acro2008

This just adds another reason to why some cons don't like Pope Francis. It's bad enough that he believes in evolution, the Big Bang Theory and is accepting of gays.

I understand the bitching about the contract but it was Arte that made the ridiculous offer.  I'm pretty sure most of us in here would have went with the highest bidder when the difference was roughly $20-30 million.  Sure, sometimes Pujols gets on my nerves but I never doubt his desire or effort.  Especially over the last year or so he seems to have humbled a bit.

It's time to try something different at least.  Every time I think they are about to turn a corner they go back to not producing anything offensively.  Scrapping your way to a .500 record by winning close games is not going to get you to the playoffs.  If you are gonna use guys like Krauss, Giavotella, Joyce etc. then you might as well give some of the other interchangeable parts a look and see if you can't find the hot hand instead of gutting out 150 at bats from just one of those guys while you wait for them to get comfy at the plate.  

As we know,  flags promote nationalism, not a bad thing of course but it is when people are proud to the point they forget that their government can throw them in jail simply by saying they are to believed to be a home grown terrorist without proof.  Until the Patriot act and some other draconian legislation is repealed, my flag will stay folded up and on the shelf.

That speaks to the problem more than anything else does.  We take our sides and talk them up, but really - R and D are the same team, just with different uniforms.  They both play for the bank.

I can't believe you guys wasted your time watching that garbage.

Since Obama there are an easy 70 to 80 million more illegals. The plan never was to kill whitey but to breed him out.  

A lot of blame to go around.  Months ago many news  sources reported Saudia Arabia and Qatar, our allies were funding Isis, which would be consistent historically.  Then last month Obama said "the US underestimated the rise of Isis" but with a contradictory policy of funding syrian rebels, resulting in the the US essentially funding Isis.  The American people should be so sick of being lied to while our country's reputation gradually descends.    

Banks and lending institutions will be the death of this country

you know, i find it presumptuous for Israel to assume all Jews in the world... hate to break to to them, but all Israelis are not Jewish, and all Jews are not Israeli... a religion is not a nationality.

Most likely on purpose. 

nate and halo magic must believe that teachers aren't paid by the government.  
 
That is all Bruce was saying.  You two are the ones making mountains out of molehills.

So you're telling me that various Departments of Education in the states have no involvement in it?
 
LOL

"Accidentally"

It's disgusting how many of our fellow countrymen gladly hand over their rights and freedoms to the wealthy elite that rule this country. They're so brainwashed and willfully ignorant to the true purpose of America and it's ideals that they'll fight and maybe even die to defend the system that "protects" them.

I got out of the market when the 2008 crash started and bought ETF precious metals and also physical. I didn't have a 401k anymore so I didn't have to factor in withdrawal penalties. The problem for me is I lost none on the way down but didn't benefit from the mysterious ride up to the Dow record levels. Still, the more I learned the easier it was to stay conservative. I wonder what would have happened post 2008 if there were no bailouts and QE. We may have been well past recovery already(given we demanded full disclosure). I can hear Ron Paul's ""audit the Fed". At this point, IMO, any more Quantitive easing will only extend the inevitable and make the economy worse, especially when the reality that sound monetary policies were not being practiced and this awareness comes home to roost.
If too many Americans realize their economy has been propped up by policies that have NEVER worked historically, what will be the perception and what problems will be caused by a people who start to learn that they don't trust the financial system? Obama had been instructed to tell the country all is ok. In the meantime the US and UK are running drills for a bank collapse scenerio. http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/11/banks-regulations-collapse-idINKCN0I004Q20141011
Back in 2008 the Fed stopped printing the all important M-3 report. The report presented enough knowledge to determine how much money was in circulation. It sure makes it appear they diidn't want anyone to know how much $$ was being printed and the inflation that would result. The Fed claimed not printing M-3 was to save money. Since when did the government care about that. IMO, whether next month or 3 years from now, the problems are going to be much worse than 2008 but the silver lining is that the American people should be upset enough that hopefully the corruption keeping the US from being a much greater nation should get scraped from the bottom of our shoes.

If things go bad the Fed will fire up the printing presses again IMO. Yellen seems to be a clone of Bernanke so the doves are still in control. It can't go on forever though and the shit will eventually meet the fan.

I don't think there is much to keep the market propped up with the Fed ending QE. Reality is starting to set in that this market has been held up by over a trillion dollars of  easy money. Brace for some rough months ahead on your 401k's.  Now with the price of oil dropping, earnings dropping on several companies, the dollar getting stronger, Europe and Asia looking pretty weak, there is just not much for the market to be optimistic on. My guess is there is probably a S&P 500 in the 1700's in our future.
I rode the 2008 crash to the bottom, I don't feel like doing it again.
I am not a bear, and I generally believe in riding the ups and downs of the market, but I don't see much upside here. It is an overpriced market with a lot of bad news on the horizon. I am taking my gains and going defensive for a while.

It's going to be tough on the US economy to handle this "de-dollarization" if it worsens and it looks like it will.  Obviously, the printing of money with no backing to stimulate the economy caused inflation but much of the rest of the world was just as irresponsible, even Japan.  But now, With more countries opting out of the dollar it should result in even more dollars around the world eventually ending up in circulation at home creating even more inflation.  
 
Through the Bretton Woods ageement The IMF was supposed to make sure the Federal Reserve printed money with gold backing within the scope of peventing inflation.  Not only did they turn the other way  The Fed just simply went off the gold standard and told us all that it was a good thing.  IMO, it was just more cronyism corruption.  Despite the bulk of the world also  harboring economic concerns, the US seems to have painted itself into a corner. As the holder of the World reserve currency  we were to supposed to set the example.  
 
IMO, with many in the world wanting to move away from the dollar, we can only call for quantitive easing for so long without creating hyper-inflation.  The lowering of interest rates  did not stimulate the economy but may have prevented a depression  I could be wrong but I don't see any way out but to accept only a strictly regulated government printed money, as opposed to money matters done in secret.  This crap has been going on for too long and for the benefit of a few with not a peep from the media.

It also examines the U.S. government's clandestine connection to it.
 
U.S./Mexico, there are no good guys in that one.

It's going to be tough on the US economy to handle this "de-dollarization" if it worsens and it looks like it will.  Obviously, the printing of money with no backing to stimulate the economy caused inflation but much of the rest of the world was just as irresponsible, even Japan.  But now, With more countries opting out of the dollar it should result in even more dollars around the world eventually ending up in circulation at home creating even more inflation.  
 
Through the Bretton Woods ageement The IMF was supposed to make sure the Federal Reserve printed money with gold backing within the scope of peventing inflation.  Not only did they turn the other way  The Fed just simply went off the gold standard and told us all that it was a good thing.  IMO, it was just more cronyism corruption.  Despite the bulk of the world also  harboring economic concerns, the US seems to have painted itself into a corner. As the holder of the World reserve currency  we were to supposed to set the example.  
 
IMO, with many in the world wanting to move away from the dollar, we can only call for quantitive easing for so long without creating hyper-inflation.  The lowering of interest rates  did not stimulate the economy but may have prevented a depression  I could be wrong but I don't see any way out but to accept only a strictly regulated government printed money, as opposed to money matters done in secret.  This crap has been going on for too long and for the benefit of a few with not a peep from the media.

It's going to be tough on the US economy to handle this "de-dollarization" if it worsens and it looks like it will.  Obviously, the printing of money with no backing to stimulate the economy caused inflation but much of the rest of the world was just as irresponsible, even Japan.  But now, With more countries opting out of the dollar it should result in even more dollars around the world eventually ending up in circulation at home creating even more inflation.  
 
Through the Bretton Woods ageement The IMF was supposed to make sure the Federal Reserve printed money with gold backing within the scope of peventing inflation.  Not only did they turn the other way  The Fed just simply went off the gold standard and told us all that it was a good thing.  IMO, it was just more cronyism corruption.  Despite the bulk of the world also  harboring economic concerns, the US seems to have painted itself into a corner. As the holder of the World reserve currency  we were to supposed to set the example.  
 
IMO, with many in the world wanting to move away from the dollar, we can only call for quantitive easing for so long without creating hyper-inflation.  The lowering of interest rates  did not stimulate the economy but may have prevented a depression  I could be wrong but I don't see any way out but to accept only a strictly regulated government printed money, as opposed to money matters done in secret.  This crap has been going on for too long and for the benefit of a few with not a peep from the media.

You're missing the point.
 
"The 38 deals, signed on a visit to Moscow by Premier Li Keqiang, allow for deeper cooperation on energy and a currency swap worth 150 billion yuan ($25 billion) intended partly to reduce the sway of the U.S. dollar."
 
Russia and China are moving away from the U.S. dollar. Once the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency we will not be able to just print money with little consequence.
 

Japanese far out ranks English as flawed and confusing, so much so the Prime Minister of Japan has been called out numerous times for using the wrong characters in his written work. Chinese has so many provinces that have their own dialect that you can say the same word seven different ways and depending on where you are it is a compliment or insult or a request for more noodles. Which could insult the cook.
 
Probably pretty close is Icelandic/Norwegian/Finnish where every word seems to need some clarifier as to what is or isn't accented and everything is written as though a vowel costs $500 to use.
 
Ever hear of the phrase, It's all Greek to me? Yeah, even the Greeks use it to describe their complex language to the Arab world that took it and the language of the Africans and Asians and convoluted it over centuries to the point all words relate to the action of hocking up some flem to spit.
 
Then there is always German that takes entire sentences and makes them into single words like rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz that nearly uses every letter in the alphabet, twice, to describe monitoring beef labeling. It is almost as though they are challenging Mary Poppins for the most obtuse word to make a song about and if you were to sing about Chimney Sweeps like in the movie it would go like this:
Chim, chimney
Chim, chimney
Chim, chim, cher-ee
A Bezirksschornsteinfegermeister  is as lucky
As lucky can be...
 
Everyone sing along now!
 
 

At some point everyone benefits from a change of scenery. I don't think Scioscia is a problem, but I could see a new voice taking this group to another level. In terms of who that would be, I have no idea.