"Massive Recession"

My first thought was oil. (click here) I've been waiting for it to hit. All I know is that the brokerage houses must be working a lot of overtime to stem the effect of merging and bankrupt oil companies.

See, when oil companies borrowed 90 percent of their anticipated value they did it with hubris. They knew they were going to break the market. I don't think CEOs of oil companies are very bright, but, I don't think they are stupid. They knew they were going to break the market otherwise why borrow 90 percent on future earnings?

I am sure every oil CEO made sure he was very comfortable before breaking the market.

I mean if anyone believes this wasn't about dumping USA oil into the market has a lot to learn about the American petroleum industry. They still receive subsidies from the USA government after dumping oil into the commodity supplies. 

Did American petroleum actually believe this circus was going to bankrupt Saudi Arabia and Russia? Really? Since when does American petroleum start their own war? It is really unfortunate it is not state owned in the USA. We only own the leases.

With the USA petroleum industries now able to export outside of the country, expect the CEOs to try to muscle any other country or company out of the market. Don't let it happen. Saudi Arabia and Russia should be seeking long term contracts with their customers.

Snow...

...imagine a hot planet that loses it's seasonal weather and only receives weather the same all year round in a series of hot and cold days. The determining factor to rain or snow is the location of the polar vortex.

If that were ever to happen, the natural world including bird migrations and blossoming and budding trees and crop plantings and harvests would be chaotic.

"Time" provides reason for the absence of Martin Luther King, Jr. cover presence the week of his death.

April 4, 2016
By Lily Rothman

The first week of April, 1968, (click here) “will be remembered for a long time,” noted TIME publisher James R. Shepley in his introduction to the issue that followed it. It was not a risky prediction. On Mar. 31, President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced that he would not seek reelection. Days later, on April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated....

...One explanation for the waxing and waning interest is that the subjects that made Johnson so influential at that particular moment are no longer the topic of heated discussion today. Racial and economic equality, meanwhile, has never stopped being the source of some of America’s deepest arguments. While King’s death did not make the cover, his life—even 48 years later—continues to make news.

$20 billion seems far less than justice, but, how does anyone define priceless?

Oil covers a beach across the bridge from Grand Isle at Camindad Bay Thursday, May 20, 2010

April 4, 2016

By AP

A federal judge in New Orleans (click here) has granted final approval to an estimated $20 billion settlement, resolving years of litigation over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier's final order on the settlement was released Monday (April 4).
The settlement, first announced in July, includes $5.5 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties and billions more to cover environmental damage and other claims by the five Gulf states and local governments. The money is to be paid out over a 16-year period.
Barbier had set the stage for the settlement with an earlier ruling that BP had been "grossly negligent" in the offshore rig explosion that killed 11 workers and caused a 134- million-gallon spill....

Foamy murky oil from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill resembles bacon in Bayou Dulac near Barataria Bay, La. Saturday June 26, 2010

100 Very Best Restaurants 2016.

February 8, 2016
By Ann Limpert, Anna Spiegel, Todd Kilman and Cynthia Hacinii

Ann Cashion (click here) and John Fulchino's roomy, title-floored dining room - beloved by both Hill staffers and Louisiana's hankering for a tase of home - celebrates New Orleans and Chesapeake seafood. That means po' boys on Leidenheimer French bread flown in from Crescent City at lunch - the brisket with debris (all the charred, crusty bits from the pan) is pretty fabulous - and Chesapeake bouillabaisee laden with a crabcake at dinner. Well-considered contrails (try the citrusy, sparkling Hum Royale), superlative frying, and nicely done raw-bar plates make this a place to nibble and drink as well as dine.

Don't miss: Charbroiled oysters; pork croquettes; gumbo; red beans and rice; crab imperial; grilled squid; crabcakes; oyster pan roast; chicken or shrimp; etouffee; hot dogs; lemon chess pie.

I have to wonder where hair brained racist ideas come from.

April 4, 2016
By Lawrence Hurley

The Supreme Court (click here) on Monday endorsed the way Texas draws its legislative districts based on total population and not just eligible voters - the same method used by all 50 states - rejecting a conservative challenge in a case focusing on the legal principle of "one person, one vote."
The eight-justice court unanimously rebuffed the challenge spearheaded by a conservative legal activist that could have shifted influence in state legislative races away from urban areas that tend to be racially diverse and favor Democrats to rural ones predominantly with white voters who often back Republicans.
Two of the court's conservatives, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, concurred only in the judgment and did sign on to the opinion authored by liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The court is one justice short following the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, but the unanimous vote suggested his presence would not have substantially affected the outcome....

From "Fortune Magazine." It would seem Wall Street likes a good chuckle, too. There are reasons for legislators to be embarrassed. It would seem the "Virginia Governor Corruption" actually is systemic.

April 4, 2016
By Chris Lee
...Among a reported 2,800 campaign (click here) fundraising events during that period, some officials went outside standard protocol to line their reelection coffers.Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for one,used her 30th wedding anniversary to stage an event to raise thousands of dollars in campaign finances. (Tickets were $1000 a couple.) Stranger still, 10 Republicans, five Democrats and three political action committees used a Taylor Swift concert as a staging ground for fundraising. They sold tickets at $750 to $2,500 a pop. Among them was Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia. “I don’t know about you. But this man is not feeling 22,” Oliver said, riffing off Swift’s famous song. “He’s feeling and looking very much 65.”...

I strongly suggest the elected government officials needs to return monies very quickly when it is gotten by outrageously personal agendas. Every one of them needs to be assessed for breaking the laws of the USA. No one is looking the other way anymore. Realizing the corruption discovered in our government it makes Trump and Sanders look like saints.

July 10, 2015
By Matt Zapotosky
A three-judge federal appeals (click here) court panel on Friday unanimously affirmed the public corruption convictions against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, thoroughly rejecting each argument from the onetime Republican rising star and declaring that it had “no cause to undo what has been done.”
The 89-page opinion from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit brings to a close an important chapter in the story that emerged more than two years ago when The Washington Post first reported on the governor’s strange relationship with a Richmond businessman. It also means that the first Virginia governor to be convicted of a crime will probably have to go to prison in the coming months....

Get rid of them!

Are there any young Occupy Wall Street  adults out there that actually want to serve in government? Get busy. Today. BUILD constituency and a voting base from fund raising by donations. Donations by the common American as the basis of campaign funding is highly moral and desirable in government.

Regardless the crass appearance of physical barriers, they do work.

April 4, 2016

By Gabriela Raczynska and Sara Ledwith

...The European Union (click here) was founded in the ashes of World War Two, in part on a principle of freedom of movement among member states. But since the fall of the Berlin Wall, European countries have built or started 1,200 km (750 miles) of anti-immigrant fencing at a cost of at least 500 million euros ($570 million), a Reuters analysis of public data shows. That distance is almost 40 percent of the length of America's border with Mexico.

Many of these walls separate EU nations from states outside the bloc, but some are between EU states, including members of Europe's passport-free zone. Most of the building was started in 2015.

"Wherever there have been large numbers of migrants or refugees trying to enter the EU, this trend has been followed up by a fence," said Irem Arf, a researcher on European Migration at rights group Amnesty International.

For governments, fences seem like a simple solution. Building them is perfectly legal and countries have the right to control who enters their territory. Each new fence in Europe has sharply curbed the numbers of irregular immigrants on the route they blocked.

For at least one company, fences work. The firm which operates a tunnel between France and Britain says that since a major security upgrade around its French terminal last October, migrants have ceased to cause trouble....

People trying to get into Europe state they are inhibited from pursuing a speedy asylum right in the EU Constitution. The right to a speedy asylum procedure is for the people who already have come to the EU, not those massing to come to the EU.

Europe should not be dictated to when receiving refugees. Each country has a right to sovereignty within the EU and need to flex their muscles when accepting refugees. Each country should assess their ability to provide for refugees. Immigrants should be going through a process to determine their intentions when coming to Europe. 

Any refugee acceptance should cost a country their identity. It is more than sad to realize some communities in the EU are actually breaking down their cultural identity that has served tourist dollars. 

The EU should not identify as sacrificial lambs to refugees or immigrants. People should celebrate their best selves, but, also realizing their new country acknowledging its proud heritage and economy.

The best relief to any country accepting migrants and refugees from Syria is a joint power sharing governance and a right to return of the refugees and immigrants. When there is an end to killing and a return of food and water people can begin to rebuild their countries. Having a homeland that is secure and provides for an economy is the best way to end these massive numbers of people risking everything to reach Europe.

In the discovery of the Panama, Papers President Assad was noted to be an account holder. He should provide those monies back to any loans by Syria for the country to engage rebuilding while practicing peace. I am sure President Assad protected monies for such a purpose in offshore bank.

...The EU refuses to fund fences, saying they don't work. As European Commissioner, Avramopoulos has tried instead to persuade fellow member states to show solidarity by offering homes to 160,000 refugees and migrants, mainly from Greece and Italy. As of March 15, just 937 asylum applicants had been relocated....

The migrating danger into Europe might be contained and they have seen the worst of any more attacks.

Follow the money.

This is exceptionally disappointing news out of Brazil. It is an emerging country, but, corruption is not good news. Fleeing from authorities is not a good sign. A country like Brazil needs leadership devoted to the country's growth, stability and economic principles that benefit the people to encourage even more growth of legitimate businesses.

At the street level, this corruption exists as a real factor in lives of the Brazilian people. Citizens should be empowered in every country to elect a government that is free of corruption, than just Brazil. 

April 3, 2016
By Simon Romero

...Mr. Amaral, 61, (click here) was until his arrest in Brasília that morning in late November the governing party’s most powerful leader in the Senate. He quickly sought a plea agreement, but prosecutors let him fester in prison for weeks, making a deal only after the disgraced senator provided one stunning disclosure after another that betrayed his former comrades and brought the government of President Dilma Rousseff ever closer to collapse....

...The upheaval began two years ago when prosecutors discovered a scheme inside the national oil company, Petrobras: Contractors had paid nearly $3 billion in bribes to executives who in turn channeled money into the campaigns of parties in Brazil’s governing coalition. Nearly 40 politicians, business moguls and black-market money dealers have been jailed since, and the list is expected to grow, with prosecutors investigating suspects including the leaders of both chambers of Congress.

Scholars say the corruption scandal ranks among the most far-reaching in the developing world, likening it to an earthquake hitting the nation’s privileged elite. It has unspooled alongside crushing economic challenges, as falling commodities prices have sent unemployment soaring to 9.5 percent from 6.8 percent a year ago. In 2015 alone, Brazil lost 1.5 million jobs, a stunning turnabout from the nation’s 7.6 percent economic growth in 2010.

The double whammy of political and economic meltdown has devastated the global ambitions of Latin America’s largest nation at the worst possible time: Brazil is simultaneously grappling with an epidemic of birth defects linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus and preparing to host the Olympic Games this summer.

The reason for Sarah Palin's defamation by partisan media is highly political.

8 July 2014
By Tony Lee

Ted Cruz will join Glenn Beck (click here) this weekend at the U.S.-Mexico border on what Beck describes as a humanitarian mission. The Tea Party Senator will join the radio talk show host and his followers in his effort to bring soccer balls and teddy bears to illegal immigrant children. Cruz, who told Breitbart News that the event is a statement against President Barack Obama’s non-enforcement of immigration laws, said he will be doling out medical supplies.

A Cruz spokesperson announced to The Blaze Thursday that Cruz would be “glad to join Glenn Beck” in McAllen, Texas to “provide some relief from the suffering this administration is causing.”

Cruz’s spokesperson, Catherine Frazier, reiterated to Breitbart News that “from day one, Sen. Cruz has been leading the charge to stop President Obama’s lawlessness, which is the direct cause of this humanitarian crisis.” She said Cruz argues that, at the same time, “these young children are very real victims of the President’s promise of amnesty–because of it, they have been subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse from international drug cartels smuggling them into the country....

It doesn't get more ludicrous than this. Children were put on trains to the USA border because of the drug cartels that recruited and killed them when they did serve the cartel. President Obama did not roll out a welcome mat of amnesty. Ted Cruz was at the border with Beck for political purposes, not humanitarian values.

Eleven million documents. That is indictable information.

The illegal monies need to be repatriated to their rightful countries. Am curious to how much of the money was deposited by now dead of the globally wealthy. There has to be deposits no one knew about except the corrupt.

Mossak Fonseca has global reach.

"The Panama Papers"

April 4, 2016
By Richard Bilton

A huge leak of confidential documents (click here) has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.

The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing.

The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including the Icelandic Prime Minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugson, who had an undeclared interest linked to his wife's wealth and is now facing calls for his resignation.

The files also reveal a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring involving close associates of President Putin.

Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.

It should be interesting.

"I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents," he said.

Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper the Guardian are among 107 media organisations in 78 countries which have been analysing the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source...

Forty years of documents will take far less time to analyze the information. I would not be surprised if there is an incredible shift in the global paradigm.

...The data also contains secret offshore companies linked to the families and associates of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Oops, there it is. The sanctions against Russia exposed the global corruption. Those monies need to be returned to the national treasuries of the country they were hid from even when a global economic collapse occurred.

Russian connection

It also reveals a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of President Putin.

The operation was run by Bank Rossiya, which is subject to US and EU sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The documents reveal for the first time how the bank operates....

All these monies are corrupt. These monies are evidence to international criminal violations in law. There are no monies exempt from criminal activity. I can't really, nor do I want to understand how a national leader can rob their countries of direly needed funds.

The IMF needs to be among the first international institutions that have the right to issue legal standing to the claim of these monies.

It is appalling to realize national leaders prioritized with an underlying priority. 

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

Okeydoke

April 4, 2016
USA Today staff

....Wambach, 35, (click here) was released on her own recognizance and charged with misdemeanor DUII (driving under the influence of intoxicants).

According to a release from the Portland police department, Wambach was driving a 2014 Range Rover and was stopped at 11:05 p.m. Saturday after failing to stop for a red light. A sergeant observed signs that she was under the influence of alcohol. Wambach failed field sobriety tests and was arrested. She later failed a breath test at the Central Precinct in downtown Portland. She was polite and cooperative throughout the investigation, police said....

This is exactly the reason "Mothers Against Drunk Driving" was organized in the first place. Abby should be thanking the sergeant in the first place. She was lucky to be alive today AND not causing the death or injury of anyone else. This isn't just a traffic ticket.

If Abby was this intoxicated after visiting with a friend for dinner, she needs to meet with a counselor and clean up her priorities. If she was compromised at 11:00 pm at night, she should have asked to be provided a safe ride home or called a real friend herself. 

"Good Night, Moon"

Waning Crescent

25.7 day old moon

15.7 percent lit

April 3, 2016
By Dave DeLand

So, have you ever seen the dark side of the moon (click here)?
This isn't it.
Actually, this collection of craters and divots and holes and rubble constitutes the dark side of Riverside Drive Southeast, the street that runs right past the front of my house on its way to Munsinger Gardens.
It's not the lunar landscape. But a reasonable facsimile can be found on Riverside ... and on 33rd Avenue ... and at numerous other locations along St. Cloud's 347 miles of city roads, some of which are a potholed, cratered mess in desperate need of repair.
'Tis the season.
"That's on our list, that road is," said St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, flashing a wry smile at the mention of Riverside Drive.
"This is pothole season," added St. Cloud City Administrator Mike Williams. "You'll get some."
Actually, this season isn't as bad as many, due to a mild winter.
But even a mild pothole season can be jarring to motorists, their vehicles and their dental work....

Since the USA hasn't returned to the moonlately, I have included a past ride on Mars. Yep, there is definite similarities.

..It appears that Huygens (click here) may have landed in a dry riverbed. However, the liquid that flowed here was not water but methane. Spectra measurements (colour) are consistent with a composition of dirty water ice rather than silicate rocks. However, these are rock-like solid at Titan's temperatures....

...Composite of Titan's surface seen during descent. It shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens. The left-hand side, behind Huygens, shows a boundary between light and dark areas. The white streaks seen near this boundary could be ground 'fog' of methane or ethane vapour, as they were not immediately visible from higher altitudes....