Monday, 18 February 2019

Headlines - 02/18/2019

I have to apologise for falling down on my usual coverage of the news. I am currently very concerned about the drought here and what it means in the context of the global climate. I am working on a project and so am rather preoccupied.

 I apologise if what you are looking for is not on the blog currently.

 ---SMR



## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards/global cooling/deflationary collapse ##
Why Many Of Today's Most-Owned Stocks Are Ponzi Schemes
Former financier and current statistician Tan Liu, author of the recent book The Ponzi Factor: The Simple Truth About Investment Profits explains how many of today's perpetually dividend-less companies traded on the public market are operating as ponzi schemes by definition. As a result, a substantial amount of the market capitalization of our stock market is actually "phantom wealth" that doesn't truly exist. It will vaporize during the next financial crisis as investors proiritize cash flows in-hand over the promises of starry-eyed CEOs.
Industrial Production Dives, Wiping Out a Strong December and Then Some (US)
Qatar's real estate market faces reality check ahead of World Cup
Qatar’s Doha Tower, a spike-tipped cylinder that glows orange at night, won an award when finished in 2012 amid a Gulf-wide real estate boom, but today about half of its 46 floors are empty.


## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
New hot spot boils in the South China Sea
IDF Conducts Massive Exercise To "Simulate Conditions Of War With Hezbollah"
Russia Touts "Unlimited Range" Of New Nuclear Cruise Missile As INF Unravels
War kills over 100,000 babies a year: Save the Children
If the US has to threaten its allies to make them fall into line, how is that a "free world"? -- RF
You could trace the divisions through the hands that were and were not clapping during Vice President Mike Pence’s address to a hall packed with some 600 delegates including presidents, prime ministers and defense ministers on Saturday. Pence claimed a renewed U.S. leadership under President Donald Trump to a scattering of applause from mainly U.S. officials.
As trade, policy, and economic problems continue leaking into defense, NATO will be further weakened, and it's facing the same ultimate fate as the EU: breakup. -- RF
US Arrogance on Iran: Trump's "Coalition of the Unwilling and Openly Coerced"
Vice President Mike Pence demanded the EU quit the Iran accord. EU leaders politely told Pence to go to hell.

## Migrants/refugees ##
Panama to build migrant shelter as hundreds of Cubans enter
Panama’s government says it will build a migrant shelter on its southern border with Colombia, after the latest wave of migrants crossed into the country.

## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
Militants Threaten Attacks On Nigeria’s Oil If President Is Re-elected
School students blocked Westminster Bridge in central London for more than four hours today as part of a national day of action to demand the Government tackle climate change.
French police fire tear gas as latest 'yellow vest' protests turn violent
Whether it happens or not, people need to resign themselves to a far lower standard of living. -- RF
The low energy returns of biofuels make them unable to maintain industrial civilization. In fact, biofuels illustrate well the fundamental difference between fossil fuels and renewables. Fossil fuels are biofuels created by natural processes. Nature did almost all the work for us, enabling humans to get by with a very modest energy input, and a correspondingly huge energy surplus that made industrial civilization possible. By contrast, biofuels (and other renewables) require humans to do all the work themselves. Our energy input is very large, thereby leaving only a modest energy surplus, if there is any surplus at all (if we tried to power the whole biofuel production process with biofuels themselves, the whole system would fall apart). Proponents of renewable energy are doing us all a great disservice by insisting that renewables will enable us to continue our extravagant lifestyles. -- RF
No word on cost, but the need for storage makes the electricity more expensive. Of course, storage will likely get cheaper, but it will never be free. It's another nail in the coffin of an extravagant future powered by renewables. -- RF

Ain't gonna happen. -- RF

## Solutions ##
Sometimes the Best Solution Is To Leave Things As They Are

## Environment/health ##
Monster mudslides, water rescues as storm punishes California
New treaty bans commercial fishing in the Arctic for 16 years
The European Union and nine other countries, including the US and Russia, approved an international agreement on Thursday (14 February) that will prohibit commercial vessels from fishing in the Arctic in order to preserve the region’s fragile ecosystem.

## Intelligence/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Will you support genocide in Venezuela?: Congress member Ilhan Omar challenges notorious coup-monger Elliott Abrams
Why The DNC Was Not Hacked By The Russians (William Binney and Larry Johnson)
The FBI, CIA and NSA claim that the DNC emails published by WIKILEAKS on July 26, 2016 were obtained via a Russian hack, but more than three years after the alleged “hack” no forensic evidence has been produced to support that claim. In fact, the available forensic evidence contradicts the official account that blames the leak of the DNC emails on a Russian internet “intrusion”.  The existing evidence supports an alternative explanation--the files taken from the DNC between 23 and 25May 2016 and were copied onto a file storage device, such as a thumb drive.
Instead of "investigating" Wikileaks and Assange, why don't governments just clean up their acts? -- RF
Iranians have never forgotten what most Americans never knew. -- RF
Zuckerberg’s 15th-anniversary post was the latest example of a rhetorical sleight of hand the Facebook founder and CEO practices regularly. Prompting us to consider legacy hierarchies and vague social structures of bygone eras, Zuckerberg conjures a contrasting modern image of personal autonomy and power. In fact, little has changed. All that’s happened is a new kind of social structure has been erected in place of older ones — a structure based on a flawed assumption of what power means.
Every device that you use, every company you do business with, every online account you create or loyalty program you join, and even the government itself collects data about you.
The intelligence community—the FBI, CIA, the NSA and other three-letter agencies—are too powerful, too entrenched and two well-funded. And they have far too little oversight. They’re a threat to our democracy, not the saviors of it.

## Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts ##
Pompeo calls Iran more destabilizing than N. Korea
Pundits like Max Boot and Bill Kristol got everything after 9/11 wrong but are still considered "experts."
Musk Claims to Have Invented a Story Generator That's "Too Dangerous to Release"

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Could a Green New Deal Save Civilization?
I'm sticking with "no." -- RF
On the enormous costs of life's little "pleasures" in late industrial civilization. -- RF

## Japan ##
Red lights are flashing for Japan, which is to host the games next year. -- RF

## China ##
Turkish Condemnation of Xinjiang cracks Muslim Wall of Silence
Do You Believe in the Deep State Now?
The revelation that top Justice officials considered unseating Trump should answer that question for good.
What Happens When More QE Fails to Reverse the Recession?
The smart money is liquidating assets, paying off debt and moving capital into collateral that isn't impaired by debt or speculative valuations.
Worried about Costs & Slowdown? Amazon Scuttles HQ2 Altogether, Plunges NY City Real Estate Industry “Into Despair”
Prudent cost-cutting move artfully dressed up as response to local politicians that had railed against the $3-billion corporate welfare package.
NASA mulls buying new rides to space from Russia amid programme delays
NASA said on Friday it was weighing an option to buy two additional astronaut seats aboard a Russian rocket as a contingency plan against further delays in the launch systems being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing Co.
In a State of Emergency, the President Can Control Your Phone, Your TV, and Even Your Light Switches
Under a little-known regulation that dates back to the 1930s, the president has legal power over electronic transmissions.
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