July 19, 2015

Bits Bucket for July 19, 2015

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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291 Comments »

Comment by Goon
2015-07-19 04:23:31

Sunrise over Salida as seen from elevation 12,300′

http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150719_052055.jpg

Region VIII

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 06:45:41

Was in Salida two weekends ago. Cool little town.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 15:45:07

That is a Colorado Trail trailtown. It is important.

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 06:46:59

Detroit police warning: Gang of rapists robbing couples, sexually assaulting women

Jonathan Carlson
3:48 PM, Jul 17, 2015

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Detroit police are searching for suspects in two sexual assaults Thursday night. Both happened in the same area on Detroit’s west side.

A man and woman, both in their early twenties, were walking near West McNichols, three blocks east of Wyoming on Detroit’s west side when they were confronted by six men with bad intentions.

Police say the couple was dragged around the back of a nearby building, stripped of their clothes, robbed, and the woman sexually assaulted.

A short time later, two men struck again, pulling the same tactic with another young couple. Forcing the male companion to watch the sexual assault of the woman he was with. It’s believed both cases are connected.

The suspects fled on foot, but were seen nearby in a blue Ford SUV.

The first suspect is described as a black male with medium complexion, 5’8” tall weighing 150 pounds. He had a goatee mustache, and was wearing a blue Polo jogging suit with a red Polo emblem.

The second suspect is described as a black man, about 22 years old, 5’9” tall weighing 220 pounds. He had dark complexion. As for the rest of the suspects, they are described as black males.

There weren’t many witnesses to the crime, and it was hard to find those who wanted to talk about it.

“I ain’t seen nothing, don’t know nothing,” said one man.

Police are also searching for suspects in a similar attack that happened on July 11. That incident happened around 2:40 a.m. near McNichols and Grand River. Two suspects approached an 18-year-old woman and 21-year-old man. They then forced them to the ground, before sexually assaulting the woman and robbing the man, forcing him to watch. You can see their sketches below.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/six-men-attack-couple-on-detroits-west-side - 342k -

Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 07:20:24

It’s the Daily Black Crime Report,
The Daily Black Crime Report,
Start your day the old-fashioned way,
With the Daily Black Crime Report.
(They’re coming to get us)
The Daily Black Crime Report
(Unless you vote with us)
It’s the Daily Black Crime Report!

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 07:28:40

Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-18 07:40:59

We should make them wear rainbow flag tshirts to receive their SSD checks.

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Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 07:47:54

Was the young couple a part of the co-exist sjw culture?

If so, hard lesson learned.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:55:13

+1

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 08:14:23

“make them wear rainbow flag tshirts to receive their SSD checks”

Thanks, phony! That’s why I like you. Even though we have our occasional disagreements, you still champion some of my better ideas. There’s a big heart beneath all your devilry.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 12:00:15

I’m happy for you guys and girls Oddie.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:24:52

If you like your Democrat-run urban dystopia, you can keep your Democrat-run urban dystopia.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:26:44

“A short time later, two men struck again, pulling the same tactic with another young couple.”

Detroit sounds like a bad town for young couples to reside. Why would anyone want to subject themselves to gangs of feral youths roaming the streets seeking felony victims?

Though the story mentioned the perpetrators were black, I didn’t see any mention of the race of the victims. Does no mention = white?

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:57:09

Good question, prof. I assumed they were white based on Phone’s comment. They may have been Chinese, as far as I know.

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Comment by GuillotineRenovator
2015-07-19 13:54:38

Black on white crime is justified. White on black is hate. Black on black is swept under the rug.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 16:06:05

Black on black is swept under the rug.

It’s worse than that. It’s simply ignored. The entire system, especially our penal systems, reinforces that black lives don’t matter.

 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 09:27:10

Poverty may cause crime but it is more clear that crime causes poverty. The few signs that Detroit may be in an upturn will soon end unless they get a handle on crime. With the trend to let more criminals in the streets, and remember the San Franciscan killer had drug and not violent crimes on his record, that is highly unlikely.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 09:41:17

Thanks for making a rare post where we agree. Fix the crime problem, and the other problems with America’s cities, such as entrenched poverty and racial tensions, will melt away.

However I have little faith in politicians to pursue the necessary actions to fix crime, as there is more money to be made from the politics of perpetual racial division.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 11:17:39

I agree with you too. It is the core of every issue. The progress on race that has been made was due to declining crime rates. I do not like Obama but no black president could have been elected but for the declining crime rate, if the crime rate increases racial tensions will rise.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 12:48:00

No, the greatest progress on race was back in ’60s. The big decline in crime was in the ’90s.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 13:41:51

The surging crime rate of the 60s and 70s led to white flight from the cities and ended support for the great society, white liberals were voted out of office. If the Democrats are not very careful on how prisoners are released to avoid a surge in crime it will happen again.

 
Comment by GuillotineRenovator
2015-07-19 13:58:28

You can’t fix the crime problem first, you need incomes and wealth to wash it away. When people don’t have two nickels to rub together, they resort to crime to live. If it’s between starvation or armed robbery, you get armed robbery. The anger displayed during such viciousness is the side effect of feeling left behind, with a sub-par education and upbringing.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:14:44

You can’t fix the crime problem first, you need incomes and wealth to wash it away.

Really? Crime plunged during W’s presidency are you saying that he had a great economy for blacks?

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 14:22:24

Crime waves are usually demographic. Too many young men in their teens and twenties. In the good old days we solved it with a war.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:41:03

Crime waves have usually been inverse to the percentage of our population that we are willing to incarcerate.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 14:49:35

The surging crime rate of the 60s and 70s led to white flight from the cities and ended support for the great society

That’s not true. The biggest Great Society program was Medicare which is probably the most popular institution in American life.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 14:57:16

“When people don’t have two nickels to rub together, they resort to crime to live.”

This is not always the case. For instance, I had a black college roommate. We took a road trip one summer to his home community in Georgia, and I stayed a couple of nights at the home where he grew up. It was the first time in my life where I was the only white guy in an all black community, a very fascinating experience! They were very poor, but if crime was a problem, it was not in evidence. It seemed everyone knew each other and strong, mutually supportive social ties were evident.

This was a stark contrast to the black ghetto areas in nothern cities which I knew from my upbringing: crime was rampant, social isolation was the norm, and everyone of any race who could afford to leave, did so.

 
Comment by rms
2015-07-19 15:12:25

Nancy Reagan’s War on Drugs incarcerated minorities to disproportionately lengthy sentences and three strikes laws.

 
Comment by GuillotineRenovator
2015-07-19 15:21:49

Of course it’s not always the case, and there’s always going to be crime, not matter what is done. However, it has been borne out that crime is substantially higher when people are poor. Everybody benefits when most people have means. Alas, the greedy won’t allow it. “Let them eat cake” comes to mind…

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 16:22:44

But back to ADan and my point, it’s hard to fix poor when criminals have run all legitimate businesses out of town.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:31:58

“The anger displayed during such viciousness is the side effect of feeling left behind, with a sub-par education and upbringing.”

Crime is also very bad for educational opportunity. The high school in the Midwest from which I graduated several decades ago, and where more recently Michael Brown spent his sophomore year of high school, has gone so far downhill that it lost its accreditation. Crime drove away the honest businesses and citizens who provided the tax base that supported the school district.

 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2015-07-19 12:11:39

dan you know its always been prisoners are functionally illiterate going in…and coming out of jail. so my plan is….

Let the prisoners decide how long they want to stay in jail…..cool idea…its up to you…just read and discuss the New York Times in front of a parole board and ask for a second chance…that could take 5 or 50 years their choice..The problem is NOT racial discrimination, but severe functional illiteracy and we need to break the chains.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:47:06

You know that something similar occurred hundreds of years ago, if you could read from the bible you were given a shorter sentence.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 15:38:23

From Wikipedia:

At first, in order to plead the benefit of clergy, one had to appear before the court tonsured and otherwise wearing ecclesiastical dress. Over time, this proof of clergy-hood was replaced by a literacy test: defendants demonstrated their clerical status by reading from the Bible. This opened the door to literate lay defendants also claiming the benefit of clergy. In 1351, under Edward III, this loophole was formalised in statute, and the benefit of clergy was officially extended to all who could read.[1] For example, the English dramatist Ben Jonson avoided hanging by pleading benefit of clergy in 1598 when charged with manslaughter.

Unofficially, the loophole was even larger, because the Biblical passage traditionally used for the literacy test was inevitably and appropriately Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 according to the Vulgate and Septuagint numbering), Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam (”O God, have mercy upon me, according to thine heartfelt mercifulness”). Thus, an illiterate person who had memorized the appropriate Psalm could also claim the benefit of clergy, and Psalm 51 became known as the “neck verse” because knowing it could save one’s neck by transferring one’s case from a secular court, where hanging was a likely sentence, to an ecclesiastical court, where both the methods of trial and the sentences given were more lenient.[1] If the defendant who claimed benefit of clergy was thought to be particularly deserving of death, courts occasionally would ask him to read a different passage from the Bible; if, like most defendants, he was illiterate and simply had memorized Psalm 51, he would be unable to establish the defence and would be put to death.

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:54:43

It is the fault of the white people for being in a place where blacks are known to dwell. It is specifically the fault of the white women, but that explanation will have to come from YouTube comments because I can’t come up with any logical way to defend it right now.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 06:56:31

O’Malley is a Democrat. It would be heresy for him to say white lives matter.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:34:19

I guess only black lives matter, at least in the view of certain members of the liberal fringe.

O’Malley apologizes for saying ‘all lives matter’ at liberal conference
By Chris Moody, CNN Senior Digital Correspondent;
Video by Jeremy Moorhead
Updated 10:11 AM ET, Sun July 19, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

Phoenix (CNN)
Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley apologized on Saturday for saying “All lives matter” while discussing police violence against African-Americans with liberal demonstrators.

Several dozen demonstrators interrupted the former Maryland governor while he was speaking here at the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of liberal activists, demanding that he address criminal justice and police brutality. When they shouted, “Black lives matter!” a rallying cry of protests that broke out after several black Americans were killed at the hands of police in recent months, O’Malley responded: “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.”

Invoking the familiar names of blacks who died at the hands of police, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, thousands have taken part in protests across the country calling for a more aggressive federal response to recent slayings by police. A protester is arrested at the demonstration on December 13 in Oakland.

The demonstrators, who were mostly black, responded by booing him and shouting him down.

Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 09:16:50

It’s not a fringe, it’s the base.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:59:22

The base of what? The Liberal party?

 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2015-07-19 12:25:41

black CRIMINAL lives matter…lets be exact about it

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Comment by Ol'Bubba
2015-07-19 05:17:32

In the past there have been discussions about the “Oil City Plan”, i.e., moving to a low cost area.

Besides Oil City, Pennsylvania, what are some other locations that are worthy of consideration? Discuss, and be civil.

Comment by Goon
Comment by Goon
2015-07-19 05:34:29

Runner-up Buena Vista

Both are in Chaffee County, but Salida has WalMart and McDonalds

And yes, I have 4G internets at elevation 13,000′ right now

Region VIII

Comment by Dale
2015-07-19 05:58:33

You should go to 14,000′ right now. Who is flying the plane…..wi to lo?

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Comment by Goon
2015-07-19 06:42:03

I’m not in a plane, I am standing here right now

http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150719_073926.jpg

Region VIII

 
Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 07:04:34

No 14′ers in Ohio, huh?

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 09:18:56

The entire stay of Colorado is Oil City isn’t it?

 
Comment by rms
2015-07-19 15:29:49

“…I am standing here right now”

I just bumped into your squeeze downtown… offered to buy her a margarita, but she insisted on a back rub; said her back was killing her.

http://picpaste.com/goon_babe.jpg

 
 
Comment by Ol'Bubba
2015-07-19 07:04:31

That’s definitely a beautiful part of the country. Many years ago I drove up 24 from Colorado Springs through Leadville and up to I-70.

While beautiful, the high mountain elevations are not for me.

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Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 08:10:46

While beautiful, the high mountain elevations are not for me

Your body adapts over time by producing more red blood cells.

 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 08:32:09

That’s interesting. I wonder about the red blood cell counts of Sherpas vs other Nepalese from hills or plains.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 10:07:41

I spend most of my time above 7000 feet and do not have any problems even though I grew up around sea level.

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 11:39:44

That’s why older folks leave higher elevation geographies. Higher elevations are destructive physiologically on older people.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:06:20

Some people have evolved to do well at high elevations; some can adapt; and some never will. Personally, I do fine at higher elevations, but I can’t stand to be underwater at all (and that’s not a pun). Before you move to any high-elevation place, make sure to visit for a coupe weeks and see if you can go for a walk without getting sick.

 
 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 08:01:07

Cheapest listing in Salida:

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Salida-CO/fsba_lt/house_type/2105700539_zpid/20318_rid/0-300000_price/0-1132_mp/1_pnd/pricea_sort/38.869651,-105.466691,38.27161,-106.807023_rect/9_zm/0_mmm/

Surprise, it’s a cabin. And like a lot of cabins, kind of neat from the outside, kind of claustrophobic on the inside. Looks well lived in. $127,500. Suspicious they don’t show the view.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 13:21:59

$500 worth of land and maybe $7500 in old materials at best.

Doesn’t make sense does it.

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Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 05:46:53

Anywhere outside the 50 mile radius of large metro areas. We’re doing so biz in VA right now and the entire state looks to be Oil City. Especially near the water.

Comment by oxide
2015-07-19 12:04:16

Yep. And if you plan your location correctly, that 50 miles from downtown will also be about 20 miles from a major medical center. There are a lot of hospital complexes just outside town because they need a lot of cheap land. You can get to that hospital quicker than if you lived in a condo downtown. An alternative is to stay within 25 miles of a metro area that is known for a medical center — for example Cleveland. Or any university town with a med school.

Outside of medical considerations… I would say anywhere in Gardening Zone 7, or close to it.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 13:18:19

There’s lots of cheap land Donk. 95% of the land mass goes undeveloped.

Land is essentially worthless.

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Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 16:02:25

‘Land is essentially worthless.’

No way. They are not making any more of this:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13405-County-Road-261-Nathrop-CO-81236/2102357707_zpid/

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 16:55:51

Dried out scrub land. Less than worthless.

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:08:30

VA near the water gets you mosquitos and storms all the time. You don’t see a lot of old buildings around there, since they get blown over every so often (and flooded).

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 05:54:42

Greenville, South Carolina and surrounding areas.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:01:37

Any place that is not in a town with a lot of employment. The only real problems are boredom and lack of humanity, but I think you get used to it.

Comment by oxide
2015-07-19 14:31:46

+1 We don’t all have to go hang out at the new coffee shop every night and meet a new crowd of buddies like some hip Millenial.

All you really need is an internet connection and a working car for the weekly trip to Tractor Supply and/or Wally World, and you can live like a physical hermit no problem. Need cuddlies? Get a wife/cat/dog.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 16:04:34

‘Any place that is not in a town with a lot of employment. The only real problems are boredom and lack of humanity, but I think you get used to it.’

Duncannon, PA

 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 05:40:29

Obama pushes to extend gun background checks to Social Security

It’s a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

by LA Times | July 19, 2015

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”

There is no simple way to identify that group, but a strategy used by the Department of Veterans Affairs since the creation of the background check system is reporting anyone who has been declared incompetent to manage pension or disability payments and assigned a fiduciary.

If Social Security, which has never participated in the background check system, uses the same standard as the VA, millions of its beneficiaries would be affected. About 4.2 million adults receive monthly benefits that are managed by “representative payees.”

The move is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., to strengthen gun control, including by plugging holes in the background check system.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 06:52:18

Philo Bedo’s elderly ma vs. the Black Widows biker gang (from “Every Which Way You Can.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anmAvGrgzgQ

Comment by Shrimpsaladsandwich
2015-07-19 08:21:50

Right turn, Lola, right turn.

 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 06:07:08

are unable to manage their own affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”

Sounds like the target audience of a Soros sponsored voter registration drive to register more Democratic voters.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:36:03

“…marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”

Wait a minute. Are you telling me that everyone who voted for Obama, McCain, and Romney is now ineliglble to own firearms? I’d be OK with court-ordered sterilization and revocation of voting privileges, but that’s a lot of guns to collect.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 13:58:11

Sounds like Trump’s base.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 16:10:27

They’re going after the crazies!

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 06:10:12

Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database

By Paul Sperry

July 18, 2015 | 4:00pm

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”

Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make “disparate impact” cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds.

Big Brother Barack wants the databases operational before he leaves office, and much of the data in them will be posted online.

So civil-rights attorneys and urban activist groups will be able to exploit them to show patterns of “racial disparities” and “segregation,” even if no other evidence of discrimination exists.

Housing database

The granddaddy of them all is the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing database, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development rolled out earlier this month to racially balance the nation, ZIP code by ZIP code. It will map every US neighborhood by four racial groups — white, Asian, black or African-American, and Hispanic/Latino — and publish “geospatial data” pinpointing racial imbalances.

The agency proposes using nonwhite populations of 50% or higher as the threshold for classifying segregated areas.

Obama’s educrats want to know how many blacks versus whites are enrolled in gifted-and-talented and advanced placement classes.

Schools that show blacks and Latinos under-enrolled in such curricula, to an undefined “statistically significant degree,” could open themselves up to investigation and lawsuits by the department’s Civil Rights Office.

nypost.com/…/obama-has-been-collecting-personal-data-for-a-secret-race-database/ - 139k -

Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 06:46:10

Big Brother Barack wants the databases operational before he leaves office, and much of the data in them will be posted online.

So, the administration that couldn’t get its ACA website running, is going to pull off this massive undertaking before he leaves office?

And even if they do, unless Hillary wins (which I’m really doubting she will) the GOP candidate will likely shut it down.

Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 06:56:11

I was gonna say, YAY! Another database that can be affirmatively hacked and corrupted. Let’s not forget they couldn’t even secure their federal personnel database, lol. 21 million identities and counting.

I’m not so sure a GOP prez would shut it down, though. The GOP gave us the Patriot Act.

Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 07:03:33

It doesn’t serve the GOP narrative, so in the spirit of “reducing deficits” they will have to shit it down.

Another thing that crosses my mind, a budget will have to be apportioned for this to happen. I have a hard time believing that a GOP controlled Congress will go along with that.

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Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 07:31:08

“they will have to shit it down.”

LOLZ! Freudian slip alert.

No, the GOP would shut down welfare and SS before they’d ever shut down a database like that. Too tempting. But it’s just JMO.

 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 07:34:58

Another useless and expensive IT/Social media project designed to enrich few in America and many Indian tech workers.

 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 07:36:25

No, the GOP would shut down welfare and SS before they’d ever shut down a database like that. Too tempting. But it’s just JMO.

Agree 100%. GOP is useless dormat party.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 08:00:51

‘GOP is useless dormat party’

Yeah, they probably will just have a coronation for the establishment candidate, unlike the other party.

I guess I’m old fashioned in that I expect checks and balances. Politics should be a competition of the universe of ideas.

‘Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a decorated Vietnam War veteran, on Saturday by saying McCain was not a war hero because he was captured by the North Vietnamese.’

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. Sarcastically, Trump quipped, “He’s a war hero because he was captured.” Then, he added, “I like people that weren’t captured.”

‘Trump added, “I was not a big fan of the Vietnam War. I wasn’t a protester, but the Vietnam War was a disaster for our country. What did we get out of the Vietnam War other than death? We got nothing.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/18/trump-slams-mccain-for-being-captured-in-vietnam/

It’s a valid question. What do “we get” from all these wars anymore? We spend a lot, we borrow a lot, we have people shooting up stuff, killing themselves. But what did we “get?”

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 08:16:25

I guess I’m old fashioned in that I expect checks and balances. Politics should be a competition of the universe of ideas.

Testify, Brother Ben!

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:37:58

“I like people that weren’t captured.”

Another ignorant statement out of an inveterate ignoramus…

 
Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 08:56:03

It’s a valid question. What do “we get” from all these wars anymore?

Excellent point. In historical times wars paid dividends in the acquisition of square miles of real estate and resources. In today’s world, the correct geopolitical strategy is to avoid war because it consumes too much resources and capital. Russia’s quasi-invasion of Ukraine is a smart war because the payoff in real estate outweighs the relatively low cost. The US wars in the middle east are definitely losing propositions with no payoff whatsoever.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 09:06:44

‘wars paid dividends in the acquisition of square miles of real estate and resources’

It worked out so great for the Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Portuguese, Germans, Japanese, Ottomans, British, French. Did I leave any out?

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 09:08:55

I guess you’ll be voting for Ben Carson then?

‘CARSON: I think it is a strong likelihood, the reason being, in order for them to develop their caliphate, they need land, and if we really want to break their backs, we take the land.’

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 09:23:11

Romans?

Their empire lasted for more than a 1000 years. The problem was they ran out of places to plunder. I am not advocating we go into places and steal their resources but it actually does work and that is why it has occurred so often.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 09:32:19

‘it actually does work’

No, it doesn’t. It bankrupts the invaders. Every, single, time.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 09:37:22

Really, how did Rome become so rich? Did the citizens become rich on Internet stocks?

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 09:47:44

‘they ran out of places to plunder’

You really are smarter than the Chinese government.

‘[Celts defeat the Romans.] “The Allia, c. 387 BC: A hastily assembled citizen army led by military tribunes is defeated by the Gallic Senones just 11 miles north of Rome. Not only is the army scattered with heavy losses, but the city is subsequently devastated by the victorious Celts, thus casting a shadow over Romano-Gallic relations for the next 400 years.” -KL47 “Because of the centuries long effect it had on the Roman psyche.”

‘[Samnites humiliate the Romans.] “The Caudine Forks, 321 B.C.: The consuls T. Veturius Calvinus and Sp. Postumius obligingly march their army into a trap laid by the Samnites and are forced to surrender and ‘pass under the yoke’. A relatively bloodless affair, but by far the most humiliating event in the entire history of the Republic. Definitely Rome’s Spinal Tap moment.”

“Cannae, 216 BC: Consuls C. Terentius Varro and L. Aemilius Paullus are defeated by Hannibal’s numerically inferior army…. Polybius claims 70,000 dead and 10,000 captured, though Livy, Appian and Plutarch report “only” 50,000 dead.”

‘In raw numbers, this has to be the worst military defeat Rome ever suffered. In addition, it forced Rome to completely rethink every aspect of it’s military…. Without Cannae, there would never have been the Legions of the Empire.”

“Arausio, 105 BC: The armies of consul Cn. Mallius Maximus and proconsul Q. Servilius Caepio are defeated by the Cimbri and Teutones on the Rhône. Some sources report even higher casualties than at Cannae: Livy cites the claim by the annalist Valerius Antias that 80,000 soldiers and 40,000 servants and camp followers were killed, though this is probably an exaggeration. The most important result is the rise to power of C. Marius and his reform of the legions into a professional army.”

“Battle of Carrhae (53 B.C.). With the death of Crassus, a final confrontation between Caesar and Pompey became inevitable. It wasn’t the crossing of the Rubicon that was the death knell of the Republic, but the death of Crassus at Carrhae.”

“Teutoburg Forest, AD 9: Three legions under P. Quinctilius Varus, governor of Germania, and their civilian hangers-on are ambushed and virtually wiped out by the supposedly friendly Cherusci led by Arminius. Total Roman losses are probably well under 20,000, but the disaster means that the frontier coalesces on the Rhine rather than the Elbe as planned.” -KL47 “This defeat marked the end of any hope of expansion across the Rhine. More than that, it marked a change in Imperial policy.”

[Goths shouldn't have, but did defeat an emperor.] Adrianople (Hadrianopolis) This is my pick, although Teutoberg would be my strong second choice. On August 9, A.D. 378, Valens was killed and his army lost to an army of Goths led by Fritigern, whom Valens had given permission only two years earlier to settle in Roman territory. Two-thirds of the Eastern army were killed. Ammianus Marcellinus called it “the beginning of evils for the Roman empire then and thereafter.”

“Alaric’s Sack of Rome (August 24th, 410 A.D.). What can you say? This, more than any other moment, marks the end of the Western Roman Empire.”

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/defeats/tp/Romandefeats.htm

This is just the top ten.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 09:50:17

…and what ended up happening to Rome?

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 09:51:58

Oh, the Soviets. I knew I had forgotten some.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 09:53:53

No, it doesn’t. It bankrupts the invaders. Every, single, time.

US vs. Mexico: US got Calif., Texas, the southwest
US threat of war vs. Britain: US got Oregon, Washington (54 40 or fight)
US war against native states: US settled the midwest
Russian Cossacks vs. Siberian Khan: Russia certainly gained significant resources when they took Siberia

Sometimes expansionary wars do pay off. But in times past it was easier to conquer vast lands with low population densities. Today it’s almost impossible to conquer densely populated areas because of underground resistance.

 
Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 09:54:24

“I like people that weren’t captured.”

That was pretty gaffetastic, yes. A bungled statement of the real issue, which is was McCain a war “hero” or a collaborator?

There are many ways to hit McCain where he lives. That was weak and dumb.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 10:00:17

‘[Celts defeat the Romans.] “The Allia, c. 387 BC: A hastily assembled citizen army led by military tribunes is defeated by the Gallic Senones just 11 miles north of Rome. Not only is the army scattered with heavy losses, but the city is subsequently devastated by the victorious Celts, thus casting a shadow over Romano-Gallic relations for the next 400 years.” -KL47 “Because of the centuries long effect it had on the Roman psyche.”

Excuse me Ben but that occurred when Rome was a democracy not an empire. Rome became rich looting other civilizations, the trouble occurred when it had to protect its borders against poor barbarians. Having gone to Catholic school I had to read Roman history in Latin, you are going to cause PTSD.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 10:04:26

P.S. the Roman democracy lasted about 200 years the Roman empire about 1000 years, it is doubtful that our democracy will last 300 years. What does not work is being the unpaid policeman of the world which is what we are trying to do today and have been doing since WWII.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 10:07:57

‘US vs. Mexico: US got Calif., Texas, the southwest’

Texas liberated itself from Mexico, (which had liberated itself, etc) and joined the US. Mexico didn’t have much in California except cowboys and a few priests. I think they just signed it over. It’s arguable that we have been paying a price for the poorest state in the union ever since.

Anyway, what does it matter anymore? When the US goes in now, we get our asses kicked by goat-herders and it’s a black hole for our money for decades.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 11:33:06

Today it’s almost impossible to conquer densely populated areas because of underground resistance.

The Mongols had an easy answer for that, they just killed everyone.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 11:43:52

“P.S. the Roman democracy lasted about 200 years the Roman empire about 1000 years”

P.S. Wrong! Both lasted about 500 years.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 13:53:08

Actually, it depends, if you count the eastern empire it was far longer that 1000 years and the 500 years you are counting as democracy include large stretches of time when the Roman Senate was nothing more than a rubber stamp either generals or emperors.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 13:59:28

I am only including the early Roman Republic as a true democracy:

http://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Republic

 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 15:16:10

Of course you would have your own dates for the Roman Republic and Empire, just as you have your own data for global warming.

Are they both from the University of Alabama at Huntsville? Outlier U. ?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 15:27:40

I have given you the links, anyone on this board can read them. If you think that times when Rome was ruled by generals should be considered a democracy since the Republic had not been formally abolished, that is fine but I do not. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years after Rome fell so clearly empires are more stable than democracies, not less. I think that only the early republic comes close to being what we would consider a democracy and that would be slightly over 200 years. But if you like form over substance, you can argue for 500 years.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 17:27:26

“The Mongols had an easy answer for that, they just killed everyone.”

This is why we fail. We prance around, fling ordinance in the general direction of the enemy, declare victory and go home after killing a few thousand. There were weeks in WWII where more people died than in all the wars we’ve been in since.

War is about killing people. The more you kill, the better you are at it.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 18:08:29

‘War is about killing people.’

It’s not and failing to understand how conflicts have evolved is a big part of the problem:

‘Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians. The term was first used in 1989 by a team of American analysts, including William S. Lind,[citation needed] to describe warfare’s return to a decentralized form. In terms of generational modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states’ loss of their near-monopoly on combat forces, returning to modes of conflict common in pre-modern times.’

‘The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent non-state actor.’

‘The use of fourth-generation warfare can be traced to the Cold War period, as superpowers and major powers attempted to retain their grip on colonies and captured territories. Unable to withstand direct combat against bombers, tanks, and machine guns, non-state entities used tactics of education/propaganda, movement-building, secrecy, terror, and/or confusion to overcome the technological gap.’

‘Fourth-generation warfare has often involved an insurgent group or other violent non-state actor trying to implement their own government or reestablish an old government over the current ruling power. However, a non-state entity tends to be more successful when it does not attempt, at least in the short term, to impose its own rule, but tries simply to disorganize and delegitimize the state in which the warfare takes place. The aim is to force the state adversary to expend manpower and money in an attempt to establish order, ideally in such a highhanded way that it merely increases disorder, until the state surrenders or withdraws.’

‘Fourth-generation warfare is often seen in conflicts involving failed states and civil wars, particularly in conflicts involving non-state actors, intractable ethnic or religious issues, or gross conventional military disparities.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_warfare

This wiki is incorrect. The originator of the concept (he was simply describing what had and was happening) is Boyd:

‘Osinga, Frans (2007). Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-37103-1. Aims to provide a better understanding of Boyd’s ideas concerning conflict and military strategy. Contains a full description and explanation of all of his presentations. Takes reader beyond rapid OODA loop idea and demonstrates direct influence on development of Network Centric Warfare and Fourth Generation Warfare. Argues Boyd is first postmodern strategist.’

‘Boyd was later assigned to the USAF Weapons School, where he became head of the Academic Section and wrote the tactics manual for the school.[4] He was dubbed “Forty Second Boyd” for his standing bet as an instructor pilot that beginning from a position of disadvantage, he could defeat any opposing pilot in air combat maneuvering in less than 40 seconds; Boyd was brought to the Pentagon by Major General Arthur C. Agan, Jr. to do mathematical analysis that would support the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle program in order to pass the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Systems Analysis process.[5] According to his biographer, Robert Coram, Boyd was also known at different points of his career as “The Mad Major” for the intensity of his passions, as “Genghis John” for his confrontational style of interpersonal discussion, and as the “Ghetto Colonel” for his spartan lifestyle.[6]‘

‘Boyd is credited for largely developing the strategy for the invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991. In 1981, Boyd had presented his briefing, Patterns of Conflict, to Dick Cheney, then a member of the United States House of Representatives.[11] By 1990, Boyd had moved to Florida because of declining health, but Cheney (then the Secretary of Defense in the George H. W. Bush administration) called him back to work on the plans for Operation Desert Storm.[12][13] Boyd had substantial influence on the ultimate “left hook” design of the plan.[14]‘

‘In a letter to the editor of Inside the Pentagon, former Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak is quoted as saying “The Iraqi army collapsed morally and intellectually under the onslaught of American and Coalition forces. John Boyd was an architect of that victory as surely as if he’d commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver division in the desert.”[15]‘

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_%28military_strategist%29

This guy had a remarkable life.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:29:16

And even if they do, unless Hillary wins (which I’m really doubting she will) the GOP candidate will likely shut it down.

Why are you doubting that Hillary will win? 95% of our electorate have shown themselves to be retards who will gladly and willingly bend over for the Oligopoly and crony capitalism, which HillaryJeb embody. So it’s a bygone conclusion that HillaryJeb will be our next president, because you can’t fix stupid.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 06:53:22

Another database to be hacked into, thanks to trusting the security to Obama’s politcal cronies.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 09:46:27

Data is truth. Why are you afraid of the truth?

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 16:17:17

You are Big Brother’s wet dream. A prole that isn’t just compliant, but zealously prostrates himself before the totalitarian agenda, and would eagerly sign up to be an informer.

Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 17:28:41

Believing that anybody gives a crap about you do is a symptom of delusions of grandeur.

Go home, Wolverine. It’s time for bed.

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Comment by TBoom
2015-07-19 09:53:09

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 06:10:12

Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database
nypost.com/2015/07/18/obama-has-been-collecting-personal-data-for-a-secret-race-database/

 
 
Comment by azdude
2015-07-19 06:52:20

stocks and homes are the best game in town.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 08:16:53

Bitcoin.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:11:40

Sugar.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 06:55:22

When will contagion from Greece spread to the rest of the PIIGS?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/portugals-debts-also-unsustainable-erico-matias-tavares

Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 07:05:43

As the EU goes broke and unravels, China will have even fewer customers for its exports.

Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 07:28:52

There are billion+ chinese hungry to consume anything.

Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 07:58:04

Kind of hard to do that when they earn a pittance

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Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 07:59:29

And they’re already up to their eyeballs in debt.

How do you say “Stanley Johnson” in Manadarin?

 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 08:37:21

How do you say “Stanley Johnson” in Manadarin?

Sum Ting Wong?

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 11:38:11

Kind of hard to do that when they earn a pittance

They have almost as many people earning what we would consider a middle class wage as we do. Now with a population four times our population that still means they have far more people earning a pittance but China has created a U.S. within its borders within the last ten years and with wages growing at 8% per year they will soon have far more middle class consumers.

 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:12:53

If they had the money to “consume anything”, then they wouldn’t be hungry.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:08:22

They starved under communism in 50s and 60s, they are eating today with increasing amounts of meat. They have actually began to get much taller.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 14:11:53

‘They have actually began to get much taller’

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:24:09
 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:39:20

A closely watched pot (almost) never boils over.

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 07:00:11

Divisions:

White vs black/brown
Rich and poor vs middle class
Young vs old
Male vs female
Christian vs Muslim
Gay vs straight
Police/Military vs Civilian
Illegals vs citizens

Feel free to add.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:38:28

Intelligent (i.e. Ron Paul supporters) vs. stupid (everyone who voted for the crony capitalist status quo).

 
Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 08:19:51

Ketchup vs. Mustard on hamburgers
Android vs. iPhone
AL (designated hitter) vs. NL (traditional baseball)

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 08:43:34

WPA

You really should be hitting the Talking Points classes like MightyMike cause that was weak.

 
 
Comment by inchbyinch
2015-07-19 08:25:50

The war on Christians - Fabricated BS
Jews are the Bankers - Granted the Fed Chairman have been for three appointments, but does it matter. They’re puppets of their masters.
The war on Christmas was hilarious- O’Reily is a divisive nutjob.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 08:35:17

“Feel free to add.”

Pro life vs Pro choice

Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 09:00:37

phony, you need to hit Breitbart and WND to get more ideas. Talk about weak…

 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 08:50:54

liberal vs. conservative
democrat vs. republican
religious vs. agnostic/atheist

the most important:

us vs. them

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:53:46

“us vs. them”

That is the essential element in the tactics of two-party politics.

Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 09:13:53

It’s why we get the Daily Black Crime Report.

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Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 08:55:30

science vs. magic

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 11:17:45

Scientist living large on Govt. grants vs Useful Idiot

Oh wait, they are on the same side.

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Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 11:49:23

“Science living large”

Yes, those darn scientists with their beachside mansions and Ferraris.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 13:00:50

“Mann is typical of pro-warming scientists who have taken millions from government agencies.”

Global Warming: Follow the Money

by Henry Payne February 25, 2015 4:00 AM

Indeed, experts in the research community say that it is much more difficult for some of the top climate scientists — Soon, Roger Pielke Jr., the CATO Institute’s Patrick Michaels, MIT’s now-retired Richard Lindzen — to get funding for their work because they do not embrace the global-warming fearmongering favored by the government-funded climate establishment.

“Soon’s integrity in the scientific community shines out,” says Ebell. “He has foregone his own career advancement to advance scientific truth. If he had only mouthed establishment platitudes, he could’ve been named to head a big university [research center] like Michael Mann.”

Mann is the controversial director of Pennsylvania State’s Earth System Science Center. He was at the center of the 2009 Climategate scandal, in which e-mails were uncovered from climatologists discussing how to skew scientific evidence and blackball experts who don’t agree with them.

Mann is typical of pro-warming scientists who have taken millions from government agencies. The federal government — which will gain unprecedented regulatory power if climate legislation is passed — has funded scientific research to the tune of $32.5 billion since 1989, according the Science and Public Policy Institute. That is an amount that dwarfs research contributions from oil companies and utilities, which have historically funded both sides of the debate.

Mann, for example, has received some $6 million, mostly in government grants — according to a study by The American Spectator — including $500,000 in federal stimulus money while he was under investigation for his Climategate e-mails.

Despite claims that they are watchdogs of the establishment, media outlets such as the Times have ignored the government’s oversized role in directing research. And they have ignored millions in contributions from left-wing foundations — contributions that, like government grants, seek to tip the scales to one side of the debate.

Last summer, a minority staff report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works gave details on a “Billionaire’s Club” — a shadowy network of charitable foundations that distribute billions to advance climate alarmism. Shadowy nonprofits such as the Energy Foundation and Tides Foundation distributed billions to far-left green groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, which in turn send staff to the EPA who then direct federal grants back to the same green groups. It is incestuous. It is opaque. Major media ignored the report.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414359/global-warming-follow-money-henry-payne

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 13:24:06

Who is bribing the scientists of the world?

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 13:49:39

weak

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 14:29:32

Your inability to answer such a fundamental question is indeed weak.

 
 
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 21:18:19

renter vs. homeowner

 
 
Comment by Goon
2015-07-19 11:42:06

Fit vs Fat

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:18:58

Me vs You.

 
Comment by Clubber Lang
2015-07-19 17:41:13

That’s what she said vs. That’s what he said vs. Yeah, just like your mom.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:00:45

Funerals now taxed at 23% in Greece, while other essentials are taxed at similar rates. Watch and learn, California. Comrad Pelosi will apply this model to you first.

http://news.yahoo.com/greece-prepares-reopen-banks-apply-tax-hikes-112147677.html

Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 08:02:07

Given that Pelosi is a Federal, and not a State legislator, how exactly would she introduce legislation to raise taxes in California?

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 08:18:43

Pelosi wields significant political influence in the corrupt, bloated, entrenched Democrat racket that now has a stranglehold on CA politics. Forward, Soviet!

Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 08:33:53

As a Californian I’m glad my state is Blue. The world’s highest standard of living is found in Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands… all of them Socialist-Capitalist hybrids. We could learn from them. California would do better if it wasn’t dragged down by federal Republican trickle-down underinvestment and crony capitalism.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 08:58:37

Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands…

What is their average IQ?

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 09:17:22

“What is their average IQ?”

In the 98, 99, 100 range. Same as the US, and Germany.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 09:32:57

Socialism has the best results where you have a population that does not use the safety net often due to the population having relatively high IQ and they are all of the same race, doesn’t work anywhere else. Everyone of those countries is now having major problems with immigration due to the immigrants not being of the same race and not having as high of an IQ.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-07-19 09:57:50

Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands… What is their average IQ?

I’m not following your logic on IQ? An educated country with an IQ of 100 is far more productive than an uneducated country that also has an IQ of 100.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 10:25:33

“I’m not following your logic on IQ?”

His logic fails on the IQ point, because the US has the same IQ as several successful socialist states. So he throws in the ‘have to all be the same race’ thing to blow some smoke.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 12:57:07

Canada is quite diverse. There are black Canadians, Asians, etc. More importantly, none of the countries on the list have a socialist economy.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:36:16
 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 14:54:21

That’s true. That same Wikipedia page shows that its 19% non-white. So they’re nowhere near being all of the same race.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 15:16:09

Asians and whites have virtually the same IQ, it is a disparate IQ that is the problem.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 16:13:01

You wrote above that the problem was different races, not you say it’s disparate IQ. What’s disparate IQ? There’s a problem if a country’s population is composed of different races whose average scores on IQ tests is not the same for each race? Where do you come up with this nonsense?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 16:21:15

As a Californian I’m glad my state is Blue.

California’s blue voters should be barred by law from infesting Red states. They should be forced to live in the corrupt dystopias they created with their votes for collectivism and stealing from the productive to sustain an ever-growing base of votes-for-entitlements parasites.

 
 
 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 09:51:50

Liberal magic!

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:43:20

Funerals seem like a good time to collect never-paid taxes, as everyone of sufficient means eventually will have one.

Not sure about the fairness of 23% across the board; seems like this might create a disincentive to pay taxes while alive in order to have enough saved up to pay the funeral tax and leave a bit for the heirs?

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:22:54

Why do you believe that California will be like Greece? Why not Germany or China or Oil City?

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:02:45

Be sure to thank your Republicrat “representatives” for our open borders immigration policies.

https://www.conservativereview.com/Commentary/2015/07/chattanooga-the-effects-of-our-suicidal-immigration-policy

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:16:23

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/07/18/lies-damned-lies-statistics/

The government released their monthly CPI report this week. Even though it came in at an annualized rate of 3.6%, they and their mouthpieces in the corporate mainstream media dutifully downplayed the uptrend. They can’t let the plebs know the truth. That might upend their economic recovery storyline and put a crimp into their artificial free money, zero interest rate, stock market rally. If they were to admit inflation is rising, the Fed would be forced to raise rates. That is unacceptable in our rigged .01% economy. There are banker bonuses, CEO stock options, corporate stock buyback earnings per share goals and captured politician elections at stake.

The corporate MSM immediately shifted the focus to the annual CPI figure of 0.1%. That’s right. Your government keepers expect you to believe the prices you pay to live your everyday life have been essentially flat in the last year. Anyone who lives in the real world, not the BLS Bizarro world of models, seasonal adjustments, hedonic adjustments, and substitution adjustments, knows this is a lie. The original concept of CPI was to measure the true cost of maintaining a constant standard of living. It should reflect your true inflation of out of pocket costs to live a daily existence in this country.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 07:29:41

What’s Spanish for ‘haircut’?

Spain’s Ciudad Real airport sold at auction for €10,000

A group of international investors has won a bankruptcy auction for an abandoned airport in central Spain with a €10,000 (£7,000) offer - 100,000 times less than it cost to build.

Ciudad Real airport, located 235km (146 miles) south of Madrid, was meant to be an alternative to Madrid’s Barajas airport.

It cost more than €1bn to built. It opened in 2008 but went bankrupt and closed in 2012.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33578949

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:41:05

More on the airport, which was the epitome of a crony-capitalist racket that cost taxpayers dearly. As in ‘Murica, none of the guilty parties went to jail or suffered any real consequences.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spanish-ghost-airport-that-cost-1bn-to-build-sells-at-auction-for-10000-10399433.html

 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 07:42:07

We need to invest in infrastructure like this in our country.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:57:41

As long as it enriches the .1%, we will.

 
 
Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 08:05:19

A group of international investors has won a bankruptcy auction for an abandoned airport in central Spain with a €10,000 (£7,000) offer

I’ll bet that’s less than what TopGear paid to use it in one of their episodes.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 08:13:18

“What’s Spanish for ‘haircut’?”

cortarse el pelo

Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 08:35:27

el pollo loco?

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 07:44:28

Chinese bubble trouble: how long can the Chinese government fight gravity?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-19/chinese-bubble-trouble-why-ubs-thinks-were-only-half-way-through

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
Comment by In Colorado
2015-07-19 08:08:39

Sounds like they’re cracking down on Islam in the UK. Not surprising, as the UK does not have a Bill of Rights.Of course ours can be reinterpreted to mean whatever the Supremes want to say it means.

Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 08:25:02

‘Yes, Wes Clark really said what I said he said folks. Roberts asked him what we needed to do about “self-radicalization” which seems to be the short-hand for a Muslim (as opposed to a white supremacist or a conspiracy theorist or just some nut) who reads some crazy stuff on the internet and decides to go out in a blaze of glory.’

‘Clark: We have got to identify the people who are most likely to be radicalized. We’ve got to cut this off at the beginning. There are always a certain number of young people who are alienated. They don’t get a job, they lost a girlfriend, their family doesn’t feel happy here and we can watch the signs of that. And there are members of the community who can reach out to those people and bring them back in and encourage them to look at their blessings here.’

‘But I do think on a national policy level we need to look at what self-radicalization means because we are at war with this group of terrorists. They do have an ideology. In World War II if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the United States, we didn’t say that was freedom of speech, we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war.’

‘So, if these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle fine. It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.’

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/07/wesley-clark-promotes-segregation?utm_content=bufferc30d5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 08:44:02

‘Donald Trump wasn’t the only one spouting offensive nonsense at this weekend’s Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. Here’s his fellow 2016 GOP clown car occupant, the good Dr. Ben Carson, explaining to Frank Luntz why we should send ground troops to fight ISIS.’

‘CARSON: That’s a very good question because what in fact is going on in the world right now is quite different from what went on before. You know, in 2003 for instance when we invaded Iraq and al Qaeda was a big deal, there are many people who weren’t totally on board with that because they didn’t see where that was a significant threat to our national security and you know, I could be one of those people, because I wasn’t very enthusiastic about that.’

‘However, we are facing now a completely different situation. We have radical Islamic jihadists who want to destroy us and they want to destroy our way of life and their existence is a threat to us. And we cannot be in that mind set that says, “Oh we made a mistake and we spent a bunch of money and we caused a lot of strife, so therefore, let’s just get into our little cocoon, and that’s a problem for somebody else.”

‘That’s not going to work. The fact of the matter is, they want to destroy us and we have two choices. We can sit here, ignore them, bomb the dessert and think that we’re doing something, or we can destroy them first, and I choose the latter. And what I would do… what I would do is use every resource available to us.’

‘LUNTZ: Would you send ground troops?’

‘CARSON: I would send ground troops if I needed ground troops in order to take the land.’

‘LUNTZ: Do you have an idea what the threat is? You defined it. Is it a likelihood that ground troops would be necessary to succeed?’

‘CARSON: I think it is a strong likelihood, the reason being, in order for them to develop their caliphate, they need land, and if we really want to break their backs, we take the land. You’re not going to take the land without troops.’

‘You know, we made this mistake in Vietnam. You know, we would go in, we would clear out the Viet Cong. We would declare victory. We would leave and they would come right back. That doesn’t do any good. And of course the reason that ISIS arose is because we vacated Iraq after we had secured the victory there.’

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/07/ben-carson-stopping-isis-i-would-send

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Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 09:12:50

LOL

The base is so cooky, even the good doctors have no choice but to lie.

 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:28:55

As soon as this dude can get a concensus on the word “normal”, I will jump right on board.

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Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 13:05:59

It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.’

The beautiful thing about this conflict is that it will never end.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-07-19 16:24:41

So much for the oath Wesley Clark took to uphold and defend the Constitution.

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Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 13:03:12

This is a great Breitbart sentence:

While this policy of targeting people who hold un-politically correct opinions is clearly being targeted at the fringe Islamic community, other similar initiatives in the past have had unintended consequences, and have drawn in Christians instead.

What’s an un-politically correct opinion? It must be an opinion that’s correct but not correct in a political way.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2015-07-19 08:17:04

‘After weeks of late-night emergency meetings of leaders and finance ministers, culminating in a tense all-night summit, the euro zone produced a fragile deal to keep Greece afloat by making it a virtual protectorate under intrusive supervision. Few, if any, of the main protagonists think it will work.’

‘Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said it was a bad deal that would make life worse for Greece but he had swallowed it because the alternative was worse. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Athens would have done better to leave the euro zone - “temporarily” - to get a debt write-off.’

‘Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s dominant leader, made clear the main virtue of the deal was to avoid something worse. “The alternative to this agreement would not be a ‘time-out’ from the euro … but rather predictable chaos,” she said.’

‘A senior EU official involved in brokering the compromise, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was now a “20, maybe 30 percent chance of success”. “When I look at the next two to three years, the next three months, I see only black clouds,” the official said. “All we succeeded in doing was to avoid a chaotic Grexit.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/greek-crisis-one-big-unhappy-081235632.html

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 08:46:31

“When I look at the next two to three years, the next three months, I see only black clouds,”

In other words, it’s back to business as usual in the eurozone.

Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 08:56:57

Black clouds represent the opportunity central bankers have to purchase moar stocks all over the world.

 
 
Comment by beetlejuice
2015-07-19 08:54:26

‘Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said it was a bad deal that would make life worse for Greece but he had swallowed it because the alternative was worse.

Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job. Didn’t Omaba and his minions said the similar thing about not prosecuting the bankers?

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:34:45

So are they planning a Grexit, then?

 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 09:06:51

Went thru airport security today. One blue shirt gal stared me down as if I am a vile individual. Their machine claimed I had three spots on my person that were suspect. After being molested by a tall black male blue shir and had my palms dusted for whatever, I was cleared. I call B.S. on their machines and technology. The lady should have apologized for staring me down. But I did not say a word. The proper thing is to not cause a stir in them.

not sure when I will fly on any commercial plane again. From what I assume, my frequent flier days are done.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 09:19:43

Selfish you may have the same problem I have. They have some machines that are made to detect plastic explosives. They work on density so if you have muscle mass denser than normal, it reads like you have something in your pockets or something strapped to you. I have my pects patted down repeatedly and my abs on a few times. I will be flying out tomorrow and I expect the same treatment.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 09:26:09

Yeah it happens more often than not. My upper quads mostly, then secondarily my chest.

Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 22:07:13

Was it a guy that did the patting? Womp womp…..

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Comment by Goon
2015-07-19 11:56:10

Your roid rage makes them suspicious, Dannyboy

Can you get lipo for those moobs?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:27:20

If I had man boobs I would not be setting the machine off, I would be closer to the typical American.

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Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 13:55:14

I had lots of lettuce in my wallet in my backpack - which went thru the belt. Did not want to type that in from the airport Wi-Fi.

I don’t know if they kept track of whose bag was what but the stare-down by the blue shirt lady as if I’m a criminal was too much of a coincidence.

I got away with my “greens” though.

Hoard cash, bitcoin, and physical metals. Hoard investment wine too.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:03:17

Drink the wine, Bill.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:36:50

I got molested once too. I almost punched the dude, but he could see it coming so he stopped.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 09:07:24

I hate to say, but Caitlyn looks like a manly man who decided to wear his hair long. It’s apparently hard to hide the effects of many years of Olympic training on a man’s physique.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 09:26:19

We need some Adult Diaper commentary on this. Adult Diapers, please weigh in.

PS…. Houses depreciate rapidly.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 09:39:14

I am at my gate. There is a “person” a few feet away with overdone lipstick to the level of grotesque. I am guessing a tranny.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 10:33:02

Say hello to Lola for the board.

 
 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 11:29:29

Feds Manipulating the Numbers: US Debt Now Stuck at Same Number for 15 Weeks

by Terence P. Jeffrey
01 Jul 2015

The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress closed Friday, June 26, at $18,112,975,000,000, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement, which was published at 4:00 p.m. on Monday.

That, according to the Treasury’s statements, makes 15 straight weeks that the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000.

Read more at http://joemiller.us/2015/07/feds-manipulating-the-numbers-us-debt-now-stuck-at-same-number-for-15-weeks/#0GdB1OpRpLcLAXrm.99

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 11:47:01

Sorry we cannot discuss that we are too busy arguing about China and its data.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 17:14:47

Who is posting on third shift tomorrow?

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:46:13

Comment by “Auntie Fed, why won’t you love ME?”
2015-07-18 22:30:01

From the Business Standard

At least 70 per cent of sugar sold in the country is used by soft drinks producers, bakeries, confectioneries and other industries, including pharmaceutical. As sugar prices have collapsed on supply surges for four years in a row, user industries are reaping a bonanza.

With the sweetener selling at a discount of about Rs 10 a kg over production cost, sugar factories have lost capacity to settle cane bills. Industry outstanding to growers stands at Rs 21,000 crore, which earlier in the season was Rs 22,000 crore. This makes a mockery of cane’s description as a cash crop. Law requires factories to compulsorily settle bills within a fortnight of cane supplies. But the situation is such that the law is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Sugar producers have nothing else to show but mounting losses and debts. This has led former chairman of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Om Prakash Dhanuka to propose a two-tier price formula for the sweetener, which will require industrial users to pay a premium over market prices, ideally by way of additional excise duty. But how is this going to help the sugar economy? “The extra revenue thus to be collected by the exchequer should be routed to sugar factories to clear their cane dues,” says Dhanuka. The proposal is a kind of throwback to differential rates of excise duty on levy and free sale sugar. …

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:48:40

Comment by “Auntie Fed, why won’t you love ME?”
2015-07-18 22:19:30

From Stabroek News

With a debt overhang of over $90B and a cost of production more than double the world market price of sugar, there is absolutely no future viability for sugar production in its current form in Guyana. Any cost-saving initiative is limited as its direct labour cost exceeds the world market price of sugar.

Even with preferential prices from Caricom countries which attract 40% tariffs, our cost of production still exceeds the selling price of sugar.

The debt overhang shows clearly that the previous PPP administration had effectively closed GuySuCo because the corporation is turning in no contribution from its sale of sugar ‎to cover even its interest cost, and certainly has no reserves to make capital payments.

A combination of poor investments in the case of the Skeldon Sugar Factory, corruption by officials in cases like the Enmore Packaging Plant and the procurement of pumps, political direction with square pegs in round holes through political appointments, and a depletion of skills in plant husbandry and all technical areas, are among the failures of the leaders of the former administration, in addition to their acute display of incompetence and deception.

The workers and their families within the sugar belt fell for this massive deception in returning the PPP repeatedly to office until it destroyed this once highly profitable business to the point of no turnaround.

The unions both GAWU and NAACIE are equally responsible in terms of their complicity with the previous administration and their failure to condemn the open misuse of GuySuCo’s cash resources on unprofitable investments, the selection of contractors, and political appointments. It is for the workers now in their own interest to demand changes in the leadership of both GAWU and NAACIE.

The current APNU+AFC administration is now saddled with the almost impossible task of protecting jobs in an industry that would need a continuous bailout which our economy cannot afford.

As a first step the interim management must request creditors of the $90B in loans to take a deep ‘haircut’‎ in bringing the corporation’s loans to a more manageable level, as GuySuCo is unable to make any repayment from its cash flows.

This should be followed by a private sector led five-year diversification plan to increase the value added from sugar, but most importantly to gradually diversify away from sugar which would transfer some of its current workers to higher paying jobs in the process. A number of diversification options are available, but would require the political will and leadership to address a highly sensitive matter.

Perhaps such diversification should start with the higher cost of Demerara Sugar Estates.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 11:51:27

omment by “Auntie Fed, why won’t you love ME?”
2015-07-18 22:15:06

From the The Hindu:

In the backdrop of a series of suicide by sugarcane growers in the State because of unremunerative prices and a serious tussle between the government and sugar mills over clearing dues, the possibility of about 40 new sugar mills coming up in the State has raised concern among the owners of sugar factories.

The Centre recently issued the industrial entrepreneur memorandum (IEM) to 41 companies to set up sugar mills in Karnataka. According to M.K. Aiyappa, Commissioner for Cane Development and Director of Sugar (CDDS), 41 companies received the IEMs — the approval from the Centre for new proposals or expansions of their capacities from 2007 to 2013.

Minister for Sugar H.S. Mahadev Prasad has said in the Legislative Assembly that the State has received applications from 14 companies for setting up sugar mills apart from the 41 that have received the IEMs from the Centre. If all these sugar entrepreneurs set up their mills, the State could see over 50 new units in the next few years.

But considering the fact that the existing sugar mills themselves are struggling to survive, because of the fall in the price of sugar and their alleged inability to pay the growers the fair and remunerative price (FRP), it is still not clear whether all those who secured the IEMs will go ahead with their projects.

The companies which are interested in setting up new factories have to comply with 10 guidelines set by the CDDS, including getting distance certificate which specifies that new factory should be beyond the radius of 15 km from the existing mills.

Mr. Aiyappa said the companies which had secured the IEMs had deposited Rs. 1 crore in all with the CDDS and started the process of setting up infrastructure.

The State chapter of the South Indian Sugar Mills Association (SISMA), however, has its reservations over the development. Pawan Kumar, president, SISMA-Karnataka, said the government should not allow new sugar factories for at least two years. SISMA is also upset with the fact that the Centre had not taken into consideration its suggestion to increase the distance between the old and new mills from the present 15 km to 25 km.

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-07-19 11:51:31

CA get drenched. July records broken in So Cal. Crazy thunder and lightning. (Google it for photos)

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-07-19 11:58:02
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:40:00

Is pic for real? I wonder how many fish got killed. If there were any humans in that water, then surely they were electrocuted. I didn’t know lightning could even strike water.

Comment by Califoh20
2015-07-19 16:48:22

It does all the time.

….a huge current (typically 30,000 amps) flows down this ionized channel. Seawater, unlike air, is a good conductor as it contains salt. Rather than creating an irregular narrow, ionised path, the charge from the lightning strike spreads out sideways and downwards in an expanding half sphere from the surface. Any fish within a few tens of metres of the same strike point would probably be killed but beyond that they would just feel a tingle.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 17:13:04

Natures way of dealing with the horrific chronic pollution in the coastal waters of CA.

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Comment by Califoh20
2015-07-20 10:55:58

out of adult diapers again?

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-20 19:15:35

You’re out of excuses.

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:38:54

Pretty sure it is real…and a time-lapse photo.

 
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 12:52:48

Does anyone even care about the sugar? Seems like a big deal to me.

Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 13:18:41

What was the overall point, that sugar is going down in price and cane plantations in India are in trouble?

Why is that a big deal other than it’s indicative of deflation in commodities?

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:07:36

Sugar is not following the same pattern as other commodities. It’s been going down for four years. If the cost of production (in poor countries) is currently lower than the market price of the commodity, then the price might not be able to keep going down forever. Verily, it may go up.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 15:35:07

I mean “If the cost of production …is …HIGHER than then market price …”

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:09:17

Mind you that retail prices have nearly doubled over the same time frame.

Comment by azdude
2015-07-19 14:55:36

Is there more demand for ground beef cause prices have seemed to double quite rapidly?

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 15:33:39

Yeah, I noticed that. The commodity is increasing. Commodities are like that. They’re volatile. Alls I’m saying is that maybe ppl should consider buying sugar in the near future, or at least follow it.

 
Comment by azdude
2015-07-19 15:54:52

is it really more demand or a weaker currency?

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 17:19:52

azdude:

I think that’s a false dichotomy. The price of beef went rapidly down not long ago. Commodities are volatile. The US dollar is not getting weaker in comparison to other currencies.

SUGAR, on the other hand, is a different story. Retail prices are up, but the commodity price is waaaaaaaaayyyyy down.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:42:40

It’s not like we are running out of sugar!

 
 
 
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 22:23:59

Up until some time last year, I was able to get real cane sugar at Walmart. Since then, it is longer stocked. I believe not all sugar sold in the multi-pound bags is cane originated. Some of it is from sugar beets. Anyway, I don’t consume as much sugar now directly. Get it from some honey and sweetened almond milk.

 
 
Comment by inchbyinch
2015-07-19 13:27:11

Just got back from FREE Landfill Day. It saved us $200+. We got there before the truck line formed. Very cool service for the community.

We talked about Ca Homestead Law change in 2010 in the truck (cab has backseat.). 65+ you’re exempt for $175K. Now IIRC, it’s 100K for married couples. I haven’t had a R E Law class in a few years for updates, but with the bubblicious prices, the Homestead Limits increased in 2010. Love talk’in shenanigans.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 13:33:57

Tears Of Loss,

You’re neck deep in those shenanigans.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:12:03

She has to get up before dawn on Sunday to save money on trash collection. Poor, poor donks.

Comment by inchbyinch
2015-07-19 19:14:04

Tore down a weird wall in front of the house, and changed the elevation. Dumping concrete is by weight, so it was worth our time. We can afford trash pick up, Auntie. BTW, being an a-hole like Mafia is classless.

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Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-07-19 19:25:02

Poor donk.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 23:42:53

Donkey Rage, how sad.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 13:46:22

Hollande calls for the creation of a euro zone government

Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:23pm BST

French President Francois Hollande called on Sunday for the creation of a euro zone government and for citizens to renew their faith in the European project, which has been weakened by the Greek crisis.

Reviving an idea originally put forward by former European Commission chief Jacques Delors, Hollande proposed “a government of the euro zone (with) a specific budget as well as a parliament to ensure its democratic control”.

The French president said the 19 member states of the euro zone had chosen to join the monetary union because it was in their interests and no one had “taken the responsibility of getting out of it”.

“This choice calls for a strengthened organisation, an advance guard of the countries who will decide on it,” he said.

The euro zone’s members are currently united in the informal body the Eurogroup, which comprises each country’s finance minister, presided over by Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

“What threatens us is not an excess of Europe but its insufficiency,” Hollande wrote in an op-ed in the Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper.

Hollande said Europe had let its institutions become weaker and admitted the EU’s 28 members were “struggling to find common ground to move forward. Parliaments remain too far away from decisions. And people are turning away after having been bypassed so much.”

The president said populist movements had seized on Europeans’ disenchantment with European institutions and were taking issue with Europe because “they are scared of the world, because they want divisions, walls and fences to return.”

uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/19/uk-eurozone-france-idUKKCN0PT0B220150719 - 100k -

Comment by palmetto
2015-07-19 13:59:41

“they are scared of the world, because they want divisions, walls and fences to return.”

You betcha boots, you effete eurocrat. Good fences make good neighbors.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:13:45

Yeah, those fences and walls (and doors and locks) DO typically rise out of fear, which in turn typically rises out of experience. Not only that, but the cows would escape otherwise.

 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 14:04:34

Eddie Money. Shakin’ - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_i73qjN8AI - 250k -

“with one breast in each hand [shaking] them up and down.”

Maryland Del. Ariana Kelly charged with indecent exposure, trespassing

By Bill Turque July 14

A 39-year-old state lawmaker from Bethesda was arrested in late June and charged with indecent exposure and trespassing after a dispute at the home of her ex-husband, according to court records.

A charging document said Del. Ariana B. Kelly (D-Mongtomery) was dropping off her children at her ex-husband’s house, in the 5300 block of Alta Vista Road in Bethesda, when she became upset that his fiancee was inside the residence. Kelly and Barak Sanford were divorced in November, according to court records.

Sanford told police that Kelly started ringing the doorbell and banging on the door and that he asked her to leave.

According to the charging document, Sanford played a cellphone video for police that showed Kelly ringing the doorbell “numerous times,” exposing her breasts in the direction of Sanford’s cellphone camera and then “with one breast in each hand [shaking] them up and down.”

An officer who responded to the scene told Kelly that she could be arrested for indecent exposure and asked her to leave. According to the document, Kelly said: “Arrest me then,” and she extended her wrists toward the officer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/07/14/06a29486-2a58-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html -

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 14:17:16

Why are you posting this?

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 14:41:31

“Why are you posting this?”

The Eddie Money. Shakin’ video?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 14:52:30

We need to keep a breast of all issues, sugar?

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Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 16:20:04

I thought the Eddie Money Shakin’ youtube video fit pretty well

She was shakin’
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
Snappin’ her fingers
(Oh-oh-oh-oh)
She was movin’ round and round
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
That girl was shakin’
(Oh-oh-oh-oh)

Read more: Eddie Money - Shakin’ Lyrics | MetroLyrics

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 14:39:02

“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Barack Obama

Now they have a new way to explain their frustrations.

In Oklahoma, protesters greet Obama with Confederate flags

By Sarah Wheaton

7/15/15 11:56 PM EDT

OKLAHOMA CITY — Confederate battle flags greeted President Barack Obama as he arrived here for an overnight stay on Wednesday.

Across the street from his hotel in downtown Oklahoma City, as many as 10 people waved the flags as his motorcade arrived. The group stood among a larger group of demonstrators, many of them there to support the president, who is in town ahead of a visit to a federal prison on Thursday as part of his weeklong push on criminal justice issues.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/in-oklahoma-protesters-greet-obama-with-confederate-flags-120207.html#ixzz3gNJhPzTV

Comment by Oddfellow
2015-07-19 15:26:14

Just think if all the flag wavers were wearing their rainbow flag ‘I’m on SSD’ t-shirts. It would be a colorful protest!

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 16:36:42

Now I understand your excitement about the rainbow flag, but I really think you are overestimating the number of people in this country who really care.

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 15:09:09

It has rained again today, after shattering a century-old record yesterday forthe San Diego July rainfall total IN A SINGLE DAY!

I am praying for more tropical storms in the Baja.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 15:38:04

Are you getting more bugs than usual? Different bugs? How about different animals at the tidal pools? Take pics, pls.

 
Comment by inchbyinch
2015-07-19 19:20:23

Professor - The new T-Storm didn’t start up in Ventura County until 6:30PM. Hurricane Delores has been one wet storm. Lots of lighting.

Very cool pic of Hotel Del Coronado, btw. Haven’t stayed there in years, but ate there 2 years ago. I love that place, and nice beach. Very old Hollywood vibe to it.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:46:16

Hikers caught on trails above Black’s Beach
Posted: Jul 19, 2015 4:54 PM PST
Updated: Jul 19, 2015 5:31 PM PST

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - The heavy rains caught many hikers off guard in the Torrey Pines area.

Firefighters and lifeguards were called to the cliffs above Black’s Beach just before 3:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Several people called 911 saying they were stuck on trails with torrents of water running past them. One man was trying to get up the Indian Canyon Trail when the water started flowing.

He stayed put until firefighters could reach him. They eventually helped him walk up the rest of the trail. Hikers were also rescued from the box canyon area, the same spot several people became stuck during yesterday’s storm.

 
 
Comment by azdude
2015-07-19 15:57:43

rising home and stocks prices are essential for america’s economic security.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 16:08:48

Understanding NGOs (non-government organizations)
Posted: June 28, 2010 in General

Non UN-accredited NGOs are described by globalists as “populist organizations” and the globalist feel that these organizations can upset and even destroy the work of decades of their deliberations in a short period of time. That is the potential of the “Tea Party” grass roots movement currently on the rise in the United States.

NGOs provide the interface between globalists and the rest of society. NGOs not affiliated with an accredited NGO, which confers CSO status, are discredited, discounted, and labeled as populist activists. Every CSO-NGO is empowered by a funding source that pays for a specific function designed to advance a broader agenda. The funding source, whether public or private, works to advance an agenda that is coordinated by, and developed through, the NGO triumvirate working with UN agencies and national governments.

As the NGOs see it, the result is phenomenal effectiveness at influencing policy at the international, national, and local levels. They believe that their effectiveness will increase.

“The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” - Club of Rome, premier environmental think-tank, consultants to the United Nations

——————————————————————————–

Understanding the World Bank and the IMF
Posted: June 28, 2010 in Economy

Both the IMF and the World Bank are based in Washington, D.C. The IMF always has a European head while the World Bank’s leader is an American.

Initially, as noted, they were set up to fund the reconstruction of Europe and Asia after World War II, and then to build infrastructure and provide for the basic needs of people in the developing world. But in the 1960s, the World Bank shifted the focus of its loans from infrastructure to social services and other social justice[3] sectors.

As Griffin points out, “The International Monetary Fund appears to be a part of the United Nations, much as the Federal Reserve System appears to be part of the United States government, but it is entirely independent. It is funded on a quota basis by its member nations, almost 200 in number.

Understanding NGOs (non-government organizations) | agenda 21
agendatwentyone.wordpress.com/…/understanding-ngos-non-government-organizations/ - 81k -

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-07-19 16:43:42

The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” - Club of Rome, premier environmental think-tank, consultants to the United Nations

Great quote PS, it shows that what I have been saying is true, this alleged man-made global warming is nothing but a mechanism to get funding for world government and to justify the creation of world government to fight a “problem” that would require a world wide solution.

Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-07-19 17:35:01

…except nobody is talking about world government but a bunch of right wing kooks.

Comment by redmondjp
2015-07-19 23:07:54

And the right wing kooks are proven more and more correct, every single day.

Come to downtown Redmond, WA and see what UN Agenda 21 living looks like. Right from from the UN playbook, all disguised as local planning.

Global government indeed. It’s already here.

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Comment by TBoom
2015-07-19 16:44:19

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 16:08:48

Understanding NGOs (non-government organizations)
agendatwentyone.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/understanding-ngos-non-government-organizations/

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 17:24:31

“TBoom”?

 
 
 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-07-19 16:46:52

If the GOP candidates cant deal with Trump bullying them, how will they deal with Putin? Pansies!

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-19 16:47:47

Once Again Prince Philip Demonstrates His Hatred of Humanity

“Who do you sponge off?”

by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | July 19, 2015

The Duke of Edinburgh, who once expressed his wish to come back as a virulent disease and decimate humanity, has again revealed his contempt for the lower classes in Britain.

During a visit to a Dagenham, east London community center the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch asked a group of women “who do you sponge off?”

An aide feebly attempted to backtrack, saying there was “context” to the remark. He said the insult was in regard to sponge cake

The royals are usually circumspect and do not openly display their contempt for the commoners, but Philip, now 94, as of late has let it all hang out.

Less than a week ago he told a lowly photographer “just take the f—— picture” during a photo session for the Battle of Britain anniversary.

The royals have shown their true colors numerous times.

Philip may want to look into his own sponging before berating the commoners.

The Windsors grab $300 million a year (£180 million) out of the British public coffer.

Queen Elizabeth II is the owner of around 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface, making her the largest landowner on the planet. The value of this mammoth estate is estimated to be approximately £17,600,000,000,000 or $33,000,000,000,000.

She is said to be personally worth half a billion dollars. The wealth comes from “property holdings including Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, stud farms, a fruit farm and marine land throughout the U.K.; extensive art and fine jewelry; and one of the world’s largest stamp collections built by her grandfather,” notes Forbes.

Not included are those assets belonging to the Crown Estate, which she gets to enjoy as Queen, such as $10 billion worth of real estate, Buckingham Palace (estimated to be worth another $5 billion), the Royal Art collection, and unmarked swans on stretches of the Thames. The Crown has claimed ownership of these birds since the 12th century when swan meat was considered a delicacy; they are no longer eaten. The Queen also receives an annual government stipend of $12.9 million.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 17:30:05

So? The plebes love those people. Royalty is, well, you know, royalty.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 17:37:59

From

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Sugar mill owners said on Tuesday they will be unable to start operations from the 2015-16 crushing season starting October unless the government accepts their proposal to link cane prices to that of sugar.

Warning of sugarcane remaining unharvested, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), in notices published in major national dailies, said in a “message to all sugarcane farmers” that “sugar prices have to improve, otherwise we will not be able to pay FRP (Fair and Remunerative Price)” fixed by the government.

The association said that due to the unprecedented crisis in the industry hit by “highest sugar stocks and lowest sugar prices in last six years”, millers are unable to clear cane arrears of over Rs.21,000 crore, while cane price arrears for the current year will be left uncleared.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 18:39:23

Though for us boomers and maybe gen x,me ages have gone nowhere.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-19/lies-damned-lies-inflation-statistics

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 19:36:15

Should be “though for us boomers and maybe gen Xers, wages have gone nowhere”

 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 18:44:03

Look now. Something big happening to gold. Down 3% to under $1100

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 19:08:10

I would not be surprised to see the $600s as the bottom for gold. I do think gold is way undervalued now and stocks way overvalued. The gold is under shooting and the stocks are just plain ridiculous, pumped up with QE.

Central banks keep buying the yellow metal. China’s buying of gold up 57% this year.

And we snicker about that?

Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-19 19:16:42

China’s a mess. You should question your choices if they match China’s.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 19:23:34

Chinese still have a lot of fiat, I expect them to call the bluff of the U.S. / European metals manipulators.

They keep buying, I keep buying. Fools are 100% into anything. Fools can buy only once. Smart buyers ease into assets over a generation. Exactly the way I buy my precious metals, over a generation of buying.

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Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 19:45:29

Flow of metal going from west to east. The average Joe in he USA arrogantly does not want gold.

But then it is interesting Bitcoin is not even blinking.

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Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 19:50:45

I’m definitely going to snicker if China loaded up on gold just before the price drops to the $600 range.

 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 19:15:34

Woah!

Silver Slammed As “Someone” dumps 14bn paper gold futures.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-17/silver-slammed-someone-dumps-14bn-paper-gold-futures

Paper is getting whipped. But my stack of gold has kept the same dimensions.

Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-07-19 23:15:50

I am fighting temptation to buy some generic sunshine mint or OPM bars at Provident with this past week’s spot price drops. Holding out for $10 range.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 19:44:36

My guess:

Chinese stock owners are selling gold to raise cash for covering margin calls on brokerage accounts with underwater portfolios.

Panic times are not always bullish for gold prices, especially when a liquidity squeeze is underway.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 20:13:38

Or could China and the Federal Reserve together agree that it’s a good idea for China to load up on the West’s gold, and are together working on price manipulation.

$2.7 bn Flash crash.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-19/gold-precious-metals-flash-crash-following-27-billion-notional-dump

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:56:21

Gold price crashes as Chinese offload
July 20, 2015 - 1:42PM
Stephen Cauchi
Gold hit a five-year low on Monday. Photo: Phil Carrick

Gold plummeted from $US1132 an ounce to $US1092 in the space of minutes today after 5 tonnes of bullion was unloaded on the Chinese market.

However, the price rebounded to $US1109 shortly after.

“There was some heavy selling on the Shanghai Gold Exchange this morning,” said Victor Thianpiriya, ANZ precious metals analyst.
Monday’s gold price crash.

Monday’s gold price crash.

Half-an-hour after the market opened we saw 5 tonnes of gold sold through the Shanghai gold exchange, which is way above normal levels.”

 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 20:08:33

Does it seem to anyone besides me that we are staring at an investing environment the likes of which has not been previously seen in any of our adult lives?

What to do now?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 20:11:42

The Times of India
Business
Personal Finance
Investors, stay in cash
Uma Shashikant, TNN | Jul 20, 2015, 06.47AM IST

Strange are the ways of change— it uses a different tactic each time. When it comes with huge force, as with war, it breaks status quo and enables a fresh start. Seeds of a crisis creep in, beginning innocuously and then gaining momentum, ruthlessly altering status quo, catching us unawares. The meltdown of the Chinese market is a full-blown crisis, which can impact investors worldwide.

The Chinese markets ran up in the last 15 months, with unprecedented participation by locals (3 crore new trading accounts were opened since January 2015). The opening up of margin trading, or the facility to borrow from finance companies to buy stocks, fuelled this bubble. Frenzied buying of IPOs ensued even as simple households turned stock speculators, many mortgaging homes to buy stocks. The collapse of this bubble played out with the markets losing more than 30%. We also saw the most aggressive market intervention by any government, to stall the falling stock prices. After proclaiming just two years ago that China would increasingly allow market forces to work freely, the government claimed that the sell-off in its markets is harmful, and clamped down on sellers. In a crisis, people will sell whatever they can. Selective bans simply extend the sell-off to other assets. After losing face while trying to calm its markets, it is unknown how China would react to the fury of its people who overestimated its government’s might.

China’s market crash will bring into the open several weaknesses in our interconnected world. Commodity prices have been falling and are likely to get worse. The impact on commodity-based economies such as Australia, Russia and Latin America, can be intense. The collapse of commodity prices will hurt Latin America the most. Tough times call for decisive action, which these governments are unable to make, given the low popularity of their leaders. A full-fledged commodity crisis is staring at us.

Low economic growth in the Asian economies, including India, is old news. China has been slowing down from its awe-inducing growth rates, and so have the other Asian economies. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, Asian exporting nations faced a serious fall in demand for goods. In a role-reversal, they turned into importers of capital goods from developed countries, thus helping the latter’s limping revival. Japan’s revival rode on Chinese imports and the Eurozone and America pinned their hopes on export of capital goods to Asia, especially China. If China’s capital investment machine comes to a halt due to its capital market crisis, the deflationary pressure on the world will be huge. The crisis in the Eurozone and the matters in Greece pale in comparison to the size and impact of the Chinese collapse. But these events only point out the fragilities of the global economy that is ill-prepared for another shock. If Greece does not exit, the Eurozone will see resources being spent on bad debts, than on economic revival. If Greece exits, and the Euro still survives with one more round of steep depreciation, the member nations do not have a world with growing demand for its exports to make the most of the fall. Nor is it clear how Greece will pull itself out of the brink. The scary story of other weaker Euro members such as Italy, Portugal and Spain will have to be dealt with.

Global economic revival cannot be engineered by liquidity alone, but needs revival of investment and consumption demand. The US is best placed for this turnaround in its economic growth, but is also not moving at a pace it would have liked. At a time when it likes to push its own exports, its currency has become the safe haven of global investors, leading to a sharp appreciation in the dollar. As the Chinese crisis deepens, it can only expect more inflow of global capital.

How do these events affect Indian investors? We should desist getting smug. Yes, we are an importing nation that will benefit from low commodity and oil prices. Yes, we are domestic consumption-driven and do not export much. Yes, we have a decisive government that can act in a crisis. But a global crisis will channel itself through a demand for liquidity. Investors will liquidate risky assets when uncertainty increases. A sell-off in Indian equity and debt markets is very likely as the Chinese story plays out. This will put the rupee under pressure. We do not earn the dollars we need for our imports, but depend on global capital to fill the gap. An astute RBI has built reserves aggressively and delayed the interest rate cuts. It is in fighting position to defend the currency, but not entirely prevent depreciation.

Those who think that gold is the asset to run to in a crisis should remember the following: Gold has been accumulated since 2009 and is over-weighted in most portfolios and therefore more likely to be liquidated than further accumulated. In an environment of appreciating dollar and falling commodities, gold is more likely to fall than rise.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 21:01:34

Gold is Overweighted in most portfolios? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Do any of us hear colleagues talking about buying gold?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:49:13

Since that article is out of an Indian newspaper, I imagine the perspective is Asian. I.e. plenty of Indian and Chinese households, which comprise about 1/3 of humanity, own physical.

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Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-07-19 20:17:35

Not me. I am anticipating cycles are reaching their maximum (or minimum, if need be). Significant reversals in some asset classes are at hand.

 
 
Comment by tresho
2015-07-19 21:46:15

BBC: The ‘phallic’ clam America sends to China
It’s not the most beautiful dinner to look at and it has a very odd name… but in China the geoduck is an expensive delicacy, so on North America’s Pacific coast the race is on to farm them and cash in.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:57:39

Dumb question of the day:

Given their fondness for the Precious™, will the Chinese government try to intervene in the gold market to support its price, similar to current stock market intervention underway?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 21:59:43

Gold just got destroyed
David Scutt, Business Insider Australia
Jul. 19, 2015, 10:03 PM

It’s Monday, Japanese markets are closed and the gold price has just suffered a mini “flash crash”.

At 11.25am AEST the spot price suddenly tumbled 3.8%, or $43, to $1087 an ounce.

While it has since recovered around one third of its decline, it is now trading at the lowest level seen since March 2010.

The moves in gold are being replicated across the precious metals space with platinum and palladium also lower by 5% and 3% respectively.

At this point it appears as though stop-loss orders, accompanied by thin market conditions due to the public holiday in Japan, are the main catalysts behind the sudden price decline.

Gold stocks on Australia’s ASX 200 are currently under pressure with ASX All Ordinaries gold index down 7.91%, on track for its largest one-day percentage decline since December 1, 2014.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 22:02:04

Gold
Gold bulls in retreat after spectacular plunge

Ansuya Harjani
39 Mins Ago
CNBC.com

Gold got whacked in the Asian trading session on Monday, plunging below $1,100 in for the first time since March 2010, and strategists say the precious metal is only headed lower from here.

The precious metal’s latest leg down was reportedly triggered by speculative selling in the Shanghai Gold Exchange, catching investors off guard.

It was down to speculation here, someone taking advantage of the low liquidity environment,” Victor Thianpiriya, commodity strategist at ANZ, told CNBC. “Around 5 tonnes of gold was sold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange within the space of two minutes between 09:29 and 09:30. The daily volume last week was about 25 tonnes,” he noted.

Gold slid over 4 percent to as low as $1,086 an ounce in early trade on Monday, before paring back some losses over the course of the day. It was down 2.3 percent at $1,107 at around 12:00 SG/HK time.

“It clearly wasn’t driven by fundamentals, because the U.S. dollar didn’t move at that time,” Thianpiriya said.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 22:04:55

Gold tumbles 4 per cent to 5-year low, platinum also knocked
Manolo Serapio Jr
Manila
Last Updated: July 20, 2015 | 09:12 IST

Gold plunged 4 per cent to its lowest in more than five years on Monday with platinum also sinking 5 per cent to its weakest since 2009 as investors sold off precious metals.

It was a sudden, massive drop for gold and platinum prices which had breached critical support levels since Friday as the dollar strengthened on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year.

Spot gold was down 2.8 per cent at $1,102.40 an ounce by 7:20 am after falling as far as $1,088.05, the lowest since March 2010.

Platinum lost as much as 5 per cent to $942.49 an ounce, its weakest since February 2009.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 22:11:13

Markets Asia Stocks
Gold Tumbles to More Than Five-Year Low, China Shares Fall
Shares in Australia, South Korea up modestly, Japan markets closed for holiday
By Chao Deng
Updated July 20, 2015 1:00 a.m. ET

Gold prices tumbled to a more than five-year low Monday, and China shares drifted lower after authorities’ weekend move to tighten the use of informal lending channels by stock investors.

Gold fell 2.3% in a matter of minutes early Monday, after China’s central bank reported on Friday its gold reserves were half the expected level, up 57% to 53.32 million troy ounces. China is one of the biggest gold buyers globally, and the report showed its central-bank holdings are the fifth-largest in the world. China doesn’t consistently disclose its level of gold reserves.

This latest signal of slackening demand tops a growing list of factors tarnishing the precious metal in recent weeks. Positive U.S. economic data, from home-building statistics to consumer prices, has firmed expectations the Federal Reserve will raise short-term interest rates later this year.

Some analysts say that’s also sparked selling among funds skeptical the metal will resume its decade long rally, which ended in 2011. Higher bond yields and a resurgent U.S. dollar diminish the appeal of gold, which produces no income and costs money to hold. Spot gold is currently trading at $1,106 an ounce.

“This kind of sharp drop during early Asian hours is a strong indication that a big fund is selling their holdings of gold,” said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, director of Commtrendz Risk Management.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.4% at 3940.15, after gaining 3.5% last week. It remains down nearly a quarter from its seven-year-plus high hit in June. The smaller Shenzhen index is up 0.1%, after jumping 7.6% last week.

The Hang Seng Index was up 0.2% at 25354.70, after its first weekly gain in five of 2.1%.

Beijing’s efforts to prop up the market appear to have stemmed a slide that left markets with trillions in losses earlier this month. Still, investors are wary whether government measures—including easing rules on loans to buy shares, suspended trading of some stocks, cutting interest rates and halting initial public offerings—can sustain the momentum.

On Saturday, the central bank issued guidelines on its website to regulate fast-growing Internet finance as part of efforts to address risks exposed by the recent stock market turmoil.

Informal lending channels such as peer-to-peer lending, which directly connects borrowers and lenders, have played a major role pumping up the market—but also exacerbating its declines. Analysts expect more regulation could curb the market’s gains in the short term.

“Last week, many websites completely or partly closed down their informal financing business for stock investment,” wrote Vincent Chan, analyst at Credit Suisse in a research note Monday. “The scale of informal financing may have already dropped by at least 20%. A continuous decline could be seen in the future months.”

Three Chinese companies providing peer-to-peer lending services—Miniu98.com, Xunqianwang and Quchaoguwang—said earlier this month that they will exit the business of providing “middleman services” for loans secured with pledged shares as collateral, each citing the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s warnings against illegal trading.

Official margin financing has been falling from record levels in June and was down to 1.43 trillion yuan ($230.24 billion) as of Friday.

The number of companies allowing their shares to resume trading stalled late last week, although hundreds have already returned. That has helped unlock liquidity for investors who were hard-pressed to sell for cash. Foreign investors pulled cash out of mainland markets for nine days in a row, a streak that ended only Friday.

Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P ASX 200 is flat and South Korea’s Kospi is down 0.1%. Japan’s market was closed for public holiday.

The euro traded at $1.0822 after hitting a near-two-month low of $1.8026 on Friday. Euro sentiment remains tenuous, though Germany’s Parliament on Friday backed a rescue for Greece and eurozone officials completed plans to provide the country with €7 billion ($7.58 billion) of bridge financing.

The U.S. dollar rose against several Asian currencies after the Federal Reserve kept alive hopes last week for raising interest rates this year. That has pushed some Asian currencies lower.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-07-19 22:19:31

As much as I hate to dash gold bull’s hopes into the rocks below, the current sell-off is happening despite the Fed’s repeated false starts in raising interest rates. Just wait until they actually follow through with rate cuts! Until then, one should not assume that gold is anywhere near a bottom.

P.S. Wife just slammed the back door, to cut off the flow of cigarette smoke into our lovely abode. Chinese neighbor is puffing away outside, probably trying to calm his nerves over bundles of money lost gambling on gold and Chinese stocks.

 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2015-07-19 23:47:27

Good night, housing bubble blog.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-20 05:44:05

Q

 
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