Global Warming, Top O the Muffin, Muffin Stumps, and how a Show about Nothing is actually about Everything.

I believe that Seinfeld, the show about nothing, covered the issue of global warming in what may be one of the all time classic Seinfeld episodes called "Top o the Muffin".

"Top o the Muffin" gets to the heart of what is wrong with the way we conduct a capitalistic economy. Top o the Muffin was not about Global Warming specifically, but the entire story structure of what happens when Elaine decides to create a business that only sells muffin tops is reminiscent of what the entire planet is going through from an economic and global warming paradigm point of view.

The irony in being able to produce energy, water, cars, gasoline and roadways at such low prices now (just like the top o the muffin), is also creating an obstacle down the road (how to keep making the top of the muffin affordable while dealing with the muffin stumps) that will grow increasingly impossible to solve as time goes on.

Until an effective, energy efficient organic battery can be affordably created, we will continue to deal with an ever growing supply of energy "muffin stumps". Present day batteries (muffin stumps) cannot be put into the ground without harming the environment.

Petroleum, the present day muffin top, is a premium energy product that should be used to energize other types of energies that we need to develop, not compete with them.

How the Bro Stole the Country, from Cannonfire.

Check out the rest of this amazing tale at CannonFire.

The Amex "Recovery" Commercial needs to be spoofed.

If ever a commercial needed to be spoofed, it is this one. The AMEX "Recovery" commercial.

Time to END ALL Interest Rate Charges on EXISTING consumer credit card debt and reduce ALL home mortgage interest rate charges to four percent.

A couple of decades ago when I was just starting out in the film industry I worked for a film company that was in merger talks with two other film companies. Our company was 10-15 million dollars in debt and it appeared the only way to save ourselves was by merging with two stable companies so that the overall debt percentage would be minimized. Our company had already made a name for itself so combining with a financially stable company (aka too big to fail) would result in better times.

But then reality hits. It turns out that all three companies were hiding their own 10-15 million dollars of debt. Each company assumed the other two merging companies were debt free. After the merger the three companies realized they all had brought their own debt into the merger. The new and improved too big to fail company actually had 30-45 million dollars of debt and went out of business less than a year later. 

I bring this story up now because I see my microcosmic job experience is actually recreating itself on a much grander scale.

Most of world is in debt, and nobody really has a solution other than to try and hide their own debt from others.

I have a solution to the hide the debt game that is being played and since I am a nobody, I may be correct when I say "nobody" has a solution.

Gargantuan consumer debt and the destructively high interest rate charges that accompany the consumer debt has destroyed a critical component of a sustainable worldwide economy. Consumers all over the world have less money to spend because more and more of their income is going towards repetitive, revolving interest rate charges that are so onerous they have become unreduceable.

While the actual amount of worldwide consumer debt may not seem like a substantial amount of the overall worldwide debt, it is having a profound affect in many insidious ways. The bottom line is the amount of disposable income that each and every consumer is able to create is dramatically shrinking, and in the process, disposable income no longer first travels between consumers and local small businesses within local economies, disposable income now goes directly to pay a bank debt or some type of tax, and this is a huge problem.

We have reached an economic tipping point where the absolutely profoundly rich are now draining the worlds resources by expecting to get the best return on obscene amounts of savings. Money that should no longer be receiving interest payments is actually siphoning more and more capital away from the everyday person who is just trying to make ends meet.

Banksters worldwide keep stalling the inevitable. The longer the banksters wait to severly reduce interest rate charges on existing consumer debt and decrease home mortgage interest rates to an across the board 4%, the worse things will be for the worldwide economy for an ever expanding period of time.

Too much emphasis is being placed on maintaining interest rate profit margins even when those interest rate profit margins are actually spiraling every country into deepening debt that is devaluing real estate values everywhere.

Countries need to transition to alternative forms of energy that they can generate on their own land, for their own needs, or wars will increase. The key stumbling block to global energy self sufficiency is it needs to happen within the cost parameters of existing oil supplies and prices, and there in lies the parallel problem.

It takes petroleum to create alternative energy infrastructure, but petroleum is being used in a "one time and its gone" methodology.

The longer we wait to deputize oil for the primary purpose of ramping up other forms of energy as quickly as possible, the less likely we will be able to make a successful alternative energy transition while also being able to concurrently service the energy requirements of 6 billion people worldwide (and growing).

What does the world's inability to harvest new sources of energy have to do with interest rate charges? Interest rate charges enslave people to work longer and harder just to maintain their same level of debt. As consumers work longer and harder at their jobs they consume more and more petroleum and energy sources at a time when that petro should be used to create alternative forms of energy.

One example of the reallocation of petroleum to create alternative forms of energy is the idea of completely redoing the electrical grid infrastructure. Actually re laying every bit of electrical wire in the entire United States with the most efficient forms of conductive wiring could significantly reduce the amount of power that needs to be generated, but the petroleum to drive such a project is being diverted to simply driving our gas guzzling cars.

Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in place to create a public works program to make the revamping of the energy grid a likelihood. Instead, the interest rate trap is contributing to consumers working extra hours (assuming they can find work) at jobs that drain our energy resources, which in turn requires our government to fund military installations all over the world, which in turn provides all that extra petroleum which we should be weaning ourselves off of.

Consumer Interest rate charges on EXISTING credit card debt is creating an indebted, enslaved society that will do anything to be able to pay their bills. Most of the work that is being done simply perpetually repays repeating revolving consumer credit card debt and those nasty interest rate charges that prevent the debt from ever being paid down, which further removes us from the urgent energy goal of replacing petroleum as the dominant energy supply source on the planet.

What the world needs to do is DECREASE the amount of hours the worlds workers need to work to maintain their present lifestyle. Each work hour reduction creates more flexibility and more time for actually improving the energy infrastructure of our planet while also reducing energy consumption as well.

Any banker or politician that thinks it is a good thing to create more work hours so consumers can keep repaying repetitive interest rate charges on existing consumer debt is actually helping to accelerate the global population towards a possibly preventable economic and ecological global catastrophe.

Time to Re Do our Income Tax Laws and Simplify Income Tax Returns.

I just want to offer a new way to do income tax. The key proponent being that income tax becomes much much easier to calculate, and that the american consumer only have to pay one entity, and then that entity pays out all the other tax entities in the proper amount.

I propose a level 4 income tax system. The level 4 income tax rate includes rates of 50%, 40%, 30% and 25%. The consumer CHOOSES which level of income tax percentage rate they want to pay, and each level comes with built in deduction choices.

If a consumer chooses a 50% income tax rate, they get three full deductions of their choosing. The consumer can choose to deduct their home mortgage, medical expenses, and car payment deductions.

The consumer would have additional choices for deductions, such as college education or home improvement, but they could only choose three to actually use when they file. The consumer simply chooses the three most costly deductions. I would also allow a renter the right to deduct their rent as long as they were not related to the person they were paying rent to.

The 40% plan would allow the consumer two income tax deductions.

The 30% plan would allow for one income tax deduction.

The 25% plan would have NO deductions, it would just be a pay as you go system in which all income is immediately income taxed at the 25% rate and the remaining 75% belongs to the consumer.

To prevent people from using their deductions to pay nothing into the system, there would be a bottom end cap at 20%. No matter how much one deducts from their income tax, they would still be responsible for 20% of their gross to the government, no excuses, no exceptions.

It is possible somebody could game the system and come up with a method in which one deduction is "overused". I would not be against limiting any one deduction to reducing someones income tax liability up to a certain percentage amount. I do not know what that deduction limit should be however. It would take some testing of the 4 level income tax plan to see how much each deduction could lower someone's overall tax liability.

Would you be ok with the idea of a direct deposit of your income into a bank for income verification and your income tax payment, but then you could immediately use the remaining money as you see fit knowing you had no more income tax issues to deal with?

The bank would also handle your deduction payments. Once again, the bank is immediately verifying your deductions because they process the payments you give them that relate to your deductions.

The final and very important aspect of the level 4 income tax system is you could choose to be a part of the above program, or not. I would definitely choose to be a part of the above program, and I would probably do the 30% deduction income tax with the one deduction option.

Could income tax simplification actually increase productivity?

Could income tax simplicity allow people to make more informed financial choices since they know where they stand with their taxes and know exactly the remaining portion is that they can afford to spend?

Could income tax simplification lead to increased productivity as people spend less time in general on their income taxes? Might the banks gain an extra method of usefulness by being the actual income tax revenue splitter that allocates all monies to the proper tax collection agency?

Isn't it ridiculous that with all the advances in computing that each and every tax payer is still directly responsible for paying each and every tax bill to the proper agency? Why does the government continue to waste my time with such frivolity?

Why can't I have the choice to just direct deposit my income into one banking entity, have my tax liability split off from my earnings, and I've honored all of my tax obligations while knowing exactly what I have left over that is actually mine!

What do you think? Are you afraid of income tax simplification, or crave it for it for the simplicity it would bring?

SATURN collapses while Wall Street Stalwarts come up with IPO's for internet ventures, what's wrong with this picture?

An economy that only invests in internet IPO's while letting actual american manufacturing jobs die is more of the same crap. Wall Street is offering IPO's on some internet ventures that will produce virtually NO manufacturing jobs.

Barack Obama, you are a fraud.

Have you heard of the Virtual Internet Universe Called Entropia, that actually requires you to use REAL DOLLARS to purchase Virtual Entropia Property?

My mouth dropped when I saw this. Apparently people actually use real US dollars to purchase virtual property in an internet virtual universe called Entropia. There is even an exchange rate in which one US dollar equals 10 "Virtual Peds". My initial reaction is this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

I just have to wonder if this entire scheme was developed on Wall Street by a derivatives hedge fund conglomerate that was already investing in things unseen and things never made. Certainly Bernie Madoff must be impressed by Entropia.

Since I know very little about Entropia, I will refrain from absolutely condemning the premise of exchanging one real dollar for 10 virtual "PED" dollars while I mull over the concept some more.

I suppose if one is a "shut in" for a myriad of reasons, including some form of mobility handicap, but they have real money to spend, Entropia apparently is a way of communicating and living a virtual alternative lifestyle without leaving home.

Someone might be financially supporting Entropia so that it can continue to be available for their own personal enjoyment.

I think I saw a story where Entropia devotees literally spend their entire days and nights in the virtual land of Entropia. So buying an estate in Entropia, if it helps ensure that Entropia makes real money, is probably not quite as dumb as it seems to those of us who do not visit Entropia and are having trouble with the concept of buying virtual estates with real money.

However, if people start buying of properties in a virtual world with real money, then they probably have made as good an investment as can be expected nowadays. (that was a joke, or was it?). Nowadays, we are finding that more and money is not real anyways, so maybe Entropia is just ahead of the curve. Certainly Bernie Madoff could be the honorary cheftian who oversees the land of Entropia, or the villan who could cause Entropia's demise.

Maybe Entropia is the natural evolution to "Star Naming" rights. Star naming rights was really big in the late 70's and 80's. People could actually purchase the naming rights to a "star" up in space, and actually receive a document stating that they were the owner of the name of that star. So it would seem that the next logical step after naming your own star would be to actually...drum roll please, inhabit that star and develop your own colony and create a way of life.

Is the day fast approaching when buying an "estate" on Entropia could actually be a cost effective alternative to actually traveling in our world???

Imagine the lives that could be saved if we could retrain texters who text while they drive, texters who operate heavy equipment even as they text, to instead live in the land of Entropia in front of a "real computer" in a room, instead of being out in public texting and possibly causing some tragic accident.

Mulling this over has made me feel like I need a vacation, but in which world?

There may be a way to intelligently explain the exchange of dollars for Peds. One is not actually buying an estate in a virtual universe. One is actually buying time-share on an interactive computer program.

Perhaps the only number that really matters is what is the cost per hour to maintain an estate in Entropia. If it turns out that one can afford to spend 5,000 hours in Entropia, and their estate costs 5,000 dollars, then in actuality, their virtual entertainment is costing them one dollar an hour, and perhaps that can be considered a bargain after all.

At the end of the day, maybe the cost per hour to live in the land of Entropia is what matters most. Just don't forget to add in the real rent, electricity, food, heating, and clothing that is also needed to sustain that virtual environment.

A dollar an hour to live in the land of Entropia becomes pointless if one has no way to make money because they spend all of their time in Entropia.

Dylan Ratigan: Americans Have Been Taken Hostage

Dylan Ratigan: Americans Have Been Taken Hostage Posted usingShareThis

---------------My commentary below-----------

I think it is important to note that the Ratigan column appears on Huffington Post. Huffington Post has already called Barack Obama the "Bank Centric Kid". Huffington Post is also the internet "news source" that blasted Hillary Clinton on a daily basis during the 2008 democratic primaries and PRAISED Barack Obama on a daily basis. Without Huffington Post's interference, Hillary Clinton most likely would have been the democratic nominee in 2008.

Yet Huffington Post has an article that basically blasts Barack Obama and his administration.

It is a shame that we can find three powerful women such as Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin, and know that if we put them in a room, they would have virtually nothing in common and unable to build any kind of a consensus of any kind.

Yet if we put three powerful men in a room, the odds are that at least two of them would form some kind of alliance or allegiance on some level. (think back to George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton and their tour around the world to raise money for Hurricane and Typhoon victims a few years ago. George Bush Sr. was OFFENDED and most likely DISGUSTED that he lost to Bill Clinton after only one term in office.)

Make it a game if you will, find three men in politics that completely annoy each other the way Palin, Clinton and Huffington do. I don't think it can be done.

Put Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Bill Richardson in a room, nope, some kind of alliance would happen between two of those fellows.

What about Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy (assuming he still were alive) and Jimmy Carter, Bill and Ted might work something out, maybe even Ted and Jimmy. Jimmy and Bill, definitely not.

What about Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, and....Bill Mahrer in a room, would the three scorn each other the way Huffington, Palin, and Hillary Clinton most likely would?, Nope, Bill and Bill would get along. Heck, didn't Rush even have Bill on his show once?

It is just kind of galling to me how women seem to neutralize each other and in the process let under qualified men such as Barack Obama slip through to positions not earned.

Jim Quinn of the The Burning Platform dot com asks, Who got Judge Pleska to stay her decision that the Federal Reserve must reveal who got bailouts.

Who got to Judge Preska? First Bloomberg wins the right to review where the bailout money went and orders the Federal Reserve to to comply within five days, now there is a stay of that order, why? (LINK)

NEW BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT, INTRODUCING ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK! ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK ARE SPEAKING OUT!

NEW BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT, INTRODUCING ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK! THE ROBOTS AGAGINST CHASE BANK ARE SPEAKING OUT!

Growing legions of Chase Bank customers / victims are now venting on YouTube. Robots Against Chase Bank is there to assemble the Chase Bank youtube venting protestors into one easy to find place.

Posted using ShareThis

Washington Post Rings Barack Obama's Bell, compares him to Jimmy Carter and George Bush, WISHES HE WERE MORE LIKE BILL CLINTON.

Not only does the Washington Post scold Barack Obama, compare him to Jimmy Carter and George Bush while wishing he were more like Bill Clinton (I don't think that link will last very long), but I also find out just minutes later that Barack Obama LIKES Jamie Dimon.

Man Bites Dog, Newspaper boycott set for July 4th, 2009?

MORE CHANGE WE CANNOT BELIEVE IN, Mother of four ordered to pay over 1.9 million dollars because her sons downloaded and shared music, yeesh.

I suppose this story is supposed to scare everybody.

I personally think that stealing is stealing and something needs to be done, but I don't think the verdict that was reached above is the answer either.

Judge from Anna Nicole Custody Suit "Fame" is sued by elderly neighbor for stealing her savings. OUCH!

This may be another example of the media not doing their job (link)

The alleged swindle happened in 2002, yet when Judge Seidlin had his fame as the emotional judge of the then recently passed Anna Nicole custody trial in early 2007, I don't think anything was either known or reported about his possible involvement in this elder swindle.

Would it have been that hard to find out this possible financial theft information about Judge Seidlin? The woman who is alleging being swindled live in the same condo. The allegations seem like they might be provable in court. Close to half a million dollars drawn from the plaintiffs account have allegedly been used to pay for Mr. Seidlin's daughter's private school tuition and a second home!

The media really appears to not do their job, they just seem to write fluff pieces of whomever is famous at that moment in time, remember that when you read financial fluff pieces that try and say times are getting better even as nothing is being done to offer incentives to help pay down consumer credit card debt.

Check out Daily-Protest.com to learn more about how credit card companies may be strangling the economy.

Chase Bank in Woodland Hills. A Peaceful Protest is planned for 6633 Topanga Canyon Blvd in the West San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles County).

I may be the only one out there, but I will be peacefully protesting at 6633 Topanga Canyon Blvd in Woodland Hills, CA. because Chase is raising their monthly minimum from 2% to 5% on EXISTING, low interest credit card debt of their most loyal and on time paying customers! My plan is to picket one hour a day until Chase REVERSES their policy.

If I am the only one out there, Chase won't care. Chase will only care if others join in. Please bookmark Daily-Protest.com as other protest blogs come online with additional locations to protest at. This is entirely a grass roots effort, NO MONEY is involved in this protest.

The biggest threat to millions of americans may just be the change in terms to ALREADY EXISTING CREDIT CARD DEBT! Chase Bank has basically decided that they can rework any credit card agreement that they previously offered to their customers at any time, and do it to the severe detriment and hardship of their customrs. Rather than give an incentive in exchange for changing credit card terms, Chase is actually punishing its customers with their change in term proposals.

But the problem is not just Chase. If Chase gets away with chasing down their past credit card offers and changing them in a manner that will cause tens of thousands of americans to default so Chase can close out less profitable accounts, other credit card companies will be pressured to do the same thing.

CitiBank is allegedly about to do the same thing as Chase.
If Chase succeeds, other Credit Card Companies WILL FOLLOW.

So just what did Chase do? First, Chase offered low interest balance transfers to blue collar, honest, always pay on time customers. Chase and other credit card companies enticed their customers to pay off higher interest debt by offering them low interest balance transfer loans FOR THE LIFE OF THE LOAN. Yes, these magical, 3.99 and 5.99 percent loans were to help the consumer pay off higher interest debt specifically because of a consumers excellent credit history.

Presently, all the attention seems to be on those with negative equity and those behind on their mortgages. I have no problem helping those that badly off to try and get by, but to do it on the backs of the middle class that have been diligently paying down these low interest credit card offers is just outrageous, especially when the middle class cannot afford these changes.

DAILY-PROTEST.com is a network of protest blogs that will be peacefully protesting directly in front of Chase Banks across the nation. There is no money or support being offered. That can surely be found right in your community among those that are about to lose their credit ratings due to the credit card companies mishandling of this situation.

Vermont Congressperson Bernie Sanders Agrees with Wall Street Change about Credit Card Interest Rate Charges...

Congressperson Bernie Sanders said the following while appearing on the Rachel Maddow show (Feb 03, 2009)

Please note, quote is taken from Senator Bernie Sanders Questions Card Card Interest Rates. Please link to the quote in this article, or DailyPUMA link provided above, transcriptions take a lot of time to do and nobody is paying for it to be done.

Well Rachel, this is the problem with this issue, is, it is so big, that nobody can get their hands on it. It is not just 700 billion dollars, as you know the fed has lent out 2.5 trillion dollars. The president is probably going to ask for more top money.

The fed, we think, is going to lend out trillions more. So what we need to do, among many other things, is we need to figure out a way that we do more than get back to where we were a couple of years ago, by making the institutions stable.

If the taxpayers of this country are putting such a huge amount of money into financial institutions, we need financial institutions that are gonna be beholden to the needs of ordinary americans and not go back to where we were... (as in a couple years ago.)

For example, Just one example. Right now, we're bailing out banks which are charging american taxpayers 25 or 30 percent interest rates on their credit cards. Does that make sense to anybody?

We're giving banks money and they're not telling us how their spending it. We're trying to loosen up credit in america, they're not doing it.

Sanders went on to talk about actually prosecuting the richest people on the planet who may have performed misdeeds that have led to the current situation, and wondered if the justice department was up to the task prosecuting those who are culpable.

So when does the consumer get their interest free Credit Card Debt Paydown Program?

Legitimate Bills versus Outrageous Credit Card Interest Rate Charges that are Wrecking the Economy and Causing Unnecessary Despair.

Since Wall Street called a timeout last September, and with the Super Bowl right around the corner, I was wondering who will call a real time out for the american consumer? A real time out involves the suspension of interest charges on all unsecured debt, also known as Credit Card Debt.

I see Barack Obama madly spinning his wheels to try and inflate the american economy with a bicycle pump, and I find it embarrassing. Meanwhile, the made in China toy you purchased a couple of years ago is still on your credit card racking up obscene interest charges.

The toy that should have been made in the United States by an american, but instead was made in China, has now cost you MORE because of ongoing interest charges than if the toy had been made in the United States and you purchased it with cash! The net result is you bought a "cheaper" toy for more money than if it had been made in the United States, and no american labor was involved in the making the toy you bought, so that is one less wage earner in the United States to buy the products that your company makes. What doesn't go around, doesn't come around.

Being a great leader involves recognizing when your own actions are trivial compared to the will and power of the people. All Barack Obama has to do is waive the interest charges on all credit card debt for anyone trying to pay down their debts. Tie it in to a consumer debt reduction plan so that people don't just mindlessly run up even more debt, but actually get rewarded for paying down their debt, and you will see the economy come back to life all by itself.

Barack Obama talks about having spoken to people all over the country while running for president, yet you still think the men in suits have all the answers. The same people that gave themselves 18 billion dollars in bonuses from the bailout money you already handed them may not be the best source for solving the problem they helped create.

Hyundai tries to do the right thing, but it sure sounds weird.

Hyundai says bring your new car back if you lose your job within the first year.

Hyundai is running a television ad that if you lose your job, your license, have health issues or lose your source of income within the first year of buying your Hyundai car, you can return your new car purchase, without harming your credit history. Hyundai will cover you up to $7,500 dollars worth of negative equity, anything more than that and you have to pay the difference. Also, you have to have made at least two car payments.

This is all well and good, but what does it mean if Hyundai does not make this special offer? Does it really mean that a consumer should be labeled a "bad risk" because they lost their job and could not pay for the car? Should a consumer be labeled a "bad risk" if they have an ailing parent (as mentioned in the link above) that might cause a financial strain to take care of and cause the consumer to have to return a car?

Is being "forgiven" by the very businesses who in one way or another threw them under the bus over the past couple of decades by force feeding them things that in the long run were not viable the only way the american consumer can get a "break"?

How about an interest free debt paydown program so people can restart their economic lives over and not be indentured to the very entities willing to "forgive us" because we can't afford new debt.

Do the New Math, Less income, less spending, equals a bigger and bigger slice goes toward Interest Payments.

If person A has 1,000 dollars in bills, and 900 dollars in earnings, they must borrow a 100 dollars to break even, and on that 100 dollars they must pay interest. If Person A's income drops to 500 dollars, and they manage to drop their spending to 600 dollars, the net effect is they still must borrow a hundred dollars, but now the percentage of money they are borrowing versus the total amount they are making has DOUBLED.

The government and the banks probably realize that the fastest and most responsible way out of the projected worldwide economic downturn is to stop charging interest to anyone who is responsibly paying down their debts, otherwise, as income and expenses both decrease, the percentage each person is paying towards interest will continue to increase, and continue to strangle the masses.

So the bailout basically took all the money that the consumer lost in home equity, and gave it back to the banks, who in turn will charge interest on it before "sharing" it with the people who it was taken from.