Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Typical leftist thinking: “I know what’s best for you so I will make your decisions for you”.
So how is it OK for a government to decide to put flouride in my drinking water? Isn’t what you are advocating the height of paternalism?
Scott wrote with regard to derivatives held by major banks:
“And they have moved those phony dollars to their commercial side, making them FDIC insured.”
Please explain how a derivative investment could qualify as an insured deposit. I think you are in error. A derivative would be an investment of the commercial side of the bank, just like their over-valued mortgages and the related notes. It would be an asset of the bank. The FDIC does not insure bank assets. It insures deposits, which are bank liabilities, in favor of the depositor, not the bank. Its exposure is limited to certain deposit amounts and does not include investment exposures of banks. While one may think that the government in a way of speaking has “insured” the banks to date by advancing them funds to prevent failure, this has been at the option of the government, not the legally binding obligation that would arise from actual insurance. The insurance amounts are limited by the deposit limits and not subject to bank increases ad infinitum putting the US “on the hook” in excess of the gross product of the world, as the video suggests.
[quote=”costaricafinca”]The main thing to understand that the [b][i]facilities vary greatly[/i][/b] throughout the country[/quote]
If you mean that some locales have better CAJA services than others, perhaps you or someone else on the forum could give a hint as to what are the better locales, facilities and/or local clinics. Anyone who has had a good experience, please speak up and be specific. Thanks!It is posed that the Fed plans to criminalize any delinquency, default, foreclosure or short sale. This way, the banks reap property from citizens who default on mortgages and then they reap the fruits of prison labor when citizens are jailed. Debtors’ prison is coming back in vogue. (At least the US will then be able to compete with Chinese slave labor.)
[/quote]
Please provide substantiation for this. Where is it “posed” that delinquency, default, foreclosure or short sale will be criminalized? What is already criminal is lying to get a loan and writing bad checks. Just because someone poses something is no reason to believe it, without more.[quote=”VictoriaLST”]First, don’t attribute things to me that I did not say.
Second, I don’t “believe”, I think.
Third, of course the videos played the emotional card – big bad corporation out to harm your family is emotional. Playing on fear is emotional. Science is fact.
Finally, this will be my last post on the subject. We will just have to agree to disagree.[/quote]
No one’s thoughts go uninfluenced by their beliefs. Since you went to the trouble to have a review done of the French study, it appears that you have a strong interest in GMO crops. Please don’t leave the discussion without letting us know what, if any, interest you and the reviewer you hired have in GMO crops or research.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]Finally, a scientific study! Unfortunately, it was published in a journal backed by Green Publishing which has a serious bias against GMOs. I had the article reviewed by a PhD physiologist with 27 years in research. He concluded that the study: used too small a sample, does not include multiple species, has no claim of P-values (statistical significance), and showed results that are not dose-dependent. In addition, a valid study can be replicated and must be replicated by other labs to be trustworthy. Please don’t refer me to any more videos that are designed to provoke an emotional response, not a logical one. Thanks.[/quote]
Please disclose who paid for the review and what financial interest you or the reviewer has/had in GMO crops or research.[quote=”maravilla”]The French study DID check how Round-up and a diet of GMOs affected those rats. Did you see the tumors? Do we have an increase in cancer? Do we have a lot of very sick people who have gastro problems that were never seen before? Selective breeding and genetic engineering are two entirely different things. They are not even close and it is a complete and utter myth that GMO crops will feed the world. It’s actually quite the opposite, but some people cannot be convinced no matter what evidence is put to them. A friend of mine just wrote this article. Maybe it will elucidate certain areas that have been misunderstood.
http://cms.herbalgram.org/heg/volume9/10October/Prop37GMOeditorial.html?t=1349287977%5B/quote%5D
[quote=”maravilla”]The French study DID check how Round-up and a diet of GMOs affected those rats.
Thank you for the correction. I have seen them now. I had not gotten to the video when I wrote the comment.[quote=”VictoriaLST
“Genetic engineering” involves a choice. We start with the wolf and chose characteristics that yield a Golden Retriever.We start with a 10cm ear of corn and end up with a 50cm ear that is sweeter, more tender, and bi-colored.
We take a gene from one species, insert it into another species and get a new source of insulin or vitamin A enrichment.
Are people still going to starve? Probably. Die of disease? Probably. But research will always pay a dividend.
[/quote]
You sound like a believer in science. Scientists are only human. Like politicians, scientists can favor the interests of those paying them. Just look at all the drugs that have had to be pulled off the market due to insufficient science on the part of those in the pay of Big Pharma. If you are unaware, go to Mercola.com and input “Big Pharma”. There’s nothing inherently virtuous or perfect about science. Maybe the scientist makes a mistake and gets Rosemary’s baby instead of a healthy child. Maybe Monsanto can sell more seed with inherent pesticides so no one cares to investigate possible diseases or the fact that the crop is high maintenance. So what if farmers in India are committing suicide when their crops fail due to Monsanto’s mistakes and misrepresentations and they can’t afford another round of seed. I guess they are just collateral damage OK’d by the God of Science. In this case the only party in receipt of the research dividend is Monsanto.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]So companies want to engineer plants that have a greater yield and make their own pesticides so that we can reduce the spraying of harmful chemicals on our plants (and into the air) and feed more people. How is that a problem?[/quote]
No one is checking to see if the pesticides that you eat when you consume such plants are good for you. It is possible that what poisons the pest which consumes the crop can slowly poison humans that consume the crop.
[quote=”hakesp”] wrote:
The less voter interest, the more the politicians feel free to do whatever they want for their contributors. .[/quote]
To add to my own post: If you believe that the US government would cut SS for those living abroad, then you need to run not walk to vote. Because groups that don’t vote are always disadvantaged in the political process.
Sprite wrote:
And finally, it is my position that voting is worse than a waste of time. Voting just encourages the crooks in Washington DC.
[/quote]This is dead wrong. The less voter interest, the more the politicians feel free to do whatever they want for their contributors. This is something that is frequently said by those who want to rationalize ignorance of how to vote and laziness.
[quote=”sprite”]Waggoner,
Sometimes when something is broken, it cannot be repaired. It has to be scrapped and replaced. The US government is not some lame mare to be put out of its misery. It is a monster with a noose around our necks. It’s intent is pretty obvious. All your voting and grass root revival will only decide the color of the rope, not how it will be used.[/quote]
I believe that the US economy is very shaky as a result of (1) bank and financial system weakness due to ineffective bank regulation and repeal of Glass Steagall, (2) dumb wars without clear objectives and without taxation to pay for them,indeed with tax cuts by Bush, (3) passage of legislation to help favored industries, such as Medicare Part D which allows no way for the government to negotiate a fair price as the VA does, and is thus a windfall for Big Pharma (4) lack of citizenship, such as packaging known worthless loans to sell to others and such as not reading sufficient news to know what is going on and not participating in one’s government.
If our economy is broken, people who are too busy or lazy to read and too uninformed or arrogant to vote and participate helped that happen. It is because we failed to turn out of office those who would not raise revenues commensurate with their expenditures.
One of the strategies of those who have pretty much captured our Congress is to paint government at all levels to be a monster unworthy of support. They obstruct most measures and they cry that government isn’t getting anything done. Is government a monster when it pays social security benefits? Is it a monster when it builds interstates? Is it a monster when it provides schools for your children? Is it a monster when it provides courts for the legitimate resolution of disputes? Is it a monster when it provides medicaid for indigent children and their families or food stamps for the hungry?
These interests who want to weaken government, so they can strangle it in its crib and get their own way 100% of the time, want you to believe it is useless to resist their takeover. Certain of them are making a mint with websites and investment letters that preach panic. The more scared you are, the more newsletters or website ads they sell. You need to weigh information from these sources who want you to be afraid so they can get votes. Try to find a variety of sources and favor the more objective ones.
Although I recognize that traditional news sources underplay bad economic news, and that there was cheerleading in the press in the immediate lead up to the Great Depression, I also recognize that Japan has gone 20 years with worse economic fundamentals that the US. So I don’t think panic is warranted, but I do think careful attention, and planning for all eventualities, is important.
I appreciated Waggoner’s response about what he has accomplished toward a plan for survival.
If you can’t find a way to support yourself in Costa Rica, I suggest you turn your attention away from panic mongers and escape and look into making the US a better place for others and yourself. Hint: that will not be accomplished by refusal to pay the taxes needed to start climbing out of the fiscal hole. Note that all the things Waggoner has done in CR — farming, orchards, chickens — can be done in the US.
[quote=”sprite”]. They don’t use it to care for the elderly and sick. They don’t use it to educate our young. In the US, most of it goes to the banks to pay interest on money created by the banks out of thin air, “lent” to the people. Most of the remainder goes to maintain an imperialistic arm of state force to ensure an obedient world population.
While I too object to the expensive, unproductive and cruel war machine of the US, and have not voted for any warmonger presidents, that is not the only thing the US government spends money on. I, like many of you, am receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits and am thankful for them. After many years of fighting for other people as an underpaid government lawyer, representing consumer rights, abused children, a banking regulator, nursing home regulator, etc., I feel it is fair that I receive these benefits, as it is for anyone who has worked hard in or outside the home and thus contributed to society. People who pay taxes are contributing to my well being, as I contribute to the welfare of others by paying my taxes, and I appreciate them. I also think as human beings we all have an obligation to help support the disabled, abused kids, etc. and have seen with my own eyes that while churches and charities help, they cannot carry the entire load.
The idea that we will get rid of government by not paying taxes and somehow make the world a better place is either extremely naive or sophistry to rationalize tax evasion. Maybe in pioneer days when the world was less populated a local community could provide what regulation and assistance was needed on an informal basis, but those days are long gone and government is more and more needed. Government is inevitable. Politcians who encourage you to “kill the beast” are just trying to channel your anger into votes for themselves. That is why after 12 years of antigovernment rhetoric and actions by certain politicians in the US we actually have a MORE invasive government.
If you follow your link and then scroll down past Ann Barnhardt’s letter, you will come to a couple of links from You Tube in which Ms. Barnhardt is engaged in a full anti-Muslim rant while waving a Koran which she has bookmarked with bacon strips, tearing pages from it and burning them. She also boasts that she did this while giving her home address and states that they (Muslims?) can come and get her but should be beware as she is better armed than the French Army. I think Warren Buffett is a better source concerning the danger of derivatives.
[quote=”Scott”]I know we have a few ‘traders’ as VIP Members and for them and anybody else with significant commodities exposure, this letter in the link below from Ann Barnhardt of Barnhardt Capital Management is a MUST-MUST-MUST read…
“The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse” – Presenting The First MF Global Casualty…
“The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity.”
On the same topic … $600 Million MF Global Money Now “Missing” After Reports It Was Sent To JP Morgan
“However, weeks beforehand, billionaire investors like the Koch brothers had the miraculous foresight to withdraw all their money, prompting accusations that big players got a ‘heads up’ in advance of the firm’s collapse.”
[ http://www.prisonplanet.com/mf-global-money-now-missing-after-reports-it-was-sent-to-jp-morgan.html ]
It is more important than ever that your investment strategy is ultra-defensive and, I would strongly encourage all of you to have at least 6 months worth of living expenses (whatever your local currency may be) in cash somewhere real safe…
Scott[/quote]
