Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays to all our readers......hope the news get's better next year......
1/ Hmmmm.....Matt Taibbi with a challenging article that says the reason there have been no prosecutions of bankers and others responsible for the meltdown is that the President and Tim Geithner have backed off from going after these bastards because they are afraid aggressive prosecutions might destabilise the financial system.....
So Matt takes that theory apart and explains why it has the opposite effect of what Obama intended.....most interesting story.....
2/ News flash - for all of us that think the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were the best and/or the most entertaining movies ever made, here's a treat - the trailer for "The Hobbit" is out.....
3/ Fascinating theory from Paul Krugman - China is almost at the crest of a real estate bubble, and when it breaks noone knows what will happen.....very good article.......
Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated “shadow banking” neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting — and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.
Am I describing Japan at the end of the 1980s? Or am I describing America in 2007? I could be. But right now I’m talking about China, which is emerging as another danger spot in a world economy that really, really doesn’t need this right now.
I’ve been reluctant to weigh in on the Chinese situation, in part because it’s so hard to know what’s really happening. All economic statistics are best seen as a peculiarly boring form of science fiction, but China’s numbers are more fictional than most. I’d turn to real China experts for guidance, but no two experts seem to be telling the same story.
Still, even the official data are troubling — and recent news is sufficiently dramatic to ring alarm bells.
Personal side note - what's the definition of a bubble? Is it when the price of a starter home is out of reach of the average young couple who get married and want to buy a house? The real estate chain starts at the bottom.
If it is, then we have seen this a few months ago in Toronto where house prices are almost New York levels, and recently in both Australia and New Zealand where a nice house in Sydney or Auckland will start at 1/2 a million........maybe we are spoiled here in Florida where a nice 3/2 in a decent 'hood' will start at $150k......
4/ Here's something you don't know - if you are picked for a jury trial one of the possible verdicts you can bring in is "jury nullification". It's in the Constitution!
I don't know about you but the example they give, a prosecution for possession of small amounts of weed, would get my nullification vote.
Another would be prosecuting a 17 year old boy for any "normal" sexual thing with a consenting 15 year old girl....if he is found guilty he goes on the sex offender list and his life is effectively over.
There's a line for these sex offender cases, and we know where it is.....and it isn't about trying to stamp out teenage hormones by branding horny boys sex offenders.....
Don't get me wrong - there are some cases [pedophiles] where they should just find them guilty and shoot them on the spot.....
IF you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote “not guilty” — even if you think the defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a juror, you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer.
The information I have just provided — about a constitutional doctrine called “jury nullification” — is absolutely true. But if federal prosecutors in New York get their way, telling the truth to potential jurors could result in a six-month prison sentence.
5/ A SNL joke-off, and look who came back for this skit.....talk about star power! Three minutes of fun......
6/ An excellent column from Robyn Blumner in the St. Pete Times on what the Tea Party controlled House wants in the extension of the tax cuts, which depending on what media you watch you may [or may not] know about.
This was written last Sunday, and it is only tonight [Thursday] that the Republicans in the House have caved and will vote for the extension tomorrow after some incredible pressure from all "sane" Republicans.
If you voted for one of the extreme right wing House members [ours is Webster] and you are happy you did I assume you're rich.....otherwise you are being screwed.......
In one tidy package, the Republican leadership in Congress has presented their priorities to the American people: Protect millionaires, industrial polluters, greedy doctors and fossil-fuel refiners while sacrificing the interests of federal workers and the long-term unemployed. Those were the highlights of the GOP-controlled House plan that passed Tuesday to salvage the payroll tax holiday.
Congressional Republicans say it's a crime against all that is sacred (read Grover Norquist) to ask millionaires to pay a bit more in taxes, but they were reluctant to extend a payroll tax holiday that would add about $1,000 to the average working family's pay next year. House Speaker John Boehner had to lard up the extension of the payroll tax cut with what has been called "ideological candy" to line up his party's stalwarts. What goodies did they choose?
7/ A story on one of the many things that are corrupt in Washington - lobbyists who are former House or Senate members, using their influence and connections on behalf of corporations.....and it's not just Republicans - many Democrats are supping at the trough as well.....
Last week, an inside-the-Beltway newsletter, First Street,published a unique top-ten list. It reveals which former members of Congress are among the most important Washington lobbyists.
The first four on the list — Senator John Breaux, of Louisiana (who served in Congress from 1972 to 2005), Representative Tom Downey, of New York (1974 to 1993), Representative Victor Fazio, of California (1979 to 1999), and former Democratic House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (1977 to 2005) – are all members of the Democratic Party, which historically has represented the bottom half of the income distribution.
These former Democratic members of the House and Senate are on the cutting edge of a revolution in the political culture of the nation’s capitol. Without attracting the attention of the general public, the career path of retired legislators has transformed the thinking of those still in Congress, Democrat and Republican alike.
When Washington politicians leave office, many, if not most, no longer return home. Instead, they head straight to the lucrative world of K Street, the nation’s lobbying corridor, which runs through the heart of Washington. A former member of the House or Senate with even modest seniority can now expect to walk into a job paying up to $1 million or more a year – and much more when bonuses are paid for bringing in new clients.
The Center for Responsive Politics has found that 370 former members are in the influence-peddling business, including at least 285 who are now registered as federal lobbyists. The remaining 85 who are not formally registered as lobbyists are described by the center’s website, OpenSecrets.org, as providing “strategic advice” to corporate clients or as performing work classified as public relations.
For Obama and Democratic leaders who are trying to set an election agenda focused on income inequality, wage stagnation, and downward mobility for the middle and lower class, the prominence of Democratic lobbyists has become problematic.
8/ Here is a 4 minute clip from ABC News [Diane Sawyer] about a house in Montana made entirely with US products - an entire house! They say our manufacturing base is gone.....not entirely - it's on life support but it's good to see the corporate media on this story...........
9/ I wish I could stay up for Jimmy Kimmel, as he has some amusing segments in his show, but considerately he put out a "best of the year" compilation of one of his funnier bits - "Unnecessary censorship".....here's 2 minutes of the highlights......
10/ Remember the article on long term care insurance a couple of weeks ago? Here is a follow-up on this topic.....conclusion is "don't buy it!"
After my previous post on the topic, a friend passed along a recent paper by Jeffrey Brown and Amy Finkelstein in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. I recommend reading it if you are interested in the topic because it provides a lot of good background information and explains some of why the market is the way it is.
They make some similar points to mine. For example (p. 138):
“First, the organization and delivery of long-term care is likely to change over the decades, so it is uncertain whether the policy bought today will cover what the consumer wants out of the choices available in 40 years. Second, why start paying premiums now when there is some chance that by the time long-term care is needed in several decades, the public sector may have substantially expanded its insurance coverage? A third concern is about counterparty risk. While insurance companies are good at pooling and hence insuring idiosyncratic risk, they may be less able to hedge the aggregate risks of rising long-term care utilization or long-term care costs over decades. In turn, potential buyers of such insurance may be discouraged by the risk of future premium increases and/or insurance company insolvency.”
11/ Paramore - love this band and their great lead singer Hayley Williams - here is "The Only Exception" - this video is almost like theater, acting out the lyrics, telling a love story......excellent song, video and warm fuzzies.....
12/ Amusing column from Gail Collins - reproductive rights indeed, and it seems the right wing really don't like women......old white guys telling ladies how to "behave" .....
Right now you’re probably asking yourself: What’s up with reproductive rights this holiday season?
And the answer is: a lot! This is America, and we don’t restrict our battles over people’s sex lives to 11 months a year.
Just this week in Washington, House Republicans were thwarted in their attempt to tie the latest bill providing money to keep the government going with the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Those two things aren’t necessarily linked in most citizens’ minds, but everything reminds the House Republicans of their hatred of Planned Parenthood. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. “Jingle Bells.” A partridge in a pear tree.
Their rancor has been a sort of a Christmas present to Planned Parenthood itself. “It’s been such a stunning year,” said Cecile Richards, the organization’s perpetually embattled president. “More than a million new activists joined Planned Parenthood, and our approval rating is at 68 percent. Congress is I think at 9.” (It may be time to stop pointing out that you have a higher approval rating than Congress. Really, everything has a higher approval rating than Congress. Termites. Zombies. Donald Trump.)
Meanwhile, the Republican candidates had another Iowa debate in which Mitt Romney was questioned about his abortion flip-flop and answered thusly:
“With regards to abortion, I had the experience of coming into office, running for governor, saying, you know, I’m going to keep the laws as they exist in the state. And they were pro-choice laws. So, effectively, I was pro-choice.” Then, he added, the Legislature passed a new law on stem-cell research that gave him an opening to totally transform.
13/ Think of the process of fracking, which causes earthquakes and pollutes the water supply......to keep this destructive process going the gas industry has to buy off a lot of politicians, national and local....
Environmentalists and other well-adjusted citizens of Earth, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, thanks to illuminating documentaries like Josh Fox's Gasland and determined pressure from activists in and out of the mainstream, the toxic ravages of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, are no longer the shale gas sector's dirty secret.
The bad news is that, thanks to the United States' morally bankrupt political system and its Supreme Court's reality-defying ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the fracking lobby's power of the purse is greater than it has ever.
That power was depressingly dissected in Common Cause's recent report, Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets, which explained that earnings junkies like Exxon, Koch and more have paid House and Senate politicians on select energy and commerce committees nearly $750 million over the last decade to smother regulatory oversight of the expanding fracking practice, whose complete chemical components still remain a relative mystery. It was evidently money well spent. During that lobbying stretch, the Environmental Protection Agency scientifically linked fracking with water poisoning in Wyoming, and probably isn't far from siding with the increasing ranks of those who blame fracking for earthquakes from Oklahoma to Ohio to England. And yet beyond manageable fines and stock devaluations, no one from the industry has yet to seriously face the music for groundwater contamination and worse.
For that, you can thank the industry's "Halliburton loophole," so named for former Vice-President Dick Cheney's insistence that his former company's fracking be stripped of EPA regulation. Years and billions later, money still talks and safety still walks in our peak oil century tapping, like veins, what fossil fuel deposits we have left, from natural gas to tar sands. And they do so in a decidedly nonpartisan fashion.
"The natural gas industry has spent billions on lobbying and advertising to convince Americans that natural gas is a cleaner, cheaper alternative to oil,"
14/ If you liked "Borat", you may be interested in Sasha Baron Cohen's new movie "The Dictator"....here's the trailer and it's truly goofy and stupid.......same as Borat......
If you liked "Borat" but hated his next movie "Bruno" [me] you may be amused by this.....or not. I guess we'll have to wait for the release and the reviews.....
15/ Good grief - what is happening to South Florida now? Giant gator-eating pythons.....poisonous bufo frogs....and now monster snails. I dare you to watch the video of these horrors without barfing.....
Miami is being invaded again, and we're not talking about snowbirds -- though this problem moves just as slowly. More than 33,000 giant African land snails have been captured since the invasive species began taking over parts of the city and suburbs in September, officials say, and the fight continues on.
One of the largest snails in the world, the giant African land snail (or GALS, as the state calls them)can reach up to 8 inches in length and nearly 5 inches in diameter. GALS can live up to nine years, boast both male and female reproductive organs, and reproduce rapidly, each snail laying about 1,200 eggs per year. The nocturnal creepers are also a menace to more than 500 crops, eat the stucco off of houses, and known to carry a parasite charmingly called 'rat lungworm'.
As if that resume wasn't strong enough, GALS can also carry a strain of meningitis that can be transfered to humans.
16/ Quietly, stealthily, sneakily, Rick and the boys are giving untold millions of our money to large corporations.....just because they can......
Programs that sound "good" and environmentally friendly are corrupted, just like everything else in Florida. If the boys can steal a buck, they will, and who's going to stop them? Pam Bondi?
While Council and her family didn’t benefit from the state fund, major corporations are benefitting in a big way from that pool of public money.
Large corporations now own hundreds of the contaminated properties eligible for state cleanup money, according to records analyzed by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Since the program began 20 years ago, $64.8 million has been spent on 407 Circle K Stores properties, $63.9 million on 325 7-Eleven sites, and $46.9 million on 184 ExxonMobil Oil facilities.
The state only lists the current owner of the property, so whether those companies purchased the properties before or after the state paid to clean the contamination is unknown.
Over 20 percent of the $2.8 billion paid from the fund since 1990 has gone to mitigate environmental pollution at properties now owned by 20 companies, accounting for $624 million paid out for 2,716 properties, according to state records analyzed by FCIR.
Those 20 companies currently have 2,042 properties that are in the process of being cleaned or waiting for cleanup with the public funds, indicating Florida drivers could be paying millions more to clean up pollution for those companies.
“That’s just another example of corporate welfare that is not in the public interest,” said Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, a group that works to strengthen clean water laws in Florida. “These are successful corporations. Why is this not part of their cost of doing business?
Todays video - The Amazing Tug Toner.......don't blame me if you think it's rude - I got it from network TV.....
Todays "boss" joke
My boss phoned me today.
He said "Is everything okay at the office?"
I said "Yes, it's all under control. It's been a very busy day, I haven't stopped for a minute.""Can you do me a favor?" he asked.
I said "Of course, anything, what is it?"
He said "Hurry up and take your shot, I'm right behind you on the 7th hole."
Todays guy sexist joke
DISTINCTION BETWEEN GUTS AND BALLS
To those of you who are nit-pickers about the meaning of words: there is a medical distinction between Guts and Balls. We've all heard about people having Guts or Balls, but do you really know the difference between them?
In an effort to keep you informed, here are the definitions:
GUTS - is arriving home late, after a night out with the boys, being met by your wife with a broom, and having the Guts to ask, are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?
BALLS - is coming home late after a night out with the boys, smelling of perfume and beer, with lipstick on your collar, and slapping your wife on the bottom and having the Balls to say, you're next, chubby.
I hope this clears up any confusion on the definitions.
Medically speaking, there is no difference in the outcome. Both result in death.
Something different today - a spot of poetry......
THE WOMAN POEM:
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who's not a creep.
One who's handsome, smart, and strong.
One who loves to listen long.
One who thinks before he speaks.
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's rich and self-employed,
And when I spend, won't be annoyed.
Will pull out my chair and hold my hand.
Massage my feet and help me stand.
Oh, send a king to make me queen.
A man who loves to cook and clean.
I pray this man will love no other.
And relish visits with my mother.
------------------------------
THE MAN POEM:
I pray for a deaf-mute nymphomaniac gymnast with
big boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me hunting, fishing and drinking.
This doesn't rhyme and I don't give a rats ass.
I pray for a deaf-mute nymphomaniac gymnast with
big boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me hunting, fishing and drinking.
This doesn't rhyme and I don't give a rats ass.
