Pictures Of Not So Far Off Military Misadventure

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The Daily Reckoning | Saturday, August 4, 2012 What havoc doth NDAA wreak? Readers weigh in on trolls, LIBOR and sparing a dime, Plus, all this week’s reckonings archived for your unadulterated enjoyment.... --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally! An Options Research Service So Simple and Accurate You’ll Have a Chance to Profit on Your Very First Play!. Here are true stories from readers who hauled in big profits on their very first trades... 750% GAIN! “My first trade was a 50% GAIN. My second trade is hard to believe - a 750% GAIN in one working day!” Eddie L. 200% GAIN! “I pulled out of Bank of America with a 200% gain. It was actually my first profit [with Options Hotline]. It felt like a great accomplishment.” Rick T. $6,540 Profits! “My first trade... made me $6,540 profits! You are the first newsletter that I have tried out of hundreds that actually delivers what it promises.” Robert N. Learn how to join first-time traders like Eddie, Rick and Rob who scored wins on their very first trades right here. Joel Bowman, checking in today from Paris, France... Joel Bowman What havoc doth NDAA wreak? “Nuthin’...man. Don’t be paranoid. It’s just another rule. Doesn’t affect us. Nuthin’ to see here.” Right? WRONG!! A few pics and captions taken at this week’s Anaheim paramilitary episode, thanks to on-the-sceners posting on http://www.rightnow.io/: 57UN: Police state is here. This was in #Anaheim neighborhoods with loads of unmarked vehicles loaded with cops in. 57UN: Welcome to #Anaheim! Militarized police take aim at protesters from the PD roof. And this... HeyKitty: Weapon vs camera: #Anaheim police officer points weapon @ someone shooting pictures This is not some far off military misadventure, folks. This is your backyard. Right...there. Our California-based editor, Eric Fry, takes a closer look at the encroaching police state. Expect these jackbooted thugs to come bustin’ down a door near you soon... The Daily Reckoning Presents The Police State is Here Eric Fry Every year at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, Chris Mayer, editor of Capital & Crisis, delights the audience with a little shtick he calls, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up.” Chris presents a collection of actual news stories from the prior year that are so crazy you would imagine that someone had simply made them up. No so. At this year’s symposium, Chris continued his tradition. In his afternoon workshop on the last day of the conference, he shared a few of the following crazy-but-true headlines and news stories: Time Magazine headline: How To Save The Housing Market: Destroy Houses Wall Street Journal headline: Economists Win Nobel for Focus on Real World Reuters Headline: German Tax Collectors Volunteer for Duty in Greece Dear Abby headline: Wife’s Affair With Husband’s Son Is Bound To End Badly UK Guardian headline: Cut the Working Week to a Maximum of 20 Hours, Urge Top Economists “There’s no evidence that if you have shorter working hours as the norm, you have a less successful economy: quite the reverse.” On Vacation and Sick? A Court Says Take Another BRUSSELS — For most Europeans, almost nothing is more prized than their four to six weeks of guaranteed annual vacation leave. But it was not clear just how sacrosanct that time off was until Thursday, when Europe’s highest court ruled that workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation...The ruling does not apply to the 25 percent of the Spanish labor force that is currently unemployed. Sydney Morning Herald headline: Mental Illness Rise Linked to Climate In the days following Chris’ presentation in Vancouver, your editors have stumbled upon a couple more news stories worthy of mention in next year’s edition of “You Can’t Make This Up.” First up, this headline from NewJerseynewsRoom.com: N.J. Law: Put a Seat Belt on Your Pet of Pay a Fine. Check out the video here, courtesy of Reason TV: Hmmm...placing restraints on domesticated mammals seems to have become something of a hobby these days among lawmakers and law enforcement agencies. Usually, however, the domesticated mammals are U.S. citizens and the restraints curtail some aspect of civil liberty. Consider this next little gem from Anaheim, California - home of the “Happiest Place on Earth.” That’s right; the town that brought you Disneyland now brings you a new and different amusement. The Anaheim Police Department have merged Disney’s famous Fantasyland and Tomorrowland into a brand new attraction: Nightmareland. Anaheim’s “men in blue” (and in black and in flak and in undercover clothes and on horseback and in helicopters and behind riot masks) stormed a peaceful protest against - you guessed it - the militarization of the Anaheim police force. You can’t make this up...and even if you could, why would you? The protesters carried a variety of signs, including the one above. The Anaheim police were not amused. Take a look: We’ll be back next week with more typical editions of the Daily Reckoning, in which we imagine things that should have happened, but didn’t. Regards, Eric Fry, For The Daily Reckoning Bill Bonner: Exclusive Footage It’s not often that Bill Bonner, the founder and chairman of Agora Publishing, agrees to appear on video. But Bill’s identified some massive problems with America’s financial markets. In fact, he calls this set of problems "the fattest, juiciest financial bubble that’s ever existed." Click here for this rare message from Bill -- a warning of the crisis, and a unique way you could sidestep the fallout... ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning... Uncharted Territory: An Interview with Bill Bonner By Bill Bonner Vancouver, Canada Bill Bonner stakes out “uncharted territory” in an interview with The Money and Wealth Show... For more of Bill’s insights - including how to play “the fattest, juiciest financial bubble that’s ever existed,” see here: Soliloquy of the Somnambulist By Joel Bowman Paris, France Phew! That was close. We were skeptical, as you might recall. Truth be told, we thought it was all going to end in catastrophe. And yet...The situation in Europe seems to have been fully resolved. The Spaniards and the Portuguese have put down their torches. The Greeks and Italians have picked up their tools. And the Germans have forgiven them all. What’s more - and this really is incredible - once-humorless feds across the land finally punished the real LIBOR riggers, i.e., themselves, for finicking with the dials...then they turned over the pricing of credit to its rightful owner: Mr. Market. Yes, Fellow Reckoner, all is well here on the continent. And that wasn’t even the BIG news! Big Game Hunting... in the Philippines By Chris Mayer Gaithersburg, Maryland People often ask me where I find my off-the-beaten-path ideas. One of the best ways I’ve found is to travel and meet with fellow investors. They can be your bird dogs to emerging opportunities. So I’ll be in Cambodia and an investor there will tell me excitedly about the opportunities in Myanmar (Burma). Or I’ll be in Mongolia and someone will talk of similar opportunities in Namibia. Or I’ll be in Colombia hearing an investor tell me about his recent trip to Haiti and what he found there. These things have all happened to me. Fixing the Fixers By Bill Bonner Baltimore, Maryland The borrowers’ real problem is that they are insolvent. They cannot pay their debts. Draghi treats the matter as a liquidity problem; he knows he cannot make them solvent. So, he lends them more money - on easy terms. Perhaps if he lends them enough for a long enough time, they will recover. Never explained is how making them even less solvent will help them to their feet. Nor has much thought been given to how they will ever get up, with all this new debt weight added to their burdens...nor to what will happen when investors realize that the system is cockeyed and doomed. Government Is Shrinking? by Jeffrey Tucker Auburn, Alabama In today’s political climate, the more implausible the claim, the more likely it is to stick. One that seems to be sticking now is that government today is small by historical standards and constantly shrinking. Run that one by the man on the street -- looted by the tax man, harassed by police, hounded by regulators -- and he will scoff. Now comes the highbrow journalist with a nuanced view to correct him, citing all kinds of complex data. Introducing Gasoline "Paybacks"... Several Americans are getting up to a dozen gasoline "payback" checks per year. In some cases, they're collecting as much as a few hundred dollars each month. And believe it or not, all of this cash is coming to them indirectly from the same "Big Oil" companies that have been gouging the rest of us for $4 gas. Here's the thing: anybody is eligible to start collecting these same "gasoline paybacks." This free online presentation explains how... The Weekly Endnote... And now, it’s over to a few readers for some highly valuable jetsam and flotsam... First up, Reckoner T. Christian writes... I found your website through an article entitled "Obama: The Shaq of Spending", and was intrigued enough to read your Cast of Characters and About Us. It appears to me that the Cast of Characters value limited government and fiscal responsibility and, perhaps, constitutional integrity. However, I was puzzled by the reader comments to Joel Bowman's piece - it appears that the commenters don't bother to read or understand the articles, and certainly don't subscribe to the inherent principles behind the publication. What's with that? Were the comments to Joel's piece atypical? Or did I misread the basic principles behind the publication? I guess I'm spoiled by The American Thinker, where the commenters actually revise, extend and expand on the articles, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. DR: It’s true, Mr. Christian...We have a troll infestation. A funky, rabid troll infestation. Of course, you’re (very) welcome to drop by and combat them... Of course, not everyone is troll-minded. Here’s Reckoner Ron C. ... The Dream on a Flight piece...That was absolutely fantastic. I copied and sent it to almost everyone on my email list, even the Obama people. Maybe enough of us someday will have the same dream turn into reality. Bills commentary on LIBOR and others was also pretty good. Two really good ones in one day -- oh my. I think you're on a roll. And finally, apropos of nothing, a little ditti from Mark S. in Chigago... Mr. Bonner, I'll see your "Ain't we got fun" lyrics, and raise you one set of "Brother can you spare a dime?". I think some of the most meaningful and poignant songs of the "American Songbook" came out in the 1930s. I wonder who will be writing the modern day equivalent as we continue marching forward into the Greater Depression? "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931) They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob, When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job. They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread? Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime; Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime? As for farmland in a bubble? Possible the prices have gone quite high, on a per-acre basis, but all things being equal, I'd still buy farmland if I had the funds. In fact, I think the safest longterm investments would 1) tillable farmland 2) precious metals, and 3) copper-sheathed lead (!!) As always, we welcome your thoughts. Email them to the address below and... ...enjoy your weekend. Cheers, Joel Bowman Managing Editor The Daily Reckoning ---------------------------------------------------------------- Here at The Daily Reckoning, we value your questions and comments. If you would like to send us a few thoughts of your own, please address them to your managing editor at joel@dailyreckoning.com Another Faux Fix The Worldwide Debt Culture More Credit to “Contain the Depression” Are the Markets Wrong on Norway? Fed Disappoints, and Risk Assets Get Sold Aussie Dollar Rallies Overnight But What About Kiwi? The Daily Reckoning: Now in its 11th year, The Daily Reckoning is the flagship e-letter of Baltimore-based financial research firm and publishing group Agora Financial, a subsidiary of Agora Inc. The Daily Reckoning provides over half a million subscribers with literary economic perspective, global market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas. Published daily in six countries and three languages, each issue delivers a feature-length article by a senior member of our team and a guest essay from one of many leading thinkers and nationally acclaimed columnists. 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