From Jenna Orkin
US/Economy
China February M2 Money Supply Up 25.5% On Year Vs. 26% Increase
U.S. Posts Record Budget Deficit of $221 Billion - from Rice Farmer
Senate passes $149 bln for jobless aid, tax breaks
Jobless Rate Rose in 30 States In January, Five Hit Records
Unemployment Rate up in 30 States, Down in 9; Manufacturing States Benefit Most
States, Cities Likely To Slash Jobs As Stimulus Ends
Democrats To Unveil New $100 Billion Jobs Bill That Will Only Save Government Jobs And Will Be Funded By The Deficit
Get Ready For More Taxes And Fewer Services
Cash-Strapped States Delay Paying Income-Tax Refunds
Commercial property may cause new crisis, says FSA
U.S. seen vulnerable to rate shocks
Small firms still in trouble WSJ
How Kids, Schools, Health, And Local Governments Will Get Slammed By New York's New Budget
Virginia Hands Out 6996 Traffic Tickets In One Weekend In An Effort To Raise Revenue
Economic Stimulus Was a Waste of Time
Miami-Dade Hospital in "Death Spiral"
Pelosi: We have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it
Citizens' Initiative Puts Spotlight On SF Muni Pay Schedule
Obama's Housing Shell Game; Short Sales and Relocation Assistance
Debt for Diploma Schemes and the Cookie Monster Principle
World
Strike Paralyzes Greece; Protests Turn Violent
PIMCO's El-Erian: You Fools Don't Realize That The Sovereign Debt Crisis Goes WAY Beyond Greece
Here's Why Europe Is About To Dump Lots Of Gold Onto The Market
The race to the bottom
That was a headline on this blog a few months ago. Now it's gone mainstream.
Private sector eyes opportunity in Haiti rebuilding
Clinton Family Pockets Haiti Assets in Telephone Company Privatization, Says Pumphrey - from Rice Farmer
Terror/Intelligence
America confronts its worst nightmare: blonde 'Jihad Jane'
Next on the agenda: Five-year-olds.
Malware Turns Your Cellphone Against You
Abdulmutallab could not have blown up plane
Pacific Missile Range Facility Intercept Test Support - from Lisa
Energy/Environment
Big business has a new weapon
Corporate America's new right to free speech means their opinions on climate change could get a lot louder
Quake moved whole city
The massive earthquake that struck Chile last monthmoved an entire city at least 10 feet (3 meters) tothe west, scientists say.
China Idles 40% of Windpower Turbine Output Capacity
German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel
Intrigue soars as 75 starlings fall out of sky
Brain Scans Depict Damage From Gulf War Syndrome
Do oil and gas "boomtowns" attract sex offenders?
And...
Exposure to letters A or F may affect test scores
Seeing the letter "A" before a test can improve astudent's score, while noticing an "F" may reduceit, a study has found.
Can Circus Really Tackle 9/11?
Where have you been for the last nine years?
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16 comments:
Regarding students' results being affected by seeing the letters "A" or "F" before taking a test...my 6-year old daughter was having difficulty completing and passing her math exams, until I told her to keep telling herself "Math is easy". Then I told her before she takes the exams to visualize herself after the exam...having already passed it...and being thrilled about it.
And now she's both completing and passing her math exams.
Headline: "America confronts its worst nightmare: blonde 'Jihad Jane'"
Hey, did y'all catch that? ... They just kicked open the door for all of us middle-aged white folk to take our vacations at Guantanamo! Hooray!
Headline: VA Speeding Tickets
I found it funny in 2007 when the higher fines were passed that the NY Times hailed it as a great thing. The VA state Delegate that they quoted David Albo made it appear that the only way the transporation bill in VA would be passed was to raise speeding ticket costs.
"Delegate David Albo, Republican of Fairfax County, a main proponent of the high fines, said that a one-cent increase in the gasoline tax would generate about $50 million a year, but that replacing the fines with a higher gasoline tax would undermine the transportation financing bill that was passed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/world/americas/19iht-19virginia.6737266.html
What the NY Times and David Albo himself didn't tell you was that David Albo is a lawyer at the lawfirm Albo and Oblon whom handles primarily traffic cases! The NY Times and other publications hailed him for finding the soultion while padding his pockets directly at the same time.
"Because the Virginia House of Delegates is a part-time legislative body, meeting only a few months each year, most members hold jobs outside the legislature. Albo's fulltime job is as a partner in the small Virginia law firm of Albo & Oblon, where he handles mostly traffic cases."
Then he braggs about how VA citizens in his district don't pay attention to local politics.
"My district's eyes are focused elsewhere," he says. Most people in this area follow national politics, not the local stuff. "They don't have a whole lot of time to do anything else but take care of their kids. If I knock on doors, everybody's at a soccer game or a swim meet."
http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=14405
The VA State Police often sets up sting operations up and down I-95 and I-81, especially in '07 and '08 as gas prices were in the $3's and $4's, this doesn't surprise me one bit.
China: Biggest customer in saubi arabian oil. Have 97 of the worlds reserve in rare earth metals, and dictate the US to step down the spending. Witch Obama made an (what are you going to do about 1,7 trillion of that) statement. Obama is smart and there is no way the usa is paying that back.
And will stop anything Iran. I see that but I fail to see the shot in Sarajevo.
As I see it. The day the dollar falls is the days the war starts. And the winner of that war is going to be the state that steals the most oil. Eighter way we are fucked.
Good luck!
Here is a must read article!! It is a great look into our economic future. ---- John
http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=268#comments
To all you Doubters,
Study Quantum Reality, there is Spirit IN, behind, the Totality of everything; call it what you will, you all have a FAITH, call it what you will, use any term you like, YOU still believe in something!
Stop kicking at/against the word/phrase you object to, what you think about the word GOD/Darwin/Evolution/Great Spirit/wind/life/Bull shit is meaningless-
to me or anyone else who places a different value on Your FAITH; You do have one and get emotional about it, especially when you spout off about what you object to. Please let it go, as MCR said on the radio program, its a distraction!
Anything/everything is/can be a distraction, if you become emotional, and loose
focus on/of the goal.
Even this Blog can be a distraction, or whatever! Last Thur. our main freezer went south, we lost, (gave to a food bank), $4,000 US worth of frozen food!
Now that is a distraction-just a test of what happens when the grid goes down!!
Must we return to killing each other over the perception we have about the meaning of a word we value differently, and relates not to if you eat or not!
Spend your energy on togetherness, not separateness.
My parents lived/thought different than I do; my concept of the community/Knot/Hell they reside/exist/or not, in, would be my hell, I am sure (my Faith), that where they are is Heaven to them, & the other Spirits/energy/Information/Void, they are communing with. Would I force them into my Heaven, HELL NO.
RanD would not force you into anything, , They/He are just exposing your mind to something you are resistant to (do not want to consider as a possibility), exposure to an opposing viewpoint never hurt anyone, it ether reinforces your viewpoint or opens a new line of thought. I have gone around with several here, and come away better for it, as i (small) have said, "leave your dagger at home", it's not about Blood letting!
The book "The Survivors Club" stresses that the key to surviving is Faith.
Your faith, my faith, even if it is in nothing but something unproven, or dis proven, even if it is only in Yourself (ego/Godhead); you do trust your ego, right?
http://bensherwood.com/?page_id=98
AMAE.
Agape, The heading of your last post was " To all you Doubters ". Why did you even bother with that distraction? You should have just put " To Hotspringswizard ", since you were clearly referencing my disagreement with RanD.
You wrote this " exposure to an opposing viewpoint never hurt anyone ", the point is, when it comes to RanD and their dumping of their religious veiwpoints into this comment space, over and over again, its over-exposure.
And to top it off, in their constistently arrogant manner in much of what they say when it comes to their religious views, they also cited clearly recently that they consider those that don't hold their particular religious views as stupid and incorrigible. I see you had nothing to say about that Agape.
Of course they always reveal their revelations in a round-a-bout way, to preserve for themselves plausible deniability later, so they can backtrack if the need arises, just like they use a certain level of vagueness ( the source instead of GOD for example ) in thier writtings, which really conveniently veils the more accurate intent and reality of their particular beliefs.
The point of anything I wrote was not about changing anyones point of view regarding how they personally appraise their life experience. I could cite in great depth the nature of my own " observations " regarding this subject, but as far as I'm concerned, beyond dropping a few thoughts here and there on that topic, this is not the place for long winded, post after post, sermons of my ( or anyone elses for that matter ) particular take on existance.
There are public discussions spaces where deeper and extended explorations of the nature of existance are quite appropriate.
I don't mind at all reading the comments of varous people on this or that of their particular spiritual views related to the many dire issues that are discussed here, but with RanD, its been completely overdone in my opinion.
An easy solution would be for RanD to just refer to a link to their " Little Book Of Life " religous content for people to explore if they wish. Enfusing this same content into this blog comment space over and over is an imposition on as you cited Agape " the goal " of this blog. But frankly, I don't think RanD cares about that.
Here's the link to NatGeo's latest
show. A World Without Oil. The what
if scenarios when our oil runs out.
http://bit.ly/9jSDwV
Enjoy
RE: Record Budget Deficit of $221 Billion
I’d like to point out that this government borrowing for ONE MONTH.
The 2010 budget involved OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS IN BORROWED MONEY.
Amy Belasco of the Congressional Research Service submitted this report on 2010 war expenses:
“As of July 2009, DOD’s average MONTHLY obligations for contracts and pay were about $10.9 billion, including $7.3 billion for IRAQ, and $3.6 billion for AFGHANISTAN. Compared to a year ago when the surge ended but troop levels remained high, average obligations have fallen by about 12%. Decreases in costs as troops are withdrawn from Iraq have been largely offset by increases in costs for additional troops for Afghanistan."
“The FY2010 war request totals $139 billion including $130 billion for DOD for both wars.”
That’s nearly eleven billion dollars per month, BILLED TO THE FUTURE, to kill people in distant lands.
And the war budget is not included in the 2010 Defense budget, which has a “Base Funding” of $533.7 billion. (That's over 44 billion dollars a month.) The war budget is noted separately as “Funding for Overseas Contingency Operations”, according to this Defense Dept. document.
Of course, it would be madness to suddenly eliminate the defense budget But that’s where the money is going. That, and shoveling money to bankers and industrialists, who come to beg for it in private jets.
I tried to find a reliable assessment of the likely cost in DEFICIT DOLLARS to the federal government, of the BANK RESCUE, G.M. BAILOUT, etc. A lot of wobbly generalities is all I could obtain in a short search. Anybody?
The current federal debt stands at TWELVE AND A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS. That’s over $40,000 for each man, woman and child in America. So a family of four owes America’s creditors $160,000. That family may also owe an equal amount in mortgage and credit card debt. And it’s increasingly likely that the “breadwinners” are unemployed or underemployed and possibly getting by on food stamps.
And how are we supposed to pay off that debt?
By the way, interest on the federal debt, figured into the 2010 federal budget, was over $181 billion. And since we’re still deficit spending, that interest itself gets paid by issuing new debt. Burgeoning debt of this kind inevitably results in maximum taxation (usually of those least able to pay) and the draconian elimination of services (e.g. Greece).
ABC News: "Within 12 years…the LARGEST ITEM IN THE FEDERAL BUDGET will be INTEREST PAYMENTS on the national debt," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "[They are] payments for which we get nothing."
The corporatist plan is to skin Americans to the bone, with wages down, taxes up and prices going through the roof. Security measures will increase (and escape public oversight, even more than is true today). No viable strategy has been proposed to reverse these trends.
We cannot substantially change the nature of our government, nor what it does. Whatever measure of independence one can obtain from the money economy, from increasingly attenuated and conditional social services, and from the mainstream supply of food and water, the more secure one will be. Not that anyone is really secure, when the rest are in turmoil. Preparing to help others should also be part of our own planning.
On a very much related note, Forbes recently released its World Billionaires list, which contains about a thousand names. The World Wealth Report, which counts the world’s millionaires and crunches numbers related to that class, has not yet been released for 2010. There were 8.6 million millionaires in the world in 2008, according to the 2009 report (see tables on p. 5), down from 10 million of ‘em in 2007. Of those, 78,000 were deemed “ultra-high net wealth incomes”, with at least $30 million in wealth. Merrill Lynch, who sponsors the report, expects that we can expect annual 8% growth in the wealth of this class.
Eight or ten million of these folks, and nearly 7 billion “others”. This class comprises about 0.1 percent of the world's people. It seems clear that the economic system is designed to serve this class, at the expense of everyone and everything else. Some foresee a collapse in which even the "elite" lose out, but I’m pretty sure that at least the thousand billionaires, and many of the multi-millionaires, are counting on a different scenario, and can be counted on to move their vast resources to suit these expectations.
As is true with a government in business for itself, we cannot expect to interfere much in the general behavior of billionairs. Tactical opposition may save a grove of trees or obtain compensation for one of many catastrophes wreaked in the name of profit. But, in general, we have little hope of calling this class to account.
What we can do, instead of defining ourselves as losers in their game, is to play another game.
Don't work for them. Don't eat what they manufacture. Don't drive their cars or take their injections. Know your neighbors, trade instead of buying and selling. Give generously. Accept help without shame. Be happy.
And stay informed.
tks for the link johnnyboydakota
"After examining the facts behind the implementation of SDRs as well as the potentially explosive situation in the treasury market, I believe that a “shock and awe” scenario is becoming more probable. The behavior of the Fed, along with that of the IMF seems to suggest that they are preparing for a focused collapse, peaking within weeks or months instead of years, and the most certain fall of the dollar."
..."They cannot allow a major dollar depreciation until the SDR is established on the world market as a ready substitute."
"A good sign that this process might accelerate would be in the event that China de-pegs the Yuan from the Dollar and allows it to appreciate in value."
I'm not so sure China announcing a de-peg from the $$ would be a good sign of acceleration, by that time all the ducks will be in a row, and dominoes will have fallen IMO.
This analysis did pique my interest though, if we could see a list of countries holdings in SDRs, it might give a good indication which countries will be abandoned to totally collapse, and which the globalists intend to support at a much lower level.
A list of SDR holdings by country might show the hotspots in more detail.
Has anyone found such a list? The IMF site is useless!
@agape_wins: "Must we return to killing each other over the perception we have about the meaning of a word we value differently, and relates not to if you eat or not!"
Hehe... I think we will "return to killing each other" once our freezers go south!
Great post, though! Seems there's much we agree on!
In follow-up to eyeballs' comments, when will the U.S. dollar become so devalued that any U.S. government stimulus through adding more dollars into the economy not work anymore?
Also, the potential for trillions of dollars of derivatives imploding was talked about a lot six months to a year ago, but it's not being discussed nearly as much anymore. How close is that arena right now to imploding?
@eyeballs
"Of course, it would be madness to suddenly eliminate the defense budget But that’s where the money is going."
You do realize that this is all happening because of China rising, yes? China has been positioning itself for quite some time (possibly since the beginning of time), to become the next --and greatest ever-- superpower. So, in the very likely event that we should find it necessary to cut-off their oil supply, we must have Iran surrounded (and any other major oil producers), no matter what the cost.
In fact, this pretty much explains everything we've done over the past --oh, I dunno-- 3 or 4 thousand years (I was going to say since WWII, but then I thought about it a little more). :-)
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