Tag: Hurricane Sandy

WELCOME TO TERMINUS

“Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.” – Edward Teller

I was a late arrival to the Walking Dead television program. I don’t watch much of the mindless drivel passing for entertainment on the 600 worthless channels available 24/7 on cable TV. I assumed it was another superficial zombie horror show on par with the teenage vampire crap polluting the airwaves. Last year a friend told me I had to watch the show. I was hooked immediately and after some marathon watching of seasons one and two, I understood the various storylines and back stories. What the show doesn’t openly reveal is the deeper meanings, symbolism, and lessons we can learn from viewing human beings trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. In my opinion, the horror and gore is secondary to the human responses to horrific circumstances and the consequences of individual and group decisions to their survival.

As the end of season four approached, the disbursed characters were descending upon a place called Terminus. They were drawn by the intriguing and hopeful signs posted at various railroad junctions promising sanctuary, community and survival. Of course the name Terminus does not sound very inviting or hopeful. There are multiple possible meanings regarding Terminus. The Roman god Terminus protected boundary markers and sacrifices were performed to sanctify each boundary stone. The bones, ashes, and blood of a sacrificial victim, along with crops, honeycombs, and wine, were placed into a hole at a point where estates converged, and the stone was driven in on top. Maintaining boundaries and sacrifice are major themes throughout the series.

The show is set in the metropolitan Atlanta area of Georgia and the surrounding countryside. It just so happens that during the 1830s Terminus was the name of a settlement at the end of the Western and Atlantic railroad line. That settlement is now Atlanta. Terminus is also the title of the final poem ever composed by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The poem focuses on a conversation between the author and the god Terminus, discussing the author’s forthcoming death. The message of the poem is to resist fear and prepare for death. The destination is worth the journey.   

“As the bird trims her to the gale,

I trim myself to the storm of time,

I man the rudder, reef the sail,

Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:

“Lowly faithful, banish fear,

Right onward drive unharmed;

The port, well worth the cruise, is near,

And every wave is charmed.”

We are only given a short time on this earth and the end of the line will be the same for everyone. What matters is how we conduct ourselves during our own journey towards our personal Terminus. Have we served as a virtuous example for our children, sacrificed for others, and benefited humanity or have we displayed greed, avarice and selfishness during our trek through life? As we approach our own meeting with destiny, the actions and morality of individuals will matter. I don’t know the motivations of the writers creating the themes for the Walking Dead, but the show connects with me on a number of levels. I look around and see hordes of zombies everywhere.

Zombification of America

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

The vast majority of the population in the post-apocalyptic world of the Walking Dead is mindless zombies driven by only their need to feed upon human flesh. They are infected with a disease that disables the cognitive portion of their brains and leaves them as slobbering predatory zombies seeking to satisfy their vile needs. They are referred to as “walkers” or “biters” as they aimlessly roam the countryside seeking human flesh. Everyone bitten or killed by a zombie is infected and turned into a zombie. The only way to stop them is by destroying their brain. The relentless violence and gore is not for the squeamish, but is probably a realistic portrayal of the brutishness and harsh conditions that will overwhelm this country once the electrical grid goes down, fuel becomes scarce and the global supply chain fails. Our just in time society is about one week from chaos, lawlessness, starvation and death on a grand scale.

As I watch the hordes of hideous brain dead zombies shuffling across the apocalyptic landscape seeking to satiate their basest cravings I can’t help but see the parallels with the millions of mindless tattooed obese slobs waddling across mall parking lots past vacant store fronts staring zombielike at their iGadgets as they seek to satisfy their basest desires at Macy’s and Chipotle. A virus has overspread our country causing a vast swath of the population to gratuitously assuage their every want without thinking of the consequences. The sickness is caused by being imprisoned for twelve years in government run public schools, watching thousands of hours of propaganda emitted by the corporate media, viewing hundreds of brain cell destroying reality TV shows, reading and sending thousands of texts and tweets, and being overwhelmed by the delusional belief spending more than they make, saving nothing, and piling up mountains of debt is the path to success in our contaminated society.

In the show there is no clear explanation as to why the majority of the population have been infected and turned into zombies, while a tiny minority is unaffected and able to think critically and act rationally. It is revealed that all living people are infected with the zombie virus, but it remains dormant in a minority of the survivors. Death by any means triggers the virus and turns the corpse into a mindless flesh eating zombie. There are 318 million Americans and a majority of them fall into the category of zombies in my estimation. Every American has the zombie virus within them. It has been incubated by corrupt vote seeking politicians, control hungry government sociopaths, mind numbingly worthless public education, and the relentless dumbing down through corporate media propaganda and vacuous reality TV entertainment. Once cogent thinking aware citizens have been zombiefied into mindless impulsive consumers.

How can you not see the parallels between American society and the zombies in the Walking Dead? Walk down any city street in America and you see hordes shuffling along staring with blank faces and glazed over eyes at their iGadgets. Black Friday is identical to flinging a freshly slaughtered hog in front of the flesh eating zombies. Americans flock to malls across our apocalyptic suburban sprawl landscape and proceed to stampede, gouge, and punch their way to a fantastic bargain on a Chinese slave labor produced microwave they must have to cook their toxic frankenfood created by one of our corporate food conglomerates. The Black Friday crowds actually make the zombies from the Walking Dead seem well behaved. While the American zombies are shambling through superficial lives of pleasure seeking, mass consumption, and a delusional faith in debt based wealth, there is still a minority of rational thinking people who can control their impulses and resist the disease devouring our culture.

 

“Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy things.” ― Philip Slater                  

Collapse Will Be Sudden

“That’s the thing about the collapse of civilization. It never happens according to plan – there’s no slavering horde of zombies. No actinic flash of thermonuclear war. No Earth-shuddering asteroid. The end comes in unforeseen ways; the stock market collapses, and then the banks, and then there is no food in the supermarkets, or the communications system goes down completely and inevitably, and previously amiable co-workers find themselves wrestling over the last remaining cookie that someone brought in before all the madness began.” ― Mark A. Rayner – The Fridgularity

What you note after watching a few episodes of the Walking Dead is that collapse happened suddenly. Cities, towns, houses and highways remained relatively intact. The decay and deterioration caused by neglect and abandonment are the only visible signs that modern civilization has ceased. The show highlights the life-threatening difficulty of enduring on a day to day basis without the certainty of shelter, food, water, and fuel. The average asleep American isn’t prepared to last one week without the basics of modern life. They haven’t stocked any food, water or fuel in case of an emergency. Their normalcy bias keeps them from even considering the high likelihood of even a natural disaster caused by a hurricane, snowstorm, or earthquake. Recent examples of most people’s complete helplessness were the snow and ice storms that struck this past winter and hurricanes Sandy and Katrina. Without power and access to food and water, modern society breaks down quickly, with chaos, looting and anarchy only days away.

It is unlikely that collapse of civilization as we know it will happen due to some extreme event such as nuclear war, super volcano, or asteroid. When our central banker masters of the universe trigger the next financial system collapse, with no monetary bullets of debasement left in their pop gun, the resulting chaos when ATMs stop spitting out $20 bills and EBT cards for 47 million people stop functioning at Wally World will be epic. We got a glimpse into the future this past October when the EBT system went down in several states for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. Zombies began to ransack Wal-Mart stores attempting to steal as much as they could get away with. Chaos, anger and criminal behavior was virtually instantaneous. A vast swath of EBT dependent zombies live in our numerous urban ghettos and when the EBT system goes down permanently violence will quickly erupt. Police will be vastly out-numbered, hungry mobs will become armed gangs of violent looters burning down their ghettos, ransacking and plundering businesses, stores and homes, and stealing everything that isn’t nailed down. Visualize the L.A. riots after the Rodney King verdict in every urban area in the country.

The fragility of our debt financed oil dependent just in time global supply chain system is beyond the comprehension of the average zombie American. They are too distracted by mass consuming the products dependent on that very same fragile scheme. They are clueless zombie-like dupes who believe $20 bills magically appear in ATMs, Funyuns and Cheetos miraculously materialize on Wal-Mart shelves, gasoline endlessly bubbles up from the ground into the hose they stick in their $40,000 monster SUVs “bought” with a 0% seven year loan from Ally Financial, and that enchanted plastic card with a magnetic strip empowers them to fulfill every craving like a zombie feeding on a dead carcass.

There is a worldwide currency and petroleum war being waged today as too much fiat currency is chasing a dwindling amount of cheap petroleum supplies. The developed world has experienced a century of relative illusory prosperity as cheap easy to access fuel and cheap easy to print fiat currency have led zombies to believe progress and prosperity are their god given right. The most highly educated zombies will be the most shocked when they realize the reality they believed was all an illusion. The Starbucks “Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato” crowd who isolate themselves in their 100% financed 5,000 square foot luxury cookie cutter brick McMansions amidst 200 other identical McMansions occupied by reclusive strangers in enclaves pretentiously named The Preserve at Meadow Lakes, and driving multiple leased BMWs, are about as prepared for a collapse of modern society as a helpless child. The suburban wasteland of strip malls, office parks, and fast food joints is completely dependent upon an endless supply of cheap oil and cheap credit.

The cracks in this delusionary foundation are visible for all to see as Space Available signs outnumber actual businesses, pothole dotted highways deteriorate, sewer lines crack, and houses in disrepair outnumber those being kept up. It takes money to keep a home from deteriorating and it happens to be in short supply for 90% of the population. Despite the non-stop money printing operation at the Fed and the mainstream media fantasy stories of shale oil energy independence, the suburban dream is turning into a nightmare. When the inevitable financial implosion strikes in the next few years, the illusion of progress will come to an end. The inner cities will explode in violence and will burn. The police will be helpless and scared. There will be death on a large scale.

Suburbia will turn into a lawless landscape where neighbors turn on each other, as they have failed to create real communities. The isolation and seclusion which have marked suburban existence for the last thirty years will contribute to the creation of criminal gangs looting and pillaging stores, businesses and unprotected homes. After the collapse the only people likely to survive relatively unscathed are rural folk. Farmers, ranchers and those capable of living off the land have the abilities to endure a breakdown in our modern society. These people are prepared, know how to use firearms and create communities of self-sufficiency. No one will thrive in the world coming our way, but those not dependent upon or tied to our modern societal paradigm have a better chance to survive.      

“If people feel lost and alone and helpless and broken and hopeless today, what will it be like if the world really begins to come apart at the hinges?” ― Brandon Andress – And Then the End Will Come!

Individualism vs Community

“The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.” ― Jared Diamond – Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Our society has always glorified rugged individualism. We celebrate individual accomplishments and make heroes of those who have gone it alone and triumphed either in business, politics, sports, or the arts. Overcoming tremendous obstacles and going it alone in the face of adversity has been the narrative Americans admire and seek to emulate. Even the reality TV shows about preppers focus on individuals who plan on going it alone when civilization enters collapse mode. These rugged loners take pride in individualism, build bunkers, amass small arsenals and stockpile food and supplies. They will likely survive the initial onslaught of collapse and first wave of violence. But how long can an individual expect to survive alone in a Walking Dead environment? The traits which were appropriate and rewarded in modern society will be inappropriate and fatal in a post-modern society. A lesson from the show is clearly that a community of like-minded individuals working together has a better chance at long-term survival than a loner. Just make sure you join the right community.

With hordes of flesh eating automatons roaming the countryside it was essential for the living to form communities in order to fend off the zombies, protect each other, provide shelter, and forage for food. An individual alone had no chance at survival as falling asleep would ultimately prove fatal if a zombie stumbled upon your camp. The group led by Sheriff Rick Grimes eventually creates a community within the gates of an abandoned prison. The irony of seeing mindless throngs of soulless killers attempting to breakdown the fences to get “into” the prison is not lost on the audience. At first, the occupants of the prison would leave on foraging/pillaging missions to nearby cities and towns attempting to find food, medical supplies, gasoline and any other essential necessities of life. Eventually Hershel, the wise old man of the community, convinced Rick that cultivating the soil, sowing seeds and growing their own food was the only chance for their community to thrive over the long haul. Working with your hands is refreshing to the soul. Jesus’ Parable of the Sower immediately comes to mind.

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, some an hundred. He said unto them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. — Mark 4:3-9

Some communities are evil at their core and will commit malevolent atrocities. Some communities will appear ethical, but when hardship strikes they will fall back to their wicked ways. Communities of those addicted to riches and wealth will ignore the pleas of the downtrodden and wail and gnash their teeth when their worldly wealth evaporates.  A fruitful community that chooses decent honorable leaders, adopts a moral code, treats all members with respect, encourages hard work and accountability, and plans for the future, will reap the benefits of sustainability and stability. Cultivating a good community is difficult, requiring sacrifice, compromise, hard work, difficult choices, and depends upon the goodwill of all members. Rick tried to become a farmer, but Carol saw the future clearly telling him, “you can be a farmer, you can’t just be a farmer”. A peaceful happy ending was not to be.

The community of Woodbury, led by a despicably evil man referred to as the governor, gave outward appearances of stability and health. But it was ruled through fear, intimidation, vindictiveness and evil. Leaders like the governor arise during desperate times when the weak seek someone who promises to save them and keep them safe. Leaders like the governor are far more savage, ruthless and dangerous than the flesh eating zombie hordes because they kill with malicious intent, fully knowledgeable of the consequences of their actions. Eventually good communities led by good people must stand up and fight bad communities led by evil men, no matter the consequences. Under dire circumstances and an uncertain future we will need to decide what kind of community we will be. What kind of people we will be. Will we fight for a better future for our children? Can we retain our humanity or will we become no better than the walking dead?   

Brutal: Hershel awaits his fate at the hands of The Governor on last night's The Walking Dead

“What fascinates me is not so much humanity’s engulfment in darkness, but what kind of culture we will construct from the rubble of this one.” ― Carolyn Baker – Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times

Who Are the Real Walking Dead?

The central question permeating the Walking Dead is whether the living can maintain their humanity amidst so much horror, brutality, death, and desolation. Can the living continue to show compassion, kindness, mercy and love in a world torn apart by disarray, violence, viciousness and despair?  Throughout the series those who haven’t “turned” still have the capacity to empathize, comfort one another, offer succor, and show mercy and kindness. But after enduring unending horrors, cruelty, death and sorrow, it appears some of the characters are “turning” into the very monsters pursuing them.

Every human being has their breaking point. The main characters must commit increasingly heinous acts in order to survive. The walkers have no choice. Their humanity was stripped from them by the virus. The living have a choice. The mental anguish pushes some (Lizzy) over the edge into insanity. Others (Michonne and Carl) are torn by guilt that they have become monsters. Carol justifies her ruthlessness as the only choice for survival – just like the walkers. The seismic shift occurs when Rick, seeing his son being sexually assaulted, goes full zombie and bites the jugular of his captor and relentlessly stabs his son’s attacker. Daryl kills one of the bad guys by crushing his skull with his boot. Many of the characters have made a choice to shed their humanity in order to protect their family and friends. As the series completes its fourth season we are left with a question. Are the zombies really the “walking dead” or are the living really the “walking dead”?       

Life is complicated and those seeking simplicity and consistency will be terribly disappointed. The future is not going to be bright for our empire of debt and delusions. Times that will try men’s souls are on the horizon. The choices we make as individuals and communities will matter. Every human being has the capacity for good or evil. We will be alone in deciding whether we gravitate toward the dark side of our character or whether we make a stand for all that is noble and decent. Retaining our humanity during the trials and tribulations that await us will be crucial to creating a community that is sustainable and a future worth living and fighting for. It is clear that Terminus is not a true sanctuary for all. It permeates evil. As all of the “good” people are herded into a single boxcar I couldn’t help but see the parallels of the Nazis herding the Jews into boxcars for their final destination. Passive submission to an evil authority never ends well.

As the door is slammed shut and the protagonists are reunited, Rick declares “they’re gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out.” Abraham then asks “find out what?” Rick’s “they’re screwing with the wrong people” response confirms his transformation from an ambivalent reluctant leader into a powerful figure who will do anything necessary to protect his family, friends and community. This Fourth Turning has yet to reach its bloody, violent, chaotic zenith. The popularity of shows like the Walking Dead is a sign of the darkening mood change in this country. With our fragile fraudulent finance driven eco-system teetering on the edge, the threat of collapse is ever present. Within one week of a financial system collapse we would enter a Walking Dead like scenario. Each American who hasn’t already been infected with the zombie virus needs to prepare now and decide what kind of person they will become as the collapse engulfs our society. We all exit this world as we entered it – alone. But we have the wherewithal to positively impact the rebuilding of our culture from the rubble of this one. Are you ready to meet the deadly trials ahead? The choices we make over the next decade will determine if this is the end of the line for our civilization or a new beginning..       

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.” ― Aldous Huxley – Doors of Perception

FISCAL FARCE, FAILURE, FANTASY & FORNICATION

I’ve put off writing an article about what is likely to happen in 2013 so I could peruse the thousands of other articles by reputable bloggers, paid pundits, Wall Street shills and captured charlatans to gather their wisdom. It’s essential that I make predictions for 2013 so I can write another article in December rationalizing why 90% of my predictions failed to materialize. Reading all of these 2013 prediction articles made things much clearer for me. I now know for sure:

  • The stock market will reach an all-time high.
  • The stock market will fall 42%.
  • The economy will strengthen as the year progresses.
  • The economy will descend into a depression.
  • The USD will strengthen.
  • The USD will collapse.
  • Gas prices will set new highs.
  • Gas prices will fall below 2012 levels.
  • Gold will rise to $10,000 per ounce.
  • Gold will drop below $1,000 per ounce.
  • We will experience hyperinflation.
  • We will experience horrific deflation.
  • Obama will compromise with the Republicans and put the country on a path to prosperity.
  • Obama will create a debt ceiling crisis and assume dictatorial powers as a result.
  • Snooki will be a better mother than Kim Kardashian.
  • Honey Boo Boo will beat I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant in the Neilson ratings.

The majority of 2013 prediction articles are written to support the agenda of the writer. Many are trying to sell newsletter subscriptions or investment services. Their predictions will match the theme of their newsletter. Others are Wall Street paid shills who will predict what they are paid to predict by their owners. Then there are the political hacks who tow the party line with their predictions. But no one can top the predictive powers of the CBO. They just put out their ten year updated forecast reflecting the fabulous fiscal cliff deal that saved the country. According to the CBO, the “compromise” to reduce our deficits will add a mere $4 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. I’m sure this will prove to be accurate. Just take a look at their 2002 projection, after passage of the Bush tax cuts:

The CBO predicted the FY2012 surplus would be $641 billion, the national debt would total $3.5 trillion, the debt held by the public would total $1.273 trillion, and GDP would total $17.2 trillion. They missed by that much.

The actual FY12 results were:

  • The true deficit was $1.37 trillion (amount national debt increased – not the phony deficit number reported by the mainstream media).
  • The national debt was $16.1 trillion.
  • The debt held by the public was $11.3 trillion.
  • GDP was $15.8 trillion.

Based on these results, I won’t be asking the CBO for help with my Super Bowl bet. Making ten year predictions is beyond worthless, but public policy in Washington DC is based on these useless CBO projections. The entire fiscal cliff kabuki theater fictitious crisis reveals the politicians and mainstream media pundits to be liars, fools and frauds. The tax the rich to cut the deficit storyline was sold to the public and won the day. Of course, the highly accurate CBO immediately revealed that the Orwellian named American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 adds $4 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. Based on the accuracy of their previous predictions, it’s a guarantee the national debt goes up by $8 trillion, as the rich take advantage of the thousands of loopholes in the IRS code they paid for to avoid paying the taxes expected by the CBO.

Hypocrisy abounds on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC and on the media company propaganda channels. As the national debt soared from $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office to $16.4 trillion today, I heard shrieking liberal talking heads on MSNBC, CNN, and the rest of the liberal media blame the debt on the Bush tax cuts and the Bush wars. If the Bush tax cuts were so horrific, why did Obama and his minions just make 98% of these tax cuts permanent? Liberals held protest marches across the country against Bush’s wars and burned him in effigy. Obama’s defense budgets have been larger than Bush’s and he doubled down on our miserable failure in Afghanistan. You don’t hear a peep from the liberals about the warmongering Barack Obama who has kill lists and unleashes predator drones, killing women and children across the globe. Liberals pretend to be concerned about the welfare of the citizens, but continue to support a President that uses executive orders to imprison citizens indefinitely without charges, has expanded surveillance on citizens, has kept Guantanamo open, signs the continuation of the Patriot Act, and proposes overturning the Second Amendment by executive order. Liberals shriek about the evils of an unregulated Wall Street, while remaining silent as Obama hasn’t prosecuted a single banker for the greatest financial fraud in world history. You don’t hear a peep about Jon Corzine, who stole $1.2 billion from the accounts of farmers and ranchers. Liberals talk about regulation and then stand idly by while Wall Street lobbyists wrote the Dodd Frank law and insurance and drug company lobbyists wrote the Obamacare law. Liberal hypocrisy knows no bounds and is only matched by Neo-Con hypocrisy.

The Neo-Con controlled Republican Party is a pathetic joke. They have the guts to declare themselves the party of fiscal responsibility, after Bush’s eight year reign of error. He and his fiscally responsible party were handed a budget in surplus and managed to add $4.9 trillion to the national debt by waging undeclared wars, encouraging Wall Street to create the biggest fraudulent financial bubble in history, creating a new $16 trillion unfunded entitlement (Medicare Part D), cutting taxes without paying for them, and creating a massive new government agency (DHS) to take away our liberties and freedom. Federal government spending grew from $1.9 trillion to $3.0 trillion under Bush and the Republicans. Does that sound fiscally responsible?

Does anyone believe the Republican Party is serious about cutting anything? Tough guy Republicans like Big Chris Christie preach fiscal responsibility when going to war with teachers’ unions, but he squeals  like a stuck pig when a $60 billion pork filled, unpaid for, Sandy Relief bill is held up in Congress. The courageous fiscally responsible Congress critters passed the entire pork filled, unfunded, bloated, vote buying joke. It included $28 billion to mitigate future disasters, $3 billion to repair or replace Federal assets, and $6 billion for transportation projects completely unrelated to Sandy damage.   The hypocrisy of politicians who proclaim the $50 billion of 2013 fiscal cliff tax revenue as deficit cutting, and then immediately piss it away by paying people to rebuild their houses yards from the Atlantic Ocean while funding billions of non-disaster related projects is disgusting to behold. There is nothing like compromise to add another $60 billion to the national debt.

Our entire economic and political system is a farce. The American people are being played by the powerful interests that provide them with an illusion of choice. Both parties serve the interests of their masters and the fiscal cliff show and debt ceiling show are a form of reality TV to keep the masses alarmed, fearful, and believing there is actually a difference between the policies of the ruling class. The charade has played out in its full glory in the last few weeks with Obama convincing the masses he had stuck it to the rich, while in reality the working middle class got it good and hard when they got their January paychecks. This chart details the tax changes that went into effect on January 1.

taxbill

The funniest part this fiscal fiasco farce is watching the reaction of the sheep who believed Obama and the mainstream media storyline. Obama was able to raise the published top rate on people making over $400,000. The newly defined “rich” laughed heartily as they know only fools pay anywhere near the top rate. The rich just call their tax advisor and instruct them to use one of the thousands of tax loopholes in the 75,000 page IRS tax code to “legally” avoid the new Obama rates. Meanwhile, both parties and their mainstream media mouthpieces downplayed the 2% payroll tax increase on every working American. This tax increase has been a complete surprise to the reality TV zombies and Facebook aficionados. Even college educated professionals in my office had no idea their next monthly paycheck was going to be $150 to $200 lighter. This will wipe out most, or all, of the annual raise they received. The tax will fall heavily on the 75% of households that make less than the $113,700 Social Security cutoff. For a struggling family of four earning the median income of $50,000, the $1,000 less in their paychecks will mean less food, putting off trips to the doctor, driving on bald tires, or not taking the family on a vacation to the Jersey shore. The $2,274 increase in taxes (.57%) for the Wall Street banker making $400,000 probably won’t put too much of a crimp in his Hamptons lifestyle.

The joke is on the American people as the rich will ante up maybe $50 billion of taxes in 2013, while the working middle class will be skewered for $125 billion. How’s that “Tax the Rich” slogan working out for you?

Only in the Orwellian capital of Washington DC would a bill that was supposed to provide tax relief to the middle class and spending cuts to reduce the deficit, actually increase the tax burden of a median household by $1,000 and perpetuate the pork spending payoffs to campaign contributors and friends of the slimy politicians that slither through the halls of Congress. The list of pork and bribes should be nauseating to hard working Americans across the country:

$30 billion extension of the 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, even though we are supposedly in the 3rd year of economic recovery. Continuing to pay people to not work for two years will surely boost employment.

$14.3 billion for a two-year extension of the corporate research credit benefiting large technology companies like IBM and Hewlett Packard.

$12.2 billion one-year extension of the production tax credit for wind power.

$11.2 billion two- year extension of the active financing exception, which lets GE, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Citigroup Inc. (C), among others, defer taxes on financing income they earn outside the U.S.

$1.9 billion extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit for hiring workers from disadvantaged groups, benefitting mega-restaurant chains like McDonalds.

$1.8 billion extension of the New Markets Tax Credit for investments in low- income areas, benefitting JP Morgan and other Wall Street shyster banks.

$650 million tax credit for manufacturing energy-efficient appliances, benefitting mega-corps like Whirlpool.

$430 million for Hollywood through “special expensing rules” to encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects. NBC thanks you.

$331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50% of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.

$248 million in special expensing rules for films and television programs.

$222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.

$78 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities.”

$59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon.

$4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes.

So when you see the cut in your take home pay, just comfort yourself knowing that JP Morgan, Citigroup, GE and hundreds of mega-corporations were able to retain their tax breaks. As they have done for decades, Congress and the President agreed to address spending cuts at a future date. Of course, a government spending cut isn’t actually a cut. It’s a lower increase than their previous projection. Nothing is ever cut in Washington DC. The austerity storyline is a lie. Not a dime has been cut from the Federal budget. Intellectually dishonest ideologues try to peddle the wind down of the Obama $800 billion porkulus program as a cut in Federal spending. They sold this Keynesian “shovel ready” crap to a gullible public as stimulus to jumpstart the economy. Federal spending was $3.0 trillion before the Obama stimulus. After the two year stimulus was pissed away without helping the economy one iota, the baseline should have been back in the $3.2 trillion range. Instead, FY13 Federal spending will be $3.8 trillion. This hasn’t kept liberal ideologues like Krugman and his minions in the mainstream media from blaming crazy Tea Party Republicans for inflicting horrendous austerity measures on the poor and disadvantaged.

The chart above reveals a few truths:

  • The country has been blessed with two of the worst presidents in U.S. history over the last twelve years.
  • When Federal spending as a percentage of GDP is beyond two standard deviations over the normal range during the last sixty years, your problem is not lack of tax revenue.
  • Obama and the current Congress are spending at a level of 24% of GDP versus the 18% of GDP when Clinton left office. This amounts to a nose bleed altitude $950 billion higher than the level Clinton was spending in his final year in office.

The Op-eds in liberal rags across the land decry the lack of civility in Washington DC and plead for politicians on both sides of the aisle to come together and compromise for the good of the country. This line of bullshit would be laughable if it wasn’t so wretched in its falsity. Compromise is what has left this country with a $16.4 trillion national debt, $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities, and $1 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see. Democrats have compromised and let the Republicans create a warfare state. Republicans have compromised and let Democrats create a welfare state. The two headed monster living in the swamps of Washington DC just voted to increase taxes on all Americans. They voted to hand criminal Wall Street banks $700 billion. They voted to pass the Patriot Act. They voted to pass the NDAA. They’ve allowed the President to wage undeclared wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Iran. They voted for a $663 billion Defense bill that includes tens of billions the Secretary of Defense doesn’t even want. They will vote to raise the debt ceiling in the next two months. The last thing this country needs is more compromise. We can’t afford any more compromise. The chart above proves what can happen when gridlock ensues, spending restrictions are enforced, and confrontation displaces compromise. After the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, gridlock ensued for the next six years. PAYGO restrictions in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 didn’t allow unfettered spending increases. The result was Federal spending falling from 22% of GDP to 18% of GDP and a budget surplus. The Pay-Go restrictions expired in 2002 and Democrats and Republicans have compromised to the tune of a $10.2 trillion increase in the national debt in ten years. The hypocrisy of pandering deceitful politicians is boundless and shows utter contempt for the intelligence of the American populace.

“Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending. It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to. If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America’s bills on time, Social Security checks, and veterans benefits will be delayed. We might not be able to pay our troops, or honor our contracts with small business owners. Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, specialist who track down loose nuclear materials wouldn’t get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is in fact a safe bet. Markets could go haywire, interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money – Every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan, every small business owner who wants to grow and hire. We are not a deadbeat nation.

It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession. And ironically it would probably increase our deficit. So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd. Republicans in Congress have two choices here. They can act responsibly, and pay America’s bills, or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy.” – President Barack Obama – January 14, 2013

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. The Senate continues to reject a return to the common sense Pay-go rules that used to apply. Previously, Pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending and to tax cuts.

The Senate had to abide by the common sense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘‘the buck stops here.’’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” – Senator Barack Obama – March 16, 2006

I could have shown quotes from George W. Bush during the 2000 Presidential campaign talking about a non-interventionist foreign policy and no need for the U.S. to get involved in nation building and then proceeding to pre-emptively attack sovereign countries while wasting trillions and impoverishing unborn generations trying to create “democracy” in the Middle East at the point of a gun as a cover to protect “our” oil. The point is that we are being given the illusion of choice. Everyone knows the debt ceiling will be raised after another episode of Washington DC Kabuki Theater, presented by the corporate mainstream media in breathtaking detail, because the politicians are beholden to their owners and those owners want more of our money. That is why spending will never be willingly cut by the spineless puppet congressmen, as their strings are pulled by the corporate puppet masters and they dance to the tune of the banking oligarchs that own this country.

After witnessing the fighting of undeclared never ending wars, passage of freedom destroying legislation like the Patriot Act & NDAA, approval of pork barrel spending to the tune of hundreds of billions, rule by Executive Order, using ZIRP to extract hundreds of billions from senior citizen savers and give it to criminal Wall Street banks, forcing the American people at gunpoint to replenish the Wall Street banks with $700 billion after they had committed the greatest financial fraud in history, and a continuing trampling of the U.S. Constitution, the American people continue to remain willfully ignorant of the truth. The American Dream is dead. We’ve allowed a rich, privileged, elite few to achieve hegemony over our economic and political system with their control of the media and manipulation of our financial markets. They will collapse the country because they will never be satisfied with the amount of wealth and power they’ve accumulated. Their voracious greed will be their downfall. The sooner we can channel the anger of George Carlin, the sooner we can put an end to this corporate fascist reign of terror.

“Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear. They’ve got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest. You know something, they don’t want people that are smart enough to sit around their kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

It’s a big club and you ain’t in it! You and I are not in the Big Club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you in the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted folks, the game is rigged. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on, the fact that Americans are and will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day. Because the owners of this country know the truth, it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” – George Carlin

I never did get around to making my 2013 predictions. I’ll give it a stab in my next article: Apparitions in the Fog.

Stupid Tips and Other Sh*t I Learned From Not Having Power For Eight F***ing Days

I sent Obama an email last night complaining about the hardships we’re suffering due to the lack of power since last Sunday. Today, at 9:21AM, the power came on!!! So, I’m voting for Obama …. he makes shit happen!!

If you’re looking for an intelligent post, you should stop reading right now. Google has millions of pages regarding tips when the power goes out. For example, I found this gem …. “When power goes out drive to the nearest home improvement center and buy a generator.” No fucking shit, Jose’!! The power of the internet, truly awesome. No … you won’t find this kind of incredibly useful stuff in this post …. just mundane run of the mill bullshit observations I experienced firsthand. OK then …

The Weather Channel news anchors —– if you’re too fucking stooopid to get a job on CNN, Foc, etc., …. if you’re retarded beyond belief …. we have good newz for you!! The Weather Channel will hire you. Typical scenario: they show a family whose house is destroyed and the owners are worried about freezing their asses off. Typical comment: “You know, John, people really need to try to find shelter and stay warm.” Yup, stupid cockfucks, every one of them.

The Weather Channel, just like other cable newz, only has about 5 hours of new programming per day. The rest is the same old shit over and over and over and over. Commercials every 6-7 minutes. TV is worthless bullshit. The internet is the ONLY real source of real news.

Gas Generators use a shitload of fuel!! My two 5-gallon containers just didn’t cut it. I had to refill one every single goddamn day. I estimate that if I were to run it just 12 hours a day it would cost about $500. And don’t forget to stock up on oil …. needs to be replaced every 50 hours. And don’t forget an extra air filter, and a spark plug. Generators eat shit.

I used all my Bruce “I love Obama’s Cock” Springsteen CDs for kindling. Bad move. Had to call a Hazmat Team to remove all the toxic bullshit that filled the house.

I’d rather eat a skunk’s ass than eat canned vegetables. We’ve been buying all our fruits and veggies at a local Farmers Market. Obviously, they don’t last long. So, we bought about 30 cans of various veggies. So around Day 3 of the great blackout I decided to make some buffalo burgers on the grill, make some homemade fries on the stove (we still had gas), and opened a can of asparagus. Good Lord!! What a tasteless, texture-less, colorless, oder-less pile of shit. I spit it out of my mouth. The next day … as I was searching for generator gas … I dropped off the remaining 29 cans at a Salvation Army drop off point. I think they only take clothes. Fine. Let ‘em make shoes out of the asparagus. They’ll probably last longer than anything imported from China.

I discovered that I can live a whole week off one gigantic head of cabbage. I made cabbage soup in a gigantic pot. Ms Freud hates cabbage soup. I’m German, so I love it. But the ensuing farts made even my eyes water. One day someone is going to invent a device to capture all that wasted energy. They’ll make millions.

While I’m on that topic, taking a shit in total darkness is no fun. I like to look at my Lincoln Logs before I wipe my ass … so that I can determine how much toilet paper to use. It’s all about conservation. So I played it safe and used a shitload of toilet paper after each movement. I probably killed one extra tree as a result. Damn shame.

You’re never as prepared as you think. Supplies don’t last as long as you think. You will inevitably forget something … and that something will be critical. For example, we had an entire crate of candles … hundreds. We had one book of matches. We realized we had just one book of matches when we used up the last match. I then had to go to 3 stores to find matches. Another lesson learned: people will hoard exactly the very shit YOU are looking for.

Sex is total darkness can be tricky. I remarked to Ms Freud, “I didn’t realize you were so flat-chested, or so damn tight.” She said, “Turn me over, asshole!”

Chris Christie is an asshole. I’m done with him. Bring back Corzine … I know he’ll fuck me … but, at least he’ll say “Thank You” when it’s over.

I discovered that Scrabble is one way to keep Ms Freud from talking.

I swear to God, I think Mayor Bloomberg and all his hangers-on jerk each other off before appearing on air … seeing how they blow each other when they are on air. Everybody thanking and praising everybody else on what a great job they are doing. Talk, talk, bullshit, bullshit, more talk, more bullshit. I wish these guys would just die, every fucking one of them.

There is always at least one asshole per hundred people. They should be shot on the spot. Ms Freud and I were on our way to bring some food to my parents. We suddenly came upon a gas station with a pretty short line for gas-cans. I quickly pulled the car over so I could quickly get in line, and told Ms Freud to drive up the street to the Walgreen parking lot. The switch took less than 45 seconds. But the car was blocking the gas station exit, and 30 seconds into the switcheroo some dumb cunt in an SUV starts leaning on the horn. Krist. I give her the finger. She rolls down the window and starts yelling at me … calling me a ‘selfish prick’. I tell her to go fuck herself. At this point the crowd gets involved. Lol Some are yelling at me to move my damn car, and some are yelling at her to have some patience. At this point I am no longer pissed off. Rather, I am greatly amused at the ridiculousness of the entire affair. So, I decide to take another two minutes before I let Ms Freud drive off. I only let Ms Freud drive off when SUV-woman actually started crying and punching her windows. I know … I’m a prick, but even Ms Freud was laughing at the end, and that made my day.

I don’t know what to think about utility companies. I have nothing against the grunts in the field working their asses off. But … the front office? Bah!! For eight days we got eight different updates on when to expect power to be restored. Even yesterday the forecast was for a Friday restoration of power. I’m not an electric-guy … but it doesn’t seem like fucking rocket science to be a little more accurate.

I will NEVER donate even a penny to the Red Cross again. People in need don’t need coffee and doughnuts … unless you’re a useless fatfuk dumbass cop.

Fuckme. It looks like a Nor’easter will be here tomorrow. But, I’m well prepared this time. I’m gonna make sure Ms Freud is turned over.

TO REBUILD OR NOT TO REBUILD, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Sorry rich people with McMansions on the beach. You are no different than the Free Shit Army that marches around West Philly collecting their Section 8 housing vouchers, food stamps, Obama phones, subsidized cable and SSDI. If you want to build a house 50 yards from the ocean, tough shit when it gets washed away. The taxpayers in Iowa and Nebraska should not be subsidizing your dumbass decision with their tax dollars so you can rebuild. The free shit has to stop because it isn’t free. You are going to see politicians across the land fork over your money by the billions without hesitiation over the next few weeks because who could possibly not help the multi-millionaire victims in Avalon and Stone Harbor.

No government entity had these costs factored into their budgets. They never do, even though natural disasters happen every year. Government drones never put money away for a rainy day. Neither do the American people. It’s the American way. Just add it to the bill and let future generations worry about the consequences of un-payable liabilities and interest on the debt. We’ll fork over the dough and homes will be rebuilt right on the ocean and bays. Nothing will change until our unsustainable economic system collapses under the immense weight of the debt. Then you’ll see what a real disaster looks like.   

Battered NJ agonizes over whether to rebuild shore

LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. — In its tear of destruction, the megastorm Sandy left parts of New Jersey’s beloved shore in tatters, sweeping away beaches, homes, boardwalks and amusement parks.

The devastation left the state a blank canvas to redevelop its prized vacation towns. But environmentalists and shoreline planners urged the state to think about how — and if — to redevelop the shoreline as it faces an even greater threat of extreme weather.

“The next 50 to 100 years are going to be very different than what we’ve seen in the past 50 years,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Woods Hole Science Center in Massachusetts.

The sea level is rising fast, and destructive storms are occurring more frequently, said Williams, who expects things to get even worse.

He and other shoreline advocates say the state should consider how to protect coastal areas from furious storms when they rebuild it, such as relocating homes and businesses farther from the shore, building more seawalls and keeping sand dunes high.

How to rebuild after the disaster is becoming an issue even as New Jersey assesses its damage.

The state’s death toll from Sandy climbed to at least 14, 2 million customers remained without electricity and earth-moving equipment made its way for the first time to hard-hit barrier island communities.

National Guard members went door-to-door on Long Beach Island to check on survivors and delivered supplies to heavily flooded Hoboken. President Barack Obama, skipping campaign appearances, came to New Jersey to see the damage.

In Hoboken, a one-square-mile city on the other side of the Hudson River from New York City, at least 25 percent of the community was flooded and 90 percent was without power. National Guard troops delivered food and water as officials sent out a plea for boats and generators.

Most passenger trains were still suspended, lines were long at gas pumps, and Halloween celebrations were postponed. But there were some steps toward normalcy: many schools planned to open on Thursday, state workers were told to return to work and most New Jersey Transit buses were to resume service.

The state’s main focus was at the storied Jersey Shore, where houses were thrown from their foundations and parks and beaches were partially destroyed.

In his evening briefing Wednesday, Gov. Chris Christie reiterated that he wants to rebuild.

“I don’t believe in a state like ours, where the Jersey Shore is such a part of life, that you just pick up and walk away,” he said.

But the governor said homeowners in hard-hit areas should decide for themselves whether they want to rebuild or sell their property to the state for conservation.

The government, the Republican governor said, should not decide where rebuilding is and is not allowed.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, disagreed Wednesday, saying that rebuilding after Sandy should include new ways to prevent damage from future hurricanes and storms.

Shoreline advocates say there are three ways to protect the shore from extreme weather: build more jetties and seawalls, keep beaches replenished and relocate homes and businesses.

The physical solutions can help protect homes and roads, but also cut off access to the beaches or water. New Jersey is known for having a lot of protective barriers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it’s moved more than 65 million cubic yards of sand for replenishment projects in New Jersey. The state government has done additional projects without federal assistance.

Environmentalists say moving sand can cause harm to the areas it’s moved from, and might not be a good match for its new location. The supply of usable sand also is limited, they say.

“It’s like a bad drug habit,” said Chad Nelsen, the environmental director of the Surfrider Foundation, a national organization dedicated to preserving beaches and oceans. “Once you start, you can’t stop.”

Still, it seems to work. Some residents on Long Beach Island on Wednesday credited high dunes and wide beaches built as part of replenishment efforts there for keeping destruction from being even worse.

The northern barrier island that suffered the worst damage from Sandy is the longest developed stretch of New Jersey’s 127-mile coastline without the help of federal replenishment projects.

The federal government pays for much of the beach protection programs. Including state and local contributions, shore protection programs with federal involvement from Manasquan to Cape May have cost taxpayers $475 million since 1988.

Peter Kasabach, executive director of the planning advocacy group New Jersey Future, says that subsidy, along with federal flood insurance that encourages rebuilding, is problematic.

“We’ve built in places that we shouldn’t have built and now those places are becoming even more hazardous and more expensive to stay in,” he said. “As we grow and develop, we should make sure we don’t continue to invest in those places.”

He suggested bans on building in some sensitive beach areas, or requirements that homes be built farther from the ocean.

The Surfrider Foundation’s Nelsen said he hopes that New Jersey communities at least consider rebuilding in different places, which he said has never been done on a large scale in a U.S. oceanfront.

“We’re about to spend some ungodly sum of money to restore the coast,” he said. “Let’s make sure we spent it wisely.”

THE TREMENDOUS ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF SUPERSTORM SANDY

The public relations propaganda campaign to convince the ignorant masses that Sandy’s impact on our economy will be minor and ultimately positive, as rebuilding boosts GDP, has begun. I’ve been hearing it on the corporate radio, seeing it on corporate TV and reading it in the corporate newspapers. There are stories in the press that this storm won’t hurt the earnings of insurers. The only way this can be true is if the insurance companies figure out a way to not pay claims. They wouldn’t do that. Would they?

It seems all the stories use unnamed economists as the background experts for their contention that this storm will not cause any big problems for the country. These are the same economists who never see a recession coming, never see a housing collapse, and are indoctrinated in Keynesian claptrap theory.

Bastiat understood the ridiculousness of Kenesianism and the foolishness of believing that a disaster leads to economic growth.

Bastiat’s original parable of the broken window from Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas (1850):

Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son has happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation—”It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?”

Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier’s trade—that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs—I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, “Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen.”

It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.

Economists and MSM faux journalists don’t want you to think for yourself. If you just consider some basic situations that are happening or will happen to average people throughout the Northeast, you’ll understand that this storm will have a huge NEGATIVE impact on the economy.

  • Small stores, restaurants, and thousands of other businesses were shut down for at least two days and some will be closed for a week or more. These businesses employ hundreds of thousands of hourly workers. These businesses earned no revenue, therefore their profits were reduced. The hourly workers did not get paid. Therefore, they have less money to spend for clothing, tech gadgets, food, etc. Both the businesses and the workers will pay less taxes to the government, increasing the national debt.
  • The reduced revenue at retailers due to being closed and reduced spending by customers will cause them to layoff more workers or in the case of smaller retailers, go out of business altogether.
  • The damage caused by the storm will result in insurance companies providing billions in claim payouts. This will reduce their earnings, causing them to layoff employees in order to meet their quarterly earnings expectations. Some smaller insurance companies may go out of business.
  • Anyone with a tree down in their yard, damage to their fence, roof damage, flooded basement, etc. that is not covered by insurance will have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on fixing the damage. This is money they won’t spend on Christmas presents next month.
  • Many people do not have the savings to fix the damage to their houses. They will put the costs on their credit cards paying 15% interest to the criminal Wall Street cabal.
  • States and municipalities are required to balance their budgets on an annual basis. They are already faced with $2 trillion of unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities owed to government union workers. These states and municipalities are now faced with lost tax revenue, lost transit revenue and a tremendous amount of unbudgeted capital and personnel costs related to this storm. The long-term result will be more government worker layoffs, higher taxes for the citizens of these states, and the acceleration of municipal bankruptcies due to an unsustainable financial dynamic. These bankruptcies will wipe out the retirement savings of government workers across the Northeast, with the predictable result of more pain and suffering for senior citizens already being screwed by Bernanke’s ZIRP. 
  • Politicians and government drones will declare we must rebuild and help those in need. They will approve $20 billion of “Federal” disaster relief. But, we all know the $20 billion does not exist in a government bank account. It will be borrowed from future generations. It will just be added to our current $16.3 trillion tab. We will pay interest on this $20 billion FOREVER. The true cost of the $20 billion relief will be $30 billion after decades of accumulated interest. It’s like an ignorant American taking a $20,000 vacation, putting it on their credit card and making the minimum payment for eternity.

You may realize that the only beneficieries of this tragedy will be the issuers of debt. That’s right, the criminal Wall Street banks will earn more interest as desperate Americans have to use credit cards to survive. The destroyed automobiles will be replaced with autos financed by Wall Street. Businesses and homeowners will go further into debt making repairs.

Considering the country has been in recession since June, this disaster will be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back. The powers that be will try to keep the broken economy fallacy going as long as they can, but anyone capable of thinking realizes the country is in the shitter. The mood continues to darken. The storm clouds continue to swirl and a bad moon is rising. But don’t worry, unnamed economists say everything is just fine. Fix that window and boost the economy.

OPEN THREAD – OH SANDY

It has begun to rain where I live. This shows how large this storm is. It won’t make landfall at the Jersey shore until Monday night and it is still 400 miles away and it is already raining here. I did my normal 7:00 am Sunday trek to Wal-Mart and Giant for our normal weekly needs. There is usually no one shopping at this time. Today, there were hundreds of people milling about. Situations like this give me a glimpse into the future. The flashlight, battery and bread aisles were bare. I would guess that 98% of Americans don’t have enough supplies to survive for one week before riots start. What will 60 million East Coast morons do when the charge on their iPhones and IPads runs out? How will they tweet? How will they know if their BFF Melissa is sad on Facebook. I think a few people are going to get a slap in the face over the next few days and get a dose of reality about the future.

In the meantime, I will blog on this thread during the course of the storm. I will have power because I bought a generator over a year ago. It feels good not being panicked like the masses. Philadelphia has already declared a state of emergency, so I expect to have a day off tomorrow. If not, I’ll work from home. I wouldn’t want to run into the rats that will be coming out of the sewer drains in West Philly.

Awaiting Sandy

 

The effects of Sandy have arrived as the outer bands of rain are affecting parts of the region.  There is a band of moderate rain stretching from eastern PA southward to Delaware as of 7:30am.  The rain will increase in coverage throughout the day.  It will mainly be light to moderate, as the heavier rainfall won’t arrive until later tonight and during the overnight hours.

Winds will be on the increase throughout the day from the Northeast.  They will range from 10-15 mph, but there will be occasional gusts over 20 mph.  The winds will be stronger at the beaches, gusting over 30 mph.  With the rain, the winds will continue to increase as we head into the evening hours.

Hurricane Sandy continues to move Northeast off the east coast.  Throughout the day, she will begin to turn north and eventually make that turn west towards the mid-Atlantic coast.  Landfall continues to be in NJ late tomorrow night somewhere along the NJ coast between Ocean City and Seaside Heights.

While the weather will be going downhill, there is still time to make final preparations for Hurricane Sandy before the brunt of the storm arrives tomorrow.  I can’t stress enough how dangerous of a situation this is and the effects it will have for everyone in the region over the next few days.  Make sure you have several days worth of food, water and other essentials in the event you lose power for an extended period.  This is going to be a truly unprecedented event and one that many people have never experienced.

 
Posted by msannutti at 10/28/2012 08:07:00 AM

FRANKENSTORM BEARS DOWN ON ADMIN’S CONDO

It looks like my underwater Wildwood condo could be really underwater in the next few days. This storm is projected to make a direct hit on Wildwood. The last time a storm of this magnitude hit Wildwood was in 1962, exactly 50 years ago. It looks like we are going to have a helluva 50 year anniversary party. This storm is bigger than the 1962 storm. It is going to hit during a full moon. It is predicted to last for 36 hours. Wildwood is an island. When it rains heavily, the streets flood because the storm drains leading to the ocean cannot drain fast enough. In 1962 West Wildwood was virtually wiped off the map, as the back bay met the ocean. Here are a few pictures of the devastation:

Explaining The Shore Impact From Sandy

 

Sandy doesn’t have that same ‘tropical’ look that it had yesterday.  Don’t be fooled by the look though.  An approaching cool front and mid atmospheric trough will infuse additional energy into the storm over the coming days, with the result being a strong storm that will impact much of the East Coast.

Another post around midday from Kevin Wagner will outline the wind, rain, water impacts for the region.  Track does matter to a point but since the system will be evolving away from a purely tropical storm into a nontropical entity there are some things that this storm will have that will not be in your “usual” tropical system.  The wind field will be larger geographically — and not necessarily stronger to the north of the storm either.  Some wind gusts in the southwest quadrant of the storm may be stronger due to baroclinic influence. Whether the storm comes ashore in New Jersey or Maryland does not matter in the grand scheme of things for someone in Pottstown or Philadelphia — it will be windy for inland regions.

At the Shore, track does matter more.  Modeling does suggest a window from the Delmava to Long Island, with the very, very consistent European computer model continuing to suggest that Sandy’s low pressure center comes ashore over the Delmarva.

In terms of coastal impacts, the Euro landfall is arguably the worst case scenario for Delaware and South Jersey coastlines.  The combination of east winds and monthly high tides that will occur on Monday will cause rather nasty coastal flooding for Jersey and Delaware coastlines and the interior side of the back bays. Given the size of the storm, impacts will still be noticeable up the coast into New York City and Long Island as winds will be from the east, gusty, and pushing water onshore.  Coastal flooding impacts will be widespread over a larger swath of real estate.  East winds that could gust to hurricane force will do a number of the beaches and on Shore properties if the Euro’s scenario plays out.

If a landfall farther up the coast takes place…and this is an unlikely scenario, the impacts are different.  If the center comes ashore over Long Island (as an example), the strongest winds and onshore flow will be over the Hamptons and Southern New England while an offshore wind is pushing water out into the Atlantic over New Jersey and Delaware.  There would be some flooding from the back bays along the barrier islands in New Jersey once the storm center moved east of your location.  However, in terms of coastal flooding and beach erosion the impacts would not be as bad in this scenario since the storm would move onshore to our north.  Still bad since we would have to go through Sunday night and Monday with an east wind…just not as bad since the storm would track a little bit farther out to sea.  Odds don’t favor this scenario (at least as far as a Long Island landfall) playing out though.   However, it’s important to point out that with Sandy, despite its large size, the location where the storm comes ashore will matter for coastal residents in terms of how long the east winds last and how much coastal flooding takes place.

One of the differences between this storm and Irene is that Irene was faster moving whereas Sandy will be moving at nearly half of Irene’s forward momentum (ten miles per hour or so versus Irene which moved at nearly twenty) as it comes ashore. Irene’s worst impacts were in a six to eight hour window on Saturday evening until the dryslot moved in — Sandy’s brunt will be felt across the region for a longer stretch of time.