Blipits

Discuss political news items / current events.
Post Reply
User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

The most significant weather event in the US on July 6, 2010 didn't show up on any radar. The geostationary satellites didn't see it in their constant watch over the Earth's atmosphere. Instead, the tale of this event was told by the thermometers, because the heatwave in the Northeast was the most significant event for July 6, and it will likely be the most important weather story for July 7.

The heat wave covers Pennsylvania to Maine, but Tuesday's worst was centered over New York City. All six of the stations used by the New York NWS office for climate reports (Central Park, La Guardia, JFK, Islip, Bridgeport, and Newark) set or tied the daily high temperature record. Newark and Central Park both reached 103 degrees F.

How unusual is this heat wave?
Figures 1 and 2 show how warm the highs and lows are compared to 30 year averages. Unless you were at the Great Lakes, the Midwest and Northeast have highs well above normal, with 10-15+ degree F differences over the coastal cities of the Northeast. Using my gridded temperature data, the low for New York City was 6 degrees F above normal, which should happen 30% of the time (1.1 standard deviations away from normal). The high was roughly 20 degrees above normal, which should happen only 0.29% of the time (3.04 standard deviations away from normal). This is an unusually strong heat wave.

Why it's hot
Basically, it's because there is "the Bull of a high pressure ridge [over the NE US]" to quote the Mount Holly NWS office forecast discussion. The large ridge of high pressure is forcing air to slowly descend across the Northeast, preventing clouds from forming. Without no clouds and plenty of daylight, the Sun heats the ground which then heats the air.

When will it cool down?
That's an excellent question. A trough of low pressure off the coast will bring onshore winds to the Tri-State area and MA by Thursday, so they should cool down a bit. The southern part of the heat wave, DC and Philadelphia, will have to wait for a cold front to arrive from the Great Lakes sometime Saturday to get relief.

Population affected
As Figure 3 shows, heat advisories covered most of the urban areas of the northeastern US. By my calculations, over 32 million people were under a heat advisory. Different offices have different guidelines for heat advisories. The NWS office responsible for New York issues a heat advisory if the heat index will be above 95 deg. F for two or more days or if the index will be above 100 deg. F for any length of time.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1537
Radar Logic has a new report out that estimates the coming wave of Gumnut REO properties. The report suggests the GSEs will take a $333 billion hit on these. It should be added that the Federal Reserve and foreign central banks will also be heavily involved by extension and by the sheer size of their investment.
Baltic Dry Index Slides 5% To 14 Month Low, 30th Consecutive Day Of Declines

After slumping 4% yesterday to close at 2,127, the Baltic Dry has plunged yet another 5% today, to close just above 2,000 at 2,018. This is the lowest level for the index in 14 months since May 5 of 2009 when it last traded by 2,000 and a reason for all Chinese trade "resurgence" bulls to reevaluate their thesis. Did China outsmart everyone, with the Yuan "reval" coming at a time when planned foreign trade would be de minimis? In the meantime, this is bad news for Australia and Brazil, and especially the AUD and the BRL, but who cares about facts anymore.

More broadly, industry concerns over the pace of global economic recovery could hit shipping, given that about 90 percent of the world's traded goods by volume are transported by sea.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... y-declines

Illinois Bankrupt?
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... s-bankrupt

Water theft and the beginning of the end of independent and family cattle ranching
http://farmwars.info/?p=3253&utm_source ... rm+Wars%29

Food Thieves Prove Tough Times Are Here Already
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/f ... y_07062010

Drug lobby showers money on its hero Harry Reid
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :14:46:42Z

CNN) -- Two high-ranking public officials were shot and killed in Mexico late Wednesday, making for four such attacks in the past two weeks. Three of the deadly assaults happened this week.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... or.killed/

Polish Troops Train To Take On American “Terrorists”
http://www.infowars.com/polish-troops-t ... errorists/

Gulf Water Samples Prove Toxic, BP Continues Spraying
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/06/gulf- ... ve-deadly/

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Mortgage rates drop to new low of 4.57 pct. - Average rates on 30-year fixed mortgages decline to 4.57 percent, lowest level in 5 decades
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortgage- ... et=&ccode=

Richard Suttmeier: Home Prices Could Fall Another 50%
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/ri ... atrick.net

....its called Debt Saturation......

....to learn more check out a few of the links here....
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sour ... oEBU_QYPCG

....but here's the original that started everyone talking about debt saturation....
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ntury.html

.....and the follow up....
http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... rtant.html
Bonds are signaling that the recovery is in trouble. The yield on the 10-year Treasury (2.97 percent) has fallen to levels not seen since the peak of the crisis while the yield on the two-year note has dropped to historic lows. This is a sign of extreme pessimism. Investors are scared and moving into liquid assets. Their confidence has begun to wane. Economist John Maynard Keynes examined the issue of confidence in his masterpiece "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". He says:

"The state of long-term expectation, upon which our decisions are based, does not solely depend, therefore, on the most probable forecast we can make. It also depends on the confidence with which we make this forecast — on how highly we rate the likelihood of our best forecast turning out quite wrong....The state of confidence, as they term it, is a matter to which practical men always pay the closest and most anxious attention."

Volatility, high unemployment, and a collapsing housing market are eroding investor confidence and adding to the gloominess. Economists who make their projections on the data alone, should revisit Keynes. Confidence matters. Businesses and households have started to hoard and the cycle of deleveraging is still in its early stages. Obama's fiscal stimulus will run out just months after the Fed has ended its bond purchasing program. That's bound to shrink the money supply and lead to tighter credit. Soon, wages will contract and the CPI will turn from disinflation to outright deflation.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney07062010.html
New data presented by M3 Money Supply shows the stock of money in the United States has fallen from 14.2 to 13.9 trillion dollars in the first quarter of 2010.

The plunge represents a 9.6 percent contraction on an annual basis.

"It's frightening," said Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research, according to a report appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

"The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly," he said.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=12 ... id=3510213
Vacancies at large malls in the top 80 U.S. markets rose to 9% in the second quarter, up from 8.9% during the first quarter, according to real-estate research company Reis Inc. Mall vacancies have increased steadily for nearly four years as consumers reined in their spending and retailers closed stores and curtailed expansions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... cle_MoreIn
A little-noticed data point at the back of a 216-page report released last week by the BIS shows the international agency has taken 349 metric tons of gold since December—allowing central banks to raise a record $14 billion.

The number surprised the market, which had assumed most central banks had retained their holdings of gold. Instead, the BIS data show that they have been entering these gold swaps—exchanging their gold with the BIS in return for cash, agreeing to repurchase the gold at a later date.
http://www.businessinsider.com/central- ... ace-2010-7

....remember who the ultimate head honcho is.....the BIS....they are the central bank of central banks.....and in a world of money created by debt in which the ownership of all assets will flow (via interest expense and default) to the originator of the money.....ultimately the BIS.....
Sovereign Debt: The Death of Nations vs. the Wealth of Nations

The gap between the truth vs. the lies that pass for truth in the media has never been so wide. But living a lie is very destructive, so it’s important to cross this gap. Today I want to clear up one of the most important lies reinforced by the media–the idea that we have sovereign countries.

No doubt most of you have heard of the sovereign debt crisis that so many countries are facing. We hear endless economists, reporters, and billionaire hedge fund raiders talk about it. But the phrase they use is fictitious. It is a fabrication of the Ivy League, Wall Street, and erudite periodicals like the Financial Times of London. Sovereign debt is an impossibility. It cannot exist.

It seems ridiculous to point this out, but sovereign debt implies sovereignty. Right? Well, if countries are sovereign, then how could they be required to be in debt to private banking institutions? How could they be so easily attacked by the likes of George Soros, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs? Why would they be subjugated to the whims of auctions and traders?

A true sovereign is in debt to nobody and is not traded in the public markets. For example, how would George Soros attack, say, the British royal family? It’s not possible. They are sovereign. Their stock isn’t traded on the NYSE. He can’t orchestrate a naked short sell strategy to destroy their credit and force them to restructure their assets. But he can do that to most of the other 6.7 billion people of the world by designing attack strategies against the companies they work for and the governments they depend on.

The fact is that most countries are not sovereign (the few that are are being attacked by CIA/MI6/Mossad or the military). Instead they are administrative districts or customers of the global banking establishment whose power has grown steadily over time based on the math of the bond market, currently ruled by the US dollar, and the expansionary nature of fractional lending. Their cult of economists from places like Harvard, Chicago, and the London School have steadily eroded national sovereignty by forcing debt-based, floating currencies on countries. So let’s start being honest and stop describing their debt instruments as sovereign.

We long ago lost the free market envisioned by Adam Smith in the “Wealth of Nations.” Such a world would require sovereign currencies, i.e. currencies that are well-regulated rather than floating, and an asset rather than an interest-bearing debt. Only then could there be a “wealth of nations.” But now we have nothing but the “debt of nations.” The exponential math of debt by definition meant that countries would only lose their wealth over time and become increasingly indebted to the global central banking network.

So thanks to debt-based, free-floating currencies, the “wealth of nations” transitioned to the “debt of nations” which is now transitioning to the “death of nations.” The new world economic order with one currency, one banking system, one government, and one integrated corporate empire is on the horizon. Perhaps that’s a good thing, but if it were, why would the establishment concoct oxymorons like “sovereign debt” instead of telling the truth? That’s my only goal here–I think people can be trusted with the truth. Lies harm not only the population hearing them, but also the powerful people telling them.

Those powers have the best salesmen in the world, so why don’t they just sell the population on the truth? Apparently they don’t think you’d like it. Well now you have it. And it’s coming unless countries follow Iceland’s lead and recover their sovereignty. The choice is ours.
http://csper.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/s ... f-nations/

Why Investing In Gold Is An Illuminati Trap
http://www.thepatriotscave.com/2010/07/ ... inati.html
The middle class is witnessing the largest wealth transfer in history take place and it is all happening because of the Wall Street infrastructure and the government’s lack of respect for the working class of the United States.

High interest charges, onerous fees, and other trickery are merely ways of sucking real wealth from those who work to a class that is largely unproductive and has led us into this economic predicament. The government has worked hand in hand with the banks here.

Much of what we consider to be middle class living has been kept on life support by banking debt. Yet no system can go on forever with too much debt and too little production. Banks have become a dangerously large part of our economy. That is why so much focus is given to Wall Street and the banking sector. It is a largely idle industry that merely attempts to suck off the wealth creation of actual real work. The housing bubble was the pinnacle of banking neurosis. The idea that you can simply repackage toxic mortgages into “sophisticated” debt products and sell them off as diamonds to unsuspecting fools is appalling. Yet in most cases, all this was legal because our Senators write the laws that should be protecting us. Instead, they have allowed Wall Street to control every aspect of finance and now here we are with 40 million Americans on food assistance and a close to 17 percent unemployment and underemployment rate.

The current system is not capitalism but a form of state sponsored cronyism for banks. Most of us can understand that if you have a good product then by all means make a profit. This is the essence of any small business and their survival. But the banking system operates under perverse rules. They created inordinate amounts of debt products that serve no purpose and assured destruction of those taking on the product. Think of option ARMs that actually grew the balance of the mortgage! Horrible products that have destroyed large portions of the real economy and have pushed many off the middle class path. How many foreclosures could have been avoided over the past decade with more prudent banking? Yet this isn’t what the system wants. Banks wouldn’t mind if all you did was work and had to open your beat up leather wallet and pull out 99.99 percent of your net pay to service your debt. In fact, this is probably their ultimate wish.
http://www.mybudget360.com/american-mid ... get+360%29

Baltic Dry Drops Another 4%, Below 2000, Longest Decline On Record Enters 31st Day
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... s-31st-day
(NECN: Scot Yount, Concord, Mass.) - A plan in the works to save money in Concord, Massachusetts. Residents can keep their lights on, but they'll have to pay a monthly fee. It's become a hot topic in the town of 17,000.

David Ropeik: "Government can't afford now the basic kinds of things that we thought government basically did."

In historic Concord, Massachusetts-the lights, are going out.

David Ropeik: "It is pretty strange, we got the reverse 911 call that is usually there if a burglar loose in your neighborhood that says we are taking down your infrastructure."

In fact, the town is taking down hundreds of street lights mostly in residential neighborhoods to save money on electricity. David Ropeik says the light is barely bright enough to walk his dogs as it is.

David Ropeik: "Just seems strange that a kind of a thing that we all take for granted like street lights, red lights, green lights, pavements and things is now beyond the town's means."
http://www.necn.com/06/14/10/Mass-town- ... eedID=4215
(KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO) California's budget slug-fest is in full swing, in court. The Democratic state controller and Republican governor are now suing each other over Governor Schwarzenegger's order to slash the pay of state workers to minimum wage. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McClear says he isn't buying controller John Chiang's claim that the computers can't make the change.
http://www.knx1070.com/State-Budget-Cri ... rt/7643636
The $28 billion state budget that Rendell signed Tuesday holds the line on spending, adds no new taxes, makes cuts across most state agencies, and anticipates layoffs of about 1,000 state workers. It also relies on $850 million in additional federal Medicaid funding that has not yet been approved by Congress and faces an uphill battle when members return to work later this month.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_pa ... udget.html
RALEIGH, N.C. : June 30, 2010 - Gov. Bev Perdue today signed the budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which cuts more than $1 billion from state government while making critical investments in job creation, education and setting government straight. Since taking office, Perdue has approved cuts to the state budget by more than 12 percent and the elimination of more than 3,500 positions in state government.
http://www.islandgazette.net/news-serve ... &Itemid=75
Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research institution. State spending is 12 percent of U.S. GDP.

“States are going to have to cut back spending and raise taxes the same way Greece and Spain are,” says Dean Baker, co- director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “That runs counter to stimulating the economy and will put a big damper on the recovery in the latter half of this year.”
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/07/d ... italist%29

“There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”- Henry Kissinger
LPS data for May is out, and once again shows the squatter effect as days delinquent before foreclosure continues to stretch out to absurd levels. This may play well with some voters, and keep consumer spending from completely collapsing, but it is simply not sustainable.
Initial weekly claims have been at about the same level since December 2009. Historically the current level of 454,000, and 4-week average of 466,000, would suggest ongoing weakness in the labor market.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
This is amusing....

In the week ending July 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 454,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 475,000. The 4-week moving average was 466,000, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 467,250.

Right. Into the holiday weekend fewer people got fired. This is not surprising. Nor should this be:

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 26 was 4,413,000, a decrease of 224,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,637,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,554,000, a decrease of 18,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,572,750.

That's a big drop. But much of that was due to the refusal to reauthorize extensions by the Congress. Do you really believe 224,000 people found jobs last week? Or is it more likely that they stopped getting checks due to the handout-freeze?

Don't you recall all the bleating in the newspapers about people "losing all money" from the handout machine? I wrote a ticker or two about it...... so...... is this really improvement?

Somehow I doubt it.

Incidentally, the EUC (extended benefit) numbers were even more dramatic, dropping from 4.515 million to 4.147, or -368,000. Some of those were dropped due to the refusal to continue to extend benefits. The others rolled off the 99 weeks and, incidentally, this is forecast to continue with many states seeing tens of thousands or more people "falling off" every week at this point.

That they're no longer getting government handouts means, of course, that they're no longer unemployed - if you're a member of the Goebbels Media, which both the Department of Labor and the mainstream press appear to be.

Leaving aside the social policy issues (which are certainly fair game for debate) we'll see how those newly off-the-dole impact the retail sales numbers over the next three months or so.

The market reaction to that ought to be quite amusing, as will, I'm sure, all the "nobody saw it coming!" reactions from the very same Goebbels "reporters."
http://market-ticker.org/archives/2485- ... oars!.html

With office vacancy rates at a 17 year high, and mall vacancy rates at a 19 year high, there is going to be a long wait ...
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
The real estate market has morphed into a beast that is largely sinking the overall economy into the ground. If we combine the commercial real estate market ($3.5 trillion in debt) with residential outstanding mortgages ($10.3 trillion) we arrive at a figure that nears the annual GDP of our country.

ver 10 percent of all U.S. mortgages are at least one payment behind and another 4 percent are already in the process of foreclosure. This figure is incredible given the entire mortgage market is made up of over 51 million active mortgages. In 2007 if you were to tell someone that prices in California would fall by 50 percent (even 10 percent) many would have ignored you. Now, it is standard practice for the market.

As a country we are much too reliant on real estate. Commercial real estate is the next tragic saga in the RE bubble bursting with prices already falling by 42 percent. At one point, CRE values in the U.S. were up to $6.5 trillion (now this was a rough generous estimate at the time). Today, CRE values are down closer to $3 to $3.5 trillion; this is roughly the same amount of CRE loans outstanding. This has pushed defaults through the roof:

The exponential rise is cause for serious concern. There is little energy or political will to bailout the enormous CRE market. This probably won’t stop the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury to game the system yet again and put taxpayers on the hook. They created this massive monster and now want the public to fight it off with pitchforks. The above chart is disturbing and the amount of bank failures we are seeing is directly related to the above trend. Many smaller banks are deep in the trenches with CRE debt and much of this is now going bad. How many strip malls do we really need? Maybe having 20 Taco Bells in a one mile radius probably isn’t such a good idea. Many of the commercial projects were built in the anticipation of sky high residential prices to justify their absurd underwriting expectations. The above results have no excuse and are largely a reflection of massive delusional speculation in all things real estate.

Over 20 million mortgage holders are underwater. It is amazing that a few years ago, Deutsche Bank estimated that at the ultimate trough of the housing market, nearly half of all mortgages would be underwater. This “doomsday” scenario seemed extremely farfetched. Today, another 10 percent nationwide price decline would put us there.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/fran ... e+SoCal%29

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock was removed today from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
http://www.housingwire.com/2010/07/08/f ... ingWire%29

Treasury Auctions from July 2009 to June 2010
http://treasuryauctionwatch.blogspot.co ... 09-to.html



$69 Billion In 3,10,30 Year Treasury Issuance On Deck
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/69-bil ... uance-deck
The nation’s debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground.

The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 – bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 and larger than the $140 billion in savings the new health care bill will produce over its first 10 years. The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income.

Daily debt calculations jump and fall, and big shifts are common. But all three of the biggest one-day debt increases have occurred under the tenure of President Obama, and all of the top six have been in the past two years – an indication of just how quickly the pace of deficit spending has risen under Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush.

“We are, without question, in a period of decline, particularly in the business world,” Zuckerman said. “The real problem we have…are some of the worst economic policies in place today that, in my judgment, go directly against the long-term interests of this country.”

“The critical point is if your policy says you’re going run a trillion-dollar deficit for the rest of time, you’re riding for a fall…Then it really is goodbye.” A dashing Brit, Ferguson added: “Can I say that, having grown up in a declining empire, I do not recommend it. It’s just not a lot of fun actually—decline.”
http://jcrue.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/h ... -change-2/
The congressman explained:

We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we’re broke. If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you’re retired, why are we paying you at a time when we’re broke? We just need to be honest with people.

Indeed we do, and when it comes to Social Security, the MSM, where most Americans still get their news, have been MIA. You could almost say that Social Security has become the MSM’s third rail. For the most part, nobody wants to touch it.
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/who_wi ... people.php

Eurozone banking sector 'a slow-motion train wreck', says economist
http://www.risk.net/credit/news/1721524 ... -economist
Invest 96L appears to be in the process of developing into a tropical cyclone. The strength and extent of it's thunderstorms is much improved from yesterday (I used CIMMS tropical storm page for my analysis). It's under an upper-level anticyclone which promotes development because it efficiently removes "exhaust" from the thunderstorms. Shear is relatively low (~10 knots), and SST's are adequate for supporting a tropical cyclone (~28 deg. C). In the most recent Tropical Weather Outlook, NHC mentioned that research flights found that upper-level conditions were promising for storm development, so they assess the chances of 96L of becoming a tropical cyclone at 80%. My take is that 96L has an 80% chance of becoming TD #2, and about a 40% chance of being named Bonnie. My reasoning is that 96L has about 24 hours to intensify before interactions with land start interfering with intensification processes. Also, model intensity forecasts are not very supportive of 96L attaining tropical storm force winds. The model track forecast aids have 96L's center of circulation making landfall somewhere between Brownsville and Corpus Christi.

Impacts
The 12Z operational GFS, HWRF, NOGAPS, and 18Z NAM tell a similar story about the surface winds. Near tropical-storm force winds affect the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to Matagorda Bay. A broad area of 30+ mph winds also affects the Deepwater Horizon oil spill recovery efforts. The 12Z Canadian global model downplays the wind strengths, and the 12Z parallel GFS fails to develop any significant surface wind (> 20 mph). That said, I believe that 96L's greatest impact will be in the form of rain.

The Rio Grande from Del Rio to Laredo is either at major flood stage or is forecast to reach major flood stage in the next 24 hours. This is due to Alex and the moisture he brought to the high terrain of northern Mexico. Nearly all of the forecast models I've looked at forecast 2-3 inches of rain over the Rio Grande Valley in the next 5 days. That will only encourage more flooding. The main forecast problem is how much rain will fall along the Gulf Coast. The parallel GFS and HWRF suggest that 4.5 to 6.5 inches of rain will fall in the Galveston/Houston area in the next 5 days. In my opinion, people living in this area should be prepared for flooding.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1538

...POORLY-ORGANIZED TROPICAL DEPRESSION ABOUT TO MAKE LANDFALL...BRINGING RAINS TO SOUTHERN TEXAS AND NORTHEASTERN MEXICO....
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MI ... 1432.shtml

Sports Illustrated sent Gary Smith to the Gulf. He reported, “I awoke and left New Orleans behind, driving south into the bayou. Everywhere I turned, it looked like war. Black Hawk helicopters ripped the sky. National Guard trucks and Humvees and bulldozers rumbled across the land, Coast Guard boats zipped across the water, strike teams prowled the bays for oil. Reporting from the Gulf: “This is the death of the Gulf of Mexico,” said Capt. Brian Clark of the marine division of the St. Bernard Parish sheriff’s office. “How can we clean up something that’s not even fixed? It’s like mopping a bathroom floor while the toilet’s still spewing. I’m thinking, there’s a monster out there … a beast we’ve never fooled with,” Governor Bobby Jindal said. “You can see pictures, but until you come here and see it, touch it, smell it, you don’t really understand. It’s tragic.”

Censored Gulf evacuation news: Aid for Americans fleeing chemical rape
http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-R ... -aid-begun



Whistleblower: Relief payments get slashed if fishermen refuse to work for BP
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0706/whistl ... f-cleanup/
A photographer taking pictures for our articles about a troubled BP refinery [1], was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas.

The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.

The police officer then turned that information over to the BP security guard under what he said was standard procedure, according to Rosenfield.
http://www.propublica.org/article/photo ... cal-police

U.S. demands BP give notice of asset sales
http://blogs.chron.com/newswatchenergy/ ... _bp_g.html

IMF presses US to cut debt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100708/pl ... economyimf
U.S. Missiles Deployed Near China Send a Message

If China's satellites and spies were working properly, there was a flood of unsettling intelligence flowing into the Beijing headquarters of the Chinese Navy last week. A new class of U.S. super weapon had suddenly surfaced nearby. It was an Ohio-class submarine, which for decades carried only nuclear missiles targeted against the Soviet Union, and then Russia. But this one was different: for nearly three years, the U.S. Navy has been dispatching modified "boomers" to who knows where (they do travel underwater, after all). Four of the 18 ballistic-missile subs no longer carry nuclear-tipped Trident missiles. Instead, they now hold up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, capable of hitting anything within 1,000 miles with non-nuclear warheads.

Their capability makes watching these particular submarines especially interesting. The 14 Trident-carrying subs are useful in the unlikely event of a nuclear Armageddon, and Russia remains their prime target. But the Tomahawk-outfitted quartet carries a weapon that the U.S. military has used repeatedly against targets in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq and Sudan.

That's why alarm bells would have sounded in Beijing June 28 when the Tomahawk-laden 560-foot USS Ohio popped up in the Philippines' Subic Bay. More alarms likely were sounded when the USS Michigan arrived in Pusan, South Korea, the same day. And the klaxons would have maxed out as the USS Florida surfaced the same day at the joint U.S.-British naval base at Diego Garcia, a flyspeck of an island in the Indian Ocean. The Chinese military awoke to find as many as 462 additional Tomahawks deployed by the U.S. in its neighborhood. "There's been a decision to bolster our forces in the Pacific," says Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There is no doubt that China will stand up and take notice."

U.S. officials deny any message is being directed at Beijing, saying the Tomahawk triple-play was a coincidence. But they did make sure news of the new deployments appeared in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post - on July 4, no less. The Chinese took notice quietly. "At present, common aspirations of countries in the Asian and Pacific regions are seeking for peace, stability and regional security," Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Wednesday. "We hope the relevant U.S. military activities will serve for the regional peace, stability and security, and not the contrary."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599200237800

....and ironically the "nuclear option" is now off the table....
China has delivered a qualified vote of confidence in the dollar and US financial markets, ruling out the “nuclear option” of dumping its huge holdings of US government debt accumulated over the last decade.

But the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which administers China’s $2450bn in reserves, the largest in the world, also called on Washington and other governments to pursue “responsible” economic policies.

The statement on Wednesday, one of a series that Safe has issued in recent days in an apparent effort to address criticism about its lack of transparency, also played down the chances of China making major further investments in gold.

Safe’s comments coincided with the news that China had made record purchases of Japanese government bonds in the first four months of the year, helping push the yen to an eight-month high against the dollar.

Analysts said it was too early to tell whether China’s move into JGBs was the start of a trend, but Greg Gibbs, FX strategist at RBS, said unlike in the US, Tokyo would not welcome foreign central banks routinely accumulating yen assets.

With such inflows not required to help stabilise its currency given the country’s current account surplus, yen appreciation could hurt the country’s exporters.

“If this persists it may generate tensions between Japan and China. It would seem a little ridiculous for Japan to allow the yen to be pressed upwards by inflows from China, when Japan is not able to counter with renminbi asset purchases,” said Mr Gibbs.

About two-thirds of Safe’s funds are believed to be in dollar assets, giving China a huge exposure to the US economy but also raising fears that the holdings could be used to pressure Washington.

Given the US government’s huge funding needs, some analysts worry that China’s stated objective of diversifying its reserves could also lead to higher US interest rates if it buys fewer Treasuries.

However, Safe said that the “nuclear” option of selling huge volumes of US assets was “completely unnecessary”. Given its security, liquidity and low transaction costs, the US Treasury market was “a very important market for China”. It added: “Any increase or decrease in our holdings of US Treasuries is a normal investment operation.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f038fc8-89a3 ... ab49a.html

Ahmadinejad brands US world's dictator ahead of summit
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... Fs8Oaprvkg

....love it when the enemy tells the truth!

'US will attack Iran if it must' - Senators in Jerusalem to discuss Middle East tensions.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=180695

McCain: Israel not considering strike against Iran right now
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-d ... bled=false

Iran says Bushehr nuclear plant to be ready by September
http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... r-1.300555

UAE asks US to stop Iran by all means
http://www.jpost.com/International/Arti ... ?id=180693



EU: Most Iran Air jets banned from Europe
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=180627

Iran on war alert over "US and Israeli concentrations" in Azerbaijan
http://www.debka.com/article/8868/

Who’s pushing to strike Iran?
http://warincontext.org/2010/07/07/whos ... rike-iran/


Millions Of U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Going Right Into The Pockets Of Corrupt Government Officials In Afghanistan
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... fghanistan

Russia becoming major oil supplier to U.S. - WSJ
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100707/159717020.html

National Guard Troops Invading Neighborhoods to “Fight Drugs”
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31172

New York National Guard Units Scan Vehicles For Gun Confiscations
http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-york-na ... tions.html

Report: NSA creating spy system to monitor domestic infrastructure
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0707/nsa-cr ... structure/

When the Police Control the Press
http://www.propublica.org/article/when- ... -the-press

The New Civil Wars Within the West
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/t ... t_07072010

The Welfare-Warfare Crackup
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-07-07.asp

OBAMA'S I.C.E. CHIEF OPPOSES IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news207.htm
Today, President Obama officially made Donald Berwick his recess appointment to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In 2008 while speaking on the British health care system in the UK, Berwick said wealthy individuals must redistribute their wealth to those less fortunate for health care funding. Also during this speech, he told those in attendance that he opposes free markets.

“Any health care funding plan that is just equitable civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.”
http://blog.eyeblast.tv/2010/07/flashba ... te-wealth/

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS: The Elephant in the Room that They Don’t Want You to See
http://farmwars.info/?p=3261&utm_source ... rm+Wars%29

UK basks in its driest spell for almost 71 years
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... years.html

Mexico earthquake shakes buildings as far as Mexico City - A Mexico earthquake, magnitude 6.0, centered in the southern state of Oaxaca and shook buildings 300 miles north in Mexico City. One person died in a quake that was shallower and weaker than the Haiti and Chile earthquakes.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas ... exico-City

FTR #713 Interview (#3) with Russ Baker, Author of “Family of Secrets”
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... cord%27%29

Swiss solar plane makes history with 26hr flight
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0708/swiss- ... hr-flight/

Diesel Powered Motorcycle, ATV for Military, SpecOps
http://www.defence-update.net/wordpress ... +Update%29

The amazing 6.5×25mm CBJ
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

UPDATE:
Consumer Credit Plunges In May, April Revised Much Lower, As Government Only Marginal Lender For Two Months In A Row

The latest consumer credit number continues the decline we have seen in recent months, plunging from $2424.4 billion in April to $2415.3 billion in May, a $9.1 billion decline, or 4.5% annualized, on consensus of $2.3 billion. Yet the biggest stunner was the April revision which was whacked from +$1 billion to a revised -$14.9 billion! In other words, there has been a $24 billion decline in consumer credit in the past two months.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/consum ... er-two-mon
Bold and Underline mine

....DEFLATION.....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stores deepened discounts more than planned in June to draw recession-scarred shoppers to buy summer tops and other merchandise. But shoppers bought mostly items they needed, resulting in small revenue gains.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Retailers ... et=&ccode=


Benzene and other highly toxic contaminants were very low however the concentration of propylene glycol was between 360 and 440 parts per million. Just 25 parts per million is know to kill most fish and propylene glycol is just one of many ingredients found in Corexit. In short, the Gulf is being poisoned by BP's usage of the dispersants even after the EPA asked them to stop back in May.
....from Youtube video above....

In Trying To Cover It's Own Behind, BP Has Lowballed the Amount of Oil ... Which Has Made Everything Worse
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... study.html

UPDATE 2:
Tropical Depression Two formed overnight in the northern Bay of Campeche and is now making landfall along the extreme south coast of Texas. A hurricane hunter was sent into the system and found a low-level circulation. While there are some reports of tropical storm strength winds in the squalls of the system, there is just not enough evidence to upgrade the storm to tropical storm strength before landfall.

The satellite representation of the depression is quite impressive as half of the depression is now over landfall. Brownsville radar currently is showing the effects of the depression with heavy rain and thunderstorms through much of southern Texas.

The biggest lingering effect from the depression will be to prolong the devastating flooding that has been ongoing in southern Texas and northeast Mexico. Not including the rain that will fall due to the depression, over the past 7 days, the area near Houston has received over 10 inches of rain, while some inland areas of Texas has received over 4 inches of rain. The problem gets worse in the Mexican state of Coahuila near the Texas border has received upwards of 20 inches of rain in the past 7 days due to substantial moisture pouring into the area.

This surging watershed has caused massive flooding throughout the region, with the area near Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico being the hardest hit. The flooding has caused the major border crossing between those two cities to be closed as the Rio Grande surged and threatened to top the crossing's bridge. A contingent of Mexican officials, including the mayor of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, touring the flooding damage in an airplane crashed Wednesday, killing all six onboard. Evacuations on both sides of the border has forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes, while over 100,000 people were without water service. The flooding problem is extra dangerous because swollen dams had to release some of their water downstream into areas that towns that have already been swamped. It was even reported that one of these releases by the National Water Commission of Mexico was the largest emergency water release in the country.

Needless to say, the rain from Tropical Depression Two will only further the flooding problems in southern Texas and northeast Mexico. Figure 3 shows the severe map and the greens represent Flood Watches and Warnings. You can see almost the entire states of Texas and Oklahoma are under these watches and warnings in anticipation of several inches of rain from the remnants of Tropical Depression Two.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1539

Thousands evacuated in Texas and Mexico as storm approaches - Reservoirs along the Texas-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges and evacuate tens of thousands from homes as a new storm headed toward the region.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... aches.html

Dwindling Resources and Why Population Growth Must Stop
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... +Update%29

.....increasing amount of rhetoric on curbing population.....gonna be some massive killing here soon....

Coast Guard dispatching ships and personnel to Costa Rica to threaten Nicaragua
http://www.infowars.com/coast-guard-dis ... caragua-2/

UN Security Council Condemns Cheonan Sinking, An Act North Korea Had Stated Would Be Considered An Act Of War
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/un-sec ... to+zero%29

EMU break-up risks global deflation shock that would dwarf Lehman collapse, warns ING
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... s-ING.html

Frightening: Methane Explosion, Steam Volcano May Cause Massive Tsunami
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/f ... i_07082010

Is the US government protecting BP and what’s really happening in the gulf?
http://dailycensored.com/2010/07/08/is- ... ensored%29

The Government Is Intentionally Attacking Your Wealth and Financial Independence!
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/08 ... ependence/

Mind Control? Scientists Have Discovered How To Use Nanoparticles To Remotely Control Behavior!
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... l-behavior
EXTEND & PRETEND: Stage I Comes to an End! The Dog Ate my Report Card

The problem is actually pretty simple. We have more debt than productive growth can support. Debt has been losing its marginal productivity for years now and it no longer increases GDP. Rather, we abruptly reached debt saturation and now growth in debt reduces GDP. We have such levels of mal-investment and excess balance sheet gearing that increased debt now directly subtracts from productive money. Stimulus spending no longer will add sustained job growth.

PEOPLE WILL WANT SECURITY

The general public worries about two things: Having money to spend and having a job with which to earn the money. Everything else evolves or springs from having these first two. Politicians’ foremost job, if they are to get re-elected, is to deliver on this. Americans vote with their pocketbook.

They say that in a depression everyone is a Keynesian. That may be true until it is evident that it doesn’t work. Never have we had such debt levels from which to test this saying. What hasn’t changed is that when people are frightened they reach out to anyone that offers security or a sellable chance of restoring pre-crisis status quo stability - a person or administration that represents a chance to return things to the way they were. What was once unacceptable, even deplorable, is suddenly seen to be an option. The messenger of the solution is seen to be some sort of hero or messiah. This was precisely what led to the ascent of Adolf Hitler and many other now hated villains of history. They offered hope through new policy initiatives when none other did. They are now villains because their solutions turned out to be horribly wrong. Even if they were wrong headed ideas, if they were expedient they were latched onto by a desperate public. Are we fast approaching such a period over the next two years in America or are we already there?

EXAMPLES:

A ‘GULF OF TONKIN’ & FALSE FLAGS

Powerful countries have a tendency to solve inevitable political conflicts and/or inabilities to persuade the electorate through the use of geo-political events. These events act as catalysts that force a direction to be taken and politically unpopular measures to be enacted.

There are many examples of this occurring, but one that is well documented with recorded first hand testimony and achieved a major political initiative is the Vietnam War era “Gulf of Tonkin” incident. President Lyndon Johnson staged and manipulated this ‘false flag’ event to secure the dramatic escalation of troops and funding of the Vietnam War against overwhelming public and political resistance. It gave the administration the cover to execute its predetermined agenda. The public was intentionally hoodwinked.

I fully expect something like this to occur within the next 90 days and prior to the fall midterm elections. Whether it is Iran, Korea, a BP triggered financial collapse, a cyber attack, or some other geo-political event – expect the fallout to move public opinion towards further ‘stimulus spending’.

The government must find an excuse to push another $5T (minimum) into the US economy.

I suspect the Federal Reserve and White House Administration are now convinced that without further massive stimulus, the US economy is headed into a deflationary depression.

We are presently at the cusp as shown in the chart below, which I have labeled as a “Critical Point” or more technically a “Chaotic Transient”. We can go either way. The determination is a function of the public policy initiatives which the administration chooses.

AUSTERITY & WAR

I would like to offer another illustration by SocGen's Dylan Grice in his latest weekly piece "Double dips, siren calls and inflationary bias of policy." It was recently published by Zero Hedge. I have inserted three charts and links to make the message clearer within today’s geo-political tensions.

Margaret Thatcher, who came to power oddly enough on a "mandate to smash inflation, smash the unions and downsize government", saw her popularity immediately slide to 25% as people realized the very real pain associated with austerity and a regime fighting run away government. On very rare occasions, the people of a country do end up making the decision to take on hardship, instead of kicking the can down the road. Yet they promptly grow to regret their decision. So what was it that saved the government, and allowed the Conservatives a second term in which to complete the painful austerity project?

The declaration of war by Argentina's General Galtieri over the Falkland Islands. The result was soaring popularity for the Iron Lady, and the rest is history.

Looking forward, now that all of Europe is gripped in austerity, (and make no mistake - this very same austerity is coming to the US on very short notice with crashing popularity ratings for all political parties), has the political G-8/20 elite focused a little too much on a Falkland war? Is war precisely the diversion that Europe and soon America hope to use in order to deflect anger from policies such as Schwarzenegger’s imposition of minimum wage salaries? Is there a Gallup or some other polling "unpopularity" threshold that the G-20 is waiting for before letting loose all those aircraft carriers recently parked [1] next to the Persian Gulf, the Israeli jets in Saudi Arabia [2] or the recent US troop buildup [3] on the Iran border? [4] (Italics is my addition: see the charts I have added for [X] locations. I have also added [5] for the highly symbolic July 4th weekend visit of Hillary Clinton to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... to+zero%29

....long way of saying we're at the fork in the road where they will not be able to cover their activities.....for example claim inflation while we are deflating....and it will be fairly transparent due to the scope of the move....which direction we are going...

Harrisburg Chapter 9 Imminent As Controller Tells Debtwire Bankruptcy Best Option
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/harris ... to+zero%29

Option ARM Reset Payments to Explode with Devastating Consequences
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/08 ... sequences/

The U.S. Postal Service has requested yet another price hike, but Daniel Gross says higher postage rates are actually good for the economy, businesses and consumers. Has he gone postal?
http://seekingalpha.com/news/market_cur ... ource=feed

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Magnitude 6.2 - ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10yqad.php

ESSC Scientists make prediction for 2010 North Atlantic Hurricane Season
http://www.essc.psu.edu/essc_web/resear ... e2010.html

Florida State scientists use unique model to predict active hurricane season
http://fsu.edu/news/2010/06/01/hurricane.season/
Summary of 2010 Atlantic hurricane season forecasts
Here are the number of named storms, hurricanes, and intense hurricanes predicted by the various forecasters:

23 named storms: PSU statistical model
20 named storms: UKMET GloSea dynamical model
18.5 named storms, 11 hurricanes, 5 major hurricanes: NOAA hybrid statistical/dynamical model technique
18 named storms, 10 hurricanes, 5 intense hurricanes: CSU statistical model (Phil Klotzbach/Bill Gray)
17.7 named storms, 9.5 hurricanes, 4.4 intense hurricanes: Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), hybrid statistical/dynamical model technique
17 named storms, 10 hurricanes: FSU dynamical model
10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, 2 intense hurricanes: climatology
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1541

Indonesia's mud volcano flows on
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 6888.story
Since 17-May-2010 until this post 9-July-2010, there have been approximately 96 earthquakes at the Katla volcano site within the region of the Myrdalsjokull glacier. Of the 96 earthquakes, 27 have been within the Katla caldera. The image shows the earthquake locations with respect to the past volcanic eruption sites of 1755, 1823, and 1918. There was also a suspected region of eruption during 1955 which never broke through the ice glacier. It is located on the eastern edge of the caldera.

As you can see, only a few of the earthquakes occur directly underneath a previous eruption location, while the majority occur around the perimeter, particularly the east-northeast perimeter. Several others are scattered in other locations within the caldera.

It is interesting to note that of the approximate 96 Katla earthquakes since 17-May, the majority have occurred just off of the northwest rim of the caldera as you can see in the image above.

Katla has been fickle during the past number of weeks in that there have been days when hardly an earthquake has appeared, while there have been other days that have been fairly active. There was one stretch of several weeks that was very quiet, while during the past several days there has been quite a lot of activity, much more than average since I’ve been watching this.

Katla historically erupts following the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull (which first erupted April 14). Katla is about 10 times more powerful, and has the potential to cause worldwide disruption.
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/natural-d ... valBlog%29
The average time between Katla eruptions since 80 BC is 52 years. The Icelandic volcano has pretty much followed this average time between eruptions except for a few instances, one of which extended 190 years leading to the eruption of 1150. However there is some controversy regarding an eruption in the year 1000 (which would have followed the ongoing average) in that the tephra / ash of that time was credited to a different volcano.

Two simple statistical observations why Katla could be ready to erupt once again…

* 92 years have ticked by since Katla’s last explosive eruption, nearly twice the average 52 years between historical eruptions. We are overdue in 2010.
* Eyjafjallajokull, Katla’s nearest neighbor volcano has erupted four times, while each eruption has occurred immediately preceding a Katla eruption. As you can see in the time-line above, it seems more than just coincidence that these two volcanoes have erupted together during the past 2,000 years.

Now that Eyjafjallajokull has erupted (14-Apr-2010), the clock is set and ticking for Katla (assuming history repeats itself). The Katla volcano, which hides beneath the Myrdalsjökull icecap, has the potential explosive power of perhaps up to ten times that of Eyjafjallajokull, and is currently awake with regular earthquakes popping underneath it.
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/natural-d ... valBlog%29


You Are Not Authorized to See These Pictures of the Oil Spill, Citizen ... Do Not Look!
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... these.html

A Key Piece in the Oil Leak Story: Two Sections of Drill Pipe Lodged in the Blowout Preventer
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20095



More bad news for BP as arsenic levels rise around Gulf of Mexico
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-b ... 5888311592

BP Getting Daily Exemptions to Directive Limiting Surface Dispersant
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/bp- ... dispersant
Despite Tar Balls and Health Complaints, Florida Beaches Stay Open

At Pensacola Beach in Escambia County, signs advising of the oil impact notice urged beachgoers to avoid swimming altogether, according to pictures of the notice taken by a reporter from Mother Jones.

However, she found that these signs were all too easy to miss. She wrote that she "drove down about 15 miles of beach and saw only two such warnings [5]," although she admitted that she might have overlooked a few because they are "about the size of a sheet of computer paper."
http://www.propublica.org/article/despi ... -stay-open



Shootout At El Paso City Hall
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysi ... ?id=539337

Arizona’s SB 1070 threatens to collapse U.S. immigration system
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebo ... ion-system

Dumbing Down Society Pt 2: Mercury in Foods and Vaccines
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=4116

Iran Cuts Crude Oil Stored in Tankers 40% Since April
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/ind ... &Itemid=94

'US attack on Iran a matter of time'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020104

Abbas to Arabs: We'd Support a War Against Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138501
Reports coming out of southern Lebanon tells us that UN Troops are under attack by Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians who are not being allowed into villages along the border with Israel. Air and other surveillance has shown that a huge amount of weaponry, including missiles, is being moved closer to Israel's border. Our news agencies here in Israel are telling us that Hezbollah is preparing for war and have escalated their movements as if they plan on being in a war very soon. One thing is very certain; the threat of war is growing by the minute. The IDF is on HIGH alert and soldiers are being advised to stay close to their units.

http://www.thegoldenreport.com/asp/jerr ... a=1363&z=1

Hizballah advances 20,000 troops to Israeli border
http://www.debka.com/article/8905/

'Hizbullah: Israel preparing something'
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=180970

Iranian fighter turned US spy: Tehran will attack Israel - Former Revolutionary Guard member who relayed its secret operations to CIA for 10 years says Iran will commit 'most horrendous suicide bombing in human history' if not stopped.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 48,00.html

Israeli delegations to Egypt, Jordan struck by new sense of urgency.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News ... ?ID=180912

Warning sounded over British dogfighting drone
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... drone.html

Giant unmanned airships to patrol Afghanistan skies for up to three weeks at a time
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -time.html

US scientists develop ‘fake’ GMO blood for use on battlefield
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/07/ ... Unknown%29


Merkel's Rules for Bankruptcy
http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 59,00.html
Bank Profits Depend on Debt-Writedown `Abomination'

Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, may record a $1 billion second-quarter gain from writing down its debts to their market value, Citigroup Inc. analyst Keith Horowitz estimated in a June 23 report. The boost to earnings, stemming from an accounting rule that allows banks to book profits when the value of their own bonds falls, probably represented a fifth of pretax income, Horowitz wrote.

Investor fears of a Greek default, stalled U.S. economic recovery and tougher industry regulations have rattled markets, snapping banks’ trading streaks and rekindling doubts about their creditworthiness. Prices for Bank of America’s credit derivatives -- used by traders to bet on the likelihood of the firm’s default -- rose by 34 percent during the second quarter, while Morgan Stanley’s doubled and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s surged 86 percent.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-1 ... ecast.html

....ironic little world we live in.....as the world melts down they book paper profits....
Obama's debt commission warns of fiscal 'cancer'

Bowles said that unlike the current economic crisis, which was largely unforeseen before it hit in fall 2008, the coming fiscal calamity is staring the country in the face. "This one is as clear as a bell," he said. "This debt is like a cancer."

The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 56_pf.html

$35 Billion 3 Year Bond Auction Closes At 1.055% High Yield, 3.20 Bid To Cover, Highest PD Takedown Since May 2009
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/35-bil ... to+zero%29

Treasury Auction for the Week of July 12, 2010
http://treasuryauctionwatch.blogspot.co ... ly-12.html
Baltic Dry Index Drops 3.3% To 1,840 For 32nd Sequential Decline, Longest Drop In 9 Years

Don't panic - the fact that capesize operators are on the verge of losing money on charters and facing bankruptcy is irrelevant: China just announced the biggest export balance with the US on record. And that very credible number must surely mean all is good, and trade by Pacific Ocean rail is surging. In the meantime, the BDIY dropped 3.3% to 1840 from 1902, a 32nd sequential decline and a the longest drop in 9 years.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... op-9-years
Banks worldwide owe nearly $5 trillion to bondholders and other creditors that will come due through 2012, according to estimates by the Bank for International Settlements. About $2.6 trillion of the liabilities are in Europe.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Deflation and the Fed
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Tighter banking rules will drain £1tn from financial system, study shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010 ... it-warning

Friday Bank Closings
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/09/f ... italist%29

U.S. mortgage delinquency rate increases to 9.2% in May
http://www.bankreorealestate.com/reo-ne ... n-may.html

Retail Sales in U.S. Probably Fell for Second Month as Economy Moderated
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-1 ... rated.html

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lawmakers come back to work Monday facing a tough decision: Whether it's more important to spend money to keep the economic recovery going or to watch their pennies.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/11/news/ec ... htm?hpt=T2

50 Statistics about the U.S. Economy that Are Almost too Crazy to Believe
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/5 ... o-believe/

.....A little financial reminder....

Six Months to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in History...
http://worthreading.ning.com/profiles/b ... share_post


....and for the conclusion....

Shocking Red Flags! 25 Signs That Wickedness And Evil Are Rapidly Growing In America
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... in-america
How Twilight Offers Fans the Magic Missing from Organized Religion

Last November, I sat in a theatre in South Jordan, Utah with 4,000 Twilight Moms who had gathered for the weekend to celebrate the release of New Moon after two days of raucous pre-film festivities. As I sat watching Eclipse, the newest film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster Twilight series (in the six days since it opened, Eclipse has grossed $176.4 million), it wasn’t the wolves, newborn vampire army, fight sequences, love triangle or brief appearance by the Volturi that I found mesmerizing. It was the fans seated around me. They had come to watch the film after holding their own red carpet events at home, sharing Eclipse-theme dinners, exchanging flowers with one another, reciting lines from the book, donning golden vampire contact lenses, holding sleepovers, and wearing t-shirts bearing slogans with variations on favorite quotes: “Edward Cullen, I Promise to Love You Every Moment of Forever.” The women and girls in Ohio were just part of the millions in the fanpire worldwide who have built imaginative social worlds around the film premiere and the series in general.

Writers like Jana Riess have astutely noted the Mormon religious themes embedded in the books. However, an overlooked aspect of the series is the way fans worldwide have created a Twilight-inspired universe that encompasses all aspects of their lives: from using the texts as spiritual guides, to Edward addiction groups to twi-rock music to Cullenism, a religion based on the values of Edward’s family of vegetarian vampires. Gary Laderman notes in his compelling book, Sacred Matters that popular culture functions as “a rich wellspring for inspiring the religious imagination and possibly even an alternate source of sacred authority in the lives of fans.” In the extensive social worlds of fans,Twilight is a text with multiple interpretations, an array of meaningful practices associated with it, and an audience that considers it a rich source of inspiration and collective identity. The “Twilight Oath” is only one example of the ways fans imaginatively reproduce the Twilight series as a guide in their everyday lives.

At a midnight screening, surrounded by hundreds of other Twilight devotees, a fan might temporarily transcend the world they know and enter into one more fully felt than their own. After the premiere of New Moon, a 17-year old girl in Michigan emerged from the theatre and alerted police that a man had bitten her on the neck. Her story later proved to be a hoax, but it bespeaks the desire to traverse the space between ordinary life and the story, even if there isn’t any neck-biting in New Moon or Eclipse. One woman constructed what she calls her Twilight shrines: two eight-foot long glass display cabinets overflowing with a jumble of Twilight tschotkes where she communes regularly. There are vampire wine bottles, feathers, masks, a white chess piece, a frayed bumper sticker that reads “Smitten”, shot glasses, beads, wolf figurines and even Tampons.
http://www.alternet.org/story/147474/ho ... _religion/

...gear for the fall out....

FN SCAR-H PR (Precision Rifle)
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

Saiga SD-10 drum magazine
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... -magazine/

pritchet1
captain of 1,000
Posts: 3600

Re: Blipits

Post by pritchet1 »

Apparently, LDS covens exist in Utah. :shock:

I had heard that Utah LDS women were practicing witchcraft. Now we know.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

pritchet1 wrote:Apparently, LDS covens exist in Utah. :shock:

I had heard that Utah LDS women were practicing witchcraft. Now we know.
Yeah everyone thought Harry Potter was harmless....and now looking back at the boost to Wicca religion and pagan/occult adoption.....its a whole new perspective! Twilight is the next step down that road....and the idea is to convert.....thus the focus on the younger age groups to help steadily draw them over to the dark side!

Look at the path of the books....they get darker and darker with each new addition to the series.....same with the films.

New U.S. oil drilling pause to end November 30
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-US-dr ... et=&ccode=


“The rich are different: They are more ruthless,” – Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist. There has been scuttlebutt of late about the “wealthy” defaulting in drove on large mortgages. The NYT had such a piece this weekend. What I find interesting is that in reality this trend has been in play for over two years.

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy

Consumer credit has undergone steady erosion over the last year and a half.
Managed News: Inside The US/NATO Military Industrial Media Empire
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=20018

New Takings, Just Like the Old Takings
http://www.american.com/archive/2010/ju ... ld-takings

The National Academy of Blacklists
http://american.com/archive/2010/july/t ... blacklists

Journalist Shot Dead in the Mexican State of Michoacá
http://www.mexidata.info/id2731.html


Practice Your Mercury Escape Plan

The Dairy Queen ice cream cone looking Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs are a perfect example of this kind of subterfuge. These CFL have become the symbol of the government’s Green Movement, but they should be using the skull and crossbones symbol instead.

These new light bulbs are not a bright idea.

While claiming these new CFL bulbs will reduce carbon emissions, “our” Congress passed legislation stating these new light bulbs must completely replace our everyday incandescent light bulbs by 2014, without telling us of the serious dangers to health and environment, that these mandated bulbs pose.

These new CFLs will make many people sick, by emitting radio frequency radiation that contributes to dirty electricity, that can cause migraines, dizziness, nausea, confusion, fatigue, skin irritations, and eye strain.

Dirty electricity consists of surges of high frequency voltage and electromagnetic radiation that grossly contaminates our otherwise relatively safe 60 Hz-frequencies, and can even cause numerous serious illnesses, including autism, asthma, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other neurological disorders.

And with 25 to 50 of these CFLs through out your home and office, you’d be exposed to dirty electricity for almost your every waking hour.

But far more importantly, CFLs are loaded with deadly mercury, one of the most toxic elements on Earth. In fact, all CFL bulbs contain – at least – four to five milligrams of mercury, about 200 times the amount of mercury in a flu vaccine shot. There is enough mercury in each CFL bulb to contaminate 6,000 gallons of clean water. To break one of these CFL bulbs is to risk ruining the health of one’s entire family, or office staff, with enough released atmospheric mercury to best require the expensive, professional services of a Haz/Mat Removal Team.
http://www.infowars.com/practice-your-m ... cape-plan/
South Stream gas pipeline will transport Russian gas to western Europe, bypassing Ukraine, where Washington in recent years has expended considerable effort to push the country into an anti-Russian pro-NATO position. As a remnant from the Soviet era when the economies of the two countries operated as an integrated entity, most Russian gas pipelines transited Ukraine to the west, leaving Moscow highly vulnerable when a US-backed “Orange Revolution” in January 2005 brought Washington’s candidate, Viktor Yushchenko to power on a pro-NATO anti-Moscow platform. Recent elections there have eased tensions between Moscow and Kiev considerably as the new President,Viktor Yanukovych, has moved Ukraine to a more neutral stance between Moscow and NATO, keeping ties to both. The offshore part of the South Stream gas pipeline, jointly operated by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI, will run from Russia's mainland under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast. Under the new agreement with Bulgaria, pre-existing gas pipelines through Bulgaria will be used for the transit.

Washington has put major pressure on EU countries as well as Turkey to build an alternative to Russia’s South Stream gas line, called Nabucco, that would eliminate Russia. To date Nabucco has little backing in the EU and insufficient sources of gas to fill the pipeline.

Completion of South Stream would weld a major geopolitical bond between the countries of the EU, Central Europe and Russia, something that would represent for Washington a geopolitical nightmare. US policy since World War II has been to dominate western Europe first by fanning the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and after 1990, by extending NATO eastwards to the borders of Russia. An increasingly independent western Europe turning east rather than across the Atlantic, could spell a major defeat for continued US “sole Superpower” domination.

So, unwittingly, the lovely seaside resort town of Lubmin in northeastern Germany de facto has become a major pivot of the geopolitical drama between Washington and Eurasia whether its citizens realize or not.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article20953.html

Riots in California after police officer who shot dead unarmed black man is cleared of murder
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... urder.html

User avatar
SmallFarm
captain of 1,000
Posts: 4643
Location: Holbrook, Az
Contact:

Re: Blipits

Post by SmallFarm »

Apparently, LDS covens exist in Utah.

I had heard that Utah LDS women were practicing witchcraft. Now we know.
Apparently, LDS covens exist in Utah. :shock:

I had heard that Utah LDS women were practicing witchcraft. Now we know.


Coincidentially, I identified myself as a pagan/ agnostic when I lived in Utah. I even attended a PUC meeting once.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

WASHINGTON – A missing Iranian nuclear scientist, who Tehran claims was abducted by the U.S., has taken refuge at the Pakistani embassy in Washington and is planning to return to his homeland, the State Department announced Tuesday.

"He has been in the United States of his own free will and obviously he is free to go," department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "In fact, he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through transit countries."

It was the latest development in a murky case that has been shrouded in mystery since the scientist, Shahram Amiri, disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009.

Crowley said Amiri was at the Pakistani embassy. "He traveled there on his own," he added, but would not elaborate.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iran_missing_scientist

BAGHDAD – The threat to U.S. troops in Iraq from Iranian-backed militants has increased although it will not disrupt the ongoing withdrawal, a top U.S. commander said on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iraq

US & British Intel Agencies Are Working On A Fake Video To Lead To War With Iran
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=16374

Israeli Military Has Begun Process Of Stopping Libyan Ship From Reaching Gaza
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/israel ... ching-gaza

Active volcano report - 30 June-6 July 2010
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ ... 0630#ebeko

Tungurahua volcano photos/video
http://bigbenber.over-blog.com/

NOAA Ship Explores Undersea Volcano More Than 10,000-ft. High, Maps Indonesian Ocean Seafloor
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories201 ... lcano.html

Scientists Find Rising Carbon Dioxide and ‘Acidified’ Waters in Puget Sound
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories201 ... sound.html

Pharmacists give themselves cancer from dispensing toxic chemotherapy chemicals
http://www.naturalnews.com/029191_secon ... ancer.html

Our Toxic Gulf: A Wakeup Call
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25254

Confidential Montana Department of Corrections Gang Guide
http://info.publicintelligence.net/MTgangguide.pdf

Darpa Plots Death From Above, On-Demand
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=16373

BAE Unveils Stealthy Combat Drone Test-Bed
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/13/bae-u ... bat-drone/

U.N. Moves to Regulate the Global Arms Trade while U.S. Military Continues to Train for Mass Confiscation
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/13/as-u- ... fiscation/

2 Ga. officers out after stun gun video surfaces
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0713/2-ga-o ... -surfaces/

Berlin Pushing For European Bankruptcy Framework With Provision For State Sovereignty Give Up
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/berlin ... ignty-give

Public sector debt 'around £2 trillion'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... llion.html

Crisis Awaits World’s Banks as Trillions Come Due
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/busin ... .html?_r=1

Planned Economy or Planned Destruction
http://www.shtfplan.com/comedy/planned- ... n_07122010

U.S. Stripped of AAA Credit Rating...By China?!
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-str ... ngby-china

American Credit Scores Crash To New Lows
http://247wallst.com/2010/07/12/america ... -new-lows/
Sterling (SBIB) is the 10th largest Texas-based bank with $5.04 Billion in Assets. They operate approximately 58 branches in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas & Fort Worth.

At 0.79% Sterling has an incredibly low Cost of Funding relative to similar sized national peers at 1.33%. Another piece of good news is that the low rate has not affected their Deposits, which have grown from $4.11 Billion to $4.22 Billion Q on Q.

Smaller to mid-size institutions often rely on Deposits more than Non-Deposit borrowings and you at times see a negative relationship between Cost of Funding and Deposits. See Bank of Smithtown as a prime example. SMTB saw their Cost of Funding drop from 2.10% to 1.83% while their Deposits correspondingly shrank from $2.08 Billion to $1.87 Billion. Poor results even while they added a branch during the quarter.

Sterling took a $2.412 million Net Loss on Loan Sales which hurt their Non Interest Income in the First Quarter 2010. This contibuted to their Non Interest Income to Average Earning Assets ratio of 0.63% which is considerably lower than peers at 1.53%. Please note that this marks the second consecutive quarter with a net loss.

A review of their Loans Held For Sale show that they have a Nonperforming Rate of 60.28% on what they are trying to unload:

CRE makes up 53.85% of Sterling's loan book and the Nonperforming Loan percentage has climbed from 4.33% to 5.95%. What makes this number even more concerning is the fact that they also charged off $17.098 billion in the quarter. This means they had a net $44 million enter Nonaccrual status Q on Q. The $44 million is the $17 million CO plus the difference of $99 million and $72 million in sequential quarterly Nonaccrual.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that Early Stage CRE Delinquencies went from 1.57% to 1.77%.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sterli ... d-bad-ugly

....all those CRE assets on the verge of changing ownership.....

Harvard Prof. Niall Ferguson Warns of Sudden Collapse of American ‘Empire’
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/07/ ... Unknown%29

“The U.S. economy faces hurricane force headwinds and the government is at the center of the storm, making an economic recovery very difficult,” said William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist.
http://www.nfib.com/nfib-on-the-move/nf ... msid=52004

$410k To Teach Drug Addicts Chinese Meditation
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/ ... meditation
The inventory picture deteriorated, with small-business owners continuing to liquidate inventories in June. A net negative 21% reported gains in inventories, which means that more firms cut stocks than added to them once seasonal adjustments are taken into account, a result that was one point less than in May.

Hiring remained weak. Only 9% of owners reported unfilled job openings, in line with May’s reading. Another 8% said they plan to cut jobs, up from 7% in May, while only 10% said they planned to create new jobs, a decline from 14% in the previous month.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/07/ ... ssimistic/

Baltic Dry Index Posts 33rd Consecutive Decline, Down 2.7% to 1,790
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... wn-27-1790
Devil is in the Definition

Whether or not we are in deflation or trending towards it depends on how it is defined.

For example, monetary purists worried about money supply alone are under the preposterous notion that we are trending towards hyperinflation.

The problem with using money supply alone as a measure of inflation is it looks (and is) damn silly. Home prices have never fallen in hyperinflation and never will. Short-term yields have never been at 0% in hyperinflation and never will. The list does on and on.

Given that we have a fiat-based credit system, it is equally silly to discuss inflation/deflation without paying attention to credit. After all, the Fed can print but it cannot force banks to lend or consumers to spend.

Credit expansion is the key to inflation in a fiat-credit system. Those focused on prices or money supply alone, and those worried that Fed printing and excess reserves will soon spark inflation have missed the boat.

Please see Fictional Reserve Lending And The Myth Of Excess Reserves and also Fiat World Mathematical Model for a rebuttal to the notion that monetary printing will soon have the inflation genie flying out of the bottle.

Practical Definition of Inflation and Deflation

My definition of inflation is much more practical given that it incorporates credit and marked-to-market concerns that affect banks' willingness to extend credit.

I define inflation as a net expansion of money supply and credit, with credit marked-to-market. Deflation is a net contraction of money supply and credit, with credit marked-to-market.

Given that consumer credit is plunging at unprecedented rates, given that credit dwarfs money supply creation, and given that marked-to-market valuations of credit on the balance sheets of banks is again falling, I propose we are back again in deflation.

My model suggests part of 2007 and all of 2008 were deflationary years. Inflation returned in 2009, and the economy is back in deflation now.

Proof is in conditions one would expect to see in deflation.

Humpty Dumpty on Inflation

In Humpty Dumpty on Inflation I proposed a series of conditions one might expect to see in deflation. Let's take a look at the current state of those conditions.

* Falling Treasury Yields - Yes
* Falling Home Prices - Yes, as measured by Case-Shiller
* Rising Corporate Bond Yields - Not substantially - Yet. However sovereign credit spreads are widening
* Rising Dollar - Yes
* Falling Commodity Prices - Yes as measured by the $CRB from the beginning of 2010
* Falling Consumer Prices - Yes (or at least close) as measured by the CPI. My preferred measure would directly include home prices and that would/will tip the CPI negative soon enough. I consider housing (but not the land it sits on) a consumer good.
* Rising Unemployment - It is high and essentially steady. My model suggests no improvement at best, and far more likely new highs above 11%
* Falling Stock Market - Yes as measured since the start of the year
* Falling Credit Marked to Market - Yes, most assuredly
* Spiking Base Money supply as Fed fights Deflation - This depends on your timeframe, but charts sure show a spike - Another spike is likely
* Banks Hoarding Cash - Falling consumer loans - Declining bank credit - Yes, Yes, Yes
* Rising Savings Rate - Yes. The US savings rate rose to an 8-month high in May
* Purchasing power of gold rising - Yes
* Rising numbers of bank failures - Yes


Nearly every condition one would expect to see in deflation is happening, The few that aren't are close at hand and likely. If those are the things one would expect to see in deflation, and the scorecard is close to unanimous, I suggest that those who say this is not deflation have the wrong definition.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29
The Rising Threat of Deflation

There is a bigger risk that deflation will intensify sharply because once the price level actually starts to fall, the demand for money will be further enhanced. A deflationary spiral—a self-reinforcing, accelerating drop in the price level—can result. This is because a falling price level means that cash “earns interest” since it enhances the purchasing power of otherwise sterile cash assets that pay zero interest, just as interest on a bond adds to its value in terms of its ability to be used to buy goods and services. That is why deflation drives down nominal (market) interest rates just as inflation drives them up. The “real” return on cash rises as inflation falls, thereby further boosting the excess demand for money and, in turn, exacerbating deflationary pressure. The fact that deflationary real returns on cash are not taxed further exacerbates deflationary pressure by enhancing the demand for cash.

The Fed’s dreaded “zero bound problem,” whereby interest rates even at zero percent are still not low enough to stimulate demand, results from the rising real return on idle cash that subtracts from demand growth as deflation accelerates. Once the Fed has cut interest rates to zero, as it has done on short-term loans, any rise in deflation boosts the real return on cash that, in turn, exacerbates deflation. The Fed is, and has been, forced to print money by purchasing Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities in order to satisfy the deflationary rise in money demand.

Beyond a crisis-induced rise in the precautionary demand for cash, and the related tendency for bank disintermediation, postcrisis deflation pressures can be enhanced by an excess supply of goods and services beyond that caused by the rising demand for cash. This is because the run-up in asset prices that creates a bubble in the first place lowers the cost of capital while the bubble is inflating. Firms find it easier to borrow as prices of risky stocks and bonds rise, so they add to productive capacity. Households, encouraged by cheap credit, buy more cars and houses, thereby increasing the stock of durable sources of a stream of housing and transportation services.

Once the bubble bursts, wealth is destroyed and workers are laid off—both causes of a sharp drop in demand for goods and services, whose supply is increased by the sharp increase in investment during the rise of the financial bubble. Excess capacity adds to the deflationary pressure induced by a sharp rise in the demand for money and the disintermediation that accompanies a financial crisis and its aftermath.
http://www.aei.org/docLib/07-July-Econ-g.pdf

.....wealth is not destroyed.....it just transfers hands....

Getting Started in Farm-Scale Biodiesel Production
http://attra.ncat.org/video/#biodiesel

ATI FX45 Series 1911 pistols
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

California Grizzlies 2010 High Power Clinic Video
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

UPDATE:

The Volume, As Always, Speaks Volumes
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/volume ... to+zero%29

South Korea deploys robot capable of killing intruders along border with North
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... Rtxn0mmJpA



Addicted to the Warfare State
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31280
Broke US states are probing new lows with each passing day, as money continues to stubbornly refuse to grow on trees (unless you have discount window access of course). The latest funding fiasco comes from Texas, which Reuters reports is planning on selling $2 billion in debt just to refill its empty unemployment trust fund. We are confident that bondholders will be ecstatic to put their money into a extremely rapidly amortizing "asset" that will begin depleting from day one and will likely have no collateral recourse in under a year. But after all, it is other people's money, so we are confident this particular Citi/BofA led bond offering will close and price and sub Treasury rates.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/texas- ... trust-fund
June budget outlays came in at the largest ever for the month. Also 2010 Federal individual income tax collections are running 4.4% lower, or $31 billion below 2009 levels: the economic "recovery" sure isn't causing greater tax receipts. And from the report: "The federal government incurred a deficit of just over $1.0 trillion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2010, CBO estimates, $81 billion less than the roughly $1.1 trillion deficit incurred through June 2009.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/june-f ... 93-billion

$21 Billion 10 Year Closes At 3.119%, 3.09 Bid To Cover, Primary Dealers Take Down 48.6%
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/21-bil ... e-down-486

Huge U.S.-India Arms Deal To Contain China
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20116

ATF seizes 1,000 guns in East Mesa raid
http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=12793510
The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security

Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons.

First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place. The IMF is supposed to oversee the operations of the international financial system. According to standard economic theory, capital is supposed to flow from rich countries like the United States to poor countries to finance their development. In other words, the United States should be having a trade surplus, which would correspond to the money that we are investing in poor countries to finance their development.

However, the IMF messed up its management of financial crises so badly in the last 15 years that poor countries decided that they had to accumulate huge amounts of currency reserves in order to avoid ever being forced to deal with the IMF. This meant that capital was flowing in huge amounts in the wrong direction. One result of this reverse flow was that the United States ran a huge trade deficit instead of a trade surplus.

The trade deficit in the United States was a big part of the story of the housing bubble. The trade deficit cost millions of workers their jobs. This was one of the main reasons that economy was so weak coming out of the 2001 recession. This weakness led the Fed to keep interest rates at 50-year lows, until the growth of the housing bubble eventually began to generate jobs in the fall of 2003.

The IMF both bears much of the blame for the imbalances in the world economy and then for failing to clearly sound the alarms about the dangers of the bubble. While the IMF has no problem warning about retired workers getting too much in Social Security benefits, it apparently could not find its voice when the issue was the junk securities from Goldman Sachs or Citigroup that helped to fuel the housing bubble.

The collapse of this bubble has not only sank the world economy, it also destroyed most of the savings of the near retirees for whom the IMF wants to cut Social Security. The vast majority of middle-income retirees have most of their wealth in their home equity. This home equity largely disappeared when the bubble burst. Maybe the IMF doesn't have access to house price series and data on wealth, because if they did, it's hard to believe that they would advocate further harm to some of the main victims of their policy failure.
http://www.truth-out.org/the-attack-rea ... urity61291

....of course if it was planned....takes on a whole new perspective....
PHOENIX -- Dozens of photo-enforcement cameras on freeways throughout the state are coming down this week. A total of 76 cameras will cease operation on Thursday. The photo-enforcement program, which was meant to catch speeders on Arizona's freeways, has been controversial from the beginning. The cameras first went up nearly two years ago. While the cameras have done a good job at snapping speeders, drivers have been ignoring the tickets.

According to the Department of Public Safety, the cameras led to more than 700,000 tickets in the first year of operation. Many of those people, however, never paid the fines. Some say that's because the tickets were mailed, making them easy to ignore. Any driver who ignored a photo-enforcement ticket was supposed to have been served. One problem was that process servers were inundated and simply couldn't get to everybody. If a person was not served, his or her ticket became invalid after three months.

The speeding tickets should have generated about $90 million in the first year of the program. About one-third of that was actually collected.
http://www.azfamily.com/outbound-feeds/ ... 37994.html







UPDATE 2:

HUD Gives Nonprofits, Governments 10% Discount on REO
http://www.housingwire.com/2010/07/12/h ... unt-on-reo

Money Crunch! How Can An Economy Built On Debt Function If Nobody Can Get Loans?
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... -get-loans

Dispute Over Nuclear Fuel in S. Korea
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world ... ss&emc=rss

June Deficit Fails To Account For $142 Billion In Excess June Borrowings; U.S. Has Issued $1.5 Trillion Excess Debt Over Budget In Past 4 Years
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/june-d ... to+zero%29

Six More Charged in New Orleans Danziger Bridge Shootings
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/201 ... scuss.html
http://www.propublica.org/nola/story/si ... shootings/

Michelle Obama Declares Panama City Beach Oil Free
http://www.infowars.com/michelle-obama- ... -oil-free/

Food Supply Controlled By Only A Few
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/current-e ... valBlog%29

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

According to the city Health Department, 2008 saw 89,469 abortions performed in New York City -- seven for every 10 live births. Among black women, abortions out number live births by three to two.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/op ... CV5woJqUFJ
Spanish banks borrowed a record 126.3 billion euros ($161 billion) from the European Central Bank in June. This represents a 48 percent increase from the €85.6 billion borrowed in May.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/spanis ... -third-mon
Battered by unemployment and tighter lending standards, the credit scores of millions of Americans are sinking to new lows. About 25.5% of consumers — or 43.4 million people — had credit scores below 600 in April, according to FICO Inc. Historically, only about 15% of consumers — or 25.5 million — have had scores below that level, FICO said.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29
The record slaughter of shippers continues as the BDIY posts the largest overnight drop of 4.5% in the most recent 34-consecutive day trounce in dry bulk shipping rates. Short term Capsize and Panamax charters for Pacific delivery have hit $29k and $19k, respectively, both approximately 30% lower than comparable Atlantic delivery rates as the Chinese transit corridor is now massively oversupplied. At this point it is not a question of if but when the bulk of shipping companies, especially levered ones, start going bankrupt and flood the seas with yet more anchored rusting dry bulk hulls.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... -overnight
The deflation threat continues as the drop in total retail sales persists, with the latest number coming in at -0.5%, once again worse than expectations of -0.3%, compared to a prior revised number of -1.1%.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/retail ... -plunge-23
The attempt to reflate housing seems to be officially dead. The Mortgage Brokers' Association reported that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes sunk to a 13-year low last week, and refinancing demand also slid despite near record-low mortgage rates. As Reuters noted, "requests for loans to buy homes dropped 3.1 percent in the week ended July 9, after adjusting for the Independence Day holiday, to the lowest level since December 1996
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mortga ... 3-year-low
Fiscal Mirage

Improvements in revenue collection are mostly if not entirely due to tax increases and other legislative changes such as California speeding up income tax collection rather than an increase in retail sales as widely touted.

Looking ahead, consumer attitudes towards debt are going to act as a huge drag on growth. State budget cuts are going to act as a drag on retail spending as well. Finally, the effect of $trillions in stimulus money will be over by the 4th quarter.

The key chart in the series is chart 7, on durable goods. Note the huge dip and subsequent rally in durable goods spending. That component will be all but dead in the upcoming quarters.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Both parties mull raising retirement age
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ement-age/
As the standoff in the Senate over jobless benefits continues, one report estimates 429,500 Californians will have their unemployment checks cut off by the end of this week.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/unem ... -week.html
Mr Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha because of his shrewd investments, apparently told friends that When Money Dies illustrated what could happen today if European governments attempt to spend their way out of the downturn. Written in 1975 by Adam Fergusson, a one-time adviser to Tory minister Lord Howe, the book charts how the German economy was ruined by hyperinflation after the Weimar government allowed public spending to run out of control.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... t-tip.html

New York Debtwatch Talk: Modelling Debt Deflation
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2010 ... deflation/

$13 Billion 30 Year Auction Closes Strongly At 4.08%, 2.89 Bid To Cover, As Investors Shun Inflation Threat - Based on this very strong auction, investors seem to put far more faith in a deflation than inflation scenario.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/13-bil ... ion-threat
Tropical Storm Conson hit the Philippines' main island of Luzon yesterday as a strong tropical storm with 70 mph winds. Conson was briefly the season's first typhoon on Monday, when it intensified to an 80 mph Category 1 storm. Conson is being blamed for at least 18 deaths in the Philippines, with 57 other people missing. The storm caused an extended power outage to the entire island of Luzon. Conson is headed towards a second landfall later this week in China, but should not intensify into a typhoon again because of the presence of 20 - 30 knots of wind shear. Conson is only the second named storm in what has been an unusually quiet Northwest Pacific typhoon season. According to Digital Typhoon, an average season has six named storms by mid-July.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1542

NASA's 3-D Animation of Typhoon Conson's Heavy Rainfall and Strong Thunderstorms
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 165053.htm

Magnitude 6.5 - BIO-BIO, CHILE
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10ysas.php
Costa Rica's Nacion newspaper reported last week that the new agreement will see 7,000 US Marines, supported by 200 helicopters and 46 warships, "enter and leave the country at will." The paper also cited a June 2 letter from Costa Rica to the US declaring that US troops will have "the right to carry out the activities it deems necessary in carrying out its mission."

Inside Costa Rica reports that opposition leaders see the US military force as disproportionately large compared to the problem of Central American drug-running.

Luis Fishman, head of the Christian Social Unity Party, said the deal amounts to a "blank check" for US forces in Costa Rica. "We cannot support the illegal; we cannot allow our Constitution to be trampled," he said, as quoted by ICR.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0711/anger- ... -warships/
Iran is close to having the potential to build a nuclear weapon, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday in the clearest indication yet of Russian alarm over Tehran's atomic drive.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russi ... l_999.html
An upsurge in the number of North Korean soldiers defecting into China fuelled fears of food shortages and an imminent military clash.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... clash.html
China, the world’s largest rare- earths producer, cut export quotas for the minerals needed to make hybrid cars and televisions by 72 percent for the second half, raising the possibility of a trade dispute with the U.S. Shipments will be capped at 7,976 metric tons, down from 28,417 tons for the same period a year ago, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce yesterday.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-0 ... -says.html
The displacement of communities and forced migration in our countries as a consequence of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) projects is an issue of greatest importance, but one that is seldom addressed. Researchers from these countries have worked yet again on this issue and will present findings at the conference of the Inter-American Development Bank to be held from the 19th to the 23rd of March, 2010, in Cancun, Mexico.
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2421

Russia's new generation S-500 missile defense system to enter service
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100713/159794602.html
India is hurting for water. With rapidly growing populations of people and a rising middle class that is mimicking the wasteful water consumption habits well known here in the United States, coupled with poor water management practices, India is set to be one of the first parts of the world hit by a major water crisis. Still, does that mean shipping water from Alaska all the way to India is a smart solution? One Texas-based water supply management company, S2C Global Systems, thinks it is -- at least, it's smart for their bottom line, if not for the environment. They're all lined up to ship billions of gallons of water annually from an Alaskan city to India, and other parts of Asia and the Middle East.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07 ... -india.php
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s government aims to prevent cattle breeders from slaughtering livestock as a worsening drought cuts into feed supplies by damaging plants and threatens to curb sowing. Some breeders are “pessimistic” about the outlook for their herds, Pavel Ipatov, governor of the Saratov region, said yesterday in a government meeting, according to a transcript on the state website. Tatarstan can provide only half of the 3 million metric tons of feed grain it was slated to deliver this year, regional Governor Rustam Minnikhanov said.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... rsens.html
Seepage from a mining waste pond owned by the Zijinshan Copper Mine has contaminated the Ding River and a reservoir in Fujian, the province's environmental protection bureau said in a statement. The leak was first detected on July 3, prompting the bureau to issue an emergency order to begin monitoring it, the statement said. Xinhua news agency said the mine is owned by the Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group Co, China's largest gold producer. Pollution from the sludge pond has killed or poisoned 1.89 million kilogrammes (4.2 million pounds) of fish on the Ding River and in the Mianhuatan reservoir, the report said. The smell of dead fish was discernible 10 kilometres (six miles) from the reservoir, it added.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Top_C ... t_999.html
Seven congressmen, led by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), spent their 4th of July weekend hand delivering seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... rctic.html
(Nanowerk News) Franco Cerrina, 62, chair of the College of Engineering's electrical and computer engineering department, was found dead Monday morning in a laboratory on the fifth floor of the Photonics Center. A staff member discovered Cerrina's body lying on the floor of the lab at about 9:30 a.m. A faculty member called the Boston University Police Department, which contacted Boston Police.

As a researcher, Cerrina applied physical sciences and engineering to manufacturing and biological challenges, focusing most recently on nanotechnology and biotechnology. Cerrina pushed the limits of photolithography for nanoscale applications ranging from fabricating devices on computer chips to DNA synthesis for biological research, drug and vaccine development, and genetic engineering. In particular, he applied semiconductor fabrication techniques to biological problems'a pursuit that yielded the maskless array synthesizer commercialized by NimbleGen Systems Inc., his first spin-off company.

Through the Center for NanoTechnology, he was developing new patterning techniques for device fabrication by merging standard lithography and molecular-level, scale-up methods. Also affiliated with the UW-Madison Center for Biotechnology, Cerrina worked closely with the semiconductor industry and federal government on developing fabrication methods that will yield advanced processors and memory chips.

To commercialize products related to his research, Cerrina co-founded five companies:

# NimbleGen Systems, which manufactures DNA microarrays and provides genomic services. Hoffman-La Roche Pharmaceutical purchased it in 2007.
# Genetic Assemblies Inc., founded to market custom double-stranded DNA sequences (genes). The company merged with Codon Devices Inc. in 2006.
# Codon Devices Inc., which focuses on DNA synthesis and synthetic biology.
# Biolitho Inc., which develops innovative engineering solutions to biological and genetic problems.
# Gen9 Inc., which focuses on DNA synthesis and synthetic biology.

http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=17129.php

Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/healt ... ef=general


The plan to start choking off oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was suddenly halted as government officials and BP said further analysis must be done Wednesday before critical tests could proceed.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0714/gulf-o ... -analyzed/
In addition, local fishermen said that nurseries in the Gulf, responsible for producing 40 percent of America’s seafood, are being destroyed by the oil and the chemical soup created by the mixing of oil dispersant Corexit 9500. Corexit is breaking down the crude oil into small oil bubbles and a watery oil mixture that is seeping under the booms set up to protect sensitive fish nurseries, oyster beds, and other pristine areas. Many Atlantic fish species also spawn in the Gulf and they are also threatened by the oil disaster.

Even barnacles, one of the most resistant sea creatures to extreme situations, are dying in vast numbers, along with sponges and coral.

Near Venice, Louisiana in Plaquemines Parish, is the old Civil War fort of Fort Jackson. A national historical site and park, Fort Jackson has been turned into a major base for joint BP-Coast Guard dumping of Corexit on oil in the Gulf. WMR witnessed five helicopters carrying suspended white bags of Corexit out over Gulf waters. Hastily-erected signs at the entrances to Fort Jackson warn that the site is closed to visitors because of “construction.” Fort Jackson actually serves as a major base of operations for BP and Coast Guard activities. The Obama administration, which has stated its commitment to “open government,” is engaged in what amounts to semi-covert BP-Coast Guard operations in the Gulf.

WMR has also been informed by a reputable source that BP has been engaged in night time spraying of a bleaching agent on Louisiana beaches to make it appear that the beaches are being cleaned up. The planes, which fly at night, disregard flight regulations by flying with their lights out. The operations have been approved by the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-gulf-oi ... truth.html
As much as one million times the normal level of methane is showing up near the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, enough potentially to create dead zones in the water. "These are higher levels than we have ever seen at any other location in the ocean itself," according to sources cited by Reuters. The "flow team" of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas, which primarily contains methane, is being released into the Gulf waters with every barrel of oil.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article21004.html
Boeing has unveiled its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane which can fly non-stop for up to four days. The high-altitude plane, called Phantom Eye, will remain aloft at 20,000m (65,000ft), according to the company. The demonstrator will be shipped to Nasa's Dryden Flight Research Center in California later this summer to prepare for its first flight in early 2011. Boeing says the aircraft could eventually carry out "persistent intelligence and surveillance".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10617075
06/22/2010 - (PilotsFor911Truth.org) Recently Pilots For 9/11 Truth have analyzed the speeds reported for the aircraft utilized on 9/11. Numerous aviation experts have voiced their concerns regarding the extremely excessive speeds reported above Maximum Operating for the 757 and 767, particularly, United and American Airlines 757/767 Captains who have actual flight time in all 4 aircraft reportedly used on 9/11. These experts state the speeds are impossible to achieve near sea level in thick air if the aircraft were a standard 757/767 as reported. Combined with the fact the airplane which was reported to strike the south tower of the World Trade Center was also producing high G Loading while turning and pulling out from a dive, the whole issue becomes incomprehensible to fathom a standard 767 can perform such maneuvers at such intense speeds exceeding Maximum Operating limits of the aircraft. Especially for those who research the topic thoroughly and have expertise in aviation.

Co-Founder of Pilots For 9/11 Truth Rob Balsamo recently interviewed a former NASA Flight Director in charge of flight control systems at the NASA Dryden Flight Research facility who is also speaking out after viewing the latest presentation by Pilots For 9/11 Truth - "9/11: World Trade Center Attack".

Retired NASA Senior Executive Dwain Deets published his concerns on the matter at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as follows:


A Responsibility to Explain an Aeronautical Improbability
Dwain Deets
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (Senior Executive Service - retired)
AIAA Associate Fellow

The airplane was UA175, a Boeing 767-200, shortly before crashing into World Trade Center Tower 2. Based on analysis of radar data, the National Transportation and Safety Board reported the groundspeed just before impact as 510 knots. This is well beyond the maximum operating velocity of 360 knots, and maximum dive velocity of 410 knots. The possibilities as I see them are: (1) this wasn’t a standard 767-200; (2) the radar data was compromised in some manner; (3) the NTSB analysis was erroneous; or (4) the 767 flew well beyond its flight envelope, was controllable, and managed to hit a relatively small target. Which organization has the greater responsibility for acknowledging the elephant in the room? The NTSB, NASA, Boeing, or the AIAA? Have engineers authored papers, but the AIAA or NASA won’t publish them? Or, does the ethical responsibility lie not with organizations, but with individual aeronautical engineers? Have engineers just looked the other way?
http://pilotsfor911truth.org/911_Aircra ... Deets.html

FTR #714 Interview (#4) with Russ Baker, Author of “Family of Secrets”
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... cord%27%29
“The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership,” says Rob Shapiro, another former Clinton official and a supporter of Mr Obama. “He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/434315b2-8ea6 ... ab49a.html

New Massachusetts law extends censorship to IM, e-mail, Web
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... il-web.ars
Does An Orderly and Safe Way to Fundamentally Change the U.S. Government Exist?

Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government … to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

If you look at the Constitution of the United States, there is only one paragraph (Article V) that tells how we can change our government. But Article V only discusses how to propose and then ratify amendments. It does not say anything about the procedures to rewrite the entire Constitution. At their website, an organization called Friends of the Article V Convention has verified that there have been over 700 petitions for a constitutional convention from state legislatures, but Congress refuses to grant that right, which is an inherent right of “The People.” [1]

The Friends of the Article V Convention insist that the constitutional convention that is now demanded by the states, based on Article V, can be only for proposing amendments, not about rewriting the US Constitution. They want a constitutional convention to discuss any amendment issues (like requiring a balanced budget, term limits, and so forth) as they are submitted by the states–amendments which later must be ratified by ¾ of the states.
http://www.disinfo.com/2010/07/does-an- ... rmation%29

Kyrgyzstan, America and the Global Drug Trade: Deep Forces, Coups d'Etat, Narcotics and Terror
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20126
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission's indecency policy Tuesday, calling the agency's longstanding rules "unconstitutionally vague."
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/13/news/ec ... htm?hpt=T1

Scientists discover how broccoli fights cancer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... ancer.html
TEMPLE TERRACE, FL (NBC) -- A big sinkhole at a condominium complex in Florida has swallowed a car and it might not be done yet. The sinkhole opened up Sunday morning near Tampa and claimed a Toyota Camry, pulling it down beneath its shifting sands.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.as ... 8&catid=28
Sinkhole swallows car in St. Louis neighborhood - It was a close call for one woman Monday night when her vehicle was swallowed by a sinkhole ... all while she was inside. It happened just south of 270 and 367 in Bellefontaine Neighbors.
http://www.bnd.com/2010/07/06/1319683_s ... louis.html
The allure of the blockbuster "Twilight" books and movies appears to have spawned a troubling trend: Teen couples are biting one another to show affection, sometimes biting so hard they draw blood. "Biting is challenging because one of the things we know about sexuality and biting and vampires is that it's passion, it's all-encompassing, it's wanting to consume someone else," New York City sexologist Logan Levkoff told "Good Morning America."

"And biting is sort of an extension of the hickey. It's that same thing about marking someone else and showing passion."

Michael Kaplor, 16, said he has been biting his girlfriend on and off for about a year.

"For me, biting is the way to show affection toward the other person and to just get a crazy adrenaline rush and not so much to mark territory or to show I belong to something, but just to show the other person I care and there's a deeper sense of affection," he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/twilight-movi ... d=11122324

Meet the Mk-20 Sniper Support Rifle
http://kitup.military.com/2010/07/meet- ... rifle.html

UPDATE:
China Has Been Covertly Funding A Housing Bubble Five Times Larger Than That Of The US: 65 Million Vacant Homes Uncovered

Yet this data pales in comparison with disclosure from a recent article in South China Morning Post, in which an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences noted estimates from electricity meter readings that there are about 64.5 million empty apartments and houses in urban areas of the country! This number is five times larger than the roughly 12 million in total US public (3.89 million) and shadow (8 million as estimated by Morgan Stanley) home inventory available currently. Forget Stephen Roach - China is covertly funding and creating a housing bubble that is at least 5 times as big as that of the United States. We leave it up to you to imagine the consequences of that particular bubble's bursting...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china- ... ant-homes-
A third of Spain's city councils are in dire straits and may be forced to suspend payments by the end of the year, replicating the woes in the US, where many states are bearing the brunt of fiscal tightening.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... -bust.html
TOKYO: Credit rating agencies are growing impatient with Japan’s inability to tackle its ballooning public debt, a task just made more difficult by the ruling party’s drubbing in upper house elections at the weekend.

The result means that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority so will need help from other parties to get bills, such as on tax reform, passed.

Greece’s debt problems have highlighted the fiscal woes of Japan, but is the world’s second-biggest economy really facing a Greece-like debt crisis?

How bad is Japan’s fiscal position?

By certain measures, Japan’s debt load is worse than that of Greece. Japan’s outstanding long-term government debt is set to reach ¥862 trillion ($9.72 trillion) at the end of March 2011, or 181% of the country’s gross domestic product, the Ministry of Finance says. If short-term debt is added, Japan’s liabilities will hit 197% of GDP this year and 204% in 2011, the highest among advanced economies and far worse than Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio of around 130%, OECD figures show. Similarly, IMF warned in May that Japan was growing more vulnerable to sovereign risk, estimating the country’s gross debt-to-GDP ratio at 227% in 2010.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 165029.cms
When the Senate allowed the estate tax to lapse at the end of last year, it encouraged wealthy people near death’s door to stay alive until Jan. 1 so they could spare their heirs a 45% tax hit.

Now the situation has reversed: If Congress doesn’t change the law soon-and many experts think it won’t-the estate tax will come roaring back in 2011.

Not only will the top rate jump to 55%, but the exemption will shrink from $3.5 million per individual in 2009 to just $1 million in 2011, potentially affecting eight times as many taxpayers.

The math is ugly: On a $5 million estate, the tax consequence of dying a minute after midnight on Jan. 1, 2011 rather than two minutes earlier could be more than $2 million; on a $15 million estate, the difference could be about $8 million.

Of course, there is a “death incentive” whenever Congress raises the estate tax. But it hasn’t happened in decades; the top rate has held steady or fallen since 1942, according to tax historian Joseph Thorndike of Tax Analysts, a nonprofit group. In fact, the jump from zero to 55% would be “the largest increase in a major tax that we’ve ever seen,” Mr. Thorndike says.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 71574.html
Banks repossessed an average of 4,000 South Florida properties a month in the first half of 2010, up 83 percent from the first half of 2009, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

"South Florida's real estate market is at a crossroads," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures LLC, in a news release. "The number of bank repossessions in 2010 is higher than at any time in at least two decades. This additional bank-owned inventory will undoubtedly be coming onto the resale market in the near future as discounted REO product.
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida ... gle+Reader
U.S. bank repossessions increased 38% in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier for a record total of 269,952, according to Irvine research firm RealtyTrac. That was also a jump of 5% from the previous quarter. If that pace continues through the year, the number of homes taken by banks is likely to top 1 million by the end of 2010, said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac senior vice president.
http://www.latimes.com/business/realest ... 6857.story
Somehow, university textbooks in Economics curriculum failed to cover the current situation of extraordinarily high bank inventory of foreclosed homes, working opposite to an extraordinarily strong decline in home purchase applications, amidst a banking system heavily dependent upon $100 billion temporary intermediate credit lines, while the big banks park their Loan Loss Reserves at the USFed, and the USFed struggles to avoid repeated powerful Quantitative Easing programs. (That last very long sentence should be read a few times in repetitive fashion.) If truth be known, the USGovt and Wall Street firms fund many university professor chairs, thus perpetuating the false education process that inculcates fallacious theories.

Recall that the entire 2002-2005 USEconomic expansion was built atop the housing & mortgage bubble, a chapter fully endorsed by the erudite prestigious but reckless heretics among the national economic counselors. To be sure, the May end to the home tax credit has made an effect. The housing market will enter its fourth consecutive year of decline.
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1278532800.php

LA Port Traffic: Imports Surge, Exports Decline - LA area ports handle about 40% of the nation's container port traffic.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
Let's review what has emerged on the U.S. economy in just the past few weeks. First we had the lowest reading for U.S. housing starts in history. That horrific announcement came along-side news that U.S. foreclosures had just hit (yet) another “all-time record” in May. Now today we hear that mortgage applications have fallen to their lowest level in 14 years – going all the way back to when the bubble-blowing began in the U.S. housing market back in 1996.

However, the total collapse in the U.S. construction industry will do nothing to heal the U.S. real estate market: the most-oversupplied market in history. Somewhere around 20 million homes stand empty or abandoned. On top of that, retiring U.S. baby-boomers will need to dump $1 to $2 trillion more in real estate – just to top-up their grossly underfunded retirements. A CNN article released today reports that 47% of baby-boomers aged 56 – 62 are destined to “run out of money”. With 75% of the assets of these individuals being real estate, there is no mystery in what these “boomers” will do to raise money.

Meanwhile, the news is even worse in the retail sector: the “backbone” of the U.S. consumer-economy. May retail sales plummeted by 1.1%, and now that horrific number was followed-up by news that June retail sales fell by an additional 0.5%. Since the U.S. propaganda-machine never puts these numbers in context for readers, let me do so. First of all, since these are monthly numbers, we must multiply them by twelve to get the annual rate of decline. Doing that we see that the May number worked out to an annual rate of decline of 13.2%, while June was a less-extreme 6%. Since these are annual rates, they have to be averaged-out: to slightly above 9.5%.
http://www.bullionbullscanada.com/index ... Itemid=132
The Food Standards Agency is to be abolished by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, it emerged last night, after the watchdog fought a running battle with industry over the introduction of colour-coded "traffic light" warnings for groceries, TV dinners and snacks. The move has sparked accusations that the government has "caved in to big business". As part of the changes Lansley will reassign the FSA's regulatory aspects – including safety and hygiene – to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Its responsibilities for nutrition, diet and public health will be incorporated into the Department of Health. "The functions of the FSA will be subsumed into the Department of Health and Defra," a source told Reuters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010 ... -secretary
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Although a majority of Food and Drug Administration advisory panel members Wednesday did not recommend taking the diabetes drug Avandia off the market, despite evidence showing it raises heart attack risk, two of the drug's most outspoken critics said they expected the agency would withdraw it.

The FDA usually, but not always, follows advisory committee recommendations.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/201 ... -fda_N.htm

Obamacare Begins -- In Idaho
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31334

Hezbollah has an extensive list of Israeli facilities to target in the event of a new conflict, the Lebanese militant group's number two Naim Qassem said in an interview published on Wednesday.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-14- ... arget-list

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Surprise, surprise, it seems pension funds are suffering from a lethal combination of being another victim of scant interest rates, and the rough sledding in the stock market. I would also imagine that the dearth of employees paying into the system combined with more retirees taking it out makes the math next to impossible
In the week ended July 7, ICI reports that domestic equity mutual funds saw $4.1 billion in outflows, the largest outflow in the past 2 months, and the third biggest weekly redemption in 2010! This is also the tenth sequential outflow, amounts to $34 billion in total outflows YTD, and represents a losing streak even worse than that of the BDIY....
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ici-re ... rket-surge

Philly Fed Plunges To 5.1, Consensus At 10.0, Previous At 8.0
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest ... xpectation
Another Day, Another Baltic Dry Decline: Longest Sequential Drop In 15 Years

After a 0.5% decline overnight, the BDIY is now at exactly 1,700, marking the longest sequential decline since the launch of Windows 95. Little to add here. We anticipate that Tim Geithner will soon suggest stress tests to be conducted on dry bulk shipping vessels to the 5 or so Greek CEOs running the industry, with bailouts to come for those leaked to be in need for financing.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/anothe ... p-15-years

Treasury Auction for the Week of July 12, 2010 (Corrected)
http://treasuryauctionwatch.blogspot.co ... ly-12.html
42 million Americans work in firms that have 99 employees or less. We are often told how vital small business is to the health of our nation’s economy. Usually this rhetoric is given to us by banks and Wall Street yet recent data shows a very different attitude. Words ring hollow when it comes to banks lending capital to small businesses. In fact, in Q1 of 2010 lending to small businesses contracted by $40 billion versus lending in 2008. The challenge we face is that back in 2008 when the banking system was being bailed out, one specific reason given to the public was the necessity of keeping the lending lines open to small businesses. This has not happened.

No one is going to dispute that lending to small firms has contracted because of the economic malaise that we are experiencing. But then where did all those trillions of dollars go that helped to bailout the banking industry? The average American, many who work at small businesses (or did), were under the impression that the taxpayer bailout was designed to provide added liquidity to these business so they could continue to function in the economy. Banks were supposed to distribute the funds intelligently. What has occurred instead is the money aggregated in the hands of the banking sector and they are now using the money to patch up massive holes in their own balance sheet.
http://www.mybudget360.com/small-busine ... get+360%29

Illinois Spent $650,000 on 950 "Putting America Back to Work" Signs
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29
America’s largest banks can engage in flagrantly criminal activity on a massive scale and emerge almost completely unscathed. The latest sickening example comes from Wachovia Bank: Accused of laundering $380 billion in Mexican drug cartel money, the financial behemoth is expected to emerge with nothing more than a slap on the wrist thanks to an official government policy which protects megabanks from criminal charges.

Bloomberg’s Michael Smith has penned a devastating expose detailing Wachovia’s drug-money operations and the government’s twisted response. The bank was moving money behind literally tons of cocaine from violent drug cartels. It wasn’t an accident. Internal whistleblowers at Wachovia warned that the bank was laundering drug money, higher-ups at the bank actively looked the other way in order to score bigger profits, and the U.S. government is about to let everyone involved get off scott free. The bank will not be indicted, because it is official government policy not to prosecute megabanks. From Smith’s story:

No big U.S. bank . . . has ever been indicted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law. Instead, the Justice Department settles criminal charges by using deferred-prosecution agreements, in which a bank pays a fine and promises not to break the law again . . . . Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory. Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets.

Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo in late 2008. The bank’s penalty for laundering over $380 billion in drug money is going to be a promise not to ever do it again, and a $160 million fine.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/201 ... y-with-it/
The equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean continues to cool, and we have now crossed the threshold into La Niña conditions. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the tropical Eastern Pacific in the area 5°N - 5°S, 120°W - 170°W, also called the "Niña 3.4 region", fell to 0.8°C below average by July 12, according to NOAA.. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology put this number at 0.7°C below average (as of July 11.) Since La Niña conditions are defined as occurring when this number reaches 0.5°C below average, we are well into the territory of a weak La Niña event. La Niña conditions must be present for several months before this will be officially classified as a La Niña event, but it is highly likely that a full-fledged La Niña event lasting at least eight months has arrived. We started out the year with a strong El Niño, so it may seem surprising that we have transitioned La Niña so quickly, However, historically, about 35 - 40% of El Niño events are followed by a La Niña within the same year. Given current trends, I expect the current La Niña to cross the threshold needed to be defined as "moderate" strength--temperatures at least 1.0°C below average in the equatorial Eastern Pacific--by September.

The implications

It is well-known that both the number and intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic tend to increase during La Niña events. However, as I discussed in a post last month, since 1995, neutral years (when neither an El Niño or La Niña are present) have had Atlantic hurricane activity equal to La Niña years. The last time we had a strong El Niño event followed by a La Niña event in the same year, in 1998, we had a Atlantic hurricane season 40% above average in activity, with 14 named storms, 10 hurricanes, and 3 intense hurricanes. The season was relatively late-starting, with only one named storm occurring before August 20. I'm thinking this year's season may be similar, though four or more intense hurricanes are a good bet due to the record warm SSTs.

Both El Niño and La Niña events have major impacts on regional and global weather patterns. For the remainder of July and August, we can expect La Niña to bring cloudier and wetter than average conditions to the Caribbean, but weather patterns over North America should not see much impact (Figure 2.) Globally, La Niña conditions tend to cause a net cooling of surface temperatures. Thus, while the past twelve month period has been the warmest globally since record keeping began in 1880, it is unlikely that the calendar year of 2010 will set the record for warmest year ever.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1543
What in the world is causing all of these sinkholes in 2010? While there have always been sinkholes, 2010 has truly been a banner year for them. The colossal sinkhole in Guatemala made the most headlines, but the truth is that dozens of massive sinkholes have been appearing in China and giant sinkholes have even been opening up and swallowing cars in the United States. So is all this a sign that something significant is happening? Should we be preparing for the end of the world as we know it? Will we see even more sinkholes and sudden geological changes as we approach 2012?

Nobody really knows, but what everyone can agree on is that 2010 has been an amazing year for sinkholes. Just consider the following examples....
http://thisistheendoftheworldasweknowit ... holes-2010
NEW ORLEANS — After fixing a leaking valve in its Gulf of Mexico well, BP prepared Thursday to resume a crucial test that could determine whether the oil that has been gushing for three months could be stopped immediately, or, more likely, be an interim solution until relief wells are completed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/us/16spill.html?_r=1
The Iranian nuclear scientist who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews
Creating a 'disaster'

Brigadier Gen. Norm Steen, commander of the Great Plains Joint Training Center, said 160 role-players, 60 local responders and possibly as many as 200 more members of groups from outside the state were involved in the training, which ends Sunday. The drill had been in the works for eight months.

Platt said one of the scenarios being conducted at Crisis City dealt with a proposed visit from President Barack Obama.

"The president of the United States was going to visit this site," Platt said. "But, we have some ne'er-do-wells that don't like the government, don't like health care, don't like what we are doing with financial regulation and immigration, decided to do something about the president's visit."

Platt said a member of the group of "ne'er-do-wells" took explosives from an army base in Missouri and blew up a train at 7 a.m., injuring people and setting off secondary explosions.

Steen said the president waved off the visit after the explosion.

Platt said another explosion later in the day dealt with the collapse of the Presbyterian Manor nursing home tower in east Salina. Mannequins awaited "rescue" in tunnels and rubble at Crisis City.

Mass casualties at all of the incidents were taken to Salina Regional, and law enforcement officers conducted operations in Salina and at Crisis City.
http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/Crisis-City

Army preparing soldiers for rapid bioterror response
http://www.bioprepwatch.com/news/214103 ... r-response
The U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday that Missouri will be one of 10 states to host National Guard Homeland Response Force units to help coordinate federal response to a terrorist attack. The Defense Department will place one unit in each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions. Missouri is located in Region VII, which administers FEMA programs and coordinates federal disaster response in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.
http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/res ... deral.html










In a controversial decision that is likely to fan the flames of regional tensions in Latin America, Costa Rica recently granted the US permission to move 7,000 troops and 46 warships (along with their accompanying planes and helicopters) into Costa Rican waters. Officially, the act is considered to be part of the “Drug War,” which appears to be increasingly more war-like in nature due to such actions and mounting violence in Mexico and Colombia. Costa Rica’s neighbors, however, see the massive military presence as a potential base for regional strikes.

Due to the long history of US intervention in Latin America (perhaps most notably in neighboring Nicaragua), the region is clearly justified in its concern over the disproportionate and virtual invasion of troops into an area that could potentially provide such a logistical and geographic striking point. Internally, many Costa Ricans are questioning the military presence and its impact on the nation’s sovereignty.

Regardless of how this act varies from past US actions, it is clear that within the present context, the military surge is more disconcerting. This action comes amidst increasing disappointment with the Obama administration and its failure to create mutual respect between the US and Latin America as many had hoped. In fact, to the contrary, through the shuffling and increase of military presence in the region, not only has the relationship with the US remained strained, but additionally regional tensions have flared. Due to the newly won access to seven bases in Colombia (said to replace the loss of a base in Ecuador), regional relations have been further strained. Tensions remain high between Colombia and many of the countries in the region led my left leaning leaders, who see the US military presence in the region as a direct threat to their democratic rule. In fact, the Colombian-US agreement even drew heavy criticism from President Lula of Brazil, who is widely known to be one of the regions most reasonable actors.

From its Southern border to South America, the US has increased its military presence. Most recently, the Obama administration sent 4,000 troops to the US-Mexico border, further militarizing this already violent area. This regional increase in military presence is also accompanied by an increase in military and police aid. According to a report by the Center for International Policy, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, and the Washington Office on Latin America, during most of the 2000s, military and police aid accounted for less than 40 percent of all aid that the US sent to Latin America. However this year, before aid to Haiti is added to the equation, military and police aid will total approximately 47 percent of all US aid to the region. Perhaps most telling, after 58 years of inactivity, in 2008 the US government reactivated the 4th Fleet, the navy fleet in charge of the waters in the Southern Command.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue66/article4162.html

Misery And Despair Plague Haitians
http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman140710.htm
The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0714/beijin ... -villages/

China ponders closing 'outdated' re-education labour camps
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... camps.html

Justice Department withheld evidence from 9/11 panel
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=179093





FBI weblinks promote Ayers, Peltier
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=178929

Just What Is America Doing all Over the World?
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1016




(CNN) -- Al-Shabaab, the Somali militant group allied to al Qaeda which claimed responsibility for Sunday's deadly bombings in Uganda, has promised to "unleash a new tide of terror."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/07 ... A+World%29

...glad to see the CIA is still keeping busy....
The U.S. will carry out a series of naval and air exercises with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, located on the east side of the Korean peninsula, and the Yellow Sea, on the west side of the peninsula, near China. The exercises are meant to send a clear message of “deterrence” to North Korea, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell yesterday, who wouldn’t give a specific date for the exercises, only that they would take place in the “near future.”

Beijing has already voiced their opposition to any joint U.S.-South Korean exercises near their territorial waters. Morrell’s response (prompted by a reporter’s question about Chinese complaints) was basically: Look, once you’re beyond the 12-mile territorial waters you’re in the high seas and “we or anybody else” can do whatever we want.

The aircraft carrier George Washington carried out exercises in the Yellow Sea in October, Morrell said, and, as part of a strengthening of U.S.-South Korean security relations, he fully expects more such exercises, on a regular basis.
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/15/china ... -whatever/

Debating Lend-Lease for the 21st century - Lend-lease is an interesting idea, but the problem is that the United States no longer has the sort of equipment the author suggests we loan out
http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articl ... the-21.htm

Moscow pledges Tehran oil products - against US embargo
http://www.debka.com/article/8910/
The pharmaceutical industry may soon begin using nanotechnology to encode drug tablets and capsules with brand and tracking data that you swallow as part of the pill. To really explain how this works, let me simplify how nanotechnology works so you'll see why this is so bizarre (and potentially dangerous). Instead of using materials and elements as they're found in nature to build and construct things, nanotechnologists are deconstructing the basic building blocks of these materials and elements to make completely new ones. In other words, nanoscientists are reconstructing the molecular building blocks of our world without yet knowing what it will do to humans and to the environment.

The long-term consequences of nanotechnology are still largely unknown because not a single formidable study has ever been conducted on this emerging science that proves it to be safe. In fact, most of the studies that have been conducted on nanotechnology show that it's actually detrimental to health and to the environment (which I'll cover further, below).

But that hasn't stopped Big Pharma from potentially adopting it for use in a new tracking and identification system that could be integrated into the very drug pills and capsules that millions of people swallow every day.

"Nanoparticles" are present in sunscreens, fabric protectors, plastic food liners, and other products. But what's different about the nanoparticles soon to be found in a pill near you is that they are capable of storing data about where the drug was made, when it was made, and where it has traveled.

It's a lot like the barcodes used on parcels to track them along their shipping journeys, except that in the drugs, it's a molecular barcode that people will be swallowing. During digestion of the pill, the nano data bits will be distributed throughout your body and can become lodged in your body's tissues.

NanoGuardian, the company that's introducing this system for pharmaceuticals, says it this way on its website:

"In the NanoEncryption process, NanoCodes are incorporated directly onto tablets, capsules and vial caps. These codes may be associated with an unlimited amount of manufacturer-determined data, including product information (strength and expiration date), manufacturing information (location date, batch and lot number) and distribution information (country, distributor, wholesaler and chain)."

So if you take these drugs, you'll be swallowing nano "hard drives" that can store data -- data that will be distributed throughout your body and can be read by medical technicians who could then track what drugs you took in the past. And what's the rationale for this? According to the company, it's to "defen[d] against pharmaceutical counterfeiting and illegal diversion".

It sounds like a good idea, right? Unfortunately, there's a whole lot more to this technology than meets the eye.

The dangers of nanotechnology
Though you'll rarely hear about it in the mainstream media, little is known about what nanoparticles really do to people's bodies and to the environment in the long term. Studies continue to show that nanoparticles tend to easily build up in the body where they can potentially cause damage. They also behave differently than the materials from which they are derived and constructed, posing unknown hazards.

Researchers from the University of Rochester discovered back in 2006 that nanoparticles are easily absorbed throughout the body via inhalation. According to the report, nanoparticles travel from the nasal cavity directly to brain tissue where they deposit themselves and cause brain inflammation. In other words, nanoparticles very easily cross the blood-brain barrier, which is the mechanism by which the brain normally protects itself from foreign materials.

The same study, which is part of a five-year, $5.5 million investigation into the safety of nanoparticles, also determined that this artificial micro-matter makes its way to the lungs when inhaled.

A study from 2004 found that low levels of fullerenes, a type of carbon nanoparticle used in electronics and other materials, changed the entire physiology of fish that were exposed to it. Exposure to just 0.5 parts per million (ppm) over the course of two days literally caused significant brain damage in these fish.

"Given the rapid onset of brain damage, it is important to further test and assess the risks and benefits of this new technology (nanotechnology) before use becomes even more widespread," emphasized Dr. Eva Oberdorster, author of the study, back in 2004.

Again in 2007, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, discovered that iron nanoparticles are toxic to nerve cells and nerve function. Even though iron is a necessary mineral that benefits the body in its natural form, its nanoparticle is quite dangerous, it turns out.

According to Sungho Jin, senior author of the study which was published in the journal Biomaterials, nanoparticles in general "may not be as safe as we had once thought."

But none of the nation's regulatory bodies seem to be paying any attention to these studies, or to the many others I didn't mention that also highlight the toxicity of nanoparticles. Instead, they've allowed nanoparticles to invade our society without so much as a single piece of credible evidence showing that they're safe.

Based on all the research, we know that nanoparticles cross through the skin, lungs, and blood-brain barrier, where they lodge themselves in body tissues. We also know that their compositional differences cause them to be highly reactive with other chemicals, particularly in the body where they create damaging free radicals.

According to a DiscoveryNews report from 2009, nanoparticles are everywhere in the food supply. Externally, they're used in the packaging, containers, films, and other storage materials to kill bacteria and increase shelf life. Internally, they're used to enhance or alter the flavors and textures of food.

Nanoparticles are even being used in some vitamins, supplements and other "nutraceuticals" to allegedly improve nutrient assimilation and delivery.

The report actually encourages the use of nanotechnology in food, citing all the potential benefits (but remaining silent on all the dangers). One section even hawks nanotechnology as a "green" technology.

But the real truth is that using nanoparticles in food is a grant experiment with an unknown outcome. When it comes to nanotechnology in food, there's a lot of speculation and pseudo-science being peddled as scientific fact, but there's truly no scientific backing to support the safe use of man-made nanoparticles in things we consume.

A few years ago, a friend of mine showed me a clever device that uses a laser to detect antioxidant levels in the body. It basically takes a reading based on the molecular signature of antioxidants in your skin. It uses a blue laser to produce a number revealing your antioxidant level. (Mine was very high, something like 90,000 on this machine.)

Theoretically, a similar detection device could be used to scan patients for nano particles to see whether or not they've taken their meds for the day, for the week, or even for the year. You could be scanned by a laser that you don't even see, and the government or anyone else could "read" your entire history of medication use. This information could be used against you in many ways:

• To deny you employment.
• To deny you health insurance coverage.
• To serve as evidence against you in a court of law.
• To take away your children by labeling you mentally unstable.
• To force you to take vaccines that you've been avoiding.

... and so on. This is a "drug enforcement" technology that makes all your private medication habits easily and instantly available to Big Brother and health industry drug enforcers who want you to "take all your meds."

As such, this technology could further destroy health freedom. The federal government would no doubt attempt to use this technology to control your medication and vaccination intake while enforcing your compliance with random scanning of your hand or other tissues.

Imagine this scenario. Your government-approved doctor says you have a mental disorder because you prefer healthy foods (See my recent article on "orthorexia" if you don't know what I'm talking about), and he prescribes you a brand name drug to treat it. You decide that eating healthy is normal and you refuse to take the drug. The next time you go in for a checkup, your doctor scans you to check your nanoparticle count and discovers that you haven't been taking your meds. Since he ordered you to take them and you didn't, he assesses you a fine and tells you begin taking them or else face potential arrest and prison time.

This scenario is entirely fictitious at the moment, but with the way things are going with Big Brother and Big Pharma, it's a very real possibility in the near future. Technologies like NanoGuardian can be used in precisely this way to enforce compliance with things like drug prescriptions and treatment mandates. Big Brother will have access to your medical records because they'll have been implanted into your body tissues through nanotechnology, sort of like radio-frequency identification (RFID) for pharmaceuticals.

It's a way for the drug industry to turn a human body into a compliant profit machine. And it's being marketed right now. Check out the website yourself: http://www.nanoguardian.net
http://www.naturalnews.com/029210_nanot ... cines.html

Top Medical Officials Urge Children to Cut Down Cell Phone Use
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... en-to.html
How many “free energy” companies have a former Director of the CIA and FBI on their payrolls? By my math, there’s just one: Terawatt Research, LLC.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=16423


It is certain that a broad and practical skill set will be much more valuable in a post SHTF world than many of the existing jobs and career specialties of today. Things like basic construction, plumbing, mechanical, basic electricity, gardening, horticulture, cooking, food preservation, food storage, first aid, hunting and firearms, just to name only a few. Basically, I’m referring to skills, any of which would be useful, valuable, or trade-able in a time of self-sufficient living, or community living where like-minded people are working together to create a working local system. These mostly aren’t skills that will make you rich in the context of today’s system of fiat currency, but they will make you rich in self satisfaction, peace-of-mind, and could save your life in the event of regional catastrophe.

General knowledge and know-how of the underlying fundamentals of day-to-day survival has unfortunately been lost by a great many over the past several generations as modern day technology has mostly eliminated the requirement. If the economies of the world, or your own country, falls into a long and painful cycle of recovery, these do-it-yourself skills will be even more valuable than they are today. If there ever is a catastrophic disaster scenario such as complete financial meltdown, electric power grid failure from an X-class solar flare or EMP weapon, nuclear war or other earth shattering event, then these skills will be absolutely essential to your very survival. If you want to insure yourself against these types of possibilities, then start learning some of these skills today, before it’s too late.
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/retreat-l ... valBlog%29

HK45 Endurance Test: Week Fourteen
http://pistol-training.com/archives/3314

Thoughts on the Ruger SR9c
http://gunnuts.net/2010/07/15/thoughts- ... uger-sr9c/

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

...1st not much in the news...but I have some Russian ties....so here's the heads up...
By Dmitry Solovyov MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - One of the fiercest heatwaves in its history has engulfed Russia, withering crops, causing the worst drought in 130 years and prompting a top public health official to call for Spanish-style siesta breaks.

Central parts of European Russia, the Volga region, southern Urals and Siberia have all been suffering from the scorching heat, which started in late June and often reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the shade.

Similar conditions have only occurred five times -- in 1919, 1920, 1936, 1938 and 1972 -- since Russia started recording temperatures 130 years ago, Valery Lukyanov, deputy head of Russia's main weather forecast centre Roshydromet, told Reuters.

"This is the sixth year in history when late June and early July pose a real threat from the point of view of abnormal temperatures," he said, adding that Moscow could set its own record if temperatures hit 37C.

The capital's previous high of 36.6 was registered in 1936, Lukyanov said. "God forbid us to set such records," he added.

The Russian Grain Union, an industry lobby, said the country was seeing the worst drought in 130 years. It had already shrivelled grains on 9 million hectares, roughly one fifth of the total area sown to this year's harvest.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2551865/posts
Russia's worst droughts in a century have destroyed almost 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of crops in central and European areas, authorities said. A state of emergency has been declared in 18 Russian provinces, where fire has engulfed more than 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) of forest.

The situation has been described as serious by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who oversees the agriculture sector. But he said authorities have the resources to cope. Various officials have tried to reassure the public that the country has enough grain stockpiled to rule out imports.

Germany's Potato Industry Union, meanwhile, says it expects losses of 30 percent in this year's harvest.

"The situation is worse in many places this year than in the drought years of 2003 and 2006," said Martin Umhau, the head of Germany's Union of Potato Industry.

The Chamber of Agriculture of the Czech Republic estimates the grain harvest could by down by 10 percent compared with 2009.
http://www.salon.com/wires/allwires/201 ... index.html
Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- More than 1,000 Russians have drowned recently as they attempted to find relief from a stifling heat wave -- many of them after drinking alcohol, officials said.

Vadim Seryogin, a department head at Russia's Emergencies Ministry, told reporters Wednesday that 49 people, including two children, had drowned in the last day. More than 1,200 total have drowned, 223 of them between July 5 and July 12.

"The majority of those drowned were drunk," Seryogin said. "The children died because adults simply did not look after them."

A state of emergency has been declared in 14 regions, and some areas are facing water shortages as wells dry up.

The heat has exacerbated a smog problem, as well, the RIA-Novosti column said, adding Russia has not experienced such heat in 130 years. Winter and spring crops are withering under the heat, the column said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europ ... Z51UiVmjx8
In Moscow, the temperature rose to 33 degrees Celsius, breaking a record for the day set in 1938 under the rule of dictator and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, according to the state weather center.

Temperatures in 10 central Russian regions will hit 38 degrees in a heat wave lasting at least until July 22, the state weather center forecast.

An emergency drought situation has been declared in 19 of Russia’s 83 regions with crops dying on an estimated 9.6 million hectares of fields.

The Russian drought-struck areas were suffering “colossal destruction,” Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said this week at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev. The coldest place on earth in winter, Oimyakon in the Sakha region, was forecast to swelter at 32 degrees on Friday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/rus ... ion/386310
June 2010 was the warmest June since record keeping began in 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and was the fourth consecutive warmest month on record. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies rated June 2010 the third warmest June on record, behind June 1998 and June 2009. Both NOAA and NASA rated the year-to-date period, January - June, as the warmest such period on record. June 2010 global ocean temperatures were the fourth warmest on record, while land temperatures were the warmest on record. Global satellite-measured temperatures for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the 2nd warmest on record in June, according to both the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) groups. The record warmest temperatures in the lower atmosphere were recorded in 1998.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1544



....a little humor...



....for more where that came from...
http://www.stevebridges.com/obamavideos ... 10-lg.html




So What Do We Know?

Given that even independent oil industry experts are guessing at this point because BP is keeping everything close to the vest (and that some allege that the government is not publicly disclosing what it knows), the question is what we do know at this point.

Putting aside Matt Simmons' (Simmons was an energy adviser to President George W. Bush and is a prominent investment banker to the oil industry) claims that there is a conspiracy to cover up a larger leak miles from the cap - for which there's been no independent confirmation to date - here's everything that we know at this point:

* Well pressure is currently a little above 6,700 psi, far short of the 8,000 psi which would prove that the well integrity is more or less intact.

* If the well pressure keeps rising, and stabilizes at 8,000 psi or higher, then the well is fairly stable, and the below-seafloor damage to the well is not significantly impacting well strength. It would not be unexpected for the pressure to start lower and then to rise, so at least another 24 hours is needed to get the final result. BP says "The pressure has been a very steady build as predicted by engineering anlysis we did. " BP also says that the seismic, sonar and visual inspections so far indicate "no negative evidence".

* If well pressures rise and then suddenly drop, then the well integrity test itself has caused a new leak.

* If well pressure stabilizes far below 8,000, then there are major leaks. Oil industry professionals posting at the Oil Drum hypothesize:

What this could indicate is that there is a possibility of crossflow at the bottom of the well. What this means that the oil and gas that are flowing out of the reservoir into the bottom of the well, are, under the pressure in the well, now flowing into a higher reservoir of rock, now that they can't get out of the well. Depending on where that re-injection flow is, this may, or may not, suggest that the casing has lost integrity. This is a topic that has been covered in the comments at The Oil Drum, where fdoleza - "a petroleum engineering consultant retired from a major multi-national oil company" - has noted:

... I believe the flow will be coming out of the bottom sand and going into the upper sand. It would not be a leak, but it would tell them why their pressure data ain't a classical surface buildup. And I sure hope they're modeling temperatures and so on, because this is a very interesting case. They don't have downhole gauges, so they'll have to take the way the oil cools down as it sits to get a better idea of the way things are moving down below.

If there are questions whether there is still flow in the formation or from the original formation into surrounding rock, then it is possible that the relief well (RW) is close enough to the original well (WW) that putting a set of very sensitive microphones down the RW might allow some triangulation to estimate where such a flow might be occurring. It might make it easier that the well hasn’t been finally cased yet. But the test has 2 days to run, and will be evaluated every 6 hours. With time some of these questions may be answered as the test continues. (If there is no flow anywhere, after a while all the readings should become quite stable).

Updates as they develop ...
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... grity.html

ECRI Plunges At 9.8% Rate, Double Dip Recession Virtually Assured
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ecri-p ... ly-assured

Chinese Treasury Dump Brings Its Total Holdings To One Year Low, As "UK" Continues Exponential Accumulation Of US Bonds
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/chines ... ial-accumu

Magnitude 3.6 - POTOMAC-SHENANDOAH REGION
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10yua6.php

....too bad it wasn't a 1000 times stronger.....might have solved the countries problems...

Rockville-based Emergent BioSolutions is set to announce Wednesday that it has received a contract worth up to $107 million to ready its anthrax vaccine for large-scale manufacture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews
(CINCINNATI, Ohio) - Two weeks ago, CIA Director Leon Panetta told the press the CIA had not been able to positively confirm any specific information on Osama bin Laden since “late 2000.”

Interviews with high ranking military and intelligence officials, some at the highest levels, have confirmed that all evidence lends toward Osama bin Laden’s death in December 2001.

Yet transcripts of translated audio and video tapes, albeit widely disputed, are continually released by a news agency tied to Israeli intelligence services.

The transcripts of the last proven bin Laden interview, translated by the CIA, are compared to similar translations of a 2007 “broadcast” said to be by Osama bin Laden.

Both are excerpted for length but not content. Striking differences between the two “bin Ladens” is obvious.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july ... den-gd.php

Tehran blames US, UK for deadly Iran mosque bombing
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terroris ... ue-bombing
The identity of the pilot of the American-registered DC-9 (N900SA) from St. Petersburg FL caught carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico's Yucatan several years ago, long a mystery, finally saw the light of day recently in Mexico.

Carmelo Vasquez Guerra, a Venezuelan, was the DC9’s pilot who was said to have “escaped” from the airport while his airplane was being seized, and four other members of his crew were arrested.

He was later taken into custody by Mexican authorities, and charged with flying an airplane packed with 128 identical suitcases filled with cocaine.

Getting caught with 5.5 tons of cocaine would seem to call for some serious jail time. Reporters in Mexico assumed he’d been sent to prison for, like... forever.

So imagine reporter Francisco Gomez of Mexico City's El Universal surprise when he made a startling discovery: Carmelo Vasquez Guerra—amazingly and inexplicably—had been released from prison less than two years after being arrested.

The shocking news was delivered via an international headline stating that a pilot named Carmelo Vasquez Guerra had been arrested in the West African nation of Guinea Bissau on a twin-engine Gulfstream II carrying... what else? 550 kilos—a half-ton— of cocaine.
http://www.madcowprod.com/07152010.htm
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT - Analyst Report) won a contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command to provide full-scope logistics support to warfighters around the globe. The company will provide a wide range of mission-critical services, from aircraft and vehicle maintenance to IT and electronics support. The contract has a potential value of $5 billion spread over 10 years.
http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/36883/L ... B+Contract+


WASHINGTON — In an echo of the debates over the discredited intelligence that helped make the case for the war in Iraq, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday released more than 1,100 pages of previously classified Vietnam-era transcripts that show senators of the time sharply questioning whether they had been deceived by the White House and the Pentagon over the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world ... .html?_r=1

Former NSA executive Thomas A. Drake may pay high price for media leak
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... alsecurity
Law Remakes U.S. Financial Landscape

WASHINGTON—Congress approved a rewrite of rules touching every corner of finance, from ATM cards to Wall Street traders, in the biggest expansion of government power over banking and markets since the Depression.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TopStories

...isn't Deflation just awesome for the power hungry? Round I was just a test....this is the real deal - debt saturation on a global scale!

Obama-Dodd-Frank FinReg Monstrosity Delays Derivatives Curbs until 2022!
http://tarpley.net/2010/07/15/obama-dod ... ntil-2022/

The U.S. Is On The Edge Of A Growing Deflationary Sinkhole
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/16 ... -got-gold/
US banking giant JPMorgan Chase on Thursday announced a net profit of 4.8 billion dollars in the second quarter, up nearly 80 percent from the same period last year.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0715/jpmorg ... -leaps-80/
Deflation poses a risk to the U.S. economy as unemployment remains high, White House economic adviser Christina Romer said on Wednesday.
http://www.cnbc.com//id/38248672

.....let me break it down - the middle class has a giant target on its chest. Deflation means there isn't enough money to go around to pay the bills meaning the banks take everything you own. Wealth/asset transfer is the name of the game! Those who think they will print debt free money (the only means to accomplish hyper-inflation) are fooling themselves and playing with fool's gold! Deflation is here to stay for awhile. The only thing that can break it will be the hand of God (massive natural disasters) and/or complete economic collapse (the people rising up against the powers that be).......and when that comes to pass the food/water/energy/protection will be much more valuable than shiny metal for a couple reasons - 1) the historical precedent for gold has occurred in times when people were much more familiar with using gold in transactions (when was the last time you...or even your forefathers...used gold for a daily transaction); 2) fraud - in an increasingly wicked world - is it fool's gold, yellow gold, white gold, 14k, 24k, gold plated lead????? and when was the last time you or your forefathers valued such gold? 3) Is it the gold that matters or what gold can buy? In light of #1 & #2 above.....how useful is gold today as a medium of exchange? WTSHTF.....will it be easier to value 50 lbs of wheat (red, white, or whatever) vs. green gold, blue gold, etc etc etc????
Bank repossessions increased 38% in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier for a record total of 269,952, according to data to be released Thursday by RealtyTrac.
http://www.latimes.com/business/realest ... 6857.story

1.65 Million Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings in First Half of 2010
http://www.realtytrac.com/contentmanage ... temid=9555
More than 3 million Americans could lose unemployment benefits by the end of July even as the government spends record amounts to compensate the jobless, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... htm?csp=hf

Higher education fund buys gold over economic worries
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 08909.html

....you don't think the central bankers (satan) has a plan for this????








....several studies released showing the effects of world bank stimulus on forced migration.....i.e. - its planned!

Classified documents reveal UK's role in abuse of its own citizens
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/ ... -disclosed

North Korea facing health and food crisis, says Amnesty International
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... is-amnesty
A Quiet Axis Forms Against Iran in the Middle East

Israel and the Arab states near the Persian Gulf recognize a common threat: the regime in Tehran. A regional diplomat has not even ruled out support by the Arab states for a military strike to end Iran's nuclear ambitions.

When asked whether the UAE would support a possible Israeli air strike against the regime in Tehran, Ambassador Otaiba said: "A military attack on Iran by whomever would be a disaster, but Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a bigger disaster."

The fact that some Western politicians are unfamiliar with this position has to do with their own ignorance, and with the diplomatic skill with which the smaller Gulf states, in particular, have managed to hide their opposition to their powerful neighbor until now.

"The Jews and Arabs have been fighting for one hundred years. The Arabs and the Persians have been going at (it) for a thousand," argues Goldberg on The Atlantic's Web site.

Almost all Arab neighbors have a hostile relationship with the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia suspects Iran of stirring up the Shiite minority in its eastern provinces. The Arab emirates accuse Iran of occupying three islands in the Persian Gulf. Egypt has not had regular diplomatic relations with Iran since a street in Tehran was named after the murderer of former Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat.

Jordanian King Abdullah II warns against the establishment of a "Shiite crescent" between Iran and Lebanon. And Kuwait, fearing the Iranians, installed the Patriot air defense missile system in the spring.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 45,00.html

US Chokes off French-Backed Saudi-Jordanian Nuclear Plans – for Now
http://www.debka.com/article/8913/

Moscow pledges Tehran oil products - against US embargo
http://www.debka.com/article/8910/

YEKATERINBURG, Russia - The leaders of Russia and Germany met Thursday for talks and oversaw the signing of nearly a dozen deals between companies from the two countries worth billions of dollars.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... 0542?tc=ar
VLADIVOSTOK — Bones uncovered on the outskirts of the Pacific port of Vladivostok belong to hundreds of victims of Stalinist purges executed by the NKVD secret police, municipal officials and experts said Thursday.

City authorities said last month that at least 495 skeletons — many with head gunshot wounds — were among 3.5 tons of bones that had been unearthed from a mass grave by workmen building a road.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/arti ... 10465.html
The U.S. government is apparently debating how to stage joint exercises with South Korea not only this month but all year round as a response to North Korea's torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 00283.html

German unemployed working class line up for ‘vouchers’ as the ruling class decides who is ‘workshy’
http://dailycensored.com/2010/07/15/ger ... ensored%29
Security Plan for Canada-U.S. Border Announced

Canada and the United States have announced their first formal plan to enhance the security of their common 5,525-mile border, the longest in the world.

“Crystallizing a shared vision of border security that facilitates trade is a priority if we are to mitigate threats to our joint security and promote economic competitiveness,” Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toewes said in a July 13 press release.

Mr. Toewes met with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in Washington to discuss new cooperative initiatives to expedite travel and trade.

“Today’s announcements reflect our commitment to cooperative action to protect and safeguard both nations’ vital assets, networks and systems, as well as the shared responsibility to protect all citizens from cross-border crime and terrorism,” Ms. Napolitano said.

The plan, titled Canada-United States Action Plan for Critical Infrastructure, is available at http://www.dhs.gov and http://www.publicsafety.gov.ca
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/24071/

Israeli company uses nanotechnology to develop paint that makes planes disappear off radar
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/Articl ... 57,00.html
24 multinational companies, have decided to move their regional headquarters to Shanghai, including 6 Fortune 500 companies such as Vale, Walt Disney and Kraft Foods.

This will push the total number of companies with regional headquarters in Shanghai to nearly 300. Nearly 500 have regional research and development centers there.

Shanghai has been China's top destination, for multinationals. Even during the world economic slump, the city's foreign direct investment still increased. Data shows Shanghai's foreign direct investment has already surpassed more than 5 billion US dollars in the first half of this year.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

....here's one of the best overviews and explanations of how this impacts the economy that I've seen...



UPDATE:
Abnormal brain growth and function are features of autism, an increasingly common developmental disorder that now affects 1 in 60 boys in the US.

Now researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, have found remarkably similar brain changes to those seen in autism in infant monkeys receiving the vaccine schedule used in the 1990’s that contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.

The group’s findings were published yesterday in the journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. They used scanning techniques that assessed both brain growth and brain function in the same animals over time. The research team was able to see differences in the way the brains of vaccinated and unvaccinated animals developed. Scans were performed before and after the administration of primary MMR and DTaP/Hib boosters that were given at the human equivalent of 12 months of age.

Throughout the study period, vaccinated animals showed an increase in total brain volume – a feature of the brain in many young children with autism - when compared with unvaccinated animals. However, a specific part of the brain associated with emotional responses that is thought to be important in autism, the amygdala, did not show abnormalities until after the 12-month vaccines had been given. In addition, after the 12-month vaccines only, the functional brain scans showed significant differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. These functional scans looked at the activity of receptors for morphine-like compounds (opioids) that may play a role in the brain of children affected by autism. Vaccine administration was associated with an increase in opioid binding activity in the amygdala compared with a decrease in the unvaccinated group.

The results indicate that multiple vaccine exposures during the previous 3-4 months may have had a significant impact on brain growth and development in ways that are consistent with the published data on autism. For the amygdala, the novel findings of abnormal growth and function appear to be a function of more recent vaccine exposures - the 12-month primary MMR vaccine and the DTaP and Hib boosters.
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=39
In a sign that the housing market has taken another turn for the worse, a new report shows almost a quarter of all home listings in the U.S. had at least one price reduction in June.

The price cutting is widespread too. The report, released Wednesday by residential real estate tracking firm Trulia, shows 21 of the country's 50 largest markets cut prices on at least 30% of their listings, up from 10 markets in May.

Minneapolis led the way, with 40% of its listings registering at least one price reduction. This was followed by Milwaukee, Dallas, Boston, Baltimore, Phoenix and Memphis, which all slashed prices on more than 32% of their listings.

"Sellers are feeling the heat this summer as the economic recovery simmers down and home inventory levels climb," said Pete Flint, co-founder and chief executive of Trulia, in a statement. "We're seeing more sellers reduce their home listing prices to attract potential buyers." Housing inventory rose 5% between April and July.
http://www.time.com/time/business/artic ... 78,00.html
Although the average price cut, according to the Trulia report, was 10%, some markets saw significantly bigger reductions: Detroit slashed prices by 26% on average, Las Vegas dropped prices by 15%, and both Miami and Phoenix saw average cuts of 13%. The total dollar amount slashed from home prices in June was $27.3 billion, the report said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100715/u ... NpbmdtYXI-

....say hello to Deflation....betcha gold didn't rise 10 to 26% in June.....nope it fell a percent or two! And that was with a massive speculation factor!

Unemployment borrowing from the Fed is picking up steam again....
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/repo ... ssched.htm

UPDATE 2:
According to the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois Fiscal Sustainability, Illinois is now looking down the barrel of a two year budget deficit in 2011 of at least 12.8 billion dollars, according to a report issued by the in January of this year. Fitch and Moody’s is scheduled to downgrade the State’s debt rating by one notch, sending its credit default swap [CDS] to a record high.

After selling another $900 million in taxable Build America Bonds the week of July 15th, the Chicago Tribune estimated Illinois could incur extra interest costs of about $9 million a year– $225 million over the life of the bonds–due to the wide credit spread. The State has already issued about $7.8 billion in debt in 2010, and got $4.7 billion in unpaid bills in the fiscal year ended June 30. Credit and more credit, this is the answer capitalism offers to their citizens and with devastating effects.

Of course the entire US is full of ‘states’ or territories that are broke – flat busted and now looking to borrow heavily, cut basic services and needs and basically decimate their economies. All good news for bankers, the ruling class, and especially the libertarians that foam at the mouth about government without understanding the corporate forum they live in.
http://dailycensored.com/2010/07/16/the ... ensored%29

Bank Failures #92 to #96: Florida, Michigan, South Carolina
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
WASHINGTON — The 73-year-old great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for quietly spying for Cuba for nearly a third of a century from inside the State Department. His wife was sentenced to 5 1/2 years.

Retired intelligence analyst Kendall Myers said he meant his country no harm and stole secrets only to help Cuba's people who "have good reason to feel threatened" by U.S. intentions of ousting the communist Castro government.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 12248.html
The U.S. Army on Thursday reported a record number of suicides in a single month among active duty, Guard and Reserve troops, despite an aggressive program of counseling, training and education aimed at suicide prevention.

Suicides for the first half of the year are up 12 percent over 2009. In June, 32 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide, including 21 on active duty.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38267520/ns/us_news-life/
Quantities of lead in bottled juice, juice boxes, and packaged fruit could exceed federal limits for the lunchbox-toting set, according to the Environmental Law Foundation. The Bay Area-based environmental nonprofit, which enlisted the aid of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-certified lab in Berkeley, tested nearly 400 samples from 150 branded products marketed to children, including apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail mixes. The alarming results: 125 out of 146 products—or more than 85%—contained enough lead in a single serving to warrant a warning label under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known as Prop. 65.
http://www.inhabitots.com/2010/06/11/85 ... s-of-lead/

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

A heat wave of unprecedented intensity has brought the world's largest country its hottest temperature in history. On July 11, the ongoing Russian heat wave sent the mercury to 44.0°C (111.2°F) in Yashkul, Kalmykia Republic, in the European portion of Russia near the Kazakhstan border. The previous hottest temperature in Russia (not including the former Soviet republics) was the 43.8°C (110.8°F) reading measured at Alexander Gaj, Kalmykia Republic, on August 6, 1940. The remarkable heat in Russia this year has not been limited just to the European portion of the country--the Asian portion of Russia also recorded its hottest temperature in history this year, a 42.3°C (108.1°F) reading at Belogorsk, near the Amur River border with China. The previous record for the Asian portion of Russia was 41.7°C (107.1°F) at nearby Aksha on July 21, 2004.

Moscow on track for its hottest July in history
According to the Russian weather service, the first fourteen days of July in Moscow averaged 6.2°C above average. The record hottest July, in 1938, had temperatures averaging 5.3°C above average, so Moscow is on track to set the record for its warmest July in history. The past four days, Moscow has averaged 8.2°C above average. The heat wave peaked on July 17, when the mercury hit 35.0°C (95°F). Moscow's hottest temperature of all-time is 36.6°C (98.2°F), set in August, 1920. With the wunderground.com forecast for Moscow calling for high temperatures between 31 - 38°C (88 - 100°F) for the coming week, no end to the heat wave is in sight. Weather records for Moscow extend back to 1879.

Russia's remarkable heat wave has led to a state of emergency to be declared for 19 of Russia's 83 provinces, and record number of Russians have been drowning in swimming accidents as they take to the water to escape the heat. Over 1200 Russians drowned in June, with another 233 dying between July 5 and 12. The heat has also created dangerous levels of air pollution in Moscow, and severely impacted agriculture.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1546
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to use “hundreds of millions of pounds” from dormant bank accounts to fund community projects, while Business Secretary Vince Cable said lenders “ripped off” customers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-1 ... banks.html

Top Secret America
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
Guard troops to head to border states Aug. 1

National Guard troops will head to the U.S.-Mexico border Aug. 1 for a yearlong deployment to keep a lookout for illegal border crossers and smugglers and help in criminal investigations, federal officials said Monday.

The troops will be armed, but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau said at a Pentagon news conference. The troops will undergo initial training and be fully deployed along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border by September.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0719/guard- ... tes-aug-1/
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1279557825445.shtm
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday mobilized members of the California National Guard as part of a federal effort to deter drug trafficking and illegal immigration along the border with Mexico.
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/07/ ... Unknown%29
After the U.S. Government took action against several sites connected to movie streaming recently, nerves are jangling over the possibility that this is just the beginning of a wider crackdown. Now it appears that a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of “a history of abuse”. More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result.
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-authorities ... ntfreak%29

Cap on oil well kept shut despite leaks, seepage
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0719/cap-oi ... s-seepage/

BP Moves the Goalpost for the Oil Well Integrity Test
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Breaking: Robert Gibbs Confirms BP's Oil Well Is Leaking At Top, With Seepage 2 Miles Away
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/breaki ... miles-away
New data published by BP shows that payments have been made on only 28 percent of claims for damages [1] from the Gulf oil spill, while the company has determined that more than half lack enough information to be approved.
http://www.propublica.org/article/new-b ... -of-claims
Water Tested – Toxic Levels of Oil – Sample Explodes!

Recently, a News 5 investigation collected samples from multiple beaches in and around the Gulf region. Samples were taken in areas where kids were playing and swimming. The results were absolutely terrifying.

The accepted toxic level for oil is anything over 5 parts per million. Water from orange beach tested at 25 parts per million. The sand around Gulf Shores beach tested at an astonishing 211 parts per million. Remember, these beaches have been left open by officials who continue to claim the, “The beach is safe to swim.” Near Orange Beach, in the very area where kids were happily playing, the water tested a whopping 221 parts per million. How can the EPA and local officials continue to lets citizens frequent these toxic beaches?

As if this wasn’t enough, a sample from the Dolphin Island Marina actually EXPLODED when mixed with an organic solvent intended to separate the oil and water! That’s right, we now have documented evidence of samples exploding upon testing.

The obvious reason for such an explosion is methane gas. As we know, methane is highly flammable and can explode upon contact with air. The other likely candidate is the neurotoxin known as Corexit9500, which has continued to be openly sprayed through aerial operations as well as directly at the source.

This should be a major wake up call for anyone that still believes this disaster is behind us.
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/17/water ... e-exlodes/

Governments Around The World Are Eagerly Adopting The Strict Population Control Agenda Of The United Nations
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... ed-nations

Uzbek women accuse state of mass sterilizations
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 28987.html
Two weeks ago I recounted four examples of what I described as one of the greatest scandals in Britain today – the seizing of children by social workers from loving families, on what appears to be the flimsiest and most questionable grounds. The children may then be handed on to foster carers, who can receive up to £400 a week for each child, or are put out for adoption, in a way which too often leads to intense distress for both the parents and the children involved.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/colu ... -book.html
A Christian-inspired media group is being targeted with a fine of about $125,000 for its broadcast of television ads that promote the traditional family by using video footage of homosexual "pride" events and asking "Proud … of what?"
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=179577

Stress-testing Europe's banks won't stave off a deflationary vortex
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... ortex.html

European Interbank Liquidity Gets Worse: EUR Libor Passes 0.80%, OIS Surges To Highest In Over One Year
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/europe ... r-one-year

For the first time since the government started collecting the data, central banks, mutual funds and U.S. banks are buying more government securities at Treasury auctions than Wall Street’s bond dealers.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Friday Bank Closings Report
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/16/f ... italist%29

Don’t bet on a 2010 economic recovery. 10 stunning charts showing no housing recovery moving forward and weak employment growth. Employment, construction spending, commercial real estate, home prices, and consumer sentiment.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/econ ... e+SoCal%29

Fairytale economics – spending into poverty legend. How the allure and trappings of consumption led the middle class into a modern form of debt servitude.
http://www.mybudget360.com/fairytale-ec ... get+360%29
The euro rocketed to a two-month high of $1.29 and sterling jumped two cents to almost $1.54 after the Fed confessed that the US economy may not recover for five or six years. Far from winding down emergency stimulus, the bank may need a fresh blast of bond purchases or quantitative easing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/curr ... bling.html

The U.S. Is On The Edge Of A Growing Deflationary Sinkhole
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/16 ... -got-gold/
Chace adds: "The awesome influence of money — or the lack of it — is felt everywhere in higher education, and this is the reality that will dominate the schools for decades to come."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =128538107

Halliburton Co. says its second-quarter profit soared 83 percent as natural gas drilling activity picked up in the U.S.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0719/hallib ... 3-percent/

Ahmadinejad: US behind terror attacks
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020101
Report: Israel convinces Obama to plan for Iran strike

According to a report in Time magazine Israel has managed to convince Washington to put the option of a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities back on the table.

Israel has long argued that all of the international sanctions against Iran are pointless unless Western powers are prepared to back them up with the threat of force.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressing that point since US President Barack Obama pushed through a new package of sanctions at the UN Security Council last month.

In the past few weeks, Time reported that US Central Command has been devising a thorough plan of targeted air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. The article claimed that Israel has been brought into that planning process.

Israel is also reportedly still revising its own independent plan of attack, should a solo mission against Iran become necessary.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.as ... &nid=21548

Militarization of Central America and the Caribbean: The U.S. Military Moves Into Costa Rica
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20171

Group Calls for Hearings Into Google’s Ties to CIA and NSA
http://www.infowars.com/group-calls-for ... a-and-nsa/

....no surprise there....Facebook and several others are on the list as well....

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

A tropical wave (Invest 97L) near the east coast of Puerto Rico has become more organized overnight and is a threat to develop into a tropical depression as early as Wednesday. The disturbance has brought heavy rains of 8+ inches to Culebra and Vieques islands over the past day (Figure 1), and all of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are under flash flood watches today. The storm could bring an additional 3 - 6 inches of rain to the islands over the next two days. The upper level low centered a few hundred miles north of the Dominican Republic is no longer bringing high levels of wind shear to 97L; wind shear has fallen to the moderate range, 10 - 20 knots, which may allow 97L to continue to develop today. Satellite images of 97L show a moderate area of disorganized thunderstorms, but no signs of a surface circulation, no low-level spiral banding, and no upper-level outflow. There is a large amount of dry air to the northwest of Puerto Rico that will interfere with development of 97L. Surface observations show only light winds over Puerto Rico, with no signs of a surface circulation. The Hurricane Hunters are on call to investigate 97L this afternoon, if necessary.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1547

BP Considers a New Way to Seal the Well: The Static Kill
http://oilprice.com/Environment/Oil-Spi ... +Update%29
There are three areas where concern has been raised over the possibility of oil escaping the well below the sea bed and migrating back up to the surface. This is why the ROVs are located around the well monitoring the sea bed itself. There are, as noted earlier, patches where the sea bed is evidently bubbling (in that you can see where the bubbles pop out of the mud). But there is no sign of gas or oil then slowly rising to the sea surface from the bubble action. It may, therefore be something like a field of clams sitting below the surface and aspirating and then spitting out some of the sea water. This action is not at the moment of concern, BP has checked the fluid coming out of the sediment and it is running at around 15% methane, which could just arise (according to Mr Wells) from biodegradation in the mud below the sea bed.

There is a natural seep some two miles from the site. This hydrocarbon flow has been tested and is not related to the Deepwater Spill. And so the only other area of concern is a very small leak coming out from the seal in the flexible joint (which, if you remember was straightened before the new cap was installed). The leak, at the moment is very small, and not of that much concern. However, if the leak starts to get bigger, and then turn into a stream, it may pick up some of the sand that is reported as being a concern from being in the BOP assembly. This will then, at the pressures anticipated, be enough to erode out the leak to an unacceptable size within a couple of hours. For now, however, it is very small, and not continuous flow, and so can be viewed with less concern, relative to other issues.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6754?utm ... il+Drum%29
University of California Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea is one of the world's top experts on oil drilling disasters. Bea is an expert in offshore drilling and a high-level governmental adviser concerning disasters. He is also a member of the Deepwater Horizon Study Group.

As the Times-Picayune reported yesterday:

Scientists have discovered four gas "seeps" at or near BP's blown-out Macondo well since Saturday ...
***
Berkeley engineering professor Bob Bea has very little confidence in what’s been said publicly about the seeps.

He’s troubled that we’re just now hearing about seeps three kilometers away, because a survey of the seabed conducted before BP drilled its well didn’t indicate anything like that.

“There was nothing that indicated the presence of such a seep,” Bea said. “I wonder why we’re just now finding that out?”
BP has yet to release other ROV video that Bea’s study group requested more than a month ago about what may have been shots.

3 kilometers equals 1.9 miles, less than the 2 mile distance for the furthest seep discussed by the government to date.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Lost in Taxation - The IRS's vast new ObamaCare powers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... inion_main

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/1 ... s-and-the/
Washington (CNN) -- Tests on the ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico will go on for another 24 hours as federal and company officials try to explain "anomalous" pressure readings and possible leaks, the federal government's point man on the spill said Monday.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/19/gulf.o ... tml?hpt=C1
The company Kitware has been contracted by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to develop a computer software system that integrates wide area motion imagery (WAMI) automatically into a software system that is designed to analyze, track and identify local potential threats and perform forensic analysis. This is the next step of the surveillance society.
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/19/darpa ... ysis-grid/

Killer Drones Get Stealthy
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07 ... -stealthy/
WASHINGTON, (7/12/10) - Eight more homeland response force units will be established in fiscal year 2012, Defense Department and National Guard Bureau officials said here today.

The units are regional forces that will cross state lines when needed. They are part of a restructuring of the nation's chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive consequence management enterprise.

Massachusetts (supported by Connecticut and Vermont), New York (supported by New Jersey), Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Utah and California each will host a homeland response force unit.

One unit will be based in each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions. The units are scheduled to have 570 Guardsmen, and each will have a medical team, a search and extraction team, a decontamination team and very robust command and control capabilities, officials said.
http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2010/07/071310-DoD.aspx



...notice she states we created Al Qaeda....
KABUL — An Afghan soldier opened fire at a training exercise in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing two US civilian trainers and a fellow Afghan soldier in the second similar shootout in just a week.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0720/afghan ... -exercise/

Clinton Says Pakistan ISI Knows Where Osama bin Laden is Hiding
http://publicintelligence.net/clinton-s ... is-hiding/

Google - The Safari Club for more info on CIA, Pakistani ISI, and the child Al Qaeda




17 gunned down in Mexico fiesta slaughter
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

French police struggle to restore order after two days of riots in Grenoble
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... noble.html
The issue concerning the use of antibiotics in farm feed has been brought to light once again. On Wednesday July 14th, at a hearing for the Energy and Commerce subcommittee, Dr. John Clifford (a representative of the United States Department of Agriculture) (USDA) admitted the use of antibiotics in animal feed is contributing to antibiotic resistance in the United States.

Clifford, Deputy Administrator for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said the USDA believes the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture leads to cases of resistance in humans.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Principle Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, stated in his testimony that "evidence supports the conclusion that using antibiotics for production purposes in livestock farming is not in the interest of protecting and promoting public health."
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... ed-to.html
China central bank made a move to end the Chinese currency yuan’s peg with the U.S. dollar. It is perceived to be in country’s long term interest. The People’s Bank of China gave a statement that ending yuan’s peg with the U.S. dollar is a move toward reforming the country’s foreign exchange structure.
http://mikechamberslive.com/?p=9056
Reporting from Beijing —
The ground shook when the first oil pipeline burst, leading residents and port workers near Dalian's Xingang Harbor to think an earthquake was underway.

Instead, what locals were witnessing was China's most recent environmental mishap.

Two oil pipelines near the port exploded Friday, igniting a roaring inferno that shot flames 60 feet into the air and spilling an estimated 11,000 barrels of oil into the Yellow Sea.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 8547.story

The night sky on fire: 2,000 firefighters battle inferno that blazed for 15 hours in China after TWO oil pipelines explode
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... plode.html

National Guard Mexico Travel Advisory
http://info.publicintelligence.net/Mexi ... arning.pdf

A Peek Into A Billionaire’s Bug Out Plan
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-prepa ... n_07192010





....on the other hand....
In an incident reminisent of a war torn third world country, officers were sniper fired upon from an Oakland apartment building during an arrest.

The officers backed down and called for additional resources," said OPD Lt. David Elzey.
Officers searched the building after the shooting stopped but they did not find the shooter or any weapons. Police say the building did have video surveillance cameras, but the system was vandalized.
This incident is third officer-involved shooting in two days for Oakland. On Saturday morning, BART and Oakland police officers fatally shot a man near the Fruitvale BART station after he reportedly charged at officers with knives in both hands.

Then, around midnight Sunday, a DUI traffic stop on I-580 turned into a gun battle between the driver, who wore body armor and had multiple weapons, and CHP officers. The gun fight ended after CHP officers shot the driver multiple times but did not kill him.

In a very dangerous precedent for the rest of the country, Oakland police salary negotiations have failed. One of the nation's most crime-ridden cities had to lay off almost 10 percent of its police force. To start, 80 officers have been laid off. The dismissals leave the embattled department with 696 officers in a city of more than 400,000 residents.During Negotiations, Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live in Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWqWddushqw

7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won’t Eat Them
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... -eat-them/
DETROIT — Former Detroit Public Schools CEO Kenneth Burnley, Jr. and current Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb have enslaved the Detroit Public Schools by borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars.

This year alone, DPS debt service amounted to $438.8 million by June, according to district documents. That amount equals 71.2 cents of every dollar of state per-pupil aid.

However, to service that debt in a year, by June 2011, the district will need $523.8 million. That amount is 90.7 percent of state per-pupil aid for that year.

“In other words, whatever’s coming to Detroit from the state, stays with the state,” commented CPA Greg Frazier, former deputy auditor for the City of Detroit and an advocate for financial transparency in DPS, who waged a two-year legal battle to win a Freedom of Information Lawsuit for the district’s spending information.

“Under state takeovers the debt has ballooned. It’s like a plan, [run up DPS debt] and we get out of paying Detroit anything.”

As the amount of money needed monthly to pay the bank grows, the amount the state owes the district is declining. Next school year it is expected that the state aid to DPS will drop by $12.1 million.
http://dailycensored.com/2010/07/19/eco ... ensored%29

The Source of Wars
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=20130
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden is taking a more cautious approach when it comes to next summer's planned military U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan. He once predicted the drawdown next July would mean "a lot of people moving out." But he tells ABC's "This Week" that the number of U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan "could be as few as a couple of thousand troops."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/1 ... 50706.html

FEC fines Biden more than $200,000 for violations
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/17/ ... index.html

U.S. Government to America’s Vets: Drop Dead
http://vactruth.com/2010/07/20/u-s-gove ... drop-dead/

Stage Two of Europe's Credit Crisis: An Internal Bank and Sovereign Debt Crisis Combined
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20183

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like 1930
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... -like-1930
Recent media reports suggests Jerusalem has increased diplomatic efforts to persuade White House that credible military option needed. Have Israel’s efforts to convince the US to threaten Iran with a credible military option paid off? According to recent media reports, the answer might be yes.

Since the US pushed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran through the UN Security Council last month, Jerusalem has increased diplomatic efforts to convince the White House that for the sanctions to work, a credible military option needs to be on the table to scare Iran to reconsider its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

An indication that this might have happened came in the latest issue of Time magazine, in an article titled “An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table.”

Written by Joe Klein, the article claims that in recent months, the US military’s Central Command has made significant progress in planning targeted air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, some of which were deemed impossible to penetrate just two years ago.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News ... ?ID=181854

'Iran missiles can hit enemy of any size'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020101
The United States is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to South Korea this week in a display of "the strength of our alliance and our constant readiness to defend the Republic of Korea," the ship's commander said Monday.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/19/u- ... ea/?hpt=T2

U.S.-South Korea Announce Invincible Spirit Exercises
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/20/u-s-s ... exercises/
(Reuters) - China will have 2,000 missiles aimed at its rival Taiwan by the end of the year, several hundred more than the current number, despite fast-warming trade ties between the two sides, an island defense study said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... gle+Reader

Beyond the Nuclear and Terror Threats: The Conventional Military Balance in the Gulf
http://www.inss.org.il/upload/%28FILE%291279454841.pdf
(Reuters) - Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took his warning of impending nuclear war to Cuba's Foreign Ministry on Friday, where he explained the reasons for his dire prediction in his fifth public appearance in 10 days.

Castro's sudden re-emergence after four years in seclusion for health reasons has raised questions about his intentions, but his message has been consistent -- a devastating war is at hand if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tries to enforce international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities.

He also has predicted the United States will attack North Korea.

"The United States finds itself now in an unsolvable dilemma (in the Middle East). It cannot get out, nor can it stay," Castro told 115 ambassadors, who listened with rapt attention.

"It won't get out of that situation through diplomacy, but through the power of its arms," he said, pointing his finger in the air and pontificating at length as in the old days.

Castro, 83, spoke for more than an hour as he sat in front of the ambassadors. He looked fit, relaxed and fully in charge as he took questions and read numerous news reports to back up his position.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... gle+Reader

Search Called Off in Collapsed Parking Garage - Rescue Operations End With No More Victims Found in Pancaked N.J. Facility
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/ ... 7146.shtml

Sinkhole Creates Problem on Kansas City Highway
http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-highway ... 8839.story

Horse Falls 30 feet in Sinkhole
http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/98717924.html

Undersea Volcano Erupts By Tonga (Photo) - Scientists Say Possible Threat
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/scien ... 1883.shtml
The State budget now has a 200 million dollar hole due to a ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The morning the court ruled a 200-million dollar transfer out of a medical malpractice fund to help balance the budget in 2007 was illegal.
http://www.wfrv.com/news/local/State-bu ... 46109.html
Stop feeding state workers during meetings. Let cars have just one license plate. Cut off drug users from public aid, or legalize marijuana and tax it. If Monday's outpouring of opinions is any guide, there's an untapped resource for ideas to fix next year's expected $3 billion hole in the state budget: the public.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ideas.html

State of California vendors that have not been paid due to the lack of a state budget can file for an extension on their sales and use tax returns.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/s ... ily20.html

30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Stuck At All Time Lows, Does Nothing To Stimulate Housing Demand
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/30-yea ... to+zero%29
Total housing starts were at 549 thousand (SAAR) in June, down 5% from the revised May rate of 578,000 (revised down from 593 thousand), and up 15% from the all time record low in April 2009 of 477 thousand (the lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking housing starts in 1959).

The second graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968. This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and that housing starts have mostly been moving sideways for over a year.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Lowest Level of Housing Activity Since WW II
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/ ... nce-ww-ii/
LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service.
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/A ... 0673.shtml

Leading Indicators Have Turned South
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/19/l ... italist%29

Afghans AWOL From U.S. Military Base
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/ ... itary-base

Prepping on Pennies: #4, Prepare while time is on your side
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/07/20/pr ... your-side/

FTR #715 Interview (#5) with Russ Baker, Author of “Family of Secrets”
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... cord%27%29

Mexican Drug Gang Used Commercial Grade Explosive in Car Bomb
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/20/mexic ... -car-bomb/

Howa M1500 now with fluted barrels
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Despite the fact that the averages are hanging around flash crash levels, money continues to leave the markets. The are reports that hedge funds are now facing substantial quarterly redemptions. It is unlikely that many hedge funds will be able to charge performance fees for the last quarter.
Charting The Second Half Economic Slowdown - All this in 18 pretty charts.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/ ... owdown.pdf
a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research concludes that digging ourselves out of the current unemployment hole, which is 7.5 million less people having jobs than did in December 2007, will take at least 4 years, and not occur prior to March 2014. However, this assumes a flat working-age population, something the Fed would love to be the case. Alas, the country is growing: and if one incorporates the effects of labor force growth into the above analysis, as the CEPR authors have done using CBO projections, then we may have a much larger problem on our hands: the study concludes that taking into account the approximately 14 million new job seekers in the future, then the December 2007 unemployment rate will not be met until April 2021! Welcome to the new normal.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-eco ... evels-2021
YESTERDAY, the U.S. Senate finally managed to find enough votes to extend unemployment benefits to two million jobless Americans. That's good news, but don't break out the (cheap) champagne yet.

The bill did not include an extension of increased funding for Medicaid. As a result, states across the country could be forced to make huge budget cuts, lay off tens of thousands of employees, increase taxes, or some combination of all three.

That includes Pennsylvania, which is counting on $850 million in federal funds. Gov. Rendell has estimated that he'll have to lay off 20,000 state workers without the money.

When Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus package in February 2009, it included a provision that provided additional funds to help states pay for Medicaid, which is a federally mandated program to provide health care for poor people and the unemployed.

That increase became more critical as states saw a double-digit jump in Medicaid enrollment

because of the recession. However, the increased federal funding is scheduled to run out this fiscal year, despite continued weakness in the economy. And that means the states will be required by federal law to provide the same level of assistance with less money.
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion ... risis.html
But the key thing in all of these reports is that their core business, U.S. business lending, is down because loan demand is down. All of these factors support the credit contraction charts that show consumers and businesses deleveraging, increasing savings, and are waiting for positive signs of a recovery before they resume borrowing.
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/20/w ... italist%29
Three lunchtime reads:
1) Double dip in the Baltic
2) Deflation: 1931 vs. today
3) China land prices
http://seekingalpha.com/news/market_cur ... ource=feed

27th August the Whole World is waiting for.............* Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am IST. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.
http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2007 ... event.html

Magnitude 6.1 - NORTH OF HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10yza2.php
A tropical wave (Invest 97L) near the north coast of Hispaniola has been disrupted by interaction with the island, plus the effects of moderate wind shear of 10 - 20 knots. The storm is no longer a threat to develop into a tropical depression today, and the Hurricane Hunter flight that was scheduled for today has been postponed until Thursday. The disturbance has brought heavy rains of 8+ inches to Culebra, Vieques, the Virgin Islands, and some of the northern Lesser Antilles Islands. Wunderblogger Weather456 reported that the power was knocked out on the island of St. Kitts for about 24 hours, due to the intense lightning associated with 97L. All of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are under flash flood watches today.

Satellite images of 97L show a relatively meager number of heavy thunderstorms that are not well-organized. The curved bands to the north and east of the center have disappeared, and there is no evidence of low-level spiral banding or of a surface circulation. Surface observations over the northern Dominican Republic show only light winds, with no westerly winds indicating that a surface circulation is forming. Long-range radar loops from San Juan show a much reduced amount of thunderstorm activity.

Track Forecast for 97L
The storm is in a fairly straightforward steering current environment, and 97L should progress steadily to the west-northwest through Saturday. The rains from 97L's thunderstorms will bring the threat of isolated flooding to the Dominican Republic today, and to Haiti on today and Thursday. Heavy rains from 97L will affect eastern Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the eastern Bahamas Thursday, and South and Central Florida can expect heavy rains to arrive Thursday night or Friday morning. The latest suite of model runs from 2am EDT this morning (6Z) foresee 97L making landfall on the Florida coast somewhere between Miami and Cape Canaveral on Friday, then continuing into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. Only the Canadian model foresees a threat to Texas, and the other models predict a second landfall between eastern Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Intensity Forecast for 97L
The primary detriment to development of 97L today will be its close proximity to the landmass of Hispaniola. Once the storm pulls away from the island tonight, 97L has a better chance of development. Also hindering development over the next two days will be the presence of dry, stable air in its path over the Bahamas, thanks to the upper-level low to the north of the Dominican Republic. The SHIPS model predicts shear will stay in the moderate range, 10 - 20 knots, over the next three days, which should allow for some steady development of 97L on Thursday and Friday before it reaches Florida. NHC is giving 97L a 60% chance of developing into a tropical depression by Friday, which is a reasonable forecast. I think there is a 70% chance 97L will eventually become Tropical Storm Bonnie, sometime in the next five days. Sudden rapid development before 97L reaches Florida is unlikely, due to the storm's current state of disorganization and the dry air over the Bahamas. It's very unlikely that 97L has time to organize into a hurricane before hitting Florida. I put the odds of 97L making it to hurricane strength before reaching Florida at 5%, and I give a 20% chance it will be a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The probability of 97L being a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico will depend heavily upon how long the storm spends over water in the Gulf, which is very uncertain. The environment in the Gulf of Mexico should be favorable for intensification, if passage over Florida does not disrupt the storm too much.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1549

More than 700 dead in Chinese floods
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiap ... sBR9s2QlzR



The Prospect of an Israeli Military Strike Against Iran
http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Middle ... -Iran.html
Israel and Iran: No Surprise

“…it will not be a surprise attack. In fact, regardless of when Israel attacks Iran the element of surprise does not exist. This confrontation has been discussed for several years and everybody knows about it so there will be no surprises. Israel is ready for it. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are ready for it. It’s just a matter of when.” —Jerry Pourcy “If Israel Attacks Iran In July 2010….”

The “smart money” has it that the Middle East will explode sometime within the next couple of months. I would “guesstimate” sooner, rather than later—say within the next two weeks.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :13:55:14Z
Washington (CNN) -- The United States has spent more than $1 trillion on wars since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, a recently released Congressional report says.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07 ... sBR9s2QlzR

-- Five leaks in and around BP's well are more like "drips" and aren't yet reason to worry, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander. He extended testing of the experimental cap by another day, which means the oil will remain shut in. Seepage two miles from BP's oil cap is coming from another well, he said.

-- BP would like to implement a "static kill" of the well, which involves sending mud and later cement down into the well through the cap, according to BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells. The company is waiting for government approval.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 06199.html

BP admits using Photoshop to exaggerate oil spill command centre activity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... oil-spills

Senior EPA Analyst: "Government [Agencies] Have Been Sock Puppets for BP In This Cover Up"
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... ncies.html

....a week ago one of the relief wells was within 4 ft....now they are saying it will take until the end of July for the relief wells to intercept...meanwhile the cap is staying on longer....and they appear to be stalling waiting for a big storm to hit!

Official: ‘Severe threat’ as China oil spill grows
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0721/offici ... ill-grows/

....maybe the angel with the vial of blood that poisons the ocean....didn't drop it in just one spot???


...on the health aspect here's a little reminder....
A new article published in the American Journal of Public Health reveals that U.S. and Canadian health insurance giants own nearly $2 billion worth of stock in fast food giants like McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and others.

So profits made by health insurance companies are reinvested in industries that make people sick and diseased, bringing them back to buy more health insurance down the road. It's a pretty clever business model for an industry that seems focused on the almighty dollar and obviously has no concern whatsoever for the actual health status of its customers. If anything, these health insurance companies hope you get sicker!
http://www.naturalnews.com/028602_healt ... _food.html
Sharing the truth about food is an exceptionally effective way to wake people up because all people have a personal relationship with food every day. Here are the important points to remember:

1. The US Department of Agriculture holds a patent on the ‘Terminator’ gene (the seed goes sterile after the first harvest) which has the potential to destroy all plant life on the planet. This patent is co-owned by Monsanto.

2. The US Supreme Court has studiously avoided trying any anti-GMO cases, despite the obvious health dangers to people and contamination of farms by cross pollination. On June 21, 2010 the Supreme Court lifted the nationwide ban growing GMO alfalfa due to its potential to contaminate other farms, pending a Environmental Impact Study (EIS) performed by the US Department of Agriculture. We predicted 2 weeks ago that the Supreme Court justices would rule in favor of Monsanto as they collect their paychecks from the federal government. If sanity had prevailed and the ban on polluting GMOs was upheld, the result would have put the USDA’s Terminator gene patent in peril, countless prior court cases would have to be overturned and an avalanche of new lawsuits against Monsanto may have bankrupted the company. The federal government and Monsanto are so deeply intertwined that we expect the USDA’s EIS, which they expect to finish by next Spring, to allow planting of the contaminating GMO alfalfa.

The Supreme Court refused to hear any of the facts regarding the dangers and past record of contamination; lone dissenter Justice Stevens said, “the district court did not abuse its discretion when, after considering the voluminous record and making the aforementioned findings, it issued the order now before us.” In other words, Stevens reports that the lower district court’s GMO alfalfa ban was put into place due to voluminous records of contamination to other farms, but this was not taken into consideration by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court only considered the national GMO alfalfa ban was “too broad”, without examining the damaging effects of contamination. This was a slippery move because if they had considered the devastating effects of GMOs, it would have been impossible to argue that they are safe. And the corrupt USDA will issue its EIS to determine the safety. The remote potential upside to this is that the jurisdiction is now in the lower courts, which may be more reasonable, but that means more lawsuits and more money.(1)

3. The United Nations is corrupt to its core and its programs are designed for depopulation, total control and profit. UN Agenda 21 is the overarching blueprint for depopulation and total control, using the environment and sustainability as the excuse for its policies.

4. The Rockefeller family has been pursuing control over food for decades, using monopolies and government structures that are funded by taxpayers through complex schemes that they have created to accomplish this goal.

NGO SCAM:

NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations), in the modern definition, spring from the United Nations and act as ‘consultants’ to the UN; no government representatives are allowed as members. However, NGOs are hardly independent as most of them are funded by governments. In other words, our tax dollars are paying for our own demise.

This is how the scam works:

• NGOs create policy statements to be adopted by the UN that become international policy. NGOs then receive money from the UN.

• The UN policies are pushed on national governments who then fund the globalist programs with money from taxes.

• The NGOs then lobby governments and the public to implement the programs, using misguided public pressure that they create by fooling people into believing that UN policies benefit the population (like local government acceptance of global warming regulations. These are based on lies and sold to the public by way of alarmism over environmental catastrophe). They are dispatched in your community with specific targeted agendas. Local government contracts with organizations like the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) insure local implementation of these globalist objectives.

• US government Advisory Committees are comprised of UN affiliated NGOs, businesses and organizations, while no Advisory Committees represent the American citizens’ interests.

• UN accredited NGOs are well funded and try to discredit populist organizations that oppose them.

UN affiliated NGOs began when eugenicist Julian Huxley created the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), which created a more public spin-off, the WWF (World Wildlife Federation) and a third one called the WRI (World Resources Institute which is a think tank and communication network). These three NGOs are the driving force and behind the rise in NGO influence around the world. For full details, you can read the excellent analysis by Maryetta Ables.(2)

NGOs are treacherous and they lie. While an NGO may take the right action with one hand, the other hand is reaching out and grabbing your liberty by allocating its vast resources to advance the UN agenda. For example, the IUCN, the center of all UN NGOs, claims on their website that they have a moratorium on further release of GMOs, which makes them seem like they are against GMOs. GMOs have already contaminated much of the world, so a moratorium on further release of GMOs is a feeble attempt to rid the world of GMOs and NGOs pretend they have no power when more regulations are created to advance the UN agenda.(3)

Instead of taking serious action to combat GMOs, the IUCN allocates their resources toward promoting ‘biodiversity’, (the theft of private property by way of the Endangered Species Act) and global warming, which has been thoroughly discredited.(4)

The WWF keeps a low profile on their website about GMOs, but the WWF does fully endorse GMOs.(5)

Greenpeace is a UN accredited NGO, and like all UN affiliated NGO’s Greenpeace is dedicated to the policies of the UN’s Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. In order to appear that they are working in the public’s interest, they oppose GMOs and have taken some small actions, like publicizing the dangers of GMOs and pressuring the Trader Joe’s food chain stores into refusing GMO food for their private label. However, their opposition to GMOs, according to Michael Shaw of http://www.FreedomAdvocates.org, is an example of painting themselves as a public interest group to cover up their true intent, the implementation of Agenda 21. On their website they endorse global warming lies and energy restrictions that support consolidation of globalist power. While their website claims that they do not “solicit” contributions from governments or corporations, there is proof that they have received grants from the Tides Foundation (Rockefeller Foundation is major a contributor), BP Oil and Exxon, but these ‘donors’ are not listed on their website. In other words, Greenpeace, along with many other environmental NGOs, receive “donations” from globalists and funnel money into other like-minded NGOs and “non-profit” organizations to accomplish Agenda 21.(6)
http://farmwars.info/?p=3250&utm_source ... rm+Wars%29

The mafia has cranked up money laundering activities in Italy after the credit crunch prompted banks to stop lending, leaving a funding gap that criminal capital has filled, according to the Bank of Italy.

“The crisis has given organized crime room to thrive because access to credit has become more difficult,” said Anna Maria Tarantola, the central bank’s deputy general director, in a July 12 interview in her Rome office. “Whoever holds large amounts of cash, like crime groups, can make investments that aren’t possible for others. They can now invest in fully legal businesses.”

The central bank’s financial intelligence unit tracked 15,000 suspicious transactions in the first half of 2010, up 52 percent from a year earlier, and exceeding the total for all of 2008, said Tarantola, who’s in charge of banking oversight.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... ering.html
Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention -- a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/gold-coi ... d=11211611

Money Laundering and the Global Drug Trade Fueled by Capitalist Elites
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20210
From the road, it's impossible to tell how large the NSA has become, even though its buildings occupy 6.3 million square feet - about the size of the Pentagon - and are surrounded by 112 acres of parking spaces. As massive as that might seem, documents indicate that the NSA is only going to get bigger: 10,000 more workers over the next 15 years; $2 billion to pay for just the first phase of expansion; an overall increase in size that will bring its building space throughout the Fort Meade cluster to nearly 14 million square feet.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0721/nsa-11 ... ng-spaces/

A second China UFO sighting has residents on edge, just seven days after an unidentified flying object shut down a Chinese airport.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/1 ... 49244.html
Oakland police have their hands full. In addition to a shootout on the freeway and a police-involved shooting at a BART station, officers are now on the hunt for an apparent sniper trying to take out officers.

"They hear gunshots and can feel the bullets pass by them," police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said. "They can hear them whizzing by."

The latest incident happened Sunday at about 11:30 p.m. Patrol officers were on a traffic stop near 8th and Adeline Streets in West Oakland when they heard shots. They were detaining people in a car on suspicion of drug-related offenses.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38308005/ns ... y_area_ca/
In his latest Trends Journal, trend forecaster Gerald Celente outlines the buildup to the coming “Great War” that will affect every country and person on earth.

As economies in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America and Asia begin to unravel, civil wars will begin breaking out across the globe.
http://www.shtfplan.com/gerald-celente/ ... t_07202010
U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) addressed Congress on July 15th to report the Natural Resources Committee's passage of HR 3534, the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act (CLEAR Act) of 2009. Congressman Gohmert said that the bill was to "deal with the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico" but it contains plans for the federal government to acquire land and was introduced in 2009.
http://www.morphcity.com/home/78-the-cl ... -land-grab
Facebook is expected to say this week that it has reached 500 million users, making it the biggest information network on the Internet in a meteoric rise that has connected the world into an online statehood of status updates, fan pages and picture exchanges.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postte ... _user.html

....and the CIA is tickled pink!!!

Weighty guests arrive for annual Bohemian Grove
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... 19809/1033

I'm always searching the Internet for conspiracy documentaries and information, and usually I come across some pretty interesting stuff, and sometimes it can be hard to find, so I decided to post a huge list of streaming conspiracy documentaries. This article and list took me quite a while to make so please bookmark this page for future reference. This is well over 100 hours of streaming conspiracy documentaries.
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... iracy.html

UPDATE:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Storms are threatening to delay BP's undersea efforts to permanently plug the leaky well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The federal government's oil spill chief says Wednesday that if a storm moves into the Gulf, ships would have to leave and BP couldn't observe the capped well.

They could decide to open the cap that's choked off the flow of oil for nearly a week.

Scientists are closely watching to determine if the cap is displacing pressure and causing leaks underground.

Federal forecasters say the storm system is weakening as it moves over Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and toward the Gulf. But it has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm by Friday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Storms-th ... et=&ccode=

....didn't have to wait long for that storm interruption!

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... yet/60086/
If you keep a clean house, you could be putting your health at risk. A new study reveals the regular use of basic cleaning products could double the risk of developing breast cancer.

The findings suggest that household cleaners and pesticides might cause breast cancer because they have "endocrine disrupting chemicals" or "mammary gland carcinogens."
http://www.examiner.com/x-25134-Atlanta ... ast-cancer
Washington, DC: A new study has suggested a link between polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), industrial compounds which are widely used in many consumer products, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_w ... ds_1412798

Obama signs historic finance reform into law
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0721/obama- ... eform-law/

Half of Americans Have Less Than $2,000 Banked for Their Golden Years
http://www.alternet.org/economy/147570/ ... den_years/
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for "industrial" cultivation starting next year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100721/ts_ ... california

Blogs and Military Strategy
http://cryptome.org/dodi/jsou-06-5.pdf
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Marine Corps colonel accused of leaking classified information to an anti-terrorism unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has died.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says Larry J. Richards was suffering brain, kidney and liver problems when he died Saturday at his home in Lake Arrowhead. He was 52.

Richards was a Marine reservist and sheriff's detective in 2003 and 2004 when he allegedly helped leak Marine intelligence information from Camp Pendleton to an anti-terrorism task force he helped organize. He was later recalled to active Marine duty and was awaiting a military hearing.

Four other Marines have been convicted in the case.

The military has not released the nature of the leaked information.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=2007104

....whistleblowing isn't popular and is dangerous to your health...

UPDATE 2:

Smallfarm sent me a PM with a link saying the Mars deal is a hoax...
http://www.astronomy.org.gg/hoax.htm

....sorry for the misinformation!

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

North Korea condemns US sanctions, naval drills
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100722/pl ... 0722152555

Spy chief-nominee warns of more North Korean attacks
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... liticsNews

US to hit NKorea with more sanctions in August
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD9H3M70O0

....sanctions are economic warfare and guaranteed to bring a physical battle sooner or later....
Iran tells lawmakers to respond to fuel sanctions

Tehran: Iran's parliament approved a law yesterday calling on the government to retaliate against any countries that inspect the Islamic state's ships and aircraft or refuse to provide fuel to its aircraft as part of foreign sanctions, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iran/ir ... s-1.657040

CIA applicant's arrest tops wave of China spy cases
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk ... s_wav.html

Are U.S. Taxpayers Funding Empire Building With Costa Rica?
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/07/are ... mpire.html

Laser used to shoots down planes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... lanes.html
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen talked tough about North Korea here Wednesday, but he said China’s actions of late have given him pause.

“I’ve moved from being curious about what they’re doing, to being concerned about what they’re doing,” Mullen said of China, in comments to about 300 soldiers at a town hall-like meeting here.

“I see a fairly significant investment in high-end equipment – satellites, ships … anti-ship missiles, obviously high-end aircraft and all those kinds of things,” he said. “They are (also) shifting from a focus on their ground forces to focus on their navy … and their air force.

“It is the (lack of) transparency … with respect to China that is probably most vexing, because it is difficult to figure out where they’re headed,” he added. “I’d like to have a conversation to see where they’re going, and right now I can’t do that.”
http://www.stripes.com/news/mullen-reit ... p-1.111729


More News To Be Swept Under The Rug: Housing Inventory Jumps From 8.3 Months To 8.9 Months, Highest Since August 2009
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/more-n ... ugust-2009

The Baltic Dry Index Versus Container Rates: Who to Believe?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/baltic ... iner-rates

Inflation-Deflation Spread Hits 9% As Schrodinger's Cat Goes Nuts
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inflat ... -goes-nuts

....will they....or won't they.....PRINT?????

Banks Still Aren’t Lending; Credit Crunch Continues
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/20/b ... italist%29

U.S. financial bailout figure hits $3.7 trillion
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 0319.story

10 Incredible Statistics About America’s Coming Retirement Crisis That Will Blow Your Mind
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... -your-mind
About 400,000 people in California whose extended unemployment benefits ended prematurely since federal funding ran out June 2 could resume getting checks within a few weeks.

The Senate passed a bill extending federal benefits Wednesday night. The House is expected to approve the bill in short order and President Obama could sign it as soon as today.

The bill extends benefits through Nov. 30 (after the midterm elections) and retroactively to June 2.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1EHQ9G.DTL
Bold and Underline mine

Bill Still Interview (Two Parts)
http://market-ticker.org/archives/2519- ... Parts.html




Active volcanoes 14 July-20 July 2010
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ ... 714#gorely

Hawaii’s still very active Kilauea volcano sends lava flow into Kalapana
http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/haw ... pana_again

Magnitude 6.2 - VANUATU
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10zaaq.php
A tropical wave (Invest 97L) over the eastern Bahama Islands has developed a closed circulation at the surface, and has become a tropical depression or tropical storm. Here is the text of the Special Tropical Weather Outlook from NHC at 8:25am EDT today:

Visible satellite images and observations from the Bahamas indicate that the area of low pressure in the southeastern Bahamas has become better organized and a closed circulation has formed. Advisories on a tropical depression or a tropical storm will be initiated at 11 am EDT...1500 UTC today. This advisory will likely include tropical storm watches and warnings for portions of the Bahamas and southern Florida.

Satellite images of 97L show a modest area of heavy thunderstorms that have slowly increased in intensity and areal coverage this morning. Water vapor satellite loops show a large area of dry air lies to the west of 97L, over Florida. This dry air is associated with a large upper-level low pressure system that is moving west at about the same speed 97L is. The counter-clockwise flow of air around the upper low is bringing about 20 knots of wind shear to 97L. Surface observations in the Bahamas and several nearby ships have shown top winds in 97L of up to 35 mph, so the storm is close to the 40 mph winds needed to be classified as a tropical storm.

Track Forecast for 97L
The storm is in a fairly straightforward steering current environment, and 97L should progress steadily to the west to west-northwest through Saturday. This will bring the storm ashore over the Florida Keys or South Florida on Friday, and into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. The latest set of model runs from 2am EDT (6Z) had the advantage of having data from a flight of the NOAA jet last night, so we have higher confidence than usual in the track of 97L over the next two days. The location of 97L's final landfall along the Gulf of Mexico coast has the usual uncertainties for 3 - 4 days, with the various models calling for landfall somewhere between the upper Texas coast and the Florida Panhandle coast. Given the uncertainties, the move halt operations in the Deepwater Horizon blowout recovery effort are probably wise.

Intensity Forecast for 97L
The primary detriment to development of 97L for the next three days will be the presence of the large upper-level low to its west. As long as this low remains in its present location, relative to 97L, it will bring wind shear of about 20 knots and dry air into the storm. This will limit the intensification potential of 97L to no more than about 10 - 20 mph per day. If the upper-level low picks up speed and pulls away from 97L, the storm may be able to intensify at a faster rate. None of the computer models is calling for that to happen, but it is possible. I put the odds of 97L making it to hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico at 20%.

98L
An area of disturbed weather (98L) has developed in the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche. This system is under a low amount of shear, 5 - 10 knots, and may barely have enough time to organize into a tropical depression before making landfall along the Mexican coast a few hundred miles south of the Texas border on Friday.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1550

Survival Retreat Land Size and Considerations
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/retreat-l ... valBlog%29

Prominent Hedge Fund Manager’s Idaho Ranch: “It would be a place you could hole up in”
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-prepa ... n_07222010





At least 105 people treated for oil-related conditions in coastal Alabama
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/07 ... r-oil.html
-- Five leaks in and around BP's well are more like "drips" and aren't yet reason to worry, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander. He extended testing of the experimental cap by another day, which means the oil will remain shut in. Seepage two miles from BP's oil cap is coming from another well, he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 06199.html

BP trying to legally ‘contaminate’ Gulf scientists: report
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0720/bp-con ... sts-trial/

Scientists from St. Petersburg find high methane readings near oil disaster site
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environmen ... 110095.ece

China oil spill doubles in size, called 'severe threat'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38337393/ns ... vironment/

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — One-third of U.S. counties are facing a high risk that future water demand will outstrip supplies, spelling potential disaster for central and southern states and the crops grown there, a new study says.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38329901/ns ... e-science/

Russian Farmers Urged to Harvest at Night in Worst Heat Wave in a Decade
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... ecade.html

China braces for typhoons as record-breaking floods leave 1,000 dead, missing
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38338713/ns ... iapacific/



The "Journolist" scandal has deepened with new revelations that participants in the now-defunct email list for ideologically approved journalists--no conservatives allowed--engaged in efforts to suppress news damaging to then-candidate Barack Obama.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

Does Presidential Assassination Program Exist?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,597123,00.html

Climate Change Scepticism Could Soon Be a Criminal Offence
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :09:40:36Z

MOSCOW — The upper house of Russia's parliament on Monday passed a bill granting expanded powers to the country's main security agency, a move that critics say echoes the era of the Soviet KGB.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD9H266780

UPDATE:
Big Storm to Hit Gulf of Mexico ... All Oil Relief Operations Will Be Suspended

As oil industry expert Bob Cavnar writes:

The National Hurricane Center this morning forecasted a 70% chance that Invest 97, now just south of the Bahamas, would form into a tropical cyclone. Destination? The central Gulf. In his McBriefing yesterday, Kent Wells announced that instead of running and cementing the last liner into relief well 1, they had already run in a storm packer to temporarily seal the well and were preparing to shut down. Here's the storm track by computer model.

In other words, BP is shutting down its drilling of the relief wells until the storm passes.

Cavnar points out that this could be awhile:

A hurricane, or even a tropical storm, will cause 10 days to 2 weeks of delay. Yesterday, [Admiral Thad] Allen said that the decision whether to open the capping stack or leave it closed was currently being discussed. Without monitoring, there is fear of a major leak causing serious damage to the wellhead endangering future containment efforts. He also said that they would leave an ROV boat as last boat out, since it can travel faster than the service vessels.

I agree with what Cavnar as written previously: instead of doing the "well integrity test", BP might have been able to kill the well by now if it hadn't suspended drilling of the relief wells so that it could run that test.

It is not yet clear whether the storm will turn into a hurricane. As I warned on May 14th, there is a possibility that a hurricane could spread the oil inland.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... l-oil.html
Another week has passed, and it is time for the US to issue another $100+ billion in coupons. The US Treasury has just announced next week's bond issuance calendar, this time 2s, 5s and 7s. This has nothing to do with the weekly issuance in hundreds of billions in Bills: already this month we have redeemed over $400 billion in short-term debt. (And, for purists, it is indeed not a monthly but a bi-weekly event: the US still continues to issue about $200 billion in coupon debt each month).
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/its-ti ... -next-week
ICI reports that the week ended July 14 saw another massive outflow from domestic equity mutual funds of $3.2 billion, bringing the July total to $7.3 billion, and year-to-date equity outflows to a stunning $37.5 billion. Yet neither liquidations, nor redemptions, nor mutual fund capitulation, nor lack of liquidity, nor lack of human traders, nor rumors that it is all one big scam, can tame the market's most recent bout of irrational exuberance: in a time when equity funds had to redeem over $7 billion in stocks, the stock market surged by 90 points!
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/11th-s ... lly-broken
I have not commented on the financial markets in a detailed way for quite some time now. This is not because I do not have strong opinions on them, rather it is because I see the current ongoing crisis as just as much a political and social crisis as an economic one and so I am compelled to address those concerns as I think it is in that arena that the greatest dangers exist. Additionally, the major macro investment themes that I outlined well over a year ago remain the same. Namely I think long investments in the United States stock market should be focused on precious metals miners, oil related energy shares and the agriculture theme. Anything related to the ponzi economy like financials, real estate (commercial and residential) and traditional retail with little international presence should be avoided. The final reason why I have not been more market focused is that with liquidity so bad and countless players seemingly exiting positions and taking risk down, sometimes I wonder who is really driving these markets. Are the moves expressions of investors and their views on the future or is most of the trading actually related to sovereign interests engaged in financial warfare? If it is indeed the later influence that is most profound then you can forget any possibility of rational moves on a day to day or even week to week basis. Nevertheless, the market always wins in the end and this happens at major inflection points. I think we are at one of those moments right now.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... nt-upon-us
Bold and Underline mine

Mortgage rates hit 4.56 pct., new record low - The last time home loan rates were lower was during the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted just 20 or 25 years.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0722/mortga ... ct-record/
Up to 1,200 National Guard troops will deploy to the Southwest border with Mexico Aug. 1, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said in a joint announcement with Obama administration officials at the Pentagon.
“We’re very pleased to be in support of our interagency partners,” said Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley. The 1,200 troops will support Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
http://www.ftleavenworthlamp.com/news/a ... can-border

NGOs Seek UN Governance of U.S. Intellectual Property Trade Agreements
http://www.globalgovernancewatch.org/sp ... agreements

Facebook - the CIA conspiracy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/ne ... d=10456534

“It Fell in Silence: The Collapse of World Trade Center 7″
http://deadlinelive.info/2010/07/22/it- ... -center-7/

French police use live ammunition against riots over police killings
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul20 ... -j20.shtml

America's Undeclared War on Pakistan
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20218

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

MIAMI – A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Gulf coast as Bonnie begins moving over South Florida.

The new tropical storm warning area extends from Destin, Fla., to Morgan City, La., and includes Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans.

The tropical storm has maximum sustained winds Friday near 40 mph (65 kph). The storm is expected to strengthen when it moves into the Gulf of Mexico late Friday night and Saturday.

Bonnie is located about 30 miles (45 kilometers) south-southwest of Miami and is moving west-northwest near 18 mph (30 kph).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_ ... al_weather
Tropical Storm Bonnie is making landfall in South Florida south of Miami as a minimal tropical storm with 40 mph winds. Radar-estimated rainfall from the Miami radar shows that Bonnie is a relatively dry storm--maximum rainfall amounts from the storm have been just 2 - 3 inches over the waters to the east of Miami. Water vapor satellite loops show that Bonnie is embedded in a large area of dry air, thanks to an upper level low to the west over the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past twelve hours, Bonnie has sped up, and this has brought the storm closer to the upper level low. The upper level low is now bringing high levels of wind shear--about 20 knots--to the tropical storm. Satellite images of Bonnie show that the storm is being stretched into an oval shape by the strong steering flow, and this distortion is inhibiting intensification. Bonnie is a small storm, and is only affecting a limited area of South Florida with strong winds and heavy rain. Surface observations in the Bahamas and South Florida showed a number of stations with winds in the 30 - 46 mph range this morning, including Fowey Rocks, which had sustatined winds of 46 mph, gusting to 53 mph, at 10:45 am EDT.

Track Forecast for Bonnie
Bonnie has sped up more than the models expected, but they are in pretty good agreement about a continued track to the west-northwest to northwest with a landfall between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. The latest set of model runs from 2am EDT (6Z) are very similar to the two previous sets of runs, and this degree of consistency gives me confidence that Bonnie will stay within the cone of uncertainty depicted on the track forecast images. The projected track will take Bonnie over the oil spill region, and the storm's strong east to southeasterly winds will begin to affect the oil slick on Saturday morning. These winds, coupled with a storm surge of 2 - 4 feet, will result in a substantial area of the Louisiana marshlands getting oiled.

The latest oil trajectory forecasts from NOAA (Figure 2) predict potential oil impacts along a 150-mile stretch of Louisiana coast on Sunday. Given Bonnie's rapid forward speed, small size, and expected landfall intensity of 50 mph or less, oil impacts on the Louisiana coast will be similar to or less than what was experienced during Hurricane Alex in June. That storm brought a storm surge of 2 - 4 feet and sustained winds of 20 - 30 mph that lasted for several days.

Intensity Forecast for Bonnie
The primary detriment to development of Bonnie will be the presence of the large upper-level low to its west. If the low remains in its present location, relative to Bonnie, it will bring high wind shear of about 20 knots to the storm. This will allow for only slow intensification, and Bonnie is unlikely to intensify to more than a 50 mph tropical storm. This is the solution of the major global models such as the GFDL, HWRF, GFS, ECMWF, and NOGAPS. However, if the upper-level low weakens or pulls away from Bonnie, less shear and dry air will affect the storm, potentially allowing Bonnie to intensify to a strong tropical storm with 60 - 65 mph winds. The more statistically based intensity models--SHIPS and LGEM--foresee this sort of scenario. I'll go with the lower intensity scenario, since Bonnie is such a small storm and will be more sensitive than usual to hostile wind shear and dry air. I give Bonnie a 10% chance of becoming a hurricane. NHC is putting the odds of Bonnie being a hurricane at 8 pm Saturday at 9% (11am advisory.)
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1554



Obama Is Preparing to Bomb Iran
http://tarpley.net/2010/07/22/obama-pre ... bomb-iran/
HANOI, Vietnam – North Korea inflamed already-high tensions in the region over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship by threatening the United States and South Korea on Friday with a "physical response" if they carry out military drills as planned on Sunday. The U.S. refused to back down, saying any new talks with the North are unlikely in the current standoff.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_asean

State Dept. planning to field a small army in Iraq
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/21/9 ... z0uRFpicpy


Abandoning the Capped Oil Well: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... could.html

"Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects, according to a person with knowledge of data collected by the nation’s regulator. Only 27 percent of the loans to the financing vehicles can be repaid in full by cash generated by the projects they funded, the person said. The China Banking Regulatory Commission has told banks to write off non-performing project loans by the end of this year." Got China CDS? Because this is the point where one follows Hugh Hendry's advice about that whole panic thing.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/here-c ... epaid-full

One Economic Chart That You Should Permanently Burn Into Your Memory
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... our-memory

Study: More Car Buyers Paying With Cash Rather Than Borrowing
http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-b ... -borrowing

As The U.S. Economy Implodes, Should We Ditch Our Debt Or Is Paying Off Our Debts The Morally Right Thing To Do?
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... hing-to-do

Deflation Watch
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysi ... rizon.aspx
The news rocked the global gold market when an almost obscure line item in the back of a 216 page document released by an equally obscure organization was recently unearthed. Thrust into the unwanted glare of the spotlight, the little publicized Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is discovered to have accepted 349 metric tons of gold in a $14B swap. Why? With whom? For what duration? How long has this been going on? This raises many questions and as usual with all $617T of murky unregulated swaps, we are given zero answers. It is none of our business!

Considering the US taxpayer is bearing the burden of $13T in lending, spending and guarantees for the financial crisis, and an additional $600B of swaps from the US Federal Reserve to stem the European Sovereign Debt crisis, some feel that more transparency is merited. It is particularly disconcerting, since the crisis was a direct result of unsound banking practices and possibly even felonious behavior. The arrogance and lack of public accountability of the entire banking industry blatantly demonstrates why gold manipulation, which came to the fore in recent CFTC hearings, has been able to operate so effectively for so long. It operates above the law or more specifically above sovereign law in the un-policed off-shore, off-balance sheet zone of international waters.

Since President Richard Nixon took the US off the Gold standard in 1971, transparency regarding anything to do with gold sales, leasing, storage or swaps is as tightly guarded by governments as the unaudited gold holdings of Fort Knox. Before we delve into answering what this swap may be all about and what it possibly means to gold investors, we need to start with the most obvious question and one that few seem to ask. Who is this Bank of International Settlements and who controls it?

BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS (BIS)

The history of the BIS reads with all the intrigue of a spy novel and comes with a very checkered past. According to the BIS web site, as a privately held bank, it decided in recent years to become wholly owned and controlled by the Central Banks of the world - a highly unusual decision for a private enterprise. Lengthy court cases in Le Hague were involved by private members who objected. Something like this is usually called a buy out or takeover, but there are no public records of any of the central banks making such an acquisition - an extremely strange set of events with little media coverage.

I am sure it can all be explained very logically until we get to the size of the balance sheet. We are talking close to a half trillion dollar balance sheet, or more specifically 259 billion SDR’s, which is approximately $400B. Where did the capital or deposits come from? The BIS goes out of its way to specifically assert it only accepts deposits from member central banks, though it does also state confusingly in the financial notes that there are deposits from previous financial statements from recognized international banks. Therefore, are we to conclude that the US Federal Reserve has huge deposits at the BIS? Though I couldn’t find the assets on the Fed’s balance sheet, I’m sure they are there in the small print or on the New York Feds balance sheet somewhere. It would be a legal requirement. It is a forensic accounting nightmare to find these items based on public documents of the various private organizations. Apparently it is just none of our business. For such a major element of the world’s operating financial structure to have such poor visibility, it seems preposterous until you actually do the research. It should be laid out so a freshman Economics class could easily follow the ownership acquisition and money flows. It isn’t and it appears to this researcher that it is intentionally opaque.

Since the BIS goes out of its way to ensure readers in its annual financial report that no private funds are accepted, maybe all we really need to know is what the BIS officially tells us. The BIS is owned and controlled by their member Central Banks. Therefore if the BIS was to do a gold swap of the magnitude of 349 metric tonnes, then board member Ben Bernanke would have known of it in advance and approved it. He would know exactly who the transaction was with and why. If he didn’t then he is legally negligent in his fiduciary responsibility as a BIS board member, because of the size of the transaction and its material effect. Other board members include: Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, Axel Weber, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank and William C Dudley, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. You can’t have it both ways.

Though we can suspect many things, there is no other conclusion we can reach than the swap is part of an agreed upon plan or concurrence between these board members. So what is the possible understanding or plan?

WHO GAVE UP THE GOLD?

There are not a lot of institutions who possess 349 metric tonnes of gold. So who needs $14B worth of cash and has this amount of gold? That shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Sovereign governments have historically created their wealth by invading other countries to pillage their treasuries which held gold, silver and the crown jewels. The winning and seizure of more land allowed the sovereign to give it to the nobles who used it to tax and tithe the feudal tenets. Recurring wealth flowed upward to the sovereign treasury.

Considering today’s EU membership, where sovereign countries can no longer print their own currency (the politicians first weapon of choice), there are three channels (other than the very politically unpopular increase in taxes and fees) open in modern times to raising money for the treasury:

1. The public sale of debt offerings instruments such as Bills, Notes and Bonds
2. The more recent and stealthy approach of selling assets, including revenue streams from such things as taxes, fees, licensing etc. These are sold into the securitization market through complex derivative structures such as Interest Rate and Currency Swaps contracts. This approach, as recently discovered, has been rampant throughout Europe even prior to the creation of the EU.
3. When you exhaust all of the above, you then sell the family jewels – the sovereign treasury of gold holdings.

The BIS was very quick to respond to public speculation about the massive gold swap when they immediately clarified that the gold swap was with a commercial bank. Since by its own statements, as I mentioned above, it doesn’t accept deposits from non member banks, this seems confusing on the surface. Does it or doesn’t it accept private deposits? It would be respectful to assume that the BIS is telling the truth and that they did in fact conduct the transaction with a private bank who was transacting the swap on behalf of a central bank or sovereign treasury. This would sort of make everything work. For the BIS to be telling the truth in all their statements, the transaction must be with a member central bank with the involvement of an intermediary commercial bank. But something still isn’t right here.

When you work through the details you quickly arrive at an astounding coincidence. Portugal shows it has 348 tonnes of sovereign gold. The swap was for 346. Portugal is a member bank, though does not sit on the Board, but attends the General Meeting as an observer only. Portugal, as a member of the PIIGS, only days after the unearthing of the swap, was again downgraded by Moody’s, thereby making its lending costs even higher than the already elevated levels being demanded by the financial markets. There is a very strong possibility that the swap is with Portugal. Though who the swap is with is important to those trading debt and credit derivatives it isn’t quite as important to those interested in the gold market.

Ben Davies the CEO of Hinde Capital in London and a player in the gold market suspects (12:40) we may have a modified form of swap emerging. There is the possibility that the commercial bank is in fact a major gold bullion bank. Some of the bullion banks have major short positions on gold that far outstrip the annual physical production of gold. The disconnect between physical and paper gold along with rising gold prices is likely causing serious strains on their balance sheet. As Davies points out the gold may be transacted from a central bank to the BIS through a bullion bank while the gold physically remains with the originating central bank; is classified as ‘unallocated’ at the BIS but in fact remains on the books of the bullion bank. It effectively is double accounted for. The increase in gold would allow gold prices to be pushed lower, which in fact is what has been happening. A careful reading of the BIS financial statements shows more clearly the accounting for such a transaction.

There can be little doubt that the Gold Swap is with a central bank where the physical gold remains. The transaction is considered a deposit at the BIS (liability) but has been lent to a commercial bank (likely a bullion bank) as a loan (asset). The question is only why a bullion bank needs to borrow this quantity of gold, remembering it never gets the physical gold because it remains at the originating central bank. The reader is encouraged to read the Financial Policy notes #4,5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19 within the BIS Financial Statement for a clearer understanding along with Notes to the Financial Statements #4 and #11.


The BIS is known as the central bank to the central bankers. The BIS may equally be referred to as the Central Gold Bullion Bank to the Gold Bullion Banks.


The March 31 2010 Financial Statement of the BIS shows 43.0B SDR’s of gold or 16.6% of total assets. According to note #4 to the BIS Financial Statements: “ Included in ’Gold bars held at central banks” is SDR 8,160.1 million (346 tonnes) (2009: nil) of gold, which the Bank held in connection with gold swap operations, under which the Bank exchanges currencies for physical gold. The Bank has an obligation to return the gold at the end of the contract.” It is very important to appreciate this note is pertaining specifically to BIS ‘assets’ which in the case of banks are what the reader would consider ‘loans’. Under Financial Policy notes #5 to the Financial Statement the BIS is clear that under banking portfolios “all gold financial assets in these portfolios are designated as loans and receivables”. Separately, but very interestingly the BIS additionally states “ the remainder of the Banks equity is held in gold. The Bank’s own gold holdings are designated as available for sale”.

SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHT (SDR)

If problems get worse for Portugal, as possibly the global economic climate worsens, then the gold may never legally belong to Portugal. The contracted swap terms at some point may simply reclassify it a net zero sale, if Portugal fails to return the cash portion of the swap. The BIS would have 346 tonnes of gold and Portugal the $14B of Euros it has long since spent to solve a 2010 problem. By then Portugal likely would need even more loans in whatever currency would replace a crumpling or possibly extinct Euro.

Up until 2004 the BIS denominated its financial statements in Gold Francs. It now has made a major shift to denominating itself into Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). The calculation is exactly the same as used for the IMF. The SDR is operating as a defacto currency. It takes a little arithmetic (which is not done in the financial statements) to be able to get values in any currency that can give the reader a perspective of the scope of the activities at the BIS. The SDR reporting obscures the BIS’s significant size and scope.

FUNDING

For those who followed the European Sovereign Debt Crisis and the negotiations with Greece, you know that the IMF was an unwelcomed intruder into EU financial affairs. Greece on more than one occasion held the IMF as a negotiating ploy and as a funding alternative to the EU’s procrastination and lack of decisiveness.

The IMF’s willingness to interfere created a lot of bad feelings within the EMU and Germany specifically. As Ambrose Evans-Prichard reported: “The ECB is barely on speaking terms with the IMF – the "Inflation Maximizing Fund" as it was dubbed in a Bundesbank memo - - The IMF has not caught up to the reality in Europe said ECB über-hawk Jürgen Stark on July 9th” The final EU bailout in fact heavily involved the IMF participation. The very busy IMF is the dominant crisis lender of last resort throughout all Central & Eastern European current financial problems.

What we are seeing is the emergence of another funding structure based on the SDR - SDR’s that have a degree of gold backing. The BIS now has a total of 12.4% of its deposits (32B SDR) in the form gold deposits. Note #11 to the BIS financial statements states: “Gold deposits placed with the Bank originate entirely from Central Banks. They are all designated as financial liabilities measured as amortized cost”.

ARE WE SETTING THE PINS UP FOR AN ALTERNATIVE RESERVE CURRENCY?

Are we moving towards the BIS and IMF being fractional reserve banks that will create money & credit - a reserve currency that will satisfy Russia and China with an element of Gold backing? A bank such as the BIS could easily assume this role (if it hasn’t already) as could the IMF with possible banking charter adjustments.

The chances are high that this is the roadmap we will find ourselves taking. Like all banking that started as Gold backed you could expect that in this case the little gold backing that starts the process is quickly diminished so a limitless money machine could begin functioning. The gold backing would likely be an initial requirement by Russia and China. The partial gold backing would lend credibility to the acceptance and a possible reserve currency alternative and eventual establishment as the global reserve currency.

SHADOW BANKING REPLACEMENT

The collapse of the Shadow Banking system and its attendant SIV / CDO structures were at the root of the financial crisis. That structure which is representative of a huge amount of the credit growth since the dotcom bubble burst isn’t coming back soon, if ever. The world needs more liquidity than the central banks or sovereign treasuries can currently deliver politically. The central bankers, huddled in their bimonthly board meeting at the BIS in Basel, Switzerland, know this better than anyone. Their discussions in the very halls of the BIS must resonate with them to use all the tools available at their disposal - quickly.

Paul McCulley and Richard Clarida at Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) have written extensively about the Shadow Banking System and its growth. An extensive slide presentation on the Shadow Banking System can be found on my web site at TIPPING POINTS. I won’t go into the detail here, but suffice it to say that the shadow banking system collapse has created a massive hole in credit creation that central bankers can’t fill in the manner in which they presently appear to be approaching the problem. Of course appearances can be deceiving

The problem has now reached crisis proportions and the central bankers know they must urgently act in a coordinated manner. Deflation now has a firm hand on the global economy and this must be reversed. I have been calling for a US Quantitative Easing QE II of $5T in my writings for some time. This amount is required for the US alone. The entire global requirement is three to four times this amount.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... dmap-ahead

....of course if they want DEFLATION.....turns into a whole different ballgame.....


Exclusive: Jesse Ventura Talks with Alex Jones About Government Harassment of His TV Show
http://www.infowars.com/exclusive-jesse ... s-tv-show/
TORONTO - This in-flight movie got a father and son kicked off a plane.

Two Air Canada passengers were pulled from their Orlando-bound flight before takeoff from Toronto's Pearson Airport after another passenger spotted them watching video of the 9/11 terror attacks.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010 ... 00901.html

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Utah Data Center (UDC) Brief
http://info.publicintelligence.net/UtahDataCenter.pdf

White House Backs Bill to Collect Employee Pay Information from Businesses
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69746

UPDATE:
In response to Deflationary Wage Pressures Hit Canada; Attitudes and Wal-Mart, the 800-Pound Gorillas several Canadian readers sent me an update on the situation at Canadian grocery giant Loblaw.

CBC News reports Loblaw seeing price deflation

Brampton Ont.-based grocery giant Loblaw Companies said Thursday it's feeling the pinch from price deflation and doesn't see any signs that will ease anytime soon.

Loblaw president Allan Leighton told investors on an earnings conference call that deflation has deepened at a quickened pace in recent months, which has challenged the company's overall growth.

"In the second quarter for Loblaw Companies we deflated at a faster rate versus the first quarter, and we were deflating at a deeper rate as we exited the quarter than as we entered it," he said.

"The markets are pretty aggressive," Leighton said of the competition between supermarkets like Sobeys Inc., owned by Empire Company Ltd., and Metro Inc.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29
Dozens of ships in the Gulf of Mexico have been ordered to leave the site of the BP oil spill by the US government as Tropical Storm Bonnie gathers pace. Drilling on a relief well has been suspended for up to two weeks.

The first relief well is only 4ft from the damaged well horizontally, but more work needs to be done before it can be used for a "kill" to stop the flow permanently.

A final piece of casing needs to be cemented in place at the bottom of the relief well.

Skimming has gone from 25,000 barrels of oil a day before the cap was put on to just 56 barrels on Wednesday.

The government is to reopen one-third of the closed Gulf fishing areas, as oil has not been observed for 30 days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10729485

....The 1st relief well was 4 ft away before they started their testing....so its been that close for over a week now. Now we are done for possibly 2 weeks while the cap gets tested 10X longer than they initially stated.....

Alarms Were Disabled on Transocean's Gulf Oil Rig
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... osion.html
Dalian Oil Spill, China
Sometime last week, two pipelines in the port city of Dalian, China, exploded and burned, and a large quantity of oil was released into the Yellow Sea. One firefighter lost his life. There are some harrowing pictures of oil-covered firemen being pulled from the water. Officials report that 165 square miles of ocean was covered with oil, but the pipelines are no longer leaking and cleanup is proceeding. Aquaculture is a huge business in China - Greenpeace estimates that 10,000 shellfish farms have been affected.
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/07/dalian ... kyTruth%29

....ahh shucks....just sell'em to the Americans....they'll eat anything!!!

2011: The Year Of The Tax Increase
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... x-increase
White House Emails Show More Extensive Improper Contact With Google

Recent email communication between White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin (in photo), who is Google’s former head of Global Public Policy, and multiple outside individuals raise new questions about the official’s alleged circumvention of federal ethics and recordkeeping rules.
http://nlpc.org/cached/white-house-emai ... act-google
North Korea has promised a "physical response" to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend.

It is a new century and Asian countries are in need of peace and development, and DPRK [North Korea] is also moving to that end," said Ri Tong-il.

He said the exercises went beyond defensive training and would involve "sophisticated weapon equipment".

"It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole. And the DPRK's position is clear: there will be a physical response to the threat imposed by the United States militarily."

Washington and Seoul say the war games - involving the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, 20 other ships and submarines, 100 aircraft and 8,000 personnel - are intended to deter North Korean aggression.

China has criticised the plans and warned against any action which might "exacerbate regional tensions".

But Japan is sending four military observers, in an apparent endorsement of the drills.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is attending the forum, declined to comment directly on North Korea's comments, but said the door remained opened for it to return to talks if it committed to irreversible de-nuclearisation.

In comments earlier in the day, she accused Pyongyang of launching a "campaign of provocative, dangerous behaviour".

On Wednesday, the US announced it was to impose new sanctions on North Korea, aimed at halting nuclear proliferation and the import of luxury goods.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10736538

.....economic sanctions are another means of warfare......and we've ratcheted up the sanctions with both Iran and N.Korea in the past week!
Economists say new sanctions imposed by South Korea against North Korea are likely to worsen the country's fragile economy. The United States has also announced a new round of financial sanctions, in part to attempt to further restrict funding and proliferation of North Korea's weapons programs.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/as ... 90344.html
European Union foreign ministers are set to hit Iran with the toughest sanctions they have ever imposed on it when they meet in Brussels on Monday, diplomatic sources said.

A month ago, the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran to try and force the Islamic republic to stop enriching uranium. But the EU and United States decided that those sanctions were not enough.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... bled=false

....something has to break here pretty soon......

US War Crimes: Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=20241
Restrictions imposed on US-led forces in Afghanistan to reduce civilian casualties have also led to a decline in attacks by insurgent fighters, a new report says.

The recently fired US commander, General Stanley McChrystal, imposed the curbs last year on use of aerial bombing and other heavy weapons in a bid to lower the number of innocent people killed during operations against insurgents.

The rules also appear to have lessened the cycle of violence by reducing the number of insurgent attacks on US-led ISAF troops, according to the think tank the National Bureau of Economic Research, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0723/curbin ... ks-report/

Shadow Elite: Selling Out Uncle Sam & Outsourcing American Power
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r- ... 55392.html

The secret private-sector government
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn ... 20/mukasey

Senate backs troop funding but rejects money for domestic programs
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 5059.story
The federal government has censored approximately 90 per cent of a secret document outlining its controversial plans to snoop on Australians' web surfing, obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws, out of fear the document could cause "premature unnecessary debate".

The government has been consulting with the internet industry over the proposal, which would require ISPs to store certain internet activities of all Australians - regardless of whether they have been suspected of wrongdoing - for law-enforcement agencies to access.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... 10mxo.html

The Killing Fields of Multi-National Corporations
http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=9810

Earthquakes 2010
http://thisistheendoftheworldasweknowit ... uakes-2010







XDM porn...
http://canyoncreekcustom.com/XD_m_Photo_Gallery.php

another option -
http://www.dawsonprecision.com/ProductD ... 1261005755
ECRI Leading Indicator Breaches Critical -10 Threshold, Hits -10.5

If in addition to 85% of the economic data releases in the past month coming below expectations was not enough, the ECRI leading indicator has just came below the critical threshold of -10%, which according to Rosenberg has virtually assured recessions based on data from the past 50 or so years, hitting an annualized rate of -10.5%. And since even the index creators (and Ivy League tenured professors) are openly refuting the adverse implications of their own index (when they, and everyone were praising it when it topped out at 27.80 a year ago), one can be sure this is a rather dramatic data point.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ecri-l ... d-hits-105

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Tropical Depression Bonnie is barely clinging to life. Wind shear of 25 knots and dry air from an upper-level low pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico are taking their toll on Bonnie, which is now just a swirl of low clouds accompanied by a small clump of heavy thunderstorms on the north side of the center of circulation. These thunderstorms are now visible on New Orleans long range radar, and will arrive in coastal Louisiana early this afternoon, well ahead of the center. The Hurricane Hunters are in Bonnie, and have found a much weaker storm with top winds of just 30 mph.

Forecast for Bonnie
The current NHC forecast for Bonnie looks good, with the storm making landfall in Louisiana near 9pm CDT Saturday night. According to the latest tide information, this will be near the time of low tide. This will result in much less oil entering the Louisiana marshlands than occurred during Hurricane Alex in June. That storm brought a storm surge of 2 - 4 feet and sustained winds of 20 - 30 mph that lasted for several days, including several high tide cycles. Bonnie will be lucky to be a tropical depression at landfall, and should only create a storm surge of 1 - 2 feet that will come at low tide. This will result in a storm tide level that will inundate land to at most one foot above ground level.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1556

Red Alert: CNN Openly Posting Fake Gulf R.O.V. Footage
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/24/red-a ... v-footage/





Russian Navy Conducts Flight Training Aboard US Ship
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=54852
SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea Saturday threatened to counter with nuclear weapons the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States in the East Sea on Sunday.

"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing a statement issued by the North's powerful National Defense Commission. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/20 ... 00315.HTML
North Korea said it would counter U.S. and South Korean joint naval exercises with “nuclear deterrence” after the Obama administration said the government in Pyongyang shouldn’t take any provocative steps.

North Korea will “legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces,” the National Defense Commission said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... ogize.html

Doubts surface on North Korea's role in ship sinking
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 7085.story
Operation Freedom Costa Rica is in Full Swing

Here we are, over two weeks since the invasion of Costa Rica by the US military began, and the Internet is abuzz with hostility towards both sides. Costa Rica for permitting the US invasion and the United States for, once again, sticking their noses where it does not belong.

As I mentioned in my previous article on the subject, the USA and Costa Rica both have ulterior motives behind this decision. But what could they be and has the fog settled a little so we can see tidbits of the truth shining through?

When both countries announced that the United States would be deploying 46 warships, 200 helicopters, over a dozen harrier jet fighters and 7000 marines to Costa Rica, the world spoke out on the subject. No matter the language you speak, the math just doesn't add up to anything other than "excessive" relative to the problem. You see both countries are claiming that the US military is coming, guns cocked, to help the fight against drug traffickers.

Jet fighters for a maritime mission? 46 fully armed warships to catch speed boats carrying drugs up the coast? 7000 marines to "assist" national police and coast guard? According to the Costa Rica news, the US is here to help with the drug trafficking coming through the Caribbean and in to the Gulf of Mexico. Then why are they based on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica? And how about the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)? Is a mission like this one not more within their line of responsibility rather than militarizing an otherwise peaceful, non-military bearing country like Costa Rica?
http://newsblaze.com/story/201007150937 ... story.html
PORTSMOUTH — Crews from a local Coast Guard cutter assisted Costa Rican authorities in stopping two "go-fast" vessels that were thought to possibly be smuggling drugs in Costa Rican waters.

Coast Guard officials say both cases demonstrate the determination of the U.S. and Costa Rican Coast Guards to continue their long-standing cooperation to combat the maritime movement of narcotics.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... -1/FOSNEWS

THE CIA: BEYOND REDEMPTION AND SHOULD BE TERMINATED
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/24 ... minated-2/




A Mexican law enforcement official who worked with U.S. authorities was charged with sharing confidential information with drug traffickers and arranging the arrests of his drug boss' rivals, according to a far-reaching indictment against a gang that ferries drugs along California's border with Mexico.

Jesus Quinonez, the international liaison for the Baja California state attorney general's office, was among 43 defendants named in the federal racketeering complaint that alleges murder, kidnapping and other crimes. They are accused of working for Fernando Sanchez Arellano, who is widely considered the most-wanted drug kingpin in Tijuana, Mexico.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =128724010
MEXICO CITY—Authorities found the remains of at least 38 people in a series of pits and scattered on the ground at a suspected drug-gang dumping site near the industrial hub of Monterrey in northern Mexico, an official said Friday.
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_155870 ... ck_check=1






more...
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll ... 7775152157


One soldier in 9 exiting Army has mental disorder
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/24 ... -disorder/

User avatar
haddomr
captain of 100
Posts: 171
Location: Brigham City

Re: Blipits

Post by haddomr »

I really enjoy your Blipits, Jason...keep it coming. Thanks

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

haddomr wrote:I really enjoy your Blipits, Jason...keep it coming. Thanks
Thank you....do my best!

It will be interesting to see what (if anything) goes down in N.Korea later today (Sunday their time)....as the exercises commence later today....
Operation Invincible Spirit, which begins tomorrow, will involve 8,000 US and South Korean troops, 200 aircraft and 20 ships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... war-threat

...let's see - we have operations in Costa Rica, S.Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Persian Gulf (Iran), and National Guard troops assembling on Mexican border....plus Gulf oil spill efforts/policing.....seems to me we're stretched a little bit right now...

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how ... dium=email
The Chinese Yuan “revaluation” must be called an abject farce and failure right out of the gates, at least if measured by buying power of essential input goods and commodities needed for production of finished goods. Since the revaluation was announced, the gain in the Chinese currency is a whopping whoopdeedoo 0.7%.

Local Gumnuts in China are using the land and housing bubble as their primary source of revenue. It’s the hangover afterwards that takes the whole economy down. Will make local and state Gumnut in the US look....

North Korea warns of nuclear 'sacred war'

North Korea says it will use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend. Pyongyang was ready to launch a "retaliatory sacred war" at any time, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Washington and Seoul say the war games are to deter North Korean aggression.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10748148

S. Korea, U.S. begin joint navy drills off east coast of Korean Peninsula
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624017

U.S., South Korea Begin Large-Scale War Games
http://publicintelligence.net/u-s-south ... war-games/

US rattles sabre in the Sea of Japan
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/inde ... full/93235

Ex-CIA Chief Hayden: Military Strike on Iran Likely
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/hayden- ... ode=A58A-1

Ex-CIA chief Hayden: Military action against Iran "seems inexorable"
http://www.debka.com/article/8929/

US-Iranian combat looms in Iraq as US plans UN role for US troop remnant
http://www.debka.com/article/8920/

Iran’s military leaders try to raise their nation’s confidence in the face of a possible attack
http://america20xy.com/blog6/2010/07/26 ... le-attack/

House OK's possible Israeli raid on Iran
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=13 ... =351020101

EU plans 'toughest ever' sanctions against Iran
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -Iran.html

Leaked Documents Paint Devestating Portrait of the Failing war in Afghanistan
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/26 ... ghanistan/

US Military Withdraws ‘Pain Ray’ From Afghan War Zone
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/07/ ... Unknown%29

A quiet but intense debate is ongoing within senior circles of the governing Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Development Party: AKP) in Turkey over whether or not this is the time to proceed rapidly with the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribun ... _07_23.asp

Deployment of National Guard Troops on Mexican Border
http://www.mexidata.info/id2744.html

BREAKING: MULTIPLE RANCHES IN LAREDO, TX TAKEN OVER BY LOS ZETAS
http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article/ ... ETAS/31835
Why The Los Zetas Ranch Story Matters - Confirmation And Why A Media Blackout?

I am receiving many messages of concern that they don't believe that the story of the Los Zetas seizing multiple ranches in Laredo, Texas is true. They keep questioning the confirmation. They question why there are no visuals or pictures. "Where is the video!" they scream. So I will address those issues in this post.

First, let me clarify that I was also skeptical of the story when I initially heard word. It is certainly not because there haven't been armed intrusions into the United States before from Mexico. There have been a ton in the last decade, but there have not been any where they would hold onto a position. They usually leave after a standoff or upon discovery.

The situation has become different in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico over the last few days. There have been gun-battles through the streets and fragmentation grenades used as the government of Mexico tries to run the Los Zetas out of their stronghold there. People died and were wounded. The city was on lockdown and the US government issued warnings to US citizens in the area to remain indoors. With our lack of border security and porous borders, it is not beneath my intellect to believe that the Los Zetas could be forced into a retreat into US territory and attempt to seize a hideout.

Not only that, but "first contact" with me of the initial story was from none other than Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, who had a confirmed source in the area of Laredo. With this in mind I decided to go with the story, but to remain cautious. I clearly stated on the story that it was not 100% confirmed. It remained that way all night.

I put out my feelers throughout the night to try and collect information and other credible sources to confirm the occupation of ranches in Laredo. I did not receive actual confirmation until this morning when I got word that Kimberly Dvorak of the Examiner had made multiple confirmations within the Laredo Police Department. Up until this point the story had not spread wide. There was no reason for the Laredo Police Department to crack down hard and keep things truly blacked out as there was no heavy interest from media.

However, upon that second confirmation and her running her story "Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas" the story to me at that point was 100% confirmed. I changed my story to reflect that and released it to the world - spreading it wide. It has since gone viral.

(Since then I have learned Kim has no less than three sources inside law enforcement. Kim was also involved in the Acorn investigation with Breitbart, so she's no whipper snapper.)

Since that time many journalists have tried to get information from law enforcement in the area. With the flood of calls to the Laredo Police Department, others are now starting to receive dodgy kind of answers to their questions. This leads me to believe that there may indeed by a bona-fide news blackout as they try to resolve the situation.
http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/

.....a little reminder....

MEXICO: Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15606

....back to today's news...
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened to halt oil exports to the US if his country is attacked by Colombia – a close US ally. The threat comes amid an escalating dispute over allegations that Venezuela is harbouring Colombian rebels. Mr Chavez broke diplomatic ties with Colombia last week and put his army on high alert. Venezuela is America’s fifth biggest source of imported oil, supplying about a million barrels a day.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10757064





Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows.

http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=122
The head of the American Association of Professors has accused BP of trying to "buy" the best scientists and academics to help its defence against litigation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"This is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," said Cary Nelson.

BP faces more than 300 lawsuits so far. In a statement, BP says it has hired more than a dozen national and local scientists "with expertise in the resources of the Gulf of Mexico". The BBC has obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It says that scientists cannot publish the research they do for BP or speak about the data for at least three years, or until the government gives the final approval to the company's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf. It also states scientists may perform research for other agencies as long as it does not conflict with the work they are doing for BP. And it adds that scientists must take instructions from lawyers offering the contracts and other in-house counsel at BP.

Bob Shipp, the head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama, was one of the scientists approached by BP's lawyers. They didn't just want him, they wanted his whole department.

"They contacted me and said we would like to have your department interact to develop the best restoration plan possible after this oil spill," he said.

Russ Lea from the University of South Alabama: Some clauses in the contract "were very disturbing".

"We laid the ground rules - that any research we did, we would have to take total control of the data, transparency and the freedom to make those data available to other scientists and subject to peer review. They left and we never heard back from them."

What Mr Nelson is concerned about is BP's control over scientific research.

"Our ability to evaluate the disaster and write public policy and make decisions about it as a country can be impacted by the silence of the research scientists who are looking at conditions," he said.

"It's hugely destructive. I mean at some level, this is really BP versus the people of the United States."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10731408

Matthew Simmons: Lightning Rod for Gulf Oil Controversy
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... -gulf.html

BP's chief executive Tony Hayward has been negotiating the terms of his exit, with a formal announcement likely within 24 hours, the BBC has learned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10753573

EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/20/e ... f_covering

BP Hires Prison Labor to Clean Up Spill While Coastal Residents Struggle
http://www.thenation.com/article/37828/ ... s-struggle

Florida researchers said Friday that they had for the first time conclusively linked vast plumes of microscopic oil droplets drifting in the Gulf of Mexico to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/scien ... 3&emc=eta1






"International Counternarcotics Policies: Do They Reduce Domestic Consumption or Advance other Foreign Policy Goals?"
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Domestic Policy Subcommittee, U.S. House of Representatives
http://www.mexidata.info/id2742.html

.....other Foreign Policy Goals is right....

All in the "Family." Global Drug Trade Fueled by Capitalist Elites
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/
Senate Abandons Climate Effort, Dealing Blow to President

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoned efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the nation's power plants yesterday, marking the first major legislative setback for President Obama, who entered office vowing to address climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/07/23 ... 88864.html

.....at least until November...then all bet's are off!
Today the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's Constitutional Law Center announced they would, on behalf of Washington State taxpayers, sue Democrat Gov. Christine Gregoire because last year she issued an executive order implementing climate change measures that the Democrat-run state legislature had rejected.

“We believe Gov. Gregoire’s climate change executive order is an unconstitutional order,” said Michael Reitz, director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Constitutional Law Center, who represents the taxpayers in this case. “Gov. Gregoire violated the doctrine of separation of powers by snatching a failed bill out of the legislative process and issuing it in the form of an executive order. If the governor wants to pass laws, she’s in the wrong branch of government.”
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/21/wa ... dangerment
(NaturalNews) Farmers from two separate Brazilian associations are preparing to file suit against biotechnology giant Monsanto, in a fight over the royalty fees the company demands for its genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready soy.

The Sinop Rural Union of northern Matto Grosso stated recently that after failing to achieve any positive resolutions through meetings with Monstanto, it is preparing to take the company to court. The union objects to the company's practice of carrying out two separate royalties collections for its patented GM seeds. In part, they object simply to the high prices Monsanto demands upon purchase of its seeds.

"In January they charged R$0.45 (US$0.25) per kilo of seed, which is equivalent to 30 percent of the price of each sack," said the union's president, Antonio Galvan.

More fundamentally, however, the union objects to Monsanto's practice of carrying out a second royalties collection at the time of harvest. The company tests all seeds arriving at warehouses to determine whether they are GM or not, then charges royalties to all farmers who bring in GM seeds and have not paid already. Farmers object that this practice does not account for possible contamination at the warehouse, and penalizes farmers whose seeds have been genetically contaminated through cross-pollination with Monsanto's product.

"Cross pollination may take place if there's a field of GM soya next to a non-GM one at flowering time," Galvan said. "Contamination can also take place if the machines are not well cleaned at harvest time, and some GM beans remain. In this way, they will be considered GM when they are tested."
http://www.naturalnews.com/029244_Brasil_Monsanto.html
Earlier today the New York Times published a glowing review of how things are working out for the California city that fired every single employee. The article commends Maywood for successfully outsourcing all services to its neighbor, Bell.

This seems like a great story of privatization, until you look at the big scandal published last week by the LA Times.

Bell pays some of the highest salaries in America. Its city manager earns nearly $800,000 per year. Its police chief earns twice as much as the NYC chief of police.

Meanwhile Bell and Maywood are both poor towns, with majority latino populations.

Somehow these two city governments (definitely Bell, possibly Maywood) are gaming the system and making enormous profits.

How does that heart-warming NYT story look now?
http://www.businessinsider.com/are-thes ... nia-2010-7
The White House recently released a draft of a troubling plan titled "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace" (NSTIC). In previous iterations, the project was known as the "National Strategy for Secure Online Transactions" and emphasized, reasonably, the private sector's development of technologies to secure sensitive online transactions. But the recent shift to "Trusted Identities in Cyberspace" reflects a radical — and concerning — expansion of the project’s scope.

The draft NSTIC now calls for pervasive, authenticated digital IDs and makes scant mention of the unprecedented threat such a scheme would pose to privacy and free speech online. And while the draft NSTIC "does not advocate for the establishment of a national identification card" (p. 6), it’s far from clear that it won’t take us dangerously far down that road. Because the draft NSTIC is vague about many basic points, the White House must proceed with caution and avoid rushing past the risks that lay ahead. Here are some of our concerns.
Is authentication really the answer?

Probably the biggest conceptual problem is that the draft NSTIC seems to place unquestioning faith in authentication — a system of proving one's identity — as an approach to solving Internet security problems. Even leaving aside the civil liberties risks of pervasive online authentication, computer security experts question this emphasis. As prominent researcher Steven Bellovin notes:

The biggest problem [for Internet security] was and is buggy code. All the authentication in the world won't stop a bad guy who goes around the authentication system, either by finding bugs exploitable before authentication is performed, finding bugs in the authentication system itself, or by hijacking your system and abusing the authenticated connection set up by the legitimate user. All of these attacks have been known for years.

A Real ID Society?

The draft NSTIC says that, instead of a national ID card, it "seeks to establish an ecosystem of interoperable identity service providers and relying parties where individuals have the choice of different credentials or a single credential for different types of online transactions," which can be obtained "from either public or private sector identity providers." (p. 6) In other words, the governments want a lot of different companies or organizations to be able to do the task of confirming that a person on the Internet is who he or she claims to be.

Decentralized or federated ID management systems are possible, but like all ID systems, they definitely pose significant privacy issues. 1 There’s little discussion of these issues, and in particular, there’s no attention to how multiple ID's might be linked together under a single umbrella credential. A National Academies study, Who Goes There?: Authentication Through the Lens of Privacy, warned that multiple, separate, unlinkable credentials are better for both security and privacy (pp. 125-132). Yet the draft NSTIC doesn’t discuss in any depth how to prevent or minimize linkage of our online IDs, which would seem much easier online than offline, and fails to discuss or refer to academic work on unlinkable credentials (such as that of Stefan Brands, or Jan Camenisch and Anna Lysyanskaya).

Providing a uniform online ID system could pressure providers to require more ID than necessary. The video game company Blizzard, for example, recently indicated it would implement a verified ID requirement for its forums before walking back the proposal only after widespread, outspoken criticism from users.

Pervasive online ID could likewise encourage lawmakers to enact access restrictions for online services, from paying taxes to using libraries and beyond. Website operators have argued persuasively that they cannot be expected to tell exactly who is visiting their sites, but that could change with a new online ID mechanism. Massachusetts recently adopted an overly broad online obscenity law; it takes little imagination to believe states would require NSTIC implementation individuals to be able to access content somehow deemed to be "objectionable."
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/re ... ntity-plan
FREDERICK, Md. (WUSA) -- Is Fort Detrick responsible for environmental pollution that is causing cancer among its neighbors?

That's the question one family wants answered as it convenes what it is calling a town meeting this weekend, soliciting the stories of former neighbors who may have cancer.

"With my own personal experience living right beside Ft. Detrick, I've had a sister that passed away and then I have a mom that's battling cancer and I believe that toxins were put into our ground, our water, our air," said Angie Pieper, who has recently fought ovarian tumors.
http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article. ... yid=103519

Explosions rock Russian power plant, two killed by gunmen
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=623980

Starving to death in Ohio
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 0#38363219
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 0tX8UysIaM

Treasury Auction for the Week of July 26, 2010
http://treasuryauctionwatch.blogspot.co ... ly-26.html

As The U.S. Economy Implodes, Should We Ditch Our Debt Or Is Paying Off Our Debts The Morally Right Thing To Do?
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... hing-to-do

Obama Doesn’t Want America’s Recovery
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25770

New Home Sales: Worst June on Record
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Broken financial generations – U.S. households only have a median of $2,000 saved in retirement accounts. The median net worth for those 25 to 34 is $3,700. Which generation will support the economy going forward? Social Security beneficiaries make up 19 percent of all Americans.
http://www.mybudget360.com/retirement-s ... get+360%29
Money Supply Divergence - TMS1 vs. TMS2 vs. M2 - What does it Mean?

Inquiring minds are once again digging deep into money supply questions. They are intrigued by the fact that money supply measures M2 and TMS1 are plunging towards zero, while TMS2 is still sporting a hefty 10+% year-over-year growth.

TMS stands for "True Money Supply". The suffix (1 or 2) stands for alternate measures, one including savings accounts and the other not. M2 is a widely used Fed aggregate for money.

This looks technical (and it is), but please bear with me. I can and will explain in easy to understand terms exactly what is happening and why, along with what it all means.

The above chart courtesy of Michael Pollaro - Austrian Money Supply. Annotations and arrows on chart by me.

The idea behind TMS1 and TMS2 is to sort credit transactions from actual money available on demand.

For all practical purposes, TMS1 consists of currency in circulation + checking accounts, + sweeps of checking accounts. There is no dispute by anyone that the components of TMS1 represent money on demand.

Think of it this way: Cash in your pocket and cash in your checking account are there whenever you want, on demand. Indeed, the banking industry refers to checking accounts as "DDA" accounts, Demand Deposit Accounts.

Others want to include savings accounts, time deposits (CDs), and money market accounts in money supply measures.

(1) To clarify any confusion for those readers familiar with Frank Shostak’s AMS metric, note that (a) as is the case with AMS, TMS1 excludes savings deposits but adds back bank deposit sweep programs, and (b) in contrast to AMS, TMS1 does not include the SFP account.

(2) Time and Savings Deposits due Foreign Accounts and US Government Time and Savings Deposits at Banks have been excluded from TMS2 owing to fact that Savings
Deposits are not separately reported by the Federal Reserve Board and, given the fact that Time Deposits are not money, it was deemed the more conservative formulation

(3) Sweeps of Transaction Deposits into MMDAs are included in TMS2 by virtue of fact that those deposits are included; i.e., a component part of the Savings Deposits, including MMDAs FRB aggregate

Comparison Analysis

M2 includes savings accounts + small time deposits (CDs) + money market accounts.

TMS2 includes TMS1 + savings accounts but not money market accounts or small time deposits.

With the exception of sweeps, the rest of the components have little effect.

The main dispute between the TMS1 and TMS2 camps is in regards to what to do with savings accounts. Proponents of TMS2 claim savings accounts represent money available on demand, while proponents of TMS1 take the tact that savings accounts are "credit transactions" and should not be included in strict monetary aggregates.

I have sided with TMS1 along with Austrian economist Frank Shostak on this point.

We will return to the debate later but first let's first explore why M2 and TMS1 are dropping rapidly while TMS2 is not.

Part of the discrepancy can be explained by close analysis of Small Time Deposits and Savings Deposits.

Small time deposits are Certificates of Deposit - CDs under $100,000. For comparison purposes, "Large Time Deposits" include "Jumbo CDs", amounts above $100,000.

Total Savings Deposits at all Depository Institutions

The chart shows Savings Deposits have been rising rapidly since the mid-1990's.

One reason is Sweep Account Programs.

Since January 1994, hundreds of banks and other depository financial institutions have implemented automated computer programs that reduce their required reserves by analyzing customers' use of checkable deposits (demand deposits, ATS, NOW, and other checkable deposits) and "sweeping" such deposits into savings deposits (specifically, MMDA, or money market deposit accounts). Under the Federal Reserve's Regulation D, MMDA accounts are personal saving deposits and, hence, have a zero statutory reserve requirement.

Retail sweep programs have substantially distorted the growth of M1, total reserves and the monetary base, as Chairman Greenspan noted in his July 1995 Humphrey-Hawkins Act testimony to the Congress. ..... The initiation of a sweep program of any importance sharply decreases a depository's reported checkable deposits and increases its reported savings deposits.

In simple English: Savings accounts have no reserves while checking accounts do. Greenspan allowed banks to sweep money from checking accounts into savings accounts (unbeknown to customers) so that banks could lend out more of those deposits.

Because of sweeps, reported M1 figures have been grossly distorted since 1995. Since M2 and TMS2 include savings accounts, neither has been affected by sweeps.

TMS1 corrects the M1 problem by adding back in sweeps.
....
Money Multiplier Theory Is Wrong

Most proponents of TMS2 (and in fact most people in general) adhere to a falsehood that sideline cash and excess reserves are ready to come flooding into the market at any time causing prices to rise.

In regards to excess reserves, the reality as Steve Keen and I have pointed out is "lending comes first and bank reserves come second". Please see Fictional Reserve Lending And The Myth Of Excess Reserves and also Fiat World Mathematical Model for a complete discussion.

Putting it All Together

The widely touted discrepancy between TMS1 and TMS2 consists of three things:

1. A meaningless shift from one credit transaction bucket to another (from CDs to Savings Accounts)
2. An increase in liquidity preference
3. An increase in the savings rate that has turned up in savings accounts as opposed to checking accounts.

Those are deflationary, not inflationary phenomena.

By attempting to split hairs as to what is considered a credit transaction, TMS2 introduces a huge distortion that takes a great deal of analysis to properly sort out.

Unsurprisingly, most TMS2 proponents have drawn invalid conclusions as to what the discrepancy between TMS1 and TMS2 actually means. Careful analysis shows the spread between TMS1 and TMS2 represents deflationary phenomena, the very opposite of what most TMS2 proponents suggest!

By the way, things are so distorted by the Fed because of sweeps and because of fractional reserve lending that checking account deposits that are supposed to be available on demand really aren't. For proof, think of what would happen if everyone were to attempt to pull all their checking account deposits at once.

Indeed, things are so screwed up that it is easy to make a case that percentagewise, very little is truly available on demand. Nonetheless, all we can do is pick the best measure of money available. From a theoretical and practical standpoint, that measure is TMS1.

Addendum:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

After Expectations A Modest Improvement, Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index Crashes To -21, From -4 Prior, Exp. Of -2.5
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/after- ... to+zero%29

Applying A Basel III Tier 1 Stress Test Threshold Implies E2.6 Trillion Of Assets In 39 Banks Impaired By Equity Undercapitalization
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/applyi ... ks-impaire

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-r ... 1907.story

CNN Host Calls for Crackdown on 'Bloggers' in Wake of Sherrod Incident: 'Something’s Going to Have to be Done Legally'
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31512

GLOBE MAGAZINE: OBAMA BORN IN AFRICA! WHY HIS PRESIDENCY IS ILLEGAL
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/07/ ... Unknown%29

A lawsuit against Augusta State University in Georgia alleges school officials essentially gave a graduate student in counseling the choice of giving up her Christian beliefs or being expelled from the graduate program.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=182441
Following the apparent death of cap and trade, a White House aide says that President Barack Obama will veto any bill limiting the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. That means that for now, the response to climate change will be located in the executive branch, where 60 votes aren't needed to act, but where action comes in the form of blunt regulations rather than a price on carbon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01544.html

Dumbing-Down Society Part 3: How to Reverse its Effects
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=4210




Car, Driver Tumble into Giant Sinkhole Amid Rainstorm
http://www.nbc26.com/Global/story.asp?S=12859028

Dengue Fever Showing Up In Central Florida
http://www.wesh.com/health/24343521/detail.html

'Indescribable, crazy pain': Surviving dengue fever
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/22/dengue.fever/

Magnitude 6.0 - TONGA
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10zdae.php
Four powerful earthquakes struck the Philippines' Moro Gulf early on Saturday just over an hour, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Three of the earthquakes measured between 7.3 and 7.6 points on the Richter scale, and the other one registered 5.4 points. There have been no reports on damage of victims. No tsunami warning was immediately issued following the tremor.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100724/159931610.html
MONTICELLO, Iowa — Flooding from the Maquoketa River after an eastern Iowa dam failed has damaged dozens of homes and businesses, causing millions of dollars in damage in Monticello, a city official said Sunday.

The Lake Delhi dam failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in it. Areas below the dam, including in Hopkinton and Monticello were evacuated.

The river crested upstream of the dam at Manchester early Saturday afternoon at 24.53 feet — more than 10 feet above flood stage and well above its 2004 record of 21.66 feet — before it began to slowly recede.

Monticello Public Works Director Dana Edwards said about 50 homes and 20 businesses had major flood damage and the city's sewer plant had been flooded and shut down about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Most of the city's 3,700 residents could flush their toilets, but the waste was pouring into the river. Still, environmental damage shouldn't be great because the waste was being diluted by the flood water, Edwards said.

The city's drinking water system was working, "but we are asking people to use as little water as possible," Edwards said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38395404/ns/weather/

Typhoon Brings China More Flood Devastation
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=623987
Russia's Heat Wave Wilts Crops, Nation

Russia's worst drought in 130 years became a political issue Friday as the Kremlin held an emergency meeting to combat the impacts of a month long heat wave that is shriveling crops, forcing up food prices, and causing hundreds of drownings as Russians jump into rivers to escape heat funneled up from North Africa.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/eu ... 25084.html





...Just want to emphasize the food issue. Russia is harvesting crops at night (whatever is left) to avoid starting fires in the fields (how dry everything is) and is facing massive food shortages. Meanwhile China is experiencing massive flooding that is wiping out their crops. Here's a ranking on world wheat production...

http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/educ ... wheat.html

...its a little dated as Pakistan was #4 or #5 last year with 24 million tons....but they aren't doing so hot this year as noted below (not get distracted from main point)....but China is #1 and Russia is in the top 5....and they are looking awful right now (get your food storage!!!)....
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan wheat production may drop 6.3 percent next year from a record crop a year earlier because of insufficient moisture, a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Farmers will harvest 22.5 million metric tons in the year that starts next month, down from last year’s 24 million tons, because of reduced rainfall and a lack of available irrigation water, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released today on its website.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... nfall.html
Agricultural prospects in Pakistan – one of the world's biggest wheat producer - are being undermined by the silting of its national irrigation network, which has cut water availability to "a fraction" of historic levels.

While demand for water has risen by more than 50% since the irrigation system was built in the 1970s, the network's capacity has shrunk by about a third thanks to silt deposits, the US Department of Agriculture's Islamabad office said.

"This has left per capita water availability at a fraction of its earlier levels," a report from the bureau said.

"As a result, chronic shortfalls in water available for irrigation are expected to impose an increasingly larger constraint on Pakistan's agricultural prospects."

Much of Pakistan's irrigation water, based around two large reservoirs, comes from snow and glacier melts, sources noted for bringing down rock particles.

Shrinking wheat crop
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/pakistan- ... -1666.html
Last edited by Anonymous on July 26th, 2010, 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Original_Intent
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 13008

Re: Blipits

Post by Original_Intent »

Farmer's need to start suing Monsanto for contaminating THEIR crops with UNWANTED Genetically Modified DNA. Monsanto needs to burn. There are few companies in the world that I loathe more. And that goes for the owners, their lawyers, and their partners in crime in the government.

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Original_Intent wrote:Farmer's need to start suing Monsanto for contaminating THEIR crops with UNWANTED Genetically Modified DNA. Monsanto needs to burn. There are few companies in the world that I loathe more. And that goes for the owners, their lawyers, and their partners in crime in the government.
Agreed.....the whole massive ball of crud (pharma, 4th branch of government, central banks, etc etc etc etc etc)!

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Last minute ejection out of F/A-18 ($26 million up in smoke)-
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video ... lnews.html



Israel Wants Missile Shield Money, JSF Tech To Not Oppose Saudi F-15 Sale
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/27/israe ... f-15-sale/

Ahmadinejad: US Expansion Of War In Middle East Imminent
http://www.infowars.com/ahmadinejad-us- ... -imminent/

Iran Will Retaliate if UN Inspections Go Forward
http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=9853

(Reuters) - Iran will react swiftly if its commercial shipping or aviation are subjected to inspection, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... gle+Reader
New sanctions against Iran targeting its foreign trade, financial services, and energy and gas sectors will come into force on July 27 after the EU adopts them, a diplomatic source close to the Council of the EU said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100726/159949556.html

Iran officials: U.S., Israel wouldn't dare attempt a military strike
http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... bled=false

Iran DM: Attack by Israel will lead to its end
http://www1.albawaba.com/en/main-headli ... ad-its-end

Mossad chief reportedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks on Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/ne ... bled=false

'If Hizbullah strikes, we hit Lebanon'
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=182633

Hizballah raises Mideast tension to sabotage four Arab rulers' Beirut visit Friday
http://www.debka.com/article/8930/

Israel warns of N. Korea missile proliferation in Mideast
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 66,00.html

Ahmadinejad: US and Israel plot wars within three months
http://www.debka.com/article/8932/

Ex-CIA chief Hayden: Military action against Iran "seems inexorable"
http://www.debka.com/article/8929/
Iran's Air Force will stage massive week-long drills to start Saturday, a national news agency quoted a senior commander as saying on Tuesday.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100727/159972165.html



Some new rings of power as the Gulf enters a third age
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll ... columnists
BAGHDAD – The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_iraq

Drone strikes on Pakistan hit 100

A deadly wave of American drone strikes in Pakistan's border region has taken the total number launched during Barack Obama's presidency to more than 100, representing a significant surge in attacks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... t-100.html


Insurgents Using .50 cal Sniper Rifle
http://kitup.military.com/2010/07/insur ... rifle.html

Pentagon Report Shows Huge Jump in IED Attacks in Afghanistan
http://defensetech.org/2010/07/26/penta ... d-attacks/

Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010: Over 91,000 Secret Reports Released
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624022

Afghanistan says it's 'shocked' by leaked U.S. documents
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/26/ ... tml?hpt=C1
(CNN) -- Journalists and other observers around the world spent Monday poring over a vast cache of documents a whistleblower website says are U.S. reports that exhaustively chronicle the twists, turns and horror of the 9-year-old war in Afghanistan.

The whistleblower website WikiLeaks.org published more than 75,000 of the reports on Sunday. The documents date from between 2004 and January 2010, and are divided into more than 100 categories. Tens of thousands of pages of reports document attacks on U.S. troops and their responses, relations between Americans in the field and their Afghan allies, intramural squabbles among Afghan civilians and security forces, and concerns about neighboring Pakistan's ties to the Taliban.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/26/ ... tml?hpt=T1
WikiLeaks documents released Sunday shine a spotlight on Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, a spy agency that has been accused for years of having links to terrorist groups. Pakistan has always vigorously denied such claims, and a former ISI chief named in the leaked military documents continued to do so Monday.

Below are a few instances in which U.S. government documents highlight the alleged role of the ISI in Afghanistan, culled from reports of news organizations that have examined the thousands of military documents over the past several weeks.
http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2010/07/2 ... n-the-isi/

....ISI had some interesting connections with 9/11. For more background on the ISI, Al Qaeda, CIA, etc...Google - The Safari Club that was established by George HW Bush and the Saudis....

US’s Burma Policy Seems to be Floundering- The Irrawaddy
http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=3534

Burma is working on nuclear weapons programme, experts claim
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... claim.html
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened to halt oil exports to the US if his country is attacked by Colombia - a close US ally. The threat comes amid an escalating dispute over allegations that Venezuela is harbouring Colombian rebels. Mr Chavez broke diplomatic ties with Colombia last week and put his army on high alert. Venezuela is America's fifth biggest source of imported oil, supplying about a million barrels a day. Mr Chavez said he had received intelligence that "the possibility of armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombia was higher than it had ever been".

"If there was any attack on Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the US, even if we have to eat stones," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10757064

War Threats directed against Venezuela: Bolivia Calls for South American Summit
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20295

Venezuela: documents show millions of U.S. Dollars in funding to Venezuelan media and journalists
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=623971

Mexico prison 'let inmates out to kill'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... nmates-out

Battles paralyze Mexican city across from Texas
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 19834.html





Russia demands total technology transfer for warship deal
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295115

Moscow enclosed in smoke
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624029

Explosions rock Russian power plant, two killed by gunmen
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=623980
The global wheat crop is encountering problems of biblical proportions, driving wheat prices to 13-month highs on Thursday morning.

Russia and its neighbors, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, provide nearly 30 percent of the wheat to the global market, but are currently experiencing the worst drought in 130 years. Hot temperatures and severe drought are causing production estimates across the Former Soviet Union and Western Europe to be slashed, threatening to reduce wheat exports drastically.

At the same time, Canada (11 percent of global wheat exports) is suffering from too much rain, which is delaying this year's production. Even the Australians (12 percent) haven't been able to meet production estimates, as their crop is being threatened by locusts and a dry winter.

As a result of these bullish calamities around the world, wheat prices jumped $1.67 per bushel (38 percent) over the last six weeks, reaching a high of $6.10 per bushel in Chicago on Thursday morning. The recent price appreciation is a welcome sign for American farmers, as our domestic harvest is encountering few problems, allowing U.S. producers to sell their large crop at an elevated price on the global market.
http://www.nwitimes.com/business/column ... 79827.html

....Get your Food Storage!!! The article didn't mention anything about China who is the #1 wheat producer in the world. I'll add some highlights on China below....
Severe floods sweep through China

Since the start of the flood season in April, more than 230 rivers have seen water levels pass the danger mark. Heavy rains had increased the volume of the Yangtze's mainstream and tributaries, especially the upper Jialing and Mintuo rivers.

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River had recently acted as a buffer to a potentially destructive flood, blocking more than 40% of the floodwater.

The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest hydroelectric power station, in Hubei Province on the Yangtze River. The flood-control capability of the Three Gorges Dam faces great challenges, as current floodwater levels may exceed historical highs.


Floods had hit 27 provinces and municipalities, including Chongqing, Hubei, Jiangxi and Sichuan Provinces, affecting 110 million people and forcing the evacuation of 8.06 million people since the beginning of this year. The economic losses related to the weather are 142.2 billion yuan ($21 billion), according to a press conference held by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on July 21.

Torrential rains and floods, the worst in a decade, have claimed the lives of 701 people and left 347 missing in China this year, according to figures from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/ ... FDD57B9C62
Bold and Underline mine
(Reuters) - Almost a quarter of China's surface water remains so polluted that it is unfit even for industrial use, while less than half of total supplies are drinkable, data from the environment watchdog showed on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66P39H20100726












Mud, dead fish replace lake after Iowa dam break
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_missing_iowa_lake
WASHINGTON - The lights are back on for 280,000 Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric customers, but another roughly 140,000 still remain without electricity after Sunday's powerful storms.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2008840

At Least 2 Earthquakes Rattle San Diego Area
http://www.10news.com/news/24387816/detail.html
It's not your imagination. More earthquakes than usual have struck so far in 2010 – at least this early in the year. Because these events have clustered together in the first seven months, it has magnified the data. Whether this increased trend maintains throughout the year is the big question.

Something unique occurred July 23rd, just three days ago. Three massive earthquakes – 7.3, 7.6 and 7.4 – struck the Philippines in rapid succession, like seismic gunfire. Numerous other quakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 6.5 then hit the same area.

The good news – which is probably why this hasn't been reported on at length – is that these quakes occurred deeply and just off-shore. Had they erupted near the surface instead of 380 miles deep, we could have seen large tsunamis – especially with three events ripping so closely together. All struck within 67 short minutes.
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/10_Earth_Chang ... -2010.html

Oil spewing from well near Louisiana marsh.....20-foot-high plume seen; tug boat hit well before dawn, officials say
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38429966/ns ... nvironment

Leaking pipeline spills 840,000 gallons of oil into Michigan river
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/07/27/mi ... 6ZUBkLENHy



Experts: Health Hazards in Gulf Warrant Evacuations
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=38

Toxic Black Rain Falling In The Gulf
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Toxic- ... 6-155.html

EPA Whistle Blower: People Working Near Spill Are “Hemorrhaging Internally”
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/e ... y_07242010

Scientists Confirm Subsea Oil Plumes Are Definitively BP’s Oil
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/sci ... ly-bps-oil

Growing Health Crisis in the Gulf
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624032

Congressman: BP made Gulf “a toxic bowl” that will “haunt this region” for years, “All of that oil is still under the surface” (VIDEO)
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/congr ... face-video
Fishery experts say the more than 1.8 million gallons of dispersants applied since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 could cause widespread harm to many species that swim in and out of the area.

Large migratory fish such as tarpon and Atlantic bluefin tuna travel hundreds or thousands of miles to spawn in waters now infused with crude oil. And many sea animals are most sensitive to toxicity when they first feed, shortly after birth.

"In the tarpon's case, where it's headed is ground zero of the spill," said Jerald Ault, a marine biologist at the University of Miami. "They'll spend anywhere from three to four months up in that area and then they reverse field and migrate out seasonally."

The dispersants break oil into smaller droplets, which sea creatures more easily absorb. "These crabs are likely being impacted as we speak by the dispersant-released oil," said Richard Condrey, an oceanographer and fisheries management professor at Louisiana State University.

Officials have reopened a 26,388-square-mile tract near the Deepwater Horizon site to fishing, after testing indicated oil concentrations were low enough that seafood there would be safe to eat. But large migratory fish live by their own maps - and could die by them, as they flit through suspended oil or eat affected organisms.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state ... e=rss_news
Bold and Underline mine

BP’s Toxic Release in Texas City Under Investigation
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/bps ... estigation

BP blunderer's golden goodbye: Hayward exits with £10m pension pot as he's replaced by an American
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... n-pot.html



The Regime's War on Food
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31526

Aspartame, Brain Cancer & the FDA Approval Process
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=115

7 Secret Ways We Are Being Poisoned
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/07/7-s ... soned.html
With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.

Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la ... full.story

Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water
http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainw ... water.html
NORAD plans Washington exercise

The North American Aerospace Defense Command will conduct early morning exercises over the Washington area.

The exercises will take place between midnight and 2 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Civil Air Patrol aircraft and Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopters will take part in the exercise.

These exercise flights have been conducted throughout the U.S. and Canada since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the command's response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gri ... ercis.html

NORAD Exercise a Year Before 9/11 Simulated a Pilot Trying to Crash a Plane into a New York Skyscraper--The UN Headquarters
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-07-27/n ... adquarters



Cities View Homesteads as a Source of Income
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/us/26 ... ml?_r=3&hp

States Hooked on Gambling for Revenue
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/nyregion/26towns.html

Federal Government Working to Remove Sovereignty of States
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/07/fed ... emove.html

Federal budget deficit to exceed $1.4 trillion in 2010 and 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... =rss_print

NSA: New 1.8 Million Square Foot Building at Fort Meade
http://cryptogon.com/?p=16648
H.R. 5741: Universal National Service Act

To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-5741

FTR #716 Interview (#6) with Russ Baker, Author of “Family of Secrets”
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... cord%27%29

Army tries to stop filming of Jesse Ventura show "Conspiracy Theories"
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... ntura.html

Goldman reveals where bailout cash went
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie ... cash_N.htm

From the White House to the Big House: 25 Impeachable Crimes and Counting
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :10:03:24Z

European police to spy on Britons: Now ministers hand over Big Brother powers to foreign officers
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... olice.html

NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/79087 ... vices.html

California whooping cough outbreak largest in decades
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/201 ... titialskip


LBMA Closes Off Public Access To Key Bullion Bank Trading Data

Is something (abnormally) fishy in the state of precious metals manipulation? GATA's Adrian Douglas (recently famous for facilitating the emergence of whistleblower Andrew Maguire) seems to think so, after his observation that the LBMA has decided to block "access to statistics relating to the trading activities of its member bullion banks. This information has been available to the public since 1997 but as of this week it is available only to LBMA members." His conclusion: "There is a cover-up of back-door injections of liquidity of physical gold, and the LBMA now is trying to conceal trading information. I interpret the LBMA's move to secrecy as a sign that the opportunity to get real metal is closing fast." Read on for his argument...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/lbma-c ... ading-data

43% of unemployed long-term
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/term ... loyed.html
Local Governments To Cut 500,000 People In 2010 And 2011, As $400 Billion Budget Shortfall Brings State Economies To A Halt

"Local Governments Cutting Jobs and Services: Job losses projected to approach 500,000", showed local governments moved to cut the equivalent of 8.6 percent of their workforces from 2009 to 2011. As a result of local government cutbacks, almost 500,000 people will lose their jobs, and the total will likely rise. The summary of the report attached below, is particularly grim: "Over the next two years, local tax bases will likely suffer from depressed property values, hard-hit household incomes and declining consumer spending. Further, reported state budget shortfalls for 2010 to 2012 exceeding $400 billion will pose a significant threat to funding for local government programs. In this current climate of fiscal distress, local governments are forced to eliminate both jobs and services." If Americans are dissatisfied with Obama's handling of the economy now, just (wait) until 2012.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/local- ... ngs-state-

Q2 2010: Homeownership Rate Lowest Since 1999
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

30 Year Fixed Mortgage Yield Plumbs Fresh All Time Lows
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/30-yea ... -time-lows

Economists ‘Don’t Understand Deflation’
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/07/26/e ... italist%29



The End Of The U.S. Economy As We Know It?
http://thefinalhour.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ow-it.html
Collapse in Living Standards in America

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.
http://www.mediafreedominternational.or ... ndation%29
The talk of recovery pervades insider thinking. The major media worldwide plays the same refrain. This is a desperate attempt to befuddle the public with misdirected propaganda to preserve confidence in a system that is in a state of collapse. As CNBC leads the charge, loss of faith in the system grows with each passing day.
http://theinternationalforecaster.com/I ... ter.com%29
To summarize what has just happened in more colorful terms, our Congress Critters, in their utterly profound wisdom (corruption), under the guise of financial reform (the creation of a financial monopoly), have set the Fed up at the top of the financial food chain, like a great white shark looking over a large school of tasty fish (other banks, and also many other financial institutions like investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, pension funds, brokerage firms, commodity firms, etc., aka "non-bank financial companies," aka the competition). The proposed Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), which is little more than a bunch of Illuminist marionettes like our Congress, will make all the new rules and regulations for the Fed to lord it over all the other financial institutions in our economy. In reality, the Fed will write all the rules and hand them to the FSOC for rubber-stamping.

Then we have the proposed Office of Financial Research, which will be set up as the new financial Gestapo, gathering information about all the problems being experienced by banks and non-bank financial companies alike so that this information can be used against them in order to eliminate them from competition, to liquidate them among the larger institutions for pennies on the dollar, and to provide juicy tidbits of insider trading information for the fun and profitability of Fed cronies. Picture pieces of meat being fed to a school of hungry piranhas if you would like an appropriate metaphor.

Did you ever wonder why the Fed keeps doling out loans to their crony legacy banks that are parked at favorable rates of interest with the Fed instead of being loaned out into the general economy to help fuel the recovery, so-called. Is it to shore up the financial reports of the zombie banks? Nothing could shore up their financial reports except blatant lies about their assets by using mark-to-model fantasy values instead of mark-to-model reality values. This is just the token excuse given for this free ride gift from the Fed to the Illuminist legacy banks. The real reasons for this storehouse of sterilized money are quite different, and are multi-faceted.

First, this is one of the chief methods that the Illuminists are using to impoverish pensioners and savers while enriching the Illuminist banks at taxpayer expense by giving them a spread (return on the money they borrow from the Fed, at near zero interest, and then park with the Fed, at 3%, no-risk interest), thereby keeping their zero interest loan money out of the general economy, which they intend to destroy to pave the way for a one-world government, while simultaneously keeping inflation in check because the money is not circulating in the general economy via loans (the money is thereby said to be "sterilized").
http://theinternationalforecaster.com/I ... ter.com%29



Survival Retreat Safe Distance From City
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/retreat-l ... valBlog%29

Prepping on Pennies: #5 Learn one new skill this month
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/07/27/pr ... his-month/


Study: Few Americans Say Faith is Top Priority

Although the United States is known worldwide to be a religious nation, few Americans say that faith is a top priority in their life.

Nearly 90 percent of Americans, according to the CIA World Factbook, identify themselves with a religion. But only 12 percent of American adults say faith is a top priority in their life, according to a new study released Monday by the Barna Group.

About three-quarters of the U.S. population is Christian.

“The gap is vast between self-described affiliation with Christianity and ascribing highest priority to that faith,” commented David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, in a statement. “When it comes to why so much of American religion seems merely skin-deep, this gap between what people call themselves and what they prioritize is perhaps most telling.”
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20 ... index.html



User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Mitsui Says Oil Tanker Possibly Attacked Near Hormuz
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... -iran.html
MUSCAT/TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese oil tanker damaged in an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping lanes, was being diverted to a port in the UAE on Wednesday.

One of the 31 crew aboard was injured but no oil leaked from the M Star very large crude carrier (VLCC), according to the Japanese transport ministry.

It said an explosion occurred onboard at around 00:30 a.m. local time (2030 GMT Tuesday), but the cause was unclear.

"A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (ship owner Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack," Japan's ministry said in a statement.

Oman's coastguard said there was no evidence of any attack on the tanker and instead cited an earthquake.

"The boat was hit by a tremor ...we have no information of an attack," an Omani coastguard official told Reuters.

The Strait of Hormuz remained open and it was "business as usual," an official from the Omani ministry of transport said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100728/wl_ ... xplosion_1

Magnitude 4.8 SOUTHERN IRAN
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_zcbf_l.html

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?cid=27180

Oil tanker damaged by freak wave, not 'terrorist attack'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38443382/ns ... stn_africa

....what the tanker looks like...




Climate Weapons: More Than Just a Conspiracy Theory?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20317

Durable Goods Are Latest Economic Disappointment: June -1.0% Reading Is Largest Decline Since August 2009 (And Misses Consensus Of Course)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/durabl ... ugust-2009

A New Spin on Bank Fraud: Banks Defrauding Their Invesors, Auditors and Regulators, Which Also Helps Delinquent Mortgagees
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new-sp ... also-helps

A Decade of Declining Home Prices Ahead
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20316

Active volcanoes 21 July-27 July 2010
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ ... 0721#ebeko

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - 68,000 Square Miles of Direct Impact
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/07/bp-gul ... kyTruth%29
CHEYENNE—The crude oil unit of the Frontier Refinery caught fire early Wednesday morning, causing an explosion that rattled neighborhood windows and sent large plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional ... 03286.html
A pipeline carrying oil from the US state of Indiana to Ontario, Canada has spilled more than 800,000 gallons (3m litres) of oil into a creek which flows into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

A spokesman for the firm running the pipeline, Enbridge Energy Partners, said a malfunction had caused the leak.

The spill has killed fish and endangered wildlife in the region.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10783541

Up to 1 million gallons of oil spills into Kalamazoo River
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.a ... 1&catid=14

Oil-containment booms deployed in Morrow Lake to stop spill in Kalamazoo River
http://connect.mlive.com/user/kjessup/index.html
A barge slammed into an abandoned well in a coastal inlet early Tuesday, sending a shower of water, natural gas and oil spewing about 100 feet into the air.

Emergency officials said about 6,000 feet of containment boom was in place around the site in a lake just north of Barataria Bay, which has already been fouled by oil from the massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

While there was no estimate of how much oil was spewing Tuesday, officials said the mile-long slick it created was small compared with the Gulf spill.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =128800583
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/rev/16/3-4#3


Judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66R4KZ20100728

SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010 ... isclosure/
Beyond those gradual consequences, a growing level of federal debt would also increase the probability of a sudden fiscal crisis, during which investors would lose confidence in the government’s ability to manage its budget, and the government would thereby lose its ability to borrow at affordable rates.
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11659

Mexican Officials to Patrol Staten Island Following Latest Bias Attack
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-be ... 25314.html
“The U.S. economy has ceased generating any net new jobs in international traded sectors, in either manufacturing or services. The comforting myth persists that America is shifting from low-tech to high-tech employment, but we are not.”

“The vaunted New Economy has not contributed a single net new job to America in this century. Not one.” Worse yet, Fletcher, notes that, “Ninety-three percent of American economists surveyed support free trade.”

Cheaper goods, produced overseas, filling the shelves of Wal-Mart, are of little value if American workers cannot afford them. Our present unemployment rate is such a threat to our nation that politicians can only think to print more money and “redistribute” it to a growing legion of jobless Americans.

America’s trade deficit is the world’s largest and the ratio between imports and exports is one of the world’s most unbalanced. Our imports are now 17% of our gross domestic product and our entire manufacturing sector is only 11.5% of GDP. Neither exporting services, nor agricultural products will balance our trade.

America not manufacturing enough goods to sell.

These are implacable numbers—-truths—-that Americans and our leaders in government, business, and industry must face and must reverse if we are to stop our national economic decline.

The socialism imposed in just the past year and a half in which the federal government controls an ever-increasing percentage of our nation’s wealth-producing economy will utterly destroy the nation.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :15:07:42Z





‘Eggsploitation’ Documentary Reveals Secrets of Infertility Industry
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :14:26:53Z
It’s Not a Right: Government Outlaws Rainwater Collection

Portions of the above story were based on rain harvesting restrictions in the state of Utah, as well as other western states. KSL TV 5 of Salt Lake City Utah reports that as of July 2, 2010 the law banning rainwater collection in the state has been modified to allow for personal harvesting and storage with a limit of 200 gallons of above ground storage and 2500 gallons of below ground storage. Utah residents should be thankful that their benevolent government has allowed them to enjoy limited protections under natural law.
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/i ... n_07282010

THE MINING OF OUR AQUIFERS: As long as BLM can make buck who cares if the water is gone?
http://farmwars.info/?p=3475&utm_source ... rm+Wars%29

CFS claims victory while Roundup Ready alfalfa gets ready for 2010 planting
http://farmwars.info/?p=3466&utm_source ... rm+Wars%29




Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the United States is planning to launch two wars in the Middle East in order to pressure Tehran, English-language Press TV reported on Tuesday.

"We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot ... they plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he said in remarks Press TV posted on its website from an interview with him late Monday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 54,00.html

Russia says Ahmadinejad comments 'unacceptable'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday sent President Obama a major war-funding increase of $33 billion to pay for his troop surge in Afghanistan, unmoved by the leaking of classified documents that portray a military effort struggling between 2004 and 2009 against a strengthening insurgency.

The House voted, 308-114, to approve the spending boost for the additional 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Other non-war provisions brought the total bill to nearly $59 billion.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... stan_N.htm

David Rosenberg: You Know You Are In A Depression When...
http://www.businessinsider.com/david-ro ... hen-2010-7

Jeb Bush Chided for Attending Rand Paul Event
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/69969

Hot Weather Killing Cattle Across Kansas
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/99209219.html

Japan summer heat wave blamed for 66 deaths
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Smoke Blankets Moscow Amid Record Heat
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj
Smoke from peat fires hovered over a sweltering Moscow in late July 2010, the BBC reported. As firefighters tried to put out some 60 fires in the surrounding countryside, authorities advised Muscovites with breathing difficulties to stay inside or wear gauze masks. As peat bogs burned, officials urged employers to give workers siesta breaks during the hottest part of the day, and urged farmers to harvest at night, according to Bloomberg.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of Moscow and the surrounding region on July 27, 2010. A cloudbank stops short of hiding the city from the satellite’s view, and north of the clouds, a dull blue-gray haze hangs over the area. East-southeast of Moscow, multiple fires (marked by red outlines) send thick plumes of smoke toward the northwest.

The Moscow heat wave arrived amid a severe drought that threatened to raise grain prices. The Russian Federation’s agriculture ministry declared weather-related emergencies in more than 20 crop-producing regions.

Severe fires also burned in eastern Siberia throughout July 2010.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss
Holstein Friesian cow Coco delivered three healthy calves without any assistance, which is a one-in-105,000 chance. Even more rarely, two of the calves are from the Belgian Blue Cross breed and the third is a Charolais Cross. Owner Anthony Gothard, 37, who runs a dairy farm at Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, said this is because Coco was inseminated using a ''concoction'' of different bulls.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agricu ... reeds.html

Unemployment rises in 75 pct of metro areas
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unemploym ... et=&ccode=
Venezuela has beefed up its troop presence along the border with Colombia amid heightened tension between the two South American nations, Press TV reported.

Caracas has sent about one thousand troops to the border, citing the threat of an armed conflict with Bogota.

"We have a reinforcement of 980 to 1,000 troops for the protection of the border, but there are no unusual operations; we are staying on alert," Reuters quoted Franklin Marquez, a regional commander for the Venezuelan National Guard, as saying on Monday.

On Saturday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, "The possibility of armed aggression by Colombia is higher than it has been in a century."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=20319
The former head of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq has landed some heavy body blows against Tony Blair’s reasons for taking Britain to war in Iraq on the basis that Saddam Hussein was ready to deploy weapons of mass destruction.

"I take the firm view this was an illegal war," Dr Blix, a renowned international lawyer and former Swedish foreign minister, told the Chilcot Inquiry in London yesterday.

From the end of 2002 to March 2003 his team of weapons inspectors found no traces in Iraq of chemical and biological weapons that could be a serious threat to the outside world; most had been destroyed after the Desert Storm war of 1991.

They did find some traces of old warheads that could carry both chemical and biological warheads. However, despite carrying out six inspections a day, and visiting a total of 700 sites, they found almost nothing that could be deemed "a major breech" of UN resolutions - though both President Bush and Prime Minister Blair claimed the contrary.

Of these 700 sites, 30 had been pointed out to the Blix team as major weapons establishments by the CIA and MI6 – yet no serious weaponry was found there.

Dr Blix confirmed that Saddam Hussein had abandoned his nuclear programmes after the war in 1991 – and by the winter of 2002 – months before American and British forces crossed into Iraq. Both Washington and London knew this.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/66424,new ... z0v0ad2aHD
The fast-growing Bull Fire burned on the southern edge of California’s Sequoia National Forest on July 27, 2010. Outlined in red, the fire was producing thick plumes of smoke when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 2:40 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time. The smoke was blowing north over the forest.

The Bull Fire started on Monday, July 26 at about 1:46 a.m., according to the multi-agency incident report for the fire. Burning through grass, brush, oak, and scattered pine and aided by high temperatures, the fire grew quickly on steep, hard-to-access ground. As of about 10 p.m. on July 27, the fire had burned 11,000 acres, said the incident report.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

UPDATE:
(Reuters) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances on Wednesday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that closes a $19 billion shortfall.

In the declaration, Schwarzenegger ordered three days off without pay per month beginning in August for thousands of state employees to preserve the state's cash to pay debt obligations, and for essential services.

By ordering furloughs, which he also did last year, Schwarzenegger is bringing pressure on state employee unions allied with Democratic lawmakers on the heels of losing a courtroom battle to cut state employees' pay to the federal minimum wage to bolster the state's finances.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... liticsNews
Less than one month after ending furloughs for about 200,000 state workers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning brought back a scaled-down version of the policy, effective Sunday.

The governor made the decision this week after Controller John Chiang said that unless lawmakers enacted a budget soon, the state's cash would go into the red by October. Chiang said he'll start issuing IOUs in August or September to conserve funds as long as possible.

"We have a fiscal crisis," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said this morning as he explained the new furlough order. "We're doing what we have to do to conserve cash."

Like the policy that ended June 30, the governor's new executive order requires employees take three unpaid days off per month. But unlike that policy, it has no termination date: Furloughs will end when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget. That could be weeks or months after the Legislature reconvenes on Monday.

And unlike earlier policies, the new order exempts employees who work several departments, specifically the Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department, State Compensation Insurance Fund, the California Housing Finance Authority and the California Earthquake Authority. All employees of the Highway Patrol and the Department of Fire and Forestry Protection are also exempt.

Today's order also excludes about 37,000 state workers in six unions that recently reached tentative labor agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration.

Another six unions representing about 150,000 state employees, including the 95,000-member SEIU Local 1000, haven't yet come to labor terms with the governor.

In total, state workers have lost 46 days of wages to furloughs in the last 17 months. One furlough day equals 4.65 percent of an employee's pay. A single furlough day reduces the state's payroll cost by about $61 million, or $2.2 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year. About half of that is from the state's general fund, which is the cash-strapped center of California's rolling budget crises.

Another 16,000 employees who work for officials in statewide offices such as the treasurer, secretary of state and the controller have also avoided furloughs. The heads of those departments say that their independence gives them the authority to manage their own employees. All have made other cuts -- in some cases asking employees to volunteer for furloughs -- rather than comply with Schwarzenegger's order.

That furlough dispute and others have triggered about 30 lawsuits over the last 19 months. About a half-dozen cases are now before the state Supreme Court, which won't hear arguments until September at the earliest.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worke ... e-fur.html
Lawmakers in the state legislature are coming dangerously close to setting a record for the latest state budget in history. Governor Paterson has called a special session to hopefully get the ball rolling.

The latest state budget was back in 2004, on August 11th. Lawmakers have not been paid since April 1st, when the budget was originally due.
http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.as ... 0&catid=37

...a little dated now but just a reminder....

Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/busin ... AY&ei=5065

Jim Rickards Compares The Collapse Of The Roman Empire To The US, Concludes That We Are Far Worse Off
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jim-ri ... -far-worse

FBI backs record-keeping on prepaid cell phones
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-te ... 10wdp.html
A dozen of the nation’s 372 metropolitan areas had unemployment rates in June of at least 15%, led by El Centro, Calif., where the jobless rate hit 27.6%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Ten of them were in California.

At 26.4%, the jobless rate in Yuma, Ariz. was the second highest. It also notched the largest year-over-year increase, up 2.9 percentage points.

Six metro areas enjoyed jobless rates below 5%, five of them in North and South Dakota. North Dakota’s economy has been buoyed by its flourishing oil industry. Bismarck, N.D., had the lowest unemployment rate in June, 3.8%. That’s more than five percentage points below the national average of 9.5%.

Among metro areas with populations over one million, Las Vegas had the highest jobless rate at 14.5% and Washington, D.C. and surrounding suburbs had the lowest at 6.4%.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/07/ ... gton-best/

...wait till July budget cuts kick in....cause some serious revisions to the birth/death model to keep the game going...
Anyone making a long drive through New Mexico next year may want to plan bathroom breaks strategically. State officials are considering closing nearly half of the state’s 32 highway rest stops, in a move that could save the state up to $1.6 million in maintenance costs.

New Mexico is the most recent case in a rash of rest-stop closures that has affected states from Vermont to California. Facing enormous budget deficits, many states have raided transportation funds, forcing them to shut down all but the most necessary of operations. For Arizona, Louisiana and Virginia, the shuttering of roadside rest stops has become one of the most visible signs of the current budget crisis.
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29
On July 1, Costa Rica’s unicameral Legislative Assembly, with 31 votes out of 57, approved the US Embassy’s request to open the country to 46 US warships, 7,000 US soldiers, 200 helicopters and two aircraft carriers. This permission was granted through at least Dec. 31 of this year, officially justified by the necessity of fighting drug-traffickers, providing humanitarian services and providing a place for US ships to dock and refuel. While most reports have put a Dec. 31 expiration date on the agreement, the Nicaraguan media last week reported that Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rene Castro, in a meeting with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos, said that the agreement is for five years.

Prior Joint Patrol bilateral agreements between the countries allowed only US Coast Guard presence with Costa Rican law enforcement aboard. The US Coast Guard was permitted to follow vessels into Costa Rican waters while in pursuit and awaiting Costa Rican officials. Thus, the new agreement represents a substantial increase in the allowance of US military presence in Costa Rica, a country that abolished its army in 1948 and has a policy of neutrality.

The legislature’s approval of the bilateral agreement has not gone unchallenged. A substantial legislative opposition has formed, including representatives from the Broad Front, Citizen Action Party and the United Social Christian Parties. The opposition has challenged the constitutionality of the agreement, citing Article 12 of the Costa Rican constitution. Article 12 restricts the reasons that military forces may form and states that they must always remain under Costa Rican civilian control. Last week, the Costa Rican Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. This is encouraging news for the opposition regardless of the outcome, because the agreement cannot go into effect until the Court issues a ruling on the constitutional question. There is no indication about when the Court may issue a ruling.

Civil society as well is organizing to oppose the US military presence in its waters and on its soil. Distrust of US motives is widespread in light of the tacit US government support for the Honduran coup, the agreement with Colombia to use seven bases there, and tensions between Colombia and Venezuela in which Venezuelan forces are on high alert in preparation for a possible attack from Colombia.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue66/article4169.html
Pirates or rogue Iranian Guards suspected in Hormuz Japanese tanker explosion

The Japanese supertanker M. STAR carrying 270,000 tons of oil was damaged by an explosion Wednesday, July 28, caused by a suspected attack in Omani territorial waters near the Strait of Hormuz, which passes Iran and Oman. One lifeboat was blown off the ship and a hole driven in its starboard hatches. A crew member was slightly injured, but there was no oil leak.

The spokesperson for the tanker's owners Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd said: "We believe it's highly likely an attack from the outside, maybe a terrorist incident. There is nothing that could cause a spontaneous explosion in that part of the vessel."

But the most striking feature of the incident, noted by debkafile's military and intelligence sources, is the unusual degree of assent between US Navy and Iranian officials that the damage to the supertanker was caused by an explosion by an unknown hand.

"The fire which was triggered by an explosion on the deck of the vessel was contained with the help of the crew and regional forces," Fars News Agency quoted head of marine department of southern Hormozgan Province, Ali Akbar Saffai, as saying, after two Iranian officials before him had attributed the blast to a low-magnitude earthquake.

Clearly both Washington and Tehran were taken unawares by the first attack ever mounted on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow transit channel for some 40 percent of the oil shipped worldwide and one of the most carefully secured waterways in the world.

Both the US and Iran need time to find its cause and decide what to do. Meanwhile, this exceptional circumstance finds them of one mind on at least one issue, the incident must not be allowed to spiral out of control into a larger event.

According to our sources in Washington and Tehran, while waiting for evidence, both speculate that the perpetrators may be either pirates in the pay of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or even a rogue element in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which is bent on settling scores for the latest UN, US and European sanctions against their country.

Tehran has repeatedly warned it will fight back if sanctions hurt its economy and energy supplies.

The attack on the Japanese supertanker intensified Saudi and the Gulf emirates' concerns over a possible threat to their oil exporting routes. Wednesday night, fearing an unidentified assailant may also go for their oil ports and shore installations, Persian Gulf navies, the Fifth Fleet Bahrain-based headquarters and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval installations at Bandar Abbas went on a high alert.

Our military sources report some 100 warships of different navies are currently present in the Persian Gulf.
http://www.debka.com/article/8934/

FCC determined to control Internet
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=183905

User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Mortgage rates hit low of 4.54 percent - Average rates for fixed mortgages hit lowest level on record for fifth time in six weeks
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortgage- ... et=&ccode=
Just a short note on Deflation

Oooh, it’s terrible. Like anything, if there’s too much of it. But there’s a context- obviously there’s a reference- in that Deflation is occurring in the middle of either this or that. That this is what ‘it’ means because it has ‘these’ consequences, that this is what it does because this is how it works. And a lot of people say, Deflation! gosh, didn’t we just expand the Fed balance sheet, isn’t that currency, or what about the Stimulus programs and all that cash created through the Treasury there- and then those reserves at the banks…I mean there was mention of some quite large sums? A lot of people feel that adding money to a fixed pool of resources is Inflationary. ..to which the short answer is that we have lower employment than before the money was added as well as lower payrolls on average than before, too, so no, it was not inflationary. Somewhere, the money disappeared. We know where, it’s called toxic assets. The Fed is part-buying them at north of fifty cents on the dollar and helping move those that are worth anything onto private balance sheets at pennies: don’t let a good crisis go to waste. Alright, I’ve simplified – the reason is that there’s been a lot of recent market chatter about the grand cleanser of Deflation sharpening its scythe and preparing to walk amongst the doe-eyed innocents. Let’s be clear, Deflation is what happens if the Demand function contracts and the requirement for money falls.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... -deflation
And good thing Obama extended that job stimulus for the nth time, as EUC claims plunged another 230k in the week ending July 10, a 1.5 million drop in just over a month: on July 10, total EUCs were 3.253 Million, a drop of over 1.3 million since the 4.7 million on June 5. These are all people who no longer used to receive their monthly $1,000 bonus check for not working, taking out tens of billions of dollars in circulation out of the economy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new-we ... -464k-468k

Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims: Eight Months of Moving Sideways
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
The Fed came, saw, and conquered the mortgage market. The 30 year Freddie fixed just dropped another 2 bps from the prior week to 4.54%, a fresh all time low, and more billions in margins chopped off from the profit line of mortgage originators everywhere, now that the Fed and Pimco are the only two entities remaining in the mortgage market, even as consumer cash flows are under more pressure than ever confirming that in this bizarro market just as one wants to buy, the right button to push is sell and vice versa.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mortga ... -time-low-
As we wrote earlier, Greece is currently paralyzed, literally, due to a wholesale shortage of fuel at gas stations, as drivers of trucks carrying the precious commodity have been striking for several days. As noted previously, the government invoked a war-time mobilization measure forcing the strikers to stop striking or face civil penalties and jail time. Shockingly, this had absolutely no impact on the angry mob. In order to make its point even more clear, the government accentuated its overturn of labor rights by firing tear gas at protesters, according to the Guardian. And, in an amusing turn of events, the IMF delegation which was rumored to be passing by at just this time to conclude the backroom deal in which US taxpayers would fund a few hundred more billion of failed Greek programs, was subjected to a Greek parliamentary guard wearing the traditional skirty attire, screaming in a bullhorn that the truckers were merely engaged in a modern remixed version of sirtaki and there was absolutely nothing to see there (obviously the guy had just graduated from the CNBC School for People who Want to Fabricate the Truth Good).
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/when-j ... g-tear-gas

Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0729/forecl ... tro-areas/
About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade. Lenders are accelerating foreclosures as borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments after the worst housing crash since the Great Depression. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Foreclosures probably will top 1 million this year, the Irvine, California- based data company said in a July 15 report.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... ecade.html
The recovery had very little substance to begin with. Rather, it was, in essence, a mirage — a dead cat bounce bought and paid for by Washington’s massive bailouts, stimulus programs, and money printing.

Put another way, the recession never really ended. Yes, we saw some growth in GDP. And yes, thanks to that growth, some companies are still reporting better earnings — the news that spurred a rally in the stock market last week. But at the core of the economy, the fires that started the recession are still burning intensely.

Housing starts — the most important measure of the housing industry — is still a disaster zone.

Beginning in January 2006, they suffered their worst plunge in recorded history — from an annual rate of 2.3 million to a meager 477,000 in April 2009. Thus …

In just three years, 79 percent of America’s largest industry, impacting more Americans than any other, was wiped away.

Then, despite a series of government agency programs to shore up the industry … plus $1.25 trillion poured in by the Fed to buy up mortgage-backed securities … plus a big tax credit for new homebuyers, housing starts perked up ever so slightly: They recovered to an annual rate of 612,000 in January of this year.

But this recovery was so small, it retraced just 7.5 percent of the prior fall. In other words,

Even after massive government efforts, and even at the highest point in their recovery this year, the housing industry recouped less than one-tenth of its historic three-year bust from 2006 to 2009.

Worse, the housing industry has now resumed its decline.

Bernanke did not mention that the percentage of long-term unemployed in America is the worst it’s been since the government began keeping records in 1948. Two facts:

Fact #1: A record 4.39 percent of the work force — or 46.2 percent of the unemployed — have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. That’s DOUBLE the worst level ever recorded and TRIPLE the peak level seen in five of the past six recessions.

Fact #2: On average, America’s unemployed have been out of work for 35.2 weeks, also the highest on record.

Bernanke did not remind Congress that, based on the government’s own broad measure, the true unemployment rate in the U.S. is not 9.5 percent. It’s 16.5 percent — or seven full percentage points more than the figure Mr. Bernanke likes to refer to.

But no matter how you count it, some outstanding facts are absolutely self-evident:

FACT: The enormous magnitude of the government’s intervention FAR surpasses anything ever witnessed in the history of humankind.

FACT: It’s not working! Housing is still collapsed. Long-term unemployment is the worst ever recorded. And the recovery, already anemic, is aborting prematurely.

FACT: Most important, it’s winding down! Through mid-2009, the government intervention programs tabulated by SIGTARP were being ramped up at a furious pace — a total of $3 trillion overall.

So over the 12-month period from mid-2008 through mid-2009, we estimate they were running at the average monthly pace of about $160 billion.

But since mid-2009, they have been far slower, running at an average monthly pace of only $58 billion, or just one-third the prior level.

And right now, the pace of new funds injected into the economy through these government rescues are merely a trickle compared to their earlier rate:

* No new stimulus is in the works.
* No new TARP funds are forthcoming.
* The Fed has wrapped up its bond buying splurge.
* And the ONLY significant continuing programs are for housing — the one area where the government has admittedly seen the WORST overall results, according to SIGTARP.

Bottom line:

If you were counting on the government to prevent the second major leg in this great double-dip recession, don’t hold your breath. To the contrary, the primary CAUSE of the second dip is the government’s conspicuous absence from sectors where it was, until now, the biggest mover, shaker, buyer, and financier.
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/four-sho ... week-39735
Bill Gross Ponders "Deep Demographic Doo-Doo"

Our modern era of capitalism over the past several centuries has never known a period of time in which population declined or grew less than 1% a year. Currently, the globe is adding over 77 million people a year at a pace of 1.15% annually, but slowing.

Observers will point out, as shown in the following chart, that global population growth rates have been declining since 1970 with no apparent ill effects. True, until 2008, I suppose. The fact is that since the 1970s we have never really experienced a secular period during which the private market could effectively run on its own engine without artificial asset price stimulation. The lack of population growth was likely a significant factor in the leveraging of the developed world’s financial systems and the ballooning of total government and private debt as a percentage of GDP from 150% to over 300% in the United States, for example. Lacking an accelerating population base, all developed countries promoted the financing of more and more consumption per capita in order to maintain existing GDP growth rates. Finally, in the U.S., with consumption at 70% of GDP and a household sector deeply in debt, there was nowhere to go but down. Similar conditions exist in most developed economies.

PIMCO’s continuing New Normal thesis of deleveraging, reregulation and deglobalization produces structural headwinds that lead to lower economic growth as well as half-sized asset returns when compared to historical averages. The New Normal will not be aided nor abetted by a slower-growing population nor by cyclical policy errors that thrust Keynesian consumption remedies on a declining consumer base. Current deficit spending that seeks to maintain an artificially high percentage of consumer spending can be compared to flushing money down an economic toilet.

Please read that last paragraph closely. Here is the key sentence "The New Normal will not be aided nor abetted by a slower-growing population nor by cyclical policy errors that thrust Keynesian consumption remedies on a declining consumer base."

Please note that it is not demographics per se that is doing us in, but rather enormous amounts of consumer debt (as a result of decades of Keynesian and Monetarist stimulus) in conjunction with unfavorable demographics and global wage arbitrage that is doing us in. Bill Gross missed this essential point.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29
By the end of the recession, there will be approximately 1,000 bank failures. Does this sound extreme? It should but the numbers don’t cover the entire story. Since 2008 the number of bank failures has reached 269 and this doesn’t include consolidations done through the FDIC where bigger banks ate up smaller banks before they officially failed. Last week, 7 banks failed. At that pace, we are looking at 364 bank failures per year and the actual number of closings per week has consistently gone up. The FDIC is in a precarious situation. The Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) is technically speaking, broke. They have added additional cash reserves by front loading premiums on surviving banks but this can only stunt the financial bleeding for so long. The problems in the banking system run deep and many of the smaller regional banks are failing because of commercial real estate loans going bad.

Here is the actual weekly trend of bank failures:

This is the third consecutive quarter in the absolute red. The banking system is starting to look like an imploding ponzi scheme and Wall Street is capitalizing on this vulnerability. How? If you were a big time investor would you invest in a too big to fail bank that may be performing poorly but has full government support or a smaller well run bank that has no support at all? The incentive is not necessarily with the best performing and that is usually a staple of a well run capitalist system. We are not operating in a capitalist system but a corporate oligarchy based on political connections between Wall Street and D.C. This kind of system has been prevalent for decades now and crosses both political parties.

As the FDIC digs deeper into a hole, the number of problem institutions grows:

Keep in mind that the above list also fails to catch many of banks that do fail. It isn’t exhaustive. So even just looking at the above, we already have the 1,000 banks that will fail. And the problem of course is how the current banking system is structured. We have close to 8,000 FDIC insured banks but in reality, a very few control the bulk of the assets:

The top 4 banks of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank make up 55 percent of all banking assets. Then there is another tier of roughly 100 banks that eats up another 20 to 25 percent of assets. So you have some 7,800 banks basically fighting for the remaining scraps. The FDIC is in deep trouble going forward and this means we are in deep trouble. The taxpayer is on the hook for the bill. The U.S. Treasury already extended a lifeline of $500 billion to the FDIC “in case” they need the money. Looking at the above data do you think they are going to use that lifeline? It is only a matter of time.
http://www.mybudget360.com/fdic-flashes ... get+360%29



Supply concerns push global wheat prices up

World wheat prices staged an impressive rally during July, with production setbacks in the Northern Hemisphere sending prices to their highest level in over 12 months in the US and since September 2008 in Europe, where crop conditions have been most affected.

Cash market prices have reflected the stronger world futures values, as growers have been resistant to selling old crop stock levels. Results from the GASC tender 20 July provided the market with some insight into cash values where 120,000 tonne of Russian wheat was purchased at $211 to 212/tonne FOB showing that US gulf export prices remain some $15 to 20/tonne overvalued.

Not surprisingly, wheat-price market volatility in both the Chicago and Matif exchanges escalated sharply in July, albeit from very low levels. Benign market conditions over the past 18 months have seen volatility in the grain markets become very cheap. Matif 3-month implied volatility was well below Chicago for most of this period until recently when the differential closed for the first time in 2 years.

Recent events in both the world wheat and grains markets more generally have led us to shift our outlook bias from a neutral to bullish bias for the 2010/11 season.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/mar ... 225098.cms

Wheat Rises to 13-Month High on Russian Drought; Corn, Soy Gain
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... -gain.html

Farmers brace for 'worst' locust plague on record
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 966143.htm

Photo as of yesterday of fires around Moscow Russia -
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

Magnitude 6.6 - MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 10zhat.php

EPA: 1M gallons of oil may be in Michigan river heading for Lake Michigan
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/29 ... -michigan/

Admiral Allen: "Gas Seep is from the Rigel Gas Field" ... Did BP Accidentally Tap Into the Rigel Gas Field?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=20320

Officials optimistic amid preparations to seal Gulf oil well
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/28/gulf.o ... tml?hpt=T1

Millions Of Fish Wash Ashore In Gulfport
http://www.wdsu.com/news/24323278/detail.html

Why are oil spills suddenly occurring constantly, all over the world? Just this year, the environment has taken an unprecedented beating, from the oil industry alone.
http://metaoceanic.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... demic.html

In 2013, our sun will hit its solar maximum, creating disturbances that could take out the power grid
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/19/seve ... r-warning/

Earth's Shrinking Atmosphere Baffles Scientists
http://news.discovery.com/earth/earth-a ... gn=rssnws1




Secret US spy agency used serial killer and Nazis as sources
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0729/secret ... s-sources/

Google and CIA Fund Political Precrime Technology
http://www.infowars.com/google-and-cia- ... echnology/

Exclusive: Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07 ... z0v29Q2Zv8
National Ocean Council

Thirty states will be encroached upon by Obama's Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Council for control over America's oceans, coastlines and the Great Lakes. Under this new council, states' coastal jurisdictions will be subject to the United Nations' Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST) in this UN Agenda 21 program. America'a oceans and coastlines will be broken into 9 regions that include the North East, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, the Gulf Coast, West Coast, the Great Lakes, Alaska, the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii) and the Caribbean.

Because of the decades of difficulty that the collectivists have had trying to ratify the Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST), Obama is sneaking it in through the back door, by way of this Executive Order establishing the Council. Because LOST is a treaty, Obama's Executive Order is not Constitutional as treaty ratification requires 2/3 approval from the Senate. Michael Shaw said that the Agenda 21 Convention on Biodiversity treaty of 1992 failed to pass Congress so it was executed through soft law and administratively on local levels, and Obama's Executive Order is a similar soft law tactic to enact the LOST treaty.
http://www.morphcity.com/home/79-national-ocean-council
White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 06141.html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to address a throng of rich and powerful men on Friday under the towering redwoods at the Bohemian Grove as the annual encampment along the Russian River in Monte Rio enters its final weekend.

No one other than about Bohemian Club members and their guests will hear the governor’s speech, which is — like everything that transpires during the 17-day midsummer enclave — done in absolute privacy.

Plutocrats and powerbrokers, including former presidents, annually flock to the 2,700-acre wooded retreat where neither women, other than grove employees, nor outsiders of either gender are permitted.
http://www.watchsonomacounty.com/2010/0 ... ian-grove/

National Health Care Bill Contains Skull & Bones Illuminati Signature. "322"
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... tains.html

Arizona immigration law blocked: Governor plans swift appeal
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com ... ocked.html

Nebraska City Suspends Voter-Approved Ban on Renting to Illegal Immigrants
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07 ... gle+Reader

Who Voted for War With Iran, Mr. Obama?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e26034.htm

US paying Pakistan to kill American troops?
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624047

Israel, Saudis in talks over Iran attack
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=624037

N.Korea 'Sold Missiles to Taliban'
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 00299.html

Russia violated '91 START till end, U.S. report finds
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... n+Times%29





Forgotten History: When The U.S. Army Attacked Veterans In Washington D.C.
http://www.ickypeople.com/2010/07/forgo ... acked.html

SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010 ... latestnews
A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities — an effort at promoting diversity that’s drawing fire from Republicans who say it could lead to de facto hiring quotas.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40313.html





Fatal / Severe H1N1 Cluster In India
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07271 ... India.html

Pharmaceutical drug contamination of waterways threatens life on our planet
http://www.naturalnews.com/029314_water ... ation.html

How Cranberry Juice Conquers E. Coli
http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvot ... -coli.aspx


UPDATE:
Incoming Chief Executive Bob Dudley said BP would stay involved with the cleanup long after the well was finally plugged, expressing optimism the environment would recover.

"It is possible that as early as Monday or Tuesday this well might be killed," he told National Public Radio on Wednesday.

"There's no precision, there's nothing guaranteed. I'm hopeful and I do believe we've seen the end of oil flowing into the Gulf," he added.

Early next week BP will start its latest effort to plug the gusher, called a "static kill", pumping drilling-mud and cement into the well. By mid-August, it should have completed a relief well to intercept the ruptured one, which it hopes will be the ultimate solution for the leak.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... mesticNews

War it appears is imminent, current drug shortages are telling the picture!
http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/29/war-i ... e-picture/

Collapse of Dysfunctional States Is Another Step To The Federal Bubble Detonation
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/c ... n_07292010

Climate change to drive mass migration from Mexico into US
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/07 ... ation.html

....interesting....might explain the lion among the sheep prophecy...

The Inflation/Deflation debate seems to be constantly coming up — from clients, institutional accounts, and the media. Let’s look at a few points on this:

Deflation is a fact. It is happening now, it is real, and we see it in the actual data.

Inflation does not exist presently. It is, at best, an opinion. It might happen in the future, or it might not — but it does not exist, at least on a measurable form, presently.

What about deficits? Debt? Overspending? QE/ZIRP/Low rates?

Well, Japan cut rates, wildly overspent, borrowed like loons — and they had a decade plus of deflation, not inflation. We may not be Japan, but they are the 2nd largest economy in the world, and represent an actual economy that behaved, well, the way the US is.

Until the slack in the labor market is reduced — near record low weekly hours, 16% U6 unemployment, etc. — inflation simply is not a threat.

The 10 year Treasury Bond is at record low yields, so bond buyers are looking for more economic softness, not inflation.

The first heads up about inflation you will see will be when the Bid to Cover ratio of the Treasury Bonds — how many buyers are there relative to bonds for sale at US auction — right now, its oversubscribed 3X. Once buyers start insisting on greater yield, the Treasury department will have to start raising the bond rates they offer — we will know that Bonds are a short, due to impending inflation.

That will be your early inflation warning.

But now? Its nowhere in sight . . . .
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/in ... deflation/



User avatar
Jason
Master of Puppets
Posts: 18296

Re: Blipits

Post by Jason »

Oil Spill Passes Morrow Lake And Now “Halfway To Lake Michigan”
http://stevenjohnhibbs.wordpress.com/20 ... -michigan/

Water Advisory Issued, Evacuations Recommended in Calhoun County Near River
http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-s ... 3088.story

Spray, baby, spray: oil spill solutions part of the problem
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... te=thedrum

A New Spotlight on Japanese-Style Deflation
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2010/07 ... tedowns%29
An Unemployment Chart Almost Too Depressing To Look At

Because of the foolish decisions that we have made, future generations of Americans are not going to be able to count on the U.S. economy being able to produce tens of millions of middle class American jobs.

American workers are just not very attractive to global corporations any longer. It just doesn't make economic sense to pay American workers ten times more. So the truth is that the standard of living for middle class Americans is not going to go anywhere but down.

Already, there are dozens of statistics that show that the middle class is systematically being wiped out in America. The majority of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck and are struggling to get by. The truth is that most people today are only a few months (or even a few weeks) from financial disaster.

So what should we all do?

Well, we all need to start reading the handwriting on the wall. Very hard economic times are ahead. The good jobs that have been shipped overseas are never coming back. We all need to try to become less dependent on "the system" and learn to take care of ourselves.

It's a jungle out there, and things are not going to get any easier. Hard times are coming and it is time for everyone to get prepared.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... to-look-at
In your view, what are the most critical domestic problems facing America?

Edwin Vieira Jr.: Two stand out. The foremost problem-because it is the source of, or contributes significantly to, almost every economic difficulty now plaguing this country-is the inherent and ineradicable instability of the present monetary and banking systems centered around the Federal Reserve System.

The second problem derives from the first. It is the ever-accelerating development of a first-class para-militarized police-state apparatus centered around the United States Department of Homeland Security, with its tentacles reaching down into every police force throughout the States and localities. Fundamentally, this apparatus is not, and never was, designed to deal with international "terrorism". If that were its goal, its first task would be absolutely to secure the southern border of the United States, which it has never seriously attempted to do. Rather, it is being set up to deal with what the political-cum-financial Establishment anticipates (and I believe rightly so) will be massive social and political unrest bordering on chaos throughout America when the monetary and banking systems finally implode in the not-so-distant future-surely in hyperinflation, and probably in hyperinflation coupled with a gut-wrenching depression.

Of these two problems, the second is actually the more dangerous. For if (on whatever pretext) this police-state apparatus does succeed in clamping down on America, the likelihood of effecting basic reforms in money, banking, or anything else favorable to the American people will be reduced to something approaching nil, absent a veritable political uprising in this country.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2429764/posts

.....of course I think its actually deflation....which adds even more power to the fed as they have the printing press...but to each his own opinion! The fundamental basis for the police state is correct - iron fisted rule! Anyways that's the basic gist of the inflationistas perspective in a nutshell and the basic belief they can somehow change the monetary system without first tossing out those who control it.....




A financial emergency in California?

That’s what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says we now have, as the state still has no budget for the current fiscal year.

But California’s municipal bond investors haven't been willing to play along with this “emergency” idea. Even as the budget battle has dragged on this summer, there has been no harsh penalty inflicted on the state by investors in the form of sharply higher interest rates on its bonds.

In theory, at least, if disgusted investors were to dump the state’s debt, sending market yields on the bonds soaring, they could deliver a message to Sacramento to get its act together.

Instead, just the opposite has happened: Market interest rates on California’s general obligation bonds are well below their spring highs, and on short- and intermediate-term bonds the rates have continued to plunge in recent weeks to their lowest levels in years.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_c ... elds-.html
UPDATE 1-Foreclosures up in 75 pct of top U.S. metro areas

July 29 (Reuters) - Foreclosures rose in three of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year's first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company said.

"We're not going to see meaningful, sustainable home price appreciation while we're seeing 75 percent of the markets have increases in foreclosures," RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.

Foreclosure actions, which include notice of default, scheduled auction and repossession, in the first half rose in 154 of the 206 metro areas with populations of 200,000 or more.

"We're not going to see real price appreciation probably until 2013," Sharga said. "We don't see a double dip in housing, but we think it's going to be a long painful recovery for the next three years."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2910144320100729
From the American Trucking Association: ATA Truck Tonnage Index Fell 1.4 Percent in June

The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 1.4 percent in June, although May’s reduction was revised from 0.6 percent to just 0.1 percent. May and June marked the first back-to-back contractions since March and April 2009.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that the two sequential decreases reflect an economy that is slowing.

This index is at about the same level as in December 2009.

Rail traffic also weakened in June.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29
"There is a pretty direct correlation between job loss and foreclosure. Until the unemployment rates start to go down, and until we actually see net job creation, and importantly until consumer confidence comes back, the housing market has really slim chances of recovery. That coupled with the huge overhang of distressed property, really suggests the housing market is not going to turn around for the next few years."
http://noir.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N ... 7w_rlA.asf

Suspicions abound that Wikileaks is part of U.S. cyber-warfare operations
http://labvirus.wordpress.com/2010/07/2 ... perations/

Monsanto: The evil corporation in your refrigerator
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/02/0 ... webmaildl3











Details of 100 million Facebook users published online - Users' personal information cannot now be made private, security consultant says
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38463013/ns ... -security/

EPA chooses to close off open scientific debate
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :23:58:19Z

U.S. Army Report: Crime, Prescription Drug Use Makes Soldiers ‘More Dangerous Than the Enemy’
http://www.disinfo.com/2010/07/u-s-army ... rmation%29
Russia’s worst drought in a decade will probably generate losses for bondholders as food prices rise and the government may be pushed to tap debt markets for funds to support farmers.

High temperatures, which rose to a record 37.4 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit) yesterday in Moscow, have damaged 32 percent of land under cultivation and forced Russia to declare states of emergency in 23 regions. Grain prices may double this year because of the drought, according to the Grain Producers’ Union.

Yesterday’s temperature in Moscow was the highest since Russia began keeping records 130 years ago, according to the website of the Hydrometeorological Monitoring Service. The previous high was 36.8 degrees in July 1920, during the Civil War. The temperature may rise to 38 degrees on July 29, according to Gidromettsentr, the state weather service.

Russia, the world’s third-biggest wheat exporter, will harvest about 80 million metric tons of grain this season, 17 percent less than last year, according to Moscow-based researcher SovEcon. Grain prices rose as much as 33 percent last week on drought concerns, SovEcon said on its website.

The harvest may be less than 80 million tons, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said today. “The scope of the drought is serious,” he said, adding that there is “no basis for panic.”

Drought is likely to have a bigger impact on prices in Russia than in other countries, Orlova said. Food accounts for 38 percent of the consumer price index in Russia, compared with 15 percent in the U.S. and 32 percent in China, Alfa estimates.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-2 ... -need.html

Top 7 suppliers of oil to the US
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/1007 ... -importers
At 4pm local time today in Moscow, Russia, the temperature surpassed 100°F for the first time in recorded history. The high temperature of 100.8°F (37.8°C) recorded at the Moscow Observatory, the official weather location for Moscow, beat Moscow's previous record of 99.5°F (37.5°C), set just three days ago, on July 26. Prior to 2010, Moscow's hottest temperature of all-time was 36.6°C (98.2°F), set in August, 1920. Records in Moscow go back to 1879. Baltschug, another official downtown Moscow weather site, hit an astonishing 102.2°F (39.0°C) today. Finland also recorded its hottest temperature in its history today, when the mercury hit 99°F (37.2°C) at Joensuu. The old (undisputed) record was 95°F (35°C) at Jvaskyla on July 9, 1914. There is little relief in sight, as the latest forecast for Moscow predicts continued highs in the 90s for most of the coming week.

A remarkable year for extreme heat
Finland's new national heat record makes it the fourteenth country (or semi-independent territory) to break an all-time hottest temperature record this year. My source for extreme temperature records is Chris Burt, author of the book Extreme Weather. July in Moscow is easily going to smash the record for hottest month in Moscow's history. By my rough estimate, the temperature has been 18°F (10°C) above average this month. The record hottest July, in 1938, had temperatures 5.3°C above average. Given that the planet as a whole has seen record high temperatures the past four months in a row, it should not be a surprise to see unprecedented heat waves like the Russian heat wave. A record warm planet "loads the dice" in favor of regional heat waves more extreme than anything experienced in recorded history.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1559

Post Reply