Friday, February 27, 2009

I am totally GAY for Obama!



I have an announcement to make: I AM TOTALLY GAY FOR OBAMA!

No, I don't want to have sex with Obama -- it is not that type of gay...more the all encompassing GAY. You know the type from the 90s or 20s where everything was possible.

So I find myself just getting giddy and happy and rainbowy when I think about what is going on in this country right now. I mean, for the first time in my life, I see REAL change. I mean check out this video. It is from the happiness project. In among the rivers of toxic crap that flows through the rivers and banks, people are waking up. And this too makes me want to hold hands and skip. Sure, no one has a clue what is going on right now with the economy, or more accurately where the economy will be in eight months. But there are people that have decided to smell roses or make lemonade or be totally gay. So I say, let's have some fun!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, I am also totally GAY for Waldorf!

Maybe you can watch this video too.


The great video links come from my dear freind Ben, who could use your business if you need healthy plants or flowers

GOP: Grand Ole Posse



What happens when Republicans go hip-hop! You go Saxby!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Only Hitler Would Deny Being The AntiChrist!



In addition to being called Hitler, the AntiChrist, and a pimp, Obama is now a bicylce. This is just too weird to be made out of whole cloth. What is your take?

(If he is indeed any of those things, it must be that he is being controlled by a blonde pulling his strings.)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Take This Longing...




“I’ve had choices since the day that I was born,/There were voices that told me right from wrong. If I had listened, no, I wouldn’t be here today,/Living and dying with the choices I’ve made.”

Leonard Cohen singing a George Jones song


This is good role modeling. Thank you Leonard for all the beauty you have smudged us with.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Barak Obama is the AntiChrist? Really?



Westboro Baptist Church are again putting their souls on the cross. The group, most famous for the slogan "God Hates Fags" and protests at military funerals because they can't ask and can't tell, has planned a series of protests at . . . the University of Chicago!!? Because Obama, who they have determined is the AntiChrist, taught there? [I guess Obama tricked saintly GWB into starting wars and ruining our economy, and thusly deserves the moniker.]

This is NOT the Rose Parade!!!



When we think of parades, Americans typically think BORING.

But at one time, parades were an opportunity to come together and celebrate. Everyone welcome. Latin America, Brazil most famously, comes out every year and lets it all hang out - both literally and figuratively. This is a celebration of life and freedom. Sure, some think it goes too far and some think it can go further. And free societies are filled with problems too, even horrible problems. Yet the cycle of life dharmas on...

Sitting Duck



Matt recorded:
At nightfall you say, The weather will be good, for the sky is red. In the morning, It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Silly financial wizards, you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can't discern the signs of the times!


Alex wrote:
It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of humans are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.

If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of humankind.

This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and good people must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good.


Monday, February 23, 2009

Worse Than The Great Depression?



According to Paul Volker, we are facing a big problem. He says "I don't remember any time, maybe even the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast."

Rumor has it that Ben Bernanke can't tell if he is coming or going.

Friday, February 20, 2009

All You Need Is Love



This comes to me from Guru Sansar:

INSTALLING LOVE

Tech Support: Yes, ... how can I help you?

Customer Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running?

Customer Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge, and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?

Customer I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So LOVE is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. LOVE is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

INSTALLING LOVE

Tech Support: Yes, ... how can I help you?

Customer Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running?

Customer Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge, and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?

Customer I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So LOVE is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. LOVE is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

New Jib Jab

Is the Dali Lama A Cannibal?



Sir Paul McCartney informs Stephen Colbert that eating other human beings is on the table.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hamlet 3 - Retribution

Geronimo In Medicine Vestments


One hundred years ago this week, the great Apache scout Geronimo died of pneumonia while a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, I mean Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Now, his ghost is raising from the dead and is demanding retribution. A "habeus corpus" lawsuit to seek the return of Geronimo’s remains as well as punitive damages has been filed by twenty members of the Geronimo’s family against the Yale secret society Skull & Bones, senior federal government officials, and Yale University in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

During World War I, three privileged members of the Skull & Bones were stationed stateside at Ft. Sill -- including former Senator Prescott Bush, the patriarch of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Prescott revealed in a personal letter that he and the other two pirates reportedly raided Geronimo's grave, stealing his skull, some bones, and Geronimo's silver bridle.

What Prescott wrote happened to the skull, bones, and bridle has been called a rumor, a lie, and worse by members of the Yale University secret society. However, Yale Alumni Magazine in 2006 published excerpts of a different 1918 letter corroborating the story:

The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club... is now safe inside the tomb ("tomb" is the building at Yale University's Skull and Bones) and bone together with his well worn femurs, bit and saddle horn.


The skull and femurs and other stolen items were alleged to have been taken to the secret society's tomb dungeon on the Yale's campus. The Apache relics are supposedly used in rituals practiced by the group, one of which is said to be kissing the skull of Geronimo as an initiation.

The Tomb

My personal sentiment is that to understand our current economic and political crises, which we are unable to really grasp, we need to look into this Yale Secret Society of Pirates. This one secret club has produced presidents, senators, high-ranking CIA officers, and generals of Wall Street. In the 17th and 18th Century when they "retired" to New York City, former pirates ostensibly became legitimate. Obviously, these upstart bastard businessmen sent their kids somewhere to school to gain legitimacy. But fruit never falls far from the tree, and neither do the family jewels.

If Geronimo's spirit is still walking the earth like Hamlet's ghostly father, he may be capable of bringing down, or at least shining a bright spotlight on the House of Piracy from the spirit realm, just like Obi-Wan Kenobi who shape-shifted to the spirit world to fight Darth Vader. Who knows, maybe Shakespeare was a prophet foretelling the end of days in Hamlet. And just maybe some truth can set us all free. We can handle it.


“I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.” Geronimo

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Just Because You're Paranoid...

How did we get here? Here is a film intro that presents random facts collected and undeconstructed into a uncomfortable coherent reality. I think it is best not to use judgement, but do some Quaker Listening to figure out if there is truth in the reality Adam Curtis threads. It is a 6.4 on the Richter Scale.

The Observer reports:
Curtis has a remarkable feel for the serendipity of such moments, and an obsessive skill in locating them. 'That kind of footage shows just how dull I can be,' he admits, a little glumly. 'The BBC has an archive of all these tapes where they have just dumped all the news items they have ever shown. One tape for every three months. So what you get is this odd collage, an accidental treasure trove. You sit in a darkened room, watch all these little news moments, and look for connections.'


If you don't regularly watch videos on blogs, this is the one to watch. If you find it intriguing, go to this website.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

As You Do Unto The Least of These...



This is news that you can't make up, nor should never think of having to make up -- for any reason. Two judges in Scranton, Luzerne County, PA have been sentencing children to private detention centers (kid prisons) in exchange for kickbacks. Often this was done over the objections of the probation officers (and the probation officers were ordered by the judges to change their recommendations in several cases). The kickbacks amounted to more than $2.6 million!

On Democracy Now this morning, Amy Goodman interviewed two kids who had been unfairly sentenced. One had slapped her friend back and wrote about it and the assistant principal on Facebook. She spent 11 months in jail for her crime. Another person, a young man, got 90 days (but spent 4.5 months) in the system because his female friend stole CDs from WalMart and he was with her. He went to one probation hearing and he never got his court notice. (His girl friend also went to a hearing but did not get a notice, and nothing happened to her.) But the Judges got money for how many kids they could divert to this private contractor (PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC).

So here is a local governmental system that has no credibility (and will soon be bankrupt). Here is a corporation that should be banished from the earth. The damn socialist tax payers are going to have to pay and pay big dollars in a shrinking-to-collapsing economy for these crimes. Where is the outrage? I am sure it is there. The clergy scandals fall on the socialized backs of the laity. The corporate scandals fall on the socialized backs of the workers without upside (in the form of layoffs and bailouts). If we want to punish the wrong doers, we have to ensure that leveraged crime pays leveraged time.

From Law.Com:

In a proceeding devoid of drama, two Luzerne County, Pa., judges told a federal court judge Thursday they were guilty of accepting more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from the owner and builder of two juvenile detention centers.

Former President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and retired Judge Michael T. Conahan sat quietly for about 75 minutes, speaking only when U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik spoke to them. They answered in short sentences and alternated between folding their hands and resting their chins on their hands.

They pleaded guilty to both counts -- honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States -- in the criminal information filed against them.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod described the hearing as clearing "a major hurdle." He said Kosik will decide whether to accept the plea agreement, which requires Ciavarella and Conahan to spend 87 months in federal prison, during a sentencing hearing.


Go to the link for more info.

Which Unforeseen Economic Collapse Are They Talking About?



It can't be the one we are going through, because we know about that one.

From Chris Hedges at TruthDig.com:
"The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a monograph titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.” The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”


Sound cheery? How about this "revelation":

And we have few tools left to dig our way out. The manufacturing sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization. Consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit, are $14 trillion in debt. The government has pledged trillions toward the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money. It is borrowing trillions more to fund our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And no one states the obvious: We will never be able to pay these loans back. We are supposed to somehow spend our way out of the crisis and maintain our imperial project on credit. Let our kids worry about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens. Contrast this with the national security state’s strategies to crush potential civil unrest and you get a glimpse of the future. It doesn’t look good.


I see only one answer. We need to pull together as Americans and the world and bridge cultural gaps. We have to do it with the only force that can defeat evil, and that is love. The love that the people of Whoville felt after the Grinch stole everything. This is the story of the Peacemaker.

My friend at Adored By Hordes believes Facebook is the mechanism for the Body of Christ to function. I think Facebook has the potential to be the virtual Tree of Peace.

UPDATE: Facebook justice.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Message From My Guru



1000 days till the dawning of the Age of Aquarius 11-11-11. Join us in committing to an eleven minute meditation for the next 1000 days. Doesn't matter if you have ever done a forty or ninety or one hundred and twenty day meditation this is your chance to jump off the cliff and be part of something truly big. There are about 10,000 people taking this challenge and this is the meditation we are all doing.

Sat Siri
Siri Akal
Siri Akal
Maha Akal
Maha Akal
Sat Nam
Akal Moorat
Wahe Guru

What is it good for? Greatness. To become deathless, beyond time and space truthful and ecstatic. You can choose another meditation if this does not call you but take the dare, take the prayer, take the connection, take the time and say yes.

On Valentines Day: Say yes from the heart. Say yes to love. Say yes to the selflessness within yourself. Bless and love all each day.

You have not heard from me: Why? Oh been a little sick okay maybe one of the sickest I have ever been but you have been in my heart and

View From The Front




This is WW4, which according neocons Norman Podhoretz and Elliott Cohen and so on started on 9/11/01. But this is class warfare where the weapons are dollars, which are synthetic goods and services. It is time to wake up and start thinking differently.

Here is one guy who is doing that. What is your solution? Because only you are going to be responsible for your own and your family's salvation. Bank of America does not have your best interest at heart.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Capitalism vs. Democracy

This is our Armageddon...



Here is the call to hope:

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009

Oscar Predictions Using the 4th Eye



What would you bet your money on?

I just reviewed the list of all nominees>. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I had seen all of the films in only one category: Animation. But what a group, they all were great films.

$8.8 Trillion and Counting


According to the NYTimes, the U.S. Government has pledged $4.6 trillion in investments in failing banks, $2.4 trillion as a lender, and $1.8 trillion as an insurer to bail out the financial system. Given the size of the U.S. economy is $14.3 trillion, we are not quite Iceland (see photo), but this looks bad.

I sure hope someone figures it out soon before all the food is gone off the shelves.

Pakistan: USA's Frenemy





Here is what we know: To everyones' surprise, we have drones based inside Pakistan. You know, the country that is protesting too loud that we are using drones to bomb inside Pakistan. Yes that Pakistan.

They say the biggest problem in Viet Nam was knowing who were the enemy. It seems everyone looks the same through the sight of a rifle. I wonder how they look through a remote controlled video screen. I bet they look like inflation.

Foreclosure Eviction



This photo of an eviction process is so big in England that it won some award. I posted it in the case you want to know what eviction looks like. Another good source for eviction education is the movie Roger & Me. They have actual video of evictions - but they are of renters getting evicted, not homeowners. So there is some difference. Plus, the Moore video is from the reign of King George HW the First, which was a kinder, gentler failure.

Don't worry, this guy is just checking to make sure that everyone checked out on time.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Human Agenda



"Once you overcome all limitation, what is the human agenda?"

Terrence McKenna






Dani*, this one is for you.

Holy McGurk!!!



There is some truth to evolution after all. Either that or God wants us to walk, whistle, and chew gum at the same time.

Watch the video, and then say Holy McGurk!

Whose Minding The Mint?



When Citibank's CEO states they get 100% of the profits "if the assets are not toxic", aleeeeeeeeeeme einf eeia qqqqke faaartkle... yeah, I don't know what to say. And now we learn that the bailout is actually an insurance policy. I thought Don Rumsfeld was good. Now I know why these guys get the BIG BUCKS!

Watch it (if you dare):

Don't Kill The Flowers



A week ago, adoredbyhordes posted valentine message about the chemicals and carbon footprint associated with most flowers that are injected, probed, and otherwise violated before being sent northward on a 747 across the equator. These dozen gifts of romance and lust and appreciation may get you laid, but they are degrading uncessarily the Gaian life force capable of supporting any offspring that may result.

So the message is avoid dead, chemical laced, globally-outsourced plants. BTW,the video was produced for www.givingplants.com. My partner just bought live flowers for her grandmother from Giving Plants and they arrived all pretty. Grandmother and earthmother are very happy!

Is Barack Obama John Henry?



The following is my response to a post by MarcLord at Adored By Hordes. Marc raises the honest question of hope through the lens of the Camusian Imperative. His "rational" question was: Are things so bad we should contemplate preemptive suicide? His question was a macabre, tongue-in-cheek sanity check, complete with ivory-tower black gallows humor (I say that because I don't think Marc was really going to act based upon his heartfelt underlying fear). And for this, I applaud his honesty.

This is what a system looks like when it is dying. We are caught between two forces: one being the internet and the other being biologic structure. They are fighting on a metaphysical level. The internet can't afford capitalism's antiquated notions of business and individual failures – those processes are too slow for the junk the system has been snorting. It requires national health care (and not just AMA medicine), efficient but accurate justice, and a desire to get it right – or something that looks like divine socialism.

The internet cannot survive as a redundant replicant. It cannot function without novelty. It has to grow, replicate, and do all those things biology does. But without novelty, just as in linear algebra, the matrix collapses is there is not true independence between the vectors. Novelty is a truth of survival in any system, ranging from our daily lives to abstract mathematics.

On the biotic front, we are no longer purely animals. We have evolved. But now we are fundamentally questioning whether we have been relegated to serving machine-language gods, individual Bobby Fishers battling Big Blue (or John Henry). This relegation is somewhat analogous to our historical experiences with slavery, indentured service, and the student loan program – all of which restrict and dominate creativity (which is how novelty comes into being). So our capitalist system that begins with homogeneous religious experience, tv, conformance education, student loan indenture, and ends with 401K/HMO/paycheck protection and the hope of a better eternal life for our reincarnated DNA.

And this is what is breaking down. It has been leveraged, nipped and tucked, carroted and sticked, broken and beaten, excommunicated and reborn to a point we don't really understand, on an individual level, much of anything except the kabuki rules of how to carve out some shelter in this harsh virtual world.

We are fast approaching the pinnacle of our humanity (well at least the current version). We, in the west anyway, have everything that has ever been promised by society, Milton Friedman, and Ronald Reagan. And it is not working.

We have a choice. Are we going to move into a Gaian reality of balance and sustainability (with or without technology) or are we going to hire Halliburton/Bank of America/Carlyle Group to develop our strategy for the next eon?

My biggest concern is that the latter does nothing to preserve novelty. In other words, dharma comes to a stop.



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Banks Fail All The Time



Nobel Prize Winner Joeseph Stiglitz argues for letting the banks go through an organized bankruptcy. He raises some interesting issues such as a big issue in valuation of minority interests is who has control. The Government has pumped billions into the banks and we have zero control. He argues for a plan similar to that used by Sweden when they took control (nationalized) thier banks during a crises.

The whole issue of bank failure comes down to our views on what is right and wrong. Most people don't realize that they only hear about our bifurcated legal system. first we have courts of justice. These get played out in cop and court dramas on tv sets around the world -- L.A. Law, Law & Order, Homicide, the Wire, and so on.

Never do we see a show about the legal system that runs on reverse polish notation (RPN) like the backwards HP calculators. I am talking about the courts of equity that are nearly as old as justice courts. Traditionally, they were run by the church. With due separtation, these courts are now run by the government. Equity of the debtor and creditors is ostensibly the goal. The biggest justification for this is that Kings of Europe learned that the peasants would get restless when they or thier friends were forced out on the streets with their families. So forgiveness, not justice, reigned and became codified.

Of course, many hold to the burn-in-hell notion of payback and in practice leave forgiveness out of the temporal realm.

On Potential



"Every human being is a Leonardo da Vinci. The only problem is that he doesn't know it. His parents didn't know it, and they didn't treat him like a Leonardo. Therefore he didn't become like a Leonardo. That's my basic theory."

Viktor Frenkl - Man's Search For Meaning

Viktor Frenkl was a prisoner at Aschwitz during WWII. He wanted to memorialize why some people survived intact, and others let go and went into the light of darkness. We need to keep our minds open and aware during the current challenges.

"And all my women were always talking about their potential. I always informed them that potential didn't cut shit - you had to do it! None of them ever did."

Charles Bukowski (quoted by Tom Russell on Hotwalker)

Collateral Damage



"There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus," said James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley. "It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration."

It is not torture because we do not torture. These are enhanced interrogation techniques.

BTW: gotta love the fact that they have audio here.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A Marxist View From the Bottom


Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View from UVC-TV 19 on Vimeo.

Tired of the talking heads on TV, try this guy. Rick Wolf is an economics professor at UMass Amherst, where he analyzes economic events through a Marxist perspective. You don't have to change you mind, but you should open it. It doesn't hurt.

Here is a preview:
Most US economists are professors in colleges and universities. Their academic positions enable research and teaching that is supposed to be independent of corporate interests. They could, at least hypothetically, provide the critical insights into economic problems needed for their solution. Economists might help to propose, evaluate, and debate the wide range of possible solutions -- from those that minimally change the status quo to those that entail fundamental social change. However, history shows that most professional economists have been subservient to corporate interests rather than constructive critics. They celebrated capitalism, ignored or dismissed alternative economic systems, and only argued over how best to manage the huge social costs of capitalism's recurring instability. The economists' shameful corporate subservience has been the nation's loss.

The US professional economic establishment -- its members call themselves "mainstream" -- never leads. It always follows. Before the Great Depression, mainstream economists dutifully embraced what they called "neoclassical economics." This economic "science" showed, they said, that what profited business benefited the whole society. In this mainstream perspective, private enterprise and markets worked best for everyone when left free of government regulation or interference. Big business led and publicly promoted this celebration of capitalism. Colleges and universities sought financial contributions from businesses, their owners, and their leaders. They needed enrollments from these people's children (few others could afford the costs of higher education). Academic administrations neither wanted nor supported professors who criticized private business interests or otherwise displeased them (for example, by challenging mainstream economic science).


BTW, this is not an endorsement of his theories, but they are like sex - it only hurts if you do it wrong or are trying.

What Would [fill in the blank] Do?


My marriage partner directed me to this quote from John Lurie's myspace page:
"I keep asking myself - what would gandhi do, or abraham lincoln or martin luther king, then I realize - those guys all got shot."


By their fruits ye shall know them.



















Monday, February 09, 2009

Carrots & Sticks



Do you ever feel like you have been carroted and sticked to death? Every rule, every regulation, every thou shalt, every piece of advice is either a carrot or a stick to manipulate you, to short circuit your learning curve, to disrupt the natural learning process -- not out of spite, but out of fear of collective failure. My parents didn't want me or our family to fail, according to their definition of failure. And they short-cut the necessary circuits to ensure their desired result. And they backed it with love. And that felt good. Or at least safe.

But we all know the few things we truly believe are the things we learned first hand, first person. And the other stuff, we learned it but we don't know it - not in the flesh. Not biblically. So we take someone else's word as our own truth. And extrapolate.

These carrots are also sticks. The guarantees from cheap school are followed by the sticks of indenturement, loans, and apprentice service of masters. There is no dimension for first hand discovery - we are busy striving to recast our self in the master's image. The carrot is the stick we beat ourselves with, hoping for salvation or freedom. We have been taught to be so afraid of society and the norms (or we have learned by watching what happens to those who fail) that we carrot and stick ourselves away from the abyss of first hand learning and do everything as it has been done before.

The Akamba have a saying that if you walk in the same footsteps twice you are dead -- (yet that is the basis for our education system and economy and socioreligious identity). From this, I say if you use a carrot or a stick to shape your own behavior over and over again, you are walking in your same footsteps. The Lakota would focus by saying today is a good day to die.

I was intrigued reading my daughter's American Girl book about the character Kaya. Kaya was feeling down, or jealous, or off balance. And she was asked not to go pick camus bulbs until she let whatever pass. And it wasn't a time out. It wasn't for an afternoon. Kaya almost missed the entire harvest. She would have been fed regardless, and no one blamed her for not pulling her weight. They just didn't use carrots and sticks. Kaya had the duty to self to self answer the Camusian imperative. And no she wasn't asked to contemplate suicide. She was asked to wait until she was ready - which in a sustenance living circumstance can be Camusian.

Don Miguel Ruiz in the four agreements talks about how we as children were raised like dogs. Good dog, bad dog. Carrots, sticks. Then he asks why would raise our children like that. Fair question. I know I have spent most of my life trying to undo all the carrots and sticks my family, my church, my community, my education, my self has rewarded and punished me into an acceptable form. My stick, my god. My carrot, my god.

Jon Young says that as you go on life's adventure, one rule of thumb in seeking guidance is always do what is best for the children.

Grumpy Old Party



The Republicans have found their post election voice, or so says an article in today's WaPo.

"We're so far ahead of where we thought we'd be at this time," said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), one of several younger congressmen seeking to lead the party's renewal. "It's not a sign that we're back to where we need to be, but it's a sign that we're beginning to find our voice. We're standing on our core principles, and the core principle that suffered the most in recent years was fiscal conservatism and economic liberty. That was the tallest pole in our tent, and we took an ax to it, but now we're building it back."

The second-ranking House Republican, Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), put it more bluntly. "What transpired . . . and will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that we are standing up on principle and just saying no," he said.

The fact that the stimulus legislation keeps moving forward nonetheless has done nothing to dim Republicans' satisfaction. Rather, they sense a tactical victory, particularly in the framing of their opposition to the plan as a clash with congressional Democrats instead of with President Obama, who remains far more popular with voters than does Congress.


Because standing on a motto or creed always wins in a crisis?

Elsewhere, Republicans have asked Rush for guidance. What is interesting is how they say Obama has selected Rush to be the party spokesman. If true, Obama is one smart cookie to paint Rush as the face of the conservative movement. In some ways, Limbaugh is a bigger target than Bush!

Jericho, USA -- How Big It Is


There has been a lot of horn blowing lately as to what is going on the real estate market, overshadowed only by the fact that the global economy is crumbling faster the boy can plug the leaks with his finger.

So as part of my efforts to separate the gloom from the doom, here is an update. According to Zillow, as reported by Source of Title:

U.S. homeowners lost a cumulative $3.3 trillion in home values during 2008


Other interesting notes include
Across the country, 10.9 percent of all real estate transactions in 2008 were short sales.

Short sales are when a homeowner, in agreement with the bank, sells a home for less than what is owed on the mortgage -- with the bank betting on the seller eventually winning the lottery so the loan can be paid back in full.

On the bright side, the $3.3 trillion loss attributed to the average American homeowner represents a paper loss to those who have not sold their homes. So even though you have lost it, you haven't had to feel it. Yet.


UPDATE:
The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

The pledges, amounting to almost two-thirds of the value of everything produced in the U.S. last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up about 18 months ago.


Here is yet more:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090209/bailout_plan.html?.v=10

Cut His Balls Off!!!



If done properly, it doesn't hurt.
-- Mr. Mortimer, my high school FFA advisor.


Is waterboarding torture? Tough question, huh? How about getting your genitals mutilated with a scalpel? Some people actually believe that is torture. Go figure.

According to the Telegraph:
Two High Court judges last week said they wanted to release the full contents of a CIA file on his treatment but they held back seven paragraphs of information after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, argued that it could compromise intelligence sharing with the US.

A British official, who is regularly briefed on intelligence operations, said: "The concern was that the document revealed that intelligence from the British agencies was used by the Americans and that there were British questions asked while Binyam Mohamed was being tortured.

"Miliband is being pushed hard by the intelligence agencies to protect the identity of those involved."

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said.

Another source familiar with the case said: "British intelligence officers knew about the torture and didn't do anything about it. They supplied information to the Americans and the Moroccans. They supplied questions, they supplied photographs. There is evidence of all of that."

In a more civil time, such military castrations were ceremoniously performed on vanquished Kings as a form of humiliation. As Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Either you are with us or against us.

Micro USA Credit



This following is the complete article from the International Hearald Tribune. I have long been a fan of the Grameen Bank, and now it is coiming to the USA. I wonder if Bank of America can handle the competition? That was not a rhetorical question.

Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for pioneering a micro-lending model for the world's poorest to engage in business, said Thursday his formula can also help recession-racked American families escape poverty.

"This is the right time to come here," Yunus declared as he sought $2 million in seed money to establish North Carolina as another U.S. foothold for his micro-finance institution outside New York.

The year-old U.S. offshoot of the Grameen Bank that the former economics professor founded in Bangladesh three decades ago also is looking to expand into New Jersey, Nebraska, Louisiana and other U.S. states as economic turmoil closes employment doors on more people.

"It was not in our agenda to be in a crisis, but the crisis is here," Yunus said Thursday with several members of North Carolina's banking establishment flanking him. The micro-lending model means "you create your own jobs instead of waiting for other people to hire you."

North Carolina lenders see Grameen America as an economic development organization reaching out to open the way for people with entrepreneurial skills or a business idea but who are too poor even to set up a bank account.

Today in Business with Reuters

Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs amid stormy forecasts

Barclays defends executive bonuses

In Europe, moves to limit bonuses gather steam
Grameen has seen sustained interest in a North Carolina expansion from banking leaders in the home of Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp., recently acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. State banking commissioner Joseph Smith has been working since at least April to lure the lending institution that won the Nobel together with Yunus in 2006.

The Grameen Bank model developed by Yunus involves lending very small amounts, mostly to women, as seed money for home businesses. A Grameen staffer meets the borrowers in groups every week, tracks progress and offers advice on managing money and startup obstacles.

The formula also relies on peer pressure instead of collateral to secure the loans. Potential borrowers must form five-member groups that approach Grameen jointly for loans. While each borrower is individually responsible for a loan of up to $2,200, group members cannot borrow again unless all are paid up.

"It's not about redividing the pie, it's about making the pie bigger," said Jim Blain, president of the State Employees' Credit Union, North Carolina's largest. Between the unemployed and the poor, "there are a lot of people sitting on the sidelines right now."

North Carolina's unemployment rate hit 8.7 percent in December — 1.5 percentage points higher than the U.S. jobless rate of 7.2 percent.

Yunus met at The Carolina Inn on the University of North Carolina campus with Blain, Smith, and representatives of the North Carolina Bankers Association and Durham-based Self-Help, a similar community development organization. All said helping Grameen start up could help stimulate the smallest of small businesses.

"I am committed to getting them set up and operating," Smith said. "I want to get them licensed as a small loan company very soon. ... It's going to happen."

Grameen opened its first U.S. affiliate in New York City 13 months ago and loaned more than $1.2 million to 440 women, all lacking assets or credit rating.

About 70 percent of the borrowers are Hispanic, and their loans launched everything from hairstyling to catering and tailoring services and more, said Stephen Vogel, chief executive officer of Grameen America Inc.

Because of strict U.S. banking laws, the New York office doesn't hold the savings deposits borrowers are required to make along with loan repayments. Instead, the money is held by Citibank, which created special, no-cost checking and ATM accounts for Grameen borrowers, Vogel added.

Grameen's model has traditionally targeted women because experience has found them to be more responsible than men and more comfortable with group responsibility. But lending is open to all in the U.S. where anti-discrimination laws are strict.

Yunus has not succeeded everywhere. He was invited to rural Arkansas by then-Gov. Bill Clinton in the mid-1980s. But the effort failed when the Arkansans proved unable to overcome individual preferences to go it alone on lending.

Still, the need and the times make Grameen a worthy experiment, said Blaine. His credit union, which does not lend to businesses, is prepared to provide the costly accounting and administrative tasks and ATM network.

"You've got a proven model that is unfamiliar to the United States. There is very low risk," he said. "It may not work, but what does it cost to try? Not much."

Sunday, February 08, 2009

These Economists Got Game


How bad is it? Well, Paul Krugman isn't the only nobel prozac winner getting off a plush university chair and putting his knowledge where his mouth is.

After 3.5 million job losses due to Bush's falsely stimulated subprime economy, and the subprime republicans cutting $98 million from the $megahundredbillion stimulus directed at feeding poor children at schools (it was the fiscally responsible thing to do), now the dismal scientists are looking at their retirement plans and resurrecting their dismal projections.

These guys are seeing all their trickle-down knowledge evaporate. They need new data. The old data is stagnant. They need new margins to extrapolate and leverage. The need Obama and the nation to succeed. Rush needs it to fail, and they know they will only have guns and butter if Rush is right. Maybe the economists will call for an apology for slavery and imperialism ... and false intelligence...if it stops or slows the ringing of revolution.

The economists changing ships, according to the Washington Post, include:

Allen Sinai, chief global economist for Decision Economics

Alice Rivlin, who was former president Bill Clinton's budget director

Alan Viard, a Bush administration economist now at the American Enterprise Institute

Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office

N. Gregory Mankiw, a Harvard University economics professor who was chairman of former president George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University and former chief economist at the World Bank

Janet Yellen, San Francisco Federal Reserve Chair(wo)man