Feeling richer does not actually make you richer.
Get a Job, Yada Yada: Republicans in the House are blocking renewal of unemployment benefits in order to get an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and force those freeloaders getting $310 a week to see the light and go beg for a job at the Grab and Run. Oh, right. They're not hiring.
Weekly Lotto Numbers: Initial unemployment claims = 439,000, a slight increase from last week and nowhere near being good. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent, while 151,000 new jobs were added to the economy last month. In that the economy needs about 120,000 new jobs each month to keep up with population growth, not much headway is being made.
The Unexamined Life: The world-wide bailout-based economy continues as stock markets rally, commodities rebound and bondholders smile in anticipation of the EU/IMF rescue of Irish Banks and their European bondholders. Who's going to pay for all this? Who cares?
The Grand Tour: Does the grand European experiment with the euro and the European Community end with a slow motion bank run in Ireland? Let us hope not if only because such an outcome would be unimaginably disastrous. The cost to the Europe for propping up Ireland, Portugal, Greece, and Spain is miniscule compared to the costs of dissolving the EU.
Amateur Hour: Ben Bernanke, trying out a new routine for his stand-up comedy act, now claims that the $600 billion QEII purchases of Treasury Bonds from private banks will create a million jobs.
Through the Mirror: Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Warren Buffett for his lifetime achievement of amassing more money than it would take to rebuild Haiti.
Asked and Answered: Will the examination of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) be a whitewash? Yes, of course.
American Family Values: Reacting to Sergeant Salvatore Giunta's receipt of the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of American soldiers, Bryan Fischer, director of the American Family Association, claimed “We have feminized the Medal of Honor. So the question is: when are we going to start awarding the Medal of Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things so our families can sleep safely at night?”
X-Rays and Pat Downs: Far more public anger has been elicited by the TSA pat downs that was ever expressed over US torture of Muslims. Depends on whose privates are being pummeled.
Heavy Lifting: Despite all their noise, do not expect the GOP to vote for deficit reduction. The name of the game is to dodge the blame. No matter that the GOP beats the drum for austerity, the object is to get the Democrats to pass the measure. Cutting popular programs and raising taxes – no matter how necessary - will never be greeted with cheers by the voters.
Sideshow: Portugal's chief spy resigned after the government's austerity budget cut 7 of the Defense Strategic Intelligence Service's 11 foreign offices. If the US cut the CIA’s budget by 60% would the world be better off?
Pipe Dreams: Folks are jumping on IEA's admission that peak oil was reached in 2006 as an excuse to spread a lot of misinformation about how turning tar sands into oil will save the day. Nonsense. They claim that Canadian oil sands provide North America with more oil than Saudi Arabia. True, but in 2008 Saudi Arabia produced about 8.5 mbd and Alberta only about 1.3 mbd. It’s the world market that counts. In the US, the Bakken formation's production grew from 100 kbd to 300kbd in only ten years! That's about how much oil drips onto the parking lot at Cowboy Stadium on any given Sunday. Some claim Alberta has 180 billion barrels of oil hidden in their tar sands. Maybe so, but that's only a six year supply for the world and they can't get it out that fast. The hope is to produce 5 mbd from tar sands by 2030 – that'll meet about 5% of the world’s demand. Sorry about running on, but I get pretty tired of being told that shale oil and tar sands are going to save industrialized civilization. They are not. As far as I can tell, nothing is.
Nightstand: Wendell Potter's 'Deadly Spin' explains in detail how health insurers spend a large part of the public's premiums on profits, propaganda and politicians.
Porn O'Graph: Why is the market going higher as more people cash out of stocks?
9 comments:
Podesta: Obama Can Use ‘Armed Forces’ to Push Progressive Agenda
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pode...essive-agenda/
The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the president from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point.
“I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.”
How does one “move the country forward”? In the center’s report, Podesta explains that Obama can use executive orders, rulemaking, and even the armed forces “to accomplish important change” and that such means “should not be underestimated.”
I just love the fact that the Demoncratic Party is 100% behind using the Armed Forces to enact public policy. This should make you progressives so very proud.
Concerning the rage regarding the TSA, I find it funny that it's the so called liberals of the Demoncratic Party who are defending the breach of our 4th Amendment Right to illegal search and seizure which has nothing to do with protecting us from MUSLIM TERRORISTS. I could list all the attacks over the decades, but you already know the story although you refuse to acknowledge such. At the same time you mock Christians with what seems like delight. Big Sis is even thinking of allowing Muslim Women to self examine while everyone else goes to the groping line. How does it feel to be defending fascism?
@1:
How does it feel to set up a big straw man and then burn it?
What sane person (red team or blue team) would support the use of armed forces to push an agenda in a democracy?
If sincerely believe your own anrgy, foaming-at-the-mouth rants, you're pretty far removed from clinical sanity.
-Lobo
Lobo - You know better than to feed the strays.
@CKM:
Ah yes, I do. But sometimes one wonders whether it's a misguided but intelligent person who could use a small push in the right direction instead of a subspecies of the common forum troll.
- Lobo
re: saving industrial civilization
I say good riddance. It is both killing the planet and destroying our humanity. I do not think it can be reformed.
Just look at the corporate control of US politics. How else would one expect self interested corporate entities to act?
I apologize for being anon this time, but I'm still a corporate slave.
"Program Note: The best mini-series of the season – When Irish Eyes Are Crying – continues to enthrall viewers from around the world. Will the government drink the Kool Aid? Will the Irish bend once more to the yoke of foreign masters? Can the Irish peasantry support both the government (with a deficit equal to 32% of GDP) and the banks and the euro?"
Feed the strays? LOL! Just like a progressive/socialist/fascist to ignore that which makes any sense at all, but Hell you are always spending other people's money, so why give a rat's ass how they spend it.
Concerning the Irish, quit worrying about them and realize our deficit to GDP is 10%+, and our national debt approaches 100% of GDP, and our public and private debt as a nation is equal to 370% of GDP. Your time is coming, so pity yourself and not the Irish.
Did you ever think of going to work for the TSA because you would fit right in. Power over the citizenry in the name of safety. You are right out there with Adolph, Uncle Joe and Mao with this policy. You and the so called progressives that is!
Anony 9.11 I don't mind you being "anonymous" as far as posting - but I would like you to use a signature name - as I generally do and as Lobo did above. That way we know who we're talking to, more or less and depending on the decency of the commenter.
I know that some sites go through all sorts of gyrations on the identity thing, and I understand their desire to keep drivel at a minimum. But it is frustrating.
For example, there's great site "The Cynical Tendency" that I'd love to leave comments on but cannot figure out how to navigate the barriers.
So while I sympathise with those who are wasting their employers time, annonymously, please use a nom-de-comment. Use your boss' nicknme.
ckm
ckm, your site is a must read everyday. Thanks for all your efforts.
Sorry about running on, but I get pretty tired of being told that shale oil and tar sands are going to save industrialized civilization. They are not. As far as I can tell, nothing is.
If oil extraction from the tar sands and shale becomes economically feasible, many of us will have already died of hunger. Not that they care, of course, because Peak Oil will be a profit rocket to the moon for Big Oil. The solution is likely thorium, but we won't hear about that or years.
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