Bits Bucket for February 19, 2015
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Is the Grexit off?
No…just Extended and Pretended!
Bet on a swift Grexit
Martin Vander Weyer
19 February 2015 11:08
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another Greek general election within the year and 6-to-4 on the more cautious ‘Greece to adopt an official currency other than the euro by the end of 2017.’ I’m no betting man — as I reminded myself after backing a parade of point-to-point losers on Sunday — and I defer to our in-house speculator Freddy Gray, who will offer a wider guide to political bets worth having in the forthcoming Spectator Money (7 March).
But on the Greek card I’m tempted by the longer odds on the shorter timeframe, because this has the feeling of a crisis that’s close to denouement, and because prime minister Tsipras and tieless finance minister Varoufakis are wannabe revolutionaries (‘latter-day Trotskyites’, as Ken Clarke called them) rather than responsible national leaders. The pro-European Clarke says ‘I can’t see how you can sensibly avoid the Greeks defaulting and having to leave the eurozone,’ while former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan — always worth listening to, despite the post-crash fall of his previously godlike reputation — says, ‘It’s just a matter of time before everyone recognises that parting is the best strategy.’
Perhaps even more illuminating is the Irish commentator Fintan O’Toole’s proposed T-shirt slogan ‘We are not Greece’, signifying a lack of solidarity with Greek anti-austerity demands on the part of Ireland, which has gone through austerity and come out the other side. That’s the tone of mainstream opinion in Portugal and Spain too, despite noises off from the left. A White House official most of us had not heard of before, deputy national security adviser Caroline Atkinson, has been one of the few international voices urging compromise.
The truth is that this is no longer widely seen as a case of Germany being selfishly brutal to Greece. Rather, we’re watching a Greek regime behaving like student occupiers threatening to torch the university unless their wildly unrealistic demands are met. Pretty soon, the vice-chancellor will have to stop trying to talk sense into them through a megaphone, and the monetary riot police will have to move in. Greek rejection of the latest EU deadline proposal as ‘absurd’ was surely a signal to put the water cannons on standby. I’d be astonished if sherpas from Brussels, the IMF, the European Central Bank and other key institutions are not closeted in a basement in Basel or Frankfurt at this very moment, working out how to limit Grexit damage. In the words of Damon Runyan, oft quoted here by my predecessor Christopher Fildes: ‘The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.’
…
What does this guy mean, a “swift” Greek Exit? Geez. we can only hope. It’s been exiting the Euro for a few years now, how is that “swift”? Personally I think all parties involved, including Varoufakis, but most especially the Eurocrats, are all attention whores.
It’s such a bunch of crap. That money is all thin air they’re fussing over. “Pay us back our thin air! Borrow more of our thin air! Or we’ll divvy up the assets of your country (which are NOT thin air).”
That money is all thin air they’re fussing over. “Pay us back our thin air! Borrow more of our thin air! Or we’ll divvy up the assets of your country (which are NOT thin air).”
Careful, if Mr. Banker learns that you’ve figured out his scam the brakes on your car might unexpectedly fail. Or you might commit “suicide”.
Market Pulse
Germany rejects Greece’s loan-extension proposal
Published: Feb 19, 2015 7:28 a.m. ET
By Sara Sjolin
Markets reporter
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Germany has rejected Greece’s request for a six-month loan-extension agreement, saying the letter is not a “a substantial proposal” for a solution.” The Greek government earlier on Thursday submitted its loan proposal, but made clear it wouldn’t accept all the strict austerity measures required under the current bailout program. In its rejection, Germany argued that the Greek request doesn’t meet the bailout requirements and said the proposal only aims at getting bridging financing without fulfilling its commitments.
…
sounds like greece took the bait hook, line and sinker.
What does greece export? Are they self sustaining without the banker leaches?
“What does greece export?”
We have a bottle of imported olive oil in the kitchen.
Greece used to be one of the foremost oceangoing logistics nations, known for its shipping magnates: Onassis, Niarchos, Livanos, Economou, etc.
“Greece’s main industries are tourism, shipping, industrial products, food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, metal products, mining and petroleum. Greece’s GDP growth has also, as an average, since the early 1990s been higher than the EU average. However, the Greek economy also faces significant problems, including rapidly rising unemployment levels, an inefficient public sector bureaucracy, tax evasion, corruption and low global competitiveness.”
The girls?
How much for the girls?
Peak “Grexit”?
By silveristhenew | Published February 19, 2015
Goldman recently warned that they are “more worried than we have been since the start of the Euro area crisis,” and judging by the extraordinary surge in “Grexit” headlines, it appears this time is different from 2012 and with the “Take It Or Leave It” ultimatum from Greece now, we suspect – also as Goldman warned - Given the systemic nature of the ‘shock’, we doubt that even the major markets would be unaffected.
Remember…. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
Falling prices are good for working folks but bad for speculators and gamblers who make their money watching their assets go up in value.
This economy is highly dependent on the creation of money from rising asset values.
Working folks cant keep up with a devalued currency from all the money creation.
With falling prices to dramatically lower levels they can.
The speculators and gamblers run this economy, backstopped (involuntarily) by middle class taxpayers.
Region VIII
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150218_160534_554-9vyslsaL.jpg
The more you you know …
I didn’t see this anywhere in the New York Times or Washington Post
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/18/memo-telling-border-patrol-agents-dont-have-to-detain-intoxicated-drivers-draws/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn
“Fundamentally transforming” your family to death via vehicular homicide
Forward
more fundamental transformation, as reported by real journalists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ucla-says-more-than-100-may-have-encountered-superbug/2015/02/18/884ce352-b7d4-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html
because expecting third world immigrants to maintain first world hygeine is racist
forward
To be fair, that superbug probably came about because of impeccable hygiene and advanced antibiotics. In a third world country, the old bugs can survive just fine without mutating.
To be fair, always cook your fruit bats to an internal temperature of 185F
Forward
How do you sell a war?
Neocon clickbait link list (United States taxpayers edition)
Breitbart - Hundred more Jewish graves vandalized in French towns
Breitbart - Cruz: Obama ‘apologist’ for terrorism
Breitbart - Italy prepares for war: calls all of Europe to send troops against ISIS
Weekly Standard - Obama: ‘No One Profile of a Violent Extremist or Terrorist’
Washington Times - The futility of appeasing terror
Washington Times - Obama’s legacy is more jihad
World Net Daily - Bill O’Reilly: We are in a ‘holy war’ with ISIS
And remember kidz, every time you click on a Drudge Report link, you pull a Shekel out of the U.S. Treasury and put it in William Kristol’s pocket
Holder: I’m so proud of myself, that Not one black was ever charged or convicted of a racial hate crime on my watch
Black people are not a race any more than inmates in a prison are a race.
African American is not a race….its a divisive tactic to get special treatment.
Those Republicrats forced the US taxpayers at gunpoint to finance wars against the wrong people, killing 500,000 Iraqi civilians since 2001, when the real financers of ISIS are Saudi Arabia and the US government.
And the general American public keep accepting what their masters tell them, even though logic will say that Saudi Arabia and perhaps the CIA and even Mossad worked together to pull off the 9/11.
The winner from 9/11 is government. The loser - the American people.
Jeb Bush spoke in Chicago yesterday in support of NSA spying
Keep telling yourself that “they attacked us on 9/11 because they hate our freedoms”
The winner from 9/11 is government ??
Well, really the winner is the host pentagon and their parasites along with that new company called Homeland Security…
The loser - the American people ??
Kind of but I would submit its the cannon fodder of the boots on the ground and their families…
remember the scene in ’saving private ryan’ where the officers tell private ryan’s mom that three of her four sons are dead?
now picture that same scene playing out in real life in 2015, 2016, 2017 at a million homes across this country
launch a three front war in ukraine, iraq/syria, and iran, and that’s what you’ll get
remember the scene in ’saving private ryan’ where the officers tell private ryan’s mom that three of her four sons are dead?
Modern day mothers with 4 living sons of military age must be very few & far between.
remember the scene in ’saving private ryan’ where the officers tell private ryan’s mom that three of her four sons are dead?
now picture that same scene playing out in real life in 2015, 2016, 2017 at a million homes across this country
Unfortunately, this sort of misery is currently playing out in the Middle East and Ukraine.
now picture that same scene playing out in real life ??
I have…
Modern day mothers with 4 living sons of military age must be very few & far between.
Which means that if they lose a son in the middle east, that they probably lose their only son.
How many years will uncle FED talk about a rate hike? Will they raise it 1/4 point for sh@ts and giggles and then drop it back down?
I just don’t see how in the world tinkering with interest rates is going to create some jobs and get people back to work.
Interest rates can control how much you spend when buying major purchases such as homes and cars.
The local level is where jobs are created. How is the business environment in your state?
In some states locals are more focused on creating more govt than helping the private sector produce tax revenue.
1/4 point is like an extra 1/4 inch, nice, but not something that changes things much for anyone.
Rates are low, low, low and have been so long that it doesn’t seem to be a factor in the decision to buy. People expect low rates and they aren’t going to skyrocket and bankrupt the country and the bankers or crash the stock market anytime soon.
“1/4 point is like an extra 1/4 inch, nice, but not something that changes things much for anyone.”
That extra 1/4-inch goes a long way in Japan.
When is someone with some b@lls as a politician going to come out and tell the folks why rates are really low?
How in the h@ll is raising the fed funds rate 1/4 point going to help main street?
The rates that really matter are treasury rates. They have been artificially low because it is mostly about servicing the national debt. Re-inflating asset bubbles in stocks and homes is #2.
It seems to me like a circus act constantly talking about rate hikes. It really seems like a distraction at this point.
If the bond market started a big sell off and yields went up then we might have something to talk about.QE ended but we still have people buying 10 year treasuries yielding 2%. Its either cause they have to buy or they just want to preserve their money.
Now what happens if there are not enough real buyers to purchase the treasuries that mature every year? Do you think uncle fed will print some more and mop them up to avoid a default? That is what exactly happened during the lehman crisis. Where do you think that 750 billion dollar bailout package came from? Right off the printing presses.
They are confusing people when talking about raising rates. The only way they could effect treasury rates to the upside is if they sold some treasuries and the market couldn’t absorb them all and prices went down and yields up.
The end result is the same.
Raise rates- Prices fall
Lower rates- Demand craters more, prices fall
Do you think uncle fed will print some more and mop them up to avoid a default?
what do you think will happen to the value of the dollar (down or up) if the government defaults on its financial obligations?
1/4 point is like an extra 1/4 inch, nice, but not something that changes things much for anyone ??
Well, I would not know because I am a pitcher not a catcher.. : >)
How fitting that 2015 is the Year of the Sheep.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-19/year-sheeple
It may well be the Year of the Ram.
HBB banner ad for houses “from the mid 300s to upper 600s”
http://www.standardpacifichomes.com/new-homes/colorado/denver.aspx?utm_campaign=denver-jan-2014&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=google-in-market&utm_content=evergreen
Looks like the bubble field ends around Lafayette on the north side.
“Lafayette”
Friend sold his condo in Louisville and his then fiance sold her condo in Boulder so they could buy a house in Lafayette two years ago. Nice house on a very small lot with great views of the Indian Peaks. No idea what they paid for it, but he did tell me that buying a house in Boulder was not considered…
FFFFFFRRRRRAUD.
Dang! Oil is off by 4.5% today, but I already filled my gas tank two nights ago. Timing this volatility is tricky.
I wonder if it would be ever possible to condense the energy in a gallon of gas into a much smaller volume which could be stored more readily?
Its tough for mom and pop to take advantage of low prices cause they just don’t have storage capacity.
Hey there is a new business venture. Store gas for mom and pop. Anybody know if anything like that exists?
Emergency preparedness sites sell special drums for gas storage, and stabilizer too. I guess you could store those in any ol’ public storage hut.
Prof Bear, just forgo a$5 latte every week or so and you’ll have your volatility covered.
I joke about my latte fixes, but in all honesty, I don’t go into StarBux unless someone hands me a gift card. I bought 3 lbs of French Roast arabica beans at CostCo a couple of days ago for $5/lb. It’s hard to shell out $5 for a StarBux latte and pastry when you can make 20 pots of coffee at home for the same price.
Stick with the heavenly coffee Chock Full O’ Nuts better known as Crotch Full O’ Nuts.
Dang! Oil is off by 4.5% today, but I already filled my gas tank two nights ago. Timing this volatility is tricky.
I’m not seeing volatility, I’m seeing prices steadily rise. Gas bottomed out around $1.69 in my neck of the woods. Now I’m seeing those same gas stations with $2.05 signs.
In Region V - no at 2.45 to 2.69 per gal and rising. So much for that 300.00 a year savings on gas!!
Gas bottomed out around $1.69 in my neck of the woods. Now I’m seeing those same gas stations with $2.05 signs.
Same was true here up until yesterday. This morning many prices close to me suddenly dipped again to $1.99/gal. Gasbuddy can be a friend.
warmist warming thursday
http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/02/18/polar-vortex-to-unleash-record-breaking-cold-in-eastern-u-s-on-thursday-friday/?tid=HP_more
it’s gonna be 62f and sunny today in region viii
I don’t hear any impact of this year’s polar vortex on the GDP and the jobs. Didn’t the MSM get the memo from whitehouse this year?
Climate deniers keep on denying. Your oil and gas dollars at work, funding the billion dollar anti-science propaganda machine:
“Fox News has no shame: Easily duped wingnuts spout phony science and climate-change lies”
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/19/fox_news_has_no_shame_easily_duped_wingnuts_spout_phony_science_and_climate_change_lies/
Biggest fraud of our lifetimes, and you are the ignorant hack.
“Biggest fraud of our lifetimes”
That may actually be true…. for you.
Yeah, I’m totally ignoring the folly that debt will make you rich Donk. Thanks for reminding us.
I am surprised to see this made the front page of Google News
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/28147387/flintlock-from-1700s-could-land-elderly-nj-man-in-prison
Grabbers gonna grab
NOAA: 2014 warmest year for Earth on record
Fox News host: Scientists fudged and fabricated the temperature data
Politifact Truth-O-Meter: Fox News host = “Pants On Fire” lie
Remember, when you buy gasoline, a portion of your dollars are used to fund the anti-science, anti-climate propaganda machine.
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/feb/13/dana-perino/fox-news-host-climate-scientists-fabricated-temper/
Now, don’t be lettin’ Fox News all up in your head, there. YOLO!
Yeah I know. It’s OK to have a broad range of political viewpoints in society. It’s not OK to have a war on science. The U.S. cannot hope to maintain a leadership role in the world unless we are competitive in science and technology.
Uh, don’t look now, but the US has lost its leadership role in the world. As to “science”, it’s just a bunch of paid for opinions now, and fast descending into voo-doo incantations.
It’s just a matter of who has the megaphone. That’s science.
And now, a word from John Oliver on marketing to doctors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQZ2UeOTO3I
But since yer renting space in your head to Fox News, here’s a little clip about an Indian dentist applying some real science to one of his patients:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBnhz1qQAFw
Greed is Good!
“It’s not OK to have a war on science.”
That’ a good one.
war on women, war on science.
Almost as good as Holocaust, I mean climate science deniers.
Too funny. Evidence of fraud on a grand scale is just proof that there is a conspiracy against what is known to be true! Who’s the pinhead now?
“I have studied climate change seriously for years. It has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid.”
John Coleman, co-founder of the Weather Channel
Glass jars and bubbles.
Coleman is a retired TV weatherman. He’s no climate scientist. Anybody can stand in front of a green screen and say “Get ready for a nice weekend, folks.” Leading qualification for a TV weather job is dress and bra cup size:
http://www.tmz.com/2011/09/21/jackie-johnson-hot-weather-girls-forecasters-los-angeles-video-tmz-on-tv/
“He’s no climate scientist…bra cup…”
Coleman is doesn’t know anything because women have breasts! I wonder how they ever let him into the Meteorological Society, women having breasts and all that.
That’s a good question, considering the fact that the society issued this statement:
How is climate changing?
Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence. Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901─2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available). Due to natural variability, not every year is warmer than the preceding year globally. Nevertheless, all of the 10 warmest years in the global temperature records up to 2011 have occurred since 1997, with 2005 and 2010 being the warmest two years in more than a century of global records. The warming trend is greatest in northern high latitudes and over land. In the U.S., most of the observed warming has occurred in the West and in Alaska; for the nation as a whole, there have been twice as many record daily high temperatures as record daily low temperatures in the first decade of the 21st century.
The effects of this warming are especially evident in the planet’s polar regions. Arctic sea ice extent and volume have been decreasing for the past several decades. Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have lost significant amounts of ice. Most of the world’s glaciers are in retreat.
….
Why is climate changing?
Climate is always changing. However, many of the observed changes noted above are beyond what can be explained by the natural variability of the climate. It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide. The most important of these over the long term is CO2, whose concentration in the atmosphere is rising principally as a result of fossil-fuel combustion and deforestation. While large amounts of CO2 enter and leave the atmosphere through natural processes, these human activities are increasing the total amount in the air and the oceans. Approximately half of the CO2 put into the atmosphere through human activity in the past 250 years has been taken up by the ocean and terrestrial biosphere, with the other half remaining in the atmosphere. Since long-term measurements began in the 1950s, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has been increasing at a rate much faster than at any time in the last 800,000 years. Having been introduced into the atmosphere it will take a thousand years for the majority of the added atmospheric CO2 to be removed by natural processes, and some will remain for thousands of subsequent years.
http://www.ametsoc.org/policy/2012climatechange.html
That’s a nice copy and paste Mike, but it’s riddled with contradictions and assumptions masquerading as foregone conclusions.
Just sayin, when authorities tell you something that you already accept as true, it doesn’t make it correct.
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” ― Mark Twain.
Just sayin, when authorities tell you something that you already accept as true, it doesn’t make it correct.
It sounds as if you assume that I thought up this notion of climate change before any scientists started talking about it.
I didn’t mean to imply that, only that it resonates with you because you had earlier accepted the conclusion. If you hadn’t it would just look like swiss cheese.
“It sounds as if you assume that I thought up this notion of climate change before any scientists started talking about it.”
If Tarara picks me up on the CARTOON: link below you can have a look at all the different things scientists have been talking about for the last 30 + years.
In all the different scientist findings it has always been easier to fool people than to convince them that they had been fooled.
I didn’t mean to imply that, only that it resonates with you because you had earlier accepted the conclusion. If you hadn’t it would just look like swiss cheese.
That’s not really the case. I’ve never read a single book about climate science. I simply know what the consensus is in the field. If some organization like the American Meteorological Society were to publish something tomorrow that differed from the consensus, I would acknowledge that there is a debate in the field.
Seriously, I don’t care anymore. The “authorities” have given us such contradictory information over the years, how can you know whom to believe and whom not to believe?
Early in my 36 years I was pounded over the head with “authorities” telling me to eat a low-fat, high-carb diet only to see the country develop an obesity epidemic. In recent years, I’m now told to eat a low-carb diet and lo and behold, it turns out eggs, meat and dairy aren’t the boogeyman the “authorities” made them out to be.
“Authorities” told me certain medicine was safe only to have it pulled off the market when it later was found unsafe.
Since the early 90s the “authorities” have insisted dire consequences from Global Warming..err wait…now ‘Climate Change’ would occur like melting ice caps and sinking cities — all based on measurements going back a few hundred years a lot of which was based on rudimentary instruments that are highly unlikely to produce calibrated results within fractions of a Centigrade.
Oh and then there was the Global Cooling alarm before my time in the 70s.
So even if the current “settled science” is actually 100% accurate and we’re all going to die in wildfires, hurricanes and sinking cities, we don’t care. The “authorities” have already shown themselves to be wrong so many times, why would now be any different?
I’ve been a ChE longer than you’ve been alive. I think I should start not to care what nonsense the authorities amuse themselves with. Except they want us to pay for this party.
“lo and behold, it turns out eggs, meat and dairy aren’t the boogeyman the “authorities” made them out to be.”
Thank God I never listened to them.
Back to…
“Global Warming..err wait…now ‘Climate Change’
Follow the money
February 3, 2015
Obama’s US$4-trillion plan for fiscal year 2016 includes $146 billion for scientific research and development, a healthy 6% increase
Climate and energy
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would see an increase of roughly 6%, driving its budget to $8.6 billion—including $769 million for science and technology (see ‘Budget highlights’). The agency would receive $239 million to carry out climate-change regulations and initiatives, and $25 million to help states to comply with a rule—expected to be finalized this year—that would limit greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. The budget would also create a $4-billion fund to help states that want to enact even stricter emissions limits on the power sector.
(clean energy funding is code for fat no bid contracts to buddies)
The White House plan also underscores the Obama administration’s long-standing emphasis on clean energy. Funding for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) clean-energy technology and energy-efficiency programmes would rise by more than $800 million, to $2.7 billion, with sharp increases for clean-vehicle and building technologies and advanced manufacturing.
Overall funding in the DOE Office of Science would increase by more than 5%, to $5.3 billion, with most of the increase in basic energy sciences and advanced computing.
I am thankful that I never gave up real butter in favor of axle grease.
Cartoon from Phony (also posted above)
thefederalistpapers.org/political-cartoon/why-global-warming-is-a-scam-perfectly-illustrated-with-one-cartoon
Duh, messed up, here it is…
thefederalistpapers.org/political-cartoon/why-global-warming-is-a-scam-perfectly-illustrated-with-one-cartoon
“Remember, when you buy gasoline”
Roger that. This Saturday I am going to leave my high walkscore apartment at 5:30 to avoid Interstate 70 traffic and drive 85 miles, alone, to ski at Winter Park for 8 hours, and then drive home
And on Sunday we (yes, carpooling) are going to drive 50 miles out Clear Creek Canyon to go backcountry skiing, and then drive home
#FirstWorldProblems
Leave extra early, there is a humdinger of a blizzard in the forecast for Saturday.
CARTOON: Why Science of Man-Made Climate Change is a Scam …
http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/…-why-the-science-of-man-made-climate-change-is-a-scam - 670k -
Oops on the link. Maybe the correct thought police already found it.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-19 13:43:21
Why Global Warming Is A Scam Perfectly Illustrated With One Cartoon
thefederalistpapers.org/political-cartoon/why-global-warming-is-a-scam-perfectly-illustrated-with-one-cartoon
How is the snowpack in the Rockies doing so far? Colorado River, Lake Mead have been low the last few years. Cities like Las Vegas, L.A., San Diego all have long straws tapping into the Colorado…
Highly variable by location. We skied Monarch and Wolf Creek that are 150 and 250 miles south of Denver, respectively, last weekend, and they were at about 65% of normal snowpack year to date, so lots of rocks and tree roots poking out on the steeps.
The new storm should favor Vail, Aspen, Summit County, Winter park and bring them closer to 100% of normal, but will likely skirt north of the southern resorts.
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20150219/colorado-snowpack-a-bright-spot-amid-western-drought
snowpack at 90 percent of the long-term average ??
Can you please send some our way ?? If not, I am moving to Colorado…Maybe that will get you to do it… : >)
Most of whatever is west of the continental divide will eventually wind up in the Colorado river, so consider it on its way. You might have to arm wrestle Utah, Nevada and Arizona for it though.
You don’t reservoir many rivers or streams in colorado do you ??
These NOAA folk sure ain’t been up here in Region V - overnight low -8F with that nice blustery wind takin’ ‘er down to -30F windchill. Maybe this bunch needs to head up here to Region V to understand that there ain’t no global warmin’ up here!!
Unfortunately for you guys in the Midwest/EC you happen to live in one of the few blue squares:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/global/map-percentile-mntp/201401-201412.gif
Follow the money
Obama’s Budget Seeks Big Boost for Science
February 3, 2015 |By Boer Deng
NOAA would receive just under $6 billion, up from $5.4 billion in 2015. More than one-third of the budget, about $2.4 billion, would go to the agency’s weather and climate probes—including $380 million to develop a mission to avert a potential data gap in the polar-orbiting satellite programme.
Obama’s budget also revives his failed 2012 proposal to move NOAA from the business-focused Department of Commerce to the Department of the Interior. The interior department has much in common with NOAA: it conducts environmental and climate research, oversees some fisheries and regulates ocean oil and gas drilling. But merging NOAA into the department is likely to remain a tough sell—even within Obama’s administration. “We have not been advocating for movement of NOAA,” interior secretary Sally Jewell told reporters on 2 February.
The US Geological Survey would see its budget increase by 14% over 2015, to $1.2 billion, with an extra $37.8 million for tools to support land management and a $32-million boost for work on climate resilience and adaptation.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/obama-s-budget-seeks-big-boost-for-science/ - 71k
I don’t need any scientist or news outlet tell me how hot it was last year. Our region out west was averaging more days ABOVE normal temps than ever before. So far January and February of this year have been everyday above average temperatures with the exception of two days AT normal highs.
I have stumbled on to the cause of Global Warming.
Scientists with no other possible way of making a living getting paid handsomely to research Global Warming.
————————————————————————-
We’re already seeing the effects of global warming, claims study that used outdoor HEATERS for 23 YEARS to warm mountain meadows
Scientists set up heaters above five plots in meadows in the Rockies
The heaters ran day and night for 23 years to simulate global warming
They produced CO2 equivalent to driving a car 87 times around the world
The researchers compared the heated plots to five others left untouched
After two decades the unheated plots changed to resemble the heated ones
Vegetation in the meadows became more woody and soil became poorer
By Richard Gray for MailOnline
Published: 06:07 EST, 12 February 2015 | Updated: 07:59 EST, 12 February 2015
However, to achieve their results, the experiment itself may have contributed to global warming.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2947796/We-seeing-effects-global-warming-claims-study-used-outdoor-HEATERS-23-YEARS-warm-mountain-meadows.html#ixzz3SDSbwEQa
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Could Whale Poop Help Fight Global Warming?
By Terrell Johnson
Published Jul 9 2014 12:50 PM EDT
weather.com
http://www.weather.com/…op-feces-could-help-combat-climate-change-global-warming-20140708 - 155k -
Beaver Gas to Blame for Global Warming
Posted on December 19, 2014 by Philip Hodges
It’s actually not beaver flatulence per se, although I’m sure they’d say that contributes a little as well. It’s actually the methane that’s apparently generated at the bottom of standing water ponds created by beaver dams that ends up being released into the atmosphere that’s the problem.
Read more at http://lastresistance.com/9155/beaver-gas-blame-global-warming/#CmRA4YIBhjEsO6Yx.99
Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns
29 November 2006 –
“The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.
Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today.
“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said. “Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
Cattle-rearing is also a major source of land and water degradation, according to the FAO report, Livestock’s Long Shadow–Environmental Issues and Options, of which Mr. Steinfeld is the senior author.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772 - 44k -
A surprising contributor to climate change: concrete
by David Weinberg
Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 14:08
“It’s been estimated, that producing one ton of cement generates one ton of CO2,” Courland says. “Since we are producing around 4 billion tons of concrete cement per year worldwide, that’s very, very troubling.”
Concrete is the most common man-made material on earth. So if its CO2 emissions could be reduced by even a tiny fraction, the environmental impact would be huge. A group of scientists at MIT announced in a recent paper they’ve found a way to reduce CO2 emissions of cement by more than half.
http://www.marketplace.org/…/surprising-contributor-climate-change-concrete - 108k -
I have stumbled on to the cause of Global Warming.
Scientists with no other possible way of making a living getting paid handsomely to research Global Warming.
I think most of those scientists have tenured positions at universities.
We’re already seeing the effects of global warming, claims study that used outdoor HEATERS for 23 YEARS to warm mountain meadows
Professor John Harte, an ecosystems scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study, said the round the clock heating was necessary to understand what the cause the changes in the unheated plots were.
————————————————————————-
Berkeley Research Numbers
Research Funding
2013/2014
Each year, the UC Berkeley campus receives well over half a billion dollars in research support from external sources. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, UC Berkeley attracted $730.7 million in new research funding. Many of these research awards fund multi-year projects and support expenditures that will be reflected in subsequent years.
The federal government provided 66 percent of these sponsored research funds,
Berkeley Research Numbers | Research UC Berkeley
vcresearch.berkeley.edu/berkeley-research-numbers - 32k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-19 11:22:36
Could Whale Poop Help Fight Global Warming?
weather.com/science/environment/news/whale-poop-feces-could-help-combat-climate-change-global-warming-20140708
A surprising contributor to climate change: concrete
marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/surprising-contributor-climate-change-concrete
Oklahoma May Scrap AP History For Focusing On America’s ‘Bad Parts’
A tragedy for hard-working intelligent Oklahoma high school students. If this law passes and makes teaching AP History illegal, all Oklahoma kids are at a competitive disadvantage to kids from other states when they apply to top universities.
Apparently some of the far right evangelical extremists aren’t happy that AP History doesn’t teach “American Exceptionalism,” which says Americans are inherently better than everybody else.
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/18/387302710/oklahoma-may-scrap-ap-history-for-focusing-on-americas-bad-parts
And this is how you create cannon fodder for a three front war
Yeah Jeb Bush will need several hundred thousand docile and dumb to continue the family legacy
Jeb just told us he is “his own man” so he needs his own war
Ukraine looks like a good one
Yeah Jeb Bush will need several hundred thousand docile and dumb to continue the family legacy
You just described 95% of the US electorate, and 100% of the sheeple who voted for Obama, McCain, and Romney.
Oklahoma May Scrap AP History For Focusing On America’s ‘Bad Parts’
How else can they say “Oklahoma is OK”
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/Fu2TCe
Donk got that strong right arm playing Xbox all day in his SoCal $500k crap shack.
CAT sales crater 26 consecutive months. They are also being investigated for overseas tax shelters. Is the price inflation catching up with CAT?
Is the price inflation catching up with CAT ??
Its the consequence of world wide “deflation” that is the cost for CAT…
The shame is bubble jobs were ever created. So it is with Cat.
Janet Yellen Spent More Time Meeting With Foreign Officials Than Members Of The White House
19 meetings with various bankers including Blankfein and Dimon
by Zero Hedge | February 19, 2015
Back in January, the FOMC surprised many when in its statement is noted that in addition to financial it was also keeping tabs on “international developments” making many wonder just whose central bank the Fed is.
This was compounded yesterday following the release of the FOMC minutes, in which the Fed said that “Many participants continued to judge that a deterioration in the foreign economic situation could pose downside risks to the outlook for U.S. economic growth” adding that “China was noted as a factor restraining economic expansion in a number of countries, and several continuing risks to the international economic outlook were cited, including global disinflationary pressure, tensions in the Middle East and Ukraine, and financial uncertainty in Greece.”
Why Yellen’s obsession with all things international? The answer may lie in Yellen’s 2014 calendar, which the WSJ has parsed and found that of her 950 meetings from February to December (one wonders just when does the Fed chair actually do work outside of meeting rooms of course), the Fed chair spent more time conversing with foreign officials (68 meetings) than with members of the White House (51 meetings).
The chart below breaks down the total number and the running average of meeting held by Yellen in the past year. Of these the most important without doubt are her 19 meetings with various bankers including Blankfein and Dimon. The only silver lining: the academic wasted only 5 meetings on other academics. Far more important was the media, which saw Yellen dedicate some 30 meetings of her time. Because in the end it is all about the “narrative.”
Because in the end it is all about the “narrative.”
Housing, finance, economics, politics, foreign policy, journalism, all are narratives
Speaking of narratives, this is rather disturbing, but should not be used as emotional manipulation to influence American foreign policy
http://freebeacon.com/issues/anti-semitic-pro-islamic-state-graffiti-continues-to-plague-d-c/
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if people are getting paid to do this
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if people are getting paid to do this”
+ 1
In fact, I would be surprised if they weren’t getting paid to do this.
“I would be surprised if they weren’t getting paid to do this”
+ 1
Why Can’t the Public See Obama’s Proposed Internet Regulations?
3:21 PM, Feb 18, 2015 •
By MARK HEMINGWAY
Republican senators Mike Lee, Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul have all been high profile opponents of the Obama administrations current plan to regulate the internet — in particular, Lee has called the regulation a government “takeover” of the internet and says it amounts to a “a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on.”
And when Lee says that the American public isn’t aware of what’s going on, that is in no way hyperbole. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has emerged as a hero for those opposed to the regulation because Pai has been taking to the airwaves decrying the fact that the public is not allowed to see 332 pages of proposed internet regulation before they are potentially passed. Pai’s crusade to make the proposed regulations public is the theme of the the latest ad from Protect Internet Freedom:
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-19 14:12:55
Why Can’t the Public See Obama’s Proposed Internet Regulations?
weeklystandard.com/blogs/why-cant-public-see-obamas-proposed-internet-regulations_858283.html#
The Internet isn’t broken. Obama doesn’t need to ‘fix’ it.
FCC and FTC members’ give the president some sharp advice: Leave the Internet alone
by Ajit Pai & Joshua Wright | Chicago Tribune | February 19, 2015
If you like your wireless plan, you should be able to keep it. But new federal regulations may take away your freedom to choose the best broadband plan for you. It’s all part of the federal government’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet like a public utility — a plan President Barack Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission to implement in November and that is coming up for a vote Feb. 26.
While the plan contains no shortage of regulations, the most problematic may be the new “Internet conduct” rule. It’s a vague rule that gives the FCC almost unfettered discretion to micromanage virtually every aspect of the Internet, including the choices that consumers have for accessing it. If a company doesn’t want to offer an expensive, unlimited data plan, it could find itself in the FCC’s cross hairs.
But restricting service plan options is inherently anti-competitive and anti-consumer. The inevitable results will be higher prices and less service for consumers along with an especially adverse impact on small providers and upstart competitors trying to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
Consider that activists promoting this rule had previously targeted neither AT&T nor Verizon with their first net-neutrality complaint but MetroPCS — an upstart competitor with a single-digit market share and not an ounce of market power. Its crime? Unlimited YouTube. MetroPCS offered a $40-per-month plan with unlimited talk, text, Web browsing and YouTube streaming. The company’s strategy was to entice customers to switch from the four national carriers or to upgrade to its newly built 4G Long Term Evolution network.
Your crazy.
Regulate like a Utility means they will keep them from using their monopoly power to destroy content and competition.
You have a company that makes money streaming music, then Verizon comes in and creates their own company and charges you 2x as much to stream your music to your customers. Eventually you go broke and they stole your business.
The Verizons of the world want to charge content providers to stream content to you and a reasonable speed. That charge will show up in the form of higher bills to you from content providers and in less content.
Yes let’s all trust the monopolistic telecoms to provide better service at a lower price. Our internet is a joke in terms of speed and cost . Just look at Cable to see where they would take the internet. Packaged and limited content at a massive price.
This paragraph tells you the author is paid propagandist for Verizon and AT and T
“While the plan contains no shortage of regulations, the most problematic may be the new “Internet conduct” rule. It’s a vague rule that gives the FCC almost unfettered discretion to micromanage virtually every aspect of the Internet, including the choices that consumers have for accessing it. If a company doesn’t want to offer an expensive, unlimited data plan, it could find itself in the FCC’s cross hairs.”
They don’t really describe the rule they just say its vague and scary. Show us the language. Tell us exactly what it allows.
Meanwhile back in ILLANNOY - Rauner attempts to mend a completely broke state - there is a visual showing job gains / job losses over the last 6 + years on a state by state basis (no citations which always makes me cautious). Telling where ILLANNOY sits or squats for that matter while other states attempt to get healthier. We need the plunge protection team here for chrisakes. Yikes.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/rauners-budget-defunds-cronyism-embraces-growth/
Region V checking in with this afternoon’s weather forecast - cold and more cold. Overnight - continued cold with more cold in the morning.
Current temp - 5 deg at ORD with windchills of -17 to -20 deg. and getting even colder.
crash
crater
CR8R
Better quit pokin the Bear
NATO Prepares for War with Russia in Europe
by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | February 19, 2015
Stars and Stripes reports that NATO’s Allied Land Command is using techniques used against the Taliban in Afghanistan to prepare its ground forces for a war with Russia in Europe.
Citing “Russian aggression in Ukraine and concerns along NATO’s southern flank.” Stars and Stripes says the alliance is enacting “improvements to readiness and responsiveness” and dispatching combat evaluators.
“The political guidance has lined up. The military structure is lined up, and the focus and energy is all lined up,” Lt. Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander Allied Land Command, told the newspaper. “These threats to the stability of the world around us, especially to the east and the south, have clearly energized the political and military leadership of the alliance to enact these improvements to readiness and responsiveness of the alliance.”
Roll Call, a newspaper covering legislative and political developments on Capitol Hill, reports that “security in Europe requires a bold new plan: accelerating NATO force modernization initiatives in Eastern Europe and immediately delivering its surplus Cold War equipment to Ukraine.”
Benjamin Jensen, a scholar-in-residence at American University’s School of International Service and runs the Advanced Studies Program for the USMC Command and Staff College, writes that the “next National Defense Authorization Act should include language that fast tracks foreign military sales for Eastern European members of NATO. These countries need firm guarantees the United States is committed to NATO and willing to replenish weapons stockpiles they send to defend Ukrainian sovereignty.”
Defense Establishment: Russia a Threat to Baltic States
On Thursday, the UK defense secretary Michael Fallon said he believes Russia presents a “real and present danger” to the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Fallon said it is imperative NATO be prepared for aggression from Russia “in whatever form it takes.” He said Russia will use what the BBC describes as “covert tactics” top undermine the sovereignty of the Baltic states.
On February 24 NATO will use Estonia’s independence celebration to parade troops 300 meters from Russian territory, a move the Russians consider a provocation.
Russian General: We Are at War
Earlier this month Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former foreign relations head of the Russian Ministry of Defense and current president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, said Russia is at war with NATO and the West.
“Apparently they officials of the European Union and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have dedicated themselves, and continue to do so, to deeply and thoroughly studying the doctrine of Dr. Goebbels… They present everything backwards from reality. It is one of the formulas which Nazi propaganda employed most successfully… They accuse the party that is defending itself, of aggression. What we are seeing in Ukraine and in Syria is a western project, a new kind of war: in both places you see a clear anti-Russian approach, and as is well known, wars today begin with psychological and information warfare operations.”
“I assume that the Foreign Ministry understands that we are at war,” Ivashov said.
Nice, we’re gonna get nuked because the wealthy aren’t rich enough.
This can only end badly
Napoleon tried it
Hitler tried it
Are Americans really that stupid that they can be manipulated into supporting this? Yes, the Japanese grabbed half of Sakhalin island in like 1905 or something, but is a land war on the Russian landmass ever going to work out for anyone besides the Russians?
Ben Jones, thank you for providing a forum to discuss this, it literally feels like this country is going off the rails, but I’m not selfish, I’ve lived enough, and will be watching the mushroom cloud over my city with a beer in one hand and a joint in the other
Do you have kids? That’s an awfully cavalier attitude for anyone who cares about future generations.
“Ben Jones, thank you for providing a forum to discuss this…”
Don’t forget to use that Paypal link.
Russian General: We Are at War
That’s an odd thing to say. His president just negotiated a truce a few days ago. Maybe we should take this to mean that Putin can’t be trusted.
No no no that’s all wrong. You see, Bush looked into his soul and saw that he could be trusted. That settles it for me.
NATO combat readiness to be put to test in 2015 - Europe - Stripes
http://www.stripes.com/…/europe/nato-combat-readiness-to-be-put-to-test-in-2015-1.330453 - 192k - Cached - Similar pages
6 hours ago
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-19 15:22:18
NATO combat readiness to be put to test in 2015
stripes.com/news/nato-combat-readiness-to-be-put-to-test-in-2015-1.330453
Region IV
Cold
Poor baby. Last few times I was in Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale, Miami in the winter they had outdoor heaters on the restaurant patios
Make like Jimmy “Malaise” Carter and put a sweater on
its 9 degrees here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Y0cy-nvAg