A disaster. Obama's policies have been a dis-ASTER! says one millionaire to the other like some kind of a club password or secret society handshake. How so? I ask and just what policies do you mean? Things get quiet really quick and I can almost hear the unspoken malediction: "y'ain't from aroun' here, arya?"
No I'm not, I'm from a place called reality and it can be a lonesome place for sure. Fact is, the only disaster since Cheney and the Chimp left Washington has been the president's inability to perform even one duty of office without all-time filibuster records and total obfuscation. The guy couldn't order a hamburger from a drive-in window without the Jack-in-the Box Republicans trying to stop him, but the "Obama Disaster" is still one of the tent poles that holds up the GOP circus tent. No, he would be a tyrant and would be "trashing the constitution" by appointing cabinet members, but the constitutional mandate for the Senate to discuss his SCOTUS appointment? Don't ask because you'll have to hold your nose for the answer.
Seems not too long ago that the Dow Jones was at 6,400. after an 8 year stretch of Bush's policies of borrow, spend, and cut revenue. Today was a bit of a disaster for my portfolio but it's still over 18,000, just off some all-time market highs. Disaster.
Today's Census Bureau figures show US household incomes up 5.2% -- the fastest increase since the end of the Bush Recession, Strange because wage stagnation is another one of the tent poles and yes unemployment is near record lows too, but you know it's magic tent. It really doesn't need poles, it's held up by faith: faith that "Hillary's agenda" and her "policies" will be just as bad as her husbands and Obama's. We can only hope they are.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
In Sickness and Health
Way back in the 1970's I broke my right arm in a fight. I had been studying Tae Kwon Do and it was after hours and it was with a more advanced student I had no business sparring with and I broke my arm. I just went home and didn't tell anyone for days.
10 years later or so I was newly single and had just met this girl I was crazy about and I helped her paint her art gallery one evening. I had 104 fever that wouldn't go away but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to spend time with her. I didn't go to the doctor for a long time.
Back in the late 90's I had kidney stones -- pain so bad I couldn't talk. I took it for a week before I went to the doctor but I refused the Vicodin because it's for weak people.
6 years ago I had a ruptured gall bladder. Hard to describe the pain, but I ignored it and the pain and fever went away after a week. A couple of years later I almost died from liver complications from it.
Pneumonia? What are you, a candy ass? Nobody lets something like that stop them.
So you're president and it's 3 AM and the phone rings. It's NORAD, something about missiles, but you've got this nasty head cold and you just don't want to get out of bed. . .
10 years later or so I was newly single and had just met this girl I was crazy about and I helped her paint her art gallery one evening. I had 104 fever that wouldn't go away but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to spend time with her. I didn't go to the doctor for a long time.
Back in the late 90's I had kidney stones -- pain so bad I couldn't talk. I took it for a week before I went to the doctor but I refused the Vicodin because it's for weak people.
6 years ago I had a ruptured gall bladder. Hard to describe the pain, but I ignored it and the pain and fever went away after a week. A couple of years later I almost died from liver complications from it.
Pneumonia? What are you, a candy ass? Nobody lets something like that stop them.
So you're president and it's 3 AM and the phone rings. It's NORAD, something about missiles, but you've got this nasty head cold and you just don't want to get out of bed. . .
Monday, September 12, 2016
Charles Krauthammer is Still an Asshole
Some have been tempted to cut Charles Krauthammer some slack of late, since he's decided to recognize the dangers of a Trump presidency, but he's still an asshole.
The world disdains Barack Obama and he's earned it, he says. There are no actual statistics to prove it, only a handful of anecdotes that support the idea that our enemies don't like him. Countries engaged in military aggression and expansion have publicly snubbed him: China by making him wait and Russia by making him wait and of course Iran dislikes him too. Of course Putin kept the pope waiting too, but you wouldn't expect an Atheist dictator and imperialist to do otherwise. In fact you might say raising the enmity of enemies of freedom would be a good thing for a powerful Western leader who has stood up to them. But is China or Russia "the world" or the enemy? If you're dumb or a Republican you just won't think to ask. Maybe you'll raise your right arm in Heil Trump salute, but you won't ask why Putin would prefer someone who is against NATO and doesn't care if he takes back Poland and Hungary and East Germany. . .
But Not Charles Krauthammer. Not the Charles Krauthammer who is smart enough and educated enough to raise inapposite parallels and make false conclusions. Those who pander to the angry rabble and supply them with food for further anger like to portray the ideal leader as someone the world should fear, not admire.
His attempt to impress us with a comparison of Obama with Secretary of State Henry Stimson, who in 1929 declared we wouldn't be indulging in code breaking may be indicative of the isolationism of the Republican Hoover administration in the 1920's but the implication that the US is not indulging and successfully in espionage is without any factual support, which is my way of saying it's a Goddamn lie on top of being a baseless smear against Obama. Somehow that Putin admires Trump makes such statements stink even worse.
Yes, he's right about Russian and Chinese expansionism but that Obama has stopped short of Nuking them isn't a bad thing. That he simply carries on knowing we are militarily unassailable and on the high ground in support of the free world isn't the same thing as the humiliation Krauthammer sees, or rather wants you to see. I'm tempted to add my suspicion that those who feel humiliation from every angle are the ones with the weakness problem, the lack of self esteem the tiny hands, the fear, but I'll leave that to the shrinks. Meanwhile the enemy of our enemy is not really our friend at all and Charles Krauthammer is still an asshole.
The world disdains Barack Obama and he's earned it, he says. There are no actual statistics to prove it, only a handful of anecdotes that support the idea that our enemies don't like him. Countries engaged in military aggression and expansion have publicly snubbed him: China by making him wait and Russia by making him wait and of course Iran dislikes him too. Of course Putin kept the pope waiting too, but you wouldn't expect an Atheist dictator and imperialist to do otherwise. In fact you might say raising the enmity of enemies of freedom would be a good thing for a powerful Western leader who has stood up to them. But is China or Russia "the world" or the enemy? If you're dumb or a Republican you just won't think to ask. Maybe you'll raise your right arm in Heil Trump salute, but you won't ask why Putin would prefer someone who is against NATO and doesn't care if he takes back Poland and Hungary and East Germany. . .
But Not Charles Krauthammer. Not the Charles Krauthammer who is smart enough and educated enough to raise inapposite parallels and make false conclusions. Those who pander to the angry rabble and supply them with food for further anger like to portray the ideal leader as someone the world should fear, not admire.
His attempt to impress us with a comparison of Obama with Secretary of State Henry Stimson, who in 1929 declared we wouldn't be indulging in code breaking may be indicative of the isolationism of the Republican Hoover administration in the 1920's but the implication that the US is not indulging and successfully in espionage is without any factual support, which is my way of saying it's a Goddamn lie on top of being a baseless smear against Obama. Somehow that Putin admires Trump makes such statements stink even worse.
Yes, he's right about Russian and Chinese expansionism but that Obama has stopped short of Nuking them isn't a bad thing. That he simply carries on knowing we are militarily unassailable and on the high ground in support of the free world isn't the same thing as the humiliation Krauthammer sees, or rather wants you to see. I'm tempted to add my suspicion that those who feel humiliation from every angle are the ones with the weakness problem, the lack of self esteem the tiny hands, the fear, but I'll leave that to the shrinks. Meanwhile the enemy of our enemy is not really our friend at all and Charles Krauthammer is still an asshole.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
In Remembrance of 9/11
Today, I am remembering my cousin, Ruthie Lapin, who died in the towers 15 years ago. She was an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald. Rest in peace, dear cousin! You are always in my thoughts.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Donald Does Detroit
Or at least he tried to and I mean do in the sense of screw. Who thinks that today's speech wasn't written by some staff member to mimic the rhetoric and cadence of a black preacher as the non-black public envisions one? Who thinks the shot of Donald gyrating with the gospel choir was pandering and that he hasn't been in a whole lot of churches of any kind in a very long time? Pretty much everyone that watched.
Oh Donny, you're a man for all places and all seasons, but only if those seasons are named Lie, Cheat, Steal and Misrepresent. The odds that you knew that or any other Gospel Quote before yesterday are about the same as the odds that you pay any Federal Income Tax.
I have a feeling that you've made more enemies than you had before because it sure seems that you expected the intended audience to be unsophisticated enough and too anxious to please a rich white man not to feel the condescension. The day of minstrel shows is long over Donny. Wipe off the blackface and go home to your penthouse.
Oh Donny, you're a man for all places and all seasons, but only if those seasons are named Lie, Cheat, Steal and Misrepresent. The odds that you knew that or any other Gospel Quote before yesterday are about the same as the odds that you pay any Federal Income Tax.
I have a feeling that you've made more enemies than you had before because it sure seems that you expected the intended audience to be unsophisticated enough and too anxious to please a rich white man not to feel the condescension. The day of minstrel shows is long over Donny. Wipe off the blackface and go home to your penthouse.
Je ne suis pas Charlie
Remember when we were falling all over ourselves to post a "Je Suis Charlie" picture somewhere? Of course we wanted to stand up for freedom, but since none of us had really heard of that French language magazine or were familiar with the kind of thing they print, it was all so easy to flatter ourselves that we're noble defenders and not lemmings.
So what do you think of their cartoon showing a multi layer collapsed building with the arms and legs of squashed Italian corpses oozing out and calling it lasagna? Gratuitously tasteless, heartless and disgusting come to mind rather rapidly.
Nothing of the sort that justifies slaughter of course, just enough to raise questions about whether they learned anything about humanity and decency and compassion from it. Suddenly I'm not so Charlie any more.
So what do you think of their cartoon showing a multi layer collapsed building with the arms and legs of squashed Italian corpses oozing out and calling it lasagna? Gratuitously tasteless, heartless and disgusting come to mind rather rapidly.
Nothing of the sort that justifies slaughter of course, just enough to raise questions about whether they learned anything about humanity and decency and compassion from it. Suddenly I'm not so Charlie any more.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Taco Terrorism
A chicken in every pot, 40 acres and a mule -- political promises are the fabric of election-year rhetoric. One might think "a taco truck on every corner" would be such a promise, but this is racist and xenophobic America and it's a promise meant to terrify us like the "yellow peril" and the "red menace" once did. Sure, most Americans aren't old enough to remember and are too proudly ignorant to care, but I remember when pizza and even spaghetti were "foreign" food in a land of white bread, roast beef and potatoes. There was a time when Hamburgers and Frankfurters were foreign as well.
Now that the forward into the past movement seems to have taken over our dreams (or for some, our nightmares) the concept of more widely available Mexican or Tex-Mex food can be frightening, even for some of us of Mexican origin. Frightening even though the long history of our country's dietary improvement has been a history of expanded choices and better food. Most frightening is that Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez has commented that without more xenophobic immigration policies as proposed by that tin-horn Hitler Donald Trump, that's just what we would have.
Now the county I live in is, along with some contiguous areas, still heavily agricultural. At one time the sugar cane was cut by Jamaicans and the oranges and other fruit picked by Hispanics, but today only the latter remain in quantity. I don't know of any Jamaican restaurants, more's the pity, but there certainly are Mexican and Guatemalan establishments although I'd like to see more and yes, a few more taco trucks. Great places to get great food when you don't want to go into a sit-down restaurant. Is this more of a threat than a Jewish Deli on the Lower East side, a German beer garden in Milwaukee, a Cuban restaurant in Hialeah or a Pizzeria on Mott Street? A taco truck on every corner indeed. Unless you own a McDogfood or you're a racist piece of shit, why wouldn't you be happy about it? Maybe you could just call them freedom rolls.
I guess it's no stranger than the existence of Latinos for Trump itself, or Gays for Phelps or Christians for Krishna. People are crazy -- as though we aren't reminded every time we watch or read or try to run away from the news!
Now that the forward into the past movement seems to have taken over our dreams (or for some, our nightmares) the concept of more widely available Mexican or Tex-Mex food can be frightening, even for some of us of Mexican origin. Frightening even though the long history of our country's dietary improvement has been a history of expanded choices and better food. Most frightening is that Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez has commented that without more xenophobic immigration policies as proposed by that tin-horn Hitler Donald Trump, that's just what we would have.
Now the county I live in is, along with some contiguous areas, still heavily agricultural. At one time the sugar cane was cut by Jamaicans and the oranges and other fruit picked by Hispanics, but today only the latter remain in quantity. I don't know of any Jamaican restaurants, more's the pity, but there certainly are Mexican and Guatemalan establishments although I'd like to see more and yes, a few more taco trucks. Great places to get great food when you don't want to go into a sit-down restaurant. Is this more of a threat than a Jewish Deli on the Lower East side, a German beer garden in Milwaukee, a Cuban restaurant in Hialeah or a Pizzeria on Mott Street? A taco truck on every corner indeed. Unless you own a McDogfood or you're a racist piece of shit, why wouldn't you be happy about it? Maybe you could just call them freedom rolls.
I guess it's no stranger than the existence of Latinos for Trump itself, or Gays for Phelps or Christians for Krishna. People are crazy -- as though we aren't reminded every time we watch or read or try to run away from the news!
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The Clorox Conspiracy
It's probably true that the liar Trump could shoot someone in cold blood at high noon and No one -- no Republican, that is, would drop their support for him. So It's silly to think that another demonstration of how he shoots from the hip, without bothering to check a fact or read a news item isn't going to matter to anyone but those already all too aware of the mortal danger the US is in from this lying bastard.
Liar Trump, in the haste to pin another lie of Hillary tells us once again how she erased e-mails but horror of horrors, she used chemicals -- expensive chemicals to do it. Obviously Liar Trump has little idea about how computers store data or how it's erased. Her Lawyers used BleachBit software as many businesses do to make sure security is not breached. Psycho Trey Goudy made much of this without making the connection that doing that also makes it impossible for a third party, like Liar Trump's friend Putin, to recover data by hacking. It's a security measure, dummy.
But no, Liar Trump, it's not bleach. Although you hardly needed to prove it to us, your frantic rush to defame makes it obvious how just make things up for your stupid fans to repeat while ignoring your dishonesty.
Liar Trump, in the haste to pin another lie of Hillary tells us once again how she erased e-mails but horror of horrors, she used chemicals -- expensive chemicals to do it. Obviously Liar Trump has little idea about how computers store data or how it's erased. Her Lawyers used BleachBit software as many businesses do to make sure security is not breached. Psycho Trey Goudy made much of this without making the connection that doing that also makes it impossible for a third party, like Liar Trump's friend Putin, to recover data by hacking. It's a security measure, dummy.
But no, Liar Trump, it's not bleach. Although you hardly needed to prove it to us, your frantic rush to defame makes it obvious how just make things up for your stupid fans to repeat while ignoring your dishonesty.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Happy Days
Everybody knows America used to be great -- greater than it is now, that is, but I wonder when that was and whether everyone would pick the same time of maximum greatness if asked. Nobody seems to be asking. I suspect we'd get a bunch of different answers though and I suspect many would refuse to answer, again for a variety of reasons.
For me, of course it would be the years that were greatest for me and that means when I had few worries and everything was new and exciting and simple. That would be around 1955 when I got a new Bike for Christmas and never watched that boring evening news with boring people like Walter Kronkite. All was right with that best of all possible worlds.
Yes, of course my dad had been bitching about the Army-McCarthy hearings he watched on our 10" big screen Admiral TV in Black and White. But really, who cared if Communists had taken over the government and all the movies and half the TV was secretly infused with Communist propaganda when the new Mickey Mouse Club was on the air, Annette's All American bosoms and all. If she was trying to induce us all to unite and cast off our chains, I didn't notice. Things were great.
It has to have been one of Donald's favorite times too, since he's only a year younger than I am, My dad didn't complain about the 90 something percent top tax bracket, at least not then. Did old man Trump? Somehow both dads prospered anyway as did the nation as a whole. In fact GDP has been almost independent of that number since the end of WWII when America was pretty much great by anyone's standards except for the Japanese and Germans. The war was pretty much successful and we pulled it off without the help of a massive, recession building tax cut for the wealthy like W did. Long about the time I turned 18 or so, the greatness was a lot harder to see, and outside of the moon missions, I think we were rather mediocre in fact. Face it, most of the world thought we were assholes.
I do remember that the fathers of many of my friends as a kid thought the peak of greatness was a lot earlier at about 1900 or so and I used to agree until I learned about the Panic of October 1907 and of course WWI and the world flu pandemic and the huge race riots and lynchings and the horrible conditions of immigrants bringing disease and crime and those women who insisted on voting. It certainly wasn't great during Prohibition when just like today, you got shot when you went out on the street as Donald says. I'm tempted to think it's pretty much a personal thing - greatness.
No matter what you're time of greatness was, it's in the past, isn't it and that means we have to look backwards to find it again, particularly if we don't have more mansions than Henry VIII or a series of inappropriately young trophy wives and jet planes like someone I won't mention. The future is always scary and the past has a known outcome, so as soon as I have that time machine perfected, I'm going to go back and buy me a knucklehead Harley and maybe a 56 Chevy Chevy Bel-Aire sport Coupe or what the hell, a 57 Vette and wouldn't worry about the Bomb because I would know it wouldn't happen. Nobody even had to worry about making a living back then did they?
For me, of course it would be the years that were greatest for me and that means when I had few worries and everything was new and exciting and simple. That would be around 1955 when I got a new Bike for Christmas and never watched that boring evening news with boring people like Walter Kronkite. All was right with that best of all possible worlds.
Yes, of course my dad had been bitching about the Army-McCarthy hearings he watched on our 10" big screen Admiral TV in Black and White. But really, who cared if Communists had taken over the government and all the movies and half the TV was secretly infused with Communist propaganda when the new Mickey Mouse Club was on the air, Annette's All American bosoms and all. If she was trying to induce us all to unite and cast off our chains, I didn't notice. Things were great.
It has to have been one of Donald's favorite times too, since he's only a year younger than I am, My dad didn't complain about the 90 something percent top tax bracket, at least not then. Did old man Trump? Somehow both dads prospered anyway as did the nation as a whole. In fact GDP has been almost independent of that number since the end of WWII when America was pretty much great by anyone's standards except for the Japanese and Germans. The war was pretty much successful and we pulled it off without the help of a massive, recession building tax cut for the wealthy like W did. Long about the time I turned 18 or so, the greatness was a lot harder to see, and outside of the moon missions, I think we were rather mediocre in fact. Face it, most of the world thought we were assholes.
I do remember that the fathers of many of my friends as a kid thought the peak of greatness was a lot earlier at about 1900 or so and I used to agree until I learned about the Panic of October 1907 and of course WWI and the world flu pandemic and the huge race riots and lynchings and the horrible conditions of immigrants bringing disease and crime and those women who insisted on voting. It certainly wasn't great during Prohibition when just like today, you got shot when you went out on the street as Donald says. I'm tempted to think it's pretty much a personal thing - greatness.
No matter what you're time of greatness was, it's in the past, isn't it and that means we have to look backwards to find it again, particularly if we don't have more mansions than Henry VIII or a series of inappropriately young trophy wives and jet planes like someone I won't mention. The future is always scary and the past has a known outcome, so as soon as I have that time machine perfected, I'm going to go back and buy me a knucklehead Harley and maybe a 56 Chevy Chevy Bel-Aire sport Coupe or what the hell, a 57 Vette and wouldn't worry about the Bomb because I would know it wouldn't happen. Nobody even had to worry about making a living back then did they?
Friday, August 26, 2016
Chasing Doomsday
Mornings like this I sit with a cup of coffee watching the crawl on Bloomberg TV as my finances improve - or not. This morning I checked their website to see what Secretary Yellin had to say about the likelihood of raising rates this year and in the corner was one of those ubiquitous ads about some "expert" "Breaking his silence" and how I'll never believe what he has to say about just how bad the US economy is. They're right, I won't believe it any more than I have believed any of the nonsense about impending doom since the bull market began after W went back to Texas and Obummer took office. I know many who missed out on it because of "experts." Are they now out campaigning for Trump or are they simply out.
Last time I checked this is the second half of 2016 and the markets have been setting highs. Growth in GDP is very modest compared with India and China but unemployment is under 5%, but hey, some people avidly watch Fox News and buy books from "experts" who are selling investment strategies based on impending doom. Same guys who were telling us to to buy gold at $2000 as a hedge against the coming disaster and right before that market collapsed -- but hurry! Do it soon!
"We are now facing serious economic problems in the United States.
And it's about to get much, much worse.
The evidence is piling up all around us...
In recent months, we've seen nearly $8 trillion disappear from world stock markets... and a whopping 70% of investors lose money in 2015."
Last time I checked this is the second half of 2016 and the markets have been setting highs. Growth in GDP is very modest compared with India and China but unemployment is under 5%, but hey, some people avidly watch Fox News and buy books from "experts" who are selling investment strategies based on impending doom. Same guys who were telling us to to buy gold at $2000 as a hedge against the coming disaster and right before that market collapsed -- but hurry! Do it soon!
Remember that guy on TV in 2006 who was telling you to borrow 125% of the value of you home to "jump on a hot stock?" But do it now before it's too late and the Liberals shut us down. Come to think of it one Mr. Trump thought that would be a good year to start peddling mortgages. What a genius!
“In light of the continued solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation, I believe the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months,”
Said Chairwoman Yellin this morning, but what does she know? She's not even selling advice and advice is worth what you pay for it, right? No you can't trust the government in this modern age when NOAA and NASA fake all their climate data and every university fakes their research just to harm the coal industry and kill jobs. Besides the Experts are breaking their silence. There is no drought in California -- and buy now before "they" take the site down! Follow the experts. The end is upon us.
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