Sunday, March 30, 2014

I Have No Idea What I Will Post Tonight

I have no interesting news to report. Wait, I have this one article. New York Times - Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans’ Arrival in the Americas. Archeologists believe that people arrived in the Americas about 13,000 years ago; but, new evidence suggests that they arrived here 22,000 years ago. This is a big deal. The article goes on to say that the Polynesians had arrived here, something I have been saying for 30 plus years.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

I Was a Little Sick; but, Had a Nice Day

I took the day off, I felt poorly, as if someone had hit me in my kidneys. I feel better now. Now, the news.

YouTube - Keiser Report: People Power Age (E577). This is an amusing video discussing how the United States wants to count manufacturing jobs overseas as American jobs. Treating "job creators" in America as American jobs if the parent company is in America. When you figure out how you are being lied to and taken advantage of let me know. The second part of the show highlights how electronic currencies are already taking over in Africa.

Yahoo - No, the U.S. Isn’t Really Giving Up the Internet—It Doesn’t Own It Anyway. A group I have written extensively about, ICANN, is being put under the "control" of an international body and the writer wants you to know how they will no longer report to the federal government but wants to assure you that the federal government never owned the internet anyways. It is all lies, we will always control the internet. It just proves what I have been writing about for years.

Huffington Post - WATCH: Fox News' 'Preferential Option for the Rich'. A great little critique of Jon Stewart pointing out the lies of those who want to get rid of food stamps. The videos are priceless. In one, a person, claiming to be a Christian says that we shouldn't feed people, we should teach people how to feed themselves and then in another a conservative complains that food stamps can be used to buy bait for fishing.

Forbes - Can Corporate Leaders Push Through Immigration Reform In 2014?. Well, if they cannot send the jobs overseas then they want to bring foreigners in to the United States to work for less and take yours. Get it through your head that your "representatives" don't care about you and only care about the corporate interests that pay them.

Yahoo - The Wall Street Journal - Mortgage tax breaks trickle up, new study shows. When the Wall Street Journal talks about how the wealthy are benefiting from tax breaks you better believe they are not looking out for the poor. Lets get rid of ALL tax deductions. The truth is that the average person only qualifies for about 2% of all deductions available and the rest are limited to the rich and corporations.

None of the articles were particularly novel or exciting, more of just the same old garbage; but, that is the point of picking them. The real point is about what is under attack and what the average person who is willing to work hard can no longer expect and shouldn't.

Firstly, you shouldn't expect that going to college means you can get a good job. Nope, we are giving a preference to foreign students at our colleges and are making college so expensive that the average middle class person cannot afford to send his children to college or the child will be forced to take on more debt than he or she can expect to see in increased income. I have a simple solution to this, any state college or university that takes in foreign students should immediately cease getting and state or federal funding.

Secondly, you shouldn't be able to count of working towards a retirement. You should work till you die and even if you contribute to a retirement fund for 50 years you shouldn't be able to collect it because others have a better use for your money. I contributed to Social Security since I was 12 until I was 30 and won't see a dime of it coming back to me because I have a pension. Yeah, that is fair. We are not talking about an "entitlement", how bout if they just gave me the money I contributed back? I can live with that as I will have a pension; but, for those who only have Social Security, they want to take that from you too.

Thirdly, a home in which to raise your family. Nope, we are destroying home ownership and making everyone a renter. That is the purpose behind housing bubbles, the people living in them now make a profit and houses become unfordable for future generations. Are you seeing your future yet?

Fourthly, Mini-apartments and a life without personal transportation. Live in 250 square feet and never own a car and you will be a hero in the future because you are so environmentally friendly. Stop using up oxygen and maybe you can get a tax rebate.

Music for the generation about to be taken advantage of. YouTube - X - "The New World"

Monday, March 24, 2014

Stop the Hype About Obamacare

I wasn't going to talk about this because there is already nothing but bias and lies about the healthcare law and most people don't even understand what it does. Over the last few days Matt Drudge or the Drudge Report was complaining that he had to pay a tax for not getting health insurance. Well, turns out he wasn't being totally honest and had chosen to pay anticipated taxes as he is self employed. His income is in the millions probably and that tax would be like $68. Now, he would only pay it if he chose not to get health insurance. Here is my first question, who would anyone with his money not have health insurance? Is he a complete imbecile or somehow immune from sickness? All it takes is one heart attack to understand how expensive this stuff can get and cancer can be a lot more expensive than that. So, I have to question the intelligence of a man who can afford the best health insurance getting none by choice.

Apparently his complaint is that people should not be required to have health insurance. I have read a lot of people complain about this. These are the same people that will end up in the hospital and then declare medical bankruptcy or wait until they are sick to get insurance and complain that they have to pay more. When you put other people at risk we often require you to have insurance or a bond equivalent to a high amount, that is how car insurance works. You don't have to have car insurance in many states, you only have to have a bond equivalent to what the insurance amount would otherwise be. All policies have limits, car insurance used to have a limit of $250,000 exposure by the insurance company; but, I don't know what it is now. If you live in a flood zone, you have to have flood insurance. We require insurance for all types of activities so why shouldn't we require people to have medical insurance?

Personally, I am in favor of having nationalized medicine as they have in England and Canada and many other western countries. I am in favor of socialized medicine that guarantees medical care for all of a nations citizens. Unfortunately Obamacare keeps the control of healthcare in the hands of the same people who have been raising rates for the past 40 years, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical establishment and the private hospitals.

The reason so many hospitals and colleges were created by the Catholic church is because the wealthy wouldn't create either for anyone other than themselves and that is a fact. Ask yourself how many private hospitals invested in African countries. Yeah. The Catholic church sent missionaries who had medical training to Africa and South America.

Nothing infuriates me more than someone telling me they are a Christian and then complaining about taking care of the poor or taxes. I don't have a problem with an Atheist or Satanist telling me that (I am not comparing the two, Satanists tend to look down on the poor); but, I have a problem with someone saying they are a Christian and making these complaints. When the rich young man said he wanted to follow Jesus, Jesus told him to give up ALL his possessions and follow him daily.

The bible says that when we go to heaven many will call out the name of Jesus and he will say that he didn't know them. They will say that they know who he is and what he is; but, are so selfishly blind that they cannot understand his answer. It is not about knowing he is the Christ, it is about knowing his heart, his essence, that which makes him the Christ. It is not some ritual that you learn to do right, it is about loving your neighbor as yourself. He will tell them, those who know his name; but, not his heart, that he never knew them and they will say they never met him and he will explain that everytime they saw the poor, the troubled, those in pain that they had the chance to know him by helping those in need.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Doing a Little Cooking and Americans Cheating America

I am not a chef and my sister can easily out cook me; but, we come from a family that had many great cooks in it. Unfortunately, I failed to learn anything from any of them and am self taught. My sister is an award winning cook. When she was younger, she was not that good a cook; but, she traveled the world and learned things I could only wish I had. I could never keep up with her anymore; but, I do have a few signature dishes and know how to spice and use some tricky techniques.

I prepare French food, Japanese Food, Italian food, Cuban food, Mexican food and of course American classics. While I do make some Chinese dishes, I don't consider them restaurant ready. I will put my braised ribs or mustard crusted rack of lamb up against anyone; but, not my Chinese food. The fact is that I used to really love cooking and stopped when I was ill. It is nice to be cooking again and I am getting crazy about it.

Tonight I made a Lobster bisque with clams that I cooked in a French manner separately. It was fantastic and if my doctor knew what I made he would probably chastise me; but, it was good. I also made a meal for a couple of days from now, I made Cuban shredded beef an a Cuban barbeque sauce from a reduction, that only took about 10 hours. It was completely made from scratch. I had never made the Cuban shredded beef before, ended up spending a hundred dollars on spices and it was the best shredded beef I have ever had in my life.

I am finding myself more and more drawn to Cuban food. I used to make Cuban sandwiches on Sundays when we would watch the show Dexter. There are different approaches to making Cuban sandwiches and the one I use involves marinating the pork tenderloin overnight after it has been given a special rub that includes lime zest. The flavor is amazing and very distinctive, it just takes two days to make the sandwiches. There is a famous Cuban restaurant in Southern California and the few people that have had both mine and theirs agree my mine is better. It isn't it is just a little more flavorful for a different part of Cuba.

The point is, I like cooking and do it the best when I am feeling well and I am feeling better and better. I like that it shows in my cooking, cooking is love and joy and hope. There is actually someone who reads this blog that has had a complete 5 course meal made by me for around 15 people, in a foreign kitchen, in a distant town for people I barely knew and they all asked that I publish some of my recipes to them and I did. I am much more limited in scope and abilities than my sister; but, I am pretty good at the ones I do know and fairly inventive. I should also say that I detest baking because it is so measured.

Now, lets talk about the news. I am an American and am not in favor of electing Anti-Americans; but, more and more the Republican party is becoming anti-American and it really annoys me. Too many Republicans believe that it is more important for companies to make a profit than whether or not they hire Americans. Reagan believed that the reason jobs were being sent oversees was because this country had too much red tape to get things going, thats why he de-regulated industries; but, he was wrong, de-regulation only led to more jobs being shipped overseas.

FoxNews - Humans are the true wealth of nations. The article from the notoriously right wing Fox news says that the most valuable asset of a nations is it's human capital. There conclusion is that we should let more intelligent Asians move to America, read through the nonsense and understand who we are putting in our universities and you will see that it is Chinese students. I disagree with the article, what if we invested in the most innovative workforce in the history of the world, Americans. What if rather than allowing in the best from other countries, we made sure that we had best educated our children first. These Republicans are not following the history of the party and don't care about Americans, only profit.

PandoDaily - Revealed: Apple and Google’s wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one million employees. Apple is as anti-American as you get. All there manufacturing jobs are in Communist China. I am happy to say I have never owned an Apple product and don't plan on owning one. Bill Gates gives his money to Charities, Jobs gave his profit to the Chinese.

Apple and Google and other high tech companies conspired to fix the salary of their employees so they didn't move from one company to another. Think about that. These companies have been fixing salaries and want to bring in foreign citizens to compete with Americans; but, pay them less.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Some More Media Misdirection at Fox

This is the third version of this blog and still goes back 4 years. I don't even know how much I wrote the first few years because I destroyed the past; but, the stats say I started the blog in 2007. I find it amazing that I have been writing this blog for 7 years and still find news to write about. I find it even more amazing to know that there are people who have been reading it for that long. I also find it odd that I have been giving sermons for about 3 years. My mother used to say that I began talking at 9 months and never shut up.

As I look forward to retirement this year, I am constantly thinking about what I want to do next. Firstly, there is a good possibility that I will move back into the Mojave desert, I like the desert and it is good for my arthritis. I am also considering putting my doctorate to use and teaching; but, recently I had a new idea. I am thinking about doing a radio show in the desert in the early am when nobody is listening. I would basically talk about the same things I talk about in this blog; but, take calls from other night dwelling desert rats and the random trucker. I have already found a channel that will put on such a show for a relatively modest amount and the truth is, it is cheap enough that I can make it my hobby without having to rely on advertisers or contributions, sort of a self funded deal.

I think that might be fun. Pulling into a radio station in the middle of the night in the dark of the desert, spewing my nonsense and take on the news and letting people who don't have a life themselves call me and give their opinion. To me that seems sort of a romantic ending to my life. I remember what Raymond Chandler said about Philip Marlowe, he said he always saw him living in some drabby little apartment, doing sad jobs for sad people or something to that effect and always being truthful to himself. I like that, I think there is honor in just telling your truth and not worrying about whether or not you personally benefit. As for preaching, I never felt the passion for it, I have been told I am good at it and enjoy it when I am doing it; but, I have always felt that I am a place setter waiting for the permanent assistant preacher to show up. LOL.

Now to some stupid reporters.

Fox News - Kristen Bell tweets 'rich people should pay higher taxes'. The lovely actress Kristen Bell tweeted (I actually used that word) that rich people should pay more in taxes and Fox News brought on someone to ridicule her. The first thing the person said was that if she wanted to pay more taxes than she could make a gift. They said the same thing about Warren Buffet when he suggested the same. Rather than addressing the issue that Ms. Bell raised, they deflect and seek to make the issue about her.

I will start with Ms. Bell's comment and tell you why she is mistaken in her presentation. The problem is not the tax rate, it is the deductions. Over 98% of the tax code is deductions for the wealthy that do not apply to the rest of us. What she should have said is that we should eliminate all tax deductions, then, the wealthy would actually have to pay their taxes. Why should someone who actually works for a living pay a higher tax rate then someone who inherited their money? By the way, Ms. Bell and Mr. Buffet work for a living and are quite good at what they do. Fox doesn't want to talk about tax deductions because the average person doesn't advertise on Fox; but, the grand scoundrels of the finance industry do.

The guest talks about how Ms. Bell is a "savvy" social media user and self promoter whose film "Veronica Mars" is not doing to well. What his comments have to do with the issue of taxation is beyond me; but, then maybe he didn't really want to talk about tax disparity. We should understand that his comments are just bitter over her talking about taxes at all. The fact is that the Veronica Mars movie did not have to make a dime and did. It didn't have to make any money because it was already paid for by the fans of the show who did not invest in the film; but, financed it just to see it get made. I wrote about this when it came out, nothing new on my part. As to being a self promoter, Ms. Bell is not very good at it. In fact, she has gone after the paparazzi for taking pictures of people's children and is making a lot of enemies in the process.

The next part of the conversation is really interesting. The interviewer says that we should consider where these taxes are going when discussing taxes. Hmmm. I can tell you where a lot of it is going, it is going to pay for killing people in other countries and buying weapons. It also goes to the banks. He doesn't really talk about that.

The next game by the interviewer is to say how maybe we should ask what the right rate is, again this is true misdirection. What does it matter what the rate is if nobody pays it. It is the deductions that people should be focused on, not the rate.

The truth is that the whole report was garbage by a station that claims to be balanced and logical. Is the question of whether or not the tax rate appropriate to be decided on whether or not Kristen Bell wants to promote a movie? Is the most balanced and fair manner in which the issue of tax rates can be addressed or is it merely a character smear to avoid the real issues. Fox is completely insincere, pandering and prostituting themselves for the wealthy.

Lets try this, lets talk about how much the wealthy did not pay in taxes, the total valuation of all the deductions that the wealthy and businesses took last year. It is a fair question. What if I told you that American businesses had more in deductions than they paid in taxes, would that interest you? What if the reality was that for ever $100 you made in wages you paid $17 in taxes and got $3 in tax deductions; but, the wealthy paid only $19 in taxes for all income; but, got a tax deduction of $10? Would that seem fair or equitable to you?

Here is the biggest shame. We send the children of the poor to die in wars to profit the war machine (just as the great soldier and former president, Eisenhower, warned us of, and we pay the taxes to send our children to die. We pay to have our children die protecting the interests of oil companies that don't even pay their taxes.

The tax code is corrupt and it is not designed to benefit workers, it is designed to benefit owners. I don't want to tax people, I want to tax income and I don't care who it goes to or how they earn it, I want people to contribute to this nation proportionately to how they benefit from this society. A sales tax doesn't do that; but, an flat income tax does if it has no deductions. If you don't benefit from living here then you shouldn't have to pay. It is a very simple philosophy and the person who introduced it to me was Richard M. Nixon. Yet, that famous anti-communist and Republican was the first to introduce the idea that I know of.

Rabid "liberals" hate Nixon because of Watergate. The fact that Kennedy had help getting elected from the Mafia or that Johnson kept us in Vietnam doesn't seem to bother then as much as Nixon does. Nixon believed in the middle class and no president has since him.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

3/19/14 and News, juicy, intriguing news just like momma used to make

The Telegraph - Fire-sale of US Treasuries is a warning of acute stress across the world. Some nation is selling off it's US Treasury bonds, if they are selling, who will be buying from us when sell them this Friday?

The Street - U.S. Government Ceding Control of Key Internet Body. I have been writing about ICANN for years and years and saying that they were controlled by the Federal Government. I have been called a fool and conspiracy theorist for saying it and I have been told that nobody controls the internet by systems people. Please show me the number of shows people like Jesse Ventura have done about ICANN or where people like Alex Jones have talked about such things, I am patient and will wait. Nope none of these clowns have talked about it until now and how we are "giving up" our control of the internet. The truth is that we are not giving up control over anything, we still own the 13 computers that control how the internet works and are the only ones that can bring down the whole thing and restart it.

ABC News - Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops. I understand beat cops not being brilliant; but, from them come the detectives. If the beat cops are not allowed to be smart than who will become detectives, Sherlock Holmes was smart. Can you become a detective without having been a cop? No.

Myfoxny.com - 'Smart' houses to become a reality. 50 billion devices connected to the internet in a world with 7 billion people.

CNBC - Raise the minimum wage, we slow hiring: Businesses. I am willing to debate the effect on hiring of people if the minimum wage is increased; but, the articles are pure propaganda and silly. You hire people because you believe you will make money off of them, not because they are cheap. That is just stupid. Imagine the same companies saying that if metal costs increase 5% they will stop using metal. Think about that. I detest threats; but, I know how to respond to them. I will agree to not support increasing the minimum wage if the same companies that took the survey promise to increase hiring by 10% next year. We have given trillions in taxpayer dollars to the banks and businesses and have they haven't hired anyone.

Huffington Post - Reuters - Fed Trims Stimulus By Another $10 Billion. Lets keep an eye on Friday and see what happens as countries dump billions in treasury bonds and the Federal Reserve buys fewer, who will buy the remaining ones?

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Goodbye David Brenner

I don't know how to describe his humor. He was mostly clean, he wasn't exciting; but, could always be counted on to amuse. He liked to talk about stupid things we do and say. He told one joke about how people always say that they know that whatever they are looking for will be found in the last place they look. He asked, why wouldn't it be, why would you keep looking once you found it.

Here is what I do know about Mr. Brenner, he helped young comedians get noticed and with their work. Comedy is pretty cut-throat and a lot of comedians steal jokes from other comedians. I never heard of Mr. Brenner being accused of that. His official website posted that he had a sex related injury and was being cared for by his family and three undisclosed ladies. In fact, he died from cancer; but, joking till the end. I am posting a link to his last big televised concert.

Youtube - David Brenner: Back with a Vengeance!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Veronica Mars and topical news

I took today off work. For the past few years taking a day off meant taking care of personal business or seeing the doctor. Nope, I just took the day off. I went out to the movies and saw "Veronica Mars" and then had dinner with friends. My dear friends don't get a lot of time out, they spend a lot of time taking care of others and while they have an interest in world affairs, they really don't have the time follow it the way I do.

A few people that know me in the real world have told me that I write just like I talk. I guess that could be good or bad. When we go out the subject matters usually have a little personal information (obviously I showed them pictures of my grandchild and talked about how she was doing) and news of the day. Because they don't have time to read the blog or much else, often I sort of go over things that I have recently written about. We talked about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Malaysian flight that disappeared, I haven't written about that and may tonight, we shall see.

The great thing about having these conversations is that I get feedback and questioned. My friends are fairly traditional conservatives with spiritual beliefs and old school family type people. To those who don't personally know me I have to explain something, while my thinking may be different and my views all over the place, I live the most conservative and quiet lifestyle and attempt to avoid conflict in my personal life. The Pimpernel is quite boring and prefers to listen to music, read and write. I am also very tolerant about other people's lifestyles, my friends span the gammit. I am not very social, as a rule, and prefer to be around people I already know well. The people I work with and know through business often assume that I am very social, some have said they thought I was a ladies man of some sort and I don't even date. Only my closest friends know how personal I really am. Even on this blog you really only see a very small part of who I am because I rarely discuss how I feel and try to keep to issues that I am pondering. It is partly magic, the closer you look, the less you see and the best part of magic is not the trick; but, the show.

At dinner, my friends and I discussed what the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thing was really about. I brought up the articles and issues in the same order that I recently wrote about them. As I dripped bits of information, one of my friends followed the line of thought I expected from someone with conservative views to the tee. Because of the progression of the articles being explained as we talked, the point could be made and the biases could be looked past. That is the key to how the media works, The first article is released and our response is judged, then the second balloon is floated and again our biases are monitored. By the time the story gets to it's next phase, you stop listening to the questions and only hear your biases.

Now, to Veronica Mars. My daughter was a fan of the show; but, as she just had the baby could not go to the opening today. I never watched the show until I read about the Kickstarter campaign. I decided that if over 91,000 people would donate $5.7 million to have a movie made, I should find out why. I watched the series on the computer and it was good enough. I thought the writing was snappy and the acting showed a true connection between the actors. I did not believe that you could make a movie with the production values needed for the amount of money being spent; but, it turned out the actors worked way below what they could have gotten.

I liked the movie. I thought they gave the audience their moneys worth. I will not give any specifics about the plot; but, it worked. I love film and would have enjoyed film making; but, I had a different career that I was committed to. I am always disappointed when someone takes over $100 million and makes a piece of garbage with no heart, I think about how much more they could have done with that money making a worthwhile film. This was a very worthwhile film. Now, to the news.

The Guardian - Feinstein accuses CIA of 'intimidating' Senate staff over torture report. The press has either been talking about how she shouldn't care because she thinks it is okay for everyone else to be monitored and others in the press are talking about how "Obama" is monitoring politicians to influence their decisions. Neither is the real point of the story. The fact of the matter is that all people that are given certain information are monitored, we monitor anyone with access to secrets and Fienstein knows that, she is faking outrage. The real thing to watch for is her solution to the "problem".

The Guardian - Dianne Feinstein statement on CIA torture report 'cover-up' – full text. Now, I want you to read the actual text of what she said and it shows some interesting things. Firstly, she is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, do you really believe she didn't know that the congress was also monitored. EVERYONE with top secret clearance can be monitored at any time.

Yahoo - How the jobless deal could cut your pension. Everything that this writer says is garbage and I will pick some of them. Firstly, he talks about how congress is going to restore benefits for people who were long term unemployed. Further down the article he states that this will give people about $300 a month. LOL. Welfare pays more and general relief pays about the exact same amount. The difference between putting people on general relief (what long term unemployed and people who never worked) get is the same cost; but, by showing them as unemployed, it changes the employment numbers.

What is really disturbing is that congress is using this promise of paying "unemployment benefits" to justify allowing companies to not fund their pensions. There is no connection between private pensions and unemployment benefits at all. This is about stealing from any retirement that they can. They have been working on this for years and will continue down this path.

Huffington Post - Reuters - FDIC Sues 16 Big Banks For Rigging LIBOR Rates. Taxpayers, pensioners, governments and just about everyone else has lost more because the big banks conspired to fix markets than they pay for benefits for citizens. Think about that.

Yahoo - Investors Business Daily - Fannie Mae Foreclosure Perks Go To Residents, Not Investors. Another article with a writer completely ignorant of what is going on or a complete shill. Lets start with this little bit, it talks about "owner occupants" and "residents", what do you think that means? I can assure you that there are very few renters in foreclosed upon properties, these are the people who used to own the homes and got foreclosed upon but still live in them and that is why they were not called renters in the article.

The "investors" that are being taken advantage of, they are not investors in Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, they are potential buyers of the properties, speculators. The same people who helped create the housing bubble. The real issue is that once this program is in place, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will see a windfall in profits for the taxpayer and the banks don't want to see that, they want to buy up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the government at a low price before they become really profitable.

Bloomberg - Fannie Mae Liquidation Seen Sparing Preferred Holders. I like the lies in this article because just about nobody is going to get it. Lets start with this, the article says, common share values (the shares the government holds; but, it doesn't tell you that) dropped in value when it came out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would turn a profit for taxpayers and Preferred Stock has had a five fold increase in value even though their payouts should not increase more than the payouts for common shares (please read the previous few posts if you don't understand this - common shares get the increased profits and preferred shares get what they were promised).

Basically, members of congress want to sell Fannie and Freddie Mac to the large banks, the same ones that have rigged all the markets. If you continue down the article it becomes very clear that the plan, now that these two companies are making big profits, is to sell them off cheap and the supposed benefit is that taxpayers will be responsible for any losses these companies have that are greater than 10%. If the government sells the stock to private investors, why should we keep the liabilities?

Here is a quote from the article, "Any wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have to address whether the companies’ values -- from the loans and bonds on their balance sheets to income from their existing guarantees on about $4 trillion of securities -- is split up among several stakeholders or left for taxpayers." I don't know who wrote the article; but, they should know that it is not okay to have one sentence paragraphs. The lie within their statement is that there is a question over how the profits of the sale are to be split, there is no question, all profits in the sale of common stock goes to the Federal government, to taxpayers as it should.

The article also makes this statement, "The Corker-Warner bill called for the proceeds from unwinding of the companies’ estates once their replacement was established to be first used to pay down the government’s investment and then their preferred shares. Anything left would go to holders of their common stock." So, this bill, intended legislation, requires that the government be paid back it's "investment" and then pay the preferred shares giving the profit to the common shares. Huh? But the government is holding the common shares, so how does this plan change anything? Oh, it is the purchasers of the common shares that get all the profit, the people who buy the shares from the government. That is some tricky propaganda their kids.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Stealing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac From Taxpayers

Yesterday I wrote about corned beef and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, if you didn't read the post, I recommend that you go back and do so before reading this post. The bottom line is simple, taxpayers "bailed out" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after they had purchased bad mortgages from banks and after being bailed out, Fannie and Freddie along with the Federal Reserve bought up just about all the remaining mortgages. Funny thing is, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have paid the taxpayers back and with interest. They now stand to profit about $18 billion a year for ten years. That is more than enough to fund the postal pensions and those of most others in the Federal government from the profits alone and the government would still own Trillions in assets (mortgages).

There is no way that your congressman are going to allow the government to be profitable, there is too much to be made in selling off our governmental assets at a discount to their friends. Taxpayers were given all the risk and bad debt and will not be allowed to reap the rewards.

Yahoo - CNBC - Corker: Deal to end Fannie, Freddie is just right. I want my readers to pay attention to what this article says. Firstly, it doesn't mention at all that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have paid the government back all the money plus interest and completely avoids discussing how much more the taxpayers will get if we hold onto Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The slimebag that wrote this article is the worst kind of panderer.

I find this line from his article truly dishonest, "Lawmakers from both parties want to revamp the $10 trillion mortgage market to make it less likely taxpayers will ever be put on the hook again." It is the exact opposite of the truth and is proven if anyone reads the rest of the article. Their solution is to sell off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a discount and keep taxpayers on the hook if they fail beyond the first ten percent and any larger loss would fall on the taxpayers still.

UNRELATED PERSONAL STUFF:

I was listening to music while writing this and my mind wandered. I started thinking about wanting to thank my doctor. A number of years back I stopped seeing my doctors, they seemed to enjoy putting me in the hospital a bit much. I did not like it. Sometime in around 2008 I suffered my first heart attack and still did not go back to see a doctor and had stopped taking my blood pressure and other pills. I may not have my years right; but, basically that was it.

Last year I went back to my medical plan and saw a doctor again. I went in for a simple hemorrhoid problem and didn't want to hear about my blood pressure or have it taken because it was always life threatening. The readings said that I should be in cardiac arrest or passed out. The nurse was horrified. The doctor saw me and my numbers and quickly began considering how to get me into the hospital where I made it clear I did not wish to go. If he would have put me in, I would have avoided him and ignored him like the ones in the past; but, he worked with me. That first day was tough, I had to go through lots of testing to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack. I took it all quite cavalierly. I wasn't that concerned about dying, I just didn't want to be annoyed along the way. I ended up seeing the doctor weekly for a few months and playing pill roulette as we sought to see what combo of medications would bring down my blood pressure at least close to acceptable limits.

We eventually found the right pill mix and my numbers are almost all acceptable and the ones that are not are pretty close, a few weeks back I reported what my doctor said to me. He said when I left his office that first time he almost cried because he didn't think I would live the year. I never thought about it from his perspective. He is around 30 and really involved in the health of his patients, this guy really cares and he got stuck with me. Here I am a guy that didn't seek help after having a heart attack, I had been off pills for years and joked about death. I understand why he felt like crying and didn't think I would live a year. When he got back my EKG and told me I had a heart attack, I laughed and told him I remembered having it and that it had hurt. I even told him where I was when I had it, lovely Baker, California. LOL.

I remember the first time I met my doctor, he said I should be dead and had dodged a bullet. He couldn't believe I was alive. I must have been a odd job to be given to him. I told him he only needed to get me to retirement, he said he wanted to get me better so that I could enjoy my retirement. He did and soon I will retire; but, I had the added blessing of holding my first grandchild, he doesn't know that and when I see him I will tell him about it. I will show him a picture of my granddaughter and thank him for getting me here.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Corned Beef and Todays News

As my readers may or may not know, I am of Irish decent. There is a little English in me; but, we don't talk about that much. LOL. In fact my ex was Finnish, French, English, American Indian and a whole bunch of other things. I used to joke that she had destroyed the purity of my bloodline when we had kids. In reality I consider myself American and I consider my ex and my children to be American. Having said that I will on occassion celebrate my Irish heritage in odd ways. I do not drink beer and no longer drink scotch so I am left with food.

Unfortunately, food was often scarce in Ireland and potatoes kept the country alive for a long time. Ireland has a long history of using fish; but, it never traveled well within the country. After the English took over Ireland, they also took all the beef. What was left was root vegetables and the worst of all beef cuts, which was used for corned beef. They were cooked by being boiled as it used less wood for the fire and a meal could be made in one pot. When the world gives you lemons, you learn to make lemonade and the Irish found spices and boiling made the food edible and okay.

Anyways, I have been feeling better and getting back into cooking from scratch. I decided that with Saint Patricks day coming up I would go old school and boil myself a corned beef. I went to the store and found some a 2 1/2 pound piece of corned beef for $4 and took it home to prepare. I didn't expect much; but, I had picked the best cut I could find and dutifully boiled it for about 3 hours. I intended to cut it extra thin and pair it with pastrami for sandwiches. That is not going to happen, it came out perfectly tender and delicious. I hate to say it; but, it is the best corned beef I have ever cooked. If I could have cut it thinner it would have been even better in a sandwich.

Our elders knew lots of ways to use the worst and cheapest things and still make good meals. Heck, ribs used to be budget food. As we enter tougher economic times we should try and remember how our parents and grandparents made due with what they had. Oh I boiled it with a red potato, a white potato and a carrot. Those will taste fantastic tomorrow.

CNN - Assange to SXSW: We're all being watched. The title speaks for itself.

CBS - DC - Massive Police Hunt For Bank Robbers Shuts Down I-270. You cease having a right to privacy the moment you travel. Whatever happened to probable cause?

Now the fun stuff; but, to understand what is happening you have to read them in order.

Yahoo - Reuters - Fannie, Freddie could send $179.2 billion to taxpayers: White House. It turns out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the holders of over 60% of all mortgages and they themselves are owned by the Federal government, are not only returning all their bailout money ahead of schedule; but are also on track to make the government a tidy little income stream profit. The bailout cost taxpayers about $187 billion and they are about to repay approximately $202 billion. In addition to paying us back, over the next ten years they should pay the government back about $179 billion in profit. Just imagine, with that return we could fully fund Social Security for a very long time.

Bloomberg - Westhus Reaping Fannie Windfall to Rival Big Short: Mortgages. Okay so when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac looked like they would go bankrupt, a few knowledgeable investors bought up their preferred stock (which do not have voting rights, they are more like company debt than ownership). So the people that bought the preferred stock now know that there is a big payday coming to the Treasury and they want the money themselves. The Treasury has common stock and that allows it to vote on how and who gets paid when profits are made. It should be noted that Preferred stock does not usually share in the profits as much as the common stock which is now owned by the Treasury.


Finance & Commerce.com - Bill would eliminate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. The first two stories show that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to make $179 billion for someone and it should go to the taxpayer; but, private money wants it first. That is a lot of money on the table which might explain this move. Some congressman are now looking to fast track the idea of selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while still keeping the government on the hook if the mortgages fail. Selling off all the value and keeping all the risk. These people are criminals. What is particularly interesting to me is how quickly the idea of selling off the stock came up after it was determined that the stock had value and our representatives willingness to guarantee our taxes to pay off any losses even once the stock is sold.

I believe the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was a mistake. I believe it allowed the cost of housing go up more than it otherwise would have and I do not believe the government should be backing up any loans. I also don't believe in corporate subsidies or tax deductions. I believe everyone should pay the same percentage of their income regardless of how it was earned in the year it was paid to them. Now that we are past all of that, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do exist and were going to go bankrupt and the taxpayers bailed them out.

Isn't it funny how right after it was announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would pay a return to the Treasury (the taxpayers who bailed them out), the fight became over who in private finance would steal the profit from the taxpayers and keep it for themselves and neither of the last two articles really showed any concern over the value of this asset to taxpayers.

Don't trust the mainstream media, they are nothing other than a puppet for the wealthy. And don't trust the alternative media as they tend to be busy trying to sell you stuff like gold that has no real value. We are flooded with garbage, lies and deception so that the wolves can take advantage of the sheep and we are told we deserve to be taken of advantage of because people are sheep, it is all a lie to fulfill greed and selfishness with a justification our abusers like.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Being Home and News

I have been away from home for the past few days to see my new grandchild. I could have driven home each night; but, decided to rent a hotel near the hospital. I stayed at a nice hotel, had some lovely meals and took care of a lot of business (including getting my cars maintenance done), best of all, I got to hold my grandchild and she is lovely. Having said all that, it sure is great to be home. I came back exhausted, I just don't travel as well as I did when I was younger. While I was gone I saved some links to news stories I thought might be of interest.

Yahoo - The Exchange - Wealth rebounds — but mostly for the wealthy. The bottom line is that the total wealth of the nation has increased since the financial crisis; but, all the increases only went to the wealthy and the rest of us lost out, there has been no trickle down and no job creation. There has only been a transfer of wealth to those who caused the financial meltdown.

NBC Bay Area - NASA Admits to Selling Discount Fuel to Google Execs. Bottom line, Nasa was selling jet fuel to Google at half price. The question is not why Google would buy the fuel; but, why NASA would sell it to them at half price. To really understand that we would have to know what Google was doing for the United States.

Yahoo - Business Insider - Scientists Scanned A Woman's Brain During An Out-Of-Body Experience — And What They Found Was Amazing. Another case of garbage science trying to prove a point. A woman who claims to be able to cause herself to have out of body experiences has a brain scan while going through an episode and some "scientists" extrapolate that her brain activity is therefore the same as people who have a near death experience. One glaring problem, aside from the fact she was not dying, is that if the two things were the same then we would see the same parts of the brain activated during a near death experience; but, we do not because the near death experience has been recorded in people with NO BRAIN ACTIVITY.

Reuters - Man called Bitcoin's father denies ties, leads LA car chase. I love this story, someone managed to find the guy behind Bitcoin; but, he says he cannot talk about it. In addition, the people who actually worked with the person who created Bitcoin say they never met him and all communications were electronic. Doesn't it make you wonder why, if it is true. My answer is simple, this guy was merely feeding information to some programmers so that they would create Bitcoin and then use it to test out how people would use an electronic currency.

Mail Online - It's very hard to know why people go to food banks, claims Tory welfare minister Lord Freud
. A great example of how dissociated the wealthy are from the rest of us. One of the people responsible for taking care of the poor in England cannot figure out why people might go to food banks.

Bloomberg News - Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge, BIS Says. I find it interesting that global debt is up 40% since the crash and yet the debt is claimed to be government debt at a time when governments are providing less and less services to it's citizens. Where did the money go.

Bloomberg News - Carney Faces Leadership Test as Currency Scandal Snares BOE. The central Bank of England (similar to the Federal Reserve) has been caught fixing financial markets again.

Well, I am exhausted and going to bed. Have a great week.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

I am a grandfather

I have no intention of posting anything useful tonight; but, I have saved some links and will discuss them at a later time. I am a grandfather now, the Pimpernel is pleased to announce the birth of his first grandchild.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Short news post including genetic modification.

New York Times - Study Gives Hope of Altering Genes to Repel H.I.V.. That sounds pretty good doesn't it? A real cure to aids and a technology that can cure other diseases on a genetic level. This same technology could be used to make us susceptible to certain diseases. Earlier today I watched an interview with a Chinese scientist talking about how they were almost ready to find the "genius" gene and that they would be able to let parents select to have smarter children by choosing which of their eggs they chose to allow to fertilize. A brave new world indeed.

FoxNews - Calif. man denies he's Bitcoin founder after Newsweek report. Interesting that the principal behind creating Bitcoin worked for a defense contractor.

News of things to come

Yahoo - Reuters - Global super rich eye office blocks over mansions as wealth hits $20 trillion. Suddenly the super rich are buying more and more commercial properties at a time when commercial properties are losing value; but, it is better to own real assets then hold paper money. Remember this, when they did the bail ins in Cyprus, they didn't take property or assets, they just confiscated your cash.

The Washington Times - Cop-killer case sinks Obama Justice nominee. A nominee to be in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. He was turned down by the senate because he defended a "cop killer". That is what defense attorney's do. John Adams, our second president (who, by the way, always opposed slavery) was the defense attorney for the British soldiers who shot Americans in the Boston Massacre. Adams also helped write the Declaration of Independence. How can we trust someone to lead the legal system if they refuse to defend people in court so they can get a job for the Justice Department?

When I was in law school, I had a family friend who was a relatively famous attorney. One day he invited me to his beach house for the weekend and took me out for a lovely dinner (in fact, when I graduated, he allowed me to use his beach house for a family celebration). At dinner I mentioned that I was not interested in being involved in defense work and he asked me if I believe in the idea of due process. He asked how we could have a fair legal system if only bad attorneys were defense attorneys and said that it was not an attorney's job to decide guilt or innocence; but, the judge and jury's job. What kind of legal system would we have if your attorney acted as your judge? Think about it.

Occupy.com - Web of Debt - The Stone that Brings Down Goliath?
. I wrote about this when it first came up but I don't remember what I said, it doesn't matter. The short of it is that one city has determined that it can take over properties with bad mortgages through the use of eminent domain from the banks. Many people love this idea; but, they miss the point as did the article. You cannot take from the banks that which they do not own. The banks do not own the mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (both government entities now) own over 60% of all the mortgages and the Federal Reserve most of what remains. Cities, states and counties cannot use eminent domain against the Federal government, it is all a joke. While the left and the right argue over the right of cities, counties and states to use eminent domain to take over these properties to "help homeowners", it is irrelevant as the Federal government owns the properties and does not need the same chain of title.

Yahoo - 5 futuristic ATM features we can't wait to check out. The article makes me sick. Basically it is all about how losing your privacy and having to use biometrics to access money is a really exciting and fun thing to do.

The Blaze - Obamacare Architect: ‘Be Prepared to Kiss Your Insurance Company Good-Bye Forever’. Firstly, Glenn Beck is just another Ayn Rand type moron to me, an extremist. His organization is bemoaning the fact that medical insurance companies will change and cheaper ones will replace them. The reason medical costs have risen so much is because medical insurance companies wanted them to so that they could charge more in premiums, it was not to their advantage to keep costs down, only to push higher premiums and co-payments and that is why they allowed costs to raise.

NY Times - DealBook - In Banking Overhaul Fight, a Ruckus Over an Obscure Product. The article, like many others is so uninformed on the big issues. The article claims that JP Morgan and two other big banks own 71% of all Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs)which is basically subprime loans to small businesses bundled in groups. The banks hold them and created them; but, usually sold them to pension funds and other countries or hold them at face value (rather than marked to market - current valuation) as an asset in lieu of holding real assets. It is an accounting trick.

New York Times - Study Gives Hope of Altering Genes to Repel H.I.V.. We can change your genetics now, we are god or foolish.

If we love more than we hate, if we forgive more than we accuse, have we not added to the totality of love and forgiveness? The universe is big and we are small; but, we do contribute to the overall experience of the universe. We can add love and forgiveness or add hate and condemnation. Jesus said to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Don't hate your enemy, don't hate those who abuse you, don't hate.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Random News and Waiting for My First Grandchild

My eldest is pregnant and a week overdue. It is quite frustrating just waiting. Now, to the news.

New York Times - In Search of a Stable Electronic Currency. When I was an undergraduate in college studying for my degree in Political Science, one of my teachers required us to read either the New York Times everyday or the Christian Science Monitor (he was not of that faith), he claimed they were the two best and most objective newspapers. He required that we read it everyday from cover to cover. He would then give us tests which included issues that were in all the different sections.

The above article is interesting in that it discusses how Bitcoin will fail; but, has led the way in showing us how to adapt to an international electronic currency. Here is a quote from the article, "And there could be a “trills” unit — a concept that Mark Kamstra of York University and I have been advocating — that represents one trillionth of a country’s most recently estimated annual G.D.P. There should also be a unit that grows or retreats with per-capita daily consumption. This could be used for pension and Social Security payments as a form of intergenerational risk-sharing: The idea is that payments to older people would rise and fall with overall consumption. With many kinds of baskets, it will be easier to set prices and make contracts that are sensible for the long term."

Remember that quote, in the end, in my opinion, Bitcoin has been nothing more than a dry run for instituting and international, GDP based currency exchange and I have said that more than once.

Huffington Post - Wall Street Has Found Its Latest Dangerous Financial Product, Activists Warn. The story is pretty simple, hedge funds and investors have been buying up all the houses and paying cash. The article is complaining that is keeping good people from getting mortgages and buying the houses themselves and forces people into rentals. That is garbage. The real propaganda in the article is to get you to believe that the companies that own these homes are less likely to take care of them once they are rented out. I live in a rental owned by a family I know, it is a small building and fairly old. There are lots of families and people that own rental properties, I owned one. It can be a fairly passive income for retirees. What is coming is that increased pressures will be put on small owners of rental properties and they will be forced to sell their properties to these hedge funds and larger investors. The real beneficiary will be the federal government which owns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they own 70% or so of all the mortgages and the Federal Reserve. They are going to continue putting more and more regulations on rental properties, watch and see.

Yahoo - GMA - $10M Gold Coin Hoard Found in Yard May Have Been Stolen From Mint. This article is just amusing and gets people so emotional. A couple in California claims to have "found" $10,000,000 worth of gold coins. When this came up, I told some people that in the end the couple would not be allowed to keep any of the coins and guess what, it looks like they won't get to keep any of the coins as they "might" have been stolen back in the 1800s.

Here is the real issue, if you own gold you better be able to prove how you obtained it. A few years back the law was changed and any sale of gold valued at more than %500 must be reported to the federal government. None of the purveyors of fear of an economic crash who also sell gold bother telling people that, I don't sell anything. Don't waste your time buying gold and there will still be a complete breakdown of the current economic system which will lead to a new financial model that is all electronic and based on a countries Gross Domestic Product.

Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles City Council votes to regulate e-cigarettes as strictly as tobacco. It should be apparent that this type of regulation is not about harming others, it is about controlling what you do outside. E-cigarettes are not tobacco and they don't burn and they don't have a secondhand effect.

Wired - The Next Big Thing You Missed: How Starbucks Could Replace Your Bank. Here is what you need to take away from the article, traditional banking will be dead once we go to all electronic currencies. The real question is what will replace it for the average person and who loses when the big banks finally fail completely and are broken up into little local banks.

Mail Online - Turn your entire room into a SCREEN: Microsoft tool lets you browse the web and beam videos onto the walls of your home. I wrote about this over a year ago. Just imagine what kids will be like when they grow up in a safe, virtual world. They will be completely out of touch with real world risks and consequences.

Huffington Post - Obamacare Just Made Americans Richer Without Anyone Noticing. My first response is who cares as it is not about increasing the GDP, it is about making sure everyone has health insurance if they are to have access to healthcare. The first line is my favorite line, "Glenn Beck once said Obamacare would mean "the end of prosperity in America forever." LOL. Most of Europe and Canada have true government healthcare, we just force you to buy insurance, yet apparently that is going to prevent us from making money. Think about that, if you get healthcare, it means it costs your employer money. You know why, because they can't steal it because you will notice when you don't have your pills.

Huffington Post - Warren Buffett: Here's What We Need More Than A Minimum Wage Hike. I am not sure if I agree with him, he believes we should raise the tax deduction for low income earners instead of increasing the minimum wage. I think I like my idea better, what if individuals didn't have to pay anymore in taxes as a percentage of their income than companies pay or investments pay in taxes? What if rather than getting tax breaks and subsidies for corporations that outsource, we only gave companies tax breaks for investments they made in America and jobs they created in America?

Daily Beast - British Prime Minister’s Child Porn Adviser Arrested Over Child Porn. The Jimmy Saville case has exposed the political support for child molesters in Britain. There are many questions to be asked, why were these things covered up for so long, how can they be committed by the most powerful people in government and finance and why is this all coming out now; but, the most important question is how will these revelations be used to change societies? The end game explains the purpose to the other questions.

Well, that all folks, have a great week.

Monday, March 3, 2014

JP Morgan is up to something and my stats

I will discuss my stats first. I am seeing a spike in readership for the most recent posts. I have checked the search terms that led them here and they do not match the posts that I have made recently. I believe some people are being redirected here by a browser program that hijacks your searches. For those who come here by accident, sorry, I have nothing to do with it. The last time this happened it was all because of one post and I deleted it as it was a meaningless one anyways.

NY Times - Break Up the Bank? It’s Not for You to Ask. Firstly I am going to talk about the article and then I will discuss why our corporations are no longer capitalistic or honest. The article is about how some shareholder in JP Morgan wants to have a vote on whether or not the company should be split along the lines required by the old Glass Steagle law which required commercial banks to be separated from investment banks. The article humorously (in my opinion) continues to insist that "JP Morgan" doesn't want to separate the activities and may not have to.

The corporation is one of the greatest things ever invented and is responsible for all the really great projects of the last 100 plus years. Two guys would want to share resources and make a partnership and would have to agree on what they would do in business and share in the return. You would hire your partners eldest son because he could end up your partner when his father died. As countries advanced they found that really large projects required large companies with lots of owners. Voting became more and more difficult and shares were given or sold to people outside of the community, that was the beginning of the real stock market. The owners began to give their voting rights to other owners who had the time to go to the elections and that they trusted. That is a proxy vote and that is what the article is about.

Now, what went wrong with proxy voting? Pretty simple, the people buying the stock became less and less interested in the companies and began to only focus on the return. They began pressuring the managers that they had hired to do anything they had to to turn a profit, that let in corrupt managers. Things got worse, when American companies stopped seeing as large a profit as they began to have to compete with low wage foreign companies, the stockholders began to only care about the stock valuation and that is when companies began getting split up just to be sold off. The people that actually cared about the business voted to give more and more power to the managers and gave up the right to vote on more and more control of the actual business. The response by shareholders who did not care about the underlying business was to pay CEOs and managers based on the increase in stock value. That was the final nail, now business owners no longer had a say in how the company is run and the managers get paid better if they increase the stock value regardless of how they do it, which led them to outsource and split up the company in ways that hurt the long term viability of the business but increased the immediate stock valuation.

I know there is a lot involved in that; but, I tried to keep it to the basics and in fact, the detail is not as important right now. The bigger issue has to do with JP Morgan itself. JP Morgan may be insolvent and fail. Over the past 6 months they have announced that they are getting rid of their commodities division (which has been very profitable), are laying off thousands of people although their profits are up, has had a number of suicides amongst it's highest levels and is being investigated for fixing the commodities and other markets. We could add to this the fact that in the last couple of years they have had to pay over $20 billion dollars in fines for corruption and fixing markets. There is one guy alone that lost the company over $5 billion, he was known as the London Whale and was one of their traders who did bad things.

Lets just say that it is possible that JP Morgan is preparing for when the bond markets fail and their bets get called and they go bankrupt, just like Lehman Brothers did. The leader, CEO, of JP Morgan is Jamie Dimon and he has recently left the head bank and become head of the companies "living will", that means that if the company went bankrupt, he would be paid to break up the company and split one part holding all the debt and another part holding all the assets. Bloomberg - JPMorgan’s Dimon Said to Relinquish Chairman Title at Bank Unit.

This all brings us back to the beginning or such. If the managers of JP Morgan believe the company will go bankrupt and they will be removed then why would they want it to split it's investment banks from it's commercial banking now. When the living will is activated they will be able to decide who gets the assets and who gets the returns without having to listen to the investors, you know, the real owners. The corporation is one of the greatest things ever created by man and has allowed us to advance even more than fire; but, the problem is how modern corporations ceased working for it's owners and was put under the control of managers who no longer reported to them.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

7 Keys to the Internet and some random thoughts

The Guardian - Meet the seven people who hold the keys to worldwide internet security. Firstly, I want to say that this is the first real news article I have read about the seven keys. While I had written about this years ago, it is only now that I have seen it openly discussed. While the article (and linked video within it) discuss the process for rebooting the internet as far as the security protocol, it does not explain many other things. In fact, the real question is where are the keys to be used and that is at a few American military bases, El Segundo is only for practice.

You see, El Segundo is where many military contractors in the Aerospace industry are located. A couple of miles away from El Segundo in Marina Del Rey is where ICANN is headquarted. In the article they ask someone about how this important ability, to reboot the internet, could be left in the hands of a private non-for profit and the person says that they don't know. The written article says the following, "The fact that the US-based, not-for-profit organisation Icann – rather than a government or an international body – has one of the biggest jobs in maintaining global internet security has inevitably come in for criticism." I consider this just silly words for the ignorant. In fact, ICANN gets it's authority because it has a contract with the military of the United States.

Now here is an unpleasant fact, how could we possibly restart the internet if someone did not have a complete copy of everything that has gone over the internet and that would be the National Security Agency or NSA. There are a number of people who freak out at the thought of the government having access to everything on the internet; but, they did create it after all. Would you accept someone having a complete copy of everything that was ever e-mailed or posted if the alternative was that everything could be lost?

There are those who called me a conspiracy theorist when I first began talking about ICANN, it is nice to finally have mainstream media admit it and film it. Sometimes I talk about things that are not "common knowledge" or conspiracy type things. I have written about globalism and a coming one world economic system with a universal pegging of currencies and I have talked about how the federal government is taking more and more control over transportation. Unfortunately, when I read the "alternative media", I find it filled with far right wing whack jobs. They are often anti-Semitic and they take ever bit of information and assume the worst case scenario.

The truth is very simple and sadder than what many fear. There is a growing movement on the far right that believes that Obama is a communist and wants to create Marshall law and throw people in concentration camps where they intend to wipe out 90% of us and turn the rest of us into slaves. I will not post a link to the stories or videos; but, there are thousands of them all over the internet. This same kind of fear has led people to not get their children vaccinated, I consider this a serious mistake on their part and a dangerous one.

We are going to have an electronic international currency and you will barely notice the difference. The truth is that most transactions are electronic in the world anymore already. Africa is the most advanced in this area in many ways. There is a coming economic crisis and you barely notice that as it has been taking place for years and very few have noticed. I wrote about the IMF plan for inflating all the currencies (The Chicago Plan Revisited if you want to search for it) and the truth is this is what all the nations have been doing already. All the important nations have been inflating their currencies at the same time by printing trillions and trillions of dollars each year; but, as they have all done this at about the same time and gradually, their values compared to one another have remained relatively the same.

I am not looking to see some great event that changes the world, the changes have already occurred. The change will be complete when there is a substantial event, not a cataclysmic one. In the end the change will be about the valuation of labor. It will go well for poor countries and poorly for rich countries. In my opinion gold will be worth very little as it has very few real uses. Consider this, if gold were truly needed, why would most of it sit in vaults? Gold is a stupid thing to base a currency on, it made sense hundreds of years ago because you couldn't forge it. With all the alchemists who dedicated their live into turning lead into gold, they could not do it. Even today we can make artificial diamonds; but, not gold. When we switch to an all electronic currency, gold will drop in value and it's market will crash. I will not go into how the crash of gold will benefit the United States; but, I bet it will.