Goodbye 2011

Thankfully 2011 comes to an end in a few hours. Truth and the middle class have both receded into the past, maybe to never be seen again. As far as anyone can see all there is but piles of debt heaped upon lies and more lies. $63T in global GDP and about $190T in global debt worth maybe 10 cents on the dollar today. All this with almost 7 billion people knocking around, looking for a job or a buck or a meal. Feeling hopeful?

Meanwhile in the last, best hope for mankind we have a government that lies every time they speak. Our leadership elite from both parties can neither utter the truth nor even pretend to care. Everyone is sneaking pieces for the their share of the shrinking pie. Obama or Romney in 2012, two sides of the same coin. You will get less.

Globalization killed the american middle class. The race to the bottom for wages and benefits couldn't do anything but kill the US middle class. It will continue killing truth, opportunity and freedom until we are all Chinese peasants. Our leadership elites like the Chinese model and will continue to drive the model. US middle class values, authority and competency no longer have any value in the global model. They must die.

For 42 years my competent but uncredentialed ass made things happen every day. I brought new technology into production, convinced city government to add a park, schools to add playground equipment or showed children how to raise rabbits. Then the company moved away, the city told me to shut up and everyone said I needed credentials to work or play. Now I watch the credentialed incompetents finish off what's left of civilization. I see it everywhere, all the time. Systematic destruction.

2012 will start where 2011 left off. More of the same. Will the company that I work for still be in business in the US? Will my new neighbors wear ankle bracelets? What will my family have to give up to keep food on the table?

The only good news is that I've turned my back on all this. I wouldn't lift a finger to keep any of it going.

Meaning will come after.

Seven years and 1001 posts. Did I change anything? Nah. The world changed all by itself. Almost unrecognizable to me any more. Mostly change for the worse... but I won't have to live in it much longer. I'll be wandering around in the White Life pestering the locals.

My brother called tonight all disturbed because he heard our dead mother call his name in his dreams several times recently. It troubles him because he's an atheist. How could her ghost pester him when there is no afterlife? It's driving him nuts.

Being a believer who has actually died and been brought back, I told him that there's more to this life than we even begin to comprehend. Sure, mom may speak to you in dreams. What does she want, what does it mean? Who knows? No reason to be troubled.

Philosopher/Emperor Marcus Aurelius said that the gods never give us more than we can bear. So true. Why be troubled over things that can never be understood while wearing this mortal coil. Look for meaning but if there is none present just hang the event on your Life Tree and wait. Meaning will come after we go Home.

Ain't Us

Wretchard nails it with his post "If Tomorrow Comes". Tomorrow will come but it won't be anything we or our parents would recognize. Wife and I had three daughters, they have two children. Who's going to take care of my daughters in their old age? The future belongs to those who invest by breeding. It ain't us.

Future

Iran. A country that has publicly shit all over the US for more than three decades. How do they do it? They control US policy by their ability to starve the world of oil by closing the Strait of Hormuz. The US won't attack Iran, no matter the provocation, unless there are no other choices. What would constitute no other choices? I suspect that only the nuclear destruction of Israel would meet that definition. And after the fact for that matter.

But does Iran really want to destroy Israel? Oh they like running their mouth on that matter. They enjoy poking and prodding Israel and the West while they play us off against each other. Iran uses Israel as cover for the crimes that they commit daily against Iranians. Why ruin the game?

The US and Israel discussed red lines regarding the Iranian nuclear program recently. US Intelligence believes Iran stopped weaponization of their nuclear program in 2003. But US Intelligence is anything but intelligent. Whatever they may know is completely politicized to make it utterly useless. After all, we're talking about a government that believes one can negotiate with the Taliban about withdraw from Afghanistan despite tayiqqa.

FT printed an editorial "Far too soon to write off america" yesterday. It poses the question is the US dominant because of it's economy makes it's military powerful or because of it's ideals. Once upon a time it was the ideals and for many people around the world it still is. But those days are gone along with the the worship of a Christian God who gave man rights. Now we have the State which takes all rights for itself after handing out limited goodies to slaves.

China, Russia, Iran, the US and the EU have more in common these days with regard to ideals than they disagree. Individual rights are dying everywhere, except for leadership elites who do as they please.

Merry Christmas

Did you spend $707 per person for Christmas gifts this year? That's what TIME reported the average american spent this year. Sounds wrong to me but then again I spent $600 cash for three daughters and two grandsons. Apparently I'm just a big Scrooge. If "wealthy" americans can afford $5656 for a family of seven and another $1131 in interest, well, good for them. I think borrowing $6000 for Chinese gifts is absurd.

I suspect Jesus would vomit at what His birthday has become, the big corporate payday.

With that being said, I wish ya'll a Merry Christmas.

Small Magic

I got out in the yard today for some early winter maintenance activities. I cut up and burned the limbs that fell throughout the autumn, stowed potted perennials in composting leaves to protect the roots, re-stacked firewood that fell and blew the last of the leaves into flower beds. I repaired a squirrel chair feeder and adjusted the pool cover for winter water level. Grandson and I fussed with the fire and ate oranges. Pretty mundane stuff really.

But this is the stuff that makes life bearable. Forget the glamorous lifestyle and job. It's the little jobs at home that provide a real quality of life. Yeah, your back hurts the next day, your shoes get muddy and you get smokey and cold. But you did the work, not some hired Juan. My house might not be fancy...but it's mine. I do all the maintenance work and know every minute detail of the place. I have for 35 years.


The magic is all in the little detail of this life. The wider world is just a disappointment. Any squirrel climbing trees in your yard is far more interesting than any politician, Hollywood star or captain of industry. So think small and find magic in this life.

Class Warfare

GOP didn't cover themselves in glory with their capitulation on the 2% tax withholding relief compromise. No one was at the water cooler to acknowledge their charity late in the day. So their entire movement went into the Christmas holiday looking like a bunch of Scrooges. Good work.

The dems did an outstanding job of selling class warfare heading into the 2012 election. I'm even buying it, even though I know the dems are lying too. The GOP doesn't give a flying shit about anyone who makes less than $80k a year. Neither do the dems but they pretend better.

$85 a month is a lot of money to me these days. It covers the monthly health insurance payroll deduction increases and keeps my take home pay the same. That's important going into my fourth year without a raise. Anyone making $80k or more a year wouldn't "get it".

With US sovereign debt over $15.124T there's nothing I can do to pay it down. Those making over $80k are going to have to do that heavy lifting. I'm just trying to hang on to what's left of my lower middle class lifestyle. A couple more years of no raises will break my grip, sending us into lower class.

I'm not buying the whole small businessmen create jobs crap. I've seen no evidence of the jobs but plenty of evidence of the McMansions, Lexus' and fancy lifestyle. So I'm starting to get bought in on taxing the wealthy snobs. Let the leadership elites pay for their fucked up leadership.

Bzzzzzz

Today I practiced my new theme for the new year. I'm an insect. As an american, as an employee and even as a person I'm just a fucking bug. I buzz around and do shit but no one really notices. Unless I become annoying... then someone takes a swat at me. Mostly they miss but if they work at it they might just kill me. No big deal.

As you might imagine, no-one ever asks a bug what it thinks. Why bother, they have no brains...and certainly no Bachelor's degree. No-one feels an obligation to insects, they're just yucky annoyances. Ignore them, swat them..it doesn't matter.

Perhaps this is a lesson from God, some humbling exercise that I must learn. Whatever. Bzzzzzzzz.

Ten Percent Gas Price Rise Overnight...Merry Christmas

Yesterday evening when I drove home Regular Unleaded gasoline was selling for as low as $3.05 per gallon. This evening the same gasoline was selling for $3.39 gallon. WTF? Am I to believe that supplies tightened dramatically overnight to force a 10% increase? Or is this just corporate kleptocrats raping the public for Christmas?

Supply and demand? Capitalism? Or just goddamned oligarchs doing anything they can away with? Of course the MSM carrys water for the thugs claiming a 3 year low in supplies. What? The bastards have no idea what is being used, what is needed and how to balance supply and demand especially for the busy travel season?

Putin, Marathon. It makes no difference. They're the same. Thugs and thieves.

Solstice

Solstice. Hope should blossom on the longest night of the year. My only hope lies in doing the smallest of things in life. May I succeed today and all of the coming year.

2011 Early Wrap Up

End of the year is approaching so let's do a little list check off exercise so we're free to enjoy the year end activities.

1)   Equities: Don't expect a Santa Claus rally. The DOW will end down with maybe a 2% gain for the year. Maybe less. You can blame Eurps, Congress, Iran, MENA and Norks for the crappy year. Oh, and look for 2012 to get worse. The election year, geopolitical tensions and the ever-economic crisis in the EU will just crush americans struggling to get by.

2)   Tax Cut/Extended UC benefits: Fuggitaboutit. Get ready for a 2% tax increase as gridlock has set in. The Congress is going home to enjoy Christmas. Ya'll get tax increases. The unemployed can just die. Knock 1% off of national 2012 GDP. Just Democrats and Republicans way of saying Fuck You for Christmas.

On a personal note, bosses making $80,000+ at my work told me and my guys fuck you today. We'll get with you next year about reviews and raises we promised before Thanksgiving. And the 2% tax cut the Congress is killing would have paid the increase in medical deductibles for next year. Now our paychecks will be $68 less per month.

I'm starting to hate this country.

Seeing Santa

I awoke early one Christmas morning when I was eight. I was allowed to get my stocking from the fireplace but I had to take it back to bed. I peeked around the corner to see if Santa had stuffed my stocking. I was shocked when I saw the diminutive, red suited, bearded man standing by the fireplace getting ready to leave the house. He looked at me, smiled and put his finger aside his nose, as if to say "fear not but say nothing". Then he vanished up the chimney, literally in the twinkle of an eye. I listened for the departure of his sled but nothing. I ducked back in my room quivering in excitement at actually seeing Santa.

After a few minutes I crept out and snagged my stocking. I took it back to my bed and dumped it but all I could think was that I saw Santa. I wanted to wake everyone up and tell them about my good fortune but I stayed in my room until my sister got up about an hour later when daylight broke. I excitedly told her every detail as she stared at me wide eyed. Then we got her stocking and came back to my room.

When my parents got up a little later I told them about my encounter with Santa. They smiled and listened probably wondering about the over-active imagination that my teachers had told them I possessed. As we opened gifts I was certain that I had been given a special gift by Father Christmas and with that gift I had special responsibilities.

When the new school term started I told my friends about seeing Santa I got mixed reactions. Better to keep this kind of information to yourself. I never spoke of it again until I was married. My wife smiled and said that I probably did see Saint Nick. Magic can happen and it does.

Hope

No white Christmas at the Bruig this year. Monday through Wednesday will bring heavy rain turning the landscape into a muddy swampland. We'll have a brown Christmas this year.That always brightens my spirit this time of year.

The company's looming bankruptcy, the family's financial hardship, the daughter's ugly divorce and the harsh global economic realities are all aligning to make this the gloomiest holiday season of my life. If not for the grandkids and wife, I'd box it up and just forget about it this year.

I think Christmas is mostly about hope. God's gift of salvation is hope for life beyond this existence. Puny humans use Christmas to convey a sense of hope to our mortal existence. But for me, everywhere I look in my life there is nothing but ruin for me and everything that I love. The endless gloom saps my very will to go on in this dreamless, hopeless existence.

I'll keep searching for something, anything to give me hope and some sense of holiday cheer this year. But hope is fading with each passing day.

Why?

Why do I blog? Why bother trying to make sense of this world or tell the truth? Almost 7 billion people alive on this incomprehensible planet, most of whom I'll never know and don't care about at all. Many of whom I hate everything that they believe and stand for. I'm not changing any minds either here or, even where I am able to speak with people face-to-face. Everyone is just tightly bound up in their tiny world of wants and desires. Mostly just surviving and trying to escape reality.

Wife thinks I should stop blogging and amuse myself with television instead. Watch Storage Wars with her rather than read and comment about all the other wars. She says I won't change anything, anyway. And she's probably right. I barely influence events at work where I'm there in person 9 hours a day or at home with family 6 hours a day. Often I think I couldn't have less influence if I was a hermit living in a cave in Saskatchewan.

But on my 22,250th day alive on this planet I posted another comment that Googlebot and maybe some guy in Rockford might read. Mostly my musing will just consume electricity as a binary placeholder in time and space forever (or until Google can't pay the electric bill and terminates my blog after I've been inactive because of my death).

I'll move along now. A light snow is falling and squirrels are feeding on corn and sunflower seeds I can barely afford anymore. But they, and the birds, entertain me immensely. Me feeding them matters to them...and me. It is one of the few things that I do that matters in my world anymore. So I'll carry on for as long as I can. I'll recycle, pay bills, play with the grandsons, bring firewood up to the house, have a fire, eat, then go to bed. Mostly meaningless tasks in an otherwise meaningless life, punctuated by occasional meaningless blog posts. 

Sickening Indeed

As a kid I learned a valuable lesson on the playground that is relevant to the various protests today. As a first grader I learned that I could say or do whatever I wanted...but so could the other kid. So if I called Tommy a name and pushed him, he might just do the same to me. I wouldn't have much of a case if I complained to the teacher.

Fast forward to 2011. OWS or Egyptian protesters think that they can hurl rocks, firebombs and feces at the law enforcement then are shocked when they get whacked with a billy club so they run to the media and complain. What the fuck did you think would happen? Did you think the cops were just going to stand there and take it? The problem here is that protesters didn't think at all.

I have no empathy for morons. If they get the crap beat out of them or dragged by their clothing or hair I believe they got what they were looking for. Men, women...doesn't matter. Women in particular want equal treatment, well there you go bitchez.

My special hatred though is for those who encourage protesters from the safety of their position of "journalist" and "politician". Yeah. Like the demons who stand on the sidelines and tell Palestinians that they have a "right" to launch missiles at civilian Jews in Israel and such. Bastards like Reuters journalists and Barack Obama.

Mail is "sickened" by the photos of beat up Egyptian protesters? Well, they ought to be sickened by the blood on their hands. They encouraged these morons to attack police so they could sell papers by claiming police brutality. The brutality lies with these journalists and the politicians that encourage mobs to throw firebombs at cops, launch rockets at Israel and other crimes against humanity.

But this is not the worst. The worst will come when Egyptians begin starving to death because the country is bankrupt because of the violence and chaos. And it will come soon enough. Reuters, The Mail, BBC and the rest of the MSM will be there to sell advertising as people slowly starve to death. Obama too. All blaming others for the suffering that they themselves inflicted. Sickening indeed.

Just so fucking odd

Well, three Fridays after the HR VP said my boss would be identified, I got nothing. No boss, no annual review and little hope that this will be resolved any time soon. But I'm over it. I think.

Every Monday morning I go up to HR to get my guys time cards approved so they get paid and I've cut a "deal" with an accounting clerk to over-ride salary time approval so I get paid.

I'm still able to purchase parts and service by pushing purchase requisitions to an "anointed" associate who bundles the required information and sends it to his boss for approval. There is lots and back and forth, chewing up valuable resources time. I just answer the questions, my associate emails the answers and the PRs get approved...eventually.

I just keep doing what I do so the lab doesn't suffer. None of the managers, researchers, engineers nor the supervisor that depend on me and my guys has complained. I have to guess that management thinks that I don't need direction. Just so fucking odd.

Fifth Horseman

I die, cultures die. Spengler has a interesting take on demographics and why people want their culture to survive (and why other cultures commit suicide). I'll take exception to one of his assertions. He believes american culture will survive, even thrive. Sorry. The culture I knew is dead and I won't gain immortality from what goes forward as the replacement culture. In fact, I despise it and would be madder than hell if anyone claimed that I lived on as represented by what passes for culture in modern america.

Illegal Immigrant Vote

I'll bet you think that being an american citizen makes you special. Well getthefuckouttahere. New Haven mayor John DeStefano(D) wants to give the vote to illegal immigrants. Yep. So, while the government expects you, a citizen, to prove it with multiple documents, this vote buying cocksucker wants to...well...buy votes by shitting on the value of american citizenship. Next thing you know, democrats are driving busloads of illegal immigrants around as they vote for vote buying democrats. All corruption, all the time.

Marxist ACLU wants to give the right to vote to felons and is fighting state voter identification requirements, calling it racism. What could possible go wrong if felons and anonymous people vote? Maybe voter fraud?

As far as I am concerned, there isn't one goddamned thing left to talk to democrats about.

Sorry General Richards

British General David Richards believes that the EU breakup could pose strategic risks to UK allies as economies implode. He suggests that the US will point it's shrunken forces at Asia while Europe collapses. It's hard to argue his point. China will try and distract it's starving population with a war with the US. Europe will be a lost cause with 10,000 immigrants popping grenades and massacring passerby. The US will throw Europe under the bus.

Oh, you'll see civil disobedience in the US but you'll have less of this activity in the US as americans are purchasing weapons in record numbers. Americans are in a foul mood and ready to shoot anybody that fucks with them...or their family. But with a historic low 51% marriage rate, what the hell is a family anymore? Oh that's right. It's someone you stalk, beat and rape, especially if you're multiracial.

Yeah, all cultures are equal.

Hell is coming to earth (if not already here). Too much civilization has vanished, too much trust has been lost and all bonds have been broken. Sorry General Richards.

Now, ya'll get back to your normal distribution curves and jennifer suck banana searches. Aim high choads. 

No Talking While Driving

Nanny state NTSB Chaircunt Deborah Hersman wants to ban use of cell phones by american drivers. She says...

“Too many people are texting, talking and driving at the same time,”

Talking and driving? Do you goddamned idiots think you can ban people from talking to each other in the car while driving? Yeah, pass the law. I'll do what I think is safe and so will everyone else. Compliance rate? Zero. Enforcement? Next  to zero.

This is just another reason to have absolute contempt for law and government. Kiss my ass.

Unemployment Because of Lack of Skills

US companies blame unemployment on lack of skills? Fucking bullshit. Maybe if you know that companies want an exact goddamned match to every detail submitted on their bullshit web job postings. Then there's their idiot savant HR personnel who can barely read or talk let alone comprehend anything.

There is tons of talent available if applicants aren't instantly, preemptively disqualified online because they don't meet every, single detail of mostly unused skills that companies claim that they need but employees never use.

One of the biggest lies companies use is claiming lack of skills when, what they really mean is that the applicant is too old, meaning over 50. Age discrimination is rampant in this country, even when the government is trying to get people to work longer.

And internal training is a necessity. But companies don't want to do any. They have cut their staff to the bone so anyone moving to a new job can't spend 5 minutes showing a new guy the job. Companies think they can bring in a new guy with "skills" that replace training needs when in fact they place cripples who figure things out eventually by stumbling through the job for a few months.

Almost every goddamned company is run by fucking idiots that couldn't manage a convenience store. And they are liars to boot. Spit

Obama is a Communist

Obama is a communist.

Pakistan is the Enemy

US forces abandoned Shamsi airbase as ordered by Pakistani forces.

Pakistani Army Chief General Assfag Perez Kayani has rushed air defense weapons to the border and given goat fuckers permission to fire on NATO aircraft.

Our relationship with Islamic Pakistan, who most likely sheltered bin Laden for a decade, is over but the US will continue to give aid to these bastards. Pakistan is the enemy.

We ought to send them blankets infected with bubonic plague.

Plan B

As a maintenance and project engineer my job is to determine if equipment is working and get it fixed if it is broke AND develop and implement plans to improve testing capabilities. In order to accomplish either of these responsibilities I need approval to spend money (since I have no spending authority of my own). Without a boss to sign off I am dead in the water.

Since my boss left the company December 1st no replacement has been identified, nor a temporary boss assigned. It's the goddamnessest thing I've witnessed in 42 years of work. So, basically, I identify broken equipment, shut it down and shrug. All projects are dead so I shrug again. And then I go see HR to get my guys timecards approved. Bizarre.

And then there is the matter of communication. Without a reporting structure, a boss, all communication has ended. No emails. Zip. Right in the middle of a reorganization, apparently including a holding company bankruptcy and negotiation with vendors that I use. And I neither know what's going on nor am I asked for input. All I know is rumors.

With 28 years of experience in various manufacturing and research/development roles I've typically been almost overwhelmed at times with information. I've never been completely outside the loop. I always imagined that if I was cutoff from the information loop that I was targeted for being fired. This time is different. The company is literally falling apart as people flee to other opportunities.

Some of my coworkers suggest that I'm lucky to be unattached and without a boss. I'm unaccountable to anyone and have gotten the oddest looks when someone asks "Who's your boss?" and I respond "I don't have one". But I have the feeling that I'm coasting to disaster.

Plan B is looking like the way to go.

So...

We decorated the bruig for Christmas as usual this year. Lights in the two pine trees, three conical lighted fake trees, garland and wreaths on the doors, a nice tree and fireplace garland inside, and a few knick-knacks about the place. It looks festive. But looks are deceptive.

You see, I don't make enough money to have a traditional Christmas this year. The wife's car broke and will cost damn near $1000 to fix just weeks after a similarly priced repair on the other car. So grandboys and daughters will get gifts. But grandma and I have decided to not exchange gifts. We'll use the money to fix the car instead.

I always enjoyed buying gifts for the wife at Christmas. Not a lot. Just a few nice things that she never gets for herself through the year. I'll make her something useful in lieu of a bought gift using my wood working skills and wood already on hand. She'll be happy. I don't need a thing. Watching the grandboys open their gifts will be gift enough for me.

The thing is, this is the visible proof of the end of the American Dream for me. Wife and I had a couple of thin Christmas' when we were younger. But we always knew things would get better. And they did. But this time is different. We just can't keep up with expenses as the price of everything relentlessly rises as my salary stays the same.

Of course, the gift exchange is not the meaning of the season. But my inability to celebrate the holiday like the rest of the country is bitterly disappointing. I won't use available credit for gift buying because it's just wrong. I've always paid for Christmas with cash. So...

My Plan to Deal with Climate Change

Professional elite politicians at the UN are having a Climate Summit at Durban where they are planning to loot the developed world while killing off a large percentage of the developing world at the same time. Their plan, reduce global CO2 emissions by 50% by 2020 and 100% by 2050 while fining the developed world for past CO2 sins.

I have a counter plan. Send in Navy SEAL assassins to shoot these plundering pricks in the head.

RQ-170 Sentinel Surrenders to Iran ON COMMAND

Iran appears to have recovered a mostly intact RQ-170 Sentinel drone. If so, the drone probably surrendered itself to the Iranians after loss of signal with controllers. The loss of very expensive technology, including perhaps the AESA radar used in the F-35, is devastating as the Iranians will sell everything to the Chinese and Russians.

The same idiots that run america are running the US military and intelligence services. Our so-called "educational system" is in complete collapse. Which dumbass engineering school taught Lockheed aerospace engineers that it is good to land advanced technology behind enemy lines? I see this same stupidity at work from MBAs every day. The absolute absence of any common sense.

America has gone terminally stupid.

Now...ya'll go back to googling normal distribution curves.

December Update

The company will go on. The solution is quite unusual, perhaps the oddest I've ever witnessed, but a mix of a few customers and maintenance capital from a deep pocketed investor can keep the company alive for at least 8 years. We have great potential as a market develops over the next couple of years. At least, that's the plan. Theoretically I can work until I retire at 66...or drop dead.

Still a lot of questions but a great relief. Of course, nothing is certain in this modern world. War, economic collapse, my health, awful management...anything can happen. But the company looks to go forward in 2012. I just dreaded the very idea of looking for a job at 61. Who the fuck wants to hire grandpa? I can just imagine some punk interviewing me and wondering "what the fuck am I supposed to do with this old bastard"?

_______________________________________________

Voyager 1 is entering interstellar space after traveling 11 billion miles since it's launch 34 years ago. Moving at 39,600 miles per hour it has enough power to function another 8 years before it stops sending data back to NASA. Just amazing.

Dark Tuesday Musings

Wretchard has gone cynical lately. Just read his recent posts. Literally dripping cynicism. I'm vindicated!

The whole world has gone insane. The decline is palpable. Arab Spring will bring the migration of failing societies. Western societies are not prepared to respond and will be overran by barbarians. Law and order will collapse followed by a too little, too late martial response. War. Finally a new Dark Age.

It's coming.

America walked off and left me behind three years ago. I'm no longer part of the tribe. Not because of any decision that I made. The tribe told me to get lost. Ok. I'll stand aside and watch. No great loss for me. My end is closer rather than further away.

Once I cared. No longer. I wrap myself in my Aegis made of the purest pessimism, make myself as comfortable as possible and observe the coming end of this age.

Odds and Ends

Obama plans on circumventing the Senate to allow the UN to tax americans to support the Green Climate Fund. Is that legal?

Pedophilia is rampant in Hollywood? Who would have guessed? Molesting children is becoming the new american tradition amongst our elites. We should kill these perverts painfully.

Scumbag SanFranNan says that the dirt on Angry Badger Newt is coming. Kettle calling pot black? They're politicians, all dirty and that's just a fact of life. I'll take a tainted Angry Badger over a face lifted Marxist fog-hag any time.

Rogers says we risk a depression in 2013. Really Jimbo? What about the one we have now?

Anonymous US military sources have said that Iran has the "Beast of Kandahar". The intelligence drone came up missing last week after a loss of signal over western Afghanistan. Probably crashed after mechanical problems. Are we at war with Iran? No. The US military is terrified of having to conduct warfare against Iran.

Day 3 and still no boss at work. Maybe I'll never have to report to anyone ever again.

As a boy I wondered how a man could accept being the butler or gardener to a "great man". How does one aim so low then just play the role every day for decades? As an ambitious boy it just seemed impossible. Now as an old man, I see just how irrelevant I am. I'm a trusted servant who can be relied upon to faithfully discharge my duties. The "great men" can just ignore me. And they do. Tis funny how things play out. 

Western Leadership

No awareness of reality. None whatsoever. Jacques Delores said after the unfolding collapse of the EU...

"the West could possibly lose its leadership, and it is important that we preserve the values that matter not only to Europe, but to Britain and the United States — the values that are Judeo-Christian in origin — Greek philosophy and Greek democracy and Roman law, and the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution."

Possibly?

Judeo-Christian values?  Europe is no longer Christian and the leadership elites in the US aren't either. Atheists all. The West has no values whatsoever, unless of course power and greed are values. And they're not.

And leadership? What leadership? The support for human rights around the world? Support for democratic Israel opposed to the murderous thugs in the countries surrounding the tiny outpost of liberty? Leaders who bow to dictators? The list goes on and on. That leadership?

Fuck you Jacques. All that has been gone for decades in the EU and since 2009 in the US. The West is dead and gone forever. It's rotting corpse is being picked over by barbarian thugs. European descendants won't even breed insuring their extinction in time. The future belongs to breeders and their "cultures".

The next "age" in this world is Dark Age 2. Europe collapses now followed by the US, which is becoming a third world country right before our eyes. Sovereign default is the only option now. There is just too much debt to ever recover. That means collapse of global trade and civil disorder. War.

Goddamned people. I hate em.

Pakistan closes border

Pakistan is reported to have permanently closed their borders to NATO resupply. Fuel had cost $400-$1000 per gallon when trucked through Pakistan. It will cost 2 or 3 times more transshipped across Russia. So, figure $2000 to $3000 per gallon!

Operations in Afghanistan have just become impossible without bankrupting the US. There is nothing to "win" over there. It's time to get out now!

Angry Badger

Political insiders think Gingrich has the personality of an angry badger that makes him unelectable. Well, most politicians are lawyers and doesn't that remind you of lying, hissing fucking snakes. At least a badger is warm blooded and a member of the weasel family. Some even eat snakes. I'd vote for Newt the snake eater.

Strip Searched

The face of Al Qaeda. That's the way TSA sees it. So they took 85 year old Lenora Zimmerman to a room at JFK and strip searched her. She banged her leg with her walker while being searched, opening a gash that required medical treatment. TSA says proper procedures were followed. Feel safe now?

Goddamned scared rabbit americans should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this abuse.

One Day at a Time

It was a pretty crappy week for Lugh. First snow storm of the season, cousin died, daughter's unwelcome, messy divorce, equipment calibration at a remote site with surly managers, boss quit the company and I don't know who I report to, company in reorganization, not looking good while the government pulls out equipment. Morose mood for the week. I have no idea what's going to happen in the future at my work or my life.

The Fed signed up to fund the EU as predicted. The DOW went to the moon on the news, the dollar moved down and oil went up after Iranian Basij looted the UK embassy. The US funding is just kicking the EU zone breakup down the road. It solved nothing. Islamists won the election in Egypt (as they will in every MENA shithole). The US handed over Camp Victory to the Iraqis as they flee the country. Ten years, countless lives and trillions of wasted dollars later. The same in Afghanistan next year. It was all for nothing.

The US economy is as dead as it was before despite the positive spin. Unemployment dropped because even more people dropped out of the workforce. 120,000 jobs created, 400,000 jobs lost and 300,000 people dropped out of the workforce. The government reported an 8.6% unemployment rate but we all know U6 is still over 20%. But those still working splurged on Black Friday. Reality on hold for Jesus birthday I suppose.

Gingrich came alive in the GOP race. He would be my choice in the dog show. But he's a big government, crony capitalist elitist like the rest. Nothing will really change. As President he would only slow down the tendency for a while. Still a welcome change from the piece of shit occupying the WH today.

I'm just going through the motions these days, like so many in my age cohort. No one listens to us. I feel like I'm gliding down to earth after soaring high in the air knowing that I never considered the landing. I only wanted to soar high. But now I know that the ground is very hard and I surely won't survive the landing. As I get closer to the ground I only wonder what the landing will feel like. Hopefully it will be quick and God will be generous.

It's all one day at a time now.