"Racine investors lose thousands after Pacific Sands stocks delisted"

From:  https://www.racinecountyeye.com/racine-investors-lose-thousands-after-pacific-sands-stocks-delisted/ 
 
December 21, 2017 Denise Lockwood Business 0

 Pacific Sands Inc. (OTCMKTS: PFSD), which used to be located in Racine, was notified by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will delist the cleaning products company because it failed to file financial reports since Dec. 31, 2015.

Now — after losing thousands of dollars — a number of investors question whether the company operated in good faith as its CEO Michael Michie indicated he wants to continue operating privately.

If the company gets delisted it will no longer be a public company and cannot be traded on the open market. However, the stock ticker may continue to ‘trade’ on the grey market but it may not even actually be transferred. As of May, the company had 400,000,000 shares of stock authorized. Of those, 399,050,050 are outstanding, according to InvestorHub.com.

“The Company expects that the outcome of this review will be to finalize the revocation of the Company’s status as a public company,” according to a press release by Pacific Sands. “Immediately thereafter, the Company will be operated as a private entity for the benefit of the existing shareholders.”

The company operated in Racine from 2004 to 2012, but then it moved to Kenosha.

Taking the company private is a sore subject among a number of investors, including former Mayor John Dickert and Alan Green, of New York, who lost thousands of dollars. Dickert said he invested about $7,000 about 10 years ago when the stock traded at 7 cents per share. When he cashed out, he got $67 back. Now the company’s stock price is listed as .0001.

“In the press releases they sent out, they kept telling us sales were good, but that was never reflected in the stock price,” Dickert said. 

Green lost about $90,000. For years he has tried to communicate with officials at Pacific Sands after the stock price tanked, but he never got a phone call back, he said.

“We believe there is very strong evidence to suggest that… the current CEO (Michael Michie), The Board of Directors, select investors and Terry Haggerty, a local FINRA-barred financial advisor, have colluded to transfer the assets and ownership of the company from the shareholders who had invested more than $5,000,000 directly into the hands of the insiders and their friends,” he said.

According to the company’s financial statements, some of the proceeds from the stock in 2015 paid for an employee’s compensation, compensation for an officer of the company, and numerous convertible notes. It also had a shareholder equity deficit of $1.2 million and a working capital deficit of $1.3 million.

Haggerty had been a long-term shareholder of Pacific Sands and was appointed to the board of directors in January 2016. He resigned from the company on May 27, 2016.

Banned for life by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for manipulating Pacific Sands stock. FINRA officials found that Haggerty “engaged in manipulative trading activity in the shares of a penny stock traded in the over-the-counter market.”

The investors have not filed a formal lawsuit, but one may be on the horizon, Green said.

“They think by going private they can steal the company away from investors,” Green said. “But they are sending out the product and making money. Where is the money going from everything they are selling?”

Racine County Eye reached out to Michie, but he did not return a phone call.

The company said it intends to “make a timely dissemination to shareholders of financial statements, compiled by a CPA, together with an overview of current operations,” the press release reads. “Until then, applicable restrictions relating to communications with shareholders remain in effect.”

https://www.racinecountyeye.com/racine-investors-lose-thousands-after-pacific-sands-stocks-delisted/

Open Blog - Weekend

Oh yeah.

"Man Had So Many Prostate Orgasms He Couldn't Stop, According to New Paper"

"The Fascist State"

More PROOF that Wisconsin is the Fascist State:

There’s a kerfuffle in Wisconsin over threatened application of The Law to the Amish.

Amish Anarchy & Uncle Sam

by Tyler Durden

Dec 21, 2017 8:45 PM

77

SHARES

Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,

There’s a kerfuffle in Wisconsin over threatened application of The Law to the Amish.

Up to now, they’ve successfully dodged Uncle Sam – been exempted on religious grounds from a great many busybody-isms, including laws requiring the presence and use of seat belts and child safety seats in all motor vehicles.

Their horse-drawn buggies lack motors, of course – as well as seatbelts and child seats.

They don’t have air bags or back-up cameras or tire pressure monitors, either. The Amish don’t believe such things are necessary and therefore do without.

They also believe it’s their decision, their business – and just want to go about their business, leave others alone and be left alone in turn. After all, they’re not harming anyone else. And if they harm themselves, the Amish take care of themselves.

 

It seems reasonable enough.

That doesn’t wash for the rest of us, though.

Why should it work for the Amish?

Portrait of an armed busybody . . .

Such is the entirely logical argument of a busybody with a gun – i.e., a government worker – by the name of Bill Winch. He is a member of the Wisconsin Rapids Board of Supervisors and doesn’t think the Amish ought to be exempted from anything – including other laws requiring driver’s licenses and mandatory insurance.

He has proposed a new law precisely to that effect.

Amen.

Winch goes further. The buggies of the Amish should also be fitted with automotive safety glass, windshield and side glass – no matter what it costs the Amish and how impractical it is to install such things in a horse-drawn buggy.

For their saaaaaaaaaaaaafety, of course.

Their horse-drawn buggies should also be required to have headlights and turn signals – just like everyone else’s car. If this requires expense, so be it. And new buggies manufactured after a certain date surely ought to be required to have at least driver and front seat passenger air bags and comply with some sort of government crash test regime.

Amish teenagers must not be allowed to “operate” a buggy until they have attained a certain Uncle-prescribed age – and then only when accompanied by an adult – and never accompanied by other teens, unsupervised.

Bully.

It might cause some eyes to open.

Logically – as a matter of principle – either all of us and not just the Amish should be left in peace to go about our business or no one should be left in peace.

Why should the claim of the Amish that seatbelts and insurance and all the rest are meddling twaddle contrary to their beliefs carry any more weight than the belief – just as ardent and probably better-articulated – of the Libertarian who also believes that it’s no one else’s proper business whether he has or wears a seatbelt?

Winch is absolutely correct.

Or at least, he is a consistent authoritarian control freak.

The arguments used to justify everything imposed on the non-Amish apply just as much to the Amish. If these justifications are morally valid then the laws based upon them should brook no exceptions.

 

The Amish, no matter how pious, are not immune to the forces of nature. If an Amish buggy driver wrecks his buggy, he might be injured – just like anyone else. And if he is not buckled up – if his buggy lacks shatterproof automotive safety glass – his injuries could be more severe than would otherwise have been the case.

Undeniable facts of physics.

So why should the Amish – but not the rest of us – get a pass?

Why should they get to live a simple, unencumbered, exempted life? One free of not just government busybodyism but also the financial pressure of having to constantly earn money in order to pay for all that busybodyism? The Amish man can farm his land, raise his crops and not have to worry about coming up with thousands of dollars every year to pay for mandatory this and tax that – including Social Security and Obamacare taxes. Or air bags and seat belts and back-up cameras and shatterproof safety glass. He has no dealings with the DMV.

  

This makes him a very free man.

Which is very unfair to the rest of us.

An outrage!

So perhaps this new law applying the law to the Amish is just the medicine needed.

Sympathy for the Amish might transfer to the rest of us. It might occur to some that it is unjust – tyrannical – to molest people who just want to be left alone and who aren’t causing harm to anyone else. It might get people to thinking about whether the justifications elaborated to push, promote and impose all the aforesaid busybody-ism are in fact legitimate.

And if they’re not . . . well, we might be able to roll some of this back. And for everyone.
The Amish are, indeed, throwbacks.

And not just because of their buggies and beards. They are living fossils of a species almost extinct: The Free Man. They’re not interested in your goods and don’t want to control your life. If you’re interested in their lifestyle, you’re free to emulate it and even to become Amish, if that is your desire.
In return, the Amish only ask that you leave them free to be Amish.

But that is too much to ask for people like Bill Winch.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-21/amish-anarchy-uncle-sam

Four for Fridays!

I am sorry this is so late today Drew had taken over the computer this morning since he has a four day weekend. I hope everyone is doing good today. Here are your questions.

1) Would you like a white Christmas?

2) Are you looking forward to seeing friends and family?

3) With your family do celebrate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

4) Do like to receive gifts or give gifts?

I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Open Blog - Friday

Me, too.

He Looks So Happy

They must have just taken out an orphanage.

New Blog

Racine WI – Sin City

Arrest Records & More of City of Racine Officials

   
https://arrestrecordsofracinewipublicofficials.wordpress.com/

"Mexican Man Granted Disabled Status For Having Giant Penis (GRAPHIC)"

by ZeroPointNow

Dec 20, 2017 4:20 PM

87

SHARES

A man from northern Mexico has been granted official disabled status because of his 18.9 nch penis believed to be the largest in the world after it was elongated with the use of weights.

 

Roberto Esquivel Cabrera, 54, is now receiving government handouts for his massive schlong, and refuses to have a reduction because he hopes to work in the American porn industry.

'I cannot wear a uniform like anybody in the companies and also I cannot get on my knees"
'I cannot run fast and so the companies think badly of me. They say that they will call me, but they never do.'
-Roberto Cabrera

Despite his knee issues ruling out several sexual positions, Mr. Cabrera has been offered a job as a porn actor by the man behind YouPorn and the FakeTaxi series - suggesting Cabera could perhaps do more of a "comedy porn" than an erotic flick.

Doctors say most of Cabera's penis is actually foreskin from extensive stretching with weights, and that his actual penis underneat is six or seven inches.

As a result, Guinness Book of Records refuses to recognize his penis as the world's larges - leaving US porn actor Jonah Falcon with the current record of 9.5 inches flaccid and 13.5 inches when erect.

Medics have urged him to have a reduction so he will be able to function normally and have children, but he has refused.

'He'd rather have a penis bigger than the rest of the people,' Dr Jesus David Salazar Gonzalez said. -Daily Mail

Mr Cabera responded to haters, satating: "I am famous because I have the biggest penis in the world. I am happy with my penis, I know nobody has the size I have."

Cabera also has a variety of penis-linked health problems, including frequent urinary tract infections and chafing, which he combats by keeping his penis wrapped. He also sleeps with his penis in its own special pillow.

When asked if his giant penis affects his sex life, Cabrera said: "Some people ask me if I put some condoms on it and the answer is: I cannot. I can never penetrate anyone because it is too thick."

"City crime decreases after surge in traffic enforcement surge, Flynn says"

Jesse Garza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 9:28 p.m. CT Dec. 20, 2017 | Updated 9:28 p.m. CT Dec. 20, 2017

 

A 29% decrease in non-fatal shootings is included in a significant decrease in crime in Milwaukee since a surge in traffic enforcement, Police Chief Edward Flynn said Wednesday.

The stepped-up enforcement for dangerous driver behavior, such as speeding, driving recklessly and running red lights, was announced in October following a surge in fatal crashes involving stolen vehicles.

The Data Driven Anti-Crime and Traffic Safety Initiative, or DDACTS, focused on 50 locations in the city where a high volume of traffic crashes correlated with a high volume of violent crime, Flynn said at a news conference.

The deployments focused on crash reduction through the issuance of citations, Flynn said.

"It certainly appears to us this initiative, based on careful crime analysis as well as crash analysis, has produced a favorable outcome," Flynn told reporters in a parking lot on Milwaukee's northwest side.

“It will lead us to examine this initiative with a view toward increasing it in new year."

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2017/12/20/city-crime-decreases-after-surge-traffic-enforcement-surge-flynn-says/971597001/

Imagine that.  Please do this in Racine.

"Dec. 21 will be the worst day of 2017, astrologers say"

USA Today NetworkBill Ervolino, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record Published 3:27 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2017 | Updated 3:34 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2017

The winter solstice — also known as Yule, Midwinter, the Shortest Day of the Year and the Longest Night — occurs at 11:28 a.m. ET Thursday.

But this short, little day with the great many names also may be the worst day of the year, according to astrologers. The reason? Saturn.

Apparently, the sun will appear to pass in front of the constellation Capricorn hours after Saturn does likewise. This will cause both of these orbs to line up for the first time time since 1664, according to London astrologer Neil Spencer, who writes for The (London) Observer but first wrote about the alignment on his blog.

He insists that starting something new on this day is “ill advised” and will have long-term consequences. And anything you try to do Thursday will be more difficult than usual, take more time and be more frustrating.

Perhaps that's why the president probably won't sign the tax bill Thursday — that and Congress has its paperwork to process — even though Spencer said the establishment, patriarchy, big business and property will be front and center in the cosmos.

Toss in all that holiday traffic — it is a gridlock alert day just about everywhere, according to Inrix, a company that analyzes transportation data — and it may be a good idea just to stay home.

“Patience will not be a priority, especially if we are told that we ‘have to’ (do something) by our superiors," Lunar Living astrology website says. "We may be perceived as (in)subordinate. Be ready to deal with the repercussions of the rebellion.”

Yet you can take solace in the winter solstice celebration at Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland, which is being streamed live to the world from 3:30 to 4:15 a.m. ET Thursday.

The entrance to the monument, which has a retaining wall made of quartz cobblestones, is aligned with the rising sun on the winter solstice. As the sun comes up between 8:30 and 9:15 a.m. in Ireland, sunlight pours in through an opening in the roof (called a “roofbox”) and floods the chamber with light.

News shows likely will carry some of the footage. After you watch it, you might want to get back under the covers.

Follow Bill Ervolino on Twitter: @billerv

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/12/20/winter-solstice-worst-day-2017-astrologers/970249001/

10 Times YouTubers Went Too Far

Open Blog - Thursday

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my lovely children!  How are you?  I wish you and yours the very best for Christmas 2017.  May the Lord bless you and protect you.  Amen.

The last I heard, it's supposed to storm up.  Poop.  One more time I must summon the strength to face winter.  It gets worse every year.  The constantly gray skies overpower everything else.  We are locked now in winter mode.  Let's hope the supposed "climate change" makes it better for us.  The polar ice caps are melting.  I wonder how long that will go on?  If you live along the United States' coastlines, you better buy a boat.

Well now, our multi-million dollar baby couldn't save the Packers from defeat.  I wouldn't even play him in the next two games.  Let him heal for next year.  I know that he plans on playing and that he wants to play, but can we afford to expose him to the possibility of more physical damage in two meaningless games?  Does he need to make a cameo appearance?  We love you, Aaron, and we know you want what's best for the team.  Hey, look at this: http://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2017/12/19/packers-shutting-down-aaron-rodgers-season/964245001/  It's official.  He's on injured reserve for the last two games.  Sorry, Aaron.  We love you and want what's best for you.

Here are the Irregular Football League standings:

Look at that.  After dominating the league all season, the Half-Astrophysicists have been knocked out of first place by The Mighty Bears.  The Mighty Bears will face the Racine Irregulars for the championship.  Meanwhile, the 3rd place game features the Half-Astrophysicists against the Orbliterators.  There's more drama here than in the rest of the Packers' season.

Foxconn.  That's all, just Foxconn.  Let the search engines find this page.

The western part of the county will be in constant turmoil if Foxconn comes here.  It will be more like a multi-ring circus than a construction site.  I'll enjoy watching whatever happens. They should post a camera there so people can watch the action from their homes.   Just keep me out of it.

All I want for Christmas is the love and joy of my family.  You're part of that, you know.  We're a family and you're a member.  I love you all.  Go forth and spread our propaganda around the world.

madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

If you're traveling for the holidays, be extra careful and lay off the booze.  Remember what this is all about: the birth of the Savior of the World.  So who cares if you're cut off by a car: the Christ is born.
__________________________ 
Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis 
If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order.  Thank you

"Everybody Knows a Turkey"

From the Shepherd Express:

by Art Kumbalek

December 19, 2017

4:13 PM

I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, I choose not to belabor the craft of a finely honed essay for you’s this week ’cause I’m guessing you’re just too damn busy to read anything important I got to tell you this time of year aren’t you, what with your holiday this and your holiday that. Yeah, bet you a buck two-eighty you’re probably getting ready to go out and do some shopping right now, ain’a?

(Just so you know, I take a 40-42 regular and I can always use some socks, but cash always makes for a nice gift, you betcha. But what I could really use is my own private compartment on all county buses that run the No. 30, No. 15 and Green lines. Hey, one of my favorite movies all-time is Tod Browning’s Freaks, but I’d rather watch it than be in it, I kid you not. How many times I got to tell you that, what the fock.)

Or maybe you’re mixing another hot focking toddy and are too goddamn drunk to read whatever I got writ, or maybe you’re up to your hinder in holiday cookie dough. But regardless of whatever kind of holiday bug you may have up your butt, I know for many of you’s it just wouldn’t be the Christmas without the once-in-a-while annual retelling of a Christmas classic you first read here—a traditional holiday treat not unlike the pinching of the Yule log Christmas morning and the hot focking toddy slam-binging to come later in the day, ain’a? And what is tradition but the same goddamn thing over and over? You tell me.

And then I’ll tell you that TV has its “Charlie Brown Christmas,” the performing stage has its Nut-focking-cracker and A Christmas Carol, the city has its property tax bills, every dog has its day, and “Art for Art’s Sake” has one version or another of what follows for you and the family, guaranteed to roast the cockles of your god-blessed chestnuts.

[ Insert Holiday-ish icons Here, Please]

OK, story has it that these three so-called kings loaded up with a bunch of gifts are from out of this place called Orient Are, wherever the fock that was supposed to be. To this day I still can’t find it on a map, I kid you not. But you got to remember, this was way-back-when in the olden days when wise men knew the world was flatter than a ballerina, so what the fock.

Anyways, these three guys were traipsing to and fro, checking out all the towns of the then-known world in search of an infant recently conceived out of thin air, a child who was not only rumored but also proclaimed verily to those on high to be the son of god.

One of the kings queried, “Which god?” One of the other king guys says, “What, like I should know from ‘which god’? A god is a god is a god. Who cares which one, for crying out loud.” And the third wiseguy said, “Yeah, forget about it. I don’t care if he’s the focking son of the god of focking rodeo clowns for focking crying out loud, we still got to go pay our respects on general principles. It’s the right thing to do, understand?”

So they’re carting these gifts all over creation, gifts that even a kid back then would think sucked ass. I mean “frankincense,” an aromatic gum resin? Give me a break. Eventually, these three guys came across a lowly stable and decided enough’s enough. They asked a guy who was hanging around there if he’d like some gifts ’cause they were sick of carrying them all over creation. The guy says “you betcha” and invites them in for a nice hot focking toddy.

The wise men waltz into the stable but the guy with the myrrh, who was a bit taller than the other two Einsteins, cracked his head on the top of the doorway. “Jesus H. Christ!” he shouts. The stable guy, whose name was Joseph, calls out to the wife, “Hey hon! You hear that? ‘Jesus H. Christ.’ I like that a lot better than Leonard, ain’a?”

[ Insert Holiday-ish icons Here, Please]

Ba-ding! So there you go, as do I. One last thing, again: Remember, one and all, to be damn sure to celebrate this holiday good and plenty. You just can’t ever be 100 per-focking-cent sure that it may not be the last one you’ll get; so make it a good one, what the fock, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.

From:  https://shepherdexpress.com/around-milwaukee/art-kumbalek/everybody-knows-a-turkey/

"Rules of Overshoot Loop"

Here is a synopsis of the behavioral loop described above:

Step 1. Individuals and groups evolved a bias to maximize fitness by maximizing power, which requires over-reproduction and/or over-consumption of natural resources (overshoot), whenever systemic constraints allow it. Differential power generation and accumulation result in a hierarchical group structure.

Step 2. Energy is always limited, so overshoot eventually leads to decreasing power available to the group, with lower-ranking members suffering first.

Step 3. Diminishing power availability creates divisive subgroups within the original group. Low-rank members will form subgroups and coalitions to demand a greater share of power from higher-ranking individuals, who will resist by forming their own coalitions to maintain power.

Step 4. Violent social strife eventually occurs among subgroups who demand a greater share of the remaining power.

Step 5. The weakest subgroups (high or low rank) are either forced to disperse to a new territory, are killed, enslaved, or imprisoned.

Step 6. Go back to step 1.

http://www.jayhanson.org/loop.htm

"A View of The 2017 Total Eclipse from Charleston SC"

https://timstoyymore.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/a-view-of-the-2017-total-eclipse-from-charleston-sc/

Open Blog - Wednesday

Thank you.

"Cyber-attack: US and UK blame North Korea for WannaCry"

Reuters

Image caption The comments came from White House Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert

"The US and UK governments have said North Korea was responsible for the WannaCry malware attack affecting hospitals, businesses and banks across the world earlier this year.

"The attack is said to have hit more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations, causing billions of dollars of damage.

"It is the first time the US and UK have officially blamed them for the worm.

"Thomas Bossert, an aide to US President Donald Trump, first made the accusation in the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

"Mr Bossert, who advises the president on homeland security, said the allegation was 'based on evidence'.

"He did not produce any evidence in the article, but said US findings concurred with judgments from other governments and private companies.

"He added that Australia, Canada, and New Zealand also share the US conclusion that North Korea was behind the attack.

"Following the interview, the UK Foreign Office also blamed 'North Korean actors using their cyber programme to circumvent sanctions'.

"The National Cyber Security Centre assessed that is is 'highly likely' that the North Korean Lazarus hacking group had committed the attacks, Minister for Cyber Lord Ahmad said in a statement.'

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42407488

"Oshkosh man gets six months in jail, probation for beating 2-month-old, breaking bones"

Nathaniel Shuda, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Published 12:27 p.m. CT Dec. 15, 2017 | Updated 3:19 p.m. CT Dec. 15, 2017

(Photo: Provided by the Winnebago County Jail)

"OSHKOSH - A 21-year-old man will go to jail after police say he beat his 2-month-old daughter in March, breaking bones and causing bleeding in her brain.

"Richard A. Root of Oshkosh was sentenced to six months in jail as part of seven years of probation for child neglect resulting in great bodily harm. Winnebago County Circuit Judge Thomas Gritton also ordered Root to not have or use alcohol or drugs, to keep a job or attend school full time and to undergo counseling.

"According to court documents, Root shook his 2-month-old girl and knelt on her legs while changing her diaper March 10. Doctors said the infant had more than 20 broken bones, injuries to her face and head and multiple brain bleeds.

"Root told police he was stressed and hadn't gotten enough sleep, court documents state. The baby was flown to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she was treated and later released to a family member."

From: http://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/news/crime/2017/12/15/oshkosh-man-gets-six-months-jail-probation-beating-2-month-old-breaking-bones/955318001/

Just paint NFL on the baby and use her for a football.  Even the judges are part of the problem.

"The Unconstitutional Foxconn Special Legislation Is Merely a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen"

https://concernedracinecountyresidentsjustsaynotofoxconn.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/the-unconstitutional-foxconn-special-legislation-is-merely-a-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen/

Hopefully sanity will prevail.

Sincerely,
Tim & Cindy

"DOJ says lawsuit could imperil Foxconn"

Open Blog - Tuesday

"Measure twice, cut once."

"The Social Contract"

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/

"Cultures & Civilizations pass".

The Age is about to change.

 Summary:

The Olduvai Theory is defined as the ratio of world energy production and population. It states that average energy production per capita will decline to its 1930 level by 2030. Collapse will be strongly correlated with an “epidemic” of blackouts around the globe. This warning has come from scientists for more than a century, but it is still disallowed in Washington, D.C. A back-to-the-land movement has emerged and is accelerating.1

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_23_2/tsc_23_2_duncan.shtml

"China's Nio takes on Tesla with a car half the price of Model X"

• China's electric vehicle startup launched sales of debut mass produced car over the weekend
• ES8 retails at half the price of Tesla's Model X
• There is fierce competition in the EV market in China, where the government is promoting its use to cut air pollution

Huileng Tan and Daisy Cherry

Published 10 Hours Ago Updated 5 Hours Ago CNBC.com

 
NIO founder: For sure, Tesla is our rival from CNBC

China's electric vehicle start-up Nio launched its first mass-produced model over the weekend, in a home market marked by competition with companies such as Tesla.

The ES8, which starts at 448,000 Chinese yuan ($67,765) is half the starting price of Tesla's 836,000 yuan ($126,470) Model X in China.

Nio also enjoys the advantage of Beijing's state subsidies for electric vehicles.

"It's hard to assume" how this will affect Tesla's sales in China, Nio Founder and Chairman William Li told CNBC over the weekend. "Maybe Tesla will sell less ... after our product is out. Or probably, because the whole market is growing, they will still maintain growth in sales. It's hard to say."

"But we do have lots of customers that turned to us from Tesla, and many who have bought buy products from both," said Li, who spoke to CNBC on the sidelines of the ES8 launch event.
What is clear is that the two are competitors.

"For sure I think Tesla is our rival in that consumers will choose between our products. But I wouldn't say we are the Chinese Tesla, or they are the American Nio," Li said.

A seven-seat electric vehicle, the ES8 is made to order, customizable and equipped with an artificial intelligence system. The car will be able to accelerate to 100 km per hour (62 miles per hour) in 4.4 seconds.

Orders can be placed through an app.

China will eventually be Tesla's biggest market, analyst predicts from CNBC.

The fierce battle for electric vehicle market share in China is backed by an aggressive drive by Beijing to cut severe – and politically-sensitive – air pollution in the country.

Beijing also provides generous subsidies and state investment in the sector, including building a battery charging network.

At its launch on Saturday, Nio introduced a battery charging plan with a rental subscription set at 128,000 yuan ($19,366) a month.

Owners of the ES8 can charge their cars at stations that allow their batteries to be swapped in three minutes, Nio said in a press release. A mobile service also travels to car owners who need to charge their vehicles.

Nio plans to build over 1,100 "Power Swap" charging stations and deploy over 1,200 "Power Mobile" vehicles by 2020, it added.

IPO on the way?

China's state-backed fervor to push the EV market and its technology has attracted international giants such as BMW and Volkswagen to join the frayalongside Chinese tech titans Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

Tesla also has plans to start production in China, which is the world's largest market for electric vehicles. Sales of new-energy vehicles jumped 51.4 percent from January to November this year, Reuters reported, citing the country's auto industry association.

Founded in 2014 and formerly known as NextEV, Nio is in fact backed by investment holding conglomerate Tencent.

Nio is considering a U.S. Initial Public Offering next year, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. But Li said there's no hard date in place for an IPO.

"The plan of entering capital markets is just a necessary process during the development of the company. We will not set a specific deadline for an IPO, rather it will depend on the development of the company. Right now we don't have information to share on that," Li told CNBC

From: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/17/chinas-nio-takes-on-tesla-with-a-car-half-the-price-of-model-x.html

Open Blog - Monday

Yes, thank you.

"'Look At That Thing!' - The NYT Reveals The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program"

by Tyler Durden

Dec 16, 2017 11:55 PM

 

When tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theories cross paths with massive 'defense' budgets and excited politicians, "stranger things" happen.

Welcome to The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.



As The New York Times exposes, within the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena.

Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.

And while the clapping of crony capitalism screams alod from those two last sentences, one watch of the following video (just one of many), suggests the boondoggle may be based in some kind of reality after all... (the footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves. The Navy pilots can be heard trying to understand what they are seeing. “There’s a whole fleet of them,” one exclaims. Defense officials declined to release the location and date of the incident.)

Mr. Reid, who retired from Congress this year, said he was proud of the program.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Mr. Reid said in a recent interview in Nevada.

“I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”

While not addressing the merits of the program, Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at M.I.T., cautioned that not knowing the origin of an object does not mean that it is from another planet or galaxy.

“When people claim to observe truly unusual phenomena, sometimes it’s worth investigating seriously,” she said.

But, she added, “what people sometimes don’t get about science is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained.”

Read more here...

"Going Mad Max With A Killdozer"

https://timstoyymore.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/going-mad-max-with-a-killdozer/

"Collapse by Michael C Ruppert"

Old Racine Pics

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/306948530837618476/

"Cabin Fever 2017"

"Scott Walker, other state leaders, not competent to handle Foxconn’s deal"

The greatest worry about the Foxconn deal is that it’s being negotiated by leaders without an ounce of relevant experience and with an atrocious track record in managing the state’s economy.

• Wisconsin Gazette
• Aug 11, 2017
• 1

Wisconsin Republicans are trumpeting Foxconn’s stated interest in building a massive flat-screen-display manufacturing facility in the state. They say it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the state’s economy.

Perhaps. But between Scott Walker’s history and Foxconn’s, we have many reasons to sound the alarm about taxpayers funding a $3 billion incentive package.

The greatest worry about the Foxconn deal is that it’s being negotiated by leaders without an ounce of relevant experience and with an atrocious track record in managing the state’s economy.

Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos epitomize crony career politicians. Between them, they have virtually no business experience — unless you count Vos’ brief stint as owner of RoJo’s Popcorn.

The pitfalls of Walker’s Foxconn deal are more than merely speculative. The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau made a thorough study of the deal and found that Wisconsin will not receive a return on its investment until about 2042. But Walker’s interested in the political boost he hopes to get from the project right now, and he’s not about to let economic forecasts from experts get in his way. He’s treating the study just as he does climate science and every other inconvenient truth he encounters.

The bureau is not the first entity to cast doubts on the deal.  A report compiled by the Wisconsin Budget Project found that if Foxconn created 3,000 jobs — the minimum number it’s promising — each one would cost Wisconsin taxpayers as much as $587,00 under the terms of Walker’s proposal.

That’s some tough negotiating, Scott.

Walker’s financial blunderings are legendary. His jobs agency — the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation — is an epic disaster by any standards, tainted with cronyism, corruption, lack of accountability, incompetent recordkeeping and, of course, failure to create jobs. His management of the state’s economy — essentially implementing austerity to cut taxes for the wealthy — has lowered our standard of living, run up debt to be dealt with in future budgets, left our transportation infrastructure in shambles, and created the nation’s fastest-shrinking middle class.

And let’s not forget Walker’s monumental inability to manage his campaign budget during his brief, failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Or even to handle his personal finances.

We wouldn’t trust Walker with our own checkbooks, so why hand him $3 billion to manage a complex, multinational business negotiation?

But the deal that Walker wants to make with the Taiwanese company is alarming in other ways. It allows for limitless, irreparable environmental destruction. And the fourth-largest incentive deal in U.S. history — which The New York Times labeled a “lavish lure” — is being offered to a company with a long history of failing to follow through on its promises, not to mention treat its workers with dignity.

In addition, what are we to make of the philosophical turnaround by the state’s GOP?

Due to their strict adherence to “free-market” principles, Walker, Vos and their gang have in the past opposed projects that could have transformed the state’s economy — and opposed them specifically because they relied on government funding. But the Foxconn project that they’re lauding would cost state taxpayers an estimated $3 billion at a time when we can’t afford to fix our roads.

Even the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity has come out against Walker’s proposed deal.

Either Wisconsin’s Republican leaders are hypocrites or they’ve been lying all along about their belief that government involvement in the marketplace is toxic and doomed to failure.

Finally, it’s reasonable to suspect that next year’s elections, including Walker’s bid for a third term, are playing a role in the GOP’s abrupt change of heart about government involvement in economic development. Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his first term as governor, and he urged voters to hold him to that pledge. Now, halfway through his second term, he still hasn’t come close.

Walker’s over-the-top Foxconn maneuver before the next election could well reflect his desperation to deliver something — anything, and at any cost —to allow him to don the mantle of “job creator” that has eluded him for so long.