It's not the fall that kills you...

Wake up you lazy slackers!

Realize that we're being used like a cheap crack whore. We've been sold a bill of goods with fear leading the charge. And why you might ask? Because it's the only thing they at the top have left in their arsenal to keep what they have.

We have been duped into voting against our own best interests. And that's just how a minority wants things. They can not continue to bleed us dry without pervasive lies fed to us daily on three major networks. But the world is waking up. It's beginning to realize that those at the top are providing little value for their "services" rendered. What exactly do you do Mr. CEO on a daily basis? In a meeting to decide what you're going to cut to increase the bottom line? Or maybe out for another fishing trip in a far off land? 

These "job creators" have not created one job other than their own. "Senator if you hate government so much you'd like to drown it in a bath tub then just go hang yourself and be done with it".

Let's face it this self imposed "Fiscal Cliff" is like a junky trying to quit. He'll put deadlines on himself till the cows come home but in the end always go out and get that next fix. We can no more wrench ourselves from our current stagnant situation by cutting off programs that aid to the benefit of the whole than try and run a car by syphoning gas from the tank. It doesn't work.  Maybe we could streamline congress. Cut their positions by one half and pay them on an hourly basis. Trim their cushy retirement plans and cut back their hours and see how they like it. They expect us to do just that.

They say they've been working on a budget plan for months now. No you haven't. It's all recorded in the congressional record. You did little more than name some post offices (which by the way may soon close because of your inaction). Bills were brought up that might have had a chance of doing good only to be voted down. You even filibustered one of your own bills. How psychotic is that? And remember senators and congress people society is now well armed and waiting to see what you do next. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that more guns means more people killed or injured. But there you sit waiting patiently for your next lobbyist pay off only they too are worried. They may have goten what they wished for. And like a co-dependent they'll just keep feeding you cash to keep their best interests to heart. What about ours?  

Greed Inc.

Ever stop and wonder why things aren't the way they once were? We think back and ponder what happened to so many great ideas and where they went. The above photo is of a present day small Greek market. Once packed with products ready for sale giving it's owner an average, or better, income. He played by all the rules and I'm sure had hopes of educating his children and maybe passing the family business on to them when he retired. Not so anymore. Greece in its' first round of austerity passed a 29% tax neatly tied to everybody's electric bill. Fail to pay it and the power gets shut off. Now our store owner here can barely afford the tax bill much less buy the needed stock to sell.

There was a time, a long time ago now, that kids growing up were covered by health insurance. There were no long lists of school supplies as nearly everything was provided. As I recall the only items not supplied were cookies for the Valentines day party or items for the science fair. Even then everybody seemed to chip in pot luck style. Those days are long gone but where did they go and what happened? Some would have you believe that it was an evil teacher's union that made off with the funds or that the teachers themselves were making opulent salaries. Truth is companies that once provided support to education aren't. Yes there may be the occasional item funded by a company like a score board or a playground but the bulk of profits are now neatly hidden in an off shore account. Such is the case with Greece. There are entire office buildings in Luxembourg staffed with people who's soul purpose is to find tax loop holes for the worlds' largest companies. But it's worse than that. A company making massive profits in a foreign country somehow looks magically pennyless by merely moving it's stash of cash to more favorable and secretive places.

Who got stuck with the bill when it came due? It sure wasn't the bankers or those on Wall Street. And here we sit on an artificial cliff waiting for the hammer to drop. Like it or not we'll all lose no matter which way this thing goes. If it does happen cuts to programs for the poor and disabled will be immediate. No more unemployment extension and cuts to meals on wheels and school lunches. And as the federal action or inaction filters down to the state levels you'll see fee increases and new taxes to try and cover state budgets. That's a given. That of course will cut deeper into people pocket books and make matters worse. We have seen these exact same scenarios in past recessions. And how exactly did we get out? Either corporations finally broke down and started spending or the government stepped in and created jobs. And damned be the man or woman who says it doesn't. It created your job senator!    

Friday fear pussy

Fear for sale we got what you don't want but you'll buy it anyway.

Spiders make your skin crawl? Or maybe it's snakes. Everybody has their phobias big and small. Did it start with that running away dream when you were a kid? You know. Your feet felt like they had iron weights tied to your shoes and the boogie man was coming and you couldn't get away.

Perhaps the IRS is on your trail. That deduction for your poodle might look suspicious. And Mr. Politician did you kiss butt enough for the donor to part with his bucks? Fears. Everybody's got em. Will the job get done on time? Will the boss notice? Will the boss forget? Will there be a job? Will the plant close? WMDs and terror suspects hiding under beds. Black men red men yellow men old white dudes out to get you. Vicious dogs wild bears angry birds attacking crows something fearful this way roams. And death panels all neatly set to end your life. Food recalls, swallowed balls, watch out that thing 'ill take your eye out. Turkey and fish, peppers, tomatoes and mad cow thrown in for good measure. 

Sal, e coli, aids and herpes if you're afraid of it we got it just for you. Neatly wrapped with black ribbon suitable for strangling. Pedophile, priest, punk, and pervert promoted today for the production price of $999 but today only for $666 plus shipping and handling. Visit the 13th floor for our clearance specials. And don't forget our hurricane tornado uber extravaganza but you better hurry cause they're going fast and they may not last. No rain checks either. A bang up Independence day in December blowout flood fire smoke and water damage end of season clearance. Get it while you can, no refunds or exchanges. Easy credit terms to fit every family budget. Just 25 cents down and the rest in easy weekly payments for 99 years, interest calculated hourly. On taking your phone order by our highly untrained staff in some country you've never learned about in school will attempt to fill your order. Fear not (did I say that? Ha!) the staff can  pronounce the words but has not a clue as to what they mean but will pass your order on the back storage barn complete with leaky roof where another highly incapable team member will fill your order by practicing his field goal attempts in packaging so cheap it would embarrass toilet paper.

And never to forget bank fails later...

Say didn't the FDIC run out of money yet? Be afraid. Be very afraid.
UPDATE: No fails this week but stay tuned as the economy is headed for the cliff.

Cliff meet canyon floor

Interesting how the fiscal doctors in a DC would treat our sickly economy. The patient gets an infection in his foot and the doctors want to cut off a leg. Such is the case of our current situation. Only in this case they don't even have to do the dirty work. It will be automatic. Now even the wall street boys are in a bit of a panic. They know that should the inevitable happen their game of monopoly will come to an abrupt end. It wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing runs on banks as the confidence of the American people fades faster than the setting sun. But that wouldn't be the worst of it. Foreign investors would be running to the hills as well as money sought safer ground. And that's what really worries the boys on Wall Street. They could no longer sell their worthless paper to a world market who once had the confidence to use our greenbacks as a world currency. If you've looked lately even Canada has a more stable currency, but it too is only a U.S. recession away from faltering.

Now before you clutch your last shekels and stuff what remaining "bucks" you have in the mattress a little perspective is due here. It's all a matter of percentages. We think way back when a loaf of bread was a quarter but seem to forget that the average weekly wage was less than $80. What's a loaf cost these days and the average wage is no where near what it once was? To give a real perspective check out this chart below:

  

You will note that we're really no worse off than we were in the 1950s in terms of debt to GDP percentages. And what exactly happened that brought us out of our economic slumps? It wasn't draconian spending cuts but just the opposite. It was a temporary spending increase called "the New Deal" that got us where we are. Even today the effects from that era of spending are still felt in the economy 50 plus years later. Some would credit the turn around of that era to our war spending and to some extent that would be true. We did after all spend the better part of the 1950s rebuilding Europe. But the difference between now and then is that today we have a world market with the lions share of the production going to China. We've lost the bulk of our steel garment and electronics production to foreign countries and are left with low wage service jobs. That is unsustainable in the long term. Look no farther than Greece to see how that'll work out. With no future and carrying a college debt our young people may be stuck caring for their aging parents and living in the house they grew up in if things don't change

soon. 

But what's truly irritating is to know that corporations are sitting on over $2 trillion and refusing to move the economy because nobody wants to blink first. Those at the top the 1% are satisfied to stand pat and wait but if they wait long enough even what they have will slowly disappear. Money is made only by its' use and not sitting in some vault or savings account.

As I mentioned before the budget isn't cast in stone. Congress could easily pass an extension but I suspect this was the plan all along. Let it go off the cliff because that way you get your spending cuts automatically even if you do have to face your military contractors and wealthy donors. The military budget was due to be cut anyway and the wealthy only get a 2% sting on their tax bill. When you have that much money you could probably make up the difference by what's hiding in the couch. But once again it'll be the rest of us who will suffer. Another recession? I didn't think we got out of the last one yet.   

Maggie's drawers and how I got there

Funny how you can be looking for one bit of information and land up in a completely different place as in "how did I get here?".  I remember way back in the dark ages when I was a kid them selling war stamps. The idea being that kids could contribute to paying off the war debt from the prior decade by buying stamps for an album that could be traded for a war bond. The over all idea of both stamps and bonds never really caught on because during the war prices were fixed. People didn't have much savings and weren't about to tie it up for 5 years. 

Checking out rationing and shortages in this rat's maze of web surfing lead to how various states of recessions came about all stemming from oil shortages and major changes in our monetary policies. There was the "Nixon Shock" of the early 70s. How had I missed that bit of info having lived through it? And then there was the oil embargo that caused everybody to drop their speed limits from 75 or 80 down to 65 or 70 even though the requirement was 55. But it was Nixon's dropping of the gold standard that created a goodly chunk of the mess we face today. Prior to that all currencies could be tied to the price of an ounce of gold (side note why is ounce abbreviated oz. there's no z in ounce). What lead to this point in the maze of info gathering? It was a meeting in New Hampshire by the high mucky mucks of finance called the Bretton Woods Accord which established rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial powers. It also brought about the IMF which was supposed to bridge imbalances of payments. For anyone old enough may recall Nixon's attempt to put the brakes on inflation by instituting price and wage freezes which didn't work after he dumped the gold standard there was also Germany requiring a wheel barrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread prior to WWII. So now any attempts at stabilizing a world economy were now dashed since any government could now print as much money as it saw fit. (Careful what you wish for boys.)

From a layman's perspective we are now at a point where the world's economic situation is such that nobody really has the economic strength to bail out anybody else in this game of Monopoly. And again I wonder how I landed here. Oh yes, this post was supposed to be about the NRA and how they've missed their mark with their insistence of arming the entire populace. That in army parlance is known as "Maggies Drawers".

    

Happy Holidays

Sorry mind is temporarily on leave. Be back tomorrow... maybe.

Twas the night before Christmas... modern style

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the flat

Not a creature was stirring not even a rat.

The socks they were drying all flat on a mat,

In hopes that Santa would bring a new gat

The children were all nestled all snug in their beds 

With visions of Columbine all burned in their heads.

Mamma with her lugar and I with my glock had just settled down in our one room flop.

When out in the back alley there arose such flame 

I grabbed my glock and was ready to take aim

Away to the window I flew like a bash,

Tore down the curtains and broke the glass.

The street light glared on the dumpster below

I could just make out, what looked like a crow

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

but the pizza delivery guy complete with beer.

With a little old driver, towel on his head

I knew in a moment it must be Achmed

More rapid than sailors his curses they came

Damn Google maps, they must be to blame

Now with arm loads of pizzas his customers he called

Murphy and Johnson and McDonnell and all!

To the top of the stoop! To the end of the hall!

Get em while they're hot or before I fall! 

And then , in a twinkling, I heard on the stoop

The prancing and pawing sounded like a group.

As I holstered my weapon and was turning around,

Achmed knocked on my door, that familiar sound.

He was dressed all funny with turban and hat

I knew in a minute he was no rat

An arm load of pizzas he flung from his sack

But I had no money, he'd have to come back

His eyes how they glared blank as mack

you'd have thought he'd smoked a bowl full of crack. 

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

"You been drinkin again?" I said, "With that broad Mary?"

His droll little mouth how it looked rather queer

When I said what I did he gave me a sneer.

His kids he had brought they squirmed and slithered,

Mom must be sick and he'd found no sitter.

The cigar he held tightly in his teeth 

And he dropped ashes around, and about my feet. 

Tall and slender he was quite a sight

Must give bums and hobos a goodly fright.

But soon I realized there was nothing to dread,

He was neither a terrorist nor even a Fed.

But he spoke not a word but only a grumble

when he looked at his order book for which he fumbled.

As he rounded up his spawn, down the hall they did dash

He knew there'd be no tip I was out of cash

To the stoop to the steps they did race each and all

and as he drove out of sight he bellowed 

"Infidels you are all!"

What a strange little fellow.