This is a preloaded post from the library. I think I get my computer back Wednesday afternoon, so hopefully I won’t have been too out of the loop to start posting again. They called late today and said that they can get it back, but you never know for sure until you’re there.
In the back of my mind, I had been worried that all of the mayoral candidates would answer the questions all at once with my laptop in the shop, but not to worry Kate Martin is still the only one to answer.
I don’t know if I’ll be back in a groove to do an Open Thread on Thursday morning, but you can consider this one.
RIP, Slim Whitman.
I hated his music. But you know what? He represented the genre for a long time and still is considered representative of it. Everyone knows exactly who Slim Whitman is, and can tell instantly who the musician is when he comes on the radio, as he still does occasionally.
I was listening to NPR. During an interview with a writer from Michigan, he brought up a viewpoint
He grew up in a time where universal prosperity was considered the norm. Everyone could get a job that paid enough to raise a family and have some luxuries. If you got a college education, you would do even better.
Is the decay of that dream, that assumption that we still have universal prosperity and yet we don’t, what is causing some of the complete weirdness of American culture?
If a person is poor, and since we cling to the myth that we still have “universal prosperity”, they must be lazy and being poor on purpose, so we can punish them at will?
Because we are no longer able to attain universal prosperity, it’s the immigrants and the Illegal’s fault?
Because we are no longer able to attain universal prosperity, it’s that we are not godly enough? We just need to be more religious?
If the rich get richer, they will open the floodgates and universal prosperity will return?
Is that what makes anything that is tinged by socialism or unions so despised, because to admit we need them, means that universal prosperity is over? That EVERY individual making it on their own, is a thing of the past?
I just don’t see a rational discussion of “is universal prosperity over”
If it’s not over, why are so many people so scared?
If it’s not over, why does it seem so hard, for so many people?
If it is over, where do we go from here?
Slim Whitman wasn’t dead years ago?
@4 The formaldehyde leaked out of the jar this time.
Yee-haw!
Idaho-based company creates pork-infused bullets to defend against Islamic extremists – See more at: http://spokanefavs.com/culture.....W4iXO.dpuf
@5
You can tell they/ve been watching too much “True Blood” or some other vampire schlock.
# 2: Interesting thoughts.
I was watching Channel 9 last night and the biography of John D. Rockefeller. Once he cornered the oil refinery market & railroad oil shipment rates (as his first step toward cornering the entire oil market), there was a great deal of turmoil as small independent operators were forced to sell or go bankrupt, due to forces they didn’t understand. Rockefeller’s careful concealment of his actions behind levels of holding companies left them knowing something was wrong, but they didn’t know exactly what.
For many Americans, this was their first crisis in confidence as initiative, hard work, risk-taking, and thrift amounted to nothing in the face of the behomoth which became Standard Oil.
I see some similarities, as people cast about trying to find who is to blame. Rarely do they hit the correct target.
@7 They should have known something was wrong when Standard Oil trucks showed up in their territories giving away kerosene for free.
That’s usually a sign that someone, somewhere, is trying to drive you out of business.
Which is exactly what John D. did to his competitors, until he had no competitors left, and he then charged hapless consumers what he felt like charging which was a lot. Kerosene suddenly became very, very expensive.
That was prior to President Ronnie. Now our middle class is #27 in the world.
Big Lie: America Doesn’t Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World…We’re Ranked 27th!
America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires and our wealthiest citizens have garnered more of the planet’s riches than any other group in the world. We even have hedge fund managers who make in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years!
This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that’s what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us.
Unfortunately, it’s a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people.
Okay, as this is an open thread, the stock market plunged today after Bernanke promised to keep printing money until Kingdom Come, or at least this fall, whichever occurs first. The Dow dived 205 points and I lost $5,400 on paper today; but not to worry, I’ll get it back next week.
A while back, one of our most idiotic trolls, Ten Years After, who appears to be drunk on Ron Paul koolaid, mocked me for saying it’s easy to make 8% a year in the stock market. (This came up in the context of a discussion about pension funds, which generally use 8% as a target return rate on their investments.) All I can say in response is that, even after today’s decline, I’m hard pressed to find any stocks in my portfolio (I own 40 different stocks) that are not up at least 20% annualized since Jan. 1. Sure, my paper wealth went down slightly today, but that happens all the time — the stock market fluctuates, you know?
The reality is the Fed’s money printing will keep making me richer and richer. It’s also making the rich richer and richer, too, but it’s not doing much of anything for average Americans. Which is the best reason I can think of for raising taxes on the rich, and on investment gains and income, because they didn’t earn that money — the Federal Reserve gave it to them, and it’s only fair that we who profit from government policy should give a little bit of it back so Bernanke can get his salary and keep making us richer and richer. As for America’s working stiffs, well, all I can say is it’s better not to be a working stiff. If you’re not a capitalist like me, and you have to work for a living, you’re pretty much screwed.
# 10: Where’s that “correction” that people kept talking about over the last six months? I’m accumulating cash that I no longer invest in my 401(K) with plans to invest it in an IRA. But with the stock market continuing to rise (except not today), I’m still waiting for my golden opportunity to buy cheap.
@11 “I’m still waiting for my golden opportunity to buy cheap.”
Tomorrow morning.
Believe me, I’ve been trying to chase this “correction” myself, but the market just won’t correct, because dip buyers chop off any incipient correction at the knees before it can get traction. The only thing today’s 206-point drop did was wipe out Monday’s and yesterday’s gains. The Dow closed higher today than it did last Friday.
You definitely should put that money in an IRA. You can’t buy stocks at 2009 or 2011 prices anymore, so don’t hold out for that. Look for reasonably priced brand-name blue chips that regularly raise their dividends. Nobody gives away quality, so expect to pay for it. Stocks I’m willing to recommend right now at today’s prices:
For future capital gains, Caterpillar.
For dividend growth, Chevron.
For a slightly more speculative stock that pays a higher yield and has more upside potential, British Petroleum.
For a sleep-well-at-night dividend grower, McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, or Johnson & Johnson.
If you have less than $100,000 or fewer than 10 stocks in your IRA, I’d probably recommend signing up for your companies DRIP (dividend reinvestment) plans.
More rightwingers acting out their weird fantasies:
“Two upstate New York men, one of them said to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, plotted to build a truck-mounted, industrial-strength X-ray weapon to kill ‘enemies of Israel’ by poisoning them with radiation, federal authorities said Wednesday.
“One of them boasted that he could build a ‘Hiroshima light switch’ and that ‘everything with respiration would be dead by morning,’ authorities said. …
“The men scoped out Muslims and other groups as potential targets and apparently got as far as building a trigger for the device ….
“Crawford, who authorities said made the boast about Hiroshima, is a member of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the KKK, the complaint said. He referred to Muslims as ‘medical waste,’ the complaint said.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....eapon?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I thought Kluxies hate Jews? Maybe that was in the old days, now they love Israel. That’s progress, I guess, sorta kinda I think, but I’m not sure … society changes … what’s next, one of these guys hitting on puddy?
Businesses are dishonest. But you already knew, didn’t you?
http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_ne.....owers?lite
http://www.today.com/news/buye.....6C10367331
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Lying banks, phony sales, hidden fees, deceptive ads — the list is endless. Is this what they teach in business schools? I wouldn’t know, because I never went to B-school.
And yet another TeaPottie superhero bites the dust.
Why am I not surprised in the least?
Second Amendment Report
“Police say three people are dead and a fourth is injured in a shooting at a condominium building in Louisville, Ky.”
http://seattletimes.com/html/n.....oting.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Oh, what’s the use? My saying something won’t stop you humans. What can I say? To you humans, a gun without a target is like a penis without a vagina — if you don’t have one, you’ll find one.
I guess one could argue in his defense that other RETHUGS love the fetus and hate the child and that makes him better than the average RETHUG.
Hey IDIOT BOY, what kind of RETHUG are you?
Do you hate the child or love the child?
Maybe it’s OK if dad did it this way, because he spent MONEY to get in. Illegals who just walk across are doing it the cheap way, and that’s not allowed?