Bits Bucket for July 18, 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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China insists that it would never, never lie about GDP growth. Never!
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/932527.shtml
China admits they have been lying about their gold reserves for a very long time.
http://www.chinastocks.net/why-did-china-announce-its-gold-reserves-yuan-depreciation-pressure/
it has never been about whether the Chinese government is capable of lying. All governments are capable of lying if it serves their interests. The question is whether they are lying and the World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank, Economist Magazine etc. all have estimates of the Chinese growth of around 7%. Over estimating their GDP would only make it harder for them to make good deals on iron ore etc. and harder for it to get its currency recognized as a reserve currency. If lying about the GDP helped them they would still be claiming 10% growth. As far as gold China is still lying so it can get gold cheaper.
‘it has never been about…All governments are capable of lying’
Are we talking about China here?
From China Daily:
World Bank chief says nation more than capable of achieving annual growth target of around 7%
China is still the mainstay of global growth and its economy is more than capable of achieving the annual growth target of around 7 percent despite the recent market swings, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said on Friday.
“In light of the stock market fluctuations recently, I would like to emphasize that we believe China’s economy is strong and its fundamentals are sound,” Kim said at a news conference during his two-day visit to Beijing.
He said that the “around 7 percent” GDP growth rate is “still the envy of the world”. “There’s no question that China is increasing its role in development around the world.”
Kim said that he has taken note of the Chinese government’s efforts at pushing ahead with reforms while dealing with the recent stock market turbulence, which has seen the benchmark stock index plunge by more than 30 percent.
While meeting Kim on Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang said the government has taken a series of measures to stabilize the stock and monetary markets, all for the purpose of “creating a fair, open and transparent environment of market reforms for the long term.”
Economic and social reforms will continue to transform China’s growth model toward more efficient, equitable and environmentally sustainable growth, said Kim.
China will continue to carry on reforms in all sectors, and ensure the economy grows within a “reasonable range”.
“We have seen progress in several reforms, including lower credit growth, better regulation of shadow banking, and better management of local government borrowing. These reforms hold the key to China’s continued economic success.”
Premier Li Keqiang met with Kim on Thursday, and said that the Chinese economy has great resilience, potential and room for maneuver.
GDP growth stabilized at 7 percent in the second quarter of the year, largely unchanged from the first quarter figure, but higher than previous market estimates of 6.8 percent.
More positive signs are emerging besides the GDP growth rate, as the services sector expanded its contribution to total GDP to 49.5 percent from 47.4 percent a year earlier, compared with the industrial sector’s 43.7 percent. Agriculture accounted for the rest.
Commenting on the government’s recent market intervention measures, including injecting liquidity to the market, Kim said measures like this and many others have been adopted by governments across the world to cut excess volatility in the stock market.
“The Chinese leadership’s commitment to reforms, including fiscal, financial and the hukou (permanent residence registration) system, is stronger than ever. We are confident that the reform process will continue,” he said.
During Kim’s visit, China signed an agreement on Thursday with the World Bank to establish a $50 million trust fund to finance efforts to fight poverty.
The World Bank president also met with the leadership team at the Multilateral Interim Secretariat of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to discuss expanding cooperation between the two institutions.
“We agreed with Secretary-General Jin Liqun and the interim secretariat to explore co-financing options in the coming months,” said Kim.
GDP growth.
Exports flat. Imports crashing. Foreign reserves shriveling. So, services are up?
Services; government spending, bank lending, stocks trading higher on ridiculous valuations (in the second quarter). Gaming the numbers on falling commodity prices isn’t really growth of any sort.
Envy of the world my azz. No one should envy the reckoning that lies ahead of the Chinese., which is inevitable because of the massive waste and misallocation of the past six years.
World Bank comments. Just a slowdown in China will cause a recession in the world. It is the big dog now Obama’s America is chasing its tail.
From China Mining, they continue to open new steel mills:
Baosteel Group, the largest steelmaker in China, plans to make breakthroughs in energy saving and environmental protection at its new complex in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, which is scheduled to go into operation in September.
One system will remove both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from coke oven gas to meet the national emissions standards issued last year, said Gao Yuan, director of the energy and environmental protection department of Baosteel Zhanjiang Steel.
A world first, the system was developed by a domestic institute and had its pilot testing in November.
In addition, in the sintering process, facilities using activated carbon, the first of their kind in China, remove heavy metals, dioxin, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the gas, Gao said.
The coke oven and sintering process consume up to 60 percent of the energy used at the complex, which is located on Donghai Island in Zhanjiang and designed to produce 8.75 million metric tons of steel annually.
Energy equivalent to 609 kilograms of coal is needed at the site to produce each ton of steel, more than 95 percent of which is supplied by coal.
“We are employing all the energy-saving technologies available to reach an internationally outstanding level. The key lies in energy management to make full use of the facilities and strengthen the energy-saving awareness of all our employees,” Gao said.
Other energy-saving efforts include solar power for residential areas of the complex, thermal power at a stadium and the recycling of gas from blast furnaces, coke ovens and converters.
The investment for energy-saving and environmental protection facilities at the mill in Zhanjiang totals 6.22 billion yuan ($1 billion) and accounts for more than 12 percent of the total investment for the complex, with 116 items of related technologies employed.
An extra 300 million yuan has been earmarked to comply with the air pollution control action plan of Guangdong for the period between 2014 and 2017, which was issued last year and requires the complex to meet the strictest standards in the country.
The operating costs for environmental purposes are estimated to be 100 yuan per ton of steel produced.
“Production capacity does not make the future of China’s iron and steel industry, but product categories and structure, and environmental friendliness,” said Zhou Shichun, deputy general manager of Baosteel Zhanjiang.
“Companies capable of growing together with nature and the ecological system make the future. Baosteel Zhanjiang is such a company and we are confident of building it into the best in this industry.”
Rainwater collected at the mill, water from Jianjiang River and desalinated sea water make up roughly equal shares of the water used in production, with nearly 98 percent of the water recycled after use.
Wastewater from the coking process will be treated at an artificial wetland and reused, in a process that is also the first of its kind in the country, and some treated water will be discharged deep at sea, Gao said.
The sludge from water treatment can be used for making bricks or in the sintering process, with any iron it contains also recycled.
The slag from production, after the iron is recovered, can be used to produce cement and other building materials.
All solid waste will be primarily processed or made into products before being shipped elsewhere for further processing.
Containers of powdered materials and coal and the conveyer used for transporting materials are enclosed and storage places are equipped with screens to control dust.
A national environmental monitoring station has been installed at the complex, as well as three stations set up by the Zhanjiang city government and three others provided by Baosteel, with real-time data from the monitors transmitted to environmental watchdogs.
Baosteel also plans to share energy resources and materials with the gigantic Sino-Kuwaiti petrochemical project planned only 500 meters away on the island, and jointly use transport channels to maximize environmental efficiency.
Seems like ‘we’ are changing the subject to deflect the glare of scrutiny.
A tried and tested evasion technique.
Obama!
Global warming!
Look! A kitty!
Over there! A Confederate flag!
best silver/copper play ?
There seems to be enough hate for both now
gfi ?
cde?
I do like CDE but I have not researched it for a while. Because of my use of options to reduce risk, what I buy is both a function of the price of the stock and the price of the option that I can sell to reduce the risk so it might not be the best stock for you if you are just buying the stock.
BTW, I think the gold story is interesting. China is the largest producer of gold in the world. Thus, you would think China would want higher gold prices. China knows what the estimates of its true gold holdings are. China knew that releasing the its claim would reduce gold prices and gold was already weak. The logical conclusion is China is buying and wants the best price.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gold_production
Seems like China caught itself a falling knife on the barbarous relic.
Barrick Leads Gold Producers Down as Price of Metal Tumbles
by Danielle Bochove
July 17, 2015 — 7:18 AM PDT
Updated on July 17, 2015 — 2:06 PM PDT
European Stocks Decline While Oil and Gold Retreat
Barrick Gold Corp. tumbled to a 24-year low in Toronto, leading a rout among bullion miners, after a selloff in the price of the metal.
Barrick, the world’s biggest gold producer, dropped as much as 6.5 percent to C$11.19 in Toronto, the lowest intraday price since May 1991, before closing at $11.35. Goldcorp Inc., the biggest North American producer by market value, finished down 6.1 percent and Newmont Mining Corp., the largest U.S. producer, fell 3.2 percent in New York.
Gold tumbled Friday on strength in the U.S. dollar and signs of improving U.S. economic growth.
“The market’s focus has turned back to the U.S. dollar, away from the safe-haven bid, and there is simply no support for gold prices at this point,” Jessica Fung, a Toronto-based commodities analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said Friday by phone. The market’s attention has temporarily shifted away from concerns about Greece and the Chinese stock market, she said.
Gold futures for August delivery closed down one percent at $1,131.90 an ounce on the Comex in New York, after touching $1,129.60, the lowest since April 2010.
Other precious-metal miners fell. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index, a gauge of miners, finished down 4.74 percent, reaching the lowest intraday since January 2002. Among Toronto-based gold miners, Kinross Gold Corp. closed down 6.8 percent, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. fell 4.8 percent and Yamana Gold Inc. fell 5.2 percent.
Interest Rates
The markets are focused on the extent to which the U.S. may raise interest rates, Sean Boyd, the Vice-Chairman & chief executive officer of Agnico Eagle, said in an interview on Friday.
“So there could be continued pressure on gold equities, there could be continued pressure on the gold price, until we get some direction on interest rates,” he said.
Barrick is under particular pressure as the drop in gold casts doubt on the company’s strategy of shedding assets to pay down its $12.9 billion debt, Ron Stewart, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Markets in Toronto, said Friday in a telephone interview.
“Barrick was doing OK with this notion of selling assets to reduce the debt levels and repair their balance sheet,” he said. “It becomes harder and harder to sell those assets at any kind of reasonable value if metal prices are unwinding.”
Barrick’s total debt peaked at $15.8 billion in the second-quarter of 2013, the same year gold futures had their biggest annual plunge in more than three decades. Since then, the company has sold more than $2 billion worth of assets and has been in talks to sell a 50 percent stake in its Zaldivar mine in Chile.
…
Gold just hit a 5-year low
Akin Oyedele
Jul. 17, 2015, 11:22 AM
Gold just hit a five-year low.
On Friday morning, the precious metal fell more than 1% to as low as $1,129.80 an ounce, the lowest since 2010.
In a morning note to clients on Friday, Accendo Markets wrote: “Gold ($1,144) lower yet again after the German conservatives voted to start talking about the details of a third Greek bailout while Grexit plans were locked away for the time being. So when investors are confident, they sell gold; when they’re worried, they don’t buy it. A strong US dollar with all this talk of interest-rate hikes likely contributing to gold’s seeming change of purpose of late with the three-month downtrend intact.”
On Friday, China disclosed how much gold it’s holding for the first time in six years. Its reserves rose 57%, and it is now the fifth-largest holder of gold.
Gold mining stocks are getting slammed. Shares of Barrick Gold Corporation, the largest gold miner in the world, fell more than 5% – the lowest in 24 years. Newmont Mining shares fell 2%.
…
Back up the truck. Zerohedge article says gold is priced about right relative to the S&P 500. While oil is very cheap.
Business Insider
There’s a dead giveaway that China’s growth numbers are fake
Linette Lopez, Business Insider | July 16, 2015 2:27 PM ET
A watch repairman sleeps at his stall in a shopping mall in Beijing on July 15, 2015. China’s economy expanded 7.0 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, official data showed July 15, beating expectations but with weak investment and trade acting as a drag.
Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
At this point, Wall Street is just playing along with China.
“You can’t trust the numbers,” Bill Miller, CEO of LMM Investments, told a room full of investors at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Conference this week.
Miller spoke on Wednesday, just hours after China announced that it once again hit its gross-domestic-product growth target of 7 per cent.
This despite the fact that its economy seems to be experiencing a major slowdown.
But after 25 years of watching China hit the mythical 7 per cent mark without fail, analysts understand the charade.
There are dead giveaways everywhere. The most obvious way to tell that China’s books are cooked, though, is by looking at how its neighbours are faring.
…
Singapore. 12% of China’s imports.
Yup. Same story we’ve seen back to Old Testament times and before.
Only an attorney would buy into China’s touted 7% growth rate.
Asia Economy
China GDP: Believe it or not?
Leslie Shaffer
Wednesday, 15 Jul 2015 | 9:59 PM ET
CNBC.com
China’s economic growth for the second quarter beat expectations, rising 7 percent from a year earlier, spurring some analysts to cry foul and others to say I told you so.
We sifted through the reactions to Wednesday’s unexpectedly steady numbers, so you don’t have to. Here’s what the experts are saying:
Adam Myers, senior market strategist at Credit Agricole, told CNBC he doesn’t trust the data.
“You only have to look at commodity prices to see that there’s a disconnect with what the official Chinese data is showing and what really the demand in the underlying economy is having for things like raw materials. We’ve been talking about that for months and still the Chinese data remains relatively solid, but all the underlying anecdotal evidence points to a much deeper slowdown in China. Put on top of that the wealth and credit effects that we’ve seen through the Chinese stock markets in the last couple weeks, a much larger deterioration appears to be on the cards than the official data would indicate.”
…
Will there come a day when China can no longer hide its slowdown behind official GDP growth statistics, similar to how the U.S. NBER felt compelled to acknowledge in October 2008 that the Great Recession was long underway many months after its December 2007 inception?
Or can they potentially cover up underlying economic reality forever?
Lethargy Bankrolls U.S. Stock Bull
By Pacific Park Financial Inc. (Gary Gordon)
Stock Markets
Jul 17, 2015 04:19AM GMT
Over the past century, the U.S. stock market typically turned down prior to the onset of a recession. You did not need to predict economic contraction; rather, you monitored the Dow and the S&P 500 because the benchmarks acted like leading indicators of bad times ahead. (Investors checked the market internals to get a sense for whether or not stocks themselves might “roll over.”)
Stocks demonstrated their predictive powers as recently as October of 2007. The bear market eroded 20%-30% of value before the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) even acknowledged the recession’s inception date (12/07) in October of 2008.
…
China’s stock market crash was not due to an unsustainable state-sponsored mania which encouraged myriad mom-and-pop investors to borrow on margin, enabling them to back up the truck and maximize their stock market winnings.
Rather it was due to a U.S. conspiracy!
China adds stock market crash to list of problems it blames on elaborate U.S. conspiracy
An investor looks at the stock price monitor at a private securities company in Shanghai.
(AP Photo)
By Miles Yu - - Thursday, July 16, 2015
China’s spectacular stock market crash over the past several weeks has led the world to wonder: What caused such a panic sell-off?
While most analysts point to structural fault lines in China’s economic and political system as the ultimate culprit, many Chinese investors assign blame to a Western conspiracy in general and leading U.S. financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in particular as the root cause of the stock market woes — despite the fact that foreigners are generally restricted from investing in Chinese stock exchanges.
This is barely news in China. Reports assert that the United States is once again sabotaging socialist China through secret operations, this time in high finance.
But this is not surprising considering the preponderance of an unshakable Chinese habit — cultivated ever so arduously by the communist government for decades with its total control of all media outlets — of placing blame on the West for virtually all of China’s disasters.
Among all Western nations, the United States has been singled out for decades as the primary evildoer against the glorious socialist country, whose rise to prominence in the past two decades is said to have stoked profound fear in Washington. Beijing believes Washington is behind an elaborate and well-coordinated conspiracy and has been working to shatter the Chinese dream of restoring the Middle Kingdom to the historical and cultural dominance it held before the turn of the 19th century.
“The history of the aggression against China by U.S. imperialism from 1840 when it helped the British in the Opium War to the time it was thrown out of China by the Chinese people should be written into a concise textbook for the education of Chinese youth,” Mao Zedong wrote in 1949, providing a general guideline for decades of U.S.-bashing.
According to communist founder Mao, the U.S. plot is indirect because Washington wants to avoid a direct military confrontation with China, which has strategic depth, popular support and a superior political system. The covert method calls for an all-out political, cultural, spiritual and, most important, intelligence infiltration of China collectively known as a “peaceful evolution.”
“For a very long period,” Mao wrote, “U.S. imperialism laid greater stress than other imperialist countries on activities in the sphere of spiritual aggression, extending from religious to ‘philanthropic’ and cultural undertaking.”
All post-Mao Chinese leaders are loyal subscribers to this Maoist theory of a U.S. conspiracy against China. In 1989, Deng Xiaoping blamed the United States for fomenting the momentous Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement through a mysterious “international megaclimate.”
A June 1989 Chinese Ministry of State Security report to the Chinese Communist Politburo stated that “China as a big socialist country has always been an important target of the U.S.-led Western capitalist countries’ peaceful evolution campaign. Successive U.S. administrations [since the Truman administration], including the current [George H.W.] Bush administration, have never relaxed the implementation of the principle of ideological and cultural infiltration of our socialist country.”
…
The warning on China’s stock market was sounded in April 2015.
Check out the analyst’s 5% comment. Nobody could see the 30% correction coming!
Markets
China Raises Red Flag on Its Stock Markets
- Regulator warns small investors, raising fears of a market selloff that couple ripple across globe
- Fund managers are looking for value in the state-owned behemoths traded on the Shanghai exchange.
Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
By Chao Deng
Updated April 17, 2015 9:41 a.m. ET
China’s securities regulator issued its strongest warning yet about the country’s soaring stock markets and tightened rules on margin lending, while the country’s two stock exchanges said they would make it easier to bet against stocks, spurring worries that the world’s best-performing markets could tumble.
The announcements late Friday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and two industry associations raised fears of a selloff in China, where the main market index has doubled over 12 months and the riskiest index is up 70% this year.
A selloff in China could affect markets around the world, analysts said. “If China is down 5%, it’s going to weigh on global sentiment,” said David Welch, head of equity distribution at brokerage firm Reorient Group.
The CSRC warned small investors, who have been big drivers of the rally, not to borrow money or sell property to buy stocks, ratcheting up its rhetoric about the market. Mainland investors opened stock-trading accounts at the fastest pace ever in the week ended April 10, and margin account balances reached a record 1.16 trillion yuan ($187 billion) as of Thursday, according to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The regulator banned a type of financing called umbrella trusts that provided cash for margin trading, the practice of borrowing against the value of common shares held at a brokerage, and placed limits on margin trading for highly risky small stocks that trade over the counter, rather than on exchanges.
…
Here is an even earlier warning on China’s stock market, from January 2015.
It seems lots of folks saw red flag warnings of the impending crash!
Markets
A red flag in China’s unstoppable market rally
Ansuya Harjani
Sunday, 11 Jan 2015 | 10:55 PM ETCNBC.com
The unstoppable rally in Chinese stocks has been accompanied by a sharp rise in margin financing, giving rise to concerns about the market’s stability.
Margin balance - a measure of investor leverage - as a percentage of total market capitalization of A-shares stood at 2.4 percent at the end of 2014, among the highest in the world and on par with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The use of margin financing has risen at an exponential rate in China, compared with the NYSE. For the NYSE, the ratio rose from 0.9 percent to 2.4 percent over 13 years. It took A-shares just 17 months – from July 2013 to December 2014.
…
Seattle, WA Housing Prices Fall 11%
http://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa-98121/home-values/
markets climb a set of stairs on the way up and take an elevator down!
Teabagger Right Wing extremists!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RABZq5IoaQ - 267k -
I went to a gop thing and they prayed and did the pledge
racis and jingoistic
I’m LP so they did make me stand in the back
I’m LP …
That’s funny! Thanks for the chuckle
is Movoto showing june or july
confusing display
I call 7/5 as the pop day so I’m curious
Frrrrrrraaaaaaaaud
Quite honestly I am surprised Andrea Mitchell didn’t ask her how many Confederate battle flags Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez owned.
MSNBC’s Mitchell: Was Chattanooga Shooter Just a Southern Gun Nut?
He was a devout Muslim waging violent jihad, and that doesn’t fit MSNBC’s agenda
by Truth Revolt | Mark Tapson | July 18, 2015
It must be frustrating for the leftist apologists for Islamic terrorism to have to keep pretending it doesn’t exist.
The cold hard facts of the terrorist’s identity forced MSNBC’s poor Andrea Mitchell, for example, to come up with a uniquely creative slant on the Chattanooga mass murderer Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. In the course of interviewing a young woman named Valerie Levitt who was a high school classmate of the shooter, Mitchell tried to steer her into painting the devout Muslim as someone who was influenced by small-town Southern gun culture – as if that has anything to do with jihad.
After describing Abdulazeez as “devout, obviously” and always talk[ing] about religion
“Were guns a big part of activities—social or other activities?” Mitchell asked Levitt suddenly.
“What?” the confused Levitt responded.
“What about – did he hunt, did he shoot?” Mitchell prodded. “I mean, was that just part of small-town Tennessee activity?”
“Um, he actually wasn’t one of the guys I heard about going hunting,” Abdulazeez’s classmate responded. “He wasn’t really that kind of guy.”
Correct. He wasn’t the kind of guy Andrea Mitchell would love to have implicated in the Chattanooga terrorism – he wasn’t a white, Southern, conservative advocate of the Second Amendment. He was a devout Muslim waging violent jihad, and that doesn’t fit MSNBC’s agenda.
Unsurprisingly, Mitchell is a vocal opponent of the the Second Amendment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FpSTW4BQRM - 151k -
Quite honestly I am surprised Andrea Mitchell didn’t ask her how many Confederate battle flags Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez owned.
Are we going to ban the Palestinian flag now?
Anyone who thinks the confederate flag has been banned is a sheep.
Or a shepherd playing one.
Shepherds are good. It is coyotes that you have to watch, you want a semantics argument over what it means to be banned. I think we are quite aware that the facts that multinational corporations are not selling it and state governments are not flying it does not mean “ban” within some meanings. But I think it is acting like a coyote to try to diminish that fact that the PC police are “banning” the use of the flag.
You can’t ban an idea or an ideology. If it ain’t the flag it will be something else. For example, my understanding is that kids are now wearing hunting camoflage type hats to symbolize being down with traditional southern values and to piss off liberals.
The libs and PC types just made it cool for kids to flaunt the Stars & Bars as an anti-Establishment gesture. Not the desired effect.
We should make them wear rainbow flag tshirts to receive their SSD checks.
“Shepherds are good.”
That’s the motto posted over Dan’s cubicle farm.
“We should make them wear rainbow flag tshirts to receive their SSD checks.”
Who is we?
The LGBTQ community?
“Who is we?”
Americans.
For a while I favored a rainbow spiral tie die wifebeater paired with army surplus camo pants. Was surprised to see a few imitators at my college.
The message of my attire? F**K you! ALL OF YOU!
Are we going to ban the Palestinian flag now?
Yes, if there any Palestinian flags flying at state capitol buildings, they should be taken down immediately.
Andrea Mitchell is married to the truly loathsome Alan Greenspan. As a member of the Oligopoly, she has her narrative to build. Fortunately for that Oligopoly, the vast majority of ‘Muricans are sheep who gladly and willingly vote for the Oligopoly’s water carriers election after election.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-18/all-hail-our-banking-overlords
‘It’s literally hard to overstate how trivial the risk of “radical Islam” is to the average American. So consider this:
https://firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2015/06/GG-terror_v5.jpg
‘(Sources: deaths from traffic accidents; deaths from bees; deaths from lightning; deaths from furniture; deaths from right-wing extremists)’
‘If anything, the chart severely understates how exaggerated the threat is, since it compares the total number of deaths caused by “Muslim extremists” over the past 14 years to the number of deaths caused daily or annually by threats widely regarded as insignificant. This is the “threat” in whose name the U.S. and its Western allies have radically reduced basic legal protections; created all sorts of dangerous precedents for invasions, detentions and targeted killings; and generally driven themselves to a state of collective hysteria and manipulation.’
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/24/greatest-obstacle-anti-muslim-fear-mongering-bigotry-reality/
it compares the total number of deaths caused by “Muslim extremists” over the past 14 years
Does it strike anyone else as a bit wrong to pick 14-yrs as the time window for this comparison? That’s a nice cherry-pick on the start date.
What happens to the comparison if we pick 20-yrs as the duration?
The Muslim menace becomes even more infinitesimal.
“What about – did he hunt, did he shoot?” Mitchell prodded. “I mean, was that just part of small-town Tennessee activity?”
This CNN article says that shooting one a hobby for the guy.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/17/us/tennessee-shooter-mohammad-youssuf-abdulazeez/
Correct. He wasn’t the kind of guy Andrea Mitchell would love to have implicated in the Chattanooga terrorism – he wasn’t a white, Southern, conservative advocate of the Second Amendment. He was a devout Muslim waging violent jihad, and that doesn’t fit MSNBC’s agenda.
Palestinians are often considered to be white, or Caucasian. And devout Muslims a generally pretty conservative when it comes to the all-important social issues. Mark Tapson probably has no idea what Mr. Abdulazeez’s attitude is regarding the Second Amenment.
“Palestinians are often considered to be white, or Caucasian.”
Only when it fits the narrative.
‘“The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third-Party Encryption” is a landmark paper on the subject written by 11 of the leading researchers in the field of cryptography. Among its conclusions: “The massive deployment of key-recovery-based infrastructures to meet law enforcement’s specifications will require significant sacrifices in security and convenience and substantially increased costs to all users of encryption.” The authors warned that building a system that even approached safe and reliable operation was “beyond the experience and current competency of the field, and may well introduce ultimately unacceptable risks and costs.”
‘But that paper isn’t new. It’s not even recent. It was published on May 27, 1997, at the height of what the security community calls the “Crypto Wars.” The debate over backdoors that James Comey reignited in October 2014 dates back at least two decades, to a battle that privacy advocates and security experts won, then lost, and then partially won again. The first phase of the Crypto Wars was the fight to shape, and reshape, a landmark law called CALEA.’
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/encryption-crypto-war-james-comey-fbi-privacy/
IMO the government has it all backwards on this thing. The recent data breaches of federal employees shows further that more, better encryption is not only desirable, but damn necessary. For them to keep insisting on this (why didn’t reading our emails and listening to our phone calls stop the recent killings in Tennessee and South Carolina?) suggests they are more interested in power than protecting anyone.
There is no security with incompetecy.
I’m not going to link to the neocon rag that put this out:
‘former Texas governor Rick Perry is already hitting back at fellow GOP contender Donald Trump. In a statement, Perry knocked Trump’s criticism of the governor’s 14-year tenure in Austin, saying the New York businessman has a “fundamental misunderstanding of border security.”
“Make no mistake - border security is a federal responsibility, but when I met with President Obama last year and it became clear he would not act, I told him if he would not secure the border, Texas would,” Perry said in his statement, echoing comments he made on MSNBC Thursday morning. “Rather than thanking Texas for stepping into a gap it shouldn’t have to fill, Mr. Trump has made clear that he believes the states should fend for themselves on border security. Not only is this wrong, it perpetuates the same failed policies that have left our southern border porous and vulnerable.”
See, it’s the highest most honorable duty of the government to “stop them at the border”. But once illegal immigrants are past that magical line in the sand, it’s in-state tuition, health care and food stamps for all!
Our Society Is Broken. No wonder our politics is.
When 95% of your electorate are stupid, you don’t get statesmen running for office.
Perry is the only pol to cut hc spending
Ever
Most likely due to an inability to comprehend arithmetic.
Our FBs sure are lucky they do not live in Islamic countries:
CAIRO, July 17 (Xinhua) — “After six years in prison, I will spend Fast-breaking Feast (Eid al-Fitr) with my family,” said 63-year-old Sayida Aly Ibrahim in a voice mixed with tears and joy.
“I was sentenced for 10 years in jail after failing to repay 10,000 Egyptian pounds (nearly 1,280 U.S. dollars) I was indebted for my neighbors,” she told Xinhua.
“I was a vegetable seller and I had to buy medicine on regular bases for my sick and very old husband,” she said, adding that by the time the debts were accumulated, her neighbors raised a lawsuit against her.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned 42 indebted women on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr on Thursday.
The decree comes under the campaign “Egypt without debts,” which applies to those who failed to repay loans for family expenses.
According to the penal code, debtors may be released from prison only if their debts are paid, or the person they owe pardons them.
In June, al-Sisi pardoned 48 women under the same campaign.
There is no clear number of women unable to repay loans in Egypt.
But according to Misr El-Khir Charity Foundation which has managed to pay the debts of 23,000 people, over the past five years, ten of thousands of women fail to meet their payment commitments and end up in prison.
Inside a huge marquee, dozens of family members of the pardoned ladies have gathered to celebrate their release, in the presence of Lylah Elxander, minister of developing slums, and several officials from Al-Azhar and the interior ministry.
The pardoned ladies who were released on Thursday were between 30-60 years old.
Zaynab Ashour and her two daughters were also jailed for signing six checks without balance to pay their debts, in a country where some 40 percent of its 90 million population live under the poverty line.
Sitting on a table, Hanaa, one of the daughters, was holding her nine months baby to whom she gave birth in jail.
“This is the first time that my child breathes the air of freedom outside the prisons,” said Hanaa.
Ousamh Al-Azhary, al-Sisi’s advisor for social development, said the president’s initiative aims to release all the indebted women by the end of 2015.
He said 1,100 cases have been settled so far, which prevented more than 1,850 people from entering the prison.
Has this summer been more brutal then usual here in the Southeast? One of my friends with a modern house ,about 3K Sq. ft,had an $850. power bill last month….That is most all for cooling it.At least we have a 4 season thing going ,in hot summer we long for our mild winter,in winter we long for summer ,with fall and spring almost perfect weather.
yes, cool in the Midwest, cool in my area, about normal in the Northeast but it has been hot in the Southeast.
By the way that is a stunning bill. Here in ABQ. I only hit a combined gas and electric bill of $100 for about two months all year and I have central air conditioning it is an energy efficient house with “green” appliances.
We are supposed to have our first 100 degree day soon which is kinda late for us.
$850 for a month - he either has a system issue, or 4+ people in the house who don’t know how to use a light switch….damm.
My June electric bill was $60, it was $30 for the two months prior. Itll max out at $85 in july and august.
Used to pop $650 electric bills in Va Beach but that was with 3 roomates and like 25 computers running (Sun, SGI, Servers.)
But perhaps if the temp is desert all the time, and a two zone system…
My electric bill just came in and it was $90 and we too were running the A/C around the clock during the day. Here at night it cools off and the A/C rests. Also 3000 sq ft. If they paid 10x of what we did, something is wrong. Either they pay a LOT MORE per kwh, or they have the worst insulated house in the world.
West Central Florida is more brutal this year. Summer started earlier, it has been drier in terms of rainfall, but we still have the humidity in the air. It’s always hot during the summer in Florida, but this summer has been worse than I can remember.
“had an $850. power bill”
Something’s up with that. Indoor gardening?
Something’s up with that. $1 / kilowatt-hour?
Heating the water tank is where families typically expend the most energy. A couple of ladies with colorful clothing, or children constantly getting themselves filthy means multiple washer loads.
Out here water heaters are natural gas, and in the summer, while furnace takes a rest our natgas bill is about $25 a month, and that also includes the stove.
Also, you can get a lot of kids clothes into a load, because they’re small.
I had a $62 electric bill for my 900 sf shanty.
But then I have lots and lots of trees - plus I did a lot of insulating, even in the walls.
Your friend might need to have the refrigerant levels checked in his AC.
When I was a kid my father would tell me …
No matter what, you never hit a girl.
He continued that message as I grew up and as I hit my teenage years he threw in…
You may even have a good reason (which I have had a couple of times in my adult life) but no matter what, you never hit a girl.
My father passed away 11 years ago and I am now 55 and I have never hit a girl, but the world is changing. I can no longer call the old man and ask his advice (which I miss being able to do) so I don’t know what he would say if I asked him…
If an open minded 220 lb. preacher of acceptance for transgenderism named Zoey who used to be a man puts her hand on my shoulder and threatens to send me home in an ambulance, what do I do?
Although I can’t say for sure I think he would have probably said…
The gloves are off.
Tur Threatens to Send Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro Home in an Ambulance During Jenner Discussion
by Ian Hanchett16 Jul 20157100
Breitbart Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro and transgender reporter for Inside Edition and helicopter pilot Zoey Tur engaged in a heated debate over Caitlyn Jenner and transgenderism during which Tur threatened to send Shapiro home in an ambulance on Thursday’s “Dr. Drew On Call.”
So, [turning to Shapiro and touching his shoulder] you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re not educated on genetics –.” Shapiro asked if the discussion was supposed to be on genetics and asked, “What are your genetics, sir?” Pinsky said to Tur, “I’d stay away from the genetics and back to the brain scans.”
Tur then said to Shapiro, “You cut that out now, or you’ll go home in an ambulance.” Shapiro responded, “That seems mildly inappropriate for a political discussion.” Oduolowu said that, to be fair, Shapiro was being rude, to which Shapiro answered, “I’m sorry, it’s not rude to say that someone who’s biologically a male is a male.” Tur stated, “You just called me a ‘sir.’”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pckjiU6iYEU - 284k -
You can cut off the testicles but he is still a man. Even his aggressive response shows that he leans towards being a male. His brain was altered by male hormones. But it is the PC way to ignore reality, despite the facts to the contrary they act like everyone has the same IQ, for example. I can look at a world map of a IQ and predict with accuracy the wealth of the region. And when the IQ and wealth do not match up like China, I can predict that it is destined for above normal growth. It takes a government like North Korea to prevent this from happening.
That is astoundingly stupid.
Fine invest all your money is sub-sahara Africa, in high tech companies.
Of course you may find yourself facing problems like this (from Iafrica.com):
Eskom says it will implement load shedding from 5pm as the power system is currently under pressure due to an increased electricity demand as a result of the cold weather and a shortage of generating capacity.
“As a result, Eskom will implement stage 1 load shedding from 5pm today, which is likely to continue until 10pm this evening,” said Eskom on Thursday.
The utility appealed to customers to find alternative ways of keeping warm and using electricity sparingly throughout the day.
“Eskom would like to assure customers that load shedding is implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system and to ensure that maintenance is carried out in order to guarantee that our supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term,” it said.
P.S the electricity story is about South Africa.
In case what you were commenting on was not the IQ comment but the hormone comment:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041030133346.htm
“That is astoundingly stupid.”
But true.
Isn’t the IQ test culturally biased? Were the generation of Chinese living in mud huts of extraordinary low IQ? Come on.
He’s a marvel of oblivious stupidity… As tremendous as Trump.
Someone posted a quote recently from a person who got rich in real estate saying something like poor people are poor because they feel sorry for themselves. So maybe the North Koreans just spend too much time feeling sorry for themselves. Why their cousins in the south don’t that have that problem is the big mystery.
“…poor people are poor because they feel sorry for themselves.”
This is from a woman, Mighty.
“The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” —Barbara Corcoran
Yes, that’s what I was referring to. Though, to be fair, she may make a distinction between success and wealth.
If an open minded 220 lb. preacher of acceptance for transgenderism named Zoey who used to be a man puts her hand on my shoulder and threatens to send me home in an ambulance, what do I do?
You and I both know that “Zoey” isn’t a girl.
The thing that gets me about this whole Kaytlin deal is that the rainbow community believes that it was a brave, rational decision.
Nowhere will you find a discussion of the (IMO) more than likely scenario that he may be just an old, rich attention whore with a few screws loose
Never mind the “manufactured” girls.
For whatever reasons, all women are much more likely to start throwing punches than they were 20 years ago.
Which is okay when it comes to sexual assault. Not so okay when you are just pizzed at the guy
Advise to the ladies: When you get into a confrontation with a man, and your first move is a knee/punch to the balls, the “no hitting girls” rule tends to be cancelled.
Reminds me of my old job.
Raw Video || Panera Bread manager punches female employee || Caught On Camera || woman
Tarara
How did you make out with your rental search?
We’re in the new place two weeks now. I almost caught fire when we were moving; it was 113 degrees. Brutal.
It’s a nicer place - more expensive though. There’s a sometime tourist attraction two streets away:
Nevada Day Open House Will Be the Last for Bizarre, Wonderful Hammargren House
I drove by the Batmobile yesterday.
Nicer place is good, having the stress of finding a place and moving in the rear-view is better.
I hope it goes well for you and your family.
Thanks. We’d still be there now if the LL hadn’t acted like such a jerk.
He’d wanted $175K and, strangely, asked me for a counteroffer. Since everything on the street was selling for $200K and up, I was puzzled. I wasn’t crazy about the house, and it isn’t a very good area. I told him I had to think about it; this made him nuts (neighbors confirmed he didn’t have far to go); he said we were holding him up (?)
Because of my mother’s condition, mid-June we reluctantly said yes, we’ll buy. He demanded $5K earnest money, no escrow, so in the end we passed; if what he really wanted was to kick us out, he should have just stuck with that instead of discussing a sale. We had only two weeks to pack up.
I could have screwed him over by going to court (you can ask for an additional month if you have a person over 60 in the household) but it’s his house, and who wants to do that sort of thing? I kept my word. I told him if we couldn’t come to an agreement, we’d be out by July 1 and we were.
Since we were so ambivalent, I suppose it was meant to be. He’s got it on the market now for $209K.
At one point his wife told me, very haughtily, “we never lose money on real estate”. I’d love to see her proved wrong but they’ll probably get their asking price, or more.
Does the fact that the large male manager who punched the relatively slight female employee is an African American give him special protection against dismissal?
I strongly suspect, especially since the video is on youtube, that he will be fired and there will be a stern press release from Panera saying that fighting is grounds for immediate termination, with no exceptions.
I’m curious whether a video like that would likely be admissible as evidence in court? I’m guessing the manager has bigger problems ahead than looking for another fast-food management position.
I’m curious whether a video like that would likely be admissible as evidence in court?
I doubt it, but that’s not why he’ll get fired.
She did throw the first punch, though it was a complete joke. And he responded with a haymaker, which even though it’s a lame punch that is super easy to block, he knocked her down with it.
Nevertheless, as the store manager he should have known better than to take a swing.
Heard just before the manager decks the lady:
“Don’t punch! Don’t hit her!”
Here is a young Republican millenial perspective on what really happened.
Advise to the ladies: When you get into a confrontation with a man, and your first move is a knee/punch to the balls, the “no hitting girls” rule tends to be cancelled.
And if he knows what he’s doing all it will take is one punch and cupcake will be KO’d, probably with a broken nose.
It’s 7am and mid-July in San Diego, and we have thunder, lightning and pouring rain. My hopes for an end to the drought within the next few years are increasing.
Drought
El Niño still strengthening
Evolving phenomenom holds promise for California drought relief
By Robert Krier | 3:07 p.m. July 9, 2015
El Niño, the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. The impact of the phenomenon extends over vast areas of the planet, ranging from droughts to flooding rains and increasing or decreasing the formation of hurricanes.
EFE/File
El Niño is showing no signs going away or letting up. That bodes well for California, which has withered during four straight years of crippling drought.
“Things are evolving very nicely,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center. “I expect our forecasts will become more and more bullish for your (California’s) rainfall.”
The CPC issued its monthly El Niño update Thursday. The center says there’s a better than 90 percent chance El Niño will be around late this year. El Niños pump extra energy and moisture into the atmosphere in the Pacific, which can alter the normal storm track along the West Coast.
El Niño is declared official when the waters in the central Pacific have been warmer than normal by at least 0.5 of a degree Celsius (a little less than 1 degree Fahrenheit) over a multi-month period. When those waters are at least 1.5 degrees C above normal, El Niño is considered strong.
A majority of the climate forecast models do expect a strong event — key for California. Only the strong episodes have been reliable at steering a persistent, strong jet stream into the state and delivering a very wet winter.
California water managers have estimated that the state needs at least 150 percent of normal rainfall and mountain snowfall this coming year to lift the state out of drought.
Halpert said everything in the equatorial Pacific continues to line up for a powerful El Niño. In addition to abnormally warm waters, changes in wind and pressure patterns along the equator, consistent with El Niño development, have been locked in place.
The question is, just how strong will the emerging episode be?
“The models are going crazy with it,” Halpert said. “A lot of folks are looking at the output, and they’re saying this will be the strongest in the history of the planet.”
…
Wow, that is crazy! My sis is up in Cardiff. Hopefully the fall rains will not be too extreme but I’m sure everybody’ll be happy to have whatever.
The white reflection on the sidewalk in my photo is a puddle reflecting the light. Now enjoying thunder, lightning and pouring rain. It’s so dark outside that we need lights on at midday.
We’ve probably had 1/2 inch of rain so far today, which I believe exceeds the rainfall total for a typical San Diego July. How much more rain do we need to end the drought?
Not sure lightning in July on a San Diego honeymoon is a good omen. But Brook Taylor’s photo is awesome!
News
Thunderstorms raising havoc in San Diego
By By Gary Robbins and Edward Sifuentes | 7:14 a.m. July 18, 2015 | Updated, 1:11 p.m.
Brook Taylor of Sacramento took this photo on Saturday morning while enjoying his honeymoon at the Hotel Del Coronado.
Brook Taylor
Drought-stricken San Diego got drenched Saturday by a dying tropical storm whose moisture produced raucous thunderstorms that woke people up, set off car alarms, caused power outages and saturated the San Diego Gay Pride Parade in Hillcrest.
Moisture from Tropical Storm Dolores also sparked at least 500 lightning bolts that hit the ground in San Diego County, including one that caused a small brush fire in Del Mar’s Crest Canyon. The thunderstorms could last into Sunday morning, the National Weather Service says.
The thunderstorms moved ashore shortly after 6 a.m. on Saturday, booming their way through Camp Pendleton, Poway, Ramona, Del Mar, San Diego and Encinitas. Forecasters thought the thunderstorms would be sporadic and short-lived. But super-hot bolts of lightning were still flickering in local skies in mid-afternoon.
Rainfall totals were impressive. By 12:30 p.m., San Diego’s Lindbergh Field has recorded 0.67” of rain, dwarfing the 0.02” that the airport averages for the entire month of July. Ramona got 0.47”, and Warner Springs got 0.44”.
…
The thunderstorms were interesting to watch from 30,000 feet over Phoenix last night. Dust storm warning in effect this afternoon thru 5pm. Did not check today’s mail for lease renewal notice but am preparing to move my stuff to storage in a few weeks.
Arizona Leather sofas. Well web sites say to first drop plastic over the floor of storage unit. If possible put wooden pallets down and set the furniture on top. Instead of wrapping in plastic, lay cloth over the furniture. Do not set anything on them. That is for long term storage in climate controlled places. Salesmen at Arizona leather told me to wrap the furniture in plastic to keep bugs out. Then had second thoughts. Mold can build up.
Still raining 10 hours later!
Do you recall ever seeing this much rain in July day? (I don’t…)
No, this storm is the first I can recall in L A and Ventura counties in my lifetime. Took the rain gutters down (recycling) for the painter, and low an behold it T-storms almost all day. July is usually pretty hot. Weird.
We have lots of planter wall debris under a tarp awaiting free landfill day Sunday, and it’s too wet at the landfill, with continued rain thru Sunday. Guess us cheapos will wait until Oct for the next free day. Bummer.
The usual cheerleaders are touting the “recovery” of the housing market.
http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-recovery-2015-7
Saudi Arabia, having funded Islamic fundamentalism all over the world, is finding the chickens coming home to roost.
http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-speaker-says-attack-diyala-marketplace-sectarian-080611488.html
What other country in the world welcomes people who are fundamentally hostile to its values than the US?
http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/exploding-muslim-immigration-overwhelms-fbi/
The UK
France
Germany
Spain
Italy
Come to mind
Muslims really aren’t the problem. It is entirely possible that immigrants hate fundamentalist Islam as much as we do.
The problem is caused by do-gooders on the left, and cheap labor advocates on the right. Doesn’t matter if they are Muslin, Coptics, Druids, or whatever, importing poor people and putting them in the middle of our most dysfunctional communities to assimilate is a recipe for failure.
As far as the Chattenooga shooter……….I’m more worried about being gunned down by a whacko Caucasian or Jose6packo than I am by any Muslim. Our home grown mass killings tend to make the deaths caused by terrorists look like rounding errors.
FWIW, Coptics are Christians, very similar to Catholics and Orthodox Christians in their beliefs and form of worship.
Do we also export armed white reactionaries who are also fundamentally hostile to our values?
“Reactionaries”? Is that the approved PC-speak for any white male who resists being herded into the Oligopoly’s incorporated neo-liberal plantation?
No, I’m not referring to ordinary Caucasian conservatives who own guns. I’m talking about the fringe Aryan nation types or militias that openly advocate violent means.
We ship them out by the thousands… Ask any Iraqi.
What are American values at this point?
“Eff everyone, I got mine”, maybe?
Hope and chains?
Jesus wants me to be rich, and you to starve in the street.
HillaryJeb attracting some of the same one percenter financial backers. Unsurprising, since they’re essentially the same candidate, i.e. water carriers and accomplices of the Oligopoly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hedging-bets-in-2016-donors-give-money-to-bush-and-clinton/2015/07/16/6d152bca-2bfc-11e5-960f-22c4ba982ed4_story.html
Viva California! Sacramento Bee: “Of the 759,000 total licenses the DMV has issued, 397,000 – or 52 percent – have gone to the undocumented. More than 1.1 million undocumented immigrants have taken the written test, and another 436,000 have taken the driving test.”
Waiting for a reaction from The Donald in 3 2 1…
Hopefully they ask for proof of insurance.
“Leveraged loan” time bomb goes off.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/07/17/jp-morgan-did-it-how-zirp-turned-investor-brains-into-jell-o-then-reach-for-yield-cleaned-out-their-pockets-leveraged-loans/
Perry has gone from attacking Trump to running ads on how tough he is on illegal immigration.
Unless and until someone starts talking about putting some people in jail for hiring illegals, all we have is kabuki theater.
I’d start with anyone who ever hired the guy who just killed that woman in SFO.
There are going to be a lot more illegals on the way, as PEMEX, Mexico’s cash cow, is seeing declining oil reserves and prices as its fields are tapped out.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/07/16/is-mexico-ready-for-life-without-its-sugar-daddy/
Geology is destiny. BTW, Iran’s oil fields are as old as Mexico’s fields.
Mexico has the oil, but Pemex lacks the expertise to extract it (such as offshore drilling and fracking). In an unprecedented move, Mexico has begun to auction off rights to drill offshore, in effect ending Pemex’s monopoly on drilling. Unfortunately for Mexico, due to the current global glut there were few takers.
We could be importing a lot more “femicido” shortly.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/07/mexicos-missing-and-murdered-woment.html
June 2015 hottest on record; 2015 remains on track to be the hottest ever:
http://d35brb9zkkbdsd.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/YTD2015vsAnnualTemps.jpg
Warming is just getting started. As leading climate expert Kevin Trenberth said in 2013, a jump in surface temperature “…occurs in the latter stages of an El Niño event, as heat comes out of the ocean and warms the atmosphere.” A portion of the oceanic heating from climate change will get dumped into the atmosphere through this upcoming El Nino on steroids.
Not by the more accurate satellite data.
Hush your mouth! That information is NOT to be disseminated. It is contradictory to “proven science”.
I know I be bad. Look at this link folks before the Globalists figure out how to shut it down.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
Hi-Z: Consider a child running a fever. 99% of scientists would use a digital oral thermometer to measure temperature directly. Dan and the climate deniers use an infrared scanner from 200 miles away and measure the air temperature five miles above the child’s head, and then claim the oral thermometer to be wrong.
The data from the “oral thermometers” in your analogy is being massaged, dissected, and embellished in all sorts of ways by the nurses to frame the issue to suit the politics.
Not by the more accurate satellite data.
Measuring the air temperature five miles up is using a distant, remote proxy. Also, cooling or non-warming of the upper atmosphere is consistent with the models and good science: increasing CO2 traps heat, preventing some of the heat from escaping and warming of the upper atmosphere.
The climate deniers case has put all of its eggs in one remaining basket, the Univ of Alabama dataset run by Dr. Spencer, one of very few remaining climate change skeptics whose studies have been roundly refuted.
BS. Nobody has managed to refute his data. They just make excuses on why the satellite data closely correlated with the ground data for decades, it was slightly warmer but every since Obama took office it began to deviate and now is significantly cooler than the Obama regimes data. We are not suppose to notice that glaring fact.
Dr. Spencer has been refuted. He’s been caught shifting his data to make the satellite data trends look cooler than they really are.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x46a0n8c9eY/Uvkot6vO6fI/AAAAAAAAFFU/nwt_5I7lOlc/s1600/SpencerDeception2.png
If you were an attorney you would know that a conclusory statement is not evidence. Nothing proves that he has not consistently used the same start date, so it does not explain why his data use to be slightly warmer and now is significantly cooler.
Not by the more accurate satellite data.
More accurate because satellites are simpler than a thermometer.
One satellite data set is underestimating global warming
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/mar/25/one-satellite-data-set-is-underestimating-global-warming
A new study suggests that the University of Alabama at Huntsville is lowballing the warming of the atmosphere
….To summarize the amplification factor, the new study obtains a value of 1.4. If the diurnal cycle is eliminated using climate models, the result is 1.49. According to NOAA and RSS, the values are 1.31 and 1.10, respectively. Again, UAH is the outlier with an amplification factor of 0.56.
I wrote to Stephen Po-Chedley and asked for a summary. He told me,
We developed an observationally based diurnal cycle correction to remove the influence of satellite diurnal sampling drifts on long-term tropospheric temperature trends. This is important because other analyses (RSS and NOAA) used a model-derived diurnal cycle correction and questions have been raised about the validity of this bias correction. Trends from our work are in accord with trends from global circulation models and basic theory.
We also found that the model-derived diurnal cycle correction used by RSS and NOAA is similar to our bias correction. The tropical tropospheric trend from the present study is 2.5 times that from another group, UAH. While this work shows that it is possible to understand discrepancies between MSU/AMSU datasets there are still important differences between the datasets that need further scrutiny.
In short, the Earth is warming, the warming is amplified in the troposphere, and those who claim otherwise are unlikely to be correct.
“A new study suggests that the University of Alabama at Huntsville is lowballing the warming of the atmosphere”
lols So that’s the source of WattsUpWithThat’s BS. One lone outlier study from Alabama. That proves it!
BTW, El Nino is a natural cycle and any warming related to it does not prove AGW.
Yes, El Nino is a natural cycle. But you cannot separate AGW from El Nino. The two go hand in hand. El Nino is the baseball player and AGW is the steroid.
That is what they said in 1998 but we have gone almost twenty years since we had one as strong. Hardly consistent with AGW. We were also told we would have stronger and more frequent hurricanes, really the data shows less and weaker for ten years. CAGW is the biggest fraud in the history of science, it is driven by politics and green religion not science.
See if you can guess the two Wall Street stooges annointed to be your next overlords, presuming you choose to bend over for the Oligopoly like you did in 2008 and 2012.
http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-jeb-hillary-2015-7
This country just keeps getting more and more surreal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3166297/Man-armed-machine-gun-sets-camp-outside-recruitment-center-protect-servicemen-amid-growing-cries-GOP-drop-gun-ban-military-offices.html
GOP loves to play the Fear Card.
Like you do on Global Warming?
Yeah, just what we need……….monthly releases of 18 year olds just out of boot camp turned loose with no adult supervision and M-16s and permits to open carry same.
When my brother graduated from the Border Patrol acadamy, one of my other brothers and I drove to Artesia for the graduation. Afterwards, the graduates had to go in and sign for their guns and badges.
Most of the graduates were guys who came straight to the acadamy after their Army-USMC enlistments were up. Around 22-23 years old. Any they all looked WAAAY too happy to be getting brand new Sigs, and badges.
My brother commented “typical of the government to arm a bunch of near teenagers, then kick them loose on the general public unsupervised”
fixr
You know any Piper people?
Vero Beach-based Piper announces layoffs, production slowdown
Paul Ivice, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers
8:09 AM, Jul 15, 2015
VERO BEACH — Piper Aircraft Inc. plans to reduce its workforce by up to 150 people in the next couple of weeks in response to lagging sales throughout the aviation industry.
Piper’s announcement, in a news release Wednesday morning, said, “As a direct result of the slowdown in sales, Piper Aircraft will adjust the production schedule for remainder of 2015, as well as 2016.
“While the total number of impacted employees is not yet confirmed, the company expects that the reduction will involve approximately 15 percent to 20 percent of the current workforce,” the company said in its release.
Later Wednesday, Carlon said the number of workers that will be laid off depends on how many among those eligible accept an early retirement package instead.
In December 2012, Piper and the County Commission revised the final third of a $12 million grant package the county authorized in 2008, when Piper was considering moving elsewhere. Now in the last year of that deal, Piper must keep at least 600 people on staff through year-end or return $500,000 to the county.
“We will not drop below the head count required for the state and the county,” said Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott.
http://www.tcpalm.com/…/verobased-piper-announces-layoffs-production-slowdown_12155871 - 146k -
“You know any Piper people?”
Seems like ‘we’ are changing the subject to deflect the glare of scrutiny.
I’m not up for your silly GOP sh#t today Oddie.
I was just wondering if X-GSfixr would know anything about Piper Aircraft’s business prospects relating to the layoffs of 150 people in Vero Beach.
No, just Brand “C”, brand “B”.
Piper’s problem is they don’t sell Gulfstream-size jets.
Banksters, Financial Witch Doctors, Government/Military and Multi-Nationals buy Gulfstreams, Falcons, Challengers, Global Express, etc. Those OEMs are doing okay.
Everybody else sells midsize jets thru single engine pistons. Most of those are bought by small businesses, owner/operators, startups. Business sucks for anyone trying to sell something with a propeller on it. (Some niche players excepted)
Reasons? Take your pick:
-Business bad, no need for a new airplane
-No financing (the only people/companies who can get loans are the ones that don’t need them).
-A glut of used, low time airplanes for sale
-No need to fly from HQ to manufacturing plants, because the plants have all been offshored.
-No need for engineering/construction companies to fly to job sites, because nobody is building powerplants/factories in flyover any more.
The -fixr’s estimate for industry “recovery”? Late 2018 to 2019. Assuming the Feds throw out some more “investment tax credits”, and the economy doesn’t take another big dump.
“Piper’s problem is they don’t sell Gulfstream-size jets.”
Reading the companies history at the end of that article it looks like they hit their high water mark in the 50s and 60s.
Also looks like they should have hired you to run the GD company because whoever is running it doesn’t seem to know what their problems are.
Yeah…I remember all those wet-behind-the-ears National Guardsmen toting M4s at the airports after 9/11 - somehow their presense didn’t make me feel any more secure.
The American Revolution against British Gun Control
By David B. Kopel*
Administrative and Regulatory Law News (American Bar Association). Vol. 37, no. 4, Summer 2012. More by Kopel on the right to arms in the Founding Era.
This Article reviews the British gun control program that precipitated the American Revolution: the 1774 import ban on firearms and gunpowder; the 1774-75 confiscations of firearms and gunpowder; and the use of violence to effectuate the confiscations. It was these events that changed a situation of political tension into a shooting war. Each of these British abuses provides insights into the scope of the modern Second Amendment.
Furious at the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, Parliament in 1774 passed the Coercive Acts. The particular provisions of the Coercive Acts were offensive to Americans, but it was the possibility that the British might deploy the army to enforce them that primed many colonists for armed resistance. The Patriots of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, resolved: “That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles.” A South Carolina newspaper essay, reprinted in Virginia, urged that any law that had to be enforced by the military was necessarily illegitimate.
The Royal Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, had forbidden town meetings from taking place more than once a year. When he dispatched the Redcoats to break up an illegal town meeting in Salem, 3000 armed Americans appeared in response, and the British retreated. Gage’s aide John Andrews explained that everyone in the area aged 16 years or older owned a gun and plenty of gunpowder.
Military rule would be difficult to impose on an armed populace. Gage had only 2,000 troops in Boston. There were thousands of armed men in Boston alone, and more in the surrounding area. One response to the problem was to deprive the Americans of gunpowder.
Before dawn on September 1, 1774, 260 of Gage’s Redcoats sailed up the Mystic River and seized hundreds of barrels of powder from the Charlestown powder house.
The “Powder Alarm,” as it became known, was a serious provocation. By the end of the day, 20,000 militiamen had mobilized and started marching towards Boston. In Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, rumors quickly spread that the Powder Alarm had actually involved fighting in the streets of Boston. More accurate reports reached the militia companies before that militia reached Boston, and so the war did not begin in September. The message, though, was unmistakable: If the British used violence to seize arms or powder, the Americans would treat that violent seizure as an act of war, and would fight. And that is exactly what happened several months later, on April 19, 1775.
Five days after the Powder Alarm, on September 6, the militia of the towns of Worcester County assembled on the Worcester Common. Backed by the formidable array, the Worcester Convention took over the reins of government, and ordered the resignations of all militia officers, who had received their commissions from the Royal Governor. The officers promptly resigned and then received new commissions from the Worcester Convention.
That same day, the people of Suffolk County (which includes Boston) assembled and adopted the Suffolk Resolves. The 19-point Resolves complained about the Powder Alarm, and then took control of the local militia away from the Royal Governor (by replacing the Governor’s appointed officers with officers elected by the militia) and resolved to engage in group practice with arms at least weekly.
The First Continental Congress, which had just assembled in Philadelphia, unanimously endorsed the Suffolk Resolves and urged all the other colonies to send supplies to help the Bostonians.
Governor Gage directed the Redcoats to begin general, warrantless searches for arms and ammunition. According to the Boston Gazette, of all General Gage’s offenses, “what most irritated the People” was “seizing their Arms and Ammunition.”
———————————————————————————
The American War of Independence began on April 19, 1775, when 700 Redcoats under the command of Major John Pitcairn left Boston to seize American arms at Lexington and Concord.
The militia that assembled at the Lexington Green and the Concord Bridge consisted of able-bodied men aged 16 to 60. They supplied their own firearms, although a few poor men had to borrow a gun. Warned by Paul Revere and Samuel Dawes of the British advance, the young women of Lexington assembled cartridges late into the evening of April 18.
At dawn, the British confronted about 200 militiamen at Lexington. “Disperse you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse!” ordered Major Pitcairn. The Americans were quickly routed.
With a “huzzah” of victory, the Redcoats marched on to Concord, where one of Gage’s spies had told him that the largest Patriot reserve of gunpowder was stored. At Concord’s North Bridge, the town militia met with some of the British force, and after a battle of two or three minutes, drove off the British.
Notwithstanding the setback at the bridge, the Redcoats had sufficient force to search the town for arms and ammunition. But the main powder stores at Concord had been hauled to safety before the Redcoats arrived.
When the British began to withdraw back to Boston, things got much worse for them. Armed Americans were swarming in from nearby towns. They would soon outnumber the British 2:1. Although some of the Americans cohered in militia units, a great many fought on their own, taking sniper positions wherever opportunity presented itself. Only British reinforcements dispatched from Boston saved the British expedition from annihilation—and the fact that the Americans started running out of ammunition and gun powder.
One British officer reported: “These fellows were generally good marksmen, and many of them used long guns made for Duck-Shooting.” On a per-shot basis, the Americans inflicted higher casualties than had the British regulars.
That night, the American militiamen began laying siege to Boston, where General Gage’s standing army was located. At dawn, Boston had been the base from which the King’s army could project force into New England. Now, it was trapped in the city, surrounded by people in arms.
http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/american-revolution-against-british-gun-control.html - 32k -
My “scary looking firearms” are staying in a designated place in Phoenix while I expire my lease in Az. I don’t care a peep about nazi Diane Feinstein. Other colleagues (former Arizonans who moved to California) vow to move back to Arizona when retiring. One I know is 62 so he will return in four years. Renew the CCW when back in Az. I got 11 years but might move back in six.
No background checks on firearms purchased with a AZ CCW.
But I will miss my people.
The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3166317/Real-life-fight-club-models-marines-millionaires-illegally-battle-New-York-s-underground-fighting-circuit.html
Looks like Punk Rock boxing
Vintage Photos of New York City’s 1970s Punk Playground
By Mark Murrmann
Sat Jul. 19, 2014
http://www.motherjones.com/…/2014/07/new-york-punk-photos-playground-white-trash-uncut - 121k
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-18 14:31:33
Vintage Photos of New York City’s 1970s Punk Playground
motherjones.com/media/2014/07/new-york-punk-photos-playground-white-trash-uncut
I hated punk and disco in he 70s. Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, BTO, the Cars, Van Halen, Triumph, AC DC, The Kinks, Deep Purple, ELP, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and the Who were all good alternatives.
Cvx is looking better and better. Just set a $67 limit on it good for 60 days or cancel. Yield of 4.6%. Trading around $93.
lowballing are we?
what r your losses this year?
My losses are on my emerging market funds but my gains on all my other funds are larger than my losses. However that is YTD. I have dollar cost averaged over the years through ups and downs and am happy to report positive cost basis over every stock fund I have. As for individual stocks I have an unrealized 3800 percent gain in 100 shares of my staffing company and am in he red on gold mining ETFs, which amount to less than three percent of all my stocks and stock funds.
So if Fed raises rates (normal federal funds rate would probably be 5%) are they counting on the overpaid (salary capped) boomers to retire and not complain about stagnant wages? And then in that case there will be a severe shortage in skills. The millenials in general shunned the STEM careers and more H1Bs will be sought to “fill the shortage.”
But every 1% additional interest rate means $170 billion more in interest to pay.
New immigrants tend to be from former communist countries and enjoy taxation and wealth redistribution.
Accelerated pace of moving America from a market economy to a crony capitalist economy.
americans must concede their interest on savings so we can borrow more money and hand out more food stamps and subsidize healthcare for the poor.
Next year the pundits will be saying the leading edge of the boomers are 70 years old. And about five years of the boomers are now on Medicare.
The largest number of babies were born in 1957 through 1959. Next year they will be older than 57. Closer and closer to retirement. I wonder if Medicare will still be around after that group goes into it?
Will the millenials finally go libertarian and do their tax revolt? Because as interest rates go up and interest on the debt increases you know the taxes will go up along with a drop in government “services.”
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Investors-flock-to-sell-properties-cancel-contracts
HONG KONG — Turbulence on China’s equity market is starting to rock the country’s property market. Investors are quickly pulling their cash out of housing they purchased to cover losses incurred by stock investments. Some have begun offering discounts on property due to difficulties with finding buyers. Continued turmoil on the stock market looks as though it will have a heavy impact on the country’s real estate market.
And the stock market crash stopped the flow of gains going into real estate overseas, like to Vancouver.
Century of Enslavement: A History of the Federal Reserve
https://www.corbettreport.com/federalreserve/
From the The Hindu:
From Stabroek News
From the Business Standard
A very interesting opinion:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/opinion/chinese-perspectives/Our-numbers-up-if-we-continue-to-view-GDP-as-gauge-of-our-success/shdaily.shtml