Well, this is not good…

So coupled with the case of sudden Jihad syndrome out of Australia, we have something that is considerably concerning and interestingly not being advertised well within the news.

Last night Russia increased interest rates to 17%. Yes, those rates are Jimmy Carter era rates. Now why would they do something like that? Well here it is in graphical form:

Snapshot as of Dec. 16, 2014 0716 Pacific Time

Snapshot as of Dec. 16, 2014 0716 Pacific Time

The link will take you to the current Kitco rates. That’s right folks the Russian Ruble has damn near lost half its value in 30 days. There is a bunch of very interesting things if you think about it, and none of it comforting. Be ready cause winter is coming.

It is becoming apparent that the majority of the world has been printing money at a rate faster than the US and the US is making Zimbabwe look like thrifty spenders. How is that for “mental comfort”.

Can We Please Bring on the Apocalypse Already?

I’ll let Tallahassee Explain.

Well life is now imitating art and soon that box of Twinkies on the shelf may very well be the last box of Twinkies.

Hostess Brands, the bankrupt maker of cream-filled pastries like Twinkies and Ho Hos, said on Friday that it planned to wind down its operations. The decision comes a week after one of the company’s biggest unions went on strike to protest a labor contract.

The unions were protesting a cut in pay which occurred because of increased operating costs.  I do find it funny that in this wonderful market, where I know many people who have taken pay cuts instead of raises, these people decided they were going to go on strike. Tell me geniuses, how is no income better than some income?  Have no fear though because I’m sure they will all be collecting unemployment from the government.  That means you and I get to pay them for their stupidity.

Doubly so since the company warned the union that they were going to have to liquidate and shutdown if they didn’t return to work.  Well, the union called the bluff with one minor mistake, the company wasn’t bluffing.

The last thing I need is freaking Twinkies but man they take me back to my childhood.  Thank’s for ruining a direct link back idiots.

Welcome to the demise folks.  This is what happens as government regulation gets to the point where businesses can no longer thrive or be profitable.  Things crash and augur into the ground.  Get ready folks because this is going to get worse, a lot worse.  Especially when you consider the number of people dependent on the government, when the hand outs stop, they’ll just attempt to take their handouts from others.

Atlas is starting to shrug and it seems a lot of people don’t even realize it.

Quote of the Day–11/15/2012

The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.

Cicero, 55 BC 


[So, what’s changed in the last 2067 years that some how makes this republic exempt?

My mom emailed this to me after the previous post on the budget.

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."

She added the comment we have learned nothing in the last 2067 years.  She’s right.  Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.  The problem is though is you have a large segment of the population getting free stuff from the government.  They don’t want that to stop until every last drop is sucked out.

Get ready folks because the fall of the Roman Empire wasn’t exactly a fun ride.  -B  ]

Who Needs A Budget?

Apparently Congress doesn’t need one says Patty Murray…

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) confirmed Thursday that she will seek the chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee next year but told The Hill that she cannot commit to doing a budget.

This opens up the possibility that Senate Democrats will avoiding passing a budget resolution for the fourth year in a row.

Why doesn’t everyone just give up operating within a budget.  Since government doesn’t need to, why should I?  Hell the government can increase their debt limit too!  The credit agencies should just allow me to borrow as much money as I want.  If it isn’t a problem for the government why is it a problem if I do it?

Seriously, someone answer the question.  How is it OK for the government to keep writing check, using my name I might add for part of the bill, but they don’t need to have a budge to live within.  Not only do they not have a budget, but when they run out of money they just borrow more.

Most people I know are tightening their belts.  It appears Washington has decided to go Robb Allen and ditch the pants and belt.  Obviously they missed the part where Robb doesn’t do debt which is why he doesn’t need a belt.

Adventures in Venture Capitalism

It’s been known for a while that green-energy is suspect and has serious issues.  Yet our fearless leader has shoved more money at failed projects that most could comprehend.  If this man ran a venture capitalist firm his clients would have left long ago because he was driving them to be broke.

What exactly am I talking about, well here’s a list of companies that have failed that received funding from Obama.

  1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
  5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
  6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
  8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
  13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
  14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
  15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
  17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
  19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
  27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
  29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
  30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
  31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  32. Vestas ($50 million)
  33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
  34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  35. Navistar ($10 million)
  36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Total waste?  $8.108 Billion dollars.  Yes that’s billion with a B.  People keep insisting that to fix the budget problem we need to make massive cuts to the big pieces of the pie.  What people don’t seem to understand is that the biggest pieces are all the small tiny pieces added together.

Look at all that money that’s been wasted.  Debt that has now been laid upon our children and working class.  For what?  So that some donors to the Obama administration can go buy a new vacation house?  So that some leftist can feel good about his view on the environment and forcing others to pay for his moral views?

Seriously, why is anyone even thinking about continuing to vote for a man who so willingly and blatantly has been robbing the American public blind.  Not only is he robbing them but selling your children into slavery.  There is no such thing as a free lunch yet everyone seems to think they’re getting one.

That stimulus so heavily lobbied for has $80 billion in politically tied energy projects.  Yet we see how those projects actually worked, not to mention how it actually delayed existing projects.  Over 1900 investigations have begun to look into waste, further costs to the American tax payer.

To put this into even greater perspective, 10% of the funding for energy projects provided by the stimulus is nothing but waste.  That’s to a cost $25.82 per every man, woman and child, just in waste.  If you just count the tax payers, it’s an extra $70.81 in cost.  If you don’t believe me, do the math yourself.  Here’s where I got the numbers for population and taxpayers.  To take it further we have another 6 trillion in debt overall, that comes out to be another $51,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child.  The overall debt burden in this country is enough for most people to buy a house, again, every man, woman, and child, even babies.

Lets look at the issue in another way focusing on spending during 2012 overall:

Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

Joe also put it really well a while ago before we ended up even further in this hole:

If your family income were $50,000 then:

Now that has brought the spending problem into a better perspective, let me ask, why is the out of control spending and economy not at the fore front of the presidential race?  I hope all of you who continue to not see a problem with this reckless spending and endless growth of government are happy selling your soul and children’s soul into slavery.  Because you honestly have no business writing checks your ass can’t cash and putting your kids name or my name on it.  Period.

Quote of the Day – Stephen Moore (10/17/2012)

For well more than one of every three Americans, April 15th isn’t tax payment day, it’s payday from Uncle Sam.

Stephen Moore – Who’s the Fairest of Them All?
October 9th, 2012


[It is deeply disturbing that 40% of income earners didn’t pay income taxes but instead received payments.  I keep hearing people use the term “fair share” and well as I used all so often lately:

What is fair about one group of people paying out taxes while another group collects a part of them for themselves?  Fair would be a flat tax, hell a flat income tax would even be a better start than what we have now. -B]

Socialism First Hand, A Warning

Now, with his comments about taking away the incentives for success and people losing interest in working hard in mind.  Lets look at another video:

Think about this for a second.  They’re penalizing success and there are large groups of people who instead of working live off of entitlements from the government.  As RobertaX said, we cannot reverse the slope, but we can at least change it to give us some time.  Given time we might be able to reverse it.

The ACA is going to have some serious repercussions that many probably don’t even realize.  Especially in large parts of the voter base that is most likely to support Obama. What am I talking about?  College internships are liable to get screwed.

There is no way a company is going to bother paying for benefits for an intern, doubly so since usually they are on school or their parents healthcare.  So now when you’re working 40 hour weeks in the summer they’ll have to provide care of face a fine.  Well instead they’ll limit you to 29 hour work weeks.

This is significant because during the summer I regularly worked 40+ hour weeks to pull overtime to save up for my upcoming semesters.  Now instead students will have to incur more debt because they will be prevented from earning money to pay for school.  Wait, who is it that subsidizes most of the loans, which are exempt from most laws governing debt, that’s right the government.

That’s right folks, the government passed legislation that will force more people to take loans and pay them interest.  Nice huh?  Don’t worry though, they’re from the government and they’re here to help…

Ultimately though Bill Whittle nails it with this one:

The money quote:

The left has these same failed ideas from about a 20 year window at the end of the 19th century.  That have never worked, don’t work now, and will never work.  And this clinging to an ossified discredited model based on envy and resentment has killed no less than 100 million people.  And many people call this progressive as they cover themselves in glory, but not in the blood or the failure.

It may be the recent history of the 20th century, however I think it’s certainly in the current path of the future for the United States.

Quote of the Day – Robb Allen(10/8/2012)

My girls weren’t as into Sesame Street as I was as a kid, but they did enjoy it and I would gladly fork over a few bucks to keep them on the air if it was required. However, I’ll do it voluntarily. Put the tax man’s gun to my head and demand it and suddenly I’ve got no desire for the show to go on.

Robb AllenLet them eat seed
October 8, 2012


[Honestly, go read the whole thing.  It’s amazing the number of people who don’t seem to understand that small numbers do accumulate to a big one.

Sesame Street gets a large amount of support from the public without forcible conscription from the government.  So pardon me if I don’t start crying at the idea of trying to lessen our burden of debt.

Folks, you need to realize something and the sooner the better. We’re broke.  We’re spending more than we’re bringing in and the debt isn’t just our’s, it’s our children’s.  Tell me, how would you like it if instead of getting an inheritance or rather nothing at all, your parents left you 15 years of mortgage payments for a house that was underwater?  Borrowing against your kids future isn’t fair, it isn’t ethical, it’s merely robbing your kids.  You’re signing checks in your kids name, not your own.

I’m became down right angry about when I became old enough to understand the national debt and discovered my share of it.  I hadn’t even started a job yet and there was debt in my name that I honestly never wanted to be a part of.

And for what?  So women like this can have a phone?  So that we can fund shows that could survive on their own through public funding?  So that I can pay for someone to survive that is too lazy to work?  So that ultimately I suffer an extra burden of supporting others and their personal morals so they can feel better about themselves?

Ever last little pet project needs to start being deleted.  You don’t need to just go and attack things that are a large single chunk, you need to cut all the small stuff that adds up.  A million here and a million there, eventually you’re talking very serious money.  It adds up to the tune now of over 16 trillion dollars, which makes the debt for every man woman and child $51,370.

Now the thing is, not everyone pays taxes.  If you’re a taxpayer, your debt burden is $141,142 dollars.  That’s right, our government has spent so much that you could buy a house for what you now owe from them writing checks in your name.

News flash for everyone, yes it’s going to hurt, yes it’s going to suck.  There maybe some things that don’t survive.  But the fact is, total economic collapse is going to be even more painful.  Eventually your bill has to come due, the question is, why is it so many keep on insisting on making it bigger.  Don’t answer that, I already know. -B]