The Long Road Out

The rest of the world, other than the isolated US, understands that FIFA are crooks.   It's a running joke--even when lives are at stake. So now the U.S. enacts the questionable set of racketeering laws it uses whenever it feels like stripping non-U.S. citizens living outside of the country of their civil and legal rights. The result:  FIFA leaders are in some jail in the US, apparently in Brooklyn where there's a reasonable smattering of soccer, but none at the professional level.  My guess is that the rest of the world is now rooting for FIFA over our justice system.   FIFA 14, US nil. Good news--the 14 are (probably) not in Guantanamo. Bad news, three of the four top execs in jail are--surprise--black (the fourth is Ecuadorian).  We love to jail black people here. These FIFA extraditions take the eyes of the Justice Department off the battle on police behavior including the new very-fragile Cleveland police ruling. I'm appalled.  Here's why: ...

Vermont Public Radio announced today that Bernie's running for 2016. There's no question that he'll win. Why?   It's a clear shot to Pennsylvania Avenue unless Dennis Kucinich reappears via some form of miracle.   The reason is because if you take the 26 Republicans and Hilary and put their positions into a scatter diagram, the concentration is so tight you can't fit in another dot.  Some of the fat white guys on the Republican Circuit, in fact, may have to drop out. There's Bernie out there by himself.   The X axis on his candidacy is "correct points of view" and the Y axis is "morality." Every one else is in a tight squeeze aligned with "the same old shit" and "sleazy." Go Bernie, Go!!!

The directors and publicity staff of PBS's new television series Wolf Hall , which debuted this weekend, are at a loss to explain how John Bates, the valet played by Brendan Coyle in PBS' other smash historical drama Downton Abbey , managed to appear in every scene in the first episode. Coyle's character is noteworthy in that he never actually says anything in Downton Abbey .  Coyle has been quoted as noting that "I have very clear instructions to do nothing on the show except smile and make doe-eyes." "It's not as easy has it looks," Coyle continued defensively.  "You try doing that thing with your eyes when you're standing behind bars or while you slowly deduce that your wife has been raped." Mark Rylance, who plays Thomas Cromwell in the new Wolf Hall , was particularly nonplussed by the surprise cast member.  "It's really difficult to overcome, frankly," he told us.  "We're having enough trouble pretendi...

This pyrrhic category requires that the entire album have a common purpose and excellence--and not necessarily that any particular song carries the day (though there are some spectacular songs included of course!). And of course, now the idea of the album is more or less commercially and artistically outdated.   It's much harder to add some of the current great work in rock and pop...you don't have to look very far to find wonderful music these days on the alt channels. A starting list and order: Graceland , Paul Simon Physical Graffiti , Led Zeppelin Tea for the Tillerman, Cat Stevens Various Indigo Girls albums Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree Brothers in Arms , Dire Straits Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon

It's hard to see how not taxing all the real estate assets currently owned by religious organizations helps maintain any sort of reasonable separation of church and state.   In fact, it means the government is the most direct funder of church activities.   No wonder you get "one nation under god" whenever political figures gather together--you're looking at a group of investors! So, let's start taxing at least the real estate assets now.   This can be done over a 20 or 30 year period, incrementally.   That will prevent the leaders of these protected organizations from complaining that they'll be "put out of business" by unfair treatment.   In fact, I'll take that argument straight on:   to all you priests and deacons and other puffed-up guys:   if you cant evolve your business model enough to pay for a small portion of the free services you soak up in 30 years, you should be fired. Taxing real estate has the benefit of being local--those fund...

Central Park Conservancy has made subtle indications suggesting their new policy to endorse the use of Central Park by minority children, particularly those with lighter skin.    The policy shift is evident in public communications from CPC, such as the one below near the West 67th St. entrance. CPC Sign Suggesting that Minority Children, as Long as their Skin is Not Too Dark, are Now Welcome in Central Park "Putting up signage indicating that it's acceptable to bring children of color, as we call them, into our Park is now our third highest strategic priority," Claire Schmolly, spokesperson for CPC, told this blog. "Of course, our highest priority will be to buy too many vehicles for Park maintenance," she assured us.  "What a fleet we have now, huh?   And it'll only get bigger, the more unnecessary vehicles we buy. " Scholly confirmed that the ultimate goal of CPC's leading priority is to own so many vehicles that it's impossi...

Not if you're Citibank, Bank of America, RBS, Barclay's, Morgan Stanley, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, or Dexia (?).   Or most other banks. These banks need an extra $1,139 billion in free government loans over the last three years to make up for what they lost on their debt obligations. Which leads to the point of this commentary:   I'm not an economist, but how can you theorize that you're stimulating an economy when certificates of deposit are returning zero per cent?  In fact, I received a marketing piece in the mail for a savings account at Citi that is paying 20 basis points and has fees of 25 basis points!   That's a negative return.   Guys.   I'm not being crazy when I say that you'd do better sticking your cash under the mattress. Yet, the zombies who set fiscal policy have determined that the only way to keep our economy moving is a world where savings pay nothing, and commercial debt collects 4% or so--400 basis points o...