OASIS FORUM Post by the Golden Rule. GoldTent Oasis is not responsible for content or accuracy of posts. DYODD.

(Reuters) – The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama’s growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said.

How many contractors will deploy to Iraq – beyond the roughly 1,800 now working there for the U.S. State Department – will depend in part, the official said, on how widely dispersed U.S. troops advising Iraqi security forces are, and how far they are from U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Still, the preparations to increase the number of contractors – who can be responsible for everything from security to vehicle repair and food service – underscores Obama’s growing commitment in Iraq. When U.S. troops and diplomats venture into war zones, contractors tend to follow, doing jobs once handled by the military itself.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-usa-iraq-contractors-idUSKBN0K20AW20141224

PARIS (Reuters) – When President Francois Hollande unveiled a “super-tax” on the rich in 2012, some feared an exodus of business, sporting and artistic talent. One adviser warned it was a Socialist step too far that would turn France into “Cuba without sun”.

Two years on, with the tax due to expire at the end of this month, the mass emigration has not happened. But the damage to France’s appeal as a home for top earners has been great, and the pickings from the levy paltry.

“The reform clearly damaged France’s reputation and competitiveness,” said Jorg Stegemann, head of Kennedy Executive, an executive search firm based in France and Germany.

“It clearly has become harder to attract international senior managers to come to France than it was,” he added.

more https://ca.news.yahoo.com/france-waves-discreet-goodbye-75-percent-super-tax-162358813–business.html

It’s just a temporary diversion … on our way to Squillionaire Acres. 🙂

Cardboard boxes are underrated.

Goldgroup Completes the Sale of Caballo Blanco

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldgroup-completes-sale-caballo-blanco-110000794.html

A Merry Christmas to everyone at the Oasis Forum. Hoping 2015 will bring a Happy & Prosperous  year for all gold bugs. It can’t get much worse but it may; we are likely to get hammered when the SM crashes (by March), but afterwards we’ll get a long, sustained up-wave. Economic numbers from govt are so fuzzy they can’t possibly be accurate, and I suspect an insider leak of the chicanery and machinations may prompt the crash.

Has anyone in their memory seen the govt as out of touch and incompetent as today? As a 67 year-old New Yorker I can say that I can confirm the points Mr. Copper makes in his posts—I saw the same events unfold as he describes. He’s right on the mark. This year the city has gone backwards to the years of the Dinkins mayoralty. Both Obama and DiBlasio have Sharpton as an adviser. If that’s the best they can do in a land of 300 million potential advisers their decisions explain themselves. All my life I’ve ran into arrogant clowns pretending they are the smartest guy in the room; my experience teaches that guys like that are usually the dumbest, and hiding their lack of character behind a veil or arrogance and corruption. I thought they would arrest the tax evader at his D.C. march, but no such luck; if anyone deserves a Lois Lerner session it is him.

To parphrase Henny Youngman:  Take my mayor—please!

So here’s hoping for better days ahead for our country and gold bugs everywhere.

And a safe and Merry Christmas for all our brave soldiers on active duty around the world. God Bless them all.

Regards from Floater

Ooops! Dispatch, we have a problem with the
Alaska Gold Train…
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/511427

Morning All

Merry Christmas  to my Canadian,  American and International Friends

Winedoc

I’d take it easy on the sea food on west coast, not too much. I’m going to try the other side, Canadian salmon plus scallops Brûlée when I have the time to make it.

Chateau cardboard box, Nov, 2014…I think it was the first week so it is well aged…

Actually, the Beringer sufficed. The seafood I’m sure wasn’t even close to what he gets spoiled with. That was cardboard box more than the wine, come to think about it.

Oh and that rusted out SnG pic, ipso is champin at the bit to move up from his cardboard box outside the Quickee Mart

That’s the “Paper Gold” train.