ap.org
January
31, 2014
Prince Charles has called people who deny human-made climate change a
“headless chicken brigade” who are ignoring overwhelming scientific
evidence.
The heir to the British throne, a dedicated environmentalist, accused
“powerful groups of deniers” of mounting “a barrage of sheer intimidation”
against opponents.
He made the comments at a Buckingham Palace awards ceremony on Thursday.
Read more
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wal-Mart: Food Stamp Cuts Hurt Our Profits
Wal-Mart’s CFO practically admits that the company largely benefits at the
expense of taxpayers
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 31, 2014
Wal-Mart announced today that cuts in a federal food stamp program as well as record cold temperatures hurt its fourth quarter profits.
After previously reporting “relatively flat” sales for the quarter, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now says that sales for its namesake store and its Sam’s Club locations would be “slightly negative” for the November-January quarter, according to Agence France-Presse.
Wal-Mart’s Chief Financial Officer, Charles Holley, blamed the revised forecast on deeper-than-expected cuts to the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the extreme cold weather occurring in the past month.
On Nov. 1, the federal government cut $5 billion from the SNAP program due to a planned stimulus withdrawal, which resulted in an average loss of $36 a month for each of the almost 50 million Americans on the program, including many of Wal-Mart’s own employees.
Taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart through an endless cycle of purchases made through welfare benefits and public assistance given to supplement its workers’ low wages.
A study released last year found that nearly $1 million in public assistance a year went to 300 employees at just one Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin.
Employees at another Wal-Mart in Ohio were asked this past Thanksgiving to donate food items for their co-workers in need so they could also enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner.
“This is a perfect example that shows how the quality of the jobs in this country has gone down the toilet,” Michael Snyder wrote on the subject.
In total, the majority of Wal-Mart’s hourly workers make less than $25,000 a year.
The historic wave of cold weather that also affected Wal-Mart’s sales shattered low temperature records across the country.
Most recently, a rare winter storm in Atlanta, Ga. left drivers stranded in their vehicles on the freeway for over 12 hours.
The White House dubiously claimed that this historic freeze was due to “global warming.”
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 31, 2014
Wal-Mart admits it profits at the expense of taxpayers.
Credit: Stu pendousmat via Wiki
Wal-Mart announced today that cuts in a federal food stamp program as well as record cold temperatures hurt its fourth quarter profits.
After previously reporting “relatively flat” sales for the quarter, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now says that sales for its namesake store and its Sam’s Club locations would be “slightly negative” for the November-January quarter, according to Agence France-Presse.
Wal-Mart’s Chief Financial Officer, Charles Holley, blamed the revised forecast on deeper-than-expected cuts to the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the extreme cold weather occurring in the past month.
On Nov. 1, the federal government cut $5 billion from the SNAP program due to a planned stimulus withdrawal, which resulted in an average loss of $36 a month for each of the almost 50 million Americans on the program, including many of Wal-Mart’s own employees.
Taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart through an endless cycle of purchases made through welfare benefits and public assistance given to supplement its workers’ low wages.
A study released last year found that nearly $1 million in public assistance a year went to 300 employees at just one Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin.
Employees at another Wal-Mart in Ohio were asked this past Thanksgiving to donate food items for their co-workers in need so they could also enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner.
“This is a perfect example that shows how the quality of the jobs in this country has gone down the toilet,” Michael Snyder wrote on the subject.
In total, the majority of Wal-Mart’s hourly workers make less than $25,000 a year.
The historic wave of cold weather that also affected Wal-Mart’s sales shattered low temperature records across the country.
Most recently, a rare winter storm in Atlanta, Ga. left drivers stranded in their vehicles on the freeway for over 12 hours.
The White House dubiously claimed that this historic freeze was due to “global warming.”
California spends $1.37M on ObamaCare web stream featuring Richard Simmons
Fox News
January 31, 2014
Facing a $78 million budget shortfall, California’s ObamaCare exchange has spent $1.37 million to fund an outreach video featuring exercise guru Richard Simmons gyrating on the floor and hugging a contortionist who is kneeling with his buttocks in the air.
The “Tell a Friend — Get Covered” campaign by Covered California features other celebrities Olivia Wilde, comic Billy Eirchner, Fran Drescher and Tatyana Ali. The centerpiece of the effort was an eight-hour live web stream that ran on Jan. 16.
None of the celebrities were paid for their work, Covered California said.
Read more
January 31, 2014
Facing a $78 million budget shortfall, California’s ObamaCare exchange has spent $1.37 million to fund an outreach video featuring exercise guru Richard Simmons gyrating on the floor and hugging a contortionist who is kneeling with his buttocks in the air.
The “Tell a Friend — Get Covered” campaign by Covered California features other celebrities Olivia Wilde, comic Billy Eirchner, Fran Drescher and Tatyana Ali. The centerpiece of the effort was an eight-hour live web stream that ran on Jan. 16.
None of the celebrities were paid for their work, Covered California said.
Read more
Third Banker Commits Suicide Within a Week
Why are banking executives killing themselves?
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 31, 2014
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 31, 2014
A third banker has committed suicide within the space of a week,
once again prompting speculation that some kind of financial collapse could be
just around the corner.
Image: Mike Dueker (YouTube).
“Mike Dueker, the chief economist at Russell Investments, was
found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in
Washington state, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He was
50,” reports
Bloomberg.
Dueker fell down a 50 foot embankment in what police are
describing as a suicide. He was reported missing on January 29 by friends, who
said he had been “having problems at work.”
Dueker’s apparent suicide follows those of London banking
executives Gabriel Magee and Bill Broeksmit.
Magee, a 39-year-old senior manager at JP Morgan’s European
headquarters, jumped
500ft from the top of the bank’s headquarters in central London on Tuesday,
landing on an adjacent 9 story roof.
Last Sunday, former Deutsche Bank executive Broeksmit was found
dead at his South Kensington home after police responded to reports of a man
found hanging at a house. According
to reports, Broeksmit had “close ties to co-chief executive Anshu Jain.”
In addition, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG
also died last week but the cause of death has not been made public.
Banker suicides would be expected in the aftermath of a major
stock market collapse, but the Dow Jones hit a record high just last month,
although recent days have seen markets suffer heavy losses.
Some
have speculated that the suicides could be related to a flurry of recent
indications that some kind of major financial crash is approaching.
Earlier this week, Russian lender ‘My Bank’ banned
all cash withdrawals until next week, while UK-based HSBC imposed capital
controls on customers attempting to withdraw larger sums of money.
Are the spate of banker suicides merely a coincidence, or do they
point to something rotten in the heart of the financial system which has yet to
be revealed to the public?
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Psychologist To The Rich Says His Clients Are Feeling Really Persecuted Right Now
Steven Perlberg
businessinsider.com
January 30, 2014
Politico’s Ben White has a story this morning on the growing fear and alienation felt by America’s richest citizens.
Between the election of progressive New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the vilification of Tom Perkins after he said criticism of the 1% was similar to Nazi persecution of Jews, and a mounting sentiment to finally correct income inequality, some rich people are all strung out.
And telling their shrinks about it. From Politico:
Read more
businessinsider.com
January 30, 2014
Politico’s Ben White has a story this morning on the growing fear and alienation felt by America’s richest citizens.
Between the election of progressive New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the vilification of Tom Perkins after he said criticism of the 1% was similar to Nazi persecution of Jews, and a mounting sentiment to finally correct income inequality, some rich people are all strung out.
And telling their shrinks about it. From Politico:
People who counsel the wealthy for a living say
there is both an unease with growing income disparity and a fear of even greater
persecution.
Read more
Connecticut Gun Owners Revolt; Refuse to Register Firearms & Magazines
Just 38,000 of 2.4 million magazines registered after passage of new law
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Gun owners in Connecticut have revolted against a new gun control
law, with just 38,000 out of 2.4 million high capacity magazines being
registered with authorities.
Image: Assault Rifle (YouTube).
Following the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012, Connecticut
passed a law which banned ammunition magazines capable of carrying more than 10
rounds. Residents who had acquired such magazines before the law came into
effect were mandated to register them with state police by January 1, 2014. The
law also banned assault rifles manufactured after 1994, requiring them to be
declared to authorities.
Weeks after the deadline expired, authorities revealed that 50,016
assault weapons and 38,290 ammunition magazines had been registered.
CT
News Junkie reported that it is, “unclear how many gun owners own the banned
weapons and magazines, but chose not to comply with the registration
requirement.”
However, a 2011 Office of Legislative
Research study found that, “there are over 2.4 million large capacity
magazines in Connecticut that originated at the retail level.” This number
didn’t even include those not purchased at the retail level.
This means that the vast majority of high capacity magazines were
not reported to authorities by gun owners in Connecticut.
It’s a similar story when it comes to firearms. Just over 50,000
assault weapons were registered after the law came into effect. However, the
2011 study found that there were over 370,000 assault rifles in the hands of
Connecticut gun owners. This means that just 13% of assault rifles were
registered.
“So, where did these millions of magazines go?” asks
Warner Todd Huston. “All that can be said is that it appears that gun owners
in Connecticut are not quite the sheep that jackbooted government officials may
have imagined they were. After all, if there really were millions of high
capacity magazines in the state–and it is very likely that there are–and they
have now gone unregistered, that means that thousands of gun owners have refused
to bow to this un-constitutional, anti-Second Amendment law.”
These figures once again illustrate how gun registration is
pointless unless it is used by authorities as a precursor to confiscation.
The issue also serves to highlight the fact that gun control
advocates are not anti-gun at all, they are pro-gun so long as the state has a
monopoly on the possession of firearms. If people like “turn em all in”
Feinstein want to see Americans disarmed in places like Connecticut, we’re going
to witness a tragic bloodbath since the vast majority of gun owners will refuse
to hand over their weapons.
Mexico Protects Its Borders Better Than U.S.
In Mexico, illegal immigration is not tolerated
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Mexico is one of the roughest places for illegal immigrants.
Even though the country’s rural living standards are generally
poor, it has its own immigration problems. People from Cuba regularly attempt to
cross its borders, and others from Central and South America emigrate there as
well.
However, unlike in the U.S., people that enter Mexico illegally can endure harsh detentions, are regarded as felons and can be at any time subject to a citizens’ arrest.
Indeed, one United Nations Human Rights representative upon visiting Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, remarked,
The Guatemalan border is Mexico’s most porous, and border guards act with violent vigilance to protect it. “The guards’ use of violence, rape, and extortion against those seeking to cross into Mexico has, in fact, managed the border so well that the country has only a minimal illegal-immigration problem,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org has pointed out.
Despite their own country’s harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants, no one in Mexico is calling for “reform” to their immigration policies. Instead, members of Mexico’s fleeing population sometimes become adamantly vocal once they enter the U.S. illegally, and join protests organized by leftist coalitions against our already incredibly lax border policies.
But in Mexico, don’t think this type of behavior would be tolerated.
For starters, illegal immigrants are barred from upsetting “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” according to Mexico’s immigration policy.
Under Mexico’s Immigration Law, illegal immigration is considered a felony punishable by up to two years in prison “and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.”
Migrants are only welcomed “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress,” and only after immigration officials “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents.
Furthermore, Mexico’s Secretary of Governance, the counterpart to the U.S.’s Homeland Security Secretary, can “suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest,” and close tabs are also kept on those who permeate its borders.
However, despite strict laws governing immigration, the Mexican government has worked backhandedly to ensure U.S. border control efforts are stifled.
In 2007, the Mexican government gave the go-ahead to its U.S. consulates to “ramp up a campaign to toughen their defense of immigrants and plans to give them more resources as well,” a report in the Dallas Morning News states.
“Among the actions under discussion are the creation of an anti-defamation league similar to that focused on protecting Jews; budget increases for some of the 47 consulates, especially in regions such as North Texas, where Mexican migration has been swift and plentiful; and a media campaign aimed at counteracting groups opposed to illegal immigration and sometimes legal immigration,” the Morning News reported.
Reports abound (here, here and here) of U.S. Border Patrol agents who claim they’ve been ordered to stand down from securing our nation’s borders or reduce their capture of immigrants. No doubt treating our borders as if they’re non-existent ensures Mexico’s authoritarian laws and politics find their way into the U.S.
For a country whose own laws strictly manage immigration, the Mexican government certainly doesn’t practice what it preaches.
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Mexico is one of the roughest places for illegal immigrants.
Mexico regards illegal immigrants as
felons.
However, unlike in the U.S., people that enter Mexico illegally can endure harsh detentions, are regarded as felons and can be at any time subject to a citizens’ arrest.
Indeed, one United Nations Human Rights representative upon visiting Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, remarked,
Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and healthcare.
The Guatemalan border is Mexico’s most porous, and border guards act with violent vigilance to protect it. “The guards’ use of violence, rape, and extortion against those seeking to cross into Mexico has, in fact, managed the border so well that the country has only a minimal illegal-immigration problem,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org has pointed out.
Despite their own country’s harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants, no one in Mexico is calling for “reform” to their immigration policies. Instead, members of Mexico’s fleeing population sometimes become adamantly vocal once they enter the U.S. illegally, and join protests organized by leftist coalitions against our already incredibly lax border policies.
Farm workers march for amnesty in downtown Los Angeles
/ Image: Wikimedia Commons
But in Mexico, don’t think this type of behavior would be tolerated.
For starters, illegal immigrants are barred from upsetting “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” according to Mexico’s immigration policy.
Under Mexico’s Immigration Law, illegal immigration is considered a felony punishable by up to two years in prison “and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.”
Migrants are only welcomed “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress,” and only after immigration officials “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents.
Furthermore, Mexico’s Secretary of Governance, the counterpart to the U.S.’s Homeland Security Secretary, can “suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest,” and close tabs are also kept on those who permeate its borders.
However, despite strict laws governing immigration, the Mexican government has worked backhandedly to ensure U.S. border control efforts are stifled.
In 2007, the Mexican government gave the go-ahead to its U.S. consulates to “ramp up a campaign to toughen their defense of immigrants and plans to give them more resources as well,” a report in the Dallas Morning News states.
“Among the actions under discussion are the creation of an anti-defamation league similar to that focused on protecting Jews; budget increases for some of the 47 consulates, especially in regions such as North Texas, where Mexican migration has been swift and plentiful; and a media campaign aimed at counteracting groups opposed to illegal immigration and sometimes legal immigration,” the Morning News reported.
Reports abound (here, here and here) of U.S. Border Patrol agents who claim they’ve been ordered to stand down from securing our nation’s borders or reduce their capture of immigrants. No doubt treating our borders as if they’re non-existent ensures Mexico’s authoritarian laws and politics find their way into the U.S.
For a country whose own laws strictly manage immigration, the Mexican government certainly doesn’t practice what it preaches.
28 Points Of Comparison Between 1970s America And America Today – Which Do You Think Is Better?
Michael Snyder
The Truth
January 30, 2014
If you could go back and live in America during the 1970s would you do it? Has the United States become a better place to live over the past 40 years or have things gotten worse? Without a doubt there are arguments that can be made both ways.
For example, who really wants to go back to a time when you actually had to “dial” a phone or rewind a cassette tape in order to find your favorite song? On the other hand, wouldn’t it be nice to live at a time when virtually everyone could find a good job, when television was not so filthy and when you didn’t have to worry about locking your front door at night? Some would say that we have come a long way in 40 years. Others lament how far we have fallen. So what do you think? Read over the 28 points of comparison between 1970s America and America today posted below and then share your opinion by leaving a comment at the end of the article…
1. In the 1970s we had Disco. Today, we have Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
2. In the 1970s we had Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Today, we have Barack Obama.
3. In the 1970s, Americans fell in love with stupid fads such as mood rings, lava lamps and pet rocks. Today, we have twerking, “planking”, crocs, wedge sneakers and pajama jeans.
4. In 1970, a gallon of gasoline cost 36 cents. Today, the average price for a gallon of gasoline is about $3.27.
5. In the 1970s we still had rotary phones. Today, we have iPhones.
6. In the 1970s, presidents were tapping the phones of their enemies. Today, the government is recording all of our calls. In fact, the NSA intercepts and permanently stores close to 2 billion emails and phone calls every single day.
7. In the 1970s, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools. Today, many of our public schools have been equipped with metal detectors because violence has become so bad.
8. In the 1970s, you could sit down and watch television with your children in the evenings without being too concerned about what they were about to see. Today, not so much.
9. In the early 1970s, Pong was the hottest video game in America. In the late 1970s, Space Invaders took America by storm. Today, the video games have become so incredibly advanced and so extremely entertaining that video game addiction has become a major problem.
10. In the 1970s, most of the products in our stores were made in America and we barely conducted any trade with China. Today, it seems like almost everything we buy has “made in China” stamped on it and our yearly trade deficit with China is now about 300 billion dollars.
11. In 1973, the United States was #2 in GDP per capita. Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.
12. In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old. Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.
13. In the 1970s, the “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years (25 to 54) was less than 6 percent. Today, it is up close to 12 percent.
14. For most of the 1970s, the average duration of unemployment was less than 15 weeks. Today, it is more than 37 weeks.
15. In the 1970s, Star Wars was released. It is still far superior to any movie that has come out so far this year.
16. In the 1970s, redistribution of wealth was considered to be something that “the communists” did. Today, redistribution of wealth is the official policy of the U.S. government.
17. In 1970, about 18 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today,about 12 million Americans have manufacturing jobs even though our population has grown far larger.
18. In the 1970s, many Americans regularly left their cars and the front doors of their homes unlocked at night. Today, many Americans live with steel bars on their windows and gun sales are at record highs.
19. Consumer debt in the United States has risen by a whopping 1700% since 1971, and today 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.
20. In the 1970s, most Americans still respected the U.S. Constitution. Today, if you are a “Constitutionalist”, you may get labeled as a potential terrorist by the U.S. government.
21. Back in 1970, the five largest U.S. banks held 17 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets. Today, the five largest U.S. banks hold 52 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets.
22. 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.
23. In 1977, Elvis was found dead. Today, the entire U.S. middle class is dying.
24. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6 Americans is on food stamps.
25. In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman. When you wanted to listen to a particular song, you had to rewind your tape to find it. Today, everyone has iPods and it takes just seconds to sort through thousands of songs.
26. In the 1970s, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else. Today, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
27. In 1970, the U.S. national debt was about 371 billion dollars. Today, it is more than 46 times larger.
28. In the 1970s, hippies were smoking dope, attending rock festivals and singing protest songs. Today, they are running the U.S. government.
What would you add to this list? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…
About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.
The Truth
January 30, 2014
If you could go back and live in America during the 1970s would you do it? Has the United States become a better place to live over the past 40 years or have things gotten worse? Without a doubt there are arguments that can be made both ways.
Image: U.S. Flag (Wikimedia Commons).
For example, who really wants to go back to a time when you actually had to “dial” a phone or rewind a cassette tape in order to find your favorite song? On the other hand, wouldn’t it be nice to live at a time when virtually everyone could find a good job, when television was not so filthy and when you didn’t have to worry about locking your front door at night? Some would say that we have come a long way in 40 years. Others lament how far we have fallen. So what do you think? Read over the 28 points of comparison between 1970s America and America today posted below and then share your opinion by leaving a comment at the end of the article…
1. In the 1970s we had Disco. Today, we have Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
2. In the 1970s we had Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Today, we have Barack Obama.
3. In the 1970s, Americans fell in love with stupid fads such as mood rings, lava lamps and pet rocks. Today, we have twerking, “planking”, crocs, wedge sneakers and pajama jeans.
4. In 1970, a gallon of gasoline cost 36 cents. Today, the average price for a gallon of gasoline is about $3.27.
5. In the 1970s we still had rotary phones. Today, we have iPhones.
6. In the 1970s, presidents were tapping the phones of their enemies. Today, the government is recording all of our calls. In fact, the NSA intercepts and permanently stores close to 2 billion emails and phone calls every single day.
7. In the 1970s, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools. Today, many of our public schools have been equipped with metal detectors because violence has become so bad.
8. In the 1970s, you could sit down and watch television with your children in the evenings without being too concerned about what they were about to see. Today, not so much.
9. In the early 1970s, Pong was the hottest video game in America. In the late 1970s, Space Invaders took America by storm. Today, the video games have become so incredibly advanced and so extremely entertaining that video game addiction has become a major problem.
10. In the 1970s, most of the products in our stores were made in America and we barely conducted any trade with China. Today, it seems like almost everything we buy has “made in China” stamped on it and our yearly trade deficit with China is now about 300 billion dollars.
11. In 1973, the United States was #2 in GDP per capita. Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.
12. In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old. Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.
13. In the 1970s, the “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years (25 to 54) was less than 6 percent. Today, it is up close to 12 percent.
14. For most of the 1970s, the average duration of unemployment was less than 15 weeks. Today, it is more than 37 weeks.
15. In the 1970s, Star Wars was released. It is still far superior to any movie that has come out so far this year.
16. In the 1970s, redistribution of wealth was considered to be something that “the communists” did. Today, redistribution of wealth is the official policy of the U.S. government.
17. In 1970, about 18 million Americans had manufacturing jobs. Today,about 12 million Americans have manufacturing jobs even though our population has grown far larger.
18. In the 1970s, many Americans regularly left their cars and the front doors of their homes unlocked at night. Today, many Americans live with steel bars on their windows and gun sales are at record highs.
19. Consumer debt in the United States has risen by a whopping 1700% since 1971, and today 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.
20. In the 1970s, most Americans still respected the U.S. Constitution. Today, if you are a “Constitutionalist”, you may get labeled as a potential terrorist by the U.S. government.
21. Back in 1970, the five largest U.S. banks held 17 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets. Today, the five largest U.S. banks hold 52 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets.
22. 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.
23. In 1977, Elvis was found dead. Today, the entire U.S. middle class is dying.
24. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6 Americans is on food stamps.
25. In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman. When you wanted to listen to a particular song, you had to rewind your tape to find it. Today, everyone has iPods and it takes just seconds to sort through thousands of songs.
26. In the 1970s, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else. Today, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
27. In 1970, the U.S. national debt was about 371 billion dollars. Today, it is more than 46 times larger.
28. In the 1970s, hippies were smoking dope, attending rock festivals and singing protest songs. Today, they are running the U.S. government.
What would you add to this list? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…
About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.
Beer Drone Viral Prompts Slap-down From Government
Company owner finds himself “on the FAA blacklist”
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
A popular beer company received a verbal slap-down from the government this week after it released a video depicting beer deliveries being conducted by flying drones.
The video, produced by Lakemaid Beer, quickly went viral on the internet. It shows a 12 pack of beer being attached to a small drone which then flies to a remote shack where some fishermen (and women) enjoy a cold one.
A press release accompanying the video described how the Minnesota-based company had been testing the beer drones at ice fishing lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“It’s the perfect proving ground for drone delivery,” said the company’s president, Jack Supple. “Our initial tests on several mid-size lakes have been very successful. We’re looking forward to testing the range of our drones on larger lakes.”
However, that plan seems to have hit a snag following not one but two calls this week to Lakemaid from The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Supple told the New York Daily News. “I’m on the FAA blacklist for now… They’re not too happy with me.”
The FAA “said I would be in violation of some code, I can’t remember what the number was,” Supple told The News. “They sent me 74 pages all about the code.”
The law currently restricts commercial use of small drones. The FAA is currently still formulating legislation to cover the use of such technology in US skies.
Still, the ad has prompted a great deal of free publicity, much as Amazon’s delivery drone ad last year did.
Indeed, Supple pointed to Amazon as the inspiration for his own drones. “Amazon faces a lot of obstacles,” said Supple. “Dense urban locations present a host of problems to drone delivery. But our tests are on vast, wide-open frozen lakes free of trees and power lines. Our drone can fly as the crow flies, straight to our target, based on GPS coordinates provided by an ice angler.
Supple had believed that because his drones were operating in sparsely populated areas with structure free horizons, he could circumvent the law. Obviously, he was wrong.
The Amazon drone ad, as well as FedEx plans to deploy drones, were met with warnings that the devices could be used to gather private information on customers. Lawmakers called for stricter privacy controls, while technology experts warned that the drones will inevitably crash into people and other objects because the technology is not yet sophisticated enough to equip the drones with spatial awareness that would prevent collisions.
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
A popular beer company received a verbal slap-down from the government this week after it released a video depicting beer deliveries being conducted by flying drones.
The video, produced by Lakemaid Beer, quickly went viral on the internet. It shows a 12 pack of beer being attached to a small drone which then flies to a remote shack where some fishermen (and women) enjoy a cold one.
A press release accompanying the video described how the Minnesota-based company had been testing the beer drones at ice fishing lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“It’s the perfect proving ground for drone delivery,” said the company’s president, Jack Supple. “Our initial tests on several mid-size lakes have been very successful. We’re looking forward to testing the range of our drones on larger lakes.”
However, that plan seems to have hit a snag following not one but two calls this week to Lakemaid from The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Supple told the New York Daily News. “I’m on the FAA blacklist for now… They’re not too happy with me.”
The FAA “said I would be in violation of some code, I can’t remember what the number was,” Supple told The News. “They sent me 74 pages all about the code.”
The law currently restricts commercial use of small drones. The FAA is currently still formulating legislation to cover the use of such technology in US skies.
Still, the ad has prompted a great deal of free publicity, much as Amazon’s delivery drone ad last year did.
Indeed, Supple pointed to Amazon as the inspiration for his own drones. “Amazon faces a lot of obstacles,” said Supple. “Dense urban locations present a host of problems to drone delivery. But our tests are on vast, wide-open frozen lakes free of trees and power lines. Our drone can fly as the crow flies, straight to our target, based on GPS coordinates provided by an ice angler.
Supple had believed that because his drones were operating in sparsely populated areas with structure free horizons, he could circumvent the law. Obviously, he was wrong.
The Amazon drone ad, as well as FedEx plans to deploy drones, were met with warnings that the devices could be used to gather private information on customers. Lawmakers called for stricter privacy controls, while technology experts warned that the drones will inevitably crash into people and other objects because the technology is not yet sophisticated enough to equip the drones with spatial awareness that would prevent collisions.
No Charges Filed Against Cop Who Shot 72-Year-Old On His Own Driveway
Officer arrived at wrong address and shot homeowner seven times because he
“felt threatened”
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Yesterday a grand jury declined to charge a Ft. Worth, Texas police officer who killed a 72-year-old man on his own driveway after arriving at the wrong address to investigate a burglary alarm.
The jury’s decision not to indict R.A. “Alex” Hoepper for the May 28 shooting death of Jerry Waller came after prosecutors presented 25 hours of testimony over four days, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Waller died after Hoepper shot him seven times as the officer and his partner arrived at Waller’s house, mistakenly thinking that the burglary alarm going off across the street came from his residence.
Waller had been walking down his driveway with his gun to investigate the alarm he heard from his neighbor’s house.
“The 72-year-old man didn’t even make it to the house across the street before he was shot,” CBS Fort Worth reported. “He died on his own property.”
Hoepper later said that he shot Waller because he “felt threatened.”
Ft. Worth police chief Jeff Halstead believed the jury made the “right decision” not to indict Hoepper, even though the officers did not realize they were at the wrong address until a detective showed up later at the scene.
“I think it was proven through the autopsy and evidence that a gun was pointed directly at Officer Hoeppner and he was forced to make his decision,” he said.
But Waller’s family pointed out that since the shooting, the department had been “feeding misinformation” to the local news and to the public.
“We were disturbed by suggestions that police may have felt threatened by a man in his own garage faced with unknown trespassers wielding flashlights,” the family said in a released statement.
One of Waller’s neighbors, former Ft. Worth council member Becky Haskin, also added that Hoeppner, a rookie, is a “victim of his own inexperience.”
“I think he panicked,” Haskin said. “He just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. That’s what I heard; it woke me up. I thought it was in my back yard – just rapid fire, one right after the other, in succession.”
“There wasn’t any hesitation.”
She added that although nothing is going to bring Waller back, someone from the police department should apologize to the family.
“It’s an accidental death at the hands of an untrained police officer.”
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Yesterday a grand jury declined to charge a Ft. Worth, Texas police officer who killed a 72-year-old man on his own driveway after arriving at the wrong address to investigate a burglary alarm.
An all-too-common sight in America, especially when it
comes to unnecessary police shootings. Credit: Marcin Wichary via
Flickr
The jury’s decision not to indict R.A. “Alex” Hoepper for the May 28 shooting death of Jerry Waller came after prosecutors presented 25 hours of testimony over four days, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Waller died after Hoepper shot him seven times as the officer and his partner arrived at Waller’s house, mistakenly thinking that the burglary alarm going off across the street came from his residence.
Waller had been walking down his driveway with his gun to investigate the alarm he heard from his neighbor’s house.
“The 72-year-old man didn’t even make it to the house across the street before he was shot,” CBS Fort Worth reported. “He died on his own property.”
Hoepper later said that he shot Waller because he “felt threatened.”
Ft. Worth police chief Jeff Halstead believed the jury made the “right decision” not to indict Hoepper, even though the officers did not realize they were at the wrong address until a detective showed up later at the scene.
“I think it was proven through the autopsy and evidence that a gun was pointed directly at Officer Hoeppner and he was forced to make his decision,” he said.
But Waller’s family pointed out that since the shooting, the department had been “feeding misinformation” to the local news and to the public.
“We were disturbed by suggestions that police may have felt threatened by a man in his own garage faced with unknown trespassers wielding flashlights,” the family said in a released statement.
One of Waller’s neighbors, former Ft. Worth council member Becky Haskin, also added that Hoeppner, a rookie, is a “victim of his own inexperience.”
“I think he panicked,” Haskin said. “He just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. That’s what I heard; it woke me up. I thought it was in my back yard – just rapid fire, one right after the other, in succession.”
“There wasn’t any hesitation.”
She added that although nothing is going to bring Waller back, someone from the police department should apologize to the family.
“It’s an accidental death at the hands of an untrained police officer.”
Chief of Police Harassed by Feds, Placed on Leave After Signing Pledge to Uphold Constitution
Sheriff orders Shane Harger to disband entire police department due to
“political affiliations”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
UPDATE: Police Chief Shane Harger and Sheriff Richard Mack will both appear on Infowars Nightly News tonight to discuss this story. Harger is meeting with other Jemez Springs law enforcement officials tonight to discuss his position.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
UPDATE: Police Chief Shane Harger and Sheriff Richard Mack will both appear on Infowars Nightly News tonight to discuss this story. Harger is meeting with other Jemez Springs law enforcement officials tonight to discuss his position.
Image: Police Chief Shane Harger.
A police chief was detained and harassed by federal agents while
traveling to a constitutional convention before returning home to be told he was
being placed on administrative leave and ordered to disband his police
department after signing a pledge to uphold the bill of rights.
Police Chief Shane Harger of the Jemez Springs, NM Police
Department was flying out of Albuquerque Airport last week on his way to a
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) convention taking
place in Las Vegas. CSPOA is an
organization headed up by Sheriff Richard Mack under which law enforcement
officers gather to re-affirm their commitment to uphold and defend the
Constitution.
Before passing security, Harger was approached by a TSA agent who
asked the police chief to show his credentials. Moments later, a man claiming to
be a “federal agent” also asked to see Harger’s credentials before telling him
he was a “person of interest.” The federal agent then demanded to know where
Harger was traveling to and why.
When Harger told the federal agent he was attending the
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association Convention in Las Vegas,
he was detained for 35 minutes before finally being allowed to board the
airplane.
On Tuesday January 28, a day after his return, Harger was placed
on administrative leave and ordered by Sandoval County, NM, Sheriff Douglas C.
Wood to disband his entire police department due to his “political
affiliations”.
What were his political affiliations? While attending the
convention, Harger, along with 38 other police officers, signed a declaration
affirming their pledge to “obey and observe” the U.S. Constitution, in addition
to refusing to carry out unconstitutional orders such as gun confiscation
without constitutionally compliant warrants, violations of the 4th amendment
without probable cause, detainment or incarceration of citizens without probable
cause, or working with the military for domestic law enforcement.
In other words, Harger was targeted for federal harassment and
subsequently suspended for re-affirming his belief in the very Constitution he
took an oath to uphold and protect in order to become a police officer in the
first place.
“Despite having received a meritorious commendation from the Mayor
of Jemez Springs on January 22, 2014, it seems that no one in the village
government is willing to come to the assistance of Harger. It appears that
Harger’s stance to defend and uphold the Constitution has put him and his entire
department of ten part-time and volunteers out of business,” writes
Vincent Finelli.
“I was at the convention and I never saw nor heard anyone say nor
do anything that was a violation of any law. The CSPOA convention was an
assembly of peace-loving Americans who just wanted to uphold their oath of
office, that being to support and defend the US Constitution and Bill of Rights
for all of us, We The People,” adds Finelli.
Harger’s treatment is yet another disturbing indication that the
federal government, in addition to law enforcement authorities, view Americans
who support the bill of rights as domestic extremists. Harger’s position as
Chief of Police also shows that they are desperate to prevent citizens who
identify as constitutionalists, tea partiers or libertarians from holding any
position of influence within law enforcement or society in general.
Harger’s potential dismissal for his patriotic and constitutional
“political affiliations” is a chilling reminder that such positions are not only
not welcomed but actively discriminated against by the federal government.
The Left “hates big corporations”: enter Eric Holder
Jon Rappoport
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Veteran reporter, Russell Mokhiber, who edits the Corporate Crime Reporter, lays it out in his article, “Holder the Hypocrite.”
“…[US Attorney General] Holder has perfected the government’s practice of offering deferred and non prosecution agreements to major corporations to settle major corporate crime cases.
“Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the corporation is charged with a crime, but if the company abides by the agreement for a period of years, then the government drops the criminal charges.
“Under a non prosecution agreement, the government just collects a fine. There is no criminal charge. There is no admission of wrongdoing.
“Since taking office in February 2009, Holder has dished out deferred and non prosecution agreements to more than 100 large publicly held corporations, including JPMorgan Chase (Madoff Ponzi scheme), Archer Daniels Midland(foreign bribery), Diebold (foreign bribery), UBS (interest rate manipulation),HSBC (money laundering), Pfizer (foreign bribery), Wachovia (money laundering), Tyson Foods (foreign bribery), Barclays Bank (Trading with the Enemies Act), Deutsche Bank (tax shelter fraud).”
That’s a tidy sample of Eric Holder’s work.
Of course, failing to prosecute Monsanto for fraud, criminal intimidation, poisoning the food supply, and other acts should rank high on the list as well.
But the Left hates big corporations, doesn’t it? Well, Virginia, ha-ha, that’s just a convenient myth. The Left loves and promotes big government, so it needs to accuse somebody of criminal behavior. Its favorite fairy-tale target? Corporations.
As you can see, that’s just a feel-good con. It attracts liberals and other Lefties, but only on the level of a slogan.
Politicians on both the Left and Right love big corporations.
“I’ll say love and you say hate, and we’ll argue and create the illusion of difference.
Throw in pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, security corporations, banks, media giants…they’re all gladly served by the Left and the Right.
Unelected bureaucrats play a major role in carrying water for political administrations of both major Parties. The FDA, for example, enables Big Pharma and its array of killer drugs, no matter whether Democrats or Republicans are ruling the White House and the Congress.
Since 2000, it’s been known that medical drugs kill 106,000 Americans a year (a conservative estimate—see Dr. Barbara Starfield, JAMA, July 26, 2000, “Is US health really the best in the world?”)
Yet neither political party has forced a deep investigation of the FDA, which routinely certifies those drugs as safe and effective. And no Attorney General has lifted a finger to bring criminal charges against FDA employees or pharmaceutical companies.
Yet the myth lives on. Republicans hate big government and Democrats hate big corporations.
It’s a Disney production with politicians playing cartoon roles.
This post originally appeared at www.nomorefakenews.com
Infowars.com
January 30, 2014
Veteran reporter, Russell Mokhiber, who edits the Corporate Crime Reporter, lays it out in his article, “Holder the Hypocrite.”
Corrupt Attorney General Eric Holder has been involved
in no less than 16 scandals.
“…[US Attorney General] Holder has perfected the government’s practice of offering deferred and non prosecution agreements to major corporations to settle major corporate crime cases.
“Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the corporation is charged with a crime, but if the company abides by the agreement for a period of years, then the government drops the criminal charges.
“Under a non prosecution agreement, the government just collects a fine. There is no criminal charge. There is no admission of wrongdoing.
“Since taking office in February 2009, Holder has dished out deferred and non prosecution agreements to more than 100 large publicly held corporations, including JPMorgan Chase (Madoff Ponzi scheme), Archer Daniels Midland(foreign bribery), Diebold (foreign bribery), UBS (interest rate manipulation),HSBC (money laundering), Pfizer (foreign bribery), Wachovia (money laundering), Tyson Foods (foreign bribery), Barclays Bank (Trading with the Enemies Act), Deutsche Bank (tax shelter fraud).”
That’s a tidy sample of Eric Holder’s work.
Of course, failing to prosecute Monsanto for fraud, criminal intimidation, poisoning the food supply, and other acts should rank high on the list as well.
But the Left hates big corporations, doesn’t it? Well, Virginia, ha-ha, that’s just a convenient myth. The Left loves and promotes big government, so it needs to accuse somebody of criminal behavior. Its favorite fairy-tale target? Corporations.
As you can see, that’s just a feel-good con. It attracts liberals and other Lefties, but only on the level of a slogan.
Politicians on both the Left and Right love big corporations.
“I’ll say love and you say hate, and we’ll argue and create the illusion of difference.
Throw in pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, security corporations, banks, media giants…they’re all gladly served by the Left and the Right.
Unelected bureaucrats play a major role in carrying water for political administrations of both major Parties. The FDA, for example, enables Big Pharma and its array of killer drugs, no matter whether Democrats or Republicans are ruling the White House and the Congress.
Since 2000, it’s been known that medical drugs kill 106,000 Americans a year (a conservative estimate—see Dr. Barbara Starfield, JAMA, July 26, 2000, “Is US health really the best in the world?”)
Yet neither political party has forced a deep investigation of the FDA, which routinely certifies those drugs as safe and effective. And no Attorney General has lifted a finger to bring criminal charges against FDA employees or pharmaceutical companies.
Yet the myth lives on. Republicans hate big government and Democrats hate big corporations.
It’s a Disney production with politicians playing cartoon roles.
This post originally appeared at www.nomorefakenews.com
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Infowars Crew Annihilates Obama’s SOTU Lies Live On Air
Alex and the Infowars Nightly News crew take apart Obama’s propaganda
Infowars.com
January 29, 2013
A good hour before Obama’s teleprompter delivered State of the Union address, the crew at Infowars was on the case. In what passed for a politically astute version of Mystery Science Theater, Infowars Nightly News host David Knight and reporters Jakari Jackson and Lee Ann McAdoo joined Alex to provide lead-up, blow-by-blow, and follow-up commentary on the speech.
While the corporate alphabet media dwelled on phony bipartisan harmony, a government mandated raise in the minimum wage, legalizing millions of illegal aliens, and a permanent subsidy of workers screwed by the banksters and transnational corporations, Alex and the Nightly News crew focused on Obama’s brazen subversion of the Constitution and an underhanded move by the ruling elite to fashion him into a dictator.
See the entire broadcast:
And here is an abbreviated version.
The Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com editorial teams covered the SOTU and associated issues in detail over the last few days. Check out the following articles providing in-depth information and perspectives available only on Alex’s flagship websites:
Obama Promises To Enact Gun Control Laws “With Or Without Congress”
Obama ‘Plagiarized’ Bush’s 2007 SOTU Speech
State of the Union Takeaway: Dictatorship
CNN Poll: 67% Oppose Obama’s Executive Agenda
Rep. Weber: Obama Is A Socialistic Dictator
Confirmed: Obama to Announce Dictatorial Push At State of the Union
Infowars.com
January 29, 2013
Alex and the Nightly News crew focused on Obama’s
brazen subversion of the Constitution and an underhanded move by the ruling
elite to fashion him into a dictator.
A good hour before Obama’s teleprompter delivered State of the Union address, the crew at Infowars was on the case. In what passed for a politically astute version of Mystery Science Theater, Infowars Nightly News host David Knight and reporters Jakari Jackson and Lee Ann McAdoo joined Alex to provide lead-up, blow-by-blow, and follow-up commentary on the speech.
While the corporate alphabet media dwelled on phony bipartisan harmony, a government mandated raise in the minimum wage, legalizing millions of illegal aliens, and a permanent subsidy of workers screwed by the banksters and transnational corporations, Alex and the Nightly News crew focused on Obama’s brazen subversion of the Constitution and an underhanded move by the ruling elite to fashion him into a dictator.
See the entire broadcast:
And here is an abbreviated version.
The Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com editorial teams covered the SOTU and associated issues in detail over the last few days. Check out the following articles providing in-depth information and perspectives available only on Alex’s flagship websites:
Obama Promises To Enact Gun Control Laws “With Or Without Congress”
Obama ‘Plagiarized’ Bush’s 2007 SOTU Speech
State of the Union Takeaway: Dictatorship
CNN Poll: 67% Oppose Obama’s Executive Agenda
Rep. Weber: Obama Is A Socialistic Dictator
Confirmed: Obama to Announce Dictatorial Push At State of the Union
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
State of the Obama Dictatorship: Live Coverage
Infowars.com
January 28, 2014
Alex will provide blow-by-blow, Mystery Science Theater style coverage on Obama’s State of the Union teleprompter address this evening.
He will deftly translate and dissect the real meaning behind Obama’s rhetoric, cut through his political feel-good malarkey and boil the address down to its essence: naked, in your face totalitarianism.
The White House has warned Obama will “bypass” Congress and the American people in order to step up his “year of action” ahead of the mid-term elections. His promise to openly violate the Constitution and Alex’s rebuttal represent a historical moment that should not be missed.
If you are interested in a serious decoding, get over to InfowarsNews.com to subscribe and see the HD feed or Infowars.com/show for the free feed this evening at 8:00 PM CST. Join Alex at 7:00 PM CST for pre-SOTU analysis.
Check out the following video. It contains exclusive leaked footage of Obama practicing his SOTU address…
January 28, 2014
Alex will provide blow-by-blow, Mystery Science Theater style coverage on Obama’s State of the Union teleprompter address this evening.
He will deftly translate and dissect the real meaning behind Obama’s rhetoric, cut through his political feel-good malarkey and boil the address down to its essence: naked, in your face totalitarianism.
The White House has warned Obama will “bypass” Congress and the American people in order to step up his “year of action” ahead of the mid-term elections. His promise to openly violate the Constitution and Alex’s rebuttal represent a historical moment that should not be missed.
If you are interested in a serious decoding, get over to InfowarsNews.com to subscribe and see the HD feed or Infowars.com/show for the free feed this evening at 8:00 PM CST. Join Alex at 7:00 PM CST for pre-SOTU analysis.
Check out the following video. It contains exclusive leaked footage of Obama practicing his SOTU address…
Confirmed: Obama to Announce Dictatorial Push At State of the Union
Infowars.com
January 28, 2014
The White House has released advanced excerpts of President Obama’s State of the Union Address in which he admits he will continue to usurp power from Congress.
“Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you,” he will say according to the excerpts. “But America does not stand still — and neither will I.”
“So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”
January 28, 2014
Obama’s State of the Union will be overloaded with
lies.
The White House has released advanced excerpts of President Obama’s State of the Union Address in which he admits he will continue to usurp power from Congress.
“Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you,” he will say according to the excerpts. “But America does not stand still — and neither will I.”
“So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Monday, January 27, 2014
Poll: Less Government Good for Economy
Obama and the Fed plan direct intervention in economy despite disapproval by
most Americans
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
Obama’s income inequality speech.
World Bank at Davos: Income inequality addressed through more spending and “financial services,” i.e., debt.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
The results of a Rasmussen Reports poll released today reveals that most
Americans think government involvement in the economy increases income
inequality.
Obama’s income inequality speech.
When “asked which would do more to close the
income gap in America, 59% choose less government involvement in the economy
over more government action. Thirty-three percent (33%) think increased
government involvement in the economy would do more to close the income gap,”
the Rasmussen Reports survey claims.
“A plurality (48%) says society overall would be
less fair if the government got more involved in regulating the economy.
Twenty-nine percent (29%) think increased government involvement would ensure
that society is more fair. Fifteen percent (15%) see no impact from more
government involvement in the economy?… More voters than ever (66%) now think
the U.S. economy is unfair to the middle class.”
Obama’s annual State of Union address tomorrow is
expected to dwell on income inequality, unemployment and Obamacare. In December,
Obama said during a speech hosted by the Center for American
Progress that income inequality is the “defining challenge of our time.”
He is expected to implement wealth redistribution
schemes by way of executive action if Congress does not act, according to Fox
News.
“Obama speaks up for the little guy and then turns
right around and acts on behalf of the big guys, the elite, the establishment,
and big business. He surrounds himself with their people. He gets their advice.
He has no firm understanding of his own to parry them. The big money that is the
political lifeblood of his party flows from these same interests. Obama has
engineered no way of dealing from strength against these privileged interests,”
Michael S. Rozeff writes.
During her confirmation hearings, Janet Yellen, a standard-bearer for the privileged interests
Rozeff mentions, said income inequality is a serious issue worthy of government
intervention despite widespread disapproval by the American people. “The
solutions involve a multitude of things, including education, maybe early
childhood education, job training, other things,” she said back in November. In
other words, more government programs and more debt dragging down the
economy.
Yellen said Congress, specifically the tea party
influenced faction looking to reduce deficits and an astronomical federal debt
through sequestration, is “making it harder for the fed to get the economy
moving, making our task more difficult.”
The Federal Reserve is the main income inequality
culprit. Its bubble economy policies spurred on by the profligate printing of
money and near zero interest rates act like a sledge hammer destroying the
economy and widening the chasm between a quickly eroding middle class, a growing
underclass and the mega-wealthy elite in control of not only the Federal Reserve
but much of Congress and the executive.
“Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize that the
Federal Reserve has more control over our economy than anyone else does,” writes
Michael Snyder.
The Rasmussen poll shows that while many Americans
do not understand that the Federal Reserve is the engine behind the destruction
of the U.S. economy, they do understand that government and reckless government
spending make income equality worse.
World Bank at Davos: Income inequality addressed through more spending and “financial services,” i.e., debt.
Sen. Cruz Compares Obama to His Young Daughter: ‘Stop Hitting the American People’
Texas Senator frustrated with incorrigible president’s “abuse of power” and
inaction
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
Following highly critical comments regarding the office of the president’s “abuse of power” over the weekend, some of which were so incendiary they were censored by CBS, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is at it again, this time appearing on Fox News comparing the president with his own 3-year-old daughter.
“Well, I don’t know that I expect it,” Cruz admitted to Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson when asked whether he genuinely expected an apology from the president, “but it’s what he should do if he was giving an honest and straight-forward State of the Union address.”
The crux of Cruz’s presidential dismay continues to be Obama’s much-touted line that “If you like your health plan, you can keep it,” a fib voted the top lie of 2013 by Politifact. “We now know that statement wasn’t true,” Cruz said.
Cruz argues that “over 5 million people” were led astray after trusting the president’s promises, but an apology, the Senator says, only goes so far without action taken to correct the initial transgression.
“If he was actually taking responsibility for his actions, he would number one say, ‘I am sorry,’ but then number two, and number two is much, much more important, he would act to fix it.”
Cruz went on to paint an appropriate analogy between the behavior of his own children and Obama’s insincere apology.
“You know, Gretchen, at home I have two little girls, a 5-year-old and 3-year-old. One of my daughters punches the other. If they just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and they keep hitting the kid, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. For president Obama’s apology to mean something, he’s got to stop hitting the American people, stop taking away their health care, stop driving up their premiums, stop making it worse.”
In all fairness, Obama did offer a pseudo-apology of sorts during an NBC News interview in November. “I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” Obama said in a roundabout, not-totally-accepting-responsibility kind of way.
Appearing on Sunday’s Face the Nation, Cruz gave hardball answers regarding his potential run for the presidency in 2016, and waded into the multiple controversies affecting the Obama administration.
Once Cruz began speaking to the executive branch’s “abuse of power,” citing recent instances in which various filmmakers have been persecuted by the federal government, and in which the IRS has been used as a political tool to target opponents, producers yanked him from the show and edited the segment out at post-production.
“Now it is certainly plausible that CBS edited out the ending of the Cruz interview for time,” commented NewsBusters’ Jeffrey Meyer, “however given that Cruz’s comments were extremely critical of the president and came just two days before an embattled President Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the timing of such editing is highly inappropriate and unusual.”
Despite his remarks, Cruz is still considered a viable candidate to deliver the Republican response to Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address.
(H/T: Mediaite)
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
Following highly critical comments regarding the office of the president’s “abuse of power” over the weekend, some of which were so incendiary they were censored by CBS, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is at it again, this time appearing on Fox News comparing the president with his own 3-year-old daughter.
“Well, I don’t know that I expect it,” Cruz admitted to Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson when asked whether he genuinely expected an apology from the president, “but it’s what he should do if he was giving an honest and straight-forward State of the Union address.”
The crux of Cruz’s presidential dismay continues to be Obama’s much-touted line that “If you like your health plan, you can keep it,” a fib voted the top lie of 2013 by Politifact. “We now know that statement wasn’t true,” Cruz said.
Cruz argues that “over 5 million people” were led astray after trusting the president’s promises, but an apology, the Senator says, only goes so far without action taken to correct the initial transgression.
“If he was actually taking responsibility for his actions, he would number one say, ‘I am sorry,’ but then number two, and number two is much, much more important, he would act to fix it.”
Cruz went on to paint an appropriate analogy between the behavior of his own children and Obama’s insincere apology.
“You know, Gretchen, at home I have two little girls, a 5-year-old and 3-year-old. One of my daughters punches the other. If they just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and they keep hitting the kid, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. For president Obama’s apology to mean something, he’s got to stop hitting the American people, stop taking away their health care, stop driving up their premiums, stop making it worse.”
In all fairness, Obama did offer a pseudo-apology of sorts during an NBC News interview in November. “I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” Obama said in a roundabout, not-totally-accepting-responsibility kind of way.
Appearing on Sunday’s Face the Nation, Cruz gave hardball answers regarding his potential run for the presidency in 2016, and waded into the multiple controversies affecting the Obama administration.
Once Cruz began speaking to the executive branch’s “abuse of power,” citing recent instances in which various filmmakers have been persecuted by the federal government, and in which the IRS has been used as a political tool to target opponents, producers yanked him from the show and edited the segment out at post-production.
“Now it is certainly plausible that CBS edited out the ending of the Cruz interview for time,” commented NewsBusters’ Jeffrey Meyer, “however given that Cruz’s comments were extremely critical of the president and came just two days before an embattled President Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the timing of such editing is highly inappropriate and unusual.”
Despite his remarks, Cruz is still considered a viable candidate to deliver the Republican response to Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address.
(H/T: Mediaite)
Food in the sky? Highrise farming idea gains ground
AFP
January 27, 2014
Imagine stepping out of your highrise apartment into a sunny, plant-lined corridor, biting into an apple grown in the orchard on the fourth floor as you bid “good morning” to the farmer off to milk his cows on the fifth.
You take the lift to your office, passing the rice paddy and one of the many gardens housed in the glass edifice that not only heats and cools itself, but also captures rainwater and recirculates domestic waste as plant food.
No, this is not the setting for a futuristic movie about humans colonising a new planet.
It is the design of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut for a 132-floor “urban farm” — the answer, he believes, to a healthier, happier future for the estimated six billion people who will live in cities by 2050.
Read more
January 27, 2014
PROJECT TITLE : Taiwan Tower Planning, Design and
Construction Supervision Service Project / PROJECT TITLE : Taiwan Tower
Planning, Design and Construction Supervision Service Project
Imagine stepping out of your highrise apartment into a sunny, plant-lined corridor, biting into an apple grown in the orchard on the fourth floor as you bid “good morning” to the farmer off to milk his cows on the fifth.
You take the lift to your office, passing the rice paddy and one of the many gardens housed in the glass edifice that not only heats and cools itself, but also captures rainwater and recirculates domestic waste as plant food.
No, this is not the setting for a futuristic movie about humans colonising a new planet.
It is the design of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut for a 132-floor “urban farm” — the answer, he believes, to a healthier, happier future for the estimated six billion people who will live in cities by 2050.
Read more
Poll: 63% Don’t Have Confidence in Obama to Make Right Decisions
Truth Revolt.org
January 27, 2014
On the eve of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, a new poll from Washington Post-ABC News shows that fully 63 percent of Americans have either little or no confidence Obama will make the right decisions. The public is evenly split on whether Obama is honest and trustworthy, with 49 percent of Americans answering in the affirmative, and 48 percent answering negatively.
A bare majority of Americans, 52 percent, feel Obama does not understand the problems of people like them – a shocking downward turn for Obama on an important likeability issue on which he dominated in 2012. A majority of Americans. 51 percent, also believe Obama is not a strong leader. His disapproval rating stands currently at 50 percent, with 41 percent disapproving strongly – only 23 percent support him strongly. 50 percent of Americans have an unfavorable impression of the president.
Read more
January 27, 2014
On the eve of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, a new poll from Washington Post-ABC News shows that fully 63 percent of Americans have either little or no confidence Obama will make the right decisions. The public is evenly split on whether Obama is honest and trustworthy, with 49 percent of Americans answering in the affirmative, and 48 percent answering negatively.
A bare majority of Americans, 52 percent, feel Obama does not understand the problems of people like them – a shocking downward turn for Obama on an important likeability issue on which he dominated in 2012. A majority of Americans. 51 percent, also believe Obama is not a strong leader. His disapproval rating stands currently at 50 percent, with 41 percent disapproving strongly – only 23 percent support him strongly. 50 percent of Americans have an unfavorable impression of the president.
Read more
Prominent Anti-TSA Activist Receives PreCheck Pass Without Applying
Agency giving critics a free security theater pass?
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
An engineer who notoriously exposed TSA body scanners as fundamentally flawed has been handed a lifetime PreCheck pass, meaning he may never have to walk through a scanner or undergo a pat-down again, prompting questions over whether the agency is attempting to sweeten its staunchest critics.
To his surprise, Jon Corbett, who runs the popular blog TSA Out Of Our Pants, received the PreCheck pass on a flight from Nassau to Miami International last week.
Corbett, who also became the first person in America to sue the TSA over the constitutionality of the agency’s body scanners and pat downs, did not even apply for the Precheck pass, which will allow him to skip standard security lines and procedures when boarding flights within the United States.
“That’s right — the guy who sues, publicly humiliates, and fights the TSA before Congress now has TSA PreCheck, ” Corbett writes on his blog.
“I never asked for it, never opted-in, and had no notice that I was included. I intentionally avoided it because I don’t think it’s fair that one should have to do anything to avoid being abused by their government.” Corbett adds.
While Corbett may have qualified due to his frequent flier status, the TSA’s actions here again underscore how its recent expansion of the PreCheck program, based on “risk assessment”, has many asking questions about what information it is basing such decisions on.
“The TSA somehow decides, based on information like your name, address, and travel history, that you must not be a terrorist. Perhaps this is how I’ve made it through.” Corbett comments.
“Their inclusion of me in this program is further ironic since in 2010, when I filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would require the TSA not to scan or molest me, the TSA argued that such an “ad hoc” exclusion would devastate the TSA’s impenetrable fortress. But here we are in 2014, and the TSA has done just that,” the activist also notes.
Corbett queries whether the TSA is attempting to placate him and subtly dissuade him from being so vocally critical of the agency and its procedures.
“Perhaps the TSA simply thinks that if it keeps me away from the body scanners, I’ll shut up.” he writes, adding “Nope — what the TSA is doing is wrong, and it’s wrong whether they decide to give me special treatment or not. ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’”
The latest development follows accounts of people at airports seemingly randomly being granted PreCheck status, and others being ushered into PreCheck lines and waved through security without explanation.
The TSA’s likely motive is to give fliers a sweet taste of how convenient and breezy life could be if they pay a fee and submit to extensive background checks by their government in order to avoid security lines and freely move around their own country.
Has it ever been more obvious that TSA is operating pure security theater?
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
An engineer who notoriously exposed TSA body scanners as fundamentally flawed has been handed a lifetime PreCheck pass, meaning he may never have to walk through a scanner or undergo a pat-down again, prompting questions over whether the agency is attempting to sweeten its staunchest critics.
To his surprise, Jon Corbett, who runs the popular blog TSA Out Of Our Pants, received the PreCheck pass on a flight from Nassau to Miami International last week.
Corbett, who also became the first person in America to sue the TSA over the constitutionality of the agency’s body scanners and pat downs, did not even apply for the Precheck pass, which will allow him to skip standard security lines and procedures when boarding flights within the United States.
“That’s right — the guy who sues, publicly humiliates, and fights the TSA before Congress now has TSA PreCheck, ” Corbett writes on his blog.
“I never asked for it, never opted-in, and had no notice that I was included. I intentionally avoided it because I don’t think it’s fair that one should have to do anything to avoid being abused by their government.” Corbett adds.
While Corbett may have qualified due to his frequent flier status, the TSA’s actions here again underscore how its recent expansion of the PreCheck program, based on “risk assessment”, has many asking questions about what information it is basing such decisions on.
“The TSA somehow decides, based on information like your name, address, and travel history, that you must not be a terrorist. Perhaps this is how I’ve made it through.” Corbett comments.
“Their inclusion of me in this program is further ironic since in 2010, when I filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would require the TSA not to scan or molest me, the TSA argued that such an “ad hoc” exclusion would devastate the TSA’s impenetrable fortress. But here we are in 2014, and the TSA has done just that,” the activist also notes.
Corbett queries whether the TSA is attempting to placate him and subtly dissuade him from being so vocally critical of the agency and its procedures.
“Perhaps the TSA simply thinks that if it keeps me away from the body scanners, I’ll shut up.” he writes, adding “Nope — what the TSA is doing is wrong, and it’s wrong whether they decide to give me special treatment or not. ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’”
The latest development follows accounts of people at airports seemingly randomly being granted PreCheck status, and others being ushered into PreCheck lines and waved through security without explanation.
The TSA’s likely motive is to give fliers a sweet taste of how convenient and breezy life could be if they pay a fee and submit to extensive background checks by their government in order to avoid security lines and freely move around their own country.
Has it ever been more obvious that TSA is operating pure security theater?
N.Y.’s Data Collection Program Tracks Students From Preschool to Career
Program will allow state and federal agencies to access student records
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
New York’s new, multi-agency surveillance program will collect data on public school students from preschool to their entry into the workforce and potentially throughout their entire lives.
Developed by the New York State Education Department, funded by the federal government and promoted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the P-20 data collection program allows government entities to share and access records for every student in the state with the overall goal of monitoring individuals from childhood to death.
“By working in collaboration with other state agencies, the New York State Education Dept. will be able to establish a P-20 data system without duplication of effort and cost,” a U.S. Dept. of Education web site states. “It will allow NYSED and other agencies to link data without the need for agencies to unnecessarily add new regulations or seek legal policies to collect data out of their purview.”
“In the end, it will provide a more robust state data system.”
New York began development of the P-20 program as early as 2008 and has received over $40 million in federal and state grants since then, according to USA Today.
The program was named P-20 to indicate the tracking of students from pre-kindergarten to around age 20 when they enter the workforce.
“Data is painting a profile of a student that is richer and more valuable than ever before,” Jim Shelton, a U.S. Education Department official who previously worked for the Gates Foundation, said recently.
He also added that the P-20 program leads to “progress.”
Others, however, have pointed out the obvious privacy issues and Orwellian characteristics of this data collection.
“This throws up so many red flags for me as a parent, a tech guy and an educator,” technology training specialist Brian Wasson said to USA Today. “As this develops, will they decide to use this data for more than research?
“I don’t buy the rationale for it.”
The real reason behind the program is to integrate personal records held by various government departments into a centralized database which can then be shared and accessed by a multitude of state and federal agencies.
The idea for such a database existed as far back as 2002 when the New York Times reported that the Pentagon wanted to analyze Americans’ educational, criminal, financial, medical, and travel records in order to profile every citizen in the country.
This goal came to fruition in the past year when the Dept. of Health and Human Services rolled out the Federal Data Services Hub, a comprehensive database which provides federal entities real-time, electronic access to dossiers on Americans compiled with information from the IRS, the Dept. of Homeland Security, the Justice Dept. and others.
No doubt that the records collected under the P-20 program will also eventually appear in this data hub.
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
January 27, 2014
New York’s new, multi-agency surveillance program will collect data on public school students from preschool to their entry into the workforce and potentially throughout their entire lives.
Developed by the New York State Education Department, funded by the federal government and promoted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the P-20 data collection program allows government entities to share and access records for every student in the state with the overall goal of monitoring individuals from childhood to death.
“By working in collaboration with other state agencies, the New York State Education Dept. will be able to establish a P-20 data system without duplication of effort and cost,” a U.S. Dept. of Education web site states. “It will allow NYSED and other agencies to link data without the need for agencies to unnecessarily add new regulations or seek legal policies to collect data out of their purview.”
“In the end, it will provide a more robust state data system.”
New York began development of the P-20 program as early as 2008 and has received over $40 million in federal and state grants since then, according to USA Today.
The program was named P-20 to indicate the tracking of students from pre-kindergarten to around age 20 when they enter the workforce.
“Data is painting a profile of a student that is richer and more valuable than ever before,” Jim Shelton, a U.S. Education Department official who previously worked for the Gates Foundation, said recently.
He also added that the P-20 program leads to “progress.”
Others, however, have pointed out the obvious privacy issues and Orwellian characteristics of this data collection.
“This throws up so many red flags for me as a parent, a tech guy and an educator,” technology training specialist Brian Wasson said to USA Today. “As this develops, will they decide to use this data for more than research?
“I don’t buy the rationale for it.”
The real reason behind the program is to integrate personal records held by various government departments into a centralized database which can then be shared and accessed by a multitude of state and federal agencies.
The idea for such a database existed as far back as 2002 when the New York Times reported that the Pentagon wanted to analyze Americans’ educational, criminal, financial, medical, and travel records in order to profile every citizen in the country.
This goal came to fruition in the past year when the Dept. of Health and Human Services rolled out the Federal Data Services Hub, a comprehensive database which provides federal entities real-time, electronic access to dossiers on Americans compiled with information from the IRS, the Dept. of Homeland Security, the Justice Dept. and others.
No doubt that the records collected under the P-20 program will also eventually appear in this data hub.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
White House Warns Obama Will Continue Usurping Power From Congress
RELATED: Obama Announces Plan to Rule by Executive Order
Philip Elliott
Associated Press
January 26, 2014
President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday’s State of the Union speech.
Obama faces a politically divided Congress on Tuesday and will use his annual address to demand expanded economic opportunity. Absent legislative action, the White House is telling lawmakers that the president is ready to take unilateral action to close the gap between rich and poor Americans.
“I think the way we have to think about this year is we have a divided government,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama adviser. “The Republican Congress is not going to rubber-stamp the president’s agenda. The president is not going to sign the Republican Congress’ agenda.”
Read more
Philip Elliott
Associated Press
January 26, 2014
Obama is making his own laws, usurping power from
Congress.
President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday’s State of the Union speech.
Obama faces a politically divided Congress on Tuesday and will use his annual address to demand expanded economic opportunity. Absent legislative action, the White House is telling lawmakers that the president is ready to take unilateral action to close the gap between rich and poor Americans.
“I think the way we have to think about this year is we have a divided government,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama adviser. “The Republican Congress is not going to rubber-stamp the president’s agenda. The president is not going to sign the Republican Congress’ agenda.”
Read more
HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals
RELATED: Chase Bank Limits Cash Withdrawals, Bans International Wire
Transfers
BBC News
January 26, 2014
Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.
Listeners have told Radio 4′s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.
HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.
Read more
ALSO RELATED: Cyprus Bank Deposits Plunge By Most Ever During “Capital Controls” Month
Cyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation Is Now Starting To Happen All Over The Globe
BBC News
January 26, 2014
HSBC’s latest rule follows a worldwide trend towards
capitol controls by major banks. Credit: ell-r-brown via
Flickr
Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.
Listeners have told Radio 4′s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.
HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.
Read more
ALSO RELATED: Cyprus Bank Deposits Plunge By Most Ever During “Capital Controls” Month
Cyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation Is Now Starting To Happen All Over The Globe
Bloomberg gave $10M contract to company behind botched ObamaCare rollout
Fox News
January 26, 2014
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration awarded a $10-million-plus contract to update the city’s non-emergency call system to the same company fired for the botched ObamaCare rollout, according to The New York Daily News.
The administration awarded the contract to Montreal-based CGI on Dec. 31, just hours before Democrat Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor.
The contract was approved because Bloomberg considers the 311 hotline one of the legacies of his three terms, the newspaper said.
Read more
January 26, 2014
Michael Bloomberg awarded the contract despite CGI
having no experience in managing non-emergency call centers. Credit: Rubenstein
via Wikimedia
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration awarded a $10-million-plus contract to update the city’s non-emergency call system to the same company fired for the botched ObamaCare rollout, according to The New York Daily News.
The administration awarded the contract to Montreal-based CGI on Dec. 31, just hours before Democrat Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor.
The contract was approved because Bloomberg considers the 311 hotline one of the legacies of his three terms, the newspaper said.
Read more
How Economists and Policymakers Murdered Our Economy
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
January 26, 2014
The economy has been debilitated by the offshoring of middle class jobs for the benefit of corporate profits and by the Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing in order to support a few oversized banks that the government protects from market discipline. Not only does QE distort bond and stock markets, it threatens the value of the dollar and has resulted in manipulation of the gold price. See http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/01/17/hows-whys-gold-price-manipulation/
When US corporations send jobs offshore, the GDP, consumer income, tax base, and careers associated with the jobs go abroad with the jobs. Corporations gain the additional profits at large costs to the economy in terms of less employment, less economic growth, reduced state, local and federal tax revenues, wider deficits, and impairments of social services.
When policymakers permitted banks to become independent of market discipline, they made the banks an unresolved burden on the economy. Authorities have provided no honest report on the condition of the banks. It remains to be seen if the Federal Reserve can create enough money to monetize enough debt to rescue the banks without collapsing the US dollar. It would have been far cheaper to let the banks fail and be reorganized.
US policymakers and their echo chamber in the economics profession have let the country down badly. They claimed that there was a “New Economy” to take the place of the “old economy” jobs that were moved offshore. As I have pointed out for a decade, US jobs statistics show no sign of the promised “New Economy.”
The same policymakers and economists who told us that “markets are self-regulating” and that the financial sector could safely be deregulated also confused jobs offshoring with free trade. Hyped “studies” were put together designed to prove that jobs offshoring was good for the US economy. It is difficult to fathom how such destructive errors could consistently be made by policymakers and economists for more than a decade. Were these mistakes or cover for a narrow and selfish agenda?
In June, 2009 happy talk appeared about “the recovery,” now 4.5 years old. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear, “the recovery” is entirely the artifact of the understated measure of inflation used to deflate nominal GDP. By under-measuring inflation, the government can show low, but positive, rates of real GDP growth. No other indicator supports the claim of economic recovery.
John Williams writes that consumer inflation, if properly measured, is running around 9%, far above the 2% figure that is the Fed’s target and more in line with what consumers are actually experiencing. We have just had a 6.5% annual increase in the cost of a postage stamp.
The Fed’s target inflation rate is said to be low, but Simon Black points out that the result of a lifetime of 2% annual inflation is the loss of 75% of the purchasing power of the currency. He uses the cost of sending a postcard to illustrate the decline in the purchasing power of median household income today compared to 1951. That year it cost one cent to send a post card. As household income was $4,237, the household could send 423,700 postcards. Today the comparable income figure is $51,017. As it costs 34 cents to send one postcard, today’s household can only afford to send 150,050 postcards. Nominal income rose 12 times, and the cost of sending a postcard rose 34 times.
Just as the American people know that there is more inflation than is reported, they know that there is no recovery. The Gallup Poll reported this month that only 28% of Americans are satisfied with the economy.http://www.gallup.com/poll/166871/americans-satisfaction-economy-sours-2001.aspx?version=print
From hard experience, Americans have also caught on that “free trade agreements” are nothing but vehicles for moving their jobs abroad. The latest effort by the corporations to loot and defraud the public is known as the “Trans-Pacific Partnership.” “Fast-tracking” the bill allowed the corporations to write the bill in secret without congressional input. Some research shows that 90% of Americans will suffer income losses under TPP, while wealth becomes even more concentrated at the top.
TPP affects every aspect of our lives from what we eat to the Internet to the environment. According to Kevin Zeese in Alternet, “the leak of the [TPP] Intellectual Property Chapter revealed that it created a path to patent everything imaginable, including plants and animals, to turn everything into a commodity for profit.”
The secretly drafted TPP also creates authority for the executive branch to change existing US law to make the laws that were not passed in secret compatible with the secretly written trade bill. Buy American requirements and any attempt to curtail jobs offshoring would become illegal “restraints on trade.”
If the House and Senate are willing to turn over their legislative function to the executive branch, they might as well abolish themselves.
The financial media has been helping the Federal Reserve and the banks to cover up festering problems with rosy hype, but realization that there are serious unresolved problems might be spreading. Last week interest rates on 30-day T-bills turned negative. That means people were paying more for a bond than it would return at maturity. Dave Kranzler sees this as a sign of rising uncertainty about banks. Reminiscent of the Cyprus banks’ limits on withdrawals, last Friday (January 24) the BBC reported that the large UK bank HSBC is preventing customers from withdrawing cash from their accounts in excess of several thousand pounds. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717
If and when uncertainty spreads to the dollar, the real crisis will arrive, likely followed by high inflation, exchange controls, pension confiscations, and resurrected illegality of owning gold and silver. Capitalist greed aided and abetted by economists and policymakers will have destroyed America.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
Infowars.com
January 26, 2014
The economy has been debilitated by the offshoring of middle class jobs for the benefit of corporate profits and by the Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing in order to support a few oversized banks that the government protects from market discipline. Not only does QE distort bond and stock markets, it threatens the value of the dollar and has resulted in manipulation of the gold price. See http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/01/17/hows-whys-gold-price-manipulation/
When US corporations send jobs offshore, the GDP, consumer income, tax base, and careers associated with the jobs go abroad with the jobs. Corporations gain the additional profits at large costs to the economy in terms of less employment, less economic growth, reduced state, local and federal tax revenues, wider deficits, and impairments of social services.
When policymakers permitted banks to become independent of market discipline, they made the banks an unresolved burden on the economy. Authorities have provided no honest report on the condition of the banks. It remains to be seen if the Federal Reserve can create enough money to monetize enough debt to rescue the banks without collapsing the US dollar. It would have been far cheaper to let the banks fail and be reorganized.
US policymakers and their echo chamber in the economics profession have let the country down badly. They claimed that there was a “New Economy” to take the place of the “old economy” jobs that were moved offshore. As I have pointed out for a decade, US jobs statistics show no sign of the promised “New Economy.”
The same policymakers and economists who told us that “markets are self-regulating” and that the financial sector could safely be deregulated also confused jobs offshoring with free trade. Hyped “studies” were put together designed to prove that jobs offshoring was good for the US economy. It is difficult to fathom how such destructive errors could consistently be made by policymakers and economists for more than a decade. Were these mistakes or cover for a narrow and selfish agenda?
In June, 2009 happy talk appeared about “the recovery,” now 4.5 years old. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear, “the recovery” is entirely the artifact of the understated measure of inflation used to deflate nominal GDP. By under-measuring inflation, the government can show low, but positive, rates of real GDP growth. No other indicator supports the claim of economic recovery.
John Williams writes that consumer inflation, if properly measured, is running around 9%, far above the 2% figure that is the Fed’s target and more in line with what consumers are actually experiencing. We have just had a 6.5% annual increase in the cost of a postage stamp.
The Fed’s target inflation rate is said to be low, but Simon Black points out that the result of a lifetime of 2% annual inflation is the loss of 75% of the purchasing power of the currency. He uses the cost of sending a postcard to illustrate the decline in the purchasing power of median household income today compared to 1951. That year it cost one cent to send a post card. As household income was $4,237, the household could send 423,700 postcards. Today the comparable income figure is $51,017. As it costs 34 cents to send one postcard, today’s household can only afford to send 150,050 postcards. Nominal income rose 12 times, and the cost of sending a postcard rose 34 times.
Just as the American people know that there is more inflation than is reported, they know that there is no recovery. The Gallup Poll reported this month that only 28% of Americans are satisfied with the economy.http://www.gallup.com/poll/166871/americans-satisfaction-economy-sours-2001.aspx?version=print
From hard experience, Americans have also caught on that “free trade agreements” are nothing but vehicles for moving their jobs abroad. The latest effort by the corporations to loot and defraud the public is known as the “Trans-Pacific Partnership.” “Fast-tracking” the bill allowed the corporations to write the bill in secret without congressional input. Some research shows that 90% of Americans will suffer income losses under TPP, while wealth becomes even more concentrated at the top.
TPP affects every aspect of our lives from what we eat to the Internet to the environment. According to Kevin Zeese in Alternet, “the leak of the [TPP] Intellectual Property Chapter revealed that it created a path to patent everything imaginable, including plants and animals, to turn everything into a commodity for profit.”
The secretly drafted TPP also creates authority for the executive branch to change existing US law to make the laws that were not passed in secret compatible with the secretly written trade bill. Buy American requirements and any attempt to curtail jobs offshoring would become illegal “restraints on trade.”
If the House and Senate are willing to turn over their legislative function to the executive branch, they might as well abolish themselves.
The financial media has been helping the Federal Reserve and the banks to cover up festering problems with rosy hype, but realization that there are serious unresolved problems might be spreading. Last week interest rates on 30-day T-bills turned negative. That means people were paying more for a bond than it would return at maturity. Dave Kranzler sees this as a sign of rising uncertainty about banks. Reminiscent of the Cyprus banks’ limits on withdrawals, last Friday (January 24) the BBC reported that the large UK bank HSBC is preventing customers from withdrawing cash from their accounts in excess of several thousand pounds. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717
If and when uncertainty spreads to the dollar, the real crisis will arrive, likely followed by high inflation, exchange controls, pension confiscations, and resurrected illegality of owning gold and silver. Capitalist greed aided and abetted by economists and policymakers will have destroyed America.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Financial Times: Demand Physical Gold Because Paper Price Manipulation Will End “Catastrophically”
Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
January 25, 2014
What have we done: after a series of reports in late 2012 in which we showed, with no ambiguity, that not only might the Bundesbank’s offshore held gold be severely “diluted” (follow our 2012 exposes on German gold here, here, here, and here), but that on at least one occassion, the Fed and the Bank of England conspired against the Buba in returning subpar quality gold, the Bundesbank shocked everyone in early January 2013 when it announced it would repatriate 300 tons of gold helt in New York and all of its 374 tons of gold held in Paris.
But convincing the Bundebsbank to demand delivery was peanuts compared to changing the tune of the Financial Times – that bastion of fiat “money”, and where the word gold is mocked and ridiculed, and those who see the daily improprieties in the gold market as nothing but “conspiracy theorists” – to say the magic words: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold”, adding that “one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results.”
In other words, precisely what we have been saying since the beginning.
Welcome to the ‘conspiracy theorist’ club, boys.
From the FT’s Neil Collins: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold: One day the ties that bind the actual and the traded commodity will snap:
A year ago the Bundesbank announced that it intended to repatriate 700 tons of Germany’s gold from Paris and New York. Although a couple of jumbo jets could have managed the transatlantic removal, it made security sense to ship the load in smaller consignments. Just how small, and over how long, has only just become apparent.
Last month Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank president, admitted that just 37 tons had arrived in Frankfurt. The original timescale, to complete the transfer by 2020, was leisurely enough, but at this rate it would take 20 years for a simple operation. Well, perhaps not so simple. While he awaits delivery, Herr Weidmann is welcome to come and look through the bars in the Federal Reserve’s vaults, but the question is: whose bars are they?
In the “armchair farmer” fraud you are told: “Look, this is your pig, in the sty.” It works until everyone wants physical delivery of their pig, which is why Buba’s move last year caused such a stir. After all nobody knows whether there are really 260m ounces of gold in Fort Knox, because the US government won’t let auditors inside.
The delivery problem for the Fed is a different breed of pig. The gold market is far more than exchanging paper money for precious metal. Indeed the metal seems something of a sideshow. In June last year the average volume of gold cleared in London hit 29m ounces per day. The world’s mines are producing 90m ounces per year. The traded volume was many times the cleared volume.
The paper gold in the London Bullion Market takes the familiar forms that bankers have turned into profit machines: futures, options, leveraged trades, collateralised obligations, ETFs . . . a storm of exotic instruments, each of which is carefully logged, cross-checked and audited.
Or perhaps not. High-flying traders find such backroom work tedious, and prefer to let some drone do it, just as they did with those money-market instruments that fuelled the banking crisis. The drones will have full control of the paper trail, won’t they? There’s surely no chance that the Fed’s little delivery difficulty has anything to do with the cat’s-cradle of pledges based on the gold in its vaults?
John Hathaway suspects there is. He worries about all the paper (and pixels) linked to gold. He runs the Tocqueville gold fund (the clue is in the name) and doesn’t share the near-universal gloom of London’s gold analysts, who a year ago forecast an average $1700 for 2013. It is currently $1,260.
As has been remarked here before, forecasting the price is for mugs and bugs. But one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results. So if you fancy gold at today’s depressed price, learn from Buba and demand delivery.
Zero Hedge
January 25, 2014
What have we done: after a series of reports in late 2012 in which we showed, with no ambiguity, that not only might the Bundesbank’s offshore held gold be severely “diluted” (follow our 2012 exposes on German gold here, here, here, and here), but that on at least one occassion, the Fed and the Bank of England conspired against the Buba in returning subpar quality gold, the Bundesbank shocked everyone in early January 2013 when it announced it would repatriate 300 tons of gold helt in New York and all of its 374 tons of gold held in Paris.
As many have said, if you don’t actually hold gold, you
don’t own it.
But convincing the Bundebsbank to demand delivery was peanuts compared to changing the tune of the Financial Times – that bastion of fiat “money”, and where the word gold is mocked and ridiculed, and those who see the daily improprieties in the gold market as nothing but “conspiracy theorists” – to say the magic words: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold”, adding that “one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results.”
In other words, precisely what we have been saying since the beginning.
Welcome to the ‘conspiracy theorist’ club, boys.
From the FT’s Neil Collins: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold: One day the ties that bind the actual and the traded commodity will snap:
A year ago the Bundesbank announced that it intended to repatriate 700 tons of Germany’s gold from Paris and New York. Although a couple of jumbo jets could have managed the transatlantic removal, it made security sense to ship the load in smaller consignments. Just how small, and over how long, has only just become apparent.
Last month Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank president, admitted that just 37 tons had arrived in Frankfurt. The original timescale, to complete the transfer by 2020, was leisurely enough, but at this rate it would take 20 years for a simple operation. Well, perhaps not so simple. While he awaits delivery, Herr Weidmann is welcome to come and look through the bars in the Federal Reserve’s vaults, but the question is: whose bars are they?
In the “armchair farmer” fraud you are told: “Look, this is your pig, in the sty.” It works until everyone wants physical delivery of their pig, which is why Buba’s move last year caused such a stir. After all nobody knows whether there are really 260m ounces of gold in Fort Knox, because the US government won’t let auditors inside.
The delivery problem for the Fed is a different breed of pig. The gold market is far more than exchanging paper money for precious metal. Indeed the metal seems something of a sideshow. In June last year the average volume of gold cleared in London hit 29m ounces per day. The world’s mines are producing 90m ounces per year. The traded volume was many times the cleared volume.
The paper gold in the London Bullion Market takes the familiar forms that bankers have turned into profit machines: futures, options, leveraged trades, collateralised obligations, ETFs . . . a storm of exotic instruments, each of which is carefully logged, cross-checked and audited.
Or perhaps not. High-flying traders find such backroom work tedious, and prefer to let some drone do it, just as they did with those money-market instruments that fuelled the banking crisis. The drones will have full control of the paper trail, won’t they? There’s surely no chance that the Fed’s little delivery difficulty has anything to do with the cat’s-cradle of pledges based on the gold in its vaults?
John Hathaway suspects there is. He worries about all the paper (and pixels) linked to gold. He runs the Tocqueville gold fund (the clue is in the name) and doesn’t share the near-universal gloom of London’s gold analysts, who a year ago forecast an average $1700 for 2013. It is currently $1,260.
As has been remarked here before, forecasting the price is for mugs and bugs. But one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results. So if you fancy gold at today’s depressed price, learn from Buba and demand delivery.
Google to Offer Free Taxis Based On AdWords Software
Victoria Woollaston
Daily Mail
January 25, 2014
Next time you fancy a romantic meal for two, or a trip to the cinema, you could be taken there in a free taxi, courtesy of Google.
According to a recently-awarded patent, the journeys would be paid for by advertisers hoping to encourage more people to use their businesses.
The system would run on Google’s existing AdWords software, and in the future, these journeys could even be carried out by Google’s self-driving cars.
Read more
Daily Mail
January 25, 2014
Next time you fancy a romantic meal for two, or a trip to the cinema, you could be taken there in a free taxi, courtesy of Google.
Google will also use location data and browsing history
to show targeted ads as part of the service. Credit: scobleizer via
Flickr
According to a recently-awarded patent, the journeys would be paid for by advertisers hoping to encourage more people to use their businesses.
The system would run on Google’s existing AdWords software, and in the future, these journeys could even be carried out by Google’s self-driving cars.
Read more
Hollywood Brainstorms ‘Portraying Obamacare in TV & Film’
John Nolte
Breitbart
January 25, 2014
According to an email invitation sent out by the Writers Guild East and obtained by Breitbart News, members of the Hollywood elite and the Obama Administration will be gathering in the middle of next month for a panel titled, “The Affordable Care Act: Comedy, Drama & Reality – Portraying ObamaCare in TV & Film.” Julie Green Bataille, a director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will represent the Obama administration.
The left-wing Norman Lear Center is co-sponsoring the event.
Two powerful left-wing Hollywood organizations combining with the federal government’s powerful CMS is not something to be taken lightly.
Read more
Breitbart
January 25, 2014
According to an email invitation sent out by the Writers Guild East and obtained by Breitbart News, members of the Hollywood elite and the Obama Administration will be gathering in the middle of next month for a panel titled, “The Affordable Care Act: Comedy, Drama & Reality – Portraying ObamaCare in TV & Film.” Julie Green Bataille, a director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will represent the Obama administration.
Hollywood has received millions in grant money to
promote Obamacare. Credit: Oreos via Flickr
The left-wing Norman Lear Center is co-sponsoring the event.
Two powerful left-wing Hollywood organizations combining with the federal government’s powerful CMS is not something to be taken lightly.
Read more
Court system hit with cyberattack
Tony Romm
Politico
January 25, 2014
Unidentified hackers took aim at the federal court system Friday, blocking access to its public website while preventing lawyers and litigants from filing legal documents online.
The incident affected uscourts.gov, the federal court’s public hub, as well as most if not all federal court sites — not to mention the federal court system’s electronic filing system and its access page, PACER, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said Friday.
Read more
Politico
January 25, 2014
The Justice Dept. has yet to comment on the attack.
Credit: fh-ap.com
Unidentified hackers took aim at the federal court system Friday, blocking access to its public website while preventing lawyers and litigants from filing legal documents online.
The incident affected uscourts.gov, the federal court’s public hub, as well as most if not all federal court sites — not to mention the federal court system’s electronic filing system and its access page, PACER, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said Friday.
Read more
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Schumer to poison Tea Party
Alexander Bolton
The Hill
January 23, 2014
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.
Schumer, one of the Democrats’ most influential strategists, will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement that grew out of the economic anxiety of the 2008 financial collapse to suit their pro-big-business agenda.
He’ll lay out a blueprint for how Democrats could exploit what, he argues, is a weakness in the opposition in the address at the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic think tank founded by John Podesta, who just joined President Obama’s inner circle at the White House.
Read more
The Hill
January 23, 2014
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.
Schumer, one of the Democrats’ most influential strategists, will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement that grew out of the economic anxiety of the 2008 financial collapse to suit their pro-big-business agenda.
He’ll lay out a blueprint for how Democrats could exploit what, he argues, is a weakness in the opposition in the address at the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic think tank founded by John Podesta, who just joined President Obama’s inner circle at the White House.
Read more
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