If the Donald is held up Against a REIT Index he Looks Even Worse: 57% Underperformance

This makes him look like an even worse businessman then he claims.

Calculation: An investment of $200 million in 1976 in the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index would have compounded to $23.2 billion by year-end 2015. This is considerably above Mr. Trump’s recent self-reported net worth of approximately $10 billion. Mr. Trump has underperformed the real estate market by approximately $13.2 billion, or 57%. - See more at: http://www.texasenterprise.utexas.edu/donald-trump-wealth-investments-underperform#sthash.OemHeZVH.dpuf

Calculation: An investment of $200 million in 1976 in the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index would have compounded to $23.2 billion by year-end 2015. This is considerably above Mr. Trump’s recent self-reported net worth of approximately $10 billion. Mr. Trump has underperformed the real estate market by approximately $13.2 billion, or 57%. 

So if you took that $200 million inheritance and bought that index you would have had $23 billion instead of his $10 billion? That's if he did absolutely nothing and let his cash grow while he played golf and maybe peeled a billion off to buy a sports team or something. That is pretty shocking. That shows how bad he is at actually managing that money. If I were an investor at Trump Inc. I would fire the CEO if he were trailing the average by such a wide margin. 

Wait, Trump Cannot Even Beat an S&P 500 Index Fund? Now that is Pretty Sad

I was told (by Trump) that he is a great business success. However if he just bought and held he would have been even richer.

In 1976, Trump told the New York Times that he was worth $200 million. Had he put that money in an ordinary fund based on the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, the kind that many people use to save money for retirement, he'd have $12 billion today. That is more than the $10 billion he has claimed he is worth. Bloomberg estimates his wealth at $2.9 billion.

So if he just took that 200 million and invested in an S&P 500 Index fund he would have been up an extra $2 billion. If his net worth is actually $2.9 billion that is a fairly poor rate of return on investing $200 million over 40 years. I guess going bankrupt a number of times does that. In any case I can understand why he is so thin skinned when it comes to his net worth. He couldn't even beat a buy-and-hold strategy.

GOP Scrambles to Stop Trump: Um Guys its Over; Hillary Will be the 45th President of the United States

Unless she is indited of course then maybe all bets are off. In any case the GOP establishment is running scared.

In a flurry of conference calls and meetings, top Republican donors and strategists laid plans for a multimillion-dollar assault on the front-runner in a series of states holding contests on March 15. Ground zero is Florida, where home-state Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading establishment candidate, is going all-in to defeat Trump, who leads in the polls there. 

Maybe they should simply let Trump go and get behind the 2020 nominee to head off Hillary's second term. If they go to a brokered convention Trump will run as a third party and Hillary would win anyway. That pledge he signed is just a piece of toilet paper to the Drumpf.

In any case I guess it will be historic to see the first female President. She is owned by Wall Street so the market will be up during her term. So that means bank stocks and brokerage houses will prosper under her reign and patronage. She might really be the President from Goldman Sachs.

However, I wonder if she would be quick to make a deals with the GOP Congress? They don't seem to hate each other like Obama and the current Congress so it might be possible. She is pretty warlike so ISIS would have to watch their backs. 

Well Chris Christie sounds just like a Teen Girl Now that he is no longer relevant

I think he may have damaged his career if Trump doesn't win the Presidency. Here he is sounding like a petulant teen at a press conference.

One reporter told Christie that he and, he assumed, other reporters in the room had some off-topic questions and began to launch into a question, but was immediately shot down.
“No, I won’t permit you to. I told you that there’s going to be only on-topic questions today. So, permission denied,” Christie said.

He silenced another reporter immediately afterward: “That’s an off-topic question. I think you understand that I’m answering on-topic questions today." Asked why he wouldn't take questions on anything else, Christie replied, "Because I don’t want to.”

“Anything else on topic?” Christie asked repeatedly. “Anything else on topic?”

"Because I don't want to" sounds like a teen girl telling her parents why she doesn't want to take off all that make-up. What a blow-hard clown. It will be nice to see him disappear now that he is no longer relevant on the national stage.

Target for Gravity Wave Detector: Giant Freaking Radio Wave Burst Coming from Galaxy 6 Billion Light Years Away

It looks like a juicy target for our newfound gravity wave detector.

On April 18, 2015, a telescope caught sight of the FRB, and mere hours later, other telescopes found its location, tracing the source of the burst to a galaxy about 6 billion light-years away, according to a new study published in the journal Nature this week.

This marks the first time the distance to an FRB has been measured.

FRBs send out as much energy in a fraction of a second as the sun puts out in 10,000 years, but they are exceedingly difficult to find. 

Now that is something to check out using gravity waves. I wonder what could be causing such a powerful burst.

On Feb 21st We Mark 100 Years Since the WW1 Battle of Verdun

The worst part is that this battle was pretty much for no real gain or loss.

It was the middle of World War I , and the fighting all along the Western Front that ran between the Channel and the Alps had settled into a static confrontation of men, planes and guns — guns, above all. That day the Germans dropped a million shells onto the forts, forests and ravines around Verdun, and in the 10 months that followed, 60 million more would fall in the area. By then the French had stopped the German advance and even recovered most of the terrain they had lost, reduced by then to a lunar landscape bereft of vegetable or animal life. And 300,000 men had died.

Think about that 300,000 figure for a moment. That is 4 full Allianz Stadiums (where Bayern Munich plays) full of soldiers that would die between Feb 21st and Dec 18th when the battle was officially over. The worst part is was all futile because as it says above the Germans attacked the French counter attacked over and over but they were right back where they started at the end of the battle. It was pretty much all of WW1 encapsulated in one disastrous battle.

Also the Douaumont Ossuary on the site contains the unidentified remains of 150,000 French and German war dead. Those are unidentified soldiers. Blown apart by bombs or artillery or chopped apart by machine guns or whatever. Also 65 square miles of the battlefield is called a Zone Rouge (“Red Zone”) because therein lies perhaps 10 million unexploded shells. Every now and then one blows up or releases mustard gas into the air. Those chemical weapons are still deadly 100 years later. It might take another 100 years or more to clear all the bombs and make that place inhabitable again. More than likely it will always be a haunted wasteland where people will never go again.  

A "Great Game" Development: Iran and China Restart the Silk Road will Pipelines be Next?

It seems the Red Chinese are moving in quick now that sanctions have been lifted on Iran.

The first cargo train from China to Iran arrived in Tehran on Monday, marking a milestone in reviving the ancient Silk Road trade route.

The 32-container train passed through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran, taking 14 days (30 days less than a typical sea voyage between Shanghai and the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas) to complete the 6,462 mile journey from China’s eastern city of Wiyu.

The Silk Road – envisioned as a rail and sea route – is part of China’s “One Belt, One Road,” an economic development strategy, which has opened a new chapter of win-win cooperation between China and Iran, Xinhua reported.

That is kind of a long haul but the idea of a long pipeline bringing Iranian oil to Chinese refineries and then sold directly into China might be a smart play. It would have to cross through several countries but I'm sure the Red Chinese can grease a few palms to get the thing going.

It would be a perfect "Great Game" strategy. China gets away from American/Saudi oil coming by ship and moves toward a fairly stable pipeline coming from Iran. In return Iran gets a stable market for their oil and also gets the Red Chinese to move into their sphere of influence. Israel or the US would be loathe to bomb nuclear sites when it could raise the ire of Red China. Even if sanctions were threatened on Iran the Chinese would vote anything down because they have an economic dog in the game. Very canny by both players.

Largest Blackhole Ever Identified Filmed by Hubble: No It's Not Ted Cruz's Soul

Now this is one big assed black hole.

So how big is it, exactly? Well, according to our best estimates, the supermassive black hole is roughly 21 billion times the size of the Sun, and its event horizon (an area so dense and powerful that light can’t escape its gravity) measures 130 billion kilometers in diameter. That’s about 15 times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit around the Sun, according to scientists at the Hubble Space Telescope.

Legendary Technician Tom Demark says the market bottom will be in the next few days

Sounds good to me. It looks like there will be one final toilet flush then hopefully we will be headed back northward.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, he said that he's looking for a bottom in the S&P 500 over the next couple of days.

DeMark told Bloomberg that he expects we'll find a bottom at 1,792 for S&P 500 futures and 1,797 for the index.

The S&P closed at 1,829 on Thursday. He is a legendary market technician known for making big and specific market-timing calls.

First, however, DeMark thinks that stocks are going to head lower and that this final dive will probably happen "in the next two or three days."

This market is totally irrational pricing in a recession for some reason. Good stocks were getting killed on rumors of things that would never happen. Does anyone really think the Fed would be okay with negative rates when they are doing everything they can to raise them? The banks got killed on that mis-information. 

Also high-growth stocks all got nailed because Tableau missed their numbers? 

To recap: shares went from $81.75 with analysts predicting target prices of $100 and above, to below $40 on Tuesday, with average analyst targets of $74.

For instance, Morgan Stanley analysts who had been bullish on Tableau did a complete about-face. They downgraded the stock from overweight to equal-weight and slashed their target price from $125 to $55.

All this because Tableau lowered its earnings expectations to $830 million to $850 million from its previous guidance of $845 million to $865 million.

The problem is that it seems to be Tableau's (DATA) problem and not the entire industry.

He suggest that Tableau is facing more competition (driving down prices), internal sales issues and, perhaps the fact that some companies are focused more on moving their IT to the cloud than they are in ramping up their big data projects.

So these companies are using their IT spend to buy something else instead of big data projects. Big data always seemed like the kind of project that you would launch if you had cash left over. However, taking your infrastructure to the cloud or cyber-security is something you have to buy (and pay maintenance year after year) no matter what. Hopefully, this irrationality will bleed out of the market next week.

Why Millennial's Hate Hillary in one Article

This is from a very liberal point of view from a feminist.

The reason Wall Street is dropping zillions of quarters into Hillary's Super PAC-Man machine isn't because it wants change — it's because Wall Street sees revenue in her promises of keeping things much the same. Under Hillary, our prisons will continue to punish for profit. Our schools will continue to be sold off to private contractors. And despite 87 percent of Democrats standing behind universal health care, Hillary insists it will "never, ever come to pass." Not from her, I guess, since she's taken over $13 million from the health care industry.

Yeah Hillary really is yet another bought-and-paid-for politician and Sanders doesn't seem to be that way with his $27 average donation. It is simple as that. She also is disingenuous, crooked, and a national security threat because she wanted what she wanted. She may even be under indictment for felony charges before too long.

If Millennials are coming out in droves to support Bernie Sanders, it's not because we are tripping balls on Geritol. No, Sanders's clever strategy of shouting the exact same thing for 40 years simply strikes a chord among the growing number of us who now agree: Washington is bought. And every time Goldman Sachs buys another million-dollar slice of the next American presidency, we can't help but drop the needle onto Bernie's broken record:

I think it is a sense that the Wall Street sharpies, their captive regulators, and their salaried politicians tanked the economy. In a sense the Millennials are right when they say this. So socialism looks much better to them than rigged capitalism. Bernie offers free college tuition and universal healthcare. The optimistic, dreamer type of things. Hillary offers them the hard truths like how these things get paid for. That is a non-starter with a generation that is starting their lives in the Great Recession.
 

Astronomers Find Gravitational Waves: Ushers in New Field of Gravity Wave Astronomy

Now this is one interesting breakthrough that will probably get lost in all the stupid crap out there nowadays.

In other words, gravitational wave astronomy will usher in an entirely new era of space discovery.

"Things we should never be entitled to see -- colliding black holes, merging neutron stars, gargantuan collisions of galaxies -- can now be routinely revealed to us. We are poised to discover whole new types of phenomena, and we will now receive entirely new insights on familiar objects," said astronomer Bryan Gaensler, director of Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and the Canadian SKA science director, who has not worked on the LIGO project.

"There have been many scientific highlights of physics and astronomy in recent years: the Higgs Boson, landing a probe on a comet, and an amazing fly-by of Pluto," he said. "But all this is dwarfed by what has been announced this week. A new era of science has begun."   

The idea that two black holes can collide and we could not see that phenomenon before sounds really interesting. Imagine the forces that are brought to bear when these two infinite mass objects smash into each other. It would be interesting to peer into the gravity wave signature in the center of our solar system.

Also I wonder if this gravity wave detection could find wormholes by tracking their gravitational waves? It does seem like a new day in astronomy. Thank you Dr. Einstein for providing the theory and LIGO for proving it.

Christie and Fiorina are Out: Too Much Trump for Them

New Hampshire seems to be the great winnowing of the field. In past elections this is when people just got interested. I have been following it when there were like 15 people in the field so it feels strange now that there are only a few left.

The choices we have left are mostly unpalatable as well. The megalomaniac billionaire, the hated Senator from Texas, the young robot from Florida, the decorated surgeon that knows nothing about foreign policy, the wooden brother of the other President, and the likable Governor from Ohio (who I could actually vote for without reservation.) The Dem side has the duplicitous potential felon that had her email hacked and the septuagenarian socialist that all the Millennials love. I might have to vote present like Obama in this election because nearly everyone sucks.

Hillary's Quid Pro Quo With the Press

So this is what they mean by "objective" journalism.

“1) You in your own voice describe them [Clinton’s remarks] as ‘muscular’ 2) You note that a look at the CFR seating plan shows that all the envoys — from Holbrooke to Mitchell to Ross — will be arrayed in front of her, which in your own clever way you can say [is] certainly not a coincidence and meant to convey something 3) You don’t say you were blackmailed!”

Ambinder delivered the gushing story Reines wanted after getting the speech early to scoop rivals.

Ambinder told Gawker he regretted cutting the deal.

It also show how her handlers micro-manage her image to make her look less insecure. I would be willing to bet that Condelezza Rice's people didn't have to cut deals with the press to make her look "muscular" or have the other envoys "arrayed in front of her." I assume the envoys were genuflecting worse than these press sycophants.

Well Idiot Cruz admits that His Campaign Used some Lies by Omission on the Iowa Caucus: #LoseCruz

And this guy is going to try to run against the Queen of Lies herself, Hillary?

CNN reported Monday night that Carson would go home to Florida following the Iowa caucuses instead of flying directly to the early voting states New Hampshire and South Carolina. The network added that he planned to stay in the race.

Some Cruz allies shared that news widely on the night of the caucuses, including to Carson supporters, but did not include the part about Carson remaining in the race.

Now that is dirty politics and I would expect nothing less from idiot Cruz. The funny thing is that he can no long accuse Hillary of being untruthful because he was caught red-handed to try to win Iowa at all costs. If Cruz is the nominee I will probably vote for the devil I know (aka Hillary) and not the idiot America should fear. 

Looks Like Amazon Found Their Retail Store Head: Steve Kessel

Hmm I guess Bezos trusts the guy.

Kessel joined Amazon in 1999 and was part of the team that built the original Kindle. He's known to be close with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as he was one of the 10 people who directly reported to him before leaving for a sabbatical in 2012.

In early 2015, Kessel returned to Amazon, but his role has been unclear until now. Re/code says he's been working on this project secretly for a long time.

Amazon's retail ambitions were first revealed in November 2015 when it opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in downtown Seattle.

Aside from the bookstore, Kessel's team is also planning to open physical stores that sell things other than books, although it's unclear what they will be. Another idea it's testing is a store without a payments gateway, allowing the customer to pay with a smartphone app instead.

Hmm does that mean there might be Amazon clothing stores or even Zappos shoe stores opening up? Might be yet another reason to head back to the mall. 

Amazon to Open Brick-and-Mortar Book Stores: A Great Idea Indeed: Time to Buy the Stock?

One of the things I used to love was perusing the bookstore to look for things I would like to read. Ever since Amazon killed Borders and severely damaged Barnes and Noble I haven't done this very much. Now this news is very welcome.

After dipping its toes into brick-and-mortar retailing last year with its first physical bookstore, online giant Amazon.com Inc. is poised to dive into the deep end.

The Seattle company plans to open as many as 400 bookstores, Sandeep Mathrani, chief executive of mall operator General Growth Properties Inc., said on an earnings call on Tuesday.

“You’ve got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400,” said Mr. Mathrani in response to a question about mall traffic.

One thing about a book is that it is great to flip through a copy and see if you like the prose style and such. I don't do this on my tablet because you have to download some of the book or read a preview. It is just so much easier to pick up a book and flip through it and put it down if you don't like it. Hopefully Amazon understands this and that is why they are going brick-and-mortar. I would love to have my Amazon stuff sent to the store and pick it up there and maybe buy something else while I'm doing that. The Wal-Mart online shopping model. 

Another idea is that they can use these stores as the hub of Amazon fulfillment services. If you are a seller on Amazon you just drive your products down to these stores and they will send them out for you. That way Amazon doesn't have to have the seller mail them the product so they can store them in some warehouse. 

They had higher costs this past Christmas because so many people used their fulfillment services that they had to rent a bunch of overflow warehouse space really quickly. I'm sure that space was very costly being around the holiday season. If they had a brick-and-mortar they would store the items there as well as in their fulfillment center. In fact the seller could drive the product there and a buyer can then pick it up from that same store. Or they can save money by simply using Amazon trucks and planes to send them back and forth.

Finally, with Amazon Web Services they could build out an engineering force based at their brick-and-mortar places. Imagine them having a Geek Squad like group that could come into your business and set up your virtual servers, email system, do any programming your company needs, offer testing in the cloud etc. for one price. Kind of a Data Center in a box. 

With this they can get into tech consulting and go head-to-head with IBM and whomever for that high margin business. If they want they could even do an Amazon network services fiber to go head-to-head with Google. They could conceivably sell you the network and the data center all at once. All of this would be very easy if they have a Amazon Consulting Services (or whatever they call it) added to their brick-and-mortar place. Kind of like CompUSA used to have business services added onto their stores back in the day. However, it will be much cheaper and more lucrative because they won't have to sell you expensive servers made by HP or Dell. They simply sell you cloud services using AWS.

In any case, I think this might be a buying opportunity for the stock. It got beaten down when they missed earnings due to the problems above. They had great revenue growth but they had to spend a bunch of extra money that they might not have had to if they had brick-and-mortar to augment their fulfillment centers. They will have a high CAPEX in the near term to open these stores but it will save them big money and allow many more ways of selling their products. Hell, I would drive down to an Amazon Store simply to try out Amazon Echo to see if all the hype is justified.

Trump Cries like a Baby on Iowa Caucus: Accuses Cruz of Stealing it #DumpTrump

Just win the next one (if you can) you whiny blowhard.

Two days after finishing second to Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump is accusing the Texas senator of fraud and demanding that either a “new election” take place in the Hawkeye State or that its results be “nullified.”

“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!”

This guy is such a whiner. You would think a New Yorker that made his money in the the real estate market would have thicker skin. I guess not.

Yahoo to Concentrate on Mobile? Case in Point on How Bad They Are: You cannot change portfolio contents from the mobile app

I really think they should fire Marissa Mayer's and bring in a turn-around expert.

The company’s turnaround plan includes continued investment in what the company calls “Mavens,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said on the company’s earnings conference call. Mavens refers to Yahoo’s mobile, video, native and social businesses, where its ad revenue is growing.

“Our plan involves continued investment in Mavens to counterbalance legacy declines, with a particular emphasis on mobile,” Mayer said on the call. “With Mavens revenue at over $1.6 billion for the year, mobile is the largest contributor, adding over $1 billion, or nearly a quarter of our traffic-driven revenue.”

It's funny that they are going after mobile at long last because their mobile has been woeful. I have used the Yahoo Finance app for several years and it has been a long slog. First of all you cannot change your portfolio from the app. You have to log into the website for that and then it is carried over. That is something that should have been implemented years ago. Secondly there is all this stale news on there that is different than the webpage. So I just repeat the stock search from the CNBC app so I can read current news.

The only reason I even use the Yahoo Finance app is that I have had my watchlists and such on there for years and years so I am a legacy user. If an easier app that contained more information came along I would certainly go through the long process of shifting everything there and not look back.

Blackrock Head Takes Other CEOs to Task: Forget about Quarterly Earnings Guidance

I agree with him 100%.

"Today’s culture of quarterly earnings hysteria is totally contrary to the long-term approach we need," Fink, the CEO of BlackRock Inc., wrote in a letter to more than 500 companies, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. Instead of focusing on small deviations from analysts’ earnings estimates, management should use quarterly reports to demonstrate progress against strategic plans, he wrote.

This is exactly why companies use their cash on pointless stock buybacks instead of increasing value for their businesses. Even acquisitions seem to be a waste of money for the most part. Look at Yahoo's terrible spending spree of failed businesses. You can point to any number of failures when it comes to buying out other companies. However, you might get good engineers or top salespeople or something so it is at least a better use of cash than stock buybacks. They only benefit short-term thinking.

Bernie Whipping Hillary in Millennial Women

Who would have thought a 74 year old white guy would be the choice of a new generation?

The age gap is stark. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that Sanders bests Clinton among 18- to 44-year-olds, 78 percent to 21 percent. But support for Clinton seems to grow with age: 53 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds chose her, along with 71 percent of people 65 and older.

So older women like Clinton for some reason or another but young women want Sanders. I think the idea that Wall Street sharpies and connected Washington big-wigs tanked the economy and made it so the millennials might be one of the first generations in decades that will be poorer than their parents. Hillary is the epitome of the Washington big-wig with pockets full of Wall Street sharpies money. I wonder if it will lose her Iowa again?

Clinton Tax Plan Looks Like Ass: Congress Won't Pass them so No Big Deal

I think the Dems are just addicted to tax hikes for whatever reason.

Clinton’s plan would lead investors to postpone realizing their gains -- and would therefore reduce capital-gains tax collections by $374 billion over 10 years, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Tax Foundation, a research group whose board of directors includes corporate executives. The group has not yet published an analysis of Sanders’s proposals.

Clinton’s tax plans, which would also cap itemized deductions that tend to benefit higher-income taxpayers, appear to raise $498 billion over 10 years, according to the foundation’s analysis. But the group’s report also said Clinton’s proposed tax increases would reduce U.S. gross domestic product by 1 percent over the long term -- resulting in actual collections of $191 billion over the next decade.

There is nothing like a 1% GDP hit to get only $19 billion a year to waste on some crap. I guess this would be called share the pain plan for almost no gain plan. I wish I could vote for someone decent in this election but everyone sucks.

Cowardly Trump Ducks Debate: If You Can't Handle Megyn Kelly He Can't Handle Putin or Angela Merkel

I thought he was just a blowhard but now he is a cowardly wimp as well. When the going gets tough Trump ducks out.

Trump on Tuesday withdrew from the televised encounter, scheduled for Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa, irritated at host Fox for allowing Kelly to moderate after her questioning had angered him in a debate last year.

He is just like any other bully. When you confront him and stand up to him he hides like a wimpy bitch. I can just hear the cries of "Angela Merkel is such a bimbo. I'm not going to the state dinner" or "Putin is so unfair I'm not going to the summit talks." His image as a person that gets things done has taken major damage from his cowardice.

Fox News Spits Shade at the Donald and its Very Funny #DumpTrump

There might be some wit left at Fox News.

“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president,” Fox News said in the statement, adding this gem: “A nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”

I think they should put an empty lectern on the stage or maybe just direct questions to Jimmy Fallon dressed as Trump. You will probably get the same sort of sound bites from an actual Trump on stage.

Damn! The Mongols were Bad-asses: A Letter Sent to the Mamaluk Sultan in 1260 AD

Now this is how you write a threat.

From the King of Kings of the East and West, the Great Khan. To Qutuz the Mamluk, who fled to escape our swords. You should think of what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the disorders that tainted it. We have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people. You cannot escape from the terror of our armies. Where can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand. Fortresses will not detain us, nor armies stop us. Your prayers to God will not avail against us. We are not moved by tears nor touched by lamentations. Only those who beg our protection will be safe. Hasten your reply before the fire of war is kindled. Resist and you will suffer the most terrible catastrophes. We will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God and then will kill your children and your old men together. At present you are the only enemy against whom we have to march.

Qutuz wasn't a slouch either. His reply was to kill the messengers and have their heads displayed on a gate to Cairo. People didn't fool around in those days.

Talk About Break even: $27 is what the barrel the oil comes in costs?

It seems that $27 might be the lowest a barrel of oil can go.

At $27, the cost of filling a barrel of oil is less than the purchase price of the barrel itself. While there is growing evidence that Saudi Arabia won't be rescuing the market anytime soon, legendary investor T. Boone Pickens believes that the U.S. may be able to balance the supply glut on its own.

It seems that rig count might finally be dropping and the bottom might be in when it comes to oil.

Palin Endorses Trump: So What? I Thought her 15 Minutes was Over

I hate when they put idiot Palin in as if she is some sort of kingmaker.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump received a key endorsement Tuesday from conservative heavyweight Sarah Palin, giving the billionaire businessman a potential boost with some voters less than two weeks before voting begins with the Iowa caucuses.

"I am greatly honored to receive Sarah's endorsement," Trump said in a statement announcing the support of the former Alaska governor and former running mate of Sen. John McCain in his 2008 bid for the White House. "She is a friend, and a high-quality person whom I have great respect for. I am proud to have her support."

She is part of the reason why the GOP has dumbed itself down to the level it has in recent years. She is everything that is wrong with modern conservatism.  Her TV shows failed and I thought she moved off to Alaska so we don't have to pay attention. Instead she cozied up with Trump to make herself look relevant again.

Geman Military in Sad State: Cannot even Make Night Flights

You figure this would be quite an embarrassment.

The six aircraft sent to Syria are fitted with surveillance technology, and had been touted as being capable of taking high-resolution photos and infrared images, even at night and in bad weather.

But Bild reported that night flights were impossible as pilots are blinded by the cockpit light which is far too bright.

A defence ministry spokesman admitted that there is "a small technical problem that has to do with the cockpit lighting".

"It is possible that the night goggles worn by pilots result in reflections," he said, adding that the ministry was looking at resolving the problem within the next two weeks.

I guess that idea of German precision does not extend to their air force.

Its a Dyson Swarm I Tell Ya! Strange Star Dims and its Not Comets

Hmm I think its an alien megastructure.

To make his discovery, Schaefer had to dig deep down into the astronomy archives at Harvard. It turns out, astronomers have data on KIC8462852 dating back as far as 1890.

By analyzing over 1,200 measurements of this star's brightness taken from 1890 through 1989, Schaefer found that the irregular dimming of KIC8462852 has been going on for over 100 years. Schaefer published his findings in the online pre-print server arxiv.org.

What's more, he explains in his paper that this "century-long dimming trend requires an estimated 648,000 giant comets (each with 200 km diameter) all orchestrated to pass in front of the star within the last century," which he said is "completely implausible."

Yeah that comet theory is out the door. What is interesting is that the star had been studied but it came up empty.

Schaifer isn't the only one interested in learning more about KIC8462852. Late last year, astronomer Doug Vakoch and his team at the new organization called SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International — not to be confused with the SETI Institute — went hunting for aliens around KIC8462852.

They searched for signals that an alien civilization might be beaming toward Earth either in radio or visible wavelengths, but ultimately they came up empty handed. So, if it is aliens, then they're being awfully quiet.

However, that doesn't mean that they use radio or visible waves to communicate. Perhaps they use a form of telepathy that allows instant communication. The idea that they can build something that can block 20% of the light of the sun would make their technology pretty advanced indeed.

ISIS Money Gets the Bunker Buster Treatment

Time to put the stranglehold on the money with ISIS.

On Monday, defense officials told CNN that the U.S. dropped a pair of 2,000-pound bombs on a building in Mosul, Iraq, that contained potentially millions in currency belonging to ISIS.

Officials said that intelligence efforts had determined that the site, now reduced to rubble, was a "cash collection and distribution point” for ISIS, which is believed to take in tens of millions of dollars each month.

The mission seems to be an extension of the recent Defense Department push to pinch ISIS in its wallet by hitting the extremist network’s oil infrastructure.

I wonder why this didn't happen months ago. Or even years ago for that matter. Obama dropping the ball on stopping ISIS again.

Well the Bottom is In: Royal Bank of Scotland says "Sell Everything!"

Whenever you get a call that says to panic sell everything you know the bottom is in.

Western stocks will fall by 20 percent. Oil will trade at $16 a barrel. Emerging markets will crumble as China assumes the role of Lehman Brothers in the not so eagerly awaited sequel to the 2008 financial crisis.
That preview of the next 12 months is brought to you by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Sell everything except for high-quality bonds,” RBS credit chief Andrew Roberts writes in a note to investors that reads like the voice-over in a trailer of a finance-themed horror film. “This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small.”

Whenever you have this kind of hysteria you know the you can start to buy and you can grow off of that point.

Woman Heckles Trump at Diner: My heckle would Be Worry About My Wallet and Not Mexicans or Muslims #DumpTrump

It takes courage to yell at a candidate.

“Enjoy your burger, racist!”a young woman shouted from the back of the restaurant before walking out.

Outside, the heckler identified herself to ABC News as Jane, but declined to give her last name. She said she was visiting the state from South Carolina, and was unaware Trump would make an appearance as she enjoyed lunch.

“I’m really struck by his racism and Islamophobia,” Jane said. “I wanted to make sure people remembered that he is racist, and that he’s using it to rally voters.” 

Hopefully she paid for her lunch before she stormed out. I just want him to tell me his economic plan or how we can grow at like 4% GDP or how he can cut my taxes. I don't care about his stance on Mexicans, the border, or Muslims. In any case I would probably freeze up if I saw him and just notice how weird his hair looks.

Wow OPEC left $541 Billion on the Table with their Quest for Market Share

Now these are some big numbers to leave on the table in 2015.

Would that strategy have cost them market share? Sure, a small amount. But assume they then pumped 34.5 million bpd at $80/bbl. That’s just over a trillion dollars in annual revenue. If instead they pump 36.5 million bpd at $35/bbl — which is actually more than they are getting as I write this — that’s $466 billion in annual revenues. The annual difference in those scenarios is $541 billion. OPEC already lost out on that much in 2015 from the sharp drop in prices. If prices remain at these levels for most of this year, the foregone revenue for OPEC in 2015 and 2016 will easily top $1 trillion since that November 2014 meeting.

That $541 billion could have been used to buy more defense against the hated Iranians. Or it could have been used to lobby hard against the Iranian nuke deal or to get their own nuke program off of the ground.

5000 Idiots Want to Bring Back Lucas for Star Wars IX: I Have One Word for Them: "Prequels"

This has to be the dumbest petition I have ever read about.

“We have no problem with Colin Trevorrow, but he’s not the right guy to direct Star Wars Episode IX . George Lucas as director of Episode IX would be the perfect way to end this new trilogy and make an epic farewell between the Father of Star Wars and the whole universe of the galaxy far, far away.”

Not sure that 5000 signatories will sway Disney from its current course, but it’s worth a try if it’s what you really, really want to happen.

I will go on record that if Lucas directs Episode IX I will have no interest in seeing it. The prequels have proved that he is terrible at doing anything in the universe he created. Jar-jar Binks and the host of racist "aliens" should be enough to keep him from touching anything Star Wars. I am a pretty big fan again after seeing Force Awakens so I would hate for Lucas to ruin that.

T Boone Pickens Says $30 Oil is the Bottom

Well, I know people are trying to ride oil higher so I would love for the bottom to be in.

The recent rout in oil has prompted many investors to ask what could be in store for 2016, as many speculate that crude will continue to trade in the $30s for the foreseeable future.

"Close to the bottom. I was just a year off. We will be back to $70 to $75 by the end of the year," Pickens said.

The oil tycoon added that the world is currently using approximately 95 million barrels a day, and is oversupplied by about 1 million barrels of oil. Therefore he does not believe that it will take much to balance the market. When that occurs, the price of crude will move up fast.  

The problem is that where will that 1 million of barrels of supply will dry up from. It probably won't be from the Saudis or Iran because they need money for proxy wars and subsidies. The need to break the US shale oil industry and hold on to market share is probably greater then losing money. I think the US Shale industry will blink first and they will cut production or go bankrupt. 

I Kind of Understand why the Smart Watch isn't Catching On and Apple is Suffering

I have to agree 100% with the sentiment in this article.

It’s the same thing with the smartwatch. Sure, it does what it’s supposed to. Many of these devices even look really cool on your wrist. But they’re pricey, and hard to use. And it doesn’t make sense when I already have an expensive phone that does all of the same things. I mean honestly, what situations are people ever in where pulling their phone out of their pocket is too inconvenient?

If you need proof that the smartwatch isn’t catching on, take a look at the Apple’s AAPL Apple Watch. With Apple’s massive brand name and an operating system that was easy to navigate for millions of users already familiar with iOS, the Apple Watch soared after its release, quickly becoming the top-selling smartwatch on the market.

That part about having a phone in your pocket that does the same thing is a big one. The redundancy of service is kind of a killer when it comes to a smart watch. People rarely make or get phone calls on the cell phones but mostly text, Instagram, or Snapchat one another. It is simply easier and more socially acceptable to type on a phone pulled out of the pocket than talk into a smart watch. You also really cannot play games or surf Facebook on a smart watch. Was it so hard to reach into ones pocket to look at a phone?

So what the watch does do well is tells time and maybe keeps track of your fitness. You can do that at half the price or less from other sources. The smart watch is still looking for its killer app. The thing that makes you want to leave your phone in your pocket. The only thing that would come close is swiping your watch to pay for something. That might be pretty cool but it still isn't much of a difference then taking your phone out of your pocket.  

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's Diet: Sounds like Something out of Orwell's 1984 or maybe the Gulag #SadRichPeople

Yeah I agree that this is definitely NOT comfort food.

Of course, these are two people whose bodies must be in tip-top shape for their careers, so they’ve learned to adjust. And Campbell says they love it. The kids are happy eating brown-rice sushi, while Tom and Gisele like eating Campbell’s bowl meals. “I’ve just did this quinoa dish with wilted greens. I use kale or Swiss chard or beet greens. I add garlic, toasted in coconut oil. And then some toasted almonds, or this cashew sauce with lime curry, lemongrass, and a little bit of ginger. That’s just comfort food for them.”


So quinoa, which is awful by itself, is added to wilted greens and that is comfort food? Of course this guy didn't use tasty greens like lettuce or sprouts but horrible bitter greens like kale, swiss chard, and *shudder* beet leaves. Adding a little garlic cooked in some strange way or ginger is not going to make that mess any more palatable. What is crazy is that it is comfortable to them? They sound like they are suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something.

I agree with the article writer that it makes you feel a little sorry for these beautiful, rich, and talented celebrities. I can eat a bunch of cheese fries right now and never have to eat hated beet leaves for any reason what so ever. I don't fly on a private jet but I will never have to eat awful brown-rice sushi just to stay thin or have to pay a guy to starve me.

The life one lives where comfort food is a bowl of quinoa is a miserable life any way you slice it. Gisele is a model so I guess eating like a political prisoner would make sense. But Brady is a football player who uses a ton of calories every day. He could afford to eat a huge bowl of pasta or a dozen weenies or something and he wouldn't gain an ounce from it. 

Liberal Media Talking about Bill Clinton's Rape Allegations with a 2016 Mentality to Believe the Victim First

Hmm this is an interesting development coming from the left.

So far, this issue has mostly been raised by conservative media and Republican politicians like Prudhomme-O'Brien. But it's a substantive issue worthy of coverage from non-right-wing outlets as well. There really are multiple accusations of sexual assault against Bill Clinton, accusations that have too often been conflated with his much better-established and much less morally concerning history of adultery. Are the women making these accusations survivors who deserve to be believed, to borrow Hillary Clinton's language? Or, as she later insisted, have their accusations all been found to be baseless?

This article goes on to talk about Juanita Broaddrick and how her rape allegation would be treated quite differently if it hadn't come to light in the 1990s. The article disproves some of the "attack the victim" stuff that the Clinton-istas pulled back in the day. It's interesting that this issue really is cognitive dissidence with liberals. Believe the victim unless she is raped by Clinton then look the other way. 

2016 Predictions

I might as well turn in a few predictions for 2016: I predict fireworks and some interesting times.


Politics:

1. Hillary Clinton beats Donald Trump in a landslide victory. The Donald wins only the southern states but does not carry any of the key battleground states and loses Florida quite handily. He only gets about 9% of the Hispanic vote and it turns into a referendum on immigration. The rise of the Hispanic voter becomes the key issue in politics this year. The GOP barely holds onto the Senate but retains the House with only a few notable losses.

2. The GOP Congress finally gets some things done now that Paul Ryan is in charge. They send a bunch of symbolic bills that are defeated by a lame-duck Obama. The reactionary wing of the GOP calls for Ryan's ouster by the end of the year.

3. Obamacare is dealt a blow from Democrats who try to alter it after hearing it from their constituents who are having trouble with high co-pays. Insurance companies mostly pull out of the exchanges and the price of health insurance does not go down by any appreciable margin.

4. Obama becomes very active at first but peters out as he takes many foreign trips. Almost all of the news will be about the Election and he quietly works well with the Ryan Congress. Trump and Hillary suck the air out of the room and Obama's ego is bruised.

5. Hillary is indited but the FBI does not pursue the case until after the election. She pretty much gets out of any blame for the illegal email server and it becomes a non-issue after the election.

6. The US becomes slightly less partisan by the end of the year with both parties staying away from the extremes after Trump implodes.


World:

1. ISIS starts to collapse as recruits leave the fold and the bombing starts to get results. The Iraqi army pushes ISIS out of Iraq and regains a firm grip on their country. However, ISIS becomes even stronger outside of the remnants of the "Caliphate" as young radical Islamists fight the West from the comfort of their own homes. Several more terrorist attacks are planned and carried out but nothing as big as the Paris attacks happens in 2016.

2. The Chinese economy slows but does not enter a recession. A mix of stimulus and number fudging carries them throughout the year. The Chinese stock market gyrates wildly but ends the year down only 2% from the start of the year.

3. Oil prices stay low throughout the year but spike briefly as the Saudi/Iranian crisis looms. There is much posturing and sabre rattling but there is no outright warfare between the two. However the Sunni-Shia divide becomes the defining characteristic between the Great Powers going forward. The Sunni side is championed by the Saudis and the gulf states and Iran champions the Shiite powers. Both lead states are backed with petro-dollars and both now have a free hand due to the Iranian nuclear deal. A clandestine nuclear program is found in Saudi Arabia and an arms race begins.

4. Russian power finally extends into the Mediterranean as Syria falls into their sphere of influence. By the end of the year the Syrian war becomes the "Russian Vietnam" with advisers training and re-arming Assads troops. Russian MIGs fly more sorties then the Western powers combined. Assad's troops push back ISIS and retake much of Syria while a massive Russian presence looms in the Levant.


Economic Predictions:

S&P 500: 2300
Dow: 18100
Nasdaq: 5700

Crude Oil: $65
Gold: $1200
EUR/Dollar: 1.24
10 Yr Bond: 2.54

Sports Predictions:
NFL: Arizona Cardinals
NBA: Golden State Warriors
MLB: San Fransisco Giants
NHL: Montreal Canadiens
Premier League: Arsenal
Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund (probably Bayern Munich though)
NCAA Football: Alabama Crimson Tide
NCAA Basketball: Kansas

Ben Carson is Done: Campaign Manager and Spokesman both Resign

Well it seems that the short moment that Carson had as the potential President nominee is just about over.

The resignations of Barry Bennett, the campaign manager, and Doug Watts, his spokesman, came as they were about to be dismissed, the campaign said, and as Mr. Carson had been sliding in polls amid questions about his grasp of foreign policy and scrutiny of his own biographical narrative.

I think whoever it was who decided to leak his spotty grasp foreign policy pretty much torpedoed his campaign. I think showing that he was a neophyte when the world seems in turmoil is not something Americans need.

Actually needing marathon sessions to bone up on foreign policy was a serious red flag in my opinion. It really shows that Carson was not following foreign affairs at all and that is a huge part of the Presidents job. He needs to know that Hamas is not pronounced Hummus and know that fact from years of experience not from a cram session by some expert. We had an untested guy at President learning on the job for 8 years. We cannot have that again.

George Lucas Did Not like Star Wars:the Force Awakens; You had your crappy Prequels now Buzz Off

They only reason I decided to see Star Wars: the Force Awakens was because Lucas was not involved at all. Now he has the audacity to say anything.

“They looked at the stories, and they said, ‘We want to make something for the fans’….They decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing,” Lucas explained. “They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway — but if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that anymore, and all I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘Okay, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.'”

Far be it anyone make anything for the fans. What an ignoramus. I bet there wasn't enough borderline racist characters like Boss Nass and Jar-jar Binks. Their hated green/tan-faced Minstrel Show. Or the offensive Italian stereotype that was Watto. Or the evil Asians that represented the Trade Federation. Or the 100 other irksome and idiotic things that were in the Prequels. All I have to say is Count Dooko and Younglings and that should suffice.

Force Awakens was actually good, had some pathos, had some great action scenes and had lead characters that were fairly decent actors. No wooden Hayden Christensen, or worse yet, terrible child actors like Jake Lloyd. It was a fun romp in the Star Wars universe and made me a fan again. So Lucas can just shut his fat face and we can look forward to other more skilled people giving it a try without his further "input." 

Muslims Respond to ISIS call for Recruits and its Super Funny

Well I guess he won't be getting too many recruits from Twitter.

@iyad_elbaghdadi I wanna wait until April and find out what happened to Jon Snow

That had me laughing out loud. I guess hiding in a terrible shit hole that is Rakkah and dodging coalition bombs all day long does not make for a fun time. Plus I would like to know what happens to Jon Snow as well. 

Mike Holmgren Wants to Coach the 49ers? Sign Him NOW and Give him all Football power that he needs

It seems this future Hall of Fame coach wants the job.

Holmgren's resume is impressive. As the coach of the Packers and Seahawks, Holmgren amassed a 161-111 record, winning a ring in 1996 and reaching the Super Bowl two more times later in his career, which ended after the 2008 season. Most recently, Holmgren served as the president of the Browns -- a job that didn't go as planned. In Holmgren's three years in Cleveland, the Browns went 14-34. Holmgren's tenure ended following the 2012 season and he admitted last year that he should've coached the Browns.

Have him pick the best QB they can get their hands on and rebuild the program from the ground up.

2015 Predictions: A Look Back

Well here is my vetting of my crystal ball for 2015:

Politics:

1. The GOP Congress will work with Obama to a lesser extant but there will be many battles between them on immigration and other issues. Obama will veto several bills and have a few of them overturned with some moderate Democrats on-board.

Partially right: This is pretty okay more or less. I was surprised that the Omnibus Spending Bill passed with little fanfair or threats to "shut down the government" etc. Also Obama vetoed 5 bills this year so that part is correct however none of the vetoes were overturned.


2. A Grand Bargain on Tax Reform will be passed with work from both parties.

Wrong: Hopefully deferred to 2016 with a new President and Congress working together.


3. The Obamacare exchange will be made illegal by the Supreme Court. The federal government will require all states to have a Healthcare exchange and lawsuits are generated by GOP controlled governors. It will not be resolved in 2015.

Wrong: Obamacare is still the law of the land but there have been unintended consquesces from insurers leaving the exchanges to co-pays going through the roof. It is still to be determined in 2016.


4. Obama will start to withdraw from politics and start to prepare for his time after office. He will play lots of golf and lead from behind and basically just ignore his job.  

Partially right: He seems to play lots of golf and goes on about the GOP not following him. Basically him not saying anything about the San Bernadino shooting until he watched cable news certainly shows he doesn't seem to care about the Consoler-and-Chief part of the job.

World: 

1. ISIS will be severely damaged by the end of the year. They will be attacked from many fronts and start to show signs of defeat.

Mostly right: It certianly seems that way after Iraq took back Ramadi and ISIS is having trouble recruiting. They don't look to be throwing in the towel anytime soon.

2. Islamic terror will start to ramp up as ISIS starts to feel the sting of airstrikes and Iraqi and Syrian resistance. They will take the fight out of the "Caliphate" and into the West. More attacks like Charlie Hebdo will be felt across Europe. The lone Islamic terrorist with a gun or bomb will be the new thing to fear in the Western world.

Exactly Right: Unfortunately.



3. China's economy will start to show cracks. Growth will slow and they will do everything they can to keep things going.


Exactly Right: Chinese GDP growth has slowed to below 7% for the first time since 2008



4. Russia will start to quiet down as oil prices stay low. They will rattle the sabre less and cooperate more in the wider world.

Mostly Right: they are attacking ISIS in Syria although they are propping up Assad in the process. Ukraine is still an issue but it seems to be ignored by the wider world.

5. Low oil prices will disrupt the governments of Venezuela and Nigeria. They will have massive disruptions by the end of the year.

Partially right: Oil prices are in the dumper but Venezuela and Nigeria are still holding on for the time being. If oil goes into the $20 range we might start to see serious cracks.


Economic Predictions:

(real numbers as of 12/28/15)
S&P 500: 2250 (2056)
Dow: 18700 (17528)
Nasdaq: 4700 (4621 kind of close)
Crude Oil: $71 ($36.74 way the hell off)
Gold: $1226 an ounce ($1074 way off)
EUR/Dollar: 1.09 (1.09 wow right on target!)
10 Yr Bond: 2.15% (2.21% not too bad)

Sports Predictions:
NFL: Seattle Seahawks (New England Patriots)
NBA: Golden State Warriors (Golden State Warriors; thank you Steph Curry)
MLB: St. Louis Cardinals (Kansas City Royals at long last)
NHL: NY Islanders (Chicago Blackhawks)
Premier League: Manchester City (Chelsea)
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich (Bayern Munich; this isn't too much of a stretch)
NCAA Football (played in 2015:) TCU Horned Frogs (Ohio State Buckeyes)
NCAA Basketball: Duke (Duke; also not a stretch)

Donald Trump is at War with Someone or Another: I can't Keep up with them Anymore. #DumpTrump

Yawn, the Donald is pissed at someone or another.

While many Americans are still in a holiday mood, Trump is locked in a multi-front war of words—with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Republican rivals Jeb Bush and Chris Christie,  a New Hampshire newspaper and the Republican party of Virginia.
It all comes as Trump is kicking off a busy week of campaign rallies, beginning Monday night in New Hampshire. 

You can go to the article to see why he is "fighting back twice as hard" against some imagined slight or another. He really is Biff from Back to the Future. All talk and a big mouth but cannot take even an ounce of criticism.

I Agree with Bob Dole: I Hate Ted Cruz as Well #LoseCruz

Well, Bob Dole isn't afraid to call it like he sees it.
  

In a question about what Dole makes of Trump, the former Senate leader quickly turned matters to Cruz. "He's not traditional Republican conservative," Dole said of the Texan. "Achievements are shutting down the government twice, and calling the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, a liar on the Senate floor. It violates the rules of the Senate.  And he doesn't have a single Senate supporter."

Later, Mitchell probed as to whether Dole could or would vote for Trump next November. Dole said he would because he can't bring himself to vote for Hillary Clinton. Then she asked about Cruz, and Dole joked, "I might oversleep that day," before adding: " 'Cause he used to make these speeches.  'Remember President Dole, do you remember President McCain.' The inference was that we were all a bunch of liberals, and only he is a true conservative.  And he uses the word 'conservative' more than he ever uses the word 'Republican.'  So, it would be difficult."

I will go on the record for voting for Hillary twice before I would vote for idiot Cruz or maybe I will oversleep on that day as well. I think President Cruz are the two most dangerous words in the English language right now.

It Seems ISIS is Losing is Starting to Bleed New Recruits

This is very encouraging news I think.

Interestingly, Neumann's research also suggested the pace of defections was growing, seeming to corroborate the defectors' testimony that ISIS is facing growing recruitment and retention problems.

"What we can say for sure, based on our data, is that the numbers [of defections] are increasing," he explained. "Two-thirds of all of the public defections happened this year; one-third alone happened in the last three months."

One thing that give me pause however is maybe the recruits would rather stay home and live with the comforts of the 1st world and plot Jihad like the San Bernadino attackers. That would be far more dangerous than rounding everyone up in a terribly poor "Caliphate" dodging bombs all day long.

Um Dump This Girl: Woman Turns Down Proposal After the Ring Wasn't 1 Carat

Wow this guy needs to find a new girl ASAP.

If he liked it he should’ve put a bigger ring on it. 

That’s the message one woman sent to her boyfriend after rejecting his elaborate proposal because the diamond on the engagement ring was too small. 

The poor anonymous guy was down on one knee, surrounded by dancers he’d hired specially and being watched by dozens of onlookers, when his girlfriend turned and walked off. 

Apparently it takes 1 carat or more to buy this girls love:

A screenshot of a WeChat conversation allegedly between her and a friend was later leaked online and was published alongside the story. 

In the message, the girlfriend reveals her insecurities about the proposal, saying that “he agreed to buy me a diamond ring as large as one carat. 

“Why was this one so small? Is he so careless or has he ever cared about me?" 

Hmm she may have misstated her intentions. As large as doesn't mean one carat. She should have told him larger than one carat. That's the "price for caring."

Saudi Arabia steps up While the Obama White House Sits Down: Forms Islamic NATO

The Saudi's look to grabbing the reigns when it comes to the "Great Game."

In a rare interview marking the establishment of what the Saudis themselves are describing as an "Islamic military alliance", the kingdom's Defence Minister, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the aim would be to provide mutual anti-terrorism assistance "all over the Islamic world".

"Today, every Islamic country is fighting terrorism individually," Salman said. The new alliance, "emanates from the keenness of the Muslim world to fight this disease, which affected the Islamic world first, before the international community as a whole."

This is a real indictment of the Obama White House. The Saudi's have to step up because we have been such poor partners in the area after we cut-and-ran from Iraq. Now we are doing barely bombing ISIS and it is a matter of time before the Saudi's are directly attacked.

I Agree With O'Reilly: Trump is a Think-Skinned Whiner: No One is Treating Him "Fair!"

Yeah wait until he has to make decisions about ISIS or Putin and whines about them "not being fair."

Trump fires near-daily broadsides against various media outlets that he feels cover him unfairly. Ahead of the Tuesday-night debate, Trump furiously tweeted not only at CNN, but also at Fox News, which he said was "not fair" in its coverage. Trump further attacked Fox host Megyn Kelly, whom he called "dopey," and various Fox pundits.

"You want to be president," O'Reilly said. "Tweet about Putin. Tweet about ISIS. I mean, it looks petty. It looks petty. Don't you think it looks petty? Don't you think it looks petty?"
Trump disagreed with O'Reilly and said he was simply calling out inaccuracies in the media.

The media will soon be the least of his worries if he does by some miracle he becomes President. Also the constant bragging about his poll numbers is idiotic as well. He has such a fragile ego. 

Martin Shkreli, Greedy Biotech Idiot, Perp Walked for Securities Fraud

It couldn't have happened to a worse person.

Shkreli was charged in an indictment unconnected to the drug price hikes imposed by his company Turing Pharmaceuticals. The charges instead involve his actions at another pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, which he ran as CEO up until last year.

Prosecutors said that in a "Ponzi-like scheme" between 2009 and 2014, Shkreli lost hedge fund investors' money through bad trades, then raided Retrophin for $11 million in cash and stock to pay back his disgruntled clients.

Shkreli "engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit," U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said in a statement.

That is what you call instant Karma.

The Front Runners are Now Cruz and Trump: The One-Two Punch of Blow-hard Idiots

I guess I am going to seriously consider voting for Hillary if any of these knuckleheads become the GOP nominee.
  

Cruz’s momentum over the past month, as Ben Carson supporters migrated to his side, has led Trump to target the senator, branding him a “maniac” this past weekend. Cruz has tried to defuse the tension, but Trump’s improbable stretch as frontrunner has continued in part because of his willingness to attack opponents. Throughout the year, Trump has touted his dominance in polls and made it a key part of his brand. He will fight hard to avoid slipping into second place.

I am on record as saying that both of these guys would actually be worse for this country than Hillary, and that is saying a lot. The whole "no Muslims allowed" thing by Trump disqualifies him from being President. You cannot trade freedom for feigned safety. And Ted Cruz is totally insane so he cannot be allowed to have his finger on the button by any stretch of the imagination.

I Guess No More Shrimp for Me until Thailand can Clean up Their Act and Free its "Shrimp-peeling Slaves"

I love shrimp but this kind of thing is going far beyond the pale.

Hundreds of shrimp peeling sheds are hidden in plain sight on residential streets or behind walls with no signs in Samut Sakhon, a port town an hour outside Bangkok. The AP found one factory that was enslaving dozens of workers, and runaway migrants led rights groups to the Gig shed and a third facility. All three sheds held 50 to 100 people each, many locked inside.

And this part makes me not want to ever eat shrimp that came out of Thailand for cleanliness reasons alone.

Inside the large warehouse, toilets overflowed with feces, and the putrid smell of raw sewage wafted from an open gutter just outside the work area. Young children ran barefoot through suffocating dorm rooms. Entire families labored side-by-side at rows of stainless steel counters piled high with tubs of shrimp.

So that pretty much leaves Alaska shrimp and Kahuku shrimp. So no more restaurant shrimp until I can get some assurances. I shouldn't be thinking about slaves and sewage when I'm eating ebi gunkan.

Trump Wants to Ban Muslims from Entering the Country? Um "the Donald" They Could Just Lie. Ever heard of Taquiyya? #DumpTrump

The worst part is that this guy is the GOP Frontrunner.

“Something has to be done,” Trump said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” one of several phone interviews the Republican frontrunner participated in Tuesday morning. “What I’m doing is I’m calling very simply for a shutdown of Muslims entering the United States — and here’s a key — until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Trump’s plan, which was released Tuesday, calls for a “total and complete shutdown" of all Muslims entering the country in response to the recent terror attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris. I guess he would support a religious test then for people coming in the country. Hold up a picture of Mohammed and say "who is this guy?" 

Or Trump would ask "are you now or have you ever been a member of the Islamic religion?" Then the Muslim that Trump wants to bar from entering the country simply says "Nope I'm a Snake Handler" and his idiotic plan is thwarted. Also part of Muslim ideology is the idea of Taqiyya where they can strait-up lie to unbelievers and it is still fine under Sharia law. So they wouldn't even be breaking any religious laws.

Sorry Shkreli Express Scripts just Did an End-Around on $750 a Pill Price Hike

That is what happens when you don't have patent exclusivity. I guess this is why "me-too" drugs come to market.

Express Scripts, one of the leading prescription-benefits managers in the US, is partnering with a compounding pharmacy to provide a $1-per-pill version of the drug that Turing Pharmaceuticals charges $750 for.

The drug, which Turing sells under the name Daraprim, is used to treat toxoplasmosis, an infection that's harmful to people with weakened immune systems.

Express Scripts announced the partnership with Imprimis Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday, and said prescriptions could be filled as soon as this week. In October, Imprimis said it would provide a customizable formulation to compete with Daraprim.