http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42469716#42469716
I think he nails the issue.
We just don’t know!
I’m not a fan of all of his policies, but the guy is honest!
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POLITICAL: Trump nails the “birth certificate” issue
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Leave a Comment » | 
Political | Tagged: Birth Certificate, FRAUD, Obama, POTUS2012 | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Counter party risk … Gooferment style
Sunday, December 26, 2010http://www.cnbc.com/id/40791768
Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning
STATES, STATE, BUDGET, DEFICIT, PENSION, ALABAMA, PRICHARD, GOVERNMENT, MUNIS, MUNICIPAL BONDS
The New York Times
23 Dec 2010 | 04:39 AM ET
*** begin quote ***
This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.
*** and ***
Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.”
The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice — but it proves that the unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually does run out, and when that happens, misery and turmoil follow.
*** and ***
Current city workers could find themselves paying into a pension plan that will not be there for their own retirements. In Prichard, some older workers have delayed retiring, since they cannot afford to give up their paychecks if no pension checks will follow.
So the declining, little-known city of Prichard is now attracting the attention of bankruptcy lawyers, labor leaders, municipal credit analysts and local officials from across the country. They want to see if the situation in Prichard, like the continuing bankruptcy of Vallejo, Calif., ultimately creates a legal precedent on whether distressed cities can legally cut or reduce their pensions, and if so, how.
“Prichard is the future,” said Michael Aguirre, the former San Diego city attorney, who has called for San Diego to declare bankruptcy and restructure its own outsize pension obligations. “We’re all on the same conveyor belt. Prichard is just a little further down the road.”
*** and ***
A lawyer representing the city, R. Scott Williams, said that the city simply did not have the money. “The reality for Prichard is that if you took money to build the pension up, who’s going to pay the garbage man?” he asked. “Who’s going to pay to run the police department? Who’s going to pay the bill for the street lights? There’s only so much money to go around.”
*** and ***
And if a company goes bankrupt, the federal government can take over its pension plan and see that its retirees receive their benefits. Although some retirees receive less than they were promised, no retiree from a federally insured plan in the private sector has come away empty-handed since the federal pension law was enacted in 1974. The law does not cover public sector workers.
*** end quote ***
If a “company”, another legal fiction, failed this way, then the company’s executives and directors would be in jail. The only worse offense is to fail to pay “taxes”.
So why are NOT these Gooferment officials in jail for the holidays?
Where is the various “high level” Gooferments?
Where are all the Gooferment bureaucrats charge with protecting citizens from the various “Made-offs”?
Just because this is a Gooferment doing the defrauding, it should make NO difference.
It’s called counter party risk.
Immediately, the Federal Gooferment should force all subordinate gooferments to adopt “cash basis” conversion
Argh!
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Posted by reinkefj
NEWJERSEY: The pension mess
Saturday, December 25, 2010http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2010/12/tell-me-again-whos-at-fault-for-pension.html
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tell me again who’s at fault for the pension mess
*** begin quote ***
The state treasurer announced today that the state pension shortfall is at an all-time high.
*** end quote ***
>It’s the shock doctrine or disaster capitalism at its best.
Be nice if these two terms were defined? Or, perhaps, these are terms d’art of the Liberal media. You can’t seriously define what has been going on in the USA since say about WW2, (although some little L libertarians woud argue the “turning point” was 1913 with the income tax, the FED, and the Seventeenth!), as “capitalism”! Maybe “mercantilism”, “federal socialism”, or “empirical nationalism”?
> We have a huge Great Recession, the worst in more than 70 years
I’d call it a depression. But then I’m out of work. So I guess since you’re drawing a check, it’s only a recessions.
>what a great opportunity to kill off public sector unions and all
>their pensions and benefits. Private sector wages have been falling or
>stagnant for years, private sector benefits and pensions have been hallowed >out or become extinct.
But weren’t public sector pensions raised when private pensions were supposedly higher? So it’s logical, that, when private pensions become “cash basis defined contribution plans”, public pensions change as well.
(Note for those that don’t read my blog, I thought that CTW’s failure to make pension contributions or address the problem was terrible. “Pensions and benefits” are a FRAUD perpetrated on the working class. Without getting into yucky details, a business can pay $X for a certain unit of work. Now out of that $X, if the business “pays” $Y for “benefits”, then the worker gets X-Y. But, their “benefits” are tied to their job. So, let’s use life insurance as a concrete example. And, let’s keep it simple, life insurance costs either the company or the employee X$. Why don’t we just let the employee buy hi s or her own Damn insurance? Cause the Gooferment, the Company, the Politicians and Bureaucrats all have a vested interest in screwing the worker. And, everyone plays along with the fiction that some how this is “better”. Not better for the worker when he or she gets laid off, downsized, or whatever euphemism for fired you want to use.)
> race to the bottom in which American workers must compete with Chinese
> or Indian workers who earn a few dollars a day and have absolutely no
> protections or benefits.
So, instead of moaning and groaning, we have to learn to compete by moving up the value chain. We have to clear the road blocks to successful competition: taxes, regulation, education, paradigms / memes, and energy.
>Teachers and other public sector workers did not cause the Great Recession
Well, maybe they did. They have permitted the dumbing down of society. And, their union is absolutely out of control in the incestuous relationship with the professional politicians. Finally, as voters, they participated in a process that was designed and accomplished the destruction of the USA.
>they will be made to pay the price for the crimes of the
> Wall Street criminals.
As we all are!
> Katrina was the disaster
of Gooferment!
>
We have to separate the Gooferment from “Education”. If we are to have any hope of saving “the American Experiment”.
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Leave a Comment » | NEW JERSEY | Tagged: FRAUD, pensions | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: The “machines” vote
Wednesday, November 17, 2010Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:30:09 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein
Subject: Voting machines selecting default candidates
*** begin quote ***
Some voters in Las Vegas have noticed that Democratic Senator Harry Reid’s name is checked by default on their electronic voting machines. By way of explanation, the Clark County Registrar says that when voters choose English instead of Spanish, Reid’s Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, has her name checked by default. *Slashdot*, 26 Oct 2010 http://bit.ly/cBXWSj
[Reid won re-election, perhaps because of the strong Latino vote. PGN]
*** end quote ***
And, we trust “elections”. Why?
If voting changed anything significant, do you think the elite would permit it? Think USSR voting.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
GOVEROTRAGEOUS: More fraud reported
Thursday, September 2, 2010Feds Investigate ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Car Dealers
Government Auditors Find $94 Million in Rebates May Be Ineligible Due to Faulty Documents
By Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
Aug. 28, 2010
*** begin quote ***
The government is investigating at least 20 car dealerships it claims violated the rules of last year’s cash-for-clunkers program. Government auditors say up to $94 million in rebates may be ineligible because they lack the proper documentation.
*** end quote ***
Argh!
It was a bad idea form the start — destroying perfectly “good” cars — would be good enough for someone who doesn’t have a car or needs a cheap replacement — which “stole” future sales guaranteeing that future sales would crater!
Figure the handling costs of all the bureaucrats and now add the cost of fraud.
A disaster from end to end.
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Tagged: FRAUD, Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: DC eyes the IRA and 401k pots of gold
Sunday, August 29, 2010http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=196173
WND Exclusive
Government wants your 401(k)
Hearings set on plan to require Treasuries in ‘automatic IRA’
Posted: August 26, 2010 11:03 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
*** begin quote ***
WASHINGTON – AUGUST 17: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner speaks during a Conference on the Future of Housing Finance at the Treasury Department on August 17, 2010 in Washington, DC. Secretary Geithner hosted the future of housing finance conference with industry experts, leading academic experts and other stakeholders. The Obama administration appears to be proceeding with a novel way of financing trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their investment accounts. The requirement to invest private retirement assets has been cleverly buried within plans to create “automatic IRAs” that would mandate employer groups enroll all employees in 401(k) or IRA plans.
*** end quote ***
When the Gooferment needs trillions, where can it find it?
The retirement savings of the workers.
Think it can’t happen here?
Think again.
Remember FDR and the gold confiscation?
And all “they” have to do is tell the less than 2,000 “custodians” to send it in.
What Congress gives; it can take away. And, one should NEVER trust a politician. EVER!
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: Moral Hazard
Monday, August 9, 2010http://cafehayek.com/2010/08/successful-bailout.html
Successful Bailout? by Don Boudreaux on August 2, 2010
*** begin quote ***
Second – and more importantly – the chief economic case against the bailout was not that huge infusions of taxpayer funds and special exemptions from bankruptcy rules could not make G.M. and Chrysler profitable. Of course they could. Instead, the heart of the case against the bailout is that it saps the life-blood of entrepreneurial capitalism. The bailout reinforces the debilitating precedent of protecting firms deemed ‘too big to fail.’ Capital and other resources are thus kept glued by politics to familiar lines of production, thus impeding entrepreneurial initiative that would have otherwise redeployed these resources into newer, more-dynamic, and more productive industries.
*** end quote ***
“The broken window fallacy”
— Frédéric Bastiat Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas (That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen) 1850
I know for certain that the 5k$ that Obama robbed from my wife’s IRA could have been used to do something she wanted to do. Even if the bankruptcy only gave her a dollar, it was still HER dollar; not his!
Seizure by the Gooferment. Worked for FDR; worked for Obama. I won’t forget it either.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: FRAUD, Moral Hazard, Obama | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Gooferment claims ownership of rain
Wednesday, August 4, 2010http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/collecting-rainwater-illegal.html
Collecting Rainwater Now Illegal in Many States as Big Government Claims Ownership Over Our Water
by Mike Adams
*** begin quote ***
Salt Lake City officials worked out a compromise with Miller and are now permitting him to use “their” rainwater, but the fact that individuals like Miller don’t actually own the rainwater that falls on their property is a true indicator of what little freedom we actually have here in the U.S. (Access to the rainwater that falls on your own property seems to be a basic right, wouldn’t you agree?)
*** end quote ***
I’m speechless. Why do we allow these idiots to rob us blind?
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: FRAUD, Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Insurance companies screw dead vets!
Monday, August 2, 2010Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit
By David Evans – Jul 28, 2010 10:00 AM EST
*** begin quote ***
Lohman, a public health nurse who helps special-needs children, says she had always believed that her son’s life insurance funds were in a bank insured by the FDIC. That money — like $28 billion in 1 million death-benefit accounts managed by insurers — wasn’t actually sitting in a bank.
It was being held in Prudential’s general corporate account, earning investment income for the insurer. Prudential paid survivors like Lohman 1 percent interest in 2008 on their Alliance Accounts, while it earned a 4.8 percent return on its corporate funds, according to regulatory filings.
“I’m shocked,” says Lohman, breaking into tears as she learns how the Alliance Account works. “It’s a betrayal. It saddens me as an American that a company would stoop so low as to make a profit on the death of a soldier. Is there anything lower than that?”
*** end quote ***
This is outrageous.
While it may be important to protect the grieving families from blowing their money all at once, screwing them is unacceptable.
Where’s the VA, DOD, the politicians and bureaucrats?
Where’s the VFW and American Legion?
If I was KING, (and I’m not; nor do I want to be), I’d require that the insurance company open 100k$ FDIC insured accounts for the beneficiaries.
Fraud is force. Theft is theft. Stealing form widows and orphans is really low.
A plague on all their houses. The karmic wheel should roll their way. May their “lawn” be full of crabs.
What’s the one about wildebeests and elderberry?
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: CRIME, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Competing currency is an inflation hedge
Thursday, July 29, 2010http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story.aspx?id=481793
Competing currency being accepted across Mid-Michigan
by Dan Armstrong
Posted: 07.12.2010 at 8:13 PM
*** begin quote ***
Jeff Kotchounian says he’s used this Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver to get $25 worth of gas from a local station. While the government and banks don’t accept them, many others do. So why is there interest in these competing currencies?
*** end quote ***
Pretty simple.
INFLATION!
The Federal Reserve Bank is going to enable the politicians and bureaucrats to inflate their way out of the debt.
Of course, those on fixed income, the poor, and anyone with savings in dollars will be totally screwed.
A silver round may make the difference between eating and not.
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: FRAUD, Inflation | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: One slug is as good as another
Thursday, July 29, 2010*** begin quote ***
Their warning came as new figures indicated there were £41 million fake £1 coins in Britain – one in every 36 in circulation. This is a record level and suggests that the proportion of counterfeit coins had tripled in the last decade. The situation has worsened since last year, when one in 40 £1 coins were fake. Experts and MPs said the level of fakes were so high there was now a serious risk that consumer confidence in Britain’s most popular coin was becoming compromised.
*** end quote ***
There has to be something “funny” — funny peculiar; not funny hah — at the bureaucrats calling out that fake coins might undermine confidence in their fiat currency. <Just shaking my head in disbelief> What is the intrinsic value of their “real” fiat coin. It’s worth what someone is willing to give you for it. If it’s a fake, it’s still worth what someone will give you for it. So this should point out that there is no difference between the “Real” and “Fake” ones. Isn’t that “funny”? Like the stories of countries printing high quality fake $100 bills. Who cares? There’s nothing to be “faked” out of. When coins were gold, or even silver, there was something of value that you could be “faked out” of. Now one slug is as good as another. No?
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: fiat currency, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: Follow the money
Sunday, July 25, 2010http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=181549
How Congress makes Americans sick
Walter E. Williams
Posted: July 21, 2010
*** begin quote ***
The Fanjul family of Palm Beach, Fla., a politically connected family, has given more than $1.8 million to both Democratic and Republican parties over the years. They and others in the sugar industry give millions to congressmen to keep high tariffs on foreign sugar so the U.S. sugar industry can charge us higher prices. According to one study, the Fanjul family alone earns about $65 million a year from congressional protectionism.
*** end quote ***
Price supports and price ceiings are political payoffs to someone. You just have to follow the money. Cui bono?
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: economic freedom, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Buying a Kagan vote … … again
Saturday, July 24, 2010http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/07/an-obama-administration-job-for-senator-specter.html
Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
An Obama Administration Job for Sen. Specter?
*** begin quote ***
Sources tell ABC News that Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, has informed the White House that he would like to consider remaining in public service after his Senate term ends at the end of this session, and White House officials are keeping an open mind about possible job openings for him.
*** end quote ***
If the Illinois mess doesn’t prove anything to you, then you are a fool.
With Blago, that demonstrates that federal jobs are up for sale to the highest bidder.
Here’s the same thing happening again.
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Tagged: Disservice, FRAUD, Obama | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: Take only “Local” campaign conributions and publish them
Friday, July 23, 2010http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_investment_banker_fraud_1
Ex-Clinton fundraiser gets 12 years in prison
Thu Jul 15, 11:04 am ET
*** begin quote ***
NEW YORK – A wealthy Manhattan investment banker who was once a top fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton and other big-name Democrats has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for bank fraud.
*** end quote ***
So why isn’t there any penalty for the political beneficiary of this “crime”?
There has to be a better way.
I haven’t heard anything better than restricting candidates from accepting money from outside the district that they seek to represent and “publishing” all sources of any funds or in kind services. That way we’d at least know who’s buying what politician and how much influence they are likely to exert on some politician. Simple, effective and efficient. No diktats or bureaucrats required. Call it the “Honest Politician” pledge. And, it up to the politician to demonstrate compliance. Maybe we can setup the “Honest Politician Society™” to preserve the standard and sue politicians who make the claim but don’t follow the principles.
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Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: An unholy attempt to fix the Constitution in a back room! Cui bono?
Tuesday, July 20, 2010http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/mass_may_join_e.html
Mass. may join effort to bypass Electoral College
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
*** begin quote ***
Supporters are waging a state-by-state campaign to try to get such bills enacted. Once states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (or 270 of 538) have enacted the laws, the candidate winning the most votes nationally would be assured a majority of the Electoral College votes, no matter how the other states vote and how their electoral votes are distributed.
*** end quote ***
The political elite are seeking to rewrite the Constitution via backroom deals and open conspiracy to disenfranchise the “small states”.
When will we learn NOT to mess with the wisdom of the Dead Old White Guys. They were possible the smartest men ever assembled in one lucky place at the right time in history. We can go thru the Amendments passed, and one unpassed, as a litany to pure collective stupidity.
The Political Effete and the Party Powerbrokers would love nothing better than to have to win the popular vote in California, Chicago, New York, and host of other corrupt places to be assured of a national win. Ballot box stuffing and recounts on a National basis would become the norm. Argh!
The Electoral College was put in to protect the small states. The Constitution would have never been adopted without that design. I don’t know if they intended it, but it does firewall ballot box stuffing. Go ahead and stuff all you want in Massachusetts, you’ll only get 12 Electoral votes. Now if this change was adopted, that stuffing could determine the national election. Ever read any stories where there were more votes than registered voters (Say “hi” to Al Franken) or a large “graveyard vote” (Sam Rayburn and LBJ) or “voting machine breakdowns” in the non-machine party’s precincts? How about “keep counting until you get the answer you want then stop”?No, that could never happen in America!
And who is to tabulate and certify that grand total that all the conspiratorial states will use to determine their votes?
Argh! How stupid can we be!
# # # # #
UPDATE 01 August 2010
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/08/01/massachusetts_for_palin
Massachusetts for Palin?
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / August 1, 2010
*** begin quote ***
IT IS Election Night, 2012. The polls have closed. State by state, the votes are being counted, and gradually it becomes clear, to the bottomless horror of some voters and the unbridled delight of others, that Sarah Palin, the Republican presidential nominee, has bested President Barack Obama in the popular vote nationwide.
In Massachusetts, where Obama crushed Palin in a 79 percent landslide — the most lopsidedly anti-Palin vote of any state — “bottomless horror’’ doesn’t begin to describe the political reaction. For in 2010, Massachusetts joined the National Popular Vote compact, making a commitment to cast all of its electoral votes for the presidential candidate receiving the most votes nationally, regardless of the results in Massachusetts. The compact took effect in December 2011, when California became the 15th state to join, thereby uniting enough states to control a majority of the Electoral College. Now Massachusetts, the bluest of the blue states, must award its presidential electors to a candidate Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly opposed.
*** end quote ***
ROFL!
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the Republicans, to prevent a repeat of FDR’s four terms, term limited Ike. And, has dramatically altered the political landscape by making the President a “lame duck” in his second term.
That’s the best example of political stupidity.
The above Palin scenario would be absolutely hysterical.
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4 Comments | Political | Tagged: FRAUD, freedom | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
HARDWARE: APPLE TIME CAPSULE died. But that’s not the whole story
Wednesday, July 14, 2010http://store.apple.com/us/write/review/MC343LL/A
One of the reasons for moving from Windoze to Apple as opposed to Linux was the Time Capsule.
It worked fine, until it died.
(Restoring files was balky at times, but any time I really had to do it, I was able to get it off. The User Interface for partial or complete restores could be easier imho.)
One day, I just was dead. No power. Plugged it into a different outlet. Flickered but died.
When I went on the web, it said “OOW! Sorry. You lose!!! Should have bought AppleCare on it.” Which really put my shorts in a knot. Pay a couple of hundred bucks for a 500$ item. Typical “extended warranty rip off.
I got around to taking my now deceased and out-of-warranty TIME BRICK back to the Apple Store. And, played dumb.
The Genius plug it in and it flickered and died. Another Genius was called over to consult. Replugged it in and same thing. Another Genius came over looked at the bottom of it and called a team huddle in a corner away from me and I couldn’t hear or read lips.
Genius One went to the docked macbook and began wildly typing. Then he announced “bad power supply, we’ll replace it but you’ve lost all the data. OK?”
Sure, it was just my backup device.
Another Genius, number FOUR if you’re keeping score, came over an typed in their machine and paper began to spit out of their printer.
I signed off on the paper. They took the BRICK. And said they’d call in three days for me to pcik up my brand new unit.
A duccessful jaunt, but I’m still annoyed.
What if I believd the website and tossed the unit in the trash?
Argh!!!
This is “barbara streisand” that you have to be a mind reader and guess what’s been recalled.
Argh!!!
I’d call that an “unfair deceptive practice”.
SO, if ANY Apple product dies, I’d drag the dead smelly carcass into an Apple Store. And moan and groan until you got something for your trouble.
I’d even go one step further. I wouldn’t be adverse to visiting ALL the Apple stores within driving distance dragging the dead body into the store.
Sooner or later, you might run into someone who’d have pity on you.
Argh!
# # # # #
http://www.macworld.com/article/152634/2010/07/timecapsule.html
Apple announces replacement program for some 2008 Time Capsules
Posted on Jul 12, 2010 8:30 am by Serenity Caldwell, Macworld.com
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Using technology as the excuse for process failures
Wednesday, July 14, 2010http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69218
Census ‘Successfully Completed’ Work to Date Despite ‘Shaky’ Computer Problems, Census Director Says
Monday, July 12, 2010
By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter
*** begin quote ***
(CNSNews.com) – The director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Dr. Robert Groves, told CNSNews.com that the Census “successfully completed” all operations to date despite a “shaky” information technology (IT) system that affected the early weeks of door-to-door counting. He added that he does not have “any evidence” that the IT problems had a “quality impact” on the accuracy of the population count, but encouraged people to wait for a final report that will be issued by the Commerce Department’s inspector general to “see what he has to say” as an “independent voice.”
*** end quote ***
Can you say “cooking the books”? What better way to get the result you want than to blame it on the technology.
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: FLAW, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Pensions are a promise that will be reneged on
Monday, July 12, 2010http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/pressroom/pressroom_detail?pressrelease.id=1397
Is Your Pension Threatened?
For Immediate Release
July 09, 2010
*** begin quote ***
WASHINGTON D.C., July 8, 2010 — Controversy hit The Ric Edelman Show this week, when award-winning talk show host Ric Edelman ignited a debate on the future of public pensions in America.
A caller to Edelman’s nationally syndicated radio program sparked the debate. Mary Ellen, a 51-year-old, has little money in savings. But because she works for a city government, she can retire immediately thanks to a pension that will pay her $46,000 for life annually plus provide full health care benefits for the rest of her life. While she wondered if she could afford to retire, many of the show’s listeners wondered how our society could pay for her and millions of other public employees like her.
*** end quote ***
Interesting?
I’m more concerned about the trial balloon that urges the Gooferment to “save” old people from poor returns in the Stock Market by seizing all IRA / 401Ks from the custodians in exchange for an as yet undetermined “enhanced Social Security benefit”!
Wish Ric would opine on that.
We can all be in the same boat as the poor people in Zimbabwe!
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2 Comments | MONEY | Tagged: FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
GOVEROTRAGEOUS: “Unemployment insurance” ain’t insurace; it’s gooferment welfare?
Sunday, July 11, 2010http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=141537&catid=188
Man loses unemployment benefits after dipping into 401k
Lori Obert written by: Anastasiya Bolton
*** begin quote ***
LONGMONT – After 32 years at IBM, in August of 2009, Bob Jackson was laid off and looking for a job.
“I never dreamed I’d have to have unemployment some day,” he said.
Jackson has been looking everywhere, including retail and home improvement stores, for more than a year. He hasn’t gotten anywhere.
“We’re lucky to get half way through the month before we’re completely out of money. It’s been rough,” Jackson said. “It’s a hard market right now to find a job, especially at my age.”
In November, Jackson filed for unemployment and received two checks.
As part of the rules for receiving benefits, every two weeks, Jackson had to call into what is called a CUBLine (The Colorado Unemployment Benefits Line.) The automated line goes through a series of questions unemployment benefit recipients answer. During one of the calls, Jackson was asked if he’d taken out a distribution from his 401k. He said he did, $10,000 to pay for his son’s college.
*** and ***
“Under our unemployment insurance program we’re following state law, which is if you touch even $5 dollars for your 401k it will impact your benefits,” said Cher Haavind, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. “It’s an employer-funded program, whether it’s severance, pension or distribution of 401k, all those things, any other money you have received from the employer will play into your benefit amount.”
Haavind added, “The program is there to meet one’s needs again when they’re transitioning from job to job. Perhaps the perception is if you have other resources available to you that you should look at those first before receiving unemployment insurance benefits.”
*** end quote ***
Perhaps, the perception is that it’s “unemployment insurance”.
Argh!
Gooferment, and its bureaucrats, really drive me off the deep end.
So it’s not insurance; it’s welfare.
It’s “employer funded”. Sure it is. If they put it in your paycheck, you could save for your own “unemployment”! Argh!
So the politicians justifiy messing with people’s lives and money on the basis that they are too stupid to manage their own money?
Argh!
This is welfare for the lucky few and for the goofermetn bureaucrats who run the program.
Argh!
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1 Comment | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Tagged: economic freedom, FRAUD, Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: MP4B, mp4b … why should you even care?
Saturday, July 10, 2010http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-lebron-james-20100709,0,5931688.column
On an ESPN show, the King shows up a supportive community.
By Bill Plaschke
July 8, 2010 | 11:27 p.m
*** begin quote ***
If you are going to leave the team where you’ve spent all seven seasons, leave the area where you’ve spent all 25 years, doesn’t decorum dictate that you do it quietly, gently, gracefully? Given that this town hasn’t enjoyed a major sports championship in 46 years, and given that your departure could keep them from winning anything for many more years, don’t you think of them first? Did no part of last season’s $15.8-million salary mandate, you know, manners?
You want to leave this place where you are so beloved, fine. Leave it like a man. Issue a news release announcing your decision and thanking Cleveland for its support. Hold a local news conference with the Cleveland media to reiterate those thanks. Then, and only then, do you appear on a national ESPN show to talk about your decision.
But no, years of coddling have filled James with such narcissism that he no longer sees anyone but himself. While reaping financial rewards as this country’s most successful basketball prodigy, James has paid the price in a failure to develop integrity or character. Hey, if you can dunk on someone, why do you have to be sensitive to them?
*** end quote ***
MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”
This is “entertainment”.
It has nothing to do with humanity (i.e., think the USA 1980 Hockey team), the struggle to attain something (i.e., think the movie RUDY), overcome adversity (i.e., that fellow who without arms or legs swims the English Channel), or the nobility of sport (i.e., Little Leaguers line up to congratulate the winning team; Japanese baseball players salute the umpire, not revile him).
It’s all about the benjamins and extracting them from the booboisie. (1).
There’s something elegant about truly amateur sports. Before the money got into it, women’s college basketball was like that. Young women busting butt for its own sake.
There is no longer “nobility” in Sports. LeBron is just following in the footsteps of Tiger, Kobe, McGwire, Pete Rose, … right down to Marion Jones lying about steroids. Even children, Danny Almonte in Little League; a baseball scandal without the big buxs.
So why should I care?
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(1) booboisie (boob’wa-ze) n. The class of the population composed of the stupid and gullible.
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2 Comments | Ranting | Tagged: disrespect, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
SOCIALISM:Exactly how is microcredit for capital formation consistent with socialism?
Friday, July 9, 2010http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04171136.htm
RPT-FEATURE-Venezuela slum takes socialism beyond Chavez
06 Jul 2010 11:00:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Esteban Israel
*** begin quote ***
They are also turning their hands to urban agriculture and fish farming to feed locals, and say that the future communal bank will extend micro-credit to foster economic independence.
*** end quote ***
Why?
If these guys are socialists why do they need money. And, microcredit? That makes no sense. These guys are socialists. Credit is at the bedrock of capitalism. And, that’s their evil villain. Unfortunately, economics is as real as physics in terms of science. Scarcity is a sad fact of life. And, wishing it would go away is hopeless. And actually detrimental to making life better for everyone.
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Leave a Comment » | Political, SOCIALISM | Tagged: FRAUD, SOCIALISM | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
SERVICE: LEGACY send out notifications after expirations
Thursday, July 8, 2010>legacy sends notice of page going down AFTER it’s down
And, of course, the conflicted message: “email us” just not by replying!
Great IT architecture change. I guess the purpose is to generate revenue by forcing people to sponsor guestbooks. If the guestbook was reasonably priced, then they might have a change. But in this case, they are “grave robbers” trying to increase their bottom line
This accentuates the need for micropayments. Imagine that reading an obit cost a penny, or some fraction there of. WIth 300M people, let’s say 10% read the obits. (Probably higher!) That 30M times 1¢ of a Million Bucks! That would more than pay for the site. Plus ads. Plus all the other stuff they sell.
It probably has to be Visa or Amex to do it. It’s got to have strong cryptology, and audit ability. But it could be a real winner for some credit card company.
It could be tied into single use credit card numbers that also would need strong cryptology and account ability.
Wonder when someone other than a fat old white guy injineer will realize it?
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Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Tagged: dumb, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
GOLDBUG: Speculating about gold confiscation is asking the wrong question
Wednesday, July 7, 2010http://www.silvermonthly.com/195/government-confiscation-gold-happened-beforecould-happen/
Government Confiscation of Gold: It Happened Before — Could It Happen Again?
by: J.D. Seagraves
*** begin quote ***
Although the U.S. dollar is constantly under pressure, the U.S. government continues to stockpile debt, and impossible-to-fulfill entitlement commitments loom on the horizon, the idea that the U.S. government would try to confiscate citizens’ gold today or anytime in the foreseeable future certainly seems spurious at best. After all, the government did so in the past in order to recalibrate the gold standard, which we have not been on since 1972.
However, our government has become increasingly bold in its refusal to be restrained by the Constitution, and following the return to limited government (at least in rhetoric) by the Reagan administration in the eighties, the Constitution has been all but ignored by subsequent administrations and congresses.
*** end quote ***
Sorry, but that is absolutely the wrong question.
Yes! With Gooferment debt as far as the eye can see. And “unfunded liabilities” that even scare politicians and bureaucrats abound. (Not for the reasons you think; they are worried how they are going to collect! Did you forget the three “laws” of policial behavior again? Remember the three “laws” of political motivation: (1) reward your friends; (2) punish your enemies; and (3) feather your own nest.)
So with this “crisis” looming, the popular tin foil hat worry is “gold confiscation”. Sorry, but that won’t help the politicians and bureaucrats through this crisis. Last time, it was easy and there was enough wealth that could be stolen to make it worth their while. This time, not as many people own gold, they don’t old anywhere near as much of it, those that do own gold also own guns, the population isn’t as docile and complaint as back then, and the We, The People are aroused and as irritable as a cranky tired child .
No, there will be no “FDR-style gold confiscation” because, pure and simple, it can’t give the politicians and bureaucrats enough wealth to pay their own pensions. Or, even allow them to buy enough votes to get reelected. That’s what the “crisis” is all about.
I think the correct question is “what WILL they seize that can end the crisis?”. That’s the question.
The only pot big enough is the 401k / IRA wealth save by Americans for their retirement and held by a small number of “custodians”. 13T$! Sticking there waiting to be stolen.
That will be their target.
Of course, it will have to be done: “to save the children”. In this case, it’ll be the “child-like investor” who will be deemed to need their “retirements” protected from the inability of Wall Street to be honest and to generate the returns necessary for a “safe and secure” retirement. And, of course, the “crisis”, the American version of the “Reichstag fire”, will be to “save Social Security, Medicare, and the Drug Benefit”. There have to be some “poor children” in there somewhere.
Think back when Bush supposedly wanted to “privatize” Social Security. (Like that was going to ever happen. It sent the message that “you victims have been getting screwed big time” and now were going to “allow you to be screwed a little less”. It said sotto voce that maybe you the individual didn’t need the wise old Gooferment to plan your retirement!) Remember how the politicians and bureaucrats screamed that the Stock Market was “unsafe”. (Yeah, like getting a negative 3 per cent return on your “Social Security” investment was safe. Or, that depending upon Gooferment not to change the rules on “Social Security” again. Remember it was never going to be taxable. It was never to be changed. It was the supposed “third rail” of politics. It was “retirement insurance”)
Get ready for a large dose of propaganda!
I suspect the argument will run concurrently along several lines: “Save Social Security for Future Generations”, “Save your Social Security from the Boomer shift”, “No Social Security for the Wealthy”, “IRAs and 401ks are not ‘safe’ in the Markets”, “It’s not fair to poor people who couldn’t save”, and “The Gooferment gave you a tax break so some or all of it is theirs”. Argh!
When the Gooferment first created IRAs in my early days, I didn’t go into one because I was concerned about them changing the rules on them. If we had blogs back then, I’d have ranted about them. Eventually my then accountant, (I’ve gone through several since then), convinced me to “take the tax deduction”. It meant I paid less taxes out of my own pocket and had this pot of money, that I couldn’t touch until I was old, over on the side. Eventually, I thought this was how they were going to get out of the Social Security “problem”. (Little did I know then!) But I was concerned then about taxablity. I suspected that they end the program at a “bad time” (i.e., for the Gooferment; when they needed the money), make it all taxable right there and then, and I’d be stuck for an even bigger bill. Argh!
SO! Short story, long! No gold confiscation. IRA / 401k confiscation.
It’s easy. Only have to “rob” a few thousand “custodians” who are mostly big banks and brokerages that are already under the Gooferment’s thumb.
It’s “enough”. 13T$ will allow the Gooferment to keep on spending.
It’s “politcally feasible”. Propagandize the Sheeple. Promise them “enhanced Social Security”. (With interest rates at below 1%, how much cash flow would you have to pay on 13T$? Think lie they are taking out fixed rate mortgage and you’re stuck with the paltry returns. No adjustments. Argh!)
That’s the question.
And so what are you going to do about it.
Sheeple!
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Leave a Comment » | GOLDBUG | Tagged: conspiracy theory, economic freedom, facism, FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: Time to nuke Freddy and Fannie!
Thursday, July 1, 2010CAPITALJUNE 17, 2010
Rethinking Part of the American Dream
By DAVID WESSEL
*** begin quote ***
In hard-hit Las Vegas, nearly 59% of households own their homes, but only 15% to 19% of households own a home in which they have any equity left.
For many, the American dream of home ownership turned into a nightmare of debt and foreclosure. Some people should rent.
As late as the 1930s, a U.S. mortgage was generally a loan for three to five years, at which time the borrower had to pay it off. Then the government fostered the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage—and eventually the 30—and the concept that the homeowner would pay off principal in monthly installments.
*** end quote ***
Argh!
Several thoughts occur to me here:
① 15 to 20% of homes left with the owners having equity? All those senior citizens who bought retirement homes? That’s astounding.
② Talk about malinvestment. (That’s Austrian economics term. See below.) Detroit, Flint, and Gary are destroying houses to avoid providing gooferment services. We as a society have our wealth destroyed by such action. Are there no homeles there?
③ It would seem that the FTC and the TREASURY / FED / SEC could stop this disaster anytime they want to. Regulations of minimum down payment like stock margins. Rules about honest disclosure. Limits on what banks can resell as “securities”. AND, the biggest rule, the originator get stuck with defaults! No more package it and forget it. (But then we’d see just how crappy the economy is. And, how many banks would be insolvent. It’s in the Gooferment’s interest to keep putting lipstick on the is pig. Pucker up! Guess who’s going ot have to kiss it?
④ I remember reading that Freddy and Fannie make the economy more uncompetitive and more “rigid” in that owning a home meant the workforce could not adapt to new opportunities in new locations. A high percentage of folks renting means they can move more quickly. Didn’t the Mayans force migrations by burning the village and forcing them to move hundreds of miles? Is this our modern equvalent?
⑤ Speaking of Freddy and Fannie, I see where bailing them out is going to be the “mother of all bailouts”. Shouldn’t we put them out of their, and our, misery? Time for a Constitutional Amendment banning all GSEs! (Gooferment Sponsored Entities)
⑥ Why don’t we bring back the 30 year Treasury Bond as a method of financing the deficit and easing the pain we are facing? Or is the GOoferment afraid of what that 30 year rate will be?
⑦ On HGTV, there are a lot of home buyers, some first timers, who are buying big ticket homes with nearly nothing down. Several hundred thousand dollar mortgages and they need “mortgage assistance”, seller paid closing costs, and even the tax credits to make the numbers work at all. And, in the cases of two income “families” (i.e., DINKs), one paycheck is completely going to the mortgage. Isn’t that a recipe for default in a job loss scenario?
⑧ Perhaps, it’s time for multi-generational households (i.e., grandma and grandpa buy with their retirement money; mom, dad, and the grandkids bunk in)? Wasn’t that the model before Social Security allowed Grandparents to escape to Florida? Makes the Grandparent able to dodge the nursing home.
⑨ Interesting that the Wall Street Journal paywall isn’t very encompassing.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinvestment
“Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works.”
— John Mills, December 11, 1867, on Credit Cycles and the Origin of Commercial Panics
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: FRAUD, Gooferment, investments, Meme, Moral Hazard | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MEDIABIAS: No bias in delay for the Global Warming grazillionaire!
Thursday, June 24, 2010http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/The_Gore_complaint.html
The Gore complaint – Ben Smith: The Gore complaint
June 23, 2010
*** begin quote ***
Portland’s Oregonian today printed a police report echoing a National Enquirer story that a masseuse accused Al Gore of sexual harassment in 2006.
*** end quote ***
America is being badly served by the Fourth Estate!
Argh!
It’s a shame when the National Enquirer sets the standard for “journalism”.
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Leave a Comment » | MEDIA BIAS | Tagged: FRAUD, MEDIA BIAS, speech | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Pro $ports?
Saturday, June 19, 2010http://online.wsj.com/home-page?mod=djemalertNEWS
*** begin quote ***
The Los Angeles Lakers won their 16th NBA championship, dramatically rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 in Game 7 of the NBA finals.
*** end quote ***
Sigh, who cares?
MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”
And, the “after the win” riots. Why encourage this mindless activities? It’s not like the rioters “accomplished” anything.
Even the athletes in these endeavors seem hard pressed to generate enthusiasm in the interviews.
And, when you think of the tax money that subsidizes the “games”, well, that just sends me over the edge.
Sorry, but it’s all just so trivial in perspective imho.
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: FRAUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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