The Shelter

Obama and Congress had their chance at fear-mongering, now it’s my turn.   After video 3, read my thoughts and observations.

Time to enter…………..

The Twilight Zone!

Part 1 – 9:23

Part 2 – 9:05

Part 3 – 5:43

My thoughts…..………….

Anything could happen at any time, disaster doesn’t make an appointment, so it is your responsibility to make sure your family is safe and prepared for such disasters.

It’s never too late to prepare, store water, get extra food, beans, rice, pasta, tuna, spam, whatever you like, buy what you eat and eat what you buy, water and food are number one in your quest to survive.   There are some things I noticed in the film that should be brought to your attention, in the first episode after they get in the shelter you can see the water heater in the basement outside the door, empty your water tank for extra water.  Also, if they were real “preppers” they would have had that water cooler bottle filled to the top but it was only about a 3rd filled.  Don’t wait until the last minute to store water, you can store it on a daily basis in empty, washed out soda bottles or empty water bottles if you happen to drink bottled water like I do, DO NOT use milk jugs.

Shelter, whether it be a tent, rv or a house, depending on what the disaster is.  Alternative lighting, candles, flashlights but don’t forget to buy batteries, solar lights, lanterns.

Alternative heating, wood stove, propane stove like the Big Buddy stove that can be used inside or one of those propane fireplaces, just be sure to have propane stocked.

Cooking can be done on your grill, again don’t forget your backup propane or a charcoal grill just make sure you have charcoal backup or any other way you can think of such as a solar cooker.

Protection of some kind, I would suggest a gun or two, a shotgun or rifle probably should be first so you can hunt as well as use it for protection, make sure you have plenty of ammo.

Also in the 1st episode they were concerned about lightbulbs but the wife hadn’t bought any, they could have gotten many bulbs out of lamps and lights in the house.

I will tell you to be cautious in who you tell you have preps, this movie explains why.

There are many other things but I’ll leave them for another post or you can post a question in the comment section.

Holes, via my cuz. Oliver (via Boudica BPI Weblog)

Very interesting post on massive holes around the world. Thanks Bob, enjoyed it.

These  holes are not only amazing, but some  are really terrifying!  The sheer  scale of these holes reminds you of just how tiny we are. Kimberley   Big Hole –   South  Africa Apparently  the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the  world, this  1097 meter deep mine yielded over 3 tons of  diamonds before  being closed. Glory  Hole –   Monticello Dam,     California A  glory hole is used when a dam is at full  capacity and  water needs to  be dr … Read More

via Boudica BPI Weblog

Last-minute deal gives transparency a beating

By Angie Drobnic Holan

Published on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 at 3:54 p.m.

Related campaign promises:

Allow five days of public comment before signing bills | Details
Publish the text of bills online at least three days before a House vote | Details

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Congress and the White House finalized a debt ceiling agreement on Aug. 2.

If raising the nation’s debt ceiling did avert an economic catastrophe, as some have claimed, then maybe it’s ungrateful to point out that, in doing so, House Republicans broke their leadership’s campaign promise to post the text of bills online for three days before voting.

But we’re going to point it out anyway, to keep our GOP Pledge-O-Meter updated.

Republicans who ran in 2010 said they would “ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives.” There was no mention in the campaign promise of special rules or emergency situations.

And even if there had been, we doubt that raising the debt ceiling could qualify as requiring particularly hasty action. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wrote Speaker of the House John Boehner on May 2, 2011, that Congress needed to act to increase the deadline by Aug. 2.

So members of Congress have known about the deadline for months. We explored more details of the vote in an update and rated it Promise Broken.

And, lest Democrats think that makes them better than Republicans, we should also point out that President Obama has his own issues when it comes to transparency. Previously, we examined his promise to allow five days of public comment before signing bills into law and his promise to conduct negotiations for a health care law on C-SPAN. We rated both Promise Broken. (See all of Obama’s promises about transparency.)

When it comes to conducting the public’s business in public, both sides have found it a challenge.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/aug/03/last-minute-deal-gives-transparency-beating/

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

Barack Obama in State of the Union says corporate profits are up over the past two years

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“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known … corporate profits are up.”

Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 in the State of the Union address

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 25, 2011, President Barack Obama suggested that the economy is in recovery mode.

“We are poised for progress,” the president told a joint session of Congress. “Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”

We decided to see if corporate profits are indeed up in the past two years.

Statistics on corporate profits are calculated by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. They are determined both on an annual and a quarterly basis.

According to BEA, corporate profits — officially known as “corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments” — were as follows:

2007: $1.511 trillion
2008: $1.263 trillion
2009: $1.258 trillion

Unfortunately, since we’re only 25 days into 2011, BEA has yet not calculated the figure for 2010, so we’re left to use annualized estimates based on the quarterly figures.

The most recent quarterly estimate, based on the third quarter of 2010, produced annualized corporate profits of $1.659 trillion. Even the lowest annualized estimate for corporate profits, based on the first quarter of 2010, pegged them at $1.567 trillion — still well above either of the full-year amounts for 2008 and 2009.

So, the only thing that could make Obama’s statement incorrect would be a woeful under performance in the fourth quarter of 2010, but that seems unlikely based on current expert estimates.

Prasad Patkar, who helps manage about $1.8 billion at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney, told Bloomberg Businessweek in mid-January that “the earnings recovery in the U.S. has been exceptional post-crisis. It seems the recovery in the U.S. economy is starting to broaden, which will support revenue and earnings growth. China’s economy is robust, but it’ll take at least six months of strong data to silence those calling a policy-induced hard landing.”

Indeed, if the third-quarter rate holds, corporate profits for 2010 would set a record. The current record was set in 2006 — the last full year before the onset of the recent recession. That year, corporate profits hit $1.608 trillion.

Of course, corporate profits are just one component of the economy — and just one part of Americans’ perceptions of how well the nation is doing economically. Unemployment is still stubbornly high, and indeed, some commentators have been critical of companies’ hesitancy to invest on new hires amid such high profits.

Still, Obama was correct in his description of the trend in corporate profits. One could say that he’s being presumptuous by assuming what the full 2010 figure will be before it’s officially announced, but we think that the current trendlines for corporate profits, combined with recent fourth-quarter reports, put the level so far above the 2009 level that it’s highly unlikely to drop once the full-year numbers have been released. So we rate Obama’s statement True.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jan/25/barack-obama/barack-obama-state-union-says-corporate-profits-ar/

SHOCK: STARBUCKS regular admits filming in bathrooms…

Man Placed Hidden Cams in 3 Bathrooms: Documents

Paul Deveau admitted to placing them and apologized.

By LeAnne Gendreau

|  Thursday, Aug 4, 2011  |  Updated 4:39 PM EDT

The man accused of filming men in the bathroom of Starbucks on Albany Avenue in West Hartford admitted to placing the camera there several times, as well as in other men’s bathrooms, and apologized for it, according to the recently released court documents.

One video file showed a man adjust the camera, which was pointed at the toilet in an open bathroom with no stall and police used that to identify a suspect.

Police arrested Paul Deveau, 51, of Hartford, on July 27, after Starbucks employees identified the man in the file as “Paul,” a frequent customer who works as a graphic designer at Hartford Hospital, according to court documents.

Deveau told police he was gay and would hide cameras in men’s rooms, not women’s rooms, according to court documents. He admitted to placing hidden cameras in the Starbucks men’s room “between 10 and 20 times” as well as in the men’s rooms at a Starbucks at 852 Cottage Grove Road in Bloomfield and a Route 66 gas station in Hebron.

When police went to Deveau’s home, he pointed out four laptops, several CDs, three iPhones, two desktop computers and an external hard drive that he said would or could have illegal videos or images on them, the paperwork states. He also told police that one computer once had images or videos that could be considered child pornography, but he deleted them a while ago, the report states.

Police began investigating after a Starbucks’ customer found the camera under the men’s room sink. The customer told police he found the camera when he went to wash his hands and could not get hot water.

He checked the pipes to see if the hot water was off, found the camera attached to the pipe, removed it, brought the camera home, downloaded some videos to his computer and copied several to CD, according to the court documents.

The customer then brought the camera back to Starbucks and gave it to the manager, who called police, and left before police arrived, court documents state.

Police seized computers and DVDs from the customer’s home after he said he downloaded the material, but the man has not been linked to Deveau, the documents state.

Deveau was charged with 12 counts of voyeurism.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Man-Told-Cops-He-Placed-Hidden-Cams-Several-Times-Documents-126787643.html

RACE TO CASH: Bank imposes fee on rapidly growing deposits…

BNY Mellon to Slap Fees on Some Big Deposits Amid Global Race to Cash

By LIZ RAPPAPORT

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is preparing to charge some large depositors to hold their cash, in the latest sign of the worries roiling global markets.

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Getty ImagesBank of New York Mellon is preparing to charge some large depositors to hold their cash.

The big U.S. custodial bank said this week in a note to clients that it will begin slapping a fee next week on customers that have vastly increased their deposit balances over the past month.

The bank cited the heavy dollar deposits it has received over recent weeks, as investors and corporations retreat from financial markets amid Europe’s debt crisis and the recent debate over U.S. government borrowing.

“In a way they’re pushing out this hot money that came in over the last couple of weeks, or at least trying to offset their expenses associated with taking it in,” said Brian Smedley, a rates strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “This has led to lower front-end rates across the board.”

Indeed, BNY Mellon’s decision sent money-market mutual funds and financial institutions scrambling to put their cash to work in short-term markets Thursday, sending rates falling across many investments. Treasury bill prices rose, pushing down their yields down sharply, and interest rates on overnight securities repurchase, or repo, agreements tumbled.

The cost of borrowing overnight in this market tumbled below zero Thursday, after starting the day at around 0.08%.

“The calculus for determining what you would hold lieu of cash has changed because of this charge,” said Alan De Rose, managing director in government trading at Oppenheimer & Co.

Over the past two weeks, money-market funds, corporate treasurers and investment houses have pulled money out of securities that mature in more than one day in favor of stashing their cash in bank accounts at BNY Mellon and other banks with custodial operations like J.P. Morgan Chase Co. that earn no interest, but which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

BNY Mellon’s move is emblematic of much broader strains that plague the U.S. economy and the global financial system. In response to the recession and anemic recovery, the Federal Reserve has pushed interest rates to zero and purchased $2.6 trillion of mortgage and Treasury securities. In the process, it has flooded the financial system with cash.

In times of crisis, the Markets Hub roundtable discusses where investors can look to for the last few safe havens and whether the answer lies in gold, emerging technology, treasuries or healthcare. (Photo: AP Photo.)

Custody banks are typical havens when financial markets go haywire. They act as protectors of assets, cash and securities held as collateral for short-term loans for their clients, and they process payments and settle trades in the repo market. Money-market funds, banks, hedge funds and other institutional investors can easily move money at their custody banks in short periods of time.

But banks and investors are reluctant to put that cash to work because they are worried about the economic outlook. With no other place to put it, they are parking it in banks.

BNY Mellon said that it will charge 0.13% plus an additional fee if the one-month Treasury yield dips below zero on depositors that have accounts with an average monthly balance of $50 million “per client relationship,” according to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The charges will take effect on accounts held on Aug. 8, and will be charged in the subsequent billing cycle.

“In the past month, we have seen a growing level of deposits on our balance sheet from clients seeking a safe-haven in light of the global interest rate and credit environment,” the bank said Thursday in an emailed statement. “We have notified certain clients with extraordinarily high deposit levels that we will begin implementing a 13 basis point fee on the excess deposits. Clients who maintain routine deposit levels will not be affected.”

This isn’t the first time a financial institution has imposed commissions or negative interest rates to stem a torrent of incoming funds. In the late 1970s, Switzerland’s central bank imposed negative interest rates to slow capital inflows that were driving up the value of the Swiss franc and threatened to slow the economy by raising the price of Swiss goods on world markets.

BNY Mellon’s move shows concern about the cost of taking large deposit flows at a time when interest rates are near zero. The bank pays about 0.10% to the FDIC to insure deposit accounts, and if its deposits swell massively it could face capital charges.

Smaller, focused financial firms like BNY Mellon have less flexibility in dealing with deposits than diversified banks like Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan that can shuttle new funds into loans. Yet even those banks with broader business models will likely also be hamstrung if they keep getting flooded with deposits because loan demand remains soft.

“We are taking steps to pass on costs incurred from sudden and significant increases in U.S. Dollar Deposits with BNY Mellon,” said the bank in its letter. It said it finds its deposits “suddenly and substantially increasing” as investors are in a mass “de-risk” mode.

Politicians in the U.S. reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling this week, averting a possible default. But with those fears dispelled, worries about the health of the global economy and the massive debt loads in slow-growing Western economies have returned to the fore.

As a result, hundreds of billions of dollars have been sloshing around the short-term money markets. Money-market funds are raising cash in case worried customers pull their investments and are reducing their holdings in European banks, which are currently being whipsawed by concerns about Spain, Greece and Italy.

Meanwhile the supply of safe-haven Treasury bills remains tight. The Treasury Department recently surprised the market by saying it wouldn’t restart issuing T-bills under a program it cut to stay under the debt limit.

Yet the torrent of cash looking for a safe place continues to grow. The Bank of Japan this week intervened in currency markets, essentially printing yen and buying dollars. “Those dollars need to find a home and it’s probably going to come to the Treasury market,” BofA Merrill Lynch’s Mr. Smedley said.

—Matt Phillips, Jon Hilsenrath, Serena Ng and Robin Sidel contributed to this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903366504576488123965468018.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

My thoughts and anger on the debt deal

Although I was adamantly against this debt deal, I don’t see an issue with defunding entitlement programs,  I don’t think of SS as an entitlement, but things like the Pell grants and student loans are and I admit I did use both.   Nothing in the constitution entitles Congress to assume the role bankers.

It irks me to no end that the real entitlement crowd isn’t affected at all, the deal focuses on fraud in SS and Medicare, what about Food Stamps, AFDC and Medicaid, the fraud is much more pervasive in those programs.

Ever hear about the Govt cell phone giveaway, commonly known as Obama phones?  Sit on your ass and the govt will give you a phone plus 250 free minutes a month.  Supposedly these phones were so people could look for work, these people who are receiving the phones have never worked a day in their fuckin’ lives.  I watched one video of a black dude who received one of the phones, he said he was totally surprised that he received one and then went on to talk about the difference between the Obama phone and his Blackberry and another phone he has.  Let me make a wildass guess here, most of those phones are being used for drug deals.

Umemployment compensation, long or short, also is not the role of the Federal govt., another entitlement program.

If they were serious about cutting the budget, we know they aren’t, but if they were they would start with things like…..

No more foreign aid, especially to countries that hate us

Abolish unconstitutional govt agencies like Dept of Education, EPA, FEMA, Homeland Security etc.

Abolish all Federal endowments and grants, that should be private contributions only

Abolish all Federal aid, things I already previously mentioned

The constitution only allows for Defense and the general welfare which doesn’t mean the kind of welfare that allows people to be dependent on the govt for their every day existence.

Stop funding illegal wars.  We have no right to invade another country and depose their leaders on whim.

Stop giving tax breaks to companies that take their jobs overseas.

That’s just a partial list of things that should be done away with.

I’m so mad right now I could spit.  I have so had it with this govt. I’m not anti government, it’s a necessary evil but this govt isn’t the one I signed up for.   I want a govt that’s for the people, of the people and by the govt and this one isn’t it.   I’ve already said a lot of things about this in other posts so I won’t rehash it.  The quote below says it all.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Source:  Declaration of Independence

USDA Holding out on us, knew 2 weeks ago where contaminated ground turkey came from

USDA Connected Salmonella to Cargill Plant Two Weeks Ago

 

Published August 04, 2011

| FoxNews.com

AP

Aug 31: Products subject to meat giant Cargill’s recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak is seen on display at a grocery store in Redwood City, Calif.

Federal health officials say they knew more than two weeks ago that the source for the salmonella outbreak linked to ground turkey was most likely connected to the Cargill meat plant in Springdale, Ark., but they were unable to issue a recall because they simply did not have enough information.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said they began “traceback activities” related to tainted ground turkey on July 18.

“There were two cases in the same state, and in two days we were able to confirm that the two cases were related to the plant,” said Dr. David Goldman, an assistant administrator for the office of Public Health Science at the USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service.

But, Goldman pointed out, before a recall can be issued there are a lot of bases officials need to cover.

“We need to coordinate the findings on traceback to findings at the plant. We get information provided to us from the inspection force in the field, and we need to ensure everything has lined up in a way that convinces us,” he said.

Officials became convinced on July 29, and contacted the legal team at the Minnesota-based company to have a preliminary discussion with them about their findings, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that the meat giant was presented with the “full facts” that the CDC and USDA had uncovered.

As a result, Cargill issued one of the biggest meat recalls ever – pulling 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen turkey products off store shelves, which were produced at the Springdale plant from Feb. 20 through Aug. 2.

All of the packages recalled include the code “Est. P-963,” according to Cargill, though packages were labeled under many different brands. Many of the recalled meats are under the label Honeysuckle White. Other brands include Riverside Ground Turkey; Natural Lean Ground Turkey; Fit & Active Lean Ground Turkey; Spartan Ground Turkey and Shady Brook Farms Ground Turkey Burgers. The recall also includes ground turkey products packaged under the HEB; Safeway; Kroger; Randall’s; Tom Thumb and Giant Eagle grocery store brands.

The recall also includes some ground turkey that isn’t labeled at all and some that went to food service establishments, according to Cargill.

Illnesses in the outbreak date back to March and have been reported in 26 states coast-to-coast. As of Tuesday, there were 78 cases and one death linked to the outbreak.

In announcing the recall, Cargill officials said all ground turkey production has been suspended at the Springdale plant until the company is able to determine the source of the contamination.

“Given our concern for what has happened, and our desire to do what is right for our consumers and customers, we are voluntarily removing our ground turkey products from the marketplace,” said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business.

A chart on the CDC’s website shows cases have occurred every month since early March, with spikes in May and early June. The latest reported cases were in mid-July, although the CDC said some recent cases may not have been reported yet. The CDC said the strain is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics, which can make treatment more difficult.

Dr. Chris Braden, director of the division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at the CDC said out of the 78 people that have been sickened, 22 people, or 38 percent have been hospitalized, which are higher numbers than normal.

“We are working to explore why this may be,” Braden said. “We know the strain is resistant to several antibiotics, which may increase hospitalization and failure of treatment.”

Braden said the good news is that this strain, known as Salmonella Heidelberg, does respond to several other commonly used antibiotics such as Cipro and Bactrim.

The states reporting the highest number sickened are Michigan and Ohio, with 10 each. Texas has reported nine illnesses; Illinois, seven; California, six; and Pennsylvania, five.

Twenty states have one to three reported illnesses linked to the outbreak, according to the CDC. They are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

The CDC estimates that 50 million Americans each year get sick from food poisoning, including about 3,000 who die. Salmonella causes most of these cases, and federal health officials say they’ve made virtually no progress against it.

Government officials say that even contaminated ground turkey is safe to eat if it is cooked to 165 degrees. But it’s also important that raw meat be handled properly before it is cooked and people wash their hands with soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling the meat. Turkey and other meats should also be properly refrigerated or frozen and leftovers heated.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening to people with weakened immune systems.

“It is regrettable that people may have become ill from eating one of our ground turkey products,” said Willardsen — “and, for anyone who did, we are truly sorry.”

Click for more information from the CDC.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/08/03/usda-still-seeking-source-tainted-ground-turkery/#ixzz1U5s7R62U

Reid Announces Deal to End FAA Shutdown

U.S. Senate
Reid Announces Deal to End FAA Shutdown

Published August 04, 2011

| Associated Press

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says there is bipartisan compromise to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has left 74,000 transportation and construction workers idled.

In a statement Thursday, the majority leader did not specify details.

But other officials say they expect the Senate to accept a House-passed bill as early as Friday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the precise terms remain confidential.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/04/reid-announces-deal-to-end-faa-shutdown/#ixzz1U5o4op3g

 

STOCK MARKET CRASHING? Dow Plunges on Economic Fears -515.14

Could tomorrow be our 2011 Black Friday?

Seems Wall Street isn’t all that satisfied with the awesome debt deal.  Imagine that !!

Dow closes at 515.14

Oil 86.48, let’s see how soon, if ever, it’s reflected at the pumps.

Dollar gained a little bit, about 2% after Japan downgraded the Yen, that could be the cause for PM’s dropping.

Dow tumbles 4 percent, VIX rises above 30

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, August 4, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

On Thursday August 4, 2011, 3:53 pm

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow fell more 4 percent on Thursday while the CBOE Volatility Index rose above 30 in its biggest daily percentage move since May 2010 as investors fled stocks and other risky asset classes.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 475.52 points, or 4.00 percent, at 11,420.92. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 55.26 points, or 4.38 percent, at 1,205.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 124.68 points, or 4.63 percent, at 2,568.39.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by James Dalgleish)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wall-Street-extends-recent-rb-803713724.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=