Greek Police Confront Protesting Truck Drivers – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 29, 2010

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police used tear gas Thursday to disperse protesting fuel-truck drivers, whose strike is hurting tourism and industry, after the government issued an emergency order to force them back to work.

The scuffles occurred as some 500 drivers gathered in protest outside the transport ministry, but the incident ended quickly.

Most gas stations around the country remained closed after a crippling three-day strike that has hit Greece’s tourism industry and led to some factory closures and fresh food shortages in parts of the country.

via Greek Police Confront Protesting Truck Drivers – NYTimes.com.

I admire the spirit of the Greek truck drivers. They aren’t taking their IMF medicine sitting down (bad pun). They are out there in the streets fucking shit up to get their point across. And why shouldn’t they be?

One could argue that the citizens of Greece lived beyond their means for too long and now they have to enact deep cuts in order to remain solvent.

One could counter argue that the average working class person in Greece did not live beyond their means and they should not have to give up what they earned. They could argue that the Greek economy was the victim of Financial Dracula’s from US Banking houses who shucked and jived the economy into the ground.

In the case of the truck drivers they are upset because they lived under a system in which they bought trucking licenses from each other. There were a limited number of licenses, none issued in 24 years and so the cost of the licenses became more valuable every year.

Along comes the IMF and they tell the Greek government to issue more licenses to drive the cost to trucking goods down. So Socrates or Plato or Anaximander, or Yanni who bought their license a few years ago is now going to be holding a piece of paper worth far less than he paid for it. Of course he is pissed off.

This happens with Taxi cab licenses in New York City every so often too. The city limits the licenses and they increase in value.

I once had a waiter at Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf who told me that he paid $150,000 to become a waiter there.

Greece is a smaller economy than many US states, if the IMF came into your state and told all the Boars Head drivers that their routes were now worth far less than they paid for them, you’d see some mighty angry deli meat delivery men.

In America, we sit like lumps  on a log talking about Guido’s from the Jersey Shore. We deserve what is coming our way. Just wait until we run out of hair gel and you’ll see some rioting.

Of course in America, the rioter would all be declared enemy combatants and they’d be thrown in back ops prisons and never heard from again. We’ll have to wait and see what happens both in Greece and America.

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As many as 6,600 Arlington graves mixed up

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 29, 2010

Estimates of the number of graves potentially affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery grew to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery’s former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the scandal that forced his ouster.

via As many as 6,600 Arlington graves mixed up.

Add this to your list of things to bring up to your boss they next time they accuse you of fucking up at work. It might help put things in perspective.

Say something like, I know I fucked up, and I am sorry, but I didn’t fuck up as bad as this guy did. Right?

It might not work, but it will help you feel better as you are packing up that bankers box with you personal items and riding the elevator down for the last time.

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

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Subtle Shift Within Fed Toward Deflation Concerns – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 29, 2010

Starting in 2007, the Fed lowered the benchmark short-term interest rate all the way to zero and pumped some $2 trillion into the economy with an array of emergency loans and purchases of government debts and mortgage bonds.

Those purchases were phased out in March, but there is now talk within the Fed of resuming them. Doing so would further enlarge the central bank’s balance sheet, which has more than doubled, to $2.3 trillion.

To buy all those assets, the Fed essentially printed money — the $1 trillion in reserves. If the reserves were withdrawn and loaned out too quickly, that could trigger a rapid increase in the supply of money in the economy.

via Subtle Shift Within Fed Toward Deflation Concerns – NYTimes.com.

If you can read this article and not be scratching your head and thinking What The Fuck, then you are a better person than I am.

Clearly no one is driving the bus and no one has a map. Seriously, What The Fuck? Is there going to be deflation or inflation? Does it really fucking matter?

There must be inflation in the dark world of denture collectors because some whack job just bought Winston Churchill’s dentures for $23,770. That fucker beat my bid by $70 bucks. I was standing firm at $23,700. That was my top price,  wasn’t going to budge from there. I had to hold my ground. There has to be some limit to what I would pay for a dead fat statesman’s choppers. I simply could not justify anything over $23, 700.  There was a bit of crab cake salad stuck in his left incisor and they were throwing that in for free, but even with that free hunk of Dungeness, I couldn’t go higher.  Fuck I am so pissed I missed out. I promise I will not miss out on Gandhi’s teeth when they go up for auction.They don’t come with free food. The poor guy didn’t eat much.

But back to the Federal Reserve. The Dark Lords are busy trying to come up with a plan to get what little money we have left. My favorite statistic this week is that 83% of all US stocks are in the hands of 1% of the people, if you can call the Dark Lords people. I think they are more reptilian than human, but you know what I mean.

They are in their lairs right now sitting on their heated thrones (reptiles are cold blooded) plotting how they are going to get the other 17% of the stocks. It is driving them crazy that they do not control 100%. Somebody is going to get a beating up in Bohemian Groove this summer.

They have a great plan. It involves disinformation like this article. They will get us to willingly hand over everything we have to save us from the Mad Beast of Inflation or Deflation, or whatever they are calling the Beast this month.

I love the conspiracy theory that the Federal Reserve is owned by a private consortium of banks who are in turn owned by The Brotherhood of Darkness.  And if you follow the conspiracy theory, and I always do because it is much more fun than the so called real story, then the Fed prints money (and by print I mean presses a few buttons on the money tree computer terminal) and they “lend” that money to the US Treasury (which is us, the small people) and collect interest.

Picture me borrowing money from you and then lending it back to you and collecting interest. That is about as simple an explanation as it gets. There is more to it of course but that about sums it up.

I don’t want to get into all the gory details because there are so many other writers who do it already. The explanation is just meant as a reference point.

The other interesting point in the article is that it states that the economic “recovery” may be weakening. The economic recovery? You mean the stock market recovery? Yeah, same thing right? Uh OK I guess, if you are among the 1% of the Dark Lords. For the rest of us 99% the small people, there was no recovery. We have been muddling along listening to this double speak for 2 years. Well 40 years but we can let that slide.

If you know one person who lost their job in the last 2 years who has gotten a job with the same or better pay then you are remarkable lucky. Actually the person you know who got the job is remarkably lucky. For most people the recession will not be over until they find a job. Right now there are 15 million people looking for work.

And why is there is no job recovery? Well check  the article, banks aren’t making loans and companies are sitting on giant piles of money afraid to spend it.

No amount of money flooding the market is going to get spent on job creations. Why? Because corporation’s have suddenly discovered that if you keep your employees in fear of losing their jobs, they will do the work of 2 people for the price of one. The will work like dogs to keep their hovel’s warm or their condo’s from foreclosure. If you were a CEO why would you increase hiring when you could just tug a little harder on the leash? Fear is the ultimate motivator.

When I read these types of articles I try to keep them in context. Alan Greenspan actually said he couldn’t see  the housing bubble although he was the one responsible for creating it. Bernanke said housing prices will never decline across the board. They are both very smart guys who don’t know shit. So take these economists with a grain of salt. They are telling us what they want us to hear, not the truth.

The truth would cause more panic that the asteroid slowly coming to impact the Earth scenario. The truth would sound something like “We built this giant economy and we fucked it up so bad we have to start from scratch.” It is the China Syndrome, a complete meltdown of an economy hijacked by a tiny sliver of the population. That sliver of 1% is holding on for dear life, they will push you down and stand on your head if they think it will keep them from drowning.

Chicken Little may have been right. The sky may be falling, but it is doing it in slow motion.

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Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law – Yahoo! News

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 28, 2010

PHOENIX – A federal judge dealt a serious rebuke to Arizona’s immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation’s toughest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge’s order overturned.

But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

via Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law – Yahoo! News.

This just in from the “No One Is The Least Bit Surprised Department”

I’m sorry, I fell asleep reading this tired story. This law was a cry for help! Arizona might as well call itself North Mexico at this point. They are tired of the Federal Government doing nothing but paying lip service to the problem of illegal immigration.

I have nothing but love for illegal immigrants, they are very poor people looking to make their lives better. By and large they live law abiding lives (once they break the law to get in the US) and they work very hard for low wages.

The problem and the elephant in the room is the fact that there is no enforcement of the existing laws.

Like I have said in the past, make it very painful to employ illegal immigrants and they will stop coming. And then figure out what to do with the ones that are here but do not want to leave (which is about 12 million people). 12 million people is nothing to sneeze at.

But at this point the Federal Government is in collusion with big Agribusinesses to keep the wages of illegals low and to keep them from forming unions.

If the “undocumented, illegal” workers banded together they could be a force to be reckoned with.

I was actually shocked at the response of the people to this law. I saw Michael Moore  on TV last night supporting a boycott of Arizona. A half a million people turned out to protest the law last month.

I would love to see a half million people turn out to protest the fucked up wars we are fighting or the bank bailout or the largest transfer or wealth in human history, or the lies about the unemployment rate or the disintegration of the middle class.

It almost make me put on my conspiracy theory super hero cape and wonder if the protest against this law weren’t organized by the very companies that benefit from the illegal workers.

My conspiracy theory cape is black with a yellow stripe like Charlie Brown’s shirt. It’s really cool.

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Obama Responds to Afghan Document Leak as Democrats Split on War Spending Bill – At War Blog – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 27, 2010

President Obama, in his first public statement on the leaked documents on Tuesday, sought to blunt any suggestion that the documents should force a rethinking of the nation’s commitment to the war effort. He said, as his advisers have previously, that the problems in Afghanistan reflected by the documents have been long known and they are being addressed by the policy changes he has put in place.

“While I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said to reporters in the Rose Garden. “Indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.”

via Obama Responds to Afghan Document Leak as Democrats Split on War Spending Bill – At War Blog – NYTimes.com.

I admit I voted for Obama. I didn’t believe he would change anything, but I didn’t want Sarah Palin a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Ok I admit, I didn’ t want to be on the wrong side of history.  Billy Dee Williams could have been running and I would have voted for him. I wish Wesley Snipes had been running. None of us would be paying income taxes. I figured old White Guys had fucked things up for so long it was time to give the opportunity to a different race or gender. What could it hurt? We already saw Bush could hang in there. The major damage was already done. It is hard to burn down an already burnt down house.

I really believe that in the first few minutes after getting sworn in, before he can do anything else, the Brotherhood of Darkness, for lack of a more colorful term takes the new President down to the nether reaches of the White House bunker and opens the Ark of the Covenant.  They show the President his new boss and from then on all campaign promises are forgotten and it is business as usual in Washington.

How else can you explain Barack Obama going along with the war in Afghanistan? He’s a bright guy, he can not actually believe there is any reason to be fighting the Sand People from Star Wars in a mountainous region in the Land of the Lost. Obama must have been zapped by the great white light of the ark. He now goes along with all the same bullshit policies that have fucked the middle class for decades.

If you still have any confidence in Obama changing anything then you are far more optimistic and forgiving than I am. We were duped. There is no other word for it. At least the Republicans have the balls to come out and say they won’t change anything because it is working for them.

Maybe people ought to be more patient, maybe I ought to wait another year to find a job. Maybe we can just wait and see what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe we can just let the Wall Street crooks keep stealing from us.

I am just jaded at the fact that Obama believes in his war strategy in Afghanistan. It’s a fucking mess. Quit digging the hole and pull out. It’s already too late.

Why is it so hard for a president to end a war? I think it is the Ark of the Covenant or the little green men or Bigfoot down there there in the basement. It must be a really scary site.

Posted in Aimlow, Collapse, Politics, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Document Leak May Hurt Efforts to Build War Support – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — The disclosure of a six-year archive of classified military documents increased pressure on President Obama to defend his military strategy as Congress prepares to deliberate financing of the Afghanistan war.

The disclosures, with their detailed account of a war faring even more poorly than two administrations had portrayed, landed at a crucial moment. Because of difficulties on the ground and mounting casualties in the war, the debate over the American presence in Afghanistan has begun earlier than expected. Inside the administration, more officials are privately questioning the policy.

via Document Leak May Hurt Efforts to Build War Support – NYTimes.com.

There are a lot of people calling for the execution of Bradley Manning. I am calling for his beatification. Bradly Manning is not Julian Rosenberg.

Let’s get something straight, these leaked documents are not the Normandy Invasion plans, they are not the Manhattan Project plans, they are not even Washington crossing the Delaware plans.

What they are is a ton of very embarrassing documents that are only secret because they are embarrassing.

We all know that the war in Afghanistan has been fucked from day one. But we had enough scar tissue from 9/11 to give the military the benefit of the doubt .

I don’ t know about you, but my scar tissue started to heal before George Bush was reelected. After GW got back in the White House, I just started to get pissed off on how things were “progressing”.

Torture was legalized, Guantanamo was institutionalized and the Taliban was revitalized.   In short, this war could not be going worse.

And now we have the proof that things are not going the way they have told us the are.

Maybe, and I doubt this, but maybe this will be a catalyst for a frank and open discussion about how we get the fuck out of Afghanistan for good.

My guess is that the US will build some kind of permanent base of operations and pull back from fighting the Taliban. They’ll rely on predator drones and probably lasers from space. I figure this will start to happen right before the start of the 2012 Presidential election.

We can’t leave any place we’ve fought a war. The US still has forces in Japan, Germany and even Korea. We’ll never leave Iraq and Afghanistan, but we might come to a separate peace and tone down the bullshit if the fire from these leaks grows big enough.

Look for the US to try and frame the discussion around the treason charges and the legality of the leaks and not on what the documents actually say.

I have to hand it to Julian Assange, he was actually photographed in public in London yesterday. If I were him, I’d be hiding out next door to Osama Bin Laden.  Someone is going to try to slip something in his drink.

The Brotherhood of Darkness can’t run the world in broad daylight. They need to collusion of all the men and women in uniform. One guy broke ranks, let’s see if this spark starts the fire.

Posted in Aimlow, Collapse, Politics, economy | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Unf–k The Gulf | BP Oil Disaster | Gulf Coast Donate | Mediaite

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 26, 2010

Desperate times call for desperate language. A new campaign to raise funds for cleanup of the BP oil disaster just hit the web, and it’s using the angriest language possible to convey the reality of the disaster in the Gulf, and on a mission to make a viral campaign out of their slogan: “Unf*ck the Gulf.”

Their video depicts average Americans wearing their “Unf*ck the Gulf” t-shirts explaining, in lavishly profane detail the reason why they’re so outraged, and the depths of the disaster in the Gulf. Raising some eyebrows are the children in the video, who are using appropriately adult language to describe the devastation as well. The ads are being used to sell t-shirts and other miscellany, the funds of which will be donated to a charitable organization of the people’s choosing (visitors can vote in a poll on which organization they would prefer to see given the money).

via Unf–k The Gulf | BP Oil Disaster | Gulf Coast Donate | Mediaite.

I love a good F Bomb as readers of this site know very well. But more than a F Bomb. I like the work Fuck. I like Fuck because it is one of the last truly attention seeking words we have left.

If someone says Fuck on TV people take notice. Charles Rocket blew his brains out in a field several years after saying Fuck on Saturday Night Live. He never lived it down.

Saying Fuck for fuck’s sake is making light of a powerful word. It is a word that ought to be used to raise the alarm. To sound the warning.

I appreciate this campaign to UNF–K the Gulf, but I take exception to the dashes in fuck. The Gulf is no F–ked it is FUCKED.

This campaign needs to come out and use the word in all of it’s shocking glory.The papers and the news need to show the uncensored version of the T Shirts.

I started a campaign a few weeks back to Fuck The Debt.  I didn’t start a campaign to F–k the debt.

The Debt, the Gulf of Mexico, they are both FUCKED. It is high time we say it out loud.

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G.M. Buys a Subprime Lender for $3.5 Billion – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 26, 2010

DETROIT — General Motors said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy a financing company, AmeriCredit, for $3.5 billion so it can lease more vehicles and increase sales to consumers with lower credit ratings.

The transaction, expected to close in the fourth quarter, gives G.M. a captive financing arm for the first time since 2007, when it sold control of GMAC Financial Services. G.M. recently considered starting a new financing arm or reacquiring GMAC, now known as Ally Financial, to strengthen its lending capabilities and to raise the carmaker’s value ahead of a public stock offering.

via G.M. Buys a Subprime Lender for $3.5 Billion – NYTimes.com.

This just in from the What The Fuck Are They Thinking Department.

I was going to file this under “If at first your don’t succeed, try try again.”

Last week, GM bought a financing company because before they went bankrupt, they made more money financing cars than they did building cars.

I did a lot of driving this weekend and as my mind drifted in and out of traffic I was struck by the new Hyundai’s driving down the New York State Thruway. They do not look anything like the shit boxes Hyundai Excel’s they were selling here in the 1980’s. They look like a Lexus.

As I was thinking of the progress Hyundai made, I saw a Saturn broken down on the side of the highway.

Both car companies started selling cars in America in the 1980’s and both were the products of giant manufacturing companies.  That is were the similarities end.

Hyundai increased their quality year after year while Saturn started out with good quality and drifted downhill until they went out of business.

General Motors is the ultimate American corporation. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they plow ahead with the same tired and failed plan.

They could take a lesson from Hyundai’s playbook and make high quality, affordable and stylish cars, but instead they take a lesson from their own playbook and buy a financing company.

This can only end badly for GM. But fortunately, they know the US Government will not let them fail.

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Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 26, 2010

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday.

The documents, made available by an organization called WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.

via Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert – NYTimes.com.

The first question I ask about this war is who is supplying the money for the weapons that the “insurgents” are using? The second question is who is supplying the weapons?

War doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  Someone is paying for the Taliban weapons and supplies. Some of the money is coming from drug addled Americans who are enjoying very pure heroin. But there has to be other sources of money.

In reading this report, it seems like the American’s are paying the Pakistani government who in turn use the money to fight the American military. It’s a bit like punching yourself in the face.

This war is a fucking mess. There is no way around the fact that there is no end game. The end game is we stay forever.

Picture a corporation trying for 9 years to make a profit or develop a product. Picture that same corporation making mistake after mistake, changing their plans every quarter and still being in business. It wouldn’t happen.

It is ironic that in the case of both of the 21st Century American wars, the Conservatives, who want to privatize every aspect of government in the belief that private is than public, go along with the inept running of these wars.

I hope Wikileaks.org continues to publish more leaked documents because the only way that Americans are going to realize how badly these wars are being run  is to be hit on the head by tens of thousands of documents. We need irrefutable evidence and even in the face of  that evidence we’ll need to get punched a few more times before a few brave souls in Congress says enough is enough.

These endless wars have drained our economy and ruined the good will America had after the 9/11 attacks. It is high time we walk away and rebuild our economy and our country.

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Ground Zero Mosque http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/bdn/Americas-Ground-Zero,149536

Posted by handball on July 25, 2010

I sit here in the extreme southern tip of Italy at the edge of Christian Continental europe and as so many others have done for 1300 years ponder the vast islamic heartlands of north africa and the middle east a hundred or so miles away. This portion of southern europe is unique in that it has resisted islam throughout the centuries. perhaps because the pope resides in this country , perhaps because of the exertions of the dying byzantine empire , perhaps because its a dry worthless piece of rock in the middle of nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

i have been reading a history of the arab peoples . ive read a history of the ottoman empire but my latest book is a comprehensive history beginning in the 500,s and ending in 1939. Its interesting to me that both great powers of ancient times (persia and rome) were fading at the same time causing a vaccum that was filled by islam. Arabs were conquering presia at the same time germanic tribes were conquering the western roman empire. while the germanic tribes embraced roman culture the arabs brought with them a whole new program including religion language etc… their pulse went even further then the northern europeans driving them from north africa  spain and eastern europe and after several hundred years converting most of the population in both religion and language.

Im surprised to learn how factioned the islamic religion is. both early on and now.

in reading i found that a problem for the muslems in their newly conquered territories was the reverance paid to religious buildings left by their predacessors. early on any type of building could serve as a moaque. obviously any type of building can serve as a mosque or church or synagoge today but , the newly empowered muslims needed a building that would show the older religions that they were here to stay.

The building they would up constructing is the Dome of the Rock ( circa 690 ad). It is constructed on the site of the second jewish temple , the one destroyed by the romans in 70 ad. Aside from being located on the site of the jewish temple ( yes the temple where jesus took a fit on the money changers) it is over the foundation stone. The foundation stone is the holiest of all things jewish. Jews pray at the whaling wall because that is as close to the rock as the muslems will let them get.Its amazing to me that with jerusalem in jewish hands this stuff continues.

Anyway the mosque at ground zero I think is the same type of statement . It is ment to impress upon us that islam is here ( here being manhattan) to stay.

i know america is supposed to be a melting pot. Im thankful that my ansestors melted. But there is something agressive going on here . this is not melting this is ……… Mohamads last public words at mecca were well documented . He said make war on all men until they say there is but one god.

The dome of the rock is a real stick it in your face thing.

And thats what I think the mosque at ground zero is. Its sticking it in our faces. Now we r not conquered , militarilly at least. are we conquered in our minds?  can we build a church at mecca? can we build a church at mecca after we bomb the shit out of it? can we have a bear sterns trading floor at the site of the fuckin blown to bits mecca? maby we should build a new world trade center at the site of mecca after we destroy it.

just so they know we r there to stay.

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landslides hit italy after heavy rain

Posted by handball on July 24, 2010

aimlow shemp: handball why dont ya cover the italian landslides?

handball; I would love to but ……

aimlow shemp: all expenses paid , man . I got your back

hanball: you got it man!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 22, 2010

WASHINGTON — A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.

In the survey, commissioned by the rig’s owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they “often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig.”

Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, “which they believed was as a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance,” according to the survey, one of two Transocean reports obtained by The New York Times.

“At nine years old, Deepwater Horizon has never been in dry dock,” one worker told investigators. “We can only work around so much.”

via Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns – NYTimes.com.

Let this story be a lesson to all you union bashers out there. Unsafe working conditions used to be par for the course in American industry. In some industries like coal mining and petroleum exploration and refining they still are.

All of us office chair jockeys ought to be thankful that there were once strong unions in the country 80 years ago to lift us out of the life threatening and wage slave conditions that existed for working class people in this country.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear your argument that unions today are bloated and bad for business. I feel your pain when you say that unions are there to serve themselves. Too much of a good thing hurts your stomach sometimes.

But don’t lose the view of the big picture. Big business is there to make as much money as they can for their shareholders. They do not give a rat’s ass if they are sending their workers into harms way as long as the benefits outweigh the costs. And by benefits I mean profits, and by costs I mean lives.

They scare you into submission. The whistle blower is still a pariah and usually winds up getting fired. A anonymous survey was TransOcean’s way of saying we don;t give a shit and if you complain publicly you will be shit canned.

In this “new normal” economy where every worker is scared to death about losing their job, businesses are demanding more work for the same and in some cases less pay. Do you know anyone with a job outside of a union that is actual working a 40 hour week? I bet you don’t. and nowadays people can take their work home with them and be connected 24/7. Work is now your life instead of a way to make enough money to live your life.

The BP live feeds are not as compelling as they were a few weeks ago. They are actually downright boring this morning. Which I guess is good news.

Posted in Aimlow, Business, Collapse, economy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Breaking Impasse, Senate Extends Jobless Benefits – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Senate cleared the way Tuesday for more unemployment pay to reach millions of Americans who have been out of work for six months or more as the Democratic-led Congress pruned one more item off the list of issues it hopes to tackle in an intensely polarized election year.

Minutes after Carte P. Goodwin was sworn in as the new Democratic senator from West Virginia to replace the late Robert C. Byrd, the Senate voted 60 to 40 to break a partisan logjam and end debate over the jobless pay, overriding Republican objections that the $34 billion cost of the additional compensation should not be added to the deficit.

via Breaking Impasse, Senate Extends Jobless Benefits – NYTimes.com.

If you had any doubt that American Politics is a fucked up mess of partisan bullshit, look no further than today’s vote for extending the unemployment benefits for proof.

Gee Fucking Whiz, Bernanke sees no quick end to high rate of joblessness and yet all the Republicans except 2 who will probably have to pay in blood and 1 insane Democrat who will be forgiven, voted against extending jobless benefits.

It is time for a good old fashioned peasant revolt! Let us take up our plow shares and turn them into swords!

Nah, fuck it say the peasants, pass the high fructose corn syrup and turn on American Idol. We’ve been dumbed down to the point of numbness. We feel nothing, to feel helpless would be a step up.

It is unfuckingbeliveable that in the 21st Century politicians are still playing the same games they did in the 19th Century. Actually it is very believable, who wouldn’t stick with a winning game plan?

I read a lot of political blogs and watch a lot of political television and there is no shortage of experts who analyze the political spectrum. Most of the so called analysts pick apart a certain issue and pontificate about their quasi interpretation.

I think most of the analysts are in on the scam. They know that if they say just the right things to appear intelligent and informed,  they will get paid for their work and live comfortable lives.

Me, I don’t get paid for my work. I do it because I have nothing better to do. And from where I am sitting, my informed opinion is that the politicians who voted against extending these benefits are just run of the mill mean spirited, cold hearted assholes.

There is no shortage of cold hearted assholes in this country. A layer above cold hearted assholes is elitist asshole and one step down from cold hearted asshole is average asshole. Average assholes are the people who cut you off in traffic and then give you the finger.

For the most part your average asshole is as harmless as a fart in an elevator. They are God Awful, but they won’t hurt you in the long run.

Cold hearted and elitiest assholes are more sinister. They are the kind of people that plot against you because they think you are worthless. Politics has always attracted this particular breed of asshole. The DSM IV might refer to these people as sociopaths, but asshole has a much earthier aroma to it.

No one of course sees themselves as any particular breed of asshole. One of the character traits of a true asshole is that they view you and not themselves as an asshole. You are the problem, not them. If only more people were more like them and less like you the world would be wine and roses instead of sour milk and elevator farts.

It is only when the case is presented in Blue and Read in a nifty graphic on the New York Times Web Site that the cover comes off the deep dark truthful mirror and we get to see people for who they truly are.

I’d say vote the bums out, but voting hasn’t counted since Florida in November 2000.

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Greece’s Debt-Ridden Rail System Adds to Economic Breakdown – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 21, 2010

Some have argued that Hellenic Railways should shut down the majority of its routes, especially in the mountainous Peloponnese region where trains manned by drivers being paid as much as $130,000 a year frequently run empty.

The government, perhaps optimistically, is advocating the sale of a 49 percent stake to the French, who said this year that they would take a look. But it remains unclear how the French rail network, already burdened with its own high levels of debt, would be able to assume Hellenic’s liabilities and losses.

via Greece’s Debt-Ridden Rail System Adds to Economic Breakdown – NYTimes.com.

I hate to advocate for people losing their jobs, but why are there still engineers on trains?Local trains I mean, giant freight trains still need people.

You know we are in big trouble and one of the key indicators is that Disneyland has had a train without a driver for 50 years. They also have a monorail, but let’s leave that aside for a while.

In my pipe dream fantasy, I envision a public transportation system that is computer controlled and GPS tracked. I walk down to the main road, hit the button (on my smart phone) and a single car comes down the virtual track and opens it’s door. I get in, tell the car where I want to go (it is voice activated) and I go there.

To keep me from vandalizing the car, I have to have some biometric identification. I am willing to forgo privacy for convenience in this case.It cuts down on crime and make the ride cheaper.

I am still high, so envision a system of trucks that are sent down the major highways with wind turbines on their trailers, the turbines generate electricity which is fed back into the grid via an over head wire.  Similar to the one on my local Metro North train system.Tried and true.

I am really high right now so the trucks have no drivers, they cruise down the highway in their own lane, away from car traffic. The trucks can go faster and farther. I know I am almost recreating the train tracks of 1880, but I am high and I am going with the fantasy.

The trucks wind up in a central depot where drivers take them the final few miles. I want to save some work for the drivers, the teamsters insist, even in my fantasy.

I’ve looked this up, I am not the first one with a car top wind turbine pipe dream. Some other smokers have thought of charging the batteries on electric cars with wind power, it’s a great idea, but I am the first one to think of feeding the power back into the grid.  I don’t patent the idea because I am into GNU and not profit. I want a better world not a bigger bank account. Like I said, I am high.

And now I am peaking, so I envision a 20 hour workweek at 40 hour pay. I envision job sharing and a slack filled life for all.

I am envisioning Tomorrowland today.

And then I come down. Hard! I am back in my stress filled reality of inefficiency and greed. I know these things won’t happen and I want to get high again.

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Concern for Those Who Screen the Web for Barbarity – NYTimes.com

Posted by Aimlow Joe on July 20, 2010

Ricky Bess spends eight hours a day in front of a computer near Orlando, Fla., viewing some of the worst depravities harbored on the Internet. He has seen photographs of graphic gang killings, animal abuse and twisted forms of pornography. One recent sighting was a photo of two teenage boys gleefully pointing guns at another boy, who is crying.

An Internet content reviewer, Mr. Bess sifts through photographs that people upload to a big social networking site and keeps the illicit material — and there is plenty of it — from being posted. His is an obscure job that is repeated thousands of times over, from office parks in suburban Florida to outsourcing hubs like the Philippines.

via Concern for Those Who Screen the Web for Barbarity – NYTimes.com.

One of the ways I troll for readers for this site is to post comments about news stories in the comment boards of newspapers. I figure it is all about the eyeballs. If you have come to this site as a result of a comment I made, thank you.

Most of my comments are snide, sarcastic, silly or just plain sad. And after reading this story I apologize to any Internet Content Reviewer who has been traumatized by something I wrote.

But I think I just found my dream job. Troll the Internet all day? I do that now for free. Get paid $8.00 an hour and have access to free PTSD counseling? What a perk! And if I  want to I can move to the Philippines. Can I still get $8.00 an hour in the Philippines? I’d be making more than the Mayor of Manila!

But seriously, okay not seriously, but half seriously who does these depraved things and then takes pictures of them? And then to put the cherry on the Sundae who posts them online?

Eventually we will all be as desensitized to online images as we are to wars in far away lands, oil spills in the water, thievery by the power elite and pretty much all other unpleasant things that don’t hit us in the head. In the meantime, pass the bottle.

I joke around and say that if porn wasn’t invented, the idea of it would have never crossed my mind. I think we have reached the end of the porn line. What else is there to do? Is there any new move or position or action shot that hasn’t already been captured on film? The actors might change, but the script stays the same.

After Naughty College Girls 11 is there anything left to put into Naughty College Girls 12? Amazingly the answer is yes.

Years ago I was lucky enough to see a screening of 8mm porn films from way back in the day. I am talking stag films from the 20’s and 30’s.  Projected on a sheet in a smoky room, just as they would have been in the days of old.

You want to talk about images that will never leave your mind? There was enough hair in those films to keep Locks Of Love in business for the next 100 years.

And even back then it was all the same shit you’d see today, with the possible exception of the eel scene, no one does that anymore. There was one film with a German Shepard that would have won the Adult Film Industry gross out of the year award.

The main difference is that actors today are much better looking and have much better bodies. And thank Dog for that.

As for graphic images, I saw the Bud Dwyer movie several times many years ago. I do not recommend it. It really is gruesome.

I used to love horror movies when I was a kid, but nowadays, I’ll take a light romantic comedy with a side order of documentary. I just do not have the stomach for the new Nightmare on Elm Street.

I have a real respect for these content reviewers. In this down economy when they could be sitting at home collecting unemployment as the Republicans have railed about, these poor underpaid souls are out there in their cubicles on the front lines, sterilizing our online world.

They take the hits so you don’t have to, unless you want to and then I am pretty sure you could find what you are looking for.

So let’s not make their job any harder, stop posting indecent images online for all the world to see. Keep them in your secret underground room and show them only to your depraved friends. Like the way we used to roll before Google took over the world.

And as for graphic soul sucking images. This one fucked me all up. I’ve been out of work too long!

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