'Rumblings' of Super Bowl Boycott After Houston Equal Rights Measure Rejected

Oh, let them boycott.  The people have spoken.

I love this sentence:

Parker and Houston's city council may now pursue a range of options from "issuing a clear public rhetorical statement about inclusion and accessibility in the city" [CASS: which means we're going to drive a stake into the moral high ground and do it anyway] to "pushing through another ordinance designed similar to HERO," according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. [CASS: which means we'll just ignore the will of the people]

The damn people had spoken.  What part of YOU LOST don't you understand?

Houston needs to not just vote them all out, they need to be RUN OUT OF TOWN.

Target closing 13 stores nationwide citing falling profits

I don't think this is good at all.  First Wal-mart, now Target?

The Minneapolis-based retailer plans to close the stores on Jan. 30. The 13 are among Target's nearly 1,800 stores in the U.S.

Target was hurt by a massive credit-card breach before Christmas 2013 that sent shoppers temporarily fleeing. The company also pulled the plug on a major expansion into Canada earlier this year.

Target officials say this isn't a company-wide problem.  Well, that's good to know.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Venezuela Is Selling Off Gold Reserves as Bond Payments Loom

First before we start talking about, let's jump into our way-back machine to 1999. We see this headline:

Yes!  In 1999 The UK sold off a significant portion of their gold:

The UK government's intention to sell gold and reinvest the proceeds in foreign currency deposits, including euros, was announced on 7 May 1999, when the price of gold stood at US$282.40 per ounce[8] (cf. the price in 1980: $850/oz [9]) The official stated reason for this sale was to diversify the assets of the UK's reserves away from gold, which was deemed to be too volatile. The gold sales funded a like-for-like purchase of financial instruments in different currencies. Studies performed by HM Treasury had shown that the overall volatility of the UK's reserves could be reduced by 20% from the sale.

The advance notice of the substantial sales drove the price of gold down by 10% by the time of the first auction on 6 July 1999.[1] With many gold traders shorting, gold reached a low point of US$252.80 on 20 July.[8] The UK eventually sold about 395 tons of gold over 17 auctions from July 1999 to March 2002, at an average price of about US$275 per ounce, raising approximately US$3.5 billion.[8]

Now, let's jump back into the Way-Back Machine and go back to the future with Venezuela:

With $3.5 billion of bond payments due this week and next, the cash-strapped country’s international reserves are hovering near a 12-year low of $15.2 billion, including gold holdings that totaled $11.8 billion at the end of May. Notes from Venezuela, which relies on crude for 95 percent of export revenue, are trading at distressed levels with swaps contracts pricing in a 96 percent chance of default over the next five years.

OK....now, let's do the math and compare the UK sale to the Venezuelan sale.  The article mentions that the Venezuelan gold holdings are about $12 billion.  As of the article date,gold sold at 1178 per troy ounce.

This is equivalent to  about 10,187,000 toy ounces of gold.

I also read that the UK also sold half its gold in 1970-71.  Another disastrous decision.

In Venezuela's defense, what other options do they have?

If nothing, this could signal the bottom for gold.

ObamaCare’s death spiral, stage one: Denial

Boy, this was easy to predict.  I just didn't see how.

For the press, the debate over ObamaCare is over. There may be a few proverbial Japanese soldiers wandering on isolated islands yammering on about the failure of ObamaCare, but word will eventually filter down to them, too.

This assumption is so deeply embedded that it is impervious to new evidence that ObamaCare is an unwieldy contraption that is sputtering badly. Yes, ObamaCare has covered more people and has especially benefited those with pre-existing conditions (to be credible, Republican replacement plans have to do these things, as well), but the program is so poorly designed that, surely, even a new Democratic president will want to revisit it to try to make it more workable.

What's clear from this is that Obamacare is just becoming another welfare plan like Medicaid.

I think it's over.

So “the Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing(?!)

I always hate this when I read it.  Since I am in an industry that serves the manufacturing industry, I understand how important a strong manufacturing base really is.

I just wish others saw it this way, too.

Back then, they were lamenting that the Inland Empire PMI had dropped below 50 for the second month in a row (below 50 = contraction), hitting 44.1 in September, after having already hit 46.6 in August. But the sky wasn’t falling “yet,” the report pointed out, because, given how volatile the index is, “it takes three months of figures below 50 before a new trend (in this case a trend of contraction rather than growth) is established.”

Alas, on Monday, the IAR released the Inland Empire PMI for October, and it was sharply below 50 for the third month in a row, this time at 45.9.

So, when it hits zero, can we truly say the sky is falling?

The Manufacturing Base isn’t just about companies who manufacture things. The domino effect slams all the companies and people who service those manufacturers; suppliers of parts and equipment, engineering companies, maintenance contractors, inspectors. You name it. The “Falling Sky” penumbra extends far beyond just the manufacturer.

Polish Football Fans Unfurl 50-Foot ‘Stand And Defend Christianity’ Banner

In September of 2006, I sat in the beautiful cathedral in Krakow or Warsaw, Poland and listened quietly as a group of teenagers prayed together.  I witnessed several weddings on one Saturday.  I have no idea if Saturday is the official day of marriage or not, but it sure looked that way.  Since I am a Christian, it wasn't just what I saw, it was what I sensed.

All of this convinced me that Poland would be the Last Bastion of Christianity after all of the rest of Europe had fallen to Islam.

So, when I saw this Breitbart article, it was as if I were a Prophet of God.

Defending Europe while clutching a sword and a shield showing the crest of the Silesian Wrocław football club, a St. George’s cross-wearing crusader stands ready to fight the migrants, below writing which reads “While Europe Is Flooded With An Islamic Plague”.

Underneath, another 100 foot wide banner hangs from the stalls behind the goal and reads, in a traditional Polish script: “Let Us Stand In Defence Of Christianity”.]

On the flip side we see this occurring in Germany, (Breitbart article run on Gateway Pundit) home of the radical Martin Luthor:

A German evangelical priest has offered his parish church up to become migrant housing, but will be stripping out most of the fittings to ensure their comfort – including all symbols of Christianity.

Father Joachim Deterding, parish priest of the evangelical Königshardt-Schmachtendorf church in Oberhausen, western Germany offered his church to the city authorities this week, a suggestion they accepted “gladly”, reports der Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

It is the first time in Germany a still consecrated, serving church has been turned over to migrant accommodation, but it is entirely in keeping with the philosophy of the priest and his mission. The church website advertises services given in English for the majority of refugees who speak no or little German, proudly proclaims “Refugees welcome… we are all citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."

I think we are witnessing the beginnings of the "Final Conflict".

US On Road To Third World — Paul Craig Roberts

How did we get here?  Where do we start?  This is from Robert's website.

In a recently released report, the Social Security Administration provides annual income data on an individual basis. Are you ready for this?

In 2014 38% of all American workers made less than $20,000; 51% made less than $30,000; 63% made less than $40,000; and 72% made less than $50,000.

The scarcity of jobs and the low pay are direct consequences of jobs offshoring. Under pressure from “shareholder advocates” (Wall Street) and large retailers, US manufacturing companies moved their manufacturing abroad to countries where the rock bottom price of labor results in a rise in corporate profits, executive “performance bonuses,” and stock prices.