“Um, yeah. I mean go with whatever line you think is better. It’s obviously very tongue-in-cheek either way… And I really appreciate you telling me, that’s really nice”
-Taylor Swift on phone call with Kanye before song release
There’s always 3 sides to a story… well 6, if one counts the intentions:
I just wanted you to know:
What You Need To Know:
Heal. (Vote, vote.) Inspire. (Vote, vote.) Revive. (Vote, vote.) Ben Carson 2016. Vote and support Ben Carson for our next president, and be awesome
Shout out to ‘Aspiring Mogul’ for the quickest check in rap ever, also shout out to my bartender…just because, I need all the drinks now.
Ben and I had a brief argument about breaking down “Thriller” for this scary month of October… Very well might, but for now – let’s mull over this selection I definitely do NOT phuck with! The Earth Song is mad eery, fam! Let’s start with the spaced out minor keys. Right there, you’re already ominous for no phuckin reason. Then, he adds the organs and harp strings being strummed by the fingers of the invisible dark hand of the free market killing Michael’s sunrise and rain.
“Did you ever stop to notice all the children dying of war?” NOPE… sorry, Michael. The hand is invisible, and it covers its eyes so all that stuff is invisible to it. It’s all of us…killing all of our children… and the rain, and the sunrise, and the dead elephants in that video. HOLY $HIT, that’s a phucked up video, Michael!
The most messed up part is when the Earth has had enough, and blows back. HARD! The invisible hand of the market is badass and coddles badasses like Donald Trump, but it’s no match for mother nature’s fury – especially if she has blood coming out of her “wherever”.
Afterall, the earth will survive US. WE ain’t $hit. The Earth has seen far worse times and things than our invisible hand. There was that one time a big assteroid crashed into the Earth, and kinda killed every breathing thing in it. Know who survived that? EARTH. Then there was that giant were SEVERAL Ice Age (s), where every breathing thing was frozen… Guess who else survived that? EARTH AGAIN. EARTH is a rider. Earth will be fine. Will we? Maybe that’s what scared Michael. Maybe that’s some scary $hit to consider…naaaah. We’ll be fine! I’m jus blowin smoke..into the OZONE LAYER!
P.s.
What up, Great Barrier Reef? Everything cool? Catchin a deadly wave?
Handclaps. Check. Hook with dope response. Check. Donald Trump in the building? YUP. Colbert invitation? I’ll take it!
That’s how this humpday hymn landed on our blog, and in your FACE. It’s also all the young Atlanta prodigy needed to completely own the moment. Raury made the statement Colbert seemed too overwhelmed by the Donald to make to his face. Was it a coincidence for him to be musical guest on THIS night? Was it irony that his selection was a number about the devil whispering to him about how rich he is and will literally turn everything he touches to gold if he just sells his vote soul AS Donald Trump was backstage? Sure… these freaky things happen. But, what Raury does for Stephen even at the end is worth watching:
Stephen, you better RUNNN!
In case you had a life and missed the VMA’s this last Sunday, Mr. West declared – among other things – that “I have decided, in 2020, to run for President”. That was complete with the mic drop heard around the political arena. It was heard by the none other than the current highest profile presidential candidate who thought:
Somehow there are comparisons made so often, which is interesting… I don’t quite get it
That’s it, America. Are you really that surprised? You MADE this happen. You wanted it. In fact, you were kinda askin for it all along. It’s up to you to keep this going, or call and end to it all. Either way, this is your rodeo now.
Say it with me: “THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 2008 CRASH”. It is not even close. Natural bear markets are simply not the same as fundamentally and functionally flawed market practices that landed the World Economy in the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Lost Ya? Fine. Maybe Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Donald Trump can help (yea, comin in EARLY with the Donald mention this week – we know you missed it). Here’s a quick 1-2 punch at your unfounded fears of a “Black Monday” (big shout out to Chuck D, and Flavor Flav of course)
America is currently the largest economy by far nominally (about $18 Trillion to #2 China’s $11). But, that won’t be true for long. With China’s population sitting around 4 times the size of America’s (1.3 BILLION PEOPLE) and a middle class around the size of ALL AMERICANS. Put simply, that’s about 350 Million people with more than enough money to survive and buy Nike shoes, and iPhones. The more of these that are bought by this Chinese middle class, the more stock speculation money investors who bet on that happening worldwide get to cash in on. While, last week we found out that China isn’t growing as fast as your 401K and retirement fund managers might like – this isn’t the end of the world. As more and more Chinese people move out of poverty into the middle class, China will become the world’s undisputed economic champion – at least for a while. This is inevitable. Managing the road there has proved a challenge for the centrally controlled mixed markets in Beijing, but we’ll get there sometime mid-century one way or another. So, when your favorite Presidential candidate says:
He maybe right about the planning part, but unless he’s gettin ready to quadriple America’s population and spending dollar real quick (watch out, ladies 😉 ), there’s nothing any coming President can do about this rising tide from the east – and really why would you want to?
SO BASICALLY: All speculation is not equal worldwide. China is figuring out how to act with new money. Give it some time, and stop betting on that economy to perform like America’s matured markets… (in bed)
2. Slippery OIL Prices:
As China grows and slows (together with all other BRICS countries), they almost form the wake on which the next best markets surf on. So when that Boat slows down, the wake breaks, and fun times come to ugly splashes from all those dependent on sustainable (and more importantly STABLE) Chinese economic growth. Where there is growth, manufacturing plants need to be built and property needs to be bought to house them. That’s usually a result of more things needing to be made in the manufacturing sector for a population that has more income to buy more cars, iPhones, and chocolate, for instance.
Seeing as today’s main source of fuel for continued growth and keeping the economic engine greasy on that is oil, its easy to see how that drives presumed supply and demand. Oil “supply and demand”, however, is based on speculation… speculation that China would continue to grow and need more oil at some arbitrarily expected pace. This means OPEC (oil monopoly) keeps up the million barrels a day rate of supply, while the real world only needs half that. When that China growth slows down, and they DON’T need as much oil as speculated – market oil prices reflect the lessening demand by pummeling the barrel price below $40.
SO BASICALLY: As the saying goes, “follow the money”. Nothing follows market monies as consistently as oil and other commodity prices. Far too often, oil prices follow the fast money (market speculation) so closely that they’ll happily walk into a wall with it, causing even more volatility. We’re producing more of something we don’t need more off. Good for your car fill up price, bad for your retirement plan.
This is a comment on how oil markets work, not on how well your GE, IBM, or Apple is doing. In fact, here’s part of an e-mail from Apple CEO Tim Cook sent to Finance jester, Jim Cramer just this morning:
I continue to believe that China represents an unprecedented opportunity over the long term as LTE penetration is very low and most importantly the growth of the middle class over the next several years will be huge
There you have it! Having a cold, or even a week of pneumonia or mono is not a death sentence. It is manageable. You’ll be fine.
I talked to texted a few investor friends on trading floors across the country watching that fateful “DOW” that was trending twice on twitter this morning, and opened at a negative -1,000 points, and they all agree that after a 6-year bull-run (constant growth), a correction of real stock asset prices was inevitable. Instead of 4-5 million iPhones or Nike Sneakers, China will buy closer to 3 million. CALM DOW! #NoTypo
*smfh*. Look at y’all! You’re proud of yourselves, aint you? With that smug-face, looking at the New York Jets already uphill battle to bhahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAH! NO…. NO! It’s not funny! That man is now out for virtually the whole season because, he had a teammate who was as much of a childish ass as y’all are for these jokes about Geno Smith’s broken jaw! Let’s review some of what you said:
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LEAVE. MY PATRIOTS. OUT OF THIS.
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Fun Fact: Kanye’s jaw was fractured in 3 places. Geno’s jaw got fractured in 3 places. Coincidence? I DON’T THINK SO!
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Succint. Straight to the punchline. We’ll allow it… like Geno did.
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https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/631167050250067968
If you have a problem with me bloggin about Trump, you should probably take 5…. months, or however long it will take for him to drop out.
Okay, we get the general drift of this. How bout we try one?
Sources close to the Jets say Geno threw the first punch… but it was intercepted as it was 6 yards short.
How’s that? That work? Uuuh, you’re the twitterers… not us. But follow us there @benandsiyablog
Then see if any of our non-violent suggestions over $600 disputes are fitting for ya next office altercation, eh?
That’s it! Everybody quit while you’re ahead! The Tonight Show will take it from here on out, folks. Stephen Colbert’s Trump was promising, and more subtle…but sorry, Stephen. Leave the Donald to the pros. You may have heard of Trump’s comments on Fox’s Megyn Kelly “bleeding from her you know what” over the weekend. Jimmy wants to set the record straight on that. This here, folks, is about as spot on as Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. America, can we agree to put up with Trump’s hogwash as long as it provides material for Jimmy to bring us more? Watch, Die, and go to Pun Heaven – you DEVIANTS 😉 :
Look, we get it. Friday’s are checkout days. In fact, here’s an excerpt based on a convo from last Friday:
Me: “When are we starting that new section of our fledgling blog again?”
Ben: “i dunno whenever…? Not on Friday though lol. Fridays are for slacking!”
Me: “*sigh… should there be a particular day for it?” (equally blase)
Ben: “Probably mannnnn. Like Thursday”
See? We’re right there with ya. But, that’s no excuse to start this nonsense, Internet! As Leland already previewed for us, the N.W.A. Biopic Straight Outta Compton is comin out. Apple/Beatbydre/Some-Movie-studio knows you all had checked out and were at Happy Hour, so they set this bait of a website and just watched. It’s clear it worked on you simpletons, and it didn’t take long! We’re very disappointed in what you did over the weekend, Internet! Very disappointed! *whispers*… its hilarious though, keep it up:
Well, not according to his poll numbers – amirite 😉 ?
Jerome’s in the house, watch ya mooooouf. #OriginalsPlaya
Original Rolling Stone, amirite?
Black America’s favorite white boy since Eminem via TV Show, Power. New Wire?
ACCURATE.
FINE, Iron Man! How bout being outta THINGS?
Two words: CITIZENS UNITED. The Supreme Court case that decided according to majority opinion:
“…The First Amendment prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech”
In layman’s terms, corporations and associations have the right to exercise free speech… via money. Money you said? Not long after followed the birth of SuperPACS – “non profits” that can raise unlimited money… which they use to buy the opinions and asinine voting records of your local and national politicians.
So when a ranking member of an environmental committee holds up a snow-ball on the Congress floor as proof that “Climate Change is a myth”:
… or when a Congress spend time voting over 50..FIFTY….FIVE ZERO times to repeal a law signed by Congress and upheld in the Supreme Court to prove a point, it’s because they’re getting their orders of dissent from elsewhere besides you calling into your local congressman’s office.
That’s why when the Koch Brothers held a summit with 450 of their fellow big money contributors, all the major GOP candidates, were happy to go kneel at the thrones line up like a bad episode of The Bachelor to share their respective vision of America for sale. All, except the current highest polled candidate, ofcourse – who sent his best wishes via twitter:
So am I a supporter of Donald Trump? No. Do I agree with his stance on immigration (or really anything he spews out of his mouth)? HELL NO! I’m an immigrant myself. It’s some of the most viscerally vile political rhetoric I’ve heard in my short 26 years of life*. That said, Trump is like that friend who came by when the rest of the crew did – even though he was not included in the group text.
NOW THAT HE’S HERE – we might as well put some use to him… like “go get us some party cups”, or “help us move this furniture, jackhole”.
Every election we get the OPTION to move some political furniture around after completely ignoring it for 4 years. Maybe we won’t completely get rid of rotten corporate furniture, but we can at least rearrange it so it doesn’t affect the decor and layout of our political discourse as much as it has on both sides of the aisle. If not that – with the Koch Brothers and other SuperPac contributors pledging over a BILLION dollars to pick the next leader of the free world – we might as well use our unwelcome, uninvited friend to help us call out the painfully obvious truth: THAT IS BROKEN, ROTTEN FURNITURE WITH MONEY-MAGGOTS LIVING IN IT!
For some reason, we’ve collectively and apathetically elected to sweep that expansively expensive truth under the rug of democracy. You might have not invited the Donald (hell, I didn’t see anyone shouting “Run-Donald-Run”), but don’t completely dismiss him when he is shining a spotlight on the one thing we ALL agree is as bad for American Democracy as he is, if not worse – Billionaires Buying Elections. Democracy needs Trump to be louder about this, and if he is successful in getting even one news caster to call out this all encompassing virus more than the outgoing news comedian on Comedy Central, isn’t that ONE win we can look forward to going into these first GOP primary debates tonight?
[January 21, 2016UPDATE: 27 years of life, and a hell of a lot more powerful and less of a joke in Donald Trump]
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