patrick.net

Call it Crazy says

bob2356 says

What's to miss. If gm didn't make good cars people wanted they would be long gone.

Did you forget about the bankruptcy??? They would have been long gone if they weren't bailed out by a certain entity....

The bankruptcy had nothing to do with the cars, it was about letting their pension costs get out of control. You know that so why bother to put this bs up.

rooemoore says

They are different like Miller Lite and Coors Lite are different.

Not when the rubber meets the road. E.g. I can think of maybe one Scalia opinion I agree with, the 'off the wall' surveillance case, Kyllo.

Conservatives would like the populace to think this though, to suppress turnout and keep the system tilting to the right as it has been since the 1980s 1970s.

I'm resigned to the fact that actual leftism is a dead letter right now. To find an actual leftist government I'll have to learn French, though arguably even with their present center-right governments the nordic states (+ Germany + Canada and Australia) are much more left-ish than what the US of A can realistically transform into in what's left of my lifetime.

The difference between the parties is subtle, though. The GOP is the architect of so much disastrous policy -- NAFTA, Graham (R) – Leach (R) – Bliley (R), the Afghanistan & Iraq wars, deregulation & disenforcement of housing / mortgage industries 2002-2006 -- but the Dems did not cover themselves in glory in trying to block all of this. Just floated along on this path of destruction, mostly. Hell, when put into power in 2009-2010, thanks to the required conservatism of red-state (D) Senators (and the two (R) princesses of Maine), all the Dems could do was enact the GOP's own healthcare reform plan of 15 years prior.

The problem isn't one of parties, it is one of ideologies. Conservatism destroyed this country, and neoliberalism is just half-measures.

To really fix things here is going to be a bridge too far. Crab bucket mentality will take over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

if & when things get really stressful again.

I'd have Hillary plant a massive fudgie on his face.

komputodo says

I can't imagine any of them wasting a moment of their time worrying about the regular folk.

Well, they do have to get elected, which is why BB is right.

Also, if the people felt strongly enough about lowering what politicians spend getting elected, it might even be possible to change that. If getting elected cost less, then more of politicians energy would be spent doing what's best, and less would be focused on pleasing the owners (who financew their campaigns).

komputodo says

I can't imagine any of them wasting a moment of their time worrying about the regular folk.

I don't think they're that venal, but I do know that if looking out for the little guy imperils their reelection, it ain't going to happen.

And that's what small government conservatism is all about, screwing over the little guy by letting Big Money run free, like how it was prior to the Progressive Era's reforms.

GOP is totally hopeless, now, yes. You can't point to anything from them helping regular folk, other than their holding the line on legalization of people who've immigrated here illegally.

The Comcast / Time Warner merger is an excellent test case of this "regular guy" jazz.

Al Franken (D) and Bernie Sanders (I in coalition with D) are my type of representatives, and they're of course against the merger.

Obama, being more neoliberal than liberal at times, dunno about him or his appointees that are going to produce the regulation.

Of course, laissez-faire conservatism calls for the complete removal of all government intrusion and oversight into commerce.

The Market Provides, Amen.

Still, the politician needs to get elected, which is why it's true that the only hope is the with the people and not the politicians. The people can still (barely) impact who the politicians are that we get.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

What's a fudgie. Is that like a Hot Lunch?

I think its something like a wedgie shart. Unfortunately, makes things too slippery for a proper twerk decapitation.

Greenspan made credit too easy in the 90's. Investors used it to invest in Tech Stocks, which crashed on Clinton's watch. The money began to find a new home with real estate just as Bush 2 was taking office. He did nothing to halt the Fed's expansion of credit, because he was as much of a Keynesian as Clinton had been (and Bush and Reagan before him). Obama has likewise done nothing to stem the tide.

Many tell themselves that that the Republicans screwed-up the economy and created a massive wealth deflation which is just like good solid investments simply disappearing. To them, the Fed is only reprinting that lost wealth in order to keep the unfairly penalized from losing due to conservative incompetence - except that Obama is somehow helpless to prevent the wealth from flowing unfairly to the top 1 percent.

It's the Keynesian, fractional reserve, derivative driven fiat madness that gives the most leverage to the top 1 percent - and we have BOTH parties to thank for that. Died in the wool, hardcore socialists leaning as far left as they possibly could, would be just as fond of the social engineering made possible by fractional reserve banking. The political differences between the parties are meaningful, but not weight-bearing. The real crime is being committed by the Fed and the Central Banks.

As long as a fiat believer is elected, nothing will change - and they've all been fiat-believers...save one.

How many more tragedies like this have to happen before Realtors are banned?

Looking up at that massive mountain of flab, he'd die from fright before experiencing any chocolate mess.

Didn't the same thing just happen in France?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/european-elections-2014-marine-le-pens-national-front-victoryin-france-is-based-onanguish-rage-and-denial-9436394.html

For the first time in French history a party of the far right, Marine le Pen’s FN, topped the poll in a nationwide election, with 25 per cent of the vote. Ms Le Pen will send 24 MEPs to Strasbourg – she will also go herself – an eight-fold gain on the last parliament.

President Hollande’s Socialists registered scarcely 14 per cent, their worst score in a nationwide election since the party was founded in the 1970s. The “main” opposition party, the UMP – heir to the Gaullists – scored only 20 per cent.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

How Would YOU Assassinate Kim Jung-Un?

Well that's easy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

He'd never expect THAT!

His hobby is playing video games. How about if we create some elaborate set based on his favorite game with real guns, then insert him inside the "game." Only give him guns that shoot foam darts, just for fun.

Re: the CSI Biebs dying video - I'm impressed at how many shots it took for him to die. He's much tougher than I thought

elliemae says

Re: the CSI Biebs dying video - I'm impressed at how many shots it took for him to die. He's much tougher than I thought

And yet now one single cop relieved himself on the steaming corpse.

Well that's TV for you.

If realtors had all been rounded up years ago, that woman would be uninjured today, and thousands of children would not have been abducted.

There seems to be a lot of, 1st....after post editing, huh user that uses the face of a communist come to power thanks to a Jewish Bolshevik revolution....that also brought communism into the world, and 2nd, a lot of personality clashes by folks using questionable "facts" on both sides...........
.........While ignoring the facts that Homeland Security, and other governmental agencies ranging all the way to Social Security folks buying hundreds of thousands of rounds of hollow point ammo, the most expensive ammo one can buy....and one that any avid shooter avoids when going to the range to target practice. They are meant to do the most damage to a human and rarely are used on game, if ever.

Regardless of Bundy, a normal American has to ask themselves why our Federal agencies need so many hundred thousand rounds (each agency, not all together as that's in the millions). I haven't heard about any mass invasion of Federal agency's office buildings.....nor of any being murdered or assassinated. That leaves offense as the though, specially with Social Security Administration....or do they fear wheel chair bound elders because of not keeping the cost of living increases up with Bernanke's bringing of 1920s & 30s Germany style hyperinflation to America today (& that won't be undone by a female member of that tribe taking his place).

Couple that with the placing of drones in our American skies and one has a chilling thought. The original rationale was government works for the people. Thus, we are the masters, they are the servants. (Surely the masters have more rights to own arms, weapons, guns....whatever the skillful use of arbitrary words can conjur up......than do their servants.) Same with intelligence files. I can't imagine the idea of letting it be known that we know about some "terrorist" (one should look up who coined that term, called themselves that, and was proud to announce their attacks against English speaking Christian) making it more difficult to STOP that terrorist. Seems to me, it would be just the opposite. It would have a chilling effect on someone wanting to commit a crime if their intentions were known ahead of time. But then some Federal policeman wouldn't get his name and face in the news to justify his taxpayer paid for paycheck.....and more tax dollars for his agency.

And to say Americans don't deserve or aren't qualified to own arms, weapons, guns, etc., is to completely ignore the source of police and soldiers. They are "We the people". Once again, such thinking as today's media and media educated folks (that think others are like them....so no one should own guns...when it is simply them that shouldn't own guns).....would have designated George Washington (the "Father" of our Country) as America's 1st "homegrown terrorist", also a "White Supremacist", who "had a fascination for assault weapons", and "associated with citizen militia groups". In all actuality, a "terrorist" is someone coming to your home land, not his. On his own soil, he is a Patriot.

It defies logic for Wall Street's corporate media....and those Americans indoctrinated by that media sans good logic.....to claim we shouldn't own firearms. That clause was included in the Constitution to prohibit government from becoming so over bearing and intruding into our lives as it once was......and is coming close to being so again. When "Inalienable" is claimed to be subject to qualification because of the "Commerce Clause" and those "Inalienable" rights aren't as permanent as our Founding Fathers intended.......it is the duty of "We the people", the original "militia" to reign in that out of control (currently Wall Street owned) government. "Arms" meant the "assault weapons" of the day.....Muskets, I believe, as the English army was equipped with them. "well regulated" meant their owners were to bring plenty of shot & powder with them when they came as there was no standing army at the time. To ignore the circumstances of the time that clause was written......is a folly of logic, or lack there of, such as that of today's Wall Street corporate media.

And to ignore the tribal membership of the latest of the "mass shooters".........L.A., Sandy Hook, Tuscon, Columbine......is also a folly and lack of logic. It would seem it's not a gun problem as much as it is a "dual citizenship" problem.....bringing us back to (and search this term) today's corporate "Who owns American media", a tribe that also inhabits those "failed" banks on Wall Street.......that sold worthless derivatives to America's pension funds KNOWING THEY WERE WORTHLESS ALL ALONG.

And with that......maybe we also have the answer why their media, and media educated or owned minions without an individual thought process........want to disarm those very Americans whose pensions are not only underfunded, but thanks to stock market connivances, are a full ten years behind ......maybe without considering the dollar amount of worthless derivatives they hold waiting to mature.

So when the police think it safe enough to give up their "arms", guns..........I'll most likely still have mine.....but won't even entertain the thought until I see the police think it safe enough to give up theirs. I......."We the people".......are their masters. The servants have less rights than the master......by any Human logic. (Maybe we're not all human.)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/27/consumer-confidence-may/9609529/

E'rybodys getting comfortable and entering the more bullish camp. I'm happy that I went all in stocks a year ago so none of the dips scare me off. Let's turn this bitch parabolic!

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

If you're not beating Greenspan to death with Geithner's disembodied arms, you're part of the problem.

I contend that the interview would have been more revealing if Stewart would have broken Geithner's nose at the start.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

Sure, but he'd have to wait for him to air his cruelly mendacious, auto-hagiographic thesis first, in the interest of fairness.

That was the problem in the first place to do so was obsequious.

socal2 says

You really think Bush "lied" about WMD's? For what? To steal oil? Avenge his daddy? Just to kill A-Rabs? Really? If you believe he was that coniving and evil to start wars on lies, how hard would it be to import a few barrells of anthrax or yellow-cake into the country to prove out his "lies" and save him all of the drama?

Yes he did lie about it. I don't know what his motivation was, nor I care what it was. At the end he spent all the money on a pointless war running our nation bankrupt.

I remember there was an old declassified CIA report. Where it stated that one way to get America into a war with "USSR" was to fly a plane into a civilian building and blame Russians for it. This was on the history channel.

Now I don't know how much of this ever came to reality, but there sure is a lot of common between that and 9/11.

Must have pretensions of athleticism, most Realtors beat their wives with "For Sale" posts they keep in the garage.

How about before TARP when Geithner (Obama's mother worked for Geithner's father while the latter was an investment bankster in China for the Warburg part of the tribe) was head of the New York Fed at the time Maurice Greenberg of AIG was introducing worthless derivatives that even Goldman-Sachs avoided.....until they saw how gullible pension fund managers were, then they jumped in even bigger.

As head of the New York Fed, Geithner was head cop over those Wall Street banks. The only thing there is record of him doing is sending a message, email I believe (and if you ask me for a cite, I'll tell you to employ a 3rd grader to help you use a search engine....and sorry about your handicap)......telling Greenberg "to be careful". What is on record is that he was well aware of what was going on in those banks run by tribal kin of his.....and his total failure to act in the interest of America or Americans.

The man that actually invented those mostly worthless instruments (they were based on left over subprime mortgages.......with emphasis on "left over") himself told Greenberg they needed strict over sight because of that limitation or handicap of being based on something next to worthless. Greenberg promptly fired him.

Geithner, who like Greenberg and most of the players in TARP and the various other scams are tribal members, "dual citizenship" holders.....with questionable loyalty to America and Americans. When he came to office with Obama (they owned Obama since before he hit the ground), he not only gave those "failed" banks our tax dollars for that TARP bailout, he then personally rewarded those criminal CEO kin of his for doing such a good job of bankrupting our economy. (Actually, it was to keep them quiet...as if they left with nothing, there was the chance they would spill the beans about the totality of involvement in the scheme....so he handsomely bribed them into being quiet.)

Thankfully, I didn't see any such interview as I refuse to watch the talking heads (mostly tribal) telling me what to think. If one is just now becoming aware of such as this.......it's another testament to the failure of public education......and, also, another good reason to throw out that television set...and get a life. It's not hard to over come the handicap of a public education if one has a minimum intellect and tries. Personally, Geithner's crimes against the American people is old news.....as is the idea, if I recall, his wife's maiden name was Sonnenberg.

Now, if you really want to see a tribal criminal.....who once out of the Oval Office sold city parking meter income (with a guaranteed revenue stream) to his kin at Morgan Stanley......check out Rahm (I served in a foreign military, but never the American military) Emanuel (and maybe his doctor brother, too, just for kicks). Then you've made a good start at undoing the damage listening to all those talking heads has done to one's intellect and base(less) of knowledge.

QE 1, 2, & 3...with a continued printing of 85 billion a month until his departure (Bernanke.....Lithuanian, if I recall)....is that "war".........against or on the American people and our American economy. Ad TARP, derivatives, and the real estate bubble-bust con job (along with using American's own 401Ks to ship our jobs and industry to China for Wall Street's corporate/tribal profits)......and it's a war that's even older that our war in Afghanistan (it was the Taliban that few those jets, wasn't it....and why we wage war against them and not Al Qaeda ???).

Add that and Wolfie's and Perle's war in Iraq to the count.......and we've been under siege as long as a generation or two have been alive, if not more.

Care to go back to the early 60s and listen to John Kennedy's speech about a conspiracy against America........right before his death.....in which he announced taking over printing of American dollars backed by real value and eventually taking total control away from that (criminal) Federal Reserve ??? Interesting speech........is one is truly American.......and not "dual citizenship".

Failure to know how to use a search engine generally is an admission to inclusion in certain groups and/or one's inability to over come the suffering of a public education. Online, though, the suspicion is toward inclusion of a certain religious extremist group.........that group being the one that originally invented stoning folks to death for various social crimes at the time. They also do severe damage to Darwin's "Theory of Evolution".... in that they haven't evolved in centuries.

AverageBear says

Hey Bob (aka Cap'n Project-O)... Tell me again, why you think it's OK for Harry Reid and his son to sell American land, or give American land, or allow use of Federal American land to a Chinese firm? Wasn't this land earmarked as 'protected land', to be preserved, or at least put aside for future use for..... Americans?

Not the first time either. I remember Harry Reid being scrutinized on "60 Minutes" over another shady land deal in Nevada he pulled off.

All these Congressmen are crooks who can not be trusted. They'll sell our land, our children, and everything we have to the Chinese if it makes them money.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/04/16/why-is-us-senator-harry-reid-so-concerned-with-local-nevada-rancher/

Harry Reid almost had a Ruby Ridge reenactment there. Surprisingly the man is still in the office, and not rotting in jail like he should.

"There are almost 100 million working-age Americans no longer working. More Americans are today on entitlements than working in the private sector. More Americans are on food stamps than the number of women working in America. Iran is building a nuclear bomb. Russian jet fighters are threatening American ships. Yet Harry Reid obsesses about a rancher late on his rent? Something smells fishy folks."

indigenous says

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

If you're not beating Greenspan to death with Geithner's disembodied arms, you're part of the problem.

I contend that the interview would have been more revealing if Stewart would have broken Geithner's nose at the start.

I think he should have pulled that raccoon off of Geithner's head. The guy is bald as a cue ball. Go natural, Timmy, and grow a beard, too.

I don't have to invent anything...85 Billion dollars per month of which up to half was used to buy worthless securities. Not mortgage-backed securities that might someday be worth something if only the Fed held onto them long enough, but time sensitive, over leveraged, short-term paper that became nothing more than lost bets on tired horses. That's not mind-control, that's insanity.

That money has allowed the banks to continue mortgage origination. Without the billions buying up the magic financial instruments based on 50-to-1 leveraged real estate, the crash would have been mind-crushing.

You're asking us to believe there will be no interest paid on that debt. No cost at all. That the ever rising prices of real estate (accompanied by forever low inflation, I might add), will always make yesterday's debt negligible.

From 44 to 71, Bretton Woods pegged the dollar to an exact weight of gold. You must believe that like an anti alchemist, with the stroke of a pen, Tricky Dick turned gold into nothing but a 5000 year old tradition.

Today's economists are wondering where the Fed's trillions have gone if the banks aren't lending it back out. That it's all safe in the vaults for a rainy year. Actually most went to pay for WORTHLESS mortgage-backed securities and the incestuous derivative families that fell with them.

You might conclude then, "So what, then? If it all went into a hole in the ground, then it won't be causing inflation, and your fears of Weimar Republic of San Fran is meaningless!"

The problem is that that the real estate market is not based on fundamentals. Only the distribution of current debt in the market is based on those factors. Price fixing however has guaranteed that this time, the burden of risk has moved more and more to investors laying all cash on the line. The Fed cannot and will not bail out cash only buyers. You're not the type of high roller who had their tab covered by QE over the passed 7 years. If the market were to see a 20 to 25% correction in the next few years, those cash only guys will have nothing but a smile waiting for them at the Fed.

If prices continued rising but slower than the price of beef, shrimp, corn, and dairy to the tune of the same 20-25%, they are still screwed.

Oh, and only the democrats will have pitchforks, everyone else will have ammunition.

indigenous says

Lehman went BK, which implies that any bond holders would have been near the front of the line for assets.

"Lehman went BK, which implies that any bond holders would have been near the front of the line for assets."

Doesn't look like a question to me.

indigenous says

theoakman says

bondholders had to be paid 100 cents on the dollar instead of lets say....95 cents on the dollar.

Which ones? certainly not the GM bondholders.

INVITATION to predict Tuesday's Real Homes!

RESULT shown here

http://www.showrealhist.com/RHtable.html

bgamall4 says

millennials want to live with their parents

I am not sure about that. It's either 1) - they can't afford to move out or 2) - they lack the "incentive" since they will spend most of their meager wages on rent and will lose imputed savings in terms of housekeeper, chauffer, chefs, etc..

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

Is there any such thing as a REALTOR that's not a wife beater?

Wow: that's some massive bigotry.

Some realtors are single.

I think that's the point, any wife will do, especially if they bitch and diddle at the closing.

Ceffer says

I think that's the point, any wife will do, especially if they bitch and diddle at the closing.

That's true: you can beat someone else's wife in a pinch.

Per Jimmy Carr: "Beating your wife... I mean, it's your wife - it's like keying your own car!"

The Soviet Government had all power with regards to weaponry and military might. No regional or local government (or group of individuals for that matter) had enough firepower to reasonably overthrow the government. However, the "Soviet" military fractured in a remarkably short period of time. What was the day before, the overwhelming might of a single entity, became the increased capability of regional powers. Because of money rather than firepower.

Thinking they are clever, I would not be surprised if, in the event of a widespread uprising, the Federal Government deployed national guard and coast guard units out of their own states in the "public interest". Hoping to prevent defection of troops in the defense of their own home geography. In that event, civilians who were once anti-2nd, would find themselves grateful of the amendment remaining in force.

dublin hillz says

bgamall4 says

millennials want to live with their parents

I am not sure about that. It's either 1) - they can't afford to move out or 2) - they lack the "incentive" since they will spend most of their meager wages on rent and will lose imputed savings in terms of housekeeper, chauffer, chefs, etc..

They got to make those bloated student loan payments somehow!

If I'm elected to be the next President, I promise to round up all the Realtor's. But I'll also bring back the military draft. (how old are you Patrick?)

"It's just a flesh wound!"