Cynical Nation

We had to read Portrait of a Lady in college. Man, that was one dull read.

"These debates (unless they do contain a crash into the wall) seldom really move the numbers in an election. This race, not surprisingly, is being driven by the economy. Right or wrong, the party that controls the white house gets the blame or the credit for economic conditions. Consequently, John McCain's poll numbers are following the DJIA into the sewer. What's another debate going to change, really?" (BNJ)


Can't argue with ANY of that....and given McCain's proclivities, I'm not all that broken up about it.

I said waaaaay back in May;

"There are two relatively grim possibilities as I see it, the first is a McCain win and with a Dem Congress expiring the tax cuts (the resulting LOWER revenues and higher government expenditures = economic havoc). While McCain uses Blue Dog Dems to push through a SC nomination or two, and to keep Congress from overriding a few of his vetoes, while he cooperates with Libs on another "Shamnesty" Bill and watches a Carter-like economic implosion, which incredibly enough SOME in the MSM will call "the McCain economy" - thereby sharing some of the blame for the economic disaster with the Congressional Liberals!

"That, on the whole, is a horrific scenario from my perspective!...

"...To me, it's a virtual "pick your poison," and aside from the very real possibility that a naive "negotiated settlement" on the WoT may bring about a second, perhaps even more devastating attack on U.S. soil, I'd think the latter scenario (an Obama win) might be the bitter tonic that a spoiled America needs.

"A scenario with a McCain allowing the GOP to share the blame for an imploding economy is, to me, probably the most frightening, given how little most people seem to understand economics."

Posted by: JMK | May 23, 2008 11:27 PM


From a Supply-Side/market-based position this choice is terrible either way.

In fact, "Compassionate (Kempian) Conservatism" has been as disastrous as Carter's Keynesianism, only it's been more malignant because it's been more stealthy.

In some ways the Obama choice, in picking between these choices isn't so bad...it seems to be a "Let's hit bottom fast and hard and then return to Conservative principles and right the ship after that."

The charge among some Conservatives and paleo-Libertarians that "There be no ship left to right in four years," is overly pessimistic., in my view.

Even if we had to start over from a Carteresque debacle, we could certainly do it....it was done very effectively over the quarter century after Carter wratched up the Misery Index to a post-Great Depression high!

We (the regular folks) haven't even felt the Misery Index YET....but we're about to.

When major cities start laying off teachers, cops, firefighters and other government workers (like the 1970s), people who largely took those jobs for their "security," watch out.

If I'm fortunate, I may be retired on a tax-exempt disability pension....which brings up yet ANOTHER upcoming tsunami.

All those Municipal pension funds are mostly managed by various Hedge Funds, many of which deliver high returns with high-risk investments - if/when governments have to default on all those pensions and resort to Ford and GM-styled "pension buyouts," LOOK OUT.

All those cops and teachers getting F'd over.....we could see "blood in the streets."

Municipal pension outlays are already bankrupting many small and moderate-sized cities and they haven't even started to go belly up, which many COULD.

AFTER January (OK, economists say after June '09 - as it takes six months after the new term starts for its economic policies to be felt) it'll ALL be on the next administration and the majority Democrat Congress.

One thing I DON'T want to hear is any complaints by the likes of Barely, BW or Fred, etc. over what looks like a worsening economy, with an increasingly more miserable Misery Index coming our way.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/09/spying.on.americans/

JMK, wrong about Bush's spying on Americans, wrong about the Supply Side economics that crashed our markets ... just wrong about everything.

Stop listening to Rush, open your eyes, and think for yourself if you can, poor boy.

Did I ever post anything denying that the NSA listened in (listened in, is more accurate than "spying" don't you think?) on converstaions both FROM "suspect foreign portals TO the U.S. and vice versa?

No, I did not.

You'll NEVER find a single one.

I DID post that (1) I SUPPORTED (and STILL SUPPORT those measures) and (2) the NSA has been listening in on communications (calls, emails, etc.) FROM "suspect foreign portals" TO the U.S. since FISA was introduced back in 1978 or '79.

The ONLY thing the current administration DID was to expand that already established power to communications (calls, emails, etc.) FROM the U.S. TO "suspect foreign portals."

FROM the article YOU just posted, "A terrorist surveillance program instituted by the Bush administration allows the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order -- as long as one party to the call is a terror suspect."

I and probably 90% of the rest of America support that.

"NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel said the agency's Inspector General has investigated some of the allegations and found them "unsubstantiated." Other accusations are still being looked at, she said.

"The NSA operates in "strict accordance with U.S. laws and regulations," she said. "Any allegation of wrongdoing by employees is thoroughly investigated" and if misconduct is discovered, "we take swift and certain remedial action."

So you find Jim Bamford author of Shadow Factory and two other books on the NSA and who "was a party to an unsuccessful ACLU lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Terrorist Surveillance Program," more believable, while I find the NSA's Judith Emmel more so.

How is that, in any way surprising....considering that you're a natural conspiracy theorist (Bo Gritz devotee and 9-11 Truther and all)?

So was it the military guys, or their wives and children who were the suspected terrorists?

Answer: none of the above, Bush is just snooping, most likely checking for Repug loyalty so he knows who to promote and pass over in the military ranks.

Only a traitor would support violating the constitution with the Patriot Act and spying on Americans without oversight.

Stop lying, stupid, there were no terrorists, suspected terrorist, or non-Americans on those calls, and they knew it. Learn to read.

Hey, look at the FREE MARKET working itself out! That Supply Side Economics is really roaring along, isn't it? Good thing we got those pesky government regulators out of the FREE MARKET, LOL.

I only hope your life savings has been lost, but even if it has you would just lie about it anyway.

"Only a traitor would support violating the constitution with the Patriot Act and spying on Americans without oversight." (Barely Hanging)


I'm virtually certain that just about every American supports "A terrorist surveillance program instituted...to allow the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order - as long as one party to the callers is a terror suspect."

And EVERY ONE of those monitored calls was said to be either TO/FROM a "suspect foreign portal."

I probably should've defined that last term for you earlier, but "suspect foreign portal" means a phone number or email address that had been previously connected to terrorists or terror sympathizers.

Even Jim Bamford has acknowledged that calls from the U.S. to relatives in Italy, Germany, Turkey, or calls between U.S. and foreign journalists were rarely, if ever monitored, UNLESS the family-member, foreign journalist or information provider had been connected to terrorism or terrorist groups.


"Hey, look at the FREE MARKET working itself out! That Supply Side Economics is really roaring along, isn't it? Good thing we got those pesky government regulators out of the FREE MARKET..." (Barely Hanging)

Well, there are TWO major errors in your thi-...emoting, (1) We don't have a free market, in fact, we haven't had a fre market in America since 1912 (Not even Professor Barandt would disagree with that...and I say that ONLY because he was one of the instructors I had who taught about Bernard Baruch's and J P Morgan's role in bringing the REGULATED market economy to the U.S. in 1912) and (2) The current credit crisis was CAUSED by government intervention in the mortgage market!

Aside from those two critical errors, you did good though!

Here's what ahppened, the CRA was ineptly re-tooled with about 90% Democratic and 65% Republican support (a lot of Republicans have bought into "the ownership society" peddled by Jack Kemp) in 1995 and that was used to force banks to offer more "subprime loans" (subprime = loans TO subprime/unqualified borrowers, not the interest rates), in effect instituting "affirmative action in mortgaging."

Two GSE's (Fannie and Freddie) bought up and guaranteed those subprime/high-risk loans and later FRAUDULENTLY re-packaged them as "government-backed mortgage securities," KNOWING that the federal government was not able to back/guarantee the $1 TRILLION in bad paper that was written and now packaged.

The fact that many banks KNEW that was "bad debt" and saw the chance to get rich off what was, in effect, a government-backed ponzi scheme, didn't make the problem LESS a failure of government.

I've seen all this reported on by ABC, CBS and CNN, so it seems that those who're blaming private institutions and "the free market" for a government-created debacle apparently don't understand what's being reported to them. Sadly, that's about 40% or more of the American people now-a-days, who are "economically illiterate."

Maybe you're more visual-based, so here's a very quick overview of the whole affair; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64


"I only hope your life savings has been lost, but even if it has you would just lie about it anyway." (Barely Hanging)

Are you saying you wish me ill?

Well, that's not at all surprising considering your severe limitations, emotionally and otherwise.

I can actually imagine you steaming, "If I only had that JMK here in front of me, I'd...

Yeah, "WHAT?"

If you had me in front of you Barely, you'd either wind up fawing all over me or peeing down your leg. Trust me on this Barely, you have a little too much fat inside your thighs to....ahem...."man-up."

At any rate, I AM in fact, just about fully invested in the stock market and I even bought in heavily (for me) on Monday and Tuesday afternoons....apparently I should've waited until Friday.

I'm about 85% in stocks right now and 10% into commodities. I've even upped my 401-K and 457 (I have both) contributions this week! I was going to do that anyway in expectation of the coming tax hikes no matter which one of the current candidates gets in, but now seemed like an opportune time, given some of these historically low prices (you can buy Microsoft for under $22!)

NOW is the time to buy!

You can't time the bottom. Some say it's usually around 40% market loss, but that's not hard and fast and it's really hard to time. We'll know when we hit bottom when it begins to rise and by then it's going to be too late to get some of the best bargains.

You can get GM for under $5/share NOW.

I don't believe that will last!

GM has 12% of the emerging Chinese car market. Like Mercedes, they now sell MORE cars in China than they do the U.S.

Unlike yourself, I actually want others (whether I like them or not) to do well Barely, but to do well, you have to have at least a rudimentary understanding of what's going on - the credit crisis is a failure of government (specifically two GSEs, but all those in Congress and elsewhere who sought to, in effect, "create credit out of thin air." If you don't understand that, your hopeless.

As to the market - if you had, say, $100,000 in the stock market on September 30th, 2008 and the market lost 40% (which it has) since, YOU haven't lost a penny, let alone $40,000, UNLESS you're foolish enough to cash in low when the market tanks.

In fact, when markets do tank (and they ALL do) THAT'S the very best time to BUY.

I never understood how so many people could buy high and sell low, but now I do! Misinformed people (like yourself) wind up buying at the peak when the "Boom Market" has been hyped for a year or two, not wanting to trust "the gold rush" touted by the financial pages, then, so they get in late and buy high. Then, when the market falls, such people are quick to "jump out" and cash in at some of the lowest points!

Then they typically complain that "The stock market is a rigged game."

Well, you know what they say, "You can lead a fool to knowledge, but you can't make him think."

Look up "chutzpah" in the dictionary and you will see a group portrait of the current senate. Where do I get a job where I can screw everything up, pocket a lot of $, blame somebody else, and take charge of the investigation?
This is the best possible demonstration of the principle of "doublethink".
I used to have faith in the wisdom and common sense of the average American voter, but PC and diversity training have put an end to that.
We're screwed.
Bury your guns&gold folks. It's time again.

"Bury your guns&gold folks. It's time again." Paul Moore)


And we haven't even started paying for all this yet!

There've been a few layoffs in the financial sector, but nothing compared to what's coming.

City and State revenues depend on private sector revenues...without them, there'll be huge layoffs in the public sector.

The next "major crisis" is already breaking and no one's paying attention - Municipal pension funds are underfunded and some ar invested in far more risky vehicles than they were traditionally.

Massive Municipal layoffs and public pensions suffering the same buyouts that GM and Ford recently had to resort to?

That's goona make for a LOT of unhappy teachers, social-workers, emergency service workers, etc.

The worst is when it hits the cops.

Municipal governments tend to lay off workers the way the body shuts down when in shock (hypoperfusion) - the brain (in government's case elected officials and their staffs) LAST. Well before that, the first organ shut down is the largest organ, the skin (social services, the building department, etc), after that other emergency services, etc.

The last before the government officials themselves is the police (their buffer) and reasonably so, as one cop I knew once said, "They KNOW that if they f*#k with our pensions (in NYC cops are eligible for 3/4s of their salary tax-free in disability pensions) we (cops) won't take to the s treets with pickett signs, we'll take to the streets with guns..."

I am not, optimisitic about the long-term future of such under-funded pension funds and I would expect deep Municipla budget cuts in cities large and small...now THAT would creat some real economic dislocation among some of the most spoiled Americans around - government-workers.

The thing that bothers me is what has Obama done for his peeps in Chicago? He does not have a resume. How can someone vote for hope when the man barely gave any to his own constituents?