An image from Max Ernst‘s Une Semaine de Bonté
An assayer is a person who tests ores and minerals and analyzes them to determine their composition and value. They may use spectrographic analysis, chemical solutions, and chemical or laboratory equipment, such as furnaces, beakers, graduates, pipettes, and crucibles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assayer
Vice President Joe Biden charged that Mitt Romney’s policies on banking would put Americans “back in chains,” NBC News reported.
Biden, known for his over-the-top rhetoric, made the comment in a campaign stop in Danville, Va. It apparently stems from Romney opposition to financial reforms enacted by the Obama administration in response to the 2008 financial crisis.
“Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he’s gonna let the big banks again write their own rules,” Biden said according to NBC. “’Unchain Wall Street!” Biden added, “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”
The Romney campaign labeled the remarks as a “new low” after weeks of “slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/biden-romney-election-chains/2012/08/14/id/448534
Speak to me as if I am a small child or a Labrador Retriever.
What is happening exactly?
Jeremy Irons (Margin_Call)
In the beginning of Margin Call, Kevin Spacey is in tears….his dog is dying. He complains to his confessor that the dog is costing him a thousand bucks a day just to keep the poor bugger alive after it was discovered that he has a cancerous tumor on his liver.
Have you ever lost a pet? Have you ever had to bury a pet? More later!
Tucci, one of my favorite actors for over two decades plays the man who discovers in his role as a seasoned predictor of havoc in some Wall Street firm (that is most probably Goldman Sachs) that Armageddon is near. The year is 2008 and all hell will soon break through as a direct result of four or five years or more of bundling ARM mortgages for sale to the world.
Zachery Quinto plays the assayist as I have defined the term in the context of this film critique.
You might recall Mr. Quinto in another role involving superheroes of a sort!
Quinto’s character is given a computer ‘disc’ from Tucci’s character and begins working with the info contained therein at two in the morning only to discover that the entire American Financial Structure (I capitalize everything in order to give my readers awe; kind of like when repubs capitalize the name ‘Reagan’) is about to capsize into a sea of sewage created by a mortgage scam perpetrated by fascist pricks who head the American Capitalist system.
Quinto then communicates his findings to his boss and his underling and chaos ensues.
Spacey is eventually called to return to the scene of the crime and we witness one of the best board room meetings I have ever seen.
Spacey (who looks older and more haggard than usual and worn by his years working for the devil) must answer to the idiot posing as his superior (played by Simon Baker the Australian whose performance just knocked my socks off!).
Baker’s character demands to know the credentials of the fellow played by Quinto and is informed that the genius who figured out how the world was about to end has several degrees in physics and computer software.
SO YOU ARE A ROCKET SCIENTIST?
One of the best lines ever delivered in all of cinema!
As background we all know that we are in our current economic dilemma because of Mitt-like bastards who bundled mortgages sold to folks who had no idea what the final monthly fee would be for those mortgages.
Jeremy Irons shows up in a helicopter on the top of the skyscraper housing the fraudulent folks selling the bundles of crap that Quinto has proved to be more worthless than polls created by Pudge Luntz.
(I just viewed Irons playing Klaus Van Bulow and if you cannot keep from an urge to shoot the sonofabitch, you are a better man than me!)
Irons plays the CEO of this fictional doppleganger of Goldman-Sachs.
Irons plays the bastard who demands that Quinto speak to him as if he were a child or a dog.
Irons represents everything I hate about this country with an English accent. Hahahahaha
Based upon the rocket scientist’s findings, the order is sent out to kill all the newborn babies in the empire…or rather sell the worthless crap that has emanated from the fascist organization for years to unsuspecting buyers (unsuspecting fascist pricks who represent millions of investors per unions and trusts and whatever) as quickly as possible.
Spacey, who still has managed to keep some of his humanity following decades of working for these fascist pigs, gives the pitch to all his underlings (whereby we learn that he really has lost 99% of his humanity decades before) that they must do everything they can to sell all interests in these bundles within an hour or two of the opening bell and that in return they will all most likely lose their jobs but gain between one mill and three mill in bonuses!
If we are successful today, you shall lose all of the trust you have ever had with your buyers….
But our talents have been used for the greater good!
Kevin Spacey
The worthless feces is sold on the market that morning following the opening bell by liars hoping to make a million bucks out of nothing.
As the credits run, Kevin Spacey is digging the grave for his dog and the sound of the digging lasts longer than the scene as the credits run.
I have had to bury a dog or two during my worthless lifetime and let me tell you that there is real grief experienced in the process.
I recall the last time I participated in this lonely ritual of internment, and I felt so lost and so aching and so helpless.
Spacey ends up being the greatest actor in the film that features so many great actors.
And as I viewed this film for the fourth time, I realize that Spacey best reflects what is wrong with this nation and not the Iron’s character.
The real number reflecting despair and loss perpetrated by corporate pigs like those running Goldman-Sachs and other corporate vampires amounts to hundreds of millions of real people losing everything all at once.
I did have one thought.
What if this film had come out this year instead of two years ago?
Then I recalled that the film aired in 2010 when the morons who voted in that year’s election threw out the House majority in favor of more vampires.
So what the hell?
We’re all goin to hell.
Once Upon a Paradigm 
Gripping film. I’d forgotten about the dead dog, though. I find it intersting that Biden is taking so much flack fr back in chains when our nation incarcerates so many prisoners already.
State motto: “Visit Louisiana — stay ten to twenty years.”
I just saw Joe and he aint backing down!
With what rush and beckerhead and palin and bachmann and king and other repubs have said about my President who is kidding whom?
It is going to be interesting to see how all this plays out. Pa. voters are up against a wall. They are talking about ground troops working the Philly area now to see how many they can get ID’s for. 750,000 voters is a lot. But I don’t think Pa. can save Romney’s bacon.
I was thinking old people don’t like to see other old people lose their independence and rights because they don’t want to lose theirs. Pa. is full of old people even in the red counties.
DOJ needs to get on this with section 2 of the voter rights act. The largest chunk is people of color that this effects.
DOJ is scared to move on any of this for fear of being seen as some racial thing.
And here I thought, I knew who I am!
But without proper papers…..
It is also hurting everyone else. There is many old white people too that don’t have an recent diver licence. Pa makes anyone over the age of 65 retake a driver test. DD couldn’t keep his licence up for ID. Then later on the state says hey you now have to have a new one after you Have been disabled for a long time with out one. This hurts a real broad group. I know there is big time pressure on DOJ on this.
Up until 2010 I made $200/month plus another $200.00 a month in food stamps.
After I paid my rent I had had 130 bucks left. $40 went to the internet so that I would not kill myself.
Anyway, I get my SS check in 2010 and come to find out I cannot cash it because my DL had lapsed.
Well I have to travel 6 miles round trip to procure a new license and I had no ‘money’! And I had to walk it.
I begged a neighbor for $27.00 so that I could get the license and then cash the check. I promised her payback within 3 hours!
Well she came through and when I returned–a new man–she would take no award although I talked her into a $20.00 bonus for her little puppy!
No kidding.
Now I got to cash a check for 2 grand for my troubles.
But what if I just wished to vote?
No frickin way!
Anyway, I have an up to date DL and I vote in every election but damn…
What would you give up to vote? Socks?
This is not silliness.
An expired ID is no good for voting!
the end
Thank you for helping me make my point. In around the early 1970 Pa started making the elderly take diver tests. My aunt decided not to bother with when she turned 65 because she had been driving since WWI and never took a drivers test. She sold her car and moved into a small town. She could walk just about every where she needed. She was 94 when she died. This voter change is a real burden on them to try to get the money and transportation to be ready to vote in Nov. That is why.the media is throwing out such a large number of people this effects. Like you said they may decide it is too.big of a burden just to.vote.
A few weeks ago I had to renew my DL. I don’t feel comfortable behind the wheel anymore because of vision probs so I don’t actually drive anymore. But, I wanted to vote and we need a photo ID here in Michigan.
Well, I took a stab at the vision test where you plant your face in this funnel thing and read the lighted line of letters. I flunked.
So, I told the clerk could I get a non-license photo ID instead? She said sure and then listed all the pieces of paper I had to bring in to prove who I was. Seriously. I had to provide a certified birth certificate and proof of residence like a utility bill. My old pictured driver’s license was not acceptable as proof of my existence even though I was standing right there in front of her with my current license and the DL renewal form that had been mailed to my house!
I guess the horror must have shown on my face because then the clerk asked me if I thought I would do better using the old fashioned vision chart on the wall. I said, “Let’s give it a shot.” I passed and now have my new DL in my wallet. (Kinda scary, huh? They issued me a license even though I can’t see!)
All this just so I can vote. Plus it cost $18 to renew. If I had had to provide a certified birth certificate because I didn’t have a copy, that would have cost another $30. For people who are poor in the first place, this expense is hard to cover.
My next challenge will be getting an absentee ballot. For that, you have to go in person to the county clerk and ask for one. Seriously. How in the hell could a crippled person in a wheelchair or something even get to the damned office?!? Or an agoraphobic? Jeebus.
But, these are all little road hazards the Republicans are building to disenfranchise those who typically vote Dem.
Flower, we have to find a place to publish this one!
We must somehow communicate your story.
I have not driven since ’02. And I knew (nothing to do with voting specifically) that life would go easier if I kept the DL up to date!
This is just too good a piece to keep than a comment to my mostly unread blog!
Well, if you can find a place, go ahead and copy and paste it. Maybe a good rant about disenfranchised voters from you would help call attention to the problem. And, you can always post at dag, you know. I understand your reasons for stepping away there, but what the hell. It’s only pixels. 😉
(If you like this one, you should hear the story about getting my Medicare card. Yikes.)
Two and half years ago Florida started a law making it mandatory to have a birth certificate or a current pass port to renew your DL each time. I walked into the DMV just before the New Year to get the tags renewed for my double wide trailer for the new year. She asked me if she could do anything else I said no. Then she told me she could renew my drivers license because it would expire in 6 months and that would save me from having to get a new birth certificate. The old microfish long form with the embossed seal is no longer recognized in Florida. I have to have one with a water mark paper short form. I have a class A CDL with safe driver record. So she said I could renew the CDL for 8 years to the age of 70. I spent my grocery money at the DMV a couple of days before the law took effect. I am probably never going to get behind a wheel of 18 Wheeler ever again but instinct told me to renew it because of the crazy right. I have to get a birth certificate from Ohio. It is now done through a private company and not the state on line. I managed to make it through the month by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Then catching up the following months.
For my grandson to get his pell grant this year. His mother had to go to the IRS for a form and then to the DCF for the food stamp record showing him while he was in high school. We didn’t have to do that last year. I had to buy her the gas to run all over the county. Also this year the little kids have to.have uniforms for public elementary school. This is a county wide school district but none of the suburb schools have too just the poor urban schools. This kind of stuff is so punitive and expensive to do when you are on a fixed income.