Thursday, September 25, 2008

Greedy Bastards!

Here George, I know it isn't much, but if enough of us get together, maybe we can bail out your greedy, rapacious, Rich-Bastard friends. I'll just think of it as another stupid investment, like a bunch of others that we've suffered recently.

I know that the folks that come here, come because of my gentle, unassuming and kind disposition, so any exception to that rule will shock most of you. I have a huge aversion to getting too deeply into politics, and the entire educated minutia that goes with that genre. I warn you now, that those of you with faint(weak) hearts should leave this posting! Those of you with feint(false) hearts, must leave now, because this post is not for you.

Most of the people of America are not Masters of Business Administration, nor do we have degrees in Political Science. Most of us don’t even have degrees in anything. Some us are darn lucky to have high school diplomas. Most of us are just gentle lambs, that simply provide the fleece that the fabric of the American Economy is made up of, and we depend on our caretakers to care for us, and the economy that keeps us alive.

But, I guess that was before our caretakers discovered cheap-assed Chinese fleece, that itches real bad, and kills a few of us, but we have been told that we are better off, because it makes our caretakers wealthy. Then we find our that our caretakers have sold the farm, and we are kinda' in the way now… and oh, by the way we are going to have to take your pen away, you are too stupid to be able to pay for it.

They say that an insane person can’t follow similes and metaphors, so we just lost a bunch of people in that last paragraph, so I’m going to have to assume that if you are still with me, that you are sane person and can understand a few simple concepts.

I have a friend that has a civil engineering degree, and his father was an investment banker, the family business was in finance and investments, so he decided to get a business degree on top of his engineering degree, he attended Harvard for about six weeks and decided that the focus of business administration was too much on “greed” and too little on “ethics”, so he dropped out. He has done quite well with his engineering degree, and high ethical standards. So, it can be done.

Now to get around to what I have to say: I am against Bushes bail-out! It does no good to enable a greed-addict, they won’t learn a thing. It is time for some tough-love, knowing full well that we are going to suffer as much as the rich bastards that put us in this position of financial failure.

We need to stop electing people that get in bed with the people that, Run-Wall-Street-to-their-own-advantage. We should, in no way, support the same people that caused “the mortgage melt-down” as they call it. We would have been far better off to have re-financed the poor “Stupid People, that bought house that they couldn’t afford”. Wall street thought that it would set a bad precedent to finance people that spent over their heads to put their families in a home.

Actually, what happened, is that there was such a brisk market in housing that the Wall Street funded corporations overbuilt them, and the housing prices dropped, so the bankers raised interest rates to fund THEIR losses. The poor “Stupid People” were paying over-priced interest on a, now, devalued home. The "Poor Stupid people" should have known better. (In case there are any insane people still reading. I was being facetious!) Honest, hard working people had their houses yanked out from under them!

It cost the American economy enormously to repossess those houses. The houses should have been refinanced at a current reasonable value and interest rate. What they did instead is kick people out. The houses are now setting empty, while the banks are paying MBAs to administer their losses. Refinancing the houses alone, would have saved the American economy, but no… we had to teach “the stupid people” a lesson. What I really think is, that the uber-riche bastards that run the major corporations and banks, thought that the economy would come back, and they could resell the houses at inflated prices! Which may still happen if we help them “bail out the economy”. After all, it will only cost the taxpayer 700 billion smackers. Think of it as a good investment!

Now that wall street is crashing, the investment company’s are going broke, and the people that ran them into the ground are bailing-out. Out, with FIFTY-MILLION-DOLLAR retirement packages. (They say that you have to pay that much to get people that really know what they are doing.) So, where are the Smart Bastards going to work now? Oh! I forgot! They are rich! They planned it that way! They don't have to work! They squirreled away enough money to take care of their whole family! It's only the "Stupid People" that have to suffer. The stupid people didn't get MBAs. They said that they "like to build things", like America for instance. The poor naive fools.

I’m probably stupid myself for thinking this, but if we have to suffer through another depression, I want to see that people that caused it to suffer too! The only problem is that I’m one of the poor sheep that wishes he knew how to bite like a wolf! Can you find “How to bite like a wolf” in the yellow pages?

I like to end things on a positive note, just to keep the good spirit alive. So what I would suggest is that we start thinking, seriously, about what we hear on the "News Service", and start taking what they say with a grain of salt. We don't have a single political figure in the whole Presidential election that hasn't sold out to Wall Street. If you don't believe me, just hide and watch. That's about as positive a note as I can hit today. Remember that I told you once, that character and ethics were important? Well I can't give you any good examples right now, but if you want to see what can happen when people without those qualities are allowed to run things, you need only look at where we are now.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Ernie. It smacks of socialism which I always thought belong to the other party.

Oregon

Anonymous said...

I'm curious about an UNCONFIRMED email I've received a couple of times.

It states that, on or about Oct. 2 — shortly after the Biden-Palin debate — Sen. Joe Biden will withdraw from the race for the vice-president, citing health issues, most specifically, the threat of an aneurysm.

Wikipedidia says Biden has a history of aneurysm. "In February 1988, after suffering from neck pains, Biden was hospitalized and given lifesaving surgery to correct a brain aneurysm that had begun leaking."

Recently, Biden himself has disagreed with Obama policies, has made several gaffs, and has stated that a better choice than himself might have been Hillary Clinton.

It seems likely that Obama’s staff would, under such circumstances, pick Hilliary Clinton.

So is Biden's political demise being engineered? Has anyone seen any indication of this in the news or in any other source?

Ernie Branscomb said...

Jim, It sounds logical that they would do that. If their polls are down, it is likely to happen. If their polls are up, it is unlikly.

Such is politics.

spyrock said...

i agree with ernie. bush has done nothing but line his pockets and those of his friends the entire time he has been in office. now he wants to steal the future of our children by bailing out the greedy sub prime lenders.
i really don't pay attention to politics anymore because its like a fixed fight. the same guy owns both candidates. i sort of thought that mccain was more liberal than obama and i really didn't know who i was going to vote for until the vice presidential candidates were picked.
i might be old fashioned and my parents did live in the depression but i don't agree with someone bringing a child into the world and then focusing on their career.
even if the child was a mistake, i think that raising the child should be the first priority and if there is time when the child starts to go to school, then the main care giver can go back to work. there is nothing like a mother's love the first 5 years of a child's life.
i know from personal experience what the child will feel like. my mother went back to work when i was 10 months old and we had mennonight girls live with us until i was 12 taking care of my sister and i. my mother soon became the school principal and her workday was 12 hours a day and a different social club every night. when we saw her at dinnertime she was usually stressed out from dealing with her job. this was the 50's when women didn't do that kind of job and yes, she was hated by many of the men in the community. this was in the days of corporal punishment much of which she did herself and she tried all the paddles out on me before she used them on her kids at school. i will give her credit for turning down the county superintendant of schools job because then we would have never seen her. but we really didn't see much of her until she retired anyway. so i have my own personal reasons for thinking that mccain made a gross mistake in picking palin and i have a problem with palin abaondoning her new baby for her own ambition. you can have whatever opinion you want about them, but i lived this and i don't wish it on any new born babe. i was the main care giver in my daughters life. so i've walked this talk and my daughter graduated from ucla. but these are pretty much my personal reasons. everyone has their own idea of ethics and the right thing to do.
on the plus side, mccains choice has made many people think that anyone could be vice president. i'm sure many of you have been over to the old russian fort ross and seen the inside of a real russian defense system which makes all of you more credible experts on national defense than palin. i have no desires to run for public office but because of palin i have been inspired to think that there is very little i couldn't do or have if i put my mind to it. i try to see the positive side of anything that happens in life. i try to remain non-judgemental so i hope the best for whomever does win even if its not my personal preference.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Since I was a small child, I have been told that a depression could never happen again because after the last depression they put too many automatic safeguards into place that would preempt anything going wrong. So what happened that they didn’t use the safeguards? Did they misplace them somewhere? And why is there this last minute scramble the save the world?

In my experience, the more important the matter at hand, the less effective our lawmakers become, so this should go on for quite some time.

Anonymous said...

Gentle reminiscences are your long suit, Ernie, but you really out-did yourself here and it is one of your best.

Thanks so much.

McKinleyville Kris

Anonymous said...

I got this in an email this morning. Works for me.

This plan took us all of about 10 minutes to come up with. Instead of using 700 BILLION dollars to bail out the mismanaged corrupt institutions that put our economy where it is right now, why don't we bailoutYOU, ME, and every other taxpayer in the country.

If we were to divide 700 billion dollars by the 300 million citizens, would amount to roughly $230,000 each! We say that instead of Bailing out the big financial institutions that we give this directly to the Citizens who pay the taxes, and let them bail themselves out!
If they use the windfall to pay off outstanding debt, then the lending institutions will stay afloat. Any money left over could be spent, invested or saved, depending on what the individual decides to do. Not only would it keep the economy going, it would make it thrive. In addition, it will take away
the ability of more corrupt convoluted beaurocracy thieves to rip us off even more! Amen
Ponder this over and send it to your email list if you think it may have merit. If not simply stick with the status quo and do nothing. The current Bail out does nothing for you and I.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Bunny, Great plan! But, don't plan on it. As long as the "Greedy Bastards" run this country, you won't see a penny of it unless they get their cut first.

We need a government and businesses with some ethics, conscience, scruples, and character, but as long as the thieving SOBs are in charge, they can make laws that make their thievery legal. By the way, I’m accusing both Democrats and Republicans, they ALL sold us down the river!

Well Bunny, we finally agree on this one! George is dead wrong!

Anonymous said...

Wow Bunny, great idea. I could pay all my bills and buy a cabin. That reminds me, if I have a cabin, should I bury the water lines (lots of work) or does hanging the lines in the trees work? Help me out here Suzy.

Oregon

Ernie Branscomb said...

I watched most of the debate tonight. I admit I came into it late, but I didn’t see any homeruns, and I didn’t see any gaffs. CNN gave it to Obama and Fox gave it to McCain. So it must have been pretty even.

I think that the real interesting debate will be between Palin and Biden. I’m going to sound an awful lot like a sexist here, but I’ve heard that a man can’t win an argument with a pretty woman. So I guess it will depend on how pretty she is perceived to be. And how mean Biden is perceived to be. Hmmm… I wonder if that was part of the plan?

Anonymous said...

Hi Oregon, i agree smack is the wrong social party for sure ... and but our water lines in the trees are winning the debate with the woodrats so far so good --Billy says the line in the trees is a winning ticket cuz we only run water down that line in the daytime when they )the rats( are sleeping... cuz he says at night when the rats come out they can tell whats a waterline adn wahts a treebranch becuz thay hear the water gurgling in the line and water doenst run in treebranches ... well it does run in branches but really really slow so you cant hear it gurglin except Suzy thought she did hear sometheing gurgling through a manzanita branch but Billy said thats just a flashback from the bong and besides rats dont hear the same way thaat Suzy does LOL but ... when the tress run water to there leaves and stuff its not gravity flow ... thats what Billy says he says that thay somehow suck the water up into the breanches and the water runs thruogh the tree like they have a pump or something inside there but the pump is quiet and you cant here it like we hear our neighbors bigmouthed pump or like you can hear a refrigerater when you visit your aunt in Sacremento and so you cant sleep cuz yuo miss the quiet of the humbolt hills so you smoke a fatty and watch their tv with the sound off and your earphones on from your ipod listening to neal yuong ... but Billy and Suzy dont use a water pomp .. we have a totlally a gravity flow machine or whatever you call it a system or something LOL so we just run the water downhill to fill up our tank now in the daytime and so far weve outfoxed the woodrats LOL but at first we ran it at nite withe the line in the trees andthey found it the 2nd night and bit holes in it!!! but then we decided to only run water in that line durign the day and ... did i say that already"? i cant remember LOL but anyway knock on madrone and i guress they dont kno where to bite for water unless thay hear it thats what billy says but so i said why did we bother to tie the water line up in the trees then if its all just a matter of them hearing it and he said whatd yuo say Suzy i cant hear yuo

HMPH! thats the one thing wrong with my Bully ... he cant argue worht a shit ...but i dont want him to percieved as a sexist so i let it go but in my head i told him we are gonna bury that line whent the gruond gets wet this whinter for sure cuz i dont' wanna go and play plumber in the poinson oak anymore and he said no youd rather play plumper on the couch LOL watching dvds....... and smoking pot and i said how did you know what i was thinking and he said thats what happens when you share a joint with someone as many years as we have ... isnt he sweet? but i said outloud =yuo wuoldnt be so plump yourself if yuo spent more time with a shovel in yuor hand= but btw that reminds me did you see that movie Humbolt Cuonty Earnie? its in Gvville as you probly know ... i heard its abuout some hippys that grow pot or something )yawn so we are going to see how its done LOL ( but maybe its better than athat and there will be some cute actors and car chases and martial arts with speceal affects ....\

but so if yuo do win that money on the stock exchange Origon and acsquire yourself a nice cabin i think LOL youd better spend some of your fortune on a BIG water tank thats Suzys advice specially if you like laying on the cuoch LOL but if the rats up in Origon are like the ones on WAll street theyll tap right into the tank and siphon it off into their own system thats waht Billy says ... and then youll have to buy your water from them... but not to worry you can outfox them --you can tie the tank up in a tree ... becauze waters more precious than gold but dont stash it in a Bush that wont werk cuz like Ernie says theres some rats that are in bed with Bush so i guess that means thayd be waking up next to your new water tank and bite into it and take a shower before breakfast like Suzy likes to do but so if you lost your silver earring down the drain its probly in the rats nest cuz thay like to acuumulate things and they like that kinda glittery stuff and everytheing and so does that politicians guys wife but thay are not to blame cuz its part of there instincts and thay cant resist it ... just like the rats cant ... and insticnts are like a machine if you turn them on you need to also know how to turn them off thats why Bush got in bed with the pharmecuticals but like Billy said our kinda bush is better for yuo but LOL theres no stopping Suzy... unless you know where her hidden button is ... right ernie?\

huggles,
S

spyrock said...

after watching the debate i attended the local high school football game. the stands were packed on both sides of the field everyone was rooting for their team and it seemed universally true that none of these people gave a rats waterpipe about the iraq war or the demise of wall street. the little neighbor boy down the street is now the 6'5" quarterback of the home team and it was amazing to see how powerful he has become. all the kids around me seemed to be full of their hopes and dreams for the future and even losing a close game wasn't going to change that for them.
eclipsing all this and the debate, the real threat facing the emerald triangle these days seems to be the waterpipe rats. welcome to the world of agriculture maynerd.
when it starts raining, i'm sure this won't be the problem for you that it is right now. but until then, give the rats a break, create some rat watering stations along your pipeline. rubbermaid has several sizes of tanks that can be gravity fed, they have an automatic water leveler that can keep your rat trough full. you can drill 1nch and 1/2 holes in the tanks and connect your rat pipes to them. not only will your rat problem be solved but you will create a whole new ecosystem in each rat pond. birds, dragonflys, bees, frogs, fish, and the pond poop will leak out into the soil like one of those jamba juice additives and you can manifest a lot more of whatever it is that you are manifesting. you have to give to receive. you are lucky that water is the only thing the rats want in your waterpipe.

Anonymous said...

Dyslexics untie! (Right, Blah, Blah?)
Aren't drugs grand?

Anonymous said...

Thanks Suzy. I am better informed now in case the government sends me lots of money.

spyrock, it would be a cold day in #*^^ before I would put in a rat watering station. I'm not being mean, just don't like the idea.

Oregon

Robin Shelley said...

It's not about bailing out the taxpayers... it's about keeping the foreign investors who own this country here.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Suzy, my grandparents in Laytonville put steel pipe to their spring in the hill. They had to run it about a quarter of a mile, so it must have cost a ton of money. They put it in during the big depression back in the thirties. So this depression must seem like a drip in the bucket to the old-timers.

The rats didn't bother the pipe, but in wasn't buried the whole way, so when a cold winter came along, the pipe would freeze shut and bust. (The newcomers call it "burst", I remember we used to laugh or asses off about how they talked)The pipe was still in use when I was a kid, so when it froze shut, we would have to head up the hill with a blow-torch and a tire inner-tube cut into strips. We would melt the ice, wrap the leak with the strips of inner tube, tie it on with bailing wire, and wrap the pipe with gunny sacks it insulate it. Then the rats would eat the gunny sacks away and it would freeze the pipe again. I’m beginning to understand why rats have such a bad name!

I liked the photo of the cabin in the woods. Oregon and I have lived in worse houses. I lived in a tent one summer back in the fifties when my dad was logging away from home.

Robin said: “It's not about bailing out the taxpayers... it's about keeping the foreign investors who own this country here.”

Robin, that is problem “A”. The “Geedy Bastards” sold our county out from under us and put the money the their pockets!!!

Anonymous said...

"Free markets" and "de-regulation" were the goals of those who put ex-Governor Reagan in the White House. Clinton went along with it, but the Republicans caused this problem. Join the Democrats, then INSIST they do better. Just a suggestion. Of course, if you can ignore all of it you'll be happier...

Anonymous said...

thanx soooooooooo much thats a really really reallly great idea Spyrock, me and Billy are totaly stoked after recieving what you gave us... Now were goona give back... Little rat watering holes up and down the hill why didnt Suzy think of that?... the poor little rats are probly toltaly bored so were geting rite on it. Billy is making some tiny pool tables and were gonna be putting in some little jukeboxes with songs on minidisks by the Rolling Waters Band, SonnyPie O'Near, and of course the local faveorites ... and while BIllys working on the details Suzy is getting totally busy working on some names for the watering holes... once again Billy stuck me with teh hard part (no not that hard part get yr mind outa the gutter!) LOL but Billy says we need some signs with names that will attract the rats to the W-Holes so Suzy is working overtime on waterpipe duty this morning --bubble bubble== to come up with some good names... so far i havent thunk of any though, except maybe Maynerd's Place but Billy says the rats wont go to a watering hole named Maynerds but so Suzy is in a nother delemna you know but she hasnt given up her hopea and dreams for the future.

Ernie, my friend Longface gotta 215 for depression, it wasnt Great Depression though ...i think a person might need some shrooms for somethjing that serious. And ... its sad but they dont make good quallity waterpipes anymore like they did back then ... ok i gotta get back to work.

ooxxoo,
S

spyrock said...

maynerd might be before your time so how about remy's place. remy was the mentor of ratatouille in a not too recent pixar release. in fact you should rent ratatouille so that you no longer look at rats as like a republican looks at a democrat or vice versa.
i still have those metal pipes in my dad's front yard sprinkler system. i had to recycle a lot of metal pipe in his junkyard when he died. so it's not like you would have to buy new metal pipe, there is plenty of metal pipe lying around peoples houses that is more than 4 feet long which is the length metal recyclers prefer. some people would be happy for you to take their old long metal pipes or charge you a lot less than buying it new. as long the threads are still good you can connect it all and if you have a lathe you can make your own threads. you know i'm not talking about clothes. its like those indian glyphs on all the rocks up there but they are on the end of the pipes, both ends would be preferred. you get a metal tee and a faucet and let it drip for the rats or not. unless it freezes and the pipe busts or its forty years down the road you won't have a rat problem.

Anonymous said...

update: we bruoght some bowls of h2o up the hill and installed the pool tables and jukeboxes this afternoon... but we only attracted one old gurl with smeared lipstick and ratted hair ... shes sitting here right now lisstening to the Tumbling Tumbleweeds and sipping some water ...

update 2: we hired a frencsh chef for the kitchen.

update 3: wow dig this daddyo = Billys dad who is old and gray and wise and was a teenager before Billy was born came over and when we told him our problem he went adn hired some really reallly realllly cewl live music for tonight...

Billy is making a new 4ft metal bong for the occasoin cuz our glass one bursted... and Billys dad even made a statue to use as our sign..

Suzy is sooooooooo excited...

luv peace and cheezy poetry to every rat mouse and/or human being reading this ... and to all those who havnt yet had the plaesure of being ..uh

--OMG!!! it sounds like somenones walking up our driveway playing bongos --gotta go,

oooxxx
S

Anonymous said...

I knew it all along suzy. There's intellectual activity at your cabin. I'm not sure about billie though. LOL
I used to hear about Rodin's "the thinker" (statue) from my math teacher Mr. Woods. I guess when Rodin scupted the statue it was a man sitting there trying to figure out how to keep the rats from chewing into the water lines. My best guess.


Oregon

Ernie Branscomb said...

Hey! I started this whole post with taking about the rats in Washington, and ended up talking about the rats up 215 gulch. At least we stayed on topic.

Suzy Blah Blah doesn’t come by too often, but when she does it’s highly (pun) educational. We always lern somthin.

Robin Shelley said...

Suzy, how about Rat Hole?

Another idea: Homeless Hotel for those of us in timber, mining & ag who are always the first to go when "Problem B" arrives.