Christmas in Houston: A Tale of Two Cities

[TBF]

This is an excellent article (and accompanying video) regarding the discrepancy in holiday experiences in Houston this year. It is done (surprisingly) by the local FOX station, which is not to be confused with the idiocy we normally see coming from that corporation. If you have time it is worth it to watch the video, but the article also sums it up pretty well.


Christmas in Houston: The Tale of Two Cities

Thursday, 09 Dec 2010, 10:23 PM CST

HOUSTON - During this holiday season, we are seeing strong images of both ends of the economy right here in Houston.

If you look towards the affluent side of our city, in communities like River Oaks, you’ll find luxury vehicles driving around, looking at some lavish holiday displays.

Many of Houston’s wealthy homeowners aren’t purchasing their decorations at the corner store - they’re turning to the experts for help (and in record numbers).

Other communities and families aren’t so lucky.

30 Percent Increase in Those Who Need Food Assistance

It’s not the kind the store most ten year olds would love. Tucked away in the corner of an older shopping center on the northwest side, a combination thrift shop and food pantry has proven to be a lifesaver for Kim Willey and her little boy.

"I don't think he understands why we don't have TV," Willey said. "Why we don't have game systems. I wish I could give my son what he wanted, but I can't. He asked me the other day, 'why are we poor?' I said ‘because if we weren't poor, we wouldn't need God like we do.’ That's what I told him."

Willey found her way to the food pantry six months ago. Since then, she's gotten a new job, is bringing in money, but still finds it hard to make ends meet.

Much more at the link: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/101209-christmas-in-houston-the-tale-of-two-cities

[TBF]

1. The Houston Food Bank (Facebook) -

If you are on Facebook you can see their page here --> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588124223#!/pages/Houston-Food-Bank-Official-Page/90107797870

And their website ---> http://www.houstonfoodbank.org/

[TBF]

2. The few, the proud, the filthy rich

Another timely article detailing the "Two Americas" that are now becoming glaringly obvious:

The few, the proud, the filthy rich

The holidays will be tough times for millions and millions of people suffering the effects of the Great Recession--but as Alan Maass reports, Wall Street has a lot to celebrate.

December 10, 2010


A party at the Waldorf Astoria to celebrate the life's work of an investment banker

HE'S NUMBER 69 on the latest Forbes 400 list of richest Americans and head of Blackstone Group, the world's largest private equity firm specializing in corporate takeovers. He lives in a 35-room triplex on Park Avenue in Manhattan, with second "homes"--mansions, really--in the Hamptons, Palm Beach and Jamaica. His private chef regularly spends $3,000 for a weekend's feasting for him and his wife, including those stone crabs he loves at $400 each. Which works out to $40 a claw.

But comfortable as his life is, Stephen Schwarzman isn't the kind of guy to allow tyranny to go unopposed. "It's a war," he declared in July at the board meeting of a nonprofit organization, according to Newsweek. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."

And what cruel injustice was Schwarzman standing against?

Turns out it's all those people who want to tax him to death. Schwarzman was talking about a widely supported Democratic proposal--now abandoned, naturally--to close a loophole that allows private equity firms like Blackstone to pay taxes at less than half the rate of normal corporations.

Which, when you think about it, is not really in any way like the Nazi blitzkrieg that killed hundreds of thousands of Poles in a country that would become the site of the extermination camps for Jews, Roma, socialists, communists and others.

And yet Schwarzman's out-of-control ranting isn't so out of the ordinary for Corporate America these days. Big business seems to have adopted a motto from the Marine Corps: The few, the proud, the filthy rich--and the rest of you can go to hell...

More at link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/12/10/the-few-the-proud-the-rich