Monday, April 30, 2012

Spanish Unemployment Hits 25%

Back before the EU crisis was in full bloom I wrote that Spain could be the first nation to leave the union.  While that hasn’t played out………  yet………  that possibility still exists.  Spain’s dissent is reasonably well organized and very broad in its base.  There have been massive public protests and movements within Spain as reported by The Real News.   We don’t see any of that reported in the U.S.  I can suppose why.  The corporate state is fearful of any attempted organization against its hegemony.  And, the news in this country is now controlled by massive corporations fearful of organized democracy and organized, democratic economics against their hegemony.  People may question  that statement but if so,  they would be a fool.  I once worked for a company that actually had a crisis response team whose goal was to stop any attempt at economic organization against it.   And, I happen to know many hegemonic companies have active policies to ensure economic organization against their practices are smashed.   I do mean smashed.  These forces dominate our government’s policies through the endless cycle of Corporate Personhood and the associated corporate lobbyist bribery. 

Notice in the video linked to above how the Spanish people are told they are living beyond their means just as we are fed the same gruel by our political-corporate masters.  Yet, 80+% of Americans have little more than a pot to piss in.  It isn’t that we are living beyond our means.  It the corporate state that is living beyond its means and has saddled us with the debts of their profligacy and endless lootings of our society.     When the corporate profit bubble pops there will be a massive thud.

Title link here.  By the way, Greece’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed and isn’t but a few percentage points behind Spain. 

posted by TimingLogic at 11:52 AM

Sunday, April 29, 2012

How Apple Games The System To Avoid Paying Its Fair Share Of Taxes

There is a never-ending stream of people who want to project an image of Steve Jobs and Apple, as an extension of Jobs, that should be worshipped as some messianic cult hero.  Hero-worship is a delusion.   What we as human beings can apreciate are the timeless virtues oftentimes exhibited by imperfect leaders.  People who are able to rise above the human condition to achieve virtue and truth for all people.  People like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela,  William Lloyd Garrison, Mother Jones, Mahatma Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and countless others.  And, as I noted in the last post, the nameless faces of average, every day people who achieve no notoriety yet whose actions make the world a better place.  Each of us acting selflessly has an ability to change the world.  Even if it is the momentary kindness granted a total stranger.  I’m sure Steve Jobs had those moments in his personal life just like everyone else.  But, the cult-status many in society have granted Jobs and Apple for his professional accomplishment is perplexing and disturbing as it pertains to what values modern society appreciates.    Personally, I don’t see what would classify him as a leader to society or humanity. 

To be frank, from what I am aware of, including direct comments from associates, personal acquaintances and business partners going back decades, and repeated business practices at Apple, Jobs had a  pattern of behavior that some might classify as disturbing.   Look, I am far from someone who should be judging anyone else.  We all make mistakes and I have made my fair share.   We are all simply human.   This isn’t about judgment or criticism of Steve Jobs.  I don’t know Steve Jobs from Adam.  I wouldn’t even remark of this except for the tremendous onslaught of what I classify as misinformation and propaganda that is so pervasive in our society across a wide range of issues.  The cult-like status that Jobs and Apple have achieved points to a reality that is quite different than that projected.  A projection that is built upon the billions upon billions of dollars of marketing hype meant to propagate an image that isn’t grounded in any type of reality.   If Jobs was brilliant at anything in particular, it was creating an image that wasn’t necessarily reflective of reality.  I think we call that propaganda.  In dystopian America it is called marketing.  

There is a clear difference between people who make random mistakes and those who exhibit a lifetime of repeated mistakes or disconcerting behavior.  The former is simply part of life.   Unfortunately, most people only truly learn life-positive altering change by failure and by mistakes.   It’s just part of being human.  We sometimes need to peer over the edge or even fall into the abyss to realize our perceptions of self and reality aren’t reflective of truth.   Failure is most certainly the most profound method of learning.   We learn through failure what can never be taught through success.   That is, we learn that our belief system and perception of reality and self may be flawed or even delusional.  Hopefully, mistakes and failures make us better.  I’m talking less about business mistakes than I am about mistakes that impact the essence of who we are.  Hopefully those failures and mistakes make us more human.   In other words, more compassionate, more accepting and able to see beyond our own perceived needs.  Needs that are oftentimes sought at the expense of others.  

But, then there are people who seemingly exhibit a pattern of not learning from mistakes or failures as it pertains to the essence of who we are.  But they, in fact, simply experience the same personal mistakes over and over and over.   Those people are almost without exception very driven by the self and disconnected from their humanity.  They aren’t able to see how their actions impact other people and the world around them.   Their perception of self remains a delusion.  Those people who have risen to levels of authority in the corporate state seem to reflect a rather disturbing consistency in how others are treated.  How other human beings are valued.  Or, more pointed not valued. 

I typically take he said-she said issues in anyone’s private life or comments made by people in business with a grain of salt.   There is almost always a motive that is well-beyond the obvious.  Most often that motive has an ego-driven agenda.  But when I see a lot of people making the same type of remarks over decades coupled with a laundry list of major issues  showing a lack of conscience in how business decisions were made and business practices were conducted, well……  then I tend to follow the wise prophets Cheech & Chong - if it looks like shit, smells like shit and tastes like shit, it probably is shit.     

I probably won’t win any brownie points for making pointed remarks about a person who recently passed away, but truth is truth.   Rewriting history out of political correctness is a major issue in our society.  Political correctness serves no purpose other than to subvert truth, rewrite reality and squelch debate over substantive and serious issues.   Political correctness is a tactic of control that is meant to subvert reality.   

The truth is many of Apple’s business practices could be construed as exploitive or even predatory on a very large scale.  Corporations aren’t good or bad.   Their actions are simply a reflection of corporate leadership’s values.   In Apple’s case, they are a reflection of Jobs’ values.  That’s surely not the image Apple pays billions upon billions of dollars to project, but let’s be frank; if Apple treated customers the way it treats countless people within its sphere of influence and control, I doubt it would be in business today.   There are surely countless numbers of apologists who would state that Apple was simply doing what every other company was doing.  Indeed, they would be right.   How many examples throughout human history can we count to where others made this same rationalization for their behavior?  But everyone else was doing it.  There was nothing I could do.  I was simply following orders.  Apple never spoke out against any of the exploitive practices of corporate capitalism we see today.  In fact, to the contrary, they defended it in many public statements and showed a conscious resistance to change and they even swept it under the rug at times.

Apple creates a compelling user experience.  I respect them for doing so.  And, Steve Jobs clearly understood that the user experience, created by excellence coupled with billions upon billions of dollars of hype, was more important than counting beans as so many corporate executives do.  But, if our economy was a merit-based system, there would be literally thousands upon thousands of companies like Apple providing superior quality and craft to consumers and customers.  And, if our economy embraced merit-based democratic economics or democratic capitalism, Apple may not even be able to separate itself from a pack of other great companies.   It is even plausible to consider that it may not have even survived.  Some time, I’ll write more about this dynamic and refer back to this post. 

It really should be no surprise along with all of the other well-known but glossed over dynamics about Jobs and Apple, that when we pull back that facade paid for by massive marketing and propaganda campaigns, that Apple games our society and humanity in countless ways.  That includes how it manipulates and deceives society to writhe its way out of paying its fair share of taxes.   Of how Apple takes more than it gives to humanity. 

It’s no irony that we mocked for years that high corporate tax rates were a sham and a lie perpetuated by political propaganda.   The data was and is incontrovertible.  And, now the very few honest voices who remain in the mainstream media are starting to pull back the veil of deceit and lies perpetuated by corporatist fascist shills and their political marionettes.    Truth always finds a way.  It’s just a matter of when. 

Apple, like countless other corporations, succeeds in large part, through the force of the state.   And, that often manifests itself through politicians turning a blind eye to countless self-evident deceptions and untruths.  Deceptions and untruths that reflect a systemic lack of virtue and conscience. 

The leaderless society marches on.

posted by TimingLogic at 8:55 AM

Saturday, April 28, 2012

NSA Whistleblower - The National Security Agency Is Lying. It Has Your Emails.

In this video discussion, the speakers reference the brand new NSA facility in Utah.  A massive $5 billion spying complex. 

Unlimited funds to maintain state control.  No money for our citizens or education or health care or democracy or Social Security.  How does our economy recover?   The state must relinquish control.   Citizen government must replace state-based economics.  Democracy must replace fascism.

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:10 AM

Friday, April 27, 2012

Reflections In The Mirror - The Corporate State

This picture has gained quite a bit of popularity as it has floated around the internet in the last few days.  The picture reveals two obvious truths to me.  One is the unconditional love of pets and how important that support is to our emotional and physical health.  Especially in a dystopian world where community has been obliterated by the corporate state.  The other is also obvious.  It isn’t uncommon to hear that many people choose to live on the streets rather than being boarded up in asylums as we used to do back in the dark ages.  You know, a handful of decades ago.  There is no intermediate solution between asylums and just dumping our citizens on the streets?  Really?   This is the best our government is capable of?

Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me.

Were it not for the never-ending efforts of mostly average citizens of average means to provide some level of dignity to those around them, our society would allow countless people to simply disappear.   Those people who sacrifice so much to help others achieve some level of human dignity are the nameless faces of those without a voice.  Those who offer little as measured by the corporate state, yet selflessly give, aren’t granted title and authority.  Then there are those they seek to lift up and help achieve some level of human dignity.  They are the people who have absolutely nothing  to give as measured by the corporate state.  They also aren’t granted title and authority.  

It’s a reflection of our leader’s values that the further away from average, everyday citizens they become, the more they are concerned that someone is going to take what they believe is rightfully theirs.  Sharing, when it does happen, is often a gesture of publicly giving with a name attached.  A donation of what has been taken from society returned as a new hospital wing with my name on it.  Look at me.  I am so magnanimous.  But, the nameless faces without a voice still aren’t seen or heard.  They are pushed aside for the new mall I am building.  Or they are pushed aside for the new condominium complex I am building.  Or they are pushed aside because I can take even more from society by sending your jobs off to a slave labor camp at Foxconn. 

Obviously all of this is for the greater good.  You know, that invisible hand of self-interested capitalism that mysteriously leads to a more virtuous society.   Adam Smith must have been high on crystal meth when he wrote that in 1776.  You remember that date?  He was on the wrong side of the trade then just as he is now.  Now the invisible hand has become a religion that anyone who understands anything about the human condition knows is nonsense.  But, then England was a fascist empire ruled by corporations, birthright authority, feudalism and a brutal king at the time of its writing.   And, most in the empire without birthright and title lived like dogs while the rest pillaged the world.  You know, just like we see today.

Leadership is not a position to aspire to.  Leadership has nothing to do with title and authority.  It is about empowering people around you to do great things.  It is about empowering people around you to do greater things than they could do on their own.  In other words, it is about creating community.  It is about leading by example.  It is about giving more than taking.   It is about recognizing there is something more important than the self. 

We live in a society of disposable citizens, disposable employees and disposable soldiers.  When they no longer serve a purpose, they are cast aside without a thought.   We live in a Godless society run by Godless people.  As a whole, authority in the corporate state has no conscience.  They are consumed by the self.

Do the kings and queens in Washington hear the cries of suffering they have created while they feed at the trough of power, money, arrogance, divisiveness, hate, gluttony, war, violence and greed?  

Is this the best that self-granted title and authority can do?  Why, yes it is.  That is why our nation was created.  So, that we would have citizen government.  Community government.  Not a king or queen in some far off land making edicts from high on a hill.   The voice of the people and community has been lost.  It is replaced by the voice of the predatory corporate state.  We no longer live in a democracy.  We live in a capitalism.  

Corporate Personhood must go.  Money in politics must go.  Public-private partnerships must go.  Corporations that no longer serve the public good must go.  The concept of career politicians who rule with self-granted authority and title must be abolished by law.  Secrecy of the state must go.  Until then, citizen government is dead and the invisible hand of self-interest and all of the greed, arrogance, divisiveness, hate, gluttony and violence it can muster will continue to rule.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:02 AM

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Secret Service & Marine Orgies, Prostitution And Violence Against Other Human Beings. Our Society Is Self-Destructing Under The War State’s Propaganda Glorifying Aggression And Aggressive Personalities

News continues to flow out about orgies, violence against women and beatings by those attached to providing security for our president.  First off, trying to tie this to Obama, as many political idiots are trying to, is ridiculous.  

When this first story broke David Gergen, one of Washington’s permanent political hacks,  In other words, won’t seem to go away, was an apologist for this type of behavior.  Gergen remarked that this type of behavior wasn’t out of character given the masculinity of many in the profession and we should keep this in perspective.  Frankly, I just about puked when reading his remarks.  How did we ever get to a point where we are electing political assholes who glorify aggression and violence as synonymous with masculinity?  I have no lack of masculinity or testosterone but let’s just be frank.  It is often those who have low testosterone who are violent.   Those who are insecure about their masculinity.  Prostitution isn’t just an act of paying for sex.  It is oftentimes a form of violence against women.   It is a sign of deeper psychological issues manifested through violence and aggression.  We are now starting to see that this recent situation is less about prostitution and more about a pattern of violence against women.  There are now inquiries into Brazil and El Salvador and who knows how many other cases that will be swept under the rug. 

This most recent issue involving the president’s security detail is much deeper than a case of prostitution.  This is reflective of the culture of violence against women, gays, muslims and anyone else who is considered undesirable or undeserving of dignity or humanity that is so rampant in our society.  These values are placed inside of our citizens by our political leaders and those who occupy positions of authority in our society.  

I wrote a post last year about the glorification of aggression and aggressive personality types in our society.  This most recent issue is another clear example of perverse violence against other human beings being rewarded.   It is important enough that I am re-linking to my original post.  I would encourage you to read it if you haven’t already. 

These men weren’t born with these beliefs about women and aggression and violence.  These beliefs were instilled in them by our society and by authority figures who glorified and rewarded their behavior.   It’s the same type of behavior exhibited in our politics, on Wall Street, within our military, in our police departments and in business.   It is the same violence that rationalizes endless wars and countless deaths of civilian populations as simply effects of war.  It is the same violence against human beings that is so pervasive on Wall Street both through their endless use of prostitution and their predatory acts against our society.  It is the same violence that not too many decades ago rationalized lynching African Americans on Saturday night then going to church on Sunday morning; being a good American as the state turned a blind eye.   The list of aggressions and violence by the state and its institutions of control are without end.   I could cite thousands of examples.

Our society, our political leaders, those in positions of authority in countless state institutions and our economic model rewards unstable, aggressive and violent behavior against other human beings.   We are a nation run by sociopaths and unstable personalities.  The fish rots from the head first.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:15 PM

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Cycle Of Volatility: NASA Fermi Gamma Ray Explorer Is Picking Up “Crazy-Energetic Photons” From Mysterious Objects At The Edge Of The Electromagnetic Spectrum

How about we shake it up a little today?  Shake it up a lot.  A provoking post before we get back to more mundane ‘stuff’.   We all live in this bubble we  believe is reality.  A bubble we convince ourselves is real.  Oftentimes provocation is the only way we ever awaken from that bubble.  That’s coming.  For everyone.  It’s inevitable because the bubble is popping.  As we have discussed numerous times over the last seven years, if you live outside of the U.S., that popping sound is likely to be much greater.   For many years that was a very lonely position that was often mocked.  Not quite as lonely today.  Those who have sought safety outside of the U.S. or who live outside of the U.S. and believe they will be spared substantial change, good luck.  You’ll need it. 

Today, I’ll delve a little bit further into some of my less than mainstream posts over the years.   Loosely tying together some of the prior discussions regarding one of the long term themes on here; the cycle of volatility.   This will likely be the only post I ever put up on here that delves so esoterically into questions surrounding  volatility, so if you enjoy it, I’m sorry to say there ain’t likely to be more coming.  Maybe if I am still blogging in a few years, I’ll delve more specifically into volatility cycles.  Today isn’t so much about specificity as it is about stepping out of the picture and opening the aperture of view.   That is, if your mind will allow you to do so.  If you think you have the world all figured out, you probably should skip this post.  If you don’t like your beliefs challenged, you should probably skip this post.  

We have discussed gamma rays and cosmic energy’s impact quite often on here as it pertains to the cycle the world is experiencing.   Recently NASA’s gamma ray explorer, Fermi, has been picking up never-before captured cosmic ray energy from mysterious sources impacting our solar system and earth.  Another link using separate measurement equipment discussed this past week on Space.com here.

As we have noted over the years, many forms of energy, including gamma rays, are invisible to the human eye.  These forms of energy are oftentimes millions to billions of times more powerful than visible light.   Many gamma ray sources give off more energy in the blink of an eye than our sun will give off in its entire lifecycle.   Some sources release exponentially more energy than that.  The gamma ray bubbles at our galactic core extend 50,000 light years and most certainly release more energy than the equivalent of billions times billions of our suns.   That is just one source.   The forces of the universe are so enormous that they really are beyond the conscious mind’s ability to comprehend.    The forces acting upon our existence by the energy of the planet and the cosmos are daunting.

Cosmic sources are impacting earth every second of every day.  And, gamma rays and other invisible forms of energy are not just a phenomenon of space.  As we noted before, science has discovered that gamma ray production also happens here on  earth.   In fact, we’re find out a lot about the earth in the last few decades.  Like trees may play a role in electrifying the atmosphere.  Or that energy from within the earth is heating the mantle and therefore, the coldest, deepest ocean waters  and re-igniting many dormant geological forces.  And, there most certainly are energies well beyond our knowledge that are impacting us as I type this.  In fact, that is the vast majority of the energy of the universe if science is anywhere near correct.   The discoveries science are making are vast and dizzying.  Yet the scientific understanding of the interaction of cosmic and terrestrial forces is still very, very poor at best and completely unknown in most instances. 

This is a very exciting time for basic scientific discovery now that humanity has an ability to explore what, until relatively recently, was impossible.  We most certainly are in the early stages of a golden age of discovery at the atomic, subatomic and cellular level.   That is, if the profit-motive of corporations, unregulated capitalism and its often unethical manipulation of science for personal gain doesn’t unlock Pandora’s Box and obliterate us in the process.   This is a distinct yet unquantifiable possibility.  These discoveries have the potential to change our existence in ways that are generally not yet appreciated or, in most instances, even understood.  

I remember a snippet of the Republican debates when Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich couldn’t wait to outdo themselves in their desire to cut NASA’s budget or privatize its functions for profit.   Paul has been quote as saying, "We must recognize the government led space program is dead and the corpse must be buried as soon as possible. Any defense functions should be put under the military, and the rest of NASA should be sold to private operators." .   Gingrich thinks the all-knowing market will serve our search for truth through the god of profit.   Truly, two delusional minds.

It’s a disgrace that NASA, as an example, a civilian science and research agency, is seeing so much of its budget politicized and cut in favor of war state expenditures and private, for-profit operators.   Much of NASA has actually been gutted over many years.  The same way that so much of our government has been gutted by special interest money, thus turning our government into a feeble, ineffective tool of political corruption rather than serving society or some greater good.  NASA, being a public institution, doesn’t serve the profit motives of the corporate state.  War is a substantially more profitable function of the corporate state.  If the fascist state has its way, we’ll be back in the stone ages soon enough; science without a profit motive is expendable.   Paul, Gingrich and other Republican proletariats view science, art, literature and culture with disdain.  It’s all about the market.  Self-interest and profit.  Here’s the greater reality.  Science, art, literature, culture and other expressions of humanity’s innate search for truth and knowledge are no different than our inner journey and the path of spiritual knowledge we seek.  They are both manifestations of our spiritual journey.  The attempted destruction of the human spirit are predictable outcomes we saw manifested in Nazi Germany and once again see in the United States today.  The fascist or corporate state truly is Godless.   More on this in the future.

Let’s jump back to volatility.  In prior times, humanity oftentimes assigned the unknown forces of the universe to magic or juju or the gods.   While we still know almost nothing about this experience we all participate in, we can now apply reason and logic and science to gain a greater appreciation of that experience.  We can embrace a new frontier of discovery and knowledge rather than live in fear of the unknown.   Fear that historically has been used to control populations and perpetuate the suppression of knowledge and truth.  Maybe there will be great ironies uncovered by science in coming decades and beyond.  Maybe we will actually find that mysticism, spirituality and knowledge of ancient man oftentimes weren’t so far from reality.  Then, maybe we won’t.         

So, is not energy required to create change as we understand the laws of the universe?   Given the magnitudes of both known and other unknown energy sources, might you be willing to consider the evolution of life on earth is impacted or even driven by unknown energy and unknown events from our planet, our solar system and our universe?  Cellular mitosis, as an example, is driven by a life force or energy we clearly know absolutely nothing about.  It is with us every day yet we have no explanation of what takes a Redwood seed that has been dormant for a few hundred years and creates the largest living species on earth.   We have no idea of what energy creates human life.   Another simple example of energy acting upon cellular mutation is the development of skin cancer.  Or, any cancer for that matter.   Energy-driven cellular changes not only impact mammalian or plant life but all life including microbes.  It  creates mutated superbugs or bacteria, mutated viral outbreaks, etc. that have been worrying scientists in recent years.   A new viral outbreak is simply the manifestation of a new form of life. 

Science has grown concerned about the ability of these pathogens to “jump” from other mammals to humans as pathogens mutate at an ever-increasing rate.  To go one step further in consideration, might those mutated pathogens actually be a building block of the evolution of higher order life?  Of our evolution?  Don’t certain measurable cellular characteristics within our body change permanently once we have been “infected” with a pathogen?   Science recently discovered that human DNA contains strands of life from single-celled organisms that were the first measurable forms of life on our planet.   In what ways might pathogen “infections” change us that isn’t understood?  Might the human mind and our expanding level of our brain’s ability, even as an example, something like empathy, be impacted or created through dynamics associated with the energy of our universe or even indirectly through its impact on mutated pathogens, a possible building block of life and evolution, as just one example?  Might this massive flood of energy be behind global climate volatility as we have highlighted numerous times?   (Including the scientific research into cyclical planetary astronomy/astrology we linked to that mapped nicely into long-cycle planetary temperature patterns, Voyager’s unexpected discovery of an unknown energy force beyond the protection of the sun’s heliosphere,  the recent discovery of massive gamma ray bubbles at our galactic core, planetary weather volatility within the solar system, etc, that were all posted on here.  Humanity’s energy impact on our planet’s weather through economic activity is comparatively just about zero.) 

Science has already proven through much research, albeit not readily known research, that life on earth as we know it cannot survive for long outside of the energy force of the earth’s magnetosphere.  In other words, amongst other unknown factors, it is the energy of the earth itself that makes life possible and therefore, most likely in some part responsible for creating and evolving life.  Is the earth itself alive?  Is the universe a living, conscious entity?  As I have remarked before, I think it’s quite plausibly so.  Is God the universe?  And is that the beauty and mystery we see in every creation of our planet and the universe?  Including the beauty that exists within every person? 

Might these silent sources of energy contribute to cyclical planetary events such as relatively abrupt leaps forward in the evolution of microbes, animal life, plant life, human behavior-awareness, the growth of the human brain and even mass extinctions and repopulations?  And, are these possibly cyclical events in any way predictable on any level?  Is it not mass changes to human behavior today that are contributing to wholesale volatility and even failures of  political institutions, corporations and economies in countless countries around the globe?  It is impossible to deny volatility we are experiencing is a global event be it weather activity, economic activity, human activity, plant activity, pathogen activity or planet activity.  Is there a mass energy that has collectively awakened the human mind?  Maybe even animal minds?  Have you observed or read about any unusual behavior in animal activity over the last decade or so?  We have noted examples on here. 

Could the energy NASA and scientists are measuring even be created by the  human mind itself?   Energy that is manifesting itself in some collective force to bring an evolved change to our existence?   Is the ever-increasing rate of change of volatility and human invention and ultimately the rapid failure rate of manmade institutions we now see a reflection of a quickening of the nonlinearity of time?  A quickening that modern day physics might tell us is disturbed or even created by these energy sources or even by energy created by our mind?  Time as we know it is simply a biological process.  How do you know time even exists outside of your mind?   I would surmise it likely doesn’t.  I think it is quite possible that neither does the universe exist outside of our mind.  Maybe, neither do you. 

The laws of the universe, as we understand them, or the laws of our mind, whichever or whatever is accurate, surely would support all such possibilities.  And, these are not farfetched questions.  There has been ample  scientific evidence and scientific research to support a perspective of existence well-beyond that which the perception of self accepts. 

Now, you could discount any or all of this out of hand.   You could discount that the economic environment we see today is in any way related to the volatility we see toppling countless tyrannies around the world.  You could discount that the natural forces so obviously impacting our planet are also affecting our mind.  Is your mind closed by a belief system you have been saddled with since birth?  One put there by the perceptions of the self and possibly the perception of others?  All controlled by your own faulty perception of reality?   Is it possible?

Are you willing to dismiss any consideration that the most powerful energy sources known to the universe  have no impact on your life or your mind or your behavior or our planet or economies or institutions created by our mind or evolution or or or?  Especially, considering we are made from the universe itself.  Made from the same energy sources.   Or, maybe I should say the universe is made from us.  By us.  By our mind.   Let’s be honest.  We really have no idea what is real beyond that which we know exists within our own minds.   And, we already know much of that is simply perception.   There are six billion perceptions of reality out there.  Each perception of the world is different.  Which one is accurate?  Or, are they all accurate?  Or, being based solely on perception, are none of them accurate?

Science has already uncovered the basic building blocks of organic life in meteorites.   Regardless of specifically how, that we are made from the stars or or the stars are made by our minds, the connection we share with the universe is undeniable.  We share the same origins.  We share the same matter.  We are made by the same forces. 

So, let’s veer another direction regarding volatility and energy.  Hahaha.  Let’s really enter the world of the surreal.  At least surreal for most people.  Back on the 24th of February this year I wrote that the upcoming planetary alignments on the week of March 19th were disconcerting.   What interesting events happened that week?  Actually, some very, very interesting dynamics.

Are you willing to consider the human mind and, therefore, the volatility within the Chinese Communist Party was possibly impacted by forces beyond our understanding?  (The same volatility that may also bring down both political parties in the U.S. at some point.  Remember our discussions a year or two ago about an eventual post-political future form of self-rule?  A world void of politics and, therefore, political parties?  It’s coming.  It’s just a matter of whether it is in five years or fifty.  Politics is a useless relic of history.  Of control that subverts truth.)   Is it a coincidence that the attempted Chinese political coup, what would have been the biggest global event since the fall of the Soviet Union, and most assuredly  the most disruptive global event since the start of World War II, happened early the week of March 19th?   A week we pointed out a month before its passing?  Of course, it could be coincidence.  It’s very easy to dismiss any connection as nonsense.  And, maybe it is.  Or, maybe it isn’t. 

We had four magnitude 6 earthquakes, classed as strong, and two magnitude 7, classed as major, the week of the 19th.  Not exactly a normal week.   That is a very heavy activity week.   Also, since the passage of the week of the 19th, we have seen the largest strike-slip fault earthquake in recorded history at a very, very substantial 8.6 magnitude.   Earthquakes are a topic we have discussed over the years as it pertains to the cycle of volatility, energy and oftentimes forces beyond our planet or beyond our understanding.  Sure plates move.  And?  What’s the point?  Plate tectonics in itself is a very incomplete science.   We are already seeing this with the discovery of charged particles in the atmosphere days before the Japanese quake.  There are forces involved in tectonic activity we simply do not yet understand.  Some are most certainly of cosmic origin.  Some are not. 

More than a month later, March 19th, to the day, is also the holding peak in the NYSE volume advance-decline data as well.  In other words, the holding peak in upward buying pressure or net buying of equities.  And, one of my main trading algorithms issued a sell on the S&P on the 19th.   A favorite investment of Frankenstein finance, the S&P 500 ETF has similarly seen its On Balance Volume declining since the exact day of March 19th.   And, the Banking Index’s holding price peak for this six month rally is March 19th.   Also, the week of March 19th marked the bottoming in volatility in the European bond market.  Since we have seen a return to rising interest rates and crisis in Europe. 

Obviously, we shall see if-how these data points materialize in the future or if they have any lasting impact.   But, more than a month later, that these data points have held in financial markets should say something about the importance of the week of March 19th.  Was my remark back in February about an upcoming date of the week of March 19th a coincidence?  Hahaha.   

Let’s go back to China.  Something most certainly happened in China because the rift between communist party members is real.  (Der Spiegel’s reporting here.)  And, now the plot thickens as potential complexity of unknown international dynamics are thrown into the concern over a coup and here.    It is easy to dismiss the party tension in China as a one time event.  But, that would be foolish given the coming volatility in China.  I think it is most reasonably safe to assume this event was simply the first of many disconcerting events in China’s future.   The initial perturbation that will lead to ever-widening ripples.   Even today, most everyone who is bearish on China believes they are simply experiencing a real estate bubble.   But, over the years we have written about a collapse in the China miracle, the potential for great civil unrest, revolution and even the possibility of armed conflict involving China. 

We may never know exactly what happened because China’s communist party controls the flow of information.  At least we may never know under the current communist government.  But, the coming volatility in China and elsewhere that we have uniquely written about for the last half dozen years is going to happen.  2008 and global events since are just the primer as we have noted time and again.  It’s just a matter of when the energy needed to germinate the seeds of volatility again manifests itself. 

To date, the status quo has been able to maintain some illusion of control since the 2008 collapse.  Frankly, much longer than I ever expected.  But, then I never expected the Federal Reserve to continue to pump trillions of dollars into Wall Street’s horrendously corrupt distortion of asset markets.   Regardless, that illusion of control will eventually be shattered by rising volatility.  It’s just a matter of when.  If the week of March 19th is the beginning of the back end of the volatility storm we have been anticipating, then it was the small perturbation that was missed by everyone in the financial, corporate and political bureaucracies.  And, if it is the beginning of an uptick in volatility, the world will start to light up like a Christmas tree well before the end of this year.   If.  Did I say if?  And, that means before the 2012 elections.  I hope political candidates aren’t counting their chickens yet.  :)   Remember how the economic and political climate changed literally in the blink of an eye in September of 2008.   Obama had no realistic chance of winning the election before that crisis.   McCain’s mouthing of how the economy was just fine before that crisis showed an utterly disgraceful incompetence and lack of understanding of the challenges faced by most Americans.

What is portrayed as science is often nothing more than ideological drivel for the same reasons of self-interest, power and greed we see on Wall Street, in Washington, in the military-industrial complex, in the industrial food monopoly, in the Chinese Communist Party, in the Democratic & Republican Parties, the European Union, the corrupt Arab states, etc.    Yes, as we have remarked in some detail in prior posts, institutions and especially self-interested bureaucracies of science are often just as tainted by ego, money, power and self-interest as are other human institutions.  Especially when they are hijacked and corrupted by politicians and bureaucrats as science has been horribly tainted in a dystopian world dominated by these completely incompetent and corrupt forces.  Politicians and bureaucrats whose objectives destroy the purity and spirituality of the search for truth and knowledge that is science.  

I’m not telling you what is or isn’t true.   I’m surely not telling you what to believe.  I’m not even telling you these events had any connection to the week of March 19th or to each other.   But, it’s pretty hard to pull an abstract future date out of the blue and have so many financial data points confirm it as a possible turning point.  Don’t tell me you have never considered what else exists beyond the view of reality you so tenuously hold onto.  I simply accept a world beyond our perceptions and mass delusion exists in some form.   And, I must admit to having some experiences that I believe have possibly opened my mind to appreciating  this alternative reality.  Are you asking yourself if this guy is nuts?  Hahaha.  Why, yes I am.  

The scientific evidence of a very different reality beyond our perceptions is everywhere.  And, it has actually been quantified in untold thousands of scientific exercises and experiments.  But, since modern science oftentimes silos knowledge into self-interested bureaucracies, and rejects that which it does not understand or cannot fully explain, bureaucracies of science don’t always appreciate anything other than their self-limited perspective.  I am simply pointing out that we must consider a view of reality beyond what we see or touch or smell.  A view that remains based on truth and reason and science.  But, since we can’t see it or touch it or explain it, that maybe it even manifests itself through other inexplicable outcomes, experiences or even unknown senses that are now perceived as intuition or gut-feelings. 

One thing we do know as has been remarked countless times on here; the world is most certainly not as it seems.   NASA’s recent discoveries are just another confirmation of that fact.   At some point, mainstream science will start to incorporate new discoveries about the universe and our planet into more rational theories.  Yes, they may still be incomplete or completely wrong theories but they will attempt to incorporate some greater modicum of truth gained through the discovery process.  The same discovery process that is so necessary for democracy to survive.   A discovery process subverted by secrecy, bureaucrats, corporations and politicians who subvert it.  Until then…….  questions  like those contained in this post will be mocked by the status quo as they always have been.   Just as every other progressive force against their perception, corruption and madness is mocked.  From what we know about the self, how could it be any other way? 

Just remember, as noted countless times on here, volatility is a precursor to a change in trend.   In other words, the economic and social linearity that the status quo expects us to reclaim is not going to materialize. We are never going back. 

The status quo once thought globalization was unstoppable, “free trade” was really free, empire would rule without challenge, Wall Street MBAs were masters of the universe,  gold was honest money, politicians actually knew what they were doing, corporate masters would continue to rule unencumbered, human-caused global warming was going to destroy the world, corporate capitalism was the pinnacle of human economic achievement, China was an economic miracle, Ronald Reagan was a great President and the world was flat.     We on the other hand have mocked all but the world being flat.  The reality is it has a higher probability of being true than any of these other delusions of the self.  Unfortunately, the status quo still believes these and many other delusions.  But, many of the rest of us might believe them just a little less today than we did a few days, weeks, months or years ago. 

Change you can believe in.  It’s coming.  But it won’t be delivered by a politician.   It will be delivered to politicians.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:23 AM

Friday, April 20, 2012

The Decay Of Soviet Amerika - Health Care Risk-Shifting From Corporations To Employees Intensifies

The corporate state continues its frenetic pace of privatizing gains while socializing losses.   People cannot afford health care as it is.  Shifting corporate health care plans to massive deductibles paid for by individuals only guarantees that trend will intensify.   And, so too will the pressure on the corporate medical establishment to cover its bloated fixed costs.

The corporate medical establishment can charge whatever it wants to charge.  I could charge you $1,000 to read this post.  But, that doesn’t mean there will be a sustainable market at those rates. 

Corporations have been on a massive debt-based consolidation binge in the medical community over the last few decades.   A corrupt practice that serves no purpose other than greater control.  Of course, this was all enabled by Wall Street criminals.  And the self-interested medical equipment, medical supply and pharma bureaucracies have done their virtuous part by levering the corporate medical bureaucracy’s cost structures up even further.  All for the public good, of course.  That has left the corporate medical establishment laden with debt, bloat, inefficiency, bureaucracy, waste, incompetence and infrastructure costs that make their services prohibitively expensive.   In other words, Soviet Amerika’s health care bureaucracy is uncompetitive with and unresponsive to market demands for the vast number of Americans.   But they have continued to mint profits through the tyrannical force of the state.  That is what happened in the rearview mirror.  Ain’t too useful driving into the future by looking into the rearview mirror. 

There are tens of millions of Americans with very high health care insurance deductibles.  I’m one of them.  I’m included in the lies, damned lies and statistics as being insured.   You know, the ones Republicans use to say there is no problem with our health care system because I have insurance.  That’s a farce.  I’m essentially self-insured.  That means I avoid health care like the plague and barter, beg and price shop when I do need the services.   I’m one of the lucky ones, by the way.  My absolutely shit-based health insurance plan, provided by one of the most successful health insurance companies in Amerika, ahem, is essentially a re-insurance plan for catastrophic claims.  And, I pay outrageous extortion-based rates for the privilege of being screwed.  They don’t even kiss me first.  The rates I pay have no reality other than the force of the state that creates and protects them.  In other words, an enormous amount of health care insurance in this country is nothing more than re-insurance.  The propaganda statistics are incredibly misleading.  Millions who have health insurance are really only re-insured.   

These are massive statistical population shifts in just a year.   If they are accurate or anywhere close, the stars are aligning for incredible change in our medical bureaucracy regardless of what happens to the constitutionality of the Obama plan.   This article points to that trend accelerating at a dizzying pace.  In simple terms, the corporate medical bureaucracy is laden with propped-up Soviet Amerikan state-based corporations that are teetering on the precipice and don’t even realize it. 

All Obama’s plan did was apply lipstick to the pig.  It’s still a pig.  Commissar Obama and his corporate masters can’t force people to participate in a medical system they simply cannot afford regardless of how many edicts he wants to pass from high on the mountain. 

Change you can believe in.   It’s coming. 

posted by TimingLogic at 1:10 PM

Nazi Party Pushes Corporate Tax Cuts For Their Corporate Masters

We have railed repeatedly on this fascist myth that corporate tax rates in this country are too high.  If corporate tax rates are too high then how can corporate profits at their highest in our history?   As noted before, I used to subscribe to a data service that showed the S&P’s tax rate was near 15%.  The Congressional Budget Office numbers for this year are 12.1%.  That is the lowest rate in my lifetime.  And, the lowest in the industrialized world.   The published corporate tax rate is comparably three times the amount actually paid.  The Nazis love to use the published rate as a tool of propaganda for their corporate masters. 

We hear this endless political propaganda across the entire spectrum from some of the most truly incompetent people to grace this earth.  The blatant lies that corporate tax rates are too high are only surpassed by the even greater blatant lies that lowering the corporate rate even further will somehow spur job growth.  This is just another method of fascist political parties looting society to serve corporate masters.  As we have noted before, major companies or the  S&P 500 or however you want to quantify it, hasn’t created a single net new job in this country in the last thirty years.  They aren’t going to create another net new job even if the tax rate is zero.  And, it’s pretty damn close to that right now.  Countless companies pay a legion of lawyers to rig the game so that they owe little to no taxes.  What’s the attorney oath again?   

If the Nazi Party can lower corporate tax rates, even more money will flow into their coffers thus ensuring their future political Adolph nominees can pump the airways with even more propaganda.   This increases their odds of winning future elections.  Or so the thinking goes.    But as we have noted, that future return on investment is going to be pretty close to zero.  In other words, this political con game won’t be yielding the desired results anymore.    Instead, now they reap the harvest of karma.

Let’s see.  Corporate profits are at a record high.  Corporate tax rates are at a record low.  Hmm.   I think I understand how this works.   Corporations cannot afford to pay higher taxes just as the richest people in our society who are enjoying the same inverted tax rate benefits of trickle down economics.   Most super rich in this country are in capital consuming industries anyway.  In other words, their wealth is taken from someone else rather than actually creating wealth for society.  That’s a hallmark of the predator state.  That is, legalized looting.  Now they want your Social Security and your Medicare.  And, they most certainly will try to steal it.   In fact, they already have drawn up a plan.  It’s called the Ryan plan.    Hopefully, he’ll be our next vice president being such a swell guy that he is.

By the way, it has  been quite a few years since I have mentioned this but corporate investment is at the lowest level in this country since the start of the Industrial Revolution.  I have the data  …..  a major contributor to the corporate profit bubble.   Oh, and it is a massive profit bubble.  Massive.  This self-fulfilling nugget of karma will help cement the future of the corporate state’s ersatz capitalism, fascist capitalism, crony capitalism, corporate capitalism, state-based capitalism and political party capitalism.  

Karma is a bitch.

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:13 AM

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Supreme Court Rules Corporations Are Not People In Terms Of Torture Liabilities, Only In Terms Of Torture Rights

The Supreme Court is clearly as nonsensical as is the legislative and executive branch in its interpretation of its rights & laws and its abuse of power.  ….  I’m very curious about how this health care debacle will play out.

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their JUST powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Do Washington politicians derive their moral legitimacy from the American people?  Or do they manipulate sham elections of generally horrendous candidates that are grossly distorted by corporate and elite money and influence?  Then once in office they do as they wish?   Let me see….  Let’s ask the countless tens of millions of people in this country who don’t have a pot to piss in while the corporate state has endless money to wage war, spy on Americans, build lavish palaces of power, torture, murder, pass corporate-inspired legislation that strips us of our dignity, our rights and our freedoms, edict nonsensical and oftentimes unjust judgments from the bench and on and on and on…… 

The Constitution is dead until the American people bring it back to life.  It was killed by political parties – for-profit corporations that use the force of the state to enrich themselves – and the endless supply of lackeys they put forward as political candidates.  The end result is the creation of a  dystopian Amerika very similar to, and oftentimes even more perverse than the Soviet state.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:36 AM

Friday, April 13, 2012

The End Is Drawing Nearer For Soviet Amerika’s State-Based Corporations

“The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is in duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown. There is clearly need of supervision—need to possess the power of regulation of these great corporations through the representatives of the public—wherever, as in our own country at the present time, business corporations become so very powerful alike for beneficent work and for work that is not always beneficent. It is idle to say that there is no need for such supervision. There is, and a sufficient warrant for it is to be found in any one of the admitted evils appertaining to them. “ -- President Teddy Roosevelt, August 23, 1902

What better day to put up this post than Friday the 13th?   Maybe you’ll share that appreciation by the time you have finished reading this.  My last post on gaming theory and the coming decline of empire was very well received.  I happen to know our government uses gaming theory to anticipate policy outcomes.  I wonder if they have ever applied it to the end of the system as we know it?  It piqued someone’s interest because I got a very large number of reads on that post. 

Gaming theory is a reasonably wide sub topic in mathematics.  There are many theories and more applications than are imaginable.  Rather than focus on the particular dynamics let me just state that this post too is derived from one of those theories.   In this post, I’ll tie together a few of the major themes we’ve been talking about over the last seven years into a plausible future that will unfold.  And, while I have written negatively about impending economic changes across nearly every industry including technology, agriculture, food production, defense, finance, healthcare and more, I’m going to give you a more specific glimpse into what that future world may not look like.  From there, you can start to imagine what kind of world may arise in that void.  In other words, as I have remarked countless times, the world of just a few years ago is gone forever.  We are never going back. and the status quo simply hasn’t yet awoken from their dream and made that realization.  So, they are doing anything they can to save a system that cannot be saved.  It’s over. 

I don’t see a lot of people recognizing the substantial implications of this cycle.   They continue to write about recessions or debt or other rear view mirror analyses that really have little relevance to reality.  The real question is whether capitalism, economics and money as we have known are are in the final stages of extinction.   As we have noted on all three, at some point those institutions will either disappear or be radically transformed.   It’s just a matter of whether this cycle is a tipping point for transformation or for extinction.  It could very well be the latter.    Science and human knowledge have progressed to the point where we can easily build a better post-money world.   As noted before, I suspect this moment in history is going to be so profound, it’s implications will be one of the greatest in the history of humanity. 

We have noted numerous tipping points over the year that could send global finance and globalization into a death spiral.  All of those dynamics remain in play and will come to pass but the question is if they or some other unforeseen events will be the trigger.  Remember, we have uniquely discussed for years that these two institutions of control, globalization and global finance, are finished.  It’s just a matter of when the status quo finally realizes they cannot be saved, or the status quo is so overwhelmed by failures within the system that they lose complete control, or whether control is wrested from them or some variation.  Rather than focus on how the system of control will fail, let’s focus on an outcome of that failure.   That is, the effects of witnessing companies or even entire industries fall like dominos over some period of time.  Most likely years.  Maybe even over a period of the next decade.  Too many factors are involved to give an honest answer but this outcome is most definitely possible, if not likely.  

I’m going to use Monsanto most specifically as an example in this post.  Not exclusively.  But I want to use the example of a nonfinancial company because I have noted time and again that this crisis goes well beyond finance.   Focusing on industries other than finance helps to illustrate this fact.  

All of our strategic posts on here have been ahead of the curve.  Ahead of what is often babble by both bulls and bears alike.  Both exhibit mob characteristics and that means often there is little original thought and a lot of  repackaging of what was read elsewhere.  This isn’t a financial crisis as we have noted time and again.  But, people in the financial community write about what they understand.  So, every boogeyman is debt.   This is the same dynamic exhibited within the military-industrial complex that every threat is a terrorist.  It’s predictable, boorish and trite all wrapped up with a pretty bow of histrionics.   Every issue is perceived as some manifestation that can be controlled by the bureaucracy that frames it.    In finance it’s debt.  In the national security state it’s a terrorist.  In politics, the issues are always framed in such a way that government is the answer.

This crisis has almost nothing to do with debt.  Debt is a third or fourth order symptom depending on how this crisis is framed.  The status quo want us to think it’s about debt.  It enslaves us to their system of control, it enslaves our thinking away from other critical issues and it diverts our attention from the massive, almost unimaginable,  political corruption and loss of democracy in our country. 

There are far too many useful idiots and economically-illiterate willing to oblige with their focus on debt.  Ron Paul being one of the most vocal who can’t seem to get enough talking points in about debt.  This is a crisis far more sinister.   In some ways it is a crisis of the never-ending corruption that is capitalism as it has always been practiced.  Not how it has to be but how it has always defined.   A coming home of sorts. 

The President penned an article a few years ago stating that we needed to export more to create jobs in our country.  To essentially be more like China and Germany.  This is a corporatist position that bears absolutely no relevance to reality.  We, on the other hand, mocked both countries as disasters in the making.   Now that the world is on fire, who are we going to export to Mr. President?   Please do tell chief economic swami?  As we have noted, this country doesn’t need to export anything to turn our economy around.  Well, except politicians.  Our President is just another in the endless line of politicians promising solutions to problems they don’t understand.  Problems created by politicians from both parties. 

I have made it no secret over the years that I expect many of the largest corporations in this country to be headed for some seriously difficult times.  I guess that is putting some of our anticipated outcomes rather mildly.   Some corporations could even face extinction.   Firms we would never imagine failing.   If I have penned that this isn’t a financial crisis, why would I expect that only financial firms would fail?   I would find that a highly improbable outcome.  Instead, in coming years, I suspect we will see many corporations outside of finance will experience tremendous volatility and some ultimately experience failure.  

One of our long term theses on here is that this cycle could be coined the end of big or the failure of  institutions of the ego.   Institutions of the ego are essentially manifestations of the human mind’s desire for control.  Statist capitalism, cronyism, economic feudalism, corporatism, corporations that take from society rather than benefit society and empire surely fits into the category of institutions of the ego or institutions of control.  None better fit those descriptors than many of the most successful corporations in our society. 

Monsanto is in the same category as Goldman Sachs, a firm I have stated for many years that I believe could vanish from our economy in coming years. (Interestingly, Goldman now polls as other extinct firms did in brand reputation lending support for my longstanding position that its extinction may be imminent.  Loss of brand confidence is a very serious issue.  Very.  Possibly even terminal.  Isn’t that hilarious?  Just a few years ago when we were beating the drum of coming doom the press, economists, MBA professors at Yale & Harvard and our most brilliant (ahem) politicians were fawning all over Goldman Sachs as being a model corporation of the new Amerika.  Hopefully, there is a pony in there for many.  That is, quit listening to the mob or herd.  Their perspectives are manipulated by their own delusions and systemic incompetence at best and actually quite literally stupid at worst.)  

Monsanto, Goldman Sachs (Wall Street more generally), Walmart (which was also said was eventually headed for the scrap heap about six years ago) and many other firms in this country are effectively state enterprises.  I  don’t want to focus too specifically on names but rather on the concept of state enterprise.  I say state enterprise in the same way that state enterprises existed in the former Soviet Union.  In other words, just as in the Soviet Union, Monsanto and many other American firms in no way could survive without the brute force of the state.   Force that involves rigging markets to create artificial and-or unsustainable dynamics that ensure their survival and oftentimes, even monopoly.  I think we can quite clearly conclude Monsanto would literally cease to exist without state backing.  Monsanto as an organization has no ability to compete in a market driven by transparency, truth, merit, service to society and competition for superior quality.  Instead, it perpetuates itself through intimidation, deceit, political control and subversion of competition.  All of this subversion of truth is accomplished by brute force of the state.  Monsanto is a state enterprise in the exact same way as a Soviet-backed state enterprise existed.  There is absolutely no difference.  Both examples are creatures of the state and thus rely on the force and control of the state.

I could delve into the details of why this is so across a wide spectrum of issues but let’s just focus on a very simple point.  Truth.   Genetically-modified foods do not increase yields, do not increase food safety, do not decrease chemical pollution to harvest them and do not improve our health.   To the contrary….. 

What truth genetically-modified foods do represent is  untruth that basic food and life is patentable.  And they use the force of the state to enforce this crime against humanity.  (It is no different than the Obama healthcare bill that uses the force of the state to enrich private, for-profit insurance companies and medical firms for benefit of those who do not have the interests of democracy or society as their primary intent.)   This state force harnessed by Monsanto enslaves farmers and society to use for-profit seed and for-profit toxic chemicals made by for-profit corporations to grow that seed while using state force to legally intimidate farmers into complying.  Farmers, as an expression of nature’s laws, freedom and truth have used their own seed since the beginning of agrarian society.  Monsanto and countless other corporations offer absolutely no motive of truth or benefit to society.  Monsanto, as just one example, would collapse without the harnessed or captured force of the state.  Force meant to control society, competition and capitalism’s intent of self-interested profit over truth.

Monsanto and Goldman Sachs are but two firms that serve absolutely no productive purpose to society.  Instead their existence is determined by force.  Instead, they prey upon society.  Millions of people in this country are employed in “private” firms engaged in activities that are either a tax on society, serve no productive purpose or worse, they are actually destructive force in our economy and our society and even prey upon society.   These institutions of the ego or firms embracing predatory-deceptive practices are only sustained by force of the state.  Not-ironically, many of those working for or running said state-backed firms  are quickest to tell everyone else that they must become self-sufficient or tighten their belt or accept austerity or other arrogant remarks in light of their predation and reliance on the state.   The ego or the self truly is the great mammon. 

Similar dynamics ensured the survival of firms within the Soviet Union’s economy.   Firms existed through the brute force of the state.  Firms that served little or no purpose other than keeping rats running in the maze.  Or, should I say, keeping countless minions employed while serving no greater purpose to society or its citizens.  The S&P 500 contains countless numbers of these firm that could be classified as state-backed enterprises or firms, at the very least, who have substantial investment in their businesses that are heavily dependent on the force of the state.  In other words, their success, to some degree, oftentimes completely, is determined by the force or control of the state rather than any greater merit or truth or service to society.  We can often easily spot these firms.  They often have the most sought after jobs because their activities are protected by force and glorified by the state.   Think about that last statement.  How many industries and firms can you think of that fit such a profile?   

Defense contractors, security firms, financial firms, technology firms, agricultural firms, medical firms, chemical firms, food processing firms, healthcare firms and on and on and on.  The list is long.  Our economy is dying and has been for a long time.  It is dying courtesy of the state and the force used to maintain state-backed corporations.    Just like the Soviet Union’s economy.   All of this is due to the comingling of corporate power with politics.   All of this is due to the pro-business policies of Obama, Clinton, Bush, Reagan and both political parties.  As we have discussed numerous times, pro-business policies destroyed our economy.  Politicians and political parties destroyed our economy and it has been going on for a long time.    Pro-markets policies support democracy.  Pro-business policies subvert it.

Typically, the larger the corporation, the greater the chance its success in some part is determined by state force.   But there are many examples beyond size.  Others, as an example, are the countless numbers of smaller security and consulting firms run by former military and political cronies serving Homeland Security, law enforcement and the military-industrial complex.   

Many, if not most of state-backed enterprises aren’t directly involved in government contracting or their business may only have a small exposure to government contracting.  Look at Goldman Sachs and Monsanto.   Most of their business is in private markets.   Private markets rigged by state force.  As highlighted in the documentaries Food Inc and Fresh, prison labor and undocumented workers are being used as slave labor in our meat processing facilities because the pay and benefits are so low and the work environment so repressive, that these state-backed corporations can’t find people to work under such tyrannical conditions.   But, yet the flourish through the force of the state.  For now.  The company who makes pink slime beef just collapsed.  Almost overnight.   We have said for years this type of failure was going to happen to our food supply chain.  It most certainly was not unpredictable.  Even Apple, as an example, is a major beneficiary of state force in rigging markets.  The participant list is deep and wide.  And, so too will be its victims.

Remember too that both political parties are registered corporations.  And, what could better define the brute force of the state than the entire political apparatus of the Democratic and Republican Parties.  They exist under the same state force as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  So too does the political party campaign process and the literal army of political consultants, advisors, lobbyists and lawyers who gain legitimacy through the comingling of state force and the party corporations.  Another highly exposed area of future volatility and possibly even collapse. 

Many of these state-backed corporations would never exist were our economy to embrace democratic determinism and truth in lieu of state force and secrecy.  Yet these state-backed corporations flourish quite substantially because of chronic unemployment and underemployment in our economy.  Chronic employment issues are also a product of state force.   Market participants would need to invest in their workers, raise working conditions, raise benefits and increase workplace satisfaction levels in order to attract qualified labor were state force not a determining factor of success in our economy.  But, the corporate state has obliterated economic freedom as well as truth.  So,  many workers cling to whatever jobs they may have realizing that opportunity for a better working environment is nearly impossible to come by.   Nearly impossible because of the force of the state.  In other words, as a timeless quote tells us, all that needs to happen for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.   Citizens often do nothing but exist out of fear.  They exist within the corporate structure out of fear because they must participate in the system to survive.  Fear created by the Godlessness of the state.

Laughably, Monsanto’s stock price has doubled in the last eighteen months.  Monsanto’s stock price has doubled even though research and scientific concerns about their genetically-modified seeds and the chemicals used to treat them seem to be presenting themselves at an ever-faster pace.   The stock market too represents nothing other than state force that has  rigged the investment game.  In other words, the stock market also would not survive in its current form without state control;  Wall Street and Monsanto share that commonality.   Wall Street, in its current form, too would have already collapsed generations ago without the force of the state.   It should be of no surprise that I have been writing for half a dozen years that Wall Street could be peaking forever.  And eventually be replaced by a distributed and-or public capital market system.    Wall Street literally serves zero purpose to our society.  Zero.  Wall Street serves itself and the Federal Reserve as it is currently structured, helps Wall Street serve itself.   By the way, it is quite plausible that the stock market as we know it could easily disappear.  Forever. 

The list of scientific research pointing to possible concern over genetically-modified foods and their farming methods are coming at a frenetic pace.    One of the many disconcerting concerns is based on the research done by a  Russian scientist, Alexei Surov, that points to potential  population collapse or severe genetic damage to offspring of mammals who ingest genetically-modified foods.  Now, we must seek to understand and learn from Alexei’s research rather than draw broad conclusions using limited data.  Yet.  But this isn’t too difficult to appreciate once one understands that genetically-modified foods are designed not to reproduce.   That is how their owners can force farmers to buy genetically-modified seed every year.  While it is too early to draw such broad conclusions, it seems this gene trait of GMO reproductive sterility may be transferred to mammals who ingest them.  (Even if we aren’t eating GMO food, we are most certainly eating meat from animals fed a GMO diet.  No research I am aware of has been undertaken to test for this trait or any other concerns moving laterally between different mammal populations.)  

The seal on Pandora’s Box has been broken.   The only question is if the box has now been opened and, if so, can we get it closed again.    This dynamic is a direct consequence of political idiots in the Soviet Amerikan bureaucracy subverting scientific truth by using state force on behalf of corporations desiring to rig the game for greed, profit and control in their favor.    Even today, through Wikileaks we see that State Department officials are abusing their privilege of public service by using force to coerce the market on behalf of state-backed corporations engaged in genetically-modified foods.   Is this public service?  To the contrary, this is simply one example of state force being used to create critical mass for state companies such as Monsanto.  Companies who could not compete without the force of the state. 

State force has simply created an unsustainable distortion of nature’s laws.   That distortion will not last.   It’s simply a matter of when nature decides to respond through some dynamic that exposes its truth.  Our economy should embrace  nature’s laws rather than have an intent to distort or subvert them.  In doing so, we would see vibrancy restored to our economy and our democracy.  One of those is embracing the concept of economic inefficiency I remarked of half a dozen years ago.  

While ancient texts state that man cannot serve two masters of money and God, the more fundamental meaning of that statement is that man cannot simultaneously serve control and truth; the only two intentions the conscious human mind is capable of.   Serving money is driven by the ego or the self’s desires.  The desires of greed, lust, envy, power, hate, pride, separateness, etc.  More fundamentally, these desires are simply manifestations of the human ego’s need to control.  Control is an illusion created by the self.  It isn’t real.  It only exists within the mind.  Beyond the endless illusions, delusions and rationalizations of the mind only truth is real.  When the illusion of control vanishes, truth will always reveal itself, even violently so as nature has often done. 

Nature’s laws cannot be “rigged” by man forever.    Monsanto’s control over nature and society is nothing more than a temporary illusion.  That illusion  is guaranteed to fail because it is completely inconsistent with the laws of nature.  It’s simply a matter of when and how.  Just as the corporate state is guaranteed to fail for the same reason. 

Man must learn to live in harmony with nature not seek to distort its laws.  That includes the natural laws associated with human rights.  If nature causes failure through its revelation of truth, the outcome is often catastrophic on some level.  If humanity is capable of stopping the dynamic of control before we get to to nature’s decisive action, the outcomes might possibly be contained or mitigated.   So, it is with the corporate state, their genetically-modified foods and tampering with forces they clearly do not understand, and therefore, surely cannot control.  

Truth can come quickly and seemingly without notice.  The status quo, always invested in the illusion of control, is never prepared for that truth.  But truth is coming.  It is a constant in the world in which we live.   Change is imminent.  Embracing failure is part of nature’s laws.  The system of state-based control we call global finance, globalization and pro-business political policy, as constructed, cannot be saved.  That is change you can believe in. 

Jeffrey Smith discusses the Russian research in a Youtube interview.  (Smith is arguably “the” U.S. authority on GMOs

The cycle of volatility continues.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:23 AM

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ten Year Bond Rates Drop 20% In Less Than A Month

The world is endlessly amusing. If incompetence can be captured in a picture, this is it. The seemingly consistently wrong comments of the world's largest bond fund's chief prognosticator has graced this blog numerous times. It was literally when ten year bond yields were 20% higher a month ago that he wrote rates were headed even higher with a return to inflation. Got to give it to him. He literally top ticked interest rates nearly to the day. Seems like a pattern. At the time we said that remark reflected a lack of understanding of the bond market or the economy.

And, here we are again. Right where we said we would be. One more time for bond traders who seemingly can't stop making the wrong calls yet pay themselves tens of millions of dollars to do it. Bond rates are determined by one dynamic. Not by bond vigilantes. Not by some mysterious forces of the universe. Bond rates are determined by supply and demand. As long as Bernanke is stepping on the neck of the Treasury market, Treasury rates aren't going anywhere. And, those who jumped out of bonds for stocks in the last few months, including Goldman Sachs' absolutely stupid call on bonds and stocks just a month ago, good luck. You'll need it.

The status quo's success has little to do with competence and everything to do with countless other factors like being in the right place at the right time, cronyism, luck, etc.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:25 PM

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Bank of America Is Too Crooked to Fail. Microcosm Of The United States?

I missed Taibi’s latest but it was emailed to me by a friend.   Not a lot new but a very good read.  It’s a good read because Taibbi’s style is to lay it all on the table  with brutal honesty in a way that we can relate to consequences and perversions of our society and our economy.  Frankly, it would be nice if the mainstream media would entertain even varnished honesty with some regularity.  This type of reporting, style aside, should be in every newspaper and on every television news channel in America on a multitude of topics relevant to educating our society.  At the top of that list should be political corruption in Washington and how all of the other issues are a result of a for-sale government that enriches politicians.   Instead, positions of public service and leadership within our society remain silent while Americans rot.  I think we know why.

You know, I have remarked on here that before this cycle ends, the people of this country are likely to find out very disturbing “things” about our government.  Things that are hidden behind the veil of secrecy.  Secrecy or control will ultimately fail.   Maybe all at once.  Maybe in waves.  But truth cannot be controlled forever.  In fact, that is the basis for one of our long time theses on here – this is the cycle we see failures in institutions of the ego or of the self.  Or, put more plainly, institutions of control.   Politics is the consummate institution of the self or of control.

I would go so far as to say these “things” could be so disturbing they could precipitate  institutions of our society to fail or even disappear.   By the way, failure is not such a bad thing.  Failure is just as much a part of life as is success.  Death as much as birth.  Renewal and rebirth are part of the never-ending process of karma or Newton’s third law.    Pieces of the self, our perceptions and beliefs, die and rebirth numerous times throughout our lives as greater truth and knowledge unfolds.   Are you the same person you were ten years ago?  Of course not.   You most likely possess greater wisdom.  Even if that wisdom is that you don’t know what to believe in anymore.  That is a profound wisdom.  It is the foundation for greater belief in the greatest truth – inner truth.

One must be willing to consider that acts against humanity, even Americans, could be hidden behind that political secrecy.  This has been the case more than once in U.S. history.  When the state knowingly is aware of this type of behavior at Bank of America, on Wall Street and within predatory corporations as a whole, and does nothing, we can most certainly be assured of a few possibilities.  One, the state is complicit in this predation and two, the state itself considers these activities as perfectly acceptable.   In other words, it has become quite obvious that this behavior is compatible with the constructs of our political value system.   Put another way, Bank of America is a microcosm of the political culture of the United States.  It is a creature of the state.  So, that begs the question - what is the state involved with behind that veil of secrecy?  Secrecy which is outside of the power of democracy and self-rule?

For many years now, we have said that the U.S. could see Nuremburg-type tribunals at some point.  In the last year, I saw that someone else picked up on this as well.  It’s really not so far fetched.   Extra-judicial proceedings may be the only way to deal with a judicial system tainted by unrelenting political corruption.  How else does anyone explain the lack of judicial proceedings against corporate malfeasance?   It’s really quite simple.  We are a fascist state.  Corporations and rich elites buy our politicians and, by extension, our government.   The enablers of this fascism are for-profit political parties that are, in fact, registered corporations that benefit from the fascist comingling of money and politics.  It’s the only way they survive.  It’s the only way they control perceptions.  It’s the only way they subvert democratic truth.

The mainstream media, politicians and political parties remain silent.  All controlled by corporations and self-interest.  Our legal system remains captured. 

Only laws and not men (and corporations ruled by men)  have any legitimate authority to govern humanity.  Ironclad rules that protect our humanity, our dignity, our community and our democracy that are beyond the meddling of politicians, corporations and the state.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:15 AM

Monday, April 09, 2012

Renminbi Rate Near Equilibrium

Ya think? 

We have written for many years that the Chinese currency was overvalued and would eventually implode or be devalued, thus destabilizing global trade and investment in China even further.  This while our last two Treasury Secretaries called for China to let the renminbi float so that it would appreciate in value.   Ignorant U.S. politicians will eat those words. 

Now, we are starting to see a recognition that the renminbi issue isn’t going away.  First the perception of the renminbi was that it was undervalued.  Now it is starting to be perceived as fairly valued.  The trend is in the opposite direction that our corporate masters and their political toadies believed would happen.  Next, for those who think with their eyes, it will be overvalued as China is revealed to be financially-bankrupt just as we said they would be years ago. 

The implications of this macro dynamic are wide and deep as we have discussed numerous times.   Volatility dead ahead.   The world continues to unfold exactly as we said it would.

 Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:20 AM

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Judge Napolitano On President Obama’s Rhetoric Projected At The Supreme Court - Incomprehensible

I’m on a rant about this healthcare bill.  It’s important for a much larger reason than face value.  In so many ways the dynamics surrounding the passage of this bill and the political and legal wranglings after its passage signify what is wrong with public service in this country.  How political parties have truly embraced anything-goes behavior in order to gain an upper hand in the game of controlling the money bubble that is flowing into Washington.  The outlandish behavior between parties that then encourages similar outlandish behavior from their supporters has reached levels unimaginable.  We see this in the endless commentary for and against this healthcare by politically-motivated pundits who really could care less about what is actually in the bill.    The mob cheering and jeering for its team has reached levels I have never witnessed.  Just recently when sanitorium Santorum, was readying to fire a gun at a shooting range, a supporter yelled to pretend it was Obama.    What kind of person could even think this type of thought?   Let alone believe it is acceptable to yell this at a political event?   For all of his shortcomings as a leader this country needs, this is a human being with a wife and two daughters.  It’s one thing to critique the politics but it’s quite another to wish personal harm on a father and husband or any human being.  Is your mouth connected in any way to your brain?   Politics, being a game of control, truly engenders mob behavior.  Believe me, the mob can take many forms.  Obama has his mob as well.  Their form of controlling dissent is much more covert.  We’re more educated than you, so anything we do is based on our intellectual superiority. 

People in this country have become truly crazy over partisan politics.  C-r-a-z-y.   But what has legitimized this behavior is the behavior of politicians who find new ways to manifest their insanity.  We even had Gingrich race-bating his way to victory in South Carolina.   Is this 2012 or 1862?  Our society has seemingly been set back a hundred years by politicians and corporations.  Both political parties are morally-bankrupt but the Republicans are in a league by themselves in their outright insanity.  Literally.  The partisan Democrats hide behind the self’s perception of intellectual  superiority that belies an insidious  corruption.   A perfect example is this healthcare bill that is more corrupt than anything I can think of that has been passed under A Republican White House.  But clearly not as corrupt as a multitude of bills passed under Clinton and Algore, another example of insidious corruption hiding behind a perception that academic intelligence equates to strong leadership.  We hammered on this myth with the Herbert Hoover example back in 2008.   While Hoover didn’t personally cause the Great Depression, he was part of the culture of corruption in Washington that contributed to it. 

In some regards, I think all of the political wranglings of our day are irrelevant.   The world is going to change so drastically in coming years that I seriously doubt we’ll never see the full implementation of anything politicians are doing today.  In other words, the money bubble of billions of dollars that elites and corporations are spending today is going to have a long term return on investment of negative consequences.  That said, one can’t live their life based on tomorrow‘s expectations so today is today. 

We have talked about judicial review quite a few times on here.  This is not a constitutional authority granted  to the court.  But it is not forbidden either.  In other words, the courts granted it to themselves.  In fact, we wrote that both Congress and the Executive branch of government have the ability to also invoke the process of constitutional review as a check against the Supreme Court.  All three branches have this ability to check against each other.  I have actually penned on here that the Congress should take up constitutional review to invalidate the corrupt Supreme Court decision on corporate personhood.  Unfortunately, that will likely never happen until macro circumstances change because both political parties are registered corporations who survive and thrive through corporate personhood. 

People need to understand the Supreme Court is not the law of the land.   It is not the final decider.  George Bush is.  Haha.  Seriously, it is a check in a system of checks.  But, those checks are meant to work both ways.   In other words, the President could legally challenge any Supreme Court decision through constitutional review.    Constitutional review is the basis for the President Bush legal team’s legal opinions  regarding the constitutionality of water boarding and other issues in their war on terror.   I don’t cite their decisions as any source of truth but simply as an example of constitutional review within the executive branch.  My point is that constitutional review is not the sole claim of the courts as almost everyone seems to believe. 

There are a multitude of avenues that could be taken when spats arise between branches of government or between states and the federal government or between the people and either levels of governments or whatnot.  But they are seldom invoked.  Most obviously, that includes passing amendments to the Constitution or amending existing law to make it constitutional as agreed to by all branches of government.   The system is imperfect, especially in today’s world when the corruption of money and self-interest is so prevalent in all three branches, but it is working as designed as far as the Supreme Court having the right to review and even strike down the healthcare bill.  There may be influences involved in the courts that shouldn’t be but then those same interests helped Democrats craft this horrible piece of crony, corrupt legislation.  Umm, by the way, I’m one of those people who wants healthcare for all Americans.  Who believes it is a human right.  But, how can anyone other than a party hack, who only cares about their team winning, support a bill that is so blatantly corrupt and crafted in secrecy under the duress of massive lobbying by for-profit interests?  As we noted at the time, a ten page addendum to Medicare would have allowed Americans to buy into an existing structure at cost without creating a whole new 2500 page bureaucracy based on corruption and massive special interest money.  But, that most obvious of options didn’t enrich the Democrat’s corporate masters. 

President Obama’s rhetoric, as shown in the Napolitano video link below, is really quite incomprehensible.  His characterization of ruling on this case as judicial activism really is preposterous.   (Factcheck.org’s comments on his rhetoric here.)  Courts interpret law and applicability to cases.  That’s what they do.   What the hell else are they supposed to do?  Play Yahtzee all day?  Judicial activism, as he attempts to characterize this, is when courts don’t interpret law but make law.  That is clearly not the case here.   They are interpreting the constitutionality requiring every citizen to buy for-profit insurance to enrich predatory corporations mandated by the force of the state.   That most certainly is a valid constitutional issue to rule upon.  While legal wording surely wouldn’t entail my brutal remarks, that, my friends, is fascism.   The comingling of corporate power and money with government as defined by this healthcare bill.

Any ruling against universal healthcare is not the end of the world.   A new plan could be drafted quite easily be it an addendum to Medicare or offering Americans access to Congress’s plan or whatever.  It need not be some enormous new bureaucracy that would be nearly impossible to pass Congress again. 

This on the other hand is the kind of dishonest, shallow, unreasoned, trash journalism not based on law that serves absolutely no purpose other than cheerleading for President Obama.  That’s a constant problem.  So many engaged in party politics and their intellectually-outsourced mob supporters view politics as a game and their team should win regardless of whether they are abiding by the rule of law or not.  It’s for reasons such as this that we have a rule of law.  So the rest of us don’t need to put up with the opinions of people’s incessant mob behavior.

It makes me nearly hurl to watch Murdoch’s monstrosity creation of Faux News in this video segment but Napolitano is generally a very reasonable person.  On this issue he is clearly very reasonable.  This public attempt to manipulate the Supreme Court and-or the public by President Obama is highly unusual and without merit beyond attempted control.  By the way, personally, I completely disagree with lifetime judicial appointments that Napolitano seemingly defends for the same reasons I put up that last post about perceptions of self and the human condition’s self-deceit, control, fear and unsubstantiated beliefs.  Lifetime appoints may be virtuous were human beings not human beings.  It’s sort of like that free market nonsense.  That would be great were we have evolved to some level of nobility, truth and virtue with every intent.   All free markets do is allow psychopaths to run roughshod over those not willing to destroy their fellow man.  It rewards those most willing and capable of doing harm.  In other words, it’s Social Darwinism or survival of those most willing to destroy everyone else for the benefit of the self.

UPDATE: I have received comment that constitutional review is not actually available to branches other than the judicial branch.   That is completely false.  I did not say overturn court decisions.   But the Supreme Court does not have a granted constitutional power of constitutional interpretation.  This power is granted to all three branches of government.  Judicial review is not a constitutional power.  It is an extra constitutional power the court granted itself.  It is tradition to defer to this extra constitutional self-granted power.   That’s all it is.   Were the Supreme Court solely granted this unchecked power, they would have theoretical control over any check over the other two branches.  That is simply not the case.    Judicial review is a grant the court has given itself.  A grant that has no basis in powers granted under the Constitution.  In matters of constitutional interpretation, the ability exists to challenge Judicial review.  I learned of constitutional review in my studies courtesy of a constitutional professor. 

posted by TimingLogic at 9:58 AM