- A Christmas 'Safe-Space' – Cornell Bans Menorahs, Crosses, & Mistletoe
Happy Holidays from the ‘friendly’ micro-aggressives at Cornell…
From page 2 of Cornell’s “Fire Safety Guidelines For Holiday Displays”
Beware of those dangerous ‘Star of Davids’ and terroristic Mistletoe?
It seems ‘inflammatory’ has a whole new meaning.
h/t @JudithShulevitz
- What Fresh Horror Awaits The Economy After Fed Rate Hike?
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
There is one predominant reality that must be understood before a person can grasp the nature of the Federal Reserve and the decisions it makes, and that reality is this: The Fed’s purpose is not to defend or extend American markets or the dollar; the Fed’s job is ultimately to DESTROY American markets and the dollar. I have been repeating this little fact for years because it seems as though many otherwise intelligent people simply will not accept the truth, which is why they have trouble comprehending the actions that the Fed initiates.
When analysts make the claim that the Fed has positioned itself "between a rock and a hard place" in terms of policy, this is not entirely true. The Fed is exactly where it wants to be in terms of policy; but the central bank has indeed positioned the U.S. ECONOMY between a rock and a hard place, by design.
Globalists see the U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy as expendable (for the most part), and this sacrifice is meant to create distracting chaos as well as geopolitical advantage towards a new fully centralized world economic system. You can read the considerable evidence for this agenda in my article 'The Fall Of America Signals The Rise Of The New World Order'.
If you believe the Fed is the sole purveyor of the global economic crisis and is at the top of the internationalist pyramid, then you probably predicted that the privately controlled central bank would “never in a million years” raise interest rates (many prominent people within the alternative economic scene did). If you believe that the Fed’s primary goal is to prolong the life span of the “American empire,” again, you probably predicted that the Fed would never raise interest rates. There is a serious normalcy bias when it comes to parts of the alternative economic world and their position on the Federal Reserve. They refuse to acknowledge that the Fed is a deliberately preset time bomb meant to vaporize the U.S. economic system and currency. And as long as this continues, they will never be able to determine what is likely to happen next within our fiscal structure.
There is no way around it: If you cannot grasp the root motivations of the Fed, then you will become cognitively crippled in your struggle to see the next pitfall in the near-term economic future.
In August, I made this prediction concerning the Fed rate hike decision:
"The Federal Reserve push for a rate hike will likely be determined before 2015 is over. Talk of a September increase in interest rates may be a ploy, and a last-minute decision to delay could be on the table. This tactic of edge-of-the-seat meetings and surprise delays was used during the QE taper scenario, which threw a lot of analysts off their guard and caused many to believe that a taper would never happen. Well, it did happen, just as a rate hike will happen, only slightly later than mainstream analysts expect.
If a delay occurs, it will be short-lived, triggering a dead cat bounce in stocks, with rates increasing by December as dismal retail sales become undeniable leading into the Christmas season."
I made the prediction (as well as my prediction on the taper in 2013) on the foundation that the Fed is only an appendage of a greater elitist banking machine. The Fed as an institutional idea is not sacrosanct for the elites, and is at the very least replaceable. The dollar is slated for demolition. And though it may continue on for a time in a more marginalized capacity, the “Fed note” as we know it today will soon be crushed under the weight of what the International Monetary Fund calls the “global economic reset.” In other words, every part of my prediction turned out correct because I accepted the reality that the Fed will invariably take the most destructive policy actions at the worst possible time with the purpose of crisis in mind.
Central bankers also have a tendency to follow patterns. They rarely change strategies on a whim. Most of the decisions we see made by the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, etc. were likely made months, if not years, in advance and follow the same strategies used during previous crises.
For example, the Fed process of raising interest rates this December followed almost exactly the process they used to introduce the taper of QE3 in 2013: a buildup of rhetoric in mainstream news during the first half of the year and then a fake-out in September, followed by months of uncertainty in markets and then quick passage of the policy in December. The Fed also has a habit of raising interest rates at the onset of economic instability or right in the middle of a downturn, as it did in 1928-1929, triggering the Great Depression, and in 1931, adding fuel to the fire of financial catastrophe. These particular catalyzing policy actions are partly what Ben Bernanke was referring to on Nov. 8, 2002, in a speech given at “A Conference to Honor Milton Friedman … On the Occasion of His 90th Birthday”:
"In short, according to Friedman and Schwartz, because of institutional changes and misguided doctrines, the banking panics of the Great Contraction were much more severe and widespread than would have normally occurred during a downturn.
Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again."
Based on this pattern of policy actions leading to fiscal disaster, I believe alternative analysts can predict with some certainty what is likely to happen now that the Fed has raised rates in the middle of the most pervasive economic contraction since the Great Depression was initiated (as Bernanke admitted) by central bankers. Here are some trends that I believe will become exponential as we move into 2016.
Market Turmoil Going Critical
This might seem like an easy prediction to make; the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements have both been publishing “warnings” on a possible negative financial event if the Fed were to raise rates. I just want to point out first that the Federal Reserve takes its marching orders from the BIS, so the BIS would certainly know if a Fed policy change will result in collapse. We don't have to make predictions, we only have to look at where the BIS is positioning itself in order to appear as though it is a prognosticator with our "best interests" at heart.
Second, market turmoil is a guarantee given the fact that banks and corporations have been utterly reliant on near-zero interest rates and free overnight lending from the Fed. They have been using these no-cost and low-cost loans primarily for stock buybacks, purchasing back their own stocks and reducing the number of shares on the market, thereby artificially elevating the value of the remaining shares and driving up the market as a whole. Now that near-zero lending is over, these banks and corporations will not be able to afford constant overnight borrowing, and the buybacks will cease. Thus, stock markets will crash in the near term.
This process has already begun with increased volatility leading up to and after the Fed rate hike. Watch for far more erratic stock movements (300 to 500 points or more) up and down taking place more frequently, with the overall trend leading down into the 15,000-point range for the Dow in the first two quarters of 2016. Extraordinary but short lived positive increases in the markets will occur at times (Christmas and New Year’s tend to result in positive rallies), but shock rallies are just as much a sign of volatility and instability as shock crashes.
It is hard to say how fast and how far markets will drop by the end of 2016. I believe we will see a repeat of the 2008-2009 market chaos, but we are entering into some unknown territory being that the crisis we are experiencing is not a purely deflationary one like the Great Depression. Rather, this is a “stagflationary” collapse with elements of the Great Depression and the Weimar inflationary disaster.
The Fed Will Continue To Hike Interest Rates
I believe the Fed will continue to hike rates throughout 2016 despite any current or future negative economic signals. It has ignored the global contraction so far and will ignore future events. Why? The Fed is setting the stage for a collapse. Period.
Mainstream analysts claim skepticism over the Fed’s publicly announced “dot plot” schedule of at least four rate hikes in 2016. I am not skeptical. I think they are going for broke and opening the gates to fiscal hell.
But wouldn’t rate hikes result in a stronger and more desirable dollar? Possibly, in the short term. However, many people are unaware that a supposedly “strong” dollar index relative to other national currencies is just as much a death knell for the greenback as a weak dollar index.
Petrodollar Status Lost
Oil producers have refused to cut production despite the fact that many nations no longer have storage capacity for excess reserves. International demand continues to decline, causing a global oil glut so intense that tankers carrying oil are now being forced to sit offshore waiting for space to dump their cargo. Some are even turning around mid-trip and going back to where they came from.
Why have OPEC nations refused to cut production? Because they plan to diversify away from the dollar and into a basket of currencies in order to “stabilize” oil prices, rather than reduce supply. The icing on the cake is the recent decision by Congress and the Obama administration to allow the removal of the 40-year-old oil export ban within the U.S. With the lifting of the ban, the U.S. now becomes a competitor in the global oil market in the middle of the worst oil glut since the early 1980s. This might not seem like the smartest move to many analysts, but the Fed is not the only institution out to derail the United States. Certain elitists within our own government are also making the worst possible decisions at the worst possible time, and they are doing this quite deliberately.
According to the current developments in oil markets, I believe the next major economic trigger event will be the removal of the dollar’s petro-currency status. The “strong” dollar (relative to the dollar index) is now driving down prices at a rate that is giving OPEC nations whiplash. Saudi Arabia has already hinted at a depeg from the dollar, as low oil value continues to drive oil producers into debt.
With the U.S. now entering the market as an oil competitor, I do not see any compelling reason for OPEC nations to continue pegging oil sales to the dollar. With the loss of petrostatus, the dollar will be progressively torn apart. This will lead into the eventual removal of the dollar’s world reserve status, which I have been warning about for years, most recently in my article “The Global Economic Reset Has Begun.”
Geopolitical Distractions
I do not see all of these economic developments taking place in an open vacuum. It makes far more sense for them to progress in the background during geopolitical upheaval with terrorism being the main distraction for the general public. I believe 2016 will be labeled the “year of the terrorist,” as ISIS attacks expand to every corner of the U.S. and in numerous EU nations. This “fog of war” is completely necessary to hide the actions of the most dangerous terrorists: international financiers and elites bent on morphing entire global political and financial structures into something more centralized and more sinister.
Other distractions are certainly possible, but there are far too many trigger points around the world at this time to make any kind of prediction as to which ones (if any) will be used. The false East/West paradigm continues and is useful in that it provides a rationale for the eventual dump of the U.S. dollar by Eastern nations (including China). Russian and NATO tensions could be used to foment regional wars or even a world war if that is in the cards. I do not see this as the endgame, though.
Rather, economic collapse is the greatest weapon at the disposal of globalists. National panic, riots, looting, starvation, magnified crime: All of these things result in mass die-offs and desperation. Desperation leads to calls for "strong leadership", and strong leadership usually results in totalitarianism. It might seem sensationalist to tie all of these possible outcomes to the Fed rate hike decision, but give it a little time. Those who make accusations of sensationalism and “fear mongering” today will be asserting tomorrow that such developments were “easily predictable.”
- The World's Strangest Currencies
For centuries, humans from all around the world have tried to use different things as money. Some forms, which most people are familiar with today, have been effective catalysts for trade over thousands of years. Other currencies, from squirrel pelts to parmesan cheese, have had their time or place in human history, but were ultimately unsuccessful or made obsolete.
The path to finding the best money has been long and riddled with trial and error. Here are just some of the world’s strangest currencies that we discovered in our research.
- China Proposes A Fix For Its Crashing Housing Market: "Transplant" 100 Million Farmers Into Its Cities
Following China’s Central Economic Work Conference which concluded on Monday, and which mapped out China’s economic priorities for next year, global markets soared on speculation that China will, once again, unleash some form of stimulus, which in turn sent commodities surging over the past three days even though ironically any incremental injections, monetary or fiscal, will simply force domestic producers – already on the brink of bankruptcy – to produce more, export even more, and accelerate the global deflationary tide which earlier today forced the US to fire the first trade war salvo after the Department Of Commerce announced Chinese steel imports will be taxed at 256%.
What the market once again is missing is that when it comes to China, it is no longer a question whether the PBOC or Beijing will inject a few billion into the economy (which have a “credit impulse” halflife of a few weeks at most) which they may well do, but a question of leverage: with consolidated debt/GDP of over 300% as of the end of this quarter (compared to 282% a year ago), China is now the most levered nation in the world behind Japan, more so than even the US.
Until this leverage comes down substantially, either through defaults or inflation, China will no longer be the world growth dynamo as it was in the early and mid days of the financial crisis, when it had “only” 160% in leverage.
As such it is only natural to fade the market’s now traditional bullish misinterpretation of what China tried to convey to the market.
However, one thing that did catch our attention, is that for the first time, China officially admitted not only that it has a major housing bubble in the form of a massive excess inventory overhang, but that unless addressed said bubble could lead to an even greater crash in the economy.
According to the official mouthpiece of the communist party, Xinhua, “China will continue to actively destock its massive property inventory
over concerns that the ailing housing market could derail the economy.”Xinhua adds that along with cutting overcapacity and tackling debt, destocking will be a major task in 2016. This is key because not only does it preclude any speculation about more stimulus, it actually suggests that Beijing is far more focused on the risks emanating from the overindebted economy and thus actually reducing leverage.
It was here that, in a rare moment of rationality and insight, China’s political leaders actually made a lot of sense: they admitted that the main reason why China’s housing market is moribund is because as a result of the housing bubble which burst in 2014, prices are still too high, and need to come down substantially more!
“Obsolete restrictive measures [in the property market] will be revoked,” said the statement, without specifying which “restrictive measures” it was referring to. To rein in house prices, China has been trying to curb real estate speculation, with policies such as “home purchase restriction” that only allows registered residents to buy houses. It is believed the restrictive policies mainly affected the property markets in third- and fourth-tier cities, which saw the most supply glut.
As we have shown before, and as Xinhua adds, “the property market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a supply glut. This cooling continued into 2015, with sales and prices falling, and investment slowing.”
Furthermore, as we have also shown before, when it comes to household wealth, in China real estate is of far greater importance for the perception of wealth than the stock market – in fact, as a percentage of relative wealth, for Chinese residents the real estate market is the equivalent to the stock market for Americans.
Xinhua confirms as much saying that “property investment’s GDP contribution in the first three quarters of this year hit a 15-year low of 0.04 percent. The property market is vital to steel and cement manufacturers, as well as furniture producers; its poor performance would breed financial risks.“
So far, all of this surprisingly makes a lot of sense as China demonstrates an impressive ability to diagnose the causes of its economic slowdown.
Where things, however, suddenly veer dramatically off course and into sheer delusion, is China’s proposal how to “solve” its affliction.
In brief, Beijing is hoping to “transplant” 100 million farmers into registered urban residents, who no longer being migrant workers, will rush to buy real estate in the process soaking up some of the millions of vacant square meters of excess capacity real estate. At least that’s how the thinking goes: “attendees of the meeting agreed that rural residents that move to urban areas should be allowed to register as residents, which would encourage them to buy homes in the city. Property developers have been advised to reduce home prices, according to the statement.”
More from Xinhua:
Nearly 55 percent of the population live in cities but less than 40 percent are registered to do so. There are around 300 million migrant workers but most are denied “hukou” (official residence status). In addition to housing rights, a hukou gives the holder equal employment rights and social security services, and their children are allowed to be enrolled in city schools.
Starting next year, China will roll out policy to transform 100 million farmers into registered urban residents, according to Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, on Tuesday. No deadline for completion was specified.
The punchline: “Ni Pengfei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, estimated that if 70 percent of migrant workers buy homes in the cities, it would solve the 2.2 billion square meters of housing inventory.”
And since these migrant workers would be unable to afford local homes at going rates, they would get preferential prices: the government is suggesting a reduction of home prices. The monthly income for migrant workers in 2014 was 2,864 yuan (440 U.S. dollars), while property can easily exceed 10,000 yuan per square meter. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the ruling Communist Party of China, added in an editorial on Wednesday that “cutting home prices is an inevitable and wise option for developers in destocking, particularly for those in third- or fourth-tier cities.”
At this moment we are supposed to forget the disastrous consequences of what happened when China tried to “transplant” 100 million farmers into stock traders, and just focus on real estate, where we will admit that in theory, this idea may even make sense: 100 million potential buyers granted deeply discounted home prices will do miracles for China’s ghost cities and millions of vacant apartments. Because, quite simply, what the Politburo is proposing, is to dramatically accelerate the rural-to-urban migration that has been taking place over the past 30 years, and to pull forward some 10 years of urban worker migration.
There is just one problem – or rather risk – and it happens to be the one which only we touched upon over a month ago, in “Here Is The Biggest, And Most Underreported, Risk Facing China“, a risk which has since been picked up by both the NYT and the WSJ: social upheaval and public unrest.
As we have been discussing over the past two months, most recently yesterday in “China’s Cost To Avoid The Dreaded Working Class Revolution: A Record CNY11.1 Trillion, And Rising“, while China’s biggest economic problems are record debt and excess capacity, the biggest risk is a suddenly very angry population which can no longer find either employment or acceptable wages.
The result has been a record surge in labor strikes in the past few years, culminating with November of 2015, a record month.
So what does Beijing think will happen when its already imploding commodity companies, those who happen to be the biggest employers across the country, are faced with 100 million new able-bodied workers, all recently moved into their brand new urban apartments which cost them far less than comparable costs for existing employees?
The answer: a deflationary wage neutron bomb, as millions upon millions of these migrant workers are hired over their already employed peers, who are suddenly expendable now that more ambitious, and less demanding workers are there to fill their shoes: expendable in a country of of 1.4 bilion without any social safety net! Which is great news for the 100 or so million migrants… and very bad news for the 100 million existing workers whom they will replace.
What happens then? The same thing that we have been showing ever since 2014 when we presented China’s riot police drills against a “working class insurrection“… drills which took place because it is only a matter of time before China has to deal with the real thing.
The conclusion: China has shown admirable aptitude in diagnosing its problem, and a terrifying lack of vision in its proposed solution. Then again, since none of the other conventional avenues to boost the housing market are available, perhaps it makes sense: with no other options, Beijing is resorting to only measure it knows will work if only for a while, before social unrest finally gets out of control.
Then again, the “developed countries” are not doing anything more prudent: the western central banks know well they have blown the biggest asset bubble ever, one which will have dire consequences, far worse than the aftermath of the Lehman collapse, but the prerogative is simple: kick the can for as long as possible or else accelerate the social collapse as all modern and insolvent Ponzi schemes are exposed.
Is it any wonder that China is now doing precisely the same?
At the end, both “solutions” are doomed to an explosive failure, but for now sit back and just enjoy every day as it comes along, and try not to think too much about the future: with the increasingly more chaotic decisions made by the “leaders” of the developed and emerging worlds, there may not be one.
- 7 Examples Of Demonizing Dissension & Public Opinion
Submitted by Paul Philips via NewParadigm.ws,
As the Western world's "powers that be" tighten their tyrannical controlling noose on humanity's dissension and public opinion, it has never been more important to remember the quote from Orwell‘s novel 1984: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
To countermeasure this much-needed dissension and free public opinion to raise awareness and free humanity the powers that be have taken a severe stance on punishing those who oppose their views regardless of truth or untruth to advance an oppressive agenda.
So, in response, during these times of universal deceit and oppression, here are 7 examples of unjustly demonizing dissension and public opinion.
1. Medical dissention and the AMA’s gagging orders
To get an even larger slice of the medical monopoly the highly influential AMA (American Medical Association) a wing of the medical/pharmaceutical establishment has announced plans to put in gag orders designed to control and prevent doctors from speaking out publically on ‘dubious alternative medical practices.’ Should doctors go outside of the AMA’s guidelines then they could face having their licenses revoked while being unjustly accused of quackery…
-This unfairly biased stance will even further hit integral doctors offering help and advice on track-record proven effective alternative medical practices.
What has the US come to? People, are you going to allow this suppression of free speech? History has shown us time after time that medical advancements resulting in humanitarian contribution has come from challenging medical orthodoxy.
2. Climate change
At a recent talk in Austin, Texas for the yearly South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) Al Gore, former vice-president, made a number of pseudo-scientific statements provably wrong about climate change with all its data manipulation in support of this monumental hoax.
Gore described climate change as ‘settled science’ but nothing could be further from the truth. Climate change is far from settled…
No doubt the audience was filled with supporters of the church of climatology who I doubt would be able to answer these questions challenging climate change.
The powers that be want you to believe in climate change because it’s part of their hidden agenda for power, profit and political gain. Their modus operandi is to punish those who disagree, regardless of the facts contradicting climate change.
As more and more people realise they’ve been had when it comes to climate change the powers that be resort to extreme countermeasures: In the talk Gore told his audience to ramp up their angst against climate change "deniers," Some, in support of this extremist left-wing agenda have made films which includes calling global warming critics as as loathsome and villainous.
-The idea that someone should be punished for differences of opinion is the ultimate tyrannical approach. But what do you expect from a bunch of hysterical authoritarians pushing an agenda based on false pretexts who fear having their lies exposed?
3. War objection
Another case of demonizing dissension or opinion exists through clamping down on anti-war activists. In the UK, the indefinable terms ‘non-violent extremist’ or ’domestic extremist’ could be used to stigmatize or even criminalize individuals as part of a newly developed aggressive anti-terrorist deradicalization programme called PREVENT which could for example target anti-war activists.
Through country-wide legislation PREVENT has made it the statutory duty for educational establishments, local authorities, NHS trust, police and prisons services to provide ongoing information on those deemed as suspects ‘drawn into terrorism.’
Besides unjustly stigmatizing or even making criminals out of entire Muslim communities PREVENT has been described as flawed with vague definitions while threatening to erode civil liberties. For instance, officials representing the Child Protection Agency, from a number of signs listing identifiable behavioural characteristics have warned parents that their children may be at risk of being radicalized, which has been met with much criticism.
As a response a number of organizations such as Together Against Prevent have united to campaign against PREVENT.
4. Shutting up the Political dissenters
Democracy’s long-term moral decline is exemplified by silencing political dissenters on a scale more reminiscent than ever of a dictatorship.
The alternative media has reported many cases where peaceful protesters have been met with extreme pettiness, violence and overreaction from authorities. Take, for example, the recent case of a woman who was apprehended then convicted and fined under the public order act for shouting out “Cameron has blood on his hands” as he switched on the Christmas lights at her home town. At the time the woman was protesting over disability benefit cuts.
Then there’s the authorities’ agent provocateurs deployed to create unscrupulous violent reactions leading to unjustified arrests and bad reputation, deliberately manufactured to unfairly justify the clampdown on peaceful protesters.
5. Political correctness
Political correctness has little to do with protecting minority people or groups from being offended. It’s really about shutting people up, not granting them the right to justly criticise anything while accusing them of something should they talk out.
6. Whistleblower suppression
In these truly dark times universal deceit and propaganda affects us all. Political reality has been bought and sold as a mass-media package made to manipulate the masses’ and their general consensus reality with all the needed cliché’s and falsehoods.
-Through artful mass-media censorship the powers that be have created the perfect illusion to gain approval from the masses on the actions they take, allowing them to slyly advance their hidden enslavement agenda.
In true Bernaysian fashion the masses have been programmed and brainwashed through mass media propaganda. Controlled by a small number of elite individuals the masses will never see known as the ‘invisible government.’
Thus, we have an illusory enemy, illusory war, illusory retribution, illusory diversion and distraction; the illegitimate has been made legitimate…
My point
Against the backdrop of insidious forever accelerating modern fascism I doff my cap to those courageous whistleblowers. The masses not only need to understand the secrets that the powers that be have been harbouring as revealed by whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, but should also understand how they fit into the modern-day context.
That way the awakened masses, having connected the dots, can then spread the word on what’s really happening in the world to others. Raising awareness, peaceful activism and becoming conscious is the key to world change.
7. Vaccinations
The fact that mandatory vaccinations such as SB 271 are being forced on people regardless of their circumstance; by authorities not giving any consideration to the threat of potential injury for some from vaccine toxicity, that it’s based on pseudoscience, ignoring religious objection, or discarding the alternative opinion that immunity is better handled from a naturopathic point of view… should be enough to send a red flag warning…
-I have written extensively on why vaccinations should be avoided at all costs (see SB 271).
* * *
All in all
As consistent with the above quote from Orwell‘s novel 1984 dissension and public opinion has never been so needed to bring back sanity into an insane world by exposing the lies and ulterior motives of the powers that be.
Those in positions of authority involved in demonizing dissension or opinion need to understand that they’ve been deceived and are being played like others as pawns in a very big game.
- TSA Moves To Make Ineffective Body Scanners Mandatory
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The $160 million bill includes $120 million for the body scanners now in place in hundreds of airports nationwide, according to newly disclosed figures obtained by POLITICO. The rest of the money went to the agency’s “naked” X-ray scanners, which it pulled from airports two years ago amid worries about health risks and the devices’ detailed images of travelers’ bodies.
A recent security audit found that TSA had failed to find fake explosives and weapons in 96 percent of covert tests. And members of Congress familiar with the classified details say the body scanners are to blame for much of the problem.
Johnson said that while bomb detection is obviously a complex undertaking, “these things weren’t even catching metal.”
– From the post: Big Brother Idiocy – TSA Spent $160 Million on Naked Body Scanners that Fail 96% of the Time
Long time Liberty Blitzkrieg readers will be well aware of the fact that I’ve never gone through one of the TSA’s ridiculous and completely pointless naked body scanners. Whatever shred of human dignity an American citizen has left is relinquished the moment one consents to raising his or her arms in the air like a prisoner, while a machine that never met a terrorist it could catch scans an image of your body in yet another superfluous display of imperial slave-training.
Have you ever stopped to think about how ridiculous your fellow travelers look when they go through one of these things. Take a look at the following images and think about them for a second.
Reflect upon what the thoughtless consent to such demeaning behavior does to the psyche of an American citizen. Can such people truly think of themselves as free, empowered individuals, or have they been conditioned to think of themselves as helpless prisoners, grateful to the all powerful security state for their continued survival? Moreover, note that the “hands up” pose is the one a passenger is required to assume, the exact same posture police force upon people during a confrontation.
Of course, this intentional demoralization and slave-condiitoning of the American public is happening all across U.S. society. Since it primarily operates at the subconscious level, most people don’t even recognize it, but happening it most certainly is.
What’s worse, these pointless machines don’t even work, and the entire TSA spectacle is pure security theater. But don’t take my word for it. We learned the following in the post, Big Brother Idiocy – TSA Spent $160 Million on Naked Body Scanners that Fail 96% of the Time:
It’s now becoming clear exactly how many tens of millions of dollars the TSA spent on body scanners that have missed airport security threats, outraged passengers and brought the agency under congressional scrutiny.
The $160 million bill includes $120 million for the body scanners now in place in hundreds of airports nationwide, according to newly disclosed figures obtained by POLITICO. The rest of the money went to the agency’s “naked” X-ray scanners, which it pulled from airports two years ago amid worries about health risks and the devices’ detailed images of travelers’ bodies.
A recent security audit found that TSA had failed to find fake explosives and weapons in 96 percent of covert tests. And members of Congress familiar with the classified details say the body scanners are to blame for much of the problem.
Johnson said that while bomb detection is obviously a complex undertaking, “these things weren’t even catching metal.”
“If you really want to keep using those, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t, at a minimum we should put a metal detector on the other side,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview. “Why not go through two? You’ve just gotta use common sense.”
So despite a 96% failure rate, the TSA’s response is to double down and begin the process of making body scanner use mandatory.
For the record, I’m not saying that choosing to get a pat down is particularly dignifying, but it is nevertheless a form of non-compliance. It is a way of saying I’m not going to play your game and go through these ineffective machines with my hands up in the air like a convict and pretend they are actually doing something.
Apparently, the TSA is fed up with some of us peasants making such a choice, so they have begun the process of removing the voluntary opt-out option.
Time reports:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners at airports can now force passengers to go through body scanners, according to a new policy change.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has updated its protocol to no longer allow passengers to opt out of being electronically scanned at through Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines at checkpoints. Before the change, people could choose a physical screening.
“While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening, TSA may direct mandatory AIT screening for some passengers,” the DHS issued in a Dec. 18 policy update.
The change weakens the opt-out rule but doesn’t entirely eliminate it, a TSA spokesman told TIME. “Passengers undergoing screening will still have the option to decline an AIT screening in favor of a physical screening,” agency spokesman Mike England said in a statement. “However, some passengers will still be required to undergo AIT screenings as warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security.”
A couple of points to make here. First of all, the TSA is saying that body scanner screening may be mandatory for some passengers, but it fails to make clear the criteria that would disqualify someone from opting out. This is troubling since it’s reminiscent of the due process destroying no-fly list (see: How Obama is Using the Grossly Unconstitutional “No Fly List” to Push Gun Control).
Indeed, the only thing the TSA is alluding to is the fact some passengers will be denied the right to opt-out “in order to safeguard transportation security,” something we know is a sham since the body scanners have a 96% failure rate.
So what’s actually going on? My view is that this is simply another example of government conditioning the populace to accept a slave-like mentality in exchange for a false promise of protection. If the government can convince people to engage in pointless security theater that doesn’t work just to take a flight, what won’t they be capable of forcing people to do a few years down the road?
- Sri Lankan Government Official Busted For "Smuggling Gold Bars In Rectum"
Amid ongoing efforts by Indian authorities to monetize (read confiscate) the citizenry's precious metals (which we most recently detailed as an utter failure here and here), it appears the current suppressed low prices for gold have reignited demand and thus smuggling. Following the biggest seizure of smuggled gold earlier this year, The Guardian reports a 42-year-old-man, claiming to be a government official, was caught smuggling$15,000 of gold bars (hidden in his rectum) after police noted him "walking suspiciously."
The man, now arrested on suspicion of smuggling, claimed to be Coordinating Secretary to the Ministry of Post, Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs.
More than 70 people have been arrested for smuggling gold in 2015 alone.
Seeing that the man was 'walking suspiciously,' airport security stopped to search him, custom's spokesman Leslie Gamini told the BBC.
Officials found 400g of gold, in the form of four bars, hidden in his rectum.
The gold is reportedly worth around two million Sri Lankan rupees ($15,000)
As The Guardian details, the latest apparent smuggling attempt follows a series of other incidents this year where people have concealed gold in their bodies. Officials said more than 70 people have been arrested this year for smuggling gold in Sri Lanka.
Smugglers typically buy gold from places where the precious metal is relatively cheap and where there are fewer trade restrictions, such as Dubai and Singapore, aiming to sell it on in India – the largest gold consumer in the world. The import duty for gold in India is high: currently 10% for a 100g bar.
Overall consumption was at 642 tonnes in India this year. Chinese consumption stood at 579 tonnes, according to the Thomson Reuters GMFS gold survey. “A fall in prices of gold in the recent months has been one of the reasons for the increased demand for gold in India,” Jayant Sinha, minister of state for finance, told local media.
When India first started trying to control gold imports in 2013, in an attempt to tackle a widening trade deficit, smugglers went to the extent of getting human mules to swallow nuggets or hiding gold bars in dead cows.
Earlier this year, police in the western state of Gujarat said they had made the single biggest seizure of gold smuggled into India after arresting six people attempting to leave an airport with 60kg of the metal flown in from Dubai.
In India, smugglers risk a jail term of up to seven years, although such a penalty is rare and the main deterrent is confiscation of the gold.
And, as we recently noted, while the government continues to wonder why gold-holders aren’t flocking to offload their gold. But not to worry, it will eventually make sure any scheme works:
“A finance ministry official said if banks fail to win over temples, the government could intervene directly as it is looking for a big boost to the scheme to keep both imports and the current account deficit under control.”
Shades of 1933 all over again. One would imagine that outright gold confiscation from Hindu temples would result in massive protests and quite a bit of bloodshed. And while most rational people would assume that the government would be smart enough to avoid doing something so drastically stupid, this is the same government that developed the cockamamie gold monetization scheme in the first place. Never underestimate the idiocy of government bureaucrats, especially when those bureaucrats are trying to save face.
Let’s hope for the sake of the Indian people that their government learns its lesson and quietly shelves its futile attempts to monetize private gold holdings. If it really wanted to monetize gold, it would end any restrictions on the importation, transfer, and use of gold as money and allow markets to determine what money they wanted to use. Control is hard to give up, but the Indian economy would be far better off with gold as money instead of rupees.
- This Is How You Vaporize An ISIS Training Camp
From the time Russia began airstrikes in Syria on September 30, the Ministry of Defense has been a serial producer of videos depicting Moscow’s air campaign against anti-Assad elements.
Whether or not the footage shows what The Kremlin says it does is probably debatable. That is, there’s no way for the public to distinguish between an ISIS training camp and an FSA position in the often grainy clips the MoD posts on YouTube, but one thing is for sure: Russia is conducting a lot of airstrikes in the skies above Syria.
Part of the plan is of course to embarrass the US. Washington has supposedly been flying combat missions against ISIS for some 15 months with little to nothing to show for it in terms of tangible results. That could be because the US has the wrong “strategy” or it could be by design (i.e. Washington might merely be seeking to “contain” ISIS rather than destroy the group and its revenue stream). Whatever the case, Moscow is keen on showing that when it comes to getting serious about fighting terror, nobody does it better than Russia.
Recently, the MoD’s videos have focused increasingly on depictions of airstrikes against Islamic State’s oil infrastructure and crude trucks. The world has woken up to the fact that ISIS pulls in between $500 million and $1 billion per year in revenue from its illicit oil trade and The Kremlin is determined to cut off the funds not only to debilitate ISIS, but also to anger the Turks who Russia insists are involved in the trafficking of stolen oil.
And so, without further ado, we bring you the latest from the Defense Ministry which has released the following two clips depicting a strike on an ISIS training camp in Idlib (note the fleeing soldiers) and the destruction of a column of tanker trucks.
- Mapping The Ongoing 'World War' In Syria & Iraq
Turkey has deployed troops to Northern Iraq near Mosul and the Shaqlawa region. Source Cihan Turkey is also deploying troops on the Syrian border to protect the Tomb of Suleyman Shah Source Wikipedia
Spain has deployed the PATRIOT missile system as part of NATO’s obligation to protect Turkey. Source Nato
Russia has deployed an S-400 air defense system, and stations Su-24 bombers at the Russian Hmeimim military base in Latakia. Source EuroNews
Britain is carrying out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. The UK bombers are stationed in Cyprus. Source The Guardian
Hundreds of Iranian troops arrived in Syria in October. Source The Guardian In the media there is widespread rumour that Iranian advisers and special forces are also operating in Iraq.
Australia has sent 300 military trainers to Iraq; it is also conducting airstrikes there. The Australian air force is stationed in the UAE Source The Guardian Australia’s Air Task Group is conducting air combat and supports operations in Iraq and Syria. Source Australian Government
Denmark has committed over 100 military trainers to Iraq in 2015 at the request of the USA. Source The Local
By deploying F-16s to Jordan and sending military trainers to Kurds, the Netherlands, in concert with a number of other countries led by the United States, is helping to break the fighting power of the ISIS terrorist organisation. Source Dutch Ministry of Defence
The US is to deploy a specialised force to Iraq to build pressure on Islamic State militants. Source BBC
There are US soldiers to train Kurds in Northern Iraq. Source: Deutsche Welle
US is conducting air strikes in Syria from the Turkish Base Incirlik. The US is also conducting airstrikes in Iraq. Source Reuters
France is conducting air strikes from its carrier located in the Persian Gulf. The strikes are directed against targets in Iraq and Syria. Source The National Interest
Italian forces have been present in the Middle East as part of the western coalition against Isis for over a year, but until now they have played merely a supporting role. The Italian forces in the coalition consist of fighter jets, unarmed drones and a KC767 refuelling aircraft, all of which are being operated from an airbase in Kuwait. Source: Source The Local
Israel is conducting different air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria and the Assad government. Israel supports the Jihadist movement against Assad. Source Reuters
- The Trade Wars Begin: U.S. Imposes 256% Tarriff On Chinese Steel Imports
Two weeks ago, when looking at the latest import price index data, we showed something disturbing: China has become an all out exporter of deflation. As the chart below shows, In November, import prices from China decreased 1.5% over the past 12 months, the largest year-over-year drop since the index declined 1.7% for the year ended in January 2010.
Howdid this happen? As we explained, with all of its domestic markets fully saturated, China has had no choice but to export its soaring commodity production as we explained in “Behold The Deflationary Wave: How China Is Flooding The World With Its Unwanted Commodities.”
As we noted then, shipments of steel, oil products and aluminum are reaching for new highs, according to trade data from the General Administration of Customs. That’s because mills, smelters and refiners are producing more than they need amid slowing domestic demand, and shipping the excess overseas.
Logically, the less domestic demand for steel, and the greater China’s steel exports, the lower the price continues to tumble, now at a 10 year low.
That’s
because mills, smelters and refiners are producing more than they need
amid slowing domestic demand, and shipping the excess overseas.The flood of Chinese supplies is roiling manufacturers around the world and exacerbating trade frictions. The steel market is being overwhelmed with metal from China’s government-owned and state-supported producers, a collection of industry associations have said. The nine groups, including Eurofer and the American Iron and Steel Institute, said there is almost 700 million tons of excess capacity around the world, with the Asian nation contributing as much as 425 million tons.
According to Macquarie’s Colin Hamilton, head of commodities research, it is about to get even worse: the price of hot-rolled coil, used in everything from fridges to freight containers, may decline about 13 percent next year. The nation’s steel exports, which have ballooned to more than 100 million metric tons this year, may stay at those levels for the rest of the decade as infrastructure and construction demand continues to falter.
A worker walks on stacks of steel pipes at a storage yard in Shanghai.
China’s metals industry is facing the same problem that OPEC has had to deal with over the past year: a huge supply glut faced with declining global demand, only unlike OPEC there is no “efficient, rational” producer cartel that can (or in the case of OPEC could) implement production limits.
While falling steel prices are partly driven by the collapse in raw materials and lower output costs, “it’s just more to do with the fact the industry was built for demand growth that hasn’t come through,” Hamilton said last week. “We’re past peak steel demand. I think provided there is overcapacity in the Chinese system and given where demand is, it’s going to be like this for some time.”
Well, maybe not: there is one thing that could dramatically slow down China’s metal exports – tariffs, anti-dumping duties and other forms of protectionism.
“What may slow down the exports is anti-dumping and protectionist measures that several countries have taken against cheap imports,” said Ernst & Young’s Agrawal. “We’re going to see an impact. More and more countries are raising their objections.”
In other words, a trade war.
To be sure India has already done just that:
India plans to step up its protection for debt-laden domestic steelmakers by imposing a minimum price on steel imports among other measures, Steel Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said in an interview this week. The import curbs are necessary to ensure a “level-playing field” for Indian companies after restrictions imposed in September failed to stop a decline in prices, she said.
And now it’s America’s turn.
According to a report released Tuesday by the US Department Of Commerce, corrosion-resistant steel imports from China were sold at unfairly low prices and will be taxed at 256 percent.
The measure is clearly aimed exclusively at China’s dumping of steel on the US market, and its relentess exports of deflation.
According to Bloomberg, imports from India, South Korea and Italy will be taxed at lower rates. Imports from Taiwan and Italy’s Marcegaglia SpA will not face anti-dumping tariffs. The government found dumping margins of 3.25 percent for most South Korean steel imports, with Hyundai Steel Co.’s shipments subject to duties of 3.5 percent. Imports from Italian companies excluding Marcegaglia will be taxed at 3.1 percent. Indian imports are subject to duties from 6.6 percent to 6.9 percent.
Which means that the biggest “beneficiary” of this dramatic import price surge will be none other than Beijing.
“We’re concerned that the dumping that’s occurring is at higher levels than these determinations reflect,” Tim Brightbill, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP, a law firm representing U.S. steelmaker Nucor Corp., said Tuesday in an interview. “We have serious concerns that these preliminary duties are not enough at a time when unfairly priced imports continue to surge into the U.S. market at unprecedented rates.”
According to some the US foray into trade wars was long overdue:
U.S. producers including Nucor, U.S. Steel Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. filed cases in June alleging that some products from China, India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan had been dumped in the U.S., harming domestic companies. In November, the government found that all those countries, except Taiwan, subsidized their domestic production by as much as 236 percent of its price.
The tarfiff hike comes on the heels of a previous announcement from November 3, which saw countervailing duties as high as 236%. Together these create a barrier to imports of these steel products from China, said Caitlin Webber, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Washington.
“A 500 percent duty is obviously prohibitive,” Webber said in an interview. “The lower ones are much less prohibitive and would probably have a lower impact on imports.”
This means that suddenly China’s steel exporters will have to scramble to find a comparably large market in which to sell their wares as now exporting to the US is prohibitively expensive and would result in massive losses to domestic producers.
According to Bloomberg calls to the spokesman’s office at China’s Ministry of Commerce in Beijing weren’t answered. An official who answered a call to the China Iron & Steel Association couldn’t immediately comment. Not like they would have much to say.
The problem for China is that as we have explained previously, unless local commodity producers can keep generating some cash flow, even if it is negligible, China will be swept in a default wave that will sweep away all the overlevered producers of steel and other commodities, leading to social unrest or worse. We already know that at current prices more than half of China’s commodity producers can’t even make one coupon payment. What happens now when the rush to the bottom enters the final laps and the bottom falls out of prices?
Which also means that now that the US has fired the first trade war shot, it will be up to China to retaliate. It will do so either by further devaluing its currency or by reciprocating with its own protectionist measures against the US, or perhaps by accelerating the selling of US Treasurys. To be sure, it has several choices, clearly none of which are optimal from a game theory perspective, but now that the US has openly “defected” from the “prisoner’s dilemma” game, all bets are off.
- India To Pay $4.5 Billion For Putin's "Jewels" In Largest Defense Deal In A Decade
Russia’s vaunted S-300 and S-400 missile systems have been in the news quite a bit of late.
Last month, Moscow and Tehran officially revived a long stalled contract worth some $800 million that will see a handful of S-300s delivered to Tehran over the next several months. The deal was initially reached in 2007 but was put on hold in 2010 amid the international sanctions on Iran. Putin lifted the ban earlier this year, citing progress on the Iran nuclear deal.
Needless to say, the US and Israel were not amused. “We made clear time and again our objections to any sale of the S-300 missile system to Iran,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
“The S-300 is exclusively a defensive weapon, which can’t serve offensive purposes and will not jeopardize the security of any country, including, of course, Israel,” Sergei Lavrov remarked in April, after Russia decided to move ahead with the contract.
Lavrov is correct, but Israel’s concern isn’t that the Iranians are planning a preemptive strike. Rather, Netanyahu worries that the systems will be used to protect Tehran’s nuclear sites and/or be diverted to Lebanon or Syria. “Israeli concern about a future missile deal between Russia and Iran pertains to the possible transfer of this weapons system to Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria or to Hezbollah, which would significantly limits the Israel Air Force’s freedom of activity in Syrian or Lebanese skies,” an unnamed Israeli official told Haaretz last spring.
Well as it turns out, advanced Russian air defense systems did indeed end up in Syria and Assad’s army as well as Hezbollah are indeed among the beneficiaries.
Rumors were already circulating that Russia had sent S-400s to Latakia when Turkey shot down one of Moscow’s warplanes near the Syrian border. In the aftermath of that incident, Russia made it official and deployed the weapons to protect The Kremlin’s interests in the event anyone else gets any ideas about taking pot shots at a Sukhoi.
As we reported earlier this month, Israel has been secretly training against an S-300 in Crete in what looks like an effort to learn how to beat the system in the event the units end up protecting Iranian and Syrian interests on the ground.
On Wednesday, the S-400 was back in the news. As Bloomberg reports, India is set to buy five S-400s for some $4.5 billion from Russia as part of a broader initiative by PM Narendra Modi to upgrade the country’s military. Here’s more:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Moscow after approving what’s set to be his nation’s biggest weapons deal with Russia since 2001, reaffirming a military partnership that newer suppliers like the U.S. will find difficult to dislodge.
The S-400 air defense missile systems, which India plans to buy, are among the “crown jewels” of Russia’s defense capability, according to Jon Grevatt, Asia-Pacific defense-industry analyst for IHS Jane’s. The two-day visit starting Dec. 23 will also include a private dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin and an event at the Kremlin with Russian and Indian chief executives.
“Russia and India have a very strong partnership that the U.S. can only aspire to,” said Grevatt. “Sales from America may ebb and flow, but the sales from Russia will remain strong because there are so many ongoing programs between the two countries.”
The $150 billion that Modi plans to spend to upgrade his military could be a welcome diversion for Putin, who’s bracing for a second year of recession amid Western sanctions. Although the U.S. emerged as India’s biggest defense supplier last fiscal year, the Asian nation’s links with Russia stretch back to their Soviet-era ties.
India’s defense acquisition panel last week approved the purchase of five S-400 systems. While the price is still to be negotiated, it’s likely to cost about $4.5 billion, a defense ministry official said, asking not to be identified because the detail isn’t public yet.
That would make it the biggest deal by value since 2001, when India agreed to buy 140 Su-30MK Sukhoi fighter jets, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates to be worth as much as $5.4 billion.
Bloomberg goes on to list more possible deals between the two countries:
- Kamov OAO may name an Indian partner to build 200 Ka-226T light military cargo helicopters in India; the deal may be valued at $1 billion, India TV reported
- Lease of a second nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia. First submarine was leased in 2012 for $1 billion over 10 years
- Indian navy order for three Russian frigate warships. India paid about $1 billion for three Talwar-class frigates in 1997
- Agreement to re-start joint development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft, stalled for two years over cost differences. Estimated project value: $10 billion
So here again is “isolated” Russia forced to peddle antiquated Soviet military technology to tiny, rogue states. Oh, wait. Actually this is Moscow selling the most advanced air defense technology on the planet to one of the world’s most important emerging economies with whom The Kremlin has a long and very amicable relationship.
For anyone still buying the Putin “isolation” story, we encourage you to speak to PM Modi who had the following to say about the Russian leader this week:
“The best thing is that he knows how to maintain relations. He has a special strength to sacrifice for the relations. It is rarely found.”
- Paul Craig Roberts 'Evaluates' Donald Trump
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
Donald Trump, judging by polls as of December 21, 2015, is the most likely candidate to be the next president of the US.
Trump is popular not so much for his stance on issues as for the fact that he is not another Washington politican, and he is respected for not backing down and apologizing when he makes strong statements for which he is criticized. What people see in Trump is strength and leadership. This is what is unusual about a political candidate, and it is this strength to which voters are responding.
The corrupt American political establishment has issued a “get Trump” command to its presstitute media. Media whore George Stephanopoulos, a loyal follower of orders, went after Trump on national television. But Trump made mincemeat of the whore.
Stephanopoulos tried to go after Trump because the world’s favorite leader, President Putin of Russia, said complimentary things about Trump, and Trump replied in kind.
According to Stephanopoulos, “Putin has murdered journalists,” and Trump should be ashamed of praising a murderer of journalists. Trump asked Stephanopoulos for evidence, and Stephanopoulos didn’t have any. In other words, Stephanopoulos confirmed Trump’s statement that American politicians just make things up and rely on the presstitutes to support invented “facts” as if they are true. Trump made reference to Washington’s many murders.
Stephanopoulos wanted to know what journalists Washington had murdered. Trump responded with Washington’s murders and dislocation of millions of peoples who are now overrunning Europe as refugees from Washington’s wars. But Trump's advisors were not sufficiently competent to have armed him with the story of Washington’s murder of Al Jazerra’s reporters.
Here is a report from Al Jazeera, a far more trustworthy news organization than the US print and TV media:
“On April 8, 2003, during the US-led invasion of Iraq, Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayoub was killed when a US warplane bombed Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Baghdad.
“The invasion and subsequent nine-year occupation of Iraq claimed the lives of a record number of journalists. It was undisputedly the deadliest war for journalists in recorded history.
“Disturbingly, more journalists were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances, according to the group Committee to Protect Journalists.
“CPJ research shows that “at least 150 journalists and 54 media support workers were killed in Iraq from the US-led invasion in March 2003 to the declared end of the war in December 2011.”
“’The media were not welcome by the US military,’” Soazig Dollet, who runs the Middle East and North Africa desk of Reporters Without Borders told Al Jazeera. ‘That is really obvious.’”
A political candidate with a competent staff would have immediately fired back at Stephanopoulos with the facts of Washington’s murder of journalists and compared these facts with the purely propagandistic accusations against Putin which have no basis whatsoever in fact.
The problem with Trump is the issues on which the public is not carefully judging him. I don’t blame the public. It is refreshing to have a billionaire who can’t be bought expose the insubstantialality of all the Democratic and Repulican candidates for president. A collection of total zeros.
Unlike Washington, Putin supports the sovereignty of countries. He does not believe that the US or any country has the right to overthrow governments and install a puppet or vassal.
Recently Putin said: “I hope no person is insane enough on planet earth who would dare to use nuclear weapons.”
Unfortunately for Putin and for Trump, if news reports can be believed, Trump recently said that he would use nuclear weapons against ISIS. This is a disqualifying statement. There is no reason to need nukes to defeat a force as small as ISIS. More importantly, as the US is the only country to use nuclear weapons against the population of another country, for the US to do so again would confirm for the Russian and Chinese governments that the US government is insane, untrustworthy, and in need of extermination before Russia and China are attacked. You cannot use nuclear weapons without consequence.
As I have said in a number of interviews, Trump’s problem is that he has no movement behind him, no advisors that he can trust, and he does not understand the issues. Trump has learned that forceful statements are appreciated by voters. Therefore, he doesn’t differentiate intelligent forceful statements from insane statements. As long as his statements are forceful, Trump thinks that they work.
Recently I watched a video of a woman described as a “Trump advisor” who repeaded neocon nazi William Kristol’s statement: “What’s the use of nuclear weapons if you can’t use them?”
How did a William Kristol neocon nazi get on Trump’s staff? What more proof do we need that even if Trump is elected, the establishment will prevail despite Trump.
Trump cannot be a dissident politician without a dissident staff. He doesn’t know the people who would comprise a dissident staff. Trump knows how to make deals, and the Establishment will staff up a Trump presidency with deals. The minute Trump takes office, he would be already captured.
In France Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party could bring political change. In the UK Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party or Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party could bring political change. But in the US there is no prospect of change from elections. Change can only come from collapse or from bloody revolution. The American Establishment will not accept change.
And most likely, the American Establishment would assassinate Le Pen and Farage and Corbyn before accepting change in France and the UK.
These are the facts on the ground. How Russia and China deal with them remains to be seen.
- Obama Warns World's Anti-Christians: "The Wrong Shall Fail, The Right Prevail"
Presented with little comment…
Statement by the President on Persecuted Christians at Christmas
During this season of Advent, Christians in the United States and around the world are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. At this time, those of us fortunate enough to live in countries that honor the birthright of all people to practice their faith freely give thanks for that blessing. Michelle and I are also ever-mindful that many of our fellow Christians do not enjoy that right, and hold especially close to our hearts and minds those who have been driven from their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence and persecution.
In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these communities by ISIL.
We join with people around the world in praying for God’s protection for persecuted Christians and those of other faiths, as well as for those brave men and women engaged in our military, diplomatic, and humanitarian efforts to alleviate their suffering and restore stability, security, and hope to their nations. As the old Christmas carol reminds us:
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.
* * *
So, to translate a little… America (The Right), will prevail over The Wrong (terrorists who shall not be named as Muslims but are anti-christian)… thanks to peace on earth (and airstrikes and boots on the ground) and good-will to men (and women, as long as they are not radicalized).
- Brazilians Cancel Vacation Plans As 50 Million Metric Tons Of "Noxious Mud" Turns Ocean Brown
2015 was not kind to Brazil.
In addition to a seemingly intractable political crisis that has rendered Congress effectively useless when it comes to passing legislation aimed at shoring up an increasingly precarious fiscal situation, the country is also mired in what might as well be a depression.
Inflation is running in the double-digits, unemployment is soaring, and output has collapsed in the face of an epic downturn in commodity prices, slowing demand from China, and a yuan deval that drove a stake through the heart of the already beleaguered emerging world.
The BRL has suffered mightily throughout and will likely need to “adjust” further before it’s all said and done. That, in turn, will put still more pressure on inflation, ensuring that not only can Copom not cut to save the economy, it will in fact be forced to hike in January, a procyclical move that will likely deal another blow to GDP.
None of that bodes well for the summer Olympic games in Rio. As we’ve detailed in a series of posts dating back to July, Olympians will be forced to deal with some rather unpleasant circumstances including a lack of air conditioning and television in Olympic village and feces-ridden water. And that assumes the games happen at all after longtime Olympic power provider Aggreko pulled out of a tender to supply generators.
Now, in what Bloomberg calls “the year’s final indignity,” Brazilians are being forced to cancel their vacation plans due to a “waves of noxious mud” that have polluted the ocean in the wake of the dam collapse in November that “buried entire communities and devastated national parks.”
For those who missed it, you can read the entire account of what happened here, but suffice to say a Samarco (which is jointly run by BHP Billiton and Vale) tailings dam burst, sending a river of toxic mud into nearby villages. Here are a few images from the scene:
As Bloomberg goes on to note, “50 million metric tons of sludge is spreading off the coast between Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states, turning the pristine blue waters brown along an expected 30 miles of beaches.” Here’s a bit more from Ibama, the country’s environmental agency (translated):
Mining waste formed a wave of mud which directly affected 663 km on the Doce River and its tributaries, reaching the ocean in 21/11, in Linhares, Espirito Santo.
The destruction of Permanent Preservation Areas occurred on the stretch of 77 km of waterways of Fundão dam to the Carmel River in San Sebastian the Superb (MG). The impacts on the marine environment are still ongoing and have not been evaluated in this report.
Direct environmental and social harm, such as death and disappearance of persons were found; Insulation populated areas; displacement of communities for the destruction of housing and urban structures; habitat fragmentation; destruction of permanent preservation areas and native vegetation; slaughter of farm animals and impact on rural production and tourism, with interruption of economic revenue; restrictions on fishing; slaughter of domestic animals; death of wildlife; decimation of wild fish populations in closed season; difficulties in electricity generation by hydro hit; change in the quality and quantity of water, and the suspension of their use for the people and wildlife such as supply and watering; in addition to the sense of danger and helplessness of the population at various levels.“I was really worried. Everyone who thought of going for the end of the year will have to cancel,” said Paula de Souza Vieira, a 23 year-old who spoke to Bloomberg. Here’s more:
Vieira, thought she’d found the perfect spot: A palm-tree lined stretch of empty sand on the edge of a national preserve about 400 miles (640 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro. But a dam disaster in southeast Brazil that sent waves of noxious mud downstream into the Atlantic Ocean forced her to scrap her trip.
Some coastal hotels and restaurants, which rely on the New Year’s holiday as a major source of revenue, have seen cancellations surge because of the accident. Reservations for the New Year’s holiday plunged by more than half at the Arana bed and breakfast in Regencia Village, where Vieira planned to stay with her girlfriend.
“Nobody is going to pay 2,000 reais for a holiday package to go to a place where people say the mud is,” said owner Dulce Mendonca. While the water supply hasn’t been affected, the ocean is thick and brown with sludge, she said. Fishermen aren’t allowed to fish, and people are being cautioned to stay out of the water.
Earlier this week, the death toll from the dam collapse was raised to 17. As The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, “the Samarco partners were hit with a fine of 20 billion Brazilian reals in November, and a court in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte ruled last week that 10 per cent of that must be paid with 30 days.” In other words, BHP and Vale will need to pay some $500 million by January 17. “A federal court has ruled that the potential damages from the disaster could be about 20.2bn reais ($5.2bn; £3.4bn),” BBC adds. “The companies’ assets were frozen amid concerns that Samarco does not have enough resources to cover the cost of damages and compensation.”
So, in addition to a variety of disease-causing viruses that, thanks to Brazil’s lack of waste water treatment centers, are already present in quantities that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach, there’s now 50 tons of mine sludge in the water as well.
As for Paula de Souza Vieira (mentioned above), it turns out she would likely have canceled her trip even if it weren’t for the mud – she joined the swelling ranks of Brazil’s unemployed this month after getting fired from her job as a television producer.
- Caught On Tape: Hezbollah Fighter Calmly Dodges Missile Launched By Syrian Rebels
Over the past several months, we’ve attempted to explain why Washington’s strategy to arm anti-Assad elements in Syria is even more absurd now than it was initially.
At this point, anyone who follows the conflict is well aware that ISIS and al-Nusra have powerful, wealthy benefactors in Ankara, Riyadh, and Doha and the US hasn’t always been too keen on cutting off the flow of weapons and money to Sunni extremists battling the SAA. In other words: the US and its regional allies are largely responsible for the rise of the very same terrorists they claim to be fighting.
As ridiculous as that most certainly is, the “unintended” consequences of supplying weapons to the mishmash of rebels and militants fighting for control of Syria took a further turn for the absurd last month when the FSA’s First Coastal Division used a US-supplied TOW to destroy a Russian helicopter conducting a search and rescue operation following the downing of an Su-24 near the Syrian border. That rather brazen act effectively proved that the US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are but one degree of separation away from open warfare with the Russians. Additionally, it woke the world up to what’s been going on around Aleppo for months. The FSA has been using TOWs supplied by the US and its allies to shoot at the SAA, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Iraq-based Shiite militias who were called to the fight by Tehran. Here’s the point: the Shiite militiamen who are on the receiving end of those TOW attacks are the very same soldiers that are assisting the US-trained Iraqi regulars in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. In short: they are enemies on one side of the border, but tolerated on the other side where they function as the most effective force battling ISIS (of course the militias recently threatened to kill any US troops who come to Iraq, but that’s another story).
If that’s not ridiculous enough for you, consider also that al-Nusra recently released a video thanking the FSA for sharing their TOWs, which means, once again, that the US is knowingly arming terrorists.
Well, for those readers who have enjoyed our coverage of the TOW story, we bring you the following clip which appears to depict Syrian rebels firing a missile at a Hezbollah fighter (note the yellow flag near the vehicle) sitting in a truck. In a remarkable example of remaining cool under fire (literally), the soldier simply pulls forward, dodging death by a few feet at the last second.
- "Devastated" Short Who Launched Online Begging Campaign To Fund Margin Call Was Right: KaloBios Disintegrates
Back on November 19, we told the tragic tale of one Joe Campbell. It went as follows.
In early November, the company which we dubbed as “one of the countless fly-by-night biotech pennystocks”, the now infamous drug developer KaloBios Pharmaceuticals said it would wind down its operations and that it had engaged restructuring firm Brenner Group to help liquidate its assets. The company said it was “highly unlikely that exploring strategic options could generate a viable transaction within the time frame, given its limited cash resources.
At that moment the stock was trading between $1-2/share, representing a market cap between $5 and $10 million, or liquidation value.
Then, on the night of November 18 America’s “most hated person” and recently charged with stock fraud Martin Shkreli, whose price-gouging antics were the catalyst that unleashed the late summer biotech rout, got involved.
As KBIO announced after the close of November 18, the company “has been informed that an investor group comprised of Martin Shkreli and associates together have acquired more than 50% of the outstanding shares of KaloBios, and that the company is in discussions with Mr. Shkreli regarding possible direction for the company to continue in operation.
The stock exploded higher, and has since hit a whopping $16/share in the pre-market, an increase of over 650%.
Back then we asked if this is merely “Blatant manipulation? Perhaps – after all, this is not much different from what Oprah Winfrey did with Weight Watchers stock which jumped simply because the media diva had bought sizable stake in WTW stocks. Ultimately, it will be up to the SEC to decide.”
It turned out it was the FBI who made the decision less than a month later, and the conclusion was less than favorable to Shkreli.
Where this story got entertaining, or woefully tragic, depending on one’s perspective, is that one trader, Joe Campbell, was on the wrong side of KBIO massive surge. One E-trader, Joe Campbell, decided to go $35,000 short KBIO “and now owes $ETFC a wonderful $106K.” Campbell provided the following snapshots of his tragedy:
But what brought fame (or perhaps infamy) to Campbell is what he did next: the “devastated” trader became the first, perhaps in history, to launch a GoFundMe campaign seeking to “crowdfund” his $106,445 margin call, in other words to beg online for sympathetic souls to fund his $106K margin call.
It is unknown if he got enough money for the entire margin call: a subsequent update noted that he had managed to collect over $5,000, at which point the grateful Campbell fell off the radar screen.
But while Joe’s tale ended here (and some have suggested his entire story may also have been nothing but a fabrication), the story of KaloBios was only just getting started.
A few days later, after Martin Shrekli announced on Thanksgiving Day he had purchased 70% of the stock, leaving virtually no float available to cover shorts, the stock prices exploded even higher, hitting a whopping $45.82/share, or nearly $200 million in market cap.
Bear in mind this is a company that just a few weeks earlier was effectively broke.
Turnaround in progress. $KBIO pic.twitter.com/5dseMG3B8I
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) November 23, 2015
At that point, the narrative switched over to Shrekli who as is widely known by now, was arrested and charged for conducting a Ponzi scheme involving his prior company. However, while KaloBios was left untouched, the fact that its CEO (for about a month) and largest shareholder may be going to prison, meant only bad news were in store for the recently broke, then reincarnated, and now about to be broke again biotech.
And this is where we go back to the the beginning, because moments ago, KaloBios released an 8-K in which it effectively admitted that it was game over for the little biotech that could not. In the filing, KBIO announced that not only would it most likely be delisted in a week, and that its outside auditor firm, Marcum, has resigned, but that its CFO, Christopher Thorn, has resigned.
Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing.
On December 18, 2015, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the “Company”), received a letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”), which stated that the Nasdaq Listing Qualification Staff (the “Nasdaq Staff”) has determined to delist the Company’s securities pursuant to its discretionary authority under Listing Rule 5101. The Nasdaq Staff cited a number of reasons for their decision, including the recent criminal indictment and arrest of Martin Shkreli, the Company’s controlling shareholder, former Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer, based on allegations of securities fraud, among other things, as well as the arrest and indictment of Evan Greebel, the Company’s former outside counsel, based on similar allegations, and a civil complaint from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed against Mr. Shkreli and Mr. Greebel based on similar allegations. Additionally, as previously disclosed, on November 17, 2015, the Nasdaq Staff notified the Company that the Company is not in compliance with the filing requirements set forth in the Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) because it has not filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2015, which constitutes an additional basis for delisting.
The Company has not yet determined whether it will appeal the Nasdaq Staff’s decision to delist the Company’s securities. The deadline for the Company to request an appeal is December 28, 2015. If the Company does not appeal, the Company’s common stock will be suspended from trading on Nasdaq at the opening of business on December 30, 2015.
Item 4.01. Changes in Registrant’s Certifying Accountant.
On December 21, 2015, the Company was notified by its independent registered public accounting firm, Marcum LLP (“Marcum”), that Marcum has resigned as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm. Marcum’s resignation was not due to any reason related to the Company’s reporting or accounting operations, policies or procedures. Marcum was engaged by the Company as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm on December 8, 2015, and accordingly, Marcum has not provided a report or completed any review on any of the Company’s consolidated financial statements. There have been no “disagreements” (within the meaning of Item 304(a) of Regulation S-K) with Marcum on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedures. There were no “reportable events” as that term is defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
The Company provided Marcum with a copy of the disclosures it is making in this Form 8-K and requested that Marcum furnish the Company with a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether it agrees with the above statements. A copy of Marcum’s letter dated December 23, 2015 is filed as Exhibit 16.1 hereto.
Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On December 21, 2015, Christopher Thorn, the Company’s Interim Chief Financial Officer, submitted his resignation from the Company.
Bottom line: when (if) KBIO reopens, it will be on the pink sheets, and the company will have virtually no value, meaning that Joe Campbell’s short would have been not only spot on, but profitable. Instead, due to Shrekli’s now worthless intervention, Campbell is in the hole for an amount greater than his entire life’s savings.
* * *
One month ago, when observing this farce from as far away as possible, we wrote:
Which brings us back to Joe Campbell and his now famous margin call: did he liquidate enough other assets to cover the margin call? What about the hundreds of other shorts who piggybacked and shorted at the close yesterday only to wake up with comparable massive margin calls?
And what happens if Shkreli’s plan is indeed to rerun the “Volkswagen” scenario and unleash an epic short squeeze that sends the price of the company into the stratosphere, unlinked from any fundamentals, but merely soaring ever higher as desperate shorts pay any price just to get out.
We hope to find out, as suddenly this until recently bankrupt company whose price has exploded in the past two days, has become not only a poster child for everything broken and manipulated with the market (think 2014’s CYNK one year forward) but has the market following with morbid fascination to find out how the tragicomedy of “Shkreli vs the Shorters” concludes.
We now know how the story ends, the way it always does on a long-enough timeline…
- "Dash-For-Trash" Melt-Up Erases Post-Fed "Policy Error" Losses
The bigger they are…
The "Dash For Trash" continues…
As The open was another big short squeeze… 2nd biggest short squeeze day in 2 months and 2nd biggest 2-week squeeze in 10 months
Bad Breadth-er…
The S&P 500 was ramped perfectly into the Green year-to-date… "Mission Accomplished"
Small Caps and S&P are back in the green post-FOMC…
With stocks back above bonds post-FOMC and the miracle of crude from worst to first…
And The Dow and The S&P 500 to the 200DMA/500DMA cross…
This is the best 3-day run for Trannies since the bounce off the August Black Monday lows…
No, this is not China… this is American stocks TODAY!!!
Nike went from hero to zero…
FANGs are not playing along…
Here's why stocks are ripping…
But something odd is going on again in the Oil ETF/Vol complex…
"Oil Prices may be showing signs of stabilization here" said one spewing head on CNBC!! – yeah just like in August? One big stop-run…
Treasury yields continued to rise today with 30Y reaching pre-Fed levels before bonds rallied into the close…
The USDollar Index fell after overnight strength – reversing a recent intraday pattern…
Anything look odd here in commodity-land?
And RBOB soared over 7%…
As Bob Pisani says "it makes perfect sense."
Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: The number of barrels of oil an ounce of gold will buy is highest in 30 years…
- This Is Canada's Depression: Surging Crime, Soaring Suicides, Overwhelmed Food Banks "And The Worst Is Yet To Come"
Back in March, we brought you “Drugs, Prostitution, Violence Plague Oil Boom Towns Gone Bust,” in which we detailed the plight of towns like Sidney and Bainville, Montana, where the slump in oil revenue has made it all but impossible for local authorities to cope with surging crime rates that some attribute to the influx of oil workers the communities experienced in the good old days of high crude prices.
The problem, apparently, was that despite the dramatic slump in oil, companies hadn’t yet begun to cut jobs or slash capex and so, officials were left with less money to put towards policing their growing populations.
As dangerous as it may be for small towns to experience exponential growth in what The Washington Post described as “highly paid oil workers living in sprawling ‘man camps’ with limited spending opportunities,” what’s even more dangerous is the prospect that suddenly, the majority of those workers will be jobless. That is, if there’s anything that’s more conducive to raising the crime rate than legions of highly paid young men living in small towns with “limited spending opportunities,” it’s legions of formerly highly paid young men stuck in small towns with limited job opportunities.
With that in mind, America can look north to Calgary for a preview of what’s in store for America’s oil boom towns.
Although Alberta’s largest city bares little resemblance to Sidney and Bainville, the three do have one thing in common: oil. “Calgary boasted one of the lowest jobless rates in Canada as crude prices rose over $100 a barrel [but] it’s now reeling after a global glut pushed prices down by two-thirds,” Bloomberg notes.
For our part, we’ve spent quite a bit of time documenting the city’s trials and travails:
- “Canada Crude Contagion: Calgary Home Prices Drop Most In 2 Years”
- “Canada’s Biggest Oil Casualty To Date: Calgary’s Nexen Shutters Oil Trading Desk”
- “The Canadian Housing Bubble Has Begun To Burst”
- “Canada’s Oil Patch Confidence Crashes”
- “Canada Mauled by Oil Bust, Job Losses Pile Up – Housing Bubble, Banks at Risk”
- “The Stage Is Set For A Massive Housing Market Correction in Canada’s Oilpatch”
As we noted earlier this year, resource revenue makes up nearly a third of Alberta’s annual revenue:
“Alberta’s real GDP is expected to expand in 2015, but at a much slower pace of 0.6%. This is down from the Second Quarter forecast of 2.8%,” provincial authorities wrote in March, in their quarterly fiscal update. That underscores just how significant the swift decline in crude prices is for the province. Since then, the government’s projection for 2015 GDP has fallen by a full percentage point, as the economy is now expected to contract by 0.6%. Here’s more from the latest fiscal update:
The sharp decline in oil prices has substantially reduced capital spending in the energy sector. Oil and gas investment is expected to fall over 30% in 2015, with weakness carrying into 2016. Conventional investment has been hit especially hard. Rig activity has declined almost 50% through the first seven months of 2015.
Lower oil prices are weighing on production and exports. Although exports remain an important driver in Alberta’s economy, the forecast for oil production has been revised lower since March. This mainly reflects unplanned disruptions in oil sands production and the significant slowdown in conventional drilling. In addition, weakness in the oil and gas sector has spread to other sectors of the economy. Alberta machinery manufacturing has fallen 20% since January. This can be mainly traced to declining industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing, which primarily serves the oil industry.
Needless to say, this has had a dramatic impact on jobs. As we reported on Tuesday, Canada is expected to lose some 100,000 oil and gas sector jobs by the end of the year. Jobs like those Jillian Berling-MacKenzie, 25, and her boyfriend used to have. Here’s Bloomberg:
Jillian was one of the lucky few of her graduating geology class to secure full-time work this year, at oil company ConocoPhillips. She bought a house with her boyfriend, also a newly graduated geologist with a job, before they both became victims of the cuts. A friend’s company has provided some contract work paying slightly more than employment insurance as Berling-MacKenzie tries to land positions just about anywhere, seeing no postings she qualifies for in her field.
And then there’s Keely Eng, 27, who was fired from an engineering position in March at Nexen and is now so worried about her future in the field that she simply threw in the towel and decided to go to medical school:
The dearth of opportunities has Keely Eng, 27, seeking a career change. Eng was let go from an engineering position in March at Nexen, the Cnooc Ltd. subsidiary. Dreading an extended job hunt, Eng took medical school exams and has applied to several programs.
And don’t forget about Kevin Mulligan, 61, who was let go by Stampede and now works with his wife making Christmas decorations:
Kevin Mulligan, 61, was among Stampede workers who “got the Tuesday boot,” he said. The former park maintenance manager, six years from retirement, is helping his wife with a Christmas wreath-making side business to supplement severance payments while job-hunting.
“My new job is finding a job,” Mulligan said.
As The Financial Post notes, Alberta’s troubles go beyond falling crude prices. “Apart from the protracted price declines, Alberta’s oil and gas sector has also had to contend with a 20 per cent hike in corporate taxes, a carbon tax and new regulatory policies to limit rein in carbon emissions,” the Post writes, adding that “a new provincial royalty regime is to be announced in January, leaving Alberta oil and gas producers under a cloud of uncertainty [while] the new federal government also plans to unveil new policies, including a review of the regulatory process, which the sector sees as more burden in an already difficult environment for the industry.”
As we pointed out three weeks ago, the real casualties in Canada are no longer metaphorical economic objects, but the very people who until recently enjoyed comfortable lives only to succumb to an unprecedented collapse in the local economy. According to the chief medical examiner’s office, 30% more Albertans took their lives in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Here are the numbers:
- From January to June 2014, there were 252 suicides in Alberta.
- During the same period this year, there were 327.
- If the trend continues, Alberta could be on track for 654 suicides this year.
- In an average year, there are 500, according to the Centre for Suicide Prevention.
Well, in the latest abysmal news out of Alberta, Bloomberg reports that food bank use and crime are now soaring amid the protracted slide in crude. “Calgary’s unemployment rate rose to 6.9 percent in November from 4.6 percent a year earlier, Statistics Canada data show, as 21,100 more were put out of work,” Bloomberg writes. “Home sales have fallen 21 percent this year as the average price skidded 2.6 percent, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board.” Here’s more:
Crime is rising, home prices are falling and food banks are overwhelmed in Calgary as job losses spread. And the worst isn’t yet over in the heart of Canada’s oil patch.
Some of the city’s largest employers are poised to cut more jobs in 2016 as they reduce spending for a second straight year, adding to an estimated 40,000 oil and natural gas positions lost across the nation since the crude price rout began 18 months ago.
“We all know someone who has lost a job,” Naheed Nenshi, the city’s mayor, said in a speech this month, lamenting the “funeral”-like atmosphere in the business community.
Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids is providing 16 percent more school lunches than in September — about 2,900 across 187 schools. The rise is unprecedented, said Tanya Koshowski, the group’s executive director. Food bank use jumped 23 percent in Alberta in the year ended March 2015, the country’s biggest increase, according to Food Banks Canada.
Police are pointing to economic decline and rising drug use to explain Calgary’s crime surge. In the first 10 months of 2015, commercial break-ins almost doubled from a year earlier, bank robberies were up 65 percent and home invasions increased 52 percent, Calgary Police Service data show.
Here are the graphs from CPS:
And here are the visuals from Food Banks Canada:
While it’s not possible to definitively identify the proximate cause, it seems clear that the same mindset which is driving the suicide rate higher is also compelling Albertans to commit crimes. As Nancy Bergeron, who has answered distress centre phone lines for a few years, puts it, “people are just at wit’s end.”
Why? Because, as we put it previously, “simply because the price of a commodity has dropped to a third of what it was just over a year ago, and the shocking impact has been a paralysis of every aspect of financial, economic and social life, first in Alberta, and soon everywhere else across Canada, as the local recession (on its way to a depression) spreads across the country and eventually crosses the U.S. border.”
One person who isn’t concerned is Greg Cosma, a 58-year-old engineer was let go from Cenovus in October and now builds houses for Habitat For Humanity as a volunteer.
His message to new graduates hoping to find gainful employment in Canada’s oil patch: “If you’re good at something, you have a future. Don’t sweat it.”
* * *
Full Calgary Police Service report
2015 1st Quarter Statistical Report
- The Big Short: "Every American Should See This Movie & Be F##king Pissed Off"
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform,
“The truth is like poetry, and most people fucking hate poetry.”
The Big Short opens nationwide today. But it happened to have one showing last night at a theater near me. My youngest son and I hopped in the car and went to see it. I loved the book by Michael Lewis. The cast assembled for the movie was top notch, but having the director of Anchorman and Talledaga Nights handle a subject matter like high finance seemed odd.
The choice of Adam McKay as director turned out to be brilliant. The question was how do you make a movie about the housing market, mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized debt swaps, and synthetic CDOs interesting for the average person. He succeeded beyond all expectations.
Interweaving pop culture icons, music, symbols of materialism, and unforgettable characters, McKay has created a masterpiece about the greed, stupidity, hubris, and arrogance of Wall Street bankers gone wild. He captures the idiocy and complete capture of the rating agencies (S&P, Moodys). He reveals the ineptitude and dysfunction of the SEC, where the goal of these regulators was to get a high paying job with banks they were supposed to regulate. He skewers the faux financial journalists at the Wall Street Journal who didn’t want to rock the boat with the truth about the greatest fraud ever committed.
What makes the movie great are the characters, their motivations, their frustrations, their anger at a warped demented system, and ultimately their hollow victory when the entire edifice of fraud came crashing down on the heads of honest hard working Americans. The movie does not glorify the men that ended up making billions from the demise of the housing bubble. But it clearly defines the real bad guys.
Steve Carell plays Mark Baum (based on the real life character Steve Eisman). He’s the kind of prick who would fit in perfectly on TBP. He is abrasively hysterical with his foul mouthed commentary and insults to authority. He is the heart and soul of the movie. You feel his pain throughout. Carrell should win an Academy Award for his performance.
Christian Bale’s quirky performance as one eyed Dr. Michael Burry, whose Asberger’s Syndrome actually allowed him to focus on the minutia and discover the fraud before everyone else, is top notch. Ryan Goseling is hysterical in his role as the narrator of the story. Brad Pitt plays a supporting role, but does it with his usual class.
Ultimately, it is a highly entertaining movie with the right moral overtone, despite non-stop profanity that captures the true nature of Wall Street traders. This is a dangerous movie for Wall Street, the government, and the establishment in general. They count on the complexity of Wall Street to confuse the average person and make their eyes glaze over. That makes it easier for them to keep committing fraud and harvesting the nation’s wealth.
This movie cuts through the crap and reveals those in power to be corrupt, greedy weasels who aren’t really as smart as they want you to think they are. The finale of the movie is sobering and infuriating. After unequivocally proving that Wall Street bankers, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve, Congress, the SEC, and the mainstream media, destroyed the global financial system, put tens of millions out of work, got six million people tossed from their homes, and created the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the filmmakers are left to provide the depressing conclusion.
No bankers went to jail. The Too Big To Fail banks were not broken up – they were bailed out by the American taxpayers. They actually got bigger. Their profits have reached new heights, while the average family has seen their income fall. Wall Street is paying out record bonuses, while 46 million people are on food stamps. Wall Street and their lackeys at the Federal Reserve call the shots in this country. They don’t give a fuck about you. And they’re doing it again.
Every American should see this movie and get fucking pissed off. The theater was deathly silent at the end of the movie. The audience was stunned by the fact that the criminals on Wall Street got away with the crime of the century, and they’re still on the loose. I had a great discussion with my 16 year old son on the way home. At least there is one millennial who understand how bad his generation is getting screwed.
Merry Fucking Christmas America from a Wall Street banker
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