Bits Bucket for January 23, 2016
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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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Are you still bullish, despite the holiday season Grinch correction instead of the usual Santa Claus rally?
Opinion: Investors are still too bullish despite the stock market correction
By Mark Hulbert
Published: Jan 22, 2016 5:24 a.m. ET
The proof: They cheered Wednesday’s late-day rally even though equities tanked
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — The stock market’s plunge won’t come to an end until pessimism and despair become a lot more widespread.
And that could be a while, since the stock market timer community has been exhibiting a stubborn refusal to throw in the towel.
We saw this behavior in spades Wednesday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average by the middle of the trading session had fallen by more than 500 points — only to recover and close down “only” 250 points. Rather than bemoan the loss for the session, many were quick to celebrate that late-day recovery, and some even declared that Wednesday was a so-called short-term reversal day, which would be positive from a technical perspective.
Such eagerness to believe any rally attempt as the real thing is characteristic of bear markets, according to contrarian analysis. As contrarians are fond of saying, bear markets like to descend a slope of hope, just as bull markets like to climb a wall of worry. From this contrarian perspective, therefore, a more sustainable bottom will come when there is no such eagerness.
…
“Nor were the BOJ and ECB the only source of renewed hope for monetary ease. Davos based whispers that the Fed’s expected March raise would be taken off the table quickly flooded the canyons of Wall Street. In no time flat the dip buyers were back in force.
You can listen to the whole interview if you can manage your blood pressure, but it amounts to this. Dalio’s $80 billion “All Weather” portfolio is in deep trouble because his fabled “risk parity trade” is in danger of puking big time.
So he urges the central banks to plunge into another fit of destructive money printing, and thereby keep tens of millions of ordinary savers and retirees impaled on the economic torture racks of ZIRP. Worse still, without a trace of compunction or embarrassment he urges the retail sheep back to the stock market slaughter for the bald faced reason that he needs to nix the VIX.
To wit, Bridgewater’s computers buy more stocks on the “rips”, when equity volatility is falling and prices are rising; and then on the “dips” they rotate funds into more bonds when equity volatility is rising and the herd is retreating to the safe haven of treasuries and other fixed income securities, thereby causing the price of the latter to rise.
Here’s the reason. In an honest financial market in which debt is priced by the willingness of savers to forego current use of their money, there could be no “risk parity” trade because the price of stocks and bonds would not be inversely correlated. Indeed, the price of government bonds and blue chips corporates would fluctuate only modestly over time owing to secular changes in the propensity to save, but they would absolutely not vary inversely to the stock average on a short and mid-term basis.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/700-days-in-no-mans-land-why-they-cant-keep-it-up/
‘In an honest financial market in which debt is priced by the willingness of savers to forego current use of their money, there could be no “risk parity” trade because the price of stocks and bonds would not be inversely correlated.’
Bingo. If you own a standard finance text, you may as well burn it in the fireplace to warm the room where you sit. Standard valuation rules fail to apply in a monetary regime driven by QE and ZIRP.
I guess the only reason you would be long equities is the belief that central banks can keep providing more stimulus.
Is that a fair assessment?
Buying physical precious metals is a better bet to preserve and grow your wealth as these Keynesian lunatics at the central banks hurtle us down the road to Weimar 2.0. BTW, the stock markets in Zimbabwe and Venezuela also soared as those countries debased their currency, but it was illusory, as the underlying value deteriorated (and toilet paper became unavailable and unaffordable for most people).
yawn wake me up when the middle class get’s some money. When the velocity of money increases instead of chugging ever lower.
The Fed’s actions become entirely predictable when you realize it is a private banking cartel created clandestinely in 1913 by the robber barons of the era to faciliate concentrating all wealth and power in the hands of a corrupt and venal .1% in the financial sector. Mission accomplished, and it couldn’t have been done without the willingness of 95% of the electorate to bend over on demand for the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate by voting for its stooges.
Propping up the stock market seems to be more important than rising interest rates, correct?
Do u own any stocks?
I’ve been buying selected mining and resource stocks. I don’t think interest rates are going to rise unless/until the Fed’s hand is forced by investors finally wising up and refusing to buy government debt that is going to be printed/inflated away.
there could be no “risk parity” trade because the price of stocks and bonds would not be inversely correlated.
Not sure I agree, PB; haven’t stocks and bonds had this inverse correlation for WAY longer than QE and hot-money printing has been a factor?
I suppose it goes back at least to the inception of the Greenspan put, when a flight to quality into bonds was soon followed by a speculative buy-the-dip move into devalued stocks on the presumption that Fed stimulus would soon drive the prices skyward.
Marketwatch dot com
Investors pull $24 billion from equity funds in January
By Ellie Ismailidou
Published: Jan 22, 2016 2:57 p.m. ET
Bank of America: ‘Recessionary’ inflows to government bonds
Romina Amato/Red Bull via Getty Images
Stock funds saw huge outflows as global equities plunged.
Investors pulled $24 billion from equity funds in the first three weeks of January, as stock markets took a plunge following a decline in oil prices, Bank of America said Friday.
Emerging markets
The rout has been deepest in emerging-market equities, as funds have seen outflows for every week in the past three months, with investors redeeming $2.3 billion in the week ended Jan. 20—the largest outflow in 19 weeks.
Funds covering tech, financials, and consumer sectors all recorded their largest weekly outflows in nearly six months during that same period, while health care saw the largest outflows in over three months.
Government bonds
Investors fled to the perceived safety of government bonds as the S&P 500 SPX, +2.03% broke below its Aug. 25 closing low—viewed as a major support level. The S&P 500 is down 7.2% since the beginning of the year and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, +1.33%) has lost roughly 8%, despite a recent rally.
The $5-billion inflow to government bond funds was the largest in 12 months, according to Bank of America. The government bond rally pushed Treasury prices higher and drove Thursday the 10-year Treasury yield (TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.15%) the Treasury market’s benchmark, to its lowest level since April.
…
Marketwatch dot com
These signs will mark the bottom for the stock market
By William Watts
Published: Jan 22, 2016 6:17 p.m. ET
They’ll be crystal clear only in hindsight
AFP/Getty Images
Is this really the bottom?
After getting off to the worst start to a new calendar year in history, U.S. stocks on Friday finally posted the first winning week of 2016. So did stocks bottom or is this just a bounce within a bigger pullback that could yet turn into a full-blown bear market?
For the average, long-term investor, the best advice during times of market turmoil is to remain calm and stick to a long-term investing plan. Calling a bottom—or a top—is a challenge even for professional investors.
…
It’s “abundantly clear” that Wednesday’s sharp selloff, which saw the S&P 500SPX, +2.03%) fall to its lowest intraday level since February 2014 at 1,812.29, marked a temporary low, said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital. But he suspects that despite the subsequent rebound, which may have substantially further to run, the bears are still in control of the market.
Rallies in bear markets tend to be quite strong, fueled by short covering and investors who rush in an effort to “buy the dip,” said Sarhan, who expects stocks to fall into a full-fledged bear market.
Getting to the ultimate bottom is going to take “a lot more time” and price deterioration, he said, noting that genuine bear markets tend to last from 18 to 36 months. In other words, don’t look for a bottom soon as the major indexes have yet to retreat 20% from their highs, which is the widely accepted definition of a bear market.
…
I am quite bullish there will be some excellent buying opportunities in 2016 & 2017. I must be patient…….
Do u plan to ride the bear’s bsck all the way to the ground?
No way to know. I sold 25% at $17,500 & 25% at $17,000. I’ll just buy a little here and there over the next 2 years. You know me, I often get back in too early, but make it up thru the trough!
Similar problem here…I tend to see trouble on the horizon well before the bull herd sees it, but I tend to underestimate the time until the bovine herd finally sees the trouble and panics.
Buy high and sell low. The Jingle_Fraud Method.
Are central bankers running with the panicked stock market lemming herd?
This week Italy managed a bank run; next week?
EPA/CARLO FERRARO
Published 13:40 January 22, 2016
Updated 16:58 January 22, 2016
If this is a banking sector issue, what will it take for it to go away?
By NEOnline | IR
A “run” on Italy’s third largest bank begun on Wednesday; by Thursday, the Prime Minister and the European Central Bank were trying to restore trust, in the bank, and the system at large, with some success.
Prime Minister Renzi said the country has a robust banking system and the Milan Stock Exchange woke up to a 6,9% rise across the sector.
On Wednesday, depositors withdrew their money from Banka Monte dei Paschi de Siena SpA (BMPS), generating images that resembled Greece in the summer of 2015. CEO Fabrizio Viola described the outflow as “limited.” On Thursday, the outflow had eased. Finance Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, stepped in to suggest the bank still had “strong fundamentals and large liquidity,” easing the market before Renzi took over to ease the general public.
BMPS shares have been plunging; on Wednesday alone, the bank shed 22% of its value, when trading was suspended. This was a culmination of a trend that has seen the bank losing 46% of its stock value since Monday. Since 2013, BMPS has been entangled in a legal scandal involving loss-making financial transactions. The bank is capitalized at roughly €1.6 bn, although investors have poured in €8 bn over that last two years. That made BMPS particularly vulnerable to bad news.
A rumor that the European Central Bank was asking three banks BMPS, Banco Popolare and UniCredit for data triggered the panic. And there was reason to panic as bail-ins hit four small regional Italian banks in December.
The sector as a whole has been affected and has lost 24% since January. There are reasons to fear a systemic rather “a bank” problem. Non-performing loans reached €201 bn, the Italian Banking Association announced in November, 2015. A three-year recession undermines confidence in the economy and the sector as a whole. However, Fitch moved the Italian banking sector onto a “stable” outlook, up from “negative” in 2015, suggesting that the rate of non-performing loan formation is slowing.
Italy has 700 banks. If “consolidation” of the kind that took place in Greece were to take place, the impact on the financial sector would be of European, not national proportions. The government has put forward the idea of a bad bank, but the plan has yet to be approved by the European Central Bank. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister, and Fitch, have been telling investors not to worry.
…
seems like the stock market is back to trading on the hopes of more stimulus again.
By sanctioning legalized theft from depositors in the form of “bail-ins”, the geniuses at the ECB have unwittingly (or half-wittedly) set the stage for a much wider and catastrophic bank run since savers will want to pull their assets at the slightest whiff of a possibility their funds could be expropriated to cover banking shortfalls.
Remember, in a time of universal fraud, possession is 9/10s of the law.
Who possesses the bitcoins?
Fortune
International Europe
Mario Draghi Isn’t Panicking. He’s Just Preparing For March’s Rate Cut
COMMENTARY by
Geoffrey Smith
January 21, 2016, 12:02 PM EST
Swings of a dove: Draghi promises ‘whatever it takes’ again–but only in March. ECB
The ECB president offered a pretty firm promise to loosen monetary policy in the coming months.
“It will be necessary to review and possibly reconsider our monetary policy stance at our next meeting in early March.” —Mario Draghi, ECB President, January 21, 2016.
One of the problems with being a central banker is that markets can go haywire at pretty much any time, and yet you only have a small number of opportunities every year to do something concrete about it. For the rest of the time, you have to hone your skills at talking self-harming traders and investors down from whatever window ledge they’ve perched on.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has made this particular act his signature skill since taking over in 2011, and that was the game again Thursday when he all but pre-announced another round of monetary stimulus when the ECB’s governing council next meets in March.
Of course, if you parse the comments at his press conference, you’ll see that he left himself enough wiggle room for doing nothing if, by some miracle, the outlook for the world economy brightens massively in the meantime. But the chance of that happening is minimal. As Draghi pointed out, oil prices have fallen 40% since the ECB did its last round of economic forecasting, most other commodity prices have followed suit, and the risk of them kicking off a destructive and deflationary spiral, where wages and prices chase each other lower, has unmistakably risen.
…
“On Friday the Japanese stock market ripped 6% higher and the European bourses were up 5% because their respective central bankers emitted some hints of more easing just ahead. Even the US market managed to find green for the week.
In the meantime, you can’t blame the punters for trying. This week they succumbed once again to the BTFD delusion undoubtedly because the “moar money” chorus grew ever louder as Friday approached.
That’s right. You can’t make this baloney up. As Jeffery Snider shows in a nearby post, the massive ECB exercise in QE, which has already emitted some $700 billion in printing press airballs, has had no impact at all on its ostensible targets. Namely, the generation of a burst of private borrowing in order to stimulate spending and inflation.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/700-days-in-no-mans-land-why-they-cant-keep-it-up/
“…the massive ECB exercise in QE, which has already emitted some $700 billion in printing press airballs, has had no impact at all on its ostensible targets.”
The key word in that sentence is ‘ostensible.’
This is not really true. Housing spending went up. People bought houses and drove the prices up. QE did that. Maybe a reckoning will eventually come, but to claim QE was air balls is disingenuous. 7 years of punting and keeping things afloat is significant.
And they will do the same for another 70 years
…… further crushing housing demand.
How far will demand go? 40 year lows? 60 year lows?
Nobody needs to worry about the current stock market turmoil spilling over into housing. As we learned in the 2007-08 episode, stocks and housing are fully decoupled.
Fully decoupled? Stocks and housing both sank and both rebounded in roughly the same timeframe. All borrowing and propping. But don’t pretend it hasn’t worked for now. And for now might easily be 20-50 yrs or more.
Which results in the simple question;
I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where is the buyer at that price?
Housing spending went up. People bought houses and drove the prices up. QE did that.
QE did a lot more than that! QE massively mis-priced almost everything: commodities went through the roof, farmland went up at a ridiculous rate, inflation raged in the developing world, both stocks and bonds detached from fundamental values.
I’m sure I missed plenty of things in that short list… Care to flesh it out?
That’s not inflation. That’s price fixing, price rigging and bottlenecking.
BloombergBusiness
Bond Traders Tell Fed Optimism on Growth, Inflation Is Misplaced
Susanne Walker Barton
January 22, 2016 — 9:00 PM PST
Yield gap between two-, 10-year notes reaches lowest since ‘08
`For the Fed to move even one time, the bar is very high’
The bond market is sending the Federal Reserve some ominous signals on the economy and inflation as officials gather next week to debate the path of interest rates.
The difference between yields on Treasury two-year notes, which are more sensitive to central-bank policy, and 10-year securities, which reflect longer-term economic expectations, narrowed this week to the least since 2008. Investors say the gauge, known as the yield curve, signals the Fed is too optimistic in its outlook for growth and inflation. While policy makers forecast four interest-rate increases in 2016, bond traders are pricing in only one.
..
FWIW: I ran across this cost of living calculator …
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx
and….
And you can plug in different locales and then do a stare-and-compare.
I will give you a hint.
Any place run by democrats with insane public union goons will have insane taxes. Especially property taxes.
Any place run by democrats with insane public union goons ??
Yeah Like Fire & Police…They vote for liberal democrats in their municipality because its self serving but vote staunch republican on the national stage…
Unions but especially public unions are the LARGEST political donors of all time.
And they give 99-1 to democrats.
Facts and math are hard.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/
political donors ??
What do union directed donations have to do with how they personally vote… ?? I have never met a fireman or police officer that was not hard core republican…
I will have to work hard to conceal my glee when those public labor unions find out the gold-plated retirements they were expecting in return for supporting and enabling corrupt Democrat municipal administrations got “rehypothocated” or otherwise vaporized by the DNC’s Wall Street partners in crime, and now all those promised pensions might buy a few cans of beans every month. Talk about poetic justice.
What do union directed donations have to do with how they personally vote… ?? I have never met a fireman or police officer that was not hard core republican…
So your left wing logic is that the fireman and police unions are just FULL of conservative voters but yet somehow, they all vote for far left goon union bosses who give union support and money to democrats 99-1.
Your meme is wrong and illogical - kinda like a lot of things in your world.
So your left wing logic ??
Everyone is left wing as compared to you 2-fruit… What part of this did you miss;
but vote staunch republican on the national stage…
Your meme is wrong and illogical ??
As compared your neocon diatribe….Hardly
Scdave is your experience with this mostly out west?
Simple answer. Union dues are obligatory. Thats where the union hacks get their lobbying money.
The only real difference in locales is the cost of a house and the availability of high paying jobs.
The only real difference in locales is the cost of a house and the availability of high paying jobs ??
Along with high net worth….A lot of people of high net worth don’t even have a job….
And most with high net worth lease housing. They understand the crushing losses associated with housing.
As usual, you are full of BS, HA. They pay cash for their homes, and own 2-3 around the country.
wow, if i move to jax florida from carlsbad calif I would have a 34% decrease in living expenses! Sign me up~
Carlsbad, CA Housing Prices Turn Negative YoY As Mortgage Defaults Balloon
http://www.zillow.com/carlsbad-ca/home-values/
…and a 90% reduction in quality of life.
You’re upside down Russ. A dramatic increase in the standard of living and quality of life results when one leaves an impoverished welfare state like California.
Yeah, if you have any significant distance to travel on the roads in SoCal you are screwed. Day in and day out taking years off your life expectancy.
“Day in and day out taking years off your life expectancy.”
Welcome to my world. But then San Diegans really have nothing to complain about compared to Los Angelenos or Bay Areans.
I actually don’t care for San Diego… can’t get anywhere without getting on the freeway. San Francisco is awesome if you ride a bike. Driving is a joke.
Fidelity now says a person who is at age 67 needs to have saved ten times his annual salary in order to retire …
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-money-retire-guide-might-213400158.html
Maybe in Nevada, but not in California.
Maybe in Nevada, but not in California ??
It depends…If you own your home (not renting) you can easily retire on relatively small savings and a social security check…
It is quite possible to live well on less than a SS check. Paying $500,000 too much for shelter is not the most efficient path to get there.
It is quite possible to live well on less than a SS check ??
Most people don’t want to live full time on a boat particularly if the are old…If all you got is SS and you are paying rent then its some shanty in shanty town or a boarding house…
I saw something that said that people with average incomes born in 1960 can expect to get around $19,000/year if they retire at the age of 67.
Not unless a heck of a lot more Boomers die between now and 2027.
I live well. I have a paid for (super efficient) house and a yacht and savings. I live on less than what my SS would be if I retired today. 100s of simple decisions brought me to here over the course of some years. If your lifestyle wouldn’t allow this, remember that you built it one decision at a time.
Paying $500K more than you need to for shelter is not the path to a low needs life.
You give the impression that you have a job that pays quite well in area where housing is cheap. That’s rather unusual.
(super efficient) house
What factors into making your house super-efficient, Blue?
SnowFlake,
What is it about the value of dramatically lower and more affordable living expenses that eludes you?
Prime, don’t hang me on the definition but I insulated this place myself and I made it very well insulated. Interior walls and floors all insulated and each room is zone heated. Stuff like that.
That’s rather unusual…
Sounds like your choices have not been so good.
….. overpriced pink goo not necessary.
Prime, don’t hang me on the definition
No intention of doing so! Was just curious what you chose, since you are a smart guy who understands math.
Some folks on the efficiency fringe are choosing doubled-up x6 exterior framing with offset studs for extra R-value. I was wondering whether you had done something like that–or if you knew what the payback period would be for such a high insulation investment.
Interior walls and floors all insulated and each room is zone heated.
Interesting—I’ve never heard of insulating interior walls; I suppose that would increase the efficiency gains from zone-heating, though, since it would reduce the leakage to space you are attempting to leave unheated. How much do you figure that saves you?
Sounds like your choices have not been so good.
No, I’ll have plenty of money socked away by the time that I retire. Though, just like yesterday, that’s irrelevant to my point.
You’re backpedalling.
I won’t be in any heroic articles for extremes. The house is designed for just me. The utility bill is very low.
When I had rugrats, there was no closing off or not heating any part of the house.
to my point…
Oh sorry, I hadn’t noticed that you had a point.
You probably mean a paid-off house. In that case the value of the house should be included in the total savings of the retiree.
value of the house should be included in the total savings of the retiree ??
Has no monetary value unless you sell it or refinance it although the reverse mortgage is a option….
If you have a paid-off house, you don’t have to pay rent. That’s the value there.
Imputed rent has a monetary value.
If you aren’t required to spend money on rent then you don’t have to earn as much money as if you did have to spend money on rent.
Not having to earn as money also saves on paying income taxes.
Just how much of a “value” is it in paying double rental rates for a rapidly depreciating asset?
You can retire in California in a reasonably priced house either with heavy smog in the air, bars in the Windows, or out in the high desert among the meth labs.
“In that case the value of the house should be included in the total savings of the retiree.”
Big ticket depreciating assets are not the best choice for rounding out a retiree’s wealth portfolio.
If you want to retire to a clean healthy city in California with good health care and low crime, Irvine is one such place. But a house is typically $800,000. No one can buy a starter home without helicopter parents chipping in. I know a couple who are 30ish with twins and in a $1,000,000 house in Irvine. His wife is not that attractive but she earns more $ than him. Her parents chipped in. My buddy had pressure from his wife and in laws to start a family. He hesitated all along and wanted nice Lexus cars. But now he has status with his culture.
“It depends…If you own your home (not renting) you can easily retire on relatively small savings and a social security check…”
Prop 13 helps too.
It will never happen for 75% of the people. They will be living on a SS check.
Ofcouse Fidelity would love those commissions and fees.
No problem. The millions of Central American migrants the Democrats are importing to secure their permanent supermajority are downright giddy at the prospect of toiling feverishly so they can support the Boomers with the golden-years retirement they so richly deserve.
Repost from last night, excellent article:
Comment by MightyMike
2016-01-22 14:05:41
This is a good one.
How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996
http://theweek.com/articles/599577/how-obscure-adviser-pat-buchanan-predicted-wild-trump-campaign-1996
and a link to the source article discussed. Also definitely worth a read, if you can read tiny print:
http://www.unz.org/Pub/Chronicles-1996mar-00012
“ISIS must be destroyed,” but “we should not do it alone.”
Barney Saunders, warmonger same as the rest. Ahahhahahhaha.
Radical Islam is a rising force as each new generation of Arabs and North Africans brings forth a surplus of young males who have bleak prospects for meaningful employment or social status. How does Bernie propose to deal with that - give them all living-wage jobs like that idiot spokesgirl at the State Department said we would do?
“ISIS must be destroyed,” but “we should not do it alone.”
Easy credit, a SNAP card and some Taco Bell coupons should do the trick.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
What You Need to Know about President Obama’s Trade Agreement
That is why President Obama has concluded negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership and will now work with Congress to secure its passage into law. The TPP is a trade agreement with 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific, including Canada and Mexico that will eliminate over 18,000 taxes various countries put on Made-in-America products.
With the TPP, we can rewrite the rules of trade to benefit America’s middle class. Because if we don’t, competitors who don’t share our values, like China, will step in to fill that void.
That is why the President’s trade policy is the best tool we have to ensure that our workers, our businesses, and our values are shaping globalization and the 21st century economy, rather than getting left behind.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/trade - 101k -
————————————————————————
TPP Trade Deal Will Cost US 448,000 Jobs, Say Researchers
Derrick Broze | Anti-Media - January 23, 2016
First there was a World Bank report that predicted that TPP would produce negligible boosts to the economies of the U.S., Australia, and Canada.TechDirt writes:
This study was followed up by a review from Jerome Capaldo and Alex Izurieta at Tufts University.
Their study found that economic growth is likely to be limited — and negative — for some countries, including the United States. The researchers also found the TPP would probably lead to increased unemployment and inequality.
Finally, the researchers draw harrowing conclusions about the end result of the TPP.
“Globally, the TPP favors competition on labor costs and remuneration of capital. Depending on the policy choices in non-TPP countries, this may accelerate the global race to the bottom, increasing downward pressure on labor incomes in a quest for ever more elusive trade gains.”
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal.
According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations.
Recently, the Electronic Frontier Foundation also released a report on the dangers of the TPP. EFF writes:
“Everything in the TPP that increases corporate rights and interests is binding, whereas every provision that is meant to protect the public interest is non-binding and is susceptible to get bulldozed by efforts to protect corporations.”
Also highlighted in the letter are four key concerns from the organizations, including retroactive copyright term extension, aban on circumvention of technology protection measures, “heavy-handed criminal penalties and civil damages,” and trade secret rules that could criminalize investigative journalism and whistleblowers reporting on corporate wrongdoing.
Snow is a thing of the past?
Children of the future will be born with webbed feet and will grow up never knowing what snow is.
Oh, and children will also be born with gills.
http://news.sky.com/story/1621814/humans-of-the-future-could-grow-webbed-feet
The medical term for webbing of the fingers or toes is syndactyly. Webbed fingers and toes occur when tissue connects two or more digits together. In rare cases, the fingers or toes are connected by bone. According to the Boston Children’s Hospital, one in every 2,500 babies is born with webbed fingers or toes, making this a fairly common condition. (BCH, 2012) Webbing of the fingers or toes is most common in Caucasian males.
There are several different types of webbing that can occur between the fingers and toes. They are:
incomplete: The webbing appears only partially between the digits.
complete: The skin is connected all the way up the digits.
simple: The digits are connected by only soft tissue (i.e. skin).
complex: The digits are joined together with soft and hard tissue, such as bone or cartilage.
complicated: The digits are joined together with soft and hard tissue in an irregular shape or configuration (i.e. missing bones).
To late the webbed are amongst us already.
The future …
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+creature+from+black+lagoon&biw=1360&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiOt9Lgl8DKAhVE3GMKHZ1aA14Q_AUIBygC
Oh, and children will also be born with gills.
Science is so stoopid, innit? But it’s actually an interesting article about how humans might evolve under different circumstances: in a semi-aquatic (worldwide flood) environment, in a very cold (new ice age) environment, or in a low or no gravity (outer space) environment.
But if you’re dumb, it’s revealing of how dumb science is. Because people with gills.
‘snow free’ and ‘ice free’ predictions
Michael Bastasch
11:50 AM 03/04/2014
1.) Scientists predicted in 2000 that kids would grow up without snow. It was 14 years ago now when UK climate scientists argued that global warming would make snowfall a “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” Dr. David Viner, a scientist with the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia, told the UK Independent in 2000.
After the wettest winter in 248 years, the UK was hit with snowstorms last week. Last year, the UK’s climate authority predicted that this winter would be drier than usual, with only a 15 percent chance of being wet. They were very wrong.
2.) It’s been 10 years since scientists predicted the “end of skiing” in Scotland. An article from the UK’s Guardian in 2004 quoted scientists and environmentalists predicting the demise of Scotland’s winter sports industry, including more remarks from Dr. David Viner, who had already predicted the end of snow in Britain.
“Unfortunately, it’s just getting too hot for the Scottish ski industry,” said Dr. Viner. “It is very vulnerable to climate change; the resorts have always been marginal in terms of snow and, as the rate of climate change increases, it is hard to see a long-term future.”
“Adam Watson, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, believes the industry has no more than 20 years left,” the Guardian reported.
Viner and Watson must have been surprised to see the BBC report that Scottish mountains may be their snowiest since 1945.
3.) The Arctic would be “ice-free” by now. “Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years,” Gore said in 2008.
Gore was echoing the predictions made by American scientist Wieslaw Maslowsk in 2007, who said that “you can argue that may be our projection of [an ice-free Arctic by 2013] is already too conservative.”
But in 2013, Arctic sea ice coverage was up 50 percent from 2012 levels. Data from Europe’s Cryosat spacecraft showed that Arctic sea ice coverage was nearly 2,100 cubic miles by the end of this year’s melting season, up from about 1,400 cubic miles during the same time last year.
4.) Environmentalists predicted the end of spring snowfall. In March 2013, the Union of Concerned Scientists predicted that warmer springs would mean declines in snow cover.
“Warmer, earlier springs are a clear signal of a changing climate,” the group said. “March temperatures have grown 2.1 degrees (F) hotter, on average, in the United States since reliable record-keeping began in 1880s. Similarly, the first leaves have started appearing on plants several days earlier than they used to across the country.”
But the record levels of snowfall to hit this year may have caught UCS off guard. On Monday, the U.S. east coast was hit with a massive snowstorm that stretched for 1,300 miles and those in the Baltimore-D.C. area were hit with a 141-year record cold of 4 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday morning.
“Many places tied or broke record lows all over the Eastern half of the U.S.,” reported CBS Baltimore.
Tags: Global Warming
We have 200″ of snowfall so far this year at Mammoth Mountain and houses and condos and skis and snowboards and tire chains …etc are all selling.
My friend Tom C sold 183 pair of Hestra ski gloves over the Christmas holiday. The gloves retail for an average of $150/pair.
“We didn’t sell 183 pair all of last year,” he observed.
Another friend Matthew reports “As far as real estate is concerned, “For me, I see a direct correlation as to more people in town = more buyers = more transactions.”
“I had a guy come in, look at a house once, make an offer, and we’re closing next week.”
We had 4 years of drought, CA has had 5 but 5 years ago Mammoth got 700″ of snowfall.
Sometimes this resort prospers in spite of a down economy and sometimes we go down too, like the last 7 years.
We have 200″ of snowfall so far this year at Mammoth Mountain ??
And raining like hell so far to the disdain of one particular toad here…
I used to ski at Mammoth when I lived in Ridgecrest. It was pricey then in the 90s. But $150 for gloves?
I am afraid to find out the cost of a day’s lift tickets. My $41 per month gym membership is high enough. But seems a bargain.
My company is going on an annual ski trip to Mammoth. Some people told me they are buying new ski clothes for their kids. Something tells me they will enjoy their trip, but not get their money’s worth out of their clothes.
In the 70s it was still okay to scotch guard your jeans the day before going skiing. Just like it was okay to wear jeans while riding your ten speed road bike. Now you gotta pay $ to advertise a bunch of cycling related companies on your expensive jersey to look like a fitness cyclist as opposed to a person who cannot afford a car to drive to his burger flipping job.
This message brought to you by ExxonMobile.
“This message brought to you by ExxonMobile.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04 - 159k -
Shift debit card used at 38 million terminals. Now Bitpay at 27 million terminals.
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitpay-enables-27-million-ingenico-retailers-accept-bitcoin/
Vacate bail ins.
http://goo.gl/Iy3zIr
money out the wazoo!
Buckle up for massive dilution.
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-miners-bitcoin-classic-scaling-debate-evolves/
They are printing them same as fiat. Massive devaluation, at best. Probably will just be unlinked from the atm networks once the trouble starts. No worries though, despite the braggadocio no one trusts it enough to put more than 10 percent of their wealth at risk.
Bitcoin died 89 deaths from nattering nabob articles over the years.
nattering nabob…
Mania words. Just sayin.
The key thing is who is going to cash in on whom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTfkpEkSXk4
Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?
You know that moment on an aircraft where there are three choices of main meal, and you’ve chosen the chicken and tomato pasta bake.
But by the time the cabin services person gets to your seat, you are told the bake has gone and all you can have is the tasteless salmon and dill or the irradiated, overcooked beef.
Yes, you’re disappointed. But you are also immediately in a new mindset. The choice is no longer about what do I want the most. It’s what do I mind the least.
The Republican Party establishment finds itself in that position now on the eve of the Iowa caucus.
The palatable, easy-to-digest candidates - a Marco Rubio, a Jeb Bush, even a John Kasich or Chris Christie - are not on the menu.
There is only so long that you can look at the polls and say one of them will break through to challenge the two insurgents, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
As things stand, rather than the “moderates” getting together and trying to work out which of them has the best chance to face down Trump or Cruz, they seem to have formed themselves into a circular firing squad and are busy spraying each other with gunfire.
So it’s hard to overstate the significance of what has been unfolding over the past few days. It is the grudging acceptance by significant parts of the Republican establishment that not only is Mr Trump the least worst option - he is virtually unstoppable in the race to be their candidate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35388292
And meanwhile in the socialist party…
How will a Hillary or Sanders voter vote?
—————-
Michael Bloomberg eyes presidential run
NY Post | 23 January 2016 | Aaron Short
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously considering a third-party run for the presidency and has alerted advisers to draw up a plan for success, according to a report.
Bloomberg, 73, told friends he is prepared to spend as much as $1 billion to win the White House and set a deadline of early March for making a decision, the New York Times reported Saturday.
I hope he does run…And he “will” spend his own money because unlike Trump, his world does not revolve around his ego and his money…
How do you know?
How do you know?
BECAUSE;
Unlike Trump who worships himself and his money and has said he is leaving it all to his children, Bloomberg’s world does not revolve around his ego and his money…
Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of the charitable giving for founder Michael R. Bloomberg..According to the Foundation Center, Bloomberg Philanthropies is the 12th largest foundation in the United States.[3] Bloomberg has pledged to donate the majority of his wealth, currently estimated at $27 billion…Between 2004 and 2011, Bloomberg was listed as a top 10 American philanthropist each year.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=16&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjcyZvGsMDKAhUN3mMKHRRLBJsQmhMIfTAP&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBloomberg_Philanthropies&usg=AFQjCNE7bBM0UkaP1YoC0sO2l4-e95F3RQ
Bloomberg is a fascist and nanny-stater. And he is TOTALLY a major egotist.
And he’s fanatically devoted to dismantling the Second Amendment. You know, for the children….
He’s also a sanctimonious prick. If people think Bush and Obama abused executive powers, they ain’t seen nuthin’.
Sh*t, I’d give Obama a third term before I’d see Bloomberg as prez of the US.
He’s also a major shamnasty supporter. And I don’t think he cares much for white goyim.
He wants them disarmed for a reason.
Shamnesty and a gun grabber = unelectable. As a bonus he splits the lib vote! Run Mike Run.
As a bonus he splits the lib vote! Run Mike Run.
Trump’s secret partner?
Welcome to the future. It is ridiculous.
You know that moment on an aircraft where there are three choices of main meal, and you’ve chosen the chicken and tomato pasta bake.
What airline is this supposed to be? The last time I was fed on an airliner without having to whip out my AMEX card was on a transatlantic flight.
That’s funny. The establishment toads writing these articles are clueless to the common man.
http://youtu.be/FLMVB0B1_Ts
It’s from the BBC. Maybe things are different across the pond.
Mitch McConnell Moves To Grant The President Unlimited War Powers With No Expiration Date
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/22/2016
From the National Journal:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered members a snow-weekend surprise late Wednesday night: Quietly teeing up a potential debate on the legal underpinning for the fight against ISIS.
After months of worrying that such a resolution—known as an authorization for the use of military force—would tie the next president’s hands, McConnell’s move to fast-track the measure surprised even his top deputy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, who was unaware that McConnell had set up the authorization.
The AUMF put forward by McConnell would not restrict the president’s use of ground troops, nor have any limits related to time or geography. Nor would it touch on the issue of what to do with the 2001 AUMF, which the Obama administration has used to attack ISIS despite that authorization’s instructions to use force against those who planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks. By contrast, the legal authority put forward by the administration last February wouldn’t authorize “enduring offensive ground combat operations” and would have ended three years after enactment, unless reauthorized.
If war monger Lindsey Graham is a co-sponsor you know for sure it’s an unmitigated disaster for liberty.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said that there is still a “wide diversity” of opinions on the issue. Some Democrats were critical of even the president’s own draft AUMF, warning that they’d need additional restrictions from the administration on troop levels and geographic boundaries before they could support any authorization. Republicans, meanwhile, worried deeply about restricting the president as this administration, and the next one, work to combat ISIS.
“This is the right thing,” said Graham, a cosponsor on the new AUMF resolution. “This is the right infrastructure to have.”
“If our Democratic friends don’t want to give this president and other presidents the ability to go after ISIS without limitation to geography, time and means—be on the record,” he added.
Indeed, I’d like to see every member of Congress go on the record as to the issue of perpetual war to fight an enemy created by our government’s own foreign policy and our “allies’” funding and armaments.
And if the HBBers’ darling Trump wins, he will certainly use those powers. He is in the beer hall putsch stage of campaigning.
But somehow I think Sara Palin’s support has let off some of the steam from the HBBer statists.
Hillary will win and use those new powers fully.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
Anyone equating current times to prewar Germany clearly knows zilch about history.
Anyone equating current times to prewar Germany clearly knows zilch about history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHE4BqCLO0g
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
- Barack Obama, Fargo, ND
————————
The 18 Trillion Dollar Debt, the Biggest Heist on American Citizens in History
Freedom Outpost | 1/21/2016 | Tony Elliot
At the end of Obama’s second term, it is estimated the national debt will be 20 trillion dollars. Most of this money has gone to frivolous spending by the Federal government, as well as been stolen by various government officials, using the excuse that astronomical sums of money are missing.
In the computer age, it would be impossible to lose a trillion dollars, unless it was purposely lost to cover the theft of it.
Since 9-11, the US has spent 6 trillion dollars on the war on terrorism. When everything is taken into account, we find massive frivolous spending. From various wars that have accomplished nothing to a massive increase in security measures that, for the most part, only scrutinize American citizens, not international terrorist groups.
On February 28, 2011, Congressman Alan Grayson posted news of 9 trillion dollars missing from the Federal Reserve.
Obama, Geithner and the missing six trillion dollars.
Money wasted on climate change lie since 1993 to now amounts to close to 200 billion dollars.
The Affordable Care Act has already cost the country over 250 billion dollars, even with the outrageous rates and taxes associated with it. By 2025, it is estimated the total cost of Obamacare to be around 1.3 trillion dollars.
No matter how you look at it, the US has such an astronomically high National debt of around 19 trillion dollars admitted.
people have to give up their interest on their savings accounts to keep the national debt servicable.
Is that a fair assessment?
The friendly investment lady at our local credit union suggested we invest some money in a Colorado muni bond fund which pays a whopping 3% return on average.
Hold onto every dollar you got, dump the house and shed the debt. You’ll thank me later.
The neoconservatives should accept a huge part of the blame for this debt, spending money on murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people all over the world.
Degenerate Gamblers….. Trim your eyebrows
http://goo.gl/l2d7Py
Happy Blizzard Day!
—————-
Christians, Conservatives, Men, and White People Are Not Responsible For Your Problems
Townhall.com | January 23, 2016 | John Hawkins
Lou Holtz once said, “Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.” Unfortunately, Lou Holtz is a man out-of-step with our whiny age.
Today, people will not shut up about their problems. They want to let you know about every issue they have, every “microaggression” and every time they’re offended. It’s a bottomless sea of discontent.
Worse yet, our generation of complainers never seems to blame themselves for their own problems. Instead they’ve picked out a group of designated fall guys that it’s always okay to blame for every problem they have: Christians, conservatives, men or white people.
Every time a Muslim engages in a terrorist attack, we get a lecture on the crusades which ended in 1291. Alternately, we hear how often these diehard Christians have attacked abortion clinics. Setting aside the fact that those killers are universally condemned by Christians, more people were killed in the San Bernardino terrorist attacks than were killed in every abortion clinic attack since Roe v. Wade. We’ve even gotten to the point where liberal gay couples are seeking out Christian florists, photographers and bakers so they can pretend to be hurt when they refuse to cater their weddings.
Then there’s white people. It’s bizarre that in a nation that’s 62% white, Caucasians are considered to be the only race it’s okay to openly discriminate against, mock and smear. White people are obsessively lectured about white privilege, usually by very privileged black professors and television personalities who apparently have no sense of irony. We hear endlessly about the supposed perils of white racism in a nation that just elected the first black president while it’s the official policy of the government to discriminate against white Americans based on their skin color via affirmative action. In a country where more than 90% of black Americans who are murdered are killed by other African-Americans, we focus obsessively on the far less than 1% that are killed by police officers mainly so a racial motive can be implied about the white officers that are involved.
Let me also add, there is no “rape culture” in America. If you want to see a “rape culture,” go to Egypt or the parts of Germany that are overrun with Syrian migrants. There’s also no patriarchy and the idea that women are paid less than men for doing the same work has been so thoroughly disproven that only an idiot would believe it. If women would really do the same work as men, why not just start a company and hire all women? You could dominate the market with your reduced labor costs. While we’re at it, if you get all upset about a man being polite enough to pull out a chair or open a door for you, there’s something wrong with you as a human being. Try saying thank you once in a while and more people will like you.
Similarly, conservatives are constantly being blamed for problems in black communities even though there isn’t a single majority black community in America where a conservative can get elected. Even though Detroit hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1962, conservatives were blamed when the city went bankrupt. We constantly hear that conservatives are to blame for income inequality in America; yet 32 out of the 35 districts with the largest amount of income inequality in America are represented by liberal Democrats. Although the only thing I care less about than who wins the Oscars is the health and wellbeing of ISIS members, why is a lack of black Americans winning an award a national crisis when a lack of white players in the NBA is shrugged off? Each seems about as important as the other, which is to say, not very….
Yet, there’s a never ending attack on Christians, conservatives, men and white people in America by those who blame them for their own shortcomings. They can’t accept the fact that they’re miserable, they’re failing, they’re not getting what they want out of life; so they point the finger elsewhere. They’re the sort of people Eric Hoffer described when he said,
“Those who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually their innermost desire is for an end to the “free for all.” They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.”
There’s another incoherent diatribe. Ignore John Hawkins.
That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out article 2banana.
Thanks for posting it.
That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out article 2banana.
and the farmer hauled
another load away…
Good piece, 2banana. Thanks for posting it.
Wow. That’s a concentrated block of loon spew. Good find!
For the last 10 years, 12.5 percent of the Oscars in the top 4 categories went to whom?
It is funny when reality hits liberals right in the face.
———————
Refugees armed with knife filmed mugging two journalists documenting their plight
Metro UK - 22JAN2016
Footage has emerged showing the moment a group of refugees armed with a knife attacked two journalists who were documenting their plight.
Maaike Engels was filming with her colleague Teun Voeten when he was pounced on by a three men who tried to steal his camera at the Jungle migrant camp in Calais.
Voeten is tackled to the ground as the camera keeps rolling for their new documentary “Calais: Welcome to the Jungle”.
A short chase ensues before the footage ends.
A video of the attack was uploaded to YouTube.
The description reads: “We were mugged by three refugees armed with pepper spray and a big knife.”
Gee, there’s no mention of liberals there. It’s also unclear what reality hit someone in the face.
“Journalist” and “liberal” are kind of redundant. Like “schoolteacher” and “Bolshevik.”
Gee, there’s no mention of liberals there.
You really think someone trying to document the plight of immigrants was a conservative?
It’s quite possible that the two of them were instructed by their management to cover the Calais story.
“It’s quite possible that the two of them were instructed by their management to cover the Calais story.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04 - 159k -
Does the spectre of crushing housing losses cause you insomnia?
Santa Cruz, CA Housing Prices Dive 4% YoY As Demand For Housing Plummets
http://www.zillow.com/santa-cruz-ca/home-values/
buy stocks and homes and get rich!
http://goo.gl/rsaNfd
how much did you make last year from all your adds here?
Adds?
I added another $80k+ to my stack o’ cash and heaped copious amounts of rage on many empty skulls…. including yours.
Stick with the data Poet. Stick with the data.
San Jose, CA Housing Prices Crater 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-jose-ca-95111/home-values/
Too big to jail
Too big to prosecute.
Equality under law. Such a cute concept. There is a reason Jon Corzine is not in jail.
—————
Petraeus Prosecuted — Why not Hillary?
American Thinker | 01/23/2016 | By Daniel John Sobieski
In was an interesting coincidence that as the Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough III was writing to the heads of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, among others, that Hillary Clinton had above-top-secret SAP (Special Access Programs) information on her private email server, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the Daily Beast reports, is preparing to demote Gen. David Petraeus, former CENTCOM commander and CIA chief for mishandling similar SAP information while in uniform.
The cases are almost identical, but Petraeus admitted his crime, apologized for it and paid a fine. Now the man who is arguably the most significant American general since World War II, who achieved a victory in Iraq that President Obama threw away, is going to be publicly humiliated and his reputation permanently tarnished. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, whistles past her own graveyard, escaping punishment thus far for exposing our most classified secrets to foreign enemies on an unsecured server in her private residence. As Fox News’ Catherine Herridge noted in her blockbuster report:
According to court documents, former CIA Director David Petraeus was prosecuted for sharing intelligence from special access programs with his biographer and mistress Paula Broadwell. At the heart of his prosecution was a non-disclosure agreement where Petraeus agreed to protect these closely held government programs, with the understanding “unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention or negligent handling … could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by a foreign nation.” Clinton signed an identical non-disclosure agreement Jan. 22, 2009.
The IG’s letter should place Hillary Clinton squarely in violation USC 18 Section 793 of the Espionage Act, which covers “gross negligence” in the handling of such information.
“There is a reason Jon Corzine is not in jail.”
He can part the judicial waters and lead his flock of swindlers to safety.
It was always a scam to grow government, increase the power of government and raise taxes.
Never let a fake crisis go to waste…
—————–
Five Ways We Know Al Gore’s Been Running A Global Warming Racket
IBD | 01/23/2016
Fraud: Ten years ago Monday, Al Gore said we had only a decade left to save the planet from global warming. But Earth has been doing just fine. Why do we listen to this man?
While preening at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006 during the premiere of his “An Inconvenient Truth” fib-umentary, Gore made his grand declaration. The former vice president said, in the words of the AP reporter taking down his story, that “unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return.” In Gore’s own words, he claimed we were in “a true planetary emergency.”
Ten years later, he’s probably hoping that everyone has forgotten about his categorical statement.
The terrible truth for Gore is that there is no planetary emergency. Not one of the dire predictions he and the rest of the alarmist community made has come to pass. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that they have been running a racket. Here’s how we know:
One, Earth hasn’t warmed in nearly 20 years. Yes, 2015 supposedly “smashed” the previous temperature record. But actually it was the third-warmest year on record — or maybe “not even close to the hottest year on record,” says James Taylor of the Heartland Institute.
The global average temperature, a devilish thing to determine anyway, depends on what temperature readings are being used and who is “adjusting” the data to fit their political purposes. The scientific community cannot be trusted to provide honest numbers. And 2015 was, after all, an El Nino year. Higher temperatures, with no link to man’s activities, were expected.
Two, predictions that climate change — the rebranding of “global warming” when it turned out that predicted warming wasn’t happening — would cause catastrophic weather damage haven’t panned out.
German insurance giant Munich Re says losses from natural disasters were lower in 2015 than in 2014 and lowest since 2009. The facts are sharply at odds with Gore’s 2012 claim that “dirty weather” caused by “dirty fossil fuel” has created “extreme weather” that “is happening all over the world with increasing frequency.”
Three, despite all the self-congratulatory international conferences and pseudo-agreements, the world has done nothing to “fight global warming.”
He cannot claim that his deadline has been extended because some governments have forced their citizens to cut carbon dioxide emissions. CO2 levels keep climbing and now exceed 401 parts per million in the atmosphere. It is simply not the dangerous greenhouse gas we’ve repeatedly been told it is.
Four, in the mid- to late-2000s, Gore repeatedly predicted that an ice-free Arctic Ocean was coming soon. But as usual, his fortune-telling was wrong. By 2014, Arctic ice had grown thicker and covered a greater area than it did when he made his prediction.
MightyMike actually posted something useful yesterday - coinciding with five planets visibly aligning. What is the significance of these seemingly unconnected, once-in-a-lifetime events occuring at the same time?
https://www.rt.com/news/329918-five-planets-align-visibly/
It will make your chackras go to 11, and the Space Jesus will orbit the planet thrice in his enchanted canoe, dropping gifts for all the good girls and boys.
That’s the reality of grossly inflated housing prices requiring 30 year mortgages.
Remember…… If you have to finance it for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.
mort-gage = DEATH PLEDGE
Only bigger and bigger government with higher and higher taxes and more and more regulations can save us!
the best. political ad. ever.
Raise your hand if you want a 33% increase in your taxes to pay for illegals and refugees….
“They’ve all come to look for America” and found a huge, expensive and inefficient bureaucracy….
——————–
Sanders Makes a Rare Pitch: More Taxes for More Government
New York Times - 1/22/2016
Senator Bernie Sanders’s health care plan is advancing a notion that has long been out of fashion in American politics: that the federal government should provide a new, expensive service to most Americans, and that it should levy significantly higher taxes on most Americans to provide that service.
His campaign estimates that his plan to cover all Americans with a zero-deductible, zero-co-pay health plan will add $1.38 trillion a year to government spending. There are reasons to think that estimate is optimistically low, but even if it’s correct it’s still a lot of money: Paying for it would require increasing federal tax receipts by about a third, and Mr. Sanders has a plan to do so.
I already pay 900/month taxes for that… it just goes to an insurance company that does everything it can to weasel out of paying for my medical care…as the profit motive dictates.
My employer is already paying $1500 a month for my family’s coverage.
Funny you say that as you often talk about how ObamaCare hasn’t effected you personally relative to out-of-pocket cost.
It doesn’t affect him… it affects his employer.
Boeing and the decline of the US middle class
“This is no longer your father’s company,” proclaimed a senior executive at Boeing in 1998, sending a chill through the aircraft maker’s thousands of employees.
With this, Boeing began a series of radical changes that transformed it from a family-oriented business that looked after employee welfare into a more aggressive, corporate culture that prioritised shareholder value and executive remuneration. Other companies followed its lead, unleashing a wave of change that has transformed the US workforce.
Boeing’s changes, sparked by a merger with rival McDonnell Douglas, included the relocation of work to cheaper places, the outsourcing of key components and aggressive cost cuts.
These details, and conclusions drawn from them, form the basis of Emerging from Turbulence, for which academics Leon Grunberg and Sarah Moore at the University of Puget Sound interviewed hundreds of Boeing employees anonymously over 20 years.
Mr Grunberg says that the company remained profitable but the changes contributed to the hollowing out of the US middle class and a distrust of authority that has prompted a rise in anti-establishment sentiment. Boeing has declined to comment.
One employee, who worked at the company for 30 years, said that Boeing had a “collegial, bloated, flaccid management structure”, adding that the McDonnell Douglas executives were “mainly finance guys” who “cut through the Boeing people like a knife through butter”.
Boeing’s staff were focused on the engineering possibilities, how to make the next aircraft, while the new management focused on the bottom line and on rewarding investors, employees said.
Among the changes, Boeing outsourced the design and production of important parts of Dreamliner, its flagship passenger aircraft, and shifted IT and engineering work out of state or to contractors. As a result, production was delayed by three years, costing the company around $28bn, according to analysts’ estimates.
Meanwhile, previously strong Boeing unions were severely weakened by the aircraft maker locating a second Dreamliner assembly line in South Carolina — a state unfriendly to unions — and the company’s threat to move other programmes elsewhere.
The new company ethos damaged the sense of trust workers had in top management and produced economic anxiety as well as “various degrees of cynicism towards traditional institutions”, says Mr Grunberg.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5487ad7c-b5fd-11e5-b147-e5e5bba42e51.html#axzz3y5LCpUJs
This is truly remarkable - for only the second time in recorded history, MightyMike has posted something of value on the HBB. Could it be that the aforementioned alignment of five planets is exerting some kind of gravitational pull that has had the effect of pulling Mikey’s head from its usual repository in a certain bodily cavity, albeit temporarily, so he is actually lucid for a change? It can’t last, since he’s still fundamentally a lefty, but still, it should be celebrated as a once-in-a-lifetime event: Mikey’s making sense and posting non-drivel for a change!
Nice. When complementing someone, you still manage to slip in an insult. You must be in management.
Booner calls out the Fed fraudsters on our so-faux “recovery.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/recovery-is-a-myth-2016-1
If you just accept that our economy is an inflatable pool toy, everything looks peachy.
lol@Lola
http://goo.gl/oikLRe
Those of you who support Trump would hand him the gun as he shoots anyone he likes.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-23/confident-trump-says-could-shoot-somebody-still-win
Posting retarded lefty-style drivel is beneath you, SH. You’re better than that.
Not sure if you are sarc.
From Tyler’s articles promoting precious metals and riddling Keynesianism, I could not say he is leftist. From his posts against neoconservative wars, I could not say he is right wing either. I could say he is a minarchist and I would be correct.
You post a lot against neoconservative / progressive issues that I am sure you know there is no right versus left. It is statism versus Individualism. Trump is a perfect neoconservative/progressive example and it is funny that you, of all people, do not see it.
Trump’s killing political correctness, I don’t care if he uses a knife or gun or his bare hands to do it. He’s also killing open borders, something you have repeatedly said you are for.
You fit the type of loon who collectively creates Hitlers.
“I’m not scared of the Maos and the Stalins and the Hitlers.
I’m scared of the thousands of millions of people that hallucinate them to be “authority”, and so do their bidding, and pay for their empires, and carry out their orders.
I don’t care if there’s one looney with a stupid moustache. He’s not a threat if the people do not believe in “authority”. Larken Rose
The boat sailed long time ago. The days of republic are long over. It’s “democracy” and the majority mob rule is the norm whether we like it or not.
The choice is either to vote Trump and bring the collapse sooner or
Vote Hillary and postpone the collapse by few years.
It depends on who he kills, no?
Obama drones people left and right, I see no drop in his popularity.
The truth is most Americans are sane. The ones who vote for the sociopaths when they can instead “not vote” are just as bad as the sociopaths.
Suppose the voting turnout this November will be even lower than four Novembers ago?
I have more respect for the general public than people think here.
http://elevenbravotwenty.blogspot.com/2016/01/imagine-if-you-will.html
I see you are getting closer and closer to posting your manifesto a la Ted Kaczynski. All you need is a cabin in the woods.
The irony is that you voters are the loons. You are the ones who hallucinate the sociopaths to powerful positions with the unique ability to wage democide.
Your definition of fascist is any strong person who wants their country to be great. Rejecting porous borders and Chinese economic predation is now somehow fascist. I do not know where you developed your rejection of all forms of authority but it is a naive and childish worldview. The voluntaryism you espouse is unworkable in groups larger than a small handful of people. It boils down to crybabyism when you don’t get your way. In order to cooperate at any level of complexity there will be times when not everyone can be satisfied. Sometimes, heck usually, the good of the whole outweighs the good of the one. Rejecting peacefully solving the problem of differing people wanting differing outcomes through a vote where majority rules is childish.
Forcing your ideas on other at gunpoint is never moral. What an ogre.
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
~~Thomas Jefferson
That quote is as made up as Climate Change.
U.S. says prepared for military solution against Islamic State in Syria
ISTANBUL | By David Dolan and Asli Kandemir
World | Sat Jan 23, 2016 3:48pm EST
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the United States and Turkey were prepared for a military solution against Islamic State in Syria should the Syrian government and rebels fail to reach a political settlement.
The latest round of Syria peace talks are planned to begin on Monday in Geneva but were at risk of being delayed partly because of a dispute over who will comprise the opposition delegation.
Syrian armed rebel groups said on Saturday they held the Syrian government and Russia responsible for any failure of peace talks to end the country’s civil war, even before negotiations were due to start.
“We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared …, if that’s not possible, to have a military solution to this operation in taking out Daesh,” Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Daesh is the pejorative Arabic acronym for Islamic State insurgents who hold parts of Syria.
A U.S. official later clarified that Biden was talking about a military solution to Islamic State, not Syria as a whole.
The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition ruled out even indirect negotiations unless Damascus took steps including a halt to Russian air strikes.
Biden said he and Davutoglu also discussed how the two NATO allies could further support Sunni Arab rebel forces fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States has sent dozens of special forces soldiers to help rebels fighting Islamic State in Syria although the troops are not intended for front line combat.
Along with its allies Washington is also conducting air strikes against Islamic State militants who hold large chunks of Syria and Iraq and support opposition fighters battling the group.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday he was confident Syria peace talks would proceed, after he held talks with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-biden-idUSKCN0V10J9 - 188k -
Trump picks wrong place for Bible gaffe
Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump bungled a Bible verse on Monday during a speech intended to court support among Evangelical Christians.
“We are going to protect Christianity,” Trump said in a speech at Liberty University, a conservative Christian college in Virginia founded by Jerry Falwell.
“Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians 3:17. That’s the whole ballgame. Where the spirit of the Lord, right? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty… Is that the one you like? I think that’s the one you liked, because I loved it.”
Laughter from the audience could be heard as Trump cited the verse.
According to an account from Politico, some students could also be heard correcting Trump, saying that it should be cited as “second” Corinthians, not “two” Corinthians.
Trump has been trying to win over support among more socially conservative Republicans. One of his toughest competitors in this space is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is popular among the religious right.
Last fall, the Family Research Council Action said that the majority of attendees who were polled at the Values Voter Summit said that they believed Cruz should win the nomination for the party’s presidential nominee.
Trump’s gaffe prompted some quick reactions on Twitter, including from Senator Ted Cruz’s rapid response director who jokingly tweeted “What is ‘Two Corinthians?’”
The mistake, however, did not deter Trump from making more references to Christianty and the Bible later in the speech.
“I’m a protestant. I’m very proud of it. Presbyterian to be exact,” he said. “But I’m very proud of it. Very, very proud. And we’ve got to protect because bad things are happening.”
If elected, Trump vowed to do away with political correctness and ensure that the words “Merry Christmas” are once again displayed in department stores.
http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/2016/01/18/trump-picks-wrong-place-for-bible-gaffe/
Global Warming paralyzed the East Coast on Saturday, effectively shutting down New York City and the nation’s capital, while dumping as much as 3 feet of snow in other areas.
Barney Sanders throws the Beast under the Goldman Sachs bus.
Hillary Clinton Laughs When Asked if She Will Release Transcripts of Her Goldman Sachs Speeches
During Goldman Sachs speech Clinton said banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish
Lee Fang | - January 23, 2016 348 Comments
After Hillary Clinton spoke at a town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday, I asked her if she would release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. She laughed and turned away.
Clinton has recently been on the defensive about the speaking fees she and her husband have collected. Those fees total over $125 million since 2001.
Her rival Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has raised concerns in particular over the $675,000 she made from Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that has regularly used its influence with government officials to win favorable policies.
During one of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, Clinton reportedly reassured the crowd and told them that banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish, according to a Politico report based on accounts offered by several attendees.
On Friday, Clinton was asked by New Hampshire Public Radio how the “average person should view the hefty speaking fees?”
“I spoke to a wide array of groups who wanted to hear what I thought about the world coming off of my time as secretary of state,” Clinton said, defending her decision to make money from speaking fees. “I happen to think we need more conversation about what’s going on in the world.”
“I think groups that want to talk and ask questions and hear about that are actually trying to educate themselves because we’re living in a really complicated world.”
When asked by the Des Moines Register on Thursday if she regretted her decision to make money from speaking to various interest groups, Clintoncompared herself to President Barack Obama, noting that significant campaign donations from Wall Street did not stop him from passing the Dodd-Frank reform law.
But the Obama administration did in fact go easy on Wall Street by refusing to criminally prosecute the major financial institutions responsible for the 2008 economic crisis. And Dodd-Frank, many critics say, does not go far enough in preventing systemic risk.
Payola for services rendered, pure and simple.
Hillary = corruption.
How’s that hope ‘n change working out for ya, ‘Murica?
http://theantimedia.org/tpp-trade-deal-will-cost-us-4480000-jobs-say-researchers/
folks are still chasing dollars so all must be well.
TPP Trade Deal Will Cost US 448,000 Jobs?
This can’t be!
After President Obama said we could keep our doctors he said with the TPP he could rewrite the rules of trade to benefit America’s middle class.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
What You Need to Know about President Obama’s Trade Agreement
That is why President Obama has concluded negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership and will now work with Congress to secure its passage into law. The TPP is a trade agreement with 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific, including Canada and Mexico that will eliminate over 18,000 taxes various countries put on Made-in-America products.
With the TPP, we can rewrite the rules of trade to benefit America’s middle class. Because if we don’t, competitors who don’t share our values, like China, will step in to fill that void.
That is why the President’s trade policy is the best tool we have to ensure that our workers, our businesses, and our values are shaping globalization and the 21st century economy, rather than getting left behind.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/trade - 101k -
Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it
You pull the lever for your man Bernie
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and your sh#t for free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag - 325k -
Banksters versus Bitcoin
1 hour documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTfkpEkSXk4
Region IV