Ogre-oid: CA Voters Registered GOP by Fake Pot Petition

From TPM - Orange County authorities are launching an investigation into possible voter registration fraud after a local newspaper reported over a hundred cases of voters being tricked into registering as Republicans by petitioners who asked them to sign petitions for, among other causes, legalizing pot. [more]

Ladies and gentlemen!  The party who screams the loudest about voter registration fraud once again is the party guilty of voter registration fraud!  SURPRISE!!!

War's monopoly on America's social identity

The April 17, 2010 NY Times article "Detroit seeks exit from doom highway" reveals a great deal about America and its denial of its own social existence. The article is another bit of American kitsch that sugar-coats an obviously dreary situation. But the cultural problem that underlies the article is the assumption that social problems do not require social solutions--only individual ones. The article reports that there are individuals, some "celebrities" and others "ordinary" (notice the reinforcement of class here) who are doing great things like growing vegetables and restoring ghettos to try and bring Detroit out of its apparent state of collapse. The article ends with the author, N. Genzlinger, predictably giving the state of Detroit a typically sappy, American twist: even though Detroit may be doomed, it's "inspiring" to see individuals doing something to make things better. May I ask what is "inspiring" about a city doomed to fail? Again, the social--city--is ignored and the individual--"I (and the reader) find this inspiring" is all that matters. An entire city can go to shit but as long as the indivdual reading about it finds inspiration, all is well. The plight of Detroit reminds me of post-Katrina New Orleans, and the typical American response that society, e.g. the government, had no responsibility to do anything about it. But the reality is that America does have a social identity and an awareness that as a nation we act collectively, socially, not just as individuals. Slogans like "Country First" (from the McCain-Palin campaign), "Freedom Isn't Free" (Persian Gulf War), and "The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts" (pro sports cliche) can't exist in a society that does not have a social awareness. The problem is not the lack of social awareness but the sad reality that fighting wars has a monopoly on that social awareness and the social identity it fosters. There are no social solutions to social problems of poverty, health care, education, racism, or urban decay--but there is when it comes to terrorism and crime: war. The answer: war on terror and war on drugs. Leave it to "individuals" to deal with the doom of American cities.

The Vicious War and Media Cycle

Remember how a few days ago we heard that the top two al-Qaeda leaders had been killed in Iraq? Ah, the nostaglic memories of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay being killed and their corpses being circulated on the internet! Such inspiraiton and excitement! Well, just as the deaths of Hussein and his son amounted to nothing in terms of making progress in the Iraq conflict--now in its third decade--the deaths of these top two al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq resulted in at least 58 civilian deaths in Baghdad just days later (see NY Times, April 24, 2010). The media, though, pretends never to catch on to the pattern: the military reports a so-called "success," then a few days later body parts are flying. Can you imagine what it would be like if a bomb went off in your boring, zombie hole-in-the-ground U. S. A. town and you were left to carry your charred and bloodied loved one around in a daze of smoke and burnt flesh while more bombs were going off? But since that's not as bad as abortion or medical marijuana, then who cares? The American people of the 21st century have to be the sickest, most unfeeling creatures ever to walk this planet. I swear, people are under some kind of spell. How this cycle can keep repeating is as puzzling to me as it is repugnant.

"Remember, His Guts are Hanging Out!"

"Pushing the Limits" from the April 17, 2010 C-J is the latest example of war-glorifying propoganda courtesy America's free press. This piece gives an insider view of the hardcore military training at Fort Knox, KY where soldiers go three days operating under a simulated Al-Qaeda attack. The soldiers go with little sleep and food: "the pain and agony helps you prepare," says one of the seargents. Here is a perfect example of how the post-human future of America in which people are engineered into robots: things that exist only to work and have no feelings except pain, which is exactly how robots are described in Carl Kapek's 1920 play Rossums Universal Robots. The military-industrial complex is an ideology obsessed with never-ending war and institutionally engineered misery. The quote above from the seargent betrays the agenda of never-ending war. Remember Einstein: "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." The seargent's very use of the word "prepare" shows the military is not there to prevent or deter conflict but to perpetuate it. The fact the C-J and NY Times consistently glorify war (see earlier post about Valentine's Day pro-war propoganda)demonstrates mainstream America's tireless bloodlust despite the carnage of the Bush-Cheney butchery from the previous decade. The seargent's command to "remember, his guts are hanging out" shouted to soldiers simulating carrying a wounded fellow soldier out of harm's way is further support for my idea that mainstream Americans are necrophiles, obsessed with the human body as corpse or mutilated specimen. Familes and children can read this morbid fantasy, but we're not going to encourage masturbation in sex education classes in middle school--that might encourage people to watch porn, and interfere with the preparation for more war.

Dark Days for Horseracing

The April 28, 2010 NY Times gives some spotlight to the upcoming Kentucky Derby, but the news is not good. The Kentucky horse breeding and horse racing industry has become a microcosm of American economic failure: the assumption that the same things will always be successful and that more and more and more money should be put into it. The article reports that horse breeders overestimated the demand for top racehorses and are now stuck with selling horses and horse farms that nobody wants because the investment is too expensive and potential yield not worth it. This is perfect for a state that assumes time only exists so people can wear watches and stick calendars on their kitchen walls. Kentucky has done nothing in over a quarter century that is remotely progressive or anticipates a future where maybe everything will not be exactly the way it has always been. The Triple Crown teeters on obsolescence: the Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore that hosts the Preakness is going bankrupt and the Belmont may get cancelled due to lack of funds. And nobody outside the Bluegrass could give a shit either way. Happy Derby!

European Debt Crisis and the Euro

Call it currency karma. The EU's obsession with Americanizing Europe has led to just that: failure. For centuries, each European nation had its own currency, and while that may have inconvenienced businesspeople crossing borders, it worked just fine. In its desire to turn sovereign nations into the equivalent of states, the euro currency, in less than a decade, has become a financial mess, fragmenting relationships among nations it took decades to forge in the post WWII era. The wealthier nations in the EU, foremost Germany, are saddled with the burden of essentially bailing out Greece, which is on the edge of bankruptcy. A "spillover effect" also looms, as the status of Greece's debt has reached "junk level" according to the NY Times (April 28, 2010). Prior to the euro, poorer European nations could devalue their currency to boost exports when faced with financial difficulty. But the massive bureaucracy that has come with the euro--fourteen nations that all have to act in concert and with approval from Brussels--makes such an option obsolete. Now Spain and Portugal are right behind Greece in line. The response of Germany's president to the idea her country will play the role of continental welfare dispensary is somewhat understandable as well as predictably harsh and ethnocentric. The jist: "Germany has huddled together with its back to the financial storm" or something like that. My point is not a criticism of Germany but the foolish notions of the euro and the EU's America-envy complex. Europe has essentially abandoned a liberal economic system based on slow but sustainable growth, strong regulation of business, relative high taxation appropriated for health care, education, and infrastructure, and replaced it with a trans-national currency designed to rival and overtake the dollar as the dominant world currency. In effect, Europe got tired of being Europe and wanted to become like America--become superrich at any cost and phase out programs and policies that improve the quality of life of the people. Well, Europe is getting its wish to become just like America. Europe is going hard-core right wing and the euro promises continued protracted financial failure that will widen the divide between rich and poor countries and individuals.

Ogre-oid: Oklahoma Abortion Laws

At least Oklahoma's governor vetoed these laws one of which mandates not only a pre-abortion ultrasound but requires the pregnant woman be able to see it and the person administering the ultrasound point out the details of the fetus and the other allows doctors to lie or withhold information about deformed fetuses. Unfortunately the Republican controlled legislature overrode her and these fundamentally horrible laws are in effect. How many years will it take them to reach the Supreme Court?

General Bloomberg cracks down on artists

Michael "the-Mad-money-Man-of-Manhattan" Bloomberg continues his impressive run as dictator of New York by going after local artists trying to sell their art in public parks. Thank God! That should alleviate the PTSD of New Yorkers who experienced the attacks of September 11. This kind of backward, small-town bullying further betrays NYC as a has been. Intelligent, progressive people neither do nor put up with this sort of chickenshit scapegoating. And that's exactly what it is. The rationale is of course public safety, e.g., "People should have clear pathways to enjoy our parks in a safe manner." So the presence of a bunch of artists is a threat to the safety of tough, street-smart New Yorkers. This is a place where a couple of years ago people were setting their watches to the multi-ton construction cranes collapsing and crushing pedestrians. Apparently Bloomberg feels Manhattan has too many artists and not enough high-rise buildings. The crackdown on artists in NYC's parks is just another example of the city's relentless class warfare with its billionaire general at the helm. If you're not rich enough to have a gallery in the Chelsea district, you're not an artist. And if you're not going to work for the establishment, you're not even a citizen with basic rights.

Artists attend Cherokee Police Parade

This weekend, hundreds of artists showed up to take part in the Louisville Police Department parade, where LMPD strutted around Cherokee Park triangle in all kinds of post-9-11 equipment: cops were on bikes, mounted patrol, on foot--and the sherriff's office even had their own golf cart type buggies. Shiny patrol cars with light flashing were stationed at every block. In these tough times, it was nice to see the affluent art community come and out and show some support for the chronically underfunded and marginally influencial local police force. As we all know, artists, children, and old people eating ice cream are a perenniel social threat, so I say the more police and more police equipment, the better!

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 15

This week's show features a surprise call-in from a listener!



mp3 download

The Big Lie(s) - 1

I have begun another series at my other blog.

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 14

4/16/2010 episode 14 (click to download)

Ogre-oid: Mitch McConnell's Opposition to Financial Reform

Mitch McConnell is a typical Republican in that nothing that comes out of his mouth is either true or logical.  "We don't need financial reform" is not just a ludicrous statement when it comes from the Senate Minority Leader.  Kentucky sucks for putting that man in office... repeatedly.

Corporate Taxes

Tax Day Ogrefest

While my good life-long friend and MoPod colleague is frantically trying to finish his taxes on time--no doubt causing him to miss work and thus not make money on which he would have to pay even more taxes--billionaires right now are coasting through tax season because the American people are convinced that super wealthy people--the ones who benefit most from American society, shouldn't have to pay taxes.
I don't where to begin. Everything is so fucked up, I guess it doesn't matter. Like fishing during a willowfly hatch, I'll cast a line in any direction and catch something.

No matter what, any discussion of politics or government never has any substance or deals with policy. Discussions are always contextualized by meaningless abstractions: big or small government, left-wing, right-wing. Why are people angry about health care reform? It's big government! How does a person not getting medical attention make someone else's life better? What is accomplished by denying people access to health care? Americans' attitudes toward health care reform are selfish and puerile and quintessentially conservative:  They do not want for others what they want for themselves.

In today's NY Times and the local C-J, the focus is on the mounting tea party movement and its congregation of angry people. Isn't that great? The dominant emotion is anger, and that is the force driving the country and undoubtedly the upcoming November elections. The anger dervies from the miserable, never-improving economy, which collapsed during the end of the eight-year sadist-fest of Bush-Christ and Cheney. The collapse happened because of mean-spirited economic policies that rig families to fail by deliberately making sure the wealth is always distributed upward. Don't like big government? What the fuck do you think war is? Who fights wars? Shoe companies? Banks? No, the government does--it's a branch of the government called the military. Bet you've heard of it. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are incredibly expensive, so if you don't mind paying for those wars, you have no grounds to bitch about anything "big" government might want to pay for, like someone getting a life-saving operation, or an education. The economic collapse of 2008 also was the consequence of over a quarter-century of economic policy of raising deficits, privatizing social services, skyrocketing prison populations and the war on drugs, a war in the middle east that's really been going on since 1991 on several fronts, and an obsession with destroying any kind of service that actually helps make people's lives better--which is not "big" government but merely decent, civilized human behavior.

Bank bailouts and stimulus spending that obviously aren't helping people who've been out of work for twenty months piss me off too. But if I'm going to get upset about something this important, I'm also going to invest the time and energy to make as accurate as possible a determination of why things have gone wrong. First of all, health care reform, which passed just weeks ago, has come AFTER all of these problems, so obviously it isn't the CAUSE, and it's TOO EARLY to declare more people having health care equals the end of the world. In fact, if times are tough economically, one would think affordable, if not free, health care would be a welcome relief from barely bearable financial duress.

It's pathetic beyond words for a mass of people in this country to be angry at the way things are going and yet still endorse and not protest the most expensive, wasteful, and costly things the government insists on perpetuating: THE WARS. If you're upset at what's going on, you can't ignore the "biggest" policy of your "big" government: keep fighting wars, spending tons of money, and killing those civilians (remember no civilians are being killed at this exact instant, so that means the wars are getting better). Most Americans are STILL convinced that progress is being made in Iraq and Afghanistan even though these wars have been going on for nearly twenty years and show no signs of reaching a successful conclusion. In fact, they've gone on so long, at this point I have no idea how they could be a success.

The tea party epitomizes the mindless anger of alienation that in the end promises to do nothing but perpetuate the very policies that have created the conditions that are making everyone angry. Vote in another squadron of Republicans in November and you'll get more of the same policies and objectives that have led to the current state of misery. Protest against everything but the wars and you'll get more war--which is what mindlessly angry people want. As long as people are getting killed, this apparently makes the Christian right feel better about themselves.

What's all this got to do with taxes? The fact that many honest, regular, hard-working Americans are frantically trying to get their taxes filed right now while rich people don't pay taxes at all is yet another consequence of policies that have been around since the late 70s. Most people are not, cannot be, and will not become rich. How miserable do people have to become when they don't want their brothers and sisters to have health care but will stand up in righteous indignation because rich people who live in another universe might have to pay more taxes? How can you be angry at Obama for high taxes when he recently lowered the tax rate for "most Americans?" Yet only 2% of tea baggers are aware of this basic fact. How's that for hard-working? But who cares--just get angry at everything and everyone but the rich and their government whores who will gladly ride your anger to Washington and proceed to shove the same miserable shit down your throats for the foreseeable future. Make sure that the conditions that make you angry never change, and take solice that someone else has it even worse than you do. Tax day may only come once a year--at least for those of us who pay taxes--but Ogrefest is a year-round event. And remember, if things get bad enough, you can always enlist and go to the oil fields and kill people, some of them civilians and journalists. What better way to show your anger than to kill people . . . and even get paid a little bit for doing it?

Modus Operandi Podcast episode 13 available now

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Ogre-oid: Crash The Tea Party a hoax?

So I thought this was a great idea but I noticed how many people on the left thought it was counterproductive.  Then Greg Correll of slate.com did some investigative work. 

NYC, USA take backward stance on waste-to-energy technology

Today's NY Times reports that while Europe has built 400 energy plants that convert garbage into energy in Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands, the U.S. shows no interest in integrating this technology as a means of curbing carbon emissions that is cheaper than landfill disposal. While Europe plans on building more waste-to-energy incinerators, the U.S. has no plans to change its current methods of waste disposal. In other words, while the U.S. spends more money on military technology, prisons, and Barack Palin's drill-baby-drill project, Europe spends money on technology that improves environmental conditions and lowers energy costs for everyone.

The American reaction to the incinerators is typically shallow, short-sighted, and selfish. State officials worry the incinerators would hurt recycling programs--even though the European incinerators only use garbage that is non-recyclable (note the relentless American aversion to basic facts and the zero-sum game mentality that concludes lowering energy costs and improving environmental conditions is bad because it will cut into recycling programs). Environmental groups in America claim, "incinerators are really the devil" (note how even American environmentalists are driven by an obsessive, fundamentalist, judgmental mentality).

The best take on New Yorker attitudes toward the European incinerators comes from Nickolas J. Themelis, professor of engineering at Columbia University and a waste-to-energy advocate, who calls New York City's vigorous opposition to the creation of these incinerators environmentally and economically "irresponsible." Quote: "It's so irrational. I've almost given up on New York. It's like you're living in a village of Hottentots who look up and see an airplane--when everybody else is using airplanes--and they say, 'No, we won't do it; it's too scary.' " This perspective is consistent with the comments I made during our last Podcast that NYC has become a has-been--totally non-progressive, senile, set in its ways, assuming that just because it is NYC that it is hip and the coolest place ever. Part of the hang up in NYC over waste-to-energy incinerators is the relentlessly selfish attitude of New Yorkers who would bitch endlessly about where the incinerators would be located even though they cause no noise or odor. The snobby NYC attitude toward garbage disposal is to use trucks that contribute to carbon emissions pollution to dump the garbage in Ohio or South Carolina landfills, reinforcing their provincal attitude that in this global age the world begins and ends at the Hudson River.

New Yorkers' off-the-charts ultra-conservative attitudes are a sharp contrast to the ever-increasingly conservative Danes, even those in Horsholm, a conservative region with the highest-per-capita income where the mayor wants to expand the incinerator program because the incinertors decrease heating costs and increase home values. If we were talking about wiping out a once-thriving neighborhood in Brooklyn to build a basketball arena, then everything would go smoothly. But a scientific or intellectual approach to a daunting, 21st century problem that has nothing to do with entertainment? Forget it. That's not hip for the people of NYC and their too-cool-for-school mentality. Maybe if Steve Jobs could show that waste-to-energy incinerators make his iPad more efficient to use, then Big Applers would come around.

To find out more, the article is titled "Europe finds clean fuel in trash; U.S. sits back" page A1, NY Times, 13 April 2010.

More Civilian Afghan Corpses courtesy Uncle Sam

Today's NY Times reports that a U.S. Army convoy killed five Afghan civilians and seriously wounded up to 18--meaning more causalties could follow--when military personnel opened fire on a passanger bus that, according to the military, approached a checkpoint "at a high rate of speed." This is the latest incident where U.S. military has fired upon and killed civilians. The typical American response consists of cliches: "it's a tragic loss of life"--as though anyone needed that insight--and excuses: young soldiers have to make split-second decisions when facing approaching vehicles at checkpoints. But as one Afghan from the bus asked, "If they're concerned, why not shoot out the tires?" and thus force the bus to stop. According to the Times, over thirty people have been killed and eighty wounded by U.S military, and not a single one of these individuals posed a threat. "It seems they are opening fire on civilians intentionally," says one Afghan. Of course, most Americans couldn't care less about these civilian deaths. Since the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, as sports programming reminds us, it's all for the better that these people died. Life isn't perfect (especially if you're getting killed). And as we've learned from the Iraq, as soon as someone dies, American or not, then it isn't happening anymore, so everything is getting better. Since these five people have already died, they aren't dying right now, which means conditions are improving.

Reuters Murders (cartoon)

Ogre-oid update: toxic cauldron in Louisville's west end

Ogre-oid update: toxic cauldron in Louisville's west end.

LIVE: I just returned from an investigative tour of the "campground" area of Louisville surrounded by the chemical plants and toxic waste of Rubbertown. Unexpectedly, several residents approached us and began to tell us more about the detrimental effects on the local community: unusually high rates of cancer, people dying of cancer in their 40s, birth defects, chrones disease, lupus, and neurological defects. The Commonwealth's environmental board inspects the area, tells the city to do something about, MSG writes a report that something's being done about it, and that's it. According to one local, for years "plackard" trucks would dump all kinds of chemicals, then use a "stompard" to stomp the toxic waste into the ground as compactly as possible. There are children living everywhere in this area. The waste includes paint thinner, chloride, corrosive and caustic acid, cadallitic (sp?) converters, and god knows what else. According to locals, all of the chemical plants do it. It's the dirty little environmental secret of the city: regulatory agencies tell chemical plants to get their act together and clean things up--and they do, by dumping their waste in a neighborhood, where, by the way, the local residents are not allowed to sell their property but can only pass it on the members of the family (a legacy of social injustice if there ever was one). A lawyer was in the area taking depositions from the locals about the effects on the toxic waste on the people living there. Don't think no one knows about this: everyone in Louisville, Frankfort, and the media have know about this problem for decades, and the plans for all of the chemical factories is of course to expand production. As one local put it, "I'm surprised everyone here ain't dead." Look for the first MoPod docupod coming very soon.

Last Three Podcasts

episode 12 4/4/2010

episode 11 3/26/2010

episode 10 3/12/2010

Link: Republicans, Leukemia Team Up...

The Onion gets that Republican mindset, oh so right.

"I look around and I see Sen. Bob Bennett, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, eosinophilic and megakaryoblastic leukemia, and Sen. Pat Roberts, and I think, 'This is what the Republican Party is all about,'" Sen. McConnell said. "We don't like this new bill. We don't like that it will cut the national deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years. We don't like that it's now illegal for insurance companies to suddenly drop a parent for getting deathly ill. That's why we're so very proud to be working with leukemia."

Ogre-oid: update - If You Can't Turst Reuters...

David Schlesinger, the editor in chief of Reuters, declined to run a story by one of his own reporters containing claims that the 2007 killings of two Reuters staffers in Baghdad by U.S. troops may have been war crimes.


Reuters staffers Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh were killed by U.S. helicopter gunships in Baghdad in 2007. Video of the attack, which shows the journalists standing next to unidentified armed men on a Baghdad street and records the destruction of a van attempting to retrieve a wounded Chmagh, was published this week by Wikileaks.  more

This is very bothersome.  Are any of the major news organizations that can actually afford to have people in the places where news is happening not corrupted by their allegiance to advertisers?

Ogre-oid: (video) U.S. Army Slaughtering Civilians (and Reporters) in Iraq

Not for the weak stomached.

Easter Show, MOpod episode 12, the Dirty Dozen is available

Dave and I sat in the back yard, drank a couple of beers, and talked more about sports than anything else.  There is a little Easter egg at the end from Alan and some musical moments you won't soon forget.



[I swear I'm going to set up an RSS feed for you to plug in your iTunes or other podcast client soon.  But meanwhile, here's the player and here is a link to the download page. --ed.]