Bits Bucket for May 13, 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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Jeb Bush trying to walk back his previous support for invasion of Iraq, common core, and open borders as polls indicate voter coolness to a clone of “Shrub” Bush, i.e. a plutocrat neocon corporate statist.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/05/12/jeb-bush-implodes-embraces-amnesty-invasion-of-iraq-common-core/
“neocon corporate statist”
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/scott-walker-in-israel-listening-or-hiding-117871.html
Clubber Lang has been conspicuously absent from the HBB lately, so I’ll post on his behalf that any discission of this topic is not only anti-semitic and anti-American, but is actually pro-radical Islam
Maybe him and that bleating sheep “Florida Sceptic” are commiserating over at HuffPo with the other vegetables.
If you both opened your eyes enough to look beyond Bush derangement syndrome, you could possibly see the realities of our current geo-political situation. I know that will never happen.
So, I will just pass along a greeting from the psychopaths you enable: Alahu Akbar my friends…Alahu Akbar.
Did you see John Stewart’s take on this. Nice T Shirt.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/jon-stewart-jeb-bush-dogs_n_7271870.html
Another corrupt Democrat-run urban dystopia circling the drain as Moodys downgrades Chicago to junk.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102650351
Nothing matters as long as you can just BORROW MORE MONEY
Nothing matters as long as you can just GET MORE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
Nothing matters as long as you can just BORROW MORE MONEY
Let’s pretend any of the principal is ever going to be paid back.
I had to chime in here living in this ‘utopian’ paradise of leftist marxism –
A few things that I repeat over and over to anyone willing to listen….
a) Don’t move here you won’t like it….
b) It ain’t called ILLANNOY for nuthin’…..
c) Dante’s quote should be hung above the gates to Chicago – “Beware all ye who enter here…”
d) First Otrauma….now Hitlery…. both hail from this ‘utopian’ paradise. How’s that working for you America?….
e) You have to live here to really understand how toxic this place really is….
f) The state house has been held prisoner by Mike Madigan since the late 1970’s yes since the days of Jimmy Carter!!! – Many here call ILLANNOY “Madiganistan”….
And an FYI – unfunded total liability is much larger than generally reported – estimates are today anywhere between $120 billion and $214 billion dollars.
This place is bankrupt beyond measure.
As a local radio talkie said when the ILLANNOY Supremes (which by the way is infested with leftist judges) announced their decision from on high – He said something and I paraphrase……”you think people leaving this state is bad now – just wait – there are thousands with viable businesses who have been preparing for this and seeing that the only thing that will cure this debt problem is more taxes – well….they are leaving and leaving the state very soon.”
There are two organizations that keep tabs on this closely – linkies here:
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/
http://www.civicfed.org/
Enjoy your day!!!!
“Yet here are five reasons, now more than ever, that suggest Chicago is akin to Detroit — or, by some measures, even worse. Or, as Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner put it last month: “Chicago is in deep, deep yogurt.”
Would have to imagine Bruce is referring to the Greek variety.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-13/how-chicago-city-of-junk-just-moved-a-little-closer-to-detroit
If you like your creepy Orwellian surveillance, you can keep your creepy Orwellian surveillance.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3078229/Worker-fired-disabling-GPS-app-tracked-24-hours-day.html
Just leave the work iphone at home when off from work.
Or put it in a Faraday cage when at home.
Oh wait - you mean I have to buy my OWN phone and pay for a service?
I suspect that her job requires her to be on call around the clock, hence why she has to lug the company phone everywhere she goes. From what I have seen over the years, the only people who get company phones are those who are expected to be available 24/7, like sales and tech support people.
Production Test Engineers
Lifeline will help you get a free phone if you are poor.
The whole thing began back in 1996 when the Federal Communications Commission authorized the programs for landline phones. At that time it provided discounts on landline phones only, for obvious reasons.
Blame Clinton for starting it, other prez’s for continuing it. But those are facts you dont like to read.
Cell Phones:
Aha, some say, that’s the same year Obama was elected! Well, that’s true. But the service in Tennessee was launched three months prior to Obama being elected. And that means the discussion and approval of the extension of the program occurred under President Bush’s watch.
The Bush Phone, anyone?
The Bush Phone, anyone?
Obamaphone sounds better.
Wrong, the lifeline program goes back to 1985….
https://www.fcc.gov/lifeline
Reagan Phone?
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the traditional goal of universal service to include increased access to both telecommunications and advanced services – such as high-speed Internet – for all consumers at just, reasonable and affordable rates. The Act established principles for universal service that specifically focused on increasing access to evolving services for consumers living in rural and insular areas, and for consumers with low-incomes. Additional principles called for increased access to high-speed Internet in the nation’s schools, libraries and rural health care facilities. The FCC established four programs within the Universal Service Fund to implement the statute. The four programs are:
Connect America Fund (formally known as High-Cost Support) for rural areas
Lifeline (for low-income consumers), including initiatives to expand phone service for residents of Tribal lands
Schools and Libraries (E-rate)
Rural Health Care
It won’t be long until there’s a way for the common man to make GPS/surveillance obsolete.
There are many millions of responsible people who are very resentful of being spied on. A big and very profitable market exists for those who prove successful in inventing devices/containment that thwart Big Brother and others.
It’s all voluntary. What device is needed other than not carrying a tracking device cell phone everywhere with you? Or not having a car with the exact same. Or not buying with credit/ATM cards?
You choose to plug in. If you do that you will be tracked.
Here’s the good news. No one cares.
Let me post that question on my facebook page…
‘No one cares.’
On that, you are wrong. Why are google and apple stepping over themselves to allow encryption of their phones? Because there are black phones being developed that would cost them market share. Do you think Hillary or McCain or Merkel talk/text on a regular phone anymore?
You are confusing encryption with tracking. Listening to calls is different than not wanting to be tracked. If you connect to cell towers you can always be tracked.
But really no one cares about the conversations either, world leaders notwithstanding.
Chameleon
‘You are confusing encryption with tracking’
If they don’t what I’m saying, what does it matter if they track me? The license plate recognition cameras accomplish that.
‘really no one cares’
I think you’re just a dumb ass. Banned.
“Banned.”
Thank gawd.
“No one cares.”
He was probably some government plant.
Here’s the good news. No one cares.
Because they “have nothing to hide”, right? That is until your privacy is violated and the “innocent” information is used against you.
There are many millions of responsible people who are very resentful of being spied on.
They must have something to hide….
The MBA announced their updated “Credit Availability Index”. The index is up slightly to 121.4 (100 was March 2012).
The looked backwards at what the index would have read during the peak…almost 900.
Credit is loosening for sure. Down payments have become optional again. However, we aren’t close to the madness of the bubble years.
Doesn’t much matter when housing demand collapsing to 20+ year lows now does it Rental_Fraud?
This time is different.
Markets
Many Investors Still Bullish on Treasury Bonds
Money managers believe that the recent selloff isn’t sustainable because of tempered economic expectations and more-balanced positioning by traders
Comments by then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2013 suggesting that the Fed could begin tapering its monthly bond purchases sooner than investors had expected caused a ‘taper tantrum.’
Photo: Getty Images
By Min Zeng
May 12, 2015 7:10 p.m. ET
Investors in U.S. government bonds are licking their wounds after a three-week rout that has raised the specter of the 2013 “taper tantrum.” But many money managers believe that sharp selloff, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s plan to withdraw its monetary stimulus, won’t be repeated.
They point to two key differences with the events of two years ago: tempered economic expectations and more-balanced positioning by investors.
…
Government-bond prices have tumbled in recent weeks following a sharp run-up, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note as high as 2.366% during intraday trading Tuesday, its highest level in six months. Late Tuesday, the yield fell to 2.256%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
…
A U.S. centric view on bond market volatility could be very costly to investors.
Bond Report
Selloff in German bunds drags Treasurys lower
Published: May 13, 2015 5:07 p.m. ET
April import prices fell 0.3%, following an upwardly revised decline of 0.2% in March. Import prices are down 10.7% year-over-year.
By Ellie Ismailidou
Markets reporter
Treasurys finished lower Wednesday, pushing yields higher, after changing direction several times amid weak U.S. data, a strong Treasury auction and the continuing selloff by eurozone government bonds.
Early in the morning, a series of weak U.S. data sparked a rally, while the eurozone’s bond market bounced back from Tuesday’s rout.
Retail sales, import prices and business inventories all came in weaker than expected, indicating that U.S. economic growth has yet to pick up in the second quarter.
But later, as the eurozone bond market came under renewed pressure, the Treasury market staged a brisk retreat, pushing yields higher.
In the afternoon, a strong auction of $24 billion in 10-year Treasury spurred demand for Treasurys. But the selloff in sovereign debt soon continued, led by German bunds.
On balance, the yield on the 10-year note (TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.85%) rose 2.7 basis points to 2.283%, according to data from Tradeweb.
The yield on the two-year note (TMUBMUSD02Y, +0.02%) declined 2.6 basis points to 0.576%, and the 30-year bond (TMUBMUSD30Y, -0.20%) yield gained 6.1 basis points to 3.080%.
“It was a nauseating ride and one walks away from it with more of a wiggling [gait] than solid footing,” Ian Lyngen, senior rates strategist at CRT Capital Group, said in a note.
But perhaps the most important is the continued steepening of the yield curve.
“While short maturities and intermediate maturities are holding their value and even appreciating [on Wednesday], longer bonds are selling off as the market continues to build a growing risk premium for the uncertainty created by a [Federal Reserve] on hold,” said Jonathan Lewis, chief investment officer at Samson Capital Advisors.
Market experts interpreted Wednesday’s soft data as an indication that the Fed will have to delay the first interest rate increase in almost a decade.
“We still aren’t really seeing the big recovery that was anticipated in the wake of the weather-depressed first quarter. This just really reinforces the view that a June [interest rate] hike isn’t happening and that September looks the more probable start point,” James Knightley, an economist at ING, said in a note.
“The first-quarter theme was a slowdown. The second-quarter theme is ‘good, but not good enough,’” said Jeff Carbone, managing director at wealth management firm Cornerstone Financial Partners.
The other key element that will determine the Fed’s next move is the strength of the dollar, analysts said.
“If the dollar remains strong, the Fed may need to back off and not do anything for a while,” Carbone said.
This would keep the market within the current 2.10%-2.30% range for a while, he argued, where it recently repositioned after last week’s selloff that was fueled by a similar meltdown in the eurozone’s bond market.
…
Though pundits are offering assurances the bond market rout is ending, I’m not so sure. The present episode has started out far more violently than similar routs in 1987 and 2013, with far greater volatility and yield adjustment velocity. And both 1987 and 2013 saw end of year long-term yields far higher than May levels.
Caveat emptor!
Here is a comparison of 30yr Tbond yield movements in early 2015 versus all of 2015 in levels*. You can see early May is shaping up similarly this year as in 2013, but off a much lower base — i.e., long-term T-bond investors had already lost a lot of money before this month before the rate of loss recently increased and came to light in the MSM.
* I tried to do this with 1987, but rates were so much higher then that it didn’t work well; I will try using logs next time.
Why do wannabe pundits ignore data? Makes them look foolish…
Bond Crash is neither obvious nor ongoing
May 13, 2015 by Cyceon in Articles
“It’s time to rethink the bond market, Bonds are quietly crashing around the world, Is the huge bond wave about to crash?” here are some of the most striking business media headlines in recent days, apart from these about the endless Greek crisis. While all seems for the best in almost the best of all worlds – ECB’s massive QE, driving US economic growth, stock markets records – one now finds out that a crash is impending. Worse, it’s a bond crash that means it is more difficult to understand and likelier to be involuntarily ignored by most of the general public. “We have attended a strong correction of bond markets’ yield for at least a month. It means the 10-year German bond yield which was at 0.07 percent on April 21, 2015 now stands at 0.70 percent,” Bernard Keppenne, Chief Economist with CBC Banque & Assurance told Cyceon.
“Comforted by the bond-buying program started since March 2015 by the ECB, the bond market makers have felt that yields would continue to inexorably decrease even though they had already reached extreme lows,” he added. “This decrease (towards zero and even below zero – which was unprecedented) was fueled by the launching of ECB’s massive QE but it has been accentuated by investors who have sought to benefit from this opportunity,” confirmed Nicolas Chéron, Strategist with CMC Markets, according to whom this has been a bond market disruption orchestrated by the ECB itself. A sudden lack of interest combined with slight inflationary pressures resulting from oil prices rebound has increased yield and lowered bond prices, Keppenne underlined.
As a result, volatility and risk taking by investors have increased in the markets, encouraging a slight bond correction offset by equity reaching new records high.
…
Bill Gross fears death; a coming thirty-year bear market
by Chris Matthews
May 4, 2015, 9:26 AM EDT
The bond-king’s latest musings give investors little reason for optimism.
Bill Gross is in a brooding mood, to put it lightly.
The bond-market king’s latest market commentary, published Monday, starts off with an extended discussion of Bill Gross’ own mortality before segueing into a series of bleak predictions for bond and stock markets in coming years, where he argues money managers will defensively endure many years of negative returns and even be pleased with average returns just 3% higher than the risk-free rate.
…
“… money managers will defensively endure many years of negative returns and even be pleased with average returns just 3% higher than the risk-free rate.”
The money managers, huh. The money managers will be the ones who will endure many years of negative returns and even be pleased with average returns just 3% higher than the risk-free rate?
And what about investors who have their money managed by these guys? Where do they come into the picture? They get paid after the money manager extracts their hefty fees so there had better be something left over else the investors will take a walk and take their money with them.
The Golden Days for money managers were the days when hefty returns were easy to get and hence hefty fees extracted from these hefty returns didn’t make such a huge dent. But those days are long gone.
What we are going to see, IMO, is a mispricing of risk.
Money managers will have to extend out the risk of what money they manage in order to get enough return to both pay themselves and pay their investors.
And this risk extension will translate into chasing prices.
My hunch:
Mispricing is behind us; repricing lies in store.
“… repricing lies in store.”
That too. One leads to another.
But, whatever happens to the money that is managed, the money managers get paid, and they get paid first.
He who gets paid first, gets paid best.
http://www.fa-mag.com/news/the-rise-of-the-robo-advisors-17370.html
The bond-market king’s latest market commentary, published Monday, starts off with an extended discussion of Bill Gross’ own mortality
It’s so unfair that billionaires have to grow old and die just like the little people!
Meanwhile, Larry Ellison has invested $500M of his own money into longevity research. He does look pretty good for his age. I’m sure that he has his own private army of doctors, nutritionists and personal trainers who monitor every little detail regarding his health.
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2014/08/human-trials-of-young-blood-transfused-into-old-individuals.php
Expensive but Larry can afford it
For him it would be chump change. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already doing it.
I just saw this.
Oracle’s Larry Ellison to host fundraiser for Rubio
By Tarini Parti
5/13/15 9:56 AM EDT
Sen. Marco Rubio now has another billionaire in his corner: Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
Ellison will host a fundraiser for the Florida Republican’s White House bid at his mansion in Woodside, Calif., on June 9, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
Story Continued Below
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.
A VIP reception and photo opportunity with Rubio will cost attendees $2,700 per person. The fundraiser will also include a host committee dinner for couples who have raised $27,000.
Ellison, who has a net worth of nearly $54 billion, hosted a fundraiser benefiting the National Republican Senatorial Committee last year that featured another presidential hopeful, Sen. Rand Paul, who has been courting major Silicon Valley donors.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/larry-ellison-marco-rubio-fundraiser-117895.html#ixzz3a3I7MOhY
Wonder if Ellison has talked with Keith Richards?
Bond Market Is Sending the Fed an Important Signal
By Anthony Mirhaydari, The Fiscal Times
May 13, 2015
Long-term interest rates are rising again this week as bond traders front-run the Federal Reserve and look for a bounce back in inflation and “real” rates, a reflection of better economic fundamentals.
In early February, the yield on 10-year Treasuries was below 1.7 percent. On Tuesday, it tested above the 2.3 percent level, where it was back in November. Last week, yields spiked to levels not seen since October.
We appear to be in the midst of the first persistent rise in borrowing costs since the Fed ended its QE3 bond buying stimulus program last year. The fixed-income market is finally sniffing out a rebound in both prices and economic growth. It remains to be seen if this upward momentum will survive the Fed’s short-term rate liftoff — the first such move since 2006 — expected sometime later this year.
Based on their recent comments, Fed officials are also coming around to the realization the labor market is nearing full employment, undermining any justification for holding interest rates near historic lows. San Francisco Fed President John Williams admitted earlier this week that the unemployment rate is nearing its natural rate — the threshold before wage inflation really starts kicking in as businesses fight for qualified applicants. Williams also noted that it would be safer for the Fed to start raising rates earlier and more gradually than wait too long and have to raise them drastically to stay ahead of inflation. And besides, the Fed’s ability to delay rate hikes is more limited now in his opinion.
…
Quote from Obama, via Drudge link to a Breitbart article:
“And so, if we’re going to change how Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell think, we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues…”
Of course real journalists already know how to report on these issues. It’s only those illegitimate reporters who need to be dealt with.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/05/12/obama-rips-fox-were-going-to-have-to-change-how-the-media-reports/
Do you like how the Drudge Report auto-refreshes every two minutes, like it’s some kind of wire service or stock ticker?
It rallies the base, and it dazzles the kind of people who think the Washington Times is a real newspaper
The following issues/topics are forbidden to be discussed on this Blog because Drudge has an article about them:
The train derailment in Philly
Obamacare
Tax receipts for the US government
Crime in NYC
Hillary running for president
Greece imploding
Baltimore
Republicans running for president
Illegals
Drought in California
NSA Spying
Chicago going bankrupt
Obama “free trade” bill with asia
Artificial Intelligence
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Any logical or thoughtful discussions of these topics will be replied by 17 years in their parents basement with:
As seen in the Drudge Report
Talking points by Drudge
Your meme has been set by Drudge
Fortunately - Kim Kardashian’s butt and Dancing with Stars is NOT on the Drudge Report so those topics are wipe open - so have at it.
You know something really scary is happening when he uses the Big Red Font, it almost hurts my eyes to see it, but it rallies my base to vote for the candidate that Sheldon Adelson purchased
Take it with a grain of salt, 2 ban.
This is what happens when people can no longer defend their position. Rather than working to improve their own “side”, or admitting the faults of their own “side”, they work to discredit the other.
It’s all very juvenile.
Good morning. I have a theory that you turn into Clubber Lang after you’ve been drinking. Is that true?
If not, don’t take it personally.
Regards,
Management
More likely, it is you that does precisely that.
Your act is wearing quite thin. Others here have called you on it in recent weeks. Do you want me to do the same?
Rather than working to improve their own “side”, or admitting the faults of their own “side”, they work to discredit the other.
Everyone does this when it comes to discussing politics.
Your act is wearing quite thin. Others here have called you on it in recent weeks. Do you want me to do the same?
If everyone with an “act” quit posting, we’d be lucky to get 40 posts a day here.
Drought in California
Supposed to rain tomorrow.
opps I wasn’t supposed to talk about this..
+1
get those rain barrels in place!!
It’s going to take a lot of rain to fill those near empty reservoirs. As in Noah’s Ark kind of rain.
Lakes Powell and Mead are still near record lows.
Lake San Antonio is at 5%. Cachuma is at 26% and dropping fast. Nacimento Lake is 25%.
Sure drudge is playing its angle but it’s a real quote so it might not be wise to ignore it.
See also Dianne Feinstein’s comments about “real journalists” which have been posted and discussed on this blog an incalculable number of times.
I am less interested in the “news” that Drudge links to than I am in following the money trail to who benefits from it, and the underlying psychology of the base it rallies.
It was interesting that Drudge posted nary a link to the South African leak that Mossad had concluded the Iranians weren’t trying to build a nuke. In the Soviet days that was called a spike.
Ben Jones, media analysis is why I post here.
Hit me up next time you’re in town on South Broadway.
I’m planning some travel around to make housing bubble videos. Where are you located?
Denver. I will send you an email quoting this discussion. If you visit here I will take you on a driving tour of new construction, dispensaries, and craft breweries serving some of the most delicious IPA’s you’ve tasted in your life
So you’re not interested in what is actually happening.
There are two bases being rallied and pitted against each other. Interesting you are only interested in the nature of one of them.
“There are two bases being rallied”
If you read my posts on feminism, race relations, and gun control, you wouldn’t be so quick to assign me to a “side” as referenced above.
Bernie Sanders is not a real threat to Hillary Clinton, therefore he does not make the “news” as much as the Republican primary contenders.
Ross Perot won alot of votes in 1992 and 1996. Will that happen again in my lifetime? Not when the electorate shares your defeatist belief that there are only two “sides” to vote for.
Overturning Citizens United would be a good start.
Perhaps he sees your frequent “in-favor of” posts about single payer medical and radical environmentalism.
I’m not sure that much has changed since 1996. If another billionaire like Ross Perot were to come along and spend a bunch of money like he did, he could get some votes.
Perhaps he sees your frequent “in-favor of” posts about single payer medical and radical environmentalism.
Radical environmentalism? Now that’s a knee slapper.
The big flaw here is the concern with how politicians think. What they think is both unknowable and unimportant. It’s only what they do that matters.
1984 Anyone?
“And so, if we’re going to change how Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell think, we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues…”
The entire oligarch-owned MSM already serves as our de facto Ministry of Truth to disseminate DNC talking points and cultural Marxist orthodoxy. What more does Obama plan on doing to enforce even greater political correctness on the media? Isn’t the media supine enough already to Obama and his Commisars?
What the heck is cultural Marxist orthodoxy?
http://www.drudgereport.com
Yes, Chicago is running out of OPM:
Moody’s downgraded Chicago’s credit rating down to junk level “Ba1″ from “Baa2.”
The announcement, which the ratings agency released Tuesday afternoon, cited a recent Illinois court ruling voiding state pension reforms. Moody’s said it saw a negative outlook for the city’s credit.
Following that May court decision, Moody’s said it believes that “the city’s options for curbing growth in its own unfunded pension liabilities have narrowed considerably.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-13/chicago-faces-2-2-billion-bank-payout-after-rating-cut-to-junk
Obama to Chicago: ” Drop Dead.” ?
Maybe Michelle ought to give back to Illinois the $300,0000 annual salary while employed at a Chicago hospital.
Why should she do that?
ABQ, Rally and others:
You gotta live in this leftist “utopian” paradise to really understand the ‘rules’ of the game and their attendant results. Used to be an inside the loop game here - now it is coming out for the rest of the world to see. The rot is deep and the stench is so foul it makes the air here unbreathable.
Cheeecago = BROKE A$$ Loser.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/5-reasons-chicago-is-in-worse-shape-than-detroit/ar-BBjK18f
King Obama says Fox News Hate isn’t real journalists:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/05/12/obama-rips-fox-were-going-to-have-to-change-how-the-media-reports/
And just in case your base isn’t rallied enough, Obama is a muslim and a communist, Hillary is a liar, climate change isn’t real, and ISIS is the greatest threat the United States has ever faced because it’s super bad and super scary and you should be doubleplusafraid of ISIS
Forward
Obama is a muslim and a communist
He’s an atheist, homosexual, Muslim, feminist, non citizen, crony capitalist communist!
Get your facts straight!
Most of that is true (you forgot “gun grabber” which is VERY true), but my dislike of Obama hasn’t translated into blind support of candidates promising to revive neocon foreign policy.
My opinion, Obama’s only chance for a partial redemption (partial = incalculably small) is if he grants a full pardon to Edward Snowden.
My opinion, Obama’s only chance for a partial redemption (partial = incalculably small) is if he grants a full pardon to Edward Snowden.
Magic 8 Ball says … fat chance.
I had an interesting drudge link to a Breitbart article I posted a little earlier. Not sure if it will make it past the filters.
Was it the link about how ISIS hijacked a train and crashed it in Philadelphia?
No that was Tom Brady trying to deflect attention away from deflate gate.
The following issues/topics are forbidden to be discussed on this Blog because Drudge has an article about them:
The train derailment in Philly
Obamacare
Tax receipts for the US government
Crime in NYC
Hillary running for president
Greece imploding
Baltimore
Republicans running for president
Illegals
Drought in California
NSA Spying
Chicago going bankrupt
Obama “free trade” bill with asia
Artificial Intelligence
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Any logical or thoughtful discussions of these topics will be replied by 17 years in their parents basement with:
As seen in the Drudge Report
Talking points by Drudge
Your meme has been set by Drudge
Fortunately - Kim Kardashian’s butt and Dancing with Stars is NOT on the Drudge Report so those topics are wipe open.
“17 years in their parents basement”
I’m almost twice that age, but thanks for the compliment. Ben Jones has the IP addresses, and yours is traced to computers at the Heritage Foundation and Lindsey Graham’s congressional office.
” yours is traced to computers at the Heritage Foundation”
He’s in the cubicle next to Dan.
Pimping the fear, money quote from the article:
“at this point, it’s mainly about the adjectives”
Talk tough? Offer few specifics? Bringing nothing to the table but FEAR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-contenders-talk-tough-offer-few-specifics-on-national-security/2015/05/13/f340c7c6-f8b3-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html?tid=HP_politics?tid=HP_politics
Hmmmmm…..red states dominate, some purple, no solid blue.
But public union goons tell me that 80% golden spiked overtime pensions after 20 years is for the children and for better education!!!
Speaking of which - Baltimore spends $17,500 per pupil in their public school system. That is nearly $500,000 per class. If only they had more money the results would be different - especially for minority children…
—————————
U.S. News’ 10 Best High Schools, 2015
yahoo.com | May 12, 2015 | Alexandra Pannoni
1. School for the Talented and Gifted. Dallas, Texas.
For the fourth consecutive year, the School for the Talented and Gifted, a Dallas magnet school known as TAG, was ranked as the No. 1 public high school in the country.
2. BASIS Scottsdale in Arizona took second place in the national rankings for the second year in a row
3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Alexandria, Virginia.
4. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology. Lawrenceville, Georgia.
The School of Science and Engineering Magnet in Texas – located in the same facility in Dallas as TAG – climbed further up the top 10. It took the No. 5 spot after placing eighth in 2014.
Vaulting 17 places this year to No. 6 is Carnegie Vanguard High in Houston, Texas. Last year it ranked 23rd.
Academic Magnet High School in North Charleston, South Carolina, jumped to No. 7 from last year’s 16th place.
University High School in Tolleson, Arizona, was another big mover, moving up 21 places to crack the top 10 this year at No. 8.
The ninth-place school, Lamar Academy in McAllen, is one of four Texas schools to place in the top 10. Last year it was unranked.
And rounding out the top 10 is Gilbert Classical Academy High School in Gilbert, one of three Arizona schools to place in the top 10.
U.S. News factored in how effectively schools educated their least-advantaged students – those of black, Hispanic and low-income backgrounds.
For you Goon, one of a hundred:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/12/record-antarctic-ice-mawson-base-might-have-to-relocate/
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/scientists-earth-endangered-by-new-strain-of-fact-resistant-humans
Wattsupwiththat? Always good to get your scientific info from a blog run by a college-dropout weatherman.
No worse than a streetwalking transvestite yammering about it.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/real-estate/Decline-of-China-new-home-sales-slows-in-April/shdaily.shtml
Did I read correctly that China new home sales declined in April?
On a year to year basis, but at a rate far slower than before, you claim to understand derivatives, you should understand this. It is a clear sign that the housing market is improving, it should actually turn positive in the next few months due to the momentum.
There’s way too much BS in that post for me to want to wade in…
“derivatives”
Skip that, stick to Vectors. You trap yourself in wrongness with the misunderstanding of calculus. The overhang of years of building useless surplus housing and physical plant is a strong downward vector which will not go away. Central bank easing is an upward one which is temporary.
Oscillating rates of decline by no means prove expansion. That’s magical thinking. At the best, declining rates of contraction may point to flat lining, not to expansion.
OK - lets check the boxes:
1. City controlled by far left democrats for the last 60 years.
2. Union public union goons support/money required for anyone to win ANY political office in the city. The state and city are closed shop.
3. Voted for obama 74%
4. Has instituted every far left program ever imagined.
5. Extremely high taxes (property, income and sales).
6. And the city is in a state with almost all the same problems for the same reasons.
The day is almost here when the progressives finally run out of other people’s money.
Cue up - We are all victims. No one could see this coming. A promise is a promise. We need a BAILOUT - it is only fair.
On the plus side - The perfect city for obama to build his library with foreign donations.
—————————
Moody’s Cuts Chicago Bond Rating to Junk; City Faces $2.2 Billion in Various Termination Fees; Irresponsible to Tell the Truth
Mish - 5/12/2015
In a decision today, citing pension analysis, Chicago Rating Cut to Junk by Moody’s.
Chicago had its credit rating cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service after the Illinois Supreme Court’s rejection of a state pension-overhaul plan reduced the city’s options for fixing its own underfunded system.
The two-level downgrade to Ba1 affects $8.1 billion of general obligations, which were already the lowest-rated among the 90 biggest U.S. cities, excluding Detroit. The outlook is still negative. Moody’s has dropped the city seven levels since July 2013.
Irresponsible to Tell the Truth
Apparently it’s irresponsible to tell the truth: Chicago is broke and its pension system is insolvent.
Here’s a question I keep asking: How is a state that has a $9 Billion Budget Deficit Hole going to bail out a single school district that is $1.5 billion in the hole?
Want another Emanuel idea? If so I have one: Emanuel hopeful Chicago pension reforms will survive even though state’s didn’t.
+1 there banana!!!!
Hope and change is not business plan.
“I can see Russia from my house.”
Next time give us someone to vote for.
Rand Paul 2016.
“I can see Russia from my house.”
Spoken from a SNL skit by an actress.
Please do try to get your facts straight or should I start quoting cone heads when talking about Hillary!
But I guess any excuse will do to a kool aid drinker
Hope and change is not business plan.
FWIW, most “business plans” are not worth the paper they’re written on and are little more than wishful thinking.
She has a uterus so it is ok.
————————–
Clinton Foundation accepts new foreign donations despite campaign promise
Washington Examiner | May 12, 2015 | Sarah Westwood
A number of foreign donors pledged new support for Clinton Foundation efforts during a conference in Marrakech last week, raising questions about the strength of Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise to cut off foreign donations to her family philanthropy while she runs for president.
The Kingdom of Morocco was among the foreign entities that committed to new projects at the Clinton Global Initiative event, which drew dozens of big-ticket donors to the country for a three-day meeting headlined by Bill Clinton. Hillary was slated to attend the Marrakech conference before her name was quietly removed from the schedule earlier this year amid criticism of the foundation’s foreign activities.
In all, 34 U.S.-based and foreign entities offered their support to Clinton Global Initiative projects at the Marrakech summit.
Never mind Hillary Clinton for a minute, but HBB readers and lurkers should know that the Washington Examiner is owned by the same company that owns the Weekly Standard, which is edited by none other than William Kristol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Examiner
And now back to your regularly scheduled Drudge Report links
The following issues/topics are forbidden to be discussed on this Blog because Drudge has an article about them:
The train derailment in Philly
Obamacare
Tax receipts for the US government
Crime in NYC
Hillary running for president
Greece imploding
Baltimore
Republicans running for president
Illegals
Drought in California
NSA Spying
Chicago going bankrupt
Obama “free trade” bill with asia
Artificial Intelligence
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Any logical or thoughtful discussions of these topics will be replied by 17 year olds in their parents basement with:
As seen in the Drudge Report
Talking points by Drudge
Your meme has been set by Drudge
Fortunately - Kim Kardashian’s butt and Dancing with Stars is NOT on the Drudge Report so those topics are wipe open.
Low-hanging fruit, harvested, copied and pasted to HBB daily
(P.S. Ben Jones has the IP logs, you’re not fooling anybody here)
Excerpt from link that will post, interestingly, if you extrapolate China is selling about 700 million sq. meters of new homes per year, I do not know how many “used” homes are selling, but ignoring the used home sales the inventory everyone of this board has been talking about of one billion sq. meters would be sold in 16 months, hardly ideal but not exactly a number that is wildly out of line with downturns in this country, and remember the 16 months ignores “used” home sales which tend to be low in China due to the fact Chinese do not like to live in “used” homes unless their families lived there first:
NEW home sales by value fell at a continuously slower pace across the country in the first four months of this year amid improving sentiment among buyers, data released today by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
Nationwide, more than 1.49 trillion yuan (US$240 billion) worth of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold in China between January and April, a year-on-year decrease of 2.2 percent, the bureau said in a statement posted on its website.
That compared with a 9.1-percent drop registered in the first quarter and a 16.7-percent retreat recorded in the first two months of this year.
By area, 232.84 million square meters of new houses were sold during the four-month period, down 5 percent from same period a year ago. The decline, again, slowed from a 9.8 percent withdrawal registered between January and March and a 17.8 percent drop in the first two months.
“The recent introduction of a series of easing policies are taking effect in boosting market demand while real estate developers are also launching more sales campaigns along with ample supply,” said Wang Baobin, a senior statistician at the bureau. “In particular, the rebound is significant in first- and second-tier cities which are usually more sensitive about government policies.”
Governments around the country since last year has been lifting home purchase bans to boost demand while the People’s Bank of China also loosened mortgage policies for second home buyers as well as cutting interest rates for several times, benefiting both home buyers and developers.
In Shanghai, for instance, the area of new homes sold surged 59.3 percent from March to 1.24 million square meters in April, the highest monthly volume since January, an earlier industry report showed.
Countrywide, investment in residential development rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1.59 trillion yuan in the first four months, down 2.2 percentage points from the pace registered in the first quarter, the bureau’s data showed.
So the Chinese government is doing whatever it can to keep China’s housing bubble alive. Why is this good for China, but bad for the U.S.?
China is not spending money to support a housing bubble, its interest rate cuts may help housing but they make sense since real interest rates have gone up due to lower inflation. It is keeping the entire economy growing at 7% and it does want to put more people into housing. The Chinese are not living off home equity loans and that is why America is trying to do, keep housing prices high so people can live off equity. China is trying to make houses both affordable and available, it is trying to thread the needle.
“China is trying to make houses both affordable and available…”
Housing is more than available in China - there are empty cities filled with it. But they can’t even give it away because noboby wants to live there. And the money that went to make it is gone forever. China is screwed.
I think GS is so desperate to get out of its short positions in oil, it and its allies in the press will say anything, the WSJ is getting called on it:
http://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/opec-denies-wsj-article
Getting called out by the peakoil web site is serious stuff!
No, they were called out by OPEC. Unless you can show that Peak Oil had it wrong, it is meaningless where the story was reported.
Like OPEC is an objective source?
Ignore any facts that conflict with your wrong opinion that oil was going to collapse into the twenties as you were posting just a few months ago.
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2015/05/eia-oil-output-from-major-us-shale-to-fall-86-000-b-d-in-june.html
Markets don’t move in straight lines, Dan.
How does “peak oil” work when the quantity of new oil formed is greater than consumption?
quantity of new oil formed is greater than consumption?
Got any evidence at all to support that theory?
“Got any evidence at all to support that theory?”
Futures Movers
Oil dips after IEA report points to oversupply
Published: May 14, 2015 1:36 a.m. ET
By Eric Yep
Crude-oil futures were marginally lower in Asian trade Thursday on some investor concerns that global oil oversupply hasn’t really been dented by slowing U.S. oil production.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June (CLM5, -0.40%) traded at $60.21 a barrel, down $0.25 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude (LCOM5, -0.27%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.16 to $66.65 a barrel.
Oil prices were under pressure despite U.S. crude stockpiles falling for the second consecutive week, declining by 2.2 million barrels in the week ended May 8, official data showed.
“The market may be able to shrug off this weakness and run higher, but the failure to rally on bullish news calls into question whether crude oil remains a bull market,” analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures said.
Weekly U.S. gasoline and diesel stocks also fell unexpectedly, along with a surprise decline in the amount of oil processed by U.S. refineries, which may bring some volatility to oil prices, Societe Generale said in a report.
…
Got any evidence to support your theory that the laws of physics and geology are suspended?
Now why can’t obama go after the banks for doing the exact same things?
Bush I put 1500 bankers in jail in the S&L crisis…
————————–
Two for-profit college executives have been charged with fraud
Business Insider - Myles Udland - 5/12/2014
The SEC has announced fraud charges against the former-CEO and current CFO of for-profit college ITT Educational Services.
In a release, the SEC said:
The SEC alleges that the national operator of for-profit colleges and the two executives fraudulently concealed from ITT’s investors the poor performance and looming financial impact of two student loan programs that ITT financially guaranteed. ITT formed both of these student loan programs, known as the “PEAKS” and “CUSO” programs, to provide off-balance sheet loans for ITT’s students following the collapse of the private student loan market. To induce others to finance these risky loans, ITT provided a guarantee that limited any risk of loss from the student loan pools.
In a statement, the SEC alleges that, for example, ITT made payments on delinquent student loans to prevent these loans from defaulting, which would have triggered “tens of millions of dollars” of guaranteed payouts.
The SEC adds that the company hid “significant information” from its auditor.
Back in August, shares of the company fell almost 50% in one day after ITT announced that a deal to sell $120 million of real estate assets fell through. In the last year, shares of ITT are down about 85%.
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can save us.
——————————–
Regulators Thrive While Economy Struggles Under Obama
Investor’s Business Daily | 05/11/2015 | Staff
Government: The private economy might be moribund, but the regulatory economy is doing quite well, thank you very much. Could it be that the two are somehow related?
CEI reckons the annual cost to comply with federal rules and regulations was $1.88 trillion in 2014. It doesn’t include the massive costs of greenhouse-gas and other rules that the EPA is finalizing.
To put this hidden tax in perspective, it is:
• Equivalent of $14,976 per household, which is more than a typical household spends on everything except for mortgage or rent.
• Almost six times what businesses pay in federal income taxes.
• Bigger than the GDP of all but nine countries.
Further hampering economic growth is the fact that these costs hit job-creating small businesses harder than big ones — $11,724 per employee for firms with fewer than 50 workers vs. $9,083 for those with more than 100, the CEI report shows.
And the regulation tax is increasing at a rapid clip. The average number of “economically significant” rules — those with more than $100 million in annual compliance costs — in the pipeline each year under President Obama has been 206, 41% higher than the average under President Bush.
Just the cost of enforcing federal economic regulations is now $11.4 billion, up 31% since Obama took office, and the “Code of Federal Regulations” is 17,294 pages longer.
they are trying to be a business.
This sort of article is lame. Do they list any specific regulation that they’d like to get rid of?
BP would appreciate it if the U.S. taxpayer would reimburse them for all the money they had to spend to clean up their oil spill in the gulf. It never would have happened if it weren’t for those darn regulations, don’t ya know.
Yes - because before obama there were NO laws about fraud, following GAAP and pollution clean-up.
I don’t know about that, but the disaster might actually be the end of BP.
Is the dead cat bounce in oil nearly over?
Dollar still has another 10% gain in it, says Pimco
By Sara Sjolin
Published: May 13, 2015 7:17 a.m. ET
PIMCO fund manager forecasts euro-dollar parity, dollar at ¥125
Shutterstock/Nomad_Soul
Ignore the pullback — the dollar rally is far from over, says a top Pimco investment manager.
With a Federal Reserve rate hike and a stronger U.S. economy on the horizon, the greenback’s bull run will soon pick up pace again, says Mihir Worah, Pimcos chief investment officer for return and asset allocation.
“There’s a lot of history on the dollar. What it shows is that when the dollar moves, it moves over three-to-four-year cycles and appreciates by 20-25%,” noted Worah, speaking at a Morningstar Investment Conference in London Tuesday.
“So, the recent 15% appreciation we’ve seen over the last 12-18 months is not done. We think there’s probably another 5-10% appreciation left in the dollar,” he said.
…
I don’t participate in Dannyboy’s oil threads, so putting an anecdotal here. Acquaintance in the oil biz got offered the choice of a layoff or relo to Tulsa. They are keeping their house here and renting it out until oil hits $80 or $100 and they can move back.
He showed me some pics of the Tulsa house they bought, with the pool and hot tub and fountains and landscaping, looks like a real palace. One of his coworkers sold their Denver bubble house and bought a 20 acre horse property (with all the barns and outbuildings that go with that) less than a 30 minute drive from downtown Tulsa.
oooof….. Talk about doubling down on junk.
They’re going to be waiting a long time for $80 oil.
This is another manifestation of bubble mentality. It seems to me that, years ago, if a person was going to move to an area for just a year or two, that they would rent a place and not buy.
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can help the poor…
BTW - An excellent article.
———————-
Germany’s Green-Power Program Crushes the Poor
National Review | 05/12/2015 | Robert Zubrin
On May 7, Tom Friedman published an op-ed in the New York Times filled with praise for Germany’s green-power program. “What the Germans have done in converting almost 30 percent of their electric grid to solar and wind energy from near zero in about 15 years has been a great contribution to the stability of our planet and its climate,” gushed Friedman. “ . . . This is a world-saving achievement.”
Friedman is not alone in his admiration for the German energy program. President Obama has hailed it too, saying that the world should “look to Berlin” as the model for its energy future.
However, what Friedman, Obama, and other admirers of the German green-energy strategy fail to say is that it has come at the expense of sky-high electricity rates. According to EU data, Germany’s average residential electricity rate is 29.8 cents per kilowatt hour. This is approximately double the 14.2 cents and 15.9 cents per kWh paid by residents of Germany’s neighbors Poland and France, respectively, and almost two and a half times the U.S. average of 12 cents per kWh. Germany’s industrial electricity rate of 16 cents per kWh is also much higher than France’s 9.6 cents or Poland’s 8.3 cents. The average German per capita electricity consumption is 0.8 kilowatts. At a composite rate of 24 cents per kWh, this works out to a yearly bill of $1,700 per person, experienced either directly in utility bills or indirectly through increased costs of goods and services. The median household income in Germany is $33,000, so if we assume an average of two people per household, the electricity cost would amount to more than 10 percent of available income. And that is for the median-income household. The amount of electricity that people need does not scale in proportion to their paychecks. For the rich, $1,700 per year in electric bills might be a pittance, or at most a nuisance. But for the poor who are just scraping by, such a burden is simply brutal.
However, in 2011 Germany had 20 GW of capacity in nuclear power plants, producing more than twice as much electricity as wind and solar do currently, at less than half the cost, with no carbon emissions whatsoever. But, using the rather improbable threat of a Fukushima-like tsunami as a pretext, the nation’s elites decided to shut them down; 8.3 GW have already been eliminated.
Like an earlier regime in Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, Germany’s green-energy program is neither green, nor an energy program. Rather, it is a form of ultra-regressive taxation — in effect, a state-sponsored cult of human sacrifice for weather control.
The mention of Poland reminded of this from a year and a half ago. The medical costs of treating asthmatic kids don’t appear on utility bills, but they are borne by someone.
Poland, Wedded to Coal, Spurns Europe on Clean Energy Targets
By DANNY HAKIM and MATEUSZ ZURAWIKOCT. 31, 2013
excerpts:
Poland’s coal strategy has implications both for the Poles and for Europe more broadly. Six of the 10 European cities with the highest concentrations of particulate matter are in Poland, including Krakow, which is ranked third over all, just behind the Bulgarian cities Pernik and Plovdiv, according to European government data. Particulate matter consists of tiny airborne droplets or gas particles that come from smokestacks and tailpipes, or from burning wood or coal for home heating, and they can lead to a variety of health problems. While large cities like Krakow and Zabrze do not have levels on a par with the extreme pollution of Beijing, their levels are well past the concentrations deemed safe by health experts.
…
Polish citizens are pushing back. Last Friday in Krakow, hundreds of people turned out to protest air pollution. Krakow sits in a valley, intensifying the pollution in a city where some apartment buildings are heated by coal. The crowd marched through the city chanting, “Why do you poison us?” and, “We want air.”
Organizers of the march say the air pollution is harming the health of the local population, leading to high rates of asthma and premature deaths. City officials routinely warn parents not to let their children play outside on the days of the highest pollution.
“We understand that protest is a drastic way of showing our discontent, but for years authorities haven’t done anything to solve the problem,” said Andrzej Gula, one of the rally’s organizers and a member of the informal group Krakow’s Smog Alert, which monitors air pollution.
“We demand a total ban on heating homes with coal,” Mr. Gula said. “This is the only way of improving the air quality in our town. The problem is that the politicians are afraid of doing that, as it would harm the Polish mining industry.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/business/energy-environment/poland-wedded-to-coal-spurns-europe-on-clean-energy.html?_r=0
Poland should roll some coal on Germany, teach those sissies a lesson.
Tesla deal sends old penny stock soaring 10,000%
Feverish trading sent the old penny stock of Riviera Tool Co. soaring after Tesla announced an acquisition of Riviera Tool LLC, but traders are concerned the ancient shares may be worthless.
Art Bubble Shoeshine Boy Moment?
I went to an exclusive Salvador Dali Art show where you could buy anything in the show (prints, paintings and sculptures).
Unsigned prints were going for several thousands of dollars.
One saleswoman started a discussion with me:
“These prints have been going up 24% a year in appreciation. It is like money in the bank.”
I would never trust lower-priced Salvador Dali works. There are tons of fakes and stuff done by his assistants out there. Some say he sold signed blank canvasses in his later years. Tens of thousands of them.
If you can afford it, it has no provenance and is in all likelihood fake.
Americans could soon be thanking Fidel Castro for their revolutionary cancer drugs
By Michael E. Miller May 12
Cuban health care is a keen topic of debate here in the United States.
If your allegiances lie on the left of the political spectrum, you’re likely to see the communist government’s clinics as godsends — well, Che Guevara-sends — responsible for a life expectancy on the poor island on par with that of its rich northern neighbor.
If you’re conservative, you’re likely to recite horror stories of medical shortages or doctor defections under the Castros. For every Michael Moore talking up Cuban health care, there is a Marco Rubio ready to tear it right down.
Whatever your stance on Cuba’s system, however, you could soon benefit from its medical advances, particularly when it comes to cancer. In fact, Americans suffering from the emperor of all maladies might soon be thanking Fidel for his country’s miraculous medications.
Recent improvements in relations between the two archrivals are leading to agreements that will soon bring Cuban cancer drugs to the United States. When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) visited Havana last month, it was partly to shore up an accord between New York’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology that will bring the Cuban lung cancer vaccine Cimavax to the United States for clinical trials, Reuters reported.
While not a cure for cancer by any means, Cimavax is a powerful and incredibly cheap cancer drug in Cuba. “Medical researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology worked on Cimavax for 25 years before the Ministry of Health made it available to the public — for free — in 2011,” Wired reported. “Each shot costs the government about $1. A Phase II trial from 2008 showed lung cancer patients who received the vaccine lived an average of four to six months longer than those who didn’t.”
Cimavax is no fluke. Instead, it’s a product of a Cuban government that — whatever you think of its politics or human-rights record — has been praised for its pioneering medical and biotech research. “After the 1981 dengue fever outbreak struck nearly 350,000 Cubans, the government established the Biological Front, an effort to focus research efforts by various agencies toward specific goals,” Wired wrote. “Its first major accomplishment was the successful (and unexpected) production of interferon, a protein that plays a role in human immune response. Since then, Cuban immunologists made several other vaccination breakthroughs, including their own vaccines for meningitis B and hepatitis B, and monoclonal antibodies for kidney transplants.” All this is even more impressive considering the crippling embargo that America has imposed on the island for half a century.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/12/americans-could-soon-be-thanking-fidel-castro-for-their-revolutionary-cancer-drugs/
Cuba also forcibly quarantined those with AIDS in order to protect the general population…
All this is even more impressive considering the crippling embargo that America has imposed on the island for half a century.
Amazingly, Cuba was able to trade with the rest of the world in that time period. Maybe there is another reason why the Cuban economy is still well below where it was in the 1950s…
Dictatorship sukz, they should try real communism and share the abundant resources.
Ever been?
WPA’s anti-lion effort revealed:
‘http://www.thenation.com/blog/207001/its-conspiracy-how-discredit-seymour-hersh
Onward, past the gatekeepers:
‘Who said this?: “I’m not saying that they’re at the highest levels, but I believe that somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda is, where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is, and we expect more cooperation to help us bring to justice, capture or kill those who attacked us on 9/11.”
‘That was Hillary Clinton, almost exactly four years ago.’
‘But of course, according to Seymour Hersh’s 10,000-word piece in the London Review of Books, he wasn’t a free man during his years in protective custody in the Abbottabad hideaway so conveniently close to ISI headquarters and within spitting distance of the capital city of Islamabad. There were steel doors on the entrance to his third story quarters and armed guards posted, all of it subsidized by the Saudis. The ailing and elderly Osama bin Laden was a prisoner, and had been since 2006.’
‘Amid the hysterics in our state-worshipping “mainstream” media, where the accomplices of power are busy echoing the denials of various government officials, the key element of Hersh’s stunning exposé is being steadfastly ignored, and it is this:
“A worrying factor at this early point, according to the retired official, was Saudi Arabia, which had been financing bin Laden’s upkeep since his seizure by the Pakistanis. ‘The Saudis didn’t want bin Laden’s presence revealed to us because he was a Saudi, and so they told the Pakistanis to keep him out of the picture. The Saudis feared if we knew we would pressure the Pakistanis to let bin Laden start talking to us about what the Saudis had been doing with al-Qaeda And they were dropping money – lots of it.”
‘Imagine if bin Laden, instead of being killed – in a firefight, according to the Official Government-Approved Story, or simply murdered, according to Hersh – had been captured alive. If Hersh’s reporting is correct – and I believe it is – then a whole can of worms Washington has gone to a great deal of trouble to keep sealed would have come pouring out.’
‘…this assumes “the Saudis” are a monolith, that there are no al-Qaeda supporters or sympathizers within the royal family and governmental apparatus. But this assumption is totally unwarranted, as former Senator Bob Graham of Florida – once head of the Senate Intelligence Committee – and those members of Congress who have read the censored 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 would no doubt argue.’
‘Those who have direct knowledge of the information contained therein are unequivocal about which country assisted the 9/11 hijackers in their grisly, fateful task. Graham says the Saudi government directly aided the hijackers and that the FBI has covered it up. Rep. Thomas Massie described his reaction upon reading the censored 28 pages: “It was a really disturbing event for me to read those. I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history. And it’s that fundamental…it certainly changes your view of the Middle East.”
‘Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Massachussets) says the assertions of Saudi financing of the 9/11 attacks are verified in the 28 pages: “There are people named; there are transactions identified.” Speaking of the Obama administration, Lynch went on to say: “What are they afraid of? Having those 28 pages disclosed to the public will inform our foreign policy going forward, which would be very helpful at this stage.”
‘Hersh, in his interview with Democracy Now!, asserts the Saudis were aiding al-Qaeda both “before and after” 9/11, and that their fear of bin Laden blabbing to the Americans led to their support for his Abbottabad internment.’
‘Hersh’s bombshell story has the media in defensive mode: defensive, that is, of their patrons and overseers in official Washington. Nothing illustrates this master-slave relationship more clearly than the ferocity unleashed on Hersh by the administration’s Praetorian Guard in the “mainstream” press. Everyone from Max Fisher of Vox – a reliably pro-Obama outlet – to Jamie Kirchick, the neocons’ slimiest smear-monger, are screaming “Conspiracy theorist!” at the top of their lungs. Within this left-right anti-Hersh Popular Front various motivations coexist, but all are united in the contention that our government would never ever lie to us about something so big, so important, as the circumstances surrounding the killing of bin Laden.’
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/05/12/bin-ladens-end-the-truth-comes-out/
Obama promised to release those 28 pages if made president. I wonder why he hasn’t?
Oh there’s some lion going on. And who could deny the issues at hand warrant a complete congressional investigation? Isn’t this more important than Bengazi and IRS gate? I wonder if we’ll get it?
Most likely there will be an investigation(s).
But a Hillary said herself:
“What difference does it make?”
The FSA, the unions and the illegals will vote for Hillary no matter what.
The Congress and Senate will not impeach obama no matter how many laws he breaks.
This is a lot more important than impeaching one person. It gets down to the whole war on turrur’ and invasions and wars happening right now.
Which is supported by both parties.
Which is supported by both parties.
How would we know?
Did obama allow congress to vote on using force in Libya, Syria, against ISIS, drones in Yemen, etc.
Like or hate Bush - he at least allowed to house and senate to vote on going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq.
Both are warmongers. So their style is different. Go ahead and vote for Sheldon’s puppet if it makes you feel better.
Both are warmongers. So their style is different. Go ahead and vote for Sheldon’s puppet if it makes you feel better.
Yes - I got the memo. Republicans and democrats are all the same when democrats are in power. No differences. Might as well stick with the devil you know because there are no differences and no one can change the system. It is hopeless and you can’t blame the democrat in charge of the mess he was given.
However, when republicans are in power, they must be voted out immediately. Republicans are the evil root of all our problems today. Only when all power is taken away from republicans by voting the out of office can we get hope and change, the seas receding, the planet cooling, clean water, the whole world liking us on facebook, poverty eliminated and race relations healed.
Like I said, vote for Sheldon’s puppet if it makes you feel better.
2bababa = paid Republitard stooge
NY Times partially backs up Hersh
(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/magazine/the-detail-in-seymour-hershs-bin-laden-story-that-rings-true.html?_r=0)
I’m not a Kool-aid drinking Obama diehard supporter. If there are enough facts to back up Hersh, then yes, let’s have an investigation.
Oddly, if Hersh’s allegations are true that Saudi has been funding Al Qaeda, then all of a sudden the 9/11 Truther wacko theories suddenly aren’t as wacky. And we Dems are vindicated for saying 10 years ago “Bush attacked the wrong country.”
+1
Are You A “Lukewarmer”?
“It’s the hottest trend in climate denial. Long gone are the days when people can publicly deny that the planet is warming or that humans are responsible without facing widespread mockery. Those who oppose taking serious action to curb global warming have mostly shifted to Stage 3 in the 5 stages of climate denial.
Stage 1: Deny the problem exists
Stage 2: Deny we’re the cause
Stage 3: Deny it’s a problem <<<
Stage 4: Deny we can solve it
Stage 5: It’s too late
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/may/13/lukewarmers-the-third-stage-of-climate-denial
We have not warmed in almost twenty years, cannot have AGW without GW, it is as simple as that. Also, we are 2 degrees Celsius below where we should be in a normal Interglacial period so the issue scientists should be studying is why are we so cool not are we warming but there are no federal grants for that research.
Still stuck in Stage 1 I see
Still inventing a problem where it does not exist, I see. Show me I am wrong that a normal interglacial is two degrees Celsius warmer than today.
The whole interglacial-was-warmer-125000-years-ago as a way of disproving AGW was debunked at least 4 years ago. All of the mechanisms, Earth’s axis position, ocean circulation patterns then don’t match up to what we have today. Apples and oranges.
http://www.skepticalscience.com/LIG5-1110.html
“The whole interglacial-was-warmer-125000-years-ago as a way of disproving AGW was debunked at least 4 years ago. All of the mechanisms, Earth’s axis position, ocean circulation patterns then don’t match up to what we have today. Apples and oranges.”
Isn’t this partially the point?
That there are other things (other than CO2 levels) at play that affect global temperatures? So far, I’ve seen little to show exactly how much CO2 has contributed to whatever warming there is (or might be)?
Higher CO2 levels could be causing 90% of whatever warming there is, or it could be 10%. (after all, CO2 is a pretty weak greenhouse gas)
And the correct answer is REALLY important.
If the answer is 90%, then spending a huge amount of resources to lower CO2 levels might actually reverse the trend. There is a different argument as to whether those resources would be better served dealing with the ramifications, but that’s a different discussion.
If the answer is 10%, then resources are almost certainly wasted if used to lower CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
Forget about measurement for just a moment, and let’s just say that higher levels of CO2 does cause some warming (all else equal). How much should we spend to eliminate that warming?
Critical to the answer is knowing even a ballpark amount of how much warming CO2 causes–and as of right now, I don’t think that is “settled science” (no one really knows).
Correct me if I’m wrong…I’d love to see the “settled science” on just how much higher CO2 levels have contributed to warming vs. other factors.
I do find this amusing:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/13/nyt-claim-obamas-catastrophic-climate-denial/
Not to take sides here, but I need 2 simple facts from one person.
1) what is the current temperature (average global) i.e. 62.4 degrees F
2) What is the temperature (average global) that scientists have determined is “optimal” and that we should be targeting policy towards?
These 2 facts seem like the simplest basis of what you should be making informed statements on if you are going to talk about warming and policy.
So please, lets start with those 2 simple things. If you are going to argue about it one way or another, start with the facts. What are those 2 simple facts? If you can’t say, you have no business arguing one way or the other because if you don’t know 1) you have no idea where we currently are, and if you don’t know 2) you have no idea of where we should be going, so anything you say about how to get there would be meaningless…
And the third (most difficult) question, which is related to what policies should be enacted.
3. How much do CO2 levels actually impact temperature (all-else equal)?
“That works when a few billion dollars spent “buying the dips” reinvigorates private “animal spirit” buying. But when the risk-on herd stampedes into risk-off selling, markets go bidless: there are no more greater fools left except the central banks.”
“The conventional view is that the Fed will never need to print-and-buy more than a few hundred billion dollars to stem the tide of selling. But the conventional view has a fatal flaw that Greenspan outlined in his Foreign Affairs article: when markets go bidless, “animal spirits” may be beyond calming. Once central bank buying fails to stem the tide, markets will truly panic.”
“At that point, central banks will have to decide to buy trillions of dollars of rapidly depreciating assets or finally let the market find its own level. Those who are confident the central banks can print unlimited money may find there are political and financial consequences to such extremes that cannot be foreseen. ”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-13/central-problem-central-banks-they-become-greater-foolsbag-holders
uhg. It is a 2banana day. 1 is plenty.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hsbcs-stephen-king-on-the-world-economy-2015-5
World economy is fragile. Hold on to your cash.
(today) FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has turned over the post to successor Harald Krueger, leaving with a warning that the Chinese market that has boosted the company’s profits may be slowing down.
Reithofer told a shareholder meeting Wednesday that the Chinese economy was “losing momentum” after years of strong growth but said the company had plans to cope with the slowdown.
The meeting in Munich marked Reithofer’s planned handoff to Krueger, who faces the task of keeping BMW AG on top as the world’s No. 1 seller of luxury cars ahead of German rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz.
Why would an individual do a quitclaim deed to their own trust?
Contact your nearby estate lawyer for the answer. There are certain advantages to having assets in a trust when it comes to keeping things in the family.
Yeah. If you want to be robbed blind.
I’d rather pay a competent lawyer now than lose a lot more to the government later.
Theres nothing left for the government to take after getting robbed blind by an ambulance chaser.
“Contact your nearby estate lawyer for the answer.”
Naw, I posted it here because I don’t want to do that.
Well in that case, keep in mind that the advice is worth what you paid for it!
Yours is
“Why would an individual do a quitclaim deed to their own trust?”
That’s a way to transfer your ownership of a property to your trust.
As fresh today as the day it was released in 1989, De La Soul’s debut LP Three Feet High And Rising”
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSQUMAtzJMUNijKNBCzWX_dQgayfqJ576
This message brought to you from the borough of Queens
Anybody who is awake or was not in a coma during the 1980’s knows that hip-hop was born in New York
Repost of MHanson article on zerohedge. He responds to some criticism of the article in comments.
Mark Hanson Is In “Full-Blown, Black-Swan Lookout Mode” For Housing Bubble 2.0
Is he the guy who made a boatload of money shorting the housing market in 2008?
This guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lahde
No Poet. That was John Paulson.
What Peter Schiff Said To Ben Bernanke
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/13/2015
Last week, a photo of the oddest couple in finance, Peter Schiff and Ben Bernanke together “celebrating the economic recovery”, promptly went viral.
As it turns out there was more to the story.
On his Friday podcast, Peter Schiff told the story of his encounter with Ben Bernanke at the SALT Conference last week where he took the photo above. Peter talks about his close encounter of the Bernanke kind 13:30 into the podcast.
Below is a transcript of the relevant section:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-13/what-peter-schiff-said-ben-bernanke
Schiff seems a bit confused about the Fed’s “need” to sell their large position in bonds. Why we would they ever have or want to unwind the asset side of their balance sheet and cause an epic asset price collapse?
If you don’t believe in man made global warming, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t believe in man made global warming?
The fossil fuel industries will buy you all the pudding you want, if you defend their interests by denying global warming.
What if global warming is real? Do you want to gamble the future of Southern Florida?
Are we through the looking glass here?
Yesterday, the Democrats blocked Obama’s efforts on the trade front (although that seems to have passed).
Today, the Republican-led house passed a bill to limit the NSA’s snooping powers.