‘Rentiers’ to the jobless: Your pain is our gain

Posted on June 12, 2011 by oddmanout215

Those trying to escape the saga of Anthony Weiner and the Weiner-ettes may not have seen Paul Krugman’s Friday column, which focuses on the relentlessly high unemployment rate and on the fact that the most powerful people in government — starting with Barack Obama, of course — are doing nothing to end this ongoing disaster.

Instead, the Republicrats want to slash spending further and thus destroy even more jobs in order to stay on the good side of the people who fund their campaigns. Krugman uses a vaguely Marxist and, Lord help us, French term to describe this group, which is opposed to deficit spending, debt relief and others actions that might help put the unemployed back to work:

Consciously or not, policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense. Of course, that’s not the way what I call the Pain Caucus makes its case. Instead, the argument against helping the unemployed is framed in terms of economic risks: Do anything to create jobs and interest rates will soar, runaway inflation will break out, and so on…

And against these hypothetical risks one must set the reality of an economy that remains deeply depressed, at great cost both to today’s workers and to our nation’s future…

Ask for a coherent theory behind the abandonment of the unemployed and you won’t get an answer. Instead, members of the Pain Caucus seem to be making it up as they go along, inventing ever-changing rationales for their never-changing policy prescriptions.

In stating the obvious, Krugman jabs at the pigs who benefit from policies that help keep the jobless out of work and ruffles the feathers of the buzzards who disapprove of language that might wake the unemployed and working poor to the fact that they’ve been written off by the Dems as well as the GOP.

Say what you will about Krugman, he is one of only two people I can think of at the NYT — Gretchen Morgenson is the other — who speak truth to power and aren’t shy about reminding readers that the moneylenders and corporatists who own both major parties have no interest in closing the ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor, or in stamping out the malignant strain of capitalism that has stunted the country’s economic growth.

Posted in economic collapse, globalization, Great Depression, Great Recession, mainstream media, New York Times, New York Times op-ed, Obama, Politics, unemployment, Wall Street, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Greenwald to media: You’re all Weiners

Posted on June 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

I saw a clip of Chris Matthews screeching about Anthony Weiner and, shortly afterwards, read this in Glenn Greenwald’s column:

I’d really like to know how many journalists, pundits and activist types clucking with righteous condemnation of Weiner would be comfortable having that standard applied to them. I strongly suspect the number is very small. Ever since the advent of Internet commerce, pornography — use of the Internet for sexual gratification, real or virtual — has been, and continues to be, a huge business. Millions upon millions of people at some point do what Weiner did.

This is even more to the point:

Reporters who would never dare challenge powerful political figures who torture, illegally eavesdrop, wage illegal wars or feed at the trough of sleazy legalized bribery suddenly walk upright — like proud peacocks with their feathers extended — pretending to be hard-core adversarial journalists as they collectively kick a sexually humiliated figure stripped of all importance.

I feel bad for Weiner but I’d have more respect for him if he’d ditched the tearful, interminable apology and instead told the press corps, “I’m resigning. This is not because of the sexting, which is legal and none of your business, but rather because I lied about it and got caught, and therefore will never again be able to function as an effective advocate for universal health insurance and other vital legislation that 99 percent of Democratic politicians are too cowardly to touch. So have a nice day and go fuck yourselves.”

Footnote: The Weiner fiasco is yet another cautionary tale about the limits of power and privacy, and a reminder that “social networking” technology is inherently creepy. The congressman turned to new-media gadgets for virtual reassurance of his potency, to avoid real-life complications, not realizing these gadgets have become more real to many people than their own flesh and blood.

Posted in Congress, mainstream media, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stick a fork in Weiner, he’s done

Posted on June 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Denounced from the pulpit by the Gray Lady:

For more than a week, Representative Anthony Weiner, a New York City Democrat, baldly lied in denying that he had sent a lewd photo of himself to a woman over Twitter, claiming that his account was hacked. When he finally and tearfully confessed the truth on Monday, it turned out to be worse than expected: He admitted to a longstanding pattern of sending inappropriate photos to women.

The New York Times editorial board is what it is — a handful of smug ivory tower types who make the sort of lofty assertions (“moral” judgments) they think will appeal to the most readers.

But this doesn’t change the fact that Weiner (OMG, that name!) is a self-obsessed jerk who didn’t have the good sense to own up to his “sexting” habit before it became public knowledge.

No surprise that the mainstream media have worked much harder on this tepid tale (there was no actual sex, of course) than on Chris Christie’s hypocrisy, or on evidence that the country’s wealthiest bankers committed perjury in defending their actions during the economic meltdown.

Weiner was one of only a few Dems with the balls (sorry!) to speak out in a smart and spirited way against Republican lies, but now he just looks like a lonesome, insecure fool. Stick a fork in him, he’s done, at least through 2012.

Footnote: When will the Gray Lady use her pulpit to denounce editor Bill Keller for being disingenuous in explaining the part his newspaper played in spreading the lies that led to the disastrous Iraq war? Just asking.

Posted in Congress, Great Recession, Iraq war, mainstream media, New York Times, Politics, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Promoting the 1st annual Chris Christie 100-Yard Walk

Posted on June 6, 2011 by oddmanout215

Michael Smerconish in The Philadelphia’s Inquirer, inadvertently shedding light on why the mainstream media are so reluctant to bash elitist politicians:

It was no surprise to me that Chris Christie took heat for using a state helicopter to attend his son’s baseball game, but I’m not thinking of the wrath of New Jersey taxpayers. If his house is anything like mine, he has bigger problems on the home front for the poor decision he made.

Last Tuesday, Christie flew from Trenton to Montvale to watch his son Andrew play baseball in a state playoff game. Upon arrival next to the field, Christie was shuttled about 100 yards in a dark town car with tinted windows to the stands. Then, after the fifth inning, play was halted so he could depart in order to travel to Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion, to dine with some Iowans who were courting him to run for president.

Smerconish doesn’t slam the governor for believing fiscal austerity is good for the peons but not for the millionaires. He doesn’t mention that Christie’s Ralph Kramden-esque personal style is much more off-putting than that of unionized teachers, whom he has described as “bullies and thugs.”

Instead, the issue that concerns the columnist is the possible harm Christie’s helicopter usage might do to the psyche of his son, the baseball player. He urges the governor to drive — i.e., to be driven — to the kid’s next game.

Smerconish informs us that he drives an F-150 pickup and an $80,000 Jaguar “provided” by one of the sponsors of his radio show. He confesses to embarrassing his sons twice, by picking them up from school in his “spectacular” Jag and, on another day, in the F-150, which prompted one of the boys to ask, “Dad, how many pickup trucks do you see other than ours?”

Oh, the emotional trauma of kids raised in upper middle-class privilege, and of harried upper middle-class fathers like Smerconish and Christie! My heart goes out.

But Smerconish could help undermine the public perception that he and his soul brother are lazy, wasteful elitists. He could create and promote the first annual Chris Christie Save the Schools 100-Yard Walk, the proceeds of which could be used to help pay for teachers and school supplies. The event might boost both men’s public image and the oft-heard right-wing claim that charity should take the place of government programs that help the poor.

The fee to participate in the walk would be twenty dollars. Each walker would be sponsored by an N.J. millionaire who would kick in an additional $10,000 and have his name engraved in the 100-yard walkway (at Drumthwacket?).

Christie could take part, if only to inspire the grossly obese who are trying to get in shape. Smerconish might join him to prove that he, Mr. Jag, is still capable of walking 100 yards. But only after a thorough physical exam, of course.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, NJ, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Tina Fey bus tour would put Palin’s in perspective

Posted on June 2, 2011 by oddmanout215

Where’s Tina Fey when we need her? The question sprang to mind when I read about Sarah Palin’s latest publicity stunt:

…Unless Palin decides to formally explore a possible presidential run, she is free to spend the money raised by SarahPAC for “any lawful purpose” under federal law, experts said. That means it doesn’t matter whether the trip is a holiday, a political event or something in between…

Traveling in a brightly decorated bus — which is labeled “Paid for by SARAHPAC” — Palin kicked off the “One Nation Tour” Sunday with an appearance at the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally on the Mall. Stops since then have included Mount Vernon in Virginia, the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania and the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor…

Reporters are being kept at bay throughout much of the trip, with even lodging details kept secret.

My policy is, if I can help it, to post only once about celebrity clowns — one post on Glenn Beck, one on Donald Trump. Today’s clown is Palin, whom mainstream reporters continue to pursue because… well, because she’s Palin. The half-baked Alaskan never makes sense when she speaks, but she’s good looking and flirty and therefore deemed newsworthy by the powers that be.

I was going to suggest that you, my legion of readers, contact Tina Fey and urge her to launch a nationwide tour posing as Palin, in a bus covered with patriotic images and slogans. Fey could cover costs with a “TINAPAC” and, like Palin, travel to random destinations without notifying the press in advance. (Although it’s pretty hard to keep the press “at bay” when you’re traveling in a bus that looks like a redneck art installation.)

If neither Palin nor Fey were announcing appearances, then reporters would have an even harder time telling them apart than they did in 2008, when Fey was lampooning Palin on Saturday Night Live.

Alas, Fey, due to her pregnancy, is out of action for the summer, according to a publicist I contacted today. The closest you could get to her, which wouldn’t be close at all, would be through William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (phone 310-285-9000, fax 310-248-2020).

It looks like the best we can do is personally remind print reporters and talking heads on TV, through e-mails, tweets, and so on, that their knee-jerk coverage of the Paris Hilton of politics is an absurd and unprofessional waste of time and resources.

This might shame them into living up to their responsibility to keep the public informed of serious issues, including the mystery of why the Obama Justice Department is ignoring evidence that Goldman Sachs executives such as Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied under oath to a Congressional subcommittee investigating Wall Street’s role in creating the mortgage bubble that ate America.

But that’s wishful thinking. Hacks have no shame.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, Wall Street, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In praising Scott-Heron, Inquirer buries his message

Posted on June 1, 2011 by oddmanout215

Gil Scott-Heron, the African-American poet and musician who died this week at age 62, was most famous for his recording of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” a funny and uncompromising call-to-arms that envisions the downfall of the corporate masterminds who distract poor black people from the fact that they have no power. A sample verse:

The revolution will not be right back after a message
About a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.

The fact that The Philadelphia Inquirer would extol Scott-Heron today – in a piece directly underneath an editorial about the late punk rocker Mikey Wild, no less — is a testament to the fact that everything Scott-Heron stood for was inexorably crushed by the corporations that control the political process, the economy, and the hundreds of mainstream news outlets that arguably deaden us to what’s really going on in the world.

If Scott-Heron symbolized an actual threat to the corporate state, The Inquirer wouldn’t be saluting him. You can tell this is true by the editorial writer’s tone and word choices:

America isn’t the same tortured nation it was when Gil Scott-Heron suggested that “the revolution will not be televised.” That’s not to say this country has solved every problem it had when Scott-Heron famously made that pronouncement in his 1970 poem. It is to say that in part because of the consciousness-raising of Scott-Heron and other politically oriented artists, this nation was confronted with its racism, sexism, classism, militarism, and myriad addictions, and led into meaningful dialogues, if not solutions.

Blah blah. America today is an even more tortured nation now than in 1970, when there was hope the plight of the poor could be solved by education and jobs training. That the middle class would keep growing thanks in part to a booming economy, reasonably priced housing and a fairly equitable tax structure. That the military machine might be overhauled and tamed in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Vietnam.

None of those things came to pass. We now have less institutionalized racism, but the black unemployment rate is as high as ever, and the rate for whites is almost as bad.

Scott-Heron was wrong. The “revolution” has not only been televised, it has been co-opted, shanghaied, downloaded, e-mailed, Facebooked and neutered by forces too powerful for naive idealists to seriously challenge.

Here’s what I’d ask if I had your ear, Mr. Editorial Writer: What’s the good of “consciousness-raising” if it doesn’t result in a better quality of life, materially and spiritually? What’s the point of “dialogue” if it goes on and on, deliberately skirting solutions?

Posted in arts, economic collapse, globalization, Great Recession, mainstream media, Philadelphia, Politics, pop music, taxes, unemployment, Wall Street, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A society that renews the ‘Patriot Act’ isn’t free

Posted on May 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

The bizarre Francophobia of columnist Roger Cohen, brought to you by The New York Times:

After Osama bin Laden was killed, a prominent French radio station called me for an interview. It turned into a mildly hallucinogenic experience. Everybody from the president of the United States to Al Qaeda itself was saying Bin Laden was dead, but my interviewer kept pressing me for “the proof.”

…And now we have the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, viewed, it seems, by close to 60 percent of French society as a conspiracy against the putative Socialist presidential candidate…

Cohen writes that “conspiracy theories are the refuge of the disempowered,” as if there are more conspiracy theorists in France than in “freer societies” such as our. He implies that the French are uniquely inclined to believe that Jews secretly funded the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks, as if anti-Semites in others countries haven’t made the same accusations.

It makes me sick that good old boys like Cohen get paid to write “op-ed” drivel as a reward for having worked as real reporters in their younger years, but hey, that’s how the mainstream media works.

Not surprisingly, Cohen writes nothing critical about the high-ranking American officials who worked hard to drum up support for war in Iraq, or about the fact that the Times and other major media outlets played a key role in helping these officials make their case. (Hello Judith Miller and Bill Keller! Why haven’t you guys been drummed out of the journalism business?)

If “freer societies” are those that neglect the poor, ignore the unemployed, exclude millions of people from healthcare and subvert civil liberties with laws like the Patriot Act, then I’ll take France, or almost any other European country.

Memorial Day thought: I don’t know what happened between Strauss-Kahn and that hotel maid, but I’d feel a lot less suspicious about his arrest if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and their co-conspirators had been hauled off in handcuffs after proof that they had lied about WMD in Iraq became available.

Too bad Cohen would rather dis the French than the monsters responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and the destruction of the U.S. economy.

Posted in Great Recession, mainstream media, New York Times, New York Times op-ed, Obama, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Subterranean homesick Bob

Posted on May 25, 2011 by oddmanout215

I tried, but the hundred Inevitables dogged me all day. By the time I got back to the bunker the medicine man was gone and Beethoven had unwrapped a bedroll with Ma Rainey. I’d missed my chance to give Bob Dylan his props on Birthday No. 70.

No sweat, the songs are timeless. We never have to worry about missing the birthday of “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” from Bringing It All Back Home, as fresh now as it was in 1965. It’s a rap, a blues, an electrified protest song, a vision of the future, a time-lapsed photographic look at how easy it is to fall asleep, Rip Van Winkle-style:

…Get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don’t steal, don’t lift
Twenty years of schoolin’
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid…

Look out, kid, only one thing is different. In 2011, twenty years of schooling is more likely to put you in deep debt than on the day shift.

But Dylan threw in those famous aphorisms and koans to remind us that life needn’t be as dreary as the people who, out of self-interest, dictate what’s good for us and what isn’t. Forget cable news, satellite transmissions, picture phones, Twitter and blogs, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

And don’t follow leaders/Watch the parking meters sounds wise all over again when ten-year-old wars and record unemployment don’t even make the news, and when a president elected because he promised sweeping change turns out to be in bed with the biggest crooks in history.

Dylan didn’t need a crystal ball or polling data to know some things are unlikely to change, that democracy is just a punchline if most politicians are on the take, that the pump don’t work/’Cause the vandals took the handles.

Happy birthday, Bob. Good luck, America.

Posted in arts, economic collapse, Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, Iraq war, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, pop music, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thump Trump once, it’s all he deserves

Posted on May 21, 2011 by oddmanout215

(This one’s a little late but hey, so’s my mortgage payment…)

Here’s to the Earnest Weasel, David Brooks, and all the other insiders who get paid big bucks to bloviate. Thanks, guys, for wasting thousands of words speculating that Donald Trump might end his trash-TV show and run for president. Special thanks to the clown/pundits who predicted he definitely would run. (You were one of them, Weasel.)

The mainstream media shies away from iconoclasts but it embraces certain sideshow freaks who can be counted on to attract the attention of Middle America. Trump, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are only a few of the freaks who repeatedly blow the same hot air, on the birther issue and other lies, and yet never fail to make it into the news.

The fact that Trump presided to some extent over three Atlantic City casinos that went bankrupt multiple times was worth reporting, as was his failed attempt to open a casino in Philadelphia. The fact that he was making false noises about running for president — an obvious ploy to boost his TV ratings — was not worth reporting, except maybe once, on Page 10 in the C section.

It’s not news that Trump is the prototypical Ugly American. He comes from privilege and brags he’s a self-made man. His wealth is a vehicle for imposing his vulgarity on the world. His arrogance is matched only by his ignorance, which is evident every time he comments on a serious issue.

My favorite Trump story is from my Atlantic City friend Sterling and dates from well over a decade ago. Sterling was heading one way on the Boardwalk, The Donald was heading the other way, surrounded as always by his goons. They all wore business suits and identical red ties. As he passed them, Sterling said, “Yo, Donald, you got a special on the ties?” The biggest of the goons made a move toward Sterling and appeared ready to throttle him, but another goon pulled the big guy back into lockstep.

That’s Trump — Mussolini with a muskrat on his head, surrounded by goons marching in lockstep, protecting him from uncontrolled exposure to real people.

And that’s the one and only time I’ll mention this ridiculous creep, unless his shaky real estate empire implodes.

Posted in casinos, David Brooks, economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, Philadelphia, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

It’s Rapture time. Do you know where your dog is?

Posted on May 19, 2011 by oddmanout215

Holy eschatology, the end is near. Worthy folks across the land are wrapping up their earthly business and getting ready to be summoned, or assumed, or maybe just whooshed into heaven at 6 p.m. Saturday.

There has been much debate on whether all good people will ascend en masse on May 21 or in groups over the next couple of months, but 89-year-old Harold Camping, prophet and MC of Judgment Day, is unequivocal on this point. The Rapture will be an all-in-one-day affair, like one of those mass weddings presided over by the Rev. Moon in the 1980s. So spend your savings and forget your debts, amen.

But don’t forget your pets. There is still time to connect with the good folks at Eternal Earthbound Pets who, for a small fee, will make sure you’re not too sorely missed by the “four-legged and feathered friends” you leave behind to await world’s end.

Some preachers have doubts about Camping’s prediction, and many skeptics have pointed out that rapture time will vary according to what time zone you’re in. But would you take the word of naysayers and risk the health of your pet(s), not to mention the wrath of the Divine Timekeeper?

BTW, those of us who remain unraptured can look forward to a few months of lag time while the Divine One puts the final touches on Armageddon. Not a bad prospect if you stock up on the right drugs and the greatest hits of Mahalia Jackson.

Footnote: In case the Rapture doesn’t happen, there is still a good chance the Rupture will. The latter is from novelist Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story and refers to the near future when the United States goes bankrupt, microcomputers eliminate privacy and the government does away with the poor. Now that’s a prediction I can believe.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, livable cities | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments