Halloweenie

Everybody loves to say they have a claim to fame or at least a rubbing of elbows with those in the spotlight. This being the Halos of eve and all such was not the case but I did have the momentary run in or should I say more like a passing of ships when they made this horror flick. Have to remove some cobwebs from the gray matter to recall the details. I was working on assignment in San Bernardino, Cal while the cast and crew were staying at the same motel. I saw very little of the cast as they were shooting a dracula shift (sundown to sun up) but on my days off they would gather up their cameras and crew out front around 4 in the afternoon to head to location. I never did see Linda Blair but was later told she was surrounded at the pool by adoring fans and looky lous. But I'm sure she'd love to erase this flick from her list of credits as her reward was a Razzie.

What ever happened to Halloween? Used to be a kids delight to turn an orange squash into a scary jack-o-lantern, get dressed up as a monster or pirate and try and scare the bejeesus out of younger siblings. The smell of burn pumpkin and a pillow case full of treats were a kids' valhalla. I think I've only seen one or two trick or treaters in the past ten years or so. Who got the most chocolate bars was always the contest. Some cheap skate would give away three pennys tied in a napkin. And watch out for old man Barnes as he was trying to give away some stale easter candy he got from the grandkids.

It was a dark and stormy day soon to be followed by a dark and stormy night. Better head to the store just in case. I'm always a a sucker for chocolate so all won't be a total loss.

And now for that scare that was promised in an earlier post which goes something like this:

"Ladies and gentlemen it gives us great pleasure to announce the 45th president of the United States...


Mitt Romney!"

Okay you can all wake up now it was only a republican wet dream. See I knew I could scare you.

Thurston Howell is alive and well

Banking is an odd creature when you think about it. Anyone with a vague knowledge of bookkeeping should know that. You debit your credits and credit your debits and somehow everything balances out in the end. For the consumer it's a different story. We borrow money from a bank that never existed and hope that we'll make enough to pay it back before the end of the loan. Banks on the other hand think in reverse terms. They see debt as an asset. They'd be delighted if the loan continued forever as long as the payments were made and the interest rates remain high. They win no matter what. If the loan defaults they get to write it off and then up the fees and interest rates on the next sucker. And unlike us deposits are viewed as a bad thing. They want the capital as low as possible and the leverage rate sky high. It's how they make their money. And they can't really lose because the spread between borrowed money and investments is always enough to cover the CEOs golden parachute should all go wrong. So who picks up the tab when all goes south? We have insurance called FDIC that covers the assets (that would be us the taxpayers) while we are also on the hook for the debt. And again it's all done with imaginary money that never existed. It's called the fractional reserve if you must know. And don't be fooled by the term Federal Reserve. It's no more part of the federal government than K-mart. It's only a body of rich guys creating money out of thin air.

But what sparked this little lesson on how our monetary system works? It was the announcement that USB the Swiss bank is about to lay off 10,000 workers mostly in the U.S and London. To most of us working stiffs that would sound like a very bad thing. Who'd want to hear of a factory laying off that many people here? But somebody always wins in these types of ventures and that would be the investors, the golden parachute boys, and the next crop of CEOs to grace the board room. They nearly always win no matter what happens.

So what's going on in Switzerland? It seems the value of their debt is not so valuable anymore or in this case they got piggish. Remember debt to them is an asset.

"Banks can post gains if the value of their debt falls, because it would theoretically become cheaper for the bank to repurchase that debt. But the rule also says that when a bank's debt increases, it must take a write-down because it would theoretically have to pay more to buy back its own debt on the open market."
A little too much leveraging here Mr. Banker? But shed no tear for Herr Gotrocks he gets a tidy sum for cleaning out his desk along with the prospect of starting his own investment scheme and life in the good old boys club goes on. For the rest of us we're too principled to play their little Ponzi scheme and we couldn't because they make the rules and we aren't included in their game. Nothing like being the low man on the totem pole when the budget axe is sharpened. Don't be too sympathetic for the 10.000 though. I hear they make a couple of hundred thousand a year on average. So in this case it's the wealthy eating the lesser wealthy.   

Weather you like it or not

As the lude and lascivious  Sandy grinds her way up the coast never were conditions more ripe for death and destruction. But being the sick puppies we are, everybody loves a good disaster, all eyes focus on the National Weather service. After all they have the best of the best super duper computers and numbers crunching nerds. Nothing throws people into a tizzy better than some catastrophic event be it fire or flood. Oh but the anticipation is finer than the best table dancer about to perform. And a fine day too for all the news crews scurrying about scraping for all the minute scraps of info to be had. But let us not forget the expert among experts rousted out of their ivy covered halls to give their take on things. Only they can't really give much better predictions than a delivery man or a dog catcher. It's all guesswork by anyone's stretch. You'd have better luck predicting the pattern of a balloon filled with paint spattered on a wall.

But this is the perfect of perfect of storms. And a few factors can be considered like the fact that today we have a full moon which means the tides are at their highest for the month. There's the fact that the leaves on the trees haven't completely fallen which make for dandy sails. There is the cold front coming down from Canada which gets to play havoc and intensify the situation. It's the end of the month about the time many are low on funds as in (What do you mean I have to evacuate? Where am I going to get the money to do that? ) And what disaster would be complete without the customary footage of the hardware store runs for plywood generators and flashlight batteries. And funny how the shelves always seem to be empty. Then of course there's the usual of usuals the news guy/gal who drew the short straw and has to stand out near the beach and endure gal force winds and rain while the home audience can't hear a word they're saying and gapes in awe as the gas station overhang gets ripped to shreds and blown down the street. Maybe they could just start using stock footage because they all start looking the same after a while. Good for the bottom line and who'd know the difference. Just make sure to cover up the dated hair styles with a rain hat.

Like waiting for a newborn this baby will come and the stories they'll tell of how they made it through the big one back in October of '12' always trying to one up the last one because you know how stories like that go.

Music

And who could forget those days of yesteryear when sex was dirty and so was the air? A couple of bucks for allowance and a trip to the platter store. Flipping through the stacks hoping to find something in the top ten at a bargain. Could always send away for a K-tel sound alike. An imitation band at a rock bottom price, must have been made up with the producers sons. Just enough changes to avoid the copyright laws. And who wasn't fooled at least once by the imitators. The cover looked so genuine to a prepubescent youth on limited funds. 

The Beetle Beat

Some would have you believe this was some type of tribute band but by the deceiving cover a less knowledgeable consumer could be easily fooled. After all there was no way to fact check until after being stung. Like today you broke the plastic you owned it.

But then there was the sell out of sell outs when "Light my fire"  a gutsy Doors ditty that suddenly became part of a car ad complete with a Kostelanetz  type accompaniment. Oh go gag me with a spoon I think I'm going to barf. Who after all doesn't have etched in their gray matter those melodic sounds between floors in the elevator? Exactly how that avoidance of copyright infringement happened is still a puzzle. I can only guess that it was one of the requirements for paying off the damage to the hotel room. Just how the Lincoln Continental made it into the swimming pool on the second floor will always remain one of lifes' mysteries. Funny to think that Andre actually made a "Greatest hits of the 60s" album that's probably now collecting mold in somebody's basement. As it should be.

Where are my tastes in music at the moment? Kind of hard to say. Much of the techno beats of today I equate to a wash cycle of the old Kenmore with a sneaker in the dryer for good measure. May have a good beat but you can't dance to it. Must be the lack of ravey type drugs required to fully appreciate the experience that I'm missing something there. On the other end of the spectrum is the torturous (add your own prefix descriptive adjective here) metal. I'm no musicologist by any stretch but I'd bet a five spot it can't be transcribed to sheet music. I'm fully aware that things tend to progress to their natural ends but it makes one wonder what the limits are. Even a kitchen blender or the garbage disposal hits a few harmonic notes every now and then.

There is some rather interesting stuff coming out of the middle east these days but with the current hostile climate it may be some time before it makes mainstream which anymore is Youtube.  But it seems we can never reach that balance between sequin sweet and ear splitting total destruction. No fears though eventually everybody loses the lust for an adrenaline rush along with better part of their hearing.       

Welcome to the depression good or bad...mostly bad

U.S. economic growth up sharply.

Poor U.S. earnings shake confidence.

These were two actual headlines seen on Google News last night. Excuse me but last report I saw was that company earnings were up 70%. Who's screwing with the facts?

The GDP grew by 2% for the third quarter which would make for an annual rate of 8%. On average and in good years we grow by 6% . So somebody's fudging the numbers here.

On one page of the BBC business news we had the following list of stories:

• Nintendo Wii U to be sold at loss
• Amazon reports big quarterly loss
• Apple profits miss expectations
• HTC sees lower sales at year-end
• South Korea economic growth slows
• Credit rating of French banks cut
• UK economy sees return to growth 
• Santander profits plunge by 90%
• Ford cutting 1,400 jobs in the UK

So on a global scale things aren't looking too hot right now. With Greece in the pits, riots in Spain and the former Italian PM busted for tax evasion is there any cause for celebration? Nobody's said a word about the austerity measures put in place for the UK, Ireland or Portugal.

Forget Frankenstorm the world is headed for a meltdown only nobody will acknowledge it. I think I've said it a thousand time on this blog. You can't cut things to the bone and expect an economy to grow. Workers have had salaries and benefits cut all while local taxes and fees have gone up. Companies keep asking for more in the way of prices but it's not going to the workers.

Spain is a good example. Their unemployment rate just hit 25%. For workers 16 to 24 it's 52%. That by definition is a depression and Greece is in the same sinking boat at the moment.

What is selling to make for this economic growth. Airplanes are being sold to several countries that have ordered them and even if they cancel Boeing makes money. Cars seem to be selling well on the world market which is keeping Detroit and Ohio going. And I'm sure the arms dealers are making a killing at the moment (pun intended).

So at the moment all I can do is sit back and listen to the arteries harden, watch the rain wash out the embankment out front and wonder when I can afford to replace my tattered and worn out clothing. Everything is slowly falling apart and all that can be done is sit and watch a slow moving train wreck. 

Friday pussy zombie

With that bewitching of bewitching day fast approaching what better way to get in the mood for a Friday than a zombie cat. But there are those far recesses of the back roads of the internet where sensitive eyes should rarely go if at all. Exactly what posses twisted minds to conger such perversions is anyone's guess. We all have our likes and dislikes and some go to the extremes of obsessions. But nothing could be more macabre than This, viewer discretion advised. Don't say I didn't warn you. And no this isn't about undecided voters either.

In hitting the store the other day I came upon or should I say was instructed to go to one of those self check outs. I detest such animals because 9 times out of 10 they never work for me. All seemed to be going well until I slipped the 20 into the money grabbing slot where upon the receipt spit out as normal but no change for a $6 purchase. It was then I informed the clerk who retrieved my correct change from another till. I informed her that she had a Romney machine that wants all my money. She laughed. I then told her to "get rid of the damn machines and hire more people".

But this is the pre Halloweenie scare you till you pee your pants post so I'll continue on to the next fright night adventure.
Hanford (you remember that place where all the radioactive material was created for our A tom bombs for WWII) is busy "cleaning up" a bunch of contaminated stuff left over from that era.

The Tri-City Herald reports more than 200 gloveboxes are being dismantled and buried as the Plutonium Finishing Plant is demolished.

These aren't the type you'll find in you fathers' old Oldsmobile, they were meant to protect workers as they processed plutonium. Should be an interesting process as this section of building weighted 10 tons. And how do you think they'll "clean up" this material? Out of sight out of mind they'll bury it in the ground. And as the years pass and they forget where they bury it (people are like that you know) I envision giant glowing worms and 50 ft. ants roaming the deserts of central Washington State in our future. (Insert the sci fi moog music here)

I'll save the chain saws and hockey mask stories for a later date. It is still early in the bewitching season and so much more can happen between now and then. I smell a three act play churning around in the gray matter which might make it to the second act should possession or creativity strike. In the mean time keep your stick on the ice.

Bank fails later.  

UPDATE: One bank fail this week in Pa.

May peace be with you always السلام لك دائما

Screams were heard as the sounds of constant incoming mortar and automatic weapon fire continued its' constant litany. On a grainy cell phone image the dust and rubble could be viewed and something resembling bodies lay in the street. Little of this is making the foreign national news but it has continued relentlessly for days, weeks and months and now for nearly two years. On average over 100 people are killed this way each day and yesterday was no different:

At least 145 people were killed by Assad’s forces today, including 18 women and 13 children. There was yet another massacre in Douma where dozens more bodies were found slaughtered, while the whole Eastern side of Damascus is under heavy shelling. In the North, the city of Ma’aret an-Nu’man and the surrounding areas continue to be obliterated by Assad’s air force. The battles of attrition continue in the devastated cities of Aleppo, Homs and Deir Ezzor. Meanwhile, we are still waiting to see if the Assad regime will confirm it’s intention to ceasefire during Eid. The FSA has expressed support provided the regime also stops firing while Jubhat al-Nusra issue a statement rejecting any ceasefire or any negotiation with the regime. If there is a ceasefire, UNHCR says it will deliver aid to 10,000 families (there are estimated 1.5 million displaced people), working with the Syria Trust for Development in Damascus and Aleppo (which is an NGO set up by…. Asmaa al-Assad).

The chants of "Allah Akbar" always heard in all actions. One must ask if God is so great then why has he forsaken these people? This is no war it is a slaughter. There are no rules of engagement here. It's kill or be killed. And for the least among them, the unarmed women and children, it is no match for mortars and RPGs. It all makes no sense. What could be gained by wiping out a population and destroying entire towns? Is this some nationalized illness that happens every twenty years or so? How quickly we forget the Bosnias and the Congo massacres and the killing fields of Cambodia and yet history repeats itself. You'd think by now we'd have learned a thing or two about getting along but perhaps it's something ingrained in human nature. A need for destruction much like hunger or thirst or something akin to an illness like a virus on a ten to twenty year cycle? Or is this just plain greed run rampant to an illogical end? You be the judge.