Friday, December 31, 2010
An end of the year suggestion, buy silver in 2011...
Mark McHugh
Part 4. A little more math
Estimates of total silver production since the dawn of man range from 46 to 53 billion ounces (roughly 11x gold production), but unlike gold, we've used pretty much all of it (although squandered might be a better word). It's in our cemeteries (fillings) and scattered throughout our landfills. There hasn't been a significant surplus since 1990. Ted Butler and others estimate that there is far less silver bullion in the world than gold bullion and they back up their case with numbers that the paperbugs have never even bothered to refute. So why does gold trade at more than 45 times the price of silver? Because JP Morgan, the US government, and every other psuedo-capitalist parasite wants it that way. But that's a truth for another day...
Part 6. So what's silver worth?
The short answer is: more. If silver were priced based on its occurrence relative to gold, it would be over $125/oz. If it were priced on its availability - somewhere around $2,000. But if you are content to let the likes of Blythe Masters dictate the value based on truckloads of worthless paper promises, you can expect ultra-low prices until the whole thing blows up. Of course at that point, we'll be so busy killing each other for food no one will have time to say, "I told you so."
The silver vigilantes just want you to re-learn what the phrases like, "cold, hard cash," and "payment in full" are supposed to mean. There not asking you to sink everything you have into physical silver, just a little. Silver can't be printed into oblivion, or stolen by a cyber attack. Why wouldn't you want to own some of your very own?
A paper dollar from 1960 is worth exactly the same as a paper dollar in 2010, but four quarters from 1960 are worth more than $21. Given the fiscal insanity of the US government, I can't imagine the US dollar surviving another 50 years, but I'm quite sure that silver will still be useful.
Please consider getting some.
Read whole article:
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/12.10/vigilantes.html
Will silver, someday, be worth more than gold? You've got to watch this...
Click on image to see full screen...
"Instead of investing to rebuild our manufacturing base, the U.S. government is now spending 1 trillion dollars annually to maintain military bases around the world and fund wars like Iraq and Afghanistan."
The Dow Jones is up over 75% since it’s low in March of 2009. Oil is up over 90% from it’s low in February 2009. Copper is up 200% from it’s low in December 2008.
Prices for almost all stocks and commodities have been going through the roof, having analysts on wallstreet proclaiming the recession is over and an economic recovery is here.
But how could an economic recovery be here if unemployment is still at a multi-decade high over 17%.
The Truth is our economy is not recovering. Prices are only rising due to INFLATION.
The federal reserve has held interest rates at 0% for way to long. Our financial system has been flooded with trillions of dollars in newly printed money. Those who have had access to the FEDS newly printed money have done well this past year. This is why Wallstreet paid out record bonuses.
This has come at the expense of the rest of America becoming dependant on unemployment checks and foodstamps.
There are now over 40 million Americans on food stamps, up 22% over the last year. Food stamp usage has now increased for almost 2 years. In 2009 Americans received over 2.1 trillion dollars from the government in the form of transfer payments, which equals the 2.1 trillion dollars the citizens paid in taxes.
In 2010, the government paid out more in benefits then they received in taxes and the US budget deficit started to fall out of control. (if Americans were taxed 100% of their income, it would not be enough to balance the budget)
When medicare was created in 1966 it cost 3 billion dollars per year, and they estimated the cost would rise to 12 billion a year in 1990. The actual cost of medicare in 1990 was 107 billion dollars. (792% more than projected) Today it costs 408 billion dollars anually.
In 2003, at the beginning of the Iraq war the white house estimated the war would have a total cost of 50-60 billion dollars. In reality, it has already cost over 720 billion dollars. (Over 1000% more than projected)
The congressional budget office is projecting that the recently passed health-care bill will cost over 940 billion dollars over the next ten years. If history is any indication, the actual cost of the health-care bill over the next decade will be many trillion dollars. (making it the final nail in the coffin of the U.S. economy)
Our economy has stayed afloat until now due to the U.S. dollar status as the worlds reserve currency and our ability to borrow an endless amount of money from China. For many years the U.S. has been able to convince the Chinese to roll over their maturing U.S. treasuries plus interest into large amounts of new ones. However, China has now reduced their U.S. treasury holdings and the U.S. is now calling them currency manipulators.
China has manipulated their currency by pegging it to the U.S. dollar, but it’s their currency peg that has allowed Americans to maintain their phony standard of living for so long. If China listens to U.S. politicians and allows their currency to strengthen, Americans will no longer be able to afford cheap imports from China. U.S. politicians want China’s currency to strengthen because they believe it will decrease our trade deficit. (sure, our trade deficit would shrink from Americans importing less from China, but it wont have the desired effect of increasing U.S. exports)
Years ago America had companies like RCA and Zenith that produced televisions, but today there are no television manufacturers left.
In 1910 70% of U.S. womens clothing, and 40% of U.S. mens clothing was produced in New York. Today, the textile industry in New York is non-existent, and 35% of clothing purchased in the U.S. is imported from China.
Instead of investing to rebuild our manufacturing base, the U.S. government is now spending 1 trillion dollars annually to maintain military bases around the world and fund wars like Iraq and Afghanistan...
Read all five parts:
http://www.thehalsreport.com/2010/12/us-economic-collapse-hyperinflation/
Here's a real warm-monger moron for you...
Lewis Gordon Pugh - unable to kayak to Santa's workshop
Around the beginning of the summer, an explorer named Lewis Gordon Pugh announced that he was going to paddle a kayak all the way to the North Pole. Pugh apparently believed that there would be little or no ice blocking his way.
The internet was jammed with posts about the Arctic being melted by September.
I made the offer of a $50 wager against anyone willing to put up $10 that this guy would have to turn around before reaching the North Pole. The great Dr. Ralph took me up on it.
Well, not only did the guy turn around before reaching Santa's workshop, the objective of the publicity stunt/journey changed. It began as a trip to the North Pole in a kayak to show that there wasn't any ice left. Unfortunately for Pugh, by the time the kayak left The Mother Ship it was obvious that the only way to get him and his kayak to the North Pole would be to hook them both to Balto the mighty sled dog and start saying "mush".
The purpose of the trip had to change, since it was obvious to everyone that there was a shitload of ice between Lewis Pugh and the North Pole.
Therefore, they turned it into something about posting the flags of every nation in the Arctic, to show how we all need the Arctic. Never mind that there wasn't room in the freakin' kayak for 192 flags, and the flags had to ride in the support boat. We're talking symbolism, not substance here.
Read more:
http://thewhitedsepulchre.blogspot.com/2008/09/lewis-gordon-pugh-unable-to-kayak-to.html
A far cry from the 2,500 we've been hearing about...
How do we know there’s a scientific consensus on climate change? Pundits and the press tell us so. And how do the pundits and the press know? Until recently, they typically pointed to the number 2500 – that’s the number of scientists associated with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Those 2500, the pundits and the press believed, had endorsed the IPCC position.
To their embarrassment, most of the pundits and press discovered that they were mistaken – those 2500 scientists hadn’t endorsed the IPCC’s conclusions, they had merely reviewed some part or other of the IPCC’s mammoth studies. To add to their embarrassment, many of those reviewers from within the IPCC establishment actually disagreed with the IPCC’s conclusions, sometimes vehemently.
The upshot? The punditry looked for and recently found an alternate number to tout — “97% of the world’s climate scientists” accept the consensus, articles in the Washington Post and elsewhere have begun to claim.
This number will prove a new embarrassment to the pundits and press who use it. The number stems from a 2009 online survey of 10,257 earth scientists, conducted by two researchers at the University of Illinois. The survey results must have deeply disappointed the researchers – in the end, they chose to highlight the views of a subgroup of just 77 scientists, 75 of whom thought humans contributed to climate change. The ratio 75/77 produces the 97% figure that pundits now tout.
The two researchers started by altogether excluding from their survey the thousands of scientists most likely to think that the Sun, or planetary movements, might have something to do with climate on Earth – out were the solar scientists, space scientists, cosmologists, physicists, meteorologists and astronomers. That left the 10,257 scientists in disciplines like geology, oceanography, paleontology, and geochemistry that were somehow deemed more worthy of being included in the consensus. The two researchers also decided that scientific accomplishment should not be a factor in who could answer – those surveyed were determined by their place of employment (an academic or a governmental institution). Neither was academic qualification a factor – about 1,000 of those surveyed did not have a PhD, some didn’t even have a master’s diploma.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/30/lawrence-solomon-75-climate-scientists-think-humans-contribute-to-global-warming/#ixzz19iIhDdeL
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/30/lawrence-solomon-75-climate-scientists-think-humans-contribute-to-global-warming/#ixzz19iIOoFnb
Yeah, but can they hit homeruns?
According to a recent report by AOL News, as many as 25 percent or more of police officers are regularly take steroid drugs, which has led to a rise in the number of assaults and other cases of "roid rage" occurring against citizens by those in law enforcement.
Lawrence Payne, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently told AOL News that steroid use among cops is a "big problem" and that "it's something we shouldn't ignore." After all, numerous investigations have revealed an alarmingly high rate of use, including an investigation in New Jersey that pinned 248 cops and 53 firefighters with steroid use.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030871_steroids_police_officers.html#ixzz19hPp91lg
"Today, the drug movements and networks are controlled by the Americans and the hegemonic system and Afghans are acting as their agents..." But we knew this already...
I have had former students of mine who have served in Afghanistan tell me they have witnessed caravans of black SUVs driven by Americans dressed in civilian clothes, all giving the same name when questioned, pull up to the poppy fields the soldiers were guarding and remove large numbers of plants filling up the SUVs and driving away smiling and waving to the soldiers as they pulled away. The soldiers know what is going on...
Official: US, NATO Now in Control of Narcotic Trade in Afghanistan
A senior Iranian judiciary official blasted the West's performance in fighting drugs in Afghanistan, and stressed that the western states, particularly the US, are now in control of the drug trade in the war-torn country.
"Today, Afghans have no special influence in the issue of narcotics but the NATO and western states control drug production and dealings and are busy in this fields," First Deputy Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raeesi said at a conference of the anti-drug police chiefs here in Tehran on Tuesday.
"Today, the drug movements and networks are controlled by the Americans and the hegemonic system and Afghans are acting as their agents," Raeesi noted.
He blamed the western countries for Afghanistan's deteriorating drug problems, and added, "They can prevent drug plantation and production through their capabilities in the short run but we are witnessing no action by these countries and drug production has rather found a new form due to their presence."
The official blasted the western countries for the aggravating drug problem in Afghanistan, and described the huge increase in the production of narcotics in the war-torn country as "a crime against humanity".
Earlier, an Afghan lawmaker had disclosed that the foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan are involved in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs in the country, adding that the British troops have even trained a number of experts for opium cultivation.
"As long as foreign forces are present in Afghanistan, the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs will continue in the country," Nasimeh Niazi told FNA in April.
Heroin-production labs in Helmand, which did not exist before the US-led war in Afghanistan, are now plentiful and work overtly, she added.
Eastern Iran borders Afghanistan, which is the world's number one opium and drug producer. Iran's geographical position has made the country a favorite transit corridor for drug traffickers who intend to smuggle their cargoes from Afghanistan to drug dealers in Europe.
Iran spends billions of dollars and has lost thousands of its police troops in the war against traffickers. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 85 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign.
Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22579
A senior Iranian judiciary official blasted the West's performance in fighting drugs in Afghanistan, and stressed that the western states, particularly the US, are now in control of the drug trade in the war-torn country.
"Today, Afghans have no special influence in the issue of narcotics but the NATO and western states control drug production and dealings and are busy in this fields," First Deputy Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raeesi said at a conference of the anti-drug police chiefs here in Tehran on Tuesday.
"Today, the drug movements and networks are controlled by the Americans and the hegemonic system and Afghans are acting as their agents," Raeesi noted.
He blamed the western countries for Afghanistan's deteriorating drug problems, and added, "They can prevent drug plantation and production through their capabilities in the short run but we are witnessing no action by these countries and drug production has rather found a new form due to their presence."
The official blasted the western countries for the aggravating drug problem in Afghanistan, and described the huge increase in the production of narcotics in the war-torn country as "a crime against humanity".
Earlier, an Afghan lawmaker had disclosed that the foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan are involved in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs in the country, adding that the British troops have even trained a number of experts for opium cultivation.
"As long as foreign forces are present in Afghanistan, the cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs will continue in the country," Nasimeh Niazi told FNA in April.
Heroin-production labs in Helmand, which did not exist before the US-led war in Afghanistan, are now plentiful and work overtly, she added.
Eastern Iran borders Afghanistan, which is the world's number one opium and drug producer. Iran's geographical position has made the country a favorite transit corridor for drug traffickers who intend to smuggle their cargoes from Afghanistan to drug dealers in Europe.
Iran spends billions of dollars and has lost thousands of its police troops in the war against traffickers. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 85 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign.
Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22579
One benefit of hyperinflation...
by Egon von Greyerz
We now live in a world where governments print worthless pieces of paper to buy other worthless pieces of paper that combined with worthless derivatives, finance assets whose values are totally dependent on all these worthless debt instruments. Thus most of these assets are also worth-less.
So the world financial system is a house of cards where each instrument’s false value is artificially supported by another instrument’s false value. The fuse of the world financial market time bomb has been lit. There is no longer a question of IF it will happen but only WHEN and HOW. The world lives in blissful ignorance of this. Stockmarkets remain strong and investors worldwide have piled into government bonds in a perceived flight to safety. Due to a century of money creation (and in particular since the 1970s) by governments and by the fractal banking system, investors believe that stocks, bonds and property can only go up. Understanding risk and sound investment principles has not been necessary in these casino markets with guaranteed payouts for anyone who plays the game. Maximum leverage and derivatives have in the last 10-15 years driven markets to unfathomable risk levels, with massive rewards for the participants.
In the meantime central banks are cranking up the printing presses but as Bernanke recently said quantitative easing is an “inappropriate” description of what should be called “securities purchases”! Who is he kidding? What the Fed is buying has nothing to do with “securities”. There is no security whatsoever in the rubbish the Fed is purchasing. They are buying worthless pieces of paper with worthless pieces of paper. This is the Ponzi scheme of all Ponzi schemes.
Let us be very clear, this financial Shangri-La is now coming to an end. The financial system is broke, many western sovereign states are bankrupt and governments will continue to apply the only remedy they know which is issuing debt that will never ever be repaid with normal money.
Hyperinflation Watch
The result of massive money printing is a collapsing currency, leading to escalating prices and eventually hyperinflation. This is in simple terms how every hyperinflationary period in history has happened. If in addition, there are world shortages of food, energy and other commodities, this will accelerate the process.
There are currently a number of indicators all pointing to escalating money printing and an imminent start of a hyperinflationary era. Here are some of them:
1. Fiscal Gap widening at alarming rates in many major economies.
2. Commodity prices at all-time highs.
3. Long term interest rates rising.
4. Most Currencies falling.
5. Precious Metals at all-time highs against most currencies.
Read more:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/333/888/Hyperinflation_will_drive_gold_to_unthinkable_heights.html
"So why is so much of the wealth of the globe located in places such as Monaco, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Isle of Man?"
You and I live in a totally different world than the ultra-rich and the international banking elite do. Many of them live in a world where they simply do not pay income taxes. Today, it is estimated that a third of all the wealth in the world is held in offshore banks. So why is so much of the wealth of the globe located in places such as Monaco, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Isle of Man? It isn't because those are fun places to visit. It is to avoid taxes. The super wealthy and the international banking elite think that it is really funny that our paychecks are constantly being drained by federal taxes, state taxes and Social Security taxes while they literally pay nothing at all. These incredibly rich elitists make a ton of money doing business in wealthy western nations and then they transfer virtually all of their profits offshore where they don't have to contribute any of it in taxes. It works out really great for them, but it sucks for the rest of us.
It is estimated that approximately $1.4 trillion is held in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands alone. According to an article in Forbes magazine, there is a total of approximately 15 trillion to 20 trillion dollars in offshore bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios...
Read more:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-shadow-banking-system-a-third-of-all-the-wealth-in-the-world-is-held-in-offshore-banks
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Polar ice cap moves to England...
Ice floes the size of cars lends sub-zero Cumbrian shoreline the look of an Arctic wasteland
Children clamber over an icy landscape and gaze in awe at the desolate wasteland.
As they look out to sea, ice floes the size of cars drift to shore - a sight more likely in Polar regions than the English seaside.
But this is Cumbria, where sub-zero temperatures have frozen the surface of inshore waters.
The rising sun reflected from the clouds on to the icy coast of the Solway Firth created a magical light.
It shows how cold the weather has been, as salt water only begins to freeze at −1.8°C (28.9°F).
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342731/Welcome-frozen-wastes--Cumbria-Freezing-sea-creates-eerie-wilderness.html#ixzz19ei3g2VT
News Flash: China just like the United States...
China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month.
Link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8229789/China-preparing-for-armed-conflict-in-every-direction.html
How convenient. Are the names of those who worked in the WTC leading up to 9/11 missing or destroyed?..
Obviously, there was work being done...
NYC Department of Buildings: No Copies of City Issued Permits for Construction Within WTC 7 Found For Years 1999, 2000 and 2001
A Freedom of Information reply from the New York City Department of Buildings reports that copies of city permits for routine or major construction work within World Trade Center building 7 during the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 could not be located. Records for the “ALT 2” category were requested.
“DOB divides construction work into two main categories: New Buildings (NB) and Alterations (ALT). Alterations are further divided into three types—ALT1s, ALT2s and ALT3s—depending upon the scope of work. An ALT1 is a major alteration in which the use or occupancy of an existing property changes. An ALT2 is an alteration in which the use or occupancy of a facility does not change, but includes multiple work types, i.e., plumbing and construction. ALT1s and ALT2s must be filed by a registered architect or licensed engineer."
Link:
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-12-30/nyc-department-buildings-no-copies-city-issued-construction-permits-wtc-7-found-years-1999-2000-and-2001
A Freedom of Information reply from the New York City Department of Buildings reports that copies of city permits for routine or major construction work within World Trade Center building 7 during the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 could not be located. Records for the “ALT 2” category were requested.
“DOB divides construction work into two main categories: New Buildings (NB) and Alterations (ALT). Alterations are further divided into three types—ALT1s, ALT2s and ALT3s—depending upon the scope of work. An ALT1 is a major alteration in which the use or occupancy of an existing property changes. An ALT2 is an alteration in which the use or occupancy of a facility does not change, but includes multiple work types, i.e., plumbing and construction. ALT1s and ALT2s must be filed by a registered architect or licensed engineer."
Link:
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-12-30/nyc-department-buildings-no-copies-city-issued-construction-permits-wtc-7-found-years-1999-2000-and-2001
Houston, we have a problem...
FLIGHT DECK DOOR CLOSED FOR ENTIRE FLIGHT
Newly decoded data provided by an independent researcher and computer programmer from Australia exposes alarming evidence that the reported hijacking aboard American Airlines Flight 77 was impossible to have existed. A data parameter labeled "FLT DECK DOOR", cross checks with previously decoded data obtained by Pilots For 9/11 Truth from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) through the Freedom Of Information Act.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 departed Dulles International Airport bound for Los Angeles at 8:20 am Eastern Time. According to reports and data, a hijacking took place between 08:50:54 and 08:54:11[1] in which the hijackers allegedly crashed the aircraft into the Pentagon at 09:37:45. Reported by CNN, according to Ted Olson, wife Barbara Olson had called him from the reported flight stating, "...all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers..."[2]. However, according to Flight Data provided by the NTSB, the Flight Deck Door was never opened in flight. How were the hijackers able to gain access to the cockpit, remove the pilots, and navigate the aircraft to the Pentagon if the Flight Deck Door remained closed?[3]
Read whole article:
http://pilotsfor911truth.org/american_77_hijack_impossible.html
Here's a person who spoke up about 9/11and was ignored...
If you’ve heard of David Philip Schippers at all, chances are you remember him going head to head with former president Bill Clinton.
Schippers, a Republican, was the special prosecutor in the Clinton impeachment case in the late 1990s. He was also the former Chief Investigative Counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Not exactly an anti-establishment figure.
But when it comes to 9/11, Schippers has some things to say that shake the foundations of the official story.
Just two days after 9/11, Schippers went public with the explosive statement that he had been told by FBI agents months before 9/11 that there would be a massive terrorist attack targeting the financial arteries of lower Manhattan. The revelation came in an interview he did on WRRK in Pittsburgh.
These agents, who were reportedly from Illinois and Minnesota, confided in Schippers that they knew the location and date of the “impending attacks.” They even knew the names of the hijackers and the sources of their funding!
Schippers said he attempted to contact then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and other federal officials six weeks before 9/11 to report what he’d been told. Ashcroft never returned his calls. He also failed to interest at least one Congressman into investigating the intelligence warning.
Instead of Ashcroft, Schippers received a call from a justice department official who told him, “We don’t start our investigations from the top.” The official said he’d get back to Schippers, but the call never came. Keep in mind how firmly placed in the Washington establishment Schippers was – and what a credible figure he would have been. And yet he couldn’t get a call back from the Attorney General on a matter of such consequence.
But the story’s even worse than that. FBI agents who brought important the information to their superiors were told to end their inquiries or face possible arrest.
David Ray Griffin reported in The New Pearl Harbor that Schippers’ story was backed up by another conservative source. William Norman Grigg in The New American magazine writes that FBI agents he interviewed said that the information given to Schippers was widely known within the FBI for months before 9/11.
Why hasn’t this information been on the front page of every newspaper in America? Or even one newspaper?
Read more:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/332/997/FBI_told_Clinton_prosecutor_about_details_of_9_11_attack_weeks_in_advance.html
Another warm blast from the past. 1999 that is...
Why are winters warming up so much faster over Northern Hemisphere continents than over the rest of the globe? A new study by NASA researchers in the June 3 issue of the journal Nature is the first to link the well-documented large degree of North America and Eurasia winter warming and the associated wind changes to rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.
Yada, yada, yada...
Link:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/19990602/
Domestic spying for bonus points...
By Dan Feidt for Twin Cities Indymedia - More than 300 newly released pages of Iowa FBI investigation files confirm the existence of a busy network of federal agents across the Midwest dedicated to clamping down on political dissenters. A Freedom of Information Act request by Des Moines' David Goodner revealed two extensive "Terrorism Enterprise" style investigations against dissenters mainly run by the Omaha FBI office into Iowa, including digging through garbage, watching restaurants, advanced data mining and cell phone record collection. The agents involved claimed "statistical accomplishment" of saving our nation from terrorism: this is exactly, how, and why, federal agents endlessly create pretend counterterror campaigns...
Turning back to the Iowa FBI documents, we can learn a number of important structural features about how the FBI's turbocharged domestic terrorism machine targets people, feeds data around, and adds people to the actual main Terrorist Watchlist. A number of interesting features emerge from the Iowa/Omaha FBI investigations, though heavily redacted. The investigation methods including LexisNexis and obscure tracking systems, as well as the propagandizing material distributed among authorities like the infamous tattoo paranoia pamphlet, are laid out in the docs. We can't learn everything, but we can clearly see that federal agents are incentivized to accuse people of more-or-less quasi-terrorism, then claim statistical terrorism accomplishments to advance their careers. The proof is all in these documents. Are you feeling safer yet?
Read more:
http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2010/12/fbi-agents-earning-career-points-every.html
James Madison once wrote that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual war.”
by Jack Hunter
James Madison once wrote that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual war.” Many Americans began to learn this lesson in recent months while traveling, as the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) began harassing and groping air travelers to what many consider an overly intrusive degree.
Americans should not have been surprised. The new, more aggressive TSA travel measures simply reflect the latest manifestation of the overall mentality of our ever-growing national security state, in which civil liberties and basic freedoms continue to fall by the wayside in the name of creating a risk-free society.
But in a truly free society, there’s no such thing as being risk-free. Toward that end, our federal government has more often become the enemy, not the protector, of American freedom. Just as today, “national security” is more often an excuse, not a legitimate justification, for government intrusion and growth.
The basic function of any government is to protect citizens’ liberties, yet federal officials now use vague, peculiar, and questionable interpretations of “national security” to promote policies either antagonistic toward or antithetical to America’s most basic precepts and principles. Personal choice? Freedom of information? Constitutionally declared wars? Civil liberties? Each continues to be damaged to some degree in the name of “national security,” at the expense of our actual security, and at a cost our ancestors would have never tolerated.
Read whole article:
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/12/29/national-security-means-tyranny/
England: Coldest winter in 300 years. Now, that's what I mean by warm...
If you thought last week was as cold as you could bear it, brace yourself. Forecasters say the worst is yet to come, and this winter could be the harshest since the Thames froze over more than three centuries ago.
Temperatures for December are the coldest on record, with the average reading close to minus 1c – almost six degrees below normal.
And with forecasters warning that this winter’s ‘mini ice age’ might last until mid-March, this winter could be the worst since 1683-84 when a fair was held on the Thames.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342515/UK-snow-big-freeze-weather-means-winter-set-coldest-300-YEARS.html#ixzz19bn6DQmV
Roll up your sleeve. The police now want your blood...
Tampa, Florida-- With New Year's Eve only days away, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expects this to be one of the deadliest weeks of the year on the roads.
But now a new weapon is being used in the fight against drunk driving.
It's a change that could make you more likely to be convicted.
"I think it's a great deterrent for people," said Linda Unfried, from Mother's Against Drunk Driving in Hillsborough County.
Florida is among several states now holding what are called "no refusal" checkpoints.
It means if you refuse a breath test during a traffic stop, a judge is on site, and issues a warrant that allows police to perform a mandatory blood test.
It's already being done in several counties, and now Unfried is working to bring it to the Tampa Bay area.
"I think you'll see the difference because people will not drink and drive. I truly believe that," she said.
Not everyone is on board, though.
DUI defense attorney Kevin Hayslett sees the mandatory blood test as a violation of constitutional rights.
"It's a slippery slope and it's got to stop somewhere," Hayslett explained, "what other misdemeanor offense do we have in the United States where the government can forcefully put a needle into your arm?"
Read more:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/story.aspx?storyid=165079&catid=250
So you want names of prominent scientists who claim the earth is entering a cooling cycle?
By Matt Vooro
For many years now a good number of non-AGW scientists, meteorologists, engineers, researchers and the like have looked at the possibilities of a cooling planet. I enclose some of the ones that I have noted in my research. Indeed there is a significant number of scientists, academics, meteorologists and researchers who disagree with IPCC’s belief that the globe is very likely headed for unprecedented global warming due to man-made greenhouse gases.
The climate of this planet oscillates between periods of approximately 30 years of warming followed by approximately 30 years of cooling. Rather than 100 years of unprecedented global warming as predicted by IPCC, the global temperatures have leveled off and we seem to be heading for cooler weather...
It would appear that IPCC underestimated the repetitive and significant impact of normal planetary cycles like the PDO, AO, AMO, NAO, ENSO, DEEP OCEAN CURRENTS [MOC], SOLAR CYCLES and UNEXPECTED PERIODS OF VOLCANIC ASH.
This is understandable as IPCC never had a mandate to study all causes of global warming but only the man induced component which seems to be dwarfed by natural planetary factors, which other scientists are now finding out. Read papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.
Here is a list of 31 different international climate scientists, academics, meteorologists, climate researchers and engineers who have researched this topic and who disagree with AGW science and IPCC forecasts, and are projecting much cooler weather for the next 1-3 decades...
Read the list here:
http://notrickszone.com/2010/12/28/global-cooling-consensus-is-heating-up-cooling-over-the-next-1-to-3-decades/
Dollar near point of collapse?
Buy Gold and Silver Now As the Ultimate Store of Wealth
The consequences of decades of abuse to the system of credit in the United States are coming to a head and the gray clouds that loom over the skies of the dollar are growing bolder by the day and darker by the minute. The cold hard fact is I expect the U.S. dollar to ultimately collapse within 24 short months.
So says Greg McCoach (www.wealthdaily.com) in an article* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com, has reformatted and edited [...] below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement. McCoach goes on to say:
While the price of gold will soar and get most of the attention, it’s silver that typically outperforms gold, dollar for dollar invested. In certain instances, when gold prices have doubled, the price of silver has outperformed gold by a factor of more than six-to-one!
The early adopters — those who wisely purchased their positions in gold and silver before the masses come — will sleep well at night while others fret as they watch the purchasing power of their savings evaporate like water in the Sahara.
Read more:
http://www.munknee.com/2010/12/the-u-s-dollar-will-collapse-within-24-months-got-gold-or-silver/
"Instead of getting your food from a neighbor, you'll have to get it from a food factory that passes the FDA's "safety" inspections even though it's still injecting aspartame, sodium nitrite and MSG into its food products."
We've been covering health freedom topics with great intensity lately, and that has taken away from our typical coverage of natural cures, herbal remedies, medicinal foods and so on. Some people are asking why we've shifted our focus, and I want to answer those questions with clarity and determination.
It's one thing to know HOW to use herbs and superfoods, and there's a wealth of knowledge to be gained in that area. But it's another thing entirely to have ACCESS to those herbs and superfoods without being criminalized or harassed by the government in the process. I would say that unless you have access to those healing remedies, all the knowledge in the world of how to use them makes no difference.
Our access to natural healing remedies, superfoods and herbs is under constant threat. For example, the FDA has outlawed supplement companies and food companies from offering scientifically-validated free speech about their products. If a cherry company links to a scientific study on its website, providing a scientific basis for clinical evidence that cherries can help prevent gout, for example, the FDA sends them a threatening letter claiming they may be subjected to criminal prosecution, have their products seized, and even thrown in prison for selling "unapproved drugs." (http://www.naturalnews.com/019366.html)
Both local and federal authorities, meanwhile, have declared war on raw milk producers, treating them like drug dealers with armed raids, arrests and criminal prosecutions. If milking a cow and selling that milk to your neighbor is now a federal crime, what other foods or natural substances might the feds go after next? (It looks like they may soon outlaw the selling of breast milk!)
With the passage of the recent Food Safety Modernization Act, the FDA will be moving forward with so-called Codex Alimentarius harmonization. It's written right into the bill text (http://www.naturalnews.com/030863_f...). This law also requires the FDA to set up enforcement offices in foreign nations to run a global food safety scheme that will try to pasteurize, irradiate or fumigate virtually all foods entering the United States. This is an effort to kill these foods and destroy most of their nutritive qualities. "Safety" is just the excuse to sterilize your food.
This same law also gives the FDA authority to inspect and shut down backyard gardeners, small local famers, small greenhouse operations, people who sell items at the farmers' market, and so on. No, these groups are not automatically exempt from the bill as was claimed by bill proponents: They must "apply" to be granted exemption by the FDA -- a process requiring them to produce tax returns, safety documentation and a pile of paperwork that the FDA can choose to declare "insufficient."
With our health freedoms under attack, it's crucial that we take a stand and support our Natural Law rights (God-given rights) to grow our own food and medicine, to buy food and natural medicine, and to sell what we grow to our local neighbors and community members. All these rights are under assault by the federal government, and if we don't work to oppose the tyrants who want to take away our access to healing foods, herbs and supplements, we may end up living in a nation where vitamins are outlawed (or at least the natural, food-based vitamins are), herbs are regulated off the shelves and local farmers' markets are shut down.
Instead of getting your food from a neighbor, you'll have to get it from a food factory that passes the FDA's "safety" inspections even though it's still injecting aspartame, sodium nitrite and MSG into its food products. (The FDA considers all those chemical food additives to be "safe," believe it or not.)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030872_health_freedom_natural_law.html#ixzz19bKIE0wk
Here's a tip for the government watch list...
A year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they have made it easier to add individuals' names to a terrorist watch list and improved the government's ability to thwart an attack in the United States.
Since then, senior counterterrorism officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip, as long as it is deemed credible, can lead to a name being placed on the watch list.
Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122901584.html
"If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars."
The following are 17 national debt statistics which prove that we have sold our children and our grandchildren into perpetual debt slavery....
#1 As of December 28th, the U.S. national debt was $13,877,230,355,933.00.
#2 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#3 If the federal government began repaying the national debt at a rate of $10 million dollars a day it would take approximately 3,800 years to pay off the national debt.
#4 Today, the U.S. national debt is increasing by roughly 4 billion dollars every single day.
#5 The U.S. government is borrowing approximately 2.63 million more dollars every single minute.
#6 On September 30th, 1980 the U.S. national debt was 907 billion dollars. Just thirty years later, the U.S. national debt is over 14 times larger.
#7 According to a recent U.S. Treasury report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will reach 19.6 trillion dollars in 2015.
#8 It is being projected that the U.S. government will be paying 900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019.
#9 A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times. That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.
#10 The U.S. Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling six times in just the past three years.
#11 The 111th Congress added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.
#12 The 111th Congress got us into so much new debt that it breaks down to $10,429.64 for each of the 308,745,538 people counted by the 2010 U.S. census.
#13 The U.S. government currently has to borrow approximately 41 cents of every single dollar that it spends.
#14 When you break down the debt that the U.S. government owes to China alone it comes to over $10,000 for every single American family.
#15 If you were alive when Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. Almost unbelievably, the U.S. government will accumulate well over a trillion dollars more debt in 2011.
#16 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#17 The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government debt held by the public will reach a staggering 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.
Read more:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/17-national-debt-statistics-which-prove-that-we-have-sold-our-children-and-grandchildren-into-perpetual-debt-slavery
"Today the press is a propaganda ministry for the government."
by Paul Craig Roberts
The media have segued into the police attitude, which regards insistence on civil liberties and references to the Constitution as signs of extremism, especially when the Constitution is invoked in defense of dissent or privacy or placarded on a bumper sticker. President George W. Bush set the scene when he declared: “you are with us or against us...”
Today the press is a propaganda ministry for the government. Any member who departs from his duty to lie and spin the news is expelled from the fraternity. A public increasingly unemployed, broke and homeless is told that they have vast enemies plotting to destroy them in the absence of annual trillion dollar expenditures for the military/security complex, wars lasting decades, no-fly lists, unlimited spying and collecting of dossiers on citizens supplemented by neighbors reporting on neighbors, full body scanners at airports, shopping centers, metro and train stations, traffic checks, and the equivalence of treason with the uttering of a truth...
Read more:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22558
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Boomers are bumbed...
That's a lot of Depends...
In 2011 The Baby Boomers Start To Turn 65: 16 Statistics About The Coming Retirement Crisis That Will Drop Your Jaw
The following are 16 statistics about the coming retirement crisis that will drop your jaw.....
#1 Beginning January 1st, 2011 every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.
#2 According to one recent survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.
#3 Most Baby Boomers do not have a traditional pension plan because they have been going out of style over the past 30 years. Just consider the following quote from Time Magazine: The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
#4 Over 30 percent of U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k invested in equities. So what happens if the stock market crashes again?
#5 35% of Americans already over the age of 65 rely almost entirely on Social Security payments alone.
#6 According to another recent survey, 24% of U.S. workers admit that they have postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the past year.
#7 Approximately 3 out of 4 Americans start claiming Social Security benefits the moment they are eligible at age 62. Most are doing this out of necessity. However, by claiming Social Security early they get locked in at a much lower amount than if they would have waited.
#8 Pension consultant Girard Miller recently told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities. When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in California.
#9 According to a recent report from Stanford University, California's three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefit obligations.
#10 It has been reported that the $33.7 billion Illinois Teachers Retirement System is 61% underfunded and is on the verge of complete collapse.
Read them all:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/in-2011-the-baby-boomers-start-to-turn-65-16-statistics-about-the-coming-retirement-crisis-that-will-drop-your-jaw
The following are 16 statistics about the coming retirement crisis that will drop your jaw.....
#1 Beginning January 1st, 2011 every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.
#2 According to one recent survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.
#3 Most Baby Boomers do not have a traditional pension plan because they have been going out of style over the past 30 years. Just consider the following quote from Time Magazine: The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
#4 Over 30 percent of U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k invested in equities. So what happens if the stock market crashes again?
#5 35% of Americans already over the age of 65 rely almost entirely on Social Security payments alone.
#6 According to another recent survey, 24% of U.S. workers admit that they have postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the past year.
#7 Approximately 3 out of 4 Americans start claiming Social Security benefits the moment they are eligible at age 62. Most are doing this out of necessity. However, by claiming Social Security early they get locked in at a much lower amount than if they would have waited.
#8 Pension consultant Girard Miller recently told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities. When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in California.
#9 According to a recent report from Stanford University, California's three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefit obligations.
#10 It has been reported that the $33.7 billion Illinois Teachers Retirement System is 61% underfunded and is on the verge of complete collapse.
Read them all:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/in-2011-the-baby-boomers-start-to-turn-65-16-statistics-about-the-coming-retirement-crisis-that-will-drop-your-jaw
Even Gandhi is pulling out the long-johns...
India may not typically come to mind as a winter wonderland, but the nation's Ladakh region has been struck by a bitter cold wave, leaving several bodies of water frozen and residents huddling close for warmth.
According to reports, unseasonably low temperatures recorded in Srinagar hit a low of negative 5.9 degrees Celsius (21.38 degrees Fahrenheit). Pahalgam and Gulmarg recorded night temperatures of negative 6.4 degrees Celsius (20.48 degrees Fahrenheit), and negative 6.0 degrees Celsius (21.2 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively. The famous Dal Lake was partially frozen as a result, and the first snowfall is expected later this week.
With no winter vacation offered this year, many Indian students are threatening to protest if the region doesn't amp up heating facilities in local schools. In the meantime, youngsters bundled up in their villages for spirited matches of hopscotch and other games.
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/india-gripped-by-freezing_n_802273.html#s216360
You won't hear about this on corporate controlled TV...
One of the most dreaded consequences of cancer is when the disease metastasizes -- meaning it spreads from the primary site where it started to other parts of the body. But University of California, Riverside (UCR) scientists have announced what could be a major breakthrough in halting metastasis. They've discovered components in pomegranate juice that inhibit the movement of cancer cells and weaken the attraction of malignant cells to a chemical signal that has been shown to promote metastasis.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030862_pomegranates_cancer_cells.html#ixzz19WLvsXM8
"...a totalitarian “enemy” has been constructed which can conveniently be called back into service at a moment’s notice should public memory begin to fade. "
by Dr. James Polk
Our era is largely defined by two highly interlinked concepts: globalization and the so-called “war on terrorism.” As geopolitical-economic operatives, both concepts complement each other as significant means to specific ends; both shape important aspects of our daily lives and determine form and content of much that passes for public discourse. Particularly in Europe and in the United States, populations are kept vigilant to the “clear and present dangers” ostensibly posed by “international terrorism” through mnemonic icons of troop movements in Central Asia and/or strategically deployed bomb plots that are purportedly thwarted “just in time” by our intelligence services. As if copied from the lecture notes of Carl Schmitt, a totalitarian “enemy” has been constructed which can conveniently be called back into service at a moment’s notice should public memory begin to fade...
Implied in this global ideal is of course the complete dissolution of the nationstate as such through the gradual but de facto irreversible integration of individual nations into the totalitarian framework of the political, economic, and chief judicial/juridical entities operating on a global scale (most significantly the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, and the World Trade Organization)...
The pattern is always the same. Present a crisis of epoch proportions, and offer solutions on a global scale which ultimately consolidate the interests of a New World Order, one as envisioned by Auguste Comte, with bankers and a select intellectual elite in complete control. The Federal Reserve system should be seen for what it is - the agency of an international clique of banking elites who are hell-bent on obtaining a global government, with a single system of universal justice, a single currency, and an all-encompassing surveillance network as guarantors of a fail-proof, totalitarian, neo-feudalistic regime. Thanks to the efforts of this same global elite, the United States is in its last throes and will eventually succumb to the constraints its leaders have willingly adopted within the context of globalization...
As admirable as perpetual peace might be under a system of benevolent reason, with the sanctity of all terrestrial life on earth foremost in mind, the concrete historical track record of those most actively engaged in bringing the ideals of this New World Order into full fruition suffices completely as a reason to reject their goals.
Elite bankers in the United States and Europe conceived and enacted the Federal Reserve system as a major stepping stone toward eventual global governance of a neo-feudalistic society. The continuing global economic crisis was also conceived and implemented as a further essential tool in bringing about a one-world government controlled by bankers and their intellectual shills sitting in crucial positions and calling the shots -- qui custodiet custodes?
The “Fed’s” covert policies and clandestine machinations are accelerating the “need” and “demand” for a global currency to replace existing national currencies. In previous eras, the implementation of such plans and intentions would have been deemed high treason and appropriately punished; in today’s parlance, it should most properly be categorized as an act of terrorism.
Read whole article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22551
US housing market to go up in flames in 2011?
As we come to the end of 2010, there seems to be very few reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. housing market as we enter 2011. Home prices have fallen for several months in a row, mortgage rates are going up, mortgage delinquencies are increasing again, the mortgage industry is mired in horrific legal problems and the underlying economy is still extremely sluggish. During 2009 and throughout the first half of 2010 the U.S. housing market experienced a time of stabilization and it looked like the housing industry might recover, but when the tax breaks expired things started to get bad once again. Now many analysts are publicly using the term "double-dip" when speaking about prospects for the U.S. housing market in 2011...
Read more:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/will-2011-be-a-nightmarish-year-for-the-u-s-housing-market
An inconvenient memory: The warm-mongers can't seem to agree with themselves...
“Listen to the climate scientists” – that’s the refrain you always get from the warmists. Their argument is that we simply don’t know enough about “the science” to make our own judgments, and must bow down before superior wisdom.
But the problem is, if we did that, we’d be changing our minds with the weather – literally.
Case in point: only a few years ago in 2006 a report was released by a body called ‘The northeast Climate Impacts Assessment’. Press releases informed us that this body was:
"a collaboration between the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a team of independent scientists from universities across the Northeast and the nation."
The Union of Concerned Scientists published the results of the study on its climatechoices website and summarized them thus:
"Across the globe, and here in the Northeast, the climate is changing. Records show that spring is arriving earlier, summers are growing hotter, and winters are becoming warmer and less snowy. These changes are consistent with global warming, an urgent phenomenon driven by heat-trapping emissions from human activities..."
Again we see the same claim – warmer, milder winters are entirely consistent with global warming. No mention of global warming causing extreme cold and heavy snow. No predictions of colder weather to come. But why bother with all that when you can simply issue another press release when it gets colder and claim you predicted this all along, right?
UPDATE -
Representative Edward J. Markey, of the US Select Committee on energy Independence and Global Warming was pleased to associate himself with the report, and stated:
“New England is a region of hardworking, hardy people who value the distinctiveness of the region and the seasons that mark the time here in our nation’s first frontier,” continued Markey. “With global warming claiming more snow every year, and literally changing the palette of our forests, cutting global warming pollution is a matter of cultural and historical survival.”
Link:
http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/climate-scientists-2004-winters-in-us-becoming-warmer-less-snowy/
"This is not the first time we have been trolled by individuals connected to the TSA."
Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seem to now be going on the offensive against those who oppose its new invasive and unconstitutional airport security protocols being carried out by agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to George Donnelly, owner of WeWontFly.com, government workers appear to be posting hateful messages on his anti-TSA blog under the guise of anonymity.
One such comment, which has since been deleted, said, "F**k you, f**k all you c**ksuckers, you wont change anything." Another stated, "Ride the bus, TSA is here to stay there [sic] doing a great job keeping americia [sic] safe."
Donnelly says that upon tracing the origin of the comments, he discovered that they came from the servers of dhs.gov, the official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Nineteen comments in total were all posted from the same server, including the two previously mentioned. And while all were worded in different tones and voices, they all expressed hostility to those opposing the TSA.
"Some questions come to mind," wrote Donnelly on his blog in response to his findings. "Is this an official statement? If not, is it an accurate representation of the DHS position? Was this person on the public dime when he or she posted this? Who posted this and what is their position with DHS?"
"This is not the first time we have been trolled by individuals connected to the TSA. Someone posted a personal attack on me from an IP belonging to mitre,org, a corporation whose core competency is securing federal government contracts, including DHS and TSA ones. Any effective TSA resistance threatens not only the TSA itself but also the bureaucrats who got us to this point and the corporations who are getting paid for the technology."
WeWontFly.com is working towards abolishing the new TSA protocols by pushing airlines to take a stand. And according to a Washington Post piece from November, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group, has filed a lawsuit against the TSA citing the unconstitutionality of its current actions.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030860_TSA_Homeland_Security.html#ixzz19UqdatNu
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Get ready for the economic shit-storm...
Porter Stansberry is bracing himself and his clients for a bumpy ride for equities in the New Year, and recommends utmost caution and conservatism for investors in 2011. Gold Report interview
PS: I believe we are at the end of the line of those policies. And that's why we've had to begin to fund our fiscal deficits with just printing paper. That's what quantitative easing is. I think we're at a real crisis point, where for the first time ever America's creditors are beginning to abandon the dollar. You see that in two ways. Number one, for the first time since the early 1970s, central banks are now net buyers of gold again. Number two is the huge move down in the bond market that you've seen just really recently since the last round of quantitative easing began in the U.S. This is a really big change.
TGR: And an important one.
PS: It certainly is, and right now we have a situation where the muni bond market in the U.S. is crashing. Muni bonds are falling 2% or 3% every week. These bonds shouldn't decline at all. People have long thought of the muni bond market as the safest place in the bond market for retirees' money. Well, now it's in freefall. Normally, if you took money out of the muni bond market, you'd put it in the Treasury bond market. That's the only thing that's even safer. But both markets now are in decline. People are selling both muni bonds and Treasury bonds at the same time. That's a sign of a major problem in the fixed income markets. And, because the U.S. bond markets are the largest securities markets in the world, that means we're in the midst of a major, major financial crisis. I don't really think people realize it yet.
TGR: Are you referring to the general population?
PS: When I talk to people, when I talk to news commentators, when I do interviews, when I talk to investors, when I go to investment conferences, when I talk to very well-known hedge fund managers. . .all of these people have some idea that things are going wrong. Lots of them say they're worried about being on the verge of a big crisis. I think we're in one. So, I ask them, rhetorically, what do they have to see in the markets before they realize the crisis is underway?
How high does the price of gold have to go? How far do Treasury bonds and muni bonds have to fall? How far does the dollar have to decline on a trade-weighted basis? How high does unemployment have to go? How big do the fiscal deficits have to grow? They don't have any answers to those questions because all of the thresholds have been violated already. Two years ago, no one would've thought it possible for the muni bond market and the Treasury bond market to both fall as much as they have fallen in the last six weeks at the same time. That just didn't happen ever before.
TGR: So if we've passed all those thresholds, why doesn't the general media say we're in a crisis?
PS: Even though the currency markets and the bond markets are vastly larger, the stock market hasn't cracked open yet, and for whatever reason, the major media focus is almost entirely on the stock market. Until stocks fall 20% or so, the media won't panic. But God help you if you're still long on stocks when the nightly news begins to feature the core financial problems we face.
TGR: You've been advising people to get into so-called "real asset classes" such as agriculture, gold, silver, various forms of energy. But won't all stocks be worthless in an economic catastrophe and global hyperinflation?
PS: Stocks actually can be a very good hedge against inflation, and short of hyperinflation, stocks will have the ability to increase their dividends to match the rise in prices. Now I say short of hyperinflation; if we get to real hyperinflation all that's off the table and you're exactly right.
So what we're doing now is buying what we think are the best hedges against inflation-energy, agriculture and hard money-silver and gold bullion. We're also selling short lots of stocks that are overly in debt or are obsolete, such as newspapers or hard drive companies. Earlier this year, I told people that if they aren't willing to short stocks to hedge their portfolios they should only be in cash and gold, and they shouldn't own any stocks...
Read more:
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=117559&sn=Detail&pid=72068
Warning: Old men being taken advantage of...
Women often receive warnings about protecting themselves at the mall and in dark parking lots, etc. This is the first warning I have seen for men. I wanted to pass it on in case you haven't heard about it.
A 'heads up' for those men who may be regular customers at Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, or even Wal-Mart. This one caught me totally by surprise. Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your friends.
Here's how the scam works;
Two nice looking, college-age girls will come over to your car or truck as you are packing your purchases into your vehicle. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. (It's impossible not to look). When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' but instead ask for a ride to McDonald's.
You agree and they climb into the vehicle. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.
I had my wallet stolen Aug. 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, again on the 17th, 20th, 24th, and the 29th. Also Sept. 1st, 4th, 8th, twice on the 16th &17th, and very likely again this upcoming weekend.
So tell your friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of us older men. Warn your friends to be vigilant.
Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for $2.99 each. I found even cheaper ones for $.99 at the Dollar Store and bought them out in three of their stores.
Also, you never get to eat at McDonald's. I've already lost 11 pounds just running back and forth from Lowe's, to Home Depot, to Wal-Mart.
So please, send this on to all the older men that you know and warn them to be on the lookout for this scam. (The best times are just before lunch and around 4:30 in the afternoon.)
"When a critical mass is reached, the change toward the new paradigm could come very suddenly and unexpectedly, much like when the Berlin Wall came crashing down."
by Jacob G. Hornberger
People sometimes ask why libertarians have had a difficult time achieving success in the political arena. The answer is: Because libertarians are calling for an entirely new paradigm, rather than simply a reform of the status quo. Given the opposition that many people have toward major change, the task that libertarians have is much bigger and more difficult than that which the reformers have.
Consider the welfare state and warfare state.
All that the reformer has to do is come up with plans on how to rein in federal spending, without touching Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the drug war, and other welfare programs, departments, and agencies. No matter how bad things get, many people will grasp at any new reform plan that is presented to them. What matters is that the welfare state be preserved at all costs, even if it must be altered or modified in some way.
It’s no different with the warfare state. People are convinced that the nation could not survive without a massive military, military-industrial complex, overseas bases, CIA, and the entire national security state edifice. They will consider plans to abolish some expensive military boondoggle or close some outdated military base, but the last thing they want to hear is that it’s the military, CIA, and national security state that are themselves the real threat to the freedom and well being of our nation.
In fact, the very thought that the federal government, both with its welfare and warfare functions, is different from the country doesn’t even begin to compute in the minds of many people. For them, the federal government and the country are one and the same.
Moreover, many Americans remain absolutely convinced that both the welfare state and the warfare state are core components of America’s “free enterprise” system. In their minds, such welfare programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public schooling, food stamps, bank bailouts, FDIC, the Federal Reserve, foreign aid, and income taxation are all part and parcel of our great “free-enterprise” system. And it’s the same with respect to the military, including all the bases, personnel, and tens of thousands of private businesses that depend on military largess. In the minds of many Americans, it’s all part and parcel of our “free-enterprise” system.
So, it’s not difficult to see why such Americans feel so uncomfortable when they encounter a libertarian. All their lives, such Americans have believed that they live in a society based on “freedom and free enterprise.” But then they encounter a libertarian, a person who is striving to restore freedom and free enterprise to America.
That makes many people very uncomfortable. After all, striving to restore freedom and free enterprise implies that the status quo entails the absence of freedom and free enterprise. Obviously, the absence of freedom and free enterprise is the opposite of freedom and free enterprise.
Thus, the libertarian causes people to question something they’ve believed all their lives. Many people would rather not do that. Questioning a paradigm under which one has operated all his life is not an easy process, especially when one has lived his entire life living under what he considers to be reality and truth.
So, the easiest thing becomes to simply ignore the libertarian. Don’t listen to him. Shun him. Keep him away. Perhaps even silence him. That way, he can’t make the person feel uncomfortable.
Ultimately, however, fundamental change can come only when enough people in society demand it. What will cause a sufficient number of people to reach a critical mass that will shift America toward libertarianism?
Well, reality has an interesting way of mugging people in the face, whether they like it or not. The welfare-warfare state is cracking apart everywhere. Of course, the statists are blaming it all on “freedom and free enterprise” and arguing for more welfarism and warfarism to get America back on its feet.
But the reality, which we libertarians continue to emphasize, is that the root of the problem is the welfare-warfare paradigm itself. For people who desire a decent, normal, functional, harmonious, and free society, there is no other choice but libertarianism. Reforming the welfare-warfare state isn’t going to accomplish anything positive and is instead likely to make things worse.
The good news is that more and more people are discovering the virtues of libertarianism every day. They are achieving the “breakthrough” that enables them to see the welfare-warfare state for what it is: an immoral and deadly paradigm that is threatening the freedom and well-being of the American people. They are shifting toward the libertarian paradigm, along with its foundation of morality, liberty, private property, and a limited-government republic. When a critical mass is reached, the change toward the new paradigm could come very suddenly and unexpectedly, much like when the Berlin Wall came crashing down.
Link:
http://www.fff.org/blog/index.asp
"The Fed has a lock on the economics world," says Joshua Rosner, a Wall Street analyst who correctly called the meltdown. "There is no room for other views, which I guess is why economists got it so wrong."
Ryan Grim
The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession, an investigation by the Huffington Post has found.
This dominance helps explain how, even after the Fed failed to foresee the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, the central bank has largely escaped criticism from academic economists. In the Fed's thrall, the economists missed it, too.
"The Fed has a lock on the economics world," says Joshua Rosner, a Wall Street analyst who correctly called the meltdown. "There is no room for other views, which I guess is why economists got it so wrong."
One critical way the Fed exerts control on academic economists is through its relationships with the field's gatekeepers. For instance, at the Journal of Monetary Economics, a must-publish venue for rising economists, more than half of the editorial board members are currently on the Fed payroll -- and the rest have been in the past.
The Fed failed to see the housing bubble as it happened, insisting that the rise in housing prices was normal. In 2004, after "flipping" had become a term cops and janitors were using to describe the way to get rich in real estate, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that "a national severe price distortion [is] most unlikely." A year later, current Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the boom "largely reflect strong economic fundamentals."
The Fed also failed to sufficiently regulate major financial institutions, with Greenspan -- and the dominant economists -- believing that the banks would regulate themselves in their own self-interest.
Despite all this, Bernanke has been nominated for a second term by President Obama...
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/priceless-how-the-federal_n_278805.html
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