Don’t trust MSNBC, either

Posted on February 11, 2012 by oddmanout215

What, if anything, did the federal government’s $25 billion “mortgage settlement” deal with the big banks do to help people who lost their homes, or are on the verge of losing them because of deceptive practices by the banks?

The New York Times:

Despite the billions earmarked in the accord, the aid will help a relatively small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure.

Yves Smith:

If the new Federal task force were intended to be serious, this deal would have not have been settled. You never settle before investigating. It’s a bad idea to settle obvious, widespread wrongdoing on the cheap. You use the stuff that is easy to prove to gather information and secure cooperation on the stuff that is harder to prove. In Missouri and Nevada, the robosigning investigation led to criminal charges against agents of the servicers. But even though these companies were acting at the express direction and approval of the services, no individuals or entities higher up the food chain will face any sort of meaningful charges.

Matt Taibbi:

Really this looks like America’s public prosecutors just wilted before the prospect of a long, drawn-out conflict with an army of highly-paid, determined white-shoe banker lawyers. The message this sends is that if you commit crimes on a large enough scale, and have enough high-priced legal talent sitting at the negotiating table after you get caught, the government will ultimately back down, conceding the inferiority of its resources.

And yet, if you watched MSNBC this week, you might have thought the settlement was a big initial victory in the struggle to nail the swindlers who have caused so much misery. God forbid Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz or Lawrence O’Donnell should state or even imply that the Obama administration continues to do a lousy job of protecting the interests of ordinary citizens against thieving corporations and big banks.

This is not to say MSNBC is in the same league with Fox News. Fox traffics in blatant lies and cynical distortions in order to push right-wing agendas. MSNBC reports and comments from a liberal perspective, but doesn’t blatantly lie or distort.

However, MSNBC’s prime-time commentators sometimes avoid drawing conclusions, or even asking questions, that might cast the Obama administration in an unflattering light, and this should make uncomfortable all of us who have noticed this tendency.

Footnote: Keith Olbermann would have asked the right questions — especially to Eric Schneiderman, who was on Maddow’s show — but MSNBC forced him out last year. Coincidence, right?

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Reagan’s wrecking crew

Posted on February 10, 2012 by oddmanout215

Where would America be without the two-term presidency of Ronald Reagan? Answering this question, Charles P. Pierce addressed the ghost of the Gipper on his 101st birthday:

…You did more than anyone else to demolish the notion of a political commonwealth, the principle that “government” is a common enterprise that must be undertaken by all citizens, and not some foreign entity to be whipped and controlled. You brought “states’ rights” back from the historical ignominy where it richly deserved to have been sunk. You showed how The Other can get you elected, how elections are really simply magic shows of pretty images and soft music. You ruled for an entire second term as a symptomatic Alzheimer’s patient and dared anyone to act in a patriotic manner and suggest you step down. Nobody did. You robbed the system of its confidence. You broke down important constitutional barriers that have yet to be reconstructed. You were the first among vandals…

Great stuff, but Pierce doesn’t mention that Ronnie boy couldn’t have done it without help from tens of millions of Americans who should have understood that his anti-government policies were ultimately directed against them. These people were convinced by right-wing propagandists that they could have it both ways — a middle-class lifestyle, but without paying taxes to maintain the infrastructure essential to such a lifestyle. They embraced the philosophy that helped corporate America destroy not only labor unions, but also the sense of unity and common purpose that was the legacy of the New Deal.

Reagan’s legacy is the notion that unregulated markets and tax breaks for the rich will raise all boats. It is the lie that the 99 percent, through hard work and dog-eat-dog selfishness, can become the one percent.

What we have instead is a wrecked economy and a gulf between rich and poor wider than that in any other developed country. We have a political system that puts in place cruel hacks such as PA Gov. Tom Corbett, who would rather drastically cut funding for safety-net programs and public schools than tax the corporations that paid for his election.

A lot of people now realize you can draw a direct line between Reagan the mean-spirited fraud and truly vile creatures such as Corbett, who doesn’t even pretend to represent the poor and near-poor. Too bad it took a second Great Depression to wake them.

Posted in campaign finance reform, economic collapse, Great Depression, liar, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

When he was good

Posted on February 8, 2012 by oddmanout215

From Rod Stewart’s first solo album (1969), released not long after he broke with the great guitarist Jeff Beck. This was before Stewart stopped singing songs about working-class misfits and turned into a Hollywood poof (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”).

I like this from Paul Evans, writing for Rolling Stone Album Guide:

An object lesson in the perils of pandering, Stewart’s career proves that “selling out” wasn’t just some thought crime dreamed up by ’60s idealists. For a golden hour, Rod the Mod was one of rock’s finest singers, with a lock on, of all things, sincerity, taste and self-mocking humor…

Posted in arts, pop music | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Naomi Wolf’s Madonna crush

Posted on February 8, 2012 by oddmanout215

Madonna is “that forbidden thing, the Nietzschean creative woman.” I didn’t know this until I read journalist Naomi Wolf’s complaint about reporters who diss the Material Girl whenever she “steps out of her pretty-girl-pop-music bandwidth” to make a movie or book. “Why can the press just not wait to hate Madonna at these moments?” Wolf asked before answering her own question:

Because she must be punished, for the same reason that every woman who steps out of line must be punished. Madonna is infuriating to the mainstream commentariat when she dares to extend her range because she is acting in the same way a serious, important male artist acts. (And seizing the director’s chair, that icon of phallic assertiveness, is provocative as hell)…

What is so maddening? She does what every serious male artists does. That is: she doesn’t apologize for her talent or for her influence. What comes across quite profoundly when one interviews her is that she is preoccupied with her work and her gifts – just as serious male artists are, who often seem self-absorbed. She has the egoless honesty of the serious artist that reads like ego, especially in women.

Which planet is Naomi on? In my world, Madonna was a smart, willful girl who jumped on the disco bandwagon and transformed herself into a pop star admired for her cocky attitude and funky-but-chic aesthetic. She’s a good dancer/bad singer who’s still cranking out songs that sound like background music in a salon full of girls with tinfoil in their hair who are dreaming of steamy romantic encounters.

In Naomi’s world, the Material Girl’s music isn’t even mentioned. She’s an artist of “immense talent” who “does not apologize for her Nietzschean self or her appetites” (poor Friedrich must be spinning in his grave), or for her “astonishingly opulent home,” with its “discreet, stunningly handsome young male staffers, from all backgrounds – from the gorgeous chauffeur to the gorgeous security guard to the gorgeous fellow who brought in the sparkling water.”

Madonna at home sounds like the female version of Moammar Gaddafi. Are we supposed to be impressed?

Wolf wanted to say something about sexism, but I wish she’d at least chosen a worthier woman artist as a jumping off point for her bizarre polemic. Madonna was a trend setter — a cultural icon, even. But those songs! Almost without exception, they are cheap things — robotic little minor-key confections, tacky, melodramatic and mindless.

People who don’t like Madonna don’t want to punish her. They just don’t want to hear her, if possible.

Posted in arts, humor, pop music | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Half-truths about the job market

Posted on February 7, 2012 by oddmanout215

Last week, news outlets were buzzing with happy talk about a dip in the unemployment rate in November. The problem is, anyone living in the real world knows that good jobs — i.e., jobs that pay well, or at least allow one to live above the poverty line — continue to disappear, and that reports emphasizing slight upticks in employment are irresponsible and misleading.

If the people who work for the corporate media weren’t cowardly, crooked, or just plain lazy, they would have reported the sobering facts presented yesterday in a Reader Supported News piece by economist Robert Reich:

Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy – hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they’ve agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they’ve lost. Entry-level manufacturing jobs are paying half what entry-level manufacturing jobs paid six years ago.

Other people are falling out of the middle class because they’ve lost their jobs, and many have also lost their homes. Almost one in three families with a mortgage is now underwater, holding their breath against imminent foreclosure.

The percent of Americans in poverty is its highest in two decades, and more of us are impoverished than at any time in the last fifty years. A recent analysis of federal data by the New York Times showed the number of children receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million in the last school year, up from 18 million in 2006-2007. Nearly a dozen states experienced increases of 25 percent or more. Under federal rules, children from families with incomes up to 130 percent of the poverty line, $29,055 for a family of four, are eligible.

This morning on NPR, some news-reading moron announced that the number of available jobs in this country has “surged to a three-year high.” None of Reich’s hard facts were mentioned on NPR, and you won’t see them in daily newspapers, not unless they’re buried in an “analysis” piece.

NPR did note in a website story that the dip is not such good news if you factor in the 315,000 people who stopped looking for work; that the new jobs figures were “seasonally adjusted,” meaning they include many retail jobs that last only through the holidays; and that the economy is a long way from regaining the many millions of jobs lost since the so-called recession began. But how many people read NPR’s website, as opposed to hearing its news reports on the radio?

We’re in the middle of a disaster as big as the Great Depression, but the corporate media, in the spirit of Herbert Hoover, run stories implying that prosperity is just around the corner.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Madonna exits, Mitt marches on

Posted on February 6, 2012 by oddmanout215

The concepts were unintentionally funny, the players about as exciting as assembly-line robots. I mean the Republican presidential debates, not the Super Bowl halftime show. Madonna and her minions were on stage for only a few minutes, but the GOP stiffs won’t go away, and they get worse with each new performance.

Mitt and Newt and Rick will say anything to get the attention of the mainstream media, which dutifully pretend these shameless phonies are men of substance, and that the debates are valuable tools for helping Americans decide which phony will become the nominee.

Reporter Gary Younge won’t go along with the charade, maybe because he doesn’t work for the American news media:

…It is difficult to think of anywhere else in the western world where these debates would have any credibility outside of a fringe party (even if the fringes in Europe are now spreading). Far from indicating America’s exceptionalism, it looks more like an awful parody of the stereotypes most outsiders already believed about American politics at its most bizarre. “Those who follow this race daily may have long since lost perspective on how absurd it is,” said the German magazine Der Spiegel last week. “Each candidate loves Israel. They all love Ronald Reagan. Each loves his wife, a born first lady, for a number of reasons.”

The good news is, with the exception of [Gov. Rick] Perry’s demise, the debates have not been pivotal. The bad news is that the truly decisive element has been something even more insidious: money. Lots of it…

Super-rich individuals and organizations will continue funneling huge sums to the GOP regardless of which would-be nominee “wins” the debates and primaries (except for Ron Paul, of course). Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive who gave $10 million to Newt’s campaign, would have no problem spending even more money on Mittens, should he prevail.

Our political system is a farce, and the world knows it. Candidates don’t get anywhere near the nomination unless they agree to front for the monied interests that determine American foreign and domestic policies. The only way to end the farce would be through massive campaign finance reforms of the sort that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing, but most of Sanders’ peers are too corrupted to go along with reform.

They’d rather sing a song for Sheldon. All together now, candidates, lip-synch with Madonna:

When you call my name it’s like a little prayer
I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I’ll take you there

Posted in campaign finance reform, Congress, humor, mainstream media, Mitt Romney, pop music | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Crucifixion complex

Posted on February 5, 2012 by oddmanout215

Photo by TONY WOOD

One of my favorite movie moments occurs near the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Pod people from outer space may have replaced all the real people in a little California town except for Dr. Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy, who runs to escape the fate of the others and, in desperation, jumps into a traffic jam on a highway. “Look, you fools,” the doctor shouts, dodging slowly moving cars. “You’re in danger, can’t you see? They’re after you! They’re after all of us! Our wives, our children, they’re here already! You’re next!”

Miles wouldn’t allow himself to accept what seemed to him a dismal copy of the real world. He’d pretended for a while to go with the flow — “Keep your eyes a little wide and blank. Show no interest or excitement.” — but knew he’d have to take action, or else accept that what seems fake to him is instead real.

But it’s more complicated than that. Did Miles rebel because he knew the truth, or was he merely delusional? If he were around today, would he insist like a Luddite that online social networks are being used to rob us of our privacy? Would he think his Facebook friends weren’t really friends?

It’s dangerous to be totally sure of yourself, as Henry Miller tried to explain in Tropic of Capricorn:

… I was born with a crucifixion complex. That is, to be more precise, I was born a fanatic. Fanatic! I remember that word being hurled at me from early childhood on. By my parents especially. What is a fanatic? One who believes passionately and acts desperately on what he believes. I was always believing in something and so getting into trouble. The more my hands were slapped the more firmly I believed. I believed. I believed — and the rest of the world did not. If it were only a question of enduring punishment, one could go on believing until the end; but the way of the world is more insidious than that. Instead of being punished, you are undermined, hollowed out, the ground taken from under your feet…

Don’t run around shouting “Wake up, fools!” You might end up singing “I Wanna Be Sedated.” Ask your friends on Facebook, they’ll tell you.

Footnote: Tony Wood can be reached at http://anthonywood.zenfolio.com/

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

‘Central Government for Dummies’

Posted on February 3, 2012 by oddmanout215

The Tea Party likes this cartoon, but they don't get it. Should we blame TV?

Last week I wrote that the Tea Party is a dead end, mainly because its members don’t seem to understand they’re serving the rich and powerful, and surrendering power in the process. They love the idea of a “maverick” Republican presidential nominee, but they are going to get Mitt Romney, and most of them are going to vote for him. And if Mitt’s campaign implodes, they will end up with someone owned by the same monied interests that Mitt represents.

The thing that’s most pathetic about the Tea Party crowd — mostly middle-aged, formerly middle-class white men — is that they’re too blinded by ignorance and fear to see their actual enemies.

Robert Parry was lucid on this point in a recent essay. Here are the final paragraphs, but please read the whole piece:

When the Tea Partiers dress up in Revolutionary War costumes, they apparently don’t know that their notion of a weak central government and state “sovereignty” was anathema to the key framers of the Constitution, especially to Washington who had watched his soldiers suffer under the ineffectual Articles of Confederation.

And, when the Tea Partiers wave their “Don’t Tread on Me” flags of a coiled snake, they don’t seem to know that the warning was directed at the British Empire and that the banner aimed at fellow Americans was Benjamin Franklin’s image of a snake severed into various pieces representing the colonies/states with the admonishment “Join, or Die.”

Nevertheless, false narratives and false arguments can be as effective as real ones to a thoroughly misinformed population. Thus, many middle- and working-class Americans still cheer when Newt Gingrich references Ronald Reagan and his “supply-side” economics.

But the failure of Reagan’s economic strategy should be obvious to anyone who is not fully deluded by right-wing propaganda. Not only has the national debt skyrocketed over the past three decades, but whatever economic benefits that have been produced have gone overwhelmingly to the wealthy – while the nation as a whole has suffered.

Posted in Mitt Romney, Nativism, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Hope you don’t find no shadow…

Posted on February 2, 2012 by oddmanout215

Groundhog people with your groundhog ways
I see you in the sun but you fly when the shadows get long

This is an alternate version of the song that appeared on Clear, the third Spirit album (1969).

Posted in arts, humor, pop music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

And the big story is… Phil

Posted on February 2, 2012 by oddmanout215

'Are you guys tripping?'

From today’s Washington Post:

At 7:25 a.m. this morning, amidst mostly cloudy skies, and temperatures in the low 30s, Groundhog Phil saw his shadow in the little town of Punxsutawney, Pa.

According to folklore, Phil’s sighting of his own shadow means there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Had Phil not seen his shadow, it would have meant “there will be an early spring.”

If Phil’s forecast is right, it signals a dramatic reversal from the mild weather pattern affecting much of the country. Many parts of the central and eastern U.S. have seen temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above normal in recent days. On February 1, just 19% of the Lower 48 had snow cover compared to 52% at this time last year.

Footnote: If Phil’s sighting means anything, it’s “there will be an extremely late winter.”

Photo by Laugh It Out.

Posted in humor, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment