Just when you think America can not sink any lower into a Nazi/Soviet style Eugenics fantasyland, this story catches my attention from Anderson Cooper’s CNN television program which I watched early this morning:

Needless to say I am disgusted with our nation as the program illustrates that we have learned nothing from our past, nothing from the horrors of allowing “scientists” and academics to implement programs without proper oversight, and nothing about allowing our nation to drift further from God and maintaining it’s status as a moral leader in the world.

According to the article at the link below in the Canton Patch from yesterday, a protest to demand the end to this cruel therapy is being planned on June 2nd:

Protest Slated For June 2 to End Shock Therapy At The Judge Rotenberg Center

In a not so subtle article from the newspaper Adnkronos, the crisis in Italy is far from over and might indeed be accelerating:

Businesses suffering ‘credit crunch,’ report says

This excerpt from the story tells of a tale of woe growing month by month:

Italian businesses are facing a credit crunch,” according to a report by the national statistics agency.

 

Last year “modest investment activity was accompanied by a growth in the difficulty to access bank credit,” said Istat’s 2012 annual report released on Tuesday.

 

Italian business confidence in April fell to a 2-year low as a recession causes businesses to close and the rate of unemployment to rise.

 

Despite extremely low interest rates, banks in Italy and elsewhere in Europe have been reluctant to extend credit to businesses.

In a Reuters article on a report about the Italian banking sector on May 16th, data from the ABI in Italy indicated that business lending as of March was contracting at a 0.7% annualized rate. If this continues to increase and indeed, the credit crunch accelerates, then the anti-austerity movement will have over-achieved their goals of stopping promulgate spending at every level.

At the same time however, the lack of economic expansion and continuation if not outright acceleration of the recession could create a greater risk of default rather than the outcome desired by the very same international bankers who are cutting credit off to Italian business.

Due to some technical difficulties on my end as I conducted the website redesign and with one of my email addresses I have been unable to update CalOkie’s bank failure charts but now the snags are fixed and the charts are now up to date as of last Friday’s only closing, as pictured by the header from the FDIC’s takeover of Alabama Trust Bank in Sylacauga, AL. Even though bank failures are slow this year, it appears to be more about keeping the peace until after the elections than shutting down insolvent institutions in this blogger’s opinion.

Thanks again to CalOkie for all his hard work.

The other elephant in the room, the Japanese economy and debt disaster, received a major blow this morning while the rest of the world slept as Fitch downgraded Japan to A+ with a Negative Outlook. The reasons outlined should sound familiar to any European government or even the casual U.S. observer:

“The downgrades and Negative Outlooks reflect growing risks for Japan’s sovereign credit profile as a result of high and rising public debt ratios,” said Andrew Colquhoun, Head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns at Fitch. “The country’s fiscal consolidation plan looks leisurely relative even to other fiscally-challenged high-income countries, and implementation is subject to political risk.”

 

Japan’s gross general government debt is projected to hit 239% of GDP by end-2012, by far the highest for any Fitch-rated sovereign. This debt ratio would also have risen 61pp since the global financial crisis. This compares with a median of 39pp for OECD economies and 8pp for ‘A’ range sovereigns. Japan is less of an outlier when account is taken of its large pile of sovereign financial assets (worth about 80% of GDP on Fitch’s calculations), but net indebtedness is still rising strongly.

This is not going to end well should the problems at Fukushima and U.S. economy cause Japanese economic conditions to stagnate and thus putting even more pressure on their ability to service this massive debt. The only question that remains is where is the U.S. downgrade as our debt when viewed honestly and not as published by the government and the liars in charge at this moment.

Full text of the Fitch downgrade is available at the link below:

Fitch Downgrades Japan to ‘A+’; Outlook Negative

A sneak peek into America’s future perhaps?

Imagine your son or daughter working a part time job at a local restaurant as a cashier. The customers usually don’t ask for a copy of their receipts so the habit has been to throw them away. Suddenly, your son or daughter is arrested by one of the customers who identifies himself as an undercover officer for the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Police.

Crazy sounding isn’t it?

No, it’s reality everyday if you live in a nation like Greece. From the newspaper Ekathimerini today:

Cafe manager detained for failing to issue receipts

A 23-year-old man who was managing a cafeteria in the Nea Smyrni neighborhood of Athens was arrested on Sunday for failing to issue receipts for 240 euros’ worth of food and drink sold to customers.

 

The arrest came during inspections on several establishments in the area by financial police.

 

The 39-year-old owner of the cafe is being sought.

Coming to the United States soon enough or perhaps a lemonade stand near you.

But, butt, butt, butttttt, butttttttt, I was told on the teevee that Mr. Obama had saved the day according to the Vice-President, Mrs. Biden.

Oopsies, again!

Tonight’s editorial/commentary from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard sums up the ultimate definition of “critical mass” if and when the American economy collapses in this article:

Again; do what? I thought Obamanomics cured cancer, AIDS, divorce, unwanted pregnancy, herpes, and common toe nail fungus. Apparently, according to the concerns of Mr. Pritchard in tonight’s U.K. Telegraph article, that does not seem to be the case:

Rising US recession risk poses the real threat to Europe

It is this fresh menace – combined with China’s failure to calibrate its heralded soft-landing – that poses the real danger to southern Europe’s arc of depression over the next year. Greece is just a poignant detail.

America’s official data has not picked up any inflection point yet. We may be repeating the summer of 2008 when Washington mistakenly reported brisk growth and Fed rhetoric turned hawkish, setting off the Fannie/Freddie, Lehman, AIG disasters. We now know that the figures were wildly wrong. The economy was already in slump.
 

Fed chair Ben Bernanke is vigilant this time. Last week’s Fed minutes hinted at fresh stimulus if “the economic recovery lost momentum”. The Fed noted “sizeable risks” as $1 trillion (£633bn) of fiscal cuts kick in automatically at the end of the year.

Uh, no, he’s just as ignorant now as he was in 2008. I warned in the spring of 2008 that if Chairman Bernanke did not react by June it was going to be a bloodbath in the fall.

And it was so that Chairman Bernank is just as ignorant now as he was then.

Click on the link above to read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s take on the coming implosion as he is far more optimistic than I am.

Two choices are upon you.

Watch the following video via YouTube from LMFAO and consider this “America’s future” or….

Wake the bleep up to reality as I can educate you as much as the idiot in chief, America’s first Marxist President.

First and foremost, I’m approximately the same age as the MMM Prez so to say “you can’t relate” is lie number one. When yours truly was in college I was an atheist (God forgave me, I think), a left-leaning weenie, and one who hung out with hardcore members of the Revolutionary Communist Party. I went from being a computer geek to a total nerd who hung out with nasty smelling protesting women just to be cool and enjoy the great music of the late 1970′s and early 1980′s. Or so I thought.

One night while sitting at home with my parents after a long day in college and at work, the telephone rang. For those of you under the age of 40, that was a dvice which hung on the kitchen wall usually, consisted or a rotary dial face, and had a bell which rang in it. No texting, no emails, and no IMs were available. In fact it did not even have a screen, oh the ignominy of it all.

So why is this personal story important tonight, May 20, 2012 some almost 30 plus years later?

One night after enjoying a concert with Black Flag (the original) and MDC (yes, I’m old) my parents called me into the kitchen for a phone call. The voice on the other end of the line was a somewhat stressed out female asking for help for bail for “fellow members of the revolution to bail our liberators out of jail.” The reason they were in jail? The “revolutionaries” elected to show their spirit against the oppressors by throwing paint filled balloons at the local subway, MARTA, and scream at passengers just trying to get home from work. The voice on the phone was somewhat desperate I might add and in fact she said if need be to steal money from my freaking parents to help them out.

Needless to say, I was broke, not going to steal, and hung up on the idiot.

Fast forward to a story which caught my eye, courtesy of the The Drudge Report:

Suspects wielding hammers and batons attack diners at Tinley Park restaurant

The story from the Chicago Sun-Times is horrific as it reflects everything that I learned 30 plus years ago and worse, the actions idiots might take if they were unleashed. The Marxist/Communist radicals have been itching for any excuse to attack and disturb the “Bourgeoisie” as they like to call anyone who owned a car because they did not. What caused the flashback to my idiotic youth from this story?

This excerpt:

Tinley Park police had five suspected assailants in custody, and Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant.

 

“They came running in the door single file,” said Winston, who owns Ashford House, 7959 W. 159th St., and the adjacent Winston’s Market.

 

Winston, and police, said the men knew who their targets were, and that the attack wasn’t a random act of violence. Winston said the mob “targeted” a group of 20 diners, all of whom were from out of state.

 

“Once they attacked the table, they went and started hitting random people,” Winston said.

 

Along with hammers, the men used what Winston described as “old-fashioned police batons” as well as metal batons.

 

“Four or five people got knocked over the head pretty good, enough to require stitches,” he said.

These are the tactics of the RCP, the radicals, and the extremists of the Communist/Marxist fringe. Prepare for more of this and arm and defend thy selves accordingly.

As America parties, the world burns.

Unfortunately for some futures contract holders and those who think they can sell anything to the, ahem, “COMMUNIST” Chinese government, er, companies, this rude awakening has hit them in the face with a two by four:

China buyers defer raw material cargos

(click on the link to read the story in full- Subscription required)

In this story from the UK’s Financial Times, the story by Javier Blas in Singapore and Jack Farchy in the London bureau hits a massive strike of reminiscent terror with this extract:

The deferrals and defaults have only emerged in the last few days, traders said, and have contributed to a drop in iron ore and coal prices.

 

“We have some clients in China asking us this week to defer volumes,” said a senior executive with a global commodities trading house, who warned that consumers were cautious. “China is hand to mouth at the moment.”

 

A senior executive at another large trading house also confirmed there had been defaults and deferrals in both thermal coal and iron ore.

Oops. Unfortunately for American and especially European traders we have not seen activity or actions like this since way, way, way, way, back in history.

Well, 2008 to be exact.

Have a nice flashback day!

No comment is necessary.

This excerpt from the latest editorial from the Mogambo Guru should provide a clue for those who are ignoring reality:

Of course, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, so famously said that inflation is only a problem for people who buy things or put the money under their mattress to save it instead of putting the money into investments that will, hopefully, grow as fast as inflation, to which I reply, with all the sarcastic scorn and loathing that I can muster at such idiocy, “Hahahaha!”

 

Alas, Ben “Call Me Dumb-Ass” Bernanke neglected to mention (or perhaps he doesn’t even know, which would explain why his middle name is “Call Me Dumb-Ass”, although I thought that I had just made it up, suddenly giving everything a spooky, weird Twilight Zone feeling) that it is numerically impossible — emphasize “impossible” — for the majority of people to make a real, inflation-adjusted profit by investing in the stock market.

 

And the reason why it is impossible for the majority of people to make a profit by investing is contained, almost koan-like, in the question “Where would the money come from?”

To read the rest of the commentary, please click on the link below:

Hmmmmm…..

Just where would the money come from? Or does wondering about that make us all a bunch of Fed Dumb-Asses?

To read the rest of the commentary, please click on the link below:

Mogambo Editorial Genius (MEG)

After months of haggling, arguing, and bullcrap (much like the Federal Reserve’s nonsense) I have abandoned efforts to make the blovel/novel, “The Day the Dollar Died” which I first published in November of 2009 an online novel for purchase. Needless to say it was a huge success years ago and my readers need a refresher as to what can and probably will happen due to bankster incompetence when all is said and done.

The names might change, but the theory and horror remains the same.

Enjoy and click to full page to read on your mobile phone or personal computer device.

To download the PDF version without going through Scribd, free of charge, click on the link below:

The Day the Dollar Died by John Galt

The world is focused so intently on the coming collapse of Greece and their withdrawal from the European Monetary Union that one of the byproducts of the regional instability in the Balkans continues to operate much like the Israeli Air Force has been in the same region. This week saw the first direct interaction between Israeli Air Force and Turkish fighter planes near Cyprus that I can recall in modern times (From Hurriyet Daily News see: Turkey asks Israel to explain airspace ‘violation’).

This interaction was not by accident nor unintentional by Israeli military officials. It is standard operating procedure to probe the defensive perimeter and air space by sending planes towards another nation’s defensive sphere. Turkey responded of course with their American made fighters and escorted the Israeli forces from the area near norther Cyprus. Why the sudden provocation by Israel? I refer everyone back to a story I produced on February 28th:

The Cure to Greek’s Debt Crisis: War with Turkey

In that piece, I highlighted not only the existing hostility between Greece and Turkey, but the building enmity which indicates that both sides might be pressing the conflict over Cyprus to a new level. Unfortunately, Turkey took the heat up to a new level on Friday when their government threatened any company willing to bid on drilling licenses via the Cypriot government under Greek control. From the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini:

Ankara warns against Cyprus drilling

The Turkish government did not pull any punches in their threat (from the article above):

Turkey issued a warning on Friday that if companies seeking a license to drill for oil deposits off Cyprus do not withdraw their bids, they “will not be included in energy projects in Turkey in the future,” according to reports.

“We call on the countries concerned and the oil companies to act with common sense, not to engage in activities in maritime fields that are under dispute… and to withdraw from the bidding,” the statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, adding, “Turkey will not allow any activity in these fields.”

 

This is a direct threat to the nation of Greece which needs the oil fields to start generating revenue via Cyprus to help their floundering economy and to reduce their dependence on foreign sources as the nation’s economy continues to collapse. The Cypriot government responded with a statement which indicates that there is little tolerance for the threats issued by the government in Ankara (via the Cyprus News Agency):

 

Government spokesman Stephanos Stephanou described Turkish threats against the Cyprus` second licensing round for hydrocarbon exploration in its Exclusive Economic Zone as unacceptable, adding that Cyprus will go ahead as planned.

 

In statements following a commemoration ceremony in the southwestern coastal city of Paphos, Stephanou said that in a bid to impede Cyprus from promoting its plans for new hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation of natural gas deposits discovered in its EEZ, Turkey launches threats violating the international law and the UN law of the sea.

The tit-for-tat did not end there however as Israel has openly declared a willingness to defend their energy investments on and around Cyprus. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News had the following dramatic allegation to keep the embers of a potentially simmering conflict hot:

Israel seeks to deploy 20,000 commandos in Greek Cyprus

From the article:

Israel wants its energy projects in Greek Cyprus to be run by Israelis and is seeking to deploy as many as 20,000 commandos for their protection, Anatolia news agency reported today.

 Netanyahu reportedly offered during the same meeting to undertake all the expenses required to construct a gas plant needed to extract the natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea, the report said. In exchange, Netanyahu asked that all the 10,000 personnel that would work at the plant be brought in from Israel with their families, which would increase the number to nearly 30,000.

The high number of Israelis in Greek Cyprus would present a security issue, which Netanyahu suggested be solved by sending as many as 20,000 Israeli commandos to safeguard both the Israelis and the natural gas plant, the agency said.

While this seems like an extremely exaggerated number of troops to be placed there, as the last reports I saw in February placed initial estimates at 5,000 including support personnel for a squadron from the IAF. If the plans are implemented and the Israeli military proceeds with the deployment along with the drilling off of Cyprus and current relations between Israel and Turkey continue to deteriorate, then the stage is being set for a powerful military conflict which would pit NATO against itself and America against its only real democratic ally in the Middle East.

Finally, at least one of the banksters of the world has provided some degree of honesty about this mess over in Greece. The threat of the Grexit was enough to turn the debut of Facebook on the NASDAQ into FacePalm creating a concern that the entire world economy is teetering on disaster. From an article in the Athens News yesterday:

If Greece leaves the euro zone it could detonate a global financial crisis even worse than the 2008 credit crunch, dry up global trade financing and spur another U.S. recession, former Mexican central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Friday.

 

“There is no legal exit clause for a country that wants to leave the euro zone, so if it occurs, it is going to be necessarily traumatic, and have global repercussions,” Ortiz told Reuters at a banking conference in the Mexican resort of Acapulco.

 

“Of course this will affect us as the consequences of Lehman’s bankruptcy affected the world, only this will probably have an even bigger impact,” he said.

The refreshing blast of honesty of just how severe a small nation defaulting and exiting the Eurozone was not offered by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, ECB, or any major U.S. financial institution, but by a former governor of the Mexican central bank who amazingly enough nailed just how brutal such an exit would be in his statements above. The problem with the Grexit is that by downplaying the impact the central banks and world financial community is hiding the impact of the various derivative instruments which are being ignored if the Eurozone and ECB were to take a massive hit due to a Greek default. The European Union and G8 banksters are playing with Greek fire and refuse to let the masses know the upcoming risks or dangers.

Just remember this one important fact:

In 2008, the same “experts” said Lehman and Bear Stearns would have minimal impacts on the U.S. and world economies because “it’s different this time.”

In what can only be described with the word “ugh” as in here we go again, the first tropical storm of the season has formed off of the coast of South Carolina. Alberto is the earliest tropical storm to form since 2008 and almost three weeks before the official start of the hurricane season. With that little gem of good news, a reminder that the satellite photos and graphics from the NHC update themselves automatically, model runs will be updated in this thread as need be if this storm decides to threaten the U.S.

Tropical Storm Alberto Advisory#3 from the National Hurricane Center:

000
WTNT31 KNHC 200846
TCPAT1

BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO ADVISORY NUMBER 3
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL012012
500 AM EDT SUN MAY 20 2012

…ALBERTO CHANGES LITTLE IN STRENGTH…

SUMMARY OF 500 AM EDT…0900 UTC…INFORMATION
———————————————-
LOCATION…31.7N 78.9W
ABOUT 100 MI…160 KM SE OF CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA
ABOUT 130 MI…210 KM ESE OF SAVANNAH GEORGIA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…50 MPH…85 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT…WSW OR 245 DEGREES AT 6 MPH…9 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…998 MB…29.47 INCHES

WATCHES AND WARNINGS
——————–
CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY…

NONE.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT…

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR…
* SAVANNAH RIVER TO SOUTH SANTEE RIVER SOUTH CAROLINA

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA…IN THIS CASE WITHIN 24 HOURS.

COASTAL INTERESTS ELSEWHERE FROM GEORGIA THROUGH THE OUTER BANKS OF
NORTH CAROLINA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF ALBERTO.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY
YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE.

DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK
——————————

AT 500 AM EDT…0900 UTC…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 31.7 NORTH…LONGITUDE 78.9 WEST. ALBERTO IS
MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-SOUTHWEST NEAR 6 MPH…9 KM/H…AND THIS
GENERAL MOTION WITH A DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED IS EXPECTED TODAY.
A TURN TOWARD THE NORTHEAST IS FORECAST ON MONDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 50 MPH…85 KM/H…WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 48
HOURS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES…110 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 998 MB…29.47 INCHES.

HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND
———————-

WIND…TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE COAST OF
SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE WATCH AREA LATER TODAY OR MONDAY.

SURF…DANGEROUS SURF CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE COASTS OF
GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA THROUGH MONDAY. PLEASE SEE STATEMENTS
ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE FOR
INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA.

NEXT ADVISORY
————-
NEXT INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY…800 AM EDT.
NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY…1100 AM EDT.

$$
FORECASTER CANGIALOSI/BROWN

====================================================================
Tropical Storm Alberto Discussion #3:
====================================================================

000
WTNT41 KNHC 200848
TCDAT1

TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO DISCUSSION NUMBER 3
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL012012
500 AM EDT SUN MAY 20 2012

ALBERTO APPEARS TO BE MAINTAINING ITS STRENGTH. SATELLITE AND RADAR
IMAGES SHOW THAT DEEP CONVECTION REFORMED NEAR THE CENTER OF THE
TROPICAL STORM OVERNIGHT WITH A BROKEN BAND OF THUNDERSTORM
ACTIVITY REMAINING TO THE NORTH OF THE CENTER. AN ASCAT PASS AROUND
0300 UTC SHOWED MAXIMUM WINDS NEAR 40 KT. BASED ON THE
SCATTEROMETER DATA AND THE RECENT INCREASE IN THUNDERSTORM
ACTIVITY…THE INITIAL INTENSITY IS HELD AT 45 KT. ALTHOUGH ALBERTO
LIES OVER THE RELATIVELY WARM WATERS OF THE GULF STREAM…DRY AIR
IN THE VICINITY OF THE CYCLONE AND STRONG WEST-SOUTHWESTERLY SHEAR
SHOULD LIMIT THE INTENSIFICATION PROCESS. THE OFFICIAL INTENSITY
FORECAST IS SIMILAR TO THE PREVIOUS ONE AND SHOWS ALBERTO REMAINING
STEADY STATE FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. WEAKENING AND A
TRANSITION TO A POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE IS FORECAST BEYOND THAT TIME
WHEN ALBERTO MOVES OVER COOLER WATERS AND INTO AN AREA OF VERY
STRONG UPPER-LEVEL WINDS.

ALBERTO IS CURRENTLY MOVING WEST-SOUTHWESTWARD AT ABOUT 5 KT. THIS
GENERAL HEADING WITH A DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED IS EXPECTED TODAY
AS A DEEP-LAYER RIDGE OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES WEAKENS. THE
TROPICAL CYCLONE IS EXPECTED TO STALL OFF THE SOUTHEAST UNITED
STATES COAST TONIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY AS IT INTERACTIONS WITH AN
AREA OF LOW PRESSURE TO ITS NORTH NEAR THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES AND
A DEVELOPING LOW TO ITS SOUTHEAST. THEREAFTER…A MID-TO
UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH MOVING ACROSS THE EASTERN UNITED STATES SHOULD
CAUSE ALBERTO…OR ITS POST-TROPICAL REMNANTS…TO ACCELERATE
NORTHEASTWARD OVER THE WESTERN ATLANTIC. THE OFFICIAL TRACK
FORECAST HAS BEEN ADJUSTED SLIGHTLY EASTWARD TO BE IN BETTER
AGREEMENT WITH THE LATEST GUIDANCE. FUTURE ADJUSTMENTS IN THAT
DIRECTION MAY BE NECESSARY IF THE RECENT MODEL TRENDS CONTINUE.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INIT 20/0900Z 31.7N 78.9W 45 KT 50 MPH
12H 20/1800Z 31.4N 79.3W 45 KT 50 MPH
24H 21/0600Z 31.2N 79.5W 45 KT 50 MPH
36H 21/1800Z 31.6N 78.8W 45 KT 50 MPH
48H 22/0600Z 32.8N 77.1W 45 KT 50 MPH
72H 23/0600Z 36.2N 72.6W 40 KT 45 MPH…POST-TROPICAL
96H 24/0600Z 39.0N 68.5W 35 KT 40 MPH…POST-TROPICAL
120H 25/0600Z…DISSIPATED

$$
FORECASTER CANGIALOSI/BROWN

This afternoon on CNBC, a young lady whose name is irrelevant representing a heretofore never heard of group called “Ultraviolet” made the case to demand a seat on the board of directors for a private corporation, Facebook, because they had no female board members.

Not one female venture capitalist put up any money to deserve a seat on the board.

Not one single reason financially or qualification was put forth for such a nomination.

Not one excuse for the lack of risk taken by such a candidate to have earned that position was offered.

Not one reason was given other than “fairness” and “equality” was given for a reason to “give” a seat to a woman.

This is part of the social justice movement and a reason to take the property and hard work of others for income redistribution because of fairness not hard work or creativity. Watch the CNBC video below and then reflect on the book Atlas Shrugged.

As everyone is now living the book, one painful chapter and page at a time.

In what I can only call as a shocking document, I’ll leave this to the reader’s imagination as to how this will be perceived by the more radical and tempted members of America’s young Islamist nutcases. This is a direct shot at those who wish to do harm to our families, friends, and neighbors and should be taken for what it is:

A recruitment tool for Islamic youth dissatisfied with our nation and ideals.

Many thanks to Public Intelligence.com for providing this document to share with all concerned citizens.

What can I say? Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is on a roll this week with his columns in the U.K. Telegraph and this one protion from today’s piece sums up the disaster we are facing quite nicely:

The crisis is replicating the pattern of fixed-exchange ruptures through history. Britain was forced off the Gold Standard in 1931 after pay-cut protests in the navy triggered capital flight.

 

Greek banks have lost 30pc of their deposits since late 2009. The total fell to €171bn in March. “The surprise is that there is still so much left. I can’t believe it will stay much longer,” said Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors.

 

The ECB is holding the line with an estimated €100bn of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for lenders, channeled through Greece’s central bank. Supplicants must pawn their loan book in exchange. “The risk is that banks will run out of collateral since these are low quality assets with haircuts of 50pc or more. The ECB could relax the rules but they would have to take an active decision to do so,” said Mr Ward.

 

JP Morgan said Greek banks have already exhausted their collateral. A refusal by the ECB to ease rules would amount to expulsion, forcing Greece “to issue its own money.”

Translation?

Got Gold and Drachma?

To read the article in full, click on the title below it is a worthy read tonight, that is for sure!

Greek euro exit looms closer as banks crumble

While the mainstream media engages in P.L.O.P.O.O. (Putting Lipstick on Pig of Obamanomics), the reality of today’s housing numbers are still so bad, they would even embarrass Lyndon Baines Johnson; hell, maybe even Harry Truman!

The Media’s PLOPOO updates look like this:

Rebound in Housing Starts

Housing market posts best stretch of growth in nearly four years

Housing starts, single-family building permits jump in April

Builders start construction on more homes in April

Based on just this small sampling of headlines, the only thing that has more lipstick than the pig is Obama’s ass.

Here are the charts, they speak for themselves:

(click on thumbnails to enlarge graphs)

APR 2012 PERMITS (ALL)

APR 2012 SINGLE FAMILY PERMITS

APR 2012 HOUSING STARTS

APR 2012 HOUSING UNDER CONSTRUCTION

APR 2012 HOUSING COMPLETIONS

To read the entire Census Bureau report, click on this link (PDF version)

The usual suspects are at their propaganda inspired best with the monthly BLS report on consumer prices. The mainstream media has the usual headlines:May 15, 2012 22:30 ET

US Consumer-Price Index Unchanged; Core Rate Climbs 0.2%

US April consumer prices flat as gasoline drops

US consumer prices flat as gas costs fall

In other words, gas distorted reality as the reality is that the impacts on things the average American need or use every month increased except for electrical utilities and natural gas prices which showed a year over year decline.

The interesting thing is that the rate of increase in gasoline prices did not spell out deflation but when combined with other increases, especially in rent prices, the dollar continues it’s decline into irrelevancy until the crisis in Europe causes the current panic stricken rush into perceived safety. Thus I guess for most items to only have a 3% to 5% increase year over year, this means that inflation is check according to the hedonic insanity of the BLS.

Thankfully if you need a used car, the sash for clunkers program has finally stabilized prices with an average of just over 3% change year over year each month and that should help some lower class families out as long as they are looking for a hot ride like a Ford Escort or ragged out rice powered shoe box:

That’s it until next month when I expect a massive decline in CPI due to the strengthening dollar and a hedonically adjusted realization that people will replace bacon with pigs ears and hamburger with cow tongue. I suppose the other adjustment which will help is a replacement of motor fuel with wind power which after all is relatively cheap as long as one does not live near a Kennedy residence.

Last night on my live podcast I covered this story then after a customary four hours of sleep the realization hit me today of the implications of this story form the Jerusalem Post:

IDF building backup facilities for key sites

The Eurozone is in the midst of a total economic collapse, the United States mired in the summer doldrums of a political campaign between Tweedle-D and Tweedle-bo-R-edom, and in the mean time, Iran and Israel both appear to be accelerating preparations for a war which now appears set to begin in the autumn. The ignorance of the actions being taken by Israel in this article should alarm most people who have even a vague awareness of the crisis.

From the article by Yakoov Katz:

Wary of missiles attacking sensitive military installations in a future war, the IDF has approved a NIS 1.5 billion plan to build backup facilities and reinforce sites that could be targeted.

 

As of May, the IDF has budgeted NIS 750 million for the project, with plans to allocate the second half by the end of 2012. The IDF Home Front Command and Operations Directorate chooses the list of installations that require the reinforcement or construction of secondary facilities.

 

Despite having a secondary facility under construction, a key IDF base in the North will be retrofitted. The IDF fears that the base will undergo heavy damage in a future war and therefore decided to build the secondary facility. That location is confidential information, located somewhere in the center of the country.

If this is truly the case, then the retrofits and redundant facilities should be completed by August to September at the latest. Logically speaking, Israel would not dare contemplate an attack on Iran unless those hardened positions were in place, especially with the threat of Iran ordering Hezbollah to open a second front or “rocket war” on the Israeli people immediately after an Israeli attack on Iran. Hopefully my readers have some time to get their own houses in order as this might give all of us some time to deal with the European economic collapse and prepare the home front for the coming storm out of the Middle East.

Appetiser cost of Greek exit is €155bn for Germany, France: trillions for meat course

My fellow internet wanderers, no, your eyes do not deceive you. The costs are almost incalculable because the world has never experienced anything like what we will witness occurring in Greece as their exit from the European Monetary Union seems almost certain now.

In tonight’s article from the U.K. Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard makes the following, terrifying statement:

Needless to say, the real danger is contagion to Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, and the deadly linkages between €15 trillion in public and private debt in these countries and the €27 trillion European banking nexus.

 

This is where any further errors by EU leaders could take the world into full depression.

Let that sink in. Mr. Pritchard goes on to offer an outline of how the European Union could prevent such a disaster but the chart which he obtained from the ISGEG School in Lille tells the truly terrifying costs to France and Germany of this potential, and now probable collapse:

Click on the title at the top to read the disastrous entry in full. It is a must read for economic realists.

Also from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard tonight:

Italy’s banks shaken as economic slump deepens