are insane (IMHO). They are 1 issue voters, how extreme can someone be against a woman's rights, her body? Seems a bunch live in Iowa. So, Santorum, if anyone remembers this, was one of the Senators pushing to get involved in the terri schiavo case.

These people are off the rails, they would vote to be homeless as long as that person has some extreme anti-women, anti-women's rights, anti-choice, rhetoric, positions.

That's Santorum, one of those guys who claims cells in a Petri dish are a person and so on.

I was amused by Michele Bachmann. Boy, supposedly a lot of these evangelical "Christians" said there cannot be a woman in the lead, i.e. sexism is part of their "beliefs" (lovely).

So, there she is, endorsing some fringe, living by some fringe who just made sure she wouldn't win.

It's kind of amazing to me, these radical religious people. Women, somehow they embrace these extremes as if the "rules" don't apply to them, yet they are endorsing the idea they should be a second class citizen.

Ugh. Anyway, on the economics front, Santorum is mentioning rebuilding U.S. manufacturing. Unfortunately it's that classic GOP twist, they present policies and agendas which will further destroy something, in this case, manufacturing, all the while claiming it will help.

So, Santorum is claiming "regulations" and "taxes" are the reason U.S. manufacturing is languishing, which is ridiculous.

The thing about politics which is so odious to me is how various politicians are given credibility by the press, when frankly they should not. So many politicians tout policies that are a disaster, simply won't work, by the theory and the statistics, yet they are given the same level of credibility. If a crazy person on the street said such stuff no one would think twice, but run for office and you can promote the most ridiculous stuff.

Hours and hours and hours of cable news coverage on these things and paying attention to policies, actions is 0.00001% of it. They act like they are watching a football game but the American people are the ones being kicked around here.

"Please do list other's "predictions" list. I think I'm the only one out there who believes Europe will not implode." -- Robert Oak

There's at least one reasonably qualified commentator who thinks that while the Euro zone will lose one or more member-countries, neither it nor the EU is set to implode. Implosion would be like scuttling the ship or the ship breaking up, but there's also such a thing as trimming the sails.

I may go even farther out on that limb. I can't defend my position with much, but I think that it's possible that only Greece will leave the Euro zone ... and maybe nobody will leave the EU.

It comes down to the importance of tourism in the economy of Greece and maybe some others. Plus, the Greek people -- at least in and around Athens -- have been under attack, as I understand it, from NATO forces (including US Navy troops), that is, the 'Blue Helmuts', for years now. It goes way back, even to 1946 ... or earlier. Greece is actually unique in that regard. But they are stuck within NATO because of their long-standing (to say the least) conflict with Turkey.

'Jesse' of Jesse's Café Américain (blogspot blog) has published a 2012 list of seven trends (along with seven summaries of 2011). Jesse is an American who lives in Paris, so he must have some grasp on what's happening over there. His webpage is fairly heavily traveled.

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(Jesse is a moderate and rational goldbug type, so he isn't exactly a fan of the Euro. He also comes across as sincerely kind and religious in outlook, maybe even to the point of social democracy, so he can't fit comfortably into the full-blown goldbug religion. His interests tend toward a technical (chartist) analysis of markets, especially PM, with occasional focus on political factors and on summary economic trends -- maybe once a month, something like a very abbreviated review, as though drawn from EP, including some graphs, etc..)

(Jesse does pay attention to markets other than PM. He has been harshly critical of banking regulators and doesn't much care for what he considers to be the "Anglo-American" banking institution. He also includes an occasional foray into philosophy or social criticism. He's a blogger, and there's no advertising or even facility for donations -- selling books or a brokerage or otherwise -- although there is some art work just for fun. He does lay out his personal investment position on a regular basis, although not with any hype. The blog seems to be a hobby.)

__________

Here's Jesse's take on the outlook for Europe  --

"The Eurozone will continue to struggle to find a balance between political and financial factors, and will evolve into a stronger union of fewer members." Jesse has a negative outlook for the UK.

Here's the gist of Jesse's outlook, excerpted from his 31 December blog --

1. Wall Street dropped some of its pretense to fairness and softer forms of fraud and resorted to overt theft as MF Global stole significant sums of money, bonds, and bullion assets directly from customer accounts, under the eyes of the regulators, and transferred the money to its global bankers who refused to give it back.

Trend: Theft by the financiers will continue and intensify. The victims will be vilified to blunt public reaction.

2. The Eurozone came under unremitting assault by the ratings agencies and their associated banks and hedge funds. The Euro is an inherently 'difficult' currency to manage and has always been more susceptible to broad swings in value. This is because it is an economic union without a comprehensive political and financial union.  ...

Trend: The Eurozone will continue to struggle to find a balance between political and financial factors, and will evolve into a stronger union of fewer members. ... The UK will be preoccupied by its own set of severe internal problems and regional unrest as austerity bites deeply. The UK will begin to act as more of an Anglo-American agent in the Eurozone. ...
 

3. The Federal Reserve is expanding its power as a monetary authority and regulator of the financial system in an extra-Constitutional manner. The Fed is determined to fight the deflationary forces of global trade and credit contraction by expanding its balance sheet. They have little fear of inflation. Hyperinflation is highly unlikely in the absence of an exogenous shock. Stagflation is the new normal disguised somewhat by government statistics.

Trend: The Fed will start a new program of 'nominal GDP targeting' without stated limits in size of activity, as it will be defined by the scope of its objectives. The bond bubble will continue particularly in the long end of the curve. It will falter and breakdown at some point, but this is not likely in the near term unless some external standard is imposed or exogenous force intervenes.

4. A currency war is well underway in the aftermath of the closing of the gold window and the erosion of the Bretton Woods agreement, into an uneasy floating exchange rate system ... This currency war manifests in currency devaluations and pegs in support of mercantilism, particularly in the developing countries. It is a form of neo-colonialism supported by the great multinational corporations.

Trend: Global trade will begin to come under greater political assault as the exchange rate mechanism fails to impose a reasonable balance on the flows of goods and capital. The SDR is the most likely replacement for the US dollar as the world migrates towards a dual currency regime with one currency for domestic only use and an international unit for the settlement of world trade. The composition of the SDR will be a major point of contention between the BRICs and the Anglo-Americans.

5. The US political process is dominated by Big Money, a system in which a small number of people choose the candidates which will be allowed on the final ballot despite great pretense of a selection process and primaries. ... This tends to continue to promote and support a status quo.

Trend: There may be a third party candidate, and perhaps one other fourth party of any real significance, but the end choice will be between Obama and Romney who are the corporate candidates. Strong voter dissatisfaction will cause minority parties to secede from the two major political parties, including at least one crypto-fascist movement and one progress movement. Watch for a rising current of racism, and attempts to make prejudice socially acceptable, and a growing class hatred. There will be major riots and demonstrations each summer from now until 2020 or a return to representative government.

6. As the global monetary regime continues its change, the US dollar continues to be stretched thinly. Despite all the odds and strong opposition from Western central banks and monetary authorities, gold has sustained an eleven year bull market.

Trend: Gold is in a bull market that will last until around 2020, or until the global monetary system reaches a sustainable equilibrium with a replacement for the US dollar as the reserve currency that is acceptable to the new economic powers. Silver and gold will continue to move with significant volatility as their prices increase. Bonds are the current asset bubble. At some point this may break as the housing market has done, and this will have a negative impact for gold if interest rates on the short end turn positive. This may not happen if inflation increases faster than interest rates rise.

7. China and Russia have replaced their command and control communist economies with command and control oligarchies. The power of China is the exploitation of labor, and of Russia, natural resources. Despite their calm outward appearance, there is significant turmoil beneath the surface, often regional in nature.

Trend: The governments of the world will continue to be shaken by the restructuring of the world economy. Change and calls for reform will most often be met by repression, often harsh. The world will continue to develop into three or four spheres of influence, with the greatest unrest and limited wars on the fringes of those spheres. The most frequent conflicts will be where Europe meets Asia, and Asia meets the subcontinent.

Well, I guess that's how it looks from Paris. I'm not so sure that Jesse has a real grasp of USA politics. I know that #Occupy is the progress movement, but I'm not sure who is the "cryto-fascist" movement unless it is almost the entirety of the federal political establishment -- most of the Executive branch, a strong bipartisan majority of Congress and a majority of the Supreme Court (not to mention most of corporate media). He's obviously unaware of Buddy Roemer, and probably of Ron Paul as well.
 

There's a heavy rumor going around that 2012 will include notable push-back from major TNCs against egregious and growing hacking successes, all originating in China.

In 2011 and before, there has been no effective protection for intellectual property of any kind, including military technology -- not to mention personal privacy. Yes, it is heavily rumored that the NSC itself has been hacked!

The only solution probably is to "pull the plug" -- that is, disconnect from China at the hardware-connection (firewall) level. Unfortunately, for a country like the USA that cannot even manage to enact the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act in 2011 or the DISCLOSE Act in 2010, any national policy support for such self-preservation is very unlikely. BTW: Thank you, Mr. Speaker John ("Wen Hu") Boehner - may your campaign coffers choke on gold!

Most probably, this story is already being underreported or ignored by corporate media, and certainly it can't be found on the radars monitoring what passes for political consciousness these days. (What? Anyone but the invisible Buddy Roemer discuss this in the primaries or in November? Not likely.)

I do not doubt that such people as Warren Buffet have been informed of the problem and take it into account in making investment decisions. I also have to believe that this problem is well-known to the new CIA director, David Petraus, as well as to the Pentagon's man on the NSC (General Douglas Lute), but whatever countermeasures they may be putting in place ... the public won't hear about them. And why should we? We have our own problems, and if CEOs and other rulers of the more-or-less Anglo-American TBTF financial world are so corrupted that they are willing to let all their eggs fall into the Beijing basket ... well, that's their business. They should be on notice, though, that they may not be able to call on the American public to play along with their game much longer, if now.

At least that's my opinion.

I am but an echo in this world ... with goodwill for all as we enter into 2012!

The best predictions I've seen are these here at EP.

The most interesting prediction is under the heading 'Jobs', about the 2010 Census data being folded in, beginning with reports coming out in February. This is an example of EP being way ahead of any other news source.

Unfortunately, the media will mostly co-opt the real story with pseueo-news under the heading of "elections 2012". The problem, it will be said, is "entitlements," and the solution is more out-sourcing plus a new Free Trade Enterprise Partnership Treaty Agreement.

The pounding of cable pundit noise to the media blackout press obviously still controls public opinion. Else, Buddy Roemer would be projected to win the GOP primaries.

I think the apathy is from the discovery the people have no power, no choice. For me, it was financial reform where no matter what, corporate lobbyists would get their way, even when it came to economic Armageddon happening.

I've been trying to figure out people in aggregate ("the masses" or "the public") for a long time now.

I think that the big topics are jobs and financial sector corruption. That reflects what people on the ground around me think and talk about. Economic reality is something people pay attention to.

People don't talk a lot about politics -- not nearly as much as a few years ago. Talking politics is a sure way to become known as a AH, but if political corruption is mentioned, there's compete agreement that it's disgusting, horrible and beyond help. Almost no one believes that they are represented by Congress or by either of the major parties, although there are a few clinging desperately to the time-worn stereotypes. The problem with that is people are not much interested in following Congress or actual legislation, regulations coming out of the White House or decisions coming out of the SCOTUS. None of it is intelligently reported by corporate media and people apparently don't care. Thus, ignorance deepens, in that respect. However, there are exceptions -- like when '60 Minutes' exposed insider-trading by members of Congress.

People do care about the wars, but nobody has anything to say about that. Including me. What's the point?

There's a lot of pessimism.

Certain matters are surrendered to the media, and the invisibility of Buddy Roemer is a good example of that. There's no good reason, IMO, for people to surrender any aspect of life or politics to the media, but they do. So I talk about Buddy Roemer on occasion, and people always say the same thing ... "Who?"

Where's the critical mass? Somehow #Occugy managed it in 2011, and it ain't over 'til it's over, and it ain't over. A miracle.

Sobering article.

I think that incompetence in English is trendy these days, especially for 'tech'. If you thought Anonymous Drive-by wasn't up to standards, check this out from 'Technology in News' ('smile1714') "Hackers Attack Predictions in the Year 2012" from Technology in the News via seegarten.info

SAN FRANCISCO – In 2012, the not-soon will change, predicted by the increasingly insane amount of attacks on mobile devices, and industrial center will. According to estimates by McAfee, the two platforms, this is a priority list of the hackers invaded its systems.

In 2011, bear most of the action more than hackers hackers on financial centers and government agencies and global corporations in harmony. Well, that’s for next year, hackers will choose to attack an individual or private citizens.

In particular, system utilities such as water, oil, electricity, and gas are not stringent security precautions. McAfee predicts that cyber criminals use this space instead of in 2012, possibly through extortion. Thus from ZD Net, Wednesday (28/12/2011) reported

McAfee predictions in line with predictions from the Cisco 2012, which again is a report that cyber criminals who produce most of the mass spam attacks more targeted support to prove issued.

McAfee Labs senior vice president Vincent Weafer agreed upon in the report that much of a threat is more frontal in 2011, will become more prominent in 2012.

Mobile and spam hack is really only in its infancy stages, although 2011 has seen the greatest degree in the history of mobile malware.

However, McAfee predicts that cyber criminals are perfect in terms of engineering in 2012 with a more efficient attack on Mobile Banking.

Some of us, it appears, are communications-challenged by our anachronistic habituation to what used to be English. Similarly, some of us are challenged in news-comprehension due to our anachronistic habituation to what used to be journalism.

BTW: 'smile1714' also offers to do your homework!

Do-My-Homework.net – We will do your homework! (December 29, 2011)

I am pleased to announce my new essay and article-writing website. Do-My-Homework.net is designed to write articles on any subject. Any client is welcome here. We can do academic writing such as research papers, article reviews, book and movie reviews, poetry interpretation, opinion papers, and much more. Stop asking “who will do my homework for me?” – We will do it! We can also help you research topics and write articles to be posted on other websites.

My guess is that this is a beta-version of an AI system originating in Shanghai.