Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Final Days Are Nigh - Unregulated/Deregulated Capitalism’s Destabilization Of The Human Condition Will Lead To Its Failure. Probably A Permanent One.

It’s been quite a while since I have put up a post on the human condition.  The link below to the article from Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco is a good excuse to do so.  Even though this is many days early, I’m going to classify this as a Labor Day post.  You’ll gain an appreciation of this as you read on.  That is, the effects unregulated/deregulated capitalism has on labor or the citizens enslaved within its chaotic clutches.  Hedges and Sacco’s story highlights real examples in the lives of Americans of what we have talked about abstractly on here; how unregulated/deregulated capitalism enslaves then destabilizes our citizens.  

Hedges and Sacco’s story is a gut-wrenching tragedy of human suffering.  How people have had so much of themselves taken from them.  That’s right.  Taken.  And how much the world of humanity has lost because of it.   This story really strikes a deep chord with me because of how it parallels the reality that now exists within the local communities surrounding where I grew up.  While some of the macro circumstances are mildly different, (I grew up in the heart of America’s one awesome industrial/farming belt rather than in the coal belt), the greater and greater poverty, loss of determinism, loss of dignity and subsequent rampant addictions, crime, destabilization and greater reliance on the system’s pittance handouts to simply stay alive is exactly the same.  I have seen people who used to be vibrant, sentient beings become hollowed shells of their former self after being unable to provide for their own livelihood and/or that of their family.  I could take coal out of this story and it would define the terminal illness that now exists in countless communities across the United States. 

Capitalism is dying.  And while many might say what we are witnessing isn’t capitalism, if we are honest with ourselves, it indeed is.  Only about  thirteen percent of Americans actually produce any form of wealth or capital in our nation. (Capitalism)  The rest simply push around paper in the largest financial bubble the world has ever seen, (parasites) work in some merchant/service business, sell drugs, rely on reselling purchases on eBay, sell locally-produced crafts, work for the government or receive a government handout to get the money needed to simply survive.   Those eighty seven percent of people all consume capital (essentially doing each other’s laundry as Henry Ford famously remarked)  and, therefore, are tax that is reliant on the thirteen percent or the government to borrow more money from banking criminals or the Federal Reserve to print more money to receive their share of national income. 

If Paul Ryan thinks he can replace a system of rampant selfishness with even greater Ayn Rand/Ron Paul-style deregulated/unregulated “free market” glorification of the self/selfishness or that Obama is going to fix the system with more corporatism, Homeland Security spending, undeclared wars, failed green investments or  endless hollow rhetoric, well, good luck with that.   People choose to be politicians for a reason.  Their intellectual capacity beyond talking, manipulating and living off of other people is limited.   Politicians rise to authority on the backs of our citizens not on their virtues or selfless accomplishments.  Neither party has any plan to do anything other than keep this scheme going and/or hack government/social services back to something that resembles Afghanistan.   I sympathize with Afghanis, especially women and children, because the Republikan Party may be worse than the Taliban.  Actually, come to think about it, it was a Dummycrat who funded elements that became the Taliban.

What we may fail to realize is that when a system, capitalism, is in its final phases, it’s never going to look like what one may believe it should look like.  Or what it looked like in decades before its maturation and instability/volatility.  When any system with internal contradictions is dying, we are exposed substantially to the rawness and brutality of those contradictions.  Cronyism, corruption, looting, violence, exploitation and poverty have always been defining factors in capitalism as it has always been practiced.  That is, private for-profit capital being the capital in capitalism.  And the more deregulated this system becomes, the greater those contradictions define the system. 

This isn’t rocket science.  Nor does it require some grand epiphany by political idiots.  Teddy Roosevelt remarked of unregulated capitalism being akin to slavery more than one hundred years ago.  And, for those who believe Any Rand/Ron Paul’s delusions that free market capitalism has been corrupted by red tape, cronyism, smarmy back room deals and the like, might I simply remark that your perceptions of self and of reality are most certainly unstable.  It is the deregulation of capitalism, it is the glorified self’s free market nonsense that destabilized the system.  It created the  environment of cronyism,  endless government red tape, rigging of markets, monopoly, looting and corruption.  These dynamics didn’t kill capitalism.  These dynamics are deregulated capitalism.  Unregulated/deregulated private, for-profit capital(ism) caused the unprecedented corruption, looting, cronyism and subversion of working markets. 

Capitalism without rules exposes its countless contradictions and paradoxes.   Any complex system, especially an inherently unstable one with countless contradictions, without rules will immediately become destabilized and eventually fail.  When nature’s rules are subverted within any complex ecosystem, what happens?  Ecosystem collapse.  Ayn Rand and Ron Paul obviously didn’t study advanced mathematics or engineering.  (By the way, neither did banksters.  Don’the free market clowns find it ironic that banksters also preach free market religion?  Haven’t you wondered if you are on the wrong side of the trade?  Were maybe duped and now are too ashamed to admit it?  You know, like the anthropogenic global warming clowns.)  Glorification and exaltation of selfishness when it comes to society’s money, banking, corporations, resources and labor then superadded to interacting with politics without any regulation aka rule of law applied to the system somehow creating this harmonious perfect economic system is a wild unreasoned, illogical delusion that only exists within the minds people who are easily hoodwinked by whatever they read.  ie, Propaganda.   Capitalism without regulations or the rule of law is like democracy without a rule of law.  Deregulated capitalism becomes the economic rule of man rather than the rule of law or regulation.   We have become a nation of man and not of law.  Deregulating aka free market capitalism not only killed capitalism it killed the rule of law of democracy.

One of (surely not the only) the fundamental crises that exists for capitalism today is there is nothing left for it to loot.  Capital(ism)  has looted literally all that there is to be looted.  That is why over the last handful of decades our economy has become so reliant on finance (money printing) for employment.  The financialization of our economy is a resultant symptom of dying capitalism.  The global engine of capitalism’s over-production concentrated in the U.S., Germany, Japan and China needs to shrink by an astronomical number even with global unemployment skyrocketing.   This recursive unwinding we have uniquely discussed over the last seven years will cause demand to collapse, most likely by a staggering amount, in coming years.  Being capitalism is a discounting mechanism to future production, this dynamic will likely prove terminal.  Obama’s economic answer in an op-ed a few years ago?  More production to export more.  Clearly he has no fundamental understanding of what is going on; a hallmark of politicians.  Thus, they almost always make the ultimate crises even worse by trying to institute the wrong policies.  Something we have discussed on here ad nauseam.  These failed policies are a symptom of a society ruled by man and not by rule of law. 

The human condition is incredibly fragile.  Incredibly.  It can be destabilized in the blink of an eye.  Everything we project about ourselves is nothing more than a mirage, a belief.  It is simply a reflection of the perceptions we have about our manifested self.  If we outwardly project a lack of confidence, that is a reflection of how we perceive our manifested self through the sum of our experiences' perceptions. 

Similarly, those who live in gated developments,(separate themselves from the human community) drive ostentatious automobiles and seemingly have an insatiable desire for more physical representations (hyper consumerism) of their material wealth are simply using external measurements for validation.  They worship a false god of money (control) over truth.   They worship greed, vainglory, selfishness, lust and the like.  These too are projections of their own perceptions of their manifested self onto the world around them.  These projections of grandiosity are a security blanket or a wall that they build around their fragile perceptions.  Accumulating staggering sums of wealth and ostentatious displays of it is nothing more than a wall to hide behind.  A wall that hides a very, very unstable perception of self.   Those who  perceive that the American dream is the accumulation of unbridled wealth, hyper-consumerism and unbridled capitalism have a fundamentally unstable perception of who they are.   And, deep within that megalomania, behind those layers of security blankets of accumulated inanimate objects and massive wealth is the very weak, very fragile, very afraid, very insecure human condition.   As I have noted on here before, those who seek extreme wealth (control) as a primary intent, rather than having a primary intent of creation, invention or service to society (truth) that then has the benefit of creating wealth, has a very unstable perception of self.

People who seek to separate themselves from others, be it through ostentatious displays of wealth, or any other method, do so for unstable perceptions of their manifested self.  Whether that separateness is due to perceptions of weakness or perceptions of grandiosity, it really doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter whether we seemingly exude success and confidence or we seemingly lack any success and confidence, the seemingly diametric opposites are really no different.   The difference is one perception of self uses material gain to hide their vulnerability and weakness.  The other can’t find a way out of their own self-victimization or victimization by others or the system.  They are simply two extremes of the same human condition that everyone suffers from.   Remember this, regardless of how we project our perceptions, be they positive or negative, we all define ourselves through our own suffering.   It is endemic to everyone.  It is a sign of disconnection from our higher self or our own divinity when those projections are extreme.  That person on Wall Street who is obsessed with material gain is no different that the victims Hedges writes about in the sacrifice zones of capitalism.  But, how far apart they seem.  And, how far apart their perceptions of self truly are.   And, how far apart is the arrogance of those who build a wall of perceived success around them and then mock the vulnerability and frailties of those who they prey upon and victimize.  Those whose face they smash upon the system.     

Capitalism, and this belief in free markets, forces, and yes it forces, people to compete against each other to accumulate the money and resources required to survive.  A form of economic Darwinism or survival of those most willing to prey upon their fellow man.   That forced competition is a-okay for those above this system, the incredibly weak and emotionally-unstable looters, who sit back and reap their plunder.  But were they to have to compete in this psychotic system, a system that was created because of the hell that exists within their minds, their perceptions would quickly be destabilized as their fundamental frailties and vulnerabilities are exposed.   They are just as human and just as weak as the rest of us.   Most often, their manifestation of the human condition is far more unstable than the average person:

  "I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than the fact that the office sanctifies the holder of it. " -- John Dalberg-Acton

This forced competition against our fellow man has an effect of substantially determining our perceptions of who we are.  And, maybe more importantly, our perceptions of our self’s worthiness.  Succeeding in this system feeds a thin veneer of confidence, narcissism and egoism that is based purely on a perception.  Contrarily, failing to succeed within deregulated/unregulated capitalism destabilizes our perception of self.  It does so because, as much as we may deny it, or seek to ameliorate it, we all seek some level of external validation for our worthiness.   No one is more representative of this than politicians and elites.  Failure within the system can easily turn someone’s perceptions of self into devastating unworthiness.  Thus destabilizing the human condition. 

As an escape from the cruelties and suffering of unregulated/deregulated capitalism, people are often destabilized to the point of  drug addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders, obesity, crime and countless other projected perceptions of the manifested self’s unworthiness.  Because that’s all these are.  They are projections onto the world around us of our perceived worthiness or lack thereof.    While there are obviously more dynamics than capitalism that lead to the destabilization of the human condition, there is no denying deregulated/unregulated capitalism’s catastrophic effects.  The rampant emotional instability in our nation is a clear data point that the system is very near death.  Volatility always precedes a change in trend in any complex system. 

This destabilization of the human condition can easily happen to anyone who doesn’t have a support structure or community.  The natural state of humanity is community, connectedness and vulnerability.   Yet, the brutal selfishness and glorification of hyper-individualism of the Godless corporate state destroys community and connectedness.  Vulnerability in a system of violence and human exploitation, that is unregulated capitalism, is mercilessly punished rather than exalted as core to our worthiness.  This is why religion plays such a large role in the lives of the poor and those beaten down within any corrupt system.  It provides community, dignity, equality, acceptance and compassion in a Godless world of unregulated, corporate control.   It provides a place where vulnerability, connectedness and our humanity are embraced.

Ayn Rand’s perceptions of selfishness and free market capitalism being the pinnacle of human glory and achievement clearly shows a very unstable perception of self and a disconnection from her higher power or that which makes us human.  That is, her disconnection from values of selflessness, community, empathy, acceptance, dignity, equality and kindness. 

It is our frailties and vulnerability that makes us beautiful.  It is our vulnerable expression of empathy, kindness, equality, community, dignity and acceptance that makes us beautiful sentient beings.   It is these values that have allowed humanity to survive and thrive as a species.  Not the faulty perceptions of Darwinism, individualism and selfishness.    These values would have caused the human species to die out early in our existence.  And, it’s no coincidence that they are the reasons our society is dying today.  In our journey we are always provided with exactly the experience we need at that moment.   That the culture of Adam Smith’s invisible hand of selfishness, capitalism, is dying presents humanity with exactly the experience it needs at this moment.  At this moment we all need to stand to account.   What do you stand for?   Selfishness or empathy, community, equality and dignity.

It isn’t the size of our house or our bank account or any other materialistic glorification of unbridled capitalism that determines our values as sentient beings or the values of democracy or any free society.  It is the acceptance and vulnerability to our imperfections and frailties that connects us into the cycle of life.  That connects us to our fellow man and to community.  The merciless, indignity and brutality of the social Darwinism of free market capitalism destroys that connectedness and destabilizes the human condition for those either unable to fend for themselves for any variety of factors, be they temporary or permanent, or those unwilling to stomp on the face of their fellow man to make it to the top as Mitt Romney has.  

We are all already who we were meant to become.  We are all worthy.  It’s only our own faulty perceptions that keep us from realizing this.  Unregulated capitalism perpetuates these faulty perceptions.   In fact, it is our perceptions of separateness, be that through success or failure, that unregulated capitalism enforces, are, in fact, man’s original sin.  The basis for all evil.    Maybe I’ll discuss this more in a holiday post some December. 

No one can beat the human condition.  So, it’s not even worth trying.  Attempting to glorify it through the psychotic chaos of unregulated/deregulated capitalism could only be the resultant perceptions of a very, very unstable manifested self.  The only path out of the human condition is acceptance and vulnerability.   The acknowledgement of our weakness relieves us of our inner conflict, our own self-judgments and our own feelings of unworthiness.  It’s no irony that Buddhism and Christianity are based on these very concepts of relinquishing these perceptions of the self and admitting our frailties.   Relinquishing these perceptions sets us free from the need of external validation and its associated feelings of unworthiness.   Although acceptance isn’t an act so much as it is a life-long journey seeking greater inner harmony and greater connectedness to our own divinity.

Contrarily, the external validation of living within a corrupt system, that is fundamentally based on external validation, unregulated/deregulated capitalism, requires us to give away a piece of our humanity every single day.   Living in a system of corruption, economic Darwinism, exploitation and violence against other human beings requires us to give away some small bit of our kindness, our dignity, our equality, our empathy, our community and our love for humankind and the natural world.  In a democracy, we need a merit-based economic system that encourages acceptance, dignity, merit, equality and community as well as personal responsibility.   That is not capitalism as it has always been practiced.   Capitalism could be regulated into this type of system as some part, not all but part, of a merit-based economy. 

We have seen this predatory and brutal sociological phenomenon countless times before throughout history; all empire, all feudal systems, all caste systems and all theocracies.  One glaring example was in England and France at the height of their predatory glory in 1776.   When empire routinely destabilized everyone who wasn’t part of the aristocracy, the elite and the looting class.   England’s days of glory that its citizens wax poetic about were simply manifestations of a very unstable self of the ruling elites whose corporations and private, for-profit banks worked in conjunction with the polity to loot and plunder the world.  But I wonder if a system has ever crumbled so fundamentally as this global system has.   Most certainly, we have never come remotely close to the scale of volatility/crisis that is coming across the globe. 

The people who support the system as it is constructed today are completely disconnected from their humanity.  Whether they are sociopaths, megalomaniacs, narcissists, or whatever, it matters not.   What matters is fixing democracy and creating democratic economics.   The system could ultimately fail by simply watching its internal contradictions fall in upon itself as happened with the Soviet Union.  It may happen without an ounce of fanfare in some countries.  In others, that is not likely as we have discussed countless times.  We really don’t know for certain.  But we don know the system is headed for a reset.  The game is over.  The global economy based on unregulated/deregulated capital(ism) dead.

Hedges and Sacco, A Twenty-First Century American Sacrifice Zone link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:51 AM

Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Mainstream Media, Obama Apologists And Political Elites Attack Niall Ferguson For Being Right: Obama’s Gotta Go.

I can’t say that I have ever been a big fan of Niall Ferguson for his often tainted view of history, money or economics.  But that’s what often happens when one hides in the ivory towered walls of academia’s theories.  One often becomes institutionalized and develops an affliction to reality.  Of course, this is the same institutionalization and affliction reality that affects the mainstream media, political elites and political apologists.   That said, I must say that this Newsweek cover story penned by Ferguson is pretty close to spot on.  Even if one believes his intent is political, Ferguson’s general conclusions are right -  Obama dithers while America’s economic and social collapse continue unabated.  There have been no serious efforts to right the wrongs of the political and corporate corruption that so systemically created this mess. 

The Atlantic, a continual mainstream offender as Obama apologists, cites a supposed fact-based rebuttal to Ferguson and, in doing so, it remarks that bluster cannot make untruths true.  I would retort that in an age of universal deceit, the truth is a revolutionary act.   And, nothing could be more universally deceitful than the mainstream media’s endless sycophantic defense of our nation’s corrupt political system. 

There are so many attack dogs out there doing Obama’s dirty work that it’s simply par for the course of the endless smear campaigns that define fascist American politics.   I fail to see much of any difference between it and Nazi propaganda.   These attacks are meant to marginalize dissent by destroying the opposition’s character; ad hominen attacks are the last gasp of illegitimacy, politics and corruption.  Wasn’t that Hitler’s method of attack? 

The apologists find solace in any ounce of information they may believe is technically-correct.  Or using their own spin to twist what Ferguson said with their own lies, damned lies and statistics.  Some are even calling for Ferguson’s firing for speaking his mind.   This jackboot tactic of tyranny is rampant in the dumbed-down corporate state where individual perspectives and freedom of speech that don’t tow the party or corporate line aren’t tolerated.  How many times have we seen people fired for speaking personal opinions outside of their professional life that aren’t acceptable to the propaganda machine?  But then in a world where the only loyalty is to the party as Orwell predicted, dissent cannot and will not be tolerated.   The constant attack dog cries of racism, bigotry and intolerance by partisan hack political voices at places like the Huffington Post and Brietbart News, even when someone may innocently have an intent of raising substantive issues in need of a national debate, subverts our ability to raise serious issues to a national audience where we can have a reasoned discourse about how to resolve so many issues affecting society.  Everything in our nation is politicized and polarized by a class of dunces.  That includes Ferguson’s cover story. 

These arguments or hair-splitting about Ferguson’s facts are the same intellectually-deficient and intellectually-dishonest memes that have been used for the past thirty years by the mainstream media, elites, political apologists and the political class to throw two hundred million Americans under the bus.  How do you like that for a statistic?   Elites from both parties, the mainstream media and political dimwits fight over technicalities of whose statistics or damned lies are accurate while almost incomprehensible poverty, lack of economic opportunity, the destruction of our freedoms, military-industrial complex fascism and associated corruption reigns supreme in a nation at endless war against its citizens and the world.

Do I blame Obama for creating this mess?  Please.  That’s utterly absurd Republikan attack dog politics.  But, I don’t see Ferguson blaming Obama for creating this mess either.  I see him blaming Obama for doing just about nothing to fix it.  

There are many who would argue that Ferguson or myself or countless millions of Americans have unrealistic expectations that one president or one congressperson can never live up to.  Oh really?   Did Obama want the job or not?   If he didn’t (doesn’t), the exit is clearly marked and no one is stopping him from dismissing himself. 

The reality is true, authentic leadership mocks the perception and rhetoric of “unrealistic expectations”.   True, authentic leadership creates a culture where people are able to work together to achieve more than they ever could on their own.   True, authentic leadership empowers society and individuals to work together for the betterment of all.  True, authentic leadership is not endless fast talking, incredible arrogance, endless rhetoric or whining that the only reason you can’t lead is because Republikans don’t play fair.    

I blame this crisis where the blame should be laid; the system of political corruption that gained enormous speed and critical mass under Reagan and Clinton.   But, let’s be clear.  The resultant data clearly points to the reality that Obama hasn’t done shit as it pertains to the economy, corruption or the restoration of democracy and economic determinism.  What Obama policies can anyone point to in the creation of a substantial and sustainable living wage jobs in this nation?  Name one?  And, name the jobs?  Obama talks us to death about the need for science jobs but the reality is he has done nothing to restore our economic determinism by the repeal of corruption that destroys science jobs.  And, as the Washington Post recently remarked, his policy of talk on this topic belies a greater reality that the jobs won’t appear simply because our president likes talking about it.  Politicians are talkers, leaders are doers.   What Obama policies have restored democracy and economic determinism?  What policies have empowered a nation and its peoples to achieve greatness and personal determinism & responsibility?  What policies then provide an impetus for us to share that greatness through the export of policies of empowerment, know-how assistance, compassion and democracy with the world rather than the exportation of empire and weapons?  What policies have dismantled the Godless corporate state and restored liberty?  Instead, the same neoliberal policies of social and economic Darwinism and empire exist without a hiccup.  Nary even a peep from Obama about either of them or, frankly, not much of anything except his endless political attack dog ads about how awful his competitor is.  Indeed, his competitor may be awful but then so are his policies.   More of the endless false choices of left versus right pablum regurgitated by political dunces.

Our economy can’t be fixed without massive structural changes to a broken economic model created by politicians, elites and corporate bureaucrats.   But beyond that, Obama’s greatest failure is his appeasement of evil.  He is our Neville Chamberlain, another liberal idiot who believed that being nice to sociopaths would make everything as right as rain.  Evil cannot be bargained with.  It must be dealt with.  Chamberlain’s failure to deal with evil most certainly helped create a world war that may never have happened were he to have dealt with Hitler rather than appease him.  Hitler, for his clear sociopathy, evil and terrorism, did not want war with England.   It is cited in the historical record time and again.  And, so it is with the appeasement of evil today.  With that appeasement, evil continues to terrorize democracy, economic determinism, national sovereignty, the rule of law, human dignity and human rights.

When this scene, which is repeated in countless tens of thousands of communities in our nation, has started to return to this and this scene, then we can talk about a legacy of anything more than appeasement for Obama or anyone else.  Until then, Niall Ferguson was right.  Even if some of his statistics could be challenged by other lies, damned lies and statistics of the Obama apologists.   We have already had four years of do-nothing economic policy, government spying and expanded unconstitutional wars.  How many more years do we need to suffer? 

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is a highly controversial book.  And, Ayn Rand had some unstable, emotionally-stunted, even seemingly sociopathic views about the virtues of selfishness.   But the book was right about one thing.   It was a future where this nation and its economy is run by political and corporate looters.   That is why her book appeals to so many people;  it is representative of the dystopian fascist Amerika that exists today.  Obama has done absolutely nothing to change that.  

Neville Chamberlain relinquished his moral authority when he appeased evil.  The outcome today is no different. 

Our Declaration of Independence states that it is not only a nation’s right to demand change when a government is guilty of a long train of usurpations and abuses, but it is our obligation, our duty to alter those usurpations and abuses.   It was and is Obama’s and all other elected officials moral duty to right the wrongs of our political system.  To retake government’s moral authority.  To deal with evil rather than appease it. 

With policies of appeasement - without moral authority - the polity has lost the consent of the governed and, therefore, its right to rule.   Niall Ferguson made a valid, reasoned perspective on the state of our polity.  He was doing only as our Declaration of Independence demanded.  Obama, and frankly both political parties, should take their marbles and go home unless they are able to rise to the challenges our nation faces.   In other words, selflessness instead of both political party’s systemic selfishness, greed, avarice, arrogance and lust for power. 

It is the American people that made our nation great.  And, once again we must rise above the dumbed-down political class as save us from their endless selfishness, corruption and insanity.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:07 PM

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Harvard Researchers Cram 700 Terabytes Of Data Onto A Single Gram

Through all of the political lunacy, the purity of discovery goes on.  Imagine if the purity of the discovery that is science, artistic expression, literature and our inner path of spirituality could be applied to government, the voice of democracy.   The world can easily become a beautiful place without politics.

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 11:21 AM

Friday, August 24, 2012

Egyptian Military Checkmated

One of the most timely calls on here was that as American empire unraveled, there would be power-grabs across the globe; some of them just and some of them unjust.   Not too many years later, we saw the Arab Spring unfold.  The United States is still trying to control this uprising against tyranny and corruption, much of which was enabled by U.S. policy.  But, they are and will likely continue to be on the losing side of that effort.  

A small group of thugs are only able to control an entire nation through manipulation, propaganda or fear be that in the U.S., the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Greece, Egypt, China or Qatar.  Control is an illusion that only exists in your mind.  Once people finally realize that, the illusion fades into oblivion.   Yes, indeed, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.    Fear is fading fast.  And, as I noted years ago during the Iranian uprising, the status quo around the world wants none of these uprisings, be they in Europe, Africa or anywhere else, to be reported.  Because they understand acts of courage give others around the world the strength to be courageous.   We could see the world’s status quo eventually fall like dominos. 

The grab in Egypt is still unfolding between the American-enabled status quo, other forces of control that seek to fill that power gap and forces of justice and morality.  This is an incredibly interesting piece that would one would never find in the U.S. corporate media.   Bad news for the U.S. empire.  Possibly good news for democracy, justice and dignity in Egypt. 

posted by TimingLogic at 3:05 PM

The Coming Collapse Of Political Parties: Romney’s Ties To Oligarch Death Money And Bain Capital’s Offshore Investments Used 'Blockers' To Avoid Taxes

So there are your choices.  It’s Dumb Or Dumber for the 2012 presidential elections.   Both of these men are held up as brilliant achievers by the dumbed-down corporate state.    The best candidates political parties can muster.  Because to rise to the level of opportunity in any political party, one must first support the party ideology, which is nothing more than an intent to control and therefore, subvert truth.  It is almost impossible for anyone of any substantial quality, moral character, intelligence, compassion or reason to rise through the current two party system.  Especially as president.  As George Orwell predicted about our dystopian future, “There will be no loyalty except to the party.”.   And so it is.  To hell with democracy and economic rights.

Political parties are only interested in maintaining control.  Only interested in the benefit of the self.   Only interested in maintaining power for its cronies.  Political parties subvert the process of debate and discourse that hones the blade of excellence in ideas and solutions that is democracy.  Instead we are left with essentially one choice.  It’s the National Socialist German Workers Party or the Nazi Party.   By the way there was nothing socialist or worker about the Nazi Party.   German fascism trounced labor and Hitler hated socialism.   The party’s name was nothing more than pure propaganda.  Hitler picked the name because of social values held by most Germans at the time.   

Speaking of workers, it’s the same type of propaganda that the Democrats perpetuate as the party of workers.  Most Americans have seen their wages stagnant for thirty years while they have been ravaged by inflation.  The Democratic Party never resisted any of this.  In fact, most in the party supported it.  Barack Obama, himself, has presided over a massive trouncing and firing of millions of union workers in state and local governments, teaching positions and the destruction of the automotive pay scale in the automotive industry bailout.   And, in return he has created four million mythical jobs.  But data clearly shows the only jobs being created are low wage, no benefit jobs.   Obama has done nothing to even try to stop it.   But people continue to outsource their beliefs to a reality that doesn’t exist.  People still cling to perceptions of a man that only exists in their mind.  The Democrats and Republicans are the same party.  The party of fascism and empire.   The party of the self.   The party of corruption.  The anti-democratic and anti-economic rights party.  The party of stooges.

When I first wrote of the likely coming collapse of both political parties in this nation, the feedback was consistent;  I was ludicrous.  And, that the parties served our nation well.  Well, as noted before, many of our founding fathers understood the subversion of democracy caused by political parties and wanted them banned.

Can you hear me now?  In a country controlled by political parties, discovery and truth is always subverted.   The rule of law is always subverted by the rule of men.  In a country ruled by men and not by law, the ends justifies the means.   Voter suppression, selling out democracy for a cut of the action, murdering untold numbers of people in undeclared, unnecessary and unjust wars, selling out economic rights for empire, selling out to murderers to raise capital, they are all rationalizations and delusions of the mind of man.  They are all only possible in a society that allows the rule of man to subvert the rule of law. 

We are a nation of men and not of law.  That is the fundamental reason our society and our economy is in such dire shape.  Mitt Romney isn’t going to fix this.  Nor is Barack Obama.  They are the problems.   They want to perpetuate the nation of men.  Neither are soliciting any ideas from democracy.  Their ideas are simply the perpetuation of control for benefit of the self.   For the party.  …no loyalty except to the party.

What type of person wants so badly to gain authority over another human being that they are willing to smear another person, lie, cheat and do anything and everything possible simply to attain that power?  That is the basis of politics.  Not the type of person I want having authority over my economic or human rights.   But, that is everyone who is in the system.  Politics is a remnant of ancient man that has outlived its purpose.  Democracy needs to jettison politics and replace it with public service.  With people who have an intent of discovery and service to humanity.  Selflessness. 

This isn’t some new phenomenon.  This has been going on for two hundred years.    Anyone who supports political parties is unknowingly destroying the rule of law, democracy and their own economic rights. 

I still haven’t put up my post detailing the dynamics of that collapse but it’s coming.  “It” being the likely collapse of both parties and my post.  Smile  I’ll try to get it up before the elections. 

Ties to oligarchs and death squads link here.

Investments used blockers link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:12 AM

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Watchdog Group Public Citizen Releases Obama’s Plan For Global Corporate Governance aka Global Fascism

It is simply impossible to keep up with everything I want to write about on here.  I had the intention of making this an in depth post but time is running by and the 2012 mockery of a presidential election is in full swing.

I love the Obama apologists who wish to blame all of this administration’s incompetence and worse on George Bush.  Many remain convinced that Bush was an idiot and all we needed was another supposedly brilliant Democrat as president to make everything as right as rain.  You know, like Bill Clinton.  And, then all of our problems would be solved by a man standing high on a hill who omnisciently spoke words of wisdom that would transform our lives.   How’s that working out for you?

Bush most certainly was a horrible president.  Although, I will say that I would take Bush over Obama any day without going into the litany of reasons why.   Not, the least of which is Bush would never sell out America’s sovereignty.   He was not a globalist corporate shill as Obama is; although he most certainly was a corporatist shill.  But, the founding fathers of this crisis are Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton for their destruction of the rule of law and the subsequent rise in a system that embraced their ideals on economic neofeudalism or trickle down economics, turning the military-industrial complex into an uncontrollable monster, deregulating capitalism, deregulating finance and creating a hyper-neoliberal, Darwinian global economic model where the sociopaths, criminals, corporate bureaucrats and political idiots thrive.   It appears from this agreement leaked to Public Citizen that Obama is intent upon secretly bringing all of the aforementioned dynamics into one cohesive package; the final solution. 

I find it wildly ironic that a man whose father lived in a nation that was endlessly victimized, exploited and preyed upon by colonialism and imperialism, both clearly forms of predation, violence and slavery, and whose African American heritage should leave him well aware of the plight of minorities against corruption, indignity, inhumanity, discrimination and outright evil in our nation’s history, is proposing a global dystopian corporatist agenda that conscripts the people of the world into a modern day slave labor pool for the Godless, inhumane corporate state.   A plan that takes economic determination & rights, democratic rights and human rights and literally destroys them in favor of corporate governance and slavery; a global dumbed-down Godless state of corporate control.  One that benefits political idiots and their corporate masters while conscripting the rest of us.  A plan that subverts democratic, economic, sovereign and human rights in favor of the supremacy of global corporate rights.   In essence a plan that takes the massively tyrannical and corrupt concept of corporate personhood onto a global scale.   Regardless of where you live, your economic, sovereign, human and democratic rights are being sold out from under you by your country’s politicians who are all engaged in this global cabal of subversive secrecy. 

This isn’t anything that can be blamed on George Bush.  This is solely an Obama agenda.  In fact, most people in Congress don’t even have access to this secret trade agreement.  But, hundreds of corporate representatives do.   Democracy is dead but fascism is alive and well.  What did President John F. Kennedy say about secrecy in a free and open society?  (Kennedy is talking about communism and the Soviet Union.  It’s frightening how much that speech represents our system of governance around the world today.  How democracy has been trounced.  How Kennedy talks of a closed or secret conscription system that relies mostly on covet means, subversion, infiltration and intimidation to increase its sphere of influence; the dumbed-down Godless corporate state.)  Obama is quite apparently bought and paid for by corporatist fascist elements in this nation.  That is, unless I am missing something. 

If you plan on voting for Obama as the lesser of two evils or I suppose even if you still have faith in the rule of man over the rule of law or somehow view him as a messianic figure that is going to save your inner child, you really need to dig deep inside and have a chat with your inner child and your conscience.    The time for rationalizations in voting for a lesser of two evils is over.  The messiah isn’t here.   Your inner child isn’t going to relive its traumatic experiences through Obama.  Only you will save your inner child and yourself.  Only We The People will save our nation, our democracy, our economic rights, our sovereignty and each other from political idiots and their corporate masters.

Public Citizen press release link here.

Public Citizen’s leaked Obama trade agreement here.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:52 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012

Apple’s Stock Reaches A Capitalization Of $630 Billion. Greece’s Entire Stock Market Capitalization Is $25 Billion.

posted by TimingLogic at 4:16 PM

The Hell That Exists In The Mind Of Man - Jamie Dimon Picks His Own Investigator, Former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, To Head Inquiry Into Possible Wrongdoing.

Life is rich in the world of predatory finance.  One gets to pick your own investigator.   That is, if there is any investigation at all.  Which, there usually isn’t other than a cursory mock excoriation in front of Congress before behind-closed-doors apologies take place in the next round of political fundraisers from predatory banksters and other mobsters.

This is the same Lee Raymond who granted himself a $400 million retirement package.  $400 million.  What the freak does anyone do with $400 million in retirement?  Or frankly, ever?  And, simply as an administrator of a public company, how does someone honestly believe their retirement is worth $400 million when most Americans don’t even have any sort of retirement package?  Lee Raymond obviously views himself as a king worthy of whatever he can plunder.  How else can anyone rationalize $400 million?  In fact, he made so much money as CEO, he shouldn’t get any retirement package.  It’s only fair, logical and reasoned that since most Americans don’t have a retirement, he should receive no retirement.   Give the money back, Lee Raymond.

A generally accepted definition of psychopathy/sociopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs.   Well, I think it’s apparent there may have been a lot of manipulation to control others for selfish reasons at JP Morgan.  The company itself is nothing more than an institution of the manifested self or of control.  I’m not sure Lee Raymond is the appropriate person to head this investigation since he apparently also used a mixture of charm and manipulation to get a $400 million retirement package.

I think Jamie Dimon should have picked retired FBI (serial killer, psychopath, predator, etc) profiler Clint Van Zandt. He has plenty of time on his hands and he most definitely possesses the skills to head this investigation.

The more class, title, rank and gauche wealth are important to you, the more unstable is the perception you have of yourself.    The more you feel the need to control the perception others have of you by the acquisition of more perceived authority to act as a protective shield for your unstable perceptions.  The more unstable the perception of self, the greater the need to control.  The greater the need to control, the more likely one is to manipulate, deceive, victimize and prey upon others for the benefit of the self.  In other words, free market capitalism leaves us all at the mercy of the most unstable people in our society.  Most often some manifestation of those persons is predatory and violent.  And, most often that violence is covert emotional or economic violence rather than literal physical violence.  Covert emotional and economic violence are accepted practices of free market capitalism.  So, there are actually no reasons to hire Pinkerton guards to murder people anymore.  All we need to do is let the free market work.   You know, like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney support – these are two men who appear to have an insatiable desire to control.  Of course, so does Barack Obama.

So, is Lee Raymond the right person to investigate JP Morgan’s wrongdoings?  Or is someone with the qualifications of a person like Clint Van Zandt?  I guess it all comes down to intent.  What is Jamie Dimon’s intent?  Does Jamie have an intent of discovery or an intent to control?   Does he want to the truth to be exposed regardless of the consequences?  Or does he have an intent of creating appearances?  Of  seeking to control the discovery of truth and possibly even subvert it or manipulate for his own personal benefit? 

I think we can include corporate bureaucrats in the analysis that politicians and serial killers share personality traits.  Because they all have a primary intent of controlling others for benefit of the self.   When you understand this, you gain a greater appreciation how capitalism is a creature of the state.  And, how fascism, the comingling of corporate capitalism and politics, is a marriage made in hell.  The hell that exists within the mind of man. 

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 11:48 AM

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Business Cat Speaks Mighty Words Of Wisdom

Since this is a blog about business, finance and economics, the wisdom of Business Cat is more than appropriate.  Anyone who has had a cat or understands cat behavior will likely find themselves laughing out loud while reading these. 

I have never revealed by voting preferences on here.  There is a reason for that.  But, this year, I plan on voting for Business Cat in the 2012 presidential elections.   He’s my write-in candidate given I find the other  choices completely manipulative and deceitful shills for corporatism, predatory economics and the subversion of law, dignity, compassion, community and democracy.  Contrarily, Business Cat is his own cat.   Do you think anyone can actually tell Business Cat what to do?  Good luck with that.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:53 PM

Gold Demand Continues To Drop

I have written extensively about gold over the years.   The people who are telling us we need to return to a gold money standard are, in fact, proposing economic slavery.  Gold money isn’t democratic money.  Gold money benefits those who have the gold.  It always has.  It artificially limits the money supply and creates artificial poverty.  You have to look no further than Europe where the gold standard once was the basis for massive class warfare and systemic poverty while kings, corporations and private for-profit bankers looted society and the world through imperialism and colonialism.  Gold money was created by crooks to serve crooks. 

Gold money is the antithesis of democratic money.  There are zero historical examples of gold-backed money being democratic money.    To institute a gold standard today would lock in the gains the elites have pilfered from the rest of us.  All while slamming the brakes on everyone else’s ability to get their hands on much-needed money.   It would benefit no one but the status quo and would push us into a depression as far as they eye can see.   A lack of gold standard has nothing to do with anything in the creation of this crisis.  In 1929 the United States had most of the world’s gold and was on the gold standard.  That was the problem.  Anyone who believes we should return to a gold standard either doesn’t understand money or democracy or both.   Or, is a member of the status quo who seeks to subvert democratic money or, even worse, is a useful idiot unwittingly shilling for the status quo.

About six months ago a player in the gold and gold futures (derivatives) market said that the leverage in the gold market is about 200 to 1.  Now, that would take some work to validate that specific number but we have discussed on here numerous times that the gold market is driven by extreme leverage.  That makes Lehman Brother’s leverage ratio in 2008 look like child’s play. 

The gold market needs central bankers to keep bailing them out just as banksters were bailed out for their faulty trades.  But, most gold ideologues despise central banking.   It’s no great irony that the gold investor’s best friend is their perceived enemy.   That without the institution they hate so much, they would have lost everything.  We need a central bank in our nation.  We simply need one that is part of a public banking system that serves democracy rather than capitalism or corruption or politicians or the military-industrial complex.   Then we can create a merit-based economy, be it capitalism or something else, that works for democracy.

Gold prices, just like any other price, are determined by supply and demand.  And, the demand that has driven gold higher for the last decade has been fueled artificially by derivatives and its associated massive leverage.  If you think central bankers are going to solve this crisis, you should own gold.  If not, well then, you were just along for the trade and hopefully you’ll wake up to a faulty belief system before the implosion occurs.   If central bankers can’t find a way to inject trillions of new dollars, euros, yuan, etc into the system, 2012 is a tipping point.  Money is draining out of the global economy at an alarming rate.  Much faster than 2008.  And, that is exactly what we said would happen numerous times over the last seven years.  The crisis would manifest itself first in the U.S. but then the back end of the crisis would be felt disproportionately outside of the U.S. as globalization collapsed.  A very unique and lonely position that is going to come to pass.  Gold investors had better start praying for central bankers to bail them out. 

In closing, I find it interesting that John Paulson, the noted hedge fund manager, has increased his stake in gold.  Paulson is notorious for getting some of the 2008 crisis correct in his leveraged bets and making billions.  But since 2008 he has had some huge losing bets.  It is impossible to continue to make huge bets with leverage over and over again when the system is in failure mode.  That is, unless someone has access to information others don’t.   We know in 2008 that Wall Street was making bets against products they were actually selling to clients.  And, were actually making bets against our municipalities, schools and states – predatory capitalism.  Paulson and others don’t have that edge today because the system they were so reliant on, crony global finance, is dying.   So, their bets won’t react as prior bets will as the linearity of the past is gone. 

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:44 PM

Friday, August 17, 2012

Paul Ryan's Love Of Rage Against The Machine Is Amusing Because He (An Extreme Right Wing Nut Job) Is The Embodiment Of The Machine

How Paul Ryan is considered brilliant by the Republikan Party is more proof of how dumbed-down the corporate state truly is.  If he is as good as it gets, give me a one way ticket to the former Soviet Union.  It couldn’t be any worse.  At least political clowns there had enough respect for their citizens to make sure everyone had health care, food (albeit gruel), shelter and an education.  Paul Ryan is a man who is clearly disconnected from his humanity and is consumed by the self.  But, then his self-professed idol wrote a collection of essays titled “The Virtues of Selfishness”.    Now Ryan, running as vice presidential candidate wants to shove those batty ideas of selfishness down your gullet.   Both political parties in this nation will send us back to the stone age if we allow them.  Which, by the way, we won’t.  This op-ed by a Rage Against the Machine band member is a little bit of on-target amusing irony for some light weekend readingSmile with tongue out

posted by TimingLogic at 1:39 PM

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ecuador Grants Asylum To Assange. Rule Of Law Be Damned - Britain Threatens To Storm Embassy

posted by TimingLogic at 12:49 PM

In The Dumbed-Down Dystopian Corporate State Agent Orange’s Got What Plants Crave; The FDA Considers Dow’s Latest Agent Orange GMO Abomination

It’s really hard to make this stuff up.  We truly do live in the Idiocracy; the dumbed-down corporate state.  But, rather than everyone suffering from stupidity as in Idiocracy, the movie, it’s the political and corporate bureaucrats who rig the system for their own benefit who are really the dunces.   By the way, this dynamic exists in almost every industrialized country on earth.  Because every industrialized country is substantially run by banksters, corporations and their stooge marionettes, politicians.

Agent Orange’s got what plants crave.  It’s got electrolytes.

If you ever want a mind-numbing experience to escape the effects of the corporate state, I would highly recommend the comedic movie, Idiocracy,  in lieu of the illegality of drugs.  Which, by the way, the systemic issues with addiction in this nation are in large part because of the greater instability in the human condition that unregulated/deregulated capitalism creates; an environment where sociopaths and predators excel.   You’ll snicker at how many parodies in this movie are relevant to today’s idiocracy; the dumbed-down corporate state.   How upside down, and often idiotically so, the world is when you put corporate bureaucrats, banksters, politicians and lobbyists in charge of endlessly manipulating, rigging and bribing a nation’s economy and democracy for reasons of self-interested control. 

This Idiocracy clip is hilariously relevant, almost verbatim, to Dow’s FDA application to use 2,4 D (one of Agent Orange’s major ingredients)  resistant soybeans.   The FDA is bought and paid for.  Just like in Idiocracy where the Brawndo corporation actually bought the FDA so it “do, say and sell anything they wanted”.   In the clip, link here, the people convening the discussion about Brawndo being applied to our food crops are the president’s cabinet.   The FDA is referenced in this clip but instead of it being the corporation, Brawndo, in the movie, it’s Dow and Monsanto that have got what plants crave.  

By the way, in case you missed it, FDA bureaucrats and stooges have just been exposed for spying on its scientists and using Gestapo-style intimidation against scientists for fear that they might expose issues of public safety and corruption.  Truth versus control and the endless politicization of science that defines the corporate fascist state.  The FDA is massively corrupt courtesy of their corporate masters.  Links here and here and here

We are killing our nation, our people, our economy and our ecosphere because the world is run by idiots.  And, I do mean idiots who have subverted the rule of law, science and reason in favor of self-granted authority and control for benefit of the self.   Democracy around the globe is dead and politicians killed it.  We will never see our economy recover  until the rule of law, reason, economic determinism and democracy are returned to the people.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:36 PM

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Monsanto Loses To Beekeepers In The Yucatan But Gains Support From Another Predatory Self-Interested Corporation

Control or truth?  That's all it comes down to.  Those are our mind's only two intents.  Unlabeled Frankenfood and the patenting of food is a manifestation of the self's desire for control, a subversion of truth.  Truth is a manifestation of our higher power and an ability to see beyond the self's endless instabilities, rationalizations and cruelties with an intent of discovery.  This duality of our existence is everywhere in life, our politics, our economy, religion, corporations, all large bureaucracies and in our personal relationships.  Al Gore's intent to subvert scientific discovery in the climate debate by stating the science is settled, and thus rejecting new discovery, is absolutely no different than Monsanto's desire to create GMO foods and ultimately to keep GMO foods unlabeled.   It's nothing more than the self's manifestation of control.  And, we seek to control because of the self's state of instability.

Monsanto's behavior is nothing more than Adam Smith's supposedly virtuous self-interested invisible hand of unregulated/deregulated capitalism that is supposed to harmoniously benefit society.  Instead, the invisible hand of self-interest's rationalizations and instabilities eventually become cronyism/corruption/crisis.   Capitalism, as a manifestation of the self, is inherently unstable.

Free market capitalism is the same religious ideology of those who believe in communism.  They are both religious "-isms" taken on some imaginary faith-based reality that doesn't exist.   Free market nonsense is rooted in delusions/rationalizations/instabilities of the self that reject an inconvenient truth in favor of some artificial fantasy world that simply is a figment of their imagination.

Until all people are connected to their higher power or their humanity and thus are able to see beyond the endless instabilities, rationalizations and cruelties of the self to consider selflessness, community and a greater good, "-isms" will remain just that - ideological drivel that some unenlightened mind read in a book or heard in a conversation or created as a fantastical delusion that exists only in their mind.

All of this is why we must have a society and and economy based on laws and not on men.   Laws based on reason, virtue and timeless human values of equality, respect, empathy, community and dignity.  Not on the instabilities, rationalizations and cruelties of the self.   A nation of laws and not of men.  Capitalism without a rule of law aka regulation is the most base, unstable and cruel manifestations of the self.

Yucatan beekeeper link here.

And Wally World link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:08 PM

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Clamping Down On Banks

One of the batty ideas that the likes of Paul Ryan believes is that the government GSEs Freddie and Fannie caused the supposed mortgage crisis.  This is one of the great cons the dumbed-down Republicans, including Paul Ryan, have tried to perpetrate upon society.   It deflects criminal investigations and accountability into Wall Street while at the same time gives cover to this Republican neoliberal message that government can’t do anything right.  Our government can’t do anything right because it has been gutted by massive corruption in large part paid for by Wall Street criminals.  The GSEs were stuck with the trash that Wall Street dumped onto their books.  An act that probably should have landed plenty of politicians and banksters in prison were we to actually have seen investigations.  Ryan wants to do away with the GSEs and turn over all mortgage operations to private banks. 

I have written on here repeatedly that mortgages should be written under a public banking system and many of the benefits that would provide including zero-interest loans, variable loans that could see payments reduced or even delayed were citizens to suffer economic or health crises, etc.   Under a public banking system, with the addition of a living wage for all Americans, every citizen could own a home.   That is democracy. 

Here’s the truth.  The banking criminals who created the mortgage mess are being handed back their piles of corrupt toxic shit by the GSEs.

posted by TimingLogic at 11:38 PM

David Stockman Skewers Paul Ryan’s Batty Budget Lunacy And Rightly So

I consider Paul Ryan to be one of the most dangerous men in Washington.  He’s clueless,  he’s a crony corporatist even though he waxes poetic about being a religious ideologue of Ayn Rand, he has never lived in the real world, he wants to literally kill social programs while funneling more money into the military-industrial complex and corporatism and he’s never had a real job.  I’m not talking about summer play jobs at McDonald’s while away from getting his indoctrination into modern-day mythology of economics.  I’m saying he’s never had to try to survive by embracing the neoliberal policies he endorses.   Instead, he has spent his entire life as a politician living off of the productive people in society.  That he is considered a poster child for the modern day Republican party shows how ridiculous the party truly is.   If the Republicans win in November and they institute his batty economic ideas, they will literally destroy what little is left of the Humpty-Dumpty  economy.   I plan on going into some detail about Ryan’s batty ideas in coming months.  But, in the mean time, fellow Republican David Stockman does quite an admirable job in his op-ed.

posted by TimingLogic at 11:23 PM

Obama’s A123 Investment Of Taxpayer Money Goes Chinese -- Will Washington Learn It Can't Mandate A Market?

The link below is an editorial written by the former vice-chairman of GM, Bob Lutz.    Although it has been years, I have written extensively about the auto industry including their coming bankruptcy and  resurgence.  I understand this industry quite well.  It is, at its core, an engineering business.  I worked for GM for a short stint early in my life and have worked with segments of the auto industry over the years in a professional capacity.   If I were to start a car company, I would want Bob Lutz on the payroll.  

I’ve highlighted the company A123 on here a few times.   First, when Obama committed American taxpayer dollars to the firm and I remarked how horrible that investment was; an accurate remark that has now proven to be more true than I would have imagined at the time.  And, I noted that the finances were  completely upside down and the ROI would never materialize.   In fact, the finances behind Obama’s investment were so horrible that it would have been a better use of taxpayer money to go to Las Vegas and put $250 million on the roulette table. 

Mitt Romney has a Harvard education.  Jamie Dimon has a Harvard education.  Barack Obama has a Harvard education.  I think we can appreciate Harvard’s reputation appears to be as much about cronyism as it is about actually learning anything useful.   Or as Einstein said, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”.  I can make the statement quite confidently that the main benefit to getting a Harvard education is the unparalleled alumni network that the school cultivates.  In other words, it cultivated the largest cronyism network I am aware of in our nation.   That is why you go to Harvard.  For the connections you will make that nearly guarantees your success.   There’s nothing really unique about a teaching institution that has qualified faculty.  The Harvard mystique is built upon cronyism.  It’s a club and you’re not in it.   Don’t worry.  The higher education bubble is going to pop.  It’s driven by corporations seeking obedient drones now that they dominate our economy.   Even though Obama, as part of that club, tells us we all need to go to college to become obedient drones if we want a living wage or want to create our own economic opportunity. 

None of these men are stupid per se.  But their actions indicate they most assuredly have little, if any unique qualifications to be granted such great authority in a nation of democracy or equality.  They are just people.  And, this is a reminder why no person should be given as much authority as these men have granted themselves or that capitalism has granted them in our economy or our lives.   The type of authority they have granted themselves was taken from the rest of us.   Just like in the Soviet Union.  It is a form of control that subverts our own journeys in life.   Empowering the lives of our citizens should be the mantra of a free nation.  Not an endless stream of Harvard-educated bureaucrats who are going to impress us with their brilliance by telling the rest of us how to lead our lives.   Social decisions that affect all of us should be decided by democracy, reason, science and law.  Not men. 

Obama had no experience in science or business so what is he doing handing out so much of taxpayer money to a science business?   Is that a society based on reason?  A politician with no experience making decisions about our economy?  It’s utter nonsense.    The end result?  Now China swoops in and when Obama’s investment decision is collapsing, they buy A123 for pennies on the dollar.  They buy a taxpayer-funded business for almost nothing and essentially steal taxpayer-funded technology.  What’s new?  This type of neoliberalism has defined our economy for decades courtesy of the dumbed-down corporate state.   

While Obama has no experience in business or science, he does have a very substantial arrogance to spend trillions of dollars of our money the way he thinks it should be spent rather than asking the American people or even giving the American people back their money so they can spend it on what they need to survive in this Orwellian fascist state.    Is Obama’s investment in the corrupt corporate-driven healthcare bill really any different than A123?  Especially when we already have a working single-payer healthcare system that, while not perfect and in need of tuning, works.

Is democracy granting politicians a blank check on how to spend our money?  I thought democracy was self-rule.  That doesn’t mean electing a political bureaucrat or political party and then letting them run amok over our lives and our nation.  Romney is running an ad where Obama clearly states that his plan would cut the deficit in half in his first four years.  That statement was made in 2009.  Instead, four years later, he is $10 trillion off that mark; instead of $5 trillion in debt we have $15 trillion.  Were that any of us out here in the land of neoliberal economics, where it’s dog eat dog, we would not only be fired for that performance, but we’d be the focus of endless lawsuits and possibly worse.  And, we would be labeled as unqualified to even drive a taxi.   That is, unless this happened to someone part of the Harvard network or the crony club of the top 1% who is systemically incompetent and pays themselves royally for that incompetence.  Is his financial performance any different than that witnessed with the collapse of Wall Street?  Seriously?  Is his performance any different than Lloyd Blankfein or Dick Fuld.    The debt he has built up, which by the way is the only thing keeping our entire financial system and economy from imploding because of endless political meddling and corruption, especially from Reagan on, is about $70,000 per worker in this nation.   85% of Americans don’t even have $70,000.  Do you honestly think we are ever going to pay that money back?   Or inflate that money away?  Or have a massive debt deflation where all of this debt comes tumbling down?  We are going to monetize that debt or default on it.  If it’s a default, it’s a premeditated act of belligerence.   And, that is one of our long term theses on here.  2013 remains my anticipated date for such an event.  

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:57 AM

Thursday, August 09, 2012

The Cycle Of Volatility Update: NASA-Funded Plasma Physicist Finds Hidden Magnetic Portals That Blow Another Massive Hole In Anthropogenic Global Warming

"It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead." -- Thomas Jefferson

 

I laugh whenever I hear Al Gore talk about how the science behind anthropogenic global warming is settled.    This is his defense used when a seemingly endless array of data and discovery doesn't fit his unscientific view of humanity's involvement in global warming. 

That Gore and anthropogenic global warming advocates, including its often fudged science-less data, continue to use the meme of settled science clearly shows an intent to control rather than an intent of discovery that is an integral part of the scientific process.   Remember, the human mind has only two intents in everything it does: the intent to control, a product of the manifested self or ego, and the intent of discovery, a manifestation of our higher power or what makes us human.   But then Gore is a politician.  Politics is nothing more than a game whose primary intent is control driven by the associated ego.    And we clearly know politics (control) subverts the purity of discovery as we see in countless arenas politicians and bureaucrats have now implanted themselves.   Political control relies on people outsourcing their own discovery to another person with an intent to control.  In other words, Al Gore is only able to advance his batty science-less theories because others are willing to outsource their own discovery process to him.    Frankly, that's the only reason Hitler came to power.  And, that very dynamic is the basis for Gore's entire political life.  A life spent trying to convince others of his legitimate authority.  But the only legitimate authority on this planet is the rule of law determined through reason, discourse and discovery.  Not man.   Gore ultimately failed in his intent of authority but found a new method of control; hijacked science.  Maybe someday Gore will get the help he needs and realize his journey isn't to find his worthiness by controlling and manipulating others.   But, then given Gore is now in his elder years, that would be an epiphany that is almost certainly never going to develop.

There's almost nothing settled in science when it comes to theory.   Any theory.  Theory that passes peer review remains relevant, whether completely accepted or not, whether accurate or not, until someone else invalidates some aspect of a theory through discovery and reason, regardless of how small that invalidation is.  There are so many holes in anthropogenic global warming that it has never passed peer review.  It never will.   The science clearly is not settled except with those who outsource their own journey to Gore as some messianic figure.   Anthropogenic global warming can't pass peer review so what is it?  It is a social movement.  It is the mob.  That's all.   In other words, its roots lie in propaganda and control.  And, being that most people are unwilling to admit they have been duped, it remains relevant propaganda for reasons of ego and the self.  How many times throughout history has the self been willing to defend unsubstantiated beliefs to its ultimate demise or until ultimate crisis?  We see that dynamic at work today across countless beliefs including neoliberal free trade and all aspects of American politics. 

When a scientific theory is put forth by a life-long politician who apparently never took a single science class during his education, doesn't therefore likely have an appreciation for the complexities of the earth's climate or the baseline in chemistry, physics or mathematics to propose a valid scientific theory, never showed any aptitude for inquisitiveness so necessary to legitimate scientific discovery and most importantly won't participate in the process of peer review and vetting, well, I think we can safely conclude Al ain't quite as front of the bus as he wants us to believe.  To believe for purposes of the self and ego aka control.   Al Gore and his politicization of science has hijacked discovery and reason and turned it into a political drama.  What would one expect from a drama queen?

While humanity most certainly affects climate, the forces of the universe and our planet acting on our climate are awesome and incomprehensible in comparison.  More importantly, they are clearly not well understood.  And, none of these dynamics are included in anthropogenic global warming's simple-minded models.  But, the science is settled.  Or so we are told.   This from a man who said the interior of the earth is several million degrees.  Of course, he's only off by several million degrees.  I would guess Al's remarks are no worse than Elmer Fudd, a fellow dunce, would conclude.  But then we live in a dumbed-down world where countless Elmer Fudds are running our nation,  our corporations, our religious institutions and other institutions of ego. 

Republicans are often the modern day incarnation of Luddites for their outright rejection of science.  The Democrats coyly pretend to embrace science but clearly reject it when it serves an objective of political control.  They do so by manipulating and politicizing science to fit their liberal agenda of brow-beating the rest of us into submission of their political agenda of control.   (Liberal and progressive are NOT the same. Dick Cheney, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are hyper or neo liberals.)  The politicization of science is everywhere and it is fueled by this false, dumbed-down left-right paradigm of political parties.  Climatology has become a left-right political issue ruled by the most incompetent and unqualified people in our society;  politicians and those who outsource their own intelligence to them.  Dumb and dumber fighting for control in the idiocracy (The president's cabinet in action).   Please God, awaken me from this Orwellian nightmare where dunces and stooges have hijacked the purity of reason, truth and discovery for purposes of control in the modern-day idiocracy.  Where people like Obama, Gore, Romney, Bush, Pelosi, Reid, Cantor, Boehner and other bought-and-paid-for lackeys determine what is real and what is science. 

Al's legacy will take care of itself in due time.  But, I have noted numerous times over the years where data doesn't substantiate anthropogenic global warming's curve-fitted conclusions.  One such post was one where I highlighted NASA's measurements of climate change , climate volatility and melting of ice caps all across the solar system.  Anthropogenic global warming advocates responded to this dynamic with more of their rationalized, unscientific absurdity.  But now, we have further evidence of the connectedness of the solar system's shared weather volatility.   That is, magnetic portals that provide direct energy conduits between the sun and most likely all planets and possibly moons in our solar system.  This dynamic may possibly even exist between planetary magnetospheres, which would possibly lend some scientific credence to mundane and planetary astrology; dynamics that seem to have very substantial long cycle merit. 

Scientists who study the sun recognize that the sun's weather volatility has been rising as has weather volatility on earth and throughout the solar system.  But the sun's weather volatility cycle is expected to peak next year.   This is confirmed by the recent discovery by Japan's Hinode exploratory satellite that the sun may be entering a quadrupole configuration leading to reduced sun weather volatility and lower temperatures on earth.    This dynamic  similarly happened the last time we had what many scientists consider a mini ice-age that ironically lasted the length of a Gleissberg solar cycle.   Life is cyclical.   The sun's weather is cyclical.  Earth's weather is cyclical.  The movement of our planets and our solar system is cyclical.  Those forces are impacted by cyclical events well beyond our knowledge.  Gestation, heart beats, seasons, birth/death... literally everything

The sun is literally over a million times larger than earth.  And the energy from the sun that impacts our planet in the blink of an eye is greater than any impact humanity has ever had since the beginning of our time here on earth.   Impacts from beyond our solar system are millions of times greater than the sun and are being discovered regularly.   And, then there is the massive energy created by the earth itself.  Most climatologists and scientists who actually understand complex systems have a great appreciation that our planet's long term weather cycles are substantially impacted by what happens in the ocean depths.  And, what happens in the ocean depths is substantially impacted by the earth's inner core and magnetosphere, which are in turn impacted by the sun, our solar system and beyond.   In other words, Al Gore has no clue what he is talking about as his simple-minded analysis takes none of this and countless other unknown dynamics into account.   

I've been writing for years we are most likely transitioning to a period of global cooling as volatility portends a change in trend and many cyclical patterns are pointing to a change in earth's weather patterns to a cold and possibly dry cycle.    By the way, history tells us that  democracy loves these cold cycles.   That may be coincidence or it may possibly be some interaction of energy dynamics affecting human behavior, awareness or consciousness.   But it is simply more anecdotal confirmation the status quo is in for a rude return to democracy. 

The discoveries by NASA and other space agencies around the world are happening at a dizzying rate.  And, they are rewriting the frontier of science.  But, those who seek to control science, for reasons of the manifested self and ego, are not embracing these discoveries.   What a surprise.  And, unfortunately we are not able to savor these advances in knowledge as we should because propaganda is subverting knowledge, truth and reason.  And because so many are focused on a fight to feed and house their families thanks to political stooges who have also tanked our democracy and our economy. 

Most of us who are young enough will likely live to see the day when Al Gore has to give back his Nobel Prize.   Well, that may never happen.  But we most certainly will live to see a day when bureaucrats like Al Gore are found out.   When those days of enlightenment come, and they are already here for many, that means those who are absurd will no longer hold political and propaganda reign over our lives as they do today.   Control versus truth.  The days of reckoning are upon us.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:40 PM

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

The Bubble For Brokers And Advisors Continues To Deflate

Just an update on a long term outcome I have written about for the last seven years.   When I first wrote that the financial advisor bubble was going to pop back in 2006, the ranks of this profession were swelling at record rates.

Reuters is severely underestimating the eventual downside of this profession just as happed with the similar profession of real estate agents.   The investor class is headed for the garbage heap.

Financial advisors/brokers are a tax on society.  They produce nothing and are consumers of capital.  In other words, they destroy wealth.  That is clearly a tax.  And, what is even more ridiculous is that numerous studies have been done that prove advisors underperform the market about 90% of the time.  So, not only are they a tax but they are an insidious one through systemic incompetence that helps people lose more money than were they not to seek any advise.

posted by TimingLogic at 5:33 PM

This Most Recent Equity Market Rally Represented Graphically

In the last two months the market has rallied up to near the old closing high for the post 2008-crash rally. That's really not a surprise since I wrote back in May that I expected Facebook to rally over June and July.  In the modern-day freak show everything goes up and down at the same time with programs doing almost all of the large buying and selling across the entire market.   

All of this rally but the minor perturbations over the last few days has been contained in four up days.  Four days out of more than two months.  And, in the Dow, as an example, only one third of the companies have risen in unison to new highs or close to new highs.   Those companies are all dividend-paying companies.  ie, While the world of global finance is again on fire, the only stocks rising are those that are considered defensive.   Mind, you I said considered.  They are not defensive.  Fundamental equity demand by a measure I follow has been collapsing since the first week of July.

While I don't yet measure the macro dynamics in the market to support a crash, this environment is very similar in many ways to 2008.   The fundamentals are building for another possible crash in the next six months.  Possibly by the 2012 elections.    The gamblers need more money courtesy of the head croupier, Bernanke to keep this Ponzi scheme going.  A crash would be interesting since corporate lackey #1 Obama has told us he fixed the financial system and corporate lackey #2 Romney wants to again deregulate the financial system.   This seems truly a choice of the two most incompetent corporate shills in my adult lifetime.  Not that Clinton & Dole or Bush & Gore or Reagan & Mondale or any of the others represented anything much better.

The appearance of market strength belies a substantial sickness of underlying dynamics.  The massive gaps in liquidity (price) that are shown in the graphic below are representative of a market driven by derivatives leverage.   You know, the same leverage that allows 1% of the population to subvert democracy and the economy for the other 99% of us.  Oh, that trade is most certainly going to unwind.  I'd bet my life on it.

2012-08-08_1601

Graphic of the SPY S&P 500 ETF

posted by TimingLogic at 5:02 PM

Monday, August 06, 2012

A Few Timely Remarks About The Industrial Food Goo Monopoly

What a surprise.  Artificial butter flavor is linked to brain dysfunction and illness.  I guess man has learned how to break the blood-brain barrier with "food".  That's a novel invention, albeit an unintended one.    Why do we keep approving all of these chemicals for use in our homes, our foods, our clothes and our society without any proof they are safe? 

We are most certainly the most poorly nourished nation on earth short of those living without food.   There is almost nothing at a traditional grocery store that isn't without some risk be it pesticides, artificial ingredients, or just flat out no nutritional value.  One could argue that no grains, be they processed or whole and nothing in a box, can or bottle offers any substantial nutritional value.   Our meats, fruits and vegetables are all tainted to some degree.    I read some work from a major food researcher that during the Clinton era, food companies introduced more than 12,000 new SKUs into grocery stores.  Food innovation courtesy of the corporate state. 

50 years ago the average grocery store probably had 300-1,000 SKUs.  Now the average grocery store has 50,000.   Some of that may reflect the ability to get more variety in natural products.  But,  I could safely conclude that 90% of those SKUs represent things we probably shouldn't be eating.  Did we invent new plants and animals to account for those increased SKUs?  We simply invented more boxed, canned and bottled, nutritionless, artificial versions of Soylent Green.  But, corporations have increased their profits and their productivity making things they shouldn't be making.  And, then used those profits to lobby politicians for even more favorable leniency in introducing even more unsafe foods.  A virtuous cycle of the invisible hand of self-interest that is unregulated capitalism.

The propaganda that the United States is the supermarket to the world is ridiculous.  Much of what we export arguably has little to no nutritional value or worse.   And, the only reason we export these items is because so many nations are either land-locked, deal with climate dynamics or the governments are too corrupt to allow sustainable food production in their countries.

Marion Nestle, who I believe is arguably the subject matter expert on the political corruption of food, just penned a piece on whether soda and fast food companies should be allowed to sponsor the Olympics.  I have a more fundamental question.  There is now conclusive research that sugar, caramel color additives and artificial sweeteners used in soda cause massive health issues, cancers and ultimately death in our nation.  Should these companies even be allowed to exist?   Do we not ban the production of PCBs and other harmful toxins?  What's the difference?   Oh yes, the free market idiots will argue that people should be allowed to do what they want including dying without health insurance and ingesting toxins because it is their God-given right.  But, more pragmatically, isn't government supposed to be the voice of reason and the voice of those without a voice?   Shouldn't the welfare of our nation be reflected in our public health policies rather than our public health policies being a reflection of political corruption?

It's quite likely your next trip to the doctor is because of what you stuck in your mouth.  Even if you don't realize it.

posted by TimingLogic at 2:20 PM

George Will : The Dangers Of Football Aren't Going Away. Maybe That's A Valid But Incomplete Observation. Maybe Football Itself Is Going Away.

This discussion has probably been going on with fans and people throughout society for years.   I applaud Will for writing about an issue that seems taboo on some level.   Although Will writes from a perspective he understands.  This issue is much more reflective of a dying political structure, and with it a dying monetary and banking system enabled by massive political corruption.  Regardless, as football's participants have become modern-day science experiments, it has transformed itself into a gladiator sport.  It has become brutally violent and threatens everyone who steps on the field of battle.  Of course, I wouldn't stop there.  Cage fighting and boxing aren't much better; although it may be arguable that those sports can be regulated into some level of safety.   As Will points out, I'm not sure that is possible with football.

Some people argue that a declining society amuses itself to death.  Postman was indeed just another in a long list of prescient Cassandras.   While there is some argument that this is a form of the Roman's bread and circuses or appeasing society into a dumbed-down state while a ruling class pilfers and loots when no one is looking, the reality is much more scientific, simple and sinister.  

It has been years since I have written of this, but we are going to see a much different future as it pertains to the salaries of many people in our economy.  I have noted more than once over the last seven years that we can expect salaries in certain professions to drop as much as 90%.  As I have noted, that includes sports and entertainment.   On some level, will this issue of sports violence take care of itself?  If salaries can no longer be paid to support athletes who train to the level of being lab experiments, will the sports themselves die or will the size and strength of the athlete adjust substantially?  It's possible because you can mark my word, the salary correction is coming.   There is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

I'll put up another post in the next six to twelve months on the science behind this coming salary collapse.  It's something no one else is talking about but is easily explainable through incontrovertible economic math. 

posted by TimingLogic at 10:58 AM