A few days ago I wrote a blog entry called "Inharmonious". In it, I sent along some remarks from Mssrs. Krugman and Reich about the shortcomings of Obama's response to the financial debacle we have on-going. I said that I wondered what Galbraith and Grieder might have to say. Well, here is Mr Grieder, weighing in.
He says, essentially, if we settle for weak solutions too soon, because the severity of the crisis seems over, it will be a terrible mistake. Seems awfully hard with which to argue. It is time to dig in our heels, not go out for ice cream.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090706/greider2?rel=emailNation
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Reverse Psychosis
A few months ago, a new feature, “Schott’s Vocabulary”, appeared as daily insertion on the Op-Ed page of the NYT. You can also access it directly on the web , here: http://www.benschott.com/.
As a “word guy”, I have been getting a lot of enjoyment from this effort on a daily basis. The column works well as social commentary, cultural analysis and very often provides a balanced view of the contrasts in contemporary international behavior. In short, if you can be honest enough with yourself, what Mr. Schott offers can help you see yourself much more clearly, against the backdrop of today’s larger humanitarian canvass( which is increasingly convoluted ,or a “convass”?).
Today’s entry is especially revealing , given the ongoing, cyclical and embarrassing debacle on Wall St., the current discussions about potential bonuses at Goldman Sachs and the state of bailouts for failing giants like General Motors:
http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/poorgeoisie/?emc=eta1.
The “Poorgeoisie” seem to be out latest segment of self-delusionary, narcissistic and neurotic ne’er do wells, fooling only themselves. I first began thinking of these folks as using “reverse psychology”, practicing a mode of appearance designed to deceive the rest of the American public about their imagined “plight”, but then I settled on the word “psychosis” instead: they are practicing on themselves. These titans/giants/worker bees of the our financial system are, frighteningly and given the reins they hold, acting in a fashion which might be best described as mentally ill. They might be thought of as dangerous. They are perhaps psychotic. Thinking inversely.
Spending untold amounts of money in order to appear “poor” and/or “downtrodden” is apparently Wall St.’s version of credit card splurge: ignore reality, re-package absurdity and live in a personal never-never land that avoids the ugliness which constitutes what has become the essence of daily life for most Americans. If you sing, ”Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries” loud enough, while wearing $300.00,pre-frayed jeans, as you exit your sadly two year-old Porsche, perhaps no one will suspect you had caviar for breakfast, on the rooftop patio of your $2M Manhattan condo. Life for them is still a “cabaret,my friends”. Is it any wonder that, given this sort of disparity in the perception of “real life”, we are having trouble getting back on our feet? Or even finding out feet?
I tried to get an appointment to see my therapist about this, but he was booked. He is getting new patches sewn onto the elbows of his linen shirts and getting his Gucci loafers pre-scuffed.
As a “word guy”, I have been getting a lot of enjoyment from this effort on a daily basis. The column works well as social commentary, cultural analysis and very often provides a balanced view of the contrasts in contemporary international behavior. In short, if you can be honest enough with yourself, what Mr. Schott offers can help you see yourself much more clearly, against the backdrop of today’s larger humanitarian canvass( which is increasingly convoluted ,or a “convass”?).
Today’s entry is especially revealing , given the ongoing, cyclical and embarrassing debacle on Wall St., the current discussions about potential bonuses at Goldman Sachs and the state of bailouts for failing giants like General Motors:
http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/poorgeoisie/?emc=eta1.
The “Poorgeoisie” seem to be out latest segment of self-delusionary, narcissistic and neurotic ne’er do wells, fooling only themselves. I first began thinking of these folks as using “reverse psychology”, practicing a mode of appearance designed to deceive the rest of the American public about their imagined “plight”, but then I settled on the word “psychosis” instead: they are practicing on themselves. These titans/giants/worker bees of the our financial system are, frighteningly and given the reins they hold, acting in a fashion which might be best described as mentally ill. They might be thought of as dangerous. They are perhaps psychotic. Thinking inversely.
Spending untold amounts of money in order to appear “poor” and/or “downtrodden” is apparently Wall St.’s version of credit card splurge: ignore reality, re-package absurdity and live in a personal never-never land that avoids the ugliness which constitutes what has become the essence of daily life for most Americans. If you sing, ”Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries” loud enough, while wearing $300.00,pre-frayed jeans, as you exit your sadly two year-old Porsche, perhaps no one will suspect you had caviar for breakfast, on the rooftop patio of your $2M Manhattan condo. Life for them is still a “cabaret,my friends”. Is it any wonder that, given this sort of disparity in the perception of “real life”, we are having trouble getting back on our feet? Or even finding out feet?
I tried to get an appointment to see my therapist about this, but he was booked. He is getting new patches sewn onto the elbows of his linen shirts and getting his Gucci loafers pre-scuffed.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Acronymns
Due in large part (I understand) to the nearly illiterate communications skills of Paris Hilton (someone called her "Perez" Hilton in an email to me the other day...as in Simon Perez? Scarey), many young people, on the MySpace, Facebook and Twitter sites call many people their "BFF"s. This ostensibly means "Best Friend Forever". While an endearing term (in the moment, anyway), logically speaking, this condition is both probably and literally impossible.
By now I am certain that everyone knows the embarrassing and scandalous plight of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), a now-disgraced member of congress who was, while for sometime being separated from his wife, had an long running affair with an employee, who was the wife of another employee... and also during that same time employeed the woman's 19 year-old son as a policy "consultant", all of this done with public funds and while he was an elected representative of the people of Nevada. The Senator can truly multi-task.
Senator Ensign is a member of the extremely conservative Four Square pentecostal church, a sworn member of Promise Keepers ("marriage is sacred and sancrosanct")and has (as we now can know) loudly and hypocritically protested the "immoral" and "despicable" behaviors of Bill Clinton and Sens. Craig and Vitter (Bill Maher has pointed out that during his campaign, the Senator refused to be alone in a car with another woman [not his wife], for appearance sakes, but apparently being "in" another woman without a car was acceptable behavior. Go figure) . He "came out" only after the husband of the "in flagrante" woman in question threatened both public exposure and extortion. The Senator has betrayed himself, his church, his matrimonial fraternity, his wife and his constituents.
In my book (Face,Place, Space or otherwise) this makes Sen. Ensign a "MMF", or "Miserable MotherFu@#er", of which he is quite literally both.
Vindications of the Senator are no doubt about to be forthcoming from Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, and "MMF" works well in the abbreviated text of Twitter.
Have a nice day... with your neighbor's wife.
By now I am certain that everyone knows the embarrassing and scandalous plight of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), a now-disgraced member of congress who was, while for sometime being separated from his wife, had an long running affair with an employee, who was the wife of another employee... and also during that same time employeed the woman's 19 year-old son as a policy "consultant", all of this done with public funds and while he was an elected representative of the people of Nevada. The Senator can truly multi-task.
Senator Ensign is a member of the extremely conservative Four Square pentecostal church, a sworn member of Promise Keepers ("marriage is sacred and sancrosanct")and has (as we now can know) loudly and hypocritically protested the "immoral" and "despicable" behaviors of Bill Clinton and Sens. Craig and Vitter (Bill Maher has pointed out that during his campaign, the Senator refused to be alone in a car with another woman [not his wife], for appearance sakes, but apparently being "in" another woman without a car was acceptable behavior. Go figure) . He "came out" only after the husband of the "in flagrante" woman in question threatened both public exposure and extortion. The Senator has betrayed himself, his church, his matrimonial fraternity, his wife and his constituents.
In my book (Face,Place, Space or otherwise) this makes Sen. Ensign a "MMF", or "Miserable MotherFu@#er", of which he is quite literally both.
Vindications of the Senator are no doubt about to be forthcoming from Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, and "MMF" works well in the abbreviated text of Twitter.
Have a nice day... with your neighbor's wife.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Inharmonious
Both Paul Krugman (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th)
this morning in the NYT, and Robert Reich (http://robertreich.blogspot.com/)
in his blog posted on 6/18, indicate that they are not happy with the compromise and short-sighted nature of Obama’s proposals for over-hauling the economy and our financial policies. They both indicate that the proposal is not real reform or even anything like it. The news reports on NPR (npr.org) and other articles in the NYT and the WaPo would seem to express the same disappointment. I would like to hear what both Galbraith and Greider have to say, but I have not found anything yet this morning. My first guess is that they would both concur with Krugman and Reich, and that Grieder will be much more pessimistic and critical. And I am willing to bet that Bill Maher (Real Time, HBO, Fri. nite, 10:00 P.M.EST) will have grand time with this debacle tonight.
David Sirota has a piece in Truthdig this morning (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090618_daring_to_dream/) and I have entered a long comment there, about governmental small thinking, semantics ( you cannot literally “re-invent” anything) and the fact that if we do not come up with some new ideas, new solutions and new approaches to the challenges of the modern world, we will be constrained to remain Neanderthals, waiting for the return of the ice age of human ideological survival. That age will be financed, of course, by Lehman Bros. and have really piss poor health care.
Happy Juneteenth.
this morning in the NYT, and Robert Reich (http://robertreich.blogspot.com/)
in his blog posted on 6/18, indicate that they are not happy with the compromise and short-sighted nature of Obama’s proposals for over-hauling the economy and our financial policies. They both indicate that the proposal is not real reform or even anything like it. The news reports on NPR (npr.org) and other articles in the NYT and the WaPo would seem to express the same disappointment. I would like to hear what both Galbraith and Greider have to say, but I have not found anything yet this morning. My first guess is that they would both concur with Krugman and Reich, and that Grieder will be much more pessimistic and critical. And I am willing to bet that Bill Maher (Real Time, HBO, Fri. nite, 10:00 P.M.EST) will have grand time with this debacle tonight.
David Sirota has a piece in Truthdig this morning (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090618_daring_to_dream/) and I have entered a long comment there, about governmental small thinking, semantics ( you cannot literally “re-invent” anything) and the fact that if we do not come up with some new ideas, new solutions and new approaches to the challenges of the modern world, we will be constrained to remain Neanderthals, waiting for the return of the ice age of human ideological survival. That age will be financed, of course, by Lehman Bros. and have really piss poor health care.
Happy Juneteenth.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Man Who Isn't Here
There may well be some terrible and urgent truth to the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. The word ‘change” stings harshly this morning. The President is not here: he is in France, or Cairo or Buchenwald or Canton or Green Bay. Or on a date night. In reality he has been thrown into a toy store. Like W was, he has so many toys to play with, that he appears overwhelmed. He plays with each economic or military toy just enough to leave is fingerprints on them but not enough to learn to use any effectively enough to bring about change. I had hoped for better.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/yes-i-can/?ref=opinion. I was just thinking a few days ago, the President keeps talking about “my” Secretary of State, “my “ Secretary of Defense and “my” financial advisors. Funny: I thought they were “our” government officials and employees. I don’t much care to see Obama’s birth certificate, but I would like to see the bill of sale that shows that we sold him the whole country. His ego (like W’s) suddenly runneth over, he has appears to have forgotten he got hired for this job (not annointed) and works for us. He did not buy the United States like he bought General Motors. I hope he does not sell us to the Italians.
http://progressive.org/wx060909.html. Emanuel does not only appear undisciplined, but seems like the reincarnation of Karl Rove, the junkyard dog. He is unpredictably brash and his behavior betrays bias, brusqueness and angry aggression. He is as reassuring and comforting as falling into a prickly pear. As a right hand man for change, he belies a left-handed skullduggery-business-as- usual. He is a brutal reaffirmation of the politics-as-usual status quo. He is very much here, the President is not.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21632. This is just one essay that describes why the POTUS is all “all hat and no cattle”. His speeches, though eloquent and carefully crafted, lack substance and follow-though. We just spent eight years receiving the same disinformation from W, except it came in the form of sentence fragments and poor grammar. “Walking the walk” is very hard to do when you are not even in the room.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31232667/
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/140570/stop_being_distracted_by_loudmouths_like_limbaugh%3A_the_real_problem_is_lousy_democrats_like_evan_bayh_and_ben_nelson/.
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/140489/we%27re_screwed_on_everything_from_health_care_to_the_economy_if_the_dems_don%27t_shape_up/
http://www.alternet.org/world/140526/bill_moyers%3A_the_rise_of_private_armies_--_mercenaries%2C_murder_and_corruption_in_iraq_and_afghanistan/
I know this is more material than you want to read (or attempt to) in one sitting. But the sum and substance is roughly this: Show business, glitz, glamour and razzle-dazzle are alive and well with this Presidency, as in the last. The promised change, transparency and grit are totally absent, glossed over and hidden by flowery speeches and dog and pony shows. The President goes today to Green Bay, WI, to talk up health care reform. Why? To what end? This will help this cause as much as his trip to Elkhart, IN helped to re-vitalize the RV industry. Someone should remind him that he promised to actually listen to the citizenry and not stage-manage a diversionary tactic that tries to hide the nasty ambitions of big health and big pharma. He is not here. He is out to lunch while the legislators have lunch with the AMA, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
The real problem is lousy democrats. Well, doh. The president exerts none of the sway of his office over his own party members, who are still wedded to big industry and finance. Did he learn nothing from Ronald Reagan? He welcomes the traitor-like likes of Arlen Specter, does nothing to limit the incoherencies of Nancy and Harry and Louise and offers no resistance to the Blue Dogs, who are more cur dogs than blue. And he should pull Lieberman and Graham into the Oval Office and read them the disciplinary riot act that is so long over-due. We are screwed…if the democrats don’t shape up. Same story, new page. The President fails repeatedly to listen to wise observers like Grieder and Richard Wolff and Krugman, who might make a difference and enable real change, and instead surrounds himself with old-line defenders of the “way things used to be”, like Biden, Geithner, and Jaba the Summers and uses Hillary Clinton as a lightning rod and innocuous pacifier.
Private armies and mercenaries: The wars and rumors of wars rage on and continue international carnage and promote ill-will, no matter what vagaries the President spouts from a pulpit in Cairo. At the current rate of the loss of hope and procrastination of change, Guantanamo will still be open for business in two years, new black-ops detention/torture centers will be open in other locales and we will soon own a second billion dollar embassy/fortress/stronghold in Afghanistan. Think what you will about the Taliban, Pakistan and nuclear weapons proliferation.
The youngish rising star of Midwestern politics strode onto the scene and emailed and twittered and sweet-talked his way into the hearts and minds of the younger voting populace. Then, through his promises and spell-binding “speechifyin’” ( stunning in contrast to his predecessor I see now in retrospect), he made the boomers stand at the window in the maternity ward and gloat over the newborn in the crib, up front and center. He was there for that.
The economic slide is still sliding, the foreclosures are closing in on human habitation, and, in a fashion no less blatant in its use of distractions, fanfare and hoopla than that of the previous administration, there is no evidence of new thinking and new solutions to new problems which have outgrown and overwhelmed the old approaches. As this possible” new way forward” is ignored, any real opportunity for that once super-hyped hope and change will rapidly fade. Where is that guy?
Obama is the man who is not here. I know that many people hate to hear me say this, but I have to agree with Mr. Greider: if Mr. Obama does not get on the stick, if he does not start singing from the songbook he sang from to get elected, and dancing with the girls who brung him, we are screwed.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/yes-i-can/?ref=opinion. I was just thinking a few days ago, the President keeps talking about “my” Secretary of State, “my “ Secretary of Defense and “my” financial advisors. Funny: I thought they were “our” government officials and employees. I don’t much care to see Obama’s birth certificate, but I would like to see the bill of sale that shows that we sold him the whole country. His ego (like W’s) suddenly runneth over, he has appears to have forgotten he got hired for this job (not annointed) and works for us. He did not buy the United States like he bought General Motors. I hope he does not sell us to the Italians.
http://progressive.org/wx060909.html. Emanuel does not only appear undisciplined, but seems like the reincarnation of Karl Rove, the junkyard dog. He is unpredictably brash and his behavior betrays bias, brusqueness and angry aggression. He is as reassuring and comforting as falling into a prickly pear. As a right hand man for change, he belies a left-handed skullduggery-business-as- usual. He is a brutal reaffirmation of the politics-as-usual status quo. He is very much here, the President is not.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21632. This is just one essay that describes why the POTUS is all “all hat and no cattle”. His speeches, though eloquent and carefully crafted, lack substance and follow-though. We just spent eight years receiving the same disinformation from W, except it came in the form of sentence fragments and poor grammar. “Walking the walk” is very hard to do when you are not even in the room.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31232667/
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/140570/stop_being_distracted_by_loudmouths_like_limbaugh%3A_the_real_problem_is_lousy_democrats_like_evan_bayh_and_ben_nelson/.
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/140489/we%27re_screwed_on_everything_from_health_care_to_the_economy_if_the_dems_don%27t_shape_up/
http://www.alternet.org/world/140526/bill_moyers%3A_the_rise_of_private_armies_--_mercenaries%2C_murder_and_corruption_in_iraq_and_afghanistan/
I know this is more material than you want to read (or attempt to) in one sitting. But the sum and substance is roughly this: Show business, glitz, glamour and razzle-dazzle are alive and well with this Presidency, as in the last. The promised change, transparency and grit are totally absent, glossed over and hidden by flowery speeches and dog and pony shows. The President goes today to Green Bay, WI, to talk up health care reform. Why? To what end? This will help this cause as much as his trip to Elkhart, IN helped to re-vitalize the RV industry. Someone should remind him that he promised to actually listen to the citizenry and not stage-manage a diversionary tactic that tries to hide the nasty ambitions of big health and big pharma. He is not here. He is out to lunch while the legislators have lunch with the AMA, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
The real problem is lousy democrats. Well, doh. The president exerts none of the sway of his office over his own party members, who are still wedded to big industry and finance. Did he learn nothing from Ronald Reagan? He welcomes the traitor-like likes of Arlen Specter, does nothing to limit the incoherencies of Nancy and Harry and Louise and offers no resistance to the Blue Dogs, who are more cur dogs than blue. And he should pull Lieberman and Graham into the Oval Office and read them the disciplinary riot act that is so long over-due. We are screwed…if the democrats don’t shape up. Same story, new page. The President fails repeatedly to listen to wise observers like Grieder and Richard Wolff and Krugman, who might make a difference and enable real change, and instead surrounds himself with old-line defenders of the “way things used to be”, like Biden, Geithner, and Jaba the Summers and uses Hillary Clinton as a lightning rod and innocuous pacifier.
Private armies and mercenaries: The wars and rumors of wars rage on and continue international carnage and promote ill-will, no matter what vagaries the President spouts from a pulpit in Cairo. At the current rate of the loss of hope and procrastination of change, Guantanamo will still be open for business in two years, new black-ops detention/torture centers will be open in other locales and we will soon own a second billion dollar embassy/fortress/stronghold in Afghanistan. Think what you will about the Taliban, Pakistan and nuclear weapons proliferation.
The youngish rising star of Midwestern politics strode onto the scene and emailed and twittered and sweet-talked his way into the hearts and minds of the younger voting populace. Then, through his promises and spell-binding “speechifyin’” ( stunning in contrast to his predecessor I see now in retrospect), he made the boomers stand at the window in the maternity ward and gloat over the newborn in the crib, up front and center. He was there for that.
The economic slide is still sliding, the foreclosures are closing in on human habitation, and, in a fashion no less blatant in its use of distractions, fanfare and hoopla than that of the previous administration, there is no evidence of new thinking and new solutions to new problems which have outgrown and overwhelmed the old approaches. As this possible” new way forward” is ignored, any real opportunity for that once super-hyped hope and change will rapidly fade. Where is that guy?
Obama is the man who is not here. I know that many people hate to hear me say this, but I have to agree with Mr. Greider: if Mr. Obama does not get on the stick, if he does not start singing from the songbook he sang from to get elected, and dancing with the girls who brung him, we are screwed.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Nobody Likes The Truth
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090608_hold_your_applause/
Many people do not like Mr. Hedges, because of his stance on religion, but when he tells the truth and explains ugliness and indefensible cruelty for what it is, you must give him some space. I concur with this, almost without reservation.
There is no excuse for torture and even less for continued wars that decimate civilian populations with robot bombs (check the cartoon by Mr. Fish…how appropriate). One commenter cautions that the President moves “slowly and thought fully”. I think not. He hardly moves at all and is, as we say in Texas, “All hat and no cattle”. Eloquent speeches save no lives and he does not move slowly: in fact he does not move at all. He ensures that the status will remain very, very quo. He continues to offer the hot air-euphoria of hope while short-changing reality.
Our foreign and humanitarian policies are duplicitous, xenophobic, prejudiced and myopic. Speaking out of both sides of our mouth, in Bush-like protected environments of suppression and repression, will become a venomous snake that will come around to bite us on the backside. Anti-American sentiment will continue to grow and tensions will rise to a boiling point, at which time the tide will turn against and overrun our smug arrogance and feigned innocence, the ugliness will turn against us and everyone will be scratching their heads (and their asses), and be asking, “Hey what happened?” Well, what happened was that we abandoned liberty and freedom and justice for all. And we called it democracy.
Many people do not like Mr. Hedges, because of his stance on religion, but when he tells the truth and explains ugliness and indefensible cruelty for what it is, you must give him some space. I concur with this, almost without reservation.
There is no excuse for torture and even less for continued wars that decimate civilian populations with robot bombs (check the cartoon by Mr. Fish…how appropriate). One commenter cautions that the President moves “slowly and thought fully”. I think not. He hardly moves at all and is, as we say in Texas, “All hat and no cattle”. Eloquent speeches save no lives and he does not move slowly: in fact he does not move at all. He ensures that the status will remain very, very quo. He continues to offer the hot air-euphoria of hope while short-changing reality.
Our foreign and humanitarian policies are duplicitous, xenophobic, prejudiced and myopic. Speaking out of both sides of our mouth, in Bush-like protected environments of suppression and repression, will become a venomous snake that will come around to bite us on the backside. Anti-American sentiment will continue to grow and tensions will rise to a boiling point, at which time the tide will turn against and overrun our smug arrogance and feigned innocence, the ugliness will turn against us and everyone will be scratching their heads (and their asses), and be asking, “Hey what happened?” Well, what happened was that we abandoned liberty and freedom and justice for all. And we called it democracy.
Monday, June 8, 2009
A Metaphor?
Air France flight 447 is a metapohor for the U.S. economy. It has crashed in a huge sea of debt and we have sent out an armada of financial rescue vehicles. Sadly, Capt. Geithner and First Officer Summers are in charge, and all they have managed to do is find dead bodies and the wreckage of the old ship of state. And they have blamed the crash on the Greenspan/Paulson air speed sensors. You might draw parallels between the number of bodies recovered (16?), the total number still missing and the job loss rates. Dog paddling lessons are recommended
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