Bits Bucket for October 10, 2015
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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Kirkland, WA Housing Prices Crater 7% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/kirkland-wa-98033/home-values/
Steven Jones, eh? Yeah, right. More like Esteban Hijodejuan.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/deadly-shooting-reported-northern-arizona-universitys-flagstaff-campus/story?id=34363113
If only the other guys had had guns too. Then it would have been just a good old-fashioned shootout.
Get lost on your way to HuffPo, little fella?
Just wandering around. Don’t you think a good shootout would have been preferable?
Don’t you think a good shootout would have been preferable?
Heck yeah! They could have taken down some bystanders in the process. That’s what I call American exceptionalism.
Why don’t you two link your pinky fingers and skip along to HuffPo.
That’s your rebuttal? Seriously?
The Lion is feeling particularly lazy today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfHAiIq-Yeo
I remember when Reagan ( greatest RINO ever) was shot, he was surrounded by guys with guns….how did that work out?
Was this a “campus shooting” or was it a fight where one guy went to get a gun?
Both?
One is much less scary and could be avoided.
Visiting SF this weekend. Staying with my daughter, who rents a 2 Bd, 2 Ba for $3200/Mon and her friends consider it a steal! About 800 SF at $4/SF. Includes one parking spot!
This place costs more than my suburban home on aa third of an acre in the Sierra Foothills.
The vitality is great. We walked to dinner at 8 PM and had a great meal. 100’s of people all around, hustling and bustling to and fro. Gotta love the city.
Yet renting is still half the cost of buying at current grossly inflated prices.
<bRemember…. current asking prices of resale housing are 250% higher than long term trend and double construction costs(lot, labor, materials and profit).
$6400 to own? Was it a $2.2mill 800 sq ft apt?? Bush math?
All the costs Lola. No DonkeyMath allowed.
Know a dude with a building in Oakland who recently had a vacancy. Rent went from $1200 to $2400. And it isn’t even the nice part of Oakland!
There is a nice part in Oakland?
Maybe Oakland will become the next Brooklyn.
Oakland is already somewhat slummy isn’t it?
Only in the nice parts……
Oakland Hills have Golden Gate Bridge views…beautiful. Rockridge in East Bay is $$. 94618 zip I think. Lake Merritt is another. In general east bay has pretty nice weather compared to SF, and it used to be cheaper, now not so much.
…..and a steady heady wind 24/7/365…..well OK, 360….there are about 5 days a year you can sit outside. You’re right though, not so foggy as SF!
Oakland Hills are OK, the flats are a black ghetto. Lots of crime like East LA.
100’s of people all around, hustling and bustling to and fro
That’s because they have no home/apt to go to. They can’t afford.
You pouring your bubble fraud profits down some other landlord losers piehole on behalf of your daughter?
Might be a good dad and tell her not to waste her life and treasure in such profligate ways and to move the hell out of Cali ASAP if she wants a good life.
She’s not using my money! Her housing cost is less than 25% of her income. She has a great life and a great career. I encouraged her to move there and spread her fledgling wings. She’s taken flight and I couldn’t be prouder or happier!
I also enjoy having a place to stay when we visit her! Win/win!
She has a great life and a great career ??
Young, female, high income, great career path living in San Francisco….It does not get any better than that…
Sending my daughter to a high crime city with a huge sex offender list in the poorest state in the US is very low bar.
She’s twice the man you’ll ever be if you’re afraid to live in SF. HA!
…. a very low bar Jingle_Fraud.
Yes, your manhood is no measure. Agreed. Go back to your rust belt cave and cower. SF is too much city for you…..
Keep lowering that bar Jingle_Fraud. SF is just a few crimes away from third world status.
Fun to visit, kinda.
Too many homeless and Chinese people for my taste. Why wait in line for everything??? Vegas has lots of people walking around too. blah! Did your bike get stolen? too many rats in a small cage
seems like a lot of hype and overpriced homes down there.
Can’t help but wonder if he’s become disenchanted with Putin’s authoritarian statism.
Snowden: I’d go to prison to return to US
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Edward Snowden says he has offered to return to the United States and go to jail for leaking details of National Security Agency programs to intercept electronic communications data on a vast scale.
Snowden told the BBC that he’d “volunteered to go to prison with the government many times,” but had not received a formal plea-deal offer.
He said that “so far they’ve said they won’t torture me, which is a start, I think. But we haven’t gotten much further than that.”
In an interview broadcast Monday on the BBC’s “Panorama” program, Snowden said he and his lawyers were waiting for U.S. officials “to call us back.”
Earlier this year, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said a plea deal with Snowden was a possibility.
http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-id-prison-return-us-175045276.html
So inside a prison in the U.S. beats freedom in Putin’s Russia? Or is this a case of “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”?
Perhaps after experiencing Putin’s authoritarianism first-hand, Snowden realizes being in Russia gives implied support to everything he’s against.
Yep torture from CIA/NSA and the rapes from gang members inside the prison is the only way to fight.
Snowden is purportedly against such things, so it was ironic that he fled to a country that is even worse about doing such things than we are. I think he has come to recognize this, since he seems like a very intelligent and serious individual.
even worse about doing such things than we are.
There are no atheists in foxholes. Snowden very well knows that the people who had no problem blowing up an Afghani hospital will definitely go medieval on his a$$. At least in Russia he has more or less same freedom as any “NSA spied free” American.
Then why is he willing to go to prison in order to return to the US?
It’s called pr (or propaganda) campaign. You must know it…you engage on it everyday.
So Snowden is doing the propaganda? Or it’s being forced on him in some way? I don’t really get your point.
Stumped?
data Lola. Stick with the data.
Coral Gables, FL Housing Prices Nosedive 16% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/coral-gables-fl/home-values/
Coral Gables, FL _does_ look a bit like it has nosed over; the summer spike was much more muted, and below the spike of last summer. It will be interesting to watch that one over the next year…
Snowden has an agenda. Maybe he can better pursue that agenda from inside a US prison than from Russia.
Currently, for the general population, there’s a bit of out of sight out of mind with regard to him. If he’s sitting in a US prison, maybe people would be asking ‘why is this man in jail’?
That’s an awfully high price to pay to make a point, but he has demonstrated he thinks it is worth it.
Presumably, there’d be some court proceedings as well which would further expose the absurdity of his incarceration.
If he’s sitting in a US prison, maybe people would be asking ‘why is this man in jail’?
Yep right. Like the same way the people are asking about Bradley Manning and countless others. More than 2 million people in jail; most of them are for minor offenses. Yep, people are asking questions.
Minor offenses ? Bwababahahabaha. Courts been turning minor offenders loose without jail for years. These are repeat offenders and hardened criminals. Quit believing TV lies or man bites dog stories.
Btw. What actually happened to the snowballer?
What actually happened to the snowballer? ??
He got arrested…Thats all you need to know…
No, people were making points about things following him around forever. Felony records and such. If it’s just an arrest, well it’s not much different than Andy Taylor hauling some snowball throwing delinquent down to Mayberry jail til his Daddy arrives. And that’s even setting aside that some one off example in a country of 330 million people means squat.
He got arrested…Thats all you need to know…
Who arrested him? He’s in fatherland banging hot russian models. Life is good. What did you do today? how many people did you lie to today?
So what part of this did you two toads miss;
A 13-year-old boy is accused of chucking a snowball at a Chicago police officer - who immediately hit back with a felony charge against the teen.
The unnamed 8th grader says he wasn’t even the student who tossed the chunk of ice around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, earning the boy a charge of aggravated battery to a peace officer.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCQQFjABahUKEwiF2O7G0bjIAhUDzGMKHYa3AMg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime%2Fchicago-boy-charged-felony-throwing-snowball-article-1.1621756&usg=AFQjCNHcTCUG2hF8eEqQ7j7gTQSh12Q2Vw&sig2=GwZOydwt1_8hRP8uSZs3uQ
So the charges were dropped?
I’d go to prison for a million dollars also. For a few months not 20 years. He’d come back and be a rockstar on the campus circuits. The question is for how long.
Can’t help but wonder if he’s become disenchanted with Putin’s authoritarian statism.
Or maybe:
He’s not useful to Putin anymore and is no longer welcome in Russia?
He’s been told that he’s been targeted for “retirement”? Surrender and recant and you’ll spend a few years in Club Fed after we make a public spectacle of you in court, but if you hold out there’s a body bag waiting for you.
How is he no longer useful to Putin?
Putin found a figure cause in fighting against american supported isis?
So you aren’t buying the line that 9,000 guys in pajamas could make 300,000 US trained Iraqi troops drop their guys and run like little girls?
“How is he no longer useful to Putin?”
I always figured they’d swap Viktor Bout for Edward Snowden.
What happens when a NATO “ally” looks like it’s headed down the road to civil war?
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-two-blasts-at-road-junction-in-turkish-capital-many-casualties-media-2015-10
Blood, covered bodies and hazmat suits.
That looks real.
Let me guess: every tragedy like this is a “false flag” and these are “crisis actors.”
Your own reality, made to order. Far easier than an unblinking reckoning with the difficulties of human existence.
“and these are “crisis actors.”
No, they are not “crisis actors.”
So I guess you guessed wrong.
What are they?
Stumped again!
Has anybody seen this?
www.99homesmovie.com/
92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes…
“Before I Disappear” - simply brilliant. If you have Netflix, gotta see it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bosMzZh916I
Some serious competition has emerged for the Boomers as the most worthless, self-absorbed generation in our history; namely, today’s late teens/early 20s - I’ll call them the entitled douchebag generation. Here is a prime example of one such specimen and his peers.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/two-reasons-people-cant-stop-watching-drunk-uconn-kids-mac-and-cheese-video_102015
Update: Mac & Cheese Boy got expelled from UConn.
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/266063/luke-gatti-expelled-uconn-mac-and-cheese-tantrum/
It’s quite a stretch to paint an entire generation as “the entitled douchebag generation” based on the behavior of one individual with an alcohol abuse problem.
Clearly the drunken kid has issues, but “prime example” of a worthless self-absorbed generation?
Let me ask you this, Raymond. When you were an immature college kid, did you ever do anything that you were later ashamed of? After consuming some alcohol, did you ever do anything that you wouldn’t do if you were sober?
God knows some buddies and I did some really stupid stuff as a college freshman. Thankfully there were no smartphones then to incriminate us. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” works for me, we’ll leave those skeletons buried in the past. Too bad many of today’s kids don’t have that option.
Hillary is apparently dropping like a stone. Enjoy you Lolas
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/clintons-support-slides-ahead-first-democratic-debate-221936118.html
Clown car!
Yesterday we got some more of that ‘GOP is doomed!’ Uh, they have both houses of congress and it is possible they’ll get the white house. I’m not voting for these neocons but I sure don’t know what the Democrats have but ‘clown car!’
I sure don’t know what the Democrats have but ‘clown car!’
All white, old, uninspiring klown car, to boot.
He may be old and white, but I find Bernie Sanders pretty inspiring. We’ll see how he does in the debates.
I like some of the stuff Sanders says about the Fed and globalism. Trump said NAFTA stinks, gotta admire that. He also said invading Iraq and Libya was a mistake and that we shouldn’t be policing the world. Jeb looked like he saw a ghost.
it is possible they’ll get the white house ??
Kasich maybe but I think at the end of the day women in particular will fear a 100% republican controlled government…
Trump said NAFTA stinks, gotta admire that ??
Ross Perot told us that even before it was passed…
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/256531-carson-declares-war-on-the-press
‘Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson admonished the Washington press corps Friday, calling the news media “embarrassing” and “insincere” and vowing to “expose” the institutional bias he says runs rampant.’
“Everything needs to be looked at in context, and when news media picks one word or one phrase and they run with it and try to characterize people like that, I gotta tell you guys, that’s why people don’t trust you anymore,” he said. “I mean you’re down there with used car salesmen.”
This just in: the National Association of USED CAR SALESMEN® strongly denounced Carson’s campaign.
“He may be old and white, but I find Bernie Sanders pretty inspiring.”
I loved Bernie in Back to the future.
Doc Brown Back to the future - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA1s1X_Qzgo - 175k - Cached - Similar pages
Jan 15, 2013 … Doc Brown Back to the future.
Bernie For The Future: Bernie Sanders 2016 T-Shirt | Wonkette Bazaar
wonkettebazaar.com/shop/bernie-for-the-future-bernie-sanders-2016-t-shirt/ - 62k - Cached - Similar pages
We have made you some Bernie Sanders T-shirts! See, you are like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, but you are not a mad scientist! You are a very sane …
‘Too bad many of today’s kids don’t have that option’
He obviously knew he was being recorded.
I never engaged in drunken tantrums, and my friends, peers, and bystanders would almost certainly have intervened to defuse the situation and steer me away from trouble if I had. A whole cafeteria full of D-bags just stood there and watched while this kid made an ass out himself and played the buffoon. That’s the difference between my generation and this punk’s.
So you are saying you never did anything when you were a college kid that you were later ashamed of?
‘For almost ten minutes this kid, now identified as Luke V. Gatti of Bayville, New York, drunkenly refuses to leave the cafeteria without the macaroni and cheese after he shows up there with an open alcohol container completely drunk and gets denied service for not only underage drinking on campus, but for throwing a fit over pasta to the point that he assaults the manager multiple times, flipping him off and repeatedly calling him a “f*cking tool” and a “f*cking fag” among other brilliant retorts (not the way to get mac and cheese, we’re thinking).’
‘After one more shove, finally an older cook comes out from the back and he and the manager wrestle the kid to the ground until the cops show up.’
“If I get arrested, then I’m f*cked,” Gatti says as he’s being pinned to the ground (finally).
“Well then you’re f*cked,” the cook says.’
Of course I did stupid things in college. But they never included belittling people or throwing tantrums.
So you are saying you never did anything when you were a college kid that you were later ashamed of?
I routinely farted in class.
So from this one drunken miscreant you draw the grand sweeping generalization that his generation is the worst ever?
calling him a “f*cking tool” and a “f*cking fag” among other brilliant retorts
Sounds like some of our posters here.
We all do stupid things when we are young.
My point is that this is an extreme case of a kid with a history of bad behavior and of alcohol abuse.
I don’t think it’s valid to use this case to label an entire generation.
I remember one time when a buddy of mine had too much to drink and he started mouthing off to the wrong people. We physically removed him from the area and put him to bed to sleep it off. And there were other times when I was the one behaving badly.
Maybe this kid was such a bad apple with a bad reputation that no one would step in to get him out of there.
@ In Colorado… from the tone of your post it sounds like you were proud of farting in class.
But they never included belittling people or throwing tantrums.
That’s odd. You just called me a little boy who needed to hook pinkies with another poster and go to HoffPo. So this pattern of belittling those you disagree with began after college?
I can fart a thought that makes more sense than anything Lola says.
I can fart a thought
We’re well aware of that. It’s the same place your data comes from, eh?
Heyooo!
+1 Oddfellow…Everything he posts is methane…
Everything he posts is methane…
He must fart in your direction. You’re the only one seem to notice it.
Is English not your first language, chainsaw?
More painful truth for Lola
English is my first and seventh luggage. What’s yours?
My first luggage is Samsonite.
So this pattern of belittling those you disagree with began after college?
There’s a huge difference between the kind of douchbagggery the kid was displaying toward the food court manager in a public place, and in an often threatening and belicose manner, and the rather mild banter that gets tossed around in here.
If the TPP passes we’re f*cked.
“Well then you’re f*cked,” the cook says.’
Wikileaks release of TPP deal text stokes ‘freedom of expression’ fears
Intellectual property rights chapter appears to give Trans-Pacific Partnership countries’ countries greater power to stop information from going public
Sam Thielman in New York
Friday 9 October 2015 13.34 EDT
Wikileaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday.
“The text of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of internet activist group Fight for the Future. “But the sad part is that no one should be surprised by this. It should have been obvious to anyone observing the process, where appointed government bureaucrats and monopolistic companies were given more access to the text than elected officials and journalists, that this would be the result.”
The rules also state that every country has the authority to immediately give the name and address of anyone importing detained goods to whoever owns the intellectual property.
That information can be very broad, too: “Such information may include information regarding any person involved in any aspect of the infringement or alleged infringement,” the document continues, “and regarding the means of production or the channels of distribution of the infringing or allegedly infringing goods or services, including the identification of third persons alleged to be involved in the production and distribution of such goods or services and of their channels of distribution.”
http://www.theguardian.com/…/wikileaks-releases-tpp-intellectual-property-rights-chapter - 868k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-10-10 16:00:22
Wikileaks release of TPP deal text stokes ‘freedom of expression’ fears
theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/09/wikileaks-releases-tpp-intellectual-property-rights-chapter
Welcome to the Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “recovery.”
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/10/08/why-this-feels-like-a-depression-for-most-people/
how long can an economy depend on increasing asset prices and getting free money to people?
That is precisely what we intend to find out.
Many many more years looking at Japan.
If all countries coordinate to do the same thing, maybe forever?
Which TBTF bank will be the first to fail?
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/deutsche-banks-balance-sheet-is-toxic-waste/
why do people get free money for owning and selling overpriced assets?
Maybe poisoning your customers isn’t a viable growth strategy.
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/10/monsanto-stock-decline-layoffs
Remember the good old days when Monsanto’s claim to fame was polyester fabrics?
More job cuts…I watching this particular trend closely…Although the holiday season will likely skew numbers with all the hiring of WalMart greeters…
liberal, pansy, tree hugger!
Paul Krugman, one of the few bright lights who actually understand how modern economics actually works, calls out maybe-speaker-to-be Paul Ryan for his really bad prior budget proposals and for being dead wrong on the economy:
“[Ryan's] big contribution to discussion of economic policy was his stern warning to Ben Bernanke that quantitative easing would “debase the dollar”, that rising commodity prices in early 2011 presaged a surge in inflation.”
Of course we know today the opposite has occurred — the dollar is strong and commodities have cratered.
“Ryan is to budget analysis as Carly Fiorina is to corporate leadership: he’s brilliant at self-promotion, but there’s no hint that he’s actually able to do the job.” Ryan’s budgets repeat the same old voodoo failed math: slash trillions from spending while assuming new revenues that appear out of nowhere due to “trickle down.”
Paul Krugman is a Keynesian douchebag.
Ruh-roh
More trouble in Betterville
First they want the liberal elite kids from Dumbo to go to school with minorities with low test scores and now this.
L.A.’s Westside Wealthy and the Homeless Collide as Numbers Surge
Mayor Eric Garcetti declares a state of emergency as the city sees a 12 percent increase in the homeless population, law enforcement’s hands are tied, and Westside enclaves like Brentwood and Mar Vista close ranks (and parks) against the tide of transients.
This story first appeared in the Oct. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
Where we are is in dire and uncharted waters, with a record 46,000 homeless in the city, a 12 percent increase in the past two years —
and into the shadows of some of the city’s most expensive enclaves.
L.A.’s City Council District 11, which encompasses Westside neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Mar Vista, now has one of the largest homeless populations in the city — nearly 1,500, according to one recent count. Scores more “hidden homeless” live in backyards, vehicles and hillside encampments.
“Community members are saying, ‘My kid has to walk by tents where people have syringes hanging out of their arms. Do something about it,’ ” says Garcetti, who has pledged to throw $100 million at the problem annually. The funding will provide housing vouchers that can be used to pay rent in any apartment around town (providing you can find a landlord who’ll accept them) and will increase the city’s homeless outreach staff, which numbers a paltry 36 workers.
But the influx of homeless has left Pacific Palisades residents fuming. More than 100 of them packed the local library July 14 for a heated showdown with law enforcement and social services representatives,
Local papers like the Palisadian-Post and Palisades News, meanwhile, have mounted an all-out campaign against the homeless — with occasional notes of compassion — running horror stories like the one about the naked man napping peacefully in broad daylight on a sidewalk in Palisades Village, or, far more ominously, the case of Brian Thomas Cruz, a homeless man who in August 2014 held a Palisades woman hostage with a box cutter before embarking on a bath salts-fueled carjacking and burglary spree.
Most interactions between the haves and have-nothings are not so extreme, and Garcetti is hopeful that by beefing up social services, it can help the homeless get off the streets and stay off of them. For director Brett Ratner, whose father lived on the streets after years of drug addiction and who serves on the board of Chrysalis, a nonprofit that helps find jobs for the homeless, the answer lies in helping these forgotten citizens to help themselves: “They deserve to get their dignity and pride back, reconnect with loved ones and get back into society.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/las-westside-wealthy-homeless-collide-830703 - 180k -
There’s a reason why gated communities have been popular in that part of the country.
Gated communities?
“Community members are saying, ‘My kid has to walk by tents where people have syringes hanging out of their arms. Do something about it,’ ” says Garcetti, who has pledged to throw $100 million at the problem annually.”
Don’tcha know that there
Ain’t no mountain high enough,
Ain’t no valley low enough,
Ain’t no river wide enough
To keep them from getting to you
Those “community members” almost certainly voted straight Democrat. You reap what you sow.
a bath salts-fueled carjacking and burglary spree
“Fundamental transformation” coming soon to your neighborhood.
Thanks, Obama.
How do you solve the hobo problem?
Share your cot at the shelter Lola.
Easy to complain about, hard to solve.
Agreed. I think a lot of municipalities would prefer to just make things so disagreeable for the homeless that they move on to someone else’s town. That just shifts the problem around, without addressing the root causes.
maybe bringing back opium dens is not such a far fetched idea….homeless camps
anyone know of a zombie housing project? if its going to rot in the weather anyway why not use it for the homeless, section 8 put in a police sub station and a welfare office.
everybody wants segregation again, look at Europe, all the new segregated countries.
The GOP Klown Kar is now a full-blown two-ring circus, one for president and the other for Speaker of the House. If these Klowns can’t lead themselves how are they supposed to lead us?
Meanwhile, a Speaker of the House “HELP WANTED” ad posted on Craig’s List:
http://goo.gl/CJu1Us <— LOL
If the Oligopoly and its water carriers support a trade deal, it doesn’t take a penetrating analysis to figure out who is going to get screwed: the 99%. While ‘Muricans simply look up, bleat, and return to their grazing, the Germans aren’t going to take this lying down.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-10/biggest-protest-country-has-seen-years-quarter-million-germans-protest-obama-free-tr
the Germans aren’t going to take this lying down
Mutti will shove it down their throats, just like she did with the refugees.
Oh dear. No wonder they’re freaking out about RICO.
What Exxon knew about
the Earth’s melting Arctic
By SARA JERVING, KATIE JENNINGS, MASAKO MELISSA HIRSCH AND SUSANNE RUST
OCT. 9, 2015
Back in 1990, as the debate over climate change was heating up, a dissident shareholder petitioned the board of Exxon, one of the world’s largest oil companies, imploring it to develop a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its production plants and facilities.
The board’s response: Exxon had studied the science of global warming and concluded it was too murky to warrant action. The company’s “examination of the issue supports the conclusions that the facts today and the projection of future effects are very unclear.”
Yet in the far northern regions of Canada’s Arctic frontier, researchers and engineers at Exxon and Imperial Oil were quietly incorporating climate change projections into the company’s planning and closely studying how to adapt the company’s Arctic operations to a warming planet.
The gulf between Exxon’s internal and external approach to climate change from the 1980s through the early 2000s was evident in a review of hundreds of internal documents, decades of peer-reviewed published material and dozens of interviews conducted by Columbia University’s Energy & Environmental Reporting Project and the Los Angeles Times.
“We considered climate change in a number of operational and planning issues,” said Brian Flannery, who was Exxon’s in-house climate science advisor from 1980 to 2011. In a recent interview, he described the company’s internal effort to study the effects of global warming as a competitive necessity: “If you don’t do it, and your competitors do, you’re at a loss.”
link:
http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/
Russian fighter shot down by Turkey. Also, Russian cruise missiles stray off target and hit Iran.
One thing about Russia: when they do war, they are sloppy. No surgical strikes for these guys, just shotguns and sledgehammers. Lots of collateral damage. And a compliant media back home to sanitize the coverage. All hail Putin’s victories for Mother Russia!
Surgical strike to a Hospital? Or a wedding party?
LOL
Russian Air Force destroys 29 ISIS camps in Syria in 24 hours
by RT | October 10, 2015
Russian warplanes in Syria have bombed 29 terrorist field camps and other facilities of the militant group Islamic State in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
“Our aviation group over the past day has destroyed two militant command centers, 29 field camps, 23 fortified facilities and several troop positions with military hardware,” ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.
The Russian Air Force conducted 64 sorties and hit a total of 55 targets, he said.
He added that the Russian effort has “considerably degraded” the strength of the terrorist forces in Syria.
“During the initial phase of the operation, our warplanes have destroyed the biggest and most important supply hubs of ISIL,” Konashenkov said, calling Islamic State by its former name. This resulted in the “mobility and offensive capability” of the jihadists being reduced, he said.
The general said signal intelligence reports indicate that the militants are suffering from a shortage of fuel and ammunition after the Russian bombings. “Some of them are demoralized and are actively leaving the battle zone, moving in eastern and northeastern directions,” he said.
Konashenkov said that the increasing number of combat missions conducted by Russia in Syria is explained by the large number of potential targets identified and confirmed as viable by space and aerial reconnaissance.
Russia started its bombing campaign in Syria last week with a goal to provide air support to the government troops fighting against various terrorist groups, primarily Islamic State. This allowed Damascus to go on the offensive in Hama province on Friday.
News flash! Russia Times says Russia is doing great, Putin brilliant as always!
Enjoy the war, apparently Putin is now admitting there are Russian “volunteers” on the ground in Syria.
“Enjoy the war, apparently Putin is now admitting there are Russian “volunteers” on the ground in Syria.”
Obama Administration Abandoning Program To Train And Equip “Moderate” Syrian Rebels
Doug Mataconis · Friday, October 9, 2015
LONDON — The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria.
Pentagon officials were expected to officially announce the end of the program on Friday, as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter leaves London after meetings with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, about the continuing wars in Syria and Iraq.
“I wasn’t happy with the early efforts” of the program, Mr. Carter said during a news conference with Mr. Fallon. “So we have devised a number of different approaches.” Mr. Carter added, “I think you’ll be hearing from President Obama very shortly” on the program.
A senior Defense Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there would no longer be any more recruiting of so-called moderate Syrian rebels to go through training programs in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Instead, a much smaller training center would be set up in Turkey, where a small group of “enablers” — mostly leaders of opposition groups — would be taught operational maneuvers like how to call in airstrikes.
While many details of the new approach still need to be worked out, President Obama endorsed the shift in strategy at two high-level meetings with his national security and foreign policy advisers last week, several American officials said.
The change makes official what those in the Pentagon and elsewhere in the administration have been saying for several weeks would most likely happen, particularly in the wake of revelations that the program at one point last month had only “four or five” trainees in the fight in Syria — a far cry from the plan formally started in December to prepare as many as 5,400 fighters this year, and 15,000 over the next three years.
“Training thousands of infantry was not the right model, I think that’s become pretty clear,” said another senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/…/ - 137k -
Moderate Syrian Rebels = ISIS
Jokes on you, sad pandas.
Far, far better to be abandoning some doomed program to arm Syrian friendlies than to be sending in your own lads to fight, as Russia is about to learn.
Cute theory, but no cigar.
“enjoy the war”
great line!
During the Chechen wars the Russian Ministry of Defense put out similar glowing claims of success. Someone did a tally and figured out that by the Kremlin’s own numbers, each Chechen rebel had been killed five times over, and Shamil Basayev’s death was announced no less than 13 times. So I would take these Russian claims with a metric ton of salt.
The potential for miscalcuation and escalation is frightening. Turkey is a NATO member, and a Russia-on-Turkey clash has some serious geopolitical ramifications.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3266089/Terrifying-footage-Russian-Hind-helicopter-gunships-firing-rockets-backed-Syrian-rebels-claim-attacks-making-ISIS-STRONGER.html
http://www.notbeinggoverned.com/the-holy-state/
The Holy State
Written by Alexander Munro Smith.
It sucks you in and locks your gaze,
It melts your mind in foggy haze.
Vapidly you cast your eyes
As rapidly you’re mesmerized.
That two-dimensional scene you see
Pancakes your conscious reality.
Creativity thus is squashed
As cunningly, your brain is washed.
Now you’re ready to receive
The web of bullshit we have weaved.
While your mind is plowed and seeded,
Will and testament are deeded.
It’s our land now and we are growing
What earlier we had been sowing.
A monoculture can now be raised,
A generation thus enslaved.
Fall in line now, don’t stand out.
Our way for you ‘s the easiest route.
Give us 40 hours a week,
Like greasy cogs, don’t make a squeak.
You’re on our hamster wheel, you see—
And you’re our source of energy.
Whatever it is you try to do,
We’ll take a piece, cuz we own you.
Serve your country, do your part.
Here’s some sugar, now pull the cart.
We pay the sheep that we have shorn,
With debt upon their yet unborn.
And all of this you surely know,
And still you help our power grow.
We are your God, the Holy State,
Come offer us your fear and hate.
You’ll fight for us and at our will
Your fellow man you’ll blithely kill.
If you break down, just take this pill…
Reduce your consciousness to nil.
You’ll never cast us off, you’ll be
Too weak and timid to be free.
The one thing you must never grasp
Is how much choice you really have.
‘Cause if you did you’d soon realize
The wool we’ve cast over your eyes.
You’d toss your chains aside and stand
In proud defiance of our command.
You’d start to think thoughts of your own,
Then cast us from our vaulted throne.
You’d live a life that you create,
Love enemies you’re supposed to hate.
And in the end you’d come to see
You’re most alive when you are free.
But we really want your soul to keep,
So why don’t you go back to sleep.
“You’d start to think thoughts of your own,
Then cast us from our vaulted throne.”
We’re gonna need some common sense laws before that happens.
“We’re gonna need some common sense laws before that happens.”
The statists who are the ones on the vaulted thrones make the laws. They won’t legislate themselves less power.
Ever.
The people through non-voting ways have to remove the statists from those thrones.
95% of the population WANTS the corporate statists on their thrones, and prostrate themselves before them. Just look at who they voted for in ‘08 and ‘12.
You don’t like it because it frees you from the Banksters, but…
https://news.bitcoin.com/starbucks-customers-can-now-choose-between-bitcoin-apple-pay/
O beautiful for spacious skies,
Monsanto’s waves of grain,
Goon’s carbon footprint majesties
In Cali it don’t rain!
America! America!
Hmmm hmm hmm hmm on thee
Not lookin good down in the hood
From sea to rising sea!
America! America!
God stocked you with crazies
Delusional, lazy crazies!!
Facts are a search away.
Don’t be a Lola.
Hillary Clinton Accidentally Denounces Iran Deal
by Alex Griswold | 1:34 pm, October 9th, 2015
Perhaps Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should have chosen her words more carefully when she attacked the NRA yesterday:
Now the real answer to this is for gun-owners to form a different organization that supports the Second Amendment, supports their rights to own guns, use guns, go hunting, go target shooting, but stands against the absolutism of the NRA. You know, the NRA’s position reminds me of negotiating with the Iranians or the communists. There’s no possible discussion. And it’s for political purposes.
Setting aside the attack on the NRA… did President Barack Obama’s former Secretary of State really just say there’s “no possible discussion” to be had with the Iranians?
http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-clinton-accidentally-denounces-iran-deal/ - 193k -
Government Likens Ending Bulk Surveillance to Opening Prison Gates
Feds claim lapse in mass surveillance would endanger country
by Jenna McLaughlin | The Intercept | October 9, 2015
A Justice Department prosecutor said Thursday that ordering the immediate end of bulk surveillance of millions of Americans’ phone records would be as hasty as suddenly letting criminals out of prison.
“Public safety should be taken into consideration,” argued DOJ attorney Julia Berman, noting that in a 2011 Supreme Court ruling on prison overcrowding, the state of California was given two years to find a solution and relocate prisoners.
By comparison, she suggested, the six months Congress granted to the National Security Agency to stop indiscriminately collecting data on American phone calls was minimal.
Ending the bulk collection program even a few weeks before the current November 29 deadline would be an imminent risk to national security because it would create a dangerous “intelligence gap” during a period rife with fears of homegrown terrorism, she said.
Venezuelan style price controls hit the US:
“Obama signs bill preventing insurance companies from hiking premiums for millions of Americans.”
Everyone I know is applauding.
“Huge news!” a 20-something remarked.
Over 100k likes on Facebook and it’s trending.
“YAY! I’ll be sad to see him go!”
“Obama is the best president ever” wrote another.
Then there is this lonely sorry 1%’er:
“So where is the money that insurance companies need to stay in business come from? He’s putting insurance companies out of the insurance business. The only other option is to raise rates on EVERYONE ELSE who isn’t part of the group that is exempt.”
What a negative Nancy.
We’re all socialists on Facebook now!
Obama signs law to prevent premium increases for smaller companies under his health care law
Associated Press
Oct. 7, 2015 | 7:46 p.m. ED
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed legislation aimed at preventing premium increases that some smaller businesses were expecting next year under his signature health care law.
The White House says Obama signed the bill into law Wednesday. It represents an uncommon instance in which both parties rallied behind an effort to revamp part of the Affordable Care Act.
Under Obama’s health care law, companies considered small businesses must offer certain required benefits. Business groups had complained that many employers’ health care costs would increase.
Previously, small businesses were defined as those having up to 50 employees. But that number was set to expand to 100 on January 1.
The new law keeps the small business definition at 50 workers but allows states to increase the number if they choose.
Keep working on the ACA!!! long way to get it right.
Why complain about improvements? ?
Insurance co’s are ripping us all off, if congress cant add competition to the mix, might as well cap them and add in tort reform to bring costs in line with other countries who do it better!!
“So where is the money that insurance companies need to stay in business come from? He’s putting insurance companies out of the insurance business. The only other option is to raise rates on EVERYONE ELSE who isn’t part of the group that is exempt.”
Who knows? Maybe the insurance are phenomenally profitable and this will just result in a reduction in their profitability.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-cuban-shark-tank-first-140700607.html