Month: July 2015

HACK ATTACK – Coincidences – no such thing

Posted on by Helena

China’s market is realizing a ginormous correction – is it the end of the world?

Nah.

Put in perspective, their market had risen 150% over the last year. To NOT expect a correction would have been rather naive. However, to see the correction happen so quickly… that’s looking a bit manipulative.

Over 45% of Chinese stocks are currently ‘frozen’, no trading allowed. What precipitated the bear? It could be similar to what happened in the US ie, – margin calls. As stocks began their correction, computer algorithms kicked in and forced margin calls to go out which tanked the market more which created more margin calls… a domino effect when computers are at the helm.

Of course the investor holdings who have profited from the 150% ramp in China’s market would see this as an opportunity to sell, recognize their profit and wait for the full correction to bottom out before going back in. Plausible.  Typically, the losers in these corrections are the smaller investors who follow band-wagon buying.

Is it a manipulation? Yes and No. Yes in that markets are manipulated and no in that algorithms and opportunity helped it along.

Today the NY Stock Exchange experienced ‘a technical glitch’ and shut down for four hours. Glitch?  Really?  That’s the technical terminology?  I don’t buy it.  Hacking is soon going to overtake porn and human trafficking as a business model.  Just wanted to see if you were awake...  The media is terming the hack as a glitch, but then the media states what it is told to state – that’s called censorship.  Maybe the hack was a test.  Maybe the next ‘glitch’ will be our electrical grid.  Who really knows in a world where the truth is whispered and the falsehoods are glaringly mediatized.

Coincidentally, hackers and glitches also made waves for the Wall Street Journal and United Airlines today. Do we really believe that three major economic conglomerates all happened to have major glitches within hours of each other that were completely unrelated and had no commonality? If the media says so – we believe. Some of us…

Given China stated that they were not ruling out manipulation in their markets, vengeance is a potential scenario in hacking US conglomerates. Tit-for-tat. But while the recent hacking of the 4 million + US military records was blamed on China – there was never any definitive proof or follow-up to the accusation, it simply became the media go-to despite China’s government denying the claim. In addition, the hack actually took place December 2014 but our transparent government didn’t decide to tell us until June 2015 – 6 months later…why? Their proof that it was China was not proof at all by any legal definition, but a ‘deduction’ based on ‘gee, who else would have’? Not exactly the sort of proof lawyers and courts win cases with.

North Korea was found to have not been the source of the Hollywood hack and yet no other country or group was ever identified in the press.

A Syrian organization claimed responsibility in another US Army hack that occurred earlier in June. Where are they, these hacker Syrians? Hiding in caves?  Buried in rubble?  That seems a bit of a stretch to me given that Syria is completely, hideously ravaged – there is no infrastrusture left! Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that a bunch of rebel Syrians in a wore torn country with little to no electricity, no satellites, few computers and even fewer intelligencia could hack thru the US Army? What does that say for us?  Not very logical.

So what did Obama say about this? He said the US has outdated computer systems and is vulnerable to attacks. Well then, take some of that holiday in Hawaii money and UPGRADE! Good Grief Charley Brown. How absurd is this? How much does Wall Street make that they can’t have hack-proof computers and software? Or maybe we should train those 40,000 military personnel that are going to get laid off in the next two years to be computer hackers, IT systems analysts and engineers. Hello?

The US is the victim of more hacking than any other country in the world!  Hackers for hire on the shadow network can be had for as little as $8 per hour. So what is our grand government doing about it? For one thing they are pounding the world pavement claiming that global warming is the Chicken Little that will destroy us all while hacking has the potential to grind everything to a screeching halt – tomorrow, including; electricity, the IRS, Hospitals, airplanes, trains, hydro dams, nuclear facilities, Wall Street, defense weapons, pipelines, shopping…(well it is important to some folks)!

What should we do?

What we shouldn’t do is shuffle our feet complaining at how antique our computer systems are! If Syria can bring us down – then we are just pathetic.

The Hilarious Hillarity of Hillary Clinton

Posted on by Helena

Okay, the conspiracies abound, but what could be the possible reasons for Hillary Clinton’s absolute absence/fear/hiding from the media? Someone that is running for President of the United States, and yet they avoid the media as though they might find out something so completely devastating it would ruin her… Wait, wasn’t that Benghazi?  Or was it the disappearing emails?   Or the Foundation of Frolic?  Or the party princess?  Or the Muslim connection?  or the Fraud? Yawn.

So, what could that something be?

  1. Hillary had recent cosmetic surgery and doesn’t want the press to use that to focus on her ‘age’.

  2. She is a complete stand-in and the real Hillary is ailing in hiding. They are still training her.

  3. She has no idea how to respond to questions for which she hasn’t advance notice in which to have her crew devise an answer.

  4. She has a history of appearing ‘unfriendly’ in which she reveals her true self and her publicists are squelching as much of that as possible.

  5. She is waiting to find out what public opinion polls declare the people want before she creates her speeches to conform to the stats.

None of the above reasons are exactly what one would define as a ‘leader’. But they do define the politics that we have evolved to become, however sad.

Am I a Hillary fan?

Nah, not even close!  I actually do remember feeling sorry for her when the Bill adultery thing came out.  I remember thinking Tammy Wynette, “Stand by your man”. And I actually thought that she showed great integrity. But that was the last time I felt sort of compassion for the woman. Her personna is beyond strict and is well into the arena of very scary!  I know hard core liberals that find her scary.

Recently, I was asking around, testing, I wondered exactly who supported her. Who owned up to liking her was pretty telling. I mean, Shitake Mushrooms! Was I shocked. Really? But it speaks to the integrity of those that don’t care about her incessant lying and vacant accomplishments. Anyway, I do believe that in reality, without voter fixing and voter fraud, she would be given the boot. But, unfortunately reality dictates that our elections are a gross fantasy, ladeled in corruption and spiced with fraud. We know it, we see it, and we simply shrug – everyone’s doing it…

Her only chance of being elected would absolutely require major voter fraud. Followed shortly thereafter by martial law. But that is not beyond potential reality, so be prepared, we only have our selves to answer to for electing the officials we do.

So what is the story behind Hillary? Why is she really hiding?

Perhaps the Hillary camp is hiding to help all the bad press run itself out gambling on the short-term memory loss of the generl public and foreign voters. At any rate, whoever is running the show is making some very bad decisions. Roping off the press and shuttling them along like children or worse, pets, is so tacky as to be at once comical and at once arrogant. She won’t talk unless she knows the entire script. She won’t appear on shows, because she knows it will go off script. She has so much baggage at this point that she is a human hillarity…The Hillarious Hillary.

She needs a giant bubble to separate her from the riff raff of common man. How can she possibly appeal to ordinary folk, when she is deathly afraid of them? It would seem that her staff is sabatoging her campaign, so who are these illustrious good ole ‘folks’:

John Podesta: Founder of, Center for American Progress – funded principally by… drum roll ta-da George Soros. Thnk Progress is a journalism outlet for CAP and is part of a group that pressured the IRS to target conservative groups. Could Podesta’s relationship with Lerner become a media target?

Robby Mook: A young upstart with grand ambitions. While his college degree was in the arts and ‘classics’, he was pursued to run Democrat elections beginning in 2004. A bit odd…   But it wasn’t until recently that his style paid off. He struts his pride and wears his ego as he offers his campaign agenda – pacing. Pacing what she says, when, how, to whom… Like fireworks, he opens big, slows, slows, and then plans to build to the climactic end in which she becomes President.

Joel Benenson: A journalist who did polling… including for the unsuccessful 1994 re-election for Mario Cuomo. Not a lot of meat here.

Jim Margolis: Media advisor who worked Obama’s 2008 and 2012 bids.

Jennifer Palmieri: Another Center For American Progress cohort, running the bulls with Soros. She also served as John Edward’s Press Secretary – OUCH, we know that didn’t pan out well…

Huma Abedin: The Muslim Brotherhood wife of the disgraced Weiner whose weiner got caught in the masher. She has no title other than ‘close ally/friend/confidante’. Hmmm.

Phillip Reines: Another player who has no official role other than a hanger onner for over a decade.

Hubby Clinton: A photo op personage, Billy did a photo shoot for Town and Country’s story about the Clinton philanthropy…. maybe they forgot the 9% memo.

Other than the Soros connection, not a lot of meat in the package. While he financially backs the campaign, the actual amount is difficult to pin down given that he has a variety of ‘outlets and charities’ to draw from and compel to donate to the Hillary fund. It is noteworthy to state that George Soros is openly vocal about his hatred for the US, “America is the gravest threat to world freedom”. By deference, that would mean that Hillary’s agenda under the leadership of Soros would be – to bring America to its proverbial knees.

Fair warning.

Peace, Truth and The Peacemakers Calling

Posted on by Helena

We are called to be ‘peacemakers’. But what is Peace? How is it defined? Is it the absence of conflict or is it the aggressive actionable stance of creating relationship?

We are all ‘a chip off the block’, fragments of God, with jagged edges and jigsaw puzzle pieces. But when we come together as a family, with mother, father and children, we smooth these edges and become more like God. The pieces fit together to make a larger more whole piece closer, more like, the image of God. When we fragment the family, our edges are sharper, more pronounced, and our piece withers in a kaleidescope of warped imagery.

Peacemakers do not avoid conflict they confront it with love and compassion, they resolve it and use the strength of God to absolve the issue each and every time. To hold it like a knight, not a coward, to seek the truth within the conflict and make it known. This world we live in is an example of what it means to not face the truth, because it is the truth that will create peace. Taking responsibility. Owning what is your sin. Looking at the log that gauges your eye.

The UN was created in 1945 to end conflict and bring peace to the world. But it has failed miserably. In fact, between 1946 and 2013, there were 331 incidences of armed conflict. Why? Because the method, the rationale for prevention is not rooted in the core cause – individual emptiness, a Godlessness that permeates the very heart and soul of humanity. How can we possibly stave off conflict if we don’t address the truth of the cause?

When I Googled, ‘how to achieve peace’, most of the entries were Buddhist in nature and reflected a desire for inner peace. There were a few political adjuncts that claimed peace was achieved through freedom and a barrage of solid rules imposed by government. Other sites stressed ‘the avoidance of war’ as a means of peace. Still another site claimed that satisfying one’s own desires first will ultimately lead to peace with others. YIKES!

But men are flawed, and when they rely on their own person to achieve that which has never been known to mankind, they will fail. Again and again. And yet, we continue to believe that man is the solution. That avoidance is the solution. That independence is the solution. That if we avoid conflict, it will disappear.

Ten thousand years later, it still has not worked. So why do we keep butting our heads against this wall of thorns when it has never worked?

The false premise is that since man is the creator of chaos, man must be the source of peace. From the outside. But it cannot happen when the outside is ruled by pride and arrogance and vengeance and immorality. It simply will not work.

Then of course, there is the step-by-step instructions on how to achieve peace with ‘no compromising’ being fundamental to the doctrine. But ‘no compromising’ begs pride, arrogance, rightness, the moral depravity that creates the conflict in the first place. It is a very naïve approach to a very complicated issue. Recently, my husband invoked the ‘Christians don’t compromise’ doctrine in the midst of a fight. Really? I had to look that one up.

The first problem came up in the definition of compromise. Some believed it to mean ‘caving in’, while others observed that it was a give and take, a leaning in and out. I suppose they are both right in a sense, but circumstances are so diverse and broad, an absolute is definitely NOT the rationale.

Biblically, the phrase, “Christians Don’t compromise”, is addressed in the Bible, but it is in the context of there is no compromise with regard to God. No compromise with regard to the commandments of God. And no compromise with regard to sin. It’s a bit like the statement, “I’m sort of pregnant”. You can’t be in a gray area within these black and whites. But that does not mean that there aren’t vast gray areas of issue to mediate within Christianity that are a product of individual circumstances. So to make the statement in the context of a marriage dispute is somewhat …well, out of context.

My husband attempted to invoke ‘truth’ as his and his alone within the frame of not compromising. Truth belonged to him and no one else.  Uh oh…   And in so doing completely missed the point. There are hard truths, absolute facts, and then there are perspective truths, subject to interpretation. By invoking his truth, he was avoiding conflict (his fallback) by refusing to hear me. In so doing, we had no peace, what we had was a dictatorship rule.

While this earth may never find worldly peace, we are still called to understand that we must try. We are called to try as peacemakers.  Not peace as a form of government rule and protocol and doctrine and punishment and judgment, but peace that is based on the values and morals and integrity and spirituality of God and His Word.

And ultimately, Peace will only be had when we have Truth – not your truth or my truth – but THE Truth.

New York City – Hate the City… Love the Shows!

Posted on by Helena

I hate New York. I hate the tall buildings, the stench, the trash heaps every fifty yards. I hate the smell, the taste, the lacking ethics, the livelihood of New York. It is squalor, putrid, materialistic, greedy and corrupt. There is no redeeming value to New York, except… the theater and the museums!!!

Oh my gosh!

I saw two fabulously perfect Broadway shows; The King and I, with Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe and An American in Paris, with Robert Fairchild!   Oh my, I laughed and I cried – they were so staggeringly stunning!  I toured the Frick Museum and the Met and visited Soho, Little Italy, Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and more in just over four days! It rained, it poured, the sun shone brilliantly and the clouds hovered and threatened. It was four and ½ days and I am exhausted! Not just for all the walking, the taxi’s that were oblivious during torrential downpours, the street vendors, the garbage, the arrogance, the attitude, the pushing and shoving, the muggings and more…but for the unrelenting ‘buzz’ that everyone is required to sustain.

I am home now and definitely quite happy at the familiar landscape. But there were certainly great things that were housed in a city where scaffolding and garbage 20 feet high greet you every single block every day all day!

I would have to comment on the Frick Museum and the Metropolitan. The Frick for the decadence of its existence. It was built by Henry Clay Frick for his most beloved and beautiful wife. Every piece of limestone, every lay of wood, of ornament and chandelier were breathtaking. It encompassed an entire New York City block and housed what could only be described as the most amazing collection of artwork, sculpture, porcelain, antiquity and antiques in the US. Then there was the Met! Spanning 4 city blocks, the museum could easily take a week to experience, but we had just a few hours and so chose to dally at the John Singer Sargant, Portrait of Artists and Friends, exhibit. Studying each, and the inscription identifying it, I became so drawn into the man, I could not escape. He was at once amazing. dashing, intriguing, artistic, debonair, attractive, magnifying, magnificent, perfection in art, and I wished I could have known the real man. He drew me in and I was spelled!

I stayed in my friend’s condo on the 29th floor of a building in upper Manhattan. A good to better neighborhood, she paid a hefty pence for the right to live in this 1043 square foot abode. It was a bonus that the elevator took a sort of hyper-speed to reach the ground floor where a doorman would greet you with a smile. But despite her spending $50k to have new noise proof windows installed, the noise must have bounced, because it was not dissipated – at all and was a constant symphony rehearsal played by five year old students… At night, I slept fitfully by blasting the air conditioner to whiten the cacophony.

In New York you cannot have a – garbage disposal, ceiling lights that are recessed and cordless, washer-dryers without special permission, ventilation in bathrooms or kitchens, or any delivery without a proper delivery receipt. Rules abound! At present, New York charges a premium tax on residential purchases over $1million, which in New York City would apply to everyone given the cost of a condo. But then everything costs a premium, to such an extent that my friend found if she flew to her home city of Larkspur across the Golden Gate Bride from San Francisco with her monthly dry cleaning and monthly confixation of her hair, she would save money rather than having these things done in New York. So she does, and it gives her a break from the perilous living.

And while life isn’t perfect back home, while skeletons still stalk my days, at least I have the open skies, the mountains in view, brilliantly green trees and grass, the bantering of squirrels and the sweet trills of birds. I have my grown children, my elderly dog and my abode of friends who love me.

Life isn’t perfect, but then, at least, “I try…etc., etc., etc”.

Greece Bailout Debacle – A Greek Ruin

Posted on by Helena

While the Greek bailout debacle continues to wind and waver, it is an interesting phenomena pitting economic, political, societal and social ideals against one another. The bailout certainly isn’t new, it has been an ongoing grind for five years that has only recently come to a fullblown volcanic eruption reminiscent of the ancient Greek ruins.

Looking back at the cause of Greece’s demise gives some clarity into why a bailout is simply a band-aide at this juncture:

Corruption of the system has been ongoing for decades. But the basis is rooted in a ethical and moral demise that has become so pervasive no one really cares. Tax evasion is rampant. Some estimates describe the ‘game’ as a common occurrence – 6 out of 10 Greeks pay no taxes. Not because they don’t have the income but because – they can get away with it. It was and is a country mired in no fiscal policy whatsoever. Spending was backed by borrowing, borrowing was backed by more borrowing. Revenue was not the focus and thus the entire house of cards was easily blown apart.

Despite the government threatening Greek citizens to pay their outstanding taxes, it is a farce. Given returns were not even filed, the estimates of liability are simply that – estimates. And the threat – a published list of your name – is more of a boogeyman threat than a true consequence. Wealthy businessmen, pop stars, doctors, lawyers, politicians, you name it – could care less. A threat that has no consequence, is as worthless as the country. Money was diverted to Swiss bank accounts and their hands were cleansed.

This is the mentality. A Greek bailout would produce nothing of change, only a greater and more radical exodus of sheltered money until the next crisis. The terms of the ‘new and improved’ bailout include greater spending cuts and higher taxes… What incentive do the people really have? Lower wages (spending cuts would trickle) and higher taxes (on people that don’t file)– means less people paying taxes, more evasion and another fallout.  A Greek Ruin.

Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, no when to run!

Tsipras inherited a no win situation. He knows it and has rightly deferred to the people, the contingent that he leads. Asking for a referendum makes sense, it leaves the fate to those that created the mess – the people.

Since the early 1990’s the Prime Ministers of Greece have all hailed from elite American and UK schools, predominantly in the fields of law and economics. The schooling includes our own president’s alma mater, Harvard. Presumably well educated in how to valiantly run an economy and democratic political system, they blame the Ottoman Empire for their failures. Not unlike our own president who blames the failures of his administration on rooted economics of previous president’s, perhaps the Greek corruption scandal is truly a lesson we need to pay attention to lest we allow ourselves to blindly follow into the blood of borrowing to pay borrowing debt.

Like a computer, Greece is now far past the potential of a bailout and needs a complete ‘reboot’. They can not change the cards they hold and the game is lost. Germany stands to lose the most in a Greek exit scenario – potentially as high as $84 billion. But nothing is so simple. Previous Greek bailouts have simply done – nothing. To think that rolling the terms to a longer time frame is ludicrous as it only prolongs the inevitable. It is not much different than our current agenda of proposing changes that are slated to be addressed 75 years from now… It is a sloughing off of responsibility – a band-aide at best solution while the cancer metasticizes.

In 2010, Greece received $105 billion in bailout funds. The economy of Greece is estimated to be worth $242 billion. The second bailout rescue in 2012 was valued at $170 billion. In the span of just five years, Greece has gone through $275 billion, more than the value of the entire economy. To think that throwing more money into the melt will have any positive outcome is beyond ludicrous and borders on insanity. If you bought a computer for $1000 and it broke five years later, would you spend $1200 to fix it knowing that in another year you would pay another $500 to fix it again, or would you simply buy a new one for $1200?

Does this mean that Greece is forever doomed? No. The collapse of the Soviet Union is an example of complete economic failure and collapse and the determination to rise and recover from nothing. While the model is riddled with imperfections – to quote Anna in the King And I, “At least he tried.”

Greece – is not trying and needs the opportunity to do so – alone.

Walls or Bridges – A Trojan Horse

Posted on by Helena

The Great Berlin Wall is down! Everyone was ecstatic and while many cheered and roared with jubilation, there were those who wept. Why? Because their dark world was free but the psychological impact would never quite be extinguished. Fear of being imprisoned again would haunt their lives forever despite it being over…

Or was it?

As Berlin began to rebuild, to embrace, to mend the hearts and economic stagnation that had permeated for decades, rumblings were erupting elsewhere. New walls are being built across the world, and no one seems to care. Ukraine has said it will be building a mote and wall around the entire country! Israel is planning to build a wall between them and Jordan. Hungary is contemplating building a wall to protect them from unwanted immigrants.

But will these walls stave off what these countries fear?

Historically, walls date back to the Trojans in which the Romans deployed all their armed forces to guard the wall only to have it breached with the gift of the Trojan horse. While walls have had certain success, their sustainability is compromised by a multitude of factors and variables – including technology and changing benevolence. In addition, where there is a wall there are those who develop means to breach its barriers. That is human nature.

Today, walls are everywhere; Gaza and Israel, Egypt and Gaza, India and Pakistan, US and Mexico, North Korea vs the South, Bulgaria and Turkey, Spain and Morocco, the wall of Cyprus dividing north from south, the Catholic vs Protestant wall of Ireland… Walls abound throughout our world and yet no one demands they come down. Why?

Saudi Arabia is already well on its way in building a 600 mile wall between itself and Iraq. No one condemns this wall, no country is outraged, no government rejects this division because it is defined to ‘protect’ not to imprison. Really? A wall by the fact that it exists is a form of imprisonment however justified – Communists build walls to imprison, Socialists build walls to protect… And that, my fellow citizens, is a manipulation of thought.

Do they work? Does the wall actually change the behavior of the supposed trespasser, or is it merely a psychological tool?

In reality, walls perhaps deter the weaker, such as women and children, but they have little impact on those driven by fear and survival. An immigrant facing a brutal death will brave the rage of the seas – do you think a wall is even remotely an obstacle in such circumstances? I doubt it. And therein lies the second stage.

A wall, in order to be effective requires military manning, a consequence of being shot. So now the true nature of the wall is revealed. It is a wall of death.

When we lived in East Berlin before the wall was built, we moved about freely, our presence was not mired in fear. By the time Checkpoint Charley was manned and machine guns followed our car as we very slowly drove away it was the military that we feared, not the wall, it was the variable of instant death.

In psychology, walls create barriers to trust and relationship. They cause a person to be unable to disassociate one kind of person from another as they focus on the large picture instead of the individual picture. While creating an initial protection, they end up creating a virtual prison.

While walls are built to divide, the division is already a reality, the wall is merely a symbol that confirms what exists. It then becomes an extension of internal feelings that won’t be extinguished until there is a change of heart.

In the meantime, walls are everywhere – 47 worldwide. While the fall of the Berlin Wall was hugely symbolic, more walls continue to rise as we seek to divide and alienate without resolution of the cause.