Buhbye Boxing Day

As I learn to tweak and situate everything on this site, it seems the more gadgets that are available the more I want. A clear case of conspicuous consumption. Since all the tweaks are free and fairly easy to apply, it's more a matter of getting things in places where they're visible. I like to have things in the right place, where everyone can see at a glance what the hell is going on. The investment/mortgage/insurance/banking and now GMAC industries don't Have to do that, no one asked them to when they asked for 700Gazillion dollars. It was right there in well, probably pencil, but in black and white anyway, that the Treasury Department did NOT require the Failout(tm) recipients to account for a single buck of the 350Gazillion that they've gotten to date, not including of course the AIG and other separate Failouts(tm). According to the GAO (Government Accounting Office) NO-ONE knows exactly how much money has actually gone to these crooks, and not any single person has a clue as to how the money was actually spent.

It is estimated at nearly a Trillion dollars to date, and the second tranch of the initial 700Billion hasn't even been released yet!! Chris Dodd, my intrepid senator from CT, head of the Banking Committee, is foaming at the mouth over this lack of transparency, yet HE'S the one who drafted the fucking deal in the first place. I liken it to getting a credit card, with say a $1000 dollar limit, and maybe $100 annual fee, and 25% interest rate on the unpaid balance. Anyone, ANYONE, knows that they will be in the hole by $100 right off the bat, just by getting the card, right? Then they go and by a new computer for $850.00. That gives them a $950.00 balance on the card. With me so far? Not rocket science, just simple addition. If they pay just the minimum balance due, that goes to just interest, again simple credit card rule everyone SHOULD know, if you don't you have any business having credit cards. If the balance carries over, the interest charge will be $27.50. That's $975 give or take. Pretty simple no? You pay the $10 or whatever the teaser monthly payment is, and the interest will just keep mounting up and up and up, because they add it up DAILY! It's important to read the credit card contract so that you know these details. They cost a lot of money if you don't pay attention. And say, you get laid off from your job and miss a payment, then you get hit with late fees, and the way it's going, an over-limit fee as well. Those can be as high as $50 EACH!

But if you're in the guvmint, you can just give the money to these yabbos, with absolutely NO repayment plan! Thats tight, have a $25Billion LOAN but you really don't have to pay it back, it says right on the two page application that I filled out yesterday. You needn't say how you're going to spend it either. Ever get a personal loan from your friendly neighborhood banker? Did they ask you what the money was for? More than once? I worked in the consumer loan department of a now "consolidated" New England bank, now a multi-national mega-bank super-duper store, and when I had that application in front of me, as I filled it out for the customer (they weren't allowed to do it by themselves, apparently loan officers have better penmanship) EVERY application asked the purpose of the loan, and in most cases the loan was at least marginally SECURED by whatever was purchased with those funds. Even a $1000 unsecured loan HAD to have something in the box for Purpose Of Loan, or it would be rejected. Most times I admit, I just made shit up. Like a elderly man wanted to buy a snowmobile, IN CALIFORNIA! I had fun with it, and the loans usually went through anyway. But they were piddly little unsecured personal loans. Up to five G's, with a decent credit history and a job or money in the bank, the loan got approved. We didn't worry over it, since we usually had these folks checking and savings accounts too. But what do you do when you loan some company more money than they have in say, property or anything else to secure the transaction?

What you do is, YOU DON"T LEND THEM ANY MONEY! If I went to the bank, and they were actually lending any money (doubtful at this point), and the loan exceeded my ability and resources to repay the loan, it wouldn't happen. They'd be nice and respectful, because I do have my accounts there and they don't want to lose depositors right now for sure, but I'd walk out with nada. Maybe go to The First National Bank of The Rachel Maddow Show. She applied for Failout(tm) funds too. My bank, United Puppies Bank, hasn't been acknowledged as a bank yet. But GMAC, the lending arm of General Motors, converted into a bank just this week. If they could, so could I! I have a lot of debt, and no plan as to how it's gonna get paid off. Just like them.

I don't hold the titles to hundreds of thousands of virtually worthless SUVS, but I still have a few assets here and there. This is a really nice computer that I have, but I bought it from a computer repair shop, who had it in for upgrades and the owner booked for parts unknown. And I got it for next to free. And being a neo-geek, I install hardware and software myself, and it's never been back to the hospital since it's purchase. The monitor and speakers, cables and other stuff came from my old computer, so it's bones are good, but it has some serious arthritis! One may see it in operation and think "Damn, nice set up ya got dude!", but no-one is going to buy the bloody thing!! It's way too old, the processor is two generations or so out of date and there's the whole Window's Vista thing, that I stayed the hell away from, XP-Pro is just fine, as fine as Windows ever is. But the parallel is there if you think about it a second or two. It looks good works fine, but is of no value for resale. Just like the stock in the banks that we got in compensation for the Failout(tm) money. It looks good on the surface, the bank has deposits of $Xitty Billion in the safe, But they owe so much on their credit card that they're essentially worthless. Citi, B Of A, CapitalOne it don't matter much which you pick for the look see. They all owe more than they can pay. Ever. And we can't send the repo-man to jack 'em up, because we signed an agreement not to.

Gotta watch what you sign. That credit card will get you into a hell of a lotta trouble. And its all a conspiracy created by the Democrats to win the election! ROFLMAO!! The wingnuts have finally totally lost control of their tongues. That and the latest screed, that FDR made teh depression worser by his spending! Sigh......