I’m a big believer in food therapy, although the older I get the less often it takes the form of eating a bowl of raw cookie dough. One of the new activities I spoke of yesterday requires me to drop Kate off downtown at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, which is a strange time. If I head back out to the ‘burbs I run into after-work traffic, and so I look for stupid little errands to burn time until it thins out. Check out a possible bike route, buy a dozen tamales in Mexicantown, whatever. Yesterday I popped into a venerable downtown bar/restaurant called Cliff Bell’s.
Mmm, happy hour. (But I can’t drink on weeknights.) Not too crowded. Lovely venue, restored in 2006 to its full Art Deco glory. Framed newspaper articles in the foyer outside the ladies’ describe it as a former speakeasy, or “blind pig” in the local jargon. It also says it opened in 1935, two years after Repeal. Well, I guess it could have been a blind pig before that — there were certainly enough of them. More fascinating fact: Blind pigs were the source of 50,000 jobs at their peak during Prohibition. Fifty thousand! That earns them a place at any economic-development table in my world.
But today is 2011, and the drinks are considerably more expensive. I saw complaining on Yelp about $12 martinis but as I said, I wasn’t drinking. I looked over the menu and saw just what the doctor ordered: Steak and eggs. It came in the form of a petite filet on a small potato cake, topped with a runny one sunny side up, napped with bernaise. It was raining and chilly outside, and all that warm protein just hit the spot.
On the way home, I took a few side streets to the freeway and watched a lone cyclist cross my path — no lights, dark clothing, with what appeared to be half a dozen hula hoops carried crosswise across his body, but a closer look revealed them to be insulated cable of some sort. A scrapper taking his treasure to the yard. I bet he won’t be enjoying the steak and eggs at Cliff Bell’s anytime soon.
How did the morning slip away again? I’ll tell you how: Editing copy. My reporters are young, they’re inexperienced, and they don’t always deploy their adjectives with care. May I also add that their only role models in pop culture are TV types, and every time one of these show ponies asks, “And how did that make you feel?” before tipping the mic in the subject’s direction, God kills a kitten. At the very least He gives me another story to fix, written by someone who thinks that’s how you do journalism.
I shouldn’t talk. My students teach me something every day, and seeing them grow over time is genuinely rewarding. One I would have written off a year ago called me a couple weeks back, shaking with excitement over being sent to New York to cover Occupy Wall Street. The story he filed was better than anything he ever wrote for me. I hope I had something to do with it.
But now I must away, and I will not be in my regular place tomorrow. I’m off for a weekend of R&R in an undisclosed location, although I’m sure there’ll be photos. But tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., I hope to be looking at Detroit from a rapidly ascending airplane.
Meanwhile, here was the most eye-opening story from last night’s health beat:
Expectant mothers are more likely to die from murder or suicide than from several of the most common pregnancy-related medical problems, a U.S. study said.
You don’t say.
One of my Facebook friends posted this video two days ago, on the birthday of Father Charles Coughlin. Remarkable in many ways, but perhaps mostly for the casual use of “voluble” in a newsreel script. But how did he feel? Also note the use of dramatic reenactment.
I have to go. I hope it’s not raining where you are, because it sure is here.
Suzanne said on October 27, 2011 at 10:19 am
Food therapy, oh yes! It’s the reason I weigh a little more than my youth. Butternut squash risotto, lentil soup with homemade bread, almost anything with bacon, macaroni and cheese. Oh, on a cold, rainy day like this, what I wouldn’t give to be at home, heating up the kitchen with baked goods and something simmering on the stove.
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Peter said on October 27, 2011 at 10:28 am
Thanks to Herhsey’s and Halloween, my seasonal food therapy needs are well taken care of, thank you very much.
Re: Coughlin tape – I never thought you could use “pretentious” as a compliment.
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coozledad said on October 27, 2011 at 10:29 am
We’re getting ready to brunch on a duck-egg tortilla. Six snot-green duck eggs(they’ve been eating acorns),goat cheddar, sliced potatoes, wax peppers and thinly sliced bitter gourd to make it all healthy like.
Chest pains? Must be gas.
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Linda said on October 27, 2011 at 10:31 am
My favorite food therapy this time of year is soup. Squash is good; so is chicken noodle. And Thanksgiving weekend is empty without turkey carcass soup. But my new favorite is Greek lemon-chicken-rice soup. Five ingredients, 1/2 hour, and you have thick, soul-warming soup that sticks to your ribs.
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Suzanne said on October 27, 2011 at 10:42 am
Best mac and cheese recipe I’ve found yet. My mouth waters as I type this
http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2009/04/mac-cheese-lottie-doof-style/
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Dorothy said on October 27, 2011 at 10:49 am
Linda Linda Linda – would you share the recipe?!
Speaking of Prohibition I discovered yesterday that the actor who plays Richard (the half-masked WWI soldier) in “Boardwalk Empire” is the grandson and nephew of Walter Huston and Angelica Huston respectively. How ’bout that?! I think he’s doing a remarkable job in that role – I can’t take my eyes off of him when he’s on the screen, even in full make up with the missing eye and scarred cheek.
Happy 32nd anniversary to my beloved. Mike had a pretty, autumnal basket of flowers delivered to me at the office and all the girls are ooohing and ahhhhing over them. Off to have lunch with him, then returning to the madness of a Trustees Gala two-day event here on campus. We’re dedicating the new Gund Art Gallery today at 5:00, then tomorrow five new student housing buildings and a big fancy dinner for 265, black tie optional. Woooweee!
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Sue said on October 27, 2011 at 10:51 am
Regarding Occupy Oakland –
On October 7 I commented here about the occupy movement: “I think this will get ugly (beyond nightsticks) sooner rather than later”.
Sigh. The only thing missing now is a CSNY song.
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Linda said on October 27, 2011 at 11:13 am
Here’s the recipe. But use the juice from a lemon, NOT the bottled:
4 c. chicken broth
2 skinned, boned chicken breasts, diced
2 to 3 oz. uncooked regular rice
2 eggs
3 tbsp. lemon juice
Dash of salt
Dash of white pepper
In 2-quart saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice and breast meat, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 15-20 minutes. In small bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice. Stirring constantly, add 1 cup of slightly cooled-off soup, a little at a time. Stir mixture into soup in pan and heat. Do not boil! Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
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Judybusy said on October 27, 2011 at 11:14 am
Happy anniversary, Dorothy!
The gala sounds fun, even if it’s a lot of work. My fave non-profit tried a new fundraising model and had our first annual fundraising breakfast. It was a tremendous success, and will help ensure we get to our goal of ending homelessness for people living with HIV/AIDS in Minnesota within 10 years. Doing work like that is also therapy for me.
Last night we made spaghetti squash topped with a thick bolognese sauce. Sometimes Rachel Ray comes up with surprisingly good stuff.
Thanks for the Greek soup recipe, Linda. It sounds wonderful and an easy weeknight meal!
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Bitter Scribe said on October 27, 2011 at 11:15 am
Regarding Coughlin, it’s a not very amusing irony that someone who purportedly started out fighting bigotry became one of the most prominent anti-Semites of his day. (And that cassock is a hoot. Does anyone still wear them?)
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LAMary said on October 27, 2011 at 11:22 am
Last night I went to my first ever spinning class. Afterwards I braved Costco, which is next door to the spinning place. I bought a roasted chicken, baguettes, salad greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I got home, sort of assembled the salad and told the household they were on their own food wise.
I was feeling pretty wiped after the spinning class. Ok, my legs and shoulders were achey, but what they don’t tell you about spinning class is the first time you do it your butt kils you. My legs and shoulders are pretty much fine this morning, but my butt is killing me. If this is TMI, I apologize.
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 11:34 am
Littlebird made roast broccoli last night with snapper and roast kale too. The roasted broccoli was absolutely delicious, I’d not had it before. It gets crispy, would make a great snack food, you could eat it like popcorn. Roast kale is also crispy and with sea salt, it’s a great substitute for chips. Gives you the textural satisfaction of crunchiness and saltiness and so good for you. We just lightly spray on canola oil, it quickly crisps up in the oven. I heard about it here in the comments a few weeks ago and have been eating it ever since.
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Peter said on October 27, 2011 at 11:37 am
Bitter, cassocks are making a comeback! I saw an article in the local catholic rag that the seminary students just love wearing them, and I’ll let you guys handle the room service fastball from here.
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coozledad said on October 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
Sue; Mayor Quan and the cops fucked up bigtime, and now she’s trying to do an about-face. Too late. The response has been overwhelming.
Paul Ryan and his lot ought to just go ahead and shirt up for the tumbrils.
All that phony preaching about freedom and the “thank you for your service” bullshit is going to bite those frauds on the ass: especially the ones who were looking to profit from the Iraq adventure.
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Judybusy said on October 27, 2011 at 11:58 am
Mary, go a few more times and your butt will be fine. It’s just like riding bike in the spring with winter-tender nether regions. Also, getting the padded shorts will make it more comfortable. I’ve been going to spin for a really long time; it’s a super easy and for me, a fun way to stay in shape.
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4dbirds said on October 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Is the data about pregnant women being at high risk for violence new? I think I remember seeing that a few years ago. It could be because I worked for a company doing clinical studies. Knew about the new screening recommendations for prostate cancer, breast cancer, etc before they were public.
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beb said on October 27, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Steak and eggs . [insert Homer’s drooling sound]. Sounds a lot better than what I had planned for lunch (which was a nice stuffed pepper soup, which is quite tasty before some reason has been a little had on the stomach.)
While there has been much talk about the amount of police violence at the #Occupy demonstrations I find it odd that no one seems to mention that Occupy Detroit has not had anyone arrested. It wasn’t even mentioned when Olbermann was talking about a town in New York that avoided strife.
It would be nice to see ol’ Neil cut a tune, like he did with “Ohio” and maybe he will. Certainly this is beginning to resemble the police riots of ’68. And you have to wonder what’s so wrong about letting people squat for a few weeks on public property? Don’t the police have bigger fish to fry?
Lemon-rice soup. Ah. ambrosia. We learned to fake it by mixing Campells Chicken with rice soup with their cream of chicken soup and adding lemon. The best, I think, is Laikon’s which, I think, uses a lamb broth.
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LAMary said on October 27, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Thanks, Judy. The instructor, who also works here at the hospital with me, said the same thing.
I’m pleased my legs aren’t hurting. All my canyon schlepping has paid off. I’m not feeling as ancient as I thought I would.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 27, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Don’t know about it being in first place, but I know we used the stat on highest risk for pregnant women in OH as *including* domestic violence back in ’92 when we were starting our transitional housing program, came from the battered women’s shelter which was (and is) one of our core referral sources. It was second or third back then, and would have been 1990 or earlier data for the study. Can’t find the cite for back then (pre-computer days), but I’m pretty sure it was ODH data (Ohio Dept of Health).
Update: courtesy our service coordination director at Licking County Coalition for Housing — http://www2.odh.ohio.gov/Data/Womendata/book4/domviolence.htm & http://www.ncdsv.org/publications_pregdv.html (second link has studies going back over 10 years).
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Catherine said on October 27, 2011 at 1:06 pm
The Occupy movement isn’t meeting the same response as in Oakland everywhere. From scpr.org: “On Wednesday evening, LAPD Public Information Director Andrew Smith was out wandering and talking to the protesters, as he says he does nearly every night.
‘For right now, nothing has changed in our posture towards the crowd here,” he said. “We’ve had great cooperation. We’ve had meetings with [protesters]. We meet with them just about every day. Everything’s working out great. We’ve had a very peaceful, nonviolent expression of people’s First Amendment rights here, which has been fantastic for us.'”
My kids have had a lot of questions about the whole thing. I’m thinking of taking them to the LA encampment this weekend… don’t want to be a protest tourist but I think they’d learn from it.
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Jeff Borden said on October 27, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Thanks for the links to Father Coughlin. I’ve used some radio snippets I’d found in a section I teach on propaganda and demagoguery in my public speaking classes, but these videos are a treasure trove. God, what an amazing ego that creep must’ve had to participate in a silly “recreation” where he takes on the Klan. Then again, when comparing the rhetoric of Coughlin with modern-day demagogues like Glenn Beck, he’s positively a shrinking violet.
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Jolene said on October 27, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Seems like a protest has to disturb someone at least a little to have any kind of effect. Having the police chat pleasantly w/ protesters may be good from the viewpoint of the police (and.the powerful) whose desire is to remain undisturbed, but what does it accomplish?
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Dexter said on October 27, 2011 at 1:43 pm
My past food therapies: Burritos at Blackie’s Corral in Fort Wayne…I think it was on Fairfield south of downtown a minute or so.
Fast Food fixes: Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips, Sambo’s Pancakes, Famous Fish of Stroh.
We used to eat at Zoli’s several times a year, guylas and that dessert cart…what a place. And “Three and a bean” at Fort Wayne’s Famous Coney Island on W. Main.
In Auburn it was the giant tenderloins at The Town Tavern.
For steaks, Bill’s Steak House in Bronson, MI.
And for the best cheeseburgers and ham and cheese from the grill, the undisputed cham-peen was Cricket’s Tavern on W. Seventh. I bet I ate 5,000 Cricket’s cheeseburgers…maybe more.
And I gave my first wife her engagement ring over dinner at Alexander’s on State in The Fort. Worst thirty bucks I ever spent ! And I mean that’s what THE RING cost!
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LAMary said on October 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Catherine, my sons have both been down to City Hall every weekend since it started. The younger one is especially interested and that’s fine with me.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 27, 2011 at 1:52 pm
If you’ve been asking just how unusual is Herman Cain, Nate Silver says “About 4.5 standard deviations.” You may insert your own humor *here* – but if he pulls just a second place in Iowa and then in South Carolina, I think it could be a long pull for Romney fending off the Hermanator down through the end of the primary season, as Perry continues to shed burning hunks of wing & aileron, insisting he’s right on course & schedule. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/herman-cain-outlier/
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Catherine said on October 27, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Jolene, you’re absolutely right. I think people are disturbed — the mayor’s starting to act POed — it’s just such a lovely contrast to LAPD’s history as a quasi-military bunch of assholes.
LAMary, my kids are 6th and 8th grade so I’d need to go with. What impressions/questions have your sons brought back?
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LAMary said on October 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm
The older one isn’t talking. Knowing him he’s taking notes. Younger one has mentioned how everyone seems to help each other and how “together” they all seem. I guess he was sitting on the steps of City Hall and one of regulars told him that he could get arrested for doing that. It wasn’t likely he would, but he could. So they seem to be looking out for each other and trying to get a message across without pissing anyone off too much. Younger son is a senior in high school and I think just in the four years since his brother graduated the prospects for the future have become significantly dimmer. I think going downtown and hanging with some people who are trying to bring attention to the situation does him some good.
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caliban said on October 27, 2011 at 3:07 pm
“Police riots of ’68”? Got that right, Beb. Chicago PD acted as a criminal conspiracy, terrorist cell, or both in Grant Park that summer.
When I was 16 or 17, I went to Mass at the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak. Coughlin stopped Mass four times at unprescribed spots in the liturgy to deliver sermons/rants about the efficacy and righteousness of the escapade in Viet Nam. In a way, I owe the asshole. His unseemly influence caused my Draft Board in Royal Oak to have the country’s highest rate of volunteerism. I was able to drop my student deferment for a 1A with nearly certain knowledge they’d never reach my appalling 46 lottery number. Hello, 4H.
I want to see Occupy Boston, because by law, the Common is owned by every citizen of the Commonwealth. Menino and the cops could not do a thing legally. In fact, by Charter, every citizen of Massachusetts has a legal right to graze a cow on the Common, across the street form the State House.
Halloween Music:
Bringing Mary Home.
Ghost Riders.
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Littlebird found a great deal at Marshall’s for a LeCreuset dutch oven so pot roast here we come. It’s a long story that I probably already told here but I recently had 2 All-clad pots get holes blown through them from my electric stove. Those are supposed to last a lifetime. But it wasn’t the fault of the pots, it was the stove. I got a new stove, obviously.
I’m thinking about checking out Occupy Chicago this weekend, they have had mass arrests at Grant Park, I think for camping out, not really sure why.
Jolene, good point about protests causing a ruckus. It seems if you don’t make at least a little disturbance you don’t get any press.
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caliban said on October 27, 2011 at 3:26 pm
It’s pretty obvious from GOPer shenanigans in the supercommitte, that these frauds don’t care about balanced budgets or paid down debt. Their dual aims are to cut revenue to the bone, and subsequently, to scale federal government down to defense and leasing mineral rights to multinationals for next to nothing. Of course, their go-to is cutting rich people taxes and fighting class warfare on their behalf. That’s where the obscene campaign contributions are, not those lazy ass middle class people whose productivity created the wealth the 1% are consolidating.
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Joe Kobiela said on October 27, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Isn’t the mayor of Oakland a Democrat? I think Big Dick Dailey was one also back in 68.
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Joe, Democrats can be dicks too.
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Joe Kobiela said on October 27, 2011 at 4:41 pm
I know I just wonder why no one ever points that out here.
Pilot Joe
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Judybusy said on October 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Then you would’t have anything to grouse about, Joe–said with great affection!
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beb said on October 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Joe, I’d say the media does it all the time when they talk about Congress failing to something about jobs when the reality is that opposition comes from dickheaded Republicans who are actively destroying the economy so Obama won’t get re-elected.
In a field containing Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann, Democratic dickheadedness would take a microscope to find.
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Blagojevich is a Dem and many here pointed out what a dick he is.
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alex said on October 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm
I know I just wonder why no one ever points that out here.
Whaddaya mean? You do it all the time, Joe, so why should anyone else bother?
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caliban said on October 27, 2011 at 5:52 pm
I was at Grant Park during the Convention in’68. Those cops weren’t under anybody’s command but the spirit of the mob they formed. Dailey was a law and order asshole, but his alleged political affiliations had nothing to do what went on then and there. Those cops were completely out of control.
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Joe Kobiela said on October 27, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Beb,
Congradulation you figured it out. We all know that all the Republicans want to poison the earth, throw gramma and grampa out in the street, and destroy the economy, the big meanies. The democrates would never ever do anything to hurt the republicans chance to hold onto an elected office. Right?
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 6:29 pm
I visited Chicago in 1969 and sat in Daley’s chair behind his desk in his office while he was away. It was a group tour and the guide asked me if I’d be interested in trying out his chair. I was mortified to be singled out from the other students in my group. I was there taking an urban sociology course while I was in college in Nebraska. We also went to see Jesse Jackson at Operation Push, he was a dynamic speaker then. He did his “I am Somebody” routine. That was my first time ever in Chicago, I fell in love with the city then, but it took many years before I got to actually live here.
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Little Bird said on October 27, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Pot roast yes, but maybe not with that whole stick of butter.
And for those with a Marshall’s or a HomeGoods nearby, check them out for cast iron (enameled) dutch ovens. They have a few brands all at a great price.
(great, now I sound like an advertisement, sorry about that)
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LAMary said on October 27, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Joe, I think all the Republicans want to do is keep Obama from a second term. That’s all. They block everything they can, give him little or no credit for what he does accomplish, and blame him for everything that goes wrong. Mitch McConnell’s stated aim when Obama was elected was to make him a one term president. Not create jobs, fix the economy, or deal with the mortgage crisis. Nope. Just keep the newly elected president (elected by the majority of US voters) from being elected again.
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Joe Kobiela said on October 27, 2011 at 8:11 pm
LaMary,
I’snt that exactly what the Dems tryed to do too both Bushes???
Pilot Joe
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Jim Neill said on October 27, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Joe,
I seem to remember that after 9/11/01, the reps and dems pretty much gave GWB whatever he requested, because it was all “to support the troops and protect us from terrorists”.
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coozledad said on October 27, 2011 at 9:04 pm
What will perplex historians in the future is how rapidly our decline from a nominal republic to a kind of polyestocrocy where anyone perceived as being in possession of a few extra dollars was immediately accorded a blowjob by the press and held up as a shining example of patriotism for people inclined to plant their lips on some mob dick and suck as if there were no.fucking.tomorrow. occurred much more swiftly than it did with the Greeks, Romans, or Brits.
It wasn’t until the American Elagabalus strutted that carrier deck with his codpiece and proclaimed the successful end to the war that put the stake in his empire’s own heart that history was able to fully acknowledge us as the world’s most preternaturally gullible assholes.
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Deborah said on October 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
No Joe, I don’t think that’s accurate about the Dems doing the same to both Bushes. If you look at the record you will find much more cooperation and collaboration than the Republicans have demonstrated since Obama’s election. It is common knowledge.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 27, 2011 at 9:48 pm
It was a lovely night at Sycamore Lodge, with dozens of kids all saying “thank you” after getting their candy, lots of interesting costumes from gypsies to some creature from a game called Zelda that the Lad knew and I’m clueless about, but it was quite an achievement in foam core, marker, and some stitching by Mom on a tunic of sorts. All the pumpkin seeds were roasted last night and taken as a counterirritant to the mass quantities consumed of various sugared and dyed treats, and then a small mob returned to our living room to watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” in which I marveled for the millionth time at the skill in communicating, in such simple forms, the sweet shock and familiar strangeness of Snoopy clambering up the ladder and broken roof of the old farmhouse in France, and dropping into today’s kids’ Hallowe’en party in Minnesota.
Life is good, and when we watch Romney debate Obama this time next year, I think iron will sharpen iron and whichever man wins the general election, it will all benefit the republic. I’m obviously a sentimental traditionalist, but I really think so. And anyone who bets money at this remove on which will win is a fool as to their money, because the result of this next presidential election will have as much to do with factors beyond the connivance of any campaign manager than it will with money spent and ads, accurate or not, run on TVs in Ohio.
Oh, and I made Caliban’s suggested pot roast, but pace Mr. Brown, I left out the raisins and olives. The Lovely Wife pronounced it a dish to be made again, or fail to do so at my peril.
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brian stouder said on October 27, 2011 at 11:02 pm
This evening Pam made a positively wonderful beef and vegetable soup, along with toasted cheese sandwiches – which was precisely what I requested yesterday.
Tomorrow the girls go off to a haunted castle, which boasts a quarter-mile walk filled with all sorts of odd sights and jarring apparitions.
Jeff – I agree with your vision of the presidential debate stage in 2012, but I think there will be a third person up there; I think the Republican party will split, when Romney wins the nomination.
The lifeblood of Cain’s popularity is directly drawn from Perry’s vain veins. But Perry has lots and lots and lots and lots of money; so he’ll be around as long as he wants to be. Perry’s calculation may well be that it is wiser to try for a controlled crash-landing, the better to be the go-to guy for 2016.
Because, and make no mistake, President Obama will absolutely mop the floors with Romney – whatever else happens.
I saw the white-hot anger at an early-Obama era townhall meeting; the folks were genuinely outraged over the crash and the bank bailouts – and they were adamantly opposed to anyone touching their medicare or their social security.
And here we are near Halloween 2011 – and the shadowy doorstep of 2012 – and the GOP national campaign is FOR scrapping Social Security, gutting Medicare, and defending the big banks and other gauranteed winners, while villifying the “99%” protesters?
Eric Cantor comes out accusing the president of stirring up resentments and envy and all the rest, on the very day that a very positive jobs report comes out, and the stock market finds itself 50% higher today than it was when the president was inaugurated???!
Honestly, truly, and sincerely I say….it almost looks like the GOP is actively throwing the 2012 presidential campaign. It looks like the Grand Ol’ Party is down by the bows, and ready to capsize. Maybe I’m just a stupid old guy, but I genuinely cannot see a Republican party that I can even recognize, let alone identify with.
What happened to Republicans like Jack Kemp or Jeane Kirkpatrick, or (if we squint our eyes tightly enough) Mitch Daniels? It looks like we have resurrected the Republican party of the 1950’s (except without President Eisenhower this time)
If Joe McCarthy was alive today, he’d have a coast-to-coast AM radio show, and would be a Republican king-maker
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moe99 said on October 27, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Joe, perhaps you can elighten me as to why the Republicans are opposing the jobs bill. In fact, I’d like you to point to any legislation approved by Obama that they voted for. I don’t think you will find anything.
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MichaelG said on October 27, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Forgive me if this is a bit lengthy but I think, that given the demographic here at nn.c, several of my fellow devotees will be facing cataracts before too long.
So yesterday a friend drove me to Rancho Cordova for my cataract operation. I registered, filled out some papers, signed some things and was relieved of my $15 co-pay. With previous visits and the purchase of no fewer than five different types of eye drops I figure that I’m out of pocket about $100 over the last two months for this operation. The next eye will be cheaper because there will be fewer visits and I already have the eye drops.
After a brief wait, an attendant led me back to a large room where there were six or eight curtained booths, each with a reclining mobile chair. I was directed to a co-ed restroom and told to remove my shirt and replace it with a smock. There was a hand written sign on the inside of the door informing the occupant that he or she should exit the restroom when properly clad. I guessed that some people had changed and then just waited to be called. Oh well, there were lots of old folks about.
I was greeted by a nurse upon my exit and directed to a chair. There she asked me a series of questions, confirmed the eye of the day and fitted me with an IV and hit me with repeated doses of eye drops. After a bit of briefing I was rolled to a booth that had behind it a door leading to the operating room. The on deck circle. Every person with whom I spoke confirmed the eye to be operated on that day and they even noted it on my forehead with a sharpie. More eye drops for numbness.
There the anesthesiologist introduced himself and his assistant before leaving me alone for a moment. Then another woman introduced herself as the nurse for the procedure. Finally the surgeon, Dr. Leng came out to speak to me.
I had met her before. Dr. Leng is a very young, very attractive woman of Chinese descent. Seriously attractive. Whew. She would be in the TV show. That she was born and raised in California was obvious the first time she opened her mouth. She explained some more of what was about to happen. When she was done she initialed my forehead to indicate that she had spoken with me and had confirmed the subject eye. The care they took to ensure they were going to do the correct eye seems elaborate but I certainly appreciated their thoroughness.
At that, the anesthesiologist’s assistant wheeled me into the OR. He obviously opened the tap on the IV because things became a bit vague after that.
There was a very bright, very red light with a white center shining in my eye and I felt pressure and what was obviously cutting and then a curious nibbling which was explained to me as something akin to a power chisel chipping away at the cataract. I was totally relaxed without any of the tenseness one might feel during a root canal. I heard Leng murmur “That’s really good so far.” and the strange feelings on my eye continued. Finally she finished with a happy sounding “That’s great.”
They wheeled me back to the booth where I had started and after a moment the nurse told me to put my shirt back on. I was done. There’s stuff I don’t remember and I think I lost a few moments here and there but only a few.
Walking out of the place I felt fine, if a little drunk with my movements and my talking. There had been only a minor discomfort when the surgeon was poking at my eye.
After about an hour the drunken feeling abated and I felt as good as ever. I could have gone back to work. The whole thing was amazing and all the Kaiser staff members were friendly, informative and professional. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
This morning I went to Dr. Leng’s office in Roseville for the unveiling. It was unbelievable. Things were so bright, colors were so vivid and intense. Everything was so clean. I had been told what to expect but the reality was so far beyond the expectation that I was truly astounded. The other thing that amazed me was the discovery that my left eye, the one that I had thought of as the good eye was horrible. Dark and murky with serious color distortion. It still is.
I could go on. It’s not over. I will have the left eye done on Nov 30 and then I will still need to get new glasses but the whole thing is simply miraculous.
I’m still amazed sitting here at the computer. It’s so much brighter in my eight o’clock room; the colors are so clear and clean that I find hard to believe the dim existence that I had endured until this morning when the patch came off.
So for any of you who experience the onset of cataracts, and a bunch of you will, I can only tell you that relief is at hand and that the sooner you get your eyes attended to, the happier you will be. I, a medical procrastinator, put it off too long and ended up for the last few months inhabiting a dim, color distorted, curiously unfocussed world. It happens gradually so you don’t realize how bad it is until you see the light. Literally (God, did I use that word?). The walls in Dr. Leng’s office were yellow. Then the patch came off. They were white. I closed my right eye. They were yellow again. Jeez. Where had I been for the last few months.
The deterioration happens fast. Another couple of months and I would have been walking into walls. Get it done right away. The process takes a bit of time but it’s less painful than having a tooth filled. I was reminded of how truly precious my sight is.
I bought a large dutch oven at Marshall’s two years ago for $40. It is not a LeCreuset but what’s the diff? Works fine. The old LeCreuset is with my erstwhile wife along with a couple of wonderful terra cotta analogues that provide great cooking.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 27, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Well, Moe, it does happen. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52799626-68/bill-tax-repeal-contractors.html.csp
I should be in bed, not engaging in political discourse of any sort, but Derek Holland happens to be church-family-family, so I’m up, watching what might be a remarkable final game in the World Series.
MichaelG, thanks for the preview. Family-family history tells me this will be something I’ll have to watch.
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alex said on October 28, 2011 at 12:13 am
MichaelG, same is true when they cut crud out of your arteries. Man, you’re living again. Here’s to having insurance.
On edit: I wish I had coozledad’s lyrical genius. I’d compose a song to the tune of Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock. I’d call it Infarcts and Cataracts. Or NSAIDs and Celebrex.
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Deborah said on October 28, 2011 at 4:50 am
Michael G, great description. I’ve already been told by my eye doc that I have the beginnings of cataracts, so it’s good to know that it can be a fairly easy fix.
Brian Stouder, you make so much sense, I love reading your comments.
39 degrees this early morning in Chicago, by February I’ll be sick of it but right now I’m enjoying the cooler weather.
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moe99 said on October 28, 2011 at 5:20 am
Good for the Repubs, Jeff tmmo but I could have guessed they’d vote to repeal or resist the imposition of taxes. Any other examples that you could cite?
Here’s one example of Bush bipartisanship:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/nice-guys-finish-last
Hats off to the Republicans. They could really put the screws on.
Oh, and the reason I am up way too late is that I discovered this evening that the Fifth Season of Doc Martin is on YouTube. It is like catnip to a cat. What a wonderful series. I’m going to pay for this in the morning.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 28, 2011 at 7:00 am
Oh, Moe, you’re gonna make me come up with TWO? 😉
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basset said on October 28, 2011 at 7:34 am
>>I wish I had coozledad’s lyrical genius. I’d compose a song to the tune of Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock. I’d call it Infarcts and Cataracts. Or NSAIDs and Celebrex.
Useless trivia for today… one of the four writers of “Incense & Peppermints” later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd and wrote “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Deer season is just about upon us here in Tennessee, the shootin’ starts next week, and in my part of the state one hunter can legally take 171 deer during muzzleloader and rifle season. That’s three does a day for 56 days + three bucks total for the season. As Ted Nugent says, “whack ’em and stack ’em.”
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Connie said on October 28, 2011 at 8:10 am
Thanks MichaelG, I too will be going for that one eventually as well. Could you not do implanted lenses. Instead of new glasses? I have friends that got that done as part of their surgery.
We live near thousands of acres of public land and can hear hunting season. Some bird season has already been banging away and the bow hunters are out in full force. We were invited to a venison dinner the other day to celebrate our friend’s 14yr old’s successful bow hunt. Passed due to schedules and distance.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 28, 2011 at 8:12 am
Yet in Michigan & Ohio we need more hunters, as the populations of white tails explodes. I’m sure there’s some fascinating wildlife biology modeling behind this, but I suspect they don’t increase bag limits because if you “whack ’em and stack ’em” all in the same places, you don’t actually bring down the net population over the subsequent year. Almost makes me think I should take up hunting as a public service, but there’s the whole bleeding out, skinning, prepping, and worst of all, eating part that follows. As in so many duties of citizenship, I have to hope someone else does my share.
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Linda said on October 28, 2011 at 8:29 am
JeffTMMO:
Well, I don’t like skinning or prep, and as a city girl, I don’t shoot anybody who hasn’t tried to shoot me first. But I will bravely step up to the eating venison part. We all gotta do our share. My niece’s hubby said he would bring me some a couple of years ago, but he stiffed me.
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Julie Robinson said on October 28, 2011 at 9:27 am
MichaelG, your experience sounds much like my mother’s. She had waited 10 years too long and was having trouble driving, but she was seriously freaked by the concept of a scalpel to the eye. Afterwards she admitted she had been a wuss. They made her get new drops for the second eye.
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Dorothy said on October 28, 2011 at 10:05 am
MichaelG I loved reading your entry @50! You described everything so well I felt like I was right beside you the whole time. I have to chime in and say I felt the same way after having my basal joint arthroplasty done in July. My left hand feels SO much better and I’m happy every single day that I had it done. And I was so, so nervous about having it done that I considered canceling it. I think all of us have wells of untapped strength we are unaware of.
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MichaelG said on October 28, 2011 at 11:40 am
The lovely Dr. Cheri did talk about corrective implants. You end up with one eye set at near and one set at far. She also cautioned that the rate of 100% success (no glasses needed) was not that great and a lot of people ended up wearing glasses at least part time anyway. For some reason I wasn’t enchanted by the idea of having two different eyes. I don’t know why but I just prefer the idea of having both work together. Maybe I’m some kind of superstitious or old fashioned here.
Also, I’ve been wearing glasses for years and am not bothered by them so I just told her to go with the basic model.
By the way, there was no residual pain that day or the next. Not even a small ache. Also the drugs wore off in an hour or so without a trace of hangover.
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Judybusy said on October 28, 2011 at 11:43 am
MichaelG, thanks for sharing that! It really is amazing what modern medicine can do. I hope the left eye goes just as well.
moe99, thanks for the heads up on Doc Martin! I have a British friend who had watched it and I’m thinking, that’ll be on PBS in about 10 months. Same with the last season of MI5.
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LAMary said on October 28, 2011 at 11:55 am
“I’snt that exactly what the Dems tryed to do too both Bushes???”
No. Give me an example.
The filibuster has been used on Obama more times than any other president in recent history. The idea of a majority vote on a bill is gone. Now you need 60 votes to get it past a Republican filibuster.
It’s one thing to have differing views and promote a different agenda. It’s entirely another to have as your agenda the blockage of every single thing the president supports. Even to the detriment of the public good.
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Jolene said on October 28, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Exactly, LAMary. And it’s not just legislation; the Repubs have opposed Obama’s appointees relentlessly. There is, per, no one in America moon qualified to lead cost reduction/qualify improvement efforts in healthcare than Don Berwick, who is currently head of CMS. But, because he once said something favorable about the British NHS, he had to be given a recess appointment, which expires at the end of this year. This is a real loss to the nation, but it’s so in the weeds that only health policy winks know about it.
And that’s just one of the highly qualified people whose appointment was delayed or denied by the Rs. They don’t care about solving problems; they just care about defeating Obama.
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beb said on October 28, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Jeff (TMMO) when properly bleed and gutted venison tastes quite nice. It’s a stronger flavor but not “gamey” and ground into spagetti sauce you don’t even notice it. My brother and his sons like to do a lot of hunting but honestly I couldn’t kill anything while the whole bleeding and gutting thing, while necessary, just grosses me out. So I stick with food that does not look anything like what it came from.
I have a simple policy about “Sweet home, Alambama.” Whenever it comes on the radio, I turn off the radio. Often for the rest of the day.
Matt Tiabbi offers a clear explaination of what OWS wants:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025
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Deborah said on October 28, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Michael G, I wear one contact for reading and no contact in the other eye and use that eye for distance. It works quite well for most things except driving, especially driving at night. I think you did the right thing, by keeping the glasses. If I had to live with the mono-vision all the time it would be a problem for me. Whenever I drive I don’t wear the reading contact. These days in the city I drive rarely, but when we get our place in New Mexico all set up I will be doing much more driving there.
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moe99 said on October 28, 2011 at 1:00 pm
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025#ixzz1c62HDZuJ
The money quotes (and ones that I think Joe should read very carefully):
People aren’t jealous and they don’t want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes, things like:
FREE MONEY. Ordinary people have to borrow their money at market rates. Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon get billions of dollars for free, from the Federal Reserve. They borrow at zero and lend the same money back to the government at two or three percent, a valuable public service otherwise known as “standing in the middle and taking a gigantic cut when the government decides to lend money to itself.”
Or the banks borrow billions at zero and lend mortgages to us at four percent, or credit cards at twenty or twenty-five percent. This is essentially an official government license to be rich, handed out at the expense of prudent ordinary citizens, who now no longer receive much interest on their CDs or other saved income. It is virtually impossible to not make money in banking when you have unlimited access to free money, especially when the government keeps buying its own cash back from you at market rates.
Your average chimpanzee couldn’t fuck up that business plan, which makes it all the more incredible that most of the too-big-to-fail banks are nonetheless still functionally insolvent, and dependent upon bailouts and phony accounting to stay above water. Where do the protesters go to sign up for their interest-free billion-dollar loans?
CREDIT AMNESTY. If you or I miss a $7 payment on a Gap card or, heaven forbid, a mortgage payment, you can forget about the great computer in the sky ever overlooking your mistake. But serial financial fuckups like Citigroup and Bank of America overextended themselves by the hundreds of billions and pumped trillions of dollars of deadly leverage into the system — and got rewarded with things like the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, an FDIC plan that allowed irresponsible banks to borrow against the government’s credit rating.
This is equivalent to a trust fund teenager who trashes six consecutive off-campus apartments and gets rewarded by having Daddy co-sign his next lease. The banks needed programs like TLGP because without them, the market rightly would have started charging more to lend to these idiots. Apparently, though, we can’t trust the free market when it comes to Bank of America, Goldman, Sachs, Citigroup, etc.
In a larger sense, the TBTF banks all have the implicit guarantee of the federal government, so investors know it’s relatively safe to lend to them — which means it’s now cheaper for them to borrow money than it is for, say, a responsible regional bank that didn’t jack its debt-to-equity levels above 35-1 before the crash and didn’t dabble in toxic mortgages. In other words, the TBTF banks got better credit for being less responsible. Click on freecreditscore.com to see if you got the same deal.
STUPIDITY INSURANCE. Defenders of the banks like to talk a lot about how we shouldn’t feel sorry for people who’ve been foreclosed upon, because it’s they’re own fault for borrowing more than they can pay back, buying more house than they can afford, etc. And critics of OWS have assailed protesters for complaining about things like foreclosure by claiming these folks want “something for nothing.”
This is ironic because, as one of the Rolling Stone editors put it last week, “something for nothing is Wall Street’s official policy.” In fact, getting bailed out for bad investment decisions has been de rigeur on Wall Street not just since 2008, but for decades.
Time after time, when big banks screw up and make irresponsible bets that blow up in their faces, they’ve scored bailouts. It doesn’t matter whether it was the Mexican currency bailout of 1994 (when the state bailed out speculators who gambled on the peso) or the IMF/World Bank bailout of Russia in 1998 (a bailout of speculators in the “emerging markets”) or the Long-Term Capital Management Bailout of the same year (in which the rescue of investors in a harebrained hedge-fund trading scheme was deemed a matter of international urgency by the Federal Reserve), Wall Street has long grown accustomed to getting bailed out for its mistakes.
The 2008 crash, of course, birthed a whole generation of new bailout schemes. Banks placed billions in bets with AIG and should have lost their shirts when the firm went under — AIG went under, after all, in large part because of all the huge mortgage bets the banks laid with the firm — but instead got the state to pony up $180 billion or so to rescue the banks from their own bad decisions.
This sort of thing seems to happen every time the banks do something dumb with their money. Just recently, the French and Belgian authorities cooked up a massive bailout of the French bank Dexia, whose biggest trading partners included, surprise, surprise, Goldman, Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Here’s how the New York Times explained the bailout:
To limit damage from Dexia’s collapse, the bailout fashioned by the French and Belgian governments may make these banks and other creditors whole — that is, paid in full for potentially tens of billions of euros they are owed. This would enable Dexia’s creditors and trading partners to avoid losses they might otherwise suffer…
When was the last time the government stepped into help you “avoid losses you might otherwise suffer?” But that’s the reality we live in. When Joe Homeowner bought too much house, essentially betting that home prices would go up, and losing his bet when they dropped, he was an irresponsible putz who shouldn’t whine about being put on the street.
But when banks bet billions on a firm like AIG that was heavily invested in mortgages, they were making the same bet that Joe Homeowner made, leaving themselves hugely exposed to a sudden drop in home prices. But instead of being asked to “suck it in and cope” when that bet failed, the banks instead went straight to Washington for a bailout — and got it.
UNGRADUATED TAXES. I’ve already gone off on this more than once, but it bears repeating. Bankers on Wall Street pay lower tax rates than most car mechanics. When Warren Buffet released his tax information, we learned that with taxable income of $39 million, he paid $6.9 million in taxes last year, a tax rate of about 17.4%.
Most of Buffet’s income, it seems, was taxed as either “carried interest” (i.e. hedge-fund income) or long-term capital gains, both of which carry 15% tax rates, half of what many of the Zucotti park protesters will pay.
As for the banks, as companies, we’ve all heard the stories. Goldman, Sachs in 2008 – this was the same year the bank reported $2.9 billion in profits, and paid out over $10 billion in compensation — paid just $14 million in taxes, a 1% tax rate.
Bank of America last year paid not a single dollar in taxes — in fact, it received a “tax credit” of $1 billion. There are a slew of troubled companies that will not be paying taxes for years, including Citigroup and CIT.
When GM bought the finance company AmeriCredit, it was able to marry its long-term losses to AmeriCredit’s revenue stream, creating a tax windfall worth as much as $5 billion. So even though AmeriCredit is expected to post earnings of $8-$12 billion in the next decade or so, it likely won’t pay any taxes during that time, because its revenue will be offset by GM’s losses.
Thank God our government decided to pledge $50 billion of your tax dollars to a rescue of General Motors! You just paid for one of the world’s biggest tax breaks.
And last but not least, there is:
GET OUT OF JAIL FREE. One thing we can still be proud of is that America hasn’t yet managed to achieve the highest incarceration rate in history — that honor still goes to the Soviets in the Stalin/Gulag era. But we do still have about 2.3 million people in jail in America.
Virtually all 2.3 million of those prisoners come from “the 99%.” Here is the number of bankers who have gone to jail for crimes related to the financial crisis: 0.
Millions of people have been foreclosed upon in the last three years. In most all of those foreclosures, a regional law enforcement office — typically a sheriff’s office — was awarded fees by the court as part of the foreclosure settlement, settlements which of course were often rubber-stamped by a judge despite mountains of perjurious robosigned evidence.
That means that every single time a bank kicked someone out of his home, a local police department got a cut. Local sheriff’s offices also get cuts of almost all credit card judgments, and other bank settlements. If you’re wondering how it is that so many regional police departments have the money for fancy new vehicles and SWAT teams and other accoutrements, this is one of your answers.
What this amounts to is the banks having, as allies, a massive armed police force who are always on call, ready to help them evict homeowners and safeguard the repossession of property. But just see what happens when you try to call the police to prevent an improper foreclosure. Then, suddenly, the police will not get involved. It will be a “civil matter” and they won’t intervene.
The point being: if you miss a few home payments, you have a very high likelihood of colliding with a police officer in the near future. But if you defraud a pair of European banks out of a billion dollars — that’s a billion, with a b — you will never be arrested, never see a policeman, never see the inside of a jail cell.
Your settlement will be worked out not with armed police, but with regulators in suits who used to work for your company or one like it. And you’ll have, defending you, a former head of that regulator’s agency. In the end, a fine will be paid to the government, but it won’t come out of your pocket personally; it will be paid by your company’s shareholders. And there will be no admission of criminal wrongdoing.
The Abacus case, in which Goldman helped a hedge fund guy named John Paulson beat a pair of European banks for a billion dollars, tells you everything you need to know about the difference between our two criminal justice systems. The settlement was $550 million — just over half of the damage.
Can anyone imagine a common thief being caught by police and sentenced to pay back half of what he took? Just one low-ranking individual in that case was charged (case pending), and no individual had to reach into his pocket to help cover the fine. The settlement Goldman paid to to the government was about 1/24th of what Goldman received from the government just in the AIG bailout. And that was the toughest “punishment” the government dished out to a bank in the wake of 2008.
The point being: we have a massive police force in America that outside of lower Manhattan prosecutes crime and imprisons citizens with record-setting, factory-level efficiency, eclipsing the incarceration rates of most of history’s more notorious police states and communist countries.
But the bankers on Wall Street don’t live in that heavily-policed country. There are maybe 1000 SEC agents policing that sector of the economy, plus a handful of FBI agents. There are nearly that many police officers stationed around the polite crowd at Zucotti park.
These inequities are what drive the OWS protests. People don’t want handouts. It’s not a class uprising and they don’t want civil war — they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It’s amazing that some people think that that’s asking a lot.
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caliban said on October 28, 2011 at 1:07 pm
I’ve never understood adverse reaction to Sweet Home Alabama. The idea that the song was somehow an endorsement of George Corley Wallace was debunked years, decades now, ago. They were just annoyed at Neil Young’s horribly screechy and preachy Southern Man (easily career most awful vocal performance). Like there were no slaves in Canada, right, Neil?
I think Warren Zevon’s response is an intelligent one, portraying Alabama’s disenfranchised poor as victims.
A better Alabama song, anyway. And there is no rational doubting the liberal credentials of the Long Ryders.
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caliban said on October 28, 2011 at 1:46 pm
The Straight Dope explains witches and broomsticks.
Who exactly is the entitled class, Herman? Something for nothing? More like a ton of cash for FUBAR.
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Brandon said on October 28, 2011 at 3:12 pm
There was slavery in Canada. Thank you, caliban, for highlighting this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Canada
Slavery in what now comprises Canada existed into the 1830s, when slavery was officially abolished. Some slaves were of African descent, while others were aboriginal (typically called panis, likely a corruption of Pawnee). Slavery which was practiced within Canada’s current geography, was practiced primarily by Aboriginal groups. While there was never any significant Canadian trade in African slaves, native nations frequently enslaved their rivals and a very modest number (sometimes none in a number of years) were purchased by colonial administrators (rarely by settlers) until 1833, when the slave trade was abolished across the British Empire.
A few dozen African slaves were forcibly brought as chattel by Europeans to New France, Acadia and the later British North America (see chattel slavery) during the 17th century, but large-scale plantation slavery of the sort that existed in most European colonies in the Americas, from New York to Brazil, never existed in colonial Canada or Newfoundland because the economies were not based on plantation agriculture. The largest industries were based upon the exploitation of natural resources, such as the fur trade. So, while some Canadian slaves performed agricultural labour, most were domestic house servants.
Because early Canada’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade was so minor, the history of slavery in Canada is often overshadowed by the more tumultuous slavery practiced elsewhere in the Americas – most famously in the American South, and infamously in the colonial Caribbean. Afua Cooper states that slavery is, “Canada’s best kept secret, locked within the National closet.”[1]
…
1.^ AfuaCooper, The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal,(Toronto:HarperPerennial, 2006)’
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caliban said on October 28, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Your settlement will be worked out not with armed police, but with regulators in suits who used to work for your company or one like it. And you’ll have, defending you, a former head of that regulator’s agency. In the end, a fine will be paid to the government, but it won’t come out of your pocket personally; it will be paid by your company’s shareholders. And there will be no admission of criminal wrongdoing.
And the fine will invariably be reduced 10- or 100-fold, or more, by some judge shopped Raygun-appointed District Court before payment. This is for instance how Don Blankenship got away with serial murder while not getting shitcanned by Massey for bankrupting the company with fines for criminally negligent behavior. If I pulled a scam like the shitty mortgage derivative mess, I’d go to jail forever and it wouldn’t be Club Fed, and every dime and property I own would be forfeit.
I also wouldn’t get to try and claim it was Freddy’s and Fannie’s fault. I’m printing this out so I can stuff it down the throat of the next Teabanging ahole I hear spout that GOPer financial pirate horseshit about how Fannie, Freddy and CRA are the root of all financial evil. They made AIG, Lehman and Countrywide collude in a criminal enterprise. If by that shibboleth is meant that when the GOPer pro-business community was finished with fucking up CRA and castrating the regulators, the temptation to screw the economy beyond all recognition was just to much for their corroded souls to pass on, well, OK, obviously true. If they are placing blame on what were originally honest progressive measures intended to make American economic society expansive and beneficial in an egalitarian way for their own malignant and rapacious bad acts, where’s my AK? (Just to make them wet their bespoke suit trousers, and maybe knock ’em around a little.
And these bailed-out bastards that have proven themselves moral midges (much smaller than midgets) are trying to claim that socking the profits availed them by having been bailed out instead of nourishing a sluggish economy is the fault of Dodd-Frank. Right you dickheads, because you’ve proven yourselves reliable and cooperative corporate citizens, oh, excuse me, full citizens, just like anybody else. The standard crap about Dodd-Frank is so tricked out phony it’s amazing anyone but pudding-face McConnel can spout it without barfing, laughing, or both:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-dodd-frank-financial-regulations/2011/10/19/gIQAtq7j4L_story.html
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paddyo' said on October 28, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Michael G @50 & 62 — As I read, I thought you were channeling my own cataract operation last spring. Step for step, identical, right down to the four or five times they confirmed which eye was to be done that day. Easy, painless, very simple recovery. Frankly, I wish I could’ve got the other (right) eye done soon after, the brightness and color resolution are so great. But it’s not far enough along toward cataractical decrepitude, according to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, so I must wait.
Cooze, thanks for the “American Elagabalus” reference, which I’m embarrassed to say sent me scrambling to the interwebnets to read up about this fellow. I knew he’d be Roman, but I had missed mention of him in my scattered history studies. Boy, what a saucily insane lad that short-term emperor was. No wonder Rome fell. Runner-up only to Caligula in the debauchery business. I see he only lasted four years in “office” (or maybe “orifice” is a better word, given his proclivities), so I guess Dubyah has it over him in that department, anyway . . .
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coozledad said on October 28, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Paddyo’: I always thought the Romans had the best nutcases. Subsequent inbred royals pale in comparison.
Or maybe the historians were just more venal in those days.
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basset said on October 29, 2011 at 12:20 am
Someone back up the thread a ways mentioned Greek chicken and rice soup and provided a recipe. Made it tonight, very tasty even though we were out of fresh chicken breasts and used canned.
Venison… for best taste you must get the animal bled out and cooled quickly, and age the meat before you eat or freeze it.
This season, if I am successful, I intend to try canning some of the meat in Mason jars, just as vegetables are canned in the summer; my father-in-law’s family did that when he was growing up on a farm in Newaygo County back in the Thirties without electricity or running water.
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