The Shit Blizzard.
Get your little duckies in a row folks. I believe we are headed into some rough times.
DownwardSpiral: Why We’re Screwed (Part 2): Deficits DO Matter
by our own Bill Hicks!
by our own Bill Hicks!
So the debate is being framed by two sides, neither one of which understands the true predicament facing America. The liberals and progressives are digging in their heels on entitlement spending, while the conservatives are steadfastly against tax increases on those with the most ability to pay. Trying to negotiate the middle ground between the two is Obama, but even if his original deficit reduction proposal that had the liberals and progressives so up in arms were to somehow pass unaltered, it would STILL leave the federal government spending a trillion dollars more than it takes in from taxes every year.Joined by wholesale environmental collapse and also by the acceleration of global climate change, the systemic collapse of western civilization is under way.
Also, Prof. McPherson is intervied by Max Keiser on the Keiser Report.
In their weekly dig behind the financial news headlines, Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert report on declaring war on ratings agencies and buying refrigerators to save the economy. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Professor Emeritus, Guy McPherson, who has exited the empire to build a post-carbon community.
Thanks go to dear friends of this blog RJ at Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their continued support. Visit them and stop by the forums linked at the bottom of this post to keep up to date with what's going on and find out ways to protect yourself and your loved ones in the days ahead.
Japan
MainichiNews: Scientists launch 'operation sunflowers' to decontaminate farmland near nuclear plant
NAMIE, Fukushima -- Scientists have launched "operation sunflowers" in a bid to remove radioactive cesium from the ground in an evacuation zone near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant so that local residents could return and farm the land again.
MainichiNews: Elderly Fukushima woman kills self 'to evacuate to grave'
MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- A 93-year-old woman, dejected over the ongoing nuclear crisis, was found hanged at her home in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, in late June, leaving behind suicide notes that said in part, "I will evacuate to the grave. I am sorry."
DesdemonaDespair: Cows fed hay with radioactive cesium at 250 times legal limit
MSNBC: High levels of radiation turn up in Japanese beef
SeattleTimes: Japan can't say when nuclear reactors will restart
MSNBC: Japan's citizen scientists map radiation, DIY-style
MSNBC: Leaving shelters lands some tsunami survivors in deep trouble
Global Conflict
GlobeandMail: Embassy attack prompts U.S. to harden position on Syria
RawStory: Rockets hit Baghdad Green Zone on Panetta visit
GlobeandMail: Video: Karzai's brother assassinated in Kandahar The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been assassinated at his fortified compound in Kandahar city. Officials say Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot and killed by a security guard.
UKTelegraph: Gunmen blow up Egypt gas pipeline
Saboteurs blow up an Egyptian pipeline distribution station in northern Sinai that supplies natural gas to Israel.
(video)
EuroNews: Afghanistan: Karzai brother “killed by bodyguard”
The younger brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai has been killed in his own home.
GuardianUK: Suspected US drones kill 38 in Pakistan
The unusually heavy barrage suggests the US has no intention of halting its drone programme despite tensions with Pakistan
MotherJones: Ahmed Wali Karzai: The Devil We Knew
At various points over the years, US military leaders and diplomats have pondered how to get rid of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger half-brother of the Afghan president and the key powerbroker in Kandahar province. But it was ultimately the Taliban that claimed credit for completing the job: Early reports suggest he was shot dead in his home on Tuesday morning by a bodyguard, an assassination the Taliban described as "one of our biggest achievements."
Reuters: Egypt protesters reject PM offer of cabinet reshuffle
SeattlePI: Witnesses say Syrian protesters attack US embassy compound in Damascus, cause damage
VOA: Musharraf: US Suspension of Aid to Pakistan 'Disastrous'
UPI: Egyptian pipeline hit by explosionAn explosion early Tuesday blew up a major pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan, officials said.
Hacker News
Geek.com: Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, hacked by News International journalists
TechnoLog: Anonymous shares 90,000 military email addresses
CNN: Phone hacking can extend beyond voice mail
Financial News
CBSNews: McConnell: No real deficit deal until Obama is gone
LAT: Boehner-Cantor rivalry affecting debt talksIt's not the first sign of friction between the two Republican leaders.
AngryBear: Texas, the jobs engine? Or Texas, the jobs-laundering engine?
OurFuture: Trickle-Down Austerity
They are "wringing out excesses" and putting the people on a more moral footing in which they will work harder for less money and cease depending on government programs to be there when they get sick or can't work. Some people call this having "skin in the game" and others call it "fiscal responsibility", but in the end, you cannot help but suspect that all this austerity is the ruling class's way of preparing America for less affluence as globalization moves into the next phase --- by making them grateful for having less. After all, suffering is supposed to be good for the soul. For the little people anyway.BusinessInsider: The Truth Behind Alcoa's Earnings Report: Reasons To Be Nervous
GlobeandMail: Deepening euro zone crisis jolts markets
MoneyWatch: Fed: Consumer Spending Down $7,300 Per Person Since Great Recession Began
Timothy Geithner engaged in some painful truth talking the other day on the slow pace of the economic recovery. The Treasury Secretary stated that for many people “it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.”BusinessInsider: Jul. 12, 2011, 9:00 AM: What An Unbelievable Morning Already
CalculatedRisk: BLS: Job Openings unchanged in May
Bloomberg: Small-Business Index in U.S. Fell in June to Nine-Month Low
MarketWatch: U.S. trade gap of $50.2 billion highest since 2008
MSNBC: Wall Street struggles amid fears about Europe
Fears that Italy, Europe's third-largest economy, could face debt crisis
Telegraph: Britain's total debt to top £2,000,000,000,000The full scale of Britain’s fiscal black hole will be revealed on Wednesday when the Government adds another £1,200billion of debt to its books.
Guardian: Why the euro is not worth savingThis crisis has exposed the fact that – unlike the EU itself – the eurozone's monetary union was always a rightwing project
TulsaWorld: Obama insists on budget deal before debt ceiling increase
KSG.Harvard.edu: The Federal Government Races to the Cliff
In the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean and a teenage rival race two cars to the edge of a cliff in a game of chicken. Both intend to jump out at the last moment. But the other guy miscalculates, and goes over the cliff with the car.
This is the game that is being played out in Washington this month over the debt ceiling. The chance is at least 1/4 that the result will be similarly disastrous.
BusinessInsider: May Trade Deficit Comes In WAY Wider Than Expected
CNNMoney: The illusion of job stability
Bloomberg: Euro Chiefs Clash Over Greece as Concern on Italy Mounts
Guardian: Manufacturing deficit fear
Pursuing a plan to kill social security, politicians are relying on a credulous public and compliant media to ramp up debt panic
HuggingtonPost: Obama Offered To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age As Part Of Grand Debt Deal
WSJ: Secondary Sources: 1937 Mistakes, Debt Ceiling, Jobs and Education
1937 Mistakes: Bruce Bartlett warns against repeating the mistakes of 1937. “By 1937, President Roosevelt and the Federal Reserve thought self-sustaining growth had been restored and began worrying about unwinding the fiscal and monetary stimulus, which they thought would become a drag on growth and a source of inflation. There was also a strong desire to return to normality, in both monetary and fiscal policy… This combination of fiscal and monetary tightening – which conservatives advocate today – brought on a sharp recession beginning in May 1937 and ending in June 1938, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Real G.D.P. fell 3.4 percent in 1938, and the unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent from 9.2 percent in 1937. Economists are still debating the precise causes of the 1937-8 recession. While most say they believe that fiscal tightening is primarily to blame, some disagree. Perhaps it would have been positive if tightening was confined to the spending side of the budget, without the large increase in taxes. Maybe the fiscal contraction would have been benign if the Fed hadn’t tightened monetary policy simultaneously.”DailyBail: Every 6 Months, Another Trillion In Debt
Forbes: Faltering Defense Industry Faces New Danger: Activist Investors
Reuters: Europe banks hit as Italy stokes contagion fears
European banks were battered by mounting fears Greece is heading for a disorderly default and the debt crisis could spread to Italy, sending shares skidding more than 3 percent Tuesday to a two-year low.
MSNBC: Blacks' economic gains wiped out in downturn
A generation that played by the rules and saw progress falls out of the middle class
Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their disconnected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle-class life — until the Great Recession.
Politico: White House thinks it has debt debate high ground
BusinessInsider: Here's How Other Markets That Aren't Italy Are Doing This Morning (Hint: Bad)
CBSMonwyWatch: The President’s Press Conference: The Disappointing Embrace of Job Killing Austerity
The president just held a press conference on deficit reduction talks with Republicans. I found the president’s remarks during the press conference disappointing on several fronts. First, I am disappointed that the president seems committed to doing whatever it takes to reach a deal. There are lines that ought to be drawn in the sand, but even when they are drawn the lines are erased and moved as needed. It looks like a deal will be reached, the only question at this point seems to be how much the president will give away to get it. The president was, of course, trying to make it look like he is the one willing to compromise so that if a deal is not reached, the consequences will be blamed on Republicans. But it also appears he is willing to move quite a bit to get a deal done.
Bloomberg: Cisco Said to Be Cutting as Many as 10,000 Jobs
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.
BusinessInsider: The Italian Debt Chart That Everyone Needs Seared Onto Their Brain
Reuters: EU court says eBay may be liable on trademark abuse
Internet auction marketplace eBay may be liable for trademark infringements committed by users on its site if it plays an active role in their use, Europe's highest court ruled on Tuesday.
ZeroHedge: What An American Bank Run Would Look LikeZeroHedge: What An American Bank Run Would Look Like
Reuters: Monsanto mulls deeper ties with Sinochem: report
Global agribusiness Monsanto Co (MON.N) is in talks with Chinese chemicals conglomerate Sinochem Corp to deepen their ties significantly, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
BusinessInsider: The Sad Story Of How Italy Got To Be Such A Wreck
Brookings: The Great Recession May Be Over, but American Families Are Working Harder than Ever
Reuters: What will the AGs get in return for giving banks immunity?
CreditWriteDowns: Sheila Bair blames Geithner, Paulson and Bernanke for the credit crisis
ZeroHedge: Moody's Puts Credit Agricole, SocGen, BNP On Downgrade Review, Refreshes Dexia, Over Greek Exposure
BusinessInsider: 16 Reasons To Feel Depressed About The Economy
FT: Cisco Systems to cut 14% of workforceCisco Systems could cut as many as 10,000 jobs, which amounts to about 14 per cent of its workforce, it has been reported.
Up to 7,000 jobs would be eliminated by the end of August, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, the news agency. The maker of networking gear is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers.
Reuters: Italy borrowing costs surge as euro crisis spreadsThe main measure of Italy's borrowing costs broke above 6 percent for the first time in 14 years before easing back on Tuesday as the euro zone's third largest economy was sucked into the bloc's debt crisis.
NewRepublic: The Pathologies Of The Anti-Deficit Lobby
Peak oil and Energy News
NASDAQ: North Sea Crude Oil Output To Slide 5.9% In AugustLONDON -(Dow Jones)- Supply of crude oil in the North Sea is set to slide 5.9% on the month in August, according to Dow Jones Newswires' data based on the loading programs of twelve North Sea grades released in the last week.
Bloomberg: North Sea Forties Crude Oil Cargo Deferred to August From JulyOutput from the 200,000-barrel-a-day Buzzard platforms, the biggest stream in the Forties blend, has been less than normal in the past two months because of maintenance and technical issues, according to Nexen Inc. (NXY), operator of the field.
RawStory: BP calls on U.S. to halt payments for oil spill damages
After approximately $4.5 billion paid out to victims of BP's record-breaking Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company is urging U.S. officials with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility to halt further compensation.
WSJ: OIL FUTURES: European Debt Concerns Weigh On Crude
Bloomberg: U.S. Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Surges on Oil
CalgaryHerald: OPEC sees slower growth in 2012 oil demand
World oil demand is likely to grow more slowly in 2012 because of a fragile global economy and deepening decline in consumption in Europe, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its first forecast for next year.
FXStreet: Crude Oil Daily Fundamental Analysis
If pessimism continues to dominate financial markets, we should expect crude oil prices to remain under pressure, noting that the FOMC Minutes are not expected to provide anything new regarding the outlook of the world’s largest economy.
Commodities/Metals
WSJ: China's Hunger for Corn Turns Market on Ear
A Chinese buying spree for U.S. corn is putting on display the ability of Beijing to reshape grain markets as well as the cost of food globally.
Reuters: METALS-Copper falls as dollar rises, euro debt worries spread
Reuters: Analysis: China metals curbs may end up boosting smelting
China has issued fresh orders to slash capacity at steel and base metal smelters as it revamps its industrial sector, but the move could backfire and boost capacities instead as outdated units are replaced and modernized.
Environmental News
Just a reminder to those folks in this heat wave, be careful and take care of yourself, this kind of heat and humidity is dangerous.
WPSDLocal: Monitor your body during extreme heatRemember, if you start feeling dizzy, light-headed or extremely thirsty, that's when it's time to get inside.
Monitor your internal body temperature. If you have a temperature that is 103 or higher, get medical attention immediately. That could be sign of heat stroke, which can be fatal.
CNN: Dangerous heat wave spreads
MSNBC: Feels like 120: Temperature setting stuck on broil across US
Temps of 100 and above expected in 22 states; heat index could soar higher in areas
ArkansasMatters: Deadly Heat Wave Expands to 23 States
STLToday: Granite City man dies of heatstroke as humidity pushes heat index up
NYT: Drought in 14 states means disaster for manyDesperate ranchers likely to cull cattle herds — which could raise meat prices
Star-Telegram: Texas lakes down 13% in last year, report says
Boston.com: Ash covered landscape (amazing photos!)
GlobeandMail: Somalis flee massive drought in East AfricaSomalis walking to find food and water are faced with a difficult and sometimes deadly journey in the face of a massive drought in the region. Aid agencies are calling for more assistance
SciendeDaily: Long Distance: Research Shows Ancient Rock Under Haiti Came from 1,000+ Miles AwayScienceDaily (July 12, 2011) — Earthquakes and volcanoes are known for their ability to transform Earth's surface, but new research in the Caribbean has found they can also move ancient Earth rock foundations more than 1,000 miles.
NapervilleSun: Storm was ‘largest ever’ for ComEd with 817,000 losing power
Severe thunderstorms swept through the Chicago area Monday morning, pelting commuters and leaving more than 817,000 Commonwealth Edison customers without power at the storm’s peak, and more than half a million still without power Monday afternoon.
It was the “largest storm we’ve ever experienced in terms of the number of customers affected,” ComEd’s senior vice president of customer operations Fidel Marquez said, comparing the weather to “a blitzkrieg.”
CNN: Official: Days before power restored to thousands in Chicago area
KY3: 100-degree heat grips South, Midwest; heat advisories for East Coast
eat advisories are in effect today for much of the East Coast, from Georgia to Connecticut. Temperatures through the region are expected in the upper 90s -- but they'll feel as hot as 105 because of the humidity.
Forecasters say the extreme heat that has also plagued much of the Midwest and the South could continue for most of the week, and perhaps beyond.
ColumbusDispatch: Aggressive' decay eats at power-plant scrubbers
Defect no minor matter: Billions have been spent, and customers are helping to foot the bill
When American Electric Power installed a pollution scrubber at its Cardinal plant along the Ohio River in 2007, it was supposed to last 25 years.
That might not happen.
About a year later, an inspection found that something was eating through its steel walls.
BusinessInsider: THE GREAT DROUGHT OF 2011 Is America's Worst Since The Dust Bowl
Fourteen states are suffering from a drought so early and severe that it's already causing comparisons with the dust bowl years of the 1930's.
America in Decline
DailyBail: MUST READ OUTRAGE: Man Rots In Jail For Five Days, Loses Job & Car
All For Cashing A JPMorgan Chase Check At Chase Bank, Bank Admits Error One Year Later ONLY After Story Hits The Media
ABCNews: Michele Bachmann Clinic: Where You Can Pray Away the Gay?
Bloomberg: ‘Madness Abounds’ as Fake Candidates Confuse Wisconsin Recalls
BlackListedNews: Police: Internet providers must keep user logsLaw enforcement representatives are planning to endorse a proposed federal law that would require Internet service providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months, CNET has learned.
BeforeItsNews: Car Sleepers – The New American Homeless
Food and Water
RollingStone: Why Water is the New OilWe take water for granted. And why not? We turn a tap and out it comes. But that's going to have to change, says author Alex Prud'homme. As he explains in a new book, The Ripple Effect, the basic problem is this: the quantity of water in the world is finite, but demand is everywhere on the rise.
IBTimes: All eyes on the potato genome
A global effort has finally cracked the complex genome of the potato, which is published today in Nature.
The not-so-humble potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world's fourth most important food crop and is vital for global food security. It has proved surprisingly economically stable compared with major grain crops such as rice, wheat and maize (corn): when wheat prices more than doubled on the international markets in 2008, and peaked again in 2010, potato markets stayed the same.
ARS: NRSP-6 - United States Potato Genebank
Science and Technology
BlackListedNews: China’s ‘eye-in-the-sky’ nears par with US
UniverseToday: Water Cannon Salute trumpets recovery of Last Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters – Photo Album
Attention, mind-control victims: mad scientists want to zap your brain. But you knew that.
PBSNewshour: As Shuttle Retires, What's NASA's New Mission?
Cosmiclog: Space junk solution in the works
Msnbc: Astronauts get started on massive orbital moving jobCargo module attached to station; Atlantis' final mission extended by a day
CNN: iPhone, iPad users: Watch out for malicious PDF files
Medical and Health
ExtinctionProtocol: Scientists find drug-resistant gonorrhea ‘superbug’ in Japan
July 11, 2011 – JAPAN – Scientists have found a “superbug” strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat. The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease — called H041 — cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.
ABcNews: Are Skin Allergies Linked to Cancer Risk?
ScienceDaily: Eating Nuts Daily Could Help Control Type 2 Diabetes and Prevent Complications
NewScientist: Perils of baby sex preferenceWhen a culture prizes baby boys over girls, the result is a dangerously lopsided world
ScienceDaily: Evidence for 'Food Addiction' in HumansResearch to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that people can become dependent on highly palatable foods and engage in a compulsive pattern of consumption, similar to the behaviors we observe in drug addicts and those with alcoholism.
MSNBC: Bad bug: Gonorrhea strain resists all antibioticsLong-feared development has occurred; only question is whether it will spread
TheChart: How does a newborn get to 16 pounds?
ScienceDaily: Biomarker for Autism Discovered
Siblings of people with autism show a similar pattern of brain activity to that seen in people with autism when looking at emotional facial expressions. The University of Cambridge researchers identified the reduced activity in a part of the brain associated with empathy and argue it may be a 'biomarker' for a familial risk of autism.
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
Since I wrote about the Michigan woman who is facing 93 days in jail for planting a vegetable garden last Friday, the story has just exploded. TIME, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Geek Mom, CRAFT, Grist, and Daily Kos -- along with plenty of other blogs -- have covered the story. It never fails that someone in the comment section defends the city of Oak Park's actions by saying "why should the neighbors have to look at that?"ModernSurvivalOnline: Guest Post: We are not “Survivalists” we are “Risk Management Specialists”
GuardianUK: Pirate island for sale off the Welsh coast
Sully Island benefits from a rich history of Viking and pirate skulduggery, and is yours for £95,000
Other News
CNN: 44 schoolboys die in Bangladesh road accident
DisInfo: The Pentagon’s LSD Bombs
FAS: NSA Declassifies 200 Year Old ReportThe newly declassified report, entitled “Cryptology: Instruction Book on the Art of Secret Writing,” dates from 1809. It is part of a collection of 50,000 pages of historic records that have just been declassified by NSA and transferred to the National Archives.
Hosted: Armani to outfit Italy at London Olympics
FP: Welcome to Murdochia
Britain is in an uproar over the News of the World revelations. But Murdoch's controversial media empire extends far beyond the English Channel -- and it's been no stranger to scandal across the globe.
StarTribune: Iran says it's ready to cooperate with nuclear agency, but only if probe is halted
MSNBC: Divers locate dozens of kids' bodies on sunken boatSurvivors of Volga disaster said 30 children gathered in recreation room shortly before vessel sank
The Forums
TinfoilPalace:Financial rumours point to a second GFC in August
TinfoilPalace:Ex-cop admits helping to cover up Hurricane Katrina shootings
TheOilAge:Mob descends on Dallas, TX convenience store
TheOilAge:Karl Denninger Tickercon1! Weeks away from SHTF!!!!
Hubberts-Arms:anonymous has hacked a US military contractor.....
Hubberts-Arms:ALCOA EARNINGS THREAD-Start of Earnings Season(and Rupperts Pred..)
SilentCountry:ASX loses $7 Billion in one day
SilentCountry:Record drought in Texas
Thanks again for the shout out, pamela. You run the BEST alt-news site on the web! :)
ReplyDeletethank you Bill, I'm honored that you think that!
ReplyDelete