Bits Bucket for May 21, 2015
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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stocks look pretty overbought right now dont they?
Futures are looking dim, which can’t be a good sign in light of the Fed’s renewed rate hike postponement.
Bulletin Lumber Liquidators shares plunge 17% in premarket as CEO abruptly quits
Market Snapshot
U.S. stock futures lower ahead of data deluge
By Sara Sjolin
Published: May 21, 2015 8:01 a.m. ET
Wall Street looks poised for a lackluster day Thursday, with U.S. stock-index futures pointing to small losses.
Weekly jobless claims will headline a string of economic reports the investors will be assessing a day after the Federal Reserve minutes signaled that a June interest-rate hike was unlikely.
…
Do you think its related to the chinese laminates? I wonder if he cashed out his options before the shares tanked?
CEO Rule #1, never, ever, EVER go on 60 minutes!!!
Is it safe to say that Mr Market has reached the reasonable conclusion that the Fed will never follow through on announced tightening plans, and has launched a never-ending bender to celebrate?
I love me some Cloward–Piven
Democrat Congressman: ‘Someday, There Might be More People Here Illegally Than Legally’
Polis said that without immigration reform, America should expect more illegal aliens
by CNS News | May 21, 2015
Rep. Jared Polis (D.-Colo.) took to the House floor yesterday and called for “celebrating” President Barack Obama’s unilateral actions allowing illegal aliens to stay in the United States and also to decry that none of the bills being brought up in the House that day were about immigration reform.
Polis said that without immigration reform, America should expect more illegal aliens.
“Someday,” he said, “there might be more people here illegally than there are here legally.”
Here is an excerpt from Rep. Polis’s speech:
“We should be celebrating today the start of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals expansion and the Deferred Action for Parents of American Citizens program that President Obama launched in light of the continued failure of this Congress to finally fix our broken immigration system. This Congress hasn’t brought forth a single immigration bill, not secured our border, not ensured that employers follow our law and only employ legal American workers; but, rather, at every opportunity, it has sought to thwart the executive branch, doing what they can with the powers they have under our U.S. Constitution to restore the rule of law without the help of this body. …
“I hope that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program’s expansion, known as DACA—already a great success with additional success along the way with the new expansion—and the Deferred Action for Parents of American Citizens program, or DAPA, are soon unclogged by the courts to at least reduce the size of this sometimes insurmountable problem that Congress continues to refuse to tackle. That is the alternative.
Progressive = Exterminate Whitey
By all means, exterminate whitey, unless of course you happen to be one of the whitey elite, in which case white skin will be reserved for your ruling class.
Speaking of ruling class, anyone catch the story about Beau Biden being hospitalized for some undisclosed ailment? Does this mean hostilities will cease in Ukraine?
Precisely. There will remain a 0.001% whitey elite to rule over the 10+ billion yellow and brown and black mongrel citizens of Idiocracy.
History will be scrubbed of any inventions, achievements, discoveries made by whitey, because racist.
But the new race of Tikkun Olam™ will have all you can eat Hot Pockets, unlimited free refills, and Netflix on their smartphones, so it’s all good bro.
You can’t tm a phrase that already has a Wikipedia entry.
Won’t need whitey or anyone inventing if this comes to pass
In the Sixties, the British mathematician I J Good, who worked at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing, pointed out that a super-intelligent robot (were it sufficiently versatile) could be the last invention that humans need ever make. Once machines have surpassed human capabilities, they could themselves design and assemble a new generation of even more powerful machines — triggering a real “intelligence explosion”.
Beau Biden’s health conditions are not a secret. Beau sustained head injuries in the car accident in 1072. He recovered, but there have always been questions about it. Beau had a stroke in 2010. His current ailment appears to be head-related and I think they took a biopsy but I’m not sure. But could we at least not imply that he’s faking it?
All kidding aside, when I read stuff like this it reminds me how utterly depraved and insane many members of Congress and the administration are. Rome got nuthin’ on Washington.
How cute. Here, have a “Take America Back” bumper sticker.
Pretend you’re “making a difference”, pretend your opinion matters.
The 0.1% Augustus Gloop pigmen are drinking the chocolate river, and you’re Charlie Bucket picking dimes out of the gutter.
Stick a fork in it, cuz this sh*t is OVER.
Temper, temper! Apparently you weren’t properly re-conditioned in school.
Anger management for you, baybeeeeeeeee!
As HBB’s own nhtransplant said, “unhinged”.
And I’m only second cup of coffee today…
when I read stuff like this it reminds me how utterly depraved and insane many members of Congress and the administration are.
let’s put the blame where it belongs: on the amoral and stupid 95% of the electorate that installed those politicians in office. That means you, Obama Zombies, McCain Mutants, and Romney Retards.
Rome works. but I think the Weimer Republic works even better.
Except in our case, it’s the Weiner Republic. Because what matters most to a lot of these perverts is the state of their naughty bits.
As long as they all vote for the correct political party….
This democrat and the democrat party could care less.
Not true. It matters VERY much to the lefty elite whites that other whites not be allowed to be white.
It’s kinda like the bs that the European ruling class cooked up with the Catholic Church back in the day, all about how it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The nobility sorrowfully took on that burden of being rich, so that the poor could go to heaven. Tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
You should finish reading this lesson of Jesus. The very next lines (which lefties always seem to ignore when quoting this verse):
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about how the Cat’lick Church worked hand in glove with the European nobility to keep people down, during the time of the Holy (cough) Roman Empire.
Boy,were they EVER pissed when Elizabeth 1 came along in England and refused to knuckle under. She wanted peace and prosperity for her country and her people and by God (cough) she delivered. But she sure had to dodge the Cat’lick church constantly, which intrigued against her at every opportunity.
“lesson of Jesus”
So you not only think you speak on behalf of the Republican party, but you think you speak on behalf of Christianity too?
Here’s a lesson: there are 62 million Protestant Evangelicals in USA. To people like Sheldon Adelson who purchase our elections, they are nothing more than a dumb herd of filthy goyim. The “lesson of Jesus” is that by exploiting these people’s belief that only once the Jewish people are gathered into Israel can the Rapture occur = neocon payday.
The “War On Terror” cost $1.6 trillion so far, American taxpayers did you get your money’s worth?
Wasn’t Elizabeth I the richest most powerful woman in the world then? Just a .001 percenter squabble.
“So you not only think you speak on behalf of the Republican party, but you think you speak on behalf of Christianity too?”
Haven’t you heard? Every repub in the nation now has a hotline to God. That’s why they can always tell us exactly what God wants, such as tax cuts for the wealthy, and more spending on the military.
If Elizabeth was as egalitarian as you say, she would have gone after the money and power and left the faith alone. But she didn’t. She punished every poor peasant who wanted to practice his faith, and beheaded priests for the daring act of saying Mass. In country estate houses, priests starved and suffocated in “priests’ holes” while the Queen’s soldiers hunted for them.
Comrad Pelosi’s permanent Democrat Supermajority should be in place by 2020, with both oligarch-controlled parties facilitating open borders policies.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/will-latinos-determine-the-next-president/article/2564781
Does this prove that voting does or does NOT matter? Every time the scamnesty pimps tried to do it legitimately the public freaked out and kibosh end it with floods of calls to DC. But they did it anyway.
Let’s pretend the people get a vote. Before Congress voted for the 2008 bailout, letters and phone calls from their constituents (as opposed to their Wall Street pimps) were running 99 to one against. So much for “We the People.”
Thus my point you should not hold them accountable. Votes don’t matter when the game is rigged to thwart the will of the people.
The argument over path to citizenship is fast becoming a moot point. It’s been going on long enough that the anchor babies are reaching age 18 and voting the way their parents want.
Not moot because the parents still we not be able to vote.
we=will
mo free sht
87% of welfare warriors will vote for this guy
Hope and change…
Hey, let’s let in millions of more illegals!
As long as they vote the right way.
————————–
40 percent of unemployed have quit looking for jobs
CNBC - 5/21/2015
At a time when 8.5 million Americans still don’t have jobs, some 40 percent have given up even looking.
The revelation, contained in a new survey Wednesday showing how much work needs to be done yet in the U.S. labor market, comes as the labor force participation rate remains mired near 37-year lows.
A tight jobs market, the skills gap between what employers want and what prospective employees have to offer, and a benefits program that, while curtailed from its recession level, still remains obliging have combined to keep workers on the sidelines, according to a Harris poll of 1,553 working-age Americans conducted for Express Employment Professionals.
mcjobs and bartending gigs aren’t good enough? A lot of people wont work for nothing. Inflation is hurting business.
The good news is that forty percent of 8.5 million workers is not actually unemployed, but merely discouraged. By having given up on ever again finding a job, they have helped reduce the unemployment rate.
A record 93.4 million “out of the labor forces.” And a good many are the scooter people and other “disabled” I see at Wal-Mart on the rare occasions I venture into that dispicable place. More and more people freeloading off fewer and fewer productive citizens. So the Fed prints more trillions to make up the fiscal shortfall.
Yeah, this should end well.
Yeah, this should end well.
As long as the FSA continues to vote for the proper democrat candidates.
IT DOES END WELL!
Hey now, the same exact system literally made almost everyone in the country a
millionairebillionaire overnight. Now why wouldn’t that be a good idea?8.5 million Americans still don’t have jobs
This has got to be good news. It means that unemployment is below 3%.
Lolas and Liberaces….
LaborForce Participation Rate Hits 37 Year Lows; Record Numbers Of Unemployed
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Pop goes another Chinese Ponzi stock.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/first-hanergy-now-goldin-top-hong-kong-stocks-drop-like-stones
Seems like a big company blows up over there on a daily basis.
The dominoes are starting to fall faster. But of course if the entire Chinese economy collapsed and they were resorting to cannibalism, AB Dan would spin that as a “growth” story: “Look, Chinese consumers are eating more meat!”
The problem with eating Chinese is that an hour later you are hungry.
Maybe that’s why it’s called SOYlent Green.
Another neo-con “success” turns to sh*t.
http://news.yahoo.com/gaddafis-home-town-falls-islamic-state-anarchic-libya-094455638.html
Should get another nobel peace prize.
Chinese fortunes built on fraud, stock manipulation, and make-believe valuations are starting to implode. (Coming soon to a Ponzi market near you.)
http://www.businessinsider.com/chaos-in-hong-kong-another-billionaires-fortune-is-being-wiped-out-right-now-2015-5
More of this, and faster, please
we need QE4 so corporations can float some more bonds at low rates and buyback some stocks.
Seems like the bankers and corporations have tight control over stocks dont they?
Seems like the bankers and corporations have tight control over stocks dont they?
No, they have tight control over the Fed and our political process. There, fixed it for ya.
Chinese building materials are as toxic as their stocks.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/ll?link=MW_latest_news
The Chinese are already surviving on brown dirty air. A little formaldehyde and chlorine isn’t going to push them over.
A company where around 98% of the stock was owned by around 20 people, what did the general stock market do today, was there general selling?
Since this post has drawn crickets the general market was strongly up today. BTW, the market is at the highest level since January 2008, the Chinese market started to fall before the 2008 Wall Street crash and continued to fall anticipating the slowing growth rate of China, so just what is it predicting now:
I am sure this is written to make the defense of the Habersham County SWAT team look bad. But then again how could any defense of the Habersham County SWAT team not look bad.
Cops Who Flash Banged Infant’s Crib Are Blaming the Baby
Nearly a year has passed since a Habersham County SWAT team stormed into the Phonesavanh residence, and very nearly killed their 19 month old child
by Joshua Krause | The Daily Sheeple | May 21, 2015
Nearly a year has passed since a Habersham County SWAT team stormed into the Phonesavanh residence, and very nearly killed their 19 month old child. The no-knock raid was prompted by an anonymous tip which suggested there were drugs in the house. As the officers forced their way into the home, they lobbed a flash grenade which wound up landing in the crib where baby “bou-bou” was sleeping. As it erupted, the infant suffered severe burns and had to be taken to the hospital, and placed in a medically induced coma.
To any sane person, the sheriff’s department would be responsible for the damage inflicted on this child. Not only were there no drugs in the house, but the suspect they were looking for was found elsewhere. And despite their claims that they had the house under surveillance for two days prior to the raid, somehow they had no idea that there were children who lived there.
Still, the family had to fight the county tooth and nail to have their $1 million in medical bills reimbursed. Last month they settled with the county, and received $964,000, half of which will be given to them now, and the rest will be given to baby after he turns 18. While it’s great to hear that the family is getting something out of this, it’s shocking to see how defiant the sheriff’s department was, right to the very end. They never once admitted culpability for their gross negligence, and in a bizarre twist, their defense statement in court basically blamed the infant for his own injuries.
William Norman Grigg from the Pro Libertate blog read through the lengthy document, and sifted through the legalese for our benefit. It’s almost unbelievable how far the sheriff’s department was willing to go to avoid paying the family whose child they burned alive.
The act of sleeping in a room about to be breached by a SWAT team constituted “criminal” conduct on the part of the infant. At the very least, the infant was fully liable for the nearly fatal injuries inflicted on him when Habersham County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Long blindly heaved a flash-bang grenade – a “destructive device,” as described by the ATF, that when detonated burns at 2,000-3,500 degrees Fahrenheit – into the crib.
Merely by being in that room, Bou-Bou had assumed the risk of coming under attack by a SWAT team. By impeding the trajectory of that grenade, rather than fleeing from his crib, Bou-Bou failed to “avoid the consequences” of that attack.
In any case, Bou-Bou, along with his parents and his siblings, are fully and exclusively to blame for the injuries that nearly killed the child and left the family with more than one million dollars in medical bills. The SWAT team that invaded the home in Cornelia, Georgia on the basis of a bogus anonymous tip that a $50 drug transaction had occurred there is legally blameless.
This is the defense presented by Haberham County Sheriff Joey Terrell and his comrades in their reply to a federal lawsuit filed last February on behalf of Bou-Bou Phonesavanh and his family.
Can you believe that? It gets much worse from here. When photographic evidence of the baby’s horrific injuries were shown in court, the defendants denied that the photograph “accurately depicts the injuries allegedly sustained.” The statement goes on to the blame the parents and the baby because the damages caused to the child were “directly and proximately caused by the contributory and comparative negligence of the plaintiffs and their failure to exercise ordinary care.”
And as a last-ditch effort to avoid paying the bill, the sheriff’s department invoked the principle of “laches,” which in the legal world, is a kind of use it or lose it statement. It basically means that you don’t have the right to sue, if you waited a long period of time in the hopes that future circumstances would favor your case. It doesn’t apply in this case at all because the family almost immediately filed a notice with the court after the incident.
The origins and usage of that obscure and archaic legal term do offer some insight about the way Bou-Bou’s would-be murderers see themselves, and their victim.
“Laches” is a term embodying the ancient legal maxim that “Equity favors the vigilant, and not those who have slumbered on their rights.” Defendants who appeal to this oft-cited and little-applied concept are accusing plaintiffs of subjecting them to a form of “legal ambush.”
What Sheriff Joey and his cornpone chekists are claiming, in effect, is that while he was sleeping, Baby Bou-Bou ambushed them.
We do indeed live in bizarro world.
Well, that didn’t take long.
——————-
‘Father’ To Marry ‘Son’ — With Court’s Blessing
Patch.com | 20MAY2015 | Kara Seymour
This week, Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur will go from being father and son to a married couple.
Before you jump to conclusions, consider this: Novak and MacArthur are not father and son biologically. Rather, their relationship through adoption was solely a technicality to enable the rights they desperately wanted but were not legally able to attain as a married couple.
“The time came about to do estate planning,” MacArthur said.
But still they dreamed of being married.
Does this offend God or you, or isn’t there a difference?
Just more Retardican talking points 2fruity serves up 24/7…
I had to look up the story…I thought it was a parent/child type of relationship and they were trying to handle some kind of legal rights in respect to inheritance.
Six corporations control just about everything you read or watch in the way of media. These oligarchs also control much of our political process through their mega-donations to the Republicrat errand boys of their choice. Stay classy, oligarchs.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sumner-redstones-two-girlfriends-throwing-796971
Great stuff, Ray K. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Thanks, Brother P. I cut my cable two years ago rather than have a dime go into this slimeball’s pocket or to the network “news” and propaganda I was involuntarily subsidizing. Still have Netflix, but that’s only $7.99 a month and I love the idea of “starving the beast.”
Cable free 3 years and loving it. Starve the beast.
Unfortunately for us consumers though, the high speed internet rates may go even higher to subsidies the propaganda channels. George Papadopolus making 10 mil a year to basically white wash all democratic lies? Why the so called rethugnicans don’t boycott these channels and companies beyond me. Oh, maybe that’s why it’s the stupid party.
You can always watch Fox News to get the truth you want.
You can always watch MSNBC to get the lies you want.
No to mention banking. This one is always a classic:
http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/big-bank-theory-chart-large.jpg
Iraq going from bad to worse. Remind me again of what our $2 trillion and thousands of soldiers killed or maimed there accomplished.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-collapse-of-the-iraqi-army-in-ramadi-is-a-a-replay-of-the-mosul-debacle-2015-5
We should start “punch a neocon” day for all their criminal acts in I-raq.
There’d be some very sore fists and shoulders out there from all the punching.
NeoCons = Progressives.
The problem with the neocon label is that for your average person it implies only one side of the political spectrum when both sides want the same nonsense.
How about a hug a neocon day, and hug Hillary.
“We came, we saw, he died . . . AH HAH HAH HAH HAH”
“Today, I can announce that our review is complete, and that the United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.
This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.
We will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe haven to terrorists.”
–obama 2011
He sure did inherit a lot of steaming piles from W, both in the international arena plus the worst domestic economy since the Great Depression.
I disagree with that worse economy meme, Obama faced only unemployment and the economy came out of recession without any real intervention by the summer of 2009, Reagan on the other hand had to deal with both high inflation and high unemployment.
It’s not a meme. Despite W’s pathetic attempt to hide the Great Recession from the public, the worst and longest post-WWII economic downturn started in December 2007, just in time for the final year of W’s lengthy two-term presidency.
I suppose in your bizarro economic world view, Obama somehow caused the recession that started over a full year before he took office?
Yep. Just like every other president.
What has obama done in the seven year of power to make things BETTER?
Just name three things in the seven years…
economy - nope
middle east - nope
health care costs - nope
student debt - nope
housing bubble - nope
bankers and banks - nope
race relations - nope
etc.
Funny, you could apply that exact same list to George W., but you would have to turn it up to eleven.
Well for one thing, Bush didn’t create the Arab Spring which has destabilized several ME countries.
Yemen, Syria, Libya are directly related to the Arab Spring and Iraq is indirectly related since ISIS grew in power in Syria prior to the invasion of Iraq.
Obama the man child is a laughing stock. I guess only the neocons hang on to his words. Even the sad pandas started ignoring him after 2012.
Obama = Little Lord Fauntleroy.
This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.
Um, yeah. In a country where it’s component factions - Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds - all hate and fear each other, and where the 60% Shia population automatically wins every “election” then lords it over the rest of the population.
Sadly, this is what happens when “leaders” attempt to lead by declaration and proclamation.
Say it and it shall be so.
Let me cast ye noble Wisdom onto the four winds…to the East, to the West, to the North, to the South.
Let thee cast thy gaze unto me as I speak from thy sacred pulpit.
It doesn’t matter a fig who the leader is, or whether he was elected or installed. The guy would still be the leader of one faction and the other two factions will fight it.
For reference, there were some politicians who suggested that we stop pretending they can all get along and just split the place up along tribal lines like they should have done decades ago. Guess who was suggesting that.
“China’s manufacturing activity continued to contract in May…
“…contraction.”
“Moreover, softer client demand both at home and abroad along with further job cuts indicate that the sector may find it difficult to expand, at least in the near term, as companies tempered production plans in line with weaker demand, the report added.”
“China saw its growth slide to 7 percent”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/21/c_134257919.htm
Amazing. While the economy is in contraction, it is still growing at 7%.
There is that word “difficult” again. It translates as “unpossible”.
Buckle up.
As long as the official GDP growth rate remains locked in at 7%, why worry?
As long as the official GDP growth rate remains locked in at 7%, why worry?
That is true. And with the services sector booming and Chinese infrastructure increasing along with the ten percent increases in defense spending, the trade surplus skyrocketing that 7% growth rate seems pretty secure.
China needs the oil, but Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states cannot produce it, looks like I was right about Chinese demand and the fact that Saudi’s tired oil fields could not produce more oil and the fact that there is no real physical glut of oil only an engineered paper glut:
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-05/21/content_20781228.htm
‘looks like I was right…Saudi’s tired oil fields’
So how can the Saudi’s drive the frackers under, as you predicted?
Saudi Arabia and its main Middle East OPEC partners are turning down Chinese requests for extra oil as they hold back fuel for their own refineries just as demand from the world’s biggest crude importer hits new records.
While the Saudi and other refusals for additional crude supplies may not be part of a new pricing strategy, the rejections to their biggest client help explain a 40 percent rise in oil prices this year as Chinese importers have had to seek more oil from other suppliers in what analysts say is still an oversupplied market.
Senior Chinese oil traders told Reuters the Saudis have turned down requests from Chinaoil and Unipec - the respective trading arms of PetroChina and Sinopec - for extra cargoes of crude for May and June loadings, forcing them to seek supplies from producers in West Africa, Oman and Russia.
Saudi Arabia “used to provide as and if we asked for extra cargoes on top of contract during the first four months of the year, but not for May and June,” said a trader with one of China’s biggest oil importers on condition of anonymity as he had no permission to talk to media.
Another source with a Chinese refinery that takes Saudi oil said Saudi heavy crude was “a bit tight” in May and June.
Reuters pricing and trade flow data show a 40 percent rise in Brent crude since January has coincided with a more than 10 percent fall in overall Middle East supplies to China , although in historical terms they remain high.
“Our analysis shows that Saudi flows to China have fallen quite a bit in May and their overall market share in China has also fallen,” said Yan Chong Yaw, Director of Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts in Asia.
The research group’s latest China crude report shows Saudi Arabia’s share of Chinese imports dropped to just over 30 percent in May from 36.5 percent in April.
Saudi Aramco, which was not available for comment, had already reduced contractual supplies to some Japanese and South Korean customers in April.
The trader with one of China’s big importers said requests for more crude to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia’s closest partners in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - were similarly turned down.
PetroChina and Sinopec officials were not available and seldom comment on trading activity.
With imports of 7.4 million barrels per day (bpd), China overtook the United States as the world’s top crude oil buyer in April.
Ben, they already have driven many of the frackers either out of business or damaged their ability to produce severely. Obviously, since I have predicted $80 a barrel in December and have said that frackers can produce and profit at that levels, I do not believe that the Saudis can hold oil prices down for long.
Forget about the frackers, they couldn’t pay their debts at $100 oil.
The Chinese are stupid. They are trying to load up on $60 oil for storage as their consumption declines. When it drops they will sell.
Forget about the frackers, they couldn’t pay their debts at $100 oil.
Then, oil has to go to $110 because the world cannot live without the five million + barrels of production from oil shale. BTW, that is not my prediction, I am just saying if you are right about $100 not being adequate, then we would need to have $110 oil.
‘looks like I was right…
What are the words every insecure man utters, Alex?
OK I was right.
“Then, oil has to go to $110…”
Then the world “needs” another $25 Trillion credit expansion to keep permagrowth on track. Maybe more. Exactly where would you like us to drop that? Pick someplace that has a billion people living in mud huts and hasn’t had a bubble boom yet.
skyrocketing indeed
“In Q1 2015, China saw an even sharper pace of FX reserve contraction, with a negative valuation effect (of around USD 34 billion) and non-FDI capital outflows (of around USD 190 billion) more than offsetting a still sizable trade surplus of goods & service (USD 77 billion)”
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/05/measuring-chinese-capital-flight/
The rats are jumping ship.
China wants investment abroad as part of its Silk Road Initiative.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/finance/Helping-hand-to-invest-overseas/shdaily.shtml
“All new loans are going to pay the old loans.”
And the skim is getting sucked out of the country.
“That is true.”
Except I was being sarcastic.
I know so was I.
Miracles can happen, can happen for youuuuuuuu. Red China’s shadow banks, the banks where dreams come truuuuuuuuue.
About that equity….you didn’t build that!
————————–
Report: Elizabeth Warren Did Not Disclose $1.3 Million Credit Line From Bank Of America
TheDC | 5/20/15 | Alex Pappas
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the populist Democrat and foe of big banks, has not listed a $1.3 million credit line against her home with Bank of America on annual financial disclosure documents because of a loophole in federal law, according to a new report.
The Boston Herald reported Wednesday that Warren, who is required to disclose financial assets and liabilities, avoided listing it in 2014 because it’s a line of credit — not a mortgage — and the Democrat doesn’t actually owe enough money yet.
Here’s how the Democrat’s office explained the situation to the Boston Herald: “An aide for Warren said the amount represents a home equity line of credit, not a mortgage. According to the aide, a line of credit does not trigger reporting requirements if the borrower has not borrowed on it, or if the amount owed is less than $10,000. Warren’s account had a zero balance, the aide said.”
Watch what Fauxahontus does, not what she says. Like her rushing to block a real audit of the Federal Reserve, which since 1913 has been systematically enabling the .1% in the financial sector to loot the wealth and assets of the 99%.
When is a credit line on a house that you already own an asset if you already list the property as an asset?
These reporters are morons.
Most people are immersed in debt donkey thinking, where a line of credit is “money in the bank”.
Liberate that equity!
Especially with a VIP loan.
Is this a person who wants housing prices to normalize?
She has a HELOC with a zero balance so she didn’t report it because it’s neither an asset nor a liability. There’s no story there.
The people pushing this story don’t care about whether it was properly listed or not. The point is to get it out there that she’s a multi millionaire who doesn’t even need to draw on her million dollar credit line .
This is correct.
That said, anyone with a brain already knows that Warren is an East Coast elitist. Loaded with money, and proportedly willing and able to “take on the big banks”.
Okay.
Bet she doesn’t take on big government, though. She certainly hasn’t declared willingness to do THAT, which is interesting as Goldman Sachs now runs the Cabinet.
Thus, simply more b.s. from the NeoCon-Progressive Party crowd. Warren is just another lying, egotistical nanny-statist in a long line of the same.
“That said, anyone with a brain already knows that Warren is an East Coast elitist. ”
What trust fund bloodline is she a part of or did she marry into it?
Bet she doesn’t take on big government, though. She certainly hasn’t declared willingness to do THAT, which is interesting as Goldman Sachs now runs the Cabinet.
So if she ACTUALLY takes on the big banks then she’s also taking on big government by default as well, right?
The people pushing this story don’t care about whether it was properly listed or not. The point is to get it out there that she’s a multi millionaire who doesn’t even need to draw on her million dollar credit line .
The text of the article appears to say that she avoided disclosing some important information by exploiting a “loophole” in the reporting requirements. Maybe the real point is to make it known that she has a house that B of A thinks is worth at least $1.3 million. Therefore, she’s rich, so let’s all hate her? Maybe that’s the point. It’s often unclear with these things. A more straightforward approach would have been to go through the disclosure and try to estimate her net worth, which is probably at least a few million.
“She has a HELOC with a zero balance so she didn’t report it because it’s neither an asset nor a liability. There’s no story there.”
It’s only a story if you’re a shill for the banks - they want her stopped at all costs.
Paying $2 million for a house in a city full of predatory criminals makes no sense to me. Especially when that city’s corrupt Democrat “leadership” as stripped honest citizens of the means to defend themselves with force of arms.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3089981/Killers-ordered-Domino-s-pizza-tortured-CEO-wife-son-DC-mansion-emerges-assistant-dropped-40-000-package-murdered.html
This story is very confusing. Looks like it was a hit, to me. Possibly accomplished with help from a friend or relative of an employee or “trusted” retainer.
What happened to all the gas savings? Walmart and mcdonalds didnt see it?
Gas is back to normal around here, no savings here. I think the new climate change laws added some taxes on too.
Gas price = consumer price
Oil price = producer price
Do you suspect the masters of the vertically integrated, highly concentrated oil industry have arranged to pocket the spread?
higher prices will led us to growth!
Yes, and since they know oil prices are going up they do not feel to compelled to sell gasoline at a discount now, they know the gasoline sitting in the tanks will just get more valuable. Just the opposite of what you would do if you expecting falling prices, you would try to sell as much as possible right now even if you had to lower it a bit since you would be expecting to receive less in the future. Just like just before the end of winter, a retailer discounts the clothes since it would receive even less in the near future.
Retail gas prices are down 40% YoY
Gotta love falling prices, depreciation and deflation.
The gas savings - and then some - was wiped out by ObamaCare.
Pump prices here are still about 80 cents a gallon less (-25% or so) than they were last fall.
If you’re back to even, blame your state government. Are you in California? Didn’t they rush to add a bunch of new gasoline taxes as prices were dropping?
It’s in the $2.40 range here in my neck of the woods.
Alarming Surge In Murders And Shootings In Baltimore
May 18, 2015 11:03 PM
Christie Ileto
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — City crime spike. A dramatic increase in violence in Baltimore. Dozens of shooting and murders in the last few weeks following the riots last month.
Christie Ileto reports some are concerned police are hesitant to crack down after six officers were charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
baltimore.cbslocal.com/…/18/alarming-surge-in-murders-and-shootings-in-baltimore/ - 136k -
Blacks killing blacks.
No money in that.
No way to politicize that.
No way to “stir up the base” with that
Sharpton, Jackson and obama see no payday and thus do not even mention it.
That was exactly my reaction upon reading what Phony posted.
Where’s all the reporting and all the hand-wringing? Where IS Jackson, Sharpton, Obama and the rest?
“No way to politicize that, No way to “stir up the base” with that”
lol. Should you be talking shop so openly?
If it were black motorcycle gangs who just had that big shootout you and phony would would be on your hundredth post about it today, wetting your pants with histrionics. “These thugs are out of control!”
But, they’re white, so…radio silence. Just won’t stir your base. Which says a lot.
????
These THUGS were all arrested and are sitting in jail.
Zerohedge has a pretty funny mosaic of all their mug shots. “Sons of Anarchy” they are NOT.
Now compare/contrast to the thugs that burned down Baltimore and are are lauded by obama, sharton and the local DA.
“These THUGS were all arrested and are sitting in jail.”
What about the rest of them? These are international gangs, who operate within the prison system as well as in society. They had a huge shootout in a middle class suburban strip-mall restaurant.
Where’s your terror? Where are the countless alarmist posts?
Silence. It doesn’t stir your base.
Now compare/contrast to the thugs that burned down Baltimore and are are lauded by obama, sharton and the local DA.
Obama called them thugs. That’s not laudatory.
They had a huge shootout in a middle class suburban strip-mall restaurant.
Funny how you assume that. Personally, I’m waiting for the evidence to come in, and will be very keen on comparing the number of shells found from the gangs, vs the number of shots fired by the police. I will not be surprised if there are very few of the former and very many of the latter.
It may not have been a “huge shootout.” Not a fan of outlaw biker gangs, but I’m hoping this wasn’t a case of cops being too quick to shoot first and ask questions later.
http://www.agingrebel.com/12873
Multiple sources have told The Aging Rebel that all of the dead were killed by police.
It sure sounds like the cops may have been quick to shoot—either that, or the MC gang are all just really really terrible shots. If the gang members didn’t manage to shoot anyone, and the cops shot everyone who got shot, it sounds a lot like the cops turned a brawl into a shooting gallery.
“Funny how you assume that.”
I know, I know. The white bikers should get the benefit of the doubt (I mean, biker gang members like the Bandidos aren’t generally known to be criminals).
Blacks are guilty until proven innocent, post mortem in some cases. It’s in the Constitution somewhere.
Thanks so much for (not so subtly) calling me a racist; that made me tempted to return insult for insult, but I try not to take advantage of simpletons—and you do appear to be simply a lack-wit.
What I am really suggesting is that we allow the legal system to do its job before you jump to conclusions about who took part in a “huge shootout”. You know, things like collect and analyze evidence, present it to a grand jury, and see what conclusions they come to with all of the facts in front of them.
This is the same thing I have suggested the last couple of times the race-inflamers have taken up their pitchforks—you know, in places like Ferguson where it was SO clear that the cop did wrong, and shot an innocent victim who SO clearly had his hands up. Did you ever go back and read any of the eyewitness accounts in that case, btw? Because if you did, you would know it made those who jumped to conclusions based on “he had his hands up!!” look like real idiots.
“You know, things like collect and analyze evidence, present it to a grand jury, and see what conclusions they come to with all of the facts in front of them.”
Yes, I’m aware of your high horse of patience and evidence gathering, and I agree with it. But, you see, blacks should get that presumption too. But they are instead presumed guilty by the people I aimed my post at.
If you give the presumption of innocence to white people but not to black people, that’s racism. If you can’t understand that, perhaps you are a simpleton yourself.
What’s this going to do to property values? Baltimore is a lot bigger than Ferguson.
I see a future show on HGTV:
“Flip that Baltimore House”
White and gay folks trying to figure out how to install bars on the windows and razor wire on the fence line…
All while replace the copper lines five or six times.
I would watch that show, maybe they could combine it with COPS Baltimore.
No, you replace the copper lines with PEX the first time.
No scrap value on plastic pipes.
Now, if they could just figure out how to make plastic wiring . . .
Islam is the religion of piece…
The JV team in action.
——————–
Stripped naked and sold to the highest bidder: How ISIS is sending the ‘prettiest Yazidi virgins’ it abducts to slave markets in Syria
Daily Mail | 5/20/15 | Jay Akbar
ISIS is sending the ‘prettiest virgins’ they capture to slave markets in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where they are sold as sexual objects to the highest bidder, the United Nation’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has said.
After the depraved militants attack their villages, they strip the girls naked, conduct virginity tests, evaluate their bodies and send them to twisted auctions, Zainab Bangura claims.
Every time this happens, Shrub and Cheney get a wing.
These fookers completely ruined a semi functional country to a rubble. Thanks, neconons!
Truer words have never been spoke. Bush was a “war president”, and his iteration of the war his daddy started has gone terribly wrong.
Either way things are going to get pretty dystopian.
“Today, I can announce that our review is complete, and that the United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.
This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.
We will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe haven to terrorists.”
–obama 2011
You have another two trillion handy do hold back the hordes for another decade, chicken hawk?
You should ask these folks:
58% of Democratic senators (29 of 50) voted for the resolution. Those voting for the resolution are:
Sens. Lincoln (D-AR), Feinstein (D-CA), Dodd (D-CT), Lieberman (D-CT), Biden (D-DE), Carper (D-DE), Nelson (D-FL), Cleland (D-GA), Miller (D-GA), Bayh (D-IN), Harkin (D-IA), Breaux (D-LA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kerry (D-MA), Carnahan (D-MO), Baucus (D-MT), Nelson (D-NE), Reid (D-NV), Torricelli (D-NJ), Clinton (D-NY), Schumer (D-NY), Edwards (D-NC), Dorgan (D-ND), Hollings (D-SC), Daschle (D-SD), Johnson (D-SD), Cantwell (D-WA), Rockefeller (D-WV), and Kohl (D-WI).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution
…and when one finally stands up and says “no more” he’s a traitor.
You are a disgrace to all thinking people.
Hug those neocons listed above.
“You have another two trillion handy do hold back the hordes for another decade, chicken hawk?”
Brave men like 2B stayed home to help the economy during the Iraq war, along with millions of other able bodied repubs. They’re the real heroes.
Dman,
You have not been around this board very long.
I am a combat vet. I have seen “muslim society” up front and personal.
My greatest wish is that you would have to live in a muslim country for a year. Even better if you are a woman.
You would come home and kiss the ground.
There are plenty of societies I would not want to live in, many of them right here in this country. But there are plenty of Muslims who are civilized and come from cultures thousands of years older than ours. Maybe you are a secret neo-con. Maybe you are an end-timer from the Christian right. But your goal is to stir up hatred of a religion for whatever political reasons you have, which meshes with the conservative need to scare the country into wars it doesn’t need to fight.
But your goal is to stir up hatred of a religion for whatever political reasons you have…
It may not be a political reason on his part. He may just do it because it makes him feel good about himself.
I do not see him doing anything but telling the truth about the history and the present reality of Islam.
It is useless to discuss what happened in the past under past presidents,when the present president is controling the country.
Either you like what he is doing, or you don’t like what he is doing, but I hope you realize that YOU can not do anything about it at this time.
Blaming past presidents for their official actions is useless, as that is in the past and can not be changed.
You can feel free to blame, or praise, this president and it will not make a darn bit of difference to him or the government.
But it does make us feel good to blame others for our errors.
“You have not been around this board very long.
I am a combat vet. I have seen “muslim society” up front and personal.”
Oh yeah? At some point you proved to the board you’re a combat veteran of fighting in a muslim country?
What was the proof? Where and when did you fight?
“Mission accomplished.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3090886/ISIS-execute-man-BAZOOKA-shocking-new-video.html
And yet the sheeple will almost certainly elect HillaryJeb and continue with the same AIPAC-dictated foreign policy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/16629031224/
Sheldon Adelson and William Kristol sitting up on the cool breezy porch of the Big House sipping mint juleps, and you’re out there in the fields all day under the blazing hot sun picking their cotton and making them RICH.
P.S. Obama and Loretta Lynch have the blueprint for ISIS’s next attack on USA, because they wrote it.
The virginity tests demonstrate the militants are highly committed to religious purity.
‘One by one, nearly a dozen GOP presidential hopefuls took the stage here last weekend for a Lincoln Dinner, each different in style and stature but all joining a rising Republican chorus that lays blame for the Islamic State terrorist group squarely at the feet of President Obama.’
“If you fought in Iraq, it worked. It’s not your fault it’s going to hell. It’s Obama’s fault,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said to cheers.’
We’ve got a problem of dishonesty in politics. It’s impossible to discuss anything rationally in this atmosphere.
We’ve got a problem of dishonesty in politics. It’s impossible to discuss anything rationally in this atmosphere.
It’s a feature not a bug. Sucks to be the ones who still vote hoping something different. Suckers!
As I pointed out in the first post of yesterday’s bits bucket, his middle name is Hussein.
“If you fought in Iraq, it worked. It’s not your fault it’s going to hell. It’s Obama’s fault,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said to cheers.’
That idiot State Department clown, Bremer, summarily dismissed 400,000 Iraqi military men who had surrendered and could have been useful partners in securing and rebuilding Iraq. Instead, as part of the “de-Baathificaiton” demanded by purists who knew nothing of Iraq’s realities, they were fired and humiliated. That was when the insurgency really took off. So don’t let neo-con puppets like Miss Lindsey Graham get away with trying to peddle revisionist history. Obama inherited a steaming turd that was created by Bush and his neo-con cabal.
Except the insurgency was put down with the surge. Iraq was pretty stable when Obama pulled out the rest of the American troops, not that any of his policies caused the stability. ISIS was created in Syria from elements that had fled from Iraq due to the security forces having the upper hand.
Dismissing the entire Iraqi army right after the initial ‘victory’ will go down as one of the stupidest political decisions in history.
‘Dismissing the entire Iraqi army right after the initial ‘victory’
You have to put yourself back in those times. The US had set up a sort of colonial thing, with a US chief and hand-picked Iraqi puppet, and oil was going to pay for it all. Remember when they were building dozens of “permanent” military bases and generals told the press, “we’re never leaving Iraq.” They didn’t need the stinking Iraqi army!
How the neo-cons set us up for failure in Iraq.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/4-biggest-takeaways-americas-effort-build-iraqi-army
The virginity tests demonstrate the militants are highly committed to religious purity.
Ha! Good one…
I’m sure the ones with a mullah’s certificate-of-virginity sell for ALOT (sic) more in the slave markets…
Does Sheldon Adelson require a “certificate of marketability” for his Republicrat whores?
This is racist.
Now remember -
When democrats are in power there are no differences in the political parties. They are all them same. Better to keep the devil you know. It was such a mess when obama took over that there was really nothing he could do.
—————
Domestic surveillance fate unclear after lengthy Senate talk
May 21, 2015 - CHARLES BABINGTON - AP
The fate of the government’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records is unclear following an FBI warning, House-Senate disagreements and more than 10 hours of criticisms by a GOP presidential candidate.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the most libertarian-leaning of the major Republican presidential contenders, dominated the Senate floor from 1:18 to 11:49 p.m. Wednesday to decry the National Security Agency’s mass collection of phone data without warrants. In doing so, he highlighted deep divisions within Congress — and among his party’s presidential hopefuls — over the program whose existence was exposed by former contractor Edward Snowden, now living in Russia.
It marked the second time in two years that Paul has used a marathon Senate speech to draw attention to a pet issue, and to himself, as C-SPAN cameras provided unbroken footage for Twitter and other social media. In March 2013 he spent 13 hours filibustering John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA, to underscore Paul’s opposition to U.S. drone policies.
Paul opposes renewal of key sections of the Patriot Act, which the government cites to authorize the massive examination of who calls who on American phones.
The Republican-controlled House voted overwhelmingly to end bulk collection of phone data but to allow surveillance on a case-by-case basis if a special court approves. President Barack Obama supports that change. Paul says it doesn’t go far enough.
Siding with McConnell are GOP senators and presidential hopefuls Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and other candidates have taken positions somewhere between McConnell and Paul.
Sheldon Adelson owns Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.
Rand Paul is going down in flames. Literally, like Paul Wellstone did.
You heard it here first.
Sheldon financed Gingrich in last primary iirc. Didn’t amount to anything….I see the same future for Rubio and other clowns he supports.
You greatly underestimate the stupidity of the American voter.
It is good that there are democrat candidates with views like Rand Paul that we can vote for…
.
.
.
NOT ONE.
Gary Johnson got over 1,000,000 votes in 2012.
I’ve Read Obama’s Secret Trade Deal. Elizabeth Warren Is Right to Be Concerned.
By MICHAEL WESSEL
May 19, 2015
You need to tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25 years ago,” a frustrated President Barack Obama recently complained about criticisms of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). He’s right. The public criticisms of the TPP have been vague. That’s by design—anyone who has read the text of the agreement could be jailed for disclosing its contents. I’ve actually read the TPP text provided to the government’s own advisors, and I’ve given the president an earful about how this trade deal will damage this nation. But I can’t share my criticisms with you.
So-called “cleared advisors” like me are prohibited from sharing publicly the criticisms we’ve lodged about specific proposals and approaches. The government has created a perfect Catch 22: The law prohibits us from talking about the specifics of what we’ve seen, allowing the president to criticize us for not being specific. Instead of simply admitting that he disagrees with me—and with many other cleared advisors—about the merits of the TPP, the president instead pretends that our specific, pointed criticisms don’t exist.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/tpp-elizabeth-warren-labor-118068.html#ixzz3amMc2OIe
Even with around 50% rebound in oil, shale oil is unprofitable to produce for most shale oil companies, they need $80 oil and the world needs shale oil production to stay at around five million barrels per day, it cannot be replaced.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shale-ionaires-suffering-wave-bankrupt-000003079.html
You and your kind are the only ones that “need” $80 oil.
Nonsense Dan.
OPEC is profitable at $6 barrel.
Update: Crude Oil Plummets 40% YoY
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic
Don’t look now but if you combine what oil is up today with what it was up yesterday, it is more than it dropped Tuesday when GS came out with its phony prediction for oil:
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/marketquotes/index.php3?market=CL
A minor dead cat bounce has nothing to do with the fact that oil is down 40% YoY.
Doesn’t it makes sense that prices are falling to dramatically lower and more affordable levels?
You can only get so far by manipulating currency and the futures market, eventually the physical market rules, it takes longer with gold since gold is usually not consumed, minor exceptions for industrial uses, but oil is burned and you cannot claim it exists when it does not.
What are you talking about? The industrial use of gold is HUGE - the leadwires inside every IC chip are made from gold. Electronic connector fingers are plated with it. Only a small fraction of this gold is recovered during ‘recycling’ of electronics.
I do not want to get in a semantics argument only about 7% of the demand for gold each year is used for such uses and while it is growing another reason I like gold, I consider that minor, reasonable minds can disagree on this point.
http://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/demand/technology
I think we’re on the same side on this one, but just wanted to point out that industrial use of all precious metals is not to be discounted.
Never mind the day trading. Oil is down 40% from last summer.
You keep “predicting” the past, I will deal with the future.
Adan, I wonder what they would say if you kept arguing that home prices were going to be higher and higher because they went up last year?
Don’t expect them to be consistent. The concept of timing does not occur to most of them, who are nothing more than permabears.
It is ironic dan, but we are optimists. What you want is pretty bad for most everybody; waste, hoarding, speculation, unsustainable expansion of credit, higher prices & etc. We expect that to wind down in a significant way so that we can have a better life longterm, which is totally optimistic. What is bullish for you is more bubbles, bigger and faster. For us that is just crazy.
Regardless of whether $6 is true or not, OPEC only supplies about 1/3 of the world’s crude.
What matters to the supply of oil is the marginal cost of producing the last few percent of oil vs. world demand, not what price will ge the cheapest producers to act.
Can OPEC increase production above their current levels? Yes, but nowhere close to meeting all world demand. Additionally, the OPEC countries rely heavily on oil revenues to keep the people from revolting…they need oil well above $50 per barrel to fund their countries.
Over the medium term, what really matters is the cost of production for the new supplies. And whatever number you want to pick for that production, it’s not $30 per barrel (or even $50), it’s more.
Yes. While I do not want to draw too large of a conclusion from just the Bakken field, I am seeing the quality of the oil wells dropping markedly. No 5,000 barrel initial wells and a 2000 barrel well being a rare beast. Also, while the MSM focused on an increase in production in the field for March, they ignored that the fracklog decreased by 20 during that month which accounted for the increased production. The bears cannot argue that that the storage facilities will overflow so they have been arguing that the fracklog will cause a decline but it already appears that it is falling.
Just released from the ND government site, just look at these “gushers”:
PRODUCING WELL COMPLETED:
#19474 - FRAM OPERATING LLC, NAILOR TRUST 1, NWNW 32-160N-86W, RENVILLE CO., 12 BOPD, 247 BWPD - MADISON
#27900 - XTO ENERGY INC., VAN DYKE FEDERAL 44X-19E, SESE 19-149N-95W, MCKENZIE CO., 955 BOPD, 5784 BWPD - BAKKEN
#29256 - CYNOSURE ENERGY LLC, GLENN PAETZ 4-151-89 #1, LOT1 4-151N-89W, MOUNTRAIL CO., 6 BOPD, 36 BWPD - MADISON
Six barrels of oil a day, you would to drill 800+ wells to equal the wells that I saw coming out of ND back in December. Just pumping out and separating it from the 247 barrels of water destroys the ROE on that, never mind the energy expended to drill the well, not sure if it was even fracked. Speaking of ND has anyone seen the series Boomtown? I saw a few episodes this weekend and it was very interesting.
What matters is falling crude oil prices.
Remember…. a globe full of crude oil, falling demand means falling prices. And falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
As long as they still continue to vote the right way.
I wonder if these union folks have figured out their unions have spent all their pension money on political donations to one political party in particular…
——————
Union tosses cash at lobbying despite retirement shortfalls
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro - The Washington Times - May 20, 2015
The Teamsters have begun informing retirees and current workers that their pension benefits may soon be cut, the final ironic twist to a lobbying campaign that saw the union spend its own members’ dollars to win the right to shrink their retirement pay.
The somber notifications began going out from the Teamsters Central States Health and Welfare Pension Fund this spring, a decision that could ultimately affect 410,000 current pension participants and a total of more than 10 million U.S. workers nationwide. Cuts could begin as early as next year.
The Teamsters pension fund has been struggling with severe shortages for years, even as the union continued to pour millions of dollars into political election efforts and Washington lobbying.
In 2014 alone, the union and its affiliates spent nearly $5.9 million on lobbying and political contributions, and one of its main legislative targets was passage of the pension reform law that finally gave it the right to start reducing benefits, according to the lobbying reports it filed with Congress.
The union has already poured another $397,000 into Washington lobbying this year.
The MPRA has received stinging criticism from workers who spent decades vesting in retirement programs, and are furious their benefits are being taken to make up for union mismanagement.
Some critics believe the Teamsters could have exercised more effective cost-saving measures ahead of time, cutting executive salaries, lobbying or political activities and repurposing those savings to cover shortfalls in the pension fund.
“The Teamsters pension fund has been struggling with severe shortages for years, even as the union continued to pour millions of dollars into political election efforts and Washington lobbying.”
Perhaps one day, people will learn that redirecting money to that which doesn’t generate wealth is a very bad idea.
As Washington continues to grow, it needs to take more and more of your money. Government does not generate wealth of its own, so it must take yours in order to exist.
Teamsters = Useful Idiots. Perhaps worse, considering they actually thought government would look out for them.
“…..redirecting money to that which doesn’t generate wealth is a bad idea”
Funny, directing money to lobbyists and politicians seems to “generate wealth” for the banksters and 1%ers.
OTOH, I suppose it is a waste, when you are spending 5.9 million, and the Kochs are spending 800 million.
Here are the top 11 ALL TIME Political Campaign donors:
And yes 8 out of the top 11 are unions who give 99% to democrats.
But don’t let facts stand in your way.
1 Service Employees International Union
2 ActBlue
3 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees
4 National Education Assn
5 Fahr LLC
6 American Federation of Teachers
7 Las Vegas Sands
8 National Assn of Realtors
9 Carpenters & Joiners Union
10 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
11 United Food & Commercial Workers Union
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
Go add up the total amount given by unions and the total amount given by businesses.
I have a feeling that the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson will soon be on that list, thanks to Citizens United.
Well technically they won’t be on this list. The dark money will pay for the TV ads (the bulk of campaign spending), and donors will be anonymous. That will free up the documented campaign money for everything else. Thanks to Citizens United.
Ferguson ‘Protesters’ Are Now Protesting That They Didn’t Get Paid
335 Comments
BY JOHN MERLINE
05/20/2015 06:41 PM ET
Were the Ferguson protests a spontaneous expression of community outrage or an orchestrated campaign with paid “protesters”? It’s looking more and more like the latter.
Early on, there were signs that protests over the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop were less than meets the eye.
In December, IBD noted that most of the protesters getting arrested weren’t local residents but people bussed in from groups like the New Black Panthers, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the ANSWER Coalition.
Later, after the riots in Baltimore erupted, Fox News reported that as many as 50 social media accounts were tied to both those and the Ferguson protests, suggesting the presence of “professional protesters.”
Now some of the “protesters” themselves are complaining that they never got paid.
In mid-May, Millennial Activists United organized a sit-in at the Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment offices. The reason: MORE owed the protesters money.
The group complained that MORE “created a joint account in which national donors from all over the world have donated over $150,000 to sustain the movement,” but “the poor black people of this movement … have seen little to none of that money.”
A letter posted by the group went on to claim, “Organizers and protesters depleted $50,000 of the available funds and dispersed it among the people in the movement in no particular order.” They even started a Twitter hashtag to encourage MORE to cough up the money: #cutthecheck.
There’s nothing wrong with protesters getting paid. It’s a free country, and they have to make a living, too. But maybe these protesters should think about joining a union before they hit the streets next time.
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/052015-753642-ferguson-protesters-complain-about-not-getting-paid.htm#ixzz3amRZyI4j
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George Soros, who plucked Barak Obama out of obscurity and groomed him for a Presidential run, is a grifter? Who’d have thunk it….
You mean the Soros that sent US taxpayer dollars down to Brazil to help build their offshore oil industry, while supporting moves to sideline our own freighters under the guise of reducing environmental pollution?
You mean THAT guy?
Needless to say, Soros’ talent for fleecing taxpayers is surpassed only by his talent for helping to install corrupt, pliable crony capitalist political enablers in the Oval Office.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/24/us-usa-clinton-soros-idUSBRE99N0UW20131024
Lol, it’s been widely rumored that Soros funded, through various “foundations”, the national street demonstrations for amnesty that took place in 2006.
Follow the money.
#BlackLivesMatter: Ferguson activists were PAID with Soros money to protest
May 20, 2015 5:48 am EDT
“After protesters protested not getting their checks from MORE on May 14th, MORE allegedly distributed the following list as to who was paid to protest in Ferguson and elsewhere, to show where the money had been going,” wrote Weaselzippers.
“You can see money paid out to Lisa Fithian, $1,127.75 for ‘visit expenses’. For those who do not know, Lisa Fithian is an infamous leftist organizer. She organized at Occupy, but has been used as a training organizer for many years before that. She spent time in Ferguson in 2014 training people to ‘simulate chaos’.”
This information comes to light after massive protests have rocked both Ferguson and Baltimore in the last year with more protests planned for the summer. Past protests as well as the upcoming planned demonstrations have in large part been funded by Soros and other mega rich influential leftists.
http://www.intellihub.com/…/ - 183k -
There’s nothing wrong with protesters getting paid. It’s a free country, and they have to make a living, too. But maybe these protesters should think about joining a union before they hit the streets next time.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Do you have to go to school to be a professional protester?
If so, are there student loans available?
What are the courses?
Rock Throwing?
Police Car Tipping?
Hands Up Don’t Shoot Yoga?
Looting 101?
Management, Strategy and Burn this B#tch Down Ethics?
Your books include:
Rioting for Dummies.
A Brief History of Shit*ing on Police Cars
“Burn this B#tch Down” and other examples of the Inner Cities contributions to intellectual discourse.
This reminds me of the tea baggers who took bus rides to Washington, paid for by the Koch Brothers, to protest higher taxes for billionaires. Morons.
He is a hint for you.
Billionaires do NOT pay taxes.
Here is another hint for you.
Social Security started off as a 1% tax on the rich. Now it is a 15% tax on everyone EXCEPT the rich.
Bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes does not solve many problems…
What’s really funny is that ADan, 2ban, and phony are paid protesters themselves.
Amazingly. Wow.
Mulsim and islamic nations have hated us before we had even ONE BASE in the region. Before we had even ONE WARSHIP in the region. Before the seas were rising. And before youtube videos.
Go BEYOND your public education
—————
Thomas Jefferson & Radical Islam’s War on the West
Frontpagemag.com | May 21,2015 | David L. Hunter
In May of 1784 the Continental Congress dispatched Jefferson to Paris first as trade commissioner and later as ambassador to France. Very early on in the process he became aware of an unexpected reality: Christian-American hostages were being enslaved by violent Muslims. Contrary to rumor and the popular belief of the time, these North African predators were not the stereotypical pirates out for booty: wine, women, adventure and song. These “Barbary Pirates” were in fact just typical Middle Eastern Muslims known then as Mahometans or Mussulmen who did not consume alcohol and prayed to Allah several times a day. They crewed the ships of the Mediterranean Sea’s Islamic city-states and their efforts to capture cargo and passenger vessels were both economic and religious. Like today’s terrorists, these predecessors called themselves Mujahidin or “soldiers in the Jihad” and engaged in holy war against the West. Not much has changed in 200 years.
The Mujahidin knew the Union Jack, but they didn’t know the Stars and Stripes. Not that it mattered then or now: All foreigners and non-Muslims were targets. Jefferson foresaw the danger and spent the fall of 1784 studying Islam as well as fellow diplomats’ treatment of the long-standing issue. Specifically, in March of 1785, future presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. When they inquired into the Mujadhins’ propensity “to make war upon nations who had done them no injury,” the ambassador replied:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every Mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.
Jefferson argued correctly that paying “tribute” to Muslim extremism would encourage further malfeasance: “infidel” enslavement, hostage-taking and ship hijacking had already plagued Europe for a thousand years. Although John Adams concurred, as America had no standing navy, the circumstance forced the new, debt-ridden nation to pay a hefty 1 million dollar tithe (approximately 10% of the U.S. government’s annual revenues in 1800), a government entitlement program for terrorists that went on for 15 years. Like the monarchies of Europe, Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans were focused on Western expansion and did not want those efforts stymied by useless armed conflicts in the Old World. The money guaranteed safe passage of American ships and/or the return of American hostages.
Unlike the Obama doctrine of continued appeasement and hollow political “victories” not worth the paper they are written on, Thomas Jefferson wanted to fight. However, certain precincts of the U.S. government reacted haphazardly to continued acts of terrorism. In late 1793, the mass hijacking of U.S. ships by Muslims had a 9/11 effect on the U.S. economy. Four months later, on March 27, 1794, Congress—after debating the subject periodically over a decade—finally decided to build a fleet of warships: six extra-large frigates. In essence, the United States Navy was born in response to unprovoked Muslim aggression.
After 17 years of calling for war against Islamic extremism represented by Barbary piracy, it was not until 1801 as America’s third president that Mr. Jefferson dispatched a naval squadron of four warships to the Mediterranean to engage in a four-year war off the shores of Tripoli. Sporadically, a Western power would bombard Muslim port cities in response to the ongoing threat, but nothing ends the seemingly endless Christian-Islamic religious conflict. As history demonstrates, Obama’s political realities mirror Jefferson’s. However, Mr. Obama’s cowardly head-in-the-sand reaction is in direct opposition to Jefferson’s Reaganesque show of strength.
‘Mulsim and islamic nations have hated us before…’
I can remember a time when we didn’t even talk about this region, much less every fifteen minutes. We actually were more concerned with matters here in the US.
War On Terror = $1,600,000,000,000 and counting…
When?
I can remember the 1970 energy shocks, the several israeli-arab wars, the hijackings, soviets in Afghan and and the overthrow of the Shah with the American hostages.
This region has been constantly on the news for the last 50 years….
The only thing has changed is that where the reaction of the west.
Muslim crimes against humanity that used to met with overwhelming force is now tolerated and we wonder what we did to “provoke them” - maybe if they all had jobs they would not hate us nonsense of the progressive age we are in.
‘This region has been constantly on the news for the last 50 years’
No it hasn’t. The “news” used to be 30 minutes at 5:30 on three channels. Affairs of these oil states were primarily discussed in how they affected the US economy. We didn’t have non-stop chattering about Sunni’s or jihad.
You reaction is more of what I’ve said elsewhere; it’s pointless to discuss anything about this stuff if all you have to do is set your hair on fire and run around screaming for attention.
Recommend the book “The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan” by Rick Perlstein, it is an excellent summary of how the “base” has evolved.
Radical Islam did not reemerge as a major force into 1979, as I had explained on this blog for at least five years, it was Carter’s throwing the Shah under the bus, that allowed the rise of the radicals. The Saudi fearing the same fate as the Shah, made a deal they turned the educational system over to the fundamentalists which meant even more radicals were created not just in Shiite Iran but Sunni SA. Obama made a similar mistake in 2011, when he encouraged the Arab Spring. In the Middle East the Shah of Iran is the best leader you can expect, at least he developed the country economically and gave women and religious minorities equal rights.
Modern presidents that have just accepted that Islam is not compatible with democracy and the best we can hope for is stability under an authoritarian but not brutal leader have done best, this list includes:
1. Reagan 2. Bush I 3. Clinton
Presidents that have tried to force democracy in the region and created FUBAR include:
1. Carter 2. Bush II 3. Obama.
‘Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985′
‘The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan – Lt. General William Odom – noted: “Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.”
‘Odom also said: “By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.”
‘Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted on CNN that the U.S. organized and supported Bin Laden and the other originators of “Al Qaeda” in the 1970s to fight the Soviets.’
‘Brzezinski told Al Qaeda’s forefathers – the Mujahadin: “We know of their deep belief in god – that they’re confident that their struggle will succeed. That land over – there is yours – and you’ll go back to it some day, because your fight will prevail, and you’ll have your homes, your mosques, back again, because your cause is right, and god is on your side.”
‘CIA director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirmed in his memoir that the U.S. backed the Mujahadin in the 1970s.’
‘MSNBC reported in 1998: “As his unclassified CIA biography states, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan after Moscow’s invasion in 1979. By 1984, he was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar – the MAK – which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war.”
“What the CIA bio conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified form, at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan’s state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA’s primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow’s occupation.”
“The CIA, concerned about the factionalism of Afghanistan … found that Arab zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans were easier to “read” than the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab volunteers might well prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least were one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, along with a small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East, became the “reliable” partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.”
‘To this day, those involved in the decision to give the Afghan rebels access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry continue to defend that move in the context of the Cold War. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, told my colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently. “It was worth it,” he said. “Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union,” he said.’
“Indeed, the U.S. started backing Al Qaeda’s forefathers even before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. As Brzezinski told Le Nouvel Observateur in a 1998 interview: Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.”
“Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?”
“B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/sleeping-with-the-devil-how-u-s-and-saudi-backing-of-al-qaeda-led-to-911.html
What do you say about that 2banana?
Recommend the book “The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan” by Rick Perlstein, it is an excellent summary of how the “base” has evolved.
Have you read a similar book along the lines of “The Fall of Kennedy and the Rise of Carter?”
+1
Just to clarify, that +1 was for Ben Jones’ post.
MacBeth, I read more books than anyone on the HBB. You’ll not succeed in baiting me into an argument. Clean the cobwebs off your library card and go learn something.
Conservatives are always trying to stir up anger at Muslims to try to hide how cuckoo their own beliefs have become.
Oh, you’re hilarious! Sure, it’s the Muslims that are the sane ones. Do you work for CAIR?
No American administration has really ever cared about democracy in the Middle East, or Vietnam or anywhere else. What they’ve always wanted are friendly governments. Whether those governments are democracies is irrelevant.
That Perlstein book was good, but I thought that the earlier books about Goldwater and Nixon are better. One interesting part of The Invisible Bridge was how Reagan would go around saying things that were clearly false and also say things that contradicted earlier things that he said. It just didn’t matter to his base. His successors in politics and media learned a lot form that.
I guess 2banana has gone crickets. Read up on how this all started. It was the US government that chose to get this entire sh*t-storm going.
If you mean had the Shah not fallen the Soviet Union would not have invaded Afghanistan and that would not have happen if the naïve Jimmy Carter not pushed the Shah out, you are right.
You’re like oxide-nomics, except with you it’s history. Dan-istory.
Tell me where my timeline is incorrect.
1. The Shah of Iran is overthrown 2. The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan after the Shah falls and the Islamists come to power 3. After that the U.S. backs Muslim elements against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
I don’t know the details around the fall of the Shah. If Carter had withdrawn US support when the Shah was in a position of strength, that would have been a good thing. However, America often sticks by its clients until things look hopeless and then dumps them.
The Looking Glass War
Carter had withdrawn US support when the Shah was in a position of strength, that would have been a good thing.
Why would that be a good thing? Carter withdrew support when the communists and the Islamists had an alliance to overthrow the Shah. The communist oil union has a strike in the oil fields and the Islamists organized street riots. The Iranian army could have put down both but that would have involved bloodshed and the Carter administration let the generals know that all weapons deliveries would be cut-off if they violently suppressed the protests. The Shah was overthrown and a series of weak secular governments took power just like in the overthrow of the Czar in Russia. They were useful idiots. I think the Soviet Union thought it would come out on top with a communist government but a radical Islamic nation was born and radical Islam took off throughout the Middle East. We are still paying for that mistake.
And Carter to this day is still lauded for being a great peacemaker in the Middle East . . .
Up until very recently, liberals were able to write the news and thus history. It is why they come unhinged at Fox, talk radio and conservative Internet sites. It is harder to conceal liberal mistakes.
Carter withdrew support when the communists and the Islamists had an alliance to overthrow the Shah. The communist oil union has a strike in the oil fields and the Islamists organized street riots. The Iranian army could have put down both but that would have involved bloodshed and the Carter administration let the generals know that all weapons deliveries would be cut-off if they violently suppressed the protests
There probably weren’t any opinion polls at the time, but it’s quite possible that a majority of the Iranian people favored the unions and the Islamists over the Shah’s government. The Shah was installed in an American-led coup which overthrew a democratically elected prime minister. His secret police was famous for torture. Carter’s withdrawal of support for that regime was great. He should have done it on the day that he was inaugurated.
Nothing great about it at all it was a disaster then that led to gas lines and a recession and has only become more tragic with Iran on the verge of having a nuclear weapon. Only a liberal zealot would defend it with the benefit of hind sight.
‘Iran on the verge of having a nuclear weapon’
Care to prove that statement? Really prove it.
The Shah was a torturing, murdering tyrant. It was wring of us to support him. Of course, Carter supported bloodbaths elsewhere, such as Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor. But he was right to stop supporting the Shah.
I love the sound of crickets in a late spring evening, don’t you Dan?
I have a memory of Reagan sending a bunch of marines into Beirut where a large number were subsequently blown up. We promptly retreated offshore to naval ships from which we shelled the heck out of the general city as payback.
Very Jeffersonian.
Danaganda again and again and again.
It is for the children.
No one will be allowed to leave the democrat plantation.
—————————
NY rejects all applications for new charter schools
NY Post | May 21, 2015 | Yoav Gonen and Aaron Short
The state Education Department has rejected all 15 applications for new charter schools, including 12 in New York City, claiming they failed to meet academic standards.
“We always look for quality and these applications didn’t measure up,” Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins said Wednesday. “We invited several of the applicants to reapply in June and we gave them suggestions on how to improve their applications.”
But charter-school advocates weren’t buying it, saying the rejection of all the applicants reeked of pro-teacher-union politics.
“The timing and nature of these blanket rejections should raise serious concerns for New Yorkers
Mayor de Blasio and the teachers unions oppose charter school expansion, as does the Democratic-run state Assembly.
Repubs love charter schools because it’s an easy way for them to spread taxpayer money to their political contributors.
Oh, you mean just like dems love the public schools because its an easy way for them to spread taxpayer money to their political contributors (local, state and nation branches of NEA)?
pure collectivism
the school / gov union blob
much scarier than al kady
It seems like the libor rigging settlements were business as usual? Puny fines compared to the take?
Seems to send a clear message doesnt it?
Takata doubling U.S. recall for defective air bags to 34 million vehicles
WASHINGTON/DETROIT | BY DAVID MORGAN AND BEN KLAYMAN
Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp (7312.T) is doubling a recall of potentially deadly air bags to nearly 34 million vehicles, making it the largest automotive recall in American history, U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.
The recall involves passenger- and driver-side air bag inflators in vehicles made by 11 automakers, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Takata said. It expands on the 16.6 million vehicles called back for repairs for the same issue in previous regional and national recalls, and boosts the number of vehicles affected globally since 2008 to more than 53 million.
Regulators linked six deaths worldwide to defective Takata air bags which exploded too violently and shot shrapnel into the vehicles.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/us-autos-takata-recall-idUSKBN0O428E20150520
What happens if Takata goes under? Or are they “too necessary to fail”. I mean, you can’t sell your cars if they had Takata airbags and they’re gone. It would take a non trivial amount of time to source a replace from another manufacturer.
No one see the absurdity of this recall?
34 million to 53 million cars and 6 people were killed and not one mention of how many were saved by those same airbags.
Would you rather drive a car without the air bags and take the chance?
Safety at all costs as long as someone else has to pay for it, I guess.
How about this, Just pay$ 1 million is you get killed by a bad bag and keep the rest of them in the cars.
LOL
Actually, I would rather not have a front airbag at all. Do you have any idea how many injuries are caused by them in slower-speed accidents when they do more harm than good?
Airbag injures include:
Permanent hearing damage
Burns
Blindness
Broken bones
Wear your seat belt. Side airbags are definitely worth having, but frontal ones don’t provide much additional protection IF you are properly belted. And they can be fatal if you are a short driver and your head is too close to the steering wheel.
When I glance through all the topics in today’s and prior Bits Buckets - all I can think is we as a species are totally and utterly f***ed!!!!
What an abhorent mess this world has become in a mere few decades.
Out.
Cheer up and remember….. Falling prices of all items is positively bullish and good for the economy.
My house is worth more now cause a lot of cash was created.
DEFINITION of ‘Functional Obsolescence’
A reduction in the usefulness or desirability of an object because of an outdated design feature, usually one that cannot be easily changed. The term is commonly used in real estate, but has a wide application.
A new kitchen and master bath does wonders to turn this around.
There is only one thing to turn around depreciation. Cash. Throwing more good cash after bad on a depreciating asset.
At least you can always retreat to the relative tranquility of Chicago.
Don’t worry
Even bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can fix this!
The FSA votes.
And a promise is a promise.
“totally and utterly f***ed”
Al Gore has brought so much global warming to Region VIII that I’m gonna enjoy three consecutive days of backcountry skiing on Memorial Day weekend, 5,000+ vertical foot lines that ski directly back to the car where the grill and the beer are
P.S. somebody’s gonna die in an avalanche this weekend, will post the Denver Post link on Tuesday
There have been lots of posts by 2Banana and Phony Scandals today. That’s enough to bring anyone down. It’s amazing how the topic always seems to be steered toward black people, Muslims, Obama and the Democrats when these two are around. They seem to be tag teaming today.
“It’s amazing how the topic always seems to be steered toward black people, Muslims, Obama and the Democrats when these two are around.”
Comment by Dman
2015-05-21 08:33:22
Funny, you could apply that exact same list to George W., but you would have to turn it up to eleven.
Comment by Dman
2015-05-21 09:21:51
Repubs love charter schools because it’s an easy way for them to spread taxpayer money to their political contributors.
Comment by Dman
2015-05-21 09:19:33
Conservatives are always trying to stir up anger at Muslims to try to hide how cuckoo their own beliefs have become.
Comment by Dman
2015-05-21 08:59:45
This reminds me of the tea baggers who took bus rides to Washington, paid for by the Koch Brothers, to protest higher taxes for billionaires. Morons.
You guys just make me laugh - much better now - but still - everything just is so…..out of control. Never have I seen anything like this in my lifetime - mom (rest her soul) said times around Depression and WW2 were equal to what is going on now but just different.
Who does the -fixr believe? The happy talk from Wall Street and DC, or what he is seeing with his own Mk I eyeballs?
http://tinyurl.com/kgcocf
Summarizing one of the comments:
“We’ve cut 8% of the workforce. The oil bust has introduced “adverse volatility”. So much steel is being dumped in the US, that finished products are cheaper that raw materials costs. We see no end to the previous recession………….Of course, the main problem is government regulation”.
-Fixr’s translation:
“Don’t blame the facts………blame Democrats and Obama. Because we all know things were absolutely peachy before they got into office”
But….but…… as always, I am a simple caveman, and I’m confused again.
Republicans have controlled Kansas since 2008, and have passed laws to fulfill Arthur Laffer’s and Glenn Beck’s greatest wet dreams. Yet the economy in this state sucks worse than ever. There are jobs, but none of them start at over $11/hour.
(Seems that Republicans don’t have a problem with “over-regulation” as long as it applies to women and poor people).
Youngest daughter just moved to Missouri to be closer to work,got a place near the “Crossroads Art District”. Along with many of her friends. The kids that the state should want to keep are GTFOOD, for better pay and better opportunities. In Missouri?
She wants a Missouri plate on her car ASAP, because she is trying to dump all of her ties to Kansas.
I don’t know I saw an article the other day and it had stats showing that KC Kansas was growing much faster than KC Missouri, it should be interesting to contrast the growth in the two cities over the next few years.
I know the left on this board will attack the source, it is a standard Mo but I would like to see someone show that the numbers cited are actually wrong:
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/05/18/under-brownback-kansas-sees-wage-and-job-growth/
zillow still has furgeson on the up an up
Which is exactly why I laugh every time HA posts bogus data from them.
More and more Brazil is becoming China’s bi*ch:
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/138700/Petrobras_Turns_to_China_for_10_Billion_to_Avert_Crunch
Seems kind of eerie in stocks this week. No volume as usual.
of two minds - Charles Hugh Smith
When the Current Housing Bubble Finally Bursts (May 21, 2015)
Two words:
Boskin Commission
Without the Boskin Commission (which was the impetus for changing how CPI was calculated starting in the late 90’s), the CPI numbers would be different, and his horizontal line would show that we got to within about 5% of the inflation adjusted trough from the 90’s.
AKA, the bubble did burst, and we got back down to an inflation adjusted trough. What we are seeing now, is a housing peak, which is consistent with the pre-bubble inflation adjusted peaks.
When prices go down again, it will be due to traditional housing cycle economics (too much building, encouraged by high prices, economic weakness leading to an overhang of supply, then falling prices to absorb the overhang). We don’t yet have too much building.
And putting SF (the bubbliest of locations) on the graph biases the reader, when the rest of his analysis (including the 1% increase over time) is national data.
Los Angeles, CA Sale Prices Crater 16% YoY As Housing Demand Evaporates
http://www.zillow.com/los-angeles-ca-90046/home-values/
I’m still waiting for Charles Hugh Smith’s 2006 prediction to come true — San Francisco house prices dropping to 1986 levels.
Oy
“…not only is this not a bubble, the expansion will continue forever.”
This belief, supported by whatever level of intervention by the central bankers behind the curtain is necessary, will ensure San Francisco prices never recede to 1986 levels.
That may or may not happen, but he (CHS) has been right about many things and did call Housing Bubble 1.0 well in advance like the HBB, have been following both blogs for about 10 years and thanks to that sold my last place in early 2007.
CHS does get off on tangents sometimes and I definitely don’t agree with him on everything but his blog is well worth following
http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/united-states-plans-hand-anti-tank-weapons-iraq-june/
They better hurry up with those weapons so ISIS can use them at the Baghdad airport:
http://news.yahoo.com/islamic-state-seizes-syrias-last-border-crossing-iraq-194434631.html
http://news.yahoo.com/attacks-iraq-forces-east-ramadi-officials-190731994.html
It will be interesting to see what news comes out of China tonight. Something freaky is happening to its stock market, and I think China’s left arm is getting a little numb.
As I posted up above the Chinese stock market hit another seven year high today up by about 2%.
stock symbol (FXP) if you want to short China. The 3 yr chart is awful.
How much have you lost on your short of China?
a lot
I am not advocating people buy Chinese stocks and I am not but I do find it interesting that the market refuses to go down significantly and usually when a market climbs a wall of worry it does quite well. The restrictions of margin were only enough to cause a brief dip, the upcoming issuance of 451 billion dollars in IPOs, similarly, only caused a brief dip, the blow up of two major stocks did nothing.
Re Stocks: What happened to, “Sell in May and go away?”
Are there too many people on the sidelines buying the dips before it becomes a great dip?
Pt2. MSM is talking about the beginning of a “housing rebound” and we talking about bubble 2.0.
“Housing rebound” = more construction
bubble is all about prices
Its about burying people in debt and creating more revenue.
What’s a few hundred thousand more houses when there are 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses out there?
Looks like Marco Rubio needs to ask Sheldon Adelson to up his pimp allowance. You know, just until he becomes President and can really whore himself out for that big Wall Street money.
http://www.businessinsider.com/marco-rubio-is-living-above-his-means-2015-5
Few things illustrate how detestable today’s oligarch-captured GOP and its stable of .1-percenter whores have become than Sam Brownback’s dick move to limit poor people from withdrawing only $25 at a time from ATMs. What a petty, small-small minded stunt. In today’s Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs economy and the pauperization of the middle class and working poor, a lot more people are going to be slipping into poverty. So now why don’t we criminalize them for being poor? Maybe make them wear orange jumpsuits when they’re out in public?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-21/broke-kansas-tax-poor-people-placing-25-limit-atm-withdrawals
Former UN Lead Author: Global Warming Caused By ‘Natural Variations’ In Climate
Global temperature change observed over the last hundred years or so is well within the natural variability of the last 8,000 years
by Daily Caller | Michael Bastasch | May 22, 2015
Global temperature change observed over the last hundred years or so is well within the natural variability of the last 8,000 years, according to a new paper by a former Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) lead author.
Dr. Philip Lloyd, a South Africa-based physicist and climate researcher, examined ice core-based temperature data going back 8,000 years to gain perspective on the magnitude of global temperature changes over the 20th Century.
What Lloyd found was that the standard deviation of the temperature over the last 8,000 years was about 0.98 degrees Celsius– higher than the 0.85 degreesclimate scientists say the world has warmed over the last century.
“This suggests that while some portion of the temperature change observed in the 20th century was probably caused by greenhouse gases, there is a strong likelihood that the major portion was due to natural variations,” Lloyd wrote in his study.
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