captain bullshit...

got this email from a friend...



Senator Alan Simpson, from Wyoming, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared " Social Security " to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. August, 2010 .

Here’s a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana, I think he is a little ticked off !


“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight…

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63.)

3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you incompetent bums spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and health care benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators who are “greedy”. It is you and they who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes.

That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you miserable SOB ”

i don't think i can add any more to this...

it's great to be an activist...

but there comes a time when you start to get tired of fighting, when you question if it makes a difference at all, when it may be time to let others, younger, keep the ball rolling...

on the other hand, i remember my friend Father Philip Berrigan & his brother Daniel; what if they had decided to give up? would Vietnam still be a nation in turmoil?

at the same time, i realize that they had a single-minded goal; no, not just to end the war, but to awaken humanity; the conversations were about inhumanity and how it prevented us from moving forward to treat each other in peace.

here we are 40 years later and we still are fighting the foes of humanity; we are battling the false witness of ultra-right, christianist wingnuts who tear down instead of build up; we struggle with proving what is just and fair when they merely come from a power struggle mentality;

i fight with myself daily trying to make a decision that i'm not sure i want to make, but each day as i read about the inequities of healthcare, the discrimination of lgbtq, the economic problems of families struggling to make a life for themselves, and the movement towards a theocratic country and i get closer and closer to that decision - one to get out...

how the Republicans frakked everything up...

here is the perfect example of the kind of thing that the banks, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, etc., all great supporters of the Republican Party over the decades, have used to screw everyone over...




now, of course, through the likes of Glen Beck, Limbaugh and FauxNews, they are in the business of canning hot air also...

oh, and bringing racism to its next level as they deny it vehemently.

tea parties...

when i first heard about these winger/Republican/christianist/nut tea parties i immediately thought about the ones that the Mad Hatter had in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonder Land and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

i mean think about it. they are protesting tax increases... FOR THE RICH!

well, here's some news for them. Obama has not had any tax plan passed as yet. what they are protesting is the tax plan that Mr. Bush put into effect, where he lowered the tax rate for the wealthiest people in the world and stuck it to the middle class! i don't think that these people are smart enough to understand this.

the tea parties were touted by the Republican leadership that doesn't know what its left hand is doing with its ass.

what are these people thinking? are they just so out of their minds that they will just let the Fox mumble-mouths and Tsar Rush* talk them into anything because of their hate and bigotry. that's exactly what's happening. they are lemmings. they don't think; they follow the party line - no matter what it is that is shoved down their throats.

and i'm serious about bigotry being one of the elements behind what's happening. i strongly believe at the core and heart of it all is white racism because of Obama's background and this is the way they can avoid the word racism!

they want to work on everyone's fear but it's their own unfounded fears that fuel their low-stoked fires and the leadership of the minority party and its spook-miesters know that full well.

they repeatedly talk about Obama putting socialism into place when, if you look at the majority of the protesters you might notice they are probably over 65. they are part of the largest socialistic program not only in the U.S. but in the world - Medicare

i would love to see a Republican lawmaker in the House or Senate bring a bill to the floor to do away with Medicare because it is a socialist program. something tells me that there would no longer be a Republican Party in existence.

talk about obfuscation...



Maxx thought i said pee party!
might as well have...


*i first wrote King Rush for Limbaugh but it dawned on me when i typed it that what he is after is replacing Tsar George. if there hadn't been a term limit on the presidency, ole Rush could have been in the planning stage of a Kremlinesque coup. think about it...

a great solution...

Patriotic Retirement - This Would Work:

This was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr.President,

Patriotic retirement:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force;
pay them $1 million a piece severance with stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage- Housing Crisis fixed.

All this and it's still cheaper than the "bailout".

This is for real. You can find information here and here

this sounds too simple. Well, maybe simple is what is needed. All of the experts, like Krugman, have their talking points that I bet are there just so they don't lose their jobs. However, they really haven't been doing their jobs, have they?

monday morning mayhem...

Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.


Remember, we have the best government money can buy.

Paul Krugman's take on the obfuscated "stimulus bill"...

in very brief words -

The real question now is whether Obama will be able to come back for more once it’s clear that the plan is way inadequate. My guess is no. This is really, really bad. [emphasis added]

we will be living with the Tsar's mess for many, many years to come...


from the New York Times, February 7, 2009 - What the centrists have wrought. The entire article is very short - six paragraphs. You should read the entire thing.

i know where the $350 billion went...

most of the people that Mr. Paulson has running the bailout are from Goldman Sachs. it's obvious that this is their accounting system.

all explained now...

The bailout, a different perspective...

Back in 1990, the US Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed.

Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze?


maybe the automakers are better off with the Senate failure?

just asking...

automaker "bailout" - my take...

i've been watching this as closely as everyone else, listening to the cries of poor us from the CEO's and hearing the tales of woe on how bad it would be for the economy, and i've decided, in my opinion, it would be best to not give them what they want.

the government has given so much funny money away to the banks, mortgage countries, etc and they can't even tell where it's gone. we're supposed to technically own their assets because it's collateral. i don't think we own anything but pieces of paper.

one of the things that is built into our government is bankruptcy laws. they are there for a reason. they allow companies to take a specific task of reforming themselves into new, more streamlined entities or closing down because it's impossible to make them profitable.

the big three automakers are saying that a bankruptcy scenario would be disastrous. why? disastrous for whom? the economy? how much worse could it get?

the reason i believe they are not interested in going the bankruptcy route is very simple. bankruptcy laws demand court supervision while the restructuring is happening.

we already are aware of some of the waste these companies have incurred. what else would pop-up if the courts were to get involved using outside agents that would scrutinize every aspect of the companies?

the Big Three CEO's are promising to reinvent, revise and restructure a model they say is no longer working. can they actually do that? personally, i don't think so.

well, actually they can, but they have too many expenses put on them that foreign companies do not. number 1 - health insurance. all foreign car makes do not have this as an expense because their companies are in countries with universal healthcare. subsidized by the government? of course, but what is so wrong with that?

exactly what are we getting for the taxes we now pay? i mean directly get?

roads and schools are falling apart. bridges are collapsing. sewer and water conveyance systems are inadequate and too old. energy sources are quickly being used up. the air we breath is slowly killing us. i don't think i need to go on.

the purpose of man establishing a government or organizing a community is to support the overall progress and well-being of himself and the community. instead we are closing in on spending $600 billion in Iraq that in no way really has anything to do with making my quality of life any better. nor yours.

priorities certainly have gone askew.

so, in my opinion, it would be best to let the automakers file bankruptcy, go through court supervised restructuring, and either come out of it better or go the way of the 1948 Tucker Torpedo or the Ford Edsel.

their are too many car models as it is...

weekender...

Back in the 1929 financial crash, it was said that some Wall Street stockbrokers and bankers JUMPED from their office windows and committed suicide when confronted with the news of their firms and clients financial ruin. Many people were said to almost feel a little sorry for them . . .



In 2008 the attitude has changed somewhat with the crooks who have put our economy in such turmoil:





might be the only way out of this mess... start from scratch.


might create some new street maintenance jobs too...

best explanation of our economic problems...

Once upon a time, in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the mortgage crisis, credit problem and the stock market work.

any questions? no? i think that pretty much sums it all up...

economic definitions revisited...

Due to today's rapidly changing stock market and the financial conditions in industry, the following terms have had to be revised for investors in order to more clearly reflect today's economic market place:


CEO -- Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO -- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW -- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS 2000 -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- A past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- an archaic word no longer in use.



what can i say? it's the truth thanks to the Tzar.

now tell me, in hindsight, wasn't a sex scandal better? at the least it was more entertaining and scintillating...

socialism...

She [Sarah Palin] quickly went after opponent Barack Obama, saying his economic plan would raise taxes and equating it with socialism.

Gov. Palin holds rally in Noblesville, MSNBC, Fri., Oct. 17, 2008

socialism |ˈsō sh əˌlizəm|
noun
1. a political theory advocating state ownership of industry

Regulators give banks until mid-November to apply for stock sale to Treasury

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - US banks will have until the middle of next month to apply for the right to participate in the Treasury Department's new capital purchase program, under which banks will sell billions of dollars worth of preferred stock to Treasury in return for much-needed liquidity, according to guidelines released today by key financial regulators.

Forbes.com, 10.20.08, 1:03 PM ET

Mr. McCain did vote for the rescue, didn't he?

This is state ownership, isn't it?

so, what is the difference? i'm confused.


I've traveled in some so-called socialist countries - Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy.... There is one thing that I can personally comment that I observed: I don't remember potholes in their roads; I have never read about bridges collapsing during rush hour; I visited schools that were not falling down and met life safety codes; and I remember that no one was ever turned away from getting care if they were ill.

These socialist countries also have free enterprise and capitalistic working alongside it. See, they have a view of government that they learned from a revolution and a civil war. It's called government by the people, for the people and these countries believe that government is supposed to make the people's lives better and is to work for them.

I wonder where they got that idea?

just asking...

Frod + GM + Chrysler...

there are reasons they are all in trouble and they may be in talks for merging with one or the other or the other...

i don't think Henry Ford himself could have foreseen these problems.


Here is something you car buffs probably didn't know.

The 3 Goldberg brothers, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. Didn't know that, did ya...

On July 17th, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97. The 3 brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that three gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter.

Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car.

They persuaded him to get into the car which was about 130 - turned on the air-conditioner and cooled the car off immediately.

The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them 3 million dollars for the patent.

The brothers refused, saying they would settle for 2 million but they wanted the recognition by having a label 'The Goldberg Air-Conditioner' on the dashboard of each car that it was installed in.

Now old man Ford was more than just a little bit Anti-Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldbergs' name on 2 million Ford cars.

They haggled back and forth for about 2 hours and finally agreed on 4 million dollars and that just their first names would be shown.

And so, even today, all Ford air-conditioners show on the controls the names 'Norm, Hi, & Max'.

There, now ya know it.... See, you're never too old to learn. So keep cool!!!


i don't know about the truth of this story, but ingenuity is something U.S. automakers have been missing for years.

turnabout = fairplay?

after decades of the U.S. bailing out the rest of the world, wouldn't it be fair that the rest of the world come together and help out in this financial crisis? sort of like a Marshall Plan in reverse?

i'm just asking...

a bite of the Apple...

away from campaign insanity...

The Inquistr is reporting today, well, read their headline: EXCLUSIVE: Apple to launch $800 laptop

Bad news for Microsoft? Additional market share for Apple? The move on which Mr. Jobs has been working? Lots of questions.

What I know, since I have had AAPL stock for many, many years, is that while the market is down 324.50, AAPL is up 4.45.

From the story:

According to the source, Apple retail stores have been given price sheets that list 12 price points for the new range, with prices between $800-$3100. Current lines only have 8 price points, 3 Macbooks starting at $1099, 3 Macbook Pros and 2 Macbook Airs. According to the source, retail outlets usually get the price lists 10 days before products hit the market. Technical specs for the new laptops were not included on the price sheet.

now... if they could just do something about the ******* problems with Safari, i'd be happy...

- 678.91...

The stock widget on my Mac won't even work, it's so bad.

This is the third large drop this week.

Dan Harris on ABC World News just reported on the reason behind it: the large drops have been at the end of the day because mutual funds are selling big in order to pay off the people who are pulling out their money in droves from the funds.

I have three mutual funds. One has gone from a 52-week high of 143.93 to today's 83.84; the second has dropped from 43.43 to 22.20; and the third has gone from 21.70 to 12.40.

Oh, I forgot my IRA. it went from a 52-week high of 32.03 to today's 52-week low of 17.07. [I have to say, right from the beginning I didn't like the idea of opening a Roth IRA.]

I am going to ride it out. Actually, analyst's are saying that if you have some extra cash (right now, that may be an oxymoron) it's a great time to buy because everything is a bargain. The question is, "What can we trust to buy?"

one good thing i noticed when i drove by the gas station today is that premium was down to $3.79 a gallon. i thought about stopping and taking a picture with the iPhone to prove it. gas below $4! what a concept...

McCain's mortgage shopping spree...

So, I've been looking around most of the day to get a definitive explanation of the new mortgage plan that Mr. McCain touted last night. [He says he said it first, but it is part of the Tsar's just passed rescue, and Obama talked about it a couple of weeks ago as well as others - both Republicans and Democrats.]

When you go to the Mcpain website it's like walking one of the old British maze gardens to find something other than give us money in it. The Washington Post, the New York Times, and many other media members had stories. They were all fairly accurate but not that easy to understand.

I finally found something over at MSNBC.com that is not just fairly accurate buy also uses one of McCain's main economic advisers as a source.

Under McCain's plan, the government would spend $300 billion to purchase distressed loans and provide new, fixed-rate mortgages. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the Arizona senator's economic adviser, said the plan would help stabilize the plunging values of mortgage-backed securities that are at the heart of the crisis in the financial markets.

To do so, the government would pay the full face-value of the distressed mortgages, Holtz-Eakin said.

Under that scenario, the government could buy a $200,000 subprime mortgage on a home now worth just $100,000, give the homeowner a 30-year, $90,000 loan with a 5 percent interest rate, and essentially eat the $110,000 difference

Experts skeptical about McCain mortgage plan, MSNBC.com

Ok, do you understand what he is saying?

McCain wants to buy the mortgages for the amount that the bank or lending agency holds it, determine the new value of the house, and give the homeowner a new loan at the new home value.

ummmm... there's a little problem here. Who is really, really reaping the reward?

yep... the bank or lending agency. They made the big mistake of financing properties that they actually knew were inflated but wanted to get rich by playing all kinds of games and reselling and refinancing with each other. Mr. McCain wants them to get all of their money, thereby enriching the bosses even more.

What I think would be fair is to first determine the actual current value of a property and then tell the bank, "This is how much we are going to give you: the actual worth of the house. We are not going to be responsible for your bad investments. Take it or leave it. Eat your losses and pay the consequences with your investors."

Why should you and I pay for the mistakes? Where is Mr. McCain planning on getting the money? Should we just start using Chinese yaun (¥)? Won't he have to raise taxes to pay for it?

there are just too many questions, and i'm just asking...


UPDATE - 10/9/08: Jared Bernstein and Gene Sperling over at Huffington posted this today - Ouch! McCain's Housing Solution Is a Gift from Taxpayers to Banks.

the money quote [pun intended]

That's right folks...it's private profits and social losses. Instead of an effort to safeguard taxpayers as Senator Obama has called for and the Frank-Dodd bill goes to great lengths to do, this plan takes from taxpayers to provide unjustifiable subsidies to financial institutions - even those who engaged in deceptive or outright fraudulent practices to induce people into homes they could not afford.

helloooooooooo...

new dollar bill released...

in light of the economic woes facing the U.S., the Department of the Treasury released a newly redesigned dollar bill today...







poor George...