Under the Eldritch Tree

6/4 + Charter 08

2009-06-03T14:20:00.004Z

6/4 + Charter 08

镇压! 惨杀!

The Other Shoe!

2009-04-30T12:00:00.003Z

Here comes the collapse of the commercial property market--just when you were thinking things were looking a little bit better!

The New York Times

2009-04-12T20:23:00.006Z

The Once unassailable NY Times--"All the News that's fit to print"-- is leaning more to the Right than Pisa's tower!

How the mighty fall!

Smell the mendacity as she reaches the tipping point and goes over.

Obama following Dubya's Blunders?

2009-04-09T11:33:00.005Z

"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia!"

Iraq? Afghanistan?

Time to Get Back in the Pool?

2009-03-13T12:22:00.004Z

Buy low! Sell high! Buy now? Might be a good time to screw your courage to the sticking place; jump back in the pool; and make some of your money back.

Can You Name this Future Strongman?

2009-03-08T17:28:00.003Z

If you had a choice of daycare run by . . .

2009-02-22T17:34:00.007Z

If you had a choice of daycare run by

a) Rush Limbaugh

b) John Bolton

c) Alan Keyes

d) Dick Cheney

which one would most scare the crap out of you as a parent?

Dump Daschle; Appoint Dean

2009-01-31T01:52:00.003Z

Dr. Dean Delivered on Health Care for Vermont! USA next!

Health care reform needs a champion as pure as Galahad, not a tax evader!

I Vas Only Followink Orders!

2009-01-28T12:26:00.008Z

Alberto Gonzales

Dr Strangelove

Blagojevich = Delay = Abramoff?

2008-12-13T13:16:00.004Z

K Street Project, Delay's "Pay to Play," Abramoff's influence peddling machine, Cheney's no-bid contracts for Halliburton (KBR), and most recently Rod Blagojevich's dreams of lucre and/or influence from naming a successor to Obama's Senate seat, are all part of the disgusting, but pervasive culture of money and influence in American politics (of all stripes) and indicative of the unease that Obama's fund-raising methods may have engendered in the traditional influence-peddling/lobbyist-buying circles in DC.

See Brad Carson's note on his experiences in Congress.

It's Official! I was right on the money.

2008-12-02T01:10:00.005Z

On December 1, 2007, I wrote about how we were in RECESSION and how the Republicans were in denial! Now the government, exactly one year later, has admitted, I was right!

Where's the Verdammte Oversight?

2008-11-13T14:52:00.006Z

$290 billion of an authorized $700 billion bailout spent without a Verdammte single step to put the required oversight into place. Paulson, furthermore, is not using the money as billed!

Reportedly Bernanke, moreover, has loaned out $2,000,000,000,000.00 through the offices of the Fed, not only without oversight, but has refused even to disclose to whom the money went. Where is Congress?

Help, Police, ROBBERY!

Greenspan: Imaginationless Little Tin God

2008-10-23T20:35:00.008Z

The Emperor Greenspan, the little tin god with feet of clay, whose Congressional testimony was cited by Think Progress today, claimed he was “shocked” because his model “was working exceptionally well” for 40 years, adding that the crisis is “broader than anything I could have imagined”

The imaginationless Greenspan sold his soul, lock, stock, and barrel, to George Bush for reappointment to his post as Fed Chair and embraced Dubya's budget busting tax cuts for the rich while casting his silent, asssenting grace upon Dubya's "ownership society" that hurtled the economy down the slippery subprime slope. He helped, through his lack of vision, to strangle the Dot.com revolution by choking off the money supply imagining that there might be inflation around the corner without a thought to the consequences.

The Republican party lies en thrall of a band of small-minded, imaginationless, visionless leadership characterized by Dubya, McCain, Palin, Norquist, Wolfowitz, and many more who can imagine nothing but their rights to riches and power by dint of their birth and unschooled ignorance.

Back to the Future with Bush-Cheney-McCain-Palin

2008-10-13T00:13:00.014Z

Homeless with a Few Possessions Loaded on Your Car

Living in Hoovervilles-->Bushvilles

Foreclosures & Evacuation Sales

Former Professional Men Selling Apples on the Street for Nickles

"Drill, Drill, Drill!"

2008-10-06T23:48:00.007Z

"Drill, Drill, Drill!" Has been the Republican mantra as gasoline and oil prices skyrocketed. The Republicans ridiculed the Democrats who asserted that a major factor in the rise of oil prices, cheap money, was the culprit.

As the current financial crisis has unfolded, easily borrowed money has disappeared from the market place and oil prices have plummeted. The Republican have delivered some additional drilling grounds to their backers, BIG OIL, but B.O. is not satisfied with what it's gotten. Nevertheless, the market crisis has clearly demonstrated that most of the force of the price rise has been unbridled, UNREGULATED speculation!

Credit Default Swaps--UNREGULATED

2008-10-06T17:47:00.011Z

Credit Default Swaps! The trillion dollar shell game! They are secret, of unknown magnitude, and do not require any reserves to back them up! Totally unregulated because, we were told, because the huge financial institutions that would swap them and sell them and make huge profits off of them had brilliant people who wouldn't let anything bad happen.

These insane instruments allow many people, not directly involved, to buy and sell insurance all riding on whether or not some huge financial giant will default. It took a trillion dollars in liabilities and had them insured for nearly 60 trillion dollars. So when the first domino (default) happened, when a money market broke the buck, trillions came due and nobody could pay up and the dominoes all fell.

Now one of the engineers of this situation, Paulson, snookers us into an emergency bailout of $700 billion to help shield some of these speculators from the bitter fruit of their greed! And our idiot representatives in Congress with a few exceptions voted for this shell game bail out WHICH WILL NOT WORK!

The Economy is Fundamentally Sound

2008-10-02T12:17:00.003Z

Here's an interesting retrospective by Jim Horning:

click me

The Incredible HOLC to the Rescue?

2008-09-29T17:25:00.005Z

???

Time to bring back the HOLC [Home Owners' Loan Corporation]?????

Better than $700 billion for the greedy crooks of Wall Street!

Rumpelstiltscain--What's My Name?

2008-09-28T16:50:00.004Z

Will Rumplestiltscain stomp and disappear into the earth if, come January 2009, we do not pronounce his name "Mr. President"?

Winning

2008-09-27T19:44:00.009Z

John McCain harps on "winning" and "victory" in Iraq. He says we ought not to withdraw from Iraq until these are achieved. He never, however, defines what "winning" or "victory" in Iraq are. The irony is that the excuse to launch Bush's war of aggression against Iraq was WMD--they're not there! Victory?

One of Bush's real goals was the death of Saddam for trying to kill Bush I. Saddam is dead. Bush wins? Let's go home?

No, the next excuse was nation-building and democracy-building which Bush previously on the campain trail had wont to ridicule regularly before he invaded Iraq.

But the real reason is oil--Bush-Cheney and their oil partners want to take it from Iraq at fire sale prices. Oil greed is the cause of untold deaths and horrendous maimings of Americans, allies, Iraqis, and others. When we will win? When will there be victory?

After his retirement, Medal of Honor winner and former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Shoup a native son of Battleground, Indiana, stated the following in regards to the American misadventure in Southeast Asia: "I believe if we had, and would, keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. That they design and want. That they fight and work for...and not the American style, which they don't want. Not one crammed down their throats by the Americans."

I think we could have profitably added Southwest Asia to that observation. I'd add the old line revived in the "Princess Bride": "Never get involved in a ground war in Asia!"

Another Grandstand?

2008-09-25T22:44:00.005Z

Let me preface my remarks with the disclaimer that I am and have been against a bailout of Wall Street--more trickle down economics.

Nevertheless, how suspicious that there is a bipartisan agreement coming out of the Banking Committees and the White House, but when the players get to the White House, the House Republicans blow it up? Suspicious, because Straight Talkin', white knight, Senator John McCon gallops into DC and goes straight to a meeting with House Republicans! Then they go to the Republican-held White House and blow the deal up! Is this a set up to raise McCon's slipping brand by having him put Humpty Dumpty together again?

Skanderbeg & McCain

2008-09-25T22:14:00.005Z

When I was studying Russian at Rutgers in 1959 we had to attend a Russian language film series which included a film titled "Skanderbeg, Hero of Albania." It was about the battles of Skanderbeg who held the Ottoman Turks out of Albania for over 20 years in the 15th century.

Today John McCain rushed to Washington to bask in the glory of a compromise victory on financial bailout legislation that he made no contribution to and almost jeopardized in hope of lionizing himself. This was a repeat performance of his grandstanding in May, 2007, at the last minute of sensitive immigration legislation negotiations which led to a shouting McCain cursing John Cornyn (R-TX).

At the end of the Russian movie, in a scene after the victorious battles led by Skanderbeg against the Turks, Skanderbeg overhears a warrior who played some minor role in a battle, bragging about how heroic he was and Skanderbeg says of him, "He is like the mouse who pissed in the ocean and then roared he helped to make it."

I wonder what he might have said today about McCain in an interview on, say, "The Daily Show" tonight if he'd seen McCon's latest grandstanding?

The grandstanding was for naught, though, as McCain's party killed the agreement because they want welfare for the Wall Street tycoons, but no help for those losing their homes.

Unanticipated Consequences III

2008-09-25T13:37:00.006Z

The Congressional Budget Office sounded a claxon horn warning today cautioning that the bailout rather than helping could exacerbate the current crisis, forcing a series of additional collapses in the financial markets as inflated values carried on the books had to be clarified and shown for their real value (or lack thereof).

The Bush team failed to clean things up when Enron, et al., went under and have continued with their trickle down, unregulated Reagonomics. Their proposed bailout is the hugest trickle down ploy yet.

Vote "NO" on bailout!!

Vote "Yes" for mortgage relief and trickle up!
----------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Many economists warn against rush to bail!

Is China Poisoning the World? Is Bush helping?

2008-09-25T11:37:00.012Z

The melamine poisoned milk scandal in the Peoples Republic of China is only the latest in a long series of food exports from China to other parts of the world that are having negative health impacts and causing economic and diplomatic problems across the globe. We are learning that the milk problems have been known since 2007, but were covered up to keep out of the Beijing Olympics picture. Not only were babies and adults inChina harmed, but in Taiwan as well where PRC milk products are used in a variety of products such as baked goods, ice cream, etc.

Remember the serious problems with dog foods poisoned with melamine popping up all over Canada and the United States with a number of pets being killed or seriously disabled and huge veterinary expenses incurred?

This past February China-produced and exported frozen dumplings (potstickers) to Japan that were contaminated with two different nasty organophosphate pesticides, dichlorvos and methamphidos. Specialist determined that eating as few as two of the dumplings could result in negative health results.

In October, 2005 China-produced kimchi was found to be contaminated with parasitic round worm eggs. When the Republic of Korea halted imports of the contaminated product China threatened trade retaliation!

Counterfeited brands of toxic toothpaste spiked with diethylene glycol found its way from China to Panama and the US in May 2007.

Fish from China contaminated with the carcinogen malachite green was found in fish exported to the Republic of Korea.

In April 2005 of the 107 Chinese exports to the US which inspectors stopped at US ports there were included frozen catfish banned antibiotics, scallops and sardines with putrefying bacteria, mushrooms tainted with illegal pesticides, frozen breaded shrimp coated with the carcinogen nutrafura as an anti-bacterial. There have been toxic cosmetics, counterfeit Chinese herbs. The list goes on and on.

Yet, the Cheney-Bush administration has resisted all calls for tightening restrictions on Chinese imports. US businesses have become addicted to cheap Chinese products. For example, China now produces 80% of the world's ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and sells it cheaper than we can produce it for (dumping). Although relevant government agencies have propsed hundreds of regulations aimed at improving product safety for imports, almost all of these have been killed by the administration either at agency level or when the proposed rules come to the OMB.

Face it--they don't care about our health and well-being, just business--unregulated. Now has that caused problems elsewhere in our economy, too?

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered in Wasilla

2008-09-25T08:54:00.007Z

In a 2005 video, Palin's Pastor and congregation in Wasilla pray to protect her from witches.

Is this why the McCain campaign is now hiding Palin and trying to dump the VP debate? Wanting to avoid this issue getting play on a national media platform?

Does Palin have pastor problems, too?