Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

The emptiness of presidential politics

From Matt Taibbi, in Rolling Stone, a post that Glenn Greenwald described as “one of the most succinct and accurate summaries of the 2012 presidential election and the state of American politics generally that has been written in awhile.” Call it the quote of the day, Iowa edition:

It takes an awful lot to rob the presidential race of this elemental appeal. But this year’s race has lost that buzz. In fact, this 2012 race may be the most meaningless national election campaign we’ve ever had. If the presidential race normally captivates the public as a dramatic and angry ideological battle pitting one impassioned half of society against the other, this year’s race feels like something else entirely.

In the wake of the Tea Party, the Occupy movement, and a dozen or more episodes of real rebellion on the streets, in the legislatures of cities and towns, and in state and federal courthouses, this presidential race now feels like a banal bureaucratic sideshow to the real event – the real event being a looming confrontation between huge masses of disaffected citizens on both sides of the aisle, and a corrupt and increasingly ideologically bankrupt political establishment, represented in large part by the two parties dominating this race.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/iowa-the-meaningless-sideshow-begins-20120103#ixzz1iSEHuHDU

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Another bad loss for reeling Knicks

Is it too early to panic?

The Knicks are 2-3 and look disjointed and unfocused. They lack aggressiveness — they are last in the league in rebounds and, while they are getting to the line more than just about any other team, they are taking more three pointers as a percentage of their shots than the rest of the league.

Tim Legler gets at one of the team’s problems — a seeming unwillingness to do the dirty work — and Stephen A. Smith has remarked on the guard play. But I think this goes deeper. The team has one of the top low-post players — Amar’e Stoudamire — in the league and has not consistently run the office through the post. The team has been thinking outside first and not running it inside-out.

Yes, Toney Douglas is a primary culprit and management should have known it before opening he season without a real point guard. Baron Davis is going to help — how can he not? Landry Fields needs to get back to doing what he did last year — hitting the boards from the backcourt (to help Tyson Chandler, who’s necessarily aggressive defense takes him out of position for defensive rebounds) and moving without the ball. Stat also needs to rebound more and the team, aside from Chandler, needs to be better on the defensive end (though, to be fair, had the Knicks held opponents to 95 points a game last year, they would have won 50-plus games).

Ultimately, though, the key is refocusing the offense to make Stat and Carmelo Anthony equal partners.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

An amazing list with ginormous importance

You read a list like this and you have to wonder why the creators stopped at 10. There are plenty of over-used, useless words out there, most of them being uttered by politicians (today Newt Gingrich talked about the “real problems of real people”), TV political analysts, corporate America and sportscasters.

My favorite word from the list, with its nominating comment:

SHARED SACRIFICE

“Usually used by a politician who wants other people to share in the sacrifice so he/she doesn’t have to.” Scott Urbanowski, Kentwood, Michigan

Of course.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

A sluggish Friday at the mall

Quaker Bridge Mall is rather empty this morning.

On a normal Friday, that might not be unusual, but today is Dec. 23, two days before Christmas and, based upon past experience, this place should be hopping.

Part of the problem is the all itself, which needs — and is about to get — a long-overdue makeover. But the big issue is the economy.

While we keep hearing about signs of modest growth and easing unemployment, it is difficult to see these supposed improvements on the street (or at the mall).

In fact, the reality is more complex — as this piece in The New York Times makes clear:

Many retailers entered the season “with pretty optimistic plans” that shoppers would rush into stores and pay full price, Mr. Bassuk said. But that did not pan out, and the final days before Christmas have retailers being “much more aggressive in terms of promotions being offered,” he said.

Shoppers are filling their holiday lists against the backdrop of an uncertain year, with stubbornly high unemployment, increased food prices, volatile gas prices and unpredictability for stocks and Europe’s debt crisis. The government on Thursday said that third-quarter economic growth had not been as brisk as it previously estimated, because of a drop in consumer spending on services like health care.

and so, as the story says, everything is on sale. Sitting on a bench on the second floor, I can see sale signs in the windows of Perfumania, Piercing Pagoda, The Gap an d Justice. Kay Jewelers is offering 20 percent, Wet Sesl 40 percent and The Limited 40 percent.

This is good for last-minute shoppers like me, but not the retailers, and certainly not for the larger economy.

We continue to live with the fall out from the financialization of the economy and the bubble created by what essentially was a massive Ponzi scheme (making money on money without returning anything of value to the economy).

In the process, we have allowed large chunks of public infrastructure to decay and our industrial base to collapse. Now, most of work with the expectation that we are at best a few paychecks from being outsourced and left to earn our living in a service sector that also is in decline.

On the first floor of the mall, near the food court and escalators is a store that buys gold, a business based on our need for quick cash. A few people make their way in, hand their necklaces and earrings to the clerks for appraisal. And who can blame them.

These personal liquidators may just be the symbol of America’s 21st Century economy.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.