Without any warning, they came and dug an enormous hole in our street two days ago, so big that it actually filled the street and blocked it completely. And it looks like today it is going to be filled in and paved over. The infill house up the street they have been building all winter is almost finished and the incredibly cheap and ugly over-height condo one block over was just finished in time for it to be occupied by drones before the winter.
And I just received an email from my snake in the grass city councillor [can I say that? [just did, ed.]] announcing a hip new urban development on an old contaminated place they have been dumping city snow on for years, the Bayview Yards
[Yes, that is “snow”.]
making the cheap neighbourhood to our north the latest greatest urban renewal since they invented setting your tax dollars on fire in front of you and then bragging about it.
Building new train lines, hip new buildings that will of course be “anchored” [what a bad metaphor: an enormously heavy object that we throw into the deeps] by an “Innovation Centre” [what else these days? everyone seems to want one] that will somehow “incubate” small innovative Canadian businesses by housing them in a former slum. [Sorry Mechanicsville, but I know people who grew up there, and have lived there for decades, and it just is the poorest neighbourhood this side of the tracks, and where one would go if one were looking to do something illegal, without having to stray too far. Like pick up an underage hooker if you are the most prominent heart surgeon in the region. Kid you not. Of course, she was a cop, and it was a sting and he was just stopping his car to chat with a pretty girl for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, but hey, sometimes they come and clean up even our swamp.]
But my complaint isn’t that Mechanicsville is going to get renewed; the place is ripe for renovation no doubt. My complaint is that they need to stop building all this new shit, because [you cannot go anywhere in my neighbourhood and it smells dreadful and there is a constant sheen of soot, which no one cares about because it is the commons and who talks like that these days, so that’s just a side whine] the infrastructure we have is falling down … I think I lost my sentence structure in the depths of my loathing for this problem.
For reasons I cannot fathom, economists seem to think on the whole that it is correct for a city to borrow money for capital projects, even when they are already in debt, and cannot afford to fix the things they already have. How can this be a good idea. Ah, I always forget the secret mantra: grow grow grow … if it grows we can tax it … if the tax base grows we can grow the tax base … grow grow grow … while we sleep, they are at it … grow grow grow … when you wake you can hear them … grow grow grow ….
I like living in a city, but this constant building for a future that can never arrive because it is the %$&#@&! future is ridiculous! The paint is barely dry on the last place they did this to in Ottawa, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they are trying to justify their light rail plans by doing all this along those lines. In for a penny, in for a pound. But everyone knows you have to have a monorail, even the Simpsons, with whom I shall leave you, because they say it all, in a song:
Because we’re twice as smart as the citizens of Shelbyville too!
sorry, but i have nothing positive to add. 🙂
You were wandering in a swamp perhaps too, looking backwards and finding just what you expected.
Here’s what we need. When will it happen? When pigs fly. The Oligarchy is already too well entrenched.
Jeff Sachs: Why We Need a Wealth Tax
Oops, gotta run. Need to think about whether to buy this opening dip in the stock market today.
yes Xty, giant rats are real. but they do not like daylight. the easiest way to get rid of them is by exposure. find them where they hide.
i believe that there is a bigger theme to your post in that all ponzi schemes require exponential growth. if the rate of growth even slows down, the ponzi collapses.
EO – so right you are. it is too late now to get that genie back in the bottle. history is going to repeat. we will get change, when joe six-pack can provide no food for his family. only then will the reactionary dumb asses realize that the Kochs’s et al were misleading them.
while i am on my soapbox – well, i never really left it – what is this bullshit spew from the nuttosphere that Cliven Bundy isn’t racist? please, everyone reading this, look up the definition of racist in the dictionary.
i realize that arguing with fools is a fool’s errand. i believe there is a famous quote along those lines. but maybe i can reach even one idiot, and that is why i do it.
and yes DN, the weather continues to suck here. 😛
It is a built in feature, 2 to 3% growth is required to keep the ball rolling uphill. It is a targeted interest rate, which tells you all you need to know it seems to me. Inflation good, deflation bad. So we have been taught. I know I am a simpleton about this stuff, but I think it is important to be one. Otherwise bamboozlement!
Well, that didn’t work. But I had a stop loss in, so no biggie.
It’s not like I’m a crazy gambler or anything. Three trades in the entire month. Two winners, one loss. Net plus $500. I’ll cool my heels now until next month, and do a couple more maybe. I hadn’t done any at all since October, so I guess I was due to go berserk.
Yup, need that 2-3% growth. And the thing is, even if it is just nominal growth (i.e. mostly just inflation), that will do. That will keep nominal debts still being paid. Vastly better than deflation and default. So that’s why soft money has completely replaced hard money in this world.
I guess the argument is whether that is a good thing or not.
Man, look at silver laying an egg again today. Gold gets the panic pop on Russia news, but silver? Nah…
“silver is the new copper”
I think it is a question of being way out of balance. We have come to rely on the soft money too much, and it allows for terrible development – speeds the pace of change. So I am as always a compromiser. But it is impossible to actually impose completely on people a method of exchange, and I think when the middle class are taxed so heavily they begin to move away from the money economy and the whole edifice gets shakier and shakier.
I am not quite on board with punitive tax rates that get over 100% but I do think size is always a problem, and I was talking to a chap who is doing some tough physical labour on a house that is so big it has three backyards: one for the pool, one for the kids with some elaborate play structure so they won’t have to mingle with the hoi polloi at the neighbourhood park, and one for his boat. The contrast between my poor friend and the jerk renovating the house is appalling and as my pal said, his dad used to use the phrase ‘more money than brains’ and he finally knew exactly what it meant.
I wouldn’t want to cap wealth, exactly, but I wouldn’t mind putting on some severe brakes. And I would really like to rein in the banks who make out like bandits while crying poor to the government. It is shameful, but apparently shame is out of fashion.
And speaking of hubris, did I really hear that the erstwhile mayor of New York thinks he has a fast track to heaven? Jeez Louise can these really be our best leaders? Yes, gun violence and gun control is an important issue, certainly more important than making someone buy two 16 ounce drinks at a time, and promoting it as an election issue is a fine thing to do. But he is such a horrible man. Here he is talking about going after the female vote, because apparently we waffle around:
“You’ve got to work at it piece by piece,” he added. “One mom and another mom. You’ve got to wear them down until they finally say, ‘Enough.’ ”
And here indeed is the heaven quote, but first I forgot the rock star one:
“I don’t know what your perception is of our reputation, and mine, the name Bloomberg around the country,” he said. But every place he goes, he added, “You’re a rock star. People yelling out of cabs, ‘Hey, way to go!’ ”
“I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
Whatever happened to humility and doubt? He is better at judging his actions than God … where is the lightening strike?
Oh but you will be happy to hear this: according to Forbes, Michael Bloomberg is no longer the richest mayor in the world, merely the 16th richest person in the world. He clocks in at 32.1 billion.
man, i just realized that the grey piles in the photo above are snow. it looks like coal ash. i think the land should be used for a community garden. Monsanto, Bayer, etc. are working on staple food crops that can grow in soil drenched in herbicide – so it’s not really that much of a stretch!
i too think that the overall issue is our system of banking. after 400 years of fractional reserve lending, no one realizes anymore that there are different ways. the usury arguments also have merit. a bank can create money from nothing, and then charge interest on it. wrap your head around that. it works until it doesn’t – like when the planet can no longer support both population growth and economic growth. it’s those pesky externalities. and give certain people the power to create money from nothing, and note the integrity and moral rectitude of those that are attracted to these positions of power.
i don’t know if i will ever trade again EO. but i still like to observe.
the weather today is shaping up. i even opened a window.
to celebrate i’m having a big late breakfast. bacon, eggs, and fried potatoes. and more coffee. (can you tell?)
edit: excellent comment Xty! i will be back in a while. good stuff.
Sometimes the bible does express things very well:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And I think this was a very interesting, and I think very even handed, discussion of racial politics in the USA.
Southern Whites’ Loyalty to G.O.P. Nearing That of Blacks to Democrats
And one technical correction, Bloomberg is the former Mayor of NYC, having passed the baton to Bill de Blasio last fall, who btw was referenced in that Wealth Tax video that I posted up above. And yes, saying you have a fast track to heaven is a ridiculous thing to say. Partially because of hubris, and partially because, ahem, heaven doesn’t even exist.
Characteristics of the two winning trades versus the one loser?
On the two winners, the setup felt perfect for me. I could hardly not trade them. I was sort of dragged into them, after months of inactivity.
On the loser I could tell it wasn’t quite right, but I wanted to trade, and that’s always a bad sign. A clear lesson learned. If you just want to trade, and you are willing to take a chance on a suboptimal setup, which is really no better than a coin toss, cuz hey it might work, don’t. Just…don’t.
I think that is the main problem with people who have a little success trading, and then decide they are going to do this full time. Now you must trade. You can’t wait for the fat pitch, you have to have something going all the time, and maybe in other sectors where you have less experience. And inevitably, it starts to go south on you because you are now trying a lot of suboptimal coin tosses, instead of being patient for the high probability shot.
quick update… i changed my mind on the coffee as i was starting to get the shakes. be back in a few.
Looks good. That would all work for me too. OK, except the hot sauce. And the green stuff.
Brings to mind one of my Dad’s favorite jokes. What’s the difference between parsely and pussy? Nobody eats parsely.
Rest in peace, Pop.
heaven is whatever you want it to be, or not be EO. besides, you cannot prove that there is no heaven, at least in many of the ways that it is conceptualized. do i believe in heaven? well, maybe. but my point is to not confuse factual statements with opinions!
… especially to someone like me who will argue a point just for the “hell” of it.
actually the green stuff is cilantro. i did not have any parsley for garnish. 🙂
in Germany i had parsley fried in butter. wasn’t too bad, gar nicht schlecht!
you know how Jesse has that widget that shows where his audience resides at any given moment? now think of the swamp, or should i say bayou. your link above made me think of that.
”A veces le hace el cunilingus, no con suficiente frecuencia en mi opinión”
if you are going to talk dirty, it sounds best in French.
Well, in heaven there is no beer. I know that much. But then, that’s about as far as I ever got in church.
“S&P has reduced Russia’s rating by a notch to BBB-, or one grade above junk level, and kept the country’s outlook at negative as the tensions with Ukraine continue to ratchet up. Russia began military exercises on its border with Ukraine yesterday in response to the latter killing five pro-Moscow rebels during attempts to reassert control over the eastern part of the country. The developments have helped send world shares lower today.”
if this were not so sad, it would be laughable. do the captured rating agencies even have any credibility left? and didn’t the US government foment the situation in the Ukraine, and the whole world knows it? why isn’t the US debt monster rebuked? this economic warfare is going to backfire. no freaking wonder gold popped. hurry up Putin, and dump some US toilet paper, at least enough to call the neocons bluff, so we can bring our troops home.
good idea EO. i’m popping that Hamm’s now. 🙂
oops…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA3L11A20140424
yes, exquisitely relevant, deliciously subtle. also Dude, i just checked, and in person, and Hamm’s here is still 41.10983 cents per can, if bought in bulk, and all of those digits are significant.
Do you get the 12 oz or the 16? Maybe the tall boys are cheaper per ounce.
The things I do for thrift… 🙄
Woodman’s has the 30 pack for 11.69 which includes the federal sin tax. another 5% for Wisconsin, and another half percent for Rock county, brings it up to 12.33295, to be exact. even after getting stomped on at every level of government, it is still cheaper than Coca-Cola. taxing sin is no match for the sugar lobby. 🙂
actually i don’t even know what sin taxes are built in the price at the state level. but i know beer is cheaper in Illinois, but booze is cheaper in Wisconsin, because of different formulas for taxing alcohol. i live close to the border as you know. back when i was an even bigger sinner, i used to drive the 15 miles to the great flat land to buy my tobacco and beer. but i quit the evil weed, and also gasoline has become much more expensive.
EO – Trader Dan’s latest echos your sentiment totally on forcing trades.
Yes to wanting to trade. Ties in with our friend insisting on no more home runs – those are wishful thinking gone mad.
As to heaven, I am not a believer. Stardust I accept, but an eternal afterlife – seems very unlikely. I cannot prove it doesn’t exist, but it sure hides from science very well. And most people who talk about it are trying to coerce your behaviour through fear and/or guilt. And that ad on tv for some new stinking movie that is all cosmic and features a dreamy kid is enough to make me almost anti-heaven. Insipid heaven … ugh.
By the way, I really dislike Kevin Costner, just have to add, speaking of insipid.
you are not current on your science Xty. eternity wins. but i am a crappy teacher, and the math is bizarre. doesn’t matter one bit anyway what anyone believes. you are your own master. and faith is a tool used to control, and damn is it ever effective.
but please, would you consider joining my church?
i’m really not here, but i miss you guys & gal, so i’m following along. read a fascinating interview with Jerry once and he said he met god many times, of course he was known as “Captain Trips”.
He was talking to himself her view, not mine
these guys got one piece of the puzzle right.
Saw the first dandelion today
The peas are up
So’s the radishes, onions, beets, lettuce, collards, and french sorrel
The horses are on pasture first day
Should have mowed the lawn
It was gettin kinda long…………..
Now, where have I heard this batshit crazy stuff before? Hmmm…(scratching head)…Oh yeah! Over at The Swamp!
Republican candidates cozy up to gun conspiracy theorist Larry Pratt
And yes, I was just thinking I’ll need to mow the lawn in a couple days. But the forecast is cold and rainy all next week, so…maybe one last reprieve.
Can I make it to May Day without mowing the lawn? That would be some kind of all-time record, but I dunno if Mrs. O would stand for it.
“But honey, I’m going for the record!”
side note: In recent years, first mowing has even been before the April 15 Emancipation Day, oops I mean tax day, which has really been pissing me off. A little evener upper is overdue.
Ok, so suppose all this Russia/Ukraine business has you worked up all into a tizzy. I’m not, but suppose you are. The websites that are giving you all this breaking news all the time are telling you to buy gold, because of course, this is the big one. Is gold turning out to be the best play? Oops, no. Energy stocks are killing it.
You mean the fearmongers are getting it wrong again? Sadly, yes. Sometimes a losing streak just gets so bad, you start to feel sorry for them. OK, I don’t really feel sorry for them, but I can see where it could start to happen.
Here’s the comparative chart since Yanukovich fled Kiev.
That’s as rad as not turning the heat on til Thanksgiving………..I know a guy………(not me)
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2014/04/24/Americans-Are-Still-Idiots-When-It-Comes-Investing
Oh, geez. It gets worse. I just realized that even US Treasury Bonds (you know, “satan’s paper”, you may have heard of it) are outperforming gold in this “crisis”.
Of course, the “smart money” piles into silver and miners in times of crisis.
Oh…wait…
“the horses are on pasture” NOT the one they are supposed to be on! Needed a potty break, so hey it’s the country, went out the front door (easier than going upstairs) and saw them where they shouldn’t be- secured that area (I hope)- thanks to more beer than my bladder can hold- I’m gettin too old for this shit (but they are exquisitely beautiful creatures)
Look at these smug little bastards, think they can go wherever they want to.
We need more Santana, and Gato (the cat) is just icing on the cake