Today's Ramblings

First there was this. This week is a follow up 2nd Amendment Saturday at TDS Guns. Actually it is a series of meetings where you can buy machine guns (semi-automatics and the LEGAL conversion kits) and meet the local Tea Party guys. Oh Joy! This disturbs me no end. Activists wiuth machine guns. 40 shot clips, 60 shot clips. I am sure Progressives are equally well-armed. Sure!

From the No Such Thing as Global Warming files--maybe we should have called it climate change. Extreme droughts in Texas, heat and cold in Oklahoma and so on. OMG, why are we even talking about this anymore. And here comes Rick Perry--nope, no global warming, no problem here and this from the state that has the highest chemical emissions of anywhere.

and finally, a cartoon that honors my degree.


rojo

More Not Toones

How about a homeowner bailout?

and most would not even want bonuses. It seems strange to me that to prevent bank failure and an imminent collapse of the economic system we gave, yes, GAVE, banks $700B for their bad investments. This caused a foreclosure crisis that in some areas went to 60%. Real estate values tanked.

And considering banking and loans is supposed to be a risky business with the interest proportional to the risk that alone seems really crazy. And executives took chunks of that $700B and gave themselves bonuses for a job well done instead of being thrown out on their asses. They did a bad job and we paid them bonuses to do that.

Well, here is a report I bet you have not heard of on the news. Basically it states pay off the $700B (same number, how about that) on underwater mortgages, people stay in their houses, it makes 1,000,000 jobs and the housing crisis is solved for a while.

Let's see, give bankers $700B (plus $1.2T in secret loans because they were still failing) and let them have continued employment and bonuses for a failed job of running a business, plus a housing and foreclosure crisis or pay down the difference on underwater mortgages and create jobs and have no housing crisis. Hmmmm, let me see, that is a tough choice.

Guess which one the Bush administration chose? and, yes, the bail out was Bush, not Obama.

rojo

No Music, Budget Stuff

We have been blasted by so many budget plans our brains are addled, yet the mainstream media has not covered the Progressive Caucus Budget plan which eliminates debt faster than any of them. Taxing the ultra-rich and corporations is just a step too far, I guess.

I mean who wants to tax the 1/2 of 1% that controls 40+% of the wealth in this country? aside from me.

rojo

More Sunday Toones



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Sunday Dance Toone!



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Percussion Time





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Old Farte Toones for a Sunday





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A Major Change

It now has Clean Water Act Protection again as navigable waterway!!!!!

Yay!

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Just Doing Some Thinking

US credit rating was downgraded by the firm that rated credit default swaps as AAA. So either the US is completely broke, or Wall Street is showing the lack of confidence in US leadership and is putting the squeeze on the country to make them buckle to their desires, whims whatever. Are they trying to break the will of the US so it will capitulate to their free market dreams?

If anyone other than Moody's or Standard and Poors rated the US economy, it might make more sense. These firms showed that they really can't predict markets. But their rating led to the run on Wall Street that led to the bail out where you and I paid not only for the asset loss, but for the bonuses for the executives that ran the economy off of the cliff. The blank sheet bail out of the Bush administration.

Much of the world's economy is based upon consumer confidence. It is the ultimate con game where futures are traded like so many baseball rookie cards. One or two may be worth something, the rest will be like the Mike De la Hoz rookie card, valuable to friends and family. If the world realized that economic gain is no longer backed by GDP and making things but on swaps and futures, they would be furious.

And there is little left in the world in terms of real value. I am beginning to think that the world banksters are trying get what is left of the gold before everyone realizes how bereft their con game is. Where is there real money? Ft. Knox, Denver Mint, places controlled by governments where there is gold. There already was a huge heist we paid for that went to banks and executives, plus a trillion that went into Iraq and Afghanistan and out of the US. I am beginning to think this may be the last battle and either the free marketers who owe no allegiance to anything other than their bank accounts (off shore accounts, anyone?) and our country. And they have gotten the Tea Partiers to back them.

Can those who believe in the best of the US at its most compassionate (yes, liberals) actually redirect the anger with truth?

rojo

Saturday Toone



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A Friday Toone




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Balkan Fun from New Orleans



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A Happy Toone



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OMFG


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/26/998951/-Video:-Lawrence-ODonnell-Calls-Out-Marsha-Blackburn-%28less-stress-edition%29

Go to 1:30 and see the Congresswoman destroyed!

rojo

Huh?

I wonder if everyone realizes that the 65% of the debt we are so afraid of is owned by citizens and Social Security? Only 10% is owned by China.

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Water Stuff

Gosh, a bunch of things—

I see those pesky Republican Congressmen just can’t wait to find 1958. They passed a resolution to defund the Clean Water Act. Yup, let’s go back to the good old days of burning rivers. (the text with the link is good) Yes, they want rivers to look like this. Unbelievable!

If Michelle Bachman suffers from “have to go get a shot of Demerol” headaches, then she really would have a hard time being President. She would need a dynamite VP with whom she works well. I know, because my wife has those.

I saw on the news that a mine in Sutter County has opened up and in the first year produced 10,000 ounces of gold. To get that, they have to crush 20,000 TONS of rock. That is a lot of spoils.

And I found a story that talks about how Teflon components were again found in drinking water near the factories and those who drink that water have an abnormally high cancer rate, but I lost the link. This is the best I can do.

rojo

Take Your ball and Go Home Day


Best of the day--A preacher at Rick Perry's Prayer conference states Japan's economy fails because emperor had sex with sun goddess demon.

Tea Party calls McConnell's debt ceiling idea "the Pontius Pilate Pass the Buck Act."

and Cantor, who is advocating a smaller deal, at one point demanded that Obama offer the details of his vision for a “grand bargain.”

“Where’s your paper?” he asked angrily.

Obama snapped back: “Frankly, your speaker has it. Am I dealing with him, or am I dealing with you?”
Is it time for the adult swim yet?

rojo

Dinosaur Time!


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Two on the Radio

Heard these while driving--





rojo

Bettin' Men

What do Paul Hornung, Alex Karras, Pete Rose and Eric Cantor have in common? Why, they are betting men. Alex Karras and Paul Hornung were immedaiately and indefinitely suspended for betting on football games when they played. Quick research does not state whether they bet on their own teams or not. My guess is, knowing human nature, they bet on their own team. Pete Rose states he bet on his own team while he was player and manager. He was suspended and may never, because of the disgrace, make the Hall of Fame, even though he was arguably one of the best players of the modern era.

These guys were suspended for betting on their own team to win. Other teams, too and perhaps they knew inside information on injuries. Who knows?

Then we have that self-righteous prig Eric Cantor. He declares that the debt ceiling can't be raised, yet, kept wars off the books for the previous administration. In debt talks, he walks away as a means to prevent new taxes from being enacted. Keep in mind that these are not "new taxes" but are the repeal of temporary tax breaks enacted when we had a surplus. Guess what, we have no surplus now.

I do not want to get into an argument over debt ceilings (read the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, I just did today. The debate is moot.) Nor do I want to get into an argument over the religion of supply side economics. Duh, there is more raw oil out there than there has been for years and the price is higher. There is a glut and the price goes up.

Finally, I refuse to argue over debts versus revenues. Taxes go down (revenue) and the debt climbs. Huh? No magic here. No belief system, just straight pragmatic reality.

What I want to discuss is Eric Cantor. Here is a man shaping the economy of the US and he walks out on talks to straighten it out. Guess what? He has invested in a fund that pays out good money if the US economy fails. He is betting on the failure of the US economy with his own money and he makes policy. Be kind of like being a manager of ball team and betting against your own team. Hornung, Karras and Rose got suspended for betting on their own teams.

What should be the penalty for betting on the failure of the US economy and also making policy that shapes the economy and then walking out on those talks.

Baseball and football know how to discipline their own. What about Congress?

Should Cantor be relieved of his duties for betting aginst the country while he serves it? Or at least be given the chance to get rid of those funds and being stricken from the role of fiscal responsibility and policy making for one year?

Just asking?

rojo

Weekend Drivel

I read in the paper that BoA and JP Morgan Chase are paying fines of nearly $150M for bad derivative training. So we bail them out at billions and they pay that small of a fine, no one is in jail and no one looses their job. Definitely a WTF minute. For the amount of money the bailout cost, almost all bad mortgages could have been bought and the mortgage payers would have OWNED the houses. Then the mortgages would not have been worthless. Then the banks would not have gone under requiring a bailout with no payback. And executives at the banks got multi-million dollar bonuses for their performance. What?????

And everyone's' 401ks became 101ks with the drop in value. Between drop in home values and 401k devaluation, I lost 150,000. That is not a lot by many others standards, but a lot to lose at almost 60. While we do not know exactly who did the deed and basically stole my $150,000 we know what class of people and where they worked. They get bonuses and do not go to jail. I have to live with my loss, but boy it would feel good to send some people to prison or at least get their bonuses back. I bet they make more then $250,000 and are defended by Cantor and Boehner. It is very, very frustrating to see the pirates walk the streets and while I still have a job and live in my house, others have not been so lucky.

I am amazed that there have not been more killings over this as people who lost everything retaliated. and that the banker class is not vilified is even more amazing. That Greenspan is still quoted publicly shocks me. Or Rumsfeld, or Cheney or those who thought the Iraq war would pay for itself.

That is me today, Mr. Cheery.

rojo

Patty Larkin




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Jane Scott!!!!

I saw yesterday in the Sacramento Bee that Jane Scott of Cleveland died. Sad. I can still remember booking bands with her firm as a youth.

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Happy 4th




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More Eastern



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Not Quite Polka Varieties





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Interesting

It is about commercial tomato growing in Florida and why the tomatoes taste bad.

Or why I grow a garden.

rojo

My Be a True Story




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Stolen Directly From Atrios

But, a great question

It isn't the most important point, but when in modern warfare a little freedom bombing can cost you $1 billion in a week it's worth asking just which of the war's advocates would spend $1 billion on any other "humanitarian" mission like, say, providing a reliable source of potable water for millions of people.

rojo

Hey, It's Friday!



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Somehow, It Just Doesn't Seem Fair

It may come as a shock to those too young to remember the FBI infiltrating the Black Panthers, the SDS and many other left wing groups, but here we go again. Yes, peaceniks of the world are now being targeted once again as terrorists. Yet this diatribe against US citizens that goes under the guise of right wing political talk radio gets no real investigation.

Yep, Neil Boortz can suggest the random killing of blacks and thugs and peace groups and labor unions get daytimers gone through and so on. For fomenting revolution and death to US citizens, you'd think the Patriot Act might just kick in. Weiner must retire, so goes the media call and yet those who want to foment killing just bop along with no punishment. Anyone who thinks that the right wing does not control much of the US, let alone the intelligence and decision making operations really do not have a firm grasp on reality. And where, oh where, is the liberal media on this one? Hint, it never existed.

I just don't even know what to say other than if you watch CNN you probably never saw either of these stories.

and now this. An academic who was a critic of Iraq was spied on by the CIA under the orders of President Bush. Thjis is treasonous and goes to the heart of the American dream. Are we political animals, political Darwinists, or a country that has hopes dreams and a Constitution?

rojo

Where Did All the Diversity of Life Go?

There is finally going to be a study of wetlands in the CA Central Valley. Too bad it is too late for the Tulare Lake Basin, which stretched in rainy years from Bakersfield to San Francisco, supported commercial fisheries, Native American tribes and a variety of wildlife. It was the largest lake west of the Mississippi and was drained to raise cotton (a small history to be found in the book The King of California.)

Granteed the central Valley is one of the largest agricultural areas in the US at this point, but I was saddened to see that the Kern River is often dry through Bakersfield, yet the irrigation ditches that parallel the river are full and once i tried to follow the King's River and it tends to end in irrigation ditches. They probably were once vibrant.

Sadly, you can't get back what was once there and has been destroyed for profit, at least not all of it. Hard to believe that there once was a huge wetland and not just an agricultural desert now subject to irrigation demands.

roj0

Listen to Cantor Whine

I see Eric Cantor really believes Timmy Geitner's deadline for raising the debt ceiling. He wants trillions in cuts before then. Okay, let's start with Congress health care, cut salary for Congress and cut defense to 1965 levels and raise taxes to 1965 levels. I could live with that. I am frustrated because so few Regressives see the issue as a revenue problem. Grrrrrr!!!!!

and yes I know that my suggestions are facetious, do they?

rojo

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Where do people fabricate this sort of lie and why does not the media press them for sources? and tehn we wonder why the electorate is ill-informed. Make them tell the truth. That is the Fourth Estates job!!!!!!!

and is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that gas prices have come down since oil companies were actually called to Congress to testify. My only question is where there backroom deals made so they could keep tax exemptions or we they totally embarrassed? Oil companies, embarrassed? Naw.

Thanks, Dems, for making them come.

rojo

This Week on "Treme"




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A not-too-subtle Reminder

Bordertown has reappeared! and with it the hopes and dreams of many. This little link will give you a taste. Yes, Bordertown. The series that started the whole urban fantasy genre that helps keep sane in a world where there is too much focus on material stuff and a lack of magick.

BTW, the first story in the new book just happens to embody the best of the series--a sense of displacement, longing, belonging and resolution. great fun.

rojo

In Memorium



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June Yamagishi

Featured in "Treme" two weeks ago.



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He May Have Flunked Logic

A man is arrested and admitted he was in town to kill someone last week but wasn't "in sync with God!!" (my exclamation points) What God and what is his idea of God? Did he miss the new Testament? You know, that stuff about LOVE.

rojo

Green Jobs?? No Way

The rub has always been alternative energy will stop traditional oil field and oil-based jobs. Well, yes, it does. But, it produces other new jobs based on alternative energy. Simple.

And I saw my first "bumpy" wind turbine blades being shipped yesterday. I have no idea where they were going but north on I-5, and there have been at least three separate shipments I have seen.

rojo

Since I Was Not Raptured

an oldie



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A Holy Crock of Shit!

I knew many priests at my high school who had affairs, got married, etc. None of them were pederasts. They did not chase young boys! This is an endemic problem in a culture that has not owned, faced up to, admitted, etc. Because of that it cannot be solved. It was not Woodstock!!! I mean, how many priests were actually there?

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Why Honor Non-Killers?

Rep. Hunter, get a life!

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For Sunday




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What a Coincidence!

What are the odds of two terrorists in the same town just down the road from military barracks in Pakistan?

Trouble is, we gave them the Bomb and now we got loose cannons who are ostensibly our allies being the allies of Al Queda. I am glad I do not have to figure this one out.

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Today's Toone




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Something You Don't See Everyday

A guy in a cowboy hat doing Zeppelin and others.




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Why Politics Sucks Now

Just a little out of touch with most folk!

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Coming Soon



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Undoing National Debt

From the Washington Post, a good story on how we turned a national surplus into a major debt in 10 years!!!!!! Makes you wish we had Gore's lockbox now, doesn't it? And when you see what portion of the debt is caused by what, why not roll back some of those programs--defense spending, Medicare prescription drug plan, wars off budget (that has been cleaned up already, not the wars, but at least they are on the budget now), Obama's program to build roads and infrastructure, TAX BREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and oil company subsidies.

If it were me, I would still fund infrastructure spending and alternative energy, even if it costs money and get money back from banks we bailed out to pay for it. If they can afford bonuses, they can pay back. And I would not cut NPR (less than 0.2% of debt), funds for the arts and school lunch programs.

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Today's Giggle




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Ryan's War

Best class warfare article I have read in a while.

rojo

But My Country Club's Golf Course Looks Divine!

You have to wonder how much overuse of pesticides and herbicides there are when they show up in drinking water. Yuck! Atrazine makes mutant frogs. I am sure that babies that are fed formula made with high atrazine cintent have their livers working overtime or are storing the poison in their fat.

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We Can Kill Rats Better and bobcats and owls

We all know the dangers of poisons (herbicides and pesticides) around the house. Kids, pets, etc.Now there is new one to worry about. This just may not be a better rat trap.

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