Smokey Joe and the Stock Market
I’ve told y’all about Smokey Joe Barton before, the Republican congresssleeze from the Dallas area. They call him Smokey Joe because he is owned lock, stock, and oozing waste by people who make a living polluting.
By most accounts, he is the most corrupt man in congress. He’s the one who apologized to BP for our Gulf water diluting their their oil.
He is a card carrying member of the Tea Party caucus.
I do not know what to make of this, but it appears that he’s cashing out of the stock market.
I would say that he knows something we don’t know. But, we do. We know a default will be a disaster. And the clock is ticking.
And Smokey Joe knows that, too. He just doesn’t care.
This is or could be a violation of the STOCK Act which is the prohibition on insider trading by congresscritters and their staff
1This just in: in response to growing pressure and in an attempt to be more culturally sensitive by offending as few people as possible, the Washington Redskins have announced a name change: they have decided to drop “Washington” from their name.
2And daChipster wins again!!!
3The statistic recently published – 1 in 7, 32,000,000 people in this country, can’t read a newspaper. Texas seems to have more than their share. Joe, you are at the head of the group, behind Louie, the Dumb.
4He’s gonna take the money and run … probably to somewhere where he can’t be touched for insider trading … way to go, asshat!!
Oh, I so hope this is exactly what he is doing and he gets caught in the act!!
5Wonder how many other GOP/Tea Party members like Ted Cruz, John Boehner and Eric Cantor are bailing.
6It has already started:
7http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/10/14/the-default-has-already-begun/
When I was at the gym this morning an old guy next to me had Fox on the TV. I recognized Louie G, but luckily the sound was off. I kept my eyes on my step-counter, waiting for Louie to get out my face, but they apparently let him go on and on. Gee-minee!
8The general outlook for the world economy if the D-baggers continue with their apocalyptic approach to the universe is that it will be the pits. That almost surely means a drop in share values which will be reflected in the values of the mutual funds etc. based on them. The hedge fund dudes who are backing the D-baggers have undoubtedly got a set of derivatives that will save their raggedy butts regardless of which way the market moves but when Smokey Joe and his crowd cash out, they’ll need to find out what to do with the cash. As it happens, one of the proposal for T-bills (up until now the safest place to park cash) is to guarantee back interest (at something on the order of 8%) to those willing to pony up the bucks to buy them during a default situation (I can’t remember which economist-blogger wrote about that recently but I know I’m not twisted enough to have thought it up myself).
9But as usual, Jim Wright has summed up the real problem with the D-bagger crowd who seems to be so wrapped up in its notion of winning (See Also: Charlie Sheen) that they can’t even entertain the notion that they might be totally and utterly wrong.
http://www.stonekettle.com/2013/10/the-dark-and-rolling-sea.html
Been alternating between shoveling gunky mud from my patio (Austin flooding!) and watching the muddy DC gunk being reported on MSNBC. With occasional glances at weather radar there’s something pottentially nasty southwest of San Antonio that I’m hoping will slide north of me. The gunky mud on my patio is more attractive.
10They’d rather destroy our country than allow people to have health insurance???????????????
11Bush and Repugs caused the first recession and now they’re at it again. There has to be something the President can do, like have them all thrown into federal prison.
Since that is a Federal Election Commission report, do you suppose he is shifting those investments from his personal accounts to his campaign fund? Actually, it’s more encouraging to believe that he is going to run hide in Brazil. But we probably couldn’t be that lucky.
12I don’t think it’s really about healthcare, except that the law was the final straw. It’s about conservative worldview, which has been carefully crafted and created over a 40 year period. If you can make time, read “Inside the GOP” by Democracy Corps; it’s really long, but worth the read, especially if you want to try talk with moderate republicans.
It’s also a good read if you want to understand tea party and evangelical republicans. I couldn’t figure out Ted Cruz’s motivation until I read about his Dominionist father (try http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-caldwell/christian-dominionism-debt-default-_b_4097017.html , or http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_radical_christian_right_and_the_war_on_government_20131006).
For some in this movement, the default and fall of the government has always been the goal.
Batten down the hatches folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. And we are all going to have pay for it, the US bond rating is already taking a hit.
13Smokey Joe and his ilk are withdrawing all their funds cuz the Rapture is coming and they want to take the dough with them.
Hell, if the Rapture does materialize and sucks up Smokey and all the rest of the Pea Tardy, I really can’t find any reason to object.
14I can’t help feeling that Cruz is simply rigging the game so his wife at Goldman Sachs can cash in. If a corporation were absolutely sure of a US Govt. default they could place some interesting bets…
15Jeebus. But then the Ant Christ would be either red or black and that would made the Tea Parts very mad! Thanks for this photo, JJ, and for making me laugh and keep on fighting.
16Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) broke ranks from many fellow Republicans Tuesday evening, calling on her party to give up hope of blocking Obamacare in the budget fight.
17“Nothing positive will be achieved by prolonging this shutdown any longer, or crossing the debt limit threshold,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “It’s time for my colleagues to face reality.”
The market is soaring today. Smokey Joe missed a lot of profit by being in such a hurry!
18This guy use to be the congressman for College Station. He is an Aggie. He use to send out questionnaires that were very funny and designed to get the answer the wanted. I use to enjoy answering them the opposite way. “Do you want the Commies to take over our government. Yes or No.” I answered yes.
19And the insight to cash out of the stock market comes from one of the guys who thought they could force Obama to kill the ACA by shutting down the government.
How’d that work out for ya, Joe?
20@Wally – I wouldn’t put it past him.
21@Dan A–Yes, always Stonekettle Station. Amazing…(Thanks to JJ for pointing me there…)
22