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Narcotized

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Obama is out on some delusional "Recovery Summer Tour." Here is reality, a short movie that won the 'Best Feature Documentary' award at the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival. Sometimes the truth isn't pretty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE

"Double Fear the Double Dip. Fear just how far this single dip will drop."
-Narco, 2010

"There is no recovery, so we don't have to worry about a faultering recovery."
-Narco, 2010

"We're fuqqed."
-Narco, 2009
 
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Obama is out on some delusional "Recovery Summer Tour." Here is reality, a short movie that won the 'Best Feature Documentary' award at the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival. Sometimes the truth isn't pretty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE

"Double Fear the Double Dip. Fear just how far this single dip will drop."
-Narco, 2010

"There is no recovery, so we don't have to worry about a faultering recovery."
-Narco, 2010

"We're fuqqed."
-Narco, 2009

All absolutely completely true. The question remains. When does the end game play out? how does it play out? how to prepare?

A bunker, guns, generator, water purifier, canned rations?
gold coins?
Move to BFE? Buy a farm?
Simply adjust your portfolio? For what? hyperinflation? deflation?

Or do what has worked in the past: live your life, save well, live below your means, invest wisely and broadly diversify.
 
All absolutely completely true. The question remains. When does the end game play out? how does it play out? how to prepare?

A bunker, guns, generator, water purifier, canned rations?
gold coins?
Move to BFE? Buy a farm?
Simply adjust your portfolio? For what? hyperinflation? deflation?

Or do what has worked in the past: live your life, save well, live below your means, invest wisely and broadly diversify.

I look forward to watching with great interest. Will do tonight.

Doze, since I haven't seen the movie yet, I can't comment on it obviously. But, I get the general theme, and I'd say maybe a little of all of the above.

If we see a major social meltdown, it WILL be important to have reasonable means to protect yourself and family. You guys/gals who are attendings are in a better position financially to prepare a bit.

I think that any crises will be serial, and "small" versus a great precipitating event that brings everything to a halt. There would be a lot of reassuring going on, but perhaps don't drink the KoolAide.

SO, my thinking is that as long as one has SOME means to sustain oneself for a short while, subsequent preparations could be made given the above.

Generally speaking, continue living your life, but realize that the severity of what we may be facing is being downplayed for deliberate reasons. If I had the resources, I'd seriously consider a little get away cottage or lake house away from major cities. Most attendings could afford such a thing, and it wouldn't need to be elaborate or cost that much.


Anyone see the movie The Road with Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron?? Talk about depressing......
cf
 

"She was the mayor of a really small town and governor for less than 2 years... It's scary and absurd she is this close to being president."

Hey, I'm no Palin fan, but did Matt Damon bother to check out Obama's resume? A community organizer that can't add 2 + 2. Oh that's a Hell of a lot better resume than Palin's.

There's a dam good reason Obama doesn't release his test scores or grades. If his SAT math broke 500 I'd be shocked. I've never seen anyone so numerically challenged at such a high level. Every president's scores are out there. Bush 1206- dubbed an idiot by the "fair" media. Clinton 1032- dubbed a genius by the "fair" media. Obama, another media dubbed genius. (notice a pattern here btw?). Yeah Mr Damon, nothing absurd about Obama being president. 🙄
 
McCain should have picked Matt Romney or the like. Sarah Palin screwed it up. Narcotized, I respect your patriotic zeal and concern for this great nation. I do however, expect you to be smart enough to realize that there are plenty of smart people in the US that could have done a better job than Palin. I am looking forward to the next republican ticket.

If after seeing the video below, you still think that you can compare Palin to Obama, I will call your employer and ask them to check and make sure you are really not Narcotized. Only someone on drugs would believe this woman is smarter than Obama. Capish?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txfqWzGMgmY[youtube]
 
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Regardless of who he chose, McCain had his work cut out for him after 8 years of GWB.

As popular as Palin was in the red states (which McCain was going to win anyway), she was absolute poison amongst undecided voters in swing states (where Obama ultimately handed him his ass). I thought this fact was pretty clear from the day he named her, and I interpreted her nomination as the final nail in his campaign's well-nailed coffin.

I'm sure he and his campaign knew just how dangerous a choice she was, but even though the national polls were still fairly close, when the electoral map was taken into consideration he was losing very badly, he was desperate, and he needed ... something.


Unfortunately, if he'd picked anybody else at least Palin would still be wallowing in obscurity. Every time I see that knucklehead on TV dontcha-know'ing this or you-betcha'ing that I curse McCain's name. She is the absolute LAST thing the Republican party needs to turn things around and be relevant again.
 
Regardless of who he chose, McCain had his work cut out for him after 8 years of GWB.

As popular as Palin was in the red states (which McCain was going to win anyway), she was absolute poison amongst undecided voters in swing states (where Obama ultimately handed him his ass). I thought this fact was pretty clear from the day he named her, and I interpreted her nomination as the final nail in his campaign's well-nailed coffin.

I'm sure he and his campaign knew just how dangerous a choice she was, but even though the national polls were still fairly close, when the electoral map was taken into consideration he was losing very badly, he was desperate, and he needed ... something.


Unfortunately, if he'd picked anybody else at least Palin would still be wallowing in obscurity. Every time I see that knucklehead on TV dontcha-know'ing this or you-betcha'ing that I curse McCain's name. She is the absolute LAST thing the Republican party needs to turn things around and be relevant again.

I agree on the worthlessness of Palin. However, McCain is a sell out on immigration not to mention a foreign policy hawk that would buckle to AIPAC and go "bomb Iran". Not exactly what we need right now as a nation, not to mention that it's easy to speak of "bombing" other countries when you're not the country being bombed "back to the stone age".....

cf
 
I do however, expect you to be smart enough to realize that there are plenty of smart people in the US that could have done a better job than Palin..... Only someone on drugs would believe this woman is smarter than Obama. Capish?

As I said I'm no Palin fan. There are millions of better qualified people. Barack Obama isn't one of them. Obama is a better speaker (though there are hundreds of youtube clips of Obama without hand picked questions or the teleprompter sounding equally as clueless as the Palin clip). Smarter? Show me one smart thing Obama has proposed (speaking in general, not to you specifically).

Obama says people are hurting from fallen housing prices because the Republicans "drove the car into the ditch." You can't be much dumber than to think a bubble like dotcoms or housing doesn't 100% absolutely positively have to collapse (btw, the highly intelligent media blamed the dotcom collapse on Bush, "Clinton left us a surplus, blah blah blah," even though the dotcom collapse began before Bush took office and positively mathematically was going to collapse like every other speculative bubble in the history of man).

Obama rambled on about how spending us broke on failed companies and nonproductive government jobs will rebuild our economy because these people "will then buy cars and the car maker will then by a house and the house builder will then buy a..." A complete nothing statement based on nothing. If that simplistic wrong explanation is how an economy works then welfare and other entitlements should have us the richest nation on earth.

"We have to get credit flowing... We have to get banks to lend." Credit and debt got us in the hole, and it's also the cure. 🙄 Bush's fiscal irresponsibility dug a deeper hole for us, and Obama thinks turning up private and public debt won't do the same. He's a friggin Einstein I'm telling ya.

He'll guarantee and cap student debt creating no incentive for students and schools to keep costs down. He'll guaratee mortgages and bank failures creating again no incentive for lenders and banks to not do the same risky behavior all over again.

He talks about newly created government jobs that produce nothing and funded by debt from China are helping the economy. "Look how many jobs my wasteful spending has created."

Like I said, you would be hard pressed to find someone highly educated to be more economically completely clueless.... But I welcome anybody to come up with just ONE good economic policy idea from Obama. Thinking Obama is a genius because the media says he is is like believing mainstream media when they tell you WW2 saved the economy but the Bush wars destroyed it.

...and of course I cringe everytime I hear Palin speak.
 
Unfortunately, if he'd picked anybody else at least Palin would still be wallowing in obscurity. Every time I see that knucklehead on TV dontcha-know'ing this or you-betcha'ing that I curse McCain's name.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
Regardless of who he chose, McCain had his work cut out for him after 8 years of GWB.

As popular as Palin was in the red states (which McCain was going to win anyway), she was absolute poison amongst undecided voters in swing states (where Obama ultimately handed him his ass). I thought this fact was pretty clear from the day he named her, and I interpreted her nomination as the final nail in his campaign's well-nailed coffin.

I'm sure he and his campaign knew just how dangerous a choice she was, but even though the national polls were still fairly close, when the electoral map was taken into consideration he was losing very badly, he was desperate, and he needed ... something.


Unfortunately, if he'd picked anybody else at least Palin would still be wallowing in obscurity. Every time I see that knucklehead on TV dontcha-know'ing this or you-betcha'ing that I curse McCain's name. She is the absolute LAST thing the Republican party needs to turn things around and be relevant again.

I think that they looked at Obama, who you would never have heard of if he wasn't half black, and saw the excitement his novelty produced. His speeches were entirely composed over platitudes and were vague to the point of being meaningless. His was the election completely devoid of substance. Seeing his success in polls with no substance to back it up, they thought they could match the novelty of a half-black candidate with a woman VP candidate. It would have been a reasonable, though transparent, approach if they chose one of many reasonable, intelligent, experienced women in government. Instead they chose Sarah Palin.
 
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McCain should have picked Matt Romney or the like. Sarah Palin screwed it up. Narcotized, I respect your patriotic zeal and concern for this great nation. I do however, expect you to be smart enough to realize that there are plenty of smart people in the US that could have done a better job than Palin. I am looking forward to the next republican ticket.

If after seeing the video below, you still think that you can compare Palin to Obama, I will call your employer and ask them to check and make sure you are really not Narcotized. Only someone on drugs would believe this woman is smarter than Obama. Capish?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txfqWzGMgmY[youtube]

I hear you.

I still can't bring myself to support someone who wants to spread the wealth. The United States of America is a capitalistic society, not a socialist society. Whatever we need to do to sustain that is where I'm at.
 
I hear you.

I still can't bring myself to support someone who wants to spread the wealth. The United States of America is a capitalistic society, not a socialist society. Whatever we need to do to sustain that is where I'm at.


I am not a socialist either. I just believe that we need someone with a decent amount of gray matter running the show.
 
I would be horrified. 😱😱😱

I'd vote for Palin before Obama, but I'd have to hold my nose and maybe slap myself for voting for her. Hopefully she doesn't even run. I'd vote for Ronald McDonald over Obama if he planned to decrease government spending.
 
I'd vote for Palin before Obama, but I'd have to hold my nose and maybe slap myself for voting for her. Hopefully she doesn't even run. I'd vote for Ronald McDonald over Obama if he planned to decrease government spending.

Does that include medicare, medicaid, tricare, federal, state and municipal employee insurance benefits all of which reimburse physicians?
 
Does that include medicare, medicaid, tricare, federal, state and municipal employee insurance benefits all of which reimburse physicians?

Yes, as long as you aren't required by law to accept patients in those systems. The free market will establish a reasonable price or federal employees can start buying insurance like everyone else. Federal employees are paid more to do less than private sector workers as it is.
 
I'd vote for Ronald McDonald over Obama if he planned to decrease government spending.

Smart choice, Gyps. McDonald should get the grass roots support as an outsider, unlike that damn insider Mayor McCheese.

Pick your poison. Democrats want to spend more than what the government takes in. Republicans don't want to pay for what they spend. Either way, it's a loser sinking ship. Nobody is serious about balancing the budget.

Obama's philosophy is let's borrow and binge our way to destruction... Fail.

Republicans philosophy is let's not binge, but let's still borrow so we can keep more toys for ourselves. They will gut every small program that won't amount to squat, some programs actually needed, yet won't touch the big stuff that can actually make a difference, the entitlements. Then they will slash government revenue under some other voodoo way to prosperity... Fail.

How did this country get so pathetic? What ever happened to paying for what you get and being responsible? Sure as toiletpaper.com stock falling from 200 to 1, this thing will blow up hard and be devastating.
 
If we don't have a national plan for reestablishing our industrial base, we're going to be BIG losers. We've been spoon fed a "free trade" mantra for decades, while also being told BS about how it doesn't matter whether we produce woodchips (or CDO's) or microchips......

Can you imagine a German finance minister suggesting, publicly, to the German people that manufacturing didn't really matter so long as German "consumers" could buy cheap goods, thereby increasing their "standard of living" (for the short term)?? They'd be laughed off stage.

Yet this is what the Greenspan's have pitched for DECADES.

Americans bitch about governmental support of the auto industry, then go buy stuff from highly subsidized Chinese companies (most majorily state owned) at WalMart. We preach "free trade" while doing business with countries that practice (successfuly) anything but.... The hypocrisy is staggering and this WILL impact healthcare as we lose our nations productive capacity (and thus our ability to support an exapanding healthcare "sector").

We must start making things here again. Please reflect on this, and also support local producers when you can and when they are reasonably competitive. (let's face it, it's hard to "compete" with a Chinaman whom will work for 1/10th the cost of even a poorly paid American worker).

cf
 
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If we don't have a national plan for reestablishing our industrial base, we're going to be BIG losers. We've been spoon fed a "free trade" mantra for decades, while also being told BS about how it doesn't matter whether we produce woodchips (or CDO's) or microchips......

Can you imagine a German finance minister suggesting, publicly, to the German people that manufacturing didn't really matter so long as German "consumers" could buy cheap goods, thereby increasing their "standard of living" (for the short term)?? They'd be laughed off stage.

Yet this is what the Greenspan's have pitched for DECADES.

Americans bitch about governmental support of the auto industry, then go buy stuff from highly subsidized Chinese companies (most majorily state owned) at WalMart. We preach "free trade" while doing business with countries that practice (successfuly) anything but.... The hypocrisy is staggering and this WILL impact healthcare as we lose our nations productive capacity (and thus our ability to support an exapanding healthcare "sector").

We must start making things here again. Please reflect on this, and also support local producers when you can and when they are reasonably competitive. (let's face it, it's hard to "compete" with a Chinaman whom will work for 1/10th the cost of even a poorly paid American worker).

cf

Free trade makes wars less likely. The price is a big hit to the American standard of living and the American dream. How much less likely? Nobody knows. Is it worth it? again nobody knows. You can't know what would have happened if we took a different path.
 
Free trade makes wars less likely. The price is a big hit to the American standard of living and the American dream. How much less likely? Nobody knows. Is it worth it? again nobody knows. You can't know what would have happened if we took a different path.

Doze, you've go to be kidding me. So, the U.S. is supposed to be the only player with "free" trade policies while our major industrial competitors continue to eat our lunch with their rather protective policies (some no so subtle)????

Are you serious? I'm not speaking of total protectionism, but our trade DEFICITS clearly suggest that our trade policies towards other countries have been SOLD OUT a long time ago. The only question is to whom......

And this war prevention idea of yours is ridiculous. Japan was decimated (therefore not a threat), yet we continued with our THEORY of "free trade" as if it were a religion (much like our "economic thought leaders" get hard-ons when they read Keynes). Meantime, they kicked our ass in more than a few industries, many of which the US developed in the first place.

You drank the Kool-Aid on that one, man.
 
Doze, you've go to be kidding me. So, the U.S. is supposed to be the only player with "free" trade policies while our major industrial competitors continue to eat our lunch with their rather protective policies (some no so subtle)????

Are you serious? I'm not speaking of total protectionism, but our trade DEFICITS clearly suggest that our trade policies towards other countries have been SOLD OUT a long time ago. The only question is to whom......

And this war prevention idea of yours is ridiculous. Japan was decimated (therefore not a threat), yet we continued with our THEORY of "free trade" as if it were a religion (much like our "economic thought leaders" get hard-ons when they read Keynes). Meantime, they kicked our ass in more than a few industries, many of which the US developed in the first place.

You drank the Kool-Aid on that one, man.

I have to (rarely) disagree with you on this one cf. Free trade benefits us. Protectionism actually hurts China, and us following it would be a well proven disaster. If China has workers doing menial jobs for 1 dollar a day, while unethical, it benefits America. We enjoy the fruits of their labor, raise our living standards, and can put our own labor to better use. We won't be better off boycotting their goods, only to have to pay exponentially more on American made replacements.

Where this country went down the crapper is living on debt. There's nothing wrong with living within your means and buying stuff very cheap from other countries. The problem is this country doesn't live within its means, and there's a huge bill come due. We haven't put our labor to better use and haven't produced jack to export and build our wealth. Protectionism will absolutely destroy us, as will more government spending, as will more tax cuts. All the knee jerk reactions just keep pushing us to the brink.
 
but our trade DEFICITS clearly suggest that our trade policies towards other countries have been SOLD OUT a long time ago.

How much of our trade deficit is OIL and has nothing to do with where widgets get manufactured for slave wages?

I'm less worried about the $billions we export to Chinese pseudo-capitalists in return for cheap plastic deck furniture, and more worried about the $billions we export to Venezuelan and Middle Eastern jerks in return for black stuff that we burn.
 
Doze, you've go to be kidding me. So, the U.S. is supposed to be the only player with "free" trade policies while our major industrial competitors continue to eat our lunch with their rather protective policies (some no so subtle)????

Are you serious? I'm not speaking of total protectionism, but our trade DEFICITS clearly suggest that our trade policies towards other countries have been SOLD OUT a long time ago. The only question is to whom......

And this war prevention idea of yours is ridiculous. Japan was decimated (therefore not a threat), yet we continued with our THEORY of "free trade" as if it were a religion (much like our "economic thought leaders" get hard-ons when they read Keynes). Meantime, they kicked our ass in more than a few industries, many of which the US developed in the first place.

You drank the Kool-Aid on that one, man.

Countries that have strong economic ties with each other have much more to lose by going to war.

Free trade is a double edged sword and both edges are very sharp. What you think about it depends on who gets cut by it. Walmart makes the paychecks of low income Americans go further. Conversely some of them are low income Americans by the policies of Walmart and free trade.
 
How much of our trade deficit is OIL and has nothing to do with where widgets get manufactured for slave wages?

I'm less worried about the $billions we export to Chinese pseudo-capitalists in return for cheap plastic deck furniture, and more worried about the $billions we export to Venezuelan and Middle Eastern jerks in return for black stuff that we burn.

Widgets getting manufactured for slave wages is a gift to America. Paying for expensive American made cheap plastic deck furniture would be an added economic drain. Whenever problems arise people scream about evil trade partners, yet history is littered with a wasteland of failed protectionism policies. It doesn't make sense in theory, nor reality.
 
Guys, come on. I know all of the arguements. Narc, I realize that we benefit from cheapo goods from abroad. HOWEVER, that's only if we maintain our higher value added productive capacity, which often we have not. And, we've lost them to countries which are much more protectionist OF THOSE high value industries.

Wanna enter the Chinese car market? Sure. Put up 49% of the funds, and build THERE. They import something like 1000 cars from the U.S. It's pitiful. Then, you have state sponsored targeting of high value added items such as airplanes and jet engines. At what point are we NOT totally cutting off our own feet?

***I urge you to watch the following videos.***** It's applicable dudes, and we really need to reevaluate what we deam "good for us". Because we're going to cheap goods ourselves into a totally non-productive economy if we willy nilly allow manufacturing to continue leaving this country. It's not just "widgets" moving out, guys....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZffPTyHGDk&feature=related

And THAT was in the 80's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnKh6B2cMw

So, have our "free trade" policies REALLY paid off for Americans? Also, what do you say we import a limitless supply of Indian anesthesiologists to the U.S. Surely, the cost savings would benefit the American "consumer" of healthcare. This would be a great benefit, no? Only if it's the other guys job, right?

cf
 
Narc, I realize that we benefit from cheapo goods from abroad. HOWEVER, that's only if we maintain our higher value added productive capacity, which often we have not.
cf

We're saying the same thing.

Also, what do you say we import a limitless supply of Indian anesthesiologists to the U.S. Surely, the cost savings would benefit the American "consumer" of healthcare. This would be a great benefit, no? Only if it's the other guys job, right?
cf

Actually it's my job, and yes, of course it would benefit America if we imported comparable slave wage anesthesia. Just cause I enjoy a doctor monopoly doesn't mean I'm going to deny and rewrite economics when it comes to me. What would follow is an exodus of resources from anesthesia into other fields strengthening the economic vitality of the country. I wouldn't like it, but that's progress.

Progress isn't prohibiting meters or other technology so you can have parking attendants with "jobs." The way this country thinks I'm amazed the automobile was allowed to be manufactured because of all the stage coach drivers it unemployed.
 
We're saying the same thing.



Actually it's my job, and yes, of course it would benefit America if we imported comparable slave wage anesthesia. Just cause I enjoy a doctor monopoly doesn't mean I'm going to deny and rewrite economics when it comes to me. What would follow is an exodus of resources from anesthesia into other fields strengthening the economic vitality of the country. I wouldn't like it, but that's progress.

Progress isn't prohibiting meters or other technology so you can have parking attendants with "jobs." The way this country thinks I'm amazed the automobile was allowed to be manufactured because of all the stage coach drivers it unemployed.

Narc, all I'm sayin is that I think we've been sold a bill of "goods" on this free trade stuff. We're the only ones playing the game, and to our own demise.

If less expensive is the only thing that matters, I'd argue that in today's world we can take this to any industry, including service industries right here in the U.S. There's just too much cheap labor, and increasingly high quality AND inexpensive, to go around.

cf
 
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