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"Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers"

Meh, let it come. The real adjustment is long overdue, and frankly, starting from scratch — once we tar, feather, and chase from polite society all those who presumed to “manage” the global financial system — might just be the best thing for us. And yes, my wife and I are resigned to the fact that our 401K is as good as gone.

Just wish I had invested in gold, is all.

(h/t before it’s news)

136 Replies to “"Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers"”

  1. Pablo says:

    Yup. And as long as you’ve got food and ammo, you’ll be fine.

  2. LBascom says:

    Well, the markets might collapse, but at least the government didn’t default!

    Geez, why ya gotta always miss the silver lining!?

  3. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Just wish I had invested in gold, is all.

    If Te-OHT Waw-Ki comes, and Teh Shit really hits the fan, being invested in gold won’t help you. In the first place, Uncle Sam will confiscate all of it they can lay there hands on. In the second place, even if your ingot is hidden under the loose floorboard in the back closet, you’re going to have a hard time trading it for anything you can really use. Like bullets.

  4. sdferr says:

    So melting it down and casting ball out of it is right out then?

  5. dicentra says:

    I haven’t contributed to my 401K for two years, because I figured I’d rather have the money lose value in my own bank account, where at least I can use the bux to buy canned goods and toilet paper while dollars are still worth something and there’s still something on the store shelves to buy. Shares? HA! Vaporware!

    Look: I started having a nagging feeling in December 2004 that the U.S. economy was going to suffer a catastrophic failure, anticipating Glenn Beck by at least a year. I had no reason to think that the economy was anything but sound; I just kept envisioning a bubble collapsing, and because I’m a pessimist by nature, it was easy to believe.

    So I’ve been thinking in terms of avoiding bad purchases for several years, e.g., I can’t sell a big house or expensive car if everyone else is broke, too.

    Of course, my pantry will likely be looted within hours of the stores running out of food, but at least I can be smugger than thou while we starve to death.

  6. Ernst Schreiber says:

    buckshot in the face tends to discourage that kind of behavior Di.

  7. Darleen says:

    Ernst

    Buckshot only works if you are allowed to have a gun and ammo when the leaders declare an emergency.

  8. LTC John says:

    #8 – Darleen, I suspect whatever phrase Carolians use in lieu of the Greek “Molon Labe” is being mumbled, uttered, hissed, spat and growled rather alot lately.

    I am sort of glad I work for the Swiss right about now. Of course, if they see North America as unsuitable, that could change. But ths is the same company that has offices in Ukraine, Bolivia, etc. I sure hope we don’t sink that low.

    Jeff – I refuse to even look at my 401(k)…I am trying to remain upbeat. I figure my military pension will get gutted “for fairness”. That leaves my Swiss Insurance Behemoth pension…maybe they will pay in gold francs…

  9. cranky-d says:

    A market collapse will probably not bring anarchy. The poor are the most likely to riot, and they won’t even notice it.

    Still, I should buy more canned food.

  10. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Darleen,

    I heard about that bit of jackassery in North Carolina. Thank you democrats for giving the Republicans an issue going into next year’s state elections.

    If I were in No. Car., I’d abide by the law, for today and tomorrow anyways. And if anarchy breaks out after that, I’d be carrying openly on my front porch.

    In Di’s scenario, however, the cops (presumably) aren’t there to keep the looters out of her pantry, and I’d shoot them in the face too.

    This is all theoretical of course.

    Because guns are big and scary and hurt children and other living things –which is why I don’t own any, and if I did own any, once upon time before I got enlightened by compassion, I sold them after my epiphany.

  11. Ernst Schreiber says:

    and donated the money to a progressive cause

    naturally

  12. Darleen says:

    LTC & Ernst

    What is so mind-numbingly dumb about that “law” is that during a declared emergency, you actually want CCW permit holders, hunters and other law-abiding gun owners to have their guns on ’em because of the emboldened lawless thugs and looters.

    Sheesh … looters live for evacuation orders. Last round of fires in So Cal, my sister’s BFF and her husband were ordered to evacuate their rather up-scale neighborhood. He just got this gut feeling to go back and check on the house (the fire had paused) and caught two people in a van in his driveway loading up stuff from his house … he actually was armed and was able to hold ’em until the police arrived.

  13. cranky-d says:

    I’m surprised your sister’s husband wasn’t arrested for having a loaded firearm.

  14. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I think the kind of “emergency” envisioned by the makers of this law is of the peasant revolt kind, Darleen.

    That, and they wanted something on the books enabling them to override the concealed carry law.

  15. dicentra says:

    buckshot in the face tends to discourage that kind of behavior Di.

    I can’t throw or spit hard enough to leave a mark.

  16. Crawford says:

    So melting it down and casting ball out of it is right out then?

    Gold is soft. I bet it would smear itself along the inside of your barrel, and not even take a spin.

    Probably would be quite attractive, though.

  17. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Then a 410 or 20 guage loaded with birdshot.

    It’s the in the face part that demoralizes the rest of the mob.

  18. cranky-d says:

    I think the fear of being blinded might be greater than the fear of getting shot.

  19. sdferr says:

    I saw the North Carolina governor speaking on tv and funny thing, her mouth had the shape of that Joker character in the Dark Knight, like it had been sliced from the corners up through her cheeks and sewn back together. But surely this is only an accident of physiological happenstance and reflects nothing on the lady herself.

  20. dicentra says:

    OT, but not really. Here’s something that will brighten the heart:

    I have just seen something lovely and hope-inducing.

    Musicians in jeans and sweaters and running shoes (and one kettledrummer with a silly fishing hat), smiling at children while they played. No boundary from the audience – there were train sounds and crowd noise in the background and that was good, dammit!…
    But there was an even more beautiful level of meaning than that.…
    What I saw in that video is that embracing this process of perpetual reinvention is what being “Western” means. We have developed more than any previous or competing civilization the knack of using our past without being limited by it.

    I looked at those musicians and that audience, and what I didn’t see was decadence or exhaustion or self-hating multiculturalism. I felt like pumping my fist in the air and yelling “This is my civilization!” It lives, and it’s beautiful, and it’s worth defending.

    Me, I like the standing cello players.

  21. sdferr says:

    I’ve long wanted to hear the Bolero played live in reverse, just to find out.

  22. cranky-d says:

    That flash mob orchestra was quite cool.

  23. Ella says:

    As my brother’s gun dealer said, “You can’t knock over a liquor store with gold.” Words to live by.

  24. Ernst Schreiber says:

    find out what sdferr?

  25. sdferr says:

    If it makes another kind of sense, one that holds together in a similar fashion to the ordinary forward arrow of the original I guess Ernst. Beginning in a big blast of sound and energy and diminishing to its least element at the end, I suppose.

  26. Squid says:

    Is anyone else getting real tired of hearing the lamentations of a wunch of bankers day in and day out? They’d better hope they’re at home in Connecticut (motto: “The middle C is silent!”) when the bottom drops out, because they’ll never get out of Manhattan in one piece.

  27. McGehee says:

    Te-OHT Waw-Ki

    Uh-oh. Isn’t that Mayan for “12/21/2012″…?

  28. McGehee says:

    Re North Carolina, I read somewhere that while CCW is prohibited in the SoE area, open carry supposedly remains unregulated. Can anyone confirm?

  29. Darleen says:

    wow di, thanks! I loved that!

  30. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Uh-oh. Isn’t that Mayan for “12/21/2012?…?

    I thought it was Navajo for Götterdämmerung myself.

  31. LBascom says:

    I thought it was Korean for “FUCK that HURT”

  32. cranky-d says:

    OT: I just got that Cold Steel Bowie that was on sale at Amazon on Tuesday. It was as advertised, the “good” one at the low price.

  33. cranky-d says:

    I used that new knife to KILL THE THREAD!

    DEATH THREAT!!

  34. dicentra says:

    And now to bring us all back down, again, a good interview with Steyn by John Hawkins. Even after reading his book and hearing/reading several other interviews on Steyn’s book tour, I found this interview informative.

  35. cranky-d says:

    I guess the thread was only mostly dead.

  36. Jeff G. says:

    Can I cut down a tree with this knife? Yes, yes I can.

  37. newrouter says:

    state police getting into the action

    “The police told me to pack up and go home,” he said. Or, more accurately I discovered after making a few phone calls, the town police swung by and wished him good luck, and then afterwards, “someone in brown” came by and made my stepson stop selling drinks at the end of our street, because this required a permit, and my stepson did not have a permit to sell drinks.

    After hearing a little more from my stepson and talking to the town police, I discovered that it was the Massachusetts State Police that broke up our lemonade stand. After attempting several times to contact the State Police, I reached only answering machines. Apparently, having someone on call on weekends is not in the Massachusetts State Police’s budget (but breaking up lemonade stands is somehow cost-effective).

    Link

  38. cranky-d says:

    That knife is awesome. I have a few knives, but none of them has a backbone as thick as the Recon Scout. The only knife I have that’s as sharp is a Buckmaster my father bought me 25 years ago. I doubt it’s as sturdy as my new one.

  39. newrouter says:

    make sure it’s a cherry tree;

  40. Jeff G. says:

    I cannot tell a lie: I’ma cut down everything I can find.

  41. JD says:

    If the market is about to crash, the Feds should step in and take over all 401K’s to protect people from themselves.

  42. bh says:

    If bankers knew there would be a market crash they’d get short and rub their hands together while employing their evil laugh.

    General rule of thumb: when people predict shit that they could get impossibly rich on, consider the fact that there are quite few impossibly rich investors.

  43. newrouter says:

    snow hoochie rising

    Unable to draw us together on the basis of raw self-interest, our political system adapted, perversely, to unite strangers on the basis of their shared membership in more or less artificially constructed constituencies — the ethnic and sexual cubbyholes of the ’80s, the single-issue movements of the ’90s and the gerrymandered districts of the ’00s that ensured groups of human beings “represented” in Congress would correspond as little as possible to the organic living patterns beneath.

    It sounds farfetched to say Palin-induced polarization is any less permanent than Palin herself. But beyond the partisan horizon is a realization that could fundamentally change our approach to politics.

    Social forces that strongly affect the whole of American life are responsible for enabling and sustaining Palin’s prominence. Dismissing Team Palin as an identitarian “experience” (“it’s a rube thing — you wouldn’t understand”) badly misleads us about the nature of the straits we’re all in together.

    If we remain too angry and too awkward to meet our fellow strangers outside our ideological comfort zones, we will remain mired in identity politics. We will vainly deny a self-enclosure that only deepens. And, most likely, we’ll wind up both more dependent on government and more on our own than ever — a far more dangerous polarization than any Palin could induce.

    Link

  44. bh says:

    This reminds me of zerohedge.

    QE3? They bought the Goldman memo even though Bernanke said otherwise that same day. Then it was gonna be announced at Jackson Hole. Didn’t happen. Now? Next time for sure.

    They should try trading like that.

    We’re to remember the times they’re right and forget the times they’re wrong. And forget the fact that they implicitly declare they have the sort of insight that a firm would gladly pay $150-$200 million a year for but they’ve made the astoundingly altruistic decision to run a website for ad revenue.

    Saints, I guess.

  45. steph says:

    Call me when a Flash Mob performs Das ring der nibelungen at Wanamaker’s. Ravel’s Bolero – bah.

    /curmudgeon off

  46. sdferr says:

    Here’s a simple one (ha!). Cape Hatteras lighthouse is just now about 1,800ft. from the waterline (using GoogleEarth) measured on the perpendicular. Here comes a hurricane. After next Tuesday, will it be nearer or farther from the water’s edge? (Bonus points for correctly predicted measures within +/- 5 ft) Ok, shorelinespecialologists, go.

  47. bh says:

    I often use the same analogy between weather and markets as complex systems, sdferr.

    Shorelines generally move inland over time, markets generally move up over time.

    Beyond that? Professionals make money by pretending confidence and charging a fee (whether fund managers or ad revenue supported writers for the Telegraph or zerohedge). If you’re good, you’re right just over half the time but collect fees either way.

  48. Ernst Schreiber says:

    goddammit bh! stop being such a killjoy with your fucking eurocentric patriarchal enlightenment paradigm “logic.”

    The Visigoths are at the Gates!!!!

    The world’s a Capitol One commercial and ima find out what’s in your wallet!

  49. bh says:

    Heh, force of habit, Ernst.

    I constantly have to write memos for clients when they get spooked one way or another by some press release or news article.

    Sometimes it’s hard to explain how sure I am that other people don’t necessarily “know something” or “have the inside scoop” while still pretending that I am a font of wisdom and knowledge. Well, actually I’m actively terrible at it. Sales poison.

  50. cranky-d says:

    […] while still pretending that I am a font of wisdom and knowledge.

    You mean you’re not? I am crestfallen.

  51. sdferr says:

    Down here a hurricane sometime back (I think it was H. Donna in ’60) came through and ripped a cut between Sanibel and Captiva Islands called Blind Pass — nice little cut it was too, with tons of water moving between the back bay and the gulf with every tide: it was a great place to go fishing for lazy-assed snook who like to sit and wait for the baitfish to come to them with the forced water. But anyhow, over the course of decades the Pass silted up and finally was shut closed altogether, until 2004 when H. Charley came along and ripped it open again (I haven’t been out there recently, but it seems to me I’ve heard it’s slowly filling in again, and of course, people want government to intervene to keep it open. Jobs!).

    This, only by way of suggesting another insanely complex system guessing game to play, namely, where’s the new inlet into the Sound and back bays of the Outer Banks going to be, or will there be none at all?

  52. JD says:

    Bh is underselling his skillz.

  53. bh says:

    Heh, tell me about it, cranky. I wasn’t necessarily hoping for omniscience but I was at least hoping I’d be able to remember where my keys are half the time.

    Well, I wouldn’t say that I drool on myself, JD, but I can personally attest to the fact that I’m not writing these comments from my own personal island while running a $200 billion fund that is best known for beating the S&P for twenty straight years.

  54. dicentra says:

    Ravel’s Bolero – bah.

    Dude. What other piece of music lends itself so well to starting with a mere snare drum, violin, and flute, then the clarinet and a few cellists wander in, followed by bassists and more woodwinds and more violins and the brass section and suddenly all the first and second violins are there, and before you know it, someone’s dragged in A FREAKING HARP AND KETTLEDRUMS!

    I ASK YOU!

    Besides, Wagner is Nazi bait, you racist.

  55. dicentra says:

    Professionals make money by pretending confidence and charging a fee

    I thought the point of hiring a broker was, “You take care of it; I don’t have the stomach for the rolly coaster.”

  56. happyfeet says:

    it would be cool if noted piece of shit obamawhore Warren Buffett lost his ass on bank of america

    other than that I don’t really see the upside

  57. newrouter says:

    “Ravel’s Bolero”

    you be acting white

  58. sdferr says:

    The middle section of Britten’s YPGttO, starting with the piccolo and flutes, running through to the end. But then that means skipping the introductory justification of such a magnificent piece of music, Purcell’s contribution from Abedelazar, which, that’s just wrong. So, Ravel it is.

  59. newrouter says:

    “other than that I don’t really see the upside”

    Buffett’s Dairy Queen to expand into Egypt, Macau

  60. sdferr says:

    That is, this.

  61. bh says:

    I thought the point of hiring a broker was, “You take care of it; I don’t have the stomach for the rolly coaster.”

    Can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.

  62. bh says:

    My people tend to distrust brokers because half of them can’t figure out the correct tip if you handed them a calculator. You learn this while interning for minimum wage in college. I worked for one guy who sold annuities without ever quite understanding what they were.

    Some of them are awesome on the phone though.

  63. John Bradley says:

    From the Steyn interview di posted above:

    One of the greatest lines I get told by so-called moderate Republicans about almost anything you talk about is always, “This isn’t the hill to die on. This isn’t the hill to die on, this isn’t the hill to die on.” You have this conversation with them for two hours and you realize you’re already 15 hills back from where you were. This, America, is the hill to die on. If you cannot defend and save a half millennium of western liberty and progress and prosperity on this hill, there is no other hill to die on anywhere on the planet.

    Mighty darned OUTLAW! for a Canadian!

  64. newrouter says:

    “That is, this.”

    rich white people

  65. newrouter says:

    can white folks be proud? or should we be concerned about the hurt muslim feelings of farting in affagistan? i’ll consult my pc/commie guide on white privilege.

  66. Ernst Schreiber says:

    My problem with that Palin piece newrouter linked is that it’s always our guys (and gals too now) who are polarizing, which is poli-sci geek speak for “divisive.”

    I don’t see what’s so unifying about taking money from party A so party B can use it to help party C continue to wallow in his own shortcomings and we’re all supposed to feel good about how fair we are.

  67. sdferr says:

    What are you talking about “rich white people” newrouter? I’m not rich in any conventional sense, never have been and don’t expect to be, yet somehow the best music I know is supposed to belong only to the rich white people? (Do you have any idea how much the Japanese eat this stuff up?) Really, you should give it a rest.

  68. newrouter says:

    is “it’s a black thing” dog whistle for being an idiot? do chavs rock your world? being stupid is down right being progg.

    Scorpions – Rock You Like A herman cain

  69. newrouter says:

    “Really, you should give it a rest.”

    ax baracky’s preacher about “rich white people” and get back to me about eric holder and the new black panthers and cupcakes.

  70. happyfeet says:

    if I were a rich white person I would listen to nicki minaj in my mercedes on my way to pilates class and then on the way home I would listen to npr

  71. newrouter says:

    mr. ernst,

    “And, most likely, we’ll wind up both more dependent on government and more on our own than ever

    dude’s saying outlaw. the parasites won’t like that such as the “education” folks.

  72. bh says:

    If I was a rich white person I’d go with you if you agreed to stop for frozen yogurt afterwards and I’d maybe hint that my hybrid Lexus was surprisingly fuel efficient.

    To make you feel bad about your Mercedes because I’m sorta jealous about it.

  73. happyfeet says:

    fro-yo you know it!

  74. sdferr says:

    Proms 2009.

    Were they proud?

  75. newrouter says:

    please remember that: “rich white people” don’t include: warren buffet, george soros, barbra streisand, al gore, bill clinton, nancy pelosi teresa heinz/kerry et al. they luvs the “arts” of npr

  76. Abe Froman says:

    What are you talking about “rich white people” newrouter? I’m not rich in any conventional sense, never have been and don’t expect to be, yet somehow the best music I know is supposed to belong only to the rich white people?

    The dude’s a deadhead and clearly has no clue about the demographics of this silly avocation. Also, he likes Thelonius Monk whose patron was a fricken Rothschild.

  77. bh says:

    Stupid question, maybe, “Proms”? What’s that, sdferr?

  78. newrouter says:

    “Were they proud?”

    have you seen the wonderful drumming talent in zimbabwea

  79. sdferr says:

    Proms wiki. It’s an annual thing for a hundred years now. And I guess every year they end by singing Jerusalem together, which all in all for my taste, is a pretty awesome musical event. Here’s the ’99 rendition.

  80. sdferr says:

    There are a couple of other countries that like to sing especially I think. One of the Baltics, Estonia is it? And Wales is gung-ho I’m told.

  81. JD says:

    Fro-yo from Orange Leaf is becoming a daily stop for me.

  82. newrouter says:

    “Also, he likes Thelonius Monk whose patron was a fricken Rothschild.”

    as a dickhead i would say that the last people i would look to for cultural/white rich people “support”(there’s a better term somewhere)from a ruling class that imported muslims to destroy their own society. it is like listening to the band on the titantic til the very end. prost!

  83. bh says:

    Ahhh, thanks, sdferr. Never heard it used outside of its US high school usage before.

  84. Abe Froman says:

    You know what’s better than frozen yogurt? Unfrozen yogurt, that’s what.

  85. newrouter says:

    “Also, he likes Thelonius Monk ”

    oh shoot me for liking him rather than tupac.

  86. happyfeet says:

    fro-yo is tasty but you can only pick from the 8-calorie an ounce ones and then you can’t have a topping unless maybe toasted coconut or red bean paste but no you can’t have crumbled oreos or butterfingers on it

    fro-yo has rules and you have to follow them

  87. bh says:

    I wanted to get a frozen yogurt for the first time in a decade because Larry David ate some rather than giving it to a dying dog. That means it’s really, really tasty, I think. Probably way tastier than I remember.

    It’s at these moments I realize that advertising might actually work on me whether I’m willing to admit it or not.

  88. Abe Froman says:

    oh shoot me for liking him rather than tupac.

    Tupac didn’t have an evil baroness paying his bills. Thelonious = rich white people music = you should apologize to sdferr.

  89. newrouter says:

    i want to hear from the kurds

  90. bh says:

    It was Pinkberry, btw, ‘feets. You can probably get that in your zone.

    It’s so good that you’d steal it from a dying dog. (I kept wondering if that was a paid product placement.)

  91. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Is Beethoven rich white people music?
    Bach? Handel?

    What about Gerschwin or Copland?

  92. newrouter says:

    “Thelonious = rich white people music = you should apologize to sdferr.”

    sdferr i apologize that i found mr. monk’s piano playing of interest even though i’m not a rich white person like kerry/heinz. it is where you float your boat that counts.

  93. sdferr says:

    I don’t think I’ve seen that many blond people collected in one place.

  94. happyfeet says:

    there is a pinkberry in my zone by the trader joes but it’s right next to the 8-cal an ounce place

  95. happyfeet says:

    that is my dilemma

  96. newrouter says:

    “Is Beethoven rich white people music?”

    is being a loser being an “idiot black people”? some of them are but all? see darleen’s post. i don’t understand acting “white”. acting “black” is what? stupid? seems that way. but i denounce myself for being a “racist”. thank allah and his tribe.

  97. bh says:

    That’s hilarious, sdferr. I honestly just spent the last five minutes checking out the demographics of Estonia. No kidding.

  98. sdferr says:

    The women are uniformly hot. It’s frightening.

  99. The Monster says:

    “The real adjustment is long overdo”

    I think you mean it’s overdue, as in it should have happened quite some time ago. Or did you mean that the adjustment will be overdone?

  100. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Just trying to get the lay of the land, musically speaking.

    I also like Big Band era jazz/swing, 80s pop/rock (it’s a generational thing) and Mannheim Steamroller (& not just their Christmas stuff). My favorite piano piece is Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters.”

    I’m either eclectic or confuzzled.

  101. zino3 says:

    Holy shit, Batman!!!!!

  102. bh says:

    My favorite piano piece is Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters.”

    If you like that, you might also like this Bartok. (They’re both sad songs about kids drowning as best I can tell. Music theory! is like Science! to me.)

    Interblog h/t to sdferr. I’ve probably put that song on a loop 100 times now while working after he linked it.

  103. bh says:

    Yikes, intrablog. This is getting out of hand now.

  104. Ernst Schreiber says:

    They’re both sad songs about kids drowning as best I can tell.

    Damn. And all this time I thought it was about Robert Di Niro dying and Al Pacino feeling sad about putting three .45 slugs into his chest.

  105. sdferr says:

    This Isamaa ilu hoieldes is evidently anthemic to the revolution. It is kind of compelling in its way, especially when the blond girls are the purveyors. But then there’s the cheese of Punk laulupidu spoiling the mood.

  106. bh says:

    Heh. I’m pretty sure Heat was an allegory about drowning children, Ernst. Just like that movie about playing chess with Death in Sweden.

    Oh yeah, here’s an 80’s pop song that I listen to a great deal now because someone here linked it. Intrablog h/t JD.

    Thus endth my little game. I have no pw linked songs for swing or Mannheim Steamroller that I’ve become attached to.

  107. newrouter says:

    Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey

    September 1, 1980

    It is fitting that on Labor Day, we meet beside the waters of New York harbor, with the eyes of Miss Liberty on our gathering and in the words of the poet whose lines are inscribed at her feet, “The air bridged harbor that twin cities frame.”

    Through this “Golden Door,” under the gaze of that “Mother of Exiles,” have come millions of men and women, who first stepped foot on American soil right there, on Ellis Island, so close to the Statue of Liberty.

    These families came here to work. They came to build. Others came to America in different ways, from other lands, under different, often harrowing conditions, but this place symbolizes what they all managed to build, no matter where they came from or how they came or how much they suffered.

    They helped to build that magnificent city across the river. They spread across the land building other cities and towns and incredibly productive farms.

    They came to make America work. They didn’t ask what this country could do for them but what they could do to make this refuge the greatest home of freedom in history.

    They brought with them courage, ambition and the values of family, neighborhood, work, peace and freedom. They came from different lands but they shared the same values, the same dream.

    Today a President of the United States would have us believe that dream is over or at least in need of change.

    Jimmy Carter’s Administration tells us that the descendants of those who sacrificed to start again in this land of freedom may have to abandon the dream that drew their ancestors to a new life in a new land.

    The Carter record is a litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten.

    Eight million out of work. Inflation running at 18 percent in the first quarter of 1980. Black unemployment at about 14 percent, higher than any single year since the government began keeping separate statistics. Four straight major deficits run up by Carter and his friends in Congress. The highest interest rates since the Civil War–reaching at times close to 20 percent–lately down to more than 11 percent but now going up again–productivity falling for six straight quarters among the most productive people in history.

    Through his inflation he has raised taxes on the American people by 30 percent–while their real income has risen only 20 percent. He promised he would not increase taxes for the low and middle-income people–the workers of America. Then he imposed on American families the largest single tax increase in history.

    His answer to all of this misery? He tries to tell us that we are “only” in a recession, not a depression, as if definitions—words–relieve our suffering.

    Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well if it’s a definition he wants, I’ll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

    I have talked with unemployed workers all across this country. I have heard their views on what Jimmy Carter has done to them and their families.

    They aren’t interested in semantic quibbles. They are out of work and they know who put them out of work. And they know the difference between a recession and a depression.

    Let Mr. Carter go to their homes, look their children in the eye and argue with them that in is “only” a recession that put dad or mom out of work.

    Let him go to the unemployment lines and lecture those workers who have been betrayed on what is the proper definition for their widespread economic misery.

    Human tragedy, human misery, the crushing of the human spirit. They do not need defining–they need action.

    And it is action, in the form of jobs, lower taxes, and an expanded economy that — as President — I intend to provide.

    Call this human tragedy whatever you want. Whatever it is, it is Jimmy Carter’s. He caused it. He tolerates it. And he is going to answer to the American people for it.

    Link

  108. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You’re going to have to start working some Churchill into your repertoire, newrouter.

  109. Abe Froman says:

    Newrouter is my kind of link spammer. He’s focused and he has an evergreen vault. Sort of the opposite of Joe and Dicentra who like to share every last thing they’ve read that day.

  110. dicentra says:

    I think you mean it’s overdue,

    Jeff is the king almighty of homonym confusion, so if the spelling doesn’t make sense in the context, go with the other one.

    As for musix, I’ve been enjoying Duane FM lately. What’s Duane FM? It’s a feature available to subscribers to the Hughniverse. Duane Patterson is Hewitt’s producer, and every Sunday he uploads a three-hour set of eclectic music, often thematically grouped, e.g., for July 4th, the first hour contains songs with the word “red” in the title, the second with the word “white,” and then “blue.” Here’s the playlist for that week:

    Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue – Toby Keith
    Red Star – Third Eye Blind
    Red Rubber Ball – The Cyrkle
    Red Hill Mining Town – U2
    Red Skies – The Fixx
    Red Meets Blue – Matt Wertz
    Red Dirt Road – Brooks & Dunn
    Red Sector A – Rush
    The Red Plains – Bruce Hornsby & The Range
    99 Red Balloons – Nena
    Deep Red Bells – Neko Case
    Red – Elbow
    Songs In Red And Gray – Suzanne Vega
    Red Ragtop – Tim McGraw
    Red, White & Blue – Lynyrd Skynyrd
    White Wedding – Billy Idol
    Nights In White Satin – Moody Blues
    White Flag – Dido
    White Noise – Josh Turner
    City Of Black And White – Mat Kearney
    White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
    White Shadows – Coldplay
    Black And White – Sarah McLachlan
    Long White Cadillac – Dwight Yoakam
    White Bird – It’s A Beautiful Day
    White Houses – Vanessa Carlton
    White Room (Live) – Eric Clapton
    Play That Funky Music White Boys – Wild Cherry
    Blue Sky Mine – Midnight Oil
    Blue Hotel – Chris Isaak
    Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
    Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – Crosby, Stills & Nash
    Goodbye Blue Sky – Pink Floyd
    Mr. Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra
    Jackie Blue – Ozark Mountain Daredevils
    True Blue – Madonna
    One Blue Sky – Sugarland
    Blue – The Thorns
    Blue Jean – David Bowie
    Midnight Blue – Lou Gramm
    Blue – The Verve
    When The Stars Go Blue – The Corrs with Bono

    A week or so after the music is posted, he posts the playlist with links to where you can buy each song on Amazon MP3 downloads.

    He was a freelance DJ in an earlier life, so he’s got lots of deep cuts and rarities. And stuff I’ve never heard, having stopped listening to top 40 in the 90s. And as he says, you’d never hear his kind of mix on commercial radio, it being all balkanized by genre and stuff.

    So I’ve spent about $150 so far acquiring new stuff plus old stuff I’d forgotten about, and I’ve only listened to about 15% of the 95 sets currently online.

    If nothing else, it gives me something to do while tweezing mso- tags from my HTML.

  111. dicentra says:

    Sort of the opposite of Joe and Dicentra who like to share every last thing they’ve read that day.

    1. Heh.

    2. You should see what I leave out. On second thought, no you shouldn’t.

  112. dicentra says:

    His answer to all of this misery? He tries to tell us that we are “only” in a recession, not a depression, as if definitions—words–relieve our suffering.

    Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well if it’s a definition he wants, I’ll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

    They don’t write speeches like they used to, do they? Is that Peter Robinson’s work? He’s the one what wrote the “tear down this wall” speech, and unlike many former DC insiders, he actually gets it.

  113. bh says:

    It’s funny because I was about to say something on di’s behalf when I walked back upstairs but then she was all cool with the 1. and 2. rolling with the joke.

    This is the right and proper way to deal with someone busting your balls.

  114. bh says:

    Unless you’re busting my balls. In which case you’re 1. a monster, 2. too stupid to get my subtle nuance and 3. will be unmourned by any remaining family when you finally get your well-deserved comeuppance.

  115. sdferr says:

    I’ve noticed musics I grew up with and never heard used in commercials starting to show up now, though on account of the time-limited format of advertizing, necessarily bastardized. So, take the pizzicato, Assez vif, Très rythmé 2nd mvmnt of Ravel’s String Quartet: a 45 sec. chunk of it’s in an ad for a genealogical service. And the Shostakovich Waltz no. 2 popped up in something or other a few days ago.

    This is a good thing, I think. Our better cultural artifacts don’t have to be hidden from everyday contact.

  116. dicentra says:

    1. I don’t have any balls to bust. I checked.

    2. I’m supposed to be insulted by something you people say?

    3. I was wondering just today how well my occasional links to Twitter topics are received, and then decided I didn’t give a rip. What, you’re being charged for my comments?

    4. I’ve got a touch of Asperger’s (ergo “half-asped”), so I don’t have the socio-linguistic skills to care understand when I’ve been insulted.

  117. sdferr says:

    I’ll bet Bob Reed is one tuckered out son-of-a-gun about now. Hope to heck everything is okay with him and his.

  118. dicentra says:

    Our better cultural artifacts don’t have to be hidden from everyday contact.

    Someone needs to pick up the slack now that we don’t have Chuck Jones providing “What’s Opera Doc” or Victor Borge playing Lizt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody with the dog on The Muppet Show.

    Hey, is that on Netflix?

    ::looks::

    Oh hells yes! IN DA Q!

  119. dicentra says:

    Dayum. Criminal Minds has been filming at night all week, wrapping around 3 or 4 am. (The makeup people keep us tweeps up to speed.)

    (See, this is normally the kind of thing I decide not to post here, but now that the topic has been broached…)

  120. bh says:

    1. Your balls are like the drowning kid in Heat or the drowning kid in that Swedish chess movie, di.

    2. I’m just happy you’re not giving me a hard time for my complete inability to write standard English.

    3. Dave Burge just twittered that he hates that endearing fellow from Criminal Minds. Now you give a rip. Rip given. By you.

    4. Yes, that’s exactly what a psychopath would say if they wanted to develop a cover story.

    5. It’s poor form to use invisible ink in internet comments. Regardless, no, I don’t think Uncle Jesse should have gotten a spin-off show.

  121. Abe Froman says:

    I’m appalled that bh suggested that you have a distinctly male anatomical feature, dicentra. I hope that he’s more perceptive before mounting livestock.

    I believe that teasing is word he was looking for, before he revealed that so much of what we hear about the University of Chicago is true.

  122. bh says:

    You’ve gone too far this time, Mr. Froman!

    How dare you, sir! How dare you!

    The daring, how?

  123. sdferr says:

    Oh yeah, hey bh, that Elbows tune? It was in the last episode of In Plain Sight a couple of weeks ago, leading into the big shootout sequence toward the end.

  124. Abe Froman says:

    It’s the kitten peering through the ceiling which gives me the daring. Not even a crowned sausage that looks like a penis fears that poor bewildered little bugger.

  125. bh says:

    I sometimes wonder who chooses the music, sdferr. TV shows, commercials, all that.

    Wouldn’t necessarily want to have that job but they’d be a cool friend to have. Would always have a few new songs for you to listen to when they came over.

  126. bh says:

    Ceiling cat is a bit like a more perverted Holy Spirit.

    He’s seen things. He knows what’s up.

    Fear him.

  127. sdferr says:

    My sentiments to the t. Grifters bh, we’re just a couple of cultural grifters on the make.

  128. McGehee says:

    What has been ceilinged cannot be unceilinged.

    Or something.

  129. geoffb says:

    Iowahawk – rawks.

  130. dicentra says:

    Dave Burge just twittered that he hates that endearing fellow from Criminal Minds. Now you give a rip. Rip given. By you.

    Enough given to check. To be sure. That he didn’t. And now I don’t have to choose.

    Which reminds me that I was looking over my favorited tweets yesterday and nearly choked laughing on this gem of his:

    #JoeBidenSecretServiceCodeNames “Abandoned Sandbox Barbiehead”

    I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did.

    Also, ceiling cat is actually wall cat with the photo flipped 90°.

    And now the rip is given by YOU.

  131. zino3 says:

    #105

    bh,

    I thought I was about the only human alive who loves Bartok.

    Way cool, my friend.

    TLD

  132. dicentra says:

    The tweet came from Burge, not from the CM guy. I didn’t make that clear.

  133. dicentra says:

    I like Bartok. I actually liked the Bartok piano piece I had to learn back in the day, though that’s not a high bar to clear.

    If you want to know about my piano-lesson days, envision what happens when you put a leash on a cat.

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