Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

“Alexa, change the president.”

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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39Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Dreggas

    I actually have been calling one of my friends at work comrade for the past week, we both talk about this stuff and figure we might as well start calling each other comrade sooner rather than later.

  4. 4.

    JL

    Sorry that this is lengthy but this is what I sent my senators and congressman today.. Johnny, Saxby and Tom

    I am writing today to urge you to vote NO to providing a blank check to the Fed and the Treasury. The financial industry has been struggling for more than a year. The suggested plan does not give the industry any incentive to fix itself. Paulson said on Meet the Press that homeowners who face foreclosure “should try to live up to their obligation.” The suggested plan does nothing to encourage investment companies do the same thing. Instead we are witnessing mergers creating banks and investment companies “too big to fail”. If they are “too big to fail” they are too big.
    Although the average American has continued to see their savings diminish, CEO’s and executives have been walking away with multi-million dollar golden parachutes. These individuals and the corporate representatives must be held responsible. They must be made to relinquish their huge bonuses and compensation packages. The compensation of all involved in the financial industry must be reigned in and monitored vigilantly in light of the current situation. Our democracy and free markets had always worked best when we have had oversight and regulations to discourage such greed.
    President Bush and his Treasury Secretary were in a position to be able to work out the bailout plan for weeks but now they are pushing hard to have Congress sign off within a few days. As a member of Congress it is your responsibility to exert strong leadership and oversight. This cannot be accomplished in a few short days.

    I’ll leave you with a copy of an e-mail that is making the rounds and rightly shows how upset the American people are.

    >> SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
    >>
    >> DEAR AMERICAN:
    >>
    >> I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.
    >>
    >> I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.
    >>
    >> I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.
    >>
    >> THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.
    >> PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO [email protected] SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARRDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.
    >> YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON
    >>
    >> Thank you,

  6. 6.

    r€nato

    it’s just not a proper revolution without some running capitalist pigs being put up against the wall.

  8. 8.

    DrDave

    I am temporarily calling myself Comrade John Cole in honor of our new found appreciation of the socialist state.

    Na vashe zdorovya!
    Now drink to your health, Comrade!

  9. 9.

    Scott H

    Apparently, if we don’t give Wall Street a trillion dollars we will get what we already got. From the AP:

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures unless they act on the Bush administration’s $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry.

  10. 10.

    S.G.E.W.

    I am so glad that Social Security and Medicare got sunk into the stock market, so that all poor old and sick people would die.

    Wait, that didn’t happen? Darnation and dagnabbit, I’ve been foiled again!

    /Stereotypical Mustachioed Villain

  11. 11.

    Studly Pantload

    Apparently, if we don’t give Wall Street a trillion dollars we will get what we already got.

    “The beatings will continue until my buddies’ morals improve!”

  12. 12.

    nicethugbert

    I just heard Franks on the radio selling this scam. Saying we could recover some of the value and gain some control over these companies.

    The real kick in the balls for me. Regulations come next year! WFT?! We’re at the end of the world! Regulations come now! You don’t treat a crack addict while he’s snorting the stuff by the bag fulls in your office!

    Only in Chimp DC do you throw money down the toilet while the lever is jammed down and the bowl water will not stop swirling!

  15. 15.

    S.G.E.W.

    Only in Chimp DC do you throw money down the toilet while the lever is jammed down and the bowl water will not stop swirling!

    We’re swirling, swirling, swirling towards Freedom.

    (waves miniature American flag)

  16. 16.

    nicethugbert

    Nobody is sold on this shit. What happens if The Dems lose the majority and this thing falls in McCains hands? Most of the oversight board is majority party owned!

  18. 18.

    Fledermaus

    I’m getting to the point where I’m no longer buying the bullshit. I’s sure that these titans of finance actually believe that the world will end unless they get the bailout now, but not many of us live in that world. It’s always an emergency when it affects the elite – remember the anthrax scare.

    Memo to Wall Street: burn motherfuckers burn

  21. 21.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.

    In other words, they saw that Wall Street was driving with oil light on but they said nothing. Now they want us to buy Wall Street a new car.

    How much less would this have cost if they’d put a stop to it “weeks and months ago”?

  22. 22.

    Fledermaus

    The other thing I noticed is that this just isn’t for mortgage bonds but literally any of the BS paper they’ve cranked out in the last 5 years or so. Really how does it hurt the rest of us if some CDO/CDS goes belly up?

    Recommended reading: Closing the Collapse Gap a talk with a russian who watched the fall of the USSR and compares how prepared USSR was to withstand the effects vs. the US. A sample:

    An economic collapse is amazing to observe, and very interesting if described accurately and in detail. A general description tends to fall short of the mark, but let me try. An economic arrangement can continue for quite some time after it becomes untenable, through sheer inertia. But at some point a tide of broken promises and invalidated assumptions sweeps it all out to sea. One such untenable arrangement rests on the notion that it is possible to perpetually borrow more and more money from abroad, to pay for more and more energy imports, while the price of these imports continues to double every few years.

  23. 23.

    NonWonderDog

    I’d go with “Товарищ Кол,” myself.

    I think that should actually be “Товарищ Коул”; I’m unsure on the transliteration of “Cole.” “Коль,” maybe?

  24. 24.

    Comrade Binzinerator

    Only in Chimp DC do you throw money down the toilet while the lever is jammed down and the bowl water will not stop swirling!

    We’re swirling, swirling, swirling towards Freedom.

    In Soviet America, water never swirls the same way down the drain.

    “The main thing … is to overthrow all existing institutions.” — Karl Marx

    “Those are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.” — Groucho Marx

  26. 26.

    Dennis - SGMM

    PAULSON (Holding a gun to his own head): “Hold it! The next man makes a move the economy gets it.
    BUSH: Hold it men, he’s not bluffing!
    BERNANKE: Listen to him men. He’s just crazy enough to do it!
    PAULSON: Drop it! Or I’ll blow this economy all over the world. (Falsetto voice) Oh lawdie lawd, he desperate! Do what he say, do what he say!

  27. 27.

    Sturmführer Binzinerator

    ‘cept it’s not socialism good Comrade John, it’s fascism. Almost textbook by some definitions.

    We will call it the GOP Neuordnung.

    I for one welcome our new Reichskommissariat Amerikanische overlords.

  28. 28.

    clone12

    Given that China is not exactly communist these days, The moniker “People’s Republic of Wall Street” imparts a perception that they are capitalists…

  30. 30.

    binzinerator

    PAULSON (Holding a gun to his own head): “Hold it! The next man makes a move the economy gets it.

    Man, I totally thought of that scene too.

    Especially the part where Paulson says “Ooh, baby, you are so talented! And they are so DUMB!”

  31. 31.

    binzinerator

    How much less would this have cost if they’d put a stop to it “weeks and months ago”?

    Amen.

    They knew what was coming in 2006. But to do something about it then means it would have cost their party a landslide takeover of senate and house in 2006, and the fuckup was so big even then it would still have cost them any chance at the White House now.

    Gosh what a dilemma for the GOP. Do what needs to be done to preserve America’s future economic and military power and secure our position to lead in the next critical 20 years but be rightfully kicked out of office as a just penalty for almost flubbing it; Or, say nothing and continue to fuck everything over and sit and watch the economic vitality get sucked out of the entire nation and likely the entire world economy in exchange for another chance at hanging on to power.

    So naturally they said nothing. Until 6 weeks before the Presidential election. It was timed very carefully to terrorize people into submission and to shift the blame for what happened on their watch onto the Dems.

    Gosh, that sounds familiar….

    It has always been Party First.

  33. 33.

    Nikolita

    I asked on another website what was so bad about socialism and why so many Americans seem to treat it as an insult (on the internet anyways), and I got called a homosexual mouth-breathing commie.

    I did look up the definition of socialism, but still can’t figure out why it’s such a bad thing. And yes I understand there’s varying types of socialism.

  34. 34.

    Jon H

    “So naturally they said nothing. Until 6 weeks before the Presidential election.”

    Fuck, they waited until RIGHT BEFORE CONGRESS RECESSES FOR THE ELECTION.

  35. 35.

    Napoleon

    You can call me Comrade Napoleon, but since I take my name from Napoleon from Animal Farm, I guess I am already Comrade

  36. 36.

    TenguPhule

    Long live the People’s Republic of Wall Street.

    Death to the Capitalist Oppressor Cats!

    (Because I’m a dog person)

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. […] September 26, 2008 Following the leads of my comrades at Calculated Risk, Comrade John Cole, and Comrade Earth-Bound-Misfit, I am temporarily changing my name to Comrade PhysioProf, in honor of the fact that we have apparently become a socialist state. As Comrade EBM put it: Warrantless searches. Warrantless wiretaps. Detentions without trial. Accusations of treason against those opposed to the regime. […]