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Excerpt: "I laid awake and dreamt of ships. Passing through night. Searching for shelter. Stopping at no harbour."


Sunday Song: Daniel Lanois | Fisherman's Daughter

By Daniel Lanois, YouTube

22 August 21


Canadian artist, musician, lyricist and record producer Daniel Lanois. (photo: Acadie Press Photo)


Lyrics, Daniel Lanois, Fisherman's Daughter. Written by Daniel Lanois, from the 1989 album, Acadie.

Fisherman's Daughter

I laid awake a whole night long
Waiting for the sun
To beat down on my head
In this broken bed

I laid awake and dreamt of ships
Passing through night
Searching for shelter
Stopping at no harbour

I heard the screaming waters call
Sixty sailors' names
Raging words pounding on the sail
Like an angry whale

I felt the iron rudder skip
The smell of seeping oil
The heat of slipping rope
Failing hands, failing hope

Every sailor asks
Asks the question about the cargo he is carrying

God's anger broke through the clouds
And he spilt the cargo for all to see
The fault of the sailor, the fault of he
Who asks no questions about the cargo he is carrying

Fishes and tales
And a fisherman's daughter
Walks in the rain
She walks to the water
To the sea
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+19 # MidwestTom 2015-05-21 14:23
I agree with Reich on this one. However, as I see it the small businesses of today are 90% Republican, and they realize that the giants contribute to who ever will push their agenda whether Democrat or Republican. In '08 Democrats got more from Wall Street than Republicans, and Hillary has already gotten 10's of millions from Wall Street, a number that will add a "0" before the election.

Big business does not worry about all of the rules with $500 to $10,000 fines that government keeps passing. The government knows that they cannot pick a small fight with Ford or Exxon and win, but they can scar the shit out of Al's bakery if he doesn't have MSDS forms on hand for his floor wax.

The last two years are the first time since WWII that small business closings are now exceeding startups by larger numbers every month. This does not bode well forth future.
 
 
+9 # sea7kenp 2015-05-21 17:20
Where's your source that Democrats got "MORE" than Republicans, from Wall Street? (They [dems] got a "good chunk", but I'll only believe "More", from a good source).

Thank you.

Kenneth Parker
 
 
+1 # MidwestTom 2015-05-21 19:47
I am looking for the overall wall street numbers, but this article by CNN reports that Goldman Sacks employees donated four times as much to Obama than they did to McCain.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/20/obama.goldman.donations/

So GS is a good start on proof.
 
 
0 # bingers 2015-05-24 17:16
And the military gave far more to Obama than McCain. So?
 
 
0 # MidwestTom 2015-05-21 19:49
Found it, and you will be shocked by the numbers:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katehicks/2011/10/12/by_the_numbers_who_did_wall_street_buy_in_2008
 
 
+1 # opinionaire 2015-05-22 07:38
Just read this article and--not knowing the site--read some others. This author appears to be both smug and a member of the right wing apologists crowd. Since this is my first foray to this site, I cannot be sure, but am quite familiar with numbers manipulation. I cannot put much credence behind this report without a triangulating one.
 
 
+3 # reiverpacific 2015-05-22 10:05
Quoting opinionaire:
Just read this article and--not knowing the site--read some others. This author appears to be both smug and a member of the right wing apologists crowd. Since this is my first foray to this site, I cannot be sure, but am quite familiar with numbers manipulation. I cannot put much credence behind this report without a triangulating one.


You are obviously blinded and blinkered if you consider Dr. Reich to be Right-Wing apologist OR smug.
We get several trolls who fit that description on this site and they invariably -with but one or two exceptions- dash in from the shadowy sidelines, hurl an insult at rational voices and dash back again without ant backup, rhyme nor reason and never respond to any challenges from readers or posters.
 
 
+2 # opinionaire 2015-05-22 12:45
Gee, I was referring to the statement above the remark I made, the "townhall.com" article. I imagined that was clear by the placement, but apparently you took it to mean a slam of Dr. Reich. It was not.
 
 
0 # reiverpacific 2015-05-22 15:33
Quoting opinionaire:
Gee, I was referring to the statement above the remark I made, the "townhall.com" article. I imagined that was clear by the placement, but apparently you took it to mean a slam of Dr. Reich. It was not.


So who "authored" the article from which you culled y'r opinion; Santa McClause?
 
 
+2 # opinionaire 2015-05-22 15:51
I have to assume you are still acting on the belief that I am criticizing Dr. Reich's article. I was referring to the one to which MidwestTom provided a link, the Town Hall site and the article authored by Kate Hicks in 2011.
 
 
+1 # reiverpacific 2015-05-22 16:58
Quoting opinionaire:
I have to assume you are still acting on the belief that I am criticizing Dr. Reich's article. I was referring to the one to which MidwestTom provided a link, the Town Hall site and the article authored by Kate Hicks in 2011.

Ah -well now you explained it.
I think I wasn't the only one to be confused though.
OK -'nuff said; thanks.
 
 
+1 # bingers 2015-05-24 17:18
The next time Town Hall tells the truth will be the first time, Using them for backup is proof you have nothing to offer.
 
 
+1 # MidwestTom 2015-05-21 20:03
While we are on giving I found a table on the Sunlight Foundation site breaking down which twenty congress members received most of their donations from toe top 1% of the top 1%, and democrats were eleven go the top 20, with =Nancy Pelosi receiving over 40% of her donations from the very wealthiest .

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/06/24/1pct_of_the_1pct/

The much repeated argument that the wealthy favor Republicans is bunk when one looks at the numbers.
 
 
+12 # Texas Aggie 2015-05-21 22:14
I notice your conspicuous omission of the recent elections since 2008 where Wall St. gave to the repubs much more than to the Democrats. Has it not occurred to you that Obama got so much from them in 2008 because they realized that McCain/Palin was a disaster in the making? Then when one of their own was running, they went back to form. And in all the interelections they also gave to the repubs.

Have you forgotten Boehner and McYertles' conference with the bankers where they promised to let them write their own legislation in return for financial support?
 
 
+17 # moby doug 2015-05-21 15:06
Small Republican businessmen, motivated by racism, knownothingism, xenophobia, religious prejudice, loathing for workers' rights & civil rights, sexism, cultural bigotry, provincialism, fear of the "other," etc., will nonetheless continue to back the corporate fascist GOP.....even as Wall Street big money continues to screw little money.
 
 
+3 # WestWinds 2015-05-22 02:55
Quoting moby doug:
Small Republican businessmen, motivated by racism, knownothingism, xenophobia, religious prejudice, loathing for workers' rights & civil rights, sexism, cultural bigotry, provincialism, fear of the "other," etc., will nonetheless continue to back the corporate fascist GOP.....even as Wall Street big money continues to screw little money.


--- Yes, very true. They would rather destroy themselves financially than let go of their prejudices, hatreds and ideological biases. I've seen examples of it here in Central Florida where they turn away 'undesirable' customers and vote for political representatives who not only despise them but constantly vote against the best interests of the small business community. I marvel at it; like a wolf biting itself to death.
 
 
0 # dipierro4 2015-05-22 22:38
Perhaps better said, the realignment that Dr. Reich hopes for will be a gradual process. Yes, small business people are more susceptible to culture-war manipulation and race-baiting, and often find themselves opposed to Big Business on cultural and racial issues, perceiving Big Business to be aligned with progressives on those issues.

That is not to say that change is impossible, though. There is some diversity among small business owners, and the more progressive participants will have some amount of influence in their various organizations, etc. And small business owners are like the rest of us: Some will have gay sons; some will have daughters who marry undocumented immigrants; and the cultural views will change when the realities are close to home.

But I agree that the realignment will not magically happen when all the small business owners suddenly have a moment of enlightenment about the economic self-interest realities. That is overly optimistic.
 
 
+14 # reiverpacific 2015-05-21 15:35
I've know this for years, havin' been a Socialist, "Self-exploited " small business owner approx' 2/3 of my working life in the US, UK and around the world.
In my 'umble opinion from experience, it's the Rotaries and other self-styled business associations who tend to club together smugly and circle their myopic wagons in any given community, yet who model themselves after the corporate lifestyle and tread what seems to be the safe, conformist non-creative path that has attracted them almost by rote to the Republican unscrupulous, ethically bereft "Winner-take-al l" mentality and are kidding themselves.
I hope that Dr. Reich is calling it right and that the last "Great recession" much of the residual effect which are still with us, has taught many of these types a bit of a lesson, even if the shock of discovering that their Wall Street and Banking casino-house heroes are rotten to the core beneath their patina of well-dressed, establishment-p retty respectability, like a shiny fruit that hung too long before it dropped off the tree or vine and splatted it's useless contents onto the ground
 
 
+7 # Malcolm 2015-05-21 17:18
I've heard stories like that about Rotary, and they may be true-in some Rotaries. But my wife's been a Rotarian for eons here in CONSERVATIVE Grants Pass, and it's not that way AT ALL.

Her club sends money to places like Bhotechaur, Nepal, where they raised funds to build an amazing clinic, which we now get to totally rebuild after the quake. She led a trip to the Philippines called "Group Study Exchange", where young Oregonians got to meet their counterparts in that country. Then, Grants Pass Rotarians (including my wife and I) hosted six Philippinos here under GSE.

Rotary had one of the best exchange student programs I've ever heard of, too.

They've also raised vast sums of money to drill wells, install water systems, and get people cleaner burning wood stoves, to improve kids' lungs and reduce deforestation by reducing wood requirements.

I can't list all the good they do!

If there's any of the good ol' boy shit you refer to, I've certainly never gotten wind of it.

Please don't paint all Rotarians with the same broad brush!s
 
 
+12 # reiverpacific 2015-05-21 18:20
Quoting Malcolm:
I've heard stories like that about Rotary, and they may be true-in some Rotaries. But my wife's been a Rotarian here in CONSERVATIVE Grants Pass, and it's not that way AT ALL.

Her club sends money to places like Bhotechaur, Nepal, where they raised funds to build an amazing clinic, which we now get to totally rebuild after the quake. She led a trip to the Philippines called "Group Study Exchange", where young Oregonians got to meet their counterparts in that country. Then, Grants Pass Rotarians (including my wife and I) hosted six Philippinos here under GSE.

Rotary had one of the best exchange student programs I've ever heard of, too.

They've also raised vast sums of money to drill wells, install water systems, and get people cleaner burning wood stoves, to improve kids' lungs and reduce deforestation by reducing wood requirements.

I can't list all the good they do!

If there's any of the good ol' boy shit you refer to, I've certainly never gotten wind of it.

Please don't paint all Rotarians with the same broad brush!


My apologies to y'r good wife -and I have warned others about that broad brush.
But I'm only writing from personal experience (including where I live now) and did mention "other self-styled business associations". The Portland Business Alliance is notorious in it's reactionary stances.
Still, glad I was wrong in a good cause and I appreciate you both calling me out and teaching me something concurrently.
 
 
+8 # Malcolm 2015-05-21 18:50
Thanks, reiverpacific. I'm also glad all Rotaries aren't cut from the same plaid :)

It's a good laddie ye are!
 
 
0 # WestWinds 2015-05-22 03:16
#Malcolm: "...If there's any of the good ol' boy shit you refer to, I've certainly never gotten wind of it. ..."

--- Here where I live in the Deep South, I have watched small business suffer to the extent that most of Main Street stood as empty shells. I have also seen several in-town veterinarians, and also dentists who subscribed to the corporate meme go from clients six deep at the front counter to all lights off and one warm body receptionist. I have often thought it was some kind of a plot on the part of the corporations to get the small businesses to commit seppuku. I have often wondered how these small business people could continue in the downward spiral and stay the course. But I think they belong to these groups and are lead down the garden path with false praise and support to get exactly the result the corporations wanted. I can see this with the (human) doctors who all but trash their own practice and then the Regional Medical Centers swoop in, buy up their practice and put the doctors on salary. Now the doctors are owned and are obliged to do any rotten thing these Regional Medical Centers want. We've got one of these in the next town up and the doctors regularly pad their bills (and are a bunch of nasty wiseguys.) They think they are being hip, slick and kewl when actually they've slit their own throats and are happily ignorant and arrogant about it. (Sheesh, what's in the drinking water? Must be Kool-Aid!)
 
 
+1 # Malcolm 2015-05-23 09:46
Glad I fled the South in 1968. Life is so much more rewarding on the West Coast:)

Sorry you're dealing with all that stuff, Westwinds.
 
 
+15 # Buddha 2015-05-21 16:15
This is what happens when you create an Oligarchy. It isn't just the poor working class whose voice gets ignored, it is small businesses who cannot be heard over the torrent of money and power controlled by Big Business and the Ultra-Rich. This is why small business creation is at multi-decade lows, and our median net wealth has crashed to 19th in the world.
 
 
+5 # WestWinds 2015-05-22 03:28
#Buddha:

--- When I first moved here, they were holding state hearings over some tax they were going to levy against the small business community. I watched for hours as small business owners came forward, flowing tears, begging them not to do it.

Well, needless to say, the folks out in Tallahassee did it to them, but then over the years, the small business owners have doubled down on their stay the course and have paid terrible prices for their choices. It's like they just cannot connect the dots between the Republicans and their own failed or failing businesses. But try and talk to them and they are as stubborn as any mule. I think the churches play a role in this with their "Satan is testing you" brainwashing, but because football and church are the only two outlets down here, they go with what they've been indoctrinated with down through the years. Watching things like this has brought me to the conclusion that religion taken too literally is just not a good thing.
 
 
+6 # Buddha 2015-05-22 11:33
When Obama claimed "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations", he was spot-on, hence the outrage.
 
 
+1 # dipierro4 2015-05-22 23:02
Agreed; except that as to anti-trade sentiment, we have common ground with them, even if we don't entirely share the same reasoning.
 
 
+18 # RLF 2015-05-21 16:25
The unsung result of the elimination of Glass/Steagal is that instead of investing in their local businesses the banks invest funds on Wall St. Deposits that used to finance construction, garages, restaurants is now sent to Goldman-Sucks to be bet against by billionaires and thier hedges...small towns, small business, small banks all lose.
 
 
+6 # Corvette-Bob 2015-05-21 17:01
The problems with these small business men is that they all see themselves as Donald Trump and the next deal will make themselves as rich so they continue to align with the big boys even if they are small and are being taken advantaged. For years the small businessmen have been lied to and taken advantage of by the Republican Party.
 
 
0 # Malcolm 2015-05-21 18:54
Excuuuuuse ME? Don't lay your shit on "these small businessmen" because it outs you as a reactionary ignoramus.

Just like any other people, there are good and bad small businessmen.
 
 
+1 # WestWinds 2015-05-22 03:37
#Malcolm:

--- Hold on a minute, Malcolm. Corvett-Bob has a valid point. I've seen it in action here myself. Maybe it's a regional thing but he's exactly correct. The small business people around here are into "put yourselves in charge of the mindless, unwashed masses" (Dale Carnegie 101) blindly following the corporate playbook and have so abused their client base that their parking lots are standing totally empty and, in some cases, they are working for someone else trying to keep their doors open. So, from what I've seen over the last decade of living here, Corvette-Bob is spot on.
 
 
+2 # Malcolm 2015-05-22 07:04
Really? "They ALL see themselves as Donald trump"?

And if ALL the small business people where you live are as you describe, that's pretty weird. Inbreeding, maybe? Clones?
 
 
-1 # WestWinds 2015-05-22 09:48
#Malcolm:

--- Most of the people here come from strong English backgrounds and the English vote Conservative no matter how bad it gets because they are told the (R) support their values.

English society was built on the manorial system where you had your betters and then there was a cast system below. It's in place here, but with the exception that the Black residents are considered every bit as slaves today as back then; they believe that Cain slew Abel and was turned Black (Genesis 4: "set a mark upon" him so he would be recognized,) for his punishment and therefore Blacks need to be kept in their place.

They may not see themselves as Donald Trump but they admire the ultra wealthy and despise poor people. It's all a part of their Calvinist thinking that God rewards *good* people and punishes *bad* people with poverty. They see themselves as meting out God's punishments and feel totally justified in doing terrible things to others because of this. Example: A dentist will sabotage a person's teeth because they are a Liberal cum Socialist.
 
 
+2 # dbrize 2015-05-22 12:11
Quoting WestWinds:
#Malcolm:

--- Most of the people here come from strong English backgrounds and the English vote Conservative no matter how bad it gets because they are told the (R) support their values.

English society was built on the manorial system where you had your betters and then there was a cast system below. It's in place here, but with the exception that the Black residents are considered every bit as slaves today as back then; they believe that Cain slew Abel and was turned Black (Genesis 4: "set a mark upon" him so he would be recognized,) for his punishment and therefore Blacks need to be kept in their place.

They may not see themselves as Donald Trump but they admire the ultra wealthy and despise poor people. It's all a part of their Calvinist thinking that God rewards *good* people and punishes *bad* people with poverty. They see themselves as meting out God's punishments and feel totally justified in doing terrible things to others because of this. Example: A dentist will sabotage a person's teeth because they are a Liberal cum Socialist.


Please. There currently exist 30 million or so small businesses in the US. Another 20 million or so self employed.

We are to believe a few minuscule anecdotes even if true, condemns them all? This proposition is beyond silly. "They" are not some monolithic entity set up to oppose your political desires. Sheesh.
 
 
0 # bingers 2015-05-24 17:24
Sorry man, I meant to give you an up vote and my hand slipped, so discount one of those undeserved negs.
 
 
0 # bingers 2015-05-24 17:25
Quoting bingers:
Sorry man, I meant to give you an up vote and my hand slipped, so discount one of those undeserved negs.


Meant for WestWinds.
 
 
-10 # perkinsej 2015-05-21 17:50
Wrong again. I don't think our expert has kept up to date on business history. If he reads Mansel Blackford's history of small business, he will discover that small firms fared well because they become suppliers of the larger enterprises. Actally everyone benefited as Adam Smith predicted.
 
 
+6 # Texas Aggie 2015-05-21 22:19
Excuse me, but you seem to be forgetting some major problems. The most important is that Big Bidness now pays on 120 days, but charges on 30, so the small suppliers only get paid four months after they send the bill, but are obligated to pay Big Bidness within thirty days. You can't run a business like that and do well.
 
 
+2 # Malcolm 2015-05-22 07:07
Another way businesses can be successful is to pay for things immediately, by check or cash, or by credit card, and pay the credit card bills immediately, so you don't pay the usurious interest charges.

Always works for me.
 
 
+1 # jim@drdemocracy 2015-05-22 10:36
It's not possible to confirm Midwest Tom's assertion that Dems get more funding from Wall Street than Repubs because Tom is just repeating a lie told by Jim Demint.

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/apr/16/jim-demint/not-many-times-more-democrats-sometimes-do-raise-m/
 
 
+3 # Buddha 2015-05-22 11:36
Well, that is also because the GOP likes to roll using opaque "SuperPacs" that do not have any limits or requirement for disclosure of donors (funny how it is the GOP blocking the DISCLOSE Act which would mandate transparency on these), whereas Dems use more the traditional transparent mechanisms of donation. So you of course will see it look like Dems are receiving more from Wall St. But this is changing, the facts are BOTH political parties are pretty much bought-and-sold , pretending differently is being horribly naive.
 
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