1/22/2009

What Now?

So the Obomamessiah is now installed in office and holds all of our lives, dreams, and hopes for our kids in his and the Pelosi/Reid/Dodd/Frank/Schumer cabals hands. So what's the outlook for all of we little Joe the Plumber types? I have no idea what the hell is going to happen to us all here on BI. The way everyone talks, the economy is going to deteriorate even more over the next year or more. So what are we who live on an Island whose sole reason to exist is predicated on the premise of catering to people who have lots of cash they want to spend? Or at least that is my perception of what has been going on for the last 30 years! My business, the ferry, every shop owner and restaurant, every single construction worker/owner,we are all here for one reason. Does anyone in their right mind think that we could sustain the annual budget we have incurred based solely on the income that would be generated by our people if there were no "tourists" to come and feed our coffers? What industry of any sort is there here on BI that could generate that sort of taxable income? The answer is ZERO! Fishing is dead and gone for the foreseeable future, and "Forward looking" entities in power want to limit even more so that only the large corporations would be able to field a fleet of boats. Farming? Who has the land to do that anymore on a viable basis? Who is going to buy the produce of that farm? Where are they going to get the money?

Maybe by the end of this coming summer there will be some telling indications of just how bad it is going to be. But I tell you I am NOT optimistic about the future of this Island as a viable community! It seems to me that one whole hell of a lot of these McMansions that have been built, or are being built on the money all those 'smart' banking investors made are going to start defaulting on their loans unless they were all paid for with cash right from the beginning! I just can't seem to swallow the fact that only the well monied folks who chose to buy and built out here will be exempt from all the problems now being incurred. I just can't believe that ONLY these folks who came here, were astute enough not to be embroiled with these loser banks!

I asked a real estate broker the other day, facetiously, how the rentals for the coming summer were progressing? What he said kind of astounded me! He told me, I know not whether truthfully or not, that his firm only had a couple of places that were not totally rented for the entire summer! I just found that hard to swallow, and didn't know what to say except that I hoped that the same was true of all his peers rentals. I just kind of find it really hard to believe that the people are still going to be coming in the numbers of the previous years when all around us hundreds and thousands of workers are losing their jobs as big name companies are closing their doors and going out of business!! All these folks with NO JOBS are going to have the disposable income to come over here on the boat and buy $5 hot dogs and $8 dollar hamburgers? NOT!

I continue to see only slowly increasing gloom and doom until all these wonderful leaders and officials who got us into this mess turn the tide and reverse the trend. And THAT is not going to happen! It was these Idiots, Frank and Dodd, who had oversight of the two committees that were supposed to keep a tight rein on the banking community, instead completely released their hold on them and in fact encouraged and demanded that they go ahead with their ruinous plans to let every person who wanted a house could have one, even those with NO ABILITY to pay for the damned thing! All so that they, the Idiots could stand there and say, "look at us, we are doing great things for the 'little guy'! Well thanks a lot assholes! We all notice that you ran and hid under a rock when the shit hit the fan, and there you cower to this day, denying any culpability in the mess we are in! Yes we know your mantra by heart, "BUSH DID IT"!

So here we are on our little rock, up to our necks in poo while we wait for the Pink Unicorns farting stacks of cash to arrive from the Obama cabal! (I stole that line). Well I'm waiting but not holding my breath. In the meantime, I'm planting a big arsed garden and sharpening up my shooting skills in anticipation of depleting the deer herd next winter to feed my family! We are not going to see the end of this disaster for years I do believe. Hows it going with all you folks out there? TIFN

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my mind the plan for fixing the economy is going in the wrong direction. Pouring money into infarstructure projects has yet to work. The new deal didn't get us out the the depression in the 30's,ww2 did. Look at the Japanese recession of the early 90's, same plan the recession went on for over 10 years. Look at what Reagan did in the early 80's to pull us up, when he took office we had double didgit unemployment and interest rates of 15-20%. The boys and girls in DC are barking up the wrong tree. I think your buddy in real estate is full of it , in the best of times rentals are not booked by now.

Sam said...

Well you're right in that the recession shows no sign of relenting and might carry-over for several years yet, as evidenced by housing construction being the lowest volume since 1959. Over a third of American homes are worth less money that what they paid for them. That seems to be the big problem in the US, although maybe not on the Block.

I think you'll see vacation patterns change as well, maybe more short-timers and day trippers on peak days, I don't know. Seems like I saw Interstate Nav numbers about vehicles hauled to the Island and the numbers were way off.

As to national policies, well we'll see what happens. Obama can't just fix that himself and needs Congress to do the voting and seeesh, who knows about those ill-begotten kooks and crooks. I do know that a draft bill regarding heavy infrastructure spending such as on mass transit was scaled way back.

And I can see Anon's points as well, since deficit spending and higher taxes only creates more debt, raising the specter of a "Debt Bubble" right around the corner, a good old fashioned run on the US Dollar.
sam

Anonymous said...

So far I am not impressed with Obama. Closing gitmo without a plan, maybe put the terrorists in Pelosi's backyard at alkitraz. We have a tax cheat now running the IRS, because he is too smart, that's change? Obama makes a big deal about no lobbyists on wednsday and thursday bends his own rule, with some BS about you have to make room for exceptions. We are screwed. All the lemmings who are drunk with euphoria just can't see past the hype and slick marketing. The hypocracy of the left is overwhelming. They screamed bloody murder in 05 at 43 mil for Bush's ingauration but 170 mil for Obama is cool.

Sam said...

To Friday morning's Anon, there are plenty of hypocrites on either side of the fence, and now that the super-conservatives are foaming at the mouth, there's even more. That's politics for you and if you don't understand that, well too darn bad.

When Bush was appointed, since he really wasn't elected in 2000, he promised to work together in a spirit of bipartisanship as a "Washington outsider" who would clean up the mess. People had high hopes because he did such a good job in Texas. What happened was just the opposite, and a horrible mess in anybody's book.

Barely three days into office and conservatives are howling in disgust. Gee, I seem to remember that when Bush erased about 20 Clinton programs, too. That's politics. You don't like the party or the person in charge, well in about three and a half years give it another shot and see how the vote comes down.

If 20 to 49 percent of the voters aren't piss livid after an election, then something is wrong with American Democracy!
sam

Anonymous said...

Sam you are obviously a lemming. I'm far from a super conservative, just tracking the first days of Obama's reign.

Old NFO said...

Ev- Your comment reminds me of one from an Old man up in Vermont! I asked him, after seeing where he grew up on top of a pretty big hill, how they got out to get food in the winter. His comment,"We ate out the bedroom window." Referring to shooting deer out the window and going and getting them. He said they always ran out of veggies about mid-late Jan, and it was venison and beans till the snow broke.

Re the "lightbringer" TM... It's gonna get ugly! He cannot possibly meet all the promises he made, so it will be interesting to see which support group he throws under the bus.

Old NFO said...

Sam, hadn't heard that, but yeah it works... It wasn't illegal in those days. Anon- Let's put 'em in the Chicago jails :-)

Everett said...

Old NFO, Out here on BI we call that "thinning the herd"! We have literally become 'infested' with the damn things!You can take as many as you want to during the hunting season and each tag only costs $15. You can only get 5 at a time though so you have to keep going back to the town hall. Four guys went out last week and got 19. They are for the most part donated to a food kitchen somewhere in Providence, so they don't go to waste. I shoot at every damned one that sticks his nose over the property line! This, thinking the loud noise will scare them away. Yeah Right! They look up and keep right on eating the veggies till one lands between their feet.

wv: trigstr Is that gun firing dude?

Sam said...

If ya shoot a .223 mini-14 with a 'tater fer a silencer on the end so it doesn't make much sound. Works! You can out out a tray of pansy for bait but ugh, that might be slightly illegal, right? Need all the help we can get with these Obamanomics!

Anonymous said...

I'm not a Bush-hater, nor a left-leaning democrat. I don't know if Barack Obama has all the answers, but I do know that we are in serious trouble that has shaken through all the global economy. I also believe that we do need to pull together as a people and get this nation back on track. So, I'm willing to hold off on my opinions of his presidency considering the guy hasnt' been in office for even an entire week.

I think we need to become aware that we can be so easily distracted by nitpicking ( in some cases) and negative foresight that we become our own worst enemies. I can't believe how many news reports obsessed with the oath flub and then picking on the musicians for playing along with a prerecorded track? Really-- how much of our national attention was diverted to that last item and for what purpose?

I was speaking with some NY folks this weekend who work in the financial district and whose politics run along the conservative lines. They noted that if circumstances were different- were the economy solid -credit flowing- and the mortgage market stable--- Geither's nomination would have been quickly pulled given his attempt to avoid paying taxes. However, the fact that his nomination is still viable is not a sign of "politics as usual" but a sign of just how desperate the economic situation has become. My NY buddies are equally distressed by the lack of moral accountability surrounding the failed mortgage industry, but again that situation is so bad that the rest of us ( who acted responsibly with our credit) have to bail this situation out because of the alternative -doing nothing- threatens to make the situation far worse for everyone.

So, why can't we try to work together and show the world that we can pull ourselves out of this mess. Let's show them that we have enough moral fortitude and character- as a nation- to overcome this economic crisis. I don't want this economic crisis to accomplish what Bin Laden set out to do on September 11th. I want a strong country and economy for my children, my neighbors, and myself.

Obama's the President now, and I'm willing to put my doubts aside for a bit and give him a chance. Is there room for a strong debate about ideas? Always.
But let's get the ideas on the table.
Let's see how these ideas move from the table into reality.
Then let's discover what ideas will work best for these times.

Anonymous said...

Not one republican should vote for stimulis bill, it will pass anyhow. When it fails, as it will, the Dems will own it and be screwed in 2010. Here's my other thought, if this bill is so great why do the Dems want our support,if it succeeds the GOP will be dead for a very long time. As that bitch in the House said we won it's our bill and we will pass it, then live or die with it nancy.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 1/28.
I'm curious--what would you see as the way of this morass?

Anonymous said...

Cut taxes; income ,small buisness, corperate, lower capital gains. Have the auto makers go chapter 11 so they can resructure and possibly break the UAW or go under. Use strict oversight of banks and over markets. Capitalism must be allowed to work,which means survival of the fittest. Put Frank and Dodd in jail.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it unregulated capitalism that got us into this mess?
Just a question- I'm not pushing any agenda at all.

Everett said...

Anon of 4:11 pm, I think you said the operative word there, "unregulated". All the necessary regs. were in place but nobody was ENFORCING them! And all those bond rating companies went right along with creating the morass by giving out totally spurious ratings!!!

wv: griab what all "those guys" were doing

Sam said...

You guys are missing a key part here, and why the Republican Party is still sucking for air.

Many Republican House members will not vote for the Obama stimulus package because it does too much for the people and doesn't have enough hand-outs and bail-outs for business!

So Obama says "tell me what you boys and girls need to vote yes, since I want this to be a bi-partisan thing like what Ronald Reagan would say."

No answer last I heard. More hand-outs and bail-outs for business? Does that sound like Ronald Reagan to you?

So there's the Grand Old Party, the Grand Opposition Party, the GOP members in the House of Representatives of the United States of America, acting like a bunch of high school kids without a clue, simply out for vengeance.

I'd fire 'em all if I were in charge, and demand new elections!
sam

Anonymous said...

Not one republican voted for the bill in house and 11 dems also voted against it. The bill is a pork laden piece of shit. Sam you want to own this thing you got it you don't need us. We'll see what the senate does. Obama's betting his presidency on this, that's why he wants the GOP on board to use them for cover when this stimulis doesn't work.

Everett said...

Uh, just another question here, Are not the banks and the auto companies business' in the truest sense of the word? Are they ALL owned by Repubs/Conservatives? Anon above has it exactly right when he says it is a piece of pork laden bullshit! It is FULL of handouts to a lot of the special interest folks! Can;t remember exactly which at the moment, but DO remember I was totally pissed when I read about some of them. The Dems themselves publicly pulled one of them when there were howls of outrage! Even kiss-ass Katie C had not nice things to say!

Everett said...

Oh yeah, go read yesterdays Wall Street Journal. Millions to reseed the national Mall Lawn, Millions for contraceptives, that's the one I couldn't remember, 50M for the National Endowments for the Arts, (now THAT is really going to stimulate the economy). It just goes on and on. Nancy Pelosi is the principal architect of this thing and she got all od her cromies and contributors a good handout! I think I have to rush to the door to puke!! What a bunch of miserable two faced bastards! JUST EXACTLY like ,any of their cohorts across the asile!

Sam said...

If the bill "was a sack of BS" then why didn't the GOP signal that it would consider the bill is if it was significantly changed?

They did not. It was pure revenge voting. Honest, they didn't care what was in the bill, but who they were voting against.

But that doesn't matter now, as the House GOP gambled and lost. Thank goodness that the Senate is more collegial and actually gets work done - and that's where the compromises occur. The Senate could take up the bill as early as on Monday.

There are concerns that nationalizing the big banks is a bad idea - we already own about 7 percent of a few like Bank of America - but this bill was supposed to be for infrastructure, which BY DEFINITION is pure pork. It's Bridges to Nowhere, dolphin tanks in Arkansas, and all kinds of crazy stuff. The theory is to put the money where it can do some good rather than to drop it on worthless paper in huge banks and financials that party on the money.

I'm not taking sides, just calling them as I see 'em. -sam

Anonymous said...

SAm you are out of your mind you have no idea what you are talking about. The GOP took no gamble, they offered alternatives and they were rejected. The vote went down party lines. The senate will pass their version then it will go back to the house. The gamble is Obama's, I keep saying this and your missing the point, if this works he gets 8 years,if it flops he gets 4 years. He will coming back to the well in 18-24 months.

Anonymous said...

Sam please show once where a country spent it's way out of a recesion

Anonymous said...

If at first you dont spend enough, then spend, spend again:

“We have tried spending money, we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”
- Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau in 1939

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure that spending on infrastructure is all pork. Driving around the interstate in Rhode Island I daily see a good number of crumbling concrete pillar things holding up bridges. You all probably know that weight restrictions have been implemented on a few bridges, so I'm all for putting some money into building some new bridges.
I don't see how it can hurt.

Anonymous said...

C in C,
Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There’s another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities. Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, so only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.

Everett said...

I read A LOT of these bloggy things, most probably to my mental deficit, and nowhere in any of them, left, right, or middle, has there been a single mention of the republicans NOT trying to get changes in the bill before it went to the house for a vote! How the hell do any of us KNOW that they didn't try to get some movement on items in the thing unless you were sitting there? I can find NO comments about their sitting on their collectives asses and doing nothing just because the dems wrote this disaster. No matter who was the writer it sucks with a capital S! Anonymous just above must have read the same reports that I did as far as all the numbers go. It is all total bullshit except for a very percentage! Bridge to Nowhere my ass! That and a lot of other crap is not going to happen now, eerr, I hope!! I can't believe that all those dems would be so crass as to go on and even bigger spree of screwing over the taxpayers of this country! Well on second thought, I do believe they can and will! JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN!!! Like Obamassiah said the other day, "I won, You lost, stop listening to Rush if you want anything from me"! Now is that not a juvenile thing for the President of the US to tell the members of Congress?
BTW, watch this guy every single time he gives a speech. Watch his eyes and listen to the meter of his delivery. He can't do it with out a teleprompter or a cheat sheet to get said what he wants too. Even after two years or more of giving the same line of crap! You'd think he would know it all by heart by now. And he sounds like Caroline K with all the, aahhs, eers, stops and starts! WTF I give up for today!

Sam said...

Hey lay off it folks and sorry I said that the GOP House didn't want to deal - which they didn't.

But Confused in Cranston had a very good point. Our bridges, older schools, highways, railways, utilities, sewer systems, and all that nasty stuff is literally crumbling right now. I guess I could Google it but a hefty fraction of our bridges are a heartbeat from falling down.

There's a lot of bad PR about his, like no way we could start doing anything until the year 2010 because it takes so long. This is complete BS because there is a 5-year backlog one new projects and a 10-year backlog on those that just need some new engineering.

Since we're trillions is debt already, anything, even the best intentions of the GOP, would be "deficit spending" that many states including Texas do not allow.

OK, you want to deliberately let the infrastructure go to pot, what new ideas do you have? I'm not defending any course of action or politics. Let's face it though, our once mighty country is literally falling to pieces.

If you're so smart, and think "when did spending your way ever stop a recession" then I suppose you should get used to more expensive utilities with less service, bridges falling down, trains derailing, Heck if a quarter of the West catches on fire, let's just retire those old tanker planes and helicopters. If a bad hurricane comes in, well why the heck did you stay there like Katrina?

Let's just let-r-go. Times will get better and maybe we can privatize all that shazz. Later!

Anonymous said...

Everybody agrees fixing the infrastructure is a top priority. Just pointing out the stupidity of only designating 5% of this bill for it.

Anonymous said...

I meant everybody but Anon in the first comment agrees about the infrastructure. Repairing stuff before it falls down is cost saving in the long run whether its helping to stimulate the economy in the short term or not. Either way the billions going to ACORN, so more dead voters can get registered, and carbon-impact studies and so on would be much better spent on roads.

Smart Anon

Sam said...

Very good points ... Obama's team shifted from big-time infrastructure maintenance and construction to other stuff and only left 5-10% on the table for that, hardly a blip when some engineers suggest you could spend a trillion on infrastructure and still not be done. I agree with the engineers, not Obama.

Smart Anon is also absolutely correct. You can maintain stuff fairly cheaply, but once you let it go, it costs about 8 times more to fix the problem. Insurance companies call that "deferred maintenance" and will not pay reconstruction costs on most cases.
sam

Everett said...

Out of all the pork and bullshit in this bailout, the 5.1 BILLION DOLLARS to an outright CROOKED vote buying PAC goes right up my ass so far it is about to choke me to death!!WTF ever possessed those asswipes under "Nancy" to even give a thought to such a blatant outrage? If this goes through and they get that money or even one thin dime I do believe it would be time for a "re-correction of the market" to take place. Can you say "recall"? Can you say "Impeachment"? Can you say, Sirhan, Sirhan, Ozzie< where the hell are you?

I saw an interview with a dem Senator on Fox today, I believe his name was Nelson, and he as well as a few other Dem senators are mightily upset with this friggin' Nancy numb nuts proposal! So they are not all a bunch of raving lunatics, just most of them. Hope none of you readers have been watching Rush L. today! If you get caught you may be on your way to Gitmo!!

One minute I think old obamamessiah is going to be alright when he rails and says things about the bailed out guys using the money for new planes etc. as being acceptable and then he goes and shoots ME in the foot by letting that miserable bitch in the House propose a bill like the present one.

'scuse me I have to go puke again and then try to eat dinner
! BAH-HUMBUG!!!

Everett said...

Make that "UN-ACCEPTABLE" in the above post!

Sam said...

Well Ev, Obama can't control the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. All Obama can do is indicate he won't sign a bill if it isn't to his liking.

Unlike the "unified execute" during the Bush years, that unity doesn't extend to the Legislative branch. The Republicans were very good at speaking with a unified voice. Not so with the dems.

But at least we don't have outright crooks like Senator Ted Stevens, chair of the Appropriations Committee (remember "bridge to nowhere"), Representative majority whip Tom Delay, lobbyists like Jack Abramoff (who is serving time until December, 2011), and "Scooter" Libby who was convicted but his prison time excused.

It turns out there all a pack of corrupt thieves not matter who is in power. Obama has an approval rating of maybe just under 70 percent so far. The US Congress is still running in the 20s. -sam

Everett said...

Wait till obamaman see what happens when he prints all this "backed up with nothing" money and a loaf of bread gets to be $15-$20 !!