We Finally Really Did It. You Maniacs! You Blew It All Up!

We Finally Really Did It. You Maniacs! You Blew It All Up!

They did it. They actually fucking did it.




Oh wait, you DON'T know what I'm talking about? Losing our AAA rating by S&P, of course.

We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating.

We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.

More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

Yes! YES! YESSSSS!!!! Good. Lower our credit rating so bond yields go up as investors just don't have any places left to make money. Thank you Satan! Man, it's a great thing that Obama was able to push through a compromise to prevent this from happening.



Boy, do I bet that the government is really kicking itself for including "cut payoffs to S&P" in their debt ceiling austerity package. For the last week people were marching up and down proclaiming that it wasn't going to be downgraded. Mark their words, Just like how those words were marked on that quota of being out of Iraq in a few months and how Saddam had WMDs.

The republicans told us that massive cuts would make the economy soar and give everyone confidence and the democrats told us a debt deal with massive cuts would make the economy soar and give everyone confidence, so obviously nobody was going to downgrade our credit rating because we're on an economic rocket, right? HA!

Shit like "S&P would never do that, or it would be a great reason for them to lose money" -Every fucking moron pundit ever. Why yes, the USA is in so much deep shit, that even risking its very existence, S&P pulled the bloodgates open on a clusterfuck of bad news. I'm cracking up here because the world is literally fucked here.



You have to admit that it was nice of them to wait until Friday evening to announce this as to prevent an immediate route of the markets. Now all the super capitalists have fair warning to get out while they can come Monday. I mean, tomorrow is really going to be fun to see how far the markets are going to free fall with all this news properly digested.

The reasoning for them down rating U.S. credit is effectively "The austerity measures do not fuck the poor severely enough and we have lost faith in the politicians". Because if you thought we were willing to kill the poor, elderly and sick while we were AAA approved, just you wait till you see us now at AA+

So yeah, we go from AAA to AA+. What exactly does this even mean? Well, it means the dow is going to go down again. It's also going to be a great tool to push folks to buy U.S. treasury bonds. Yes, buy them now! Get a great return thanks to S&P's strategic downgrade! Buy more bonds and force the government to pay even more. Go deeper into debt, raise debt ceilings and get another downgrade and raise the ROR even more. It's like a ponzi scheme except everyone wins!

America is basically California on a much larger scale in terms of how fucked it is financially. But I guess that old saying is true on how California goes, so does the country.

So who does the U.S. join the ranks of now that we're AA+? Well, both Belgium and New Zealand are currently listed as having AA+ credit. Need I remind you that Belgium doesn't even have a government. Their economy is based on selling off leopold's ear collection to the black market, camouflaged in chocolate boxes. And New Zealand's economy is based on Tolkein and fruit named after a bird shaped like a dumpling.

S&P said it may even lower the long term rating to AA within the next two years if spending reductions are lower than agreed to, interest rates rise or "new fiscal pressures" during the period results in higher general government debt. In short they said

"Yeah, that's why we did it, and we'll do it again too!"

They also changed its assumption that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would expire by the end of 2012 "because the majority of Republicans in congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues."

They're probably right too. Just the simple idea that raising taxes on like the top one percent by like, ten or twenty percentage points would create trillions in revenue. But hey, the Bush tax cuts were what, like four percent? Ha!

It makes you wonder if we'll ever get to the point where the economic overlords will say "Hmm, maybe a tiny increase in our ridiculously low inflation rates won't be the end of the world if it means we can keep unemployment below 100%". Ha, yeah, who the fuck am I fooling in even thinking that?

It boils down to basically even Wall Street thinking that not taxing the rich is retarded. So to have finance capital to the left of the Obama administration is an odd feeling. Maybe we should go to China before our neighbors murder us in our sleep in fights over the last rat to eat. At the very least if anyone plans on staying behind and riding this thing out in America, you really should own some kind of gun.

This is it. I'm actually going to see the end of capital. Too bad I'll only outlive it for about 5 seconds before someone kills me for a can of spam.

I really wish people would understand why all of this is so hilarious to me though. I think a big part of it is the need to believe that there's somebody at the wheel when the fact that there isn't is the basis of pretty much all of the funny stuff behind this. Just print out or E-mail these two New York Times articles for strangers, friends and family and if they don't get it, they're not ever going to.

Article 1
Article 2

Over all, I may be cheering for this like some redneck finally seeing that ten car pile up during a NASCAR race because it hurts the rich--which it does--but ultimately it's going to hurt the working poor much more so.

You see, Reagan was right. Trickle down does work..

We're entering an era of post-modern credit ratings. I think we'll continue to be aware of America's debt problems and continual poor credit, but only ironically. Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure we'll eventually have to pay for everything via cash. Good thing we can keep on printing that.

You have to remember that no one really knows how much debt there really is out there. Everything floating around are just estimates at best. It's almost exactly the same scenario as 2008. Only instead of banks going under, we're talking about banks and sovereign entities. No one has any idea how many times these loans have been recycle into the CDS market or collateralized in any number of shady practices. The revelation that Goldman Sachs helped restructure and hide Greek debt was pretty telling of the scale we're dealing with here.

Then again, everyone could just decide S&P doesn't matter and the markets will close up on Monday. I'm basing this belief on the notion that this is the most boring outcome to potentially come out of all this and let's face it. Boring typically happens.

Too eXXXtreme

Too eXXXtreme

So this past week had the X games show up into town. This is a huge money maker for ESPN. The company that just seems to print money these days.

I don't know about you but I can't really get excited for all these X-games. The X is suppose to stand of Extreme but I have a long standing hatred for anything that markets itself as something that is extreme. It never lives up to the promises that it makes for itself.

I mean, you really can't call yourself Extreme when your female motor sports event goes a little something like this...



Oh, don't act too surprised. I mean, it's a given. Besides, it's not as if the guys did much better though.



So yeah, the X games, or X17 came to a close in Los Angeles the other and now Figueroa is just the same ol crowded street, only now it doesn't have a bunch of skaters chilling out there just hanging out.

Maybe it's just me but we should up the ante on all this. Why stop at motor bikes going over stupid challenge courses. We should be having full on Running Man type of events. Where men hunt weaker men and the only victory you get is the satisfaction that you keep your life.

Otherwise, it's really not THAT extreme.

The Market - She Be A Down

The Market - She Be A Down

Man, it's a good thing congress was able to reach across the isle and come up with a debt ceiling raising agreement. Otherwise our economy would have gone all sorts of crazy and the market would have taken a nose dive.

Oh wait, what's that? What exactly happened to the markets yesterday? What were the numbers again:

AEX 300,85 -3,2%
AthexCompositeShare 1 086,43 -1,35%
BEL 20 Index 2 223,67 -2,9%
CAC40 3 320,35 -3,9%
DAX 30 6 414,76 -3,4%
FTSE 100 5 405,76 -3,2%
FTSE MIB 16 128,07 -5,2%
IBEX 35 8 686,50 -3,9%
OMX Copenhagen 20 389,50 -2,1%
OMX Helsinki 25 1 885,71 -5,1%
OMX Stockholm 30 939,63 -4,3%
OSEBX 375,36 -4,8%
PSI 20 6 325,27 -3,3%
SPI 4 845,24 -3,7%
TA-25 1 159,00 -1,5%
WIG20 2 487,66 -3,5%

In total this is what the markets looked like at the close of the bell.

OSLO 375,36 -4,83%
NASDAQ 2 556,39 -5,08%
DOW JONES 11 383,68 -4,31%

Wait, I know my reading audience may not be familiar with the market, so perhaps they need some sort of frame of reference on all this. The Dow ended up being down 500 points. It's the biggest single-day drop for a long time. Gold, Silver and Oil were all down. It seems to be a combo of Eurozone stuff and a lack of faith in the U.S economy.

What does all that look like in the form of an image? This:



If you aren't aware, the line should fall off a cliff like that. So if you're still wondering what happened to the markets. Well, they're dying, cloud. You must save them. No wait, there's no way to make a sort of adventure out of this. It's dead. I killed them. Me. ME!

Though you're probably thinking that the market typically falls like 500 points every couple of months anyway. But in this case, it's the type of fall that hasn't been seen since the fall of 08. And for those of you who don't recall, that was when the great recession happened.

Yeah, it's that bad. The economy is clearly now dead. Though it's been pretty dead for a few years now. The Markets are just now finally figuring it out. I don't want to get too excited because I've been waiting for this moment ever since they re-inflated the bubble and I sure as hell don't want to be disappointed if they find yet another way to prop it back up.



But hey, the good news is that even the media will probably stop saying we're in a "Recovery" now. Because, seriously. 700 points in 4 days.. HA! The depression.. tis be coming, yo.

I would feel good about this because of the whole death to Capitalism and all that, but I know that the only people who are actually going to feel adverse effects from this shit are the poor and the downtrodden already and the fuckers who are responsible will sit in their golden palaces whining about how they're slightly less rich than they already were.. or actually celebrating being much more rich. Because, isn't that just the quintessential capitalism right there

Before trading opened on Wall Street, the Labor Department announced that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits last week fell slightly from the week before. But the report, following a raft of disappointing economic data in recent days, was taken by many gloomy investors to indicate only that the stalled job market was not improving.

Some investors also were selling to protect their portfolios before Friday's monthly announcement of unemployment data.

"It’s almost a very simplistic thing here, there has just been indiscriminate selling," said Michael Purves, chief strategist at BCG Financial. "Markets work in strange and mysterious ways –- and sometimes it takes awhile for routs like this to get going."

Where's the Jobs, Obama?!? WHERE?! Who cares if it's your birthday.. In fact, Hey, Happy birthday. Love, the investors.. I'm sure Obama's reaction to that question would be to pull his pockets inside out, shrug his shoulders and makes a funny face. *Curb your enthusiasm theme plays*



President Obama calls the local pound, looking for the economy. Vice-President Biden believes he has seen the economy crossing the street the next house over.

I wonder if he's going to lose the election to theoretically unelectable republican X now? But then again, part of me really hopes that this is enough to make Obama lose. Then the realist in me sees that Obama losing won't make a difference. It's not like his replacement will be any different except maybe on abortion and gay marriage (Both of which Obama is already against, HA!)

I do love the headlines from yesterday though. "Markets in turmoil - CNBC tonight at 8!" Though you have to remember that most banks and financial institutions have CNBC on at all times in offices and trading rooms across the country.

Speaking of which... July employment numbers are released today. Oh man, I wonder what percentage of a stadium the new jobs will fill this time. Probably by the time you read this you're looking at around 9/2%, at least according to CNBC.

Oh goody. I wonder at what percentage of a stadium the new jobs will fill this time. And what with Obama cutting more than a million jobs recently, I wonder how many portfolio will look covered in blood and feces.

And those who think that only the rich, state oil investment companies and some middle class pension funds have something to worry about here with stock assets, I don't think you understand the extent to which even public employees' retirements are funded through the markets and entities like CALPERs, the Cal. State employees' pension fund, never recovered from the downswing in the 00's, which will lead to less collective bargaining and further austerity at the state and municipal levels.

Maybe the disappearing pension funds will mean people will be more radicalized, right? RIGHT?! And you would think that the price of oil going down would mean that gas prices are potentially going to go down. But it's really just a case of "bad things happens so you pay more" situation.

Then there's those poor soles who in 2008 thought that they wouldn't have to worry about all of this because they still had 4 years until they graduated and need to get a decent job to pay back those loans. It'd all be over by then, they thought.. Yeah, welp. Guess that's not going to work.

But hey, are you a student with educational loans? do you have two kidneys? And if losing an organ doesn't sound like your thing, maybe you can just sell your body as a sex worker?

A bigger question is why the hell are gold and silver going down? I guess according to some article, when major financial traders are in shit spots like this they have to pony up more hard cash. Especially since they're trading with a ton of borrowed money. So a bunch of people liquidate their gold stocks just in case.

It's not even like this is a whole double dip recession, because it never went "back up" as a double dip implies.



Apparently the Asian markets are nose diving as well. My guess is that Europe will see the US and Asian markets, look at the problems in their own back yard, and respond in kind by dropping their market like a rock. Then the US stock exchange thinks Europe is panicking and they'll fall down and go boom again today.

Europe is already fucked in the matter. So it's not like the markets will open and crash into hell, but it's sure as hell going to be a situation where it's not going to be good. Then America's market will open and plummet with it. But once the jobs reports comes out, man oh man, then Satan will walk the earth.

You should basically cash out everything you can at 9:30:01 today if you own capitalist equities because it's going to be blood in the streets. But hey, maybe if you knew what a stop loss was, you probably would have used it by now. Though it's odd of me to consider that anyone reading this actually participates in finance capital and is not a broke college student or a poor member of the underclass.

I figure this is what is going to happen. Some arbitrary stock values will go down, the fed will do a qe3, the stock values will go up. Everyone will cheer the recession is over. Then most people will still be homeless and will continue to lose wages and benefits.

Maybe you should just get a job immediately, buy a firearm and kill all possible competitors for that job. I just have one question for you... Any big plans for the recession? You know, other than death. Maybe you can go painting...

I started another burning bank painting today, this time the Chase branch in Van Nuys. I got lots of thumbs up and likes from passersby but after an hour and a half the cops showed up. They said someone called thought I might be a terrorist.

What sort of terrorist would paint their plan before doing it? That's not a terrorist, that sounds more like a super villain move than anything else.

But back to the whole politics of all this. The absolute worst and best thing about all this is that all of the idiots who go on saying "install social democracy, problem solved!" and imagine that we'll somehow go back to the post-war economic boom by rewinding the metaphorical clock. Oh boy, do they have another fucking thing coming.

I don't really see a way to make social democracy and the good old social compact work within the context of an utterly financialized and internationalized capitalist economy so basically the days of trying for capitalism with a human face are going to vanish... like tears in rain.

Time... to die..

How Does It Feel, To Be An Aging Stone

How Does It Feel, To Be An Aging Stone

Yesterday Stone announced yet another collaboration beer release and this time it's pretty damn special in their limited edition series. The series line of beers will be part of the Quingenti Millilitre edition. What's that word even mean? Well, it's Latin for 500ml - which is what this series will be the size of the bottles this series is in. They will be barrel aged versions of their brews and collaborations in a much larger bottle size.



The first one is a homebrew collaboration: Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter aged in Bourbon Barrels. Yes, that's a lot of words to describe a beer but that's all in the name. This is a 2 year barrel aged beer that at the time of its release was pretty pricey to find on the shelf. So it comes as no surprise that this bottle will cost you a good amount to get. There is a catch to it though.

You can only buy it if you win a raffle, which you also need to buy a ticket for. Then after you go through those loop holes, you need to actually pick it up yourself from the Stone Brewery in Escondido. The expected number of bottles produced by this will be around 500 bottles and the cost will be $1 for each raffle ticket and $25 + tax for the 500ml bottle.

The drawing is laid out like this:

• For every $1 ticket you buy, you will be entered once into the drawing.

• Buying multiple tickets will increase your statistical odds of winning in the drawing, however you can only win once. Maximum.

• $0.96 of each $1.00 ticket sold will be donated to the Escondido Creek Conservancy & Interfaith Community Services (the 4¢ covers credit card processing fees).

So really, it's not very cost efficient to buy more than.. say $5 worth of tickets because it's not really the amount you buy, but the amount of people who buy into it. Say there's 1,000 people buy 10 tickets each. Your odds aren't 1 in 10,000 You're still only going up against the odds of the number of people who purchased a ticket 1,000. Of those only half will get the chance to buy it. So you still have a 50% chance of buying one.

You can purchase a raffle ticket HERE from now till August 16th and all proceeds do go to a good charity. So it seems like such little effort to toss some bucks there way. At worse, you help a good cause with a buck. At best you win the option to purchase a bottle that will be a very hot item to get come the raffle August 18th.

Besides that, I like this ticket system a whole lot more than I do the Alesmith special bottle release method of "Line up at 4am" and pray that people don't save spots for friends in front of you.

I imagine it's also less hassle for the brewery and the customer involved to deal with a raffle system that is basically a donation system. And if you can afford a 500ml bottle for $25, then you can shell out a couple of bucks for a donation system.

The only people that lose out on this is the ones who can't afford to buy the lottery tickets or the pricey beer and aren't within driving distance or plan to vacation between late August and September with a visit to Stone.

Another factor in play is that they are really focusing on making sure it's the beer drinking Stone brewery fans that get their hands on this. Looking over the rules and regulations you'll find this nugget.

19. It is forbidden to sell or auction beer online. If you purchase a Quingenti Millilitre bottle of "Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee, Macadamia, Coconut Porter Aged in Bourbon Barrels" and attempt to resell it, we will have the listing removed, and you will be banned from future drawings of Quingenti Millilitre beers.

When they say it's forbidden, that's not Stone being some sort of big brother gestapo door kicking action. It's literally forbidden per ebay rules to sell it online. That doesn't stop people from selling beer and wine on ebay, they just list it as the auction being for the bottle and not for the contents that are inside.

To clarify all this Greg Koch had the following to say:

Perhaps we should have been a little more clear with the above statement. It is reflecting on the fact that it is forbidden by the auction sites themselves. We at Stone simply "strongly disapprove" and will block those that do it from having future access to future releases to the best of our ability.

I do not expect that we can "forbid" anyone from doing what they want. If I thought I could forbid stuff, I'd forbid folks from being jerks. Heh, more power to me on that one!

Which makes sense. I love Stone and I really hate the ebay method of picking up all the bottles of rare stuff you can find from places like The Bruery or Surly's Darkness and then profiteering off it online. And while it is not Stone's place to patrol the after market once you plopped your hard earned $25 + tax and raffle tickets, it's nice to know that they'll do what they can to discourage that sort of action.

On the flip side, this is brewing a lot of heat because of the lack of proxies that could pick up the bottle for you. That is when someone from out of state buys a ticket and is able to send someone local to pick it up for them. In this case, the person who bought the ticket needs to be on the ID that picks it up.

Is it a big problem? Not really. Again, they're shooting for locals to get these. I've seen situations where Barrel Aged Stone Beers have made it in other states and never were anywhere near Escondido or Southern California.

If all that sounds like something you're willing to go through, there's also others in this series to look forward getting.

• Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison du BUFF Aged in Red Wine Barrels
  
• 2010 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels, the release of which will be tied to the forthcoming book, The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance (Ten Speed Press, 10/2011)
  
• Green Flash / Pizza Port Carlsbad / Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale Aged in Scotch Barrels
  
• 21st Amendment / Firestone Walker / Stone El Camino (Un)Real Black Ale Aged in American Oak Barrels
  

Oh man, I really want to try that Highway 78.

I Am The (New) Law!

I Am The (New) Law!

Now that you're long past with celebrating your independence, it's time to bring you back to earth with a slew of new laws that you should be aware of if you're in the Los Angeles area.

Plastic Bags - You should understand that the unincorporated ares of Los Angeles County are now faced with the reality that your plastic bags have been outlawed. Pharmacies and supermarkets may no longer use plastic bags for carryout items. Except for fruit, veggies and raw meat. If you do not bring in a reusable bag, you will face a 10 cent charge for paper bags.

Hybrid Cars no longer can abuse the carpool lane solo. So you can kiss that yellow sticker goodbye because it doesn't make you special anymore. If you want to get in on the carpool lane solo, you'll have to have a Green decal which will only go to plug-in hybrids and vehicles with hydrogen internal combustion engines.

Gas stoves are now under a new mandate. If your place has a gas stove, fireplace or an attached garage, you will now need to buy a carbon monoxide detector and get it installed.

Classrooms now need to be able to lock from the inside. Yeah, that's right. Due to the increase level of campus violence, you need to plan for a new school by making it so you can lock the doors from the inside. Hello the chance for HS kids to now bang in the chemistry room with some privacy.

Push to talk cell phones no longer get special treatment. So now you need to comply with the hands free law, mother fuckers!

Insurance disclosures must be concise and to the fucking point. No longer will you have to read a huge ass document to know if you're covered or not.

Restaurant food-handling test are now mandatory for everyone working in the industry currently. And those entering the field will have 30 days to pass the test.

Whooping cough vaccination is now required for any student entering the 7th-12th grade.

You'll also, finally need to make up your mind about what to do with your organs as the DMV will now force you to decide if they you want to be an organ donor or not.

So there you go. Those are the new laws. Now be happy that it's not that bad.

No Shit, Sherlock

No Shit, Sherlock

So while watching Harry Potter and getting screwed out of not getting a Dark Knight Rises trailer, I at least got to see the new trailer for Sherlock Holmes. Enjoy it with me.



And before you ask, that is Noomi Rapace from the Dragon Tattoo/Girl who played with fire trilogy as the gypsy. That's also Jared Harris of Mad Men and Fringe playing Dr. Moriarty. Yeah, that's right - Richard Harris's son. Yes, Dumbledore.

You also can't forget another character showing up in this, even though they didn't show any of him in the trailer. Stephen Fry is in this flick as Holmes' brother Mycroft. But given that Mycroft shows up in all of 4 original Holmes stories, out of 60. Most people aren't going to know jack shit about him or even care about this. Though they do know of Professor Moriarty. Which is odd considering Moriarity is only actually in one story and only hinted at in another.

Mycroft has a lot more presence than Moriarity, and it's not just because he's fat. He was even featured in the BBC TV adaptation, "Sherlock" recently.

One of the best aspects was the chemistry between Holmes and Watson in the movie and the trailer indicates that this will continue. So I'm happy about that.



I also never understood the people who said the first movie wasn't "True" to the books. It's not like Sherlock Holmes really had a canon besides loosely defined periods of his life.

I really enjoyed the first movie and I'm hopeful that Moriarty will be better realized fleshed out. I'd actually like to see him showcase the vast intellect that made him the kingpin of crime and equal to Holmes own brilliance.

I have to say though, something was off with the way that the trailer ended. It seemed to be... strange. I wonder if you can tell me what's missing in this picture.



If you guessed a gun. You are correct. It was digitally removed from the trailer and at the end with the whole "get that out of my face" it was digitally moved away from Holmes' face.

It has to do with the MPAA not allowing guns either pointed at the camera or at other people. It's really so stupid but what are you going to do about it? You have Columbine to thank for that.

Getting A Credit Limit Extended

Getting A Credit Limit Extended

We did it! Okay, well Obama did it. And when I say it, I mean that he managed to do something not terrible. Well, at least not as terrible as terrible gets.

Assuming no hiccups in the House -- and that might be a big assumption -- we’ve got a deal. The deficit-reduction side includes $1 trillion in cuts now, $1.5 trillion (or more) in deficit reduction later, and a vote on a balanced budget amendment. Meanwhile, it raises the debt ceiling by $900 billion immediately, and either $1.5 trillion (if the second deficit reduction package or a balanced budget amendment passes) or $1.2 trillion (if neither pass) later. Either way, the Treasury should have plenty of borrowing authority to get us to 2013.

Behind the deal is a creative way out of the impasse that’s held up the negotiations: how do you get “balanced approach” if Republicans refused to consider revenues? The solution that both sides seem to have settled on is to substitute defense cuts where taxes would otherwise have gone.

In the initial $900 billion in cuts, almost half will come from “security spending” (which includes defense, homeland security, veteran’s benefits, the State Department, etc). Defense is the big money there, and, according to the White House’s fact sheet, it will take a full $350 billion in cuts on its own. But the real hit comes in stage two: if the second round of deficit reduction isn’t signed into law, the “trigger” that will make automatic spending cuts absolutely savages defense spending.

Let’s stop there and talk about the trigger, as it’s arguably the most important part of the deal. In his remarks on Friday, President Obama said he would support a trigger if it was done in “a smart and balanced way.” The implication was that it had to include tax increases as well as spending cuts, as a trigger with just spending cuts wouldn’t force Republicans to negotiate in good faith. The trigger in this deal does not include tax increases.

What it includes instead are massive cuts to the defense budget. If Congress doesn’t pass a second round of deficit reduction, the trigger cuts $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Fully half of that comes from defense spending. And note that I didn’t say “security spending.” The Pentagon takes the full hit if the trigger goes off.

Don't you see, marginal defense cuts and the majority of which only kick in if congress fails to pass legislation which will completely gut social programs, and no tax increases whatsoever on the rich... Oh boy, I can hardly contain all my excitement.

But I guess Obama did a good thing here, guys. He generously cut down on the American Empire fund while gutting social programs.. Well, at least not social security and medicare. Not this year, that is. That's for after the election. In the meantime he will only cut education, health and human services, housing and urban development -- You know, the less important social programs that doesn't cost him votes. I knew my vote wouldn't go to wast eon Obama!

I mean, I guess I could sit here and pine for the idea that he would have punked congress with constitutional challenge, but I suppose I should take the bones I'm thrown here. I'm guessing the defense cuts mainly involve gutting the social security, education, provisions and equipment of soldiers. Not actually stopping research on that Dark-skin-seeking-laser,

If you look at every major news source, they'll all be hyping up that a deal has been practically struck between all involved because they're desperate to reassure the markets that it's safe to invest. Pay no mind to the credit rating almost about to get slammed, it's all good.

One major problem in all this is that cutting defense spending is contractionary economically but Americans are already getting pretty used to eating rats and hobo cans of beans. So what's a few more years of rats and hobo beans? And how much do you want to bet that half of these cuts have already been announced some time ago and this all ends up being a situation where they end up double counting the cuts for the sake of making it seem more than what it is.

Honestly, I should just take the tax hit on my 401k and should just invest it in Bank of America held stocks. Or maybe I should just put the entirety of my dollar into lead and then put a slug into my own brain.

But hey, the deal has been made and now everyone in congress gets to go on their August vacation while Obama gets to celebrate his birthday today. Everyone is a winner.. well, as long as you're not an American tax payer, that is.

Then again, no one in America will ever care about any of this as long as the TV keeps working and new shows get cranked out. That's why I like my job security. Though I have to honestly admit that I'm seriously bummed that the NFL cut their deal. Mainly because having no football in a couple of weeks would've brought about the revolution a whole lot faster than anything else.