As we struggle with the threat of economic collapse, we can take heart in the fact that Wall Street seems very happy with the idea of economic instability.  After all, that's what makes "playing the Market" so profitable... and fun.

"The Bankrupt State"

Here is my blog entry from Tuesday, September 23, 2008

enter "The Bankrupt State"

There is a little known plan created by the Neo-conservative think tanks called "The Bankrupt State." The plan is to get control of the government, with a Republican President and Congress, and then spend the federal government into bankruptcy. It doesn't matter what they spend the money on—though of course they want to channel as much of the money as they can into the pockets of their political supporters—it only matters that they essentially bankrupt the government by creating an enormous national debt. This plan was carried out under Reagan, Bush, & Bush II.

The point of this plan is to so hobble the federal government with debt that it will have to focus on essential functions of government. Other needs, like the environment, social services, oversight of corporations, social justice will not be funded. The big corporations--who support the Republicans—are especially concerned to stop investigations of corporate corruption. Recently it was disclosed that the Justice Dept. is actively investigating only 10% of major corporate crimes. Of that 10% only a tiny fraction will ever go to trial.

The administration of George W. Bush has pursued this plan with a vengeance. This is the primary reason we went to war with Iraq. The quickest way to spend money is on a war. The Bush administration has squandered many billions in Iraq and much of this money went into the pockets of Defense contractors and Bush's (and especially Cheney's) political friends. It is in the best interests of Bush's friends to prolong the war in Iraq for as long as possible, in order to squeeze every last nickel out of the war contracts. So don't look for an end to the war anytime soon. If the Democrats do get control of the House or Senate, look for Bush to block any investigation of war profiteering in the name of "national security."

 

Here is a revised and updated version from 9/15/11

Most people view the Bush administration as a failure. But, in fact, his was one of the most successful presidents in history-- from the point of view of his neo-con buddies.

There is a little known plan created by the Neo-conservative think tanks called "The Bankrupt State." The plan is to get control of the government, with a Republican President and Congress, and then spend the federal government into bankruptcy. It doesn't matter what they spend the money on—though of course they want to channel as much of the money as they can into the pockets of their political supporters—it only matters that they essentially bankrupt the government by creating an enormous national debt. This plan was carried out under Reagan, Bush, & Bush II. Right-wing pundits call this "starving the beast."

The point of this plan is to so hobble the federal government with debt that it will have to focus on essential functions of government. Other needs, like the environment, social services, oversight of corporations, health care, public education (K-12 and Higher Ed), federal highway construction, and social justice will not be funded.

In addition to presiding over this collapse of the federal government, a second goal is to collapse the Middle Class. The Elites have decided that the U.S. no longer needs a Middle Class to act as a buffer against an uprising of the lower classes. With media consolidation (almost all media outlets owned and controlled by less than a dozen corporations) the Elite can control this country without a Middle Class. Fox News is a favorite of the Corporate Elite in large part because of its lower middle-class audience and its focus on blaming the government instead of the corporations.

In the process, the Elites are presiding over the greatest transfer of wealth in history, by forcing the Middle Class into 401k retirement plans, and then collapsing the stock market. This inflating and collapsing of the Market will happen over and over again, as more and more money is siphoned off into the pockets of the Elites who can influence and predict the Market's ups and downs.

Then, to top it off (icing on the cake) they get to use these economic collapses as an excuse to funnel even more billions and billions into the multinational banks and corporations through tax breaks and incentives....

Lovely ....

The Congress and Corporate Media are currently hyping the "Debt Ceiling Crisis" as the next step in implementing the Shock Doctrine and trying to further destroy the Middle Class in America. The big banks and corporations have already positioned themselves to exploit this phony crisis.

The two parties will struggle for a few days to place blame on each other, but they are committed to undermining the Middle Class while shoveling money into the pockets of the wealthy oligarchs.

 

And here is a further update (Feb 27, 2013) :

It looks like the next step of the overall plan in now going into place.  Using the economic and political techniques set forth in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, the ruling establishment has continued in its goal of politically and economically dominating this country.

The plan of outsourcing jobs to China has pretty much run its course. It was part of the overall plan to weaken and destabilize the Middle Class, to damage public and private unions, and to defund and marginalize any groups that might oppose the bigger plan.

The bigger plan is to depopulate and “hollow out” the Midwest until the only things left are corporate farms, feedlots, commercial forests and coal mines. The Northeast and Southern California will be spared most of this planned economic collapse, but only because that’s where the wealthy want to live—and you don’t crap in your own back yard.

Right now the state governments in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Louisiana, etc., etc., are working to decimate the Middle Class in these states, as part of the overall plan to transform the Ohio & Mississippi Valley Regions into something resembling a 3rd world economic system.

The Values of "Religious Values"

The media attempt to show established religions in a positive light, but over and over again the leaders of these religions prove themselves to be bigoted, corrupt, vile, and venial.  This is the case, more often than not, and the people who aspire to leadership in any particular church are typically those who aspire to wealth and power, including the absolute servile obedience of the church members.  Few people have heard, for example, of the bank scandal that took place in Springfield, Missouri, and involved the leader of a large protestant denomination—it didn't make the national news.

In recent years, the scandals of Christianity have become so numerous that even True Believers must occasionally pause in wonder.  The errant holy men of just the last twenty years include such luminaries as Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Rev. Jim Bakker, Rev. Oral Roberts, Rev. Pat Robertson—and these are just the evangelical Christians who have a national television following.  Their crimes range from sexual peccadilloes to supporting African dictators. 

The Catholic Church is no better.  For example, it could easily be said of Mother Teresa that she never met a third-world dictator that she didn't like, or at least that she wouldn't take money from—even the mass-murderer Slobodan Milosovic.  Now Mother Teresa has been fast tracked to sainthood, as was the vile Nazi-sympathizer Pope Pius XII.  And as bad as Milosovic is, his evil pales by comparison with that of Adolf Hitler, who remained in good standing with the Catholic Church up to the time of his suicide. According to a witness, Hitler paused to pray to the Christian god before committing suicide in his bunker in Berlin. He was a good Christian, right up to the end.

Adolf Hitler and the German Churches

Over the last fifty years, efforts have been made to cast Adolph Hitler in the role of a skeptic, or even an atheist.  These claims are based on a book of Hitler's "table-talk"—conversations recorded by one of his close followers during his lifetime.  Recently, however, it has been shown that the English translation of Hitler's statements was badly skewed to make him sound like an atheist.  In fact, comparison with the original German shows that we have been had by (still another) pious fraud.  Hitler's comments were badly distorted by Christian translator to create the impression that he was ambivalent about the Christian churches.  

In fact, Hitler supported the churches and the German churches supported Hitler, with only a few exceptions. There is plenty of evidence for the religious leanings of the Nazis, including such things as having “Gott Mit Uns” (meaning “God With Us”—much like our own “In God We Trust”) put on uniforms, coins, banners, etc., and these actions clearly demonstrate the religious nature of Fascism. Following in Martin Luther's footsteps, Hitler hated the Jews and wanted to see them all dead, or at least sterilized so they could no longer "contaminate" the pure Aryan bloodline.

Similarly, Pope Pius XII disliked the Jews and had no real problems with the idea of killing as many as could be found.  It was only when the Jews in Rome were being rounded up to be sent to the death camps that the Pope—finding some spark of humanity still burning in his cold, dead soul—began a half-hearted effort to stop what was happening.  These were, after all "his Jews" and he didn't appreciate the German effort to take them away from him.  It appears that the Pope viewed the Jews of Rome with a certain sentimental fondness, much as you might feel toward a small dog that regularly relieved itself on your favorite rug.  He certainly felt that the Jews deserved whatever punishment fell to them, as "The Killers of the Christ"—but they were still his. And simply taking them away? That was too much, even for Pope Pius.

The Mind of “the Bible-believer”

In trying to understand the mind of “the Bible-believer” it is perhaps interesting to look toward what we know from the social sciences.   Some people look on organized religion as a kind of Ponzi scheme.  In the classic Ponzi scam, the swindler gets together a group of investors and cons them into recruiting more investors.  He pays off the early investors with money coming in from the later investors, so that the swindler and the people who got into the game early can make a lot of money.  Ultimately, however, the game runs out of people who can be persuaded to invest, and the whole game collapses in on itself.

      Unlike the classic Ponzi game, organized religion is a con game that never really ends. With organized religion you are not dealing with cash, but with something much more valuable: Faith.  The goal of the game is not to grab large amounts of cash quickly, but to entangle people emotionally in a religious organization centered on a religious belief system. The game doesn't end because none of the members get paid with real money--they only get their gold bricks when they die and go to "Heaven."

     Of course, the game is not just about money (though there is often plenty of that) but about drawing on people's time, money and other resources, including mental and physical resources.

      When Rev. Pat Robertson began his 700 club, he started by putting together 700 people who could each donate a thousand dollars.  From this small (relatively-speaking) beginning he built both a religious empire—including a Christian university in Virginia—and a commercial empire that included a cable channel, the Christian Broadcasting Network.  Robertson later sold the cable channel for millions (renamed "The Family Channel") to Rupert Murdoch.  Murdoch (who has never once been accused of being "Christian" in his values) has added this channel to his media empire, which includes the notoriously right-wing Fox News.

      The lines between Robertson's commercial empire and his religious empire are rather loosely drawn.  For example, Robertson has been criticized for using planes belonging to one of his religious charities to haul mining equipment for one of his commercial ventures in Africa.  Robertson also has a powerful political empire, with strong ties to right-wing Republicans and to several third-world dictators.  Rev. Pat Robertson represents, in one person, everything that is wrong with evangelical Christianity.  While constantly calling on his followers to search for spiritual renewal and make sacrifices (especially monetary sacrifices) Robertson himself is morally no better than some of the most notorious traveling fakirs of India.

      In Old Testament times, a person’s religious standing (Righteousness) was measured in the amount of money, property and servants you could accumulate. This still seems to be the measure used today, along with the number of “followers” or “tithing members” you lead.

      In the 19^th century (as with the O.T. Patriarchs) the Mormon Church also looked to the number of wives you had access to (as in, regularly get to boink) as a quick measure of your proximity to God’s Love.

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Earl Lee is the author of Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity (McFarland 2001)

These Ebooks have no Clothes

These Ebooks have no Clothes 

Why the future of ebooks is different from what you might think

                                    by Earl Lee

A kind of conventional wisdom has developed about the future of ebooks in libraries. In a recent post on COLLDV-L, Luke Swindler states that “With the passage of time, e-books will become increasingly accepted if not expected in lieu of print.” In his post, Swindler describes the many drawbacks of ebooks, but for him the eventual domination of ebooks over print seems certain. 

This result seems inevitable to everyone, like the melting of the glaciers. Even in studies that demonstrate the popularity of paper over ebooks, the authors feel compelled to proclaim the eventual victory of the ebook. The purchase of more and more ebooks is being pushed by vendors and encouraged by public library boards and library directors who positively salivate at the savings in staff costs and physical space. Smaller and smaller libraries providing access to more and more electronic texts seems to be a growing trend. The future, as many see it, is that one day a branch of the local public library will be indistinguishable from the Red Box at McDonald’s where people get their DVDs. Many of us wonder if this is a future we want.

But critics are starting to appear. At the 2012 Charleston Conference, Beth Jacoby described student dislike of ebooks, an attitude that has been widely noted by other librarians. Also, she wondered if there might be “a connection between learning style and the preference for print.” Similarly, an article by Maia Szalavitz in Time “Do E-Books Make it Harder to Remember What You Just Read?” (3/14/12) presents evidence that print texts are better formats for readers who are trying to retain information and ideas.  Electronic texts provide little physical context to support the act of remembering concepts, and this difference can be measured. People are simply less likely to retain information presented in an electronic format, compared with print. And readers seem to sense this viscerally.

There is a story that has made the rounds in Management classes for many years. It goes like this:

Once upon a time a pet food company created a new kind of dog food that was incredibly cheap to produce, and they rolled out a huge marketing campaign to introduce the product to customers. Despite hiring a first-rate advertising agency, sales were very disappointing. In desperation, the CEO called in all of the top executives for a brainstorming session to figure out what had gone wrong with the campaign.

 The meeting went on for hours. Statistical analysis was brought to bear on the problem. One VP argued that the mix of TV and print ads had been wrong. Another argued that the campaign had been too sloppy and had failed to feature the product logo enough. After the debate had raged for hours, the CEO felt the group had accomplished very little. He asked if anyone else had any ideas. Finally, one newly hired employee raised her hand and said, "Maybe the dogs don’t like it."

This, I believe is the main problem with ebooks. Many patrons don’t like them and prefer the familiar paper books. Their reasons may seem trivial, but I believe that these reasons are directly related to the experience of reading. I don’t want to discount the many people who have charged in and bought new and shiny nooks and kindles, but I don’t believe that ebooks will play a dominant role in the future of intellectual life in this country, much less the future of publishing or the future of libraries. The ebook format simply does not provide the tactile stimulation that serious readers, and especially scholars, want. Walking across campus here at Pittsburg State, I see many students carrying books—many have taken to using book bags with wheels to get around—but I rarely ever see a student sporting a new nook or kindle. The difference between electronic texts and paper is a serious issue for sophisticated readers. Entertainment, maybe—but Enlightenment, no.

Libraries may purchase video games like Halo or Call of Duty, or even Madden NFL 2012, which appeal to a young audience. But this is not the same audience that turns to scholarly and literary books. Your typical teenage adolescent may like the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, or (hopefully not) the 50 Shades of Grey series. Such fantastic fictions are enjoyed by many readers, and they may even inspire a high degree of product loyalty, not to mention endless reams of fan fiction. These books, games and videos also help the circulation statistics of public libraries; but I don’t think any of us really believe that they will be remembered, much less read, in thirty years. Much like the novels of Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, they will be recalled only in history books on the popular culture of the last century. Perhaps ebooks are a suitable format for this kind of popular fiction, much as cheap newsprint was in the 19^th century. 

Focusing on these kinds of entertainment media runs counter to the mission of libraries. And collecting these entertainment-oriented products is usually framed as a compromise to our "customers." We don't need to emulate bookstores whose sole purpose is to sell stuff without any concern for the results. Book selection should not be driven by the current fad or by the pressure to buy what's popular today. This notion of patron choice is what drives the hokum about Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA) which is the current hot topic in collection management. This idea makes about as much sense as letting students pick their own textbooks for use in a class.  People who have little knowledge of a subject and even less experience with books really don't know how to select books. Students who can't figure out the veracity or reliability of web pages probably are not going to be good selectors. Patron selection is clearly a garbage-in, garbage-out process. As tempting as it may be, librarians can not abdicate responsibility for what goes on the library shelf.

But where libraries are concerned, the most telling fact about ebooks—and the one thing that ebook promoters try to avoid—is the lack of statistics that can be gathered to demonstrate ebook usage. Even though ebooks have been around for some time, the software for measuring usage doesn’t seem to have advanced much at all. We can measure the number of times an ebook is “touched”—that is a person has pulled up an ebook to look at it, at least momentarily. But is the ebook really being used? Some librarians have found that students look at the ebook briefly, in order to see if it is worth reading, and then go request the book in paper from inter-library loan. If only “touching” an ebook is the major way it is being used, then the argument for more ebooks falters. And if students realize that they can, often just as easily, use Google Books or the “search inside the book” feature on Amazon, then the future for ebooks becomes rather bleak.

Ebooks certainly have a role to play, but it is not the role that we suppose. They are not destined to be The Masters of the Universe that intellectuals and scholars turn to for study. But ebooks do have their uses. Students have access to reference books, journals and government documents in electronic form, which they can use to get the necessary facts for their research papers. But paper books will continue to dominate our cultural lives for many years to come. Assuming that we don’t get lost in our social media and hundreds of cable channels, our culture will survive. And the paper book is here to stay.

Earl Lee is Collection Development Librarian at Pittsburg State University and author of Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity (McFarland, 2001). His most recent book is From the Bodies of the Gods (Park Street, 2012).