From the Trenches World Report

Testosterone Pit

When Ben Bernanke gave his last speech as Fed Chairman on Friday, he used the opportunity to “reflect on some accomplishments of the past eight years,” to set the record straight, demolish the “sceptics,” as he called the uppity creatures that still doubted that the Fed was the best thing since sliced bread, and pat himself on the back. Under his heroic leadership, the Fed’s “forward guidance and large-scale asset purchases have helped promote the recovery,” he explained.

The “recovery” of what? Asset bubbles – he called it “boost asset prices” – and banks. Albeit not all banks, or most banks, or even many banks, but a few select huge banks, of which the Fed has become the “regulator,” protector, benefactor, and savior. Bernanke’s praise for the Fed and himself is perfectly on target; the “recovery” of these too-big-to-fail banks is nothing short of marvelous – as is the concentration of assets and power in their hands.   Continue reading “Bernanke’s Delirious Praise For His Handiwork, The Concentration Of Power At The Top Banks”

Fox News

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. –  Bitterly cold temperatures blowing into the Midwest and Northeast in the coming days are likely to set records, disrupt schools along with airports and endanger those who go outside without the proper clothing.

The frigid air will begin Sunday and last into early next week, funneled as far south as the Gulf Coast because of what one meteorologist called a “polar vortex,” a counterclockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air.   Continue reading “Potentially record-setting cold temperatures blow into Midwest, Northeast”

Fox News

The Obama administration, stung by the failures of the HealthCare.gov rollout, is considering loosening hiring rules for technology specialists and creating a new federal unit dedicated to big tech projects, officials said.

The steps, some of which President Barack Obama could announce this quarter, are designed to address the lack of concentrated talent in civilian federal agencies to manage large technology projects—a shortcoming exposed by October’s disastrous launch of the federal health-insurance site.   Continue reading “Obama administration mulls loosening tech hiring rules after ObamaCare rollout”

World Events and the Bible

(Reuters) – Explosions hit two large Syrian gas pipelines on Friday near Damascus and the central city of Homs, cutting electricity supplies around the capital and in Mediterranean provinces, officials and activists said.

Video uploaded by activists of the Damascus blast showed a bright glow on the horizon, beyond several unlit buildings.   Continue reading “Explosions hit Syrian gas pipelines, electricity cut”

World Events and the Bible

(Paul Craig Roberts) – 2014 is upon us. For a person who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1961, a year in which the class ring showed the same date right side up or upside down, the 21st century was a science fiction concept associated with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” To us George Orwell’s 1984 seemed so far in the future we would never get there. Now it is 30 years in the past.

Did we get there in Orwell’s sense? In terms of surveillance technology, we are far beyond Orwell’s imagination. In terms of the unaccountability of government, we exceptional and indispensable people now live a 1984 existence. In his alternative to the Queen’s Christmas speech, Edward Snowden made the point that a person born in the 21st century will never experience privacy. For new generations the word privacy will refer to something mythical, like a unicorn.   Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: 2014 Will Bring More Social Collapse”

Daily Mail – by MARK NICHOL

A fully armed Royal Navy warship was scrambled to challenge a missile-carrying Russian vessel  in the waters off Britain just days before Christmas, defence sources revealed last night.

In a calculated test of Britain’s reduced naval capacity in the North Sea, the Russian warship came within 30 miles of the coast.

It was detected nearing Scotland, but the only ship the Royal Navy had available to respond after Ministry of Defence cuts was in Portsmouth, resulting in a delay of 24 hours until it was in position.   Continue reading “Battle stations! Navy scrambles destroyer to challenge Russian warship off British coast”

Continue reading “Dog Humor Cartoons”

Information Clearinghouse – by Pete Sisco

I’m not talking about the bank holding the mortgage on your home. Even if you think you own your home free and clear, you really don’t own it at all. You lease it from the State and it sets the terms and conditions that allow you to occupy the house or sell it to another lessee. The State owns the house and land in perpetuity and you can not alter this arrangement.

When I was a kid my dad bought a new four-bedroom house in 1964 for about $28,000. He had a good job and stuck his financial neck out by taking on a whopping monthly payment of $190 on a twenty-five year mortgage. He and my mom would talk about how when they got the house paid off they would not have to pay the $190 every month and that would basically put them on Easy Street.  Continue reading “You Don’t Own Your Home and Never Will”

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Breitbart – by SPYRIDON MITSOTAKIS

Bill de Blasio is not the only red coming to power in New York City. He will also be joined by a “progressive” majority City Council. Here is a sampling of three of those he will be working with:

—Melissa Mark-Viverito, top contender for City Council Speaker, went down to Bolivia to campaign for that nation’s marxist dictator, Evo Morales, in 2009. Records of the infamous red narco-terrorist organization FARC show that ties between that organization and Morales stretch all the way back to at least 2003, with meetings organized in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela between senior FARC operatives and Morales. That was two years before Morales’s Chavez-bought “election” in 2005, and the collaboration continues unabated.    Continue reading “NYC Painted Red”

Mail.com

SEATTLE (AP) — Under pressure from national union leaders, machinists in Washington state took a late-night vote that defied their local union bosses by narrowly approving a new labor contract that secures a coveted plane project for the Seattle area but moves workers away from pensions.

The tight count exposed deep rifts in the once-powerful union, but with plenty of states lining up to give Boeing exactly what it wanted to get work on the 777X, the aerospace giant had a tremendous advantage.   Continue reading “Local labor influence takes hit in Boeing contract”