patrick.net

You could short car rental companies. Very often they are in competition with taxi. If there is pressure on taxi fares, there should be pressure on car rental prices.

Hertz - PE of 38 on 11.7B in sales. 12.83B market cap, 20B in car inventory (probably worth less), and 16B in debt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIwnAs4iwaE&feature=kp

Hitching a ride isnt like the most innovative thing made these days.

sbh says

Or you could short the whole of Europe because the strikes in anticipation of this will bring everything to a halt.

Alot of people in Europe dont take taxis, you will find many hitchhike.

Bellingham Bill says

The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed.

Like trickle down economics?

Bigsby says

It should be of grave international concern when such dictators attempt to develop and/or use WMD. All political and economic sanctions available should be brought to bear with the potential for very limited military action under extraordinary circumstances. Mass ground invasions should not be considered.' Yes, yes, that sounds more like it, most especially because we bloody know that the consequences of the invasion were disastrous.

Your above description is what is called cowardly. Look up the definition.... a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.

"should not" be considered according to who ... Some pacifist no doubt.

Clearly we had courage to go after Germany even though they did not attack us. That war too was eventual to happen involving the USA.. be it Roosevelt, Truman, or whoever.

bgamall4 says

Reality says

The advantage of capitalistic free market place is that individuals can express his/her own desires via private money allocation.

Bullcrap. The cabal controls the money.

Central Bank is not a capitalistic free market institution. It is in fact a Marxist institution, as in Plank #5 in The Communist Manifesto of 1849, written by Karl Marx himself:

"5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."

In the Great Depression, there was no money at the consumer level. You had massive deflation and a credit crisis. That is why FDR had to step in.

No he did not have to step in. Nor did Hoover before him. The market would have found clearing prices just like it had done during the 1921-22 depression. Hoover and FDR's interventionist policies turned a depression into The Great Depression. Ironically, FDR had run on a platform of undoing Hoover's interventionist policies. He did the exact opposite after being elected.

Now the money is looser, but the wealthy control all the markets and prices of those commodities, houses, etc.

Why should that be a surprise? The central bank is designed to hand money out to the extremely wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

So, Obama could be a great man and step in like FDR, but he is a New World Order pussy.

Obama did not have his own power base like FDR with governorship previously. In any case, even FDR turned into a supercharged Hoover, just like Obama turned into a Bush on steroids.

You guys know why Hoover lost? Because his treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon, believed in percolation, ie TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS.

Andrew Mellon served as Treasury Secretary for nearly 11 years whereas Hoover was only President for 4years. Before Hoover even took office, Andrew Mellon already served as Treasury Secretary under Harding and Coolidge, with extremely successful economic policies, including the rapid recovery after the 1921-22 depression. Too bad Hoover did not take Mellon's advice to let the market clear, like it did during the sharp but short depression of 1921-22.

He was a bankster/libertarian. There are a lot of those.

At least he was not a bankster/Communist.

thomaswong.1986 says

"should not" be considered according to who ... Some pacifist no doubt.

Try international law...

And Germany were allied with Japan you absolute plum. And you had the courage to go after Germany, did you? I didn't know you were that old. And as I recall, the British had already spent a few years fighting Germany before the US entered the war. But hey, let's not bother with history. And irrespective of all that, it's fucking laughable that you are trying to draw a parallel between WWII and Iraq.

komputodo says

Supersize the fuck out of them

KSA is way ahead of you . . .

komputodo says

I think we should build McDonald’s all over the Middle East (make them like BUFFETS, all you can eat)... Supersize the fuck out of them..Get them fat and lazy.... Also a 24/7 broadcast of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" to throw them off their game.

You've obviously never been to the Middle East...

Bellingham Bill says

komputodo says

Supersize the fuck out of them

KSA is way ahead of you . . .

I have wondered whether KFC would be a more effective army to send into a conflict than the PLO, SLA, ETA, FARC, PKK, IRA, UVF, TANG, or VC.

Bellingham Bill says

KSA is way ahead of you . . .

The inbreeding for the past 1400 years will eventually kill them...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/international/middleeast/01GENE.html

Across the Arab world today an average of 45 percent of married couples are related, according to Dr. Nadia Sakati, a pediatrician and senior consultant for the genetics research center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh.

Disturbing: Inbreeding is a huge problem in the Muslim world

Muslim culture still practices inbreeding and has been doing so for the better part of 1400 years. Consanguineous marriages were originally sanctioned by Islam’s prophet Muhammed, who had a very liberal view on men’s sexual relationships. In addition his many sex slaves, he married several cousins, the divorced wife of his own adopted son and the six year old Aisha, with whom he had sex with when she was nine.

A rough estimate shows that close to half of the world’s Muslims are inbred as a result of consanguineous marriages. In Pakistan, 70 percent of all marriages are between first cousins – children of siblings – and in Turkey the share is 25-30 percent.

Statistical research on Arabic countries indicates that up to 34 percent of all marriages in Algeria are blood-related as are 46 percent in Bahrain, 33 percent in Egypt, 80 percent in Nubia (the southern part of Egypt), 60 percent in Iraq, 64 percent in Jordan, 64 percent in Kuwait, 42 percent in Lebanon, 48 percent in Libya, 47 percent in Mauritania, 54 percent in Qatar, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 63 percent in Sudan, 40 percent in Syria, 39 percent in Tunisia, 54 percent in the United Arabic Emirates and 45 percent in Yemen. According to Dr. Nadia Sakati of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, 45 percent of married Arab couples are blood-related. . The fact that many of these couples are themselves children of blood-related parents increases the risk of negative consequences.

Bigsby says

You've obviously never been to the Middle East...

Kissing cousins... they are all mental cases...

Global Inbreeding

Researchers who study inbreeding track consanguineous marriages—those between second cousins or closer. In green countries, at least 20 percent and, in some cases, more than 50 percent of marriages fall into this category. Pink countries report 1 to 10 percent consanguinity; peach-colored countries, less than 1 percent. Data is unavailable for white countries.

Call it Crazy says

I agree...

*

and where would one find this mythical informed conservative?

I don't see any difference at all between the liberal arguments playbook and the conservative arguments playbook except the word bush instead of obama.

thomaswong.1986 says

Bigsby says

You've obviously never been to the Middle East...

Kissing cousins... they are all mental cases...

Global Inbreeding

Researchers who study inbreeding track consanguineous marriages—those between second cousins or closer. In green countries, at least 20 percent and, in some cases, more than 50 percent of marriages fall into this category. Pink countries report 1 to 10 percent consanguinity; peach-colored countries, less than 1 percent. Data is unavailable for white countries.

I take it you gave up on trying to defend your other bullshit and decided to go off on a tangent. And you're supposed to reference other people's comments, though of course I'm sure nobody would take that information as being in your own words.

Call it Crazy says

I'm sure the relatives of the dead innocent Iraqis say it's different to die from a cruise missile sent by Clinton versus a cruise missile sent by Bush and they would agree with you...

I'm sure they wouldn't, but then again there were more than a hundred thousand civilians killed under the latter President...

Bigsby says

I take it you gave up on trying to defend your other bullshit and decided to go off on a tangent.

What tangent, they are all mental cases. You cant reason with a rabies infected wild dogs. Since you have a vested interest to protect, they certainly do not include the interests of the West nations.

Bigsby says

I'm sure they wouldn't, but then again there were more than a hundred thousand civilians killed under the latter President...

Inflated numbers... based on some door to door survey and not body count.

Frankly if we killed 25-30K bad guys.. great news for the good guys.. all the better they were killed, no one needs some bloody Middle East killers walking the earth.

What's "Bush's fault" is this:

our collective debt-to-GDP ratio.

This is an artifact of his personal war-mongering 2001-2003, by now having costed us up n the trillions (!) -- this alone may in fact prove to be an expense that will eventually kill this nation as a going concern.

And also the 2001-2003 tax cuts that were an immense give-back to the top 5% who are already taking so much out of the paycheck economy though their successful rent-seeking and collective ownership of corporate america.

And also his administration standing aside as the real estate industry manufactured the mother of all housing bubbles, 2003-2007.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=DVd

annual consumer debt take-on to wages, how fast households were borrowing money.

His SCOTUS and other judicial appointments have generally directed the nation down the shithole, too, e.g. finding an individual right to self defense in the 2nd Amendment (!), throwing back campaign finance limitations.

The damage Bush and his crew did to the US is simply soul-killing, if conservatives were honest they'd be able to see this too.

As for the racism thing, to paraphrase JS Mill, it's not that all conservatives are racists, it's all racists are conservative; the conservative coalition is a collection of some pretty ugly parts of our polity; its got-mine fuck-you "fiscal-conservative" contingent is rather innocuous by comparison.

Bellingham Bill says

This is an artifact of his personal war-mongering 2001-2003

As if the attack on our nation in 2001 was all Bush fault....

Yes War costs money... how else do you put a bullet in the head of some

crazed inbreed middle east terrorist and the armies who protect them ...

Bellingham Bill says

As for the racism thing, to paraphrase JS Mill, it's not that all conservatives are racists, it's all racists are conservative; the conservative coalition

you of all people who lived in Japan should know what Racism truely is.

Would you like an introduction to Civil Rights Act of 1956 during Republican president.

And that would be the one Kennedy was against because " it was too soon".

thomaswong.1986 says

Bigsby says

I take it you gave up on trying to defend your other bullshit and decided to go off on a tangent.

What tangent, they are all mental cases. You cant reason with a rabies infected wild dogs. Since you have a vested interest to protect, they certainly do not include the interests of the West nations.

I have a vested interest to protect, do I? What might that be? Perhaps sanity in the face of the inane blatherings coming from ThomasUtterlyWrong.

thomaswong.1986 says

Bigsby says

I'm sure they wouldn't, but then again there were more than a hundred thousand civilians killed under the latter President...

Inflated numbers... based on some door to door survey and not body count.

Frankly if we killed 25-30K bad guys.. great news for the good guys.. all the better they were killed, no one needs some bloody Middle East killers walking the earth.

Really? Try googling it. You will find that is the conservative estimate. And we are talking innocent civilians here you complete and utter moron.

Call it Crazy says

I'm sure the relatives of the dead innocent Iraqis say it's different to die from a cruise missile sent by Clinton versus a cruise missile sent by Bush

The breadth of your "But [Obama|Clinton] do it too" arguments is impressive.

I look forward to Smaulgld chastising you for making this sort of argument, which he frowns upon - but something tells me that in your case he won't comment.

Bigsby says

Really? Try googling it. You will find that is the conservative estimate. And we are talking innocent civilians here you complete and utter moron.

Your number is inflated.. and how many Govt soldiers were killed by insurgents and how many insurgents were killed by US and Iraqi govt forces. How many Civilians will killed by insurance... you make it sound WE did all the killings of Civilians only. Only a pacifist would take that side.

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

The study surveyed 9,345 households across Iraq and was carried out in 2006 and 2007. It estimated 151,000 deaths due to violence (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006.

You can define what they mean by "Due to Violence"...

HuggyBumbers McLovkins says

The breadth of your "But [Obama|Clinton] do it too" arguments is impressive.

The Clinton-istas are good in denial. War with Iraq was inevitable. There is no other alternative reality you can fall back on.. frankly even many arguments that Iraq didnt participate in 911 is futile. Germany didnt attack Pearl Harbor, yet we all know now War with Germany was also inevitable at the time. At least the Americans back then were more realistic.

Hitler Cracks Up Reading A Letter From Roosevelt In Senate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1FFzh1aekk

thomaswong.1986 says

Your number is inflated.. and how many Govt soldiers were killed by insurgents and how many insurgents were killed by US and Iraqi govt forces. How many Civilians will killed by insurance... you make it sound WE did all the killings of Civilians only. Only a pacifist would take that side.

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

The study surveyed 9,345 households across Iraq and was carried out in 2006 and 2007. It estimated 151,000 deaths due to violence (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006.

You can define what they mean by "Due to Violence"...

You quote something that is higher than my figure and say mine is inflated. Exactly how stupid do you think that makes you look? You can go to multiple sources and quote them if you like. I'm also not quite sure what INSURANCE has to do with the death rate, but I guess you can tell us...

And what do you consider to be the non-inflated number seeing as you have such a concrete grasp of the facts on the ground?

And you seem to have your knickers in a bunch at the idea of someone being a pacifist (which I'm not). I mean really, the sheer horror of someone thinking that war is not justifiable. Imagine if everyone on the planet thought the same way.

Bigsby says

You quote something that is higher than my figure and say mine is inflated. Exactly how stupid do you think that makes you look? You can go to multiple sources and quote them if you like.

out of 9345 households sampled surveyed... extrapolated to the population..

I take it you have a body count figure ?

thomaswong.1986 says

Bigsby says

You quote something that is higher than my figure and say mine is inflated. Exactly how stupid do you think that makes you look? You can go to multiple sources and quote them if you like.

out of 9345 households sampled surveyed... extrapolated to the population..

I take it you have a body count figure ?

I take it you don't. What figures does 'Iraq Body Count' come up with? The figures here are not from your knocking on doors survey:

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

Bigsby says

I take it you don't. What figures does 'Iraq Body Count' come up with? The figures here are not from your knocking on doors survey:

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

"Documented civilian deaths from violence" might as well be a robbery, a family blood feud or rape/murder with nothing related to the war.... all from a population pre-2002 of 27.5M. In Other nations its alot worst.

http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/violence/by-country/

Perhaps you should read the incidents on the same page...

12-15 by car bomb or suicide bomber in cafe in Balad

Police colonel by bomb near or attached to car in Yusufiyah

Body of man found bound and blindfolded in south Kirkuk

Bigsby says

I mean really, the sheer horror of someone thinking that war is not justifiable. Imagine if everyone on the planet thought the same way.

Silly Silly Person... of course WAR IS JUSTIFIABLE...

And yes your a pacifist for making that statement...

Your not fit to make a call on such matters...

thomaswong.1986 says

Muslim culture still practices inbreeding and has been doing so for the better part of 1400 years. Consanguineous marriages were originally sanctioned by Islam’s prophet Muhammed, who had a very liberal view on men’s sexual relationships. In addition his many sex slaves, he married several cousins, the divorced wife of his own adopted son and the six year old Aisha, with whom he had sex with when she was nine.

Man you've really got a thing for incest don't you. I'm not surprised.

thomaswong.1986 says

"Documented civilian deaths from violence" might as well be a robbery, a family blood feud or rape/murder with nothing related to the war.... all from a population pre-2002 of 27.5M. In Other nations its alot worst.

http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/violence/by-country/

Perhaps you should read the incidents on the same page...

12-15 by car bomb or suicide bomber in cafe in Balad

Police colonel by bomb near or attached to car in Yusufiyah

Body of man found bound and blindfolded in south Kirkuk

Yeah, your three examples are just your average street crimes you see reported all the time in your local rag. Nothing to do with the consequences of the invasion at all. Following your 'reasoning', I presume, for example, the massive spike in birth defects and cancer in Fallujah are just down to a poor diet rather than depleted uranium.

Again, if you think my 100 thousand figure is wildly inflated, how many do you think were killed because of the invasion and based on what evidence?

Vicente says

Man you've really got a thing for incest don't you. I'm not surprised.

Vice is nice but incest is best. Think Thomaswrong's family tree has any branches at all?

thomaswong.1986 says

Bigsby says

I mean really, the sheer horror of someone thinking that war is not justifiable. Imagine if everyone on the planet thought the same way.

Silly Silly Person... of course WAR IS JUSTIFIABLE...

And yes your a pacifist for making that statement...

Your not fit to make a call on such matters...

Reading comprehension isn't your strong point, is it Thomas? I said I wasn't a pacifist. I think war can be justified. But that is simply a consequence of the reality of human behaviour. However, having no wars would hardly be a bad thing, would it? Though seemingly it would be for you, you being an armchair John Wayne and all.

Bigsby says

Reading comprehension isn't your strong point, is it Thomas? I said I wasn't a pacifist

Pacifist is just dear old wong's term for anyone who does not share his bloodlust. His solution to the war on drugs is to drop napalm bombs on the cocoa growing areas. if any children and pregnant women get burnt alive-then it is their fault for being in that area. So he says. The he rails about Muslins being violent-LOL!!

So, how does this Uber thing work anyhow?

That's very partisan. Our district voted to end NSA. Not sure why some people voted to keep it going.

Isn't the free market great.