Eurozone Meltdown

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Both Mish and Zero Hedge are keeping an excellent running commentary on the Eurozone crisis.  To nutshell it – the bailout of Greece has failed completely (with Greek bond prices rising above 30%) and the contagion is spreading to Italy, where they are doing financial backflips to stave off collapse.

We’ll see if they can pull it off – my view remains the same:  even if they manage to plug the leak here, the dam is so swiftly collapsing that it will just move to one of a dozen other places.  Collapse is inevitable – there isn’t enough money in the world, not if Bernanke and the ECB printed day and night for 100 years, to make up for all the garbage debt there is in the world.  The only question is how bad it will be – repeat of Lehman in 2008?  Or complete financial melt down?  Time will tell – but we have to get through the crash before we can start to rebuild – the bogus debt and fake wealth has to be liquidated so that everyone knows where they stand, then we can rebuild (and, hopefully, with a bit more wisdom).

The Obama Lapdog Media Defends Atlanta Cheating Scandal (Bumped)

tiredoflibbs57 Comments

The Atlanta government schools are not worrying about the ObamaMedia pressing too hard on this test score cheating scandal.  They are more worried about Casey Anthony.  Instead, they are using the usual dumbed down talking points for the ignorant drones: blame Bush.  It’s Bush’s fault!  Wow, WHAT A REVELATION!!!!  Blame Bush for the cheating in Atlanta’s government schools.

Not surprising … they are pushing this tired old regurgitated talking point that if it wasn’t for No Child Left Behind, this cheating scandal would not have escalated (or even happened).

ABC correspondent Steve Osunami  said during a report:

Everyone here is pointing the finger at No Child Left Behind, the federal policy that made test scores king , closing schools with low scores, and rewarding schools with high ones. This former superintendent is accused of encouraging the cheating. She received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses tied to improved test scores. I’m personally friends with a good number of teachers in this community who tell me that they’re under tremendous pressure. They say that the same parents who are angry about all the cheating would be even more furious if the schools started reporting lower test scores … 

Pay close attention to: “Parents would be even more angry is the schools had reported lower test scores?”    Test scores, which by the way shows three things:

1) the incompetence of government schools (federal government policies and regulations rather than the states’ and local governments that are more accountable to the local people).

2) the detrimental effects of special interest unions which at heart are not “about the children” but about advancing their own power.

3) the inability to get rid of unionized teachers and administrators that are simply not doing (or can’t do) their job.

These parents should be concerned about whether or not their children are learning.  Period.  To falsify these test scores meant cheating many struggling students out of education they otherwise needed.  Of course, the looters will come up with the same excuses – MORE MONEY…..  and the ignorant drones will take up the chant.

It is time for the media to do their jobs and return to their ethical standards rather than support their ideological comrades.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  Nothing to see here, people – let’s just move on:

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin called the state investigative report into widespread cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools “pretty scary.”

However, she said, former Atlanta School Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall deserves credit for her successes…

She’s a liberal, you see?, so her heart must have been in the right place…

Update: Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (a Republican) on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.  The cheating has been going on for 10 YEARS!

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/07/07/educators-implicated-in-atlanta-cheating-scandal

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-biggest-teacher-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-atlanta-213734183.html

The Criterion-Referenced Competency Test was instituted in the SPRING OF 2000!  Gee, long before the passage of NCLB and the election of George Bush!!!

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_testing.aspx?PageReq=CI_TESTING_CRCT

Note: There is no mention of NCLB nor did (or could) the 82 confessors blame Bush for their cheating.  The mindless drones would have you believe otherwise.

Michelle Bachmann, Hero

Mark Noonan6 Comments

She understands:

I saw Bachmann on O’Reilly and I have to say that while Bachmann was great, she did flub one of her answerst.  O’Reilly about whether or not Geithner is lying – whether, that is, we’ll really have a catastrophe if we don’t raise the debt ceiling?  Bachmann answered that Geithner is wrong – probably out of an unwillingness to ever directly call someone a liar (one bit of courage we are sorely lacking in the modern world).  Bachammn should have answered like this:

“Lying?  I don’t know, Bill; lying our stupid.  Think about it:  what Geithner, Obama and the rest are saying is that the only way to avoid bankruptcy is to go further in to debt. ”

You have to be some kind of special definition of obtuse to believe such nonsense – piling on more debt is what will cause our default.  The way to avoid default is to cease piling on more debt.  Remember, the only reason to raise the debt ceiling is because you want to borrow more money – you want to continue to live beyond your means.  I don’t know about any of you, but it seems to me that the best course of action for a man teetering on the edge of bankruptcy is to spend less money – certainly not to borrow any more.

Bachmann is right, though, about the fact that we won’t default – we have plenty of revenues coming in to pay off old debts, roll them over with new debts and meet the vital needs – social security, medicare/medicaid, defense, etc.  What we don’t have the money for is things like the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Energy, as well as whole swaths of more useful Departments like Health and Defense.  We can, if we are only willing to offend core, Democrat constituencies, easily cut several hundred billion out of the 2012 budget…and that would eliminate any need for raising the debt ceiling.  Bachmann sees this – so does a small but growing number of Congressional GOPers.  So, too, will a majority of the American people once it is properly explained to them.

So, this makes Bachmann a hero – she said it:  the Emperor has no clothes – debt does not make you rich.  It is the first step in restoring fiscal sanity to our nation.

Geithner: Sucks to be You, America

Mark Noonan9 Comments

That, at any rate, is my loose translation – from the AP:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come.

He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy. But Geithner says will be some time before many people feel like the country is recovering.

Geithner tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it’s a very tough economy. He says that for a lot of people “it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.”

Staying loyal to his boss but also getting a little attack of the truth – it is absurd to think that Obama staved off the Great Depression because we’re still in it, it is just that the official (and manipulated) statistics don’t show it.  But we, the people, sure as heck feel it.  But it is almost refreshing to get a bit of honesty out of the Obama Administration – this will, indeed, be very hard to deal with.  But it doesn’t really have to go on for a “long time”.  We can cut the nightmare short in November of 2012.

Barack Milhous Obama

Mark Noonan3 Comments

What did he know and when did he know it?

It must be pointed out that no lives were lost in Watergate – while we’ve got one dead American in the “Gunwalker” scandal…and who knows how many Mexicans might wind up dead.  And all we’re getting from Obama’s “Justice” Department is stonewalling…the truth has to come out, we must find out what happened – who ordered it, who knew about it and what was the real purpose?

Remember what happened here – American law enforcement agencies connived at the sale and transport of American arms to Mexican drug cartels.  This is not something which just comes out of some cop’s head – someone very senior in the Obama Administration cooked up the plan and I cannot imagine it going forward with out AG Holder’s permission, at least.

The people have a right to know – and Congress must continue to press this issue and go where ever the evidence leads.

Obama to Hold News Conference About Debt

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Having failed in his efforts to get the GOP to commit political suicide by caving in on taxes, Obama is now just seeking the last ounce of political advantage he can from the debt talks – from Reuters:

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Monday about the status of negotiations to cut the deficit and raise the debt ceiling, the White House said on Sunday.

Obama met with congressional leaders for about 75 minutes Sunday evening and will meet again with them on Monday “to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction,” the White House said, without giving a time for that session.

I think that for the Democrats they are mostly working out a campaign theme for 2012 – the reason things are lousy is because those mean, greedy Republicans wouldn’t agree to a tax hike on millionaire’s and billionaire’s corporate jets.  No, seriously; it is how things are shaping up.  Yes, Democrats are that out of ideas and that convinced that the American people are infantile enough to buy it.

This 11 am presser – a bit of an odd time to hold one – is to try and grab hold of the media narrative for the remainder of the debt talks.  Obama is trying to make it so that the MSM continually asks Republicans why they won’t tax corporate jets.  The idea is that endless repetition will make the GOP look bad and give Obama and his Democrats a lot of good sound bites for the 2012 campaign (remember, America can go down in flames – for Democrats that is not nearly as bad as a Democrat losing an election:  all else is subordinated to Democrat victory).  Of course, this will only work, at all, if Obama comes across in a Presidential manner.  If he spends half an hour just insulting the GOP, then people will simply tune him out, no matter how much his MSM lapdogs try to make it otherwise.

We’ll see how it comes out – but I’ve never been more confident about conservative/libertarian political prospects than I am now.

No More Arms to Egypt

Mark Noonan1 Comment

A bit of Obama foreign policy insanity noted over at Commentary:

While everyone in Washington was concentrating on the debt crisis this week, the Obama administration attempted to slip through a questionable arms deal that requires serious scrutiny. Though it got little attention, the Defense Department officially notified Congress on Friday that it was authorizing the sale of 125 M1A1 tanks to Egypt as well as other weapons, equipment, parts, training and logistical support. While most of the military sales to Egypt have sailed through without objection in the more than 30 years since it signed a peace deal with Israel, this is the first such sale since the fall of the Mubarak regime earlier this year. Which is exactly why the sale ought to be held up until the unsettled situation in the most populous country in the Arab world is better understood…

Until we see what sort of government emerges in Egypt, we should presume the worst and that means not providing Egypt with arms and support which could at some date be used against us or our allies.  The deal to arm Egypt with America’s best weapons was predicated upon Egypt firmly adhering to the Camp David accords and peace with Israel…already we see the rising Egyptian political class calling in to question these basic issues.  Wisdom dictates that we proceed with caution.

It is to be hoped that some how, some way, a non barbarous regime rises in Egypt.  If that is the case, we can resume arms shipments and make up for anything we denied them during the transition period.  According to the linked article, Congress has 30 days to object and thus halt the deal – I hope the House GOP leadership takes up this issue and forces a halt.  If Obama won’t use common sense in this matter, someone else will have to step up.

Inflation Stalks China’s Economy

Mark Noonan19 Comments

From Market Watch:

China’s consumer prices accelerated to a-three-year high in June as food prices soared 14.4%, according to data released Saturday, reaffirming expectations that Beijing won’t be in a hurry to relax its monetary stance even if it may not aggressively pursue more interest-rate increases.

Monthly data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed the consumer price index for June climbed 6.4 % from the same period the year before. Many economists had expected the rise to be between 6.2% and 6.4%…

When considering China, it is best to keep in mind one very important quote, as it explains it all:

…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

All that talk about China becoming predominant and having a vibrant economy and showing the world how it is done is so much nonsense.  All China has demonstrated is that if you allow free scope to unbridled greed you can get ahead for a bit.  Hitler did it, too – he allowed Germany’s industrial titans to do whatever they wanted in the pursuit of profits and, my goodness, how the money rolled it.  But because the government wasn’t by consent of the governed – and thus there was no freedom, including the freedom to check up on what business and government was up to – the whole thing became over strained.  A valid argument can be made that part of the reason Hitler struck in 1939 – rather than 1942, as he had originally planned – was because he was warned that the German economy was on the verge of collapse.  Too much government spending, too much sharp financial practice…the wheels were coming off.  It was either retrench (and have rising unemployment and resign all dreams of conquest) or attack.  It was only by plundering Europe that Germany managed to keep afloat during the war – hardly a valid economic model, but China’s is no different from Nazi Germany’s.

Evil can have its day.  Evil can astound the world.  Evil can look like a winner – but only over a relatively short period of time.  China got a bit lucky in that American economic policy during the past 20 years has essentially encouraged China to pick up our manufacturing capacity.  This gave an immense shot in the arm for China and allowed it to go on longer than it should…but now the patsy (us, that is) can’t resign any more wealth to China; now China’s bad debts have built up; now China’s fake money is under pressure; now China needs 9% growth and there is simply no way to obtain it…except by inflationary policies, which is what China did over the past two years.  But that comes with a price, too.  The financial chickens are coming home to roost in China.

To think that a horrific, corrupt and anti-human tyranny such as that which governs China could ever compete with a free people was, is and always will be absurd.  A temporary advantage is the most such a government could obtain.  All those idiots who have poured investment money in to China are about to find out just how dumb that idea was.  China is heading for a fall – whether it will result in revolution or some sort of foreign adventure as China’s government tries to hang on remains to be seen – but it cannot be sustained as is.  It will have to change – and how they get out of it remains a complete mystery:  in addition to dealing with a corrupt government and a false economic model, China is about to enter demographic decline as the anti-human “one child” policy bears it’s bitter fruit.

Really bad times are coming, folks; just get ready for them.

Obamunism! Consumer Confidence Drops

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From Rasmussen:

Following yesterday’s disappointing jobs report, consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest level in nearly two years.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell two-and-a-half points on Saturday to 68.6. That’s the lowest level of confidence measured since July 24, 2009. Consumer confidence is down two points from a week ago, six points from a month ago and eight points from three months ago…

Have any of you noticed that some times it is hard to find things like Tylenol in the stores?  That if you go to a clothing store, there are fewer items for sale?  That when you used to go to a retail outfit a sales clerk was on you in a second and now you can stand jumping around the cash register for a minute or two before an over-worked clerk comes over to help?   Fewer things in the stores, fewer people to help you – not the sign of an economy on the mend:  very strong signs that retailers are barely holding on and are cutting costs everywhere they can.

The economy we have right now is at its current level because of massive money printing by the Federal Reserve and massive government spending.  The Federal Reserve is done printing and even if we wanted to, we can’t afford another two or three trillion dollars in borrowed stimulus spending.  We’re broke, the economy is on life support and for all the happy talk out of government and corporate America, the people see things as they are – which is why the confidence rate is going down.

No one is fooled any longer – the whole, rotten politico-economic system is broken and the people are fully awake to the scam.  2012 will be very interesting.