Cerro Casale: Capex increase, what capex increase?
Soros-backed Gavilon Buying Up U.S. Grain Elevators , Growing too fast to remain a secret
How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis vs Gasoline Rises to 33-Month High as Supplies Drop for Tenth Week
Gold Luring Central Banks Buyers May Extend Record Rally
Yuan Breaks Through 6.5 Per Dollar for First Time Since 1993
Pork that ‘glows,’ beans with cancer chems among China’s latest poison foods
Think Again: Dictators
Soros: Why I agree with (some of) Friedrich Hayek. A discussion of Hayek, Popper, and reflexivity.
Thanks, Emmy!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read them tomorrow.
Thank you Emmy! Hope you are well!
ReplyDeleteThat GS & Food prices article is excellent, I encourage everyone to read it!
ReplyDeleteThanks again Emmy!!
It took the brilliant minds of Goldman Sachs to realize the simple truth that nothing is more valuable than our daily bread. And where there's value, there's money to be made. In 1991, Goldman bankers, led by their prescient president Gary Cohn, came up with a new kind of investment product, a derivative that tracked 24 raw materials, from precious metals and energy to coffee, cocoa, cattle, corn, hogs, soy, and wheat. They weighted the investment value of each element, blended and commingled the parts into sums, then reduced what had been a complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be known henceforth as the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI).
Great linkfest, Emmy! That Goldman article is really something.
ReplyDeleteCould the same (or something similar) be said if what financial players are doing to drive up the cost of oil as well?
ReplyDeleteManny - Good question! There was a piece on the news here last night that gas sales are up more than 2 percent in LA County over last year, and that's with higher prices.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteRemember the crooks from Enron and the CA electricity shortage. They stole hundreds of millions from people in CA.
Crooks and thieves flourish when the regulations that stop them are abolished and the regulatory agencies look the other way.
No surprise that Ken Lay was a verycloseconfidant of George the Lesser.
And I am sure that many of the crooks from Enron/Houston are involved in the latest oil run up as well.
ReplyDelete3.99 here now. At this rate, may be 4.25-4.50 by summer.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteDid you see the latest Romney gaffe? He said that he wanted to "Hang" Obama, metaphorically, of course.
Romney "Hang Obama Gaffe"
Last week he was saying that Obama was spending crazy during "peacetime" and now he wants to hang him.
ReplyDeleteThese people are making sure that Obama wins in 2012. The gift the keeps on giving, as Jerry Seinfeld said about Trump.
@Denise: oh, I'm sure the crooks have a hand in this one too. Just hard to prove, which makes it easier for them to fleece everyone. But they are just doing god's work. Yeah, right. I think deep down some of them think they are doing god's work.
ReplyDeleteUnreal Denise! What is wrong with these people?
ReplyDeleteManny - we've become such a selfish society the last 20 years. The Greatest Generation has passed on and I don't think the Boomers, or people our age, have the same sense of personal responsibility that the WWII Generation did.
ReplyDeleteWow, did anyone else see Donald Chump get eviscerated by Obama and Seth Myers at the WH correspondent's dinner tonight? Just priceless.
ReplyDeleteThe look on Chump's face was just fantastic. Why would he show up?
ReplyDeleteNo, I missed that - is it on Youtube yet?
ReplyDeleteNot sure but I'm sure it will be everywhere soon.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize it was tonight. Maybe I can catch a rerun of it.
I just caught a replay of it on C-Span. Seth Meyers killed Trump, who looked like he was ready to kill Seth Meyers.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteHakuna Matata!
Now we know why Obama waited so long to present his long form birth certificate, he timed it so he could torture Trump with it at the WH Correspondents Dinner. And stupid Trump played right into his hand.
ReplyDeleteTrump is the laughing stock of Washington right now and he deserves every bit of it.
HAHAHAHA -
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite
On House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan: “He believes the American people have said loud and clear: Stop using my tax dollars to take care of me!”
Obama was pretty funny, Seth Meyers was great, too. One of my favorite things to watch every year.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, Denise, if that was, indeed, timed! Just fantastic to see that chump get so publicly humiliated and embarrassed. Again, why show up? Did he not think he'd be the butt of most of the jokes?
ReplyDeleteHere you go Denise:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/30/white-house-correspondents-dinner-2011_n_855926.html
I thought this was very good. A reminder to all those, ahem, devout, kool-aide drinking "libertarians" out there.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/05/earth-to-libertarians-private-parties-have-coercive-power-too.html
By the way, this is also one reason why most people won't step out of line and challenge the corporate machine - fear of their jobs, careers, financial/family ruin, etc. So it's easier to just stay quiet, toe the line and collect a paycheck, while slow slide continues, and then hoping the slide doesn't reach you as well in some meaningful fashion.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteI saw that. Great comments, too. Also, Emmy's article "Pork that ‘glows,’ beans with cancer chems among China’s latest poison foods" illustrates what happens in a regulation free society, where people are sickened.
This is the direct result of no government regulations on the production of food, no regulations with regard to inspection or food safety.
Pork that glows, no problem! Is that what we want in America? We don't need no stinkin' regulators looking at our food, our coal mines, our nuclear power plants, or God Forbid, offshore drilling rigs.
Can't get in the way of the free market! Profits over people!
@Denise: A GREAT point. I was a also dumbounded by that article and how it perfectly illustrates just how true libertarianism, however virtuously intended it might be by SOME, can never work with human beings. It's just as utopian and idealistic, and wrongheaded as a true socialist system. Just a different side of the same coin. Been saying that for a long time now and nobody has provided a clear, cogent reason why I'm wrong about this one. Another thing - it's easy for the libs to spout this nonsense over and over and over again becuase deep down they know their true idealistic state will never come to pass, so they can then say "well, see that's not a real "free market", so you can't say that it doesn't work". Round and round we go.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteAs we have seen there are too many crooked corporations that will do anything to cut costs, increase their profits so that their executives become rich. Everything is done so that they maximize their take with no regard for the devastation that they leave behind.
We need the cop on the corner to keep corporations and businesses honest, because history has shown us that they are not interested in keeping their workers, their consumers safe, and the environment unpolluted.
Profits over people. Greed Over People.
The comments on that post are really good. Agree Denise.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteThe single cell, 100 person society that Libertarians fantasize over doesn't exist, has never existed and is laughable on all counts.
Libertarians are just fallen away Republicans who are too embarrassed by the current Republicans who took us from a 1 trillion deficit to a 6 trillion deficit, in 8 short years, with unfunded tax cuts, unfunded unjustifiable wars, and a free market mentality that collapsed our economy.
And deep down Ron Paul and his ilk KNOW they have little to no shot at having their ideas really truly implemented (although lately I'm not sure so), so they can continually play their role as the gadfly "outsider" or cult hero without ever having the responsibility to see their ideas carried out in reality. If their ideas ever were implemented to the extent they profess to wish them to be, the firestorm in this country would be incredible. I think they know this, deep down, but are merely playing their "role" in this little theater production.
ReplyDeletereading . . .
ReplyDeleteNot to change the subject, but we saw "Restrepo" last night, the award winning documentary by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, who was just killed in Libya.
ReplyDeleteRestrepo
And this article in Vanity Fair
Sebastian Junger Remembers Tim Hetherington
Bingo Denise. It's also become a haven for latent, and not so latent racists and quasi-fascists. Sorry tea partiers. Sorry Lou Mish.
ReplyDeleteMany of these are people who have a superiority complex and yearning passion for continual power over others.
If there is any movie that illustrates better why we should not be in Iraq or Afghanistan this is it.
ReplyDeleteIt gave me some insight to what my nephew went through when he did a tour there.
I have the utmost respect for these soldiers and the utmost disrespect for the "leaders" who put them and keep them there.
Afghanistan is a cluster fuck that needs to end. Four years after this movie was shot, we are still there...
deficit should be replaced by debt in my 11:32.
ReplyDeleteManny - True, but it's been a few years now since the blogs really took off in popularity, and a little over two years since people really started paying close attention to the financial blogs. So many of these guys are Emperors with no clothes. It's hard to garner too much credibility when you've been saying the economy was going to collapse for years like Mish, Denninger, etc. Timing is every bit as important as accuracy.
ReplyDeleteWe're finally being able to filter out the ideologues. Good to know, two years ago I assumed everyone who talked the talk was worth paying attention to.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteSeth Meyers: Ron and Rand Paul are similar to my father and I, none of us will ever be elected president!
The Rands are useful votes for certain factions and they do get used that way. Anti-tax, but Ron Paul also voted against the Iraq war and is totally against any spending for it, IIRC, so he drives the Republicans nuts.
@Denise: That's ONE big thing I agree with true Libertarians on - these wars and adventures overseas have to got to stop. I also agree with the gov't needing to stay out of peoples' private lives, for the most part, including sexual orientation, religion, etc. etc, but when it comes to regulating important industries and businesses, that still needs to happen to some extent, however imperfect it may be in reality. I have an idealist quasi-libertarian streak in me, but know deep down that true state would never work in such a highly complex, populated world.
ReplyDeleteFor reference . . . . Remember this series of posts from Mish?
ReplyDeletehttp://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/06/gm-death-watch.html
Exactly my point, Denise. So they get to play their little roles, while laughing about it behind closed doors. So easy to manipulate even those superior "libertarian" types.
ReplyDeleteLOL Thor. That is great. I don't even bother going over there anymore. Lou, while I agreed with him that the bank bailouts the way they were constructed were a travesty, has been wrong about so much over the past couple of years. Very hard to take that seriously. ZH is fast approaching that camp, if not already there. A quick check of Lou's site a number of weeks ago revealed a comments section that to me looked way down. Gee, I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteAnd then we had the Fed run by the most insane Ayn Rand follower yet - "OOP's I made big mistake' Greenspan!
ReplyDeleteLike following the buffalo herd off a cliff.
@Denise: But in true hypocrite-libertarian mode, didn't Rand Paul make out like a bandit off of Medicare in his practice, a GOVERNMENT-funded program? Of course, it's OK for SOME libertarians to make big bucks however they do it, while deriding others who do similar things in their businesses. That's another lib ethos - calling out other professions as "worthless" (e.g. gov't workers, union workers, etc.), while believing every penny they've made is somehow "earned" totally on their own and completely justified. That's the quasi-fascist, elistist element - THEY are brillant have earned every penny of riches they've made, while others and what they do for a living are worthless.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteOMG! That Mish article shows what a delusional, biased, moron he is.
Ford returned an incredible 1387% from 11/19/08 to it's recent 1/31/11 highs.
"My Comment: Competitive position? The only reason why GM has a competitive position is that Ford and Chrysler are worse than GM"
A true ignoramus.
Sorry,
ReplyDeleteI should have addressed that comment to Thor.
Plus Ford did not take ANY bailout money.
ReplyDeleteAnother fun fact about the Libertarian heroine Ayn Rand - She took Medicare and Social Security benefits!
ReplyDeleteAyn Rand railed against government benefits but grabbed Social Security and Medicare when she needed them
Ayn Rand was not only a schlock novelist, she was also the progenitor of a sweeping “moral philosophy” that justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes not only the slothful, undeserving poor but the lackluster middle-classes as well.
Her books provided wide-ranging parables of "parasites," "looters" and "moochers" using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor).
I console myself in small part by knowing that many of these people will eventually get what they deserve, and at the very least they will be exposed for what they are when the history of these times is finally written.
ReplyDelete@Denise: I may be wrong but I believe Rand was also an illegal immigrant as well before ultimately seeking amnesty. That's the these peoples' modus operandi though. Stunning hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there's an element of self-loathing that explains this pathology?
ReplyDeleteDeep down in the sub-conscious, I mean.
ReplyDeleteManny - yes, I think self loathing is a part of it. People with a healthy sense of self esteem are not often ruled by selfishness and the loathing of the "other".
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteI never heard that about her but I am sure we could find out if it is true.
I think everyone has to remember is that almost none of these fame seekers is truly driven by ideology or beliefs. They are driven by how much they can earn by promoting themselves and these outrageous "beliefs". Rand was just one of the first to do so, Limbaugh, Beck, anyone on Fox News, Palin, Father Coughlin, and now Trump. Trump was a liberal until his egomaniacal evel twin took over his body. Now he is a birther and worse, all a pose to further enrich himself.
Not to forget Mish!
ReplyDelete@Denise: I believe that I saw an article on the topic of Rand initially being an illegal immigrant from Russia but let me see if I can find it.
ReplyDeleteGREAT chart from TBP -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Profile-of-states.png
Look at all the states at the bottom of that list.
There is a move in the California legislature being floated because the Republicans here won't even allow a public vote of the citizens to continue taxes that are set to expire soon. The poposal being floated, which we all know will never happen, but one I agree with, If republican and Tea Party voters want government to be cut, then cut governments services in Republican help districts. Let the people see how it is.
Here you go. Not sure if true, but it's right here. She "overstayed her visa", which would make her an "illegal immigrant", no?
ReplyDeletehttp://correntesbl.blogspot.com/2010/08/ayn-rand-illegal-immigrant.html
Most of these people are frauds and libertarianism is merely a cover for their elitism and nihilism.
This is priceless. From the post:
ReplyDelete1931 For approximately five years, Ayn Rand - illegal fugitive immigrant from Soviet Stalinist Russia - would evade capture and extradition and eventually marry an American citizen while she was still a fugitive from immigration justice. Finally, in 1931, she would be granted amnesty and US citizenship and Alisa Rosenbaum's evasion of the laws of the United States of America would come to an end.
And not a year too soon, because, on June 14, 1932 a little Sheriff Joe Arpaio would be born in Springfield, MA.
Now some - that chattering wally-muggins from Lake Lucille for instance, or self-certified unbridled quack tonic Rand Paul, or the goober senator from Arizona John Kyl, or that dull witted clod J.D. Hayworth, or clunker McCain, or the walking panic disorder Tom Tancredo, among too many others - might suggest we revoke Ayn Rand's citizenship and exhume her remains from Kensico Cemetery in Westchester county and ship her back to St. Petersburg in a White Nights Espresso Dazbog coffee travel mug. But not me. No siree.
I think we should erect a gigantic Ayn Rand memorial welcome fountain somewhere along the border in Arizona with a stone plaque tablet that reads:
'"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." - I got away with it, so can you. And Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (who was born in Hollywood, California) can kiss my border hopping ass!"
More on Rand:
ReplyDeleteIt is no wonder that so many Libertarians and GOP members worship her, I am not sure what came first, the chicken or the egg. Are they using her to validate what they believe anyway?
Ayn Rand and the Conservative Contradiction
Given Rand's endorsement of terrorism, her strong admiration for a rapist and serial killer, her intense racism and vile hatred of people with disabilities, and her complete dismissal of traditional Christian values of altruism and generosity, I had a hard time believing that so many leading Republicans would be so openly embracing of her. But the same AlterNet piece summarizes a lot of the Republican leadership's excitement about her:
For over half a century," says Jennifer Burns, a recent biographer of the novelist, "Rand has been the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right." And with good reason. Besides her prominence in the Tea Party's intellectual and cultural lexicon, some of the Republican Party's leading lights have cited Rand by name as an inspiration. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said she was the reason he entered public service. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) called Atlas Shrugged "his foundational book." Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an avowed fan and quotes extensively from Rand's novels at Congressional hearings. His father Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told listeners that readers ate up Rand's Atlas Shrugged because "it was telling the truth," and even conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas references her work as influence in his autobiography -- and apparently has his law clerks watch the film adaptation of The Fountainhead. The phenomenon holds amidst the right-wing media as well: Rush Limbaugh called her "brilliant," Glenn Beck's panel on Rand featured the president of the Ayn Rand Institute Yaroom Brook, and Andrew Napolitano enthusiastically recounted a story in which his college-age self introduces his mother to Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness. John Stossel and Sean Hannity have name-dropped her as well. Going further back, Alan Greenspan -- former chairman of the Federal Reserve and a fierce advocate of free-market ideology -- is an acolyte of Rand's thinking and knew her personally, and Rand was also dubbed the unofficial "novelist laureate" of the Reagan Administration by Maureen Dowd. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about Ayn Rand's reach on the right is how unremarked-upon it most often is.
ReplyDeleteLots of good stuff in that article.
ReplyDeleteThere you go, Denise. Nihilism and an utter contempt for one's fellow citizen. Two key tenets of "libertarianism". LOL.
ReplyDeleteAlong with latent self-loathing and blatant hypocrisy. Can't forget those two. Did I forget any others?
ReplyDeleteThat movie didn't end up doing very well at all did it? I think the joke I heard was that it was the highest grossing movie of the year. The Year 1920 :-)
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteThere you go with your two dollar words again! :-)
Hopefully no one mistakes our excoriation of Libertarians and Republicans as support for the Democrats. I think we should all be clear that our (or at least my) scorn goes for most politicians today. The R's and the L's just happen to be the one's making the most noise lately.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAH - Have you guys seen the video? The opening song is great. "I am a real American"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mzJhvC-8E
Off for a training ride. 35 degrees here and windy (and cloudy!). Wind chills in 20's. Some places got snow. Buddy just told me he saw flakes riding over here. Ugh. May 1st in Minny!
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteI feel for you! Brrr!. It is nice here today, but chilly.
Thor,
ReplyDeleteNaw, no one would ever think that we support Democrats. Where would they get such an idea?
The distinction should certainly be made between supporting Democratic ideals rather than individual members of the current and past Democratic party.
As a party the Democrats have shifted so far to the right along with the Republican shift that I no longer recognize many Democrats as anything other than Blue Dogs corporatists.
I have to laugh when the uninformed call Obama's health care bill as socialist. The biggest give-a-way to corporate drug and health insurance companies EVER and some how it is socialism. Shows how brain washed Tea Party members are. Black is white! Up is down! For profit health insurers are socialists!
I wonder if there will ever be a day in America where the same rights to health care that are given to seniors will be extended to all Americans.
The Money Party is what controls America today, with little respect toward either traditional Democratic or Republican values.
ReplyDeleteThe Money Party . . . I like that a lot. That would cover just about everyone in DC today . . . except our man Bernie of course ;-)
ReplyDeleteManny, damn that sucks, it's beautiful in Hollywood today!
Rock must be traveling again - Rock, where you be?
ReplyDeleteGreg - I keep forgetting to tell you that we are beta testing 10.7 at work. Some pretty interesting changes! Much more iOS like than Snow Leopard.
ReplyDeleteAlso, been thinking; how soon before voice to text comes to the iPhone? You could reply to email, texts, or even the blog just by talking. I can think of dozens of areas where that advancement would be very useful.
ReplyDeleteLogged 23 miles in a vicious headwind. Feet are numb. Not bad in such awful conditions.
ReplyDeleteThor,
ReplyDeleteYes.
Manny - brutal, and such a contrast to my afternoon. I've been out front installing drip irrigation, had to come in because I'm getting burned. Hot here today!
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think we breached 39 on the thermometer. And that's without wind, which was vicious today. And no sun. It looks like we're in late October/November and we skipped summer this year. Just awful for May 1st.
ReplyDeleteno thanks :-P
ReplyDeleteSilver plunging. Top in there? Finally?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zerohedge.com/article/silver-plunges-china-slowdown-concerns-dollar-short-covering
On that topic, are lower commodity prices coming?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/05/lower-commodity-prices.html
"Flash crash in Silver". marketwatch.com
ReplyDeleteICan
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9712/eebapex6mo.jpg
ReplyDelete:-)
LOL Thor. I thought this was good, although unlike this person I DON'T feel at all sorry for Donald Chump.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-boyce-watkins/why-this-black-scholar-fe_b_855761.html
More on Chump and the sad, pathetic GOP. This is fantastic as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/donald-trump-has-revealed_b_855278.html
From that article:
ReplyDeleteYet for the Republican Party, the accumulation of money is proof in itself of virtue, however it was acquired. The richest 1 percent pay for the party's campaigns, and the party in turn serves their interests entirely. The most glaring example is that they have simply exempted many of the rich from taxes. Johnson studied four of Trump's recent tax returns, and found he legally paid no taxes in two of them. In America today, a janitor can pay more income tax than Donald Trump -- and the Republicans regard that not as a source of shame, but of pride.
How are these tax exemptions for the super-rich paid for? Here's one example. The Republican budget that just passed through the House slashed funding to help premature babies to survive. The rich riot while the poor shrivel. Trump offers the ultimate symbol of this -- he won't even shake hands with any ordinary Americans out on the stump, because "you catch all sorts of things" from them. Yes: the Republican front-runner is a billionaire who literally won't touch the poor or middle class.
Wow, this is brilliant. More here from that article. Go read it!
ReplyDeleteTrump probably won't become the Republican nominee, but it won't be because most Republicans reject his premises. No: it will be because he states these arguments too crudely for mass public consumption. He takes the underlying whispered dogmas of the Reagan, Bush and Tea Party years and shrieks them through a megaphone. The nominee will share similar ideas, but express them more subtly.
In case you think these ideas are marginal to the party, remember -- it has united behind the budget plan of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan. It's simple: it halves taxes on the richest 1 percent and ends all taxes on corporate income, dividends and inheritance. It pays for it by slashing spending on food stamps, healthcare for the poor and the elderly, and basic services. It aims to return the US to the spending levels of the 1920s -- and while Ryan frames it as a response to the deficit, it would actually increase it according to the independent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Ryan says "the reason I got involved in public service" was because he read the writings of Ayn Rand, which describe the poor as "parasites" who must "perish", and are best summarized by the title of one of her books: 'The Virtue of Selfishness.'
OK, last snippet from the article. This is SPOT ON. A real gem of an article.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy is that Obama needs serious opposition -- but not from this direction. In reality, he is funded by similar destructive corporate interests, and has only been a few notches closer to sanity than these people. But faced with such overt lunacy, he seems like he is serving the bottom 99 percent of Americans much more than he really is.
Obama to make an announcement shortly. Weird timing. Wonder what's up?
ReplyDeleteDid we catch Bin Laden? Must be major.
ReplyDeleteOr killed? That's my guess. One of the two.
ReplyDeleteYep, that's the rumor. Bin Laden has been killed. WOW, that has enormous implications on many fronts if true.
ReplyDeleteShould have happened 8 years ago. If it weren't for our idiot diversion into Mesopotamia...
ReplyDeleteAgreed emmy. We can thank the idiot neo-cons, GWB, and a complicit Congress, but it's great to finally have him gone. Not going to erase the damage he's done but still VERY important to be rid of him either way and know he's gone for sure. Be interesting to find out how he died.
ReplyDeleteWow WOWOWOWOWOWOW
ReplyDeleteEmmie - HERE HERE!
ReplyDeleteThe timing of this, during the Arab Spring . . . I'd say these are very bad times for Al Quaeda
ReplyDeleteCaught him in a mansion "outside of Islamabad"? Hhhhm, I guess that calls into question Pakistan as our so-called ally in the "War on Terror"? What a shock.
ReplyDeletePakistan is getting what it deserves.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or does it seem like we're living through an especially newsworthy time?
ReplyDelete@Thor: They could have more coming if the rumors are in any way accurate about them protecting him.
ReplyDeleteLet's see how the Republicans try to spin this one. What, your man couldn't do it and that socialist Obama did? HAH!
ReplyDeleteIt IS amazing, Thor. Truly unreal. VERY interesting times.
ReplyDeleteAnyone want to take a guess at which way the markets are going tomorrow? ;-)
ReplyDeleteRock was on secret assignment and he got his man!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha, Go Rock!
ReplyDeleteWho takes his place? Surely there is someone next in line.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was there that day and fled 75 Wall Street, and saw both towers fall (watched the first one from Maiden Lane and Water and fled up the river), I'm very moved tonight. Very glad this chapter is now closed.
ReplyDeleteManny, I never knew that, I can understand how this must be very moving for you.
ReplyDeleteTrue Denise but at least the biggest current symbol gone. It still matters. Am also glad he didn't die of natural causes, FWIW. The city went through hell during that time period. It was a brutally stressful time for at least a year after the attacks. Not a healthy place live at all.
ReplyDeleteS&P up 10 to 1369.75
ReplyDeleteDoes this have anything to do with silver and gold going down? Oil is down a bit as well.
Had to go back down there to work just a week after the attacks. A VERY stressful time for many of us. Just awful all around. Brings back a lot of bad memories for me.
ReplyDeleteHeckuva a job, Rock!
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteWe visited NYC a few months after the attack and it was eerie because people were still shell shocked and would talk to us about what they went through. Strangers on the street. And everyone looked sad. Not a lot of joy anywhere.
Manny,
ReplyDeleteSorry you had to live through that. Awful.
This is a two-fer for Obama, he kills Trump the idiot with a few well chosen words and now he can take responsibility for the death of Bin Laden.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect day - got the drip irrigation put in and running, 73 degrees, all the doors and windows open, jasmine and gardenia are blooming like crazy, and wafting into the house on a warm breeze (I'm not making this up I swear!).
ReplyDeleteThor,
ReplyDeleteThis guarantees Obama's election. No question about it. Of course, Fox news will spin it like it was Bush's plan all along, the neo-cons will take credit for it, no doubt. And somehow they will spin this into something negative for Obama.
They won't give him one inch of glory because they hate him so much. Plus for the racist element it will have to be a double slap in the face, a black man (who wasn't even born here) got Bin Laden and that makes Bush look really bad.
Thor,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really nice. I love the smell of gardenias.
@Thor: I had another post planned but replaced it with one on Bin Laden. Maybe I can put up my original post later this week? Right now I have it scheduled for next Monday.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Denise. Who will want to run against him in the GOP now? His presidency is eerily following the arc of Reagan's thus far on many levels. Reviled early by his detractors, but then slowly turned things around to win a second term easily.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP could barely find any candidates before this news. Who will they find now? Bachmann? I honestly hope she's their candidate. She would get utterly annihilated.
ReplyDeleteThor,
ReplyDeleteYour admin status was reinstated.
Manny - works for me - You can have my Thorsday if you want, I didn't have anything special planned. Or Denise, when are you leaving again? This weekend, or next?
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteI am going to be gone from May 12-30th. If it is not timely you could post it on one of my days.
Thanks Denise. It's strange now to look back nearly 10 years to think that I was there and lived through it. I had honestly moved on but every now and then certain memories come back. A few came back tonight. Just the dread of having to go back to work so soon afterwards very near what was a mass murder site. The smell was horrific. The subway delays due to all of the rumors and warnings flying around. We'd just sit under the tunnels not moving for long periods of time with people nervously staring at each other on the train. It was really bad. Had a real hard time sleeping for long periods of time afterwards too.
ReplyDeleteOr open threads could be posted, too. Not sure of how much time I will have or what internet access in the hotels will be so I might not be able to even make many comments.
ReplyDeleteAnd watching the first tower fall and the panic that ensued on the street. What a horrifying sight. I was literally only blocks away.
ReplyDelete@Denise: Uh oh, I'm also gone from 5/18 - 5/24, but will be on a "working vacation" so I could do some posts while traveling. Will have my laptop with me. Just let me know what days.
ReplyDeleteEmmie - I don't think we've ever had a 130 comment weekend thread. Not in years!
ReplyDeleteWe have a friend who was supposed to get on Flight 93 but he had to go to the bathroom. He couldn't bring himself to go in the plane bathroom, so he took his newspaper and found one in the terminal. He figured if the plane was gone, he would just catch the next one.
ReplyDeleteHe ended up driving home to CA and he didn't get home for two weeks.
He didn't tell us this story until a year or more after and he was still shell shocked.
Manny,
ReplyDeleteConnect with Thor as he will be able to coordinate the posts. It sounds like it will be pretty quiet with both of us gone.
Rock hates it when people get more comments than him.
ReplyDeleteWill do.
ReplyDelete"Rock hates it when people get more comments than him."
ReplyDeleteI blame bin Laden.
Bin Laden + Libertarianism + Emmy's links = a shitload of comments. LOL.
ReplyDelete