Friday Post - Migrants and bankers

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Migrants - The current situation is bad because rather than deal with the situation in an organized manner, creating processing centers and spreading that population out across multiple countries, migrants are crammed into camps with poor conditions and treated like criminals. Their only offense is wanting a little safety and maybe a shot at a better life. Rewind to the days of the end of the Vietnam war when those who helped the U.S. fight the North Vietnamese were airlifted to safety, brought to the U.S. and Canada and neatly spread out across cities and towns. Done so well that nobody realized that 450,000 were settled here. No town or city can handle the influx of tens of thousands of people all at once yet that's what we're seeing in Italy and Greece. That's also not to mention the refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. The problem as I see it is that they're trying to deal with the symptoms and not the problem which is political instability and war. And this has to be a drag on the world economies. The arms dealers, bankers and morticians may be doing well, not so much for the rest of us. There has to be a breaking point. 

There is the issue of China which for the moment is desperately trying to pump up a slowing economy. But there are other factors at issue. Mainly they followed the U.S. lead of allowing their investors to borrow money to invest in the stock market. All went well until their economy slowed and values fell. Add to that the loosening of real estate regulations that permitted the ownership of second homes and just like the U.S. market when the bubble burst prices fell. In a feeble attempt to pump up the market the Chinese government lowered interest rates. It's worked for a brief while but even that ploy is set to fail. A small snippet from a Chinese analyst today gave credence to what the future may bring. The government is buying stocks to try and keep the markets high. “If the government sustains buying there are terribly negative consequences, such as impact to [People’s Bank of China’s] credibility and yuan credibility…Any bank can create money out of thin air, which is why confidence is so important,” said Cui. “So if they keep printing money to buy high valued stocks, it will damage yuan credibility.”

Wall Street would have you believe that this was just a minor glitch, a temporary correction but the fundamentals say otherwise. And this isn't happening in just China but other countries as well as others devalue their currency to make their products more attractive. But I don't see a rush to buy more stuff. While there may be pockets of building in some cities this isn't a broad based boom like after past recessions.

Bank fails later
No fails this week

Friday Post - Cast your ballot but hang on to your wallet

Thought about doing a small straw vote on the candidates here but it's become a real circus. Here was some possibilities:

However after further review as they say in football we find that there's far more than the 17 plus on the republican side or 5 democrats running as attested to by a Guardian article (sheesh you have to go overseas to find out what's going on over here). Interesting to note that according to a Guardian article there are 585 registered candidates for U.S. president in 2016, including Sydneys Voluptuous Buttocks (independent), President Emperor Caesar (Democrat), Buddy The Cat (Democrat), Crawfish Crawfish (other), Bailey D Dog (independent), Buddy The Elf (write-in). Forget voter fraud the elections board might do better to scrutinize the candidate's qualifications. It's a safe bet some of these aren't even human beings. With the actual numbers in the voter fraud non problem a half dozen votes wrongly cast has not changed an outcome yet, at least not since the days of Tammany Hall or the Chicago party machines.

 The sad fact today is that unlike Canada or the UK we here in the U.S. must endure the better part of 2 years of campaign BS and just like retailers the day after Christmas when the last of the tinsel has been swept up the preparation process starts all over. Should you wish to keep warm all winter it's an easy task of picking up yard signs the day after an election. Wooden stakes and cardboard burn quite well.

The more things change the more things stay the same and they aren't getting any better. Looking at the markets the Dow has taken a 600 point dump so far in the last two days. It's obvious they weren't realistic in the first place but we all knew what happened when the fun and games ended with the crash of Wall Street in 1929. And if you thought 2008 was bad you ain't seen nothin yet. China's economy is slowly freezing up. Germany thinking they are in some power seat hasn't realized that they are broke too. How many of the euros did they just hand off to Greece? And those were borrowed euros at that. So let's face facts when the money isn't put to actual use for things like building bridges or roads or schools and gets filtered directly to banks who only make money by creating more debt (all paper shuffling) then eventually the music stops and everybody is left chairless or in this case homeless. This appears to be the very start of an economic freeze up. With the cost of two wars still ongoing a decade later and not paid for and the round after round of tax cuts it's a sure bet there won't be another bail out like the last time. Expect some of the larger brokerage houses to fall this time along with a few of the larger banks.

I'm sure Voluptuous Buttocks, Buddy The Cat or Deez Nutz could solve the financial problems given a chance but in the mean time we endure another year of election campaigning.

bank fails later...

Friday sans the beavers and pussies

Thought I'd pass on the beaver and pussy stick. It was getting old and only used it to get traffic here. Must say it did work for a while. So what now?

Oops how'd he get in there?

 Ever notice how Mike Duffy looks much like a Vogn from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Gallexy"?

Try getting that image out of your mind.

On with the post -

Ever notice that a lot of the bloggers are gone? Check your side bar and note how many dead links there are. Some moved on to jobs that might not take kindly to net postings that are less than politically correct. Others died and can't leave a forwarding address. Kind of sad. It was like going into your favorite bar and knowing what the atmosphere was like before you got there. And sadly we all have our expiration date even though it isn't stamped on a body part we can see.

Life goes on in spite of tornadoes hurricanes fires or explosions. We're getting a little rain here even though it won't be enough to make much difference. Lawns are still brown here and much of the landscape is parched. Haven't seen it this dry in all the years I've lived here. Neighbors' bushes caught fire the other week while they were on vacation. Fortunately some other neighbors stepped up and had it under control before the whole place caught fire. Guess there are a few decent people left unless you're a politician.

 What a clown show we must endure for another year plus. On the right we have egomaniacs pandering to the ever shrinking white old man base. Selling them the proposition that you too can be rich like me if you'll just take another pay and benefit cut while I and my congressional buddies slip in another tax break. Their accounts in the Caymans must be bursting by now. Think about who the real welfare queens are. Ten or twenty bucks swiped from food stamps pales by comparison to the trillions that were reaped off the taxpayers with multibillion dollar bonuses to boot. Wrong is wrong but some wrongs are more wrong if you get my drift.

And should you think that the U.S. has cornered the market on corruption look no farther than to our friends to the north. Mr. Harper can no longer spin his story. He now has to resort to bold faced lies. To say he knew nothing of the Duffy matter is just plain hog wash. But take heart Canada at least this matter came out. Such things rarely see the light of day in the U.S. Now if I could just figure out a way to write off the meals I eat at home humm. What could I charge for sleeping in my own bed? Pretty ballsy if you ask me. And what's this chite about paying it back? Try stealing a loaf of bread at your local store and see what happens. Everything won't turn out okay just because you came back and paid up.

Bank fails later...

Friday Beaver - Comb over

(Couldn't find a beaver shot with a Trump hair cut so this 'll have to do.)

Hola from the Donald

What do you mean you're not thugs, drug smugglers, rapists and murders? Thought everybody knew that.  We'll just build a wall, maybe electrify it and slap in a mote with alligators. All built by Mexicans to boot.

Let us not forget to throw grandma off her Social security because you know Wall Street needs even more money to lose in that grand poker game they call the market place. 

Health care? Who needs health care? Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses? We'll just replace that with yet another terrific plan but I can't tell you what that is because we haven't invented it yet. We'll have to consult with our insurance backers and lobbyists.

And taxes - who doesn't hate paying taxes unless it's those at the very top of the heap who can afford to pay an accountant or two to avoid paying even a nickel. Millions in profits and not a cent going to pay for the infrastructure that they used to make it. That's fair right?

Ah women - I'll Insult them all I want because I have that trophy wife stashed away and she won't say a word after I forced her into signing that prenup. 

I love hispanics and blacks. I think everybody should own one, just don't rent to them they might tarnish the Trump brand.

I'll bring jobs back to America ( As soon as I can get the wages in Asia even lower) Over here we'll just get rid of the EPA and all those nasty laws that protect our water and air. Doesn't everybody use bottled water to shower with? Thought everybody did.

Education - We'll just eliminate the K thru 12 requirement and make charter schools for those who can afford it because after all what jobs are left? And anyway you can't tear them away from their phones long enough to teach them anything.

Now everybody shut up while I get back to looking at a cheap land deal in Puerto Rico. Build a world class hotel I'll call it the Trump Cha Cha Cha. It'll be *UGE. 

(Take note of how many times Trump uses the term "I" or "me" in his speeches and never "us" or "we". A definite indication of a sociopath. Would love to hear from a professional in the mental health field about what they think of him.) 

Bank fails when I think of it.  
No fails this week carry on.