It's All Fake

Credit-debt swaps. Collateralized Debt Obligations. I thought I had a partial grasp on this whole mess that sent most of the nation's largest financial institutions into bankruptcy. But the excellent Gretchen Morgensen, financial reporter for The New York Times, made her third or fourth appearance on Terry Gross's Fresh Air Nov. 13, and knocked me for a loop once again. She talked a lot about Synthetic CDOs - CDOs that are not based on bundled combinations of mortgages, but on bundled swaps and insurance policies written for mortgage CDOs. This explains why the taxpayer had to bail out AIG - it was an insurance company writing policies that were not used to ameliorate risk, but as fake assets that could be assembled into CDOs. By the end of the sub-prime craze, mortgage holders and external investors were betting on the futures of CDOs based on no assets whatsoever. Everything underlying the Synthetic CDO was entirely imaginary.

Gretchen had a few other important things to say. In 90 percent of the cases of consumers that took out sub-prime mortgages, the mortgages cannot be re-negotiated even if the government ordered the banks to do so, because no accurate record has been kept of the way they were sliced and diced into CDOs. Thus, no one knows who owns these mortgages, and how approval could be granted for re-negotiation. Also, she said that Paulson had little choice but to change the Troubled Asset Relief Program into a strategy for putting investment into banks, rather than in buying up bad loans. No one knew how to assign any sort of value to the toxic assets, thus the government had no idea what portion of the $700 billion to put into which mortgage packages. Well, at least the shift to investing in banks leaves the government with no philosophical reason for denying the same type of bailout to the Big Three in Detroit. Here's to Gretchen Morgensen, one of the few people on this planet who understands how completely and utterly fucked we are right now.

Ultrasound and Ultra-Human Chauvinists

The worst part of the Nov. 12 US Supreme Court ruling on the Navy's use of high-powered sonar is not just that marine mammals face a real and immediate threat as soon as the tests resume. The worst aspect of the 5-4 ruling is that Chief Justice John Roberts said that real harm does not have to be proved. If the Navy needs a specific technology for realistic testing, then the "public interest" outweighs the survival of a specific species, and requires the tests proceed.

I'm sure the sentient beings that live underwater would argue that a Supreme Court stacked 9-0 in favor of humans does not give them a jury of their peers. I am a firm believer, in opposition to Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, that the Constitution is indeed a suicide pact - if the needs of the state override the Bill of Rights, override international rules against torture, override the Endangered Species Act, then the state should fall, since its principles are more important than its mere existence. But the U.S. government doesn't appear ready to fall on its own sword any time soon. More's the pity for all you whales out there.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Investigative Journalism!

Kids, if you look quickly, you'll see an interesting example of that endangered species known as investigative journalism. On Nov. 11, the Denver Post ran a cover story by Greg Griffin on the local subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, Aurora Loan Services, responsible for a significant portion of all sub-prime bundling back in the day. I know, New York Times and Wall Street Journal still pay for investigative stories, including ones on the ever-widening financial meltdown, amidst their ever-shrinking budgets. But to find a regional media outlet that still employs good writers to take the time to look behind the day's headlines and write analytical pieces is a wonder to behold. We won't be seeing many of these in the future.

Iconoclasts Love Good Monk Riots

Little commentary is necessary on this article, just another weekend of entertainment in Jerusalem. Any old iconocurmudgeonclast could tell them that the problems always begin with physical relics and graven images, and escalate from there. A piece of the true cross that can be fought over is not the true cross. The bones of a saint that can be captured in a jar is not a true saint. A God that elicits fist fights for physical-world advantages is not a true God.

Sunburned Hand of the Man and Gang Gang Dance in Denver

No, not together, nothing in Colorado could be that rational. Sunburned Hand of the Man was scheduled to make their first Colorado appearance at Hi-Dive Nov. 7, and I absolutely had to put highest priority on that. This is the first effort at touring since band member Adam Nodelman died. My only regret in capturing a few short clips (drum destruction above, along with this, this, this, this, and this) is that the lovely and talented Sarah O'Shea, playing electronics on an ironing board, is barely visible. Learned after I had gotten the ticket that Gang Gang Dance was making a return appearance at Larimer Lounge the same night. When the Sunburned show ended at 12:30, I raced over to Larimer and caught the last 30 minutes of Liz and the drum gods, including the clip of "House Jam" below.

What suddenly struck me last night is how much women have taken a crucial role in the experimental noise scene of late. A year ago, Craig M. got me the 4-CD Women Take Back the Noise collection, and since then I've watched women form their own collectives, like Leslie Keffer and Valerie Martino in Nashville, while women have taken lead roles in previously all-male avant-garde collectives: Bridget Hayden in Vibracathedral Orchestra and Telescopes, Inca Ore/Eva Saelens in Jackie-O Motherfucker, Michio in No-Neck Blues Band, and Sarah O'Shea in Sunburned. Personally, it seems that women are more innovative and precise in using noise than all those dorky men. I'm just glad the Tom Greenwoods and Dave Nusses of the world are willing to step into the background a bit, as women take back the noise.

A New Definition of "Police Riot"

Kudos to Colorado ACLU for uncovering the story behind a very strange event on Monday (Aug. 24) at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Though Monday was not supposed to be a big day for protesters, it ended up being the day with the most arrests, when police suddenly and inexplicably attacked a sunset march going from the Civic Center toward downtown. More than 100 were arrested, and of the 60 who decided to challenge their arrests, none have been convicted, due to lack of evidence or uncertain police testimony.

Turns out the police staged their own riot, when Denver undercover cops masquerading as anarchists pretended to resist arrest so that they could safely be removed from the area before the police did a sweep. A Jefferson County deputy, not understanding what was going on, pepper-sprayed the undercover cops along with the commander who was pretending to arrest them. From there, events deteriorated to the level of farce.

This isn't that surprising. When tear gas was widely used at the February 2003 protests in Colorado Springs, amateur videographers took pictures of police on side streets surrounding Academy Blvd., donning full riot gear before any civil disobedience had been done. When you can't find enough protest to justify your actions, make your own.

The core move of any bureaucracy is to self-perpetuate. If the budget can't be justified by its activity, a bureaucracy almost never calls for cutting its own budget. Instead, activity is generated. Everyone was chiding the Denver cops for the overwhelming presence on downtown streets during DNC. So they had to manufacture events to rationalize their budget.

When paranoids see all life and struggle as a stage-managed drama directed by shadowy puppet-masters, they are wrong 80 percent of the time. But every now and then, the curtain lifts on a second layer of game-behind-the-game, where we see that the paranoids have a point. What appears to be a political struggle is a scripted bread and circuses show presented for our edification and enjoyment. As the rallying cry goes, "This is what democracy looks like!"

Elections 2008 and the Ezra Pound Problem

Can a fascist ever be a good poet? I'm not making the value judgment here of demanding an artist be politically correct. If Christopher Hitchens wanted to write a poem in praise of Dick Cheney, well, more power to him, provided he sobers up first. Rather, I'm asking if someone who espouses a doctrine that overtly destroys dialog, demands compliance, and punishes those who stray, can ever be considered a worthy artist. I answer this in the negative. Ezra Pound was a shitty poet because he was fascist. Similarly, hagiographers to Stalin or Mugabe can never be assessed as genuine artists because they are making the case for closed minds, not open ones.

Now I don't take this too far, particularly because many people believe that only a partially troubled life can yield good art. On the Ted Hughes/Sylvia Plath dispute, for example, I will acknowledge some sympathy for Hughes, since he made some attempt to provide Plath with a good atmosphere, and Plath's troubles were so deep-seated, Hughes ultimately was not responsible for her suicide. But I would say that a serial abuser of women, like a serial killer, cannot be considered a worthwhile artist because their personal foibles trump their personal visions.

In the aftermath of the election, I've seen some essays and blogs that mimic the kind of language one hears from extreme evangelicals or racists. These people are sure that a Democrat victory gives rise to insta-socialism (just add water), and that anyone who voted for Obama is a dupe for some undefined conspiracy. I don't drink Obama Kool-Aid. Like Hillary Clinton, Obama was a flawed, centrist candidate with Democratic Leadership Council support. But he has an honest intent, and it sure as hell is clear that he's no more socialist than George Bush, post-bank-nationalization.

One expects to see myth-based pseudo-thought from the religious right, because the devout value faith-based truth more than rational discussion - in fact, they shy away from the scientific method as the devil's own. One does not expect to see it from writers and artists. There are plenty of neocons who love to debate issues with liberals and radicals, and more power to them. But there are writers and artists who assume that Obama's election means the world has come to an end, and they are not willing to discuss these issues. Such people are hagiographers for faith-based truth, and have no right to be considered artists in a post-Enlightenment world. An artist does not function as a toady for closed faiths, closed minds, closed political systems, or closed cultures. This is why Ezra Pound sucked by nature.