Very interesting… Apparently Bush likes a little head every now and then.

More Bush-head-rubbing-madness after the jump…

 
Does it seem odd to you that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still north of 10,000 despite the fact that no one has any jobs, the economy is puking blood and a bruised and battered mainstream America long ago exited the stock market?

Why wouldn’t the stock market be thriving while the rest of us are on food stamps and living in tents? Wall Street and the banks got the bailout, they aren’t going to lend anybody anything and they are paying themselves FAT BONUSES with your tax dollars. Let there be no mistake about it. The financial class have tied up all the productive capital in this country and are skimming off the top to enrich themselves. That’s the way the game works. It’s all legal!

And it’s obscene. If the general population would stop watching Fox News and worrying about a “mosque” (that isn’t even a mosque) long enough to figure out how they’ve been fucked up the ass sans lube by the plutocrats, there would be rioting in the streets. Instead they think that what we really need are an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and to repeal healthcare reform. (Shudders).

That’s why this new thought experiment/essay, by my super smart pal Charles Hugh Smith is so important to read and share with others. I was thrilled when I read this and I think you will be, too. Talk about a dangerous mind. Wow.

Think what this thought bomb, injected into the national conversation would do. Talk about this idea with your friends, post the essay on Facebook and call talk radio to seed this into the dialogue there.

Imagine if a meme like this spread and took hold. It could—easily—happen. It would turn the national conversation upside down! Now do your part!

What if the Fed and Treasury distributed $1.3 trillion directly to households rather than disburse it to prop up bank lending? At least some households would use the funds to pay down debt, meaning the money would flow to the banking sector anyway, but with one critical difference: household debt would actually decline, leaving household balance sheets in better shape and owing less interest every month.

With quantitative easing, the idea is to increase the debt load on households; with a helicopter drop of fresh cash, the idea would be to reduce the debt load that is crushing many households. Banks would benefit, too, as more consumer debt would be paid off in full compared to the current policy of promoting heavier debt loads. The negative consequences of pushing more debt on households is also obvious: more loans become uncollectible and go into default, creating more loan losses for banks.

If the cash transfers were broadly distributed, the subsequent spending would be more representative of sustainable demand than other means of stimulus, such as costly and ineffective “job creation” programs.

Most importantly, the status quo monetary policy distorts economic activity towards debt-based financial assets and debt-financed durable goods such as the “cash for clunkers” program to boost auto sales.

According to the status quo, adding more debt to households is the cure to our economic malaise. But for most households, high debt is the disease, not the cure, and adding more debt to “stimulate spending” is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

Some might argue that a direct deposit of freshly issued cash into households would be inflationary. But other economists argue that if inflation is a monetary issue, and a helicopter drop of cash is fundamentally fiscal, then the worry over sparking inflation is misplaced.

What seems clear is that expanding bank credit through quantitative easing policies of funneling trillions of dollars into banks isn’t working. Putting the same money thrown into banks ($4 trillion) into households’ accounts would certainly put the money where it could either be spent or used to pay down debt—both of which are direct “cures” to over-indebtedness and a no-growth economy.

The sums of money squandered on bailing out banks are difficult to grasp. So I’ll make it easy: if the Treasury printed up $1.3 trillion in cash, that would be enough to give $10,000 to all 130 million households in the U.S.

Even $10,000 to each household would enable a lot of debt to be paid off. Those without any debt could save/invest/spend it. That would certainly do more for the economy than throwing another $1.3 trillion to “extend and pretend” the banks’ insolvency.

Would such a distribution set up a political expectation for another $10,000 next election cycle? Very likely. Would that be positive? No. But all policy is a series of trade-offs, and a helicopter drop could be “sold” as one-time only.

Would it trigger massive inflation? Doubtful. The national debt is about $13 trillion, so adding 10% to it with a “helicopter drop” is not going to change the long-term debt problem much. The GDP is around $13-$14 trillion as well, so it would amount to a one-time 10% boost in GDP. Total personal income is around $8.4 trillion, so a $1.3 trillion helicopter drop of cash would be about a 15% boost to personal income.

Would it really do much to lower indebtedness of the American consumer? No. Total debt in the U.S. is about $52 trillion—governmental, corporate and private. Mortgage debt is around $10 trillion, and consumer debt is around $2.4 trillon. (These are approximate; a web search will confirm the round numbers.)

While $1.3 trillion won’t do much to change the outlook for inflation or future debt crises, it sure would give a lot of households one last chance to set things on a more positive course. $10,000 could wipe out a high-debt credit card without wiping out the creditworthiness of the household, or it could finance a move to a locale with more employment. It could replace a vehicle on its last legs with a better used car.

Would some people squander a one-time “last chance to set a new course” helicopter drop? Of course some people will. But that’s not the point. The point is that the nation has received zero value from trillions in quantitative easing, and so if even 10% of the 130 million households do something useful with their $10,000 in cash then that would be one heck of a lot more than we’ve gotten from the trillions thrown down the rathole of a venal, corrupted, insolvent banking sector.

Throwing money at banks hasn’t done anything but reward financial Power Elites via privatizing their gains and transferring their losses to the taxpayers. Throwing money at households won’t solve the nation’s problems either, but it would give households a one-time chance to do something useful with a chunk of cash. If 90% of the households blew it, then it would still end up somewhere in the economy, which is more than can be said of the trillions thrown away on QE.

In the long run, it wouldn’t make much difference to the nation’s fiscal situation, but to households on the edge, it might make a very significant difference.

Read the entire essay
What If We Ditched Quantitative Easing and Just Printed (and Distributed) Cash? (Of Two Minds)

 
From an ad on Craigslist. I appreciate that these Republicans are at least self-aware enough to add that this is for Jersey Shore lookalikes who “wouldn’t mind coming to a Republican party.” No pay, but free booze. Something tells me that most people who fancy themselves a ringer for the Situation or Snookie, free booze is probably pay enough…

We are looking for people who look like cast members of the jersey shore and whom wouldn’t mind coming to a republican party. We want basically anyone who even remotely resembles a cast member of the Jersey Shore, or who would not mind dressing up like a cast member of the show to come to our party. We want everyone to fill at least one role. Snookie, Situation etc. Send a pic with your response and your phone number. If you decide to attend we will cover your drinks and etc for the party. It’s not a big party, just a little get together very casual. It’s for a college club. Send an email if you are willing to show up to our party posing as one of these people (Anyones welcome, even if it’s a long shot to the way you look). Just send your number so we can call and talk about arrangements. Anyone looking to have some fun should apply!

On the other hand, Democrats who look like the IQ-challenged Guido and Guidette cast-members, might want to consider showing up in Jersey Shore drag, drinking all their Republican booze and puking all over the place. It would be more in character, anyways, don’t cha think?
 

 
In this short, but riveting glimpse into the Taliban, Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal goes behind the lines to film the insurgents from their point of view. This was broadcast on Australian television.

There is no question that the mujahideen are strong willed, relentless, and, in their absolute belief that Allah is on their side, seemingly fearless. Watching the Taliban perched on their mountaintops firing at Americans like targets in a fairground shooting gallery makes me wonder if this war will ever have an end. Too many mountains. Too many men willing to strike in the name of Allah. Too many men with nothing left to lose and, consequently, ruthless and deadly.

Some of the early shots in the video remind me of photos of Che and his guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Mastra Mountains: longhaired, bearded and fiercely determined.
 

Due to increasing competition for scarce natural resources, a barbarism haunts the planet. In the drive for expansion and profits, the endgame of the capitalist system promises imperialism, domination of impoverished peoples and an ecological nightmare. The capitalist path is a death trap, but there is a just, people-based alternative: Socialism. In this wide-ranging interview, Prof. Michael Lebowitz discusses his latest book, The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development.

 
Huey Percey Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, would be 68 years old if he hadn’t been shot in Oakland on this day in 1989 by Tyrone “Double R” Robinson, an alleged member of George Jackson’s Marxist prison gang The Black Guerilla Family.

Here he is engaging William F. Buckley on his show Firing Line in a preliminary thought-game before getting deep into the kind of civil dialogue on political theory that’s absolutely impossible to find on television today.
 

 
Watch in horror and amazement as this mob of lily-white imbeciles at a ground zero protest today latch onto an unfortunate brown skinned fellow with the wrong kind of hat. Dark days, people.
 
via Glenn Greenwald’s twitter feed
 
Black, Muslim, Same Difference (Balloon Juice)

 
As if you needed it: PUNK NOSTALGIA ALERT.

In the early ‘80s, Black Flag were at the center of the controversy about punk rock violence that hung over the hardcore scenes in L.A. and nationwide.

Two elements seemed at work here. First were the media reports about punk violence fueled parental hysteria, and likely prompted parents of rebellious teens to call the cops on shows that would probably have turned out fine. Second was the actual risk of potential injury at L.A. punk shows. This typically led ad hoc scene spokespeople to defensively compare violence levels at punk shows with those at metal concerts or football games. It also caused plenty of serious internal hand-wringing (mostly in punk ‘zines) about “scene unity”—which now of course just seems like naïve tribalism. 

This Reagan-era concern over local teen and twenty-something violence seemed completely bemusing at a time of mutal assured nuclear destruction and adventurous foreign policy.

Obviously, Black Flag shows weren’t sedate affairs. Of my two encounters with the band in the early Rollins era, one featured a quick half-stampede away from the stage and towards the door, while the other comprised watching a riot unfold outside a sold-out Flag show with the Ramones. Black Flag would eventually settle into the proto-grunge route to self-destruction in 1986.

Looking at it from an era in which more severe and socially tangible violence happens routinely at hip-hop shows, and punk is now fodder for a Broadway musical, Black Flag’s problems seems like they occurred less at another time than on another planet.

Here’s a 1981 segment from the local L.A. news show 2 on the Town.
 

 
Just when you think that it’s not even possible that Sharron Angle, the Nevada nincompoop running on the Republican ticket against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, could say or do something even nuttier than she already has, a past incident from her “career” has come back to haunt her: In 1991, Angle, who says her Senate candidacy is divinely inspired (“a calling from God” as she put it!) was part of a group who successfully lobbied that a local high school football team in Tonopah, NV, not be able to have black football jerseys.

Why? Because the color black is “evil” of course! That’s right, it’s a thoroughly evil color!

From The Pahrump Valley Times:

Also opposing the black jerseys was another group including Angle, a member, if not its leader.

They argued against our charges wearing black on religious grounds.

I cannot quote scripture as they did to justify their point but the gist of their argument was that black as a color was thoroughly evil, invoking the supernatural and especially the devil may take from dictionary definitions and not from scripture .

Angle may or may not have thought this a political statement. But she became a high profile advocate of a specific religious position during her very first campaign.

Whichever argument prevailed, school administrators caved in and prohibited the Muckers from wearing the black apparel.

And here we see another side of the multi-faceted, one-woman lunatic fringe that is Sharron Angle: She’s a low IQ combination of Gladys Kravitz, the nosey, disapproving neighbor on Bewitched and a desert dumbass version of Abigail Williams, one of the accusers in the Salem Witch Trials!

And SHE is best the Republicans can do to run against the Democrat’s Senate Majority Leader??? A foaming at the mouth Christian Fundamentalist lunatic who wants to ban alcohol, abortion, leave the UN and do away with the EPA, the IRS, Social Security and Medicare? A mentally ill person? Why, YES, apparently she is!
 

 
Angle strove religiously against black jerseys (Pahrump Valley Times)

 
(via TDW)