A Pot Pourri of Pot Porridge Cold

How times have changed. Who would have ever thought that we (I) would be jumping up every morning to read the blogs, op eds and the columns of economists, before anything else? I have become, in these troubled times, a disciple of Paul Krugman (Krugman.blog.NYTimes.com/) and Robert Reich (http://robertreich.blogspot.com/). Krugman is busy every day, now (http://www.alternet.org/workplace/114804/krugman%3A_we%27re_in_for_a_year_of_%27economic_hell%27/) , and yesterday it was announced that he has started talking to the Obama economic team. Reich, now labeled as Clintonista, still speaks in plain English and makes common enough sense. How quickly, since the housing bubble burst and we were blackmailed and cajoled into giving Wall Street countless billions of dollars, that we have discounted and ignored Greenspan, Henry Paulson and the Wall Streeters we held in such high esteem for so long (Mammoth chunks of our economy are in ruins, and Greenspan recently told a congressional review board, basically, “Oops”.).

What these guys knew and when they knew it will be something we will be angry about for many years, and perhaps even generations. And I find “oops” a patheticly ineffective defense.

In these times I am also drawn to the words of writers like Noam Chomsky (http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/noamchomsky). He is masquerading as a linguist, but speaks quiet volumes about philosophy, sociology and cultural phenomena. His words are well reasoned and measured, always carefully exposing (but with little room for argument) both sides of every coin. He does this on issues like the world-wide economy, war and rumors of war, racism and regional poverty. Read Chomsky and you will understand genocide like never before.

And if you do not think that times have changed, if you have watched the tele on Sunday morning at any time in the last several weeks, you will have noted that even the noted George F. Will has changed his tone. He has made nice remarks about Democrats, Barack Obama and gays. I can watch him now without being tempted to throw my coffee cup (or my shoes) at the TV screen. I will continue to conjecture that, as the political landscape evolved into brighter and brighter hues of blue, his wife has withheld sexual favors until he cleaned up his rhetoric. Hell hath over-frozen, as Sir Will might say.

And “The times, they are a changin’ “ is also evident when, as recently as a decade ago, blind political and judicial fury would have been unleashed, willy-nilly, against Cheney-like evil-doers, at the slightest provocation or opportunity. But yesterday, Joe Biden set out to quash any such rashness: When asked what the new administration might do about prosecuting Bush-era “criminals”, he cautioned that they should “look forward, not backwards”. I do not know if it the holiday spirit driving this, but (even though I don’t agree), there is something to be said for making an effort to avoid unnecessary ugliness when everything is already ugly in the extreme. And time wounds all heels. In this case I hope it incarcerates them.

And just to keep some spice in the rum-punch bowl, not only has Rachel Maddow leapt suddenly to stardom, from the almost nothingness of Air America, she publicly went on record for excoriating the President-elect about Rick Warren. Whilst I was cheering that, I read this: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/114756/. Times can change when both public opinion and pecuniary considerations make one stop and think about how truly dear one’s religious convictions really are. I raise you one bah and see you two humbugs.

While you are at it, you might like to read this, as well: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/will_the_warren_risk_be_worth.html

Meanwhile, the more (recent) times change, the more they remain the same. Mostly I am referring to the recent exposures of the exploits of Mr. Madoff . Here is a nice Christmas story: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/114782/. While Rachel was leaping to prominence, Madoff was bringing people to the point of leaping from tall buildings, and it wasn’t because he convinced them they were Superman. And Madoff preyed on charities and non-profits. And people think I am mean. Frankly, I don’t quite know how that list (above) was kept down to ten.

The only Times which seem not be changing appreciably are the New York ones. They reported that the big change today in world-wide business was that for the first time since 1938 (?), Toyota will post a loss in earnings: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/business/23auto.html?th&emc=th.. Meanwhile, we have just agreed to fork over many billions of dollars to GM and Chrysler, whose accountants arose from some deep slumber a few weeks ago and predicted an early death for both, without some form of financial life support. This raises a few questions:

Right now, almost everyone can conjure up a picture of Mr. Scrooge, hunkered over his desk, green eye-shade in place, meticulously going over every last penny in his ledger (he was an accountant…that is what they do), grumbling about where the money isn’t. Or where the money went, like to pay the salary of that miserable Bob whats-his-name with the sick kid. He KNEW where his money came from, where it was and where it went. And he knew what to expect. Mostly. But comes now GM, Chrysler, Wall Street and (everyone predicts) soon the real estate industry, state governments, hospitals, and hula hoop manufacturers, claiming that the rumor of their demise (apologies to Mark Twain) are not rumors at all. So we act surprised and pretend to believe that that the bean-counting, Scrooge-like accountants involved in all of this did not see it coming? Are we daft? This year’s mistletoe overhead has been an overhead of phony finance that cannot be sustained. Kissing is risky a business this year.

Then we have this, from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122202479.html?wpisrc=newsletter, like this is any freaking surprise. Asia has been riding on our coattails of conspicuous consumption for years and someone is supposed to be shocked? This might clear up a few things and give you some ideas: http://www.alternet.org/environment/111954/.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Crawford, nobody is really thinking about anything much at all, except perhaps when to announce the pardons for Cheney that he has been shamelessly politicking for in the press, for days now. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/114774/.

Back at the Fed Spa in DC, Paulson seems to want to emulate Santa Claus and is itching to give away the remaining $350B to Wall Street before the Obama gang can get their hands on it. The AP reported, in the course of things, that something like at least $1.6B of the first batch went to pay out bonuses and perks and most of the rest is unaccounted for….and Citi Corp is still flying a fleet of 9 (nine) private jets. Which brings me back to the accountants and their green eye-shades.

For the life of me ( and apparently the lives of many others), I have no idea where these number crunchers have been hiding. They are supposed to tell us about calamities like this before they happen. You would think, that with all of the financial wizards we claim to have, who make far more money than you or I do, someone could tell us HONESTLY about debacles like Enron (hell, their accounting firm couldn’t account for themselves) , Worldcom, and Lehman Bros. And now Gov. Schwarzenegger says CA is facing a $42B shortfall. And of course a large part of this is because we have had large hedge funds run by hedge-hogs, who evidently come out only at night, to undercut the financial shrubbery of America while we sleep ( we must have the curfew on Madoff all wrong: he cannot come OUT at night.) Another government f#@kup.

I must be missing something, here. Oh, yes: It’s my money. Yours too.

I don’t know why I am doing this. I am supposed to be full of good cheer. I think I will go insert one of those old fashioned VCR cassette tapes into my old-fashioned machine, and play back Bill Murray’s “Scrooged” for some laughs. I can watch it on my non-HD TV while I drink some very-fattening eggnog and eat sugar cookies.

Well SHIT FIRE! I just got a holiday greeting email from Michelle Obama! It asked me to donate to a local food bank or send a care package. What kind of silly non-neo-con compassionate conservative crap is that? I can’t just ditch eight years of conditioning in a flash. Food banks! Bah! Let then eat chocolate truffles! Care Packages! Humbug! Who cares? I’ve just gotten real comfortable being miserable, and I wish everyone would do the same and leave me alone: Hell, it’s Christmas. Show some sympathy.