Category: Uncategorized

The US Government Is Bankrupt

Doug Casey

Lou Rockwell.com, 16 January 2012

EXTRACT:

To sum up the situation, given its financial condition and the political forces working to worsen it, the US government is facing a completely impossible and irremediable situation. I'm going to try to illustrate that here. But because I'm a perpetual optimist, not a gloom-and-doomer, I'm also going to give you solutions to the purely financial problems – albeit with some good news and some bad news. The good news is, there actually are solutions. The bad news is that there is zero chance that any of them will be put into effect.

. . . . . . .

Is there any chance that the US government can reform and go back to a sustainable basis at this point? I'd say no. Its descent started in earnest with the Spanish-American War in 1898, when it acquired its first foreign possessions (Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, etc). It accelerated with the advent of the income tax and the Federal Reserve in 1913. It accelerated further with World War I, when the government took over the economy for 18 months. The New Deal and World War II made the state into a permanent major feature in the average American's life. The Great Society made free food, housing and medical care a feature. The final elimination of any link of the dollar to gold in 1971 ensured ever-increasing levels of currency inflation. The Cold War and a series of undeclared wars (Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq) cemented the military in place as a permanent focus of the government. And since 9/11, the curve has gone hyperbolic with the War on Terror. It's been said that war is the health of the state. We have lots more war on the way, and that will expand the state's spending. But the Greater Depression will be an even bigger drain, and it will likely destroy the middle class as an unwelcome bonus.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  The most significant error in the above, but an error that compounds the  warning rather than diminishing it, is that the military portion is shown as 24% when it is actually closer to 50%.  See this illustration.  We are asking the author for his opinion of the Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax.

See Also:

BALANCED BUDGET

A Tax Revolution – Replace All Taxes On Few with One Tiny Tax on All Transactions Including Stock and Currency Trades
….1 21st Century Governance Revenue (Plain English)
….2 21st Century Governance Revenue (Business-Speak)
….3 21st Century Governance Revenue (Economist-Speak)
….4 Dr. Edgar Feige, Professor of Economics
….5 References on Government Revenue and Economy
B National Security Fundamentals
C Protecting Social Security & MEDICARE
D Obvious Needed Cuts

Graphic: US Defense Spending 2000-2011 ($B)

Graphic: US DoD Budget 1948-2011

Graphic: US Dollar Decline (4 Periods Compared)

Washington Moves The World Closer To War

Since my January 11 column and the news alert posted on January 14 , more confirmation that Washington is moving the world toward a dangerous war has appeared. The Obama regime is using its Ministry of Propaganda, a.k.a., the American media, to spread the story that President Obama, Pentagon chief Panetta, and other high US officials are delivering strong warnings to Israel not to attack Iran.

For someone as familiar with Washington as I am, I recognize these reports for what they are. They are Br’er Rabbit telling Br’er Fox “please don’t throw me in the briar patch.”

. . . . . .

You get the picture. The helpless Americans. They are being bullied by Israel into acquiescing to a dangerous war. Otherwise, no more campaign contributions.

The facts are different. If Washington did not want war with Iran it would not have provided the necessary weapons to Israel. It would not have deployed thousands of US troops to Israel, with a view toward the American soldiers being killed in an Iranian response to Israel’s attack, thus “forcing” the US to enter the war. Washington would not have built a missile defense system for Israel and would not be conducting joint exercises with the Israeli military to make sure it works.

Read full article.

Voters Choice: Ron Paul or Bibi Netanyahu

William A. Cook

VeteransToday, 15 January 2012

A curious glance at the current crop of presidential candidates makes it clear that Ron Paul stands alone when it comes to the issue of US engagement in foreign wars. He stands with George Washington against foreign entanglements while the rest of the candidates stand with Teddy Roosevelt and the attempted creation of America’s first empire one hundred and twelve years ago. Mark Twain responded to that effort by creating the Anti-imperialist society while he caustically satirized the effort in his depiction of the massacre of the Moros in the Philippines. Now we have more massacres, using drones instead of canons, on equally hapless civilians who are caught unawares or hiding from the wrath of America’s righteousness as we drive to bring virtue to a primitive world.

Today America has an estimated 700 military installations in about 140 nations around the world; its bases surround Iran as does its nuclear capability, and it is engaged in executive “wars” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Palestine. All of this while carrying a debt that exceeds thirteen trillion dollars, cutting budgets in education, medical care and social security, and retaining a Pentagon budget that exceeds that of the 16 declared developed nations combined. And to top it all off, we are considering armed aggression against Iran that could plunge America into the biggest war since WW II. Why?

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  There is also Stephen Colbert, co-sponsor of the Rally to Restore Sanity.

See Also:

Journal: It Takes a Comic (or Two)…to Rebuild a Nation

Journal: Third Party Desired by 58% in America + ReCap

Reference: Rally to Restore Sanity–An American Moment

Terrorist Defilement or Honoring a Hero, Which Truth Do We Believe?

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Private note from the real CIA:  “BE ASSURED ” TIM OSMAN “ APPRECIATES YOUR HUMANE EFFORTS”

EXTRACT:

Every word said about Osama bin Laden is a categorical lie in the same vein as almost every other public statement made by President George “W” Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a number of other officials.

. . . . . .

Add to this similar lies about 9/11 and WMDs in Iraq, the rigged elections, endless crimes covered up, trillions of missing dollars, and we have what we have, government by organized crime.  But you may still believe that Osama bin Laden took credit for 9/11?

. . . . . .

Two weeks ago,CIA Director Leon Panetta told the press the CIA had not been able to positively confirm any specific information on Osama bin Laden since “late 2000.”

Interviews with high ranking military and intelligence officials, some at the highest levels, have confirmed that all evidence lends toward Osama bin Laden’s death in December 2001.

. . . . . .

To find bin Laden’s current grave, will require some effort.  He died, as was announced in the press, December 13, 2001, near Tora Bora in Afghanistan of advanced kidney disease after a number of treatments, several at US military hospitals.

His remains were recovered, according to the CIA, by a Special Forces unit and transported to a location in the Persian Gulf.  These facts have received multiple confirmations.

Read full article with several video and photo inserts.

Phi Beta Iota:  This matter remains to be properly investigated.  There are at least five CIAs, we have no idea as to the actual relationship of the author with whichever version of CIA he is in touch with.  While vitrolic in nature, the general sense of the above contribution from Gordon Duff merits respectful consideration.

See Also:

Bin Laden Show 14: Dr. Dr. Steve Pieczenik Nails It–Bin Laden Died of Marfan in 2001–Reiterates (Has Proof) 9/11 Was a Cheney-Led Stand-Down False Flag Operation. Indictment?

Bin Laden Show: Entries 01-78 UPDATED 15 Jan 2012

Boing Boing will go dark on Jan 18 to fight SOPA

By Cory Doctorow

BooingBoing, 14 January 2012

On January 18, Boing Boing will join Reddit and other sites around the Internet in “going dark” to oppose SOPA and PIPA, the pending US legislation that creates a punishing Internet censorship regime and exports it to the rest of the world. Boing Boing could never co-exist with a SOPA world: we could not ever link to another website unless we were sure that no links to anything that infringes copyright appeared on that site.

So in order to link to a URL on LiveJournal or WordPress or Twitter or Blogspot, we'd have to first confirm that no one had ever made an infringing link, anywhere on that site. Making one link would require checking millions (even tens of millions) of pages, just to be sure that we weren't in some way impinging on the ability of five Hollywood studios, four multinational record labels, and six global publishers to maximize their profits.

If we failed to take this precaution, our finances could be frozen, our ad broker forced to pull ads from our site, and depending on which version of the bill goes to the vote, our domains confiscated, and, because our server is in Canada, our IP address would be added to a US-wide blacklist that every ISP in the country would be required to censor.

This is the part of the post where I'm supposed to say something reasonable like, “Everyone agrees that piracy is wrong, but this is the wrong way to fight it.”

But you know what? Screw that.

Even though a substantial portion of my living comes from the entertainment industry, I don't think that any amount of “piracy” justifies this kind of depraved indifference to the consequences of one's actions. Big Content haven't just declared war on Boing Boing and Reddit and the rest of the “fun” Internet: they've declared war on every person who uses the net to publicize police brutality, every oppressed person in the Arab Spring who used the net to organize protests and publicize the blood spilled by their oppressors, every abused kid who used the net to reveal her father as a brutalizer of children, every gay kid who used the net to discover that life is worth living despite the torment she's experiencing, every grassroots political campaigner who uses the net to make her community a better place — as well as the scientists who collaborate online, the rescue workers who coordinate online, the makers who trade tips online, the people with rare diseases who support each other online, and the independent creators who use the Internet to earn their livings.

The contempt for human rights on display with SOPA and PIPA is more than foolish. Foolishness can be excused. It's more than greed. Greed is only to be expected. It is evil, and it must be fought.

SOPA Strike is compiling a list of sites that are also going dark for Jan 18. If you want an Internet where human rights, free speech and the rule of law are not subordinated to the entertainment industry's profits, I hope you'll join us on it.

Thank you.

Report calls for prosecution of top government officials for acts of torture

People's Blog for the Constitution, 11 January 2012

EXTRACT:

For those who would like to see torturers brought to justice, a recent report issued by Human Rights USA and the American University Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic, INDEFENSIBLE: A Reference for Prosecuting Torture and Other Felonies Committed By U.S. Officials Following September 11th, is a step in the right direction. The report details the way in which the Bush administration issued policies which authorized abuse and created a legal rationale in support of illegal interrogation techniques, and calls for the investigation and prosecution of senior officials responsible for torture.

Karl Denninger is an amazing human being who combines history and mathematics to draw documented conclusions on energy, money, and other topics.

Click on his photo to see his DuckDuckGo line up.

Here is just one of his impressive pieces.

Let's Talk About An ACTUAL Energy Policy