2009 is almost here ... What can beat 2008 for excitement?

Well, a nuclear war for starters ...

I also heard some Russian historian predicting that the US will break into six pieces ... but he did give us two years to accomplish that feat.

And just about everyone is predicting lower level events like assassinations, world and regional economic collapses, major terrorist "events" in our large cities and the end of capitalism as we know it.

Being more realistic (and less sensational), I do see worldwide unemployment to at least challenge the late 1920s and early 1930s ... and yes there will be terrorist attempts at assassination and similar mayhem. On the good side, I believe that our intelligence resources and military strength will get us through the year and we can look back on this posting in December 2009 and smile benignly.

Oh for sure, Barack Obama will pledge more money to the large corporations (not just the Big Three in Detroit) and those banks still solvent today--dishing out over a two to three trillion dollars of tax payer money. However, such "rescue" efforts will be of no effect and America’s financial centers (the Fed, the paper and electronic balance at Treasury--just lots of zeroes and commas in the computers--and the US balance of payments deficit) will suddenly implode over the course of just a month or so--sometime around June or July 2009. This will come as a great shock to many of the dimwits in Washington, DC, but will be of no surprise to Mediawingnuts readers like yourselves.

And yes, India and Pakistan will make lots of noise, but no nuclear war on that front, at least. My years in Europe have me far more concerned about a resurgent Russia as we place missile defenses in Poland and elsewhere. I predict that this will be Hillary's big test.

But guess what? Come December 31, 2009 we will all sit back and LOL (laugh out loud) as Junior Senator Roland Burris (D. Ill.) submits a bill to employ 20,000,000 Americans as US Government employees working on "green" projects from Connecticut to Washington State and from Minnesota to the southern tip of Texas. Attacking the 15% unemployment will be a priority, but the situation with the homeless may have to wait until 2020 or 2011.

See ya in a year ... or so ... maybe US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will have his case against Governor Rod Blagojevich (D., Ill.) organized and ready to go to trial by then.

Obama and Senate Democrats can keep the Senate all-white ... or so they seem to think!

Governor Rod Blagojevich (D. Ill.) Nominating Roland Burris to fill President-Elect Obama's Senate Seat

Can President-Elect Barack Obama's spanking new bully pulpit and the Senate Democrats insure that an elderly, controversy-free gentleman from Chicago (who, at one time, was the first African American to climb to a state-wide office in Illinois) be denied his Constitutional rights?

I'm only guessing, but I'd put my money on the Law and American justice over politics and see a future Senator Roland Burris (D. Ill.).

Yes, it's a shame that Governor Sleazebag nominated ANYONE, but being that he nominated an eminently qualified gentleman to take the job, I'd say: Let the Law rank supreme and let us not go through another hassle akin to the 1969 Supreme Court decision in the case of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York. At that time, the court found that the House could not bar Mr. Powell, who had been accused of financial impropriety, if he met the constitutionally determined qualifications for age, citizenship and residency.

And in this case, there isn't even a hint of scandal in Mr. Burris' past. Of course, Mr. Obama would have to face a Senate with a member who happened to be black (that was Obama's seat and his special honor previously, after all), but come on, guys ... get with it and move past this whole silliness!

Don't give Rod Blagojevich the stage for several months while the Senate seat hangs in the balance--or goes Republican in a special election.

Being a State of Washington employee facing possible layoff thanks to a State budget crunch, I know how I would feel if I were one of those whose jobs would have to go to pay for a special state-wide election in Illinois at this time.

With trepidation, I look ahead to 2009 ...

The Obamas ... The "Family-Elect"

Having been a Hillary delegate through two levels of caucuses in the State of Washington, I clearly didn't think Barack Obama was the best choice to be our latest President-Elect. But in November's election the cream did not rise to the top--for either party. A race between Romney and Hillary would have been exhilarating--and proper considering the situation that Bush and his cronies (past and current) have left our nation and the world.

For 2009, we are facing what will likely be the worst--both economically and (from a world-view) foreign affairs wise--year since the late 1930s.

Only time will tell if we got the right man for these troubled times.

And to think Sarah was hushed up by this same RNC !!

Chip Saltsman, candidate for Chairman of the RNC and the guy who mailed out the CD with the song, "Barack the Magic Negro"

Fortunately, most Republicans agree with the current chairman of the RNC, Robert M. "Mike" Duncan (who was appalled) and are making it quite clear that Chip is suddenly a VERY dark horse to become the RNC Chairman.

Both major political parties have large "tents," but Chip's attempt to include prejudice, ill-timed humor and outright stupidity in the Republican tent almost blew it down, me thinks.

Can things get lower than the bailout rathole?

Just ask Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet!

As badly as it might appear that the SEC is overseeing our monies in the TARP/TRAP scam, it pales in comparison with its oversight of Bernard Madoff and his $50 billion-plus Ponzi scheme.

The 86-year-old daughter of L’Oreal SA founder Eugene Schueller--reagarded as the wealthiest woman in the world--was the first investor in a fund managed by Access International Advisors, her sources are saying--speaking on condition of anonymity because her investment isn’t public (no surprise there). The body of Access co-founder Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, 65, was found in his Madison Avenue office yesterday after he attempted fruitlessly to regain some of her monies that he had invested with Madoff.

Police said he probably killed himself. The bloody box-cutters and wastebasket under his wrists to avoid blood dripping to the floor was their first clue.

The results of inadequate regulation and oversight of investments in America seems always to result in the same sad endings ... tragic disillusionment and (in some cases) unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, poverty and ... yes, even death.

When will enough be enough!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

From TARP to TRAP in a heartatta ... uhhh ... heartbeat!

Taxpayer's Rathole for Automobile Payments (TRAP)

From TARP to TRAP in a heartattack ... uhhh ... heartbeat!

Surely you all recall the much ballyhooed $700 billion bailout called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and its kid sister just signed off on last week by President Bush that uses some of the "troubled bank" monies to help out the troubled US auto companies (GM, Ford and Chrysler). You also know that the President did this even after the Republicans in Congress refused to go along with essentially the same thing three weeks ago--although it would have been far more legal as a Congressional Bill. It does involve your tax dollars, after all.

But if we are willing to think of the Big Three as a conglomerate of banks, it fits the wording (more or less) of the original bill that authorized the TARP. (Remember when John McCain raced back to Washington D.C. in the middle of his Presidential campaign to help circle the wagons? Doesn't that seem like a lifetime ago?)

The real point of this posting however is simply to state loud and clear that WE ARE ALL BEING TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS!!! Executive bonuses, golf outings and travel/entertainment expenses--including those private jets that they inadvisedly decided to ride to Washington to push for the bailout--are still roaring and now--worse of all--we just learned today that neither the banks nor the Big Three auto companies have to give us details as to how they are using our money.

How does one spell R-A-T-H-O-L-E ??

What is saddest of all is that the incoming President (Barack H. Obama) is in total agreement with the outgoing President (George W. Bush) in all of this. Perhaps the ugliest actual visual in all of this was watching Joe Biden and Dick Cheney chortling in agreement over the bailout decision last Saturday. Only McCain and Palin spoke out strongly against it--back when they had a voice in the matter--before November 4, 2008. (About the time that Messieurs Obama and Blagojevich were busy selling a soon-to-be-empty Senate seat!)

But what's the surprise? Doesn't this jibe perfectly with the follow-the-leader philosophy right or wrong that epitomized the funding the Iraq War, driving future generations into economic slavery to pay off a $10.6 trillion national debt burden?

A Very Merry Christmas to You All!!!

Once again, Mr. Obama: Did you have an ... uhhh ... inappropriate relationship ... with this man?

I did NOT have sex with that man!

That wasn't the question, Mr. Obama.

Be very explicit and as detailed as you are able and simply explain the odd words used in your most recent denials of inappropriate contact between Governor-impeachee-elect Rod Blagojevich and your Transition Team. Did they discuss "Pay for Play" with the then powerful and helpful Governor Rod Blagojevich?

Did YOU?????

Will today's Christmas 2008 bailout bring on a year-long Year 2009 hangover?

Christmas bailout saves Wall Street from tanking and maybe 3,000,000 jobs in Turkestan, Korea and New Zealand

No, the auto execs did have to (temporarily) cut their salaries, although taking $1 per year (roughly eight cents per month) for the next three months--not including medical bennies, private jets, stock options, 401K, etc. benefits--will be more difficult than under the original Congressionally-dictated TARP regulations. Also, the Bank of Ford, the General Motors Mortgage Bank of America and Chrysler Credit Corporation will have to change their logos slightly. (Remember ... TARP funds were to go to banks and credit companies only!)

To say that the Constitution was "rewritten" today by President Bush and his economic advisory team is a gross understatement. That most Republicans are aghast is to their credit and that most Democrats are giddish is to their shame. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, they allus says.

Watch for the lawsuits to pour in after Christmas.

In the meanwhile, Merry Christmas!

The Mediawingnuts "Retirement Program" -- and it's foolproof!

A move by the Fed, for ... me?

My retirement program is finally coming into focus. The current moves by the Fed to cut rates to a range between a quarter of one percent and absolute ZERO (negative 273.15 on the Celsius scale) show a definite trend toward ... you guessed it ... NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES!!!

I figure that by June or July when the six billion dollar State of Washington deficit forces my early retirement from teaching at the robust age of seventy-four, the Fed will have reduced its prime rate to about NEGATIVE ONE PERCENT!! Yes, it can happen!

And what does that mean?

It means that the fed will PAY ME to borrow money from the Federal Reserve! If I borrow a mere $100 million, that would earn me about $100,000 per year in tax-free interest income! Of course, I would have to carefully protect the $100 million so as to be able to pay it back upon my death, but with my brother, Richard, watching the shed in the back where I'd keep it (locked, of course--and I'd pay Richard for his efforts in protecting the shed with free room and board in the loft), the $100 million would probably be safer there than were it in Hank Paulson's vaults within the Department of the Treasury [sic].

Go, Bernanke ... GO! Let's continue to reduce those interest rates! (and FYI: Bernanke's term of office as Chairman of the Fed extends to 31 January 2010, so even Mr. Obama--should he somehow escape jail over his dealing his Senate seat to Michelle through Governor Blagojevich--won't be able to stop the rate slide through about the time I expect to be "retired.")

Not only is my retirement saved, but so will be the future of millions of other Americans patriotic enough to borrow Fed monies.

President George Bush and Chairman Ben Bernanke: You are both geniuses and my financial saviors.

Thank you!

We need that $34 billion here in Olympia, Washington!

I guess I'd rather that the State of Washington received a teenie six billion dollar bailout for its schools, prisons and hospitals than give these guys and their poorly managed companies $34 cum $125 billion over the next year or so ...

Word on the Street today is that President Bush is asking his Secretary of the Treasury [sic] to toss $34 billion at the "Big" Three to get them through what will be his final 34 days or so in office. This would come from the $700 billion that we have provided the Department of Treasury [sic] to bail out the equally badly managed mortgage (and other) banks here and about our Great Country. That's about a billion dollars a day to keep some irate American reporter from throwing his or her shoe his way during a news conference--such as what happened in Baghdad today, I guess.

Getting slightly more serious for a moment, I truly believe that $34 billion or even $234 billion wouldn't be enough to turn auto buyers in the direction of buying GM, Chrysler and Ford products these days. It will take well-made and fuel efficient cars, Mr. Automakers ... nothing more, nothing less!

I don't know where Chapter 11 bankruptcy might take you guys, but at least it will not bankrupt the US Treasury.

That said, watch Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average bounce up to the tune of A Spoonful of Sugar ($$$) Helps the Medicine (deficit crunch) Go Down tomorrow and Tuesday.

Who listens anyway to a depressed old man in Ocean Shores wondering if his car can navigate Rt. 109 into Hoquiam at six tomorrow morning?

Merry Christmas to the rest of us!

A joyous Sunday to read the Bible and look forward to coldest week in Ocean Shores in 35 years ...

Driving into Aberdeen at lunchtime on Friday

The storm (which wasn't as bad as predicted) still knocked out our power in Ocean Shores and environs for a couple of hours or more. The cold front moving in today is really bringing a chill to the air and will make driving to and from my "inside of master control" classroom especially troublesome.

I only want to sleep today, but am drawn to the words in Philippians 4: "Rejoice in the Lord always ... again I say Rejoice!"

And indeed, we are supposed to have rain, changing to light flurries, changing to SUNLIGHT for the two coldest days of the cold front (Monday and Tuesday). The roads shouldn't be slippery until Wednesday or so.

JOY!!!

Biden's and Palin's stocks rise as rumors mount that Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama will step aside in plea deal

I never had sex with that man!

As rumors continue to fly regarding the "play for pay" scandal unfolding in Illinois, the key question arises: Who becomes the "President-Elect" if Barack Obama confesses to having agreed to pay off Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich with a low level, but high paying, cabinet position in return for Blagojevich agreeing to name Obama's choice to fill his own (now vacated) senate seat? Did I hear someone mention "Senator" Michelle Obama?

If that revelation negates the November 4 election, would Biden still be considered the Vice President-Elect, or would Sarah Palin (who would have been the Vice President-Elect had the American people known of the nefarious Obama-Blagojevich deal) pop into the picture.

This is truly a confusing dilemma for the Democrats in Illinois--and the rest of America!

Who will our next president be? Sarah? ... or Joe?

Remember ... you heard it first right here on mediawingnuts!!!

NOW ... how many live animals are buried in the (diminishing) clutter?

Thanks to persons like my sister, Nancy ... and horrible websites like www.hoarding_is_a_fatal_disease.com, I have finally begun to tackle the little problem about which I've blogged in recent weeks.

Hoarding seems be finally being recognized as a true health, fire and safety hazard. Hmmm ... I wonder if my 6-alarm electrical outlet fire was a symptom?

Anyway, not only can you now see my living room floor ... you might actually be able to count more than a couple of live animals in the photo above. I'm thinking of establishing a clinic in Ocean Shores for the clinically depressed and hoarding-OCDers to whom I can offer compassion, love, understanding (in spades!), organization ideas and flea powder.

That plus a reverse mortgage might get me past the (almost certain) upcoming layoff due to the recession cum depression--mine and the economy's!

Last year it was the windstorm ... this year it's a short but very much to-the-point letter ...

Driftwood at high tide just west of Oyehut and north of Ocean Shores

Yeh, I well remember the driftwood at high tide just north of Ocean Shores after the storm last year. And, as I read over the short letter addressed to several of us as an "early warning" from the Vice President for Instruction of our relatively small two-year college wherein I teach (although at a slightly more remote satellite location), I see the storm ahead.

As many as several hundred of us statewide--especially those of us who might be deemed easily regarded as surplus by both the Governor and her lieutenants since we teach persons who are politically nonexistent (have no voting right)--will likely fall under the knife of budget cuts required by an almost six billion dollar deficit in the State of Washington.

Just driftwood at high tide.

Just exactly how does a "reverse mortgage" work anyway?

Rich's Growing Cast of Characters

Rich's Growing Cast of Characters

My brother, Richard, has brought more into the life of an elderly gentleman quietly living out his last few years in the sleepy ocean town of Ocean Shores, Washington than a temporary housemate and friend. Maybe it's the simple charismatic magnetism of his beloved Benji-like mutt (Sweetheart) or maybe it's just Richard ...

But whatever, I now know of persons living up and down Falls of Clyde Loop SE in both directions and even beyond ... all the way into the downtown district of O.S. (the area of the town's four-way stop sign). Admittedly, the cute Asian lady to the left of our abode and the sweet lady who wheels her motorized wheelchair up and down the roads within a mile of our home--and her equally disabled husband--are sweet folks to be sure. As are just about every breed of dog and peculiar--at the very least, eclectic--male or female human--former marines with OCD, women who light up the entire Olympic Mountain Range with their decorated outdoor lighting--Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas--God can only guess what she does on the Fourth of July or (gasp) New Year's Eve, some woman who saves Greyhounds from lives as ill-treated racing dogs, retired ferry captains--and ... Do I dare go on?

Hell, I've met the entire North Beach Fire Department's hook and ladder battalion (plus EMT's ambulance), the Ocean Shores Police Department (all six squad cars, I think), the Public Utilities Department (PUD) inspectors, nameless amblers on the beach, some guy across the street with a pontoon aircraft carrier that he actually sails up and down the across-the-street creek (which I didn't even know existed), a former mayor, some genius Microsoft exec who has a summer home somewhere up the street, the Baptist pastor who's eager to save us both ... all entirely unknown to me--as people or even living mammals--before Richard came to live at 863 Falls of Clyde Loop in my upper loft.

Richard's cast of characters and their various problems, pets, illnesses, children/grandchildren/parents/ grandparents/etc. are suddenly a part of my life ... forever, I suspect.

Praise God for all of his blessings!