(May 29, 2014) Charlie Spiering is a columnist for Beitbart.com. We have never met, but we agree about many things. Many cable commentators use his columns as a jumping-off point. Please read this guest editorial, and then, read some of his other writings at Breitbart.com.

President Obama outlined his foreign policy on Wednesday during a speech at the graduation ceremony at West Point.

Throughout his speech, Obama used "straw man" arguments, setting up "critics" or "skeptics" that existed to disagree with the president before being knocked down by his rhetoric. While some of these positions are held by political figures such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) or Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), these politicians chafe at having their views presented in a narrow context. For the sake of his speech, Obama presents these positions as the extreme, while carefully positioning himself in the middle.

Here are five examples:

1. Those who believe America is in decline..
   
Obama assured West Point graduates that "America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world" and those who think differently are just wrong. "Those who argue otherwise - who suggest that America is in decline, or has seen its global leadership slip away - are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics," he said.
2. Those who warn against foreign entanglements..
   
President Obama pointed out that throughout history, foreign policy has fallen into two camps, one of which were "self-described realists" who were reluctant to go to war. "[T]here have been those who warned against foreign entanglements that do not touch directly on our security or economic well-being," he said. Remember when President Obama was in this camp? Not anymore.
3. Those who want to intervene around the globe..
   
"A different view, from interventionists on the left and right, says we ignore these conflicts at our own peril," Obama said. Not surprisingly, Obama believes that "neither view fully speaks to the demands of this moment."
4. Those who will send troops into war to avoid looking weak..
   
Obama boldly knocks down this straw men with a swift stroke. "I would betray my duty to you, and to the country we love, if I sent you into harm's way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed fixing, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak." Key word is "simply" - it's not that simple.
5. Those who are skeptical of multilateral action..
   
These straw men think that going to NATO and the UN is futile and a waste of time. Not Obama. "Of course, skeptics often downplay the effectiveness of multilateral action. For them, working through international institutions, or respecting international law, is a sign of weakness. I think they're wrong." Even President Bush believed in the importance of multilateral action and searching for allies within the United Nations and NATO.

Read more Charlie Spiering, here.
 

A FATTENING OPEN LETTER TO MICHELLE OBAMA ON SCHOOL LUNCH

(May 28, 2014)

Dear Mrs. Obama,

Who died and left you Queen of America? Do you not know that most children don't even know what "arugula" is? In fact, "arugula," isn't even the correct name for the type of Italian lettuce you love so much. It's "rucola." (and no, it's not a cough drop, either.)

You know where we're going with this - Ms Obama, you are completely manic about forcing children to eat lousy-tasting food. Sometime, maybe it was when you went to college, somebody put into your head all of the food fallacies of the the late 80's. You missed the fact that most of those ideas were based on opinions and had little to do with science.

Now, everybody knows that you are more than a smidgen smarter and a better politician than your husband, although, admittedly, that is not saying much. What happened to you in anatomy class? Were you not paying attention when the professor said that EVERYTHING winds up as sugar in your body, once you've eaten it? Sugar. Everything.

Were you not listening when other scientists showed that it's the exercise which burns down the calories, and that the diet usually complicates things. Were you "out" when still other scientists finally admitted that Atkins was right - that it's all about meat and fat and just a tiny bit of vegetables and even less fruit?

We know that it is your conscious goal to turn High Schools into babysitting parlors, so you can't be expected to know any better. And you aren't to be blamed, either, since the sycophants who surround you haven't told you the real news, or the truth, since your husband took office. So, we all wish you and your lovely daughters a happy, long life, if you don't starve to death, and hope you don't mind if we all just ignore everything you've said about our diets.

Sincerely,
Just N. Berang-Berang,
Resident Cynic
swampfoxnews.com
 

IN THREE WEEKS, NOTHING CHANGES.

(May 27, 2014) A couple of months ago, I promised to let you know all about the conservatives who are running for Education Superintendent for South Carolina. After asking around, a lot, reading statement after statement, and scanning all the websites, all I can say is that no matter which one you choose - except the liberals who would make things worse - nothing is going to change much. Here's why:

If all that was needed to fix the system were vouchers for parents and charter schools, it would have already been done, even with the Democrats agreeing (although they probably would have found a way to make teachers' unions legal, and you know where that goes). Whichever conservative you elect will do that job. But that is not nearly enough. South Carolinians need to wake up, and realize that our educational system is failing us, not because we don't care, but because everything we've tried doesn't work.

There are serious people who seriously think we ought to abandon a public attempt to educate our children and uneducated adults. It may just be that the idea is bred into me, since all of my ancestors either taught and led warriors or just taught, but I cannot accept that all education must be private.

Further, I believe an abandonment of public education would lead to a permanent division between the educated and the ignorant, the way it exists today in Europe, and the way it's headed, here, in America. One thing is certain, however: no matter how public education is to be funded, it isn't being funded correctly, currently.

Of course, we must have vouchers, and use private schooling as a pattern for turning ALL public schools into charter schools. But we must also end the absolutely silly idea of mandatory attendance. You know the old saying, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion, still." This is true even more so of a child, a tween, and a teenager. In any case, one cannot substitute the suasion of a parent with a driving law.

If we had but the changes, mentioned above, things would get appreciably better. Teachers would have the ability to throw kids out of the classroom. A classroom should not be a vestige of tyranny, but respect for the teacher must be returned to the classroom. Interest of parents would increase as they would not only have a say in the education of their children, in a respectful way, they can vote with their feet. The responsibility would also rest again with the students and parents.

In addition, tenure should be ended, and exceptional performance should be rewarded on a yearly basis. Raises, greater than mere COLAs, proportionate to performance, should be instituted. The SCEA is becoming a teacher's union, little by little, and needs to be ignored, according to state law. The SC lottery funds should be increased and used only for education. Gambling machines should be allowed and taxed - all funds going to education - this would allow the cessation of property taxes to fund education, and would ameliorate the need to tax marijuana as suggested by one of the candidates.

Teachers must be able to improvise and exhibit actual experience in their subject, before obtaining a license to teach. Grade passage should be abolished and subject passage instituted - this works well in state experiments, to date. Oversight of schools should be done by area universities with the help of volunteer, unpaid local citizens - this will be the hardest thing of all to change as current school boards are springboards to budding political careers.

Not one of the candidates wants to go beyond vouchers and charter schools. All that the upcoming elections in two weeks and again in November will accomplish is the election of a person who will not change the system. Vouchers will help. More charter schools run like private schools will help. But much more is needed. Much more. And no candidate is dedicated to make those landmark changes. Now, a Democrat would continue turning our schools into baby-sitting and free lunch services, so you don't want one of those, either, but among the conservatives, any vote is the same vote.

Finally, Even if there were a candidate who wants ALL of these changes, getting them through the legislature would also be an unbelievably hard challenge.
 

OF GRUNTS AND SWABBIES, GYRENES AND AIRDALES, OBAMACARE AND V.A. VOUCHERS

(May 26, 2014) In a remarkable move, the VA is "looking" at a solution which would include a type of voucher system for vets stuck in a backlog. If this is not a head-fake, (and it could very well be) then it is a start - but it is only a start.

In order for this system to work, a couple of things have to be stressed:

• The proposed "help" would only kick in, when a VA facility fails to serve a vet on time. Well, who the hell is going to admit to that?
• How long will that "on-time assessment" period take?

As you can see, the hybridization of the VA system with a voucher system will have pitfalls which could easily amount to no progress whatsoever. Why not, instead, do the following:

1. Right Now, as John Leboutillier said last week, simply hand out credit cards to every vet, guaranteeing the payment of any medical service except for non-combat-related cosmetic surgeries. All dental, all devices, all drugs, all psychiatric, all combat-related cosmetic surgeries, EVERYTHING, covered.
2. Move all funds to actually paying for the vets bills that come in through the credit card system. Almost all of this could be done by computers - but not set up by Michelle Obama's friends.
3. Close all VA hospitals. Scour them with germ-killing chemicals, and sell them to private, local Doctors or other reputable private local groups - not to multi-billion dollar conglomerates.
4. If the VA hospitals cannot be sold, they should be torn down and turned into parks, all with markers dedicated to the fighting men and women who were killed by the VA's stupidity and inefficiency.
5. Use the current budget to move former VA workers into other jobs.
6. What few workers remain - mostly doctors with math skills - can be sent out into the nation to audit private medical systems, too keep the system honest.
7. The entire system could be handled with a staff of 800.
8. Forget Obamacare, once and for all - that's what our vets have been getting!
9. The point is not to save money, although these ideas very possibly could. The idea is to use what money there is to treat vets, not run a big bureaucracy.

My Grandfather, a decorated veteran of WWI & II, died well ahead of his time because of an inefficient VA system. My brother, a decorated Air Force spy, died much before his time because of a slow, well-meaning, and inefficient VA system. My father, a decorated WWII veteran, lived into his 90's because he avoided VA hospitals. What that tells me, on this Memorial Day Weekend, is that government medicine has NEVER worked for vets. EVER. The system I have proposed is little different from what many others have proposed already. IT WILL WORK. It is the least we can do.
 

SEX, THE MIDDLE AGES, UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES & INSANITY

(May 25, 2014) In the High Middle Ages in Europe, young teenagers could literally die from the stress of unrequited love; But due to the strict rules of the Church and the universally accepted ideals of courtly love, violence rarely occurred. Today, however, there are no rules, and there is no courtly anything. Teenagers, today, are poisoned by pop science which creates unrealistic ideas and political correctness. Their music is basically drum beats and irrational words of revenge - not all of it, but most. Leaders cannot be trusted - nothing makes sense.

Into this mix was thrown 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, a kid with the mental stability of a one-legged stool. If he was not crazy before his schooling and peer influences and societal influences, he certainly was by the time he made his last YouTube.com video. He sounds as if he is badly acting a mediocre script, laughing an unbelievable laugh, and saying things in a voice which is so unemotional, so fake, you truly doubt if he is serious. You KNOW he is, because he murdered people, but he sounds more like he is running through his lines before he goes on stage. In a way, maybe he was. But theatre cannot be real, and that's why you know he was crazy.

There is no doubt, whatsoever, in my mind, that even if he had been able to get laid, which is the primary subject of his video, that he would not have been able to rationalize it, at this late date. And I do not pretend to suppose that his inability to have sex had nothing to do with his insanity. In his video, he is cold. He smiles, and it's almost as if he is not speaking, that someone else, someone uninterested, is providing the words to which he is lip-synching.

So, another crazy person breaks whatever brittle bond is holding him to a remnant sanity. The videos, which he may have been using to justify whatever action he intended, no longer have their hold. He finishes his manifesto, which is equally insane. He snaps. People die. The politicians close in, like vultures, to pick at the corpses to feed their unholy cause of gun control. The parents blame themselves and then others, as they realize their child was gone from them long before he left this plane. The father is almost famous in Hollywood, so there will be sycophants to tell him everything's ok - the mother, not so many. Others will note that while good men with guns, once again, stopped a crazy person with a gun, before he went any further - yet, it was still too late. It's all on the news channel of your choice.

There is evil in the world. But it is the evil we cause by making rules which come back on us as unintended consequences. Our men are milder, less belligerent, but they tolerate rejection worse than ever before and become the playthings of bullies. So, the more we protect them, the less they can protect themselves. Some go quietly insane. Some snap and run away. Some do murder.

Comedy is filled with excitement and injustice righted and everybody goes home happy, except, possibly, the villain. In tragedy, there must be tears and a journey - evil is done, the righteous is brought low, and even the gods may be wrong. What do you think happened?
 

LIBERAL OF THE WEEK

(May 24, 2014) All puppies and most cats - regardless of age - are liberals. They expect to be taken care of from cradle to grave.

This Liberal shows the confusion so prevalent in liberals - a stunned look, indicating puppy has been swatted with a newspaper..

"Now, don't do that, again!"
 

FIFTY YEARS OF REALLY, REALLY DUMB

(May 23, 2014) Thursday was the fiftieth anniversary of the failure of Democrat economics. It was 50 years ago (May 22, 1964), that President Lyndon Johnson proposed his "Great Society." What a tragedy it has wrought on our beloved country!

Socialism is governmental redistribution of wealth in order to increase the finances of the poor. The problem is that for every person who is aided by taking money from four producers and giving it to them, someone loses a job. In some eras of inflation, the ratio of takers to producers is closer to 1 poor person to 2 producers.

How does this happen? Art Laffer, conservative economist, could tell you: When you tax people, no matter how good it makes people feel (usually the people who make you pay but who aren't paying), it takes money OUT of the economy.

Now, the Keynesians will fib and tell you that the money actually doesn't leave the economy, but that simply is not true. In order to redistribute the money, the government has to HIRE people to do that. SO now, they're not only going to take money of producers to give to the poor, they're taking money from the producers to redistribute that same money. Today, it costs about $2.00 in taxes for every $1.00 redistributed.

And what do the poor spend money on? Well, the money, which has caused the taxed producer's standard of living to go down by the taxed amount, is spent on only SOME of the same things that the producer would spend the same amount on. This also reduces the standard of living of the person who no longer is asked to provide the goods the producer wants. Now the poor person, thanks to the government, is reducing the standard of living of two people.

What is so aggravating, in this wasted past fifty years, is that we were warned, back then, that it wouldn't work. But we weren't just warned in 1964, we have been warned consistently, almost every year, that this socialism wouldn't work.

Why haven't things been so bad until now? Because the Congress - mostly Democrats, not all, but mostly - stole the money from Medicare and Social Security. Remember when Fritz Hollings told everybody that the money in Social Security was in a lock box? He knew THEN that Congress was swiping the money to pay for Welfare, Medicaid, and pet pork projects. The situation is so bad, now, that SS will be out of money in 2016. Medicare may be broke by 2017.

What this tells us is that even when a government program is fully paid for, government cannot help itself. As redistributor, government loses money. And the bigger government is, the more money it will appropriate and the more money it will lose. WE. ARE. BROKE.

Happy anniversary, government. You have seen to it that the needs of the few have become the needs of the many.
 

DemocratS MUST BE DemocratS
 

Gentleman conservative Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - nobody's sock puppet.	Dem. candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes actually thinks she will not have to tow the Progressive line were she to get to the Senate.

(May 22, 2014) You have to laugh at the Democrat candidate for the Senate from Kentucky. Alison Lundergan Grimes is already running ads saying she will be her own person, if she gets to the Senate. What a hoot!

Does anyone actually think that any Democrat is going to do ANYTHING but what Barack Hussein Obama tells them to do, through Harry Reid? A Democrat elected is a slave to the national Democrat party. And the Mainstream media follows. Why do you think they media hasn't come down hard on the so-called entertainer who mocks Jews? Because the Democrats don't think it's important! It's been all over the conservative blogosphere and Fox News!

And before anyone tries to tell you that the minority leader and conservative elf from Kentucky is anybody's sock puppet, just remember how many times RINOs were p.o.'d at him. Also, if you think Democrats don't hide and lie and obfuscate for each other, just watch the Gowdy Benghazi hearing.
 

BEGINNING OR THE END FOR THE PUFFED UP STOCK MARKET?

(May 21, 2014) For the record, those who are still in the market - and that's almost no little guys such as you or I - started dumping today. In fact, there was so much dumping that the government intervention cheats couldn't keep up. Compare the volume, yesterday, to most days in the past four years. It's still not anywhere it used to be, but the actual down volume was almost 100% larger than usual.

Now that things are beginning to happen, I'll be writing about the markets, again. Some. There were plenty of selling days before, and there will be lots of up days between now and the bottom, but they will be be traps, unless you are very, VERY good.

UPDATE: The government was back in the market, today, pushing the market back up. Way too much increase on practically no volume. You don't have to believe it. The evidence speaks for itself.

IMAGERY FROM ANOTHER CENTURY

(May 20, 2014) Karl Heinrich Marx said it in German. Vladimir Nikolai Ilyich Lenin said it in Russian. Saul David Alinsky said it in English. Barach Hussein Obama is close to making it a reality in America. "IT" is the list of the types of control necessary to turn any form of government into a socialist workers' state. Here is the list:

I doesn't matter whether or not Democrats think they are socialists
or fascists. It only matters that they are.

1. The control of the distribution of medicine to the masses causes the greatest power of control to redound to the peoples' government.
2. The higher the level of poverty, the greater the control that can be exercised by the distributor of wealth, which must be the peoples' government.
3. An unsustainable national debt increases the peoples' government's ability to dictate the value of currency (the ability to print unlimited amounts of money). Where the peoples' government leads, the banks will follow.
4. The individual must be taught that he is subject to the will of the peoples' government which is solely responsible for the peoples' safety. Allowing the ordinary person to carry arms only creates anarchy. The state must never be afraid of the masses.
5. The peoples' government is solely responsible for the distribution of food, housing, and income to the masses.
6. The peoples' government is solely responsible for the education of the masses.
7. It is the duty of the peoples' government to remove primitive religions and beliefs which undermine the mental health of the masses. Religions must be scrupulously controlled by the peoples' government.
8. The wealthy and all classes who benefit from fortune, chance, and dishonesty must be held accountable for redistributing their wealth to the masses. Discontent among the wealthy classes must be stringently monitored by the peoples' government.

Useful Idiots, as Lenin called Liberals and Progressives of the early 20th century, have destroyed every nation in which they have obtained power and control. They do not realize that every system which has, to date, redistributed wealth, has either self-destructed, or, forced its productive citizens into slavery.
 

THERE ARE A WHOLE LOT OF SOUTH CAROLINAS

(May 18, 2014) There are at least four South Carolinas, and maybe seven or more. The four are, in no particular order, Lowcountry, Beach, Midlands, Upstate. There are those who swear that the Santee and Catawba areas are separate, and divide the Lowcountry somewhere between Charleston and Beaufort (We divide it along a line where the boohag shutter colors turn from green to blue.) Some say Daufuski Island and Charleston are their own countries. Some say that about Harbor Island and Irmo. And how many people (who don't live there) think that Greenville is so rich they will burst any day, now, or that Columbia weather is so awful, if you live there, you'll never have to go to Hell? There are even people who will bet their family fortune that Anderson and Spartanburg have so many differences, you can grow old naming them. And, of course, there's always Ceasar's Head, Lone Star, Camden, and "South Charlotte." (How many is that, now?)

State residents even disagree about what the area they live in is called,
so, this map is just a complete guess.

When it comes to our populace, our young people, black and white, have gotten over themselves. Yes, there are still bigots, but there are bigots in every state, just as vile and stupid - and they are not long for this world. But the history of SC has always been one of tolerance, except for people with large amounts of melanin in their skin - Jews, Roman Catholics, Arabs, Mormons, East Indians, Amerinds, Russians, Germans, Spanish, Mexicans, Colombians, ALL were welcome. Now, all ARE welcome. Yes, even gays - although most people don't want any PDA rubbed in their faces, hetero or gay. We're not perfect, but we're getting better.

We pay less, but things cost much less, here. You'll see some groups in the state who feel it is their God-ordered duty to raise the standard of living by raising the salaries of Palmetto State residents, when all they are doing is raising the cost of living. And because of wrong-headed thinking, we have some of the poorest areas in America - those may not change until they revolt against their socialist political leaders. And we also have some of the richest areas in America - but these are areas of capitalism, which many civil rights leaders hate. You see the problem.

Our point is this - If you want to hate our State, there are a lot of different places on which to grind your vengeance. If you love our state, then you are a most tolerant person, as you have a veritable smorgasbord of cultures, dialects, and politics. And we're getting better every day..
 

LIBERAL OF THE WEEK

(May 16, 2014) All puppies, kitties, and most cats - regardless of age - are liberals. Not THIS one, in Indiana, but most. They expect to be taken care of from cradle to grave.

Never mind that the California fires are possibly being set by Crazed Climate Disruption Believers. There's a precious kitty picture to show you:

This sleeping liberal kitty has no idea that cats can perform protection WORK.
 

MORE CLIMATE "STUDY" - MORE BULLESGESCHICHTE

(May 15, 2014) A breathless Shepherd Smith appears on our TV screens saying a small finding (using cooked up numbers from NASA) makes Climate Change a settled science. our TV puked from having been soiled by people calling themselves scientists lying so badly that poor Shep believes them - unless he was being ironic. Oh. Well.

More "settled science." For some reason, warm sea water from the bottom of the ocean is welling up in a very small area on the coast of Antarctica. A portion of an ice sheet MAY BE melting, from underneath, the ice in a couple of places where glaciers meet the ocean. Many geologists are warning that this COULD be a sign of magma shift or a more active and shallow magma pool raising and focusing heat in upward directions in a few, specific places. In any case, the one thing causing this phenomenon IS NOT be man-made.

● Ice in Antarctica is at its highest level in decades - or the Swedes, Japanese, and others doing research there, are liars. Remember the ship stuck in the ice in the middle of their summer (our winter)?
● That was only a small symptom of an equally interesting phenomenon - colder than normal summers and much colder winters - in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Ice at the North Pole has not declined as modeled and we may even be witness to growth in Arctic Ice amounts.
● We have just experienced the coldest winter in decades in the Northern Hemisphere. See Joe Bastardi's Saturday Update.

We already know that there is enormous pressure being placed on so-called "Climate Scientists" to swear allegiance to the mental illness identified, alternately, as "Climate Change," "Climate Disruption," or "Manmade Global Warming." All of it is crap, but that never stopped a good political campaign, or religious pogrom.

These "Climate Scientists," or as physicists, geologists, mathematicians, honest computer modelers, meteorologists, and archeometeorologists like to call them, "science deniers," who are looking for any change whatsoever to build their political argument, will literally say anything. THAT is what we get when we substitute emotion, politics, and consesus for hard, scientific research.
 

WE TOLD YOU SO.

(May 13, 2014) "Oh, no. President Obama would never let CRIMINALS loose in America. NEVER." ..they said..

So, just read this: Report: 36,000 Criminal Immigrants Released onto U.S. Streets in 2013.

Now it IS time to give the administration an anal probe, to see who's in charge.

Quid reliquum dicturus?
 
 

AND, IN THE OTHER HAND, NOTHING..

(May 11, 2014) I have been preaching about this until I am tired to the bone. Your government, Our government, has been desperately hiding two important truths from us:

Please, take the time to read this short history lesson. If you don't want to read it, here, you can find it at zerohedge.com , in the comment section below the infographic lesson. The comment is called "Gold for Oil - an Explanetory Device for the Current Financial Crisis", and it is written by a long - time contributor by name of Modern Money Mechanics. I present it to you, whole. You can show your gratitude by donating to ZeroHedge.com.

Details of this story are lengthy and contain plausible conjecture (see links below); nevertheless, its ability to integrate otherwise incongruous events is appealing. This is the condensed version..

Since paper currency had little value to Bedouin desert nomads, Saudi Arabia has historically requested to be paid (fully or partly) with gold in exchange for oil. Before entering World War II, America was paid in gold for war goods and subsequently held vast amounts after the war. So it was not considered a big deal to provide $35/Oz gold for oil from the 1940s until early 1970s.

In 1971 however, the general lack of gold caused Nixon to close the "gold window", that is, the dollar was removed as a stand-in for gold. Since major Western currencies (including Japan's) were tied to the dollar, that meant that all Western currencies have been floating since 1971. The USA subsequently entered into an agreement with the Saudi government which stated that in exchange for cheap oil, there would be implicit military protection provided by the USA and gold, albeit a smaller amount, would be provided with dollars in exchange for oil.

Unfortunately, there was little gold to be had in 1971, but there was also great optimism about mining technology. So agreements were established that provided the Saudi government with third-party gold while third-parties were guaranteed physical gold from future mine production. Gold prices rose over the ensuing decades, but in 1979, the price of gold went from ~$300/Oz to ~$700/Oz within a year and settled back into $300 range until the turn of the century. Gold mining production also jumped from the 1970s through 2000 roughly doubling the amount of world-wide gold that existed before 1970.

Decades later, in 1997, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) for the first time released its bullion trading activity and it shook the trading markets to see a high volume of gold traded daily.

From 1997 through 2011 the price of gold rose until it reached $1,800 per ounce as the markets traded more and more gold. Meanwhile, Western governments continued to engender (create through fractional reserve lending and outright printing) more and more paper currency over the decades. For example, the USA M3 dollar currency supply doubled five times since the 1970s (see table below) and US public/private debt expanded from $1 trillion in 1964 to $57 trillion in 2013, an increase by a factor of 50.

All things being equal, as the amount of paper currency continued to increase the price of gold should also have increased in a similar fashion each time the amount of currency doubled. Even though the supply of gold has doubled since 1970, if one simply compares the ratio of dollars/debt to gold in 1970 and again in 2013, a comparable gold price would be ~$55,000/Oz. But the price of gold has not increased because it is in the interest of the US and other Western governments to suppress the price of precious metals to continue the illusion of sound money as the Western population become poorer and poorer at ~5%/year.

Nevertheless, price inflation is not the core problem.

A financial collapse can be triggered simply by the lack of gold! Gold payments to Arab countries for oil continued from the 1970s and mining supply helped to keep pace with the need for gold until Asian demand entered the picture over the last decade. Western governments are now caught between a rock and hard place. They have to continue to suppress the price of gold, yet poor currency value means that miners are losing money producing gold at spot prices, and worse yet, there are fewer and fewer viable mines with less and less gold content driving up production cost and reducing yield.

As a result of record world-wide physical gold demand, physical gold shortage indicators are appearing. Banks are refusing to provide customers with their allocated gold; when gold is provided it is not the same gold that was stored (wrong serial numbers); gold reserves at the COMEX and LBMA have dropped to historic low levels; Bank of England shipped tons of gold from its vault in late 2013; and there are rumors that Saudi gold stock is used to supply Asian demand until future mine production can replace it. In fact, the consequences of collapse are so terrible that it would not be a surprise to learn that Arab gold stocks have been re-cycled to purchase Arab oil.

So all that is required for a financial crisis is for someone, somewhere, to request enough physical gold that others will not backstop the request and the system collapses. Why would someone request enough physical gold to trigger a collapse? Because gold's spot price is ~$1,300/Oz but its true value is ~$55,000/Oz. It is in everyone's interest to keep the system going, but at what point will the risk be too great to backstop a request for physical gold?

Now, read this again, slowly. I thank you.. and whoever Modern Money Mechanics is.
 

LIBERAL OF THE WEEK

(May 10, 2014) All puppies and most cats - regardless of age - are liberals. They expect to be taken care of from cradle to grave.

This particular liberal puppy also looks drugged out.

Meth Lab
 

CLOWNY PICKED FIRST!

(May 9, 2014) Gamecock Jadeveon Clowney was picked first, in first round by the Houston Texans in NFL Draft.

• #1 Jadeveon Clowney (USC) - Houston Texans
• #4 Samour Watkins (CU) - Buffalo Bills.
• #100 Brandon Thomas (CU) - 49ers.
• #102 Bashaud Breeland (CU) - Redskins.
• #106 Bruce Ellington (USC) - 49ers.
• #137 Dakota Dozier (FU) - Jets.
• #116 Martavis Bryant (CU) - Steelers.
• #138 Lorenzo Taliaferro (CCU) - Ravens.
• #190 Matt Hazel (CCU) - Dolphins.
• #213 Tajh Boyd (CU) - Jets.
• Free Agent Freddie Martino (NGU) - Falcons

North Greenville University's Freddie Martino was snapped up as a free agent by the Falcons. But NGU is a very small college, so one must assume that the Falcons are not looking to increase the number of South Carolina fans. NFL Network does the better job - ESPN fumbles (again), trying to make themselves the story.

UPDATE: In one of the greatest errors in NFL history, Connor Shaw was not picked up by any pro team. Astoundingly dim! Often, logic gives way to hype. Johnny Manzeil, who is a good, average quarterback, was finally drafted to the NFL, and the better quarterback, Connor Shaw was not. There is no logical explanation for this.

Jadeveon Clowney picked first in NFL Draft.
 

WHY THOM TILLIS WON IN NC

(May 8, 2014) There are several truths which have emerged, following the election-nomination of NC House Speaker as the Republican candidate for US Senate.

Thom Tillis - TEA People voted for him, too.

1. Thom Tillis ran one of the most organized, professional, intelligent campaigns in NC history.
2. Thom Tillis is not the tool of the Elite - TEA people voted for him.
3. There is not ONE TEA Party, and what groups there are, are not organized enough to win elections.
4. There were enough TEA votes, that, were they combined, Tillis would have lost.
5. TEA people include "little 'L'" libertarians, but mostly are Conservatives, or Reagan libertarians, NOT "big 'L'" Libertarians who seem to want to unzip America's fly whenever a military approach is proffered.
6. There are many people, pretending to be TEA Party enthusiasts, who are just looking to get even for a political grudge - they are separatists and are weakening the TEA movement.

I don't think the TEA movement is souring. I DO think it is maturing and looking for a permanent voice. If the Republicans are smart, they will inculcate the TEA, not try to extinguish it.

The obvious thing about this article is that if I'm wrong, then Tillis will lose, horribly, as TEA people stay home in November, and Kay Hagan is re-elected, and I'll look dumb. But I believe that people in the TEA movement are becoming pragmatists and understand the danger of electing ANY Democrat to ANY elected position. Then again, maybe not.
 

FORGET JOHNNY FOOTBALL. DRAFT CONNOR SHAW!

(May 7, 2014) The NFL draft is coming up and all the buzz is about Jadeveon Clowney and Johnny Manziel. Clowney deserves the praise. He is the very essence of a scholar-athlete. Johnny Manziel is almost everything that is wrong with college sports, so naturally, all the barrel-chested (or bellied) sports mouths, with more money than class, just love him.

Johnny "Football"

But I have a suggestion for coaches and owners for this year's NFL draft:

Forget Manziel And take Connor Shaw, the winningest QB in South Carolina history.

Connor Shaw

• Shaw is slightly smaller than Manziel, but Shaw is faster.
• Shaw is not a drama queen.
• Shaw is a leader. Manziel is a bully.
• Shaw will cost less and work harder. Manziel has "ok" work habits.
• Shaw is a workhorse. Manziel is a Saturday Pony.
• Shaw is from South Carolina. Manziel is from outer space - OK, I made that one up, but, Shaw is from South Carolina. (Yes, I know, he was born and raised in Georgia, but that doesn't count.)

Whether any of these arguments are valid or not, one thing is absolutely true: Connor Shaw will be far more grateful and play harder. You get Manziel, you get ego - and most sports fans know where that leads.
 

ODESSA MISSTEPS

(May 5, 2014) In Sergei Eisentein's Soviet film classic, Battleship Potemkin (Броненосец Потемкин) (1925), There is a gripping scene which dramatically recalls the 1905 shooting of innocent bystanders by the Tsar's Cossack troops - the bystanders had grouped together to see the mutineering crew as it disembarked - the Cossacks had been dispatched to end the mutiny. In Eisenstein's movie, they were merciless. The Scene is called "the Odessa Steps," and has been referred to in the films of many directors, from Mel Brooks to George Lucas.

"The Odessa Steps" from Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- great story, not much history.

In reality, the Potemkin crew refused to send armed sailors to help the rioting Odessa anarchists who were burning and robbing and mangling everyone and everything in sight. The troops were not Cossacks, but the local police and only 23 anarchists were killed, not hundreds of innocent bystanders. Interestingly, when the Soviets were trying to pacify Kazakhstan, the reference title board was removed from the film. Only rare versions contain the title board which reads " КАЗАКИ!" ("Cossacks!")

Still, like Yankees at the end of the Late Unpleasantness, the victors write the history books, and the Soviets count the mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin as marking the beginning of the Soviet Revolution. And, after all, why bother with the truth when you can tell a better story?

Once again, the Odessa Steps, are in the news. They are, by the way, one of the great architectural creations and can be found next to the water in the Ukraine on the coast of the Black Sea. Riots are again feared in Odessa. Once again, Soviet-style Russian Partisans are at the heart of the anarchy. Ukrainian troops will, again, defend.

Odessa Riots, 2014 - who will write the history, now?

This is not like Georgia or Chechnya, with whom the US had no binding treaty. These are genuine Russian agents - thousands of them, inciting more thousands of Russian favoritists, who are afraid of being a minority. It is not hard to start a civil war, as any historian can tell you. Civil war makes it easy for the Russians to betray their agreement to respect Ukraine's sovereign territory - The Budapest Accord of 1992 - to which the US is a signatory.

And which historians will write the history of the Second Odessa Steps? Surely the victors will. One thing is sure: because of our fecklessness in our foreign policy since 2009, the US does not even have moral suasion on the steps of Odessa.
 

Democrat STRATEGY ON BENGHAZI, FAST AND FURIOUS, IRS SCANDAL, OBAMACARE:

(May 4, 2014) LIE FOR TWO YEARS AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT IT'S OLD NEWS. We have been here, before. If the Democrats don't participate, it will prove that they have everything to hide and nothing as a defense.
 

IN DEFENSE OF CRICKET

(May 4, 2014) Everybody American knows that Cricket is "that boring game, like Baseball, that they play in England.. and some other places." I disagree. Considering the differences between our American Baseball and that game they play in England and some other places, Cricket is a somewhat more exciting game.

Here's a quick explanation of cricket for Americans.
Here's a quicker explanation of cricket for Americans who didn't understand the other quick explanation of cricket for Americans.
Oh, never mind, just click here...

The most important difference between the two games is that Cricket is the national sport of England, yes, but also South Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, the Bahamas, and is a growing sport in many other countries. American Baseball is really big in only four countries - the US, Canada, Cuba, and Japan. And sad to say, the national sport of Canada is Hockey, Japan's sport is Sumo, and football is eclipsing the All-American sport in the US.

Baseball is played on a diamond in a ball park. You can only make a hit within the lines. Everybody wears an expensive glove with netting and padding. Cricket is played on a pitch in a field (or stadium). You can strike the ball in any direction for a run. Only the catcher has a thin, unlined glove.

Delhi Daredevils 153 - Rajisthan Royals 156.
(153-4               156-3 - 9 Bowls left)

In Baseball, a team can occasionally score in double digits. In Cricket, if you don't score over 120 runs in T20 (Takes about 3½ hours to play) Cricket, you'll most probably lose - ODI games (One Day International) can reach over 250 runs, and Test Cricket can last three days with scores as high as 500+ runs. There is no such thing as a dull moment in Cricket.

In Baseball, if the pitcher throws the ball in the dirt, the ball is still in play until the catcher retrieves it and all runners are settled (if any), but in any case, it's a ball. In Cricket, if the bowler (pitcher) DOESN'T throw the ball in the dirt before it gets to the batsman (batter), it better not hit the batsman or the wicket (Home base with sticks) or it's an automatic run.

Cricket (everywhere but England) has hot cheerleaders. Baseball has them, now, too. Baseball has nine innings. Cricket has One inning in T20, One longer inning in ODI, and Two innings in Test Cricket. Did I mention that Cricket has hot cheerleaders?

Yep. Cheerleaders.

The Baseball, itself is aerodynamically designed to take advantage of the air it sails through, in order to fool the batter. In Cricket, the ball is geodynamically designed to take advantage of the dirt it plows into, in order to fool the batsman.

In Baseball, the players speak English, Spanish, Japanese, and French. In Cricket, everybody speaks English. Everybody.

Baseball pitchers who mess with the ball get thrown out of the game. Cricket bowlers must shine up the ball in order to force the batsman to commit a Leg Before Wicket (do NOT ask me to explain that.)

Science has not changed the game of baseball appreciably - you can't even place a camera in the actual line of fire between pitcher and catcher. They still don't have metal bats in the pros. Science has made huge advances to the game of Cricket. Batsman pads have been greatly reduced in size. Cameras are everywhere and you learn pretty soon who the bad officials are. Every major play is replayed from several angles, complete with digital graphics to show the path of the ball and the average of where each bowl has landed..

There are a lot more differences, but one of our favorites is that in Cricket, you have to carry the bat when you run to the other base (there are only two). In baseball, if you carry the bat, they fine you for assault.

Cricket is played here.

Both games are games of gentlepersons played FOR gentlepersons. Cricket is played in open fields in most cities of SC, almost every weekend there's good weather. All that has not changed. Don't get me wrong. I love a good baseball game, too. But given a choice, I'll take cricket.
 

LIBERAL(S) OF THE WEEK

(May 3, 2014) All puppies and most cats - regardless of age - are liberals. They expect to be taken care of from cradle to grave.

Here's a malapertness of liberals, feeding off the hardworking Dam..

CARNEY LIES, MAKING HIS NAME EPONYMOUS

(May 2, 2014) Fast and Furious.

IRS Scandal

NSA Spying on everyday citizens

Choosing which Immigration laws to be obeyed

Undermining our own efforts in the Middle east.

EPA destroying people's lives.

Central African Conflict

Leading from behind in Ukraine

Obama Clinton screwup on Benghazi.

Wasting opportunities in natural gas production

When will the regal taylors tell their majesties they are just screwing up..?
 

DID LINDSEY WEEP ON TV?

(Mayday, 2014) Was that a tear in Lindsey Graham's eye, when he appeared on Greta's Fox News Show, last night? And if it was, what caused it? Was he tired of being questioned at every turn as to the honesty of his actions in absolutely everything? Maybe. Was he asking himself, does no-one see what I have done to help people? Maybe. Was he feeling sorry for the families of the Benghazi victims? That, too, I'm sure.

If he was asking any of those questions, he might as well ask himself what has he done to deserve the opposition and scorn of so many of the common people.

I know that people don't like the fact that he helped shut down the effort of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to defund Obamacare by voting to cut off his filibuster, and then turning around and voting for the measure when he knew it would fail. Many in this state don't like the fact that he paved the way for a political hack, Sotomayor, to become a Supreme Court Justice. Even more don't like his immigration reform policy which has changed only slightly in the past year. And the overwhelming number of state citizens don't like the Chamber of Commerce which just endorsed him and subtly threatened their members not to oppose him (at least the Chamber didn't bully their members into supporting him), although some are giving the Chamber the finger.

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Fox News (file) - we've seen this before.

As I travel around the state, the one thing I'm hearing is the disbelief in the recent polling results, showing him beating everybody. Most people in the state think the polling is an artificial plant, with the intention to disheartening Graham's opposition. If that was, indeed, the intent, it hasn't worked. Maybe I don't mix with the right people, (don't we all think we do?) but no-one I've talked to wants to keep Lindsey as Senator. They don't want a Democrat either, except in the state's African-American wards.

Frankly, I'm going to vote for the person who makes the best anti-Liberal-Democrat statement one can make. If that means Lindsey, then, so be it. That he voted against FACTA would make him a better choice than any Democrat. But I'm not convinced at all that, at the conclusion of the primaries, that will be the choice. It may be that Lindsey gets 44% and the rest get 56%. Maybe not. What happens if the "rest" coalesce in a run-off?

Besides, this is not decided by any means, no matter what the media say.
 

- Dick Anderson.

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