Month: April 2014

MONEY: What growth? In the money supply!

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Fed Cuts Bond Buys, Sees Growth Pickup

The Federal Reserve said it would reduce its mortgage and Treasury bond buying program to $45 billion per month, while pointing to a growth pickup after a bad winter and sticking to previous guidance it has given on the outlook for short-term interest rates.

The steps were widely expected by investors before the meeting and represent a continuation of the monetary policy strategy laid out by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen and former Chairman Ben Bernanke in the last few months.

The Fed’s move came after a report that showed the U.S. economy barely grew in the first quarter. Fed officials acknowledged the first quarter slowdown was worse than expected by saying activity “slowed sharply.” Previously they had just said activity merely slowed.

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What marketplace are they watching?

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INTERESTING: No more diet coke for me

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Since going “primal” (i.e., following the Paleo diet as best I can), all I drink is mostly water, coffee, tea, and wine. (Quantities not necessarily in that order.)

I happened to drink a can of Diet Coke the other day, and it now tastes awful.

Guess like anything, your “tastes” do change.

Bad news for Coke!

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RANT: Life, without parole

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NBA Bans L.A. Clippers Owner for Life
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also says he will try to force a sale of the Clippers and fined Mr. Sterling $2.5 million. Mr. Silver called Mr. Sterling’s comments and views “deeply offensive and harmful.”

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For some reason, I find this abhorrent on a number of levels.

In no particular order:

  1. Cui Bono Why now? Why in this venue? And for who’s eventual good?
     
  2. With “evidence” that would probably not be admissible in court. (I’m no lawyer. But I’d never stipulate anything.)
  3. Using language that’s not appropriate, but there’s racism even within the Black community.
  4. Where is the outrage when other’s do the same. I remember Byrd, the Grand Wizard of the KKK, who was “rehabilitated”. There are a ton of other examples. 
  5. Did he not employ the best? If our private thoughts and words can be used to condemn us, who is immune?
  6. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I think the speed that it went from disclosure to “execution” is amazing. When a capital case takes decades, this was “done” in minutes. Why?
  7. How fast they changed the team’s website? Minutes after the NBA decision. Pre-planned?
  8. Interesting: “zero tolerance for institutional racism”. OK? But be careful what you say. Are Jewish people going to demand quotas in the NBA. (And, BTW why is the NBA, MLB, and the NFL “non-profit”?)
  9. As an “owner”, how can he be tossed to the curb without due process? A “majority of the owners” is an interesting term of art. I’d say cartel or monopoly. Isn’t that a per se violation of Federal law? MLB has the “baseball exemption”; what does the NBA have?
  10. And, finally, “protest held by several civil rights groups including the NAACP”. Is this the same group that gave him a “lifetime achievement award” and was going to give him another? They have a lot of “gravitas”.
Bottom life: I think he got screwed?

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GOVERNACIDE: VA secret list

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http://www.legion.org/veteranshealthcare/221045/legion-va-secret-list-%E2%80%98abhorrent%E2%80%99

Legion: VA secret list ‘abhorrent’

BY Marty Callaghan – April 24, 2014

*** begin quote ***

“We’re going to find out what happened in Phoenix,” Dellinger said. “We are going to find out who was responsible for this secret list and if they are still working for VA. These preventable deaths keep mounting, and yet we see not a single VA manager being held accountable. The American Legion will work with Congress and the VA Central Office to find out exactly what has been happening, and why. It is not sufficient for VA to simply say it’s going to try to do better next time, without holding people accountable.”

*** end quote ***

Coming to everyone soon with OBAMACARE.

Argh!

The Gooferment doesn’t do ANYTHING right. It’s immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

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INTERESTING: What did Grok, the caveman, eat?

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http://www.popsci.com/article/science/youre-not-highly-evolved

You’re Not Highly Evolved
Here’s where our bodies still mess up
By Veronique Greenwood Posted 04.16.2014 at 9:00 am

*** begin quote ***

METABOLISM

Our love of calorie-rich foods was useful early in our evolutionary history, but now that food is plentiful, that same predilection may contribute to the obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, evolution won’t offer its own solution for a long time. For example, 9,000 years elapsed between when some cultures first domesticated cows and when 90 percent of those populations finally were able to digest the lactose in milk.

*** end quote ***

One of the reasons I’m attempting to follow a paleo diet.

What did Grok, the caveman, eat?

Anything that he could find or catch. Went hungry a lot. And ran from what chased him.

Laff!

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TINFOILHAT: MH370 and other topics

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/04/no_author/the-2nd-mystery-of-malaysia-air/

The Second Mystery Around Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
By John Chuckman
Pravda.ru
April 21, 2014

*** begin quote *** 

A second mystery around the disappearance of Flight MH370 has largely gone unnoticed: why hasn’t the United States been in the forefront of providing information about it? The implications of this question are massive.

*** and ***

There would be nothing unprecedented in such an act: on at least 3 occasions, regrettably, America’s military has shot down civilian airliners, only admitting eventually to the one they could not hide. They are also indirectly responsible for a fourth.

Iran Air Flight 655 was stupidly shot down in 1988 by the USS Vincennes in Iranian waters during the Iraq-Iran War, not only killing 290 people including 66 children, but there was a long period afterwards in which the U.S. admitted no wrong-doing, offered no apology, and no compensation to its victims (only 8 years later was a quiet settlement made).

It was a quite vicious set of circumstances and the injustice of it led unquestionably to the motive for bombing Pan Am Flight 103, killing 259 people and 11 on the ground, later the same year by people still unknown.

TWA Flight 800 over the East Coast of the United States was certainly the victim of a shipboard American anti-aircraft missile accidentally released. The evidence included radar tracks and eye witnesses. But the U.S., instead of admitting its horrible error and compensating victims, conducted a long and almost farcical investigation headed up by the same FBI that gave us the farcical investigation into the Kennedy assassination.

Last, the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11, United Flight 93, of “Let’s roll” pop legend, which crashed over Pennsylvania was almost certainly shot down by an air-to-air missile from a fighter plane. A plane was seen by witnesses, the distribution of the wreckage tends to support a shoot-down, and just the sheer impossibility of America’s hundreds of billions of dollars in air defences staying asleep at the switch for a fourth event the same day argue powerfully for an attack.

*** end quote ***

While it’s not a credible source, it does ask some interesting questions!

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MONEY: Inflation = 2, 6, or 10 percent?

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-art-of-central-banking/

The Art of Central Banking
by Kate Incontrera.
Posted Apr 16, 2014.

*** begin quote ***

What is the inflation rate? Now, you think that’s just quantity, right? Just add up stuff. Anybody can do that. But it’s not that easy. There are lots of things go on in deciding what to put into that basket, and if you work hard enough, you can get that number anywhere you want it.

And the feds have done a great job at that. They have redone the way they calculate the inflation rate twice in the last 30 years and – guess what? – Each time, they’ve gotten a lower number. How do you like that? What a coincidence.

Right now, we have an inflation rate of about 2 percent. If you did it the way they did it in the ‘90s, you’d have 6 percent. Okay, that’s 4 percent difference, but it’s – you know, it’s three times the rate that we’re working from. And, if you did it the way they did it during the Carter Administration, you’d have an inflation rate of almost 10 percent. That’s five times the number we’re working with.

Now, here’s the question. Each time each of these numbers was done by a group of economists, the brightest and best in the country. Now, which one of these groups was a bunch of dunderheads? One of them was! Two of them were! How come? How are you supposed to know that? Which one is right?

*** end quote ***

The FED is the OPEC of the Big Banks.

The little guy doesn’t stand a chance.

Prior to 1913, gold was money and the discipliner of the Gooferment. After 1913, the Big Banks enabled Big Gooferment and were rewarded with a license to steal.

The part that bothers me is that the poor, the elderly, and those on fixed income are being robbed and the banisters, union “leaders”, politicians, and bureaucrats are rolling in dough.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Taxpayer Subsidies

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http://nutritionfacts.org/video/taxpayer-subsidies-for-unhealthy-foods/

Taxpayer Subsidies for Unhealthy Foods
What if billions in tax dollars were invested in healthier options rather than given to corporations to subsidize the very foods that are making us sick?

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I was especially shocked (“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca) that the Gooferment has give “hundreds of billions” to subsidize junk food.

Argh!

I’m not a fan of any taxing of anything. So, I’ll respectfully disagree with the idea of taxing the junk food. (Too much like Michael Bloomberg!)

But removing all subsidies is an idea I can support vigorously.

I never understood “parity payments”, “minimum price”, and other Corporate Welfare payoffs.

Argh!

Matter of fact, they could have stopped after “Taxpayer Subsidies”. I don’t want anything “subsidized”!

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CLOUD: What if your CLOUD provider screws up?

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Hello,

Earlier today you may have received an email informing you that your Google Apps account for the domain reinke.cc has been Closed due to inactivity and will be Terminated on 5-19-2014. This email was incorrectly sent to you because of an inconsistency in our records. The problem was strictly on our end, and none of the data in your account were lost or affected by the error.

We have confirmed that you have logged into your account. Your account has not been Closed and will remain active. No further action is required on your part. You may continue to use your Google Apps account normally.

We sincerely apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

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INTERESTING: On “paycheck equality”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

An interesting paper on “paycheck equality”. IMHO it distracts from the hidden reality that all us workers in Corporate America face in the workplace every day. Only answer is to own your own business. Great place America. Everyone should recognize that they are really in their own business. Even us “wage slaves”. We’re in “our own business”, but only have one Customer, our employer. Need to diversify to minimize that risk. :-) fjohn 

http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2014/04/16/war-women-hypocrisy-paternalism-under-guise-equali

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CLOUD: AMAZON merges KINDLE CLOUD with AMAZON CLOUD

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… with unknown impact on me?

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Dear Kindle Customer,

As a past user of personal documents on Kindle devices or reading apps, we are pleased to let you know about some improvements we’ve made to how personal documents work.

Personal documents are now in Amazon Cloud Drive: Starting today, all personal documents that you have archived in your Kindle Library will be available to access, delete, organize, and share from your Amazon Cloud Drive. You can see these documents in a new “My Send-to-Kindle Docs” folder alongside all of your saved content such as photos and personal videos.

There is no action required on your part. Your personal documents features will continue to work just as they have in the past. And as always, you can use Manage Your Kindle to see a list of your documents, re-deliver them to Kindle devices and free reading apps, delete them, or turn off auto-saving of documents to the cloud. Documents will be delivered just as they have in the past and you will continue to have 5 GB of free cloud storage for your personal documents. Just “Send Once, Read Everywhere.”

Documents stored in their native format: Also starting today, new documents that you save to the cloud with Send to Kindle will be stored in their native format (e.g. MS Word, TXT) so you can access them anywhere from Amazon Cloud Drive.

Please note: Your usage of Amazon Cloud Drive is subject to the Amazon Cloud Drive Terms of Use.

Sincerely,
The Docs Team

To learn more about sending documents, news, blogs, and other web articles to your Kindle, please visit amazon.com/sendtokindle

To learn more about Amazon Cloud Drive features and apps, please visit amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

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INSPIRATIONAL: Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, Wrongfully Convicted Boxer, Dies

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Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, Wrongfully Convicted Boxer, Dies at 76

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the boxer whose wrongful murder conviction became an international symbol of racial injustice, has died at 76.

Mr. Carter spent 19 years in prison for three murders at a tavern in Paterson, N.J., in 1966. His ordeal and the alleged racial motivations behind it were publicized in Bob Dylan’s 1975 song “Hurricane,” several books and a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington.

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I wonder how much of his life he lost. Over and above the 19 years. Has to take a toll on you. Life is tough enough with having extra burdens placed on you.

Requiescat In Pacem, Hurricane.

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RANT: Unelected bureaucrats kidnap a child

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http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/snatched-girls-parents-launch-new-offensive/?cat_orig=health

WND EXCLUSIVE
‘SNATCHED’ GIRL’S PARENTS LAUNCH NEW OFFENSIVE
Supporters accuse Boston Children’s Hospital of ‘psychological experiment’
BOB UNRUH

*** begin quote ***

BCH then presented the family with a new treatment plan to discontinue all medical care and medications and which forbade any second opinions, Liberty Counsel explained. When the parents refused to sign the new treatment plan and requested that Justina be discharged so they could take her back to Tufts Medical Center, BCH called DCF, and DCF prevented the family from discharging Justina. Fourteen months later, DCF still retains custody of Justina.

*** and ***

Bujoreanu is researching Somatoform under a grant from the federal National Institutes of Health. Any ward of the state is subject to research being performed on them without their consent, even if the research is not primarily for the ward’s benefit.

Sources have reported Justina has spent most of her time in state custody locked in a psychiatric ward.

*** end quote ***

Talk about a conflict of interest.

NIH has a lot of explaining to do.

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JOBFINDING: IT Engineer Ewing, NJ

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I’m contacting you today about an IT Engineer for a fulltime position in Ewing, NJ. Your experience supporting Microsoft Back-Office products and for Avaya/Nortel telephony systems. Please send your resume today for more information.

Title: IT Engineer
Type: Fulltime
Location: Ewing, NJ
Compensation: $125,000/year plus benefits!
Available Now/On-Site Only

The role of the IT Engineer is to develop and maintain the overall high-level design plan for our clients’ logical and technical IT architecture. You will provide technical guidance and consulting across the MIS organization, from strategy to planning to issue resolution. You will gain organizational commitment for technical plans, initiate and participate in projects to evaluate technologies and methods for implementing these plans, and participate in evaluating their execution.

You will engineer and provide technical management for Microsoft Back-Office products, including Windows Servers, Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Lync, and System Center applications. Plus, you will provide technical management for Avaya/Nortel telephony systems, Aspect systems, the telecom landscape, and product options.

If you are currently distinguished by your mastery of hardware/software upgrades and on-site support of high availability desktops, I want to hear from you today. If you are up to this challenge or can refer someone today, please let me know. MMI offers a generous referral bonus for helping your friends.

Peter Lehrman
IT Talent Scout
Mitchell Martin Inc.
New York, NY 10018
Call 646.300.7057Call: 646.300.7057
Fax: 646-355-0229Call: 646-355-0229
plehrman@itmmi.com

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GUNS: Pretend that their assault weapon ban never existed

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http://townhall.com/tipsheet/townhallmagazine/2014/04/12/the-assault-weapon-rebellion-n1822409

The “Assault Weapon” Rebellion
Townhall Magazine | Apr 12, 2014

*** begin quote ***

The government of Connecticut can’t threaten the citizenry with criminal charges. They’ve already willingly decided to become felons en masse. The government can’t threaten the citizenry with force. They’re both grossly outnumbered and outgunned. The government can’t offer an amnesty. It would only reinforce how little power the government has over a rebellious citizenry.

The only realistic option is for the government of Connecticut to pretend that their assault weapon ban never existed. To admit it exists, and that they can do nothing to enforce it, would reveal that the emperor and his court have no clothes.

A nearly identical problem is brewing next door in the much larger, more populous state of New York, thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s hastily-passed NY SAFE Act. That law demands that New Yorkers register their semi-automatic “assault rifles” with the government by April 15.

*** end quote ***

From my cold dead hands.

Why should the people fear the Gooferment?

They are a joke. 

A very dangerous joke. 

Look at speed limits. People are withdrawing consent in all sorts of little ways.

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? . . .” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

And don’t forget the movie quote:

“Yes. In the end, you will walk out. Because 100,000 Englishmen simply cannot control 350 million Indians, if those Indians refuse to cooperate.” — movie Gandhi (1983)

Substitute “politicians and bureaucrats” and “gun owners” and that’s what’s happening here.

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PRODUCTIVITY: GMAIL Compose Page

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

http://icetothebrim.com/2014/textexpander-snippet-gmail-compose-page-without-inbox-plus-thoughts-email/

TextExpander Snippet for Gmail Compose Page (without inbox) — plus some thoughts on email
It’s finally happened: my inbox has become a problem. More on this below.

But first, here’s a lil’ textexpander snippet to take you to a compose message for your gmail account WITHOUT pulling up the inbox… helpful when, like me, you get sucked into the incessant sucking sound of your inbox.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1%key:enter%

Set that up for something like ;gmc (for GMail Compose) and use it when you write an email instead of opening up your inbox.

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I’ve stolen this idea.

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JOBSEARCH: IT’s finding your niche

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/surviving-post-employment-economy-201311373243740811.html

Surviving the post-employment economy
The author argues that in the new economy, it’s people, not skills or majors, that have lost value.
Last updated: 03 Nov 2013 08:50
Sarah Kendzior is a St Louis-based writer who studies politics and media.

*** begin quote ***

Individuals internalise the economy’s failure, as a media chorus excoriates them over what they should have done differently. They jump to meet shifting goalposts; they express gratitude for their own mistreatment: their unpaid labour, their debt-backed devotion, their investment in a future that never arrives.

And when it does not arrive, and they wonder why, they are told they were stupid to expect it. They stop talking, because humiliation is not a bargaining chip. Humiliation is a price you pay in silence – and with silence.

People can always make choices. But the choices of today’s workers are increasingly limited. Survival is not only a matter of money, it is a matter of mentality – of not mistaking bad luck for bad character, of not mistaking lost opportunities for opportunities that were never really there.

*** end quote ***

I agree that the “job market” has shifted as it has many times in my career.

It’s a game.

The seeker has to find the place for them to find their bliss.

Unfortunately what was true for me in the 60’s (i.e., get a job a big company and work your way up) is no longer true.

Ditto: get a Gooferment job.

Ditto: get a PhD.

Ditto: go to Wall Street in some manner.

I THINK (and it’s just my opinion) the model for today’s jobseeker is be in your own business.

Can’t tell you what business that is, but you have to be your own boss.

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RANT: Newark Airport AirTrain service temporarily suspended

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Newark Airport AirTrain service temporarily suspended

We want to notify our members that Newark Liberty International Airport’s AirTrain service will be partially shut down for much needed repairs through May 1 and completely suspended from May 1 – July 31, 2014. During the closure, free shuttle buses supplied by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey will serve as an alternate mode of transportation to/from the Hertz rental location and between terminals. Please make an allowance for possible delays when planning your travel.

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Nice of them not inconvenience anyone.

Gooferment!

No private enterprise does that.

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CLOUD: “Ubuntu One” bites the dust

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Hi,

We are writing to you to notify you that we will be shutting down the
Ubuntu One file services, effective 1 June 2014. This email gives
information about the closure and what you should expect during the
shutdown process.

As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music
from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services apps in the Ubuntu,
Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately.

As always, your content belongs to you. You can simply download your files
onto your PC or an external hard drive. While the service will stop as of
1 June, you will have an additional two months (until 31 July 2014) to
collect all of your content. After that date, all remaining content will
be deleted.

If you have an active annual subscription, the unused portion of your fees
will be refunded. The refund amount will be calculated from today’s
announcement.

We know you have come to rely on Ubuntu One, and we apologise for the
inconvenience this closure may cause. We’ve always been inspired by the
support, feedback and enthusiasm of our users and want to thank you for
the support you’ve shown for Ubuntu One. We hope that you’ll continue to
support us as together we bring a revolutionary experience to new devices.

The Ubuntu One team

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Can’t depend on any cloud service?

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MONEY: Third Anniversary of Conviction & Still No Action

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Closing Remarks:
As another year grinds past, thank you for your forced patience to recover your wrongfully seized property. I wish there was some action to take, but waiting is our only option. Many thanks for your continued support. For it is only by banding together and adopting a free and independent currency that provides us with “just weights and measures” that we will be able to throw off the yoke of a manipulated monetary/tax system and generate a peaceful and prosperous society.

Thank you again for all your efforts to return America to value – one dollar at a time!

Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect/Editor
Editor@LibertyDollar.org

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Don’t mess with the powers that be!

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RANT: Are things really heading “south” economically?

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http://readychimp.com/2014/04/06/preppers-prepare-more-16-major-retail-chains-closing-stores-across-america/

Preppers, prepare more: 16 major retail chains closing stores across America
by Ready Chimp
April 6, 2014

*** begin quote ***

Recent news stories show that American retail is in dire straits. Here are 16 big retail companies that have closed or will close stores soon:
Office supply company Staples has announced plans to close 225 stores by 2015, which is about 15% of its chain. Staples already closed 40 stores last year.

Office Depot, Staples’ main competitor which bought Office Max last year, isn’t in good shape either. Industry analysts expect Office Depot to announce its own round of store closings soon.

Radio Shack has announced plans to close 20% of its stores or as many as 1,100 stores this year. The company, which operates around 4,000 stores, reported that its sales fell by 19% last year.

Albertsons supermarket closed 26 stores in January and February this year. Analysts expect many more Albertsons to be closed down because Albertsons’ owner hedge fundCerberus Capital Management just bought Safeway Inc. Some Safeway stores could soon shut down as well.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

How can there be such a disparity of opinion?

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INSPIRATIONAL: A world made more beautiful

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU

“He witnesses happiness. Reaches a deeper understanding. Feels the love. Receives what money can’t buy — a world made more beautiful,” the ad says.

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My pick for best internet video of the year! Maybe ever?

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