The Angry Surprise.....

Didn't make this ink drawing for BREXIT but my oh my, we have seen some similar expressions in the news on Brits expressing their dismay!!!!

In era of caller-ID, are phone polls valid?

In our house, we don't pickup calls that say "Political Call" "Unknown caller"  "no name" or any variant of customer, services, marketing or anything that isn't someone's name or a company we know is local.

We do not pick up, so our opinion is never counted in the know-it-all polls from Quinipiac and other groups who officiously announce what Connecticut Voters want. 

I am guessing the era of caller ID we are not alone in this foible. Frankly no one that I know picks up the phone unless they know who is on the other end.  I think it's just a handful of the foolish and/or technically challenged  who actually answer pollsters' calls.

I wonder if  the polls are often wrong - I mean how would we know?. Of course would equal numbers of opposing view holders exist in the group that refuses to pickup or in the group that consistently answers?  I think it is possible that the people MOST likely to vote are LEAST likely to pickup calls from unknown groups, and are also most unlikely to answer questions strangers pose, if they did pick up!  SO - In the era of  caller ID and cell phones -  is the classic telephone  opinion poll  an acurrate measure of public opinion?

And I am so sick of hearing politicians proclaim that this or that is not what "The American People" want. As if we were all alike. As if they really knew -

Governor Malloy, you are doing a great job. Thank you. Glad I voted for you.

OIL SPILL - an article worth reading

Where profits are concerned what companies and whole industries appear to learn from environmental disaster is how to cut corners to get back to business as usual, with the least amount of change or reform and without shouldering blame or responsibility - either for the disaster or for reforming corporate behaviors. This is a sobering article called Lessons From The Exxon Valdez Spill:

http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/05/02/lessons-from-the-exxon-valdez-spill/

PROPOSAL: NATIONAL REFEREMDUM STRIPPING CONGRESS AND THE SENATE OFGOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE!!!!

Let them all apply for and pay for insurance like everyone else does -- especially after they leave office and have no power..... . Right now, they have guaranteed health benefits from even one term, that will last until they die and which covers their whole family. Let them dial the numbers they give you to call when your COBRA runs out - numbers which are NEVER ANSWERED....

THIS IS DISCRIMINATION. STRIP CONGRESS AND THE SENATE OF HEALTH CARE!!! IF JOE PUBLIC DOESN'T HAVE IT - LET CONGRESS AND THE SENATE GO WITHOUT IT TOO!!! Of course then, the big health care lobbies would bribe them with primo insurance packages.

Second thought lets just break up into states and dissolve congress and the senate. (and What a really awful idea that is.. a stable system even an imperfect and irritating system that more or less works, is far better than violent chaos. So all you revolutionaries go turn yourselves in.... )

Sentator McConnell implies Ford (F) is DEAD

Unbelievable - this morning on Face the Nation Senator Mitch McConnell very casually implied that Ford Motor Company would cease to exist. (Should we check to see if he is shorting the stock?)

Senator McConnell was discussing health care options when he addressed this matter. He stated that everyone knows that when the government gets involved in private enterprise that it is so big it crowds out all the competition and that soon the competition will cease to exist. As an example of this he gave the auto industry citing the government involvement in GM and Chrysler as creating a big problem for Ford. He cited in particular the government backing for financing of GM and Chrysler cars. He said Ford couldn't complete against the government

If you back track on the reasoning: everyone knows that when the government gets involved in private enterprise that it is so big it crowds out all the competition and that soon the competition will cease to exist. He is saying that Ford will soon cease to exist.

So I guess people will be dumping their Ford stock because according to Senator McConnell, Ford is not going to exist for long...... I happen to think he is wrong in a big way. If I could afford a car, I would consider buying a Ford. It would NOT be advisable to buy stock in Senator McConnell. You could do better.

April 22 Poem - Thankless

write a work related poem

Thankless

windows turn from yellow-peach
to black, don't bother with blinds
don't drown in razor coffee just
keep grinding out copy
think, type fast as you can
calves tucked under, body wriggling
in a roller chair, in a tiny cube.
think, edit, make a call,
nuture six stories all at once,
one last quote, double check the math
by midnight you file and swear.
Nap on the orange vinyl couch
Tomorrow, both sides call
You make them sound wrong, they say.
so this time, you did it right, pissed off both sides....
Every day another test.
Go home, sweat in your sleep.
in your dream every one is swearing:
"GOD DAMN MEDIA"

-- Mistryel Walker

Christian right's odd position on Illegal Immigrants

A while ago, a relative who is a member of a "born-again" type church was talking to me about the "rightness" of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants. She quoted her pastor on the matter. As "de-converted" former believer, who is essentially an atheist, (though perhaps more of an naturalist), I thought this was an extremely odd position for an evangelical to take. The following is adapted from a letter I wrote to her.

Dear .....

I have been pondering how fundamentalism could have joined the bourgeoisie. I was under the impression that if you are an evangelical christian, your task is to spread "the gospel" the supposed good news so that "souls" can be saved. I heard you are "fishers of men" not "fishers of law abiding citizens and men with green cards."

According to the gospels Jesus had lunch with outcasts. Do you think that today he might be visiting the homes of illegals who are as reviled as the tax collectors, harlots and lepers of his time?

The gospels don't mention a single instance where Jesus hailed a Roman soldier or one of the High Priests and asked that a harlot get the punishment the law required. Nor did he ever ask that a homeless leper be escorted to the city limits. "Go and sin no more," isn't the same statement as Romans! Police! deport this criminal! Read your "holy" book, and think about the way a god who supposedly loves all humans and wants to "save" them would want you to behave towards the precious and possibly "unsaved" souls you want to deport.

Just a thought from your friendly local atheist

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Living Model Of Basic Units Of Human Brain Created

- A process under development may enable the modeling of the human brain in a living representation, according to an article in Science Daily.

Using cells originally from a tumor which have been 'reprogrammed' to stop multiplying, along with a natural molecule used by the body to stimulate cellular development, the cells are turned into a "co-culture" of nerve cells and astrocytes - which the article calls "the most basic units of the human brain." According to the article, this line of research could lead to improved treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

As someone who feels fairly numb at the moment, heavy with all the folks who have died in the last year, I can't help but wonder if this living model could contain joy..... so elusive right now. So I'm engaging in a little art therapy trying to make a co-culture of renewed vision, shed some grief by the polishing the rice bowl method of doing something, namely sculpting a little. (pictured above) Not working so far. Taking out trashing didn't work either. Nor a blog post. But each little action propells forward into the future. That's really all one can do. Go forward.

Go to the article -- in ScienceDaily.com (2009-03-22):

Unbelievable!!!

Read this Reuter's Article!: I can't imagine what they do with it all.


Banks borrow record $437.5 billion per day from Fed

GET MAD! AIG's ENORMOUS insurance payouts on Lehman bonds will come dueTuesday!

OK Cramer is a wild sounding guy - but he is so often right.

OCT 21 - next Tuesday is the day "insurance" ie credit default swap payouts on defunct Lehman Brother's bonds are due, according to Mr. Cramerica (Mad Money on CNBC.)  He said AIG is most likely the major underwriter and will have to pony up such enormous amounts of money that it will take what little value is left in the stock.  Once that is gone, the government - ie taxpayers -  us, will be writing big fat checks for AIG to very same hedgefund fat cats that acted together to "short" Lehman into oblivion. 

(Shorting is a bet that a stock will go down - and apparently you don't even need to own or even borrow shares of it - to short them. This is called naked short-selling. Though illegal, this rule was almost never enforced under the corrupt Bush SEC  and its fellow travelers in both houses and both parties in congress...)

According to a piece broadcast on NPR a few weeks ago - the thing that makes no sense and is apparently a fact of business is that "insuring"  bonds with credit default swaps is like fire insurance on STEROIDS.   Say you own a barn. You are the one who can insure it. Not so with bonds.  If a barn were a bond you could "insure" it for its full value and so could an UNLIMITED NUMBER of your closest neighbors.  Naturally they have torches and your barn burns while they stand by fanning the flames. That's what happened to Lehman Brothers, according to Cramer. And he has the contacts to know....

What kind of idiot insurance company would insure the same thing for full value over and over?    An un-regulated one.   They didn't call it insurance, either because insurance IS regulated.   Oh AIG!!     WHY would they do it?   Simple -the cost of credit default swaps  for a bond in the billions,  is in the millions! And they could collect those millions over and over again. And there was no requirement for them to have billions in cash on hand to pay up later.  As long as the barn didn't burn - the ponzi scheme continued. Just Thank your congress. Thank Henry Paulson. And remember - thanks to Paulson's AIG bailout - WE get the bill.   Not only for the $150 billion in bonds, but that times however many times the insurance was sold to whoever bought it.  It's nuts. REGULATE THESE GUYS...   and It wasn't just AIG selling this crap or buying - almost every major financial firm had a credit default swap desk with a dozen or more personnel manning it.

Somebody needs to be indicted on this one. There should be a conspiracy investigation of the multple hedgefunds who drove Lehman down while buying "insurance" ie credit default swaps on the bonds that they didn't even own!     What a racket!  AL CAPONE MOVE OVER~

The trouble is, you can't even root for the hedge funds to fail. If they all fail at once the DOW will be at ZERO. There would be so much stock for sale nobody could by it all....

Another black day for the DOW

While Fed Chair Ben Bernanke spoke this afternoon (I watched on CNBC) the DOW, steamed and churned down 300 points - then they broadcast George speaking. Tut Tut. The day ended down 508 points. We are all holding our breath, waiting for the shoes that will surely drop.

    This hat-clad person, is a drawing from my little leather book that I write and doodle in during meetings and events. It's really a method of translating experience directly to a page...  or a way to shut out experience - that depends on the day. Sometimes these sketches are persons in the audience. Sometimes they are images evoked by what is going on.

iReports at CNN -- be skeptical!

This morning I wondered over to iReport CNN's so called citizen reporting webpage. I might as well have been in an old time AOL forum gone multi-media. Mostly - the posts seemed, well, like early Doctor Who special effects. That would be mostly tin-foil and very little else.....

Though there are some real reports - many are Op-Ed  bits of widely varying quality rather than actual articles. This might reflect our sound bite culture or perhaps the general lack of skill at writing coherent and logical prose. It also might reflect a general misunderstanding of the real difference between "op-ed" and "news." In my years writing for newspapers, this point came up repeatedly. Folks would often ask me  if I'd read Mr. Jones' "article" when what Mr. Jones had actually written was an letter to the editor expressing his opinion on the upcoming election.  They rarely  drew any kind of distinction between an article by staffers which more or less simply gave the facts - and a letter to the editor expressing a totally one-sided, partisan  view.

On iReports it's VERY apparent that one must weigh and evaluate the point of view and skill of the writer - and make a pointed decision whether or not to bother reading the rest of the piece....

POST SCRIPT:  - today 10/7) I visited this site and it has been completely revamped. Not sure but I think it's finally being moderated. (last week fake reports of the death of a tech stock founder caused a huge decline in the stock...)

Bailout-rescue-big-tickect toxic paper plan passes on second try...

Ah well.  CONGRESS LET US DOWN. The depression will come anyway except to those rich folks the government expects us to save. Even if this bailout works somewhat - today I feel like the ultimate decline of the United States of America has begun. It wil fall apart under the weight of its own debt just the way the Soviet Union did.  Selah.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95395712

NO BAILOUT!!!! CONGRESS VOTES NO!!!!

Note: of course looking back at this from June of 2009 - have we got a bailout....

Wow and the Dow tanks at one point down 700 points - that's more than Black Monday... The world is changing. Here it goes.... The Dow is now up and down one minute you look and its down 500 then down 659 then at 443 Yikes going up and down by a hundred points in seconds...... It's a wild roller coaster..... Ah well - let the card house tumble - here it goes -- hold on!

ADENDUM 5:46pm -- The Day ended down 777 points - I think that's a historical record for a single day. Mr. Cramerica says it could go down another 2500 points before it's done.... The holdouts were 70 Republicans and 90 some Dems. According to news reports, some were fielding constituent mail 100 to 1 against the plan.

How many credit swaps can dance on the head of a bailout?

They keep blaming this on John Q public's bad mortgages rather than banks' questionable decisions in granting those mortgages to insolvent people followed by the bundling of those junk mortgages, sold and resold again and again, and the insuring instruments for those bundles the magic, indecipherable derivatives. 

I did a little calculation and if I have it right (and i might not) then 800 billion would be enough for 2o billion $400,000 houses at full price.... So we must have more than 20 billion people losing their homes since the gov will only pay some change on the dollar for this paper. There just can't be that many...

And Where are the properties that go with this paper? Who is going to check the properties, go to the foreclosure proceedings... Pay heat on the empty houses..... 20 million of em all over map.... Maybe these will be the jobs of the "PAULSON NEW DEAL" hahaha. I can barely believe there could be so many displaced persons. I am betting there are multiple higher ticket items in there - like builders who went bankrupt holding paper on an entire development project or condo projects.
This just seems like such a bad idea and there must be more stuff than just residences........

my dash board calculator stopped at 800 million..... .

JP Morgan will buy WaMu? Bye Bye Washington Mutual

Another surprise deal announced on CNBC did I hear that right?. Wish I could hit instant replay and hear that again... Things are moving fast - if you don't count legislators. But I want them asking questions. 11th-hour must-do deals worth $700 billion are always suspect...... Just heard it again on Larry King - JP Morgen Chase "has acquired" the assets of Washington Mutual. so WAMU must have tanked or been seized.... Then Larry King moved on to Palin. Who cares.
========
ADENDUM
PS At this moment (Friday evening 9/26/08) ABC news reports that 17 billion in assest had been withdrawn from WaMu in the space of a few weeks putting it in an untenable position. ABC said it was the largest bank failure in American History. WaMu's assest were sold to JP Morgan Chase at the firesale price of $1.9 billion.

Consumer reaction to Wall Street woe is a no-brainer

President Bush has now gone to the American People and said we have an enormous financial crisis on the horizon. Of course  this is the same American public that has been losing its homes and jobs for a while now.   

    The treasury and the fed - in the form of Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernekie - set that gigantic $700 billion figure to restore WALL STREET CONFIDENCE.    And now, suddenly the talking heads are worried that CONSUMER CONFIDENCE is low and people aren't buying.    DUH.     

    They have been using some stern-faced scare tactics to get this almost-a-trillion dollar financial stabilization package/BAILOUT passed - calling pension funds, 401ks into question and painting a picture where your credit card and ATM card stop working.  ERGO consumer sentiment is going to get even worse.  The general public (the bulk of folks who weren't losing a home or job), they are only now becoming aware of this crisis so we can expect spending AND saving will decline even further. Where will the money go? Check your local mattress.

    When the financial crisis of the century is on the horizon --  why on earth do we want to spend what little we have left?

Warren Buffett backs Paulson plan.... and Paulson

I heard Warren Buffett interviewed on CNBC this morning. Buffett is buying 5 billion dollars worth of Goldman Sachs, his first buy of an  investment house since 1978, according to CNBC.  (It's not the common stock...)

    "The Market could not have taken another week like the one developing last week," he said, adding that the Paulson plan is absolutely necessary to avoid "going over the precipice..." 

    "If they do it right,  I think they'll make a lot of money," he said. He insisted that they shouldn't be buying this paper at what the institution paid, nor at the carrying value  -- but at bargain basement prices.  He said nobody can "leverage up" right now. If they could and would, there's 15 to 20 % profit to be made.  "I like a market related price," he said. He suggested the government might want to sell off some of it into the market to see what the real price is before buying more....  He said they have the staying power to hold these things until things improve. Holding 700 billion is beyond private entities.

    "You couldn't have any better guy," doing this than Paulson, Warren Buffett said. 

     If you weren't watching the market last week, it went down 300 points one day 340 the next and 405, next  topped by the sequential collapse of  Lehman Brothers, AIG etc etc.  AIG was a crucial fall since it underwrites the debt of every major corporation around the world. 

    "AIG would be doing fine right now if they never heard of derivatives," Buffett said.

REMEMBER WMDs? This gambit seems strangely familiar....

My letter to  the White House,  one letter of millions that no one will ever read:

Sent to: comments@whitehouse.gov, vice_president@whitehouse.gov, president@whitehouse.gov

Dear Executives:

Well,well, when you said IRAQ had weapons of mass destruction, I thought oh surely you must know and now we have spent 500 billion making war on the wrong country. Fooled me once. That's enough. Now you say, OH WE HAVE TO SIMPLY HAVE TO SPEND a trillion dollars, immediately,  without oversight, bypassing all the established protocols on spending and contracting.  Big surprise.  Could the end of the financial system you are declaring be a lot like those weapons of mass destruction we never found only the fraud is even more expensive and would enrich your pals for years and leave main street drained dry...  You have cried wolf fraudulently once too often and I for one will urge my representatives and senators to vote down paying your pals trillions.

MM Walker

-- 

That is the letter. However.  Big trouble may arrive even if  they buy up a trillion dollars worth of bad paper. Across the globe everything economic is grinding to a stall or might in the next week or month.  Untenable derivatives/credit swaps, and deals so complex and flagarently under "collateralized" if you will,  are so utterly unregulated and opaque, that the treads of causality can not be untangled.   A simple solution will not be found for this one.  Maybe Uncle Hal was right.  (YIKES)  

Let's spend a trillion buying hospitals instead

If the feds are going to spend a trillion in tax payers dollars, just like that, I think they should buyout ALL hospitals and medical facilities  - saving millions and millions in health care costs by taking banks and insurance companies out of the equation....

Henry Paulson --- Your wheeler dealers won't be grateful for this bailout you are peddling. They will look at it he way a shark looks at a distressed swimmer -- can I get a meal or not?  The idealist thought that the moguls are not going to make off with as much as they can if unlimited underwriting is involved  --  is naivety of the sort that brought us IRAQ.   I was one of the ones hoodwinked. I thought the president must know about those WMD  and with-held my cynicism, when we invaded. I learned my lesson Mr. Paulson. Officials will hoodwink us if they can for their own obtuse reasons, their own selfish interests or those of their freinds or for their very personal delusions.

And, now I should believe that a TRILLION DOLLARS will fix this  just because Paulson says so....???