Happy Birthday, Laura Nyro!

Today would have been the birthday of the incomparable Laura Nyro.

The Inequality Gap: Billionaires v. The Rest

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From the time the covid-19 pandemic began through to this week, billionaires in the United States increased their worth by $2.1 TRILLION to a total of $5 TRILLION.

This compares to the 89 million Americans who lost their jobs, the 45 million sickened by the virus, and the 724,000 who died from it.

The 745 billionaires in the US (up from 614 in March 2020) now own wealth almost double the $3 trillion estimated to be held by the lowest 50% of households.

As Inequality.org notes:

“Most of these huge billionaires’ gains will go untaxed under current rules and will disappear entirely for tax purposes when they’re passed onto the next generation … On average, billionaires pay an effective federal income tax rate of about 8 percent when the increased value of their stock is counted, according to the White House. This is a lower rate than that paid by many middle-income taxpayers, including teachers, nurses, and firefighters … The country’s 25 top billionaires paid a tax rate of just 3.4 percent on a $400 billion increase in their collective fortune between 2014-18.

Just the recent $2.1 TRILLION gain for these 745 individuals would pay for 60% of Biden’s 10-year economic recovery plan.

This is what modern finance capitalism brings us. It cannot be allowed to continue.

Poem: Last Playboy of the West End

 

He stands erect

his jacket checked at the door.

Surveys the floor

where dancers more or less perform

to an MTV norm

writhing and circling by.

With his casual clothes

and his casual attitude

to casual sex

he is already a casualty

rushing headlong for an accident

and it meets him tonight in the form of

Barbara

a Barbie-doll beauty with C-cup breasts

and a heart full of

barbarous revenge.

She picks him

she tricks him

she licks

his ego

until he stands tall and hopeful.

He buys her a drink and engages in chat

while he makes sure that

he doesn’t smell too bad.

“Come back to my pad

and fuck me,” she croons

He swoons and tries to play it cool

but his head bobs up and down

like a fat man on a trampoline.

She drives

he strives to keep it in his pants

tries to make small talk

but just kind of rants

about nothing in particular,

his cock bent reticular in anticipation.

She parks and barks,

“We’re here.”

In the condo

he tries to fondle her charms,

but she wriggles from his arms.

“Show me what you got to arouse us.”

So he drops his trousers.

 

His flagpole slowly wanes in the breeze of her

obvious indifference.

Less than impressed

she refuses to divest

the clothes from her blessed

body.

Instead, like a cat, she screeches,

“Whaddya call that?

Some kind of bonsai?

I’ve had 12 year olds bigger than you, boy,

and 70 year old royals making me come.

So I’m not gonna sleep

with some self-absorbed creep

with a prick the size of my thumb.”

 

He went home by bus

didn’t make a fuss

just pulled the trigger

gave a small shiver

like the third orgasm of the night

It was the first thing he’d done right

all day.

 

 

The Rankin File

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On Friday evening, October 22nd, Tim Louis is hosting a free online screening of a film about Harry Rankin called The Rankin File.

Most people who know of Harry Rankin will recall his many years on Vancouver City Council as a firebrand leftist, a founder of COPE, and the man who brought legal aid to British Columbia. He was elected to Council on his eleventh attempt in 1966 and remained on Council until his retirement in 1993. He ran for Mayor in 1986, losing to Gordon Campbell.

However, before his time on City Council, Harry Rankin was heavily involved in local politics in Grandview, becoming the first elected president of the Grandview Rate-Payers Association in 1952. In that position he fought hard to achieve a library in Grandview, led the demands for a new school on Woodland Drive to replace the defunct Grandview School at First & Commercial, and successfully campaigned for better lighting on Commercial Drive.

Reservations for the film screening can be had at eventbrite.