Mark's Observatory

My Latest Videos

2009-08-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here are my latest videos. The quality is better and because of so many complaints, I’ve turned down the music. My other channel now has over 6,000 views. This first video is on Front Groups. I’ve been wanting to do something on this subject for a long time so here is my chance.

I didn’t want to do a video on Edward Bernays but I wanted to at least introduce him. After a couple of pages, I realized that I would just have to do a video about him.

Democratic Education - Not much else to say.

My YouTube Videos

2009-07-20T02:01:00.000-07:00

What follows are a group of YouTube videos that I made in the last couple of months. I have to say, that so far, this has been the most fulfilling thing I’ve done in awhile. I loved taking picture but they said nothing about how I think or feel. In many way, they were just eye candy. Writing my script and book were also rewarding but again, my message was so obscured in the art. With these videos, I can cut out the middleman and just say exactly what I want.

The first video was actually the last one that I made and probably the best. I decided to promote this first because they explain what I believe rather than what I am against. I’m promoting Left-Libertarianism. By Left, I don’t mean the Democratic Party. I’m referring to the Left that emerged during the Industrial Revolution. And by Libertarian, I don’t mean the rightwing libertarian party in the US. Instead, I’m referring to the beliefs that came out of the Enlightenment Era and extended to the founding of America. I also want to point out that I believe Left-Libertarianism to be the next step in political evolution.

Last, I have to say how difficult these videos are to prepare. None of them are perfect. I want to produce as many videos as possible so I don't have the time to make them flawless. It take about six hours to complete three minutes. Ouch! The writing only takes an hour but the editing takes forever. Also, in many of the videos I used captions that are too fast to read. I did this on purpose. There is way too much information to be contained in just one video. I already had to edit a ton of information. Also, I want people to return and watch the video again to really understand what is being presented.

The next two videos I made first. The information is good, but the video and sound quality are terrible. Trust me, they get better.

When I set out to write these next three videos, I thought it would be one 10 minute video. I figured, one page for one minute. I was wrong. After writing 10 pages, it turned out to be 6 videos. Unfortunately, I wrote the 10 pages in a couple of hours and then recorded them. As I was editing the film, I started to realize how poorly written they were. The information is great, but I could have made a better presentation. Anyway, Inequality, Free Market Myths, and Tax Myths can be seen as one whole.

The first three are about the rising wealth inequality in the US. This is a subject I’ve been reading about for awhile and it’s difficult to understand because both parties, the Democrats and Republicans, have been the responsible. Both of their policies have lead down this path.

My second video in this series deals with the Republicans and how the tax system has created wealth inequality. In the next video, I attack the Democratic party.

This video is terrible. I should have gone back and used better clips to pull my message together. Nobody seems to understand the baseball bat scene. I was trying to compare Clinton to a mafia boss.

Tax Myths. This one pretty much say it all…

The fact that we don’t have Free Markets should be pretty obvious to anyone who takes a moment to study the subject. But both parties seem to promote it constantly while undermining markets. I should have emphasized the SOURCE of the free market ideology since both parties constantly rave about the subject so often.

In the following video, I present another type of economic system. I should have given a disclaimer that I do not necessarily promote this system although I do think it’s worth looking at.

So that it. I don’t expect anyone to sit down and watch all these in one sitting. If you have, you might want to check to see if your ears are bleeding. There is a lot of information to consume here so take your time.

The YouTube channel that I am using here is just for friends and family. I have another channel where I am promoting these videos. I wanted to keep them separated since I’ll be putting up home videos (someday) on this channel.

The Economy

2009-07-07T02:45:00.000-07:00

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system"
George W. Bush

I think there has been a lot of misunderstanding about the latest financial crisis. The media tend to emphasize deficits and the stock market. They also seem to confuse the real economy (jobs, employment rate, CPI, GDP, PMI, etc.) and the financial economy (stock prices, bond yields, interest rates, credit spreads, etc.) Lately, the media have been cheerleaders because of the rising stock market (financial economy) while the real economy has been taking a major dump. Unemployment is now at 9.5 percent but the picture gets even worse. If we include discouraged workers and partially-employed workers, the unemployment rate is already above 16 percent. Firms are also inducing workers to reduce hours and hourly wages. Plus, job losses should continue for the next year and a half and peak somewhere near 11 percent.

At the center of this whole crisis is the $8 trillion housing bubble. Again, the media have been focused on stock market. Since 1996, the housing prices started to rise and ever since then we’ve been listening to people scream about the deficit. We listened to the deficit hawks whine about a problem that really wasn’t that big (at least by comparative standards) and they let the bubble continue.

Well, the deficit hawks are back. They say you and your children and their children and on and on will have to pay back $12 trillion. Are you terrified yet? You shouldn’t be. Don’t change your underwear just yet. Let me break this all down.

It should first be noted that almost 100 percent of this money is in the form of loans. It’s not like the government is just giving this money away. So, no, your children won’t being paying this back. The people who got the money will be paying it back and paying interest on it. This potentially means that the government will make money.

About $1 trillion of that money is in the form of TARP. This program was the creation of the Bush Administration and is still being injected into the failing banks. Why were the banks failing? Because they were gambling with Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and loaning out massive amounts of leveraged cash in the form of Credit Default Swaps. After the government let Lehman Brothers fall, just about every bank in the country stopped lending out money. It turns out that all these banks are highly connected. Not just here but around the world. That means nobody, not even large institutions could get a loan. What most people don’t understand is that most major corporations receive loans everyday. Some companies might take 10 or 15 loans out everyday because they just don’t have the cash on hand. At the time, even McDonalds couldn’t receive a loan.

I know it’s popular to say, “just let the banks fail,” and I would love to agree. But our whole system as we know it would fall into a dark spiral without the rescue plan. Not only would all money in the US freeze up, there would be a domino effect in the corporate world. Every bank in the US would have to let their employees go. Everyone invested in these companies would take a huge hit. Because all these companies are so tightly knit, both smaller and larger businesses would fall. “Too big to fail,” isn’t some nice little statement. It’s a new reality. One that needs to be dealt with.

Everybody thought it would be okay if just one large bank failed. It turned out they were wrong because after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the entire world banking system, along with the financial economy, headed straight down.

This is why Hank Paulson, somebody who was famous for saying, “The best government is no government,” agreed to the bailout.

The second part of the rescue plan has been Obama’s stimulus package. This will cost $787 billion over the next 10 years. Again, people have many misunderstandings about this. Close to 1/3 of this bill goes out in the form of tax cuts. That’s already taken place. Instead of giving this money out in one large payment like the Bush Administration did, they are opting to have the money trickled into each paycheck. They did this because it turned out that most people who got their $500 dollar check in the mail saved that money which isn’t a stimulus at all.

So far, more than 60 percent of the stimulus takes the form of lower tax rates and higher benefit levels for programs like unemployment insurance. The lower tax rates and higher benefit levels already went into effect at the start of the spring. This means that people already have higher take-home pay or government benefit checks.

More than a quarter of the remaining stimulus is devoted to state and local government stabilization funds. This spending will limit the cutbacks at the state and local level, but will not lead to additional growth. The remaining funds are projected to be spent out at an $80 billion annual rate over the course of 2010.

Even if we assume that we are starting from zero spending at the moment, this is a boost of just over 0.5 percent of GDP. By contrast, the collapse of housing construction trimmed $450 billion or 3.0 percentage points of GDP from annual demand. The decline in consumption due to the loss of bubble wealth is in the range of $600 billion to $800 billion a year.

In other words, the remaining stimulus is an order of magnitude too small to give much of a boost to the economy. It should be noted that this was completely expected by economist but has somehow confused the media and the pundits.

The last part of the rescue plan is by far the biggest. One trillion was pushed by the Bush Administration, $787 billion by Obama, but the Federal Reserve is spending the remaining 10 trillion. The government has no control over the FED. They can do whatever they want as opposed to what most people think.

So, what are they doing? Because the banks are no longer lending out money, the FED has stepped in and started doing what the banks use to do: lend money to companies. Again, they aren’t giving the money away. They are just loans.

Since there was a $8 trillion dollar hole blown into the economy, the FED has started printing more money. Many people say this will lead to massive hyper-inflation. This is highly doubtful. At the moment, we’re having a problem with deflation. Plus, the US, compared to some other countries are not that far in debt. Other countries, including Japan and Canada have been further in debt and they didn’t see the inflation that people are talking about today. I should also mention that fact that the FED is sending money to the bank who are just sitting on that money because they don’t want to lend it out. Eventually, the FED will get it back so in reality, the FED isn’t really spending the money.

Many of you know that I was talking about the housing bubble in 2004. It seemed pretty obvious even though just about every economic pundit was saying that everything was okay even while everything was falling apart. What’s really annoying is that the media is talking to the economic pundits who got everything wrong about that economy and they continue to talk to them. At the same time, they completely ignore the people who both predicted the crash and everything that happened afterwards. Instead, they opted to talk to fear mongering deficit hawks. The reason for this might be simple. Everybody can relate to debt. We know it’s bad. End of story. It’s like when they talk about Iraq. The coverage is terrible. It mostly come down to how many soldiers died that day. They don’t talk about the all the different political factions and statistical information because it’s just too hard to grasp.

Last, I should mention all the hype about how Obama is turning the US into a Socialized country. This is all nonsense. Especially since Republicans practically invented corporate bailouts. Historically, Republicans have done the same thing. PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS CHART. The US has taken over many companies including Nixon's takeover of the railroad industry. Almost every bailout in history has turned a profit for the US government. Obama has said he has absolutely no intension of running these institutions and when they are better, he will sell them back to private hands. So unless there is some conspiracy I don’t know about, that is likely to happen.

What does the future look like? Well, it’s hard to say. I’m predicting, that home prices will continue to drop another 10 percent. This is pretty large since it has already dropped about 30 percent. The next year and a half, unemployment will continue to drop but should peak at around 11 or 12 percent. Growth will also be sub par with maybe 1 percent in 2009 and 2010.

If the unemployment rate is going to peak around 11 percent next year, the expected losses for banks on their loans and securities are going to be much higher than the ones estimated in the recent stress tests. You plug an unemployment rate of 11 percent in any model of loan losses and recovery rates and you get very ugly losses for subprime, near-prime, prime, home equity loan lines, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, leverage loans, and commercial loans – much bigger numbers than what the stress tests projected.

It’s bad but the country is by no means going to go bankrupt. You don’t have to worry about your kids being strapped with $12 trillion in debt. By 2011, things should start to pick up. Until then, things will be slow economically. Anyway, go change your underwear and stop worrying.

My World

2009-06-29T03:48:00.001-07:00

Much has happened since my last post. Mona and I went to Missouri for Josh’s wedding. We hooked up with Nick and Tonya and stayed in the same hotel. We got to see the St. Louis Arch and checked out the city. I was surprised to see that you can still buy a five bedroom home in a wonderful neighborhood for $80,000 especially since a one bedroom in our neighborhood goes for around $500,000.

Josh’s wedding was over-the-top. He told me it would be nice but I had no idea. The wedding was at some exclusive country club. It was the kind of place you could imagine some old guys smoking cigars and sipping brandy while talking about their yachts. I didn’t get much time to talk to Josh but that’s okay. With that many friends and family plus the wedding itself, I was excited just to say hello.

After the wedding, we headed to Huston to Mona’s brothers. Texas was humid. It was awesome to finally meet Mona’s brother Mckay. We got along really well. He showed us the jail which was quite an experience. It was also great to see Evan who I haven’t see in awhile. We had some great conversations.

Yesterday, I saw a mountain lion at work. At first I thought it was a coyote until I got a little closer. I was driving so I pulled up next to it. That’s when I realized that my widow was completely down and the lion was only about five feet from me.

Here is a short list of the animals I’ve seen:

Deer
Skunks
Possums

I see these almost every night. The following are animals I see less often.

Scorpions
Raccoons
Bucks
Snakes (King Snake, Rattlesnake)
Foxes

Animals I’ve seen once:

Tarantula
Mountain Lion

Also, yesterday, Mona and I went to see Explosion in the Sky. In my last post I said they would be playing at the Orpheum Theatre. I was wrong. We ended up at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset. The building has an art deco style and felt a little bit like a roller skating rink. The show turned out really well. I hate when I go to a concert and the band only plays stuff from their latest release. Explosion played all their best stuff that night.

Going to work afterwards was a bit difficult. I always drive down Sunset but I hit a snag when I got to Bel-Air. There was some huge memorial/shrine for Michael Jackson. Apparently, MJ lived close to my work.

Other than that, I’ve been working on a series of YouTube video. Hopefully, I have some posted in the next couple of days.

Oh, I almost forgot. The college I work at is one of the new locations for Beverly Hills 90210. The school is going to be West Beverly High and from what I understand, we are the main location. They should be here (I'm writing this at work) in the next two hours.

The Week

2009-05-18T00:58:00.000-07:00

Mona and I went to the doctors on Thursday and found out there’s a 90 percent chance that we’ll being having a girl. Stellar news, I must say. After, we headed up through wine country to San Luis Obispo. We had a nice lunch and just relaxed around town. Our hotel was just a couple of blocks away from the beach and we took advantage of that the next day. There was so much fog you could only see about 50 yards before everything faded to white.

On Saturday, we saw Mogwai again but this time at the Orpheum Theatre. Los Angeles has tons of incredible concert location but this one was by far the best. The Orpheum is located in downtown and was built in 1926. We will be going back in June to see Explosion in the Sky.

At the moment, I’m at work just relaxing. There’s a lot of fog tonight. I can see a deer eating grass about 20 feet away from me. All the girls are out for the summer so I’m free to do whatever I want. It’s strange being here by myself since I’ve made so many friends at the school. But that’s okay since I’m more productive on my own.

Next week, we are going to Missouri for Josh’s wedding and then to Texas to see Mona’s two brothers. Hopefully, I’ll have some pictures and stories to tell. Well, that’s all folks. Just a quick update.

Our Trip

2009-04-18T02:46:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo so we finally went. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip. While we waited for the zoo to open, we discovered Balboa Park. It started sprinkling while we walked around checking out all the old buildings. After the zoo, we went to our beach hotel and just relaxed.

Banktron

2008-10-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. - Robert Frost

Mogwai & Glass

2008-09-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

We're still taking advantage of all the opportunities in this city. Sometimes, I feel bored like nothing ever happens around town. And then a take a moment and think about the last month and all the stuff we've done.

I should go back...

A couple of weeks ago, Brittany, Scott, Mona, and I went to see the music of Philip Glass at the Hollywood Bowl. Incredible. The music was so layered and the atmosphere was pristine. Sitting there, you feel like you're in the middle of the forest but then you look over to see the Hollywood Sign. I've been listening to Glass for years and the watched countless movies he's done soundtracks for. While I'm writing my novel, I need music with no lyrics and so Glass has been a companion many late nights. Here is a sample of his work (not performed by Glass).

I took Brittany to Knott's Berry Farm. This park is perfect for me. It's a mix between Six Flags and Disney Land. I think we both agreed that the old wooden roller coaster at the edge of the park was the best. I swear that thing is ready to break. At one point, I remember thinking that the coaster jumped the tracks.

My novel is coming along. Some chapters are better than others. I'm behind but what's new? This whole process has really solidified my understanding of all the different aspects of fiction. If you lack in any area you pay the consequences by boring or confusing your audience.

MOGWAI

Last Tuesday, we went to see Mogwai in concert at the Wiltern. This was by far the best show yet. Mogwai is an instrumental band, meaning no singing, with dreamy compositions. After awhile, your head is swimming somewhere else, not really sure if what's happening is real. This video is just static but the music is there.

On Saturday, Mona and I are going to go see Chuck Palahniuk at Borders down the street. He's probably my favorite writer at the moment. He wrote the book Fight Club which was eventually made into the movie (one of my favorite movies).

I was going to put this last part as another post but while I'm here I'll just post it. Please check out these two articles by Matt Taibbi. This guy rocks. It's great to finally find somebody who sees the election process the same way I do. He spends time ripping on both candidates and how money influences their policies, something that's been completely ignored by the press. People keep talking about candidates flip-flopping over issues for strategic gain. How is that strategic? Maybe that $800,000 dollars endorsement from Citybank had something to do with it.

Taibbi 1
Taibbi 2

Underwear Parade

2008-08-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the last week. There was an underwear parade on our street. Brittany and I sat on the roof while it went by. It was pretty funny. Most people dressed up in costumes and danced around in the streets. I guess it was to raise money for any cancer below the waist.

I took these two pictures at the LACMA's Jazz Festival.

So in the last week, we went to play miniature gold, batting cages, arcade, taking pictures, waiting in line for the new Stephenie Meyer book, the observatory, and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of. On Thursday we head to Knott's Berry Farm.

Homecoming

2008-07-21T04:47:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to imagine that she’s all grown up but she is. Five years. That was the last time we saw her. Brittany is back.

Last week, Jen, Stephanie, and Lindsey were in town. We went San Diego, stayed up late into the night, listening to the crashing waves at our beach hotel, talking about whatever. It was great. The next day we played around Sea World, walking through underwater tubes and riding the rides.

Brittany and I have been taking pictures together. Here are a couple of my pictures.

This is one of Brittney’s pictures. (Click on image!)

Bye Stephanie -

2008-06-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Three O'clock in the morning comes and Stephanie and I find ourselves drifting around the neighborhood taking pictures of anything. The only people out are the drunks or the homeless shoveling through piles of trash looking for plastic bottles for tomorrow's fix.

It's the next morning and the memory is faded from the night before. I imagine my hippocampus must look something like a turd after 20 days of little sleep and playing the Wii in a high tech carnival atmosphere.

But we had fun and that's all that counts.

Time to Relax

2008-06-03T17:11:00.001-07:00

I finished my first novel last night. At the moment, it's about 200 pages but will probably be expanded another 30 pages during the rewrite. I'm currently trying to figure out what my next project will be. I'd like to write another script but unfortunately book ideas are easier to create.

For the next week I hope to take a little break and write a little more on my blog and maybe get out and take some pictures.

June Quote

2008-06-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Any man who pays more for labor than the lowest sum he can get men for is robbing his stockholders. If he can secure men for $6 and pays more, he is stealing from the company.

Stockholder of American Wollen (Lawrence, Massachusetts) 1911

Catch 22

2008-06-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

McClatchy news agency has an article outlining how both presidential candidates are exaggerating claims about Iran. Apparently both McCain and Obama are running around the country telling everyone that, "Iran is developing nuclear weapons." I'm sorry, but has everyone gone completely crazy? The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, that's a group of 16 US intelligence agencies, have concluded, "that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

It's funny that everyone asks how the intelligence on Iraq was so inaccurate. So once again, the UN weapons inspectors are freely walking around Iran, checking facilities, talking to people, and looking for trace elements of nuclear chemicals. They have found absolutely nothing. Nothing. Sound familar? So all the best reporting on Iran says they're not developing nuclear weapons and yet our only options for president are already misleading the country.

On another topic, it looks bad for McCain this year. Bloomberg features a story that Bush's business donors are shunning McCain for Democrats. As I wrote before, almost all political funding comes from corporations and that the candidates with the most money almost always win (94% of the time for House members and 85% for the Senate).

Rama

2008-06-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I read a book called Phantom in the Brain by VS Ramachandrin. I named one of my characters in my novel after him. Anyway, I don't expect anyone to read the book but here's a documentary about his work.
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10.

What he's documented is that the will, feelings, thoughts, language, and even consciousness (awareness) are just aspects of the brain.

April Quote

2008-04-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.

Jay Gould
US financier & railroad businessman (1836 - 1892)

Insomnia

2008-04-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Wake up. Go to work. Stare at a monitor. Be creative. Go home. Watch a movie. Go to bed. This is my life. Tic. Toc. It's all fading away. Two months since my last post but who cares? Nothing to say except that I'm halfway finished with my novel. Big news, I guess.

Enough of that. Time to get out.

Last night we went to see Caribou in Concert at the El Rey. Here's a clip of the preshow I found online.

Noise. Repetition. Once again, the UK pushes the edge of music.

Tomorrow we head to the beach. Next week we'll be going to go see Real Time with Bill Maher. I've never been in the audience of a television show. I wonder if I'll like it.

Quote of the Month

2008-02-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

"If you sell a candidate the same way you sell a cinnamon roll, is the candidate a cinnamon roll ?"

Election

2008-02-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

I really can't wait for the political season to be over with. It's all so boring to listen to people spout out bumper sticker slogans like robots.

It was just Super Tuesday and I'm proud to say that I didn't vote. Yes, I'm not one of those jerks that walks around with a little sticker that says, "I Voted" while patting myself on the back all day. Anyway, I don't think people understand how politics works so here's my little version.

Here we go. If a candidate wants to be a contender they need to raise massive amounts of cash. We're talking millions of dollars. In fact, Senators have to raise an average of $34,000 a week, every week, for six years to stay in office. Politicians actually spend more time looking for money than anything else. So why is money so important? During the 2000 congressional election, 94 percent of the House of Representatives and 85 percent of the Senators with the most cash won the election. Yes. You read that right. It's not about a person with a moral compass or what someone believes but how much money can be raised. (I recommend the site http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1633488_1633530_1633568,00.html for anyone interested in this information. This nonpartisan group has done an incredible, absolutely amazing job of following money in Washington.)

In order to raise all that cash, politicians have to find constituents to support them so they head to where the big money is: the corporations. Fortune magazine runs an article every year highlighting the biggest corporate whores of the year. This year, "business is betting on" Hillary Clinton. She has been able to get support from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Anheuser-Busch, and Sun Microsystems. Here is a small list of her Top Contributors and Top Industries.

Why do corporations hand out so much money? Well, the only goal of corporations is to maximize profit. They give to buy and influence our politicians and our policies. For instance, Enron was the biggest contributor to the Bush's presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. For giving so much Bush hired some of their employees and associates including Alberto Gonzalez as White House counsel, Thomas White for Secretary of the Army, Lawrence Lindsay as Chief White House Economist, Patrick Wood as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Harvey Pitt in charge of the SEC.

Former CEO, Kenneth Lay gave Dick Cheney a memo (click here for actual memo) that said, "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps." He also gave a wish list of eight policy recommendations. Of the eight, seven were made into law. This heavy deregulation led to the California Energy Crisis.

That's one example.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but Clinton´s idea of Universal Healthcare is a scam. She says she's going after the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Sounds good to me. These bastards have been raping the sick and dying for years. It turns out that's she's doing the exact opposite. Hillary has managed to raise, "more financial backing from health-related industries than her opponent."

The reason drugs are so cheap in Canada and elsewhere is because there are government regulations that tell companies that they can't take something that cost 5 cents, and turn around and sell it for 50 dollars. Instead, Clinton's plan works much like car insurance. Buy it or be penalized. (Oh yeah, she also gives poor people a little tax break for buying the health insurance. Too bad, they can't afford the insurance in the first place.) So, if I was an insurance company, Clinton would be a savior. People are forced to pay for insurance and insurance pays for the pharmaceuticals. Everyone wins...except the public who will be footed with the bill. Hillary's plan is Universal but it looks more like corporate welfare to me. Of course, I guess it makes sense when the pharmaceutical and insurance companies back you.

Another strategy for winning election is to hire Public Relation goons. Clinton has hired the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. These thugs work for the likes of Philip Morris and Saudi Arabia. They actually helped clean up Saudi Arabia's image after 9/11 when it turned out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi decent. Freedom House ranks Saudi Arabia just under North Korea as far as freedom is concerned.

For a PR company, selling candidates is just like selling any other product. They aren't selling beliefs or issues but image. That's why politicians say stuff that 100 percent of the public believes in. Freedom. Democracy. Support the Troops. Whatever. Everyone believes in these things so politicians say them over and over again to win votes. And marketing people know that when you hear these things you get goose bumps and get all emotional and froth at the mouth.

Marketers teach candidates to be vague on every issue. I still can't figure out what Clinton thinks about Iraq. She says she wants to start taking out troops out in the next year. So does Bush. She won't guarantee troops out by 2012. And as far as I can tell, she wants permanent military bases in Iraq. So what is the difference between the Bush and Clinton plan? I can't tell. She constantly rips on Bush's handling of the war but what is her plan? To leave... eventually. Again, that's Bush's plan.

So wrapping this whole thing up, I'm really tired of hearing people say things like, "I think we need Change. That's why I'm voting for Obama." Or how about, "I think Clinton has more Experience so I think she'll be a better president." Or, "That McCain's a real Straight Shooter; he says what he thinks." That, and all the other stuff about 500-dollar haircuts or who would make a great leader and who had the ultimate comeback during the debate. It's all window dressing dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator.

These are strategies that sell politicians. Clinton is betting on the angle of Experience, while Obama is using Change. These have absolutely nothing to do with the issues. In the end, what upsets me most is that voting, democracy itself, is really nothing but sideshow. In the end, the candidate with the most money wins anyway. And in order to get that money the public must be subverted.

Corporation

2008-01-22T08:11:00.001-08:00

From the documentary, "The Corporation."

Book Review

2008-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

I thought since I read so many books I would do a little review of some of my favorites. I’ve tried to stick to mostly non-technical stuff.

My first book is “Public Opinion,” by Walter Lippmann. The book was written in 1922, so it’s a little dry at times and I wouldn’t recommend buying it. Much of the book has techniques on manipulating public attitudes. So why did I put it on the list? I think Lippmann brilliantly describes the power structures within a liberal democracy (that’s lingo for the system of government we live in). Lippmann says that there are three classes in society. The largest class is about 90 percent of society, what he refers to as the “bewildered herd”. They are the workers and voters and exist to be exploited. They’re too dumb to understand the world so they need it explained to them by more sophisticated people. This is the job of a much smaller group of people (about 7 percent of society) called the Specialized Class. They are the second group and are the technocrats, the intellectuals, the managers, the politicians, etc. They make sure that the world functions for the Owners of Society: the bankers, the business owners, etc. In this system, power works backwards at least according to how a democracy should work. In this case, the smallest class tells the rest how the world will function by manipulation.

This structure keeps everything and everyone in line. Lippmann believed this is the way society should function. I disagree. But I do believe his analysis about how societal hierarchy works is dead on.

My second book is the classic 1929 book “Propaganda,” by Edward Bernays. I’ve written about this one already so I’ll just leave you with the opening quote.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

The word Propaganda has gotten a facelift under the new name of Public Relations. Bernays masters many of the techniques used today by both the PR and marketing firms. Flip to any part in this book and be shocked!

Bernays and Lippmann weren’t some weird guys on the fringes of society. They both worked for Presidents and some of the biggest companies. They might not be household names but they were the brains behind society in their day.

The third book, which I’m currently reading, is called “Captains of Consciousness,” by Stuart Ewen. Ewen describes how the US became a consumer culture. It’s often said that this culture came about naturally as an outgrowth of capitalism. In fact, it was completely designed by the Captains of Consciousness (people like Bernays and Lippmann) for the Captains of Industry (people like Ford or Rockefeller). The history starts around 1910 and continues to the mid 1930’s and by the 40’s the US was completely entrenched in a consumer society. One of the big techniques they used was to establish patriotic feelings with a consumer society. So if you didn’t like consumer society, by default you were anti-American. This idea is still used heavily today.

I’m really interested in the 1920’s. It is sometimes referred to as the Progressive Era. Democrats claim they’re an outgrowth of the Progressive Era. This is total nonsense. The eight hour workday, women’s right to vote, labor rights, initiative, recall, referendum, and voting for senators originated from the third parties.

I think two forces were at work during the early 1900’s. Around 1875, universal education was instituted and the public was suddenly able to read the newspapers. For the first time the masses wanted a say in how their society worked. They started protesting and arguing for more rights. They were making huge progress and the elite establishment (for lack of better words) were becoming terrified. They were losing both control and money. Muckrakers were describing the elite as Robber Barons.

I think when people like Bernays showed up on the scene the business community was relieved because they were able to put the public back in its place. Lippmann called the public “spectator’s of democracy” a place we remain today.

For a more up-to-date book on the manipulation of the public, read “Trust Us, We’re Experts!” by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. These guys are the experts on the PR and Marketing industry today. This book is easy to read and thoroughly researched. Much of the book describes how “scientists” have manipulated science to say just about anything for anyone who’ll pay. Check out the PR Watch website or see an excellent Frontline episode written by Douglas Rushkoff that discusses these subjects.

“Culture of Fear,” by Barry Glassner is one of my all time favorites. Easy to read, well researched, and totally funny. The book, in many ways, reminds me of “Fast Food Nation,” which is another book I recommend. Anyway, this book tells how fearful the US population has become in recent years. Many of these fears are completely unfounded. Some myths covered are: the US crime rates, kids getting razor blades in Halloween candy, medical diseases, drug hysteria, terrorist, crazy mothers, delinquent kids, etc. He also describes how fear is used to manipulate people for policy purposes. For example, fear of high crime (which is a myth) is used by lobbyist who work for the prison industry to get public subsidies (your tax dollars) to make more prisons that we don‘t need.

Check out “Globalization and its Discontents,” by Joseph Stiglitz. Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winner in economics, headed the World Bank, and economic advisor to Bill Clinton while he was president. He has now turned against the Clintons and advocates against neoliberal policies. The book illustrates how the IMF and World Bank function. (Just quickly, the IMF says whether a country can get loans from the World Bank.) If you want a loan you must do what the IMF says which usually means privatizing everything including schools, water, and social security. It also means that you must open up your borders to both transnational corporations and currency speculators. Currency speculation led the Argentina government (which was the poster child of the IMF) to claim bankruptcy. The East Asian Crisis resulted from policies advocated by the IMF. Most third world countries see the IMF as an imperial force. Unfortunately, these countries are desperate for money and will do just about anything to keep afloat. So who controls the IMF? It’s basically an extension of the transnational corporations (I’m simplifying here) which means it works not for the benefit of the people in those countries but to the corporation who control the IMF. People don’t like to see their borders opened and then see their resources raped. Strange, eh?

About a year ago, China wanted to buy Unocal in the US. Congress freaked out and used protectionist measures to keep that from happening. If another country tried this it would be seriously punished. I don’t mean punished like a slap on the wrist. I mean economic strangulation. I mean people die.

“Web of Deceit,” by Barry Lando is an intense piece of history. The book covers much of the declassified history of Iraq. Lando covers western support of Saddam Hussein from countries like the US, France, Germany, and Russia. Even before Saddam, dictators in Iraq were supported by everyone from Churchill to JFK. As Saddam was finally coming to power, through a sea of carnage, the CIA describe him as “a presentable young man.”

James Baker, the first Bush Administration’s Secretary of State, in his own memoirs states that, “Our Administration’s review of the previous Iraq policy was not immune from domestic economic considerations…Had we attempted to isolate Iraq we would have also isolated commercial opportunities.” At the time, Iraq was buying one quarter of American’s rice exports; altogether , it was the ninth largest purchaser of US food products in the world.

One declassified document, “U.S. Policy Toward the Iran-Iraq War” signed by Ronald Reagan, states that “It is present United States policy to undertake whatever measure may be necessary to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to internal shipping.” That document again was called “U.S. Policy Toward the Iran-Iraq War.” We find out that supporting Saddam was about defending “critical oil productions and transshipment facilities in the Persian Gulf.” Reagan doesn’t even mention what the public was being told at the time. They were saying supporting Saddam was about isolating Iran from taking over the region. (This is something I’ve seen with declassified documents over and over again. The public is told one thing but behind the scenes something completely different is taking place.) This isn’t information by some crazy radical. This is straight from Reagan himself. Supporting Saddam was about economics. Please read the document for yourself. It makes me so angry when people talk about support for Saddam as trying to contain Iran. If that was true, why the support both before and after the war? Here is the infamous Rumsfeld video of them shaking hands.

This was shortly after Saddam “gassed his own people.” The transcript and declassified documents show that Rumsfeld never mentioned anything even though both the CIA and State Department mentioned it to him.

Here is Clinton’s Madeline Albright stating that Clinton’s sanctions and the killing a half a million children in Iraq was “worth it.”

She doesn‘t even try to argue the facts. The sanctions actually strengthened Saddam since everyone during a crisis huddles beneath their leaders.

Enough of politics. On to Philosophy. One of the most influential books for me was Bertrand Russell’s “The Problems of Philosophy.” The book’s about 100 pages and pretty easy to read for a philosophy book. Russell is credited with integrating mathematics with logic. Not an easy task.

I think I read this book at a perfect time. I use to be an idealist, which means I thought that somehow (not even sure what I was thinking!) the mind could influence the world around me. Stupid, I know! Anyway, the thought has been around for awhile. This book is mostly about Epistemology which relates to how we can know whether something is true or not. His arguments are simple but powerful.

The last book is Noam Chomsky’s “On Nature and Language.” This book is mostly interviews and can be highly technical. Where to start with Chomsky. In the 50’s he revolutionized the field of linguistics and thereby psychology. Chomsky mentions a concept and another person will take that concept and write a famous book about it. Jerry Fodor took Chomsky’s idea of Modularity and wrote Modularity of Mind - another great book but highly technical. Colin McGinn and Marc Hauser are other examples. Steven Pinker has pretty much translated Chomsky’s material to the lay person and is now probably the most famous psychologist today. Chomsky Hierarchy is basic in computer science courses and Niels K. Jerne who won the Nobel prize in medicine said he basically stole Chomsky’s Hierarchy and applied it to medicine. Chomsky also contributed in the field of logic.

So what does Chomsky say about language? He says that language is innate meaning the rules for language, what he calls Universal Language, are built into our brains. At the time everybody thought that parents teach their kids language. Chomsky asked how a child could learn all the rules of language, rules even the best linguist don’t understand, in such a short period of time. It turns out that English has only superficial differences from Japanese or any other language. Languages are all basically the same. We are hardwired with the basic rules in our brain. This simple understanding, the idea of innateness, has rocked the world of psychology. It overthrew Behaviorism and launched into the field of cognitive psychology. Scientist and psychology are starting to merge because of Chomsky’s work. Scientist are in a race to find out what’s innate and subtracting that from what we learn from our environment. It turns out that almost everything about us is built into our DNA. From twin studies we know that personality traits have more to do with our genes than where or how we grow up. Child psychologist are breaking from the idea that parents play a very big part in a child’s development. All this stuff is being empirically verified and eventually the public is going to have to deal with this subject. It won’t be easy.

Here is a great interview on the subject.

The Third Parties

2008-01-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

I'm really a third party person. Watch this stupid speech by Hillary Clinton. It completely lacks any kind of content. She just strings together a bunch of feel good statements.

How annoying! Now watch Ralph Nader (Green Party) and Michael Peroutka (Constitutional Party). I definitely disagree with some of the stuff they mention but hear how they actually talk about issues in a smart and intelligent way. They also come across as being sincere where as the presidential candidates this year have sounded totally phony.

Interesting Fact of the Day

2007-12-31T00:59:00.000-08:00

In 1914 Henry Ford created what is sometimes referred to as the Five Dollar a Day program. This program was designed to pay employees five dollars daily and the creation of an 8 hour work day. For this wonderful gift, Ford felt it was okay to check up on his employees. He created a Sociological Department to make regular visits to make sure his employees were keeping their homes clean and living by moral standards. Like most authoritarian types, he said he did this because he loved his people and he just wanted what was best for them and blah blah blah… (You know the routine.) It turns out when the program became too expensive it was terminated. So much for his undying love. I think Ford must have had some really warped definition of the word Liberty.

It also turns out that Ford was anti-Semitic. Here is the front page of an article he wrote about the Jewish people. And here is a quote he mentions, not from Hitler but from The New International Encyclopedia!

“Among the distinguishing mental and moral traits of the Jews may be mentioned: distaste for hard or violent physical labor; a strong family sense and philoprogenitiveness; a marked religious instinct; the courage of the prophet and martyr rather than of the pioneer and soldier; remarkable power to survive in adverse environments, combined with great ablility to retain racial solidarity; capacity for exploitation, both individual and social; shrewdness…”

This is just a little more proof that contrary to what just about everyone says, the world is actually becoming better and more humane place to live.

2007-12-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

"It is the impossibility of living by any other means that compels our farm labourers to till the soil, whose fruits they will not eat, and our masons to construct buildings in which they will not live. It is want that drags them to those markets where they await masters, who will do them the kindness of buying them. It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the rich man in order to get from him permission to enrich him. What effective gain has the suppression of slavery brought him? 'He is free,' you say. That is his misfortune. These men, it is said, have no master. They have one, and the most terrible, the most imperious of masters: that is, need. It is this that that reduces them to the most cruel dependence."

- Simon Linguet

2007-12-19T23:38:00.000-08:00

The movie The Least Among You is being filmed at my work this week. The film stars Lauren Holly (Jim Carrey’s x-wife) and Lou Gossett Jr.

We had a wonderful time in San Diego. The last time I was there I didn’t really have time to look around but on this trip we did some exploring. Downtown San Diego is pretty impressive with lots of cool shops and relatively clean streets.

I’m off to Phoenix in the morning for a quick trip. I’ll be there on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully, I'll take a couple of pictures to post to my Flickr site.