02/22/2012

Romney 4 For 9 Leads Republican Candidates In Death Spiral

02/22/2012 By Leave a Comment

2012 Republican CandidatesWell, first there was Romney, then Bachmann, Perry, never Paul or Huntsman, Caine, Gingrich, and now, Santorum.

The Republican candidates for President of the United States are locked together in a death spiral which, as sure as day follows night, means doom and defeat for the Republican party in 2012 and an economic blight on America.

In case you missed it, President Obama’s stride is a little more spry these days as he sees economic indicators improving (of course, total jobs are not) and the closest thing to a contender in the fall will be Romney, or now most probably, Santorum.

Can you imagine that campaign? Obama campaigning against someone who is defending his “Satan” comments? Does Santorum think this makes him a more appealing candidate? It will be like watching a professional football team play against the cheerleaders.

It is the lack of a compelling mainstream national candidate like a Reagan, Clinton, or even Obama that makes this election all but a fait accompli for Democrats.

If you remember, in 2008, the Republicans were unable to put forth a candidate whom anyone could vote for. McCain’s irratic temper and behavior worried a lot of people and, God forbid, if something happened to him, we would have had President Palin. Really Republicans? 300+ million Americans and that was the best you could do?

In case anyone in the Republican party has missed it, NO ONE wants Mitt Romney. He’s only won four out of nine primaries and is on the verge of losing Michigan, his home state.

His pathetic attempt at a “across the board tax cut” proposal hours before the Arizona debate shows how desperate the  “frontrunner” is:

In the hours leading to the event, Romney called for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in personal income taxes as part of a program he said would revitalize the economy and help create jobs. The top tax rate would drop from 35 percent to 28 percent, and some popular breaks would be scaled back for upper-income taxpayers. However, aides provided scant details. more….

This is why the “front runners” keep changing state by state. There is no viable alternative candidate and there certainly is no one to get excited about. If Mitt Romney didn’t have all that money, no one would even know his name.

Unless the Republicans (and all of us) have a last minute miracle, Barack Obama will enjoy another 4 years in the White House courtesy of Rick Santorum.

In his second term, Barack Obama’s policies and proposals will help create a national debt of more than 21 trillion dollars.

God help us all.

Filed Under: Yitch Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Einstein Rules Again!

02/22/2012 By Leave a Comment

smiling einstein is right againWell it took longer than we thought it would (and should) but it looks like the scientists at the  CERN lab in Switzerland were wrong when they said that they observed neutrinos completing a 454-mile course faster than a beam of light would.

A loose connection between a timer and a computer led some of the world’s smartest particle physicists to conclude that certain tiny particles called neutrinos moved faster than the speed of light — a declaration that shocked the science world and would have called into questions Einstein’s theories.

Citing sources familiar with the experiment, Science magazine’s website reported Wednesday that the 60-nanoseconds discrepancy that led to the startling speed conclusion came from a bad connection in a fiber optic cable connecting a GPS receiver (used to correct the timing of the neutrinos’ flight) and a computer.

After tightening the connection and then remeasuring the time it takes data to travel the length of the cable, researchers found that the data arrive 60 nanoseconds earlier than assumed, the website said.

We are lucky enough to live in a remarkable time when an unremarkable man envisioned the soul of creation in his mind’s eye.

Let’s all give a toast to Albert as he wins another one.

Could the unified theory be next?

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , ,

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Unboxing

12/10/2011 By

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone ReviewWe received our Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone yesterday and have made a video of the unboxing as part of our series of reviews on the cellphone and service provider.

The video is provided below, some of the highlights were:

  • Environmentally friendly packaging
  • Minimal packaging
  • Fedx delivery

Contents included:

  • Optimus Cellphone w/ 3.2 MP camera and 2GB microSD card installed
  • Power adapter
  • USB cord for power
  • Battery
  • SD card adapter for microUSB card
  • Republic Wireless stickers
  • Card with link info to their website for MyAccount, Forums, etc.

 

 

 

Additional photos:

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone TopRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Bottom

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone FrontRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone BackRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Side 1Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Side2

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Bad Hair Day: Blagojevich sentenced to 14 years

12/07/2011 By

Blagojevich convictedFormer Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison on 18 corruption counts, including trying to sell President Obama’s old Senate seat.

The former Governor had spent the last few years publicly promoting his innocence on television and in news reports.

Blagojevich, in a last plea for mercy, tried an apology. After years of insisting he was innocent, the twice-elected Democrat told the judge he’d made “terrible mistakes” and acknowledged that he had broken the law — even as he maintained that at the time he did not know he was breaking the law.

As the judge announced the sentence, which includes a $20,000 fine, Blagojevich hunched forward and his face appeared frozen. Minutes later, his wife, Patti Blagojevich, stood up and fell into her husband’s arms. He pulled back to brush tears off her cheek and then rubbed her shoulders.

On his way out of the courthouse, Blagojevich said it was a time to be strong, to fight through adversity and be strong for his children. He said he and wife were heading home to speak to their daughters, and then left without answering any questions.

Read more
Many legal experts expect many legal experts said the Blagojevich was likely to get around 10 years. Don’t look for a repeat appearance on Celebrity Apprentice anytime soon.

 

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Paradigm Shift: Republic Wireless Review

12/02/2011 By

republic wireless reviewIn case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, you may not have heard about the newest cellphone wireless provider: Republic Wireless.

Republic Wireless is a start-up wireless carrier with an intriguing offer: $19 a month (plus tax) unlimited everything wireless service.

  • Unlimited minutes, data, & text
  • No contracts or early termination fees
  • No overages, ever!

Sound to good to be true? We thought so, so we decided to check it out.

Republic turns out to be a Sprint Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). What this means to you and me is that as we use our Republic Wireless cellphone as a cellphone, it rides on Sprint’s network for $19 a month, with unlimited usage.

Unlimited Sprint Usage?

Not really. What Republic Wireless does is use existing WiFi networks in a “Hybrid Model” whenever possible to cut down on your use of the Sprint cellular network. Since WiFi is free, there is no cost to Republic Wireless when you are on WiFi for calls or data. That’s how they can offer such a low monthly rate for “unlimited” usage.

The trick is transparency to the user

The way this is supposed to work is once you load the WiFi information for a location into your phone, the phone remembers it and automatically switches between Sprint’s cellphone service and WiFi whenever it detects the signal.

This transparent switching is the key. If I’m talking on the phone in the car and then walk into my home, the phone should switch between the cellular and WiFi networks automatically, seamlessly, and transparently. No dropped calls, missed calls, pops, disconnects, etc.

Think about it

When I’m at home, I have WiFi. When I’m at work, I have WiFi. Library – yes, McDonalds – yes, Starbucks – yes, Panera Bread – yes, most coffee shops or restaurants – yes, some municipalities – yes! It turns out that for most of our day, we are in WiFi range. When you are driving there is no WiFi, but while you may be talking, you’re not supposed to be texting or running data programs (except maps).

This may be a paradigm shift in wireless

We really like this idea. The idea of cutting cellphone bills from $80/month to $20/month saves $720/year. More phones? More savings. Your parents grew up paying $6/month for phone service and got TV reception for free. Now we spend $200 – $300 a month for the same service. That’s $2,400 – $3,600 a year to use the phone and watch TV…

Have you actually listened to the quality of a voice call on a cellphone lately? It stinks. The prices have gone up while the quality has gone down.

Why pay more for the same service? This is the promise of Republic Wireless. This is also the promise that should have ATT, Verizon, and TMobile shaking in their boots. It actually may help Sprint in the long run.

Metro PCS, Boost Mobile, Net10, and the other low cost carriers? They are toast. They will either have to change to the “hybrid” model, or die.

If it works, it is revolutionary. It will change the future of wireless.

Before you jump in, note that there are some requirements on phone usage. Republic Wireless calculates your Cellular Usage Index (CUI) based upon your last 7 days of activity. If it goes too high, they warn you and suggest ways to lower it. If you’re continually high, they ask you to leave.

What this means is that you need to be using WiFi for a good part of your month’s cellphone usage or you will be terminated. How much is too much?

Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold.

Over time, if you don’t bring your CUI back into a reasonable range, we’ll help you find a more suitable, traditional cellular carrier. more…

We still believe the cellular maximum usage combined with the abundance of WiFi networks makes this $19 a month service a winner.

Is it worth a try?

We thought so. Republic only offered one phone at launch, the LG Optimus Android phone with our Hybrid Calling technology and Google’s Android version 2.3. It was $199 but we used a discount code for $100 off. Tough too beat that.

We were one of the lucky ones who actually managed to get through and purchase the phone before they sold out on day one. Right now, they are not accepting new customers. I’m sure they expected sales, I’m just not sure they knew how revolutionary this would be.

Our smartphone is due to ship on December 8th and we are awaiting it with optimistic trepidation. We will report here on the unboxing and setup, and follow it with several usage reviews. It should be fun so stay tuned and bookmark our site or follow us on Twitter for the latest reviews.

 

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

The Unseen Hand: Fed Policy and Inflation

12/01/2011 By

Federal Reserve International PolicyThere was quite a rally this week in the US stock market. On the last day of November, the DJIA rose over 480 points in one of the 7 largest gains in Dow history.

The “reason” for this gain seemed to be an overnight agreement by the European Central banks to ease the strains on European banks by easing credit in unison. Coincidentally, China reduced its reserve rate, freeing up more capital from the East.

Because Europe is in such a funk, money markets in the US and other dollar denominated markets had reduced lending to European banks by 50 to 70 percent recently.

So those “stress tested” European banks were all faltering on the brink and something had to be done.

Enter the unseen hand of Federal Reserve Policy, your tax dollars, inflation, and the destruction of the American dollar’s international value at work. The Feds low key status in this announcement is a ruse, this was an internationally coordinated, US led, emergency bailout of the European banks.

The joint offer of cut-rate currency swap lines by the central banks of the US, Britain, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and the ECB preserves the polite fiction that this was to “ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit”, but this was a Fed action to provide cheap dollar funding and head off a lethal crunch in Europe.  More

What does it mean to Americans…?

  • Many European Banks are broke
  • Some European Countries are broke
  • The European Central Bank (ECB) is paralyzed because members won’t agree
  • The ECB can’t get the viable (Germany) countries to pay for the sins of the spendthrift (Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and soon France) countries
  • There is no political will for some European countries to continue to bail out other countries
  • All of the politicians want someone else to pay for their spending
  • The US is already broke and things will deteriorate over the next few years (bank failures, rioting, further decrease in the value of the dollar, destruction of our standard of living)

What is the solution?

  • The European Sovereigns are in trouble
  • The European Banks are in trouble
  • The ECB is paralyzed
  • The ECB is hoping the IMF will bail it out
  • The IMF is almost broke and needs the US and China to bail it out
  • Since Europe’s combined economies are as large as the US, there is no one left to bailout Europe except the US and China

Because everyone plays in dollars, the US can only support Europe by more printing causing dollar devaluation and inflation

  • More debt everywhere
  • No increase in lending
  • Worldwide inflation
  • Destruction of the value of the dollar

What’s beyond that?

  • More borrowing, bailouts, stagnation, political turmoil, and pain
  • Bank defaults and finally, Sovereign debt defaults
  • The proposal for a non-dollar dependent “world” currency

All brought to you by the US Federal Reserve.

 

 

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Occupy Obama’s Bleeding Union Heart

10/20/2011 By

obama union supportWe decided to take a better look at President Obama’s recent support for the “Occupy” movements.

In a strange measure of support (and an even stranger call with major city mayors) our Chief Executive seems to be siding with those that are directing their anger at banks and corporations.

“I think it expresses the frustrations that the American people feel,” the president said of the NYC demonstration, which began in mid-September and spread to cities throughout the nation. “People are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.”

“Americans understand that not everybody has been following the rules,” he said, according to The New York Times. “These days a lot of folks that are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded.”

Could there be something behind Obama’s recent empathy?

First let’s examine some of the “demands” of the “Occupy” movement.

  • Jobs: Yes they want jobs, this is reasonable
  • Stop Foreclosures: Again, with all the recent pain, this seems reasonable
  • Make Banks and Corporations pay for these by spending the trillions of dollars they have in reserve….

What? Of course, this last demand is ridiculous on the face of it. Making Apple pay for infrastructure work nationwide, or making the banks absorb all the mortgages losses (after following Freddie and Fannie’s guidelines) will never fly. Aside from being illegal, morally wrong, and unethical, why is our President supporting this?

To understand the dynamics, we need to look at who sided up with the “Occupy” movements in September and early October.

  • AFL CIO – 12.2 million members
  • SEIU Service Employees International Union – 2.1 Million Members
  • CWA Communications Workers of America – 700,000 members
  • UAW – 390,000 members
  • Transport Workers Union – 40,000 members
  • and on and on and on

It’s All A Union Money Grab

You got it. As union support grew as a method of pressuring the administration on jobs spending, Obama softened his stance. But don’t be fooled by the words, it’s all about the money and all about taking your money.

There is no way that corporations and banks will be made to pay for mortgages and infrastructure redevelopment. It just won’t happen. So why promote instability and social outcry with no way of funding what they want?

It’s Your Money They Are After

The only way to fund the trillions of dollars in infrastructure and mortgage relief is for the federal government to finance it. The “Occupy” movement is a smokescreen for another enormous federal stimulus program, promoted as a “jobs and mortgage relief effort,” with borrowed taxpayer money.

The Obama administration sees the “Occupy” instability and unrest as a way of “pressuring” congressional leaders to support another vaguely disguised stimulus program.

Just In Time For The Election

Of course, such a massive stimulus would temporarily stimulate the economy just in time for the 2012 election. The fact that it adds to our crushing national debt, causes inflation, and vanishes in a year is not considered.

The re-election of President Obama would then represent the largest public transfer of wealth from the American people through our workers and into the pockets of worker’s unions.

A Dangerous Game

The one thing that the administration needs to recognize is that instability, social outcry, and turmoil are difficult things to control and direct once they gain momentum.

Just ask the British.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Goldman Sachs Rules The World | Economic Crisis Like A Cancer

09/27/2011 By

goldman sachs rules the worldLondon-based independent trader named Alessio Rastani told the BBC on Monday that we need to get ready for a crash in a very frank interview that went viral.

His most startling statement came when he was asked about the latest government efforts to strengthen the Eurozone

“Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.”

His timeframe for a crash?

“In less than 12 months we’ll see a crash.”

His prediction?

“The savings of millions of people will vanish.”

See the interview below:

Rastani’s advice for all of us?

  • Get prepared and act now
  • Protect your assets, don’t fall into wishful thinking
  • Learn how to make money in a falling market
  • The biggest risk people can take right now is not acting

 

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Obama Dines With Sheryl Sandberg At $35,800 A Plate | Let Them Eat Spam

09/26/2011 By

Obama Let them eat spamIn a world where Politicians continue to lose touch with reality, President Obama attended a fundraising dinner yesterday at the home of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg where donors got to dine with the President for $35,800 a plate. Oh yeah, they also got to see Lady Gaga.

I would bet this is not your typical Sunday evening event for most Americans. In fact, I don’t think the unemployed factory worker in Ohio, the unemployed teacher from Florida. or the unemployed computer programmer in California gets invited to attend these type of dinners.

I also don’t believe the dinner conversation had anything to do with helping any of them. They probably didn’t dwell on the fact that the unemployment rate is presently at 9.1% in Ohio, 10.7% in Florida, and 12.1% in California. Too depressing for an upbeat fundraiser.

This whole Sandberg affair reminds me of the famous quotation attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette upon learning that the peasants didn’t have enough to eat. “Let them eat cake,” she replied. The irony of that quote was that she really said “let them eat brioche” not knowing that peasants ate less expensive, plain bread.

At $35,800 a plate, I doubt if President Obama or his friends know what we have to eat everyday.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

Obamacare Appears Headed For Supreme Court

09/26/2011 By

supreme courtIt looks like it will come down to the Supremes as Obamacare appears headed for the Supreme Court.

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

The Justice Department is expected to ask the court to overturn an August decision by a panel of three judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law’s requirement to buy insurance is unconstitutional. The suit was brought by 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and several individuals.

It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court picks up the case (most likely it will). This means the Court would likely hear the case in its 2011-2012 session, or right in the middle of the next Presidential campaign.
This poses significant risk to both parties, but should provide us with lots of soulful entertainment.
Filed Under: Health Tagged With: , ,
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