Trumps Plan on Syrian Refugees Should be Tried. Create a Safezone in Syria like the American Zone after WW2.

This plan seems sound but with a few caveats of course.

Trump offered an alternative solution for the refugees: build a “safe zone” for them — in their home country.

“In Syria, take a big swatch of land, which believe me, you get for the right price, OK? You take a big swatch and you don’t destroy all of Europe,” the real estate mogul said. “What I’d like is build a safe zone, it’s here, build a big beautiful safe zone and you have whatever it is so people can live, and they’ll be happier.”

That way, Trump explained, they won’t have to learn new languages or adapt to a new climate.

First of all we would need to provide the safety for this "safe zone" so that means boots on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan where it will be the most logical place to have this zone. Our troops would be there in a humanitarian capacity but need to be prepared to destroy any ISIS units that come close to them. We cannot rely on the Kurds to be our proxy army in this particular fight.

What you do next is win the war by going after ISIS with the full force of the US land and air power. That means multiple carrier groups and 1000s of cruise missiles and drone attacks. No part of the so-called Caliphate would be safe from our bombing. Then you would have to invade to make sure you clean out the remnants that survive the bombing. If Trump can commit to this then we wouldn't need to take on any refugees because we would get rid of the source of their troubles.

The Paris Terrorist Killers: Why did that one guy Bring his Passport to the Suicide Attack?

Ever since I heard the news that they found a passport next to one of the suicide attackers in Paris I wondered why he brought the thing with him.

- Ahmad al-Mohammad? -

Close to the body of a second bomber outside the Stade de France, investigators found a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, who was born on September 10, 1990, in the Syrian city of Idlib.

A passport bearing that name had been registered on the Greek island of Leros on October 3, with the attacker's fingerprints matching those taken during the registration process. The holder of the passport was later registered as crossing from Macedonia into Serbia where he formally applied for asylum, Serbian officials said.

But investigators are still trying to verify if the passport is indeed genuine and the name is not known to French anti-terror police. Serbia detained a migrant on Monday whose passport contained the same data.

It seems to me to be a forged passport to change the persons identity. That would make sense if ISIS wanted to make it seem that the Syrian refugees harbor all sorts of terrorist killers in their midst. Europe will reject them coming in and ISIS would then be able to recruit/extract revenge/kidnap them. 

I just couldn't understand why he would bring that passport with him. Perhaps he just got to Paris and the attack was just days away so he couldn't stow it somewhere. However, I think it was just a forged passport that got him in from where ever so he could take part. That where ever might be very important to the investigation. Also I wonder how many additional people are traveling under that name? 

China's Anti-Corruption Probe Catching Everybody

It must be pretty scary to be at the helm of a Chinese investment firm right about now.

At the beginning of November 'China's Carl Icahn', activist investor Xu Xiang was arrested on suspicions of "insider trading and other offenses,” according to a statement from the government's Xinhua News Agency.

Xu's fund, Zexi Fund No. 1 gained 323% for the year up to his arrest, while the Shanghai Composite has risen only 3% for the year, according to the New York Times.

Around the same time, officials detained Zhang Yun, the President of China's third largest bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, according to CNN. Both Xu and Zhang's arrests demonstrate that there's no financier too powerful to avoid the probe.

Yeah I would investigate a 323% gain when the market is only up by 3% too just to make sure things are on the up-and-up. I guess China's version of the SEC is going to work overtime to make sure these gains are real or not.

Jeb Bush Circles the Drain: Cuts Payroll and Spending for Campaign Staff

I guess Jeb is going down the drain fast and this certainly reflects that.

The moves will reduce the campaign's payroll by 40 percent, while also cutting travel costs by 20 percent and eliminating extraneous overhead spending. Most campaign officials were told of the cost-cutting on Friday.

The changes mark a significant setback for a campaign that spent months building a large operation, but there are no signs Bush is on the verge of withdrawing from the race.

He will wait until after a few more debates to do that. He really is floundering badly and this move shows that the big money guys are sending cash in some other direction.

Could this Star (KIC 8462852) have a Dyson Sphere or maybe a Dyson Screen In Front of It? #Aliens

Now this sounds like a very interesting star indeed.

This idea evolved into what’s called a Dyson Sphere, a gigantic sphere that completely encloses a star. It was popular back in the 1970s and 80s; there was even an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation about one. Dyson never really meant that we’d build an actual sphere; just lots of little panels that might mimic one.

But it raises an interesting possibility for detecting alien life. Such a sphere would be dark in visible light but emit a lot of infrared. People have looked for them, but we’ve never seen one (obviously).

Which brings us back to KIC 8462852. What if we caught an advanced alien civilization in the process of building such an artifact? Huge panels (or clusters of them) hundreds of thousands of kilometers across, and oddly-shaped, could produce the dips we see in that star’s light.

Actually I would think it might be something I would like to call a Dyson Screen. So that would be a huge solar panel that floats out in space that the aliens living in this star system use to power an entire planet. Maybe there are gigantic batteries along the back of the screen that massive star ships remove and take down to one of the inhabited planets. I'm thinking the planet is a huge manufactorum like Mars in Warhammer 40K that needs tons of power to function. Or maybe it a massive city miles thick that covers the planet like Coruscant. In any case it would be interesting to turn some radio telescopes toward this star system to see if they can get some radio transmissions from the aliens that might live there.

Yet another Reason Not to Fly American Airlines: Woman Kicked off Flight in Tears

Airline travel has become a terrible experience and American seems to make it even more terrible.

Outraged passengers booed flight attendants for booting a woman off a plane.

Their revolt unfolded just before takeoff on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Portland, Oregon, after a flight attendant asked a female passenger to find her seat.

She claims she didn't hear him - and the attendant ordered her out of the plane.

He told her: “I need to have you come off the aircraft.”

The passenger replied: “No, why are you guys, you're so mean to me. I didn't do anything.”

The passenger claimed that the she didn't even know that the attendant was talking to her.

The attendant told her: “If you don't come off, I’m going to have to call the officers.”

I guess this is why people fly Southwest and Hawaiian. Better service and flight attendants who are not itching to throw people off of flights.

Ben Carson is right: Do Not Comply with a Crazy Shooter. Fight for your Life

It is hard to second guess the victims of a shooting but Carson is saying what he would do if confronted with a crazy gunman.

“From the indications I got, they did not rush the shooter,” Carson said on "CBS This Morning" discussing the Oregon shooting. “The shooter can only shoot one person at a time, he cannot shoot a group of people.”

Carson suggested that the victims should have rushed the shooter to prevent more lives from being lost, telling ABC News yesterday that he would have confronted the gunman and would have instructed people to attack the gunman.

“I said what I would do. ... I would ask everyone to attack the gunman,” Carson told ABC News. “That way we wouldn’t all end up dead.”

It would be easy to freeze up in a situation like that or comply with the shooter. But that cannot be the case now because they will shoot you no matter what. So at least sell your life dearly and try to jump the shooter as best you can. Unfortunately not everyone is like those trained military guys that stopped the massacre on that French train. It is a sad sign of the times but maybe classes can be taught where people learn to react like those guys.

I have to Admit Trumps Tax Plan is Pretty Awesome

I have to admit when the Donald does something right and this is doing something right.

Trump's plan for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code would eliminate federal income taxes on individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000. He said those individuals would receive "a new one page form to send the IRS saying, 'I win.'"

Trump's plan would also disproportionally benefit wealthy earners by lowering the highest income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent, and businesses by cutting their tax rate — from major corporations to mom-and-pop shops — to no more than 15 percent.

That eliminating taxes on people making $25k or less will be like a raise for every low income American. That amounts to thousands of dollars a year going back into the economy because most low income people spend nearly all of their paychecks. In fact they might be able to put a down payment on a car or something of that sort or even crate a cushion for themselves.

Also that 15% corporate tax on every business with no deductions possible should eliminate some of the shenanigans that GE pulled to get to pay $0 in taxes. A lot of tax lawyers will be out of a job if its 15% no matter what and there is no way to reduce that amount.

Actually, simplifying the tax code will go a long way to creating more growth in the economy going forward. I know how to spend my money much better than any federal beancounter will ever be able to. If Trump can put more of that money under my control then I would be fine with that.

Trump Gets Tough: On Iran? On ISIS? No on Clothing Company StopTrump.us

I guess the world is full of enemies of the potential comb-over-and-chief.

The site happens to be called StopTrump.us. It sells fashion paraphernalia with motifs such as "Donald Dumb" and, yes, "Stop Trump."

You will want to grab your childhood blanket and wrap yourself tightly into it when I tell you that the Trump Organization has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the site, claiming that to sell T-shirts that insist Trump should be stopped, the site should have first asked the great man's permission.

I guess all those First Amendment rights will just go away when Donald is boss.

Hillary's Plan to Destroy Biotechs/Big Pharma Might be Good for Express Scripts

Well Hillary dropped a bombshell on the Health Care Industry earlier this week.

Hillary Clinton made waves this week when she announced her strategy for reining in sky-high drug prices. The strategy, which includes a mix of reforms designed to prod drugmakers to reimagine pricing, led to a significant sell-off in biopharma, lopping an estimated $40 billion in value off the industry on Monday alone, according to Bloomberg.

One beneficiary would be Express Scripts because of this logic.

Clinton's plan aims to cap patient out-of-pocket spending at $250 per month, or $3,000 per year, and that could jeopardize margins at health insurers if they have to make up for any shortfall.

A squeezing of biopharma and insurance companies could end up being good news for Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager.

Express Scripts contracts with health insurers and other payers to manage their drug programs, and its services include negotiating prices with drugmakers, boosting the use of generic drugs, helping patients take their medicine as prescribed to avoid costly hospitalizations, and analyzing data to find drug-related cost-savings.

This would also be a tailwind for United Health Group who bought out PBM Catamaran a while back. Rite-Aide bought out Envision Rx and Aetna could create their own PBM as well. This article also says that Express Scripts could be bought out by Walgreens Boots Alliance so they can have their own PBM shop as well. The buyout would have to be pretty large because of ESRXs $55 billion market cap. They might need to pull the trigger quickly as well because I'm sure if Hillary wins they would block this buyout for sure.

More Crybaby Trump as Fox News Commentator says Mean Thing #DumpTrump

He has skin made of rice paper apparently.

Rich Lowry, the editor of the conservative magazine National Review, said the Republican presidential front-runner was attacking rival Carly Fiorina because she emasculated him at last week's presidential debate.

"Part of what's going on here is that last debate. Let's be honest: Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon, and he knows it," Lowry said during a Fox News interview, according to video posted by Mediaite.

Host Megyn Kelly was shocked.

"What did you just say?!" Kelly said. "You can't say that."

But Trump, who has fiercely feuded with both Fox News and Kelly, wasn't satisfied with her admonishment.

He trashed Lowry on Twitter as "incompetent" and "clueless," demanded an apology, and suggested that the Federal Communications Commission should fine Lowry as a result.

He really doesn't have the temperament for politics or world affairs. Waaah! I demand and apology from Kim Jong-Un he should be fined by the UN. I thought he was a rough and tough New Yorker.  Apparently he is very much like a 12 year old girl that has to "Tweet back twice as hard" to the Mean Girls at Fox News.

What is Up With Donald Trump and Unfairness?: He Again Boycotts Fox News #DumpTrump

Let's say he wins the Presidency I wonder if he going to stomp off like a child when Putin or Kim Jong-Un treats him "unfairly?"

“@FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future,” he tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Mere hours later, the Trump campaign released a statement saying that he stands by his comments.

“As a candidate for president of the United States and the definitive frontrunner in every poll, both nationally and statewide, including the just released poll in the state of Florida, Mr. Trump expects to be treated fairly,” the statement reads. “All you have to do is look at the tremendous ratings last night from ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ where Mr. Trump was the guest, or the ratings from both debates, to fully understand the facts.”

Putin treated me unfairly whaaaa! Ukraine talks fall apart as President Trump cries uncontrollably over Putin "unfair comment."

Wall Street Hates Trump and Likes Jeb

It seems that Wall Street are not very big supporters of Trump according to this.

The CEO of one large Wall Street firm, who declined to be identified by name criticizing the GOP front-runner, said the assumption in the financial industry remains that something will eventually knock Trump off and send voters toward a more establishment candidate. But that assumption is no longer held with strong conviction. And a dozen Wall Street executives interviewed for this article could not say what might dent Trump's appeal or when it might happen.

I think Trump might win it all after seeing how Hillary's campaign seems to be on fire and heading into the ground. Bernie Sanders cannot win and if Biden doesn't get in the race soon I think whoever wins the GOP will win the Presidency.

Yet Another Case of #QuarterlyCapitalism as HP to Fire 30,000 even with a $5 Billion Yearly Profit

I guess the split into two meaningless companies is going to cost 30,000 people their jobs.

The purge announced Tuesday will occur within the newly formed Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a bundle of technology divisions focused on software, consulting and data analysis that is splitting off from the company's personal computer and printing operations.

The spinoff is scheduled to be completed by the end of next month, dooming 25,000 to 30,000 jobs within HP Enterprise. The target means 10 to 12 percent of the 252,000 workers joining HP Enterprise will lose their jobs as part of the company's effort to reduce its expenses by $2 billion annually.

Reducing their expenses really doesn't actually sell one extra printer or another software license. Instead they are shuffling the costs to keep them making $5 billion in the next year. I would love to see a CAPEX bump or a move into some other part of the technology infrastructure. Instead cut staff and prop up those earnings in time for the next quarter.

It Seems More People are Trying to #EndQuarterlyCapitalism then just Hillary

I have to agree with this economist 100%

Yet Clinton and many other American critics of “quarterly capitalism” have so far ignored the proverbial elephant in the room — America’s mandate that public companies produce earnings reports every quarter. This is the rule that makes quarterly reporting a necessity in the U.S. and underlies all the problems that go with it. International comparisons show that quarterly reporting requirements not only tend to decrease long-term investment, but also increase manipulation of the numbers to please shareholders.

 It seems Europe gets along pretty well without requiring quarterly numbers. There doesn't seem to be cases of a company having decent profits but still having to lay people off to keep earnings up.

Take Seagate for instance. They are laying off 1050 people but they still made $137 million in profit this past quarter. The quarter before was at $291 million so there was a deceleration in profits but its not like firing those 1050 people will make Seagate roar back into profits any time soon. It is just a trick to save $113 million according to that article. If Seagate never had to report that $137 million number I wonder if they would have cut staff or not? I guess that's something for economists to study.

In any case, companies can still give updates and have investor days and such without having to rush around each quarter and bring out numbers. Sometimes you will have less transparency since you cannot listen to quarterly conference calls and track trends but I think the good things outweigh the bad.

You can have some CEOs make bolder moves because they don't have to worry about losing money in the short term. A company like Amazon would not be penalized so severely for ramping up CAPEX for something like Amazon Apps. People thought Bezos was crazy for spending so much money but now Amazon apps seems to dominate in the SAAS arena.      

Rick Perry the First Man out of the Race

I guess here ends his Presidential aspirations.

The former Texas governor told the Eagle Forum on Friday afternoon that he is suspending his presidential campaign.

“We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too.” 

I guess his gaffs in the past election were just too much for him to bear. I think he would have been a decent enough candidate but it doesn't matter anymore.

Muir Turns into "Anchor Monster" After He is Beaten by Lester Holt in the Ratings #NBCNews

Well I have been watching Lester Holt more often when I do watch the evening news so I guess I'm contributing to Muir's freakout.

An ABC source tells us, “Despite the biggest ‘get’ in the world — the pope — David is still losing to Lester. David feels under pressure and returned to New York from Rome cranky and has been lashing out at the staff. He screams at the crew unless [ABC News President] James Goldston is around. On an open mike he was heard complaining he wanted less of the reporters’ voices and more of his own during the pope town hall. He’s becoming known as ‘Anchor Monster.’”

Yeah I watched ABC news a few times but I then switched to CBS News with Scott Pelley because I think he has more gravitas.Then when Holt got the job full time I started watching more NBC and then switching back to CBS whenever there was a boring story on NBC.

I'm sorry the AppleTV Seems like a Fancy Roku: Hopefully it Isn't the Apple Watch for the Living Room

I just don't see how much better this thing is than a Roku.

There’s a lot of impressive technology happening inside the Apple TV. The search works really well, letting me narrow down from “find me science fiction movies” to the exact Star Trek episode I was looking for. It’s fast, it’s as straightforward as the last one (which is to say, straightforward enough but a little overly spartan), and the remote works well. As it stands, it doesn’t feel like much more than a souped-up Roku.

The article pretty much says the AppleTV has a cool remote and has Siri built in. I'm not sure I want to "narrow down the exact Star Trek episode" because I can just do a Google search and find out the name and episode number that way. I guess you can skip that step with the Apple TV but I have a tablet/smart phone as a second screen for just such occasions.

The article also talks about how sparse the App Store was and says that you can look at dresses on your TV with the Gilt app. That sounds like a huge waste of time but I guess a woman can forget about the shopping networks if they cut the cord using the Apple TV. In any case this thing will live and die by the App Store because my Roku has everything I want right now. Hopefully, someone will create a must have App for the Apple TV but it doesn't seem to be coming out at launch. 

Hmm Global Slowdown Might be Because People Don't want as Much Stuff?

This article makes a lot of sense and if true, it will change quite a few things in the global economy.

Finally, consider the things that people do want to spend their money on. The defining consumer product of our age is the smartphone. A smartphone is a good, and it takes resources to make and transport it. Still, it takes a lot less resources than, say, a car. Most of its value is in the software that is loaded onto it and the people, information and entertainment you can connect to with it. That's a different sort of value creation than 20th-century resource-based value creation. If that's the direction the global economy is headed in, the connections between growth, trade and resource consumption aren't going to be the same as they have been. That is probably a good thing.

Smart phone growth seems to be plateauing as well judging by how badly Samsung seems to be doing.
It is as if nearly everyone that wants a smart phone has one. The new phones are not compelling enough to get people to abandon their old phone for something new. They are slightly bigger with a better camera or something but nothing world changing.

Even mighty Apple seems to be following the trend with their huge iPad which seems to be very much like the Surface. Nothing I saw at their big new products day makes me want to own anything they are selling at the moment. I have an Apple TV already and it is called a Roku. Maybe Apple TV will become a must have device in the future but I don't see it right now. Apple TV seems like the Apple Watch for the living room.

Also from what I can gather people just aren't rushing out to acquire more physical stuff. They do want digital stuff in the form of apps and HD video from Netflix but they don't want a new car or a new refrigerator (unless theirs breaks.) They seem to want clothes but the big ticket item just doesn't seem to fly off the shelves like they did before the Great Recession.

So we keep having tepid growth because it takes far less resources and manpower to make digital stuff. You can pay the actors and the grips and such to produce a TV show but that is nothing compared to all the people that work to produce something like a refrigerator or a car. Compare making an app with making a microwave. Making an app takes much less physical manpower and but more mental and digital effort from far less people. So if people want the app (which is free) and not the microwave the economy will suffer accordingly.

Forget the Coronation: Hillary Might be Going to Federal Prison: North Korean Satellite Photos Could have been on her Server

This is certainly worrisome if I were part of the Clinton camp.

There’s a bigger story hidden inside the New York Times report that “a special intelligence review of two emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton received as secretary of state on her personal account — including one about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program —  . . .  contained highly classified information when Mrs. Clinton received them, senior intelligence officials said.” The review was undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which presumably originated the material. They concluded that the material had originally been given the U.S. government’s highest secrecy classification. Even if one of Clinton’s aides stripped the markings (a felony), Secretary Clinton surely knew satellite intelligence and North Korean nuclear deployments are the U.S. government’s most highly classified information.

That sounds like there were a few satellite photos of North Korean nuclear sites mixed in with the wedding prep with Chelsea and recipes that were found on that home server. Also if an aide stripped those markings that person gets to join Hillary in federal prison. The article talks about the CIA and others who now have to do a damage assessment to see who stole what and when from that server. That server was a huge security hole and it operated for years. It would be interesting to see who was hacking it and when.

I Can See Why People Cord-cut: Average Cable Bill is $99.10 which is a 39% Increase Since 2010

Wow you can pretty much get all the streaming services for about half that price.

The average cable television bill hit a record $99.10 this year, an increase of 39% from 2010. But with more and more viewers opting out of pay TV -- mainly because of the cost -- something's got to give.

According to the latest annual survey by Leichtman Research Group, 83% of U.S. households subscribe to cable, down from 87% in 2010.  The average cable bill is up 39% over the same period, or more than four times the rate of inflation, the telephone survey of 1,222 people found.

About the only real reason to buy cable is for live sports. If they unbundle sports then that 83% number will seriously look like a bygone era to cable companies.

Typical Clinton Answer by Hillary on Emails. "I Just Didn't Stop and Think"

She was too busy to think about her emails and how they jeopardized national security.

"You know, I was not thinking a lot when I got in. There was so much work to be done. We had so many problems around the world," Clinton said. "I didn't really stop and think what kind of email system will there be?"

But Clinton did not apologize for her decision when asked directly, "Are you sorry?" Instead, she again said she wishes she had "made a different choice" and that she takes responsibility for the decision to use a private email account and server based at her home in suburban New York.

That weasel word answer is typical Clinton-speak. She wasn't sorry but she "should have made a different choice." It depends on "what the meaning of is is" said her husband when he was in office.

It's Over: Iran Deal is Done as Obama Locks Up 34th Vote

Well Iran has just won in playing the Great Game against the US.

The decisive 34th commitment came from Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski, who is retiring next year after three decades in the Senate. In a statement she said "no deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime." But she called the pact "the best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb."

Supporters now have the votes in hand to uphold Obama's veto, if one becomes necessary, of a resolution of disapproval Republicans are trying to pass this month. GOP lawmakers who control the House and Senate ardently oppose the agreement, which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.

Iran can now start funding proxy armies against the Saudis and do whatever they want with the billions of money they will soon have access to. I think there will be lots of Mullahs driving Ferraris in the next few years. Then in 10 years or sooner their "words will be backed with Nuclear Weapons."

What is PLEKHA7 and How It Might be the Cure for Cancer Wonder at long Last #CancerMicroprocesser

Hmm it seems that doctors have found the "cancer microprocesser"

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida have identified the cell’s microprocessor that controls cell growth. Called microRNA, this biological controller instructs the cells to stop dividing the moment they have replicated sufficiently, The Telegraph reports. When that happens, microRNA triggers the production of a protein called PLEKHA7, which then breaks the cell bonds and stops growth. In cancerous cells, that process doesn’t work properly.

The doctors were able to switch on cancer in cells by removing microRNAs and preventing them from producing the protein. Then they found they can reverse the process, stopping tumor growth and potentially changing cancer growth. All a patient would need would be an injections containing microRNAs that would reinforce the existing supply in cancer cells.

I wonder how these microRNAs effect different kinds of cancer? Are these "cancer microprocessors" different in lung cancer for instance. Also I wonder how much microRNAs are needed to create a stopping and reversing of cancer growth. You could certainly prevent cancer from spreading if you target with different kinds of microRNAs. Very interesting stuff.

McDonalds and Tyson's Teams Move Fast on Chicken Cruelty

They must some 24 hour monitoring going on.

Even by the lightning-fast standards of social media and viral videos, it was enough to make your head spin: No sooner had the activist group Mercy for Animals released a sickening undercover video showing abhorrent treatment of chickens at a Tennessee factory farm that supplies poultry for McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets than both McDonald’s and Tyson Foods, which makes the famed nuggets for the fast-food giant, announced they had severed ties with the offender.

“Based on what we currently know, we are terminating the farmer’s contract to grow chickens for us,” a Tyson spokesman said in a statement. For its part, McDonald’s called the video evidence “unacceptable” and said that the company is “committed to working with animal welfare and industry experts to inform our policies that promote better management, strong employee education and verification practices.”

Trump's Advice is Spot in Regards to the Stock Market Correction. Hold

Yeah sometimes Trump does say something that is not offensive or idiotic.

Donald Trump offered his advice Monday for investors taking a pounding in this week’s market tumble : Don’t sell.

“You’re better off holding,” the former reality show host, real estate scion, and Republican presidential candidate told the New York Times , citing the historical behavior of a crashing market to surge back, allowing those who wait out the storm to avoid losses in the long run.

“I’d hate to see it come back and they end up with the short end of both deals,” he said.

If you have cash wait for the smoke to clear and check if the stock has lots of China exposure and if not then you get to buy it at a discount. 

Time to Buy Google err Alphabet?

Well it seems Google is going to separate the cash cow search business from the pie in the sky stuff and add them both to a holding company called Alphabet. I agree with Cramer when he says this could be huge.

"The problem, though, is that Google has lots of forward-looking projects, truly venture-stage efforts that shouldn't be squelched by Porat, because, with a little nurturing, they could pay off gigantically someday," Cramer said.

The solution? Break them out, just like Amazon did with its Web services division.
Cramer thinks this will allow the huge and fast core business to shine within Alphabet. This way, investors can clearly understand what Google is and why it is worth so much more than anyone thought.

So the money loser (at first) projects can have visibility and don't drag down the core business. You also get a look at these projects while they are being developed and nurtured by looking at the other businesses group that contains Nest, Fiber, the Venture Capital arm, etc. I would love to see what smaller apps that Venture Capital arm is bankrolling to see what could take off. Too bad I couldn't get back in at $550 but 10 shares might become a core holding going forward.

For a Tough New Yorker Trump sure has some Thin Skin. #DumpTrump

I have never seen such a powerful billionaire not be able to any sort of criticism.

“She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday. “And other candidates have said that.”

During last week’s primetime debate, Kelly, a co-moderator, asked the real estate mogul about his history of sexist comments about women — a question Trump believes was “nasty.”

"It was an inappropriate question,” Trump said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday. “It was a ridiculous question. Even the other candidates came up to me and said that that was absolutely out of line.”

Those are words that came out of his mouth. She used his actual words in context to ask that question. A person who is supposed to be Presidential doesn't call people names and Trump does it all the time. What is funny is that he has to get re-assurances all the time.

On Monday morning, Trump tweeted that he had talked with Fox News chief Roger Ailes, who assured him he would be “treated fairly” by the cable news network.

Oh boo-hoo you haven't been treated "fairl." I guess he just wants a bunch of soft-ball questions and nothing of any substance. Maybe he should run against Hillary instead. I'm sure the Democratic moderators will ask just the questions he wants.

Gasp! I Again Agree With Hillary: Quarterly Capitalism needs to Go: Disney is Case-in-Point

I have to agree with this statement whole-heartedly.

Clinton, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, said in a speech last month that many important elements of the U.S. economy – publicly traded companies and the executives that run them, shareholders and consumers – are held hostage to the “tyranny of today’s earnings report.”

“Everything is focused on the next earnings report or the short-term share price,” said Clinton. “The result is too little attention on the sources of long-term growth: research and development, physical capital and talent.”

I think one of the big problems with quarterly capitalism is that companies are pressured to buy back shares in order to prop up their stock prices. I'm sure that cash can be plowed back into R&D or simply given as a dividend or a bonus for their employees. Instead that money is used to buy back shares which means a bigger bonus for senior managers with stock options and little else as far as I can see.

You also see big layoffs even though the company has profits because of a bad quarter. The company is still making money but they disappoint Wall Street and 1000s are laid off. Qualcomm comes to mind.

One way of looking at the problem with quarterly capitalism is Disney. I saw an interview with their CEO, Iger which he ticked off like 10 different billion dollar plus movie franchises one after another. Then they will open Shanghai Disneyland which will probably make some of the US Theme parks look like the State Fair. They have all sorts of billion dollar opportunities on the horizon and Iger let us know that.

Instead they have some subscriber slippage at ESPN and the stock drops from $121 to $108 in two days. This doesn't even take into account that Disney will probably offer ESPN as over-the-top service in the coming years and it will still be huge. I would easily pay $20 a month or more in order to watch ESPN on my Roku or Xbox One. It works for HBO so I don't see why it wouldn't work for ESPN which is a channel I watch every day. Quarterly Capitalism thinks that people are cutting the cord and subscribing to Netflix so Disney goes to $0 and Netflix is worth $700 billion. That has to be the most stupid thing ever but the stock market believes that.   

Another View that the Fix is In? Bill Clinton Called Donald Trump before He Decided to Run #DumpTrump

I wonder what Clinton offered him in exchange for putting Hillary in the White House?

Former president Bill Clinton had a private telephone conversation in late spring with Donald Trump at the same time that the billionaire investor and reality-television star was nearing a decision to run for the White House, according to associates of both men.

Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.

If Trump wins the nomination or runs as a third party then Hillary would win the election handily. Now I would be that in tomorrows debate Trump is going to make a giant ass of himself. A crafty false flag attack the like of which we have never witnessed before.

The Telegram that Made Hitler Kill Himself Nearly Forgotten in South Carolina Safe

Now this is quite a historical find.

A treasonous telegram from No. 2 Nazi Hermann Goering to none other than the führer himself.

A message that, along with the advancing Allied troops, helped drive Adolf Hitler to swallow cyanide and shoot himself inside his underground Berlin bunker.

Despite its influence on World War II, however, the memorandum ended up inside a South Carolina safe, nearly forgotten for more than a decade until a college student made it his senior thesis.

On Tuesday, the itinerant but now infamous telegram sold at auction for $55,000.

Now this is a piece of history like Trotsky's Ice Pick or Martin Luther's (the Nazi Official not the Protestant Reformation guy) Wannsee minutes that doomed millions of Jews. At least this telegram is a good thing though and might have positive karma attached to it.   

Intel and Micron Issuing In a Golden Age of Electronics? 3D XPoint (Cross Point) memory Sounds Awesome

Well this sounds like something that could change quite a few things in the coming years.

Imagine an ultra-small form factor PC, for example, that can instantly power up and start off from the exact point it was shut down, with hundreds of gigabytes of high-speed memory, that’s capable of transferring data at many gigabytes or even terabytes per second.  And that the data can be accessed in Nano-second scales. System memory limitation could essentially be eliminated and there would be no latency associated with copying data from a relatively slow storage device into system memory.

The article mentions Big Data like Tableau Software or Splunk using these chips to mine databases in seconds that it takes hours or days to crunch now. They could even do it in real time depending on how the chips perform. A Tableau or Splunk appliance could sit in front of the data store and constantly mine it for information if need be.

Another thing that it would do is allow streaming to go from the bandwidth intensive to device intensive to allow instant streaming of very high HD movies. Your new version of the Xbox or Roku equipped with these Cross Point chips could download 1000s of movies if you want and store everything and have them all instantly at your fingertips. Imagine if all of Netflixes content was on your Roku ready to be accessed from any device at any time nearly instantly.

You can even have someone curate the movie for you (new job opportunity) so you only watch the funny bits of a comedy or the action scenes or whatever. You might even be able to search the movie (or nearly every movie of a certain genre) for a certain line or scene in real time. Hell, you might be able to do that all on your tablet or iPhone 10 if it has a few of these chips in it.

Now This is How You Do a Review of a Bad Movie: Pixels Edition #WorstMovieoftheYear

I knew the movie looked bad but MovieBob confirms it in this awesome review. In some strange way I think terrible movies like this need to be made so it can justify this kind of review.

Apple Watch Looks like a Dismal Failure after the Early Adoption Rush

It seems Apple Watch is not moving the needle at all.

A slew of recent third-party data has not painted too bright of a picture of Apple Watch sales. One of the most stark is research from Slice Intelligence, which noted Fitbit (FIT) devices outsold the Apple Watch in May, selling 850,000 devices, compared to 777,000 Apple Watches sold. There are multiple Fitbit devices--seven in total--compared to just one Apple Watch (albeit in three versions).

So Fitbit is beating out the Apple Watch? It seems that people who use the Fitbit don't really want to see the weather in Cupertino on their wrist and can just pull their phones out of their pocket. Since people rarely use the cell phone for phone calls talking on your wrist lost its novelty. I think wearing a watch for anything other than a piece of status jewelry is kind of dying. It would be interesting to see how many early Apple Watch owners have the thing sitting on their dresser gathering dust.

More Trump Screwups: Gives out Lindsey Graham's Personal Cell Phone Number: Wait Wouldn't that Be Illegal?

You would figure that this latest blunder would be illegal.

In a characteristically rambling speech to reporters in Bluffton, S.C., Trump told the crowd that Graham once called “begging” him to put in a good word with “Fox & Friends,” the Fox News morning show on which the billionaire businessman and “Celebrity Apprentice” host was a frequent guest.

Trump read aloud Graham’s private telephone number from a piece of paper at the podium.

“Maybe it’s an old number,” Trump told his supporters. “I don’t know, give it a shot.”

A call to the phone number by Yahoo News went to Graham’s voice mailbox, which was full.

Isn't Graham a sitting Senator? You would figure his personal cell number would be a guarded deal because it can be used for all sorts of different hacks and such. Oh well, I guess it is time for Graham to get a new cell phone and send a bill to Trump.

The Difference Between Trump and McCain in 1968: It's Pretty Eye-Opening #DumpTrump

This is all you need to read on Trump vs. McCain during the Vietnam War.

“When I graduated from college, I had a net worth of perhaps $200,000,” he said in his 1987 autobiography “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” written with Tony Schwartz. (That’s about $1.4 million in 2015 dollars.) “I had my eye on Manhattan.”

More than 8,000 miles away, John McCain sat in a tiny, squalid North Vietnamese prison cell. The Navy pilot’s body was broken from a plane crash, starvation, botched operations and months of torture.

As Trump was preparing to take Manhattan, McCain was trying to relearn how to walk.

Yup and McCain could have gotten out of Vietnam because his dad was an Admiral and could have gave him a cushy Pentagon job instead of naval aviator. Instead he decided to go and fly airplanes, and got shot down, and was beaten for it.You can go after McCain's record in the Senate if you want but do not go after his record as a POW because that one is exemplary.

Donald Trump Wouldn't Last a Day in the Hanoi Hilton. He would turn Collaborator at the First Beating Threat #POWHeroes

I think Trump is done after this latest stupid outburst.

Donald Trump launched an outrageous assault on the war record of former prisoner of war Sen. John McCain on Saturday — and ended up shooting himself in the foot.

“He’s not a war hero," Trump said dismissively of McCain, who spent more than five years being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and suffered permanent injuries as a result.

Trump, who received a number of deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, backtracked slightly after drawing boos.

“He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” he said, to a mix of laughs and jeers from the several hundred social conservatives gathered at the Family Leadership Summit.

I don't think Trump would last a day in the Hanoi Hilton. He would probably turn into a collaborator and give up US secrets as soon as he was threatened. He needs to drop out of the race today and not have the damage the GOP any further.

A Clinton Plan I Agree With: Tax Breaks for Profit Sharing

I think this is a great idea that would seriously resonate with certain companies.

Her plan would give businesses that offer employees a share of profits a two-year tax credit equal to at least 15 percent of their profit-sharing payments.

If a company took full advantage of Clinton's profit-sharing tax credit, an employee earning $50,000 per year, for instance, could receive $5,000 in added income, and the company in turn would get a $750 tax credit for that worker.

Even if the company offered everyone common shares of their stock it would create a whole new class of investor. Imagine if every barista at Starbucks received a certain amount of shares in their paycheck each quarter and Starbucks got a tax break because of it. Some long time Starbucks workers might be able to have a decent amount of shares and some pretty nice portfolios due to growth at the company. 

Also the idea of shared success would be on the minds of quite a few workers. If they work hard, the stock price rises, and if the stock price rises, they create wealth. This doesn't only apply to the top managers or white collar workers but to everyone at the company. Sounds like a game-changer.

One of these Things is Not Like the Others: Taylor Swift and SuperModel Pals Tower over Lena Dunham

Wow, these girls are all tall and have some serious heels on. Dunham looks kind of emaciated as well. 

I Agree with Scarborough: If GOP Went After Trump on Bigotry they Might Change the Party #DumpTrump

I agree with this statement.

This is a generational opportunity for Republicans, if you have the right person that goes out there -- defends the law first of all -- but at the same time [as he or she is] defending the law, defends Hispanics and people from Mexico, that actually is remembered in the general election in a way that Romney's unfortunate statement about Hispanics was remembered in 2012.

Yeah and they distance themselves from someone who seems to be actively damaging the party. Trump is such a nuisance I think he might have a deal with Hillary that if she wins he gets some kind of reward or kick-back. Maybe a sweetheart deal with the government worth billions or something similar.

A Very Good Question: Why does Europe Want to Keep Greece?

This article is a real interesting think-piece.

It's easy to understand why the Greeks want to stay in the euro: They need the regular infusions of cash from creditors. The attractions for Europe seem much more elusive. Greece is not exactly a stellar export market right now. Tourism and Greek goods would probably be cheaper for Europeans if Greece were to exit. And if they stay in, the best-case scenario is probably that Greece turns into something like southern Italy -- a poor cousin that never seems to develop no matter how much money is funneled into it. The worst-case scenario is that in a couple of months, or a couple of years, they'll be back around the table negotiating yet another round of emergency measures.

Europe has thrown good money after bad three times so far. Why do they think another $80 billion will put Greece back on their feet anytime soon? The austerity measures seem pretty draconian and the Greeks might need to sell their ruins and seaports to put in some fund.

I can understand that the Germans just want to cut Greece loose and take the loss on paper rather then having to pump money endlessly. The whole idea of contagion has been dealt with. It seems that the countries that were bailed out earlier had the loudest voices toward a "Grexit."

I mean if it were because Greece was a great vacation destination they could have been able to afford it on the cheap if the dracma returned. There will be short term pain but in the long run Greece might start to grow again. Kind of like when a person goes bankrupt they have to endure some pain before they don't have that crushing credit card bill to pay every month.

Here is Something America can be Proud of: We have Visited all 9 Planets (Pluto is a planet in my eyes) in the Solar System #PlutoisaPlanet

I'm sure Ariana Grande is not happy about this but as we visit Pluto we have gone 9 for 9 on planetary visits and just completed the set. However, I think we need to go do a Pluto orbiter next because that world sounds pretty nuts.

Researchers said they can't wait to get a look at the close-approach data. Their appetites have been whetted by observations gathered over the past few weeks showing that Pluto and Charon are complex worlds with surprisingly diverse surfaces.

For example, Pluto sports a polar ice cap and a huge, bright, heart-shaped feature, as well as a giant dark patch mission scientists have dubbed "the whale." Charon, for its part, is scored by craters and canyons, and harbors an enigmatic, 200-mile-wide (320 km) dark blotch at its north pole.

I'm certain "the Whale" and the "Dark Spot of Charon" are alien bases where the Grays launch missions into the interior of our solar system.

Maisie Williams Hates Math, is Awesome, and has the Best Yearbook Quote Suggestion Ever!

She is one of the good things about celebrity culture.

Back in June, a young fan named Rachael Wood tweeted at the actress, requesting a quote for her yearbook. She provided no specific guidelines, she just said, "...if you tweet me back I'll make whatever you say my quote." 

"Anyone can be killed," is how the "Game of Thrones" actress responded to the odd request. Clearly, she turned to her Stark blood for inspiration. 

I think that Faceless Man training on Game of Thrones is paying off. This is also funny:

"And then when I went into secondary school, I just … I started to hate maths because of my teachers. And I feel like that['s] what it is for a lot of people. It’s like, sometimes you don’t get along with your teachers and you start to hate the subjects. It was just like totally what happened with me. So, I’d kill all three of my math teachers … But I wouldn’t actually kill anyone. No."

Wait for the backlash from the math teachers of the world. I have to agree though because my math teacher in high school was awful. It goes to show how important some teachers are to the rest of your life.

We Are Now Supposed to be Heading Toward a Little Ice Age by 2030?

Things change so quickly it must be hard to be a climate scientist nowadays.

Professor Vlentina Zharkova of Northumbira University presented the frigid findings at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales. Modern technology has made us able to predict solar cycles with much greater accuracy, and Zharkova’s model predicts that solar activity will drop by more than half between 2030 and 2040.

So no more global warming because the ice age will get rid of the excess heat from greenhouse gases? That is the problem with predicting things centuries into the future. There might be changes between now and then.

Women's Team gets Ticker-tape Parade and hopfully the Same Pay as the Men's Winners if Congress Acts

Its nice to see American women honored in such a way.

While watching the parade, a group of self-proclaimed soccer moms from East Brunswick, New Jersey, hometown of U.S. midfielder Heather O'Reilly, said the next hurdle for women athletes is equal pay.

"Parade first, then the money," said Lynne Dunbar, 62.

Next week in Congress, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont will introduce a resolution calling on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to immediately eliminate gender pay inequity between men and women athletes.

I mean you cannot change the fact that mens pro-soccer players make 1000x more than women but at least you could give them the same prize money for the World Cup. I know the Womens World Cup is nowhere near the world viewership of the men's but FIFA makes billions. So it would be too much of a stretch to pay them the women the same amount in winnings.

It Seems that some of Trump's Anti-Immigrant Behavior Might Have just been Red Meat for the Nativist Wing of the GOP #DumpTrump

Hmm if this Trump was running for President he might actually win.

For over an hour, Trump listened intently, asked thoughtful questions, and gave us examples of Latino employees he held in high regard. He then asked each of the DREAMers to describe their journeys, which were compelling and mirrored every value each American shares: education, work ethic, community, faith and family. After I summed up the conversation with “immigrants are a value proposition to America,” he stood up, waved his hands in dramatic Donald fashion and exclaimed, “You’ve convinced me!”

Yeah I guess this was just an act for this particular immigrant organization. Or maybe the anti-immigrant Trump is the fake one? In any case he is an idiot that needs to be out of the GOP race as soon as possible.

New IBM Chips the Fastest EVAR!

Well, look out Intel it seems IBM is gaining on them in terms of speed and will rush right past them.

What’s the fastest computer chip you can think of? Now, forget about it, because IBM announced it has created the fastest computer chips ever made. The firm’s new chips are four times faster than today’s top-of-the-line silicon, and they’re also significantly more efficient.

It might be time to go long IBM (if they start solving all their other issues of course) because everyone loves speed when it comes to computing/gaming.

Ariana Grande #HatingAmerica then Licking Donuts (Not Necessarily in that Order) is Causing Fallout with Donut Shop

Well it looks like the donut shop, Wolfee Donuts, is now in trouble for trusting that their patrons to not lick on donuts that are put in front of them and then curse out America.

Wolfee Donuts has now been downgraded by Riverside County's Department of Environmental Health from an "A" rating to a "B" rating following the apparent licking incident with Ariana Grande. After receiving a complaint, the department visited the shop on Wednesday for a routine visit, and found some violations, including not protecting food from contact with the public. The shop has one week to make the corrections, but will not be closed as a result.

So the donut shop is going to getting punished because of stupid patrons act like children. I guess that is California law for you.

Ariana Grande's "America hater" Rant is Costing her: MLB Chooses Lavato who I assume Loves America #GrandeHatesAmerica

Well it seems that the MLB All-Star game is going a different direction.

Demi Lovato has been tapped as the new headliner for Saturday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Concert following Ariana Grande’s withdrawal. The official reason given for Grande dropping out is she’s recovering from a wisdom teeth extraction. But Grande’s sweet tooth, which led to some bizarre behavior over the weekend, may actually be to blame.

Maybe baseball and apple pie are just not her thing. It seems licking other peoples donuts and hating on her country is what she is into instead.

I Think Trump is a False Flag Attack on the GOP: Now He Has Mexicans "Pouring in Infectious Diseases" #DumpTrump

I think his candidacy is just a "false flag" attack on the GOP because this is starting to become ridiculous.

“This is merely one of thousands of similar incidents throughout the United States,” he said. “In other words, the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government. The largest suppliers of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs are Mexican cartels that arrange to have Mexican immigrants trying to cross the borders and smuggle in the drugs. The Border Patrol knows this. Likewise, tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border. The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world. On the other hand, many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it.” 

That last sentence doesn't make the previous how many right. Here is some unsolicited advice. Volunteer the US Military to have joint operations with the Mexican military to go after the cartels. Make it a "boots on the ground" operation that will not stop until the cartels are rooted out and destroyed. In other words help out your southern neighbor instead of denigrating them.

This action will take some of the pressure off of the Mexican government which will allow them to invest in growth instead of using that money to fight the cartels. Hell, seizing the cartel billions could go a long way toward providing jobs programs for Mexicans. If you improve the Mexican economy you make them less likely to come to America to look for work. There you go "the Donald" fixed your stupid campaign.

Great, Now Ariana Grande Hates America

After this country gave her so much success.

Second, the part of the video that is getting the biggest play on social media today is what Grande had to say about America (did we mention this took place on the Fourth of July?)
The actress sports a tray of donuts off-camera, and when they're put in front of her she can be heard saying, "What the f--k is that?

"I hate Americans, I hate America. That's disgusting."

It's unclear just what it was that set Grande off, but it's not making a difference to the singer's fans, many of whom have posted online about their disgust with the comments.

It would be interesting to hear her point of view to what set her off. I'm sure her damage control people are running scared.

Looks Like Europe is Going to Blink: #GrexitDenied

It seems that Merkel and Hollande are attempting to save Europe again.

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande worked together on a plan to save Greece from plunging into economic turmoil and possibly having to ditch the euro. This involved a medium-term conditional program and a short-term interim financing deal for a few months, the sources said.

However, a solution still depends on Tsipras putting forward convincing reform proposals and rushing key measures through parliament by the weekend to make Greece's public finances sustainable.

Now Tsirpras can look like a hero by agreeing to whatever watered down reforms and then the banks can reopen and people can live off of more than 50 Euros a day. It does pretty much invalidate that Greek vote but a crisis is still a crisis. This part was especially optimistic.

Merkel said she expected a formal loan request from Athens on Wednesday and more detail on how Greece would cooperate to make its economy more competitive on Thursday, in order to seek the approval of the German parliament to start negotiations.

I mean endless austerity that crushes the Greek economy will just put us back at this same spot 6 months from now. Growing out of the debt might be a way for the problem to be fixed permanently.

#Income Inequality: World Cup Edition: FIFA pays Men $32 million while Women get $2 million: I Guess that $30 Million difference was out on Bribes

Well if you want the true meaning if income inequality FIFA has everyone beat.

The U.S.-Japan World Cup final set ratings records for Fox Sports and drew worldwide attention to the women’s game, but the champions will go home with $2 million, which is $33 million less in prize money than Germany did when they won the last men’s world cup according to the BBC. 

I guess FIFA doesn't make nearly the same amount of money on the women's game as the men's but they did rake in $4.8 billion on their last World Cup.

Macy's is now going to #DumpTrump

It seems the problems are getting "huuuge" for Captain Combover.

Macy's said in a statement that the retailer is "disappointed and distressed" by Trump's remarks and will end its relationship with him.

Macy's has carried a Donald Trump menswear line since 2004, including $70 button down-shirts and $65 striped ties. Most items were heavily discounted on Macy's website on Wednesday.

I think running for President might be the biggest mistake Trump has made in years. He has lost millions in business deals in a few weeks and he is merely one of like a 100 GOP candidates and will probably drop out before the end of the year.

Great the F-35 is a Piece of Crap: That sound you heard was the Ruskies and Red Chinese licking their Chops

It might be another case of the Sherman tank vs. the Tiger tank.

We’ve heard of significant shortcomings before with the fighter jet that’s supposed to be America’s future, but this is just as bad as it gets. The F-35 performed so dismally in a dogfight, that the test pilot remarked that the it had pretty much no place fighting other aircraft within visual range.

And it’s even worse than a mere maneuverability issue. At one point, the pilot’s helmet was so big he couldn’t even turn his head inside the cockpit.

Wait, What? Red Chinese Might Come to Greek Aid? #grexit

I guess Red China could just buy the whole of their debt and annex it if they wanted to.

Premier Li Keqiang, in Europe on a day when financial markets took fright that Greece might leave the euro, said China and the world wanted to see Athens remain in the currency area and that China would continue to buy euro zone debt.

Following his first summit with top EU officials, Li declined to say whether Beijing could come to Greece's aid with loans, but commented: "China is ready to play a constructive role." 

They could pretty much monetize all of the Greece's debt and make them Far Western China with their walking-around money if they wanted to. It still boggles my mind that all this capital destruction of the past few days is over several billion in bailout money. I mean Apple could conceivably bail out Greece if they wanted to with just a small hit to their cash hoard.

Trump Losing Friends Fast Because of his Immigrant Bashing: NBC Runs Away as fast as possible #DumpTrump

Well I'm glad people are running away from this idiot.

NBC is ending its long relationship with Donald Trump in the wake of the presidential hopeful’s recent comments about Mexican immigrants.

NBC said it will no longer carry the Trump-produced Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. Nor will he return to host “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump,” NBC said in a statement. “’Celebrity Apprentice’ is licensed from Mark Burnett’s United Artists Media Group and that relationship will continue.”

Yeah calling people coming over the border rapists can do that for someone. I'm glad his bombastic comments are finally coming back to haunt him. I think running for President is going to be quite a big mistake for the Donald. 

Sarah Palin out at Fox News: Maybe our Long National Nightmare has Finally Come to an End

Maybe she will be relegated to the dust bin of history at long last.

Fox News, which helped the polarizing former Alaska governor remain in the spotlight as a regular contributor after Sen. John McCain's (and his running mate's) defeat in the 2008 presidential election, did not renew Mrs. Palin's contract, Politico's Mike Allen first reported. Her exit brings an end to a cable staple conservatives have loved and liberals have loved to hate.

I'm just glad her annoying voice will not have a place to spout off about nonsense anymore. Whenever I saw her on Fox News I immediately changed the channel. Now she will still hang around at conservative forums and such because she is still a draw for whatever reason. However, she will reduced to a sound bite which will be fine with me.

New Term: Social Media Speed; the Confederate Flag Ban Version

Now this is change that is strait-up stunning.

Prominent U.S. flag makers said on Tuesday they will stop manufacturing and selling Confederate battle flags in the wake of last week's attack on worshipers at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Reggie VandenBosch, vice president of sales at the privately owned Valley Forge Flag, said the Pennsylvania-based company came to the decision as pressure grew on South Carolina to remove the banner from outside the State House in Columbia. 

You add to this the fact that Amazon, Sears, Wal-Mart, and EBay have taken all their confederate flag merchandise off the shelves at once. The S. Carolina legislature will probably end up sending the flag to a museum soon and other legislatures will probably be pressured into it. This all happened in 5 days. 

You have to hand all of this to Twitter and Facebook. The gap between event and action has moved at lightning speed. What is bad though is that the next event will turn everyone's heads and nothing long term will be done. You can ban the Stars-and-bars as a feel good measure but mental health as not been addressed. Even a background check might not have caught this latest psycho-killer. In any case change happens so fast nowadays it really is a marvel to watch.