U.S. Navy Mistakenly Emails Reporter Plans To Dodge Freedom of Information Act

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy has apologized for mistakenly sending Washington television reporter Scott MacFarlane an internal email plotting ways to dodge the reporter’s Freedom of Information Act requests for documents related to September’s Navy Yard mass shooting.

MacFarlane, an investigative reporter for NBC 4 in Washington, in December requested memos drafted by Naval Sea Systems Command officials shortly after the Sept. 16 shooting, along with photos of Navy Yard building 197, where the gunman fatally shot 12 people.

In an email intended for internal distribution, Robin Patterson, the Navy's FOIA public liaison, outlined strategies to thwart MacFarlane’s requests, which she called "another ‘fishing expedition.’”

“Recommend that you provide the requester with an estimate, as I can see the search and review, possible redactions, will be very costly,” Patterson wrote in the Jan. 2 email. “This may encourage the requester to 'narrow the scope.' Again another 'fishing expedition' -- just because they are media doesn't mean that the memos would shed light on specific government activities.”

Patterson went through each of MacFarlane's inquiries, strategizing reasons for rejecting the investigative reporter's requests:

DON2014F-0387: this one is specific enough that we may be able to deny. However, I want to talk with the FBI, as they may have all emails during that time, in their possession.

MacFarlane posted a screenshot of the email to Twitter on Tuesday, calling the Navy's blunder an “EPIC FAILURE.”

Navy administrator Steve Muck apologized to MacFarlane in an email, according to NBC News. The Navy also apologized via Twitter on Tuesday, affirming its commitment to the FOIA and “its vital role in providing transparency to the American public.”

Credit to Huffington Post

Eurozone 2014... Deja Vu All Over Again?

Synagogue Desecrations Plague Central Israel

A number of synagogues located in the center of Israel have been vandalized over the last week, Israeli news outlets reported on Friday.

A synagogue located on the Sirkin army base, near the city of Petah Tikvah, was recently trashed, Israel’s Channel 2 said. IDF soldiers serving on the base were stunned to walk into the house of worship to find ripped up Bibles thrown across the floor and anti-Semitic slurs spray painted on the walls.

Right after the crime was reported, military police as well as senior IDF officers rushed to the scene. Most disturbingly, it is now believed that at least one Israeli army soldier was involved in the desecration, Channel 2 said.

Soldiers serving in Sirkin reacted with outrage to their synagogue being violated. “Whoever did this has committed an offensive act against Judaism,” one soldier told Channel 2. “It’s incomprehensible that something like this could take place on an IDF base… It’s nothing less than an affront to our entire value system,” the soldier fumed.

According to the IDF spokesperson, the incident is currently under investigation.

Another act of vandalism was perpetrated against two Jewish houses of worship in the village of Ezer, located in Israel’s Lachish region, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Friday.

A worshiper who entered one of the local synagogues on Friday morning discovered that the Holy Ark had been removed from its place and the Torah scrolls had been torn up and left scattered across the floor. Similarly, other ritual objects had been tampered with, Ma’ariv said.

Similar damage was also inflicted on another nearby synagogue, this one located in a trailer.

Police forces under the command of Kiryat Malachi station commander Chief Superintendent Sammy Marciano hurried to the area to search for the perpetrators of the twin sackings. Additionally, forensic teams were brought in so as to collect physical evidence from the crime scenes, Ma’ariv reported.

Superintendent Marciano said that, “This is a serious case, and at this time all leads are being pursued so as to track down the suspects.”

Credit to Algemeiner

What are the chances? The mysterious death of Loretta Fuddy

  By Douglas J. Hagmann

12 January 2014: What are the chances that the individual responsible for authenticating Barack Hussein Obama’s long for birth certificate, Loretta Fuddy, just happened to be the sole fatality out of nine on board a small plane that was forced to make an emergency water landing off the coast of Hawaii?

What are the chances that the other passengers either walked away virtually unscathed (according to eyewitness reports) or had only minor injuries while Loretta Fuddy died?

What are the chances that only incident to mar the otherwise stellar record of Makani Kai Air just happened to be the flight carrying Loretta Fuddy, a most controversial figure in the most controversial issue relating to Barack Hussein Obama’s Constitutional eligibility to hold office? What are the chances that the engine failure just happened to occur over the Alenuihaha  channel, recognized as one of the most treacherous channels in the world because of strong winds and high seas?

What are the chances that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency in charge of  investigating even the slightest incidents involving civil transportation, would not conduct a thorough, on-site investigation that involved a fatality, especially a fatality of a high-profile state employee?

What are the chances that a passenger seated in the rear of the plane, publicly identified as Ferdinand Puentes (seen wearing a United States Federal Marshal cap) would not only have a GoPro video at the ready, but have the mental composure and clarity to record the “crash” and  aftermath considering the unexpected, life-threatening circumstances?

What are the chances that this video, or at least portions of it, is suddenly released from nowhere, nearly a month to the day after the “crash” when its existence was never before referenced or acknowledged by crash investigators or survivors?

In my 25-plus years of experience as a career investigator, I’ve seen a lot of strange things that would give one pause and cry out for explanation. Odd things that at first blush seem to defy logical explanation, only to be answered through investigation as mere coincidence (yes, ‘stuff’ does happen) or indicative of something more nefarious. In my professional opinion, the strange death of Loretta Fuddy falls squarely into the latter category.

As I noted in my initial report dated December 13, 2013, Loretta Fuddy’s place in history was forever memorialized when she authorized the release of Barack Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) at his request. On April 25, 2011, the month following her appointment as Hawaii’s Director of Health, she certified that she witnessed the copying of the original COLB. The document that was certified as a true copy by Ms. Fuddy was handed to Judith Corely, Barack Obama’s personal attorney, when Corely made a special trip to personally pick up the document instead of sending the document by a private courier, such as Federal Express.

Given her role in the authentication of the controversial document, Ms. Fuddy was named in two affidavits (one public, one sealed) filed in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington on October 18, 2013 by Douglas Vogt, citing twenty points of forgery that comprise misprision of treason and misprision of felony. Vogt, with researcher and document expert Paul Irey, investigated the intricacies of the forgery. Mr. Vogt’s affidavit and Ms. Fuddy’s involvement gained national attention when he was interviewed on The Hagmann & Hagmann Report on December 4, 2013, exactly one week to the day before her tragic death on December 11, 2013. The detailed three-hour audio testimony of Douglas Vogt can be heard here, and the report detailing Ms. Fuddy’s possible role here.

Follow the money

Since her death, portions related to Loretta Fuddy in the sealed affidavit filed in U.S. Federal Court have been made public. Of particular interest are her financial reports detailing her income and expenses in 2011 and 2012. Each report is filed in January for the previous year.

According to Mr. Vogt, a large and as yet unanswered income disparity was found between the two reports. In short, during her first year as Hawaii’s Director of Health, which is also the time she authenticated Obama’s COLB, Ms. Fuddy’s gross income was reportedly less than $100,000. Nonetheless, her financials show that she apparently paid down her mortgage and decreased her liabilities by at least $50,000 and perhaps as much as $75,000 more than what she grossed that year. Where did that money come from? While there may well be a legitimate explanation for this disparity, it was not disclosed on the financial forms she filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

The crash & NTSB

Loretta Fuddy was one of nine people aboard the Cessna 208B traveling between the islands of Hawaii on December 11, 2013. She was making a much publicized, well known, annual trip to Kalaupapa, where the state exiled leprosy patients until 1969. That area is accessible only by plane or mule. By plane, the travel would require travel over the Alenuihaha channel, also known as the “I’ll-end-you, ha-ha” channel. Out of all the places around the Hawaiian Islands for a water landing, it is the worst of all possible locations due to the “wind funnel” effect in the channel. The channel is more than a mile in depth at its deepest point and is generally regarded as one of the most treacherous channels in the world by the United States Coast Guard.

Were it not for another aircraft flying in the vicinity of the water landing, it is possible that the passengers of the plane would not have been found until they failed to arrive at their destination. Josh Lang and Jaimee Thomson witnessed the Cessna making the water landing and were able to call for help. Within 90 minutes, a C130, two U.S. Coastguard rescue helicopters, one U.S. navy rescue helicopter, and one fire department rescue helicopter were on the scene.

As I noted in my initial report, initial accounts of the crash were conflicting and inconsistent. Such inconsistencies remain, despite the investigation conducted by the NTSB. Based on a review of the NTSB report (ID #WPR14FA068), no on-scene investigation was performed. The NTSB report pertaining to this incident was one of the most incomplete and un-sourced reports published when compared to other reports. Why?

The NTSB admits as much by a disclaimer that prefaces the narrative. This begs the question why, given that the crash resulted in a fatality, especially the fatality of a person at the center of a significant national controversy, investigators didn’t conduct a more thorough, on-site investigation?

The NTSB narrative also conflicts with eyewitness accounts. According to the NTSB investigative report, “[T]he airline transport pilot and two passengers were seriously injured, one passenger was fatally injured, and five passengers received minor injuries. [Emphasis mine]. This is inconsistent with initial and subsequent eyewitness and passenger reports, and now, the video.

During my investigation into this incident, I interviewed a veteran pilot familiar with the flight paths of the Hawaiian Islands. Speaking off the record, this source stated that he has flown this area for years and knows it well. He commended the pilot for the remarkable water landing, and confirmed that the Alenuihaha channel is indeed treacherous. He added that “[I]f I was going to cause a plane like that to go down [into the ocean] in all of Hawaii, that’s exactly where I’d want it to go down. Recovery would be very difficult if attempted at all.”

What are the chances?

Credit to Hagmann and Hagmann Report

The Rabbi Who Found the Messiah and Sharon´s dead

Yitzhak Kaduri and Ariel Sharon

Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri subject of a new book and movie, both titled “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah,” announced to his followers the long-awaited Messiah would not come until after the death of Sharon. He made the prediction two months before Sharon, still acting as prime minister, had a major stroke in 2006 that has left him in a coma ever since.

Now Israelis are beginning a period of mourning for ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has died at 85 of heart failure after eight years in a coma.

His body will lie in state on Sunday before a private burial on Monday.Sharon’s death is of interest to mystics in Israel as well as prophecy buffs around the world because of the prediction by Kaduri. Carl Gallups authored the book “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah” and inspired a movie on the subject of the same name in late 2013.

In 2007, Kaduri, the most famous rabbi in Israel’s modern history, at 108 years old, left a cryptic death note revealing the name of the long-awaited Messiah. Within a year after the rabbi’s death, the note was reported to have been verified as authentic by some of Kaduri’s closest followers and then placed on Kaduri’s own website.

The purported Kaduri message proclaimed that Messiah’s name was Yehoshua, or Jesus.
It shocked the religious world.

Shortly thereafter the furor began. The note immediately disappeared from Kaduri’s website. The media refused to report further on the matter.

Chuck Missler, founder of Koinonia House ministry, says that in the book, Gallups “explodes one of the biggest bombshells of our lifetime. The implications of these astonishing declarations from the most venerated ultra-orthodox rabbi in Israel impacts every one of us – not just those of the traditional Jewish faith. This is a must-read for anyone who takes God seriously.”

“The only prophetic utterance of Kaduri concerning Ariel Sharon was that Messiah, would not appear until Ariel Sharon had died,” said Gallups. “Within a little over two months after speaking these prophetic words Sharon was in a coma and Kaduri himself died.”

The Kaduri prophecy did not name a specific time or date in which Messiah would be revealed — only that it would not happen until after Sharon had died.

“Many who have examined Kaduri’s prophecy have interpreted the urgent feel of it to mean that Messiah might appear very shortly after Sharon’s death,” said Gallups. “This sense of urgency was strengthened by the fact that for several years prior to his death, Kaduri made several pronouncements of Messiah’s imminent return.”

Nunez Report

The Royal Road to Tyranny

Humanity is under attack from so many directions, it is difficult to count the ways.

We are under attack from the skies and through the poisoning of our air through massive chemical spraying complete with Alzheimer’s and dementia causing aluminum sulfate and cancer causing barium. Fukushima radiation, Corexit spraying and the resulting toxic rain from the Gulf oil spill is running rampant over our country and not one ounce of mainstream media coverage is afforded to these dangers. Prevention and remediation from these dangers are not put into place by our present government.

Our water is being systematically removed from the country by Nestle, and our water tables are being systematically compromised by environmental toxins and of course many Americans are consuming water permeated with IQ-lowering rocket fuel (i.e.,fluoride).

Our food is being poisoned through the rampant use of cancer-causing MSG products, and the unlabeled, unregulated and cancer-causing Monsanto GMO’s.

Under the guise of fighting terrorism, Americans are now facing illegal detention, torture and murder under the Military Commissions Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act. The average citizen is now labeled as a terrorist by Homeland Security as their inspired documents, such as the MIAC Report, define domestic terrorism as the mere act of criticizing our governmental leaders, supporting Ron Paul, being a Bible believing Christian, being a Libertarian, being a member of the Constitution Party, being a Second Amendment supporter and demanding that our leaders follow the Constitution. By virtue of the fact that you have visited this web site, you could now be considered to be a domestic terrorist.

Our national sovereignty and manufacturing base has been destroyed through NAFTA and CAFTA which has resulted in totally open borders culminating in the overwhelming of our infrastructure, hospital emergency rooms and our educational institutions by the human onslaught which will be soon be at unprecedented levels which promise to bring 150 million additional immigrants to our country by 2040.

Obama’s administration has openly engaged in human smuggling as well as drug and gun trafficking to criminal cartels, in programs such as “Fast and Furious” through the implementation of the North American Union.

Our property rights and water rights as well as our right to farm in traditional ways are being destroyed through the implementation of the pseudo-environmentalist, Agenda 21 programs at the local level. As a result, massive food shortages and outright famines are right around the corner.

America is being de-industrialized through the global warming scam and the accompanying illegal cap and trade schemes. Meanwhile, as the New York Times reports, Ugandan villages were burned down and replaced with trees in the name of saving the planet through carbon offset programs. This insane application of carbon trading is now being enforced by American military boots on the ground in Uganda. Next year, you will see roving blackouts and the doubling of utility rates as Obama makes good on his campaign promise of “necessarily skyrocketing utility rates.”

Americans are now in the midst of being subjected to the death panels of Obama care in which citizens over the age of 70 are officially referred to as “units” and are targeted for comfort care but not given life saving measures. This is an undeniable, unmitigated and naked version of Eugenics cast in the same flavor as that practiced by Margaret Sanger and Adolph Hitler.

America is now witnessing the final stages of the installation of a police state surveillance grid through the creation and installation of video cameras and microphones in the Homeland Security fundedIntellistreet light poles. The National Security Administration listens to our every call, their computers read every email and fax, courtesy of Prism and Echelon. Americans are being encouraged, by the former Big Sis, to spy on another as we purchase the Chinese slave labor products at Walmart.

Our homes are being stolen through the use of fraudulent robo signers and illegal repossessions without the mortgage note in order that the six mega banks can double and triple their illegitimate profits off each home they are able to steal and resell again and again.

Americans have previously discovered that the Federal Reserve (i.e., Goldman Sachs) is giving our money away to their private banking interests, (aka) their subsidiary holdings, in Europe. Additionally, more of our money has been stolen with the complicit participation of ex-Goldman Sachs federal government overseers like Gary Gensler who has failed to deliver even one indictment of his ex-Goldman Sachs partner, John Corzine, and his MF Global theft ring resulting for the “loss” of $3 billion dollars in private accounts. John Corzine and his governmental partner in crime, Gary Gensler, have established the legal precedent of stealing from private American accounts. The net effect is that YOU have no retirement. YOU have no social security. YOU have no bank account. Soon, everything YOU own will all belong to the banksters!

Our “public servants” in Congress (e.g., Nancy Pelosi) self-admittedly, on 60 Minutes, routinely engage in stock market insider trading. They have made legal for themselves, but would send you to prison for doing the same.

Every day, the TSA conducts heinous acts against the American people, such as strip searching and injuring 85 year old ladies, grabbing the genitals of our children and wives and largely engaging in acts which, if performed by you, would land you in jail for five years. Your body and your self-respect belong to the globalists and their minions.

Even with all of these hideous events now hiding in plain sight, I have never called for a revolution against our increasingly illegitimate government, or, should I say against the banksters who have hijacked our Republic, until now. Massive civil disobedience to Obamacare, the new taxes, the EPA prohibitions against property, water and wood stoves needs to be enacted by the American public.

The Obamacare agents at your local doctor’s office are now asking you if have guns in your house under penalty of perjury. There are so many more heinous acts being committed against the American people that it is difficult to count all the ways that tyranny is being installed in America. Even Ray Charles could see the depth and scope of this all out war which has been declared on all of us.

Our Congress has an all-time low 6% approval rating and as a result, Congress has taken up sides with those who would exterminate some of us and enslave the remainder of us with the indefinite detention of the NDAA

Very soon, we will live in an America in which the government can declare peaceful dissent, public criticism, and the failure to comply to globalists’ trickle down tyranny as an act of terror in which YOU are subject to secret arrest, torture and even murder. The dead spirits of Mao, Stalin and Hitler are coalescing in the halls of congress and you are their newest target! These congressional criminals have declared war on you and your families. Many of our countrymen have been given a death sentence, but are sadly oblivious to the new place in history that we all occupy. The finishing touches of the establishment of a tyrannical government are being put into play as I write these words.

Many of you, because of your political and moral advocacy, have a bull’s eye on your back. As with all patterns of tyranny from Stalin to Hitler to Mao, the chess pieces have been laid into place for your final demise. The police state grid is in place as are the FEMA death camps. Martial law enforced by foreign troops, followed by World War III will soon be upon us. They will be coming for your guns under the coming martial law which will accompany the coming war. As with all tyrannical governments which confiscate guns, they will be coming for you following the disarming of the American people. Read your history! The playbook of the globalists is located in your former 10th grade World History books. This is the unmistakable pattern of tyranny!!!

While in the Soviet Gulag Alexsandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn and his fellow victims, lamented that they did not mount a resistance when the Secret Police came and dragged people out of their homes and sent them to Siberia. We will soon be faced with the same choice.

Our entire governmental leadership is a self-admitted criminal enterprise system as it lawless; it is devoid of empathy, it has no compassion nor does it have any remaining vestiges of the system of Constitutional fair play which was bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers.

The 300 or so banksters who have hijacked our government are mentally ill. They are sociopathic serial killers. They (e.g., George Soros, Warren Buffet, David Rockefeller, etc.) destroy economies, ferment violent revolutions and start wars which kill millions. In short, they are the modern day version of the money changers that Jesus chased from the Temple.

To the police and the military that are going to be told to enforce this globalist, tyrannical takeover and subsequent subjugation of America, I ask all of you: Which side of history will you be on? Are you going to mindlessly obey the soon-to-be illegitimate orders emanating from these despots, or, are you going to uphold your sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic? Do you really think that your military retirements and police pensions are going to be waiting for you when your tyrannical deeds are done? Again, Mr. Law enforcement official read your history.

What did Stalin do with the very people who helped him gain control over their government? The simple answer is that he killed all of them without blinking an eye. If you, as a law enforcement official or member of the military obey these banksters and minions, you better hope that this globalist takeover is successful and complete. For if the real terrorists on this planet are not successful in gaining absolute control over America, there will be nowhere that you can hide if you commit despotic acts against our fellow Americans. The vengeance of the people of this country will be carried out against all of those who would dare raise an illegitimate hand against the American people.

As a result of the passage of the NDAA, the United States Senate has drawn a line in the sand which will result in the bifurcation of America into two distinct camps. There are those who will serve the sociopathic globalist regime and then there is everybody else. The fundamental question remains for all military and law enforcement personnel, what side are you on and what are the rest of us going to do about it?

Credit To The Common Sense

Biblical water tunnel discovered in eastern Jerusalem

Jerusalem tour guides discovered what they believe is a well–preserved water tunnel from biblical times.

Running 740 feet, the long, “beautiful” tunnel was discovered during an excursion organized recently by the Etzion Field School, according to a report Friday in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.

Yaron Rosenthal, who runs the school for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, said instructors chanced upon the tunnel just east of the security barrier which separates Israel from Palestinian centers of population in the West Bank. Rosenthal estimated the structure predated 586 B.C. He said the tunnel is one of the longest tunnels in the Holy Land used to transport spring water.

He said that markings, stairs and aesthetic relief carved into the stone suggested that the tunnel belonged to a Judean king.

“We entered a 15-foot shaft through a very narrow entrance and headed eastward underground,” Rosenthal recalled. “We were amazed at the beauty of the structure we were in, whose corridor is built from huge slabs of more than a cubic yard. At the end of this construction, a simpler path begins and a neat staircase leads to that part.”

The tunnel’s ceiling varies between five and nine feet and it is two to three feet wide, he said. The tunnel is within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, according to Ma’ariv.

The Israel Antiquities Authority conducted preliminary checks in the region three years ago but decided not to excavate, according to Ma’ariv.



Read more: Biblical water tunnel discovered in eastern Jerusalem | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/biblical-water-tunnel-discovered-in-eastern-jerusalem/#ixzz2qFTlCiol

China's Peer-To-Peer Lending Bubble Bursts As Up To 90% Of Companies Expected To Default

When it comes to the topic of China's epic credit bubble (which continues to get worse as bad debt accumulates ever higher), we have beaten that particular dead horse again and again and again and, most notably, again. 

However, since in China the concept of independent bank is non-existent, and as all major financial institutions are implicitly government backed, by the time the "big" bubble bursts, it will be time to hunker down in bunkers and pray (why? Because while the Fed creates $1 trillion in reserves each year, and dropping post taper, China is responsible for $3.6 trillion in loan creation annually - yank that and it's game over for a world in which "growth" is not more than debt creation). 

But just because the big banks can continue to ignore reality with the backing of the fastest marginally growing economy in the world (inasmuch as building empty cities can be considered growth), the same luxury is not afforded to China's smaller lender, such as its peer-to-peer industry.

Granted, in the grand scheme of things P2P in China is small, although in recent years, as a key part of shadow banking, it has been growing at an unprecedented pace: according to research published last year by Celent consultancy, the country’s P2P lending market grew from $30m in 2009 to $940m in 2012 and is on track to reach $7.8bn by 2015. Here's the problem: it won't. In fact, China's P2P lending boom just went bust because as the FT reports, "dozens of the P2P lending websites that sprang up in recent years have shut as borrowers default on loans. The biggest companies are unscathed so far, but the rapid collapse of smaller rivals highlights the mounting difficulties in the Chinese micro-lending industry as economic growth slows and monetary conditions tighten... Of the nearly 1,000 P2P companies operating in China, 58 went bankrupt in the final quarter of last year, according to Online Lending House, a web portal that tracks the industry. Several more had already run into trouble this year, it added."

And it's only going to get worse:

"The main reasons are the intense competition in the P2P industry, the liquidity squeeze at the end of the year and a loss of faith by investors," said Xu Hongwei, chief executive of Online Lending House. He estimated that 80 or 90 per cent of the country’s P2P companies might go bust.

Oops. None of this is unexpected: after the Chinese banking system nearly collapsed in June, following an explosion in overnight lending rates on just the mere threat of tapering of liquidity by the PBOC (since repeated several times with comparable results), it was inevitable that there would be unexpected consequences somewhere.

That somewhere is manifesting itself in the one industry that was supposed to gradually alleviate the lending burden for the SOEs.

People in the industry had hoped that P2P lenders would fill a hole in China’s financial system by helping small businesses obtain funding and by giving investors higher returns than they can obtain from banks.

While proponents believe that will still eventually prove to be the case, many believe the industry has expanded too quickly and with insufficient oversight.

“A lot of P2Ps have blindly copied each other and they don’t have a business plan that is robust enough to react to market changes. They’ve just focused on sales, scale and bragging to each other,” said Roger Ying, founder of Pandai, one of the websites that is still active.

Wangying Tianxia, a Shenzhen-based lender, was one of the biggest P2Ps to fail, according to the Shanghai Securities News, an official newspaper. Between its founding in March last year to its failure in October, Rmb780m ($129m) of loans were disbursed via its platform.

A second China-wide cash crunch at the end of December heaped more pressure on P2P lenders. Fuhao Venture and Guangrong Loans posted notices on their websites in the first week of the new year warning investors that loan repayment might be delayed.

So, condolences to China's P2P business model: if it is any consolation, you are merely the first of many debt-related dominoes to tumble in China.

But while the Chinese government has already thrown in the flag on P2P - after all at just over a $1 billion in notional how big can the damage be - it is desperately scrambling to give the impression that all is well in the other, much more prominent areas of its credit bubble. Which is why the WSJ reports that "China's government is gearing up for a spike in nonperforming loans, endorsing a range of options to clean up the banks and experimenting with ways for lenders to squeeze value from debts gone bad.

Write-offs have multiplied in recent months. Over-the-counter asset exchanges have sprung up as a way for banks to find buyers for collateral seized from defaulting borrowers and for bad loans they want to spin off. Provinces have started setting up their own "bad banks," state-owned institutions that can take over nonperforming loans that threaten banks' ability to continue lending.

"In recent years, Chinese banks have been exploring new avenues to resolve their bad loans," said Bank of Tianjin, which is based in northeastern China. The lender recently listed more than 150 loans for sale on a local exchange. "We will continue to recover, write off, spin off and use other avenues in order to resolve bad loans," it said.

China's banks reported 563.6 billion yuan ($93.15 billion) of nonperforming loans at the end of September. That is up 38% from 407.8 billion yuan, the low point in recent years, two years earlier.

Amusingly, just like in the US, where nobody dares to fight the Fed, in China the sentiment is that nothing can possibly go wrong at a level that impairs the entire nation: "Analysts think it is unlikely that Beijing would let major banks go bust. Still, investors suspect the cost of a cleanup could be a sizable economic burden and could become even greater if growth continues to slow."

Good luck with that, here's why:

"The last time Beijing confronted bad-loan problems, in 1999 and 2000, the sums involved had crippled the banking system. Banks became far less able to make new loans, forcing the government to take action. Some 1.3 trillion yuan of bad debt was spun off the books of the biggest state banks and swept into four purpose-built bad banks.

This time, to avoid a costly bailout in the future, the government is pushing the banks to clean up their mess early. It is giving them new tools to do so: the exchanges to sell bad assets, provincial-level bad banks and permission to raise fresh capital using hybrid securities, complex products that combine aspects of debt and equity."

One small problem: sell them to who? After all China is a closed system, and the US hedge funds have their hands full will pretending Spain and Greece are recovering and sending their stock markets to the moon because of the endless stream of lies emanating from the government data aparatus, all of it made up.

A potential constraint on the bad-debt cleanup is the inexperience of buyers at pricing and dealing with distressed debt, never a significant asset class in China. Finding buyers for a failed factory or commercial property seized as collateral can be difficult, particularly in cities with weaker economies.

"There's an immature market for collateral. So the banks' capacity to resolve loans is more determined by the market than their own abilities," said Simon Gleave, regional head of finance services at KPMG China.

Analysts see the bad-loan problem as a growing issue. Although figures as of the end of September indicate bad debt represents only about 1% of total loans in

China's banking system, a range of major industries are plagued with overcapacity and local governments are struggling to repay money borrowed to fund a construction binge. Investors broadly believe the actual bad-loan figure is much higher. The share prices of Chinese banks listed in Hong Kong have fallen, to trade below their book value.

And while all of the above is accurate, here is the biggest constraint: it is shown as the blue line in the chart below:

Applying a realistic, not made up bad debt percentage, somewhere in the 10% ballpark, and one gets a total bad debt number for China of...$2.5 trillion, and rising at a pace of $400 billion per year.

No, really. Good luck.

Credit to Zero Hedge

Jim Willie:This Year Currency Explosion

Former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon Dies at 85

JERUSALEM (AP) -- It was vintage Ariel Sharon: His hefty body bobbing behind a wall of security men, the ex-general led a march onto a Jerusalem holy site, staking a bold claim to a shrine that has been in contention from the dawn of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

What followed was a Palestinian uprising that put Mideast peace efforts into deep-freeze.

Five years later, Sharon was again barreling headlong into controversy, bulldozing ahead with his plan to pull Israel out of the Gaza Strip and uproot all 8,500 Jewish settlers living there without regard to threats to his life from Jewish extremists.

His allies said the move was a revolutionary step in peacemaking; his detractors said it was a tactical sacrifice to strengthen Israel's hold on much of the West Bank.

Either way, the withdrawal and the barrier he was building between Israel and the West Bank permanently changed the face of the conflict and marked the final legacy of a man who shaped Israel as much as any other leader. He was a farmer-turned-soldier, a soldier-turned-politician, a politician-turned-statesman - a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land, but didn't shy away from destroying them when he deemed them no longer useful.

Sharon died Saturday, eight years after a debilitating stroke put him into a coma. He was 85.

Sharon was "a brave soldier and a daring leader who loved his nation and his nation loved him," President Shimon Peres, a longtime friend and rival, said in a eulogy. "He was one of Israel's great protectors and most important architects, who knew no fear and certainly never feared vision."

The man Israel knew simply by his nickname "Arik" fought in most of Israel's wars, gained a reputation as an adroit soldier and was the godfather of Israel's massive settlement campaign in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More than any other event, perhaps, the public perception of the man was shaped by the massacres of Palestinians in the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla by Christian militiamen allied with Israel during the 1982 invasion that was largely his brainchild.

He detested Yasser Arafat, his lifelong adversary, as an "obstacle to peace" and was in turn detested in the Arab world. Israelis called him a war hero. His enemies called him a war criminal.

He was born to Russian immigrant parents on Feb. 26, 1928, in the farming community of Kfar Malal 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of Tel Aviv, and at 14 joined the Haganah, the pre-state defense force. He commanded an infantry platoon during the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation.

From early on, he had a reputation for breaking rules and defying odds.

Leading a ragtag band of soldiers, some of them Holocaust survivors just off the boat, Sharon stormed the Jordanian Arab Legion stronghold at Latroun, a key spot on the road to Jerusalem, during the 1948 war that followed Israel's creation. He was badly wounded in the leg and bled for hours, surrounded by enemy soldiers. He once told The New York Times how he dragged himself into a ravine and drank mud mixed with blood.

"I know it's a terrible thing. Because people will read it and they will say, `Look, he drinks also blood,'" he told The Times, laughing his trademark deep, hearty chuckle.

Sharon received praise for his command of an armored division during the 1967 Mideast War, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula.

His finest hour in uniform, as he described it, came in the 1973 Mideast war. Yanked out of retirement by an army desperate for leadership, he commanded 27,000 Israelis in a daring drive across Egypt's Suez Canal that helped turn the tide of the war. A picture of a boyish-faced, 45-year-old Sharon, bloody bandage wrapped around his head, remains one of the most enduring images of the war.

He also played a leading role in the absorption of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

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