Always Talking and Saying Nothing

First published over at Chris Martenson's site.

And in case you think this is something new....click this.

(1)
"At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained,"
Ben Bernanke, March 28, 2007in a statement to Congress’ joint economic committee

(2)
"It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions.“
Ben Bernanke, October 15th, 2007

(3)
"[The U.S. economy] has a strong labor force, excellent productivity and technology, and a deep and liquid financial market that is in the process of repairing itself.”
Ben Bernanke, January 18, 2008

(4)
“The long-term fundamentals of our economy are strong," but "[w]e believe the economy is going to continue to grow slowly here. This is not an emergency.“
Hank Paulson January 18, 2008

5)
"[The economy] is fundamentally strong, diverse and resilient.“
Hank Paulson, February 14th, 2008

(6)
'The worst is likely to be behind us . . . . ”
Hank Paulson, May 7, 2008

(7)
On Freddie and Fannie: “They will make it through the storm”, "… in no danger of failing.","…adequately capitalized“ (two months later they were nationalized)
Ben Bernanke, July 16th, 2008

(8)
"I think all of our efforts, so far, have produced results. … And I think as those green shoots begin to appear in different markets and as some confidence begins to come back that will begin the positive dynamic that brings our economy back. … I do see green shoots"
Ben Bernanke, March 15, 2009
And:
“What you’re starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy.”
President Obama, April 10, 2009

(9)
"I think the sense of a ball falling off the table -- which is what the economy has felt like since the middle of last fall -- I think we can be reasonably confident that that's going to end within the next few months and you will no longer have that sense of free-fall,"
Lawrence Summers, April 8, 2009

(10)
“We are hopeful that the very sharp decline we saw beginning last fall through early this year will moderate considerably in the near term and we will see positive growth by the end of the year,"
Ben Bernanke, May 5, 2009to the Joint Economic Committee
and
"The recent data ... suggest that the pace of contraction may be slowing, and they include some tentative signs that final demand, especially demand by households, may be stabilizing,“
Ben Bernanke, May 5, 2009to the Joint Economic Committee

Sign of the Times

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.

A depression is when you lose your job.

This little site is a sign of the times.

Dead Malls

So is this article.

1,000 Apply for 50 Fast-Food Jobs

Remember...take time to enjoy the economic apocalypse.

This Winter....

Last winter we spent nearly $2000 heating our large and inefficient home. This winter we are on the Jimmy Carter plan. We never turn the heat up above 65 degrees in the day and we crank it down to 55 at night. In the day we wear socks and sweaters and at night we snuggle under numerous blankets. There are some other larger things we are doing to simplify, save money, and reduce our energy consumption. I can’t talk about them yet….but stay tuned…over the next year you will see some BIG changes in our lives. These types of things can be considered drudgery or adventure. We choose to think of them as adventure.

Obama, Oil, and the First Wave

The Obama administration is almost upon us. I have told friends and relatives for years that I do not envy the person stepping into the oval office in early 2009. Last week president-elect Obama acknowledged what we all know…the economy is bad and it will get worse. While it is nice to see the typical sunshine pumping about the economy that has been pouring out of D.C. for way too long come to an end…it is very apparent that our “leaders” are still a number of steps behind. In fact they are just as behind as they were 4 years ago when oil had never breached $40 a barrel and a number of concerned folks were trying to raise awareness about the danger we would soon find ourselves in with oil topping $100 and the unknown economic catastrophe triggers it could switch. Well, all of that happened.

I admit, while I did clearly see the energy side of the equation, the nature of this first phase of economic hardship was only learned by me as it was happening. So where are we now? This is just the first wave. Things are now happening much too quickly for our big lumbering governmental and political systems to have a prayer of keeping up. We must obviously fend for ourselves. Oil is hovering at $40 a barrel as I type this. Demand is about 86 million barrels per day (mbpd) while supply is about 87 mbpd. Numerous energy projects have been cancelled due to the recent price collapse. A lot of work that was economically viable at $80 a barrel is not even worth considering today.

Thankfully oil demand has been slowed by the economic downturn. When things start looking rosier, keep an eye on those oil prices. Demand can turn up in the blink of an eye. What happens when demand exceeds supply? The price keeps going up until something (something very big and important) breaks. Then the price comes down when demand has sufficiently been destroyed. Does that sound familiar? It should. You have just lived through a very mild cycle of it. It will get more exciting from here on out. It can be frightening or exhilarating…but that depends on how you have prepared. Of course most people won’t connect the dots and will do the easy thing….blame the government or the president or whoever else. Like I said, this is a bad time to be the president. Good day and God bless.

The Crash Course

A few of you may have noticed that there is a link stuck to the very top of my blog that says "click here now". This is an EXCELLENT course put together by a man named Chris Martenson. It thoroughly breaks down and explains a number of things that New-Think has addressed in a comparably amateur fashion over the past few years. You owe it to yourself to check it out. Many of you will not click on a more important link in the next few years. The entire course is about 3 hours long...but it is broken into bite size chunks. I encourage you to give it about 15 minutes of your time...if, after that, you think it's not relevant then move along...but be sure to save the link, because I believe events over the next few years will change your mind. If you like it, break out the popcorn!

Thus Believeth New-Think

Today I will tie together the last 3 posts and tell you what to expect from the future, economically speaking.

How does all of this fit together? Yesterday's series of if-then statements are a useful tool, BUT, it will not be that black and white. Right before oil demand began being destroyed by the tanking economy, demand had been slightly exceeding supply. Customers (mainly very poor ones) were priced out of the oil consumption business and those who could afford to buy what they could not (us) bought it. That is why oil was so expensive. As a consequence of the high prices, though, we were able to fund a LOT of projects to find new oil and get it out of the ground (or sand or shale) as quickly as possible. People like T. Boone Pickens began rolling out multi-billion dollar alternative energy projects like thousands of giant wind-mills. People naturally used less because they could not afford it.

Now people are losing jobs and having trouble getting new credit cards....the cost of oil has drastically decreased. The government has shown it will do whatever it takes (including change the rules in the middle of the game and ignore the constitution) to prop the economy up for as long as it can. Actually, they are surprisingly good at it. It is amazing how, when the money stops flowing, you see who is really loyal to who…that is, if you are paying attention.

Anyway, it appears to New-Think that a full collapse of the U.S. economic system is still a very real possibility within the next year. If you are rolling your eyes at that, please think back and remember how you rolled your eyes when we told you oil was going over $100 and the dow was going below 10,000. Turns out those were very conservative predictions. If a systemic collapse happens, all of the following predictions go out the window.

If, however, the system holds up.....

The price of oil will continue to fall for the very short term and cause numerous project cancellations in the oil and gas industry and it will bring the “alternative” energy industry to a near stand still. Especially after 6 months when everyone forgets what $4 gas was like. The economy might not get much better, but eventually, demand will increase (either from very low prices or a more stable world economy) and we will find ourselves worse off than before because we were still, after all, using millions of barrels or oil every day while cancelling the energy projects we needed to sustain the practice. The price of oil will once again skyrocket…until something else breaks. Then we’ll do it all again. Only every time it will be more painful. Welcome to the long emergency. Don’t borrow any more money. Get out of debt now. Don’t borrow any more money. Get out of debt now.

I mentioned politics in the original post title but didn’t say much about it at all. No, your candidate, whoever he or she is, cannot fix this. They will keep telling you/us they can, though. We’ll hear a lot about a lot of things, and I’ll keep getting e-mails about the stupid things politicians say to win votes…but won’t actually work, asking me if it is true. I won’t say most politicians don’t care BUT I will unequivocally declare that most politicians (especially in the legislative and executive branches of the current administration and the next) do not yet fully understand these issues. If I have to hear about the Bakken formation or Utah oil shale one more time from one of these folks I’m gonna…….It doesn't matter who you voted for in regard to energy and the economic issues.....in these regards democrats and republicans are one large monolithic, idiotic party. By the time the ballot gets to you the choice is primarily an illusion.


Later.

Gas Is Under $2 per Gallon - We're All Saved

Gas is under $2 a gallon! We’re all saved!

No. Sorry, you are not saved. The finite resource you know as crude oil is still finite. Here is a brief, generalized, and grossly overly simplified line of reasoning of why gas costs under 2 bucks per gallon now. Prior to the “Credit Crunch/Crisis” (that terminology is inaccurate…but if I don’t call it what CNN calls it some people might not know what I’m talking about). Anyway…before this whole economic downturn got going full steam, you’ll recall that oil was about $150 bucks per barrel. Gas was over $4 per gallon. That (among other things) was putting a major strain on most Western consumers. $4 gasoline (and it’s trickle down effect) helped cause the “credit crisis” by being an agitating factor when adjustable rate mortgages began to reset and just causing a strain on consumers in general. I felt it. Didn’t you? It wasn’t just the cost either, was it? It was the concern over when the next shoe would drop. Well the next shoe dropped, and it looked like a “credit crisis”. Unfortunately the shoe was not on a human. It was on a centipede and there are about 98 shoes left to drop. Did we take that analogy too far?

Onto something more interesting. What does the “credit crisis” do to oil..and what will happen in the future. What does it mean?!?!?!?!?!?

The price of gasoline has primarily gone down because demand has gone down. AND because future traders FEAR it will go down more and BELIEVE supply will outpace demand. Perhaps it will. Obviously, when people are doing well, economically speaking, they use more gasoline.

1. IF world economies makes a turn for the prosperous THEN demand will start marching right along again and the price of oil will test even higher prices as demand again knocks on the door of supply capacity.

2. IF the economy stays flat or dives further AND oil supply growth can truly keep up with oil demand THEN prices may go down even further for a time.

3. IF the economy stays flat or dives further AND oil supply growth cannot keep up with oil demand THEN…Katy bar the door….the price of oil will go up until another shoe drops. Ad Infinitum.

The 3 if-then statements, above, cover the most likely scenarios we will see in the next 2-5 years.

Tune in tomorrow when we wrap this up, tie it up with a neat little bow, and tell you what to expect for the next few years.

No One Could Have Seen This Coming

This is the second post in a multi-post series on macro-economics, oil, politics, and the near future.

No one could have seen this coming (in reference to current economic downturn).

I have heard some very smart people say this. They are wrong. It was very easy to see the crisis coming, and a lot of people did. When people say things like this it tells me they have not formed their worldview (economic worldview anyway) on understanding the facts and then thinking critically about them.

No in-depth analysis is needed. In the main stream media you will hear a lot of technical talk about how we have to free up credit….so people can borrow…so they can keep consuming…so the economy can keep growing. When the economy is truly “fixed” this type of reasoning will be dead. More credit is not the solution. Living within our means, as individuals, as a society, and as a world is the solution. The economy cannot grow infinitely. We can make it grow for a longer period of time if we do stuff like make it easier for people to borrow money (people who shouldn’t), and borrow and steal from the future ($700,000,000,000 bailout ring a bell?) to prop up the present…in the end though, the higher we prop it up…the harder it will fall. It is not hard to predict. It is easy to see the train coming down the tracks right at us.

Some of you may not yet be drinking the kool-aid I am serving, so let me put it another way. If you make $100,000 a year and spend $50,000 a year on your house and $50,000 a year on other stuff and still need $30,000 a year for your 3 cars….would planning to borrow $30,000 a year, every year, be a good solution? If you cut back and rent an apartment you can afford, eat at home a few nights a week, and pay cash for a Chevy Cavalier that would be a disaster. Why? Because if everyone did it what would happen to the mortgage company? How could they increase profits if everyone decided they didn’t need a McMansion? How would the Lexus dealer survive if he didn’t have a bunch of 30 year olds making $80,000 a year taking out six year loans to buy a car?

If that happened organizations like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and lots of other mortgage banks would be in serious trouble AND auto company CEOs would have to beg the government for money…because…NO ONE COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING. Give me a break.

By the way…if you didn’t get the sarcasm (I hope it was only one or two of you)….a bunch of mortgage firms did fail and auto company CEOs are on capital hill begging for money as I type this.

Tune in tomorrow for more in this mult-post series about the future.

Economics, Oil, Politics, and the Future

Regular New-Think readers know that we enjoy prognostication. Please allow us to clear up a few things for you regarding the next decade or so.

First, let’s get our credentials out of the way. Way back before oil was above $40 per barrel we predicted that oil prices were set to skyrocket on the basic principles of supply and demand. Way back when the Dow was up in the 14,000-15,000 range New-Think told you it would fall below 10,000 (and probably much further) within the next year. Since we are going to spend the next few posts talking about macro-economics and energy (in the most interesting way possible) it is important that you keep these things in mind. We have not been wrong about calling the shots before they happen in the past.

Now, here is a disclaimer. This is NOT investment advice. My only investment advice to you is to get out of debt. The world economic situation has entered a VERY volatile phase and my prognostication is going to be full of “if-then” type statements. New-Think clearly sees the dominoes, set up and ready to fall, but seeing which domino will fall first is a bit of a guessing game at this point.

These posts are written in response to two sentiments I have heard expressed by ordinary citizens (non-New-Thinkers) in the past few weeks.

1. No one could have seen this coming (in reference to current economic downturn).
2. Gas is under $2 a gallon! We’re all saved!

Tune back in daily for the next few days to get a taste of the future.

Just Sayin....

Giving it up to New-Think / Giving it up to Ashlea

Back in June New-Think officially documented the following outrageous (in June it was anyway) prediction:

Dow Jones Industrial Average under 10,000 by June 2009 (probably before 2008 is over).

The dow dipped below 10,000 for the first time in 4 years at about 9 this morning.

Also, we went to the Oklahoma State / Texas A&M game this weekend. Great fun. Ashlea was admitted to the University while we were there...so she'll officially be a 3rd generation poke next fall.

The Genesis Plan

Click here for The Genesis Plan that will truly correct our economy and not just slap a bandaid on it. OR scroll down 3 posts where I have pasted it for your convenience.

If you wish to see this plan, or anything other that what you hear about in the MSM, enacted then you need to contact your Representatives TODAY (early and often) to tell them you will vote them out if they vote for ANY bailout that uses tax payer dollars. Don't forget to give them the link to the Genesis Plan. Ciao.

Use Your Power People!

Congress will try to ram this through again today even though there are better options on the table. Use your power to stop them. Contact your reps and senators and tell them in no uncertain terms that a yes vote for this legislation means you will NOT vote for them. We scared them out of it on Monday....time to do it again. It won't happen unless you get involved.

Contact your senator.

Contact your rep. Note: As of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning this site is down...because we have overwhelmed it with traffic. If it doesn't work for you just google your congress-persons name and you will find the contact info you need.

Also...we are not just opposing for the sake of opposing it. There is a better plan, actually a number of them. See next post down for the one I like.

BREAKING NEWS: Paulson and Bush threatened to veto the legislation if there was an explicit prohibition of transfers from foreign banks to an American subsidiary.

This means if legislation says they cannot give YOUR money to foreign investors...they will not accept it. If that does not motivate you to get active...then just go back to watching American Idol.

Don't forget..read The Genesis Plan, one post down.

The Genesis Plan

Are you confused about what is going on in the U.S. economy right now? Need some help? You have come to the right place. The following plan will help you understand the problem and presents a reasonable solution that you can demand your senators and reps take action on. Socializing the banking system is NOT the answer.

Help New-Think make this viral! Send it to everyone you know.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Genesis Plan.

How To Fix Our Banking System
The “Genesis” Plan
by Karl Denninger
karl@denninger.net

It is clear that we must act to stabilize our financial markets. What is also clear is that if we act imprudently we will destroy our financial markets and system instead of saving it, and are likely to usher in a Depression. What Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke have proposed will do the latter, not the former.

The root cause of the current lack of trust in our financial markets is threefold:

1. Nobody can trust a balance sheet. This is due to off-balance-sheet vehicles (which were supposed to be banned after ENRON) and “Level 3” assets, which nobody can analyze the true valuation of, as identification of the claimed assets and their valuation models are undisclosed.

2. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are “over the counter” (OTC) transactions with no margin or capital supervision. As a consequence nobody knows if their “counterparty” can pay. In fact huge percentages of these people can’t pay – but nobody knows who they are.

3. Leverage. The SEC removed broker/dealer 12:1 leverage limits in 2004. Every firm that has failed – all five (Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns, Lehman and AIG) had leverage far in excess of 12:1. The draft bill is even more dangerous as it accelerates a provision intended to go into effect in 2011 that allows Ben
Bernanke to increase financial firm leverage by dropping reserve requirements on banks to zero should he so choose. It is excessive leverage that got us here in the first place, and this bill actually makes it worse.

The solution to the trust issues in our financial system is elegant and it will work.

1. Force all off-balance sheet "assets" back onto the balance sheet, and force the valuation models and identification of individual assets out of Level 3 and into 10Qs and 10Ks. Enact this requirement beginning with the 3Q 2008 reporting period which begins next month. Total taxpayer cost: $0.00

2. Force all OTC derivatives onto a regulated exchange similar to that used by listed options in the equity markets. This permanently defuses the derivatives time bomb. Give market participants 90 days to get this done; any that are not listed in 90 days are declared void; let the participants sue each other if they can't prove capital adequacy. Total taxpayer cost: $0.00

3. Force leverage by all institutions to no more than 12:1. The SEC intentionally dropped broker/dealer leverage limits in 2004; prior to that date 12:1 was the limit. Every firm that has failed had double or more the leverage of that former 12:1limit. Enact this with a six month time limit and require 1/6th of the excess taken down monthly. Total taxpayer cost: $0.00

Once 1-3 are put in place then send in the OTS and OCC examiners and look at every financial institution in the United States. All who are insolvent and unable to raise private capital immediately are forced through receivership where the debt is converted to equity and existing equity is wiped out.

With the CDS monster caged the systemic risk is removed, the bondholders provide the cushion for recapitalization (as it should be) and the restructured firm emerges with no debt while the former bondholders are now the owners (of the equity) in the resulting firm.

With a clean balance sheet the restructured firms remain in business and open the next morning able to raise and attract capital.

For the few firms that have an insufficient debt-holder capital cushion to successfully complete this process, weare left with two options – a capital infusion or liquidation. There will be few of these and in fact each of those firms is a regulatory failure, as we should have never permitted a firm to become so far "underwater" that the bondholder's capital is insufficient to capitalize a restructuring.

For those firms, give the FDIC (or if an insurance company, the appropriate state and federal regulatory authorities) primary control. As the CDS monster has been caged, the primary threat is now loss to state and federal guarantee programs. If these regulators deem that this firm’s liquidation would result in an unacceptable loss to the system’s guarantee programs then recapitalize the firm as follows:

· The government shall be issued senior preferred debt ahead of all other debt and equity in the capital structure, paying a floating coupon of 3 month LIBOR + 8% adjusted quarterly, in an amount sufficient to bring regulatory capital above minimum limits.

· All dividends are suspended for as long as the preferred remains outstanding, and during that period no employee of the firm may receive any form of compensation exceeding that of the President of the United States for a corporate officer, and no more than that of a United States House member for any person who is not a corporate officer. At the issue of the preferred stock all outstanding deferred compensation, including options, are deemed cancelled.

· The firm may retire the preferred at its option by repurchasing it at the issue price.

· The appropriate regulator shall have primary authority to “call” the above debt issue at any time and force bankruptcy (along with recovery of invested amounts) should the firm fail to execute an effective turnaround plan.

Finally, drop the silly shorting restrictions. Liquidity in the market stinks and this is a big part of why. Start prosecuting aggressively the rumors and other manipulation that leads to stocks both rising and falling.

This plan will instantaneously stabilize the credit markets as balance sheets will be transparent, the CDS monster will be permanently de-fanged, leverage will be returned to reasonable levels and the forcibly restructured firms will have no debt on their balance sheets and be able to access the capital markets. Firms that would fail once they have disclosed their true liabilities and result in unacceptable insurance program costs will be recapitalized with a reasonable expectation of the taxpayer not being stuck with the bill. Systemic risk will be removed.

Best of all, it will require zero taxpayer dollars with few exceptions, and for those instances where taxpayer dollars are required the amount of taxpayer risk would be small and well-protected.

This plan is very similar to what Janet Tavakoli proposed on September 25th in an open letter released on the web.i Ms. Tavakoli is an internationally recognized expert in these matters, is an adjunct professor of derivatives, and is widely published.

This and other alternatives must be examined before our nation embarks on what may be a disastrous path.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

YES YES YES!!!

I have never been prouder to be an American than I am today. I have renewed faith in our system of government. Along with thousands (millions??) of other Americans I have spent the week slamming the phone lines of congress persons to insist (in the strongest of terms) that we not pass the so called "bail out" in any form. No number of special provisions justifies borrowing our way out of a credit crisis. We won!! Without the efforts of concerned citizens and the internet community I am certain we would have just socialized our economic system.

The near future will not be a cakewalk. No doubt we are headed for hard times, as I have been saying here for more than a year. As I write this the dow has tanked more in 30 minutes than it does in a bad month. But we have shown that the American people will not compromise when it comes to freedom. We will not be given our marching orders by the Federal Reserve. Right on!!!!! Power to the people!

There are still many congress persons who voted for this bill even with unprecedented outcry from their constituents. Their names will be posted on the website shown below. Please join us in systematically voting these people out of office. People who thought they knew better than the people they represented.

http://supportedthebailout.org/

Increase Forward Fire on Congress

It is working but we are not done. I have been calling and e-mailing like crazy. The congress persons are now scared to support this thing because the people are "giving them the business".

Click here to find out more!

A little humor for you. May be slightly offensive (my sincere apologies) but MUCH closer to reality than the mainstream media.

Fed Lies!

The following cut and pasted from here. Do not trust the Federal Reserve. You did not elect them. They are a private company. The are no more "Federal" than Federal Express. Would you give Federal Express $700 billion if they said, "Trust me, we have your best interest in mind." If you would, please contact me...I need all of your money and I have your best interest in mind. Now, see below.

The Fed has claimed that this is a "liquidity crisis."
Really Ben? Then perhaps you can explain this?



Note that this is an intentional drain of "slosh", or liquidity, from the banking system. $125 billion in the last four days drained?
You wouldn't be trying to intentionally cause a bank failure or two to bolster your call for the $700 billion "bailout" plan, or perhaps intentionally lock the short-term credit markets, would you Ben?
If the market has a liquidity crisis, why would you be intentionally draining reserves from the banking system? Don't you think you ought to explain that to Congress?

Contact Congress

I sent a letter similar to my senators and rep this morning. Please do the same.

Dear Dr. Coburn,
My wife and I have supported you with our votes in the past. However, if you vote for the proposed “bail-out” in ANY form you lose our votes forever. Furthermore, we are successfully working to mobilize others to vote against anyone who supports this action.
Respectfully,
Jeff and Michelle Johnson

Don't Give Paulson $700 billion!!

I just called both Oklahoma senators and my district representative to let them know that if they support the proposed "bail-out" in any form they will lose my vote. Lots of people are calling and the swithboards are slammed with 10 to 1 against the "bail-out". Let's let the markets work themselves out (which may require some suffering). Much of what we are seeing is due to goverment regulation in the first place (ask if you want me to expound on this). Speak up now! This is OUR government!

FED UP USA

Contact your Representative

Contact your Senator

And as a reward for coming to New-Think for your information...here is some hot off the presses inside info.

Good Morning,We had Ed Hill (BofA's Washington Rep) on the Equity Hoot this morningregarding the political situation in D.C. Key headlines:Bill unlikely to pass this week or next: 128 votes short nowAdministration "spectacularly unsuccessful" in making their case tolarge groups Congressional offices getting calls from constituents 10-1 AGAINSTthe billSome more details:Likelihood of passage this week has dimmed since yesterday.After speaking to leadership on both sides (they need 218 votes topass), they want 120 votes on each side. if the vote were today, 50dems, 40 reps (218-90 = 128 short), FAR from having enough votes topassWhen he canvassed 30 congressional offices yesterday the overallresponse was uniform: For every 1 constituent who phone in forsupport of the bill there were 10 against it. Remember the electionis only 5 weeks away and this weighs heavily on their minds.If they extend the session (which is likely) Thursday is the earliestthey could come back (after holidays), then it takes some time topass the senate where rules require more debate, don't expect itpasses this week or next week.also talking about strong oversight, both congressional &governmental. bankruptcy provisions still in play, but less likely,tough to get 120 RepublicansPaulson makes a compelling case 1-1, but not in large groups. TheAdministration has been unsuccessful getting their own party behindit.

Anyway, President Bush will take over the airwaves this evening trying to get folks to support this. It should be entertaining.

Need a Laugh?

Watch this.