Bummer: More predictions of woe and misfortune...

<via Clusterfuck>
Don't even consider reading this buzzkill without proper reinforcements. Whiskey up 'neat' with a shot glass would be a good start. Maybe wrap up a Fatty, ignite it with a torch and just pretend you're still in Kansas.

Sheesh. Was I ever wrong last year about those stock market indexes. I called for Dow 4000 and look where the darn thing ended up: 11,577.50. Some of those fabled "green shoots" must have grown clean through my brain-pan while I slept off 2010's New Year's Eve festivities.The damage was so severe, apparently, that I missed the takeover of Wall Street by front-running high frequency computer programs battling for supremacy of the algo-space which, along with massive insider trading, daily tweaks stage-managed by the Federal Reserve via their trusted allies in large banks, and relentless propagandistic cheerleading on the theme of if-you-wish-it-so-it-will-be, kept the Dow Jones and Standard & Poors indexes in a frothy state of perma-levitation through the year.
The outstanding question from the get-go of 2011 is just this: can a political economy be kept floating along like a Winnie-the-Pooh balloon on gusts of sheer fakery? To me, the simple answer is no. The people running things in the USA have tried everything from pervasive accounting fraud to complete opacity in trading procedures to looting the republic's future. The consensus trance of "recovery" makes itself manifest through every conduit of public utterance - cable TV news, The New York Times, the pronouncements of every last elected official - even though the Consumer Price Index omits items such as food, gasoline, and heating oil in its calibrations, while heaping on fictional "hedonic" adjustments.

When in doubt...

Good morning worker bees!

Good Morning, Worker Bees! Happy New Year!

And what a year it promises to be, too! We have lots of hard work in store for you. More than ever!

Now that our two-generation-long program of economic restructuring has finally made it to full fruition, I feel it only right and proper to celebrate our achievement with you by recapitulating the events of this greatest historical process in our country’s history.

Normally, of course, plutocrats such as myself would be loath to reveal such secrets to those whom we exploit so thoroughly. If this was the late eighteenth century, perhaps you’d even rise up and sweep us away in some sort of revolution.

Alas, that is hardly a concern anymore, for at least a half-dozen good reasons.

For one thing, we’ve made sure that all of you are stuck in a state of perpetual economic precariousness (at best). This has made you as docile as lambs. No one dares rock the boat, lest the mere scrap of an allowance we grant you in exchange for your labors were to vanish in a puff of smoke. We hold you hostage and demand your acquiescence. You give it to us.

Second, we know everything you think before you think it, anyhow, because our American Stasi Service is so powerful and omnipresent. If you were stupid enough to even utter the ‘R’ word, your well-trained child or spouse will have you turned in before you finish your sentence, and we’ll have you in chains thirty seconds later. Try building a revolutionary movement under those conditions, pal.

Live From Daryl's House: Everytime You Go Away

Yes. Two Gibson Hummingbird acoustics in one sitting.


Double shot of Daryl Hall below the fold...

Gerry Rafferty: RIP

4/16/1947 - 1/4/2011

Best Blog Post of 2010

An open letter to conservatives.

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party -- the GOP -- and the conservative end of the American political spectrum have become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it's tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples -- by no means an exhaustive list -- of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you're going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you'll have to start by draining this swamp:

Boz: You're In Way Above You're Head

Originally from the album Middle Man: Breakdown Dead Ahead. 1980.


Lyrics below the fold.

Vietnam. Long Time Coming

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