Trailer Park Boys Explain the US Economy
February 14, 2011
At one time I thought Trailer Park Boys was just an hilarious and sometimes poignant Canadian reality sitcom. Upon further reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that it may in fact be a subtle and subversive critique of US economic policy. See for yourself –
Starring Bubbles Bernanke and Ricky the Regulator.
Pretty simple:
1) Acquire (ie steal) somebody else’s shopping carts.
2) If they are not already broken, break them yourself.
3) “Fix” broken shopping carts.
4) Sell “fixed” carts back to the suckers you stole them from for profit.
5) Follow steps 1-4 repeatedly because you’re too damn stupid to do anything else and as long as nobody’s going to stop you, it keeps you well stocked with cat food.
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CEPHALOBLOG 
Still trying to find the right words to write up this comment into something more coherent.
Had a bit of a eureka! moment while reading some of the links posted in the above comment in conjunction with a completely unrelated David Foster Wallace essay in which he describes the annual porn industry video awards and mentions in passing the new-to-me concept of the fluff girl. It suddenly became clear how Bubbles Bernake expects to get away with his policy of printing shitloads of money which is a somewhat complicated process to explain in full and requires a much longer and more detailed article complete with copious footnotes and asides (and even some charts and graphs) but alack! I am not David Foster Wallace and have been unable to put my thoughts down in writing very well.
I will endeavor to explain in more detail at some later date so for now you’ll have to be content with the super-simplified explanation proffered by Bubbles and Ricky.
Suffice it to say however that despite arguments to the contrary by the likes of CNBC tittering-têtes et. al., people living beyond their means by racking up debts they can’t afford to repay is not a drawback of the current economic system in the US, but in fact is required to keep the whole house of cards from tumbling. Of course there is no free lunch and the catch is that while you’ll still be able to get all your stuff, you will have to give up your pension and/or your Social security and/or your health care in return. And Bubbles (or Fluffy, which may be the more appropriate moniker) may be able to pull it off, at least until he runs headlong into reality.
So for the time being, going out and purchasing the latest 253″ plasma TV on your credit card with the knowledge that you are unlikely to ever repay does not make you a parasite looking to get something for nothing, it makes you an Extremely Patriotic American.
Some homework for you.
Ha! That wasn’t exactly the part I was having difficulty with though :P
The winning entry in The world’s rarest bird photo competition is a shot of our friend the kakapo.
The Egyptian army now in charge urges strikers to get back to work.
This take from Reuters via Rawstory sounds a bit more ominous –
Not exactly sure how you reconcile “protecting the right to protest” with forbidding protests.
Meanwhile, police crack down on Yemeni protesters, more clashes reported with protesters in Iran, and at least one protester is dead after a day of rage in Bahrain.
A few good articles related to the post I may right one of these days –
Excellent article on flooding the world economy with dollars has led to speculation and rising food prices across the globe – International Speculation and Rising Food Prices. The author’s conclusion –
To which France says “Pas de probleme” – France wants new global finance system .
Also, Dean Baker on how the oligarchs continue to try to construct an economy based on finance rather than labor – Finance Myths.
One more ominous note – as the latest US stock market bubble continues to inflate, insiders continue to bail out in massive numbers.
Beck is in rare form today. The Italian women’s protests against Berlusconi are folded into his cake batter along with everything else and voila, the caliphate has a new outpost in Rome. I would have thought this a little too great a leap even for him if he hadn’t described Ireland as an up and comer in the caliphate a couple weeks ago. Next stop Finland? British Columbia? Orange County?
Maybe a primer on European history would help?
Did you happen to catch Jon Stewart yesterday? Sounds like the writers were watching the same stuff you did. Ha! – Jason Jones reporting from inside Glenn Beck’s brain!
Ha. Thanks I hadn’t seen that. Kitler is in there too!
I believe Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s showboat Minister of Antiquities, was mention here a while back.
Yesterday, 150 young archaeologists gathered at his office calling on him to join hist master Mubarak and “Get Out.”
Hmmmm. Hadn’t heard he’d recently taken a cabinet position. For a supposedly bright guy, not a good move. This sounds about right –
Can’t do a program on Egypt without Hawass’ mug showing up somewhere. He’s been a very good promoter which is what brings in the cash but I do think he likes the pretty much complete control he has over Egyptian antiquities a little too much – a lot like Mubarak in that respect. He’s very protective of them and justifiably so to a great extent (mentioned earlier that he was likely the one who sent those people out to guard the museum and I find his efforts to have Egypt’s antiquities repatriated admirable) , but I think he takes it too far at times. Remember watching one program where after years of turning down requests, he finally allowed some foreign scientists to take some minuscule sample from some mummy or another. With current technology, it isn’t as if taking such a sample is going to cause drastic damage to the mummy and I had to wonder what took him so long to allow it other than pride and vanity.
He’s definitely not irreplaceable.
Found a little more on Hawass’ current predicament.
Can see how all that would piss a few people off considering the circumstances.
Protestors breach capitol building, Iowa joins Caliphate.
Very nice!
It’s spreading. Wisconsin bows to the Sultan.
Actually Beck was all over this today. The Antichrist himself is stalking the streets of Madison.
He is merely the most extreme – and not by all that much – in his portrayal of organized labor as the arch enemy of American democracy. I would like to see this prince of turds work hard enough to raise a blister, maybe ten, fifteen minutes.
I have had it with these attacks on public workers. I have seen people trying to cover 24/7 in a lab to assess viral attacks in real time, or 24/7 to cover fish transport on the Snake – fish don’t pay much attention to clocks – in the fucking wind and ice storms, teachers bumming money from me – and they know I don’t have it – to buy enough supplies for the first couple weeks of class.
Seconded. Few years ago I donated $20 to some local fire department. Now I get calls all the time from various departments in the area asking for donations which I generally have to turn down because I can’t afford it. What I’d like to ask the callers is why in the hell does the fucking fire department have to go begging in the first place?!?!?! Aren’t my tax dollars supposed to make sure they have enough money?
Of course I already know the answer. The fire departments’ $$ is being used to subsidize bankrupt developers so they can build crappy little strip malls.
Poor Aaron Barr from HBGary along with Palantir and others really opened up a can of worms trying to discredit wikileaks. People have been poring over the emails acquired by “Anonymous” and it looks like they really fucked with the wrong people. Glenn Greenwald isn’t buying Palantir’s apology and claims that they weren’t really involved. The leaked emails also showed they wanted to go after Brad Friedman and he’s more than a little pissed off. As tenacious as those two are when they latch on to an issue, I really wouldn’t want to be on their bad side.
Fuck ’em up!
Greenwald on the warpath: today he’s taking it to msnbc. On the Dylan Rantagain show right now.
Victory in Ecuador! – for now
Court Fines Chevron $8.6 Billion for Damage to Environment
Much more at ChevronToxico
This brief, excellent backgrounder goes over the long history of the case and especially Chevron’s recent antics, which have been referred to a “kitchen sink” strategy of attack on all fronts, legal and otherwise. It should be called a scorched earth policy.
Note esp: Chevron successfully had the case moved to Ecuador, praising Ecuasoran courts and complaining it wouldn’t get a fair trial in the US. Now it has launched every conceivable attack against those very courts.
You beat me to it! Been gathering up a few articles on that myself today but I hadn’t found any yet with all the details in yours.
If I’ve got the timeline right, this has been in Ecuadorian courts for more than just a few years. Bet Chevron didn’t count on Correa who’s been doing quite a bit to try to keep the oil companies at bay. And I love the judges ruling demanding a public apology or they pay double. $17 billion would go a long way towards keeping Ecuador’s oil in the ground :)
Couple more links for you –
Brief statement on the settlement from Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch.
And Chevron is filing a countersuit against Ecuador but they’re moving the venue to NY state. Maybe they’ll get more favorable treatment considering the mess that is the US judicial system, but at first glance RICO charges seem pretty laughable. That last one says a US court has already ruled in Chevron’s favor and blocked Ecuador from enforcing any upcoming judgment. No idea how that’s supposed to work.
Hey dude,
Off topic but have you ever read Chung Kuo? :)
I followed you to your own blog!
That you ender?
Guess it must be after I googled Chung Kuo. No, never heard of that before. Any good?
yeah it is me :) I read some of it a long time ago and it seemed good, but I don’t remember that clearly. The premise is great. Anyways, I am going to try rereading the first book and will let you know. 8 book series!
Saw that at wikipedia. They said it was supposed to be nine but the publisher told the author to wind it up. Not sure if that’s a good sign or not. Let me know if it’s any good. Haven’t read any scifi recently since those Ken Macleod books I told you about.
Some science notes –
Researchers discover more deep ocean vents. Nice to see, especially as one of the first groups of vents discovered in the 90s has gone dormant and all the wildlife is now gone. Wonder what critters they will find around this new set?
All kinds of reports today on a potential new planet in our own solar system, although just barely because if it’s there, it’s a really long way out there near the Oort Cloud. Most I read were fairly sensational and mixed some things up. Here’s the most sober one i saw – Up telescope! Search begins for giant new planet.
The two astronomers who leading the charge think it’s only a matter of time until they get definitive proof. Phil Plait is encouraged and doesn’t dismiss the idea but retains his skepticism – No, there’s no proof of a giant planet in the outer solar system.
If true though, there will be a lot of astronomers and astrophysicists who will need to rework a lot of theories on how planetary systems form.
A few notes –
As expected, the fucking Patriot act renewal passes in the House.
Fluffy and Timmeh are doing a little jig today as one of the few decent people in government, TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky, resigns. Note how the WAPO just can’t help inserting a couple graphs from unnamed sources within the Treasury making unfounded allegations regarding Barofsky’s credibility –
Douchebags. But on the bright side, with no serious oversight, Fluffy may wind up fucking things up beyond repair a little quicker and we can finally be rid of him. His bluff is being called quite a bit these days.
And the National Research Council has issued a report casting quite a bit of doubt on the FBI’s case against Bruce Ivins as the mailer of the anthrax letters. Too bad Ivins is already dead after being harassed by the FBI.
A little commentary and more links from Meryl Nass who has been following the story for years.
Absolutely gut wrenching – The Siddiqui Case.
Unbelievable what has happened to this woman in the last decade at the hands of the US and its supposed allies. Whether she’s actually guilty of anything is almost impossible to tell, but she got 86 years nonetheless. Even if she is guilty, what happened to her small innocent children in unconscionable.
I thought I was pretty damn pissed off about three years ago with all that has happened during the War on Terra. Now that I have a child of my own, I’m a little surprised at how much more anger I can muster towards scumbags like these. Death would be far too kind of a punishment for the likes of those who did these things.
Somebody wrote my post for me, or at least a good portion of what I was trying to get at – How to Fake an Economic Recovery. All about flooding the economy with money, manipulating statistics, etc. A little channeling of Taibbi going on with the rhetoric –
Heard the bankers-as-vampire squid and now -as-pustule/Chupacabra comparisons, but no fluff girl yet!
Brilliant
Hey melvin. Ever find anything on that study purporting to show that farmed salmon did not cause sea lice on wild fish?
Related to that, I enjoyed this one disparaging the “empirical” study – The Age of Idiocy. A sample –
Worth reading in full – the rest of it is pretty funny.
Yes. It’s coming. I am just all tangled up here.
Some unrelated notes –
Not that I understand it all, but here’s how the “Anonymous” hackers took down Aaaron barr and HBGary Federal – Anonymous speaks: the inside story of the HBGary hack. The part I did understand is that the hackers didn’t really do anything that revolutionary, they exploited weaknesses in HB Gary’s security using tools readily available on the interwebs. Checked the url for HB gary Federal listed in the article and it’s still down. Ha!
Greg Gordon at McClatchy continues his excellent reporting on the ratfucking banksters – Critics: Goldman should give back $2.9 billion to taxpayers. Reading through that one I had to wonder whether hackers might be able to do something similar to the Goldies if they put their minds to it. Still haven’t heard anything on who was responsible for the (illegal) naked short selling that sent Lehman’s price plummeting and set off this whole thing and from what I understand nothing has been done to curb the practice. Perhaps some hackers could start shorting the Goldies a few billion at a time.
And Libya becomes the next country to start simmering.
Governor Schweitzer of Montana – beloved by certain pseudo-progressives for reasons I don’t understand beyond his folksy manner – has done the right thing for the wrong reason. He has forbidden the shipment of Yellowstone buffalo into MT for fear of brucellosis. A fear that is to say the least grotesquely overblown. They might as well be socialists, Kenyans, or foot sodiers of the Caliphate.
Meanwhile, evidence mounts of the genetic weakness in the “metapopulation,” the predictable result of an extreme bottleneck. It is inconceivable to me that the herd is not managed with an eye to long term genetic health. Every western state employs veterinarians to work on precisely that for its dairy and beef herds, but we don’t for the last continuously wild population of an icon?
OK I need some help with this one. Heard about the whole brucellosis canard before so I get that part. Just came across this article – Bison Abuse in Yellowstone: Politics Trumps Science and Morality in America’s Oldest National Park . Don’t really understand what he’s getting at either since there isn’t much background.
But he seems to be arguing that the the bison are being bottlenecked inside Yellowstone and should have a wider range than currently allowed. But you’re arguing that they shouldn’t be moved to Montana (I’m assuming that the Yellowstone bison are in WY and not already in Montana).
Help! Not enough background and I don’t get it.
I didn’t help much. The buffalo were going to be shipped to Montana for slaughter and rereading my comment, leaving that out made a hash of it.
Some buffalo wander out of the park proper each winter, and everyone freaks out, hazing them back in, shooting them, and going ape over brucellosis. There’s a lot of prevaricating going on, starting with the fact that there are very few cattle in the neighborhood at that time.
One solution is to simply retire some cattle allotments, allowing the buffalo a little more room to roam.
There is a wealth of information at Buffalo Field Campaign under the various headers – FAQs, Legislative, Science. Some info is not where you think it will be though. And of course, BFC is extremely pro buffalo and anti cattle. (As am I.)
BFC’s proffered solutions
Aha! Shipping them there to be killed was the part I was missing. Now it all makes sense. Thanks.
More on the Wisconsin caliphate.
The protests are getting bigger! – Wisconsin Crowds Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver . Been so damn long since something like this happened I got a little choked up reading it –
And it looks like the Dem legislators are going to make it very difficult to even take a vote on this piece of crap legislation – Senate Democrats boycott Thursday vote on Walker’s budget plan .
More please, in every goddamned state in the country!
w00t!
Today would be a day to watch the Ed Schultz show if possible. He is doing it from Madison and presumably will have a lot of comments from locals. I would expect him to be wound up like never before.
More-
Yves Smith has a great post regarding the snow job Walker is trying to pull in WI –
Ha! Wisconsin Dem Senator to legislature – brb.
And protests spread to Ohio. Not exactly at Egyptian levels yet but it’s a start. Strikes me that these protests probably wouldn’t have been reported much at all if they didn’t parallel recent events in the Arab world, and the media is probably latching on to every comparison it can find to make a story. But hey, if it gets people off their asses, I’ll take it.
Some links, encouraging ones first –
A small crack in the facade – In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council.
So they’ll agree to “illegitimate” only because they don’t want to describe the settlements as illegal (which they clearly are), but it’s a start. And considering what’s going on in the Arab world, it may not be so easy to simply make a veto in Israel’s favor and move on.
And “Anonymous” will be watching. Here’s an article from one of its members – Anonymous and the global correction .
Now the not-so-encouraging –
Ray McGovern gets roughed up and removed as Shillary looks on and does nothing. His crime? Standing silently with his back turned while she mouthed some more platitudes and told some more whoppers.
And Taibbi’s latest – Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? Haven’t read it all yet, but this sounds about right –
UK forest sale plan scrapped
Woo hoo!
And is it just me or does it seem like the “leaders” of the world are starting to think twice before telling the people to fuck off and continuing business as usual?
Maybe it will be back to standard operating procedure in another month, but damn February has been nice so far with so many douchebags having their asses handed to them.
The Caliphate comes to Puget Sound:
RALLY! To protect our future – Thurs, Mar. 17
Nice.
Wondering how long this will take to spread to Maine. We have our own Teabag governor who’s trying to gut just about everything decent in the state who could use a good smack upside the head. Wins with 30% of the vote and takes that as a mandate to do whatever the hell his corporate handlers tell him.
It’s cold, I’ve got cabin fever, and am looking for a good excuse to get out of the house. Heading to Augusta to fuck with LePage would be good for what ails me.
sneaking over here to say there’s patrolling a plenty still going on at the big orange and the unbanned one just can’t stay away from it. Fine upstanding long-time poster that he is and all.
Hmmmm. Are you trying to say that somebody over there is now on his , let’s see, 1,2,3,4 …. 5th username or so and still playing these stupid games?
No, if Lloyd’s back–he ain’t running with la blanca. Last time around he didn’t go near either, but old trashy can’t keep away from any patrol that get going. And vocal as hell whilst doing so. Somebody–put up a link to UGOG the other day and I watched history altered right in front of my eyes. Because he’s still posting and patrolling–he must have done no wrong.
I see Demando is back under his original Hamhando. He would be interesting if he didn’t have to drag that Hindenberg ego around.
And Miep has a diary up urging amnesty for the banned. Now that would be hilarious – Dawn of the DKos Dead.
Special Rules for special people. No signs of the community overlord doing any “overlording” since DK4 went live.
Looks like no other rulers want to take the golden parachute out of the Middle East.
Things get ugly in Libya and in Bahrain.
Been waiting to see evidence of something like this – Pollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish.
Somewhat encouraging in that it shows life can adapt no matter how much we fuck things up. Yet I can’t help thinking that the corporate polluters of the world will latch on to findings like this in order to continue with the status quo, claiming it shows their pollutants really aren’t that harmful in the long run.
Bwaaaaahahahaha! A whole load of levity heading into the weekend. This guy’s going to need some expensive laser surgery if he wants to see his sweet lord Jeebus someday!
Popcorn time!!!!! Anonymous sets its sights on The Westboro Baptist Church.
In response, the church discovers the intertubes –
They even threw in a “Bring it” in their little manifesto. How adorable!
Seeing as Anonymous was able to shut down an internet security in about .3 seconds, I’m thinking ‘it’ has already been brought and these assclowns are just too stupid to have noticed yet.
Several articles regarding Wisconsin protests –
Dumbass Scott Walker claims it isn’t about union busting.
David Michael Greene explains that Walker is a lying sack of badger shit. This bit is worth noting as it leads into the next piece-
Already the aggrieved are willing to compromise with a man who has said repeatedly there will be none. And I haven’t seen too many actual politicians come out in support of the Wisconsin protesters. This article explains why as good as any – What If the Egyptian Protesters Were Democrats? –
More from a WI teacher – The War in Madison: When the People Lead, Leaders Will Follow .
And from the Madison Times .
And one more, noted only for this bit –
Yeah, it’s kind of juvenile, but this one’s for you Scott Walker, you fucking prick-
So Barry had his lackey veto the UN Resolution that would have called Israeli settlements illegal. As a result, the Palestinians are calling for a day of rage.
Abbas has really been painted into a corner lately with the wikileaks revelations that showed how willing he was to deal away his own people’s interests to Israel and the US. Barry and Shillary both made personal entreaties to Abbas but those two aren’t going to protect his sorry ass from an angry mob –
Every other damn country on the Security Council voted to call the settlements illegal. Nice to see Israel and Uncle Sugar becoming more isolated on this issue. And Abbas the compromiser is getting what he deserves for playing the toady.
A few unrelated notes –
Violence erupts in Libya as Gaddafi tries to hold on to power but the people are not backing down just yet.
Big surpise. Angelo Mozilo, the criminal who stole hundreds of millions of dollars through fraudulent mortgages as head of Countrywide, will not face criminal charges.
And an even bigger surprise. Turns out those oil eating microbes that had supposedly cleaned up the whole Gulf of Mexico really weren’t all that hungry.
More on events in Libya –
Gaddafi looks more than a little frazzled as he vows to fight and die a martyr if necessary. The latter is looking more and more likely.
Excellent article giving good background on the Libyan political situation over the last few decades – The Libyan Labyrinth.
Some more background and news from people at the scene here – Revolution in Libya: Protesters Face Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash as US, UK Ooze Hypocrisy.
More on events in Wisconsin and related stories –
Yves Smith looks at the fine print and sees that Walker may have plans afoot to sell off state resources – Wisconsin’s Walker Joins Government Asset Giveaway Club (and is Rahm Soon to Follow?) –
WI area AFL-CIO threatens to call a general strike. Not sure exactly what all that means since evidently they can’t actually call said general strike legally.
Meanwhile Indiana’s governor would like to pass similar measures and so Hoosier Dem legislators flee the state.
Some unrelated links –
Greenwald has an excellent piece regarding the US “diplomat” being held in Pakistan . Turns out he was CIA after all and after being scooped on this by foreign papers, US newspapers are finally admitting it after previously hiding that fact to help out Barry.
Bad news from the Gulf of Mexico – SPIKE REPORTED IN NUMBER OF STILLBORN DOLPHINS ON COAST. Don’t think anyone will have to look too far to find the cause. Heartbreaking –
Four US residents captured by Somali pirates are shot dead.
And it’s sounding more and more like Evo Morales is listening to the wrong people in Bolivia. He tried to raise gas prices and was met with strikes, forcing him to repeal the measures – Street Politics in Bolivia: Governing by Obeying the People –
Kudos to the Bolivian people and Morales deserves some props for listening. Glad to see the people aren’t just blindly following the guy that came to power with such promise. Too bad the Obama pom-pom girls in this country don’t show the same independent thinking.
They must have invited some of their big draws back. Dood Abides, who I adored, posted recently.
starting to get frustrated with witr. pfiore is like obama, always on the lookout for some extreme idiot position to compromise with. ek and others gobbling up acres of fp real estate at a time without regard for anyone else, because that is their hoggish nature and I know already that if I complain it will somehow be my fault.
I was wondering about all those posts by the swedish blade. Is there some point to posting TV schedules that nobody cares about that I’m missing? Inside joke maybe?
I have no clue about the tv guide feature. But I have taken to drastically shortening their fp footprint.