Friday Fish Wrap: January 22, 2010

Oh, my! The Itzhak Perlman performance last night at the Pioneer Center was, perhaps, the highlight of my week. Perlman has still ‘got it’ in great musical abundance, as he seemed to communicate via telepathy with pianist Rohan De Silva.

My favorite piece was the 1933 Suite Italienne for violin & piano, by Igor Stravinsky. Adapted from the eighteenth century works of  Giambattista Pergolesi, Stravinsky himself described it as the “the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible.” For me, it musically evokes the entire zeitgeist of modernism, much like Raymond Loewy did for industrial design.

(Susanna Yoko Henkel - violin Itamar Golan - piano)

Even better, Natacha went with me. I asked her if she’d ever been to a live classical performance before. She hadn’t. Her only previous experience with classics was hearing a Mozart CD back in Africa. I think more tickets are in order. She really loved the experience.

Furthermore, the performance was a welcome bit of time away from the Haiti overload. I feel guilty even saying that. The people there can’t escape it.

The goods news is that Haitian kids - from the Gods’ Littlest Angelsorphanage - are already with new adoptive families in the United States, and the push is on to find desperately needed medical supplies for the incoming orphans.

I know we can’t quit this effort. In fact, I’m already beginning to see the smallest stirrings of incredible potential for some many good things to come of this catastrophe - if we don’t falter.

Here’s a concept to mull over: what about putting GLA or your favorite Haitian charity in an automatic billpay, so that $25 or more goes every month for the rest of the year?

I don’t know about how you manage to piss away $25, I know I spill that much in liquor.

It’s all so bizarre … an unapologetic secular humanist atheist helping a very religiously based orphanage. Or, at least it’s weird until you see the faces of those kids. That seems to transcend philosophical differences.

So, besides Haiti, what would you say defines this week?

I say it’s the outrage that just came out of the Supreme Court in the form of a decision that, essentially, says: all bets are off, and corporate America trumps the average flesh and blood voter.

That’s right. Bloodless, artificial entities - bundles of contracts - are being given the same First Amendment speech rights as you and I. This is pure deviltry and could completely destroy our representative democracy.

As Colorado Senator, Michael Bennet says: ” This new ruling allows corporations to flood our political system with unlimited contributions, effectively drowning out any citizen’s voice opposed to corporate interests.”

The good news here: Public Citizen is mounting a campaign to stop this deliberate hijacking of democracy. I hope you will join them. Go to the Public Citizen website and learn more, then contact your representatives and senators to tell them that they need to enact immediate legislative relief from this wrongheaded decision.

Here is analysis by Shields and Brooks (in the last part of the video):

Here’s another bright spot: Just when you thought Obama had retired, he’s actually getting tough with the banking and financial industry - essentially doing what I’ve been whining about for a year now - and re-instituting the Glas-Stegall Act. This would again separate banks from outfits like Goldman-Sachs. The point here is to protect FDIC - taxpayer protected savings - from greedy highbinders who want to play games with derivatives et al.

It also looks like Elizabeth Warren might get her wish, and the American people get some protection, with a real financial consumer protection agency. I hope. I hope.

Now if Obama would get rid of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner - neither of whom wanted these reforms - and get some people in there with a more populist bent that aren’t married to Wall Street ….

And, finally a totally cool thing may happen in New Mexico.

If you’re a regular reader you may have noticed the Move Your Money campaign, started by Arianna Huffington and a few others. It’s about moving your money out of the banks that are ‘too big to fail’ like Bank of America, Wells Fargo et al.

According to Huffington Post: 

“New Mexico state representative Brian Egolf has introduced a bill to move the state’s money out of Bank of America and into banks and credit unions chartered in New Mexico.”

And, Governor Bill Richardson is onboard, too. Luv ya, Bill ! (I was an early Richardson supporter in 2008).

Rock on!!

Well, I’m going to dive into a cold Manhattan now.

Oh, hey L. C. … sorry that I wasn’t working this afternoon and unavailable:

Have a wonderful weekend. Sunday could be an awesome morning for skiing after the snow dump we’ve had lately.

I’ll let myself out.

maven