news – Page 25038

The Politics of Punk: Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic on Dems, Reps, and the Glorious Future of Rock and Roll

“America is just…really…stuck,” says Krist Novoselic, the
bassist for Nirvana, chairman of FairVote, and active member of the
19th-century fraternal organization the Grange.

Novoselic sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with Nick
Gillespie to explain why he dumped the Dems, gave money to Ron
Paul, eats corporate vegetables, and still really dislikes Ronald
Reagan. The recent inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
also talks about Kurt Cobain the person (as opposed to the icon),
intellectual property laws, and how he gets along with Celine Dion
fans.

Watch by clicking above. For full links, downloadable versions,
and more resources, click below.

View this article.

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Forget Baghdad Bob, Meet "Saad Maan" – Iraq's Military Spokesman

Saddam Hussein had Muhammad Saeed al-Shaaf, nicknamed “Baghdad Bob” or “Chemical Ali”, to explain just how great things were in Iraq (as bombs were raining down around him). With the US ‘demanding’ the removal of Maliki, we present the Iraq’s new military spokesperson, whose name we are sure will raise a few eyebrows – Saad Maan.

Meet Brigadier General Saad Maan – Iraq’s interior minister spokesman.

Blast from the past…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1l7Hq4Q Tyler Durden

Forget Baghdad Bob, Meet “Saad Maan” – Iraq’s Military Spokesman

Meet Brigadier General Saad Maan – Iraq’s interior minister spokesman.

Blast from the past…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1l7Hq4Q Tyler Durden

Kevin McCarthy, Poorest Member Of GOP Leadership, Elected House Majority Leader

Moments ago Kevin McCarthy of California was elected majority leader by House Republicans, according to Riva Litman, spokeswoman for Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. He fills the spot lost by Eric Cantor following his shocking loss to a tea-party activist two weeks ago. McCarthy win is not surprising: it was largely expected. What however, is notable is that with a self-declared net worth of between only $76K and $266K, albeit is substantial jump from the he $16K he revealed in 2008, he is by far the poorest member of the GOP leadership group.

Not surprisingly, the wealthiest member of the GOP leadership, is the outgoing Eric Cantor with a net worth between $5.7 million and $19 million, more than doubling his money from the reported $2.4 – $7 million in 2008. We are confident McCarthy will be quite able to catch up in the coming years.

WSJ reports:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), who is currently vying to succeed Mr. Cantor in next week’s election, has by far the fewest assets of any member of House GOP leadership. The California Republican is worth at least $76,000 and at most $266,000 – a significant jump from his total of $16,000 in 2008, but still significantly below the second-least wealthy, Rep. James Lankford. Mr. Lankford, the fifth-ranking Republican in the House, has at least $133,000 in assets. House Speaker John Boehner is worth $2.3 million, up from $1.7 million in 2008.

Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) is expected to run for the spot of House Majority Whip in the event that Mr. McCarthy is promoted, and his filings show he is worth at least $446,000. But two other members expected to vie for the position have considerably fewer assets than Mr. McCarthy. Rep. Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) is worth at least $6,000, and Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) is worth at least $4,000.

Which is not to say that republicans in the House happen to be poor (or rich): this is merely the leadership group. Putting it in context, here is the chart showing the three highest-ranking democrats.

Just how did Pelosi, or rather her husband, accumulate such wealth? The following articles “Moody’s Leaked Again: Told Nancy Pelosi Will “Probably Not” Downgrade US Weeks Ago; Did Her Multi-Millionaire Investor Husband Know Too?” as well as “Congressional Insider Trading Gone Wild” may offer some clues.

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Medicaid Made $14.4 Billion in Improper Payments Last Year

For
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has designated Medicaid,
the joint federal-state health program for the poor and disabled,
as being a high
risk for fraud.

But despite years of attention from the government watchdog, the
program continues to waste billions annually on fraud, abuse, and
other forms of improper payment.

In the 2013 fiscal year, the agency says in a new report, Medicaid
spent about $431.1 billion—about $14.4 billion of which was
improperly spent.

That’s actually down from the previous year, when the program
spent $19.2 billion improperly. But the fact that it’s still so
high—that’s nearly the total amount that Obamacare will likely pay
out in subsidies for private insurance this year—mostly serves to
reveal how big the problem is.

Of course, Medicaid looks positively thrifty when compared with
its bigger sibling, Medicare. The health program for seniors
improperly spent $49.9 billion in 2013, a nearly 12 percent
increase from 2012.

Even for the government, with its giant budgets and loose
attitude toward wasteful spending, this isn’t pocket change. And
it’s likely that similar sorts of payment mistakes will continue
under Obamacare, which is already paying insurance subsidies for
roughly 2 million people whose applications had inconsistencies.
Indeed, the GAO report warns that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion
could further complicate the already complex, state-level program
integrity efforts for the program. The most straightforward way to
shrink fraud and abuse in these giant, complex health programs is
to shrink the programs themselves. Instead, we’ve expanded them,
and made more opportunities for improper spending in the
process.

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Poverty in the UK Doubles Over the Past 30 Years, Despite Robust “Economic Growth”

One of my favorite lines about the current oligarch theft continuing to occur throughout the world is courtesy of the “Artist Taxi Driver,” who likes to state:

“This is not a recession its a robbery.”

Truer words were never said, but this theft goes back a lot further than the latest economic catastrophe. As we all know by now, real median wages haven’t increased in the U.S. for the past 45 years, while at the same time, so-called economic growth according to traditional metrics has exploded higher. As yesterday’s article from the Guardian below demonstrates, this is not just an American problem. It is pervasive throughout the Western world.

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Thursday Humor: The Last Time John "Carry" Was Involved In Iraq

Over 7 years ago, John Kerry had his last public encounter with the military forces in Iraq; and it didn’t go down so well…

As CBS noted at the time…

A group of Minnesota National Guard soldiers in Iraq has made a comically misspelled sign mocking Sen. John Kerry’s recent comments about the education level of troops, and their handiwork is getting plenty of attention.

…

The photo shows eight soldiers holding a white sign with heavy blue letters spelling out, “Halp us Jon Carry – We R stuck hear n Irak.”

…

The war of words started when Kerry was talking to a group of students about education.

“If you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,”

And this is the ‘diplomat’ who will bring Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to the table to “rise above” for a group hug?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/URcegp Tyler Durden

Thursday Humor: The Last Time John “Carry” Was Involved In Iraq

Over 7 years ago, John Kerry had his last public encounter with the military forces in Iraq; and it didn’t go down so well…

As CBS noted at the time…

A group of Minnesota National Guard soldiers in Iraq has made a comically misspelled sign mocking Sen. John Kerry’s recent comments about the education level of troops, and their handiwork is getting plenty of attention.

…

The photo shows eight soldiers holding a white sign with heavy blue letters spelling out, “Halp us Jon Carry – We R stuck hear n Irak.”

…

The war of words started when Kerry was talking to a group of students about education.

“If you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,”

And this is the ‘diplomat’ who will bring Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to the table to “rise above” for a group hug?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/URcegp Tyler Durden

Surveillance Video Contradicts Cop’s Claim Overhead Lights Were On When He Ran a Stop Sign and T-Boned Another Car

busted James
McLaughlin is suing the city of Buffalo, New York, after he was
injured two years ago when his car was T-boned by a police cruiser
that ran through a stop sign at an intersection. A police report
claimed the cop car was “using overhead lights and siren,” but
surveillance footage (no audio) of the accident shows the car
turning its overhead lights on only after the accident. WGRZ, the
NBC affiliate in Buffalo,
reports:

Attorneys Steve Boyd and John Elmore represent James McLaughlin,
the driver of the car that was hit. They’re suing the city and
looking for any witnesses to the accident.

“The tape is obvious that the lights weren’t on and our client
certainly could not hear any sirens, so it’s very important that
these witnesses come forward,” Elmore said.

McLaughlin did not want to appear on camera, but in a statement
said, “I was shocked when I read the police reports that indicated
the police car had its lights and siren on …it did not.”

You can watch the surveillance footage in the WGRZ segment

here.

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A Reminder Of What Happens When HFTs Decide To Sell

Larry Fink told the world this morning that central banks are holding a floor under stock prices (but wouldn't expect to see large price increases) – and judging by the gamma imbalances in volatility-land, they are using options markets to unriggedly manage that implicit put. However, given the utter dominance of the machines in the market and any reaction when real volume hits stocks (always down), we thought, courtesy of Nanex, a gentle reminder of just how quickly the Fed put disappears would be useful in this new "we can never get hurt, valuations are within norms, there is no complacency" normal.

Via Nanex,

This is a supplemental update to (a must read report): Reexamining HFT's Role in The Flash Crash.

Plotting short sale data (Reg SHO) for trades executed on the day of the flash crash, we found several surprises.

1. There were large short sales in QQQQ during the hour preceding the crash. This is the Nasdaq 100 ETF (the symbol later changed to QQQ).
Each circle represents a short sale in QQQQ, sized by the number of shares in that trade.

2. Another view of the data in Chart 1 above, but includes a histogram (blue) showing the total dollar value of short sales in QQQQ for each second.
Many seconds show $25 million or more of QQQQ shorted, with two seconds showing over $100 million. Most of these occur shortly before, but not during the time the Waddell & Reed Algo was active (14:32 – 14:53). Curious that no mention of this was made in the SEC flash crash report.

3. SPY also had many seconds with high short sales, but not as stark as QQQQ.

4. Total value of short sales each second for NMS stocks between 14:30 and 14:52 along with prices for the eMini (ES) futures contract for reference.
Note that 14:42:44 stands out as one of the peak seconds – a point we previously identified as the very beginning of the flash crash.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1pjDa1x Tyler Durden