Food For Thought

Okay, I'm old. Not ancient, mind you. Just been around the block a time too many to be called cute, innocent, bursting-on-the-scene, or any other youthful descriptor you might want to apply to a biomass of energy exposed to all the universal elements for over fifty years.

I shave, but jeez  all those little lines seem to be bunker trenches that follicles dive inside of to hide from the artillery blast of the electric razor, and then spring back after the scheduled shock-and-awe of the morning routine to stubble the whole face.

Problems are like those damn hair follicles, just when you think you've mowed them down for good they are back at you scratching your sweetie's face, or maybe some other sensitive areas of bliss, and ruining the whole night.

People and problems are inseparable. Some have a few more than others, but problems are an experience we all share. The biggest problems have always been our own, and were ones that close friends and family got to hear repeated on a frequent basis. What are friends and family for, after all? 

Our daily problems could include being short on cash for the rent, the car payment, credit cards, school supplies, a doctor's bill, drugs, or food. There might have been a relationship problem with a significant other, friend, coworker or family member to chew over regularly. We might fret over deadlines at school, or on the job, or stacked up work with no end in sight and these all heap themselves on the problem pile.

All of these were enough to keep the headache medicine business booming, but now when the macro problems of the credit markets, the job markets, unemployment, the housing crisis, the health care system, the education system, the never-ending wars at home and abroad, the energy crisis, global climate change, and with every-other-disaster-waiting-to-be-broadcast-into-your-home life today seems to be all about problems, which must be what all those anti-depressant scrips are all about.

Why can't we solve problems today? It feels like our petty little individual problems now seem like small droplets in the ocean of problem scum. The government today has no power over the forces that have made a ruin of the economy and our total society. We live under giant corporate rules where the decision makers are loyal not to people, not to governments, not to any religious or philosophical tenet but only to the word money. Money emerged these past three decades as the reigning theology for the world.

There is a fascinating documentary on the subject of corporations and this new religion, or fierce devotion to all things money.  The Corporation is a documentary of extraordinary breadth and intelligence, and is based on the book by Joel Bakan. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. It has a Who's who cast of major thinkers and protagonists that range from Milton Friedman to Michael Moore and every point of view in between. The DVD comes not only with the excellent documentary, but also includes on a second disc a fabulous interview collection with all the major people who spoke in the film.

Problems need to be understood in order that we may solve them. We have been misled for too long on the nature of our biggest problem, and we must start to retake our culture and our rights back from those who truly have co-opted them under the guise of a legal system the people now cannot afford to participate in as advocates. What the big companies never told the world was that when they cut out the middlemen they cut  out most of  the people. The Corporation is truly essential viewing for anyone who seems perplexed by our rapid loss of personal liberty amid a dysfunctional and impotent set of governments. 


 

Only Size Matters in the Economy of Scales

In my past life I was an executive at a great entertainment retail company. The people at the top of the company never viewed themselves as executives, really. The company ran with records guys and gals, books guys and gals, videos guys and gals, advertising guys and gals, warehouse people, accountants, supervisors, and clerks of all stripes who all shared a passion for music, reading, art and film. Most in-house conversations were about selling more of what we had experienced, either very recently, or at some juncture of our peculiar life's time-line. Shared diverse experiences in the stores and head offices were shared with an eager and intelligent growing vendor and consumer base, which made it a perfect fit for two decades of commercial and personal success.

Those days are gone. Not only within the former industry where I worked, but in so many other industries throughout the world of commerce. At the end, the company, like so many others in a few short years time, had become overwhelmed by global forces too powerful to withstand. Size, and the subsequent scales of efficiency,became all that mattered in the business world. Small companies went bye-bye.

For years, I spent useless hours wondering what actions I might have taken to save my little business world and those that inhabited it, but finally realized immutable forces at such a high level were busy transforming business into something not seen since the the end of the 19th Century. Globalism, under the benign term, free market, had reduced the multitude to the handful, and had brought about the same horrific factory working conditions to the labor force that existed a century ago.

Globalism is simply a new word for Colonialism. The only difference is that conglomerate corporations now dominate the world markets instead of the imperial dynasties that ruled governments in the past. However, many of the same families who ruled nations as sovereigns in that age now simply rule through corporate boards of directors within a labyrinth of shell organizations, trusts, foundations, banks and businesses. I must say one has to really tip one's hat to the remarkable change of guise that the ruling class has made for itself these last sixty years, and particularly these last three decades.

In my former life, I used to watch every movie I could lay my hands on. It was my job, and I was up to the challenge. I have seen the same plots reworked, the same explosions filmed, and the same obligatory music interlude to promote the latest soundtrack entrant more times than I have made keystrokes on all the keyboards I have ever pounded on in my lifetime. I don't watch that many commercial movies these days, and those that I do view need to be pretty special in there own quirky or spectacular way. I do, however, watch as many documentaries from small independent or publicly funded film-makers as I can get my hands on.

Recently, I watched a tremendously informative PBS documentary called Commanding Heights: The Battle For The World Economy. This documentary is based on a book by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. This film gives the viewer great background information on the struggles of economic ideas, movements and history while providing startling detailed accounts of our current financial crisis and the warning signs of how this collapse came to happen. It is a very pro-capitalist pro-globalist look with a late 1990s view, although the film does include a brief 9/11 account and the potential financial impact this would have on the markets.

The title for the book and this filmed translation and update comes from a famous line Vladimir Lenin delivered on his "New Economic Policy" for post war Russia. Commanding heights refer to those segments of the economy that dominate the field, much like any good commander will utilize the high ground for advantage on the battlefield.

This documentary is truly must see TV for our age. If people want to understand how this dreadful economic circumstance came to be this decade, people need to understand who and what is behind this reality. This is a great first step in finding clarity. It's good for the soul.

Sports Porn The Golden State of Football

The NFL regular season ended last Sunday. The NFL Playoffs got off to some boring blow out action for three games, and one game to remember for a long time in Phoenix, AZ.

Here in California (the lost coast for football in America), the big pigskin news finds Pete Carroll leaving the University of Southern California for the Seattle Seahawks. As I write this blog post there is no official word yet that the deal has been done, but enough chatter from every outpost of football conversation to suggest the deal is done. For years Carroll has always maintained he was not interested in going back to the NFL unless he was granted the type of control over a team he currently enjoys at the college level. However, times and circumstances can change a dynamic. Like NCAA violations that put your program in big jeopardy. The USC program over the past several years has been on the NCAA radar for Reggie Bush allegations, just had their basketball program bulldozed by the O.J. Mayo affair, and must deal with the Joe McKnight SUV episode.

The intriguing issue regarding Pete Carroll, and his potential new job in the NFL, is the Rooney Rule. This is the NFL Affirmative Action Clause, which stipulates minority candidates must always be interviewed for any open coaching slot among the NFL's 32 teams. Teams do not have to hire a minority candidate, but they always have to interview one. In this case, the one guy appears to be the Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator, Leslie Frazier, as the obligatory minority candidate. How this plays out could make for some interesting chat room discussions over the NFL off-season.

Off-seasons are what passes as interest for the remaining old fart fans, and the fantasy gamblers of pro football in California. I've followed the NFL for more than 50 years and can never recall any lengthier period of time when California mattered so little to The League. The NFL today promotes a small collection of teams in the upper Midwest and Northeast portion of the country. The NFL is no longer a national league. It has become a very regional league. Look at the eight division cumulative season records for the decade.

AFC
New England (112-48)      Pittsburgh (103-56-1)
New York Jets (80-80)     Baltimore (95-68)
Miami Dolphins (79-81)    Cincinnati (68-98-1)
Buffalo Bills (66-94)          Cleveland (57-103)

Indianapolis (115-45)         Denver (93-67)
Tennessee (91-69)             San Diego (85-75)
Jacksonville (76-84)           Kansas City (70-90)
*Houston (49-79)              Oakland (62-98)

NFC
Philadelphia(103-56-1) Green Bay (95-65)
New York (88-72)       Minnesota (84-76)
Dallas (82-78)              Chicago (81-79)
Washington (70-90)      Detroit (42-118)

New Orleans (83-77)    Seattle (82-78)
Carolina (79-81)           St. Louis (71-89)
Tampa Bay (79-81)      San Francisco (68-92)
Atlanta (75-84-1)         Arizona (62-98)

Cumulative records do not tell the whole story, just a part of the story. It is curious to note in this decade that the Colts with the best overall record have only one Super Bowl appearance and victory to show for all the excellence. New England has made four trips to the Super Bowl with three wins to their credit. However New England's best team, and maybe the best team the NFL has ever seen with a perfect record going into a championship game, was beaten by an average New York Giants team. The Steelers have two wins in two Super Bowls this decade, but the Eagles have only made the Big Dance one time and were beaten by the Patriots. The teams in the South and the West have been chumps in both Conferences this decade.

This trend started when Los Angeles lost their pro football franchises back in 1994. That 1994 season was the only time in NFL history when two teams from California met in the Super Bowl for the Championship. The 49ers pummeled the San Diego Chargers 49 to 26 in Miami, Florida on January 29, 1995. With the season done the Rams upped and moved to St. Louis for some quick cash infusion, and the Raiders did the same by moving back to Oakland, and getting a sweet stadium deal done at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium complex. The League gave a reluctant thumbs up to the Rams move back to a former NFL city (St. Louis) thinking the Raiders would stay in Los Angeles. Al Davis, always a contrary poke-in-the-eye-kind-of-guy to the NFL, bargained with a desperate city of Oakland for a bunch of cash and left the NFL without a team in the second largest media market in the nation.

All those glorious California connections of playoff games and East/West, North/South rivalry match-ups have evaporated over the 15 years of NFL silence in the City of Angels. For the most populous portion of California it was lights out, and no young fans to cultivate. The state moved on without the NFL, and the NFL in a snit decided no stadium in California now measured up to Super Bowl standards and told the three owners of California based teams, and every major city in the state, that California was out as a host city for any future Super Bowls. This occurred at the 2003 Super Bowl in San Diego, California. This was the last time a team from California appeared in the Super Bowl. The 2002 season also marked the last time both the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers had a winning record in an NFL season.

Yes, California still has a team in San Diego, but as good as that Chargers team has been these past few years they have made no impact on the national football scene. They still employ a potential Hall of Fame running back, although given where most football writers live and work, and who vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame, LaDainian Tomlinson might not get enshrined until his later years, if at all. The Chargers have an identity problem. Since they are on the West Coast they have no identity.

The winds of change may shifting within the NFL. This is still the bully league, or as Mark Cuban might say the Ugly American Syndrome League , but California still has roughly 35 million to 40 million sets of eyeballs that corporate sponsors want to target and lie to every week. And the lack of competition in the state exacts a toll every year in declining interest out west.

There has been more conversations of an established team moving into Los Angeles these past few months than at any other time in this 15 year absence. Several teams are actually being considered as Angelo possibilities from the Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, and the Rams or the Raiders again. All this talk has been fueled by the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to lapse after next year. There will be no salary cap for 2010, and major revenue sharing agreements with smaller market teams are set to end this year as well. Teams on the edge could find this set of circumstances the most compelling reason to move to Southern California within a couple of years.

The real caveat to relocation in Los Angeles is the California economy, which has suffered like no other state in the country with tremendous financial losses this decade. California is on the brink of becoming Argentina, with a two class population in shambles overburdened with monstrous debt and no government to govern. The public in this state is also very disinclined to pay for a billionaire's stadium. Some real creative financing will need to come into play on the stadium deal.

I believe the test for a team to move in SoCal soon will be indicated by a teams in the Super Bowl this year. With all the money Jerry Jones spent in building the new Cowboy Stadium I believe the Cowboys are a near certain Super Bowl contestant. If the Chargers prevail in the AFC I think that is the signal the move will be on. If the Colts or Ravens are the match-up against Dallas it will be a big billboard endorsing all quiet on the western front.

Enjoy the playoffs if you can.

Celebrate Reform and Get None

I still keep an eye out for the mail these days. The summaries from Medicare and my dad's other insurance carrier have slowed down to a crawl these past few weeks. The "estate" might be in the clear. Estate is such a grand term to describe a few thousand dollars. I love the word. It so elevates my every day reality.

As the mail carrier drops another small load of paper products into the box, I scurry out with dog in hand to check the day's haul. Mmmm, a notice from CitiGroup, but not the monthly statement and bill.

"What insurance are they selling us now, Darby-doo?"

My-my, this is not an insurance offer, but a complete change of terms on the existing credit card agreement. Oh my, it looks like 24% as the new annual rate. Hmmm, that works out to an interest rate increase of more than two and half times the interest terms I currently pay CitiGroup. So much for the value of a credit rating of over 800, and being a valued customer for many years.

Wait.........

I can have a special rate locked in as a valued long time cardholder with stellar credit. Oh yes! Sounds good to me.

Wait......

I need to transfer at least $3,000 in current card debt from some other card company to my Citi card to qualify for this fabulous offer that actually raises my interest rate a full point more than my current agreement. Hmmm. That does not sound so good, Darbs.

My only option with this company is apparently to opt out, which reduces my already pretty lean credit lines. Is this what our fabulous legislators had in mind when they put a band aid on another one of America's crooked industries and called it reform? What was all that hoopla over back in May of 2009 when all the media announced the big Credit card reform act?

It simply should be against the law to be allowed to charge outrageously high interest rates on credit cards, or for the privilege of cashing a check in this country. When did we actually legalize loan sharking in America?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this wonderfully promoted credit card reform bill reformed nothing. As we watched our millionaire Senators take apart the Health Care Reform House Bill that offered Americans some hope with a potential public option, it is clear the plutocracy of wealthy elites in the Senate feel the American voters are so inept and splintered at this juncture in time no fallout will occur over another failed act to solve any problem for working people and the unemployed stuck in this third world nation.

Can't wait to experience health care reform now.

End of the Zero Decade

With a decade that began with a dot.com crash, and suffered through all the horrible crashes and collapses in between, it seems fitting that this final week of the Zero Decade ends with our guard down in Afghanistan amid political jockeying centered on a guy in adult diapers getting past various airport security personnel.

I would be sure that 2010 could not possibly be worse, but with so many people living on the brink any stupid huckster's misplaced feint could cause everything to be much worse. We have too much concentrate of bait in the world bowl. Sip carefully, all.

Right now, with Jackson Browne harmonizing his words through a rich David Lindley arrangement on the Infinity speakers, I am grateful our little Musette kitty made it safely home after three days gone on the coldest nights of the year. Let us try to think for ourselves and put the pundits and their sales pitches of discord behind us this new year. Let us hold those we cherish close and listen to their hearts for comfort.

Happy New Year to you all!

Peace.