It was September of 2007 when George W Bush sat behind his oval office desk and signed into law the Fiscal Year 2008 Federal Budget. Exactly eight years ago.
It has now been eight consecutive years without a federal budget. Eight consecutive years of debt ceiling increases, continuing resolutions to fund government, threats of shut-downs and the insufferable back-and-forth blame.

But this year is different. You see for this budgetary year (constructed in ’15 for fiscal year 2016) the Republicans hold significant majorities in both the House and the Senate. And for those of you who don’t pay as close attention to these things, the fiscal year starts on October 1st.

Yeah, exactly a week from now !

… and yet we have NO BUDGET. Why?
Well, the honest answer to that question is what scares the hell out of the Professional Republican party. We have no federal budget this year, because, just like the Democrat party, the GOP doesn’t want a federal budget. (more…)

Multiple layers of deceit, deception and manipulation lay within this story.  In addition, the fundamental principles of the Decepticons in the Senate surface with increased clarity.

The underlying issue is the Federal Surface Transportation Program commonly called “the Highway Bill”.  The Highway Bill is technically supposed to be a legislative tool to set priorities for the expenditure of tax revenue coming from federal gasoline taxes; roads, bridges, transportation systems – building and repairing as such.

However, as with all ‘revenue spending bills’, you find a bastardized special-interest process where more legislatures want spending on “their pet projects” than is available from the revenue raised within the tax collection.   Ergo immediately you can see the ingredients for corruption or what DC calls “sausage-making”.

Backroom deals, bribes, quid-pro-quo, lobbying schemes, booze – sex – blackmail and leverage, yep, back rubbing DC at it’s more traditional level.   Ultimately ending in more spending embedded in the authorizations than revenue raised by the taxes.  Yes, more, even more, deficit spending. (more…)

WASHINGTON POST – An emergency summit of European leaders called to salvage Greece’s financial rescue broke up acrimoniously late Tuesday, with officials saying the country now has just five days to avoid bankruptcy.

Following a day of talks in Brussels aimed at finding a way out of months of bitter deadlock, European leaders were scathing in their assessments of Greece’s proposals, calling them inadequate and demanding that the Greek government return with a detailed plan by Friday morning.

The leaders of all 28 European Union members will then meet on Sunday in what officials said would be the final chance to save Greece from economic oblivion. (Read More)

• Before agreeing to EU demands Greece put their financial strategy to a vote. • The electorate voted “no” in a referendum where the question asked is should the government reduce benefits in order to become fiscally responsible. • However, the Greek government cannot sustain the benefits being paid – and needs a bailout to be solvent. • The EU member nations have said no to any further bailout without spending cuts.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece faced an uncharted future as its interior ministry predicted Sunday that more than 60 percent of voters in a hastily called referendum had rejected creditors’ demands for more austerity in exchange for rescue loans.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was gambling the future of his 5-month-old left-wing government on the vote, insisted that a “no” vote would strengthen his hand to negotiate a better deal with creditors, while a “yes” result would mean capitulating to their harsh demands. (more…)

The government of Greece gets themselves into financial trouble with unsustainable social benefits and promises. Now, when they run out of money, they begin confiscating funds from those who actually saved money. “Recapitalization”, the ultimate spread the wealth program.

2016 will be known as the year when “socialism” confronts “capitalism”.  Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton leading Socialism Team U.S.A.

(Financial Times) Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears the country is heading for financial collapse, bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures said on Friday.

The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said.

A Greek bail-in could resemble the rescue plan agreed by Cyprus in 2013, when customers’ funds were seized to shore up the banks, with a haircut imposed on uninsured deposits over €100,000. (more…)

The reoccurring problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money !!

I’m not quite sure what the exact percentage is currently, but it was previously estimated more than 50% of all Puerto Ricans receive federal government subsidy (welfare) benefits of some form.  It is an unsustainable socio-economic system based on massive federal expenditures to subsidize their residents. 

Puerto Rico now saying “repayment is impossible”.  Here come the cries for bailouts from the Democrats.

(Via New York Times) Puerto Rico’s governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions.

The governor, Alejandro García Padilla, and senior members of his staff said in an interview last week that they would probably seek significant concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors, which could include deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or extending the timetable for repayment.

“The debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.” (more…)

• *Greece has signaled its willingness to default on its upcoming IMF payment
• *Sets in place a plan to shift from Euros to a new issue of Greek controlled Drachmas
• *Tspiras boards a plane for Moscow
• *Seeks alternative creditors in Russia and China
• *A “Grexit” would be the de facto end of NATO and shift alliances in the Aegean from Europe to Russia
• *IMF formally withdraws staff from Athens….

Greece arrives at an existential fork in the road:  which way to turn? Continue to go West or strike out for an unknown path heading East ——————————————————————————————————————————–

The far-Left Syriza party of Greece, contrary to assertions of the European Monetary Union (EMU) has not agreed to further “austerity” measures, but has decided to double down on its threats to default on its IMF payments and align itself with Russia.

The Telegraph explains some of the backstory for Syriza’s popularity and rejection of “austerity” measures that don’t include significant debt write-offs (forgiveness).

“…One might righteously protest at what amounts to open blackmail by Mr Tsipras, deeming such conduct to be a primary violation of EU club rules. Yet this is to ignore what has been done to Greece over the past four years, and why the Greek people are so angry…

An apartment building for “middle class” Athens residents, in a “decent” part of Athens, 1 block from our 4 star hotel  (Jan 2015).  According to local social workers, 50% of the population of Greece has migrated from the countryside to Athens in an effort to find work and pool resources with other like-impoverished family members. (Click to embiggen detail)

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Hollywood pulls the release of a movie that no-one was going to go see and the lapdog media goes bonkers. Goes to show us all how the media are intrinsically driven by Hollywood nonsense.
Imagine if PBS announced the cancellation of Masterpiece Theater because of scheduling conflicts with Monday Night Football + irate fans making threats. Yeah, we’d all laugh – out loud. But for some reason people are freaking out over Sony’s decision to cancel a flop before it flops. Go figure.
(ps. Hollywood shouts Aieeee “terrorism, terrorism”… I smell a taxpayer bailout)
(Via Variety) With theater chains defecting en masse, Sony Pictures Entertainment has pulled the planned Christmas Day release of “The Interview.”
In announcing the decision to cancel the holiday debut, Sony hit back at the hackers who threatened movie theaters and moviegoers and who have terrorized the studio and its employees for weeks.
“Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like,” the statement reads.
“We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public,” it continues. “We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”
The studio did not say it would never release the picture theatrically. Insiders tell Variety Sony is exploring all options, including offering the picture on premium video-on-demand as a way to recoup at least some of its investment. (read more)

If your children are old enough to be in college, they probably think the country they were born into is falling apart.  If you’re a Baby Boomer like myself, you know the country you were born into is already gone.  It’s a hard thing to thwart the general feeling of optimism shared by most Americans during a beautiful summer season.  But, if you stop and take a thoughtful assessment of the disasters currently befalling our world, perhaps you’ll see that the fall might be closer than you think.

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The summer of 2014 will go down in history as the season when America fell apart. Let’s take a tour of the disasters…

(Townhall)…Germany in 2008 enthusiastically hosted candidate Barack Obama for his so-called “Victory Column” speech. Now, Germans suddenly sound as if they are near-enemies of the U.S. Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly was furious that her cell phone was tapped by American intelligence agents. She just kicked the top CIA official out of Germany, further enraged that the U.S. had recruited at least one German official to provide intelligence on the German government. Polls show that Germans find Vladimir Putin’s Russian tyranny almost as popular as Barack Obama’s America.
Japan is becoming similarly frustrated with the U.S. It is rearming like crazy to confront an aggressive China. Both Asian powers apparently assume that Obama won’t guarantee the security of the Japanese as America had in the past. (more…)

“Don’t expect anything good for America until this guy is gone …….”

h/t to Doug Ross aka Director Blue

Doug Ross @ Journal has published a first hand account of a conversation a docent at the Bush Center Library had with former Senator Alan Simpson (R), co-author of the Simpson-Bowles commission report recommending fiscal reform legislation, on the outspoken former Senator’s impressions based on first-hand dealings with Barack Hussein Obama.

“….I spent the next 15 minutes (just the two of us) listening to him expound on his view of our future. His first answer was that with this president we will never make progress. He then related a story that when Bowles and Simpson requested time with the president to urge him to seriously consider their report, he was stunned by the response (as was Bowles).

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