Nobody could find anything in it, either.

If I ran for office, would they clean out my house as well as trace my family's origins?

Other than puppies....which is cool. We've been going to the dogs for a long time, including at least one weekend...

And for the Founding Fathers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023012261

http://founders.archives.gov/

I think we have a winner, folks!

Sis actually drinks distilled spirits...I cannot go past champagne, myself!

And, I've got a bottle of Absinthe in the cabinet. It's looking might enticing.

But, if I wake up with no ears, just call me Vince.

I have been banned from ever posting in the BOG. One of the stupidest posts I've ever seen was on the front page. Well, you know me. I had to stick my nose in. It wasn't even that bad, but I offended the Cargo Cult.

I wish Lewis Black could stick a few posts in there. I'm just an amateur.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110210677

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-12-2013/back-in-black---future-technology

I never go there anyway. It was just sitting there right in front of me.

I'm a victim of coicumstance.

this website would be much improved.

The man has his own group on this site! What next?

Did Clinton need his own group? Would Carter have needed it?

What about groups for Alan Grayson and Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and other blue-blooded REAL Democrats?

The thought of that thread is driving me to drink. Seriously.

I'd better go to bed, before something else happens....like Friday.

in many areas of DU.

srsly.

And I too got immediately banned from the BOG. Too funny.

While I realize the obstacles Obama has faced and am amazed by what he's managed to do in spite of them, not the least of which is being the First Black President, a huge burden in itself which is making him more conservative than he otherwise might be, I am not sufficiently reverential for that particular group.

All presidents screw something up. He's just been less consistent at it than the recent Republicans have been.

I never even knew the BOG group existed.
Glad I limit my DU exposure to here, or I'd be TSed in no time.

and a few other websites. It's impossible to read everything everywhere.

indeed

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/bernanke-and-us-fed-change-course-on-interest-rate-policy-a-905242.html


Fuchinobe doesn't look like the kind of place where speculators have struck it rich. The commuter rail station near the Japanese capital of Tokyo is surrounded by drab apartment buildings and small single-family homes. But the neighborhood is also home to Yuka Yamamoto, 44, a star among Japan's so-called shufu toshika, or "housewife investors."

Yamamoto, a chemical laboratory worker by profession, has written about 40 books with investment tips for housewives. She makes television appearances and recently explained what she thinks about the boom that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda have fueled with their relaxed monetary policy known as "Abenomics."

"I think Abenomics is great," says Yamamoto. The woman, wearing a white blouse and blue lacquered shoes, is pleased with herself. She said that she sold a large portion of her shares weeks ago and that she rode out the most recent mini-crash on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. After climbing by more than 80 percent since the end of November, the Nikkei index dropped more sharply in late May than it had since the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The wild swings have continued in June, with the Nikkei plunging 6 percent on Thursday.

Investors have also been shocked at the speed at which prices have risen and then collapsed on markets in Europe and North America recently.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/oecd-study-finds-large-numbers-of-immigrants-leave-germany-a-905583.html

"Bienvenidos! Welcome to Baden-Württemberg!" Several initiatives are currently underway in the southwestern German state, home of the Black Forest, to attract young workers from Spain.

Plagued with a lack of skilled workers, rural southern Germany has focused on attracting Spanish workers looking for jobs as apprentices in the restaurant business, as skilled workers at hospitals or daycare facilities, or as engineers for the kind of small to mid-sized industries that form the backbone of the German economy.

The idea behind the campaign is simple: Southern Europe is faced with dramatically high youth unemployment, and small and mid-sized businesses in southern Germany are in desperate need of personnel. Why not let young and experienced skilled workers from Southern Europe come to Germany, creating a win-win situation?

But things aren't as easy as many politicians would like to think. Figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicate that many immigrants quickly leave Germany. According to the OECD's International Migration Outlook, released on Thursday, in recent years only one in two Greeks remained in Germany for longer than one year, and only one in three Spaniards.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eu-weakened-data-protection-laws-ahead-of-prism-spy-program-a-905520.html

Earlier this week, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding vented her fury over the US data spying program known as Prism. The far-reaching online surveillance operation, which saw the US National Security Agency spying on users across the globe, clearly demonstrates "that a clear legal framework for the protection of personal data is not a luxury, but is a fundamental right," Reding told SPIEGEL ONLINE on Tuesday.

Just two days later, however, it would seem that Reding was perhaps protesting a bit too much. According to both the Financial Times and Reuters, the European Commission bowed to US lobbying in early 2012 and scrapped a data protection measure that would have significantly reduced the NSA's ability to spy on Europeans.

According to the Financial Times report, which cites EU documents and unnamed EU officials, the measure was specifically designed to ward off US efforts to eavesdrop on international phone calls and emails. It was even called the "anti-FISA clause," a reference to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Washington, however, launched a significant lobbying effort to get the Commission to remove the clause -- which it then did, partly in order to smooth the way ahead of talks on the trans-Atlantic free trade agreement. "We didn't want any complications on this front," an EU official told the Financial Times.

The revelations come as Germany in particular continues to voice outrage at the breadth of the US Prism spying program. Earlier this week, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger wrote in a contribution for SPIEGEL ONLINE that security does not justify such surveillance and that "all facts must be put on the table." She has also reportedly sent a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder asked for an explanation of the "legal foundation for this program and its applications," according to excerpts published by the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22890906


Benefits for pensioners have helped with bills such as heating homes in winter

UK pensioners' incomes have risen faster than all other age groups in the last 30 years, a study has shown.

The study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) described the trend as "a triumph of social policy", arguing that poverty in old age was being reduced.

The research also found that the over-60s are the only age group to have become better off since 2007/08.

The findings may fuel the debate over how much protection pensioners should be given from austerity measures.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22888306


The Isle of Man attracts foreign companies and wealthy individuals with its low taxes

The Isle of Man and Jersey have hit back at accusations that they facilitate tax evasion and avoidance ahead of next week's G8 summit.

The offshore jurisdictions, frequently described as tax havens, suggest recent pressure from world leaders is politically motivated.

They also argue that they are more open about their tax regimes than they are given credit for.

G8 leaders will hold their latest summit in Northern Ireland on Monday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/nsa-revelations-modified-wheat-cast-a-pall-on-us-trade-talks-with-europe/2013/06/13/61bd61b2-d432-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

Chances for a broad trade deal between the United States and the European Union are fading following recent revelations about U.S. electronic surveillance programs, oversight of genetically modified food and other issues, according to officials and analysts in the United States and Europe who are following the discussions.

European officials are set to meet in Brussels on Friday to debate a formal mandate for their negotiating team, and analysts who have reviewed the draft text say it points toward a more limited agreement rather than the expansive economic opening that officials said could unleash tens of billions of dollars in additional trade.

There is still, those observers and officials say, immense potential for an agreement that could in the long run boost commerce between the world’s top economic partners, lower the costs of doing business by aligning regulatory standards, and make a number of other changes to ease the flow of goods, services and capital across the Atlantic.

But hopes for an agreement that would dramatically change the trading landscape — and boost the near-term growth and job prospects for Europe and the United States — have run up against the realities of Europe’s 27-nation political maze, including privacy concerns and French demands for protections of its film and media industries.

***TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO GOOD

Schaudenfreude....it does a body good!

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-france-pension-idUKBRE95D0GS20130614

(Reuters) - The French should pay contributions for longer to get a full pension and well-off pensioners should pay more taxes, a much-awaited advisory report to President Francois Hollande's government said on Friday.

Pension reform, a controversial issue for decades in France, will be closely watched by its euro zone partners, which expect changes in the generous but costly system in return for giving Paris more time to bring its public finances back in line.

The study does not propose a radical overhaul of the pay-as-you go scheme but calls for measures that ask more of workers and pensioners. It also recommends a fractional increase of employers' pension contributions.

The government has said it will study proposals from the report but is not bound by them for its planned revamp of the pension system later this year.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-eu-us-trade-idUKBRE95D0AW20130614

(Reuters) - EU states sought to reassure France on Friday that its culture would be shielded from the might of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, urging Paris not to block a free-trade deal with the United States that could boost transatlantic business.

Paris has refused to join the 26 other EU governments that want talks to start in July, unless television, movies and developing online media are left out of a deal.

EU trade ministers meeting in Luxembourg tried to resolve the issue at a closed-door session on Friday, but officials told Reuters that France stuck to its position in initial exchanges. The bloc needs French agreement not just because it is Europe's second largest economy but because under EU rules, trade deals touching on cultural issues need unanimous support.

"I would say the chances for an agreement are 50-50," said Alexander Stubb, Finland's minister for Europe and foreign trade, as he went into the meeting. "There is nothing that threatens the French or the European film industry and I shall certainly continue to watch all of my beloved French movies even after this free trade negotiation," he told reporters.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/13/uk-asia-vulnerability-analysis-idUKBRE95C1B820130613

(Reuters) - India is emerging Asia's canary in the 'hot money' mine.

As financial markets sell off on concerns over rising U.S. rates, what happens in India, an economy with slowing growth and a heavy dependence on foreign money, could well determine if this is merely a short-term rout or a full-blown crisis.

India's rupee currency has weakened the most among emerging markets after the South African rand since May as investors flee assets most vulnerable to the end of super-loose U.S. monetary policy.

Other markets are falling, albeit to a smaller extent, due to a reversal in flows received since 2008 when the Federal Reserve embarked on the first of its series of stimulus programmes. Stock and bond markets in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines have suffered massive outflows of funds.

"There was a lot of hot money in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines and these remain the most vulnerable as long as the contagion persists," said Tim Condon, Asia economist at ING, based in Singapore.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/06/13/inenglish/1371148697_388414.html

Austerity measures could mean the dismantling of a large part of the Spanish health system and significantly damage the health of the population, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday.

The authors of the report warn that if the trend does not change, there is a risk that Spain will experience a spiral of health problems that could mean an increase in infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.

One part of the research consisted of interviewing 34 doctors and nurses in Catalonia. The majority said they felt “shocked, numbed and disillusioned” about the cuts, and some expressed fears that the austerity measures would “kill people,” the researchers said.

The report highlighted that healthcare and social services cuts of almost 14 percent at the national level and of 10 percent at the regional level in 2012 had coincided with an increase in demand for care, especially on the part of senior citizens, the disabled and the mentally ill.

I was fifteen and the year was 1970 the place the Denver Coliseum. I still have Kodochrom slides from that show.

6/14/13 Detroit To Default Today, "Shared-Sacrifice" To Follow
And so the next casualty of the inevitable municipal collapse appears, which is, as expected, that one-time symbol of all that was right with a (once upon a time) manufacturing America, having since been replaced with the anti-symbol of all that is broken: Detroit. DETROIT BEGINS MORATORIUM ON ALL DEBT SERVICE PAYMENTS FOR UNSECURED FUNDED DEBT; DETROIT TO DEFAULT ON CERTIFICATES OF PARTICIPATION DUE TODAY.

And, true to from in the New Normal America, where the "fairness doctrine" rules supreme under Big Brother's watchful eye, the premise of the upcoming glorious recovery is a well-known one: "the shared-sacrifice." To wit: "The City currently faces approximately $17 billion in total liabilities. Detroit is insolvent and cannot meet its financial obligations without a significant restructuring. Mr. Orr's plan provides for shared sacrifice among all creditor groups – from Wall Street and Main Street consistent with their legal rights – in order to return Detroit to a sustainable financial foundation and to permit much-needed reinvestment in the City." The punchline: "Detroit's road to recovery begins today"... By defaulting.

Full release at link
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-14/detroit-default-today

6/14/13 On the brink, Detroit halts debt payments, plans pension cuts

Detroit will immediately stop payments on about $2 billion in debt, the city's emergency manager announced Friday, an effort to conserve cash. The manager, Kevyn Orr, also said Detroit will need to cut pay and pension and health benefits for city workers.

Debt holders are likely to get only pennies on the dollar.

"Financial mismanagement, a shrinking population, a dwindling tax base and other factors over the past 45 years have brought Detroit to the brink of financial and operational ruin," said Orr.

Orr met with the city's leading creditors behind closed doors Friday morning, presenting his preliminary restructuring plan. He said further meetings are planned with the unions representing city employees.

more...
also at link - video: Who will bailout Detroit?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/14/news/economy/detroit-debt-payments/index.html?iid=Lead