As you might know by now, I have been working on a couple of new books. One, in particular, is in response to a special request by my daughter to record my life's story. We call that an autobiography, but I am calling it my memoirs. No, I am not done yet, but when I review the things I have done and places I have been, it scopes out to be quite an undertaking. I went to an autobiography writing seminar some years ago, and the question came up, “How do you remember all those details and dates and places?” The speaker simply said, “You know, when you sit down to actually write it, the speed with which you can type out the story seems to open little cabinets and drawers, and the details all come out.”

That is true, I can testify. When I was a Freshman in High School, I had the most challenging English teacher. She was way too cute, but she was also a published writer. She encouraged me, and I wrote a short story and sold it to a magazine. The story was called Black Cars are Faster. It was a short story about a street race in my hometown. I don't have a copy of that story, even though it was republished a few times. I tried to recall the story, and this is my recollection. I hope you enjoy it. Then, we will get to the news of the week and we'll see how badly you messed up by procrastinating.

I had an English teacher who was newly out of school. She was strikingly gorgeous, but

she had another talent that she shared with me. She was a writer. She liked my writing and

encouraged me to write an article and sell it. I wrote a short story called Black Cars are Faster

and sold it to Car and Driver Magazine for 4 cents per word. It was a story about a college kid

that owned a red Plymouth Road Runner who cruised Colorado Boulevard looking for a good car

to race. He turns down all the offers from what he calls “baby Mustangs and Cameros,” waiting

for the car that could really challenge him. He finally finds a glossy, black Chevelle with a 454

and cowl induction that accepts the challenge. They carefully make their way to the Foothill

Freeway, which under construction in those days and only officially open to the south of

Pasadena.

If you wanted to street race really fast, you could pull onto the Foothill Freeway at the

first onramp, and then turn around and drive backward against traffic for about three miles.

There was no traffic, because it was not open to onramps north of there. It was quiet, dark at

night, and there were no police to worry about. Or so they thought.

Colorado boulevard is notorious the world over for street racing. It is also watched by

fast police cars and the occasional police helicopter. As it turns out, both drivers had a history of

racing, and their cars were well known among the police who had seen their tail lights many

times disappear in the night ahead of them. Close enough to tell the type of car, but never close

enough to get a plate number. Both cars were far too fast to be caught by ordinary chasing. Both

cars could leave the police helicopter behind by a good margin.

They don't follow one another. They split up, turn left and then right. One goes through

the In-and-Out Burger on Colorado boulevard, while the other stops at the Chevron station and

buys high octane and washes the windshield. The police re not visible any more than usual. A

cruiser here and there, but it is a quiet night in Pasadena. Too much racing going on over on Van

Nuys in the valley to be messing around in Pasadena. That's what they said, anyway.

It was a rendezvous of sorts. There were no spectators in a challenge like this. Mano a

mano. It was the engineering and mechanical prowess under the hood as much as the skill with

the shifter and guts to go fast that would be tested tonight.

First, the red Road Runner took the onramp. Lights out. U-turn, and then slowly with

quiet exhaust pipes three miles back to the beginning of the pavement of the Foothill Freeway.

U-turn, and then park. Engine off. Windows down. Waiting. He sees the sweep of headlights a

few minutes later far in the distance against the dark San Gabriel mountain to the East of the

freeway. It could be a cop. The pulse quickens. But it's cool, because we're not doing anything

but parking and looking at the stars.

It is not a cop car. The lights go out. He sees a glint of street and store lights off the

chrome and glossy black paint. It's him. Within a few minutes he is there. U-turn and park; side

by side. The driver doors open and they get out to talk. Talking smack maybe, or perhaps they

are too good for that. Perhaps they wouldn't believe the specifications anyway. It was like two

boxers before the first bell. They know they can win, but they know it's going to hurt anyway.

Terms are discussed. The butterflies are ignored. They both glare down the four lanes

without anything but an occasional black mark from motor gladiators like them had done this

before. They savor the moment, because they both know in a few months, this freeway section

will be open for business, and this will never happen again. It wasn't about safety. They were

about to do the most unsafe operation a motor vehicle can attempt; racing door to door with no

roll cage and no helmet on public roads. If an ambulance did come, it would be an hour away.

There would no one to put out the fire or pull you out of the car. Still, these were not the

thoughts of a street racer.

They calmly close their doors and cinch up their seat belts. Keys are turned with no

special command. The cars idle. Revving the engines would alert the world, so they would be

quiet until the moment of launch. The moment. It comes at different times really. Sometimes

someone would stand slightly ahead of the cars with a towel or a scarf. When they dropped the

towel, the drivers had an equal opportunity to take off. There were witnesses to judge a fair start.

Sometimes the starter would use a flashlight or drop their arm while holding a beer with the

other. Tonight there was no starter. There was only the two cars and two drivers. This moment

was for them.

The race would be over by the time they reached the offramp, just past the onramp they

used to get onto the freeway. They could take that offramp and smile or sulk back to the agreed

upon spot where cash would change hands. No one needed to hold it for safe keeping. Unless

one of the drivers planned on selling their car the next day or moving to another State. Pasadena

was like that. There was a tradition. It was linked to the radio disc jockeys and to the hundreds

of racing groupies, both male and female. Females didn't own cars, and males didn't own cars

like these. But they envied them. Like rock fans that love rock stars, they overlook all your

flaws, complexion problems, and lack of fine clothes if you had the car. The loser paid. It was

the only way the winners would ever attempt to roll this much horsepower out of their

driveways. And it was all about the horsepower.

Suddenly, it was on. The headlights came on, the second of which signaled the three-

second countdown to launch. If the second set of lights didn't come on, the race was conceded.

Second, two, three. Not all the way to the floor just yet. Tires had to grip, weight had to

transfer. As three seconds focused on them, the gears were being shifted without a miss. The

tires were fully connected to the freshly laid pavement spilling out behind them. Pressing now

with all their might, perhaps not even breathing yet with a peripheral glance to see the other car

out the side window. Six seconds and now both hands on the wheel, because all the shifting that

is ever going to be done tonight is done. Pushing the wheel as if to physically push their

machine ahead of the other, they wonder why it is that they don't feel the power or the fact that

they both left 100 miles per hour behind like a stop watch. There is no speed, only inches and

now feet and now inches that stretch like a ribbon between their bumpers. One hundred and

twenty miles an hour, and the decision must be made soon to let up before the offramp, before

the private strip became a public freeway with lights and other cars, and the law.

One hundred and thirty, and now the end is clear. The Chevelle is pulling away. One car

length and now two, and now lights. Blue lights. As though waiting like wolves, a pair of police

cars add to the race, which now has become a chase. They would never catch them, and they

could not make out a plate for positive ID. There was no helicopter in the basin that could catch

either of them. There were three offramps in three miles coming up. The black car was past one

hundred and forty now. He didn't need to outrun the bears. He only needed to outrun the red

car. He did. His light went out, and the black car disappeared from the freeway like a ghost. He

had a switch that could disable his brake lights, so he could stand on his 12 inch rotors and make

the offramp, the turn at the bottom and into an old neighborhood like the black forest to hide the

black car in the darkness.

The red car was only looking forward now. With a full tank he could make the El Cajon

pass and fly out to the upper desert, well out of jurisdiction for Pasadena cops. He knew he had

to make it past Ontario, and there was lots of time to deploy the law ahead of him. There it was.

San Gabriel Boulevard exit came up quick even for tourists. Still, it had a long offramp, almost

enough to roast off this speed if he hit the brakes now. Almost. Smoothly, so the tires don't

break loose, the driver side just clears the water-filled barrier, and he stands on the brakes

enough to have blue smoke fill his rear view mirror and still keep the car straight by quickly

steering into the skid. The light is green at the bottom. Still, sixty miles an hour is too fast to

make the turn onto the boulevard if he turns right. That would take him down my Santa Anita

raceway, which was full of street lights and traffic, and cops.

But he could make the turn left at that speed. And if he hugged the center lane, if there

wasn't anyone in that lane waiting to turn left onto the freeway, if it was too late at night for

anyone to be waiting there, he could make it. Committed now, drifting that big Roadrunner that

wasn't built to drift, through the vacant turn lane, thanking God, he slides at more than fifty miles

an hour all the way to the curb. Just to the curb, and now hidden under the freeway, and now

thirty-five miles an hour and legal. He hears the police car sirens wailing over the freeway above

him. There would be no citation tonight. Home to the garage now. Tomorrow, there would be

payment and pride. There would be believers and delicious girls who wished they were there.

There will be fans who slap their jeans in disbelief. There would be converts. Black cars are

faster.

The Cuba Card

President Barack Obama unofficially ended the last battle of the Cold War by normalizing relations with Cuba - which, according to the New York Times, was a move several months in the making, and one that featured all the elements of a John Le Carre novel: spies, secret Oval Office phone calls and clandestine, trilateral diplomatic meetings brokered by the Vatican.

The Sony Hack: Fact or Fiction?

In a statement released on Friday, the FBI said a technical analysis of the malignant software, known as malware, used in the attack had been linked to other malware “that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed”. There were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods and compromised networks, the FBI said.

The FBI also said that the infrastructure used in the Sony attack was similar to other malicious cyber activity aimed at the US that had previously been linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.

This all occurred supposedly because a comedy was being made by Sony Pictures about the assassination of little Kim.

If that sounds outlandish, that’s because it likely is. The focus on North Korea is weak and easily undercut by the facts. Nation-state attacks don’t usually announce themselves with a showy image of a blazing skeleton posted to infected machines or use a catchy nom-de-hack like Guardians of Peace to identify themselves. Nation-state attackers also generally don’t chastise their victims for having poor security, as purported members of Guardians of Peace have done in media interviews.

Nor do such attacks result in posts of stolen data to Pastebin—the unofficial cloud repository of hackers everywhere—where sensitive company files purportedly belonging to Sony were leaked this week.

Besides this, how about a little movie called Red Dawn. Not the original one with Kurt Russel becomes a partisan insurgent against a joint Cuba/Russia invasion of the USA. I'm talking to new one where the Chinese were the attackers. No, it was the Chinese. According to the LA Times, the filmmakers have decided to change the villains yet again. Instead of the Chinese, North Korean soldiers will now invade the U.S. in the Red Dawn remake. The switch was made in an effort to give the film greater box office appeal in China – which has become one of the most profitable markets for American movies.

Around the time MGM first delayed the release of Red Dawn, a Chinese newspaper called the Global Times expressed concerns that the film would demonize their state and its citizens (thanks in part to certain leaked images from the set). Evidently, this may have been a factor in scaring off potential distributors who were apprehensive about what effect their involvement with the film would have on future dealings with China.

So without any official complaints from the Chinese government, MGM will spend $1 million to construct a new opening sequence, re-edit several scenes, and digitally change Chinese symbols into Korean. It may sound somewhat ridiculous, but the fact of the matter is that the studio really had no alternative. If the film fails to secure distribution, it could wind up going straight to video – or being permanently shelved.

Now, we’ve been here in this embarrassing who-done-it before with nation-state culpability in crimes like this. Anonymous sources told Bloomberg earlier this year that investigators were looking at the Russian government as the possible culprit behind a hack of JP Morgan Chase. The possible motive in that case was retaliation for sanctions against the Kremlin over military actions against Ukraine. Bloomberg eventually walked back from the story to admit that cybercriminals were more likely the culprits. And in 2012, U.S. officials blamed Iran for an attack called Shamoon that erased data on thousands of computers at Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company. No proof was offered to back the claim, but glitches in the malware used for the attack showed it was less likely a sophisticated nation-state attack than a hacktivist assault against the oil conglomerate’s policies.

The likely culprits behind the Sony breach are hacktivists—or disgruntled insiders—angry at the company’s unspecified policies. The hactivists do their best the make it look like someone else did the crime, so they can deflect the the consequences away from themselves, while bathing in the ecstasy of their dark skill.

Wars R Us Takes the Bait

Pressure for action mounted as secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said: “The cyber attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment was not just an attack against a company and its employees. It was also an attack on our freedom of expression and way of life.”

Senator John McCain, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee responsible for the funding and oversight of the department of defense, described the hack as an “act of war”.

“This is the greatest blow to free speech that I’ve seen in my lifetime probably,” McCain told Arizona radio station KFYI 550 on Friday morning, “We have to respond in kind. We have lots of capability in cyber and we ought to start cranking that up.”

McCain pledged on Thursday to strengthen oversight of the Obama administration’s cyber security program and blasted the president’s record on the issue.

Any involvement by China could escalate an already politically explosive situation. In May, the Justice Department indicted five Chinese military officers, alleging that they had hacked into US companies in order to steal trade secrets. Among the companies targeted were Alcoa and US Steel.

The indictment drew a furious response from Chinese officials, who said the charges were “based on fabricated facts” and “grossly” violated “the basic norms governing international relations”. China suspended participation in a US-China working group on cybersecurity.

The FBI has been looking into the Sony hacking scandal since the beginning of December, and had previously stated in public they had been unable to establish a link with North Korea and its notorious Bureau 121 hacking unit.

But anonymous federal law enforcement officials told various media outlets over the past 48 hours that a link between the hack and North Korea had been established.

Sony has been left reeling from the November attack, after thousands of confidential documents, including employee social security numbers, personal emails, unreleased films and executive pay were published online.

On Wednesday, Sony cancelled the film’s release after threats were made against cinemagoers and major US theater groups.

Eddie Schwartz, president of White Ops, a cyber security specialist, said many hacks leave a digital “fingerprint” that could allow the authorities to identify the culprit.

Investigators will begin by looking at the malware, the software used by the hackers and then look at the next moves they made. “Different groups have different patterns of activity that they take on once they enter a system. Those patterns are like a fingerprint, almost like a playbook. You’ll see that they go after certain servers first, that they conduct operations in a certain way.”

Depending on the amount of information Sony has been able to gather, investigators will be able to build a profile of the hack and compare it to past attacks, said Schwartz. He said there was only a “small universe of teams” capable of pulling off a hack as large as this.

Schwartz said North Korea was capable of pulling off the Sony hack, but that in past cases third parties had been shown to be responsible, and it was unclear who had commissioned them.

I have two words for you. Regime Change. Let's look at the Regime Changes ordered by the Jarrett Fascist Playbook:

Egypt – Two overthrows in three yearsLibya – President assassinated, missiles rocket grenades sent to Al QuedaSyria – Assad targeted for removalIsrael – Netanyahu ignored and removed from the pressCuba – Unilateral handshake with communist dictatorsNorth Korea – Blamed for cyber-attacking SonyLebenonSomalia – We have troops there right now feeding weapons to warlords who will kill the existing governmentSudan – The Sudan is highly unstable, but Chinese and Russian troops are there to prevent an all out siege against the leaders by the CIAIran – This rhetoric has now gone quiet as Queen Jarrett works behind to scenes to un wind the US sanctions

Seriously, Earth Explorers. This is why you come here. It is time someone removed the regime in Washington, before it is too late.

The Executive Monarchy

If there’s one thing we have learned about Barack Obama, it’s that he is a master of deception and absolutely loves to lie to the public. He seems to enjoy conning the plebs to such a degree, I think he actually receives blasts of dopamine every time he does it. The bigger the lie, the better the rush. He lies so large, Goebels is nodding in disbelief.

The latest example relates to his issuance of executive orders, or lack thereof, something that Obama Inc. has actively attempted to portray as evidence of his restraint when it comes to executive power. Here are a few examples from a USA Today article published earlier today.

First, from the man himself:

“The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”

Harry Reid also proudly chimed in:

In a Senate floor speech in July, Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “While Republicans accuse President Obama of executive overreach, they neglect the fact that he has issued far fewer executive orders than any two-term president in the last 50 years.”

Finally, the message wouldn’t be complete without some words from Bootlicker in Chief Jay Carney:

“There is no question that this president has been judicious in his use of executive action, executive orders, and I think those numbers thus far have come in below what President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton did,” said Jay Carney, then the White House press secretary, in February.

Nice spin, but what’s the truth? Also from USA Today:

WASHINGTON — President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.

The Office of Legal Counsel — which is responsible for advising the president on executive orders and memoranda — says there’s no difference between the two.

With that in mind, how does Obama’s record stand up when you combine his issuance of executive orders and executive memoranda? Well, here you go:

President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the "Do Nothing

Congress" almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He's used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don't require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda. And if you violate a Memoranda, you go to federal prison and they seize your assets by court order. And once the court succeeds at this once, they are now authorized to do it as many times as they like.

While you and the entire main stream media were sleeping or at the mall, Obama has issued 195 executive orders as of Tuesday. Published alongside them in the Federal Register are 198 other presidential memoranda written by all the other president combined going all the way back to Truman. And they all carry the same legal force as executive orders.

Oh, and let’s not forget this guy still has two years left to further separate himself from the pack.

"There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person."

--Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu1

"The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

--James Madison, Federalist 46

Nullification

A bill prefiled for introduction in the Missouri State House for 2015 could effectively nullify federal executive orders signed into existence by the President.

House Bill 255 (HB255), by State Rep. Tim Remole (R-Excello), seeks to rebuke what is seen by many as federal lawlessness from the executive branch. The full text of the bill is as follows:

Any federal regulation or rule promulgated as a result of an executive order of the President of the United States repugnant of the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of Missouri shall be declared invalid in the state of Missouri. Such regulations and rules shall be considered null and void and of no effect.

It shall be the duty of the general assembly to adopt and enact any and all measures as may be necessary to prevent the enforcement of regulations and rules issued by a presidential executive order.

This measure would nullify in practice the effects of many presidential executive orders and memorandums. Pres. Obama has used these privileges to circumvent Congress and move his agenda forward without the proper checks and balances required by the Constitution. But, without state support and resources, federal programs often cannot be effectuated. As the National Governor’s Association noted in a 2013 statement, “states are partners with the federal government on most federal programs.”

We strongly advise all States to immediately draft similar measures in their legislatures. Make these retroactive to 2008. This will starkly draw the battle lines between the States and the Agency Government that is run by Obama's ministers.

Why the Ruble is Crashing

The Russian economy has been in trouble for months, but this week, things got absurdly bad. The value of the ruble dropped as much as 19 percent in just 24 hours, the worst single-day drop for the ruble in 16 years. Now Russians are reportedly rushing to the malls to swap cash for washing machines, TVs, or laptops—anything that seems as if it might hold value better than paper money, whose worth is evaporating in real time. The political and economic forces sending Russia into a downward spiral are complex. Here's what you need to know. 

Russia's economy has been hurt by two big things: the falling price of oil and economic sanctions. (Remember Crimea?) The oil and gas industry generates about half of Russia's revenue, so when a combination of the shale boom in the U.S. and weaker demand worldwide pushed the price from $110 per barrel earlier this year to $60, Russia got hammered. The sanctions imposed by Europe and the U.S., designed to punish Russia's companies for President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine, have hurt, too. 

But why is this happening right now? What changed on Monday?

What we're seeing in recent days resembles full-blown panic. There's nothing really new. At this point, it's about psychology: Fear has taken over, and there's clearly a rush on the part of traders and investors to get their money out of Russian assets. We're seeing a run on the entire country. 

Shouldn't the Kremlin be doing something? 

It is. Russia's Central Bank has been trying to fight this trend, first by using its stockpile of foreign currencies to go out into the market and buy rubles, hoping to prop up the price. Then, early in the morning on Tuesday in Moscow, the Central Bank announced a gigantic interest rate increase. The idea is that if you offer people higher interest rates, they're more likely to keep their money in rubles. 

Neither move has worked. Fears surrounding the Russian economy have taken over. Even dramatically higher interest rates can't convince people to keep their money in rubles.

What’s the best-case scenario for Russians right now?

In an ideal world, Putin would see that his economy is crumbling (the weakening currency and surging interest rates make for a deadly combination of economic contraction and rampant inflation) and take steps to convince Europe and the U.S. to ease the sanctions. That would probably be enough to stem the panic and also offer real economic benefit. To do that, he'd have to dramatically pull back  activity in Ukraine; frankly, that's extremely unlikely. Putin's adventures in Ukraine are very popular in Russia, and that's the one thing he has going for him.  

Worst case scenario? Are we there yet?

Out-and-out economic collapse and hyperinflation. It's frightening to think what Putin might do in response to that, but the big fear is that he will become even more aggressive on the geopolitical front to persuade his people that Russia's problems are being caused by an outside enemy and that the time is now to stand up militarily.

Silver lining: Caviar's going to get really cheap, right? Nope. Because of overfishing, there has been a ban on wild black caviar in Russia since 2007. Almost all caviar is now farmed, and it's imported from California, Japan, and other places. Vodka isn't getting cheaper, either: The international brand of Stoli is bottled in Luxembourg by SPI Group, Smirnoff is owned by Diageo, and almost all the brands you think of as Russian are owned by international conglomerates that are doing just fine.

Spank that Rash

President Barack Obama will sign into law a bill passed by Congress to tighten sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday, amid a dramatic run on the ruble.

"The president does intend to sign the bill," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, while adding "it does preserve the president's flexibility to carry out this strategy."

The Congress on Saturday unanimously approved the Ukraine Freedom Support Act in both houses, which includes fresh sanctions against Moscow over its support of the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday branded the new sanctions as hostile.

The measures hit Russia's defense and energy sectors with conditional sanctions against firms that sell or transfer military equipment to the territory of Ukraine (as well as Georgia, Moldova and Syria), with the goal of stopping the flow of weapons to separatists across the border.

The new sanctions would come at a moment when Moscow is in economic turmoil as a result of plunging oil prices. The ruble crashed to an unprecedented low on Tuesday, trading at 80 rubles to the dollar.

Obama has consistently reiterated it would be a mistake to take unilateral U.S. action without coordinating with Washington's European Union allies.

Earnest admitted, however, the new sanctions passed by Congress, which could be signed by Obama this week, risked sending a "confusing message" to U.S. allies.

Saudi Arabia: The Good Soldier?

After a devastating week of bad press after the declassification of the 28 pages from the 9/11 report implicating Saudi Arabia as the mastermind and master bank behind the attack on the World Trade Center, it appears that they have been coerced into taking one of our perceived enemies out of the economic picture for us. A preemptive strike against Russia not with bombs, but with a Ruble-sucking monster called oil prices.

This week, oil fell through the price floor of $60 a barrel and gas at my local filling station was $2.26 a gallon.

That’s great news for commuters and almost every business, but wonderfully bad news for our ugliest enemies, retirement funds, and of course the oil companies. If oil prices remain low through next year, the effect on rogue governments, from the Russian Federation to Venezuela,

will go from damaging to devastating. It is expected to climb back to $80 and perhaps $90 per barrel by June of next year.

But Western economies (and China’s) stand to benefit, with cheap oil possibly tickling Europe’s snoozing markets awake. Even most underdeveloped states will get a welcome break. If they can catch their breath and make enough new profits to retire some debt before the price goes back up, they will survive. If they keep acquiring debt, they will go bankrupt by the end of next year. That includes countries like the USA.

Most analysts agree that this price plunge has been driven by Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s dominant power. These analysts claim SA's motivation is fear. The Saudis believe they can no longer rely on the US to contain Tehran’s imminent nuclear threat, so they’re out to do what our lukewarm sanctions couldn’t. Although Iran's primary target is Israel, they have a millennial lust for the destruction of the Sunni Muslims which discriminate against the Shia Muslims. There are no Shia in government cabinet positions, nor in any of the more than 300 girls schools in SA. The royals, making up an elite family of 14,000 billionaires, skim 90% of the oil wealth for themselves and leave the rest of their country in poverty or slavery.

There’s no love lost between the Saudis and the Russians, either. The Saudis want the Assad regime in Syria to go. Moscow props it up. Most leaders claim the Saudis aren’t doing any of this to help us, but it helps us just the same. I believe that the 28 pages of the 9/11 inquest prove that SA masterminded and financed the attack. I believe the folks down at Wars-R-Us made a few calls and told them to take one for the team and sustain this sanction against Russia, or else.

Markets can be unpredictable, but this glut has been out there for about two years in denial. There is an enormous population of businesses who have been waiting for the price to fall. They will burn this glut up completely within a few months. There are tens of thousands of capped wells in the USA, the same as in 1973. Trust me. A shortage will reemerge long before the analysts claim it will occur. Don't go out and buy that Expedition just yet.

Just how well are the sanctions working?

Putin's Press Conference

He said if Russia had not annexed Crimea, the west would have found another reason to target Russia, comparing the country to a bear.

“Sometimes I wonder, maybe the bear should just sit quietly, munch on berries and honey rather than chasing after piglets, maybe then, they would leave it alone? But no, they wouldn’t, because they will always try to chain it up. And as soon as they chain it up, they will pull out its teeth and claws.”

By teeth and claws, Putin said he meant Russia’s nuclear weapons. The west was circling round to destroy Russia, said Putin, so it could steal its natural resources.

“Once they’ve taken out his claws and his teeth, then the bear is no longer necessary. He’ll become a stuffed animal.”

Putin covered everything from the traffic police to farmers’ pensions in the three-hour session, but the two key themes were foreign policy and the economy, and there was much less of the minor regional issues that have often dominated the conferences in the past.

Nevertheless, there were surreal moments, such as when a man from the town of Kirov grabbed the microphone to complain that major supermarkets such as the French chain Auchan were refusing to stock the locally made brand of kvas, a fermented bread drink.

“I don’t want to offend Coca Cola,” said Putin, in support. “But we have our own traditional drinks.”

By the way, it was reported that within hours, Auchan announced it would invite the Kvas company to submit a tender to supply its product.

Sanctions: The Weapon of Diplomacy

The Targets

Iran

Tehran had learned to live with Western sanctions. But oil has been its lifeline. And to balance the books, oil has to sell between $135 and $140 dollars per barrel. Good luck with that, Supreme Leader!

With the barrel price at barely 40 percent of Iran’s requirement, the economy’s going to hemorrhage. Iran’s leaders will be under far greater pressure to compromise on the nuclear weapons — unless we keep easing sanctions for nothing in return. This is the last chance for negotiations to bring results.

The fascinating angle here is that Saudi Arabia’s doing more for Israel’s security than the Obama administration’s been willing to do. Common enemies generate unexpected — if unadmitted — alliances.

Russia

The price collapse could not have come at a worse time for Bad Vlad Putin. The Russian president needs an oil price around $100 a barrel to prop up what’s become a wartime economy.

Oil and gas provide up to a third of budget revenue and compose two-thirds of exports.

Sanctions imposed over Putin’s aggression have gnawed at Russia’s economy, but this price drop bites deep: The ruble has crashed, Russian bonds are pathetic, and foreign reserves are bleeding.

While Russians will put up with harder times than Westerners will, Putin’s made extravagant commitments (bet he’d like to have back the $50 billion he squandered on corrupt Olympic construction).

The world’s fave bare-chested bully had embarked on a massive arms buildup, with a hi-tech $5 billion command center just unveiled. But Putin’s visions of military resurgence are becoming unaffordable

He also made election promises to improve Russia’s wretched health-care system. Instead, he’s firing health-care workers and shuttering hospitals.

He promised higher living standards, but now the average Ivan’s feeling squeezed. And Putin faces enormous costs in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, two booby-prize welfare states, with the latter shot to ruins.

Putin’s popularity remains high. For now. The gravest worry is that, with his back to the wall, he’ll play the Mother Russia card and attack again.

Iraq

Iraq has nothing to offer the world but oil. And Baghdad needs to fund a survival struggle against Islamic State militants.

The Saudis don’t like the Islamic State caliphate claims, but they have no sympathy with Baghdad’s Shia-dominated, Iran-aligned government, either. Don’t expect price rises for Iraq’s sake.

The problem is that we’ll end up paying more of the battle bill for Baghdad’s pretense (and our State Department’s fetish) that Iraq can be kept intact. The conquests made by Islamic State terrorists aren’t the cause of Iraq’s troubles, just one more symptom.

The Winners

USA, USA!

Although some energy players will suffer from lower prices and we’ll see a wave of corporate consolidation, the oil-price drop’s great news for American consumers, businesses and even, in the longer term, our military.

An economy that had begun to recover — despite Washington — is getting another vitamin shot, while working-family budgets get a break.

The Saudi strategy also aims to hurt our burgeoning energy industry, such as the shale oil extraction in North Dakota. But it won’t derail it. And the overall effect on our economy will be positive.

Perhaps the greatest benefit, though, is that the oil-price plummet is doing what the Obama administration lacked the guts to do: It’s smacking down our enemies.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t reset relations with Moscow, but bargain-basement oil prices might. Iran may have to give up its dreams of nuclear hegemony in the Middle East.

And with the exception of China, almost every major state that benefits from lower oil prices, from Japan to India, is either an ally or neutral.

Pursuing its own interests, Saudi Arabia may have rescued our failed foreign policy.

China

The world’s second-largest energy consumer (after the USA) and dirt-poor in domestic oil and gas reserves, China had been on track to spend half a trillion dollars a year on oil-and-gas imports.

If petroleum-product prices remain low, that figure could be cut in half. Cheaper oil and gas also offer China another path to reduce its massive pollution, much of which comes from low-quality, internally produced coal. China’s fantastic growth rates had been slipping, but lower oil prices will help soften any fall.

India

The drop in energy-import costs comes as a timely blessing. Once-robust growth rates have fallen by 60 percent and India must spend massively to import three-fourths of the oil it consumes.

Lower energy costs should help New Delhi sustain GDP growth, if at a less-torrid pace than in the past decade. And the drop in prices makes the gas pipeline Russia wants to foist on the region less attractive.

Mexico

A decade ago, such a price collapse would have devastated Mexico’s then-oil-dependent economy. But diversification, deregulation and smart contracting on options markets, should see Mexico’s economy through at least the next year without a major impact from lower oil prices.

If, however, oil prices remain low for years to come, Mexico’s economy will suffer. A full third of government revenue comes from petroleum sales and, even now, oil accounts for 15 percent of exports (behind assembled goods).

A sharp downturn in Mexico’s economy while our own economy booms guarantees more illegal immigration.

Canada

Sharply lower oil prices make the exploitation of Canada’s tar-sands deposits less viable — a grave disappointment to budget wonks in Ottawa — but Canada’s diversified and robust economy should weather the sectoral crisis: One industry’s loss is the gain of several others.

Some localities will be hit hard (just as in the “lower 48”), but North America still looks a great deal brighter economically than leftists around the world have warned for a century.

Collateral Damage

Venezuela

Even before the oil-price crash, Venezuela’s economy was literally wiped out — with no toilet paper on sale. There are shortages of everything from flour and milk to diapers. Once the richest South American country on a per capita basis, a decade and a half of socialism has wrecked Venezuela’s oil industry and left its economy gasping.

Capital flight, party cronyism, crippling price controls and the staggering corruption that always marks leftist utopias have left the state with a single functioning institution — the secret police. By the way, gas in only 5 cents a gallon in Venezuela.

Heir to the late President Hugo Chavez’s “Chavismo” (the real voodoo government), hapless President Nicolas Maduro is as incompetent as his mentor, and he lacks his charisma to make people like being screwed. Naturally, he blames everything on the Yanquis.

If oil prices stay down, the government in Caracas will go down. But it won’t be pretty. And the economy will take decades to rebuild. If it is possible, people will get out of town and go somewhere they can personally succeed; probably Yanky-land.

Brazil

With its big, diversified economy, Brazil should be able to weather the loss of oil revenue. But the current socialist government’s hooked on energy income to shore up creaking social programs and cushion the economy from the effects of massive corruption. They are also as proud of their lead membership in the BRICS as they would be of a neighbor's pool. Happy to swim, but be damned if they will do the maintenance or help with the water bill.

And the country’s energy industry is a mess. Brazil will survive, but not thrive, while oil prices stay low.

Nigeria

With reform efforts crumbling and Boko Haram rampaging in the north, Nigeria now faces a looming budget crisis. In Africa’s most-populous country, three-fourths of government revenue, a full third of the economy and 90 percent of exports flow from oil. They are the largest exporter of off-Opec oil, which is bootlegged at a discount to ready buyers who come with their own ships to pick it up. The cash from these sales goes into a special drawer to by things no one needs to know about.

The oil price collapse is terrible news for a country. It has been through the formation and overthrow of four Republics in 33 years. The president of Nigeria is Goodluck Johnathan, who governs a population of 168.8 million people. Nigeria is still in the process with rebuilding Nigeria's petroleum-based economy and fighting the Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

If there’s one nominal ally we should worry about with oil prices so low, it’s Nigeria. The people have been at war since 11,000 BC with everyone, including their own indigenous tribes.

I have said for a long time on this program that the price of oil is a weapon that is wielded by those that control the dollar against its enemies. Lowering the price is a sanction against Russia. Raising the price is a sanction against China and India.

Mars Indigestion

One thing that let's we humans know that we are alive is pain. Also, when we have gas. Methane, a gas that on Earth comes mainly from living organisms, spikes regularly on Mars but scientists have not been able to pinpoint the source, according to new research out Tuesday.

The latest findings from NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since it landed in 2012, were discussed at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, and published in the US journal Science.

After poring over 20 months of data collected by the robotic vehicle, scientists found that methane on the dusty planet is far lower than expected, about half of what scientists thought they would detect from processes like the breakdown of dust and organic materials delivered by meteorites.

However, they also discovered that background levels of methane at Gale Crater, where the rover landed, "spiked about tenfold, sometimes over the course of just 60 Martian days, which was surprising because the gas is expected to have a lifetime of about 300 years in that level of ultraviolet light exposure," said the Science report. Mars is about 50 million more miles from the sun than Earth.

"Their results suggest that methane is occasionally produced or vented near the Gale Crater -- and that the gas disperses quickly once these episodes of venting or production cease," it added.

It could be a volcanic source, or it could be some sort of planetary vent that purges like Old Faithful. In any case, the absence of other gases like Sulfur and more complex hydrocarbons means that it could well be biotic in nature. We won't know for sure until at least 2028, when the next generation rover lands and perhaps shortly thereafter, humans.

The AP Propaganda Machine

Study: Your all-electric car may not be so green

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may

think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming.

Ethanol isn't so green, either.

"It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean ... are not better than gasoline." The key is where the source of the electricity all-electric cars. If it comes from coal, the electric cars produce 3.6 times more soot and smog deaths than gas, because of the pollution made in generating the electricity, according to the study that is published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They also are significantly worse at heat-trapping carbon dioxide that worsens global warming, it found.

The study examines environmental costs for cars' entire life cycle, including where power comes from and the environmental effects of building batteries.

"Unfortunately, when a wire is connected to an electric vehicle at one end and a coal-fired power plant at the other end, the environmental consequences are worse than driving a normal gasoline-powered car," said

Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science, who wasn't part of the study but praised it. The states with the highest percentage of electricity coming from coal, according to the Department of Energy, are

West Virginia, Wyoming, Ohio, North Dakota, and Illinois. Still, there's something to be said for the idea of helping foster a cleaner technology that will be better once it is connected to a cleaner grid, said study

co-author Jason Hill, another University of Minnesota engineering professor.

The study finds all-electric vehicles cause 86 percent more deaths from air pollution than do cars powered by regular gasoline. Coal produces 39 percent of the country's electricity, according to the Department of Energy. But if the power supply comes from natural gas, the all-electric car produces half as many air pollution health problems as gas-powered cars do. And if the power comes from wind, water or wave energy, it produces about one-quarter of the air pollution deaths. Hybrids and diesel engines are cleaner than gas, causing fewer air pollution deaths and spewing less heat-trapping gas. But ethanol isn't, with 80 percent more air pollution mortality, according to the study.

"If we're using ethanol for environmental benefits, for air quality and climate change, we're

going down the wrong path," Hill said.

The Cuba Distraction

Rumblings about an imminent shift in US policy toward Cuba culminated Wednesday with President Obama’s groundbreaking announcement to swap spies, open embassies, loosen US travel, banking and other restrictions toward fully restoring diplomatic relations with the island were met with jubilation on both sides of the Florida straits. The timing is no accident.

The Cuba change stole the spotlight from a serious revelation earlier that day of chief Democratic fundraiser and US Sen. Bob Menendez (with the acquiescence of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) securing passage into the US of a banned ‘human smuggler’ in exchange for campaign contributions. One was reminded of the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal breaking the morning Pope John Paul became the first pope to travel to Cuba, or the Bush administration’s accusing Cuba of developing ‘weapons of mass destruction’ the very day Jimmy Carter made his first trip in 2002.

A chastened Sen. Menendez remained relatively quiet while his Republican Cuban American cohorts Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Marco Rubio decried ‘abuse of executive authority.’  Too bad none of them have ever stepped foot on the island to see the changes taking place there.  It was perfectly appropriate for the President to exercise his executive power in this manner; the policy to shun Cuba was also created by executive order by Kennedy almost a half century ago.  The bellicose policy provided the common enemy Fidel Castro needed to support a revolutionary project that continues under the leadership of Raul Castro and a highly skilled contingent of young Cuban leaders who seek to continue socialist ideals under an increasingly market-oriented system.

The embargo would have been gone long ago (and maybe along with it, Castro) but for an elaborate system of thinly disguised political patronage born in the early 80s under President Reagan. Reagan helped create the Cuban American National Foundation (patterned after the America Israel Political Action Committee) and provided millions of dollars in government revenues through embargo-supporting programs like the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, Radio and TV Marti and the US Agency for International Development. ‘Transition’ and ‘democracy building’ became catch-words for opportunists like Otto Reich who helped write the laws that funded a self-perpetuating ‘ embargo industry.’  Another discredited New Jersey Senator, Robert Torricelli rolled out the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act; The infamous 1996 Helms-Burton law doled out millions more to embargo supporters despite its blatant violation of international norms.

These programs would have been eviscerated by the slightest competition in such a poor market. The fact that it was against the law for anyone to do business in Cuba made it the perfect place for “authorized” businesses to have it all to themselves for five decades. I guess these oligarchs stopped paying their dues to El Presidente del Norte America, or it was time to let some more friends into the family business.

Normalizing relations with Cuba will help improve relations with the rest of the world, which voted to condemn the embargo at the United Nations for the 23rd time in October of this year, with only the US and Israel voting to support the embargo. Panama breathes a sigh of relief now that Obama can safely attend the April 2015 Summit of the Americas along with Cuba, as was called for unanimously by all nations of the Organization of American States. 

It will also provide a shot in the arm to Gulf Coast states for whom Cuba used to be a number one trading partner.  Hopefully, Cuban cigars can start flowing through to aficionados stateside before Mr. Obama’s FDA Secretary finishes killing the premium cigar industry in America. It is a new era of executive rule, but even Obama can only do so much. The real work lies in defunding the anachronistic laws which have allowed the ‘embargo industry’ to hold the national interest hostage for too long. After all, America’s memory lasts just slightly less than the batteries on the camera.

Be Careful What you Sell…with Your Name on It

A Texas plumber is getting some unwanted attention after one of his old company vehicles appeared in a photo posted on an Islamic militant group's social media account.

Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City has been flooded with calls after the picture appeared on Twitter, The Galveston County Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/1x095Mv ).

The picture was posted online by the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Deen Front, according to a CBS News report.

The photo shows a black pickup truck with a Mark-1 Plumbing decal on the door and an anti-aircraft gun in the bed.

Mark Oberholtzer, who has owned the company for 32 years, said he traded that truck at an AutoNation dealership three years ago and has no idea how it ended up in Syria. He usually takes the decals off his vehicles when he sells them but he left it on this vehicle, believing AutoNation would remove it.

"They were supposed to have done it and it looks like they didn't do it," Oberholtzer said. "How it ended up in Syria, I'll never know."

IRS warns of possible shutdown

By Rachael Bade

12/18/14 3:30 PM EST

Updated 12/18/14 6:38 PM EST

The IRS is considering its own temporary shutdown due to recent budget cuts enacted by Congress, its chief said Thursday.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said furloughs — forced unpaid days off for employees as part of an IRS closure — is one idea reluctantly being tossed about to save money, though they are hoping they will not have to go there.

“People call it furloughs; I view it as: Are we going to have to shut the place down? And at this point, that will be the last thing we do, … but there is no way we can say right now that that wont happen,” Koskinen told reporters at a Thursday press conference on the upcoming tax season. “Again, I would stress that would be the last option.”

He said a shutdown would mean the IRS would “close the agency for a day, two days, whatever days it would take to close the gap that we can’t otherwise close in a reasonable way.”

The agency estimates each closed day would save $29 million.

The news comes a day after Koskinen in an email warned IRS employees that overtime would be suspended and a hiring freeze enacted. He also said more tough news would likely follow as IRS leadership negotiates with the National Treasury Employees Union, particularly because personnel costs comprise about 75 percent of the IRS costs.

In the recent budget deal, Congress cut the IRS budget by $346 million to $10.9 billion — $1.5 billion less than the administration asked for. The IRS’ budget has been reduced about $1 billion since 2010.

The agency was one of the only agencies that got a cut this year — despite the storm of a tax season looming on the horizon. The IRS will be implementing Obamacare tax credits and penalties for the first time as well as a new tax evasion law.

But Koskinen said his current budget challenge is made worse by a mandated one percent federal employee increase it must abide by.

“It’s not just the $350 million cut in the budget; it’s the fact that we have $250 million in new expenses for a government-wide pay raise. … So we really have a $600 million hole this year,” he said.

Koskinen took over the agency after it faced big criticism following the controversy over added scrutiny given to tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans, never a fan of the IRS, have sought to cut its budget further ever since. They’ve also been critical of the IRS paying out bonuses this year, and still mention lavish conferences the IRS hosted several years back.

Since then, the IRS has cut its training budget by more than 85 percent, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate, which is anticipating more trouble due to budget cuts.

Koskinen says there is no more fat to cut at the IRS.