All week I've been seeing references to this headline:

"China could announce that it holds 30,000 tons of gold to back the Yuan/Renminbi."

As a Forex trader, the story took me by surprise, even though China has been stockpiling for years, and is the world's largest gold producer. Also, it's not like China to pull this trigger so fast. However, in the South China Sea last week, the US started militarily terrorizing China with war ships and fighter jets — and China warned (in so many polite words) that the US planted the seeds of its own doom.

So, maybe that's what this is all about.

At Daily Kos at 5:00 Pacific time. Focus on Bass

Some participants: Jack Casady, Willie Dixon, Jaco Pastorius, Chrstian McBride, Ray Brown,
Rob Wasserman, Jack Bruce, Al Gare, John Clayton, Les Claypool, Buckethead, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten,

Blog participation and the 90-9-1 rule. -OR- How I learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.

This isn't my first time for this rodeo. About 10 years ago I created and ran a blog/forum for the Home Owners Association that I lived in. I was the Association President at the time and if you've ever lived in a Association and involved in the politics then you are well aware of what I call the "big fish in a little pond" syndrome and the "I, me, mine" factor. Those darling human traits certainly were not only expressed in the politics but also spilled over into the blog/forum as well as I had to deal with an over abundance of city folks transplanted to the country life that had a hard time making that adjustment. It was then that I researched and became aware of the community participation ratio and learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.

Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Source

Just thought people might be interested to see this; especially those of us trying to puzzle out the "why are we allied with, and benefitting al-qaeda types again?" question.

The link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/05/dia-docs-west-wants-a-salafist-pr...
(The All-Caps is copied and pasted; and not me yelling)

The debate in the Senate about extending the Patriot Act has gotten so bizarre that I suspect it is all kabuki.
Mitch McConnell's inability to muster a fillibuster-proof 60 votes for a straight extension of the controversial act has gotten most of the headlines, but there is a lot more happening underneath that we need to be aware of.

There will be a special edition of Not The Evening Blues tonight featuring Country Joe and The Fish, with News, Opinion, Commentary, Evening Greens and the like. There will be a cameo by Phil Ochs.

It won't be up to Joe's and Johnny's standards, but there will be something to fill the gap.

Y'all come.

Good morning, 99percenters! How's it going in your neighborhood today so far? Hope all is well with everyone.

It's a rainy Memorial Day weekend here. I'm preoccupied with the weather because there are flowers to plant! We've had rain every day for at least 2-1/2 weeks. Maybe more; I've lost track. And, the forecast doesn't look hopeful. I try to appreciate it because other areas such as California would love to have it. But, enough already.

This is a closeup of the flower on the first plant shown below.
Come inside and take a look.

This evening's music features the blues rock band Canned Heat.

Republican candidates have decided to use the recent setbacks against ISIS as a winning issue in the 2016 election, and it seems to be working.

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist and singer Andrew Brown.