A Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing

It was interesting seeing “The Hunger Games, Catching Fire” movie in close proximity to the second part of The Hobbit trilogy “Desolation of Smaug”.  Both big movies forged on a large, epic scale, one imbued with emotion and feeling and 1 largely devoid of both.  Director Peter Jackson has accomplished something not uncommon in modern film he has sacrificed one of the most beloved books in the world in a funeral pyre of bombastic special effects.  He has sucked all the heart and soul out of The Hobbit and left us with a noisy, gasbag of a movie, and a long one at that!

Jackson has given us, in a mind numbing 5 hours of screen time, virtually no character development, none of the dwarf back-story that is such a part of Tolkien’s great book.  Yes the effects are “state of the art” and the action is exciting but ultimately you end up not really caring very much.  In his determination to turn The Hobbit into the grand film spectacle of The Lord of the Rings Jackson has oddly stripped away all the charm and heart that has made the book so beloved.

While The Hunger Games does not have the literary pedigree of The Hobbit the film has something even more wonderful; Jennifer Lawrence.  Lawrence’s performance is one for the ages; her laser beam focus on heroine Katniss Everdeen and her complex moral dilemmas never ever falter.  She brings a gravitas to Katniss that imbues the relatively hackneyed political story with a tremendous cinematic and moral weight.  Katniss is one of the first non-ironic heroic characters I have seen in film in a while and it was very refreshing.  The filmmakers’ of the 2 Hunger Games movies made sure that the action and special effects in the film supported the story.  Sadly the great director Peter Jackson made sure that The Hobbit, a far more original and beloved tale was completely lost in a flood of special effects and action.

I am mad as hell and I can't take it anymore!

We have surveyed the stifling effects of crony capitalism on these pages many times.  Once you see it, you see it everywhere as you observe the immense flow of money that allows about 1% to 2% of our citizen’s to essentially control our government thru the union of big business and big government.  This is done thru corporate lobbying and funding of political campaigns but I often forget a very important part of what is a deadly and unholy trinity; the media. 

The media is a profound beneficiary of all this money in that they receive millions of political advertising dollars.  Thus the media becomes part of this massive machine that obfuscates our very real issues with biased reporting, both left and right.  This reporting is designed to enflame feelings about one side or the other but not deliver any meaningful dialogue of change.  The reporting is shallow and obviously biased; CNN highlights the evil and obstructionist Republican Party while FOX News hammers the incompetence of the Obama administration.  The reporting is not designed to uncover any truths or help in seeking any solutions but keep our current 2 party system firmly in place and keep the all important money flowing.

Our current 2 party system with its allegiance to its corporate sponsors and their money and supported by a fraudulent media is killing our country.  In the twilight of the Bush presidency the anger was in the liberal community, now as we enter the death gasps of the Obama years all the anger is in the right wing (and liberals have completely forgotten how much they hated George W.).  But this anger yields nothing, as our country simple careens from one corrupt and debased party and candidate to another and nothing changes.  It leaves a country where the vast majority of its citizens remain completely unrepresented by anyone in Washington. 

Those (perhaps) well meaning folks who have their anger stoked by the likes of Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Steven Colbert, Bill O’Reilly and many others truly become a “sound and fury signifying nothing.”   The blind anger stoked by the media keeps folks focused and “bought in” to the current system thru a not so subtle system of blame.  These folks don’t see the complete dishonesty and corruption that exists on all sides and that their anger should be directed at everyone in power and then it should foster looking for solutions completely outside our current system.  Being pissed off becomes a suckers game and the powers that be laugh all the way to the bank in their limousines.       

The Twerp Twerks

WOW, I am so glad with Miley Cyrus is breaking out of the limiting (yet highly profitable) confines of her “good girl” Disney image to fully express herself as a woman; anal sex and drugs be dammed this poor girl needed to blossom .   Of course she does not owe her pubescent female fans anything; after all she only became a multi-millionaire playing the role of Hannah Montana.  Now she will (along with her idiot family) make millions more playing the slutty, drug amped vamp.  There is no artistic expression at work here; it is the blatant commercial manipulation of an idiot media and her even dumber fans.   

Moron father Billy Ray mewed on Twitter about “thanking God” the night of the VMA’s before revealing his admiration for her “courage in breaking out of the Disney star role.”  Well I am not sure if it’s courage or (more likely) an alcohol and drug fueled recklessness but at least the talent-challenged little twerp will keep the family coffers ringing, hey Hannah Montana fans, fuck you, take some Molly on me (after all Molly and Weed, Miley informs us, are only “happy drugs – social drugs”)

I’m Going to Heaven Paying my Taxes!

You know those stupid little placards that show up all the time on Facebook?  Where some dimwit posts up some aphorism they feel is profound.  They typically have some questionable quote and a picture.  One recently came to my attention attributed to President Jimmy Carter, I am sure you have seen it:

If you don’t want your tax dollars to help the poor, then STOP saying that you want a country based on Christian Values, Because you don’t….!!

This quote was not said by Jimmy Carter but apparently by American actor and comedian John Fugelsang and it brings up the interesting issue of taxation and morality.   Does Mr. Fugelsang really think my countries value system depending on my paying taxes so the government can redistribute my tax dollars to the poor?  Is government (any government) the only organization capable of helping the poor?  Might the poor be much better off if I paid less in taxes and gave the extra to local charities or to my church?  Are there not ample reasons to question the efficiency and effectiveness of American aid to the poor?

The “morality” of paying taxes (if there is any) is simple, the taxpayer follows the law and the Government has the burden to take as little as it needs and spend it prudently.   Of course the government has a role in aiding the poor as they are best suited to a broad based effort to alleviate poverty but my personal morality is not dependent on those efforts.  While I might like a government that reflects my values it is unlikely to happen, consequently my values are in my care, and it is the values of the citizens that determine the values of the county.

Having been a CPA for many years I am constantly shocked at doing tax returns for wealthy individuals who give virtually nothing to charity.   Conversely I see returns for folks of modest means that give substantial amounts to charity.  I would offer up to Mr. Fugelsang that this is where the nation’s adherence to Christian Values lives NOT in its proclivity to pay taxes and to have its wealth redistributed to government approved “charities.”    

Living in the Black and White world

Our nation has been embroiled in an insipid “conversation” on race in America for several months now.  It started with the tragic killing of Travon Martin by George Zimmerman.  Liberal “news” organizations like CNN and MSNBC declared this a “race” case within hours of the shooting even though there was not a single scintilla of evidence (ever) that race had played any role in the event itself.  The “news” media repeatedly made an issue of Florida’s “stand your ground laws,” and continually evoked “racial profiling” while in the courtroom the “stand your ground” was irrelevant and even the prosecution never once brought up race as a motivating factor.  In short, the innocent verdict could not have surprised anyone with even the most cursitory reading of the case.  Yet CNN and MSNBC ran hours of biased, irrelevant and pernicious coverage of the case and insisted that American needed to have a “conversation” on race.

On the very real issue of race in America you tend to get a fairly one sided view from both the left and the right.  I think the folks from my liberal leaning generation still like to see themselves on the front lines of a battle that is largely past.  The kind of systemic racism that was fought in the 1950’s and 1960’s by the civil rights movement is principally over.  When a discussion of “race” in America centers around one of the most powerful women in the world being denied the opportunity to look at a $39K handbag (?!?) in a store then I think we are in a very different place then we were in 1964 (especially when the store was not even in America!).  The right, as I have discussed before, sees us (ludicrously) in some weird “post-racial” world.    Yet we have a powerful liberal and a civil rights establishment with a strong and simple agenda that gets them in a spotlight that they are loath to relinquish.

But since they are in the spotlight what should they be saying?  Many thousands of hours were spent on George Zimmerman, does the rate of murder among the African-American community rate the same amount of “conversation?”  Does there not need to be a “conversation” among the civil rights leadership about pervasive rap music that routinely glorifies brutal violence and misogyny?  Almost 70% of black children are born to single mothers, does the prevalence of broken and single family homes and absence fathers in the African American community deserve “conversation?”

What is “moral leadership” anyway, isn’t it saying the hard things, the things no one wants to hear, after all it is easy to blame everything on some outside force like the government and a lot harder (for all of us) to look inward.  In 1961 Martin Luther King said in a sermon:  "Do you know that Negroes are 10 percent of the population of St. Louis and are responsible for 58% of its crimes? We've got to face that. And we've got to do something about our moral standards," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told a congregation in 1961. "We know that there are many things wrong in the white world, but there are many things wrong in the black world, too. We can't keep on blaming the white man. There are things we must do for ourselves."  Four years later Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his prescient and groundbreaking Department of Labor report; “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.”  Moynihan’s report sparked a resounding cry of outrage that echoed throughout Washington and the civil rights movement in reaction to the warning that the “ghetto” family was in disarray.  The fact that the above quote from Dr. King and Mr. Moynihan’s 1965 report seems so relevant today is tragic.  It means that decades of well meaning government programs have simply not moved the ball forward in the way they should have.

Are there race issues on America?  Absolutely, for one thing American public education needs to be strengthened for all people; a strong public education is literally the backbone of our democracy.  But the fact is that a lot of what ails the African American community cannot be solved by Government fiat no matter how hard one might wish it to be.  As Dr. King implied back in 1961 we need a parallel track of civic action by all Americans for all Americans as well as private soul-searching within the black community. 

 

As Bo Diddley said, “You Can’t Judge a Book…....”

Why not try actually reading the new Rolling Stone cover story on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev instead of just looking at the cover (YES I know initially that is all Rolling Stone released).  The article is another excellent example of Rolling Stone journalism and anyone interested in the perplexing case will fine if quite interesting. 

Preserving National Treasures

Recently I have seen a few what we will call “aging artists and performers”, i.e. folks I have been listening to for over 40 years, but the most moving was Mavis Staples this past Thursday in North Truro at the Payomet Arts Center with the Rick Holmstrom Band.   Ms. Staples had just the day before turned 73 years old.  She has had her current band, the great Rick Holmstrom band and her backup singers for over 5 years and there is a very warm family feel within the group and they watch over Mavis with great love and care.  Mavis is currently having some knee problems that made her a bit unsteady on her feet.  Mr. Holmstrom is closest to Mavis on stage and helped her several times to sit on the stool that was onstage, on one memorable moment kept playing his guitar while steadying her with his arm.

For some reason these days I often think of the passing of B.B. King.  I feel very strongly that with his passing an entire swath of American music and experience will go with him, the very same thing is true of Ms. Staples.   Folks like Mavis and B.B. represent a deep and direct connection with the African American culture that fostered so much of the music we love.  Folks like Ms. Staples embody a vast treasure trove of American music and experience that cannot be duplicated.  There are lots of talented young people who will and do carry on the traditions of blues, gospel and soul music, but it cannot be the same.  When we lose folks such as Mavis Staples or B.B. King (you can fill in other names as well) a direct bond is broken with the past that cannot be undone.

This all struck me the other night as I watched Mavis’s band watch over her so lovingly and I thought these folks are doing us a great service.  They are the caretakers of one of our National Treasures, Mavis Staples and they are doing such a wonderful job.          

Pixar – 3 strikes and you’re out?

Having just seen “Monsters University” I am sad to say we might have seen the demise of Pixar Studios as we know and love it.  That string of brilliant movies starting with Toy Story in 1995 and ending 10 years later with Toy Story 3 seems to have faded.  Their last 3 films, Cars 2 (the worst!), Brave and now Monsters University have seen the creeping and deadly clutches of Disney take hold.  Gone is the laser beam focusing on story and character and you are left with entertaining but very conventional children’s movies.    It is hard to imagine these folks ever again coming up with a film of the genius of Wall-E, of the gentle grace of Finding Nemo.   Is John Lasseter capable of conjuring up a stunning scene like the incinerator scene in Toy Story 3?  Can Brad Bird ever come up with anything as moving as Peter O’Toole’s soliloquy at the end of Ratatouille?  

I hope so, if not it is the sad demise of what will be seen historically as one of the most successful movie studios in history.

Eyesight to the Blind

The modern conservative movement has 3 important blind spots, Achilles heels if you will

1.       The idea that America is in some sort of post racial environment.  Racism is alive and well in America, it can clearly be seen in some of the attitudes towards and treatment of President Obama and in many other areas on American life.  Conservatives seem to not want to acknowledge this, which is why commentators such as Juan Williams (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWaOcJlaQvU ) becomes such an important voice, moderating intelligently between conservatism and a pragmatism acknowledging what life in American is actually like for African Americans.   

2.       While conservatives glorify and love the idea of the free markets they need to see that free markets simply do not exist in the realm of multinational corporations.  The collusion between the financial services industry, large corporations and our government has completely corrupted any functionality of the free markets.  Until crony capitalism is ended, or at least abated in some way, you cannot keep assuming that the mechanism of the free market is going to solve anything.

3.       The environment – Ronald Regan said government should only do what it has to do; protecting the environment is one of these jobs.  Due to the deadly complicity of big business and big government the “free market” cannot address the protection of the environment, therefore government (sadly) is the only player left standing.      

The Great Adjudicator

WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan wrote brilliantly about the Republican and Democratic conventions last summer.  One of the things she focused on was the undeniable warmth and sense of community that was apparent in the Democratic convention.   She accurately characterized this as a Democratic Party feeling of Government as community, the sense that my community is not my family, friends, coworkers or church but my government.  The growing liberal ideal that government, as our primary community, is also the great adjudicator of all social ills; leveling out (or attempting to) all of those nasty inequities that are part of life.  We want the warm and fuzzy comfort of knowing that our government (like parent to child) will take care of us, after all the government is the grantor of our rights (not God), it will make sure I have health care; if somebody else has more money than I do it will tax it away from them and give it to me (all under the rubric of “fairness”).  If I am a woman then the government will make sure I get equal pay and have free birth control and (hopefully) abortions.  If the fat guy (your esteemed author) is drinking to many large sodas then we will ban them so he doesn’t do that anymore, and while we are at it perhaps we need to create a “sin tax” on fast food so he doesn’t eat anymore of that.  Of course this list could go on and on until anyone with a functioning brain would want to kill themselves.

So we see ideals of our countries founders pivot from a country of free peoples with rights granted by God to a country where many of its citizens see their government as essentially in the role of parent; adjudicating all societal ills and leveling out all perceived inequities.  Thus we see government grow bigger, less efficient and more intrusive and a passive, uninvolved citizenry.  Power, influence and money is transferred to a corrupt and immoral government which then hands out favors to the powerful few who can afford to pay for it while throwing enough crumbs to the children to keep them quiet.     

Taxes and Myth of FAIRNESS

One the phrases I hate to hear from clients is; “I don’t mind paying my fair share.”  The reason I hate that phrase is that in a tax code drenched in special interest tax breaks the idea of a “fair share” is meaningless.  About 47% of Americans pay no income taxes; about half of them get refunds greater than that which was withheld (IRS welfare payments).  General Electric, the sixth-largest corporation in the United States, earned $14.2 billion in 2010, but disclosed in federal filings that it had no federal tax liability.  Other companies that (reportedly) paid no taxes; Verizon Communications, Boeing, NextEra Energy, American Electric Power, Pacific Gas & Electric, Apache, Consolidated Edison, El Paso, and CenterPoint Energy were, along with GE, the top 10 companies for 2011-2012 that apparently paid no taxes.

Even as the morons we elect to congress took until New Years to pass a tax bill that had been, essentially, in the works for over 10 years there was still time to add on a load of stinking special interest tax breaks engineered by Senator Max Baucus (as reported Tim Carney http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-max-baucus-rewards-ex-staffers-with-tax-breaks-for-their-clients/article/2517635):

Tax breaks for Hollywood, NASCAR, windmills, algae and multinational corporations ended up in the "fiscal cliff" bill thanks to President Obama, according to Senate Republican sources. But they were spawned by a web of lobbyists, donors and staffers surrounding Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Baucus' Finance Committee passed a bill in August extending 50 expiring deductions and credits for favored industries. At Obama's insistence, the Baucus bill was cut and pasted word for word into the cliff legislation. Set aside for a moment how this contradicts Obama's talk about "fair shares" and the need to diminish the influence of lobbyists, and look at what this raft of tax favors shows us about the Baucus Machine.

All this crap was like a barnacle waiting for a ship to float by to attach it to, that became the “Fiscal Cliff” tax bill.   The Senate can plan for this crony capitalist crap in advance but the aspects of taxation that actually affect average citizens, many of whom will have to wait until the end of February to file taxes and get their refunds, is ignored. 
In light of this I ask my reader, what is your fair share?  I will tell you, that it is the lowest amount you can legally get away with paying.  Unfortunately you and I do not have the millions of dollars to spend for expensive tax attorney lobbyist like the major corporations who employee Senator Max Baucus.  As becomes increasingly clear in America today nobody works for us.  

In America the Criminal Class Never Goes to Jail

I recently saw an interview with Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs opining on the need for America to rein in entitlement spending.  Of course I would have appreciated the interview more if it had taken place where it should have, with him behind bars.   Our countries financial crisis has been beautifully covered by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, his latest “Secrets and Lies of the Bailout” is a wonderful look at consequences of the “bailout” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104);

We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences. We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.

Out of the initial bailouts we have moved to “Wall Street Reform,” i.e. - permanent government support to the big banks, and this has skewed the markets in favor of the big banks (crony capitalism at its worst);

The first independent study that attempted to put a numerical value on the Implicit (government) Guarantee popped up about a year after the crash, in September 2009, when Dean Baker and Travis McArthur of the Center for Economic and Policy Research published a paper called "The Value of the 'Too Big to Fail' Big Bank Subsidy." Baker and McArthur found that prior to the last quarter of 2007, just before the start of the crisis, financial firms with $100 billion or more in assets were paying on average about 0.29 percent less to borrow money than smaller firms.

Apparently the government support that is good for Mr. Blankfein and his merry band of criminals at Goldman Sachs and on Wall Street, but it is NOT good for working Americans who might actually need entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare to live on.