Filed under: disinfo reporting, economy, peak oil, subprime credit crisis | Tags: canada, canadian dollar, canadian economy, cibc, economy, jim flaherty, loonie, minister of finance, u.s. debt, u.s. dollar
First of all…it’s important to note that while the banks are still losing billions each and every quarter (since the sub-prime tsunami washed ashore), they’re still making profits. Man….to be in an industry where losing a billion was still profitable…
So….
Canadian Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, said that he’s optimistic about the Canadian economy and:
“I encourage Canadians to look at home here at how well we’re doing with our solid economic fundamentals and have confidence in our economy here in Canada,” Flaherty told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday.
That’s fantastic…”go look for yourselves”….never mind the fact that *you*, Mr. Flaherty, (the Minister of Finance) are already on air, make-up’d, mic’d and ready to go and give us an example of “our solid economic fundamentals”….instead, you’re teaching us to fly by pushing us out of the nest.
“I encourage you to look”
I encourage you to go f*** yourself, Mr. Minister. I’m looking – believe me – and I ain’t coming up with a whole helluva lot to back up your bullshit claim.
May I quickly refer you to a previous post (“It Can’t Happen in Canada, Can It?)
Our “strong dollar”…
I’m going to keep posing this question: How is it that the Canadian dollar can be considered “strong” when it’s “at par” the U.S. dollar?
If the U.S. dollar is sinking like a stone, and we’re at a 1:1 ratio with them…..how can ours be considered “stronger”?
Stronger than it *was* perhaps….but is it really strong enough to get us through the coming storm?
Filed under: disinfo reporting, economy, peak oil, tv | Tags: cnn, dana perino, headline news, helen thomas, jedi mind tricks, kathleen kennedy, linda stouffer, money shot, news, oil price, peak oil, porn, pornstars, reporters, star wars
For every 6 barrels of oil we consume, we produce 1.
For every $20 we spend, we have $19 incoming.
You might see numbers like this and wonder how it ever got to be this way. The sheer thought of this Herculean task is so overwhelming it would make anyone want to go take a nap instead.
It’s no wonder news doesn’t sink in anymore since our “reporters” look like they’re about to film the “money shot” right after reading the headlines. Seriously….the newscasters are distractingly hot!
Back in the days when I had a television AND cable, if I had a hard time falling asleep, I’d just turn on Headline News for a bit, let my mind run free and presto!….asleep in 15.
I’ll admit that if Linda Stouffer came on the air, I’d stop to hear the news. She makes a crisis so much easier to bear…
But being a business news junkie (I get it all online baby….makes sense….porn is still the number 1 mover and shaker on the net…), I do appreciate Maria Bartriomo…though she’s far from the “investigative” breed of journalist.
How did our news get to here from there?…..
….I have no idea….but I’ll guess that it’s a “top down” operation as evidenced by the “jedi mind tricks” that are played on us daily by the White House’s own Ice Vixen, Dana Perino:
I tune into the White House Press Briefings podcast every day to hear Perino shut-down press maven, Helen Thomas, like the “mean girl” she is. Interestingly, the podcast gets routinely cut-off during Helen’s inquiries on the Iraq war. I’d use the word “redacted”, but that would imply that it happens somewhere in the middle of the briefing. Nowadays, they just cut her off in mid-sentence and let the podcast end.
Seeing as the podcast is only audio, it only makes Helen Thomas questions ugly, but one look at Helen herself makes a case for the “powers-that-be” not wanting any ugliness anywhere in our lives…
Difficult as she may be to look at for extended periods of “de-briefing” on world affairs, I sure wish that Helen was the one delivering the news since she *actually* asks real questions with actual research in them. Plus, she’s the only one that can put Perino off her game.
The world’s going to hell in a hand-basket, oil, war, torture, a global economic crisis….but don’t worry…our hot reporters will give you a happy finish and everything will be just fine…..you don’t need to see the papers..
Filed under: disinfo reporting, economy | Tags: china, haiti, human rights, media, tibet, u.s. debt
As you know, I’m all about the disclaimers…
*Disclaimer* – I’m not for human rights abuses, I’m against the television doing the thinking for us…
I’ve been having a real hard time with the coverage on the Beijing Olympics lately. I realize that it’s a “hot topic” and everyone is entitled to the view that CNN has given them, but I can’t take it anymore…
Of course, we all know that the coverage of China’s human rights abuses are in heavy rotation, and it’s probably not much of a stretch to suggest that it may be timed to coincide with the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing.
My question is: why are we supposed to care so much right now? The Olympics really aren’t a great vehicle for registering your discontent with a nation’s policies…I mean…how committed to the Tibetans plight will the at-home-viewing-public be after Spielberg unleashes the opening ceremony?
Forgive me, I’m sure there are a ton of reasons to care, but perhaps I should ask: why do we care specifically about how China conducts its business? I’ve been getting e-mail forwards and petitions for months now and I’m wondering, why China? Why now? Haven’t we figured out yet that our economy absolutely requires the Chinese government to conduct business exactly the way it has been?
You can’t produce cheaper-than-dirt-consumer-products without abusing someone’s rights…
Plus…(and this, to me, is the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the corner)…are we really sure that we want to stand up to a super-power like China (that has the death penalty and uses collagen from the dead in cosmetics!!), when we can’t even stand-up to our own governments and get *them* to enact policies that *actually* reflect our needs and wishes??
Why is Elvis Stojko leading a protest againt “the regime” in China? He says that “something needs to change”, but falls short of saying what that could/should be. (It should be noted that Elvis didn’t have any difficulty supporting the games in Salt Lake City after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan…I guess in fairness, we hadn’t heard about western soldiers or private military contractors torturing and killing innocent civilians yet).
Pacified, yes…peaceful???….I’m not so sure about that…
I suppose the idea that I have the hardest time wrapping my head around is this idea of Canada as a peace-loving nation. We always refer to ourselves as peaceful. Yet we’re a nation at war.
What is it about China at this time in history that makes people want to wear the same t-shirt at the same time?
Let’s put the “Big” in Bigoted!!
I can’t help but think that the anti-China campaign smacks of good ol’ racism. Yeah, I said it…racism.
Yes, they live differently than us. Yes, they look different than us. They eat different food and they speak different languages. But why the f*** are we marching in the streets, giving loads of press to the torch relay and talking about boycotting the Olympics based on Human Rights? What has changed in the last year? What is it precisely that the Chinese can do that will help us live our lives better over here (yoo hoo!! Over heeeeeere!!)…in Canada (the northern most part of the North American Union).
Even if you personally feel some Tibetan pain and want to send a message to the Chinese government….what would you do? What can you really do? (best of luck with your shopping…)
I sure as hell don’t know…I’m not even sure that boycotting Chinese goods makes any decent economic sense…
Oh….right…they’re the unofficial new economic super power that needs to be reckoned with. That’s why the media taps have been opened wide with stories about lead in the toys and human rights abuses against a group of people you don’t know anything about (Falun Gong…I’m heading right over to Wikipedia once I’ve finished posting…that’ll give me a reliable sense of what’s really happening…) and they’re all getting cars and wanting to get their hands on our oil. Chinese fuckers…..(sorry….I got whipped up in the anti-Chinese sentiment…)
“Hi, I’m the pot…you must be the kettle…”
It’s a wee bit of a double-standard, wouldn’t you agree?
The Dalai Lama himself has said that he supports the games. Of course, he doesn’t support the suppression of his people, but he’s not calling for a boycott of the games. He’s been dealing with this issue for his entire life. He’s doing well on the public relations front. I don’t personally know anyone who could describe the actual function of the Dalai Lama to me, (wikipedia….once I hit “post”, I’m telling you…), but he’s probably closer to Buddha than any of us, and that’s a good thing….(I’m assuming…)…
The Dalai Lama, by the way, was mentored by a former Nazi. This isn’t some kind of litigious statement, it’s a fact. I’m not saying that the Dalai Lama himself is a Nazi (he’s not, he’s Buddhist…which is the polar opposite of what Nazism is….at least the way I understand it…), but doesn’t it make you wonder why this fact doesn’t get any airplay, yet we’re paranoid about kids putting a Chinese-made toy in their mouth? (BTW, don’t buy anything anywhere if you’re afraid of Chinese-made goods).
I’m really not suggesting anything (don’t shoot the messenger if you hadn’t heard about the Dalai Lama’s mentor…played by Brad Pitt in the movie no less), but….I dunno….the Dalai Lama gets tutored by a former (we presume “former”, yes?….at least “former” by the time he was tutoring Tenzin Gyatso), a former sergeant in the SS. He was photographed with Hitler and everything. He’s says he was only there to teach skiing. It’s a difficult fact to come to terms with. The two just seem so….ideologically opposed to one another….you’d think that they’d never come in contact with each other. Ever. (weird shit happens I guess).
How do we know what we know?
The leaders of our countries won’t use the word “boycott”, because they understand that boycotting is an incredibly strong statement that draws a line in the sand. Usually, it’s a line between enemies. Elvis Stojko may say that he’s supporting the people of China, but I wonder….
I wonder….
Would the self-same people who are hoping against hope for nations around the world to boycott China, also support a boycott of the 2012 games in Vancouver?
Seriously, wouldn’t that be fair? We (Canada & the U.S.) boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Why? Because the Soviets had recently invaded Afghanistan and that’s a totally justifiable reason to boyco….wait a second…
We’re right, they’re wrong
…not only did the U.S. boycott those games in 1980, they were still counting Osama Bin Laden as an “ally”. Sure, the Soviets won all the gold medals that year, but we won Afghanistan from them.
A silver lining to every cloud, non?
If we’re going to get all hot under the collar about countries that violate human rights, employ the death penalty, suppress dissent and produce goods that aren’t fit for human consumption….do we really have to look on the other side of the planet to “deal with it”?
Really…if we want to “change something” about the way producers of cheap goods abuse the basic human rights of their labourers, or should we want to “send a message” to the governments that aid and abet (read: subsidize and protect) the businesses….if we really wanted to put an end to the persecution of the poor and disenfranchised, or the targeting those who have spiritual beliefs that differ from the power elite… couldn’t we look at the blood on our own hands in say…
Haiti?
I wonder if Elvis wears Gildan Activewear?
It’s not fair to expect that Elvis (or any of us for that fact), should know anything about the plight of Haitians (the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere), because it just doesn’t fit with the “optics” that those who control the press are looking for.
Ask a Canadian about their “responsibility to protect” Haiti, and you’ll probably get a confused stare.
Next time you’re standing in line at Wal-Mart, waiting for the 78-year old greeter to run a price check for the 18-year old clerk, ask yourself why you’re staging your own “mini boycott” of the Beijing Games and why exactly you’re going to start boycotting their products.
Unless of course the new issue of “In Touch” is in your aisle….in that case….just fuck it….read until that old bugger hobbles back with the *correct* price.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: burma, china, earthquake, humanitarian aid, weather modification, weather warfare
Good lord, I barely get one posting of paranoid bullshit up and look at what the freakin’ cat dragged in…
China’s survivors panic as reports of new
earthquake spread
Panic swept through China’s ravaged earthquake zone late Monday after television reports predicted a strong, new quake could soon rattle the region.
Tens of thousands of people streamed onto the streets of the Sichuan capital of Chengdu and nearby Mianyang, as cars streamed out of the city. It followed television and radio reports that an earthquake as strong as 8.0 magnitude, along with a powerful aftershock, would hit Sichuan overnight.
A report on the government’s website cited central government seismologists as saying there was a chance aftershocks as strong as magnitude 6.7 could hit Monday or Tuesday, although the notice provided no further explanation.
People fled to the streets, where many say they will spend the night. Some people in Chengdu went into public squares.
The Mianyang Women and Children’s Hospital moved patients to the square outside the railway station, setting up beds, medicines trays and tents.
Mourning period begins
Earlier Monday, raid sirens wailed and car horns blared as people across the country began three days of mourning for last week’s earthquake victims.
China’s busy streets came to a standstill at 2:28 p.m. local time, exactly one week after the magnitude 7.9 quake hit central China. Rescuers briefly halted their work in the disaster zone, where some survivors are still being pulled from the rubble.
People paused for three minutes to bow their heads in silence. Flags across the country will fly at half-mast for three days.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Communist party leaders were shown on state TV bowing their heads, white flowers pinned to the lapels of their dark suits. Hu had spent three days touring the worst-hit areas of Sichuan province.
In Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, thousands of people bowed their heads and began shouting “Long Live China!” thrusting their fists in the air.
The government death toll stands at 34,073, officials said Monday, with roughly 245,000 people injured. More than 29,000 people are missing. 
Beijing motorists on the six-lane Jianguomenwai Avenue stand beside their cars Monday, honking their horns for three minutes to honour earthquake victims. (Robert F. Bukaty/ Associated Press)
Chinese officials have issued an international appeal for more tents and offered to accept foreign medical teams.
“China requests the international community donate tents as a priority when they donate materials because many houses were toppled in the quake and because it is the rainy season,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement Monday, also thanking the international community for its help so far.
More potential landslides were predicted by China’s Central Meteorological Observatory, with heavy rains forecast this week for some areas close to the epicentre.
The appeal came as more than 200 rescue workers were reported buried by mudslides in Sichuan, said China’s state news agency Xinhua.
The report said some of the workers had died, but didn’t provide any numbers.
In another part of Sichuan, two women were pulled alive from a coal mine, said Xinhua.
Gaming sites, theatres closed
The government-ordered mourning period is an outpouring of state sympathy on a level normally reserved for dead leaders.
Officials said all internet gaming and entertainment sites have been blocked for the three-day period, while China’s National Grand Theatre will cancel or postpone all performances.
Reports said numerous bars, nightclubs, karaoke parlours and movie theatres had shut down beginning at midnight in major cities such as Beijing, Shenyang and Changsha.
Newspapers across China printed their logos in black and some ran entirely without colour. Several front pages were covered in black, with simple messages in white text across the middle: “The nation mourns,” “Pray for life” and “National tragedy.”
With files from the Associated Press
stupid |st(y)oōpid|
adjective ( -pider, -pidest)
lacking intelligence or common sense : I was stupid enough to think she was perfect.
• dazed and unable to think clearly : apprehension was numbing her brain and making her stupid.
• informal used to express exasperation or boredom : she told him to stop messing with his stupid painting.
noun informal
a stupid person (often used as a term of address) : you’re not a coward, stupid!
DERIVATIVES
stupidity |st(y)oōpiditē| noun
stupidly adverb
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French stupide or Latin stupidus, from stupere ‘to be amazed or stunned.’
About a week ago I was talking with a friend (whom I admire and love), and of course (if my lips are moving), I was talking about the shit that you see here on this blog. This friend said something to me that I hear often, and that is:
“I don’t like politics. More than that, I don’t care. I mean…so the government is corrupt, so what? I’ve read my history, and y’know what? It’s always been this way. History repeats itself, food & oil prices have gone up in the past, the value of dollars go up and down….and we always manage to find a way through. We’ve been here before.”
As I’ve stated previously, I really, truly (difficult as it may be to believe), do *not* enjoy spoiling the party, so I opted out of challenging the *status quo* and chose to pose the naturally occurring question in my head on this blog…
That question is: When?
When has it been like this before? Where did it happen like this before? Who was behind creating the circumstances then, and are they still around making things like this? Why was it like this before? How did we find our way out of the situation last time?
See…I’m supposed to be this whacked-out conspiracy theorist, but I think the biggest conspiracy theory out there is: “It’s Always Been This Way”. That, to me, just seems to be completely delusional thinking that avoids the realities of life altogether.
Really? Has it always been this way? Now, I’m not *that* old, but I’m old enough to remember back a few decades, and (though I haven’t been paying off student loans and mortgages the entire time), I don’t remember things being quite this bad. I don’t remember Canada being at war before. I don’t remember hearing about “peak oil”, I don’t remember gas costing as much and I don’t remember groceries being so damned expensive. And before your itchy fingers start typing the words, “adjusted for inflation”, let’s just stop for a minute and consider that term.
Another deluded theory in my estimation that, again, avoids the realities of life “on the ground”. Everything you think you know about inflation is wrong, and it’s precisely that lack of knowledge that allows us to flip the channel or daydream while the radio tells us that, “adjusted for inflation”, we’re actually paying less for gas and food than we did in 1980.
Bullshit…I’m not buying gas in 1980, nor am I buying a loaf of bread in 1980. I’m buying it *today*, right now, and I’ve got news for you….it’s f***ing expensive!!
But here’s the catch…
Food and energy costs are *not* included in official inflation stats. When you hear that the rate of inflation is “low”, it’s because the figures are based on the Consumer Price Index, which does *not* (I repeat, does *not*), include groceries and gas. The two things that most of us buy almost every day….are *not* included in the way we figure out how expensive our day-to-day lives are.
Adjusted for Ignorance
We (as a society), are mentally divorced from any real or true understanding of how money is created and how it makes its way through the economy, and yet, we can accept statements like, “it’s always been this way”, without even batting an eye. It’s probably all the flouride and Prozac swilling around in our drinking water that keeps us from batting our eyes, but still….
Inflation doesn’t mean “prices going up”. It doesn’t mean that stuff is getting more expensive over time. Inflation, contrary to popular belief, does not mean: “price inflation”.
Inflation means: inflation of the money supply. If there are more dollars in the money supply; then they become worth less. And, as we’re seeing in the U.S., dollars can actually become worthless if they’re created without any regard to purchasing power.
Inflation means: gas is more expensive because your dollars are not as powerful as they were a year ago. Or ten years ago. Or twenty….
“Adjusted for inflation”, your dollar can’t even buy you a cup of coffee anymore….when the f*** has it been like *that* before?
I’ll tell you what has “always been this way”…..my income. How ’bout yours? Is your income “adjusting for inflation”?
Or, has it “always been this way”?
Filed under: disinfo reporting, economy, real estate, subprime credit crisis | Tags: canada, canadian real estate, credit crisis, real estate, sub-prime
There’s a great saying (reminiscent of P.T. Barnum) that goes something like…”there’s a sucker in every deal….if you can’t spot the sucker….” 
Amidst my dearest friends and family (i.e. – those than can tolerate me), I’m known as “The Prince of Gloom” for my ramblings on politics, media and (if you’ve ever had the misfortune of getting cornered by me at a dinner party)….the sub-prime credit crisis
For over a year now, I’ve heard (from those who will actually engage in a conversation on this topic), that the credit crisis “isn’t likely to affect us here in Canada” or, “our economic fundamentals are more sound” or, “it’s different here…we’re not American”. Usually these statements are made with the intent to bring the conversation to a quick close, so I make sure I always know who the latest cast-off is on “Dancing With The Stars”, to help with a seamless segue into more “polite” chatter.
However, the above statements are rarely backed up with anything more than a cursory knowledge of the latest headlines. Sometimes the statements are followed-up with “our economic fundamentals are more sound…*because*…we-have-a-strong-dollar-and-we-have-water-and-tar-sand-oil-and-softwood-lumber-and…we’re nicer-and-we’re-a-peace-loving-nation”.
A brief bit of exposition…
A little over a year ago, my wife and I decided to sell our house in Toronto. We had been living out east, and renting out the Toronto house which we had renovated into a triplex. It was what we called, an “income property”. When the largest of the three apartments became vacant, we headed back to T.O. to fix it up for new tenants, and soon decided to list it instead.
See (being the nerd that I am….seriously, I could read a furnace manual and find something of interest), I had been interested in this thing called “sub-prime lending” since about 2006. It’s a longer (and more boring) story to explain how I came to be “interested” in this, but by the time we were re-painting for new tenants, it occurred to me that this looming “credit crisis” could actually turn out to be something that just might effect our financial position.
I’m “sub-prime”?!
As someone with a “variable income” (meaning: I’m an actor/musician….do the math), it occurred to me that even though I kept hearing that “our fundamentals are stronger” and “we don’t give out mortgages like that in Canada”, I couldn’t help but face the obvious….we’re sub-prime borrowers. This means….we bought our house with a high-ratio mortgage (read: small amount down), and had an income that really didn’t justify the amounts of real estate that we were allowed to own.
But it couldn’t *possibly* happen in Canada….
The Coles Notes of the “sub-prime credit crisis” can be described as:
Now, I was hearing this chatter about “sub-prime lending” leading to a financial melt-down many months before the shit hit the fan in July of 2007, so I was still considered to be in “paranoid conspiracy theory” territory. Our real estate agent gave us stock answer #1 (“it’s different here, we’re not *them*), and – what the hell? We were all going to be making money. It was a red-hot real estate market in the spring of ‘07.
Across the street, there was a guy about to list his house and he too, is a real estate agent. I asked what his thoughts were on the looming “sub-prime credit crisis”. He also gave stock answer #1. They were repeating what the news outlets (the ones that would even mention it at all, that is…), were saying.
You know what I mean….the same news outlets that can say things like, “the TSX Composite Index took a beating today on Bay St.” with a smile in their voice (you can’t shake investor confidence, y’know…).
End of exposition…
Well….the good news (for us), is that we all sold and we all made money.
My reasoning for selling at that time (and this is what convinced my wife – who does not enjoy reading furnace manuals, oddly enough), was this:
What if everyone here is 1/2 right? What if prices don’t drop…but in a year from now…people can’t borrow the money required to buy? Where will that leave us?
A quick bit of math told us that we’d better “put a line in the water” to see what we could get. All I can say, now in the spring of 2008 is….glad we sold!
*Disclaimer*!! – I’m not saying that I’m a financial prognosticator, I’m only underscoring the fact that people will generally give you an answer for the sake of giving an answer. AND…that answer will more than likely reflect the needs and desires of the person giving the answer as opposed to reflecting reality…or fact.
How can this affect Canada, then??
Let’s ask a slightly different question…
If foreclosures in California, Florida, Georgia etc., can bring Iceland’s economy to a grinding halt…or towns in Norway…or Spain...or Germany…, remind me again how can it *not* affect us up here? How will the population that sits directly due north of the catastrophe get out unscathed? How is it that the financial collapse experienced by our largest trading partner won’t hurt us here at home? (And BTW…if you’re thinking that the word “collapse” is too strong a word…)
Enter Max Keiser…watch Part One of “The Money Geyser” below, to get a bit of a grip on what’s going on. His daily podcast with Stacy Herbert is fantastic.
Filed under: disinfo reporting | Tags: 7/7, 9/11, Benazir Bhutto, burma, Chinese earthquake, Cyclone Nargis, Katrina, Madrid, Tsunami
I have a habit of watching news stories early on. The earlier the better, methinks. A story goes through dozens of changes depending on who’s reporting what and the final, agreed-upon “official story” rarely resembles the first “facts on the ground”.
I’m talking about 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, Katrina, Benazir Bhutto, Tsunami, Cyclone Nargis, the Chinese earthquake and the second cyclone to hit Burma….(SFX: record needle *screeeeeeee*…..)
It’s true….earlier this week CNN announced:
The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there is a good chance that “a significant tropical cyclone” will form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy delta area…
The news of a second cyclone was not broadcast by Burma’s state-controlled media. But Rangoon residents picked up the news on foreign broadcasts and on the Internet.
And apparently the Burmese (the lucky ones with radios, tv’s and net access, that is…) aren’t hearing about the impending “second wave of death”, because the news from foreign broadcasts have all but dried up. (if you find anything, send it my way…).
It seems that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, has pulled a superman-esque move by going to negotiate with the Burmese military junta and, has not only talked some sense into them…he seems to have stopped the storm as well. You have to admit, it took some balls of steel on the part of the Thai PM to fly in Burma as a fresh cyclone was heading in from the coast just to get visas for NGO’s. But, when Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej warned that “hardship would prevail if assistance isn’t accepted”, well…neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
Of course, it’s absurd to think that any nation would send its own Commander-in-Chief right into harm’s way.
Samak visited a government relief center in Rangoon and told reporters after returning to Bangkok that the junta has given him the “guarantee” that there are no disease outbreaks and no starvation among the cyclone survivors.
“They have their own team to cope with the situation,” Samak said, citing Burma Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein. “From what I have seen I am impressed with their management.”
Oh….so….no second cyclone in 24 hours? Phew! That’s a good day’s work. Still, you’d think that news outfits might follow-up on the weather forecast that was spelling such doom and gloom. Or perhaps you wouldn’t think about news outfits needing to do follow-ups….that’s a depressing thought…
But what of Burma? What of Burma’s need to open it’s doors to foreign military humanitarian aid on its own soil? Why won’t their military dictators let our military start their work?? Are they crazy? I mean…they just got wiped out by one cyclone and another just….like….missed them by *this much*!!
Call me crazy, but I’m sure the military in Burma know a crap-load more than I do about weather modification.
Weather modification?! Are *you* nuts??
Well, Jimmy Carter’s own National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (and now Obama’s advisor on national security issues) said in 1970:
“Technology will make available, to the leaders of major nations, techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised… [T]echniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm.”
Talk about being a “rainmaker”…
Filed under: Uncategorized
Here’s the old “Broadcast This!” for your nerding pleasure.
Filed under: music, net neutrality, new media, traffic shaping, tv | Tags: actra, bell, cliff clavin, crtc, indie, music, new media, rock and roll, rogers, tv
*Disclaimer* – I’m not saying that musicians are *better* than actors…there are other blogs for that ….back to our regularly scheduled programming…
When a bureaucratic agency like the CRTC issues a report titled,
Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media
y’know it’s gonna be at least a few years behind the times.
I’ll admit, I’ve only been able to read the Executive Summary so far, but….seriously…I have a job. This is the shit that I read in my *off time*, so….I know….it’s disgusting and my wife is a saint for sticking with me.
All the same…
Government reports and statements are best consumed straight from the horse’s mouth.
Globally, the pace at which professionally produced broadcasting content is being made available online is accelerating, but Canadian participation is lagging with respect to the amount of high-quality, professionally produced new media broadcasting content available and the level of early stage investment in the new media broadcasting environment.
“Early Stage Investment” is a perfect example of how the film “industry” (specifically, the “gate-keepers”), continues to keep its head firmly implanted in its “Clavin”. It’s this kind of lingo that confirms that the movie moguls have yet to learn what the music industry cottoned on to over a decade ago.
“Early Stage Investment” can be translated as “how much money broadcasters and gov’t agencies are willing to put into a project at the beginning” (because they’re already confident that they’ll get cash out of it in the end). Trick is…you have to convince them that they will indeed make a return on their investment (it’s amazing what kind of research a producer is responsible for in order to “pitch” an idea….research that has more to do with focus groups and market research than it does with *story*). Problem is…they’re all (CRTC folks and their broadcasting cronies), so f****** old and out of the loop, it’s taken until 2008 to table the report that will lead to change….oh….sometime after the next election.
So, while film-makers and actors are out there creating and financing their own projects and trying to participate in the “new media environment” that has been “accelerating” (according to the CRTC….and they’re right about that…), the 800-pound gorilla in the room is *still* distribution.
You may be able to write your script between catering shifts, borrow an HD (or mini DV) camera, get enough time off from work to actually shoot yourself and/or the actors who you’ve been keeping your fingers crossed over (who will hopefully feel like squeezing it in between their restaurant shifts), find an editor who will “work for credit” or beer – or – be lucky enough to have a computer that will run your cracked software and wear the editor hat yourself (not advisable), and have the luck of the Irish when it comes to compressing your new video for on-line streaming. (Oh…and hopefully you don’t have a union membership that you have to “keep on the down-low”, otherwise the budget for your “indie production” will increase significantly…)
All of this work gets done by the wily artists of the digital era, only to have the ISP’s (again, broadcasters….such as Rogers & Bell), head them off at the pass and close the gates between the artist and their audience.
The fact that your ISP is probably spying on you notwithstanding….
I’m assuming that the CRTC is going to frame the debate in terms of how much money the industry can afford to put into developing “new talent” (read: programming), when the industry (read: Jim Shaw, Pierre Karl Peladeau, Hollywood, etc.), can’t properly realize larger profits without first taking control of the airwaves. (the airwaves that belong to the Canadian public by the by…). It’s a bullshit argument. It’s the same one that organizations such as CRIA continue to use with respect to the music industry despite the exodus of major label acts deciding to go independent.
Although, I will say that Bell & Rogers exercising their right to cramp our bandwidth (regardless of whether you’re paying for “ultra high-speed” or not), proves that the movie moguls are chomping at the bit to get right to the heart of the matter: controlling each individual users “on/off switch” to downloading. That’s a damn sight quicker than the labels were able to get Napster to toe-the-line…
But, the film world (from the low-level worker “POV”….that being of an actor who makes money in the blue-collar world), still has a long way to go until they catch up to the music world. They were dealing with downloading over a decade ago. That was then!…..NOW….major acts are giving away their albums and singles. It’s the cost of doing business.
How can you compete with free?? What price point can you come up with for your product that beats “zero”??
It boils down to this….
Actors get pampered when they get paid to work. Especially in any kind of work that gets broadcast on television. Even the lowest on the call sheet has a “substantial snack” made for and delivered to them within a set period of time or else they get paid “over-time”. (I’m not knocking the “sub”…it’s a wonderful thing and a big reason that I even continue to audition at all…it’s part of the freakin’ “working dues”, yo!)
Musicians are lucky if they get enough beer thrown into a gig that it won’t effect the take at the door significantly.
Actors get paid to interpret and participate in the collaborative works of writers, directors and designers.
Musicians pay a club for the privilege to perform (usually in the form of an agreement on expected bar sales).
Actors get driven to and from set in mini-vans (“transport”) paid for by the production.
Musicians get to the club in broken-down Econolines that they have to repair themselves. (And pay the gas).
Actors have union rules about snacks, over-time, dressing room conditions and nudity.
Musicians live on snacks, work for free, (dressing rooms???) and consider nudity a job “perk”.
Actors have dozens of people to answer to before their audience is even allowed to witness their work.
Musicians have total control.
Long Live Rock & Roll!
