Modern Educayshun

Fun Video!

I have posted this before, but I always enjoy it and I hope you do too. 

The Empire Marches On

What? I thought that the recent Russian Airline crash in the Sinai was mechanical failure and that the claim by Isis for responsibility was bragging. But now it is reported in the Wall Street Journal that the US may soon be supplying "moderates" with hand-held surface-to-air missles to "keep the Russians at bay" as the article puts it. Here is the "money quote": 

"Mr. Obama has long rebuffed such proposals, citing the risk to civilian aircraft and fears they could end up in the hands of terrorists. To reduce those dangers, U.S. allies have proposed retrofitting the equipment to add so-called kill switches and specialized software that would prevent the operator from using the weapon outside a designated area, said officials in the region briefed on the option." 

What this means is that if this happens then any downing of Russian aircraft will be assumed to have been done by proxies of the US Government. The next paragraph says this: "U.S. intelligence agencies are concerned that a few older Manpads may already have been smuggled into Syria through supply channels the CIA doesn’t control." Thus it seems obvious that when, not if, this happens, the Russian government will assume the US is responsible. 

I do not post a link since the WSJ is subscription only. But one can google the title  "U.S., Allies to Boost Aid to Syria Rebels" to see the article. You need to do so.  

Most of these hand-held weapons, called Manpads, cannot reach the altitude needed to down a commercial aircraft except at take off,  but apparently some can.  So since these US made weapons, the ones with the altitude needed, are in the region, the crash of the Russian civilian airline could be laid at the US' feet.  (Note I am not saying that such a weapon was used, the altititude seems too high. We still do not know what happened, and we may never know.)

I would have thought that this was a false report, but this is the Wall Street Journal. The usual "meme" is the supposed "liberalness" of the Obama administration. I would say the opposite: It doesn't matter who is elected, the empire marches on.  

Do You Trust the Numbers?

According to the unemployment numbers, corporate profits, and the low inflation rate things are going well. But do you believe the numbers? Charles Hugh Smith had this comment on his blog last week: 

Sorry, Corporate Media: the unemployment rate and the official rate of inflation are not real. They are illusions rigged to lull the masses and enrapture the simulacrum experts living high on the hog in academia, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and think-tanks. 

I tend to doubt conspiracy theories, but if the "powers that be" control the numbers, and the decisions about how to calculate these numbers that are made favor the "powers that be," it is not unreasonable to point this out. One of my most popular posts was several years ago where I point out that markets are manipulated. This post regularly hits my weekly list of most viewed posts, even years later.

How are these numbers manipulated?  

Inflation numbers for a particular product are regularly adjusted if there is an "improvement" in the product. This actually makes sense if the numbers are adjusted properly. Are they? I doubt it. I have been a lifelong Apple computer user, since the early 80's. But lately each update and improvement reduces my user experience. I postpone all updates as long as I can. Each time Apple has a hardware update and the specs improve, as far as the government is concerned, if the price stays the same, an improvement in the specs is a price reduction. There has been little improvement in what I use a computer for in years. Yet they supposedly cost less now than a few years ago. I am just not seeing it. I have an old computer I use for accounting because the new versions of the software I use are useless for my purposes. This is probably the last year I can do this. This will be a huge cost for me in time at the very least. (Gaming is obviously a big exception to this. The best improvements have been huge.)

Am I alone in noticing a rather dramatic reduction in quality in small appliances for the last decade? This is not necessarily bad as there has also been a dramatic reduction in price. Does the reduction in price match the reduction in quality? I have not found it so. But all the reduction in price is factored into the inflation rate. There is an old Russian saying, "I am not so rich that I can buy cheap." 

So both supposed technological improvements and a dramatic reduction in quality has artificially reduced the inflation rates.  I doubt the supposed inflation rate of 5 to 7 percent that many claim. This seems wrong, I would even say stupidly wrong. But it seems clear to me that the rate of inflation is higher than what the government claims. 

The next time I will talk about corporate profits. 

Until then ask yourself a question. Can you trust the government numbers? 

Pivot to Asia?

It seems to me that Obama is quite agressive and provocative in his foreign policy, not weak as it is often implied. His actions is the South China Sea are an example and Ron Paul talks about it in his program. 

Ron Paul on Syria