Thebeerdoctor’s NewsCloud Journal

THE COMFORT OF DISBELIEF

There is something quite marvelous in modern American television. It allows the viewers to be constantly distracted. A plethora of topics is available to astound. There is a man having a baby, while another baby almost falls off a cliff. A book is returned to the public library after being overdue for fifty years. And what about the bold dress color, worn by the first lady of the President-elect, on their open house visit to what will be their residence for the next four years. Then there is The Economy. An unpleasant topic filled with stories of a Dow Industrial Average continually tanking, and the need for a bailout… no strike that, a rescue plan, that involves showing how much faith the federal government has in big businesses, and the assumed fantasy known as the free market system. This is where the American citizens are told to just surrender unto corporate Caesar what is their monetary (therefore, Divine) right to. And do not fret your precious little head over the details about how this rescue plan is to be implemented. There is no need for oversight. Instead of governance laws, there are not even rules, just simply, guidelines.
Neel Kashkari, the Treasury department Santa in charge of the bailout goody bag, opposed the FDIC proposal of using $24 billion to cut the mortgage payments for homeowners threatened with foreclosure. For these true recipients of the housing crisis, who truly feel the brunt of all of this, there is not even a stocking with a lump of coal.
People who attempt to put a civil face on this mess, will say that the money is being poorly targeted. I do not believe that for a second. The so-called focus of the bailout assumes there is public service altruism involved, and that it is good for the country. No, this is a robbery. Robbery on a grand scale, but robbery nonetheless. A working synopsis would be: the game, known as the free market credit system, has been busted by the ownership class, and now there is a frantic dash to destroy all evidence of their participation, by looting everything in sight, and, in the case of treasury tax law section 382, everything that still remains hidden.
“Poverty is the most urgent crisis facing the world,” says European Development Commissioner, Louis Michel. This is certainly not Job 1 for the rescue plan, where multi-billions have already been put into our financial system, supposedly to unleash lending. But without enforced stipulations on how this money was to be used, much of this went to paying executive bonuses and buying up smaller, and often profitable, banks.
The Congressional Democrats, along with some of their appalled Republican colleagues, found themselves aghast with a toothless give-away piece of legislation, where the only remedy was to compose angry letters to the Chief Executive Officers of the corporations who stand to benefit greatly from this U.S. government largesse.  What were once investment banks are now holding banks. What was once a credit card company is now classified as a bank also.
Quite remarkable is the rapidity at which this new mindset of the government existing solely for the corporate elite, has been adopted by the population in general. The television liaisons of the ownership class, such as Oprah and Dr. Phil, comfort their audiences with reassurance, saying we are all in this together. Local news carries features on how to survive on a tightened (and getting tighter) budget. Learn how to turn down the thermostat on the heater, and where to download cost saving coupons from the internet!
The Republicans, in their recently failed election campaign, loved to cite Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the chief culprits in the housing mortgage crisis. In reality, those two quasi, now owned by, government backed entities account for only 40% of the mortgage system. To get an idea how the other 60% participated in this robbery, former Wall Street analyst Michael Lewis’ article titled The End, speaks volumes about how mortgage backed securities became an instrument for increasing wealth, by betting, therefore shorting, that those instruments would inevitably fail. As Lewis notes: “The juiciest shorts–the bonds ultimately backed by the mortgages most likely to default.”
“The loans would have been made by one of the more dubious mortgage lenders, Long Beach Financial, wholly owned by Washington Mutual, was a great example.”
It turns out: “Long Beach Financial was moving money out the door as fast as it could, few questions asked, in loans built to self destruct. It specialized in asking homeowners with bad credit and no proof of income to put no money down and defer interest payments for as long as possible. In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000.”
What seems to be the most shocking for Michael Lewis was the extent of the crime. Writing about analyst Steve Eisman he states: “Eisman knew subprime lenders could be scumbags. What he underestimated was the total unabashed complicity of the upper class of American capitalism.”
One time junior accountant, Vince Daniel, saw this up close, while working for the once-upon-a-time Arthur Andersen, during an audit of Solomon Brothers: “I saw how the sausage was made in the economy, and it was really freaky.”
This could easily be applied to Meredith Whitney’s observations, around Halloween 2007, when the Oppenheimer Fund analyst announced that Citigroup would have to cut its dividends in order to remain operating. People were shocked, especially when it turned out to be true. Now, a little over a year later, Citigroup announced it would have to slash ten thousand jobs, for a start, with its stock price falling from $50 to under 10. The robbery that dare not speak its name, has been involved in nearly all of this.
This makes the denials of the participants even more appalling. The people in charge at these firms claim, not unlike much of the political leadership, that they were simply along for the ride and had no idea that the vehicle they were traveling in, was actually stolen.
But then there is always the matter of the corporate image to be considered. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, it has been announced, will not be receiving any bonus to his $600,000 base salary, partially due to the firm’s participation in the $700 billion bailout. This seems only proper. Lucas van Praag, company spokesman said, “They believe its the right thing to do. We can’t ignore the fact that we are part of an industry that’s directly associated with the ongoing economic distress.”
What a remarkable admission. Never mind that Mr. Blankfein took in just under $70 million last year. The six hundred grand? The bare skin and bones take home pay? It will be tough, but he will manage somehow. It’s the right thing to do, like having a bowl of old fashioned oatmeal in the morning. And yes, they can’t ignore the fact that they are part of an industry… don’t you just love that word, industry? The big glass and steel building that manufactures these mysterious financial instruments, that are not only directly associated with the ongoing economic distress, but bloody near the cause of it all.
“CEO Lloyd Blankfein,” as Bethany McLean wrote in Fortune, “who took over last spring, gets credit for helping steer Goldman away from the most damaging investments. And Goldman which says it has limited exposure to the subprime mess, stands confirmed - for now, anyway - as the smartest bank on the Street.”
Of course these words of confidence were written before Goldman Sachs changed their operation mode (or modus operandi) from an investment bank to a holding bank. Which also makes me wonder if they were so smart in steering clear of the subprime mess, why are they receiving bailout money?

Unreality has its psychic advantages. If only President Bush could look into the Economy’s eyes and see its soul, and know it has a good heart. If only he could just call in an air strike and stop all this bleeding from these collateralized debt obligations. If only…
Late at night, when the other usual voices have gone to bed, you can hear the BBC radio world service, where commentators across the globe, speak of the present situation. There is not much mincing of words. They seem to know that we are in an economic global depression, whether anyone cares to admit or not. The air has been let out of the balloon, and people are genuinely worried.
As this unique winter of discontent approaches, I am strangely reminded of the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, sung by Judy Garland, in the movie Meet Me In St. Louis. It seems that Ms. Garland and her future husband, the director Vincente Minnelli, found the original lyrics too depressing, and decided to change them. So did Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra, who wanted to “jolly it up a bit” when he recorded the song in the 1950’s. But for myself, the original draft seems much more pertinent to our present situation.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past

And that’s what Wall Street is all about Charlie Brown.

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AN UNEASY BIRTHDAY

The end of October and the beginning of November has always been a special time for me. Being born on All Saints Day, there has always been that morning after tie-in with Halloween. Never was this more acutely felt as in 1963, when on my way to school I saw the jack-o-lanterns set out for Friday’s garbage and became sad, until I realized it was also my birthday.
Years later I became aware of Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under The Volcano, which fictionally takes place on November 1, 1938. Add to that, the Day of the Dead, the Mayan Day of the Dead, Samhain Day, etc., and this period of time becomes rather personally significant. But never has this holiday period been under such pressure as that being generated this presidential election year.
It really does not matter that the Democratic candidate is really a centrist, non-ideological person. The fact that he is a man with a permanent tan… and that sadly, is what all the damn fuss is about.
Republicans especially, but independents also, will not admit that their trouble with Barack Obama is not because he is a radical child of the sixties (he most certainly is not), or that they just do not know him well enough. Which is particularly strange, because many of the people who got on board the runaway train known as George W. Bush, knew very little about him, except he seemed to relish his mandate from the state of Texas to enforce the death penalty. Oh and yes, his daddy is a former President. No, the real problem many have with Senator Obama is the realization that there is going to be a brother in charge. A national civic moment that finally says, it doesn’t matter what a person’s background is, what matters now is can they do the job or not.

Halloween night was unusually different. Senator Hillary Clinton appeared that day at a get-out-the-vote Obama rally, four and a half blocks from my house. The local neighborhood is clearly in the tank for Barry O.  A McCain/Palin sign here is considered an aberration, usually posted by someone who is worried about their guns, or their lawn, or both. There is also the occasional right-to-life warrior. An issue driven concern for fetuses that is greater than actual babies being murdered in our far away wars. Folks of this persuasion will not even consider the notion that the best way to prevent abortions is to avoid circumstances which require their consideration. But that would involve sexual education, contraceptives and such. This is the real kicker: many anti-abortion advocates do not want anyone using contraceptives. Consider the Governor of Alaska’s inflexible position on this issue. It is not all surprising that her daughter finds herself with bump.

The uneasiness about the election makes many people nervous. Adding to this are the divisive remarks from Governor Palin, who seems hell bent on convincing the electorate that Senator Obama is a card carrying fellow traveler of terrorists. It quickly becomes apparent what the Republicans are up to. Unable to gloss over the mismanagement and incompetence of the Bush years, they choose to divert attention away by constructing a false, social-cultural war. Of course the McCain/Palin campaign claim nothing of the sort. Despite the fact that Mrs. Palin chose to quote Westbrook Pegler, a bona fide American fascist, during her infamous GOP convention speech. Later, when a few people did notice this, nobody seemed very concerned.
Television, both local and national, decided to broadcast many of the Alaska Governor’s unctuous stump speeches. To put it in her vernacular, they were tight little pointed packages of verbiage, designed to strike fear in the hearts of those with just enough audacity of hope, to actually question her supposed patriotic authority. This was ironic. The advancement of women in the workplace, now included creating an unapologetic demagogue.
Senator McCain for his part seem befuddled. Long before the economic crisis, he seemed off his game the first day he announced his vice- presidential pick. The kind of people that Sarah Palin pals around with (witch doctor, secessionist) added an exotic flare to her biography that was not exactly desirable. When shadow president Dick Cheney endorsed their ticket, a McCain supporter said to me: “we need that like we need a hole in the head.”

Despite it being often reported how much Barack Obama outspent Senator McCain, here in the local market the Republican based fear ads were everywhere. Where money really did make a difference was the boots on the ground,  the so-called ground game. Here Obama’s people seemed omnipresent, continuously calling up for support, asking if you need help when going to vote. As late as the last hour before the polls closed, I saw Obama workers still knocking on doors. After witnessing this gargantuan effort, it is not surprising at all that Senator Obama won the state of Ohio. I am sure Indiana experienced similar actions. The McCain crowd, even the third part dreamers, could not match the hard work and tenacity of the Obama campaign. Why should they be surprised at the results?

But there is no way to describe, or simply convey, what happened on election night. This is something I will never experience again, after living over half a century on this earth. It all fell into place around 11pm, eastern standard time. The television news announced that Senator Barack Hussein Obama would be the next United States President.
I look over at my older brother, who says to me, using his Animal House language: “The war is over. Obama dropped the big one.”
I quickly went upstairs, knocked on the bedroom of my 82 year old mother. “Mom, I said, Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.”
There was a quiet joy on her face knowing that she lived long enough to see something occur that only a few years ago was said to be a complete impossibility. To know, to actually know, that destiny is not always predicted, that Providence, if you will, works in very mysterious ways.

I quickly made an exit from my house to the convenience store located a couple of blocks away. Being a beer consultant to non-alcohol drinking, middle eastern Americans, I have always been held in higher regard than I deserve.
“You predicted it.” Nasser said. The fiercely independent shop owner was abundantly happy, making reference to what I said a few days earlier, that Obama would win and it would all be over by midnight.
People in the store were shaking hands and giving hugs. Black people wandered in with a kind of happy shell shock. Damn! There is going to be a black man in the White House!
Nasser, feeling and looking magnanimous said: “What do you think of Barack Obama now?” and then, “The Beer Doctor predicted it.”
Which was all very flattering, but basically besides the point. My so-called analysis was simply based on the assumption that all the polls showed Senator Obama was ahead, and the only way for a McCain victory to happen would be if they were all wrong. The Harry Truman election was brought up briefly, but I said no, that won’t do, John McCain is not a sitting President.
Television, despite all the data, seemed to assume a say it isn’t so mode, right up to the end. This was understandable. TV has products to sell. A foregone conclusion can be a real marketing killer.
The expression tears of joy maybe foreign to many. But on this unforgettable night, I finally understood what that meant. Racism has always been an ugly backdrop growing up in the state of Ohio. My late father, a decent kind, thoughtful man, taught me at a very early age how ridiculous racism always was, even when to advocate this truth, you did so at your own peril. Even when I was only six years old, I thought the only race is the human race.
But considering that notion was difficult and sometimes dangerous. So many of the good people I lived around and their children that I played with, had essentially a racist viewpoint towards other parts of humanity. They justified dehumanizing black folks by claiming they were ignorant nigger monkeys. Wild animals as it were, ready on a moment’s notice , to come up the hill from the valley, to attack them unmercifully.
With such concentrated xenophobia, it is no revelation that my neighbors took comfort in their right to bear arms. After all, is that not what the second amendment is all about: guns to protect you against varmints?  One good catholic family in the neighborhood took comfort and pride in knowing that a family member was in the National Guard, and that, in case of a riot, he could shoot niggers legally.
I kept my silence, knowing that the truth was a secret shared by my family only. Besides, our neighbors were good decent people, who happened to be racially insane. How did I know this? Well circumstantial evidence first and foremost. The most intelligent and talented kid at the elementary school I attended was black. For us other kids, he was a kind of oracle.
All of this unfinished business came flooding back that night Senator Obama became the President-elect. What a relief it was! To finally have the vindication that my fellow citizens are exactly that: my fellow citizens.
Perhaps this spells an end to the extreme right and extreme left, of the political spectrum. Those who have been driven by issues to the point of hardened cynicism, will have to reckon with the fact that sometimes justice actually does prevail, that human decency can eventually triumph.
This ship of state, through the unrelenting efforts of a community organizer, has been dragged over what was only recently considered an insurmountable mountain. All peace and blessings for that. These are new waters, in a new time, on which to sail.

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THE CHIMERA OF CHANGE

The financial meltdown recently has brought into focus some rather hard political realities, which neither Republicans or Democrats, actually want to acknowledge. The so-called bailout, put forward by Secretary Paulson and the administration, is a very unpopular notion, to say the least. There is absolute outrage from both political right and left, over a sanctioned give away that many see as little more than national looting, by the same venal interests of finance who benefited all the way up on the economic roller coaster, and who have now cleverly, figured out how to benefit (or get over), on the way back down.
Senator McCain for his part, has acted like the geriatric drama queen he often portrays, emotionally reacting like some jingoistic Arizona dervish. But hey, if this play is the thing that will catch the public conscience and make him king, it is beginning to work. Recent polls state that the electorate now believes that Senator McCain cares more about ordinary people than his opponent.
Senator Obama has literally found himself between the proverbial rock and hard place. Originally basing his campaign on change, he now has to defend the status quo, which might seem to be a contradiction. But when you examine the economic consultants who advise him, this is his only course. The bailout is undesirable with the general population. One third are dead set against this give away, and another third are not sure what it is all about. So it is not all that surprising that Barack Obama has seen the poll advantage gained earlier during this alleged crisis, subsequently slip away, and revert back to nearly even. His support of this unpopular bailout is probably the chief culprit.
Which gets to this whole business about change we can believe in. Is that in fact, just some empty marketing ploy? If this crisis of the national economy is anywhere near the catastrophic level that many hint at, shouldn’t there be more transparency? The old accounting joke about keeping two sets of books, where one is made public, but the other never seen; should it not be time to have a real look at that other ugly sheet, in order to determine what to do?
Which is one of the main problems with this bailout request. The American people are being asked to fork over permission to dispense this huge sum of money, without even knowing what it is exactly for.
Senator Obama’s adherence to the accepted wisdom, without explaining what information he has to support these claims, only reinforces the perception that the mover and shakers of the political corporate elite do not care in the least, about anything accept obtaining these funds. The Illinois Senator seems to operate from the notion that bipartisanship and compromise is the all important key to solving this puzzle. But, be relying on the expertise of those who have revealed their incredible incompetence, seems incredulous at best. Just read the statements put out this year by Paulson, Bush and McCain, and you discover a national economic assessment that can best be described as bipolar.
If these truly are dire circumstances, why hasn’t anyone suggested that Secretary Paulson should be fired? Last February, global investor Jim Rodgers warned of his incompetence, stating that the Fed was out of control. But no one seemed to notice. Paulson’s cache from being a former Goldman Sachs CEO, appears to give him credibility for that alone. Nearly all of this bipartisan Wall Street crowd played a part in eliminating the regulatory safe guards enacted during the Roosevelt administration; for the sake of modernization, it was claimed, or for accelerated greed, take your pick. Whatever becomes the accepted alibi, the fact remains, the damage has been done.
Idealistic supporters in the Obama camp, claim that Barack will conjure up the spirit of FDR and provide the kind of visionary leadership that will guide this troubled ship of state, through these choppy waters. How these devotees invoke this idea, remains a bit of a mystery. Perhaps the invocation of FDR has too become merely a pop culture icon, best remembered by that famous phrase of the ” only thing we have to fear is fear itself “… ignoring the deeper context of what that phrase was all about.

Consider the response by both McCain and Obama to Paulson’s parachute and it is not surprising that many are confused:
“Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.”
Is this a poignant blog point on the current Wall Street bailout? No, this is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said on March 4, 1933, at his inauguration.
Can the Obama supporters really believe that Senator Barry is up for that? Making talking points about protecting the middle class from taxes seems a bit lame, if this apocalypse money scenario really has wings. Or is it really just about scaring “our people” into further enslavement?
The rescue package, as the bailout is euphemistically referred to, remains a most remarkable monster. With the head of a lion, and the body of a goat completed by a dragon’s tail, it is an incongruous creature, known for its ability to vomit flames. But it will have to do. And both Senators Obama and McCain approve this message.

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The System That Needs To Be Saved

I will never forget the telephone call over a decade ago, when someone from the MNBA corporation inquired about my application for an L.L. Bean/Visa credit card.
“Ah sir, we have checked through 3 world wide data bases and found that you have no credit history.”
“Does that mean I don’t get the card?”
“I’m afraid sir that it does.”

In those times the economy was roaring for me. I had a job as a carpenter’s assistant, knocking out countless number of patio decks for a seemingly endless construction boom, where overpriced new houses kept appearing everywhere, transforming what was once farmland into new home cul-de-sacs for the new tech economy’s gainfully employed.
It was plenty weird too. After spending an entire day cutting to size, arsenic treated lumber, we would look around as evening began to fall and notice that many of the occupants of these houses were still not home. Apparently, even during the new tech bubble, there was still plenty of pressure to make the numbers work.
There was also plenty of illusion to go around. In those days, the computer and the internet were seen as the answer to all of life’s problems. The Enron corporation was talking in advertisements about thinking in new ways. Cisco Systems stock roared along. So did Amazon.com. There was a prevailing sentiment being floated about that information technology had ushered in a new golden age. An age of prosperity that needed to be freed from the old school policies of regulation and “snail mail”. Let the market prevail! Was the often repeated mantra of the newly minted millionaires. The flipping of I.P.O. Stocks became a very lucky game. So did blurring the lines between securities and banking. Even something as basic as price to earnings ration (P/E) began to be seen as antiquated. Who cared if a stock was selling at 400 times what it was actually worth, as long as you got yours, in time. Many millionaires and billionaires became that way by slipping through the doorway, just before the shut down screen of accounting fraud came clanging down. Not really all that smart, just really really lucky.
For those who had some cash on hand to play, the outcomes often seemed remarkable. Stories of how $100,000 was transformed into $16 million, became the stuff of legend. The nouveau rich became the sought after, in politics, business, and entertainment. Even investment advisors who struck it lucky on Wall Street, were perceived by their grateful clients as living instruments of economic genius. What could be better?
It was inevitable that something would become of this “irrational exuberance” as Alan Greenspan called it, the Federal Reserve Chairman who became a pivotal architect of the subsequent disaster, a disaster he takes little responsibility for. Nor do the Clinton era Treasury Secretaries, Rubin and Summer. A blurring of distinction between banking, hedge funds, real estate and commercial paper, with consequences these experts either could not. or refused to imagine. That lack of foresight has placed this nation in almost unimaginable peril.
Adding further salt into this open wound of class warfare, the architects of the “bail out” ask the same government they complained about previously, to give them hundreds of billions in dollars, so that former Goldman Sachs CEO, now Treasury Secretary Paulson, can dole out the rescue funds so that his previous employer can move from being a bankrupt investment bank into a Federally Insured holding bank.
Former banker Nomi Prins has seen the fundamental error of this. She writes: Paulson considers this latest plan “decisive action to fundamentally and comprehensively address the root cause of our financial system.”
But then, Ms. Prins points out: it does no such thing. That’s because his persistent focus on illiquid assets and the “housing correction” is not the bigger problem. It’s merely the catalyst that revealed the systemic rot of overleveraged and reckless activities that define our financial system.
“There is nothing wrong with a 30 year fixed rate loan,” said Sheilah Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This is certainly true. But that kind of modest but stable return is not what the wizards of finance were particularly interested in. The shadow banking system, as former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers calls it, has cooked up plenty of schemes to work around what was suddenly considered, archaic systems of financial enterprise.
These are “deeply complex and deeply consequential issues” as Robert Rubin said. Like his successor at Treasury, Summers, neither of these men are willing to acknowledge their complicity in creating an environment that could allow this happen. Summers, when asked about whether the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act had anything to do with the problem, merely fluffs it off, by stating that banking deregulation allowed Bank of America to buy up Merrill Lynch’s troubles. In other words, the symptom that caused the disease, is now the agent for its cure.
There is plenty of double talk to be found. On MSNBC, Chris Mathews turns to financial experts Steven Pearlstein and Jim Cramer, to explain why this bail out needs to be implemented now!
Cramer warns of the big D looming just beyond the horizon: The Economic Weapon Of Mass Destruction.
Pearlstein, grows somewhat petulant over those who complain about whether this millionaires rescue plan is fair or not. Life is not fair, he intones. Like election fraud and illegal wars, you must simply Get Over It.
Jim Cramer, for all his street.com street cred, is not always the money genius his marketing touts him to be. I recall his enthusiastic endorsement of the AOL-Time Warner merger for one. Back at the turn of this century, this was considered the mother of all mega mergers. What became of this monumental decision? It is best not to go there.

A recent appearance by Suze Orman, the pop personal finance advisor, on The Oprah Winfrey Show, was scary enough. She warned that any money market fund that is not backed up by the FDIC, you should flee as soon as possible. She then proceeded to lecture the audience on their bad financial decisions, living beyond their means, etc. But what she did not mention, and probably can not realize, as someone accustomed to the millionaire lifestyle, that credit cards are the only means for millions of folks to have any kind of life at all.
Instead of lecturing the people caught up in the marketing driven whirl wind of endless consumerism, she should have noted that actual wages have not increased for the vast majority of workers. In fact, more people are working longer hours for less. You have to love the chutzpah of the ownership class. When the fortunes were rolling out, economic Darwinism was the order of the day. Now, as the much maligned Reverend Wright would say, the chickens have come home to roost. Now, it is all our fault and we are all in this together.

I have a beloved family member who was driven to bankruptcy by medical bills compounded by a botched surgery procedure. It was an incredible ordeal. Belly up bankruptcy has been rendered much more difficult since MNBA corporation’s best friend, Senator Joseph Biden, ushered in the new bankruptcy reform legislation. The bankruptcy judge actually asked if there were any lottery tickets that had not been cashed!
Strangely, right after the bankruptcy cleared, the mail box was inundated with credit card offers. Banks who were more than eager to issue a card to someone medically incapable at the time, to hold a job.

So it seems that the so-called mortgage crisis has become the rallying cry for those intent on looting still more of the phantom treasury. Sadly, this write-down, disguised as purchasing bad assets, seems more and more like the credit card that offers you cash back, every time you purchase. And this is the system, that supposedly, needs to be saved.

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GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

This will be the last thing I post on the 2008 presidential election. If only I could embrace the airbrushed narratives put forward by the candidates and follow them with unquestioning support. Being a writer prevents this from happening. The more the matter is researched, the more you discover the glaring disconnect between what is being purported, and what is actually realized. Such is the nature of the beast. The shadow that falls over the idea.
Much has been made over who said what on all sorts of subjects. A weird language has developed. A lexicon of assumptions. Whether “the surge” has worked is hardly ever questioned, because consensus has decided that it does. What kind of “foreign policy expert” is Senator Joseph Biden? No need to ask. He simply is one, like Senator McCain is a “genuine war hero”.
Senator Barack Obama has a special place in American political history. Win or lose, he has ushered in a new paradigm, simply by not being the same complexion. He has had to go through extraordinary hoops, in order to assure Caucasian voters that he is not scary, or all that much different than them. Of course Senator McCain must, despite all the mumble about honor, proceed to convince those very same voters that Senator Obama is their worst nightmare.
Research makes the disconnect from these candidates very tough. The pundits of television news tell me that Joe Biden has middle class values. Then I discover that the tough Senator with all the foreign policy gravitas, is in fact a head cheerleader for the MNBA corporation, the giant credit-card company, who successfully sought to change the bankruptcy laws, so as to extract even more cash from those who have suffered economic catastrophe… those common folks that Senator Biden claims to champion.
In fact, all the pancakes in this election claim to be championing the needs of the people. Obama/Biden claim to know where the right war is, in Afghanistan and the no-man’s land  surrounding it. Supporters of this ticket, who think the junior Senator from Illinois is a peace candidate, should remember that Obama calls for more troops and more military spending, “to finish the job”, as they say with great hubris.
With McCain/Palin you have a ticket that believes American force is the best way to get the rascals to obey. The Governor of Alaska says: “a ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not why a ship was built”. Both she and the Arizona senator believe fighting is necessary and inevitable, in a world becoming darker everyday. A reader of the “left behind” science-fiction-Christian books, Sarah Palin also believes that abortion is an abomination to God. Her fifth child, her second son, born with down syndrome; will be applauded by those who believe all fetuses should come to term. Her first son, enlisted in the infantry, September 11, 2007, will soon be proudly stationed in Iraq. And yes, I have been told to accept that other assumption that he is over there, “fighting for my freedom”.
If you then look at the alternatives to the Two Party candidates, it becomes a lesson on futility. Ralph Nader, a forthright advocate of speaking truth to power, only offers the possibility of a protest vote, which on the face of it, is quite ridiculous when you consider that those in power are not even listening. The 2006 mid-term election was a referendum on the Iraq occupation which the democratically elected congress refused to address. The Green and Libertarian parties, with Cynthia McKinney and Bob Barr as candidates, offers up little more than congressional retreads.
No one can really be serious about challenging established power because no one has the kind of money needed to get started. As Cecil Taylor once said: “the dry cell of money has locked the minds and cauterized hearts.” Every election cycle, the economic entrance becomes costlier. The Presidential Pageant Election is an indulgence of the very wealthy. The chosen candidates are their well groomed race horses, which the plebeian observers are suppose to care about. The “issues” which are said to be important, lose their significance once the voter makes their highly emotional decision. This decision can be prompted by a candidate’s appeal, or just as easily by an intense desire to vote against the other.
This is the political condition that this country finds itself in. It is not a very pretty sight. Some people will kid themselves into believing that they actually have some say. Others will throw up their hands and cry : what’s the use?
Whether you choose to participate in the pageant or not, one fact remains: the permanent government. It will continue. Good night and good luck.

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ELECTION IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY

It is coming down to crunch time in the U.S. presidential election, and the nation is in the grasp of incredible uncertainty. The mind numbing occupation of Iraq still continues, and neither of the two leading candidates will say exactly when this insanity will end; only ambiguous time tables , or time horizons, are floated out there, with caveats of  “when conditions on the ground make withdrawal possible” or “when the mission is brought to completion”.
For John McCain it is all about winning, or at least not losing. A part of the Arizona Senator believes that with enough fire power, boots on the ground, and bribery of important local militias, the situation can be made manageable.
For Barack Obama, the Illinois Senator tries to assume the moral high ground by saying he was against this war from the start. But as veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has noted: “what does Obama want to do with his soldiers once he withdraws them from Iraq? He’s going to send the poor devils back to Afghanistan, that graveyard of foreign armies where the Taliban were so utterly defeated in 2001 that they are now stronger than ever.”
Uncertainty has become the lay of the land. The economic troubles, so exacerbated by petrol inflation, has lead to massive job loss, home evictions and bankruptcies. What were once seen as aberrations, have now become standard signs of the spiraling down economy. The main response from Senator McCain to the oil crisis is to drill drill drill! Senator Obama speaks of a windfall profits tax on Big Oil, and even mentioned swift boat funder T. Boone Pickens, who said: “this is a crisis we can not drill our way out of.”
How any of these suggestions will lower the price of gasoline is any body’s guess. The higher the price of gasoline, the more the profits of Big Oil increase. Exxon-Mobil’s recent quarterly earnings were the largest in history. Senator Obama mentions this, but how he would be able to get taxes on Big Oil through the legislature remains to be seen.
Then there is the business of the election itself. The McCain campaign have made it their number one focus to try an impugn Obama’s character as much as possible, by any means necessary, so as to plant xenophobic seeds of doubt that they hope will grow in the minds of the electorate, until they become convinced that the ambitious graduate of Harvard Law is not “one of us” and not ready to lead.
It has also been noted that black Americans are uneasy about Barack Obama’s candidacy. Not because they don’t support him, they do. But there is an uncertainty among plenty of folks, who have difficulty imagining him actually accomplishing this historic task, and fear their hearts will be broken, by hook or crook, or something even worse.
One thing that seems to have disappeared is the idea of any kind of landslide victory. That is why some democrats say that Senator Obama should choose Senator Clinton for the vice presidential ticket. Hard core Obamakins would howl of course, but they may just have to get over it.
Historically it should be remembered that John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were not good friends, when he was picked as JFK’s running mate. And it should also be remembered, that with Lyndon on the ticket, Kennedy won the state of Texas. Without winning that state, in that very close election, John Kennedy would have never become the President. It just might be that Senator Obama faces a similar dilemma in this election.
It is worth noting that Hillary Clinton won the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries, among others. She proved to be strong among older white women in those states. These are votes that Barack Obama will certainly need, in the event of a very close election.
This all may seem strange to those who bought into the idea of a new kind of politics. But Senator Obama has proven, with many recent reversals in policy, to be in fact, a flexible, pragmatic politician. Conventional wisdom has it that he will pick for VP a governor or senator from a state  that seems to be in play. But many of the people glowingly mentioned by the mainstream news are somewhat unknown to the general public. By contrast, everybody knows Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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WILL IT EVER END?

It really is all about oil. This is where the neoconservative and neoliberal visions merge. After the hell fire that President Bush ignited by invading Iraq, causing many thousands of unnecessary deaths, now there is talk of bringing in big corporate oil companies, to get those valuable resources under control. Ah yes, the holy blessings of the free market (Barack Obama is a believer, he himself has said it) that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit (John McCain is also a believer, he himself has said it) of profit and efficiency.
If the truth be told, the United States government did not give a damn about what Saddam Hussein did to his subjects. During the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency helped him to be a handy anti-communist tool. Not even when Iraq nationalized its oil supply did relations with Washington go sour. It should be remembered that Saddam Hussein defied the OPEC embargo of the 1970’s, and sold oil to the United States. No, that did not stop the love fest. When Iraq attacked Iran, the United States sided with Saddam, because the US government wanted some pay back for the hostage crisis.
No, what tore it , between Saddam Hussein and Washington, was when he demanded euros instead of dollars for the oil. This would never do. And besides, George Bush knew Saddam was a bad man, he tried to kill his daddy.
The current estimate is that the US spends $138 billion annually on protecting the oil supplies, a figure that continues to increase. Despite all the patriotic pandering about bringing democracy to the world, the control of oil is what all this slaughter is truly about. But should it be? The real question is: by what constitutional mandate is the government given the right to interfere with the sovereignty of other nations. Sovereign nations who may have bad governments (don’t we?) and problems, but are what they always are, their own.
That is why the presidential process has become such a disappointment. Neither McCain or Obama are willing to do the proper constitutional mandate of withdrawing our troops from foreign entanglements. Instead they argue over who knows the best way to fiddle. Both want to increase military spending. Both want to keep pushing around the world.
All of this partisan pagaent politics is a huge distraction from realizing this country’s constitutional crisis. Both Republicans and Democrats are evading this, hoping that fear, uncertainty, doubt, will win over the gullible before they realize that the country they live in, the country they have been told, all of their lives, that holds so much promise… that country no longer exists.
Neoliberalism like neoconservatism has delusions of empire. After the guns comes the carpetbaggers. Control of fossil fuels is a brutal industry, whether it is Nigeria or The Baltic States. For many, oil is the only business, and everything must be sacrificed: human rights, environment, the rule of law, in order for the flow to be continuous. If continuous war is a consequence, so be it. A disasterous policy to be sure, but for for those on top of this pyramid, who cares? There is still plenty of money to be made.
I recently found a picture of an Iraqi Muslim family celebrating Christmas. They are wearing their Santa hats and smiling, in front of their Christmas tree.
I look again at the photograph and ask myself: why, with all that is holy, would anyone want to blow these people up?  That is of course the problem of this world. Politicians justify savagery and call it being strong.

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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

It is hard for some to imagine, but Senator Barack Obama may turn out to be the perfect candidate for the neo-conservative agenda. His recent speech at the AIPAC conference revealed a harder line than that of Vice President Dick Cheney, when it comes to the Middle East. He offered this caveat: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”
That is a very dangerous sore to pick if there is going to be any hope for any kind of peace. A complete denial of the Palestinians to East Jerusalem has been a point of contention for decades. Why did Obama say this? Was it to prove to this hawkish Zionist advocate group that he totally gets their agenda?
“Let me be clear, said Senator Obama, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non negotiable.”
Sacrosanct? Last time I heard that phrase was back in the 1980’s, when General Alexander Haig said that about the defense budget. What a twisted notion our political leaders have about the security of the United States. Both of the main parties think it is perfectly acceptable to tie our destiny to another country, supposedly as a defensive posture, but in reality it is just a means to continue the armaments industries. As Senator Obama said: “As president, I will implement a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade–investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation.”
$30 billion over a decade? That’s $3 billion dollars a year. An increase in American largese that underlines the fact that the United States government is simply not interested in avoiding foreign entanglements. Exporting more weapons sows the seeds of future conflicts, which alas, is the most hideous cynical reason of all.
Senator Obama claims he wants to end the war in Iraq, but does he really? The plan to build fifty permanent bases there, already in the works, will undoubtably continue, no matter who is elected president. That iron triangle that John McCain use to speak of, is being embraced in a truly bipartisan way. The privatization of the military will also continue. Senator Obama refuses to endorce H.R. 4102, the Stop Outsourcing Security Act. A brief exchange with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, revealed that the junior Senator from Illinois has not only a talent for lofty rhetoric, but also equivocation:
Sen. Barack Obama: Here’s the problem. We have140,000 private contractors right there, so unless we want to replace all of or a big chunk of these with US troops, we can’t draw down the contractors faster than we can draw down our troops. So what I want to do is draw–I want them out in the same way we make sure that we draw out our own combat troops, alright? I mean, I–
Amy Goodman: Not a ban?
Sen. Barack Obama: Well, I don’t want to replace these contractors with more US troops, because we don’t have them, alright? But this was a speech about the economy.
Amy Goodman: The war is costing $3 trillion, according to Stiglitz.
Sen. Barack Obama: That’s what–I know, which I made a speech about last week. Thank you.
On the Barack Obama web site it states: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq.”
This all sounds well and good, until you get to the next sentence: “He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.”
Enough is enough. Despite the pageant thrills of electing the first black President, when you examine the double speak on foreign policy, you’ll find that any rumors about correcting the military-industrial-congressional complex are greatly exaggerated, to say the least. How ironic that Senator Obama used the phrase from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the fierce urgency of now, to explain the reason for his presidential campaign. It should always be remembered that Dr. King used those words in a speech denouncing the Vietnam war. It would have been grand if Senator Obama would have applied some of those peace and justice principles, when he addressed the AIPAC conference. But that is asking too much. He looks good. He talks well. But he is really just a politician. If elected, he may bring about some domestic reform and just might restore some our stolen liberties. But his pandering about Iran being a threat to us, even makes that seem dubious. Obama supporters who denounced Senator Clinton before she quit, use to say: She’ll say anything in order to get elected. Senator Obama’s performance at the Amercian Israel Public Affairs Commitee, proved him to be the same.

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THOUGHTS ON JOHN McCAIN

There is an uneasiness about the Senator from Arizona. You see it on his face when a lesbian television host asked him about same sex marriage. Its a kind of whole body nervous laugh that suppresses uncomfortable anger. “My friends, my friends,” he will often say, that is almost his trademark, like Richard Nixon’s let me make one thing perfectly clear.
Identity and clarity have become a problem for the Republican Presidential Candidate. In this hyper-driven media universe, perception has become a constant concern. Not only are there tiny camera phones, microphones etc., but there is the 24/7 internet, ready to swallow it whole. So endorsements from crackpot pastors and former lobbyists with dubious connections, becomes a kind of odd parlor game, to see who is the next in line to be thrown to the curb. This of course is bipartisan.
What is referred to as mainstream media long ago dubbed John McCain as a Maverick. This designation has been kind to the Arizona senator. For those who know the meaning of the word, he is perceived as an independent thinker, a straight shooter as it were, ergo, the straight talk express. For those who do not know the word’s meaning, it invokes a cool riverboat gambler, a young Jim Garner, long before he became a shill for reverse mortgages. Whatever the perception, the label has helped in the past, and even now it is still trying to be applied.
Unfortunately, the archive of time has a way of catching up with you. Difficult transgressions from your past can suddenly resurface. The Keating Five scandal of 1989 was about the perception of corruption. John McCain said: “The appearance of it was wrong. It’s a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators , because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do.”
It appears that conveying the wrong impression is a top priority to avoid. The recent release of Mrs. McCain’s tax records, despite her desire to keep them private, was done so there is no appearance of trying to hide something. As song writer Leonard Cohen once said: “soon there’ll be a meter on your bed, which will disclose what everybody knows.” Psychologically, presidential politics is a very tough arena, especially with all this, all inclusive, all invasive technology. For a man over seventy years old like John McCain, sometimes it must be bewildering.
So it is not too surprising that in a poll conducted with voters over 65 years of age, over seventy percent thought that John McCain was too old to be president. That is not age discrimination but a more honest assessment of what we are capable of, in different stages of life. This review of the job resume is important.
Senator McCain’s efforts to unite with the Republican party are difficult. Having to pander and subsequently abandon the more toxic extremist elements that usurped the Grand Old Party, has made Senator McCain appear awkward at best. The Middle East gaffe, with Senator Lieberman whispering in his ear, was quickly dismissed by big time media, as simply the Senator was having a moment.
One of the biggest assertions that attempts to make McCain’s biography bullet proof, is the claim that he is a genuine American hero. This is of course based upon his harrowing years as a POW during the Vietnam war. Never mind that he was participating in an illegal war by dropping bombs on a country with mostly agricultural peasants. If he had been put into an American prison for refusing to follow unconstitutional orders, citing the Nuremberg War Crime Trials as precedent, he would be a hero, but not in the Republican party.
Senator McCain often appears to be a thoughtful man, but other times, seems to head in the opposite direction. This is the famous temper that is whispered about, of an angry man with expletives flying out from his mouth. Then of course there is his rather weird sense of humor, that some of his colleagues have commented to not be very funny at all.
On Halloween, 2005, John McCain paid tribute to Rosa Parks from the floor of the Senate. “Rosa Parks was a civil rights icon,” John McCain noted, “who galvanized the American civil rights  with her simple act of protest. She will be dearly missed but her legacy will never be forgotten.”
Certainly this was a somber tribute to a historic person. McCain, being a seasoned politician, knows how to wear different hats for different occasions. Ten days before the Halloween elegy, he was all fun and games at the Al Smith Memorial Dinner, with “my good friend, Mike Bloomberg.”
“I’m glad the Mayor, my fellow Republican is here.” The Arizona Senator remarked. “But Mike, I think we’re all relieved that the organizers decided against holding this dinner at the Apollo Theater.”
Some folks say that the straight talk express is a riot.
It will not be surprising if some new archival material, be it audio or video, will emerge to reveal the Senator from Arizona, in a hard to explain, off color moment, designed to betray his strong leadership image. No, it would not be surprising at all. The party that John McCain professes to belong to, does not actually exist any more. To maintain political survival, McCain has had to kiss the blarney stone of Bush. When running against George W. in 2000, he soon discovered he did not have the big steam money of the House of Bush. The very same evangelical knot heads he attempts to embrace now, spread vicious lies about him and his family then, the South Carolina primary being a glowing example. It would be kind if someone close to the Senator said: “John, this is not your father’s republican party.”
But that is not going to happen. The Big Wheels at Republican Central have some problems with some of McCain’s views, but these can be adjusted. He is wealthy, but he is not Big Money, so he is forced to do a dance for contributors. Attempting to pilot the ship of state, after the Cheney-Bush junta, is a formidable task. My friends, John McCain wants you to know, is ready to take on the job.

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BACK ON TOP, BACK IN BUSINESS

First thing, I am no longer banned on The Huffington Post. Why I was, and the speculation, lead to a piece for which I received excellent support from readers of Streetalker.com and Truthdig.com. My speculations over content, may in fact have nothing to do with it. It could have been some technical glitch in their system. Since I never received any feedback from Huffpo, I guess I will never really know. To all who sent me encouragement I say Thank You.
But this blog is not about that. Now that the occupation of Iraq grinds on into its sixth year, I would like to tell a true, personal story, that happened to me on May 2, 2003. One day after George W. Bush strutted out his flight suit on the aircraft carrier, under the banner MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
It is difficult for some to remember what a jackbooted mentality prevailed at that time. The subservient media were all too complicit in going along with whatever nonsense the government threw out as reasons for this insane aggression. It was generally accepted that overwhelming violence (shock and awe) was not only a tactic but a solution.
At the time, then as now, my business is beer. A new Hofbrauhaus had just opened in Newport, Kentucky. At that time, the Hofbrauhaus in Hong Kong had recently closed, so there were only two in the world: Munich, Germany, and Newport, Kentucky. I was going to make my way over there that evening. I knew, being May 2, they would have their marvelous Maibock on tap. For The Beer Doctor, this was a very good thing.
I should also note that I am an “ale and safety” kind of person. I do not believe in drinking and driving. So I took a metro bus downtown and literally walked across from Cincinnati, using the old L&N bridge that had recently been repainted, as a bicycle and pedestrian thoroughfare, known as The Purple People Bridge. This was mostly an initiative on the part of the commonwealth of Kentucky. The Cincinnati entrance side had not been refurbished yet; in fact it was a kind of public works blight, where the remnants of a bicentennial display of printed metal sheets where either torn off, or degraded by graffiti spray paint. There was busted glass, thrown away cans and the smell of ancient urine. It would be months before the city got around to making the Ohio entrance presentable.
I made my way across on foot, wearing a white cotton barn coat without its lining. I also wore a 100% wool brim outdoors hat from California.
When I arrived at the Hofbrauhaus in the early evening, there was already a line formed of people waiting to get in. I went up to the entrance and said: “I am the Beer Doctor, and I am here to review your beers.” I was immediately ushered in.
What followed was a wonderful couple of hours. I ordered a stein liter of their Maibock which lasted me during the entire visit. I ordered some food which was delicious. The patrons were friendly but there was slight uneasiness. I then realized the cause: I was the only one in the hall wearing a hat that was not a baseball cap.
After a wonderful time, I left, and then I remembered Mother’s Day was only nine days away. I knew that the gigantic Party Source, located about 6 blocks east, sold some of the best greeting cards in the entire area. So sauntered my way over there. A long time patron because of their extensive beer collection, I decided to go to the beer department to see what new brews had come in. This is where the trouble began.
A fairly tall, state trooper looking chap suddenly appeared. I said: “How’s it going?” He said: “I want you to leave.”
Robert Ringer once said that when people with guns talk, he listens. I said: “OK” and immediately proceeded to leave. A shuttle from Newport to Cincinnati stops across the main street from The Party Source. I saw one coming, so I hurried across the four lane road to reach the stop. Then I heard: “He’s fleeing!”
It was the local police. Four prowlers appeared at the intersection, with eight cops in tow. They proceeded to drag me back across the road, where they started flailing me with their batons, studiously avoiding my face, but everywhere else on my body was fair game.
Fully aware of Rodney King and other law enforcement horror stories, I thought what a strange way to die. But then my instinct for survival kicked in, I thought I better play possum. Which I did. I closed my eyes and just laid there as they continued to beat me. Finally, a Sargent I later learned, leaned down and started smacking me in the face, saying: “Hey buddy wake up!” I did not respond. One of the younger members of this police posse, a plumb face patrolman fresh out of high school, nervously laughed out loud: “maybe he’s dead!”
Finally realizing I was not resisting arrest, or for that matter, anything else (talk about satyagraha!), they proceeded to pull me up, throw me into the back of a prowler, where I was taken to the Newport jail.
At the Newport jail there was a person in charge ( I am not making this up) named Officer Slocum. I asked Mr. Slocum if I could make a telephone call. He responded by knocking me down on the concrete floor of the holding cell, where I landed on my left forearm, which began to swell. There were six other “prisoners” in that cell. What crime did all of us share? None of us were driving a car. I had heard of places where they consider pedestrians to be criminals, if not terrorists, but this was the first time I saw it in action.
I will spare you dear reader much of the gory details. Suffice to say it took another day and a half to get out of jail, and another week to get the matter settled, several hundred dollars lighter. It seems they had attached the ridiculous charge of “fleeing” to being publicly intoxicated. This was no small matter, since the local legislature had enacted a law that made fleeing a mandatory one year sentence. All of this was because of another drug war horror story, where a man escaping with grass in his pocket, jumped from the road onto a walkway bridge, where an officer in hot pursuit, attempted the same jump but missed. falling and dying into the frigid Ohio river.
Since the only lawyer who can represent you is one you purchase in the commonwealth of Kentucky, I decided to represent myself. I explained what happened to the judge, and the prosecutor immediately dismissed the fleeing charge. I was fined, which, when you get right down to it, was what this was all about: money extraction. It was most certainly traumatic to say the least. I was terrified to go out of my house for nearly half a year. What was the most difficult part was sensing this new gestapo type America was here to stay. Bush was claiming he knew best. The Microsoft corporation were making claims that they owned the content on the internet. The government had decided that anyone that might be Muslim, could be a person of interest. People were (and still are) being detained, tortured, and never charged.
But much good has also happened in the ensuing five years. People, and I mean the vast majority, no longer consider the Bush-Cheney administration to be valid. There have been too many lies exposed: weapons of mass destruction, Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death, etc. There is only so much BS that anyone can stand.
When I think back to that awful year, I was a terrified beaten individual. But no longer. I write this as  testament to say, despite everything, things can get better. The internet has all kinds of open source applications created by ingenious folks who believe communication is for everyone, not just the privileged few. People are beginning to find their voices, so very soon, those who advocated compassion and reason and who were unjustly ignored, will be back on top, back in business.
Thank You is my only prayer. Carpe Diem Vita Brevis.

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