A generation of kids raised to be independent is now imprisoned by their parent’s apron strings. They can find nothing to do that will pay the rent and are stuck in their parent’s basement (since their old bedroom is now a yoga studio). In contrast to their parents, these kids actually do want to “get a job”; they don’t aspire to take a magic bus ride across the land anymore. Now that technology makes work less dreary (perhaps even enjoyable?) getting a job no longer seems as dismal. And kids these days enjoy the distinct advantage of being adept with technology since they grew up with it. They can school their parents. For Boomers, computers were for nerds. Now they’re for hipsters. And entrepreneurs.

How did the Baby Boomers — who fought tooth and nail against government corruption and deceit, and rallied so tirelessly to hold governments accountable — allow the world to get so fucked up? Government misdeeds did not end with Vietnam. Looks like a generation fell asleep at the switch. Seems all that talk about not trusting “the man” was just a brief fad and fashion statement. Once Boomers got into power, they used it for self-enrichment just as all those before them did. Seems like nothing changes. Except that they’ve managed to rob the next generations so they could live the dream. That’s a new one! Usually you exploit indigenous people of under-developed nations, not your children. Now those nations are a threat. Crazy, huh?

An irony is that while the Boomers rebelled against their parents, their children barely seem to appreciate how their parents have ruined the world for them, let alone rebel against it. Boomer’s kids adore their parents and feel they have been reared to perfection. And while that’s basically true on self-actualized and microeconomic levels, they enter a world so burdened with debt and other macroeconomic problems they may never enjoy the good life as their parents did. These kids exit college with massive student loans into a job market lacking jobs. Even law and medical school graduates are having trouble landing work. It’s a world where corporations are flush with cash yet are leery to spend it due to the massive debts of the world’s governments. These corporations prefer to hoard their cash in the event of the truly rainy day when governments default on their sovereign debt. It’s no wonder their not hiring. And even if governments do not default on their debts, they still have to service them and decades of austerity are nearly guaranteed. So who can blame companies for strategically hoarding cash to guild them up against the coming lean times? Any of us with huge savings accounts built up would be wise to do the same. (I find it funny and sad that governments are trying to get corporations to spend their excess money to try to improve the job market. It’s like they are saying “what, blowing your surplus is just fine, we did it, so why can’t you?” Today’s governments are in no position to give financial advice.)

The interesting thing to note is the children of Boomers don’t seem to mind the austere lifestyle they are inheriting. Sure, they want a job and a career more than anything else. Because that means they can move out of the home they grew up in and put all the skills of self-sufficiency they’ve acquired to use. But they seem content with a relatively basic, sustainable lifestyle. And that lifestyle is a badge of pride to them, not one of shame. They don’t seem to want large homes and second homes, large cars and SUVs, boats and RVs, or any item of conspicuous consumption. After all, who needs a large house and with a media room when all your media lives on the cloud? When you don’t need a land-line, who needs land? Kids these days are so mobile that planting roots is not nearly as necessary or desirable as it used to be. Especially since the 2.5 children norm is being rethought too.

Consider that homes and land are no longer the investment annuities they used to be and home ownership looks more and more unattractive. Owning a home with a mortgage might one day soon be seen akin to owning a financed luxury automobile. And perhaps it should be that way? Maybe we need to put the house back into the category of shelter as dictated in “food, clothing, and shelter” and stop viewing it as a trophy? It’s nice to see the Boomer kids eschewing the abject materialism often found in their parents (remember the 1980’s?). And the drugs too, right? Boomers went from pot and LSD in the 60’s & 70’s, to pills and cocaine in the 70’s and 80’s, maybe tried a little crack in the 90′s, then kind of cleaned up and embraced red wine (white in summer). Now they’re all on Prozac or equivalents. Not to mention Viagra for the gentlemen and hormone replacements for the ladies. No wonder healthcare cost are out of sight. Could it be that a lot of the chronic health issues Boomers face as they age are related to all the recreational drugs they consumed over a lifetime? All the beer and cigarettes surely didn’t help either. Sure, today’s kids like to party (look at their Facebook pages), but there is no indication they want to embrace it as a lifestyle to rebel against ”the establishment” as their parents did. Regarding “the establishment”: all the Boomers wanted was out, all their kids want is in.

Growing up, the Boomers were certain they would change the world into a better place to live. “FAIL!”, as the hipsters say nowadays. The Greatest Generation fought a World War to improve the quality of life, their kids fought a cold war and made it worse. What will the Boomer’s kids do?

A large part of our current budget deficit was created by fighting two wars post 9/11. The war in Iraq was undertaken by selling it to the American people with a packet of inaccurate military intelligence. And that’s the rose-colored glasses way of putting it, the more cynical (and perhaps more accurate) way of putting it is that US leaders lied to the US public and the world about the threat Iraq posed with its weapons of mass destruction. In case you forgot, those weapons proved to be as non-existent as the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. Though the case that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks of 9/11 was also never substantiated, it was nonetheless offered as a reason to go to war against Iraq. Yes, at the time this theory was put out it was widely discredited. But it didn’t matter much, the theory was floated, and it stuck with the American people. Poll after poll showed that many if not most Americans believed Iraq and Saddam Hussein were somehow involved in the attacks of 9/11. And I bet if those polls were held again today, it would show that many people still believe this, despite the lack of evidence.

So we have a war that was started by misleading the American people. And it was decided by the Bush administration that the best way to pay for this war was to use the US budget surplus created by the Clinton administration. It was also decided by President Bush that the people best able to decide how to further spend this surplus were the American people. A lot of this money was returned to Americans in the form of tax rebate checks and by cutting taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. And when the surplus was depleted, it was decided that America borrow money from foreign countries (mostly) to meet its obligations. The US debt ceiling was raised seven times during this time period. During Operation Iraqi Freedom (as the war was eventually named), it is estimated that over one million people were killed, both military personnel and civilians. Non-lethal casualties are hard to estimate but are widely believed to a few orders of magnitude above this. Over 4000 US military personnel were killed with tens of thousands of non-lethal US casualties sustained. (All these figures are not final, they continue to increase.)

Now that we have to pay the interest on these loans that sustained Iraqi Freedom, there’s a huge movement among Republicans that says raising taxes to pay these fees will ruin the American economy. They believe it so strongly that they would rather default on these loans than increase taxes, even though every reasonable person with any knowledge on the matter believes defaulting on these loans would instantly create a huge US and global economic crisis. So how do the Republicans suggest we pay the price of fighting this war? It’s a two-pronged approach: sustain the tax cuts to the well-off even though they did nothing to growth the economy as promised, and eliminate Medicare and Medicaid as a government funded and managed program.

It needs to be made clear that Medicaid often supplements Tricare (and/or vice versa), which is the health care program serving US active duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, retirees, families, and survivors worldwide. Once a person receiving Tricare reaches 65 years old, they switch to Medicare as their primary heath insurance and Tricare becomes Medicare supplemental coverage (i.e. it pays for the difference when a medical is not entirely paid for by Medicare.) This supplemental feature of Tricare was only started in 2001, after a groundswell of reasonable complaints that Medicare was not as generous a plan as Tricare occurred. This new arrangement was called Tricare for Life (TFL) and helped deal with rising medical costs for US military personnel.

To sum up here’s what the Republicans did and want to do: (a) started a war based on lies, (b) blew America’s treasure chest of capital on that war, (c) advocates the dismantling the federal health care insurance relied on by many of the US military personnel that fought in this war, (d) advocates not raising the debt ceiling to pay for the war and its subsequent costs. That is morally and ethically unacceptable by any standard, especially by a US standard. Why is none calling the Republican Party out on this behavior?

Allow me: we the American people need to stand up and speak out against this reprehensible behavior and realize that the Republican “demands” of the federal budget and sacrifice of the American people are unconscionable. We have to pay for the unjust wars we declare and compensate our soldiers for their medical bills when they are injured in them. If not, we come very, very close to being one of the “bad-actor” governments that we often declare war against.

Footnote: wouldn’t it be nice if we still had that budget surplus on hand? Then it could be spent on stimulus programs, infrastructure, job creation, etc. (all things we really need right now) without putting us into more debt. That’s what surpluses are supposed to be used for — for emergencies, for rainy days — not for buying the votes of the wealthy and for fighting unnecessary wars.

Nearly all climate scientists (and other scientists too) agree that the measured rising of global atmospheric temperature is due to man made factors, most notably the burning of fossil fuels. Yet Republicans have the gall to challenge the assertions of these highly educated and dedicated experts, and to do so without offering solid reasons as to why they disagree with them. The science that draws the conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions from burnt fossil fuels are creating a greenhouse effect that is raising temperatures on earth is sound science. But Republicans feel they can simply ignore the conclusions of extremely intelligent and objective people who are diligently applying the scientific method in pursuit of knowledge. In an age where the very existence of America and its economic supremacy (and military) requires its young people to embrace education (especially math and science) as a path to a better life and country, Republicans simply choose to ignore the conclusions of some world’s most educated people. That’s a horrible and ultimately damaging message to send to our children.

The GOP has a similarly disturbing attitude regarding the debt ceiling. Nearly every economist in the world agrees that if America fails to raise its debt ceiling, severe negative outcomes will result. Yet Republicans again ignore the minds of some of the brightest people alive as they suggest that America defaulting on its debt might be a good thing. Honestly, what kind of example does this set for our children? Are we telling them that they can simply ignore the collective wisdom of mankind and that making rash decisions on important matters based on very little thought or analysis is acceptable behavior? That the knowledge and the fulfillment gained from educating yourself and pursuing a life of science can all be summarily dismissed by a political party? That your learned conclusions, while sufficient to convince your scientific peers and publications, your school or university, may not hold any weight at all with your government? Hmm … are Republicans teaching their kids that it could be a good thing if they ruin their credit rating by failing to pay off the credit card or student loan once they become adults?

And then there’s GOP’s attitude toward teachers. We say that our young people need to embrace education and study hard, and then Republicans try to bust the unions representing the people dedicated to giving our children their education. They often characterize teachers and their union leaders as greedy and lazy losers who “can’t do” and can’t succeed in the private sector (unlike politicians). This type of hypocritical doublespeak is bound to disenfranchise students. Johnny and Jane, dropping out of school will be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make and getting a college education is mandatory to compete in today’s global employment marketplace, but it’s okay if we, the GOP, choose to disrespect your teachers and professors and ignore their advice and conclusions. After all we are grownups and we know what’s best for you!

It should also be noted that the GOP’s recent belittling of journalism (the “lame-stream media”) does little to inspire our young people. The endeavor requires an open mind, a solid education, the application of critical thinking, and years of study and practice. To dismiss Journalism out of hand as some kind of folly is ridiculous and inaccurate. As well, the recent GOP attitude that holds it’s superior to be folksy than educated is disturbing. Nothing replaces a good education; it is unique and extremely valuable to one’s overall self-fulfillment. Being folksy is also great, and it is in no way at odds with being educated. One can have both, it’s not an either/or proposition. If you want to be a “mama bear” and protect your children, you best educate them. Discrediting science and journalism doesn’t achieve that.

But the most disturbing feature of the GOP is this: it believes that controlling half of one out of three branches of government constitutes a majority that gives it the mandate to shut down the government if its economic preferences are not overwhelmingly reflected in the next federal budget. One half of one third is one sixth, which is less than fifty percent.

Perhaps it is the GOP that needs more education, more math and science?

Or . . .

Maybe we are just too stupid to see the bailout as anything but a life preserver for Wall Street.  If so, no one really sold it as much more than that.  The government was too scared to tell us the actual consequences of not passing the bailout bill, for fear that markets would respond poorly.  But maybe they should have tried to educate the American people, so we would respond properly.  Maybe they played the fear card one time too many.

Either way, America needs change!

And if Putin, based in Moscow, decides to fly to the US, he is probably going to head west and fly over Europe and the Atlantic rather than fly east over Alaska and the Pacific.

McCain is done to.  He charges into “Wharrrshingtun” to fix the financial crisis, and at best he did nothing (looking like a fool in the process) and at worst he derailed the talks and fucked everything up (looking like a first class failure).  If he misses the debate in Mississippi, he might as well get into the grandfather business.  Merely suggesting the debate be postponed, and that he may not show up at the debate has to be one of the stupidest things a politician has ever done.  It does not exactly say high-performing, multi-tasking, leader of the free world.  It kinda says: whoa, I need a break, can I get some water?  Missing Letterman was political suicide.

Hey, WaMu has failed.  Let’s see if that affects anyone other than the shareholders of WaMu.  Let’s hope (pray) the FDIC manages this failure properly.  Kind of a interesting idea: let WaMu go bankrupt, let the shareholders take the hit on the liabilities, and sell the assets to a competitor.  We may need to employ this strategy again.  Let’s see if the world ends as another bank does.  Probably not.

One thing is for sure: we are at economic war and the war profiteering has begun.  GET SOME!

Prediction: there will be no bailout, because no one wants another American civil war.

Let them eat cake!!!

This bailout is starting to look like a raid on the national coffers (which are empty) to shore up an industry that needs to severely revise its business model, not be thrown a life preserver.  And then we are supposed to accept the bailout with no means of accountability, transparency, or oversight.  The proposal seeks immunity from prosecution if the plan is poorly or unsuccessfully administered.

All Paulson & Bernanke keep offering as upside to the bailout is that certain institutions probably will not fail, and credit will probably be available again, and unemployment will probably not grow, and the market will probably stabilize.  700 billion dollars doesn’t come with any guarantees these days.  Bernanke has not seemed to considered how this plan would affect inflation, inflation being one of two prime concerns of the Federal Reserve.

Why not let the vacuum that these failed companies will create be filled by other companies, perhaps even new companies, that will strive to perform better and don’t have the these liabilities holding them down.  Not every single financial company has these liabilities on their books.  Most do, sure, but not every single one across the globe.

There are plenty of small, local, solvent financial institutions willing to write loans to businesses.  Okay, Bank of America will not lend to a MacDonald’s franchisee anymore, but there are many other institutions that would be happy to offer them credit.

So much for Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction.

Kudos to Dodd for standing up to Paulson & Bernanke

Posts 1 and 10 are worth reading.

White people have been known to leave the newspaper on the driveway or stoop until well into the evening as a beacon to their whiteness. It’s a badge of superiority to have that New York Times blue plastic bag lying there, as is having your paper recycling pile topped off with a copy of the New York Times Book Review. At the dog run, scooping up your dog’s poop with a blue New York Times bag asserts your alpha-whiteness over another white person who’s using a simple black plastic bag. Only those white people who use a Whole Foods bag are on par with those using the New York Times bag. All other bag users are inferior.

White people subscribe to newspapers not to actually read them (though many have been know to), but to show neighbors and peers that they are enlightened. Keeping one folded under your arm as you commute via mass transit is an ideal way to assert whiteness. New media is great, but nothing appeals to a white person’s sense of intellect and vintage chic quite as much as a physical newspaper; it’s a two bird killing stone. Sure, you look cool and connected when you bring your MacBook to the coffee house, but whip open a copy of the London Times and you are suddenly whiter-than-thou. Even if you’re just doing their Sudoku, perhaps especially so.

Flipping through a copy of The Economist (okay a magazine, but its editors refer to it as a newspaper) on the L trail to/from Williamsburg/Greenpoint tells other white people that you don’t tow the white party line 100%, and thus this minor act of subversion makes you even more of a white person. Reading The Nation is simply too white-trite these days.

Having a newspaper on their person or on their driveway/stoop is a distinctive trait of the white person. It simply telegraphs whiteness.

I bet some douchebag designer is gonna make a fabric laptop shoulder bag to look like an interoffice mail envelope. If so, I’ll expect a check.

1. Bush is a lousy president

2. Cheney is a lousy vice-president.

3. Congress is pretty lousy too.

4. The Iraq war sucks, and we should get troops out of Iraq right away.

5. The economy also sucks, and America is in a reccesion.

6. Oil prices are too high and are affecting American’s bottom line, and America needs to reduce it’s dependence on oil.

7. The world needs to lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air.

8. Americans would like to see a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants entering America.

9. The health care system in America needs revision.

10. FEMA could be doing more to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

That’s right TWO-THIRDS of American’s agree on the above things! Two-thirds is a landslide mandate in American politics these days. America seems rather united to me, despite what you see going on in the debates in both houses of congress.

(poll data source: pollingreport.com)

1. Seems to be against new primary elections for the people in Florida and Michigan.

2. Has not completely disassociated himself from Reverend Wright.

3. His wife Michele’s recent comment about being proud of America for the first time.

Oddly the press does not seem to think these issues will have much effect on Obama moving forward. I disagree. I think the Clinton campaign will jump on this soon; she’s already all over the Florida/Michigan issue. And once McCain returns to the states and shakes off the jet-lag, he’ll be all over it too. But worst of all, if Obama does win the DNC nomination he will be eaten alive in a national election by the GOP and the far right as they are sure to accuse him of being less than patriotic and American. It would be naive to think that they will not attack his character and patriotism about the above three things. Hell they were giving him heat over his middle name, for Christ’s sake! A neo-con 527 group is sure to put together a real spicy and negative ad against Obama using the above three things, and perhaps more. Normally — and if it were earlier in the primary elections — the above three things would end a candidate’s campaign. Too risky too controversial, people would think, and vote for someone else.

Personally, I don’t think these things are all that bad. What does trouble me is that Obama has not made it a number one priority to dismiss these blunders as just that, blunders. Okay, he gave a world-class speech yesterday, but unfortunately it did not go far enough to squelch his detractors now and probably into the future. Rev. Wright is going to haunt him for a long time. Especially since Obama has made his judgment the central theme of his campaign. All one has to do is say, “what does having had Rev. Wright as your pastor for over 2o years say about Obamas judgment”? I think Obama needs to show what it takes to win a national campaign and put issues like these way behind him and unequivocally assure American’s that he is the real deal and truly patriotic –and perhaps more so — than his opponents. Unfortunately this requires a type of non-academic, non-intellectual speech that Obama has yet to master. He better start wrapping himself up in the American flag. Or at least start wearing an American flag pin on his lapel.

I predict Obama’s campaign will lose momentum right away. The only question is how much and for how long.

#5: National Bring Your Booze To Work Day

#4: St. Bushmill’s Day

#3: It’s Easy Being Green Day

#2: Soon To Be A Friend Of Bill Wilson’s Day

. . . and finally . . .

#1: The Mother Of All Hangover’s Eve

Took the MC out for the first substantial ride of the new season yesterday. The weather was right on for armor and leathers. I did the run up to Nyack. Nyack was full of other riders, like bike week or something. Blame the weather.  I took 9W up with the Harleys, Palisades Parkway back with the sportbikes. It’s interesting to see how the cruisers stick to the secondary roads, and the super-sports prefer the highway. P Parkway is a great ride, nice moderate radius turns and relatively smooth pavement. A lot of police though, so you really have to watch your speed. Having said that, I hit an indicated speed of 105mph at one point. Rode out to the end of Peirmont Landing for the views of the Hudson. It’s pretty rad out there. An interesting little community where you’d least expect it. I wanna get out today too, but the pavement is still a little wet. Maybe later . . .

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: “Waiting for Kristen”

I was walking from work down 6th Avenue headed to Staples to get printer ink and postage stamps. At the corner of 25th & 6th I saw a small crowd gathering in front of the new luxury apartment building there. News vans and crews, cameramen, photographers were all gathered around. People were curious what was up. A pedestrian asked one of the Univision cameramen what was going on. He said, “the hooker, she lives there, on the ninth floor”. Of course today that could only mean one thing: I was in front the building of Kristen’s, the home of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She’s the alleged call girl that Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired to have sex with. You know, the whole Client 9 thing.

The press were gathered at the door to this building waiting for Dupre to enter or exit. The news stations were conducting their 5 o’clock stand-ups here, “live from the Kristen condo” style. Struck by the minor media circus, I decided to go get my own video camera to shoot a little footage. I have a paying video shoot coming up on April 9th that I need to practice for as I am really a video editor, not a shooter. Plus maybe I’d even catch that million dollar shot? So I went back to my studio, got may camera and shot for a bit. Nothing was really going on and I started to get cold and bored. So I stopped shooting after a few minutes. I then continued on to Staples and finally bought the ink and stamps.

When I got back to my studio, I cut together the little clip linked above. I like to think it makes a statement on the absurdity of the media’s obsession with this story. Or at least a statement on my absurd obsession with the media’s absurd obsession on the story. Enjoy!

Footnote 3/14/2008, 5:00pm: The press is still there. Photographers are now staking out the rear service entrance right across the courtyard from the building I work in. Hopefully they will not take over the public courtyard as it is a cool place to go and chill for a while.

Footnote 3/17/2008, 5:00pm:  The press is gone!