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Yearly Archives: 2017

(re)New America

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A few years ago, I found myself on Payne Avenue in St Paul after an absence of many years. It had changed, noticeably, and for the better. Shops were clean and bright, people filled the sidewalks, and traffic was impressively bad.

More interestingly, many of the signs on the newly refurbished shops were in Spanish and Hmong.

This process is hardly anything new in American history. A new generation of immigrants often arrives with little more than what they can carry but soon saves and scrapes enough to put a stake down. The first places they invest the rewards of restless work meeting boundless opportunity are neighborhoods like St Paul’s East Side. For those short on cash but long on vision Da Hood is not a problem but an opportunity.

This and many other examples show the real stakes in the immigration ban – the heart and soul of the relentless ability of our nation to renew itself.

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New Line of Thought

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This piece is actually from an old blog I had in 1999.  This was before the current Depression, before the Millenium, and indeed before the word “blog” was commonly used.  This is part of a retrospective heading into the tenth anniversary of Barataria this April.  It is presented unchanged from 18 years ago.

Politics is often defined in America by an intense partisan struggle. The language used is one of division: red states versus blue, Fox versus NPR. Not only is most of this nonsense, it is actually dangerous.

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National Brand

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Around the surprisingly excellent Superbowl we have the usual display of ads. It’s one of the features of the big event – and for some the main event. But what do these over-produced ads usually bring the advertisers who are spending $20M and more for a minute?

Most of them are here to “build the brand,” or improve the image of the company more than actually sell a product. Anyone who has been in marketing for any length of time will roll their eyes at the idea. It’s usually an excuse for the worst excesses of advertising, the small telenovelas which are really money pretty much down the drain. Targeted advertising, driven by “Big Data,” is what really sells products, after all.

Still, branding is an important exercise all around. People are willing to pay more for a product they feel good about – whether that is corporate responsibility, perception of quality, or a connection to a greater good. And brands are more than corporations sometimes – the value of a brand can also come in a tag that says “Made in USA” or any other nation.

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Staying Positive

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Anger over the latest moves of the Trump administration continues to bubble over. There seems to be a fresh outrage every day – now including a major diss of the Australian Prime Minister. What can everyone do?

Stay positive. It’s hard, sometimes, but it’s critical. Fortunately, it’s becoming easier every day. As much as Barataria and others have criticized marching as not nearly enough, it’s still critical as a tool for organizing. More importantly, it seems that everyone has had a great experience so far and has kept hope alive.

Morale is critical for us to last out this administration and stay focused. So far, it’s working very well.

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Conspiracy Time!

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If you think things couldn’t possibly get worse, you may be in for a surprise. Then again, they may already be worse than you thought.

The chaos created by the current administration is unprecedented outside of a war zone. Then again, if you believe a few websites in particular, we are already at war. The war, in that case, is the fascist takeover of our government against the people, a kind of coup d’etat against our constitution and the system as we know it.

If that sounds like a bit much it’s understandable. But it’s still worth keeping an eye on just in case the paranoids are correct.

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