FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Dangerous Minds Radio Hour episode 3
08.30.2010
11:17 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
It’s the 3rd episode of the fortnightly Dangerous Minds Radio Hour !  Join Brad and Richard as they settle in and follow their deep and abiding love for dusty old records, somehow finding heavy connections between each selection. From sublime melody to astringent noise, you needn’t believe in God to appreciate the catholic tastes of the amiable gents from Dangerous Minds.

Glen Campbell: “Guess I’m Dumb” (produced by Brian Wilson)
Spring: “Everybody” (produced by Brian Wilson)
Simon & Garfunkel: “My Little Town”
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band: “Touch Me” (with John Lennon and Ringo Starr)
Keith Levene: “Killer in the Crowd”
Public Image Ltd.: “The Cowboy Song”
The Slits: “Man Next Door”
Leo Graham/The Upsetters/King Tubby: “Three Blind Mice/Three Times Three”
Barry Adamson: “007, A Phantasy Bond Theme”
Bee Gees: “Red Chair Fade Away”
Cher: “A Woman’s Story” (produced by Phil Spector)
All Tiny Creatures: “An Iris” (with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver)
The Pentangle: “Light Flight”
Family: “Anyway”
Polly Brown: “(Up Up Up) In a Puff of Smoke”
Wha Ha Ha: “Akatere”

 
Download this week’s episode
 
Subscribe to the Dangerous Minds Radio Hour podcast at Alterati

Posted by Brad Laner
|
08.30.2010
11:17 am
|
Forget Wall St and print some $$$ for the common man!
08.30.2010
10:49 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Does it seem odd to you that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still north of 10,000 despite the fact that no one has any jobs, the economy is puking blood and a bruised and battered mainstream America long ago exited the stock market?

Why wouldn’t the stock market be thriving while the rest of us are on food stamps and living in tents? Wall Street and the banks got the bailout, they aren’t going to lend anybody anything and they are paying themselves FAT BONUSES with your tax dollars. Let there be no mistake about it. The financial class have tied up all the productive capital in this country and are skimming off the top to enrich themselves. That’s the way the game works. It’s all legal!

And it’s obscene. If the general population would stop watching Fox News and worrying about a “mosque” (that isn’t even a mosque) long enough to figure out how they’ve been fucked up the ass sans lube by the plutocrats, there would be rioting in the streets. Instead they think that what we really need are an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and to repeal healthcare reform. (Shudders).

That’s why this new thought experiment/essay, by my super smart pal Charles Hugh Smith is so important to read and share with others. I was thrilled when I read this and I think you will be, too. Talk about a dangerous mind. Wow.

Think what this thought bomb, injected into the national conversation would do. Talk about this idea with your friends, post the essay on Facebook and call talk radio to seed this into the dialogue there.

Imagine if a meme like this spread and took hold. It could—easily—happen. It would turn the national conversation upside down! Now do your part!

What if the Fed and Treasury distributed $1.3 trillion directly to households rather than disburse it to prop up bank lending? At least some households would use the funds to pay down debt, meaning the money would flow to the banking sector anyway, but with one critical difference: household debt would actually decline, leaving household balance sheets in better shape and owing less interest every month.

With quantitative easing, the idea is to increase the debt load on households; with a helicopter drop of fresh cash, the idea would be to reduce the debt load that is crushing many households. Banks would benefit, too, as more consumer debt would be paid off in full compared to the current policy of promoting heavier debt loads. The negative consequences of pushing more debt on households is also obvious: more loans become uncollectible and go into default, creating more loan losses for banks.

If the cash transfers were broadly distributed, the subsequent spending would be more representative of sustainable demand than other means of stimulus, such as costly and ineffective “job creation” programs.

Most importantly, the status quo monetary policy distorts economic activity towards debt-based financial assets and debt-financed durable goods such as the “cash for clunkers” program to boost auto sales.

According to the status quo, adding more debt to households is the cure to our economic malaise. But for most households, high debt is the disease, not the cure, and adding more debt to “stimulate spending” is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

Some might argue that a direct deposit of freshly issued cash into households would be inflationary. But other economists argue that if inflation is a monetary issue, and a helicopter drop of cash is fundamentally fiscal, then the worry over sparking inflation is misplaced.

What seems clear is that expanding bank credit through quantitative easing policies of funneling trillions of dollars into banks isn’t working. Putting the same money thrown into banks ($4 trillion) into households’ accounts would certainly put the money where it could either be spent or used to pay down debt—both of which are direct “cures” to over-indebtedness and a no-growth economy.

The sums of money squandered on bailing out banks are difficult to grasp. So I’ll make it easy: if the Treasury printed up $1.3 trillion in cash, that would be enough to give $10,000 to all 130 million households in the U.S.

Even $10,000 to each household would enable a lot of debt to be paid off. Those without any debt could save/invest/spend it. That would certainly do more for the economy than throwing another $1.3 trillion to “extend and pretend” the banks’ insolvency.

Would such a distribution set up a political expectation for another $10,000 next election cycle? Very likely. Would that be positive? No. But all policy is a series of trade-offs, and a helicopter drop could be “sold” as one-time only.

Would it trigger massive inflation? Doubtful. The national debt is about $13 trillion, so adding 10% to it with a “helicopter drop” is not going to change the long-term debt problem much. The GDP is around $13-$14 trillion as well, so it would amount to a one-time 10% boost in GDP. Total personal income is around $8.4 trillion, so a $1.3 trillion helicopter drop of cash would be about a 15% boost to personal income.

Would it really do much to lower indebtedness of the American consumer? No. Total debt in the U.S. is about $52 trillion—governmental, corporate and private. Mortgage debt is around $10 trillion, and consumer debt is around $2.4 trillon. (These are approximate; a web search will confirm the round numbers.)

While $1.3 trillion won’t do much to change the outlook for inflation or future debt crises, it sure would give a lot of households one last chance to set things on a more positive course. $10,000 could wipe out a high-debt credit card without wiping out the creditworthiness of the household, or it could finance a move to a locale with more employment. It could replace a vehicle on its last legs with a better used car.

Would some people squander a one-time “last chance to set a new course” helicopter drop? Of course some people will. But that’s not the point. The point is that the nation has received zero value from trillions in quantitative easing, and so if even 10% of the 130 million households do something useful with their $10,000 in cash then that would be one heck of a lot more than we’ve gotten from the trillions thrown down the rathole of a venal, corrupted, insolvent banking sector.

Throwing money at banks hasn’t done anything but reward financial Power Elites via privatizing their gains and transferring their losses to the taxpayers. Throwing money at households won’t solve the nation’s problems either, but it would give households a one-time chance to do something useful with a chunk of cash. If 90% of the households blew it, then it would still end up somewhere in the economy, which is more than can be said of the trillions thrown away on QE.

In the long run, it wouldn’t make much difference to the nation’s fiscal situation, but to households on the edge, it might make a very significant difference.

Read the entire essay
What If We Ditched Quantitative Easing and Just Printed (and Distributed) Cash? (Of Two Minds)

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
08.30.2010
10:49 am
|
The O’Sexxxy Factor: The Devil and Bill O’Reilly
08.29.2010
06:51 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Obnoxious. Pompous. Arrogant. These are words which have been used—frequently—to describe Fox News superstar, Bill O-Reilly, and they are some of the kinder things he’s been called.

He’s also been called a sex harraser and porn-obsessed. Remember the flirty interview with Vivid contract stars, Savanna Sampson and Sunrise Adams? The ones with Jenna Jameson? The “scandal” he “uncovered” about the porn videos on a college campus? Well, an amusing blast from his own past has returned to vex the loofah & falafel loving, mic-cutting Ted Baxter-manque of Fox News: not one, but two porn-related article written by O’Reilly in the 1970s have been uncovered.

Recently, a long forgotten interview with 70s porn auteur Gerard Damiano (Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones) conducted for the Boston Phoenix when O’Reilly was a grad student at Boston University has come to light. Seems like America’s self-appointed moral guardian (who tried to get free DVDs from Jameson in the green room, she says) has had a “professional” interest in fuck flicks throughout his career. From the article:

No, [Damiano] did not think the film was degrading to women. “If anything, I think it degrades men because they are portrayed as just objects used to educate Miss Jones in lustful matters.”

Why did he want to degrade men? “I did it because of what sex films have done to women throughout the years.”

What is the atmosphere on the sets of his films? “I’m glad you asked that. The morals behind the scenes of a sex film are much higher than most of the straight pictures. There’s a good chance you might have to screw somebody to get in a soap commercial for instance. People don’t have to screw to get a part in a screwing film.”

Wha? Bill O’Reilly letting such statements go unchallenged? He didn’t even attempt to interrupt him!

It’s not like the article is all that salacious, in truth, and would be of little interest today if not for its conservative “culture warrior” author. But there is a funny tidbit buried in the article and that’s a reference O’Reilly makes to a earlier interview with Damiano’s great discovery, Deep Throat’s infamous Linda Lovelace, the year before. That article hasn’t been found yet, but something tells me it’s only a matter of days…

The Devil Behind ‘‘The Devil in Miss Jones’’ (Boston Phoenix)

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
08.29.2010
06:51 pm
|
The Beatles shred: StSanders’ latest masterpiece
08.29.2010
06:03 pm
Topics:
Tags:

 
The latest masterpiece by the true genius of the form, StSanders. This guy’s videos are a well known phenom for good reason and he keeps getting better. Total hilarity and it only improves with multiple viewings.

Posted by Brad Laner
|
08.29.2010
06:03 pm
|
What has been seen cannot be unseen
08.29.2010
05:34 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
No comment.

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
08.29.2010
05:34 pm
|
Guess who supports Public Transportation?
08.29.2010
12:46 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Hmmmmm. I think it’s about time for a serious makeover, dude. The “look” just isn’t working.

Update: A Dangerous Minds reader says this

(via TDW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
08.29.2010
12:46 pm
|
Dr. Phero, hit me with your best shot: Japanese sado nurses
08.29.2010
03:25 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Dr. Phero is a skit from the defunct Japanese variety show “Vermilion Pleasure Night.” The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon. It is totally weird fun.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
|
08.29.2010
03:25 am
|
Liquid Crack: “It works every time”
08.29.2010
12:40 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
In the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, black entertainers made considerable sums of money selling ghetto wine and malt liquor to their less fortunate brothers and sisters. “Liquid crack” was dirt cheap and fortified with alcohol and shitloads of sugar to get you higher faster. As Billy Dee Williams said in his TV pitch for Colt 45, “It works every time.”

40-ounce warriors were macho, sexy and hip…at least that’s what the commercials wanted the black community to think. The reality was much more grim. Malt liquors like Schlitz, Colt 45, Olde English 800, St. Ides, King Cobra and bum wines like Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose were responsible for an increase in alcoholism, violence and crime in black neighborhoods. High alcohol content and the cost of a bottle being under two bucks was a deadly combination. Add to that the veneer of coolness that Kool and the Gang, Fred Williamson, Biggie Smalls and Snoop Dog brought to the mix and you got a problem that went viral.  

Nowadays, low-rent white hipsters drink the poisonous piss in order to give them some kind of street cred while hip-hop artists have moved on to Cristal and Dom. But the high-end shit hasn’t trickled down to Skid Row yet.

While the product sold was crap for sure, the ads themselves are fascinating time capsules, some sending signals that are incredibly politically incorrect: making light of drunk driving, intimating that women will give it up after a few drinks, and using racial stereotypes that border on Stepin Fetchit caricature. And Blacks weren’t the only ones denigrated—check out the East Indian guy in the “Gunga Din” Colt 45 commercial below.

There’s also an interesting clip of Johnny Cannon wielding a Colt 45 pistol and a can of Colt 45 beer. A wise combination, don’t you think? Johnny’s expression of disgust as he guzzles the malt liquor is priceless.

Then I ask a question you brother
What the fuck is you drinkin’
He don’t know but it flow
Out the bottle in a cup
He call it gettin’ fucked up
Like we ain’t fucked up already
See the man they call Crazy Eddie
Liquor man with the bottle in his hand
He give the liquor man ten to begin
Wit’ no change and he run
To get his brains rearranged
Serve it to the home they’re able
To do without a table
Beside what’s inside ain’t on the label
They drink it thinkin’ it’s good
But they don’t sell the shit in the white neighborhood

—Public Enemy, “1 Million Bottlebags”
 

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
|
08.29.2010
12:40 am
|
Documentary on DJ Derek, reggae’s oldest living selector
08.28.2010
05:19 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
The original DJ Derek, a badman
 
Thanks to the great Mixmaster Morris for the heads up on this. For many years, white DJs have played a key role in popularizing black music in the US and Britain. In the British reggae scene, alongside pioneers in the sound system game like Jah Shaka, Jah Observer, Channel One, and others, paler-skinned music fanatics like the legendary David Rodigan have been working respectfully to promote the music became a worldwide phenomenon.

Just before Rodigan, however, a guy called Derek Morris from out of Bristol started his 50-year love affair with American R&B and Jamaican music, becoming an obsessed record collector. Here’s video director Jamie Foord’s excellent short vid documentary of the extremely charming and gruff-voiced DJ Derek—still spinning reggae, chatting patois on the mic, and rolling around England on the bus.
 

DJ Derek pt. 1 from Grand Finale on Vimeo.

 
After the jump: part 2 of the DJ Derek story…
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
08.28.2010
05:19 pm
|
Vintage video of punk rock hairstyles: I Wanna Be Serrated
08.28.2010
05:15 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
The fine art of punk rock hairstyles. French documentary footage from the early 1980’s.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
|
08.28.2010
05:15 pm
|
Page 2018 of 2346 ‹ First  < 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 >  Last ›