Monday, May 2, 2011
How Convenient
Kill "Osama" on May Day, and bury him quickly out of respect for Islamic law, at sea because no one would take the body. Like Pakistan hadn't already had it for years, albeit alive.
Next will be the announcement that since we've achieved our objectives, we're pulling out of Afghanistan.
Re-election can't be far behind.
Oh the money he'll now be able to spend.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Government Revenues in 2008 were $2.5 Trillion
Government revenues in 2008 came from the following taxes:
Individual income taxes -- $1.14 trillion; (IRS data is slightly different at $1.03 trillion)
Social insurance taxes -- $0.9 trillion; (earnings beyond $107,000 or so are not fully taxed for this)
Corporate income taxes -- $0.3 trillion; (think GE!)
Other -- $0.1 trillion; (think?)
Sales and excise taxes -- $0.06 trillion; (think gasoline)
Total -- $2.5 trillion. Not enough by a long shot, under Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?
(source)
Doh! We Tax the Rich Because That's Where The Money Is, Knucklehead.
Per Census.gov here, these are the income limits by each quintile of 23,507.6 households in 2009:
Lowest: up to $20,453
Second: up to $38,550
Third: up to $61,801
Fourth:up to $100,000
Fifth: $100,000+.
That means 80 percent of the country, about 94,030 households, makes $100,000 per year or less.
We know from IRS data that earners reporting adjusted gross incomes of approximately $67,000 or less in 2008, totaling $2.8 trillion in AGI, represented 105 million tax returns out of 140 million total. They are the bottom 75 percent of tax returns in the country, a rough proxy for the first 4 of the 5 income quintiles.
Using back of the envelope estimates, perhaps another 7 million more tax returns represent the rest of the territory up to $100,000, and AGI of another $0.6 trillion, meaning that the first 4/5 of the country contributes AGI of about $3.4 trillion.
Roughly 28 million tax returns would then round out the top quintile, with AGI of approximately $5 trillion. It is certain that 14.4 million of these returns account for $3.9 trillion of AGI, the top 10 percent of earners.
Thus one can estimate that tax returns from the top quintile have something like 6 times the AGI per return compared with the returns of all the quintiles below them taken together.
About 80 percent of the earners have 40 percent of the income, while the top 20 percent of the earners have 60 percent of the income.
That's where the money is.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Politico Reports Boston Globe Reporter Had Obama INS Files Since 2009
So The Boston Globe spiked the story?
Politico doesn't say. So inquisitive are they.
So inquisitive, in fact, that they don't notice that the details in the release contradict Obama's often repeated story about his earliest childhood.
Others have noticed.
Politico's story is simply participating in the administrations's diversion strategy, focusing on the fact that Obama Sr. was prodded out of the country by Harvard.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Gas at Sam's Club Grand Rapids, MI, Now Tops 4 Bucks a Gallon
And I just filled both cars there two days ago at $3.999/gallon:
Patriots Switched to Coffee, Loyalists Stayed with Tea
"The Boston Tea Party is usually mentioned as nothing more than a humorous anecdote but its significance was profound and affected American cultural mores as deeply as the impetus it gave to revolutionary fervor in New England and later throughout the thirteen colonies. Anti-tea literature and boycotts swept the colonies and provided an emotional catharsis which every would-be patriot could share in by switching from tea to coffee."
-- Norman Berdichevsky here
Why Obama Revealed His Certificate of Live Birth This Week
Because he wanted to divert attention from a different, unavoidable, embarrassing revelation.
What revelation is that?
The revelation disclosed here as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Namely, that the narrative Obama has been telling about the first two years of his life is a lie. His mother and father never lived together with Barack Jr. as a family. She went to Washington State. Obama Sr. stayed in Hawaii and left for Harvard before the future president turned one, not when he was two. The marriage itself might be in question.
Everyone is consumed by the release of the Certificate of Live Birth, but not with the truth behind it.
Obama is skillfully playing this out, no doubt on the advice of counsel, to divert, dissemble and distract.
See the discussion here.
Over a Million Apply for 50 Thousand Burger Flipping Jobs
Some recovery.
I'm sure the president is going to think long and hard about the hapless 950,000 or so, between sips at the Wednesday night parties, and between shots on the fairway on the next weekend golf outing.
It's hard work being president. Just ask George Bush.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Radiation Conditions
As of 0900 on April 29, Japan time:
438 microSv/h at the south side of the office building;
49 microSv/h at the Main gate;
19 microSv/h at the West gate.
More here.
Concrete Pump with 58 Meter Boom Replenishes Water at Fukushima Unit 4 Pool
Presumably one like this:
Another news report here said a 70 meter version was being dispatched.
The Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 used fuel pool has needed nearly 1300 cubic meters of water over 13 days from April 13-25, according to this update. That number is consistent with, but about 200 cubic meters lower than, the predicted boil-off rate for the period in question:
Unit 4 pond contains a total 1331 used assemblies (783 plus full fuel load of 548), giving it a heat load of about 3 MW thermal, according to France's IRSN, which in that case could lead to 115 cubic metres of water boiling off per day, or about one tenth of its volume. ...
The pond at unit 4 is the main focus of concern now. It needs continual top-up with water, but at the same time there is concern about the structural strength of the building, which has been weakened either by the earthquake or the hydrogen explosion. Some 195 m3 was added to the pond on 13 April, about 20% of its capacity, and another 140 m3 on 15 and also on 17 April, by concrete pump. Another 100 m3 went in on 20 April, then 200 m3 on 22nd, 140 m3 on 23rd, 165 m3 on 24th and 210 m3 on 25th. Temperature has been up to 90°C and water level 5 metres down. It is not clear whether the main water loss is from leakage or boiling. However, Tepco reports that analysis of radionuclides in water from the used fuel pool of unit 4 suggests that some of the fuel assemblies there may have been damaged, but the majority are intact.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
I'm Flooring It and I'm Only Going 1.8
Thanks for the inspiration:
1.8 percent GDP growth in the face of massive stimulus is the equivalent of your car sputtering down the highway at 45 miles per hour while you have the gas pedal floored.
Read more from Henry Blodget here.
After Two Years, Bear David Rosenberg Finally Throws in the Towel
“This is not about throwing in the towel; it is an acknowledgement of what the market internals are flashing at the current time from a purely tactical and technical standpoint.”
“The (US dollar) is on a one-way ticket south and so far has been orderly—will that be sustained is anyone’s guess."
“For now it is being viewed as fodder for the global liquidity and risk-on trades.”
"[The tech rally] is a clear sign that the big boys are putting money to work."
“Market internals are too strong to ignore right now—NYSE advancers beat decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio (Tuesday); the Dow transports soared 1.9 percent; and the small caps beat their major benchmarks."
“My overall macro concerns have not gone away, but these market facts on the ground are tough to ignore.”
-- David Rosenberg, quoted here
Q1 2011 Advance Estimate of GDP Slows to 1.8 Percent
From 3.1 percent in Q4 2010. Yikes.
So reports the BEA here.
In 2009 we were down 2.6 percent, in 2010 up 2.9 percent on the federal intravenous drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
In 2009 we were down 2.6 percent, in 2010 up 2.9 percent on the federal intravenous drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Rush Limbaugh Can't Think Before 1913
"Look, in a classic sense, Trump's not a conservative, folks. You don't promise to raise tariffs on the ChiComs 25%. That's not conservative. (interruption) People understand this, Snerdley. You remember when George W. Bush threatened to raise tariffs on imported steel, there was an outcry. No, you don't raise taxes, period. That's not the way to deal with it. That's protectionism. Smoot-Hawley. It's a death wish. This is why I'm always worried about populism. Populism is not conservatism."
-- Rush Limbaugh, 27 April 2011 (here)
"Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, until it was surpassed by income taxes."
-- "Tariffs in United States History" (here)
"The magnitude of the tariff shock in the Smoot-Hawley legislation . . . was simply not large enough to trigger the kind of economic contraction experienced after 1930."
-- Douglas A. Irwin (quoted here)
The baneful influence of doctrinaire libertarianism on conservatism continues . . . in the voice of Rush Limbaugh.
America's Biggest Pair of Boobs
 |
| the left one is bigger |
 |
| the right one just thinks it is |
Notice the wide
cleavage→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→
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