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Cake or Pie? Choose or Die. (19th Nervous Breakdown.)

1st. It's that simple. Cake is Republican. But Democrats? They're Pie People. Cake is dry, crumbly, all the focus on the top layer. The Icing. Icing matters, for cake people. But pie's 'nuther story altogether. Pie's all about the filling. YEAH BABY! The middle. And the more of it, the better. Sure, you CAN make a pie with an upper crust. But you want it thin. Wafer thin. The other thing about pies, you can fill 'em with anything. Chocolate or Butterscotch. Cherries or Apples. Rhubarb or Razorblades. Coconuts of Cream. And really, isn't life mostly about the pie? Scientifically, we're 90% water, right? So who'd want cake? They're ALWAYS dry. Dry as dust. Go ahead, try to talk while you're eating cake. You mumble while it crumbles. Whereas pie? Liquid gold. Nectar of the Dogs. Makes you want to sing. Republicans? F*ck 'em, I say. Let 'em eat cake. 2nd Breakdown. World's biggest Bank failure. World's biggest Insurance failure. world's biggest Housing failure. World's biggest bankruptcy. 5 investment Banks gone. Bye-bye. Nighty-night. 0% on T-Bills. Not worried. Uncle Sam say, I WANT YOU. TO BUY. T-BILLS. 3urd. True story. Friend of mine - lives in the 'burbs outside San Diego. Big Republican area. Nice. Tells me a guy just walked past his house. True story. 4rd. The guy was WALKING. Hello? COULDN'T PAY TO GAS HIS CAR. NOT DRIVING HIS 4RD. 5tyiethly. Butterflies are flapping their wings over the Amazon, creating Hurricanes. Right? Well then. Our course is clear. F*ck the butterflies. Us or Them. Fer or Agin. Evil or Ain't. I say we bounty 'em. $150 a wing. Aerial hunting, 'salright with me. Sure they're pretty, but so are Russians. 5th (Time Out. Suspend This.) And that's the crux isn't it? It's all right there. The Russians. And the Crimeans. And the Sevastopolitians. Now, I know some of you are worried about the Russians. Some of you worry more about Crime & the Crimeans. But me? I'm watching them Sevastopolitans. I remember my history. Doomed to repeat it? I think not. I remember the Neapolitans & what they did to Italy. And how did that end? Crying. Screaming. Running away. Hair-pulling. Tears. Just like birthday parties. 6th Breakdown. Why do we inflict CAKE on kids at Birthday Parties? Partisan horseshit. 7th7th7th. $700 Billion Bail-Out. Waaaaaa(repeat "a")aaaaay too much. Afraid for the kids. I'm greatly depressed. Great. Ly. And a $700 Billion trade deficit. Every year. Which means = $700 Billion in "free gifts." (That have to be paid back.) (By our kids.) Oops! It's still going on! Hey everybody! Stop accepting the gifts!!! And uh and uh uh uh $700 billion for Iraq. Gonna save money on that. Move the troops to Afghanistan. Cheaper cost of living and all. And and and $700 Billion a year for oil. Less oil for the kids. More carbon. More Hurricanes. Sold the family beast yet? Paid off that last dime? Got that SUV up on blocks? This is the way... this is the way.... whimper. Ei8th. True Story. Friend of mine used to run a Works Dept. Every Fall, this lady'd phone up to complain. About trash on her lawn. Leaves. "Tree trash," she called it. Seriously. She's be outraged. OUTRAGED. But did she ever blame the neighbours? Nope. Not once. She was very precise when asked about this. She understood personal responsibility. And it was the Trees wot done it. The Trees wot should pick it up. And the Trees wot should be punished. "Them," she'd say, "and their Tree Trash. On MY lawn." The City'd send a guy over after dark - true story - and rake her lawn. She's like the House Republicans. Or Wall Street. Or us. 9th Inning, gotta foc_s. Why'd yo_ guys drop the "u," anyway? Seems kinda spitef_l. I know, 1776 and all that, but still, so bitter? And look where it got _. I can see dropping the _ from labo_r. But Neighbo_r? Hono_r? Savio_r?!!! Can _ imagine having the gall to say, I'm gonna change how The Savio_r's spelled? 9th+1th=10th. BREAKING. I'm breaking now. I like the Democrats because they're like us Scottish people. The Demoscots. A Party for people with COURAGE. Ones that know their History. And Demand Justice. And who're always up for a fight. With each other. Because, after all, aren't those the BEST fights? Family brawls. Oldtime hockey. MacDonald/Campbell. Hatfield/McCoy. And f*ck the Clinton's, I say. The Kennedy's. de Rothschild's. And Hubert Hollow Humphrey, that fat lil bastid. 'n I can't WAIT 'til we get to sink our teeth into those Soetoro's. Dynasty? My. Dead. Demoscottish. Body. 11thI'mComin'Dowwwwn. My Grandfather. The genetic one, not the other one. When he was a kid, goes to Cambridge, takes music. Gets pulled into WW the Oneth. Manchester Regiment. Gallipoli. Basra. Megiddo. They fought in interesting places. He never told any story but the last one. The day he's under fire, dove into a cave. 12 other guys already inside. Anyway, somebody on the other team fires something in. Shell or whatever. 12 dead. All but him. He comes to - Calm. Sees arms, legs, torso's - Calm. Walks out, realizes he's naked & bleeding, except for his boots, and this little leather strap holding his compass. Calm. Guy starts talking to him, my Grandfather realizes he's deaf - and Freaks Out. Music, you see. Afterward, it shamed him. That music was his first thought. Said that in a time of crisis, people think the strangest thoughts. I'm holding that little heart-shaped leather case right now. Things come back around. Crisis. People think the strangest thoughts. 11teenth. Take a turn, turn, turn again. Something's not holding. Something's not holding. 12. See that bird circling? Wha' izzit? Turkey vulture? No? Bald Eagle mebbe? Ya know what they can see? Ultraviolet. Birds see in the ultraviolet. Know that? Yep, 4 types of cones, not 3 like us. Can see in the 4th dimension. That fact messes me up. See, that means to them, a crow ain't... black. To them, a Crow might look brighter'n a Cockatoo. And here's the messed up part. They're closer to seein' the truth than we are. All those colors WE see? Might as well be watching some old black & white TV. Think of that. What color's a black person? I donno. AND NEITHER DO YOU. What color'm I? I. DON'T. KNOW. WE do not live in Reality TV. Take a look at these hands, they're passing in between us. TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANDS!!! Lucky lucky lucky #13. You don't think 13's lucky. Remember that cave? That shell? Remember those 12 guys that died? Tell me. Who was #13? Tell me, who am I? God may not play dice with the universe. But you and me? I can hear Him. "Yeah baby. Let it riiiiiiiide." 14. I got these fine hands. Musician's hands. Musician's ear, yeah. Music on the brain, that too. But them li'l hands. Genetic. My father was a violinist. Not my Step-Dad. Hell no, he was this huge farmer. But me? Lil hands. You ever stood there, little, and looked at some huge bastard that was gonna hammer you, and looked down at your hands, musician's hands, then up at him, up and down, and life was right there. Your whole life. Choose. Right here, right now son ----- Choose. And all you hear is music, building inside, like Beethoven or something.... But the trouble is.... all you got is blood in your eyes. Generations of it. From your ancestors, them little Jews, all the way back in Leipzig. From them little Scottish people, the ones who went to Bannockburn. Music and War. Music OR War. And you know if you throw that punch, you've chosen your path. And you're torn. And the guy's in front of you now... and he's just so f*ckin' BIG.... and he pulls back his arm.... And you take him down. Your sharp little knuckles turn out to be good at making them bleed. So you do. And you feel like a Wolf. A Bear. Berserker. But the ROAR in your ears afterward. Saying - no more Music from these hands. Just Blood. You chose. So take a look at these hands. Times of crisis, people have the strangest thoughts. Take a look at your hands. You got a choice. Music. Blood. Don't think you don't. 15thward. Hadron Collider. Ebola. Derivatives. Tsunami from the Canaries. Tsunami from Derivatives. And a Snowbilly. Who Hunts librarians. Hunts wolves. Hunts pork. Blessed by the Witch-doctor. Witch-hunter. Same. SAME. And the Witch-Hunter blessed the Snowbilly, and said, "This ole Earth's had a good run. 6,000 years is plenty. Ya hear that bell? I SAID, DO YA HEAR THAT BELL?!!! Time's up. School's out. Get busy. Ssssssssarah." 16. Moose. I hear they run in herds. Huge galloping herds of 'em - saw it on tv. But sometimes their antlers get caught in the trees, right? And the wolves get 'em. You can't have that. 'Taint humane. Heli-huntin's what we need. It's Scientifically proved. It's either Heli-huntin'.... or we go back to the Hellhounds. 17almostabletosee. I'm the man in the box. Pitch black. I am your leader. I've been in the box. So you don't have to. It's dark in there. So I'd never put you in the box. But you wanna look? Bet you do. Wanna see? I can show you. Wanna feel what it's like? Inside? Where I sleep. Wanna see? Step inside. Step inside the box, America. You know you want to. Know. 18th. Not quite. Hold on. Luke's gone. Fast Eddie's gone. Billy the Kid. Butch. Butch is gone, Sundance. What now? Not much time left. Only time for 19. So you better stop. Look around. Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes. Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown. Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown. Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown. Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown. America. Are you ready?
In a time of crisis, people think the strangest things.
Say Goodnight, Des. Goodnight Des.


Comments (92)

Wow. Them's alot of words.

Well, it was either words... or facts. But you know how it is. Facts are simple and facts are straight, Facts are lazy and facts are late, Facts all come with points of view, Facts dont do what I want them to, Facts just twist the truth around, Facts are living turned inside out.

Words are living turned outside in.

Words are letters tied in knots, words are like forget-me-nots. Words that mean a single thing are words that dangle on a string. Words within a paragraph are words that often make me laugh.

Facts intrude and question why so facts can also make me cry.

Words in papers, words in books
Words on TV, words for crooks
Words for comfort, words for peace
Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do
Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but dont go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me

Does Josh have some kinda word search thing happening, so the ad that shows just at the end of the post is related to the subject? Here's the ad that kept showing on my machine! Mmmm Good If you're a REPUBLICAN!

Yeah, it's contextual advertising (cyber-echolalia). My screen has one about pie and Hondas. There's probably a cool way to manipulate this to enhance a post.

Oh, so YOU get pie's and Honda's, while I get... cake and SUV's.

I wish to lodge a complaint. Josh. You bastard.

Quinn, if I wasn't so incredibly happy with you right now (think: alpacas. or llamas. I'm not really sure which), I'd suggest you might do well with a paragraph break (or 19).

But for the record, I choose pie. Strawberry-Rhubarb.

Hey O. Happy Birthday! On the no paragraph thing (as I wrote to Hilary99 below)... it was deliberate. I wanted it dense, too much, zig-zagging, ranting, mental, factoid-full, memory on, randumb. The essay form doesn't always deal well with aspects of our world, so I ditched it. For smaller bits, I'll go back to my standard Oxford essay format. But for this, I wanted people to feel the chaos a bit, so that as we all walk through it in the real-world, we realize that maybe we're not crackers, that others feel that way too.

Never explain. Like meat waved in front of a pack of ravaged wolves.

Dropped in. Here's your friend's friend.

Thanksgiving's Comin'!

"Not available in your country" - what kind of commie shit are you sending me?

Wow...this post reminds me of that email joke that always goes around on the Holidays. You know the one about the fruitcake recipe where whiskey is the main ingredient?

Nope, wrote this one straight up. Well, other than the fruitcake. I pulled all the fruity bits out, threw away the cake (some of us walk the walk on this cake business), and had a grande olde time.

Dedicated to my fellow fruitcakes.

I thought we were fruit pies. Now I'm confused, I'll have to read it again. Another 48 hours of pain train love in vain, where's mother's little helper when you need it? I'm a monkey yeah. Glad you are monkey cajun too.

Biggest thing I wanted to say? 4 cones, baby. Dogs and cats? Only got two. Turns out all they see is pastels, blurs. Except.... they can see at night, and detect motion much better than us.

I'm still stuck on it. You ain't orange. I ain't blue. The crash is not what it seems. Neither are Obama and McCain. Gettin' harder to see all the time.

Close your eyes, tune in, turn on the 4th cone... whaddya see?

I'm still trying to tune into those 4th & 5th dimensions and you're trying to play ring toss with me? I see a glowing oval when I close my eyes, which is usually a policeman shining his light in my face asking what I'm doing here. Scones? Did you say Scones?

Well, thanks for scramblin' the ole grey matter further. Excedrin time. I was happy just being stuck on colour, and in you come with a bit of the ole 4th and 5th.

Me? When I close my eyes, I see sheeps, pretty sheeps, all in fancy colours. Or I used to. Now they're all projected into polyhelical cars, following the 5th Dimension toward Vladivostock.

Paging Brian Greene.

Ohmigod, Up Up and Away to Vladivostock? By balloon? What, the Hindenburg? That's a lead go-over.

Hey, you're the one that mentioned the 5th Dimension, pal. And now, you've opened yourself up to a whole
World Of Hurt.

Let's All Get Onboard That (Cardboard) Love Train.

I was trying to do that Train in Vain, but you wouldn't stand by me.

Brilliant, I say 2 words and I launch Quinn into his greatest "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness starving hysterical naked..." rap (no need for regrooving, as Fireside would say). Holding Baby? Natch. Talking bout my g-g-g-generation. Here it comes (here she comes) here it comes (here comes your man). I 2nd that emotion & even triple play. Z would say it's all bout stressed & processed cheese, or club sync to 120. And 8 8 I forget what 8 was for. But it's the Sometimes a Quint Notion 1492 skoodle-doo. How the West Was Won (and Lost) with John Wayne telling Montgomery Clift "some day that will all be cake, cake for strong boddies & strong limies". And then the aneurism that left him in a wheelchair and couldn't mount his horse anymore so they put them all out to Pasteur, good for 2 weeks more with proper vaccine, and now he thinks he's a fricking financial genius when all Mr. Ed can do is take two swipes of the hooves to call foreclosure. Buy! Sell! We're all turnips now. On the reality track I got a note sayin' if we divided that $70 billion for AIG amongst 200 million families under a "We Deserve It" fund, that's be $425,000 smackeroos for us to start over and fight the right fight, and I sat their scratching my head going, "Math? Math is tough? $425K or only $425? Get theis brainiac to Washington - just fuck up with 3 more 0's on the surplus sheet and you can cure our financial problems for the next umpteen generations, one man's sloppy bookkeeping is another's creative accounting, cake for all, dig in, all, dig your fingers into the icing, dig into the center, deeper and deeper, through the centaur of the earth, digging to China or digging for fire. Don't stop till you get enough. Just don't stop.

Q, drop me a note at http://e-stuffus.blogspot.com/ - need to chat.

Will do, madman. And thanks for the 8 8 I forget what 8 was for. Been tubing Gano (Gordon) for the last hour. Ahhhhhhhh..... inner peace. Maybe you've seen my new Reality TV show?

I'd like to write like that.

Painful to read, but I'll rec for creativity and talent.

PS Don't blow and blog.

It's the logic tree, baby. You took the "make it clear & easy to read" branch... and caught a wave of pain in the comments. Me? I'm a fast learner! Made mine hard to read... but then there's been nothing but sanity in the comments. Much easier for the blogger! ;-)

P.S. No blow. Though I CAN recommend snuffling up the coconut cream.

For those who don't understand the point of this post (which is probably everyone except perhaps Desidero), here's a clue from the author:

Which is why I wrote my damn-fool piece tonight - Cake or Pie... 19th Nervous Breakdown. It's about the swirl in people's minds, during times like these. When some of them are big enough that they should be focussing out attention like they were the only thing on Earth. But apparently... the human mind doesn't work that way. Get your money in cash or close to it. Sell extra assets, get the cash. Lock in mortgages now, for as long and as low as possible. This is the real deal.

If we intend to continue to work toward salvaging the economy as it currently exists, everybody cashing out is approximately the worst thing that could possibly happen.

Understood. But here's the dilemma. An enormous amount of big money has fled already. I know hedge funds that bolted last Summer - 2007. Billions. Foreign private capital has also unbolted itself as fast as possible -it's being covered by massive foreign Central Bank injections. And now, the run is (quietly) on, amongst consumers, homebuyers, investors.

Now, what if you have a brother who's living right at the edge? Mortgage, car, kids, etc. Do you tell him to stay put, and slowly cash out what he can? He's got no other resources. As for me, i started working hard 18 months ago to push first my family, then my friends, to get the hell out. While assets were still worth something. Not to take on large new debt - especially real estate. To save as much as they could. We worked up a whole list of what people should do in fact, and circulated it amongst ourselves.

We all know the philosophical and economic impacts of this - it forces the system down. But for those you love, do you let them wait - good people all - til the last moment, which means they'll lose their financial lives, and get nothing? I chose not to. And feel alright that I did.

Yes, a dilemma indeed. The rich could afford to bail earlier (and will be buying cheap again soon) so, as usual, those with the least to begin with are left to hold the bag.

So the options, pessimistically thinking, are to either:

A) Stay put and suffer when deposits, investments and assets plummet later; or

B) Pull everything out and suffer when the illiquidity absolutely and utterly destroys the economy later.

On the other hand, it might be a good time to borrow like a madman.

Uhm..death, please.

No, cake! Cake! Cake, sorry..

NOOOOOOOBODY expects..... DEATH CAKE!

The newest Republican ploy.

That's "Nobody Expects the Inquinnsition". And he's not dead, he's just sleeping, soundly.

Cherry pie, I've always loved cherry pie, tart but sweet and tangy.

Odd but lately I've telling my fellow volunteers that making ID calls is like eating cake. It's pretty predictable calling voters who only go to the polls every four years. We're asking them who they think they'll vote for trying to determine who we should focus on and who we should ignore down the stretch. In many if not most cases we don't know what they think because even at this late date they don't what they think. They made their decision in 2004 based on a commercial they saw or something a friend or a relative they respect said a few days before the election. Sad but like eating cake, pretty predictable.

Making fundraising calls is different though, it's a much more concentrated experience, like eating cake frosting. The stakes are higher because there's a limited universe of donors, an even more limited one of big donors, those who can and do contribute $500, $1000 or max out when they're convinced that they're helping a worthy and viable candidate. I can't take a play off, I have to maintain my enthusiasm and hit all my talking points on each and every call. If they hang up unconvinced, if they write off my candidate I've blown it and burned that source forever. But if I can make 'em sit up and take notice of Scott Harper, at least get him on their radar, show them that times have changed and so has the district I can make the sale. And when I do it gets me pumped.

But like eating cake frosting, even when it's Judy Biggert's, you can only do so much of it in one stretch.

I'll do those ID calls for a couple of hours when I come in trying to turn 3s and 4s into 1s. That gets me fired up for the last hour where I make those fundraising calls.

Some days it's rough. But a real good sign is both kinds of calls have been getting easier, much easier the last few weeks and I predict the flood gates are really going to open up after the next two debates.


Q's doing "moisty pie", you're doing "cherry pie" - think we're going to have to X-rate this whole blog? I hear the clip-clop of your feet on the stairs, I know you're no scare eyed honey...

X rating a blog is not hard to do with you around, interjecting such suggestions, Desi. ;-)

"Scare eyed honey." Laughing out loud.

Now we need quinn to get into the tangle and images will circulate...

Hey, With you two & Yva pawing the turf, I'm looking like the straight man 'round here. But since turn & turn again is the theme of the day, here's 3:55 of neo-soul. A moment's Des-eleration. Anthony Hamilton. From American Gangster.

Dude's got pie.

Dude looks like a lady. A lady in turban. And a cocaine tree.

You dissin' Denzel? That's harsh, man. Harsh.

However, if that's not your style, then maybe the IRA. It's Alright To Die.

Your turn.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, , tell it to Van Gogh there.

The demoscots? Hopefully not on spending.

I've always been a pie person.

McCain proposes pie-eating contests as debate:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/presidential-debate/704121/

Q, my friend. I don't think it's about denial. I think it's that no one, particularly the "average" American, knows what the hell is going on.

I think you once mentioned you're an economist. Am I wrong on that? And you say on the other post,

As for me, I don't believe it's going to be a recession. I've studied this shit, and I just see NO sign, no data, that tells me this is like 2000... or 1990... or 1980.... it's worse. On finance, on fiscal issues, on debt, on global trade, on manufacturing. But we'll all go along talking about it - 99% of the time - like it's just a "manageable" economic issue. A "recession."

Let me tell you what I've been doing the past couple days. Well, amidst some other shit, but that doesn't need discussing. Been reading. About Laffer curves, and Keynes, and tax revenues, and earmarks, and stagflation and deflationary spirals and money supply and derivatives...you see where I'm going.

I still don't know what the hell is going on. I'm no economist. But I'm not stupid either, and I'm usually a pretty quick learn.

So. There are $11 trillion in U.S. mortgages outstanding. We seem to be ready to just throw $700 billion at the financial industry and hope something sticks. Unemployment is up. Wages are stagnant, but everything costs more - gas, milk, eggs, food, health care deductibles. Except houses. They're down, and don't look to be going up anytime soon. The money supply is either stagnant or contracting, depending on who you ask, so that should mean deflation, right? But we're about to inject a whole lot of moola into the money supply. So, should we be worrying about inflation as a result? And the value of the dollar is falling. The futures market. Futures market? What the hell is the futures market? Trading in the value of future interest rates? Huh? Someone explain to me why that idea even exists.

Comparing this to the Great Depression doesn't do it for me. Why? Because this isn't 1929. The economy is a lot different than it was then. Hell, the whole world is. Was the consumer credit, mortgage, securities, and banking industries as unbelievably complicated and intertwined as they are now? And no one trusts anyone in the White House. (I tell you one thing, I wouldn't want Paulson or Bernanke's position for the full sum of that bailout.) Bush gets up there and says, "First, the plan is big enough to solve a serious problem." He says, "Bail out the economy, or face "a long and painful recession." So, simple enough? We do this bailout and all's golden? I don't think so.

Here's why people are pissed: they've been in a credit crunch a lot longer than Wall Street. And no one has lifted a finger. I know, I know. We're all fucked if Wall Street crashes. But a lot of people are reacting right now on an emotional level. And Bush gets up there and says, we have to do this or else. Well, no wonder no one trusts a word coming out of his mouth. And McCain. That debate - Lehrer asks him, Will you support the bailout? His flippant "Sure." Sure? Sure, John?

We make debt. Our greatest export - debt. Then international tourism. So they only thing we have left to "sell" equates to us borrowing money? Awesome.

$25 billion for the auto industry. Did anyone even notice? Hell, what's $25 billion when we're talking $700 billion. And they're talking of it as funding for the bill that required automakers to increase the car's average fuel economy by 40 percent, to 35 miles per gallon, by 2020. "They're not too big to fail," Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, told CNBC last week. "I don't see [Detroit's woes] as a national problem. I see it as their problem."

Sorry Shelby. It's part of the bigger picture. One in 10 Americans' jobs are connected to the auto industry. Michigan has the highest unemployment rates in the country. And 35 miles per gallon in 12 years? Not good enough. By a long shot. In Europe, all new cars average 43mpg. Japan - 50mpg.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130439/page/1

"If you want better fuel economy, it's just a question of when auto companies want to do it and when consumers decide they want to buy it," says Don Hillebrand, a former Chrysler engineer who is now director of transportation research for Argonne National Labs. "Auto companies can deliver it within a year."
Look. We bailed out Chrysler back in the day. Imagine if they'd put that money to fuel-efficient and alternative energy vehicles. Nah. We had to get those Hummers out on the road instead. So damn big they don't even fall in the realm of measuring fuel standards.

I don't know what I'm saying really. Rambling. Angry and worried. Getting ready to move onto a self-sustaining farm.

Oh. And by the way. That spending freeze of McCain's that everybody is freaking over? Old news.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0428/p02s02-uspo.html?page=1
April 28, 2008

"To begin with, McCain would make President Bush's tax cuts permanent, rather than let them expire in coming years, as current law calls for. McCain would double the personal exemption for dependents from $3,500 to $7,000, reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent, and establish a permanent new research-and-development tax credit. At the April 15 speech outlining his economic plan, he also called for the elimination of the federal gasoline tax this summer – a move that, strictly speaking, the next president would have to go back in time to accomplish."

"McCain's tax cuts (excluding the gas tax holiday) would cost some $200 billion a year, according to his campaign. They would be offset by eliminating pork-barrel projects from the federal budget, freezing nondefense discretionary spending for at least one year, and reducing the growth of Medicare spending, among other moves."

July 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/us/politics/08budget.html?ref=politics
NY Times article: Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget by 2013

A longtime foe of pet projects known as earmarks, Mr. McCain said he would stop such spending. The Bush White House says earmarks this year total $17 billion, a comparatively small share of a $2.9 trillion budget.
Mr. McCain proposed a one-year freeze in most domestic spending subject to annual appropriations, “to allow for a comprehensive review.” This proposal would affect education, scientific research, law enforcement and scores of other programs.
Mr. Bush’s battles with Congress suggest it would be extremely difficult for Mr. McCain to win approval for such a freeze.
Mr. McCain said he was counting on “rapid economic growth” to help reduce the deficit., While a growing economy generates additional revenue, several of Mr. McCain’s tax proposals would be costly, experts said.
Mr. McCain also wants to extend many of the Bush tax cuts, scheduled to expire by Jan. 1, 2011. That could reduce tax collections below the levels assumed under current law, and it could widen the deficit, many economists said.
In January, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the Bush tax cuts would cost more than $700 billion in the next five years.

Hmm. $700 billion? Sounds familiar…

You say you don't what's going on, eh. Here's one thing. With all this money being spent, we still ain't getting one friggin' dime for healthcare. You know that "No Golden Parachutes" both parties are so gleefully touting? I'm for "No Congressional Healthcare" till every American has the OPTION to buy into the same medical plan offered McCain, Obama, Wyden, Rangel, (add your senator or representative here please).

Time to ask all these people to give up that plan if they can't offer it to the rest of us.

I like that line, C. Ok, we're gonna need massive amounts of cash. And yes, you CAN tax, even in a re/depression. The key is whether what you're spending it on provides more domestic stimulus than what it would otherwise have been spent on. The right says don't tax the rich cause they're they invest. At this point, income inequality is SO high & and there's so much big money fleeing the country, that argument fails. Here's a good list of possible taxes - not for the immediate bailout, as for things needed afterward. Like health care. Numbers 1,2,5 and 9 seem particularly strong to me. From the Institute for Policy Studies.

I didn't say give us the money to join the Congress Health Care Plan, I said give us the option to join with our own money. NOt the same thing. Spread the risk. IF we supposed to find our ownplan, WHY CAN'T IT BE THE ONE AT CONGRESS?

Ok, join with your own money if you want - I was just trying to point at a couple of pots of OTHER people's money. Seemed the patriotic thing to do. ;-)

Turns out COngress gets complete coverage for $35 a month --the bastards. How can they face the public with this?

Obama needs to look McCain in the face in the next debate and ask him what is his advice for people who have no health care because of pre-existing conditions --a huge portion of the older population.

I still maintain my belief that we don't have healthcare because the people who have it don't give a crap for anyone else and they would never out their coverage in question --congress a good example.

It's an indefensible position for them --but no one has the nerve to really put it on the table and demand it from their congressmen and representatives.

It's simple. Because that would be socialism. And that's a dirty word in our culture.

(And yes, I know. It wouldn't really be socialism. But we live in the land of the free and the home of the idiot.)

The reason I like those taxes I linked to is that - AFTER this Wall St bail-out - we're gonna have the right to ASK for something. Not in the deal, but afterward. And now.... we ALL know who we get to ask. The guys that otherwise get to hide in the hills with their 8 figure "nut." Wealth tax. Inheritance tax. And above all, a sweet financial transaction tax. $100-$150 billion a year, just from that last one. And it ENCOURAGES long-term investment, while REDUCING speculation. I think Tobin put it forward first.

I especially like the first one, the securities transaction tax, and the third, and the sixth. I don't think the inheritance tax will ever happen though.

But thanks for the link. All good, no-nonsense ideas.

I'd write on this other stuff Hilary - economics & energy - but I see the topics get posted (by others) & choked off by deniers, or people with pet "explain-it-all" theories. This is psych/cultural stuff, and it blocks us from talking in any detailed, or positive way. No, it won't be like the last Great Depression - it could hit faster, and - in real world terms - be WORSE. 1st,

Where are we? Well, just look at the fact that the Federal Reserve basically ran out of money, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp basically couldn't handle the WaMu bail-out last week, and pushed them over to JPMorgan Chase. There just IS a massive wave of denial on this - and deep down, it's because people KNOW their lives ain't gonna come out unscathed, and that they participated. You say people have been in a credit crunch. I think the term is wrong here. The citizenry of the US are at the end of the single greatest credit SPLURGE the world has ever seen. Interest rates at the floor. Mortgages for people with no income. Equity loans worth 00's of billions. Credit card offers pouring in through our doors. Cars? Most families have two. Now if you mean we're squeezed to PAY for that - absolutely true. But has credit been available? Yeah baby.

But Denial again. Look at our posts here. At last count, I saw 611 whose subject was finding new "gaffes" from the debate. Ummmm, the debate is over. The spinning done. The campaigns back on the road. And if a "gaffe" isn't blatant, or caught within 24 hours, it pretty much wasn't a "gaffe" I would say. It makes me no friends to say this sort of stuff. In fact, it's pissed people off. But October is coming. Which means all sorts of financial deadlines are gonna get hit. All sorts of political dirt & insanity is gonna come rushing in. And all hitting at the same time, so fast the headlines are forgotten within 24-48 hours. We have no focus. Can't sort out the important from the trivial. And it's escalating. The only thing this reminds me of is the cultural hyperdrive that led up the death of Diana. That was just cultural and political - not economic - but you could literally feel the sidewalks shake as that thing kept ratcheting up. This is stronger, higher, faster. So my focus these days is simple. #1 Get Obama in. Just so there's someone smart, and who can listen and learn, and who cares, in office. #2 Figure out this economic mess, and start writing up positive alternatives, one's that can be done today, practically, real-world.

I'd write on this other stuff Hilary - economics & energy - but I see the topics get posted (by others) & choked off by deniers, or people with pet "explain-it-all" theories. This is psych/cultural stuff, and it blocks us from talking in any detailed, or positive way. No, it won't be like the last Great Depression - it could hit faster, and - in real world terms - be WORSE.

Screw that Quinn. Write it. Even if it's just you and I talking on a long dead thread, it's worth something. I'm with you on that it's worse. And happening now. I just don't know what the hell we're supposed to do. On an individual level, I mean.

So. On the other stuff. Bear with me here. (If anyone wants to get write the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Financial Clusterfuck, now would be a good time!). The FDIC. Right. So they're almost out of money. And this $700 billion doesn't even include money that might be needed to bail them out if enough banks fail to deplete that fund. AND. I just learned, and did not know this (which I think is a conscious effort on the government's part not to dispel this myth, in part) is that the FDIC insurance fund is imaginary.
http://finegoldsilver.com/information/fdic-bank-bailout-insurance-fund-does-not-exist/2008/09/19/

You say people have been in a credit crunch. I think the term is wrong here. The citizenry of the US are at the end of the single greatest credit SPLURGE the world has ever seen. Interest rates at the floor. Mortgages for people with no income. Equity loans worth 00's of billions. Credit card offers pouring in through our doors. Cars? Most families have two. Now if you mean we're squeezed to PAY for that - absolutely true. But has credit been available? Yeah baby.
Ok, so bad phrasing. But look. Those good people you're talking about above? I know a lot of them. Folks who took out a modest mortgage that they could afford. No equity loans. Rip up every credit card offer that comes through the door. Work hard, every day. Save some. Or try to. And now - home prices below the value of their mortgage, through no fault of their own. Cars? Fine, maybe 2. But paid off. And their retirement planning is shrinking, and health care costs rising, and food and gas and general costs of living. People that have never lived beyond their means. Yeah. I know a lot of American's haven't. But some have. And now everybody is trapped on the same sinking ship that others blew holes in.

And as Cypher mentions, no health care. I guess a better way of saying what I meant is that the economy did not start sucking 10 days ago.

H. I can barely guess at what's gonna even happen Mon or Tues. You'd expect - if the Bailout passes - a big bump Mon. Except one big UK lender went bankrupt today, and a 2nd big Euro one is on the ropes. Tues is Sept 30th, and as Tom Wolfe says today - watch closely - because that's one of the 4 main days Hedge Fund investors can withdraw. We could see some almighty movement, potentially downward, on Tues.

Which is why I tell people to get into cash. Leave it in banks if they want. The bank/investor guys keep saying you could miss the upswing. Maybe. But when your downside could be as high as 30%-50%-100%... for most people that outweighs the upside possibility. And people need to think about doing other things to gather cash. One reason is simply that families are gonna get hit as their WORST positioned members go down. Maybe your sibs are ok today, but if they go under, a lot of calls are gonna get made in a hurry. I'm not saying this is tomorrow's news, or this week's. But the economic fundamentals have been bad for a long time, and NOBODY sees them improving for another year+. So you want to cut down cash outflows ASAP, get rid of excess assets while they have value, lock in and stretch out mortgage payments, and... as many people are already doing... bite the bullet and look at sharing vehicles/cottage/housing resources.

And yes, this advice, if followed by everyone, guarantees a downturn. But I'd say it's guaranteed now - with only the rich having launched their life-rafts. You think people are pissed now? Wait and see if things DO crash. And the wealthy are nowhere to be found. There are others who know this stuff far better than I. The simple living, cheap stuff, save your ass websites. And thanks for the encouragement to write something more positive. It's probably time. It just takes a certain type of psychic energy, to be prepared to wade through the Mr Shouty types that will inevitably show. ;-)

Dude - wasn't kidding about the self-sustaining farm. Unfortunately, we're a couple years from being a go.

What kills me, and I think a lot of people, is that this shitstorm has just gotten so BIG that it HAS to be a government solution. Either than, or we have a complete and total meltdown of literally everything and start from scratch. I like the green investment ideas. Create jobs, be innovative. Something. Make something other than debt. Op-ed in the Times today on that. Yeah, it'll probably run up the deficit more in the short term, which seems worthwhile to me, assuming we can finagle it, so long as it produces a return on our investment in the long-term and will eventually lead to greater revenues.

And about the posts - write them. We NEED them. Please. (Besides, Mr. Shouty adds...texture.)

And if you're worried about recs, well, there's one thing you can always do about that - it's TPM time-tested, never-fail, straight-to-the-top-of-the-rec-list, 300+ comments guaranteed...

My next titles: "Why Chelsea isn't as ugly as she was." And the follow-up, "Why we need a Malia/Chelsea ticket, not a Chelsea/Malia one."

Then I'll just write what I'd write anyway. 80 Rec's, guar'd. ;-)

In short, unchecked spin = truth.

Fuhget da facts, ma'am, we need your belief system. The fat lady is Christ. That's all you need to know, buddy.

By the way Quinn. I want you to know that only from you would I accept this dismal lack of paragraph breaks. Then again, it suited the nature of the post. ;)

Right or wrong, it was deliberate, 99. I wanted to make it dense, too much, zig-zagging, ranting, mental, facts flying, memories in, random. Our usual essay form doesn't always deal well with a certain level/type of stuff, so I ditched it. For smaller bits, I'll go to my standard Oxford essay format. But for this, I wanted people to feel the chaos a bit, so that as we walk through it in the real-world, they realize they're not stone crazy. Sorry that it was hard to read though. I guess I'm paying the price in terms of Rec's, eh?

I think he was aiming for a phallic presentation....

um... wow. I think. No paragraphs. One long hard piece. Hmmm.

Oy. I know we moved from the economic dance hall days a while back to a high stakes tempo on Wall Street, but are those high pheromone days over?!! Are we no longer in the United States of Mind?! Very sad.

No way am I a pie person. And so we are clear, I'm a liberal to my bones. Cake, always! Chocolate and moist! Dark chocolate icing and oh yeah, while we are still flinging our high stakes tempo around, could you make that cake from Ladurée Bonaparte's place in Paris and if not from there, you could try Le Bonbonnière de Buci's dark chocolate cake - Royal Buci. Yum. Thanks. ;)

Seriously, a tour de force, quinn.

rec.

You make a cake moist enough, and I figure it's a pie by any other name. ;-)

Not as good on the electronic stuff as I used to be. LCD maybe. Bit of Daft Punk. Need a bit more dada. Been enjoying the hell out of this these past months. Super Bon Bon.

Soul Coughing, indeed.

Totally cool. Thanks for the link.

um, the cat? Very sweet kitty. ;)

Russia? Crimea? Cry me a river? Nope! Abkhazia baby... oh and could someone, ANYONE pronounce it properly?

That might be my 20th, quinn.

Cheers.

Good to see you breaking it down, brother. Lysdexia rules!

Stop breaking down, no no no, stop breaking down. Play it, Bobby, get down, Nicky.... Edward's a by-ed-word word.

Breakdown.

The old boy & the Manchester Regiment, fought at the Battle of Megiddo. Once I looked it up, it made me laugh. I knew the place well - by its other name - but not that the Brits fought there in WW I. Along with TE Lawrence. Never heard a peep about it. The old dude just left Britland, and taught music in the Americas. Left behind big ole Baptist churches with big ole organs with his name on 'em. Story-wise though, he told none but the cave story. And left behind nothing but this compass, the one that broke that day.

Maybe the cave was in Megiddo. Didn't know there were such things. Could come in handy.

Breakdown.

Odd for a WWI battle, not holed up with trench warfare and bloody senseless slaughter. Turkish friend met some Aussies still sore about Gallipoli. "You guys were there? We thought we were just killing Brits". Everything depends on perspective.

Are you dipsomatic or matodipstick? Are you a fucktard or one tahred fuck?

And whatever happened to Cheap Trick, weren't they the bomb? Didn't I see you crying?

O yeah, they were the bomb alright. Wore the hat. No tears, but ain't that a shame, what the world's come to? Fats Lives.

Fuckwit - thass what it says on my nametag. Damn proud of it. But gotta eat. I'm down a pint o' pie.

If _ C any1 talkin trash while IM gone, point 'em 2wrd th Ei8th. BRB.

14 commenters. 11 Rec's. You cheap bastards. C'mon, give it a nudge, help drive TPM off the edge. Then sit back, stick your fingers in the crazy pie, and enjoy the show.

14 is a gold mine if you don't hit on the fab TPM autotrigger g-spots that send all the mice pushing the Rec buttons like crystal meth addicts smelling a bathtub full of chemicals. And there you go talking about bailouts and psychosis and you expect to reach the top? Not in this disco. But get your boody on the dance floor. Make my day. Punk. 5? Or 6? In all the excitement I lost count myself. This could be your lucky day.

Time for a stretch. Goatboy, at work.

Back again, Hammer?

* Warning to the easily offended. Watch this. Bill says. *

And absolutely NONE of you watched that, did you?

Appalling. The entire class receives 3 detentions.

I just thought "be my lemon squeezer" was more succinct and to the point. Though fellatio on an SM-58 is good practice.

Mad props for the creativity. Rec'd, and thanks for outside the box, Q.

Two points for The Box. Cheers, A-man.

Yes. An interesting read. Thanks.

I did rec.

Thank you, quinn. The hands have spoken. When the money's gone, we'll still be rich.

I'll take pecan pie... and a pair of reading glasses. :)

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Nice prose poem, quinn. Good tempo. I might tinker with the caps just a bit to make it easier on the reader, but otherwise it's pie-crust-perfect. Have you ever made a pie crust, by any chance? This isn't written like how I would make a pie crust, or how my Aunt Ruby (The Pie Lady) would make a pie crust, but more like how James Joyce would make a pie crust.

I rec'd it a long time ago but just now got around to reading it. It soars over the comments. As it should. ;-)

Thanks Gasket. Yeah it was a frustrating piece. I wished it had been more of a prose poem - but it just didn't want to come out that way. Came out more like someone firing off a machine gun from inside a dumpster. Which is ok. It is what it is.

Also, I had two months between posting - too long, too much.

Nope, never made a pie crust, or a pie. Just started cooking this Spring. Had a hole in my kitchen, with no stove in it. A socket without a tooth. And no one in our family cooked. Really. My Mum refused. Cans are more our thing. But my Aunt Kay made pies. Which were... as you can imagine in that context... heaven to me. So there's a Pie Place here I take myself when I want something great.

Otherwise, looking back at what came out, I love the fact that sometimes when you write, it brings up memories, facts, dreams, and then... maybe you research them a little, and you find out the wildest stuff. Get whole new dimensions to it. My Grandfather this time. All I have is this little compass in a leather case. With his name and Regiment and position (2nd Lt) inked in. And just the one story from him - the cave. But when I looked up his Regiment's history, for the right years, some of them came through Gallipoli, some through Baghdad and Basra, some through Megiddo - Armageddon. He coulda been hit in a cave in any of those places, I donno which one it was. They'd all make cool stories. But what a weird thought, to have fought beside Lawrence of Arabia, at Armageddon.

And somehow seemed appropriate for the week. Anyway. I'm rambling. Cheers. And looking forward to your next piece.

P.S. It's also true that I wanted to test making it dense and hard to read. Interesting effect. Same number as Rec's as I always get, but less hassle in the comments. Maybe they were all off at that Bad Bill Clinton one. ;-)

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I really meant I think it is a prose poem, quinn. It's a wonderful piece. I'm complimenting you above and beyond the parameters of a normal comment. If it wasn't meant to be a prose poem, even better. Because it means you're a natural. Unself-conscious. (Although now I probably made you extremely self-conscious.)

Your usual style is kind of free-association anyway, but this piece has a "structure" (provided by the numbering). That structure helps the reader get through something that's got a nontraditional-looking structure (no paragraphs). So the numbering is like stepping stones across a swiftly moving river. You get us from one bank to the other. It's well done. Better than you know.

For years now I've been trying to recall the name of a guy in one of my fiction-writing classes who wrote pieces like this, although not about politics. Freaked the class out. I hope he kept on writing, but it's hard when you encounter resistance.

Meanwhile, thanks for the pie. I've made crust only a few times, and it's pretty labor-intensive and fragile. A work of art when it's really good. When I was a kid, my Aunt Ruby always had at least two pies on hand, sometimes three. One was lemon meringue, and the other two were seasonal. We visited her in the summer months, so it was usually peach or rhubarb. She lived in Minnesota, and it makes me laugh out loud whenever Garrison Keillor sings about rhubarb pie on Prairie Home Companion.

Thanks again, Gasket. Next time I'm at the pie place, I'll have a piece of rhubarb for you. ;-)

Q. Did your grandfather ever hear again?

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P.S. to quinn: Of course this piece has good tempo because you are into music. ;-)

Since this thread is dead, a couple of stories.

My Grandfather did recover his hearing, went home to Britain, married a Jewish girl whose family had emigrated from Leipzig, where their family had printed music for centuries apparently. (Leipzig being a major center of music with Bach and all.) Her Jewishness was completely suppressed, even within the family, for many decades, as Britain was quite deeply anti-Semitic. They then moved to North America, he became Dean of Music at a university, taught choirs for 100 miles around, and became incredibly beloved - this tiny pipe-smoking, utterly jovial man.

They had only one child, my (biological) father, who also became a very good classical musician (violinist, taught with Menuhin), as well as a great athlete (Olympic marathoner.) Anyway, my father - natch - moved to the US for many years, then eventually... back to the UK. So I was born in London, my parents split when I was an infant, my Mum moved back to Canada, and married my Dad, the farmer - the only one I've ever really known. Which makes me the 3rd generation on that side who has lived across 3 countries.

One more story, which I adore - and wish that someday would get written up. My Jewish Grandmother's family were printers of music in Leipzig for a very long time (as best we know.) While my Scottish ancestors were warriors. Literally, they were the clan that ran the Scottish military (there's a good laugh!) Anyway, when the English finally busted the Scots in the 1700's, the 2 top brothers of the clan went to Europe, where they worked for the Czar, the Spanish, and then... Frederick the Great. One became a Field Marshall, the other, one of Frederick's top advisor/diplomats. Anyway, the Field Marshall was very close to Frederick, and they used Leipzig as a Winter Quarters.

The scene I cannot keep out of my mind are these very tiny Jewish printers (for even in the 20th century, that side of the family is tiny), looking out at these half-crazed (to onlookers), absolutely burly, Scottish, Centuries-long-warriors, riding into the city alongside Frederick. I keep wondering if they ever looked at each other? Ever imagined that someday their descendants would marry. If they in any way understood the shared loss of homeland, with more displacement & disaster to come, and the eventual roots they'd throw down in the New World. I wish I could write that scene, as Frederick & his Scots Marischal entered the city.

Family history is beyond comprehension sometimes. This, in answer to your question, but also perhaps to partially explain why I say I felt "Music vs War" as such an internal battle.

So judging from your heritage, you're likely a very cheap bastard who's on the losing side of every conflict? Okay, couldn't resist. I've only got the Scottish and cattle rustler part.

With a record of 3 Win's & 897 "Strategic Withdrawals", that's why I have to claim victory in all the debates here at TPM.

Worst, I'm a Leaf fan.

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