My post-holiday epiphany: Why the price of gold has suddenly dropped

(Photos are of Ashley and Hugo's wedding on the USS Red Oak Victory on 12-12-12)
 
     This December, about two weeks before Christmas (or Hanukkah or the Islamic New Year or Buddha's enlightenment or whatever), the price of gold suddenly started to drop, suddenly catapulting downward over one hundred dollars an ounce http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au0030lnb_.html.

     "But why?" you might ask.  "I thought gold prices had hung steady for years -- or else had gone up."

     Here's why.  There has been a sudden glut on the gold market -- and, after that happened, this sudden gold-rush-in-reverse was on.  Everyone was suddenly trying to get rid of their gold.

     "But why?" you might ask again.  "I thought that people were buying gold as a good investment."

     Here's one reason why.  2012 has been the saddest holiday season ever in America -- or at least since 1929 -- in terms of economic buying power for the 99%.  Millions of jobs have been outsourced overseas, and Wall Street and War Street have swallowed up America's treasury whole.  And, by this last December, it was looking like there'd be only coal in most American children's stockings this year.

     But then all those prudent Americans who had purchased a few gold coins here and there over the years suddenly remembered all that wealth they had stashed away in some sock drawer, went out and cashed in their coins -- and Christmas (etc.) was saved!  Disaster averted!  At least for one more year.

     And that's where the sudden glut of gold on the market has come from. 

     But what about next year's holiday season?  When the mean-spirited Grinches of Wall Street and War Street come to steal Christmas yet again?

     With your gold coins all gone by 2013, you'll be lucky to even have milk and cookies to lay out for Santa.

     And if you live in the path of a hurricane or a bankster or on a flood plain or a rust belt, you'll be luckier still if you even have a chimney for Santa to come down in.

     What to do?  How to start work on saving next year's Christmas?  Here are some great stocking-stuffing ideas:  End the wars.  Levy a $1 transaction tax on every stock and bond bought and sold on Wall Street -- like we do on those other casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.  Tax the rich and get our money back from them.  Put a cap on election-spending corruption.  And, like Alan Grayson suggests, end "legislative constipation" in Congress by demanding simple up-or-down votes on stuff like saving Social Security and ending pork-barrel spending on wars-for-oil http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/fiscal-cliff-taxes_b_2367621.html.  And, most important of all, let's throw all those law-breaking Grinches on Wall Street and War Street in jail.
 
PS:  Another factor causing the downturn on gold prices has to do with out-and-out theft.  No, not the kind with safe-crackers or masked riders or John Dillinger involved.  Hey, that was old skool.  In these modern times, only our banks are stealing our gold. 

     Apparently, several national central banks are now leasing (not selling) their gold supplies to something called "bullion banks," and then these bullion banks in turn sell (not lease) it to various markets several times over.  That is, gold is being used as collateral that is then being slipped into the markets more than once, and thus the price of gold has been artificially suppressed because there now seems to be a glut.  But there's not. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/banks-pledge-same-gold-to-numerous-people.html 

      And so all of those sweet little old ladies and hard-working salt-of-the-earth types in America who have carefully hoarded a few gold coins over the years in order to have security in their old age or at least have happy Christmases (etc.) for their grandchildren are now being happily screwed over by the banksters.  Again.  http://vimeo.com/55940623

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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
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 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer, "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
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 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=cm_rdp_product
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"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters


"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters 

OPEC, Chavez & WalMart: Union-busting large and small

     Recently I've been reading some really scary stuff about the folks who own WalMart.  For instance, despite the fact that Jim and Christy Walton alone are worth approximately 30 billion dollars each, they are still treating their employees pretty much like chopped liver http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-ceo-pay-hour-workers-year/story?id=11067470#.UMYpM3ecHBY.  Like some modern-day Ebenezer Scrooges, WalMart's avaricious owners appear to be hoarding every penny of profits they make -- and just in time for Christmas too. 

     Baby Jesus would NOT approve! 

    And recently I've also been reading Jimmy Carter's excellent personal memoir, "White House Diary".  And what I have learned so far is that, first, Jimmy Carter was one of America's greatest presidents because he did everything he possibly could do to help average Americans like you and me get ahead; fought against climate change almost even back before Al Gore; stood up for civil rights worldwide; and scared the shite out of Wall Street, the Pentagon and AIPAC -- thus almost guaranteeing that he would never ever get re-elected, be cut off at the knees by the powers that be and get defeated by a puppet like Ronald Reagan as soon as humanly possible. 

     But if Carter had won a second term and our Ronnie had been forced to go back to making grade-B cowboy movies, we definitely wouldn't be facing a RepubliDem-generated "Fiscal Cliff" right now http://www.nationofchange.org/archeology-decline-1354551090.  But I digress.

     The second idea that I came up with after reading this book was that back in the 1950s, the Middle East was pretty much a hell-hole of poverty, thanks to the American "extractive industry" and their scab pashas who had been exploiting that area like it was 1859 back in the States and no one had yet freed the slaves -- or like the coal-mine workers had been exploited in West Virginia before miners there unionized themselves back in 1902.  

     However, the exploited "sweatshop workers" of the Middle East finally began to organize and form their own union too.  And they called it OPEC.  And practically the entire history of that region from that day to this has been merely one episode after another of what can only be described as UNION-BUSTING -- except that the "extractive industries" no longer use Pinkertons.  They use GIs.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33286.htm

     All over the world today, the "extractive industries" are running people off their land, stealing their resources and, in every way that they possibly can, performing the type of union-busting activities that would make WalMart owners proud.  And whenever victims of these "extractive industries" actually try to unionize or rebel, we immediately have yet another union-busting war http://www.roitov.com/articles/100.htm.

     Incidentally, it is also my personal opinion that Iran's leadership made a disastrous deal with the devil when they started negotiating with Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s -- because Reagan ended up supplying weapons to both Iran and Iraq, a very clever example of union-busting at its best.  And thus the Ayatollah Khomeini, after his deals with Reagan such as the famous alleged October Surprise and the very real Iran-Contra scandal, ended up having the blood of his own people on his hands.  One million Iranians died in that "war". http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/23/iran-iraq-war-anniversary

PS:  Have you been noticing lately how Muslims are constantly being demonized and accused of being terrorists and other types of bad people by the powers that be?  And have you also noticed that almost every Muslim country from Libya to Indonesia also has oil, valuable minerals or water resources under their soil?  Coincidence?  I think not.  http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2012/12/mazin-qumsiyeh-on-12-12-12.html

     Further, the Quran clearly states that, "God has sent down the Torah and the Gospel, as a guidance to the people...."  And rest assured that this guidance definitely includes the Sermon on the Mount.  “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."  But what the pseudo-Jews and pseudo-Christians who spread this crap about Muslims don't seem to understand is that when they are happily busy dissing Muslims, they are also dissing Judaism and Christianity too.

PPS:  I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Jakarta.  She said, "Obama's better than most presidents because he's got more dimension, having gained more experience after living all over the world.  However, when Obama's step-father worked for American oil companies in Indonesia, he took that posh lifestyle too seriously.  And that's why he lost Obama's mom and his family." 

     Apparently Obama's mother couldn't stand being just another member of the union-busting WalMart generation http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html and so left his step-father and moved back to Hawaii where Obama had originally been born -- and how ironic is that?  That Obama's mother's son should now be helping to preside over some of the greatest "extractive industry" union-busting puschs of all time?

PPPS:  Remember the grape strikers out in California's central valley back in the 1960s?  How, under Cesar Chavez, these little guys were demonized and persecuted but they hung in there and persevered and finally won a few union victories over the growers?

    And also remember that Hugo Chavez is also a union rep for OPEC -- and he too is being demonized and persecuted.  But he too is hanging in there and may finally even win a few union victories himself.  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/24/lkl.01.html

     And remember back in 1965, when thousands of us marched with Reverend King in Montgomery and chanted "Wallace, you never can jail us all"?  That attitude of dogged resistance against injustice, against all odds, also explains why I still keep grinding out this Cassandra-like blog that nobody reads year after year -- ever since GWB stole the 2000 election -- because there are still more of us than there are of them and eventually, someday, the "union" of all us underdogs will finally prevail.  Why?  Because our immense "collective bargaining" power is the only single thing that the powers-that-be are afraid of.

     And so the world's WalMart types always keep trying to brainwash us peons into hating one another instead of organizing against them.  But this divide-and-conquer technique can't go on forever.  Sooner or later, as things go further and further downhill across the world both economically and democratically, all of us little guys are gonna finally be forced to become "Union Maids" too.

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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
******

 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer, "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
****
 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=cm_rdp_product
****
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters


"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters 

NO tidings of comfort & joy: It's still Hell out in Rockaway

     While our government still happily continues to peel big bucks off its wad and shower it down on Wall Street, big business and the "war" machine like it was Christmas for banksters and war-mongers all year long whether they need it or not, all too many hard-working tax-paying victims of Hurricane Sandy out in Staten Island and Rockaway are still getting no help at all.  Zero.  Ziltch.  Nada.

     Nothing is currently being peeled off our government's endless roll of big bucks for them.

     Last week I was riding in a Muni bus over in San Francisco (on my way back from an audition to play a bored office worker in a student film) and on the bus was a very delightful older couple who seemed to have absolutely no cares.

     "Where are you from?" I asked them. 

     "Rockaway," they replied hesitantly.  Rockaway?  OMG!  Not THAT Rockaway?  "Yeah, that's the one.  And, yes, we did live through Hurricane Sandy and, yes, our home was badly damaged and almost destroyed."  http://www.phillipvan.com/filter/PHOTO/BREEZY-POINT

     "So what the freak are you doing out here?"

     "Having fun!  After having survived a personal visit from Sandy, we realized that life is just too short not to enjoy it.  So we came out here to have fun."

     "But did you at least get any help from FEMA?" I asked, figuring that after our government has spent trillions on bailing out Wall Street (where no one hardly ever pays taxes and pretty much lives on Welfare for the Wealthy), then the least that our government could do is send a measly few billion bucks off to bail out afflicted taxpayers in Rockaway.  http://www.phillipvan.com/filter/PHOTO/ROCKAWAY-BEACH

     "Have we received any help from FEMA?  In a word?  No."

     "Not even anything?"  No. 

     "It's been a whole month after Sandy and parts of Rockaway still don't even have electricity now.  Or places for people to go."

     "But did FEMA give you any money to help you out?"  No.

     "We got nothing but an avalanche of paperwork."  They didn't even get bottled water.  "A relative in Wisconsin finally ended up bringing us some."  And they can't go back to their home because the wife has asthma and their house is a hell-hole of black mold right now.  Ah, black mold, the bane of asthma sufferers' existence. 

     "We just took out a 60-day insurance policy from Lloyd's of London on our stuff and left."

     I tried to grill the happy couple for more information on what is happening in Rockaway right now -- and right in the middle of the Christmas and Hanukkah season too -- but they weren't interested in being reminded.  All they wanted to do was forget their worst nightmare and celebrate that they, unlike some of their neighbors, were still alive and had survived one of the fiercest mega-storms ever.

     And as our bus drove on past Chinatown, the happy couple soon had all us passengers singing "Merry Christmas" -- in Chinese.  Brave souls.  I almost cried.

http://vimeo.com/52711779

PS:  And in the spirit of Christmas, what would Jesus have done after Sandy?  He woulda given government money to the happy couple instead of lavishing it all on Wall Street and war.  And I bet He would have also levied a transaction tax on every stock and bond that was bought and sold at the N.Y.S.E and used that money to keep seniors, hurricane victims and the middle class from falling off our RepubliDem-created "fiscal cliff" -- and would have kicked the moneychangers out of the temple too.

    And them Jesus would have removed that tax-exempt status from every single church in America that supported bigotry, the NRA, corporate welfare and war.  "Go Jesus!"  Happy Hanukkah.  Happy Kwanzaa.  Merry Christmas.

(Photos are by Leah Meyerhoff and Phillip Van, two of many New Yorkers who have volunteered their time to help out victims of this horrible mega-death storm)

EXTRA:  I just figured out why the Mayans were right about December 21, 2012!  It's the exact day that climate change becomes irreversible.  Duh.

     We now only have a few shopping days left to do something about this.

      Perhaps if we camped out all night in front of Best Buy or Target or WalMart the night before? 

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********************************************************* 
 
Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
******

 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer, "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
****
 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=cm_rdp_product
****
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters


"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters