A Song in the Night

The Lord can give you a song in the night, quoting a verse from Job. Whatever night of suffering you are going through, pray to the Lord Who gives music in the midst of trials.

Malaysia's Badly Timed Political Scandal

 SEPT 8, 2015 6:00 PM EDT

By Bloomberg Editorial Board

The storm sweeping over emerging markets has hit Malaysia at an especially fraught moment, with Prime Minister Najib Razak embroiled in a $700 million funding scandal. The country's economic difficulties are bad enough by themselves. The political turmoil makes them all the harder to deal with.

Najib denies accusations that almost $700 million found its way from a state investment fund into his private accounts, and Malaysia's anti-corruption commission has declared that the money representsdonations from anonymous Middle Eastern sources. This explanation failed to satisfy the thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur last month to demand Najib's ouster.

Leaders of the ruling United Malays National Organization, which has governed the country since independence in 1957 and has long prized loyalty over accountability, will certainly support Najib when they meet on Wednesday. But they need to ask themselves whether maintaining the political status quo is worth the continuing damage to Malaysia's financial reputation and prospects for growth.

China's slowdown and plunging oil prices -- Malaysia derives 22 percent of its income from oil-related sources -- have hammered the ringgit, which has fallen for 11 weeks running. The currency stands near lows last reached during the 1997 financial crisis. The central bank has spent almost a fifth of its reserves trying to halt the slide. Although a full-scale crisis may not be imminent, the country is among the most vulnerable in Asia to a rise in U.S. interest rates.

The situation requires a government that commands trust. Yet while Swiss authorities have started a criminal investigation into the fund, Najib has stalled a domestic probe by removing the attorney general and reassigning four members of a committee coordinating the inquiry. He's dismissed as unpatriotic the crowds of largely Chinese and Indian protesters calling for him to step down. Such efforts at damage control risk further undermining the credibility of Malaysia's institutions and polarizing its racially mixed society.

Foreign investors are watching. Ratings company Fitch has so far maintained its A- sovereign rating, noting that "weak governance is already factored" into its judgment. The country's anti-corruption commission "lacks genuine independence," according to Transparency International, and the prime minister has too much influence over the appointment of judges. Weak campaign-finance laws leave too much scope for political patronage. Parties can spend freely between elections and don't have to account for contributions. An anonymous $700 million donation wouldn't, in itself, be illegal.

If UMNO now chooses to bolster its support by pandering to its rural Malay base, pro-growth economic policy may be sidelined. Powerful government-linked companies are stifling innovation and crowding out private investment. Reform is needed, but it's politically challenging. Najib once promised to roll back government policiesfavoring Malays. That no longer looks feasible. A brain drain of able minorities is likely to continue.

Indeed, the greatest danger is that growing racial and religious polarization might fracture Malaysia's multiethnic society. Some UMNO leaders have flirted with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which favors the imposition of Sharia law. Even normally circumspect neighbors are worried. 

It looks unlikely that Najib will subject himself to a truly independent and transparent investigation. U.S. President Barack Obama, who'sscheduled to visit Malaysia for a regional summit this fall, may be able to exert some quiet pressure. But ultimately, UMNO leaders will have to choose: What kind of Malaysia are they trying to build?

Which Nation destroyed 2 Nuclear Reactors

Israel destroyed 2 Arab Nuclear Reactors

June 1981 Operation Opera

 Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein/Iraq nuclear reactor in Operation Opera. It appeared that France supplied the materials for this nuclear reactor supposedly for peaceful purposes. France needed the oil supplies from Iraq, while Saddam bought French cars and other things including the reactor.

This was during Israeli Prime Minister Begin’s leadership. The American President was Ronald Reagan.

2007 Sept  Operation Orchard

Israel destroyed Bashir Assad / Syrian nuclear reactor supplied by North Korea. This was called by Israel Operation Orchard. The Israeli Prime Minister was Ehud Olmert. The American President was George W Bush.

               What about the Iranian Nuclear Bomb?

Israel has from 2014 onwards the threat of Iran’s nuclear reactor.

What does the Obama - Iranian Nuclear treaty do for the Middle 

East in the years to come ?

Best & Worst Places in the World

Bloomberg Business News Owner

Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 108th Mayor of New York City, holding office for three consecutive terms beginning with his first election in 2001.

 With a net worth of $36.5 billion, he is the 10th richest person in the United States and the 13th wealthiest in the world.
He is the founder, CEO and owner of Bloomberg L.P., the global financial data and media company that bears his name and is notable for its Bloomberg Terminal, which is widely used by investment professionals around the world.

Bloomberg began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his company in 1981 and spending the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees at his alma mater Johns Hopkins University from 1996 to 2002. A Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his party registration in 2001 to run for mayor as a Republican. He defeated opponent Mark Green in a close election held just weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Bloomberg won a second term in 2005 and left the Republican Party two years later. He campaigned to weaken the city's term limits law and was elected to his third term in 2009 as an independent candidate on the Republican ballot line.


He was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. presidential elections in 2008, 2012, and 2016 and for New York Governor in 2010. He declined to seek either office, instead opting to continue serving as Mayor of New York. On January 1, 2014, Bill de Blasio succeeded Bloomberg as mayor of New York City. On September 3, 2014, after a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, it was announced that Bloomberg would return to Bloomberg L.P. and re-assume the position of CEO at the end of 2014.

The Story of Levi Jeans

World Stock Marts Plunge 24 Aug 2015

China's stock markets are suffering from massive volatility and investors are running scared. If you're just catching up to it, here's what you need to know. Last updated: August 24, 03:55 am ET (07:55 am GMT).

1) The Shanghai composite index shed 8.5% on Monday. The index also suffered heavy losses last week, losing 11.5% of its value in just five trading sessions. The benchmark index has now wiped away all gains made in 2015.

2) The sharp declines are terrible news for officials in Beijing, who have been trying desperately in recent months to support stocks.

3) The root cause of all the turmoil: Over the past year, investors poured more and more into Chinese stocks, even though economic growth and company profits were weak.

4) Retail investors -- think mom and pop, average folks -- were the most enthusiastic. A classic bubble developed.

5) The bubble popped on June 12, and the Shanghai index lost about a third of its value before rebounding. Losses were even more dramatic on the the smaller Shenzhen Composite.

6) China moved aggressively to control the crisis. The government gave money to brokerages to buy stocks -- and ordered company executives not to sell their shares. New company listings were suspended. The central bank cut interest rates to a record low.

7) Regulators and security officials launched an investigation into illegal short selling -- borrowing stocks so you can trade them in the hope they fall -- and rumor mongering. Only approved brokers are allowed to engage in short selling in China.

8) For a while, Beijing's plan appeared to work. But the Shanghai Composite has resumed its decline, wiping away all gains made in 2015.

9) Foreigners own just 1.5% of Chinese shares, so your portfolio is unlikely to be directly affected. Still, economists are worried that stock losses will ripple through China's economy, and take a bite out of consumer spending. Gold, copper and other commodity prices have been affected.

10) The government's goal is to minimize damage to the real economy, and Beijing still has policy tools it can use to support growth.

11) However, there are signs of weakness spreading through China's manufacturing sector. On Friday, a key gauge of China's manufacturing activity tumbled to its lowest level in 77 months.

12) Investors around the world are now reacting to the threat posed by an economic slowdown in China. Last week, the Dow plummeted by more than 1,000 points -- its worst five-day trading period since 2011.

Author of Blessed Assurance: Fanny Crosby

The True Cost of Cheap Meat: Farmageddon

Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat (2014) is a non-fiction book by Philip Lymbery and Isabel Oakeshott. It surveys the effects of industrial livestock production and industrial fish farming around the world. The book is the result of Lymbery's investigations for which he travelled the world over three years. Isabel Oakeshott is the political editor of The Sunday Times, Philip Lymbery is CEO of Compassion in World Farming. The book was published by Bloomsbury.

The thesis examined in the book is that globalised production chains of industrialised agricultural systems negatively affect farmed animals, human health, the countryside, rivers and oceans, biodiversity in rain-forests and many of the world's poorest people. The authors seek to shed light on the conditions in intensive agriculture which, according to them, often differ from the image that the industry wants to sell to the public. Intensification in animal farming goes along with a growing demand of cropland to grow animal feed – factory farming is thus not a means to save space. 

They argue consequently that to feed the world population factory farming is not the solution but a threat, not least since more than a third of the world's arable harvests are being used to supply farmed animals. According to the book the consumer price of cheap meat does not include the overall costs of industrial meat production.

 The reader follows Lymbery's journey from his start in California's Central Valley. There he finds dairies where 10,000 cows can be milked at once.

He travels to enormous piggeries in China and visits the fishmeal industry of Peru, which converts millions of tonnes of anchovies to fishmeal for supplying the livestock industry with feed. 

Taiwan he visits a farm (labelled "organic") where 300,000 laying hens are being starved and held in batteries.

The author talks to a community in Mexico in an area dominated by pig sheds. There he documents a lake of effluent and air and water pollution, and discusses the outbreak of swine flu.

According to Lymbery veterinarians should not support systems that are "inherently bad for animal welfare", which allegedly is the case in "mass production of broiler chickens, caged production of eggs, the large-scale permanent housing of dairy cows (so-called mega dairies) and highly intensive pig production where mothering pigs are kept in confinement where they can't turn around for weeks at a time".

In order to prevent Farmageddon the authors come up with suggestions for consumers, policy makers and farmers: Consumers should eat less meat. Fish should be fed to people rather than converted into fishmeal. Animals should be fed with grass and animal farming should be a pasture-based system. These changes would save resources by reducing the competition of humans and animals for food and land.

          Because the Farmageddon video is too large for embedding in Blogspot, I have to use another short video dealing with pig mega-farms only.

The Living and the Dead Famous