Over the last couple of days I've started to believe the Greece failure will be a real cultural shift for Americans. They will finally stop believing if Europe can do "something" the US can too.

Example: If Europeans can retire at 50, why can't we? Or if Europeans can have free health care, why can't we?

I've started to notice hostility at every level for the government. Everyone understands they make way more than the private sector for equivalent jobs.

That is one way to misgauge the nation.

"In a speech this afternoon in the Rose Garden, President Barack Obama explained his administration's decision to allow as many as 800,000 young illegal immigrants to apply for temporary legal status and work permits."

President Money Bags has clearly lost momentum and is throwing everything at the wall he thinks will stick. So, when he made his little Rose Garden speech this morning I had to really laugh. That immigration thing is likely to inflame people way more than pull them in. This is the reason why.

Way back in 2007 and before, California was filled to the brim with illegals. Likely almost every single contractor and homeowner that used contractors at the time had come into contact with them. Everyone in California turned a blind eye to it. Everyone! There was so much work, you absolutely could not avoid this.

Fast forward 2 years after the crash. These exact same contractors had suddenly become anti immigration. Sharply so. These people are coming in and undercutting our work - they said.

I remember being so surprised at the time. I think I even blogged about it once, although I'm having a hard time finding the post.

The mood of the nation two years ago, is definitly NOT the mood of the nation now.

I think I'm going to schedule my whole weekend so I can stare into space.

I mean, our world could be completely different next week. Which is the most dramatic sentence ever. But how can you predict what a population who really thought they could retire at 50 and feels entitled to Germany's money because of something that happened in WWII? I don't know what exactly, but I've been seeing a lot of Greeks talk about it.

People are starting to use that word....

Deflation.

I continue to believe there is a resistance level for gas at 4.50 a gallon. Each and every time we hit that - the economy goes into contraction. I said it here and a couple of other times. I don't feel like finding the links.

I believe that when tax time came around, people had so much recession fatigue they went out and spent money. You know why? When I did a rough draft of my taxes and realised I was getting a big fat refund, I thought now maybe I could put a down payment on a truck. Within a week, I was scared shitless. And by the time it was deposited in my account I told Mr S. - I don't feel a bit better.

I don't believe I am alone in these feelings.

Now the funny question - inflation. You can not outrun it forever. Yet, we have this gas ceiling. It's obvious the economy can't withstand gas above that level. Or at least, it has yet proven it can.

This guy gets a hundred and fifty six grand a year to hand out puppies.

To Beat Panhandling, SF Tries Puppies.

"To beat homelessness and its accompanying social ills, San Francisco city officials have a cunning plan.

Release the hounds!

Dogs will be issued to single-room occupancy hotel residents who can prove that they're capable of providing care, according to the San Francisco Chronicle -- and with the dogs, a $50 to $75 weekly stipend to cover dog food and other canine necessities, the newspaper reported.

The idea is aptly named WOOF -- Wonderful Opportunities for Occupants and Fidos, according to Bevan Dufty, who is serving as Mayor Ed Lee's homeless czar.

Starting Aug. 1, dogs from local shelters will be available to formerly homeless people living in city-funded SROS or other housing, the newspaper reported. In order to receive a dog, and the cash, the would-be owner must "not [be] severely mentally ill," not be a hoarder, not have a history of violence, and be "seeking treatment if they have addictions," the newspaper reported.

They must also swear not to panhandle. "If they're caught begging with the puppy, the animal will be taken back to the shelter," the newspaper reported."

When I first read this story, I was sure a 20 year old girl concocted this ridiculous idea. But no. It was a grown man. It gets better. On top of the three hundred dollars a month they get from you Dear Taxpayer, (oh yeah, 75 bucks a week doesn't seem so bad until you realize there are four weeks in a month) they also get several training sessions and all the dog food, toys, leashes, and vet visits they need. Here.

If I couldn't put a finer point on this whole idea - that is 3,600 grand a year on top of all the other social services they get. And probably top of the line vet care. This is San Fransisco after all.

Note the Chronicle story states the stipend will be to cover the care costs of the animals. SFweekly above, says it is in addition to. Judging from what I have read about this guy for two minutes - I'm guessing SFweekly has the correct information.

Of Monsters and Murples.

I thought I'd give a post about Jasmine today. Normally I post more pictures when they are in this cute one year phase. However, she has not been cute at all. She's been driving us crazy. She is ridiculously strong willed.

The bunny we replaced her with was such a delicate rabbit for a mid size. It sounds stupid to say. She was born pigeon toed, so she always had sort of this light demeanor.

Jasmine is sort of more like.....a monster truck. She went through a false pregnancy. Which literally makes them the most aggressive animals on the planet. She gave Mr S. one of the most severe bites we've ever had. This is saying a lot because owning rabbits means you really get bitten all of the time.

They start ripping out their fur. In all the time we've owned rabbits, we'd never had false pregnancy. It was all I could do to not rip out her ovaries.

She has started evening out the past two weeks. Which is a relief. She had the kind of aggression you can't really tolerate for a lifetime. She would have had to have been neutered.

Sadly in my opinion, you can't tell if you have good breeding stock for about 5 years. And by good - I mean long living. I don't know that I will breed her. But I'd like to have the option.

Also, her ear never dropped. For a couple of weeks when she was younger I was sure it would drop. She is at an age now where we are almost certain it might stay up. So, technically she is a half velveteen lop.

Back story on why we call her Murple sometimes.

Late last night while watching Doomberg I turned to Mr S. and said - I can't believe I could be living in a world where Nazi's are a real thing again.

He turns to me without missing a beat and says - I can't believe I'm living in a world where Zhombie-ism is a real thing.

Which shuts me down. Because what can you say to that? Oh don't be shocked, you know face eating guy affected everyone.

Capitola set.

As many of you know - lately the world gets me down. It isn't that I don't lead a normal life. I do. But those moments that allow you to not think about the future are rarer and rarer.

So, I rotate through the need to satisfy the appetite of my blog, and things that I hope will make me feel care free. I mean, we can't all quit our jobs and do whatever makes us "happy". That is some bullshit the last generation and the baby boomers thinks is reality.

Honestly, I'm not even sure what that is right now. I think what would make me happiest is not having to constantly distract myself from sheer panic.

Apparently Capitola is that place. I went for a car show. Missed the car show. The second this month. But I left feeling..... really better.



I sidled into this professional photographers photo shoot. Because sometimes I think I want to be a portrait photographer. It's also why you get this side shot.



I had this intense urge to buy a cottage in Capitola Village. It's this little river inlet.

See, the problem as I see it is spanning the gap from beach bum to property owner beach bum.

Thank gawd all the things that will make me super fat are far away.

This weekend Mr S. found us a southern restaurant in Los Gatos. Which is decidedly rich, not southern. But they claimed to serve grits. Which is somewhat of a new thing for me. I spent a couple of years in the South, and I never once touched a grit.

I end up at a chicken and waffles place a couple of years ago, and now I love this shit. Maybe I thought it needed to be eaten too healthily before. Because you have to gob it in butter, and then pour syrup on top.

Unlike the chicken and waffles place, whose grits are creamy, these looked more like mashed potatoes. Which kept tricking your brain, because it doesn't have the texture of potatoes.

All of the fair that is fit to print. END

I swear I thought these were conjoined.

All of the fair that is fit to print. Part1.

Yesterday we actually contemplated going to the zoo. Nothing else has gotten me out of my funk. We wound up at the San Mateo County Fair instead which was almost like the zoo.

We saw tree porcupines.



And, this animal I will call Satan.





Sometimes I think I am a portrait photographer.



OH! The Da Vinci surgical robot was there. And they were letting you take test drives. They even had a surgeon there answering questions.

My question was - why did you bring it to the fair? I guess they had a Made in America theme. And what do I care since it was pretty cool to see the bot without needing expensive surgery.

Look ma!

Chicks man.

It wasn't tardly or bad ass enough for me to do much more than smile.

Must stop asking people how they are.

What do u do when your checker goes into great detail of how their dog just died?

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind?

I like the weekends because it feels like the whole world pauses.

Such a sorry state of affairs. There is no catalyst for the stock market to go any higher, except for the hope of government printing.

Which is precisely why people are not spending money.

Just saw someone I used to know on Americas got Talent. I'm stunned.

I've never wanted to vote less in my life. I hate all of these people.

Dear FB, you know your business is in trouble when you have to pick up 13 year olds.

Maybe they are going after the lucrative Catholic priest market.

Time stands still.

When I woke up this morning, I could have done at least three things. I just didn't want to do any of them. Even a car show. Maybe tomorrow.

I started going to all of these events to distract me from how horrible I felt about the economy. You know, if you could forget for a brief few hours - it was enough. It isn't like that for me now. We all know things are going to get much worse before they get better.

The government has used up most of the tricks available to it. Their ability to herd you into one direction or another seems to be getting more limited. And tax season is completely over - so, no money from the sky.

So, Mr S and I decided we are going to work on turning the garage into a shop. We hope to build robots.

I've been covering them so long, it's hard to see what I can contribute that hasn't already been done. Maybe it will just turn into an escape, since the people who say things - say, next year could be worse.

Pot luck Wednesday.

I've been busy today. So, no rants. Lucky you! You get a Noble and an Xprize car from Saba Motors.

These pictures are two weeks old.

Sitting in traffic we accidentally ran across a car show at the San Jose Mercury News building. I didn't post these because I wasn't expecting to be at a car show, and I only had mint berry. Who's batteries promptly failed. Stupid non standard batteries.





These were taken with a cell phone.

Today Mr. S chides me about my punctuation. I point him to my title banner.

Today on, While the world burns.

Oh yeah. The week is starting that way.

Well, it's good to know that banks and brokerage houses treat the filthy rich just as badly as the rest of us. If I were Mark Zuckerburg I'd be punching at the sky.

One week you are on top of the world, the next week all your employees hate you. Because you know, they are still locked up for two more months. With the way this stock is falling, this stock could be down by half. I mean, for three days in big bold letters, Marketwatch said the stock was worth 13 bucks and change. I would guess it eventually falls to that range.

And then there is California thinking they were playing the Facebook lottery. Last week it was estimated that thousands of millionaires would be created by the IPO. I think that army just became smaller. Replaced by the people who listened to this guy:

Facebook Short-Sellers in Front of ‘Freight Train’

Published: Wednesday, 23 May 2012 | 4:21 PM ET
By: Matthew J. Belvedere Street Signs, Producer

Investors looking to short Facebook stock are getting “in front of a freight train,” analyst Laura Martin of Needham & Co. told CNBC.

Martin initiated coverage of Facebook Wednesday with a “buy” rating and a $40 per share price target — that’s a 29 percent premium to Tuesday’s closing price.

Fanimeh 2012.

I really wasn't in to this today. I'm still in a funk. Don't say I never give you anything.

EN-V.

I have to admit - I kinda like these En-v's. Although I'm not sure were they fit in, on the road to electric heaven. They max out at 25 miles an hour. But even my town has changed all the speed limits in residential areas to be 30 miles an hour. I guess when they realised they didn't have money to pay the popo, they decided five miles an hour wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Having said all that - I'd never in a million years give any money to GM. They can rot in hell for all I care. I am happy to have seen one though.

Oh the drama.

"The first issue - if the "economic recovery is accelerating" why is California's revenue still decelerating on numbers that have been revised downward something like 5 times?

The second issue - It is becoming an extremely uncomfortable spot to be placing an IPO for anything right now. It doesn't matter that the entire finances of California apparently depends on you. The world doesn't care about your finances California. They have a few problems of their own.

A company that is suppose to have such a strong market position will certainly be embarrassed if the market takes a dive, and the IPO doesn't go well. It hurts your brand."

I wrote this about Facebook at the beginning of February in What if facebook withdrew its IPO.

The things is - there were many articles out last year (2011) saying that Facebooks revenues were slowing. Read: All the Cool Kids Are Quitting Facebook.

Then there was the crazy valuations. 5 times what Google commanded. Seriously? Google has done nothing but gobble up IP. Google has F-U space money. Facebook isn't going to space! And if it did - so what?

Then there is California with it's hands out. I'd read they already penciled in the 2 billion they expected to make in taxes based on a 35.00 stock price.

Look, Facebook likely waited too long to go IPO. You are suppose to do it while you are still growing. Their growth had obviously peaked.

And I want to feel bad for Mark Zuckerburg - I think this debacle mostly wasn't his fault. But he has the President on speed dial and I am just sick to death of crony capitalism. It's why no one trusts the market anymore. Instead of taking a company public to grow it - they take companies public to loot the individual investors.