John Clark Pro Se Blog

Today the New York Times printed an op-ed article with the headline The End of the Financial World as We Know It.

It tells the story of how a gentleman by the name of Harry Markopolos, a savvy expert on the workings of the stock market and hedge funds, an investor himself, and having nothing to gain except perhaps an unwanted label, figured out that the now infamous Bernard Madoff, ex head of NASDAQ, could not possibly claim such consistently high returns for his clients.  The promised profits have revealed themselves to be losses, perhaps as high as fifty billion dollars. But too many people were making money, and nobody seemed interested in helping to bring the good times to an end. Meanwhile, what had been preoccupying the country's legislators in Washington, where regulatory solutions lie, appears to be how best to vote themselves a raise.

It's much like the U.S. Civil Justice system, which is what this site attempts to probe, where the public can't afford to hire a lawyer.  Conflicts of Interest are similarly embedded in a system where supposedly neutral judges are drawn from the ranks of highly biased and profit-motivated lawyers. Again, the ol' boys network.  It's time a sea change took place there too. Judges are judges and lawyers are lawyers, they have different mind-sets, and they should be kept apart and trained differently from the very beginning of their careers. Judicial regulation is lacking there too. And again, the Chief Justice in Washington's preoccupation appears to be how best to vote raises for judges.

 

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Peter Bart, that wise old owl who sits atop Variety, nails it this week when he leads off his column with this resonating world view:

    "Clearly we are not witnessing a 'normal' recession.  This downturn is global and gut-wrenching. It's as though the bountiful 1920s have just collapsed and we've all been plunged yet again into the grim '30s.  That upheaval took a decade to unravel.  Also a world war.

    The emotional response to the present economic debacle varies by generation.  The 20 and 30-year-olds tend to be in total denial. They've never gone through anything like this and can't believe it's happening.

    The baby boomers are in disbelief for another reason:  Most smugly believed that governments were too smart and that the science of economics was too sophisticated to permit a disaster like this.  Globalism would save us:  The Arabs and Chinese would prove resilient: The Russians would kick in their energy billions.

    Now all of us are standing at the abyss asking:  Whatever happened to the survival instincts of the CEOs?  Why do the gurus of fiscal and monetary policy suddenly look shell-shocked?

    The kids still believe that somehow, somewhere, Big Daddy will save us. He will - if anyone can find him."

 

 

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By Andreas Hippin, Globe & Mail, Canada

   November 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

   The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.

   "You may not like our price, but we do not usually pay anything.  Be happy we are in the mood to
offer the shareholders something," said Ali.

   The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities.  The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden.  Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's.

   Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said: "We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster."

   Shandu added, "Furthermore, we don't call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will allow us to guard our coasts better."

*CITI IN TALKS WITH SOMALI PIRATES FOR POSSIBLE CAPITAL INFUSION

*WILL REQUIRE ALL CITI EMPLOYEES TO WEAR PATCH OVER ONE EYE

*SOMALIAN PIRATES APPLY TO BECOME BANK TO ACCESS TARP

*PAULSON: TARP PIRATE EQUITY IS AN `INVESTMENT,' WILL PAY OFF

*KASHKARI SAYS `SOMALI PIRATES ARE 'FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND' '

*HUD SAYS SOMALI DHOW FORECLOSURE PROGRAM HAD `VERY LOW'  PARTICIPATION                                                
         
*FED OFFICIALS: AGGRESSIVE EASING WOULD CUT SOMALI PIRATE RISK

* FED AGREED OCT. 29 TO TAKE `WHATEVER STEPS' NEEDED FOR SOMALI PIRATES

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I'm still trying to figure out how they get on board the pirated vessels without any help.  My merchant navy days taught me that the only way to climb aboard while at sea was up a Jacob's Ladder, thrown by a crew member.  If grappling hooks are used, well, a heavy squirt from a fire hose would take care of that.  Or boiling oil if all else fails.

As it is, the answer may be to travel in convoy, and pray that the enemy doesn't go submersible.  North Atlantic all over again?  Where's Winston when you need him!

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Appellate judges in the United States occasionally hear criminal cases at the District Court level when they have free time on their calendar, and by chance Chief Justice of the Ninth Circuit Alex Kozinski was randomly given United States vs. Ira Isaacs, a pornography case which will be based on Miller vs. California  (1973), which deals with local community standards. Isaacs is accused of selling and distributing videos depicting bestiality and other beastly images. Right now they are in  the midst of difficult jury selection (nobody wants to view the videos in evidence.) But not so fast!

The L.A. Times this week broke a story concerning pornographic content found on a personal and publicly accessible website maintained by Judge Kozinski, which raises conflict of interest issues. The site has now been locked, but according to the Times, the material included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows, a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal, images of masturbation and public and contortionist sex, a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, a series of photos of women's crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear, and content with themes of defecation and urination. Questioned about the content, Judge Kozinski told the Times that some of the material was inappropriate, although he defended other sexually explicit content as "funny." The Times in its headline story today states that Kozinski granted a 48 hour stay before the commencement of trial after the prosecutor requested time to explore "a potential conflict of interest concerning the court having a ... sexually explicit website with similar material to what is on trial here."

The American public, along with the rest of the world, is discovering yet again that the mask of office which adorns authority's face is but decoration, and fails totally to hide the other.


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I've noticed that "Letters to the Editor" entries are many times more observant than newspaper editorial minds working on the same page. Here's one today in the LA Times, commenting on the Barack Obama/Rev.Jeremiah Wright matchup.

Art Saginian says  "Jonah Goldberg is right. Wright is a radical. So what?

Americans are as well-known for their brutal savagery as they are for their compassionate philanthropy. We've butchered probably as many people as we have blessed. Take a count of how many people have been robbed, tortured, raped and/or killed at the hands of Americans and their licensed contractors since we became a nation -- millions.

Why should Wright get blamed for saying so -- and why should Obama get teased for seeing the truth in it? We should admit to our ugliness as much as we take pride in our beauty. " >> Questions & comments 0

Lynn opens officially next week in an Off-Broadway play called Grace, which is in previews at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street.  Here the production company gives a brief You-tubed preview.   Wish I could see it.  But an adventuresome female New York theatre-going blogger (age 41) has already given her advance opinion, before the pros get their hands on it.  Bless the Bloggers.  She liked it, and certainly, for me, it sounds most interesting.  Here it is, and I hope this is helpful:

Melz' Adventures in Living

I thanked the blogger for her description of the play "GRACE".  I commented on her review and she published it on her site.

Unfortunately, my comments caused a fan of Lynn (or a handler, or one of the family) to barrage me with libellous statements, and the thread was deleted. Hence this entry.

I said that I couldn't afford to get out of Hollywood to have a look-see, but I read it carefully, and could easily imagine it. I thanked her for giving me this unique opportunity to reveal why I think Lynn took the part instead of seeking a lucrative movie or television deal. I said that I thought that personal catharsis was probably the reason.   "Doctor Theatre" as she liked to say when together we did Shakespeare For My Father on Broadway, a performance that helped her put closure on her relationship with her father (and got her a Tony nomination at the same time). Linking my comments to the wording in her review, I said 

"Remember, I speak from 32 years of marriage whilst also raising our family.

- She was always the strong but subtle matriarch and focus of my family, and she's internationally recognized.

- As her husband, I was always "ever so patient and lovingly supportive without being a complete doormat."

- The part of Ruth is actually Niva, our son Benjy's wife (not girlfriend) who happens to be a lawyer too, and is smart and independent.

- Benjy is just one of our 3 children, all of them conflated into the wall she worships at. In his case however, he convinced her to secretly move, from Hollywood to Connecticut. He's now a Captain for Delta, flying domestic on the East Coast. For Christian theology, substitute flying, a similar obsession. Her struggle towards him is compared and contrasted with her anger and love towards Tony (me).

Or, perhaps Tom is an admixture of son Benjy with daughter Kelly, who now lives in England next to a village in Suffolk called Redgrave. Kelly became religiously bent on becoming a Buddhist nun, to the extent of changing her name to Pema. Perhaps Lynn wars with Pema, I don't know. Lynn hasn't contacted me for 7 years, except through her lawyer. I do know she has found her God through entering the United Church of Christ in Kent, where she now lives. I do hear from Pema.

Yes indeed, Lynn's life was about "strong, intelligent and stubborn characters, multi family members thrown into an intellectual sparring match over god, theology, love, life, resentment, faith, and forgiveness."

I'm sure Lynn will be giving a great performance, and I hope the director understands how she works. I wish her nothing but well."


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It's been "time out" for me for a while, I'm afraid.  After my heart attack almost a year ago, I've been medicated and exercised and dieted and monitored within an inch of my life, and then unexpectedly went into atrial fibrillation, fortunately while I was under observation at the hospital.

A short trip to the ER, a few days to settle down while blood clotting problems were dealt with, and then a pacemaker was installed, on this date, December 13. Another tentative Christmas to look forward to.

I feel better now.  A twice daily cocktail of strange looking pills, daily walks, and the knowledge that the blood flowing in my veins has been watered down with Cumadin. aka Warfarin, which in case you didn't know, is used to kill rats. No comment.  Please!

I wish they'd installed a GPS along with the pace-maker. Then I'd feel comforted, knowing I'd never get lost. And maybe, come to think of it, an iPhone.  . . All kinds of junk would fit in there.

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Tough.  Kiefer Sutherland had just been honored by my old Canadian performers' union ACTRA for his services to the performing arts and his Canadian heritage (his father is Donald, who used to paint the scenery when I was acting with the Straw Hat Players in Ontario back in the 50's.)  I guess he had a drink or two to be sociable, left, got in his car, made a U-turn, and was pulled over (the rules say you can make a U-turn if there are 2 sets of double yellow lines, but not if only 1 set) by the ever-competing members of the police enforcers hereabouts. A tad over the legal limit of .08 percent was enough to put him inside.

Well, unlike our friend Paris Hilton who managed to avoid serious jail time back in June, Kiefer's lawyer was smart, or maybe it was his damage-control press-rep advisor; anyway, he is pleading "no contest", and agreeing to serve 48 days in jail, 18 of them in December during a production break of his Fox TV "24" television series which pays him millions, and the remaining 30 days within the following 6 months, in order not to disrupt shooting or cause the series cancellation. ( Martha Stewart led the way.)  He also lost his driver's license and will be on 5 years' probation! Fox TV must be very proud of him!

AP report on CNN website

He's going to come out of this looking good, because he's turned it into a showbiz positive.  We wish him well.

Later It's next year and January 21, and today he emerges unscathed. The writers' strike stepped in, and he served his time consecutively.  No harm, no foul. Talk about lucky. >> Questions & comments 0