Black Friday or Black Tuesday

Maybe it's just wishful thinking as a short holder, but I have a sneaking suspicion that tomorrow's Black Friday is going to be a bit more like Black Tuesday.

There's a lot of funky stuff going on in Asia right now, Japan getting verbal about maybe possibly stepping in to the currency world to prop up the Dollar v. Yen, and then this stuff about default in Dubai.

Japan's in a lot of trouble, has been for a long time, in way over their heads in debt, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200% of GDP (we're at 45% or so and it's going to kill us). The only thing keeping Japan afloat is their manufacturing base, which loses out big time to a strong Yen v Dollar.

If there isn't a dollar bounce by February, I think I'm going to just have to hang up the trading thing for good, but I think it's going to be a lot sooner than that.

My 400th Post or A Final Salute to Life in the Illinois Sticks

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Baby brothers still have their uses. =)


Low quality post, I know, but I've been working on several other web development projects and trying to get packed to get the hell out of Illinois.

Buffet Knew Copenhagen Would Fail

Found this one down in the small print articles on MarketWatch.com, looks like Copenhagen is going to fail and the massive cap and trade system isn't going to happen for a while.

hmmm... The NeoFascistConservatives are still beating the NeoFascistLiberals... for now...

This I think is a good little reminder of my Theory of the Least Satisfying Outcome. I think the Global Conspiracy thing is going to fight within itself too much and accomplish precisely two things, Jack and shit. Which is exactly what we want if we can prepare ourselves to survive the fallout. That gives us options, gives us hope.

But, in the meantime, there's money to be made either way if you can afford to divert it from physical preparation. I'll keep this note on file for now.

Boing!

Just a quickie update: Dow at 10,426, S&P500 over 1100... Good lord, look at the charts, the dollar is prepping to bounce off of technical support levels. Gold is getting dangerously overbought and stocks... well, haha. Lock in any profits you have on anything or you're going to get pounded.

Thomson's Abu Ghraib

I was just reading a news article from Al Jazeera talking about how Obama has just finished a massive $60 million dollar expansion on "Guantanamo's evil twin" at Bagram in Afghanistan.

I recall from memory that this prison is 6 to 10 times the capacity of GITMO but I didn't know exactly where in that range it fell and wanted to check my facts for further discussions so I typed in a Google Search for something to the effect of "Guanatamo prison capacity" and what came up just about made me shit my pants. Well, I won't get into it much, though this is of interest to me because "closing Guantanamo" was highly publicized as Obama's first act as President. Of course, a year later, this hasn't yet materialized; however, with the same pen stroke that he "closed Guantanamo" he also authorized the Construction of a much bigger prison in Afghanistan for "terror suspects" who are held entirely without due process. The latter, of course was not heavily publicized.

via the Rockford Registar Star: U.S. may buy Ill. prison for Gitmo suspects

Which one? Reading, reading, reading.... SHIT!!! The one that I can walk to in FIVE MINUTES!



I heard that the Feds might be contracting out this state prison which has been empty since it was built somewhere around 10 years ago, and only contains a handful of minimum security prisoners now, for housing federal prisoners, but I never suspected that Thomson Illinois would become waterboarding central!!!

I was just saying an hour ago that I thought it would end up as a debtors prison... Guess I missed the ball on that one!




Oh well, the clock is counting down till the day when I have gotten myself permanently moved out of the Illinois Sticks to the Mountains where I belong. Too bad, I could have gotten a job pretending to drown brown people in my own backyard and been able to walk to work! How's THAT for getting on board with the clean green fascism movement!!!!


... Well I will say one thing, they sure as hell better harden that Prison up, because that chain-link is just planted in an old watermelon field that is nothing but loose sand and they don't have anything that would stop a guy in a truck from driving right into the courtyards, let alone a tractor or something bigger.



...and I was so hopeful that I would be the one to put Thomson Illinois on the map. =(

How To Pay For Your Mandated CorruptionCare

Recently Pelosi and Reid backed off of their Public Option desires in the Healthcare debate then prompty succeeded in pushing that garbage legislation through the house giving everyone less than 24 hours to read the ammendments burried in a multi-thousand page document. (Despite Pelosi's endless rants about the use of that exact practice by the Republicans earlier this decade.) Somehow "Healthcare for everyone" suddenly became, "Buy Health Insurance or go to jail!" Of course I haven't been surprised at any of this at all. I think the Socialism stuff is pretty much all for show. We're transitioning into a chop-shop economy right now and so we're going to see a lot more of this phoney "Wealth Re-distribution" stuff which is easy to sell to the moron masses who vote for it. Basically it's survival of the most brutal businesses right now. Who can steal and coerce the fastest? And more importantly, who can get the government to help them do it the best? And so thinking about this, and thinking about the recent health care crapislation got me wondering if that PitBull Minnesota Health Care company I once did some auditing for is going to be the one benefiting here. And of course, I think you already know my conclusion but I thought I'd post some snippits of my research process... I started on the Pelosi trail, and came across quite a few cute little bits and bots before I hit paydirt.

So Enjoy!



Some Tuna Scandal Facts (purged from Snopes.com a skeptics site which filters through popular smears and misquotes and whatnot):

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home district includes San Francisco.

Star-Kist Tuna's (Del Monte) headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district.

Star-Kist / Del Monte is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan workforce.

Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, is believed to hold a sizeable position in Star-Kist or Parent Company stock.

In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, American Samoa was exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage. The Northern Marianas Territory did not receive the same exemption.

When the bailout bill was first passed, an earmark was added to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an 'economic development credit in American Samoa'.




Nancy Pelosi's Son, Paul Pelosi Jr. was hired by a company called InfoUSA immediately after Nancy became speaker. He is receiving a $180,000 salary as a vice president for Stategic Planning, a job for which, as a mortgage loan officer at, ~cough~ Countrywide, he was entirely unqualified, InfoUSA is a company that makes their money by, in short, defrauding the elderly and violating peoples privacy. Bribes, bribes, come get your bribes!!!

Link





This one isn't terribly relevant but I find it amusing
Nancy Pelosi Quote:

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process. ... I believe in negotiated solutions to international conflict. This is, unfortunately, not going to be the case in this situation where Saddam Hussein has been a repeat offender, ignoring the international community's requirement that he come clean with his weapons program."
Dec. 16, 1998



In the following video Nancy Pelosi praises protestors (who opposed the war in 2006) as doing something "Very American and Very Appropriate" and then, more recently calls protestors who oppose content of the healthcare bill "UNAMERICAN".




All good stuff, establishes a hell of a track record for integrity, but doesn't answer my question.

But THEN I got to the meat of it!

Via the the AP and OpenLeft on 9/11/2009: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. Only hours later it was announced that on Sept 24 2009 - Nancy Pelosi who called private health insurers “villains” and “almost immoral” just two months ago was to attend a $2,400 a plate fund-raiser hosted by Steve Elmendorf, a registered lobbyist with private health insurer, United Health.


Yep, yep, yep... Lobbyists 1, Socialists 0, and with the mandate... Low income Americans, -1. My plan of action here is to wait for a severe market correction and buy United Health Stock and use the capital gains to pay for my mandated Corruptioncare.

Why our government is incompetent

Dear IAN K WILLIS,

This refers to the application you recently submitted to this office for the position shown below:

Position: Park Ranger (Interpretation)
Series/Grade: 0025-05
Vacancy ID: 286172
Agency:
Considered For: Human Resources Office
Duty Location: Yellowstone Natl Park, WY


Please note: At this time only preference eligibles (veterans) have been certified to the hiring official.

...Therefore, your name will not be referred to the hiring official at this time. If we receive a request from the hiring official for additional candidates, your application will again be reviewed for possible referral.

There's always Taco Bell right?