More This & That & Whatever.... The Best Of Intellectual Froglegs

[Warph]

Hillary Clinton Has Got To Be Joking –
This Is What 'Dead Broke' Actually Looks Like

By Michael Snyder, on June 23rd, 2014

During a recent interview with Diane Sawyer, Hillary Clinton claimed that Bill and her were "dead broke" when they left the White House.  And then on Sunday, Hillary told the Guardian that they are not "truly well off" despite having earned about a hundred million dollars since leaving the White House and owning a couple of luxury homes.  This is yet another shocking example of how disconnected our political elite have become to the rest of the American people.  Perhaps Hillary Clinton is not "truly well off" when compared to some of the ultra-wealthy individuals that she rubs shoulders with at Democratic fundraisers, but according to numbers provided by the Social Security Administration, the Clintons would easily be in the top 0.01% of all income earners in America since leaving the White House.  So was Hillary Clinton joking, or is she really this out of touch with ordinary Americans?

Perhaps she thought that she could just tell a little white lie about how wealthy Bill and her truly are.  After all, 66 percent of Americans believe that when it says "natural" on a food label that it actually means something.  It seems like people will fall for almost anything these days.

Unfortunately for Clinton, people are not letting this one go.  In fact, CNN anchor Alison Kosik recently burst out laughing on air in response to Clinton's claim that she is not "truly well off"...

If Hillary Clinton really does want to see what "dead broke" actually looks like, she should travel to some of the deeply impoverished communities in the heartland of America.

For instance, just consider what the BBC found when they interviewed two young kids being raised by a single mother in Iowa.

10-year-old Kaylie Haywood and her brother spend much of their time desperately hungry and thinking about food...

And of course Kaylie and Tyler are far from alone.  In fact, there are 49 million people that are dealing with food insecurity in America right now, and that number is growing.  For more sobering examples of crushing poverty in rural communities all over the United States, please see my previous article entitled "Vast Stretches Of Impoverished Appalachia Look Like They Have Been Through A War".

But Hillary Clinton and politicians like her usually only interact with those kinds of people when it is time to win another election.

And that goes for most politicians from both political parties.

For the moment, life is good for the elite.  In places such as New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, unemployment is relatively low and home prices are soaring.

But for the bottom half of the country, things just continue to get even worse.  Just consider the following numbers...

-According to one recent survey, 26 percent of all Americans have absolutely no emergency savings whatsoever.

-Approximately two-thirds of all Americans do not have enough money saved up to cover six months of expenses if an emergency arose.

-Close to half of those living in Detroit cannot pay their water bills.  It is being reported that the United Nations may step in to help.

-One report discovered that 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

-One out of every three grocery store workers in the state of California is currently receiving public assistance.

-According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty.  The number of Americans living in poverty is now at a level that has not been seen since the 1960s.

-Even if you do have a job that does not mean that you are able to escape poverty in the United States today.  In fact, about one out of every four part-time workers in America is now living below the poverty line.

-According to numbers provided by Wal-Mart, more than half of their hourly workers make less than $25,000 a year.

-At this point, one out of every four American workers overall has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

-It is a number that does not seem right, but it is actually true that half the country makes $27,520 a year or less from their jobs.

-Right now, one out of every six men in America in their prime working years (25 to 54) do not have a job.

-Half of all college graduates are still financially dependent on their parents even when they are two years out of school.

-One study discovered that nearly half of all public students in the United States come from low income homes.

-It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

-It is hard to believe, but right now 1.2 million students that attend public schools in America are homeless.  That number has risen by an astounding 72 percent since the start of the last recession.

-According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.

-Numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that 49.2 percent of all Americans are now receiving benefits from at least one government program.

But if you still feel sorry for Hillary Clinton after reading all of this, there is a way that you can help.

For just pennies a day, you can contribute to "The Hillary Clinton Fund For Broke Politicians".  In the video posted below, you can see how ordinary Americans respond when they are asked to donate to the fund...

[Warph]

Stone Cold Proof That Government Economic Numbers Are Being Highly Manipulated

By Michael Snyder, on June 25th, 2014

How in the world does the government expect us to trust the economic numbers that they give us anymore?  For a long time, many have suspected that they were being manipulated, and as you will see below we now have stone cold proof that this is indeed the case.  But first, let's talk about the revised GDP number for the first quarter of 2014 that was just released.  Initially, they told us that the U.S. economy only shrank by 0.1 percent in Q1.  Then that was revised down to a 1.0 percent contraction, and now we are being informed that the economy actually contracted by a whopping 2.9 percent during the first quarter.  So what are we actually supposed to believe?  Sometimes I almost get the feeling that government bureaucrats are just throwing darts at a dartboard in order to get these numbers.  Of course that is not actually true, but how do we know that we can actually trust the numbers that they give to us?

Over at shadowstats.com, John Williams publishes alternative economic statistics that he believes are much more realistic than the government numbers.  According to his figures, the U.S. economy has actually been continually contracting since 2005.  That would mean that we have been in a recession for the last nine years.

Could it be possible that he is right and the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. are wrong?

Before you answer that question, read the rest of this article.

It just might change your thinking a bit.

Another number that many have accused of being highly manipulated is the inflation rate.

But we don't have to sit around and wonder if that figure is being manipulated.  The truth is that even those that work inside the Federal Reserve admit that it is being manipulated.

As Robert Wenzel recently pointed out, Mike Bryan, a vice president and senior economist in the Atlanta Fed's research department, has been very open about the fact that the way inflation is calculated has been changed almost every month at times...

The Economist retells a conversation with Stephen Roach, who in the 1970s worked for the Federal Reserve under Chairman Arthur Burns. Roach remembers that when oil prices surged around 1973, Burns asked Federal Reserve Board economists to strip those prices out of the CPI "to get a less distorted measure. When food prices then rose sharply, they stripped those out too—followed by used cars, children's toys, jewellery, housing and so on, until around half of the CPI basket was excluded because it was supposedly 'distorted'" by forces outside the control of the central bank. The story goes on to say that, at least in part because of these actions, the Fed failed to spot the breadth of the inflationary threat of the 1970s.

I have a similar story. I remember a morning in 1991 at a meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's board of directors. I was welcomed to the lectern with, "Now it's time to see what Mike is going to throw out of the CPI this month."   It was an uncomfortable moment for me that had a lasting influence. It was my motivation for constructing the Cleveland Fed's median CPI.

I am a reasonably skilled reader of a monthly CPI release. And since I approached each monthly report with a pretty clear idea of what the actual rate of inflation was, it was always pretty easy for me to look across the items in the CPI market basket and identify any offending—or "distorted"—price change. Stripping these items from the price statistic revealed the truth—and confirmed that I was right all along about the actual rate of inflation.

Right now, the Federal Reserve tells us that the inflation rate is sitting at about 2 percent.

But according to John Williams, if the inflation rate was calculated the same way that it was in 1990 it would be nearly 6 percent.

And if the inflation rate was calculated the same way that it was in 1980 it would be nearly 10 percent.

So which number are we supposed to believe?

The one that makes us feel the best?

And without a doubt, "2 percent inflation" sounds a whole lot better than "10 percent inflation" does.

But anyone that does any grocery shopping knows that we are definitely not in a low inflation environment.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled "Inflation? Only If You Look At Food, Water, Gas, Electricity And Everything Else".

Of course the unemployment rate is being manipulated as well.  Just consider the following excerpt from a recent New York Post article...
In case you are just joining this ongoing drama, the Labor Department pays Census to conduct the monthly Household Survey that produces the national unemployment rate, which despite numerous failings is — inexplicably — still very important to the Federal Reserve and others.

One of the problems with the report is that Census field representatives — the folks who knock on doors to conduct the surveys — and their supervisors have, according to my sources, been shortcutting the interview process.

Rather than collect fresh data each month as they are supposed to do, Census workers have been filling in the blanks with past months' data. This helps them meet the strict quota of successful interviews set by Labor.

That's just one of the ways the surveys are falsified.
The Federal Reserve would have us believe that the unemployment rate in the U.S. has fallen from a peak of 10.0 percent during the recession all the way down to 6.3 percent now.

But according to shadowstats.com, the broadest measure of unemployment is well over 20 percent and has kept rising since the end of the last recession.

And according to the Federal Reserve's own numbers, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has barely increased over the past four years...

The chart above looks like a long-term employment decline to me.

But that is not the story that the government bureaucrats are selling to us.

So where does the truth lie?

What numbers are we actually supposed to believe?

[Warph]

Project Paperclip: Nazis in America

by John W. Whitehead

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/project_paperclip_nazis_in_america

Few Americans have heard of Project Paperclip. Among those who have, the majority do not know its true extent because the U.S. government has successfully concealed most of the facts surrounding the project. Instead, the government has passed it off as a short-term operation limited to an innocent investigation of Germany's scientists after World War II. In reality, Project Paperclip, as documented by authors such as John Loftus in his book The Belarus Secret, was the largest and longest-running operation involving Nazis in the history of the United States, and its effects are still being felt today.

At the close of World War II, U.S. officials and the Allied countries discovered that Germany had developed a technical superiority far beyond what they had imagined. In Nazi Germany, 20,000 scientists had revolutionized the weapons of war, and reports written by Allied investigators described the Germans' "astonishing achievement" and "superb inventions." In order to learn about the new German technology and weaponry, Russia, France, Britain and the United States began transporting German experts to their respective countries for interrogation. The Cold War was now beginning, and U.S. officials were determined to use any means necessary to keep the scientists responsible for Germany's scientific supremacy out of Russian hands. At the same time, they aimed to acquire a technological lead against Russia. Thus, in the name of national interest, the United States began recruiting the Nazi scientists.

In 1946, President Harry S. Truman authorized Project Paperclip, a program designed to bring selected German scientists to work for the United States during the Cold War. However, Truman expressly forbade anyone found to have been "a member of the Nazi party and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazism." The War Department's Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) was to conduct background investigations of the scientists, to be approved by the State Department.

Against Truman's orders, however, the JIOA, Army intelligence and the CIA actively concealed incriminating information about the Germans they were hiring. Many of the 1,600 scientific and research specialists and their dependents brought to the U.S. under Project Paperclip had been deeply involved in Nazi society during the war. However, U.S. officials were determined to recruit these men and chose to ignore their appalling pasts. They sidestepped the problem of their Nazi backgrounds by "cleansing" and re-writing their information files to eliminate incriminating evidence. As a way of identifying the German scientists, American officials put an ordinary paperclip on their personnel files--thus the origin of the operation's name.

While official American policy after the war was to prosecute war criminals for the atrocities committed under Adolf Hitler, many sectors of the U.S. government were actively concealing incriminating evidence in order to bring these very men into the U.S.

Here are a few examples:
Early security evaluations of Wernher von Braun described him as "a serious potential security threat." He had been a member of the SS and risen to the rank of major under Hitler. From 1937 to 1945, he was the technical director of the Peenemunde rocket research center in Germany, where the V-2 rocket was developed. When von Braun was brought to the United States in 1948, his file had been re-written: "No derogatory information is available on the subject. He does not constitute a security threat to the United States." Von Braun worked on guided missiles for the U.S. Army and later became director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1970, he became NASA's associate administrator.

Arthur Rudolf was operations director of the Mittelwerk factory at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camps, where, according to Tom Bower in The Paperclip Conspiracy, 20,000 workers died from beatings, hangings and starvation. A member of the Nazi Party since 1931, Rudolf's 1945 security evaluation read: "100% Nazi, dangerous type, security threat." However, when the JIOA took an interest in Rudolf's scientific work, it changed his dossier to read: "Nothing in his records indicating that he was a war criminal or an ardent Nazi." As a result, Rudolf became a U.S. citizen. He later designed the Saturn 5 rocket used in the Apollo moon landing and received NASA's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. He remained in the United States until 1984, when an investigation of his war record finally began and he fled to Germany.

Kurt Blome, a high-ranking Nazi scientist, told U.S. interrogators in 1945 that he had experimented with plague vaccines on concentration camp prisoners. He was tried in the Nuremberg War Trials--but acquitted--on charges of extermination of sick prisoners and conducting experiments on humans. Only two months after the trial, he was interviewed at Camp David, Md., about his scientific expertise. His file now showed no record of his Nuremberg trial. Blome was hired by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps to work on chemical and biological warfare.

Hermann Becker-Freysing was convicted at Nuremberg and sentenced to 20 years in prison for conducting experiments on Dachau concentration camp inmates, including starving them and force-feeding them chemically altered seawater. Before the trial, however, he was being paid by the Army Air Force to write reports about his inhumane experiments.

Georg Richkey worked for the JIOA at Wright Field from 1946 until his arrest a year later for Nazi war crimes. During the war, Richkey headed the slave labor factory Mittelwerk at the Dora concentration camps. Among other atrocities, there are reports that Richkey had numerous slave laborers hung from a crane to die slowly in public view. During his time in the United States, Richkey's job was to translate 42 boxes of Mittelwerk documents shipped from Normandy--the very documents a U.S. Army war crimes unit sought to use as evidence of Richkey's own crimes.

Defenders of Project Paperclip cite achievements such as the moon rockets and jet planes as positive products of postwar research in our country. But what Paperclip's defenders fail to mention is the shockingly inhumane psychochemical experimentation conducted on over 7,000 U.S. soldiers under the project.

Edgewood Arsenal, located near Baltimore, Md., is the most secret military base in the country. Paperclip scientists worked there between 1947 and 1966 conducting experiments on human beings. Initially, their main efforts were to test the poison gases that had been invented by the Nazis during the war. Soon, the testing turned to LSD and other mind-control agents. Nazi science that was reminiscent of concentration camp experimentation was used as the basis for research in the United States on humans.

MKULTRA is the name of the mind control experiments conducted on U.S. soldiers under Project Paperclip. Reviewing the experiments in the late 1950s, one CIA auditor wrote of them: "Precautions must be taken not only to protect operations from exposure to enemy forces but also to conceal these activities from the American public in general. The knowledge that the agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions."

Master Sergeant James Stanley, for one, remembers being locked in an isolated room with barred windows, padded walls and furniture bolted to the floor. A doctor instructed him to drink a glass of clear liquid containing LSD, telling him it was water. An hour later, Stanley's head filled with terrifying visions and he became violently ill.

In 1992, the highly respected physician Dr. D.C. Hammond gave a lecture on hypnosis and satanic ritual abuse at the Conference on Abuse and Multiple Personality. In his discussion of horrifying brainwashing methods being used in the same way all over the country, he notes its beginning:

Here's where it appears to have come from.
At the end of World War II, before it even ended, Allen Dulles and people from our Intelligence Community were already in Switzerland making contact to get out Nazi scientists. As World War II ends, they not only get out rocket scientists, but they also get out some Nazi doctors who have been doing mind-control research in the camps. They brought them to the United States.

The recruitment of the men responsible for atrocities committed under Hitler to fight the Cold War resulted in serious breaches of U.S. security, as well as extremely inhumane treatment of American soldiers, similar to that of concentration camp prisoners. On the security level, as Linda Hunt writes in Secret Agenda:

In direct defiance of President Truman's policy, the Paperclip masterminds brazenly had the German scientists' records changed to expunge evidence of war crimes and ardent Nazism and secure permanent immigration status for them in the U.S. Ostensibly that was done in the interest of national security. Once here, however, the scientists were given access to classified information that revealed the inner-most workings of our defense system. As a result, it was not long before the very people brought here to ensure our security had themselves become a security risk. Eventually some of the scientists took advantage of security lapses and left the country with classified material. German specialist Heinz Gartmann, for example, left Wright Field air base with turbojet rocket engine blueprints in his hand luggage. The full extent of the damage from incidents like that is still unknown.

Even worse, on a moral level, Nazis went unpunished and federal law was violated. Worst of all, as Linda Hunt has documented, Nazi attitudes toward research on human subjects were imported and adopted by various U.S. officials. "The Machiavellian attitude behind these operations was born when a World War II ally became a new enemy and the world axis shifted...[but] no matter how necessary intelligence activities may be, they cannot be allowed to operate unchecked, in secrecy and darkness, shielded from the democratic process of accountability. Otherwise, in the end we become our own worst enemy."

[Diane Amberg]

Interesting, but no mention of Plum Island and Lyme Disease, which is dangerous and found up and down the mid and north east coast.

[Warph]

The Caliphate On The March – ISIS Media Hub

By Michael Snyder, on July 2nd, 2014

ISIS is marching through city after city in Iraq, and they are doing it with American weapons.   Thanks to a series of stunning victories in recent months, ISIS has captured a vast array of U.S. military equipment including trucks, Humvees, rockets, artillery pieces and Stinger missiles.  When the U.S. was pulling out of Iraq, we were extremely generous to the new Iraqi army.  We basically armed them to the teeth with equipment that U.S. taxpayers paid for.  But now that the new Iraqi army is folding like a 20 dollar suit in the face of ISIS jihadists, vast quantities of that military equipment are falling into the hands of some of the most radical jihadists the world has ever seen.  And considering the fact that ISIS also recently seized the equivalent of nearly $500 million in cash from a bank in Mosul, the leadership of ISIS won't be having much problem buying anything else that they might need either.  ISIS is getting stronger with each passing day, and they are not going to be satisfied until the Iraqi government has been toppled.  It is a geopolitical mess of epic proportions, and there don't seem to be any easy solutions on the horizon.

To say that the new Iraqi army has been incompetent would be a massive understatement.  Not only have they run away like scared kittens from these jihadists, they have also left behind staggering amounts of weaponry for them.  According to the Los Angeles Times, ISIS has captured "the weapons stores of the 2nd and 3rd [Iraqi army] divisions in Mosul, the 4th division in Salah al Din, the 12th division in the areas near Kirkuk, and another division in Diyala".  And we aren't just talking about rifles and ammunition.  We are talking about some pretty impressive hardware...


Government forces retreated en masse from the onslaught, leaving behind a military hardware bonanza, including the U.S.-made armored Humvees as well as trucks, rockets, artillery pieces, rifles, ammunition, even a helicopter. Some of the seized materiel was old or otherwise non-functioning; but a lot was promptly put to use on the battlefield.

Pictures of grinning Islamist warriors cruising in U.S. Humvees bedecked with white-on-black militant flags flooded the Internet and became the signature image of the ISIS rampage.

ISIS social-media enthusiasts even mocked the global #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign, referring to girls kidnapped by an Al Qaeda offshoot in Nigeria. ISIS sympathizers began tweeting #BringBackOurHumvee.
One of the most popular photos mocking the Obamas and the U.S. military under the #BringBackOurHumvee hashtag is posted below...

We have become a laughingstock to ISIS.   They know that we are not going to invade Iraq again.  So they are laughing at us as they use our own equipment to take over the country.

It is estimated that the military equipment that ISIS has captured so far could equip an army of 200,000 soldiers.  No wonder ISIS is recruiting more fighters so vigorously.

As WND has documented, members of ISIS were actually trained by U.S. personnel at a secret base in Jordan back in 2012...
Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials.

The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq.

The Jordanian officials said all ISIS members who received U.S. training to fight in Syria were first vetted for any links to extremist groups like al-Qaida.
So U.S. taxpayers have not just paid for their weapons.
We have also paid for their training.

Not only that, but ISIS has also captured the Al Muthanna chemical weapons facility:

And they also may be working with a man who's known for his expertise in making sarin, a manmade toxin that was developed in Germany and can, according to the Centers for Disease Control, produce loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis and death in victims who are exposed.

The revelations comes as the State Department acknowledged that ISIS has captured a stockpile of old chemical weapons at the Al Muthanna chemical weapons production complex as its fighters sweep through Iraq's Sunni- controlled region.

The access to a sarin poison gas production facility, and the man with the expertise to operate it, is the result of a new alliance between the brutal jihadist fighters and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was a top military commander and vice president to the deposed Saddam Hussein.
And the folks running ISIS are crazy enough to do just about anything.  They are stone cold killers that will go to extreme lengths to advance their cause.  If you are not very familiar with ISIS yet, the YouTube documentary posted below contains some footage from some of their recent triumphs...

Iraq is literally being torn to pieces by this conflict, and even young boys are getting swept up into the fighting as seen below...

For example, check out this excerpt from a recent Daily Beast article...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/29/isis-s-newest-recruit-is-10-years-old.html#

ISIS's Newest Recruit Is 10 Years Old

It was a surprising sight. The customers standing in Haj Hamdoun's store in central Mosul watched as a masked child came into the shop, bought what he wanted without saying a word and then left again, carrying a bag containing candies and milk in one hand and a heavy machine gun, which was just about as big as him, in the other.

This was Abdullah, who appears to be the city's youngest volunteer with the Sunni extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, that took control of Mosul over two weeks ago.

Abdullah is not yet 11 years old. But his older brother and his father, who was a senior member of ISIS, were killed in fighting between the group and Iraqi security forces in 2013. That's why Abdullah joined ISIS, although he is far from the only child in its ranks.

And the photo of a 13-year-old ISIS fighter below comes from the ISIS Media Hub on Twitter...

So where does all of this end?

For ISIS, the conquest of Iraq and Syria would just be the beginning.  Ultimately, ISIS intends to establish a caliphate that will rule the entire Middle East (and eventually the entire world).

And who is going to stop them from taking over Iraq?  These radicals are more than willing to die for what they believe in, and the Iraqi army has been pretty pathetic so far.

The United States seems to have very little interest in another Iraq war, and other nations would probably be extremely hesitant to intervene as well.

So who is going to stop ISIS?

And is there a larger geopolitical agenda at work here?

[Warph]

18 Signs That The Global Economic Crisis Is Accelerating
As We Enter The Last Half Of 2014

By Michael Snyder, on June 30th, 2014

A lot of people that I talk to these days want to know "when things are going to start happening".  Well, there are certainly some perilous times on the horizon, but all you have to do is open up your eyes and look to see the global economic crisis unfolding.  As you will see below, even central bankers are issuing frightening warnings about "dangerous new asset bubbles" and even the World Bank is declaring that "now is the time to prepare" for the next crisis.  Most Americans tend to only care about what is happening in the United States, but the truth is that serious economic trouble is erupting in South America, all across Europe and in Asian powerhouses such as China and Japan.  And the endless conflicts in the Middle East could erupt into a major regional war at just about any time.  We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and people need to understand that the period of relative stability that we are enjoying right now is extremely vulnerable and will not last long. 

The following are 18 signs that the global economic crisis is accelerating as we enter the last half of 2014...

#1 The Bank for International Settlements has issued a new report which warns that "dangerous new asset bubbles" are forming which could potentially lead to another major financial crisis.  Do the central bankers know something that we don't, or are they just trying to place the blame on someone else for the giant mess that they have created?

#2 Argentina has missed a $539 million debt payment and is on the verge of its second major debt default in 13 years.

#3 Bulgaria is desperately trying to calm down a massive run on the banks that threatens of spiral out of control.

#4 Last month, household loans in the eurozone declined at the fastest rate ever recorded.  Why are European banks holding on to their money so tightly right now?

#5 The number of unemployed jobseekers in France has just soared to another brand new record high.

#6 Economies all over Europe are either showing no growth or are shrinking.  Just check out what a recent Forbes article had to say about the matter...
Italy's economy shrank by 0.1% in the first three months of 2014, matching the average of the three previous quarters. After expanding 0.6% in Q2 2013, France recorded zero growth. Portugal shrank 0.7%, following positive numbers in the preceding nine months. While figures weren't available for Greece and Ireland in Q1, neither country is showing progress. Greek GDP dropped 2.5% in the final three months of last year, and Ireland limped ahead at 0.2%.

#7 A few days ago it was reported that consumer prices in Japan are rising at the fastest pace in 32 years.
#8 Household expenditures in Japan are down 8 percent compared to one year ago.

#9 U.S. companies are drowning in massive amounts of debt, but the corporate debt bubble in China is so bad that the amount of corporate debt in China has actually now surpassed the amount of corporate debt in the United States.

#10 One Chinese auditor is warning that up to 80 billion dollars worth of loans in China are backed by falsified gold transactions.  What will that do to the price of gold and the stability of Chinese financial markets as that mess unwinds?

#11 The unemployment rate in Greece is currently sitting at 26.7 percent and the youth unemployment rate is 56.8 percent.

#12 67.5 percent of the people that are unemployed in Greece have been unemployed for over a year.

#13 The unemployment rate in the eurozone as a whole is 11.8 percent - just a little bit shy of the all-time record of 12.0 percent.

#14 The European Central Bank is so desperate to get money moving through the system that it has actually introduced negative interest rates.

#15 The IMF is projecting that there is a 25 percent chance that the eurozone will slip into deflation by the end of next year.

#16 The World Bank is warning that "now is the time to prepare" for the next crisis.

#17 The economic conflict between the United States and Russia continues to deepen.  This has caused Russia to make a series of moves away from the U.S. dollar and toward other major currencies.  This will have serious ramifications for the global financial system as time rolls along.

#18 Of course the U.S. economy is struggling right now as well.  It shrank at a 2.9 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2014, which was much worse than anyone had anticipated.

But if U.S. economic numbers look a bit better for the second quarter, that doesn't mean that we are out of the woods.

As I have stressed so many times, the long-term trends and the long-term balance sheet numbers are far, far more important than the short-term economic numbers.

For example, if you went to the mall today and spent a thousand dollars on candy and video games, your short-term "economic activity" would spike dramatically.  But your long-term financial health would take a significant turn for the worse.

Well, when we are talking about the health of the U.S. economy or the entire global financial system we need to keep the same kinds of considerations in mind.

As for the United States, whether the level of our debt-fueled short-term economic activity goes up a little bit or down a little bit is not what is truly important.

Rather, the fact that we are nearly 60 trillion dollars in debt as a society is what really matters.

The same thing applies for the globe as a whole.  Right now, the citizens of the planet are more than 223 trillion dollars in debt, and "too big to fail" banks around the world have at least 700 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.

So it doesn't really matter too much whether the short-term economic numbers go up a little bit or down a little bit right now.  The whole system is an inherently flawed Ponzi scheme that will inevitably collapse under its own weight.

Let us hope that this period of relative stability lasts for a while longer.  It is a good thing to have time to prepare. 


But you would have to be absolutely insane to think that the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world is never going to burst.

[Warph]

ANATOMY OF A CONSPIRACY: Graphic Illustrates the IRS-FEC-DOJ-Senate-Obama Collusion to Target Political Opponents.
The government watchdog group Judicial Watch is the unsung hero of the 2014 election cycle. It was JW -- not John Boehner's feckless hodgepodge of committees -- that uncovered the true depth of the IRS scandal. It was JW -- not Darrell Issa's bumbling Oversight Committee -- that discovered every critical email related to the felonious plot to target Democrats' opponents

Anatomy of a Government Conspiracy

IRS Scandal Timeline

Credit: Raquel DeSouza, Miranda Watson & the Investigative Department

2009

February 3- The FEC asks the IRS if they have granted tax exempt status to Tea Party groups. Lois Lerner, former Director of the IRS Tax Exempt Division, "gave the FEC the tax returns of the groups, including income, expenditures and staff pay" on conservative groups American Future Fund and American Issues Project. (Bedard, P.,Oct. 13, 2013. IRS' Lois Lerner gave confidential tea party tax info to FEC, violating law. Washington Examiner. Retrieved from http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-lois-lerner-gave-confidential-tea-party-tax-info-to-fec-violating-law/article/2538263)

2010

March 10- IRS starts targeting on conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) non-profit, tax exempt status. (Erb, K. P, May 7, 2014. Updated: Timeline of IRS tax exempt organization scandal. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/05/07/updated-timeline-of-irs-tax-exempt-organization-scandal/)

July 6 2010- Holly Paz emailed Steven Grodnitzky, an attorney in the IRS' Exempt Organization Technical Unit, in order to inform him about how her department of the IRS has been "handling Tea Party applications in the last few months" and to notify other top IRS officials of the same information. Grodnitzky replied by saying:

"EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cindy, IRS Exempt Organization Unit in Cincinnati. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with Rob [believed to be Rob Choi, then the director of the IRS' Rulings and Agreements]." (Fitton, T. May 19, 2014. Judicial Watch's IRS investigation leads directly to Washington. BreitBart. Retrieved from http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/19/Judicial-Watch-s-IRS-Investigation-Leads-Directly-to- Washington)

2011

The Leadership Institute was audited in 2011 and 2012. They were "operating as a tax-exempt organization since 1979." (Fitton, T., October 2013. Obama IRS scandal updates: Did Obama issue attack order against conservatives? The Verdict, 19(10), 20-21.)

The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute had their first audit. They have been "in business for over a decade." (Fitton, Verdict, October 2013)

June 29- Lerner learned about targeting conservative groups that have "Patriots" and "Tea Party" in their names. (Everyone knew... except the president? n.d. GOP. Retrieved from http://www.gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/everyone-knew_graphic.jpg)

2012

"The IRS scrutinized in 2012" 11 conservative and Tea Party groups; there was a BOLO, "be on the lookout," list for these groups. These groups were intensely questioned; they were "asked for printouts of Facebook posts. And it asked what books people were reading...the agency wanted to know everything- in some cases, it even seemed curious what members were thinking." (Fitton, T., July 2013. Judicial Watch investigates historic Obama IRS scandal. The Verdict, 19(7).)

March 12- Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Sheldon Whitehouse, and others "write a letter calling on the IRS to scrutinize conservative groups allegedly masquerading as 501(c)(4) "social welfare organizations." (The IRS scandal: Timeline, n.d. DiscovertheNetworks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1935)

March 22- Douglas Shulman, former IRS Commissioner and Wilkins's boss, testifies before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. He said there was "absolutely no targeting." (Erb, May 7, 2014)

March 30- Democratic Senator, Carl Levin, writes to then IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, asking "if the IRS has been sending out additional information requests to applicant groups, and he cites an IRS rejection letter to a conservative group as an example of how the IRS should be conducting its business." ("The IRS scandal," n.d.)

April 23- William Wilkins, Chief Counsel of the IRS, "met with Obama in the Roosevelt Room of the White House." (Fitton, Verdict, October 2013) It's unclear as to what was discussed in this meeting.

April 24- Wilkins visits the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Both "Wilkins and Shulman are the only presidential appointees inside the IRS." (Fitton, Verdict, October 2013)

April 25- "William Wilkins sends additional comment on the draft guidance for reviewing tea party tax exempt applications, per the IRS Inspector General's investigation and resulting report." (Fitton, Verdict, October 2013)

May 3- Steven T. Miller, former IRS Acting Commissioner, finds out about the IRS political targeting. ("Everyone knew ...except the president, n.d.)

June- For the past 27 months, "not a single Tea Party-type organization received tax exempt status." (Judicial Watch, September 2013. JW educational event exposes stunning developments regarding Obama IRS abuse scandal. The Verdict, 19(9).)

2013

March 27- Lois Lerner emails top IRS staff discussing an upcoming hearing held by Sheldon Whitehouse, Democratic Senator for Rhode Island. She enunciated the fact that the goal of the hearing was to target political parties. (Judicial Watch, June 2014. JW uncovers smoking-gun IRS records: FEC and justice discussed jailing Obama's political opponents. The Verdict, 20(6).)

April 9- Sheldon Whitehouse holds a hearing where "in questioning the witnesses from the DOJ and the IRS, [he] asked why they have not prosecuted 501(c)(4) groups that have seemingly made false statements about their political activities." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 1&2- Lois Lerner sends staff members multiple emails, "desperately scrambling to diffuse the emerging targeting scandal." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 3- Steven T. Miller, former IRS Acting Commissioner, finds out about the IRS political targeting. ("Everyone Knew ...Except the President, n.d.)

May 8- Lerner sends Nikole C. Flax, then IRS Chief of Staff, an email discussing the fact that she got a call from Richard Pilger, Director of the Elections Crime Branch at the Department of Justice: "He wanted to know who at the IRS the DOJ folk could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who 'lied' on their 1024s- saying they weren't planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 9- Nikole C. Flax sends Lerner an email: "I think we should do it- also need to include CI [Criminal Investigation Division], which we can help coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it makes sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 10- Lerner confesses at an American Bar Association meeting, that specific groups were targeted based on the title of the group or their political beliefs. She calls this: "absolutely incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate." (Erb, May 7, 2014)

-Lerner blames "'low-level" employees in Cincinnati for targeting tax-exempt organizations." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

-Lerner sends an email to an aide relating to information for a Washington Post reporter. She states that she: "can't confirm that there was anyone on the other side of the political spectrum [targeted by the IRS]...the one with the names used were only know [sic] because they have been very loud in the press." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 14- Steven T. Miller resigns. In his internal memo to IRS staff, he states: "This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency. I believe the Service will benefit from having a new Acting Commissioner in place during this challenging period." (Hicks, J.,May 16, 2013. Steven Miller's resignation memo to IRS employees. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/05/16/steven-millers-resignation-memo-to-irs-employees/)

-The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) releases report stating that in early 2010, "the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organization applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors." They also "delayed processing of targeted groups' applications preparing for the 2012 presidential election." (Judicial Watch, Verdict, December 2013)

May 15- An IRS aide writes an email to Lerner that cites "Tea Party Organizations," "Tea Party Movement," and "Patriots," as groups that the IRS targeted. (Judicial Watch, Verdict, June 2014)

May 20- Judicial Watch files three FOIA requests to the IRS. (Judicial Watch, Verdict, December 2013)

May 22- Judicial Watch files their fourth FOIA request to the IRS. (Judicial Watch, Verdict, December 2013)
Lerner pleads the Fifth to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (Erb, May 7, 2014)

May 23-Lerner goes on administrative, paid leave. (Erb, May 7, 2014)

June 12- "The use of BOLO lists is officially suspended." (Erb, May 7, 2014)

August 9- Judicial Watch files their fifth FOIA request to the IRS. (Judicial Watch, Verdict, December 2013)

September 23- Lerner retires following an internal investigation finding that she was guilty of "neglect of duties" and should be fired. (Judicial Watch, Verdict, December 2013)

October 9- Judicial Watch files FOIA lawsuit against the IRS. (Judicial Watch, December 2013)

2014

April 8- The Ways and Means Committee says they will "pursue contempt charges against Lerner." (Erb, May 7, 2014)

May 14- J. Russell George, head of the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration files a report entitled "Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review." This report "identified the targeting of Tea Party groups."

June 13- "Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued [a statement] regarding the Internal Revenue Service informing the Committee that they have lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of January 2009-April 2011. Due to a supposed computer crash, the agency only has Lerner emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame. The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices." (Swinehart, Sarah, June 13, 2014 . IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails. Retrieved from http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=384506)


References

Ambord, T. & Eyden, T. (June 27 2013). IRS scandal shifts focus to Russell George. AccountingWeb. Retrieved from http://www.accountingweb.com/article/irs-scandal- shifts-focus-russell-george/222010

Bedard, P. (Oct. 13, 2013). IRS' Lois Lerner gave confidential tea party tax info to FEC, violating law. Washington Examiner. Retrieved from http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs- lois-lerner-gave-confidential-tea-party-tax-info-to-fec-violating-law/article/2538263

Erb, K. P. (May 7, 2014). Updated: Timeline of IRS tax exempt organization scandal. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/05/07/updated- timeline-of-irs-tax-exempt-organization-scandal/

Everyone knew... except the president? (n.d.) GOP. Retrieved from http://www.gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/everyone-knew_graphic.jpg

Fitton, T. (May 19 2014). Judicial Watch's IRS investigation leads directly to Washington. BreitBart. Retrieved from http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/19/Judicial-Watch-s-IRS-Investigation-Leads-Directly-to- Washington

Fitton, T. (July 2013). Judicial Watch investigates historic Obama IRS scandal. The Verdict, 19(7).

Fitton, T. (October 2013). Obama IRS scandal updates: Did Obama issue attack order against conservatives? The Verdict, 19(10), 20-21.

Hicks, J. (May 16, 2013). Steven Miller's resignation memo to IRS employees. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/05/16/steven-millers-resignation-memo-to-irs-employees/

IRS who's who: Lerner, Shulman (May 21, 2013). The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/21/irs-whos-who-schulman-george-miller/

Judicial Watch. (June 2014). JW uncovers smoking-gun IRS records: FEC and justice discussed jailing Obama's political opponents. The Verdict, 20(6).

Judicial Watch. (May 14, 2014). Judicial Watch: New documents show IRS HQ control of tea party targeting. Retrieved from http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-documents-show-irs-hq-control-tea-party-targeting/

Judicial Watch. (September 2013). JW educational event exposes stunning developments regarding Obama IRS abuse scandal. The Verdict, 19(9).

Judicial Watch. (December 2013). Judicial Watch sues IRS for tea party scandal records. The Verdict, 19(11), 1-4.

The IRS scandal: Timeline. (n.d.) DiscovertheNetworks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1935

Selyukh, A. (May 17, 2013). Factbox: Key players in the IRS scandal. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/17/us-usa-irs-people-idUSBRE94G0VB20130517

Swinehart, Sarah, June 13, 2014 . IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails. Retrieved from http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=384506)

[Warph]

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

By Michael Snyder, on July 22nd, 2014

Why are so many plagues hitting the United States all of a sudden?  Yes, one can always point out bad stuff that is happening somewhere in the country, but right now we are facing a nightmarish combination of crippling drought, devastating wildfires, disastrous viruses, dying crops and superbugs that scientists don't know how to kill.  And as you will see, we even have a plague of flies down in Mississippi.  So what in the world is going on?  Is this just a case of bad luck, or is something else happening?  At the conclusion of this article, please feel free to tell me what you think. 

The following are ten plagues that are hitting America right now...

#1 The Plague Of Flies In The Upper Mississippi River Valley
This is perhaps the least dangerous plague, but it is also one of the most interesting.  Just recently, a plague of flies was so thick in the upper Mississippi River valley that it showed up on radar...

The mayflies were detectable on radar around 845 pm and reports in the towns and cities began rolling in of the swarming and piles of mayflies. Numerous videos and pictures were circulating on social media, some of which are posted below as well.

The radar detected the flies about 845 pm, emanating from the river (the source) with echo values similar to that of light-moderate rain (35-40 dBZ). With a general south-to-north wind flow above the surface, the mayflies quickly moved north once in the air. As the flies dispersed moving north-northeast, they also gained altitude with some of the echo being detected as far north as Black River Falls and as high as 2500 feet above ground.

By late evening, mayflies were swarming in La Crosse, La Crescent, Stoddard and points up and down the river. While the emergence of mayflies from their river bottom mud dwelling can occur at various times through the warm season depending on the species, this particular emergence was that of the larger black/brown Bilineata species.

Here is one photo of the flies that was posted by the federal government:

#2 The Chikungunya VirusAs I wrote about the other day, down in Florida health officials have discovered the very first confirmed cases of the chikungunya virus to be transmitted locally.  In other words, it is now being passed to people that have not even traveled out of the country.

An epidemic of the virus has already been declared down in Puerto Rico, and authorities are deeply concerned about the possibility of one up here as well.

Already, cases of the virus have been reported in 30 different states and the total number of cases in the U.S. is more than five times higher than in any other recent year.

If you live in an area that has a lot of mosquitos, you might want to be very, very careful right about now because this is a virus that is exceedingly painful...

With illness onset, the person develops high fever, chills, and joint pain, followed in some by a rash on the trunk, limbs and face lasting 3-4 days. Muscle and joint pain last about one week. Joint pain is often severe and in some people lasts longer, up to several months.


#3 The Wildfires Out West
The massive wildfires in Washington, Oregon and western Canada have spread clouds of smoke over vast areas of the northwest United States in recent days.  The following excerpt comes from a recent CNN report...

Wildfires spanning almost 170,000 acres are driving hundreds of people from their homes in Washington state and across the border in Canada, officials said.

Washington authorities say the fires surged overnight to 168,713 acres in the state. The flames have encroached on towns.

Janet Pearce of the Washington state Department of Natural Resources said the four fires had not been contained as of Friday morning. An estimated 80 homes were destroyed and cell phone service was knocked out.


#4 The Drought In California
The nightmarish multi-year drought in the state of California just continues to get even worse.

This week it was reported that 81 percent of California is now experiencing "extreme drought" or worse.

Three months ago, that number was just 68 percent.

And we are being told that downtown Los Angeles is now the driest that it has been since rain records began in 1877.

For much, much more on this, please see my recent article entitled "20 Signs The Epic Drought In The Western United States Is Starting To Become Apocalyptic".


#5 The Virus That Has Killed Millions Of Our Pigs
A horrific pig virus known as porcine epidemic diarrhea came over from China a little over a year ago.

Since then, it has killed about 7 million pigs, and approximately 100,000 more are dying each week.


#6 Citrus Greening
Have you ever heard of citrus greening disease?

Perhaps not, but it has gotten so bad down in Florida that experts are now saying that the entire citrus industry in the state "could be destroyed"...

"It's horrible — it's a disaster," says Fred Gmitter, a professor of horticulture science at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center.

It might be time to kiss your OJ goodbye, unless science steps in to save the day.

At least 70% of Florida's citrus trees are already infected by the disease, known as citrus greening, huanglongbing, or occasionally just with an ominous "it," as in "It's here."

Florida's citrus crop this year is the lowest it's been in 30 years, and agricultural authorities have continued to lower their production estimates. Orange-juice prices are up nearly 20% this year alone and will continue to rise. The disease was a major factor in the lime shortage that made the price of a box of Persian limes jump from $18 to $85 last December. Prices could jump higher for oranges. Researchers and growers say that if a cure isn't found, the entire $9 billion Florida citrus industry could be destroyed.


#7 Bananas Going Extinct?

Your bananas are not safe either.

According to CNBC, the TR4 fungus is spreading so rapidly that it could eventually totally wipe out the variety of bananas that we find in our grocery stores today...

Banana lovers take note: The world's supply of the fruit is under attack from a fungus strain that could wipe out the popular variety that Americans eat.

"It's a very serious situation," said Randy Ploetz, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida who in 1989 originally discovered a strain of Panama disease, called TR4, that may be growing into a serious threat to U.S. supplies of the fruit and Latin American producers.

"There's nothing at this point that really keeps the fungus from spreading," he said in an interview with CNBC.

While there are nearly 1,000 varieties of bananas, the most popular is the Cavendish, which accounts for 45 percent of the fruit's global crop—and the one Americans mostly find in their supermarkets.


8# The Number Of Earthquakes Is Increasing
For a long time, scientists tried to deny that the number of earthquakes is increasing.

But now, the USGS is finally admitting that the number of big earthquakes has doubled...

If you think there have been more earthquakes than usual this year, you're right. A new study finds there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979.

"We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded," said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California.
Fortunately, most of the earthquakes in the U.S. so far this year have been relatively small or have been in isolated areas.

But they have been popping up in very unusual areas (such as Oklahoma), and as seismic activity along the Ring of Fire continues to increase, it is probably only a matter of time before one of our major cities gets hit with a major tragedy.


#9 Superbugs
Thanks at least in part to the massive overuse of antibiotics, a new generation of superbugs is arising.  Scientists have no way to kill these superbugs, and according to experts they are finding their way "into healthcare facilities nationwide"...

Drug-resistant superbug infections have reached near-epidemic levels across U.S. hospitals, with an alarming 500% increase now documented in a study just published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America).

Lead author of the study, Dr. Joshua Thaden, warned "This dangerous bacteria is finding its way into healthcare facilities nationwide... A CRE epidemic is fast approaching... Even this marked increase likely underestimates the true scope of the problem given variations in hospital surveillance practices."

The study also found that an astonishing 94 percent of CRE infections were caused by healthcare activities or hospital procedures.


#10 Fukushima
The Fukushima nuclear disaster is the gift that just keeps on giving.

Hundreds of tons of radioactive water are being released into the Pacific on a continual basis, and this could potentially affect our oceans and our food chain for generations to come.

But it is a "slow motion disaster" that is already "old news", so most Americans don't think about it anymore.  But the truth is that there is a lot of evidence that it should be taken very seriously in this country.  For much more on this, please see this article.

In Japan, of course, things are even worse.

In fact, one Japanese doctor that was working in Tokyo says that radiation sickness is rampant in that city...

Since December 2011, I have conducted thyroid ultrasound examinations, thyroid function tests, general blood tests and biochemical tests on about 2000 people, mostly families in the Tokyo metropolitan area expressing concerns on the effects of radiation. I have observed that white blood cells, especially neutrophils, are decreasing among children under the age of 10. There are cases of significant decline in the number of neutrophils in 0-1 year-olds born after the earthquake (<1000). In both cases, conditions tend to improve by moving to Western Japan (Neutrophils 0–>4500). Patients report nosebleed, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary hemorrhage, skin inflammations, coughs and various other non-specific symptoms.
And this Japanese doctor believes that things are so dire that he says that the entire city of Tokyo should be evacuated...

Residents of Tokyo are unfortunately not in the position to pity the affected regions of Tohoku because they are victims themselves. Time is running short. I took an earlier step forward and evacuated to the west. My fellow doctors of medicine, I am waiting for you here. And to the people in Eastern Japan still hesitating, all my support goes to facilitating and enabling your evacuation, relocation, or a temporary relief in Western Japan.
Just like with Chernobyl, this radioactive material is going to silently make people sick and kill people all over globe for years to come, and most of them will never have any idea what is really happening to them.

[Warph]

Illegal Immigration And Gangs: Someday Our Cities Will Burn Because We Didn't Protect Our Borders

By Michael Snyder, on July 22nd, 2014

Did you know that the number of illegal immigrants that enter Texas each week is greater than the number of babies being born to citizens of that state?  The mainstream media is shining the spotlight very brightly on all of the children that are coming over, and there is a reason for that.  They are trying to tug on our heartstrings.  But there is another part of the story that you aren't hearing much about.  By refusing to protect our borders, Barack Obama has allowed hundreds of thousands of gang members to illegally enter the United States and settle in our major cities.  In many communities, gang activity is already wildly out of control, and someday our cities will burn because of the foolishness of the federal government.

The Obama administration knows that one out of every five illegal immigrants has a criminal record.  And we are not just talking about illegal immigrants taking "upskirt photos" of women like just happened in Texas.  We are also talking about rapists, murderers, drug dealers and hardcore gang members.

According to Texas state Senator Dan Patrick, illegal immigrants have been formally charged with nearly half a million crimes in his state over the past four years alone.  And he also says that there are "at least 100,000 illegal immigrant gang members" living in his state right now...

Hours before Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he would send National Guard troops to the border, Texas state Senator Dan Patrick said there are at least 100,000 illegal immigrant gang members in the state.

On Monday's The Laura Ingraham Show, Patrick, who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, said from 2008 to 2012, 143,000 illegal immigrant criminals were arrested and jailed in Texas. He said these were "hardened criminals, gang members, and other criminals that we identified as being in Texas illegally."

"We charged them with 447,000 crimes, a half-million crimes in four years, just in Texas, including over 5,000 rapes and 2,000 murders," Patrick said. "We estimate we have 100,000 gang members here illegally."
Why won't Obama do anything to stop this madness?

There are at least 70,000 gang members living in Obama's home city of Chicago.  Other estimates put that number closer to 100,000.  But everyone agrees that it is a number that is growing every day.

So it shouldn't surprise any of us that at least 40 people were shot in Chicago over one recent July weekend.

I just fear for what Chicago will look like when things get really bad in this country.  Many of our major cities are literally being transformed into tinderboxes that could erupt in flames at any time.

Overall, there are now approximately 1.4 million gang members living in the United States according to the FBI.  But that number is actually a few years old now, so the true number is undoubtedly far higher at this point.

In addition, we know that illegal immigrants make up approximately 30 percent of the total population in our federal, state and local prisons.

And yet we refuse to stop more waves of illegal immigrants from coming in.

Are we willingly committing national suicide?

Just the other day, I noted that Honduras has the highest murder rate on the entire planet and that the Mexican drug war has claimed more than 120,000 lives since 2006.

That is what is coming here if we allow this insanity to continue.

Unfortunately, political correctness reigns in America today.  Under current policies, our border agents are not even turning away minors with known gang affiliations that have gang tattoos all over them.  Just check out the following excerpt from a recent National Review article...

Border Patrol officials struggling to keep up with the increasing number of minors illegally crossing the Mexican border are not turning away persons with known gang affiliations. Chris Cabrera, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley, explained that a Border Patrol agent he represents helped reunite a teenage gang member with his family in the United States. Cabrera notes the young member of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a transnational criminal gang, had no criminal record in the U.S., but asks, "If he's a confirmed gang member in his own country, why are we letting him in here?"

"I've heard people come in and say, 'You're going to let me go, just like you let my mother go, just like you let my sister go. You're going to let me go as well, and the government's going to take care of us,'" Cabrera says. "Until we start mandatory detentions, mandatory removals, I don't think anything is going to change. As a matter of fact, I think it's going to get worse."

Art Del Cueto, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tucson, says agents who recognize the gang-affiliated tattoos of minors crossing the border must treat them the same as anybody else. He says these people are afforded the same rights provided to anyone crossing the border.
And according to the Border Patrol, some of these "processing centers" that we have seen pictures of lately are actually being used by the gangs to recruit more gang members...

According to Border Patrol sources, violent MS-13 gang members are using the Nogales processing center in Arizona as a recruitment hub and as a transfer point for gang members to get into the United States.

The Red Cross has set up phone banks inside the processing center so unaccompanied minors can make phone calls to family members inside the United States and back home in Central America. According to sources, those phones are also being used by MS-13 members to communicate with gang members already in the United States and operating in cities like Atlanta, New York and Chicago. Further, many teenaged males inside the facility have approached Border Patrol agents and have said gang members have tried to recruit them from shared cells. According to the FBI, MS-13 regularly targets middle and high school students for recruitment.

"The National Border Patrol Council believes there to be serious security issues at the Nogales Processing Center. Agents' hands are tied due to the policies governing the care and lodging of juveniles and this has allowed gang recruitment and activity to flourish amongst those being detained," vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Shawn Moran tells Townhall. "Customs and Border Protection needs to do more to ensure that gang members that are in custody at the NPC are identified, prosecuted, and prohibited from benefiting from this crisis."


(Barack Insane-Hussein Obuma can see all of this happening and yet he refuses to secure our borders.  This POS has ruined the U.S. for many years to come.  It will evenually come down to a civil war... KILLING these gang members like the filthy dogs they are.)

[Warph]

21 Ways To End The Phrase 'Americans Are So Broke...'

By Michael Snyder, on July 29th, 2014

Did you know that 77 million Americans have unpaid debts that are "in collections" and that Congress is actually thinking about letting post offices offer payday loans?  We live in a country where almost everyone is drowning in debt and where most people are either flat broke or very close to flat broke.  Years ago, "your Mama is so broke" jokes were all the rage, and at the rate we are going they could make a big comeback.  Some of my favorites were "your Mama is so broke she went to McDonald's and put a milkshake on layaway" and "your Mama is so broke your family ate cereal with a fork to save milk".  Unfortunately, the facts that I am about to share with you are not funny at all.  In fact, they are quite sobering. 

Yes, things are going fairly well for the elitists that live in the good areas of New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco right now, but most of the country is deeply struggling as our economic fundamentals continue to crumble.  Please share these numbers with as many people as you can, because we need people to understand that there has not been an "economic recovery" for most of America.  In fact, in many ways things just continue to get even worse. 

The following are 21 ways to end the phrase "Americans are so broke"...

1. Americans are so broke that about a third of them have debt collectors on their heels.  One recent study discovered that more than one out of every three adults in the United States has an unpaid debt that is "in collections".  That is a total of 77 million people.  In other words, the debt collection business in America is absolutely booming.

2. Americans are so broke that Congress is now actually considering allowing post offices to provide payday loans and check cashing services.

3. Americans are so broke that they are keeping their vehicles longer than ever.  The average age of vehicles on America's roads recently set a new all-time high of 11.4 years.

4. Americans are so broke that car dealers are having to go to extreme lengths to get new customers.  Last year, one out of every four auto loans in the United States was made to someone with subprime credit.

5. Americans are so broke that 52 percent of them cannot even afford the homes that they are living in right now.

6. Americans are so broke that they are falling farther behind on their student loans than ever.  The total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. has now reached a whopping 1.2 trillion dollars, and approximately seven million Americans are in default on their student loans at this point.

7. Young Americans are so broke that half of all college graduates are still relying on their parents financially when they are two years out of school.

8. Young Americans are so broke that only 36 percent of American adults under the age of 35 currently own a home.  That is the lowest level that has ever been recorded.

9. Americans are so broke that many of them can't even afford to shop at Wal-Mart and dollar stores anymore...

Discount stores are slowly dying.

Yesterday, Dollar Tree announced it would buy Family Dollar, a chain that is in the process of closing hundreds of stores and firing workers.

Other discount stores have been struggling as well, writes Heidi Moore at The Guardian. Fashion discounter Loehmann's filed for bankruptcy, while Wal-Mart's sales have declined for the past five quarters.

"There's just not enough money deployed by American families to keep all the discount chains in business," Moore writes.

10. Americans are so broke that they are running up record levels of debt.  Overall, U.S. households are
11.68 trillion dollars in debt right now.

11. Americans are so broke that the wealth of the "typical American household" has fallen by 36 percent over the past decade.

12. Americans are so broke that one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.

13. Americans are so broke that more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.

14. Americans are so broke that there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.

15. Americans are so broke that the number of people on food stamps has increased by about 14 million while Obama has been in the White House.  Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin.  But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.

16. Americans are so broke that the U.S. government has had to spend an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.

17. Americans are so broke that more than 20 percent of all children in the U.S. are living in poverty.

18. Americans are so broke that we have a record number of kids sleeping in the streets.  In fact, we have more than a million public school children that are homeless at this point.

19. Americans are so broke that 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

20. Americans are so broke that 26 percent of Americans have absolutely no emergency savings whatsoever.

21. Americans are so broke that approximately two-thirds of all Americans do not have enough money saved up to cover six months of expenses if an emergency arose.

If things are this bad now, during the so-called "economic recovery", how bad will things get during the next major economic downturn?

Unfortunately, most Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security.  The financial crisis of 2008 seems like ancient history to most of them now, and most people appear to believe that our leaders have "fixed" whatever was wrong the last time.

Of course that is not the case at all.  In fact, our long-term problems have just continued to grow since then.

The truth is that what we are experiencing right now is about as good as things are going to get for the U.S. economy.  When the next crisis arrives, all of the numbers in the list above are going to rapidly get a lot worse.

So enjoy the rest of this "bubble" while you still can.  It certainly will not last for too much longer.