RANT: Obama White House’s cronyism

Thursday, August 16, 2012

http://news.investors.com/article/621355/201208071855/white-house-takes-workers-pensions-and8212-and-lies-about-it.htm

Did White House Commit Perjury About GM Bailout?
Posted 08/07/2012 06:55 PM ET

*** begin quote ***

Cronyism: In recent days, the scope of the Obama White House’s cronyism has become shockingly apparent. A trove of emails shows it deprived thousands of workers of their pensions to benefit unions, then lied about it.

The news site The Daily Caller has obtained internal government emails that show the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, pushed in 2009 to end the pensions of 20,000 non-union employees of GM’s Delphi auto parts unit as part of the auto bailout.

What’s truly outrageous is that, while those workers were cheated of their full pensions, union employees of the same Delphi company got their pensions paid.

This financially ruinous favoritism of union workers over nonunion workers is blatantly unfair, illegal and a violation of Constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law. And the reason is political.

By its own reckoning, organized labor spent nearly $400 million to get Obama elected in 2008, more by far than any other interest group. So it’s no surprise the White House punished nonunion workers and rewarded union members when it came time to “bail out” GM.

Total value of the auto industry bailout to the unions was, by one estimate, $26 billion. For the unions, their $400 million was money well spent indeed.

What’s disturbing is it now appears several White House officials may have lied about how this obvious favoritism came about. Looking at the record, Treasury and White House officials appear guilty not just of political malfeasance, but of perjury as well. On this, the Daily Caller’s email cache is damning.

*** end quote ***

Frau Reinke was always enraged about “losing” her 5k$ GM bond to the Gooferment bailout. 

We knew it was a corrupt bargain, but there was no recourse.

The public, bondholders, preferred stock holders, … … everyone got <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act.>!

She didn’t loose her “lunch money”. But it still hurt her.

The pensioners lost their “lunch money”!

That’s not right.

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MONEY: What is the value of a fiat currency?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

http://www.silverdoctors.com/cnbc-are-fiat-currencies-headed-for-a-collapse/

Are Fiat Currencies Headed for a Collapse?
Published: Friday, 27 Jul 2012 | 5:27 AM ET
By: Lisa Oake
Anchor, CNBC Asia-Pacific

*** begin quote ***

Shockingly, CNBC even points out in the article that “Every single fiat currency in history has collapsed, this time will be no different.”

*** and ***

A fiat currency derives its worth from the issuing government – it is not fixed in value to any objective standard. That means central banks can print as much money as they want. If an economy is struggling, injecting more notes into the system juices activity but lowers the value of the currency in question.

Mark Mobius, Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, says investors will soon start to demand fiat currencies be backed by gold or other hard assets.

“It’s already happening, you’re beginning to see that trend with central banks stocking up on gold. The estimate is that at least half of the buying is central bank buying. They are looking to the day when they can say okay, our currency is backed by gold and therefore we’re a strong country,” Mobius told CNBC Asia.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

All one has to do is study a little history and you have to be afraid.

Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, Iraq — come immediately to mind.

We’ve been the guinea pigs in a hundred year experiment in a fiat currency. Now the free ride is coming to an end.

The fun question is how does it unwind?

With a thud!

Does the Carter-style inflation return? Or does it just start to accellerate, continue, and never stops until the value is zero?

When the wild ride starts, it’s too late to covert to hard assets.

Argh!

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SOFTWARE: Peanut Butter PC; better than nothing?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/peanut-butter-pc-trying-to-keep-kids-safe/6428?tag=nl.e101

Peanut Butter PC: Trying to keep kids safe

*** begin quote ***

Bottom line

In summary, although Peanut Butter PC as a product offers a good idea for making the computer safe for kids, some youngsters with more crafty hacking smarts could get around the confines of the custom desktop and back into the cruel, unprotected world of regular Windows. Although this application serves as a decent roadblock for some that aren’t familiar with computers, it cannot be considered a replacement to parental supervision. It is always important to monitor your child’s usage of the machine, just in case someone does end up finding a way around the fence. At the price of $24.95, it might be worth considering after you give the software a test run via Peanut Butter PC’s 15-day trial.

*** end quote ***

Putting computing power in the hands of children is at best a calculated risk.

Perhaps, by putting it in their hands earlier, with instruction, examples, and SUPERVISION, can make it safer for all involved.

If I had a family, I’d put OPENDNS in the family’s router. That’ll help.

Reviewing logs is a good way to get to sleep at night.

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HARDWARE: Retire old hard drives?

Monday, August 13, 2012

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=31811.msg295493#msg295493

Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?
« on: August 02, 2012, 01:52:50 AM »

*** begin quote ***

We all know that hard drives can and will fail eventually, and often unpredictably and without warning. That’s why we make sure we back up regularly.

But here’s is a question I’ve been thinking about lately, and I don’t know the answer to:

Should we pre-emptively retire old but perfectly-working hard drives, and migrate data to a new drive? If so, after how many hours?

Or should we just run them into the ground until they fail?

Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorite tools (CrystalDiskInfo), showing smart data of my oldest drive, with 39,000 hours powered up:

*** end quote ***

What a GREAT question?

I’ve have NEVER heard it asked before. (And, I’ve been in and around it for a LONG time!)

I’ve been burnt by hardware failures a few times. Couple of times the hard disk died. Couple of times it was the supporting hardware.

(The disk might have well died. Thanks, DELL, for using a proprietary motherboard / disk drive combination. Couldn’t just take the good drive from a dead mother and slap it in another DELL as a primary or secondary. That consumed a HUGE number of hours of me, my hardware savvy tech friend, and DELL “technical support”. That one HURT! Turns out most of the backups I’d taken were corrupt. Good thing I’m a “belts ‘n’ suspenders” kinda guy. Had PRINTED copies of data. Paperless society my <synonym for donkey>!]

Cloud is the ultimate backup.(Another great business idea missed thanks to my “huevos muchos pequeño”!) But even that cloud solution can fail. What do you do if you can’t connect?

Argh!

Two of my more SPECTACULAR failures were, both times in a corporate setting — different employers — where I was REQUIRED to depend on centralized IT back up service, when I depended upon those others and … (wait for it) … one time my platform was “overlooked” and at the other place “ALL my backups for THREE <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> YEARS were corrupt”.

Double Argh! or is that (Argh!)**2?

Just writing this I’m now getting crazed because my current employer is another of those “you must use the centralize backup service” kinda places. 

(Note to self: ask them to restore some random file every week!)

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FUN: Tongue-in-cheek advice for Taylor Swift

Sunday, August 12, 2012

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/04/advice-for-taylor-swift-for-her-romance-with-conor-kennedy.html

*** begin quote ***

Do: All the driving. Leave aside whether you believe in the mythical Kennedy Curse, thought to have plagued the family for generations. Think not of Mary Jo Kopechne, the would-be lady friend to Ted Kennedy who died at the bottom of a tidal channel in Chappaquiddick in 1969 after he took a wrong turn and drove them off a bridge. Think not of JFK Jr., who died in 1999 while piloting his own plane, taking his wife and sister-in-law with him. Think not even of Kerry Kennedy, who blamed a recent car wreck on a seizure. Teen boys are the most dangerous drivers in America, accounting for 30 percent of the total cost of motor vehicle injuries in the country. Why tempt fate? Better yet: Hire a chauffeur.

*** end quote ***

In my earlier “advice”, I was worried for “America’s sweetheart”, the poetess laureate of puberty. The Kennedy’s are not what I’d call a “model of faithfulness”. How they are labeled “Catholic” defies my common sense? But, then if I was a bishop, I’d be suing for false advertising. 

I pray that she comes through this with a worst some good song material. 

Argh!

Being an old “SWIFTIE” has its angst.

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LIBERTY: Gooferment involvement in “religion” leads to abuses

Saturday, August 11, 2012

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/117010.html

Religion and Libertarianism
Posted by Walter Block on August 4, 2012 03:22 PM

*** begin quote ***

Basically, I contend that contrary to “religion” being responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisition, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the treason against the Waldensians, the purges in England, and the oppression in Geneva, to name but a few, it was the fact that these religious positions held a controlling interest in the State that resulted in the terror exacted upon innocents. For instance, Lutheran segregation in post-Luther Germany was a result of the marriage of church and State in that country, the oppression in England of differing religious positions was because of the involvement of the State in religion, Calvin’s oppression was because his religion WAS the State, and, most egregiously, the Vatican itself IS a State, to which over a billion souls worldwide pledge (unwittingly, in most cases) their allegiance, even before their own home countries.

Thus, while religionists have played a significant role in the history of the world, it’s always those people’s access to State power that results in persecution. For instance, you’ll never hear of Baptists, Quakers, or Amish oppressing other religions, as these groups (I am a Baptist) have never sought to control the political reins of any region or State. In fact, Rhode Island’s charter was premised on the Baptistic doctrine of Soul Liberty, a Biblical principle that I would suggest is the foundation for the concepts of Liberty as taught by John Locke and his intellectual descendants.

*** end quote ***

Interesting. 

I never thought of it this way. 

It’s not a “religious abuse”, but a “Gooferment” abuse!

Wow, I should have realized that.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Aug-04 @ 21:06  

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RANT: U6 is 15%

Friday, August 10, 2012

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/jobless-rate-climbs-to-8-3-percent-creating-more-anxiety-for-obama-and-the-left/#utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Cato-at-liberty+%28Cato+at+Liberty%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Jobless Rate Climbs to 8.3 Percent, Creating More Anxiety for Obama and the Left
Posted by Daniel J. Mitchell

*** begin quote ***

Can we finally all agree that Keynesian economics is a flop? The politicians in Washington flushed about $800 billion down the toilet and we got nothing in exchange except for anemic growth and lots of people out of work.

Indeed, we’re getting to the point where the monthly employment reports from the Labor Department must be akin to Chinese water torture for the Obama administration. Even when the unemployment rate falls, it gives critics an opportunity to recycle the chart below showing how bad the economy is doing compared to what the White House said would happen if the so-called stimulus was enacted.

*** end quote ***

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp

*** begin quote ***

What is U6 unemployment rate ?

The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts “marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons.” Note that some of these part-time workers counted as employed by U-3 could be working as little as an hour a week. And the “marginally attached workers” include those who have gotten discouraged and stopped looking, but still want to work. The age considered for this calculation is 16 years and over …

*** end quote ***

U6 is 15%

FIFTEEN PERCENT!!!

Why is not the lead on every news report?

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Aug-04 @ 17:31  

 

 

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POLITICAL: Maine fights a privately financed and managed toll road

Thursday, August 9, 2012

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-natural-extension-of-bad-idea.html

Saturday, August 04, 2012
The natural extension of a bad idea

*** begin quote ***

A businessman in Maine wants to build a privately financed and managed toll road cutting east-west across Maine, saying it will make the state an important cog in the global economy.

*** end quote ***

Naturally everyone opposes it. Saying the “state”, if there was such a thing, will get stuck.

So, why can NOT the Gang, that pretends to be an organization called “the Gooferment of the purported area called Maine”, just require an insurance bond to restore the property to it’s original condition?

OH, they don’t WANT a solution!

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FUN: Dutch tourists

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

FROM LUDDITE:

Watch this one to the end … these Dutch tourists certainly lucked out when they came upon this!

click here: http://www.youtube.com/embed/f_gBWPs4r3U

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Even a stopped clock is right twice per day!

Luddite scores a funny one.

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TINFOILHAT: Was Obama a “foreign exchange student”?

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obama%E2%80%99s-college-classmate-the-obama-scandal-is-at-columbia/

Politics
Obama’s College Classmate: ‘The Obama Scandal Is at Columbia’
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 10:28am
Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee.

*** begin quote ***

I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia- and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since graduating Columbia.

*** and ***

My answer for Romney? Call Obama’s bluff.

Romney should call a press conference and issue a challenge in front of the nation. He should agree to release more of his tax returns, only if Obama unseals his college records. Simple and straight-forward. Mitt should ask “What could possibly be so embarrassing in your college records from 29 years ago that you are afraid to let America’s voters see? If it’s THAT bad, maybe it’s something the voters ought to see.” Suddenly the tables are turned. Now Obama is on the defensive.

My bet is that Obama will never unseal his records because they contain information that could destroy his chances for re-election. Once this challenge is made public, my prediction is you’ll never hear about Mitt’s tax returns ever again.

Why are the college records, of a 51-year-old President of the United States, so important to keep secret? I think I know the answer.

*** and ***

The first question I’d ask is, if you had great grades, why would you seal your records? So let’s assume Obama got poor grades. Why not release the records? He’s president of the free world, for gosh sakes. He’s commander-in-chief of the U.S. military. Who’d care about some poor grades from three decades ago, right? So then what’s the problem? Doesn’t that make the media suspicious? Something doesn’t add up.

*** and ***

Here’s my gut belief: Obama got a leg up by being admitted to both Occidental and Columbia as a foreign exchange student. He was raised as a young boy in Indonesia. But did his mother ever change him back to a U.S. citizen? When he returned to live with his grandparents in Hawaii or as he neared college-age preparing to apply to schools, did he ever change his citizenship back? I’m betting not.

*** and ***

If it’s okay for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go on a fishing expedition about Romney’s taxes (even though he knows absolutely nothing about them nor will release his own), then I think I can do the same thing. But as Obama’s Columbia Class of ’83 classmate, at least I have more standing to make educated guesses.

*** end quote ***

Yup, you have to love it. Just ask then cup bono and you’ll understand why the media fails to do its scared duty. Why bother having “freedom of the press”, when the Fourth Estate does do its job?

Can you smell the cover up?

Who knew what and when did they know it?

If the fish stinks, then it’s rotten to the core.

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Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee. 

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