In case you don't pay attention to these things, in Cyprus, a small island nation that Turkey and Greece have been fond of fighting over for centuries... Cyprus is bankrupt and for the last couple weeks, the Cypriot government has been debating simply stealing citizens' money from the banks to pay off government debts.
Apparently Cyprus banks are to Russians what the Cayman Island banks have been to Americans -- that is, foreigners, and particularly Russians, park their funds there. So Cyprus is bankrupt and now has plans to simply take 40% of the funds from accounts totaling over $135,000.00, and a smaller percentage from smaller accounts (I think. That might have changed.)
So the government just goes and sucks out all the money from the banks to pay its debts? Money from private accounts held by private citizens?
In 2008, Argentina went bankrupt and seized all the money people had in their private retirement accounts to pay its debts. And truthfully, the US government has raided Social Security. In effect, it's no longer a separate account held in trust for retirees. What is in the Social Security trust fund ia bunch of IOUs from the USA's "general fund.":
So, I guess this all answers the question: "Hey, you blockheads in government -- do you think it's YOUR money?"
And -- in case you haven't heard this one -- some silly twit academic in the USA is suggesting that the US government seize a percentage of the money US citizens have in their 401(K) retirement accounts. That's here. In the USA. Think about that for a minute..... Money you worked for. Money you saved. Money withheld from yor paychecks, maybe matched to some extent by your employer.
Gone to pay for studies of duck genitalia, shrimp on treadmills, and some silly crap about Chinese prostitutes. (The last probably the result of government types figuring the odds on their getting some incurable disease while on a federally-funded junket.)
To pay for some fat-ass government union member to sit in beach in Florida.like a dead, bloated a manatee washed up on the sand? I mean, Let's face it, if the Comrade has his way, no one but union workers are ever going to be able to retire. Because all the rest of us are bailing out those useless assholes so that they can donate their union dues to the democrat party.
All your work. All your planning. All your future... gone. Becasue the stupid shits in Washington don't have even have half a brain to divide up amongst them. And even less courage.
It's worth repeating again, and again, and again -- government doesn't produce one damn thing. They do not make any money. All the money the government has IT TAKES FROM US.
So go ahead, vote for a few more pie-in-the-sky socialsts. See how that works out for you.
"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples' money." -- Margaret Thatcher, who had to do a big fix on that to get England to continue stumbling along economically, and only to fall right back into the same hole, so it seems.
The banks in Cyprus have been closed for two weeks. They're supposed to open tomorrow, and the government has limited withdrawl amounts to $3,900.00 per account. They "suspect" there may be a run on the banks. Duh.... Maybe they're finally getting something right.
That hole in your mattress starts looking better and better, doesn't it?
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
The "Appalling Race," not my favorite show anymore
I used to love the TV show, "The Amazing Race." It's the only reality show I could even tolerate. Every series starts out with about a dozen couples -- spouses, brothers, sisters, friends, parents-kids, whatever -- who have to chase clues to get around the world. In order to get their clues, they perform various tasks, like eating weird food, jumping out of airplanes, bungi jumping, constructing replica offerings to the gods of various cultures, etc. Every show, they end up at some checkpoint, and the last pair to arrive is eliminated from the race. At the end, there's usually only three couples left, and whoever finishes first wins $1 million.
I loved the show because it goes to so many different countries and cultures, and through the tasks, the contestants usually have to participate in some way in that country's culture and traditions. Very cool, I thought. But there's occasionally little incidents. I remember one episode where a cabbie in Morocco drove one pair of racers to what proved to be an enthusiastically jihadist village and left them there. Apparently the show's producers had to hassle with the embassies to ensure the racers' safety and get them back in the race.
Anyway, tonight the racers went to Hanoi, Vietnam. The show has sent people there in earlier series. No big deal. Except....
The task they had to do there was to watch a little live show of singing and dancing, memorize a couple lines from the show, and go into an adjoining room and find a poster -- one of dozens -- that displayed the words from the song.
Well, the racers only heard the songs in Vietnamese, but a translation ran at the bottom of the screen. One of the lines went, "Praise to the glorious communist party!"
What? she asks to an indiffierent TV set. Another entertainment, The Manchurian Candidate, came immediately to mind. Also visions of US POWs in various places being filmed as they mouth kind words and swear loyalty to a varied range of vicious dictatorships -- their other alternative being torture and death. And, of course, Hanoi Jane Fonda playing house on an anti-aircraft cannon. Among other things.
I turned the channel at that point. Went to the show's Facebook page and like dozens of other viewers, left a message about how disturbing this episode was. And the others had watched the whole show. Stronger stomachs than mine.
I learned from them that after the racers got hold of the correct poster, they were sent to a crashed B52 that had been shot down during the war to retrieve the next clue. The shattered plane is apparently a memorial of some kind. (I doubt it commemorates the same thing to the Vietnamese as it does to me, however.)
And the at the end of the show, it seems the producers decided to replay the "I love communism" song over the ending credits. Nice touch, nicely adding injury to insult.
I'm really appalled. Some people at the Facebook page talk about how the show is intended for us all to experience other cultures, and after all, the USA "invaded" Vietnam and the Vietnamese have every right to hate us.
I suggest that people who want to "experience" Hanoi should consult Senator John McCain about his very extended stay there. And, gosh, he even arrived via a crashed USAF aircraft!
The show is produced by Bruckhimer Films, heavily sponsored by Travelocity.
I'm never going to watch it again.
I loved the show because it goes to so many different countries and cultures, and through the tasks, the contestants usually have to participate in some way in that country's culture and traditions. Very cool, I thought. But there's occasionally little incidents. I remember one episode where a cabbie in Morocco drove one pair of racers to what proved to be an enthusiastically jihadist village and left them there. Apparently the show's producers had to hassle with the embassies to ensure the racers' safety and get them back in the race.
Anyway, tonight the racers went to Hanoi, Vietnam. The show has sent people there in earlier series. No big deal. Except....
The task they had to do there was to watch a little live show of singing and dancing, memorize a couple lines from the show, and go into an adjoining room and find a poster -- one of dozens -- that displayed the words from the song.
Well, the racers only heard the songs in Vietnamese, but a translation ran at the bottom of the screen. One of the lines went, "Praise to the glorious communist party!"
What? she asks to an indiffierent TV set. Another entertainment, The Manchurian Candidate, came immediately to mind. Also visions of US POWs in various places being filmed as they mouth kind words and swear loyalty to a varied range of vicious dictatorships -- their other alternative being torture and death. And, of course, Hanoi Jane Fonda playing house on an anti-aircraft cannon. Among other things.
I turned the channel at that point. Went to the show's Facebook page and like dozens of other viewers, left a message about how disturbing this episode was. And the others had watched the whole show. Stronger stomachs than mine.
I learned from them that after the racers got hold of the correct poster, they were sent to a crashed B52 that had been shot down during the war to retrieve the next clue. The shattered plane is apparently a memorial of some kind. (I doubt it commemorates the same thing to the Vietnamese as it does to me, however.)
And the at the end of the show, it seems the producers decided to replay the "I love communism" song over the ending credits. Nice touch, nicely adding injury to insult.
I'm really appalled. Some people at the Facebook page talk about how the show is intended for us all to experience other cultures, and after all, the USA "invaded" Vietnam and the Vietnamese have every right to hate us.
I suggest that people who want to "experience" Hanoi should consult Senator John McCain about his very extended stay there. And, gosh, he even arrived via a crashed USAF aircraft!
The show is produced by Bruckhimer Films, heavily sponsored by Travelocity.
I'm never going to watch it again.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
White House wants public to feel the pain
Interesting development over the sequester deal. The sequester has gone through. The budget cuts it proposed are now current law.
The thing is, the sequester didn't cut any existing budgets. It cut the growth rate of those budgets. Like, suppose you make $1,000.00 a month and your boss had said you were getting a raise to $1,100.00 a month. Then he comes back and says, "I can't give you that whole raise, but I will give you $1,075.00 a month."
That's about what the sequester does -- and in the correct proportion. The sequester reduces the 2013 growth rate of goverment spending by 2.5%. Oh my God! How can they squeak by??
Anyway, the point is, the government has as much and even more money than it had in 2012, it just doesn't have as much as it wanted. I'm not even sure why they have to cut. After all, the Comrade did just eke out a tax increase from Congress. Can't they leave their hot mess of government acitivities in place? Except the sequester does mandate certain cuts.
So what's interesting is that the Comrade had toured the nation, raving maniacally to anyone he could buttonhole, that the sequester would bring on a plague of locusts, fire would rain from the sky, and the oceans would dry up. And stuff like that.
And so far, absolutely nothing has changed, except the White House has canceled tours. Just heartrending. What will we do without tours of the White House -- which were conducted by volunteers, by the way, not by paid staff.
On the news, they were talking about a cabinet meeting the Comrade had about the sequester. Apparently someone in the Agriculture Department asked how much "latitude" he had in making cuts in his department. That is, how much flexibility does he have in reducing the funding for certain programs and/or eliminating others?
His answer from the White House said, "You need to make sure you are not contradicting what the president said the impact would be."
That is, "Make it hurt." Take their first-born. Pour kerosene in their gas tanks. Shut down the police and fire departments, the public schools. Think what you can do the hurt the citizens by denying them services -- especially critical services -- they've already paid for.
And coincidentally, Hugo Chavez, ruthless tyrant of Venezuela, died yesterday, but not before his people (that is, someone in his inner circle) claimed that the USA had "attacked" Chavez with cancer. Frankly, I should think his death from cancer was probably due more to the crappy health care he got in Cuba, but that's just me.
So perhaps if we cancel Comradecare in the USA, that would save a whole bunch of money and the excellent health care that we already have. Or we can the Comrade turn the USA into Cuba.
So, to conclude: with Chavez gone, perhaps the Comrade should start thinking about Venezuela as a place where he might rise to power and push people around. And a question: Will he miss Chavez as a role model?
Somebody's ripe for impeachment.
The thing is, the sequester didn't cut any existing budgets. It cut the growth rate of those budgets. Like, suppose you make $1,000.00 a month and your boss had said you were getting a raise to $1,100.00 a month. Then he comes back and says, "I can't give you that whole raise, but I will give you $1,075.00 a month."
That's about what the sequester does -- and in the correct proportion. The sequester reduces the 2013 growth rate of goverment spending by 2.5%. Oh my God! How can they squeak by??
Anyway, the point is, the government has as much and even more money than it had in 2012, it just doesn't have as much as it wanted. I'm not even sure why they have to cut. After all, the Comrade did just eke out a tax increase from Congress. Can't they leave their hot mess of government acitivities in place? Except the sequester does mandate certain cuts.
So what's interesting is that the Comrade had toured the nation, raving maniacally to anyone he could buttonhole, that the sequester would bring on a plague of locusts, fire would rain from the sky, and the oceans would dry up. And stuff like that.
And so far, absolutely nothing has changed, except the White House has canceled tours. Just heartrending. What will we do without tours of the White House -- which were conducted by volunteers, by the way, not by paid staff.
On the news, they were talking about a cabinet meeting the Comrade had about the sequester. Apparently someone in the Agriculture Department asked how much "latitude" he had in making cuts in his department. That is, how much flexibility does he have in reducing the funding for certain programs and/or eliminating others?
His answer from the White House said, "You need to make sure you are not contradicting what the president said the impact would be."
That is, "Make it hurt." Take their first-born. Pour kerosene in their gas tanks. Shut down the police and fire departments, the public schools. Think what you can do the hurt the citizens by denying them services -- especially critical services -- they've already paid for.
And coincidentally, Hugo Chavez, ruthless tyrant of Venezuela, died yesterday, but not before his people (that is, someone in his inner circle) claimed that the USA had "attacked" Chavez with cancer. Frankly, I should think his death from cancer was probably due more to the crappy health care he got in Cuba, but that's just me.
So perhaps if we cancel Comradecare in the USA, that would save a whole bunch of money and the excellent health care that we already have. Or we can the Comrade turn the USA into Cuba.
So, to conclude: with Chavez gone, perhaps the Comrade should start thinking about Venezuela as a place where he might rise to power and push people around. And a question: Will he miss Chavez as a role model?
Somebody's ripe for impeachment.
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