Eighteen Trillion Seven Hundred Nineteen Billion Six Hundred Thirteen Million Two Hundred Seventy-Four Eight Hundred Ninety-Three Dollars and Fifty-One Cents

$18,719,613,274,893.51. The debt to the penny.

In less than seven years in office, Obama has presided over an increase in the national debt of over eight trillion dollars ($8,000,000,000,000). Yes, under the leadership of Obama, our national debt has nearly doubled. The makers in this country (all employed men and women minus city, state, and local government employees) have seen their portion of the debt rise from about $90,000 in 2009 to $151,000 in 2015, a 67% increase.

And as some people would have you believe, Obama has shown too much fiscal restraint, spending has been too low, and  "#austerity a loser".

Austerity

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

I a brief conversation I had with some bloke on Twitter, he first insisted that Obama was bringing down the deficit and that the economy always runs better in democrats' hands. Then when confronted by the fact that Obama has no fiscal restraint, he asserted that Obama has shown too much restraint (or so "the experts" tell him), and "#austerity a loser[sic]".

He needs to crack open a dictionary once in a while.

Modern Educayshun

An epic takedown.

Global Warming: Hot hot hot!

I saw this video years ago and wanted to make sure it would never disappear. So without further ado, Global Warming causes...

 

Or if you'd rather see a plain list...

A (Not Quite) Complete List Of Things Supposedly Caused By Global Warming

Acne , Longer plane flights , agricultural land increase , Afghan poppies destroyed , Africa devastated  Africa in conflict , African aid threatened , African summer frost , aggressive weeds , More Toxic Poison Ivy , air pressure changes , airport malaria , Agulhas current , Alaska reshaped ,  moves , allergy season longer , alligators in the Thames , Alps melting , Amazon a desert , American dream end , amphibians breeding earlier (or not) , anaphylactic reactions to bee stings , ancient forests dramatically changed , animals head for the hills , animals shrink , Antarctic grass flourishes , Antarctic ice grows , Antarctic ice shrinks , Antarctic sea life at risk , anxiety treatment , algal blooms , archaeological sites threatened , Arab Spring , Arctic bogs melt , Arctic in bloom , Arctic ice free , Arctic ice melt faster , Arctic lakes disappear , Arctic tundra to burn , Arctic warming (not) Atlantic less salty , Atlantic more salty , atmospheric circulation modified , attack of the killer jellyfish , avalanches reduced , avalanches increased , Baghdad snow , Bahrain under water , bananas grow , barbarisation , beer shortage , beetle infestation , bet for $10,000 , better beer , big melt faster , billion dollar research projects , billion homeless , billions face risk , billions of deaths , bird distributions change , bird loss accelerating , birds shrinking , bird strikes , bird visitors drop , birds confused , birds decline (Wales) , birds driven north , birds return early , bittern boom ends , blackbirds stop singing , blackbirds threatened , Black Hawk down , blood contaminated , blue mussels return , bluetongue , brain eating amoebae , brains shrink , bridge collapse (Minneapolis) , Britain one big city , Smaller loaves of Bread , Britain Siberian , brothels struggle , brown Ireland , bubonic plague , budget increases , Buddhist temple threatened , building collapse , building season extension , bushfires , business opportunities , business risks ,  butterflies move north, camel deaths , cancer deaths in England , cannibalism , cannibalism again , caterpillar biomass shift ,  cave paintings threatened , childhood insomnia Cholera , circumcision in decline , cirrus disappearance , civil unrest ,  cloud increase , coast beauty spots lost , cockroach migration , coffee threatened , cold climate creatures survive , cold spells (Australia) , cold wave (India) , computer models , conferences , conflict , conflict with Russia , consumers foot the bill , coral bleaching ,  coral fish suffer , coral reefs dying , coral reefs grow , coral reefs shrink , coral reefs twilight , Cabbage Shortage  , cost of trillions , cougar attacks , crabgrass menace ,  cradle of civilisation threatened , creatures move uphill , crime increase , crocodile sex , crops devastated , crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems , curriculum change , cyclones (Australia) , danger to kid's health , Darfur , Dartford Warbler plague , death rate increase (US) , deaths to reach 6 million , Dengue hemorrhagic fever , depression , desert advance , desert retreat , destruction of the environment , disappearance of coastal cities , disasters , diseases move from animals to humans , diseases move north , dog disease , Dolomites collapse , dozen deadly diseases , Drop in birth rates , drought , ducks and geese decline , dust bowl in the corn belt , early marriages , early spring ,  earlier pollen season , Earth biodiversity crisis , Earth dying , Earth even hotter , Earth light dimming , Earth lopsided , Earth melting , Earth morbid fever , Earth on fast track , Earth past point of no return , Earth slowing down , Earth spins faster\, Earth to explode , Earth's poles shift ,  earth upside down , earthquakes , Specifically the 2015 Nepal earthquake , earthquakes redux , earthquakes redux 2 , Egypt revolt , El Niño intensification ,  end of the world as we know it , erosion , emerging infections , encephalitis , English villages lost , equality threatened , Europe simultaneously baking and freezing , eutrophication , evolution accelerating , expansion of university climate groups, 

extinctions (human , civilisation  logic , Colony Collapse Disorder (Bees dying)  , Inuit , smallest butterfly , cod ladybirds , pikas , polar bears,   possums , walrus,   toads , plants , salmon , trout , wild flowers , woodlice , a million species , half of all animal and plant species, mountain species , not polar bears , barrier reef , leaches , salamanders , tropical insects)

... 

 There's a lot more. :)

Adam Baldwin is a genius

What do you call it when social justice warriors group together? Adam Baldwin has an idea...

Quote of the Day, Ace of Spades edition

 Via the Ace of Spades.

A culture without any rough parts, without any Proud Nails that won't be pounded down, without any Strangeness that people just insist upon because it's Their Culture, That's Why, is not a culture at all. 

It's a fucking shopping mall. It's a fucking Airport Neutral Palate Color Scheme. It's the gray paste they feed to people in comas. 

It's nothing. Nothing.

I don't think it will ever be said any better than that. They don't want culture. They want a can of perfectly packed, perfectly identical taxpaying cogs. Fit in, spin when you're supposed to, don't squeak, don't think. And they are getting it.

Thus does the Republic fade out.

NPR's got a good, factual article on the drop in violence since 1993

Check it out here.

Preserved as an image for posterity. Web archived here.

We don't want to ban guns, we just want to prohibit them within 5 miles of a school...

How is within 5 miles of a school not a ban? Here's Houston, with a mark on the map for each elementary school, middle school, high school, college and university. Note the scale at the bottom right. That's 5 miles.

Here's approximately what that map looks like when you expand each dot to a 5 mile radius circle. (I missed a few, but you get the idea.) Note the scale is still there.

No gun ban indeed.

So if we're not going to pay down the debt...

I've discussed the national debt on multiple occasions. It's very clear that we as a people are far too childish and needy to do what must be done to take responsibility and pay off the debt, and even if we weren't a bunch of overgrown babies, our attention spans are too short to work towards a 100 year goal. There's more - there is the consideration of the growing population, and the effect on the world that would occur if we started to pay down the debt. There's the fact that if interest rates rise, even a little, our government wouldn't be able to handle the increased cost.

So yes, I think it's safe to assume that we are not going to pay down the national debt. So what does that mean?

It must mean that the FED will continue to create money and suppress interest rates. In other words, QE Forever.

The US government cannot let interest rates rise, and must continue to try to extend the rollover of the debt as far as possible. This is something the whole world is trying to do. Recently Switzerland issued 10 year debt with negative yields. Mexico indicated they would issue 100 year debt! The US will keep pushing longer yield times and lower interest rates, to try to buy more time and keep the cost of the debt down. Meanwhile this will increase the magnitude of the debt, but stabilize the interest we are paying each year.

This near decade long easy money policy has already created asset bubbles and massive malinvestment. The NASDAQ has more than tripled since the last market correction while the housing sector, which crashed so spectacularly with the "Great Recession" and which is generally considered to be a strong indicator of the health of the economy, has taken 6 years to recover to a mere 45% of its former heights. The last time the housing sector crashed this hard was during the Savings and Loan Crisis, which, incidentally was followed up by the.. drum roll... Dot Com Bubble. Yes, the markets are soaring on waves and waves of easy money, created by the FED and pumped in by their asset purchases. Everyone is wearing rose colored classes and loving the euphoria - they're addicted to it.

Does anyone think the FED can uncreate the monster it has created? Unwind the asset purchases and tighten the money supply without creating an international firestorm? I didn't think so.

So again, what does it mean?

I think it means, and maybe someone else will dissuade me, that the FED will be forced to hyperinflate and destroy our currency and our debt along with it. It's happened before, and will happen again. The only question is how much damage will it cause when it does happen. Of the $18+ trillion in US debt, over $5 trillion is intragovernmental - social security, medicare, pensions, etc. That will all be gone. Another $6.5 trillion belongs to Americans, individuals, 401ks, IRAs, businesses, banks, etc.; only about a third of our debt is foreign. So when it gets wiped out, so does the capital/savings of an enormous number of Americans.

I don't know if we will really end up carrying heaps of worthless cash in a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of moldy bread, but again, it's happened before. I hope we can avoid it somehow.

Gun Free Zone in Kenya: Over 500 hostages taken at Garissa University

Gun free zones don't work - especially in turbulent areas. We should take note of this and make sure that we tell our legislators that we want our students to be able to protect themselves.

NAIROBI — Gunmen stormed a university in northern Kenya on Thursday, taking nearly 600 students and staff members hostage. At least 21 people were killed and 65 others seriously wounded, officials said. 

Heavy gunfire was reported at the Garissa University campus as the Kenyan military tried to end the siege. The Somali-based al-Shabab terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Kenya Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said 533 students are being held hostage and 282 have been rescued. The total number of students at the school is 815. Sixty staff members, including the principal, are also being held.

These are the same guys that killed 67 at another gun free zone (a mall) a couple of years ago.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Garissa and across Kenya in the past few years, including the 2013 attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead, and others on mosques in Mombasa, a coastal city in the east. 

Nairobi-based security analyst Abdiwahab Sheikh said the incident highlights how the government has failed to shore up security in the country. 

"The government has not learned anything from the Westgate attack," he said. "How do you allow terrorists to take students hostage for more 10 hours? I think our security forces need to learn from the past." 

Recall that carrying at all is prohibited in Kenya, so the entire country is a gun free zone. It's no wonder that terrorists can act with impunity there.

 

Talking the long view on the national debt

The average age that a woman first gives childbirth is about 25 years. That means that if we pay down only $180B (1%) a year the national debt will last to our grandchildren's grandchildren.

Yet, as crazy as this sounds, it would it take a miracle to convince anyone - ANYONE - in Congress to make it happen. After all, our current obligations already carry $435B a year in interest. That means we'd have to dedicate about $615 billion dollars towards the debt, and not accumulate any more.

Federal revenues in 2014 were about $3 trillion. That would leave about $2.4 trillion for all of the rest of the spending, but we spent $3.5 trillion! So not only do we have to dedicate more money toward the debt, we have to cut a LOT more out of our spending.

Exactly which politician is going to cut $680 billion dollars, and out of which programs? Are we going to end medicare or social security? Because that is what it would take. Is the Republican party going to do that? Are the Democrats?

No. We have no one, anywhere with the willingness to do what it takes. Even if we did, even if they were in elected office, they wouldn't be able to overcome the demagoguery that exists. If it were possible to overcome this, if it were possible to convince 100 years of legislators and citizens that they had to pay off the debt for their great-great-great-great-great (that's right, 5 greats) grandchildren, we still have to contend with the growing population. Some estimates put us at close to 600 million by 2100, fifteen years before the debt would be paid off.

Every one of those additional 285 million people would need to be willing to go without any government handouts. And if the trend in takers continues as it is, we'll be suffering 300 million loafers in this country. We'll have to somehow deal with them too. But we won't. We've become a nation of children, petulant, demanding children, unwilling to detach from the teat of mommy.

The Liberal Empire Strikes Back: Peruta to be reheard en banc

They're intent on going down swinging.

THOMAS, Chief Judge: 

Upon the vote of a majority of nonrecused active judges, it is ordered that

this case be reheard en banc pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure

35(a) and Circuit Rule 35-3. The three-judge panel opinion and order denying

motions to intervene shall not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit.

Almost 5 months ago at NLOGAM, Sebastian blogged about the call for en banc from one of the judges. It looks like a majority of them voted to rehear the case.

Given the strong Second Amendment rationale in the Peruta decision by Judge O'Scannlain, I'm guessing some of the more liberal judges on the 9th Circuit don't want to be bound by it. After all, the 9th Circuit has a reputation as the most liberal circuit. Only 18 out of the 38 current active judges - those not having senior status - were appointed by Republican presidents. 

They don't want to be bound by a precedent that more strongly protects your rights. Gotta love these judges.

The very first Quote of the Day!

LaughingTarget has the honors! :) Thank you sir, for this excellent explanation of the trap the FED has created.

The elephant in the room is public debt. The Federal government leans heavily on short term debt instruments and rolls them over year to year. 

http://treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/feddebt/feddebt_ann2014.pdf... 

On page 19, it shows the maturity schedule by year. Most of it is due by 2019 with a huge portion of it due this year. The average interest rate in 1989 was close to 9% and has been driven down to 3% this year. With the tremendous debt load on the books, if rates rise, it will create a major fiscal problem for the Federal Government. Current debt servicing is running $443 billion, or 10% of the total annual spending. If rates rose up to the 1980s average, debt servicing would be 25% of all spending just at the Federal level. 

It would additionally cripple municipalities that rely on short term rollover debt as well. The Federal Reserve has incentivised huge debt loading over the past decade and any attempts to return rates to relative normal will destroy numerous governments and undermine a large portion of the Federal level's programs. 

Despite what everyone wants us to believe, the Federal Reserve is not independent. With these huge debt levels hanging over our heads, the chances the Fed will raise rates are slim. They'll continue to use every excuse in the book to avoid admitting that they fueled government debt and don't want to be the cause of the reduction or elimination of redistribution programs.

Yes, that sums it up quite nicely. They have created so much debt, that increasing the rates on borrowing would destroy the system. It will happen much faster than anyone most people would believe, given the annual turnover is close to 10 trillion. Even though they've been pushing for longer turnover since the crisis began, an increased interest rate fueled sovereign debt crisis could not be held off for more than one presidency.

Update:
Fixed GAO audit link, and adding the following:

For fiscal year 2014, interest expense incurred totaled $433 billion; [~2.4%] this consisted of interest expense on debt held by the public of $260 billion, and $137 billion in interest incurred for intragovernmental debt holdings. [Social Security and Medicare]

Investors may be piling on US treasuries right now, but that will only last while the US looks like the best ship in a sinking fleet. If our average interest rate rises to 4% we would need to divert an additional $300 billion towards the interest payments. In the meanwhile, we continue to overspend, so the number will continue to rise. Without balancing our budget, there is no way out of the hole - remember the last time we were close to balancing our budget the Federal funds rate was over 6%, and so was the average interest payment.  Today a 6% interest payment would cost $1 Trillion! That means we have less than $1.5 trillion of revenue remaining for spending on programs such as the military, medicare, and social security.

Something's got to give, and something WILL give. Reality is, and always has been, unforgiving. We are in for a lot of pain in the very near future. It won't be decades, probably not even one decade.

Eighteen Trillion One Hundred Fifty Two Billion Four Hundred Eight Million Six Hundred Thirty-Five Thousand Fifty-Five Dollars and Fifty-One Cents

$18,152,408,635,055.51. The debt to the penny.

In just 81 days, the national debt has grown by $122,295,278,979.46. Your personal liability for this has increased by $994 and you now owe $147,579.

This is becoming a habit for me.

As of today, our national debt is $18,030,113,356,076.05. 

In just 70 days, the national debt has grown by $130,797,271,522.68. Big Gov has added $1,063 to the debt of every producer in America. You now owe $146,585! Aren't you lucky.

People out there are paying for...

"Adult Preschool." You read that right. There are people out there, right now, paying up to a grand to pretend to be children in the company of other adult pretenders. They play with playdoh, do finger painting, and sit around on alphabet mats. I kid you not.

Day by day I realize I am not wrong. The Rubicon has been crossed, the event horizon reached. There is no turning back for this society.

Getting in touch with your inner child has never been so expensive.

The Brooklyn-based Preschool Mastermind, as it's called, is a preschool-type experience for adults. No, really. And according to its founder, there's show-and-tell, arts-and-crafts such as finger paint, games (think musical chairs) and even naps.

Barcroft Media /Landov

PHOTO: Michelle sees the class as a form of therapy, allowing adults to deal with their real world problems using the mind of their inner child.

"I realized all the implications of what we learn in preschool," said founder Michelle Joni, who said she went to school for childhood education and always wanted to be a preschool teacher. "People come here and get in touch with their inner child. It's magical."

Barcroft Media /Landov

PHOTO: The full class starts at $333 and goes up to $999 with the adults paying as much as they can afford.

The class runs through March and meets weekly. Joni was getting ready for tonight's class when we spoke. She facilitates the class with two assistants. There are six students in the class, each hoping to get something different out of the experience.

Still believe in public education?

A physics teacher has re-tasked his lesson plan to cover racism and "privilege, and social justice," exactly what one would not expect in a physics class. If public education wasn't doomed before, it certainly is now.

A high-school physics teacher has developed his own six-day curriculum that he uses to teach about institutional racism, privilege, and social justice as part of his seniors’ physics classes. The teacher, Moses Rifkin of University Prep in Seattle, has also been promoting the lesson plan to other high-school science instructors.

I never thought I would see the day when you couldn't trust a physics teacher to, you know, teach physics. I guess I grew up in a different world.

Climate change as religion and dharma

The head of the IPCC is accused of sexual harassment.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), resigned today following accusations of sexual harassment by a former employee at the energy think tank he heads in New Delhi.

... 

Pachauri, 74, did not travel to Nairobi this week for the IPCC meeting due to a police investigation into a complaint filed Feb. 13 by a 29-year-old employee. According to to the complaint, she accused Pachauri of sending text messages and emails since September 2013 that were inappropriate (ClimateWire, Feb. 19).

Oops. Emails full of naughty words being exposed to the public? Say it ain't so.. Well, can't really call this "climategate" 2 or whatever. The only anthropomorphic heat being generated is the legal mess Pachauri is finding himself in. Let's face it, if she's got sexy emails from him he's done.

The best part for me though, is when he announces that his work is not just his job, it's his religion.

"For me the protection of Planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission," he wrote. "It is my religion and my dharma [duty]." sic

 That's the most blatant admission from any "climate change" politician I've ever heard.

What would you prefer?

This?

MEDFORD, NY (CBSNewYork/AP) – A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

... 

Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives, Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived. 

Or this?

PINCH, W.Va. – A pharmacist in Pinch who was forced to make an incredibly difficult decision when an armed robbery turned deadly is speaking out and sharing how his faith is helping him through the ordeal. 

...

Eight people were inside the pharmacy in Pinch when the suspect came through the door about 9:45 a.m. 

Kanawha deputies said the man, identified by Kanawha deputies as Terry Gillenwater, 25, of Quick, was wearing a mask over his face. He stood in line for a few moments before producing a handgun and pointing it directly at the counter workers. 

Radcliff said he was standing just a few feet away. He drew his own weapon, firing three times, hitting the suspect twice and one shot actually hit the man's gun as he was aiming to fire back.

When violence descended on him, Mr. Radcliff was able to save eight lives, including his own. Facing the same situation, four disarmed innocents in New York had no chance and were slaughtered. I know what choice the families of the victims in New York would make. It's the same choice I would make, and any sane person would make.

Did you think it couldn't get worse?

I certainly felt that way. I thought we'd allowed our gender to be run into the ground, and that modern masculinity was dead, replaced by some kind of pseudo-pan-sexualism. I wrote about it two years ago.

I saw a young man at the market today. He was decked out in black flannel, black leather, black jeans, black shoes, he had black hair and a black beard, and he wore earrings. His pants were skinny girl jeans - tight, black girl jeans. He had his feet slipped into black girls slippers with little brass studs (spikes) all over them, and and his black flannel shirt was untucked and covered by a tight leather biker jacket, zipped all the way up. 

If this is the state of man, I fear for the species.



I was wrong. You were, too, if you think that men wearing women's pantyhose (male leggings) was the end of our gender.

Behold, the male dress - complete with knee high frilly boots:

The best Super Bowl commercial in history

What would you change about the tax code?

The first five things I would eliminate from the tax code are:

1. The ACA/Obamacare penalty.
2. The taxes on tips.
3. The taxes on gifts, no matter the size.
4. The estate tax.
5. The refundable tax credits - if you don't pay it in, you do not get it back.
• I would be OK with these being converted to non-refundable.

Remember that all individuals are already taxed on their income. Taxing a gift (to a person or to an organization) is double taxing that income. Fuck that. And the same for the estate tax. I get taxed all of my life, and at the end of my life they want to confiscate more? Fuck that and fuck them.

West Hollywood, California prohibits gender specific restrooms

I suggest we keep an eye on the sexual crimes statistics in West Hollywood. We'll probably see them going up after this.

West Hollywood is the first city in California to adopt a policy of “gender neutral” public restrooms, giving businesses 60 days to change the little male and female stick figure signs on bathroom doors.  

As the Los Angeles Times reports, businesses must comply with a new city law prohibiting gender identifications.  

“City leaders said that the old school “men” and “women” restrooms were outdated and puts transgender people in the difficult position of having to “out” themselves simply by picking a door.”

 Yes, implying that women and men may appreciate a little bit of privacy from their opposites while doing their business is "outdated," according to the city council. Next, they should eliminate the enclosures around the toilets, the doors, and even the walls. I think that would be best - just place the toilets right out there on the sidewalks.

The Justice department will not file charges against Darren Wilson

After months of investigation and the FBI and Justice department are nearly ready to announce that Darren Wilson will not be charged with a crime in the death of Mike Brown. Of course we all knew that would be the case, since an independent, unbiased grand jury (made up of citizens, not police officers) determined there would be no charges to file.

Undoubtedly this federal investigation cost the tax payers a lot of money. How many people were on this, and for more than half a year at that? Did it cost us $1 million? Can we bill Obama and Holder for this gross misuse of federal funds?

Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. 

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation. 

A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.

Of course I know they won't be held accountable. In fact, the unthinking masses will probably praise them, exclaiming the virtues of their effort to uphold a high standard of accountability, at the same time condemning Darren Wilson for the "murder" of "innocent" Mike Brown.

Here on my blog I have been vocal about the growth of the police state and my distaste for violence initiated on the behalf of the state. Not so for what happened in Ferguson. We all know Mike Brown was a violent criminal. He brought his demise on himself through his lifestyle, his attitude, and his actions. No one wants their children to be killed, but I'd wager no one wants admit it when their children turn out to be criminals either.

Like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown's death was not a tragedy. His life was a tragedy.

Here's your diploma!

This one is for the Captain.

 

Not surprisingly...

all of that bombing to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria has accomplished absolutely nothing.



Those that make up ISIS are bad people, no doubt. Bombing them doesn't seem to reduce their influence though. Maybe we shouldn't have armed them against Assad, eh?

Oh well. Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Of course, those who do are doomed to watch other people repeat it.