How did we get here?
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By Gegner
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June 15th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
As nonsense levels continue to rise these commentaries have taken on a surreal dimension.
The borders of the absurd are no longer clearly defined making contrast increasingly difficult.
As we examine tonight’s first offering we get a glimpse of just how ‘out of control’ the situation has become.
The U.S. Wins the Right to Abduct Innocent People with Impunity
June 15th, 2010Via: Salon:
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Suspicious Activity
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By Gegner
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June 12th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
With the disaster playing itself out in Gulf of Mexico, we once again encounter, er, ‘evidence of foreknowledge’. Just as there was heavy shorting of both United and Continental Airlines stock immediately prior to 9/11 (and attributed to the ‘terrorists’ themselves) it seems someone had a ‘bad feeling’ about BP right before the Deep Horizons rig blew up…
What we’re left to ponder here is whether or not the most successful investment bank on Wall Street is really ‘that good’ or that ‘lucky’?
Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill
[This article purloined from Cryptogon ]
By John Byrne
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 -- 10:12 amBookmark/Search this post with:
Prunes
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By Gegner
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June 11th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
I don’t commonly attack conservative positions directly but today’s post from one of conservatism’s more ‘moderate’ voices piqued my curiosity.
‘Prune and Grow’? What could he possibly mean? Is this ‘more of the same’, er, BS that conservatives have been preaching for nearly four decades now, that ‘tax cuts pay for themselves’?
With our ‘social safety net’ in tatters and a radical drop in, er, ‘taxable domestic activity’ undercutting the support of longstanding social programs, is bonehead proposing we ‘cut’ these ‘social protections’ in a time when we need them most?
Which points directly to why ‘conservatism’ is widely considered an incurable mental disorder. It’s insistence on doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different outcome, is the very definition of insanity!
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Busted!
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By Gegner
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June 10th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Different parts of the country do things differently…so when I stumbled upon an article that detailed ‘outrageous’ behavior by government officials, I forced myself to calm down and learn more. Although one aspect of this situation does sort of jump up and punch you right in the eye, since when did taxpayer funded services become collection agencies? Which is to ask, why should YOU foot the tab so corporate predators can collect, WITHOUT RE-IMBURSING YOU?
What am I ‘babbling about’ this time? read it an weep good citizen, the corporate police state is here!
[I refer you to yesterday’s post for ‘how’ corporate USA pulled this off…]
In jail for being in debt
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Captive Government
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By Gegner
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June 9th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Here we are in the third year of the slow motion collapse of the US Empire and we are reminded by no less an authority than the NY Times that our legislators are either totally clueless (or hopelessly corrupt, pick one, or both, it doesn’t matter!)
Recent ‘financial reform legislation’ (that didn’t even ‘suggest’ restoring Glass-Steagal) has had zero impact on the banking industry…but we knew that already BECAUSE it passed! Same thing with Health Care reform, nothing has changed.
Funny, for a guy who ran on ‘change’, nothing has, which is not to say that the steady ‘downhill march’ has even skipped a beat! (That’s the thing Bobo promised to put a stop to…that is what is meant when I say nothing has changed…because those hits just keep on coming!)
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Shotgun!
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By Gegner
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June 8th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
So troubling is the ‘economic climate’ out there that several sites have posted ‘shotgun’ articles in an effort to demonstrate the scale of the, er, disaster.
What should astonish the pragmatic observer is the ‘non-reaction’ coming from the general public. The job markets are ‘gone’, the economic desert is expanding rapidly and this is NOT going to ‘go away’.
If there was ever a time to panic, NOW would be it!
Understand good citizen, the ‘signs’ you should be paying attention to are not to be found in the MSM, you will find them in your shopping basket and at the gas pump.
While the fucktards cry ‘deflation’, there is NO DIFFERENCE between prices rising and purchasing power falling, they are effectively THE SAME FUCKING THING! (This is the ‘weasels’ slipping you the bone because they can! And there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it!)
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The Great Recession
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By Gegner
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June 7th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Apparently the blogosphere has given up the so-called ‘recovery’ as a bad job, as noted by the resumption of calling the current financial crisis ‘The Great Recession’, which, truth be told, is far more severe than its, er, ‘predecessor’, The Great Depression.
Worse, the incumbent administration makes the Hoover administration look like a dynamo by comparison! As has been lamented many times, this guy is no FDR!
If we were to put this in perspective, it’s ‘too late’ for words, the only thing that can save our collective asses now are deeds! (Starting with widespread prosecutions for crimes against society!)
How sad is it that no ‘consensus’ exists as to what needs to be done?
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Simplicity
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By Gegner
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June 6th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
I am ‘a simple man’, which is to say I believe nothing is complicated and the simplest solution/answer is ‘probably’ the correct one or the one that is ‘closest to the truth’.
Anyway, on Sunday’s I start my browsing with the editorials in the NY Times and this week Mr. Rich was discussing ‘no drama Obama’s’ too cool approach to catastrophe. Mr. Rich also criticized Obama’s reliance on his favorite scapegoat, ‘the best and the brightest’ that religiously screw up everything they’re tasked with. (Because they seek ‘crowd pleasing’ but impossible to execute solutions so they don’t ruffle campaign contributors feathers.)
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What are we doing?
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By Gegner
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June 4th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
In what might best be described as ‘disturbing’ the markets are currently crashing (Down over 200 points) on the ‘news’ that the ‘big employment numbers’ posted for the month of May are less ‘promising’ than previously advertised.
Understand that just days ago the market ‘rallied’ over 200 points on ‘rumors’ of the, er, pretty fucking poor job market performance relative to the size of the labor force.
After a solid year of ‘down’ the job markets posted a relatively ‘tiny’ gain largely due to the once a decade ‘census’. These are jobs that will disappear next month (maybe the assholes will mange to spin that into a rally too…)
If it hasn’t been made abundantly clear, the performance of the ‘markets’ has absolutely nothing to do with conditions on Main Street. Why these assholes deserve billion dollar bonuses is totally beyond comprehension!
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Presto Chango!
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By Gegner
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June 3rd, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Today I have ‘good news’ and bad news, since I’m always giving you the bad news, we’ll lead off with the ‘good news’!
Effective July 1, Joe is back! I’d like to get you all pumped up with some enticing insider information but that’s all I know.
However there is a ‘flipside’ to this exciting news…effective July 1st you will no longer find my posts on this site. This is not being done ‘to me’ and I fully support Joe’s decision to have the site sending a clear, strong message.
Joe’s battle is centered on (but not limited to) conservatism while mine is somewhat more complicated.
That said, those interested in continuing to follow my often ‘madcap’ observations can find me here I will endeavor to include this link in all of my final posts but once they go, the link goes with them! [Make it a point to bookmark BEFORE July 1st, please!]
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Things that make your head go 'boom'!
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By Gegner
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June 2nd, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
How many of you are thinking what I’m thinking? How the hell did BP get a permit to drill without having a failsafe method of capping the fucker IF something ‘went wrong’?
This brings us full circle to another ‘bizarre’, er, ‘coincidence’…have you noticed the fuckers are more concerned with being able to ‘get at’ the oil than they are in preventing an extinction level event in the Gulf?
They don’t want to ‘cap’ the fucking well! WTF is wrong with these people? This is way beyond stupid and the fact that the media has ignored this ‘option’ should tell you something.
If it were up to me, there would have been a HUGE HONKIN’ ROCK sitting on top of that puppy the day after the feed snapped! May not have sealed it ‘perfectly’ but at least it wouldn’t be blowing hundreds of barrels a minute into a sensitive eco-system either!
And we don’t even have that!
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News or Happy Talk?
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By Gegner
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June 1st, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
The return of warm weather brings increased social and maintenance obligations. If you’re not shoveling snow, you’re mowing grass!
Did we just enjoy four days off? Sometimes it’s hard to tell when you’re trying to squeeze in things that should have been done months ago…
I know, ‘excuses, excuses’ but hey, what can I do?
After yesterday’s ‘smoke monster’ scare (where the wind pattern blew smoke from Canadian wildfires into the region, making us wonder, ‘if it’s this bad here, it must really suck there!’) Something that becomes more frightening if you’ve read my first novel, where the first days of the ‘collapse’ are marked with thick smoke from local and some not so local wildfires.
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Davy Crockett, Daily Kos and Net Warfare Multiplicity.
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By Pen
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May 28th, 2010
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My wife is descended from Davy Crockett so naturally all our kids have wanted to watch the old Disney shows about him and both Alamo movies. We let our kids know that most of what they see is complete BS. One bit of Disney BS is the scene in the wilderness where Crockett and Bowie drive off a much larger enemy force with a little trick the two of them have gotten adept at. They can fire and reload their guns much more quickly than normal men and can do so on the run. They run from hiding spot to hiding spot, firing rapidly and giving the impression to the enemy that they are up against a much larger fighting force than they really are. This forces the enemy to retreat when, if they knew they were only facing two men, they'd charge in and rapidly defeat them.
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Some things never change...
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By Gegner
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May 28th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Maybe I’m ‘late to the party’ (again) and should have seen this one coming BUT no! After years of watching Japan ‘languish’ in ‘economic hell’ do we/I see evidence that they are suffering from the exact same malaise that afflicts the US.
That ‘Japanese quality’ (idiotic) US ‘middle class’ consumers are so fond of doesn’t come from Japan…it has ‘Made in China’ stamped on it!
Understand good citizen that ‘super efficient’ Japanese workers are literally starving to death while their jobs were ‘off-shored’ to cheaper labor markets.
This is not a ‘local’ or even an ‘isolated’ phenomenon…the ‘buy and sell’ crowd has ‘fucked’ the entire global economy due to their ‘disregard’ for basic economics…your workers are also your customers!
Not paying your workers enough to purchase your products isn’t ‘somebody else’s problem’, it’s yours!
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Hand Waving...
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By Gegner
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May 26th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
I’m ‘trying’ to tackle a lot of chores I’ve been putting off until better weather arrived and, naturally, they have expanded (or worse, ‘exploded’) beyond the time allotted to complete them.
Sadly, neglecting issues until they become ‘do or die’ comes at a price. Waiting to install new brake pads caused the tire to, er, ‘weld’ itself to the hub, requiring me to pound it free…which bent the rim. So now I have to deal with a slow leak that will cost me 75 cents a day until I can locate and have a replacement wheel installed.
Um, don’t even get me started on the freaking alternator, what a friggin horror show! Three bolts and a belt…who knew it would turn into a four day project!
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Business Friendly
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By Gegner
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May 24th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
I apologize for the quiet weekend but I had stuff to do and there are only so many hours in the day.
I could have posted last night but I joined in the ‘national obsession’ that was the ‘Lost’ phenomenon. I didn’t see much of the series nor was I ‘attracted’ to it because the only answer that made any sense was provided at the end of the series…they were all fucking dead!
There was ample evidence of this from the beginning and it must have tickled the producers to no end to have successfully pulled off such a ‘mind-fuck’.
Sort of says something about society we live in…and it’s not good.
Sadly good citizen, the truth, once again, trumps fiction.
Let’s have a look at tonight’s offering so we can examine what else is ‘wrong’ with this picture…
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Duck & Cover
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By Gegner
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May 20th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Not only are we ‘going to hell in a bucket’ but I’m sure most of us aren’t ‘enjoying the ride’.
Although some have had one hell of a run, as evidenced by the ‘high end Repo men’ clip shown on this morning’s Today show. Some of the scum responsible for the collapse of the financial markets got their tails in a bind when it all fell apart…
I can only guess seeing the ‘repo men’ on TV is supposed to make us think that ‘justice’ is being done. That seeing these ‘bad boys’ having their ‘toys’ taken away from them makes it all even and now everything is all better!
When the reality is good citizen the repo men are visiting the ‘stooges’ who worked for the assholes who bankrupted the world. These ‘repossessions’ are being executed upon ‘the hired help’ (who have outlived their ‘usefulness’.)
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Where she stops, nobody knows!
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By Gegner
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May 19th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
You may have seen the pundits crowing over the ‘surge’ in retail sales while your own frugal buying habits haven’t changed significantly. Allow me to remind you that during the ‘boom years’ between 2005 and 2008, the top 20% of earners were responsible for 80% of the spending.
As one might expect, closer examination of precisely who is reporting increased sales revenue reveals that those who aren’t ‘suffering’ like the rest of us are once again ‘disproportionately represented’.
Which is to point out that the ‘bulk’ of the uptick comes from retailers that cater to the wealthy.
Is this a sign of ‘economic recovery’ or is this another ‘let them eat cake’ moment?
Truth be told good citizen, it’s neither.
What we have here are political operatives positively desperate for some economic good news, because there isn’t any…because nothing has changed.
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Theater of the mind...
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By Gegner
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May 19th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Um, after a 'surprise' rally yesterday at the end of the trading day and a fairly robust open this morning, stocks are heading back into the basement as Wall Street Firms turn misplaced investor confidence into personal profit.
Seriously good citizen, after what happened last week, where markets dropped AND RECOVERED almost a thousand points in under an hour, you KNOW it's all 'window dressing'. It doesn't have anything to do with anything...except how rich the already wealthy 'think' they are!
In this respect, tonight's offering meshes perfectly with the 'theme' of Joe Bagent's article.
It's all a 'fantasy' folks...actually, it's more like a nightmare for most of us. Those of us not 'made of money' keep seeing our expenses rise while our paychecks buy less and less.
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Jungle Drums
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By Gegner
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May 17th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
As the markets continue to tank, the jungle drums in the ‘doom-o-sphere’ continue to pound out the warning for all who wish to hear…
Then there are the rest of…er, ‘them’. They think everything is fine and we’re almost over the ‘speed bump’ they think this financial crisis was.
Um, not by a friggin long shot Bucko! If things ever do return to ‘normal’ it won’t be anything that most of us recognize!
The ‘new normal’ will come with disturbing features we didn’t think could happen here…like roadblocks where soldiers check your identification and search your vehicle. Heaven help you if you have a ‘weapon’ on you, in the vehicle or on the person of one of your passengers…you’ll be lucky to survive the encounter!
And the owner of the vehicle/weapon ‘WILL’ be, er, ‘rendered’ to an ‘undisclosed location’ to be ‘interrogated’ (because only ‘terrorists’ would have a reason to be armed…)
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