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Why don't you bang your head on the wall -- lol. It beats TRYING to converse with a liberal.
What these idiots don't understand, is that percentages of what people pay, or those griping about capital gains . . . it's all meaningless when you simply look at who pays the bulk of the taxes in the country. The top 20% richest pay almost ALL the freaking taxes, but that's not good enough, because what the liberals want is for the "rich" to pay enough so that the inept and crooked federal gov't can keep raising spending, never balance a budget, and keep growing social programs until 90% live free (and are OWNED by the gov't) and do nothing, while 10% do all the work and pay all the taxes.
ONLY a freeloading, lazy-assed, selfish TAKER would still be complaining about this issue. You can bet that the top 6 on this board are all on welfare, and their families have been for generations.
Unbelievable how anti-American this administration is. With a MSM that ignores anything evil going on, he has full reign to pursue destroying the country.
Even more unbelievable is that the liberals who read this will focus only on Ted Cruz is against it, so the real substance of what is happening will be ignored completely. These morons are complete sheep marching to slaughter WITH PRIDE. I hope they don't mind if a few million of us stand back and watch them get devoured in their BLIND ignorance.
Obama’s Justice Department Argues Before Supremes: International Treaties Trump Constitution
October 31, 2013
Here’s one you’re not seeing covered by the establishment teleprompter readers.
The Justice Department is going before the Supreme Court and arguing that the Obama administration has the authority to trump the Constitution with international treaties.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is stepping up to the plate to fight this globalist broadside.
“The Constitution created a limited federal government with only specific enumerated powers,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner. “The Supreme Court should not interpret the treaty power in a manner that undermines this bedrock protection of individual liberty.”
In a speech delivered to the Heritage Foundation, Cruz said the Justice Department’s arguments before the highest court represent “an absurd proposition” that “could be used as a backdoor way to undermine” Second Amendment and other constitutional rights the global elite are working overtime to eradicate.
The case at issue is Bond v. United States. It concerns a woman charged with violating an international ban on chemical weapons. She stands accused of harassing a onetime friend involved in an affair with her husband. The federal government is arguing that it may use the international law to prosecute the woman, thus violating basic structural guarantees that exceed Congress’ enumerated powers, according to Bond’s lawyers.
“If the administration is right, the treaty power could become a backdoor way for the federal government to do everything from abolishing the death penalty nationwide, to outlawing homeschooling, to dramatically curtailing the states’ rights to regulate abortion,” Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told the Washington Examiner.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-justice-department-argues-before-supremes-international-treaties-trump-constitution/
Unbelievable how anti-American this administration is. With a MSM that ignores anything evil going on, he has full reign to pursue destroying the country.
Even more unbelievable is that the liberals who read this will focus only on Ted Cruz is against it, so the real substance of what is happening will be ignored completely. These morons are complete sheep marching to slaughter WITH PRIDE. I hope they don't mind if a few million of us stand back and watch them get devoured in their BLIND ignorance.
Obama’s Justice Department Argues Before Supremes: International Treaties Trump Constitution
October 31, 2013
Here’s one you’re not seeing covered by the establishment teleprompter readers.
The Justice Department is going before the Supreme Court and arguing that the Obama administration has the authority to trump the Constitution with international treaties.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is stepping up to the plate to fight this globalist broadside.
“The Constitution created a limited federal government with only specific enumerated powers,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner. “The Supreme Court should not interpret the treaty power in a manner that undermines this bedrock protection of individual liberty.”
In a speech delivered to the Heritage Foundation, Cruz said the Justice Department’s arguments before the highest court represent “an absurd proposition” that “could be used as a backdoor way to undermine” Second Amendment and other constitutional rights the global elite are working overtime to eradicate.
The case at issue is Bond v. United States. It concerns a woman charged with violating an international ban on chemical weapons. She stands accused of harassing a onetime friend involved in an affair with her husband. The federal government is arguing that it may use the international law to prosecute the woman, thus violating basic structural guarantees that exceed Congress’ enumerated powers, according to Bond’s lawyers.
“If the administration is right, the treaty power could become a backdoor way for the federal government to do everything from abolishing the death penalty nationwide, to outlawing homeschooling, to dramatically curtailing the states’ rights to regulate abortion,” Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told the Washington Examiner.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-justice-department-argues-before-supremes-international-treaties-trump-constitution/
Unbelievable how anti-American this administration is. With a MSM that ignores anything evil going on, he has full reign to pursue destroying the country.
Even more unbelievable is that the liberals who read this will focus only on Ted Cruz is against it, so the real substance of what is happening will be ignored completely. These morons are complete sheep marching to slaughter WITH PRIDE. I hope they don't mind if a few million of us stand back and watch them get devoured in their BLIND ignorance.
Obama’s Justice Department Argues Before Supremes: International Treaties Trump Constitution
October 31, 2013
Here’s one you’re not seeing covered by the establishment teleprompter readers.
The Justice Department is going before the Supreme Court and arguing that the Obama administration has the authority to trump the Constitution with international treaties.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is stepping up to the plate to fight this globalist broadside.
“The Constitution created a limited federal government with only specific enumerated powers,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner. “The Supreme Court should not interpret the treaty power in a manner that undermines this bedrock protection of individual liberty.”
In a speech delivered to the Heritage Foundation, Cruz said the Justice Department’s arguments before the highest court represent “an absurd proposition” that “could be used as a backdoor way to undermine” Second Amendment and other constitutional rights the global elite are working overtime to eradicate.
The case at issue is Bond v. United States. It concerns a woman charged with violating an international ban on chemical weapons. She stands accused of harassing a onetime friend involved in an affair with her husband. The federal government is arguing that it may use the international law to prosecute the woman, thus violating basic structural guarantees that exceed Congress’ enumerated powers, according to Bond’s lawyers.
“If the administration is right, the treaty power could become a backdoor way for the federal government to do everything from abolishing the death penalty nationwide, to outlawing homeschooling, to dramatically curtailing the states’ rights to regulate abortion,” Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told the Washington Examiner.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-justice-department-argues-before-supremes-international-treaties-trump-constitution/
“We Live in a Time in the United States Where Nothing Is What It Seems”
In the year 2000, when the tech bubble stock market crash began, there were about 17 million Americans depending on government food stamp assistance. Today that number has nearly tripled, to 48 million people.
Similar trends exist with respect to unemployment, wage reductions, welfare, disability, health care assistance and government debt.
We now have more people than ever before helplessly dependent on the State.
What happens when America finally runs out of money and our creditors refuse to lend us more?
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mcgrath-we-live-in-a-time-in-the-united-states-where-nothing-is-what-it-seems_10292013
“We Live in a Time in the United States Where Nothing Is What It Seems”
In the year 2000, when the tech bubble stock market crash began, there were about 17 million Americans depending on government food stamp assistance. Today that number has nearly tripled, to 48 million people.
Similar trends exist with respect to unemployment, wage reductions, welfare, disability, health care assistance and government debt.
We now have more people than ever before helplessly dependent on the State.
What happens when America finally runs out of money and our creditors refuse to lend us more?
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mcgrath-we-live-in-a-time-in-the-united-states-where-nothing-is-what-it-seems_10292013
“We Live in a Time in the United States Where Nothing Is What It Seems”
In the year 2000, when the tech bubble stock market crash began, there were about 17 million Americans depending on government food stamp assistance. Today that number has nearly tripled, to 48 million people.
Similar trends exist with respect to unemployment, wage reductions, welfare, disability, health care assistance and government debt.
We now have more people than ever before helplessly dependent on the State.
What happens when America finally runs out of money and our creditors refuse to lend us more?
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mcgrath-we-live-in-a-time-in-the-united-states-where-nothing-is-what-it-seems_10292013
“We Live in a Time in the United States Where Nothing Is What It Seems”
In the year 2000, when the tech bubble stock market crash began, there were about 17 million Americans depending on government food stamp assistance. Today that number has nearly tripled, to 48 million people.
Similar trends exist with respect to unemployment, wage reductions, welfare, disability, health care assistance and government debt.
We now have more people than ever before helplessly dependent on the State.
What happens when America finally runs out of money and our creditors refuse to lend us more?
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mcgrath-we-live-in-a-time-in-the-united-states-where-nothing-is-what-it-seems_10292013
I think your chart has more to do with race and IQ than anything, but that's another topic, and I don't want to tax the brains of the liberal crowd with shouts of "racism" and "hater" and "evil Christians." LOL
The reality is that the Red States are the PRODUCERS of most of the natural resources, while most Blue States are the office financial areas. In simplistic terms, the reason Red States receive more total Federal money is due to the tax and income base which is transferred to the Blue States.
Since the Federal government decides how much those Red States get to keep in the first place, and since they take more from the Red States, they have to give more back.
If you look at actual welfare spending by case load or per capita, the numbers show a different story than the liberal mind would like:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_wel_cas_tot_rec_percap-caseloads-total-recipients-per-capita
Perhaps just watch the first 30 minutes of "American Blackout," as I did, because it looks like it is going to turn into another propaganda piece meant to cause more dissension, which the liberal, sheeple crowd seem to thrive on.
It should have inspired people to be prepared to take care of themselves, their families, and those they know who are truly not able to care for themselves. Instead, like everything this administration and the MSM puts out on the airwaves, causing jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of entitlement will be the usual outcome. Very sad.
Someone who watched the entire show said this:
Good Morning, Mr. Rawles:
After watching part of last night's Blackout Docudrama on National Geographic. I turned the television off in total disgust and went to bed. What insidious propaganda!
I could not help but notice that the "prepper" father was a gun toting, autocratic bully who bossed everyone and refused to act humanely by sharing all his wealth with those less fortunate or less willing to be responsible for themselves? How interesting.
And of course, the compassionate one was the young and hip boyfriend of the prepper's daughter. He hadn't prepared himself but he was more than happy to live off of someone else's largess. He was also more than happy to be judge and jury as to how someone else's preps should be treated.
And the young woman, who was attacked and most probably raped and/or killed, "deserved" it because she was a wealthy "princess" who lived in a penthouse. She was portrayed as stupid and totally un-connected to the real world in which most of us live. Also interesting was the portrayal of her rich boyfriend who believed he was entitled to whatever resources were available as he tried "throwing his money around."
And of course, we were all going to be saved by the government as our fearless leader gravely assured us. I'm amazed I got half way through the program! Here was an excellent opportunity to impress upon the average citizen that they need to be ready for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Instead we got the "PC" version of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Sadly, this admin is hell bent on the total destruction of the middle class and totally enslaving the 53% sheeple class with dependence on food stamps, health care, housing, and on and on. Since the gov't has spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces, would liberals equate the gov't with those they call "teabaggers" and "crazy preppers?"
Perhaps just watch the first 30 minutes of "American Blackout," as I did, because it looks like it is going to turn into another propaganda piece meant to cause more dissension, which the liberal, sheeple crowd seem to thrive on.
It should have inspired people to be prepared to take care of themselves, their families, and those they know who are truly not able to care for themselves. Instead, like everything this administration and the MSM puts out on the airwaves, causing jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of entitlement will be the usual outcome. Very sad.
Someone who watched the entire show said this:
Good Morning, Mr. Rawles:
After watching part of last night's Blackout Docudrama on National Geographic. I turned the television off in total disgust and went to bed. What insidious propaganda!
I could not help but notice that the "prepper" father was a gun toting, autocratic bully who bossed everyone and refused to act humanely by sharing all his wealth with those less fortunate or less willing to be responsible for themselves? How interesting.
And of course, the compassionate one was the young and hip boyfriend of the prepper's daughter. He hadn't prepared himself but he was more than happy to live off of someone else's largess. He was also more than happy to be judge and jury as to how someone else's preps should be treated.
And the young woman, who was attacked and most probably raped and/or killed, "deserved" it because she was a wealthy "princess" who lived in a penthouse. She was portrayed as stupid and totally un-connected to the real world in which most of us live. Also interesting was the portrayal of her rich boyfriend who believed he was entitled to whatever resources were available as he tried "throwing his money around."
And of course, we were all going to be saved by the government as our fearless leader gravely assured us. I'm amazed I got half way through the program! Here was an excellent opportunity to impress upon the average citizen that they need to be ready for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Instead we got the "PC" version of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Sadly, this admin is hell bent on the total destruction of the middle class and totally enslaving the 53% sheeple class with dependence on food stamps, health care, housing, and on and on. Since the gov't has spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces, would liberals equate the gov't with those they call "teabaggers" and "crazy preppers?"
Perhaps just watch the first 30 minutes of "American Blackout," as I did, because it looks like it is going to turn into another propaganda piece meant to cause more dissension, which the liberal, sheeple crowd seem to thrive on.
It should have inspired people to be prepared to take care of themselves, their families, and those they know who are truly not able to care for themselves. Instead, like everything this administration and the MSM puts out on the airwaves, causing jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of entitlement will be the usual outcome. Very sad.
Someone who watched the entire show said this:
Good Morning, Mr. Rawles:
After watching part of last night's Blackout Docudrama on National Geographic. I turned the television off in total disgust and went to bed. What insidious propaganda!
I could not help but notice that the "prepper" father was a gun toting, autocratic bully who bossed everyone and refused to act humanely by sharing all his wealth with those less fortunate or less willing to be responsible for themselves? How interesting.
And of course, the compassionate one was the young and hip boyfriend of the prepper's daughter. He hadn't prepared himself but he was more than happy to live off of someone else's largess. He was also more than happy to be judge and jury as to how someone else's preps should be treated.
And the young woman, who was attacked and most probably raped and/or killed, "deserved" it because she was a wealthy "princess" who lived in a penthouse. She was portrayed as stupid and totally un-connected to the real world in which most of us live. Also interesting was the portrayal of her rich boyfriend who believed he was entitled to whatever resources were available as he tried "throwing his money around."
And of course, we were all going to be saved by the government as our fearless leader gravely assured us. I'm amazed I got half way through the program! Here was an excellent opportunity to impress upon the average citizen that they need to be ready for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Instead we got the "PC" version of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Sadly, this admin is hell bent on the total destruction of the middle class and totally enslaving the 53% sheeple class with dependence on food stamps, health care, housing, and on and on. Since the gov't has spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces, would liberals equate the gov't with those they call "teabaggers" and "crazy preppers?"
Perhaps just watch the first 30 minutes of "American Blackout," as I did, because it looks like it is going to turn into another propaganda piece meant to cause more dissension, which the liberal, sheeple crowd seem to thrive on.
It should have inspired people to be prepared to take care of themselves, their families, and those they know who are truly not able to care for themselves. Instead, like everything this administration and the MSM puts out on the airwaves, causing jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of entitlement will be the usual outcome. Very sad.
Someone who watched the entire show said this:
Good Morning, Mr. Rawles:
After watching part of last night's Blackout Docudrama on National Geographic. I turned the television off in total disgust and went to bed. What insidious propaganda!
I could not help but notice that the "prepper" father was a gun toting, autocratic bully who bossed everyone and refused to act humanely by sharing all his wealth with those less fortunate or less willing to be responsible for themselves? How interesting.
And of course, the compassionate one was the young and hip boyfriend of the prepper's daughter. He hadn't prepared himself but he was more than happy to live off of someone else's largess. He was also more than happy to be judge and jury as to how someone else's preps should be treated.
And the young woman, who was attacked and most probably raped and/or killed, "deserved" it because she was a wealthy "princess" who lived in a penthouse. She was portrayed as stupid and totally un-connected to the real world in which most of us live. Also interesting was the portrayal of her rich boyfriend who believed he was entitled to whatever resources were available as he tried "throwing his money around."
And of course, we were all going to be saved by the government as our fearless leader gravely assured us. I'm amazed I got half way through the program! Here was an excellent opportunity to impress upon the average citizen that they need to be ready for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Instead we got the "PC" version of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Sadly, this admin is hell bent on the total destruction of the middle class and totally enslaving the 53% sheeple class with dependence on food stamps, health care, housing, and on and on. Since the gov't has spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces, would liberals equate the gov't with those they call "teabaggers" and "crazy preppers?"
The ANSWER to the problem described in this article is NOT more social handouts from more taxes. That simply leads the country further down this same rat hole of enslaving the minds and wills of the people until they are nothing more than lab rats to be toyed with.
The answer is to return to a representational republic where those in DC work FOR the people not ABOVE the people. The founding fathers knew if a large federal bureaucracy was created, the country would fail, and it is playing out now. This article points out not what liberals believe -- that evil republicans are blocking all the "good" and free handout programs -- but how the country is being run by incompetent and/or selfish, greedy people on BOTH sides. What DC has become has led the country to this state of crisis.
29 Uncomfortable Truths About Soaring Poverty In America
Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs? Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless? Anyone that uses the term "economic recovery" to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either "poor" or "low income" at this point. Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse.
The gap between the wealthy and the poor is at a level that America has never seen before, and this is beginning to create a "Robin Hood mentality" that could cause a tremendous amount of social chaos in the years ahead. Anger at the "haves" in America continues to rise at a very alarming pace, and the "have nots" are becoming increasingly desperate. At some point all of this anger is going to boil over, and you won't want to be anywhere around major population centers when that happens.
Despite unprecedented borrowing by the federal government in recent years, and despite unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, poverty in the United States keeps getting worse with each passing year. The following are 29 incredible facts which prove that poverty in America is absolutely exploding...
1. What can you say about a nation that has more people getting handouts from the federal government than working full-time? According to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people receiving means-tested welfare benefits is greater than the number of full-time workers in the United States.
2. New numbers have just been released, and they show that the number of public school students in this country that are homeless is at an all-time record high. It is hard to believe, but right now 1.2 million students that attend public schools in America are homeless. That number has risen by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.
3. When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was from a middle class home. But now that has all changed. One recent study discovered that nearly half of all public students in the United States come from low income homes.
4. How can anyone deny that we are a socialist nation when half the people are getting money from the federal government each month? According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program.
5. Signs of increasing poverty are even showing up in the wealthiest areas of the nation. According to the New York Post, New York subways are being "overrun with homeless".
6. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty. The number of Americans living in poverty is now at a level not seen since the 1960s.
7. The gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is at an all-time record high. The wealthy may not consider this to be much of a problem, but those at the other end of the spectrum are very aware of this.
8. The "working poor" is one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population. At this point, approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.
9. According to numbers provided by Wal-Mart, more than half of their hourly workers make less than $25,000 a year.
10. A recent Businessweek article mentioned a study that discovered that 300 employees at one Wal-Mart in Wisconsin receive a combined total of nearly a million dollars a year in public assistance...
“A decent wage is their demand—a livable wage, of all things,” said Representative George Miller (D-Calif.). The problem with companies like Wal-Mart is their “unwillingness, not their inability, to pay that wage,” he said. “They hand off the difference to taxpayers.” Miller was referring to a congressional report (PDF) released in May that calculated how much Walmart workers rely on public assistance. The study found that the 300 employees at one Supercenter in Wisconsin required some $900,000 worth of public assistance a year.
11. The stock market may be doing great (for the moment), but incomes for average Americans continue to decline. In fact, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.
12. The quality of the jobs in America has been steadily dropping for years. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.
13. According to a Gallup poll that was recently released, 20.0% of all Americans did not have enough money to buy food that they or their families needed at some point over the past year. That is just under the record of 20.4% that was set back in November 2008.
14. Young adults are particularly feeling the sting of poverty these days. American families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
15. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, one out of every five households in the United States is on food stamps. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.
16. The number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of Spain.
17. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming."
18. We are told that we live in the "wealthiest nation" on the planet, and yet more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.
19. The average food stamp benefit breaks down to approximately $4 per person per day.
20. It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps before they reach the age of 18.
21. Today, approximately 17 million children in the United States are facing food insecurity. In other words, that means that "one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life."
22. It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
23. The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million. That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996.
24. In Miami, 45 percent of all children are living in poverty.
25. In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty.
26. According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
27. According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.
28. The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.
29. It has been reported that 4 out of every 5 adults in the United States "struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives".
These poverty numbers keep getting worse year after year no matter what our politicians do.
So is there anyone out there that would still like to argue that we are in an "economic recovery"?
And as I mentioned above, the "have nots" are becoming increasingly angry at the "haves". For example, just check out the following excerpt from a recent New York Post article...
The maniac who butchered a Brooklyn mom and her four young kids confessed that he did it because he was jealous of their way of life, a police source told The Post on Sunday.
“The family had too much. Their income (and) lifestyle was better than his,” the source said.
The bloody suspect was caught holding the kitchen knife he used during the Saturday night rampage inside the Sunset Park apartment where he had been staying with the victims, the source added.
Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. All over the western world, a "Robin Hood mentality" is growing. This is something that I am so concerned about that I made it a big part of my new book. At this point, even wealthy Hollywood-types such as actor Russell Brand are calling for a socialist-style "revolution" and a "massive redistribution of wealth".
Perhaps Brand does not understand that what he is calling for would mean redistributing most of his own wealth away from him.
When the next major wave of the economic collapse strikes, I fear that all of this anger and frustration that are growing among the poor will boil over in some very frightening ways. I believe that we will see a huge spike in crime and that we will eventually see communities all over America looted and burning.
But I am not the only one that is thinking along these lines. A new National Geographic Channel movie entitled "American Blackout" attempts to portray the social chaos that could erupt in the event of an extended national power failure...
American Blackout, National Geographic Channel’s two-hour, edge-of-your-seat movie event imagines the story of a national power failure in the United States caused by a cyber attack — told in real time, over 10 days, by those who kept filming on cameras and phones. You’ll learn what it means to be absolutely powerless.
What would you do if something like that happened to you?
How would you handle desperate, hungry people at your fence asking for food?
And what if those people were armed and were not "asking nicely" for your food?
Don't ignore what is happening in America right now. It is setting the stage for some very chaotic times.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-28/29-uncomfortable-truths-about-soaring-poverty-america
I'd suggest you watch the recent show called "American Blackout," because even the liberals say the power grid is antique and very vulnerable, so such a scenario is a real possibility. I've only seen about the first 30 minutes, but it's enlightening, to say the least. It will be eye-opening for lots of people like you, as long as they are not COMPLETELY kool-aid brain dead. Just hope you know a few of those big, bad, evil Republican guys with guns and food, as the people you champion daily will be trying to eat your leg, liberal meat or not - lol.
You think Barry and gay Barney and the B Pelosi are part of the economic inequality problem? You think tens of millions of taxpayer stolen money for vacations and warm-lipped interns is a bit too much? You think first-class travel and $1,000 dinners is simply WRONG? Oh, I forget! I apologize! Liberal BS politicians are EXEMPT from everything! It's ALL Bush's fault. God bless the liberal politicians, for they care only about others. What a load of horse sh!t. You think the Clintons' getting $20 Million for books, only because of their bought positions in high places is a bit too much? Oops! They are liberals. FREE PASS! I apologize again. Wake up. Surely someone in your circle of friends has the ability to slap some sense into a kool-aid liberal mind. Probably not, as most of their day is spent worrying about EBT card cutbacks and how to "work the system" to stick it to "the rich." The rich are a tiny number of people, and here's one for you . . . they MAKE the rules, and they INCLUDE LIBERALS in bed with Republicans, laughing all the way to the banks they have bailed out daily by the FED's magical printing press.
Same old flawed arguments from twinky, gay, liberal weenies.
Outlaw cars! Outlaw alcohol! Outlaw drugs! Outlaw bathtubs!
When they tax dividends and capital gains at high rates, it does not simply hurt the wealthy. Lots of retired and middle class people have money in the markets FOR retirement, since they KNOW social "security" will most likely be scammed away.
I'd have no problem taxing them at regular rates AFTER the first $250,000 of gains and dividends are at 15%. That exempts those people who built businesses or worked 60-80 hour weeks for years and were frugal to rise up and make something of themselves for their families. These are not "rich" people like those taking millions in compensation at the top of the food chain and buying Congressmen. Those are the guys who need to be taxed more.
But, like everything in DC, they can't use common sense to make rules FIT the problem. One size, they think, fits all, EXCEPT those working in DC on the backs of the taxpayers. NOTHING applies to them! Ever notice that?
The younger generations have no idea what hard work is. When they have put in 45 years of 60-80 hour weeks, then they can join the "hard work" club. Until then, the "inequality generation" can SHUT UP, and stop living off MY hard work for 50 years.
In a sheeple nation of entitled, brain dead occupants, this will never see the light of day, but to know the truth is still worthy.
17th Amendment: A Backhanded Acknowledgement of State's Rights
For several years now I've been heard organizations and individuals advocate repealing the 17th Amendment. Usually the reasoning is based on the problems with ever-centralizing, ever-growing government, the move of the American republic towards a democracy [read 'mobocracy',] and the advocacy of State's Rights.
Unfortunately, most Americans are too ignorant of their own history to understand that the United States isn't a democracy, but a union of representative republics. Anyone who bothers to actually read the U.S. Constitution will see clearly we are a union of sovereign states, each guaranteeing 'a republican form of government.' The idea of the founders was to have a strictly limited federal government, with the states handling the bulk of governmental matters [hence the constitution calling the federal government the 'agent' of the states; a subordinate role for the federal government to the state governments.] The argument about State's Rights usually falls on deaf ears as being a 'Southern thing' and an idea that died in the War Between the States. But that would only be true if the constitution died at the same time [which some would argue it did.] American Nationalists [read neo-cons, faux patriots who scream "my country right or wrong," and socialists] reject State's Rights as an idea that was ever valid, but that would require a person to reject historical facts.
While the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment is far from being accepted by even a sliver of today's population that can register on the political radar, the concept got a big shot in the arm in April of this year when U.S. Senator Zell Miller [D-GA] claimed that the 17th Amendment was to blame for the pathetic state of the U.S. Senate.
To backtrack for a moment, for the uninformed, the 17th Amendment is the provision that allows U.S. Senators to be directly elected by a state's population. Prior to this amendment, Senators were selected by a state's legislature. This allowed the states, as independent entities, to have a more direct say in what the federal government could do. Basically, the Senators were the state's mouthpieces in Washington D.C., ensuring that the federal government knew, and kept, its place. Remember, the U.S. Constitution set up a federal system of government, not a centralized system, to work with the member states of the union.
Simply put, the states would instruct their senators how to vote and act on issues, and thereby have a tight reign on the senators and a strong say in how the federal government acted. The idea of checks and balances wasn't just between the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of the federal government. Checks and balances were between the people [House of Representatives,] the states [Senate] and the rule of law [the Judiciary.]
Having the Senators more directly representing the interests of the states as entities themselves, rather than attempting to appeal to the general population of a state en masse, was a clear design by the founders for protecting State's Rights. Any and all efforts to subvert this concept of balancing the interests of the people, the states as entities, and the union of states, is a betrayal of the U.S. Constitution, even the amending of the Constitution to allow the disruption of this balance. [Technically, the 17th Amendment was legal, but it upset the designed balance of interests, thus being contrary to the founder's designs.]
Amendments to address changing views on issues such as slavery, alcohol, voting rights, or clarifications of citizenship, procedures for the functioning of government, etc. reflect what the amendment process was for, and the founder's anticipation of the need for some way to be flexible with the Constitution. However, the 17th Amendment changed the nature of the relationship between the people, the states, and the union. The founders would have objected to changing our relationship from a republic of republics to a mass democracy [and it is well documented that the founders despised democracy as mob rule.]
Ironically, one of the arguments for direct elections of Senators was that the old system left Senators susceptible to corrupting influences by special interests. Direct elections certainly didn't correct that, and in fact left them freer to sell themselves like whores to whoever would fill their re-election coffers.
The increase in federal power can be seen to grow at an increasingly faster rate after selection of Senators was removed from the state legislatures. Without this restriction on politicians, the Senate became a political body unanswerable to the states, and no longer did Senators have their state's interest at heart or fear having to answer to the elected body they were suppose to represent [the state legislatures.] Senators just became desirous of more and more power above and beyond the states, making the states subservient to their 'agent,' the federal government. Remember, it is the Senate that ratifies treaties, confirms executive appointments and confirms judicial appointments. These items, within the federal government, were controlled by the states via their Senators. This is how the states had a say in what the federal government did, and how the federal government represented the union of states to the world. This is no longer so. The 17th Amendment cut the states out of the business of running the federal government.
Senator Miller has introduced a bill [S.J.Res. 35] to repeal the 17th Amendment. For those who see our republic dwindling away, and want to recapture the rights God gave us, those rights our sovereign states are suppose to be defending within the union, you should call your Senators and demand they give this bill a hearing.
For all the abuse the South has taken over time, verbally and physically, for standing by the ideals of the founders concerning State's Rights, it would be some consolation to see the 17th Amendment repealed. It would put us back on the track to true liberty and the honoring of the Constitutional ideals the founders established, and would help to start putting the power back where it belongs: with the states. An interesting side note is that ironically the 17th Amendment, whether it gets repealed or not, is a backhanded acknowledgement of the reality that State's Rights was not some misbegotten concept, but a political, constitutional concept the founders intended.
The 17th Amendment highlights the fact that states were to have a role in controlling the federal government, were separate sovereign entities and were not mere provinces of some monolithic nation. Enactment of the 17th Amendment wasn't just a blow to State's Rights, but a blow to our individual rights as the federal government has grown and taken over our lives. Its repeal would be a vindication of the State's Rights arguments presented by Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, and other Southerners devoted to true Constitutional government, including the Confederates who fought a war to defend the ideals of the founding fathers, as well as their rights.
Mr. Adams is the State Director of Education for the Texas League of the South, and may be reached for comment at jeffadams@clicksouth.net.
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
--Samuel Adams
The reason Lincoln provoked the "War of Northern Aggression" was to change the demographics of our government in general.
The states at that time were in control each having representatives that met and voted at the capital. If a new amendment or law were to be passed it was voted on by these individuals representing the will of the states. Thus the states controlled the "government" as it should have been. After the war, the power was shifted putting the Federal government in control of the states. At the time of the recession the South was being charged 50% in taxes and they paid 90% of the cost of the federal government. The South seceded because of this unfair taxation, as was their right.
Lincoln DID NOT provoke the war because of slavery. He wanted to send all "blacks" back to Africa, he thought of them as being "lesser than a white man." Maybe, he just wanted to keep his tax base (the Southern states) or maybe he wanted to promote "one world order".
While the war was going on, Lincoln closed down News Papers, didn't allow them to be printed. He felt that if he could keep the war "hush-hush" it would be to his advantage. He put states neighboring Virginia under martial law, i.e. Maryland. The grandson of Francis Scott Key (The Star Spangled Banner) was thrown in jail, as well as editor's and news paper reporters in all areas of martial law.
Another little known fact is that Arlington National Cemetery is Robert E. Lee's farm, taken by the north after the war. I don't think Lincoln chose to provoke the "War of northern Aggression" by himself, but I believe it was a political move made by a group of power hungry individuals, to change the political structure of "The United States of America".
Been saying this for years. Guess what the typical liberal/sheeple, and even many "Republicans" response is?
I don't have to tell you the country is brain dead.
Obama’s Military Purge Removes 197 Officers (AND COUNTING) AS DHS TAKES OVER STREETS
http://beforeitsnews.com/christian-news/2013/10/obamas-military-purge-removes-197-officers-and-counting-as-dhs-takes-over-streets-video-2485130.html
Obama’s Military Purge Removes 197 Officers (AND COUNTING) AS DHS TAKES OVER STREETS
http://beforeitsnews.com/christian-news/2013/10/obamas-military-purge-removes-197-officers-and-counting-as-dhs-takes-over-streets-video-2485130.html
Obama’s Military Purge Removes 197 Officers (AND COUNTING) AS DHS TAKES OVER STREETS
http://beforeitsnews.com/christian-news/2013/10/obamas-military-purge-removes-197-officers-and-counting-as-dhs-takes-over-streets-video-2485130.html
Obama’s Military Purge Removes 197 Officers (AND COUNTING) AS DHS TAKES OVER STREETS
http://beforeitsnews.com/christian-news/2013/10/obamas-military-purge-removes-197-officers-and-counting-as-dhs-takes-over-streets-video-2485130.html
Don't you love how liberals actually BELIEVE that the country is doing AMAZING economically because MSNBC and Wall Street and DC say so? Couldn't have anything to do with that extra TRILLION, and soon to be 2-4 trillion a year, that uncle Ben is passing out like candy to plug all the holes in the dike???
Here's something maybe all the lunatic liberals might get behind and worry about. It's up their "save the environment" alley, after all -- lol.
If true, losing all the nut cases in CA might actually be a good thing for the country, if it would stop there or jump over and just infest NY and DC too!!! Do you realize that if CA, NY, and DC all sunk in a hole, it would probably get rid of 80% of the problems in the country and most of the idiots.
Seriously, the fact that the world's governments are ignoring this possible global disaster is insane.
http://www.silverdoctors.com/28-signs-that-the-west-coast-is-being-absolutely-fried-with-nuclear-radiation-from-fukushima/#more-33715
How Badly Will ObamaCare Screw You? Answers Here!
by Karl Denninger
2013-10-24 08:14
Well well lookie what the cat dragged in. http://tinyurl.com/kq3ylhw
That's a link to the unsubsidized data dump -- all 78,437 records -- for each county and State under the Obamacare exchange program. I can verify that for at least my state and county the table is correct, since you can now look it up on Healthcare.gov without creating an account first (which I am not about to do.)
There are several very interesting statistical facts that come from this.
First, if you're "27", the average premium is $266.20/month or $3,194.40 per year. How many 27 year olds have an extra $3,200 to spend on this? Remember, this is the price that virtually every uninsured 27 year old must be willing -- and able -- to cough up in order to prevent the model this system is predicated on from collapsing.
If those 27 year olds don't show up, and they won't, then the system collapses instantly. If they do show up because the government threatens them with fines the economy collapses as $3,200 a year exceeds the average 27 year old's disposable personal income after mandatory expenses (e.g. food, shelter, etc.) Remember, there are always exceptions but these premiums are averages and over large pools of people the statistical averages are what matters -- not the ends of the barbell.
It gets better. The "average" 50 year old premium, again, for single coverage, is $452.87, or $5,434.44/year. How many 50 year olds will find that attractive compared against what they're paying now? Probably more of them, especially if they're already sick. But how about the healthy ones?
Note two things as well on this account -- these premiums are for non-smokers (smoker premiums are grossly surcharged with reports being 2x the above) and they do not account for anyone other than one person. If you are a single parent with kids (rather common) the premium on average is $610.23/month or about $7,300, and if you're a couple it's $647.86 (again, $7,774 annually.)
Now let's look at the government's own claims. First, the CPI index claims that health insurance is 0.656% of the family budget. What percentage of couples make $1.185 million a year? Why do I ask? Because that's the alleged median income for a couple if you believe the government's CPI numbers.
Yeah, right.
Next, while some people will get "tax credits" to offset these costs all that does is lard it up on the federal budget, because someone else has to pay that bill. In other words this is the true cost that will come out of your hide one way or another -- either directly by paying, indirectly by taxation, or indirectly by destruction of your purchasing power.
Next, note that this is the "50 year old" premium but you have to be 65 to qualify for Medicare. The price will rise each year after 50 that you happen to be and there are already reports that if you're 59 these premiums are understated by half. How many couples who are 59 and cannot qualify for Medicare yet have not $7,700 a year of extra money laying around but north of $15,000?
That's what I thought.
Are there people for whom these are "good deals"? Oh sure, if you're fat, sick and nearly dead they're great deals. The person with HIV who is guaranteed to suck out $30,000 or more in treatment costs each and every year has to be ecstatic at the premise that they can pay $3,200 and get back 10x what they spend on an indefinite forward basis, forever, or at least as long as the drug cocktails they're taking let them live. Likewise someone with other diseases such as diabetes or cancer have to love these plans; they pay an effective nothing compared to what will be spent immediately and permanently (as long as they live) on them.
But for virtually everyone else these "plans" are nothing more than financial rape. Not only are the premiums outrageous for most but the limits on coverage, including deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums means that if you get sick the so-called "price" is half or less of what you will actually spend, and this assumes you can find a doctor.
Oh, yeah, about that -- most of these plans absolutely exclude payment of anything to out-of-network physicians and facilities. "You can keep your doctor" eh? Uh, no.
This "program" is nothing more than the imposition of force to support a medical "system" that has systematically and intentionally destroyed the health of millions with government assistance and prodding. You think that's overstating the case? Well maybe it is and maybe it's not -- but what we are now learning is that the claim that you should not eat saturated fats because they're bad for you is being proved scientifically false ( http://tinyurl.com/knwacnc ) and that one of the drug company's biggest "blockbuster" categories, statins, worth some $30 billion a year in extraction from you, are thus utterly worthless at best and might be actively harming you.
But before you start screaming about all this let's back up and look at the figures, because while $30 billion sounds like a lot it's actually not. Nor are "medical torts"; by some figures costing $20 billion a year (although dropping.)
Let's add into this so-called "uncompensated care" -- that is, the result of EMTALA and other similar laws that "force" hospitals to "eat" the cost of care for those who have neither insurance or money. This has been rising very rapidly (by some 400% in the last couple of decades) and currently stands at some $40 billion.
These are big numbers, right?
Well, not really. Between the statins, torts and formal cost-shifting the total is $100 billion.
The problem is that the cost of "sick care" is in fact more than $2,700 billion a year in the economy as a whole and of that half comes from federal and state budgets and is drowning our nation in debt.
In other words if we reduced to zero all cost shifting, we got rid of all statin drug sales in the entire category (or made them "free" by force) and in addition Obamacare completely eliminated everyone who had neither insurance or money, and thus got rid of the entire uncompensated care problem we'd save a whopping......
wait for it....
3.7% of what we spend on health care annually.
In other words it wouldn't make any difference at all.
You have been told and sold otherwise by both the left (in the case of Obamacare) and right (in the case of uncompensated care and tort reform) and both sides of the aisle have knowingly lied and committed fraud against you to the tune of nearly $3 trillion dollars, or 17% of every dollar spent in the economy last year.
If you caught someone stealing that sort of money from you in the middle of the night in your house you'd shoot them, and with good cause. So why haven't we politically shot these jackasses and then indicted and locked them up on fraud charges?
More to the point, why aren't there a few million*****ed-off Americans in Washington DC right now who are surrounding the Capitol and refusing to leave until the lies stop and the scam is excised from our economy?
Probably because nobody, other than a few such as myself, have put these numbers before you and I'm willing to bet that not one in 100 of the people who read this were aware that all three of the above factors combined, were they to be completely eliminated from the health system, would shave off less than four percent of the problem.
But now you don't have that excuse because here it is in black-letter facts and figures.
So where's all the money going when we used to spend less than 1/3rd of this much in the 1970s (as a percentage of GDP) on health care, and why is it so damned expensive that you need "forced insurance"?
That's simple: The entire health system is an organized racketeering outfit that has gotten laws passed to make their conduct legal -- conduct that in virtually any other field would be an outright criminal felony.
Think I'm kidding? The Sherman and Clayton Acts, US Code 15 Section 1, say this:
Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy hereby declared to be illegal shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $100,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $1,000,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
http://tinyurl.com/n5pjr8p
The industry doesn't even try to hide their conduct. Indeed, there are even specific laws in many states, called "Certificate Of Need" (or "CON") laws, that are formalization of cartel behavior otherwise prohibited by The Sherman Act. This leads to utterly common situations where the price for a given procedure usually varies by as much as 400% from one hospital in a region to another and in many cases varies by more than 1,000%, and it is virtually impossible for you to determine the price before you are treated.
How else do you get a situation like the Phoenix woman who was billed more than $60,000 for two vials of scorpion antivenom that sell for $100 each in Mexico where they're made over the counter in a pharmacy, not far from Phoenix. If you get into your car and fill the trunk with said drug you are breaking the law as soon as you cross back into the United States (and if caught will be jailed.)
You want to fix the problems with Health Care in this country and solve Federal, State and local budget problems all at once? Break up all the monopolies by declaring unlawful all such conduct that restrains trade or fixes prices and void those laws that have made this behavior legal, mandate public disclosure and level billing of procedures, drugs and devices to all persons and prosecute and imprison violators -- all of them, starting with every single one of the health insurance, pharmaceutical and big "managed care" executives.
The cost of health care in this country would crash by 80% overnight and with a price 1/5th of what is paid now nobody would need health "insurance", save for catastrophic coverage that would cost less than you currently pay for insurance on your home or apartment contents and which you could choose to either buy or take the risk that such a catastrophe would strike and you would either have to cough up the money or die.
In addition putting a stop to this scam would immediately and permanently fix the Federal Budget without cutting one nickel of discretionary spending and it would not require gutting Medicare either.
Only very minor changes to Social Security (indexing full retirement to longevity) would be required to bring permanent budget stability and in fact we would run, right here, now and today, a budget surplus.
Wake up America before you're strangled and expire economically as a direct consequence of this three-decades-long scam
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=225369
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap
Paul Craig Roberts
October 24, 2013
The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.
Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades. However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.
The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.
In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure. And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility. A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.
Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it. The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.
Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington.
The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, recently declared China and Russia to be India’s “most important partners” with whom India shares “common strategic interests.” Prime Minister Singh said: “ India and Russia have always had a convergence of views on global and regional issues, and we value Russia’s perspective on international developments of mutual interest.”
India joined China in expressing concerns about the Federal Reserve’s practice of printing money in order to cover Washington’s vast red ink. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are taking steps to create their own method of settling trade accounts in order to protect themselves from the looming dollar implosion, China has forcefully called for a “de-Americanized world.” After watching the “superpower” offshore a large part of its GDP to China and then add to the diminished tax base the burden of $6 trillion in wars that brought no booty and served no US interest, China has concluded that American power is spent. The London Telegraph thinks “it is only a matter of time before the renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary currency for trading commodities and resources.”
The Obama regime attempted to attack Syria based on the sort of lies that the Bush regime used to invade Iraq, only to be slapped down by the British Parliament and Russian government. This rebuke was followed by the childishness of the government shutdown and threat of default. Consequently, the Washington morons have lost their monopoly on economic and political leadership. A few days ago the British government announced a historic agreement that permits British investors direct access to China’s markets and allows Chinese banks to expand their operations in Great Britain.
In Australia, the US dollar will no longer be used as the currency in which to settle the Australian trade accounts with China. Instead of dollars, trade will be settled in the Chinese currency.
Washington served as cheerleader, as did most economists and libertarians, while US corporations, greedy for short-term profits and executive bonuses, offshored US industry and manufacturing, calling it free trade. The obvious and predicted result is that China’s demand for resources needed to fuel its industrial and manufacturing power now dominates markets. This means that the US dollar is being displaced as world currency. The only market that America dominates is the market for financial fraud.
When industrial, manufacturing, and tradeable professional service jobs are offshored, they take US GDP and tax base with them. The foreign country gets the benefit of the relocated economic activity. Due to the revenues lost from jobs offshoring, there is a large gap between federal revenues and federal expenditures. As Washington’s irresponsible behavior has raised so many doubts about the dollar’s value and the government’s commitment to stand behind its massive debt, foreign countries with trade surpluses with the US are less and less willing to recycle those surpluses into the purchase of US Treasury debt.
Today the two largest holders of US Treasury debt are not investors or even foreign central banks. The two largest holders are the Federal Reserve and the Social Security Trust Fund.
As for those $6 trillion wars, that’s to pay for national defense to protect us from women, children, and village elders in far away countries devoid of air forces and navies, and to provide those recycled taxpayer monies from the military/security complex that find their way into political contributions.
The Wall Street gangsters sighed for relief over the last minute debt ceiling agreement. This shows how short-term Wall Street’s outlook is. All the October agreement did was to push off the crisis to January and February. The “debt ceiling agreement” did not produce a new debt ceiling that would last beyond February, and it did not resolve the large difference between federal revenues and expenditures. In other words, the can was again kicked down the road. A repeat of the October fiasco won’t play well.
Obamacare is causing the premiums on private insurance polices to rise substantially, almost doubling in some situations unless people move to the uncertain exchanges, and Obamacare’s raid on Medicare payroll tax revenues has resulted in a cut in Medicare payments to health care providers. The result is a further reduction in consumer discretionary income and a further drop in the economy.
This in turn means a larger federal budget deficit and the need for the Federal Reserve to purchase more debt.
Another reason the Federal Reserve is faced with increasing, not tapering, quantitative easing (money printing) is the decline in foreign purchases of US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. As the instruments pay interest that is less than the rate of inflation, holding Treasury debt makes no sense when the dollar’s value and the potential of default are open questions.
According to reports, not only are foreign governments, such as China, ceasing to buy US Treasury debt, China has started to sell off its holdings, substituting gold in the place of US Treasury debt.
This means that the bonds must be purchased by the Fed or interest rates will rise as the increased supply of bonds on the market drives down bond prices. The only way the Fed can purchase a larger supply of bonds is by printing more money, that is, by more quantitative easing.
With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Fed prints more dollars the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise.
To get out of dollars requires that the dollar proceeds from selling Treasuries, US stocks and US real estate be sold in the currency markets. The selling of dollars drives down the exchange value of the US dollar and results in rising US inflation. The Fed can print money with which to purchase Treasury debt, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars.
The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on.
Initially, private pensions will be taxed at a rate to recover the tax-free accumulation in the pensions. The second year a national emergency will be used to confiscate some share of pensions. Those relying on the pensions will find themselves with less income. Consumer spending will decline. The economy will worsen. The deficit will widen.
You can see where this is going, and there seems to be no way out. Policymakers, economists, and corporation executives are in denial about the adverse effects of offshoring, which they still, despite all the evidence, maintain is good for the economy. So nothing will be done about offshoring. Republicans will blame the budget deficit on welfare and entitlements, and if those are cut consumer spending will decline further, widening the budget deficit. Inflation will rise as incomes fall, and social cohesion will break down.
Now you know why Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks. If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America.
September employment report: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), September brought 148,000 new jobs, enough to keep up with population growth but not reduce the unemployment rate. Moreover, John Williams (shadowstats.com) says that one-third of these jobs, or 50,000 per month on average, are phantom jobs produced by the birth-death model that during difficult economic times overestimates the number of new jobs from business startups and underestimates job losses from business failures.
The BLS reports that 22,000 of September’s jobs were new hires by state governments, which seems odd in view of the ongoing state budgetary difficulties.
In the private sector, wholesale and retail trade produced 36,900 new jobs, which seems odd in light of the absence of growth in real median family income and real retail sales.
Transportation and warehousing produced 23,400 new jobs, concentrated in transit and ground passenger transportation. This also seems odd unless the price of gasoline and pinched budgets are forcing people onto public transportation.
Professional and business services accounted for 32,000 jobs of which 63% are temporary help jobs.
So here you have the job picture that the presstitutes, hyping “the jobs gain,” don’t tell you. The scary part of the September job report is that the usual standby, the category of waitresses and bartenders, which has accounted for a large part of every reported jobs gain since I began reporting the monthly statistics, shows job loss. Seven thousand one hundred waitresses and bartenders lost their jobs in September. If this figure is not a fluke, it is bad news. It signals that fewer Americans can afford to eat and drink out.
The unemployment rate that is reported is the rate that does not count as unemployed discouraged workers who are unable to find jobs and cease to look. This favored rate, the darling of the regime in power, the presstitutes, and Wall Street, also is not adjusted for the category of “involuntary part-time workers,” those whose hours have been cut back or because they are unable to find a full-time job. Obamacare, as is widely reported, is causing employers to shift their work forces from full time to part time in order to avoid costs associated with Obamacare. The BLS places the number of involuntary part-time workers at 7,900,000.
The announced 7.2% unemployment rate is a meaningless number. The rate can decline for no other reason than people unable to find jobs drop out of the work force. You are not counted in the work force if you are discouraged about finding a job and no longer look for a job.
The phenomena of discouraged workers shows up in the measure of the labor force participation rate, which has declined in the 21st century. The opportunities for American labor are so restricted that a rising percentage of the working age population have given up looking for jobs.
Yet, the Obama regime, the Wall Street gangsters, and the pressitute media tell us how much better the economic situation is becoming as more small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live, as Fed Chairman Bernanke has made it impossible for them to live on interest payments on their savings.
According to the US census bureau, real median household income in 2012 was $51,017, down 9% from $56,080 in 1999, 13 years ago. In contrast, annual compensation in 2012 for US CEOs broke all records. Two CEOs were paid more than $1 billion, and the worst paid among the top ten took home $100 million. When the presstitutes speak of economic recovery, they mean recovery for the one percent.
America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it. But the neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are determined that Washington start yet more wars to create lebensraum for Israel.
Early in the 21st century the liberal Democrat Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, and I coauthored an article in the New York Times about the adverse effects on the US economy of jobs offshoring. The article caused a sensation. The Brookings Institution in Washington quickly convened a conference which was covered by C-SPAN. C-SPAN rebroadcast the conference several times. During the conference I said that if jobs offshoring continued, the US would be a third world economy in 20 years.
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.
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap
Paul Craig Roberts
October 24, 2013
The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.
Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades. However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.
The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.
In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure. And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility. A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.
Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it. The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.
Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington.
The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, recently declared China and Russia to be India’s “most important partners” with whom India shares “common strategic interests.” Prime Minister Singh said: “ India and Russia have always had a convergence of views on global and regional issues, and we value Russia’s perspective on international developments of mutual interest.”
India joined China in expressing concerns about the Federal Reserve’s practice of printing money in order to cover Washington’s vast red ink. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are taking steps to create their own method of settling trade accounts in order to protect themselves from the looming dollar implosion, China has forcefully called for a “de-Americanized world.” After watching the “superpower” offshore a large part of its GDP to China and then add to the diminished tax base the burden of $6 trillion in wars that brought no booty and served no US interest, China has concluded that American power is spent. The London Telegraph thinks “it is only a matter of time before the renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary currency for trading commodities and resources.”
The Obama regime attempted to attack Syria based on the sort of lies that the Bush regime used to invade Iraq, only to be slapped down by the British Parliament and Russian government. This rebuke was followed by the childishness of the government shutdown and threat of default. Consequently, the Washington morons have lost their monopoly on economic and political leadership. A few days ago the British government announced a historic agreement that permits British investors direct access to China’s markets and allows Chinese banks to expand their operations in Great Britain.
In Australia, the US dollar will no longer be used as the currency in which to settle the Australian trade accounts with China. Instead of dollars, trade will be settled in the Chinese currency.
Washington served as cheerleader, as did most economists and libertarians, while US corporations, greedy for short-term profits and executive bonuses, offshored US industry and manufacturing, calling it free trade. The obvious and predicted result is that China’s demand for resources needed to fuel its industrial and manufacturing power now dominates markets. This means that the US dollar is being displaced as world currency. The only market that America dominates is the market for financial fraud.
When industrial, manufacturing, and tradeable professional service jobs are offshored, they take US GDP and tax base with them. The foreign country gets the benefit of the relocated economic activity. Due to the revenues lost from jobs offshoring, there is a large gap between federal revenues and federal expenditures. As Washington’s irresponsible behavior has raised so many doubts about the dollar’s value and the government’s commitment to stand behind its massive debt, foreign countries with trade surpluses with the US are less and less willing to recycle those surpluses into the purchase of US Treasury debt.
Today the two largest holders of US Treasury debt are not investors or even foreign central banks. The two largest holders are the Federal Reserve and the Social Security Trust Fund.
As for those $6 trillion wars, that’s to pay for national defense to protect us from women, children, and village elders in far away countries devoid of air forces and navies, and to provide those recycled taxpayer monies from the military/security complex that find their way into political contributions.
The Wall Street gangsters sighed for relief over the last minute debt ceiling agreement. This shows how short-term Wall Street’s outlook is. All the October agreement did was to push off the crisis to January and February. The “debt ceiling agreement” did not produce a new debt ceiling that would last beyond February, and it did not resolve the large difference between federal revenues and expenditures. In other words, the can was again kicked down the road. A repeat of the October fiasco won’t play well.
Obamacare is causing the premiums on private insurance polices to rise substantially, almost doubling in some situations unless people move to the uncertain exchanges, and Obamacare’s raid on Medicare payroll tax revenues has resulted in a cut in Medicare payments to health care providers. The result is a further reduction in consumer discretionary income and a further drop in the economy.
This in turn means a larger federal budget deficit and the need for the Federal Reserve to purchase more debt.
Another reason the Federal Reserve is faced with increasing, not tapering, quantitative easing (money printing) is the decline in foreign purchases of US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. As the instruments pay interest that is less than the rate of inflation, holding Treasury debt makes no sense when the dollar’s value and the potential of default are open questions.
According to reports, not only are foreign governments, such as China, ceasing to buy US Treasury debt, China has started to sell off its holdings, substituting gold in the place of US Treasury debt.
This means that the bonds must be purchased by the Fed or interest rates will rise as the increased supply of bonds on the market drives down bond prices. The only way the Fed can purchase a larger supply of bonds is by printing more money, that is, by more quantitative easing.
With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Fed prints more dollars the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise.
To get out of dollars requires that the dollar proceeds from selling Treasuries, US stocks and US real estate be sold in the currency markets. The selling of dollars drives down the exchange value of the US dollar and results in rising US inflation. The Fed can print money with which to purchase Treasury debt, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars.
The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on.
Initially, private pensions will be taxed at a rate to recover the tax-free accumulation in the pensions. The second year a national emergency will be used to confiscate some share of pensions. Those relying on the pensions will find themselves with less income. Consumer spending will decline. The economy will worsen. The deficit will widen.
You can see where this is going, and there seems to be no way out. Policymakers, economists, and corporation executives are in denial about the adverse effects of offshoring, which they still, despite all the evidence, maintain is good for the economy. So nothing will be done about offshoring. Republicans will blame the budget deficit on welfare and entitlements, and if those are cut consumer spending will decline further, widening the budget deficit. Inflation will rise as incomes fall, and social cohesion will break down.
Now you know why Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks. If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America.
September employment report: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), September brought 148,000 new jobs, enough to keep up with population growth but not reduce the unemployment rate. Moreover, John Williams (shadowstats.com) says that one-third of these jobs, or 50,000 per month on average, are phantom jobs produced by the birth-death model that during difficult economic times overestimates the number of new jobs from business startups and underestimates job losses from business failures.
The BLS reports that 22,000 of September’s jobs were new hires by state governments, which seems odd in view of the ongoing state budgetary difficulties.
In the private sector, wholesale and retail trade produced 36,900 new jobs, which seems odd in light of the absence of growth in real median family income and real retail sales.
Transportation and warehousing produced 23,400 new jobs, concentrated in transit and ground passenger transportation. This also seems odd unless the price of gasoline and pinched budgets are forcing people onto public transportation.
Professional and business services accounted for 32,000 jobs of which 63% are temporary help jobs.
So here you have the job picture that the presstitutes, hyping “the jobs gain,” don’t tell you. The scary part of the September job report is that the usual standby, the category of waitresses and bartenders, which has accounted for a large part of every reported jobs gain since I began reporting the monthly statistics, shows job loss. Seven thousand one hundred waitresses and bartenders lost their jobs in September. If this figure is not a fluke, it is bad news. It signals that fewer Americans can afford to eat and drink out.
The unemployment rate that is reported is the rate that does not count as unemployed discouraged workers who are unable to find jobs and cease to look. This favored rate, the darling of the regime in power, the presstitutes, and Wall Street, also is not adjusted for the category of “involuntary part-time workers,” those whose hours have been cut back or because they are unable to find a full-time job. Obamacare, as is widely reported, is causing employers to shift their work forces from full time to part time in order to avoid costs associated with Obamacare. The BLS places the number of involuntary part-time workers at 7,900,000.
The announced 7.2% unemployment rate is a meaningless number. The rate can decline for no other reason than people unable to find jobs drop out of the work force. You are not counted in the work force if you are discouraged about finding a job and no longer look for a job.
The phenomena of discouraged workers shows up in the measure of the labor force participation rate, which has declined in the 21st century. The opportunities for American labor are so restricted that a rising percentage of the working age population have given up looking for jobs.
Yet, the Obama regime, the Wall Street gangsters, and the pressitute media tell us how much better the economic situation is becoming as more small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live, as Fed Chairman Bernanke has made it impossible for them to live on interest payments on their savings.
According to the US census bureau, real median household income in 2012 was $51,017, down 9% from $56,080 in 1999, 13 years ago. In contrast, annual compensation in 2012 for US CEOs broke all records. Two CEOs were paid more than $1 billion, and the worst paid among the top ten took home $100 million. When the presstitutes speak of economic recovery, they mean recovery for the one percent.
America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it. But the neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are determined that Washington start yet more wars to create lebensraum for Israel.
Early in the 21st century the liberal Democrat Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, and I coauthored an article in the New York Times about the adverse effects on the US economy of jobs offshoring. The article caused a sensation. The Brookings Institution in Washington quickly convened a conference which was covered by C-SPAN. C-SPAN rebroadcast the conference several times. During the conference I said that if jobs offshoring continued, the US would be a third world economy in 20 years.
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.
I love his analogy of being forced by the gov't to do something and taking away freedoms and moving toward communism.
How would liberals feel if the federal gov't said that the 2nd amendment was a right, so they were forcing everyone to purchase and own a firearm? This is exactly what they are doing with the ACA, yet the liberal monkeys swoon at how wonderful this is.
If it were the gun example, can you hear the outrage at a federal gov't forcing a liberal to buy something they did not want?
But, as always, the liberal mind will not see this as the logical comparison IT IS.
I love his analogy of being forced by the gov't to do something and taking away freedoms and moving toward communism.
How would liberals feel if the federal gov't said that the 2nd amendment was a right, so they were forcing everyone to purchase and own a firearm? This is exactly what they are doing with the ACA, yet the liberal monkeys swoon at how wonderful this is.
If it were the gun example, can you hear the outrage at a federal gov't forcing a liberal to buy something they did not want?
But, as always, the liberal mind will not see this as the logical comparison IT IS.
I love his analogy of being forced by the gov't to do something and taking away freedoms and moving toward communism.
How would liberals feel if the federal gov't said that the 2nd amendment was a right, so they were forcing everyone to purchase and own a firearm? This is exactly what they are doing with the ACA, yet the liberal monkeys swoon at how wonderful this is.
If it were the gun example, can you hear the outrage at a federal gov't forcing a liberal to buy something they did not want?
But, as always, the liberal mind will not see this as the logical comparison IT IS.
I love his analogy of being forced by the gov't to do something and taking away freedoms and moving toward communism.
How would liberals feel if the federal gov't said that the 2nd amendment was a right, so they were forcing everyone to purchase and own a firearm? This is exactly what they are doing with the ACA, yet the liberal monkeys swoon at how wonderful this is.
If it were the gun example, can you hear the outrage at a federal gov't forcing a liberal to buy something they did not want?
But, as always, the liberal mind will not see this as the logical comparison IT IS.