Entire Eastern Seaboard Destroyed: NYC Now an Extinct Ruin

...At least that's what the media outlets have been leading me to believe.

In other news, Lower Manhattan got a lot of rain.

Now we begin the walkback.

Dodged a bullet.

Not as bad as we told you feared.

Oh fer crying out loud...

Late Edit:
CJR's The Observatory would like to take folks like me to the woodshed. Fair enough.

Later Edit:
And then there's this, which I believe encapsulates a good portion of the irritation that spawned this post. Complain like you invented the sh!t. Makes you all the more deserving in our eyes.

Double Taxation

(Via Felix Salmon)

I was enjoying the gnashing of teeth spawned by Warren Buffett's Op Ed/PR stunt about taxes for the wealthy - and I ran across Daniel J Mitchell whining about how Buffett has it all wrong. The highest tax bracket has it rough, you see. What with their tax rates plummeting to less then half of what they were only three decades ago.

The horror!

But he was useful in that he regurgitated one of the lamer talking points on raising the capital gains tax - It's Double Taxation!!

You see, investors bought stock and were taxed, then the investment barfed out more money and it was taxed again. That's not fair..!

Salmon beats all over that, then pulls in some backup to wail on it more. By far the best 'graph I've read on this yet was from the Citizens for Tax Justice, who point out the very selective nature of objections to multiple taxation:

It’s striking that hardly anyone in Washington talks about how the wage income of middle-class Americans is subject to “multiple taxes.” For the typical American, all income consists of wages and all of it is subject to the Social Security tax, and much or most of it to the income tax. Then when people spend their income, a great deal of the purchases are subject to sales taxes. Apparently, taxing income multiple times is something that concerns economists and politicians only when it affects the wealthy investor class.

As in - hello... whiny little investor b!tches? You think double taxation is a bad thing- I don't hear you crying over how everyone else's paycheck money gets wrung out twice to pay the feds, then stretched again for virtually every transaction its used for.

But taxing capital gains is a shameful double taxation? Oh shut the hell up, already.

Make the Hydrant

I blame the guy with the parrot.

Months ago, he somehow got me to go along with his particular brand of crazy. “I’m starting a running club!” he'd said - with that altered mannerism common to all running enthusiasts. 

I’m gonna run in a circle so I can live longer!

Being me – I’d cut him off pretty abruptly.

“No. I don’t run. Don’t plan on starting."

Parrot guy was not one to be put off. He kept showing up with his bag of running stuff. Every time he’d set off to go he’d ask, “ya gonna bring y’stuff tamarrah?” (Parrot guy was Boston-born)

And then he’d set off and go running in the depths of winter weather. Four or five times a week. For weeks.

“Ya gonna bring y’stuff tamarrah?”

Yes. Alright goddammit, I’ll bring my stuff. Seriously, how much of that can you take?

As if that would satisfy Parrot guy. No, he wants me to run intervals, do serious distance. I am none of those people. Nor will I ever become those people. This was just to shake off the cobwebs - stave off total disaster.

And the routine falls into Parrot guy barking at me to pick up the pace until we get to a fixed marker and then he takes off for a real run while I keep plugging along. Deal is, once I see him coming back towards me – I can turn to go back to the office.

The first time we do this, I’m lumbering along with my glasses fogged over and I can barely make out Parrot guy on his way back. He’s actually waiting for me on the sidewalk, so I wave like “Hey, can we go back now?” Parrot guy doesn’t wave- so I yell at him.

No response. As I get closer, I realize why. Parrot guy’s nowhere in sight. Tired & fogged up as I was, I’d been trying to communicate with a fire hydrant.

- But that was months ago. Parrot guy’s been reassigned, so now it’s just me and the occasional co-worker plugging away out there when time permits.

I’ve discovered that landmarks are my thing. If I can run to a given spot once, I know I can do it again.

The last time Parrot guy and I went out running, he yelled at me to make it to the damn hydrant without stopping. I didn’t make it – but the time after he left, I found myself grooving along to the Beta Band realizing that I could actually make it there in one shot.

I met Parrot guy for a charity run a month after that and managed more distance that I’d ever done – nothing heroic, but enough to convince myself that my earlier limitations were all in my head.  I could write reams about my inner narrative of defeatism – but suffice it to say the first realization you have that you can tell your brain to STFU - it is a good moment.

So a few months later – I’m in surgery for an appendicitis, and then I’m off the wagon for weeks.

My first outing after I’m back on the trail was a total disappointment. I’m back to old habits – and I can barely make it to the signpost, which is about halfway to Parrot guy’s hydrant.

And my knees are killing me – and my side. And I succumb and turn around and walk.

But the landmarks are still out there, and my memory knows I can do it. So I get my gear and save up for another go round.

And then I just don’t go out. The weather’s too hot, or “I don’t run in the rain” or I’m just too busy over lunch…

Weeks of this.

Thankfully, I’d left my bag of gear at the office. A little reminder that I can go any day I choose.

I got my stuff today.

So I’m churning though a year’s worth of bad-news RSS – and I discover that the client has (again) changed the specification in a cosmetic way – so I will (again) have to update the prototype with pointless changes that will take longer to document than they will to actually code.

This will be my main accomplishment that I will report out to my team tomorrow. Thankfully nobody listens to anyone - otherwise it would be utterly humiliating. Today, I removed an asterisk from a prototype. Then I documented the fact that I'd done it for three hours.

It’s 11am.


F*%# it. 

I get the bag. I walk past the row of H1B developers, and they cheerfully wave as I go by. I wave back, knowing that the client is about to change the UI technology and that – very shortly – most of these wonderful folks will be looking for work.

One chats me up about where I’m going. He’s a great guy, and I’m not allowed to breathe a word about the impending change. All smiles, we finish some banter about the weather and I head for the stairs. I need to get out of here. 

I’ve gotten the gear down to the essentials. I blow too much money on hobbies as it is, so my running kit consists of a re-purposed Eddie Bauer diaper bag, New Balance shoes, a towel, and a change of clothes.

The locker room in CorpWorld is miniscule, but never crowded. The usual crowd is mercifully absent today. Which is good. I hate locker rooms.

Getting changed at work is odd enough, but the truly loathsome bit is the laddish locker room crowd who cope with stripping down in front of co-workers by loudly proclaiming their heterosexuality to all within earshot. Announcing every sexual conquest, speculating about the physical qualities of any mutually known prospect, and generally making it known to the world at large that the person speaking is among the manliest of manly men.

Dude, we get it. You’re a raving queen. Now STFU already. 

Gear on, and out.

Starting up is a bit like getting into a pool, the danger of the initial plunge vanishes as soon as you take it. The real battle is for the mind. My salvation has been earbuds and loud music, but today my brain is going 100 miles an hour – a sure sign I haven’t slept enough.

I fire up Florence + the Machine and try to ride the harp intro.

A slideshow of current events keeps drowning it out – a sure sign I haven’t had enough sleep. Fukushima-Daiichi - Once again, the official story of how bad it was has to be revised – because new and incontrovertible evidence has surfaced that proves the previous versionwas utter crap.

Happiness…hit her…like a train on a traaaaaack…

Oh. You know who’s corrupt and a total asshat to boot? FIFA’s Sepp Blatter. I mean the South Africans were reprehensible for bulldozing schools to build stadiums – but FIFA and co were only so happy to encourage this sort of thing. And if you think the IOC is a bunch of votes for sale, savor the description of the South American FIFA rep flat out asking England to give him a knighthood for his vote. Lovely.

Coming towards her, stock still, no turning baaaaaack..

I’m on the uptick towards the halfway post, feeling good, but I need a fresh distraction. Here’s one: The big banks – having brushed aside underwriting standards, good business sense, and oh-by-the-way THE LAW - now find themselves unable to document that they – in fact – own the loans they are attempting to foreclose on. “No one moved the paper”

This is a state law matter, so Congress can’t write them a sweetheart deal (and you know if they could the Washington lapdog crew would have already done so). No, what the banks are trying now is to get all 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement that would broadly protect the banks from liability and criminal consequences by paying between 8 or 20 billion to wash their hands of the problem.

Except they’ve caused a problem easily worth hundreds of billions of dollars and the banks think that $20 billion is far, far, too much to pay. They think perhaps $8 billion would work for them. Provided they are immunized from prosecution and liability - Oh, and they still want to take people’s houses without good documentation – because, y’know - they want that.

She hid around corners and she hid under beds She killed it with kisses and from it she fled...

The real winner, though? The 50 AG deal is on the rocks because some attorneys general are balking at it – y’know, because it sucks for everyone who doesn’t work at a bank. NY’s AG is actually suing to block the deal - and the NY Fed is leaning on him to get on board. Oh, and the Federal Department of Justice would like him to fall in line as well. Thanks for nothing, Obama administration. Way to be a complete tool.

With every bubble she sank with a drink And washed it away down the kitchen sink...

I hit the signpost, and it’s obvious that I’m going to do better than last time. The post is at an elevated fork where I can see the full length of the route. I get a good downhill spell across the road and then it’s a modest hill to the hydrant. So far, so good. I check my motivation:

 Banks? Suck

Run you bastard.  

Which brings me to perhaps the most disappointing bit of current events. A stray post on TPM references the fact that Jamie Leigh Jones is being counter-sued by her former employer, KBR. This would be the woman who claimed to be gang-raped by KBR firefighters, then confined by KBR, then prevented from suing due to the contract she’d signed saying all disputes would be handled by binding arbitration.

That woman.

I have to say “claimed to be gang-raped” because accordingto Mother Jones (about as left leaning a rag as you are likely to find) the media accounts and the trial evidence are very different things. So different, in fact, that Ms. Jones lost her civil case against KBR.

The dog days are over
The dog days are done

It’s difficult to describe how utterly demoralizing this is. First off, the indisputable fact is that KBR is an employer who wants its employees to sign away their legal rights even in cases of physical violence between its employees. That’s just sick. But there’s so much in the MJ account that makes you want to scream at someone.

As the Strauss-Kahn case has amply demonstrated, if you are victimized by a wealthy or well-connected person, you can expect your conduct to endure far more scrutiny than that of the accused. KBR’s pushback on Ms. Jones involved them somehow obtaining medical records of her as a minor. It’s difficult to know if this is just another well-financed demolition of a rape victim – or a failed attempt by a huckster seeking attention and personal enrichment. But either way, any future legitimate claim for a rape victim will be that much more difficult. A total, epic fail all around. 

The horses are coming
So you better run

Damn right. I’m past the downhill stretch, tooling uphill toward the Parrot guy’s hydrant – and this is typically the worst bit mentally. Because your brain keeps thinking “I’m pretty close – I can stop here.” The thought of stopping becomes a fixation, and pretty soon body and mind are working in tandem to lobby for a complete shutdown.


Don’t want to strain anything... what if you hurt yourself and had to hobble back? Or worse?

Looking back at anything I’ve wanted to do that I actually did is about as satisfying a feeling as I get these days. The patio actually got done. Little E’s room actually got done. I actually did run in a charity race – and I used to make it to the hydrant-

-that was before surgery.

And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had
And what was left after that too. oh.

Yes, dammit, that was before surgery, but surgery’s done now and you can take your raggity-@ss-wich self up the hill and do this for right goddamn now. Because last time was over a month ago and it flat out won’t matter unless you make it this time. What do you say, Florence?

Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive

Hell yeah. Melodrama? I’m good at that sh!t.

Move your damn feet so your kids don’t grow up with a tired old man. Or have to feel ashamed because dad just can’t keep up. Or can’t be bothered to. Would dad punk out on this? Hell, he’d be running back by now. He’d have never atrophied down to this potato-like existence you’ve managed. You gonna fail everyone? Walk your @ss back with a big “L” on your forehead for the rest of your life?

F*%# that.

Knees popping, red-faced and pathetic, you’re making this damn hydrant.

The dog days are over
The dog days are gone
Can you hear the horses
Because here they come

FU GSE

(Via CJR)

Remember Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? They'd be the Government Sponsored Entities who pretty much owned the secondary mortgage market until Wall Street went all Subprime.

It depends on what the definition of "lose" is...

You probably remember that these two companies were bailed out by the government to the tune of billions.
They almost went under because they were criminally under capitalized and couldn't absorb the cost of failing loans.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Freddie and Fannie are pressing foreclosures on these bad loans at a startlingly aggressive pace.

Foreclosure is generally agreed on as the worst case for all involved. The homeowner loses their home, the bank takes a home that is worth less than the loan it secured, and the house is unlikely to sell in a depressed and glutted market.

So why do it? Moreover, why fall all over yourself in a rush to do it?

This is why:

For example...if a home with a $200,000 mortgage is foreclosed and Fannie nets $80,000 from its sale, Fannie loses $120,000. But because Congress authorized the Treasury Department to reimburse Fannie as part of the government's takeover, taxpayers eat the losses.

The complete and utter scumbags who run the GSE, aided by those who would have the power to stop them, are hoping to bury the losses with federal funds and then return to their former glory days as a semi-private firm. A firm that presumably would resume paying them handsome salaries once all is forgotten by the public.

Man on the (Burning) Street Interview

(Via The Big Picture)

Oh my. A BBC interviewer speaks with Darcus Howe, a West Indian writer and broadcaster, about the London riots.

If there's a better illustration of a biased news reader trying (and failing) to stick to the script, I've yet to see it.


Here are her questions

BBC News Reader Fiona Armstrong Q1: Marcus Dowe [sic] are you shocked by what you've seen there [in south London] last night?

Mr. Howe (thank you very much) replies that he was not shocked that it happened. His general point is that there were signs that keen observers could have picked up on for a long time.

Naturally, this point is utterly lost on the news reader.

Armstrong Q2: Mr. Howe - If I could just stope you for a moment. You say you are not shocked. Does this mean you condone what happend in your community last night?

Howe:I condone – if I – Of Course Not! What am I going to condone it for? What I am not – what I’m concerned about more than anything else, there’s a young man called Mark Duggan. He has parents, he has brothers, he has sisters, and two yards away from where he lives, a police officer blew his head off.

Armstrong: Well, Mr. Howe we have to wait-

Howe: Let me finish-

The volume on Howe's mic is lowered.

Armstrong: Well, Mr. Howe we have to wait for the official inquiry before we can say things like that. We don't know what happened to Mr. Duggan. We are going to wait for the police report on it.

Armstrong: If I can take you on a bit, you were talking about your grandson, you were talking about young people...

Howe: They have been stopping and searching young blacks for no reason at all. I have a grandson - he's an angel. And he began to think he was coming of age when a policeman slapped him up against a wall and searched him...I asked him the other day, A propo of a sense that something was going seriously wrong in this country. I asked him how many times have the police searched you. He said: “Papa, I can’t count there’s so many times.”

Armstrong: Mr Howe, that may well have happened and if you say it did – I – I am not to gainsay you. But that is not an excuse to go out rioting and cause the sort of damage that we’ve been seeing over the past few days.

Howe: Where were you in 1981 in Brixton?

Armstrong: ..............Mr. Howe.

Howe: I don’t call it rioting, I call it an insurrection of the masses of the people. It is happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapton, it’s happening in Liverpool. It’s happening in Port of Spain, Trinidad. And that is the nature of the historical moment. There is a, it takes -

Armstrong: Mr. Howe. If I can just ask you, you are not a stranger to riots yourself, I understand, are you? You have taken part in them yourself?

Howe: I’m not a – I have never taken part in a single riot. I have been on demonstrations that ended up in a conflict. And have some respect for an old West Indian negro, instead of accusing me of being a rioter. Because I – you don’t want me to get abusive – you just sound idiotic. Have some respect! Have – have grandchildren-

Armstrong: Darcus Howe, thank you very much for joining us from Croydon, Darcus Howe, the writer and broadcaster.

The BBC has since apologized for suggesting the Mr. Howe was a rioter, but reviewing their list of questions, it's clear they have a lot more to apologize for:

Question 1: "Are you shocked?"
Question 2: "You're not shocked, so you condone it, then?!"
Judgment: "Well, your grandson could have been mistreated by police, but that's no excuse for rioting."
Question 3: (personal attack) "You've rioted, haven't you?"

Ye gods.

"If the World Knew What I Was Doing, They Would Hang Me From the Highest Tree"

Well, Mr. Jeffs - the world will take what it can get:

(Via the AP and NPR)

The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stood quietly as the decision of the Texas jury was read Tuesday. He received the maximum sentence on both counts.

The jury deliberated less than half an hour. The 55-year-old Jeffs was convicted Thursday. During the trial, prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

 (Via the CSM)

Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison for his assault on the 12-year-old. He received a 20-year sentence for the assault on the 15-year-old. The two sentences are to be served consecutively.

Um...Yes?

I would like this.

(Via re-nest) and avail via ThinkGeek, go figure.

Danziger Bridge Cops Found Guilty

...unfortunately none of them were for murder.

8 Innocents. 6 were shot, 2 were killed, 1 lost a limb, 0 were armed.


Every time I read about this event I'm infuriated. Let's recap:

The Danziger shootings were originally portrayed as a home run for the [New Orleans Police] department, a victory in restoring order to a city that had begun to come apart after [hurricane Katrina]. But a state grand jury that investigated the shootings didn't buy the testimony of the involved officers, seven of whom were charged with murder or attempted murder.

When the "Danziger Seven" turned themselves in at Central Lockup in December 2006, fellow officers joined them in a show of solidarity, clapping them on the back and calling them heroes. The state case fell apart for procedural reasons in 2008, when the charges were dismissed by a judge.

At that point, federal authorities, who had been monitoring the case, took over, and the pressure intensified. Last year, five officers wound up taking plea deals, agreeing to testify at trial in hopes of receiving leniency when their own prison sentences are handed down.

Their pleas contained shocking details of a seemingly coordinated cover-up: a planted gun retrieved by Kaufman from his garage; officers successively revising their accounts of the shooting; phony witnesses; a secret meeting to coordinate stories.

Three of the cooperating officers were involved in the shooting, including two men who admitted they themselves fired at civilians.

At trial, the three officers told jurors that after the shooting ended, they saw no evidence that the civilians, many of them grievously wounded, had been armed.

Brissette was shot numerous times, from the heel of his foot to his head. He was killed by shotgun pellets that struck the back of his head, experts testified. Susan Bartholomew's arm was nearly blown off by a large-caliber round, and it was later amputated. Her daughter's legs were torn apart by bullets. Holmes was struck multiple times, from his face to his abdomen, and had to wear a colostomy bag for years after the incident.

Oh, and after they riddled an unarmed family with bullets, they chased a man and his mentally handicapped brother down and shot them as they fled - killing the handicapped man.

Then they stomped on his body. Then they dragged it to a nearby car. Then they set it on fire.Then they all agreed to cover it up.

Then their department whitewashed the investigation into the shootings.

And on and on.

Life without parole would be too good for these people - so being cleared of murder, their sentence can only be inadequate.

Ye gods.

Would you Give This Man 100,000 Quid?

Mulcair: No hush money = no hush.

Cos, y'know, the News of the World did. But now they don't.

Gosh, whatever did they pay this man for? I mean, I know he's gone to prison for his role in hacking into personal voicemail, but now that he's out - what's he up to?

Answer: He is deeply mired in legal troubles.The kind that cost lots and lots of money. Until recently Mr. Mulcair has been silent and apparently able to pay his attorney. Wonder if those two facts have a common cause?

Ryan Chittum has one theory.

July 20, 2011 - News International lets it be known that it will no longer pay for Mulcair's attorney.  As in "Oh, you know about us paying his legal bills? Well... we just stopped doing that. So there."

July 29, 2011 - Mulcair makes a public statement:

Glenn Mulcaire has already expressed his sincere regret to those who have been hurt and affected by his activities and he repeats that apology most sincerely.


He was effectively employed by News of the World from 2002 to carry out his role as a private investigator.
As he accepted when he pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges of phone interception he admits that his role did include phone hacking. As an employee he acted on the instructions of others.

There were also occasions when he understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more.

Oh, but he will. He'll say a lot more, now that the News International money fairy has gone away. Most likely under oath.
Best prepare yourself for a smear-a-thon, Mr. Mulcair - NI is not going to be happy with you.

Expect every bad thing you've ever done to start appearing on the front page.