– Hey, people who make fun of Seattle for being somehow uniquely dysfunctional, here’s Bellevue.
– Tacoma School District negotiators should go back to the bargaining table.
– Don’t Republicans like multimillion dollar industries?
Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
I’m getting a little bored of spanking PuddyIdiot’s silly ass.
So I’ll open this up to all the other reflexive Obama haters..
Did this example of “leadership” show “divine guidance” (indicative of a man who prays in the Oval Office) or “Jim Beam” guidance??
Enquiring minds want to know..
re 1: Awesome Comment!!!!! God created Jim Beam for the very purpose of speeding the decision process. President Bush was on a high intake regimen for drugs and booze in order to keep his mind limber enough to make these sorts of important decisions.
For those that missed it, Horsey’s nailed it again:
Dessert, American style
I think I’ve finally figured out Republicans.
They formed their world view in the early 1950’s. And they decided it was too liberal at that time, so they want to take us back to the 1850’s.
@4
I doubt you could figure out a wet dream, much less anything else.
@4
We’re pretty much in a repeat of The Gilded Age. The only question is, is when will the Leon Czolgosz’s and the folks with the sticks of dynamite show up.
4 – More like the 1750’s. Reminds me of the modernist adaptations of Shakespeare.
Think Ian McKellen in Richard III.
Apparently porn star Ron Jeremy has announced on Facebook he’s running for president, using the slogan, “You’re getting screwed anyway, might as well get screwed by a pro.”
@1 You point out an interesting fact — only Republicans are stupid enough to vote for Republicans.
@3 One of the lies Republicans try to foist off on us is that Wingnut Whack-O-Nomics isn’t a zero-sum game. A rising tide, they tell us, lifts all boats! Tax cuts for the rich create jobs! When they prosper, all of us prosper!
If that’s true, why are the rich the only ones shopping at Tiffany’s?
@4 You nailed it. And you’re choice of the “1850s” as their target date is dead-on accurate. Note this predates the abolition of slavery. Although they’ll deny it in cocktail conversation, cheap labor conservatives know in their hearts that they lost the Civil War, so now they’re trying to gain in Congress what they couldn’t win on the battlefield.
@6 I don’t want that, but it seems they do, judging from the fact virtually all of the loose talk about “civil war” is coming from the wingnut side.
@12
Considering that Leon Czolgosz and the dynamite throwers targeted the wealthy, I really doubt they want that.
Let My Markets Go Free Dep’t
Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying government should tell businesses who they can hire and fire — not at all. All I’m saying is businessmen are asses, and free markets are stupid asses — which is fine with me, because I make money by exploiting stupid markets. And believe me, the free market in stocks is stupid — contrary to the blatherings of “efficient market theory” proponents, stocks are mispriced all the time.
Anyway, here we go. This bit of wisdom is from Motley Fool, an investment-guru website:
“Layoffs Can Ruin Your Investments
“Wall Street often cheers when companies announce layoffs; yay, cost-cutting! Come on — it’s time for a reality check. Layoffs not only continue to drag on our weak already economy, but they will likely hurt the future prospects of many of the companies that turn to them to bolster profitability.”
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....MotleyFool
The article then goes on to discuss how layoffs, or even rumors of layoffs, destroy employee morale and undermine productivity:
“When workers worry that the axe is going to fall … negative outcomes begin. Such an environment takes workers’ eyes off their goals, hinders companies’ ability to recruit new talent, and can give the highest-performing employees the ‘incentive’ they need to head for the exits.”
The article encapsulates the basic problem of business governance today with these simple lines:
“As Voltaire so famously said, common sense is not so common, and many of Wall Street’s short-term focuses and pressures fit perfectly into that philosophical observation. No company with deteriorating employee morale is destined for greatness.”
Now, again, I’m not saying we need a new government bureaucracy to regulate business hiring and firing. But if the vox populi demands one, they should put me in charge of it.
With this Civil War, there won’t be a war. We should just let the South go.
@15 We shouldn’t have let them back into the Union the first time.
@14
Yay, workers can no longer afford to buy our products.
Death Watch
Two high-profile executions are scheduled for this afternoon. Barring unexpected intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, the state of Georgia will put Troy Davis to death in about 45 minutes from now. Earlier today, Georgia’s supreme court refused to stay Davis’ execution. I haven’t followed this case; all I know about it is that Davis, who was convicted of killing a cop, claims he’s innocent and that many of the eyewitnesses relied on by the prosecution have recanted their trial testimony. But prosecutors are adamant that they convicted the actual killer.
Texas plans to execute a man convicted in the horrific hate-crime dragging death case, in which three white supremacists chained a black man to a pickup truck and dragged him several miles down an asphalt highway, tearing his head off and shredding his body so badly that when police found it they initially thought it was animal roadkill.
A sister of the victim says she will be in the death chamber to watch Lawrence Russell Brewer die because, she says, her family needs to be represented there. Unlike the Davis case, there has been no eleventh-hour fight to save Brewer’s life or outpouring of public sympathy for the condemned man. Brewer himself says he wants to get it over with. And Larry Brewer isn’t the kind of guy that very many people will miss; even before his participation in the Byrd lynching, he had a long criminal record. Before the Byrd killing, he had been in prison for cocaine possession, had committed parole violations, and committed a string of burglaries and thefts. The sheriff and prosecutor recently visited him on Death Row and came away saying Brewer displayed no remorse over his participation in Byrd’s death.
@17 The reality is that U.S. corporations are increasingly selling their goods overseas and corporate marketing departments no longer consider American consumers as important to their businesses as they once did.
@19
Fuckers!
RR, quoting The Motley Fool @ # 14:
Yep, I’ve seen it a few times, both in companies I’ve worked in, and those I’ve advised as a consultant (yes, Puddy, make fun of that if you wish, but people DO pay me to advise them about their businesses from time-to-time).
The first impact upon rumors of layoffs/office closing:
1. Employees are distracted. They start spending time re-working their budgets to see if they can survive a layoff, and for how long. They start updating their resumes. They put off working on long-term projects, thinking that it might just be a wasted effort. Even short-term goals are given minimal efforts.
2. Employees start looking for alternative employment. The best employees start heading out the door, even before layoff decisions are made or announced by the company. Medium-value employees are further distracted as they actively look for work, taking time off for “medical appointments” which are actually job interviews, dissappear outside to take telephone calls on their cell phones from potential employers, etc. The least-valued employees stay around, they have nowhere else to go.
3. The sales force finds it difficult to sell, even to existing customers. Why should they buy from a company where their principle contact may not be there for service questions next month? Will the company even be in business to service their warranties or contracts? Sales plummet.
After the layoffs are announced and people start heading out the door, depression and job performance among the survivors plummits further. “Am I next?” is the question on everyone’s minds. Customer service suffers, which impacts sales even further, causing even further degredation of the basic problem.
Then, as fewer people are required to do the workload of those who have departed, quality suffers, again exascerbating the sales and customer satisfaction underlying problems.
And depending upon how the layoffs are conducted, you could create other problems. In the mid-1990’s Boeing did a major layoff, which they initiated first as an “early retirement” program. This pushed a lot of the more senior (and experienced) workers out the door. Then when the 777 program suffered delays, in part due to problems which those more experienced workers could have helped avoid, they called those workers back in as “temp workers”, paying much more for them than they would have in the first place. But by the mid-2000’s Boeing faced an even more serious problem: the layoffs conducted every few years had constantly shed the younger workers from the system. Going down the factory floor you saw nothing but gray hair, with workers who planned to retire within the next ten years. Who was going to take their place – new hires with no experience?
The guys who were held by the Iranians and convicted on spying charges (for wandering into Iranian territory unawares) were released today on $500,000 in bali each. They were flown to Oman for a little rest, then they’ll be returning to the US.
Politically Incorrect comment: A good Christmas gift fot these two guys would be a GPS device. If you’re gonna go hiking near the border of a nation that absolutely hates our guts, it’s always a good idea to know exactly where you are in relation to that border. Also, a GPS device is a lot cheaper than paying $500,000 in bail!
# 5: I doubt you would know the difference.
I watched a special on HBO about the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last night. What really stuck out was John McCain’s asshole-like behavior against the repeal of DADT and letting gays and lesbians serve openly in the Armed Forces. McCain behaved like an arrogant bully at the Senate hearings on the subject, even questioning Amdiral Mullen’s (the JCS chief) opinion that gays and lesbians could serve in the Armed Forces without the world coming to an end.
I’m thinking of writing McCain and advising him to take his Navy pension, his Senate pension, his Social Security, and his wife’s money and just fucking retire already! He’s so out of touch with reality that he dosen’t belong in government in any capacity. {Another good reason for term limits for these jerks!}
@16
See as how most military people come from the southern states, I would say the north might be fucked the 2nd around
@23
Sounds like it would be yet another case you would come up hort on.
@24 I guess we can add “rampant homophobe” to Senator McCain’s steadily increasing list of undesirable characteristics.
@10 A rising tide lifts all yachts. A falling one strands the rowboats.
How come none of the more prominent democrooks are getting behind obamas “jobs proposal”……they left him spinning in the wind.
Protests in Chile. Don’t know anything about them, but there sure are a lot of protests going on around the wold right now.
re 22: Are you sure that these guys were NOT spies? Who goes ‘hiking’ near the Iranian border? Were they walking their golden retriever and just wandered over the border?
Even if they weren’t spies, they would have probably been debriefed by some security agency, anyway. These guys were guilty of incredible stupidity. I wish that the U.S. would devote as much time and money to freeing that college kid being illegally detained by the Italians.
The Italians are great with spaghetti and military retreats, but their justice system sucks.
@30
Idiots that get into debt, and then complain about paying it off get no sympathy from me.
What kind of stupid fucking fool gets $26k in student loans in order to get a $13k job? That’s about the last person I would want teaching my kids
@29
Because most of the “more prominent democrats” are useless fools.
How come the best the Republicans can come up with to unseat Obama are a couple of Dominionist loons and a couple of rich brats in sacred undies?
re 29: Politics is the art of the possible — and there is not much possible when you have to work with a bunch of Republican nincompoops.
@32
Sorta misses the point, but whatever.
re 32: “Idiots that get into debt, and then complain about paying it off get no sympathy from me.”
Does that include fake wars paid for on credit and lowering taxes just when you are embarking upon an expensive war? You should be kicking yourself in the butt.
@25
A bunch of my ancestors from the south fought in the Civil War. They all fought for the north.
@37
And?
@37
So you are saying they were republican then…..
@36
Nice try at making a connection, but it failed.
Insert another quarter and try again.
@22 Yeah, you have to wonder what those guys were thinking, and you can’t really blame the Iranians for concluding they must be spies because no American tourist in his right mind would be where they were.
@25 The Confederates were damn good soldiers but they lost anyway because of strategic factors. I kind of doubt we have a Lee or Grant anywhere in the country now, though — and we certainly don’t have a Lincoln.
@25
Seeing how the Republicans and the southerners are all afraid of scary brown people and most of the military guys I see are brown people they might want to think twice about starting that fight.
The ‘Twist’ Will Be A Bust
The Federal Reserve dusted off a 1960s tactic today when it announced it would do the “twist,” which consists of selling short-term bonds from its portfolio and buying long-term bonds to push down long-term interest rates.
This isn’t quantitative easing, because unlike QE1 and QE2, it doesn’t expand the money supply. And even the scale of these bond swaps is well below what Fed observers and market watchers had predicted — many investment pros were expected a “twist” in the $600 – 650 billion range, the lowest estimates I saw were $450B, but the Fed is only going to do $400B. The effect on the economy will be minimal or nonexistent, and some of the financial press is interpreting the move as evidence that the Fed has run out of policy options.
Apparently investors think so, too, as the stock market lost 283 Dow points today with a significant number of the several dozen stocks I watch closely dropping below their August lows today.
Lower long-term interest rates will further hurt retirees who depend on investment income, without helping beleaguered homeowners, because you can’t refinance if your home is worth less than the loan balance or if you don’t have a job. It won’t help small businesses who can’t get loans because banks won’t lend to them because they’re not making enough money because they don’t have enough customers because consumers have too much debt and not enough jobs.
Political gridlock is making a bad but manageable situation slide out of control. Republicans insist on free-market solutions to everything, ignoring the fact it was Wingnut Whack-O-Nomics based on unregulated free market licentiousness that got us into this mess in the first place. Another dose of Hooverism sure as hell won’t get us out.
It’s going to be a long winter, and an even longer spring.
Execution Updates
Troy Davis is still alive and Larry Brewer isn’t.
Georgia delayed Davis’ execution after his lawyers filed a last-ditch appeal with SCOTUS. The Department of Corrections said they’re waiting for a response from the court. It’s unclear what Davis’ status is or how long they’ll wait, as a spokeswoman pointedly said he doesn’t have a reprieve.
Davis’ high-profile case has attracted international attention, including intervention by the Vatican, because of his innocence claims, which are supported by witness recantations and a lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime.
Lawrence Russell Brewer, one of three men convicted in a horrific lynching, went to his death in Texas’ lethal injection chamber this afternoon. His parents and two of the victim’s sisters watched him die. He made no final statement, and a sheriff and prosecutor who visited him on Death Row several weeks ago said he had no apparent remorse for his participation in the murder of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death. Byrd’s body was so mutilated that the police who found it at first thought his remains were animal roadkill.
One of the other two perpetrators is appealing his death sentence and doesn’t have an execution date yet. The other is serving a life sentence.
It looks like Michele Bachman’s already crested and is heading downhill. Consider this:
Michele Bachman Can’t Win
This leaves Romney and Perry. Romney stands the best chance of mounting a creditible challenge to the President, but his biggest challenge might be securing the nomination. The Tea Party types consider him with suspicion as RINO, and the Evangelicals will likely consider his Mormon religion as a disqualifying factor. If he does win, expect the Democrats to be running his “Corporations are people, too!” comment 24/7.
If Romney does win the nomination, then there’s a fair chance he might choose Bachman as his VP candidate, as a way of bringing the Tea Party fully into the fold. Of course, that’s been tried before in 2008, and it didn’t turn out very well for McCain at the time. But despite Palin’s entertainment value, I don’t think she cost McCain the nomination – there was no way ANY Republican was going to win that election while the economy was going down in flames all around him.
If Perry wins the nomination, his VP pick is a lot harder to guess. I don’t see Romney agreeing to play second-fiddle to Perry, he would probably prefer to wait until 2016 and give it another try then. Choosing another Tea-party celebrity (Palin?) wouldn’t help Perry any in the general election. So who could he call upon?
Obama Administration in deeper and deeper poop on illegal gun-running operation Fast & Furious.
Where is the outrage from the Left??
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....r-scandal/
@47
Fast and Furious was a debacle and they’re rightfully catching hell for it. Where’s the need for outrage when the system’s working correctly?
Dana Milbank, Leftist Wa Po
Yeah, tell that the the libtardo MSM the next time the systems work perfectly when a conservative sits in da whitey house! Instead they’ll want commissions and special prosecutors and hold seances, etc.
@50 Get back to us after a conservative president doesn’t fuck up everything in sight, but that’s likely to be a long wait.
@49 So what’s wrong with making those 1,000 millionaires pay their fair share of taxes?
You see, puddy, the fallacy of your argument is that if only a handful of millionaires are paying taxes at lower rates than middle class wage slaves, then making millionaires pay the same tax rates as middle class wage slaves affects only a handful of millionaires. So what’s the beef? Why are you defending these tax scofflaws? Do you enjoy paying higher taxes than some tax cheat making 100 times as much as you?
This sure puts that millionaires don’t pay their fair share argument to shame. Butt don’t let a good “crisis” slip away. – Rahmbo Emanuel
$75,000 8.5%
Less than $100,000 12.3%
$100,000 11.9%
$200,000 16.3%
$500,000 25.8%
Over $500,000 29.7%.
Looks the the millionaires are already paying.
It boils down to this. Republicans say they want a balanced budget, but you can’t balance the budget by maintaining a system that has corporations and rich people paying the lowest taxes they’ve paid in living memory. The GOP’s economic arguments are hogwash; the economy did just fine in the 1950s when corporations and the rich paid much higher taxes than they do now. And if their argument that we can’t tax the rich if we want jobs holds any water, then where are the fucking jobs? Because it’s a fact that Republican tax-coddling of the rich has been in place for many years now. The GOPers’ paper arguments are just that: Paper arguments. All the empirical experience says they’re wrong. Revenues don’t go up when you cut taxes, they go down, see Reagan tax cuts for the rich as Exhibit A and Bush tax cuts for the rich as Exhibit B. See the unemployment rate as Exhibit C.
It would be easier to live with Republicans if they were honest about the fact they’re simply selfish and greedy bastards who want to keep their privileged status in society without doing anything to deserve it. Everyone sees through their bullshit; so why don’t they just admit up front that they’re self-serving jerks out to feather their own nest. They would get more respect if they were honest about it.
@54 “Looks the the millionaires are already paying.”
Why did you forget to mention that millionaires own most of the property and get the lion’s share of the income in this country?
Do you deny there has been an enormous concentration of wealth at the top?
The reason the poor aren’t paying as much taxes as the rich is because they don’t have as much money as the rich.
Idiot.
Concentration of wealth is the real issue. It doesn’t really matter why wealth is concentrating in very few hands and everyone else is getting poorer. What matters is that’s what is happening. History tells us no socioeconomic system that allowed that to happen unabated has survived. All societies have unequal wealth distribution, but those who let wealth concentrate beyond a certain point almost invariably get overthrown.
The greedheads could take a lesson from the traditions of the Pacific Northwest native tribes. Periodically, when chiefs accumulated too many goods, they threw a potlatch to redistribute the tribe’s wealth. This system worked for 15,000 years.
Our modern economic system has been around for roughly 150 years, and the way things are going, it may not see its 200th birthday.
USA Already In Double-Dip Recession, Soros Says
“Billionaire investor George Soros said he believed the United States was already … [in] a double dip recession and that Republican opposition to Obama’s fiscal stimulus plans was to blame ….
“Euro zone policymakers have repeatedly followed the wrong policy shifts, creating a situation in Europe ‘more dangerous’ to the global financial system than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Soros said.
“‘It is a more dangerous situation [than Lehman Bros] and I think that the authorities, when push comes to shove, will do whatever it takes to hold the system together, because the alternative is just too terrible to contemplate,’ he added.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44621082
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Okay, I know some of you wingers don’t like Soros because he gave money to MoveOn.org and you think he’s a lefty (although he sure as hell looks like a flaming CAPITALIST to me). That’s beside the point. The question is whether he knows what he’s talking about. Go ahead, make yourself look ridiculous by posting a comment saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about — I dare you! My response will be simple: He’s got $22 billion; how much do you have?
Greece Is Falling Apart
“Austerity-weary Greeks lashed out against more tax hikes and pension cuts with a new round of strikes, with public transport workers, taxi drivers, teachers and air traffic controllers walking off the job Thursday.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44621678
Roger Rabbit Commentary: You can’t keep taking from the underclass to protect the rich forever. At some point that, policy hits a brick wall.
So Is The Rest Of Europe
“Business activity in France and Germany grew at its weakest pace in more than two years in September and new orders fell for a third month, a survey showed, underscoring a loss of momentum in Europe’s largest economies at a critical time for the euro zone.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44621647
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The shit’s hitting the fan. Really — I mean it! The Hooverites are about to get ground up into sausage. Trouble is, they want to take the rest of us with them.
Bankers Should Be Shot Dep’t*
Investment banks continue to gamble their own money on financial markets, hiding behind clients, in a widespread practice that risks the wrath of regulators, particularly after Swiss bank UBS lost $2.3 billion in rogue-trading.
“The official line from most, keen not to appear to be taking the same excessive risks that led to the global financial crisis in 2008, is that what takes place on their sprawling trading floors is largely on the back of client orders.
“It is hard to get people working within the banks to talk about it, but traders say that much of what happens at “Delta One” desks — the focus of the UBS … loss — and in other parts of the business is driven by banks betting their capital … in what is known as proprietary, or ‘prop’, trading.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44621536
Roger Rabbit Commentary: They didn’t learn a damn thing, did they? There are at least two classes of people who can never be trusted — bankers and Republicans. Maybe what we need is not bank regulation but bank nationalization.**
* Just kidding! Wingnut joke. See, e.g., Ann Coulter.
** Just kidding! That’s a Stalinist idea. Me, I want banks to stay private, so I can flip bank stocks like the good little capitalist that I am.
Actually, there aren’t many bank stocks I like just now, for obvious reasons, but I do like Bank of New York Mellon, because it’s a custodian bank that makes 80% of its income from charging fees and only 20% from lending activity, and has almost zero exposure to the mortgage mess. It looks pretty cheap right now, but I’d wait, because GOP policies are going to make it a lot cheaper.
What to expect in the stock market tomorrow morning? Well, the weekly jobless claims data will be released before the market opens, and if that number is above 425,000 expect the stock market to blow another fart like yesterday’s.
Stocks may look cheap now, but with irrational House Republicans dictating economic policy, I expect them to get a lot cheaper. That’s why I’m sitting on nearly $100,000 of cash.
If you don’t understand what’s happening in Europe and how it affects us, and would like to, read this article. It’s not the whole story, but it’s a start.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44504057
How Stupid Was Bush Dep’t
It’s possible 4,000+ Americans gave their lives in Iraq to put this guy in power.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....ork_times/
And when did this happen? Oh yeah delusions grandeur. Remember it was you who told the world how you scour the net looking for your news from left wrong sites
We see how you live off the net wrong those “news” sources.
Proud to be an ASS nailed you perfectly above. Frankly Odd (pink lace panty waste) and monomaniacal. It will be remembered FOREVER!
Thanks PTBAA
See ya!
ROTFLRHMBBAO!
You are the beta… I am your ALPHA. See ya!
Looks like you can’t bury certain links in blockquotes. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/C.....?id=224315
“when an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is established, we won’t allow the presence of one Israeli in it.”
“I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land.” – Mahmoud Abbas, friend of many HA leftists.
From a source not read by HA leftists. The facts would explode the libtardo minds!
Like this???
Finally got one right!
Still don’t watch TV News. Haven’t for years. I don’t look at all the right wing bullshit you look at either.
Like I exposed here.
LMAO!!! Yep you are. I STARTED the db project and you’ve been whining like a stuck pig about it ever since!
Next!
Or maybe this is what happened per Michael Moore and Bill Maher:
This comment tells it all about racist liberals…
OR this one
DU, another set of real DUmmies in the DUMMOCRAPT party.
All you have to do is periodically visit the left wrong sites used by HA leftist morons and watch the filth and bile arrive from their leetle tiny racist minds. Wait for the right opportunity and display their “style”.
Project? Instead of looking for work this is what you call a project. ROTFLRHMBBAO!
Wrong again fool! You copy every saying I use on this blog.
Tooooo Damnnn Fuuuunny.
You are the beta.
Assfacia.
KABLAMMO
and many more.
Never an original thought in that leetle on celled mind. You use that crazed databaze as a crutch. That’s why no one will ask you for help. No leftist wants to be associated with you.
Proud to be an ASS nailed you perfectly above. Frankly Odd and monomaniacal. It will be remembered FOREVER!
Thanks PTBAA
See ya! Did you make your children their lunch yet? Did you iron your wife’s SEIU uniform? You better get cracking. Time’s awasting!
ROTFLRHMBBAO!
Wow.
Reading this thread this morning – didn’t have time yesterday – all sorts of interesting and provocative posts about the death penalty, and economics, the stock market and the distribution of wealth in this country, and the consequences thereof…
…and then comes the Puddy algorithm, shitting a turd in the middle of the living room, harshing everybody’s mellow.
What a tool.
71 – zzzzzZZZZzzzzz…
Who said this???
At one time, YOU wanted to vote for the black guy too, raging moron!
And PEOPLE YOU HATE did support him!
WRONG THEN, WRONG NOW, WRONG ALWAYS!!!
THAT”S YOU!
74 – Link:
http://horsesass.org/?p=2427#comment-637164
LMAO!!! Like “someone” around here really needs your silly butt!
OH MY!..
Lib UnScientist,
You started reading at comment #3.
P R I C E L E S S!
Thanks for playing!
ROTFLRHMBBAO!
This is rich.
Lying, sanctimonious, white-supremacist “historian’/propagandist is complaining that dissemination of his beliefs is exposing him to “public hatred, contempt, ridicule, financial injury and impeaching [Barton’s] honesty, integrity and virtue,”
Yup, it sure does – though does not seem a basis for a tort? What do you think, RR?
Amazing.
I irony dead? Ted Haggard on Celebrity Wife Swap? Meth-snortin’, rent-boy massage aficionado Bible-thumper Ted Haggard? Really? Hosted by born-again preacherman Gary Busey?
These people purport to dictate morality to the rest of us, for money.
There really are no words.
How long before ‘celebrated’ right-wing hack/fake historian David Barton (see #78) is revealed to be paying meth smoking black gay socialist masseuse for some of that good old sexy time, er, companionship?
Does Lib Scientist ever link to a standard web site?
Jury Verdict: No Your Honor!
From Digby’s place, courtesy of thereisnospoon…
Read the whole thing.
Anyone notice that both Jesus and cheap labor capitalists both love poor people?
Curious.
Message to Lib Unscientist from Roger DOPEY Rabbit:
It’s a recent quote. While it’s not all over the blog like his blog entries (which you continually missed over the years), you can find it if you search hard enough.
HA! Pot, meet kettle.
So, Puddles, do you dispute that either Ted Haggard is appearing on Celebrity Wife Swap, or that white-supremacist ‘historian’ is suing someone for discussing his ‘writings’?
Or are you just throwing desperate bombs?
Right-wingers make it so easy to ridicule them.
On a related note, I’ve always been fascinated by Puddy’s insistence on hanging out where people despise him. And I don’t mean disagree – I would love to have an intelligent conservative to spar with – no, I mean despise, for cause. Who does that?
Nope Lib Unscientist, but this information is found on other more reputable web sites besides always rushing to TPM, who once proffered Bristol Palin’s baby was really Sarah Palins.
Search for that Lib Unscientist. Maybe you’ll stumble across conceptguerilla too!
Oh the love. The Love!
You ran away from post #88 in the Sunday Bible “Study”. It explains your “debate style” to a T!
Thanks jackASS!
@84
Duh. I am well aware that the esteemed RR both supports the death penalty, and opposes abortion, and that I disagree with him on these points.
So what?
He is intelligent and thoughtful, and has come to his opinions on his own, and states and defends them. Great. I don’t share those positions with him. I would, as you do, quote RR:
You again seem to be raving without a point – would you be more comfortable over at Sound Politics hangin’ with your homey Pudge?
Heh. Imagine that. Haggard used to talk once a week to Puddybud’s undying object of man-love, the “jim beam” Preznit.
Heh. Imagine that. Haggard used to talk once a week to Puddybud’s undying object of man-love, the “jim beam” Preznit.
@87
You are pathetic.
OK, I’ll bite. That post 88 on the last Bible study thread was another typical obfuscation on your part. You jump up and down claiming I’m ‘putting words in your mouth’ presumably because I attributed to you the sentiment
Derived from your direct statements
and
The thing is, prior to this you utterly ignored my detailed, earnest and substantive responses to you at posts 37, 38, 39, and, notably, SJ’s at 44, or my later one at 61.
So, I paraphrased you, accurately I think, derived from statements you made in that thread, and that you’ve maintained in other threads. However, you refuse to engage in honest, earnest statements from myself and others – and now you’re braying about “POST 88!!” and how I won’t debate you?
You’re not just pathetic, you’re deeply dishonest and very destructive.
Fuck off, Puddles.
Politico, that mainstream bunch of stenographers that Puddles might consider legit (as if that mattered), does report this. Quoting Ricky Santorum whining to Google:
(Sidenote – note how Ricky presumes that a story about him has an impact on the country – HAHAHA)
Google, of course, smacks Ricky:
Yeah that’ll work – Dan Savage is sure to quack in his boots when Ricky calls!
thereisnospoon has more commentary:
Too, too funny. Pass the popcorn – one can only hope that Ricky keeps at this – after all, it’s really the only way to keep his name in circulation.
Other than this, of course.
Oh. My. god.
Watch this video – too, too funny.
Gee I wish Dan Savage would focus more on scary Rick Perry.
I’ve heard a few rumblings out there about Perry’s ummm… leanings..
Santorum is a joke and a non-starter.
This is important, very important.
Elizabeth Warren gives me “that tingle down my leg” (made so popular by Chris Matthews!) This woman is FOR REAL. A few more like her, with Bernie and Al Franken, and we might be getting somewhere.
A side note, on the meta, the context of the show: relaxed bully boy Joe, with evil, smirking, pretty and condescending Miki as his sidekick is just nauseating – wrong on so many levels – and in contrast to the smart and genuine and authentic Elizabeth Warren. And did you hear how Joe Whatshisname called her “Elizabeth” instead of “Professor Warren”? They never miss an opportunity to be dicks.
And it is quite possible that Mark Halperin is a bigger douchebag than Puddy, if that were possible.
Do share. Must say, I’d love to see some Rick Perry manlove.
Halperin is too “liberal” for the black hole that is the “mind” of PuddyIdiot. In reality of course, Halperin is a preening beltway tool.
Like his undying man-love for Preznit Jim Beam, PuddyDope will go to his GRAVE proclaiming Halperin a “leftist”.
97 – Just google “rick perry gay”.
Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s website tried to insert the keywords, “Perry gay”, for searches!
Hilarious!
Yup, that is part of the Puddy, and the right-wing in general’s MO – discredit journalism in general, and call the preening fools spewing ‘conventional wisdom’ leftists – close the Overton window, and all that.
Could they be more dishonest?
96 – yeah she’s a star. But she’d better get a star team behind her.
The Koch Brothers and their buddies will be fueling the mother of all smear job campaigns behind that douchebag Brown.
He may be a bit of an empty suit but he works his ass off in campaign mode.
Seen this before somewhere – just reposted in a comment thread over at DK, well worth repeating here:
Fucking damn-fool r’thugs.
Ha and twitter and blogs are my life
103 – Heh. And I appear to be YOUR LIFE!
I’m in your head little troll I’m so flattered!
Got anything else beside me in your fabulous mind?
@ 1 – Do you think it was the booze that made GWB look like a monkey?
Buy American – what about build in America?
@105
Was it booze that made your dad diddle you the first time?
107 – Awwwwwwwww… So sad that I’m out of your head little troll..
Gman, I think this troll is a perfect example of what you most often comment about.
@108
aww look, our fat-n-pudgy mexican basement dweller is “living off the net” again. Seen your kids recently? I’m sure their mom is doing double duty while you do your intwarweb “research”…LMFAO
nice….life…..lol
hows your buddy Lee doing?
Once again Roger DOPEY Rabbit doesn’t read the leftist newspaper… It’s not my argument per se. It is Dana Milbank and the Brookings Institute guy William Gale, co-director of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center. Isn’t Brookings leftist BTW?
So Roger DOPEY Rabbit, strike your comment in the DOPEY category again. Read before writing…
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Corrected! Once again Roger DOPEY Rabbit gets it wrong about UBS. In fact lately Roger DOPEY Rabbit has been getting a lot wrong!
You’ll find this on my favorite site. BTW DUMMOCRAPTS owned the senate under SCary Harry Land Deal Reid in 2007 and Chris Half a Female Sandwich Dodd was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs! You can look up the female sandwich issue with Ted Kennedy on Google!
Good try Roger DOPEY Rabbit!
Another EPIC FAYLE attempt.
Ahhh I got a “rise” out of Liberal Scientist…
Those posts are regurgitation of standard theoretical arguments people make over on the evolution side. For example you can distill the Liberal Scientist arguments from the page of sites on this Google Search. So when Liberal Scientist claims he makes substantive postings, just Google it and you’ll be able to figure out it was a basic rewrite of other people’s hypotheses!
For example he claims this is my comment
Look high and low around the whole Sunday Bible thread and what this “person” claims I said is nowhere to be found.
Sorry dude that is another EPIC FAYLE. No substantive posting anywhere. So to paraphrase Liberal UNScientist…
You’re not just idiotic and pathetic, you’re deeply dishonest about people’s comments and very destructive to any conservative who attempts to debate you. I provided proof of your debate style above and how you twist other people’s comments by attributing things to them they never said. Remember you put that horseshit in quotes. Yet a full search of that string will NEVER be found!
As you said “Fuck off”, Liberal UNScientist. Back to you!
This is important, very important.
But the really telling point of the story is someone had to get to her because she flipped and flopped
Very interesting. Somehow the Daily Kooks link from Loser Scrambleman skipped over much of this “information”. Well they are left wrong loons. They too claimed Bristol Palin’s baby was Sarah’s!
Oh my it’s another attack of HA’s favorite loony lefty
duncecap diarrheal deliveries! Maybe he’ll take the liberal test again!
114 – What happened to “iDD” stupid??
Heh. You’re attacking one of your own there dummy!
109 – He comes out of the closet…
What a miserable hater…
@116
Yep, I hate lazy losers who don’t pay their fair share in taxes…like you.
117 – You hate brown skinned people…
You’re a racist. Would you attack a swedish guy on ssi that way??
@118
I dunno…I dont know any swedish guys on SSI – do you?
face it asshole, your a lazy fuck who spends all his time “living on the net”…wow, nice fucking life.
no wonder your kids dont respect you – nobody else does.
lets check the list:
1. Incessant HA poster – check (Im sure the 8 or so people who still post here regularly are impressed…lol)
2. writes MULTIPLE blogs about posters on a blog – check
3. Twitters about posters on a blog – check
4. “lives off the net”(insert laughter here) – check.
5. TEH DATUBAYZE! – check
6. Has a giant L stamped on his forehead – check
dude, really – have you ever just stepped back and examined all the time and energy you spend on this shit? Do you REALLY think anybody takes this shit as seriously as you(and of course Lee R!) do? Its fucking pathetic.
I mean, I realize you got beat up a lot when you were younger and stuff, but there is a big giant world out there full of people who bust their ass to get ahead – and they certainly dont need creepy basement dwellers “living off the net” working day and night figuring out ways to steal more of their money.
in conclusion:
get a life loser.
@119,
Somehow your North Pasadena rant could be inserted into #118! Marvin Stamn identified another arschloch gas vent on you that day!
ROTFLRHMBBAO!
119 – Yawwwn. How many comments have you placed here moron?
Think of all the guys out there you admire, you hold up as a role model.
How many are reading HA???
You’re here practically every fucking day.
Take your own advice racist moron. Sheesh. What a bore.
120 – Now there’s a role model for you asswipe @ 119…
He’s got way more comments than I have on this pop stand.
Wiping up yours and other leftist bullcrap!
Cuz you are FRANKLY ODD and MONOMANIACAL – Proud to be an ASS said that!
123 – zzzzzZZZZzzzzzz. Keeping deluding yourself that you’re getting any mileage out of that.
How’s that great choice in Preznits who “reach to a higher power” while black folks drown in floods working out for you?
You talking about Ray 400 Buses Parked I let them Drown Nagin again serial arschloch plagiarizer?
Do tell historical revisionist! Cuz you are FRANKLY ODD and MONOMANIACAL – Proud to be an ASS said that!
Where’s da link from the crazed HA databaze? Go for 15 for 15 in da fayle!
125 – He reached to JIM BEAM YOU DOPE..
I READ IT IN THE ENQUIRER!
He was supposed to be the one who prayed in the Oval Office. Why couldn’t he pray at the phony ranch???
WAS HE BLOTTO WHEN HE GAVE BROWNIE A “HECKUVAJOB”???
Yet again the problem with Puddy comes front and center on these treads – he is dishonest and destructive, essentially a liar with no regard or respect for the community members here.
He is not here for honest argument or discussion, but rather to shit in the middle of the living room.
So, yeah, Puddles – fuck off. You’re not worth my time.
And…you’re a complete religionist freak who thinks ‘god’ teleported penguins to take a ride on Noah’s Ark, and that the earth is 6000 years old. Absolutely whack-a-doodle ‘ideas’ that rival Mitt Romney’s magical underwear. A dishonest ass who is either too stupid, or simply disingenuous, to know the meaning of the word ‘theory’. Worse, you’re a mean spirited and loathsome troll who seems to delight in the misery of others.
So, again, Fuck Off, Puddles.
Isn’t puddypussy tired of getting beat to shit by the lib scientist (especially) ylb and (really humiliating) a cute fuzzy little bunny?
Hell…even Ol’ Rujax takes the puddypussy down.
Sheesh man, have you no shame?
@78 Won’t survive a summary judgment motion.
@80 I don’t think this one’s actionable either. The guy’s a public figure. You open yourself up to this sort of thing when you engage in public debate. It’s like climbing into a boxing ring and then suing the other guy for hitting you.
@84 “It’s a recent quote.”
Actually, I posted that yesterday, although it’s not new — I’ve stated this on HA for years. For example, I support yesterday’s execution of the Texas dragging case killer. But I have also consistently qualified my support for the death penalty by stating that it should be used only against heinous killers and only in cases where guilt is not in doubt.
Oh my the cinder block arrives.
What beatdown? Notice how the Lib UnScientist didn’t address any of his identified attributes? Wait… you are a moron
What beatdown? Notice how the serial arschloch plagiarizer has attempted 14 entries from the crazed HA databaze ad half of them were badly formed search queries and all of them fayled? Wait… you really are a moron. And he’s FRANKLY ODD and MONOMANIACAL!
What beatdown? Notice how Roger DOPEY Rabbit prsented the UBS failure as a Republican equivalence? Except UBS loved Barack ObamAA+! Wait you really really are a moron!
So come back when you have evidence dumb cinder block!
Moi Lib UNScientist? You who puts your feckless insipid words and scary pornographic thoughts down in quotes attributing them to your opponent can’t stand being outed for what he is… an idiot? You claimed
Well you placed quotes around them signifying to the world I said it. WRONG ya moron! You who blatantly lie about someone’s post by creating one and adding quotes to it. When Cass Sunstein’s malleable Homer Simpson Idiot rhp6033 does it at least he doesn’t use quotes to INFER I said it.
Facts explode this libtardo’s mind. Witness the response to #127 when confronted with his “debate” Style. And he can’t stand it when I demonstrate his “hard thought comments” can easily be found from a quick Google search! He won’t touch that either. Why? he knows he’s lost on the facts so let’s attack Puddy ad hominem style. Typical DUMMOCRAPT playbook style.
So look in the mirror and take your own advice. You make me sick!
pussy @ 132…
The evidence is in EVERY comment thread…EVERY FUCKING DAY.
Game. Set. Match.
…fuckwad.
Where DOPE@134?
PROVE IT!
Oh by the way calling me a pussy doesn’t bother me. Unlike you I love one pussy! Jury still out on your sorry ASS!
When it comes to being stupid rujax is awesome!
Having puddy here is like having a dog — they leave so much shit lying around it’s inevitable someone who doesn’t take off their shoes will track it into your living room. I want to talk about some serious things.
And what would that be Roger DOPEY Rabbit?
1) How Barack ObamAA+ has alienated Israel?
2) How Barack ObamAA+ has alienated the normally solid Jewish DUMMOCRAPT vote?
3) How Barack ObamAA+ has alienated Real Americans with his class warfare style?
4) How Dana Milbank admitted taxing an additional 1000 millionaires ain’t gonna do nothing?
5) How the Porkulus bill barely created any jobs?
6) How Barack ObamAA+ campaign promises fell flat on their face?
7) How Barack ObamAA+ aproval rating is cratering?
8) How Barack ObamAA+ has no clue?
9) How Barack ObamAA+ admitted there are no shovel ready jobs?
10) How Barack ObamAA+ squandered over a half-billion $$$ on Solyndra?
11) How Barack ObamAA+ has to answer to Brian Terry’s family over Fast and Furious gun running?
12) How Barack ObamAA+ is gonna create jobs when his own party doesn’t like the rhetoric of his latest proposal?
13) How the stock market sees no hope just pennies change from Barack ObamAA+?
14) How come each false equivalence you proffer is easily destroyed by facts?
Need more cuz I have plenty and they can not be found on the internet like Lib UNScientist’s “theory” of evolution by a quick Google search!
Do tell DOPEY Rabbit.
‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’
By David Graeber, a leftist academic (anthropology theorist), formerly of Yale, who currently teaches in Britain.
http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Fir.....038;sr=8-1
This book will give you a whole new perspective on debt. The very first chapter drags you into the intellectual thicket of the morality of debt:
“If one looks at the history of debt, then, what one discovers first of all is profound moral confusion.” (p. 8)
Right out of the gate, Graeber attacks the notion that debts always must be repaid. First, he argues, “even according to standard economic theory, it isn’t true. A lender is supposed to accept a certain degree of risk. If all loans, no matter how idiotic, were still retrievable … what reason would lenders have not to make a stupid loan?” (p. 3)
He then quickly moves to the subject of unjust debts, giving concrete examples:
1) Dictators who borrowed billions from Western banks, stashed it in Swiss bank accounts, and then the IMF (which Graeber describes as a Mafia-style enforced for loan-sharking banks) makes the poor people of those countries pay it back (p. 2);
2) Madagascar, whose people were subjected to ruinous taxation to pay a “debt” to repay France for its costs of invading Madagascar and turning it into the colony (!) (p. 5); and
(3) Haiti, which was embargoed by the U.S. and other countries to force it to pay an “intentionally impossible” debt of $18 billion imposed to compensate France for the costs of Napoleon’s failed military expeditions to reimpose French colonial rule on Haiti (p. 6); plus others.
Who, if he has a conscience, would argue that such “debts” must be paid at all costs, including literally starving children to death?
Graeber then discusses how the ability and willingness to use violence against debtors is what backs up such “debts” (p.14), and goes on to describe the financial gimmicks of recent years — e.g., “collateralized mortgage obligation derivatives” — as “nothing more than every elaborate scams” (p. 15).
“They consisted of operations like selling poor families mortgages crafted in such a way as to make eventual default inevitable; taking bets on how long it would take the holders to default; packaging mortgage and bet together and selling them to institutional investors (representing, perhaps, the mortgage-holders’ retirement accounts) claiming that it would make money no matter what happened, and allow said investors to pass such packages around as if they were money; turning over responsibility for paying off the bet to a giant insurance congolomerate that, were it to sink beneath the weight of its resultant debt (which certainly would happen), would then have to be bailed out by taxpayers (as such conglomerates were indeed bailed out). In other words, it looks very much like what banks were doing when they lent money to dictators in Bolivia and Gabon in the late ’70s: make utterly irresponsible loans with the full knowledge that, once it became known they had done so, politicians and bureaucrats would scramble to ensure that they’d still be reimbursed anyway, no matter how many human lives had to be devastated and destroyed in order to do it.” (pp. 15-16)
You get the drift. This is who and how we got into the mess we’re in. Yet some people still argue that unregulated markets work wonderfully without any public supervision. Remember what they told us when this crisis started? How we all caused it? That isn’t true, it was caused by crooked bankers, mortgage brokers, and Wall Street traders. Which, of course, is intended to imply we’re all responsible for paying these bad debts. Sorry, no, we’re not; those who deliberately wrote bad loans should eat them. Yes, I’m saying write them off; default them. As for me, I’m neither a lender nor a borrower, so I don’t owe anybody a fucking cent for all this, nor am I going to pay a fucking cent for it.
And that’s only the first chapter. I think you’ll find this book interesting, if you can make time to read it.
Roger Rabbit wasn’t supposed to get rich. They never intended for that to happen. Problem is, I didn’t play by their rules. I didn’t consume. I didn’t borrow. And I didn’t lend, either, i.e. I don’t own any bonds — never have, never will. What I did was buy stocks dirt cheap in the depths of the periodic financial panics they foisted on us. I wasn’t supposed to get those stocks at all, much less cheap. The plan was they would get those stocks dirt cheap when your pension fund and mutual fund were forced to sell them by their financial shenanigans. Roger Rabbit wasn’t in the storyboard at all; they didn’t even know he existed. When a few stock shares disappeared now and again, they shrugged it off as shrinkage and used a “miscellaneous accounting adjustment” to make the columns in their ledgers agree with each other. A rounding error they called it. Roger Rabbit has sucked six figures from these bandits. A bandit stealing from bandits, that’s what I am. You know the old saying, no honor among thieves.
You can do it, too.
@137 “And what would that be Roger DOPEY Rabbit?”
Shut up and pay attention and you might learn something.
Lesson #1: Stocks are not debt, they’re equity.
Lesson #2: Neither a borrower nor a lender be. (I didn’t dream that up, but I forget who I’m quoting.)
Lesson #3: If follows from #1 and #2 that you should put every cent of your money in stocks and never own bonds.
I’m closely following about 65 stocks, and here’s how things look to me, as of TODAY.
1. Interest returns on savings stink? Well, you can get in excess of a 4% yield on a portfolio of any size by buying top-quality blue-chip stocks on companies with a history of reliably raising their dividends.
2. The highest yields — in excess of 5% — are in telecom and tobacco stocks; but you should not invest exclusively in those sectors, but rather diversify your portfolio. If your portfolio yield is above 4.5% you’re probably not diversified enough. This may change if stocks continue to get cheaper, as I believe they will.
3. I’ve been tracking those 65 stocks against their August 10 closing prices (more or less marking the nadir of the August post-downgrade selloff), and here’s what I observe:
3a. Defense stocks, generally speaking, are currently selling below their August lows;
3b. So are cyclical stocks; for example, Dupont ($41.65 today vs. $44.83 on Aug. 10), Dow Chemical ($23.02 vs. $28.12), Arcelor-Mittal (world’s largest steelmaker) ($15.16 vs. $21.35), and Nucor (a U.S. steelmaker) ($31.25 vs. $32.44).
3c. Energy stocks have sunk to their August lows, but not below them, as recession expectations have dragged crude prices down to about $80/bbl. I observe more or less the same with the financial stocks I follow; no huge decline, just more or less par with Aug. 10 prices.
3d. Food and beverage stocks vary; some are testing their August lows, others are well above. For example, Coca-Cola was $63.96 on Aug. 10 but closed today at $67.82, and General Mills is $39.50 today versus $34.95 on Aug. 10. Only 1 of the 7 stocks I’m tracking in this sector is below its Aug. 10 price, so this sector is holding up fairly well.
3d. In household products, Colgate-Palmolive ($87.14 vs. $80.18) and Kimberly-Clark ($69.20 vs. $62.57) have risen sharply since Aug. 10; the best value in this sector is Unilever ($30.27 vs. $30.57) which is down because it’s a European company exposed to the now-expected European recession.
3e. In the restaurant and retail sectors, most of the 7 stocks I follow are slightly above their Aug. 10 lows. For example, McDonald’s fell to $84.08 on Aug. 10, then shot up over $90, but has fallen back to $85.99. WalMart has crept up from $48.51 on Aug. 10 to $50.28 today.
3f. Telecom and tobacco stocks are holding their own; AT&T is now $27.75 vs. $27.88 on Aug. 10; Verizon is $35.59 vs. $33.66.
4. Some stocks look cheap in terms of P/Es, for example many defense and energy stocks are selling at single-digit trailing P/Es, and you can buy 3M for 12.0 trailing, or Johnson & Johnson for 12.5 trailing. British Petroleum is selling for 5.5 times trailing earnings, Exxon for 8.3 times. But some stocks are still expensive, for example, Coca-Cola (17.6), Colgate-Palmolive (17.3), McDonald’s (17.0), and Schlumberger (16.5). And trailing P/E is misleading because if a double-dip recession knocks 20% off forward earnings, your 12.5 P/E stocks becomes a 15.0 P/E stock. So you’ve gotten to factor weaker forward earnings expectations into your calculations; I suggest doing this by multiplying the current P/E by 1.2 to get a figure representing what you’re actually paying for future earnings.
5. To figure out what you should pay for a stock, compare the current quote to its Aug. 10 price and its 52-week low. That’ll give you a very rough idea of where resistance is.
The really hard part of this is figuring out where the market goes from here. At the moment, essentially all stocks are being dragged along with the market. There may be a few exceptions; for example, Apple has gone up this summer, despite the market decline. The thing is, if recession expectations turn into depression expectations, and sellers panic and the market declines another 20% to 25% taking most or all stocks down with it, then you’ll wish you hadn’t bought at today’s prices even though they may look cheap. There’s cheap, and there’s cheaper. This is pretty much where I am now; I can buy AT&T at P/E 11.8 and 6.2% yield, or GE at 11.1 and 4.0%, but there may be better deals later. I’m gonna wait a bit, because I think Europe gets worse from here. I think U.S. economic data deteroriates from here. I think China slows down from here, because we’re not going to buy as much stuff from them as the pace of layoffs picks up and frightened consumers pull in their horns even farther. There’s a bottom to all this shit, but it’s gonna be a long winter, and stocks may not bottom until next spring. The risk is that if you don’t buy now and the market rallies on favorable events, you may pay more for stocks later because you waited. I worry about that, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet, and the way to handle that is to feed money back into stocks a little at a time over the next several months.
P.S., if you’re fully invested, don’t sell, just sit tight.
But if you do sell, then sell your worst stocks, not your best stocks.
Specific stock suggestions (and these are just Roger Rabbit’s personal opinions; you are solely responsible for decisions you make about your money):
Household products: Unilever is better than Procter & Gamble, but I’d buy some of both, overweighting UL and underweighting PG; I recommend taking a position in Colgate-Palmolive even though it’s expensive; stay away from Kimberly-Clark, Avon Products, and Newell Rubbermaid.
Food & beverage: Buy Coca-Cola, not Pepsi; both Heinz and Campbell have some short-term problems with their business fundamentals, but at current prices, I’d buy them both, underweighting Campbell with a bit stronger holder in Heinz; I don’t like General Mills or Kellogg’s as much.
Financial: Aflac just might be a hell of a buy, both for yield (3.7%) and capital gains (trailing P/E of 4.9), but understand this insurer has a rather heavy exposure to European debt and likely will end up writing off a total of about $2.1 billion of its European bonds through the end of 2012, which is bound to impact forward earnings and slow down its torrid dividend growth. This has already been priced into the stock and I’m not real worried about much downside from the current quotation. In banks, I’ve already said I like Bank of New York Mellon; stay away from the big retail banks, but if you really want them, the two best stocks there are JPMorganChase and Wells Fargo.
Aerospace and defense: The game here is to avoid companies likely to take earnings hits from Pentagon cutbacks. You can buy Boeing and Raytheon; avoid Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.
Cyclicals: I like Arcelor-Mittal, Nucor, and Dow Chemical; but I consider these stocks speculative plays, i.e. higher-risk and not suitable for a conservative income-oriented retirement portfolio. I wouldn’t buy them right away because I expect the economy, and therefore cyclical stocks, to slide further from where we are now.
Energy: I’d wait on oil stocks. Crude is about $80; in the 2009-2009 recession it fell to $40. Crude’s momentum is downward and I doubt it has finished falling. Oil stocks tend to move in tandem with crude prices regardless of company fundamentals. So, even though some oil stocks look very attractive right now on a P/E and yield basis, I’d wait until crude prices stabilize. The best integrated oil stock is Chevron but Exxon is okay and I also like Total and ConocoPhilips.
Restaurant & retail: In restaurants, McDonald’s and Darden (which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster) — both of these chains are doing fine despite the anemic economy — and in retail I like Lowe’s and Walgreen’s.
Pharmaceuticals: Watch out here for “patent cliffs.” Stocks you can buy: Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Sanofi, Abbott Labs. Stocks to avoid: Merck, Eli Lilly, GlascoSmithKline, Pfizer.
Technology: Intel is the best value stock in this sector, if you can buy it under $19. At that price, it yields 4% and has a trailing P/E of 10.
Telecom: AT&T, Verizon, and Vodafone are the best stocks and they all yield above 5%.
Tobacco: Lorillard and Philip Morris International are the two best stocks in this sector, but I might fill out my portfolio with some shares of Altria, too, although I would underweight the latter. Lorillard and PM are both fairly expensive stocks; Altria yields over 6% but I don’t expect its future dividend growth to be as good, making it less attractive than its numbers indicate for a ery long term buy-and-hold portfolio (such as a retirement portfolio).
Utilities: I don’ like utility stocks very much, because they tend to function like bonds, which is not a good thing to be in right now with interest rates being held artificially low; but for a couple of stocks in this sector with 4%-range yields and halfway decent growth potential, just to hedge my bets by diversifying my portfolio a bit more, I’d consider buying some shares of Unisource and Waste Management (which I like much better than its competitor, Republic), but I’d keep my holdings in this sector at 6% of the portfolio or less.
Miscellaneous: The top stocks I’d target in this market (more or less in order) are McDonald’s, 3M, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, Chevron, AT&T, and Verizon; you can throw in some IBM if you want; and I’d also buy Schlumberger and Coach if they get cheaper than they are now — I’d like to see Schlumberger get below $56 and Coach below $45 before I’d buy them.
If anyone who’s interested in this stuff has any questions, post them in the most recent open thread, and I’ll give you my best educated guess. And that’s what this is, educated guessing based on my perception of the macro situation, my analysis of company fundamentals, and lots of number-crunching.
Here’s what I think you can do with stocks in this shitty economy. Let’s say you bought 150 shares of McDonald’s in 2007, before the economic collapse, at the midpoint of its 2007 trading range ($42.30 – $63.70), which was $53 x 150 = $7,950.
I’ll assume you bought the stock for $53.00 a share on July 20, 2007, a day on which MCD traded between $51.95 and $53.22. (To keep this simple I’ll ignore transaction costs.) You received a $1.50 per share dividend on Nov. 13, 2007 and reinvested it in 3.94 additional shares of stock (using that day’s closing price of $57.10), so you then owned 153.94 shares.
Your next dividend was 37.5 cents a share on Feb. 2008, which got you 1.06 shares at that day’s closing price of $54.62. This was followed by a 37.5 cent dividend on June 5, 2008 which added 1.00 share at $58.05, then 37.5 cents on Aug. 28, 2008 adding .93 share at $62.89, then 50 cents on Nov. 26, 2008 adding 1.36 shares at $57.90, then 50 cents on Feb. 26, 2009 adding 1.52 shares at $52.20, then 50 cents on June 4, 2009 adding 1.33 shares at $60.24, then 50 cents on Aug. 28, 2009 adding 1.44 shares at $56.07, then 55 cents on Nov. 27, 2009 adding 1.41 shares at $63.60, then 55 cents on Feb. 25, 2010 adding 1.40 shares at $64.38, then 55 cents on May 27, 2010 adding 1.35 shares at $67.20, then 55 cents on Aug. 30, 2010 adding 1.26 shares at $72.74, then 61 cents on Nov. 29, 2010 adding 1.30 shares at $78.26, then 61 cents on Feb. 25, 2011 adding 1.38 shares at $74.44, then 61 cents on May 27, 2011 adding 1.28 shares at $81.62, then 61 cents on Aug. 20, 2011 adding 1.16 shares at $90.78.
As of today, you own 173.1 shares x $85.99 = $14,884.87. Your gain since July 20, 2007 is 46.59%. If you divide that by 4.175 years, your average return is 11.16% a year. McDonald’s announced yesterday that it’s raising its dividend to 70 cents, so sometime in late November or early December you will get a dividend of $121.17, which is 6.1% (annualizedSchlumberger (but only if it gets cheaper than it is now)) of your original investment of $7,950.
So, if you bought 150 shares of McDonald’s in July 0f 2007 and reinvested all the dividends, you’d now be earning the equivalent of 6.1% a year of interest on your money, and that rate of return will keep going up and up and up.
Why would anyone put $7,950 into a 5-year Treasury paying 0.91%? But that’s what people are doing — they’re pulling hundreds of billions of dollars out of stocks and piling into Treasuries. It doesn’t make any damn sense, but thanks to these fools you can buy McDonald’s for $4 cheaper than on Sept. 1.
Roger DOPEY Rabbit claimed I’d learn something…
Yeah I learned history repeats itself to a point. In this case I provide Progressive Historians
So before the serial arschloch plagiarizer scresm they are right-wing here’s proof otherwise
Now back to the story.
I was told to save my finds for the right time. Well thanks to Roger DOPEY Rabbit this is the right time. I never placed this link anywhere in the crazed HA databaze keeper’s useless collection of words. Butt this gets more curiouser:
And Clinton repealed it. So you leftist pinheads always scream about how Wall Street banks are Republican strongholds.
Well Look at Goldman Sucks and you’ll see how much they lean DUMMOCRAPT! Then the article refers to Citigroup. Yep they lean DUMMOCRAPT too. I posted these before for Goldman Sucks and Citigroup. But don’t ask the serial arschloch plagiarizer to search for you as we’ve now determined his archive search skillz SUCK too. And not to be left out is Sanford I. Weill head of Citigroup.
PuddyCommentary: As I stated many times on this blog, real historians credit Bill Clinton for the demise of Glass-Stegall. Having the Progressive Historians on my side helps the argument. Now wait and see… Don Joe and other “financial ‘geniuses'” will disagree with this deeply leftist site. But what will the offer as proof? The same tired responses from before.
Then there is more direct from the NY Times to help Roger DOPEY Rabbit:
So when you read this article you determine who these DUMMOCRAPT players are Chris “Half a Female Sandwich Dodd”, Chucky “I love Wall Street Money” Schumer, James “I campaigned for Clinton in Iowa” Leach and Robert “I used to work For Clinton Rubin but I joined Sandy Weill at Citigroup and I suggested my very good friend Henry Paulson to Bush” (that’s your answer serial arschloch plagiarizer – crazed databaze moron), were big time jockstraps of Barack Obama.
Roger – thank you for the insightful, thoughtful posts sharing your investment and economic thoughts.
Puddy – just go away.
Duh, Glass-Steagall was repealed during the Clinton Administration. And it was all solely Bill Clinton’s doing. Yup, single handed, mendacious, dark-of-night stuff that none of DUMMOCRAPTS noticed in our blind worship of Bill and Hilary.
This is illustrative, actually. Your MO is laid out in plain sight. Take a simple reference to a complex issue – in this case your braying about “Glass-Steagall” – and make a connection, any connection, real or imagined. If the primary reference is negative, link to a Democrat, if positive, link to a Republican.
Your actually a mini FoxNews, only more obnoxious and more obtuse.
For example, I think everyone here is aware Glass-Steagall was repealed during the Clinton Administration, and, moreover, with White House support, particularly by Robert Rubin. However, you make no mention of the driving force behind it – the relentless drumbeat of deregulation in the right-wing mantra, and the person of the deeply corrupt Phil Graham. And there is obviously more too it than that, but you’ll never participate in a discussion – you’ll only scream “Bill Clinton” and “Glass Steagall” and call people around here really really stupid names.
You’ll never examine the corrosive effect of money in our political discourse – only point how which DUMMOCRAPTS received money from which rich people, a lie of omission, really (and therefore a sin before your god, right?) , as I have yet to see you implicate Republicans in actions that serve their wealthy masters, and link that to where their money comes from.
Your braying yawp up at post 137, is, I hope, a moan of frustration that presages your impending departure from these threads. You don’t want to engage or debate anyone – you want to derail real conversations and arguments between earnest, honest people. An no, you didn’t somehow ‘best’ me in an argument over evolution on a past thread, as you seem to be repeatedly implying. It’s what you do – make meaningless links, and exaggerated and fanciful claims, avoid actually responding to the points others are making, call people stupid, adolescent names.
As Roger said above, and I’ve said many times, all you do around here is barge in and shit in the middle of the living room, ruining what others have done with their time and thoughts and effort.
So go off and find some young Earth creationists and revel in the miracle of the lord teleporting penguins over to Noah’s place, or do some paint-by-numbers of Adam and Eve riding dinosaurs, or whatever it is you whackjobs do together – just go away.
147 – LMAO!!! Which philanderer did you vote for again fool?
Butt, I didn’t vote for Billy boy.
Not any philanderer it would seem called “Billy boy”. hhmmm. But look here:
I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.
Oh that philanderer! You enabled him dumbass. And you have the nerve to condemn him for signing that laissez-faire dogma into law (for acting like Republican)..
And…
YOU ARE SILENT..
When Preznit “Jim Beam” signed TARP into law which was called by many “socialism” at that time – an act hatched on three pieces of paper by Hank Paulson a Preznit “Jim Beam” appointee who you bizarrely called a “lefty”…
You are one whacked out right wing nutjob!!!!
Does the serial arschloch plagiarizer ever add anything useful to the conversation?
Nope because he’s DOPE!
FRANLY ODD and MONOMANIACAL! Yes he is!
Deranged idiot@150,
Who is president Jim Beam? Are you binge drinking since you won’t find a yob for the family?
Now onto Hank Paulson. This is why you are an idiot. Hank Paulson leaned DUMMOCRAPT when he was involved at Goldman SUCKS. You too can look up his political contributions to Bill Bradley, Chucky Schumer and other DUMMOCRAPT leftists ya moron!
Now you are 16 for 16, still batting a 1.000 EPIC FAYLE department! You couldn’t find my post in that crazed HA databaze where I mentioned Robert Rubin suggested Henry Paulson to run treasury to GW Bush. Now why would a DUMMOCRAPT deep in the DUMMOCRAPT world offer a “Republican” to GWBush unless he knew something about Paulson and his “ways”?
The more you go each day on this blog the more you blow smelly gaseous excretions everywhere being all arschloch. How does it feel being shown the door and also being kicked in the ASS at the same time?
ROTFLRHMBBAO!
You couldn’t find my quoted GBS comment in the other thread.
Who is the alpha in this equation? Me! Who is the useless beta moron? YOU!
Any questions? The Prosecution Rests Your Honor. A real crazed frankly ODD and MONOMANICAL idiot prowls these blogs from the left.
152 – You voted for him twice dipshit..
When the chips were down he reached for the bottle.
I read about it in the Enquirer. If it was good enough for Edwards, it was good enough Preznet Jim Beam.
What would you do? Pray perhaps? Not him..
YOU WERE FOOLED DUMBASS!
Every right winger has dumped on him: Klynical, MTR, the HNMT.. Not you!
I am…
This Pavlov attack of yours where did you get it from?
Another Lib UnScientist diarrheal stain appears
Did this moron read the PROGRESSIVE HISTORIANS link? Nope cuz LS is a real DUMMOCRAPT DOPE!
Did this moron read the PROGRESSIVE HISTORIANS link? Nope cuz LS is a real DUMMOCRAPT DOPE! Ralph Brauer already made ASSociation you idiot. And you claim I have reading and thinking comprehension problems? Did you actually read the second paragraph from the avoved leftist progressive?
Oh really? using left wrong sites to explode your leetle world.
Toooooooooooooooooooo
Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Fuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnny
Did this moron read the PROGRESSIVE HISTORIANS link? Nope cuz LS is a real DUMMOCRAPT DOPE! Ralph Brauer already made ASSociation you idiot. And you claim I have reading and thinking comprehension problems? Did you actually read the second paragraph from the avoved leftist progressive? Why do I need to mention that when Ralph Brauer mentioned it in paragraph 2? I lean right like Roger DOPEY Rabbit leans left. Why am I gonna post anything like that anyway. Sheeeeesh, whatamoron!
So the Raj Rajaratnams’, Bernard Madoffs’ and J Allen Stanfords’ mean nothing to you Lib UNScientist? They are all DUMMOCRAPT BIG MONEY Ponzi Schemers who were recently caught. As everyone can now determine, you never read the PROGRESSIVE HISTORIANS article. Awwwwww… and we know why. It explodes your leetle cocoon of TPM and Daily Kooks commentary your so brazenly deliver every day on this blog!
Oh really? YOU LIE by placing words in quotes never mentioned by them and the enter into a crazed rage over a discussion conceived, contrived, and convoluted by your demented 24×7 DUMMOCRAPT mind. Those are recent events you can’t handle. In fact you could never handle the truth hence you conceive, contrive, and convolute peoples’ words with worthless horse manure!
And I deliver the anti-dote to Roger DOPEY Rabbit rants. So when he rants above about UBS = Republicans that’s A-OK to you even though the facts demonstrate otherwise. It seems you live in a “fact free” world. Conjecture is your game. Make up stuff and attribute it to your opponent by placing quotes around it!
Useless ending to a feckless rant. Rant on Lib UnScientist!
155 – Gawwwwwddddd what a snoozer..
I do so wish to put this whackjob on ignore…
@156 Life is just too damned short to waste any of it on a hate-filled loon.
Did someone fart?
I don’t see why Republicans should have a monopoly on stealing.
@132 Some idiots are too insentient to know when they’ve been ass-kicked six ways to sideways.
@137 “13) How the stock market sees no hope just pennies change from Barack ObamAA+?”
Fact Check:
Closing DJIA on Jan. 16, 2001: 10,587.59
Closing DJIA on Jan. 20, 2009: 7,949.09
Latest DJIA on Sep. 23, 2011: 10,756.54
Ahhh yes, Lib UNScientist hasn’t read the Progressive Historians yet!
You are such a loser, like your fiend serial arschloch plagiarizer! Criticism escapes you both!
Fact Check!
Highest DJIA 14198.10 with closing of 14,164 all during during Bush!
Fact check
MSN Money claims Bush lost $11.8 Trillion over his 2 terms.
From July 22 – Aug 11 CNN Money said Barack ObamAA+ lost $2.8 Trillion in 3 weeks.