Bits Bucket for February 20, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Region VIII
Crater Rage™ Breakfast of Champions
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150220_061636_464-IhVPbGh9.jpg
Just a mere snack there. This is a full breakfast for The Enragers.
http://goo.gl/zasyds
Crater Rage™ Dessert of Champions
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150220_072035_970-sC3Jh3Js.jpg
Gimme a dozen of those.
Just a mere snack there. This is a full breakfast for The Enragers.
http://goo.gl/zasyds
After eating all that, they’d be too comatose to be enraged about anything.
Crater
‘Bill O’Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem
The Fox News host has said he was in a “war zone” that apparently no American correspondent reached.’
Bill O’Reilly said we are in a “holy war” with ISIS
American taxpayers and voters, you are being played for suckers and fools
And thanks again Ben Jones for providing this platform to discuss it
This guy is a joke. I don’t watch much TV, but from what I can tell he just acts mad and pissy all the time. I guess that passes for journalism or whatever his show is about. Apparently, he makes stuff up all the time, and then throws it in the face of anyone who disagrees with him.
“…he makes stuff up all the time, and then throws it in the face of anyone who disagrees with him.”
Brings to mind some alumni HBB posters…
“Apparently, he makes stuff up all the time …”
Hey, a guy’s gotta make a living.
“This guy is a joke”
He used to host Inside Edition from 1989 to 1995
His level of political “analysis” has the emotional maturity of a cranky toddler and the intellectual depth of a puddle of urine
And he has one of the most popular television shows in America, which says a lot about America
We don’t have to wait another 500 years for Idiocracy, we are living in it now
“We don’t have to wait another 500 years for Idiocracy, we are living in it now”
…phuc yeah!
http://picpaste.com/honey-boo-boo.jpg
Go away - ‘baitin!
For reals player?
O’Rielly told the truth and MotherCommunist was full of excrement. Nice try though, got the haters going before they checked snopes.
You may not like O’rielly’s style or his politics, but a liar he is not.
Let’s look at the article:
‘Conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, in a 2003 book, described how O’Reilly answered a question during a Washington panel discussion about media coverage of the Afghanistan war: “Rather than simply answer the question, O’Reilly began by trying to establish his own bona fides as a war correspondent. ‘I’ve covered wars, okay? I’ve been there. The Falklands, Northern Ireland, the Middle East. I’ve almost been killed three times, okay.’”
‘As Caroline Wyatt, the BBC’s defense correspondent, recently noted, “It was a war in which a small group of correspondents and crews sailing with the Royal Navy were almost entirely dependent upon the military—not only for access to the conflict, but also for the means of reporting it back to the UK.” And Robert Fox, one of the embedded British reporters, recalled, “We were, in all, a party of about 32-34 accredited journalists, photographers, television crew members. We were all white, male, and British. There was no embedded reporter from Europe, the Commonwealth or the US (though they tried hard enough), let alone from Latin America.”
‘American reporters were not on the ground in this distant war zone. “Nobody got to the war zone during the Falklands war,” Susan Zirinsky, a longtime CBS News producer who helped manage the network’s coverage of the war from Buenos Aires, tells Mother Jones. She does not remember what O’Reilly did during his time in Argentina. But she notes that the military junta kept US reporters from reaching the islands: “You weren’t allowed on by the Argentinians. No CBS person got there.”
‘That’s how Bob Schieffer, who was CBS News’ lead correspondent covering the Falklands war, recalls it: “Nobody from CBS got to the Falklands. I came close. We’d been trying to get somebody down there. It was impossible.” He notes that NBC News reporter Robin Lloyd was the only American network correspondent to reach the islands. “I remember because I got my butt scooped on that,” Schieffer says. “He got out there and we were all trying to get there.” (Lloyd tells Mother Jones that he managed to convince the Argentine military to let him visit Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, but he spent only a day there—and this was weeks before the British forces arrived and the fighting began.)’
‘Schieffer adds, “For us, you were a thousand miles from where the fighting was. So we had some great meals.”
‘During a 2009 interview with a television station in the Hamptons, O’Reilly talked about reporting on the Buenos Aires protest, which he claimed other CBS journalists were too fearful to cover: “I was out there pretty much by myself because the other CBS news correspondents were hiding in the hotel.” (”We were all out with our camera crews that day to cover the protest,” Schieffer says. “I’d been out there with a crew too.”)
‘O’Reilly noted that soldiers “were just gunning these people down, shooting them down in the streets” with “real bullets.” And he told of rescuing his South American cameraman, who had been trampled by the crowd: “The camera went flying. I saved the tape because it was unbelievable tape. But I dragged him off the street because he was bleeding from the ear and had hit his head on the concrete…The sound man is trying to save the camera…And then the army comes running down and the guy points the M-16. And I’m going, ‘Periodista, no dispare,’ which means, ‘Journalist, don’t shoot.’ And I said, ‘Por favor.’ Please don’t shoot…Then the guy lowered his gun and went away.”
I don’t know what his politics are because I’ve never seen much of his show. When I find a channel with an ass-hat talking, I change it pretty quick.
He was in Buenos Aires, nobody got to the islands.
This is a very weak attempt to attack Bill in an effort to spare Brian Williams.
OK then, let the record speak for itself. I’m sure in the coming days all the tidbits will come out. But getting mad and saying ‘everything I’ve ever said was true’ better be the case or he’s gonna look like one heck of a fool.
“Clubber Lang”
We have been visited by a single purpose gnome.
I’m glad I do not know who these TV personalities are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy-Y3HJNU_s
Brian Williams and Oreilly are one and the same.
The best thing I saw on oreilly is when he decided to debate someone about legalizing marijuana. He chose a pimple faced guy right out of highschool who was for legalization and bullied him for 20 min.
‘Our embarrassing, servile media: Does the New York Times just print everything the government tells it? The paper of record is carrying Washington’s water in its Ukraine reporting — all too believing, once again.’
“Does the New York Times just print everything the government tells it?”
Yes
http://www.infowars.com/feinstein-youre-not-a-real-journalist-unless-you-draw-a-salary/
American taxpayers and voters, you are being played for suckers and fools
The U.S.-Backed Government In Ukraine Is Starting To Lose The Civil War
By Michael Snyder, on February 19th, 2015
The mainstream media in the U.S. is being very quiet about this, but the truth is that the U.S.-backed government in Kiev is starting to lose the civil war. This week, the separatists captured the very important railway junction of Debaltseve despite the fact that a ceasefire is supposed to be in place. Buoyed by a constant influx of Russian weapons and supplies, the separatists have gained a clear upper hand in the conflict. But this was not supposed to happen. When protest groups that were funded, organized and advised by organizations in the United States violently overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian government, the Obama administration was hoping that the Ukrainian people would rapidly embrace their new pro-western leaders. Instead, the nation was plunged into a very bitter civil war that could go on for many years. And as the battlefield stands right now, the government in Kiev will probably be forced to concede even more territory in the months ahead as more weapons and fighters arrive from Russia. The Obama administration could decide to intervene by shipping large amounts of weapons and supplies to the Ukrainian government, but that could turn the civil war in Ukraine into a proxy war between the United States and Russia. And the thing about proxy wars is that sometimes they turn into real wars.
endoftheamericandream.com/…government-in-ukraine-is-starting-to-lose-the-civil-war - 121k -
All this so the 0.01% can rape and pillage Ukraine. And if nukes start flying, they’ll all hop onto their Gulfstreams and flee to New Zealand while the rest of us get to enjoy the show.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-20 06:40:59
The U.S.-Backed Government In Ukraine Is Starting To Lose The Civil War
endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-u-s-backed-government-in-ukraine-is-starting-to-lose-the-civil-war
“As I have often noted, the failure to address the structural problems that caused the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008-2009 effectively transferred systemic risk to the enormous foreign-exchange (FX) market, which is connected to virtually everything in the global economy.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/how-many-more-saves-are-left-in-the-central-bank-bazookas/
“The flood of dollars unleashed by the Fed’s QE programs washed over the entire globe, encouraging people in emerging markets to take loans denominated in dollars. Now those loans are increasingly burdensome, as it takes ever-larger sums of local currency to service the dollar-denominated debts.
In response to these massive outflows of capital, emerging nations must raise interest rates to offer incentives for capital to stay put, which then causes the cost of new loans (and doing business in general) to quickly rise to painful levels.”
When is this pain gonna happen? Prices need to start dropping quicker.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-19/oligarch-rules-jeb-bush-surrounds-himself-architects-his-brothers-iraq-war
It may be ht may be hard to believe, but either one of the two status quo choices for U.S. President currently being force-fed down the American public’s throat will be almost unquestionably more imperial and warlike than Barack Obama. The reason is simple. Any society that apathetically stands by as one President after the other tramples on the Constitution will be subject to a litany of increasingly tyrannical, and even insane, leaders. This is why the oligarchy isn’t even pretending that we live in a Republic or a Democracy anymore. They are shoving our pathetic servitude right in our face by putting up these two preposterous and dangerous candidates.
If you still had any doubt, today we learn that Jeb Bush is actively surrounding himself with the exact same people who under the George W. Bush administration, masterminded the terrible tragedy known as the Iraq war.
Think Progress covered this predictable, yet terrifying, reality earlier today. Brace yourself:ard to believe, but either one of the two status quo choices for U.S. President currently being force-fed down the American public’s throat will be almost unquestionably more imperial and warlike than Barack Obama. The reason is simple. Any society that apathetically stands by as one President after the other tramples on the Constitution will be subject to a litany of increasingly tyrannical, and even insane, leaders. This is why the oligarchy isn’t even pretending that we live in a Republic or a Democracy anymore. They are shoving our pathetic servitude right in our face by putting up these two preposterous and dangerous candidates.
If you still had any doubt, today we learn that Jeb Bush is actively surrounding himself with the exact same people who under the George W. Bush administration, masterminded the terrible tragedy known as the Iraq war.
Think Progress covered this predictable, yet terrifying, reality earlier today. Brace yourself:
“unquestionably more imperial and warlike than Barack Obama”
I did a Google search on “William Kristol net worth” just for kicks
American taxpayers and voters, you are being played for suckers and fools
“American taxpayers and voters, you are being played for suckers and fools.”
And borrowers, you left out borrowers.
I bet you’re happy to have William Kristol’s estimated $200,000,000 in your bank
There is nothing “conservative” or “small government” or “cutting taxes” about clicking on neocon internet links
For every new case of PTSD created, William Kristol gets another Shekel in his pocket
The man is literally dripping in blood, and Americans are so f*king dumb they are like rushing the gates of a Who concert trying to make William Kristol get richer faster
the oligarchy isn’t even pretending that we live in a Republic or a Democracy anymore
We don’t live in a Democracy and the reason is simple - a basic fact. They laugh at right-wing goobers defending their anti-democracy.
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
Louis D. Brandeis
Neocon propaganda link list (United States taxpayer edition)
Top Drudge headline - Moscow and NATO on Collision Course
Breitbart - Democrats push Boehner to postpone Netanyahu speech
Washington Times - U.S. plans large-scale offensive to take Mosul, Iraq, from Islamic State militants
Weekly Standard - Poll: 76 Percent Say Iran Should Never Get Nuclear Weapon
World Net Daily - Revealed: ISIS D-Day Plan for Europe Invasion
When you click on these Drudge Report links and read this alleged “conservative” media, you are being emotionally manipulated
When you click the communist web sites, you see constant apologies for Islamic Fascism, rampant anti-Semitism, climate change fraud, 25 Billion dollars “tax refunds” for illegals, white guilt, self loathing, America hating tripe.
Take your pick.
Welcome to the world of the real
-Morpheus
There is no “conservative” media
There is the Fox/Drudge/Rush axis
And there is the NYTimes/WashPost/CNN/NPR/MSNBC/HuffPost axis, the editorial policy of which you have just described
I voted for and donated money to Ron Paul
I didn’t vote for World War III
+1
Choose your poison.
One thing I see going on with stocks is this illusion of value being created by the QE programs.
If you take the shares outstanding and multiply that by the share price that is gives you an idea of the company book value. Then you can do some hocus pocus math and discount dividends and future earnings.
These valuations are just hideous folks. The companies are way overvalued.
What is the catalyst that makes people give a sh@t about what they actually own?
Seems like there is a lot of play in these valuations. someone has to take a loss at some point to pay for the gains of wall street.
It is a matter of time imo.
Where is the value folks? Is oil a value play?
Take a loss? Never. Another day, week, month, year of extend and pretend. mo Credik.
OIl is probably a value play if you want to hold for 2-3 years. Of course no trader is allowed to do that.
Donk,
There is no value with oil at $50/bbl.
” 2-3 years ”
Is there someplace on the planet that the global housing mania hasn’t already peaked out? It will be tough to top what China did for resource demand over the past six years.
Is there someplace on the planet that the global housing mania hasn’t already peaked out?
I think in very rich areas and maybe in semi-safe slums with a view? I’ve been to this favela. It’s so steep your legs hurt. (And there’s no raw sewage fees.)
David Beckham ‘blamed’ for driving up house prices in Brazil favelas
http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/off-the-pitch/news/beckham-blamed-for-driving-up-favela-prices_201923.html
Retired footballer David Beckham has been ‘blamed’ for causing house prices in a Rio de Janeiro favela to skyrocket.
The 39-year-old is rumoured to have splashed out on £250,000 on a home overlooking the sea in the Vidigal favela last year.
It is believed that since then, property prices have increased from £2,500 to around £100,000, which has sparked anger among some of the residents.
Brazil is toast. Any other prospects?
LOL@ lola
Lola
Feds: Anti-Government Groups a Bigger Threat Than ISIS
by Paul Joseph Watson | February 20, 2015
As President Barack Obama continues to receive criticism for his refusal to use the term “Islamic extremism,” some federal authorities and law enforcement groups in the United States assert that anti-government groups pose a bigger threat than ISIS.
The Department of Homeland Security circulated an intelligence assessment earlier this month which focuses on right-wing sovereign citizens and other domestic extremists.
“Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention,” reports CNN.
As we have exhaustively documented, the federal government has consistently downplayed the threat of Islamic terror in favor of pushing hysteria about right-wing extremism.
The FBI’s most recent national terror threat assessment list completely omits Islamic terrorists, instead focusing on sovereign citizens and the militia movement.
A 2012 University of Maryland study funded to the tune of $12 million dollars by the DHS characterized Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists while glossing over the threat posed by Islamic extremism.
Last August, over a year after the Boston bombing, the Department of Homeland Security also listed sovereign citizens as a more deadly potential terror threat than Islamic extremists, placing sovereign citizens number one on the list.
PSA’s for the Department of Homeland Security’s See Something, Say Something program also failed to portray terrorists as Muslims on numerous occasions, preferring instead to depict the bad guys as white middle class Americans.
Returning veterans have also been characterized by the federal government as a bigger threat than Islamic extremism.
The Obama administration’s obsession with hyping the threat of domestic extremism seems clearly geared towards demonizing its ideological adversaries – libertarians and conservatives – while the true threat posed by the Islamic State, whose members have repeatedly threatened to attack the United States, continues to be sidelined.
Ron Paul says secession is gonna happen
http://radio.foxnews.com/2015/02/19/ron-paul-secessiongood-news-is-its-gonna-happen-its-happening/
Rudy Giuliani (who is partially responsible for the post-9/11 emotional fervor of badge licking and uniform fetishism) is correct what he said about Obama
Health tips of the day
Do not get in a car with Ron Paul.
Do not eat any food that was intended for Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy Giuliani (who is partially responsible for the post-9/11 emotional fervor of badge licking and uniform fetishism) is correct what he said about Obama
First he said this:
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.”
“He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
Then he said:
“I shouldn’t say that the president does or does not love anything.”
“Well actually, if I could express it more clearly, what I mean is he doesn’t express it,” Giuliani said. “I shouldn’t say that the president does or does not love anything. I don’t know, I’m not a psychiatrist, and he doesn’t have one and he doesn’t need one.”
When people wondered if there’s a racial aspect to Rudy’s reference to the way that the president was brought up, he said this:
“Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people. This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-20/rudy-giuliani-backs-off-assertion-that-obama-doesn-t-love-america
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/20/obamas-white-mother-and-other-awkward-efforts-by-rudy-giuliani-to-explain-himself/
—————
Paul said secession would not be legislated by Congress, but would be defacto, predicting “when conditions breakdown…there’s gonna be an alternative.”
“And it’s not gonna be because there will be enough people in the U.S. Congress to legislate it. It won’t happen. It will be defacto. ”
—————-
Defacto but not legislated? In other words, the people get to brag that they are no longer a part of the US… but they can still expect their cheesechecks delivered (by US post) to their mailboxes.
Returning veterans have also been characterized by the federal government as a bigger threat than Islamic extremism.
That sounds about right. An uncomfortable truth I’m afraid. The small number of dangerous veterans with PTSD and 2nd Amendment access to semi-automatic carbines outnumbers the small number of terrorists in the US.
“An uncomfortable truth”
The same liberal elite who say there is no way of identifying and deporting 10+ million illegal aliens think they can register and ultimately confiscate the 100+ million privately owned guns in this country
MOLON LABE
Speaking of confiscation, you see the latest attempt by the BATFE to ban XM855 5.56mm ammunition from sale in the US? With the added side effect of causimg a run on all 5.56 ammo prices and inventory. And forget 5.45mm since this blowup with Russia over Ukraine.
“you see the latest attempt by the BATFE to ban XM855 5.56mm ammunition from sale in the US?”
Yes I did.
The Obama administration’s obsession with hyping the threat of domestic extremism seems clearly geared towards demonizing its ideological adversaries – libertarians and conservatives – while the true threat posed by the Islamic State, whose members have repeatedly threatened to attack the United States, continues to be sidelined.
If that was the case, wouldn’t the administration spend more time publicizing this news so that it’s on CNN and the front pages of major newspapers?
The security apparatus has turned it’s focus inward towards those it is ostensibly meant to protect. Media has the populace looking outward, at the farce that is the new caliphate in the middle east.
Misdirection at it’s finest.
OK, so the administration would like to demonize certain American citizens, but the MSM isn’t cooperating.
Grexit on?
Schuldenstreit: EZB bereitet sich auf griechischen Euro-Austritt vor
Freitag, 20.02.2015 – 13:07 Uhr
Noch verhandeln Athen und die Euro-Partner über neue Finanzhilfen. Hinter den Kulissen werden bereits Alternativen durchgespielt: Die EZB bereitet sich nach SPIEGEL-Informationen auf den Ausstieg Griechenlands aus dem Euro vor.
…
GEZUNDHEIT!
Finance
REPORT: The ECB is preparing for Grexit
Mike Bird
22 minutes ago
European Union flag in front of the Parthenon temple in Athens on Thursday.
The European Central Bank is making preparations again for a Greek exit from the euro, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
The article so far is light on detail.
Here is a rough English translation from the piece:
This comes just a day after another German media source said the ECB wanted capital controls to be brought in to halt any potential capital flight from Greece. The piece suggested that the governing council of the central bank favoured the move, but the ECB denied it had even been discussed.
Back in 2012, during the worst days of the euro crisis, the ECB was undoubtedly planning how Greece would manage an exit from the eurozone, despite denials at the time. The Financial Times unearthed what became known as “Plan Z,” the top-secret blueprints for what a Greek exit (Grexit) might look like.
President Mario Draghi also said there was “no plan B” for Greece back in 2013, something we now know wasn’t true.
…
It is ironic that the ECB should have to prepare at all. The moment Greece leaves the union, all that worthless Greek debt on bank books, bought on the cheap with money borrowed from the ECB, will have to be marked to reality.
Accounting fraud only hides insolvency, it doesn’t correct it.
That’s why I am not buying ECB’s bluff. Regardless, it’s in an ISIS and a hard place. Give concession to Greece, other countries will want them same. Don’t give concession, some bankers will have to take some pain. My bet is concession and money printing is the future. I feel sorry for the all the trees.
In case you happen to be among those who enjoy high risk gambling activities in the stock, real estate or commodities markets, not to worry! My sources have assured me that Grexit fears will prove unfounded, thanks to a massive though yet unannounced bailout in the ready, should it be needed. Failing that, there is no reason to expect anything that happens as far away as Greece could have any effect on U.S. markets.
Carry on!
Market Pulse
U.S. stocks open lower as Greece talks continue
Published: Feb 20, 2015 9:32 a.m. ET
By Anora Mahmudova
Reporter
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks opened weaker on Friday as investors remained cautious ahead of U.S. PMI data and the outcome of a key meeting between Greece and Eurogroup ministers. The main indexes were on track to finish the holiday-shortened week roughly where they started it. The S&P 500 (SPX, -0.39%) opened 4 points, or 0.2%, lower at 2,093. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, -0.50%) began the session down 40 points, or 0.2%, to 17,946. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP, -0.26%) was off by a point at 4,923. The tech-heavy index was set for modest weekly gains.
…
Comments
Fred Mensing 9 minutes ago
Germany / EU will back down and give Greece more money and better terms. I expect the US to secretly agree to backstop the loans. Fools.
Eddy Current just now
@Fred Mensing Sounds right.
GREXIT ADViSoRY SYSTeM
williambanzai7’s picture
Submitted by williambanzai7 on 02/20/2015 08:28 -0500
The Grexit’s one hell of a ride
The colors will act as a guide
While printing’s obscene
The risk will be green
While red means the Euro has died
The Limerick King
Europe Markets
Markets Hang on Greek Impasse, Europe Stocks Hover at Seven-Year High
Investors betting for now that Greece bags last-minute eurozone bailout deal
By Tommy Stubbington
Updated Feb. 20, 2015 4:30 a.m. ET
European stocks steadied at seven-year highs Friday, with investors focused on the impasse between Greece and its creditors over a new financing deal for the country.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was little-changed in early trading, having hit its highest close since late 2007 on Thursday. The gains came despite the latest twist in the Greek saga, with Germany rejecting a proposal from Athens to extend its loan agreement with international lenders. Eurozone finance ministers meet on Friday to thrash out a deal to avert a potential Greek exit from the eurozone.
The negotiations have caused a few brief wobbles in markets, but by and large investors have bet a last-minute deal can be reached.
“The market bias appears to be for a constructive outcome. However, unless there is an agreement by the end of this week on Greece, the risk of capital control and exit talks is likely to increase significantly,” said analysts at Barclays .
Greek markets extended Thursday’s rally, with Athens’s main stock index climbing 1.3%. Greece’s 10-year bond yield fell by a quarter of a percentage point to 9.80%. Yields fall as prices rise.
…
How Germany is walloping Greece in the battle of the bailout in 5 charts
By Sara Sjolin
Published: Feb 20, 2015 10:08 a.m. ET
…
5 charts that show Germany’s economy is stronger than Greece’s. Shocker, but I’m not sure how that wins Germany the “battle of the bailout”.
We’ve had the occasional thread here over the years on the Baltic Dry Index. How’s it looking these days?
Jonathan Fishman, Fishman Research
Long/short equity, small-cap, tech, solar
How The Baltic Dry Index Predicted 3 Market Crashes: Will It Do It Again?
Feb. 18, 2015 7:31 AM ET
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More…)
Summary
- The BDI as a precursor to three different stock market corrections.
- Is it really causation or is it correlation?
- A look at the current level of the index as it hits new lows.
The Baltic Dry Index, usually referred to as the BDI, is making historical lows in recent weeks, almost every week.
The index is a composition of four sub-indexes that follow shipping freight rates. Each of the four sub-indexes follows a different ship size category and the BDI mixes them all together to get a sense of global shipping freight rates.
The index follows dry bulk shipping rates, which represent the trade of various raw materials: iron, cement, copper, etc.
The main argument for looking at the Baltic Dry Index as an economic indicator is that end demand for those raw materials is tightly tied to economic activity. If demand for those raw materials is weak, one of the first places that will be evident is in shipping prices.
The supply of ships is not very flexible, so changes to the index are more likely to be caused by changes in demand.
Let’s first look at the three cases where the Baltic Dry Index predicted a stock market crash, as well as a recession.
1986 - The Baltic Dry Index Hits Its first All-time Low.
In late 1986, the newly formed BDI (which replaced an older index) hit its first all-time low.
Other than predicting the late 80s-early 90s recession itself, the index was a precursor to the 1987 stock market crash.
…
Other than predicting the late 80s-early 90s recession itself, the index was a precursor to the 1987 stock market crash.
That recession started in the middle of 1990. There’s two things that could be said about the 1986 decline of the BDI. Either it’s phenomenally prescient because it predicted a recession that occurred 3½ years later, or else it’s more a matter of a stopped clock being correct twice a day.
The trouble with the BDI is that it shows shipping prices, not amount of goods shipped.
Second dry-bulk shipper files for bankruptcy as rates tumble
Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:08am EST
* Worst dry-bulk cargo market since 1980s - ship owner
* Dozens of iron ore and coal carriers idled
* Baltic dry index falls to all-time low
By Keith Wallis and Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE Feb 18 (Reuters) - A second dry cargo shipper has filed for bankruptcy following a collapse in freight rates that has forced many companies to idle vessels used to haul iron ore, coal and grain rather than hire out the ships at a loss.
Weaker demand from China and an oversupply of ships has led to the worst industry downturn in 30 years, pushing the Baltic dry index - the industry benchmark for freight rates - to an all-time low.
China’s Winland Ocean Shipping Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Feb. 12, court documents show, the second banruptcy this month.
“Due to current market conditions, the financial position of the company and its subsidiaries has deteriorated, leading to immediate difficulties,” the document states, adding that it had therefore filed for Chapter 11 protection.
Privately owned Danish firm Copenship filed for bankruptcy earlier in February after losses in the dry bulk market.
“The combination of lower steel demand in China and the huge volume of new tonnage coming on line is what is causing panic and making this the worst bulk market since the mid-1980s,” said Hsu Chih-chien, chairman of Hong Kong and Singapore-listed dry bulk shipper Courage Marine.
China’s imports tumbled 19.9 percent from a year earlier as its economy grows at its slowest rate in 24 years.
The current freight rate for carrying a cargo of coal in a panamax ship from Indonesia to southern China is about $3,000 per day, compared with more than $6,000 last year. The Baltic dry index has slumped by nearly two-thirds in the past 15 months.
Adding to slowing demand is a swelling fleet, with the number of ordered capesize and panamax carriers for the next three years equal to 39 percent of the existing fleet, according to shipping services firm Clarkson. Yet dry-bulk seaborne trade rose only 4 percent last year.
As a result, dozens of capesize and panamax vessels have been idle around Singapore, Hong Kong and off South Africa’s coast, Reuters ship tracking data showed.
Dry-bulkers are not the only shippers in trouble. Over 10 percent of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker fleet is currently idled after Asian LNG prices fell almost two-thirds since February 2014.
Shipbuilding Orders Slump As Baltic Dry Hits Fresh Record Low
Tyler Durden’s picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/18/2015 19:00
For the 56th day of the last 58, The Baltic Dry Index dropped. At 509, this is now down over 65% from the dead cat bounce highs in November 2014 and - yet again - a new all-time record low for the cost of shipping freight. It is no surprise then that, as Lloydlist reports, bulker newbuilding orders slumped in January. When the Baltic Dry tumbled in 2012, the glut of ships then caused a 49% plunge in orders for shipbuilding - as JPMorgan said at the time, “you just have too many yards and too few orders,” and given the artificial signals provided by credit-inflated commodities since, we can only imagine the overhang now.
…
There’s a whole lot of craterin’ going on.
Didn’t that guy marry his 13 year old cousin?
With all the hormones in the milk and meat, there are some marriageable looking preteen girls out there
Maybe ISIS is onto something…
Yeah, I can see where cynical anti-American malcontents would feel sympathy if not complete simpatico with a theology that treats girls as sex slaves and uses heinous murder as a spectator sport…and at the same time hate those pesky Christians.
A little over a year ago, a senator from the state I live in was over there having his picture taken with these guys. He also pushed for a bunch of money and arms to go their way. At that time, I was saying these are some bad dudes, and linked to videos of them eating human lungs, barbequing Syrian heads and planting car bombs on crowded streets in Damascus. You can hang ISIS around John McCain’s neck, but not mine.
cynical anti-American malcontents
I think that this should be your next blog name, goon.
By Steve Straub -
Actual Climate Change pronouncements by scientists
1970) We’ll be in an ice age by 2000!
1976) Global Cooling will cause a world war by 2000!
1989) Global Warming and rising sea levels will wipe entire nations off the map by 2000!
1990) We have five to ten years to save the Rainforests!
1999) The Himalayan Glaciers will be gone in ten years!
2000) Snow will soon be a thing of the past!
2007) Global Warming will cause fewer hurricanes!
2008) The Arctic will be ice-free by 2013!
2012) Global Warming will cause more hurricanes!
2014 THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED!
2 feet of global warming hitting Region VIII tonight and tomorrow
Might not even be able to ski any of it if they close the roads tonight
Climate scientist song
The Climate will change
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
It will change
When I’m stuck in a day
That’s gray,
And snowy,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh
The Climate will change
Tomorrow
So ya gotta fund me
‘Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
I love ya
Tomorrow!
You’re always
A day
A way!
Climate scientist song
You’ve done way better.
Well come on, the original material sucked to begin with, so it is what it is.
Here, this is my vote for the best HBB send-up — quite a blast from the distant past. NO, I didn’t write this:
————————-
Comment by Rainman18
2006-07-14 14:56:17
“The Level Went Down in Florida”
The Sellers were down in Florida
They were cookin’ up some curb appeal.
They were in a bind
But they were not inclined
To entertain any deals.
When a Buyer came upon this young man
Sellin’ a house that he recently bought
The market slumped
Upon this greedy chump
So the Buyer said, “Boy, let me tell you what”.
I guess you didn’t know it
But last year is all through
And if you’d care to price it fair, I’ll take your debt from you.
Now you’ve got a pretty nice listing, boy
But give the market it’s due
If you want it sold
With what you owe
I’d say you need a clue.
The man said “Try and con me?”
So the markets a little thin
But I won’t sweat
You shouldn’t forget
In Florida you always win.
Buyers pause and up your dough and spray the piddle hard.
Cause hell’s broke loose in Florida in this Bubble house of cards.
And Sellers if you price your house to sell then it is SOLD.
If you refuse, the bank will just foreclose.
The Seller opened up his place
And said “This house will show!”
And flyers flew from his fingertips
Just to cause an ample flow.
Then he pulled the door to start the fling
But something was amiss
Demand this season wasn’t there
Just an empty black abyss.
With the Seller finished
The Buyer said “Well you’re pretty cooked old son.”
So sit down in that chair right there and
I’ll show you how a short sales’ done.
He said “Hire an accountant” run boy, run
Liquidate your assets one by one.
Pickin’ up your spread man, I think I’ll bid low.
Fannie Mae will help out?
No child, no
The Seller bowed his head
Cuz his ruin was complete
And he laid that folded deed
On the ground at the Buyers feet
The Buyer said, Just come on back
If you ever wanna buy again
I done warned you once you wanna-be rich.
Your greed done did you in.
He said Higher prices mountin’, done, boy done
The level of your house is a sinking sum.
Stickin’ with your price plan, I think you’re real slow.
Uncanny how the market got this low.
———————————–
2 feet of global warming hitting Region VIII tonight and tomorrow
They always overestimate the amount of snowfall here. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just 4-5 inches in my little burg. Of course, I live in the “banana belt”. Highlands ranch will probably get 2 feet.
None of those erred predictions negate facts.
1970) We’ll be in an ice age by 2000!
1970 science was the stone-age compared to today. It’s like comparing a 1970 car to today’s.
1989) Global Warming and rising sea levels will wipe entire nations off the map by 2000!
Sea levels have been rising rapidly. A wrong stupid conclusion as the one above does not change the fact.
1990) We have five to ten years to save the Rainforests!
Rainforests have been decimated since 1990. There is no “saving” them at this rate.
1999) The Himalayan Glaciers will be gone in ten years! 2000) Snow will soon be a thing of the past! 2007) Global Warming will cause fewer hurricanes! 2008) The Arctic will be ice-free by 2013!
2012) Global Warming will cause more hurricanes!
The earth is heating up. Wrong predictions on the pace and consequences don’t negate the fact.
Headline:
“American Climate Change Deniers Experiencing Cold Winter are Shocked to Learn that North America is Less Than 5% of Earth’s Surface Area.”
“Wrong predictions on the pace and consequences don’t negate the fact.”
Tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
I love ya
Tomorrow!
You’re always
A day
A way!
“the fact”
There it is. An excellent starting place. Everything else is just sprinkles on a cupcake of fraud.
Rio Is the drought in Brazil affecting you ?
Rio Is the drought in Brazil affecting you ?
Minimally compared to those who’s livelihood more directly depends on water. Food and energy costs have spiked. There have been water shortages that have caused me to cut back usage. Electricity prices will rise 40% in March I’ve read. Carnaval events were canceled but one or two are enough for me. It’s too damned hot for too long. The ocean around Rio has been abnormally blue and clear many days lately. 50 year Rio residents are astounded at it.
There will be seriously bad stuff happening if we don’t get more rain soon.
But on a lighter note
I had a Japanese - Euro - American - African slave lunch today at place where you pay by weight. (The food’s weight)
We started with Sushi/Sashimi and then grilled steak, lamb and chicken hearts with fresh veggie salad type stuff with a chunk of blue cheese. Then we did the meat salad part again and then we had some pig ear and pig nose stuff slow cooked in a black bean broth - a component of Brazil’s national dish feijoada.
Next time I might change the order of selections though. It’s lucky to have been born an American and done good enough to have such meals now and then.
done good enough to
Well enough.
I saw a couple ocean-view Avenida Atlantica apartments for sale today but not really more than usual. Yet? One was huge. Like 3,000 sq feet. But the thing about Copa/Ipanema is that most stuff is more than 50 years old. The electric/plumbing is well…..50+ years old. (crap) I also noticed yesterday the tide made not much beach at all. Someone said it was the moon but someone said sea-level has risen.
Judging from ever-swelling supplies with oil priced at $50/bbl, it looks like demand is too weak to keep up. Unless there is a near-term shift in the supply/demand balance, it appears oil prices have further to fall in order to reach equilibrium.
Commodities Corner
Why crude-oil inventories are climbing even as prices plunge
Published: Feb 20, 2015 7:53 a.m. ET
By Myra P. Saefong
Markets/commodities reporter
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — You’d never know oil’s price is tanking by looking at supplies.
Oil inventories appear to be defying conventional wisdom, hovering near 80-year highs even as prices have tumbled by more than half since crude oil’s peak last June.
A report from trade group the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday showed a jump of 14.3 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Feb. 13 — prompting some following the oil market to call it “ridiculous,” “shocking,” or “gargantuan.”
The action has left oil traders, already whipsawed by swings in oil prices, more confused than ever.
When the U.S. Energy Information Administration released its data early Thursday, the market seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief, even though the 7.7 million-barrel climb reported by the government agency was more than twice that the 3.1 million-barrel increase analysts polled by Platts expected. Oil futures CLH5, -0.80% significantly pared their losses on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the EIA news Thursday.
Early Friday, crude-oil futures were trading flat trading at $51.83 in choppy trading.
So why are the inventories soaring?
Supplies are rising due to 9.28 million barrels a day of domestic crude output — the highest since April 1973, and the U.S. also has the most land-based storage for crude because of a “boom by Master Limited Partnerships in the last four years,” which added quite a bit of crude-oil “tankage,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service.
“We’re testing virgin territory for crude-oil stocks,” he said.
“No one really knows what the ‘all full’ level” for storage is, though some reasonable guesses are 450 million to 460 million barrels, Kloza said.
Added to that is what Reuters refers to as the largest U.S. refinery workers strike since 1980, which has come just as refineries are starting their seasonal maintenance, which generally runs from February through late spring.
Slowdowns in refining lessen demand for crude — and so does the strike at West Coast ports.
The “West Coast port mess equals not enough truck movements and not enough diesel demand, so crude oil just backs up all over again,” said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities.
It’s no wonder that the continuing declines in the number of rigs drilling for oil hasn’t helped alleviate the nation’s supply glut.
Read: These places have lost the most rigs since crude’s collapse
Indeed, U.S. stockpiles of crude continue to grow and the EIA referred to the 425.6 million-barrel total as “the highest level for this time of year in at least the last 80 years.”
It is worth noting that API and EIA reports calculate inventories differently.
“Bottom line is the API data [are] voluntary,” notes John Macaluso, research analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. But for companies which carry or store 1,000 barrels or more of crude oil, the EIA’s survey is mandatory.
And “it always seems that API tries to catch up with EIA data, which is a much more detailed report,” said Macaluso. Last week, the API said crude stockpiles rose 1.6 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 6, while the EIA said they were up 4.9 million.
But no matter how you measure it, oil’s supply glut doesn’t look like it is set to abate soon.
…
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102 comments
Hon. Maxine Waters 3 minutes ago
The strip for Apr. 2017 is $85, Apr. ‘16 is $60
I’ll buy what you’re selling if you are calling for $40 oil or less rent out a tanker for $45,000/day and sell it forward.
Sal Gentile 8 minutes ago
Each year there are more and more hybrid, electric and ng powered vehicles on our nations roads. Many companies are using ng power vehicles for local deliveries. Many cities are using ng powered commuter buses. Each year the average new vehicle gets more and more miles per gallon. If we look at the Mass Transit System statistics in every major city that operate commuter buses or trains we will find ridership is increasing fairly fast year over year ___ as more people try to reduce their commuting cost.
We can hide our heads in the sand and make believe none of those are true, if we want to deceive ourselves.
As the number of miles per gallon of fuel our nation’s vehicles increase each year it lowers demand.
If you visit the Dept of Energy web site EIA you will find that Domestic oil production since 2009 is up by 2 million+ barrels per day and it is constantly increasing by another by another 50,000 barrels per week. By the end of 2015 they will be producing 1 more million barrels per day than they produced in 2014.
Anyone who is expecting Demand to catch up with growing Supply will be severely disappointed. New technologies for finding oil and new drilling technologies today are far more productive and superior to those used 5,10 20 years ago. Times and conditions have changed. Anyone who cannot recognize ‘changing conditions’ is completely out of touch with reality and living in the past.
…
Why would one expect Equilibrium to be the next stop on such a huge commodities roller coaster ride?
I used the term loosely; was merely suggesting that supply/demand imbalance suggest the trend ain’t your friend if you believe a prolific former poster’s assertion that oil is soon headed back above $100/bbl.
What would the definition of equilibrium even be in the case of the price of oil. Would it be an oil price level that was fairly stable over a long period of time?
So wait a second, they lived presumably rent free since 2007 and then they buy the shack back (cash out refied or not?) at half price?
Somebody tell me I got this wrong. Please.
“The FHFA took a preliminary step toward allowing debt cuts in November by letting borrowers who have gone through foreclosure repurchase their homes at market prices.”
Would Help For Underwater Homeowners Cost Taxpayers?
BY BLOOMBERG NEWS
02/05/2015 02:39 PM ET
The overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wants to allow debt cuts for a narrow group of borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. The trick is figuring out a way to do it without incurring costs for taxpayers.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin Watt told reporters this week that he is studying the idea of reducing principal on properties with depressed values, a step backed by some housing advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
Watt met with reporters for a broad discussion of his policies, which apply to the more than half of home loans backed by Fannie Mae (OTCBB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCBB:FMCC).
If the agency does decide to allow debt cuts for some borrowers, “I think it will be substantially narrower than the vision people have,” Watt said. “Reducing everybody’s principal would cost taxpayers billions.”
About 5.1 million homeowners, one in ten of all homeowners with a mortgage, had negative equity in the third quarter of last year, according toCoreLogic (NYSE:CLGX) data. The number has been declining as home prices have recovered. Congress could pass a tax break if lawmakers want to aid underwater borrowers, Watt said.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have operated under U.S. conservatorship since they were seized during the 2008 credit crisis. They’re required to send all of their profits to the U.S. Treasury under terms of their taxpayer-funded bailout.
Shareholders in the companies have asked Watt and Treasury officials to change terms of the agreement so that the firms can retain some of their profits. Watt said that he has no plans to start such talks.
“I don’t know that I perceive it’s my responsibility to start that conversation,” he said. “I inherited a set of agreements. I know why they were put in place, basically as a quid pro quo for rescuing Fannie and Freddie.”
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/business-inside-real-estate/020515-738077-negative-equity-debt-cut-considered.htm#ixzz3SIaJhFwx
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
The Middle Class is dying
- wages stagnant for 20 years - I saw that in my family. Two of my sisters’ real income decreased over 15 years (the oldest sister started working 15 years ago) and over 20 years. The one at 20 years used to live alone. Now she lives with her long time boyfriend. Another sister’s wages have declined over the last 6 years. Mine declined the last 4 years.
Meanwhile the last 24 years the U.S. government has been involved in and started many wars back to back. I do not think this is a coincidence.
Article below
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shake-your-middle-class-status-stat-211915756.html
Once upon a time being middle class was an achievement, today its considered a curse warns Grant Cardone, motivational speaker and author of Sell or be Sold. “Notification to the middle class is get out, get above it, whatever you have to do.”
76% of middle class workers are living paycheck to paycheck, and with wage growth stagnant saving for retirement and planning for your future is likely not happening. In order to rise above the fray you need to simply earn more, says Cardone. “$109,000 a year is where you need to get, so if you are making $60,000 or $58,000, the average person makes $58,000 in this country, figure out how do I add $42,000 into that?”
Earning an additional $42,000 is easier said than done for most Americans however Cardone says anybody can do it by focusing on these principles. “If you want to get out of the middle class you need to market yourself, promote yourself and sell yourself.”
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More on Grant Cardone
The clock is ticking. Middle class Americans are carrying an average debt load of $84,000, an increase of 161% from 1992 which is rapidly creating a two class society in America. “Poverty is getting bigger, wealthy people are getting bigger and the middle class is actually shrinking,” according to Cardone. That may mean eventually America will consist of only the rich and the poor.
Sobering Stats on the Middle Class
Wages are flat or declining for 20 years
Middle 60% of households earn less than 50% of all income
50% of college graduates don’t get a job in the field they studied
28% of Americans have no savings, 43% have enough for 3 months of expenses
I work with a lot of people who went all in on the “middle class” lifestyle with big mortgages, big car payments and big consumer debt. They tend to be super nervous all the time and constantly worrying if they are working hard enough to keep their jobs.
Living below your means is the new black.
And it’s interesting how all that worrying ages people faster than the debt free who are focused on health and not so on money. Ironically (or not ironically) the ones less interested in material things tend to have no debt and do live within their means.
I have not met any Californians within 5 miles of the beach who live within their means (I’m an Arizonan).
If you live within your means, that means you got some money saved. People with some saving are rich(ish) and obviously there would be lack of rich people in the poorest state in the country, right?
Why do you have to be so racialist?
“Living debt free is like winning the lottery EVERYDAY!!”
You got that right!
Imagine no payments - now imagine immeasurable freedom.
76% of middle class workers are living paycheck to paycheck
Then they aren’t “middle class” anymore.
That is a good observation and shows the middle class are really a very small group in the USA. Probably fewer than 30 million.
That is a good observation and shows the middle class are really a very small group in the USA. Probably fewer than 30 million.
In the book “Deer Hunting with Jesus” the author notes how the working poor consider themselves “middle class”, even though they can’t afford vacations or to even see the doctor.
yes they are.
Don’t be like Marie Antoinette, or the Romanovs and find out too late.
Don’t be like Marie Antoinette, or the Romanovs and find out too late.
I don’t think it was the middle class that overthrew those people, partially because during those times France and Russia didn’t have a meaningful middle class to speak of.
If you’re middle class, it means you still have something left to lose (job, house, savings, pension), hence why you won’t grab a torch or a pitchfork and flip over the apple cart.
tell that to the Ukrainian army.
Yes they are. # of gadgets and electronics you own define how rich you are.
The clock is ticking. Middle class Americans are carrying an average debt load of $84,000,
Who owns that debt? Rich people.
If you don’t like rich people, do not go on debts. Don’t play their games.
If you don’t like rich people, do not go on debts. Don’t play their games.
And if you are a “Stanley Johnson” and are up to your eyeballs in debt, don’t refi. File for BK and stiff them. Sure, you won’t have the country club membership anymore or be able to take all those vacations or drive fancy cars anymore … but … you just might be able to retire someday.
If you don’t like rich people, do not go on debts. Don’t play their games.
My father worked with a guy who had a different take on it. He had a goal to be deeply in debt when he died, thus stiffing his creditors. It’s kind of a loser attitude, but funny.
If a major scandal happens in an administration and no real journalists report it, does it make a sound?
David Axelrod brags Team Obama has had no ‘major scandal’ in 6 years
By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times - Wednesday, February 18, 2015
David Axelrod, the former senior adviser to President Obama, bragged on the administration’s record of ethical governance during a talk at the University of Chicago, telling attendees that the White House’s record for the past six years has been pretty much scandal-free.
“I’m proud of the fact that basically you’ve had an administration that’s been in place for six years in which there hasn’t been a major scandal,” he said, Talking Points Memo reported. “And I think that says a lot about the ethical strictures of this administration.”
The Obama White House, meanwhile, has fielded the likes of “Fast and Furious,” the gun-walking program that left a U.S. border patrol agent dead; the Benghazi consulate attacks and its lingering questions about what the White House knew and when; the IRS tea party targeting fiasco; and the Justice Department’s wiretapping of various media officials, to name a few.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/18/david-axelrod-brags-team-obama-has-had-no-major-sc/#ixzz3SIhEZ74A
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Scripting a narrative, linked from Google News
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/suspect-caught-road-rage-shooting-las-vegas-mother-article-1.2121795
This kid is 19 and has all these marijuana pics on his social media, and the headline at the top of the article is titled “Marijuana-loving teen Erich Nowsch arrested in ‘road rage’ killing of Las Vegas neighbor Tammy Meyers”
Sheldon Adelson spent over $5 million to defeat a medical marijuana ballot initiative in Florida in 2014
How are you gonna shrink the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub when the legal system and prison industrial complex spends millions and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars every year locking up people for marijuana?
I knew alot of people who smoked marijuana at age 19, and none of the really crazy ones were *only* using marijuana, the dangerous ones were also on coke, meth, heroin, and assorted pharmaceuticals
I know a lot of tobacco smokers and dippers that are very focused and successful, not sure if they will get the same “most favored” treatment from the progressive fascists.
Eric Garner died because of this…
How does a pot-loving teen even get road rage?
Smoking weed that was spiked with something else?
There has never been one reported case, EVER, of someone overdosing on marijuana and dying
Yes, you could crash your car or jump off a balcony or fall asleep with a lit joint in your hand and burn your house down, but there has not been one reported overdose death resulting from the consumption of weed by itself
Region VIII protip: do not combine MJ edibles with bourbon and start texting ex-girlfriends
there has not been one reported overdose death resulting from the consumption of weed by itself
Be careful out there folks. This ain’t your daddy’s weed.
Study Claims to Find First Two Deaths Caused by Marijuana
http://time.com/10372/marijuana-deaths-german-study/
…..A recent German study claims to have documented the first known deaths resulting from marijuana use.
While researchers studied 15 people whose deaths were allegedly linked to marijuana use, 13 of those deaths were confirmed to be caused by other factors. Researchers said, however, that the drug was to blame in two isolated cases of two seemingly health people, one 23 years old and another 28. Autopsies found that younger had a serious undetected heart problem, suggesting that people with cardiological issues should be aware of marijuana risks, and the older had a history of alcohol and drug use.
i stand corrected
two known deaths
two
This is daily fodder here in Region V aka Chicago ILLANNOY!!
Climate Change Driving the Brutal East Coast Winter and the Western Drought?
http://scienceblog.com/77097/climate-change-driving-brutal-winter-2/#fwc8garRsoxVogDO.97
cupcake.
“This is a no-brainer for us. We’re positioning ourselves aggressively. We need the money to survive,” said J. Murray Gibson, dean of Northeastern’s College of Science.
In Nahant, NU eyes federal funds for climate research
By Tracy JanGlobe Staff July 08, 2014
Studying the impact of global warming on — in Washington parlance — “urban coastal sustainability” has become one of the hottest sources of federal dollars, and Northeastern officials believe its modest marine science center in Nahant can win up to $25 million a year in US research grants and boost the university’s profile in the process.
“This is a no-brainer for us. We’re positioning ourselves aggressively. We need the money to survive,” said J. Murray Gibson, dean of Northeastern’s College of Science.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/…/eFtbMxqeas4gPNtzyG9VCN/story.html -
Princeton University climate institute receives $3M in federal funding …
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/08/princeton_science_climate_inst.html - 164k - Cached - Similar pages
Aug 27, 2012
Oklahoma Receives $20 Million Award to Boost Climate Research
By Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Press Release
5.24.2013 (Fri)
http://www.southcentralclimate.org/…a_receives_20_million_award_to_boost_climate_research - 15k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-20 10:12:37
In Nahant, NU eyes federal funds for climate research
bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/07/07/northeastern-seeks-new-pots-federal-grants-for-nahant-marine-science-campus/eFtbMxqeas4gPNtzyG9VCN/story.html
Oklahoma Receives $20 Million Award to Boost Climate Research
By Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Press Release
5.24.2013 (Fri)
southcentralclimate.org/index.php/pages/news/oklahoma_receives_20_million_award_to_boost_climate_research
Studying the impact of global warming on — in Washington parlance — “urban coastal sustainability” has become one of the hottest sources of federal dollars,
Science is free? What is odd about millions of dollars being spent to study a changing climate? If science is clearly pointing to potential calamity why would not big money be spent to study it?
Because money is being spent to study it, and some people are making their living on studying it, that means it’s bogus?
Makes no sense.
Obviously, if it is bogus, and the ranks of those lining up for mother’s milk is swelling, then it is an embarrassing waste, or worse.
It’s a cupcake.
Yep. That’s it.
Important statistics never covered by the MSM
White-on-white murder in America is out of control
“Blacks represent 13% of the population but commit 50% of the murders; 90% of black victims are murdered by other blacks,” writes Time’s Joe Klein, calling for “provocative” thinking on race in America. “The facts suggest that history is not enough to explain this social disaster.”
Yet the disturbing truth, according to the FBI’s most recent homicide statistics, is that the United States is in the wake of an epidemic of white-on-white crime. Back in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, a staggering 83 percent of white murder victims were killed by fellow Caucasians.
This is not to say that white people are inherently prone to violence. Most whites, obviously, manage to get through life without murdering anyone. And there are many countries full of white people — Norway, Iceland, France, Denmark, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — where white people murder each other at a much lower rate than you see here in the United States. On the other hand, although people often see criminal behavior as a symptom of poverty, the quantity of murder committed by white people specifically in the United States casts some doubt on this. Per capita GDP is considerably higher here than in France — and the white population in America is considerably richer than the national average — and yet we have more white murderers.
To understand the level of cultural pathology at work here, it’s important to understand that 36 percent of those killed by whites are women — a far higher share than you see with black murderers.
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053811/white-on-white-murder
Y’all c’mon over here to Chicago ILLANNOY to see for yo self exactly what this sort of murder looks like - this is a daily occurrence here in Chicago ILLANNOY!!
Here’s one for Boots……
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hiv-strain-found-in-cuba-could-be-most-aggressive-ever-studied-in-humans-10057570.html
Hope no one here bought or owns a Lenovo laptop… google “Lenovo Superfish”. Corporate malware baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3xdeatlwYk - 351k -
‘Racist Sounding’ Bird Names Banned in Sweden
“We decided to change the names of any birds that could have stirred up a debate”
by Mikael Thalen | Infowars.com | February 20, 2015
The names of several different birds have been banned by Sweden’s Ornithological Society over fears that they sound too racist.
According to Swedish news site The Local, the ban and ensuing name changes came about after the society finished compiling its first complete list of bird types.
“We haven’t had an official list of what all the birds in the world are called in Swedish until now, we just had an unofficial list put together about 10 years ago,” Swedish Ornithological Society member Anders Wirdheim said. “We decided to compile a list and while we were doing that we decided to change the names of any birds that could have stirred up a debate.”
All bird names containing the word “neger” (negro), such as the negerfinken, have now been changed to instead use “svart,” the Swedish word for “black.”
A species of duck known as the “Hottentott” has been changed due to the word’s apparent derogatory usage against the “Khoikhoi” tribe in South Africa.
The “kaffer” bird, known as the “swift” in English, was also changed as not to sound similar to a term used in South Africa as well, causing the “white-rumped swift” to becomes the “vitgumpseglare.”
Even words that could be translated to sound questionable in other languages were banned and altered, such as the “Zigenarfågel” or the “gypsy bird.”
According to reports, debate thus far over the subject has been minimal, with some people appearing to tweet pictures of Swedish birds in protest.
While some see the change as a needed adjustment, others feel the incident once again represents out-of-control political correctness.
A similar incident unfolded in the United States in late 2013 when public affairs officers in Seattle, Washington, demanded the words “brown bag” and “citizens” be banned from all governmental use.
Elliott Bronstein of the Office for Civil Rights in Seattle argued that “brown bag,” a term referring to city meetings in which participants brought a lunch from home, could be offensive to black Americans.
Police in the United Kingdom banned the words “blacklist” and “whitelist” in 2012 as well over fears that law enforcement could be accused of racism.
All bird names containing the word “neger” (negro), such as the negerfinken, have now been changed to instead use “svart…,”
In Yiddish right?
I am guessing that Snoop Dogg will not be performing in Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGF_vRuXo5w - 228k -
Is the African Bush Tit safe?
“Is the African Bush Tit safe?”
I think that falls under the war on women category.
Let’s not forget the LGBT penguin community.
List of birds displaying homosexual behavior
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Two New York Central Park Zoo’s male chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they coupled and later were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.[1]
For these birds, there is documented evidence of homosexual or transgender behavior of one or more of the following kinds: sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, or parenting, as noted in researcher and author Bruce Bagemihl’s 1999 book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.
Bagemihl writes that the presence of same-sex sexual behavior was not ‘officially’ observed on a large scale until the 1990s due to possible observer bias caused by social attitudes towards LGBT people making the bull homosexual theme[clarify] taboo.[2][3] Bagemihl devotes three chapters; Two Hundred Years at Looking at Homosexual Wildlife,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_displaying_homosexual_behavior - 168k -
Are you guys gonna sit around and b@tch in the next correction or are you actually gonna make a purchase someday?
Somehow I think even if home prices do crater again there will be some new excuse not to buy.
Ten years down the road you will still be ranting aimlessly about a housing bubble and how the man has kept you down.
It is not that simple pal. I did buy a place in 1997 to live in, sold it in 2007 thanks in part to the HBB and walked away with $200K. Tried to buy again in 2011 and 2012 but it was not possible with a mortgage as a 100% cash flipper or speculator got every place I bid on. Prices are up 60% locally since then and buying would be foolish now so I’m renting more or less happily.
I’ll think about buying again if and when the fundamentals make sense, i.e. price is about 10 years rent, etc….
Give it time. Prices all over CA are going in the $hitter.
More time. Sure HA. Another 18 years works. You will have paid enough rent to retire my mortgages and produce an 8% return on my equity. Then the fun starts….and you can go buy a house.
You’re underwater and sinking Jingle_Fraud. You’re the only one that doesn’t know it.
An especially outrageous flip in my town, a crappy 50’s house bought one month ago for $315K, got the typical crappy/tacky flipper remodel and lotsa flipper bark, now they are trying to get $420K…close to a very busy road and the freeway to boot. Home these dirtbags get badly burned…
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/625-Oliver-Ln_Santa-Rosa_CA_95401_M16312-06688?row=1
…. in a crappy town in a crappy welfare state.
The Torch??
Dubai’s The Torch Apartment Tower On Fire
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/dubais-torch-apartment-tower-fire-n310031
Dramatic High-rise Fire at Dubai’s ‘The Torch’ Tower
Nightly News
Firefighters are battling a fire at a 79-story apartment tower in Dubai, a civil defense spokesman said.
There are no reported injuries but the fire was fueled by windy conditions and had engulfed between 10 and 15 floors of the more than 1,100-foot-tall tower, named The Torch, witnesses said. The building was evacuated.
“I saw the fire falling from the window,” said Mehdi Ansari, who lives on the 27th floor and escaped with his wife and baby after the alarms sounded.
He said the fire appeared to begin around the 52nd floor, and it grew to cover between 10 and 15 more floors surrounding it. Winds were blowing the flames down the building he said.
Ansari said the escape from the burning tower, located in the marina district, was orderly.
“The firefighters did well. They were pretty quick, they organized people, got them out, gave them water and found others,” he said.
SOCIAL
First published February 20th 2015, 10:31 pm