...And How Ignorant Does That Make Us?

Jay Ackroyd is another blogspot Blogger, who is also friends with The Great Curmudegon, and occasionally is allowed to guest-post at his site.

Tonight, Ackroyd left such a post about seeing Daniel Elsberg at a conference this past week [additional paragraphing and two small edits for clarity are my own]:

... Ellsberg recounted a time in 1969 when he explained to Henry Kissinger what would happen after he was given the dozen or so clearances above Top Secret (the existence of which is also classified, of course).

What happens first is you feel like a fool. You've published books that you now discover were filled with stuff that was wrong. You have believed you understood how things worked for your entire professional life, but you now find out you were completely wrong, that the real world is entirely different from what you have been told. The books you've written, the lectures you've given are based on a false understanding of the world.

But this stage only lasts a few weeks. After you have been reading this material for a while, hitherto unavailable ... you begin to see everybody else as fools.

Only people with these top level clearances know the truth. People whom you previously regarded as experts become ignoramuses -- doubly so because they don't realize that they actually know nothing.

And so your conversations with them become telling them what you want them to think.

Henry Kissinger is still an Eminence Gris in the world, but he's been outclassed by others, now -- and I can't say there's anyone who could be considered a modern counterpart to Henry. Even so -- how many layers of influence and power are there between people with this level of awareness about how things really work such as Kissinger... and the Street, where we live?

And, down here at the bottom of the information food chain -- what does this perspective which Ellsberg shared with Ackroyd say about us?

And -- what is it these people with Clearance know, that we don't?

---

Trent Franks: All-Too-Typical Whack Job

...And He Should Know


Who Names Their Male-Child 'Trent'? What Is That?
(Screencapture: The Little Rupert Goebbels' Channel)

Congressional Representative Trent Franks (R - AZ), last seen in September of 2009 calling President Obama an "Enemy Of Humanity", said yesterday that African-Americans were even worse off today, than under conditions of slavery, which existed from the mid-17th Century in America (and continued under the guise of segregation and discrimination from then until... well, they're pretty much still around to one degree or another, aren't they Trent?)

Trent is a Birther (though his open support of the Oily Taitz Project depends upon his audience), and at a minimum, a supporter of Xtian Thug points of view; abortion and freedom of religion seem to be all he really cares about.

I guess the denizens of Northwestern Arizona he represents face mandatory abortion procedures from their diabolical Liberal overlords -- who have also apparently also denied religion, and E-meters, from their cruelly oppressed population.

Trent was the premiere signator on a May, 2009 letter (which went out on his official Congressional letterhead) attacking a French nonprofit organization for its criticism of Scientology, on the grounds of 'freedom of religion'. Also signing the letter were fellow Republicans Frank Wolf (R-VA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Dianne Watson (D-CA), Bob Inglis (R-SC), Dan Burton (R-IN), and Xenu (R - Hubbard).


Obligatory Leavening Cute Animal Photo Inserted In Blog Rant
(via ICanHazCheeseburger)

The nonprofit, which tracks cult and sectarian pseudo-religions in France, was involved in their courts in a lawsuit against the famed creation of a failed science-fiction writer, for fraud. The trial ended with a conviction of the organization's leaders in October, 2009, which has been appealed (aber natürlich).

Yesterday, in an interview with a conservative Blog, Ol' Trent said that

It seems like humanity is very gifted at hiding from something that's obviously true. I mean in this country we had slavery for God knows how long... And we should look back on that with criticism... And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more black children, far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today, than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.

Uh-huh.

The only comment I can offer is, it's plain, in looking at a photograph of the man, that Franks suffered from a congenital, facial disfigurement from birth, for which he would have had to undergo a number of reconstructive surgical procedures.


Exaggeration To Make A Point: Segregated Drinking Fountain, 1931

Knowing what children can say and do, Franks' childhood couldn't have been an easy time -- and no matter how gifted his surgeons, the act of having a conversation with someone else, walking into a store; going to a party; or (the unthinkable) going out on a date were all tests of endurance and courage to overcome learned feelings of embarrassment and shame.

You'd think Trent could draw the most positive inferences from those experiences -- that it would provide him with a greater store of empathy and understanding; particularly about being stigmatized, singled out as 'different', and discriminated against simply because of how you appear.

That isn't the same experience as People Of Color have had in American society; as Franz Fanon would point out, even with a disfigurement, Franks is still White. He's still automatically part of the dominant social and political structure, and Franks understands this on a subconscious level.

But, and perhaps I'm just too fookin' stupid to breathe, I believe his own experience should be enough to allow him to make a connection on a human level with several hundred years' experience and history of slavery and discrimination... which is on a completely different level of things than some religious argument over abortion.

It's why people shouldn't say that the practice of terminating a pregnancy is like the Holocaust -- which was a specific set of acts in human history, as the history and experience of African-Americans is, here. It's a false analogy. There's just no equating those historical events with something else. It could be argued that Franks' doing so is fairly typical for a Caucasian male (who hasn't experienced slavery, poverty, or pregnancy), and I'd agree.

We can't solve four hundred years of race relations in America in a single day, or with a single act. But by the grace of whatever supreme power makes this Rat-Maze run, we might do it one act of human kindness at a time, day after day; until the generations who have had it all the other way are dust in the ground.

You'd think Franks might have had just a glimpse of that, somehow. But he didn't; and that makes him a continuing part of the problem, not of a solution.

---

Ahhhlll Duuh Ahhnhnng Huuu Uuukk Eeehnee *

We Will Look Like Idiots To Alter Ourselves


*"I'll do anything to look pretty."

Just sayin'.

Oh, and while you're here... You were involved in September 11th, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU!! CONFESS!! TELL US OBAMA AND OSAMA ARE THE SAAAAME!!!

---

What's New In Before Nine ©

Important Information For Donka Ufman

Ingredients

water/aqua/eau, glycerin, behenyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, vodka, Jennifer, silica, alimony isononanoate, ascorbyl glutosides (cheek shavings), hordeum distichon (barley) extract, barely legal minimum age glucoside, cetearyl alcohol, available alcohol, DVD copies of Debbie Does The Sound Of Music, penyl trimethicone, niacinamide, regicide, Regis Philbyncide, dipalmitoyl duck-o-line, potassium cetyl phosphate, retinyl palmitate, Rheinish Palitinate, Thurn-und-Taxis palmitoyl tripeptide-3, beta-glucan, sodium hyaluronate, arginine, allantoin, santalum album, The White Album, Ozzy Osbourne Bat Head Juice, Scandal extract, phellodendrons, Bungchau Offal bark extract, JoyJoy esters, Esther Williams, Uncle Fester extract, butyrospermum sparkii (Sherpa squeezings), coffee, Gung-Ho seed, Hoo-Ah!! Big Powder, camellia sinensis leaf, Intubular Causus Belli, tocopheryl acetate, glucosyl membrane fixative (now with 63% more Love), c13-15 alkane, WD-45 hydroxyethyl acryloyldimethyl tautaurate copolymer fetang ang ang ang (Repeating this as quickly as possible three times is the new Field Sobriety test used by the CHP in California), Paraffin, generous helpings, sympathetic understanding, small animal residue (tetramethyl hydroxy-piperidino), Zenon-Three gum, ground match heads, table salt, potassium hydroxide, potassium sorbate, hexylene glycol, phenoxyethanol, chlorphenesin, caprylyl glycol, mica (ci 77019), titanium dioxide (ci 77891), choice sweepings, full faith and credit of the United States Government, and a twist of lemon.

Directions:

Serve chilled, as if it isn't already cold enough in here. Gently apply a small amount to the affected area with remote-control robotic arm. Do not allow fingertip to come in contact with Before Nine™; if this should occur, contact the Department Of Defense Interdimensional Emergency Hotline at 1-866-866-8666. If you can successfully answer the Question Of The Week (e.g., "Compare and contrast the major themes of William Faulkner and those of any major postmodern author [Salinger, Pynchon, Barth, Grass or Stevenson]") in under sixty seconds, a crack team of Delta Force commandos will be dispatched to rescue you.

Otherwise, you're on your own. Tentacles not included.


"Wait A Minute -- What do you mean, 'I missed a spot' ? It's clean!"

---

Remembering Where We Are

(Photo: NASA's Chandra Observatory, New York Times Online)

It's not actually possible to say why we're here. Because of that, we need to find a perspective that allows us to remember where we are, just as an exercise in humility.

This is an important story in a cosmological sense. But it's also happening in a galaxy, far, far away.

So, pause to consider that across an unimaginably far, cold distance, there are other stars. And, possibly, some other being -- also worried about his job as a Flumjarrng Urompter, and the state of the general economy of his habitation on his homeworld; and the fact that he's growing older and his mandibles are fraying and that means he's less attractive as a potential Zarrrrng-partner during the Festival Of Barooooooo.


The Andromeda Galaxy, Actually Milky Way and You.

And he has a favorite Stickyfish team, and occasionally thinks about taking Mandatory rest periods in the ammonia baths; and, he's a little concerned about that spot that appeared on his third-right Elliptical Tarng (Is it the early stage of Arngfoomer? No!!! That's never appeared in my genetic Skreel!), and that he might be dying, and have to go to the composting facility without having ever known true Yognod.

You know; the usual stuff we all think about.

Then I remember that the galaxy pictured at the top of this post is about 500 septobazillion miles away... and it's not even at the end of the Universe we can see.

---

Stuff Out There

Dude; Where's My Spacecraft


Extraterrestrial Pere Ubu; Or, The Klan In Space
(Alien Captured On Someone's Cell Phone Video)

I rant and rave about the world's hereditary wealthy and that The Fix Is In ©; but, that's nothing. In an attempt to put our fingers on the truth behind how the world operates; to answer The Big Questions, many people are drawn to varying degrees of conspiracy theories. You go down the rabbit hole of the Intertubes, and don't be surprised at what you find.

For example: Did you know that we are all "soul cattle", and that Grey Aliens and "The Nordics" ( ! ) are battling it out in the skies above, over whether to guide us as carriers of souls, or harvest us for what we're dragging around?

Or, that 'The Elites' are preparing for a round of nuclear exchanges and bioweapon releases to eliminate 50% of the world's population, and ensure the worldwide rule of Caucasians of Northern European extraction?

And This is just the tip of the scary events coming. There are tons of things you need to know. Like how all kinds of ancient cultures have always known. Polar shift has happened before and so has global destruction. We aren't bigger than the universe! If Planet X Nibiru is going to come, they can't control what the solar system does to Earth.

Because ... it's all perfectly clear now - after being up all night thinking about it: Everyone is nothing more than a small captured 'piece of Light Being' in a bag of skin and bones. And, since light has both wave and particle functions, the expression of this duality in real life must be exemplified in the air conditioning conundrum. I hope this helps. Have a snick and think about it.

My God; if it wasn't "stayin in denial by being co-oppted by the Power Struktur", I'd say it's probably better that people be employed full-time.

---

Speak, America -- Speak! Good Boy.

Mongo Is Listening

---

America, Sent To The Cornfield

Little Lloyd Blankfein: Congress Better Not Make Me Mad.
(Photo: Wikipedia; Still From The Twilight Zone)

Paul Krugman is a Nobel-Prize-winning Economist, and writes a regular column for the New York Times, "The Conscience Of A Liberal", wherein he provides an unfiltered perspective on trends and occurrences in the general Economy.

Krugman was one of a handful of Economists to warn of the danger to the general economy in the real-estate market bubble as it developed. He was also part of an even more exclusive number of analysts who repeated urgently that Alan Greenspan's decisions were flawed, and that the shadow economy (fueled by trillions in ARM-backed securities, and credit-default swaps) was a perfect storm in the making.

Krugman even went on a sporadic, one-man roadshow between 2003 and 2007 to deliver that message. He wasn't wrong.


(Photo: Steve McConnell / University Of California, Berkeley)

Unlike Noriel Roubini, who often delivers his analyses in Financial Analyst-speak, Krugman's columns and other writings are easily accessible to the likes of you and me. And in his most recent column, when he noted the possibility of Deflation had popped up, I took notice.

Deflation is the condition where the price of goods and services falls, and keeps falling. This may seem great -- hey; stuff is cheap! -- but look at the other side of it: Prices fall because there is a long-term drop in demand.

When the annual rate of inflation for Core goods and services (the Consumer Price Index, or CPI) falls below zero and into negative territory, we're in trouble. During the worst years of the Great Depression (1930-1934), the CPI ran between -1.0% and -4.0%.

Business become so desperate to sell product that they keep lowering prices. When demand continues to drop, they'll fire more workers, and the ones that are left have to work twice as hard to keep their jobs. Existing homes can't be sold, so they fall in price, too. New-home construction? Forget it. And the home you live in is worth less -- suddenly, you owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth.

Prices of stocks drop, too. Your 401(k) is worth less, and the portfolios of corporate and public pension funds, and those of States and Municipalities... which leads to cuts in their payrolls or working hours, and in public services (Welcome to California).

Paul Krugman isn't saying Deflation is about to occur. But he did note that the Core CPI (Consumer Price Index) report tracking prices for essential goods and services (excluding energy, and food) dropped in its most recent report for the first time since 1982.


The Cleveland Fed's Analysis Of CPI, Jan. 2001 - Jan. 2010

Krugman's take as an economist is that the U.S. government's official CPI report isn't as accurate as other measures. A better take on Core prices, he feels, is one created by analysts at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The Cleveland Fed produces two inflation numbers -- 'Trimmed' (The "official" CPI data, excluding one-time or unusual events), and the 'Median' inflation number -- the same official CPI data, all essential goods and services, but tracking the median price in each category -- the average of an average, if you will.

Krugman feels this is a better method of finding an accurate picture of how much inflation there is and whether it's rising or falling. He won a Nobel prize and we didn't; and, he does this stuff for a living and we don't; so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

What the Cleveland Fed's Median number shows is an annual inflation rate from September of 2003, to September of 2008 of between 1.5% and 3.7% (September of '08 was when the shadow banking system imploded). Over the past eighteen months since, Core inflation has actually fallen -- to an annual rate of approximately 1.0%.

I find this a scary picture, Krugman writes. For one thing, it suggests that deflation may not be too far in the future. But beyond that, there’s a growing belief among sensible economists that we need higher, not lower inflation. What we’re doing now is moving in the wrong direction, with real interest rates rising even as the nominal rate remains at zero.

Keeping the Federal Reserve's lending rate to banks for short-term loans has been at near zero for years -- a decision made by former Fed Chairman Alan (I Had Teh Sex With Ayn Rand) Greenspan, and continued by current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.


Hey! Put Down The Gun, Pal! Money's An Illusion Anyway!

What Krugman tells us is that the interest rates for loans from financial institutions are rising. It's more expensive, long-term, for you and me to borrow money for a car, a house, a college education; whatever -- and that's more profit for the Banks. Meanwhile, the Fed Rate for short-term loans to banks remains near zero. Again, more profit margin for them.

If Deflation becomes a problem, increasing the Fed Rate for lending money to banks would be a principal method to control any deflationary spiral.

But, the Banksters don't want that; they like things for free. They don't want to lend money to people at low rates -- no percentage in it for them -- and what they do lend, they'll make us pay for. And, they're likely to keep getting it all their way, because the Obama Administration's decided over a year ago to side with financial institutions over the common interests of the United States in handling the 'financial crisis'.

Rather than regulate an industry which caused the disaster, for the sake of all of us, the Administration and the President declined. The Masters Of The Universe, the BSD's who did the damage, were trusted to save the economy, and help People. They were loaned tens of billions of dollars (again, for nearly free) to allow them to do just that. So far, their decisions have strengthened their individual businesses and enriched them personally, but nothing else.

The government's relationship with the Banksters is like the early Twilight Zone episode, "It's A Good Life" -- where a ten-year-old Billy Mumy can do anything, simply by wishing it.


Little Lloyd Blankfein, Wishing All America Into The Cornfield
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty; TIME Online, July 17, 2009)

He "took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines - because they displeased him". The world dwindled to a few adults living with Billy in a farmhouse -- and if they did anything which displeased Billy, he would Send them to the Cornfield. If they made him angry. If they didn't do what he said. And as the adults look on, horrified, they force a smile and tell him, "...but it's a real good thing you did that. A real good thing."

Politicians, in the main, are the bought creatures of corporate money. They treat the Banking and Finance structure in America as if it were Little Billy -- and, if they challenged the authority of the BSD's in any real way, they would pay for it, personally. But... politicians don't want to do that. They might not get that campaign contribution, or free use of a corporate jet to take a fact-finding trip to Barbados with their mistress.

If real regulation of the banking and finance community were enacted, or if the Fed Rate were raised, the BSD's would squeal and be angry. They might just decide to give money to another, better-looking whore who knows their place and won't talk back. They might send the wayward politicos to the Cornfield... then they wouldn't be Politicians anymore, and... well, they like having power. So making decisions in the public interest, and making the Banksters mad, is Na Gah Happn.



Keep your eyes on the Fed Rate, and the CPI. If the first stays flat and the other continues to drop... well, hopefully other countries will outsource their call center and manufacturing work to the U.S., where there could be a huge pool of cheap labor in the not-too distant future.

---

UPDATE: The New Yorker has a biographical article about Krugman in its most recent online edition, entitled (appropriately enough), "The Deflationist: How Krugman Found Politics". Good read.

---

Ruben Bolling Comix: Tom The Dancing Bug

So you don't have to see the ads at Salon.com.

However, I pay them $75, every year, for a Premium™ account -- which gives me advertising- and annoyance-free access to their site. I think it's worth every cent, and you should consider doing something similar.

Go here; check out how to subscribe. Go. Now.


(© Ruben Bolling, 2010)

...and go here to see Ruben Bolling's site: Plenty of cartoons, yucks, and acerbic social commentary.

More Tales Of Teh Rich And Famous

Dinner For You. (Photo: PetSmart)

William D. Cohan, a commentator on Wall Street for the New York Times' Op-Ed page, observed recently:

...at the height of the financial crisis, many of Goldman Sachs’s top deal-makers — although not [G-S CEO Lloyd C.] Blankfein himself — moved quickly to unload their own stock in their firm. This happened both in March 2008, after Bear Stearns collapsed, and again that September, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the near-unwinding of the rest of Wall Street.
...
The whole story is contained in little-noticed public records filed with the Securities and Exchange commission ... which make enjoyable reading after spending the last year listening to the gang at Goldman and other firms whine about the terms of the TARP program and repeatedly insist that they weren’t really in all that much trouble.


Their Dinner.

Because if these savvy Goldman guys were freaking out and selling large chunks of stock in the dark days of 2008, that makes it a safe bet things were plenty bad and getting worse.

Cohan goes on to list a number of major players at G-S who moved fast to sell stock (as in 'liquidate', to make into a more liquid form of asset: Cash). I particularly liked this little scene:

...Jack Levy, the co-chairman of Goldman’s mergers and acquisitions department ... [on] March 19, 2008, two days after Bear[-Stearn]’s collapse, Levy sold 30,000 Goldman shares, at $171.32 each, generating $5.14 million.

Levy also ... sold 60,000 October 2008 calls on Goldman stock in the market to an investor, or investors, who bet Goldman’s stock would reach $230 per share by then. Levy pocketed the premium on the calls...


Family In Milwaukee, WI, Being Evicted From Their Home
(Photo: Sally Ryan, New York Times Online)

Essentially, this BSD was selling his own stock in Goldman to take $5 Mil in quick cash (not an easy decision, since without a plan to reinvest, stock sales are considered capital gains and are more of a tax liability), because he thought the market, including Goldman-Sachs, might Tank. Spectacularly. Run For Your Lives, Man!! Ethel! Start Up The SUV; I'll Meet You At The House In The Hamptons!! Take The Gold And The Guns!!

And at about the same time, he was convincing investors to place a bet (because that's what calls are) that, by October 2008, everything would be just fine. And, taking his cut for having "written the sale", he made money on a sucker's bet, because by October of '08, the wheels were really beginning to come off the little red wagon of the Economy.

Ya gotta love it: On the one hand, In March, 2008, Bear-Stearns had failed. BSD Jack is getting liquid. He's cashing out a chunk of stock. He's also an insider; he knows how bad things are likely to get, as Wall Street is interconnected like a bad, incestuous marriage.

On the other hand, in March of 2008, he's telling clients as he takes their money that everything is roses all the way -- blue skies, furry puppies, champagne, and everyone's gonna get laid -- which is, uh, 'at odds' with what he knows to be true about the state of the Market.

Essentially, Big Jack was lying, and making a buck in the process. But; hey; whatcha gonna do, hah? Bidness is bidness.


"Old Trees", The Waterfront Estate Home Purchased By Goldman-
Sachs' CEO, BSD Lloyd Blankfein, for $41 Million In October, 2008,
As The Economy Imploded (Photo: Radaronline.com)

And, hey; BSD Jack made out okay! Couldn't be a better time to get into the market, boys! Of course things are lookin' up! This is a fookin' bargain sale price!! What are ya; Un-American?

For people like this, when they can play both ends against the middle, I guess The Great Game is just that much more satisfying and interesting, huh?

The Masters Of The Universe, at play in the Fields Of Finance. Enjoy your Alpo, America!

---

They Hate Me, They Really Hate Me

Принуждение людей есть куриное главы, хотят ли они этого или нет.

Whoops! Now they don't like me at work so much anymore.

Well -- that's life in corporate America. May possibly mean no promotions, either.

What did I do, exactly? As best I can determine it, I simply got out of bed and showed up. Often, in life, that's all it takes.

For Moldavish Guy:

Этот проект идиотов. Помните, я говорил, чтобы держать вас ", политика, политика"? Эти люди из продавцов в канаве, и я ненавижу этих людей. Я не хочу быть принтер парень больше, но не может выйти, потому что я иду вместе с нашим начальником. Не повезло так уж плохо. (вздыхает) Я хотел поднять настроение, я мог бы Тайгер Вудс.

Yeah.

---

How The World Works

Daring Anyone To Be Surprised By This



Salon's Andrew Leonard posted a short piece in the vein of one of my favorite rants -- that America's extremely wealthy have done so very, very well, while the rest of us can live on Alpo -- if we can afford it -- for all they care.

Or, not: This useless level of human traif "doesn't give two fucks" (as Bela Lugosi [Martin Landau] in the film 'Ed Wood', noted) whether we live or die.



Leonard's post was prompted by another article, Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars, from Tax.com, by David Cay Johnston (former tax reporter for the New York Times and a member of the faculty at Syracuse University College of Law). Apparently, Johnston noted, the top 400 families in America, "who boasted an average income of $344.8 million, paid an effective tax rate of 16.2 percent".

The long-term data show [Johnston said] that under current tax and economic rules, the incomes of the top earners rise when the economy expands and contract during recessions, only to rise again.

Their effective income tax rate fell to 16.62 percent, down more than half a percentage point from 17.17 percent in 2006, the new data show. That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans with incomes in the low six figures...

(An amount in the low six figures, incidentally, "is what each taxpayer in the top group earned in the first three hours of 2007. [emphasis added])

What this means is, on an annual income of $345,000,000 (rounded up, this was the median earnings of Our Elders And Betters), these, uh, people paid roughly $37,000,000 in taxes. Leaving them with Three Hundred and Eight Million Dollars (about $26,000,000 a month, or a net $162,500 per hour @ 20 working days/month).

Now, let's look at another income: A family of two, earning $71,000 in straight, wage income, will pay a roughly 33% tax rate -- or, about $23,400. Leaving them with roughly $47,500 (about $3,964 a month, or a net $24.77 per hour @ 20 working days/month).

What would be fairer; a Flat Tax? No; not at all. A progressive tax, with a 50% upper limit for the useless, parasitical, inbred scum? Well... that would be a good start...

But, all that wasn't the really fun part of the Salon article:

The annual top 400 report was first made public by the Clinton administration, but the George W. Bush administration shut down access to the report. Its release was resumed a year ago when President Obama took office.

Because you know [Leonard said], if you are going to reward the richest Americans with tax cuts, it's best if you keep the rest of us in the dark as to just how much money they're making, and how little they are paying Uncle Sam.

This is an impressive crowd of the haves, and -- have mores.
[laughter] Some people call you the elite; I call ya my base.
-- George W. Bush, 2002

---

The Best Benign Neglect Money Can Buy

How Icons Treat Icons


You Don't Know Whether To Laugh at The Folly Of The Rich,
Or Weep At Level Of Neglect. Or Both.
(Screencapture: NYT Online, 2/13/10; Photo: Tony Cenicola)

Peter Max was one hip guy, once upon a time. I actually thought he was dead, but, as it turns out, he's not.


Peter Max At An Exhibition Of New Work, 2008

A charmed player in the Lottery of life in some ways, though: Born Max Finkelstein in Berlin, he and his family were able to escape in 1938 (if they hadn't -- well, let's say Yellow Submarine would have had a greatly different appearance). They fled to Shanghai, China, and in 1948, to Israel. Eventually his family moved to the United States, and young Max started a career as a graphic artist -- a very, very successful career.



Max's work produced classic Pop-Art images -- vibrant, primary colors; mirror-image split scenes; graceful gradients of complimentary tones as background to high-contrast shillouettes.



Max's art helped to visually define the Sixties (more than any of Warhol's copy-and-paint-over repetitious imagery), and even people born long after recognize what historical period Max's work represents -- like Klimt's paintings help define fin de siècle Vienna and European culture before World War One; or the work of Monet defining Impressionism; or Grant Wood's American Gothic image creating an icon for a quintessential America.


Two Vic Moscoso Versions Of Left Coast Psychedelic Pop: 1966-67

His art for the animated film Yellow Submarine became synonymous with the Beatles, with sitar music, the Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper albums; Twiggy; Carnaby street fashions; Peter and Gordon and The Who; John Steed and Emma Peel (!) in The Avengers; Patrick McGoohan shouting, "I am not a number; I am a free man!"; The Rolling Stones, and the rest of the British invasion.

Max's work was trans-Atlantic, New York art world Psychedelica -- it was new, but echoed roots in Art Noveau and packaging design. It was sophisticated but commercial -- as opposed to the grittier and more experimental Left-Coast, Haight-Ashbury, Acid Test, Avalon and Fillmore posters; Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead; Sproul Plaza sit-in, Whiskey-A-Go-Go, and Rolling Stone sort of psychedelic culture.



Needless to say, when you produce nearly archetypal, iconic modern images, and you're halfway intelligent about the business side of art, you can do well: Peter's loaded. And he knew that he wasn't only creating art, but a Brand: None of his reproduced work from the 60's and 70's appears without his Peter Max© logo.


As a Creative Guy™, I support that: You Go, Peter.

(Max's work inspired other graphic artists, font creators, clothing designers; I've always believed Moebius (aka Jean Giraud), one of the finest illustrators to come out of the Sixties and Seventies, was heavily influenced by Max's art.)


Temps - Jean Giraud ('Moebius')

However, being a Creative Guy™ doesn't exempt Max from acting like a common, garden-variety rich guy. The New York Times recently carried a story about a collection of thirty-six Corvettes -- many of them classic rarities -- which Max had purchased in a block from another wealthy collector in 1990.

Max had intended to paint the cars and, probably, sell them -- a classic 1964 'Vette (worth a good bit all by itself) would have had its value, uh, enhanced by an original Peter Max-designed paint job. And for Max, it would probably be a hoot 'n a half to apply his design concepts to the shapes of a vehicle -- something he had already done with his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in the 1970's.


Max's Painted Rolls, Parked In Front Of An L.A. Gallery, 2007

The Corvette was the creation of Harvey Earl, a design engineer for the Chevrolet division of General Motors, and named for a fast, maneuverable naval warship. It debuted in 1953, and (depending upon whom you talk to) either is still produced today, or lost its classic status to overproduction and design changes in the late 60's.



I'm not a car guy (though I've had a Guy's standard fantasy of buying a junked unusual or neglected brand or model, and restoring it). But like Max's art, for me the Corvette is also part of what defined the Sixties -- Route 66; the Beach Boys; the West Coast, Sandra Dee - Endless Summer; days at El Capitan, or Refugio Beach; El Cajon or Venice. Santa Barbara, and State Street on a Summer night, or the Sunset Strip in L.A., cruising with the top down while the push-button radio plays I got sunshine / On a cloudy day...


George Maharis And Martin Milner In Route 66:
And They Walked Off / To Look For America

Max's Corvettes went into a storage garage in Brooklyn; Max moved on to other things, and the Corvettes sat... for twenty years -- apparently without cleaning, or being set up on blocks, or having their engines and drive trains protected from atmospheric effects. Convertibles were left open; cats apparently nested in some (you can see fresh paw-prints, and older ones under layers of dirt, in the photos) and the upholstery suffered. The paint jobs of each car, some of them original to the vehicles, slowly oxidized and bonded with layers of grime. Tires deflated, and the cars settled to rest on their rims.


The Rarest: A 1953 Corvette, It's First Year Of Production,
And One Of Only 300 Manufactured... Nice Goin', Peter.
(Photo: Tony Cenicola, New York Times Online)

Seeing the photographs of these cars in such obvious state of neglect was... well, saddening. For Max, they were like paper or canvas; something to stretch a vision upon. But they're also a kind of art on their own. For me, and others, they're iconic in other ways -- among other things, a symbol of time passing, that people in my crowd (and me, personally) are aging, now; and one way or another how much the past is present in our memories.


(Photo: Tony Cenicola, New York Times Online)

Recently, the Times reported, Max moved the cars from the Brooklyn garage to a secured parking area in upper Manhattan, as he "considers a new idea to clean them up and repaint them". I think they belong with others who may have the attention span of a larger mammal, and financial wherewithal to restore and properly garage these automobiles.


(Screencapture: NYT Online, 2/13/10; Photo: Jenna Stern)

It may be foolish to think of caring for these cars as a way of respecting our collective national past, and our own personal connections to memory -- but, I'm only a dog, and no one listens to me.

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The Ballad Of Donka Ufman (Part I)

Whenever that Guy gets me the photos.

You know who you are.

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Give This Man An Oscar

Christoph Waltz, Receiving Award As Best Actor At The Cannes
Film Festival, For His Role In Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Because, being an intelligent smart guy™, I support other intelligent smart guys.

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Freedom?

I just caught the last few minutes of a conversation, on the (rebroadcast) February 5th edition of PBS' Bill Moyers' Journal, between Harvard University's Progressive legal scholar, Lawrence Lessig, and Libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie, who used to edit the Libertarian magazine, Reason.

The topic was the decision two weeks ago by the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the essence of which is that corporations are no longer barred from making donations of money to American political parties, issue-specific propositions on a ballot, or to individual politicians.

This decision struck down a major section of the 2002 McCain-Feingold (Yes; that McCain) campaign-finance reform law. The Supremes, in a 5-4 Decision along ideological lines (Roberts, Alitio, Thomas, Scalia and Kennedy the Spolier on the Right: Ruth Bader Ginzburg, John Paul Stevens, Steven Breyer, and Antonia Sotomayor for the People), found for the Plaintiffs that McCain-Feingold violated the free-speech right of corporations to engage in public debate of political issues.

Essentially, the finding means that corporations are no different than individuals when it comes to free-speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution. It says that money is equated with speech -- and if Exxon, for example, wants to spend millions of dollars in "issue ads" against a politician (even a local one) who believes in restricting oil exploration in their area... now, nothing prevents them.

The effect of this decision can be a huge and destabilizing one for politics in America. It negates laws in 24 states which forbid corporate spending in state and local elections. And, it does nothing for people, for citizens; it's a decision which only benefits large businesses.

And, it may not end there. That decision, that a corporation has the same rights as an individual, even in the context of free speech, can be a precedent that opens the door for other rights a corporate entity might claim -- privacy, due process... Citizens United v. FEC has just opened the doors to many other legal challenges.

In speaking with Bill Moyers, Harvard's Lawrence Lessig noted that over the past twenty years, there has been a steady erosion of trust in politics generally, but in the U.S. Congress, specifically. In the public mind, the implication is that Federal politicians are more likely to be corrupt.

Lessig indicated that there's more than enough evidence to support that contention -- lobbyists are the prime Players of Washington, D.C., and money does in fact rule the roost. Congressmen and Senators are frequently bought for cheap; the most recent example involves Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader. It seems that he's received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from BAE, a British weapons manufacturer, currently plea-bargaining in multiple bribery investigations.

McConnell, whom the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) indicates is one of the most corrupt Republican politicians, rose in the Senate to speak in support of the Supreme Court's decision; corporations should be allowed to donate as much money as they want to politicians' campaigns, McConnell said. At the same time, he had authored 'earmarks' (riders to legislation, frequently establishing Federal funding for contracts or initiatives) which directly benefit BAE, which operates a facility in McConnell's state of Kentucky.

BAE stands to make millions of dollars as a result; they apparently bought McConnell's help in getting that by giving his campaign for re-election approximately $40,000. It reminded me of the old joke, attributed to Winston Churchill: "We've already determined what you are; now we're just haggling over the price".

And, the idea of McConnell as a whore is exactly the point of Lessig's observation. His comments about an erosion of trust in government was followed by Libertarian Nick Gillespie, who agreed with Lessig that money swaying the votes of politicians against the public's interest is bad -- but, Gillespie agrees only insofar as that supports his arguments in favor of smaller government and a reduction in the power of the Feds to determine how the United States is operated.

Gillespie, and Lessig, both noted that there is plenty of popular discontent with the Federal Government. The rise of Progressive Democrats (such as Lessig) on one side, and the Teabaggers on the other, they said, proves it. I agree with them.

The GOP is perfectly happy to push the idea that Federal politicians and our central government is corrupt and bloated. They've already painted themselves as the party of Populism, and the Democratic party as fringe Socialists and Communists.

However, since getting into bed with the Xtian Right in the early 1980's, the 'Reagan' Republicans and 'Bush-Sr.' Republicans (even the Cheney, New-American-Century foreign-policy hawk Repubs) have been made very uncomfortable. Having a voice and power in the party is now more a matter of ideological Purity on a narrow range of social issues than it ever has been.


Teabaggers: The Future Of America

The Teabaggers are a collection of Second-Amendment supporters, anti-abortion and Rightist Xtians; Libertarians and supply-siders; opportunists like Palin and Bachmann, and opportunistic pitchmen like Limbaugh and O'Reilly. The 'regular' Republicans (for whom politics is more a game or an occupation) believe they can use them, but don't take them seriously. Unfortunately for the GOP, the Teabaggers believe (like their Muslim soul-mates) in the purity of their beliefs.

And, like the mob in Paris during the French revolution, whose demands for vengeance pushed the Revolution's leaders further and further to one end of the political spectrum, the Teabaggers threaten to push the GOP ever further to the Right. This is the threat groups like the Christian Coalition, Moral Majority, and Focus On The Family have raised with the GOP for twenty years: You bring about the social change we demand, or you don't get our organizational help, our money, or our votes.

My concern is this: If the Democrats can't deliver on promises of Hope, Bread and Work -- if they can't fix the problems created by the Repubs and Lil' Boots, and allow the GOP to paint them as ineffectual and corrupt and Radical Leftists... then the Teabagger fringe may end up seizing the Populist banner, claiming it for their own, and the GOP (still trying to ride the tiger) will have to follow their lead in an attempt to retain control of their party -- meaning their own personal power and interests.

At that point, a Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann as Republican candidate for President might not be a fringe notion any longer, not with freely-spent corporate backing. Corporations pay for play; they back whomever will allow them the freest hand in operating their businesses -- lowered clean air and water standards; reversing such things as the Family Leave Act or not raising the Minimum Wage. And, if a Sarah Palin looks like they might just win...


If Fascism ever comes to America, it won't be called Fascism.
It'd be called 'Americanism'. -- Huey Long, 1932

And should someone like Palin enter the office, it will mean the end of the United States of America as anyone now living knows it. It'll make the Lil' Boots Bush years look like a Kiwanis luncheon. Corporations would happily donate to her campaign; they don't care about social legislation -- Gosh, that doesn't have anything to do with business; does it?

Some might say, well; that's what happens in a pluralistic society, if people vote for the kind of change someone like Palin represents. I say, madness is sometimes brought about only through the feverish plans of a minority -- and by the apathy, or the fears, of everyone else, who don't understand what they've allowed to occur until it's too late.

That's my concern.

They Like Me; They Really Like Me

I don't often have good news to report when it comes to My Place Of Witless Labor™. The days are frequently packed far too full, and things tend to drift or slop over the sides, and the feeling of seeing Abandon Hope All Ye carved over the doors is all too palpable.

However, this week there has been good news -- via an annual Review that was better than good, a possibility of promotion; making (relatively) a bit more money; and, a long conversation with my Boss' Boss, which -- as conversation with the Boss' Boss often is -- a little more metaphysical and global. With some actual meat in there.

And, let's be real: I have a job to discuss, as opposed to not. And there are millions of people who can't say that, courtesy of The Big Boyz; so some gratitude, as well as a counting of Blessings, is overdue and in order.

I mean, I can be cynical next week. Today, I'm grateful.

Reviews and talks with one's boss usually have little if any nutritional value in a spiritual sense. Manager-employee communication is on the Macaroni-and-no-cheese end of the scale; not so with this person.

It's always a treat to have a conversation with an adult, given that (as the Boss' Boss recognizes) so much of Business seems childish in comparison with, well, larger things.

Now, let's also be real: Things in my Place Of Da Labor™ aren't going to get any easier. In fact, they're about to get kicked up a notch. But, you know -- while I reserve the right to complain, and at least for today -- I think we can deal with it.

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