Federal Reserve

Claim that banks are selling gold they don't have, and once that is commonly known, there will be bank run on gold.

Foreign Policy

Another opinion that Romney is hurting in the polls because of his warmongering.

"President Obama has been a profound disappointment to those who hoped he would end America’s militarized foreign policy and the Bush era’s violation of rights. However, the blundering, ill-educated Romney now makes Obama look wise and saintly."

Obama keeps threatening the Iranians too, just not as often nor vociferously.

War

How Lincoln turned war into a virtue.

"This Lincolnian rhetoric has been the ideological cornerstone of all American wars ever since the "Civil War." It is usually used to disguise from the public the fact that war is always and everywhere a racket, as General Smedley Butler proclaimed in his famous book, War is a Racket. In reality, war is almost always waged over some hidden economic reasons for the benefit of the politically-connected class. As Rothbard pointed out, in the old days, "interventionists were more correctly considered propagandists for despotism, mass murder, and perpetual war, if not spokesmen for special interest groups, or agents of ‘the merchants of death.’ Scarcely a high ground." "

Not today.

Claim that a French secret agent killed Qaddafi to keep him from exposing his deals with then French President Sarkozy. This is easy to claim now.  Qaddafi also had sweet deals with Tony Blair.

The US military secretly sprayed the people on St. Louis and Corpus Christi with radioactive material.  This is the military that people love so much and the government they believe protects them.

Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve is out of options, and unlike Japan in the 1990s, there is no economy out there that will keep our propped up.

"On September 18th, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s commentary in The Telegraph UK was titled Japan launches QE8 as 20-year slump drags on. Evans-Pritchard noted that QE8, Japan’s latest round of quantitative easing, i.e. money-printing, is only the latest of Japan’s serial attempts to avoid a deflationary collapse.
Although Japan has survived deflation’s endgame for over 20 years, the US, the UK and Europe will not be so lucky - nor, this time, will Japan. With all major economic zones deflating simultaneously, the West’s demise will be far quicker than Japan’s protracted agony; and when the West collapses, this time Japan will collapse with it."

I don't think we'll see pure deflation. Dollars will flow back into the US and into prices of necessities like food and oil. Commodities will see inflation. Deflation might hit luxury items like boats and new houses. I'm going to use this quote:

"In 1949, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action:
The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion. There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

The government knows this. That's why DHS bought 1.7 billion bullets.

Global Warming and Energy

According to NOAA, the antarctic set the all time record for ice extent on 9/22/12. You won't see any headlines about that.

Explanation for why the EPA mandates a minimum purchase of four gallons of gas on pumps that pump E15. Politicians can give a handout to their cronies and destroy old cars at the same time, forcing people deeper into debt and into spy cars.

Foreign Policy

Good information on Iran's civilian nuclear program and why we know Iran is not trying to weaponize it.

"A recent example of such deliberate obfuscation was the IAEA report on Iran from August 30, 2012. Typical American media accounts highlighted the increase in Iran’s nuclear infrastructure (underground centrifuge production, etc.), while failing to mention that their stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium—the only material capable of being enriched further to 85% or weapons grade—had actually diminished as a result of conversion to fuel plates for use in the Tehran Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes. Thus nuclear development is highlighted, under the false premise that that equals progress toward a weapon, while exculpatory evidence is discarded: a case study in how news and propaganda function.
A civilian nuclear program is not easily converted into a weapons program. Before a country can begin the latter, it must break the IAEA monitoring seals on its uranium stockpile, which is also under constant camera detection. It must also kick out international inspectors, who currently have unfettered access to all of Iran’s nuclear sites. Completing those very public steps would be the first true warning indicators that Iran was building nuclear weapons." 

Iran is no threat to the US.

"The United States military is the largest, most sophisticated machine of force and violence the world has ever seen. After factoring in foreign military aid and nuclear weapons maintenance, the U.S. spends over an estimated $1 trillion (that’s >$1,000 billion) on defense annually.
By contrast, Iran spends somewhere between $10-12 billion on defense annually, after factoring in foreign and domestic paramilitary units such as the Revolutionary Guards and Basij—Iran’s domestic volunteer militia. This is “less than the United Arab Emirates, and only between 25% to 33% of Saudi defense spending,” notes Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It spends approximately 1/5 of the amount allocated by the six sheikdoms of the Gulf Cooperation Council—America’s staunchest regional allies (save for Israel) and the guardians of Western access to crude."

Iran is not an existential threat to Israel.

"Israel maintains a competitive advantage in total amount spent on munitions and assets, as well as a massive edge in terms of technological sophistication. Israel spends almost twice as much as Iran on defense appropriations and is able to buy the world’s most advanced weaponry from the United States (mostly with U.S. taxpayer money, laundered through foreign aid). Iran, by contrast, is heavily dependent on the dated munitions it received under the Shah and acquires rudimentary missile technology from China and North Korea with its own money.
Even if Iran were pursuing nuclear weapons, Israel’s own stockpile—estimated at a several hundred high-yield warheads—ensures that Tehran would not engage in a first-strike. Those familiar with the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) know that when confronted with the possibility of your own annihilation, so the theory goes, you’re incentivized to refrain from launching a first strike. Israel’s stationing of nukes on German-made Dolphin class submarines in the Mediterranean assures that even if a first strike were to be carried out on the Jewish state, the perpetrator would still be subject to a retaliatory strike."
"Israel is not a signatory to the NPT and repeatedly refuses propositions for a Middle East Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone (MENWFZ) to be established as a means of ending the stand-off with Tehran, despite majority support from the Israeli public."

Iran's leaders are rational, contrary to popular western propaganda.

"Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff, Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz: “I think the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people.” (CS Monitor, Israeli Army Chief says he doubts Iran will build a nuclear weapon; April 25, 2012)"

I don't know if the same can be said of Netanyahu. If he attacks Iran, he'll bring a rain of fire down on Israel.

"Iran began its nuclear program with help from the United States during the 1950’s when it was run by Washington’s puppet-dictator Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was installed after the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government in a 1953 CIA coup known as Operation Ajax. Following the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini condemned all nuclear and chemical weapons as “un-Islamic,” stopping the nascent nuclear program in its tracks. Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei reiterated his predecessor’s religious edict some 20 years later.
The 1980’s saw complex American-Iranian and Israeli-Iranian relations, whereby discreet deals were made among the antagonistic powers in an effort to accomplish other foreign policy goals. Yet by the early 1990’s Iran’s growing military prowess and the near-destruction of the major Arab military presence to Israel’s east (Iraq) put Iran back on Tel Aviv’s agenda as a strategic competitor. In 1992, then-member of parliament Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset that Iran was 3 to 5 years from having a nuclear weapon—and that the threat had to be “uprooted by an international front headed by the U.S.”"

Israelis are not sold on attacking Iran.

"Former Internal Security Chief Yuval Diskin: “…attacking Iran will encourage them to develop a bomb all the faster.” (Think Progress, Diskin says he has ‘no faith’ in current leadership, April 27, 2012)
Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan: a future Israeli Air Force strike on Iranian nuclear facilities is “the stupidest thing I have ever heard.” (Haaretz, Former Mossad chief: Israel air strike on Iran ‘stupidest thing I have ever heard’, May 7, 2011)"
"Although the idea of nuclear weapons in the hands of an avowedly hostile regime is as upsetting to Washington as it is to Tel Aviv, the Pentagon brass is opposed to an attack, not because they suddenly favor the regime in Tehran, but because their own strike simulations predict a great deal of injurious blowback in exchange for, at most, a brief setback in Iran’s nuclear capability.
And despite war hysteria in Israel, fanned by political rhetoric, and legitimate conventional security concerns for the Jewish state, Israeli security and military officials recognize that they don’t have anywhere near the overwhelming force required to take care of the problem. The only way to ensure that Iran doesn’t develop a nuclear weapons capability would be to install a friendly puppet regime in Tehran, a task far beyond the capability of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or the U.S. military at this point."

That might be the most reasonable thing I've read about this situation in a long time.

"Former CIA Director Michael Hayden on war deliberations within the Bush administration: “the consensus was that [a brief bombing campaign] would guarantee that which we are trying to prevent: an Iran that will spare nothing to build a nuclear weapon and that would build it in secret.” (The Hill, Don’t let Iran be a second Iraq; February 27, 2012)"

That too.

Israeli lobbyist suggests that US agents should perform some covert activity to make Iran start a war.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Sadly, two prediction of mine came true in Minneapolis today. A man who had just lost his job shot and killed four co-workers. I had previously predicted that as the US economy got worse, more violence would result. I had also predicted that the next mass shooting in the US would occur in a location in which government had disarmed the people. Clearly the the economy continues to get worse and Minneapolis has a strict gun ban policy. I loved being right when I was dealing with engineering problems. I hate being right now that I'm dealing human problems.

Media

Sometime the craziest things show up on my Google news aggregators. For example, suddenly the US is admitting that al Qaeda terrorists killed our ambassador and three other Americans at the Libyan consulate. This has been known for pretty much two weeks, but the mainstream media is only just now admitting it. I believe this is the reason Google is shutting down its home page. I got an email a couple of weeks ago that Google is shutting down iGoogle in a few months because everybody can get the same information elsewhere. Not as far as I know. I don't know where to get this same information in such an accessible format. I know of no way to access the same aggregations of news I can get from iGoogle. I believe iGoogle is shutting down because the government hates that people have access to stories like these.

Global Warming and Energy

Closing a highway in Los Angeles cuts CO2 emissions. Duh.

"In study findings announced Sept. 28, UCLA researchers report that they measured air pollutants during last year’s Carmageddon (July 15) and found that when 10 miles of the 405 closed, air quality near the shuttered portion improved within minutes, reaching levels 83 percent better than on comparable weekends."

Maybe zoning laws and the zero marginal cost matter.

Misc

Homer Bailey threw a no-hitter for the Reds, the first in Reds history since Tom Browning's prefect game in 1988.

"Bailey, 26, the seventh overall pick in the 2004 draft, has after years of starts and stops put together a consistent season. Friday night, he won his career-best 13th game, crossed the 200-inning barrier for the first time and lowered his ERA to 3.75."

Go Homer. Go Reds. So is Homer Bailey celebrating his no hitter or kicking himself for walking a guy and blowing a perfect game? Of course he's happy he and the team won. Of course he's happy he got a no-hitter. Of course he's celebrating.But in the back of his mind, I bet Homer is kicking himself for giving up that walk. You don't become great by celebrating. You become great by focusing on mistakes, taking them personally, and correcting them.

Contrary to Reds radio, the pitching isn't the big issue in the playoffs. Who cares if the pitcher has an effective era or 1 or 2 runs? The problem is the batters won't score more than a run or two. This whole discussion of pitching misses the point.

War

What happens when you have a corrupt military bureaucracy purchasing weapons from corrupt, monopoly weapons contractors? The most expensive fighter plane in the world can't reliably deliver oxygen to the pilot, and the Air Force knew about the problem.

"RAW-G proposed a range of solutions by 2005, including adjustments to the flow of oxygen into pilot's masks. But that key recommendation was rejected by military officials reluctant to add costs to a program that was already well over budget. Kevin Divers, a former Air Force physiologist who led RAW-G until he left the service in 2007, believes the cost of adjusting the oxygen flow would have added about $100,000 to the cost of each $190 million aircraft."

That's rounding error. Just like every other government bureaucracy, power corrupts, and the worst of the worst rise to the top, so those at the top have little regard for the lives of others except as those lives serve their personal interests.

Needless to say, the Air Force brass, located at Wright-Patterson, tell a different story.

"An Air Force working group found the jets’ oxygen system was giving pilots too much oxygen, which caused the cough. The service is refitting pilot life support gear, redesigning vests with modifications due in the fall, and adding an automated backup oxygen system by the end of the year, the AP reported."

I never heard of anybody passing out from too much oxygen, and why would they need to supply backup oxygen if too much oxygen was the problem. This sounds like dissembling at best and more likely a cover-up.

"The Air Force has said the jet is safe to fly, and temporarily deployed a squadron to Japan but has imposed altitude and flight radius restrictions on operations."

This conflict would be funny if it wasn't deadly.

Can you imagine a better headline than this?

"Syria: The Strange US/Israel/Al-Qaeda Ménage à Trois"

Can you imagine a more corrupt situation than the own our government has engaged in that prompted this headline?

Tax and Spend

The Obamas spend $1.4 billion of taxpayer's money on themselves last year.

"Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.
In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family."

How do you like the imperial presidency now?

Health Care

Obama using rebate checks from Obamacare to buy votes. This is a good reminder that every government pseudo-service is actually a political tool.

The government has dipped back into the SARS well to scare people.  Boo! Be very afraid.

The US government's killer food agency that has poisoned people for decades warns people against online pharmacies not controlled by it and its Big Pharma agents.

Foreign Policy

Fifteen days after the attacks in Benghazi, the FBI still has no access to investigate the scene.

Here's more on how every government policy, including so-called security, is really a cover for political looting.

"U.S. intelligence officials sought to explain Friday why the Obama administration’s understanding of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is “evolving.”"

In other words, these security officials are working their asses off to cover for Obama. They don't work to protect you and me, even if they wanted to. Their salaries depend on keeping the politicians happy, so they work to advance their political goals, not our security.

This article exposes the fantastic corruption of the US government for funding al Qaeda in Syria. Our government supported al Qaeda in Libya too, directly leading to the Benghazi massacre. If you thought the our government was protecting us from al Qaeda, please check your naivety at the door. They profit from perpetual war, so they fund and arm our enemies. In the quaint, outdated world of the Constitution,. that would be treason. Today, it makes them leaders. Syria, Israel, al Qaeda and the US connection.

Sometime the craziest things show up on my Google news aggregators. For example, suddenly the US is admitting that al Qaeda terrorists killed our ambassador and three other Americans at the Libyan consulate. This has been known for pretty much two weeks, but the mainstream media is only just now admitting it. I believe this is the reason Google is shutting down its home page. I got an email a couple of weeks ago that Google is shutting down iGoogle in a few months because everybody can get the same information elsewhere. Not as far as I know. I know of no way to access the same aggregations of news I can get from iGoogle. I believe iGoogle is shutting down because the government hates that people have access to stories like these. For some reason, the mainstream media has decided to report the attackers were al Qaeda. We have known this for weeks, but the press has covered it up. Why have they suddenly decided to report it? Something changed with Obama. He and his accomplice press believe they can twist this to their advantage. At the moment, I don't know how.

""It remains unclear if any group or person exercised overall command and control of the attack, and if extremist group leaders directed their members to participate," Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in a statement."

As if the families care. We don't need an investigation to tell us that al Qaeda killed those four people because our government funded and armed them to take over Libya and are now funding them and arming them to take over Syria. There's a reason the government hasn't allowed the FBI to get to the Libyan consulate for 15 days. There's a reason the government delays, disseminates and orchestrates every report. It's to hide the obvious: our government is our enemy. It encourages, funds and arms enemies so it can use that propaganda to loot and oppress us.

Economy

The government had to revise down growth, and I use that term loosely, last quarter from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent.

By undermining upward mobility, Obama is enhancing class resentments.

Obama blocks Chinese investment in green energy by blocking purchase of wind farms by Chinese company. This shows the political trade-offs Obama is balancing in order to win the election. We can use all the investment we can get right now, but Obama chose protectionism over investment and green energy.

Politics

Given our collapsing economy, everybody thinks Romney should be thrashing Obama, but I'm not so sure this is true. Carter was ahead of Reagan before the debates. But Lew Rockwell has a good point that applies to both cases. Romney is a honest warmonger. Obama pretends he isn't a warmonger. The majority of Americans don't want war with Iran, but Romney promises to start one. It's not possible to improve life in the US if our government starts a war with Iran, and the American people know it. Reagan was seen as a warmonger too, and that might have been why Carter was ahead of him until the debates, but during the debates, Americans learned he wasn't going to start a war with the Soviets. He was going to bankrupt them. Romney doesn't have that option. I think the other things I mentioned the other day are having a significant effect too. I don't believe that WWIII will be avoided by Obama. No matter who wins, they will start WWIII with Iran. No matter how screwed you think we are, I bet we're more screwed.

Here's a catalog of  some of Obama's lies.

Police State

I have no confidence the government will abolish the TSA until our economy collapses. Republicans are just saying this to fool people into voting for them.

Apparently TSA agents like to yell "Freeze" to freak out people in the security lines at airports.

Convicted TSA agent tells the truth about TSA.

"A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a "culture" of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers' luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues. "

This could be said of government in general.

Federal Reserve

Bank of America settles class action lawsuit over the acquisition of Merrill Lynch for $2.43 billion. That's all taxpayer money, so what do they car? CNN's bailout tracker reports the government gave Bank of America $124.5 billion. What a travesty.

Dayton Construction

Here's the last Dayton construction post. I took a couple pictures of the intersection. Here's a picture looking north along I-75.

Here's the picture from a similar perspective I posted in my first post about this Great Miami Boulevard project after the trees separating I-75 from the park were cut down.

Here's a picture of the intersection looking from the Art Institute side toward I-75.

While the road is finished, the project is not. They still have tape on the play scape. The wood chips don't cover all the grounds of the play scape. The little bulldozer is still sitting where it was in the last picture I took of it, unmoved for weeks. They're adding new parks with flowers between the I-75 ramp and Great Miami Boulevard back toward Main Street. I doubt that will get finished before winter, so this project is likely to stretch out to two years.

And here's a picture of the backhoe they're using to fill in the holes where they dug the tree roots out of the levee in that unrelated levee project forced on them by the feds.

Education

Physical fitness linked to higher reading and math scores. But kids can't play tag on the playground.

Student loan defaults at record pace.

"Student loan defaults have risen for the fifth straight year, as students from traditional non-profit universities have an increasingly difficult time paying off their college debt.

Numbers released by the Department of Education Friday show that of the 4.1 million borrowers who began making payments in late 2009 and early 2010, 9.1% defaulted within two years, up from 8.8% the year before."

This is what government control of our education system has wrought.

War

Americans lionize the military for their sacrifices, and rightly so, but we have to recognize the military is a counterproductive bureaucracy like every other government agency as this report about mortars shows.

"At issue is a mortar system that uses a computer to drop explosives quickly and accurately on enemy fighters who assault small forts. Insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades can outgun American special operations forces there. An urgent plea for 20 of the mortar systems was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January, yet no new weapons have been sent as of late September.

The Pentagon says it is "in the process of acquiring and fielding the additional numbers.""

As if buying and shipping 20 mortars given the nearly 1 trillion dollar military budget takes longer than a woman to have a baby.

Local

Once again 1,600 locals lose power.

"An estimated 1,600 Ohio Edison customers in the area of Westmont and Security drives are without power tonight because we’re told a tree has fallen on electrical lines and started a fire."

This is nuts. We're the laughing stock of the world. Here's an article from 2003:

"Years of neglected investment in the vast and antiquated network that moves electricity around the country -- combined with steadily growing power needs -- have left the nation's electricity grid vulnerable to disruptions, analysts say."

And it worse today. This couldn't happen in the private sector. Only government can manage services this poorly.

Foreign Policy

The producer of the anti-Muslim video credited, wrongly, for inspiring attacks against US embassies has been arrested for a probation violation regarding bank fraud.

"He was ordered not to own or use devices with access to the Web without approval from his probation officer -â?? and any approved computers were to be used for work only. "Defendant shall not access a computer for any other purpose," according to the terms of his probation."

That seems like a bizarre restriction.

Political hack and Secretary of Defense Panetta tells us what we already knew: the attack on the US consulate in Libya was a planned terrorist attack. Obama will act like his administration was saying this all along.

Education

Government's education spending is at a record high; SAT scores are at a record low. This is cause and effect. The more government spends on schools, the more they control the schools for the benefit of the politicians instead of the students, and therefore the worse education the schools provide.

Federal Reserve

Dodd-Frank - the corrupt twins - regulations have forced the number of banks offering free checking from 76 percent to 39 percent.

Politics

Boortz on the polls and Obama:

"The polls are right.  This man was taught throughout his childhood to truly despise The United States of America.  He’s now trying turn this country into the nation his America-hating mother, father, grandparents, preacher, terrorist pal, and communist mentor wanted or want it to be."

I don't know if the polls are right or not. Guys like Dick Morris and Karl Rove make a pretty good case they're wrong. But Boortz is exactly right about Obama. Who you chose to partner with matters. However, that doesn't mean Romney will be a good president. Everything Romney tells us says he'll be a bad president much like Obama. He's told us he's going to continue Obama's spending, keep Obamacare's policies and not cut taxes. That's the problem. Romney is his own worst enemy, and House Republicans are his next worst enemy.

The media is trying to set debate expectations low for Obama and high for Romney so Romney can't win.

According to some organization called PolitiFact (catchy name), Obama made 508 campaign promises in 2008 and kept only 37 percent.

Tax and Spend

The PIIGS bailouts and the euro crisis are not only threatening to break apart Spain, but an independence movement is happening in Bavaria, Germany too. I'm telling you, the coming economic collapse will drive people to redraw borders all over the world and probably in the US too.

Misc

A thorough lambasting of the myths of dark energy, dark matter and the Big Bang.

I'm skeptical that pictures of rocks prove a stream flowed for a long period of time on Mars.

""From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it." "

That's one heck of an inference for a man, but it sure makes for fantastic headlines that will boost support for more NASA missions to Mars.

""The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow," said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. "

Talk about projecting something local onto a foreign observation. Actually, that's being too kind. I'm sure there are examples of rounded rocks on earth that were rounded by some process other than being submerged in flowing water for a long time, but that isn't what NASA wants to report because it doesn't serve their interest in obtaining funding of stolen money for future missions.

Economy

It shouldn't surprise anybody that income in red states is growing faster than income in blue states. At the state level, Republicans generally support less spending, taxes, regulations and government unions, all of which increases economic freedom in those states.

Freedom of Speech

New Zealand report determines New Zealand authorities illegally spied on Kim Dotcom, and the Prime Minister has apologized. This poor man was arrested and had all his confiscated because the FBI asked New Zealand authorities to arrest him for copyright violation because he hosted a site people used for downloading copyrighted material. So far New Zealand hasn't extradited him, but how about some monetary compensation?

Compare this to a relatively sane country Portugal where file sharing for personal use is legal. People used to be able to share albums and tapes and record them for personal use. But the movie and record industry don't like that in the digital age, so they lobbied the government to make it illegal. I don't know if you could ever copy books for personal use. There was no convenient way to do it even if you could, but now digital books can be copied like music and movies.

Federal Reserve

Central banking enabled the advent of total war.

"If every American taxpayer had to submit an extra five or ten thousand dollars to the IRS this April to pay for the war, I'm quite certain it would end very quickly. The problem is that government finances war by borrowing and printing money, rather than presenting a bill directly in the form of higher taxes. When the costs are obscured, the question of whether any war is worth it becomes distorted."

No doubt.

President of the Philadelphia Fed warns of significant inflation.

""I don't think it would occur immediately," he said. "Inflation is going to occur when excess reserves of this huge balance sheet begin to flow outside into the real economy. I can't tell you when that's going to happen."
"When that does begin if we don't engage in a fairly aggressive and effective policy of preventing that from happening, there's no question in my mind that that will lead to lots of inflation."
Bernanke and other Fed officials have often said that the Fed will be able to contain the outflow of reserves into the economy and thereby limit wage-price pressures by raising the rate of interest it pays on excess reserves. But Plosser said the IOER [interest rate on excess reserves] and reserve draining tools cannot be relied upon.
"How fast will we have to do that (raise the IOER)?" he asked. "How rapid will it have to go up? We don't have a clue. Raising the IOER where you have a trillion and half or two trillion dollars in
reserves, we have absolutely zero experience with it."
"We have the tools to do it, but we don't know the consequences of the tools," Plosser said.
"If the IOER doesn't work and we have to sell assets, MBS, how will that affect housing?" he asked. "Will we be able to unwind from this at a pace that doesn't disrupt the economy?""

They can't stop it.

"As Plosser points out, there is approximately $1.5 trillion in excess reserves, given that the multiplier for reserves and money supply (M2) is now roughly 100, there is no way the Fed can allow that amount of excess reserves to get into the system. It would mean an increase in M2 of $150 trillion! On a current base of only $10 trillion. The Fed would have to fight such an outflow very aggressively, and that would mean much higher rates."

Wow. That's crazy.

Foreign Policy

Iranian president sees end of US empire.

"In a blistering speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "a few bullying powers" for creating the world's problems and said the "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road.""

This is from 2008, but this year he talked about a new world order without US bullying which is the same thing. Video. He isn't threatening us. He's observing our self-destruction, and he's right. He also said Iran is under threat from Israel and the US  (video) and he's right about that too. Our government is threatening Iran, not vice-versa. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad is threatening Israel.

""We do believe that they have found themselves at a dead end and they are seeking new adventures in order to escape this dead end. Iran will not be damaged with foreign bombs. We don't even count them as any part of any equation for Iran. During a historical phase, they [the Israelis] represent minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated."
Note that word—"eliminated." When Iranians talk about Israel, this intention of a final solution keeps coming up. In October 2005, Mr. Ahmadinejad, quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini, said Israel "must be wiped off the map." Lest anyone miss the point, the Iranian President said in June 2008 that Israel "has reached the end of its function and will soon disappear off the geographical domain.""

Again, I think Ahmadinejad is commenting on the self-destruction of western civilization. When the US and Europe collapse, nobody will be able to prop up Israel. After 70 years of bullying, oppression, and war, Israelis will have to deal with a a billion pissed-off Muslims alone. They should be making peace as quickly as possible, not starting another war.

Freedom of Speech

Brazil authorities ordered Google to remove a political video YouTube, and when Google refused, the police arrested Google's top executive in Brazil.

US military designates Julian Assange and  WikiLeaks as enemies of the US.

"The U.S. military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States — the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency. Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with 'communicating with the enemy.'"

Just crazy.

Economy

Reuter's runs an article on the hidden unemployed - people who have stopped looking for work - six weeks before the election. This report from a liberal media outlet is seriously damaging to Obama, showing once again the Bilderbergers are working for Romney.

Health Care

ABC reports that health care costs are rising faster under Obama than Bush. This report from a liberal media outlet undermines Obama's candidacy on his signature issue six weeks before the campaign. The Bilderberger's strike again.

Emails reveal that AARP worked closely with Obama to pass Obamacare despite it being unpopular with AARP members.

Media

The other day I wrote that the NFL officials were on strike, but that's not accurate. The league locked them out. This guy advocates the players go on strike until the league resigns the regular officials. I'm telling you, thus whole furor is more about unions versus owners than the performance of the replacement refs who are considered scabs. Obama tweets about wanting the regular refs back. Check this part out:

"In New Jersey, Sen. Steve Sweeney on Tuesday said he'll introduce legislation that would ban replacement refs from working games in his state. He said it's a safety issue and the game is too dangerous without the regular refs on the field."

What a bunch of baloney. This is about supporting unions, attacking scabs, and forcing the owners to cave.

Tax and Spend

The Wall Street Journal does a good job of exposing Obama's lies about government spending and debt.

Here's a great analysis of how government traps people on welfare and keeps them in poverty and dependent.

Obama explains how to use welfare recipients as majority coalition to win elections. If he can trap over half of voters in poverty, he believes Democrats will win every election.

Seventy percent of the US government goes to dependence programs.

"Government dependence is driving budget deficits and federal debt. More than 70 percent of federal spending goes to 47 government dependence programs, including housing, farm subsidies, and the three largest entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security."

Includes impressive chart.

Government Accountability Office reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has no authority to waive the work requirements for welfare.

Riots and strikes against budget cuts in Greece and Spain.

Romney can't get his tax plan straight. What a dufus.

Deloitte report on US debt.

Gary North highlights a Wall Street Journal article about the magnitude of the mess we're in.

"The problem with this article is it is naïve. It is Pollyanna to the core. It begins with the on-budget deficit: a mere $1.2 trillion a year. The on-budget deficit is peripheral to the real federal deficit, which reflects the unfunded liabilities of the federal government, primarily in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This deficit dwarfs the on-budget deficit. It is rising at $11 trillion a year.
This deficit has a present value of $222 trillion. This means that the federal government, today, must invest $222 trillion in market investments that will return about 5% per year for the next 75 years. No such investments exist, and the federal government does not have $222 trillion in reserve. The Federal Reserve system could print that, of course, but then that would only lead to hyperinflation."

That is unimaginable.

Free trade need not be reciprocal. The country engaging in free trade benefits even if the other party employs protectionist policies.

Politics

Boortz asks the question at the heart of the presidential horse race:

"I am baffled by recent polls which show that people believe the economy is worse than four years ago, yet they are STILL supporting Barack Obama.  How is this possible?  What is going through these people’s freaking minds?  This speaks to either two things: The incompetence of voters, or the failure of Mitt Romney to do anything to convince voters that he would be a better choice than Obama."

I think it's Romney and the House Republicans. I think Americans are starving for a reason to get rid of Obama, but neither Romney nor House Republicans give them one. Romney's promised he will not cut spending. He's promised he will keep ridiculous aspects of Obamacare like coverage for preexisting conditions. He supports protectionism, not free trade. He shows no knowledge of how an economy works. He picked a big-government RINO and phony budget hawk for VP. Then he steamrolled Ron Paul supporters with an ex post facto rules change the outcome of which was scripted in advance and didn't actually pass the voice vote.

And you can't discount how badly the Republican House has undermined the Republican party. The people voted in Republicans in a historic wave election in 2010 to cut spending. They did just the opposite. They had the opportunity to reject a debt limit increase as soon as they took over, and they failed to do it. Despite what voters had sent them there to do, they increased the debt ceiling and gave Obama pretty much all the spending he wanted. They didn't even cut funding for Obamacare. And Paul Ryan was one of the leaders who cut the legs out from under Republican voters. Republicans are suffering from self-inflicted wounds, and well deserved.

If Romney runs a 60 second ad of him talking to the camera, it will turn people off. This campaign has reached over saturation. People are sick of campaign ads.

Romney fakes empathy for the jobless. It worked for Clinton and seems to be working for Obama, so why not?

Global Warming and Energy

NASA GISS busted for changing historical temperature record again to make the present look hotter compared to the past.

Because of the bad economy, Americans are spending less on green products.

Health Care

I pointed out a couple of years ago that government domination of our health care system had produced falling lifespans in some parts of the country, but apparently some people are only just now discovering this.

"While the lives of the nation’s most highly educated have lengthened, the life expectancy for white Americans without a high school diploma has, since 1990, dropped by five years for women and three years for men, to 73.5 and 67.5 respectively."

Those are huge drops, and the more government seizes control of our health care system, the more all our lifespans will drop.

Foreign Policy

Speaking before the US, Obama continues promoting the charade that the anti-Muslim YouTube video prompted the attacks in Libya. He also hypocritically condemned the violence in Libya after he helped murder tens of thousands of people in Libya.

Global Warming and Energy

People are hoarding incandescent light bulbs because of the bans.

We had a high number of tornadoes in 2011. We had a low number in 2012, which was hotter in the US. There's no relationship to global warming or CO2 levels.

Media

I'm sick of hearing about the NFL replacement refs. The regular NFL refs suck too. They blow calls every game, they blow replays ever game, and some blown calls change the outcome of games, but the press never says anything. Sure, the replacement refs are slightly more bad than the regular refs, but if the media spent as much time exposing the regular NFL refs as they do these replacement refs, nobody would complain about the replacements. I just watched the video of the play in question, it looked like simultaneous possession to me, and simultaneous possession goes in favor of the offense, so it looked like the right call to me. All this unfavorable coverage of the replacement officials seems like a designed to dishonestly support unions and strikes. Also the players are ripping the replacement refs. Of course they just suffered a lockout, and undoubtedly the players union is in solidarity with the referees union.

This guy recognizes the larger context, but he sides with the unions.

Education

Retired military officers want junk food out of schools because obesity makes it hard to find good military recruits.

"All those extra calories are contributing to childhood obesity, a problem that means many young people are too heavy to serve in the military, ultimately putting national security at risk, the report says."

If you weren't aware that the primary function of government schools is to produce military recruits, let this be your wake-up call.

Foreign Policy

Taiwan has joined the conflict with Japan and China over those islands.

Misc

In another boost for the electric universe theory, NASA discovers that the Milky Way is embedded in a plasma, what they call a hot gas, which stretches for hundreds of thousands of light years.

Freedom of Speech

Iran building its own version of the internet, ostensibly for cyber-security, but it also will filter content. Look for western countries to do something similar.

Global Warming and Energy

I generally attribute Obama's war on energy to the global warming movement, but this guy attributes it to Obama's desire to collapse the US economy. It's impossible to know which motivation is stronger for him.

Media

The real reason the mainstream media is dying so fast is it's dishonest, and the American people know it.

"This just in from the Gallup organization: Americans' distrust of the media has just hit a  new record, with six in 10 Americans saying they have "little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly." Forty percent say they have a "great deal" or a "fair amount" of trust, and I assume this is the same crowd who approve of the job Congress is doing. Where do they find these people?"

I bet these are old people who have been watching the 6 o'clock news for 50 years or more.

Chris Matthews blatantly lies about unemployment rate when Obama took office.

Economy

American company to build a city on Honduras free from Honduran government control with laws based on Texas laws. It's funny to call this a test of a free market capitalism since it will be regulated by Texas-style laws. But the bigger problem is the uncertainty. There's nothing to stop the Honduran government from messing with it once it gets going, and this fear will depress its growth. Also the entire project seems centrally planned which will also depress its growth. Still, if it really becomes the most economically free location in the world, it will do well. If Honduras manages to follow China's free market zones, it could work out great.

The myth of the failure of capitalism. Our economy is trashed because of government intervention, not laissez faire.

Politics

Obama has disappeared the narcissistic flag in which he substituted his logo for the field of stars on the US flag.

Insight into Obama's character that the accomplice press refuses to cover.

"Beyond the spin and the polls, a starkly different picture emerges. It is a portrait of a man quite unlike his image, not a visionary reformer but rather a classic Chicago machine pol who thrives on rewarding himself and his friends with the spoils of public office, and who uses his position to punish his enemies."

This is exactly what we've seen Obama do for four years, so why would anybody be surprised? This is a very thorough biography.

Ryan doesn't give Romney a boost. Of course not. He's a liberal much like Romney, Obama and Biden. His claim of being a budget hawk is a fraud. He's probably harmed Romney. The tea party who swept Republicans to a dominant victory in 2010 wanted fiscal responsibility. Ryan is one of the House leaders who chose to kick them in the face with fiscal irresponsibility. It's hard to imagine any Republican who would have alienated the tea party more. The only people who liked this pick were establishment looters, and that's who Romney is counting on to give him a victory. They think the Republican base will turn out in droves to defeat Obama, so Romney can be a liberal as he wants and not lose any votes.

War

Nobody seems to care that Israel, undoubtedly with US backing, is committing terrorist acts against Iran. But the definition of terrorism has been co-opted. Terrorism used to be attacks on civilians. Attacks on government facilities and government personnel were not acts of terrorism, but regular war, so in that regard, it seems neither side is using terrorism. They're just waging covert war against each other.

Education

New York Department of Education to provide morning after pills to girls as young as 14 at 13 schools without parental consent. Anybody want to guess why it's only 13 schools and why those schools were chosen? As if we needed more reasons to abolish the abominable social engineering experiment of socialist schools.

Socialism

Toyota is smart enough not to produce an electric car, but because GM is owned and run by the government, it's not.

Health Care

Researches link Alzheimer's to diet much like diabetes.

Feed lots feeding gummy bears to cows.

"Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed. In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn."

I have an idea. Stop feeding them starchy sugar. Let them eat healthy grass like they evolved to eat so we can all get healthier.

Health Care

EPA sued because it experimented on human subjects, having them breath diesel engine exhaust.

"Because of the inhumanity forced on Mr. Galkanovic, Mr. Milloy has accepted as a family responsibility the fight against any government who subjects its citizens to inhumane treatment. Who knew it would be our government? Who knew it would be the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency? Who knew that human experimentation would be done on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill? Who knew it would be an official body of that University that approved this research?"

I'm not surprised by any of this. Apparently this guy doesn't know the history of unethical human experimentation by the US government.

"Medical ethicist, Professor John D. Dunn, MD, JD, called EPA’s human experimentation “scandalously unethical and immoral” and said “There can be no further tolerance of this misconduct.” This is not the EPA I knew. This is not the University of North Carolina I knew. This is not the American Tradition of our nation."

This is the tradition of our government.

Police State

In a good illustration how petty and controlling people who are attracted to government tend to be, the US Attorneys refuse to file cases brought by ATF agents in Reno, and similar infighting exists in Phoenix.

Local

Another crash in I-75 construction, this one a rollover.

Foreign Policy

Great video tells the 20th century history of the Middle East in ten minutes, showing how the countries and conflicts we know today were created by Britain and France. This 90 second video graphic shows the advance and retreat of empire in the Middle East for the last 5,000 years.

Apparently we're supposed to be upset that the attack in Benghazi inconvenienced the CIA.

"The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans has dealt the Central Intelligence Agency a major setback in its intelligence-gathering efforts at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation.
Among the more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from the city after the assault on the American mission and a nearby annex were about a dozen C.I.A. operatives and contractors, who played a crucial role in conducting surveillance and collecting information on an array of armed militant groups in and around the city. "

What about the families of those killed? Shouldn't we be more upset about them? And who created instability anyway? Oh wait. It was our government when it teamed up with Islamist rebels including al Qaeda to oust Qaddafi. This is another example of how our government creates chaos and conflict that burdens us all and makes life more dangerous.

"Within months of the start of Libyan revolution in February 2011, the C.I.A. began building a meaningful but covert presence in Benghazi, a locus of the rebel efforts to oust the government of Colonel Qaddafi.

Though the agency has been cooperating with the new post-Qaddafi Libyan intelligence service, the size of the C.I.A.’s presence in Benghazi apparently surprised some Libyan leaders. The deputy prime minister, Mustafa Abushagour, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal last week saying that he learned about some of the delicate American operations in Benghazi only after the attack on the mission, in large part because a surprisingly large number of Americans showed up at the Benghazi airport to be evacuated.

“We have no problem with intelligence sharing or gathering, but our sovereignty is also key,” said Mr. Abushagour."

You naive man. As if the US government gives a damn about your sovereignty.

"The New York Times agreed to withhold locations and details of these operations at the request of Obama administration officials, who said that disclosing such information could jeopardize future sensitive government activities and put at risk American personnel working in dangerous settings. "

Funny. They never did that during the Bush administration.

"Investigators and intelligence officials are now focusing on the possibility that the attackers were members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or at least were in communication with the group during the four hours that elapsed between the initial attack at the mission and the second one at the mission’s annex. "

Our government has done everything in its power to keep Americans from finding out that al Qaeda attacked the consulate, even blaming another radical group for the attack, but now the secret's out.

What is up with this conflict between China and Japan over a couple of uninhabited islands? Did the private owner announce some mineral find or is this just nationalism rearing its ugly head?

Tax and Spend

One of the many victims of the debt problems in Europe: the Irish pub.

War

Iran threatens to retaliate against US bases if attacked by Israel. The threat makes sense, but carrying it out probably doesn't. Apparently the general warned Iran may initiate a preemptive strike, but that would play right into the hands of the western aggressors.

Illegal Immigration

The worm is turning regarding illegal immigration and trade with Mexico. Mexicans claim cars from the US are driving down the price of cars in Mexico. Soon Americans will be sneaking across the border to find work in Mexico. Like Ron Paul predicted, that fence will be used to keep Americans in, not Mexicans out.

Politics

Black pastors turn against Obama over gay marriage.

"Rev. William Owens of the Coalition of African American Pastors on President Obama: "The President of the United States, who is a Black man, to endorse same sex marriage, should be put out of office, and he never should have been elected." He also told the Democratic Party: "I want the Democratic Party to know, you don't own us, and you don't own black people.""

It'll be interesting to see if that has any effect on the election.

An Australian gets it.

"How is it possible that Americans - who are so blessed to have once been given a shot at bona fide freedom - have become so uniquely adapted to being unconditionally compliant and living in chains as slaves, while being ungrudgingly subservient to a massive government-corporatocracy-special interest complex that erodes their freedoms almost daily, while enabling the elite overlords who control and rule over them for power and profit?"

This is the question. Early Americans gave us the greatest gift in history, an country with a government so tiny that it was unprecedented in history. And we have squandered that gift. Never has o society been given so much and fallen so far.

Misc

The problem with the helium is government artificially keeps the price low.

Advertisers won't honor Do Not Track. Why would they? It's not in their interest. This never had a chance of working.

How private individuals used private social networks to save their fellow residents during hurricane Isaac while the politicians and bureaucrats stole our stuff, squandered it, and paraded around in front of cameras.

Scientists develop a camera that captures 1 trillion frames per second then use it to film light beams. You can literally see a light beam, traveling at 300 million meters per second, in slow motion.

Regulation

Knowing that an economic crash caused by the Fed, government spending and regulations, the US government is ramping up administrative obstacles to leaving the country. Here are some examples.

Police State

New British surveillance system can identify individuals by the way they walk. I'm skeptical, but I doubt the courts will be, and that's all that matters.

War

Libya is in chaos, and the US ambassador and three other American officials have been murdered. Aren't you glad our government removed Gaddafi?

This article focuses on a clinic that treats female soldiers instead of pointing how how damaging its been to put them in the military.

"The growing need is staggering; one out of every five female vets from Iraq or Afghanistan are diagnosed with PTSD.One in five female VA patients also say they were sexually assaulted or sexually harassed during their time in service."

That is staggering. It's terrible. It's a unequivocal sign of a failed policy that should end.

"Those women will get care for it all in the new clinic."

Like we should be thankful the government is taking care of these women instead of lambasting it for harming them like this.

From the government turns everything upside down department:

"As President Karzai indicated, one of the most vexing difficulties is that---unlike America---the Afghan constitutional system has no provisions allowing the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial or charges.  Efforts are being made to clear this roadblock."

Who's the barbarian now?

Media

Why are Republican Senators upset that Obama and Clinton give more info to the press than to them? The press is on Obama's side. Republican Senators are not.

Article opens with:

"After one of their worst weeks of the general election campaign, Mitt Romney and his advisers are scrambling to refocus their message and make up ground lost to President Obama in several battleground states."

Maybe Romney just pays attention to the Gallop poll that shows he just pulled even with Obama, 47 to 47. While I'm never surprised, I'm always entertained by how dishonest the media is. They tell lies hoping they become faits accomplis. Just like their government masters.

Global Warming and Energy

Another prediction by a global warming fraud - that arctic sea ice would be gone by summer 2012 - fails. Being a global warming fraud means never having to pay the consequences for being wrong every, single time.

Ford was forced to retire the Crown Victoria because of CAFE standards, meaning police departments will have to purchase much more expensive, fragile and harder to detect Taurus SHOs, and we'll have to foot the bill.

You know how the government and its corporate agents are pushing for a smart grid? Well in Australia, they sell the data from every individual on the smart grid to every possible buyer. I hadn't even thought about that reason to oppose the smart grid.

Foreign Policy

Now we find out that a Libyan politician contacted the Libyan militia providing security to the US consulate and asked them to stand down and allow an attack on the consulate to succeed.

Who dubbed the movie clip in Arabic?

Misc

New study contradicts the out of Africa theory of human evolution. This report claims the study does not contradict the out of Africa theory.

The USPS plans to deliver more junk mail to increase revenue. People tend to think of the government as picking up trash, but the post office delivers it. It's socialist heaven, a modern version of digging ditches and filling them back in. One socialist delivers trash. Another socialist carries it away.

It seems your DNA does not determine everything about you and your offspring. Children who experienced times of gluttony produced children and grandchildren who died young.

"For instance, Bygren's research showed that in Overkalix, boys who enjoyed those rare overabundant winters — kids who went from normal eating to gluttony in a single season — produced sons and grandsons who lived shorter lives. Far shorter: in the first paper Bygren wrote about Norrbotten, which was published in 2001 in the Dutch journal Acta Biotheoretica, he showed that the grandsons of Overkalix boys who had overeaten died an average of six years earlier than the grandsons of those who had endured a poor harvest. Once Bygren and his team controlled for certain socioeconomic variations, the difference in longevity jumped to an astonishing 32 years."

Wow. Parents can also pass along insulin insensitivity from gluttony even though the children never experience the gluttony. This might be the same effect.

Politics

I keep seeing headlines of polls that have Obama up five or up seven over Romney and how Romney is in trouble. Gallop has Obama and Romney even. I think that's more accurate. Dick Morris has a good explanation of why polls favor Obama:

"All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin."

That'll do it.

"Almost all of the published polls show Obama getting less than 50% of the vote and less than 50% job approval. A majority of the voters either support Romney or are undecided in almost every poll.
But the fact is that the undecided vote always goes against the incumbent. In 1980 (the last time an incumbent Democrat was beaten), for example, the Gallup Poll of October 27th had Carter ahead by 45-39. Their survey on November 2nd showed Reagan catching up and leading by three points. In the actual voting, the Republican won by nine. The undecided vote broke sharply — and unanimously — for the challenger.
An undecided voter has really decided not to back the incumbent. He just won’t focus on the race until later in the game.
So, when the published poll shows Obama ahead by, say, 48-45, he’s really probably losing by 52-48!"

I agree with that too. Anybody who hasn't decided to vote for the incumbent by now will either not vote or vote against him.

Federal judge rules there's no right to secret ballots. Why was this a surprise?

The coming unrest will produce a strongman. Whoever gets elected, he will be the strongman. As I've said for a while now, I think we've been electing presidents who have what it takes to be the strongman for some time. These people have no empathy. The unrest will bring the strongman out of him, whoever wins.

Local

Montgomery County plumbers take three weeks to fix a leak.

"Workers fixed the leaking valve Friday. County Water Supply Specialist Keith Baker said taking three weeks to fix a leak “is not normal, but it’s not out of the ordinary.”
“The public’s not necessarily aware all the time. We might have crews working on another project that has a higher priority, say safety for example,” he said. “It’s not that we’re not doing anything.”"

But since the county obtains its money by theft, they have no incentive to work quickly or efficiently, and they have no incentive to satisfy their customers, so they don't. Notice the guy refused to say exactly what projects they were working on that had higher priority. Here's a breakdown on the inefficiency of socialist water delivery.

"The county has three small crews maintaining and repairing 2,300 miles of pipe in the county, officials said. They respond to hundreds of maintenance calls per month and have had 482 leaks so far this year — about 50 per month — which is similar to previous years."

That's crazy. That's an incredibly high maintenance system. It's a socialist jobs program, not an efficient way to deliver water.

Blustery winds knock out power to thousands. It doesn't even take storms any more. It just takes a couple of gusts of wind to knock out government's archaic power grid.

Health Care

Another big study shows GM foods cause health problems including cancer.

On the FDA's school lunch rules:

"Why the pessimism? I wondered how a backwards federal agency beholden to the special interests it promotes and subsidizes could fashion meals for America’s schoolkids that 1) don’t continue to contribute to childhood obesity, 2) contain little or no so-called junk food, 3) provide enough food to that segment of kids for whom the school lunch might be their only meal of the day, and 4) cater to the unique tastes of each of America’s 40-million or so school-age kids.
Impossible, right?
Earlier this month, the start of the school year around the country gave the new rules their first test. Results have not been pretty.
Seventy percent of students at one Wisconsin high school boycotted USDA school lunches. As one student at the school told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the changes have meant the food is “worse tasting, smaller sized and higher priced.”"

When you understand government, predicting this stuff is easy.

Media

The first media outlet to ask hard questions of President Obama is Univision. He won't go back there.

Tax and Spend

Obama works to delay report on Greece until after the election. The Greek saga might be about to enter the next phase.

Economy

The velocity of money has slowed to Great Depression levels.

Health Care

Scientists have just figured out that sugary drinks make people fat.

"For people who are genetically predisposed to obesity, drinking a lot of sugary beverages could make their weight problem worse by heightening the effects of their obesity genes, a new study suggests."

I wonder how much of our stolen money it took to fund that study.

The government has also corrupted psychologists and psychiatrists into political tools.