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.

Treating the symptoms, ignoring the disease

The patchwork nature of American politics makes it difficult to stay ahead of the smaller indignities that the capitalist system imposes on its subjects.

Issues are subdivided in a taxonomy of specificity; a hard line/border is imposed keeping us from looking at issues within a larger context of economic interest.

National security and war issues are separate from environmental issues, which are separate from the question of jobs, which is separate from immigration policy, which is separate from the political corruption of our campaign finance system. The fact that the same people benefit from decisions made across these categories gets forgotten — or is purposely hidden.

The nexus, however, is not difficult to discern: Our oil addiction creates massive profits for the oil companies, fouls the air and water, leads to the destruction of pristine land, drives our foreign policy, enriches arms companies and the military contracting and consulting business. High gas prices — a result of the addiction and a driver of profits — drives up food prices and the cost of all goods, which in turn raises costs for business, which in turn cuts into profits and leads to layoffs. Oil exploration damages land and water that produce food, driving up prices just as much as transportation costs drive up prices.

The linkages are massive and complex and right out in the open. We can see the system in action, but refuse to attack it. The problems we see — poverty and hunger, climate change, war, illegal immigration — are the symptoms of the larger disease of corporate capitalism. We must fight the smaller battles, but we can’t lose sight of the larger cause of what ails us.

  • 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.

Once again, community comes to Food Pantry’s aid

Patch photo by Davy James

No one can say that the South Brunswick community does not care about its own. With a heavy push in the final week, the township Food Pantry exceeded its goal and collected nearly $50,000 in cash and $15,000 in food over a 10-week period.

That means the pantry should receive additional cash from the Feinstein Foundation, which challenges anti-hunger agencies across the country to raise funds and collect as many food donations as possible. The township is now eligible for a cut of the $230 million pie.

Kudos to the community, especially in such difficult economic times.

  • 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.

Getting to the bottom of financial meltdown

It’s been more than two years since the economy cratered and we still have no explanation as to what happened.

Calls for a “modern version of the Pecora Hearings — the Senate Banking Committee hearings in the 1930s that laid bare the inner (and rotten) workings of the biggest financial firms” — have fallen on deaf ears.

But there’s still a chance we can get to the bottom of the mess — if we listen to Simon Johnson. The economist and MIT professor is calling for confirmation hearings for Elizabeth Warren as the official head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A proper Senate confirmation hearing would be the perfect platform for Ms. Warren to explain, (a) not only do “too big to fail” banks now constitute and hugely dangerous government subsidy scheme, but (b) based on these subsidies, they are becoming larger and acquiring more market power that can be — and has been — used to abuse consumers in a nontransparent fashion.

All attempts so far to construct some form of Pecora Hearings have failed — partly because the issues are complex and partly because of partisan fighting. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission made some progress but could reach no consensus (or bring anyone to justice). Senator Levin’s hearings into Goldman Sachs grabbed attention and were most helpful in the Dodd-Frank reform debate but again no one is going to jail — and few people even grasp what were the real issues at stake. And the Department of Justice has preferred to pursue insider trading cases, perhaps taking the view that these are easier to explain to juries.

But Elizabeth Warren cuts through the complexity and offers a message that — outside of Washington — plays well across the political spectrum.

Her message is simple: the consumer “market” for financial products does not operate like a proper market because leading firms (bigger banks and also nonbanks, like some payday lenders) have figured out how to make a great deal of money by confusing their customers.

Will the president make the nomination? We can hope, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

  • 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.

The monster and his makers

Robert Scheer reminds us that Osama bin Laden started out as something other than an enemy of the United States. And that we helped create the movement he led.

  • 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.

Baseball diversion: Another Mets phenom gets surgery

Paul Wilson. Bill Pulsipher. Jason Isringhausen (1.0). Phil Humber.

What do they all have in common? They were highly touted as Mets prospects and went under the knife. Some had productive careers — Izzy was a top-level closer who is back with the Mets as their eighth-inning guy — but none of them ended up being productive with the Mets.

Should we add Jenrry Mejia to the list? The team announced today that the 21-year-old, who opened the season in the Met bullpen last year (which only proved that Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya should have been fired much earlier than they were), is about to get the dreaded Tommy John surgery.

Highly regarded New York Mets pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia appears headed for Tommy John surgery that will sideline him for a year.

The 21-year-old Mejia, who made the Opening Day roster last season as a reliever, has a complete tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right elbow, the team announced. Mejia was examined Monday in New York by Mets doctor David Altchek, who recommended surgery.

Mejia plans to get a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., before proceeding.

  • 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.