China to open world's longest high-speed rail line

BEIJING/ZHENGZHOU, China - China will open the world's longest high-speed rail line next week when a link between Beijing and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is inaugurated, officials said on Saturday, underscoring its commitment to a trouble-plagued transport scheme.

The 2,298-km (1,428-mile) line, parts of which are already in operation, will begin full service on Wednesday, halving travel time to less than 10 hours on trains which will run at 300 kph (186 mph)

Looting Breaks Out In Argentina

If you were wondering why the Argentinian leadership were unwilling to pay off a few 'annoying' hedge funds with a few billion dollars (and were pissed about losing one yacht), then perhaps this report from the BBC will enlighten.Argentina authorities have sent hundreds of troops to the southern city of Bariloche after a spate of looting. Critically, Bariloche is not some shanty-town, it is one of the nation's most popular ski resorts and 'relatively' affluent. The following clip sums up the dangerous situation the nation finds itself in, despite the government's assurances that this is a "false picture of social and political collapse." Looks real to us?

Click image for link to clip (not embeddable)

Via BBC:

Argentine authorities have sent hundreds of troops to the southern city of Bariloche after a spate of looting.

At least three supermarkets in the popular ski resort were targeted, causing panic among local residents and tourists.

Dozens of people, many with their faces covered, broke into the supermarkets stealing electronics, toys and clothes.

The government blamed small criminal gangs but local authorities pinned the attacks onanarchist organisations.

Governor Alberto Weretilneck called for federal troops to restore order in Rio Negro, in the country's Patagonia region.

"With this type of action, these groups have been trying to paint a false picture of social and political collapse," the provincial authorities said in a statement.

The attacks took place in San Carlos de Bariloche, an Andean resort popular with tourists from other South American countries.

Local police said other shops and depots on the outskirts of the town were also targeted by looters. All shops closed after the thefts.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been in constant communication with the province's governor, according to her spokesman Juan Manuel Abal Medina.

He said the Bariloche attacks were linked to the sabotage of power lines earlier on Thursday in the neighbouring province of Neuquen.

What the Looming Port Strike Is Really About Michelle Malkin

It's not about jobs. It's not about safety. It's not about improving dockworkers' living standards. The looming, long-planned East and Gulf Coast port strikes are about protecting Big Labor's archaic work practices and corrupt waterfront rackets.

Are you ready for a fiscal cliff? The union bosses of an estimated 14,500 workers at 15 ports are preparing to send the economy plunging back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. You read that right. Much more on that in a moment. But first, here's what's at stake.

The International Longshoremen's Association's (ILA) grip extends from Boston to Texas to Florida and all points across the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The New York-New Jersey ports -- which handle cargo valued at $208 billion -- could come to a standstill. National Retail Federation executive Jonathan Gold issued a desperate statement: "The last thing the economy needs right now is another strike, which would impact all international trade and commerce at the nation's East and Gulf Coast container ports. This is truly a 'container cliff' in the making."

Retailers have begged Big Labor-lovin' President Obama to intervene. Good luck with that. The cozy White House powwow with union bosses immediately after Election Day tells you all you need to know about which side Obama champions.

The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents 14 Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, has been bracing for a union-spearheaded shutdown since the summer, when labor negotiations fell apart. The ILA's current contract expired on Sept. 30. Federal mediators granted a 90-day extension that ends on Dec. 29. ILA President Harold Daggett won a unanimous green light earlier this month to call a strike if industry leaders don't give in completely to the union's demands. According to my sources, despite overwhelming industry concessions on wages and benefits, port watchers view the likelihood of a strike at "probably 70 to 85 percent now."

Don't believe the union sob stories. ILA members are among the highest paid union workers in the country. Starting pay for dockworkers is $20 an hour, with a top straight-time pay rate of $32 an hour. Longevity and overtime bonuses are generous, with ILA members earning an average of more than $124,000 a year in wages and benefits.

The sticking points of the heated ILA-USMX talks are "container royalties" (a fee per ton of containerized cargo that carriers pay to ILA members) and "customs and practice." On the New York-New Jersey waterfront, union racketeers have turned archaic work rules into a corrupt system of patronage tied to organized crime. Reporter Carl Horowitz of the National Legal and Policy Center broke down the container royalty dispute this fall: "In 2011 these royalties amounted to $232 million or about $15,500 per worker at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. This arrangement was established in 1960 when New York Longshoremen sought to protect themselves against job losses resulting from the introduction of automated cargo container weighing. It's been a ticket for inefficiency."

In other words, it's a ridiculously outdated surcharge on business to cushion the blow of modernity to workers. Unions, of course, siphon off a large chunk of the royalties -- more than $20 million last year alone, according to the Supply Chain Digest. The trade publication points out that "ILA workers receiving those hefty checks today have no real connection to the perceived threat from container traffic to manually loaded freight and handling work that started the whole program in the 1960s."

USMX hasn't even called for eliminating the outdated fees. It just wants to cap them. Under the industry's contract proposal, ILA's average hourly rate would increase to more than $55, including overtime and container royalty. Workers would still not be required to pay premiums on their health care plans like most private employers now require their workers to do.

But the union won't budge, and it is screaming bloody murder over attempts to rein in other inefficiencies.

The additional "customs and practice" that the ILA seeks to preserve are a recipe for corruption. Don't take industry's word for it. This was the conclusion this year of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Decades of favoritism, nepotism and Mafia-friendly hiring practices have bred inefficient and criminal conditions that benefit "a privileged few." The union protects no-show and no-work jobs, 24-hour paid work for 8-hour-a-day-or-less clerks, and unlimited paid vacation for shop stewards. ILA has demanded that multiple crane operators be paid for the work of a single operator. And the commission's hearings exposed ILA bosses tied to mobsters and family members being paid more than $400,000 a year for up to 27 hours a day.

Union bosses and their Occupy Wall Street henchmen will be ratcheting up their rhetoric about "greed" and "fat cats" as they move to ring in the New Year by bringing the American economy to its knees. Now you know the rest of the story.

TV is about to get way more interesting

With the original programming strategies off all the major Internet video-streaming companies now in place, the TV business is about to change drastically.

FORTUNE -- When Amazon announced the creation of Amazon Studios and itsplans to create original TV programming in May, it was widely described as a "crowdsourcing" project, giving ordinary people a chance to become TV producers. But of the six pilot shows the company has greenlighted, five come from producers either with impressive television resumes, or who are famous for something else.

Just one show, a sitcom, was written by unknowns. The others include TV veterans from shows like 30 Rock, The Daily Show, and Big Bang Theory, as well Gary Trudeau, author of the Doonesbury comic strip, and the people at the satirical newspaper The Onion.

The roster of pilots sets up a battle royale involving Amazon (AMZN) and other Internet-video outfits and the TV networks. Nearly all major Internet-based companies have high-quality (or at least, potentially widely popular) programming in the works. They'll be battling the networks and the cable companies as much as with each other. The TV business is about to get even more interesting than it already was.

MORE: What Wall Street really thinks of Amazon

By largely abandoning the "crowdsourcing" of production, Amazon is acknowledging that its competitors -- Netflix (NFLX), Hulu, and to some degree YouTube (GOOG) (which is focusing mainly on niche programming mainly comprising short videos) -- are working like big-time TV producers rather than Internet startups. Netflix is producing "premium" programming that supposedly would fit in well on HBO or maybe AMC. Hulu's budget for its original programming is a stunning $500 million a year.

Hulu's programming is the most network-TV-like of the bunch, which is not surprising as it is owned by several traditional TV networks. Its shows include a documentary series hosted by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame, a travel show hosted by director Richard Linklater, director ofDazed and Confused, and a scripted comedy. Like network TV, the shows will be released weekly. On Netflix, by contrast, whole series will be made available all at once -- a strategy that's designed to attract high-level talent.

MORE: Amazon's Jeff Bezos: The ultimate disrupter

Competing with such fare would be highly risky if Amazon were to stick hard to the plan to solicit scripts from the general public. The "crowdsourcing" element, however, will stay in place in one respect: the pilots will all be streamed free of charge, and the viewing public will be given a chance to weigh in. The shows that are chosen to become series will be made available to subscribers to Amazon Prime, which already offers access to Amazon's film and television library. (Amazon's Prime service is increasingly the nexus of all its consumer-oriented services and hardwarebusinesses.)

There is a big risk element for all the Internet-TV producers. It's not yet known whether they will be able to attract anything approaching the kinds of ratings TV networks enjoy, and hence grow to be truly competitive. But they also have little choice: as their libraries of second- and third-run moves and TV shows grow increasingly similar to each other, they risk becoming commodities. They have to shell out one way or another: either by paying premiums for exclusive distribution contracts with studios, or by creating their own programming. By doing the latter, they are at least more in control of their own destinies. And by hiring top talent, they are clearly formidable competitors to the traditional TV business.

URGENT!!! Amerika…THIS is Your Final Warning!!!

Are you awake yet Amerika???

That is NOT a typo.

I’m talking to YOU…Citizens of the Socialist Banana Republik of the Former United States.

Some of you, far too many, have been hitting the snooze button for far, FAR too long.

Yesterday…THE WARNING SIREN WAS SOUNDED!!!

Are you awake…YET???

Yesterday, in what was surely the strangest press conference I have ever seen held by a president…One masquerading as one made some EAR SHATTERING announcements.

Ear shattering only if you aren’t DEAF to the sound of a nation’s destruction.

Normally, appointing Joe Biden to do ANYTHING would be a laughing matter but, this simply isn’t funny.

Biden has been put in charge of Obama’s commission to end gun violence.

The reason this isn’t at all laughable is because Biden couldn’t lead anyone’s way out of a wet paper sack and Obama damned well knows it.

Biden, therefore, is nothing but a figurehead and future pavement under a Canadian made bus should anything go wrong.

The entire commission, whoever should be appointed to it is a sham.

To be succinct…This panel or commission or board…Whatever it ends up being labeled…Is nothing different from the group of scum who drew up the Sharia law “constitution” for Morsi in Egypt.

It’s a kangaroo committee.

Make no mistake…The Emperor means to disarm Amerika and lay waste to the 2^nd Amendment.

Allow me to connect a few dots and decode a couple of things from yesterday’s presser.

Obama said, “The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing.”

I have never, NEVER heard ANYONE say that the issue of the 2^nd Amendment OR “Gun Control” is too complex so we should do nothing.

Never.

In this, the Emperor is simply making crap up out of thin air…Telling a lie to be passed about by socialists as fact.

The Emperor continued: “The fact is the vast majority of gun owners in America are responsible. But you know what — I am also betting that the majority, the vast majority of responsible law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war.” 

First of all, regarding the number of law abiding gun owners…IF the “vast majority” of that number would “say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war,” They wouldn’t be SOME of the first…THEY WOULD BE ALL OF THE FIRST TO SAY IT.

Second…THEY ALREADY HAVE SAID IT. That is exactly why we have the laws we already have regarding allowing those who break our to laws NOT to buy weapons of war…Many of which are NOT being enforced.

Third…Weapons of WAR???

Allow me to decode THAT for you.

The Emperor is stating, clearly, that should it ever come down to it…We the People should NOT be allowed to shoot at a TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT with ANYTHING resembling the weapons that the GOVERNMENT would be using to shoot at WE the PEOPLE.

Forget about becoming GREECE…This Emperor has us on the path to become SYRIA.

The Emperor went on to state that he would use, “all the powers of my office to prevent more tragedies.”

Decoded…He will use EXECUTIVE ORDERS to disarm Amerika should congress not legislate it.

As I have stated time and time again…MANY of the Emperor’s OTHER Executive Orders have been nothing more than TRIAL BALLOONS to see how far he could go without reprisal from elected Members of congress.

CONGRESS HAS ALLOWED HIM FREE REIGN!!!

He no longer feels bound by the rule of law in any way.

Now, allow me to connect a few terrifying dots for you.

Obama subverted congress in announcing that the Attorney General would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage act…An existing law on the books. Congress did nothing.

Obama subverted the congress in making recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board when congress was, in fact, NOT in recess. Congress did nothing.

Obama let it be known, PUBLICLY…That he could NOT implement the “Dream Act” on his own as LAWS and the CONSTITUTION prevented him from doing so. Then…HE WENT RIGHT AHEAD AND IMPLEMENTED THE “DREAM ACT” ON HIS OWN…SUBVERTING CONGRESS IN THE PROCESS. Congress did NOTHING.

NOW…We have “Gun Control.”

As Congress has allowed, over and over again, Imperial subversion of the rule of law…HE IS NOW FREE AND CLEAR TO DO IT ON THE MOST MASSIVE SCALE IMAGINABLE.

While it is nearly impossible to believe that our military would ever take up arms against United States citizens…I don’t for one single minute believe the Emperor has ANY intent of using the CURRENT military in that regard.

Connect the dots.

This EMPEROR has several crucial voting blocs that OWE him.

First of all…the YOUTH who have, twice, OVERWHELMINGLY voted FOR him and have received HIS entitlements as a thank you.
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Second…Let’s look at that Dream Act decree. There are some 12 MILLION…ILLEGAL aliens in this country and all of them have been PROTECTED by this socialist administration.

Third…The UNIONS and their ever ramped up VIOLENT responses to any and EVERYTHING conservative. Socialists WILL fight on the side of SOCIALISM.

Fourth…The “OCCUPY” crowd. They are free to do whatever anarchy asks of them and, as they lean HEAVILY toward SOCIALISM…They will become foot soldiers in the Emperor’s new army.

Fifth…Dot by dot by dot…Remember those “weapons of War” the Emperor spoke of yesterday…The ones HE claims that the “vast majority” of decent folks would NOT want in the hands of criminals???

Well…THOSE ARE THE EXACT WEAPONS HE HAD “WALKED” OVER OUR SOUTHERN BORDER AND INTO THE HANDS OF…MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS!!!

Oh yes…He’s MORE than willing to arm THOSE criminals but he certainly doesn’t want US to have access to the same weaponry DOES HE???

Think about that…A certain former DRUG USING Emperor has ARMED Mexican DRUG CARTELS, told our border agents to run away and hide if shooting starts, PROSECUTES border agents who DO fight back, tells us that our southern border is safer now than ever before AND…Just let it be known that, thanks to new pot laws in Washington and Colorado, the feds will NOT prosecute pot offenses any more THUS opening 2 BRAND NEW MARKETS FOR MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS!!!

And don’t forget who ELSE has been found just south of our border…HEZBOLLAH…The military arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Didn’t our government just sent the Muslim Brotherhood 20 F-16′s in Egypt?

Yes they did.

And…What of all those who RELY on government handouts? Welfare…Unemployment…Food stamps etc…What of THEM??? When you become reliant on government you become BEHOLDING to government and easily controlled BY the government.

THIS will be the Emperor’s army but, what about the EXISTING military?

Well…connect a few MORE dots.

As we approach the fiscal cliff and yes, for decades leading up TO the fiscal cliff…What has been one of the most fervent desires OF socialists???

That’s right…CUT THE MILITARY!!!

Cut their funding…Cut their numbers…Cut their supplies and CUT their training.

While THAT’S been the mantra…what have the socialists done TO the current military?

They have forced upon them a POLITICALLY CORRECT AGENDA. Rules of engagement have left our military ill-prepared to face contrived situations. We can’t arm ourselves when Afghans we are trying to help are shooting at us. We can’t flag those IN the military who are about to do great harm such as Ft. Hood. We can’t extract information which might save lives. We can’t even enforce military rules and MUST allow the Ft. Hood TERRORIST sport his JIHAD beard in Court as HE faces charges of…WORKPLACE VIOLENCE!!!

Am I the ONLY one who noticed that, following his announcement regarding the disarming of Amerika…Reporters asked him all about…THE FISCAL CLIFF???

Willing accomplices. HE doesn’t WANT to discuss or reveal DETAILS and the Pravda Press KNEW it.

Do you remember, the day AFTER the Benghazi attack when Romney gave a press conference and all the reporters bombarded him with the exact same question???

Remember how they got caught on a live microphone COLLUDING in that line of questioning???

Odd isn’t it…That after making his “gun control” announcement…ALL THE QUESTIONS HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH…GUN CONTROL???

Distract, dismiss and refocus the public’s attention.

We will be told this is all for the children. We must do this “gun control” for the children.

BULLCRAP!!!

In his press conference, The Emperor rattled off a list of murders by the dregs of society and where they occurred.

NOT on his list was…CHICAGO.

IF this had ANYTHING to do with the children…The following lists would have been given lip service ESPECIALLY since they have been compiled from the city WITH THE STRICTEST GUN CONTROL LAWS IN THE NATION!!!

In Chicago, so far THIS YEAR…

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS FINAL PART!!!

Chicago is the laboratory where Obama and his socialist, anti-American order, like a creeping cancer on society…Have tested their system of planned violent ideological anarchy on a gratefully duped, willfully led by the nose populous.

Chicago was told that the nation’s strictest “gun control” laws would protect them and, because they have been run by socialists for decades, they bought into it hook, line and sinker.

The result is that Chicago, under the “OH…SO…PROTECTING cloak of “GUN CONTROL” has, in fact, become a KILLING FIELD.

Now…his Highness intends to bring that exact form of “protection” to the rest of the country.

Socialists, the Hollywood elite, Obama supporters, occupiers and the “intellectually superior” have been calling for violence via social media  with ramped up fervor since last Friday’s horrific event in Connecticut.

Thanks to what the Emperor is proposing and has in mind…They will get their wish. More killings. More violence. More funerals…More…More…More until society decays into near total anarchy.

Then what?

Then…Obama will have what he’s been after since day one and that for which he’s been laying the groundwork by playing the race card where it simply doesn’t apply and promoting class warfare.

War in the streets and…The excuse to declare Marshall Law.

Stand up for the Constitution or your Rights THEN and see what happens. You could be arrested or, detained…INDEFINITELY…held for mental evaluation. Those would be your PREFERRED options.

For OTHER options…See Syria.

Right of Revolution?

About 15 years ago, I served on the staff of a Senator who was an ardent opponent of gun control. Once I asked him why he was so adamantly opposed to any restrictions on gun sales, when even the police favored banning sales of certain kinds of assault weapons.

The Senator dismissed these concerns with a wave of his hand. “The real purpose of the Second Amendment,” he explained, “is to guarantee the right of revolution. If the government ever becomes too oppressive, the American people will be able to rise up and overthrow it.”

“But Mr. Senator,” I objected, somewhat taken aback, “we are the government.”

“That’s right, Joe,” he replied, “but we might not always be.”

I have repeated this story many times over the years, and I never failed to include an ironic postscript: The only time in my life when I seriously discussed the possible overthrow of the U.S. government was in the course of a conversation with a U.S. Senator that took place in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

In the wake of the awful events in Newtown, however, I find myself recalling this conversation — but without any trace of irony or amusement.

In his great book, Democracy in America, the incomparable Alexis de Tocqueville warned Americans against succumbing to an “immense tutelary power” that reduces us to “a herd of timid and industrious animals of which government is the shepherd.” Like many conservatives, I believe that the ultimate goal of American “progressivism” (although not, of course, its avowed intent) is to turn Tocqueville’s warning into a fact. And as we all know, it is the sad fate of sheep to end up in the slaughter-house.

Is the Second Amendment a way of protecting the American people against a sheepish fate, or is this entire way of thinking a prime example of what the historian Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid style” in American politics?

And even if my former boss was correct, and the right to purchase the most dangerous weapons is a genuine insurance policy against “progressive” efforts fundamentally to transform American society, could it be that the premium we are paying — the periodic slaughter of innocents — is simply too high?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I think about them a lot now.

Hillary Takes a Fall

WASHINGTON — Think back. Have we not experienced all this before, say in the 1990s?

Ever since October we have known that the defense measures at our Benghazi diplomatic installation were inadequate. There was the controversy over whether or not the assault on our diplomatic compound was caused by a peaceful demonstration that went haywire. It turned out there was no peaceful demonstration, contrary to the State Department’s early account. But that was lost in the next controversy. That was the controversy about whether there was sufficient security at the installation. Officials from State appeared before Congress. Some testified there was sufficient security. Some said there was not sufficient security. Some State Department officials contradicted themselves. Ultimately the entire question was wrapped in chaos as still other questions became incomprehensible. Let us move on.

We have experienced this chaos before. Think back to the late Vince Foster. Think about the chaos of Whitewater. Think about, for that matter, the whole Clinton Administration, including their harum-scarum departure from the White House.

What do all these chaotic incidents have in common? They have the Clintons, of course, the most chaotic married couple in recent American history. Now Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state, is not going to testify before Congress — again chaos. At first she was, and she took “full responsibility” for the Benghazi tragedy. No, make that the Benghazi chaos. Then she was not. She had to travel. No, then she got sick and would neither travel nor testify. No wait a second! Things get worse. She fell at her home owing to dehydration and suffered a concussion and she absolutely will not travel nor testify nor go to the hospital. It is that serious, and she probably will not be watching the NFL on Sunday. Just to be sure.

Once again, there is chaos surrounding the Clintons, though I do not know what Bill is doing about all this. We do know that Martin Scorsese is filming a documentary about his life or at least his expurgated life.

The former first lady suffered a concussion. She became dehydrated and fainted. She never went to a hospital. So all we have is her word for that concussion. She is taking a week off and will be back in the office eventually. That is the official word from the Associated Press. There is no promise to appear before Congress on the Benghazi debacle, but there was a report in the New York Times December 9 that spoke of her limitless opportunities in the years ahead, among them a run for the presidency in 2016. There was no mention of Benghazi in the Times story.

“The former first lady,” the AP report tells us, “is known for her grueling travel schedule and is the most traveled secretary of state, having visited 112 countries while in the job.” The AP does not mention it, but while she was visiting 112 countries relations with Moscow, Beijing, and assorted hot spots have worsened.

All this chaos frankly troubles me and ought to trouble Congress. To begin with there is the chaos over Benghazi, not just about what started it and how well defended the installation was, but what were our diplomats and CIA doing there? That would be a good start. Then there is again the chaos over Mrs. Clinton. How is she doing health wise?

Why does she have no plans to appear before Congress? Does that mean ever? Will her health permit it? There are all sorts of rumors running through Washington. Some are absurd. Others are quite plausible. For instance, does she drink? Some say she does. Do you remember the picture of a sloshed Hillary balancing herself on here campaign plane during her primary race back in 2008? It was Hillary at her most convivial, but in light of more recent events it is cause for concern.

Those of us who have studied the Clintons realize that after every scandal — or call them controversies — the Clintons have followed a pattern of overreacting. This could be part of the pattern. She and her entourage at State orchestrated a cover-up around the Benghazi blunders. Then they panicked as the details came out. It would not be for Hillary the first time. It stressed her out. She went too far, thinking her concussion would be helpful. No one would question it. Yet now they do.