Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1371746 Comments:2390
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. said Friday its net income fell by 45 percent in the first quarter as European sales plummeted and the company paid higher taxes.
The company announced it will try to cut its pension costs by offering lump-sum payments to about 90,000 U.S. white-collar retirees and former employees. Ford said it is the largest such offer in U.S. history. Payouts will start later this year and come from pension plan assets. Ford doesn't yet know how much the plan will cost....
but that doesn't matter because F can print money and borrow just like the banksters.....;}
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. said Friday its net income fell by 45 percent in the first quarter as European sales plummeted and the company paid higher taxes
U.S. stock futures rose, indicating the Standard and Poors 500 Index will cap the biggest weekly rally in a month, amid better-than-estimated results at companies including Amazon (AMZN).com Inc. and Ford Motor Co. (F) .....
LMFAO
# Amazon Surges After Hours On After-Tax Accounting ... - Zero Hedge www.zerohedge.com/.../ama...hours-after-tax-account... You +1'd this publicly. Undo 15 hours ago Either the algos are getting really stupid, or nobody cares at all about the quality of earnings any more. Case in point - Amazon, which was ...
Jan 31, 2012 Amazon slides 10% after hours as it reports much weaker revenues of $17.43 billion on expectations of $18.26 billion. EPS are not really ...
Cost Cutting is CorpsSpeak for taking employees out back and shooting them.
In a move to further ease and relax the consumer, the Markets have jointly confirmed that the color 'Red' will no longer be used for it's indicators.
'Black' and/or 'Green' are all we really need. 'Red' is superfluous. And thus un necessary....;}
Eurozone Retail Sales Plunge at Strongest Pace Since Late-2008; German Retail Sales Plunge Into Contraction; French Retail Sales Plunge at Record Pace; Record Job Losses, Record Retail Plunge in Italy
The word of the day is plunge. Retail sales fell like a rock in Germany and fell at a record pace in France. -Mish
Again Mish. This time about Greece taking money from accounts of suspected tax cheats....trials later....in other words, all accounts are criminal until proven otherwise...;}
"Anyone with any common sense has already pulled all of their money out of Greek banks. However, the unthinking masses probably have not. This move will without a doubt cause more than a few to worry about accusations, true or false, and in the case of the latter, the illegal confiscation of money.
Expect to see a further plunge in money kept at Greek banks. Also expect capital flight of another kind: human capital. With this kind of crackdown, anyone capable of leaving would be wise to leave Greece immediately."
" With this kind of crackdown, anyone capable of leaving would be wise to leave Greece immediately."
Back around 1935, the same warnings were given in Germany. On the Titanic, the first life boats left 1/2 empty.
1 day ago The normal high temperature for April 25 is 83 degrees. ... In 1925, San Angelo recorded 107 degrees on April 19, the highest ... And, yes, that will set another hot weather record (the old high for April 26 is 99, set in 1943).
RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX 606 PM CDT THU APR 26 2012
...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT SAN ANGELO... ...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE TIED AT ABILENE... ...RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE SET AT SAN ANGELO AND ABILENE...
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 105 DEGREES WAS SET AT SAN ANGELO TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 99 DEGREES SET IN 1943.
THE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES WAS TIED AT ABILENE TODAY. THIS TIED THE OLD RECORD OF 96 DEGREES SET IN 1984.
THE LOW TEMPERATURE OF 74 DEGREES BROKE THE OLD RECORD HIGH MINIMUM AT ABILENE OF 70 DEGREES SET IN 2009.
THE LOW TEMPERATURE OF 73 DEGREES BROKE THE OLD RECORD HIGH MINIMUM AT SAN ANGELO OF 72 DEGREES SET IN 1963.
RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX 606 PM CDT THU APR 26 2012
...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT SAN ANGELO... ...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE TIED AT ABILENE... ...RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE SET AT SAN ANGELO AND ABILENE...
Yes, quite warm yesterday at baseball practice, but it does get warm this time of year in Texas. By late May we no longer get "cool fronts" in Central TX.
Are you a global warming type?
As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. -Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV)
"And then to top it off, the "man who loves trees" almost as much as he loves himself had yet another stupid anthropocentric article in the HuffPo, to which I commented after this quote from him:
"They sweep air pollution out of the air in our cities and suburbs and clean water through their complex root system."
That's great, Jim Robbins. What happens to those trees that are absorbing our pollution through their leaves and roots? Ozone gives people cancer and other fatal diseases. It does even much worse things to trees. It rots their roots making them more vulnerable to drought and wind, and rots their interiors making branches break. Ozone and acid rain make them lose their natural resistance to insects, disease and fungus. Pollution lowers their production of nuts, seeds, and fruits so they can't reproduce. If you really care about trees so much, why not talk about that?
He of course blames warmer winters for bark beetles: "They are dying all around us in the American West. I came to realize what climate change can do to trees when bark beetles, their season lengthened by unusually warm winters, attacked trees on my 15 acres of pine forest in Montana," conveniently ignoring the fact that the first ever proven case of trees dying from bark beetle infestation, thanks to a compromised immunity from exposure to ozone, was from back in the 1950's in the extraordinarily polluted hills above Los Angeles, where it NEVER approaches extended winter freeze.
We seem to have an obsession with breaking points. A while back many were claiming $100/barrel was the ugly horizon. Weve been there a while.
I think we will continue to see roughly linear effect as prices rise (as they have been). Slow economy becomes more sluggish. We have seen demand fall off in developed countries WITHOUT the usual drop in prices. Other demand (Chindia) is stepping in to fill the gap.
I dont know what the breaking point is, but the broke point is back under $2.00 a gallon with few buyers because the economy has failed in a big way."
"I think we will continue to see roughly linear effect..."
Quantum Science replaces Newtonian Law. Once you've gone parabolic, you don't reach asymptote and then level out.
As you drop off the other side, as 'Mike on Sat' alludes to, your 'waste' catches up with you. You hit the 'fat tail' and begin Non Linear 'breaks'.
#634. To: A K A Stone, harrowup, wethepeople, All (#0)
#87. To: mcgowanjm (#81)
Great thread. I'm posting it to mcgowanjm wire.
Don't forget to source me as the reason it is great.
I'll trust you to comply since I don't read your wire or Brad's whatever.
Had enough trouble with Brad's Gramma already.
By the way, does anyone remember the time someone asked 'Brad' what was the scariest thing he ever heard? He said it's when "Gramma says Aunt Bee is Coming for the weekend.
Note to lurkers...that is bait so huge it might as well be C-4.
The arrest has prompted the worst diplomatic row between the two regional powerhouses since Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries broke off diplomatic ties with Egypt after it signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1987.
Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had recalled its ambassador from Egypt for "consultation" and would close its embassy and consulates in the Arab nation.
And 1987's 'reconciliation' is based on the Asymptote of USSA power....the price of gasoline...$.65 cents in Ft Worth....;}
The employees union for the workers at Orion Bus in Oriskany says that all 538 workers will be laid off sometime in the next two years, and that the layoffs are only a matter of when.
Tim Banas at the United Auto Workers Union said that at least 12 employees at Orion were laid off Thursday morning and that the company expects to lay off more in the days to come.
On Wednesday, Daimler announce that it would stop all production on new bus orders at the Oriskany-based company, but would continue bus maintenance work. This is why I am so convinced we are heading towards collapse. For years now we have been making all the wrong decisions at the worst possible time, and I see no reason why that will not continue.
We have arrived at the point where all of the biggest frauds preying upon working and middle class families are now a combined effort of the banks, big corporations and the federal government. Mortgages and student loans are just two of the largest such swindles--and they very much tie in together since those who have been saddled with large amounts of the latter can hardly afford to take out one of the former, even at these insanely low interest rates.
How any impartial observer can look at what is happening in these sectors as not realize that a huge crackup is coming is beyond my puny powers of comprehension.
Interest rates cannot fall much farther, and when they do finally start to rise, they are going to kill what little does remain of the housing market. Anyone inclined to believe the latest call from just this past week that "the bottom is in" and is planning to buy a house is a sheep not only about the be sheared but eventually slaughtered.
Lewis sets tone as Rangers end Rays' run By Dave Sessions / Special to MLB.com | 4/29/2012 12:50 AM ET
ARLINGTON -- Colby Lewis gave up an early home run and walked three times as many batters as he had in the previous four games combined, but there was no reason for the Rangers right-hander to panic in a 7-2 victory over the Rays on Saturday.
That's partly because Lewis had only walked one batter all season entering the night, having faced 104 consecutive batters over 25 2/3 innings without issuing a free pass. But the simplest reason for Lewis' fortitude is that he knew he was pitching with the Rangers' electric defense behind him and their explosive offense in support of him.
Lewis was unimpressed with his own performance, but raved about the play of his team.
"I felt like I didn't really have a whole lot," Lewis said. "I felt like I kind of battled at times. But overall, it worked out."
It always seems to work out for the Rangers. After Saturday's win, Texas leads the Major Leagues in hitting (.297) and is second in fielding (.989). Lewis was the beneficiary of quintessential examples of both: a two-run single by Josh Hamilton that gave the Rangers the lead for good in the first inning; a gorgeous glove-flip to second base by Elvis Andrus that enabled a crucial sixth- inning double play; and an Adrian Beltre three-run homer that punished Tampa Bay for intentionally walking Hamilton in the seventh.
Andrus' play, with nobody out and a man on first as the Rays threatened the Rangers' 3-1 lead in the seventh, was certainly the game's most dazzling. In a play similar to his World Series Game 6 highlight from last postseason, Andrus showed his range by getting to a ball far to his left, then showed his innate sense of where second base is -- and his flair for the dramatic -- by flipping the ball with his glove to waiting second baseman Michael Young.
Young turned two and said after the game that he considers such theatrics by Andrus to be "routine plays" by now.
"If I get to the bag," Young said, "I know it's going to be on its way."
While Tampa Bay made two costly errors that led to runs, the Rangers ran down faraway fly balls and dug out tough grounders.
"We can play defense," manager Ron Washington said. "It's something that we respect -- something that we take pride in.
"I'm not surprised by anything they do out there. You put it in the air, if you got a hump in it, it's coming down in the glove. You put it on the ground, if they can get to it, it's going to be thrown to the first baseman."
Lewis pushed his record to 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.93, further solidifying his reputation as the Rangers' most unflappable starter thus far in 2012.
Lewis has allowed homers in four of his five starts, including Matt Joyce's shot to start the second inning on Saturday, but Lewis has yet to allow more than one homer.
Lewis threw 96 pitches on Saturday, but only 56 strikes. Yet, the control issues didn't rattle the right-hander, who turned in six solid innings and benefited from ample run support.
The Rangers broke the game open at 7-1 when Rays manager Joe Maddon elected to walk Hamilton to face Beltre, who hit a three-run home run, his fourth of 2012.
"You always want to hit in those situations," Beltre said. "I don't want them to walk him, I want him to get some pitches to hit, too. ... But I'm always gonna be up to the challenge. My job is trying to do a better job, so maybe they'll think a little bit harder and pitch to him."
Maddon preferred to face the right-handed hitter against right-handed pitcher Burke Badenhop, and the move backfired.
"The chances of either one of those guys putting the ball on the ground against Badenhop are about equal," Maddon said. "But Josh has just been so darn hot, let's go with the other guy, maybe get a nice ground ball somewhere and stay out of the big inning. But it didn't work out that way."
Alexi Ogando pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and Mike Adams yielded one run in the eighth before Koji Uehara worked a perfect ninth to seal the win.
Rays starter Jeff Niemann allowed five hits and walked one in falling to 1-3 this season.
Dave Sessions is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. -Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV)
"When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality, at the end, gets unplugged.
We live in an age when news consists of Snookis pregnancy, Hulk Hogans sex tape and Kim Kardashians denial that she is the naked woman cooking eggs in a photo circulating on the Internet.
"The one really good thing, that I don't dispute, that you can do with a good FICO score is buy a house with a fixed-rate mortgage and get a lower interest rate that can save you a ton of money over the life of the loan," he says. "But other than that, there is really nothing you can do with a high FICO score."
In fact, he says, a good FICO score often leads to a bad FICO score, because people are able to take advantage, and often do, of unnecessary credit that ultimately leads to more debt.
One prime example is a car loan, which he says you should never take out in the first place. "The best thing people can do for their lives, in terms of happiness, is to avoid monthly payments entirely whenever possible," he says.
Forget New, Buy Used
Buying a used car these days not mean driving a vehicle with 100,000 miles and severe maintenance issues, Bissonnette says. Used cars are not only cheap but safe drive too. His suggestion is to buy a used car for just a couple thousand dollars. Not only will your bottom line not suffer from instant depreciation of the car the moment you drive it off the lot, you will also not likely need to buy collision insurance.
Mine is still running strong. The transmission went out a little over a year ago. Took it to Brownies. They tried to rip me off. Then towed it to Craigs Transmission on Keowee Street. They did it for half the price and it runs great today.
"When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality, at the end, gets unplugged. We live in an age when news consists of Snookis pregnancy, Hulk Hogans sex tape and Kim Kardashians denial that she is the naked woman cooking eggs in a photo circulating on the Internet.-Chris Hedges
"that the mainstream media and the government officials were all bribed or intimidated by Mercks lawyers, lobbyists, and advertising budget into averting their eyes or holding their tongues. But from 2004 onwards, huge numbers of Americas toughest trial lawyers were suing Merck for billions based on Vioxx casualties didnt they notice the dramatic drop in the national death rate?
The inescapable conclusion is that in todays world and in the opinion of our own media, American lives are quite cheap, unlike those in China. Besides, says Unz laughing, it shows the stupidity of our political leaders that they didnt seize upon this great opportunity. They should have just renamed Vioxx the Save Social Security Drug, and distributed it free in very large doses to everyone, starting on their 65th birthday. Maybe they should have even made it mandatory, three times per day.
"So the CEO is the point failure mechanism where if he or she goes bad, almost everything may go bad as well. So all those things that we call internal and external controls, all report to the CEO and the CEO therefore can, as Ill describe, use compensation, hiring, firing, praise, and such to produce the environment that will commit, create allies for his fraud. Now, note that what Im saying.
The CEO, the art of this is not to defeat your controls. The elegant solution as in mathematics is to suborn the controls and turn them into your most valuable allies. And therefore, for example, when youre running accounting control fraud where your weapon of fraud is accounting and that weapon of choice in finance is accounting. Youre going to want to hire the most prestigious accountants as your outside auditors because it is precisely their reputation that is most valuable when you can suborn them. -Bill Black, Control Fraud
Why does the boiling frog story apply to people if not to actual frogs? The answer is simple. Human beings are built to adapt to new conditions. Generally speaking, they don't notice gradual change, they simply get used to it. People were designed by Nature to react quickly to sudden changes. They were not designed to notice that this year, and for many years before that, conditions got a little worse than they were the year before. Humans live in an eternal present. This observation is well-known to those who study such things. It is not original with me.
A second incredible advantage is the CEO can optimize the firm as a weapon of fraud. And the< CEO can do that. Basically, this falls into two big categories. One, you can put it in assets that have no readily verifiable market value because then it's a lot easier to inflate asset valuations and to hide real losses. And the second thing you do is grow like crazy. And, of course, that is the essence of something your listeners have all heard about, and that is a Ponzi scheme. And so these accounting control frauds have strong Ponzi-scheme like elements, which is why they tend to cause such catastrophic losses.
Now combine this with the F-35 program and you get the biggest fraud possible.
Each 'Flying Piano' costing $161 Million with only 20% of flight tests completed.
Well over $1 Trillion with Op costs included....;}
The Associated Press has learned that the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.
The coalition routinely reports attacks in which a coalition soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But it does not report the instances in which an Afghan wounds U.S. or NATO troops or misses his target.
Officials acknowledge the attacks are a worrisome problem for the U.S. and its military partners as they work increasingly closely with Afghan troops in preparation for handing off security responsibility.
The AP learned that just last week, two U.S. soldiers were wounded when Afghan policemen opened fire on them. The Afghans were quickly killed, and the incident was not reported by the international coalition.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Limited Hang Out. Those soldiers were killed.
"While unacceptable, the militarys systematic under-reporting of these incidents is not surprising. Support for the war which has hit all-time lows in recent weeks depends upon favorable information getting out. If the information doesnt reflect well on the war, it is liable to be hidden from the people. Last 5 posts by John Glaser
We just had a no-growth quarter, but it doesn't count because the BEA used a custom deflator.
And thus we are forced to conclude that life in 21st century America is like living in a hall of mirrors. Every reflection we see is distorted almost beyond recognition. After it is final, the official 1st quarter GDP number will be cited over and over again by economists everywhere. Every one of these economists will ignore the deflator distortion. Obama will use the number to tell us the economy is growing, but not fast enough to create more jobs. The hall of mirrors just goes on and on and on.
Welcome to the Fun House. Or, to borrow the title of one of Kurt Vonnegut's books, Welcome to The Monkey House.
Domestic & Foreign.....two sides of the same coin....wake up and lie.
BTW, you can turn on your tv and be the 99,000 +1 to be watching CNBC....LMFAO....8D
On the heels of that announcement, more details have emerged and they suggest the Federal security apparatus has completely lost its marbles.
Via Off Grid Survival
The Illinois Department of Transportation is testing an emergency plan to shut off access into and out of downtown Chicago. The plan uses a network of highway security gates that are designed to shut down all traffic coming in and out of Chicago in the event of a terrorist attack.
The Illinois DOT is warning truckers that its best to avoid the city during the NATO Summit in Chicago May 20-21. There will be a number of driving restrictions and rolling street closures, and the Illinois DOT is testing highway barricades that will block access to all major highways in and out of Chicago.
Starting May 1st, a full three weeks before the NATO Summit, the Federal Government will be setting up a Militarized Red Zone in the streets of Downtown Chicago.
In a Chicago Sun Time Article:
The head of Chicagos NATO Host Committee said Thursday she was blindsided by the federal governments decision to create a militarized Red Zone in the Loop to protect federal buildings in the run-up to the May 20-21 summit at McCormick Place.
The news of federal agents on the streets of Chicago isnt sitting well with many. From last months urban warfare drills, to residents being warned of possible citywide evacuations, the city of Chicago is starting to look like a city that may already be under martial law.
The Associated Press has learned that the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.
Yes I did see that mentioned somewhere this morning or last night.
Heavy fighting taking place in Zamindawar Qari Yousuf Ahmadi E-mail Print PDF Tuesday, 09 Jamadil Akhir 1433 Tuesday, 01 May 2012 14:51 HELMAND, May. 01 Heavy fighting has been taking place in Zamindawar Sozigar area, Kajaki district since yesterday morning when Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate engaged cowardly US invaders that landed by helicopters in the area for an operation. The fighting is still ongoing today (10:00 am), more details about which will be updated later.
And that was the State's Munich Beer garden Speech Circa November 8, 1942....;}
"Obama's campaign has questioned whether Romney would have made the same decision to authorize the raid that killed bin Laden. On Tuesday in New York Romney said he would have made the same call and criticized Obama for making the issue political.
Politics aside, a senior U.S. official cautioned that no matter what pacts are signed, "Afghanistan is still going to be the third poorest country in the world."
"This is still going to be tough," the official said, adding that the expectation was that the Afghan government will be able to maintain basic security.
That skepticism is shared by the European Union's ambassador to Kabul, who said earlier on Tuesday that Western aid that has been poured into Afghanistan will have a limited impact as long as governance remained poor and corruption widespread.
Afghanistan's government doesn't seem to grasp the magnitude of major challenges just two years ahead of the pullout, Vygaudas Usackas told Reuters in an interview.
"The Afghans have to be in the driving seat," he said. "Probably we made them complacent."