The Immaculate Recession

Two days ago, on June 25^th 2014, the third update to GDP numbers was released for the first quarter of the year, and the latest numbers show a GDP change of -2.9%.  This is pretty amazing since the consensus opinion going into the quarter was for +2.5%, the advanced estimate in April was for +0.1%, the first revision in May was for -1%, and now the second revision in June is a whopping -2.9%!

Even in a business like economic forecasting and reporting, which is known for being particularly dodgy, this discrepancy is unusual.  But there may be a simple, though not comforting, explanation for this wild swing. 

Consider that the official definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.  Therefore, the lower the first quarter, the easier it will be to avoid the “R” word when the second quarter is reported.  For example:  if the first quarter had actually been -1.5% and the second quarter comes in again at -1.5%, that would ring the recession bell and the overall 2014 GDP would be -1.5%.  But if the GDP really is -1.5% after two quarters, and the first quarter is reported as -2.9%, then the second quarter can be reported as +1.4%, and no recession will have officially occurred!  Call it the immaculate recession. 

Now you might be saying, “that’s ridiculous , the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is a highly respected non-partisan government agency which would never manipulate official numbers to benefit incumbents during an election year!”  Yeah, tell that to the victims of the IRS, FDA, FBI, INS, DOJ, NLRB, NTSB, Fish and Wildlife, etc, etc, etc. 

Update: Oh, and remember this?  Census "faked" election 2012 jobs report.

Ben Stein Hits the Mark

Ramirez Hits The Mark

Lifted from Investors.com, with apologies.

Oops, the IRS lost the email, sorry!

Having some fun in the face of tyranny...

Here's the raw photo.  Feel free to download and make your own meme!

I spent $1.5T & 640 days, and all I got was this lousy terrorist!

Indeed.

Taliban - a Song Parody Video

Myth: Hey, this prisoner swap is the same thing Israel does!

One of the lies Obama likes to invoke is, "Hey, I'm not doing anything unusual here; everyone does it!"  Thus, when the Bergdahl fiasco blew-up in his face he invoked history saying, "Hey, this is what happens at the end of wars!"  Which of course is interesting because he skipped the signing of the treaty.  As far as I know there is still a violent jihad being waged against us by the very people Obama just released.  That makes this different from any such prisoner exchange in history.

Another lie we hear is, "Hey, the Israelis do this all the time, and they really know how to fight terrorists!"  What we have done has no relationship to what the Israelis do.  If you want some insight into what the Israelis are up to when they release prisoners, watch the movie "The Green Prince".  The eponymous prince in the movie is Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas. (The flag of Hamas is green, hence "Green Prince".)  Mosab Hassan Yousef was imprisoned by Israel for terrorist activity, but subsequently was released after being secretly flipped by a sophisticated and successful effort to infiltrate Hamas.  Israel knows what they are doing.  They are playing a long game in an endless struggle for survival.  


One may speculate that perhaps we have a similar program and one of these five Taliban generals has been flipped.  Really?  Does anyone reading this believe Barack Obama knows what he is doing and is operating a successful operation to flip Gitmo detainees and infiltrate the Taliban?  Remember, this president has taken virtually no prisoners and sought no new intelligence since taking office. 

      

FLASHBACK: My Labradoodle would not have traded five key terrorists for a likely traitor...

Hey, don't blame me, you were warned...

What’s All This Fuss About Vets and Healthcare?

As Emily Litella would say, "What's all this fuss about about vets and healthcare?"

I made one phone call yesterday and got an appointment with a top neurologist in under 24 hours.  That is incredible service by any standard.  Of course, in this case I paid cash, the provider was in private practice, and the doctor was the vet not the patient.  The patient is expected to make a full recovery and will soon be back to eating voraciously, running around, and wagging his tail.

To those like Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama who told us that vets had the best healthcare system available and it should be a model for the whole nation, I say they were looking at the wrong vet system.  Veterinarians are the only doctors working in a totally privatized system today.  Theirs is the best healthcare model in terms of quality and service in the US, and in fact on the entire planet. 

So while our military vets are dying on VA waitlists, while all citizens are now subject to the bureaucratic nightmare that is Obamacare, while the poor suffer on substandard Medicaid, and while the aged are herded into the socialized system that is Medicare, our pets are enjoying state-of-the-art medicine in the best private healthcare system in the world.  Heck-of-a-job America.  

Crossing the Rubicon