A coalition of artist-activists led by The Yes Men prank commuters and hack the media with fake copies of the New York Times. NYTimes Special Edition News Release, NY1 In The Papers 11/13/2008, Russia Today: ‘War in Iraq is over’, Gefälschte Zeitung erklärt Ende des Irak-Kriegs, Google News results for fake new york times,  The Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPiNK, Not An Alternative, UFPJ, May First, Improv Everywhere, and Cultures of Resistance. Music: Storie di Mose by Arthur Cravan. Less

A coalition of artist-activists led by The Yes Men prank commuters and hack the media with fake copies of the New York Times. NYTimes Special Edition News Release, NY1 In The Papers 11/13/2008, Russia Today: ‘War in Iraq is over’, Gefälschte Zeitung erklärt Ende des Irak-Kriegs, Google News results for fake new york times,  The Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPiNK, Not An Alternative, UFPJ, May First, Improv Everywhere, and Cultures of Resistance. Music: Storie di Mose by Arthur Cravan. Less

Download Election Night from Grant Park On Nov. 4, news outlets from around the world beamed images from Chicago’s Grant Park to captivated audiences awaiting the U.S. election results. Thousands of excited Chicagoans packed the park to hear Barack Obama deliver his first speech as president-elect. Afterweard, they spilled out into the streets to celebrate. In this episode of the UtneCast, we recapture some of the voices and sounds from downtown Chicago the night Barack Obama won the presidency. You can listen to the interview below, or to subscribe to the UtneCast for free through iTunes, click here. Less

I’m ecstatic today! Happy happy joy joy! Thanks to Vance for reminding me in the comments that I had predicted Obama’s presidential win in July four years ago after his speech at the Boston Democratic Convention. Barack Obama - An Amazing Example - 7-28-2004. And as rushed as I am, I have to document a prediction for the future here. Barack Obama will someday be president of the united states. He will have to pay his dues in the Senate (and he will be a great Senator - although he’s not yet even elected!) and prove himself over and over. But he’s the real deal. A newcomer, he zoomed right up there. His speech was candid, electrifying, and inspiring. He transcended all the divisions, he touched on all the great issues - and he did it in a way that created confidence and caring in all who heard him. Ok, I was blown away. I was already in a near-rapturous state from Monday’s convention, and the Tuesday line-up was wonderful too - so much so that I couldn’t tear myself away no matter how much I really should have. I was already “pumped up,” no doubt about it. However, in a very special way, Obama’s intelligence and talent seems to beam right through screen at me. It really was amazing. Whatever it is, whatever it takes, he’s got it. And his message, like Bill Clinton’s, represents a politics of hope. I didn’t expect it to be so soon, but I knew he was the real deal. Recognition! Click here to play Less

One more Georgia vote for Barack Obama! Woo-hoo! Ben’s school was closed today, so I took some time from work and we went to the other little elementary school, where we vote. We went over at a little bit before 9:30 AM. The before-work voters had come and gone and the parking lot still have plenty of spaces. We walked right in, filled in our form, showed our id, got approved, and got in line for the machines. There were no more than a dozen people ahead of us. Everything went smoothly. I would like to have had some kind of paper trail, but oh well - it’s Georgia. They were so nice to have given Ben a sticker. They didn’t have to, because of course he can’t vote, but it made him feel included in the process. He’s been interested in the election. He doesn’t understand a lot about many of the issues, but he says he just likes Barack Obama. Our neighborhood is roughly half-and-half. I’m not too worried about on the ground corruption in this part of town. I have the feeling Georgia might be close. Most of the polls seem to give McCain a 2-point edge, but I’ve seen a few that give Obama the same. I think it will depend on whether the Republicans turn out - and they don’t seem very energized here this year. There’s nothing on the ballot about gays or abortions, and they don’t really feel so strongly about things like giving educational funds to developers or mandating school uniforms. It will be very close in Georgia - both our Senators vote with Bush on everything - but I think there’s a good chance that Obama will take it. I feel very good about the election, and I’m hopeful that we’ll be waving “bye-bye” to some of the more destructive representatives on the far right. It’s going to be a very exciting night. Click here to play Less

If Ever the “Trick” Option Should Apply…. This one burns me up. It’s really just a small item, but to me it is symptomatic of a larger trend. I have been watching the transformation of Halloween by certain sectors of pseudo-Christians for a few years now. First, the kids weren’t allowed to wear costumes to school, and the decorations stopped being made. Then, they moved “trick or treat” time earlier and earlier - I saw some kids out at 5:30 pm this year. Then suddenly, it wasn’t ok to do tricks. No TP’d trees, no soaped windows, no rotten eggs. At about the same time as the ten commandments started to appear in front yards (why not the sermon on the mount?), some families just started boycotting Halloween altogether. “Oh, it’s a pagan holiday, celebrating evil and the devil.” Yada yada. So MY KID would go to houses and get NADA - even when the people answered the door! I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and we didn’t celebrate any of the holidays. Either they had pagan or nationalistic roots, so they were all against my religion. Let me tell you, after Halloween there was always a lot to clean up. If we fled the house and went to Chinese and a movie, it was bad enough. But if we hovered in the back of the house with most of the lights out, we could HEAR people. (Oh, but we were pacifists. We wouldn’t shoot trick or treaters with an AK-47 like this guy in South Carolina. Sheeee-it!) You don’t want to participate? Fine. There’s a small cost to you. It’s called a trick. It’s nothing really damaging, so suck it up. On one occasion, my thoughts were almost inclined to violence when I heard the sanctimonious explanation offered to my little kid for why he shouldn’t be celebrating Halloween. You can skip the smarmy lecture to my son! You’re fortunate that he was there, because I’m very qualified to argue with you on that topic - and more than willing - but I will not ruin my kid’s Halloween. All of this is just the background for why what this Palin/McCain supporter did really pushes my buttons. A woman living in a suburb of Detroit not only refused to give out candy to the children of Obama supporters, but actually posted a SIGN to that effect? Are you freakin’ KIDDING me? Observe: Click to view video I am so proud of the kids and their parents who handled it so much better than I might have in their position. Me, I’d truck out at least a dozen year-old eggs. There is no excuse for this. It’s petty and small and evil. I’m not blaming McCain, and I’m only blaming Palin a little, but I am blaming HER big-time! Bad, bad, mean lady! Shame on you! Shame! John McCain: Diffusing the Hate on SNL - Thank you! McCain has been a little scary lately, and his followers on the fringes are even scarier. One of the truly disturbing moments for me was when McCain addressed a crowd as “my fellow prisoners.” That’s not an incidental slip-up. Who holds him - and us - prisoner? Terrorism? Neo-cons? The Saudi royal family? Big Oil, Pharma, Banking, and the rest? I wonder if he does really still feel like a prisoner, if he’s having flashbacks. Does he wonder about the consequences of selling out his previous integrity - or about who and what he sold his soul to, and what for? Does he feel like a victim of his own decisions? Has he identified with the jailers? If you know anything about psychology, you have to wonder what that mind-set portends. Seriously, is he ok? John Cleese was astounded: Click to view video In that regard, the late endorsement of Dick Cheney probably doesn’t help. I have been wondering why McCain has gone so much more wrong. So far, we’ve seen two major turning points. One was years ago, when after having been relentlessly attacked by the Rove smear and slander machine, he suddenly did an about-face. I can never look at that photo of McCain clinging to Bush without shuddering. Something is very, very wrong there. Then, some months ago, an acceleration emerged through that deal with… whoever… when he voted against the anti-torture bill. I had always counted on him on that issue, at least. It was at that point that the scary smile started appearing all the time, and there was a clearly-visible increased stress upon his body. Every one in a while, you could see a kind of rage in him, and his brown eyes would enlarge into a kind of madness or dementia. I think he was trying to project righteous courage or something, but it wasn’t working. I could only hope that it was a put-on, because if it wasn’t then that suggested to me that he needed serious psychological and even medical help. So I think McCain made a good choice when he decided to appear on SNL. He showed a better side of himself, and presented himself as more like the guy I remember from years ago. I loved that comment, “I’m a real maverick - a Republican with no money!” The QVC products were funny, especially the Fein-gold Fine Gold displayed by wife Cindy (I still think of her as Cruella - she really gives me the creeps), the John McCain pork knives, the Ayers air freshener, and the off-to-the-side Palin 2012 teeshirts (Don’t wear them until after Tuesday). I laughed when Tina Fey said something about the campaigns being SO expensive (as she stroked her lapel). The “Weekend Update” segment was pretty good too. McCain was very good-natured about all the different campaign strategies. I like someone who can poke fun at themselves, and I’ve always had a little more respect for people who could do that. I think he did much better than Palin on the show. Given what’s been happening among some of McCain’s followers, I think this was a good way to start to diffuse the bomb they’d been building. So - thank you, Senator McCain - thank you for that. I don’t agree with your current views and policies, but you’re not a Dick Cheney. I know there’s a good man in there somewhere, trying to do his best. Don’t worry - you’ll be able to work with President Obama. Click here to play Less

Too bad I couldn’t find the custom canines, but I think the fangs are clearly implied. I am so very happy that I can celebrate such things. Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups who can’t find the spirit in Hallowe’en are really missing out. As the photos de-monstrate, I embraced my shadow and it was as thrilling and as unnerving as always. Found a few more worthy bits to reposition, save and integrate. Such exploration is palpably good for the soul (despite appearances). I call attention to the construction of the word “demonstrate” with a hyphen. Why? Latin d?m?nstr?re, d?m?nstr?t- : d?-, completely; see de– + m?nstr?re, to show (from m?nstrum, divine portent, from mon?re, to warn). To divinely portend, to call out a warning, to make manifest or apparent, display, evidence, evince, exhibit, manifest, proclaim, reveal, show, authenticate, bear out, confirm, corroborate, endorse, establish, evidence, prove, substantiate, validate, verify. To demonstrate is thus also to un-conceal, to dis-cover. Truth as endorsed warning and as authentic manifestation of such warning AS truth - but also holding a warning about that very act. A complete showing that warns about itself, like an Angel of Annunciation. But do not fear. Oh, it’s a lovely emblematic truthing, but with a warning about that truth, too. The truth will set you free, but it’s not always easy. The word “demonstrate” also suggests something to the ear - “demon-straight.” Damned straight! Straight to hell! It shows what we most demonize, but what we demonize is also sacred to us because there is an attraction at the heart of the repulsion. It’s inherently unstable with regard to anything but its power. Such signage can be archetypal and playful identifications can de-”monster” - precisely by letting the demon-monster live for a little while, so that one can pick up some of the good monster traits while letting go of elements that have been recognized (but no longer denied or forgotten). I am not free of the vampire. Where is that body? Where is that blood? Gimme communion. Gimme carnality and spirit. Gimme unrepressed gratification of my desires. I would love to swoon. I would love to take a walk on the dark side. Of course, I pass out at the sight of blood, but I do love vampire novels. It’s all a dream, and to pick out the parts that really can be integrated into me, into my life, into my own sense of ethics and my own spiritual journey, is always enlightening. It reminds me a lot of the way I used to collect rocks. I think McCain and some of the Republican Party are vampires, and that is what I despise about them. I do love to despise their bloodthirstiness, their preying upon the sub-millionaires among us, their cynical manipulations of the public, their disregard of what it takes for people and countries to thrive. And it’s true - so true - that they are vampires in these ways. But Barack Obama is right, I think, not to manifest and feed that set of truths because it can’t be taken playfully or dissipated with court-jester humor that speaks truth. It’s too real, and the consequences are too important. The alternative is to recognize, but to lead with an different vision, one that refuses to demonize others. We are all Americans, after all, and a President should think of just as many of the people as he or she can. I think it is wise to have elections a few days after Hallowe’en, and it is especially important this year. It works the same way as a picture of Cheney as the Evil Emperor with George W as Darth Vader; the fear that is inspired by the recognition of a deep truth in it is - at the same time - dissipated through its very manifestation. They really ARE those characters, and thank goodness they really aren’t. I have been fearing that what (at least a subset of) the Republicans are trying to catalyze will work, and that hatred and violence will escalate. I am hoping that projections of evil otherness must at some point become so obvious, so de-monstrable even to the far-right wing, that they will just fall down and implode. It looks a little better now for the latter scenario than it did even a week ago. After such playful shadow-work as seems inherent in the celebrations and rituals of Hallowe’en, I am less angry, and much more hopeful. Click here to play Less

Download Podcast Interview with Irena Salina and Maude Barlow on the Global Water Crisis The world is facing a potentially catastrophic water crisis. More than a billion people currently lack access to clean, safe drinking water. Multinational corporations including Nestlé, Vivendi, and Coca Cola are buying up the world’s fresh water supply and selling it back to people at a profit. A movement is growing, however, opposing the tide of privatization, wrestling control away from the corporations, and working to bring water to everyone. The documentary FLOW: For Love of Water explores this fight over who owns the world’s water. For this episode of the UtneCast, I spoke with Irena Salina, director of the film, and Maude Barlow, one of the world’s most prominent activist against the privatization of water. You can listen to the interview below, or to subscribe to the UtneCast for free through iTunes, click here. Less

See your tax cut under Obama’s plan, and compare it to the McCain plan. “Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle — indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would.” [Sebatian Mallaby, Washington Post, 9/8/08] Rea Hederman Jr., a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation “said the middle class would likely pay less under Mr. Obama’s plan than Mr. McCain’s.” [NY Sun, 8/15/08] Obama’s tax calculator is “a very simple gadget that’s the most useful thing I’ve seen on any political website in a while.” [Forbes.com, 10/08] Click here to play Less

When I find myself in a curmudgeonly state, I listen to episodes of StoryCorps. I used to listen to it on NPR’s Morning Edition on the way to work on Fridays, but my car radio doesn’t work anymore. Now I listen via podcast. I honestly don’t know anything that more predictably awakens my love for humanity than listening to these recordings. All the complexities and quirks of human being are there, and those things are always kind of new and surprising and wonderful. I started listening to try to improve my skill at writing dialogue. I wanted to listen to a range of “real voices” very quickly. But I fell in love with it. Listening to the experiences of others is a form of loving. It is a form of spiritual practice, one I tend not to value enough in the world of everyday existence. You can’t listen to many of these and continue to think in exclusively negative terms about people. During this election season, I’ve been desperate enough that I have even gone back into the archives. They are short. Sweet. Highly recommended. The podcasts are supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its Campaign for Love and Forgiveness (loveandforgive.org). All the recordings are being saved for the Library of Congress and, if you know someone with an interesting experience to relate, you can arrange to record that story, too. Listening to people telling their stories helps us all to remember and to really feel why hating or fearing other people is not going to be any kind of solution to anything. It sounds trite, but when mind and body and spirit are in agreement, it’s a powerful thing, and we have so few opportunities for that sometimes. I could feel the endorphins flood my system. No kidding. Really paying attention also develops the inclination to do so more often - and with more people, and a wider range of people. Sometimes there are amazing experiences that people have undervalued for years… the woman who would not be deterred from voting, the romance that took decades to come to fruition, the very first jumpshot, the reason why Grampa grins when you say that word. There are stories all around you. Beliefs and values come from the stories of people’s lives. One thing that everyone could do is to ask! “Have you experienced something that informed your view of this issue?” Maybe if we shared our stories more often, we might start to understand how to negotiate through some of the more difficult issues we face. Maybe if we listened to people who have had different experiences than we have, it might help to heal all the communication pathologies that are so clearly evident today. When you listen, and read, and think about real experiences from different perspectives and places and times, it also makes you a little more impervious to manipulation. The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing. Our goal is to make that experience accessible to all, and find new ways to inspire people to record and preserve the stories of someone important to them. Everybody’s story matters and every life counts. Just as powerful is the experience of listening. Whenever people listen to these stories, they hear the courage, the humor, the trials and triumphs of an incredible range of voices. By listening closely to one another, we can help illuminate the true character of this nation reminding us all just how precious each day can be and how truly great it is to be alive. -Dave Isay, Founder, StoryCorps On the home page, there is a subject index for you to pick a topic. Enjoy. Click here to play Less

In Georgia, it is always an especially wise thing to do to pay close attention to the other items on the ballot. Don’t ever be fooled by the wording, but dig into what it really means. If you know anything about state and local government here, you know enough to err on the side of caution. Here are my thoughts on the proposed amendments for this go-round. Amendment 1 To Encourage The Preservation Of Georgia’s Forests Through A Conservation Use Property Tax Reduction Program. Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that the General Assembly by general law shall encourage the preservation, conservation, and protection of the state’s forests through the special assessment and taxation of certain forest lands and assistance grants to local government? This is about whether Georgia can give tax breaks to those who own 200+ acres of undeveloped land. To grab the tax benefit, they have to keep the land undeveloped for 15 years. The state agrees to reimburse local governments for any lost tax revenue. My thoughts on this are mixed. I can see problems and advantages. I’m worried that it’s really specific to the big landowners like Georgia Pacific, who would hold the forest lands in 15-year rotation, take the benefit, then clear the forest anyway. This would pay for them to do it. Note: “Ensures availability of timber to continue to fuel Georgia’s traditional forest industry as well as emerging markets such as bioenergy.” The Georgia School Boards Association opposes it because they are worried that the Legislature will back off its commitment to help when the state budget is tight. If it’s a matter of trust, I’d have to vote no. Things are pretty corrupt. But it’s possible that it could protect some land for at least a little while longer. If I had any real feeling that it would be closely monitored, I’d give it a cautious yes. I’m undecided. Amendment 2 To Authorize Local School Districts To Use Tax Funds For Community Redevelopment Purposes. Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize community redevelopment and authorize counties, municipalities, and local boards of education to use tax funds for redevelopment purposes and programs? This is about TADs (or tax allocation districts), which would freeze the amount of property tax revenues collected, and direct revenues generated by rising property values into a fund used to pay for redevelopment projects. First of all, take a look around. This is moot. There is no fund from rising property values. More importantly, this would permit special property taxes, including school taxes, to fund redevelopment. Translation: Use education money to benefit developers. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Tax Allocation Districts were unconstitutional because they used educational funds for purposes other than education. Exactly right. This amendment would negate that. Boooo! If developers cannot get market financing, and local governments refuse to issue general revenue bonds, then why should educational monies be used? Beyond all the obvious arguments, it seems to be that an inability to get funding for profit-development probably signals a problem with the project. This is a no-brainer for me. No thank you. The PTA provides a big chunk of support for the school my son attends, and developers are already in a very privileged position in Georgia. I also don’t like the idea - in times like these - of government borrowings that depend on future property tax growth from an area under any kind of risky redevelopment. Some have said that it’s the only way to get funding for things like the Atlanta Beltline project and some kind of reasonable public transit system. Bah! As far as I can tell, they just stole the I-400 toll money to build Atlantic Station, and the Olympics gave us numerous examples of where this kind of thing can go. Living here has made me very suspicious of developers. Now they want to involve school districts? I vote no. No. NO. Amendment 3 To Authorize The Creation Of Special Infrastructure Development Districts Providing Infrastructure To Underserved Areas. Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by general law for the creation and comprehensive regulation of infrastructure development districts for the provision of infrastructure as authorized by local governments? “Infrastructure Development Districts” - IDDs are described as a “new economic tool,” and it sounds like it comes from the same people who dreamed up “tax allocation districts.” This alone is enough to make one pause. What you can’t tell from this wording is that what it’s all about is allowing local governments to to use bonds and private companies to pay for the construction and maintenance of new roads, sewers, schools or other infrastructure through bonds and private companies. This would also allow developers to charge residents a fee/tax to pay for their infrastructure costs (sewers, bridges, water lines, roads). There is no real government oversight provision here, although there is a residential tax. My own feeling is that developers should pay for those things themselves if they don’t qualify for county/city/federal funding. They already charge residents enough, and I don’t like the idea of private taxation on top of all the other fees and expenses involved. This ends up being a form of double taxation, and there isn’t really anyone from the private side who can be held accountable to voters. Although this is touted as a way to get funding for areas of Georgia that find funding challenging, I’ve been watching the development of neighborhoods that become little cities of their own and it hasn’t been a very good trend in terms of their tendency to privatize gain and socialize risk. There is little to no oversight, and I’ve seen some glaring conflict of interest problems. It also encourages what is already a serious problem with sprawl, and grants governmental powers to private entities. I vote no. Oh, and if somehow the Sunday alcohol sale issue gets to the ballot, I will vote to allow liquor sales on Sunday. Georgia is one of only three holdout states on this issue. If you have counter-arguments, let’s hear them before Election Day. Click here to play Less

As the world economy crumbles, a combination of corporate high finance is moving to consolidate power - as they do in any emergency. Naomi Klein explains her new book "Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - in the light of our current economic meltdown. Suddenly, the trillions givens to major banks and investment gamblers begins to make sense. Naomi spoke to an enthusiastic audience in Santa Cruz, California on October 17th, 2008. Through the magic of non-profit radio, the speech and Q and A session are rocketing across the country, and around the world. It was all recorded by Radio Free Santa Cruz - a bastion of alternative radio, available 24/7 at www.freakradio.org My thanks to Skidmark Bob for this recording. As the speech went well over an hour, followed by another half hour of questions and answers, I have dared to draw out: * the recording of her new film clip* Klein's theory of Disaster Capitalism, updated for today's times* the conclusion of the speech, and* three answers from the Q and A - on what we can do now. This is one of the most exciting speeches, in a season of barn burners. Apparently, when the system cracks open, our brightest minds are inspired. Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo" and film-maker, is one of them. You can download the full speech from our web site, just look for "Speeches" in the Audio on Demand Menu, right on our home page. The Q and A session is there also, as an mp3 download. AlexRadio Ecoshock http://www.ecoshock.org Less

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama. The seven-minute video is worth watching. Click to view video Click here to play Less

The state of this country right now can be at least partially attributed to the successful demonization of anything left-wing, liberal, progressive - and even centrist Democrat - by the right-right wing and its public propagandists. Until recently, I didn’t believe that so many Americans was taken in by these machinations as it looks like. I’ve been profoundly disturbed by seeing certain kinds of beliefs and accusations being expressed - not only by under-informed folk at rallies, but even in so-called christian blogs and in emails from people who should know better. We have a deep need to feel better about ourselves as a nation, but lying to ourselves isn’t the way to do it, and neither is hate or fear or scapegoating or any of those other strategies that have been used here and elsewhere to such destructive effect. Smears, lies, hatred and incitement to violence do not reflect well on anyone. My prayers today are for the ones who consider themselves christians, but are participating in this kind of thing. I sincerely hope that you will be able to receive the guidance that you seem to need, and can re-attune to the deepest message of your faith from where you are right now. Regardless of who you decide deserves your vote, it’s time to get back on speaking terms with the best within you, not the worst. I can’t believe I’m seeing some of the stuff that I am seeing today. I’m sure you’ve seen some of it, too. It is not only unseemly and depressing that many Americans are so easily propelled by the worst that is within them, but it also brings an ethical responsibility for the results. Be careful of what you bring on, Palin and McCain (and all of the surrogate voices). All of this talk about his being an Arab or a Muslim or a terrorist - all those words kind of blend together, don’t they? - really bothers me on a number of levels. First, it reveals our national prejudices in a particularly nasty way. Does it not occur to you that there are Arabs and Muslims who are Americans? You can’t conflate these things. All Arabs aren’t bad. All Muslims aren’t bad. Just as all Christians aren’t bad. Think on that, and remember the Crusades, and the Inquisitions, and the way some contemporary Christians want to turn this nation into a theocratic dictatorship that misses Jesus’ call and message completely. The militant and controlling delusions of the super-orthodoxy militants among ALL the people of the book is very troubling but these are still subsets of people. People have used the methods of terrorism for a long time. Wake up! If you want to fight terrorism, don’t be terrified and manipulated! And then, there’s just the plain facts that Obama is not an Arab. He’s not a Muslim. He’s not a terrorist. He’s not anti-American. He’s not a traitor. He’s not a mole. I cannot believe I’m seeing this kind of thing. Barack Obama is not a socialist, either. He’s a capitalist - just not the kind of capitalist that will exploit and plunder our economy or our environment because of rampant corruption and greed. He’s not the kind of capitalist that will appoint former industry lobbyists as directors of the organizations meant to oversee those industries. He’s not going to put the interests of the top 5 percent over the interests of the 95 percent, but he’s not talking a revolution of the masses either. Obama is actually rather centrist, fair, practical and level-headed. His plans call for a strengthening of the middle-class, the backbone of our nation. If the middle-class falls, multinationals will simply take their business elsewhere. Now, Barack Obama isn’t a messiah either, and those who either over-idealize him or criticize him (on the basis that some people are pretty desperate for such hope as he could represent) exaggerate his importance. However, I think he could do some real good for Americans, for America, and also for world stability. He does make me feel hopeful that we might be able to start to undo some of the terrible damage that has been done. Do you really think it’s a coincidence that almost every other country in the world - after dealing with Bush for 8 years - would prefer to see Obama elected than McCain? Are they all evil, then? I think that Barack Obama has a much better chance of helping us to navigate through the next few years. We’re in a real mess on a number of different fronts - both internally and externally - and we need the best we can get. My vote is for him. Click here to play Less

As government and corporate governance fails, we need a wide-spread social movement to address climate change, peak oil, and extinction. Where is it? How does it start? Tom Hayden witnessed the beginning of a dozen social movements. We gather his insight from a new speech in Vancouver , an Alternative Radio program, and quotes from his 2008 book: "Writings for a New Democracy, The Tom Hayden Reader." The Reader begins with Hayden's "Letter to a New Young Left" in 1961. There are selections from The Port Huron Statement, a founding document of the '60s revolution in some ways. Hayden was a co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, which became fairly radical. He was arrested at the Democratic Convention protests in Chicago in 1968 - where he was tried for conspiracy to subvert democracy as one of the famous Chicago Eight. They were acquitted by a jury after an amazing trial (beat poet Allan Ginsberg was one of the witnesses for the defense.) Now two movies, with Hayden as one of the characters, are coming out about the Chicago Eight trial, not to mention a stage play which almost anyone can mount. In the early 70's Tom Hayden met and married film star Jane Fonda. It was Hayden who first dared to visit North Vietnam during the awful war. When Jane accompanied him later, she was pilloried as "Hanoi Jane". The marriage lasted 18 years. In 1976, Hayden and a couple of dozen activists had to rethink the future. They had gathered in opposition to the Vietnam War. As that war ended, these men and women met to decide the next phase of social activism. From this group came several successful politicians, union leaders and environmental founders. Tom himself took a run at the U.S. Senate. He was not successful, but the campaign document produced by his group, and reprinted in the Tom Hayden Reader, is still one of the best. It could serve as a platform for Obama. Hayden is a kind of rebel within the Democratic Party, always trying to haul them into social justice. Tom Hayden did become a successful politician - as a California Senator. He became involved in environmentalism, visited the Amazon in a life-changing experience, and rediscovered his roots in Ireland. All through this program, we visit the fabric of social activism, watching for signs of how they developed. We also explore Tom Hayden, not as an icon, but as a human who struggles, as we do. Hayden also considers whether the decision to abandon the search for Peace, after the Vietnam War, was a mistake. He says, as an American trying to solve social ills, imperialist wars just keep on coming. They always drain away social capital - both tax money and social will - from real improvements at home. Just as the war in Iraq is doing now, in both the United States and Canada. First I recorded a new speech by Tom, in Vancouver, as he traveled up to support a re-birth of the Students for a Democratic Society at the University of British Columbia. At the speech, Tom handed me a thick copy of his collected writings, The Tom Hayden Reader. That took me a month of Summer reading, taking notes, for you. Then David Barsamian of Alternative Radio came out with a Tom Hayden special called "Movements and Machiavellians". I've given you a few short clips on our topic, and instructions on how to order either the CD, or a cheap $5 download of the speech (well worth it!). To add another sound viewpoint, Steve Bowell, producer of Ragbag Radio on CFRO in Vancouver, has lent his professional voice to a half dozen key quotes from the Tom Hayden Reader. The whole project stretched out too long, over three months, but it's finally ready. Enjoy! Alex Smith The Radio Ecoshock Show 081017 1 hour CD quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB Less

I give up. I can’t get the song “Buzzer” out of my head. It’s been days now, and despite my attempts to put it out of my mind it’s affecting me at a deep emotional level. It’s not unusual for me to have a song running through my head now and again, but this one is a little different. I’m getting noodged (smile-out) to write about it, and it’s clear that I’m going to be haunted by this song until I do. The song very obviously refers to Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on authoritarianism, and is written from the perspective of a participant - one of the people who “pressed the buzzer” that appeared to give other people increasingly painful electrical shocks. Controversy surrounded Stanley Milgram for much of his professional life as a result of a series of experiments on obedience to authority which he conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly, that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants. Below you can see a video and the lyrics to the song. A higher-quality version of the song is here at NPR, recorded live in concert from WXPN and Wiggins Park in Philadelphia on July 11, 2008. I would be surprised if Dar Williams doesn’t talk about “Buzzer” in the NPR interview, but I’m resisting listening to it until I’ve worked this through. Click to view video Dar Williams, “Buzzer” (from “Promised Land”) Sitting with the number eight platter at the restaurant, Four twenty-nine for almost anything I want, Add it up, it’s cheaper than the stuff I make myself, I get by, I never needed anybody’s help, And I tore out an ad and they told me that I Would press the buzzer, press the buzzer, At the graduate lab, they were doing some tests, I pressed the buzzer, pressed the buzzer. Ride the circle off of the highway. Spiral into the driveway, In the maze of old prefabs They’ll be waiting at the lab. I don’t know how everybody makes it through the daily drill, Paint their nails, walk a dog, pay every bill, I’m feeling sorry for this guy that I press to shock, He gets the answers wrong, I have to up the watts And he begged me to stop, but they told me to go, I press the buzzer, I press the buzzer. So get out of my head, just give me my line. I press the buzzer, I press the buzzer. Ride the circle off of the highway, Spiral into the driveway, In the maze of old prefabs They’ll be waiting at the lab. They called me back to the lab to discuss the test, I put my earrings on, found my heels, wore a dress. Right away I knew, it was like I’d failed a quiz The man said “Do you know what a fascist is?” I said, “Yeah, it’s when you do things you’re not proud of, But you’re scraping by, taking orders from above.” I get it now, I’m the face, I’m the cause of war We don’t have to blame white-coated men anymore. When I knew it was wrong, I played it just like a game, I pressed the buzzer, I pressed the buzzer, Here’s your seventy bucks, now everything’s changed, I press the buzzer, I press the buzzer But tell me where are your stocks, would you do this again? I press the buzzer, And tell me who made your clothes, was it children or men? I press the buzzer. Ride the circle off of the highway, Spiral into the driveway, In the maze of old prefabs They’ll be waiting at the lab. The opening of the song evokes the character of the singer, a self-reliant northeastern woman of the early sixties. She’s focused on the details of getting through each day, cutting corners, trying to be a responsible person. Seventy dollars for her participation would have been decent pay. Right from the first chorus, there is something sinister about the people “waiting at the lab,” especially since they are surrounded by all the spirals and mazes in the chorus. The words are reinforced by the melody and the way the sound slows and expands, and the image of the people waiting in the middle of the maze is the last echoing image of the song. She’s not without compassion. She’s not a sadist. She feels sorry, in a distant sort of way, for the man that she thinks she is training, or punishing, or torturing. His inability to get the answers right is associated structurally with a failure to meet everyday stresses and challenges; an implied judgment is yoked to a certain kind of empathy. When he begs her to stop, she is told by an authority figure (one of the white-coated men, no doubt) to go on. And she does, without much further comment except the repetition of “I press the buzzer” throughout the rest of the song. She would have been one of the majority who continued to press the buzzer (the button, the shocker) up to the limits of the experiment. I wonder if this song drew from the testimony of one of the actual participants. Imagine how horrible it would be to realize that you were capable of doing something like this, and not even under any dire choice or extraordinary sense of necessity, but just because there was an authority figure that told you it was all right and released you from attaching any sense of personal ethics and responsibility to your actions. What a setup. What a perfect, horrifying setup. It’s no big surprise that the Milgram experiment was controversial. It was a terrible thing to do to people, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some people were affected by it for the rest of their lives. I would be devastated to learn such an ugly truth about myself. But there were some, later, that were thankful for the experience; they learned a deep-down lesson. 62% wouldn’t refuse to continue? The results shocked the world. For many, it seemed to explain how Hitler could have transformed the “good Germans” into a nation that could condone and participate in the events of World War II. I have always wondered what I would have done. The experiment itself has a high heuristic function, so once you know about it you can never really be sure what you would have done if you had not known about it. I think I would have protested, and then refused to continue - but I have never been totally and absolutely sure. That faint uncertainty in the background adds to my horror and sadness about the experiment - and probably makes the song more emotionally resonant and powerful. Milgram’s study of obedience to authority brought many insights that have been used for good - and for evil - in the years since. For me, the song centers on the line “we don’t have to blame white-coated men anymore.” It comes after the realization of what has really happened here. Standing there, having failed the life quiz, dressed up in heels and a dress, to realize… But there is a bit of cognitive dissonance here. Yes, she admits it - “I get it now, I’m the face of war” but that doesn’t let off the “white-coated men” at all. Not at all. Mengele did experiments. The U.S. government has done some fairly awful experiments too. And there is a lot of debate in scientific circles about utilizing the results of experiments when human suffering has been involved. Even when the results are valid, it makes one complicit in what was done to achieve those results. There is a vague undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in the song, which I understand because it strikes back at judgment. “You think you’re so much better than me? You think you’re so ethical. You’re not any better than me. You’d do the same, you people waiting at the lab.” There is a challenge here. “If I’m the fascist,” she seems to be saying, “then as I ask myself, ask yourself too: In what ways are you doing the same? Tell me about your stock portfolio, tell me about who makes your clothes, children or men! Have you stopped to consider all the many compromises we make in our lives every day, the ones that support human suffering under authoritarian power? I’m guilty, but you won’t even think about how you are part of the same system, how you shunt off the responsibility of it.” An aspect of the Milgram experiment that has always bothered me is how Milgram staged it. Obviously, he couldn’t have Gestapo-uniformed people as the authority figures. I always thought it was an interesting choice to select scientists, people who looked like doctors, maybe. That’s a comment on the scientific community, and on the medical profession - isn’t it? - that they can be switched out for Nazis so easily. And a further thing. I’ve never been completely satisfied with the explanations given about why a majority of the people continued to administer the shocks. There may be a very small minority who are sadists. Then there are the people who would start to feel uncomfortable. At what point would each person need to be urged to continue? And WHY would they continue? Really why? In his 1974 article, “The Perils of Obedience,” Milgram said: The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation. Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority. The participants were not urged with persuasion. Only these statements were used, and in this order: Please continue. The experiment requires that you continue. It is absolutely essential that you continue. You have no other choice, you must go on. The experiment was halted if the participant expressed a desire to stop after all 4 statements. Otherwise, it was continued to the maximum of three 450-volt shocks. Other scientists have confirmed the consistency of the results: 61–66 percent, regardless of time or place, will continue. How is this to be explained? Really? What we have are theories, and despite the evidence I see - even from the pseudo-religious right and the flag-wavers and all of those groups who hand over their critical faculties to an outside authority, I’m not entirely convinced by either the conformity theory or the agentic state theory. The theory of conformism comes from the work of Soloman Asch. It says that someone who has neither the ability nor the expertise to make decisions will let their in-group’s hierarchical authorities make the decisions. I call this the theory of the follower. It is everywhere around us, but it runs counter to what I see as America’s attempt to create a society of free individuals. The agentic state theory is where Milgram went, and it says that under uncritical obedience an individual starts to view him/herself as the instrument for carrying out someone else’s wishes (an authority - a person, a group, an ideology, a god) and therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. It does make sense to me that once such a fundamental viewpoint change has happened, everything essentially bad about simple obedience to authority follows. Both of these are descriptive. They don’t provide much on how to counteract some of the negative aspects of complicance with perceived authority. We desperately need some insights on how to break these tendencies. They tried to do it in the late sixties - there were some who really tried. It was a failure, ultimately. I’ve sometimes wondered if the participants might have been frightened for themselves. In a context where someone was being hurt, the leverage of intimidation might have been under-analyzed. “Better him than me,” right? There is a subtle threatening aspect to certain forms of authority. Could a quick cost-benefit speculation figure into this at all? Did they feel that they could be punished in some way if they did not obey, if they were not compliant? Or are the majority of people really that easily manipulated? This song can’t help but remind me of the mechanisms of social control at work in America today. We often assume that there is some kind of ubiquitous “They” who determine what the “right thing to do” might be. “They” are rarely identified… We’ve already allowed so much, but our fanaticism in various realms of ideology have been, and will continue to be, so very destructive. In college, I thought the theories that talked about “control of the masses” were quaint. That only seemed to apply to crazy places like the USSR. (I was young….) Preachers of the past might have said that we are losing our souls, but some of the powerful reconstructionists and literalistic bible-thumpers and last-days people and others among the pseudoreligious right are among the most hurtful and powerful authoritarians that we have. They’re no help at all. And we worship Money - the circulation of capital leaving a a slash and burn zone whose results we are just beginning to harvest. And we have dehumanized other citizens of Earth as though they were some demonic Other to ourselves. Education was my hope. Let’s just say that I’m not as optimistic about that anymore. We have already nodded to torture and illegal surveillance and oppression and grandiose imperial ambitions and seizure of natural resources and so on and so on and so on. Our crimes are immense. We’re just trying to get through the day. Other people are in control, and it’s up to them. Many of us don’t even bother to find out about the issues. We haven’t thought about the results very much until it hit our pocketbooks. I wonder if anyone will ever describe us as the “good Americans.” What Milgram proved is that the Germans weren’t any worse than us. We press the buzzer. (Addendum after the first posting: Dar Williams did talk about “Buzzer” in the NPR interview. She described the experiment, and said that she has thought about it often over the years since she first found out about it in college. Later, she accidentally rear-ended a woman in from the same town in a traffic accident, and that reminded her about the Milgram experiment. She describes the woman in the song as feeling that she is being responsible by doing what “she is supposed to do” - but then, having discovered this ugly fact about herself, she was transformed by it.) Click here to play Less

Joanne interviews Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist about activism, politics and accountability in government. Less

Disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the then-current Philippine-American War, Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) wrote The War Prayer in 1904. It was considered too sacrilegious and provocative for the times. Twain agreed to bury it, but wanted it published after his death (”I have told the truth in that… and only dead men can tell the truth in this world”). He died in 1910, and it was published in Harper’s Monthly, November 1916. I have always found this to be a very powerful piece of writing, and this animation adds a new resonance to how I have imagined it in my mind’s eye before. Take a few moments. Read. And watch - if you like. The War Prayer by Mark Twain It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. Click to view video Sunday morning came — next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams — visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation. *God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!* Then came the “long” prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory – An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!” The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside — which the startled minister did — and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said: “I come from the Throne — bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import — that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of — except he pause and think. “God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two — one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Click to view video Ponder this — keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it. “You have heard your servant’s prayer — the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it — that part which the pastor — and also you in your hearts — fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory–must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen! “O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. (After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!” It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said. And then, try reading To the Person Sitting in Darkness . Satire - the fusing of truth, anger, and irony - is an important genre for us to relearn. We have become too literal, and too superficial. We need more writers like Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde. Some people don’t even get Colbert and Jon Stewart. Wikipedia has a list, but I think they must define satire too broadly. Top comedians are less satirists than court jesters. Not to say that jesters cannot be satirical, but it’s just one tool in their bag of tricks. For me, true satire is a little like a koan. You have to play with perspective, and performatively evoke an ethical sense in the other. You know it’s satire when literalists cannot grasp the dynamic: That’s when they will object! … or join up! Related Posts: Tue August 19, 2008 -- Reorienting on Truth (3) Tue May 20, 2008 -- Visiting with Vance (0) Sat March 22, 2008 -- VirusHead Blog Against Theocracy (8) Sun September 16, 2007 -- Fun with Watchtower Covers (3) Thu August 30, 2007 -- From a Current Jehovah’s Witness (3) Sun August 19, 2007 -- Adobe Semaphore Pynchon (0) Sun May 13, 2007 -- Laughing at Attempted Theocracy (0) Click here to play Less

There’s been a lot of discussion about the causes of our current financial crisis. I, for one, do not ever care to hear the Wall Street/Main Street framing again. Really, is that the best we can do? Have we no sense of language? The “credit contraction” or “credit crunch” involved, among other things, financial institutions that were “shot through with short-termism, deceptive practices and self-dealing.” I can’t help but think that unrestrained (dare I say “unregulated”?) greed is at the root of quite a lot of what has happened. In this regard, one thing I haven’t really heard much about lately are the predatory mortgage lending practices that have flourished under this administration. Predatory lending practices are abusive, stripping borrowers of home equity and threatening families with bankruptcy and foreclosure. Abusive loan practices include: Intentionally steering you to a higher cost loan when you qualify for a lower one Putting you into a loan you cannot afford based on your income or assets Charging high interest rates and fees Breaking verbal promises & terms or “bait and switch” at closing (we saw this one ourselves in the difference between the “good faith estimate” and the reality of the mortgage payment amount) Getting inflated appraisals to loan you more than your home is worth Loans with balloon payments Coaching you to lie or be dishonest on your loan application Putting you into a “stated income” or “no document loan” Loan “flipping” or constant refinancing “Hard Money” lending Loans with payments that start low and go high (my student loan does this) Including prepayment penalties Failing to properly and timely credit loan payments Charging escrow fees when not provided by the note or deed of trust Issuing loan payoff statements full of inflated and improper fees Let me tell you about the practices that have led to the ballooning of my student loan debt… but no, if I think about it I get heart palpitations and I’m already not feeling well today. Something that seems to have made everything worse was the overturning of some regulatory safeguards. For some, the spotlight for this is on Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain campaign adviser and a lobbyist for a Swiss bank: Eight years ago, as part of a decades-long anti-regulatory crusade, Gramm pulled a sly legislative maneuver that greased the way to the multibillion-dollar subprime meltdown. Yet has Gramm been banished from the corridors of power? Reviled as the villain who bankrupted Middle America? Hardly. Now a well-paid executive at a Swiss bank, Gramm cochairs Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign and advises the Republican candidate on economic matters. He’s been mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary should McCain win. That’s right: A guy who helped screw up the global financial system could end up in charge of US economic policy. Talk about a market failure. I’m interested in the fact that there is very discussion about the effects of abstract speculation (gambling), or in the practices of usury (it used to be considered a sin) that surround every consumer every day. Institutions that put too much of their working capital on the line with speculation and excessive risks went down - and shouldn’t they? But we’re so interconnected anymore that the markets have become like clusters of artificial intelligence with everything affecting everything else, so what can be done? Paul Krugman usually has something interesting to say: Paulson grabbed hold of the wrong end of the stick — he should have been seeking to expand bank capital, taking an ownership share in compensation, rather than trying to push up the value of toxic paper. I just don’t know. A couple of days ago, my bank Wachovia was aquired by… Citi. Since I swore several years ago never to deal with them again, I turned to Washington Mutual (WaMu). Oops! Too late. Meanwhile, there was the whole inflation of house prices… and then its decline. Some are blaming immigrants. Economic crisis brings out the scapegoating impulse. Some are blaming anti-racist policies. Some are blaming poor people. Lots of blame to go around, for sure. Blame war, blame the national deficit and the resulting increase in the mind-boggling national debt, blame corporations who send their money to Dubai after landing lucrative if wasteful and corrupt contracts (not naming names or anything), blame inflation, the average household debt, rising energy and food and healthcare costs, more productivity for less wages, the class warfare from the super-rich to the middle class… There were a lot of people here in Atlanta that were pushed out of their homes because the neighborhood values went up, and so did their taxes. In some neighborhoods here, you could send a kid to a rather nice college for the yearly tax bill. I would like to see some figures on how that escalated in newly-gentrified neighborhoods. There was also the optimism about jobs that led to unrealistic assessments of homeowner affordability (what happened to the 30% of your income rule?). Add to this the emergence of the professional home-flippers. I think that took a toll among the middle class. (T)he tanking real estate market “shifted from subprime loans made to borrowers with poor credit to homeowners who had solid credit but took out exotic loans with ballooning monthly payments.” Bloomberg reported that 3 million American homeowners are holding prime (or, actually, semi-prime) “alt-A” loans (don’t ask) worth about $1 trillion, or $150 billion more than the entire outstanding subprime market. As those loans — many of which were taken on investment properties by people expecting a nice, quick turnover — started to go belly-up, a panic ensued. …That posed a risk to the mammoth and wholly unregulated market in insurance on bad loans that had grown up around these new kinds of investments. The market in what are known as “credit default swaps” is of unknown size, but it’s estimated to be worth as much as $60 trillion, most of it essentially paper backed by too little in the way of hard assets. I’m not an economist, and I must admit that I don’t understand all the complicated workings of the financial sector. I do, however, have a very deep suspicion toward this administration, and some of the family background alone on these topics is a little chilling before you even look at the real power-players like the visible Cheney (and the less-visible ones, too). Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. In light of all I know and suspect about imperial neocons and fascists in our government, I do feel pretty secure with the strategy of tracking and analyzing the flow of capital and power if you want to understand what’s happening. And, in this regard, I’m rather fond of Noam Chomsky. This is what he had to say at a recent summit on the problems of Latin America and the Caribbean: We might also take note of the striking similarity between the structural adjustment programs imposed on the weak by the International Monetary Fund, and the huge financial bailout that is on the front pages today in the North. The US executive-director of the IMF, adopting an image from the Mafia, described the institution as “the credit community’s enforcer.” Under the rules of the Western-run international economy, investors make loans to third world tyrannies, and since the loans carry considerable risk, make enormous profits. Suppose the borrower defaults. In a capitalist economy, the lenders would incur the loss. But really existing capitalism functions quite differently. If the borrowers cannot pay the debts, then the IMF steps in to guarantee that lenders and investors are protected. The debt is transferred to the poor population of the debtor country, who never borrowed the money in the first place and gained little if anything from it. That is called “structural adjustment.” And taxpayers in the rich country, who also gained nothing from the loans, sustain the IMF through their taxes. These doctrines do not derive from economic theory; they merely reflect the distribution of decision-making power. The designers of the international economy sternly demand that the poor accept market discipline, but they ensure that they themselves are protected from its ravages, a useful arrangement that goes back to the origins of modern industrial capitalism, and played a large role in dividing the world into rich and poor societies, the first and third worlds. This wonderful anti-market system designed by self-proclaimed market enthusiasts is now being implemented in the United States, to deal with the very ominous crisis of financial markets. In general, markets have well-known inefficiencies. One is that transactions do not take into account the effect on others who are not party to the transaction. These so-called “externalities” can be huge. That is particularly so in the case of financial institutions. Their task is to take risks, and if well-managed, to ensure that potential losses to themselves will be covered. To themselves. Under capitalist rules, it is not their business to consider the cost to others if their practices lead to financial crisis, as they regularly do. In economists’ terms, risk is underpriced, because systemic risk is not priced into decisions. That leads to repeated crisis, naturally. At that point, we turn to the IMF solution. The costs are transferred to the public, which had nothing to do with the risky choices but is now compelled to pay the costs - in the US, perhaps mounting to about $1 trillion right now. And of course the public has no voice in determining these outcomes, any more than poor peasants have a voice in being subjected to cruel structural adjustment programs. A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that cost and risk are socialized, while profit is privatized. That principle extends far beyond financial institutions. Much the same is true for the entire advanced economy, which relies extensively on the dynamic state sector for innovation, for basic research and development, for procurement when purchasers are unavailable, for direct bail-outs, and in numerous other ways. These mechanisms are the domestic counterpart of imperial and neocolonial hegemony, formalized in World Trade Organization rules and the misleadingly named “free trade agreements.” Hey, you knew I was a liberal, right? I’m thinking about the Federal Reserve. So, here’s a question for you: How much money is the U.S. government printing up right now? Can anyone give me a link to a chart that shows the history of that for the last ten years? I can’t find one -can you? '); //-- Related Posts: Fri September 26, 2008 -- The First Presidential Debate (1) Sun August 31, 2008 -- Calm Down: Woodfire Grill (3) Wed July 25, 2007 -- Halliburton and KBR in the News (7) Wed March 14, 2007 -- Thoughts on where we are in America (7) Wed January 10, 2007 -- Least Immoral Choice in Iraq (1) Tue November 7, 2006 -- Dump this Congress - 109 Reasons Why (3) Wed April 19, 2006 -- Impose Freeze on Oil Prices (5) Click here to play Less