Jan 072020
 


Jack Delano Worker inspecting locomotive, Proviso Yard 1942

 

China Pledges ‘Prudence’ In Diversifying Foreign Exchange Reserves (SCMP)
Experts Urge Fed To Consider Radical Approaches To Fight Next Recession (MW)
Iran ‘Not Interested’ In Having Nukes – UN Envoy (RT)
McConnell Urges Lawmakers To Wait For Facts On Soleimani Killing (R.)
McConnell Has The Votes To Block Democrats’ Impeachment Witness Demands (Hill)
A Very Real Scenario Of A Protracted, Bizarro World Democratic Primary (Pol.)
China Must Cancel New Coal Plants To Achieve Climate Goals (R.)
American Airlines Reaches Secret Settlement With Boeing Over 737 MAX (R.)
Chelsea Clinton Reaps $9 Million From Corporate Board Position (Hill)
Australia To Kill Thousands Of Camels As They Drink Too Much Water (Hill)
Australian Owners Say Cultural Burning Saved Their Property (Age)
New Neural Activity Suggests Our Brains Even More Powerful Than We Think (RT)

 

 

Read between the lines. China suffers from capital flight. It can’t keep the dollars at home. But sure, it’s tempting to call this diversifying.

China Pledges ‘Prudence’ In Diversifying Foreign Exchange Reserves (SCMP)

China will “steadily and prudently” diversify its US$3.1 trillion foreign exchange reserve holdings, the government agency managing the assets pledged in its 2020 work plan, suggesting a subtle policy change in the way Beijing uses its hard currency holdings. The careful approach would “promote the diversified use … and ensure the safety, flow, and preservation and appreciation of foreign exchange reserve assets,” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement published on Sunday, which summarised the results of its annual work conference last week. It is the first time that SAFE, headed by Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, has called for “prudence” in diversifying China’s reserve assets in its annual work conference statement.

The regulator also vowed to improve its management of reserves “with Chinese characteristics”, although it did not explain what that meant. SAFE added it would prevent risks caused by external shocks endangering “national economic and financial security” in 2020. China’s diversification strategy for its foreign exchange reserves – which generally indicates a reduction in holdings of US government bonds for other riskier assets – has gained speed in the past decade after the creation of a separate sovereign wealth fund in 2007. SAFE has created a special office of lending dollars to institutions like the China Development Bank to finance overseas projects and launched a number of overseas offices for investment.

In its 2018 annual report, SAFE revealed for the first time the share of US dollar denominated assets in its reserves portfolio for the period 2005 to 2014. Dollar assets accounted for 58 per cent of China’s total reserves by 2014 – the most recent data provided – down from 79 per cent in 2005, the report showed. By international standards, the share of US dollar assets in China’s reserves in 2014 was below average. The latest data from the International Monetary Fund showed that 61.8 per cent of the world’s reserves assets were denominated in US dollars at the end of the third quarter last year.

Read more …

Ha ha! Larry Summers as the expert.

Experts Urge Fed To Consider Radical Approaches To Fight Next Recession (MW)

Two monetary-policy experts, contradicting former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, said they wanted the central bank to consider new “radical” approaches to fight the next recession, out of a concern that existing tools might not be as effective as they were in the last crisis. In a Sunday morning panel at the American Economic Association annual meeting, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the Fed’s QE program, in which the central bank would buy government bonds to bring down long-term rates, might not pack so much punch because the 10-year Treasury note is already close to 1%. “I’m less optimistic about the incremental efficacy of QE,” Summers said.

“I don’t think pushing 10-year rates down from 100 basis points to 50 basis points or 20 basis points has [a] significant incremental effect.” In a speech to the AEA on Saturday night, former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said he thought the Fed had to the tools, including QE, to successfully combat a severe downturn. Bernanke said he thought QE, and verbal guidance from the Fed, would be equivalent to a 300-basis-point easing of the central bank’s benchmark federal funds rate. Adam Posen, a former policy maker at the Bank of England, urged the Fed to consider “radical” approaches, including a new tool called “yield-curve control” to fight the next downturn.

The Bank of Japan has already been using yield-curve control since 2016 to fight deflation. “The BOJ has gotten it right. Yield-curve control is a success story,” Posen said. Under this policy, last used in the U.S. during World War II, the Fed would announce it intended to peg the 10-year Treasury rate at a specific low rate. Low rates would help spur activity. And with the Fed guaranteeing low rates, Congress could boost government spending. “It enables fiscal policy, it doesn’t judge it,” Posen said. It was used during World War II precisely because the government needed to boost fiscal spending.

Read more …

A consistent point of view. The west makes sure nobody here believes it, but Iran has said the same thing for many years. It’s a religious issue. And just because we warp Christian values to allow for the inclusion of nukes, doesn’t mean they should do the same with the Islam.

Iran ‘Not Interested’ In Having Nukes – UN Envoy (RT)

Prohibited by the supreme leader’s decree, nuclear weapons are inconsistent with Iran’s defensive doctrine, the country’s UN envoy said after Tehran announced the suspension of limits under the 2015 deal. Iran’s decision to lift restrictions on uranium enrichment – after a US drone strike killed General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport – made headlines in Western media, with some speculating that the Islamic Republic could be seeking nuclear weapons. However, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, reassured the public that this is not the case – even though the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is now in jeopardy.


There is “no place for nuclear weapons in Iran’s defensive doctrine,” he told PBS Newshour, adding that the country is also abiding by the Non-Proliferation Treaty – a 1968 pact that aims for nuclear disarmament and sets standards for arms control. We are not interested in having a nuclear weapon, because we have a very clear, clear-cut religious edict by our supreme leader prohibiting nuclear weapons. Tehran has meticulously followed the provisions of the nuclear deal even, though it has received “almost nothing in return,” Takht-Ravanchi said. And while the European parties to the JCPOA (from which Tehran expected to receive benefits) “didn’t act in accordance with the deal,” Iran has chosen not to abandon it completely. “If Iran is given the benefits of the deal, we will go back to the full implementation of it,” the ambassador stated.

Read more …

That’s not how social media work these days, Mitch. Everyone needs to form an opinion within seconds.

McConnell Urges Lawmakers To Wait For Facts On Soleimani Killing (R.)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday U.S. lawmakers should wait for the facts before criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to kill top Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad last week. “We can and we should learn more about the intelligence and thinking that led to this operation and the plan to defend American personnel and interests in the wake of it,” McConnell said at the U.S. Capitol after lawmakers returned from winter break. “Unfortunately, in this toxic political environment, some of our colleagues rushed to blame our own government before even knowing the facts. Rushed to split hairs about intelligence before being briefed on it.”

Read more …

So that’s that?!

McConnell Has The Votes To Block Democrats’ Impeachment Witness Demands (Hill)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has the votes to quash Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer’s (N.Y.) demands to require additional witnesses testify at the start of President Trump’s impeachment trial. Two key moderate senators, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), on Monday evening backed McConnell’s position that the Senate should follow the precedent of the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial and defer until later in the process the question of calling additional witnesses. Collins told reporters at Monday evening votes that the Senate should follow the 1999 precedent and consider the question of subpoenaing additional witnesses and documents only after House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team present their opening arguments.


She noted in a statement Monday that then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) adopted a resolution in 1999 to set out the rules for the proceeding that didn’t include any agreement for specific witnesses to testify. “The process moved to a period during which the Senate debated and voted that three witnesses should be deposed. I believe that this process — the Clinton approach — worked well,” she said. Murkowski also urged colleagues to follow the path laid out during the Clinton trial. “I think we need to do what they did the last time they did this unfortunate process and that was to go through a first phase and then they reassessed after that,” she told reporters.

Read more …

A whole new game. Maybe Bloomberg still has a shot. But really, the time between Super Tuesday and the elections should be used to form a united front. Not going to happen. Trump is the only thing that keeps the Dems together.

A Very Real Scenario Of A Protracted, Bizarro World Democratic Primary (Pol.)

Democrats are now beginning to confront a very real scenario where the nomination — and the winnowing — will not be decided in states where campaigns have been plowing ground for more than a year, but in places and calendar dates so deep into primary season that until recently they’ve received almost no attention at all. The Iowa field is bunched together with little daylight between a handful of well-funded candidates. Each of the four early voting states continues to present the prospect of a different winner. And, at the end of that gauntlet on Super Tuesday, a free-spending billionaire — Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor — is waiting to challenge whichever candidate or candidates emerge.

It’s a unique set of circumstances that has the campaigns — and party officials — scrambling to make sense of the reconfigured landscape. Looking at the possibility of a still-contested nomination even after Super Tuesday’s massive delegate allocation on March 3, Washington state Democratic Party chair Tina Podlodowski said mid-March will “probably matter more than ever before.” One strategist working with a presidential candidate said, “We’ve never had a situation where we get past Super Tuesday and there’s still five people in the field,” predicting that possibility this year. “We’re in bizarro world here,” the strategist said.

[..] “Super Tuesday is typically a wild scramble, and anybody who’s still surviving is usually limping a little bit in terms of money. They’re spread thin in terms of where to go,” said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. “Campaigns can’t pay to have simultaneous overhead in all of the early states and all of the next round of states with quality people. So they put all of their best people in early states and then cut and paste them into the next states.” For later states, said Matt Bennett, a veteran of the 2004 presidential campaign and a co-founder of the center-left group Third Way, “The strategy is wait and pray. There is no other strategy … I just think you basically ignore it, and then they’ll frantically run around in those states for a week.”

Read more …

Look at per capita emissions. In the end that’s all that counts. Now imagine Europe, China and the US at the same levels as India. That’s our future.

China Must Cancel New Coal Plants To Achieve Climate Goals (R.)

China must end the construction of all new coal-fired power plants in order to meet long-term climate goals in the most economically feasible manner, according to a study co-authored by a government-backed research institute. China’s energy strategy over the next decade is under close scrutiny as it aims to bring climate warming carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and fulfill a pledge made as part of the 2015 Paris agreement. But with economic growth at its slowest pace in nearly 30 years, Beijing has continued to approve new coal-fired plants, raising fears the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gas is backtracking on its commitments.

Beijing is capable of phasing out coal to help meet a global target to keep temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, but only if it embarks on a “structured and sustainable” closure strategy to minimize the economic impact, according to the study by Chinese government researchers and the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability published on Monday. The report, which evaluated more than 1,000 existing coal-fired power plants, said China must first end new construction and then rapidly close older and inefficient plants. As much as 112 gigawatts (GW) does not meet environmental standards and could be shut down immediately, it said.

China currently has over 1,000 GW of coal-fired power, accounting for about 60% of the country’s total installed generation capacity. “Well-designed policies can help lower the cost of coal-power deep decarbonization,” said Jiang Kejun, research professor with the Chinese government-backed Energy Research Institute, one of the report’s authors. [..] Beijing promised last year to show the “highest possible ambition” when drawing up new climate pledges for the coming decade, but it has built 42.9 GW of new coal-fired power capacity since the start of 2018, with another 121 GW under construction.

Read more …

We need a whistleblower.

American Airlines Reaches Secret Settlement With Boeing Over 737 MAX (R.)

American Airlines said on Monday it had reached a confidential agreement with Boeing to address damages the airline incurred in 2019 due to the ongoing grounding of its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. American, the largest U.S. airline, said the compensation will be received over several years. The airline will use more than $30 million of the compensation for the airline’s 2019 employee profit-sharing program. American said it does not expect any material financial impact of the agreement to be realized in its fourth-quarter 2019 earnings and it will continue talks regarding compensation for damages related to the MAX grounding beyond 2019. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines’ 28,000 flight attendants, said it welcomed the news about compensation, and was evaluating the details.

Read more …

Et tu, Hunter?

Chelsea Clinton Reaps $9 Million From Corporate Board Position (Hill)

Chelsea Clinton has reaped $9 million in compensation since 2011 for serving on the board of an internet investment company, according to Barron’s, the financial publication. Barron’s reported Sunday that Clinton has profited handsomely as a board member for IAC/InterActiveCorp, a media and internet investment company that has an ownership stake in 150 well-known brands, such as Vimeo, Tinder, Angie’s List and Home Advisor. Clinton, the only child of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has served on IAC’s board since 2011 and receives an annual $50,000 retainer and $250,000 worth of restricted IAC stock units, Barron’s reports.


She reported owning $8.95 million worth of IAC stock to the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of December. Barron’s notes that IAC’s stock has risen 89 percent, 50 percent and 36 percent in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, a far steeper rise than the broader stock market. Clinton’s public profile has proved a valuable commodity. She earned an annual salary of $600,000 working as a special correspondent for NBC News in 2013 and part of 2014. Clinton was named to the board of Expedia Group in March of 2017, a position that typically earned $250,000 in 2015, according to a report at the time by The Guardian. Both IAC and Expedia are controlled by Barry Diller, the business and television mogul, who is a friend of Hillary Clinton.

Read more …

It’s all their fault, of course.

Australia To Kill Thousands Of Camels As They Drink Too Much Water (Hill)

Officials will kill thousands of camels in Australia as they drink too much water amid the wildfires. Leaders in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in northwest Australia will send helicopters to kill up to 10,000 camels in a five-day campaign starting Wednesday, The Australian reported. The order to kill comes as a drought makes the camels more desperate for water, causing chaos in local communities. Marita Baker, an APY executive board member, told the newspaper that the camels were causing problems in her community of Kanypi. “We have been stuck in stinking hot and uncomfortable conditions, feeling unwell, because the camels are coming in and knocking down fences, getting in around the houses and trying to get to water through air conditioners,’’ she said.


The State Department for Environment and Water will send the helicopters up. The camels’ bodies will be burnt or buried if they are accessible, but in remote areas, their bodies will be left. The camels are also being removed due to concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, since camels emit one ton of carbon dioxide per year. The animal’s population also doubles every nine years if not regulated. The National Feral Camel Management Plan estimated about one million camels lived in three states and the Northern territory in 2010, according to the newspaper. One million camels is the equivalent of having 400,000 more cars on the roads, Tim Moore, chief executive of carbon farming specialists RegenCo, told the newspaper.

Read more …

Think the white Aussies will change their ways now?

Australian Owners Say Cultural Burning Saved Their Property (Age)

Aboriginal cultural fire practitioner Dennis Barber led a series of cultural burns on six hectares of bushland at Ngurrumpaa in 2015 and 2016 – the first burns in the area since a wildfire swept through in 1994. “There’s nothing more powerful than doing it and feeling like you’re doing the right thing, and seeing the results,” he said. Unlike hazard reduction burning, cultural burns are cooler and slower moving, usually no taller than knee height, leaving tree canopies untouched and allowing animals to take refuge from the flames. Small fires are lit with matches, instead of drip torches, and burn in a circular pattern. Mr Barber says the ancient practice is informed by thousands of years of traditional knowledge.

“It’s more than just putting the fire on the ground – it’s actually knowing the country, knowing what’s there … the soil types, the geology, the trees, the animals, the breeding times of animals, the flowering times of plants,” he said. The timing and frequency of burns depend on the environmental “system”. A former park ranger with 15 years’ professional firefighting experience, Mr Barber says he had a “light bulb moment” at a cultural burning workshop with Indigenous elders in far north Queensland in 2010. “Everything that I’d been doing as a professional firefighter, thinking that I was doing the right thing, was wrong, because I viewed fire in the landscape totally differently after that week,” he said.

“That’s where I got the bug to come back and actually spread that knowledge and see it happening in other parts of Australia.” The Wiradjuri man started Koori Country Firesticks in 2016 to promote cultural burning as an alternative to hazard reduction techniques in NSW. The organisation has culturally burnt around 50 hectares of land across the Hunter Valley and Sydney, mainly on private properties at the request of owners. But the 55-year-old has met plenty of resistance from governments, professional firefighters, national parks and even ecologists. “It’s been a little bit frustrating, but I’ve just decided I’m not going to let that stand in the way anymore,” he said.

Read more …

Wait. If our brains are indeed more powerful than we think, why are we not already thinking that?

New Neural Activity Suggests Our Brains Even More Powerful Than We Think (RT)

Scientists have discovered a new form of brain activity related to how cells process information. The incredible find suggests our brains might be even more powerful than previously thought, according to the team. The new research, conducted by German and Greek scientists and published in Science, centers on signals sent and received by the ends of neurons, known as ‘dendrites.’ The information passed by these parts of the brain is key to how the organ decides subsequent actions. Working with slices of human brain tissue, the team found unexpectedly complex electrical activity in the dendrites of human pyramidal neurons.


Modeling this activity then showed that single neurons were capable of solving computational problems which were thought to need a lot more brain power. “The dendrites are central to understanding the brain because they are at the core of what determines the computational power of single neurons,”said study co-author Matthew Larkum, a neuroscientist at Humboldt University of Berlin. “There was a ‘eureka’ moment when we saw the dendritic action potentials for the first time.” Little is currently known about how dendrites operate in other species, or if this kind of high-computational activity is uniquely human. However, it’s incredibly difficult to record dendrite activity in humans or animals while they’re alive, and Larkum says more research is needed to fill in these blanks.

Read more …

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 7 2020

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  • #52558

    Jack Delano Worker inspecting locomotive, Proviso Yard 1942   • China Pledges ‘Prudence’ In Diversifying Foreign Exchange Reserves (SCMP) • Exper
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 7 2020]

    #52559
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Jack Delano Worker inspecting locomotive, Proviso Yard 1942
    Wow, that’s one hell of a photograph!

    A consistent point of view. The west makes sure nobody here believes it, but Iran has said the same thing for many years. It’s a religious issue. And just because we warp Christian values to allow for the inclusion of nukes, doesn’t mean they should do the same with the Islam.

    Indeed Ilargi; “a consistent point of view”
    Nukes are against Islam’s principles…
    Just what’s not to get?
    But, we know the facts; the west insists Iran cow tow to US interests; Iran never, ever, will…

    #52561
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Bitcoin up $1000 this week. There’s your capital flight signal.

    Borden Dairy Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday … Borden was founded in 1857”

    This is what happens when you suppress commodity prices for 40 years in a row, savage all food and infrastructure while inflating paper prices to enrich idiot sons of idiot sons. From yesterday, what happens when rates rise as Armstrong says has occurred? Bonds, let’s say you own one, AAA or junk, paying 4%. If rates rise, all new bonds now pay 5-6%. What’s the value of your 4% bond? 25% less in face value more or less instantly. But it’s much worse than that. If milk is rising then likely wheat, oil, corn are too, and if money is leaving paper then you have “inflation” as well. So you have a 25% loss today AND a 10% loss per year by holding it. …Just like the 1970s. Which is why they called bonds “certificates of confiscation.” And while that DOES end at some point — Treasury rates of 19% “will pull money off the moon,” as they said in 1980 — it won’t end until you have a tsunami that levels every fraud in its path.

    P.S. also a lesson in central planning and price controls, as milk hasn’t been free-market in almost 100 years. So when you go to the store and there’s no milk, thank communism! Almost 200 years and the results haven’t been different yet! But this time, I tell ya, this time with Bernie and AOC and Yang it’ll be different, I promise.

    Iran ‘Not Interested’ In Having Nukes – UN Envoy (RT)

    Sheesh. Pretty sure Iran has had nukes for decades, at the least bought them out of the totally-unguarded USSR promoted by the U.S. At the very least Iranian scientists sit in every lab and test in NoKo and ahve $1.4B in U.S. cash-on-pallets. But what does that tell you? Like everyone else, they don’t want to nuke anybody. What I don’t get it that this is a cover story, a proxy-slang for something else I don’t understand. Nuclear power that would allow their refineries? Not sure, but the only certain thing is it’s not nuclear refining or bombs. For 30 years that story has made no sense, not the least of which bc Israel has said “they’re 10 years from the bomb” since 1979. …You know, the year after Israel sold all that (our) missile and weapons tech to them. No Docktor, that didn’t really happen, did it? Read a book.

    No one gives a crap about the nuclear deal. We and Israel and Pakistan and NoKo and India break it every day. We (+IDF) probably used pocket nukes in Syria. The U.N. oversees it all for pay. Since no one cares, and it’s a big puppet show, what’s it all about, Alfie? It’s so fake I don’t even want to talk about it.

    McConnell Urges Lawmakers to Wait for Facts on Soleimani Killing (R.)

    All of Hollywood didn’t wait to openly surrender and beg to occupied by Iran. Because muh, woman’s rights. Help Me Rhonda. Another episode of “Who Shall We Surrender to Today?” A: Anyone who asks, of course. That’s tolerance! In #AntiLogos, that’s #Winning!

    the time between Super Tuesday and the elections should be used to form a united front.”

    This is with AOC saying publicly that she and Biden shouldn’t be in the same party. Wait AOC: it was HIS party, so why did you join it? And when you arrive you have the right to kick him/them out just by claiming you’re a Democrat? Unity! A problem they can’t fix, I guess the clue-by-four didn’t hurt enough yet. HELP THE PEOPLE, WILL YA? Stop destroying every minority and working man in every city you own. Bloomberg had great ads, exactly what would work great to win 2020, but he’s tainted by god-all and can’t rise fast enough. When he drops, his loophole for campaign finance money goes too. Appears to be Sanders vs Biden/Biden-Mole. But neither side will turn out for the other. We’ll see if Pelosi drops a nuke, not in T, but on Sanders to knock him out of running by having to attend Peachment. In the tradition of constantly cheating, the DNC has just kept Yang off the ballot in Ohio, ‘cause you know, reasons. I can’t believe I’m watching this all over again. So…Yang Gang’s going to turn out in droves now that you’ve punched them in the nose and onto the mat saying, “Hey punk, know your place?” “Vote for us or else?” I don’t care, it’s better for me if they DO cheat, I just hate to see the game played so badly. It hurts. And more, it hurts the country. #ComeBack

    “Chelsea Clinton Reaps $9 Million from Corporate Board Position (Hill)”

    This would be less weird except she’s dumb as a post. No slight to her, she’s just a gal born to the wrong family.

    Australian Owners Say Cultural Burning Saved Their Property (Age)

    Real environmentalism, as clue-phone: humans are part of the environment. Headlines ask: will Australia ever recover? OMG idiots: yes. Cycles of wet and dry have been going on for 100,000 years there. You’ve made it so much worse with your “helping” but fire is not only normal it’s necessary. Animals will die as they do and have and must. It’s the humans that STOP that natural carnage, with their human “interference” with nature and controlled burns. But when humans are bad and must be killed, when they are not nature but above it as your weird religion believes, you can’t see that and ultimately kill everyone. Nevertheless, they will recover and survive, as we have here, for the exact same reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ecology

    P.S. if you live in California or Australia, please either move your house or make a fire-able hacienda.

    Tile

    In Japan, they even had mud storehouses: you put all valuables in, sealed it with clay, and evacuated. It would seem every house could have at least a Kansas storm-shelter for goodness sake. Spare that second 72” TV and get one. I’d say they have plows in the north and storm shutters in the south, but in fact no matter how many thousand times weather hurts them, people can’t seem to prioritize, you know, not dying. That’s humans, what can I say? But at least try not to kill every animal because of your reckless irresponsibility and love of English-style stick houses too.

    BTW, with all the calls to AGW, yet Australia arrested 200 arsonists? WTF can that be real? Maybe you should toss them into town square and let the mob decide what to do with them. Can’t imagine, except suspect that here in CA, but more for $$$.

    #52562
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Orlov is worth the time today, right up TAE:

    “While finance types and economists, who deal in dimensionless quantities identified by quasi-religious mystical symbols such as $, €, ¥ and £, toil tirelessly to maintain a fake Potemkin village façade of a thriving economy, no such theatrical suspension of disbelief is possible when looking at tonnes, cubic meters or kilowatt-hours. A bunch of ruthless financial swindlers teamed up with pointy-hatted economists spend their days reasoning circularly about price determining value determining price while resolutely confusing money creation with wealth creation. Meanwhile, a shrinking physical economy obscured by runaway debt remains on a collision course with reality; once the collision takes place, the result will be similar to what happened during the financial collapse of 2007-8, except that the desperate financial manipulations that were then used to arrest it will no longer work at all and the physical economy, which is already languishing, will grind to a halt.”

    cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/01/predictions-for-2020s.html

    #52563
    zerosum
    Participant

    LIFE OF THE ELITE

    • Chelsea Clinton Reaps $9 Million From Corporate Board Position (Hill)

    She was an underpaid elite.
    The measure of the pay of elites is different than the way the pay of other people is calculated and evaluated. (Check your facts with the enablers)

    Who writes the wiki bio entries? Who edits the wiki bios?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Clinton
    She got married and raised 3 kids.
    (Spouse(s): Marc Mezvinsky (m. 2010), Children: 3)
    Education:
    Stanford University (BA), University College, Oxford, (MPhil, DPhil), Columbia University (MPH), New York University
    Clinton has authored five children’s books and co-authored a scholarly book for adults on global health policy, as well as articles and opinion pieces published in major media outlets. She has received numerous awards and honors.
    Clinton has worked for McKinsey & Company, Avenue Capital Group, and New York University and serves on several boards, including those of the School of American Ballet, Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative, Common Sense Media, Weill Cornell Medical College, and IAC/InterActiveCorp.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Mezvinsky
    Mezvinsky graduated from Stanford University in 2000, where he received a B.A. in religious studies and philosophy.[11] He then attended Pembroke College, Oxford in 2002, where he received his undergraduate MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.[12]
    After graduation, he worked at Goldman Sachs as an emerging markets foreign exchange strategist, and later went on to join the global macro proprietary trading desk.[22] He served as senior partner at 3G Capital[22] before leaving to start his own hedge fund, Eaglevale Partners, a traditional multi-strategy investment fund, focused on currencies, commodities and bonds. Eaglevale Partners closed in 2016.[23] Mezvinsky joined Social Capital as Vice Chairman in 2017[24] where he helped the firm manage its business development and growing portfolio of companies.[25] He left Social Capital in the spring of 2008.[3]
    In 2019, Mezvinsky joined TPG Capital as a managing director.[3]

    #52564
    zerosum
    Participant

    Tower of babel

    Do the rich and powerful hear and/or follow our advise/what we say on the blogs?
    Will they listen to ….

    If Baghdad Wants Us Out, Let’s Go!



    Perhaps, rather than sending troops into Iraq and Kuwait to defend U.S. troops already there, we should accede to the local nationalist demands, start bringing our troops home, and let Iranians, Iraqis, Libyans, Syrians, Yemenis and Afghans settle their quarrels.

    Now it is the Americans who are the targets of protests.

    ——-
    Warning: Avoid, phlegm, dye, and paint balls

    #52565
    zerosum
    Participant

    While this talk has not yet been confirmed it does sounds highly plausible.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/01/blowback-from-the-soleimani-assassination-increases-as-iraq-reveals-how-trump-tried-to-steal-its-oil.html#more

    Mr. Abdul Mahdi spoke with an angry tone, saying:

    “The Americans are the ones who destroyed the country and wreaked havoc on it. They are those who refuse to complete building the electrical system and infrastructure projects. They have bargained for the reconstruction of Iraq in exchange for giving up 50% of Iraqi oil imports, so I refused and decided to go to China and concluded an important and strategic agreement with it, and today Trump is trying to cancel this important agreement.”
    The American President’s threatened the Iraqi Prime Minister to liquidate him directly with the Minister of Defense. The Marines are the third party that sniped the demonstrators and the security men:
    Abdul Mahdi continued:
    “After my return from China, Trump called me and asked me to cancel the agreement, so I also refused, and he threatened me with massive demonstrations that would topple me. Indeed, the demonstrations started and then Trump called, threatening to escalate in the event of non-cooperation and responding to his wishes, so that the third party (Marines snipers) would target the demonstrators and security forces and kill them from the highest structures and the US embassy in an attempt to pressure me and submit to his wishes and cancel the China agreement, so I did not respond and submitted my resignation and the Americans still insist to this day on canceling the China agreement and when the defense minister said that who kills the demonstrators is a third party, Trump called me immediately and physically threatened me and defense minister in the event of talk about the third party.”

    While this talk has not yet been confirmed it does sounds highly plausible.

    The chicken-hawks of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who have all lobbied the U.S. for war on Iran, now fear the consequences:

    #52566
    zerosum
    Participant

    Be careful!

    Your critical thinking abilities will be strained
    Don’t let your emotions rule your thinking
    Salt will not be enough to keep your sanity.
    Propaganda
    Fake news

    IF USA TROOPS STAY IN MIDDLE EAST
    IMMINENT AND PRESENT DANGER
    EXPECT PEACEFULL DEMONSTRATIONS
    EXPECT NON VIOLENCE SIEGE
    Warning to USA troops: phlegm, tracking dye, and paint balls

    https://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2019/11/this-is-where-us-troops-are-stationed.html

    #52567
    zerosum
    Participant

    IMMINENT AND PRESENT DANGER

    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-high-court-blesses-killing-and-maiming-gaza-protesters

    Israel’s high court blesses killing and maiming of Gaza protesters
    Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 26 May 2018
    The Israeli high court ruled in favor of the state’s argument that protesters constituted a danger to Israeli soldiers and civilians, thus justifying the use of lethal force.

    During a special session of the UN Human Rights Council concerning the events in Gaza last week, the body’s High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stated:
    “Although some of the demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots to throw stones, flew burning kites into Israel, and attempted to use wire-cutters against the two fences between Gaza and Israel, these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force.”

    checkmate

    Warning to USA troops: phlegm, tracking dye, and paint balls

    #52568
    restless94111
    Participant

    Iran has said consistently: We don’t want to develop nukes. But is continually demonized. You want to hit your head against the wall. What am I missing here? Why is there this drumbeat?

    Your other posts relating to the great climate hoax scam arr proven false easily and constantly by scientists, but don’t let that stop the hysteria. When you have newly-minted scientist Jennifer Aniston declaring that all the fires set by hundreds of arsonists in Australia are the result of climate change, then we definitely have to worry about a coal plant somewhere that raised people out of poverty,. Keep on keepin’ on with the nonsense,. It’s certainly a certain type of fun to watch. But, as it ramps up to Salem witch trial levels it’s starting to look like serious dangerous delusional madness.. Jennifer Aniston? On international TV? Saying something that is a complete utter lie? Wow.

    Could you at least for 10 minutes or so consider not supporting this horrible stupidity?

    We are so screwed. Can you at least try to mitigate this idiocy? I’m begging you. You have a platform. Stop encouraging this evil lunacy. Please. Thank you.

    #52569
    zerosum
    Participant
    #52570
    Glennda
    Participant

    Love the Mark Twain quote. If I’d been drinking coffee I might have sprayed the screen. LOL!!! so true.

    I love the map Tyler put up of the US military surrounding Iran. Please, when can we move back within our borders? The Wall Trump is building should just keep us within.

    #52571
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The news this morning…the news? the news? there ain’t no stinking news…
    Only a rush to print, anything, fact free bullshit! and hyperbole…
    The only thing I know for sure is that the sun rose in the east this morning at 7:05 am…

    #52572
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    This seems appropriate:
    Country Joe and The Fish 1967
    “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag”

    Well, come on all of you, big strong men
    Uncle Sam needs your help again
    He’s got himself in a terrible jam
    Way down yonder in Vietnam
    So put down your books and pick up a gun
    We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun

    And it’s one, two, three
    What are we fighting for?
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
    Next stop is Vietnam
    And it’s five, six, seven
    Open up the pearly gates
    Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
    Whoopee! we’re all gonna die

    Well, come on generals, let’s move fast
    Your big chance has come at last
    Now you can go out and get those reds
    ‘Cause the only good commie is the one that’s dead
    And you know that peace can only be won
    When we’ve blown ’em all to kingdom come

    And it’s one, two, three
    What are we fighting for?
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
    Next stop is Vietnam
    And it’s five, six, seven
    Open up the pearly gates
    Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
    Whoopee! we’re all gonna die

    Come on Wall Street, don’t be slow
    Why man, this is war au-go-go
    There’s plenty good money to be made
    By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade
    But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb
    They drop it on the Viet Cong

    And it’s one, two, three
    What are we fighting for?
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
    Next stop is Vietnam
    And it’s five, six, seven
    Open up the pearly gates
    Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
    Whoopee! we’re all gonna die

    Come on mothers throughout the land
    Pack your boys off to Vietnam
    Come on fathers, and don’t hesitate
    To send your sons off before it’s too late
    And you can be the first ones in your block
    To have your boy come home in a box

    And it’s one, two, three
    What are we fighting for?
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
    Next stop is Vietnam
    And it’s five, six, seven
    Open up the pearly gates
    Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
    Whoopee! we’re all gonna die

    #52592
    John Day
    Participant

    Of course I am very proud.
    Can I have my brain-slice back now?

    Working with slices of human brain tissue, the team found unexpectedly complex electrical activity in the dendrites of human pyramidal neurons. Modeling this activity then showed that single neurons were capable of solving computational problems which were thought to need a lot more brain power.

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