Something to ponder...

"The 'present' is the 'pre-sent' of things hoped for previously."

--Saul Williams

A twit's 'tweet'...or how CEO's succumb to social networks...

On Tuesday, April 23rd at 1:08 p.m., a ‘tweet’ by the Associated Press stated: Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured. 

Several minutes later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 143 points. 

This in itself isn’t shocking considering the information sent via Twitter by the Associated Press, but there was one small problem…the ‘tweet’ was fake. 

So after organizations like the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission) supposedly mandated new financial regulations to thwart another financial crisis, what happens? The financial markets are nearly destroyed by a bogus, errant ‘tweet’.  

What’s wrong with this picture people?

That same Tuesday by 1:18 p.m., after said tweet was deemed fake by the Associated Press, the stock markets rebounded and gained back its losses. Mind you, that fake tweet wiped out 136.5 billion dollars of the S&P 500’s index value.Yep…that’s billion with a ‘b’.

Talk about truth being stranger than fiction. 

But wait, it gets worse; the reason the stock market crashed so suddenly, isn’t only because no one checked the veracity of said tweet, it’s because the problem wasn’t entirely caused by ‘people’. The market crashed behind ‘AUTOMATED’ trades as well. Yep, you read that right; nearly HALF these trades were made solely by computers. 

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a new-fangled method of stock trades that take flesh and blood humans out of the mix so these transactions can literally happen in seconds. HFT is wholly comprised of computer algorithms that not only follow the markets looking for ‘key words’ to follow trends, but these programs actually buy and sell stocks too. So there’s literally no one ‘minding the store’ as far as these trades go. On top of that, HFT computers are programmed to make ‘illegitimate trades’ to fool or sabotage other HFT computers into thinking certain trends are happening when they’re not. This is to cut down on the competition when other HFT-driven firms might take a piece of their action. If it sounds scary, that’s ‘cause it is. And to think, people have their life savings in the hands of these purposely corrupted computer programs. 

Just when you thought ‘exotic financial instruments’ like the credit default swap were being tamed by the bureaucrats who run these markets, we’re finding out the financial industry’s ‘crap shoot’ stylings are alive and well. But in the case of HFT, you can skip the ‘alive’ part. 

So what’s it gonna’ take to stop these corrupted computings? Hows about consumers who have money invested with these HFT firms pulling their capital out. Or swearing at your local politician in a Town Hall meeting to let them know the proletariat are done taking this corporate tomfoolery! 

Until then, it’ll be more of the same casino-like behavior from the Wall Street bunch. But ultimately, they couldn’t do it unless we let them. So it’s time to get organized so we can purge the system of these spoiled rotten, well-fed fat cats. And the sooner, the better. 

Thanks for listening,

Lionel Drummond

Michelle Rhee's miseducation...

Michelle A. Rhee is an american educator who was the former chancellor of Washington D.C.’s public schools. Her academic pedigree looks like this: Michelle graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in government. She also received a Masters in public policy from Harvard’s prestigious John F. Kennedy school of government. 

Shortly after these accomplishments, she was assigned to under-performing schools in Baltimore, Maryland; then she went to Harlem, New York’s Park Elementary school. 

Now Michelle fancied herself, or was sold to the public as a bit of a revolutionary. She was the face of over-achievement and higher standards for all students, and she was going to single-handedly reform the D.C. schools and the swarthy populous that attended them. At least again, this was the bill of goods sold to the public. 

Unable to bridge the cultural gaps between her and her students, Michelle said the pressures of teaching those first years made her literally break out in hives. One method she thought might work to control a group of students, was putting masking tape on their mouths so they could be quiet on their way to the lunch room. As she peeled the pieces of tape off these eight year olds, they began crying out in pain. At one point Michelle says she had “Thirty-five kids who were crying.” So much for the Harvard education. 

After this fiasco, she took a teaching course and got her official teacher’s certification. She then returned to Harlem’s Park Elementary. The grades of students in Rhee’s class dropped significantly after her return. Average math percentiles fell from 64% to 17%; while the reading scores dropped from 37% to 21%.

In her second and third years of teaching, Rhee’s students made a slight improvement in overall test scores, but those scores were contested by a retired math teacher as being less than half of what she originally stated. 

In 1997 Rhee founded ‘The New Teacher Project’ that supplied the D.C. area with 23,000 mid-career professionals wanting to be teachers. It was instrumental in re-designing the D.C. schools recruitment and hiring process. 

After this, Rhee was offered the chancellor’s job for the D.C.’s school districts. Mind you, she had no experience running a school system and was never even a principal. Other teachers and education officials thought there were more qualified people for the job.  

Rhee inherited a failing school system where students were performing below the averages of state standardized tests. So what did Rhee do? She closed 23 schools, fired 36 principals, and cut 121 office jobs. Way to go! When asked why she made these cuts, the stated reasons were under-enrollment and various school complex’s ‘excessive square footage’. What?

Rhee also renegotiated teacher’s salaries saying they’d have a chance to make upwards of $140,000 a year, provided they met her requirements for ‘student achievement’. You know…the kind she failed to produce in her classrooms. The biggest caveat would be these teachers loss of tenure rights or their smaller pay raises with tenure rights retained. 

After the contracts were finalized, Rhee fired 241 teachers and put 737 more school employees on notice for termination. 

Now I’ve said all that to say this; Rhee had no intentions of helping these failing schools. She was sent to eviscerate them. 

There’s been wide spread criticism of her actions, and rightfully so. But americans need to wake up to a reality that many of us don’t want to face. America has always loved cheap labor. So there must always be a ready-made segment of this country to fill that void. And guess where they’re slated to come from…you got it, poor neighborhoods and under-performing schools. That’s the reason these schools stay over-crowded and under-funded. For this country to be ‘one of the richest’ in the world, our oligarchs feel that not everyone should have access to a quality education; these people NEED to be exploitable. And like Sam Jackson said in ‘Do the right thing’…that’s the truth, Ruth. 

Now, while looking up this woman’s history I found an interesting stat; it said that D.C. schools were performing poorly despite having the advantage of the third highest rates of spending per student in the U.S. This stat was provided by Reuters on May 24th, 2007. It also stated that D.C. spends $8,701 per student on average. Here’s the problem, there’s no break down on how much of that goes to ‘urban’ and ‘suburban’ schools. 

One stat I looked up said on average in N.Y.C., which has the largest urban public school system in this country, operating expenses per student were $4,351. Which is $1-$2,000 less than its ‘suburban’ counter-parts; like Westchester which spends $6,605, Nassau county which spends $6,539, Rockland county which spends $6,189, and Suffolk county which spends $5,852.

Now which students, urban or suburban, do you think this government’s slated for its ‘cheap labor’ work force?

Thanks for listening,

Lionel Drummond

Why lobbyists should be banned from politics...

Jack Allan Abramoff is a former american lobbyist who was jailed for being at the nucleus of a continuing criminal enterprise. His cadre of crooks included a congressperson, nine other lobbyists, congressional aides and white house officials; one of which was former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles.

Before his incarceration, Jack was a top lobbyist for the firm Preston, Gates and Ellis; he later joined the Greenberg Traurig law firm in March of 2004.

And it was for himself and these firms, that he bilked nearly a hundred million dollars out of native american owned casinos. And within the context of the above crimes, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials and tax evasion. 

After serving four years of his six year sentence, he was released and wrote his autobiography, 'Capitol Punishment: The hard truth about washington corruption from america's most notorious lobbyist'. He was also the subject of two films, one being a documentary titled: 'Casino Jack and the united states of money'; the other was a feature film titled 'Casino Jack' starring Kevin Spacey as Abramoff. 

Now, as is par for the course with public officials who fall from 'grace', Jack is reinventing himself as a staunch advocate AGAINST political corruption. You know...the same kind he went to jail for. But this is just one celebrated example of what goes on everyday in the hallways and back rooms of capitol hill.

Lobbyists are legal bribe merchants...straight up. They are the political bagmen who grease the palms of politicians, so corporations can have their way with government policies and the public at large.

They're like political parasites as they're voracious in their need to infect and affect every part of political bodies. But as far as unscrupulous behaviors go, they've really got nothing on the politicians themselves.

What I've learned through my research is the covert corruption lobbyists are engaged in, is not always at the behest  of lobbyists; a lot of times, politicians seek these guys out themselves. You see, politicians know that being bought off by lobbyists is just a perk of the job, so they not only come to the table with their hands out, but they're actually calling these firms to negotiate just how much they want their palms greased.

I've read stories of politicians telling lobbyists that they don't have to be physically present to pay for their expensive dinners; oftentimes, the politicians will just instruct a lobbyist to leave a credit card with the restaurants owner, and when the politician shows up, they just use the card for their bill. Whether it's comp'ed master suites at hotels, private jet rentals, sky boxes at sporting events or upper-scale shopping excursions, politicians are 'all in' when it comes to grabbing at these free goodies. 

And it's not like politicians only have one or two of these bribe merchants to choose from, some politicians have upwards of ten to thirty lobbyists at their beck and call. 

That's a lot of free dinners.     

Now, I'm not naive enough to think that politicians are gonna' vote to bite the hand that's feeding them; but it's up to grassroots, working class folks to put as much of a stop to this as possible. 

There's legislation mandating some transparency for the lobbyist grift machine, but those laws are so full of loop-holes that they're damn near ineffectual.  

One thing's for sure, true change never happens from the top down, only the bottom up. It's up to voters to stop casting ballots for the 'duopoly' of Democrats and Republicans who've been bought and sold decades ago; and It's time for a truly independent political party that's not corrupted by corporations so working class folks in this county, who do the lion's share of the work, can receive the lion's share of the benefits. 

Ultimately, it's up to you and I to stop this kinder, gentler form of bribery, so we too can partake in the 'fat of the land'.  

Now will this happen in my lifetime? Probably not; but it's up to us to get the ball rolling so the next generation won't have to suffer at the hands of capitol hill's rotting moral underbelly.

It's time to wipe these greasy palms clean; and the sooner, the better. 


Thanks for listening,

Lionel Drummond

Guilty pleasures: Why I love 'Restaurant Impossible' and 'Bar Rescue'...

Now, I'd love to be one of those elitist snobs who can say I don't watch television; but, when I'm not at my computer, I'll have to confess that TV is one of my favorite past times.

And oddly enough, two shows in particular have caught my attention.

Robert Irvine enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of fifteen and that's where he completed the lion's share of his culinary training. He's served as a chef on the Royal Yacht Britannia, he's offered his culinary talents to the White House and he was once a personal chef to actor Jean Claude Van Damme. His other accolades include being the head chef at the 78th annual Academy Awards in 2006, and he's the co-owner of two restaurants, Robert Irvine's 'Eat!' and Robert Irvine's 'Nosh'.

Now truthfully, I'd seen him in action a few times on the 'Food Network', but I didn't pay him any more attention than the other celebrated chefs on their shows. It wasn't until I sat down to watch an episode of Restaurant Impossible, that I knew there was something special about this guy and this show.

The challenge of rehabbing restaurants is not easy, especially when you've only got ten grand and two days to do it. And what's really special about this show is not only Robert's expertise in all things culinary, but the surprisingly high amounts of personal therapy he offers to people in the restaurants he rehabs. 

The show has all the drama of a modern day soap opera without being syrupy and hyper-sentimentalized. And again, it's always nice to see that Robert's not only changing the decor of these eateries and updating their financial statements, but he's taking a vested interest in fixing the families associated with these places.

And who'd have known there was so much blood, sweat and tears involved in restaurant owning?

Before watching this show, I thought restaurant owners were all pretty flush financially. But now I realize that some owners are not only struggling to make payroll, some are surviving paycheck to paycheck just to keep the doors open.

Beyond Robert's technical expertise on how restaurants should be run, he's smart enough to know when to be hospitable or harsh. He can offer a warm hand on a shoulder or a boot in the behind where it's needed. That's the sign of someone who's mental capacities are firing on all cylinders.

And I never though I could get tethered to a show like this, but anytime it's on, I almost have to watch.

Jon Taffer was born and raised in Long Island, New York; therein lies the reason he's got less of a deft tact when it comes to dealing with clients.

I'm not saying Jon isn't as knowledgeable as Robert, but they're polar opposites style-wise.

On the show 'Bar Rescue', Jon comes off like a bull in a china shop as opposed to Robert's more genteel approach to problem solving; but it's not like Robert can't get down when he needs to, it's just his british etiquette maybe keeps him from flying off handles so freely.

Jon is the chairman of Taffer Dynamics, his consulting firm; and oddly enough, he majored in Political Science at Denver University. After tending bar in college to make ends meet, he says he fell in love with the business. Some time after that, he ran the infamous Troubador bar and music venue in Los Angeles, where he really got his managerial chops in order. 

And even though again, he's got more of a blow-hard's style, he knows seemingly everything there is to know about the bar biz. And again, whenever his show is on and I can watch, it's veg-out time. I especially love the show's Sunday marathons; I know I shouldn't, but I could literally watch those all day. 

What links these two programs, beyond their pursuits of helping clients orchestrate better menus, or changing their establishment's interior design are some pretty universal themes. Maybe ones that aren't that evident superficially. 

And those themes are: second chances, fresh starts and ultimately, redemption. 

That's why people are so eager to watch these programs, and are often baited back for more; it's because we've all needed at least one of these elements in our lives at one time or another. 

And when you can fit these universal themes into an hour long show with commercials and a happy ending, it's nearly as nourishing as cooked food...served expertly on a silver platter. 

Thanks for listening, 

Lionel Drummond

Inaugural post...

Hello Blogger...

I'm a novice novelist in the midst of writing my debut manuscript; so I'm parlaying my love of language into a 300 plus page endeavor. I'd love to say it's going like gang-busters, but I'm truly struggling to master the fundamentals of this craft. 

With all the talk of 'showing' and not 'telling' and making sure I keep adverbs and adjectives to a minimum, it's kinda' taken the joy out of the writing experience. But I'll definitely endure through the hardships of completing my novel. Cause if I've learned nothing else, I've learned this, it's in the intermediate phases of a craft, after you've gotten a strong grasp on the fundamentals, that you start having fun. It's the place I'm striving towards now. 

In the future, I hope to share some things I've learned about this craft so it could be beneficial to others. 

Until then, I hope to impart and intake some great correspondence from this blog, and I'm hoping to converse with some of you in the near future. So, thanks for stopping by to say hello. Feel free to leave a comment or two if you feel so inclined, and once again, thanks for taking the time to stop by. 

Thanks for listening,

Lionel Drummond