SYNDETIC FLUXION: some sort of blog, it would appear.

TTAC (TheTruthAboutCars.com) reported Chinese interest in buying GM and/or Chrysler.

Aside from abject nationalism, is there any compelling reason to not let Chinese companies buy GM/Chrysler?  The USA needs to lower it’s own debt so we do not have to rely on foreign investors buying our t-bills.  If we can save tax dollars by not having to bailout both GM and Chrysler, doesn’t this put us on a path toward a more solvent USA?

We used to worry about the Japanese taking over car-making and the world.  Did they?  No.  That Japanese bubble also burst, with a decade long recession after. And Toyota is not quite the rainmaker it used to be.  Larger, sure.  More profitable?  No.  Japan faces strong competition from China and Korea when it comes to the global automobile marketplace.  Did anyone predict that this would be the case in the days of predicting Japan would own everything?  Not that I’m aware of.

Remember when the rumors were going around about India wanting a (large) piece of Detroit?  We didn’t seem as disgusted at that idea.  But with Chinese ownership of GM/Chrysler we are about to vomit.  Why?  Is it communism??  China may not have free elections, but they espouse capitalism and free trade better than most countries.  The thing about a communist dictatorship is that things can get done fast.  Decisions can be made and implemented very quickly.  Here in our democracy, government decisions come slow and take forever to implement.  Committees, lobbies, parties, PACs, lawsuits, regulators, and the like that we have here in the USA keep the pace of government change slow as every side of the debate must be heard and considered.  Not that I think communism trumps democracy. Carefully considered decisions are usually the wisest. It’s our partisanship for the sake of partisanship politics that gets to me. We can’t even fix up New Orleans or the World Trade Center in a timely fashion. If the The Shanghai World Financial Center was knocked down by Taiwanese terrorists, I’m sure the PRC would have a new one up right quick.

The USA has been moving away from manufacturing for a very long time as it faces global manufacturing competition.  It was inevitable that this trend would extend to car making.  Frankly, I’m not sure Americans want to make anything anymore.  Sure companies do, but American workers do not seem to want to work on assembly lines anymore.  Are you willing to drill holes in sheet metal all day long?  Only if you get a big salary and pension a la the UAW, right?  Let’s face it, America’s youth is way past lusting over factory jobs; they all want to work for the next Google.  As well they should.  We are the most advanced country and society in the world, why the hell should we be doing the grunt work?  If we ever lose our taste for innovation and entrepreneurship then we will have serious problems.

We Americans, like our companies, need to get in shape.  We need to be more efficient and do things smarter.  There was a day when a high-school education (or less) was enough to get you a good manufacturing job that was a ticket to the middle class.  Those days are long gone in America, and in the world perhaps.  A college education is mandatory it obtain any sort of good paying job in the USA.  It’s been that way for a while and is not going to change.  Unskilled labor cannot provide middle class comforts.  Even immigrants in the USA from Mexico and Central and South America know this.

So I say letting China or Chinese companies own GM and/or Chrysler is something to seriously consider.  Patriotism and nationalism should not cloud our judgment here.  “Who’s gonna make our planes and tanks if there’s another war,” you ask?  General Dynamics, not General Motors. Do you think GM can really roll out an M1A1 tank?  GM can’t even make a car as good as an Accord, they ain’t gonna be making F-22’s anytime soon.  Lockheed Martin/Boeing has us covered there.  Also, we are fighting two wars (three?) already without any major hardware contributions from either GM or Chrysler.

Was David Letterman’s joke about Alex Rodriguez knocking up Sarah Palin’s daughter tasteless?  Sure.  Especially considering it was not clear which daughter Letterman was referring to: Palin’s 18 or 14 year old.  When you consider that Palin’s 14 year old Willow was actually at the game, and Bristol, Palin’s 18 year old was not, he definitely crossed the line.  He and his staff are not only guilty of poor taste, but poor research.

However, Palin and Bristol are fair targets for criticism and bad jokes.  Palin shows poor taste in running for president due to her insufficient intelligence, education, and language skills to hold the nation’s highest office.  Sure, Bristol is her daughter, and canidates want to keep their families out of the public debate.  But Bristol is a legal adult and has put herself in the public eye as a spokesperson for single mothers.  They’re going to have to expect some heat.  As well, being a member of the Republican party that has often refered to itself as the party of family values, Palin has to expect close scrutiny of her family.  Especially since single motherhood is not generally accepted a core family value by those who espouse family values.

I’m not sure Palin can pull the sexism card, considering she entered beauty pageants which had bikini competition categories.  From an early age she’s put herself out there and asked people to judge her based partly on her looks. This is something she will probably have to endure for most of her life.  Hence the “slutty flight attendant” earlier joke of Letterman’s.

Both Letterman & Palin should strive to be more intelligent.  Dave may want to think of retiring, as he and his show have not been funny in a long time.  Palin may want to reconsider positioning herself as presidential material, as she simply is not.

I’ve been worn down by the man (woman) again.  Another shitty project bites the dust.  I guess I should be happy to be working, but I hate it when my schedule is abused by people who are inept.  Or perhaps more precisely, people who are lazy and inconsiderate.

Nowadays, its seems pefectly acceptable for someone to executive produce an entire project and never have any contact with the production team except via email.  When did we get here?  How did we get here??  Who let this happen???  Not that I really want to spend an entire week in an edit room with an indecisive, ingorant, incoherent bitch, but at least she could pick up the phone if she’s too scared to show in person.

In this post tech boom, post real estate boom, economy where “work harder, work smarter” is the mantra, you’d think attention to detail and speaking and writing proper english would be mandatory requirements in today’s workplace.  But it is not.  People can survive and thrive by shooting off poorly worded emails only, and still be considered effective managers.  Other people are too scared and placating to call these people out their bullshit and get them to take project responsibilities seriously.

I think email use needs to be radically reduced.  I telephone miss conversation.  I miss production meetings.  I miss working with a team where all members of the team are together in person.  No technology can replace these things.  So please stop trying.

I’m off to hang with my dog then maybe play some guitar.

I originally wrote this in January 2008.  I still think it can work . . .

SynFlux Economic Stimulus / Deficit Reduction Plan

1. Pass a law so that half of a person’s minimum monthly credit card payment would go toward principal.

2. Pass a law putting a cap on credit card interest rates at 19%.

3. Instead of giving a refund check as now proposed, cut federal withholding taxes immediately to put the same amount of money back into employee’s paychecks. (This would be a temporary rollback until the full amount is paid out.)

4. Cut maximum corporate tax rates on businesses that generate less than one half million dollars in sales to 10% on profits, cap tax rates on all corporate profits at 20%

5. For salaried employees, eliminate employee federal tax filing requirements, set the withholding rate to a flat rate of 15% that would cover all federal income taxes, fico, social security, etc. Non-salaried American’s would still have to file yearly federal tax returns, and also pay a flat rate of 15% of income.

6. For salaried employees, eliminate employee state tax filing requirements, set the withholding rate to a flat rate of 5% that would cover all state income taxes. Non-salaried American’s would still have to file yearly state tax returns, and also pay a flat rate of 5% of income.

7. Create a federal sales tax for consumers of 2%.

8. Create a federal sales tax for business-to-business transactions at 5%. This would include any business doing business within the US, regardless of where their headquarters are or where they are incorporated.

9. Cap state sales tax rate at 6%.

10. Eliminate the estate tax.

11. Create a carbon emission credit exchange for industry in the US like in Europe.

12. Raise the minimum wage to $8 an hour.

13. Create some form of universal health care where all US citizens are required to have health care or else face a higher withholding tax rate.

14. Allow all US citizens access to Medicaid regardless of income level.

15. Require all US doctors to accept Medicaid for the first five years in practice.

16. If a corporation does not offer health care benefits, it must set up Medicaid for its employees and automatically withhold the premium payment from the employee’s paycheck and pay the Medicaid system on the employee’s behalf.

17. Require all US corporations to pay taxes quarterly, eliminating yearly filing.

18. Make the first semester of college tuition at a state or community college 100% tax deductible to all US citizens.

19. Eliminate federal and state income taxes for all US military personnel holding the rank of an NCO or lower.

20. Eliminate federal and state income taxes for all US military reserve personal and National Guard personnel while serving active duty in a combat zone.

Something like the above!

Click image above to play video.

Fashion Week Fall 09, Jill Stuart Collection, New York Public Library.  Here I am shooting an interview of the Hilton sisters.  I get pushed around by every other photographer & videographer in the house.

Change at any cost.  Change of the guard.  Bush and Congress thought they could scare the people into the bailout bill, just like with the Patriot act and the war in Iraq.  Not this time.  Maybe the American people do not care if they lose money, but rather want the government and markets to work properly.  Maybe Americans are looking past the short term hurt and toward the healthy functioning of democracy and capitalism for many future generations to come.  The government and the investment institutions all failed us, and maybe now we want them to fail so that better, more effective entities will take their place.  Maybe we want to clean house and have new politicians and bankers.  Maybe we are sick of all the ineffectiveness we have been seeing for the past decade.

Or . . .

Maybe we are just too stupid to see the bailout as anything but a life preserver for Wall Street.  If so, no one really sold it as much more than that.  The government was too scared to tell us the actual consequences of not passing the bailout bill, for fear that markets would respond poorly.  But maybe they should have tried to educate the American people, so we would respond properly.  Maybe they played the fear card one time too many.

Either way, America needs change!

Holy shit, Sarah Palin is inept and incoherent!  She got torn a new asshole by Katie Couric.  Ouch!!  Imagine what Biden will do to her in a debate?  Palin said the word “guest” when she meant “guessed” and “maritime” when she meant “marine”.  If she says “axed” when she means “asked” I am jumping off the Bayonne Bridge in protest.  She’s done, failed like WaMu.  No more white trash in the White House.

And if Putin, based in Moscow, decides to fly to the US, he is probably going to head west and fly over Europe and the Atlantic rather than fly east over Alaska and the Pacific.

McCain is done to.  He charges into “Wharrrshingtun” to fix the financial crisis, and at best he did nothing (looking like a fool in the process) and at worst he derailed the talks and fucked everything up (looking like a first class failure).  If he misses the debate in Mississippi, he might as well get into the grandfather business.  Merely suggesting the debate be postponed, and that he may not show up at the debate has to be one of the stupidest things a politician has ever done.  It does not exactly say high-performing, multi-tasking, leader of the free world.  It kinda says: whoa, I need a break, can I get some water?  Missing Letterman was political suicide.

Hey, WaMu has failed.  Let’s see if that affects anyone other than the shareholders of WaMu.  Let’s hope (pray) the FDIC manages this failure properly.  Kind of a interesting idea: let WaMu go bankrupt, let the shareholders take the hit on the liabilities, and sell the assets to a competitor.  We may need to employ this strategy again.  Let’s see if the world ends as another bank does.  Probably not.

One thing is for sure: we are at economic war and the war profiteering has begun.  GET SOME!

Prediction: there will be no bailout, because no one wants another American civil war.

Let them eat cake!!!

Is it possible that this bailout “plan” for Wall Street is really just a way to leave Obama with no money to spend on any of the programs he’s proposed if he’s elected president?  Paulson & Bernanke are Bush appointees, and you have to think they feel some loyalty to him and his party.  I wonder if the 700 billion dollars won’t actually be spent or needed on Wall Street if McCain becomes president?  One cannot discount that bipartisan politics are not at play here.

Ok, the bailout.  So we buy up the bank’s and brokerage’s non-liquid (worthless paper) assets.  We do this with the hope that these institutions will start lending out money again and the economy will grow again.  But isn’t that what got us here in the first place, loose credit?  I am not convinced that the institutions will make credit available after they sell off their worthless assets.  What’s to prevent them from selling these liabilities to the Fed, then still keep their credit belts tight, and the economy still stalls?  And shouldn’t the lesson of the past 58 weeks be that credit was given too freely for too long for too many people?  Credit should now be hard to get, not easy to get.

This bailout is starting to look like a raid on the national coffers (which are empty) to shore up an industry that needs to severely revise its business model, not be thrown a life preserver.  And then we are supposed to accept the bailout with no means of accountability, transparency, or oversight.  The proposal seeks immunity from prosecution if the plan is poorly or unsuccessfully administered.

All Paulson & Bernanke keep offering as upside to the bailout is that certain institutions probably will not fail, and credit will probably be available again, and unemployment will probably not grow, and the market will probably stabilize.  700 billion dollars doesn’t come with any guarantees these days.  Bernanke has not seemed to considered how this plan would affect inflation, inflation being one of two prime concerns of the Federal Reserve.

Why not let the vacuum that these failed companies will create be filled by other companies, perhaps even new companies, that will strive to perform better and don’t have the these liabilities holding them down.  Not every single financial company has these liabilities on their books.  Most do, sure, but not every single one across the globe.

There are plenty of small, local, solvent financial institutions willing to write loans to businesses.  Okay, Bank of America will not lend to a MacDonald’s franchisee anymore, but there are many other institutions that would be happy to offer them credit.

So much for Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction.

Kudos to Dodd for standing up to Paulson & Bernanke

Posts 1 and 10 are worth reading.

White people love newspaper subscriptions. Especially subscribing to major market newspapers from a major market other than the one they live in. I.e.: A New York Times subscriber who lives in Los Angeles, or a Washington Post subscriber living in New York city.

White people have been known to leave the newspaper on the driveway or stoop until well into the evening as a beacon to their whiteness. It’s a badge of superiority to have that New York Times blue plastic bag lying there, as is having your paper recycling pile topped off with a copy of the New York Times Book Review. At the dog run, scooping up your dog’s poop with a blue New York Times bag asserts your alpha-whiteness over another white person who’s using a simple black plastic bag. Only those white people who use a Whole Foods bag are on par with those using the New York Times bag. All other bag users are inferior.

White people subscribe to newspapers not to actually read them (though many have been know to), but to show neighbors and peers that they are enlightened. Keeping one folded under your arm as you commute via mass transit is an ideal way to assert whiteness. New media is great, but nothing appeals to a white person’s sense of intellect and vintage chic quite as much as a physical newspaper; it’s a two bird killing stone. Sure, you look cool and connected when you bring your MacBook to the coffee house, but whip open a copy of the London Times and you are suddenly whiter-than-thou. Even if you’re just doing their Sudoku, perhaps especially so.

Flipping through a copy of The Economist (okay a magazine, but its editors refer to it as a newspaper) on the L trail to/from Williamsburg/Greenpoint tells other white people that you don’t tow the white party line 100%, and thus this minor act of subversion makes you even more of a white person. Reading The Nation is simply too white-trite these days.

Having a newspaper on their person or on their driveway/stoop is a distinctive trait of the white person. It simply telegraphs whiteness.

Who gives a fuck if the damn thing fits in an interoffice mail envelope? I mean those things are kinda spacious anyway. You can fit about a quarter ream of paper in them. You can actually fit a regular fat-ass MacBook Pro in one. Plus, do the young whippersnappers even know what an interoffice mail envelope is anyway? Stuff a laptop in a standard #10 business envelope and I’ll be impressed.

I bet some douchebag designer is gonna make a fabric laptop shoulder bag to look like an interoffice mail envelope. If so, I’ll expect a check.

While many are going on and on about how we need to bring America and Americans back together again, recent evidence suggests that most American’s are united about a few things. Recent (and not so recent) polls show that nearly two-thirds (and sometimes many more) of Americans agree about the following . . .

1. Bush is a lousy president

2. Cheney is a lousy vice-president.

3. Congress is pretty lousy too.

4. The Iraq war sucks, and we should get troops out of Iraq right away.

5. The economy also sucks, and America is in a reccesion.

6. Oil prices are too high and are affecting American’s bottom line, and America needs to reduce it’s dependence on oil.

7. The world needs to lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air.

8. Americans would like to see a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants entering America.

9. The health care system in America needs revision.

10. FEMA could be doing more to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

That’s right TWO-THIRDS of American’s agree on the above things! Two-thirds is a landslide mandate in American politics these days. America seems rather united to me, despite what you see going on in the debates in both houses of congress.

(poll data source: pollingreport.com)

Is this the beginning of the end for Barak Obama? His recent problems . . .

1. Seems to be against new primary elections for the people in Florida and Michigan.

2. Has not completely disassociated himself from Reverend Wright.

3. His wife Michele’s recent comment about being proud of America for the first time.

Oddly the press does not seem to think these issues will have much effect on Obama moving forward. I disagree. I think the Clinton campaign will jump on this soon; she’s already all over the Florida/Michigan issue. And once McCain returns to the states and shakes off the jet-lag, he’ll be all over it too. But worst of all, if Obama does win the DNC nomination he will be eaten alive in a national election by the GOP and the far right as they are sure to accuse him of being less than patriotic and American. It would be naive to think that they will not attack his character and patriotism about the above three things. Hell they were giving him heat over his middle name, for Christ’s sake! A neo-con 527 group is sure to put together a real spicy and negative ad against Obama using the above three things, and perhaps more. Normally — and if it were earlier in the primary elections — the above three things would end a candidate’s campaign. Too risky too controversial, people would think, and vote for someone else.

Personally, I don’t think these things are all that bad. What does trouble me is that Obama has not made it a number one priority to dismiss these blunders as just that, blunders. Okay, he gave a world-class speech yesterday, but unfortunately it did not go far enough to squelch his detractors now and probably into the future. Rev. Wright is going to haunt him for a long time. Especially since Obama has made his judgment the central theme of his campaign. All one has to do is say, “what does having had Rev. Wright as your pastor for over 2o years say about Obamas judgment”? I think Obama needs to show what it takes to win a national campaign and put issues like these way behind him and unequivocally assure American’s that he is the real deal and truly patriotic –and perhaps more so — than his opponents. Unfortunately this requires a type of non-academic, non-intellectual speech that Obama has yet to master. He better start wrapping himself up in the American flag. Or at least start wearing an American flag pin on his lapel.

I predict Obama’s campaign will lose momentum right away. The only question is how much and for how long.

SynFlux Top Five Alternate Names For St. Patrick’s Day:

#5: National Bring Your Booze To Work Day

#4: St. Bushmill’s Day

#3: It’s Easy Being Green Day

#2: Soon To Be A Friend Of Bill Wilson’s Day

. . . and finally . . .

#1: The Mother Of All Hangover’s Eve

This is a great article about the hypocrisy of conservatives and federal handouts. The neo-cons say: Working-class entitlements? No way! Brokerage bailouts? Yes please!

Feel asleep at 10:30pm after a shawarma and falafel, wide awake at 2:30am. Had a dream I went skiing with Denzel Washington, then helped Dukie from The Wire make pasta. Last night’s fall-asleep time: 5:30am. But I think the late-night wine and coffee were to blame. Lately my sleep hygiene is filthy. Not sure why though, doing most things right.  Could use more exercise, per normal. I’ve been thinking of taking up running.

Here’s an interesting article about London. Comparisons can be made between the dynamics there and here. Interesting stuff about banking and derivatives, if that’s your bag.

Took the MC out for the first substantial ride of the new season yesterday. The weather was right on for armor and leathers. I did the run up to Nyack. Nyack was full of other riders, like bike week or something. Blame the weather.  I took 9W up with the Harleys, Palisades Parkway back with the sportbikes. It’s interesting to see how the cruisers stick to the secondary roads, and the super-sports prefer the highway. P Parkway is a great ride, nice moderate radius turns and relatively smooth pavement. A lot of police though, so you really have to watch your speed. Having said that, I hit an indicated speed of 105mph at one point. Rode out to the end of Peirmont Landing for the views of the Hudson. It’s pretty rad out there. An interesting little community where you’d least expect it. I wanna get out today too, but the pavement is still a little wet. Maybe later . . .

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: “Waiting for Kristen”

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO: “Waiting for Kristen”

I was walking from work down 6th Avenue headed to Staples to get printer ink and postage stamps. At the corner of 25th & 6th I saw a small crowd gathering in front of the new luxury apartment building there. News vans and crews, cameramen, photographers were all gathered around. People were curious what was up. A pedestrian asked one of the Univision cameramen what was going on. He said, “the hooker, she lives there, on the ninth floor”. Of course today that could only mean one thing: I was in front the building of Kristen’s, the home of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She’s the alleged call girl that Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired to have sex with. You know, the whole Client 9 thing.

The press were gathered at the door to this building waiting for Dupre to enter or exit. The news stations were conducting their 5 o’clock stand-ups here, “live from the Kristen condo” style. Struck by the minor media circus, I decided to go get my own video camera to shoot a little footage. I have a paying video shoot coming up on April 9th that I need to practice for as I am really a video editor, not a shooter. Plus maybe I’d even catch that million dollar shot? So I went back to my studio, got may camera and shot for a bit. Nothing was really going on and I started to get cold and bored. So I stopped shooting after a few minutes. I then continued on to Staples and finally bought the ink and stamps.

When I got back to my studio, I cut together the little clip linked above. I like to think it makes a statement on the absurdity of the media’s obsession with this story. Or at least a statement on my absurd obsession with the media’s absurd obsession on the story. Enjoy!

Footnote 3/14/2008, 5:00pm: The press is still there. Photographers are now staking out the rear service entrance right across the courtyard from the building I work in. Hopefully they will not take over the public courtyard as it is a cool place to go and chill for a while.

Footnote 3/17/2008, 5:00pm:  The press is gone!