Bitterly Books

October 26, 2009

Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us: Chapter 3 Review

Ralph Nader, heretofore, unknown as a talented writer of utopian fiction, spins a tale that is part caper, such as Ocean's Eleven, part technical explanation as in Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October, and in part a fast-paced narrative adventure story as found in any of W.E.B. Griffin's books.

BITTERLY INDIFFERENT REVIEW

This chapter makes it clear that Ralph Nader has put a lot of thought into his writing, choosing his words carefully when discussing "the other hoof of the Trojan Horse Strategy"(p.90) and imbuing Ted Turner "with a Turnerian twinkle"(p.72). At the Maui 2 summit, "they all repaired to their rooms, and the star-studded Maui night descended on the slumbering future earthshakers"(p.67). And in a nod to the Bard of Avon, the group talks about how "we've identified a hundred or so born or seasoned organizers" (p.70) as an allusion to the way that some are born great organizers, some achieve organization, and some have organization thrust upon them.

At times, Nader's work can be erotically charged, such as when "on top of that wondrously endowed mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Warren's warriors felt giddy with hard-headed hope"(p.75, emphasis added). He may not have had a similar intent behind his statement that "money is the lubricant of incumbency,"(p.81) but it still gave me an erection.

The strongest writing in this chapter appears in its natural, unforced dialogue. Warren Buffett speaks all of the following lines:

"During the month between our last Maui meeting and Punxsutawney Phil's unfortunate sighting of his shadow the other day."(p.67)

"There's a cornucopia of fruit, banana bread, and coconut pudding awaiting you in the dining room."(p.74)

"I see that I'm making a speech here, but I can tell from your faces that you're all satisfied with our Redirections agenda. I think you'll agree that our work here is done, so with your indulgence, I'll go on with my closing remarks."(p.77)

"Let's all remember the importance of replication dynamics and leveraged velocity, as discussed during Maui One."(p.76)

The chapter's greatest weakness is the way some of the Redirections chosen at Maui 2 get dragged out with a lot of hand-wringing and debate over how difficult things are going to be. It got a little tedious, but then the developments at the end made it worthwhile. The following points are worth mentioning:

George Soros has bought a hotel in Washington, D.C., and is remodeling it for potentially nefarious purposes. Viator has thoughts on this.
The Maui group is setting up congress watchdog groups, but these radicals are carefully screening out the wrong kind of radicals. "A vital part of the organizers' work would be to screen admission to the Watchdog groups through interviews and questionnaires designed to establish common ground at the outset."(p.83)
The Maui group redefines the phrase "no strings attached" when they plan to offer congressmen campaign contributions to match the money they currently receive from corporate interests. "Any incumbent who resisted this no-strings buyout, other than by rejecting all private contributions, would be on the A-list for defeat by the Congress watchdogs and their allies"(p.84), so the string attached to accepting the money is forsaking the ability to receive private campaign contributions from any other source, while the consequence of not accepting is being hounded out of office.
The Maui group wants to take action against "the putrid lobbying and cash-register politics dominating our national legislature"(p.89) so they decide to "create a one-issue political party with an electoral reform platform at all three levels of government. Upon formation, the Clean Elections Party would announce that it would go out of business once the platform was enacted into law"(p.90). This is their "divide and conquer strategy" to divide votes between the Clean Elections Party and the Congressional-Watchdog-Approved incumbents so that opponents of the Maui group can conquer.
The essay contest started by Joe Jamais and Max Palevsky asks "'Which state is the most unjust in the nation?' and 'Which state is the least unjust in the nation?'"(p.92) The contest generously caps the essays at ten thousand words, but I can answer them both with four: Aroused and hung over.
"On five successive days, commencing next week, two billionaires a day demand that Wal-Mart change its business model, allow unionization, and pay its workers no less than $11 an hour, with full health insurance."(p.94) This is sure to have an effect because billionaires make up such a large percentage of Wal-Mart's customer base.
Yoko Ono draws "a stark representation of knives being hurled at a group of children"(p.100) which will hopefully teach those damn kids to stay off her fucking lawn once and for all.
Bill Gates, Sr., is approached by "a very successful retired investment banker" who says that he'll help, but "Only if it's full throttle. I'm not interested in due diligence"(p.69). I had no idea that Joe Cassano was interested in social reform.
The Maui group forms a lot of subcommittees, but "keeping the staff slim accords with a managerial philosophy of devolution, which means always pushing the work and energy down to the community or to the best real-life platform"(p.77) I read this as "shit rolls downhill."
"Ted was highly thought of in environmental and peace circles, not to mention among the ranks of carnivorous Americans who liked bison meat."(p.93) 'Nuff said.
Phil Donahue's entire contribution to this chapter is a scene in which he figuratively wipes his ass with a letter from the president of NBC. "Too late, big suit. The train has left the station"(p.68).

And then there are the pot protests and the solar orgies. The Maui group decides that they should agitate for "the expansion of carbohydrate economy to replace the present hydrocarbon economy"(p.96), and lord knows we've got enough fat people in America to be an unstoppable carbohydrate-based economy, but it's really just a fancy way of writing "LEGALIZE IT." Their big plan is to have a protest where they "stand in front of the White House with fifty farmers and activists, each holding a flowerpot, and all simultaneously planting industrial hemp seeds in their pots [....] We'll call it the Pot Revolution, an ironic twist on the word 'pot' that's sure to generate more controversy"(p.97). If calling them filthy potheads is controversial, then I am no stranger to controversy. Of course, hardcore stoners like Peter Lewis are out of luck because "they'll only distract from what will become a mass-media educational campaign that shows how the carbohydrate economy can strengthen national security by reducing dependence on foreign oil and promoting many additional environmental benefits"(p.97, and yes, that was a line of dialogue that someone is supposed to speak out loud)

As to the solar power promotion, "we'll put a giant magnifying glass over a giant vat of eggplants and tomatoes, and then we'll give out bowls of delicious stew!"(p.98) because lukewarm ketchup really wins over a crowd. Ted Turner wants more bikinis and excitement at the Mayan-themed solar power events, and says that "these festivals will be so graphic that the media won't be able to resist them"(p.98). More importantly, they'll "commission Mesoamerican historians and anthropologists to make them as authentic as possible within the confines of demonstrating modern solar technology in dramatic ways that rebut all the myths and lies about solar energy conversion"(p.98). I hope this means they'll talk to the scriptwriters from Mysterious Cities of Gold, because that solar-powered robotic war galley they had was totally boss. Ultimately, "the sun god festivals will launch a national mission to go to the sun the way we went to the moon,"(p.99) except this time, we'll be burning the astronauts alive after they leave the launchpad.

BFLs

This chapter contained 46 triads and 8 BFLs. At first, it seemed like the author would be able to restrain himself, but after abstaining for a few pages at a time he would go on a triad frenzy, chaining together ideas and using multiple triads, nested triads, and triads within BFLs all on the same page. Two of the more notable BFLs in the chapter are his description of the "ten Redirections" drawn up by the Maui group:

These ten Redirections were chosen with an eye to their potential for amassing additional human and material assets, arousing the downtrodden, securing positive media attention, provoking reaction from the vested interests, motivating the young, highlighting solutions, cracking the mind-suppressing paradigms of the intellectual classes, enhancing countervailing challenges to the power structure, redefining patriotism in terms of civic duty, and fast-tracking some long overdue practical improvements for millions of Americans(p.75-76)

And this speech given at the end of the chapter:

Let's put some substance on this scaffolding. Give it outstretched arms, give it Yoko's brilliant logo, give it schools that teach students to tell truth to power, give it Youth Clubs for Civic Experience after school, give it neonatal care, caring daycare, nutrition care, give it ways to tap into youth ingenuity, youth questioning of our generation's stagnation, give it a Youth Political Party, give it network television programs by and for college students, high school students, and elementary school students, sit them in circles around hip adults who'll pepper them with questions and guide them out of the cultural cocoons that have devalued their imaginations and expectations for themselves.(pp 100-101)

That's right, The second sentence takes up 11 lines that stretch across two pages, and it's supposed to be spoken aloud.

PLOT DEVELOPMENT TO WATCH

The Maui group has convinced "Warren Beatty, the progressive but indecisive Hollywood actor"(p.85) to run for office. It's notable that Nader hasn't taken any steps to change the identity of California's governor, keeping Governor Schwarzenegger's name unchanged and explaining that "California's current governor was a former grade-B actor"(p.85) while he gets his characters ready to "evacuate the corporate cyborg"(p.86) from the governor's office. This is an exciting development for several reasons.

First, it looks like Nader is going to keep up the invective and name-calling for the entire race. Second, the explanation that Max Palevsky had "been Warren's close friend for thirty years, and they'd had many a bachelor adventure together"(p.87) promises a juicy sex scandal, possibly involving a dead hooker or two. Finally, Warren Beatty may actually debate Arnold Schwarzenegger. While it's too awesome to fully comprehend, it might go something like this:

The two men appear at their first public debate, and Warren Beatty is given the chance to speak first. He launches into a blistering attack on Schwarzenegger, condemning him politically and personally. He faults Arnold for the sorry state of California's economy. He brings up the harassment lawsuits that have been filed against Schwarzenegger, and the many, many women who have claimed he is a misogynist. He talks about Arnold's infamous remarks about marijuana use captured on film in Pumping Iron, and even alludes to the fact that his father was a Nazi brownshirt, possibly throwing in a "girlie man" insult for good measure. It's a passionate speech, delivered with fervor and outlining all the reasons why Schwarzenegger is unfit to be governor. Almost everyone is stunned into silence by the time Beatty has finished speaking.

That's when Arnold leans forward and says, in a surprisingly quiet voice, "You were in Ishtar."

Warren Beatty runs from the auditorium in tears, never to be seen in public again.

October 23, 2009

Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us: Chapter 3 Synopsis

October 21, 2009

Viator's Review: OTSRCSU Chapter 2

Bitterly Books is undertaking a chapter-by-chapter review of Ralph Nader's work, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us. You can read past chapter synopses here. Past reviews can be read here, and Viator's columns can be read here.

For the complete coverage of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, click here.

We left off at the distribution of timai, or prerogatives, among our seventeen god-moguls. Chapter 2 gives us a demonstration of their far-reaching power, as we see how each reaches into our very souls with their assigned powers. The sense of word-made-power is immediately evident in the surreal imposition of Warren Buffett's required secrecy. Warren Buffett commands that they remain secret, and they remain secret, no matter how much bull feces Ted Turner hurls.

Similarly, "Stay Tuned" is a divine intonation, a focal point for the apocalypse or "unveiling" of Nader's wisdom. The very birds of the wilderness cry out for it (and small wonder capitalism perverts this into a massive demand for tropical birds).

With that in mind, here are the major players so far with their closest mythological analogues:

Warren Buffett (Zeus): Any polytheistic world needs a head cheese, and so we see Warren. He is more of a big picture guy, assembling “the all-important brain trust that would respond with alacrity in specialized fields.” He is also an accomplished bureaucrat, “refining the operations of the Secretariat and orchestrating the weekly closed-circuit TV conferences.” (59) Surveying what his plans have wrought, he “popped open a celebratory can of Cherry Coke.”

Ted Turner (Loki): Ever the trickster, Turner teaches mankind with comedy and absurdity (a new hat tip from Nader to real life). He insists the group represent themselves with a bird, eventually the scarlet macaw “Patriotic Polly” that is used. (42) He responds to baffled reporters asking him why he is acting (more) crazed with the agreed intonation, "Stay tuned." Turner possesses an impish view of public relations, believing that “the best way to confront lies was not with the truth...lies were best confronted with marching feet or easily understood symbols.” (51) In this case, the symbol is him throwing the aforementioned manure all over television screens while reporters are “nibbling on their canapés,” an effective if somewhat unappetizing attention grabber.

Ross Perot (Dionysus): Similar to Turner only fairly drunk as well, Perot spends the second chapter reprising his 1992 presidential campaign word for word, purchasing vast swathes of prime time to rave that federal budget deficits are “taxing babies” and demand “we’d better bring our boys home pronto” from Iraq. (49) Frankly if there’s any criticism I have of this chapter, it’s that we don’t get enough of Perot’s fun tantrums.

Paul Newman (Jesus): Newman is a reserved sort and isn’t in it for the glory. He holds up his end of the dual telethon (by “telethon” Nader means “Paul Newman and Bill Cosby ad lib for three hours about the Pledge of Allegiance,” something I would pay a disgusting amount of money to see), but otherwise is the picture of Christian humility. His contribution to the telethon takes the form of modern-day parables, or “his own collection of independently produced films and documentaries.” (43) Also, Newman is back from the dead to appear in the book.

Bill Cosby (Yahweh): Cosby is a fascinating character inasmuch as he represents Nader’s killjoy-ness, but in no way that of the actual Bill Cosby, a difficult feat to manage. His portion of the joint telethon he runs with Newman is dedicated to lectures about bad television, “devoted to demonstrating how the media uses public property- the airwaves- to foster complacency, serve power, sell junk, and trivialize or distort or cover up the news.” (43) (“Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD!” -Isaiah 1:4)

Barry Diller (Marduk): Diller appears in exactly one clause of one sentence for chapter two, describing the telethon as “a live three-hour event carried by all the major networks thanks to the behind-the-scenes exertions of Barry Diller.” (43) I want you to consider for a moment how immensely, terrifyingly powerful someone must be to walk into a room and convince three broadcast networks to cough up three hours of prime time for Bill Cosby and Paul Newman to show Newman’s home movies and say whatever the hell came into their heads. Yeah.

Yoko Ono (Uzume): Shinto deities are as rule a bit flaky; it’s unclear whether most of them are even self-aware. Uzume, the Great Persuader and Heavenly Alarming Female, is particularly appropriate for Ono. Just as Uzume managed improbably to restore sunlight to the world by dancing naked on an overturned bathtub, Ono captivates millions by doodling on scratch paper. She draws a "Seventh Generation Eye," a symbol so awe-inspiring Nader spares our lesser minds from an illustration. He describes it only as “a simple, elegant line drawing of an eye that seemed to be looking far into the future. Under the eye were seven human figures, each extending a hand to the next, and beside it was a name: Yoko Ono.” (41) The Eye is particularly popular with Vietnam veterans, who we learn have secretly adored Ono's pacifism for decades. She calls her proclamations “a somersault of the mind.” (44) Along with this symbolic illumination Ono restores light to the world in a physical sense. She sends out 20 million emails (“all from lists properly rented”; Nader is no spammer) (45) to offer to give out free CFL light bulbs.

Peter Lewis (Lucifer): The original incarnation of Lucifer, as best scholars can tell, was drawn from the introduction of Babylonian secret agents to catch Jewish subversives: an angel working (honestly) for Yahweh to tempt and test the faithful. So also with Lewis. His campaign to effectively end all forms of insurance for large swathes of the population is a marvelous exercise in demonic temptation, as is his giddy realization that "He had an easy time with the reporters, who knew little about the subject, and the insurance executives were afraid to debate him." (48)

George Soros (Thoth): Soros is a timeless fellow. His immense wisdom and foresight have come at the price of ennui. He is bored by the first Maui conference, as it is “difficult for him to envision what he could do post-Maui that he hadn’t done pre-Maui.” (57) Nevertheless he contributes in the purest display of wisdom possible: “He would challenge the editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal to a debate.” (58) Said debate, “besieged by every media outlet from The Onion to Vanity Fair,” is a raging success. The editor quits in shame the following month, as Soros demonstrates how [corporate triad] have crushed [democracy triad]. He also “argued convincingly that the world’s hopes and dreams, and even its continued existence, were at stake in the global collision between democracy and myopic corporatism.” (59) And asked for an encore, Soros of course replied, “Stay tuned.”

Max Palvesky (Cthulu): I have to be honest: I’m not sure at all about Palvesky. His goals are inscrutable and his methods dubious. In the two-day social experiment Bitterly describes he lures thousands of people into an auditorium either for the purposes of either enticing people into a bizarre show with “free fruit, soft drinks and snacks,” or enticing people to eat his snacks and drink his soft drinks with the bizarre sideshow. Palvesky subsequently reports (via a full-page ad in the L.A. Times) that everyone was baffled by the first days' presentation and insulted by the second (during which an old man shouts racist nonsense with a megaphone, leading to the place clearing out in minutes). He is perplexingly satisfied by overwhelming public opinion that he is a massive dickhead. If anyone is going to betray our more noble god-titans my eye is on Palvesky to do it.

Sol Price (Epimetheus): As a god Price is pretty useless. After Maui he sleeps for a while. Then he takes out an full-page op-ed ads in [newspaper BFL]. The theme of the ads is a jarring mash of Ozymandias and the Hollow Men: “O Rich and Powerful, arise, you have nothing to lose but [triad]! Let’s go to the heights and exit not with a whimper, wallowing in [tacky rich triad], but with a bang!” (49) Price apparently didn’t get the memo that full-page newspaper ads are for proclaiming the divine deeds one has already accomplished, not an end in themselves. He isn’t even on the same page about saying “stay tuned,” opting instead to say “I’ll be back for you. Get ready,” which sounds like a weird yet toothless threat. (49)

Phil Donahue (Baldur): At least Donahue managed to write something, though this doesn’t put him too far ahead of Price. On the flight back he writes a New York Times op-ed in which he “pointed squarely to commercial interests that said no to the well-being of people.” The reaction to such a mediocre effort doesn’t even seem to impress Nader, who writes, “about 85 percent reacted as if they’d just overcome a long period of constipation.” (44) On closer scrutiny this may refer to Donahue’s litany of sexual perversions; in addition to defecation in his office we learn that “Lots of people were willing to jump out of the cake for him.” I have no idea what that means, but still hold Donahue candyass enough to be killed by a festive holiday plant.

Jeno Paulucci (Plutus): Paulucci takes up a cause near to my own heart: setting up a Chamber of Commerce that isn’t run by total dickbags. The fact that it is called the “People’s Chamber of Commerce” and its charter is something “a business ethics friend of his had written back in 1978” (46) is alarming, as is his insistence that it follow “a chaordic organizational structure...a blend of ‘chaos’ and order’.” (47) Paulucci is also a Republican, a prudent nod to bipartisanship.

Leonard Riggio (Rick Santelli): There’s no delicate way to say this: Riggio stages tea parties on Wall Street: “Contacting neighborhood groups and labor leaders he knew, he quickly put together a rally of 25,000 people of little means in front of the New York Stock Exchange. They carried placards bearing slogans like ‘The Poor Will Be Heard From- From Now On’…Leonard marshaled some great speakers whom no one had heard of…Leonard supplied sandwiches for lunch and gave out posters, placards and bumper stickers to the crowd to help spread the word. Exactly what ‘the word’ was he didn’t say.” (50) I’m not one to doubt Buffett’s background checks but that sounds like an Americans for Prosperity strategy memo.

Joe Jamail (Themis): Jamail puts his lawyering skills and $15 million of his money into filing small claims lawsuits for free. He seems to be a bit of a tightwad as well: as of 2006 there were approximately 5 million small claims torts filed in the U.S. Jamail’s legal society would be funding $3 per case to handle such a caseload. (52)

Bernard Rapoport (Osiris): Keenly sensing that the route to long-term change is the re-education of small children, Rapoport “placed ads on select cable channels saying that he would establish after-school Egalitarian Clubs to teach children civic skills and democratic values like equality of opportunity and the importance of a decent standard of living.” He also “said that the big corporations were on an omnicidal track in the world- destroying our democracy and the environment.” (45-46) We shall have to see if he actually manages to establish any of these industrious and possibly Amber Alert-worthy Clubs.

William Gates, Sr (Julius Caesar): The elder Gates is truly a patrician of the people, as he “offered to pay for the Delaware incorporation of anyone who applied over the following twenty-one days,” reasoning that since corporations have all the rights of individuals the inverse should apply for individuals themselves. He also “announced that he was forming a committee to run five corporations for federal and state elective office in the next couple of years” because “corporations were legally deemed to be ‘persons’.” (53) It is worth noting that of all of the assembled deities, so far only Gates is taking direct and proactive steps to influence the government, assuming he wins his elections.

Brovar Dortwist (Demiurge): Finally we have the first and foremost villain, a literary version of conservative firebrand and erstwhile Jack Abramoff pal Grover Norquist. Dortwist is a bad dude, for two reasons: he is “a conservative lobbyist- or rather, the conservative lobbyist,” and he is in bed with Arabs (literally, as the passage about his wife and...pastry, let's agree, indicate). He has an army of “more than a hundred of the most aggressive, no-holds-barred lobbyists and greasers” as he “bark[s] the craven missions of the week.” (63) (His evil powers include particularly terrible puns) It speaks to his dark powers that he does not seem to be bound by Buffett’s proclamation of secrecy.

October 20, 2009

Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us: Chapter 2 Review

Ralph Nader is a super-patriot who will never say die to the American way of life. When reality says the Republic is either dead or on it's last legs Nader will dig in and fight. He has always used truth as the weapon. Now he artfully uses fiction to speak these truths in a form that that simply had me smiling from ear to ear. His knowledge in so deep/intricate in the workings of this country's political/economical entanglements that he misses nothing in the telling of this story.

BITTERLY INDIFFERENT REVIEW

This is the chapter where Nader takes off the training wheels, picks up speed, and rams into a parked car. He steps away from soapbox oratory to show us a cross-section of the working class, but he does it with an economy of language that skillfully fleshes out the scene with our own stereotypes and preconceived notions. For example, “on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, Jack Soaring Eagle walked slowly down the long, dusty drive that led from his trailer to his mailbox”(p.40), so we already know that he’s one of the more downtrodden members of society, a disenfranchised Indian who can’t keep a job.

Things start strong with Nurse Jane Harper entranced by Patriotic Polly and motivated to come up with a plan to make the world a better place. After the parrot’s irresistible commandment, the narrative gets a little less believable when it cuts to Stan Yablonsky and Mike O’Malley drinking in Clancy’s Cave—the bar, not the orifice. First the bartender states that “the Bills’ve been out of contention since December”(p.38), and then Mike the schoolteacher leaves because he has to “do his lesson plan on the Underground Railroad”(p.39). Football timing aside, it’s impossible to believe that a working-class stiff like O’Malley isn’t a burned-out husk of an educator who has been using Xeroxed copies of the same lesson plan for over a decade. If he actually gave a shit about his lesson plan, he wouldn’t be out drinking on a school night in the first place. However, Stan’s greeting of “those little tweakers leave gum on your chair again or steal all the chalk?”(p.38) accurately characterizes public schools as being full of meth addicts.

Unfortunately, after two more “common man” scenes, Nader shifts back to his billionaire’s club and returns to long lists of social injustices that need to be addressed. He does add the occasional literary flourish, such as when Ted Turner’s demonstration alliteratively “splashed a slurpy bucket of bull manure”(p.51) onto some “prevarication screens.” Regrettably, Max Palevsky does some oversharing when he notes that “even after some spirited female-gazing during country club lunches with his friend Warren Beatty, his resurgent libido did not put him in any persistently creative civic mood”(p.54).

I have learned the following in this section:

The concept of Schadenfreude is alien to Ralph Nader. He thinks that “Judge Judy was an amazing ratings success because people cared about small injustices between individuals,” (p.52) when in fact it’s a success because people enjoy petty bickering.
Ralph Nader wants to see Warren Buffet naked. The Washington Post reports that “internet traffic regarding the rich guys’ activities leaves Britney and Paris in the dust”(p.63), which could only mean that Buffett was photographed getting out of a car with no panties (or maybe that Ted Turner and Phil Donohue made a sex tape full of male strippers and slurpy bull manure).
Ralph Nader hates the rainforest, but recognizes the value of its inhabitants. But probably wants them all killed, anyway. Patriotic Polly, the movement’s mascot, performs so well in her commercial that she “would have won an Academy Award in her category, if there were such a category”(p.42). I hope he meant an Emmy Award, because a feature-length film of a parrot screaming at me about the need to change America would be too much to bear. Also, “one unintended side effect was that the price of Amazonian parrots skyrocketed,”(p.42) which means that their shrewd choice of a mobilizing avatar is going to increase illegal trade in exotic animals and probably speed the destruction of the rainforests.
Ralph Nader wants you to die. His proxy, Peter Lewis, wants to “manage risks” in the insurance industry, which means that insurance companies should start “scrutinizing risks and trying to make it on premium income,”(p.48) refusing to insure risky propositions like buildings that haven’t been built to fire code specifications or people who have pre-existing conditions. His literal statement that fewer people should be covered by insurance companies seems an ill-considered move to force most Americans into bankruptcy via massive hospital bills, until you realize that the tradeoff is that he has solved global warming by forcing people to stop driving because their auto insurance has been cancelled.

Fortunately, Nader gets back into gear with David Roader’s summary. Describing the Maui group’s work as “stirrings from the very gut of the plutocracy”(p.63) is unexpectedly accurate; from the columnist’s vantage he can’t tell if these windbags are just gas pain or the precursor of a tremendous movement. Nader finishes strong, calling out the K Street “lobbyists and greasers”(p.63) who skulk in the office of Brovar Dorquist, waiting for him to “send his troops forth to carry the banner of the almighty buck”(p.63). After being introduced to Dorquist’s “young Arab-American wife”(p.63) we can only hope that “sinking his teeth slowly into a petite Middle Eastern pastry”(p.64) isn’t some kind of euphemism.

TRIAD TRACKER & BFL

I was worried that Nader hadn't brought his A game at the start of this chapter because triads and BFLs were few and far between, but Nader really picks up steam towards the end of it. The triad tracker score is 23, while there were 8 BFLs counted.

This BFL is noteworthy for the triad nested in it:

On a huge screen, as a familiar-sounding voice provided running commentary, images of injustice appeared one after another: children in Los Angeles, chronically hungry, ill-housed, and deprived of the medical treatment they needed; shrunken workers dying from asbestos-induced mesothelioma; US soldiers dying in Iraq for lack of simple body and vehicle armor while members of the Haliburton board clicked champagne glasses over huge Iraq war contracts; executives sitting in their lavish offices as that familiar voice intoned, “They make an average of $10,000 an hour, while their workers average $9.00 an hour”; young blacks with no prior record, imprisoned at five times the rate of young whites with no record; a powerful montage of the president giving his reasons for invading Iraq, causing more than 650,000 civilian deaths, and the headlines showing that he was lying.(p.55)

It is also worth commenting on the fact that the audience was expecting a rock concert by the cutting edge band, Cool Drool. Warren Beatty’s voice should not be familiar to people who listen to cutting-edge rock groups.

There’s also an instance of Nader cock-blocking a BFL on p.39. Bill Cosby begins a rant about the number of people in America who do receive neither liberty nor justice when he is cut off by ellipsis and the narrative statement that “as Cosby continued his catalogue of the manifold injustices afflicting American society, the camera closed in on his face—that reassuring, genial face welcomed into millions of homes for so many years, now grim with anger”(p.39). You could argue that Nader is trying to keep a brother down, but I think it was because a pissed-off Bill Cosby is so completely unprecedented that Nader had to underscore the gravity of the situation.

The most impressive BFL occurs on the final page of the chapter. Nader really pulls out all the stops to introduce archvillain Brovar Dorquist, and describes him with a BFL bracketed by opening and closing triads:

Most of Brovar’s directives were part of a concerted offensive to secure more tax havens, tax reductions, and deregulation; to expand corporate control over the public’s commonwealth assets; to weaken the government’s enforcement capability; to restrict the right to sue the corporate predators in court; and in general to strengthen the power, privilege, and immunity of the corporations vis-à-vis the multitude of regular people who did the work and paid the bills.(p.64)

What does the next chapter hold in store? Stay Tuned.

_{Like, "stay tuned" the command, NOT the movie or the book.}

October 19, 2009

Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us: Chapter 2 Synopsis

October 15, 2009

I Knew You'd Fight About That

Psychic Warrior: Inside the CIA's Stargate Program: The True Story of a Soldier's Espionage and Awakening by David Morehouse, PhD (St. Martin's Press, 1996, ISBN: 0-312-14708-2)

This book was written by: David Morehouse, PhD, a former U.S. Army Ranger whose foray into the realm of the paranormal began when "we were in Jordan training Jordanian rangers—probably to kill Israelis"(p.26). During the assignment, Morehouse found that "the commander of the Jordanian Ranger battalion [....] hated the Israelis and showed no compunction when it came to talk of killing them"(p.27), and "to lose ourselves in the ways and stories of these men, so closely tied to two millennia of desert warriors, was enchanting"(p.33). Sadly, these idyllic days came to an end after a friendly-fire bullet induced visions that sent Morehouse into the U.S. army's remote viewing program.

What is in this book: An accounting of the other-worldly powers harnessed by the United States government that would sound like the paranoid rantings of a lunatic if coming from a less-credible source. "The government of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth has admitted that it knows humans can transcend time and space to view distant persons, places, things, and events, and that information thus gathered can be brought back. I hope you comprehend the significance of that information"(p.257) Morehouse was warned that "you'll be surprised what you see happening in the world around you as you progress in your training"(p.85), but he had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went. He read books on the development of remote viewing as a science, and "the books didn't mention the intelligence involvement, but evidence of government funding and management was all over the place"(p.83). In fact, "it was obvious when you took all the information in context that the U.S. government was heavily involved with parapsychological research on many fronts, not just in the area of remote viewing"(p.72). The fact that Morehouse was committed to the psychiatric ward of Womack Army Hospital and taking "forty milligrams of Loxitane (a powerful antipsychotic), sixty milligrams of Prozac (an antidepressant), six milligrams of Cogentin (to offset the tremors caused by the Loxitane), and thirty milligrams of Restoril (a tranquilizer)"(p.231, parentheses from the author) on a daily basis only shows what the government would do to keep him quiet.

What is not in this book: Vanity. Morehouse might appear resentful, but it's understandable considering that "once I'd been an officer 'destined to wear stars'; now I was a worthless outcast, still suffering from visions and nightmares unless I drugged myself with poisons"(p.234). Similarly, his wife now has to face the fact that "she'd married a strong, promising young infantry officer; sixteen years later, she had a devastated, empty shell of a man who could no more be a father and husband than he could care for himself, who was a melancholy testimonial to what he could have been"(p.235). Morehouse modestly refrains from dwelling on his wasted potential and singing his own praises. He lets the other characters in the story do that:

"Listen to what you're told, David; it's important. Not just to you, but to all humanity"(p.13)

"You possess a unique quality—a gift, if you will"(p.227)

"David promises to be one of the very best viewers we've ever produced"(p.97)

"You get on target faster than anyone I've seen"(p.136)

"I've never seen anyone get the images you did—that was excellent!"(p.109)

"You were on target almost instantly. You collected information that would have cracked the target wide open had this been an operational mission"(p.116)

"He's bilocated within seconds of receiving the coordinates. Nobody's ever done it that fast before"(p.112)

"He's fast, first of all. But that's not where it stops; he's accurate, as well"(p.120)

What do you know about the Secret Army of Northern Virginia? Nothing. I certainly didn't see them mentioned by name on page 46 or referenced later in the book when Morehouse discusses working for them.

Would you recommend this book to Patty Smyth? I think so. She's a little busy shooting at the walls of heartache and all, but she is the warrior. Granted, this book doesn't describe the nuts and bolts of the technology involved in psychic warfare beyond a line about "a specially designed bed like something from a science fiction movie"(p.7), but a warrior's life story might still be of interest to her.

Would you recommend this book to the General Accounting Office? Probably not. Morehouse notes that "there is a dark and perverted side to our army"(p.48), but he's tantalizingly vague on specifics besides a casual mention of affairs and fistfights. "I saw a watch the other day in a safe that cost the taxpayers more than I made in three years"(p.60), so at least we know that the army isn't scrimping on safes.

What was interesting about this book? Morehouse collaborated with Jim Marrs on a book about remote viewing. "Jim is a conscientious and modest man, who shared our fascination with remote viewing and with its potential to help mankind; he worked hard to pull our story together [....] I should mention that, to date, Jim's book has not been published"(p.197). It's a shame that Marrs hasn't been able to bring the truth about remote viewing to light, because "I believe that remote viewing for intelligence purposes remains now very fully funded, very hidden, and very protected—and is now very deadly"(p.251).