Why Meat Prices Are Going To Continue Soaring For The Foreseeable Future

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Why Meat Prices Are Going To Continue Soaring For The Foreseeable Future Posted: 09 Apr 2014 02:39 PM PDT The average price of USDA choice-grade beef has soared to $5.28 a pound, and the average price of a pound of bacon has skyrocketed to $5.46.  Unfortunately for those that like to eat meat, this is just the beginning of the price increases.  Due to an absolutely crippling drought that won’t let go of the western half of the country, the total size of the U.S. cattle herd has shrunk for seven years in a row, and it is now the smallest that is has been since 1951.  But back in 1951, we had less than half the number of mouths to feed.  And a devastating pig virus that has never been seen in the United States before has already killed up to 6 million pigs in this country and continues to spread like wildfire.  What all of this means is that the supply of meat is going to be tight for the foreseeable future even as demand for meat continues to go up.  This is going to result in much higher prices, and so food is going to put a much larger dent in American family budgets in the months and years to come. One year ago, the average price of USDA choice-grade beef was $4.91.  Now it is up to $5.28, and the Los Angeles Times says that we should not expect prices to come down “any time soon”… Come grilling season, expect your sirloin steak to come with a hearty side of sticker shock. Beef prices have reached all-time highs in the U.S. and aren’t expected to come down any time soon. Extreme weather has thinned the nation’s beef cattle herds to levels last seen in 1951, when there were about half as many mouths to feed in America. “We’ve seen strong prices before but nothing this extreme,” said Dennis Smith, a commodities broker for Archer Financial Services in Chicago. “This is really new territory.“ The outlook for pork is even worse.  The price of bacon is 13 percent higher than it was a year ago, and porcine epidemic diarrhea is absolutely devastating the U.S. pig population… A virus never before seen in the U.S. has killed millions of baby pigs in less than a year, and with little known about how it spreads or how to stop it, it’s threatening pork production and pushing up prices by 10 percent or more. Scientists think porcine epidemic diarrhea, which does not infect humans or other animals, came from China, but they don’t know how it got into the country or spread to 27 states since last May. It is estimated that up to 6 million pigs may have died already, and it is being projected that U.S. pork production could be down by 7 percent this year.  That would be the largest decline in more than 30 years. But even if someone brought an end to this pig virus tomorrow, we would still be facing a very serious food crisis in this nation. The reason for this is the multi-year drought which is crippling farming and ranching in much of the western half of the country. As you can see from the latest U.S. Drought Monitor update, the drought shows no signs of letting up… Hopefully this drought will end soon. But I wouldn’t count on it. In fact, CBS News recently interviewed one scientist that says that the state of California could potentially be facing “a century-long megadrought“… Scientist Lynn Ingram, author of “The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow,” uses sediment cores inside tubes to study the history of drought in the West. “We’ve taken this record back about 3,000 years,” Ingram says. That record shows California is in one of its driest periods since 1580. While a three-to-five-year drought is often thought of as being a long drought, Ingram says history shows they can be much longer. “If we go back several thousand years, we’ve seen that droughts can last over a decade, and in some cases, they can last over a century,” she says. So what will we do if this drought just keeps going and going and going? As the article quoted above noted, last century was far wetter than usual.  During that time, we built teeming cities in the desert and we farmed vast areas that are usually bone dry… Scientists say their research shows the 20th century was one of the wettest centuries in the past 1,300 years. During that time, we built massive dams and rerouted rivers. We used abundant water to build major cities and create a $45 billion agriculture industry in a place that used to be a desert. So what happens if the western half of the country returns to “normal”? What will we do then? Meanwhile, drought is devastating many other very important agricultural areas around the world as well.  For example, the horrible drought in Brazil could soon send the price of coffee through the roof… Coffee futures prices are up more than 75 percent this year due to a lack of appreciable rain in the coffee growing region of eastern Brazil during January and February, which are critical months for plant development, according to the International Coffee Organization, a London-based trade group. At this point, 142 Brazilian cities are rationing water, and it wouldn’t just be coffee that would be affected by this drought.  As a recent RT article explained, Brazil is one of the leading exporters in a number of key agricultural categories… Over 140 Brazilian cities have been pushed to ration water during the worst drought on record, according to a survey conducted by the country’s leading newspaper. Some neighborhoods only receive water once every three days. Water is being rationed to nearly 6 million people living in a total of 142 cities across 11 states in Brazil, the world’s leading exporter of soybeans, coffee, orange juice, sugar and beef. Water supply companies told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the country’s reservoirs, rivers and streams are the driest they have been in 20 years. A record heat wave could raise energy prices and damage crops. Some neighborhoods in the city of Itu in Sao Paulo state (which accounts for one-quarter of Brazil’s population and one-third of its GDP), only receive water once every three days, for a total of 13 hours. Most people just assume that we will always have massive quantities of cheap, affordable food in our supermarkets. But just because that has been the case for as long as most of us can remember, that does not mean that it will always be true. Times are changing, and food prices are already starting to move upward aggressively. Yes, let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst

The true difference between Chicken Salad and Chicken Shit...

The true difference between Chicken Salad and Chicken Shit If this does not speak to the character of the individual, then nothing ever will! Chicken Salad President George W. Bush's speech after the capture of  Saddam Hussein: "The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq.  The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country.  The operation was  carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force.   Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people.  Their work continues, and so do the risks.  Today, on behalf of the nation,I thank the members of our Armed Forces, and I congratulate them!" and Chicken Shit! Barrack Hussein Obama's speech after the killing of Osama bin Laden: "And so shortly after taking office,   I  directed Leon Panetta, the Director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August,  I   was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden.  It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.   I met repeatedly with my national security team as wedeveloped more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.  And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan." Obama did not once acknowledge our brave men and women who fight for our country, and, that, my friends, is chicken shit!

REYNOSA:Comandante Mono Executed, Narco Cartulina Left with Body...

Borderland Beat

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Posted: 28 Apr 2014 02:30 PM PDT Borderland Beat Manta text Translation [by 777]: This is what was causing harm to the people and  the government and it is further proof that the CDG  doesn't allow extortion, kidnappings, and harming the population  or fighting against the government.  This person's name is Erick or El Mono.  He was the one causing trouble.  The Gulf Cartel is here to protect the population and finish off  all the kidnappings, extortion, robberies, and  killing of innocent people.  P.O.S like these have no place in this cartel.  People of Comanadante Metro 3 and Metro 4  Plaza Reynosa  Atte: Los Metros    Source: MenyTimesBlog and posted by "777" on Forum

POLL: 2014 LOOKS WORSE FOR DEMS THAN 2010 ...

POLL: 2014 LOOKS WORSE FOR DEMS THAN 2010 
It’s never been worse for President Obama in the Washington Post/ABC News poll, which finds him at a 41 percent job approval rating, about 13 points below his standing in the poll at this time in 2010, the year when his party got creamed in midterm elections. We’ve talked about the tsunami alert for Democrats this fall, but the sirens are getting too loud even for partisans and wishful thinkers on the left to ignore. There is no common measure so predictive of a party’s performance in congressional races than the job approval rating of a president of the same party. And Obama is looking increasingly like a toxic asset for Democrats desperate to cling to a Senate majority.
 
[Matters foreign and domestic - WaPo: “Just 42 percent approve of [President Obama’s] handling of the economy, 37 percent approve of how he is handling the implementation of [ObamaCare] and 34 percent approve of his handling of the situation involving Ukraine and Russia.”]
 
Out of pocket - The Washington Post/ABC News poll was heralded by Democrats last month when it showed opposition to ObamaCare softening and the nation evenly divided on the law. That has evaporated. Support for the law dropped 5 points, while opposition remained firm. Why? Fifty-eight percent of respondents said ObamaCare is causing overall health costs in the country costs to rise, but a worse harbinger for Democrats this fall: 47 percent of respondents said the law will increase their own health costs, while just 8 percent said they would pay less because of the law. The Post has it right in describing last month’s results: “That finding was more positive for the administration than most other polls at the time. Democrats saw it as a possible leading indicator of a shift in public opinion, but that has not materialized.”
 
Any Questions? - Reuters: “Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. health secretary, will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee on May 8 for the first of two confirmation hearings, a committee official said on Monday.”
 
Killer stat - Even as the poll shows voters agreeing with Democrats on key issues like increasing the minimum wage and even the overall subject of health care, one statistic explains why the majority party may be in even worse trouble than 2010, and it’s all about Obama: “Registered voters by 53-39% say they’d rather see the Republicans in control of Congress as a counterbalance to Obama’s policies than a Democratic-led Congress to help support him.” The main aim of voters would appear to be to block the president’s agenda, which is kind of the GOP’s whole jam these days.
 
[‘Not working as planned’ - In a new poll from the pro-ObamaCare Kaiser Family Foundation, 43 percent of respondents were able to correctly identify, when prompted, that “about 8 million” people signed up for ObamaCare. But when asked how the implementation of the law, 57 percent of voters said “it’s clear the law is not working as planned,” while 38 percent said “now the law is basically working as intended.”]

Predictive elements - Polls like this matter because they may be predictive, but are also just as important for how they can sap political parties of the ability to raise money and organize. If Democrats believe that the Senate is a lost cause, it would be much more appealing to focus on moving Hillary Clinton farther left ahead of 2016 or even funding a liberal mayor’s campaign than it would be to shove money at a red-state Democrat whose race may be a lost cause. Or consider this from the Harvard Institute of Politics survey of Millennial voters out this morning: “…less than one-in-four (23%) young Americans say they will ‘definitely be voting’ in November, a sharp drop of 11 percentage points from five months ago (34%). Among the most likely voters, the poll also finds traditional Republican constituencies showing more enthusiasm than Democratic ones for participating in the upcoming midterms, with 44 percent of 2012 Mitt Romney voters saying they will definitely be voting - a statistically significant difference compared to the 35 percent of 2012 Barack Obama voters saying the same.”

Baier Tracks: Pressure’s on… - “This far out from an election there is a tendency to over read the importance of one poll or another in the grand political mosaic that we all try to decipher every week. But… A recent spate of polls culminating with the Washington Post/ABC News poll out this morning suggests Democrats have a lot to fear in six months. As President Obama's approval hits a new low for the poll, 53 percent of the registered voters polled thought it would be a good thing if Republicans controlled all of Congress to counterbalance the administration. Only 37 percent approved of his handling of the health law and even fewer (34 percent) approve of his handle of the Ukraine crisis. As more polls show similar bad news for Democrats, we may soon see what Fox News First has been telegraphing for some time: more and more vulnerable red-state Democrats will feel compelled to make a louder stand against the administration on one thing or another. Reporters should get ready for a boatload of press releases from Democrats looking to change the subject. That’s what voters are already getting every day in the form of campaign ads.” – Bret Baier.

We must vote the progressive socialist democrats out of office – especially in the House and the Senate. We need to make the Senate bulletproof to Obama’s progressive socialist agenda and to restore the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive Branch of government. And, at some point, rein-in the activist judges who are setting policy with their decisions rather than simply determining if a law is constitutional or the courts have overstepped their authority.

One Citizen Speaking...

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OBAMA LIES AGAIN: IS THE LOBBYIST HEADING THE FCC PLANNING TO SCREW CONSUMERS WHO USE THE INTERNET? Posted: 28 Apr 2014 11:19 PM PDT President Barack Hussein Obama, a progressive socialist democrat, has told so many lies that it is almost impossible to catalog them all … Two of his greatest lies are well-documented on videotape. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, PERIOD!” “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists—and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”  So why should anyone be surprised when they find that Thomas Wheeler, a major communications industry insider, is appointed to become the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission? Thomas Wheeler Tom Wheeler was sworn in as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on November 4, 2013. Chairman Wheeler was appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. For over three decades, Chairman Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services, experiencing the revolution in telecommunications as a policy expert, an advocate, and a businessman. As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering innovative cable, wireless, and video communications services. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and The Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact President Obama joked made him “The Bo Jackson of Telecom.” Prior to joining the FCC, Chairman Wheeler was Managing Director at Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm investing in early stage Internet Protocol (IP)-based companies. He served as President and CEO of Shiloh Group, LLC, a strategy development and private investment company specializing in telecommunications services and co-founded SmartBrief, the internet’s largest electronic information service for vertical markets. From 1976 to 1984, Chairman Wheeler was associated with the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), where he was President and CEO from 1979 to 1984. Following NCTA, Chairman Wheeler was CEO of several high tech companies, including the first company to offer high speed delivery of data to home computers and the first digital video satellite service. From 1992 to 2004, Chairman Wheeler served as President and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA). <Source:FCC> Not only is Wheeler a wealthy insider/lobbyist/entrepreneur, he also apparently has no problem lying like his boss, Barack Obama … FEBRUARY 19, 2014 -- STATEMENT BY FCC CHAIRMAN TOM WHEELER ON THE FCC’S OPEN INTERNET RULES In its Verizon v. FCC decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit invited the Commission to act to preserve a free and open Internet. I intend to accept that invitation by proposing rules that will meet the court’s test for preventing improper blocking of and discrimination among Internet traffic, ensuring genuine transparency in how Internet Service Providers manage traffic, and enhancing competition. Preserving the Internet as an open platform for innovation and expression while providing certainty and predictability in the marketplace is an important responsibility of this agency. The D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC has the legal authority to issue enforceable rules of the road to preserve Internet freedom and openness. It affirmed that Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gives the FCC authority to encourage broadband deployment by, among other things, removing barriers to infrastructure deployment, encouraging innovation, and promoting competition. The court recognized the importance of ensuring that so-called “edge providers,” those that use the network to deliver goods and services, can reach people who use the Internet. And it upheld the Commission's judgment that Internet freedom encourages broadband investment and that its absence could ultimately inhibit broadband deployment. <Source: FCC> The progressive socialist democrats: lying liars that lie --- disadvantaging consumers who purchase internet services … Network neutrality is the concept that all files consist of the same type of digital bits, no matter if the file is text, audio, video, data, or anything else to be transmitted digitally. And, that since all of these files are comprised of the same digital bits, they should not be surcharged by content type, nor see any delay in transmission. So while the internet service providers can charge you for additional bandwidth and/or upload./download speeds, they cannot charge you for faster delivery of your digital content at the expense of delaying other digital content. But, that is not the type of network neutrality envisioned by the industry trying to turn a commodity, the transmission of bits over their network, into a profit-making scheme as complex and convoluted as that used by the telephone and cellular carriers who have different tiers, packages, and schemes – even though they transmit the very same type of information. So Wheeler’s proposed rules look something like … The proposed rules would allow pay-for-priority access fees By contrast, according to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC's new "proposal would […] allow providers to give preferential treatment to traffic from some content providers, as long as such arrangements are available on 'commercially reasonable' terms for all interested content companies. Whether the terms are commercially reasonable would be decided by the FCC on a case-by-case basis." This is a clear reversal of the Open Internet Order's policies towards access fees, as Public Knowledge haspointed out, p. 21. "[T]he issue is not that broadband ISPs are charging commercially unreasonable rates to edge providers when they should be charging them commercially reasonable ones; the issue is that any charges or differential treatment between a broadband ISP and a pure edge provider (as opposed to an interconnecting network) are unreasonable. A 'commercial reasonableness' rule would change this norm by giving formal FCC blessing to the very kinds of arrangements the open internet rules sought to prohibit." 2. Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to allow access fees Many were surprised by yesterday's announcement. After all, in a statement in February, the Chairman had said that he is committed to protecting the Open Internet and that he intends to do so under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, and many observers had taken comfort in that statement. First, to be upheld under Section 706, any new network neutrality rules need to provide sufficient room for individualized discrimination and negotiation. After all, Verizon v. FCC struck down the Open Internet Order's no-blocking and non-discrimination rule because they violated the Communications Act's ban on imposing common carrier obligations on entities like Internet service providers that the FCC has not classified as telecommunications service providers or common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. <Source: The FCC changed course on network neutrality. Here is why you should care. | Center for Internet and Society> Since there is no notice of advanced proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, we turn to Tom Wheeler’s blog for a preview … Setting the Record Straight on the FCC’s Open Internet Rules by: Tom Wheeler, FCC Chairman - April 24, 2014 To be clear, this is what the Notice will propose: That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers and users all relevant information as to the policies that govern their network; That no legal content may be blocked; and That ISPs may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity. <Source: Official FCC Blog> Consider item one … all of the rates, fees, and schemes of the complex telephone tariff and taxation rules are open source documents that can be read by anyone with the time, patience, and knowledge of what they are looking at. So transparent disclosure has the same weight an advantage that Obama claimed when he said, ““This is the most transparent administration in history.” Consider item two … No “legal” content may be blocked. The United Nations and other international bodies are now considering the criminalization of so-called “hate speech” that disparages Muslims and other such groups. Should an international tribunal rule that speech which is protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment is illegal, there is a possibility that Obama – the internationalist – would follow suit and claim it is a treaty obligation; possibly ratified by a corrupt Senate under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. This is SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) which makes the government the agent to criminalize, investigate and prosecute previous civil copyright infringement again! Something that demands deep packet mining and demanding that packets not be encrypted beyond what the government could crack. Detecting and then Criminalizing “Hate Speech” If two Democratic lawmakers have their way, Barack Obama’s Justice Department will submit a report for action against any Internet sites, broadcast, cable television or radio shows determined to be advocating or encouraging “violent acts.” The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 “would create an updated comprehensive report examining the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation and create recommendations to address such crimes <Source: www.wnd.com/2014/04/big-chill-feds-want-to-scour-net-media-for-hate-speech/> Consider item three … Pretty much this excludes self-dealing, but says absolutely nothing about an ISP surcharging a video based upon its rental cost or on any other so-called “reasonable” basis. In the world of FCC-speak, reasonableness is often determined by having the same terms and conditions apply to all parties – the consumers be damned. Allowing the “reasonableness” to be determined by the FCC on a case-by-case basis, would open the process up to corrupt lobbying – with no party speaking for the citizen/taxpayer/consumer. The end game … Chairman Wheeler is claiming that he has no choice but to allow these access fees if the internet service providers are not regulated common carriers. Of course, if internet service providers became common carriers, the the Executive Branch of the federal government could exert even more control over both the transmission and possibly the content. Allowing for the surcharging of content that may be deemed detrimental to society, such as pornography. And, possibly even butting heads with the First Amendment with respect to political advertising and support statements carried within a period of time preceding an election. I you say it cannot happen, one must consider exactly how lawless President Obama and his cadre of progressive socialist democrats are and how they have circumvented Congress to impose unconstitutional rules and regulation by executive fiat. Bottom line … There is no doubt that Tom Wheeler is representing the interests of industry rather than the consumer; and that he will return to the industry as soon as he passes through the revolving door. Personally, I am tired of the game being played by providers, especially paying for internet speeds that are not achievable on a sustained and consistent basis. So, in essence, the FCC is offering you a false and misleading choice – both of which are damaging to the citizen/taxpayer/consumer. Choose one: network neutrality and increased government tyranny or no network neutrality and increased internet costs. I am sure that the Obamacons are hoping that you will select network neutrality and empower the government to, once again, screw citizens, taxpayers, and consumers. We must vote the progressive socialist democrats out of office – especially in the House and the Senate. We need to make the Senate bulletproof to Obama’s progressive socialist agenda and to restore the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive Branch of government. And, at some point, rein-in the activist judges who are setting policy with their decisions rather than simply determining if a law is constitutional or the courts have overstepped their authority. -- steve

Another Terrorist Arrested. ...AG Holder?

The U.S. Opts for Ineffective Sanctions on Russia

The U.S. Opts for Ineffective Sanctions on Russia