Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Labor or lack of it caught the headlines at the beginning of the week. Transit workers in LA decided they weren’t getting enough for what they were giving, and they walked off their jobs. Now in LaLa, the public transportation system is mainly for the people who don’t have cars, which means the poor, as in the average household income of a transit rider is about $15,000. They are more desperate and have fewer options. But the average bus driver, however, is getting $50,000. Now ya gotta think someone is looking at that and thinking there’s something wrong with this picture.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....False labor story number two is about the teachers in Buffalo, who, without warning, didn’t show up for school. That left 47,000 public school children out in the streets; some figuratively, other literally. ‘Cause folks, let’s be honest, not everyone is sending their children for the exemplary education that is offered in the Buffalo public school system. Cough, cough. Some parents use the schools as daycare, and like their lower-end counterparts in the catty-corner land of smog shine, they are people who don’t have a lot of options.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....If you haven’t gotten over the Ellen-Ann separation, you’re gonna be devastated by the news that Melissa and Cyndy are disengaging. Oh, yes, they surely still love each other, and that sort of thing, but the living arrangement is changing. The girls have two children, and will certainly continue to have their best interests at heart. The father of the two children — we call him a daddy-donor — is David Crosby of all people. Now as much as I like his music, wasn’t he known to have significant problems with drugs and alcohol; so much so that he was on the edge with liver damage. Which raises the question of what criteria would you use in determining a test tube dad for your young ‘uns?
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....The nation’s trade deficit soared to a new record last month, again. Almost every month the deficit sets another one. These are not records ya wanna break. We spent almost $32 billion more overseas than was spent on American goods and services by foreigners. At that rate, we’re going in the hole a trillion dollars every few years. As the money piles up in overseas accounts, it reduces the value of what we’ve got to sell. The next time the economy goes South, as it inevitably will, it’s gonna go fast and far.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....The Pentagon is looking at a new piece of hardware. No, not another $600 toilet seat, though a comparison should not be lost here. We’re talking a new jet fighter, with a price tag of $220 billion over the next twenty years. Which really isn’t much in the general scheme of things. Only $100 a year for the average taxpayer. The larger issue is that we’re gonna spend money on something that (1) we don’t and won’t need, and (2) it will be obsolete by our own technological advances in less than five years.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....And finally, it is reported that Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, the head of the secret police under Pinochet, was also on the CIA payroll during Nixon and Kissinger. He and they were responsible for the killing of more than 5,000 Chileans, including the duly elected Salvador Allende. Shame on us. Again.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.