Destroying the Planet? President Trump did the unthinkable for many – he announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement (Accords). The reaction of the horrified was predictable. How dare he? A bit of history is useful in explaining the reaction.
During World War I, Germany, France, the U.K. the U.S., and others effectively used propaganda on their citizens to build sprit (morale) and reinforce the need for the War, including demeaning their opponents. (The U.S. had the U.S. Committee on Public Information under Walter Lippmann.) The effectiveness of the propaganda can be seen by the failure of many responsible and reasonable Germans to accept the fact that the German military had collapsed. Instead, these Germans became susceptible to claims that they had been betrayed, “sold-out.” Hitler used this “betrayal” effectively against the Jews.
This was true as far back as the Spartans and continues today in Islamic madrasas turning out suicide bombers. To restore traditional American values we must reform the education system.
Watching the ongoing, near hysterical, opposition to President Trump one has to wonder what the heck the protesters are thinking. One can understand the political leaders’ opposition – they fear that their power and cushy jobs are in jeopardy, but the media and the Never Trumpers? Why?
If things had been going extremely well, then maybe it would make sense to oppose the Trump agenda. But things weren’t going well. Anyone one with a lick of common sense should recognize the country was in bad shape and getting worse before President Trump’s election.
Precious Metals have been referred to as the Anti-Stock Market. It’s easy to see, looked at over long periods of time, that when Stock indices are in Bull Markets, Gold & Silver generally move downward. And, when stocks go into Bear Markets, the Metals shine.
Surely, this relationship is not ironclad, but it does hold more often than not. So, looking at Stocks can provide an edge when trying to tell the future direction for Gold & Silver.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition continues to go smoothly. Better than smoothly. Confidently. More than confidently. Transcendently.
And to top it all off, the Dow is up 9 percent since the election, while economic-sensitive small-caps have jumped nearly 16 percent. These are signs of Trump confidence.
Hard-nosed investment manager Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates and a non-political guy, expects the Trump years to be as transformational as the Reagan-Thatcher years. Dalio says the Trump era could “ignite animal spirits” and “shift the environment from one that makes profit-makers villains with limited power to one that makes them heroes with significant power.”
In 2008, the US elected Barack Obama as President (and Joe Biden as VP). The Democratic team was reelected in 2012. Many Americans support the actions of Mr Obama, and many don’t.
During the 2008 primary season, the Democratic campaign of Hillary Clinton raised the issue of Mr Obama’s eligibility to hold the office of President, questioning his Natural Born American Citizen status. The issue continued to be discussed publicly, and in 2011, the White House published an image they described as the Long Form Birth Certificate of Mr Obama.
In an effort to validate this document, the Maricopa County (AZ) Sheriff’s Office initiated an investigation. Please see the hourlong video below detailing the results of the investigation, supporting the finding that the document image posted was a forgery.
Regardless of whether their results are true or not, I think that a Federal Law (my preference) or Constitutional Amendment needs to be put in place to require automatic vetting of candidates for POTUS (and for VP) to determine their eligibility. The law should include:
Submission of original documents, with official online posting of images
What the Vetting Procedure will include
A Definition of Natural Born American Citizen
Mandatory cooperation of state & local government officials with the vetting process, and
Penalties for Falsification of Vetting Documents
I would expect that an original Long Form Birth Certificate should be required – either directly from the candidate or from the local government agency involved. If a foreign born person can qualify as a Natural Born American Citizen, then the process and time limitations need to be defined.
The Vetting Procedure needs to be thorough and complete, an should include an Official Posting of the original document’s image online, so that outside vetting can be facilitated if individuals or state governments desire. Penalties should include possible loss of government position and prison – forging vetting documents for POTUS or VP might be deemed Treason.
Retroactive application likely would not be possible, so no automatic invalidation of good or bad done by Mr Obama would be possible. However, the highest government offices of the US should be protected from possible future abuse.
This memo was emailed to Podesta (a senior White House official) from Lehane (partner in the strategic communications firm Fabiani & Lehane, dissolved in Nov 2015). We have it courtesy of Wikileaks — and whoever leaked it to them.
John Podesta was Chief of staff to Bill Clinton and Counselor to the President for Obama. He is Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Wars and rumors of wars are now filling the headlines as listed below with the most immediate top-level rumors of war being created by Russia among its own citizens.
Rumors of wars directly from the Kremlin
As tensions between the US and Russia have reached their highest since the Cold War, Russia denounced American duplicity last week and asked its own citizens whether they are ready for a nuclear attack. The Russian government cautioned people to know where their nearest bomb/fallout shelters are and know where their gas masks are in a drill that involved 40 million Russians. The Russia defense ministry explained to the public how the government would run under military control in the event of war. Russia deployed additional nuclear missiles in response to the US missile shield in Eastern Europe and tested new intercontinental ballistic missiles. Not bad for a week’s news. (ABC News)
The Week That Was: October 1, 2016 Brought to You by www.SEPP.org
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project
Hubris: Michael Kelly, Emeritus Prince Philip Professor of Technology of Cambridge University has written an excellent, short book review of Hubris: The Troubling Science, Economics and Politics of Climate Change by Michael Hart, a scholar who has spent a decade working on the book.
Kelly’s comments reflect many of the views held by SEPP (British spellings):
“[T]he global climate is changing, and has always been changing. The earth has warmed by 1C over the last 150 years. That is not the issue. The issue is whether the human emissions of carbon dioxide since 1850 are heralding an imminent and certain global climate catastrophe that could be averted by engineering projects.”
To which SEPP would add…or require drastic national and international energy policy restricting the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). Kelly goes on to state:
One reader reminded me of the terrific positive effect on the US Economy of the couple of hundred years of the US allowing immigrants into the country. He is absolutely right!
In recent articles, mostly re-blogs, US-Issues.com has called for a halt (or at least a slowing) of the importation by our government of so called refugees from Muslim countries, most publicized in the media from Syria.
President Obama has bragged about bringing in his 10,000th Syrian refugee (how many Muslims in all?), and federal judges have ruled that individual states cannot prevent settlement with their borders. President Obama even has imported foreign Muslim Imams to teach the refugees proper Sharia!
We’ve covered Brexit quite a bit over the last few weeks. We’ve talked about China’s moves to get their currency, the Renminbi, ready for prime time International Reserve Asset status through their massive buildup of Gold over the last decade. And we’ve talked about monetary QE in Japan and many other countries besides the US.
The Middle East, sitting at the crossroads of European and Asian Economic and military interests, including their control of a still significant supply of oil,is another area of concern for us. US-Israeli relations have deteriorated during the Obama administration, and the prospects for a Clinton Presidency are likely to continue this downtrend.
I came across this timeline of items about Obama’s actions toward Israel which you might find interesting.
It was written by Ben Shapiro (no relation) on 20 Mar 2015.
It appears there are two candidates running from the left wing of the Demopublican Party (Hillary and Bernie), and two and a half from the right wing (Trump, Cruz, and Kasich). Note: The media identifies the Lefties by their first names, a friendly and personal thing, unlike the Righties.
I find it distasteful discussing current political figures. But since somebody new is going to be president come November, it makes sense to figure out who that might be, in order to insulate yourself as much as possible from the damage they’ll do.
Let me start by saying that this is not just the most entertaining election I’ve ever witnessed. But after the 1860 election, which Lincoln won with 40% of the popular vote (the remainder split between Stephen Douglas and two other candidates), I suspect it will also be the most divisive, hostile, and critical to the future of the country. Ever.
Why do I say that? Because the U.S. hasn’t been this unstable since the unpleasantness of 1861–1865.
In his seventh, and final, State of the Union address this January, President Obama, clearly looking to bolster his legacy as the president who vanquished the Great Recession, boldly asserted that “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” Unfortunately for the President, more and more Americans seem to believe (with an adequate basis in proof) that the fiction is emanating from the White House.
It’s hard to imagine how anyone can really assert with a straight face that the economy is currently “strong.” The most recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP), from 4th Quarter 2015, shows us barely inching along at a 1% annualized growth rate (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2/26/16). Given that moderate growth used to be measured in the 3%-4% range, and that recent declines in the trade balance could further subtract from both 4th (2015) and 1st quarter GDP, we could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow or two in reaction to Obama’s boast. Continue reading →
In a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump race — which, the Beltway keening aside, seems the probable outcome of the primaries — what are the odds the GOP can take the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court?
If Republicans can unite, not bad, not bad at all.
Undeniably, Democrats open with a strong hand.
There is that famed “blue wall,” those 18 states and D.C. with a combined 242 electoral votes, just 28 shy of victory, that have gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1988.
The wall contains all of New England save New Hampshire; the Acela corridor (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland); plus Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin in the Middle West; and the Pacific coast of California, Oregon, Washington — and Hawaii.
It seems that Obama, while gladly taking credit for the drop in gas and fuel prices, desperately wants them to rise again.
President Barack Obama will propose a $10-per-barrel charge on oil to fund clean transportation projects as part of his final budget request next week, the White House said Thursday.
Oil companies would pay the fee, which would be gradually introduced over five years. The government would use the revenue to help fund high-speed railways, autonomous cars and other travel systems, aiming to reduce emissions from the nation’s transportation system.
It’s a classic example of manipulation. “We don’t want you to drive. We want you to use trains, buses and other travel systems instead. Instead of passing a law forbidding you to drive a car, which even Republicans might not permit just yet, we will pass a law making it less possible for you to afford to drive your own car. We will still call it a choice.” This is what manipulators do.
Obama said Friday that the investments would put the United States in a “much stronger position” in the coming decades, particularly if oil prices start to rise again. It makes more sense to levy the charge now while gas prices remain low for consumers, he contended.
This is also what manipulators do. “Raising the cost of oil is for your own good. It’s going to rise again anyway. So let’s get it over with now. Instead of reserving your pain for the future, or giving you time to plan for such price rises in the market, let’s impose the pain right now.” It’s also what sadists do. Masochists accept the pain, and welcome it as their due by their masters.
Yesterday, the Department of Labor unexpectedly issued a new rule (which it called an interpretation) that will upend thousands of businesses’ established practices. It did so with no notice, and no comment by affected businesses is either sought or allowed. Effectively, the administration is now ruling by decree.
The “administrator’s interpretation” is about an obscure categorization of employment called “joint employer.” Such a situation arises when two or more employers are jointly responsible and liable for a worker’s employment conditions. Over the past 40 years or so, new business practices have arisen whereby firms contract out or franchise parts of their business. The Department of Labor (and the National Labor Relations Board) have allowed this, treating the businesses as separate and the employees as having one employer. That is all changing very quickly.
Stock prices change minute to minute based on investor perceptions and emotion. Investors compare the current price with current – and expected – earnings.
Over the longer term, it is earnings which will determine the trend of a stock’s price history. You would (correctly) expect that if Company A’s earnings rose by 25% a year for 10 years, while earnings for Company B fell by 25% a year, that the price of Company A stock would have gone up dramatically, while the stock of Company B would have fallen drastically.
One metric that investors use to compare the stock of different businesses is the PE Ratio – a simple division of the Price by the Earnings per Share (usually for the last 12 months). As optimistic investors put more money into a particular stock, the price goes up, and with it the PE Ratio also goes up.
Optimism implies that investors expect the future prospects for a business to be good. If business really is going to be good, you would expect the managers to try to put more capital to work. The business can get this capital in several ways.
The Week That Was: December 26, 2015 – Brought to You by www.SEPP.org
THIS WEEK: By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project
COP-21 – Smoke and Mirrors: The Conference of Parties (COP-21) of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended with significant changes to the earlier, to be agreed upon, agreement with the changes in a few small words. As Paul Homewood recognized the word “shall” was changed to “should” in the paragraph “Developed country Parties shall should continue taking the lead by undertaking economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets. Homewood suspected that the US delegates (probably under instructions from the White House) demanded the change. The issue was making the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction of the document legally binding. Making emissions reductions legally binding on the US would require Senate approval while the term “should” is not legally binding. President Obama has not consulted with Congress on the “Nationally Determined Contributions.” Contrary to the name, these contributions were decided by the administration, not nationally, and making them legally binding would require approval of two-thirds of the Senate present. The Administration’s game-playing faced harsh reality.
According to an article by Nitin Sethi, of the Business Standard out of India, the US Administration did not shoulder the burden of the harsh reality, but placed the burden on delegates from the European Union. The article opens with:
“If there was one overarching imprint on the Paris climate change negotiations, it was of the diplomatic heft that the US enjoys. The last hours of the talks, when the US was faced with the challenge of removing a phrase it didn’t like in the final agreement, it was left to the European Union to walk across the aisle to convince everyone to not oppose the changes the US demanded. The European Union, once hailed as the climate change leader of the world, was canvassing the developing country bloc to accept an agreement that was discordantly against its own non-negotiable position wanting a strict legally-binding protocol and not a loosely-bound agreement that the Paris outcome eventually became.
What happened last Wednesday deserves another look because I believe it marked a huge pivot point and very few are even talking about it. Last Wednesday the Fed raised rates one quarter of a point but that was not the big story. The big story was the about face the U.S. did geopolitically!
We saw markets around the world convulse on Thursday and Friday. All attention has focused on the Fed rate hike which no doubt was a contributor. How wise was it for the Fed to tighten credit conditions on a system already struggling and burdened with debt? There is no arguing we have systemically moved from the 2008 crisis which is now widely understood as a “credit event”, into an even more highly levered situation. The recovery that never was is now met with a central bank’s policy error.
I believe the “tell” on Friday was a weak dollar. Much of what happened in the markets could have been expected as reaction to the Fed tightening credit conditions …but not a weak dollar. The meeting between Mr. Lavrov, Mr. Putin and John Kerry far overrides anything the Fed could have done or said in my opinion. The foreign policy about face where Mr. Assad no longer “needs to go” and Turkey being ordered to withdraw troops from northern Iraq was astonishing! These statements were followed by Mr. Putin establishing a no fly zone over northern Syria. In another twist, Turkey still maintains Mr. Assad must go and they are refusing to withdraw troops from Iraq http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-19/turkey-blasts-breakthrough-un-resolution-syria-it-lacks-perspective-assad-must-go . When in your lifetime have you ever seen anything like this? An “ally”, ANY ALLY publicly denying U.S. will? We all saw an IN YOUR FACE BLACK SWAN but few have recognized it yet!
Russian leader Putin says that US policy , especially regarding the US background support for ISIS, is incorrect. I would have to agree.
He also says (see video below) that a good number (most?) of the fighters/rebels in Syria are hired mercenaries. The US “hired,” trained, and paid them to topple Syrian leader Assad. Now, I’m not saying that Assad is a good guy. But, if Putin’s statements have any truth in them, then the US has (once again) engaged in stupid policy.
Several years ago, ISIS captured the local oil fields and have been generating about a half Billion Dollars a year in revenue. A portion of this money is going to pay a larger amount than the US for the mercenaries, who now no longer support democracy in Syria and Iraq.
A Half Billion in Oil revenues! It seems to me that, with the price of oil very low compared to recent year’s levels, it would be to the advantage of several oil producers to bomb the ISIS oil fields. I expect that there’s a good chance that Russia will do just that. Even though the Obama administration is not on the best terms with Russia right now, I think the oil field bombing makes a lot of sense.
While much of the world focused last week on whether or not the Federal Reserve was going to raise interest rates, or whether the Greek debt crisis would bring Europe to a crisis, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded a $50 billion judgment to shareholders of the former oil company Yukos in their case against the Russian government. The governments of Belgium and France moved immediately to freeze Russian state assets in their countries, naturally provoking the anger of the Russian government.
NRA: Gun blogs, videos, web forums threatened by new Obama regulation.
Commonly used and unregulated internet discussions and videos about guns and ammo could be closed down under rules proposed by the State Department, amounting to a “gag order on firearm-related speech,” the National Rifle Association is warning.
In updating regulations governing international arms sales, State is demanding that anyone who puts technical details about arms and ammo on the web first get the OK from the federal government — or face a fine of up to $1 million and 20 years in jail.
The Week That Was: May 2, 2015 – Brought to You by www.SEPP.org
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project
Uncertainty: On her web site, Climate Etc., Judith Curry posted her notes on her latest presentation of what she calls the Uncertainty Monster. The presentation was a keynote talk at the “2nd International Workshop on Econometric Applications in Climatology.” Linked in the post are the slides in her presentation, which are very useful in understanding the presentation.
Our scientific method and traditions of free speech and open debate are under assault as never before, by intolerant inquisitors in our media, universities, government agencies, and even Congress and the Vatican.
They threaten our most basic rights and freedoms, our political and scientific processes – and ultimately our continued innovation and invention, energy reliability and affordability, job creation and economic growth, and modern living standards, health and welfare.
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Witch Hunt Intensified: Immediately after President Obama’s successful re-election, his campaign organization was transformed into an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) non-profit organization named Organization for Action (OFA). The IRS quickly granted OFA its non-profit status as a 501-c-4 organization, even though the IRS consistently held up such non-profit status for political opponents.
Guess which kind of family was left out in the cold by President Obama as he unveiled his plan to help middle-class families in his State of the Union address? The traditional two-parent family with a single breadwinner.
Senator Rand Paul, a likely 2016 Presidential candidate, has given a rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. It offers a real opposing viewpoint, with specific policy suggestions, rather than the usual platitudes that too often mark opposition party remarks. Whether you support what he says (as I do) or not, you should read (or watch below) what he has to say. –Bob
The full text of Sen. Rand Paul’s response to the president’s State of the Union address is now available—in advance of him actually giving the speech. Here it is, via Breitbart:
Wait! Let me be more kind. Sometimes, people make choices which don’t work out as well as they had hoped.
You may have a passion for reproductions of historic horse and buggy rigs, and you decide to invest your life savings to open a plant to produce buggy whips. My expectation (I certainly can be mistaken myself) is that your venture won’t meet your profit hopes.
Accumulation of fraudulent EPA regulations impacts energy, economy, jobs, families and health
Call it the Gruberization of America’s energy and environmental policies.
Former White House medical consultant Jonathan Gruber pocketed millions of taxpayer dollars before infamously explaining how ObamaCare was enacted. “Lack of transparency is a huge political
I read a piece which gives a very unflattering picture of Jeb Bush as little more than a catch-up version of Obama and Hillary Clinton. He calls for the Republicans to stop putting up “me too” candidates and actually offer American voters a choice on policy.
The possibility of a Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or other liberal Republican being put up – again – as the party standard bearer in 2016, dismays
Obama’s Climate Fiasco Drives Aussies Closer To India & China
Barack Obama defied the advice of his embassy in Canberra to deliver a stinging attack on the Abbott government’s climate policies in Brisbane last weekend. The US embassy, under the leadership of ambassador John Berry, advised the President, through his senior staff, not to couch his climate change comments in a way that
Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell recently told a group of Latino bloggers in an online chat that the Obama administration wants to make Obamacare available for illegal aliens.
You may recall back in 2009 that Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from my home state of South Carolina, yelled out “You lie!” to Barack Obama. He was chided and maligned in the press and even by so-called “conservatives” for calling Obama what he is. But do you recall what he said Obama was lying about? Let me refresh your memory.
” by many, but has now been proven to be factual.
. Jim Jordan, Kerry’s former campaign manager, called him ”
