Stop eating Tuna …. Unless you like flirting with death

Fukushima. Such old news. Yesterday’s news. From a place far away. Fuckem. Everything is under control. We have enough shit to worry about. Why am I such a doom and gloomer?

Research I’ve done and found today. I think Fukushima is still a problem. Judge for yourself.

We often/usually buy in large quantities when items are on sale. So, a few months ago we bought 20+ cans of tuna for about a buck a can. I have since, even before this latest finding, thrown them all away. I won’t be eating tuna again in my lifetime. Seriously. Or, sushi. And I’ll be checking if the rice I buy comes from Japan, and if so, no sale.

You might consider likewise. That’s why I’m posting this.

—————————- –

1) — 38,000 children under the age of 18 in the Fukushima prefecture have been examined.

2) — An unheard of 36% have thyroid nodules, cysts and nodules ………. doctors say thyroid nodules in children are as rare as hen’s teeth … doctors there state they have never seen thyroid lesions such as they are seeing

3) — theta pollen in Fukushima was so full of cesium it was almost unbelievable ….. and it’s everywhere … a month ago some dust was found in a 10th floor apartment in Tokyo …. dangerous levels of cesium 137, 134, uranium 238, and 235 …….. did I mention 10th floor?

4) — the food is radioactive …. much of the rice grown in Japan is grown in the Fukushima prefectures ….. it is being harvested with cesium ………. It is being mixed with non-radioactive rice

6) — spinach and mushrooms are full of cesium and other isotopes ……… but they’re only just measuring cesium

7) — 63% of the fish caught within 60 miles from Fukushima have cesium in them

8) — tuna caught off the coast of California is carrying cesium from Fukushima

9) — Yes, the cesium is quite dilute ……. but it doesn’t fucking matter ……… if you eat tuna with some cesium in it, the cesium goes to one of your muscles or into your brain. …… “cesium is the potassium analogue, so it’s like potassium and our bodily cells are reaching for potassium” ….. so you ONLY NEED A SINGLE MUTATION IN A SINGLE CELL induced by a very small amount of cesium to induce cancer ……… the incubation time is around 5 -17 years ……. so one day you get these terrible headaches and the doctor says you have a cerebral tumor …. and you won’t remember the tuna you ate 15 years ago.

10) — building 4 is still very delicate and damaged ….. on top of it is a cooling pool of spent fuel rods over a hundred tons ……. if there’s an earthquake greater than 7.0 Building Four will collapse … down will come the cooling pool ……… the zirconium clouding of the fuel rods will burst into flames reacting with air at very high temperatures ……… TEN TIMES more cesium and radioactivity will be released from that cooling pool than from Chernobyl …. Tokyo will be toast ….. a good portion of the northern hemisphere will be contaminated.

.

CONCLUSION: Everything is A-OK!!! The EPA has stopped testing your air and food. “Trust us, you’ll be fine.”

No thanks! NEVER trust our government …. in ANYTHING. Take matters in your own hands. Do your own research. And act accordingly.

SEARS POSTS ANOTHER HORRIFIC QUARTER

The FABULOUS results from dying retail dinosaurs keep pouring in. Here is a direct quote from CEO Eddie Lampert:

“Sears Holdings made progress in 2012 improving the profitability of our business.”

Sears lost $1.1 BILLION in 2012. This is considered progress in the world of Eddie Lampert. What a joke. He is so happy that Ron Johnson exists, so he isn’t considered the worst retail CEO in U.S. history.

Here is a link to the awful Sears results:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-holdings-reports-fourth-quarter-110000658.html

Here is my assessment:

  • Sales fell by 2%, even with an extra week. This means on a comparable basis their sales fell 9.7% versus last year.
  • Eddie managed to lose $617 million in one quarter, beating out JC Penney’s $552 million loss.
  • Comparable store sales fell 1.6% and gross margins were flat.
  • The balance sheet is a disaster. He has $600 million of cash and he has $1.2 million of debt due in the next year.
  • His long term debt obligations total $8 billion and his shrinking equity totals $3.2 billion. He managed to lose $1.1 billion for the year.

There are 2,500 Sears/Kmart stores in the country. There are hundreds of thousands of employees. Not for too much longer.

 

COMING TO A MALL NEAR YOU

 

 

SEARS EMPLOYEES

 

I GOTS TO KNOW

I feel like Dirty Harry the way I’ve been gunning down stinking retailers today. And now I’ve got Ron Johnson, the worst retail CEO in history, laying on the ground with my 44 Magnum pointed at his fat ego inflated head. And I’m itching to pull the trigger.

Ron Johnson has been the CEO of JC Penney since November 2011. In the space of 14 months this douchebag has single-handedly destroyed a retailer that has been around for over 100 years. His stunning incompetence is breathtaking to behold. I worked for a horrible retail CEO at IKEA named Pernille Lopez. She was as dumb as a sack of hammers, but she was unable to destroy IKEA. Johnson arrived at JC Penney with his Apple Ego and $400 million fortune and proceeded to prove that a retard could have done a better job by throwing darts at a list of ideas to improve the company.

It is almost incomprehensible what he has been able to accomplish in one year on the job. Here is a link to their results.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-c-penney-company-inc-213101438.html

Here is the verdict:

  • In a virtually impossible feat, this guy was able to REDUCE JC Penney sales by $4.3 BILLION in one fucking year. I swear to God a retarded shit eating monkey couldn’t accomplish that feat. This is a stunning 25% reduction in sales. And it actually got worse in the 4th quarter, with a 28% decline. The 28% decline INCLUDED an extra week of sales versus the prior year.
  • Comparable store sales in the 4th quarter were down 31.7%.
  • He managed to LOSE $552 million in one quarter and $985 million for the year. The year before he arrived they lost $152 million.
  • He managed to lose $600 million of cash in one year. He only has $930 million left.
  • While Macys online sales went up 47%, JC Penny online sales plunged by 33%. This guy can’t get bricks and mortar or online right. He’s a jack-off of all trades.
  • Gross margins are plunging and inventory has dropped by $550 million.
  • Interestingly, their merchandise payables are up 10%. Someone is a little slow paying their bills. When suppliers start to get worried, it will be all over Ron Johnson.
  • This is a company that was using its “spare” cash to buyback stock when it was $50 a share. Today it is trading at $18 a share. Target and Home Depot are using this same strategy today.

Ron Johnson is a disgrace. JC Penney is a public company and its Board of Directors are a disgrace. This asshole should be fired immediately. They are paying this motherfucker millions to drive this company into the ground. It seems his free kids haircuts on Sundays didn’t turn things around. To show you what a fucking ego he has, he didn’t even move to Plano Tx when he took the job. He still lives in San Francisco and commutes several times a week in a corporate jet.

After concluding the worst year ever by a retailer of this size, here is what this rocket scientist had to say:

“We have accomplished so much in the last twelve months.  We believe the bold actions taken in 2012 will materially improve the Company`s long-term growth and profitability.”  

Delusional doesn’t come close to describing this asshole. The hubris of making a statement like that is appalling. He should be on his fucking knees apologizing to the employees and few remaining customers for the atrocious management and dreadful decisions he has made. But you will hear none of that. He doesn’t give a fuck about the thousands of employees who will lose their jobs when this disaster sinks to the bottom of the retail graveyard. He is responsible for 159,000 employees. Most or all will lose their jobs.  This fucker will get a $10 million severance package and fly off to his gated estate in Silicon Valley. I love watching the Wall Street dickheads who have continually come out with positive reports on this dog of a company be proven to be shills and shysters.

You can checkout my previous thoughts about Mr. Johnson here:

May 2012 –  http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=34521

August 2012 – http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=38725

September 2012 – http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=40416

November 2012 – http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=43752

December 2012 – http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=45560

I’ve decided that my new theme song is from my boys the Black Keys. My predictions make me a Lonely Boy but when I’m right, I gots to dance.

MOST BOOMERS ARE UP SH*T’S CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE

The average retirement balance of all workers is $77,000. The median is much lower, as the highly paid employees have large balances. This is pitiful enough, but looking at the balances for 55 to 64 year olds is frightening. The chart below captures a future of cat food and Oodles of Noodles for millions of Boomers. No wonder they will never vote to reduce entitlements. There really is no excuse for this pitiful level of savings at their age. A 60 year old was born in 1953. They turned 27 years old in 1980 at the outset of a 20 year bull market. Anyone who contributed regularly to a 401k from 1980 until today should have hundreds of thousands accumulated. Instead you have 60% of all 55 to 64 year olds with less than $72,000 of retirement savings.

These people have a life expectancy of 20 years and many will only get $15,000 to $20,000 per year from Social Security, with increases that will be less than the true inflation rate. Meanwhile, their real estate taxes, food costs, energy costs, and health care costs go up by 5% per year or more. They can earn about $600 of interest per year on a $120,000 retirement account balance. They can’t expect more than 3% real annual stock market gains over the next ten years, with a couple of plunges mixed in for good measure.

I hope Boomers weren’t counting on the idyllic retirement they see on those Wall Street banker commercials. The only ones having an idyllic retirement are the bankers.

 

MY CAT SEEMS TO LIKE IT. MAYBE BOOMERS WILL LIKE IT TOO

 

SOMETIMES STEREOTYPES ARE TRUE

My leaking water main is fixed, and it only cost $600. There goes my annual ad revenue from TBP down the drain.

The plumber was a really nice guy. I was at my desk in the office and he was grunting and groaning trying to remove the existing hardware. We chatted about how his job couldn’t be outsourced to China and he said his company decided to buy their drain cleaning machines from China to save money. He said the country wasn’t like it used to be and I agreed. We talked about shady home builders using substandard materials.

And then it happened. I turned around and right before my very eyes:

The dreaded PLUMBER’S CRACK was staring me right in the face. I kid you not. Looks like this guy dropped a bald headed dookie.

He was a nice guy, but I’m sure I will have scary flashbacks of a hairy ass crack for a long time to come.

Sometimes stereotypes are true.

I wasn’t this lucky.

“Expert Advice” on How Much Retirement Savings You Should Have At Your Age

There are a lot of articles and financial firms that give varying forms of advice on how much retirement savings you should have at a given age.  Recently, there was a report put out by Fidelity, a major 401(k) player outlining their advice in the table below.  We’ll take a look at their suggestions and then I’ll share some thoughts on why broad cookie-cutter advice may be way off (primarily because their assumptions are wildly unrealistic for most Americans today) and how to appropriately plan for your retirement needs based on your individual circumstances.

According to this popular article at MarketWatch, based on your current salary, you should have about 1X salary saved by 35, 2X by 40, 3X by 45 and so on.  This may seem like a laudable goal, but some of the assumptions leave something to be desired.  First off, they assume you continue saving at the prescribed rate until age 67. Who’s Really Going to Work Until 67? – First off, many Americans actually NEED to work well into their 70s because of the financial situation they’re in.  But that doesn’t mean they have the choice to just keep on working their current high-paying job.  Someone half their age, overseas, or a robot will be doing it

Continue Reading Why Most Retirement Advice is Wildly Unrealistic

RADIOSHACK RESULTS ARE DISASTROUS – TOLD YA SO

Here I go again. I wrote two previous articles about the downward spiral of Radioshack in October and September of last year, and its ultimate meeting with bankruptcy court. Here is a link:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=42832

They didn’t disappoint with their 4th quarter results. They were absolutely horrific and confirm everything I’ve written before. Here is a link to their report.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/radioshack-reports-financial-results-fourth-113000002.html

I’ll summarize the gory details for you:

  • They generated a massive $63.3 million loss during what is supposed to be their best quarter of the year, after making a profit of $11.9 million last year.
  • Their annual loss was $139.4 million, after making a profit of $72.2 million in the prior year.
  • Fourth quarter comparable store sales plunged by 7% in the 4th quarter.
  • Sales for the year declined by 3%, but their inventory grew by 22%. This is a DEADLY combination for a retailer.
  • Their accounts receivable surged by 18%, indicating that the little sales they are generating is on large doses of credit to their customers.
  • They had a negative cashflow of $137 million for the year.
  • They have $288 million of debt due within the next year. Their cash position should get them through one more year, but if their suppliers get worried the jig could be up.

Radioshack operates 7,000 locations and employs 34,000 people. Their only chance at survival is to close their 30% worst performing stores immediately. Retail CEOs rarely have the wisdom and reality based thinking to do what needs to be done. Time will tell, but this is just another dead retailer walking.  

IT’S ALWAYS THE BEST TIME TO BUY

“The continuing shortages of housing inventory are driving the price gains. There is no evidence of bubbles popping.”David Lereah, NAR mouthpiece/economist – August 2005

“The steady improvement in home sales will support price appreciation despite all the wild projections by academics, Wall Street analysts, and others in the media.” David Lereah, NAR mouthpiece/economist – January 10, 2007

“Buyer traffic is continuing to pick up, while seller traffic is holding steady. In fact, buyer traffic is 40 percent above a year ago, so there is plenty of demand but insufficient inventory to improve sales more strongly. We’ve transitioned into a seller’s market in much of the country. We expect a seasonal rise of inventory this spring, but it may be insufficient to avoid more frequent incidences of multiple bidding and faster-than-normal price growth.” – Lawrence Yun – NAR mouthpiece/economist – February 21, 2013

I really need to stop being so pessimistic. I’m getting richer by the day. My home value is rising at a rate of 1% per month according to the National Association of Realtors. At that rate, my house will be worth $1 million in less than 10 years. My underwater condo (figuratively – not literally) in Wildwood will resurface and make me rich beyond my wildest dreams. Larry Yun, the brilliant economic genius employed by the upstanding and truth telling NAR, reported that median home prices soared by 12.3% in January (down 3.7% from December) over the prior year and there is virtually no inventory left to sell – with a mere 1.75 million homes in inventory – the lowest level since 1999. The median sales price of $173,600 is up “dramatically” from last year’s $154,500 level. I’m sure the NAR meant to mention that home prices are still down 25% from the 2005 high of $230,000. Every mainstream media newspaper, magazine, and news channel is telling me the “strong” housing recovery is propelling the economy and creating millions of new jobs. Keynesian economists, Wall Street bankers, government apparatchiks and housing trade organizations are all in agreement that the wealth effect from rising home prices will be the jumpstart our economy needs to get back to the glory days of 2005. Who am I to argue with such honorable men with degrees from Ivy League schools and a track record of unquestioned accuracy as we can see in the chart below? 

 

Mr. Lereah added to his sterling reputation with his insightful prescient book Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust—And How You Can Profit from It, which was published in February 2006. I understand Ben Bernanke has a signed copy on his nightstand. According to David, he voluntarily decided to leave the NAR in mid-2007 as home prices began their 40% plunge over the next four years. He then admitted in an interview with Money Magazine in 2009 that he was nothing but a shill for the real estate industry, no different than a whore doing tricks for $20. Except he was whoring himself for millions of dollars and contributing to the biggest financial fraud in world history:

“I was pressured by executives to issue optimistic forecasts — then was left to shoulder the blame when things went sour. I was there for seven years doing everything they wanted me to. I worked for an association promoting housing, and it was my job to represent their interests. If you look at my actual forecasts, the numbers were right in line with most forecasts. The difference was that I put a positive spin on it. It was easy to do during boom times, harder when times weren’t good. I never thought the whole national real estate market would burst.”

After Mr. Lereah slithered away from his post he was replaced by the next snake – Lawrence Yun. He proceeded to put the best face possible on the greatest housing collapse in recorded history, assuring the public it was the best time to buy during the entire slide. Five million foreclosures later he’s still telling us it’s the best time to buy. Why shouldn’t we believe the National Association of Realtors and the mainstream media that report their propaganda as indisputable fact? These noble realtooors only have the best interests of their clients at heart. Remember when they warned people about the dangers of liar loans, negative amortization loans, appraisal fraud, nefarious mortgage brokers, criminal bankers, corrupt ratings agencies and the fact that home prices had reached a high two standard deviations above the normal trend? Oh yeah. They didn’t make a peep. They disputed and ridiculed Robert Shiller and anyone else who dared question the healthy “strong” housing market storyline. In late 2011 this superb, above board, truth telling organization admitted what many financial analysts and “crazy” bloggers had been pointing out for years. They were lying about home sales. Their data was false. Between 2007 and 2010, the NAR reported 2.95 million more home sales than had actually occurred. This was not a rounding error. This was not a flaw in their methodology, as they claimed. It was an outright fraudulent attempt to convince the public that the housing market was not in free fall. These guys make the BLS look accurate and above board.   

  

We are now expected to believe their monthly reports as if they are gospel. The mainstream media continues to report their drivel about the lowest inventory level in 14 years without the slightest hint of skepticism.

The Incredible Shrinking Inventory

We are told by good old Larry Yun that there are only 1.74 million homes left for sale in this country and at current sales rates we’ll run out of inventory in 4.2 months. Oh the horror. You better buy now, before it’s too late. We must be running out of houses. Someone call Bob Toll. We need more houses built ASAP, before this becomes a crisis. But there seems to be problem with this storyline. Existing home sales are falling. Even using the NAR seasonally manipulated numbers, sales in January were lower than in November. In a country with 133 million housing units, there were 291,000 existing home sales in January. If there is an inventory shortage, why have new home sales fallen every month since May of 2012? There were a total of 10,000 completed new homes sold in December in the entire country. Housing starts plunged by 8.5% in January. Does this happen when you have a strong housing market? Do you believe the NAR inventory figure of 1.74 million homes for sale? The last time the months of supply was this low was early 2005 – during the good old days.

 

Let’s examine a few facts to determine the true nature of this shocking inventory shortage. According to the U.S. Census Bureau:

  • There are 133 million housing units in the United States
  • There are 115 million occupied housing units in the country, with 75 million owner occupied and 40 million renter occupied.
  • For the math challenged this means that 13.5%, or 18 million housing units, are vacant.
  • Only 4.3 million are considered summer homes, and 3.9 million are available for rent. That leaves 9.8 million homes completely vacant.
  • The Census Bureau specifically identifies 1.6 million of these vacant housing units as up for sale.

So, with 9.8 million vacant housing units in the country and 1.6 million of these identified as for sale, the NAR and media mouthpieces have the balls to report only 1.74 million homes for sale in the entire U.S. This doesn’t even take into account the massive shadow inventory stuck in the foreclosure pipeline. Of the 75 million owner-occupied housing units in the country, 50 million have a mortgage. Of these houses, a full 10.9% are either delinquent or in the foreclosure process. This totals 5.4 million households, with 1.9 million of these households already in the foreclosure process. The number of distressed households is still double the long-term average, even with historically low mortgage rates, multiple government mortgage relief programs (HARP), and Fannie, Freddie and the FHA guaranteeing 90% of all mortgages. Do you think the NAR is including any of these 5.4 million distressed houses in their inventory numbers?

 

Then we have the little matter of a few home occupiers still underwater on their mortgages. After this fabulous two year housing recovery touted by shills and shysters, only 27.5% of ALL mortgage holders are underwater on their mortgage. This means 13.8 million households are in a negative equity position. Those with 5% or less equity are effectively underwater since closing costs usually exceed 6% of the house’s value. That adds another 2.2 million households to the negative equity bucket. Do you think any of these 16 million households would be selling if they could?  

U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are slowly gaining equity back in their homes. 

The negative equity position of millions of homeowners gets at the gist of the effort to re-inflate the housing bubble. By artificially pumping up home prices, the Wall Street titans and their co-conspirators at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are attempting to repair insolvent Wall Street bank balance sheets, lure unsuspecting dupes back into the housing market, reignite the economy through the old stand-by wealth effect, and of course enrich themselves and their crony capitalist friends. The artificial suppression of home inventory has been working wonders, as 2 million homeowners were freed from negative equity in 2012. If they can only lure enough suckers back into the pool, all will be well. Phoenix must have an inordinate number of chumps with home prices rising by 22.5% in 2012 as investors and flippers poured into the market with cheap debt and big dreams. Of course everything is relative, as prices are still down 44% from the peak and 40% of mortgages remain underwater. I strongly urge everyone without a functioning brain to pour their life savings into the Phoenix housing market. Larry Yun says it’s a can’t miss path to riches.  

Despite the propaganda, hyperbole, and cheerleading from the corporate media, the fact remains that national homeowner’s equity is barely above its all-time low of 38%, down from 62% in 2000 and 70% in 1980. The NAR shills, Federal Reserve drug pushers, Wall Street shysters, and pliant media lured the middle class into the false belief that housing was an asset class that could make you rich. Homes became the major portion of middle class net worth. As prices were driven higher from 2000 through 2006, the middle class took the bait hook line and sinker and borrowed billions against their ever increasing faux housing wealth. This set up the impending collapse of middle class net worth, created by the 1%ers on Wall Street, in Washington DC, and in corporate executive suites across the land.  The median American household lost 47% of its wealth between 2007 and 2010. Average household wealth, which is skewed dramatically by the richest Americans, declined by only 18%. Real estate only accounts for 30% of the net worth of the rich. For the middle 60%, housing has risen from 62% to 67% of total wealth since 1983. Middle class families’ saw their cash cushion fall from 21% in 1983 to 8% before the crash. They were convinced that living on Wall Street peddled debt was the path to prosperity. After the crash, the middle class has been left with no cash, underwater mortgages, declining real wages, less jobs, and a mountain of credit card debt. Delusions have been crushed. But an on-line degree from the University of Phoenix funded by a Federal student loan of $20,000 will surely revive the fortunes of the average unemployed middle class worker.  

 

Despite the destruction of middle class hopes, dreams, and net worth, the ruling plutocracy has decided the best way to revive their fortunes is to lure the ignorant masses into more student loan debt, auto debt and mortgage debt.

Don’t Look Behind the Curtain

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

 

What is normal in a profoundly abnormal, manipulated, propaganda driven society? The NAR and Federal government issue their public relations announcements every month and attempt to spin straw into gold. The media then fulfill their assigned role by touting the results as unequivocal proof of an economic recovery. This is all designed to revive the animal spirits of the clueless public. Statistics in the hands of those who have no regard for the truth can be manipulated to portray any storyline that serves their corrupt purposes. When I see a story about the housing market referencing a percentage increase as proof of a recovery I know it’s time to check the charts. You see, even a fractional increase from an all-time low will generate an impressive percentage increase. So let’s go to the charts in search of this blossoming housing recovery.

The media, NAHB, and certain bloggers look at this chart and declare that new home sales are up 20% from 2011 levels. Sounds awesome. I look at this chart and note that 2011 was the lowest number of new home sales in U.S. history. I look at this chart and note that new home sales are 75% below the peak in 2005. I look at this chart and note that new home sales are lower today than at the bottom of every recession over the last fifty years. I look at this chart and note that new home sales are lower today than they were in 1963, when the population of the United States was a mere 189 million, 40% less than today’s population. Do you see any signs of a strong housing recovery in this chart?    

 

The housing cheerleaders look at the chart below and crow about a 75% increase in housing starts. I look at this chart and note that housing starts in 2009 were the lowest in recorded U.S. history. I look at this chart and note that total housing starts are down 60% and single family starts are down 70% from 2006 highs. I look at this chart and note the “surge” in housing starts is completely being driven by apartment construction, because the student loan indebted youth can’t afford to buy houses. I look at this chart and note that housing starts are 40% below 1968 levels. Do you see any signs of a strong housing recovery in this chart?   

 

Those trying to lure the gullible non-thinking masses into paying inflated prices for the “few” houses available for sale declare that existing home sales are up 50% in the last two years. Of course, the 3.3 million low in 2010 was the lowest level in decades. Existing home sales are still 30% below the 2005 high of 7.2 million and the abnormal structure of these home sales is dramatically different than the normal sales of yesteryear.

 

The wizards behind the curtain don’t want you to understand how the 50% increase in existing home sales has been achieved. They just want you to be convinced that a return to normalcy has happened and it’s the best time to buy. The NAR wizards and the media wizards don’t publicize the composition of these skyrocketing sales. At the end of the NAR “buy a home before it’s too late” monthly press release you find out that distressed homes (foreclosed & short sales) now make up 23% of all home sales and have accounted for well over 30% of all home sales since 2010. Another 28% of home sales are all-cash sales to investors looking to turn them into rental units or flip them for a quick buck. Lastly, 30% of homes are being bought by first time home buyer pansies who have been lured into the market by 3.5% down payment loans through the FHA, with the future losses born by middle class taxpayers who had no say in the matter. Prior to the housing crash, normal buyers who just wanted a place to live, accounted for 90% of all home purchases. Today they make up less than 30% of home buyers. Does this chart portray a normal market or a profoundly abnormal market? Does it portray a healthy housing recovery based upon sound economic fundamentals?      

 all cash buyers

The answer is NO. The contrived elevation of home sales and home prices has been engineered by the very same culprits who crashed our financial system in the first place. This has been planned, coordinated and implemented by a conspiracy of the ruling oligarchy – the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, U.S. Treasury, NAR, and the corporate media conglomerates. Ben’s job was to screw senior citizens and drive interest rates low enough that everyone in the country could refinance, attract investors & flippers into the market, and propel home prices higher. Wall Street has been the linchpin to the whole sordid plan. They were tasked with drastically limiting the foreclosure pipeline, therefore creating a fake shortage of inventory. Next, JP Morgan, Blackrock, Citi, Bank of America, and dozens of other private equity firms have partnered with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, using free money provided by Ben Bernanke, to create investment funds to buy up millions of distressed properties and convert them into rental properties, further reducing the inventory of homes for sale and driving prices higher. Only the connected crony capitalists on Wall Street are getting a piece of this action. The Wall Street big hanging dicks have screwed the American middle class coming and going. The NAR and media are tasked with what they do best – spew propaganda, misinform, lie, cheerlead and attempt to create a buying frenzy among the willfully ignorant masses. The chart below reveals the truth about the strong sustainable housing recovery. It doesn’t exist. Mortgage applications by real people who want to live in a home are no higher than they were in 2010 when home sales were 33% lower than today. Mortgage applications are lower than they were in 1997 when 4 million existing homes were sold versus the 5 million pace today. The housing recovery is just another Wall Street scam designed to bilk the American middle class of what remains of their net worth.

 

The multi-faceted plan to keep this teetering edifice from collapsing is being executed according to the mandates of the financial class:

  • Distribute hundreds of billions in student loans to artificially suppress the unemployment rate, while the BLS adjusts millions more out of the labor force – CHECK
  • Have Ally Financial (80% owned by Obama) and Wall Street banks dole out subprime auto loans to millions and offer 7 year financing at 0%, while GM (Government Motors) channel stuffs its dealers, to create the appearance of an auto recovery – CHECK
  • Drive mortgage rates down, restrict home supply through foreclosure market manipulation, shift the risk of losses to the taxpayer, and allow Wall Street to control the housing market – CHECK
  • Have the corporate mainstream media continuously spout optimistic, positive puff pieces designed to convince an ignorant, apathetic public that the economy is improving, jobs are being created, and housing has recovered – CHECK

Free money, government subsidies, no regulation, Wall Street hubris, get rich quick schemes, media propaganda, and an ignorant public – what could possibly go wrong?   

Here is what could and will go wrong. Everyone in the country that could refinance to a mortgage rate of 4% or lower has done so. Contrary to Bernanke’s rhetoric that “QE to Infinity” would lower mortgage rates, they have just risen to a six month high as the 10 Year Treasury rose 60 basis points from its 2012 low. If mortgage rates just rose to a modest 5% the housing market would come to a grinding halt as no one would trade a 3.5% mortgage for a 5% mortgage. As I’ve detailed earlier, there are 3.9 vacant housing units available for rent. Almost half of the new housing units under construction are apartments. The Wall Street shysters are converting millions of foreclosed homes into rental units. This avalanche of rental properties will depress rents and destroy the modeled ROI calculations of the brilliant Wall Street Ivy league MBAs. These lemmings will all attempt to exit their “investments” at the same time. The FHA is already broke. The mounting losses from their 3.5% down payment to future deadbeats program will force them to curtail this taxpayer financed debacle. There will be few first time home buyers, as young people saddled with a trillion dollars of student loan debt are incapable of buying a home.

These are the facts. But why trust facts when you can believe Baghdad Ben and the NAR? It’s always the best time to buy.

    08-08-12c_baghdad_bob.jpg

“All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.  The vast majority of mortgages, including even subprime mortgages, continue to perform well.  Past gains in house prices have left most homeowners with significant amounts of home equity, and growth in jobs and incomes should help keep the financial obligations of most households manageable.” – Ben Bernanke – May 17, 2007

 

CITY OF PHILA. PAYS SEXUAL PREDATOR $625,000

This is a classic example of slimy government drones paying off even slimier government drones with taxpayer money. These scumbags don’t give a crap, because it is your money. Carl Greene is about the biggest lowlife you can imagine. He is a walking sexual harrassment suit. All that is required to get a top job in Phila is that you be black. Fast Eddie Rendell stole this prize away from the Detroit Housing Authority even though he already had a sexual harrassment lawsuit pending in Detroit. Didn’t Eddie ever hear about checking references? This is the guy responsible for housing the free shit army in taxpayer subsidized low income housing estates like Mantua Square.

They paid this dirtbag $350,000 per year, which was more than the PA governor and Phila mayor made combined. Even though he made this kind of money, he defaulted on his mortgage. On July 27, 2010, Wells Fargo filed a foreclosure action in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Court of Common Pleas, seeking to cure a default of $386,685 on a $400,000 mortgage for Mr. Greene’s condominium and primary residence which was valued at $615,035. Such residence located in Naval Square, a Toll Brothers condominium development on the site of the former Philadelphia Naval Asylum. The Philadelphia Inquirer further revealed that Greene also repaid over $52,000 in back taxes owed in 2010 to settle a lien placed against him by the Internal Revenue Service.

On August 19, 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Charges of sexual misconduct have shadowed Greene since his arrival in Philadelphia in 1998 from the Detroit Housing Commission. In his former job, a housing-agency auditor accused Greene of kissing, touching, and fondling her, and promising her a promotion if she “submitted to his demands.” Rendell, who as mayor at the time headed PHA, hired Greene and gave him a contract that ensured his job even if he lost the Michigan case. The case brought by Gertrude Faye Johnson was settled out of court on the eve of a trial”.

At PHA, at least two other cases of sexual harassment have been made against Greene. Melissa Shingles, a former senior management specialist at PHA, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in 2004. The case was closed in 2006 after a settlement was reached between the sides.

John M. Elliott, an attorney for Elizabeth Helm, a 29-year-old employee of the authority (PHA), has charged Greene of “serial predatory sexual misconduct.” Elliott alleges that Greene promised her a promotion in her capacity as an interior designer and planner at PHA, if she submitted to his sexual advances. In a letter outlining Helm’s sexual-harassment complaint, Elliott wrote that Greene “insisted” that Helm meet him after work April 12, 2010 at the bar of the Prime Rib Restaurant at 1701 Locust St. to discuss PHA-related matters. Elliot calls her the “most recent victim” of Greene’s pattern of sexual harassment. Helm had worked at PHA for about a year. The night of the incident, Greene praised her work and said he was processing her promotion paperwork. He then made advances including “touching, grabbing, and groping her,”. Despite her insistence that he stop, Greene “continued to forcibly and physically pursue inappropriate and unwanted contact of an intimate nature.” Elliot states that Greene admitted to Helm that his contact was unwelcome, stating as he grabbed her, “I know that you don’t want to kiss me.” Helm filed a complaint April 30, and an investigation opened May 13. An out of court settlement of $250,000 was offered on August 24, 2010.

On August 25, 2010 the PHA board suspended Mr. Greene for 30 days, after receiving a subpoena for documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office working with the FBI. The PHA said it would proceed with its own investigation into the latest sexual harassment claim (and the first three, claiming it had never been notified of their existence -due to technicalities in the settlements- which to its surprise exceeded $650000). HUD launched its own probe as well.

This guy is a slimy lowlife and Phila taxpayers just paid him $625,000, on top of the $4 million he was paid in salary and the hundreds of thousands paid out in sexual harrassment settlements.

 

Phila. Housing Authority, ex-director Greene settle for $625,000

Carl R. Greene, former director of the city Housing Authority, entering the Philadelphia federal courthouse last month.
Jennifer Lin and Mark Fazlollah, Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Saturday, February 23, 2013, 11:59 AM
After more than two years and $1 million in legal defense fees, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has agreed to pay $625,000 to end a contract dispute with its ousted executive director, Carl R. Greene. 

The deal was first announced as a tentative agreement by the agency’s interim executive director, Kelvin Jeremiah, at PHA’s monthly board meeting Friday. The sides then signed the agreement at 5 p.m.

Clifford Haines, an attorney for Greene, called the settlement “reasonable and fair.”

Jeremiah said the agreement was “the right decision” and noted that Greene originally sought $4 million.

“Mr. Greene was asking for $4 million, then $2.5 million, then $1.5 million,” Jeremiah said. “This was a hard-fought case.”

Greene sued PHA in federal court on the grounds that the agency had no cause to fire him and that it owed him $743,000 in lost income plus damages. The trial began Jan. 29 and included testimony from former Mayor John F. Street, PHA’s chairman from 2004 until 2011, as well as former Gov. Ed Rendell.

The trial was to resume Monday, but Haines said U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter would be notified of the settlement. He said he did not expect that the parties would need to appear in court.

Haines said testimony and the settlement went “a long way to restoring the integrity of Mr. Greene’s name.”

Greene was fired Sept. 23, 2010, on a 4-1 vote by PHA’s board after commissioners discovered that he had settled multiple sexual harassment complaints without telling them.

Three of the women who filed complaints against Greene and were paid settlements were set to testify.

John Elliott, an attorney for one, Elizabeth Helm, said Greene had engaged in “egregious misconduct and now apparently is being rewarded.”

“It’s a sad day for the taxpayers to have public funds spent in that manner,” he said.

In a statement, PHA said the settlement “closes a tenuous chapter in PHA’s history.”

PHA noted that the agreement ensures that Greene will be unable to pursue any further lawsuits against the agency or its former board.

However, the settlement does not protect Greene from “any claims, known or unknown . . . involving fraud, misappropriation of funds, or any criminal acts.”

Federal officials continue to investigate PHA’s activities during Greene’s tenure.

Originally, Greene’s lawsuit included claims that his civil rights were denied and that PHA’s board had defamed him. Buckwalter eliminated those claims, leaving only the question of whether PHA breached its contract agreement with Greene.

Under that pact, the agency could only fire Greene for cause if it could prove that his behavior caused material financial damage to the agency.

Street said he did not support the settlement.

“I stand by the action of the board in dismissing Mr. Greene for cause,” Street said in an e-mail. “The irony of Mr. Greene getting more money than any of the victims in this case is stunning.”

Street noted that Greene, who took the stand for one day, was not cross-examined and the women were not able to testify.

“This settlement sends the wrong message to every potential victim of sexual harassment as well as every potential perpetrator,” Street said.

PHA had spent more than $1 million on its defense and had exhausted the coverage provided by its insurer. That meant that with the start of the trial, the agency was paying for its lawyers out of its own budget.

Street, in an investigative report presented to the board, called Greene a “serial sexual harasser.”

The board dismissed Greene not only for the sexual harassment complaints and the way they were handled, but also said that he created a hostile work environment and abandoned his duties, and that his personal financial problems set a bad example for tenants. His behavior, it asserted, damaged PHA.

For the first time at the trial, Greene testified about the events leading up to his termination. Haines, his lawyer, said the current PHA leadership had done the right thing by reaching the agreement, but criticized Street and said his report to the board “was not an investigation at all.”

“It was the sole opinion of chair,” he said. “It was a mean-spirited, uncalled-for, personal attack that should not have happened.”

MORE FEEDBACK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

It seems the University of Phoenix takes offense with my articles about their bilking of the American taxpayer and screwing of thousands of people who were lured into debt with the promise of an on-line worthless degree. How could I possibly question an institution that has a graduation rate of 16%, awarded Shaq a doctorate, and whose students have a 30% loan default rate within 3 years. I received the following email from a professor at the University of Phoenix. I’ve left his name out, but I verified that he is a professor. Did you know their on-line programs are better than Harvard, Yale and Stanford. I’m sure they are shaking in their boots. I interviewed someone with a University of Phoenix MBA on their resume. This person was a dullard. The entire For-profit education racket is a joke and completely dependent upon your tax dollars to keep the scam going.

I’ve included my response to the professor below his public relations drivel.

 

Greetings Mr. Quinn,

I have taught strategic management MBA courses for a number of universities for more than ten years and presently teach several online MBA courses for 2 universities. Most of my experience is with teaching online MBA courses. In some of your Burningplatform articles you have made some rather misinformed statements about the University of Phoenix. Just like non-profit universities – not all for profit universities are the same quality. I know Wharton is an excellent school – but UoP online offers an important option for adult-learners.

The University of Phoenix (UoP) has the most effective and by far the best quality online university programs in the world. Like Wal-Mart dominates retail – UoP has the most innovative and effective online learning programs for adult-learners. Harvard, Stanford, Yale’s, etc. online learning programs are nowhere near the quality or effectiveness of UoP’s online learning platform.

I would not make the same comparison about the in-person classroom programs – but for online learning – UoP has huge competitive advantage edge over all other universities.

Some facts you may not know about UoP are:

The University of Phoenix (UoP) is a highly accredited institution of higher learning that offers a wide variety of classroom and online degree programs.

The University of Phoenix has close to 600,000 graduates, nearly 480,000 current students and 32,000 faculty members. The faculty members bring an average of 16 years of “real world” work experience to the classroom unlike most tenured professors at traditional colleges who have never worked in business nor held an executive position in a corporation. UoP requires faculty to be specialists and/or successful practitioners of the business discipline in which they teach.

University of Phoenix is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association. University of Phoenix business programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).

ACBSP has accredited the University of Phoenix’s Bachelor of Science in Business, Master of Business Administration, Master of Management, Doctor of Management and Doctor of Business Administration.

Why is accreditation of University of Phoenix business programs significant? Because only about one in four business schools offer programs accredited by a programmatic accrediting body, University of Phoenix is part of an elite group in the higher education community for business students.

Regards,

 

MY RESPONSE:

I’m sure you do your best to teach people who want to learn. The University of Phoenix/Apollo Group is as bad as Wall Street in their manipulation of the federal student loan system to create profits. Your employer admits tens of thousands of people who should not be in college. It’s a scam. I deal with facts, not PR bullshit and slogans. Apollo stock is down 80% from its 2009 high. Your employer is shutting down 50% of your campuses. Your employer will not exist in five years. It will be bankrupt.

A graduation rate of 16% is a joke. Your employer was getting $2.5 billion per year in Federal government support and luring people into debt. The 84% who didn’t graduate are left with debt and no degree. I consider that to be a despicable business concept.

“When calculated using the standards set by the Department of Education, the university’s overall graduation rate is 16 percent, which, when compared to the national average of 55 percent, is among the nation’s lowest. The federal standard measures graduation rates as the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years. The number is significantly lower at the university’s Southern California campus (six percent) and its online programs (four percent).”

 

ADRIFT AT SEA

 “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

 

The big story this past week, besides the annual State of the Delusion speech by Barack “It won’t add a cent to the deficit” Obama, was the fate of the passengers on the Carnival Triumph as their skyscraper sized ship was left adrift at sea for days without power. This 900 foot long, 100,000 ton goliath is one of the largest passenger cruise liners in the world, carrying 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members in luxurious splendor through warm Gulf of Mexico seas to sun drenched exotic isles. These ships are practically floating countries, with passengers treated to an endless American buffet of never ending quantities of bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, waffles, pizza, cheesecake, soda, beer and the rum drink of the day. It’s as if all 3,400 passengers have a SNAP card with no limit. There are retail stores, restaurants, bars, ice skating rinks, movie theaters, showplaces, and staff waiting on you hand and foot. No cash changes hands. You charge everything to your room number and then just pay with one of your 13 credit cards at the conclusion of your voyage into debt. Then you pay 18% interest on the 25 Funky Monkeys you consumed for the next 14 years. Cruising captures the essence of America as we traverse our voyage to hell.

The ordeal at sea of the Carnival Triumph and the leadership displayed by the Carnival management and executive officers is a microcosm of our declining empire. The $420 million Carnival Triumph was put into service in 1999 and has run continuously for the last fourteen years, with only periodic dry dock maintenance. These massive ships are replenished within hours of docking and depart within twelve hours of dumping their 3,400 passengers back onshore. The CEO and top management of Carnival care only about ROI and whether their stock options are vested. Their goal is to bilk the passengers out of as much cash as possible, while paying their foreign slave labor crew members as little as possible. The ships are registered in foreign countries for tax purposes and the crew members are mostly from third world countries. Carnival executives and shipboard officers have a history of recklessness, mismanagement, and willingness to endanger its passengers in its greedy thirst for short term profits. Ask the families of the 32 passengers killed in the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

The engine room fire that disabled the Triumph was not an isolated instance. This was the fourth engine room fire on a Carnival owned ship resulting in a loss of power, the others being the Tropicale in 1999, the Carnival Splendor in 2010, and the Costa Allegra in 2012. The Carnival Triumph should not have been at sea. It had been plagued with mechanical problems for weeks prior to the engine fire. Voluntarily taking the ship out of service would have hurt the 1st quarter earnings per share of this public company, therefore the leadership of Carnival told the engineers to patch it up and get it back out on the seas. Two weeks prior to the engine room fire the Carnival Triumph experienced propulsion issues that caused it to be five hours late returning to its Galveston home port on January 28, 2013 and delaying the ship’s departure for its next cruise until 8:00 pm that night. The ship departed, but the problems had not been fixed. The Associate Press reported a story about that cruise that provides a different assessment than the public relations drivel released the corporate office:

An email informed Debbi Smedley and other passengers that the propulsion problem would prevent them from docking at two ports. “Due to the limited cruising speed, our itinerary will be impacted. Depending on the progress of the repairs, we will either visit Progreso or Cozumel,” stated the email, signed by Vicky Rey, vice president of guest services. Smedley said the ship was in poor condition overall. During her five-day cruise, a water line broke in the hallway ceiling near her cabin, and a separate sewer line broke outside the main dining hall, she said. Metal was protruding from handrails on the staircases, and the elevators often did not work. Rather than docking in Progreso for only a few hours as planned, the ship stayed in the port for two days, and cruise workers repeatedly told passengers they were waiting for parts to fix a mechanical problem, according to Smedley.

Carnival’s public relations machine then admitted to an electrical problem with the ship’s alternator in the last voyage before the fire, but claimed it was repaired. What they didn’t reveal is that it was a Coast Guard inspection that revealed there was a short in the high voltage connection box of one of the ships generators causing damage to cables within the connection box. A directive with a compliance due date of February 27, 2013 was issued following the inspection requiring that “the condition of the ship and its equipment shall be maintained to conform with the regulations to ensure that the ship in all respects will remain fit to proceed to sea without danger to the ship or persons on board.” The Coast Guard Marine Information Safety and Law Enforcement System showed that this deficiency remained unresolved at the time of the subsequent fire and loss of power while at sea on February 10. So you have a company PR maggot lying and you have another useless Department of Homeland Security branch not enforcing regulations that are supposed to protect passengers. This is par for the course in our corporate fascist states of America today.

Shit Happens

George: Aha. Aha. Could it be because you don’t want him to know that you have a friend who pees in the shower, is that it?!

Elaine: No, that’s not it!

George: Oh, I think it is! I think that’s exactly what it is!

Elaine: Why couldn’t you just wait?

George: I was there! I saw a drain!

Elaine: Since when is a drain a toilet?!

George: It’s all pipes! What’s the difference?!

George Costanza would have enjoyed sailing on the Carnival Triumph as passengers were left to piss in showers and shit in red plastic bags for days. It finally became socially acceptable to pee in the shower. Most of the ship’s electrical power went down after the engine room fire, causing extensive breakdowns of vital shipboard mechanical systems, including taking out sanitary systems. Passengers reported sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat. Passengers waited in line for three hours to get a lousy hot dog. On the lower decks sewage came up through the shower drain, pooling in the sinks and flowing into the hallways. The allegory of the poor people on the lower decks being inundated with feces and living in wretched conditions, while the rich people living in luxury on the upper decks are blissfully ignorant of the fate of their fellow passengers is so easy to apply to our society in this day and age. The 1% glory in their stock market gains, while 20% of U.S. households are on food stamps.

These direct quotes from passengers and pictures taken onboard this voyage from hell provide a taste of what our future portends:

“We have to urinate in the shower. They’ve been passed out plastic bags to go to the bathroom. There was fecal matter all over the floor.”

“They’re walking around in a lot of urine and fecal matter, and the sewers are backing up.”

“The sanitation situation was gross and the stench was awful.”

“Just imagine the filth. People were doing crazy things and going to the bathroom in sinks and showers.”

“A lot of people were crying and freaking out.”

“We are trapped aboard a floating petri dish without power, air conditioning, or fresh water.”

“It’s degrading. Demoralizing, and then they want to insult us by giving us $500″

 Disgust: Guests were being forced to defecate into plastic bags and place it outside their rooms as toilets on board the Triumph backed up following the electrical failure Foul: Passengers on board the Carnival Triumph reported that floors were being flooded with raw sewage from overflowing bathrooms

 Where's my charger: After days without power a generator was airlifted unto the ship today and many people took the opportunity to charge their phones

After reading a number of articles describing what happened before, during and after the engine fire aboard the Carnival Triumph, the parallels between this Ship of Horrors and our Ship of State become self-evident. You have the CEO and top executives of Carnival only concerned about their wealth, power and control of the company. Rather than thinking long term and making decisions that might be detrimental to their short term quarterly earnings, but insure the long –term financial health and reputation of the company, their decision was driven by their true masters on Wall Street. Instead of taking the ship off-line to make vital repairs and  necessary investments, they just papered over signs of an imminent disaster and turned to public relations spin and propaganda as there preferred course of action. When disaster “suddenly” struck, the management and executive officers were unprepared, slow to react, and more concerned with their reputations than about the health, safety and welfare of the passengers. Much more could have been done to alleviate the misery of the 3,400 passengers. Carnival could have had a large generator helicoptered onto the deck and used to produce enough electricity to run some lights, ventilation, refrigeration and toilets. It appears that this ship had two engine rooms and only one was damaged by fire. They could have restarted the undamaged engine room and would have had enough power for most normal functions in the cabins of the ship, and probably some capability to propel the ship towards port. The disgraceful lack of urgency and refusal of top management to attempt every possible solution to this crisis is a lesson to be learned by passengers and citizens alike. They don’t care about you.

Rev. Wendell Gill’s experience onboard the Triumph provides a glimpse into our future. He immediately recognized the leadership of the ship was non-existent and it would be up to people helping people if they were to make it through the ordeal:

“What you had was a tale of two ships. You seldom saw a deck officer. I never saw the captain. Some of the people in the upper areas had plenty of air, but down below, it was unlivable. It was like a sauna of sewage. It was the people on the boat that saved Carnival. In an adverse situation, most people will rise to help — that’s just the human spirit.”  

Reverend Gill and his wife noticed that no one from Carnival was stepping up to help the elderly and sick get around. The Gills, along with other concerned passengers, decided to take matters into their own hands, carting mattresses and bedding up from the lower decks. They witnessed the worst side of human nature in the inaction of Carnival leadership, along with some people becoming drunk, disorderly and fighting over food. But they also witnessed people coming together under difficult circumstances, with many in the upper cabins sharing their space with those from the lower uninhabitable decks. The passengers created their own shanty town of tents on deck and in the cooler hallways. The vast majority of people acted like decent human beings. Kindness, sharing, and helping one another won the day. This voyage through hell is a precursor of what lies ahead for everyone in this country. When vital systems fail, the lights go out, and your beloved government leaders are nowhere to be found, how will you fare? Don’t count on someone from the government to lead when we are set adrift in a sea of chaos created by them. The politicians, bankers and bureaucrats will be scrambling to save themselves. Your family, friends, and neighbors will be the only people you can rely on. Your caring government doesn’t really care about you.

Cruisin for a Bruisin      

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The similarities between the horrific voyage of the Carnival Triumph and the tragic voyage of the dysfunctional ship of state we call America are many. We have a ruling class consisting of the President, Congress, Judiciary, Central bankers, Media titans, and goliath corporation CEOs who care not for the citizens of this country. You are ignorant peasants in their eyes. They only care about maintaining and expanding their wealth, control and power through the complete capture of our financial markets, political system and media propaganda to the masses. The health and welfare of the peasants isn’t even on their radar screen. The ruling class steering this ship of fools have no interest in the truth or the best long –term interests of the country. The vast majority of the passengers on this impaired listing ship prefers to believe the propaganda and lies spewed by the captain and his minions. They prefer the illusion of safety and security to the truth about the real condition of this ship. When the engines of this ship come to a grinding halt, their illusions will be shattered. Big government will come up small when it counts. The government propaganda and public relations will be revealed as nothing but hot putrid air and fecal matter.

Michael Ramirez Cartoon

Speaking of fecal matter, President Obama’s State of the Union address, which was watched by 33 million (down from 52 million in 2009) believers, was a perfect reflection of the thinking that led to the Carnival Triumph disaster. The reality facing the country is: $220 trillion of unfunded entitlement liabilities; a $16.5 trillion national debt; annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion; 48 million citizens on food stamps; 11 million people on SSDI; a true unemployment rate of 23%; true inflation exceeding 5%; record high gasoline prices; 0% interest rates for senior citizen savers; free money for criminal bankers provided by their sugar daddy Bernanke; not one criminal prosecution of a Wall Street executive for the greatest financial fraud in history; a war department that spends $1 trillion per year and fights undeclared wars around the world; a chief executive that invokes dictatorial executive orders to murder Americans with his fleet of predator drones and imprison citizens indefinitely without charges; and a bureaucratic nightmare called Obamacare that will drive up deficits, drive up healthcare costs for every family, enrich the healthcare industrial complex, drive doctors into retirement, and drive small businesses into bankruptcy.

Rather than deal with this reality, Obama chose the Carnival Cruise Line method of public relations, misinformation, denial and delusion. He has embraced the Big Lie concept as if he had created it. With a straight face he proposes “investments” in infrastructure, new jobs programs, new education initiatives, more green energy projects, pollution control schemes, bailing out more underwater mortgages, and raising the minimum wage, all done for the children – and it won’t add one cent to the deficit. Instead of leveling with the American people and explaining the dire economic issues confronting our nation that require sacrifice, reality based thinking, and tough choices, we got more platitudes, class warfare, divide and conquer, phantom spending cuts, disingenuous twisting of the truth, intellectual dishonesty and fuzzy math. Public relations spin created by Madison Avenue maggots and pronounced grandly by corrupt puppet politician hacks will not prevent the catastrophic engine failure that will leave this country adrift in a sea of its own feces.

Our cruise of illusions and delusions is headed for troubled water. The math challenged citizens on this ship have been enjoying the 24 hour pizza buffet without the labor required to pay for the bounty. When your leaders boldly lie and tell you we don’t have a spending problem, refer to proposed spending increases as “investments”, and hail $1.6 trillion of spending cuts that did not happen, you’ve got a ship that will be signaling SOS in the imminent future. Both political parties are laughable in their blathering about spending cuts as Bush and his Republican cronies drove spending from $1.9 trillion in 2001 to $3.0 trillion in 2008 with their unfunded wars, unfunded new entitlements (Medicare Part D), Wall Street bailouts, and creation of police state agencies (DHS); while Obama and his Democrat co-conspirators have driven spending up to $3.8 trillion in four years with new unfunded entitlements (Obamacare), expansion of warfare in the Middle East (they sit on top of “our” oil), $800 billion stimulus handouts, $60 billion hurricane relief pork handed out for $25 billion of uninsured losses, and bailing out banks, auto companies, homeowners, and other gamblers who took undo risks and lost to the tune of hundreds of billions. Politicians and the inhabitants of this country have forgotten there are consequences to their actions and inactions.

Carnival Cruise Line is trying to buy off the passengers with refunds and $500 bribes to keep them quiet and sedated, while protecting their continued hundreds of millions in profits and million dollar bonuses for their executives. The ruling class in the United States has bought off the American people with entitlement promises that can’t possibly be honored, food stamps, SSDI, tax rebates, homebuyer tax credits, loan modification programs, Cash for Clunkers, payroll tax cuts, $1 trillion of taxpayer financed student loans, taxpayer financed subprime auto loans, and a myriad of other handouts designed to keep the masses sedated, while the ruling class continues to pillage the national wealth. It’s as if the entire country has been charging their food, drinks, excursions, and purchases to their room number and the bill has reached $16.5 trillion, rising by $3 billion per day. This voyage is reaching an end and the bill is coming due. The engine is on fire but the captain is telling us all is well. Eventually, everyone will know the captain lied.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Leonard Cohen – Everybody Knows

 

survival seed vault

Why Raising the Minimum Wage is a Terrible Idea

The biggest problem with Americans today, and the politicians that pander to them, is that they make choices based on emotional effect and not on data.  This is why there’s no outrage over the budget-busting compensation of public sector employees like teachers, firefighters and police (yes, they all do important jobs, but the free market should dictate their salaries and compensation, not union thuggery and fleecing of the taxpayer), why nobody cares about all the stupid stimulus bills that had no impact other than to further increase our national debt (and hence, debt servicing costs), why people think price gouging is bad (gouging is GOOD) and of course, why Americans love a minimum wage.  To add insult to injury, Obama used emotional platitudes to highlight why America needs to raise the minimum wage yet again.  It is a terrible idea; here’s why:

  • Forced Overpayment for Labor – I’m sorry, but someone should be paid what they’re worth to the employer.  If it’s an absolutely zero skill job that just requires a body, why is the government mandating you pay them any set wage rate at all?  Think like an employer.  Consider a dishwasher.  There’s no prior experience required, no special skills and easily replaced.  Many restaurants use illegal immigrants for this type of role anyway, but let’s say they’re by the books and paying the full wage, payroll taxes (people forget about all the additional expenses business incur when something like this is proposed) and all the other costs associated with employing someone…

…continue reading Why Raising the Minimum Wage is a Terrible Idea

WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER DO THAN WATCH OBAMA TONIGHT CONTEST

Tonight the Liar in Chief will enter the Den of Thieves and Dullards and spew propaganda, lies and misinformation to a wilfully ignorant populace. The corporate mainstream media mouthpieces will dutifully report this drivel and instruct the ignorant masses how they should think and feel about the crap they just heard. There are 115 million households in the country. Only 27 million tuned in to last year’s State of the Union address. That was down from 31 million in 2011, 34 million in 2010, and 37 million in 2009. Do you sense a trend? I will go out on a limb and predict that under 25 million households will tune in tonight. This means that 80% of the people in the country don’t give a flying fuck what Obama has to say.

I will not watch one moment of this farce. I started thinking of things I’d rather do than watch this egotistical douchebag blather on about jobs, green energy, and protecting the children from guns. Maybe the entire student body of Sandy Hill Elementary can sing Hail to the Chief.

I’d rather stick a pin into my eyeball than watch Obama tonight.

I’d rather have my teeth cleaned by Zell than watch Obama tonight.

I’d rather have sex with Hillary Clinton than watch Obama tonight. Maybe that is going too far. If Bill won’t do it, who would?

I’d rather eat a giant cockroach than watch Obama tonight.

If you can think up something more creative to do you can win the contest.

The winner gets to experience the pleasure of free Obamacare for the rest of their lives starting in 2014.

GLOBAL WARMING? MANY REPUTABLE SCIENTISTS SAY NO.

Up front, I am a staunch Warmer skeptic.  What happened to the 1-2 mile thick sheet of ice which covered half of North America during the Ice Age, which ended 10,000 years ago?  It got warmer, and the ice melted, of course.  Up to 2 MILES THICK OF ICE COVERED MILLIONS OF SQUARE MILES OF LAND, AND IT DISAPPEARED, FOLKS.  What happened to the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted for about 400 years, 800-1200 AD, and grapes were grown on the now frigid, Arctic-like coast of the province of Labrador in Canada?  It got colder, and the settlements were abandoned, of course.

Did man have anything to do with those dramatic climate change examples?  Absolutely not.  Yet now, we are supposed to believe that MAN is causing, largely through carbon dioxide emissions of his activities in the past 150 years, the temperature of the Earth to warm.  A scant 40 years ago, similar scientists were warning the planet was heading towards a mini-Ice Age.

I don’t buy the Warmer hysteria, which is exactly what it is, and I am not alone in my skepticism.  Read on.

A List of Quotations from Scientists Who Reject Global Warming

“Because the greenhouse effect is temporary rather than permanent, predictions of significant global warming in the 21st century by UN-IPCC are not supported by the data.” (Hebrew University Professor Dr. Michael Beenstock, an honorary fellow with Institute for Economic Affairs who published a study challenging man-made global warming claims titled “Polynomial Cointegration Tests of the Anthropogenic Theory of Global Warming”)

“The UN-IPCC assessment process had a substantial element of schoolyard bullies, trying to insulate their shoddy science from outside scrutiny and attacks by skeptics…They will tolerate no dissent and seek to trample anyone who challenges them.” (Judith Curry, climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences; co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans; author of over 140 scientific papers)

“There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s a consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t a consensus. Period. The greatest scientists in the world are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” (Michael Crichton, biological anthropologist, “Science” writer and author)

“I am flabbergasted at what the promoters of global warming have so far gotten by with. These ideological fanatics have invented a belief complete with predictions that cannot be wrong: Rainstorms — global warming! Drought — global warming! Snow storms — global warming! Freezing winters — global warming! Warm winters — global warming! Hurricanes, tornados, tidal waves — global warming! If someone had told me thirty-years ago that a group of professionals of varied scientific disciplines would mob up together and pull this ruse off, I would have declared that person insane. Yet every day, to my chagrin and embarrassment, I see that it has happened.” (Henrik Kleist, physicist/mathematician)

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)

“In essence, the jig is up. The whole thing is a fraud. And even the fraudsters that fudged data are admitting to temperature history that they used to say didn’t happen… Perhaps what has doomed the Climategate fraudsters the most was their brazenness in fudging the data” (Dr. Christopher J. Kobus, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oakland University, specializes in alternative energy, thermal transport phenomena, two-phase flow and fluid and thermal energy systems)

“We maintain there is no reason whatsoever to worry about man-made climate change, because there is no evidence whatsoever that such a thing is happening.” (Greek Earth scientists Antonis Christofides and Nikos Mamassis of the National Technical University of Athens’ Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering)

“Who are these scientists that present manufactured consensus as science? Who are these scientists who threaten the whole world with deadly forecasts in a desperate effort to force them to believe their postulate? Who are these scientists in the lead position of a proposition who refuse to show (much less accept or respect) qualified opposing views? They are the scientists behind manmade global warming — who represent a sharp u-turn back to the Dark Ages where dissenters were likely to find their heads in a bucket.” (Steven Hapberg; multi-disciplinary scientist)

“Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life.” (Physicist Hal Lewis, who resigned from the American Physical Society for its promotion of the “Global Warming Hoax”)

“The whole idea of anthropogenic global warming is completely unfounded. There appears to have been money gained by Michael Mann, Al Gore, and UN-IPCC’s Rajendra Pachauri as a consequence of this deception, so it’s fraud.” (South African astrophysicist Hilton Ratcliffe, a member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and a Fellow of the British Institute of Physics)

“It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of the earth. A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Further, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, and so on, which make up the climate.” (Bjarne Andresen, of the Niels Bohr Institute, at the University of Copenhagen; Christopher Essex, of the University of Western Ontario; and Ross McKitrick, of University of Guelph, in Canada)

“Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science. The earth’s climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)
“Hundreds of billion dollars have been wasted with the attempt of imposing an Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory that is not supported by physical world evidences (physics)… AGW has been forcefully imposed by means of a barrage of scare stories and indoctrination that begins in the elementary schooltextbooks.” (Brazilian Geologist Geraldo Luís Lino, who authored the 2009 book “The Global Warming Fraud: How a Natural Phenomenon Was Converted into a False World Emergency”)

“The US Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) report is well out of step with the scientific literature, including the very literature it cites… Given the strength of the science on this subject, the USGCRP must have gone to some effort to mischaracterize it by 180 degrees. In areas where I have expertise, the flood example presented here is not unique in the report (e.g., Hurricane Sandy is mentioned 31 times)… A four-year effort by the nation’s top scientists should be expected to produce a public draft report of much higher quality than this. However, given the problematic…treatment of extremes in earlier UNIPCC and US government reports, I’d think that the science community would have its act together by now… ” (Environmental studies professor, Roger Pielke Jr.)

“There are clear cycles during which both temperature and salinity rise and fall. These cycles are related to solar activity…In my opinion and that of our institute, the problems connected to the current stage of warming are being exaggerated. What we are dealing with is not a global warming of the atmosphere or of the oceans.” (Biologist Pavel Makarevich of the Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
“We’re not scientifically there yet. Despite what you may have heard in the media, there is nothing like a consensus of scientific opinion that this is a problem. Because there is natural variability in the weather, you cannot statistically know for another 150 years.” (UN-IPCC’s Tom Tripp, a member of the UN-IPCC since 2004 and listed as one of the lead authors and serves as the Director of Technical Services & Development for U.S. Magnesium)

“The energy mankind generates is so small compared to the natural overall energy budget that it simply cannot affect the climate…The planet’s climate is doing its own thing, but we cannot pinpoint significant trends in changes to it because it dates back millions of years while the study of it began only recently. We are children of the Sun; we simply lack data to draw the proper conclusions.” (Russian Scientist Dr. Anatoly Levitin, the head of geomagnetic variations laboratory at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences.)

“The temperatures at the North and South Poles are lower now than they were in 1930. The Antarctic Peninsula, the finger of land pointing north towards Argentina (and the equator) has been getting warmer…The other 97 percent of Antarctic has been cooling since the mid-1960s.” (S. Fred Singer, Research Professor, George Mason University, and Dennis Avery, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute and co-authors of “Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years”)

“I am ashamed of what climate science has become today. The science community is relying on an inadequate model to blame CO2 and innocent citizens for global warming in order to generate funding and to gain attention. If this is what science has become today, I, as a scientist, am ashamed… Science is too important for our society to be misused in the way it has been done within the Climate Science Community.” (Swedish Climatologist Dr. Hans Jelbring)

“I am an environmentalist — but I strongly disagree with Mr. Gore” (Chemistry Professor Dr. Mary Mumper, the chair of the Chemistry Department at Frostburg State University in Maryland, during her presentation titled “Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming: the Skeptic’s View.”)

“Once again we have misleading climate change pronouncements being based on data errors, data errors detected by non-UN, non-IPCC, non-peer-reviewed external observers…This is exactly what happens when you base your arguments on ‘consensus science’ and not scientific fact.” (Professor Dr. Doug L. Hoffman, a mathematician, computer programmer, and engineer, who worked on environmental models and conducted research in molecular dynamics simulations. Hoffman co-authored the 2009 book, “The Resilient Earth,” described as “bringing a dose of reality to climate science and the global warming debate”)

“The new scientific report directly challenges the conclusions of the UNIPCC Summary that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing dangerous and unprecedented warming.” – Quantitative Economist Kenneth A. Haapala, the past president of the Philosophical Society of Washington, the oldest scientific society in Washington (founded 1871), has reviewed hundreds of reports based on quantitative techniques. Haapala co-authored the report “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate.”)

“Observations are ambiguous, models are inadequate, and our understanding of the complex interactions of the climate system is incomplete.” (Judith Curry, climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans and co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and over 140 scientific papers)

“The case for climate fears is blown to smithereens…the whole theory should be destroyed and discarded and the UN conference should be closed.” (UK astrophysicist Piers Corbyn regarding Climategate and what should be done about AGW claims)

“Climatic changes have natural causes according many geological data. I am very glad to sign the U.S. Senate’s report of scientists against the theory of man-made global warming.” (Geology Professor Uberto Crescenti of the University G.d’Annunzio in Italy; past president of the Society of Italian Geologists)

“I am appalled at the state of discord in the field of climate science…There is no observational evidence that the addition of anthropogenic so-called greenhouse gas emissions have caused any temperature perturbations in the atmosphere.” (Atmospheric scientist Dr. George T. Wolff, former member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board; served on a committee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and authored more than 90 peer-reviewed studies)

“The sky is not burning, and to claim that it is amounts to journalistic malpractice…the press promotes the global warming alarmists and ignores or minimizes those of us who are skeptical. When it’s a little warmer than normal, the media yells. When it’s cooler, they say nothing.” (Chemist Mark L. Campbell, a professor of chemistry at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, who has published numerous studies in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on topics such as methane)

“The questions are scientific, but the UN answers are political. The global warming debate is hardly about science.” (Computer Modeler and Engineer Allen Simmons, who worked 12 years with NASA’s top climate scientists and wrote computer systems software for the world’s first weather satellites and aided in the development of computer systems for polar orbiting satellites. Simmons co-authored the new book that contends AGW is false, “The Resilient Earth” )

“Belief in climate models compares to ancient astrology.” (Award-winning Japanese Physicist Dr. Kanya Kusano, program director of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology who’s research “focuses on the immaturity of simulation work cited in support of the theory of anthropogenic climate change”)

“Please remain calm: The Earth will heal itself. Climate is beyond our power to control. Earth doesn’t care about governments or their legislation. You can’t find much actual global warming in present-day weather observations. Climate change is a matter of geologic time, something that the earth routinely does on its own without asking anyone’s permission or explaining itself.” (Nobel Prize-Winning Stanford University Physicist Dr. Robert B. Laughlin, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1998, and was formerly a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.)

“The recent ‘panic’ to control GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and billions of dollars being dedicated for the task has me deeply concerned that the US, and other countries are spending precious global funds to stop global warming, when it is primarily being driven by natural forcing mechanisms.” (Climatologist and Paloeclimate researcher Dr. Diane Douglas, who has authored or edited over 200 technical reports, specialized in the reconstruction of a variety of proxy data and has worked for the Department of Energy and conducted research for the Arizona State Office of Climatology to investigate the Little Ice Age)

“Temperature measurements show that the [climate model-predicted mid-troposphere] hot zone is non-existent. This is more than sufficient to invalidate global climate models and projections made with them!” (UNIPCC Scientist Steven M. Japar, a PhD atmospheric chemist who was part of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (UNIPCC) Second (1995) and Third (2001) Assessment Reports, and has authored 83 peer-reviewed publications and in the areas of climate change, atmospheric chemistry, air pollutions and vehicle emissions)
“[Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration] was exactly the same during the Middle Ages. It didn’t change at all. So there is something that was making the earth warm and cool that modelers still don’t really understand. The problem does not in fact exist, and society should not sacrifice for nothing.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)

“The UN-IPCC reports, which have become bibles for bureaucrats and environmentalist fanatics, accuse modern civilization of being responsible for global warming, and repeatedly state that they reflect a `true consensus’ of the scientific community. This statement about consensus is totally false: The assessments, conclusions, and even the working method of the UN-IPCC numerous scientists have harshly criticized. A more accurate description of the current situation would not be consensus, but rather controversy. Science does not progress via a process of consensus, or voting. There was no `consensus’ for Copernicus’s idea, in his time, that the Earth orbited the Sun. Consensus is not needed in science; that is for politicians.” (Zbigniew Jaworowski; multidisciplinary scientist: M.D., Ph.O., and D.Sc.; professor at the Central Laboratory for Radiologi-cal Protection in Warsaw; has studied glacier ice samples from around the world, analyzing traces of heavy metals and radionuclides. Article in “21st Century Science & Technology”: “Ice Core Data Show No Carbon Dioxide Increase”)

“The cause of these global changes is fundamentally due to the Sun and its effect on the Earth as it moves about in its orbit. Not from man-made activities.” (Retired Award Winning NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. William W. Vaughan, recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, a former Division Chief of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and author more than 100 scientific journal articles, monographs, and papers)

“Unfortunately, Climate Science has become Political Science…It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomena which is statistically questionable at best.” (Award-Winning Princeton University Physicist Dr. Robert H. Austin, who has published 170 scientific papers, was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and is the current Chair of the U.S. Liaison Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Austin is the winner of the 2005 Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society)

“If global cooling will come soon — scientists will lose trust. And it’s coming.” (Award-winning Japanese Geologist Dr. Shigenori Maruyama, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences who has authored more than 125 scientific publications, was decorated with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon for a major contribution in the field of geology, specializes in the geological evidence of prehistoric climate change. He is far more fearful of a short span of “global cooling,” brought about by the natural processes of our solar system)

“Observe which side resorts to the most vociferous name-calling and you are likely to have identified the side with the weaker argument and they know it. I have never been vilified so for being skeptical of global warming claims.” (Materials and Research Physicist Dr. Charles R. Anderson, a former Department of Navy research physicistwho has published more than 25 scientific papers specializing in spectroscopy, microscopy, thermal analysis, mass spectroscopy, and surface chemistry.)

“The data which is used to date for making the conclusions and predictions on global warming are so rough and primitive, compared to what’s needed, and so unreliable that they are not even worth mentioning by respectful scientists.” (Award-winning Aerospace and Mechanical Engineer Dr. Gregory W. Moore, who has authored or co-authored more than 75 publications, book chapters, and reports, and authored the 2001 Version of the NASA Space Science Technology Plan which included a comprehensive approach to studying the Sun-Earth connection aspect of space-based research.)

“I appreciate the opportunity to add my name to those who disagree that global warming is man-made…Hansen embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming.” (Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon, a former supervisor of NASA’s James Hansen, and the former Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA Headquarters and former Chief of the Atmospheric Dynamics & Radiation Branch.)

“I am pleased to be considered a ‘denier’ in this cause if this puts me in the class with those who defied the prevailing ‘scientific consensus’ that the earth was flat and that the earth was the not the center of the universe.” (Retired U.S. Air Force (USAF) Meteorologist William “Bill” Lyons, of the USAF’s Global Weather Central at Strategic Air Command.)

“I do not find the supposed scientific consensus among my colleagues… Curiously, it is a feature of man-made global warming that every fact confirms it: rising temperatures or decreasing temperatures. No matter what the weather, some model of global warming offers a watertight explanation.” (Earth Scientist Dr. Javier Cuadros of the UK Natural History Museum, who specializes in Clay Mineralogy and has published more than 30 scientific papers)

“It is amazing to me, as a professional geologist, how many otherwise intelligent people have, as some may say, ‘drunk the Al Gore Kool-Aid’ concerning global climate change.” (Professional Geologist Earl F. Titcomb Jr., who has co-authored numerous analyses of geological and seismological hazards.)

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus [which] is the business of politics…What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. And that’s what I’m doing by denying AGW.” (Atmospheric Scientist Timothy R. Minnich, who has more than 30 years experience in the design and management of a wide range of air quality investigations for industry and government, is a past member of the American Meteorological Society and specializes in issues like acid rain and ozone, and has authored or co-authored numerous technical publications and reports.)
“Based on the laws of physics, the effect on temperature of man’s contribution to atmospheric CO2 levels is minuscule and indiscernible from the natural variability caused in large part by changes in solar energy output.” (Atmospheric Scientist Robert L. Scotto, who has more than 30 years air quality consulting experience, served as a manager for an EPA Superfund contract and is co-founder of Minnich and Scotto, Inc., a full-service air quality consulting firm. He also is a past member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Scotto is a meteorologist who has authored or co-authored numerous technical publications and reports.)

“Whether the ice caps melt, or expand — whatever happens — the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology.” (Mathematical Physicist Dr. Frank Tipler, professor at Tulane University who has authored 58 peer-reviewed publications and five books.)

“My dear colleague [NASA’s James] Hansen, I believe, has finally gone off the deep end…The global warming ‘time bomb,’ ‘disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity’s control.’ These are the words of an apocalyptic prophet — not a rational scientist.” (Chemist Dr. Nicholas Drapela of the faculty of Oregon State University Chemistry Department)

“There is no credible evidence of the current exceptional global warming trumpeted by the UNIPCC…The UNIPCC is no longer behaving as an investigative scientific organization or pretending to be one…Their leaders betrayed the trust of the world community.” (Chemist Dr. Grant Miles, author of numerous scientific publications who was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, was a member of UK Atomic Energy Authority Chemical Separation Plant Committee.)

“Any reasonable scientific analysis must conclude the basic AGW theory wrong!!” (NASA Scientist Dr. Leonard Weinstein who worked 35 years at the NASA Langley Research Center and finished his career there as a Senior Research Scientist. Weinstein is presently a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace)

“Climate prediction is complex, with many uncertainties. The AASC recognizes climate prediction is an extremely difficult undertaking. For time scales of a decade or more, understanding the empirical accuracy of such prediction — called ‘verification’ — is simply impossible, because we have to wait a decade or more to assess the accuracy of the forecasts.” (The American Association of State Climatologists.)

“Opponents of global warming are often snidely referred to as ‘climate change deniers’; precisely the opposite is true. Those who question the myth of global warming are passionate believers in climate change — it is the global warmers who deny that climate change is the norm.” (Philip Stott; author of books on climate; he resigned as a member of the Scientific Alliance because he deems it important to be academically independent of all organizations, industry, and green groups — so that he can comment independently of the pressure they place on members to agree with majority opinion)

“The orthodoxy that claims global warming is a fact must be challenged.” (Nigel Calder, scientist and former editor for the New Scientist)

“Global warming is the central tenet of this new belief system in much the same way that the Resurrection is the central tenet of Christianity. Al Gore has taken a role corresponding to that of St Paul in proselytizing the new faith…My skepticism about AGW arises from the fact that as a physicist who has worked in closely related areas, I know how poor the underlying science is. In effect the scientific method has been abandoned in this field.” (Atmospheric Physicist Dr. John Reid, who worked with Australia’s CSIRO’s “Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Division of Oceanography” and worked in surface gravity waves (ocean waves) research)

“Those who call themselves ‘Green planet advocates’ should be arguing for a CO2- fertilized atmosphere, not a CO2-starved atmosphere…Diversity increases when the planet was warm AND had high CO2 atmospheric content…Al Gore’s personal behavior supports a green planet. His enormous energy use with his 4 homes and his bizjet, does indeed help make the planet greener. Kudos, Al for doing your part to save the planet.” (Engineer and aviation/space pioneer, Burt Rutan, who was named “100 most influential people in the world, 2004” by Time Magazine. Newsweek called him “the man responsible for more innovations in modern aviation than any living engineer.”)

“To the satisfaction of a judge in the High Court in London — that there were multiple serious errors not of mere interpretation or `theory’ but of fact in Al Gore’s mawkish sci-fi comedy-horror movie; that the errors all tended to invent problems where they did not exist or exaggerate them where they did; and that, therefore, the movie was political rather than scientific. The judge found in our favor, saying that `The Armageddon scenario that [Gore] depicts is not based on any scientific view. I wrote the scientific testimony that convinced Gore’s allies in the case that they should concede his film was seriously, serially inaccurate. Had they not made that concession, and had they not agreed to circulate 77 pages of corrective guidance, the judge said he would have banned the movie.” (Christopher Monckton, author, virulent critic of the UN-IPCC methods; has begged Albert Gore to debate “global warming”; Gore refuses)

“The most fundamental question is: ‘Can humans manipulate climate predictably?’ Or, more scientifically: ‘Will cutting carbon dioxide emissions at the margin produce a linear, predictable change in climate?’ The answer is ‘No.’ In so complex a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system as climate, not doing something at the margins is as unpredictable as doing something. This is the cautious science; the rest is dogma.” (Philip Stott; author of books on climate; he resigned as a member of the Scientific Alliance because he believed it important to be academically independent of all organizations, industry, and green groups — so that he could comment independently of the pressure they place on members to agree with majority opinion)

“Climate warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases is usually presented as a gloomy catastrophe that will induce the mass extinction of animals and plants, epidemics of contagious and parasitic diseases, droughts and floods, and even invasions of mutated insects resistant to insecticides. Melting glaciers are predicted to raise sea level by 3.67 meters; densely inhabited coastal areas, and great metropolises will flood. There will be mass migrations and a host of other social and environmental effects — always detrimental, never beneficial. That is the propaganda they spread.” (Zbigniew Jaworowski; multidisciplinary scientist: M.D., Ph.O., and D.Sc.; professor at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw; has studied glacier ice samples from around the world, analyzing traces of heavy metals and radionuclides. Article in “21st Century Science & Technology”: “Ice Core Data Show No Carbon Dioxide Increase”)

“What global warmers claim is climate science is truly dogma. There are no testable hypotheses. Instead there is consensus backing claims that are impossible to disprove. Any and all results support the theory. If the weather is warmer: `We told you so.’ If the weather is cooler: `Weather is not climate.’ More hurricanes: `Just as we said.’ African dust storms: `Ah yes, definitely proof of global warming.’ Excellent scientists refute the science they claim is behind `global warming’: `All the best scientists agree — the debate is over.’ And on and on this charade continues with no end in sight.” (Martin Hellig; multi-disciplinary scientist and mathematician)

POPE RESIGNS – GOOD RIDDANCE

Let the Catholic Church public relations spin begin. This man isn’t resigning because of his age. He has been leading an institution that has been conducting a coverup on par with the Wall Street criminal banks. There is absolutely no difference. Powerful men seeking to retain their wealth, power and control have been covering up the crimes of priests who were fucking little boys for decades. The coverup continues today. This man knew about these crimes and did nothing. He did worse than nothing. He allowed predators to continue their evil deeds. He is as guilty as the perpetrators. He knows he is guilty. That is why he is resigning. Until the Catholic Church is purged of every Cardinal, Bishop and priest that was involved in this cover-up, it will be nothing but a corrupt institution of evil men. This man will have to answer before God for what he allowed to happen to children around the world. All of the apologists for the Catholic Church should be ashamed at their cowardice in allowing these men to continue as their leaders.  

Pope Benedict XVI Announces Resignation At End Of Month

 
Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/11/2013 06:36 -0500

A stunning announcement to start the week from the Pope, who just a month ago was the first pontiff to enter twitter, and who just announced his resignation at the end of the month for “health reasons.” “I’m very shaken by this unexpected news,” outgoing Italian PM Mario Monti told reporters today on the sidelines of an event in Milan, as reported by Ansa. A Vatican spokesman confirms Pope Benedict XVI, who is 85 and was one of the oldest new popes when elected, is not resigning because of any difficulties in the papacy. And so Pope Benedict XVI, f/k/a/ Joseph Ratzinger, April 19, 2005 – February 28, 2013.

Full Papal resignation letter below.

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.

Full text of Pope’s declaration

 
 

Dear Brothers,

 

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

 

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

 

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

 

BENEDICTUS PP XVI