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Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
It didn't hit me until I saw the CBS 60 Minutes report on Congo conflict gold being smuggled to Dubai, right after hearing about the Dubai World plea to delay debt payments with mention of RBS having high Dubai exposure... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/encanto-gas…— December 9, 2009 11:37 a.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
RBS Sempra Commodities may be the link between the owner of SDG&E and the Congo conflict gold smuggled through Uganda through Dubai. Royal Bank of Scotland is one of the leading financials for its involvement in the same Dubai World debt that leads Dubai World to seek delays in debt service payments. RBS Sempra Commodities advertises itself as a founding member of the London Bullion Market Association, a group "that represents the wholesale over-the-counter market for gold and silver in London" (see http://rbssempra.com/metals/products-and-services… and http://www.lbma.org.uk/). Everybody who saw the movie knows the last king of Scotland lived in Uganda.— December 9, 2009 8:30 a.m.
Impetus
Until I recently got all of the old outlets grounded, the quirks of SDG&E electricity transmission would fry my second-hand desktop computers on a nearly regular basis. Every new used machine that comes in now also gets OpenOffice installed because it works and IT'S FREE!!! My brand spanking new laptop has Microsoft Word and the rest installed, and I don't even know what the heck it looks like now because I have OpenOffice. I know that businesses can do an accelerated depreciation schedule and dump their old computers as salvage for new ones after three years or so, but when you really stop and think about it, just about all of the accounting functions that are really at the core of taking care of business aren't too sophisticated for VisiCalc and an Apple ][ to handle. http://www.openoffice.org/ a superb alternative to Microsoft Office Suite— December 2, 2009 4:07 p.m.
Local Lead Indicators Continue Rise
Re #2: It is difficult to reconcile rising leading indicators in the short run with the now-vacant local storefronts in so many places. If I remember right, it was during the Depression that some of my elders learned the fine art of making distilled spirits from a variety of plant products as a family-run micro-enterprise.— December 2, 2009 3:54 p.m.
Obama is now a ONE TERM President.
RE #2: BRILLIANT!— December 2, 2009 12:22 p.m.
Obama is now a ONE TERM President.
According to more than one strategic thinker, the war is generally to win some 40,000 villages, as I tend to agree that any government structure more complex there than that is either (1) a local warlord's extended sphere of influence or (2) a government propped up at great expense to American taxpayers (but not to those corporations with ties to other corporations getting government bailouts... or more directly feeding off large wartime appropriations). Let's say it takes a company of infantry to effectively hold down a village, prevent re-occupation by whoever the bad guys might happen to be, and train a local militia (police or other local security forces) loyal to the central Afghan government, propped up or not. Yeah, in the old days, we could expect to do that with an air-dropped A team of green berets, but not now as we seem to have forgotten how to do that. Now, if we want to get out of Afghanistan the fastest, then we need to go in with the mostest... enough troops to get the entire security/militia-training job done, all at once, so that a time limit makes sense. Let's say an infantry company is roughly 200 ground fighters (2 12-hour shifts of 100 on patrol and conducting militia training); multiplied by 40,000 villages, and then factor in another 50% for logistical overhead, we get an Afghanistan surge troop commitment of about 12,000,000. We had about that many in uniform during WWII, and that was when we were a lot less people than 300,000,000 Americans. Naturally, grunts back then were cheaper by the dozen million. Sorry, but not even the Great Orator now in the Whitehouse has words sweet enough to raise a volunteer army that big out of Wii-playing high schoolers here on the home front. Not without one heck of a draft... Of course, the Wall Street Masters of the Universe could squeeze out that many as newly unemployed for the sake of higher productivity with whoever is left on the factory floor. Maybe it was a bad idea for San Franciscans to want to dump JROTC? Maybe so, if the majority of them wanted to see a second Obama term...— December 2, 2009 11:43 a.m.
Hush money
RE #8: LOL... somebody remembers... and if I remember right, the foundation mess involved a previous student trustee as well a chancellor... As for the real estate issue, I wouldn't bet money on this, but wasn't Damon Shamu still connected with SDCCD facilities management when the speculator spectacle hit the fan? The way the story was told in our distinguished daily paper, it seemed that there were some rather tricky issues involving shifting tax benefits to some clued-in middleman's advantage...— December 1, 2009 10:54 p.m.
David Ross fights for downtown bathrooms to serve homeless
Nobody really talked about it when I was in City College student government back in the late 80s, but we did know of some homeless students who signed up for PE classes to have a place to shower and change across the street from the Cavers' San Diego High. Back then, clever downtown workers would sign up for any class and get the San Diego Community College District parking permit before bailing out, knowing that enough students would otherwise drop out after the first quiz to insure themselves a daily free parking space downtown for the rest of the semester.— December 1, 2009 3:50 p.m.
Hush money
Is this kinda like the deafening sound of silence from the San Diego Community College District after the outcome in NELLIE G. ANDERSON ET AL V. SDCCDF?— December 1, 2009 3:24 p.m.
Hedge Funds Buying Stocks, Wee Folk Selling
Heard something amusing in a CNBC interview a few months back, where an Ivy League law professor was explaining why there are no popular movements to unseat directors or otherwise seriously influence corporate governance by stockholder revolt: when people get fed up, they simply sell their shares to other parties not so fed up and more prone to speculation. Obviously, the people who are least offended by corporate governance in America today are hedge fund managers. Birds of a feather...— December 1, 2009 3:15 p.m.