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Politics, society, and why everything is going to hell. - Page 22

post #421 of 1226
Thread Starter 

COULD THE ELECTION BE THE SPARK?

 

Posted on 30th July 2012

by AWD

 

Admin posted the TBP poll #100 about the neck and neck election. Good article from http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com about preparations by the incumbent president for the coming election. It seems he doesn’t want to lose, and has enlisted 1000′s of lawyers in his cause. Considering how divided and angry our country is, it wouldn’t take much to set off a firestorm. The election ending up in court could be such a firestorm. Obama already has all the legalese in place to take over complete control of every aspect of this country, and supersede all laws and regulations. The legislation has been put in place, quietly, so nobody would notice. He simply has to give the word.

 

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Does Barack Obama Expect The Upcoming Election To Spark Rampant Civil Unrest?

What is Barack Obama preparing for? What does Barack Obama actually expect to happen in November? Does he believe that the upcoming election could actually spark rampant civil unrest inside the United States? The conditions are certainly ripe for civil unrest in this country. A multitude of recent polls and surveys have shown that Americans are angrier and more frustrated than ever. Sadly, we are taking a lot of that anger and frustration out on each other. America is more divided today than at any other time since the Civil War era. The left absolutely hates Mitt Romney the Republicans, and the right absolutely hates Barack Obama and the Democrats. If you doubt this, just surf political blogs for a few hours and read the comments that people leave. This country is a boiling cauldron of hatred and anger and all it is going to take is just the right “spark” to cause all of this hatred and anger to absolutely explode. This upcoming election season is likely to be one of the most heated and divisive election seasons in U.S. history, and if there is not a clear winner on election night there is the potential that chaos could be unleashed that would be far, far worse than anything we saw during the Bush/Gore debacle of 2000.

Right now, the polls tell us that this is likely to be a very, very tight election. If you doubt this, just check out the daily Gallup tracking poll.

 

As I write this, Obama and Romney are tied at 46 percent.

In 2008, a wave of positive emotion helped Obama secure a solid victory on election night where there was no doubt about the outcome.

But this time there is not going to be the same wave of positive emotion behind Obama, and that means that the election is likely to be much, much closer.

One thing that set off alarm bells for me is when various news stories starting discussing the “legion of lawyers” that Barack Obama was recruiting for this election. The following is from a recent article in the Huffington Post….

President Barack Obama’s campaign has recruited a legion of lawyers to be on standby for this year’s election as legal disputes surrounding the voting process escalate. Thousands of attorneys and support staffers have agreed to aid in the effort, providing a mass of legal support that appears to be unrivaled by Republicans or precedent.

 

Did you catch that?

Obama’s “unprecedented” legion of lawyers is definitely getting prepared for something.

In a tightly contested race, would Obama use every legal angle that he possibly could to take the election away from Mitt Romney?

Would Mitt Romney potentially do the same to Obama?

How would the rest of America respond to another huge legal struggle over the presidency?

Let us hope that we never find out the answers to any of those questions.

But fighting in court is not the only avenue that Barack Obama could potentially use to keep his spot in the White House.

There is also the possibility that Barack Obama could use his executive powers to influence the outcome of the election.

This year, Obama has issued a whole series of very strange executive orders.

Many have been wondering what the true purpose of these executive orders really is.

 

For example, EO 13603 enables Barack Obama to take total control over all food, all energy, all health resources and all transportation resources with the stroke of a pen.

The following is from an article about this executive order by Jim Garrison in the Huffington Post….

President Obama’s National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the Constitution in particular — completely eviscerates any due process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government deemed in the interest of “national security.” Like the NDAA, the new Executive Order puts the government completely above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen.

 

Later in that same article, he detailed some of the extraordinary powers that the executive branch would be given if Barack Obama decided that “national security” required it….

• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;
• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;
• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;
• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;
• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.

 

According to this executive order, a “national emergency” is not even required to activate these powers. If Barack Obama decides that there is a threat to “national security” (or to his job security) he could activate these powers at any time.

Another executive order, EO 13618, would potentially give Obama power over all communication resources in the United States.

So does that mean that Obama could potentially pull the plug on the Internet during a crisis?

That is a very good question.

Overall, Obama has issued more than 900 executive orders during his time as president. The amount of power that he now claims to possess is absolutely mind blowing.

 

So will he ever actually attempt to use the powers that he has granted himself under these executive orders?

Let’s hope not.

In addition, it appears that the Department of Homeland Security is gearing up for something.

An article posted on RT the other day entitled “DHS gears up for civil unrest prior to presidential elections” detailed some of the purchases that the Department of Homeland Security is looking to make….

The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia.

 

As the brief explains, “the objective of this effort is to procure riot gear to prepare for the 2012 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the 2013 Presidential Inauguration and other future similar activities.”

The total amount ordered is about 150 sets of riot helmets, thigh and groin protectors, hard-shell shin guards and other riot gear.

 

Specifically, DHS is looking to obtain:

- “147 riot helmets” with “adjustable tactical face shield with liquid seal”

- “147 sets of upper body and shoulder protection”

- “152 sets of thigh and groin protection”

- “147 hard-shell shin guards” with “substantial protection from flying debris, non-ballistic weapons, and blows to the leg” and “optimized protective design for severe riot control or tactical situations.”

- “156 forearm protectors”

- “147 pairs of tactical gloves”

The riot gear will be worn by Federal Protective Service agents who are tasked with protecting property, grounds and buildings owned by the federal government.

 

Also, as I have written about previously, earlier this month FEMA posted a solicitation for a large number of pre-packaged meals. According to the solicitation, the maximum number of meals that would be provided to FEMA under the contract would be 17.5 million meals. The following is from the FEMA solicitation document….

As referred to in paragraph (b) of FAR Clause 52.216-22, “Indefinite Quantity” of this contract, the guaranteed contract minimum is 21,000 packaged meals to include the base and option periods. The contract ceiling amount shall not exceed 17,500,000 packaged meals.

So do those solicitations mean anything special or are they just part of normal government operations?

 

That is a good question.

But what we do know is that U.S. military personnel are going to be deployed at the Democratic and Republican national conventions in support of U.S. Secret Service personnel. The following is from a recent Stars and Stripes article….

“During the Democratic/Republican National Conventions, Department of Defense personnel will support the U.S. Secret Service,” a Northern Command spokesman said in an email.

“For operational security reasons we do not discuss the numbers of military personnel and resources that are involved,” U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. William G. Lewis said. “Additionally, we do not share our operational plans.”

Could the same forces be deployed to quell civil unrest sparked by a controversial election result in November?

 

Let us hope that this upcoming election season is not as bitter and divisive as many are projecting and let us hope that there is a clear winner in November.

The conditions are definitely right for America to be absolutely torn apart if the “perfect controversy” comes rolling along.

At this moment, Americans are incredibly frustrated. Our economy has been in the dumps for quite a few years, and now it look like another recession is starting. The patience of the American people is running out.

Over much of the western United States things are so hot and dry right now that just a single spark is often enough to set off a forest fire that can burn for weeks. Well, the same thing can be said for the political climate in the United States right now.

The American people are so hot and so angry that it would not take much to set off a raging political fire.

 

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because a single spark could set this country ablaze.

post #422 of 1226

It is very plausible to happen when the elections take place.  Our potus is a brat!  I keep waiting for his alien parents to show up and apologize for his behavior and take him home. (Star Trek).

When republicans took over the House, we got people being molested at airports all over the nation. TSA Trying to take back the Oval Office will be like trying to take away a bone from a Rotweiler.

 

Have any of you heard of The Republic of the United States? 

http://www.republicoftheunitedstates.org/

 

...at this point in my life, I look for any to happen from Red Dawn to Jericho...

 

~Sis~

post #423 of 1226
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sameiemas View Post

 

...at this point in my life, I look for any to happen from Red Dawn to Jericho...

 

~Sis~

 "This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable.....The Twilight Zone."

post #424 of 1226
Thread Starter 

The Central Banking Theater of the Absurd

 
 


by Charles Hugh-Smith 

,

The astounding hubris of central bankers is comical, but the consequences of their actions are playing out as needless tragedy.

Central bankers present themselves as Masters of the Universe. They are, but only in their own little Theater of the Absurd. In the real world, they are as clueless as any other mortals about the unintended consequences of their actions and the speed with which the corrupted, unsustainable financial Status Quo will decay and die.

 

The only attribute they possess in abundance is hubris. Their claims to godhood are comical when viewed in their little Theater of the Absurd, but they become tragic when the consequences of their actions play out in the real world.

 

Their job, such as it is, is to deflate a tottering system based on phantom assets slowly enough that it doesn't implode. Stripped of mumbo-jumbo, their strategy to accomplish this is to inflate other phantom assets to replace the phantom assets that are falling to zero.

 

All their promises, preening and posturing boil down to patting their breast pocket and speaking vaguely about a "secret plan" to end the crisis without bringing down the system that spawned the crisis as a consequence of its very nature.

There is no secret plan, of course, and no secret financial weapons; all they really have is artifice and the hubris to present artifice as reality.

To admit the usustainable is not sustainable would bring the entire rotten edifice crashing down, so the central bankers invite us into their little Theater of the Absurd and evince a phantom confidence in their phantom solutions that depend on phantom assets.

 

A swollen cloud of doom hangs over the central banker's little Theater of the Absurd; all their chest-pounding hubris and empty confidence is artifice, as phantom as the assets they claim will replace the phantom assets that have been destroyed by exposure to reality.

On their absurd little stage, they claim the Emperor's robes are thick and fine; and we laugh, bitterly, for these threadbare lies are all they have to "save" a parasitic, predatory, anti-democratic financial Status Quo.

post #425 of 1226
Thread Starter 

This Is What 670 Million People Without Power Look Like: Pictures From A Blacked Out India

 
Tyler Durden's picture

 



First thing today we reported that India just suffered what may have been the biggest blackout in history, after half of the country's population of 1.2 billion, or just under 700 million was without power, as the electric grid of more than a dozen states suffered an epic collapse. Below we shares some pictures courtesy of Times of India giving some sense of what it means for two Americas worth of people to live without electricity indefinitely. Of note: the calm, peace and order despite the epic traffic jams and crowds. One wonders what would happen in the US if the entire country was without electrcity for even just one hour. Finally, one wonders what the impact to the Indian, Asian, and Global economy will be as a result of the complete halt that at least half of India - one of the world's core marginal economies - has ground to do.

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India’s northwestern boundary with neighboring Pakistan is so brightly lit that the thin orange line tracing its path can be seen from space. Photo: NASA/EO

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A road is packed in heavy traffics following power outage and rains in the central part of New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis spread over half the country Tuesday when both its eastern and northern electricity grids collapsed, leaving 600 million people without power in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. Traffic lights went out across New Delhi.

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Heavy traffic moves along a busy road as it rains during a power-cut at the toll-gates at Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi July 31, 2012. Grid failure hit India for a second day on Tuesday, cutting power to hundreds of millions of people in the populous northern and eastern states including the capital Delhi and major cities such as Kolkata.

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Commuters wait for buses outside a Metro station after Delhi Metro rail services were disrupted following power outage in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving more than 600 million people without government-supplied electricity in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts.

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Commuters wait for buses outside a Metro station after Delhi Metro rail services were disrupted following power outage in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. A massive blackout hit northern and eastern India on Tuesday afternoon, leaving 600 million people without electricity in one of the world's most widespread power failures. The outage came just a day after India's northern power grid collapsed for several hours leaving cities and villages across eight states powerless.

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Commuters wait in line at a Metro station after Delhi Metro rail services were disrupted following power outage in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving more than 600 million people without government-supplied electricity in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. The city's Metro rail system, which serves about 1.8 million people a day, immediately shut down for the second day in a row.

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Passengers sit on a platform for their train to arrive as they wait for electricity to be restored at a railway station in New Delhi July 31, 2012. Grid failure hit India for a second day on Tuesday, cutting power to hundreds of millions of people in the populous northern and eastern states including the capital Delhi and major cities such as Kolkata.

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Passengers rest on a platform for their train to arrive as they wait for electricity to be restored at a railway station in New Delhi July 31, 2012. Grid failure hit India for a second day on Tuesday, cutting power to hundreds of millions of people in the populous northern and eastern states including the capital Delhi and major cities such as Kolkata.

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A passenger looks through the window of a train as he waits for electricity to be restored at a railway station in New Delhi July 31, 2012. Grid failure hit India for a second day on Tuesday, cutting power to hundreds of millions of people in the populous northern and eastern states including the capital Delhi and major cities such as Kolkata.

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Commuters crowd a busy road outside a Metro station after Delhi Metro rail services were disrupted following power outage in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Indian officials say the nation's northern and eastern power grids have failed, leaving about half the country without power. The collapse of the grids Tuesday afternoon came a day after the northern grid failed and left eight states without power for much of the day.

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Indian stranded passengers wait on a platform and some of them on rail tracks for the train services to resume following a power outage at Sealdah station in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest-ever blackout. Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi.

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Stranded passengers wait on a railway tracks for the train services to resume following a power outage at Sealdah station in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest-ever blackout. Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi.

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Passengers sit in a train as they wait for power to get restore, at a railway station, in New Delhi, India, Monday, July 30, 2012. A major power outage has struck northern India, plunging cities into darkness and stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters. Trains across eight northern Indian states and metro services in New Delhi were affected by the outage that struck at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

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Commuters wait for a metro train, in New Delhi, India, Monday, July 30, 2012. Northern India's power grid crashed Monday, halting hundreds of trains, forcing hospitals and airports to use backup generators and leaving 370 million people - more than the population of the United States and Canada combined - sweltering in the summer heat.

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Muslim girls study in the light of candles inside a madrasa or religious school during power-cut in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi July 30, 2012. Grid failure left more than 300 million people without power in New Delhi and much of northern India for hours on Monday in the worst blackout for more than a decade, highlighting chronic infrastructure woes holding back Asia's third-largest economy.

post #426 of 1226
Thread Starter 

How Times Have Changed

by Walter E. Williams

July 31, 2012

 
 
   

Having been born in 1936 has allowed me to witness both societal progress and retrogression. High on the list of things made better in our society are the great gains in civil liberties and economic opportunities, especially for racial minorities and women. People who are now deemed poor have a level of material wealth that would have been a pipe dream to yesteryear's poor. But despite the fact that today's Americans have achieved an unprecedented level of prosperity, we have become spiritually and morally impoverished compared with our ancestors.

 

 

Years ago, spending beyond one's means was considered a character defect. Today not only do people spend beyond their means but also there are companies that advertise on radio and TV to eliminate or reduce your credit card and mortgage debt. Students saddled with college loans have called for student loan forgiveness. Yesterday's Americans would have viewed it as morally corrupt and reprehensible to accumulate debt and then seek to avoid paying it. It's nothing less than theft. What's worse is there's little condemnation of it by the rest of us.

Earlier this year, as a result of a budget crunch, the Philadelphia School District had to lay off 91 school police officers.

 

During the 1940s and '50s, I attended Philadelphia schools in poor neighborhoods. The only time we saw a policeman in school was during an assembly period when we had to listen to a boring lecture about safety. Because teacher assaults are tolerated – 4,000 over the past five years in Philadelphia – school police are needed. Prior to the '60s, few students would have thought of talking back to a teacher, and no one would have cursed, much less assaulted, a teacher.

 

I couldn't have been more than 8-, 9- or 10-years-old when one time, on the way home from school, my cousin and I were having a stone fight with some other youngsters. An elderly black lady walked up to my cousin and me and asked, "Does your mother know you're out here throwing stones?" We replied, "No, ma'am," praying that the matter rested there. Today an adult doing the same thing risks being cursed and possibly assaulted. Fearing retaliation, adults sit in silence as young people use vile language to one another on public conveyances, in school corridors and on the streets.

 

Yesteryear there was little tolerance for the kinds of crude behavior and language that are accepted today. To see a man sitting on a bus or trolley car while a woman is standing used to be unthinkable. Children didn't address adults by their first name. By the way, over the course of my nearly 45 years of teaching, on several occasions, students have addressed me by my first name. I have told them that I don't mind their addressing me by my first name but that my first name is Professor.

 

williams-w2.jpgMuch of what's accepted today would have been seen as bizarre and lowdown yesteryear. Out-of-wedlock childbirth was a disgrace and surely wouldn't have occasioned a baby shower. Popular TV shows such as "The Jerry Springer Show" and "Maury" feature guests who openly discuss despicable acts in their personal lives, often to the applause of the audience. Shame is going the way of the dinosaur.

You say, "Williams, you're just old-fashioned and out of touch with modern society." Maybe so, but I think that a society's first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions and moral values.

 

These behavioral norms – transmitted by example, word of mouth, religious teachings, rules of etiquette and manners – represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error. They include important legal thou-shalt-nots – such as shalt not murder, steal, lie or cheat – but they also include all those civilities one might call ladylike or gentlemanly behavior. Police officers and courts can never replace these social restraints on personal conduct. At best, laws, police and the criminal justice system are a society's last desperate line of defense.

post #427 of 1226
Thread Starter 

Myths We Live By

By John Stossel

8/1/2012

 

The Olympics have gone smoothly despite -- gasp! -- America's team wearing clothing made in China at the opening ceremony.

"I'm so upset," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile, and burn them. ... We have people in the textile industry who are desperate for jobs."

 

Here, Reid demonstrates economic cluelessness. It seems logical that Americans lose if American clothing is made overseas. But that's nonsense. First, it's no surprise the uniforms were made in China. Most clothing is. That's fine. It saves money. We invest the savings in other things, like the machines that Chinese factories buy and the trucks that ship the Olympic uniforms.

The Cato Institute's Daniel Ikenson's adds: "We design clothing here. We brand clothing here. We market and retail clothing. ... Chinese athletes arrived in London by U.S.-made aircraft, trained on U.S.-designed and -engineered equipment, wear U.S.-designed and -engineered footwear, having perfected their skills using U.S.-created technology." That's free trade. Trade makes us richer.

 

While making the clothes in America would employ some Americans, the excess cost would mean that the Olympic committee had less to spend on other products -- many of which are made in America.

Losing jobs like cutting, sewing and working on a loom is a sign of progress because working in factories is unpleasant. It's good for most Americans when factory jobs are replaced by engineering and design jobs. Art Carden, an economist from Sanford University's Brook School of Business, explained that "one could argue that the American uniforms were not manufactured in China, but grown in the soybean field in Iowa. We export soybeans to China. Because we're incredibly productive in the soybean market, we get more uniforms at lower prices (and) the Chinese get more soybeans at lower prices. ... Everybody wins."

 

Contrary to protectionists like Sen. Reid, if we insisted that everything be made in America, we'd be poor.

There is so much that we think we know -- that is not so.

We're told that "overpopulation" is why countries are poor. But that's nonsense, too.

"The problem is not that there are too many people," Carden said. "The problem is that for the most part they don't have free markets."

 

Right. They have bad governments, kleptocracies that steal people's resources.

The data make that obvious. Poverty in Nigeria and Pakistan is often blamed on "overpopulation." Nigeria has 174 people per square mile! Pakistan 225! But so what? Wealthy Holland has 483 people per square mile. Hong Kong, 6,783. Singapore, 7,252. These are among the richest places in the world. They also have clean environments. When there is the rule of law and economic freedom, more people means more inventions, the cross-pollination of ideas -- and that creates better lives.

 

Another myth is that we're running out of fuel. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter said gas and oil would be gone in the next decade. Others said by 2000 or 2010.

It didn't happen because as oil and gas get expensive, people search for substitutes. When they are free to profit by doing that, they invent new ways to dig deeper, suck more oil out of the same wells, etc. America now has stores of much more oil and gas than when Carter was president.

There are so many myths. I wrote my new book when I realized that the most dangerous myth is that solutions to our problems will most likely come from government. It's intuitive to think that the wise people in Washington know more than we do. Therefore, they should plan our lives. But the opposite is true.

People freed to pursue their own interests are more likely to solve problems. Government fails, but individuals succeed. Individuals would create prosperity if politicians and bureaucrats got out of the way.

 

It is time we saw through the big government scam.

post #428 of 1226
post #429 of 1226

 

 

 

Though Knight didn’t provide details on what happened, much of these glitches stem from issues related to the computers and algorithms that power the world of high-frequency trading, where millions of trades are conducted in nanoseconds. Most of the volume of stock trading comes from such computers. Because machines conduct these trades, the propensity of malfunctions is high, since humans can’t put a stop to these trades until it is too late, or the damage is already done.

Such glitches can hurt investors, especially those that may have had placed automatic orders with their brokers to sell stocks that hit a certain price.

 

The Securities and Exchange Commission was involved in the looking into the matter throughout the day, spokesman Kevin Callahan said in a statement. “As is our practice, we are closely monitoring the situation and in continuous contact with the NYSE and other market participants,” Callahan said.

People like Hunsader, Arnuk and others have been calling for better oversight of practices that lead to such glitches.

“High-frequency trading, the idea that computers and algorithms are trading very rapidly in the marketplace and putting pressure on the system, absolutely is something that ultimately needs to be addressed,” said Matthew Rubin, director of investment strategy at Neuberger Berman.

The disruptions occurred, ironically, on the same day that the Securities & Exchange Commission published a final rule aimed at preventing trading disruptions like the May 2010 “flash crash.” The new rule establishes a single, consolidated record of all the trades on a given day.

Arnuk wondered why the public companies tolerate such market movements that hurt the prices of their stocks.

“It’s time to stop punting and enact regulation that restores confidence in the markets,” said Arnuk.

AP Business Writers Christina Rexrode in New York and Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this story.

post #430 of 1226
Thread Starter 

USDA Alert: Half of U.S. Counties Designated Primary Disaster Areas; Financial Fallout “Intensifying”

Mac Slavo
August 2nd, 2012

 
       
 
 

The largest natural disaster in American history just went from bad to worse.

 

Sweltering heat and persistent drought across the country has ravaged crops to such extremes this summer that tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers are on the verge of financial ruin. The situation is so dire that it has prompted the US Department of Agriculture to declare more than half of America a disaster area.

…more than half of all U.S. counties – 1,584 in 32 states – have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that’s considered the worst in decades.

Counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming were included in Wednesday’s announcement. The USDA uses the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor to help decide which counties to deem disaster areas, which makes farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid, including low-interest emergency loans.

Source: Seattle Times

 

Without the ability to harvest their crops, many farmers are finding it difficult to make good on loans they used to fund their operations. Cattle ranchers, who can’t find hay due to the drought and whose feed prices are skyrocketing, are also feeling the pinch.

An AgWeb discussion in early July involving small business and family farmers displayed their desperation, with many commentors indicating this summer’s drought is the worst they’ve ever experienced. Others reported their crops were dying and pleaded for rain.

That rain never came, and according to industry experts and officials at the USDA, conditions are now set to intensify and worsen.

As of this week, nearly half of the nation’s corn crop was rated poor to very poor, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. About 37 percent of the U.S. soybeans were lumped into that category, while nearly three-quarters of U.S. cattle acreage is in drought-affected areas, the survey showed.

 

The potential financial fallout in the nation’s midsection appears to be intensifying. The latest weekly Mid-America Business Conditions Index, released Wednesday, showed that the ongoing drought and global economic turmoil is hurting business in nine Midwest and Plains states, boosting worries about the prospect of another recession, according to the report.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the index, said the drought will hurt farm income while the strengthening dollar hinders exports, meaning two of the most important positive factors in the region’s economy are being undermined.

Food supplies across the country – for animals and humans – are literally drying up.

This will undoubtedly lead to significant food price increases across the entire spectrum of the American diet – meat, grain, dairy, vegetables and fruit.

 

Tom Chatham of Project Chesapeake writes:

Corn and soybean meal are staples in animal feed and the rising prices and drought conditions are forcing farmers and ranchers to sell off their herds for slaughter. This will cause a glut in the market over the short term and you may see lower meat prices as a result but this will only be temporary. By next year the prices of meat will rise as the supply of livestock reaches multi decade lows. Supply and demand will push prices higher as a result.

Larry Pope, chief executive of Smithfield Foods has recently given a dire warning. “Beef is simply going to be too expensive to eat. Pork is not going to be too far behind. Chicken is catching up fast.” He also stated that government regulations are going to make things even worse. Almost 40% of the U.S corn crop goes to make ethanol fuel. Pope said, “Its almost a government- mandated disaster here, which is distressing”.

 

He warned that meat prices will rise by “significant double digits“.

For those with the ability to do so, we recommend putting away foods that your family eats regularly, and planning for at least a three to six month window of upward price pressure. Tess Pennington offers some drought preparedness tips:

The price increases will be dramatic. Expect to see fewer grocery store sales, especially those great “loss leaders” we all love to take advantage of.

Prepare for this by stocking up NOW before the major price increases hit. For instance, purchasing bulk dried corn, corn meal, and a diverse supply of bulk meats before the prices rise. Pamper your garden and get every single ounce of produce you can squeeze out of it. Buy in bulk to take advantage of lower prices and preserve food for use this winter.

 

Make adjustments in your shopping and eating habits now to weather the upcoming food crisis.

If you’ve got a freezer, load it up with as much meat as you can afford to buy. Package dry goods for the long-term and have a steady supply of beans, wheat (or flour), corn and rice on hand to dip into if prices do happen to jump. While we all hope for a rainy year in 2013 to get struggling farmers back on their feet and our prices at the grocery stores to affordable levels, taking measures today based on the credible information available to us can help save us from paying 30% or more in food costs over the course of the next several months.

While the idea of buying commodities at lower prices today may save us money, worst case scenario planning is always in order. A well stocked food pantry can help us supplement our diets for quite some time if we experience a drought similar to the Dust Bowl of the 1930′s, which was felt for three consecutive and particularly devastating years before things began to return to normal.

post #431 of 1226
Thread Starter 

Jesse's Café Américain

 

02 August 2012

A Corporatist Coup d'Etat Led By Think Tanks, Media Control, and Bribery By Lobbyists

 
 

“The mess we’re in now did not begin on Wall Street. Long before the financial collapse, the dismantlement of government regulation was well under way. All the consequences are the result of a brilliantly executed coup. This is the story of the biggest heist in American history.”


"HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe, as it exposes the real truth behind the worldwide economic collapse, tracing its origins to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.

Sound familiar? Today’s crisis and heart stopping headlines can be directly traced to Powell’s real “end game” which was business control of law and politics. Powell’s fingerprints are all over Citizens United, the fateful Supreme Court decision which gave corporations and the super rich unlimited ability to shape our elections with virtually unrestricted donations. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties over the last forty years culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class.

Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans..."

 

 

The World At War: A New Germany

 

"A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party...

We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself...

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after "the present unpleasantness" ceases.

Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution."

Henry A. Wallace, 33rd Vice President of the US,

The Danger of American Fascism

Feed your anger with fear and pride. Make the deal with the devil if you will. The time for thinking and compromise is over, the time for action is here, they will say.

But remember. The madness will serve none but itself, and its appetite for pain and misery is insatiable. After it devours your so-called enemies, it will come for you.
post #432 of 1226
Thread Starter 

 Prudens Speculari
 


Culture of Risk


Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:07 AM PDT

 

The news de jour is Knight Capital ticker $KCG. It appears their in house high frequency trading algorithm went berserk resulting in a, are you ready $440 million loss.  Just to give you an idea of the order of magnitude of this loss, Knight Capital financially had;


Q2 revenue of $289million and net income of $3.29million
Q1 revenue of $349million and net income of $33.11million


If you do a quick cocktail napkin tally Knight's quarterly net income backwards this loss wipes out ALL net income since the beginning of 2008. Yes 4.5 years of profit wiped out in 1 day and as you might have guessed, put the company's very survival at risk without a lifeline.
 
I would hazard a guess that there may be a problem with the risk reward model they use over at Knight. Acutally I wish Wall St. would do us all a favor and stop using phrases like risk management and loss prevention. Start calling it for what it is, a culture of risk  plain and simple. A get rich or die trying mentality. Who cares if you sink the ship and 1400 odd people get thrown out of work over your bonus chasing psychopathy you retire in grand fashion maybe even catch a gig at Fed, Treasury or regular on CNBC.


One of the comments I heard to today in the multitude of articles and commentary on this fiasco was something to the tune of 'Knight Capital has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the evolution of the market (high speed trading)'. Over at the Room Temperature IQ institute, of which I am still a senior fellow in good standing, we call it;


 "you live by the sword die by the sword"


This whole Knight fiasco should simply stand on its own as yet another shining example of how the financial alchemists, snake oil salesmen and Ivy league ponzi prostitutes (shall I keep going) have utterly distorted, corrupted, and perverted a market that was once the envy of the globe into a listless, lifeless shell of its former self. Be proud of your creation fellas, you deserve all the karma that's coming for what you have done. 


When the dust of your genius experiment settles I expect to see many out there, face to face, on the curb under the buttonwood tree readily employing the 4 c's of credit not to mention a handshake as from the ashes of your avarice and greed will arise the trust, honor, integrity and class that an public securities exchange should have and be.


P.S. under that new scenario, fraud and transgressions will NOT result in fines with neither admissions nor denials of wrongdoing!

post #433 of 1226
post #434 of 1226
Thread Starter 

On the Chick-fil-A Front of the Culture War

 

August 3, 2012
 

By Patrick J. Buchanan

 

 

Two weeks ago, Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta company famous for its juicy chicken sandwiches, appeared on “The Ken Coleman Show” to air his biblical belief that those who champion same-sex marriage are risking divine retribution upon us all.

“We are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” said Cathy. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”

Speaking of the company his father started after World War II, Cathy went on, “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.”

With 1,600 restaurants and 50,000 employees in 40 states, Chick-fil-A is among our fastest-growing food chains. Obedient to the commandment, “Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day,” Cathy closes his outlets on Sundays.

 

Reaction to his remarks has been little short of hysterical.

Mayors Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Thomas Menino of Boston and Edwin Lee of San Francisco said they no longer want Chick-fil-A in their cities. “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values,” says Rahm.

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray says there’s no place for “hate chicken” in the nation’s capital. Boycotts of Chick-fil-A, its expulsion from campuses and “Same-Sex Kiss Day” at local outlets are planned.

Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin have come to the defense of Cathy and Chick-fil-A, and on Wednesday scores of thousands of loyal patrons dined at outlets in solidarity.

 

What does this battle tell us about which way the tide is running in the culture war? If intolerance is a mark of rising faiths and movements, the news is not good.

For consider. Chick-fil-A does not discriminate against any patron, and after Cathy’s remarks, the company issued a statement that, as Paul Gottfried writes, reads like something out of the Department of Education.

Said Chick-fil-A’s PR office, we “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender.” Nor have charges of systematic civil rights violations in hiring or promotion been leveled against the chain.

What, then, brought down the firestorm of abuse on the company and its president as homophobic, intolerant and bigoted?

Answer: It is simply what Cathy said and what Cathy believes.

 

The homosexual rights revolutionaries can no longer tolerate the public expression of beliefs, held since the time of Christ, about the immorality of homosexuality — beliefs still taught in Christian schools and preached in Christian churches. Those who profess or promulgate such beliefs are to be shunned and subjected to social and economic sanctions.

What is astonishing is that we are not talking here about the expression of Nazi ideas, but of teachings about the spiritual and social consequences of homosexuality embedded in our country’s own Old-time Religion. In the more progressive precincts of America, the retelling of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the lessons therein, is apparently now a hate crime.

 

Remarkable is the change in society we have witnessed. It was not 10 years ago that the Supreme Court declared that states could no longer outlaw private sexual behavior between consenting adults and tossed out the anti-sodomy laws of 17 states.

In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the court had “taken sides in the culture war” and “largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda.” This decision “effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation” and makes same-sex marriage a logical result, said the justice.

Scalia was right. Consider how far we have come since.

 

While homosexual marriage has been rejected by voters in all 31 states where it has been on a ballot, it is being imposed by state legislatures and judges. Now we have the spectacle of a public caning of a private citizen for expressing religious beliefs held by perhaps 100 million American adults.

What is behind the rage, other than a hatred of Cathy’s Christian beliefs and a determination to see them stamped out?

As the individuals attacking Cathy obviously reject his biblical beliefs and consider them absurd, what are they afraid of? Mr. Cathy is not some fascist about to seize power, but a socially conservative businessman.

Indeed, not until this year has a timid Democratic Party decided to endorse homosexual marriage in its platform. In 2008, Barack Obama was still for traditional marriage.

 

If the Republican Party has not gone wobbly in the culture war, it will take up the challenge of that Democratic platform and make homosexual marriage the social issue of the fall election.

 

The GOP might just drive a wedge through the Democratic coalition and send Obama down to defeat. But if the Tampa Republicans are unwilling to fight the culture war, culture warriors should look to themselves.

post #435 of 1226
Thread Starter 

Local Governments Face Fiscal Peril, N.Y. State Comptroller Warns


Local governments across New York State are collecting less in taxes, burning through their cash reserves and running up deficits, according to a report released Wednesday by the state comptroller.


The report by the comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, cast long-term doubt on the financial health of many municipalities in the state, which are faced with anemic revenues and fewer remaining ways to cut costs.


And it offered another sobering prospect to local officials who have worried aloud in recent months that some of the state’s largest city governments may soon be unable to make ends meet.


In a telephone interview, Mr. DiNapoli said local governments were facing a “perfect storm” of financial pressures — including diminished state aid, falling property values and sluggish collections of sales tax.


It pretty much goes without saying that this story would apply to just about any state in the nation, with the odd notable exception. This story showed in the Wednesday edition of The New York Times..

post #436 of 1226
Thread Starter 

GoldenBear..for some reason I can't 'quote' your post about Canadian banks. Very interesting.

post #437 of 1226
Quote:
Originally Posted by stoneranger View Post

GoldenBear..for some reason I can't 'quote' your post about Canadian banks. Very interesting.

Stone, I've never used the 'quote' feature before now. I tried to 'quote' the Cdn. bank post and can't do so either.  Dunno why not. No biggie.

 

It looks as though Cdn. banks received 7% of the Cdn. economy from the FED, the Bank of Canada, and the Cdn Mortgage and Housing Commission (CMHC).  The Cdn. gov't has claimed that it was not a bailout but rather liquidity support.  And how much liquidity support has been extended to the average Canuck?  Zero, zilch, bupkis.

 

I think that the consensus opinion that Cdn. banks were sound began with the World Economic Forum (WEF) which ranked Cdn. banks as being the best in the world for three years running according to the WEF 2010-2011 Competitiveness Report.  But the WEF members are merely large international companies. We've seen many examples of such companies being completely wrong at times.  Strategic Partners of the WEF include Accenture (formerly Arthur Anderson), Barclays, JPM, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.  

 

=================================================

 

At the time of the MF Global collapse, I asked some of the Cdn. financial institutions, of which I'm a customer, to send me a one line email saying that the purchases I made with 100% cash and no margin were not being used as collateral and that my purchases were mine, and mine alone, owned entirely free and clear. I did this to avoid the pervasive re-hypothecation problem which still exists post MFG collapse.  I received all sorts of verbal re-assurances ... but nothing in writing.  That's not hard evidence of risk, but it's a small red flag. Most / all of the representatives I spoke with didn't understand the problem.  I explained that it's similar to the rep. going into a clothes shop and paying for trousers with a few twenties, putting the trousers on and leaving.  In the process of leaving, security stops him and orders him to remove and hand over the trousers because, as can be seen in the fine print on the back of the receipt, the trousers were part of store inventory and part of collateral for a loan.  So the rep. is left pantsless, with his shirt tails fluttering in the breeze from the air conditioner.  I got chuckles and nothing in writing.  Buyer beware. (Or possibly, buyer be afraid, be very afraid).

post #438 of 1226
Thread Starter 

Systemic Upheaval, Economic Recovery Vs Propaganda Reality Check

Aug 02, 2012 - 11:49 AM

 

By: Jim_Willie_CB

Stock-Markets

 

Diamond Rated - Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleSome extremely powerful differentials in power are setting themselves up, in a manner never seen before in modern history. Those who dismiss the uniqueness of the situation are those who continually are surprised by events as they unfold. The pressure features the managers of the system, complete with corruption and fraud with official coverups in a never-ending sequence of crime scenes, pitted against the forces of justice and fair markets. Not a single fair market exists in USDollar terms. In pure Orwellian style, every single market has a US-based or London-based financial engineer at a control panel doing duty in price intervention. The Western defenders of the syndicate do not wish for the price structure to reflect the reality of physical shortage or the bounty of paper-based surplus, for the currencies to reflect true toxic value, and for the discovery price systems to reflect the raids of private accounts. The system is broken, and the pressure is building.

 

When young in school, the principles of entropy and enthalpy were introduced in chemistry classes. The ENTROPY was taught as the thermodynamic property toward equilibrium and dissipation. In layman’s terms it was the tendency for a system to seek greater randomness. Sometimes the dissipation comes from the scattered heat, but often the spread of physical items. Like smoke from a fireplace to spread about the neighborhood, like for the odor of nail polish remover to dissipate about the house or porch, like for the toys from a children’s playbox to relocate in every corner of the house, like for pet mice to scatter from a shoebox in a bedroom closet, like for the heat from a car engine to spread across the driveway and around the yard. Extend toward information to spread on grapevines about the office building.
 

The ENTHALPY was taught as a measure of the total energy of a thermodynamic system. It includes the internal energy, and the amount of energy required to contain a system by displacing its environment when establishing its volume and pressure. Enthalpy is a thermodynamic potential, which is layman’s terms can be thought of as the tendency for an object or system to seek its lowest potential energy. Like a tree toppling in the wind, like a group of items moving from the top of the stairwell to the bottom, like tattered roof parts falling to the ground, like wall ornaments hitting the floor during a storm or tremor. Extend toward a market removing its props, where all channels of data enter the room to effect change toward an equilibrium. Transfer the concept the the financial system. The lower potential energy comes from the extraordinary coils and loaded springs that hold the artificial price structure in place, even the information devices that distort truth. Enthalpy is more recently defined as the amount of heat content used or released in a system at constant pressure. Notice the rising heat within the current distorted financial system. Enthalpy is usually expressed as the change in enthalpy. The pressure in the financial markets is building. Heat is soon to be released in great volumes. The victim will be the USDollar, the USEconomy, the USTreasury Bond, and the price structures all held with great artificial forces. The system seeks the familiar randomness of fair equilibrium-based structures, not the 8am daily whack to the gold price from the London fix, not the regular 10am or 3pm rescue to the S&P500 stock index, not the regular ceiling placed on a 1% upleg in the gold price from capping efforts. The most prominent energy relief valve is the USTBond 10-year yield, which had moved below the 1.5% mark comfortably, as the Jackass forecasted. Its move toward 1.0% would signal systemic failure, as capital needs would give way to the vortex of the Black Hole of USTBonds described in May.

 

Consider in brief terms the many extreme conflicts and pressure points. None of these existed five or ten or fifteen years ago, yet all are somehow considered part of the New Normal landscape. Give credit to Mohamed El-Erian for his contribution to Orwellian logic, the new spokesman for established normality and revisionist equilibriumn stasis. Nothing normal here, even if declared by the Harvard escapee. The conflicts and pressures come from every conceivable financial arena and marbled office, every nook and cranny.

 

EURO CENTRAL BANK VS MARGIN CALLS

The European Central Bank is in a pickle. The opened their windows to accept all manner of toxic paper as collateral for newer fresher toxic paper. Market forces reduce the value of the sovereign bonds. The stream of debt downgrades is making life difficult within their chambers. The pressure rises for acquiring cash funds, as the resistance grows toward fair pricing of garbage paper bearing ink and signatures adorned in fancy calligraphy. The debt downgrades force many borrowers at the EuroCB window into a corner. They must deal with margin calls in the same way speculators do at the COMEX on futures positions. Thus the natural tendency toward lower potential energy. So conclude the ECB is nothing more than a purveyor of leveraged toilet paper with ornate trim, whose officers have dropped their pants, yet few notice. What holds constant is the utterly ghastly odor emanating from the window, where greater dispersion is underway of fecal effluence. It will end ugly, as the ECB will simply dispense paper currency to hold the system upright and to avoid collapse. They long ago became a Weimar apprentice. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

EU TROIKA BANKERS VS PIIGS PEOPLE

The battle between bankers and people has been clear for over two years. The Greek Model is stark and clear. The bankers wish to redeem their toxic sovereign bonds by whatever means. The European Commission of babblers from Brussels has not shown any restraint, despite their forum being discredited as an empty chamber of voices. The finance ministers continue to talk a good game but with nothing under their belts to impress eager hands from the private sector in search of satisfaction, even a cheap thrill from a quick redemption. The Euro Central Bank has conspired to accumulate a mountain of worthless bonds in its basement, sure to disappoint their masters in the castles. Their balance sheets are running negative in the $trillions. On the other side is the people, the depositors at banks, the taxpayers to fund the government offices, even if their disheveled outposts resemble a tsunami on the day after in Athens. The stock investors and bond investors have been ravaged by the Troika who pay homage to the bankers with one vacant bailout after another. My forecast 12 to 18 months ago was that the bailouts would continue until the streets witnessed protest and violence. That has come. The pressures build for public release of anger. The dissipation is of people to the streets, out of their confined offices which no longer seem to harbor the function of added value in production terms. Random violence has grown common. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

LIBOR BIG BANKS VS LILLIPUTIAN VICTIMS

The LIBOR scandal is best described as an assault on the center of Western banking, where the discovery process as part of justice will pry open every conceivable filing cabinet, computer hard drive, email box, and contract in a drawer. Permission is granted to search. The process will relieve the pressures upon distorted markets and inherent collusion. The brush fires will extend from the basic LIBOR forest to the narco money laundering fields to the Allocated Gold account basements to the raided GLD fund vaults. The extended brush fires will be enabled by the dispersion forces known to the crowbar. As the light is directed to the scummy basements and putrid laundry fields, the potential exists for serious systemic change as the pillars of syndicate controls are slowly removed. That process will come by means of erosion, faltering, and dismantlement. The other side is chockfull of victims, the lists becoming gradually clear. Any recipient of a swap contract is a loser. Any underwriter to an adjustable rate mortgage is a loser. Any financial engineer who re-geared complex machinery via swaps is a loser. They will all line up in lawsuits, sure to capture attention. The gaggle of class action cases will be just as important as the collection of high profile cases.

 

The armada of smaller victims will form like Lilliputians to tie down the oversized Too Big To Fail banks. Oh, how the Jackass despises that moniker! It means too big to control, too big to enforce the law, too big to succeed, standing as the billboard of failure on the flipside to the Fascist Business Model. Pressure will be relieved and lower potential energy will be realized as the big banks suffer massive lawsuit awards as pent-up grievances are addressed. Their control of the system cannot continue under such circumstances. The greater de-centralization of bank power will be the manifestation of much higher randomness. Systems might seek some concentration of power, but not like what the West has formed. The banks will eventually serve a noble but boring cause, of acting like utilities in bill payments, cash dispersal, and currency conversion. They will also manage credit dispensation. The age of the investment banker will revert to regional offices. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

US BANKS VS LONDON BANKS VS EURO BANKS

The first real evidence of bankers from one region attacking the bankers from another came not from the LIBOR scandal, but from inside word about Deutsche Bank. My banker source from Central Europe informed that in the wake of Josef Ackerman being deposed as CEO without ceremony, the once venerable bank has turned state’s evidence and is working closely with the Intl Court of Hague, the Interpol special fraud division, and other key investigators. The DBank officials wish to avoid prison time as they assist in attacks on London bankers and New York bankers for multi-$billion criminal activity. The new sheriff from the East is busy at work and has lined up some formidable snitches. The same source mentioned how Diamond of Barclays would cooperate in London to avoid prosecution, but he would be eaten by US wolves. He mentioned how DBank in Germany would avoid prosecution in the homeland but would be devoured by the US wolves. The stage is set for vast attacks, retaliation, and exposures. The result will be the bankers from all three camps decimated, discredited, and scattered to the wolves and their thirst for justice. They will tear each other apart with grand gestures laden in attack, appearing as self-preservation.

 

Back in May, the Jackass wrote about how the Wall Street bankers would undermine Europe in order to deflect blame, as they would accelerate the sovereign bond bust in Europe in order to redirect attention from the USTBond bubble and wecked machinery to support it. That process is moving along as scheduled. What follows will be a grand amplification though, as each camp betrays the others in a battle for survival. Irony will win, as each will deliver mortal blows to the others, leaving all three camps in ruin. The public will not be aware of the source of informational grenades and computer file howitzers. The pressures between camps cannot be ameliorated by subsidiaries of foreign origin. The loyalties will be tested. Immunity offered by one group of authorities will not count for anything as the other authorities will ignore such deals and proceed with deeply damaging assaults. The jurisdiction lines will become battle lines in a banker war already begun. Defensive maneuvers will deliver deep wounds across the oceans. All camps will lose their banker helm positions of strength. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

EASTERN TRADE PARTNERS VS USDEPT TREASURY

A battle for trade standards has been building for five years. The dominant industrial producers in the East, the developing nations, have been gaining numbers and building strength. They oppose the USDollar standard, which funnels all flow through the mighty swift gates of US control. A recent important event saw the Chinese offer their $3 trillion in reserves, mostly held in USTBonds, as a core to a trade fund for usage by the many partners in global trade. The US is left handcuffed, unable to respond. The bank bond fraud, the unbridled USFed hyper monetary inflation, the heavy handed usage of banks as weapons (see SWIFT bank code tactic), the favored treatment by the inflitrated IMF and World Bank, these all invite retaliation. The pressure builds to conform to the USDollar reserve standard or face isolation if not military rebuke. The East rallies in response around the new global leader in China. They are developing a new trade settlement system. It is ready for prime time usage. They await the collapse of the USDollar flagship running aground in the troubled bubbly USTBond waters, contaminated by the acidic sovereign bonds, weighed down by arrogance. A vast differential in potential energy has set up a very dangerous global situation. The US$-based system is on its last legs, yet half the Western population cannot see the clear message.

 

The billboards are too dominated by the corrupted press, which spews a banker message of resolve, recovery, and solutions. The chief negotiator and medical administrator remains Jack Daniels with his staff from Southern Comfort. They solve nothing. As the de-centralization of trade settlement becomes the norm, the dispersion of power centers will exert its powerful opposing forces. It will be a remarkable sight. The US might actually be left out almost completely from the process, and suffer walking through the doorway into the Third World. The Fascist Business Model has a portal to the Third World which is not well understood, as inefficiency and corruption push elements on the pathway. The USGovt officials will be powerless to stop the movement. The Chinese will be unfettered in pursuing the non-US$ solution. It is only natural to seek water from many alternate storage centers, to channel from the most available local supply locations, not just the USFed and the US big banks. The relief of vast differential forces is near. The Jackass has called it a Paradigm Shift in past work. Few comprehend it. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

USFED QE3 VS FINANCIAL MARKET BEGGERS

Since 2008, a queer pathetic phenomenon has shown itself. The broken financial markets and their captains of futility seek constant and regular aid (if not sustenance) from the official offices. The call for more Quantitative Easing with its attendant destructive bond purchases in direct monetization initiative are heard more frequently. No calls for the system to remedy itself through proper pricing and seeking equlibrium due to supply versus demand, during a vast liquidation process. The desperation is evident and thick. Whenever the S&P500 stock index falters too much, the calls are heard louder for more intervention. Heaven forbid the move to proper pricing of assets, or even of the USDollar arbiter. The fund managers, the big investors, even the Wall Street office managers appear in regular pop-up interviews calling for urgent USFed bond monetization, to feed the badly needed liquidity infusions. Two or three years ago the conversation centered upon the many alphabet soup facilities devised by the USFed to accommodate the liquidity needs. Nowadays the facilities have folded like tributaries into the primary channel of QE. Little does the investment community realize that QE was followed by QE2, and Operation Twist was actually QE3, which morphed into QE4, while the entire nest of central bankers engaged in Global QE. In fact, the pathetic fact of financial life is that QE to Infinity is the working theme. That or collapse.

In my view, QE to Infinity assures the destruction. It is an implicit admission of c

entral bank failure brought about by debt saturation. The group of major central bankers has failed in full view and in front of governmental panels. Chairman Bernanke is a bagholder. The modern nobility of economists is unspeakably incompetent, having lost their chapters on capital formation, having replaced them with chapters on controls and hidden intervention tools, with an appendix of banking system diagrams that appears like a perpetual motion machine (or vast money laundering system). The pressures are building for the hidden tools to work their way to the surface, much like pus does from a giant boil on the skin. The toxic condition of the banking system has proved to be prevalent acne on the body economic. The system strives toward more equilibrium in market price structures. In my view the stock market and bond market and currency market for the United States should be priced 50% lower across the board. Panic is nigh it seems. The lower potential energy from a lower priced asset structure is sought. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

JPM INTEREST RATE SWAPS VS USTBOND CAVE-IN

In May the vast Interest Rate Swap structures were given attention in Jackass analysis. The USTBond tower cannot grow to the sky anymore than the Tower of Babel could in ancient times. Some irony must be pointed out, as the London Summer Olympic games chose to embrace some ancient Mesapotamian symbols in the music and hill props for the opening ceremonies. It was the established bankers issuing a FU flipped bird to the public. They are under assault, yet defiant and apparently in control. The Interest Rate Swaps permit the JPMorgan shop of horrors to apply props to the USTBond tower. Each month the USGovt debt grows higher. Each month the pressure on the IRSwap machinery grows, eventually to the point of breakdown. Imagine a crane operator who must climb to his cabin in the sky, where every six months the height of the cabin increases. Whereas one year ago the cabin was 150 stories high, six months ago it was 180 stories high, and today it is 210 stories high. If the dizzying altitude does not inhibit the crane, it is the difficulty is twisting its cantilevered arms to drop the materials. High winds are the new normal. So are collapses the new normal. Notice the increasing attention given to the IRSwaps.

 

The scrutiny of Morgan Stanley financial books and strategic positions is the untold story. The army of 900 highly paid financial accountants and analysts will soon reveal their verdict on health. Word will leak out, seeking greater dispersion along the information laws of thermodynamics. The pressure mounts, as the reality of actual solvent condition bounces off the strained leveraged machinery to keep it all in place, and to maintain a front of strength. The machinery cannot win. The tower will fall. The cracks are showing in the props. As my excellent banker source said in early June, a wrench was tossed in the JPMorgan machinery, and the assured collapse of the derivative mechanisms will proceed until its natural conclusion. The quarterly statements from the big US banks read more and more like an obituary, but their stocks trade against the painted expectations without mention of the word failure. The gears are breaking, but only those with ears can hear. The cables are snapping, ubt only those with eyes can see. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

JPM GOLD SHORT GAME VS COMEX RIG & GLD RAIDS

JPMorgan serves as a symbol for the heavy controls, the corrupted devices, and the rigged game. They do not act alone, but rather serve as the visible syndicate fortress, replete with obnoxious arrogance. The gold market is the center of the corrupted control mechanisms. If the gold price were permitted to sit at a more accurate, more justified, more equitable price of $2500 per ounce right here, right now, it is an absolute guarantee that the USDollar would sink in shame below the 70 level in the DX index. It is an absolute guarantee that the USTBond would be offered above the 5% yield level amidst hue and cry. It is an absolute guarantee that the US-based price inflation index would be above the 5% level also, complete with screams of pain. What JPMorgan does in order to maintain the price structures, much like a master maestro, is to raid Allocated Gold accounts while at the same time raid the GLD exchange traded fund gold inventories. Their routine naked shorting in the COMEX arena is inadequate, as their strategy requires some physical metal even if stolen or seized or captured. They repeat the process in the silver market for Allocated Silver accounts and the SLV exchange traded fund inventories for silver.

 

A source for Bill Murphy of the GATA organization has told him that the powerful move in precious metals prices that took place between August 2010 and April 2011 was a direct result of certain restraints placed upon JPMorgan and their interference with the Gold & Silver markets. The story was never told properly. My view at the time was of colossal Chinese purchases overwhelming the system. The system has had the capability to put on a seeming infinite load of naked shorts. The JPMorgan machinery has actually doubled its naked short position in the last two years. Nothing stops them, surely not regulators in their pocket. Well, except the natural forces toward greater randomness and lower potential energy. A great deal of attention has come to the bar inventory of GLD and SLV funds, in addition to the rules that guide the raids from their back door via stock share shorting practices. It will be interesting to see if Eric Sprott will acquire as source for new silver bullion for his Silver Trust the actual inventory from the SLV fund itself. What a coup that would be!

 

Internal word from the Monaco source who spoke with Murphy indicates that a repeat of August 2010 is soon to occur. JPMorgan is out of time, and their illegal devices will be halted. The event for release of the Gold & Silver prices could occur again in August. The actual enforcement is not clear. But be assured that forces pitted against evil are involved. The JPMorgan machinery might be stalled in ways unclear even to those informed within the gold community. Confirmation of the Murphy source has come from a highly reliable Jackass source. An exciting move is coming for the precious metals markets. Any delay to the revelations of criminal action in the gold market by JPMorgan will be a result of threats and intimidation by the big bank against the whistle blowers. My main hope is that as the price rises, the exposure of corrupt controls is also made more available for public view. The people must see what has occurred to both the gold market and the currency market. The potential energy is growing to incredible levels, as a corrupt lid has been placed on the true money of the world for seveal millenia, gold. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

USECONOMIC RECOVERY VS PROPAGANDA REALITY CHECK

The final example of cumulative strain concerns the USEconomy. At the start of the new year, it seemed a political propaganda plank was trotted out. Obviously, it was laughable on its face. The supposed recovery is not occurring. The constant deterioration of the economy is the constant of reality, much as described without hesitation or restraint by the Jackass. No amount of political need for continuation of an incumbent administration can compensation for the pressures of reality and exposure to the altered markets, even to the vastly deteriorating USEconomy. The national economy is approaching a freefall that later will produce a collapse. The many indexes like the Philly Fed, other regional indexes, the Institute for Supply Management, retail sales, and capital investment all look dismal. The sources of the problem are too numerous to cite, but they include a broken investment bank system, an insolvent banking system, a ruined bond market for all sovereigns, and debt beyond saturation levels. The true refuge is Gold & Silver, the constant over the ages, which will return to the core center of banking and trade. The justice meted out will be trade systems dictating to banking reserve systems, or else face obsolescence. The pressures of reality for citizens living their lives, raising their families, and managing their households, will continue. They know of the mess facing the nation, and tolerate on a reduced level the propaganda. The sitting administration has not bothered with the story of recovery anymore, but Wall Street does in laughable fashion. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over.

 

SYSTEMIC UPHEAVAL

Such upheaval is known by many names. The system is turned upside down. Those in office face the nasty consequence of the more universal legal system at work. Some will seek asylum in foreign nations, including the old refuge of Paraguay. History from the 1940 era repeats itself, since the evildoers merely found rooted sanctuary in New York, WashingtonDC, and London, if truth be known. About five years ago, a remarkable fact came to light, about fractures within most agencies, departments, and ruling bodies within the United States. Deep divisions grew as cracks spread across the power structure. My best description has been of Loyalists versus Constitutionalists in the layout of the struggle. The Loyalists had devotion and showed fealty to the Syndicate in charge, with the power of men prevailing over the rule of law. Their calling card has been the endless wars and the ample flows of ill-gotten gains where the underworld dominates, the cancerous banking system replete with bond fraud and contract fraud perpetrated with impunity and official protection, the vast monopoly of contraband and its flows into financial structures, the extensive application of control mechanisms to protect the system and to sustain it. The deep divisions are not resolvable without tumult and upheaval. The hope and prayer is for an orderly transition without the loss of live by innocent masses, nor the undue loss of wealth by the ignorant masses.

 

The locations of the divisions include the USDept Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon Chiefs of Staff, the USDept Justice, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Congressional finance committees, and more. Many of the divisions extend from conflicts between elected officials and appointed officials. Refer to elected representatives versus the embedded syndicate. The USDept Treasury for instance does not have significant turnover from one election to the next. In fact, when a new Treasury Secretary is to be appointed and approved, the syndicate message is to have in place someone with experience, to avoid on-the-job training. Translate to mean a syndicate henchman to continue the nefarious inner works. Numerous scattered reports have come from deep within the power centers of the United States. A reaction has come against the steady stream of executive decrees. The new sheriff in town from the East is taking charge with a team of international cops. Too many violations at the top have occurred. The claim that the United States is a beacon of freedom is much like Vladimir Lenin proclaiming a paradise for the proletariat in Russia. The US leadership is in the process of being exposed. The ugly rancid underbelly will be in view soon on the global stage.

Many quiet leaders are apalled at the course of events, who sit in offices that never receive much spotlight, but which harbor much power. The forces toward greater randomness go hand in hand with the movement toward free spirits. The forces toward reduced potential energy go hand in hand with the direction toward de-centralization of power. The entire broken system revolves around a toxic USDollar and its fierce defense by dark powers. Their failure is evident in the 0% official interest rate managed by force by the USFed central bank, together with the bust of sovereign European bonds. The USTreasury Bond ultra-low rates serve as a mockery to the asset pricing system. The strain with wars and press support add pressures from deep within the system. The conflict and pressure will grow until the pressure spills over. When it does, a new global system will be in effect, based upon Gold. The shiny inert yellow metal is the fair arbiter of trade, the true store of value, the timeless object of money. Gold has often showed its value during times of upheaval and radical systemic change. These are dangerous times, especially for those who refuse to heed the warnings. Gold is the refuge and core of stability, as the thermodynamic forces show themselves.

post #439 of 1226
Thread Starter 

Decline of the Empire

 

08/03/2012

 

post #440 of 1226

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/242227-with-defeat-of-cybersecurity-bill-obama-weighs-executive-order-option

 

This country's going to hell because the president is now a dictator. Congress doesn't mean anything and neither does the voice of the people, Obama's just going to use executive order to pass whatever he wants.

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