Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Republicans have made minor cuts to the Ohio state budget and the Dayton city budget, and those minor cuts have resulted in job increases in the private sector. Unemployment has dropped in 85 of 88 Ohio counties.

"For the city of Dayton, the November unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, the lowest since a 9 percent rate in November 2008. The new monthly rate also was down from 10.7 percent in October and from 11.7 percent in November 2010.In Montgomery County, the November rate was 8.6 percent, lowest since the same rate in December 2008.
The county rate for November also was down from 9.6 percent in October and from 10.3 percent in November 2010.
The news was the same for the Dayton metro area, which includes Montgomery, Greene and Preble counties.
The metro area rate for November was 8.3 percent, lowest since the same rate in December 2008.
The metro area rate also was down from 9.3 percent in October and from 9.9 percent in November 2010."

Economics isn't rocket science. The fewer resources, including labor, government wastes in the parasitic political economy, the more resources are available to create wealth and improve the lives of the people at large.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The Fed orders too big too fail banks to hold more capital. That means money will have to come from somewhere to meet the new capital requirements. The stock market? I doubt the Fed would let the stock market fall. I bet the Fed will just print enough money and give it to the banks to meet the requirements, meaning this is just another charade.

POLICE STATE:

The other side of the drone debate: people can use them to monitor police.

Sheriff's deputy kills two, then police arrest and prosecute their families for being upset.

"Daniel Hiler ran out of gas during an evening motorcycle ride in Oildale, California on December 16. While walking his bike to a gas station, the twenty-year-old father of two ran into a family friend named Chrystal Jolley. The pair was crossing a street at a widely-recognized intersection when they were fatally blindsided by a vehicle traveling at a speed well in excess of the posted speed limit. Despite the fact that darkness had descended, the driver hadn’t turned on his headlights. The victims were killed instantly.Within minutes, police swarmed the scene, and arrests were made — none of which involved the driver, Deputy John Swearengin of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office. The four people arrested were relatives of the victims, who got into what the Sheriff’s Office described as an “altercation” with California Highway Patrol officers when they attempted to identify the victims."

Too common.

WAR:

To some people, WWI never ended in the Middle East because of the continual occupation and interference since.

You know how the US government always claims it wants to stop nuclear proliferation? Not so much.

"North Korea has long offered to junk its nuclear program – which is solely intended for self-defense – if the US would sign a non-aggression pact with Pyongyang and lift crushing trade sanctions."

Margolis is hopeful though.

"What frightens South Korean strategists the most is not North Korea’s small nuclear program, but rather what they call, "unexpected reunification:" the total collapse of the North Korean state, sending millions of starving refugees south across the Demilitarized Zone. South Korea is in no financial position to feed million or, more onerous, build a viable North Korea. In any event, many South Koreans do not want reunification.
Japan also fears waves of Korean boat people heading for its shores. Tokyo prefers a divided to a united Korea, which would be a serious economic rival.This writer, who has covered Korea for 35 years, has a sense that the most likely scenario will be a combined military-party leadership taking power and slowly moving North Korea away from the Kim dynasty’s megalomaniac leadership towards more cooperation with South Korea and better relations with the west."

Let's hope that's true. The US should pull troops out of Korea to reduce tensions and enable the two Koreas to resolve their own issues. The government should also allow free trade with North Korea.

FOREIGN POLICY:

I used to think China and Russia were waging a new Cold War against the US, but after recognizing that the US government is nearly always the aggressor, I now realize that the US government is waging another Cold War against them.

Walter Williams reports that our trade with China is grossly exaggerated.

"Hale and Hobijn find that the vast majority of goods and services sold in the United States are produced here. In 2010, total imports were about 16 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, and of that, 2.5 percent came from China."

Further:

"Much of what China sells us has considerable "local content." Hale and Hobijn give the example of sneakers that might sell for $70. They point out that most of that price goes for transportation in the U.S., rent for the store where they are sold, profits for shareholders of the U.S. retailer, and marketing costs, which include the salaries, wages and benefits paid to the U.S. workers and managers responsible for getting sneakers to consumers. On average, 55 cents of every dollar spent on goods made in China goes for marketing services produced in the U.S."

So trade is just being used as an excuse to demagogue China. Why? The US government is competing with China for oil and other natural resources all over world. Thus our many wars. It sounds like this trade demagoguery is designed to boost support from imperial actions.

POLITICS:

Americans disillusioned with political process. It's about time. Our system has always been designed to make sure the worst of the worst rise to the top. Mitt Romney tries to capitalize on the sentiment by blaming the the Super PACs. Romney has tremendously more money than any other candidate, so of course he would like to get rid Super PACs because they help even the field.

Apparently Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck prefer Ron Paul to Newt Gingrich. Good for them.

Another article trying to de-legitimize Iowa because Ron Paul might win.

"What especially worries Iowa Republican regulars is the possibility that Paul could win here on January 3rd with the help of Democrats and independents who change their registration to support the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman but then don’t support the GOP nominee next November."

In other words, only dedicated party members should be allowed to pick the nominee. The establishment wants to freeze out any outside influences because outside influences might upset the gravy train of government looting the establishment of both parties profits from.

Here's a wonderful example of the ubiquitous, legal corruption of government.

"When Senate Democrats finally brokered a compromise over the proposed health-care law, a group of hedge funds were let in on the deal, learning details hours before a public announcement on Dec. 8, 2009.The news was potentially worth millions of dollars to the investors, though none would publicly divulge how they used the information. They belong to a select group who pay for early, firsthand reports on Capitol Hill.
Seeking advance word of government decisions is part of a growing, lucrative—and legal— practice in Washington that employs a network of brokers, lobbyists and political insiders who arrange private meetings ..."

This is one of myriad ways the ruling class uses the power of government to loot us.

Here's an accusation of very specific and illegal corruption against Gingrich.

"On October 5, Sarkis Soghanalian, once the world’s largest private arms dealer, died at 82. He had sold weapons to scores of dictators including Saddam Hussein, and he took many secrets with him to his grave. But one secret he did not take involves Newt Gingrich when he was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.  DCBureau has learned that Gingrich was at the center of a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation in the late 1990s for a scheme to shake down the arms dealer for a $10 million bribe in exchange for Gingrich using his influence as Speaker to get the Iraq arms embargo lifted so Soghanalian could collect $54 million from Saddam Hussein’s regime for weapons he had delivered during the Iran-Iraq War."

It's certainly believable, but the word bribe is charged. This is just standard political horse-trading between members of the ruling class. And yeah, this arms dealer was a member of the ruling class. The ruling class consists of people with access to the levers of government power.

MEDIA:

WXIX in Cincinnati does another reality check on Ron Paul, this one about his policy toward Israel.

Even though Ron Paul is currently leading polls in Iowa as this USA Today article points out, the headline says he's still not in the lead.

"Paul received 21.7% of potential caucusgoers, according to an average of three recent polls compiled by the website Real Clear Politics. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney trails him slightly with 20.3% and former speaker Newt Gingrich comes in third with 15.7%."

You can't make this stuff up.

MISC:

Even the NFL game last night in San Francisco illustrated how the US, especially California, is turning into a third world country.