Sins of the Father

One has to wonder if Bernie's son was given some help for fear of him naming the banks that helped Daddy.

Brittan protests against the imposition of the New World Order

Mass demonstrations by thousands of students and trade unionists in central London against an increase in tuition fees, are growing more violent. It's the latest and the largest in a string of rallies against sweeping austerity measures and budget cuts across Europe. What started as a relatively peaceful march later turned into violent clashes with the police, which were largely outnumbered by the demonstrators.

Jim Rogers: Britain is Bankrupt

China Tells Bernanke To Take A Hike

Graham Summers
9 December 2010

Over the last few months, I've noted that the most important monetary relationship in the world is that between China and the US, the world's largest creditor and debtor countries respectively.

Both countries' central banks engaged in a money-printing orgy to counter the Financial Crisis in 2008. Now they're butting heads on the consequences of their actions: the US Federal Reserve wants to create inflation, while China wants to aggressively halt it.

This is IT, the #1 dynamic for the financial markets going forward. How this plays out will impact everything from the US Dollar's reserve currency status to where the stock markets will head.

With that in mind, we need to consider the power dynamics between these two countries from a monetary perspective.

China has made it clear that it is NOT pleased with the US's current monetary policy (China has blamed the Fed for its inflation woes with some officials going so far as to label the Dollar's status as a reserve currency, "absurd").

The US has in turn responded by labeling China a currency manipulator and blaming it for the US's economic woes. Indeed, it seems almost every other week that some US Government official comes out with a "it's ALL China's fault" statement.........read on

A Gentleman's Agreement

Richard Zimmerman
December 9, 2010

Following the 1980 price peak in gold, there was a sell-off that probably left more than one investor wondering if precious metals had completely lost their luster. The Hunt Brothers' manipulation of the silver markets also added its own tarnish to the world of bullion. As these two markets march to fresh highs this year, it is time to think about what pulled both markets down and why support may come at a higher level than you think.

As mentioned in previous reports, catalysts for rising prices include geopolitical tensions, inflation, and a host of other fear-inducing fundamentals. The jittery reaction to uncertain world and economic conditions doesn't always cause the pendulum to swing towards higher ranges. There is one thing in particular that can make gold buyers into gold sellers. That is an increase in gold sales from large banks or investors.

This fear was one of the biggest culprits for the most recent low price in gold.

In the late 1990s, there were a number of gold sales that were thought to be impacting the broader market. Sales were coming from central banks including Bank of England auctions and other European nations. The result of rumors over more central bank sales, especially considering the lower prices for gold, was a threat of destabilizing the market. Since central banks held so much of the physical gold at the time, some of them came together to take action to prevent a rapid decline in prices. The result of their meeting was a gentleman's agreement on gold sales......read on

Oil And U.S. Hyperinflation

Jeff Nielson
December 9, 2010

As precious metals investors, it can often seem to us that the U.S. government (and the banking cabal which pulls its strings) is exclusively focused on suppressing gold and silver prices - given the historic role of precious metals as a "barometer" of economic conditions, especially inflation. However, there is a different commodity that this group obsesses about to a far greater degree than precious metals: oil.

The United State's enormous dependency on imported oil translates directly to enormous economic vulnerability. Indeed, U.S. paranoia about "securing" oil supplies for itself has been the driving force behind most (if not all) of the wars it has instigated in the Middle East.

The U.S. dependence on petroleum goes well beyond simply the massive amounts that is spent each year by the U.S. to satisfy its oil-gluttony. Cheap oil is the essential input needed to operate the "levers" of U.S. military/economic imperialism, as well as the foundation upon which the entire U.S. domestic economy is built.

Let me summarize this dependence briefly. By itself, the U.S. military is one of the ten largest oil-consuming entities on the planet. In other words, operating the U.S. war machine by itself consumes more oil each year than all but a handful of nations. Thus, the death, destruction, and misery that the U.S. military has inflicted upon its victims over recent decades is accompanied by the horrendous waste of countless billions of barrels of our most precious natural resource.

In this respect, high oil prices are a "blessing" to much of the world, as the hopelessly insolvent U.S. government is totally incapable of financing any more "military adventures", now that the era of cheap oil is gone forever. Indeed, we can only assume that Iranian defiance to the U.S. regarding its nuclear program is based upon their firm conviction that any military harm which the U.S. could inflict upon Iran would pale in comparison to the economic harm it would inflict upon itself from such an attack. Thus, we know the #1 reason why the U.S. is vainly attempting to keep a lid on oil prices: having a "big stick" is of little use if you're never able to use it.

The U.S. military is but one facet of the U.S. empire totally dependent upon cheap oil. Of near-equal importance is the need for cheap oil in order to pursue its agricultural imperialism. Roughly two decades ago, the U.S. government made a conscious decision to abandon most manufacturing activity - with the exception of the industrial and hi-tech sectors which service the U.S. war-machine.

Replacing manufacturing as the foundation for the U.S. economy is agriculture. The "World's Only Superpower" has chosen to become a "banana republic". Indeed, on the last major, U.S. trade mission to India, the big "success" of that endeavour was being able to increase U.S. soya bean exports to India.

Around the world, the story is the same. Where U.S. consumer manufactured goods used to flood the markets of countries all over the Earth, agricultural products now take their place - heavily subsidized agricultural products.

U.S. agricultural imperialism is based upon first injecting massive subsidies (in excess of $100 billion per year) into its crop production. These heavily subsidized food items are then dumped into markets in every continent on the planet. For the other, wealthier economies, this extreme U.S. subsidization is met with competing subsidies. Indeed, for many years the U.S. and Europe have been locked in an endless exchange of dueling subsidies.

For the less-wealthy nations, however, matching U.S. subsidies for its agricultural products is economically impossible. These nations have been forced to watch helplessly as the massive quantities of subsidized U.S. agricultural products bankrupted millions of small farmers all over the world - and severely depressed agricultural production. Thus, at the same time that rising per capita incomes in developing economies is spurring an enormous increase in demand for agricultural products, we have the U.S. government engaged in a predatory campaign which has crippled numerous economies, in addition to creating crop-shortages through depressing global production.

Even here, however, the U.S.'s Achilles heel asserts itself. Apart from the fact that U.S. agriculture is highly dependent on massive water subsidies, what few people realize is that agriculture is an oil-intensive industry. Oil-powered machines plant the crops. Oil-powered machines distribute the petroleum-based fertilizer products used by most forms of agriculture.

Oil-powered machines then harvest most of these crops, so that oil-powered trucks can take this food to processing centers, before ultimately being shipped to consumers - primarily in more oil-powered trucks. Compounding U.S. oil-gluttony, the U.S. has embarked on a huge program to produce the world's least efficient bio-fuel: corn-based ethanol.

In other words, after consuming vast quantities of oil to produce its crops, the U.S. then takes a large chunk of that agricultural production and converts it to fuel - in a process which uses nearly as much fuel as is produced, resulting in no economic benefit to anyone (and no increase in energy supply), except for a windfall for corn-farmers.

While the U.S. selfishly wastes vast quantities of oil with its war-mongering, and foolishly squanders vast, additional amounts through short-sighted agricultural policies which can only be characterized as "idiotic", this endless waste of precious petroleum is 100% certain to destroy its domestic economy.

As U.S. "inner cities" became increasingly uninhabitable due to endemic poverty - and the crime which inevitably accompanies that - U.S. "urban sprawl" turned into a gigantic population-shift, where urban Americans became "suburban Americans", forced to commute long-distances (in oil-powered vehicles) just to make it to work each day.

Meanwhile the rest of the world chose to reduce their own oil-consumption through adding high taxes to oil, which also made various forms of mass, public transit economically viable - further reducing their oil-dependence. In its typically short-sighted fashion, the U.S. did the exact opposite. It continued to heavily subsidize oil consumption amongst its population.

Decades of this totally suicidal policy has left the U.S. with the following problems. Americans possess tens of millions of obsolete gas-guzzlers - for which they are still making $billions in payments. They live in massive homes they can no longer afford to heat, located so far from employment centers that they can't afford to drive to work. Meanwhile, equally short-sighted city planners never bothered to embark upon any significant investments in mass-transit.

Even if the U.S. had the money to begin to create 21st century mass transit for its cities (which it doesn't), these long-term infrastructure projects would take at least a decade before making a significant dent in U.S. oil consumption. The U.S. has no money, no oil, and no options.

While Wall Street caused the "Crash of '08" to attempt to hide its own insolvency as being merely part of a "global crisis", the U.S. government had an entirely different motive for engineering a global economic crash, and a total meltdown in all commodity markets: $140/barrel oil. In this respect, Rob Kirby wrote a very interesting article about U.S. "machinations" in the oil market, beginning in May/June of 2008.

Through a combination of sleuthing and deduction, Kirby connected a dramatic change in U.S. oil policy to the Crash of '08, and otherwise inexplicable price-behavior regarding the different grades of global crude - which coincided with the change in U.S. energy policy. He also noted that these "machinations" bore an uncanny resemblance to "activities" of the U.S. government in precious metals markets.

Media talking-heads continue to perpetuate the myth that a "cheaper dollar" will improve the U.S. trade balance - and ultimately help the U.S. dig its way out of insolvency. Empirical data has revealed this to be nothing but wishful thinking. In fact, each time the U.S. dollar takes another nose-dive, the U.S. trade deficit usually widens, as the modest up-tick in U.S. exports is overwhelmed by the soaring bill for U.S. imported oil.

The bottom-line for these parameters is that the only way in which the U.S. can delay economic collapse is to continue to push-down oil prices (versus the U.S. dollar). Where precious metals factors into this equation is that oil-producing nations (most notably the Arab, OPEC nations) watch gold and silver prices - to tell them when/if they need to push crude prices higher, as compensation for the ever more rapid dilution/depreciation of the U.S. dollar.

Therefore, while the U.S. government desperately wants to keep gold and silver prices down, it absolutely needs relatively cheap oil prices. What this means is that when oil surges above $100/barrel (likely by January or February) we should all expect another made-in-the-USA "economic crisis".

If (or when) the U.S. finally loses any ability to control oil prices, the consequence is inevitable: hyperinflation. Soaring oil prices increase the U.S. trade deficit, cripple the domestic economy, negate any/all benefit of its massive agricultural subsidies, and leave its war-machine "out of gas".

Simply, there is not a single facet of the U.S. economy which can remain solvent with high oil prices. When cities, states, and most average Americans begin a downward spiral toward bankruptcy due to high oil prices, the last and only option for the U.S. is more money-printing - much, much more.

With current U.S. money-printing already a threat to set-off U.S. hyperinflation, any further escalation of Bernanke's monetary madness must result in hyperinflation. Much like decades of suppression of the silver market has resulted in the near-total depletion of silver stockpiles, so too has the U.S. policy of depressing global oil prices resulted in the depletion of global oil reserves - decades sooner than would have occurred with any kind of sensible, long-range planning.

While the silly, suicidal bullion-banks only increase silver demand each time they launch another "attack" on prices (advancing the date of their own funerals), so too has the U.S. government's permanent policy of oil price-suppression merely served to dig its own economic grave.

At the exact same time that U.S. vulnerability to high oil prices has reached a new, all-time high, the ability of the U.S. to suppress oil prices through any form of moderate/subtle manipulation of global markets has been exhausted. With the U.S. economy already on the verge of collapse, creating another "crisis" (its last and only "tool") will require nothing more than simply being honest about the severity of its economic problems.

Jeff Nielson

www.bullionbullscanada.com

None dare call it Conspiracy: A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives

By LOUISE STORY, The New York Times:

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.

The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.

Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.......read on

SILVER'S EXPLOSIVE POTENTIAL

By Michael Checkan
9 December 2010

As we gathered around the table on Thanksgiving Day, we reflected on the many people and events in the past year for which we are grateful. In spite of the ongoing global economic meltdown, there is much for which we can give thanks.

Over the past month, from a business standpoint, one individual stands head and shoulders above the rest as deserving of my gratitude - Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. When "Helicopter Ben" announced the Fed's plan for a second round of Quantitative Easing (QE2), he triggered a spike in precious metals' prices and a subsequent explosion in telephone calls and emails to us at Asset Strategies.

The reaction by investors to his plan was so sudden and resolute that we need to give serious thought to awarding him a plaque as our Salesman of the Month. And after what happened in November, he is definitely in contention for Salesman of the Year honors as well.

All precious metals have been soaring. But none prospered as handsomely as silver, the poor man's gold. Since Mr. Bernanke's announcement, silver has appreciated nearly 18% ... in less than a month!

Basically, investors saw the Fed's action for what it is -- a desperate measure in a crisis situation, using the only monetary tool left in Mr. Bernanke's arsenal. Simply put, he has guaranteed the further debasement of our currency. He has set in motion a plan that can have no other outcome than the accelerated loss of purchasing power.

The defensive action investors should take is simple: shift to things of real value. At the top of that list should be what the world has always recognized as real money - gold and silver.

I'm sure you already understand that. That's simply the backdrop for what I really want to talk about today. Namely, silver's 18% appreciation in 30 days. After all, gold only spiked 3% during the same period of time.

In our July 6th alert, which was entitled, Silver - Lagging Gold, But Ready to Soar, I talked about the relationship between gold and silver. Click here to revisit that message. In it we spoke of the gains both gold and silver have made in the nine and a half year bull market we have been enjoying. During that period, gold posted gains of 374%, while silver lagged a bit at a mere 317%.

Our recommendation at the time? Buy silver.

In just five short months, with a little help from our Salesman of the Year nominee, gold's 10-year appreciation now stands at 428%. That's certainly good news to everyone who owns some of the Midas metal.

But in the same period, silver has gained 548%. If gold has soared, silver has exploded.

Remember, gold is the undisputed leader of precious metals. Gold moves (up or down) first. Only when the trend is established do the rest of the precious metals follow their leader. However, once that trend is established, silver often outpaces gold upward (and downward, too, keep in mind).

The value of the total gold supply for 2010 (as estimated by Gold Fields Mineral Services, basis data received through the first week of November) is $170 billion. Compare that to the value the same group places on all above-ground silver: just $19 billion, or roughly 11.1% as much. This will help you appreciate the relatively tiny nature of the silver market.

The gold market is nine times the size of the silver market. If you throw a rock into a puddle, you'll make a bigger splash than if you threw one into a pond. Just so in the silver market. Each dollar invested there has a larger impact on price appreciation than a similar amount spent on gold.

But that's not all. As gold moves higher, some "sticker shock" is inevitable. Now more than ever, people know they should own precious metals. Yet at $1,400 an ounce, gold seems expensive. Is it too expensive? I'd like to suggest that, even at these levels, not owning gold will turn out to be far more costly to your purchasing power than buying some now.

Price is an important reason why silver, the poor man's gold, is somewhat more palatable to investors at these lofty levels. As a result, we see purchases of precious metals start to skew in favor of silver versus gold. Each dollar spent purchases many more ounces of metal.

Let me take off my cheerleader outfit for a moment. There is a flip side to this phenomenon. When we see corrections, silver tends to overshoot to the downside, just as it tends to overshoot to the upside.

When gold starts to correct (and at some point, a correction is inevitable), and it begins a short-term downtrend, silver will follow. And its downward correction will typically be more pronounced than gold's.

If you're going to own silver, it's important that you stay focused on the fundamentals. Price movements can be as unnerving on the descent as they are euphoric on the ascent.

When you see a dip in prices, consider loading up on silver. This is precisely the situation in which we found ourselves last July. It is what compelled us to write that particular alert.

Let's face it. We are in an economic mess that will take a long time to clean up. For the foreseeable future, gold and silver are the best antidotes available to the venom known as QE2. They are our solution to the results of Mr. Bernanke's plans to "fix" our economy.

We remain buyers of both gold and silver on dips large or small. When the dip occurs, consider putting more of those steadily worth-less dollars into silver than you do into gold. When silver explodes, it is a beautiful thing.

Gold to remain strong in 2011 - Tom Kendall, Credit Suisse

Mineweb's weekly gold report......listen here

Goes the Dark Leader?

The Daily Bell

A follow-up to a previous a story entitled "Comes a Blond Stranger ..."

Years later (present day) ...

The two sat at a table in the large basement cafeteria of the Agency's Washington DC headquarters. It was late afternoon, and they were drinking lattes instead of coffee, as in years past. The basement had been remodeled: soft lighting; beige carpeting. Even the chairs had gone upscale, expensive and over-stuffed. A lot of money sloshing around Capitol Hill these days.

The worse it got outside, the better the Agency seemed to do.

The senior man missed the look and feel of the place where he'd spent much of his spare time. He felt his age; the junior man, opposite him, looked as young and dynamic as ever.

"Remember right here we talked about finding a guy and turning him into a star years ago," the junior man said, adding too much sugar. "He's sure blown up since then. Makes me nostalgic."

"He's the biggest thing in the world right," the senior man said, ladling a little honey. "That was one sweet concept."

"Lucky I had a brainstorm," the junior man needled.

"Sure, you were on the verge of washing out," the senior man teased back. "I gave you the credit because you needed a boost and you ended up with a real humdinger, my son." His smile ended up as a grimace. Out of practice.

The junior man took a cautious sip. "And now he's everywhere. He's all over the news just about twenty-four-seven."

"Well, we own the goddamn mainstream media," the senior man said, trying his own latte. "Are you surprised?"

"It's strange to watch," the junior man said. "I know it's all an act, but the left wing wants him deified and the right wants him shot."

"That's part of the dialectic. We need to control both sides of the argument. Our guys need to capture the most radical sentiments in order to control them. Has to do with credibility."

"But our own presenters are sounding like anarchists. It's almost counterproductive."

"Don't think the higher-ups aren't aware," the senior man said, wondering if his drink had cooled. "But nobody expected the Internet to be so uncontrollable."

"We ought to just shut it down," the junior man said. "If it were up to me." He drew his finger across his throat.

"That's easy for you to say." the senior man said. He took a sip. Better.

"But how are you going to do it practically?" the older man continued. "It's a balancing act."

"Give me three or four days," the junior man muttered. "I'd take care of it."

"I bet you would," the senior man said. "You and DARPA. They invented the Internet but they didn't count on two fellows in a garage coming up with a personal computer. Once everyone plugged in ... game over."

"Idiots," the junior man said heatedly. "They should have used better judgment."

The senior man took another sip. "You can't fight the market. Nobody can anticipate everything."

"What're you kidding me?" The junior man was startled. "It's OUR narrative, man! Everybody else just keeps score."

"I used to think that too," the senior man said. He felt suddenly weary. "But we can only go so far and then there's a setback. Now they're building a decentralized Internet. It's going to make things even harder to control. The pirates - the Pirate Bay folks. It's on the news."

The younger man looked surprised.

"What's that?" he asked finally, after collecting his thoughts. "I doubt it will work."

"I'm afraid you're wrong. You can't control this technology, not in its beginning stages. They couldn't control the Gutenberg press, either."

"The Gut ... what?"

The older man sighed and drank more latte.

"Look," the junior man said, settling back in his comfortable chair. "When it comes right down to it, we work for the people with the money. We're just ... enforcers."

"Sure," the senior man agreed, settling back too. "But people with money tend to be arrogant. You can't beat the market. Not in the long run. The Invisible Hand gets you every time."

He put his own somewhat mottled hand up to his throat and made a choking noise.

"I'll play for the side with the money," the junior man said. "Wealth always wins." He leaned forward and slurped.

"Does it?" the senior man asked. "New technologies can even-out the playing field for a while."

"All I know is our guy is blowing up big," the junior man said, looking up. "We want a war, well, these leaks provide plenty of reasons. He's giving us an excuse to crack down hard on the 'Net. License every user, track every domain ... And we got good partners. The Brits. Mossad. Tavistock doesn't fool around," he added with a final slurp, like a coda.

He drummed his fingers on the table. "Just like with the Beatles when they blew up. Or Operation Gladio."

"That was pre-Internet," the senior man pointed out.

"Come on! It's been set up brilliantly," the junior man said. "Everything that's come out has basically reinforced our policies. And we're getting publicity that we could never have paid for in a thousand years. "

"So far so good," the senior man said, playing with his cup. "You can't count on the success of an operation until it's over," he cautioned. "Too many things can go wrong."

"But look what we've ended up with!" the junior man said, leaning forward. "We got a sex addict charged with rape running an Internet leak program that is putting international secrets at risk - and jeopardizing the lives of soldiers and diplomats around the world. We want to crack down on the Internet now, there's every reason to."

"Perhaps so," the senior man said quietly. He didn't sound convinced.

"He's even changed the color of his hair," the junior man pointed out. "Now it's black. Looks a lot more dangerous. I don't know what you're so worried about."

"What am I worried about?" The senior man considered. "Well ... look around you. Not here! I mean look at the big picture. The economy is a mess. The world is a mess. Europe's in flames. America's getting there. We got employment numbers last put up during the Great Depression."

"Of course things are chaotic. That's part of their plan. You can't build a world government without breaking a few eggs."

"But China is going to go down. Inflation's out of control in that big country and sooner or later China's problems will bring down all of Asia. Now the entire world's in a slump."

"Game on!" the junior man cried. When the older man winced, he added, "Oh, I understand the causes - central banking and delinking from gold. You've taught me that. There couldn't be any other outcome."

"That's true," his mentor confirmed. "This was the strategy. Out of chaos, order. Central banking made the global meltdown inevitable, just as planned. But the higher-ups, they didn't understand about the Internet. That's exposed us. Our ideas are regularly discussed now and even anticipated ..."

"... But I don't see anyone backing down," the junior man interrupted. "I think you're worried about nothing. That's your personality. You've always got find the fly in the ointment."

"I disagree. We're approaching an inflection point. When China goes down - either through inflation or interest rate hikes - the world is going to be a terrible mess. And even without China, we've already got riots ... civil disobedience. Some think Western capitalism has failed, it's true. But people are not so uneducated anymore, thanks to the 'Net. And some may understand that 20th century economics was closer to communism than capitalism. They may riot for freedom this time, for a real marketplace with real money, not for bigger government."

"Look," the junior man said, ready to drop a name. "The Red Shield is pretty good with this sort of thing. I personally leave it up to them. They've managed the conspiracy rather well. And our guy is certainly helping. That was the whole idea wasn't it? We came up with it, and now I've even heard his role may be expanded."

"Yes ... I've heard the same thing," the senior man admitted.

"He's the focus of worldwide attention," the junior man pressed. "Before they're finished, he could be the most famous and heroic person in the world. Nothing will stick, or nothing big, even if he does go to jail for a while. And before he does, he'll release that insurance package of his. So who cares if he wanted to get laid? He's just going to look persecuted, like he's stood up to the most powerful bullies on earth. When the nation-states implode he'll be the most important person left standing. A war or two later, and people will look for leadership ... They'll virtually be begging for someone like him. He could lead the way to ... to ... "

"Yes, yes, of course" the senior man said. "A kind of new world order."

"His goal is to make closed societies more open," the younger man said emphatically. "People misunderstand his message. He doesn't want to do away with government, even big government. He just wants to make it better. He's playing a part, and we've got everyone watching. It's incredible. All over the world. Same techniques they used with the Beatles, and Lady Gaga. Mainstream media coverage 24-hours a day."

"Hm-mm. Hope he can be counted on."

"He's staying on the reservation," the junior man replied, feeling inexplicably a little defensive. "No question about that. He's sticking to the script, saying all the right things. He's even explained that he doesn't want to disseminate through the 'Net because he needs 'professional journalists' to work with him, like those at the Guardian and the New York Times. He's singlehandedly resuscitating the reputation of mainstream journalism. Plus he doesn't have any problems with the official story about 9/11 - so that's off the table."

"Well, I hope you're right," the senior man said, feeling suddenly gloomy. "Say, did you buy liability insurance?"

"Huh?" the junior man asked. "Oh, yeah - the new program. I looked into it."

"Do yourself a favor," the senior man said. "Revisit it."

"You serious?" asked the junior man.

"What if he's playing a double game?" the senior man probed, looking right in the eyes of his protege. "We've seen it before. What if he's going along with it now but when he's decided he's got enough clout to make a difference, he leaves the reservation - does things his own way? Maybe he forgets who his friends are and starts taking it all too seriously ... "

The young man looked pale. "Like a double agent? That wouldn't be very good for my career."

"No, you'd be blamed."

"You, too," the younger man said hurriedly, looking downcast. "It was YOUR idea."

"It wasn't," the older man said. "Anyway, I'm retiring."

"That's true," the junior man muttered. "How can we be sure?"

"We can't be sure of anything," the senior man said. "The balls are in the air. Where do they land?"

The above is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. If it were not fictional, it would represent an alternative view of recent events that increasingly (and unfortunately) seem suspect to some, including us.

www.thedailybell.com