Bloomberg Wrong As Usual

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that the government shutdown will make the U.S. look like a Third World nation.

He's wrong as usual.

The income disparity between rich and poor in New York City makes us exactly like a Third World nation.

So does the rotting infrastructure.

And the crappy voting machines.

And let's not forget the authoritarian police force our dictator uses to quell dissent and keep the masses in check.

Welcome to BloombergVille.

No money?

No rights or privileges for you.

The American Dream

As George Carlin said, they call it a dream because you've got to be asleep to believe it:

Esquire: "There are some truths so hard to face, so ugly and so at odds with how we imagine the world should be, that nobody can accept them. Here's one: It is obvious that a class system has arrived in America -- a recent study of the thirty-four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that only Italy and Great Britain have less social mobility. But nobody wants to admit: If your daddy was rich, you're gonna stay rich, and if your daddy was poor, you're gonna stay poor. Every instinct in the American gut, every institution, every national symbol, runs on the idea that anybody can make it; the only limits are your own limits. Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the world -- just no longer true. Culturally, and in their daily lives, Americans continue to glide through a ghostly land of opportunity they can't bear to tell themselves isn't real. It's the most dangerous lie the country tells itself."

George Carlin also said that bullshit is the glue that keeps this country together.

That statement becomes more and more true these days.

Michigan Officials Order Half Of Detroit Schools To Be Closed

Wow - we truly live in a Third World Country:

Lansing— Swift and severe changes are coming to Detroit Public Schools.

State education officials have ordered Robert Bobb to immediately implement a financial restructuring plan that balances the district's books by closing half of its schools, swelling high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidating operations.

This week, Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, said he is meeting with Detroit city officials and will set up a meeting with Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency to discuss consolidation opportunities in areas such as finance, public safety, transportation and other areas.

Bobb also is preparing a list of recommended school closures and Friday said layoff discussions are under way and would be announced closer to April, when notices would be issued. "We are moving forward with the plan," he said "Right now my focus is on my transition plan and the DEP (deficit elimination plan)."

Bobb's last day with DPS is June 30. After that, the state plans to install another financial manager who must continue to implement Bobb's plan, according to a Feb. 8 letter from Mike Flanagan, the state superintendent of public instruction.

Class sizes of 60.

50% of teachers laid off and half of the schools in the city closed.

Meanwhile the hedge fund managers and Wall Street criminals - the people who caused the financial collapse that either directly caused state and municipal budget problems or severely contributed to them - continue to party like it'd 1928.

Said it before, will say it again - until the masses rise up and FORCE the hedge fund criminals and Wall Street crooks to pay their fair share in this economy, these horrors will NOT stop.

Bloomberg Tells People To Take Mass Transit - People Get Stuck For Seven Hours

Mayor Moneybags told people to stay off the roads and take mass transit if they had to travel through last night's blizzard.

Riders on the A train who took Bloomberg's advice didn't fare so well:

Some 500 weary and frustrated straphangers were stuck on a disabled A train in Queens for seven hours after the blizzard sapped power to the third rail.

"This train is completely dead," the conductor announced at one point.

The Manhattan-bound subway, filled with passengers from Kennedy Airport who already had waited hours for flights that were ultimately canceled, came to an abrupt halt between the Aqueduct and Rockaway Blvd. stations at about 1 a.m. The train later moved to Aqueduct station, but the passengers have not been let out despite the desperate need for bathrooms, water and food.

"It wasn't like the storm just snuck up on us," said David Kelley, 25, who tried unsuccessfully to get to his security job at Kennedy before being forced to turn around. "They were aware ... They need to have a backup plan. This isn't a Third World country. This is New York City."

The passengers received some hope with an announcement that a rescue train was on the way -- only to hear a second announcement a short time later: "The rescue train is stuck."

At about 8 a.m., seven hours after their ordeal began, the passengers were finally released.

A conductor estimated that 500 passengers were on the train -- including a Daily News reporter.

This city IS third world.

Really rich and wealthy people who never get near the subway unless they take it to work for political reasons (like Bloomberg.)

And then the poor suckers who get stuck on an A train for 7 hours after being stuck at the airport for hours and aren't even allowed to get off the train to go to the bathroom.

I hope all of those folks got off at Bloomberg's stop and peed outside his door.

We Live In A Third World Country

Here's more evidence of that:

Thousands of commuters into New York City confronted another round of potentially heavy delays on the Long Island Rail Road on Tuesday morning, a day after an electrical short in a pair of cables sparked a fire in a control tower, causing an almost total shutdown of train traffic for part of the day.

The railroad canceled 33 westbound trains into the city from Long Island — about one-fourth of its normal morning rush-hour traffic — and warned of “significant schedule changes and delays” for the morning and evening rushes.

Rail service was also temporarily suspended along the busy Northeast Corridor for the second time in less than two weeks because of an Amtrak power problem. New Jersey Transit officials said the problem was affecting Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct trains.

Infrastructure is falling to pieces and instead of using stimulus money to rebuild it, they used it to fire teachers, close schools and open charters.

And the economy is tanking anyway - here's the latest evidence of that:

Housing sales in July plunged to their lowest level in more than a decade, exceeding even the grimmest forecasts.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 3.83 million was 25.5 percent below the level of July a year ago.

July was the first month that buyers could not qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000, so analysts were expecting weak results. But their consensus called for a decline of about 13 percent.

“Truly gut-wrenching,” said Jennifer H. Lee, senior economist for BMO Capital Markets.

July sales were down 27.2 percent from June. It was the lowest rate for existing-home sales, which include houses, condos, co-ops and town houses, since 1999. For sales of single-family homes, it was the lowest rate since 1995.

The number of homes on the market increased only slightly but the large drop in sales was enough to push inventory levels up to 12.5 months. A normal market has an inventory level of about six months.

Higher inventories tend to cause prices to decline, as many sellers compete to take advantage of fewer buyers.

The drop in sales came despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades.

Foreclosures continuing to rise, 13 months of inventory already on the market, lots more "shadow inventory" of foreclosed properties and homes not yet put on the market - whew!

Look out below!

Well, at least NY State won money to fire teachers, close schools and open up charters.

Building A Bridge Back To The 19th Century

It's just the hedge funders' world and it's our job to continually lighten their tax bill.

So screw keeping the roads paved:

SPIRITWOOD, N.D.—A hulking yellow machine inched along Old Highway 10 here recently in a summer scene that seemed as normal as the nearby corn swaying in the breeze. But instead of laying a blanket of steaming blacktop, the machine was grinding the asphalt road into bits.

"When [counties] had lots of money, they paved a lot of the roads and tried to make life easier for the people who lived out here," said Stutsman County Highway Superintendant Mike Zimmerman, sifting the dusty black rubble through his fingers. "Now, it's catching up to them."

Outside this speck of a town, pop. 78, a 10-mile stretch of road had deteriorated to the point that residents reported seeing ducks floating in potholes, Mr. Zimmerman said. As the road wore out, the cost of repaving became too great. Last year, the county spent $400,000 on an RM300 Caterpillar rotary mixer to grind the road up, making it look more like the old homesteader trail it once was.

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls.

Eisenhower oversaw the paving of America and the creation of the interstate highway system.

Obama is overseeing the de-paving of America and the destruction of the infrastructure grid.

I know that stimulus money could have been used to re-pave roads and refurbish the country's deteriorating infrastructure.

But then Arne and Barack wouldn't have all that Race to the Top money to take from people on food stamps and use to close schools and fire teachers.

And so we see the continued evolution of the United States into a Third World country owned and operated by corporate criminals like Bloomberg, Gates, Jobs, and Blankfein.

H/T: Atrios.