Happy Solstice!

Greetings good citizen,

It’s not everyday that one gets to wish their readers a Happy Solstice AND a festive TEOTAWKI at the same time but today just happens to be that day!

Naturally, the first thing I look at after being subjected to that annoying Hilfiger advertisement is how the ‘Fraud markets’ are performing.

We long ago established that they no longer reflect the real economy but rather the ‘sentiments’ of the >One Percent.

Apparently the GOP is having a hard time delivering their promised cuts to social entitlements (that people have paid into all of their lives for, so your damned right they’re ‘entitled’ to them!) and this morning’s markets reflects ‘investor disappointment’:

Wall Street Slides After Fiscal Setback
By NATHANIEL POPPER 9:41 AM ET

Stocks slumped at the start of trading, depressed by the setback late Thursday in Washington on progress toward a budget deal.

Like the new axiom goes, if it’s bad for the real economy the stock market likes it and vice versa.

[The ‘logic’ here is the quicker the US becomes a Banana Republic the ‘safer’ the robbers will be, thus all this slashing of the safety net is key.]

The New York Stock Exchange at Broad and Wall Streets in Manhattan was not as crowded Thursday as it once was.

Exchange Sale Reflects New Realities of Trading
By BEN PROTESS and NATHANIEL POPPER

The takeover of the New York Stock Exchange’s owner illustrates starkly how trading in commodities and derivatives has become much more lucrative than trading in corporate shares.

[Rumor has it the big trading houses have been throwing people out of the windows wholesale since the markets tanked five years ago…odd that they should bring up the hole this has created now.]

DealBook: At the Big Board, Seeking Rejuvenation in Consolidation 1:42 AM ET
*ICE Deal for N.Y.S.E. Creates Global Powerhouse 8:59 PM ET
Graphic: Smaller, But Growing Fast

*Wasn’t I just saying a few days ago that this ‘private ownership’ thing isn’t a good way to make decisions for an entire civilization?

Don’t let the weasels get away with telling you they were suckered…the one being suckered is YOU!

$1,200 a Pound, Truffles Suffer in the Heat
By DAVID JOLLY

Black Périgords are becoming scarcer and more expensive, and some scientists say it is because of the effects of global warming on the fungus’s Mediterranean habitat.

Geez Bud I wouldn’t know a Black Perigord if I tripped on one (and have about the same chance of one ever crossing my lips at THAT price!) So if we’re talking climate change, the fate of the ‘Black Truffle’ is down around the bottom of my list (as it would be for most people…you don’t miss what you never knew in the first place and too few people know what Black Perigords taste like.)

But that’s our corporate owned media for you…

News Corp Says Publishing Wing Lost Money
By REUTERS 31 minutes ago

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said the publishing arm it plans to spin off from its entertainment assets would have lost $2.08 billion in the last fiscal year if it were a standalone company.

This is news? Seriously good citizen, would YOU ‘pay’ to read that bullshit? Most of you don’t watch it either but there’s no way to prove that. News Corp exists not as a public utility but as the mouthpiece of the fucking One Percent (and should be boycotted as such!)

Peter Madoff Is Sentenced to 10 Years for His Role in Fraud
By PETER LATTMAN and DIANA B. HENRIQUES

Peter Madoff, Bernard L. Madoff's younger brother, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday for his role in enabling the extensive fraud that swindled investors out of billions of dollars.

Um, we can either opine it took ‘em long enough or we can once again look at it as a ‘token arrest’ while the real criminals walk away unmolested…and there’s no saying we can’t render both judgements.

Next (was deleted for relevance) so we have this story instead…

Boehner Cancels Tax Vote in Face of G.O.P. Revolt
By JONATHAN WEISMAN

Speaker John A. Boehner abruptly halted efforts to pass fallback legislation to prevent a fiscal crisis after conservative Republicans refused to allow taxes to rise even on the most affluent.

with the general election behind them and the mid terms two years away these guys can afford to be assholes, they have a year and a half to pretend it never happened.

That’s part of the problem with the conservo-whacko mind, the rest of us don’t forget who is responsible for this mess. But come the next election cycle and they will be convinced that it is the other parties’ fault, despite (concrete) evidence to the contrary.

And this brings us full circle to the ‘free pass’ the media gives the conservo-whackos.

The evidence is there but the corporate owned media refuses to air it…and that’s not what ‘public utilities do’ it is against the public’s interests…but our corrupt justice system turns a blind eye to this issue, damning them all to the executioner’s crosshairs as they flee for their lives into the Badlands.

But I digress…last but not least:

Faltering Budget Talks Hit Markets
By REUTERS

Currencies held to tight ranges in thin preholiday trade, and the euro seesawed against the dollar.

Um, all I have to say good citizen is if disaster strikes it will show up here (in the currency markets) first.

Thanks for letting me inside your head, have a nice TEOTAWKI!

Gegner