Tuesday - March 31, 2020
Gee, Too Bad
Can’t get fentanyl from China right now
The onslaught of the coronavirus has not only sent the global economy tumbling – but it has also hit the black market where it hurts, and Mexican cartels are no exception.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has sent the price of heroin, methamphetamines, and fentanyl soaring as the likes of the Sinaloa cartel and its main rival the Jalisco “New Generation” struggle to obtain the necessary chemicals to make the synthetic drugs, which typically come from China but are now in minimal supply.
“The cartels have suffered from COVID-19 due to the inability to get the regular shipments of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals for the massive production of meth from China,” Derek Maltz, a former special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division in New York, told Fox News. “The cartels have continued their production at a slower rate, but the demand seems to be increasing during these times of uncertainty in America. The shutdown of cities in China and travel in and out of China have also negatively impacted the flow of chemicals and drugs to Mexico.”
According to Maltz, the cartels have raised the prices of their products – as much as 400 percent – and “will get through the tough times,” especially since their business is so profitable.
Golly, that’s a terrible shame. And maybe with the borders closed somewhat more, they’re having a harder time smuggling it in as well. Sucks for them. Guess they’ll just have to try and get by with the hundreds of billions in cash they have sitting around.
I don’t think demand is going to decrease one bit. Junkies gotta junk, and will go without food or paying any other bills to spend what money they have on getting high. That’s what addiction means.
Quite a bit more at the link, describing changes to the cartels business model etc.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/31/2020 at 09:08 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Inflation and High Prices • pandemic and epidemic diseases •
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Permalink • Thursday - November 06, 2014
Churning Milk Into Gold
(It’s only a coincidence that Chris just did a cows post as well).
I needed to get a few things to eat, so I took a trip to the local grocery store. I filled the top of my cart - the kiddie seat area - with things on sale, milk, bread, and meat for 3 nights. The bill came to $71. Horry Clap!!!
We don’t eat a whole lot of butter. And while we prefer the taste of the Plugra brand, or the yummy stuff imported from Ireland, we’re more than willing to get by with Land O Lakes or the store brand stuff. Lucky us, we have a big freezer, so around this time each year I go butter shopping. November is Thanksgiving, and everybody cooks and bakes, and that means this is the time of year when butter really goes on sale. I got 6 lb - our annual supply - last year for $1.50/lb, and froze them all. November is also when Philadelphia cream cheese gets the big discounts, especially if you can find the 6 bar bulk box. ( Don’t ever freeze cream cheese, but that bulk box is good for several decadent cheese cakes). So I noticed we were just about out of butter, so I figured I’d get a pound, or maybe stock up for next year.
Crivens. And crivens on the half shell!
Store brand butter was ON SALE for $2.99/lb. Save $1 !! Land O Lakes is selling for $6. Holy sheep dip. SIX DOLLARS for one single pound of butter!!
Bread has gone through the roof too. One loaf of one of these multi-grain healthy bread things, it was either Arnold brand or Pepperidge Farms, was $3.99. SAY WHAT?? FOUR BUCKS for a loaf of bread!!
I wasn’t brave enough to look at the Philly. To heck with that. I got my quart of milk - $2 ( wasn’t milk $2.49/gal last year?? ) and got the heck out of Dodge.
Bread and butter. $10.
Like every other Fiat, our fiat money is worthless, rusted out and with a bad electrical system.
My head is spinning.
$6 for a pound of butter. OMG. OMG.
[ From JULY ] Butter Surges to 16-Year High as U.S. Exports Cut Reserve “There’s a shortage of butter,” Jon Spainhour, a broker and partner at Chicago-based Rice Dairy LLC, said in a telephone interview July 3. “This spring, instead of building inventories, we just shipped it out of the country. We’ve hauled a lot of product out of the market.”
Even as rising global milk output signals a slowdown in U.S. exports, tight domestic butter supplies are contributing to higher costs that buyers including Panera Bread Co. expect will last through 2014. Retail-food prices are rising at the fastest pace in three years, fueled by meat, dairy, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, government data show.
The spot price of butter has surged 71 percent this year, after yesterday reaching the highest close since September 1998, and butter futures on the CME jumped 58 percent, touching a record $2.50 today before dropping. The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials gained 2.7 percent this year, while the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities rose 6 percent. The Bloomberg Treasury Bond Index gained 3.6 percent.
Export SurgeU.S. butter exports got a boost after a two-year slump in prices that reached a 15-month low in August. Shipments in the first five months of 2014 totaled 38,897 metric tons, up 64 percent from a year earlier, and are on pace to exceed the full-year record of 92,300 tons in 1993, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Domestic production through May this year dropped 3.6 percent to 842,127 tons, while demand through April, the most-recent data available, is up 9.9 percent.
Domestic stockpiles that in May 2013 were the highest in 20 years have slumped with a surge in shipments to buyers including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and Iran, government data show. Inventories as of June are down 42 percent from a year earlier to 186 million pounds (84,426 tons).
Emerging MarketsRising incomes in emerging markets are driving demand for dairy products and other higher-cost foods, including meat, and the U.S. has become the world’s second-largest exporter of milk products after New Zealand.
Ah, that explains it. Those wonderful farmers, who are supported decade after decade by taxpayer funded subsidies, price supports, and every other dad-gummed program known to man, are saying Thank You by selling their wares overseas, and we can take a big flying fuck. I see.
But the dairyman isn’t alone. Meat, fish, eggs, fruit are way up too. So is sugar. So is flour. So is everything.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/06/2014 at 03:36 PM
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining • Inflation and High Prices •
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Permalink • Saturday - November 01, 2014
Middle of the Night posts: Gas is Cheap
Man oh man, you know we’ve been living with over the top prices for too long, when the price of gas finally drops to merely only a dollar a gallon more than what it ought to cost, and the news articles are asking “What does this mean?” Well, to be short, and crude, it means the trickle down has gone down your leg and is forming a puddle on the floor. In terms of world economics.
Around our end of Hunterdon County, and up into Warren County, regular gas, cash price, around $2.69/gal now. That’s down $0.06 since last week, but a month ago it was over $3, and hadn’t been below that since ... forever? Since Bush? Seems like.
( I don’t know about you, but my car runs like crap on milk. )
NEW YORK – The sight is so surprising that Americans are sharing photos of it, along with all those cute Halloween costumes, sweeping vistas and special meals: The gas station sign, with a price of $2-something a gallon. [ really? Those New Yorkers must be visiting New Jersey. NY’s 75¢/gal tax will keep their gas way over $3 for a long time to come. What cracks me up is that if the price really bottoms, and the rest of us are paying $1.50, NY gas will still be >$2, and the people just might realize for once how seriously their state is sticking it to them at the pump; at that price, the state tax is a solid third of the pump price. Add in the fed tax, and we’re looking at just about half. Sucks, huh? ]
“It’s stunning what’s happening here,” says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. “I’m a little bit shocked.”
The national average price of gasoline has fallen 33 cents in October, landing Friday at $3.00, according to AAA. Kloza said the average will fall under $3 by early Saturday morning for the first time in four years.
When the national average crossed above $3 a gallon in December of 2010, drivers weren’t sure they’d ever see $2.99 again. Global demand for oil and gasoline was rising as people in developing countries bought cars by the tens of millions and turmoil was brewing in the oil-rich Middle East.
Now demand isn’t rising as fast as expected, drillers have learned to tap vast new sources of oil, particularly in the U.S., and crude continues to flow out of the Middle East.
Seasonal swings and other factors will likely send gas back over $3 sooner than drivers would like, but the U.S. is on track for the lowest annual average since 2010 — and the 2015 average is expected to be lower even still.
Here are a few things to know about cheap gas:
— Crude prices came off the boil. Oil fell from $107 a barrel in June to near $81 because there’s a lot of supply and weak demand. U.S. output has increased 70 percent since 2008, and supplies from Iraq and Canada have also increased. At the same time, demand is weaker than expected because of a sluggish global economy.
— In the past, a stronger economy in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer of oil and gasoline, typically meant rising fuel demand. No longer. Americans are driving more efficient vehicles and our driving habits are changing. Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute calculates that the number of miles traveled per household and gallons of fuel consumed per household peaked in 2004.
The article goes on further, but those first two points cover it:
* Despite all of Obola’s efforts to stop drilling and fracking, US oil companies are tapping into massive quantities of new hydrocarbons. And while this is great, and where the energy stimulus money OUGHT to have gone (new refineries, Keystone XL, etc) to make America stronger, right now Obamanomics (tax and spend, borrow and waste, steal and bloat) is helping flatline the whole world.
* While some of us do have newer, more fuel efficient vehicles, a huge number of us no longer have jobs, or the Big Career job that was worth the Big Commute. The Walmart is right here on the other side of town, within bicycle distance if the weather isn’t too bad. Did you want paper or plastic?
Oh, and milk? Beats me. It’s 4 in the morning. Go read the article. Milk prices suck, having tripled in teh past 5 years I think. She-it, a friggin’ quart here costs $1.99 I think. If I don’t think about it, my brain wants to tell me that milk costs $2.49/gal. And I know that’s a few years out of date.
Gasoline is cheaper than milk again. In September the national average price of milk was $3.73 per gallon. The annual average for milk is on track to be more expensive than the annual average for gasoline for the first time since 2011.
Fine. What-evs. I can remember milk at 79¢/gal, but that’s ancient. I know that $15 used to fill up my 1997 Saturn’s 12 gallon tank at some point, and that was with real gasoline, not this wimped out ethanol added crap. But I’ll get on board here: let’s get gas down to $1.29/gal. And milk back to $1.49. Because honestly, only cheap food, cheap fuel, and lower taxes are going to get the economic fires burning again.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/01/2014 at 02:53 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • Inflation and High Prices • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Sunday - May 05, 2013
from eye sore to eye candy for $100,000 and counting
I make no judgment and offer no opinion for myself.
I’m interested in what you think of this.
She obviously had the money to achieve her desire.
I think you might agree I have the correct categories listed.
Take a look at this.
Meet the Japanese model who has spent over $100,000 on plastic surgery to look like a french doll… and is planning even more extreme procedures
Vanilla Chamu has undergone more than 30 procedures in a bid to look like a ‘living French doll’
Her next procedure promises to be her most extreme yet as she plans to undergo height lengthening surgeryBy David Mccormack
A Japanese woman has undergone a startling physical transformation that has so far involved more than 30 cosmetic procedures at a cost of 10 million yen or $102,000.
The lady, a model known as Vanilla Chamu, has said she intends to keep having surgeries until she has achieved her lifelong goal – to look like a French doll.
Photos of Vanilla prior to her first procedures reveal a rather mousy Japanese teenager whose facial features are virtually unrecognizable from the bizarre and undoubtedly more ‘western-looking’ appearance that she now possesses.
Vanilla underwent her first plastic surgery when she was 19 years old and keeps her current age a well-guarded secret.
She has become something of a cause célèbre in her native land, making countless television appearances and launching a pop career.
Her unusual appearance undoubtedly makes her guaranteed to stand out in any crowd, but she does possess a very unusual view of what a french doll should look like.
Posted by peiper
on 05/05/2013 at 03:25 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - March 17, 2013
from each no matter what their means, to all who want some of it anyway
I have about a 100 things to get done today and this is one ovem.
While reading this I wondered if I could convince the govt. that I’m an asylum seeker from the USA. Based on a program broadcast last night on BBC radio wherein the host had absolute proof that Nixon was a traitor and kept the war in Nam going so that he would win in 68 thus stealing the election from Humphrey, well. They might believe the wife and I are needy of a million dollar home as this place is too small and too old.
Nah. Never work.
Wrong social group and color.
Gotta wonder though how people come here and manage to convince the authorities that living large at the txpyer expense is somehow a right. And not just a right but a very large and expensive one.
Mother of six demands she is rehoused in exclusive suburb after a cap on housing benefit forced her out of £2MILLION home ( roughly 3 million 23 thousand in dollars )
Stephanie Demouh was entitled to housing benefit because she was registered as a single mother
She lived in a four bedroom house in Belgravia, near Sloane Square, for about three years
Government housing cap resulted in Westminster Council moving family
Demouh says she needs to live in the exclusive area so her children can get to school
Westminster City Council says it will now investigate the caseBy Tara Brady
A mother-of-six who was forced out of a £2million home in one of London’s most expensive areas after the government introduced a cap on housing benefit is demanding the council rehouse her in the same neighbourhood so her children can attend an elite school.
Stephanie Demouh, originally from Togo, in west Africa, was entitled to the handouts because she claimed she was a single mother.
She was allocated a four-bedroom house in Belgravia, near Sloane Square, where she has been living for about three years with her children.
It is not known how much exactly Ms Demouh’s rent was each month and whether it was all funded from the housing benefit she received which totalled £1,200 a week.
However, after the government housing benefit was capped at £400-a-week she was forced to move into temporary accommodation 10 miles away in Edgware by Westminster City Council on December 29.
The mother, who is studying accountancy at Westminster University, wrote to councillors to complain and believes she should be rehoused by the council in the exclusive neighbourhood, where the average four-bedroom property is worth about £6million, so her four children can attend a top Church of England school.
She hopes her fifth child will start in September.
Ms Demouh says her children are now always tired because of the distance they have to travel on the bus to school.
She told The Sunday Times: ‘My children are suffering because they are overtired all the time.
‘I can’t change my place of study. If you have to attend a nine o’clock lecture, you can’t be at both places together.’
According to records single mum Demouh married in 2001 but she was the only adult living in the house with her children.
Companies House records shows that her husband owns an online clothes store called Ambro & Phany. She is listed as the company’s secretary.
Despite claiming to the council that she is a single mother, it is understood she owns 50 per cent of the shares of her husband’s company.
When asked if her husband contributes to the family’s living costs, she said ‘a lot’.
Ms Demouh has denied outright that she has been involved in any fraudulent activity.
A council spokesman confirmed the local authority will investigate the case and will look at Ms Demouh’s entire history with the council.
Cllr Jonathan Glanz, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for housing said: ‘This investigation is ongoing, so we cannot comment on the specific details.
‘Westminster City Council are committed to ensuring that homes and taxpayers’ money are used to help only those in genuine need and will not tolerate people “playing the system” to their own benefit.
‘We will unhesitatingly take court action against those who make false claims to ensure that money only goes to those who genuinely need it.’
A crackdown on housing benefit has seen a massive fall in the number of families claiming over £30,000 a year, the Government say.
There has been a 75 per cent drop in the largest claims in three years, new figures show, after ministers pledged to cut the ballooning welfare budget.
Payments to tenants in the private rented sector were capped at £250 a week for a one-bedroom flat up to £400 for four bedrooms.
Posted by peiper
on 03/17/2013 at 10:54 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Inflation and High Prices •
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Permalink • Thursday - January 31, 2013
fraudulent behaviour was in effect saving the government money? yeah. go figure.
‘Her fraudulent behaviour was in effect saving the government money. It is the most ridiculous mitigation I have ever had to bring before a court - quite ridiculous.’
The term, “One for the books” comes to mind here.
I was tempted to file it under humor. What an odd system in place.
But I suppose it works for the Brits, so who am I to question things?
Take a look at this.
Benefits cheat mum, 23, now £64 a week better off after officials rule she is entitled to MORE than the amount she was actually stealing· Claimed £66 ($104) a week illegally but is told she can now receive £130 ($205)
· Her lawyer described mitigation as ‘most ridiculous’ he had ever brought
· Ordered to do 80 hours community service and pay £100 court costs
By Richard Hartley-parkinson
A young mother who illegally claimed benefits while working has been told she is legally entitled to more than the amount she had been stealing.
Joanne Gibbons, 23, from Upton Priory, Macclesfield, was convicted of unlawfully pocketing £3,140 ($4,964) in income support while holding down two jobs.
She originally claimed benefits legally but failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions that she had a job at a shop and for East Cheshire NHS trust.
When she was caught out, the mother-of-one was reassessed and told she could actually claim more money for family tax credits and child benefits.
She can now receive £130 a week, £64 a week more than she claimed fraudulently.When she worked for clothing shop Strawberry Moon and the NHS trust between February 2011 and January 2012, Macclesfield Magistrates’ Court heard she would not have qualified for any payouts.
Gibbons’ lawyer Mr Julian Farley said: ‘This case is extraordinary and perhaps an indictment of the benefits system.
‘If you work out what the overpayment was on the income support over 11 months, it’s about £66 per week of overpayment.
‘Immediately after the fraud was found the income support stopped and her benefits were adjusted. Miss Gibbons was then entitled to make a claim for family tax credit and child benefits.
‘She’s now receiving £130 per week - £64 more than she was fraudulently claiming in the first place.
‘Her fraudulent behaviour was in effect saving the government money. It is the most ridiculous mitigation I have ever had to bring before a court - quite ridiculous.’
Posted by peiper
on 01/31/2013 at 09:35 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Finance and Investing • Humor • Inflation and High Prices • UK •
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Permalink • Wednesday - June 27, 2012
‘guilty until proven innocent’
I don’t know if this is just my own knee jerk reaction or not. Of course I can’t know about you readers out there but, personally I’m against this.
I think there could be times when someone may download something and not be aware. I can’t offhand think of any examples, but the idea that you’re automatically guilty and must then pay to prove otherwise seems to me to be unfair in the extreme.
The recording and movie industry constantly make the claim of losses in gazillions, okay maybe only millions, but I am not sympathetic to them.
It isn’t that I approve of theft. But I can tell you with certainty because I have worked in one and been close to another, the entertainment industry and most especially the motion picture industry, probably lose more to union jobs that do not exist, then they do to this piracy thing.
I realize they lose much in the piracy committed by criminal gangs and people in places like China and I understand India as well. Or so I’ve heard.
I have heard figures in the millions they say, by ordinary folks who simply download something from YouTube and other sources.
Well, when they find a way to curb the waste I know went on in the past and so think it still does, and when they quite literally can no longer afford the multi,multi millions they pay the “stars” which all result in overblown ticket prices, maybe then I’d feel like saying awe. Poor you. I feel your pain.
I no longer go to movies. If we had a TV I am sure we’d be happy to buy DVDs or rent movies we want to see. So this more then likely would not have any affect
on us. I am quite happy with You Tube and on the odd occasion, BBC catch up service via computer. But I still see this as wrong and unfair, unless someone can point out the error in my thinking and point me in another direction.
Guilty until proven innocent: Families will have to pay £20 to show they DIDN’T illegally download music under new law* Regime designed to stamp out internet piracy will treat individuals as ‘guilty until proven innocent’
* People wrongly accused of making illegal downloads will have to pay £20 fee to appeal and prove their innocence
* Move has angered consumer groups
By SEAN POULTER
Internet users who illegally download music, movies and e-books will be sent warning letters in a crackdown that could lead to court action for copyright theft.
A new regime to tackle online piracy will in effect treat individuals as ‘guilty until proven innocent’.
Those wrongly accused of illegal downloading will have to pay a £20 fee to appeal in a move that has angered consumer groups.
The same Act includes punishments that could, in future, see accused families having their internet service slowed down, capped or even cut off.
An industry code will require large internet service providers (ISPs) such as BT, Virgin, Sky and TalkTalk to send warning letters to families suspected by entertainment firms of illegally downloading or uploading copyright material.
If a customer gets three letters or more within a year, copyright holders such as movie and music companies will have a right to ask for details of the material involved.
These companies will then be able to apply for a court order requiring the ISP to reveal the customer’s name and address.
The information would be used to pursue the person involved through the civil courts for damages.
However, there are concerns that innocent internet users, for example those whose wireless connections are hijacked by a neighbour or criminal, will be caught up in the new regime.
Those sent a warning letter will be assumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence after paying a £20 fee to appeal to an Ofcom body.
MOST PIRATED MOVIES OF 2011
Fast Five – 9.2million downloads
The Hangover II – 8.8million downloads
Thor – 8.3million downloads
Source Code – 7.9million downloads
I Am Number Four – 7.6million downloads
Sucker Punch – 7.2million downloads
127 Hours – 6.9million downloads
Rango – 6.4million downloads
The King’s Speech – 6.2million downloads
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – 6million downloads
Mike O’Connor, of the customer body Consumer Focus, said: ‘Copyright infringement is not to be condoned, but people who are innocent should not have to pay a fee to challenge accusations. It could deter those living on low incomes from challenging unfair allegations.’
If the new system does not stop piracy, ministers will be able to go back to Parliament to enact rules in the Digital Economy Act that could see households having their internet service cut off.
‘The ability to appeal is therefore critical to ensure consumers who have done nothing wrong are not deprived of internet access further down the line,’ said Mr O’Connor.
Creative industries minister Ed Vaizey said entertainment firms had to be able to ‘protect their investment’, adding: ‘The Digital Economy Act is an important part of protecting our creative industries against unlawful activity.’
Ofcom’s Claudio Pollack said: ‘Ofcom will oversee a fair appeals process, and also ensure that rights holders’ investigations under the code are rigorous and transparent.’
Posted by peiper
on 06/27/2012 at 06:12 AM
Filed Under: • Hollywood • Inflation and High Prices • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • MOVIES • Music •
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Permalink • Sunday - April 03, 2011
Union vs Taxpayers moving to Congress
I’m sure we’re all aware of what the government unions have done in Madison, WI. They are currently doing the same here in Ohio. But it gets worse...it’s moving to the Federal level.
I’ll have to let you find the news articles yourself. I’ve not got time. I’ll give you the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version:
The APWU (American Postal Workers Union) recently concluded a contract. House Republicans are scrutinizing it. This is being called a ‘first’ by my union. I suppose it is a ‘first’...first time Congress has done its job in several decades.
I’m not a member of the APWU. I’m a member of the NALC. We haven’t even started contract negotiations. Yet I received the following email from the NALC:
On April 5, Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee—which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service—will hold a full committee hearing on our pay and benefits. While the hearing’s emphasis will be on the Service’s tentative agreement with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), there is no doubt that the hearing will have repercussions on the collective-bargaining agreements of all postal employees, including letter carriers.
Your member of Congress sits on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I need you to pick up your phone on Monday, April 4—while off the clock—and call Congressman Mike Turner at (202) 225-6465 to deliver an important message.
The script below should be used to guide you through your conversation with your member of Congress.
“Hi, my name is ______________________. I am a letter carrier from __________________ and I have worked delivering mail and packages for ______ years.
“Tomorrow (Tuesday), the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing on postal employee pay and benefits.
“The Postal Service provides high-quality service at the most affordable postage rates in the world without receiving a dime of taxpayer money.
“The USPS and its employees have worked together to overcome the economic crisis of the past few years, maintaining high-quality service and becoming more efficient by eliminating more than 100,000 jobs since December 2007.
“As your constituent, I hope you stand up for the middle-class pay and benefits I have earned.”
Wow! Despite April 4 being my day-off for the week, I responded with an email to Congressman Turner. It went like this:
Dear Congressman Turner,
Congressman Turner, as a 22-yr member of the USPS, and a six-year Naval veteran, I hope you stand on your oath of office, the same oath I’ve taken twice (Navy, USPS) to uphold the Constitution. A very important part of which is to oversee tax receipts and tax expenditures. CUT THE SPENDING! If I, as an employee of the USPS, take a financial hit, sobeit. Me and the wife will survive. That’s my/our problem. The country, however, will not survive. CUT THE SPENDING!
Mark Steyn read an email sent to him while guest-hosting the Rush Limbaugh Show yesterday. The emailer made the point that current government taxing and spending is the ultimate form of ‘taxation without representation.’ Generations yet unborn will be taxed for today’s spending.
I’ll close with a quote:
“The most sensible request we make of government is not ‘Do something!’ but ‘Quit it!’ “ – P. J. O’Rourke
We’ve met before, back when you ran for Mayor the first time. You and your wife visited the Upper Riverdale Neighborhood Association.
Just stand your ground. Tell the Democrats to ‘quit it’.
Christopher
Fellow BMEWS and BMEWSETTES, please email your congresscritters and tell them to STOP THE SPENDING!
Posted by Christopher
on 04/03/2011 at 03:05 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government • Inflation and High Prices • Insanity •
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Permalink • Sunday - October 04, 2009
Blair can’t be allowed to become the next Napoleon…
Another headline in this morning’s Sunday Mail reads as follows.
So as Ireland votes ‘yes’ to Lisbon treaty, our 1000 years of history ends like this
It is not over yet but might be close. As you read the comments by the Conservative leader David Cameron, I think unless you’re a Brit you’ll be as lost as I am to fully understand what Cameron is saying.
LYNDON ..... HELP? What does this mean in plain Engrish?
“‘If the Treaty is ratified, we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen.”
Blair can’t be allowed to become the next Napoleon… and don’t even ask about Cherie Antoinette
By Simon Walters, Simon Mcgee and Brendan Carlin
October 4, 2009
Sunday Mail
Boris Johnson put himself at the head of a Tory Euro revolt yesterday by demanding a referendum on whether Tony Blair should be the ‘big magnifico’ President of Europe.
The London Mayor threw down the gauntlet to David Cameron after the Conservative leader declined to give a cast-iron pledge to call a referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty if it is ratified by the rest of Europe before the next Election.
Mr Johnson demanded a referendum not just on the Lisbon Treaty, but on whether the UK should pull out of Europe altogether.
‘A referendum would send out a clear message that we do not want a badly thought-out treaty imposed on us without the chance to vote on it,’ Mr Johnson told The Mail on Sunday.
‘It also sends the message that we don’t want some big magnifico swanning round the globe purporting to be acting on our behalf when we haven’t even been consulted as to whether it should be Tony Blair or not.’
Mr Johnson denied that his surprise move was an attempt to undermine Mr Cameron on the eve of the Conservative conference in Manchester, which starts today.
Mr Cameron said if the Treaty is not ratified by the Election, he will go ahead with a referendum if he wins power. However, if it is ratified by then, he said he would ‘not let matters rest there’ – prompting claims he might call off a referendum.
Mr Johnson had no such reservations. ‘I have the solution,’ he declared. ‘What we have got to do is to have a referendum. If Tony Blair is going to be President of Europe, I want a referendum on the matter, and a lot of people will agree with me.
Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson is calling for a referendum on the EU president
‘The British people are entitled to one – and they were certainly promised one. It doesn’t mean the answer has to be “no” but it would be very interesting to hear the arguments.
‘There should be two questions: are you in favour of the Lisbon Treaty and are you in favour of remaining in the EU?’
The Mayor said he would campaign for the UK to stay in Europe but believed that the Lisbon Treaty should be torn up.
Mr Cameron said: ‘I have said repeatedly that I want us to have a referendum. If the Treaty is not ratified in all Member States and is not in force when the Election is held, and if we are elected, we will hold a referendum and lead the campaign for a “No” vote.
‘If the Treaty is ratified, we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen.’
No matter who becomes President of Europe, and people that will be the official title if the treaty is finally forced thru, here is what the estimated cost will be for the new fuhrer.
My source for the following information was the Daily Mail on Saturday. Sorry, no link to the following available. I had to copy it from the paper.
LIFE OF LUXURY FOR ‘PRESIDENT BLAIR?’
Here’s what the Brits could be helping to pay for, along with other european txpayers.
There is NO job description;
nothing on how long a person will serve, nor any details on how the successful candidate will be remunerated.
But he or she will almost certainly be paid as much as European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. His pay-and-perks package is:Salary: £269,246 a year
Residence allowance: £40,390 a year
Entertainment allowance: £15,635 a yearResettlement allowance (when he leaves the post) £22,441
Transitional allowance (to help his re-entry into the non-EU world) £403,956PENSION: £57,557 A YEAR.
Brussels has been reluctant to say what the position entails.
Posted by peiper
on 10/04/2009 at 02:45 AM
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Government • Corruption and Greed • Inflation and High Prices • International • Nanny State •
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 11, 2009
Why we got off the gold standard
Because there simply isn’t enough gold. Or silver. Or platinum. Or all of them combined. And there never was, even if you could gather every bit ever smelted. There is far more money in various accounts than there is money coined, and there is more money coined than there are precious metals to support them. The mints can only print money. Capitalism creates money, and the mints can’t even come close to keeping up.
So what supports the world’s currencies? Faith. And dreams. And the promise of Free Beer Tomorrow, but Tomorrow never comes. And if enough people share a dream then everyone is afraid to wake up. So don’t look too too closely at the man behind the curtain.
At times I find myself thinking that our money ought to be backed by precious metals. Usually those times are when I see that the price of something I want to buy has gone up, the value of gold has gone up, but the value of my money has gone down. That’s rather irritating. But what if it were? What if we still based our money on silver and gold? I know, let’s play with some math and a bit of history ...
sterling silver is 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper. Pure silver is just too soft to use for coinage. So is pure gold. But sterling silver is much tougher. Think of it as 22 carat silver.
A Troy ounce weighs 480 grains. 12 Troy ounces = 1 Troy pound, or 5760 grains.
[ An Avoirdupois ounce weighs 437.5 grains, 16 oz = 1lb or 7000 grains. This is the basis for American weights, even though precious metals use the Troy system. So yes, a pound of feathers actually does weigh more than a pound of gold, because they use different weighing systems. Grains are grains regardless of the weighing system. ]
In the money system started by England’s Henry II (d 1189), an old English penny had a pennyweight of silver in it, 24 grains. 20 pennies was a shilling, 1 Troy ounce. 12 shillings made a pound. Of Silver. One Pound, Sterling. Pretty subtle name, what what?
Today, silver is selling for $12.80 per troy ounce. Gold is right around $910 per troy ounce. Copper is selling for $1.612 per Avoirdupois pound.
$12.80/480= $0.026667 per grain.
480*0.925 = 444 grains, value of that much silver in a Troy ounce of sterling silver = $11.840148
$1.612/7000 = $0.000230 per grain
480*0.075 = 36 grains, value of that much copper in a Troy ounce of sterling silver = $0.00828
One Troy ounce of sterling silver, ie one Shilling = $11.84828.
Thus one pound sterling silver, 12 Troy ounces = $142.181136.
Add in a tiny amount of value for the making of the alloy itself.
One British Pound Sterling, £1, based on the precious metals standard, ought to be worth $142.25, not the $1.39 it’s going for today.
But the UK would need several mountains of gold, silver, and platinum to back it up; a standard American ton of 2000 pounds (Avoirdupois) is a mere 2430.5556 Troy pounds; even at gold price of $910/Troy ounce a US ton of gold is only worth $26,541,666.67. So Bill Gates and his $13 billion fortune are worth 490 US tons of the stuff, about 1/3 of worldwide annual total gold production. But that’s the real point: if currencies were based on precious metals, the world economy could only grow by the amount of them smelted per year. For gold, that’s about 50 million ounces: $46 billion, which is a drop in the bucket of international finance.
Speaking of mountains of precious metals ...
1 Troy oz = 373.2417216 grams
density of gold = 19.3 gm/cc
volume of 1 Toz gold = 19.338949cc
volume of 1 US ton of gold = 564079.246907cc, = 19.92027 cubic feet, a cube 2.710806 feet per side (a hair over 2 feet 8 1/2 inches). Your basic $26 million, 2000lb side table.
100’x100’x100’ = 1 million cubic feet, which holds 50,200.1279 US tons of gold, worth $1,322,457,662,471.44; a bit less than 1 1/3 trillion dollars. This is almost twice as much gold than has ever been mined in all of human history. But it’s far less than Obama’s Stimulus Package plus Bush’s Bank Bailout combined. There simply is not that much gold to go around, there never was, and there probably never will be.
The Stimulus Package plus the Bank Bailout plus this new Federal Budget plus the existing National Debt adds up to about $16 trillion, which is a gold brick 100’x100’x1025’. If you had a box that size you could hide an ocean liner inside.
A few weeks ago Peiper sent me a book called The Moneymaker. It’s the story of John Law, a Scotsman from 300 years ago who managed to put France on a paper currency money system, because there wasn’t enough metal coinage in circulation. This worked great for a while, and the economy of France bloomed. But nobody listened to him when he said that the brakes should be kept on; he never wanted to print more than 4 times as much paper cash as the banks had gold on hand to cover. Plus he got involved in a major Ponzi scheme called the Mississippi Company, and while it made him and many other people a vast fortune, when that bubble broke it crashed the economy and madness ensued for a while. And the paper money went belly up as well. And the banks. And then the dear little froggies spent the rest of Law’s life getting even with him, in the nastiest ways imaginable, as only true liberals can. Because they had all been greedy, and had lost out when the bubble burst, so it was all Law’s fault. It’s a great little book, and large parts of it seem to be a warning that is still applicable today.
Of course, I couldn’t get past the title without thinking of Terry Pratchett’s recent novel Making Money. It’s nearly the same story, but turned inside out because it’s Pratchett after all. Somewhat reformed con man Moist Van Lipwig puts the city on a fiat currency because there isn’t enough money in circulation, and then it turns out that there isn’t even any gold when there should have been. Except in the end there is, but it’s the kind of gold that really works for you, providing you know the secret. And the Glooper is bi-directional. And the promise of the old currency under the gold standard was great: We promise that this paper dollar is worth a dollar in gold, as long as you promise never to try to make that exchange. Perfection!
Both are very good reads, highly recommended. But both show that to become modern and to grow, any economy has to be based on the productivity and worth of the citizenry. It is a dream, and none of us can wake up, because that would crash the house of cards. Perhaps we should try a currency based on things of real worth, like food. Which would make the US, Canada, Australia, and Argentina the richest nations in the world. But you couldn’t really save it - not enough Mason jars by far - although you could always trade in your paper dollar for a dollar’s worth of food. We call that act “going to the grocery store”.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/11/2009 at 03:40 PM
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • Inflation and High Prices •
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 08, 2008
Jobless Afghan mother of seven gets £170,000 benefits and lives in £1million council house
Moonbat Award for the govt. if this is all actually true. Double the prices you see for approx. dollars folks. Unbelievable. I sincerely hope that we aren’t this loopy back home in USA. I have heard of this here already in regard to a muslim hate preacher whose family has a large house, SUVs and benefits etc.
But hey ... the taxpayer has too much spare cash laying around anyway.
How could I not post this item? It’s just too darn mind numbing to ignore.
I’ve recently read that some 70 or was it 75 thousand Brits have left their country. Not surprising either. In fact, I think it’s more like their country has left them. And stories like this are just part of the whole picture.
‘It’s like winning the lottery’: Jobless Afghan mother of seven gets £170,000 benefits and lives in £1million council houseBy Danny Brierley
Last updated at 1:59 PM on 08th October 2008A family living on benefits in a £1.2 million house in west London told today how they felt they had won the lottery.
Mother-of-seven Toorpakai Saindi gets £170,000 a year in benefits and the council pays the property’s private landlord £12,500 a month to accommodate the family who fled Afghanistan seven years ago.
The house in Acton has seven bedrooms, two reception rooms, a dining room and two kitchens, as well as an extensive back garden.
Mrs Saindi’s son, Jawad, 20, told the London Evening Standard: “If someone gave you a lottery ticket would you leave it? No. You take what you get given.
“It’s not that we wanted this big house - my mum is not happy because she has to clean all of it. The first day we moved in here we got lost because it was so big.”
It is owned by landlord Ajit Panesar, who is being paid double the normal market value of the property.
Mr Panesar said: “I can’t help it if the law says I should get paid that amount of money.”
The Saindis were first housed in a three-bed-room property in Enfield.
Four years later they moved to a five-bedroom house in Ealing and three months ago were placed at their current address which they are entitled to have by law given the size of their family.
Comfort: The spacious West London home which Mrs Saindi occupies with her seven children at the taxpayer’s expense.Jawad, who is planning to study at the private Regents Park Business School, said the family had left Afghanistan because of the civil unrest.
He added: “It was a big choice to go to another country and we came here for the education for the little ones. It was great in Afghanistan, every house over there is enormous - this place would be as big as something we would give chickens but we are just grateful for what we can get.”
Jawad, who lives at home with his mother, three sisters and three brothers, said he could not believe how much the landlord was being paid by the council. Their father is separated from Mrs Saindi.
Ealing council, who housed the family, blamed the Government saying it set the rates for the property. However, Whitehall officials insisted the council could have put the family in a cheaper home.
Mrs Saindi approached Ealing council, which had a legal obligation to find her a seven-bedroom property, in July after being made homeless. It is understood the council did not have a suitable house available so turned to the private sector.
But the move has angered neighbours and campaigners who say vast sums of taxpayers’ money are being wasted in housing benefit, and claim a more suitable property could have been found.
Mark Walllace, campaign director of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The system has gone seriously wrong when one family is costing taxpayers so much. This family could be helped without the need for such a huge bill.”
Mrs Saindi, whose children are aged from eight to 22, said: “I always thought the housing benefit was a lot, but I’m told this is what it is for homes like this here. It’s a lot of money but the council pay it. This is their problem. I don’t know why they pay so much.”
Mr Panesar says he checked the price with the Rent Service, part of the Department of Work and Pensions, which agreed the rate was acceptable. It is believed the figure is so high because the Rent Service grouped Acton with wealthy Westminster during boundary changes in April.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2008 at 09:17 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Inflation and High Prices • Outrageous • UK •
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Permalink • Monday - September 22, 2008
PANIC !!!
Stop reading this post and go fill up your gas tank! Take gas home in your pockets if you can! Crude oil prices are going nuts today, skyrocketing over 20%, more than $20 already! Gas prices will leap by this evening!!
Meanwhile, gas shortages continue in a few areas around the country.
It’s the end of the world! For the 3rd time in 10 days!!!!!!!!!!!11111elventy one!!!!
Posted by Drew458
on 09/22/2008 at 02:00 PM
Filed Under: • Inflation and High Prices • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Wednesday - July 30, 2008
Moonbat Pelosi, Plantetary Savior
The Democrat leadership once again shows their priorities: you can go screw; caribou, sea lions, and lobsters are more important.
Congressional Republicans are stepping up attacks on Democrats who are blocking votes on oil drilling legislation, homing in on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was quoted saying that she wants “to save the planet.”
Pelosi, in an interview published Tuesday in Politico.com, defended her efforts to stall spending bills, saying as speaker she decides which bills will make it to the House floor.
“I’m trying to save the planet. ... I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy,” Pelosi said. “When you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.”
Nancy is in charge, thank you. She has the power! But that also means she has the responsibility ... and this bunch hasn’t accomplished a damn thing in 2 solid years. And since Nancy is in charge and setting the agenda and deciding what gets recognized, therefore she is completely to blame. It’s a good thing we don’t have Sharia Law, because the right response is that of the Red Queen.
Ahead of a Republican press conference Tuesday focusing on stalled energy priorities, House Minority Leader John Boehner responded ...
“She’s got time to go out and promote her new book tour and her new book, but she doesn’t have time to schedule a vote on the floor of the House and let the American people have their will expressed?”
Boehner blamed Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama for preventing relief.
“For 25 years, Democrats have blocked more American-made oil and gas. That’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in,” said Boehner, R-Ohio. Voters want Congress “to vote on more American made oil and gas. We want to do that. She, Harry Reid, Barack Obama are standing in the way.”
House and Senate Democrats are using their control of Congress to avoid voting on opening up the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil exploration, which they say is unnecessary because oil companies already have leases to millions of acres of federal land.
While this is slightly “truthy”, just because the oil companies have leases doesn’t actually mean they are permitted to put a drill bit into the ground. Nor does the existence of a lease mean that oil or gas has been located. On the other hand, we know where lots of oil and gas are, right offshore. Just ask the Chinese, who are busy drilling for it right off the coast of Florida.
“American families and businesses are struggling with skyrocketing gas prices at the pump, but President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress continue to stand in the way of real relief,” Pelosi said in the statement. “Instead, the Bush-Cheney policy, an energy plan crafted by two oilmen in the White House, revolves around the best interests of Big Oil – from protecting tax breaks to expanding domestic oil and gas drilling.”
Because, you know, I’m going to go take my shovel and dig an oil well out front here in the parking lot. Let’s blame big business for the gas price crisis, and make special taxes to gouge the oil companies because prices are high, and at the same time prevent them from harvesting new sources of the resources ... and then blame them even more when the lack of supply causes the demand to skyrocket. These people are morons. You can’t revoke the Law of Supply and Demand Nancy. And since every other nation on earth with a bit of coastline is out there drilling already as fast as they can, your “save the planet” is a bunch of crap. All it means is “screw the Americans”. That’s not an attitude I want represented in Washington.
Boehner suggested Obama is among Democrats who he says are influenced by a “radical group of environmentalists” pushing higher gas prices.
“If you listen to Barack Obama during the primaries, you know, he didn’t think $5 gas was all that bad. He was just upset it got there so quickly. And what you’ve got, you’ve got a bunch of radical environmentalists who think that we ought to have higher gasoline prices so Americans will drive less,” Boehner said.
Americans are already driving less. But there is a lower limit. Public transportation just isn’t a complete solution for the rural and suburban areas. Carpooling really only works for shift workers who all live in the same neighborhood. And while Detroit is turning to smaller more efficient vehicles again, an awful lot of people can’t afford to go out and buy a new one right now. So most of us have already done about as much as we can; the lower limit has nearly been reached.
With four legislative weeks left before the November elections, after which Congress is likely to punt big issues until the next administration takes office, little time is left to find a means to reduce oil costs, which is blamed for driving up inflation and slowing down the economy.
“They’re trying to run out the clock,” Boehner said.
No kidding. I’ve got a better idea: let’s run them out of office. Both parties, but especially the Dems.
PS - note how Nancy makes a fist in the above picture. Isn’t that an obscene gesture in Latin America?
Posted by Drew458
on 07/30/2008 at 10:55 AM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Environment • Inflation and High Prices • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • Politics •
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Permalink • Monday - June 30, 2008
Ah, who cares? It’s only those filthy wogs anyway
Isn’t that special? Another half a percent of the world’s population is joining the ranks of the Poor ‘n Starvin
The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says.
Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world’s soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest. The group also says biofuels will do nothing to combat climate change. Its report urges the EU to scrap a target of making 10% of all transport run on renewable resources by 2020.
Oxfam estimates the EU’s target could multiply carbon emissions 70-fold by 2020 by changing the use of land. The report’s author, Oxfam’s biofuel policy adviser Rob Bailey, criticised rich countries for using subsidies and tax breaks to encourage the use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol.
“If the fuel value for a crop exceeds its food value, then it will be used for fuel instead,” he said, “Rich countries… are making climate change worse, not better, they are stealing crops and land away from food production, and they are destroying millions of livelihoods in the process.”
...
One UN adviser went as far as describing biofuels as a “crime against humanity”.
Gosh. The nerve of some people. Like they think palm oil grows on trees?
Posted by Drew458
on 06/30/2008 at 04:52 PM
Filed Under: • Inflation and High Prices • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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