Steal This New Year's Resolution

Hey, B&E readers! Do you remember how at the end of the aughts (aka the Jack Bauer years, aka the 9/11 years, aka the fuck-the-public years, aka etc.) the United States government totally gave like billions of dollars to the very institutions that caused the financial crisis and then those institutions went right back to behaving exactly how they wanted? Yeah, that was a good time.

In general I'm not the biggest fan of New Year's as a holiday. I think I've said before that my birthday always feels like more of a well-defined marker for looking back on the year and setting some goals and doing all that other reflective stuff (yay, reflectors!) people do when they want to assess the general state of their lives.

So yeah... New Year's resolutions... I don't really make 'em. And although the Huffington Post is touting this as a New Year's resolution, I just think it's a Very Good Thing To Do.

It's called Move Your Money. And it makes a lot of sense to me. Read the essay and watch the movie (Look! It's a Wonderful Life!). The moral argument is pretty clear.

The missus and I are putting our money into a credit union. The missus has kept the minimum amount of money in there for a bunch of years, just so that she wouldn't lose her standing as a member. She never really knew why, but it just didn't seem like a good idea to give it up. How fortuitous!

When I first moved to Sunnyside, I put my money in Greenpoint Bank. I did it mostly because it was on the corner. Greenpoint was a large-ish community bank. It got eaten by a larger community/regional bank, North Fork, which had barely changed the signs before it got gobbled up by Capital One. Capital One isn't exactly the beast that Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan/Chase all are, but it's close, and I certainly can no longer call it a community bank.

My biggest concern about moving into the credit union was convenience. Do they have online banking services, cash cards, etc? Yes. They do. And yes, a community bank or credit union is insured by the FDIC, which means if the bank or credit union fails, the government still guarantees your deposits up to $250,000.

The only thing that will change in our everyday lives is that our credit union's ATMs are somewhat less ubiquitous. And most of their ATMs are located within McDonald's restaurants. I haven't been inside a McDonald's in New York for more than a decade, I would guess. So that'll be weird.

It'll probably be a month-long process to change everything over. I'll need to fill out a new direct deposit slip at my job; we'll need to reorganize all the bills that come out automatically, etc., etc., but a little bit of footwork (particularly footwork largely being done by the missus) seems worth it.

The fact is, our tiny amount of money doesn't make much difference to a bank that doles out millions of dollars in bonuses to the employees that screw us hardest. But it could make a difference if large amounts of people get involved. I mean, those monsters will always have the big corporate accounts, but then they'll be taking all those risks with corporate money instead of our meager savings.

Plus, those big banks wouldn't spend so much time and money advertising for our business if they didn't need a whole lot of us.

But meanwhile, our meager savings can actually make a real difference at a community bank or a credit union that, say, serves your neighbors.

Best of all, I feel like it's the most satisfying way to give the finger to the financial institutions that have fucked us right in the ear. The finger in exchange for getting fucked in the ear isn't much, but it's a start.

The HuffPo article doesn't (yet) discuss credit unions. Credit unions have different rules regarding disclosure that I admit I don't completely understand. But you can read more about them here. And I think we can invite a few locals to ours, if you're not already qualified to join it.

I need to give credit (unions) where credit (unions) is due. It was the missus who fully engaged with the idea and explored options. I sat by, shouted out a few concerns, which she mostly shouted down, while taking care of the logistics.

Thanks and Happy New Year, missus. You are, as always, tremendous.

And Happy New Year to my six faithful readers. You are the best readers in the world.

Signs of Life at the FCC?

During the Bush administration (and let's face it: during the Clinton administration too), the Federal Communications Commission never found a merger it didn't like. It also seemed to deregulate just about everything having to do with anything and gave media, phone, and internet companies carte blanche to fuck consumers by any means necessary.

In theory the FCC is supposed to protect consumers. Well done, FCC.

I just caught this headline: FCC asks Verizon Wireless to explain fees.

It's not actually that interesting an article and, frankly, I'm surprised it's news at all. Imagine that: the regulatory body charged with protecting consumers from the communications companies is actually asking a company why it believes it has the right to charge certain fees. This shouldn't be news. This should be the FCC doing its daily duty.

Still, I've rather liked the shift at the FCC of late. They seem to be a little friendlier to ideas like net neutrality, which would keep the internet free and open to the public, something the various internet providers are dead set against.

The big test will be the NBC/Comcast merger. That will be one monster of a media/communications company, which will almost certainly screw consumers in the long run. Has the FCC grown the balls to stop it?

The connections between free and open media and a thriving democracy are undeniable, and if you feel like geeking out on these issues for a while, FreePress.net is your one-stop shop for information about these things.

I Totally Found the Piggly Wiggly

Good news, B&E readers! I didn't need to shop at Walmart yesterday! Behold! The Piggly Wiggly!

I Didn't Find the Piggly-Wiggly

Today I ventured into town. That's about a half hour from the cabin in which I'm staying. While I was at the Walgreen's, I asked for directions to the nearest grocery store. The cashier gave me directions and said, "Your other alternative is the Walmart right there, but the Piggly-Wiggly is probably better." I agreed with her and drove to the Piggly-Wiggly.

I'm pretty sure I followed the directions she gave me, and I even retraced my path once, but alas, I didn't find the Piggly-Wiggly. So I got my groceries at Walmart.

As a city shopper, I'm not used to bulk quantities, and I know that when it comes to BULK quantities Walmart offers Sam's Club. But let me tell you: these were bulk quantities. I wanted to buy a roll of toilet paper (which I forgot to get at Walgreen's). Single rolls of toilet paper are common in New York City. But my only option was to buy enough toilet paper for an army barracks full of diarrhea sufferers. I held off, figuring that what I have will last at least until my next trip into town.

I'd also been very pleased with my first purchase of Wisconsin cheddar cheese that I picked up in Madison en route, and I hoped to find some more. It wasn't easy to find local products (I very nearly bought some Vermont cheddar, which would've been like buying Finger Lakes wine in the South of France), but I finally found some Bucky Badger cheese. I'm assuming that the badger in question is referring to the University of Wisconsin mascot. If I end up eating badger cheese, someone will pay. After I do, of course.

I don't know, B&E readers. I admit that Walmart is actually a pretty foreign concept to me. We don't have 'em in NYC, and until today, the only reason I'd been in one was to get a gas cap replaced. (It's very hard to get a gas cap replaced.) I've read enough anti-Walmart press to know why, politically, I shouldn't like them or support them.

But I think the experience would've bummed me out without my knowledge of the corporation and its destruction of small town America. It was the experience itself that bummed me out. With all those giant mounds of inexpensive goods there was very little I found appetizing. I don't know that I actually got the food I need for the week.

Damn that elusive Piggly-Wiggly.

Karma Gives a Beatdown on the Mets

It's official: karma has taken a massive bite out of the 2009 New York Metropolitans. And I know the reason...

Citibank. Citigroup. Citi Field.

Father and Son Wilpon, you should've named the entire stadium - not just the rotunda - after Jackie Robinson. Instead, you named it after a bailed out, insolvent corporation that has taken billions in taxpayer dollars and exploits anyone in the world that it can.

I've railed against this particular name on numerous occasions already. But I became absolutely convinced of Citigroup's curse this weekend.

At the beginning of the weekend, David Wright was the Last Man Standing amongst the Mets core players. Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgago have all been injured for most of the season. Various members of the pitching staff have gone down.

But David Wright was the solid presence in the lineup, playing every day and offering the only threat against opposing pitchers.

Until he got beaned in the head with a 93-mile-per-hour fastball from San Francisco's Matt Cain. Because he suffered a concussion and the Mets season is over anyway, David probably won't play again this year.

It's CitiKarma, Mets. I hope you've learned your lesson, or it's going to be a long 20 years.

The Head of Mercenaries a Murderer? No!

Remember Blackwater (a.k.a. Xe)?

Oh, man. Man, oh man, oh Manischewitz.

Investigative reporter and Blackwater/Xe expert Jeremy Scahill is now reporting in The Nation that Erik Prince may have murdered or facilitated the murder of cooperative witnesses in government investigations of the company.

This is one of those explosive stories that's likely to get lost while the crazies/assholes are out screaming at the lawmakers attempting to reform health care.

It's also one of those stories that while surprising also feels inevitable. I'm somewhere between exclaiming, "I can't fucking believe it!" and "That makes a whole lot of sense."

It's like a really good movie when that twist really works. Except this is real and seriously deadly.

Oh, My Aching Back

I've largely stayed clear of commenting on the current health care debate for a couple of reasons: 1) The bill changes too rapidly to keep up, and I would go crazy tracking the details; 2) I'm a believer in a single-payer system, which has never been taken seriously as a solution by our corporate-owned political parties.

In other words, ideologically, I support reform. Real reform. Not bullshit reform. If whatever plan they end up passing (or not) doesn't include a robust (and I mean fucking robust) public option, it's bullshit reform.

This week, my ideological support for reform turned practical. I have what is generally considered to be "good insurance." My employer contributes toward my insurance costs (job perk!), but (especially since my wife is also covered) I pay for the majority of it myself (taken out pre-tax! Thanks, Republicans or Clinton (I assume)!)

It's got relatively low deductibles, the co-pay to see my primary doctor (whom I like quite a bit) is not outrageous, and I'm covered (I think) should something terrible happen, such as a stabbing on the subway or a massive coronary.

When I yanked my lower back last weekend, I went to see a chiropractor, also known by my insurance company as a "specialist." Well, the co-pay for a specialist is a hell of a lot higher than my co-pay for my "primary care physician." If you have to see a specialist once, say, to get a mole removed (as I have before), it's no big deal.

But when you need to see a "specialist" with some regularity... Dude, the shit adds up. I mentioned having some concern about being able to shell out this kind of money, and the chiropractor said, "Ah, I see you have [evil insurance company]. Your co-pay pretty much covers the cost of the session. We get another four or five bucks from them for you."

So I put in my several hundred dollars a freakin' month, and when I really hurt myself, [evil insurance company] covers four or five bucks. [Evil insurance company] is making a shitload of money off of me and the missus. I'd like to meet the person who gets my insurance contribution as a bonus. And I'd like to poke them in the fucking eye.

This, B&E readers, is the way things are with "good insurance." People opposed to single-payer or health reform are afraid that the government will stand between them and their doctors.

Well, people... Perhaps you haven't had the experience yet, but insurance companies stand between you and your doctor. And their motive is profit.

It is not the government's job to protect the market for health insurance. But so far, I have yet to see them do anything else.

It Takes a Village of Bad PR

Perhaps you've heard about this fella Dave Carroll. Dave had a guitar destroyed by United Airlines once, and when they refused to reimburse him (on multiple occasions) for the instrument he relies on for his livelihood, he used his livelihood to fight back. He wrote a little ditty called "United Breaks Guitars" and posted the video on YouTube.

More than four million watched the video in a few days, and United's stock dropped 10%. But even though I wrote those two facts as one sentence, they are probably totally unrelated events. But it's fun to think that Dave had that sort of power.

United has since offered Dave compensation for his guitar.

People have this idea that being on the road in a band is glamorous. And a family member of mine has done some pretty serious touring with some pretty well-known acts. In other words, he's done everything from the drive-yourself-van-touring to the high-end-take-care-of-everything-for-you arena shows. It's not an easy life at all. And even at its best, it just ain't glamorous.

And, in fact, this same family member had a similar issue with Delta airlines a few years ago. I can't remember the exact details of the story, but Delta either lost his guitar amp or killed it. Letters and phone calls had absolutely no effect on Delta's response. They claimed no responsibility.

Unfortunately for Delta, this family member knew a reporter on the music business beat at Nashville's largest paper. As you might expect, the Nashville musician market is pretty important for any airline that flies through Nashville.

Delta's response was swift. He was compensated and received a phone call from the CEO and a letter of apology.

I think I can extrapolate from two examples to see a pattern. Airlines say, "Fuck you" until fucking you costs more than not fucking you. With customer service like that, it's almost hard to believe the airline industry is in such rough shape.

Actually, I wonder if I can extrapolate further to see the pattern in the overall US economy - a whole lotta "Fuck you," followed by, "Now bail us out, please, i.e. fuck you again until we're back on our feet ready to keep fucking you."

Required Posting

In the last couple of days I was really hoping to write a little bit about Xe, the mercenary army formerly known as Blackwater. That's pronounced "zee." They retooled their website, and amazingly enough, the "history" section says nothing about the founder or the former name. Yea, rebranding!

But Xe's already getting its own bad name (just like the bad name you gave love, according to Bon Jovi). Four Xe contractors opened fire on a civilian vehicle, wounding two Afghans. That might be a problem in and of itself, but the contractors were also off-duty, drunk, and not allowed to be carrying weapons at the time.

[Web redesign story via TPM, and Xe mercenary shootings via HuffPo.]

Anyway, this is that posting I put up on B&E at least once (and sometimes twice) a year, in which I give you advance warning of an absence. I didn't take the time to line up any prearranged postings or anything, and unless my day today goes a lot differently than I imagine it will, I won't.

Yes, that's right: I'm going to be out of town, and although I'll probably have some semi-regular internet connection, come on people, it's a freakin' vacation. I'm vacating, for crying out loud.

Oh, and burglars? We have a really large person house-sitting for us, so don't get any ideas. We've given the large person permission to check our mail and kick your fucking ass. He's from Xe, the mercenary outfit formerly known as Blackwater.

Beating a Dead Bank

Last night, the Mets christened the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at their new ballpark. Jackie's widow said a few words, and his daughter threw out the first pitch. The players all wore the number 42 (that's Jackie's league-retired number), and Jose Reyes scored from first base on a wild pitch just to show off his Jackie Robinson wheels. And the Mets won the game. All in all, a fine evening.

Bailout Ballpark, or as the team has insisted on calling it Citi Field, was designed to look like Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, where Jackie Robinson played with the Dodgers. Good call.

But Jackie deserves more than the rotunda. That the whole stadium wasn't named for Jackie Robinson is embarrassing, even more so now that the corporate sponsor is eating bailout funds for breakfast and, whether or not the executives at Shitigroup are willing to admit it, is totally insolvent.

I've complained on numerous occasions about the whole "Citi Field" thing, I know, but when I saw clips this morning, it just got my blood all a'boiling again. Jackie's widow says that Jackie would be humbled to have the glorious rotunda honoring him.

Well, fuck that, Mets. Give Jackie the whole stadium.

I'm just glad that when I finally get to Bailout Ballpark I'll have some Shake Shack around to wash that Shiti taste out of my mouth.

Broke States

California is about to layoff 20,000 state employees, facing a $4 billion shortfall. Kansas is delaying mailing tax refund checks and may not be able to make payroll this week. My Kansas friends' Facebook statuses have been almost all something along the lines of "[name] hopes to receive a paycheck on Friday." My mom gets her pension from the state, too, so I hope she's not about to get hosed.

Meanwhile, in New York and countless other states (well, not countless, as there are only 47 others) governors and mayors are planning major cuts in government services because of an utter lack of cash.

I believe in paying taxes. I don't think government is the enemy, at least it's not supposed to be. The government is supposed to provide public services, and I believe that there is a fair way for the public to help pay for these services, which should be provided at no profit to the government. Maybe it's that my dad was a minister, but I very much have a "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" attitude toward taxes. Jesus said that, people. It's literally Gospel.

So this whole government-is-the-enemy-lower-taxes-at-all-costs attitude of the Republican Party (and - let's face it - many in the Democratic Party, too) drives me up a wall.

We're now seeing so-called pragmatic Republican governors such as Florida's Charlie Crist (an h short of Christ) and California's Arnold Schwarzeneggar (no letters short of anything) get behind Obama's stimulus package because they'll get some much-needed money on the local level. Apparently, most Senate and all House Republicans don't give a shit about their localities.

Taxes have been getting lowered, particularly for rich people and corporations, for decades. Um... I know I'm not an economist, but could it possibly be that the United States runs on deficits and cities and states are now totally broke because of this crazy anti-tax ideology that's taken over the policymakers at all levels of government?

Jesus hates you all.

Greed in Privatization? No Way!

I've been meaning to get to this little story since last week because it's really grossly offensive. The short of it:

A couple of judges pleaded guilty to taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from privately run juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania. In other words, they threw kids in prison for cash. Well done, justices, you unbelievable pricks.

But while the focus is on these corrupt Dickhead (now Shitbird) judges, maybe we should take a bit of a timeout and remember that the privately run juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania gave a couple of judges millions of dollars. You see, the privately run juvenile detention centers get paid per head by the state of Pennsylvania, so they need bodies. What better way to get bodies than to pay off the people who decide what bodies go there?

Kids who did little more than deserve perhaps an at-home suspension ended up spending months in freakin' juvie.

Call it a few bad apples, they got caught, and blah blah blah. The fact is privatization in prisons is a breeding ground for corruption.

I know this is America, but seriously, not everything here should be for-profit. Prisons - especially prisons for kids - shouldn't be for-profit. Come on, privatizers. That's enough.

Paramilitary Aggression, Rebranded

If your company produces a crappy operating system that the public largely rejects, you can either fix the operating system, which is really hard, or you can create a marketing campaign to convince people that there is no problem with the operating system. This is hard, too, but perhaps not as hard as making a better operating system.

If you're a soft drink company with flagging sales, you could either come up with a drink that tastes good and doesn't cause diabetes, which is really hard, or you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new brand identity. This is hard, too, but perhaps not as hard as making a better beverage.

So naturally, if you're Blackwater, known around the world as a brutal, merciless, and violent military contractor, you can change the culture and approach of your work (or get out of private warfare altogether), which is hard, or you can give your brand a complete overhaul. This is hard, too, but perhaps not as hard as stopping the killing.


This above is the until-recently logo. This logo was "refined" in late 2007 from an earlier version that was even more obvious in its cross-hair approach. The refinement apparently didn't have the desired effect, since it didn't change their reputation as an unaccountable killing machine.

So the next logical step is to change everything. Remember Phillip Morris? They created a parent organization called Altria to give the company a friendlier face to investors who didn't necessarily want to hold shares in a company producing cancer sticks.

Blackwater is now Xe (pronounced like the letter z in America, not like zed in Britain). And because the new State Department says it will not renew its contracts with Blackwater, Xe will also be shifting its focus away from "private security."

Xe will be the parent brand for all of Blackwater's sub-brands, none of which will include "Blackwater" in the name.

I can't seem to find the new logo online yet, but if it's still in progress I've got some ideas. I'm envisioning a family of dogs, riddled with bullets, puppies bleeding profusely. Underneath, the name and tagline: "Xe: the softer side of private warfare" or something along those lines. I'll keep working on it, but I think I'm onto something...

Let 'Em Fail

No, I'm not an economist, so I don't know what would happen if the government didn't bail out the likes of Citigroup or JP Morgan or Bank of America. But when I read a story like this, I very much feel these companies should not only be allowed to fail, but we should actively put them out of business.

I'll just highlight the same part of the conversation that TPMMuckraker highlights in the article above:

Paul Kelleher: Yes, I'm calling to inform you that my mom died on the 24th of January.

Bank of America Estates representative: I'm sorry. Oh, it looks like she never even missed a payment. That's too bad. Well, how are you planning to take care of her balance?

PK: I'm not going to. She has no estate to speak of, but you should feel free to just go through the standard probate procedure. I'm certainly not legally obligated to pay for her.

BOA: You mean you're not going to help her out?

PK: I wouldn't be helping her out -- she's dead. I'd be helping you out.

BOA: Oh, that's really not the way to look at it. I know that if it were my mother, I'd pay it. That's why we're in the banking crisis we're in: banks having to write off defaulted loans.

At what point, do we politely interrupt their business model, and say, "No, no, no. Fuck you"?

A Good Lobbyist?

President Obama (yes, it still thrills to type those words) signed an executive order in his first week setting up some of the strictest guidelines for lobbying that the White House has seen in years. Bravo.

The past eight years have been a nightmare of corporate lobbying and lobbyists creating destructive policy. Dick Cheney's closed-door energy policy meeting with oil companies stands out as a particularly egregious example, but god knows it wasn't the only one.

And in such an atmosphere, along with shitbird lobbyists like Jack Abramoff infiltrating many levels of the government, it's no wonder that lobbyist has become a bad word. Nonprofit organizations who lobby the government no longer use the word lobby to describe what they do. They advocate. Fair enough.

During the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton got slammed by Obama and John Edwards (remember him?) for saying that "lobbyists are people, too." With the enormous intertwining of the Clinton Machine and corporate interests, it was a pretty silly thing for her to say, and Obama and Edwards were right to nail her to the wall on it.

During my walk across the Brooklyn Bridge last evening, I was listening to Democracy Now! (naturally), and Amy Goodman was doing a little bit of exploration about the lobby rules, and a few members of the Obama administration who have gotten waivers to the rules. The guest said that they haven't explained why some get waivers while others don't. It's possible that the lobbyists working in the Obama administration are truly the best policy minds in the country. DC is full of lobbying think tanks that are completely intertwined with the government. But the Obama administration needs to be clear about the reasons for waivers.

That's all fair enough. And they mentioned a few people by name and who they lobbied for. Former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs in the Treasury Department? Defense contractor Raytheon in the Pentagon? Hell, yes, I need a lot more explanation.

Then they mentioned an appointment in the Health and Human Services Department who'd lobbied for an organization called the Tobacco-free Child or something along those lines.

Now, I don't know what the Tobacco-free Child is exactly, but let's assume it's not a George Orwell agency where up means down, war means peace, and tobacco-free means free tobacco. Let's assume that this particular appointed person actually was fighting for children to be tobacco-free. Well, that seems like a logical point of view for someone working in Health and Human Services, and I don't see why, just because he once tried to convince lawmakers that tobacco-free children are good for the future of our world, he shouldn't be able to work for HHS.

As I mention continually, I'm on a lot of email lists. Sign this petition, make this donation, go to this house party, call this legislator, etc. Many of these are advocacy groups, i.e. lobbyists. Now that a left-leaning administration is in the White House, some of these groups will find sudden friends in high places. If the administration agrees with the advocacy group on an issue, and a lobbyist is one of the world's experts, I don't have a problem with putting them in the government.

I guess all I'm really saying is that it seems like there's an enormous difference between having a meeting with a lobbyist who makes a good, coherent argument in defense of the common good, and a lobbyist for corporate interests who plies a government official with expensive meals, drinks, gifts, and donations in the hopes of amassing more profits on the backs of the downtrodden.

How come no one in the media ever mentions this important distinction?

Grr... Health Care Industry... Grr...

I'm a fortunate American with health insurance. One of the benefits of my job is that my employer kicks in to the kitty for a health plan for the lot of us. I'm very pleased with my doctor and have no complaints about my care.

It's also expensive. Even with the employer contribution, the missus and I are paying a bunch of money per month for our coverage. We had our annual meeting with the insurance rep, who consistently delivers bad news about costs. This coming year prices are going up more than 11%. So now the missus and I will be paying even more than a bunch of money per month.

The insurance rep told us that this increase is comparable to the 10-12% annual increases in costs for health care.

Imagine that: Health insurance costs are rising faster than the rate of inflation. I wonder if the for-profit model has anything to do with that.

So part of this Obama Mandate for Change includes reforming the health care industry. To continue the fun of his grassroots support system, the Obama campaign/administration is hosting Health Care House Parties! Woo-HOO! Par-TAY! I'm totally fucked up on health care!

Naturally, the health care industry wants in on these House Parties, so they're crashing, sending employees and satisfied customers to get in on the action.

If you love things the way they are and want to continue to pay more and more for less and less coverage so that shareholders get a bigger return on investment, join the health care industry's movement to crash the house parties!

I guess if these jokers want to argue for the status quo at Health Care House Parties, more power to them.

But this system is fucking bullshit. Mixing profit with matters of life and death... uh... not right.

Last year, when the missus and I had to take her father for an overnight visit to the hospital in Scotland, he had to fill out two forms that asked for name and address. That's it. Yes, he shared his room, but the care was outstanding and the facilities terrific. I tell you what: socialized medicine looked pretty goddamn good to me. No one profits off the man's unfortunate health.

Can we finally get a single-payer health care system in this country? Especially now that insurance plays such a large role in the demise of, say, the auto companies?