See No Evil

President Obama has been groomed on-camera for forty years. He is/was a smoker. Have you seen video of the President with a cigarette in his hand? Did you ever wonder why the most photographed person on the planet smokes in total privacy? See no evil....

Vanity (smoking) Censorship seems harmless enough until you realize that you are now denied news of a possible pending hurricane disaster heaping itself on an earlier disaster off the coast from New Orleans.

A huge tropical storm is bearing down on the gigantic BP oil rig conflagration that has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico....and suddenly you have NO news on the oil mess, and sparse news on the tropical storm! See no evil....

Media censorship is a marker on the pathway to dictatorship. Such is the will of the new and exploding U.S. majority.

I’m a long way from the Gulf as I write today, but I pity those whose lives are at risk. Vanity, thy name is.....

G20 - The Highlight

In my view, French President Sarkozy stole the show. He stepped up to the podium, and told the world that when France hosts G20 meetings a year hence, he intends to spend ten percent of what Canada has wasted on Security.

I’m offended by the fact that four police cruisers were burned on Toronto streets as Mr. Sarkozy was speaking, but it is not lost on me that on a bad night of vicious rioting in Paris, three thousand cars have gone up in smoke, and all on Mr. Sarkozy’s watch.

I’m proud of Canada’s Prime Minister. I hope that he will not attend next year’s G20 meetings if France fails to offer suitable security.

Four cars torched in Toronto, and 3000 wrecked in Paris mega-violence? Mr. Sarkozy needs to get real.

Obama Says....BP Will Pay

Republican Congressman Joe Barton tells us that President Obama got BP to make a $20 billion clean up commitment by “shaking down” BP. He (Joe) calls it a “Slush Fund” and he points out that the BP capitulation “has NO legal standing” in a nation of laws. There is no law that provides for this, says Joe Barton. Later, we were told that Mr. Barton was pressured to apologize for his honesty.

Hello? There is no sovereignty beyond the borders of any country. Rule of law – where it does exist, is extinguished at the borders of the country blessed with Rule of Law. So “BP will pay” keeps the wolves from the door of the White House for now, but Virginia....but I predict that:

1. The U.S. will not pay Mexico or Cuba or any other Latin American country for the horrendous collective hardships experienced because of this.

2. BP/RIG/HAL will not pay the U.S. as promised - only words.

3. BP/RIG/HAL will not pay Mexico, Cuba or any other country taken under by this disaster.

The way I look at it, today BP is British only by association. I believe that BP is controlled from Dubai or Saudi Arabia.

Who will compensate for the gigantic world-wide losses incurred by Pension Funds and other BP share and bond holders? Certainly not the U.S. and not BP. Governments in many countries are long BP shares big time. BP shares are down 50% so far and going lower. I see bankruptcy ahead.

So Congressman Barton, I salute you. None of us liked what you had to say, but in my view you spoke the truth. And you are in the right, regardless of whether or not anybody is listening. Truth always sails into a vacuum at this stage in the age.

Greedy Danny Re Labrador

Greedy Danny is steamed because greedy Quebecers think that Labrador belongs to them. They publish maps that make Danny fume.

Sorry Danny. You have met your match. But Labrador should not belong to you, nor should Labrador be a fiefdom of the Province of Quebec. I believe that Labrador needs to establish its own territorial government.

Carney re Moral Hazard

Mark Carney (Bank of Canada Governor) tells us that we are awash in “Moral Hazard”.

Words well chosen.

In my book entitled November Years I expressed my opinion that integrity had somehow suddenly evaporated. Carney came from Goldman Sachs. That gave him a front row seat as our wonderful world ran aground.

Morality? Integrity? These words are history. Their very meaning has been lost. The grease that lubed the wheels of finance and freedom – gone.

Moral hazard? Mortal tragedy.

Majority Rule

President Obama says he will get results by kicking the asses of the oil guys he’s depending on to fix the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico....James Carville says he can get results because he is meaner than Mr. Obama.

I said from the beginning that words, silver tongued or nasty, won’t solve the problem. I also said there would be nothing more than words.

And don’t get indignant with Britain. BP once stood for British Petroleum, but not anymore. Citigroup has a block of BP stock – so blame Wall Street? Nope. Citigroup is no longer controlled by Americans. Citigroup is not American and BP is not British. We have to dig a little deeper. I’ll give you a hint. Halliburton is a major player in the oil rig mess off New Orleans, and the Halliburton head office is in Dubai.

But there’s more. Whose ass will Mr. Obama kick when the first hurricane of the season rolls tar balls through Pensacola, Biloxi, Houston or New Orleans? That could come to pass next week.

And there are other disasters – bigger disasters ahead. Americans have made their point. Anybody can be President. It’s not such a big deal. They have had their way and it’s OK with me.

Indeed, anybody can occupy the White House, and from here on anybody will. But anybody in the White House will deliver more and more of what we’re seeing today off New Orleans. It’s one thing to blow away an offshore oil rig, and quite another to do a Chernobyl. I don’t blame President Obama for blaming BP. Mr. Obama never did know that he didn’t know. No Virginia, I blame the American voter for insisting that a social worker should run our planet.

Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t lost sight of Brave Sarah and the Tea Party gang. I commend them for their valiant struggle, but this is a game of numbers and clearly the outcome has already been decided. There is no hope for the Tea Party. The day of rough and tumble problem-solving relentless progress is over. The rest of the world has never had oil, electricity, running water or education, and the rest of the world has been flocking to blessed America by jumbo jet for thirty years. The new arrivals know how to cope in the third world, and those of us who liked it our way will simply have to adjust.

Majority rule. There is no other way.

Dow 10,000

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is dancing back and forth through 10,000 as I write. Bulls would have liked it better if 10,000 had not been penetrated on the downside.

A clear break below recent lows could potentially attract considerable sell-side volume.

Rating The Rating Agencies

I find it amusing to discover that Moody’s and Fitch have downgraded BP debt. In moral and ethical terms I had long since declared Moody’s, Fitch, S&P and DBRS totally and absolutely bankrupt.

The world has no care for what I think, but I believe that existing Rating Agencies have irrevocably violated the public trust. They cannot recover, and they cannot be replaced because ethics and morality are themselves no longer understood in the financial community.

Without integrity Wall Street cannot exist. Without Wall Street, we watch in awe as freedom falters.

Billion Dollar Boon Doggle?

Two points have been overlooked with regard to the Security Budget for the pending G8 and G20 meetings in Ontario.

Firstly, billions of dollars will be spent in Canada by visiting dignitaries and their support people. It’s simply good tourism business, and it generates tax revenues.

Secondly, remember the Guergis Paradox. Mr. Ignatieff vocally insisted that Mr. Harper fire Ms Guergis, until Mr. Harper did so. Then Mr. Ignatieff cried foul.

Today Mr. Ignatieff is shouting about the cost of G8/G20 security measures, but at the first hint of trouble it will be Mr. Ignatieff on his high horse shouting for greater police presence at these meetings.

Watch and see. It’s a no-brainer.