Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

It is ironic that the pure, unadulterated capitalism you find at farmer's markets attracts so many leftists who think they're rebelling against capitalism by going there.

""Capitalism is so darn good at what it does that it can even bamboozle muddleheaded socialists to cough up money for its products; that's wonderful""

How funny. I can relate to this article because I go to the farmer's market every week.

Don't be fooled by the artificially inflated numbers. The debt bubble will pop.

TAX AND SPEND:

Portugal's government requests a bailout the same day the European Central Bank plans to raise interest rates. This seems odd. Prediction that Ireland's government will need a second bailout.

House Republicans pass another stop-gap spending bill, but Harry Reid says the Senate won't pass it and Obama says he won't sign it. It looks like Democrats will shut down the government hoping voters blame Republicans. All the fuss is because the ruling class doesn't want the looting programs shut down.

Concern that the US government is lying about how much gold it has. The US government lie? Say it isn't so.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Robert Murphy describes the travesty of justice as the feds convict a man or counterfeiting for making silver coins.

"The government went after von NotHaus because he was low-hanging fruit; it was relatively easy to convince a jury that he was engaged in counterfeiting, because his coins share many features with official US coinage."

NotHaus made it easy by making his dollar look somewhat similar to a US coin, so the feds used him to set a precedent. That means we can expect more of these prosecutions as the people try to escape from the banking cartel. Disagreement.

"The Liberty Dollar case was about fraud. It was not about using gold or silver in commerce, it wasn’t about protecting government power, or even about using private money. There are all kinds of alternate currencies in circulation in the US. Ithaca Hours, Potomacs, gift certificates, and Chuck E. Cheese tokens can all be used to barter and transact instead of legal tender coins and bills. It is not illegal for a dentist to take payment in chickens or in sacks of potatoes. Liberty Dollar was investigated and indicted because it could, and did, fool some people into thinking it was something that it was not."

So what's the deal. Why would somebody spend $20 on coin they thought was worth a dollar? It must have been collectors. The Liberty dollar must have looked like a US coin that collectors would pay more than $20 for. But wouldn't collectors be able to tell the difference? I guess even collectors can make mistakes. Or, on the other hand, maybe the coins contained less value than that printed on their face.

"The most serious issue with Liberty Dollars is probably the coin value and the denomination minted on the medallion. The value of the metal in the Liberty Dollar medallions was below what appeared to be the Federal Reserve Note (FRN) value minted on their face. The “$10” medallion contained less than $10 in FRNs of silver at the time they were in circulation. When the value of the silver in the medallion rose above $10, the medallions were recalled, and recast with a “$20” denomination. The same process would occur if the FRN value of the metal again exceeded the minted denomination."

That's the part I was missing. This piece of information makes it sound like a scam.

"Liberty Dollar actively encouraged merchants who traded Liberty Dollars to give them to unsuspecting customers as change. An unsuspecting customer might receive a "$10 Liberty Dollar" medallion instead of $10 in Federal Reserve Notes. The value of the silver in those medallions was less than $10 FRN, so the unsuspecting customer would receive less than the value they thought they were receiving. It appears that such an exchange was viewed by the prosecution, and the jury, as evidence of an intent to defraud."

If this is true, it sounds like intent to defraud to me too.

The Fed has been funding Qaddafi, and Obama gave the bank it uses as a conduit immunity from sanctions.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

La Nina causes drought, not global warming.

Solar cycle 24 is picking up steam.

WAR ON DRUGS:

How government created the meth epidemic.

WAR:

Male on male rape in the military was never mentioned when the left was trying to overturn don't ask, don't tell, but now that it's been overturned, male on male rape in the military is epidemic.

"Jeloudov arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training in May 2009, in the middle of the economic crisis and rising xenophobia. The soldiers in his unit, responding to his Russian accent and New York City address, called him a "champagne socialist" and a "commie faggot." He was, he told Newsweek, "in the middle of the viper's pit." Less than two weeks after arriving on base, he was gang-raped in the barracks by men who said they were showing him who was in charge of the United States. When he reported the attack to unit commanders, he says they told him, "It must have been your fault. You must have provoked them.""

As I predicted, as soon as the policy was changed, the new story would be about attacks on gays in the military. Like night follows day.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Israel retaliates for rocket attacks, so the Palestinians call for cease-fire. Funny how that works.

LOCAL:

Why did the city give this condo developer a $300,000 welfare check of other people's money to replace soil at First and Patterson?

"“If things go well, we will look at other sites in the city for potential development,” Simms said. He credited city’s planning department for helping him get the project off the ground."

Really? And how exactly did it do that? By creating high taxes in the city? By spending money on a bunch of pseudo-services that destroy wealth? Or by handing out $300,000 of other people's money to the developer?

"Citywide, the city’s quasi-public economic development arm, also agreed to loan Simms $100,000 for the project."

Maybe that's it. Apparently banks wouldn't give him a loan, so the government loaned him other people's money.

MISC:

Modern Mexico isn't like the stereotype of old Mexico.