Sunday, February 02, 2014

2 Feb - Blogs I'm Following

10:32am MST

Disabled Workers of the World, Unite!

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 12 minutes ago
If you're a typical able-bodied McWorker, you're probably struggling to make ends meet on a minimum wage of $7 or $8. If you're among the lucky handful of able-bodied McWorkers just now entering the McWorkforce of a federal contractor, President Obama has benevolently decreed that your pay must now start at $10.10 an hour. Because it's the right thing to do, because it's the all-American thing to do. Because Ten-Ten is easy to remember, and because it's easy to put it in a Democratic campaign slogan. If, however, you are a disabled McWorker enrolled in a public-private federal "shel... more »

Obfuscations Galore (SOTU For Those Entirely Out of Luck) Welcome to Carthage! Formaldehyde In Your Water -- It's The New Normal (Thank You BIG BUSINESS!) Oh, You GUYS!

Still not really satisfied that you have a pretty truthful depiction after all the verbiage you've read about Obama's last State of the Union address? Really need just a little more enlightenment? (Or some light on the situation at all?) From our ever-attentive reporter at Down With Tyranny. (Don't read this yet if you're having a really bad Sunday. Trust me.) The corporate assault on culture,

Northerntruthseeker Rant For Sunday, February 2nd, 2014

Northerntruthseeker at Northerntruthseeker - 28 minutes ago
Yes, it is indeed Sunday again, and of course it is time for my weekly rant... For those who were wondering, I took the last few days basically "off" from blogging, and concentrated on doing some personal and family business.... I did not post up an article stating so, because I did not feel that I needed to. I run this blog, and sometimes it is necessary to take a break for a few days to do some other just as relevant activities and to recharge the batteries so to speak....It has been a very unusual week, and there is much to talk about, so lets get right to it! First, again I re... more »

SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

Anon at aangirfan - 33 minutes ago
In the 1930s, both the British and the Nazis were experimenting in Mind Control. After World War II, the CIA and its friends continued these experiments. There is a link between mind control and satanic ritual abuse. Reportedly, *Helen G* became a victim of Mind Control, and subsequently, she was forced into taking part in Satanic Rituals. *The Who’s who of Satanic Child Abuse** - *Christopher Spivey Helen has multiple personalities. *'Satanists' at Bohemian Grove in California.* The following comes from a report about Helen G. that appears to have been compiled by the* Ritua... more »

School Discipline: The U.S. vs. The Brits

Angel Cintron Jr. at @ THE CHALK FACE - 34 minutes ago
Quality teaching and student learning cannot occur in a chaotic classroom. Organized chaos, i.e. student-centered stations and activities, is extremely productive. Disruptive behavior, however, is extremely unproductive and problematic, to say the least. So, it’s rather interesting that while the USDOE is calling for schools to relax its “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies, the Brits are calling for […]

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New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 43 minutes ago
*Drew and Brittany Brees expecting fourth child!*

Third Greek Bailout Package Is Finally On Deck ! Not shocking at all that Germany is preparing the ground for a May bailout ( allegedly 10 - 20 billion euros ) as this will be the only way Greece can repay 11 billion in bonds maturing in May ! The Slog has been speaking on this for awhile , along with Zero Hedge !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 44 minutes ago
Here we go again....... so ironic this is put out on Ground hog Day ! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-02/third-greek-bailout-package-finally-deck Third Greek Bailout Package Is Finally On Deck [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/02/2014 11:03 -0500 - Creditors - fixed - Greece - International Monetary Fund inShare1 As noted on Friday, the Greek soap opera, in which Europe pretends to bail out Greece when it is just bailing out its insolvent banks by not touching the status quo, and Greece pretends to reform and comply with au... more »

TREE Sponsors Elaine Weiss to Talk about What NAEP Means

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 45 minutes ago
Elaine Weiss offers a primer on NAEP and recent gains in Tennessee. Make a cup of tea and enjoy.

Handlers: Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Longer Winter !!!!!!! Now let's not drive angry folks !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 hour ago
TPM NEWSHandlers: Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Longer Winter - [image: Fb-square] Share - - Email - Bookmark? [image: N44rn4rgw5ihixnfqyhw] AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar GENE J. PUSKAR AND MICHAEL RUBINKAM – FEBRUARY 2, 2014, 8:20 AM EST114 PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — The handlers for groundhog Punxsutawney Phil say he's forecasting six more weeks of what already has felt like a brutally long and cold winter. Pennsylvania's famed groundhog emerged from his lair in front of thousands of fans around daybreak Sunday. Legend has it that if the furry rodent sees hi... more »

Bitcoin news updates February 1 , 2104 - Bank Stops Working With Bitcoin Exchange CampBX Due to ‘Regulatory Uncertainty’ .... ‘Innocent’ Silk Road Seller to Sue to Stop Sale of Seized Bitcoins ...... Lithuanian and Estonian Central Bank Warn on Bitcoin - Estonian C.B says bitcoin " May be a ‘Ponzi Scheme " ......Happy Chinese New Year, Bitcoin! Biggest exchange opens for business despite bank warning ...... Vancouver ATM Operator Wants to Leave Bitstamp Following Breakdown ....... Community Debates What’s Next After New York Hearings ?

Catharsis Ours - 1 hour ago
http://www.coindesk.com/bank-stops-working-bitcoin-exchange-campbx-regulatory-uncertainty/ Bank Stops Working With Bitcoin Exchange CampBX Due to ‘Regulatory Uncertainty’ Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on February 1, 2014 at 00:00 GMT | *Companies, Exchanges* inShare2 Share 13 [image: campbx, bank] US bitcoin trading platform CampBX has announced that it has temporarily halted automated clearing house (ACH) and wire transfers effective 31st January. Alpharetta, GA-based CampBX indicated in a blog post to its users that its bank has “made a business decision to n... more »

Libya updates February 2 , 2014 - Latest jailbreak ( Swani Road Jail ) ........ Wate running out in Sirte / Ajdabiya while Sarir Power Station hit by missile attack from an Army unit ......... Two victims die from wounds from assassination attempts ........ Petrol running short in Sebha ......... Maltese ferry company claims €800,000 over 2011 evacuation of US personnel from Libya ........ Libyan Investment Authority sues Goldman for 1.2 billion related to equity derivative trades.....

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 hour ago
Breakfast breakout from Swani Road jail *By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.* *Tripoli, 2 February 2014*: Fifty-five prisoners escaped yesterday from the Bawabat Al-Jibs prison on Tripoli’s Swani Road when they managed to overpower prison guards. It is the latest in a growing list of jailbreaks that has now seen more than 1,600 inmates escape over the past year. According to a spokesman for the Judicial Police, which is responsible for security at the prison, the breakout happened during breakfast. He said there were just five guards on duty at the time for 200 inmates. The prisoners who were st... more »

New Blogs January/February 2014

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 1 hour ago
More new blogs! 1. Angry Immigrant (Unaligned) (Twitter) 2. A Room of Our Own (Unaligned/Feminist) (Twitter) 3. A World for the Future (Unaligned) (Twitter) 4. Chris McHugh (Labour) (Twitter) 5. Free North Campaign (Free North) 6. Mutare Orbis (Unaligned) (Twitter) 7. Northern Light (SPGB) 8. Political Eh-conomy (Canada - Unaligned) (Twitter) 9. Public Domain Productions (Unaligned) (Twitter) 10. Push Back Politics (Unaligned) 11. PWF (Labour) (Twitter) 12. The Anger Theory (Unaligned) (Twitter) 13. Unite Manchester Finance (Unite) (Twitter) 14. What is Wrong at the TUC? (Unaligned) That'... more »

dispatches from ola 2014, part 1: makerspaces, libraries, and me

laura k at wmtc - 2 hours ago
Yesterday I attended one of the most exciting and inspiring sessions of the OLA Super Conference, one of three that I will write about. It was a presentation by two people from MakerKids, one of the world's only makerspaces dedicated to and for young people - and lucky for us, it's in Toronto. *Makerspaces... and MakerKids* In this previous post about attending "OLA" for the first time, I listed "Maker Culture in Action" as one of the sessions I wanted to attend. A reader asked what that meant, and a little discussion ensued: here. That was a good reminder that the makerspace conce... more »

wmtc posts now being tweeted

laura k at wmtc - 2 hours ago
At the suggestion of a longtime reader - someone I had never heard from before, although he's been reading wmtc for many years - I will now be tweeting wmtc posts. For some people, this might be an easy way to follow or subscribe to this blog. I've been on Twitter for a little while, under a pseudonym, mostly to follow certain feeds, and to ask the occasional question. Now I've changed my account name to *@wmtcblog*. I like how Twitter let me change the name but keep the account; following and followers all stay the same. I suspect following me on Twitter will be redundant with foll... more »

Join the Battle to Stop Corporate Shutdown of Memphis Schools

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 2 hours ago
Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – Parents and students from Westhaven Elementary have been fighting for their school for months. Saturday they took to the streets to get signatures to try to keep their school open. They are asking the community to get behind their efforts and it's not every day you see this kind of support inside a mall. TN House Representative Karen Camper said, "It had been tremendous because most people know and understand how important it is to have neighborhood schools. And most people believe in neighborhood schools." Parents, students ... more »

William Burroughs is One Hundred

Roobin at THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR - 2 hours ago
One hundred years old this Wednesday, though, unless he is somewhere, liberating The Western Lands, he's not going to notice. In my opinion William Burroughs is the most important author of the twentieth century. James Joyce is the obvious candidate, but Joyce is a very different type of writer. Ulysses (and perhaps Finnegans Wake) are an endpoint. They are the last stop of a journey taken by fiction (starting arguably with Jane Austen), where the author takes the reader deeper and deeper into the psychology of the characters. Burroughs work is anti-psychological. He was a remarkab... more »

No Tragic Hero

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 2 hours ago
On Friday night, Conrad Black was stripped of his membership in the Order of Canada. Tim Harper writes: Black is now one of only six Order of Canada recipients stripped of the honour and forced to return the insignia. And what a photo op that would be when he hands it over. He joins a pack of fraudsters, a Métis leader who let loose with a string of anti-Semitic invective, and a one-legged kid who ran across the country, only to be convicted later of fraud, assault and drunk driving. Black fought to keep the honour, at the same time claiming that the people who would review his ... more »

China Shadow banking news and views - February 2 , 2014 -- 15 Trillion shadow over China's Banks ! Key takeaways from former Fitch China Analyst Charlene Chu - Regarding Shadow Banking in China -- “The banking sector has extended $14 trillion to $15 trillion in the span of five years. There’s no way that we are not going to have massive problems in China,” she says ....... On whether China's foreign reserves estimated at nearly 4 Trillion could be used to rescue the financial system in a crisis -- “The FX [foreign exchange] reserves cannot be used nearly to the extent that people think they can. There are some analysts that think they can’t be used at all, but I disagree with that. “I believe they can’t be used in their entirety by any means because they are offset by the other side of the balance sheet of the PBOC [People’s Bank of China]. Because of that, you can’t just run down one side of the balance sheet, the asset side, and not deal with the liability side of the PBOC balance sheet.” ....... regarding what a financial crisis in China might look like - - “This is going to be different from other markets where market forces are allowed to play out. Here the authorities get involved and that means these kind of defaults can remain one-off and isolated for quite a while,” she says. “The critical question is that, at some point are these one-off issues going to turn into a very big wave of defaults? That is going to be very difficult for the authorities to manage in the same way that they have been able to manage the one-offs.”

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 2 hours ago
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10611931/The-15-trillion-shadow-over-Chinese-banks.html The $15 trillion shadow over Chinese banksChina analyst Charlene Chu explains why the nation is on the verge of crisis [image: The $15 trillion question hanging over Chinese banks] Charlene Chu is adamant that a Chinese banking collapse of some description is a certainty Photo: Bloomberg [image: Harry Wilson] By Harry Wilson 9:30PM GMT 01 Feb 2014 [image: Comments]29 Comments Drawing attention to the problems at an individual bank is never likely to make you popular,... more »

And We Continue To Do Nothing

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 3 hours ago
Obama is a cynical con-man. harper is contemptuous of parliamentary democracy. harper devastates science. Fantino insults veterans. Carbon emissions are increasing, not decreasing. Inequality runs rampant and the welfare state lives on fumes. Etc., etc., and so forth. Some people put their faith in a political system that harper is continuing to sodomize with a splintery broomstick. A political system that barfs out the pretty-boy Justin Trudeau ("He beat Patrick Brazeau in a boxing match! He's prime minister material for sure!") and the centre-right, Zionist apologist, Thomas Mulca... more »

Things you MUST know for Super Bowl Sunday...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 3 hours ago
*really.* *and* *How about this???* *Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich.* Can we hear an, OH YEAH?? *Recipe HERE*

"It's a bunch of toffs"

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 3 hours ago
Oh, he really just can't help himself it seems. I used to chronicle in great detail Paddy O'Connell's apparent pro-Labour proclivities, but haven't really bothered for a few years - even though I've heard him snap at guests on *BH* and* PM* who've started criticising Labour in ways he never seems to do when they criticise Conservatives. This morning's *Broadcasting House* (which I used to sneer at as *Gordcasting House *in the days of Mr Brown) contained a classic though, which I've just got to record for posterity, as Paddy's political passion appeared to pour out all over the ... more »

More Class War From A Clueless San Francisco Billionaire

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 3 hours ago
I expect that by now you've been hearing about the *Wall Street Journal*OpEd by grotesque, clueless Belvedere billionaire Thomas Perkins whining about how working families are Nazis who want to put the makers Wall Street predators in concentration camps. One of the worst avatars of gentrification of working class neighborhoods, Perkins bought the top of the Millennium Tower on Mission St. in a traditional working class area, in San Francisco and was able begin his missive "Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco…" No one in the South of Market area wants h... more »

SC’s Low Self-Esteem, Florida Addiction, and Education Policy

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE - 3 hours ago
In the 1980s and 1990s, the decades of my career as a public high school English teacher, South Carolina was early and all-in as an accountability/standards/testing education reform state. One interesting aspect of that commitment is that SC has had at least 4 generations of standards and tests (including the current adoption of Common Core), […]

Venezuela items of note - Maduro's new economic order results in food and basic good shortages........ Oil shipped to US hits 1985 low as China is beneficiary of slowing Venezuela oil production - even as loan and shipping costs impact Venezuela net receipts ....

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
Venezuela’s toilet-paper shortage oddly worsening, despite Maduro’s “new economic order” POSTED AT 5:31 PM ON FEBRUARY 1, 2014 BY ERIKA JOHNSEN *When will President Nicolas Maduro finally free Venezuelans from the tyrannical shackles of supply and demand ruining their lives? *Despite his best efforts at establishing price caps, government rationing, currency controls, and stationing troops at places of business in order to prevent the collusion of greedy profit-seekers and American imperialists in their “economic war” against him, the mass shortages of basic goods plaguing Venezu... more »

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jonjayray at Food &Health Skeptic - 4 hours ago
*Milk and Brazil nuts will send you off to sleep: Scientists concludes certain minerals and acids are linked to a sound slumber* *This is self-report data and probably includes an element of data dredging so it is no substitute for controlled experimentation* Searching for the recipe for a good night’s sleep? It could be as simple as a glass of milk and a few handfuls of nuts. Scientists in the US studied the diets and sleep patterns of more than 4,500 adults and concluded that certain minerals and acids are linked to a sound slumber. And their report suggests that a late-night s... more »

Paper on Parade: Globalization, Social Justice Issues, Political and Economic Nationalism in Taiwan: An Explanation of the Limited Resurgence of the DPP during 2008–2012

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 4 hours ago
[image: IMG_2644] In this installment in our regularly irregular feature of a Taiwan-centered scholarly work, we look at *Globalization, Social Justice Issues, Political and Economic Nationalism in Taiwan: An Explanation of the Limited Resurgence of the DPP during 2008–2012* (China Quarterly, Dec 2013) by Dongtao Qi of the National University of Singapore. Let's dial up some appropriately tense and adventurous music, and off we go. The paper's opening urks up a pile of KMT propaganda claims.... Scholars and pundits have already identified the failures of former president Chen Shui-b... more »

Alain de Botton's take on the news

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 4 hours ago
Slipping back to the subject of *Newsnight*, one of its most talked-about features this week was a piece by philosopher Alain de Botton. It tackled the subject of 'the news' itself, and was highly critical of modern newsgathering and reporting. It was certainly interesting to have Alain de Botton on *Newsnight* giving an intellectual's two-fingered salute to media organisations like the BBC - and doing so one one of the BBC's own programmes. His short report was so packed with ideas - some initially persuasive, others less so - that it needed re-watching. A studio discussion fol... more »

From PetroDollar To PetroYuan – The Coming Proxy Wars ..... Why War between China and the US is not as far fetched as you might imagine ! While the FX Wars have yet to get underway in earnest , some news of the day from the daily emerging markets turmoil .....

Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-31/guest-post-petrodollar-petroyuan-%E2%80%93-coming-proxy-wars Guest Post: From PetroDollar To PetroYuan – The Coming Proxy Wars [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/31/2014 19:59 -0500 - China - Corruption - DRC - France - Gross Domestic Product - Guest Post - India - Iran - Italy - Reality - Reserve Currency - United Kingdom - Wall Street Journal - Yuan inShare *Submitted by Golem XIV via Golem XIV Thoughts blog,* *Why would the central bank of Ni... more »

Will China become less bellicose if it is a democracy?

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 5 hours ago
*Because these bugs hover, you can often get shots of them in midair.* I was reading the Taipei Times editorializing on the history textbook issue(quality of editorials has plummeted since J Michael Cole has left) and noticed its stance on the Senkakus: The Japanese government’s decision that its students should be taught that Dokdo, which is governed by Seoul, and *the Diaoyutais, which belong to Taiwan but are governed by Tokyo, all belong to Japan, is untenable legally and in the face of international realities*. Some argue that if China becomes a democracy it will cease to be ... more »

Why are the Korpo-Ratz Banksters abandoning the Royal Families & Pope?

Jason Leewig at Our Manmade Disasters - 7 hours ago
- Because the Korpo-Ratz Banksters are having problems of their own that threaten the Rothschild global banking empire. - Because of that, the Korpo-Ratz Banksters have to quickly move to install their Zionist NWO regime or secretly known as ZOOWE (Zionist-controlled Oil One World Empire). It is now or never. - For the last 100 years, the POPE and Royal Families of Europe had been propped up by the Zionist Korpo-Ratz Banksters who are better known as the Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors came from Khazar. They are as genetically Jewish as the Chinese ... more »

New York Times runs open letter from Dylan Farrow about her dad Woody Allen!

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET BLOG - 7 hours ago
Oh, my, God, this is utterly disgusting. Seriously, if you're at all feeling delicate this Sunday morning DO NOT READ the content of this Open Letter from Woody Allen's daughter Dylan Farrow. Just released by the new York Times, it tells of Dylan's sexual abuse from the age of seven by her dad, the world famous film director Woody Allen. Here's how that Open Letter starts... *What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our h... more »

MURDER MYSTERY - LAWRENCE HAGGART - PART TWO

Anon at aangirfan - 8 hours ago
*Lawrence Haggart* There is a suspicion that certain violent 'child sexual abusers' are given an easy time by the criminal justice system. Think of Jimmy Savile or Marc Dutroux, both of whom the authorities were reluctant to arrest, presumably because they had friends in high places. *(The Who’s who of Satanic Child Abuse - Christopher Spivey)* On *16 March* *1996*, 15 year old Lawrence Haggart was brutally attacked and set alight in his home in Scotland, not far from Dunblane. He died in hospital the next day. *On 17 March 1996, the frequently convicted paedophile and arsonist B... more »

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 8 hours ago
Goodyear blimp. [photo via Goodyear blimp Facebook page]

Fired for Vaccine Refusal: Woman to Sue Hospital over Mandatory Flu Shot by Christina Sarich

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 8 hours ago
[image: vaccine girl Fired for Vaccine Refusal: Woman to Sue Hospital over Mandatory Flu Shot]Karen Good Fired for Vaccine Refusal: Woman to Sue Hospital over Mandatory Flu Shot by Christina Sarich Natural Society, 30 January 2014 Think you have complete autonomy when it comes to your health? Think again; Big Pharma may be trying to control us all. *But Karen Good of Warsaw thinks that her former employer, the Coshocton County Memorial Hospital in Ohio, should keep their hands off her body, and even more important, that she shouldn’t be fired for refusing to get a vaccine.* Ev... more »

Sunday's Immigration special

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 8 hours ago
So how did this morning's *Sunday *special on 'Religion and Immigration' pan out? Was it the deluge of liberal, pro-immigration bias it looked like it was going to be from the programme's website blurb? Or was I pleasantly surprised after all by an unexpected display of unadvertised balance? Did it back up Damian Thompson's contention that *Sunday *is the most liberal-biased programme on Radio 4? Finally, can I foam at the mouth yet? Well, this morning's *Sunday *very faithfully followed the menu laid on on its website - as outlined by me in the last-but-one post - and it was, in... more »

Thailand: New York Times Defends Terrorist Regime & Sham Elections

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 9 hours ago
NYT again distorting reality for Wall Street-backed billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra and his violent personality cult. *Image: Thomas Fuller makes a career out of dis-torting Southeast Asia's geopolitical landscapeacross the pages of the New York Times. **February 2, 2014* (ATN) - In Thomas Fuller's New York Times piece titled, "Gun Battle in Bangkok Escalates Election Protest," he claims: At least six people were injured Saturday in a prolonged daylight gun battle between protesters seeking to block the distribution of ballots in Bangkok and would-be voters demanding that protest... more »

Senior Reuters Journalist Mocks Disabled Man

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 10 hours ago
Horrific hate-speech by pen-for-hire Andrew McGregor Marshall - indicative of dying Western journalism and exemplary of Thaksin Shinawatra's foreign backers. *Image: CNN, BBC, and Foreign Policy magazine have all cited or afforded space to Andrew McGregor Marshall, a paid propagandist working for Robert Amsterdam, who daily engages in hate speech like that seen above - mocking a disabled man. After sweeping condemnation, Marshall has attempted to claim he did not mean to mock the man - however there were hundreds of photos of gunmen from yesterday's clash - considering his backg... more »

What Teach for America Says When It Talks to Itself

deutsch29 at @ THE CHALK FACE - 11 hours ago
As I was researching my “Bill Pays to Help Arne” post, I came across a discussion site, Wall Street Oasis, where those hoping to Make It Big on The Street are able to connect in order to solve issues related to their career ambitions. The site has a link for Teach for America (TFA). The link includes a […]

The Republican Civil War Worsens Over Immigration Reform

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 12 hours ago
Remember when Marco Rubio was going to help humanize the Republican Party by championing comprehensive immigration reform? That brief flirtation with fairness and putting the national interest first over backward partisan ideology, knocked him out of the Tea Party presidential sweepstakes. He's been backpedaling ever since. And this week, he called the already inadequate plan the House GOP leadership cobbled together, something he could get behind. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday said he is open to an immigration reform bill that does not include a path to citizenship for ... more »

Skull & Bones

Paul Coker at News Spike - 13 hours ago
*Ron Rosenbaum - Esquire Magazine - September, 1977* Take a look at the hulking sepulcher over there. Small wonder they call it a tomb. It's the citadel of Skull and Bones, the most powerful of all secret societies in the strange Yale secret-society system. For nearly a century and a half, Skull and Bones has been the most influential secret society in the nation, and now it is one of the last. In an age in which it seems that all that could possibly be concealed about anything and anybody has been revealed, those blank tombstone walls could be holding the last secrets left in Am... more »

Washinton Times, Sept.10th 2001 Mossad: "Has capability to target U.S.forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."

Paul Coker at News Spike - 13 hours ago
*An elite U.S. Army study center has devised a plan for enforcing a major Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that would require about 20,000 well-armed troops stationed throughout Israel and a newly created Palestinian state.* There are no plans by the Bush administration to put American soldiers into the Middle East to police an agreement forged by the longtime warring parties. In fact, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is searching for ways to reduce U.S. peacekeeping efforts abroad, rather than increasing such missions. But a 68-page paper by the *Army School of Advanced Mil... more »

TOSSING PEOPLE OUT OF THE BOAT

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 14 hours ago
This week on Moyers & Company, David Simon, journalist and creator of the TV series The Wire and Treme, talks with Bill Moyers about the crisis of capitalism in America. After President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address, it’s a reality check from someone who artfully uses television drama to report on the state of America from an entirely different perspective — the bottom up. “The horror show is we are going to be slaves to profit. Some of us are going to be higher on the pyramid and we’ll count ourselves lucky and many many more will be marginalized and destroyed... more »

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JR at GREENIE WATCH - 14 hours ago
*Who Cares What Prince Charles Says?* *He talks to plants and supports quack medicine so he may not be the sort of guy you want on your side* Recently it was reported that Prince Charles took a shot at 'climate deniers', claiming it's "baffling ... that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything - until, that is, it comes to climate science." He went on to call these presumably "powerful groups of deniers" of mounting "a barrage of sheer intimidation" against opponents, calling them a 'headless ... more »

Hotel Franchise Firm White Lodging Investigates Breach - data breach extends to Hotels - goes back to March of 2013 through end of 2013 ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 14 hours ago
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/01/hotel-franchise-firm-white-lodging-investigates-breach/ Hotel Franchise Firm White Lodging Investigates Breach [image: facebook][image: twitter][image: google_plus][image: reddit][image: pinterest][image: linkedin][image: mail] *White Lodging*, a company that maintains hotel franchises under nationwide brands including *Hilton*, *Marriott*, *Sheraton* and *Westin* appears to have suffered a data breach that exposed credit and debit card information on thousands of guests throughout much of 2013, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. [image: whitelodging]Earl... more »

India's Central Bank Governor: "International Monetary Cooperation Has Broken Down" ..... While India has done its best to tommy hammer thier own citizens when it comes to gold , the bleating from India's Central Banker now that the Fed has cut its monetary heroin injections by 20 billion a month by the taper ( from 85 billion down to a " miserly " 65 billion ) , really takes the cake ! Central Bank bleating theme seems to be the US Fed and other Western Central Banks owe them more heroin injections ! Guess the plan will be to hammer FX , EM and US stocks until the Fed blinks ! Capital controls being imposed hinted at by India's Central Banker ? Overnite Data - deflation risk rising in Europe , EMs smack downs continue ( H/t Zero Hedge ) , Equity outflows largest in two years ( h/t ZH ) , Wal-mart cuts guidance on food stamps , weather and some additional interesting factors......US Treasurys are bid today , not surprisingly !

Catharsis Ours - 14 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-30/indias-central-bank-governor-international-monetary-cooperation-has-broken-down ( threat of capital controls in this message ? ) India's Central Bank Governor: "International Monetary Cooperation Has Broken Down" [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/30/2014 21:23 -0500 - Ben Bernanke - Capital Markets - Federal Reserve - Hungary - India - International Monetary Fund - None - Precious Metals - Steven Englander - Transaction Tax - Turkey inShare3 India's recently crowne... more »

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 14 hours ago
Yellow flowers in Puerto Rico. [Russell Alan Brooks photo]

Sunday Classics preview: One loose end we CAN tie up -- our missing movements from Mahler's "Song of the Earth"

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 15 hours ago
[*Click to enlarge*] *by Ken* *Das Lied von der Erde* (*The Song of the Earth*) is sort of Mahler's Symphony No. 8½. Even though it's a series of six songs with orchestra, alternating between tenor and alto (or baritone) soloists, he probably would have called is his Ninth Symphony if the already-dying composer hadn't been such a baby about that "Ninth Symphony" business -- their Ninths had been so fateful for Beethoven and Bruckner. Since he had his next symphony mapped out, he thought that by calling *that* his Ninth, when it was really his Tenth, he would have the jinx beaten. ... more »

October Surprise: Cyrus Vance, Operation Eagle Claw and the RogueNetwork

Paul Coker at News Spike - 15 hours ago
*What’s the single decision you made as president that you most regret?* *President Carter: * I would say the hostage rescue effort in Iran in April of 1980. It was a *perfectly planned, highly secret, *somewhat complex procedure that everybody agreed to do. And in order to extract all of the hostages plus all the rescue team from Iran, *we had to have six functioning helicopters. * So *I ordered eight helicopters *and two of them had to fly from an aircraft carrier about 600 miles across areas of Iran and Oman and land in a desert, which we had already explored. *One of the helico... more »

New York City Channels $210 Million in Corporate Charter Giveaways to Pre-K

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 15 hours ago
From the Gothamist: Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña made the announcement yesterday, noting that the diversion of funds "will help us create high-quality, full-day pre-Kindergarten seats citywide that will deliver strong instruction"; the DOE also hopes to reduce class sizes citywide. The move is a big one one for the de Blasio administration, as the mayor has been openly critical of charter schools, which notably expanded under Mayor Bloomberg. While campaigning this summer he announced plans to place a moratorium on the schools. The slashed funds will only affect schools that ne... more »

Organized Jewry concerned about rising "anti-Semitism"

John Friend at John Friend's Blog - 15 hours ago
Elie Wiesel, one of the leading propagandists promoting and perpetuating the fake Jewish "Holocaust" narrative of WWII and an ardent supporter of the Jewish state of Israel, is upset about the rising popular resistance to Jewish supremacism and tyranny in the Western world, according to the Israeli daily *Ynetnews*. In an interview with Dr. Yoel Rappel for the Israeli daily, Wiesel conceded that anti-Semitism *"will likely never be defeated."* Of course, "anti-Semitism" is a direct result of Jewish treachery, criminality, and subversion. Where ever Jews go, "anti-Semitism" inevitabl... more »

Every man for himself

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 15 hours ago
So Gov. Blowhard has gone from "I wouldn't know this guy if I fell over him," to dishing dirt on David Wildstein from all the way back to high school. Politico short lists the 5 Reasons Wildstein's Bombshell is a Bombbut better you should read the entire email Christie blasted to friends and allies at TPM who tells us: Christie's office attacked the New York Times's portrayal of the revelations, reasserted Christie's truthfulness in the past and attacked the credibility of the official, David Wildstein, whose attorney claimed that “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to havin... more »

Advertisement: Attend our school and avoid the #CommonCore

Chris Cerrone at @ THE CHALK FACE - 16 hours ago
Here is a two-sided advertisement flyer inserted into a local newspaper from a Rochester, New York private school. Do you get the feeling that more private schools will be reacting to the anti-Common Core sentiment to draw more students into their programs? Sadly I have heard many teachers and parents who love public education, but […]

Argentina Scrambles To Raise $10 Billion, Avoid Reserve Collapse; BONARs Bidless ........Looks like the emerging market storm is set to really take off in Argentina as their ability to sell bonds should be less than zero !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 16 hours ago
Saturday, February 01, 2014 9:21 PM Argentina Central Bank Bans Imports Due to Lack of Dollars; Argentina to Apply "Iron Fist" to Those Who Raise Prices As reserves run dry, demand for dollars soars in emerging market countries, prompting inane economic actions. Via google translation from *Libre Mercardo*, please consider Argentina Cerntral Bank Bans Imports Due to Lack of Dollars. The fourth day of falling reserves has the Argentine central reeling. This Wednesday reserves fell by 180 million and this month reserves declined by $2 billion. Due to demand and the low level of fo... more »

European highlights - February 1 , 2014 - Barcelona to Fine Owners of Empty Homes 100,000 Euros ...... Italy Unveils Most Bizarre Bank Bailout Yet - some may say the most corrupt bailout yet ( to the benefit of Unicredit and Intessa ) ......... Europe Is Set To Mandate "Remote Stopping Device" In All Cars For Police Use ..... Additional items to ponder on Europe ( h/t Ed Steer's blog )

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 16 hours ago
Saturday, February 01, 2014 1:11 PM Barcelona to Fine Owners of Empty Homes 100,000 Euros Via translation from Libre Mercado, the city council of Barcelona, Spain proposes €100,000 Fine on Owners of Empty Homes. The City Council will fine owners of empty homes up to 100,000 euros. The proposal by the City Council commits the government to detect unused homes, starting with the banks. The statement also reflects the Council's commitment to initiate disciplinary proceedings which could end up with three fines "of up to 100,000 euros" if homes remain empty. The municipality of Barc... more »

THE GREAT ZIONIST DECEIT: ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND THE GENEVA CONVENTION

Israeli settlers in the West Bank and their Zionist supporters around the world have of late attempted to convince the world that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to Israel and their settlements in the West Bank. The argument over the legality of the settlements in the West Bank – and those earlier settlements in the Gaza Strip – has been in play for years but was recently brought on to centre stage by a statement made by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during her visit to Israel to attend the funeral of the Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon. In an ... more »

“This Just In”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago
*“This Just In”* by Missy Beattie “Last Thursday, I was nearly inconsolable, having submitted my article midafternoon. If only I’d waited. I’d written about W. VA’s chemical spill, big industry’s latest egregious assault on what’s called Chemical Valley, an invasion, like war, that’s destroying our ecosystem. But later—in the evening—I saw something else with historical significance. I’d wandered to Google News to read top stories. That’s when I saw it, saw and read about a huge event that included a video. It’s one of those images forever forged in the mind—so much so that even ye... more »

Dead by choice Bankers

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 19 hours ago
I am never going to understand suicide at least till the time I put a gun to my head. I know people who were not insane who offed themselves. Mostly they were so full of pride they could not handle the slide. These were not people making six and seven a year. I can not imagine what kind of personal calamity would make them walk off the world this way. It makes me think of all the soldiers today who just lite the fuse because they can not handle war leaking, all over them. These are some very soft men who decided to be warriors. In Japan the people can not handle the slaughter of an... more »

Why To Hate the Superrich? (Richest 85 People Have Wealth Equal To The Bottom Half of World's Population) In US, Wealthiest 1 Percent Received 95 Percent of Growth Since 2009, While the Bottom 90 Percent Were Left Poorer (Obama's Roth MyRA Steals More)

Oscar-winning actor Maximilian Schell dies at 83 One of my very favorite actors since I was a little girl. He won Best Actor for Judgment At Nurenberg, a Golden Globe for Stalin, and was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Julia. Today's billionaire egomaniacs have turned the art world into a high-stakes poker game — but the loss is ours.* Every now and then I stop to consider that

Staying Warm this Winter

theozarker at The Conflicted Doomer - 19 hours ago
February 1, 2014 After opening the December utility bill, (my first winter bill for the whole house,) and nearly having a heart attack, I decided I’d better find a way to reduce my dependence on the gas furnace. Granted, my … Continue reading →

Hawaii Senate Race-- Hanabusa vs Schatz-- Let Their Records Do The Talking

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 19 hours ago
Colleen Hanabusa, a New Dem whose career has been synonymous with sleazeand corruption and the kind of conservatism associated with the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, basically has one argument for tossing out sterling progressive incumbent Brian Schatz and replacing him with herself. She's a woman. This is from an e-mail EMILY's List had her campaign send out yesterday: As President of the Hawaii Senate, Colleen became the first woman to lead a chamber of the state legislature and she understands the unique pressures women face. "I think what the difference is, is tha... more »

Mad, rabid lunatics. On Dateline. Again.

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 19 hours ago
Today's *Dateline London* *didn't* pleasantly surprise me, though its opening discussion on the Scottish independence debate was less predictable than might have been expected. The panel was typical, balancing two figures - Greg Katz of the Associated Press and Arab journalist Mina al-Oraibi - from a vaguely centrist, non-partisan position with two *very* partisan out-and-out left-wingers, French journalist Agnès Poirier (above) and Polly Toynbee of *The Guardian *(not above). No right-wingers were invited to the party, yet again. The central discussion on the Cameron-Hollande mee... more »

Dialing 911 for Math Homework Help?

Angel Cintron Jr. at @ THE CHALK FACE - 20 hours ago
By far, this is the cutest audio clip I’ve heard in a while. Even though it’s illegal to call 911 for anything other than a life-threatening emergency, this little four-year old boy dials 911 because he needs help solving subtraction (“take away”) problems. I can’t help but laugh at the mom’s reaction towards the end […]

Charters are not superior to public schools and public schools are not failing

skrashen at Schools Matter - 20 hours ago
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 1, 2014 The WSJ's enthusiasm for the Sgt. Marcus Lutheran school, and for charters in general, is not supported by the data ("The 'Progressive' War on Kids," February 1-2). An article in the Milwaukee Courier (October 12, 2013) revealed that St. Marcus Lutheran students perform well below the Wisconsin state average on state tests, with between 18 and 32% performing at the proficient or advanced levels in reading. The current state average is about 38%. In fact, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Sept. 23, 2013), charter schools in M... more »

Introducing: Transpicuous News: reading between the lines

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 20 hours ago
Good evening everyone (good afternoon, good morning and good night)!! I'd like to introduce you all to my newest website: Since I already spend hours a day pouring through the news, and have the worlds best research team to help me, and I regularly have people asking me what I'm reading.... it just made sense to put it all down in one place that is easy to access and to keep track of breaking news stories. My plan at the moment is to make a daily post that includes all the news stories I've sorted through that day. I will include the story headline, usually a brief paragraph or... more »

“Beyond Orwell's Worst Nightmare”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 20 hours ago
*“Beyond Orwell's Worst Nightmare”* by Marjorie Cohn "Big Brother is Watching You," George Orwell wrote in his disturbing book "1984". But, as Mikko Hypponen points out, Orwell "was an optimist." Orwell never could have imagined that the National Security Agency (NSA) would amass metadata on billions of our phone calls and 200 million of our text messages every day. Orwell could not have foreseen that our government would read the content of our emails, file transfers, and live chats from the social media we use. In his recent speech on NSA reforms, President Obama cited as precede... more »

Tomorrow morning...

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 21 hours ago
Damian Thompson, editor of the *Daily Telegraph*'s blogs, once wrote that Radio 4's S*unday *programme "offers perhaps the most undiluted liberal bias to be found anywhere on the BBC". After paying close attention to it for some time now, I'm far from inclined to disagree with him. Thus, I'm expecting a Noah's flood-style deluge of liberal bias on tomorrow's special edition of the programme on the highly-charged subject of 'Religion and Immigration'. My heart sank when I heard this was coming up, and reading the programme's website in advance hasn't exactly allayed my fears. ... more »

Split country: understanding how West, East Ukraine actually differ

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 22 hours ago
In a previous text about Ukraine, I would talk about the country as a single entity. It was the ultimate cradle of Russia and due to its orthodox religion, it belongs to the cultural East of Europe. But the largely geographic tension between its two halves has been around for decades and it is apparently getting more serious and the "divorce scenario" starts to be discussed as a possibility which is why some "more divided, regional" perspective may be appropriate. Much of the information we are reminded of by the intelligent Czech media is arguably unknown to the typical people in t... more »

Humility-based Libertarianism

Greg Mankiw at Greg Mankiw's Blog - 22 hours ago
On the suggestion of Bryan Caplan, I just read In Praise of Passivityby philosopher Michael Huemer. A lot in the article makes sense to me. As a social scientist, I think there is much we don't know about how the world works, and that intellectual humility goes a long way to explaining my skepticism about many governmental interventions into private behavior. In any event, I also recommend the article.

Anti-Choice Courier???

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 23 hours ago
My sweetie, on his way over here, saw this and was so stunned he took a picture. Hmm. Not so easy to read. Above the doors it says: "Supporting Crisis Pregnancy Centres...the most Important Deliveries of All" Well, at least The Messengers are honest. What's Important To Us Providing excellent service and value for our clients. Our firm is based on those two important principles The Golden Rule and Honesty. Everyone, I and the staff at The Messengers International interact with, will be treated as we would like to be treated and we will always be honest in all of our interact... more »

Super Bowl Sunday: Wait for it - I actually agree with Alex Jones (and Reason TV, too)...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 23 hours ago
Let's start with Reason TV's analysis of the the bread and circus we call professional sports, in particular, the NFL. And then we'll move on to Alex Jones, who also "gets it." You heard that right - Alex Jones. While Alex Jones may be a bit rough around the edges, he scores a touchdown with this video. I actually prefer his no nonsense-cut to the chase analysis. Since when did professional sports become the "sport of kings?" Ever check out the prices of NFL tickets? I won't even bring up the cost of Super Bowl tickets, which are obscene. There is no way an average family wi... more »

Maybe Christie And His Mafia Pal Michael Grimm Can Be Roomies In The Federal Pen

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 23 hours ago
No one who reads *DWT* regularly wasn't already sure that Chris Christie directed the scandal now known as Bridge-gate. And of course he's been orchestrating the entire cover-up. Friday night, the *NY Times* broke the story that Christie has been lying his ass off from day one-- which only fools didn't already know. The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, central to the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, said on Friday that “evidence exists” that the governor knew about the closings ... more »

Five Most Popular Posts for January

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 23 hours ago
The five most read posts of the month were: 1. Sharon O'Donnell and Jumping the Gun 2. The Top 100 Independent Tweeting Bloggers 2013 3. Sex, Power Play, and Trotskyism 4. The Far Left's Prospects in 2014 5. Immigration and Class Politics Who now remembers the Sharon O'Donnell story? It seems an age ago. Unfortunately, the attempt to portray a photo opp about the ridiculous Help to Buy policy as something sinister fell apart like jenga with souffle blocks after the most cursory of butchers. And I wrote this *mea culpa* as someone who enthusiastically tweeted away about it when the "s... more »

From a Former Slave

Sophia Love at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 day ago

Schedules

Way Way Up at Fort McMurray Adventures - 1 day ago
As a kid I never really realized how many different work schedules there could be. It all seemed rather simple then.....work 9pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday and the rest of the time was your own. My parents own a small business so they never really fell into this particular demographic (if it really even existed) but for the longest time I remember assuming that for quite a number of people the 9 to 5'er was the norm. I only bring this topic up because my own work schedule has changed recently. Yes, it's changed in the past as well but this one is very new to me and will no doubt ... more »

The blame game

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
OK, back to *Newsnight...* First last night's edition, which began with the flooding in Somerset. 'Who's to blame?', was the question. Both presenter Emily Maitlis and reporter Zoe Conway had a pointed dig at UKIP and that councillor who said the floods were God's punishment for British government policy on homosexuality. (Yes, not one dig at the obscure UKIP councillor, but two.) Still, not even *Newsnight *could blame UKIP for the flooding. Instead, Zoe listed the main culprits, first and foremost the government - and, by that, was implied the *present *government, with mini... more »

Huffman "flummoxed" as VAM Canned for Teacher Licensure Renewal

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
Yesterday we witnessed the beginning of the end for value-added testing for high stakes purposes. If Commissioner Kevin Huffman is, indeed, flummoxed that the Tennessee Board of Education has canned attempts to value-added test results to determine teacher licensure renewal, and if he doesn't have to read the book, he should begin here and here to understand what's going on. Story in the Tennessean by Joey Garrison: In a stunning move, the Tennessee Board of Education overrode Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman and reversed a key piece of controversial new teacher l... more »

Chance Encounters: More Humanoids Among Us

Inexplicata (IHU) at Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology - 1 day ago
*Chance Encounters: More Humanoids Among Us* *By Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU)* The thought that humankind shares the planet with other sentient species – dolphins and whales – did not become popular until some point in the 1960s or 1970s. Prior to that, we rested comfortably in the thought that no matter where our journeys might take us on the surface of the third planet orbiting the Sun, we would come across fellow humans of various heights and skin tones, but they would always be exactly that: fellow humans. The notion of exobiology -- the branch of biology... more »

A few of the downsides to Scandal Culture!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2014* *Excitement and misinformation reign, all other topics get lost:* Kate Zernike was excited. One unreliable person had made a rather fuzzy charge against another. It wasn’t clear what was being charged. No evidence had been presented. But in this case, the second unreliable figure was a preferred journalistic target. So, in her initial report about the charge, Zernike fired up a previously abandoned misstatement: ZERNIKE (1/31/14): The Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge in the scandal now swir... more »

Please give us the status of Malcolm X in DC. #DCPS @hendersonkaya

Shaun Johnson at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 day ago
We have been nice. We have been doing everything suggested mandated by the District. Now, what do you plan to do? Close us or not? Here’s the problem. I am new to this school, but I’m not new to the issues at play here. I’ve been dealing with this for quite some time. To put […]

Blossom Goodchild - 31 January, 2014

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 day ago
*Interesting timing of this channeling... hehehe... do I sense a little bit of ambivalence with the interoffice memo from HQ? A shift in the divine plan towards the uncharted waters of the absolute plan... -AK* *Blossom Goodchild - 31 January, 2014* ♫Here we are again, happy as can be ♫, all good fun and jolly good company♫! Hello my friends ... it is always lovely to connect up with you, and one always wonders what ‘train of thought’ we shall go through as we commune … to try and assist our beautiful planet Earth and all who sail in her! *Indeed dearest Blossom … is it not tha... more »

Untitled

jurassicpork at Welcome Back to Pottersville - 1 day ago
(Last night, I got an email from a friend in Florida, one responding to a letter I wrote him the year before last! And in this email, he told me that he was better off at 20 than he was now. My friend Bob's a consultant who's worked with NASA and has personally known people whose names you used to read in the headlines all the time. And despite being a highly trained consultant for NASA, he's fallen on hard times as NASA's budget has taken a sledgehammering as have so many of us. This is the full text of the email I'd just sent him and I think it was good enough to explain not only ... more »

FOUR 'MISSILE DEFENSE' SITES CHOSEN FOR STUDY

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
The Department of Defense, directed by Congress, is undertaking the completion of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for a potential additional 'Ground-based Mid-Course Missile Defense' (GMD) site in the continental United States. (The other current GMD site is located at Fort Greeley in Alaska.) The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has decided that four sites will be evaluated. The MDA has not yet made the decision to proceed with construction of a new missile defense site. It is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete the EIS. The EIS will assess enviro... more »

Who is Valerie Jarrett?...w/Update

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 day ago
*with a great answer from Garnet92 at Nox and Friends - and we thank him. * *Update:* *Did I mention this is a must read? Well it is... * *Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s Puppet Master*

Reactions to Hawking's black hole denial

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 1 day ago
A week ago, we discussed the media buzz about Hawking's claims that event horizons don't exist. In the following days, I've read numerous reactions of physics bloggers (in the blogosphere) and other physicists (in the e-mail). While I agreed with many detailed statements and much of the spirit of some people's reactions, there are still too many things that I disagree with; many things they haven't said; many things that seem orthogonal to things that matter; many confusions they still have about the actual way how black holes work, and so on. There is clearly nothing such as a "b... more »

Placemen and placewomen

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
There's a story that's leading the BBC News website at the moment - No 10 'ousting non-Tories from posts' - concerning Labour's Baroness Morgan complaints about being removed as chair of Ofsted. She's blaming David Cameron and accusing Number 10 of trying to stuff public bodies with Conservatives. You may feel that's a bit rich coming from a former close aide to Tony Blair, whose government massively accelerated the trend towards stuffing quangos with as many of your own party's supporters as possible, but that's politics for you! Oddly, though the BBC thinks it's the top story... more »

Thailand: Vote Thaksin or Die

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
On eve of sham elections, regime openly threatens all who oppose it - literally with death. *February 1, 2014* (ATN) - The regime has once again unleashed its black-clad terrorists against protesters during their "Occupy Bangkok" campaign - this time at Lak Si intersection near government complex, Bangkok, Thailand - this after a 72 hour warning by the regime for protesters to leave their encampments at the complex. Regime gunmen could be seen wearing face masks and concealing weapons as they carried out their assault on the protesters. The regime's "red shirt" enforcers have been ... more »

Doug Noland covers the " Emd of an Era " , referring not to Bernanke's two terms as Federal Reserve Chair - not surprisingly , he considers Bernanke an abject failure , but rather to inflationism / bubble blowing / ultra loose monetary policies ...... Despite Emerging market currency , bond and equity markets turmoil , a generally upbeat Fed keeps its Taper plan in place ..... Noland closes with this summary to consider : Here at home, Bernanke is leaving Yellen and the FOMC in a very tough spot. The course of Federal Reserve policymaking is in a state of high uncertainty; U.S. markets are unsound; and global financial and economic systems are highly unstable. Of course, Bernanke is not fully to blame. Yet he has been the leading proponent – the intellectual mastermind – of contemporary inflationism that is today seemingly at a critical crossroads.

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
http://www.prudentbear.com/2014/01/end-of-era.html DOUG NOLAND [image: Print Friendly and PDF]End of an EraJanuary 31, 2014 posted by Doug Noland Bernanke chairs his final FOMC meeting. I hope to at some point offer a more complete review of Ben Bernanke’s tenure at the Federal Reserve. I will be fascinated to see how future historians view the Bernanke doctrine. From my perspective, the Bernanke Era has been an abject failure. He was the most outspoken proponent of post-tech Bubble reflation. The noted academic was keen to use the government printing press – not to mention mo... more »

Drought is getting worse in California

LeDaro at LeDaro - 1 day ago
*Now that California’s Water Board is turning off the tap to certain distributors, and reservoirs are running dry, the cost of water is slated to rise and the impact on the state’s harvest could be devastating to many farmers.* The videos below show the dire situation California is in. This is not a good season for farmers, harder to grow crops or feed livestock. This will affect not only California, but the rest of us, ie. higher food prices. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about ... more »

Unrestrained Nastiness

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 1 day ago
Yesterday, former soldiers protested the closing of Veterans Affairs Offices across the country. They were told they could be better served on-line. And Julian Fantino, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, simply told them to go away. Bruce Moncour was a member of the delegation which was supposed to "meet" with Fantino last week. It was no meeting. Moncour writes: Minister Fantino didn't show up for the scheduled time, and when he did appear right before our press conference, his behaviour was condemnable. When Minister Fantino was a no-show for the meeting I was not surprised. W... more »

Establishment's Latest Smear: Paranoid Libertarians

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 1 day ago
Hell bent on trashing criticism of big state fascism and desperate to impugn the credibility of former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and his supporters the besieged elite have adopted a new meme. With a Bloomberg opinion piece Obama lackey Cass Sunstein uses the dastardly Sean Wilentz New Republic hit piece “Understanding the real motivations of Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and Julian Assange” as a springboard to engage in his own smear campaign obviously designed to transform thinking Americans into enemies of the state. Sunstein whose sneering... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 1 day ago
*Fundraiser planned for hospitalized musician beaten in French Quarter ~Tania Dall, WWLTV * *Former jailer says Gusman overcharging the state for deputy pay ~Charles Maldonado, The Lens* *Voter Information From The La. Secretary Of State ~Jason Saul, WWNO* *Slabbed updates Louisiana v Gates as the day of reckoning draws near* *Who Really Murdered the Jeff Davis 8? ~Ethan Brown* *Louisiana gets its first aged whiskey since Prohibition ~Scott Gold, Gambit * Slabbed updates Louisiana v Gates as the day of reckoning draws near - See more at: http://www.slabbed.org/2014/02/01/slabbed-u... more »

Linkfest

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 1 day ago
*I had some fun shooting bees out in our excellent weather.* ______________ *Daily Links*: - Record 2.85 million Chinese visit Taiwan - The Diplomat: China's Military is Weaker than You Think, and More dangerous - Ma pledges to boost the economy -- with the Free Economic Zones, a 1960s policy, and joining the TPP, which is collapsing of its own odiousness at the moment. - China Post calls for history books to do justice to the Taiwan Republic of 1895 - This piece on America turning Japanese also has lessons for Taiwan - Richard Bush at Brookings on US... more »

LIBERATOR by Mike Philbin - first novel of 2014 - available now in Kindle, ebook and paperback

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET BLOG - 1 day ago
yesterday, as I was proofing the paperback files for LIBERATOR (free planet novel #2) someone on some thread posted this nostalgic piece of arcana: and I though, "Yeah, that should be the ANTHEM for my new Free Planet novel." It's real catchy. You hear it once and you're humming it all day. Go on, have a listen. You'll not regret it. click to buy Liberator from Amazon Not everything that appeared to happen during the Custodian Liberation happened as a result of Free Planet. There was another parallel drill going. As there always is in the need to know compartmentalised milit... more »

How you doin'?

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
Irony piled upon irony. The BBC bods at *The Big Questions *decided not to show a close-up of the 'Jesus and Mo' T-shirts, worn by members of their audience, for fear of offending Muslims. Maajid Nawaz, one of the programme's other guests, then tweeted a picture of one of the T-shirts in protest at what he saw as the BBC's craven censorship - and received death threats for his trouble. *Newsnight *(like Channel 4 News) then discussed the controversy and decided *not* to show the cartoon image of Mo, thus compounding the original offence caused to supporters of free speech. Next... more »

Shameless Stupidity of Julian Fantino

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 1 day ago
Since my last post on him, Fantino has decided to show off even more of his mad skills at being a complete asshole. Turns out that the veterans who had come from all over Canada to try to talk him out of closing their local Veterans Affairs offices, and who were upset that he didn't attend the meeting, and who then expressed their disgust and anger with him when he bumped into them afterwards and gave them some attitude, ... weren't really in control of their thoughts and emotions at all. No sirreee. They were DUPES of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). PSAC paid their w... more »

Nancy Pelosi To Hold Fundraiser For Pennsylvania Republican

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
The DCCC wants you to contribute money to this wealthy lifelong Republican PA-06 is a swing district in southeast Pennsylvania, primarily Chester County, with significant pieces of Berks, Montgomery and Lebanon counties. The Republican state legislature skewered it towards the GOP in 2010 by taking out blue-blue Coatesville and putting in some red-leaning parts of the Upper Main Line. It went from being a D+2 district to an R+2 district. Romney scraped by in 2012, 174,415 (51%) to 166,0030 (48%) while Obama beat McCain more convincingly in the district in 2008 187,056 (53%) to 161,943... more »

A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 day ago
A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives. via A Critical Truce in the War between Traditionalists and Progressives.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

Sad news; passing of Justice DiSalle

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
A sensible and compassionate judge: The Honorable Mario C. DiSalle (August 30, 1935 – January 28, 2014) Passed away suddenly at his residence Tuesday, January 28, 2014 Beloved husband of Mary DiSalle and the late Joan DiSalle. Devoted father to Michael DiSalle (wife Carol) and Lisa DiSalle; step-father to Kevin Woodside (wife Heather) and Darren Woodside (wife Sandy). Loving Nonno to his treasured grandchildren Katelynn, Hayley, Aiden, Emma, Owen, Connor and Ryan. He will forever be remembered by his sister Flavia Tomassini (husband Tarcisio predeceased), brother Con DiSalle (wif... more »

Europe falling apart again ? January 30 , 2014 sees the following situations presented ...... Italy sees Parliament erupt during voting related on Central bank capital ! Spain Misses Watered-Down Budget Deficit Targets Yet Again ! Foreign Investment In France Crashes 77% In 2013 (Most On Record) To 26 Year Lows ....... Greece back in Troika penalty box over reform resistance , European Parliament MEPS survey Troika damage - do the MEPs have money to replace Troika loans ? I think not , so this is just jibber jabber ..... .

Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
Italy......... Italian parliament erupts amid vote on central bank capital Opposition MPs storm government benches after speaker cuts short debate on measure to boost commercial banks - Share55 - - - - i