Anagram: Wouldn’t It Be Nice/ Obedient Cult Win

       Wouldn’t it be nice if I had the time to write about what I was thinking about writing about today.  It does not look like I have that kind of time.  I’m back at work, and, well, There’s work to be done.  Lots of it.  So rather than talking about the Bible and what I thought when reading it, or the Stock market swoon and how even Warren Buffett is not immune to the wrath of the financial storms this nation is facing, I’ll just drop a few videos on you here. 

    

        Well… just a little talk.  Not on the specific thought i had about the bible part though, that is too complex a subject to touch on here, that deserves an entire article unto itself.  It was going to be on egalitarianism in the Bible.  If you like though, you can look at what I was looking at when I was struck by the thought to write this particular piece beginning here. That is just the starting point, I read entirely from there to chapter 26 while thinking of this piece. There will be more searching through the holy book, of that you can be certain.

     Yes, kinda odd for me to be reading the Bible, but I was watching Rachel Maddow last night talking to two very successful conservative christian writers on her show, whose names currently escape me talking about, amongst other things, the end times, and the Antichrist, and how Barack Obama can’t be the Antichrist, but might be some pre-cursor to his coming. Something Like that.  Nut Jobs the two of them, but with thought processes worthy of examination.

   Next up, A Bloomberg video from last night, talking about the contracting economy, and the GDP,  and the stimulus, amongst other things.

 

     I was going to throw a music video in, but I am done with music video, at least for the moment.   I have had a great many music viddys that I have thrown in my blogs since I started posting viddys here on wordpress have that whole “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim” bullshit leave a hole in this blog.  I could change each one, all 214 posts that have videos that may need to be removed or reposted in some fashion, but that would take a great deal more time than I have at my disposal.

   That’s It from here.  Later!

Today’s Nuggets, from Deuteronomy:  chapter 24; 14: Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:
15: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.

Chapter 27; 26: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Anagram: Friday Musings/ Surfing Dismay

       Fun with Socialism:  A video to start things off.

         

    I do not believe that government is evil. The belief that the democrats, trying to use spending to fix the problems created by years of inefficiency within the system, and damage done by the system to America is somehow socialist is to me a bit silly.  I have in past given a simple proof of the incorrectness of this viewpoint.  I will do it again.  Textbook definition of socialism, followed by the actual plan of the president, to show simply and definitively that the two concepts simply do not mesh.  He may be many things, but socialist is not one of them.  The Definition courtesy of dictionary.com
  

Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

     Now, let’s take a look at what the president is doing.  He is spending money. More than any president before him.  That is not socialism, that is spending money to try to get the economy revived. There is no attempt in any way to vest control or ownership of anything whatsoever in the community as a whole by doing this.

     Let’s look to see if we can see any attempt here at creating or using socialism or socialist tendencies.  To do that we need to have the document at our disposal.  To read the entirety of the American Recovery and Reinvestment  Act of 2009, click here.

       If you go through the document with an eye for detail you will notice a few things.  Any money, ANY MONEY AT ALL, given to any government entity, regardless of what that entity is, is answerable to the people, meaning that reports must be submitted and given publicly, where anyone can peruse them and find out what has been done with it, and must follow the laws of this nation.  Is there an element of control there? Absolutely, as it should be. The government is after all giving funds away for very specific reasons, and we want to make sure it is spent in such a way as we can see exactly what it being spent where.  But it is not used to control or vest anything within the government, it is used to help America  and Americans outside the government.   Egalitarian? Yes. Socialist? Not so much. 

     Example:  There are reports given every 45 days in the case of the secretary of the army using funds for the army corp of engineers (pgs 20-23).  Those reports must be made public and are given in such a way as we can make sure we know exactly where our money is going, in this particular case, flood control and building levies and the like.  No vesting ownership and control in the community as a whole in any way shape or form. The government controls the flow of money to aid citizens for their direct benefit, but there is no attempt to control the distribution of land here. Capital? Yes, but that capital is being used not to vest ownership and control, but to assist those who do have ownership and control of the land, I.E., the people who live there.

     This is just a small example of the type of spending within the bill and the way funds within it are allocated.  Another example follows.

      The Department of Education. “Education for the disadvantaged.”  (pg.67-70)You may dislike in general spending money, and specifically dislike this money going to this specific place,but there is nothing socialist here.  No attempt to control anything by the government here, it gives money to help poor people get a decent education.  No attempt to control social organization through use of funding.  It does not say any specific course must be taught.  That is up to the education system that gets the money itself, the local municipality, not the feds. 

      Even if there is federal statute involved.

    You may dislike this bill.  You may hate this President.  You may think liberals are evil.  You may think it irresponsible to spend like this.  You may think this president is going to destroy America.  You may dislike the fact there are people in this nation that think this type of spending is necessary, but there is one thing you cannot say.  That there are any socialist tendencies here.  There just aren’t, either in this bill or in this administration.  The reason i used this bill as an example is because this bill, I think, exemplifies the type of administration this President brings to America, and as such is representative of his ideas and ideals. 

     And if this isn’t Socialist, and it isn’t, you simply cannot call him a socialist and have the charge stick.  Egalitarian? Yes.  Socialist? Not so much.  A Video with Milton Friedman, talking to Phil Donahue in 1982, about capitalism.  He makes a point which I think our president would entirely agree, that capitalism is good.

     

    That’s it for me.  Catch ya later.

Today’s nuggets, via wikiquote:  As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways… socialism is a new form of slavery.  Alexis De Tocqueville

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.   Adam Smith

Anagram: Apocalyptic/ A Typical Cop

       It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.  Banks can’t really say that.  Heard news just before I left home to come into work for the first time in over two weeks that looked just plain nasty, and all of it from the FDIC. 

      

       The Number of Problem Banks has risen sharply, from 171 last quarter to 252 this quarter. 

      The problem banks, whose names are not realased to protect them from bank runs hold combined assets of $159,000,000,000. 

      The FDIC has set aside $22,000,000,000 in FDIC insurance fund money for bank failures. 

      The Banking Industry lost $26,200,000,000 last quarter. It was the first time the Industry has lost money in any quarter in 19 years. 

     And there is more.  Ouch.   I am surprised that the DJIA only fell 88.81 points today.  When the news came out, the Dow was up 35 or so points.  As Sheila Bair was announcing this, as the news filtered down to the floor towards the end of the press conference, the market started to drop. It had lost 60 points by the time she finished talking.  Now I don’t know that that was the only market stressor that had an effect on the market at that point in the day, but it must have had some effect there. 

     But the jobs and housing numbers and durable good numbers that came out earlier in the day had some effect on the market. Without those gloomy numbers, the market would have absorbed that news more easily, I think.  Without that the market would have been up a helluva lot more than 35 or so points before the FDIC news hit.

     I’ll tell you one thing, i’m  sure there won’t be a run on the banks like there was a run on money markets after Lehman’s collapse last september.  For all that there is a lot of bad news there, it isn’t to my mind big enough, and has not had enough of a news splash, for it to have that kind of an effect.

      A final video, from CNBC, of Ron Paul giving an opening statement to the banking committee prior to Questioning Ben Bernanke. The person who put this video up title the damn thing “THIS IS NOT GOING AS PLANNED” as if CNBC was somehow afraid of airing the opening statement of Ron Paul, despite the fact that they just had.  Silly paranoid people. 

    

  I have work to do, so that’s about it for me.  Later.

Today’s Nuggets, Via wikiquote:  The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. John Kenneth Galbraith

I went to the bank and went over my savings. I found out I have all the money that I’ll ever need. If I die tomorrow. Henny Youngman.

Anagram: I’d Much Rather/ Humid Charter

      I’d Much Rather be wrong while guided by my principles than right using someone else’s. 

       I have thought this particular thought a thousand times while conversing with a variety of people over the years for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes because I was struck with how wrong they were, how blind to what others have seen and gone through, sometimes because I’ve gotten the feeling that the person I was speaking to just seemed out of touch, or just plain stupid.  There is a reason I put this in here. Let’s watch together and listen to Tom DeLay, being…well…Tom DeLay.

   

     Tom is silly.  He seems to think that the Government doing it’s job is taking responsibility for your actions. Maybe it’s me, but it sounds to me like Tom really meant “Government wants to make my billionaire banker buddies more responsible for their actions and I don’t like that”.  He called the president a hypocrite for finding  two trillion dollars to cut out of the budget, when he signed a bill that spends 787 billion dollars.  Yeah, because jump starting the economy when the entire crux of the move is to JUMP START THE ECONOMY is somehow hypocritical.  Yes i know he was going in a different direction then that, but It does not matter, The move was designed to help the economy, not Tom DeLay and his texas billionaire buddies.  He still seems to think that cutting taxes to the point of starving the government so his friends can make money by the shovel full regardless of the effect on the economy is a good thing. 

     Ya Know, looking back at that first sentence, it looks like Tom thinks the same thing.  The only issue is the man doesn’t actually have principles, he has partisan wants that he thinks are American, when they in actuality are the personification of greed, both on a personal and political level.

       I’d much rather vote while guided by my principles that pick a winner just because he looks like one. 

    Ken Mitchell looked for all the world like the person who would win the City Council seat here on Staten Island’s north shore.  But i decided to read what each of the candidates had in mind.  After reading the thoughts and ideas of several people running in a special election yesterday, I picked the apparently almost entirely unheard of Donald Pagano.  Of the slightly more than 10,000 people who voted yesterday, I was one of 383 people who voted for this man.  3% of the people voted for him.  Ken Mitchell, who garnered 40% of the vote, looks to have won the race by 241 votes, but the second place finisher Debi Rose who got 38%, (whom i almost voted for) refuses to concede.

    Most everyone in this race talked of transportation, health care, and education. The thing that pushed me to vote for Mister Pagano is that he is the only one who spoke of getting a state funded hospital for Staten Island, the only borough in the city of New York without one.  The other major candidates did not speak to this issue. As a matter of fact, it was Debi Rose’s lack of any coherent plan on this front that pushed me away from voting for her. 

    I could have voted for either of these two, but went with who I thought was the best candidate.  He lsot and that sucks, but I’m glad i gave him my vote.  I’d frankly like to see whoever is declared the winner take up the fight for a state funded hospital here on Staten Island.

    I’d much rather not watch the Financial markets fall apart. I don’t think I’m alone here. 

     I was looking at the plan for the stress tests for the Banks today.  For those who don’t know, part of the test is as follows.  Put the banks books through the following test.  The test will see how the banks will respond if the Nation’s GDP losses 2% this year and recovers that 2% next year.  

     Wow.  That seems very optimistic. If this is the stress test, it would, to my mind be a mess to use this, due to extreme and undue optimism of viewpoint not borne out by current trends.  Most people’s projections up to this point have been badly off.  No one, at the beginning of last year, thought we would be where we are now.   No one thought the market would be near 7,000.  Most projections I saw from that point saw a  DJIA nearer to 11 or 12 thousand for end of 2008.  No one thought unemployment would be over 7%.  No one thought we would see a run on money market accounts to the tune of ½ trillion dollars in one day last September. 

      Now, to be truthful, I simply do not have enough information to know whether the banks stress test numbers are realistic projections, or if it is hopelessly optimistic, or what.  Luckily, there is a second test which takes a more negative tack, with a loss of 3.3% of GDP this year and little to no recovery of that next year.   The tests should be as negative as possible, to make sure we aren’t setting them up for failure due to an unrealistic optimism for our future.  Negative viewpoints here can help to point out who is weaker than they think.  If you asked each of these banks, they would tell you they are fine….right until they implode.  Why do you think so many banks have had to be taken over this year, because they are doing well?  They were weaker than they let on, and we the people, through the auspices of the Treasury department, need to make sure that the Bigger banks won’t do the same. 

     OK. Id’ much rather go hang out with my wife.  Just a quick Viddy a few quotes and I’m done, and I can go hang. 

     Bill Isaac, President of the Financial consulting company Secura Group and former FDIC Chairman, talking about Stress Tests on Bloomberg tv this morning.

    

     That’s it for me. Later!

Today’s Nuggets, by Robert A. Heinlein, Via Wikiquote:   Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. 

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

Anagram: Reckoning Day/ Caring Donkey

  

 

   If I took anything away from the Presidents first speech in front of both houses of congress, it was the man knows what he wants, and he is hell bent on getting it done, and is certain, like most of us, that America can succeed.  If I took anything away from the Republicans response on the floor to the speech, it was that they don’t like the fact that we have a president who knows what he wants and is hell bent on getting it.  An excerpt from the presidents speech tonight, it does cut off rather abruptly, but what is there is nice.

   

        I’m not really going to speak about the presidents speech all that much today.  A great many others will do that.  But I did take a few other things away from this speech.  There was a lot more on education in this speech than I have heard from any other speech in front of both houses in a great many years, and I have listened to many of them.  He made it plain as the day is long that WE DO NOT TORTURE.  That was nice to hear.  His focus on the economy was laser sharp, he was dead on with his assessments of what must be done.  But most of all what came through was his getting through that he has confidence that America has the strength to get through the tough times and have us come out stronger on the other end of this mess.

    This, ladies and gentlemen is EXACTLY what America needed to hear.  Well done, Mister President.

    Bobby Jindal really tried to reach for the same place, hang his hat on the same idea, and failed.  Not through lack of trying but through simple partisan mishandling.  He referenced Hurricane Katrina. The way he did this was…well, tactless and wrong.  The Implication he made, at least how I read it, was that since government (the one he is in, BTW) could not do anything good for HIS PEOPLE then, it can’t do any good FOR AMERICA now.  Nonononono.  Bush and you Republicans are the ones who f***** things up.  That is why your political party is out of power.  We Democrats know how to do things right. We don’t disrespect the strength that government can bring to bear to do good for the people.   Aaaaaaaand… He also spoke of the debunked line about the Maglev line from L.A. to Vegas, like it was real.  Dumbass. Unbelievable dumbass.  Watch and see for yourself.

    

        The President gave a magnificent speech, Gov. Jindal less so.  That’s it for the coverage of the speech from this end But if you want more complete coverage, there are a plethora of other places to get full complete coverage of the speech, C-span, or CNN, or MSNBC are all good.   Twitter is jam packed with it tonight, and I am going to go get my twitter on right now….well in a few minutes, I have a few more things to do here.

       Ya know, one more blurb about the Speech….in particular its effect on the markets.  The Futures market has dropped fairly sharply fairly quickly.  It was more or less even before the start of the speech.  I just checked, and the DJIA futures were down 50 points 20 minutes after the speech ended.  Ouch.  A vote of no confidence from wall street.  But that can’t be surprising can it? The Republic party, the party of “No Regulation” made their excesses possible, and now that we have a president who is promising a new era of responsibility and regulation, they aren’t exactly happy about it.

       Just to let you know, there was an election here on Staten Island to fill the seat vacated when Michale McMahon won Vito Fossella’s old House seat.  Results are apparently not in yet, this is the first time in living memory that paper ballots were used and not the old voting machines.  Results are not in yet.  For your Information I voted for Donald Pagano, over Debi Rose and Ken Mitchell and the other 3 candidates. I’ll give you results as I get them. 

    Time to twitter.  Look for me.   http://twitter.com/MikeTheRhino

    That’s it for me.  Later!

Today’s Nuggets, Via wikiquote:  Yes, we are on the way back — not by mere chance, not by a turn of the cycle. We are coming back more soundly than ever before because we planned it that way, and don’t let anybody tell you differently.  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose.  We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower