There's always something compelling about a "disgusting human being". His critique of Dickens, his naivete, his bourgeois dreams, and simple even childish schemes to make the world a better place, again ironically made me interested in Dickens and his body of work.
This is the craft of Orwell and of our contemporary Hitchens (who has as many of you know has written a book about Orwell); their contempt draws you in to look at what someone could be so angry about. However sadly, I think cynicism has crept slowly over both leaving their faculties immersed in a hopeless cycle of knowing too much and not knowing what to do with it. (4 STARS out of 5)

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For all my other current book reviews:

http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=alexgalindo

I felt like Michael Mann Held me up at a Chicago Bank

Robbery. It happens occasionally, however I feel that when it happens at a bank, or a dark alley, or behind an opera house (poor Bruce)it's expected and you can walk away saying "I need to be a little more cautious." I do wish I excercised a bit more caution lastnight at the theaters. My wallet was hurtin' this morning, it's so abusive when it starts drinking. (No one should be alarmed by my wearing sunglasses this whole week.) I went to see Public Enemies last night. Let me tell you why I chose this movie. One it has some pretty alright dudes involed in it: Johnny Depp, and Christian Bale. Two it's about John Dillinger the guy who basically forced the creation of the FBI becuase of his efficient and frequent bank robberies, and not only did he have a hand in the creation of one of the most powerful organizations in the world he also did it and had people love him. They were charmed him, hypnotized by his charisma and his style. How can a movie fail with such an interesting backdrop and rich characters you ask? My answer: I don't fucking know.

It is always a tragedy when the potential for something to be awesome such as a biographical novel, or a memoir about a historically important criminal (clears throat*)is squandered on a mere action film format. At least 40% of the film was composed of chases and gunfights,which in my opinion is the least interesting aspect of John Dillinger. What I find interesting about Mr. Dillinger is that he has a system of ethics, he doesn't rob from actual people, only from institutions. Specifically in one scene a man turns his pockets inside out and places his cash and belongings on a bank tellers desk during one of Dillinger's heists. Dillinger walked by him gun drawn and cooly told him, "That's your money, mister? We're here for the bank's money, not yours. Put it away." What's interesting about this scene when juxtaposed with the FBI's interrogative processes revealed later in the film is the stark difference between Dillinger and the FBI. Point in fact, they are opposites one is a renegade with ethics, the other a major institution totally lacking in human a conscience.

However all we have here is a bunch of delicious ingredients scattered about a kitchen counter with neither rhyme nor reason to guide them. Michael Mann failed to have me care about the characters. The dialogue was sparse and even when it was present it was unmoving. John Dillinger was reduced to a simple 'silent' hero which becomes so tedious so quickly. I almost fell asleep three times in scenes where people are firing off automatic weapons. I'm sorry but it takes a masterful failure to accomplish so little with so much.

The Beginning of the End. (A love letter to Chevron)

While California is declaring bankruptcy,and the overall U.S. unemployment rate is sitting just under 9%,^[1]I find comfort in the fact that Chevron's CEO David J. O'Reilly only made 47 million dollars this last year.^[2] It's good to know one is not struggling alone in this economic crisis. Sadly this sarcastic observation only accounts for the least bitter part of this letter. Let us for a moment just dwell on these numbers, 8.9% of the U.S. worker-eligible population...that's about 240,000 people. This is a difficult number to grasp, but 47 million is just mind boggling, while there is 240,000 able-bodied individuals making 0 dollars an hour (not to mention the costs of rent, mortgages, insurance(s), gasoline, and groceries) there is one individual making 47 million dollars. What makes this economic disparity even more disgusting however is that Chevron is under heavy fire from both environmental and human rights activists for being complicit in the dumping of billions of pounds of waste in the Amazonian jungle. Not only is the besmirching one of the world's most important biospheres it also has resulted in the direct deaths of 1,400 indigenous Ecuadorians^[3] who live and cultivate the land in the Amazon.

Unfortunately this vile behavior does not represent an isolated issue. As seen above Americans in Richmond, VA are involved not only because they are sympathetic to the plight of indigenous suffering in Ecuador but because Chevron is seeking to burn an even more "dirty" type of oil at a nearby refinery. This new crude oil that Chevron is pushing for has been shown to release even more pollutants and toxins in the air than the oil they regularly refine. In Nigeria Chevron has been accused of being directly involved with the bloody military campaign being carried out by the JTF (Joint Task Force) which has displaced hundreds of women and children who dwell near the Nigerian Delta a geographic area of "special interest" to Chevron. The bold inhumanity of Chevron took a step in the direction of absurd when earlier this year it counter-sued Nigerian villagers for 485,000 dollars (U.S.)^[4] Chevron wanted recoup money it spent defending itself successfully against a suit filed by Nigerian villagers. The U.S. judge presiding over the case (which was thrown out) had this to say, “The economic disparity between plaintiffs, who are Nigerian villagers, and defendants, international oil companies, cannot be more stark,”^[5] This story goes on and on in similar fashion in multiple countries: Burma, Canada, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines have all suffered immensely.

There are several media outlets and journals covering this story, however I think out of all the mainstream press 60 Minutes did a great job showing Chevron's devastation in action. I frankly paid little attention to the issue until I listened to a woman speaking on the radio yesterday morning on 90.7FM. The Economist and the Financial Times not surprisingly indirectly defended Chevron in their articles that touched upon the issue.^[6][7] The Media Advisor for Chevron Latin America James Craig has accused the lawsuits from the Ecuadorians as mere money grabs set up by U.S. trial lawyers out to make a quick buck off of middle-class U.S. shareholders. Well I don't know about you guys but producing a 4,000 page indictment doesn't sound like quick cash to me. This criminal activity needs to stop now. Today marks Chevron's annual shareholder meeting and I ask you brothers and sisters to take heed and join the struggle. This is a working class issue, this is an environmental issue, this is a civil rights issue, and most importantly this is a human rights issue. We must join the comrades who have built this movement internationally and fight against this corporate fascism and naked capitalism. Here are important sources to arm yourself with in the fight against the oil industry's tyranny and specifically Chevron's human rights abuses:

http://truecostofchevron.com

http://texacotoxico.org/eng

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/26/antonia_juhasz_on_the_true_cost

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95465269

http://justiceinnigerianow.org

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P.S. Yesterday rebels in Nigeria blew up a giant oil pipeline costing Chevron 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta) has took responsibility and has issued this statement:

"The impoverished and neglected inhabitants of oil-producing communities consider our actions to these structures as good riddance to bad rubbish.
Oil exploration has brought only pain to them by way of environmental damage, harassment from the military and rape of under-aged girls by soldiers, extra-judicial killings of young men and development and wealth to other parts of the country at their detriment,"^[7]>





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SOURCES:
1: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
2: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_David-J-OReilly_XASH.html
3: http://texacotoxico.org/eng/node/220
4: http://justiceinnigerianow.org
5: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f8111bc-4a55-11de-8e7e-00144feabdc0.html
6: http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13707679
7: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/09/200892095943158979.html

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-Best Album of 08'

It’s never a triumphant return for The Mars Volta. Always coming off the heels of a fresh record, or year long tour, The Mars Volta seem to rarely bat a broken eye lid for sleep. Since their noisy release of the Tremulant E.P. in 2002 TMV has gathered an insatiable army of fans. Being as prolific as they have been, it would be a shame if there was any less of a following: Since 2002 they have released four full length LP’s, and a live album with another full-length in pre-production. This year was marked with their latest release titled The Bedlam in Goliath. With the departure of drummer John Theodore in 2007, (now making music with Zach De La Rocha in One Day as a Lion) TMV picked up Thomas Pridgen, never missed a beat, and recorded and released Bedlam a few months later. Pridgen’s hard hitting beats added a new punch that strangely never seemed to be missing from TMV’s sound. Perhaps there was nothing ever missing, and the new music just demanded the bombast of Pridgens, whatever the case is, it’s impossible to ignore him despite the sonic hellfire produced by the other eight members. Bedlam denotes a break away from reverb-drowned world of De-Loused and Frances, and heads into the dark world promised by Amputecture.

The origins of this album leave none of its workings to mystery. It all started with the Omar Rodriguez’s (Lead guitarist, song writer) trip the Israel. Always being the thoughtful band mate, decided on buying a Oujia-like talking board for Cedric. (the Vocalist) It soon became a post-show tradition to “communicate” with the board and its “guests.” They named it “The Soothsayer” and they also named its three-part spirit “Goliath.” It made demands, and asked questions and seemed to be quite moody. Soon after speaking with their tour-bus housegeist, things began to go awry. Among the supernatural coincidences were: their former drummer Blake Flemming leaving the band due to sudden financial troubles, Cedric’s foot needing surgery and walking therapy, audio tracks for the album disappearing randomly off computer screens, Omar’s home studio getting flooded causing power outages, as well as a sound engineer going mad while working on the mix. In a statement to Omar the former sound engineer waxed hysterical: "I'm not going to help you make this record. You're trying to do something very bad with this record, you're trying to make me crazy and you're trying to make people crazy.” It’s times like these that make me want to believe in things like ghosts, and souls. To add to the dramatic sequence of events Omar decided on breaking the board in half and burying it in an undisclosed location.

Despite the silly superstitions, the music itself is infused with an undeniable spiritual feeling. But this has always been the craft of this band. Omar’s compositions and Cedric’s unwieldy voice have always haunted me. Unlike their previous efforts the songs are not following a chronology or blanket theme. They are telling stories, but contrasting again with earlier works, their borders stretch only to the edges of their track listing numbers. It is an album made of twisting stories, unwitting hope, and contradictory as well as non-existent conclusions. It is sprinkled with poetry, with daring, with avant-garde sophistication, cleverly recycled aesthetics, and syntax here and there for cohesion.

Bedlam jumps right into a highly energetic track called Abernikula, a name given sometimes to the Bata Drum (a drum used for spiritual rites in Yoruba, Nigeria and imported from there in Santeria practices in the Caribbean. The band has admitted that this is their most aggressive musical effort yet, and it seems undeniable after hearing the doom-impending guitar riffs in the opening track. From there we crash into the Socratic track Metatron, with an off-beat driving punk beat layered with a nervous meandering guitar riff. After that the album opens up into new emotional avenues with a track with rare pop sensibility. The song Ilyena is a nod to the character Ilyena Therin Moerelle from the fictional works of Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time fantasy series.) Their single chases away the apparition of Illyena quickly and as soon as you get caught in the heavy 6/8 groove you’re bombarded with an odd meter chorus. It’s the shortest Volta song on record clocking in at 2:39.

The ending half of the album contains its greatest musical and existential strengths. With songs like “Ouroborous,” “Cavalettas,” and “Conjugal Burns.” My favorite track on the album however has to be “Soothsayer.” Soothsayer begins with a hum of violins playing Arabic scale progressions, and the distant funk musings of Omar transmutated by his endless pedal board. In the immediate foreground of this mellow track is a recording of a marketplace gathering in the Muslim quarter of Palestine. This track features sounds from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian epicenters of Palestine, scattered in different parts of the piece. It is their most “international” sound to date, and that’s what I really love about this album, best of 08’.



Other albums of honorable mention:


-Misanthropy Pure (Shai Hulud)

-Graduation (Kanye West)

-Traced in Air (Cynic)