Friday pussy - post thanksgiving edition (burp)

It's that time of year again when people stuff themselves then go comatose watching football on TV and lest we forget the sales at the store for stuff you probably don't need or want. Gave up on that years ago when things were about as tight economically speaking. Loads of useless stuff clogs the arteries of closet space. Is that a tie dyed leisure suit I see covered with dust hiding in there? Time to make a jaunt to the Goodwill.
Spend most of the day under the kitchen sink as the less than competent cook thought that potato skins would go down the disposal. They don't. And tearing apart the plumbing is no easy task especially with comments from the cook who knows nothing about plumbing.
So some holiday thoughts to ponder:

What to be thankful for this fine cold sunny day? About the only things left are that I still have a roof overhead some food and the utilities are still on. I never exactly planned on it being this way. I was so close to the finish line. Just three good years and I could have retired in relative comfort with a nice nest egg and a decent pension, but enough about me. I guess then we can all be thankful that we haven't survived a tornado or hurricane and seen our life's work blown away in an instant. Yes everybody says those are just things and you should be glad your life was spared but it doesn't address the reality of having to start over. That's an easy thing when you're young not so much when you're older. So maybe we can take solace in the fact that things are slowly moving in the right direction. It may not happen in the next year or two or even in our lifetime but we can all take satisfaction in knowing that we had a part in the process no matter how small. I'm a firm believer in Karma so do a kindness or two every day and if nothing else it will make you feel better as a person. Happy Thanksgiving folks.

bank fails later if there are any...
UPDATE: No fails this week 

Friday pussy - get ready for the crash

U.S takes flack for another drone attack on Pakistan. And like so many reports before it the numbers change from two to three then six. But what are we fighting really? We're trying to fight an ideology which is no more winnable than fighting a war on anger. No one on this planet should be charged with the crime of suspicion for if that was the case we'd all hang at some point, guilty or not. We've taken warfare to the point of a total lack of conscious but it set to go farther than that. Total unmanned UAVs are being worked on that require no operator at all. One has to wonder how that will work. Would it be a set it and forget it type system? Feed in some faces and hope the machine takes out it's target? No need for police, jail or trial, just the execution part. A sick thought but it's slowly coming true.

China just unveiled it's latest addition to the war machine with its' version a combat UAV called "Sharp Sword" complete with laser guided missiles. Got to keep up with the Jones I guess. Their fear is all the activity around Asia with countries taking up sides. A land dispute with Japan over an uninhabited volcanic island has nothing to do with property rights but yet another quest for oil. Maybe while they're at it they could take a minute to try and clean up the mess that's spewing out of Fukushima. Just a thought.

Lastly we have the financial mess which by the way was not corrected by the Dodd Frank bill. A little research shows that global debt stands at somewhere between $52 and $62 trillion but that's a paltry sum compared to the derivatives market which is now at $228 trillion. Lame stream media has done it's best to hide the fact that countries like Greece Spain and Italy are now broke and there's no way they can pay back the debt that was forced on them no matter how much austerity they endure. Can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. And note that Cypress is now accepting bitcoins that virtual currency because venders have no other choice. At what point the house of cards will fall once more is anyones guess. I thought for sure it would have happen by now.

Bank fails later...
UPDATE: No fails this week

Late Friday Pussy - closed for repairs

They just can't keep things simple. About the time you get the hang of it some nerd has to come out with his latest and greatest upgrade that of course doesn't work any better than the last lame version. Only the last version was a bit more stable and definitely more familiar. So what do you do when your system tells you that you've gone to the end of your upgrade abilities and you can't afford a new box? Here however it's been a matter of connection. Everything starts out okay for a few minutes or even an hour or two in the morning then the magic wifi demons take over and it's off and on for hours on end. Go ahead Mr Computer Whiz try a restart, empty that cache, reset the browser preferences and don't forget the router. Just see what happens when you turn it off and back on. Nothing nada zilch. Those blinky lights are there only to keep an idiot in suspense. Did I just hear it quietly laugh at me when all the proper lights came back on? Guess I shouldn't have given those nerds a wedgie back in high school. This is their revenge.

What do you mean I'm not connected to the internet and the page I was looking for can not be found? I was there just a second ago and the earth didn't disappear. And speaking of disappearing no bank fails this week but that doesn't mean your savings didn't vaporize with the latest tax or price increase. I see gas is going down. All well and good if I had someplace important to go. Oh I get it they want you to be able to get to a job interview that is if there were any jobs. A cruel lot those powers that be.

Friday pussy - Very late edition

 A japanese lawmaker hands the emperor a letter pointing out the disaster at Fukushima and the people surrounding him are shocked. They aren't shocked at the fact that this was a disaster but by the fact that this was even brought to the attention of the emperor. The idea that the emperor still holds such a high position (divine according to Japanese tradition) and that no one is permitted to even look at the man in his presents is absurd. The issue here as I see it is not one of protocol but of responsibility. These people put on thrones have little power but are mere figureheads, a relic of a bygone era. There will be no waving of a jeweled scepter or royal decree here. The best they can do is say how tragically sorry they are for such a misfortune and hope that everything will turn out alright in the end. 

So what about responsibility? It's the responsibility of a government to look out for its' people when they are unable. And it's the responsibility of the people to cooperate in the solution.

The government has a duty to keep us safe but at what cost? We need to look at the whole picture here. We were attacked on 911 but nobody stopped to look at the root causes. Why would a group of people go to such lengths to bring such havoc on the American people? It would have anything to do with all the dictators we've installed in the middle east now would it? Dictators who have oppressed their people for decades. And as extreme as they are we have our own over here. They are the extreme right of the republican party who would like nothing better than have everything their way. They delight in having no regulations that benefit society as a whole but only their greedy backers. When they cause mayhem with their draconian cuts they try to blame the victim. They bought out lame stream media here who parrot the party lines trying to make us believe that it's objective journalism. It's not. It's the reason so many are turning to alternatives. Not once have I seen a positive solution or even idea reported in the main stream. It's always how bad an idea is and how following it will lead to our downfall.

We cherish our economic engine like some god and maybe that's why our enemies attacked it. They know it's our sacred possession. We've lost our way in terms of what's really important in life or what should be. These are the things money can't buy like family or a love or a kindness. So maybe it's time for a re-evaluation of where we put our priorities. A fat wallet may be nice to have but in the end it's of far less value than what it can't buy. 

No bank fails this week

Friday pussy - late edition

Wars on drugs wars on people. There seems to be a war for everything. There's a war against women at least in some states. But no wars for the right reasons. Nobody is really attacking us although the powers that be would have you believe that little lie. There are no terrorists under the bed and once the troops are pulled out of the middle east, that is if they ever are, the "baddies" will have no reason to get their head scarfs in a bunch. Another "top" (pick one -  Al qaeda / taliban) leader bombed with a drone. These guys are like drug lords, politicians or cockroaches, you get rid of one and another one pops up to replace him. Forget the fact that once you start remotely bombing them you just create more when the neighbors and their kids get wiped out in the process.

Should we really be surprised at all the hostility in the world? It's easy to see how it all came about if you look what's happened over the last 25 or 30 years maybe longer. As far back as the 1950s when America was busy rebuilding Europe and Japan, remember there was no manufacturing left over there we had bombed it out of existence, which gave everybody plenty of work. All paid for with high taxes on the wealthy (something like 90% of everything over $100K if memory serves correct). That paid for everything we no longer have today like 2/3 of a college degree and let's not forget all the field trips for the school kids. But a more sinister aspect came with automation and the trade agreements that slowly made their way onto the scene. Soon factories overseas were rebuilt and they had the luxury of making the latest and greatest products with greater efficiencies. They were cheap at first as countries got back on their feet. Made in Japan was synonymous with cheap until the late 60s when electronics became a hot item. The japanese caught on quickly to western ways of manufacturing but went one step farther, they automated with robots thereby making profit margins higher and labor costs less. The U.S. had no alternative but to move it's operations overseas but at what price? 

Trade deals like NAFDA produced a "sucking sound" of jobs first to Mexico then to China. TV sets that had been made in the U.S. were first being produced in Canada then Mexico and finally China. Gradually our manufacturing power house was being dismantled bit by bit. Services were taking a hit too. ATMs replaced scores of tellers. Entire floors of typists were replaced with desk top computers. Cars that could once be fixed by a backyard mechanic now require an electronics expert and equipment that nobody can afford. Then there's the tech help call centers. Once located near a manufacturing center can now be found on the other side of the planet but good luck getting through and better still getting the right answer. I believe the term is now called customer "no service".

All this has led to our eminent demise and the frustrations we see. Every new dodad with more bells and whistles isn't making things better just more frustrating as just when you got the hang of one thing the new improved model comes down the pike only it's really no better than the last, just more complicated. There is an end point to all this insanity. When everything becomes un-repairably  disposable and there's no place left to dump it. 

Bank fails: There was one bank fail in Florida this week.