11:29 – I guess I need to pay more attention. When I saw that headline that Mario Cuomo had died at age 84, my first thought was that, from recent images I’d seen, New York’s governor didn’t look that old. Reading further, I finally realized that there are two of the bastards, father and son. Geez. Wasn’t one enough?
The White Tornado struck yesterday. Barbara has declared herself satisfied with the state of the den and kitchen. Tomorrow, she starts on the library/living room and dining room. She’s also gently hinting that my office needs to be cleaned up, as in “Your office is a disaster area and Superfund site all rolled into one.” And then there’s the inventory/work room, which I plan to put some time in on today.
“I finally realized that there are two of the bastards, father and son. Geez. Wasn’t one enough?”
More than enuff. Both were/are criminal scumbags and we got the inside scoop on them years ago here from former insiders in their regimes. Former mayor Giuliani is another one. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
The weather liars told us we’d get some snow overnight but that didn’t happen; overcast and windy again today; the chill factuh last night put it down in the low teens and single digits, ditto tonight, and then it’s supposed to hit mid-fotties on Sunday for only that day, with lotsa rain and then sleet.
Mrs. OFD off to family hoopla at MIL’s tomorrow with son, DIL and grandkids; I’m taking a pass on that this time. Then she leaves at O-Dark-Thirty on Sunday for Pasadena, CA followed immediately by a second week in Tampa. Right now she’s painting the upstairs hallway and laundry room. I’m stacking firewood, doing kitchen KP, and home IT chit.
I think the main problem with New York (the state) is New York (the city). How can you have a workable state when half the population is in one gigalopolis with the whole rest of the state dangling from it? I think New York (the state) needs to declare independence from New York (the city) and split off on its own.
“It’s 2015! Hello, Back to the Future, Part II”
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/2015-back-to-the-future-ii
Where is my flying car and hoverboard?
RBT – your observation about NY State and NY City also applies to Illinois. The pox and corruption of Chicago and Cook County have not so slowly turned what once was a pretty good state to live in into a cesspool. I was born and lived in the Southern and then Northern suburbs in the 50s and 60s. My Dad taught me how to be a closet conservative living in a world run by the mob and the Daley monarchy. I left Illinois in my 20s, but have kept in close contact with friends who have stayed, falsely hoping things would get better.
Now I live on the right side of the left coast.
There are way too many states where the big city or the big county exert an undue influence over the whole state. My only solution is that representation be based on area, not on population. If that was the case, my area of Southeast Washington would have equal representation with the Seattle (way too many Californication expats who brought their eco-weeny socialism here).
My only solution is that representation be based on area, not on population.
OFD’s solution is to use guillotines on the liberals.
I am not sure that OFD’s definition of a liberal is but I am afraid that I am on the wrong side of the line. Along with 90% of the nation.
One solution to representation at the national level: the original design for the House was one member per 50k residents. That would make the House roughly 6175 members.
Actually, the Constitution says, “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand …”
I’ve often argued that it should be one for every 30,000 or fraction thereof, which would put us at at about 11,000 members of the US House of Representatives. Try bribing 11,000 people. Winston-Salem would have eight Representatives of its own, and one of those would be for the northwestern section where we live. I could drive over to his or her house and pound my shoe on the table.
(way too many Californication expats who brought their eco-weeny socialism here)
We have plenty more to send you. Yesterday we’ve insured that all chickens receive their rights.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/01/california-chicken-cage-size-law-expected-to-increase-egg-prices/
Loving those gas prices but not so good for the oil patch…
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/business/kern-gusher/x1494740567/Oil-company-lays-off-700-in-Bakersfield
Happy New Year!
Amazon Echo:
http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2014/12/surprise-amazons-echo-has-arrived/
Weird. Put some wheels on it and call it R2.
I am seeing Black Swan and Oil Price Drop mentioned all over the place.
http://www.dailycollapsereport.com/column-2/gas-prices-low-right-now-surprise-thats-coming-2015/
and
http://www.dailycollapsereport.com/uncategorized/plummeting-oil-prices-destroy-banks-holding-trillions-commodity-derivatives/
I don’t think so as the USA is built on cheap energy. Drop the price of energy and the 49 states (except Texas) go wild. We are going to suffer here in Texas, that is a given. How long is the question.
I at least want to be able to address it as “Computer” in a faux Scottish accent.
Yes, the major metropoles versus the countrysides have always been a problem, and not just here; saw the same deal in Thailand forty years ago. Krung Thep (Bangkok) got/gets all the resources and the outlying rural areas eat shit. During my time there this was fertile territory for organizing peasants and running guerrilla ops via the Thai Cong in unison with Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge.
So up here we have the bastards in Montpeculiar trying to dicate stuff for the rest of the state, which is largely rural, except for Burlap/Chittenden County and the college towns. Down in Maffachufetts the impudent corps of effete snobs in Boston don’t believe anything else exists beyond Route 128, “America’s Technology Highway.” In the Vampire State it’s Babylon-On-The-Hudson and Albany, “The Capital District,” and “upstate” NY is really just the greater NYC metro area to the north. Real NY is the “north country” like the Adirondacks and the western third of the state. They have long gotten short shrift from the bonzes in NYC and during the 19th-C, the latter region was known as the “Burnt-Over District.”
“OFD’s solution is to use guillotines on the liberals.”
Incorrect, Mr. Lynn. That would be half the country. Guillotines, I said, for the gummint operatives and criminal scumbags who run this sorry regime, plus lawyers and financial speculators. I never said “liberals.” They’ll do themselves in without any input from the likes of me. And many of them may become useful in labor battalions working on the nay-shun’s crumbling infrastructure or as cannon fodder securing our borders and coasts.
“I could drive over to his or her house and pound my shoe on the table.”
We can do that here in Vermont right now. We know where our reps live and we bump into them sometimes at the local supermarkets, etc. Both Leahy and Sanders, by the way, are tall buggers, almost as tall as me. Sanders slouches a lot but Patrick is ramrod-straight, always in a suit. I am also old enough to remember former NKVD operator Khruschev banging his shoe on that kitchen table during Nixon’s visit.
Still waiting for my “invite” to purchase the Amazon Echo. I signed up for it when it was first announced in an email to Prime members. That blogger must have some pull or is may be an Amazon Vine “member”. Personally, this group of reviewers who get their stuff for free do not provide truly honest reviews. At least Amazon identifies their “paid reviews” so you know to take them with a grain of salt.
The one per thirty thousand was a maximum when the original apportionment was made. There was an unadopted amendment in the Bill of Rights that would have put it at between 1/30k max and 1/40k minimum, until there were 200 reps. And then it would have been from a minimum of 200 to 1/50k people.
Geez, I don’t want MORE people in our government, I want fewer. Far fewer! As I have said for most of my life, the only cure to America’s problems is direct democracy. Certainly a technically feasible idea in the current tech age. I would like to see big biz and the 1% bribe every citizen of the US to get what they want. And those of you here who always want more people voting would get that: just wait until taxes raises or Obamacare were up as proposals. How the nation runs would begin reflecting the polls showing a majority did not want either.
That’d be fine, Chuck, as long as we restrict the franchise. The last thing in the world I want is the US masses dictating government actions. If we could restrict voting to people who have at least, say, $100,000 in net assets and are not receiving any kind of payments from the government, that’d work out. But it sure wouldn’t work if the poor and other losers could vote themselves still more bread and circuses.
What I find really funny is NOBODY reads any history anymore. It’s all right there, the collapse of various empires, the rigged and corrupt financial systems, the invasions of swarms of aliens, the faltering militaries, etc., etc. What’s so different about ours? Other than being the wealthiest and most powerful of them all, and also the most populous? The bigger they are…etc.
Elections, parties, voting, etc., all mean diddly-squat now and anyone who fails to realize this here is living in a dream world or stuck in the 1950s or sumfin. “Oh but wait, Davy, what about all those Repubs and “conservatives” in this last election?”
Thank you. My point is made.
Still waiting for my “invite” to purchase the Amazon Echo. I signed up for it when it was first announced in an email to Prime members.
Hmm. I’m a prime member, but never heard word one about it. Guess they heard that I was going to drop Prime when it comes up for renewal next month.
Silverman is not just a blogger, he is now probably the most important tech writer in the media these days, after Walt Mossberg left the WSJ last year, and basically dropped off the planet.
If we could restrict voting to people who have at least, say, $100,000 in net assets and are not receiving any kind of payments from the government, that’d work out.
I qualify on the first part but fail on the second part due to VA benefits. So by your definition I could not vote when I should be more entitled to vote than you as I gave many years of service to this country.
If we could restrict voting to people who have at least, say, $100,000 in net assets….
You’re kidding, of course. That is exactly what we have now: rule by people who have more than $100k in the bank, with that balance growing much faster since they got their government job and lifetime bennies. I’ll take rule by the poor any day over the rich bastards!
No one but an idiot would want rule by the poor.
I don’t wanna be ruled by anybody anymore; they’re gonna be human beings, amirite? Case closed.
I’ll take my chances for my last few years on the planet.
“…I should be more entitled to vote than you as I gave many years of service to this country.”
There are some as would argue that nobody made you sign up, and/or it wasn’t service for the country, per se, but for wealthy oil and banking oligarchs. And there are some others who would argue that you probably have PTSD and are mentally deficient (else why would you sign up in the first place, ha ha?) and a possible violent threat of some sort and should be not only precluded from owning firearms but also from voting.
The rich already believe they are more entitled than the rest of us anyway, and that’s the way it’s always been, even here in the enlightened and humanistic secular West. Poor people don’t mean jack and neither do veterans, unless, of course, they’re of the upper gentlemanly class and officers.
Rule by the poor would mean rule by the mob. Rule by the rich is what we see now. Both suck.
Incorrect, Mr. Lynn. That would be half the country. Guillotines, I said, for the gummint operatives and criminal scumbags who run this sorry regime, plus lawyers and financial speculators. I never said “liberals.” They’ll do themselves in without any input from the likes of me. And many of them may become useful in labor battalions working on the nay-shun’s crumbling infrastructure or as cannon fodder securing our borders and coasts.
Sorry about that! Hmm, we have not had labor battalions in the USA since the 1930s. They built stuff all over the South that would never get done nowadays due to all the regulations.
Bring back the labor battalions! Puts hordes of useless “eaters” to work, from gummints local, state and Fed. Ditto emptying the prisons of non-violent inmates. Ditto hordes of “eater” college students. We could fix up the nay-shun’s infrastructure in a jiffy AND secure the borders and coasts. Ditto bringing all those troops home from the 1,000 or so bases and installations around the world. Libertarians would screech but they’re a teeny-tiny wittle voice amidst the dull roar. I’m not saying they gotta work on those things forever; adjust the times to fit the crimes. A year for some local idiot who shoplifted; ten to twenty for various felons; life for hardcore recidivists. And the latter, if violent types, can build or repair infrastructure in Antarctica, the tar sands or the Moon.
I’d even sentence myself to a year or two for being such a dumbass as to sign up for the military at 17 and then work for other people all these decades. Tack on another couple of years for abusing all them substances, too.
So by your definition I could not vote when I should be more entitled to vote than you as I gave many years of service to this country.
Service Guarantees Citizenship
I also signed up for an “Echo” alert and have heard nada. I didn’t get an email to signup, a dialog popped up when I signed into Prime.
“Mobile Infantry.” Ain’t dat redundant??
Friggin’ infantry BETTUH be mobile!
I’d want that job of running the space artillery, where you get to blow up meteors an’ shit; I have experience many moons ago, haha, with the Asteroids game on a Mac server, at my old magazine copy editor job in Nova Caesarea when I bailed outta worthless grad skool.
I have received no interesting alerts or emails from Amazon despite me being a Prime member almost since they came out with that deal. Let me check right now…nope…
My Lord Eternal, Dirty Harry Reid, fell and busted his face and ribs. He’s in a Vegas Obummerpital but expected to return to destroying the country.
And how about all those crimmigrants in CA about to get driver licenses? No insurance, no problemo Señor! Gov Moonbean will probably waive the requirement. Insurance is for rich Whitey and he should absorb all accident costs. Brown on Brown you ask? Lock and load!
Aw, what the hell; give ’em all driver licenses, FFL’s, home, car and biz loans, and free blow jobs from the hordes of willing Dems, of multiple genders.
I’ll send some nice flowers round to ol’ Dirty Harry, just not the kind he’d expect…
Most legal Americans do not realize the large infrastructure the Hispanics have established to service their illegal “brothers and sisters”, and these services are usually restricted to Hispanics only. In most cities of any size there is an underground system that supplies IDs, Driver’s Licenses, Insurance Cards, and any other kind of paperwork one would need to appear legal. The price for most of this “paper” is high (and purchased on an installment plan that never ends) so the illegals welcome the new essentially free legal papers being given out by Obummer.
When I got to this area 35+ years ago, the first thing I noticed was the large population from South of the border. It didn’t take long before I knew what was up in a certain one of our Tri-Cities (centered around the “farmers market”). That city used to be diverse, but now one-half of it is not-so-little Tijuana. Every sign on every business is Spanish, only some include English. The Mexican Gangs control that part of town. About every 4 to 6 months the State has a roundup where they bring in a couple of hundred “deputies” who roundup anywhere from 50 to 100 felons. They run through the Judicial System and are back in time for the next roundup. It’s a game.
This legal Murkan has understood this particular racket for quite some time; I remember it getting going real good back in the 80s when I was still working the cop gigs down in MA. One interesting series of events then, however, took place after the murder of a MA State Police trooper just south of Worcester on Route 20 in a package store parking lot. The perps were a carload of Hispanics who then disappeared into the local Hispanic milieu.
Tell ya what: the cops, self included, had every swinging dick and otherwise currycombing the entire friggin’ city for these guys and in the case of the Hispanic ‘hoods, the Staties kicked in or blew down door after door with shotguns and German shepherds. Some of the scenes reminded me of when the Wehrmacht and SS troops were busting through the Warsaw ghetto. After about a half hour of this stuff, those guys got dimed out bigtime and rounded up. I seriously doubt if that would be the outcome nowadays.
Yes indeed, it is a game, and guess who the winners are? Not necessarily the incoming waves of immigrants, to be sure. Go up a few levels and ask again, cui bono?
Investment houses holding weird derivatives may take a whopping loss? How…unexpected. Do these idiots never learn anything?
I don’t wanna be ruled by anybody anymore; they’re gonna be human beings, amirite?
There you have it. Anytime someone tells me how I ought to have faith in the government, I make the point that a government consists of people – and just how much faith should I have in a random collection of strangers? What are their priorities, really? Building their own little bureaucratic empires, for many. Actually doing their jobs? Perhaps a few of them, but most just want to get home at the end of the day…
Investment houses holding weird derivatives may take a whopping loss? How…unexpected. Do these idiots never learn anything?
Peon investment bankers live to get their commission. Their base pay is worthless in a high cost city like NYC. Therefore, they must sell, sell, sell to get their commissions. The uppers know and try to regulate them but do not do anything serious in the name of sales. If the peons bring in high sales then they get high congratulations (and commissions!) and not many looks at what they are selling.
We heading towards another gray swan. We’ve had them before in 1986 and several other times. The price of crude oil has dropped by half in the last six months and may drop to half of today’s cost. I was seeing a lot of people talk about $65 oil, then $40 oil, now I am seeing $20 oil. Several of the energy companies may not survive this. I doubt that a biggie like Exxon will be severely affected by the downturn but, who knows. And, several companies may make a fortune buying up distressed assets with cash.
Guillotines, I said, for the gummint operatives and criminal scumbags who run this sorry regime, plus lawyers and financial speculators.
All lawyers?
What is your definition of a “financial speculator”?
Convince me otherwise that any lawyers deserve to live. Maybe there’s a handful somewhere, that do good works and mind their own business and are decent people. Bring me a list.
A financial speculator is one who earns his daily bread not by the sweat of his brow but by lying, deceit and chicanery to beguile both himself and his fellow man out of their legitimate earnings so as to cause negative disruption of the economy and actually cause pain and suffering. We have had many examples of such in our recent national history.
Again, there may be a handful who honestly seek to better themselves and their customers in a righteous and rational way. Bring me a list.
Many moons ago, I worked for a company that sold billing and accounting software for law firms. I interacted daily with attorneys from all over the country. In several years of doing that, I did encounter some good ones. As I once said to the owner of the company, “It’s the 99% of attorneys who give the other 1% a bad name.” Which was about literally true. Maybe 1% or 2% are really good people and, interestingly, those are generally also really good attorneys.
I’ll attest to the fact that a good attorney is a wonderful thing to have. I needed a Quitclaim for former director/employee and mine drew one up preventing the guy from even breathing in my presence. He also threw in a clause which I didn’t notice at the time but made all the difference in the world.
OFD, or anyone else, ever read Neal Stephenson’s _Baroque Cycle_? There’s a good bit of history in it, including global financial shenanigans which persist to this day.
Yup, read the Baroque Cycle. Financial chicanery took off like a shot in London a long time ago and has only become more sophisticated.
Hmm. I’ve got quite a little bit of financial speculation ongoing on the side. Property and stocks. But it is not my main source of income.
“I’ve got quite a little bit of financial speculation ongoing on the side. Property and stocks.”
If you’re not screwing over somebody else, either stupidly or with malice aforethought, then no guillotine for you. Simple as that. Nobody minds investing; it’s the criminal chicanery at gargantuan levels that tanks economies and ruins innocent peoples’ lives that I am concerned about here.