Bankruptcy has it's attractions....

Screw them all. Next thing you know they'll be taxing themselves out of existence.

Not a bad thought.

By the way having internet problems right now. Need new company.

oftwominds: Devolution: 20 Predictions

As cities, counties and states default on their obligations and unemployment insurance runs out, devolution sets in.


While some see a collapse of society in our future, right now I see devolution, not revolution. Devolution is both the process of degeneration and the surrender of governmental powers from central authorities to local authorities.

Devolution will take many forms. The key driver behind devolution is simple: there's not enough money to fund the status quo, so something has to be cut, axed, trimmed or devolved. Examples already abound: the number of school days in the year are reduced to shave expenses, two-times-a-week trash pickup is cut to once a week, etc.

The key constraint on devolution is also simple: the status quo power structure must be left intact. Nobody will willingly surrender their power, so devolution means services and front-end expenses will be cut in order to protect back-end administrative powers.

Thus public union bosses won't be suffering any big cuts in pay or benefits, and neither will their municipal and state administration counterparts. (Of course there will be symbolic cuts for PR purposes, but nothing deep.) What will be cut is part-time librarians, custodians, county park staff, etc.--the powerless people who actually serve the public.

As the states run out of money, they will surrender some limited powers to local authorities as a mechanism for ridding their budgets of certain costs. As cities and counties go broke, then they will devolve some modest authority to non-profit groups or volunteers.

I've made this point before.........

Oil price manipulation is responsible. With a large dose of government thrown in.

I try to explain to people that a 5 cent Hershey bar  in 1970 has increased in price to $ 1 or so. Did our wages buying power go up?

Hardly.

$75 dollars a week in 1970 buys abject poverty today. People lived on it then.

But oil rules. we needed oil and the Arabs needed weapons. They sell oil, we sell weapons. Raise the price of weapons, raise the price of oil.

Everything revolves around the "black gold".

Everything!



The Great Depression of 2006: Government Inflation

For simplistic purposes (for which I deserved to be shot) assume that the cost of government has remained about the same (as has a pack of smokes)(try to keep a straight face). Back in 1964 a pack of cigarettes cost 25¢ and minimum wage was $2.00. If you do the math, one could buy 8 packs of cigarettes for one hours labor. Let’s progress forward to now. Cigarettes are $5.50 a pack. Extend out the 8 packs per hour and we arrive at $44 dollars for an inflation adjusted minimum wage. This calculated wage is more than most people today are making per hour, so it seems pretty absurd.

What we are looking at, is forced inflation by government legislation. Our wages are not increasing, and at the same time, more of what we ha

This is how the "Empire" is financed......

No one can take this power structure apart. It has to rot and fall under it's own weight.

What's interesting is that anyone really gives a shit. What with Jacko dying and all.

Of course he was important in the scheme of things.

He was???

Obama Sells Big Pharma-Corporate State Ripoff « LewRockwell.com Blog

Obama Sells Big Pharma-Corporate State Ripoff
Posted by Karen De Coster on June 23, 2009 07:52 AM | Post a civil, substantive, and intelligent comment

Is there something wrong with this headline on Bloomberg News today? “Obama Gets Drug-Industry Booster With Pledge That Keeps Elderly Medicated.” Here are a few snippets:

The pharmaceutical industry pledge includes $30 billion “that could be used” to provide discounts for medicines, said Reid H. Cherlin, a White House spokesman. That will help narrow a gap in Medicare drug coverage known as the doughnut hole. The allowances will encourage patients to remain on expensive brand- name medicines even when cheaper generic copies are available, Tim Anderson, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, said in a note to clients yesterday.

“Filling the doughnut hole should help seniors stay on their branded therapies and lessen the tendency for seniors to switch from brands to generics once they hit the donut hole,” Anderson said. “This is critical because once patients convert to generics, they seldom revert back to the brand and are essentially lost to cheaper generics forever.”

This entire deal is nothing more than corporate state-special interest politicking on the part of Big Pharma, Big Government, and enriched special interests, with all players openly admitting their very specific goals. As the article clearly states, Big Pharma is willing to cut slightly into its profit margins in exchange for turning people - especially the elderly - into lifetime customers. Perpetual drug zombies buying their patent-protected, overpriced drugs. Another part of the deal is that government has promised it will “inoculate” Big Pharma from proposed regulations that would cost it some more dough.

Good.......

If the state can't borrow, you have to balance your budget! Raising taxes on broke dicks doesn't work. 

Just get Oba mama to do it. We will pay. One way or the other!

Duh!!!! Heh heh.

S&P warns California's credit rating is at risk of another cut | Money & Company | Los Angeles Times

California's credit rating, already the lowest among the 50 states, may be hacked again, Standard & Poor's warned today.

As the debate over budget cuts drags on in Sacramento, S&P put its "A" grade on the state's $59 billion in general obligation bonds on "negative credit watch," meaning the rating is at risk of a downgrade.

Using language that could further spook bond investors, S&P said, "Although we continue to believe the state retains a fundamental capacity to meet its debt service, insufficient or untimely adoption of budget reforms serve to increase the risk of missed payments in our view."

The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are facing a $24-billion budget shortfall, and Controller John Chiang has warned that the state could run short of cash beginning July 28, just one month into fiscal 2010.

Noting that time is running out, S&P warned:

Both the timing and magnitude of the state's impending liquidity shortfall raise significant credit concerns, in our view, particularly if the state were to begin fiscal 2010 without having meaningful budget revisions in place. We believe that without budget revisions, the state may need to defer (or issue registered warrants in lieu of making) cash payments for certain lower-priority obligations (such as vendors, student aid, and tax refunds) in order to preserve cash for required payments for education and debt service.

Were the state to do this, or if it were to adopt a budget package that relied on assumptions that we regard as too optimistic or that relied on mechanisms for bridging the projected shortfall through at least fiscal 2010 that we regard as unreliable, we may consider lower ratings.

Any downgrade could spur investors to force the state to pay even higher interest rates when it borrows. Market yields on California's general obligation bonds already have surged in recent weeks as the prices of the bonds have fallen, reflecting investor jitters.

Broke dicks live pay check to pay check......

Raise taxes or gas prices and they collapse like a house of cards. These are the people who stand in line to get their checks so they can buy milk.

Or beer. Think they'll use government health care by the millions?

Spend and borrow, spend and borrow. Didn't work for them, won't work for Oba mama's plans either.

American Thinker: Recovery When? How About If?

1: Energy. While it is conventional wisdom that our economic woes stem from the bursting bubble in the housing market, few consider the needle that did the bursting.

When gas more than doubled in what was just a period of months, household budgets got devastated as trips to the grocery store and the pump took more and more of the limited dollars of the sub prime borrowers' budgets. This led to the next domino:

2: Housing Crisis: People needed to eat and get to work more than they needed to pay a mortgage they had not invested a down payment in, so they quit paying those mortgages in huge numbers.

So the gas domino nudged the sub prime mortgage domino -- which then toppled dominos in both the mortgage market in general and in housing prices. More and more mortgages were in trouble making more and more houses available making those houses worth less which in turn motivated more and more people to default on these mortgages.

It makes sense. If you have a 250 thousand dollar mortgage with no down payment, and that house is suddenly only worth 175 thousand dollars, why in the world would you worry about paying the mortgage since your gas and groceries are suddenly taking all your money to begin with? Well, many did not and still are not bothering to pay those mortgages. This led to another domino that very few saw coming:

One of the gret scams..........

Our prisons, "PUBLIC SCHOOLS."

On Not Locking Your Children Up in Public Schools « LewRockwell.com Blog

I just wanted to take a moment to praise your recent article, Pep Rallies and Public School. I am finishing up my 5th year of homeschooling my two children, and books like Dumbing Us Down, John Taylor Gatto’s searing commentary on being a teacher, were instrumental in our family’s decision to take our daughter out of school 6 years ago. My son has never had the humiliation of being locked up for even a day, a fact for which I am extremely grateful. My husband and I, unfortunately, received the “whole package,” that is, public education, and were sufficiently brainwashed to participate in such banal, nonsensical things as pep rallies, needing a note to pee, taking timed IQ tests, acting like caged animals on the last day of school, teasing our younger/or dumber classmates, etc. The list of degradations, ours and that of our peers, is a long one. Of course hindsight is 20-20, and it seems normal when you’re in it. Sad, no?

Anyway, kudos again for bringing up this taboo subject. The path to personal liberty is certainly a road less traveled, and I believe it will remain so unless compulsory public schooling is banished. However, the group-think, Prussian model is so entrenched in our culture, that merely mentioning the idea of dismantling public education will get you horrified looks of astonishment, if not ostracism from your social circle. Even in a community of faith this is true. When our family began this journey, we thought our church family would be some of our biggest supporters. What we found was, very few supported us. In fact, in our small town, a large portion of our church is employed by, or involved in some capacity, with the school. The grip on the community is almost total. No one could fathom the idea of their town without a school to “rally-round.”Add to that the fact of it being a fairly predictable “gravy-train,” and you have an institution that will be close to impossible to abolish. But a girl can dream, can’t she? Essays like yours will at least inspire some to think about the subject.

Kill off the rich.....

Sooner we raise taxes on them the sooner the Empire dies. That's where the money comes from to run this mess.

That's how we get rid of America. Run the guys out of business so we all work for the GOVERNMENT. Be in socialist paradise then.

Where else is wealth created? I guess we could  steal it from small oil producing countries, right?

Taxing the Hell Out of the Rich Isn’t the Answer | AllFinancialMatters

LOL comes across as almost hateful towards the rich, the vast majority of which worked their butts off and made great sacrifices to get where they are. I get the feeling that LOL thinks that most rich people woke up rich.

Personally, I think the middle class’ struggle has much more to do with their inability to prioritize. I would suggest that LOL read The Millionaire Next Door* by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. In that book he will find that most millionaires drive old cars. Take a look around at what most “middle class” people drive and you will probably see that they are driving cars and SUVs that they really can’t afford. Imagine how much money could be saved if we didn’t have to drive $50,000 SUVs.

For example, I was dropping my daughter off at daycare one day and this young woman pulled up in a BMW 740. For those of you not familiar with cars, the BMW 740 is around $80,000 brand new (I could have purchased THREE of my cars for the price of her BMW). No, I do not know this woman’s situation—she could be wealthy and can afford a BMW 740 without harming her finances. But, going on the averages, I would have to say that by driving that car she is forsaking some other important area of her finances.

I think the middle class suffers from the “I deserve it” syndrome.

Take a look at the houses being built these days. They are freaking huge (and freaking expensive)! I grew up in a 900 square foot house (plus a basement) and we were a family of five! We had one bathroom. Yes, times have changed but these bigger homes cost more money and they cost more to maintain. All of this means that they are requiring resources that could be allocated elsewhere (like savings, retirement planning, college funding,…).

Can they get any more stupid in California?........

Probably not. Pretty interesting that the nut jobs in government figure that unemployed broke dicks can make house payments. Or that people will make payments on houses that lose money in the process. All you have to do is buy a house across the street at much less than you owe.

If you have any sense you'll simply quit making payments  and move. After all these moratoriums on foreclosure, that is. Should be able to milk it for a year or so. Save the payments and buy a nice mobile for cash.

Just think, no house payment , little taxes, only a small lot rent, tax credit refund in California , of course.

Did I mention their getting more stupid in California?

California Foreclosure Prevention Act: Creating an Army of Lifetime Renters in California.

On June 15th California implemented another foreclosure moratorium. The California Foreclosure Prevention Act (CFPA) was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger which adds another 90 days to the foreclosure process. If you recall, a similar law was put into place in 2008 and turned out to be an utter failure. So what do we do? We virtually create another replica plan for a second go around. The plan will fail on so many levels and we will discuss the reasons why in this article. California has taken a major beating since it was part of the housing bubble mania and is now at the forefront of the bubble bursting.

The problem with dealing with the current foreclosure issue in California is how the issue is being framed. Take this perspective for example:

“(SF Chronicle) The goal is to compel banks to do systematic loan modifications across California to reduce our foreclosure rate, which is the highest in the nation,” said Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, who wrote the bill. “Until we slow that down, the California economy cannot recover.”

Go to college, get really stupid.........

Makes me glad I didn't graduate.

P.S. Father's day and I'm going fishing.

Unexplained Mysteries :: Scientists debate "shading" the Earth

Radical new ways of combating global warming have been proposed by scientists at a recent National Academy of Sciences meeting including the concept of shading the Earth in order to cool it down.

"Engineering our climate to stop global warming may seem like science fiction, but at a recent National Academy of Sciences meeting, scientists discussed some potential geoengineering experiments in earnest. Climate researcher Ken Caldeira was skeptical when he first heard about the idea of shading the Earth a decade ago in a talk by nuclear weapons scientist Lowell Wood."

Bring in the tanks.......

heh heh. These guys are a little premature on cutting back the Fed's power. Most get more fed money than their broke dick citizens pay in to Obamama's little socialist fantasy.

I have a feeling the courts will tell them to grow up.

Besides, you can't have a revolt when it means getting off your ass and doing something real: like stick a gun  somebodies face.

Or quit paying taxes period!

Western states want reins on federal power - Los Angeles Times

It is difficult to say how the Supreme Court might rule on Montana's gun law, which challenges the government's authority under the commerce clause of the Constitution, the legal basis for much federal regulation.

In the mid-1990s, the court struck down a federal law that sought to restrict guns near schools, using the rationale behind Montana's law: that the federal authority over interstate commerce did not extend to a product that was made and used within one state.

More recently, however, the justices rejected a direct challenge to the commerce clause, ruling in 2005 that the federal government had the authority to effectively override California's medical marijuana law, even though the cannabis was being grown and used within the state's borders.

"As an abstract legal matter, it's perfectly plausible," Eugene Volokh, a UCLA expert on constitutional law, said of Montana's case. "But it's very unlikely to succeed in today's legal climate."

Retirement is for the lazy........

 I can't wait.

Florida in the winter and Idaho in the summer. RV for me. Plus running a hot dog cart for spending money. Fishing with Al, Jake and with my son Jeremy.

They already get one check so I'll have to catch with my piddly Social Security check. Won't be much when Obamama gets done, but what the Hell!

For Boomers, recession is redefining retirement - USATODAY.com

The reality is sinking in: Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, are planning to work longer, save more money and spend less, to reach any semblance of the retirement they once envisioned. According to AARP:

•35% of those ages 45 to 54 have stopped putting money into their 401(k), IRA or other retirement accounts.

•25% said they have prematurely withdrawn funds from their retirement accounts.

•56% have postponed a major purchase.

•24% have postponed plans to retire.

"Today, I see myself working until I drop," says Kyril Wickenberg, 59, of Savannah, Ga.

The pain of unemployment

It may not be so easy.

When 1,097 Americans 45 and older were surveyed last December, 9% of them said they had lost their jobs in the past 12 months, and 31% of workers that age said that it is very likely that jobs will be eliminated this year, according to AARP's 2009 report.

Baby Boomers also are out of work longer than younger Americans. Last year, they were out of work 22 weeks on average, compared with 15 weeks for the 20- to 24-year-old age group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

They may find it hard to get a new job because they've had higher salaries. And that means they may have a higher threshold before they're willing to take another job, says Maria Heidkamp, a senior project manager at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

Market is a Ponzi scheme.......

Running out of suckers all over the world. I'm waiting for interest rate to explode and wrecking Obamama"s plan. Can't borrow at 10%, let alone 15%, and not throw the whole budget at interest payments. Interest rates are creeping up because no one can lend money for free for ever.

No one.

Not good for elections in 2010, let alone OB's in 2012.

May we live in interesting times.

oftwominds: 8800/950 or Bust; The Dollar Set To Rise

In other words, the gargantuan pillaging of public funds in the EU, an economy larger than the U.S., is not even half the amount looted from the U.S. taxpayers. The central banks of the major trading nations have thrown well over $20 trillion (don't forget Chinese and Japanese "quantitative easing"/stimulus) of public funds into their deleveraging, insolvent banking sectors, all in the vain hopes that the unwary public will see spray-painted weeds as "green shoots" of organic economic recovery.

Have you noticed that every day the market threatens to close lower, a sudden "rally" in the last 20 minutes gooses it higher so that it once again closes within an unprecedented narrow band, day after day?

If that isn't manipulation, then why can you set your watch to the daily "rally"? That is hardly a "random walk down Wall Street," is it?

Told you so........

Really piss off the "green shoots" crowd. Better unlimber a new plan. Every increase in rates takes out thousands of potential buyers. No one works, or lends money for free.

Except the Obamama crew. Of course,  they'll just steal the money from the working stiff.

Mortgage Rates Hit Seven Month High

So much for the low rates; the popular 30-year fixed averaged 5.59 percent this week, up from 5.29 percent a week ago, but still better than the 6.32 percent seen a year ago, Freddie Mac reported today.

The last time it was higher was the week of Thanksgiving, when it averaged 5.97 percent; it will likely surpass that level by next week the way things are looking.

The 15-year fixed fared no better, rising to 5.06 percent from 4.79 percent, though still below its year-ago average of 5.93 percent.

“Mortgage rates followed the increase in bond yields this week as the May employment report showed that the economy lost fewer jobs than the market consensus had expected,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

“Revisions to the jobs report for earlier months also showed the job loss was not as large as early estimates had indicated: March and April figures were revised to add an additional 82,000 jobs to the work force. As a result, federal funds futures rose after the report, signaling that the market expects the Federal Reserve may raise its benchmark rate sooner rather than later.

Good news often lifts interest rates, so the Fed is having even more trouble reining them in, which could lead to subsidized mortgage rates if they still believe low rates is the solution here.

Faschism is not particular....

Hate is hate. Smokers have become the "Jews" of modern times. Who;s next? Talk show hosts? Walmart associates?  Big shot Wall street executives?

Only a matter of time to these people. What will they find to hate about you?

New York Times: Prohibition is “Perfect” « LewRockwell.com Blog

This is a great day in America, according to the New York Times, because the FDA now is “regulating” cigarettes, but its editorial demonstrates the fascism that now governs the “Newspaper of Record.”

After more than a decade of struggle — and countless smoking-related deaths — the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill on Thursday that gives the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. The House approved a similar bill in April, also by an overwhelming margin. The days when this rogue industry could inflict its harmful products on Americans with impunity are drawing to a close.

Me? I had no idea that the tobacco industry had this much power. How does someone “inflict” something on others when it does not have the power to “inflict” anything? But it gets even better:

Hold on for Obamamanomics.....

Need to get our shit together because the Gov will be looking for working stiffs to rob to pay for all these bailouts and loss of pension money. Signs of desperation are starting to appear with the fixing of unemployment data.

Now we start hear about the end of the recession. Yea we all can borrow 50 grand on our houses that lost all of their equity. And don't forget stocks are off by  a third or so. This is after 2 trillion in stimulus created out of thin air, not counting  the 2 trillion they already steal from us.

Expect a lot of hot air on health care to fix our problem. Or lending money for house with no money down FHA loans. Though how broke dicks can afford these programs is beyond me.

Maybe we can bum some more from foreigners. Not!

Can We Have a Recovery When People Have So Much Debt? | AllFinancialMatters

I don’t know about you but I get nervous when I hear all the talk about hopes for a consumer-led recovery. Why? Because consumers are already maxed out:

By the end of 2008, households were on the hook for $13.8 trillion in debt — nearly matching the $14.3 trillion output of the entire U.S. economy, not adjusted for inflation, that year.

Households are shedding debt; they’re just not doing it very quickly. They owed roughly 130% of disposable income at the end of 2008, down only slightly from a record 133% in the first quarter of 2008.

An old saw about U.S. consumers is never to underestimate their willingness to spend beyond their means. The debt-to-income ratio first crossed 100% during the 2001 recession, when debt-fueled consumer spending helped spark a recovery. It kept rising post-recession as super-low interest rates encouraged still more borrowing. And it rose even after the Fed raised rates, as consumers piled into mortgages to chase rising home prices.

The government has to get control......

With the economy sliding off the cliff, Obamama has to shore up and plug the biggest looming deficit: health care. (Education is politically, for the Dems, untouchable.)

Trillions are on the line with desperate bureaucrats scrambling to stanch the losses. The Medicare system goes into the red in 2011 and no one knows where the money is going to come from. On the other hand, the private system takes trillions out of our pockets and can't be taxed by the Government.

This leaves the  government basically stealing from the "rich". Assuming they will sit still for it. Though to me, it seems reasonable to think that even the government  will run out of rich people  to rob.

 And don't forget the richest class among us, the old geezers,  will be retiring after losing most of their wealth tied up in houses and stocks.

WE are broke and don't have enough years to regain our losses..

As for  the Chinese and other foreign suckers, they'll have their own problems. Like unloading all those inflated dollars. And keeping their citizens in check.

The key, of course, is cheap energy that drives our economy. After all, oil is the ultimate "money". Unfortunately for the Fascist in Washington, no one will give it away any more for paper dollars. And adding to the mix, the government won't allow drilling for American oil.

Personally I think Washington will have to take over another small oil producing country to pull it off.

Not politically feasible? Wait a few years, heh heh.

In the meantime watch your taxes explode!

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Stimulus Math and Health Care

Public perception of the stimulus will play a crucial role in the upcoming health care battle. Many Americans following the debate won't be wading into the policy details. Instead, they'll be exposed to claims and counterclaims -- Obama and Democrats saying their health care legislation will make things better, and Republicans (if they get their message together) most likely arguing that it would have disastrous implications. With both sides throwing statistics back and forth a lot of it will come down to a credibility issue, and whoever the American people trust more will win the debate. Will Americans trust Obama that he can insure everybody, control costs, allow everybody to keep the insurance they have, improve the quality of health care, avert a government takeover of medicine, avoid rationing, and avoid raising taxes on 95 percent of the population? Or will Republicans be able to convince Americans that he's misleading them, that insuring everybody will require higher taxes, that expanding health care will raise costs unless the government imposes rationing, and that Obama's plans will inevitably lead to a government takeover? So, if people start to get skeptical about the results of the stimulus package, then it will make it harder for Obama and Democrats to sell the public on their health care claims, and it will be easier for Republicans to attack any legislation.

Obamama getting desperate.....

Spend more.  Spend faster. Borrow. Tax. Tax. Quite a formula. Expect this to come to a head when California, then several other states, beg for bigger relief. Unemployed people can't pay taxes or vote for fiscal discipline. Soon the Dem's will pull out all stops.

Watch the price of oil. Pushing $70. Gas prices up and up. All this stimulus money will find a home. In stocks or in commodities. Speculation fever is kicking in.

But this is not the "big crash." it's coming over the next decade. We have time to prepare. I still plan on  getting my Social security check. Even if I have to vote for a Democrat.

And so will you.

There's nothing to be done to save the "empire" from spiraling out of control and become a one time great power. There's no one who can lead us any other way.

Expect a lot of war. And running from the world scene.

Prepare for several new countries to emerge in the former U.S.A.

Does anyone trust the government about anything?......

I never believed Specter's "magic bullet" about Kennedy's assassination so why should I  discount 270 eyewitnesses testimony to the TWA 800 being shot  down?

Only real question is "why?" No one has taken credit.

Or blame. Your guess is as good as mine

       American Thinker: Reopen the TWA Flight 800 Case

These are just three of the 270 eyewitnesses by the FBI's own count that saw a flaming, smoke-trailing, zigzagging object appear to destroy TWA Flight 800. All three followed the object off the horizon. Delgado and the surfer tracked TWA 800 separately from the object and witnessed the moment of impact. Wire and the surfer saw the object "arch over" before the strike. The New York Times interviewed none of these three, none of the 270 for that matter.

A no-nonsense, 6'-7" millwright and U.S. Army vet, Mike Wire watched events unfold from the Beach Lane Bridge in Westhampton on Long Island. He came to play a key role because the CIA based its notorious video animation on Wire's perspective. Why the CIA was involved in a domestic airplane "accident" is anyone's guess. The media never bothered to ask.

The FBI showed the CIA video just once. That was in November 1997 when it officially bowed out of the case. The FBI needed it to negate the stubborn testimony of the eyewitnesses.

A key animation sequence in the CIA video showed not a missile but an internal fuel tank explosion blowing the nose off the aircraft. According to the video's narration, TWA 800 then "pitched up abruptly and climbed several thousand feet from its last recorded altitude of about 13,800 feet to a maximum altitude of about 17,000 feet." This rocketing aircraft was alleged to look like a missile and to have confused the eyewitnesses. (The animation begins at the 8:30 mark of Part 2 of "Silenced").

This animation was essential to close the investigation. Without it, there was no way to explain what these hundreds of official FBI eyewitnesses, many of them highly credible, had actually seen.

39 years tomorrow......

Married that is. Planning a dinner and putter in the garden. Work sucks. Can't wait for vacation.

How's those gas prices working out........

No one's buying, prices going up. Make sense? Where are all those Obamama's printing press dollars going? Not to me.

Again, interest rate are going up. No one wants to lend money for free. Even to the government. Subtract taxes and inflation from the yield means buying Treasuries at a loss. Not going to happen even if you are the Chinese government.

And what are the state governments going to do? Talk about fucked.

California goes so goes the nation. Right?

oftwominds: What's Wrong with California

California's pending bankruptcy has deep roots in tax policy, public employee costs, regulatory dysfunction and a declining real-world economy.

Standard-Issue Financial Pundits (SIFPs) like Paul Krugman ( State of Paralysis) are claiming the state's problems all stem from miserly California voters refusing to pay higher taxes. Uh, Paul, do you pay $10,000 in property taxes for a property you bought in 1992? I do, and I don't think that's a low tax.

In case Paul hasn't visited the Golden State recently, allow me the honor of introducing a funny little concept called fact to his pro-tax rant. We pay 9.5% sales tax (9.75% if you voted for various transit projects like BART) which is among the highest in the nation.

If you make a decent wage (I don't, but many do) then the state income tax is about 10% as well. That rate is also among the highest in the nation.

What we have here is not just cognitive dissonance but pathological disassociation from reality: California is a very high-tax state, with among the highest rates in the nation in virtually every category of taxation.Voters rejected the bogus tax-and-borrow-more propositions for two reasons:

How many houses are you going to buy this yeaqr?

The low end in the market can be rented out if financed low enough for cash flow. After tax savings, (Obamama is going after the middle class next) a guy can make a few bucks.


Maybe!

Buy older mobile homes for cash and then resell them on time will work better, I think. Easy to do. My landlord has been doing it for years.

He's 84.

Calculated Risk: The Dearth of Move Up Buyers

From David Streitfeld at the NY Times: Home Prices Decline Again in March

In many urban areas, including those tracked by Case-Shiller, the residential real estate market is essentially cleaved in two. The top half of the market is largely stagnant, with owners unwilling to sell and buyers unable to buy. “Move-up” families seeking another bedroom or a better kitchen are an endangered species.

Bend over.........

Heh heh. Take no prisoners. We going to take your money, sonny.
Give me my check. I need to start mooching.

By the way how did he get to keep so  many teeth at his age? (heh heh)

Degringolade: Costco Trauma

(Or, why one should never, ever, be polite to boomer scum)

Mom's eightieth birthday is coming up rapidly, and as we are going to have an everybody is there, serious family reunion with all the bells and whistles, I decided to renew my lapsed Costco membership so that we could go and buy all the vegetable, lunch meat, and fruit trays that the pack of ravenous jackals that I call a family can eat.

So, into Costco I went, fairly crowded, but I've seen worse. Got my card and went a shopping. It seems that the prices aren't really super exceptional, but they sell good quality stuff at a good price. Soups, lunch-meat, pizza fixins', and dental stuff went into the cart (won't need dental floss or Listerine for a while). The goods I bought we worthwhile.

What pisses me off is the people my age who are there. Boomers have now seemed to be more self-absorbed than usual in that store. They will stop dead in the middle of the aisle and stare intently at labels, oblivious to people behind them who are trying to get by. My favorite experience yesterday was a long-in-the-tooth trophy wife who had parked her cart across the aisle, blocking traffic in both directions. When I asked her "excuse me", her response was "I'll be done in a minute you can wait". Needless to say, I moved her cart myself.

But it got me to thinking about that ongoing embarrassment that is my generation. In a sense, a lot of the problems that we are experiencing is that this group of prima donna's has been promised far too much.

Social security is going bankrupt because there are too damn many of them getting ready to retire. Oh yeah, they paid in their money, but they were at the wheel spending the money in DC the last twenty years.

The financial mess is the baby boomers idea and problem. 4% steady growth by a well-managed firm wasn't enough for the boomers, they had to go out and invent the dot-bomb and the sub-prime mess.

Now just wait until this self-righteous, self-absorbed band of creeps queue up to the retirement line. They will start demanding tucks and cosmetic surgery from Medicare. They will demand that they be given special rights as senior citizens.

So, never, ever be nice to a boomer, because they fully intend to screw the rest of us to get what they want.

Remember only the working stiff pays....

Imagine if everyone packed up and left. What would the politicians, welfare queens and various low life blood suckers do?

Work? (Heh heh.)

Niagara Falls Reporter Opinion

This problem did not begin with the current recession. New York faced a $6 billion shortfall before the economic downturn. However, in the face of economic turmoil Gov. Paterson, Speaker Silver and Majority Leader Smith looked to the unions and special interests, who answered with one voice: Raise taxes.

Among other taxes and fees, they raised the marginal tax rate on the most successful (and most mobile) New Yorkers to 8.97 percent, the second highest rate in the nation.

It was irresponsible and it may just prove to be counterproductive, since the top 1 percent of earners account for about 50 percent of state revenue. We're the ones who can -- and will -- leave.

It's not an easy decision, but I'm being forced away from my family and friends, a pain shared by too many parents and grandparents in this state.

I'm leaving. And by domiciling in Florida, I will personally save $13,800 every single day. That's a pretty strong incentive.

Like I said, I love New York, but I'm not going to pay New York more for the waste, corruption and inefficiency that is New York state government.

Tom Golisano is the Chairman of the Board of Paychex, Inc. and the founder of the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation. He created Responsible New York so the voices of ordinary New Yorkers can be heard over the special interests, to hold elected officials accountable and to advocate for government reform.

Why are the rantings of so called scientists so important?..

You would think that "experts" would simply study UFO's, Bigfoot, Loch Ness, etc. and give a definitive answer. After all we've had 60 years or so of sworn testimony that these phenomenon are are occurring.

What's the problem?

No government grants!

Why not?

Stanton Friedman

I hated wasting the money to buy the January/February 2009 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer (Vol. 33, Issue 1) which has for years been trying to debunk all sorts of so-called paranormal phenomena. But the cover said: Special Issue “The New UFO Interest: Scientific Appraisals.” This is an excellent example of false advertising since the appraisals are anything but scientific. SI is published by what is now labeled “The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry” (CSI Lite??). In actuality, the active writers and “investigators” aren’t skeptics. They are Debunkers doing their best to pull the wool over the eyes of a curious public. They know the answers, and so don’t really need to investigate. Proclamation is more their style. Deception is the name of the game. For example, inside the front cover is a very impressive list of about 75 scientists, writers, philosophers, etc., including three Nobel Prize winners. Also included on the list is Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” whose purpose is to Deny… judging by his Larry King appearances. Unfortunately, most of the highly credentialed people aren’t the ones who write the articles or “investigate.” The dirty work in the trenches is normally done by the debunkers in residence. The primary tools are those of the propagandists such as very selective choice of data, positive and negative name calling, and misrepresentation.

I'm debating......

Buy a Pepsi or a share of GM. Chrysler becomes Fiat. No really, Fiat. New unemployment claims are over 600,000 a month. Corporate profits are tanking. Defaults on first mortgages are exploding. And second mortgage defaults, who knows?

And don't forget, deficit spending plans to bail everybody out are out of control.

Meanwhile, here at ground zero Idaho, Patti got her (small) yearly raise yesterday at Wally World.Of course, based on lower sales,  we have more work with less employees than ever. Sales off by 10% doesn't help.

At least, the garden is mostly in and the place is looking good.

Now I need to plan our retirement better. We'll go back in to business after I get our insurance plan at Walmart fully funded. Need $5000 a piece to cover us for any serious illness. The plan covers 100% of hospitalization. I'll be able to use the money to cover Medicare coverage after I reach 65 or spend it as we see fit.

About half way there.

All hinges on getting through this, hopefully, short depression. Expect all the stimulus money to kick in the state's economy next year and pick up employment.

I expect this fiscal stimulant  to be effective for a couple of years. Hope I'm being too pessimistic. I need happy people enjoying themselves to buy my shit!!!

Oil booms again......

Want a peek at your future? Oil passes $65. Some one has to pay for all the broke dicks who no longer work, drive or have a roof over their heads.

Speculators rule Wall Street now as they learned fron George Sorros and the Feds on trading on price swings and borrowing government bailout and loan money to grab huge profits. 

Buy food. Your best investment. Expect huge inflation in  consumables that depend on oil. Toilet paper, fresh vegetables, Chinese goods and anything related to farming, the next investment boom coming.

Everybody has to eat. Setting up a food stand, I like hot dog carts. people will get out for cheap entertainment and buy a $2 hot dog and bitch about the economy.

Be plenty to bitch about for awhile!

Check out my new business......

Another year at wally World and I'll be set. Looking for the economy to perk up some and I can go back on the road. pay for the cart and hit the fairs and air shows in Florida winter of 2011.

Hot dog cart has a great ring to it right now. Check it out.

Not all wars are fought with bullets.....

Jesus next thing you know we'll have to hire Americans. You no what a bunch shitheads they are. Then the government will  be able to tax and lend money again here in America. Might even save the economy.

Can't have that.

Who's going to pay all those bankers fees and international bank loans?

This won't last. No body gets or stays elected for defying the ruling elites war on the working stiff!

America's Latest War - Mises Economics Blog

Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress have declared war on Canada. The press is calling it a "trade war," but aggression is aggression:

Ordered by Congress to "buy American" when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of Toronto. After a Navy official spotted Canadian pipe fittings in a construction project at Camp Pendleton, Calif., they were hauled out of the ground and replaced with American versions. In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.

Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning "a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S." and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts -- the first shot in a larger campaign that could shut U.S. companies out of billions of dollars worth of Canadian projects.

And this war isn't just causing friction between nations -- it's doing damage within U.S. cities:

Cars? We don't need no stinkin' cars!!!.....

Watch the price of oil. I figured it would trade between 50 or 60. May pop to 80. Gas will probably hit my predicted 7-8 dollar range by 2011 or so as all this printing press money ends up in the banks creditors who speculate for a living.

So much for recovery.

Trace every bust in  American economy  since Nixon took us off the gold standard and it leads back to oil speculation of one sort or another.

Instead of a concerted effort to drill and conserve we get half-assed measures that are in la-la land .

But that's part of the new religion, "Environmentalism" that dotes on a major tenant that cars are the tools of the infidels. The evil ones. Those bastards in the oil companies.

The auto industry exists because of cheap energy which produces "Global Warming" gases which will flood the planet, kill the stupid polar bears (the smart ones will be on welfare) and smear the rich bitches make up with all that blubbering.

Of course, destroying the auto industry must be a common good because broke dicks work there and buy these shitty cars that the government insists these poor bastards have to make.

But I know that Obamama will wave his magic wand and I'' be able to drive to work on my new camel, like his daddy!

The American Spectator : Obama Nails the Coffin Shut

Can you hear that? It's the sound of the final nail being hammered down onto the coffin lid of the U.S. car industry.

President Obama wields the hammer -- in the form of a massive uptick in federally required fuel economy standards that will require each automaker's lineup of new vehicles to achieve an average of 35.5 MPG by 2016.

But what could be so bad about forcing the automakers to make cars more fuel efficient? Dig deeper and you'll see.

Told you so......

Cash. Lots of cash. If I could figure a way to make money off the global warming scam, I would. Why else would anyone give a shit about  a degree or two increase or decrease over the next 100 years.

Dead people don't have a say any ways. And we'll be long dead! Give me the cash!

The Climate-Industrial Complex | The Beacon

Naturally, many CEOs are genuinely concerned about global warming. But many of the most vocal stand to profit from carbon regulations. The term used by economists for their behavior is “rent-seeking.”

The world’s largest wind-turbine manufacturer, Copenhagen Climate Council member Vestas, urges governments to invest heavily in the wind market. It sponsors CNN’s “Climate in Peril” segment, increasing support for policies that would increase Vestas’s earnings. A fellow council member, Mr. Gore’s green investment firm Generation Investment Management, warns of a significant risk to the U.S. economy unless a price is quickly placed on carbon.

Even companies that are not heavily engaged in green business stand to gain. European energy companies made tens of billions of euros in the first years of the European Trading System when they received free carbon emission allocations.

American electricity utility Duke Energy, a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, has long promoted a U.S. cap-and-trade scheme. Yet the company bitterly opposed the Warner-Lieberman bill in the U.S. Senate that would have created such a scheme because it did not include European-style handouts to coal companies. The Waxman-Markey bill in the House of Representatives promises to bring back the free lunch.

U.S. companies and interest groups involved with climate change hired 2,430 lobbyists just last year, up 300% from five years ago. Fifty of the biggest U.S. electric utilities—including Duke—- spent $51 million on lobbyists in just six months.

Many have forgotten that it was no less than Enron that was the biggest backer of the Kyoto Protocol for the simple reason that as a major natural gas producer, Enron stood to make billions of dollars from a system of mandated emission credits.

The cozy corporate-climate relationship was pioneered by Enron, which bought up renewable energy companies and credit-trading outfits while boasting of its relationship with green interest groups. When the Kyoto Protocol was signed, an internal memo was sent within Enron that stated, “If implemented, [the Kyoto Protocol] will do more to promote Enron’s business than almost any other regulatory business.”

In addition to Duke Energy, among the firms pushing for mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions are General Electric, Shell, British Petroleum, Ford, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Alcoa, American Electric Power, Caterpillar, John Deere, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, PNM, Siemens, Xerox, IBM, PG&E, News Corp., PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Nike.

Yet, this obvious interest-group component of the stampede to adopt extremely costly (and pointless, as Lombørg himself has shown) regulations of such non-pollutants as carbon dioxide appears to matter little in the major media or among most environmental groups. Indeed, there is no outcry! While true-believing climate alarmists have sought to smear and dismiss legitimate, scientific questions raised by scholars and organizations that receive funding from businesses opposed to climate controls, claiming that they are simply stooges for corporate interests, pro-alarmist groups supported by firms having an obvious interest in the adoption of climate statism are somehow enlightened, objective, incisive, and reliable. Why the double standard? The answer is that the climate alarmist view has far more to do with power politics, the shallowness of “elite” culture, and the fact that global warming is largely about environmental religion, not science.

Meanwhile, the Copenhagen Climate Council’s upcoming World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen is stacked with proponents of climate catastrophe with Mr. Gore as keynote speaker and media sponsors including MSNBC, National Geographic, the New York Times Company, and Berlingske Tidende. And next week, the Heartland Institute’s Third International Conference on Climate Change will be held in Washington, D.C., featuring two dozen climate skeptics and co-sponsored by forty skeptic groups. So, how do you believe the two events will be reported?

We rule.....Drop dead......

You can't have large corporations without large government.

Period.

Not enough resources to go around. Only government can "guarantee" protection from smaller competitors,  protection from union harassment and various government mandates.

Only a large entity can bribe, conjole or scare enough influential local people to "help" bring much needed jobs and taxes to a community. This in turn raises real estate values and encourages other businesses to set up shop next to or in a growing community. In return they collect taxes for the state.

Don't like Walmart? Close down your big governments first and they will wither on the vine.

Until then.....

Save More and Live Better, Just Not at the Expense of Others | The Beacon

Walmart takes a lot of heat for its alleged effects on wages, employment, labor standards, and community quality-of-life. In research we’ve worked on over the last few years, my co-authors and I have examined the merits of these claims and have found that a lot of this heat is undeserved. Rigorous empirical research shows that Walmart creates jobs and lowers prices. Research also shows that Walmart does not lead kill small businesses (though this claim has been brought into question) or generally reduce “quality of life” within a community.

One area in which Walmart should be viewed with skepticism, however, is their pursuit of subsidies from the local governments with which they do business. While these subsidies and tax breaks allegedly create jobs and tax revenue, they reward political savvy rather than productivity. This tilts the economic playing field in favor of large corporations with armies of lawyers and against small entrepreneurs.

The best is yet to come.......

Just ask Obamama!

Patty and I can live about two months out of our reserves. We have a 22 rifle and a 12 gauge just in case. The garden, small as it is, is in. I need a large freezer because the farmer's market is now open and full of good eats for little money.

The truck runs and the car gets great mileage so no major purchases this year. I'll need a  RV of some kind for our retirement plans that include Florida and California visits to see the kids. Probably buy after further price collapse.

As I've posted several times before, anyone employed during deflationary collapse and saves some cash, don't forget improving your credit by eliminating debt, will be able to buy everything they want at half price.

So far I'm on target with real estate. Auto prices are still artificially propped up by the Fed's to save their union contributions. It remains to be seen how long this can continue. Probably have to see ruinous inflation to change the inevitable. They are toast!

Be patient!

California's brand of fascism.,as I have pointed out, is doomed without a huge dose of "Obamama-nomics". Expect huge transfer of your money to Arnie.

Bank on it.

As for investments, used mobile homes, which only can be financed by the owner, are a sure bet. Buy cheap, ideally for all cash, finance at 10% for 5 years for people who can't qualify for bank financing, and repeat. I did it here in Idaho as a buyer and it's easy to do. Just use a title company to keep the title until you get it paid off.

Keep your money where you can see it not on Wall Street.

Modern Survivalism Tenet Number One by Jack Spirko

For example many survival-minded individuals grow gardens and develop more permanent food-producing crops like fruit trees, berry bushes etc. on their property. They generally stick to organic production methods, focus on water harvesting and attempt to maximize production per square meter. This is a classic survival technique designed to remain sustainable if anything hits from simple loss of personal income all the way up to a collapse of US infrastructure. So yes in the event of economic collapse this makes a tremendous amount of sense as a modern survival tactic.

Now let’s examine the other side of the issue. What if we never have an economic collapse, what if there are no food shortages in the next 30 years and what if the survivalist never even has a layoff to contend with? Flat out for the foreseeable future absolutely nothing goes wrong. If you have your property landscaped with sustainable organic food-producing crops are you not still better off?

Take me to your leader.....

I can't wait to hear the excuses for this blip.

 SETI May Have Found Proof of Extraterrestial Life - UFO Casebook Files

Ragbir Bhathal is an astrophysicist from the University of Western Sydney and member of SETI. He has been searching for alien life for over 20 years, but not by scanning the cosmos for traditional radio waves, but instead for laser pulses.

He theorized that the likely form of communication of advanced alien life forms would be these laser bursts. These bursts could be easily distinguished from background noise, because the signal would likely be in a repeated, non-random pattern if there was a sender on the other end.

Until now, the Wow Signal was the only evidence for alien life.

And he has found one such signal.

While he’s quick not to jump to conclusions on the matter, it’s certainly an exciting discovery. Until now, SETI has not found much evidence of anything. In the 1970’s they discovered a short blip of radio wave (dubbed the Wow Signal because of the discoverer’s comment on the printout).

That discovery, which until now was the most likely candidate for extraterrestrial life, pales in comparison to Bhathal’s discovery.

Bhathal’s discovery appears to be a regular-patterned laser pulse emanating from space. Of course, as per the scientific method, his discovery will be under complete scrutiny and review by his peers.

This swings the door open for the question: “What will happen when SETI discovers definitive proof of alien life?”. Because the discovery of alien life would practically nullify our world’s religions, it would probably be denied outright– no matter how conclusive the evidence was.

Unless of course God just happened to forget to tell the prophets about his other experiments that he has running on other planets! This is all hypothetical of course, but it’s an interesting question.

If the discovery of alien life became an accepted notion, I imagine that nihilistic chaos would probably break out after the period of denial.

Affordability is the key, of course....

But read carefully. Adjustable-rate? At 4.96%?

Hello!

Anyone believe we can maintain this rate of interest? And what about the current 11.2 "official" unemployment rate, let alone future, unemployment.

How many houses are unemployed broke dicks going to buy? Hmm.

And as the author below mentions, prices are dropping like a rock. Wait and see about tax increases and employer  flight before we start buying houses.

O.K?

P.S Don't tell anyone that kalifornia is bankrupt!

Nearly 70 Percent Can Afford Entry Level Homes in California

The percentage of households that could afford an entry-level home in California rose to 69 percent in the first quarter of 2009, up from 46 percent a year ago, according to CAR.

The California Association of Realtors said the minimum household income needed to purchase a home valued at $213,040 in the pricey state was just $38,090, based on an adjustable-rate mortgage at 4.96 percent with a 10 percent down payment.

The group said first-time buyers typically buy a home equal to 85 percent of the prevailing median price, so the monthly mortgage payment including taxes and insurance would be around $1,270.

A year ago, households would have needed to come up with $65,030 to qualify for a mortgage on an entry-level home; the median household income in California is $61,030.

We ought to make tomorrow a holiday.....

From the gangsters in office.

The shit hits the fan in Kalifornia. Taxpayer revolution is more like it. Soon Uncle Sammy will have to send 50 billion or so to the state to save their bondholders and fat cat unions.

Which state is next? Heh heh.

And we thought the depression was over! Wait and see. The interest rates will skyrocket and cripple the "RECOVERY" if the government  bail out doesn't work. And why won't it work? The printing presses are a blazing already.

Foreigners?Hope they don't run out of money to lend. Of course, we ain't going to buy very much from them so where are they going to get it?

Oh, I know we already send them billions in "aid". They can give it back .Will that ever be stopped?

We  broke dicks won't be able buy anything from them soon anyways as taxes go through the roof.

Any ways, every state and local jurisdiction will be under water and begging Washington for "assistance". How much will they get from you?

Or from my mothers 900$ a month pension?

Got guns?

California's Day of Reckoning: May 19 by Gary North

Politicians believe in something for nothing. Washington is going to be asked to supply lots and lots of something for nothing. California's politicians want to be able to go before their constituents and assure them that vital services will still be available at below-market prices. Uncle Sugar has come up with the money.

THE BOTTOMLESS PIT

Politicians believe in the bottomless pit of tax revenues. They are like investors who think the same thing about corporate bailouts. Washington is seen by all as a bottomless pit of wealth to fund vital services. All services are vital, although some are more vital than others. Which are the most vital ones? Those that are supplied by union members. Unions vote as blocs.

Stimulate the Dead?.........

Yee hah, I love these guys.

Cafe Hayek: The Administration's Sixth Sense

Well this (HT: Drudge) is a really pioneering effort by the President to stimulate the unstimulatable:
This week, thousands of people are getting stimulus checks in the mail. The problem is that a lot of them are dead. A Long Island woman was shocked when she checked the mail and received a letter from the U.S. Treasury -- but it wasn't for her.

Antoniette Santopadre of Valley Stream was expecting a $250 stimulus check. But when her son finally opened it, they saw that the check was made out to her father, Romolo Romonini, who died in Italy 34 years ago. He'd been a U.S. citizen when he left for Italy in 1933, but only returned to the United Stated for a seven-month visit in 1969.

The Santopadres are not alone. The Social Security Administration, which sent out 52 million checks, says that some of those checks mistakenly went to dead people because the agency had no record of their death. That amounts to between 8,000 and 10,000 checks for millions of dollars.

Perhaps the President doesn't realize that outside of Chicago, this is not a crucial voting bloc.

Got ta love free trade......

I get a lot of hassels or strange quizzical looks when I bring this up. You pay for cheap imports.

With your standard of living. A country that creates nothing becomes nothing.

Period.

The big government guys will steal your children's lunch to take care of their own.

Want another example? Imagine the union worker who voted for this!:

The American Spectator : Outsourcing the Bailout

GM will be given billions of taxpayer dollars, courtesy of President Obama and his "car czar" -- and encouraged to use this money to build new plants (and create new jobs) not here in the USA but in countries like China and Mexico.

GM's "restructuring plan" -- the details of which are just beginning to leak out -- projects an increase of almost 10 percent in overseas production (23.5 percent vs. the current 15.5 percent) over the next four years, with more to come later.

Time will tell.........

Our sales (Walmart) are down this month 12%. Blame it on the remodel project, I guess. Store bonus is 47$, peanuts.

Heh heh no bailout for us from Obamama, hey!

"The Worst Is Yet to Come" If You|re Not Petrified You|re Not Paying Attention: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance

The green shoots story took a bit of hit this week between data on April retail sales, weekly jobless claims and foreclosures. But the whole concept of the economy finding its footing was "preposterous" to begin with, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates.

"We're in a complete mess and the consumer is smart enough to know it," says Davidowitz, whose firm does consulting for the retail industry. "If the consumer isn't petrified, he or she is a damn fool."

Davidowitz, who is nothing if not opinionated (and colorful), paints a very grim picture: "The worst is yet to come with consumers and banks," he says. "This country is going into a 10-year decline. Living standards will never be the same."

This outlook is based on the following main points:

* With the unemployment rate rising into double digits - and that's not counting the millions of "underemployed" Americans - consumers are hitting the breaks, which is having a huge impact, given consumer spending accounts for about 70% of economic activity.
* Rising unemployment and the $8 trillion negative wealth effect of housing mean more Americans will default on not just mortgages but student loans and auto loans and credit card debt.
* More consumer loan defaults will hit banks, which are also threatened by what Davidowitz calls a "depression" in commercial real estate, noting the recent bankruptcy of General Growth Properties and distressed sales by Developers Diversified and other REITs

We're all one big happy government now.......

Just what part of Fascism don't you understand?

Autocratic control of the means of production. Making everything illegal that's not authorized by government. Imprisoning, fining or firing anyone, including media types, who disagree.

For instance:

 (Don Imus, remember, for embarrassing the Clintons at the national Press Club, got his. Or Newt Gingrich's book deal being taken away and Daschle losing his cushy Senate majority seat shortly after interfering with the Gingrich deal. There's probably a hundred more like this in recent memory but you get the idea. ).

Fixing elections (The Acorn gang ) for favorite politicians, like Chavez in Venezuela does, maybe.

More insidious is the interfering with the separation of power between the states and the Fed.

LewRockwell.com Blog: The States Love The Feds

Well, it was bound to happen:

In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.

The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.

Who would have expected that in times of crisis the central state grows stronger?

5 to 10 years.....

The shit hits the fan. But wait maybe I'm a pessimist.
Nah. Obamama and his gang will wave his magic wand and poof! all this goes away.

They'll swear up and down broke dick foreigners will save me in my old age. After all our bonds will be guaranteed by the full faith in our government.

How long can this go on? Until they run out of suckers and desperate Foreign investors of course. Think we'll have plenty of these in the future?

Yea, right!

Want better advice?

Pay off your debts and invest in food. With any luck we'll be able to start a new country. Wouldn't be the first time a aging empire spawned something new.

In the meantime expect more of the same. War on oil producing countries. Bribing foreign governments. Corruption becomes the norm. Union, government,corporations and Greens collude to protect and control our economy.

it will be theirs to save. Get a good seat your going to need it.





       Medicare Insolvent In 8 Years

We're officially past the point where Social Security and Medicare insolvency are far-off problems that we can ignore.

Medicare is going bust sooner than we expected. And this isn't some crazy, partisan rambling. This is coming straight from the government, which just updated their numbers based on new tax data. Here's what Tim Geithner said in a statement:

"The Medicare Trustees Report makes clear today there is no more important long-term fiscal policy measure than gaining control of the growth of Medicare costs by delivering health care services more efficiently. These savings can only be achieved in the context of a larger effort to control health care costs and improve quality more generally. The most effective entitlement reform measure will be a major health reform that helps bring down the growth rate of national health care spending. The Administration is committed to working with Congress to find ways to control runaway growth in both public and private health care expenditures while helping to ensure that all Americans receive the high quality, affordable health care they deserve. The recent commitment of major health stakeholders to help lower the annual growth rate in costs by 1.5% represents a crucial step in that direction.

Told you so.......

The unions bought and paid for a seat of power with the Dems a long time ago. As a former, but very minor union official, I learned that first hand 20 or so years ago.

In union friendly territory these guys can do no wrong.

But normally it's not possible for them to expand their power base because conservatives have been able to keep them in check by holding Repub's feet to the fire.

Those days are over!

Welcome to the left's version of Fascism.

The American Spectator : Hands Off Big Labor

"The administration is cutting the budget of the only agency in government that monitors labor union activity, while at the same time ratcheting up the budget of all other enforcement agencies against employers," Chao told TAS in reaction to the news.

The OLMS budget cuts come on the heels of a recent decision by the Labor Department to loosen union financial disclosure rules, a blow to transparency that will make it more difficult for union members to examine the finances of the organizations to which they are paying dues, as well as the conflicts of interest of labor leaders.

The Obama administration's hands-off policy toward big labor should not come as much of a surprise. Unions played a key role in Obama's election by helping him with fundraising and organizing, and his choice for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, has a cozy relationship with unions.

Buying a house for future profits?......

Are you nuts?  If we wait until the bottom of unemployment we should see another 20% drop in prices.

Remember unemployed broke dicks without credit can't buy very many houses. Let alone employed broke dicks with or with out credit.

Most people have to sell their present home to get the down for their next. Kind a screwed there. Better hang tight until Obamama's printing press money kicks in next year for construction. However, state governments are going bust and must bum money or screw everyone in sight.

You think they'll let up on houses? Really?

10 Reasons Why Buying a Home in Southern California today is a Mistake. California Housing and Financial Market Analysis produces no Green Shoots. » Dr. Housing Bubble Blog

One argument making the rounds from bottom callers is mortgage rates are at historical lows. I actually take this argument as a reason not to buy. Why? Well look at the above chart. Mortgage rates are being artificially pushed down by the government through various programs at the Federal Reserve. This cannot go on forever. Here is a scary thought. I ran the numbers above to find the average 30 year fixed rate since 1971. Want to know what that is? 9.08 percent. Big deal right? Well let us run the numbers with the current 4.81% rate and the 9.08% rate on a $500,000 mortgage:

PI @ 4.8% $500k = $2,623/month

PI @ 9.08% $500k = $4,051/month

Now here is the thing, sure you can buy the home at the low rate but let us say rates in 5 to 7 years when you are looking to sell are now closer to the historical average? Who are you going to sell too? If we have a Japan like multi-decade stagnant economy, you better get ready to stay in your home for the duration. Like I said, rates have only one way to go and that is up. Some view this as a plus, I view this as a liability. Give me a good price and a higher interest rate over a high price and a low interest rate any time. You have more option with a low priced home with a high interest rate. You can refinance at another time, pay it down quicker cutting into principal faster, or you can sell and have a bigger pool because it is a better price. A low rate by itself is not a good thing. If that were the case, those teaser 1.25% toxic mortgages would be all the rage again.

Think we are kidding?.....

Or exaggerating?

One wonders about running an empire on borrowing money from one group of supplicants and bombing another?

LewRockwell.com Blog: Notes on the Empire

So the emperor of the world, Obama I, calls the US-installed leaders of two of his provinces, Afghanistsan and Pakistan, to Karnak on the Potomac, to be scolded. Scolded is not quite the word for this relationship, of course, since Obama can order their deaths with a wink to the CIA. But isn't it an insult to bring the leaders of two traditional enemies at the same time, and virtually make them fan the pharoah with ostrich feathers? Few Americans seem able to put themselves in the other guy's shoes, but no one likes being ruled by foreigners, let alone by foreigners who like to rub their faces in their subordinate status. The US empire isn't even a smart empire.

Scum always rises to the top......

Heh heh imagine the silly people who voted for "change". We replaced one gang with another.

All bought and paid for.

Oh, it will not change in our lifetimes. Sure is fun to bitch about it, though.

Want real change?

Quit doing business with these banks and Wall Street quick buck guys.

Use a credit union. Or cash!

The Automatic Earth: May 7 2009 2: Truth is irrelevant

One more employer who needs to check on one of his employees is Barack Obama. You see, Mr. President, Steve Friedman resigned today as Chairman of the New York Fed. He did so because the Wall Street Journal recently found out that he made millions on illegal purchases of Goldman stock, behind the veil of a waiver bestowed on him by then New York Fed President Tim Geithner. If you would like to find out exactly how illegal all this was, just ask Friedman why he resigned. And once you have the answer, tell Geithner to publicly explain his role in Friedman's millions.

Oh, and while you're busy providing the transparency we can believe in, make sure to give Andrew Cuomo a call and demand he start an investigation and, if he finds any wrongdoing, prosecute Friedman to make sure he's held accountable to the full extent of the law, no matter what that may mean for your Treasury Secretary. The only society people can possibly believe in is one in which the law is upheld. Anything else is just a hugely expensive waste of time. Like all the rescues and bail-outs to date in your first hundred plus days, and those muddy water stress debacles.

More scandal.....

Ho hum.

Will the last scumbag please turn out the lights when you leave Washington.

EXCLUSIVE: Records violations dog housing nominee - Washington Times

President Obama's choice for the government's No. 2 housing job is embroiled in the largest fine in U.S. history for "blatant violations" of open records laws after the Washington State Supreme Court chastised his office for withholding documents detailing taxpayer costs for a new professional football stadium in Seattle.

The documents that Ronald Sims' office was found to have kept from the public when he served as King County executive included information about cheaper alternatives to the $430 million Seattle Seahawks stadium, which was built in 2002, according to a Washington Times review of the court records.

Why would a Moslem attend ?.......

he was born a Moslem. Lived as a Moslem. Always will be a Moslem. It's their law. Like father like son.

Forever.

Attending non Islam services will simply be uncomfortable. (illegal)

Previously he attended services to further his political career with the Reverend wright.

Not needed now, right.

Obama to be prayer day no-show - Washington Times

President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.

All Mr. Obama will do for the National Day of Prayer, which is Thursday, is sign a proclamation honoring the day, which originated in 1952 when Congress set aside the first Thursday in May for the observance.

This is what you get......

The public voted for it. Now they pay.

As I have pointe4d out before it's all about saving the unions. No one voluntarily votes these union gangsters into power. They have to buy it.

And paybacks are a bitch!

Attack on the Chrysler Capitalists by Peter Schiff

Giving control of Chrysler, and soon GM, to the UAW and the government will enshrine a culture of failure and seal Detroit's fate. Both companies will become government-sponsored entities, not too dissimilar from Amtrak or the Post Office, forever relying on taxpayer funds to create products of dubious quality.

China is doomed......

We have a tendency to believe that the Chinese are monolithic. Not true. They have many factions working at cross purposes.

Imagine 100 million unemployed. Mostly young males with out women.

Get the idea.

Let alone centuries of racial, religious, and political differences that have been buried by totalitarian rule.

It is more reasonable to expect several different China's to emerge.

But becoming a superpower?

China will be hard pressed to feed their population in the next few years. Let alone suppress the masses of disaffected.

Expect Islam to conquer all is more realistic.

When Giants Fall: The Tectonic Shift

The Tectonic Shift

I am not in the camp that believes China is set to snatch the leadership baton from the United States and become the next sole superpower -- at least, not in the short run.

Among other things, our rival to the east will have its hands full for quite some time as it tries to reorient its economy towards domestic consumption and come to grips with the environmental and social fallout caused by years of helter-skelter industrialization.

That said, I do believe that America's growing loss of influence will, over the time and to a great extent, be China's gain.

According to Dilip Hiro, writing in an essay for TomDispatch.com entitled "Defying the Economic Odds," it appears that the Chinese themselves are cognizant of -- and keen to capitalize on -- this evolving reality.

The World Melts Down, China Grows

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a new world order is emerging -- with its center gravitating towards China. The statistics speak for themselves. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the world's gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by an alarming 1.3% this year. Yet, defying this global trend, China expects an annual economic growth rate of 6.5% to 8.5%. During the first quarter of 2009, the world's leading stock markets combined fell by 4.5%. In contrast, the Shanghai stock exchange index leapt by a whopping 38%. In March, car sales in China hit a record 1.1 million, surpassing the U.S. for the third month in a row.

More growth is the ticket......

Yea, right. Better get busy.

Give everybody a check, stand back, and pray.

How about quit worshiping "growth" and learn to live within our means?

Not good for the gangs who run our world don't you think?

 

Only 1 way out of big economic hole - MSN Money - Jubak's Journal

Check 'em off. President Obama's first 100 days: done.

Now get ready for the hard part: the next 1,000 or so days.

That's about how long the United States and the rest of the world have to turn the anemic economic growth that now seems likely into the kind of strong economic growth we need to pay down the huge pile of debt we've created in our efforts to stave off a global financial meltdown.

Without growth higher than is now projected, the burdens of this crisis will linger for a generation in the form of lower living standards and higher interest rates, taxes and inflation. And, unfortunately, the world's economic experts know even less about creating stronger growth -- without creating a bubble -- than they do about fixing a global credit crunch and a deep recession.
Projections don't look good
It's not that stopping the global financial crisis was easy.

That will teach the little bastards......

Go to work with daddy and he tasers your little ass.

OK.

The War on Guns: We're the Only Ones Electrifying Your Kids Enough

A Florida corrections officer was fired after zapping children with 50,000 volts of electricity during a "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" tour. [More]

You can't make this stuff up. Where do they get these morons from? What kind of total meathead would think this is a good idea? And why do they have authority over others?

And if it's a kids at work day, doesn't that mean the idiot consenting parents are also "Only Ones"?

Say it ain't so........

Now we're going to far. We need to conquer space so we have somewhere to go. Something for all these bureaucrats to do with our stolen money.

How are we supposed to pay all these bailout monies if we get rid of all these stupid ideas?

Well?

Next thing you know we'll have to lower spending and balance the budget. (Not!!)

Unexplained Mysteries :: NASA may abandon plans for Moon base

It is believed NASA may abandon its plans to build a base on the Moon and instead focus its efforts on manned missions to Mars or near-Earth asteroids. The agency is still thought to be sending humans back to the Moon by 2020.

"NASA will probably not build an outpost on the moon as originally planned, the agency's acting administrator, Chris Scolese, told lawmakers on Wednesday. His comments also hinted that the agency is open to putting more emphasis on human missions to destinations like Mars or a near-Earth asteroid."

Why Not?......

We still haven't caught the perpetrator of man-made Anthrax from 2001.

This virus needs explanation because it is believed to consist of different strains mixed together. However, stranger things have happened in science.

After all, who want to harm us?

By the way, back in 1976 the swine flu epidemic killed one person.

 The government mandated vaccine killed 25.

Indonesia floats idea of man-made swine flu

As swine flu continues to take its toll, claims surface that the deadly four-part flu virus could have been created for "bio-terror attacks."

Speaking at a conference to reassure the public over hers government's response to the swine flu threat, Indonesian Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Tuesday that the controversial virus could have been man-made.

She declined to elaborate on her claim but she had previously accused Western governments of making and spreading viruses in the developing world to boost pharmaceutical companies' profits, AFP reported.

"I'm not sure whether the virus was genetically engineered but it's a possibility," Supari said.

Supari assured Indonesians that the deadly virus could not survive in tropical countries like Indonesia which was the worst hit country by the bird flu virus.

Thank God.......

I was about to change my mind about retiring to the Sun shine State, but thankfully my animals will be safe. After all You never know about the people who hang out there.

Hell my brother even drinks occasionally and you know what that means.  And nobody needs to add to the crime down there by dragging extra cats along.

Unless we take them to a vet. And you know what that means.

Florida to outlaw sex with animals!

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Having sex with animals could soon be outlawed in Florida.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill (SB 448) Tuesday that would make it a third degree felony for anyone to have sex with an animal. A similar bill in the House has not been debated on the floor.

Florida is one of 16 states without a law banning bestiality.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, D-Weston, would make the offense a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. The Florida law would not apply to veterinary practices.

According to the national Humane Society, several studies highlight a link between sexual assault of animals and sex crimes against humans.

Lucy.....I'm home.......

My new pad for Florida......

I really like the diving platform which comes complete with rickety ladder.

Makes me nostalgic for my place in California (not!!).

Need a ride?

15 (More!) Extreme Houseboats and Houseboat Designs [PICS]

And you thought I was paranoid!.....

Does have a nice ring to it (Heh heh).

Oh yea  Sars is back.Or is ozone hole. No bird flu. No wait global warning, Alar on your apples, killer peanuts, Pistachios -are-out-to-get-you or maybe .....?

We're dead eventually, just don't tell about me on TV to take attention away from government criminals inducing disasters in the economy , OK ?

charles hugh smith-Obama's Secret Plan

Does anyone seriously believe an obstructionist opposition which supported Bush's giveaways and staggering deficits for eight long years has any credibility? The moment to do something about deficits was 2003, and the moment to vote down bailouts was last Fall (hmm, now there's an appropriate season) when the TARP debacle was shoved down the nation's throat by the Financial Aristocracy.

Does anyone seriously believe the Democrats who cheerily absorbed millions in donations from scalawags and crooks in Fannie Mae, Goldman Sachs et al. while obstructing regulations which might have limited the damage have a lick of credibility? To be a partisan in this age is to be either blind or brainwashed.

So let's face it: any President who sought to destroy the political power of the Investment Banker Aristocracy in a frontal assault would be defeated if not destroyed. Any president of either party who dares even mess around the edges of the real power structure gets "the treatment."

Is there any strategy would might actually work? How about "give them enough rope to hang themselves"? President Dwight Eisenhower has long been dismissed as a do-nothing who "got lucky" in his two terms. Perhaps--but he was also a canny politico who didn't say much because he preferred to give his opponents plenty of stout rope. And sure enough, most of the time they promptly hanged themselves with their own excesses.

First it's the Rolling Stone....

Now I'm agreeing with Paul Krugman, for Christ's sake.

We have run out of suckers. The ones we have are borrowing and printing to save themselves. Their all praying that a couple of trillion a year pumped into the world economy collectively will save our sorry asses.

For awhile they are right. Expect a series of W shaped collapses and you can't go wrong.

As an aside, the Government is becoming more afraid of us. Ask Napalitano.

Got to grab them guns. We need a crisis to save the Fed's sorry asses.

Swine flu maybe. Yea, some exotic disease maybe.

Not only do we need another planet to save us, we need a galaxy!

Japan’s recovery, again - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

For what it’s worth, a key conclusion from the IMF’s new World Economic Outlook is that recessions caused by financial crisis typically end with export booms, with the trade balance improving, on average, by more than 3 percent of GDP. I find this a disturbing result: we’re now suffering from a global financial crisis, which means that the usual driver of recovery will only be available if we can find another planet to export to.