Of course, you really can’t believe anything you see in this video, or anywhere else on HA, because I’m just one of those “amen bloggers.” So move along… nothing to see here.
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You are actually right. One shouldn’t believe what they read here. Yes, they should read what you have to say, but then they should read what others have to say. They should read as much as they can on a subject, pro and con, from all sides, then make up their own mind. That’s what I do. And I also take notice of what isn’t written about on this blog. I take notice of when you remain silent on issues. Often times, that tells me more about a person’s character than what they do say.
make up their own mind. That’s what I do.
And your mind is oriented firmly on the corrupt, inept right wing. But surely you must know that next to no one gives a flying crap what you do.
YLB, unlike the partisans on this blog, I condemn the act, not the party. That’s the difference. Some on this blog remain silent when the person who is corrupt has a D behind their name. To me, that is cowardly and contemptible. I do not, and will never, respect a person like that.
@1 All arguments are not equal. All “facts” are not equally true.
@3 “remain silent when the person who is corrupt has a D behind their name”
That’s simply a lie, and you are a liar attempting to peddle the transparent wingnut falsehood that “Democrats are as bad as we are.”
Many of us have criticized Democrats caught in misbehavior.
You never see a Republican criticized for lying or corruption on wingnut blogs. The only thing you ever see is ideological criticisms — if wingnuts diss a Republican, it’s for not being far enough right. That’s all.
re 1: Your argument would be more convincing with specific incidents and links to your sources.
You claim to have done your homework. Show us.
The FACT is that right wingers ALWAYS forgive their OWN transgressions and spend 98% of their time pointing fingers at everyone else. Every right winger on this board is a certified hypocrite and frankly, I can’t imagine any Dem here caring whether or not they are respected by thugs, criminals, cowards and traitors like the GOP as represented here.
Now for the rest of the story –
The video proves that the GOP is against helping the “terrorists” except when it’s the GOP doing the helping.
Remember that the bin Laden family is VERY closely tied to the Bush family. Nuff said.
@3 (continued) Given how many cowardly and contempible acts Republicans have committed over the last 7 1/2 years, and given your total silence about them, you are laughable.
So if I created a blog where I only spoke out about black crime, and talked about how violent they are, but either ignored white crime, or only spoke about whites glowingly, you would respect that and think it reasonable? No, you would not.
And with that, I believe I just won this argument.
Case closed.
I see in the fishwrapper that King County courts and prosecutors are warning the public of deep budget cuts in law enforcement that will result in police no longer responding to property crimes. Only serious crimes against persons will be investigated and charged.
The problem is revenues from county taxes are not keep up with inflation.
Personally, I’m not willing to pay higher property taxes — I can’t. My property taxes have tripled since I’ve lived here; the value of my property certainly hasn’t, and my income most certainly hasn’t. And, being a senior citizen on a non-inflation-adjusted income faced with double-digit inflation in nearly all my other expenses, I simply can’t afford to give more to the government. The villain here is a tax system that takes money from people who don’t have it while dramatically undertaxing the affluent segments of society. According to the Gates Commission’s report, low income residents of Washington pay more than 4 times as much of their income in state and local taxes as the richest 20%.
While I will miss the police services we’ve come to take for granted, there is a cheaper way to deal with burglars and home invaders than paying crushing taxes. It’s made by Remington and costs about 25 cents per incident response.*
* Hey, just kidding! NRA humor. Being a liberal, naturally I’ll give them a chance to find Jesus and turn their lives around before I finish them off. About 20 seconds ought to be sufficient — if they can’t come to Jesus in that amount of time, they never will.
@9 You lost the argument because your claim that we never criticize Democrats is pure unadulterated bullshit.
Poor, poor Grumpy Grampy.
This is NOT going to go well. He could be looking at a defeat of Goldwater proportions.
Don’t you people have jobs?
Silly question…of course you don’t. It’s the same HorsesAss troll population here 24/7. I guess you’re holding out for Obama to finally do the “income redistribution” that you libs love so much. Afterall, why earn what you can when you can have someone else do the heavy lifting and share the weath right?
Now, back to our regularly scheduled HA Neanderthal navel-gazing programming.
When are we going to get tax reform?
re 9: You can’t argue with an idiot because the idiot does not have the capacity to realize he’s an idiot.
And you are an idiot.
Troll,
I’m certain that you read a lot of perspectives. That’s not what most of us are critical of with respect to you. What we’re critical of is the fact that you often don’t have a goddamn clue what you’re talking about. Just because you read a lot of blogs does not mean that you understand the issues. You’ve said some of the flat-out stupidest things in the comment threads of HorsesAss over the past month or so.
While I agree that a person who cannot see both sides of an issue cannot claim real intelligence (and I’d love to see you try to find instances where I’ve displayed such hypocrisy), one is not automatically deemed intelligent simply by making an attempt to see both sides.
You know, Troll…
…just knock yourself out with your racist blog and your dumbass conflations and your “Dori Monson Talking Points” (and secret de-coder ring??).
Fact is…you losers have had it ALL YOUR OWN WAY for the last 15-20 years! And the machinery of governance and administration and all our checks and balances are ccompletely fucked up.
Your guys did it, Charlie…not mine.
So in the words of a great man….”Bye Bye GOP!”
The looooooong national nightmare is just about over.
01.20.09
Troll @1,
I’ve always encouraged people to read me in the context of my very open partisanship, and then make up their minds for their own. But apparently, Postman believes that “amen bloggers” like me should just be dismissed out of hand, regardless of whether the post is well argued or well supported by the facts.
But you know, he’s a professional journalist, so he probably knows best.
re 13: Shift gears for a second here, Rick, and explain your thoughts on outsourcing all of our production jobs.
You won’t see your logical fallacy because your opinions are compartmentalized. You do not rely on logic, but on your feelings. If you ‘feel’ that a source is authoritative, you will believe it even though it makes no sense.
Just like the Jesus freak who tried to explain to me that God would punish me for not accepting his unconditional love.
I asked him what the word ‘unconditional’ meant and he looked at me with a wily grin and said: “You are trying to confuse me, aren’t you?”
Are all City of Seattle workers idiots?
First the sewage mix up last week or so and now the clean up guys were told to clean up grafitti and actually painted over a decades old mural??? WTF? Where do they find these people with absolutely NO COMMON SENSE???
@20
Are you willing to pay higher taxes (or higher usage fees) in order to be able to hire more competent people?
@18…Goldy…
It’s one thing to be a partisan blogger/commentator/columnist/et al, but it’s another entirely to denounce and decry what you see as the sins of those with whom you not just disagree but deride all the while propping up or dismissing the same, if not worse, when it comes home to stick on your shoe.
In the final analysis, it has nothing to do with journalistic norms or guidlines and everything to do with admitting the truth when it stares you in the face.
If it’s credibility you seek and a place at the opinion-molding table, then maybe it’s best not to emulate the editorial policies of Izvestia – there is a difference between strong opinion and rank propoganda.
Still…I’m looking forward to watching you and Grover Norquist debate at the Outback in a few days.
G’day!
The Piper
@13 “Don’t you people have jobs?”
Rickie, I’m glad you brought this up! Let’s discuss. Working is just too much hassle. First, you have to apply for the job and travel to the interview at your own expense. In the interview, they’ll probably ask you trick questions that have nothing to do with your knowledge and abilities. And they’ll very likely run a background check through some company like ChoicePoint, and there’s a good chance you’ll be denied the job because of inaccurate information in your dossier that you don’t even know about. (The companies that sell background checks to employers are pretty sloppy, and they keep their files secret, so you have no way of knowing if they slandered you.) The interviewers may even send you to the john to piss in a cup in front of a bored female nurse who stands there and watches you to make sure you don’t switch your piss with a buddy who hands you a cup of his piss through the window!
But let’s say they hire you. You’ll have to get up at 5:30 a.m. and commute to work at your own expense, dealing with traffic hassles along the way. When you arrive, you’ll be put in a windowless cubicle in a building that may have mold or bad air. You’ll find the work experience itself completely dehumanizing — you’ll be treated as a number on an organization chart, not as a rabbit or a human being.
And, of course, you’ll be overworked. You’ll be given a production quota, and the workload of two people. Your results will be carefully measured and inspected at frequent intervals by ivory tower types who get paid big bucks for inventing productivity measuring schemes that have nothing to do with what’s actually important about your job.
And then there’s office politics. Your boss may pass you over for promotion, demote you, or even fire you because you refused her sexual advances. The lazy oaf in the next cubicle will take credit for work you do. The guy across the aisle will badmouth you behind your back.
Needless to say, you will be underpaid. Specifically, as the economy grows and your productivity increases, your bosses will keep all of the wealth you create for themselves. After 30 years of virtual slavery, you’ll discover your inflation-adjusted income hasn’t gone up at all. In other words, your dedication and hard work will be completely ignored; the only thing your bosses care about is finding new and inventive ways to keep underpaying you. And they will never, ever, praise you or express any appreciation for your efforts on their behalf.
When it comes time to retire, your company will rob you of the pension and health benefits they promised you by filing for bankruptcy.
And, of course, throughout your working career you will pay 3 times the tax rate as the guys who own the company. Of course, you’ll never meet these guys or see them around the office, because they’re busy all day talking business out on the fairway of the 9th hole at the country club.
Why put up with all this horseshit? Our system rewards capitalists, not workers. America doesn’t want its citizens to work. Work will be punished!! No, it’s stupid to hold a job. The smart move is to become a capitalist like me. I am rewarded with a higher income and lower taxes by pushing money in meaningless circles in a way that produces nothing and does no one any good. This is the American way!!
As you have correctly deduced, I am unemployed. I do not work. I produce nothing. I’m a leech. I flip stocks for a living. I spend 5 minutes a day looking at stock quotes on my computer, and decide to buy or sell. That’s Most of the time, I decide to do nothing; I just sit on what I own. That’s it; that’s all I do. And for this, I get paid more money than my labor was ever worth, and I get a 2/3rds discount on my income taxes to boot!
Under a system like this, why would I work? I’d be crazy to work!! The only rational thing to do is sit here on my fat rabbit ass posting on HA while waiting for the stocks I either own or am watching to make a move.
So, Dickie, I’m glad you asked, because by asking, you’ve given me this opportunity to explain why working is stupid and being an Owner is the only way to go. American workers used to get about two-thirds of the nation’s GDP, but now they get less than half, and workers’ share of national income is less and less every year. The trend is clear: Be an Owner, not a worker! Workers get no respect. People look down on you if you work for a living. Only the idle rich get any respect. People suck up to you if you make your living by owning stuff and spending all your time goofing off at the country club or on HA. Take my advice, Dickie, quit working and become a capitalist!! I did, and it works great for me!!! Once you become a capitalist, you’ll never look back, and you’ll never do anything of any value ever again!!!
@13
I work 4-10’s. Today’s one of my days off.
10 This all has something of a sense of deja vu from about eight years ago–at least this time the city and county leadership seems to have been a little ahead of the game. The last time around they didn’t admit they were in over their heads until revenues had already collapsed.
The county’s been slashing all kinds of stuff for quite a while–my wife was dumped in one of the big layoffs in the health department two years ago right after she returned to work from a hip replacement.
Making something of a public spectacle out of the prospect of cutting law enforcement and emergency services does have a bit of a “somebody-call-the-WHAAAAAAAmbulance” ring to it. All a build-up to trying to arm-twist some help out of the legislature. It’s not likely to work.
It’s pretty undeniable that the sorry state we’re getting into here is simply part of everything falling apart nationwide after three quarters of a decade of Rebumblican incompetence and malfeasance. Screw up globally, suffer locally.
Lee @ 21 – Umm I pay over 7k a year just in property taxes for a townhouse that has lost 90k in value (but my recent tax assesment shows a net increase of 15k in value) and I live in Issaquah, so NO I would not be willing to pay higher taxes! THAT is the reason I do not and will not ever live in Seattle. Those “incompetents” make more money than most poor people (way more than minimum wage) so I see no need to boost income on someone making at least $40k a year who can’t get the basics down!
re 22: One of Grover Norquist’s favorite anti-tax tales is the story of when he was a boy and his dad bought him a double-dip chocolate ice-cream cone as a treat. Grover’s dad asked him to imagine each bite that he took as a tax. Grover, bright lad that he was, immediately divined that his ice cream cone would be consumed by all the ‘taxes’ he was taking out of it.
Too bad Grover’s dad didn’t tell him to stand in the sun and not take a single bite and imagine that that was what happened when you didn’t tax the rich. Eventually, in that scenario, everyone ends up with nothing.
Stay off the bridges in Minneapolis, Piper (metaphor for young Grover’s melted ice-cream cone)! And for God’s sake, if you must fall off a Minnesota bridge, don’t make them find your corpse in a skirt. Put on some slacks and clean underwear.
How’s that for seeing both sides of the story?
@22 “while propping up or dismissing the same, if not worse, when it comes home to stick on your shoe”
When has Goldy ever “propped up” a Democrat caught in wrongdoing? You’re blowing smoke out of your ass, piper. You’re nothing but a two-bit liar trying to play the “Democrats are just like us” card — the dying Wingnut Party’s last desperate gambit. Fuck you, piper. You’re a dishonorable liar like all the other wingnut trolls on this board. You should bend down and kiss Goldy’s toes for letting you drool on his blog.
@26 If you can afford a 700k townhouse, you can afford 7k of property taxes.
@28…RR…
Contending the Richard Pope was a credible candidate and banging his drum in the last election when even the Democratic Party disavowed him was rank propoganda – one thing to oppose Jane Hague, who certainly had/has baggage and another to support a candidate who was so unqualified as to be repudiated by the very party he sought to represent.
Picking up every fly-speck incident or nit-picky issue, then trying to fan what flames there are of it into any number of causes célèbres less to get at the truth and more to score partison hatchet points also causes a lot of folks to hold their noses and roll their eyes.
To borrow an analogy from Warner Bros. cartoons: the Roadrunner he ain’t – more like the Tasmanian Devil.
The Piper
Hannah- first of all, the wastewater employees do not work for Seattle, they work for King County. A pet peeve of mine is the general ignorance of government structure. And the wages of technical employees are not keeping up with the market. AS one who often hires technical folks, I can tell you the pool we draw from generally requires us to settle and train.
And the sewer incident was quite overblown and was the result of an error or omission from years ago. The plans were wrong and when a valve was turned the sewage did not go where the plans indicated.
RR @ 29 – $700k??? No I bought it at $540k and the assessment value went up to $560k for 2008, yet the going prices for the same units (one just sold yesterday) is $450K!!
So I am definately overpaying property taxes if I am being charge $7k for a $560K assessed value! Now I really see how screwed over I am getting!
Umm I pay over 7k a year just in property taxes
I pay just a little more than half that and I live in a 2700 sq. ft. house.
IN SEATTLE.
@26
Lee @ 21 – Umm I pay over 7k a year just in property taxes for a townhouse that has lost 90k in value (but my recent tax assesment shows a net increase of 15k in value) and I live in Issaquah, so NO I would not be willing to pay higher taxes!
Then the public services will remain at their current level unless you can identify some flaw in their hiring practices that is unrelated to what ‘k’ points out in #31 above. I’m a high-tech worker, so I can certainly attest to the fact that the job offers I see from the state or county pay much less than what I can make in the private sector. Because of that, they’ll always end up with the people who can’t get hired by anyone else.
THAT is the reason I do not and will not ever live in Seattle.
You taxes sound higher than mine. What’s your point here?
Those “incompetents” make more money than most poor people (way more than minimum wage) so I see no need to boost income on someone making at least $40k a year who can’t get the basics down!
There are “incompetents” in the private sector too. As I said, you pay more in taxes, the overall quality of who the state and county can hire goes up. It’s simple economics.
YLB @ 33 what was your assessed value for 2008? I am very curious if it’s an Issaquah thing of such high tax?
Don’t even get me started on high-tech, Lee. The government at nearly all levels serves as a training ground for that group. As soon as anyone demonstrates any skill they immediately get a higher paying job in the private sector.
And then the headlines pound government for poorly functioning technology.
Contending the Richard Pope was a credible candidate and banging his drum in the last election when even the Democratic Party disavowed him was rank propoganda
I don’t remember Goldy ever coming out that strongly for Richard. But speaking for myself, I’d sure rather vote for Richard than enable a drunk driver who verbally abuses cops for doing their job.
How many have lost their lives on the 520 bridge due to drunk drivers? Should a person who behaves like Hague be rewarded with a seat on a governing body and a stiff government paycheck?
Lee @ 34 – I don not expect perfection amongst private or public employees. But when a private sector employee screws up, I, as a tax payer, do not foot the bill. And when it comes to basic common sense, the grafitti cover up was down right ridiculous!
35 – Something like 425k
YLB @ 37 – that Hagee lady should have been FIRED! Our system is so screwed up that a person in public office gets less punishment than the average Joe…just like that Bridges lady (I think she was a judge)
Hey, Hannah…Issaquah wouldn’t be Issaquah as you know it if it weren’t part of a larger metropolitan area called “greater Seattle”. It’d just be a quiet little valley with a few truck farms. Your town house wouldn’t even exist, nor most likely would the stores you buy your stuff at. I’m also assuming you work for a living somewhere around these parts, probably something that wouldn’t be around here if it weren’t for the existence of the greater community.
At least you didn’t buy your place for $560K. The fact that we’ve been led to think of the roofs over our heads as some sort of spendable asset is a real problem, and something we need to un-learn as quickly as possible.
So, yeah…you pay a lot of taxes. So do I. Taxes are probably lower in…well, how about Fargo, North Dakota? Or maybe Knifley, Kentuky or Zam, Romania. Wanna move there? I didn’t think so.
re 30: You are so good at ‘projection’, Piper. Every one of those faults that you attribute to Richard Pope (e.g.,”Picking up every fly-speck incident or nit-picky issue, then trying to fan what flames there are of it into any number of causes célèbres less to get at the truth and more to score partison hatchet points also causes a lot of folks to hold their noses and roll their eyes”), describes you, Piper, to a ‘fault’.
Surely, you remember the words of Robert Burns: “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as ithers see us!”
hannah @ 38- you are incirrect. When the private sector screws up, the customer ultimately pays. When the banking crisis threatens lenders with large losses, the taxpayer pays. Move off the talking points and onto reality.
40 – Yes, Hannah. Right on cue, you bring up Bobbe Bridge like any good right winger would do.
IIRC, Bridge is no longer a judge.
Next thing you know, Piper is going to be telling us how great McSame’s speech was on Tuesday night.
k, be nice. I’m sure “Hannah” has never, ever, made a mistake while on the job.
Not that you could tell from the posts, filled with misspellings and factual errors. Fire Hague? “Hannah” the voters had the chance to do that, but they didn’t. Perhaps the rest of us citizens should fire every voter in her district for failing to hold her accountable? But I think there is a case for firing “Hannah” too, even though she doesn’t live in Hague’s district, for apparently having such a poor understanding of how our democracy actually works.
Poor McCain. His time was 2000 before Bush bleeped him in South Carolina.
His Grampy McGeritol routine isn’t gonna work.
Jim, still NEVER having tried to operate a bagpipe assembly.
Oil & Unemployment Sharply Up; Stock Market Sharply Down
Crude oil had weakened earlier this week, but was up $5.49 yesterday and $8.81 today — a gain of $14.30 in 2 days. Oil is now above $136 and this sudden price strength likely will translate into even higher pump prices. But if crude oil is a bubble, it also could signal the burst is near, as the steepest price rises in a bubble often occur just before the break.
Unemployment has risen to 5.5%, and the Dow average is down about 270 points today, as the economy continues to weaken. I’m inclined to agree with the school of thought that argues we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet … consumers are getting all the legs of the stool kicked out from under them, and discretionary consumer spending is going to plunge even more than it already has, and this will drag the economy into a deep and prolonged recession that hasn’t really begun yet.
A fascinating question is whether the Saudis have hit their production limit, or are deliberately inflicting pain on Americans as retaliation for Bush’s unabashedly pro-Israel policies. Saudi Arabia is highly secretive about both their reserves and production capacity, and many in the industry suspect they’re not as able to increase production as they claim. Thus, the Saudis’ unwillingness to put more oil on the market to stem the explosive rise in crude prices may be due to an inability to supply more oil, rather than unwillingness. No one knows (except them).
@30 You vote for Republican incompetents, yet claim Richard is unqualified for public office? You are laughable.
Richard has had some problems in his personal life. How many people don’t? What facts are yo+u relying on to argue that he’s unqualified for public office? Running numerous times and not get elected? That tells us nothing about what kind of judge, legislator, or administrator he’d make — it’s simply uninformative.
He’s not a drunk or a drug addict. He’s not a criminal, pedophile, or wife beater. He is a dedicated and apparently good parent of a handicapped child. He’s obviously intelligent. I don’t know of anything that makes him “unqualified” to be a public servant.
Do you? If you do, care to share?
Hannah,
Sometimes stuff like that happens do to under staffing/funding. People (good people!) have way too much stuff on their plates and so they get in a hurry, cut corners and things get messed up. So , tax payers see stuff getting messed up and they decide that they’re not going to give one more dime to those no-goods at city hall and the already underfunded program/department gets cut even more. Guess what the result of the continued cutbacks are?
You need to dig a bit further before calling them no-goods.
@32 “So I am definately overpaying property taxes if I am being charge $7k for a $560K assessed value!”
I pay about $1,000 per 100k of market value. Assessed value is always lower than market value. If your assessed value is 560k, then it probably IS worth $700,000 or more.
@38 When a private sector employee screws up, you do foot the bill as a consumer. I’m tired of wingnuts like you peddling this false dichotomy between public and private sector employees. Functionally, there is no difference between whether a given service or good that you receive is provided by public employees or a private company — you have to pay for it either way. The public employee/I’m a taxpayer meme is nothing but an ideological rant by people like you who have been brainwashed into automatically believing that government is inferior to the private sector. Usually the opposite is true. Case in point: Would you rather buy your electricity from City Light or Puget Sound Energy? (Hint: PSE is currently seeking its 9th rate increase since 2000.)
@20 “Are all City of Seattle workers idiots?”
Mistakes happen. For me, a question to ask when mistakes are made is, were there lessons learned? Now, when one asks that of the mistakes made by both Democrats and Republicans, the answer can be very disturbing.
@40 The procedure for “firing” an elected official is impeachment or recall. Or, the voters can vote them out in the next election. The voters, in their collective wisdom (or lack thereof), for whatever reason, chose to return Hague (not “Hagee”) to office.
RR @ 50 – funny, since the units in my development are selling at $450k and below since the market turned in October 2007.
@40 It does seem to me that driving drunk and insulting a cop is a less compelling reason to remove an elected official from office than lying to get us into an unnecessary war or committing treason by “outing” a covert CIA agent.
RR @ 53 – Hague should have been required to step out of the race for city council, not giving the voters the chance to even vote for her. Remember, according to our state supreme court, most voters are stupid! So Bellevue must be some of the worst!
@54 Then you should challenge your assessment by filing an appeal with the proper authorities instead of bitching on HA about it.
Or, maybe you’re lying about what your taxes are??? Like you lied about never having posted on HA before??
RR @ 57 – your answer to everything is they must lie
@56 “Hague should have been required to step out of the race for city council, not giving the voters the chance to even vote for her.”
By whom? What government agency should have the power to decide who can, and can’t, run for public office? By what criteria? Do you really want bureaucrats controlling who can be a candidate?
@58 No, my answer to this specific question is that,
1) You posted a comment claiming you had never posted on HA before;
2) HA’s site administrator traced previous comments under different screen names to your ISP address;
3) When confronted with this information, you asserted that 2 co-workers were using your work computer to post on HA;
4) I, and many others on this blog, found that explanation not credible, as in order for it to be true, the following would have to be true:
i) Your co-workers know about, and comment on, HA (the odds of this are infinitesimally small; of Washington’s 6.2 million citizens, only a couple thousand patronize this blog);
ii) Their political views are identical to yours;
(iii) Their writing style and mannerisms are identical to yours.
No, Hannah, your cock-and-bull story about how co-workers used your work computer to post on HA just isn’t plausible. Now let’s add to that the following additional evidence that you’re a liar:
5) You claim to be a Democrat, but you spew rightwing talking points, and the opinions you express here are consistently anti-liberal, anti-Democrat, and pro-right wing.
When I accuse you of being a liar, I’m not engaging in abstract name-calling. I’m calling you a liar because you are one. You’re not what you represent yourself to be, and you have been caught lying to us previously. Your claim that you pay $7,000 a year of property taxes on a home worth only $450,000 is no more believable than the rest of the cockamamie bullshit you’ve tried to peddle on this blog.
Give it up, Hannah. You’re as transparent as glass.
@41
I remember when Issaquah was a quiet little vally with truck farms and horses. It was much nicer then. Seriously. Most of the “progress” we’ve claimed to have made since the Boeing Bust days looks like failure to me.
@38
But when a private sector employee screws up, I, as a tax payer, do not foot the bill.
C’mon, Hannah, I know you’re smart enough to know this isn’t true. There are millions of cases where screw-ups by private sector employees cause taxpayers to foot the bill.
53 In all fairness to the voters, it didn’t help that the local Democratic party leadership didn’t take a cue from Donald Rumsfeld: “You go to an election with the candidate you haaaave…”
62 No shit, Sherlock!
Can you say, “Halliburton”? I KNEW you could!
In fact, I’m having one hell of a time thinking of a singular example of “privatizing” a government function that didn’t turn into a royal clusterfuck.
Hannah @ 26: I just got my assessment from Snohomish County, it actually went down about 3% (I live in Everett). But I doubt the cost of providing public services has gone down the same amount, so I’m expecting to hear of some County budget problems soon.
Aren’t members of the military “government employees”? It seems the wingers at least like to talk about how great they are, and blather a lot about “supporting” them.
Of course, in this instance, their idea of “support” is a little weird. It doesn’t seem to involve providing them with decent pay, or giving them adequate equipment, supplies, edible food or drinkable water. It certainly doesn’t mean treating their injuries and ailments, or giving them post-service benefits so they can be rewarded for their sacrifice by a chance at a better life.
In fact, “supporting the troops” seems mainly to consisting of keeping them in harm’s way until they get their asses blown off.
Why wing-nuts shouldn’t be allowed to own guns!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25000280/
Like some tree-hugging liberal would do something like this. What a disgrace. Only someone with the mindset to vote for Republicans would do something so unpatriotic!!
’33. YLB spews:
Umm I pay over 7k a year just in property taxes
I pay just a little more than half that and I live in a 2700 sq. ft. house.
IN SEATTLE.’
Living in your Momma’s basement of that house does not count as owning it or having the obligation to pay property taxes on it YLB; at least be honest about your living situation.
62, 64: Private-Sector Screwups paid for by the Taxpayer – just one example:
Enron – gobbled up quite a few public utilitie companies, virtually cornered the market on West Coast electric power supplies, then ran up the rates through illegal market manipulation, then collapsed not due to these factors but because stock market prices were artificially inflated beyond sustainable levels by improper accounting methods.
The cost of the collapse are still being felt. Public Utility companies that were gobbled up by Enron in the “privatization” fury were sold by the Bankruptcy Trustee, and the new owners are generally charging several times the price for service which the people previously paid as a public utility. Lots of employees lost their retirement savings when the company launched an agressive campaign to have employees invest their 401(k) funds in the company stock, even while the chief executives sought to unload their personal holdings. This means those employees will have to rely upon Medicare for long-term retirement care much sooner than they would have previously, and the unemployment caused by a collapse of a major employer caused federal and state goverments considerable amounts of money in unemployment benefits for up to a couple of years after the collapse.
Then the Bankruptcy trustee did what he is supposed to do – try to collect the assets of the bankrupt company in order to use them to pay creditors. But this meant he had to sue a lot of publically-owned utility companies to try to enforce fraudulently-enduced contracts for outragious electrical prices, which would have mostly have the result of tripling electrical bills for residents to generate funds to pay large corporate lenders and bond-holders of the bankrupt company.
Snohomish County PUD led the fight to resist, and when they won their case the corporate interests tried to get the Republican-led Congress to change the Bankruptcy laws so that the utilities could never win such a case. Fortunately, our two state Senators (both Democrats) resisted vigorously, and we won that case (at least locally). But other utility districts didn’t have the resources or energy to resist, and settled, to the detriment of their ratepayers.
For our next example, let’s look at the Savings & Loan Crisis of the 1980’s, in which the U.S. taxpayer bailed out the industry in order to avoid a complete economic collapse caused by Republican attempts to de-regulate that aspect of the financial industry (sound familiar????).
Well, maybe later – I’ve only got so much time to devote to my “lunchtime” activities. You see, I do work for a living, also.
DOW is off by 300 points and oil topped $139 a barrel to day due to a weaker US dollar.
WOW! How’s Bush’s “stimulus package” working out for America?
Get used to paying $5 bucks a gallon this summer.
Remember when the conservatives on this blog were bitching about a 9 1/2 cent gas tax spread out over 3 years?
Yeah, how’s the new multi dollar per gallon Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron tax working out for ya? While the aforementioned get tax breaks that you are paying for!!!
Republicans can’t lead and they can’t follow. They’re bad for America and good for the terrorist’s causes.
Hannah @ 38 claims: “But when a private sector employee screws up, I, as a tax payer, do not foot the bill.”
As a taxpayer, no. As a consumer or customer, yes. You (we) pay either way. To think that ‘free markets’ make the cost of mistakes or misallocations simply vanish is pure fantasy.
Hannah,
If your assessment is way out of whack with the market, there is a way to appeal it.
You didn’t bring that up. Now why is that?
22 PS
A citation whould help.
9 T
If I can create an analogy that is arguably similar to a point in question, then ask someone a question about it and answer it myself, I believe I could win that (or any)argument.
37 YLB
I remember Goldy speaking well of Richard, but it was pretty clear to me that it was tongue-in-cheek.
And checking back in to correct Hannah’s understanding of government, Haugue is a County Councilmember, not a City Councilmember.
Don’t criticize what you don’t understand.
Oil Up $11; Stock Market Down 400 Points
There’s dramatic economic news today. Oil has surged $16 since yesterday, to nearly $140, which is likely to translate into another 40 or 50 cents at the pump.
The Dow plunged over 400 points today.
The government issued a new employment report indicating sharply higher unemployment, making it unlikely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to halt the dollar’s decline, which is partially responsible for rising oil prices.
Part of the oil price spike, though, is due to war fears: An Israeli cabinet minister said today that Israel will attack Iran if Iran does not halt its nuclear program.
Art @ 67: Yep, Rove & Co. quickly tried to co-opt the “Support our troops” sentiment into “support our President, no matter what he does”. Actually supporting our troops has little to do with it.
By the way, I’m heading off to Costco tomorrow morning. I’m sending off another box to some servicemen at a fire base in Iraq, and they requested some beef jerkey.
After that, I’m going to see Paul Allen’s “Flying Heritage Collection” at Paine Field, just opened to the public today. I wish
I could get a chance to fly those WWII -era “warbirds” – even seeing them on the ground, you get feel for the incredible power and deep-throated rumble of those engines! The P51D Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire I’ve seen up close before, but the Mitsubishi Zero-Sen will be a first for me, as well as the German V-1 rockets and a few of the other aircraft.
77 So, great. Looks like the pieces are all falling into place for the Bush Recession to tumble very, very quickly into the Bush Depression.
78 Take a close look at the P47 if you want to see a really formidible piece of machinery. Seven tons of armored fighter pulled by a 2800-horsepower radial engine. About 20 years ago when I was working at Physio-Control in Redmond, someone started practicing aerobatics in a “jug” over the Sammamish Valley, and it just about brought the place to a stop for a while so everyone could go outside and see what the hell was making all that noise.
@70 “Remember when the conservatives on this blog were bitching about a 9 1/2 cent gas tax spread out over 3 years?”
Yes, that’s interesting. They actually went to the trouble and expense of putting an initiative on the ballot to roll back a necessary tax of 9 1/2 cents a gallon. Since then, the private sector has added about 2 dollars to the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
With crude oil up $16 a barrel since yesterday morning, $5 gas is just around the corner and we’re well on our way toward $6 gas. The public is responding by piling onto public transit and buying less gas — a lot less gas. U.S. consumption statistics show a 4.5% decline in consumption for April compared to last year. And if gas prices continue north, that’s only the beginning.
When consumption declines, so do gas tax revenues. The 9 1/2 cents, needed for critical infrastructure replacement, may end up being entirely absorbed by declining gasoline usage. That will necessitate another gas tax hike to get the AWV and 520 projects built. The costs of those projects are fixed and the state needs to get a certain amount of money from us to build them regardless of how much we conserve on our gas purchases.
Of course, there’s another alternative: Don’t build. Close Highway 99 and SR 520. Do without. We can save billions of dollars that way. High oil prices are already pushing people out of their cars, and ceasing to invest in roads and bridges will simply be another shove in that direction. Perhaps government should invest tax dollars only in mass transit.
How high do gas prices have to go before we decide that our dollars should go to efficient mass transportation instead of Arab sheikhs? How unaffordable must driving become before people are forced to stop driving? What will it take? $6 gas? $7 gas? $10 gas?
13. Rick D. spews:
“Don’t you people have jobs? Silly question…of course you don’t.”
Well, I could do like Roger and just day-trade but I very much enjoy working in my profession, electrical engineering for major construction projects, specializing in healthcare, defense, technical, commercial and education facilities. I’ve designed and administered the contruction phase of most the Trident base, just about any hospital where you and your loved ones might receive care in this state, half of the Microsoft campus, all of the MS Redwest campus, and shit that’s so goddamned secret – I’d have to kill you if I said too much. Hmm, maybe I should tell you more.
I first worked mowing lawns at empty units in High Point Housing Project, where I lived, for the city when I was eight years old. I’ve held a job since I was thirteen years old, starting at a carwash on Rainier Avenue in the valley, a pizza joint as a busboy/dishwasher, landscape gardening, mail delivery at college, and as a musician in Seattle taverns – all before entering my chosen profession while I was still in my teens.
You? You’re a worthless bitch who just won’t quit your goddamned whining. Go fuck yourself and to hell with you and yours. And if you don’t like my fucking attitude then try crawling out of your goddamned mother’s fucking basement for once in your life and try doing something about it, you goddamned fucking fascist coward.
Not that I really want to see anyone homeless, but it’ll be interesting when Nickels’ Encampment Gestapo ends up rousting squatters from abandoned Hummers.
@79 It’s inevitable. Consumers are getting all the legs of the stool kicked out from under them. They won’t stop eating or driving to work. Higher employment will pnly marginally reduce gasoline demand for commuting. What will take the big hit is consumer discretionary spending. That means retailing will shed a lot of jobs, and quickly — retailers can respond to declining sales very rapidly. The Bush administration can no longer postpone the economy’s crash until after the election — it’s knocking at our door right now. All we’ve seen so far is the effects of the credit crisis. The underlying economic problems are much larger, and there is much worse to come. And it’s almost here.
With today’s closing bell, the DJIA rested at 15.32% higher than it was seven and a half years ago, when Bush took office in Jan. 2001 – an increase of 2.04% per year – considerably less than the rate of inflation.
Compare that with Bush I’s increase of 45.57% over four years, when he was thrown out of office by voter anger over the economy. Compare also with a DJIA increase of 135.13% over eight years of the Reagan administration, which Republicans touted as the grand results of conservative economic policies. But it is especially dismal compared to the DJIA increase of 225.37% over the eight years of the Clinton presidency.
And this is DESPITE major intervention in the market by the Fed, in reducing interest rates several times, as well as the Economic Stimulus payments.
@85 A failing economy and an failed war – and these trolls think a Republican is going to win any election this year? Delusional. If there’s anything worse than lying to us to start a war, it’s turning that war into a complete clusterfuck. I just hope Democrats are up to the task at hand. They’ll certainly have their work cut out for them, thanks to the failure of Republicans to do even a single thing right.
@82 It’s too bad for the trolls that I’m not a greedy crooked fascist like them. A liberal capitalist is their worst nightmare! They just can’t stand a George Soros or a Roger Rabbit! Oh, I used to be one of them, a conservative, but somehow I leaked out of the mold before I was fully baked — I have most of their traits, but the fascist training didn’t stick and I went over to the other side. Chalk up another wingnut failure.
A note on the Saudis and Oil Prices:
While the Saudis were major players in the organization of OPEC and the first oil embargos and price rises in the 1970’s, they realized after a while that they couldn’t keep their cash stuffed under a pillow, and they had to invest somewhere. So they invested in Europe and the U.S., and they found that high oil prices endangered their investments there, so for the next quarter-century they have tried to keep their price increases moderate. In addition, they entered into a bargain with the U.S., in which they kept prices moderate in return for U.S. military assurances of protection – a card which they cashed in after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Like many societies not far removed from tribal origins, much of their dealings in politics and business is on a very personal level. They only do business with friends or family, so it is a bit impolite to impose a deal which puts your friend or family member into bankruptcy. All this has led to lower oil prices.
But remember that until recently, the power on the throne in Saudi Arabia was an aged king who was bedridden for more than a decade. While the day-to-day power & affairs rested in the Crown Prince, and was delegated among a large number of lesser sons within the royal family, the wishes of the King still remained paramount. Even if the King was unable to govern, his general policies would stay in place until he died. Even the Crown Prince wouldn’t dare to make a significant policy change while the King was alive, especially given the fact that there were dozens of other relatives ready to compete with him for the throne, and he could have been disenherited at any time.
But the King finally died – I forget when, a year or two, perhaps? And now the Crown Prince seems to have consolidated his power, and is stretching his wings. The recent rebuff of Pres. Bush seems to be an indication that we can no longer rely upon the kindness of the Saudis to save us from our own economic problems.
Oil is not a renewable commodity. Every gallon sold by the Saudis is a lost opportunity to sell it at a higher price later. Why should they sell it to us cheap? Why shouldn’t they test the market now, to see what is the highest price oil will reach before economic downturns result in enough lost sales to offset the higher prices per barrel of oil?
Even if we were to convert entirely to other methods of transportation – electric, bio-disel, or even nuclear power – we would still need oil. We use it to make fertilizer, plastics, carbon fiber, and many other things which we have come to rely upon in our modern society. So even if the high price of oil results in people driving less, or exercising other commuting options, the Saudis will always be able to get more money for their oil in the long-term future.
that matter, that’s a good a reason as any for us to avoid drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas of the U.S. – we may well need that oil later, so there is no reason to pay a steep environmental cost to drill for oil in order to support what will only be a temporary drop in oil prices.
Roger: Who do you use for your trading? I’m assuming you use an online service, otherwise day-trading would be too expensive using a traditional brokerage.
84 The next meteor to hit Wall Street will most likely be credit card defaults. Not that the likelihood that people who are out of work won’t be buying shit isn’t worrisome enough, but there’s a significant population of people dumb enough to try to “maintain lifestyle” for a while longer by maxing out their credit cards. When they go broke and can’t pay back what they owe, it’s going to have an impact on the securities market not unlike the collapse of mortgage-backed derivatives, because–GUESS WHAT–the banks have been aggregating what people owe on their plastic into derivatives just the same way.
What’s in YOUR wallet???????
88 Another thing to keep in mind is that the United States has been able until recently to persuade the Saudis and other major members of OPEC to accept payment for their crude only in dollars. With growing demand from nations like India and China, and with the dollar devaluing so fast that you might as well use century notes to wipe your ass, the jig’s about up on that.
Roger is right.
The signs are all pointing us downhill on road paved with ice, do not pass go, go straight into a economic depression.
I am not sure our wingnut friends fully comprehend the meaning of depression. They might want to call their parents, those that old enough will surely school them on the sacrifices and hardships that come with a depression. My father was born in 1922 and told us of the way it was. How food was the daily goal. How snacks were unheard of. How his mom bought gas one or two gallons at a time. How they did not have electric service, how bathing in cold water is painful, how having a pet was a luxury of the highest order.
They are in denial and when it hits they will be right here on this blog blaming all the liberals on this site for taking and not producing. Never mind that they won’t have the money to pay for internet or the electricity to run their computers or a job to brag about. And when/if they get on the “internets” there might nothing there.
@89
I’ll bet that he uses Trade Station.
Roger, so are you into technical analysis? Candles? A little of everything? Trends the friend? Dog of the Dow?
@92
I knew a lot of people that went through the Great Depression. Every single one of them loved FDR.
I remember back in the Boeing recession of the early 70’s it was often said, “If you have a job, it’s a recession. If you don’t have a job, it’s a depression.” What’d we have back then, 16% unemployment?
“Will the last person to leave Seattle please turn off the lights?”, was the billboard I saw from Spokane street in 1973.
I really hope we never see anything like that again. Imagine the whole country being in that condition.
@89 I have a full-service broker and I’m not a day trader, except perhaps in the sense that I watch the market and my portfolio daily. Most of the time, though, I don’t do anything — I just watch. I’ll flip a stock quickly if the opportunity presents itself, but I also hold stocks for years. I bought my NOV shares in 2005 and 2006, and I’ve had my Starbucks shares since since 1996; I’ve owned my GE and IBM shares more than 5 years. On the other hand, last month I flipped a natural gas stock I bought in December for a 25% profit.
Art @ 90: I don’t think we will even have to wait until people try to “maintain their lifestyles” on the credit cards.
With the large number of people carrying close to their maximum credit limit even while employed, just a couple of months of food + mortgage payments will put them over the edge.
And they might find that their credit card companies will push them over the edge, even despite their best efforts. In my debt counselling, the credit card companies are re-evaluating credit limits in light of the economic downturn, and re-scoring a lot of the credit scores of borrowing. That would seem to be reasonable, but some are reducing the credit limits to far below the current balance (and then charging overlimit fees), and jumping up to a “default interest rate” of upwards of 28% at the earliest opportunity.
But of course, the bankruptcy reforms under the Republican Congress has insisted that debtors “take personal responsibility” for those debts, and pay them off, with interest and penalties, with only limited ability to discharge the consumer debt.
Left Foot @ 92:
My parents lived through the Great Depression. My mother’s father died when she was six, but they were lucky enough to have a big enough farm, and able to hold onto it, so they could have sharecropers & her brother work the farm. They didn’t starve.
My Dad, on the other hand, went hungry lots of times. He didn’t like the song “Polk Salad Annie” when it came out – it reminded him of scrounging on the river banks for polk salad, sometimes it was all they had to eat for days at a time.
A true story told by one teacher: One day she saw one of her students, a young girl, sitting on a log crying. The other students were eating their lunches they brought from home. “Why are you crying?” she asked. “I’m hungry!” replied the little girl. “Well, what happened to your lunch?” asked the teacher. “It my sister’s turn to eat” the girl replied. “I don’t get to eat until tomorrow”.
In that same small town, the local businessmen, Republicans all, were threatening church workers who set up soup kitchens and distributed food to hungry families with physical violence if they didn’t get out of town. Their reasoning? They felt if the workers weren’t hungry enough, they wouldn’t work in their fields and factories for the pennies a day they wanted to pay them. The felt the workers and their families needed to be kept at starvation levels in order to properly motivate them.
Anybody still wonder why FDR became so popular?
@97 “Anybody still wonder why FDR became so popular?”
Anybody wonder why Republicans still hate FDR after all these years?
Hoooray, hooooray, the Republicans have almost drowned government!!
Ain’t it GRAND?!?!?!?!
94 “Will the last person to leave Seattle please turn off the lights?”
During the dot-com collapse around the turn of the millenium, we changed that to “Will the last person to leave Seattle please shut down the servers?”
This time? Nobody’s going to be leaving, because it’s going to be just as bad, or worse, everywhere else.
Here are some wonderful Reagan quotes:
“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
“Facts are stupid things.” -at the 1988 Republican National Convention
“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles.”
“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”
“The state of California has no business subsidizing intellectual curiosity.”
“Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”
“What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.”
And this ass hole jerk off is their icon? No wonder the experiment in conservatism failed. Just like Marxism, Communism, Fascism, and Terrorism.
Now we officially add to the list of failed models of leading people: Conservatism.
~ 1964-2008. R.I.P.
97 “They felt the workers and their families needed to be kept at starvation levels in order to properly motivate them.”
That was a part of Alan Greenspan’s formula all along. He felt that a certain level of unemployment was always essential to control inflation.
@97
During the great depression one of my grandpa’s could buy potatoes for something crazy like $2 a ton as long as he promised to feed them to his pigs. He had to sign a wavier (or some shit) stating that the perfectly good potatoes would only be used as animal feed. So grandpa would sign the waiver and then swing by every hobo encampment between downtown Tacoma where he picked up the potatoes and his small farm in Auburn. After he got home he made sure all the potatoes left in his truck went to animal feed.
Conservatism.
~ 1964-2008. R.I.P.
The wingnuts aren’t going to let it die until 1930 repeats itself and oh boy I sure hope that doesn’t happen.
101 There may be a principle of fiscally responsible government that legitimately qualifies as “conservatism”, but that’s not what we’ve had shoved down our throats for the last thirty-five years. This is carny-salesman snake oil, based on the promise of something for nothing and picking the rubes’ pockets while they watch the hootchy-kootchy dancer. It’s perhaps best exemplified by Tim Eyman’s nonsense, which should be patently obvious to any reasoning creature.
103 It’s amazing your grandfather wasn’t murdered.
According to the NYT 1 in 11 mortgages are either late or in http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06.....FHtLWVKdvg default.
My group, all comfortably middle class, spent our group lunch today, talking about gas prices, electric cars and bicycle commuting. We talked about the trips we were not taking, the extraneous spending we pushing back. There are no margins left to cut, we are all doing less, and doing with less.
@106
He traded a lot of hot meals for labor around the farm and claimed he only had to run one guy off at gunpoint.
Say goodbye to John McCain. The economy is in shambles, everyone seems to agree. But take a look at this graph, which shows that it’s been over thirty years since people were as pessimistic about how things are going.
In this climate, the short, grumpy old codger who voted with Bush over 95% of the time for the last few years hasn’t. got. a. chance.
YLB @ 104:
Let’s not leave it up to those who wish to destroy government i.e. conservatives.
The voters will cast the demons out of Washington D.C.
I see a very distinct possibility of a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and a House still controlled by Democrats. That will enable President Obama to have Carte blanch on his legislative agenda.
Has anybody else noticed that the trolls have vanished from this thread, or is it just me?
You just can’t refute what EVERYONE knows to be the truth. The evidence is too great. I mean, “who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes” is just not going to work this time.
Of course Pooper is probably on “the google” getting his talking points and preparing long screed to punish the minions with.
It seems the US society has been in a state of denial since Reagan. Carter told the truth, but Uncle Ronny came in, made us all feel good about ourselves, like we all wanted to, and we went on like we could eat our cake and have it too. He made the bad stuff go away! Individuals have warning us that we need to cut back that we will have do with less since Reagan, but nobody wanted to listen.
I expect that the cultural depression will be extreme. Some classes of people will become very very nasty. The immigration hatred will be nothing compared to what’s to come, as people who feel an SUV or two and low taxes and high government services are a birthright, find it doesn’t work that way. we have generations of denial, and now the bill has come due and it’s much worse than if we had dealt with the energy crisis at the time.
Unwilling to deal with the problem when it was voluntary, now we HAVE to deal with the problem
110:
You may also see a veto proof Congress, should it be needed, in the event McCain were to be elected.
This could be my dream scenario in a sick sort of way. We have a president who spends his whole four years twiddling his thumbs while Congress runs the country. The Republicans would be powerless and would that not be the most fun, watching them cry?
No, I don’t trust the Dems to have enough of a spine to resist McCain at every turn. Even though Obama is going to get blamed for the coming depression, since it will happen on his watch, I don’t want McCain in there. I would have even voted for Hillary, to keep McCain out.
@104…YippeeLilBoy…
Nope…heard that before…t’was false then, tis false now.
Take a look at the political landscape, and you’ll see that for which conservatives fought no part of the mainstream.
And you’ll see much of what conservatives fought – and libs supported – dead and buried (Soviet Union, RIP).
The ballots aren’t in, and your guy hasn’t been elected, so don’t start jumpin’ just cause you feel froggy.
If BHO is elected, then his fancy speechs won’t be enough – he’ll have to shut up then put up or get up and go.
Rhetoric alone won’t cut it.
The Piper
@89 Ah … now we cut to the chase … Steve wants to know how I do it.
If I ever become a stock market billionaire, and people want me to write a book about how I did it, I’ll tell them I can’t. Hell, I can’t even write 4 pages of method, because I don’t have one.
Technical analysis? I know nothing about it. The jargon is incomprehensible to me. I regard it as voodoo. I’ve never paid any attention to it.
But I do own both of Benjamin Graham’s classic books, Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor.
I used to describe myself as a value-oriented contrarian. The “contrarian” label is still largely accurate because I usually go opposite of the herd. This has to be qualified somewhat, though, because the herd isn’t always wrong. In the last couple of years, I’ve become more willing to hop onto a “momentum” stock if I feel confident that I can spot when to jump off before everyone else.
There are two basic ieeas that act as guardrails for my investing decisions.
1. In the long run, there’s always a close relationship between a company’s sales and earnings, and its stock price.
2. In the short run, the efficient market theory is poppycock, and numerous opportunities exist to profit from other investors’ mistakes.
Armed with those two concepts, I buy and sell stocks largely by feel and instinct.
I don’t invest in industries or markets I don’t understand; for this reason, I tend to like hardware (bulldozers, pipelines, welding machines, nuts and bolts, etc.) and tend to shy away from technology (especially the virtual kind).
I do study the company’s financials. P/E is not a big factor for me. I take notice of the stock-price-to-book-value ratio but it’s not a decision maker or breaker for me. On the other hand, debt ratio often is; I don’t like debt. It siphons earnings away from shareholders in the form of interest payments. I usually don’t care if the stock pays a dividend or not. What I really want to see, more than anything else, is steady and consistent increases in sales and earnings; what drives me away is declining sales or earnings all over the map.
When you look at the stock price chart of many companies, you’ll see a period of time when the stock price increased by a lot over a relatively short period. For example, you could have bought Cameron International (CAM)for $10 in 2004 and sold it for $50 in 2007. My ultimate goal is to plug into the low end of that graph. But instead of wishing I had bought CAM in 2004, I try to find another stock that’s at the $10 stage of that cycle right now. Of course, it’s not easy to do, and you’re dealing with probabilities rather than certainties, but there’s a complex fact-based reasoning process you can employ to identify potential growth stocks in the early stages of their share price growth.
There doesn’t seem to be a very good or direct connection between many companies’ business fundamentals and what their share price is doing. It’s somewhat of a mystery. I operate on a belief that what makes a stock go up rapidly when there’s no underlying business reason to explain or predict it is a function of human nature, and this nature is in part whimsical. This, of course, makes it completely unpredictable, which is where the “feel” comes in. I try to sense when investors might jump on a stock and push it up before they actually do it.
One of my basic techniques is to buy a small amount of stock that I think has potential. Owning it ensures that I’ll keep an eye on it every day. If it starts moving, and if the underlying financials and business factors seem to justify an upward move or at least aren’t contrary, then I use my cash reserve to buy more of it.
This “instinct” or “feel” for what is a “fair” price for a stock also leads me to spot undervalued situations. For example, about a year ago I bought 100 shares of Dynamic Materials (BOOM), a company the produces specialized metal materials for use in refineries, pipelines, etc. It’s a small growth company that has a near-monopoly in its niche and is participating in the very rapid buildout of energy infrastructure now taking place. Its sales and earnings are increasing at a heartwarming, if less than spectacular, pace. I bought it at 28 and within a few months it went up to 65, so I obviously spotted a growth stock just before it became popular. It fell back quite a bit over this winter on a single-quarter earnings downtick, and last month I noticed it had dropped all the way back to 32. I watched it go up more than $1 a day for a couple days, then snapped up 300 more shares, quadrupling my position in one day. It’s now at 41 so I called that one right; I’ve got a 17% gain in 3 weeks. I’m holding those shares for now, and if the price stalls at the current level I’ll probably take profit on those 300 shares and keep the original 100 shares as a long-term hold. Then, if BOOM drops back into the mid-30s, I’ll buy it back again.
Cycling in and out of a stock like that, buying on its dips and selling when it goes back up, is another of my basic techniques. I’ve bought and sold the same stock as many as 3 or 4 times a year, and as many as 8 or 9 times spread over 2 or 3 years. I’m not affected by wash sale rules because these transactions are within a tax-sheltered retirement account; if I were trading in a taxable account, I would be using different stocks and a different strategy.
I think General Electric is undervalued right now and is a good buy in the current market for someone looking for a dividend-paying blue-chip stock they’re going to hold for several years. I think if you bought that stock today you’ll eventually get a capital gain of at least $5 and meanwhile you’ll make 4% on the money you’ve invested through the dividend payments, which is better than short and medium term Treasuries and CDs are paying right now, and unlike interest income are taxed at the capital gain rate. I don’t think GE is a good selection for a tax-sheltered trading portfolio like mine because it’s not volatile enough: Its price swings are too small and too far between to be attactive as a stock to “play” in the manner described above.
In summary, some of my portfolio is long-term, conservative, dividend-paying, blue-chip stocks; some of it is growth stocks; and some of it is high-risk speculative stocks. There is no consistent strategy but rather a bundle of strategies used simultaneously, with a percentage of the total portfolio allocated to each.
I believe in diversification as a guiding principle, but I don’t follow it slavishly. I’ve been known to put a third or more of my portfolio in a single stock, when I felt comfortable enough with the stock to do it. Over the last 3 years, I’ve had over half of my total portfolio in the energy sector, although I’ve reduced that recently because I believe oil is now in a price bubble. It is quite likely that I’m going to sell all of my energy stocks in the near future, anticipating that the bubble is going to burst and energy stocks will free fall when that happens. If I get out in time, I will buy some of them back after they crash and burn, because I think energy is going to be solid for the next 5 years out, even after the current speculative pricing of oil burns off and crude comes back down to a more realistic level of $60 to $80.
It’s been my observation that the stock market very frequently overreacts to situations, creating opportunities to buy stocks at depressed levels and sell them at inflated prices. I try to identify these situations by being well informed about the company’s financials, fundamentals, and its business and the larger economic environment in which it conducts its business; so that I have a sense of when its stock price is getting too disconnected from what the numbers suggest it “should” be. For example, when Dynamic Materials hit 32 last month, I “felt” the price was too low — but notice that I waited a couple days and let other investors take the lead in initiating the buying, and didn’t get on board until after the upward momentum was clearly underway. I missed $3 a share of the eventual gain that way, but I consider that a cheap insurance policy against misjudging the stock’s bottom and future direction. Another way that “feel” and “instinct” entered into this transaction was my sense that Dynamic Material’s product is something that industry needs and is going to buy, and can’t readily get elsewhere. I also like the facts that their customers are businesses in an industry flush with cash flow, not consumers, and that their customers care less about the product’s price than its availability; when you’re building an oil refinery or pipeline, you’re not going to dicker over price very much, but you’re going to worry a lot about those metal plates being on the pallets at the work site when you need them. I simply love to invest in businesses operating with that kind of business dynamics. I wish there were more Dynamic Materialses out there; stocks like this are pretty rare, although they do exist and I diligently hunt for them. I spotted this one in Value Line.
Speaking of Value Line, I get it free at the public library, it’s too damned expensive to subscribe to, and I like it for their convenient multi-year summary of key financial data. Their ratings and predictions are worthless.
You can never find stocks in time to buy them before the herd does by relying on the internet or publications. By the time you get that information, everyone else has it too. There’s only one way to get in ahead of the crowd and that’s by spotting the stocks yourself by using a deductive intellectual process — i.e., looking at the data, mulling over what you know about the company, its industry, and the economy, and then deducing that you’re staring at an undervalued stock or one with growth potential. Here again, “feel” and “instinct” play a huge role; I don’t really analyze the data, it let it talk to me and I let my gut tell me whether it means something interesting.
As for pundits, I read what they say to get a sense of what the herd is thinking, but I don’t follow their advince. I consider Jim Cramer a quack. Yes, I know, he used to be a stockbroker and he has a lot of experience and he has good credentials. The problem is, he’s an entertainer, not an impartial analyst. If you want to lose money, do what he says. For example, about a year ago he said “buy, buy, buy! back up the truck!” about a stock called Superior Offshore, which had just completed an IPO and was around $18. You won’t find its symbol, DEEP, on the exchanges. Why? Because Superior Offshore has ceased operations, filed for bankruptcy, been delisted, and its stock is now absolutely worthless. So much for Jim Cramer’s recommendations.
Which brings up another, very important, point. I never listen to “tips” from friends or strangers or pundits. I don’t even listen to my own broker. Lots of his recommendations go sour; he makes good picks less than half the time, which suggests to me that whether his stock picks succeed is largely a function of random chance. My investing really took off when I stopped relying on others and started trusting myself. At some point, I realized I’m better at evaluating and picking stocks than any of the people I’d been listening to — and, quite logically, from that point on I decided to do it myself.
I don’t own any mutual funds. I hate mutual funds. Mutual funds are for suckers. If you want to invest in mutual funds, put your money in bank CDs where it’s safer and will earn as much or more. Something like 2/3rds of all mutual funds underperform the market. Statistics like that convince me that professional portfolio managers have no abilities that I don’t have, and are no better at this game than I am. I trust myself a lot more than I trust them.
I’ve never bought a stock on margin, and I’ve never shorted a stock. I’m not saying these tactics are invalid or too dangerous; the reason is because I don’t thoroughly understand these techniques, don’t feel comfortable with them, so I don’t dabble in them. I won’t use a strategy or tactic that I’m not completely confortable with and confident of. I hate losses, and am averse to risking losses.
My results? About a 1,200% gain in slightly over 15 years.
Hey Piper, I’ve asked this before, but I don’t recall getting an answer. If you did, can you point me to that thread?
What would your ideal Conservative American society be like?
When has America been most like that?
Sorry Pooper – you guys have had it pretty much your way since Ronnie Raygun. Bill Clinton governed as a conservative Dem with radical wingers in Congress for most of his term in office. Hell, Larry Kudlow used to praise Clinton for only minimally deviating from the Raygun line on the economy.
Whatever bad happens.. That’s you guys reaping what you have sown.
Shrinking the government and drowning it in the tub are what the drug dealers in Mexico are doing.
Piper thinks like a drug dealer.
re 117: His answer would most likely be the America under John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts (Sedition being anything critical of John Adams).
Meanwhile you can walk past any area high school at lunchtime and watch an endless stream of cars head to the nearest McDonalds. Notice how many students are glued to cellphones that surely must cost them over $100 a month. None of this was conceivable when I was in high school in the 1960’s. Those of you who believe the incessant doom and gloom Democrat talking points are being dishonest with themselves. Most of this country has enjoyed unparalled prosperity since we booted Jimmy Carter and his sweater out of office. Or have folks conveniently forgotten 20% interest rates?
Historically, Democrats don’t exactly have a record of economic accomplishment. What makes anyone think it would be any different this time around?
But at least Seattle leftists can feel a sense of accomplishment today. The City is going to make beach bonfires illegal. You people are really something else.
Democrats are like poor golfers that keep shanking their drives into the woods and never seem to realize that there might be something wrong with their swing.
I’ll give you my baseline.
Socially, right now is the best time ever. American society is the most tolerant it’s ever been. We try for equality. Gays can almost get married, and more importantly, we can adopt.
Financially, the 1960s sound like the best time. I was too young to notice, but I’m told we still have living wages, that if you wanted to change jobs, you always get another one. We still made things in America back then and we were protectionist about US jobs.
So do you think this guys figures are lying?
Review and come back and comment
http://www.eriposte.com/econom.....ovsrep.htm
So do you think this guys figures are lying? In almost every measure, Dems admins do better.
Review and come back and comment
[link]
Better to have a Columbia University/Harvard Law grad (J.D. magna cum laude, Law Review editor) in the hot seat solving our big problems than an indiffernt, hostile student who traded on his family’s legacy to squeak by into the family trade of Navying.
Barack Obama has a hell of a lot more than “rhetoric.”
PTBA @ 72 – I did appeal my tax assesment back in January and in May they sent me a letter saying my appeal was “declined”
Michael @ 61 – I too remember when Issaquah was a nice community, it has since been overtaken by Seattlelites and corporations. I miss the airport and skydivers, the being able to ride a bike in downtown Issaquah and miss the 5 minute commute thru town that now takes 40 minutes during rush hour.
k @ 76 – oh my bad KING county council…BUT she represents the Bellevu/Kirkland area, so according to the state supreme court, Bellevue/Kirkland people must be extra stupid to vote in #1. a repulican #2 a drunk who agressively bad mouthed police.
@121
I fixed it for you.
Republicans and “Democrats are like poor golfers that keep shanking their drives into the woods and never seem to realize that there might be something wrong with their swing.”
Let’s see either side prove that one wrong.
If you think the city council is petty, then put out some effort, find a candidate that you like, that will accomplish something NOT petty and get them elected. I hope, if we elect Obama, that all politicians, of any stripe, that are slackers, will be in trouble.
@128 – AMEN on that! starting with half of our federal government! :)
By the way, now that the Washington State GOP is on the record for kicking out anybody who is within the U.S. contrary to U.S. immigration law, including their children, here is a story about the type of people they are trying to exclude:
High School Validvictorian Faces Deportation
@125 I first went out there in the fall of 1962 to visit my Mom before she died. She must have been in some kind of hospice out there or something. I was just a kid and didn’t know what was going on. I remember the people who took me out to see her stopped afterwards at a small creek somewhere out there to show me the salmon run. It was just amazing. I could have walked across the stream on their backs, it was so thick with fish. And some of the Kings were absolutely huge.
Are there still any fish out there or did parking lot runoff and other ills do its thing?
@130 That link goes to a woman’s rowing title article. Was that the intent?
Steve @ 131 – we still have the Issaquah Salmon hatchery and during the salmon runs (September – October) there are still quite a few…although nothing like it used to be…yeah asphalt and buildings have taken over.
I have lived here since 1978 when my parents finished building the house. Fortunately they live on the outskirts (so King County not Issy taxes) and have property. Most property owners around them though have sold to developers so they are 1 of 3 who still have an open chunk refusing to bow down to the developers (and King County).
BC @ 121: As for the cars going into McDonalds, you can buy a double cheesburger and order a small water for a buck plus tax. There are some other things on the $1.00 value menue also. So a mother who works and has just picked up the kids at day care, netting about $300 per month after day care expenses (but can’t do without the $300 p/m), can actually feed her family a small meal for less than it would cost to prepare the food herself. Of course, it’s hardly nutritious, but that’s another subject.
(Been poor before, know most of the tricks to survive).
rhp6033…the point I was making is that we live in a far more prosperous country that portrayed by the Democrats. High schools have so many students with cars now that their parking lots overflow and student vehicles clog neigborhood streets. That wouldn’t happen in the tragic nation Obama portrays in every stump speech where it seems everyone is “one paycheck away from the street”.
Bill @ 135 – I remember when I had to buy my own car and my mommy and daddy made me actually work for it! Kids nowadays have parents well enough off to hand over BMW’s and Lexus’ and unlimited cell phone plans….and we wonder why young people are so unappreciative…things have definately changed from when I was a teen and my parents could not afford to spoil me.
RR @ 60 you say ” Washington’s 6.2 million citizens, only a couple thousand patronize this blog);”
A COUPLE OF THOUSAND???? Does that include the multiple identities by the likes of headless lucy aka renaldo and BBG aka Mark1?
I can almost count on all my toes and fingers the regular HA posters. I’d guesstimate at the most HA has MAYBE 40 regular posters and every now and then you get a fly thru that flies right back out when they see the vulgarness of most.
One thing I just finally came to the conclusion of: most on HA are worst than the average racist…by lumping groups of people together, claiming guilt by association, blaming EVERYONE in that “group” is just what whites did to blacks back in the day.
Exactly Hannah. When I grew up I didn’t have a TV in my room, or my own phone. Now kids have their own cell phones, TV’s in their rooms, and a computer as well. What gets me is these same spoiled kids allow themselves to be hypnotized by Obama into believing his message of negativity. It’s just nuts.
@135 VERY prosperous – only a 400 point drop in the Dow/Jones today due to Bush/McCain economics. Worst unemployment report since Bush stole office this quarter. Homeowners holding smallest amount of equity in their homes since the Great Depression. Highest federal deficit in history. Biggest government in history. Highest trade deficit in history. You republicans are just knocking it out of the park – right!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/
@135 VERY prosperous – only a 400 point drop in the Dow/Jones today due to Bush/McCain economics. Worst unemployment report since Bush stole office this quarter. Homeowners holding smallest amount of equity in their homes since the Great Depression. Highest federal deficit in history. Biggest government in history. Highest trade deficit in history. You republicans are just knocking it out of the park – right!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/
That 400 point drop in the Dow today of course has nothing to do with Democrats preventing us from drilling our own oil for the past 30 years or building nuclear plants to achieve clean energy independence.
@135 “High schools have so many students with cars now that their parking lots overflow and student vehicles clog neigborhood streets. That wouldn’t happen in the tragic nation Obama portrays in every stump speech where it seems everyone is “one paycheck away from the street”.”
Too bad it’s mostly on credit. Perhaps they’re only one paycheck away from walking to school.
@138 “Now kids have their own cell phones, TV’s in their rooms, and a computer as well. What gets me is these same spoiled kids allow themselves to be hypnotized by Obama into believing his message of negativity. It’s just nuts.”
Perhaps what’s nuts, Bill, is the way you generalize about kids, their family finances, and their attitudes. Maybe you’re just a broad brush kind of guy. I’ve also seen you use that same broad brush on people to the left of you. Things are somewhat more complex than you seem or care to perceive.
@140 The economy will be hung around Republicans neck like an anchor.
Oh yes, Steve, liberals are always fond of saying things are “too complex” for conservatives to grasp. They are particularly fond of saying this when they let murderers and child molesters out of prison to prey on innocent citizens. You can have your “complexity”.
Lets keep it simple. The average American kid has it a lot better than kids did 40 years ago. You know it as well as I do.
143 I’m not a liberal. Apparently this is all just a little too ‘complex’ for you.
Just what are you then, Steve?
I’m reckon that I’m quite conservative on many issues. Progressive on some. I refuse to be boxed in by “liberal or conservative”. I believe things are a little more ‘complex’ than that.
I guess that explains why you’d make a comment like, “the economy will be hung around Rebublicans neck like an anchor”.
Liberals, leftists, progressives, socialists, or whatever you are calling yourselves these days make me laugh.
The ideological dodge is all too familiar. From my perspective leftist tend to sing the same socialistic song when push comes to shove. That’s why they’ve pushed the global warming hoax to the absurd point where we can’t even have a bonfire at the beach.
GBS & Rog–
I mentioned previously I’m sitting on the sidelines until this wild market volatility subsides. Pretty amazing…up 200 one day and down 400 the next. No thanks.
I think this oil price surge is largely attributable to a big-time short squeeze….squeezing stupid amateurs who believed oil had topped out. A lot of these amateurs cannot find financing to ride this out. Stupid. Commodities are so risky.
I almost bought back in to Wells Fargo today.
Had an order in at $25.10. Didn’t quite get there. That would mean a dividend of nearly 5% taxed at only 15%!! Perhaps Monday.
Speaking of Politically Correct KLOWNS:
The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year’s term was ‘Political Correctness’.
The winner wrote,
‘Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.’
Seems like O-blah-blah is very concerned about political correctness…to the point of being politically incorrect himself by constantly playing and having his goons play the race card.
@143 Christ, you’re a closed minded twit. I suppose that when I went off the other day about Gore being a pompous ass, on that day I was somebody’s Republican. Don’t bother replying. You seem to be too fucking stupid to bother with – probably one of those fascist types who hang around here.
@149 Here, suck on the clean end of this…
@148 My bet is that you don’t have two nickels to rub together.
And Steve does what leftists, or socialists, or progressives can be counted on to do time after time. Call names and utter obscenities. It’s a wonderful measure of the maturity of the left…”you don’t agree with me, well then f–k you!”
I’d still like to know Steve what you think about banning those beach bonfires though.
@153 Banning beach fires? Al Gore’s wetdream, I suppose. I lived in King County up to last year, between Auburn and Federal Way. I always used my fireplace to burn wood. To hell with woodburning bans. I live in Mason County now – no bans, no vehicle smog checks – now, that’s the way I like it.
Call me a leftist all you want. It only shows how limited you are in perceiving the world around you. Nuance isn’t a dirty word, Borg-boy. Well, unless one is too stupid to go there.
Thanks for the honest answer Steve, although you just can’t seem to refrain from name calling. Is that the way you deal with your family and friends if they happen to disagree with you?
It always is illustrative that whenever I come to this site and dare to venture a contrary opinion I get called names as if we were 2nd graders on the playground.
@96 “… some are reducing the credit limits to far below the current balance (and then charging overlimit fees), and jumping up to a ‘default interest rate’ of upwards of 28% at the earliest opportunity.”
This illustrates why we need a lot more regulation of credit cards.
Banks have lost much of their income from writing mortgages and underwriting mergers, so they’re looking for other ways to boost revenues and profits. The quickest and easiest way to bring in more money is by gouging their credit card customers. So that’s what they’re doing. Your reward for being a good and loyal customer is being jerked around and ripped off. If this happens to you, you should walk — straight to a credit union.
@97 “In that same small town, the local businessmen, Republicans all, were threatening church workers who set up soup kitchens and distributed food to hungry families with physical violence if they didn’t get out of town. Their reasoning? They felt if the workers weren’t hungry enough, they wouldn’t work in their fields and factories for the pennies a day they wanted to pay them. The felt the workers and their families needed to be kept at starvation levels in order to properly motivate them.”
Cheap labor conservatives — what can you say? They’ve never gotten over the 13th Amendment.
@115 “And you’ll see much of what conservatives fought – and libs supported – dead and buried (Soviet Union, RIP).”
What a load of crap spewed by a lying pos — who do you think JFK was talking about when he promised to “bear any burden, pay any price” to defend liberty? God, you’re dishonest.
@155 You are called names because you are irritatingly stupid. If the Libs acted so damned stupid, I’d call them names too. However, you right-wing fascist-types seem to have that market cornered.
@121 “Democrats are like poor golfers that keep shanking their drives into the woods and never seem to realize that there might be something wrong with their swing.”
What, exactly, are Republicans good at Bill?
@140 “That 400 point drop in the Dow today of course has nothing to do with Democrats preventing us from drilling our own oil for the past 30 years or building nuclear plants to achieve clean energy independence.”
No, it doesn’t. In the first place, if we had drilled for the oil you’re referring to 30 years ago, it would have long since been sold as cheap gas and burned up in our gas guzzlers. Secondly, our cars don’t run on electricity; when you talk about nuclear plants, you’re talking about making a choice between generating electricity with uranium or coal, and we opted for coal which we have plenty of. Third, today’s 400-point drop in the Dow isn’t altogether due to the $11 rise in crude prices. Higher oil doesn’t help, but the selloff was due to higher unemployment and other indicators of a slowing economy, not higher crude prices per se.
But, just as an FYI, Bill … some of us have values beyond gas for our cars or the almighty dollar. Just because you’re blind to environmental values doesn’t mean everyone else is. If you don’t like it, go fuck yourself, because we’re going to run things from now on.
Gouging credit card holders is something new? You must be kidding!
If you are as old as I am you might remember when you couldn’t get a car loan for less that 18%.
@158 These freaks just keep repeating the same made-up shit. They ignore rebuttals and come back the next day with the same tired bullshit. I call them out for what they are – treasonous fascist fucktards.
@143 “liberals … let murderers and child molesters out of prison to prey on innocent citizens.”
When nothing else works for you wingnuts, you always have your outrageous lies to fall back on, don’t you?
@148 Geez, Cynical, I would never presume to tell you what to do … but as for me, I like volatility. It’s damned difficult to make money from a flat market. There’s nothing I like better than a stock whose price fluctuates by $10 a week.
@164 “When nothing else works for you wingnuts, you always have your outrageous lies to fall back on, don’t you?”
Apparently they can’t get anything working for them because I’ve heard nothing but outrageous lies out of them for a decade. Hell, when was the last time a Republican told the truth?
@162 I presume you’re talking about the Nixon-Ford Inflation that Jimmy Carter inherited.
Or maybe your daddy was one of those pathetic losers who had to buy his car from one of those “Nobody Denied Credit!” used car lots.
Or maybe you were.
And what exactly is “facist” about “right wingers” Steve?
Since you are not a liberal and take offense at being labeled one you might turn your attention to what liberals do. Like, for example, banning beach bonfires, and requiring people to wear bicycle helmets, banning trans-fats in restaurants, and spreading global warming hysteria. I don’t think conservatives spend anywhere near that much energy mandating how people should live.
And don’t think for a moment Steve that I don’t think you are a socialist lefty. Your comment about right wing facism says it all.
@163 Yeah, they make you wish they’d get some new material once in a while. Even TV re-runs were never this cloying — at least you got new re-runs every season.
@168 We’re not saying “fascists” and “right wingers” are the same thing. We’re saying the particular batch of right wingers whose company we have the pleasure of enjoying on this blog are fascists. If you want to know what it means, get a dictionary.
@165 Not me. Mmm, nothing better than cup and handle tech formations at the first stages of a market or sector recovery. 2003 was a great year for that. Stocks were popping like popcorn. Once that trend ended I quit trading and have held several positions long since. I appreciated your thoughtful post earlier.
Dude, liberals are not a threat. You fascists are a threat. When things change, maybe I’ll aim in a different direction. Regarding your opinion of my being left, right, or whatever, I could give a flying monkey fuck what you think.
@170 Of course, there’s some great stuff on Orcinus regarding fascism. I suspect what saved us was, when trolls wanted to have their own “Night of the Long Knives”, the borg-boy freaks failed to find the courage to leave their mother’s basements. I figured that’s how it would turn out. I was right for a change.
I’ll try again. Just what is “fascist” about “right wingers”?
Billy Billy Billy – first you don’t even attempt to refute most of my post about the sour state of the Bush/McCain economy. Then you go with the old tired lie – and yes – it is a big fat lie – about drilling for oil.
Facts are we don’t know if there’s ANY oil in ANWR. If so, best estimates are it’s five – 10 years away. And your pals at the oil companies have already TESTIFIED that they would sell that oil to Japan. Oh yes – and if we believe their lies – there’s MAYBE a 90 day supply there. Please tell me specifically how that is going to solve our oil crisis – and while you’re lying about that – explain why Florida REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR JEB BUSH fought so hard to keep the oil rigs off the coast of Florida. That’s okay is it because he’s like you – a piece of shit hypocrite punk?
Billy let me school you some more. Go to the dictionary and look up the word fascist. Go ahead, I’ll wait. The rest of you right wing turds would do well to follow this exercise.
Now doesn’t that describe you to a tee? If you look at Wikipedia it even uses the phrase “right wing.”
It’s all about shit like you turds trying to give control of the government over to big business and to promote your nationalistic, racist approach to life. Deal with it.
I just love this. Here’s the Democrat big talking point, the “Bush/McCain economy”.
And then there is more name calling. You fine people think nothing of calling people who disagree with you “turds” or worse. When we call you liberals or socialists you get all steamed up. You just don’t realize how predictable and silly you are.
Cruchon, you make the same boring, tired judgments each time you come here.
Go back to the orange clown bus (unSP) and file another report for the borg over there.
Notice how this cum-drunk piece of shit Billy bails once I destroy his argument. Typical punk.
Bill the cowardly fascist hypocrite keeps asking the same question over and over again when it’s been thoroughly answered, and keeps telling the same lie over and over when it’s been totally debunked. This technique is straight out of the Goebbels playbook.
152. Steve spews:
“@148 My bet is that you don’t have two nickels to rub together.”
My bet is you are what I call the “overflowing with envy LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWN”.
The type of KLOWN who sees others take risks & succeed….yet sits on his paycheck and thinks he’s wealthy because he owns a house with a mortgage. Or perhaps a Mama’s boy who still gets a trust-fund allowance.
Which is it Steve??
My folks were lower middle-class. We lived paycheck to paycheck. I worked my way thru college. Making $$ was important to me.
Guys like you gloat over KLOWNS like O-blah-blah because he promises to take more money away from successful people and give it to dipshits like you.
Here’s a tip:
If you won’t listen to me, listen to GBS or Roger Rabbit. INVEST CAPITAL!! And stop whining about your self-induced plight. And remember, envy is a sin. KLOWN!!
172. Steve spews:
“Dude, liberals are not a threat.”
DUDE????
No wonder you are poor and envious!!
Talk like a man…not some pot-smoking loser.
Calling someone a “cum-drunk piece of shit” says more about the crude, vile culture of the modern left than I could ever say.
Why did I find it humorous when the left blew its stack when Cheney privately told Senator Leahy to go F–k himself? You people crack me up.
We checked it out and found out Cynical is a janitor at the sexoffender unit at McNeil Island. He lives in a fantasy land. He’s dirt poor and worthless.
Now that in and of itself wouldn’t invalidate his opinions. But his lies, faulty logic, obvious overly inflated ego and his desire to rape babies do that trick just fine.
Like, for example, banning beach bonfires,
A bit eccentric, don’t personally agree with it but at least its heart is in the right place unlike a policy of endless war.
and requiring people to wear bicycle helmets,
rules of the road, not “rights” to the road.
banning trans-fats in restaurants,
Do you have a right to ingest one of the most powerful heart-disease promoting substances? I’ll take mine with trans-fat!
and spreading global warming hysteria.
nope, just trying to be smart about a truly “grave and gathering threat”. “Mushroom Clouds” – that was hysteria.
@ 130 RHP. Thanks for the link to the NCAA Div. 2 womens rowing title article.
You think there is massive enforcement of U.S. immigration laws? There are probably 12-15 million foreign nationals here that prove your theory wrong. Unfettered immigration will be the death of this country and you know it deep down inside. As I’ve stated in previous posts, why should the rule breakers be allowed to cut in line of those who’ve been trying to wade through the “process” of legally migrating and becoming U.S. Citizens? I’d rather welcome a guest into my house from the front door rather than someone sneaking in the dining room window……wouldn’t you?
Roger spews at #162, “if you don’t like it go fuck yourself because we’re going to run things from now on”.
Hillary thought she was going to run things from now on, too. Predicting the future is a very inexact science.