This Is Not Capitalism

The next time someone tells you how capitalism is the best system and our system is capitalism, that capitalism won the great dogma fight, or some right wing wingnut tells you the market will solve everything, think of this:

In capitalism as envisioned by its leading lights, including Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall, you need a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. And when a company fails, it fails. It doesn't get bailed out using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. What we have right now is Corporatism. It's welfare for the rich. It's the government picking winners and losers. It's Wall Street having their taxpayer-funded cake and eating it too. It's socialized gains and privatized losses.

That's from the linked article off AlterNet.  I am going to see Michael Moore's new movie.  I have not been tempted by his earlier ones, but this one might hit it.  I just feel like we are approaching a crisis stage, where ordinary people have to rise up once and for all before the elites take away our ability to do so with the ultimate coercive technologies they are developing.

It just boggles my mind that so many people who call themselves Christians can so passionately fight for a system that is so antithetical to the core message of Christ, and reject so thoroughly ideas that descend directly from his central teachings.  It shows the power of indoctrination.  I mean, why is everyone ok with 1% of the population controlling 95% of the wealth?  Why are we ok with that 1% raking in over half the national income?  It's obscene.  You know, many of the rich lost half or more of their fortunes in the recent Crash -- and they still have millions or billions.  You lose half your wealth (the value of your home), you're fucked.  Well and truly fucked.  What did you have to do with the Crash?  Very little.  How much did you gain from the boom of the last fifteen years?  Before the Crash, were you much wealthier than you were before the boom?  I don't know.

All I know is Wall Street and the huge corporations get a trillion dollar bailout and you and I get a dictat to purchase health insurance -- as if we wouldn't if we could afford it!

I will never again -- EVER -- trust or vote for a politician from one of the two parties.  EVER.  Both parties and every candidate from them who can get on the ballot are controlled by the corporate elite.  I was a fool to believe Obama would be any different.  But his personal ambition came to dominate his beliefs.  He's just another neocon at heart.

Conservative Radicals

From Alternet:

BILL MOYERS: There's long been a fundamental contradiction at the heart of this coalition that we call "conservative." I mean, you had the Edmund Burke kind of conservatism that yearns for a sacred, ordered society, bound by tradition, that protects both rich and poor, against what one of my friends calls the "Libertarian, robber baron, capitalist, cowboy America." I mean, that marriage was doomed to fail, right?




SAM TANENHAUS: It was. First of all, this is absolutely right, in the terms of a classical conservatism. And here is the figure I emphasize in my book is Benjamin Disraeli. What he feared-- the revolution of his time, this is the French Revolution that concerned Edmund Burke-- half a century later what concerned Disraeli and other conservatives was the Industrial Revolution. That Dickens wrote his novels about-- that children, the very poor becoming virtual slaves in work houses, that the search for money, for capital, for capital accumulation, seemed to drown out all other values. That's what modern conservatism is partly anchored in. So, how do we get this contradiction?



BILL MOYERS: Why isn't it standing up against turbo-capitalism?



SAM TANENHAUS: Well, one reason is that America very early on in its history reached a kind of pact, in the Jacksonian era, between the government on the one hand and private capital on the other. That the government would actually subsidize capitalism in America. That's what the Right doesn't often acknowledge. A lot of what we think of as the unleashed, unfettered market is, in fact, a government supported market. Some will remember the famous debate between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman, and Dick Cheney said that his company, Halliburton, had made millions of dollars without any help from the government. It all came from the government! They were defense contracts! So, what's happened is the American ethos, which is a different thing from our political order-- that's the rugged individualism, the cowboy, the frontiersman, the robber baron, the great explorer, the conqueror of the continent. For that aspect of our myth, the market has been the engine of it. So, what brought them together, is what we've seen in the right is what I call a politics of organized cultural enmity.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium and Go-Go Lounge

The new $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium actually features raised platforms for dancers.  They are elevated above the crowd like "cage dancers" at a go-go lounge.  Check out the link.

A Star Is Born?

OK, everybody needs to know that I am a lifelong Giants fan.  It's not so much an entertainment choice as it is a terminal disease.  A genetic disease, like the kind you see telethons for.  You get it from your parent and you cannot shake it.  It controls your life, limits your choices, and without a proper mental attitude, it will stunt and distort your life into torturous shapes.

Last night, the Giants played the Cowboys in the first game in the new Dallas stadium.  Amazingly, the Giants won.  I had the Cowboys winning by two TDs because I did not think the Giants would be able to handle the Dallas passing game, and thought the Giants would not be able to score touchdowns.  Well, the Giants won because Dallas QB Tony Homo really sucked and Eli Manning played very well.  And because a Giants WR stepped up.

Meet Mario Manningham, new Giants WR star!  Manningham is a great story for the Giants.  He was a great receiver for the University of Michigan for three years.  He was a human highlights reel, making big play after big play.  He scored a ton of touchdowns, made scads of big catches, and showed great RAC (that would be Run After Catch for you non-football fans) ability.  He was one of the most productive and explosive WRs in U of M history.  They've had a lot of them.

However, Mario also had a taste for the ganja at U of M and did not exactly make the best decisions in his life.  He tested positive for pot just before the NFL draft, and scored a 6 on the Wonderlic test, which is some kinda IQ test given to NFL prospects.  So, he looks pretty much like a dumbass.  Because of the pot thing, he fell to the third round of the draft, where the Giants picked him up.  Based on talent and college productivity, it was a great pick for the Gmen.  A steal!  Given the pot history and Wonderlic score, it had to be considered a gamble.  Would he be smart enough to learn the playbook and be able to make the on-the-fly route adjustments required to be a successful WR in the Giants' system?  Would he have the work ethic and wisdom to be a successful pro?  Or was this kid a knucklehead?

As a rookie last year, the kid did nothing.  Not to worry.  Rookies rarely contribute as WRs for the Giants or in the NFL.  There is a lot to learn.  NFL defenses are so much more talented and complex than college that it can be overwhelming for a rookie WR.  But this summer, he started to make noise.  It became clear: Mario would be in the regular rotation. 

Nobody knew what the Giants really had at WR coming into this season.  The best WR in team history (Plaxico Burress) and the most productive WR in team history (Amani Toomer) were gone.  The guys coming back had either proven nothing or been role players.  Certainly, Steve Smith was a good third WR for them and a big part of their success his first two seasons.  But could he do the same as a starter?  Giants fans knew there was a lot of potential, but we all know how often potential fails to become production.  We all loved Smith.  Domenik Hixon had shown a lot.  Manningham had the great college career behind him.  And the two rookie draft picks (Hakeem Nicks and Ramses Barden) looked extremely promising.  In the preseason, Smith, Nicks and Manningham all showed flashes.

Manningham had a good game against the Redskins.  Three catches for 58 yards and a touchdown.  The TD was vintage Manningham.  He caught a slip screen, made a tackler miss, and ran in for the score.  It was a good start for him and the Giants WR corps.  Smith was good, and Nicks was good, although Nicks got hurt and will miss a couple games.

But last night, Mario and the Giants stepped onto the big stage.  National television.  The first game in the Dallas Cowboys' new billion dollar stadium.  Millions watching on TV and 105,000 in the stands.  Giants-Cowboys.  Everything.  And Mario became Super Mario!  He was brilliant, glittering, dazzling.  He caught 10 passes, including another slip screen, a deep bomb, cuts across the middle, a TD showing great concentration after letting the ball bounce off his hands.  "Manning to Manningham!  Touchdown!"  It is destined to be a cliche. 

Manningham wasn't the only WR to have a monster game for the Giants.  Smith also caught 10 balls.  He also had a big TD catch, as well as his trademark third down magic.  The third year man from USC and the second year man from Michigan put on their own personal Rose Bowl.

Manningham and Smith show a drafting philosophy in action.  Nicks and Ramses Barden continue that philosophy: players who were super productive in college.  Smith, Manningham and Nicks were all super productive at big time programs.  All three sparkled in bowl games.  All three excel at catching the ball.  They are not track stars; they are Receivers.  Barden was also super productive, but at a small school.  He is an example of a variation of the philosophy: players who dominated at a lower level of competition.  Kevin Boss is another example of that variation.  Boss and Barden both dominated on the small school level, and both have exceptional size.  So far the philosophy appears to be working.  There have been no more Sinorice Moss boondoggles.

I'm concerned about things from the game.  The inability to score in the red zone in two straight games now is worrying.  The Cowboys shredding the defense for 250 yards on the ground is scary.  The injuries bode poorly.  But the play of the WR corps has been very encouraging.  I cannot wait to see Nicks get back.  I think he is going to be a star, as is Manningham.  We all knew the young guys had a lot of talent, and that they had produced at a high level in college.  Now they are showing that they can do it in the NFL.  The Giants could have an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver.  The season should be a fun ride.

Manning to Manningham!  Touchdown!

Oh, and on the subject of going deep to score.....

Health and Caring

Health care is a huge issue today.  I'm just about done with addressing the political issue, because the die has been cast and what I predicted back in June is about to happen.  No, my interest in health issues is personal.  Health and women.  Kylie has been sick for two weeks now.  She's been to student health twice and the ER once.  She finally was prescribed anti-biotics at the ER.  She has bronchitis and ear infections.  She does not seem to be getting better.  I am out of ideas as to what to do.  I don't understand why she's not getting any better.  It is screwing our life.  She hasn't had any exercise for two weeks.  We have to freaking drive everywhere.  She is missing classes, lacking energy for school work, and just had to give up her shifts at work this weekend.  There's a loss of $100 we cannot afford.  It's also a black cloud pressing down on her mood -- understandably.  It's just one more thing to deal with.

Finances.  The car payment is coming due in 10 days and we still haven't paid last month's.  The electric bill just arrived and we still haven't paid last month's.  We paid the August bill a week or so ago, just before the cutoff notice expired.  And the state is paying me for my legal work in droplets of money too small to matter.  I need thousands, and they are sending me a couple hundred here and there.  We are in danger of losing everything.  It has been this way since late July.  We ran out of money around July 15 and have been slowly going under ever since.  I thought it would be better now.  "It will be better in September," I said.  Well, $900 of my August work got continued to October and could not be billed.  So that's money not coming this month.  And all my August billings were in the second half of the month.  The state is not paying me two weeks out like they were earlier in the year.  No, it's at least a month out.  That means pretty much nothing has come in over the last two weeks.

At least Kylie got financial aid.  School is paid for.

At least I know that I have work for 2010.  I already have 10 duty days for Richmond and 7 or 8 for Chesterfield.  I will get four or so for New Kent/Charles City when they do theirs.  I have an income for 2010.  Just not enough.  And the frigging economy is even hurting referees.  Fewer teams are signing up for soccer tournaments, which means fewer games to ref.  Because there are no jobs for teenagers, high school and college students are signing up in droves to be referees.  And because nobody has money, fewer referees are quitting.  So there are more of us competing for fewer games.

Just my luck.  I graduate law school during the worst employment market for law school graduates in 40 years.  It rebounds a few years later, but too late for me.  I enter teaching school to switch careers just as the wave of people switching into teaching happens because we all have been hearing about the teacher shortage for years.  Teacher glut -- especially high school social studies, which is all I can get certified for.  So everywhere I apply for work, the principal has a thick file of applications, many from experienced teachers.  Now that I am a referee, the economy goes bust and the normal acute referee shortage turns into a referee glut.

All of this is placing great strain on us, and on our relationship.  We are both weighed down by the financial issues.  She feels like crap.  I am worried about her.  She is scared of failing in school.  I am weary from constantly having to be supportive.  And then there's my daughter.

My ex-wife is apparently dying.  Not officially "dying" as in told she has a terminal illness and has only so much time to live, but physically falling apart and on lots of medication.  Let's just say she's blowing up the actuarial tables for her health insurance group.  She had a brain tumor on her pituitary gland for two or three years.  It spread into her nasal cavity.  It was making her blind.  She was almost completely blind, and was driving my daughter around, and never told me until the surgery was imminent.  The surgery removed the golf ball pressing down on the gland, but they have to use chemo or radiation on the nasal strands.  Apparently, while her eyesight is back, her health is failing all over the place.  She's very sick and very scared, and the brain tumor will probably come back.  From my research, most do, especially when they were big or aggressive.

Next year my daughter goes to middle school.  My son goes into the Army in December, although I have my suspicions that he is going to back out of that.  If he goes to the Army, who will take care of his mother?  Who will take care of his sister under her auspices so that her father can't get her?  I suspect that a combination of the need to take care of his mother combined with his native fears and laziness will cause him to drop out of TCC and sabotage the Army enlistment.  And his mother will let him.  Kylie and I think my daughter should live with us next year.  And that prospect scares Kylie shitless.  I understand.  A step-mother at 21, being the acting mommy for an adolescent while her mother withers away.  Scares me.

So yeah, life is a chore right now.  Those are only some of the stressors we are under.  Probably the biggest, but I'm sure there are a couple big ones not coming to mind at the moment.  That's all right -- I don't need to think about all of them at the same time.

I have a book idea I think has merit.  I am going to try to follow through on this one.  It contains an old idea.  It will be an epic (do I write anything else?).  It will be set 25 years in the future.  It will have three strands: in one strand a huge female celebrity (her celebrity is huge, not she) and a regular guy fall in love.  This strand will explore social-cultural issues such as narcissism, gender issues, personal success and failure, loneliness and attachment, depression and happiness.  In the second strand, a group of friends form a political movement that turns into a popular revolution.  It is an electoral revolution with mass movement, violence and chaos occurs, and these four friends wind up running the executive branch and putting their program into action.  In the third strand, a young mystic ignites a new religious movement through his earnest re-examinations.  All of this is narrated by a 110-year-old man who brings a historical perspective to the story.  The narrator will tie together parts of the story told through different "media."  I want to combine a sweet romance with an exploration of cultural, social and political issues, inside of a philosophical quest.  And I want it done in three years.

Refereeing today, then driving my daughter home.  Nice four hour drive for me.  Kylie would probably come, but I want her to stay home and rest.

Check out the slideshow.  It's all our work.

I'm Back

My flirtation with that hussy over at WordPress is over.  The limitations of WP are worse than the limitations of this place.  Google has created a new editor, and maybe it works better than the old one.  If so, it handles my biggest problem with Blogger.  I have been able to tweak my appearance quite a bit today, and I like that.  I like the way it looks.  Hopefully, I can now be stable here.

For the posts I made on WordPress, follow this link:

Wandering Muse on WordPress

Some of them are worth reading.  At least I think they are.

July 5 Musings

Note: This blog is likely to be moved. I am unimpressed with the Blogger editor after having used it a few times. I'm not sure. I am considering just using a regular web host and designing my own site. This is definitely a long-term project as it is my vehicle for changing careers gradually.

The turmoil in Iran continues, and it continues to be fascinating to a student of transformative political change (that's just a fancy euphemism for "revolution"). The Iranian regime appears to be going out of its way to prove its illegitimacy and undermine the confidence of the educated segments of its population (one who reads me for a while will come to know that I have a real contempt for uneducated polities). The regime is now full-on calling the election protest movement a foreign campaign. Mousavi is being accused of being a foreign agent or "fifth columnist." He is being accused directly of treason.

Republicans and neocons here in the US will say that the regime's attempts to blame the West show how Obama's policy was wrong, but I contend that the reverse is true. By staying out of it as long as he did, President Obama made the Iranian regime look even more ridiculous. Everybody with a brain who paid any attention can plainly see that the US did not "interfere." This is the part where we hold up our hands and look around, saying, "See? See? I didn't say anything and they still accuse me. Now who will you believe?" Once again, Obama has placed the US on the rhetorical/ideological high ground and forced adversaries to show themselves. The end result of the election turmoil and US response is going to be greater international support for the inevitable conflict with Iran, and a decrease in Iranian unity.

The Iranian elite is fragmented. News reports give indications of elements of the clergy and governing elite that oppose the virtual coup that has taken place. What the ruling elements have done is stripped off the mask. They have shown themselves for the tyrannical thugs that they are. Many ordinary Iranians have seen for the first time what their government is truly like (and not as different from our own as most Americans would like to believe). The "peace" that now appears to be the norm in Tehran is a result of brute force, not consent. Everybody knows it. Khamenei is revealed for what he is: a religious Stalin.

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I will soon begin to write a lot more about Russia. In the long term, I aim to craft myself as a Russia expert and write on US-Russian relations. I do have a background there, although not in any resume way. In college, I crafted an unofficial minor in Russian studies. I took courses in Russian literature, Soviet society, Russian history, and Soviet government and politics. I predicted the fall of the Soviet Union when Gorbachev rose to power, based on the principle that nothing is more perilous for a bad government than attempting to reform itself.

Obama leaves for Russia today. It should be an interesting trip. The Russians appear to be of two minds with regard to the US. In one hemisphere, they want to cooperate with us and be friendly. In the other, they want to return to the great power rivalry. In future entries, or in a more scholarly paper, I will argue that what appears to us as either posturing or Russian paranoia in their responses to the missile shield and NATO expansion is in reality quite understandable from the Russian point of view, and that American policy toward Russia can achieve true breakthroughs when it fully comprehends the Russian point of view. For today, however, let me just say that while I hope Obama stands firm on the missile shield (I am a staunch believer in aggressively pursuing any kind of defensive option), flexibility on NATO expansion would be beneficial.

My intended study of Russia and metamorphosis as a Russia Expert will be assisted by my new bride's studies. In August, she will begin her undergraduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University here in Richmond. VCU is a great school, by the way. My wife will be taking elementary Russian in the fall. She intends to graduate VCU with an international studies degree and fluent in Russian and Arabic. Her ability to read Russian-language writings and converse with Russians (and eavesdrop when they think nobody understands their language) will be priceless for me. I am hoping that my new career will be complementary to hers and allow us to leverage each other's efforts. We'll see how it works out for us.

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Yesterday should have seen an entry. I apologize. How can I let July 4 go by without some comment on Jefferson? It is his day more than anyone else's. I've seen a couple books about him recently that I want to read. Another visit to Barnes & Noble is in order. :) I love going to Barnes & Noble despite it being a huge corporation. I also love it because my bride (hereinafter, "Loveofmylife") may soon have a job there. Anyway, more on Jefferson when I get those book titles.

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US Soccer had a good day yesterday. Following up on the Confederations Cup triumph, a very young US team squashed Grenada in the Gold Cup opener. The result is not noteworthy for the result so much as it is for the roster that achieved it. This is a young, internationally inexperienced roster of backups and future prospects. It is the type of roster that has frequently struggled to put away inferior opponents. Will the US win the Cup? We'll see. Advancement from the group should be a given. Mexico looms in the other group, but the Little Bitches (my name for the Mexican national team, which I will explain in a future blog) sent a team similar to ours, young and second string. The first teams won't face each other until August 12 in Azteca. That's when we will see if the US team can gulp in enough actual air to extend its dominance over the Little Bitches.

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Loveofmylife has gone gaga over Lady Gaga of late, and I must admit I can see why. Random remark.

Wandering off now.....