And to think this kind of “advertising” is all it takes to help book sales:
December 10, 2009
Tiger Woods’s troubles help professor to storm up the leader boardThe fascination with the apparent infidelities of the golfer has been a boon for both Yahoo! and John Gribbin, the author of an obscure 2003 scientific manual. Get a Grip on Physics was photographed in the wreckage of Woods’s car on November 27 and has since shot up the Amazon sales rankings from 396,224th place to 2,268th. [Bold by GardenSERF]
Dr Gribbin, an astronomy professor at the University of Sussex, said he was delighted that Woods read his book, which was aimed at “non-scientists interested in big physics stories”. Only two copies of the out-of-print American edition remain on Amazon.com, selling for $75 (£46). One wag wrote on the website’s review section: “This book is great, but I wouldn’t recommend keeping it in your car. It is so good that it might distract you.”
Although my very obscure book “Operation SERF” often drops to the 300,000+ mark in between sales on the fickle Amazon ranking system and it would benefit from a scandal involving some famous sports guy who knocks balls around for a greatly overpaid living, I’m going to state here “Please don’t read and drive”.
In fact, what I need to do is have a flashy multimedia ad campaign featuring the stark read cover of my book and a very deep voice saying “Please don’t read and drive” once or twice. There’s a certain percentage of the population who will always do the exact opposite of that since that’s their way to feel rebellious against “the man” with the deep voice. They’re typically the people who like to argue over anything such as the usual “sky is blue”. BTW, if you disagree with me on that, you can use the comment section below.
What I have just described above is a rather simple ad campaign. I won’t address the morals of the reverse psychology of ads which may actually encourage people to read and drive. Although this ad is something any high school student could put together for me on a two bit laptop, it would actually cost me millions of dollars I don’t have to put the ad on TV and radio. So that ad campaign is smashed against a tree for the time being.
Another option to boost my sales of “Operation SERF“, would be to get some sort of product placement going in a film or TV show. Given the book’s content which includes political factions and their direct involvement in terrorism and economic collapse, I doubt I’m going to get any multinational corporations (who both fund these shows and market the products) to help me on that endeavor. They see the consumers as their own and don’t like to share them anyway.
So I’m locked out of the system by both money and influence because I have neither among those who control the global marketplace. Maybe what I need to do is form a non-profit group and seek some sort of government grant to address a problem. Since reading in the car may be a problem I could study that. I’ll need a name for my non-profit research group: Citizens Against Reading [CAR].
After this group has been up and running for a while (at least a few weeks), I’ll write a non-fiction book –preferably a college textbook. Why a college textbook? If I lobby enough lawmakers and ivory tower academics, I could then have this book become required reading for all incoming college freshmen. This would be good for everyone: me, the megacorporate publishing house, the lawmakers, and the professors. Everyone would get a little piece of the sales directly or indirectly, but given the massive numbers of all those mushy-headed freshmen my royalty payments would be huge. With the textbook’s promotion and my growing name-fame this would help boost sales of “Operation SERF“. By then I could have the whole trilogy just waiting on the shelf. I would just have to re-issue the entire series (through a large publishing house, of course), have them re-reviewed by “big names” in the NYT, Post, etc. and add new dustcovers which state I wrote that famous textbook. The stories and all their errors on the inside wouldn’t even have to change, but the repackaging would make it look like it had. Quite frankly, I’d be too busy to do a re-write of “Operation SERF” since I’d be on a speaking tour at the colleges by then about the textbook.
I almost forgot: a new professional photo of me as an author on the back cover of the new textbook. I’ll need to wear a tailored suit or a sweater if it’s an outdoor photo shoot by the ocean. I’ll need an expensive haircut and a make-up artist. The old photo of me taken by one of my battle buddies as we were about to embark on a convoy in Iraq is probably frightening to consumers. The publishing house, senators, and academicians will all tell me I’ll need something new to soften my image and construct a more palatable new man. The new me will be a complete and total fiction, of course, but that’s what the corporations really want when they market nonfiction for mass consumption.
On second thought, I just can’t sell myself out like that. It’s not me and it’s not who I am. I like that old photo of me. Yes, it probably does scare away potential consumers on Amazon. However, I’m fairly certain it hasn’t scared away a single citizen from purchasing my book. In any case, that non-profit meets the government and multinational corporation route isn’t going to work either so that leaves me back at square one.
I’m left with no other choice but to conduct a campaign of guerrilla advertising warfare against the corporations who are currently holding my book down. Here is my simple plan:
Although I’m a war veteran and an author who has set out some political philosophy in my little red cover book, this will need to be a non-violent movement (sorry, guys, leave the AK47s and AR15s in the gun safe at home). After someone purchases and reads a copy of “Operation SERF” they need to pass it around to at least 4 of their friends. The five of you will then VOTE on which sports-star, Hollywood celeb, business mogul, or politician, you’d like to GIVE that copy of “Operation SERF” for their reading enjoyment and philosophical illumination.
I realize your face to face access to those people will be no better than mine. Therefore, you will probably have to leave the book near locations they frequent: cheap motels, mistress’s apartment buildings, liquor stores, law offices, country clubs, new import car dealers, and auto-body repair shops. One reminder, and this is very important for both liability and viral ad reasons, please hand-write on the inside title page “Please don’t read and drive!”
Thanks for your participation in this campaign. You might just save a life from boredom.
This latest round of violence from the Philippines illustrates the well-traveled to factional violence. This is nothing new to the Philippines or many other areas of the world. Recent history includes many countries across the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. If a country’s central government is militarily weak and/or political leaders corrupt or complicit, the violence tends to increase to the point of a breakdown in social order resulting in civil war. It often takes outside intervention by foreign powers using both economic and military tools to restore some semblance of stability.
I will use the following three articles from the current troubles in the Philippines and bold some key points within each to illustrate some key points.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6935667.ece
November 28, 2009
Philippines massacre: women thought they were safe. They were wrong
He knew that powerful and ruthless people wanted him dead and that he was risking everything by standing for election [emphasis by GardenSERF] — but to one practical challenge at least, Ismael Mangudadatu thought he had a solution.
If he went in person to register as a candidate he would be inviting an attack by his enemies — the Ampatuan clan who have a near-monopoly on elected posts in the region. Instead, after consultation with his family and advisers, Mr Mangudadatu decided to send his wife and two sisters.
The local police refused to provide an escort and the Philippines Army declined a request for protection. But how much harm could befall a group of women? For good measure, the two family lawyers who were women and Mr Mangudadatu’s aunt — who was pregnant, like one of his sisters — went along for the ride with other supporters and relatives.
As a further safeguard, 27 journalists were invited. “Under our tradition, Muslim women are respected,” Mr Mangudadatu said. “They should not be harmed, just like innocent children and the elders. They will not harm us if journalists are watching.”
At 9.30am on Monday six minibuses began the drive from the town of Buluan to the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak. “This is women power in action,” Eden, Mr Mangudadatu’s sister, was heard to say. “Let’s help our men chart a better future for the province.”
Within hours, she and her companions were dead.
They had been bound, macheted, shot and buried in a mass grave. It is believed that some were raped.
Political killings have been a part of life for centuries in the Philippines, and the southern island of Mindanao is the most violent of all.
The attack, in which 57 people were killed, has raised questions about the relationship between the gangster clans such as the Ampatuan family and the highest levels of the Philippines metropolitan elite.
Yesterday Andal Ampatuan Jr, the son of one of the most powerful men in Mindanao, was charged with seven counts of murder. “He was the one who gave the instructions,” Agnes Devanadera, the Justice Minister, said. “He was among those … who killed the victims.”
Until they were expelled this week, Mr Ampatuan and his father were important members of the ruling party of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the President. Her Government has also moved against members of its security forces suspected of being complicit in the violence.
According to the national police chief, Jesus Verzosa, six senior officers, including the provincial chief and his deputy, twenty officers of the Ampatuan police station and about four hunded members of a militia loyal to the Ampatuan family are in custody.
Many Filipinos remain sceptical about the prospects for improvement. “He [Ampatuan Jr] can be a sacrificial mouse to spare the leopards behind the crime,” one Maguindanao man told The Times. “The most powerful people among the Ampatuans are still in government.”
Three journalists survived the attack because they stopped at their hotel when the convoy was setting out. “The lady at the front desk told us that a motorcycle-riding man armed with a pistol came to ask for the names of journalists who checked in at the hotel,” said Aquiles Zonio, of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
They tried calling colleagues, but the hold-up had already taken place. The convoy was stopped about an hour into its journey, near the town that bears the Ampatuan family name. Some victims were able to send texts reporting that they had been stopped by about a hundred armed men.
Police Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu said: “Twenty-four corpses were all killed by a firing squad. They were buried in six layers. Every layer is covered with earth, making it more difficult for the retrieval operations. I have asked myself why one of them has no underwear.”
Ms Devanadera said: “Even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was done practically to all the women. All the women had their zippers undone. The pants of some were pulled down. We have yet to determine whether they were raped.”
According to Mr Khu, the gunmen intercepted two vehicles with six people who happened to be travelling on the same road at the same time, and killed them too. “Some sustained multiple gunshot wounds — as many as eight,” said Benito Molina, a forensic examiner at the scene. “To judge from the blood, some of the corpses may have been buried while still alive.”
Cooking pots belonging to the killers were found at the scene and they had taken with them a mechanical digger bearing the name of the local government. Its engine was still running when soldiers arrived.
The brutality appears to have backfired on the Ampatuan clan: the intensity of public anger will ensure that no politician in Manila will court their friendship publicly in the election in May.
It is little compensation for the loss of his family, but Mr Mangudadatu’s election prospects have been strengthened. “Only death can stop me from running,” he said yesterday when he filed his candidature for the regional governorship of Maguindanao, which is held by the brother of Mr Ampatuan Jr. “This symbolises our freedom. I hope this will be the start of our liberation.”
The scale of the massacre may be unique, but its story — of violence, clans and corruption — is repeated across the Philippines.
Father Eduardo Vasquez, a priest in Shariff Aguak, said: “If powerful and equally armed families like the Mangudadatus were killed in such a barbaric manner, how much more for the ordinary civilians who have already been traumatised by the war?”
Clan power
Andal Ampatuan Sr has four wives and thirty children. He has a private army of several hundred, permitted under a presidential executive order
His extended family dominates the region’s politics. One son, Zaldy, is governor of the Muslim Mindanao
The provincial capital Maganoy was renamed Shariff Aguak after Mr Ampatuan’s late father One of his sons and a nephew are its mayor and vice-mayor
The last item I put in bold was of great interest: He has a private army of several hundred, permitted under a presidential executive order
Let’s continue on the time line after the report of the massacre:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6943882.ece
December 5, 2009
Martial law declared in Philippines massacre province
President Arroyo of the Philippines declared martial law in a southern province after last week’s massacre of 57 people
The announcement came after security forces raided the homes yesterday of a political family alleged to have been behind the killings in Maguindanao province, recovering an arsenal of buried weapons. They found mortars, machineguns, anti-tank rockets, dozens of rifles and hundreds of boxes of ammunition close to the compound of the Ampatuan family, a powerful clan.
Three armoured personnel carriers were also confiscated. Some of the ammunition was marked as the property of the Philippines Department of National Defence – suggesting corrupt relationships between the Ampatuan family and the security forces.
Andal Ampatuan Jr has so far been charged with 25 murders in the massacre last week in which civilian supporters of a political candidate from a rival family were executed as they drove in convoy to register his name for election next year. Thirty of the 57 who died were journalists covering the story.
The head of the Philippines armed forces, General Victor Ibrado, ordered an inquiry into how powerful military equipment fell into the hands of a civilian militia.
A military spokesman said: “We’ve started an internal inquiry to determine if these weapons and ammunition were issued by the Government and if these were sold by some soldiers.”
No mention of that Executive Order establishing the family’s private army in this article?
The compound of the Ampatuan family in Shariff Aguak, capital of Maguindanao province, had been surrounded by hundreds of police officers and soldiers in armoured vehicles.
More than 100 soldiers wearing body armour and carrying assault rifles raided the compound yesterday morning.[GardenSERF: keep that number of 100 in mind] The military yesterday arrested Andal Ampatuan Sr, a former provincial governor and clan leader, whose son was suspected of ordering and helping to carry out the massacre.
The attack was aimed at the family of Ismael Mangudadatu, who is running for the governorship of Maguindanao in competition with another of Mr Ampatuan Sr’s sons. Because he had received death threats, he sent his wife and sisters and two female lawyers to file his nomination, in the belief that as women they would not be victims of violence.
All 21 women in the six-vehicle convoy were killed. Some had their hands bound behind their backs; Mr Mangudadatu reported that the body of his wife was mutilated.
Police said that at least five of the women may have been raped. Forensic examination suggests that some of the victims were mowed down with a machinegun and that others were shot from two feet away.
“It is very difficult to deal with the pain,” Eliver Cablitas said at a wake for the dead journalists, which was attended by the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. His wife, Marites Cablitas, 38, the publisher of a local tabloid newspaper, died leaving behind three teenage children.
“I myself went to the crime scene and had to identify her body,” he said. “I also saw the other dead and it was traumatic. I asked the President to give us justice. She said she will make it her priority to arrest those responsible. And we are holding her to that promise.
“Sometimes I think of doing something violent. I am a police officer and my faith in the law is now being tested.”
That last quote was a perfect way to end that article.
Final article for today:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6947117.ece
December 7, 2009
Philippines feud breaks out into armed rebellion
Militiamen loyal to a rebel warlord fought a gun battle with police in the southern Philippines yesterday, as an election struggle between two rival families escalated into a rebellion against the central government.
Several dozen gunmen loyal to Andal Ampatuan were reported to have attacked a group of police special forces who were hunting for illegal weapons, close to the site of a massacre in which 57 civilians were killed last month, allegedly on the orders of his son.
The skirmish came two days after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared martial law in the province of Maguindanao, accusing the militiamen of rebellion after the arrest of senior members of the Ampatuan family.
The gun battle, in the town of Datu Unsay, lasted for ten minutes and came to an end when armoured troop carriers arrived to reinforce the police, according to the head of the national police, Jesus Verzosa. The authorities estimate that thousands of Ampatuan followers, among them those who carried out the massacre, were still at large and armed, many of them hiding in the jungly mountains of Maguindanao.
Lieutenant General Raymundo Ferrer, military commander in Maguindanao, told Manila radio: “The number would not be less than 3,000.These [militiamen] are in hiding with their weapons. They have said they will fight and there are many of them.”
They sent in 100 soldiers to arrest a guy who has 3000 of his own?
The massacre on November 23 was shocking enough but no one could have foreseen how quickly it would escalate from a local tragedy to a confrontation which threatens to undermine the authority of the Philippines state. The 57 people who died were led by a group of political activist travelling to register the candidature of Ismael Mangudadatu, the member of a rival family to the Ampatuans. Thirty of them were journalists. All were killed and in some cases raped and mutilated.
Within a week the authorities had arrested Andal Ampatuan Jnr and over the weekend they also detained his father, six other relatives and some sixty others; the charges facing them include mass murder and rebellion. The arsenal of weapons they uncovered from the Ampatuan estates suggests the extent to which Maguindanao had slipped from the control of the central government to become the personal fiefdom of a single family.
They forgot to mention that Executive Order establishing the family’s private army again.
According to the Philippines Interior Minister, Ronaldo Puno, the weaponry recovered from several sites includes 883 firearms, 430,000 rounds of ammunition, mortars, anti-tank weapons and armoured cars. Some of them bore the stamp of the Philippines Department of Defence, suggesting complicity among serving members of the armed forces.
What about the complicity of the President who issued the Executive Order?
The militia which is suspected of having carried out the attacks was originally formed as a paramilitary auxiliary in the battle against Islamic guerrillas who have fought a war of independence on the large southern island of Mindanao since the 1970s. “They have severed themselves from the chain of command and lawful authorities that have been supervising them,” said Mr Puno.
Time to learn the term blowback.
General Ferrer said: “The problem was they went beyond government control. The family controlled them and they were used for evil deeds. The [belief] here is that when you speak against the Ampatuans, you will not last a day, and you will never be found.”
The Government announced over the weekend that members of the Ampatuan family will be charged with rebellion, as well as with the murders perpetrated during the massacre. Agnes Devanadera, the Minister of Justice, said: “This is not ordinary chaos taking place in one area, this has an armed component. And there is removal of allegiance from the republic of the Philippines by the leaders of this group. They have usurped power from the Government there. We did not see them plotting against the Government, we saw the deed done.”
Again, another perfect quote to end with for this article. I want you to ask yourself: What’s the difference between an “armed rebellion” and a “civil war”? I’m not going to answer this question for you. Please think about it.
We’ll have to monitor the time line and what happens from here. Factors to consider: how the actual court proceedings play out (does this powerful family hold information that could damage the central gov’t and/or blackmail on key players within the central gov’t?); allegiance of the local people (to one family/faction or another in the battle at the local level or is to the central gov’t representing the “whole” image provided by the national factions?); and, outside interference (as in influence and manipulation of the situation within the Philippines by outsiders).
In most functioning advanced societies, especially in the West, when there is more than one powerful family/faction in one local area, a power-sharing arrangement is mediated by one or more powerful factions operating at the national level. The system put in place to mediate these arrangements within civilization is often known as patronage. Direct violence usually doesn’t need to play a role as part of this mediation among the elites, though the threat of it may always linger in the background. Whatever its color, money is the preferred tool used to manage the political players in the factions at all levels of society. In a first world nation this comes directly and “legally” (it’s written down in a book and called a law) via the position and its associated influence granted by the government itself. In the second and third world this is often accomplished via combination of position and/or extra payments (cash in the plain envelope for the 2nd world with no need for the plain envelope in the 3rd world).
Positions, payments, and the last resort of physical violence in a functioning society are always sanctioned by agreement between the factions at the local and national levels. One of the competing factions at the local level will NOT escalate either economic or physical force without the support from one of the larger national factions. The larger faction’s blessing will probably not require them to provide any logistical support (money, equipment or manpower) to a local faction’s local operation. However, make no mistake that a local faction which unilaterally decides to “go it alone” in their decision-making for a local operation which produces consequences felt at the national level, will quickly find themselves isolated and eventually removed by one or more of the larger national factions.
If the local problem faction can’t be contained or removed for whatever reason (often due to inside and/or outside support), then the possibility exists for escalation into a national civil war as the national factions compete among themselves, take sides, polarize and choose to escalate the physical violence.
Thanks for reading today.
As I traveled last week I was only able to watch bits and pieces of the news and talk shows regarding jobs. I caught something called a “meeting of the minds” town hall on CNBC attended by various CEOs, a union leader, etc. I don’t think I heard the word tarrif or the phrase manipulated foreign currency exchange rate mentioned once. There was some union rep angst over the off-shoring of jobs, but this was counter-balanced by the CEOs saying Americans just needed to “work harder if they expected to stay competitive”. The audience clapped and cheered to this, of course. Apparently, the old “pull yourself up by your (now made-in-China) bootstraps” still gets some mileage with many Americans.
The whole “job summit” hype with its heavy rotation of gov’t officials, CEOs, and big union reps should be a clear sign that the propaganda machine is in full swing. Not only was smoke being spouted from the usual talking head news shows, but the internet had its part in propping up the mirrors as well:
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/226409.html
Temps are a good sign
Unexpectedly strong hiring in the category of business and professional services, which added 86,000 jobs, powered November’s improvement.
“Temporary help services accounted for the majority of the increase, adding 52,000 jobs. [emphasis by GardenSERF]Since July, temporary help services employment has risen by 117,000,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics report said.
The temp hiring number was the largest jump in five years, analysts said.
The trend is important. Temporary hiring is a harbinger of broader employment, since companies first bring in temp workers to gauge whether economic conditions warrant a return to full-time hiring, which increases their costs for health care and other obligations.
Ok, crowd, please clap on cue. There you go. Thanks. Yes, you’re supposed to believe that 1 temporary job at 1/2 the pay and no benefits replacing the 100 full-time jobs over the past year means there has been improvement.
But, wait, I like the British spin on their own job situation even better:
Almost two million Britons have been saved from unemployment after accepting pay cuts or choosing to work part time.
Record numbers of people have seen their pay frozen or cut as firms fight the recession and stave off redundancies, according to internal Treasury figures.
Others have voluntarily moved to part-time positions rather than lose their jobs, with official statistics showing a record one million people who want to work full time are now unable to secure anything other than reduced hours work.
The Treasury calculates that by accepting these measures 1.7 million who might have been made redundant in the recession have been saved from the dole queue.
However, as a result income tax receipts have collapsed.
The consequence is that the Government will next week confirm that it is facing the biggest peacetime deficit in history, with the amount it is set to borrow this year alone set to be close to £180 billion – the equivalent of the entire NHS and education budgets combined.
You have to appreciate that while frosting the turd on the job situation, the brits added the “oh, by the way” thing on their government’s budget.
They also added this little bit on the USA:
Steelmaker Corus announced yesterday that it is to axe 1,700 jobs as it cuts production at its Teeside plant, and in news that may embarrass the Chancellor, offcial figures showed that in the US, which emerged from recession last quarter, the level of unemployment is starting to fall.
Yes, everyone, we’re emerging from recession and there’s less unemployment. Now clap again. You’re all so well-trained at what you do (being entertained or spoon fed). Thanks.
Also buried on the internet was this little gem from Robert Reich:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-economic-reality-that_b_377167.html
But here’s the real worry. The basic assumption that jobs will eventually return when the economy recovers is probably wrong. Some jobs will come back, of course. But the reality that no one wants to talk about is a structural change in the economy that’s been going on for years but which the Great Recession has dramatically accelerated.
Under the pressure of this awful recession, many companies have found ways to cut their payrolls for good. They’ve discovered that new software and computer technologies have made workers in Asia and Latin America just about as productive as Americans, and that the Internet allows far more work to be efficiently outsourced abroad.
This means many Americans won’t be rehired unless they’re willing to settle for much lower wages and benefits. Today’s official unemployment numbers hide the extent to which Americans are already on this path. Among those with jobs, a large and growing number have had to accept lower pay as a condition for keeping them. Or they’ve lost higher-paying jobs and are now in a new ones that pays less.
Yet reducing unemployment by cutting wages merely exchanges one problem for another. We’ll get jobs back but have more people working for pay they consider inadequate, more working families at or near poverty, and widening inequality. The nation will also have a harder time restarting the economy because so many more Americans lack the money they need to buy all the goods and services the economy can produce.
So let’s be clear: The goal isn’t just more jobs. It’s more jobs with good wages. Which means the fix isn’t just temporary measures to accelerate a jobs recovery, but permanent new investments in the productivity of Americans.
What sort of investments? Big ones that span many years: early childhood education for every young child, excellent K-12, fully-funded public higher education, more generous aid for kids from middle-class and poor families to attend college, good health care, more basic R&D that’s done here in the U.S., better and more efficient public transit like light rail, a power grid that’s up to the task, and so on.
Investments from who? From the corporations which just spent the last 15 years moving their production facilities from the USA to China? From the US gov’t which spent those same years hand in hand with those same corporations actively encouraging and promoting that movement of jobs?
Yes, everyone, continue clapping.
I recently posted the following in response to forum chatter on the possibility of Civil War erupting in America in the near future:
In fact, I’ll flat out state that 99% of the people of this country have absolutely NO CLUE. I’ll be even more blunt to some people who think they have a clue, but really don’t: dulce bellum inexpertis —“war is sweet to the inexperienced.”
I have given the [future US] “civil war” topic a ton of thought many times over. So much of it that it produced this book:
So when this topic comes up and the “just how inevitable is it?” question is asked, I say today that it is NOT yet inevitable.
This is coming from someone who has been deployed to Iraq and actually seen what war and collapse looks like –not the Hollywood fantasy version. I’m in the Midwest where real unemployment is already 20-25% and the only things keeping those families fed (those who have stayed here) are foodstamps and foodbanks. I now drive by more recently abandoned homes than those homes which are listed for sale. I’ve watched grocery stores and doctors offices (supposedly depression-proof businesses) close within the past few months –following this past year of too many retail store & factory closures to list. BTW, thanks to those of you who purchased AMERICAN products -you just kept some of your neighbors employed for another paycheck. Hopefully, they’ll get a clue and do the same thing for you.
America does NOT have to go through a civil war to fix herself. But, if
everyone assumes she’s a junky whore who can’t stop where she’s going, then look no further than the collective mirror for who is to blame when years later she ends up in a back alley with a bullet in the back of her head. You may not be the one who pulled the trigger, but did you do anything to help her when you still had a chance to make a difference?Tell you what: stick around and try and help me pull the needle out of her arm and give her that much-needed intervention. Some of us haven’t given up on her, but we can’t do this alone.
Yes, that’s my version of a pep-talk. I’m not sugar coating it. It’s time for reality and responsibility, not the illusion of lies and BS.
Yes, that’s me writing on the fly about how to intervene when I’m not doing it for real –usually one person at a time. Quite frankly, there are days when I can list many reasons to give up and have to struggle to find more than one to even keep going. And, I’m still in the fight. How about you?
My hometown paper posted the following this morning:
Sullins starts trilogy with first run of ‘Operation SERF’
By Amy Oberlin
kpcnews.net
Sunday, 29 November 2009 00:40He’s a husband, a father, a poet and an Iraq War veteran.
….
Chris Sullins is also a novelist.
His futuristic fiction “Operation SERF” was recently published by CreateSpace. Chapters of the book already have been released through a Web site operated by Charles Hughes Smith.
“He gave me a lot of encouragement and feedback,” said Sullins. Some regular online readers also expressed interest, he said.
….
The story uses his clinical background in understanding people and his military experience to weave a tale about sparring factions within an economically depressed United States in 2023. The World War I and 1990s schisms in The Balkans — a European region that includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Greece — were the basis for the plot.
“I’ve taken that situation and applied it in America,” Sullins said.
While the novel is based in the future, “It’s definitely not science fiction,” said Sullins. The technology mirrors current amenities and the characters are drawn from typical personalities.
He refers to his work as a strategic action thriller.
It goes through a two-week period in real-time sequence, Sullins said.
The first several chapters move quickly, introducing a number of characters and a tense, unfolding situation. Some rather graphic violence occurs, and intrigue develops quickly as [spoiler removed] groups square off. The friction includes blatant challenges to American rights, notably religious freedom.
His goal, Sullins said, was to write something complex and readable.
“A lot of what I do in the story is very subtle,” he said.
Sullins has already started book two, and plans to write a trilogy. The current printing of “Operation SERF” has a stark red cover, but Sullins eventually envisions it wrapped in a French artists’ portrayal of a pack of wolves descending on a countryside.
I know she read it because of a minor spoiler which I felt needed to be removed for new readers.
Very nice. Thanks, Amy.
On the morning of Nov 26 I made a post here to the effect that something was afoot in the UK and one small toe is now beginning to poke itself through a hole in the sock:
Prime Minister stays upbeat on Dubai ’setback’
Gordon Brown has moved to calm global markets by claiming Dubai’s debt crisis will not have a widespread impact on the worldwide economic recovery.
The Prime Minister said he had spoken with senior figures in Dubai and was confident that the debt problem was containable and localised.
“Upbeat”. “Containable and localized”. Yeah, I’ve heard that song and seen the dance before.
Mr Brown said in his capacity as G20 president he called the chairman of the Financial Stability Board, Mario Draghi, and was “satisfied” that there was no risk of contagion. He said: “The world economy has put in place mechanisms by which when a problem starts in one country we are in a far better position to monitor it and to gauge the effects.”
On Wednesday, Dubai World, the government investment company behind some of the emirate’s most ambitious projects, stunned global markets by announcing it was seeking to delay repayments on $3.5bn (£2.1bn) of its $60bn debt. The so-called “standstill” prompted fears that Dubai could default on its sovereign debt, which sparked a sell-off on global markets, particularly of emerging markets. In Britain, the banks were particularly hard hit on the back of reports that they have the biggest exposure to Dubai’s debt.
And, the Brits just happened to have that computer problem on Thursday…
The fears were carried into Friday as the confusion was compounded by a lack of information from Dubai, which has started a 10-day holiday for Eid.
In Britain markets were further destabilised by a report from the Bank of International Settlements which showed that foreign banks have lent a total of $123bn to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The list, which does not break down the UAE borrowing by nation, shows that British banks are collectively the biggest lender with a total exposure of $50.2bn. France is the next biggest with $11.3bn followed by Germany and the US with $10bn each.
Surprise, surprise: some US exposure to risk.
British banks moved to allay fears about their exposure. Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, said: “Although our business on the ground in the Middle East represents only 2pc of the group’s balance sheet, it’s an important and high-potential part of our international business mix and a region we are completely committed to. I am confident that the leadership of Dubai and the UAE will overcome any short-term issues they face, which appear to have been somewhat sensationalised, and continue to lay the foundations for sustainable growth.”
“Somewhat sensationalised” but great timing for that computer glitch on Thursday.
Dubai’s Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee, said: “While the government understands the concerns of the market and the creditors, it had to intervene because of the need to take decisive action to address its particular debt burden.” He said the government had acted in full knowledge of how markets would react.
Of course.
I’m beginning to wonder which banks will be under economic attack in the coming weeks. This will trickle down to various sectors of the US economy later and result in yet tighter credit against small business.
In any case, while Gordon Brown and the Telegraph are proclaiming “don’t panic” the Times has taken a bit of a different approach:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/the_gulf/article6935620.ece
The spectre of “Financial Crisis 2” continued to loom over global markets yesterday after Dubai’s revelation that it may not be able to meet its debt obligations.
Stock markets in Asia and the United States fell sharply while the dollar and Japanese yen rose as investors shifted their money to their perceived safety.
UK banks were also revealed to be the biggest lenders to the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, with more than $50 billion owed by the Gulf state’s residents.
In another blow to the beleaguered UK banking sector, the Royal Bank of Scotland emerged as the largest single loan-arranger to Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that sparked this latest financial crisis when it sought a standstill on its debt repayments on Wednesday.
RBS, which is owned by British taxpayers, has arranged loans worth up to $2.3 billion to Dubai World.
The Financial Services Authority, the regulator, is understood to have sought assurances from banks that their exposure to Dubai will not threaten their financial strength. The FSA said it would continue to keep a close eye on the situation.
Dubai World, which owns a range of assets including the Turnberry golf club in southwest Scotland, sparked panic when it asked for the debt standstill.
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The standstill has raised the prospect that Dubai World and, by extension, the government of Dubai might default on their debt.As the drama in Dubai has unfolded, financial traders have had to come to terms with the possibility that other countries may also struggle to repay their ballooning debts in coming months.
This has sparked fears that we may be entering another phase in the financial crisis should lenders take fright and hold on to their cash rather than lend it, leading to another seizure in the world economy.
“If you look to government balance sheets around the world you’ll find plenty of potential banana skins,” said Jim Reid, strategist at Deutsche Bank. “Given the nature of this crisis the probability of further sovereign events remains elevated.”
Bank of America analysts also warned that Dubai’s crisis could trigger a wider problem as countries default on their debts, resulting in a “major step back” in the global economic recovery. Another analyst dubbed this scenario “Financial Crisis 2”.
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One indication of the fear among investors has been the rise in credit default swaps (CDS), which is the cost of insurance against a debtor defaulting.
I seem to recall those CDSs caused some big problems in the past. But according to Brown it’s “everything is fine, nothing to see here, please move along”:
Gordon Brown attempted to calm growing panic over the threat to a global economic recovery. Speaking at a Commonwealth summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Mr Brown said: “While it is a setback, I think we will find it is not on the scale of previous problems we have dealt with. I think global recovery has depended on monetary action and fiscal stimulus.”
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British banks are among the most vulnerable to a potential Dubai World debt default, partly because of the strong historical ties between the countries — Dubai was a British protectorate until 1971.Goldman Sachs estimated that HSBC, Britain’s largest bank, could lose up to $611 million if Dubai World defaulted. The bank has a total of $15.9 billion loaned to the UAE.
Standard Chartered, another British bank, could lose up to $177 million if Dubai World defaults, while RBS is the biggest potential loser with an exposure up to $2.3 billion.
More than £14 billion was written off the value of British banks on Thursday but the FTSE 100 regained momentum yesterday and rose 51.6 points, or 1 per cent, to 5,245.73.
Must be the books and computer glitches were all fixed on Thursday. Sure, people, go ahead and swallow it.
Dubai is estimated to have total debts of $88 billion but investors had assumed that this would be manageable because, if worst came to worst, the emirate could be bailed out by Abu Dhabi, its oil-rich neighbour.
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds have reserves estimated at over $700 billion, so a bailout of Dubai is easily within its reach.
What if one or both of those countries decide to screw western banks and throw in with that Chinese, Russian, etc currency block that was talked about over the summer? Oh, surely they wouldn’t. That’s how really big world wars get started.
A post from another site this morning caught my attention:
Your Attitude is the Key to Success
November 17, 2009
I separated from active service after eight years, 11 months and 14 days back in 1989, then joined the ANG in 1990, and still serve part time.
Transition was very difficult. My list of positions after separation cover the gamet, bread delivery driver, security, construction, Systems Analyst, BioMed, etc.
I couldn’t understand the corporate cultures of the civilian world, the selfishness, and backstabbing. There was not “higher cause or greater good” mentality motivating the mission, so I struggled. [Emphasis by GardenSERF]
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Recently, I retained the service of a professional career coach, expensive, no ROI [return on investment] yet, but ultimately it was not until I became a member of a professional mentorship organization that things began to really change.
I’ve found that no government provided service helped in anyway. In fact, it wasted time, effort and money –whether it federal or state.
So, unless someone has something to gain by mentoring and helping you succeed, there is no real committment or heart in thier efforts of helping you.
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“Your attitude is the one thing that plays a role in every single aspect of your life. It either works for you or against you, and you determine which” ~Sam Glenn.
(Submitted by Robert Brotten)
I worked in the civilian world prior to entering the military reserve and did a combat deployment relatively far along in my civilian career life. There is definitely a difference in “attitude” between civilians and military service members. The cultures are very different. Although there can be selfishness and back-stabbing in the military as well, the military still has far more examples of people who stand out for doing the right thing. The stars of these fine examples of humanity outshine the few within the ranks who might have tarnished the image.
Having worked in BOTH worlds, I can say the US military has a higher percentage of people working in it who actually give a crap each day about what they’re doing and the people they’re with. People in the military might complain about the “check the box” attitude, but that is often in reference to that small percentage of people in uniform who they know are only doing the bare minimum to get by. Like anywhere else, though, this can be a problem if those people are in positions of leadership. People who purposely and frequently back-stab in the military often find themselves either put in check or removed by their superiors. I can say with confidence that there is a smaller percentage of people in uniform possessing lazy attitudes or the proclivity to back-stack than either Joe Six-pack or the bipedal lizards in professional suits.
The struggle for many former military people happens when they try to resolve the differences between a former role where duty, honor, and sacrifice were expected and rewarded versus their new role where advancement might mean screwing others or being screwed themselves seems the new norm. Sadly, they know these roles are part of the same world they live in –one which required their earlier oath to defend.
In my opinion the real problem is not with the transitioning military service member, but rather the change of attitude which I’ve seen happen in my lifetime in the civilian business world. I’m pointing my finger right at the civilian corporate culture. Its leaders have completely lost sight of what is important for the long term health of this country. And, by “civilian corporate culture” this also includes government and academia.
It’s not the military which needs an attitude adjustment, but the other professional fields in this nation which have allowed or even encouraged our greater culture to crumble. It wasn’t the military which changed this nation’s socioeconomic landscape from an active citizenry to passive consumers waiting to be sheared by anti-American predators.
I don’t absolve Joe Sixpack from his decreasing involvement in seeking excellence in his home and local community; but the responsibility for civilian leadership rests with the heads of local, state, and federal government and their often incestuous counterparts in business. It has been with those corrupt leaders who made daily deals for personal gain and their colleagues who have time and again failed to put those predators into checkmate, that the negative slide in this country really started. Those leaders are the ones who need the attitude adjustment or someday it will be done for them.
This Thanksgiving morning and for the rest of the week for that matter I had intended to post nothing on this blog. However, I had one of those “looks like more than a mere coincidence” moments as I cracked open some of my usual morning news:
More than 1,000 workers in the City [London] earn over £1m a year, Sir David Walker said as he published a review that will force banks to disclose how many of their staff are on such pay.
He said that forcing financial institutions to publish the salary and bonuses of top earners would enable investors – the ultimate owners of a business – to raise questions about why remuneration is so high.
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The report, and the Government’s swift endorsement, will alarm the City where there has already been a barrage of complaints that Sir David’s original proposals on pay were too strict and would prompt an exodus of talent from investment banks to smaller firms.Chancellor Alistair Darling said in a statement: “Sir David’s proposals are the blueprint for how banks must be run in the future… The Government strongly supports his recommendations and will take steps to implement them as soon as possible.”
Sir David’s review was commissioned by the Government in February to explore failures of corporate governance and management of banks and other financial firms. The draft version in July proposed 39 recommendations, most of which have been retained in the final draft. However, as well as the changes to the pay proposals, Sir David’s final review has sprung a surprise on boards with the suggestion that they put all the directors up for annual election, as well as the chairman.
In addition, Sir David has remained firm on his proposals to impose tougher demands on bank shareholders designed to make them more accountable owners.
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Similarly, the recommendation that the regulator should quiz investors who sell big stakes in the banks has also been ditched. It was criticised as being beyond the remit of the Financial Services Authority.Other proposals include the appointment of a powerful Chief Risk Officer to the board of all banks.
There is an American version of this story as well:
The report from David Walker, former chairman of Morgan Stanley International, also proposed other measures to rein in risky activities at banks. It recommended strengthening the role of non-executives to give them new responsibilities to assess risk and payment and said active investors should sign up for stewardship duty so that they can play a more active role as owners of businesses.
“Institutional investors should be less passive and prepared to engage earlier if they suspect weaknesses in governance,” Walker said in the report. “Early preventive medicine through shareholder engagement can save everyone substantial time and money later on.”
So what has happened on the British market this morning? Just another badly timed coincidence?:
Share trading on the London Stock Exchange has been halted by technical difficulties, a spokesman for the bourse operator said on Thursday.
As a result, all order-driven securities were placed in an auction call period at 1038 GMT, with all share prices currently to be considered indicative, he added.
The FTSE 100 index was frozen at 5,264.97, down 99.84 points, or 1.9pc, and while the FTSE 250 value is changing, this is due to exchange rate movements rather than price changes, the LSE said in a service alert.
In addition, the distribution of all FTSE UK Series real-time index values is also affected, the bourse operator said.
The length of the auction call period has not yet been decided, however, a minimum of 30 minutes notice will be provided ahead of the scheduled uncrossing time, LSE added.
In September last year [2008] the LSE suffered its worst systems failure in eight years, causing the share market to suspend trading for about seven hours and infuriating its users.
“Trading has been inoperative for over an hour. It has also affected platforms such as Chi-X, and Project Turquoise, leaving the entire market moribund,” David Buik, senior trader at BGC Partners said.
At least the Brits didn’t immediately resort to the “Squirrels chewed through the wires” story like the Americans did back in 1994:
What gives at Nasdaq? First it was bugs of the electronic sort, then a mammal of the squirrel variety. And now securities traders are wondering just how secure things really are on the nation’s second-largest stock market.
Technical breakdowns have caused three Nasdaq trading interruptions in the last few weeks. The most recent interruption lasted 34 minutes on Monday afternoon after a squirrel chewed through an electric company’s power line and the stock exchange’s own backup power system in Trumbull, Conn., failed to kick in.
Do you think I digress? How many times do people buy this stuff? How short are their memories?
Do you still remember Fall 2008 and the run up to the banker bail-out beginning here in the USA by Oct 2008? I can’t see this as just a coincidence today and I didn’t back in Oct 2008 when “The Common Chump” was posted. It’s happening again, people, and it may be weeks before you smell what the dogs have left for you on the floor under the kitchen table.
The factions don’t take holidays. But, the dangerous question I will ask today is: Why isn’t someone at the Telegraph actively connecting these dots for the public?
When I heard the CDC hedge their language over the entire Summer about the future use of adjuvants in vaccines used in the USA, I knew it was only a matter of time before they would move forward. Here’s the press release from Novartis about the facility they set up jointly with HHS:
http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/en/2009/1356789.shtml
Basel, November 24, 2009 – Today, Novartis officially inaugurated the US’s first ever large-scale flu cell culture vaccine and adjuvant manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The facility is a result of a partnership between Novartis and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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“We are proud to be one of the first companies to bring influenza cell culture as well as adjuvant technology to the United States,” said Daniel Vasella, CEO and Chairman of Novartis. “We have seen a great need to invest into new technologies for flu vaccines that will allow for quicker and more reliable production capacity. We are pleased to be working closely with the US government to build a world-class, state of the art manufacturing facility in the US that will change the way we manufacture influenza vaccines in the future.”
The total investment in the facility is nearly USD 1 billion, through a partnership between Novartis and HHS to support the design, construction, validation and licensing of the manufacturing facility in Holly Springs.
The operations at this facility will use modern, cell culture-based manufacturing technology. Cell culture-based production operations are cleaner, can be scaled up more quickly to respond to a pandemic and do not rely on eggs for rapid response to a pandemic. Cell culture technology for influenza vaccines is not yet approved in the US, however part of the HHS contract support for Holly Springs includes funding for the development of a flu cell culture vaccine. If licensed in an emergency, the facility will be ready to respond to a pandemic as early as 2011. The plant is planned to be running at full scale commercial production in 2013.
Novartis already operates a cell culture-based manufacturing plant in Marburg, Germany. It is licensed to produce a seasonal cell culture-based influenza vaccine, Optaflu®, which is approved in all 27 member states of the European Union as well as in Iceland and Norway. It currently produces Celtura®, a H1N1 pandemic vaccine licensed in Germany and Switzerland.
The Novartis Holly Springs facility can also start producing MF59®, the Novartis proprietary adjuvant, as early as December 2009. Although not yet approved in the US, studies with adjuvants are currently underway in the US. Results of the most recent clinical trials conducted with the Novartis MF59 adjuvanted cell culture-based vaccine have shown that it is possible to induce protective antibody levels against A(H1N1) infection within two weeks of administration of a single low-dose adjuvanted vaccine. MF59 has also been shown to provide cross-protection across similar strains of a H5N1 virus, which is an additional important element for a pre-pandemic vaccine given that mutations are a common feature of emerging influenza strains.
As part of its partnership with HHS, Novartis is responsible for, among other things, pre-construction document development, land use and zoning, construction, commissioning, validation and licensing of the facilities with the goals of regulatory licensure, manufacture and release of seasonal and pre-pandemic vaccine, as well as provision for pandemic vaccine supply in the event of a pandemic or other vaccines or biologicals in the event of an emergency for an emerging infectious disease. The partnership also requires Novartis to provide two commercial-scale annual lots of pre-pandemic vaccine for a minimum of three years. In addition, HHS has the right to exercise options to purchase additional influenza vaccine over 17 years.
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Novartis proprietary MF59 adjuvant has an established safety profile, supported by more than 12 years of clinical safety data and more than 45 million doses of commercial use in Europe. The adjuvant has been studied in clinical trials involving more than 33,000 people, including children, and has been licensed for use in people 65 years of age and over in the seasonal influenza vaccine Fluad® since 1997 in the European Union. Novartis also produces two A(H1N1) vaccines, Focetria® and Celtura, which contain MF59 and are available outside the US. Currently, there are no approved vaccines in the United States that contain MF59.
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Let’s see what else wikipedia has to say about MF59:
MF59 is an immunologic adjuvant that uses squalene. It is Novartis’ proprietary adjuvant that is added to influenza vaccines to help stimulate the human body’s immune response through production of CD4 memory cells. MF59 is the first oil-in-water influenza vaccine adjuvant not to be commercialized in combination with a seasonal influenza virus vaccine.
More info on squalene from wiki.
Info from the DoD website on squalene.
First paragraph:
A few people claim the Department of Defense (DoD) added squalene to anthrax vaccine to stretch the vaccine supply. Four civilian panels have looked into these allegations since 1999 and repeatedly found them groundless. Neither DoD nor anybody else added squalene to anthrax vaccine for our troops. DoD does not conduct illegal experiments.
The biological testing officially ended in 1969 and the chemical testing officially ended in 1975.
I could always switch over to another federal Department and we could look at their history as well.
How about this one or this one. And how could we forget that contaminated Factor 8.
Quote from the video in the last link: “Americans were dying from the product before it was pulled off the market.” The FDA response to the issue was that it be “quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public…”
Yeah, difficult to build up trust once it has been violated…again and again…
My advice to health care practitioners is that they must always fall back on the Hippocratic Oath. I like the wording from the original Greek version (translated to English):
I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:
To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.
