As the Fantasy Dies: “Panic Will Ensue”

Mac Slavo
SHTF PlanSeptember 14, 2013
The US government may have funded studies and propaganda material which says that people will not panic, loot or go hungry in the midst of a crisis, but the fact of the matter is that history has shown otherwise.
Image: Northern Rock bank run.
It’s often the case that, despite countless warnings from those considered to be fringe lunatics, the vast majority of the populace is blindsided by horrific, paradigm-altering events. The signs are almost always there, but people simply refuse to believe it can happen to them. ”It” always happens somewhere else, and we get to watch it play out on television from the comfort of our living rooms.
But, as financial guru and strategic investor Bill Fleckenstein points out in the following highly insightful interview with King World News, America’s fantasy of unlimited borrowing, consumption and confidence will soon be revealed for the sham that it really is. And when the masses realize what has happened – that the government and Federal reserve are trapped and the “great unwind” finally begins – it will lead to nothing short of widespread panic on a level never before seen.
And this time, it’ll be right outside of our front doors.
Right now, people continue to believe that the same idiots that created all of these problems, namely the central banks, are going to somehow get us out of it with the exact same policies that got us into it, only at a much higher (aggressive) level of pursuing those policies.
We’ve had so much artificial stimulus, and we’ve misallocated so much capital.  And over the couple of decades we’ve been doing this we’ve kind of broken the economy and the financial system.  So, I don’t think you can worry about what’s on the other side.  We haven’t even gotten people to understand the charade that we have.
What the masses have done over and over again is to believe one more time that it’s all going to be OK … We are in a unique moment in history.  The whole world is printing confetti, and (yet) people seem to think that’s going to work out fine.
The longer you keep pursuing insane policies, the more you pile (them) on top of each other, the worse it gets … So, when the Fed can’t print money and we have to deal with this, it’s going to be brutal.
The fact of the matter is Americans, in the aggregate, don’t see any reason to own metal.  They believe in the lunatics at the Fed, and the rest of the Western world is that way (as well).  Obviously Asia doesn’t quite see it that way.  But it’s understandable why the average American doesn’t buy gold — If they believe in a fantasy, why would they need it?
As the fantasy dies, then they will understand the need to own gold.
Via King World News: Full Interview
As an investment adviser and strategist, Fleckenstein obviously focuses his dialogue on the financial and economic, and in this case the asset that would protect his investors from the disaster that is coming. This is not to say, however, that he is solely recommending gold as the only crisis-proof investment.
Read between the lines and if you understand the need to own gold in this environment it means you also understand why precious metals will soar in value during a crisis.
Likewise, you would no doubt understand that should gold and silver skyrocket in price, so too will other essential assets.
When the US dollar is crushed by our foreign creditors and our government can no longer support the 100 million Americans dependent on electronic government benefits to put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads, it is then that the whole system as we have come to know it goes into meltdown, complete with panic, looting, and emergency intervention under the banner of martial law.
Gold and silver are just one of numerous asset classes you should stockpile in your preparedness portfolio. A well developed crisis plan should also include other key investments such as long-term food storage, home defense tools, arable land andbarterable trade skills.
As those around you come to the realization that their world has been built on pillars of fantasy, commerce comes to a standstill and stability turns to pandemonium, those with the foresight to have insulated themselves from the worst will have, at the very least, a fighting chance.
Prepare for panic. It’s coming.

U.S., Russia reach agreement on seizure of Syrian chemical weapons arsenal

Washington Post
September 14, 2013

GENEVA — The United States and Russia agreed Saturday on an outline for the identification and seizure of Syrian chemical weapons and said Syria must turn over an accounting of its arsenal within a week.
The agreement will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow for sanctions or other consequences if Syria fails to comply, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said.

Kerry said that the first international inspection of Syrian chemical weapons will take place by November, with destruction to begin next year.

Senior administration officials had said Friday the Obama administration would not press for U.N. authorization to use force against Syria if it reneges on any agreement to give up its chemical weapons.
The Russians had made clear in talks here between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kerry that the negotiations could not proceed under the threat of a U.N. resolution authorizing a military strike. Russia also wanted assurances that a resolution would not refer Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the International Criminal Court for possible war-crimes prosecution.

President Obama has said that the unilateral U.S. use of force against Syria for a chemical attack last month remains on the table. But consideration of that action, already under challenge by a skeptical Congress, has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Geneva talks.

The discussions here began this week following a Russian proposal Monday, quickly agreed to by Assad, to place Syria’s chemical arsenal under international control and eventually destroy it.

Kerry and Lavrov, negotiating behind closed doors with teams of disarmament experts, have said little about the talks that began Thursday. But administration officials in Washington provided some details on the condition that they not be identified or quoted directly.

The officials insisted that any agreement must be verifiable and include consequences for non-compliance. Short of a threatened use of force, it is not clear what those consequences would be.

The question of U.N. authorization for using force in Syria came up less than 24 hours after the Russians first made their proposal. France quickly drafted a resolution that threatened to consider “further necessary measures” — code words for military force — if Syria makes a deal and then breaks it. The draft, negotiated with the United States and Britain, was met with public statements from Lavrov and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin that they would not negotiate under threat.
Read the entire article

CIA Begins Delivering Arms to Syrian Rebels

Antiwar.com
September 12, 2013

On Brink of Diplomatic Deal, US Steps Up Weapons Delivery


Having lost the battle for a Congressional authorization for war and now facing a Russian offer of Syrian disarmament as an alternative, all the public signs are that diplomacy is threatening to break out with Syria, and there will be no international intervention.
Behind the scenes, US meddling continues apace in Syria’s civil war, and the CIA has now begun delivering lethal weapons and combat vehicles to rebel factions in hope of turning the tide of the conflict in favor of more nominally pro-US factions.
The US has been threatening the move for months, and has been engaged in intensive training of rebel fighters in neighboring Jordan. The fighters have reportedly begun to cross into Syria, with an eye on attacking the capital city of Damascus.
The State Department has presented the arms as a way to improve not only the fighting ability of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), but its stability as well. The reality, however, is that much of the rebellion remains opposed to the FSA, and that faction will be either buying the loyalty of al-Qaeda fighters with US arms, or fighting against them.

Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran

Foreign Policy
September 12, 2013

The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America's military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen,Foreign Policy has learned.In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.

Laurence Kotlikoff: "The US Fiscal Gap Is $200 Trillion... Our Country Is broke"

Zero Hedge
September 11, 2013
Boston University's Larry Kotlikoff


While it is easy and often enjoyable to distract oneself with daily drudgery such as who will bomb whom (if not so enjoyable for those on the receiving end of said bombs), the key word in the sentence is just one: "distract" and as Kyle Bass pointed out correctly, the best, and most "economy-boosting" of all distractions ends up with the proverbial red button being pushed. Sadly, with an economy which Boston University's Larry Kotlikoff defines as "arguably in worst fiscal shape than any other developed country", there is much to be distrated by and is why we correctly predicted in July that the Syrian false flag event is only weeks or months away (turned out to be precisely one month). So for those who have no desire to prove the axiom that ignorance is bliss, or to have their heads stuck in the sand, here is a must read interview between Goldman's Hugo Scott-Gall and the iconoclast economist who, in a vast minority, calls it like it is.
The highlights:
  • I estimate the US fiscal gap at US$200 tn, 17 times the reported US$12 tn in official debt in the hands of the public. And this incorporates this year’s tax increases and spending sequestration. What would it take to come up with US$200 tn in present value? The answer is tax hikes or spending cuts, or a combination of the two, amounting to 10 percent of GDP, starting immediately and continuing indefinitely. To do so via spending cuts, alone, would require an immediate and permanent 36% cut in all non-interest spending. To do so via tax hikes, alone, would need an immediate and permanent 55% increase in all federal taxes. Hence, a description of the fiscal adjustments made over the last year could be “too little too late.” In terms of generational accounting, were we to leave our kids and future descendants to cover the entire fiscal gap, they’d face tax rates over their lifetimes around twice as high as those we face.
  • The US is arguably in worst fiscal shape than any other developed country. But Greece, the UK, and Japan are close runner ups. As mentioned, our fiscal gap is 10% of the present value of our future GDP. In Germany it’s around 5%, while Canada, Australia and New Zealand are close to zero. Even Italy's long-term fiscal gap is just half of the US’s, yet Italian government bonds sell at a much lower price than US government bonds simply because people don't understand the pension reforms that Italy has rolled out or that Italy has much better control of its healthcare spending.
  • Our country is broke. It’s not broke in 50 years or 30 years or 10 years. It’s broke today. Six decades of take as you go has led us to a precipice. That’s why almost the entire economics profession is talking as one at www.theinformact.org. Economists from all political persuasions are collectively sending our government a warning about what is, effectively, a nuclear economic bomb. I’ve been around economics for a long time. I’ve never seen such a strong response to a proposed Congressional bill. This is the profession sending a statement to the President and Congress that’s not unlike the warning physicists sent via Einstein to Roosevelt about the bomb.
And with that, here is the full interview:
Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software.
Hugo Scott-Gall: You argue that the official debts that countries report are economically meaningless numbers. Please explain this?
Larry Kotlikoff: Every dollar the government takes in or pays out can be labelled in economically arbitrary ways. For example, the government can call our social security contributions “taxes” or “official borrowing.” And it can call our social security benefits “transfer payments” or “return of principal or principal plus interest.” There is nothing in the math of economic theory that pins down the government’s word choice and each labelling convention will produce a different reported time path of debt, deficits, taxes, and spending. At their heart, these measures are linguistic and convey nothing about a country’s underlying fiscal policy – only about what the government decides to put on and keep off the books.
Uncle Sam is very powerful, but he has only one set of vocal cords. We are all free to label past, present, and projected future government receipts and outlays any way we want, as long as our labelling convention is internally consistent (e.g., if we label government receipts as borrowing, we need to label other outlays as debt service). Consequently, we can produce any past, current, and projected future measure of the government’s debt and other fiscal quantities. With the right past labelling, we can say the current debt to GDP ratio is miles higher than Rogoff-Reinhart’s critical 90 percent. Or, we can argue that the debt to GDP ratio is hugely negative. The Economics labelling problem tells us that what we measure as the size of standard fiscal variables is language- or frame of reference-dependent. This is fundamentally no different from physics. The measurement of time and distance is not uniquely pinned down by the math. What time you report and how you measure the size of physical objects depends on one’s frame of reference (direction and rate of speed through space) or language, if you will.
Here’s another way to see my point. My mother gets checks from the US Treasury all the time. They all look the same except for their amounts. Some are for social security and some are for holding Treasury bonds. But Uncle Sam is discounting the amounts coming on the Treasuries and including that in his official debt measure, while ignoring the amounts coming for social security benefits. Using economically meaningless fiscal indicators to guide fiscal policy is like driving in NY with a map of LA. If you aren’t careful, you’ll drive into the East River.
Hugo Scott-Gall: If conventional fiscal measures are, as you say, content free, what should we measure?
Larry Kotlikoff: Every dynamic mathematical model of the economy that economists write down (and thousands are being constructed each year) includes what’s called the government’s intertemporal budget constraint. This constraint simply requires that the present value of government outlays, no matter how labelled, equals the present value of government receipts, no matter how labelled. In this over-time government balance sheet, the outlays represent the liabilities and the receipts represent the assets. If the value in the present of the liabilities exceeds the value in the present of the receipts, the government’s balance sheet isn’t balanced, with the difference between the liabilities and assets call the fiscal gap. The fiscal gap doesn’t suffer from an economics labelling problem for a simple reason - it puts everything on the books. The fiscal gap is the true measure of a government’s debt. And once one determines its size, one can assess the impact on our children of paying it off if it’s all dumped into their laps. This is part of a companion analysis, called Generational Accounting, which I initiated in the late 80s together with my co-author, UC Berkeley economist Alan Auerbach and my then student, Jagaadesh Gokhale (now at the Cato Institute).
Hugo Scott-Gall: How big is the US fiscal gap and what does US generational accounting show?
Larry Kotlikoff: The CBO will release its 2013 long-term fiscal projection, called the Alternative Fiscal Forecast (an alternative to the Extended Budget Forecast produced for Congress) this Fall. But I estimate the US fiscal gap at US$200 tn, 17 times the reported US$12 tn in official debt in the hands of the public. And this incorporates this year’s tax increases and spending sequestration. What would it take to come up with US$200 tn in present value? The answer is tax hikes or spending cuts, or a combination of the two, amounting to 10 percent of GDP, starting immediately and continuing indefinitely. To do so via spending cuts, alone, would require an immediate and permanent 36% cut in all non-interest spending. To do so via tax hikes, alone, would need an immediate and permanent 55% increase in all federal taxes. Hence, a description of the fiscal adjustments made over the last year could be “too little too late.” In terms of generational accounting, were we to leave our kids and future descendants to cover the entire fiscal gap, they’d face tax rates over their lifetimes around twice as high as those we face.
Hugo Scott-Gall: How do we get better fiscal book keeping?
Larry Kotlikoff: At my encouragement and that of The Can Kicks Back – a non-profit in DC run by twenty-somethings fighting for generational equity, Senators Kaine and Coons – two Democrats – and Senators Thune and Portman – two Republicans – have just co-introduced THE INFORM ACT. The Bill, which I largely drafted in consultation with Alan Auerbach, will require three agencies in the US government (the CBO, the OMB and the GAO) to do fiscal gap analysis as well as generational accounting on an ongoing basis. To date, 12 Nobel Laureates in economics, over 500 of the nation’s other leading economists, George Shultz, the Former Secretary of the Treasury, State and Labor and the OMB Director, and other prominent government officials, and thousands of non-economists have endorsed the bill at www.theinformact.org. I’m hoping everyone in the country will go to the site, endorse the bill, and spread the word.
Hugo Scott-Gall: How do you recommend solving this issue?
Larry Kotlikoff: Measuring our fiscal gap and disclosing its implications for ourselves and our children is just step one in addressing our fiscal issues. What’s really needed is the adoption of radical, but generationally fair reforms to our tax, social security, and healthcare system. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. When a patient needs heart surgery, radical surgery is often the safe option. America needs radical policy surgery. I lay out postcard length reforms of out tax, social security, healthcare, and banking systems at www.thepurpleplans.org. Many of these plans have been endorsed by the economics’ profession’s top economists.
Let me lay out just one of these plans - the Purple Health Plan. The costs of Medicare, Medicaid, the new health exchanges, and employer-paid healthcare (here the costs entail loss of revenue because premiums are exempt from taxes) constitute 60% of the fiscal gap. The Purple Health Plan would eliminate these four systems and start with a clean slate. Under the plan, each US citizen gets a voucher each year, the size of which is determined by his pre-existing medical condition. The voucher is used to purchase, in full, the Basic Health Plan from an insurance provider. The Basic Health Plan’s coverages are established by a panel of doctors subject to the constraint that the costs of all the vouchers never exceeds 10% of GDP. Those who could afford it would be free to buy supplemental policies. No insurer could turn anyone away, but since each voucher is individually rated, insurers would have no incentive to cheery pick. This simple reform, in essence, the healthcare system of Germany, Israel, Holland, Switzerland, and Japan, retains private provision, turns the Basic Health Plan into a commodity with insurance providers competing to attract and retain participants. A very large share – roughly 60% – of America’s fiscal gap can be eliminated via this reform alone. Adopting the other purple plans would eliminate the rest of the fiscal gap without visiting untoward hardship on anyone.
Hugo Scott-Gall: Will society be able to hold current demographic fiscal systems together where young people are heavily taxed...
Larry Kotlikoff: Our country is broke. It’s not broke in 50 years or 30 years or 10 years. It’s broke today. Six decades of take as you go has led us to a precipice. That’s why almost the entire economics profession is talking as one at www.theinformact.org. Economists from all political persuasions are collectively sending our government a warning about what is, effectively, a nuclear economic bomb. I’ve been around economics for a long time. I’ve never seen such a strong response to a proposed Congressional bill. This is the profession sending a statement to the President and Congress that’s not unlike the warning physicists sent via Einstein to Roosevelt about the bomb.
Hugo Scott-Gall: What does all of this mean for overall consumption and savings in the US?
Larry Kotlikoff: Our huge off-the-books fiscal problems were created as a result of the take-as-you-go policies of the post war periods that passed on benefits to older people at the expense of younger people. This systematic intergenerational redistribution produced a massive increase in the absolute and relative consumption of the elderly and a massive decline in our net national saving rate, from 15% in 1950 to 1% now. The ratio of the consumption of a 70-year-old compared to a 35-year-old is about 2.5 times larger today than it was back in 1950. And the reason they’re consuming so much more is that they get the entire set of benefits, from healthcare and social security to tax cuts. National saving finances most domestic investment, so as we’re saving next to nothing means we’re also investing next to nothing. Last year’s net domestic investment rate was 5%, only a third of the 1950 level. And less domestic investment means slower real wage growth, as workers have less capital with which to operate. Finally, since we Americans aren’t saving, we can’t invest in our country. So $4 out of every $5 of investment in the US is now by foreigners. In the late 1970s, Alan Auerbach and I pioneered the development of large-scale computable general equilibrium life-cycle models that we could simulate on a computer. In this and subsequent research, we were able to simulate the impact of take-as-you-go fiscal policy. What we see from these increasingly sophisticated computer models matches exactly what you see in the country, less saving, less investment, less growth, and stagnant wages. While generational policy is not the sole driver of post-war secular economic trends, it’s likely the biggest.
Hugo Scott-Gall: How do other countries compare to the US when you look at their fiscal gaps?
Larry Kotlikoff: The US is arguably in worst fiscal shape than any other developed country. But Greece, the UK, and Japan are close runner ups. As mentioned, our fiscal gap is 10% of the present value of our future GDP. In Germany it’s around 5%, while Canada, Australia and New Zealand are close to zero. Even Italy's long-term fiscal gap is just half of the US’s, yet Italian government bonds sell at a much lower price than US government bonds simply because people don't understand the pension reforms that Italy has rolled out or that Italy has much better control of its healthcare spending.
The case of Norway is also very interesting. I conducted generational accounting with a Norwegian economist named Erling Steigum back in the mid-90s, which proved that while Norway was reporting a huge surplus because of how it was labelling its transactions, in reality the country was spending at far too high a rate. To its credit, the government went ahead and continued carrying out this analysis on a regular basis, and as a result, created a generational trust fund, where some of the North Sea oil revenue is set aside for future generations. This has left them in a much better position today. Chile, another resource-dominated economy, has also got a similar trust fund in effect. The Canadians have also been very careful about their long-term liabilities. So, some countries are acting more responsibly.
Hugo Scott-Gall: Have you considered the impact of fewer jobs, driven by rising automation, in your analysis?
Larry Kotlikoff: Automation and the structural loss of jobs is a very important issue. In fact, Jeff Sachs and I have together written about the implications of smart machines, machines that today can substitute almost perfectly, if not more than perfectly for people, and constitute, effectively, competing robots. We’re not far from the day when machines will drive cars too. While that sounds great, the other side of the coin is that younger people are earning less and saving less, and so, they bring much less wealth into old age than previous generations did. Owing to this vicious cycle, these youngsters, who as a group are not the prime owners of capital, aren't going to reap the benefits from this new technology. The beneficiaries are instead going to be a small number of people who are either the inventors, or older people who have the capital to help get the invented technology in place. So, we’re going to see wealth redistributed further, from young workers to older people, with yet direr implications for national saving, domestic investment and growth. Indeed, technological change can, through these general equilibrium feedback effects, end up making all of society worse off in the long run, unless one is careful to redistribute to the young losers from the old winners.

Part 5: How Reagan And Pope Conspired to Destroy Communism

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
September 12, 2013

Mark Matheny continues a series on the formation of the Jesuit Preisthood and the Counter Reformation still being carried out by the Catholic Church........
Tune in!!!


Is Assad Being Set Up?

Infowars Nightly News
September 10, 2013



Is President Bashar Al-Assad being tricked into creating circumstances that will hand the Obama White House a justification for war, or is the plan for Syria's chemical weapons to be destroyed a geopolitical master stroke that will avert a regional conflict?

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem today formally accepted a Russian proposal -- first mooted by John Kerry -- for Syria to hand its chemical arsenal over to international control in a bid to avoid a US military attack.

Many see the development as a stunning example of Russia once again outmaneuvering the United States, seizing on an apparent gaffe by Kerry in order to pull the rug out from underneath Washington and derail Obama's pretext for war.
http://www.infowars.com/is-assad-bein...

CIA Insider Tells 911 truth.

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
September 11, 2013

On this Anniversary of the Tragic event of 9/11, we need to remember that a coverup in our own government has taken place and that the 9/11 Commision report is full of error and deception concerning the event.

Here is a CIA whistleblower who is willing to tell what really happened on that eventful day in 2001....



You Tube
The evidence has grown. It would be nearly impossible for "stock" Boeing 767s, to be flown by guys that could barely fly Cessna, so precisely over hundreds of miles from 30,000 feet.
Previous Flight Data Recorder data confirms, The Boeing 767 starts to come apart before 570MPH near sea level. Skilled, Multi-1000 hour 767 Pilots, have trouble replicating these flights, let alone the Pentagon, in state-of-the-art 757-767 flight simulators.
Latest: Check Out the "CIA Insider", and author, herself, Susan Lindauer. Also a writer for Veteran's Today, interviewed on RT News "Breaking the Set" with Abbey Martin, recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...

FACT CHECK: OBAMA'S SYRIA CASE STILL LACKS PROOF

Associated Press
September 11, 2013


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama voiced his conviction Tuesday night that Syrian President Bashar Assad was to blame for deadly chemical attacks against civilians, but again he offered no proof.

A look at his remarks to the nation, seeking support for a military strike against Syria, and how they compare with the facts as publicly known:

OBAMA: "We know the Assad regime was responsible. ... The facts cannot be denied."
THE FACTS: The Obama administration has not laid out proof Assad was behind the attack.
The administration has cited satellite imagery and communications intercepts, backed by social media and intelligence reports from sources in Syria, as the basis for blaming the Assad government. But the only evidence the administration has made public is a collection of videos it has verified of the victims. The videos do not demonstrate who launched the attacks.

Read the entire article

'Million Muslim March' 2013 and '2 Million Bikers' [VIDEO]: Washington D.C. rally expected on anniversary of September 11 attacks

ChristianToday
September 11, 2013
Twitter
'2 Million Bikers' are reportedly heading to Washington D.C. today to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Although the bikers were denied permission to avoid traffic signals, they will still head to the city and stick to all the rules as they ride through the city. They are expected to clog up the city's streets even more so than usual.
Organizers of the ride posted on Facebook: "We find this regretful for the residents and businesses of that great city, and humbly offer our apologies. What could have been a one or two hour ride through will now likely be an all day event."
The bike riders from all over the U.S. are already on their way to ride through the nation's capital. They will pay tribute to the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Motorcycles are not allowed in Washington D.C., but they plan to ride through the city anyway. The demonstration, which is scheduled for after 11 a.m., is set to be peaceful. About 3,000 bikers are estimated to attend.
However, another demonstration is also planned for today, which may clash with the '2 million bikers' demonstration. An event, initially billed as the "Million Muslim March" is also set to be held on the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Washington D.C. The rally has since been renamed the "Million Americans Against Fear."
Weekly Standard reports that a memo sent to tenants from an office in downton D.C. says only hundreds of participants are expected to attend, an estimate provided by police.
The march is aimed at drawing attention to America's alleged discrimination against Muslims.
The American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) scheduled the event September 11, 2013, to commemorate the terrorist attacks. They refuse to attribute the attacks to Islamic extremists, but rather, is focusing on the discrimination against Muslims. The group stated: "Muslim and non-Muslim alike were traumatized, but we as Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains."

United States sets another food stamp record: Households on food stamps at new peak and more Americans live in poverty compared to the entire population of Spain.

MyBudget360
September 11, 2013

The gap between rich and poor in the United States continues to grow in-line with food stamp usage.  Many Americans watch in dismay as they view countries like Spain rip its self apart by a massively discontent and unemployed youth movement.  Many probably watch thinking that somehow, our problems can never come close to what is being experienced abroad.  The irony is that we now have more Americans on food stamps than the entire population of Spain.  That is right, more Americans are living food stamp payment to food stamp payment versus the entire population of a county literally suffering in depression.  Yet somehow, the narrative playing out in the economy is all around a booming real estate market (profits to investors) and the peaking stock market (most Americans don’t even own stock) are big windfalls for all.  Yet the gains are being captured by a small portion of the population.  This is how we can reach these seemingly dichotomous situations where poverty rises in the shadow of a booming stock market.
Record number of American families on food stamps
I’m not sure this is something that we should be proud about but we now have more Americans on food stamps than the entire population of Spain:
food stamp and spain
The amount being funneled out in food stamp payments is also at a record level:
food stamp amount paid out
When I look at data like this, you fully realize how disjointed this economic “recovery” has become.  Recovery for who?  Where are we seeing any of the major job growth occurring?  The recent BLS reports highlight a troubling trend where the bulk of jobs being added stem from low wage industries.  So then it makes sense where you have people landing a part-time gig at Wal-Mart but still qualifying for food stamps.  We have a massive amount of what are now working poor Americans.  It doesn’t seem like this trend is reversing given that the recession ended in 2009 and we are peaking in terms of food stamp usage all the way in 2013.
Food stamps are operated under the SNAP umbrella, Supplemental Nutrition AssistanceProgram.  The amount given out each month is relatively small, something like $275 on average per family.  The income thresholds are strict and you have to have virtually no assets to your name to qualify.  Given that one-third of Americans have absolutely no savings, this low bar is being met by millions of families.  The program was never designed as a permanent landing place for families but it does appear more people are having a tough time moving away from the program.  While we are still over 2 million jobs below where we started in the recession of 2007, we are up a whopping 22 million people that now receive food stamps and disability payments since the recession hit.
food stamp recession
People can try to polarize the data but the facts are abundantly clear and that is America is creating a large structurally poor segment of the population.  The middle class has been severely hit and you have a recipe for a large growing poor population.
It doesn’t help that those 25 to 34 saddled with mountains of student debt have saved about zero dollars for retirement as measured by the median for this group.  There is really no glory behind this number.  Over 47 million Americans now depend on food stamps for food.  Because of the low amount, many tend to gravitate to unhealthy food choices which tend to be more filling in the moment but longer-term are very likely to cause health disease.  Last time I went to the dollar store, they had something like two aisles of cereals and candies and one smaller section of vegetables and fruits (although a few years ago there wasn’t even a vegetable and fruit section so this is good).  Then we hear about the epidemic of obesity and healthcare costs soaring.  Think of illnesses like heart disease or diabetes and some forms of cancer that really do depend on eating habits.  The data also backs this up.
You can see that we trade one problem for another here and those thinking this is somehow a solid recovery are choosing to ignore the bigger crisis hitting the nation.

REALITY CHECK: MORE AMERICANS ARE “RETHINKING” 9/11?

Reality Check
September 11, 2013



Did you know that a 3rd building fell on 9-11?  That bill board is today over Times Square.  It was placed there through donations to a campaign called Rethink 9/11.
In fact, that group has placed posters and signs across the world, from Australia, to Canada, from San Francisco to right here in New York City.
So what is Rethink 9/11?  Wouldn’t only a fringe group of people would still question 9/11?  Perhaps not, because today we will tell you about new polling that shows a majority of those polled either question the official 9/11 story or don’t believe it at all.  Is that possible?
The first step toward truth, is to be informed.
Here in New York City, today at the site of the 9/11 Memorial, promises to never forget what happened the morning of September 11th, 2001.  But never forgetting doesn’t mean that you don’t rethink what you have been told.
Rethink 911 is the first ever global 9/11 anniversary campaign. Sponsored by a coalition of more than 40 organizations, ReThink911 is placing ads in 11 major cities around the world this September 2013.
But what is there to rethink? According to a group called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, you need to start by rethinking the third building that fell that day.
Building 7,  behind me.   That rectangular building is the new building 7.  It stands a little smaller but in the same place where the original World Trade Center 7 once stood.
To be fair, the collapse of building 7 has long been the claims of conspiracy theorists. In 2008, the National Institute of Standards and Technology or (NIST) released its long-awaited report on the collapse of World Trade Center 7.  The lead investigator Shyam Sunder told journalists,  “WTC 7 collapsed because of fires fueled by office furnishings. It did not collapse from explosives or from diesel fuel fires.”
But that claim has been taken on by that rapidly growing group known as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Iran threatens widespread retaliation against U.S. and allies

The Daily Caller
September 11th

Iran is ramping up its threats to the United States even as the American effort against Iranian client state Syria has ground to a crawl.
President Obama made his case to the American people and the world community Tuesday night that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to escape the consequences of using chemical weapons on civilians as the two-year-long Syrian civil war drags on.
Iran, a staunch ally of the Assad regime, is warning that any military action against Syria will cause a military and terrorist reaction on U.S. targets and allies.
Read the entire article

THE SHAMEFUL (AND RECENT) HISTORY OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS ABUSES BY THE US GOVERNMENT

ScriptoniteDaily
September 10, 2013



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During this unsettling march to war with Syria, political leaders in the US have repeatedly stated that Syria has broken an agreement, put in place at the end of World War I, that chemical weapons are not to be used in warfare.  Some may be left believing that chemical weapons have been absent from the theatre of war between then and the Syrian attacks on August 21st 2013.  This is not the case.  In fact, the US is the biggest abuser of chemical weapons on earth, deploying these weapons across the world right to the present day.
The Chemical Weapons Timeline to World War II
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Chemical and biological weapons have been with us since the Spartan Greek’s used sulphur fumes on enemy soldiers in the 400′s BC.  They became the tool of imperialism and colonialism from the 17th century and beyond.
In the 18th Century, colonialists seeking to overcome the Native American population distributed small pox infected blankets as ‘gifts’ of peace to native American communities.  In 1770, almost30% of the population was wiped out by small pox infection.  In the 80 years of European immigration to the North American continent, the Native American population reduced from 37,000 to 9,000 – largely due to the various diseases and epidemics perpetrated against them.  You can read a fuller account of the devastation of indigenous communities here.
At World War I (1914-18), the German army reintroduced chemical weapons, using chlorine gas at the second battle of Ypres. By the end of the war, with all sides deploying mustard and chlorine gas, 85,000 had been killed and 1.2m injured by these toxic weapons.
Between the end of World War I and the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the world went on a bit of a chemical weapons binge.  The Russian forces used poison gas against the Bolsheviks (with UK support), Spain and France used mustard gas in Morocco, and Britain tested mustard gas byreleasing it against Iraqi populations.  Winston Churchill stated that “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes”.
Despite a brief stand off during the first year of World War II thanks to fears of reprisals from all sides, chemical weapons were again deployed in 1942.  The Nazi government used Zyklon-B to gas ‘undesirable’ groups such as Jews, disabled people, mentally ill people and dissenters of the regime.  By the end of the holocaust, 5.8 million Jews and 5 million other ‘undesirables’ had been killed, including 1.5 million children.
The US Becomes the World’s Worst Chemical Weapons Offender Post World War II
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Since the Second World War, the US has led the world in the development, production and deployment of chemical weapons on both military and civilian populations at home and across the world.

Brzezinski Admits Alternative Media Stalling War With Syria

Before it's News
September 10, 2013

zbigniew brzezinski
During a short interview with Germany’s DW News last Monday, former US National Security Adviser and Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski commented on the growing inefficiency of war due to the increased political knowledge of the public.

“Given the contemporary reality of what I have called in my writings ‘Global Political Awakening,’ a policy of force based primarily on Western and in some cases former colonial powers does not seem to me a very promising avenue to an eventual solution to the regional problem,” said Brzezinski, referring to the situation in Syria.
Despite Brzezinski’s noted long-term relationship with Obama which included a top foreign policy adviser position, Brzezinski denied any specific knowledge of his plans regarding Syria, saying that if the administration has a strategy, it’s a “very well-kept secret.”
Obama’s Middle Eastern strategy has been a mere continuation of the policies seen under Bush, exemplified by former four star general and NATO commander Wesley Clark’s admission of the Bush-era Pentagon plan to overthrow several countries including Libya and Syria.
Although Brzezinski at times attempts to appear opposed to military interventionism, President Obama’s actions in Syria, which include the support of admitted Al Qaeda fighters, closely mirrors several of Brzezinski’s previous policies, most notably the opposition to the Soviet Union in 1979, where decisions made by Brzezinski led to the creation of Al Qaeda through the CIA funding of the Afghan Mujaheddin.
Brzezinski’s call of warning to the “global political awakening” has only intensified in recent years. Last year during a speech in Poland, Brzezinski noted that it has become “increasingly difficult to suppress” and control the “persistent and highly motivated populist resistance of politically awakened and historically resentful peoples.” Brzezinski also blamed the accessibility of “radio, television and the Internet” for the “universal awakening of mass political consciousness.”
“[The] major world powers, new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people,” said Brzezinski during a 2010 Council on Foreign Relations speech in Montreal.
Despite attempts by both the Republican and Democratic leadership to gain support for a war in Syria, a new Reuters poll revealed that only 9 percent of Americans support military intervention in Syria. If the United States intervenes, it will be the least popular war in American history.
The massive and growing evidence forced out by the alternative media, which points to a US backed chemical attack by Al Qaeda led rebel forces to be blamed on Assad, has only accelerated the inevitable downfall of the corporate press that is now only trusted by 23 percent of the public.

This article was first published on August 31, 2013

Precious Little Girl Dismembered While She Is Still Alive By Obama’s Psychotic Syrian Rebels

The American Dream
September 10, 2013
Should the United States be allied with radical Islamic jihadists that dismember little girls while they are still alive?
Credit: Trocaire via Flickr
Credit: Trocaire via Flickr
That question sounds ridiculously absurd, but that is precisely what Barack Obama is proposing. Obama wants the United States to go to war so that it will be easier for al-Qaeda Christian killers to take over Syria. What you are about to read should absolutely shock you. Please send it out to your friends and share it everywhere that you can. If America willingly sides with psychotic, murderous savages that behead little children, it will bring a curse upon our nation. It is imperative that the American people be told the truth about this.
Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib is a Catholic nun and mother superior of St. James Monastery in Qara, Syria. She has been living in the country for about twenty years, and she has been very active in reporting what has actually been happening on the ground inside Syria.
Posted below is an excerpt from what she told RT the other day. According to her, the Syrian rebels have been brutally beheading people wherever they go and they even dismembered one little girl with a frame saw while she was still alive
In the village of Estreba they massacred all the residents and burnt down their houses. In the village of al-Khratta almost all the 37 locals were killed. Only ten people were able to escape.
A total of twelve Alawite villages were subjected to this horrendous attack. That was a true slaughterhouse. People were mutilated and beheaded. There is even a video that shows a girl being dismembered alive – alive! – by a frame saw. The final death toll exceeded 400, with 150 to 200 people taken hostage. Later some of the hostages were killed, their deaths filmed.
What Mother Agnes is saying lines up very well with what is being reported in major international publications such as the Daily Mail
Terrified Christians claim Syrian rebels ordered them to convert to Islam on pain of death when they ‘liberated’ their ancient village.
Opposition forces, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, gained temporary control of the Christian village of Maaloula after fighting with regime forces.
The reports have reignited fears about western support for the rebel groups, which are increasingly being infiltrated by Islamic extremists.
According to eyewitness accounts quoted in that same article, innocent Christian villagers are being given the choice to either convert on the spot or be summarily executed…
One Maaloula resident said the rebels, many of whom had beards and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great), attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village.
‘They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?’
Another Christian resident said: ‘I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them and saying, “Either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded”.’
And keep in mind that these psychotic Syrian rebels are doing this even though they know that the entire world is watching them.
So if this is how they are acting now, how bad would they be if they actually took power in Syria?
It is also very important to note that a high percentage of these “rebels” are actually foreigners. In fact, as Business Insider reported back in January, a lot of them are actually death row inmates that Saudi Arabia set free and sent into Syria to wage jihad…
A leaked internal memo shows how Saudi officials commuted 1,200 death row inmates under the condition they go and fight against Assad in Syria, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.
From the memo:
We have reached an agreement with them that they will be exempted from the death sentence and given a monthly salary to their families and loved ones, who will be prevented from traveling outside Saudi Arabia in return for rehabilitation of the accused and their training in order to send them to Jihad in Syria.
Saudi officials apparently gave them a choice: decapitation or jihad? In total, inmates from Yemen, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kuwait chose to go and fight in Syria.
These are the people that Obama wants to assist?
Is he insane?
If the rebels win, they will set up a hardcore Sunni government that will impose sharia law on the entire nation of Syria. This is a nation where Christians, Jews and various types of Muslims have been living together peacefully for centuries.
If the jihadists that Obama is supporting win, all of that will be gone.
A similar thing happened in Afghanistan. We have spent more than a decade “nation building” in Afghanistan, and now they have a government where members of parliament argue that anyone that converts to Christianity should be killed
Converts from Islam to Christianity should be killed according to Islamic law (shari’a), in a bid to stop the growth of Christianity among Afghans inside and outside the country, according to one leading member of parliament cited by the Afghan Voice Agency news service.
Mohabat News, an independent Iranian Christian news agency, reported on Sunday that Nazir Ahmad Hanafi said several weeks ago that “Afghani citizens continue to convert to Christianity in India. Numerous Afghanis have become Christians in India. This is an offense to Islamic laws and according to the Qur’an they need to be executed.”
Hanafi, an independent who represents the province of Herat, is a prominent lawmaker who heads the parliament’s Legislative Commission and reportedly received the third highest number of votes in the 2010 parliamentary election.
Is that what thousands upon thousands of Americans shed their blood for?
Are we about to make an even worse mistake in Syria?
The Syrian rebels are not our friends. They even put up pictures depicting the destruction of the White House on their Facebook pages. They are murderous, psychotic jihadists that are the enemy of everything that is true and good.
Please share this article with as many people as you can. It is so important that we wake as many people up as we can before our government starts a war that it will not be able to stop.