2013 Reviews

Review: Well, it's another year and another chance to see what we've gotten right and what we just flat out face planted on. Some huge, if seemingly no-brainer hits included the backlash on Obamacare, the Syrian 'war', Facebook's decline and the evisceration of Constitutional rights. Misses included Apple's sales decrease, the Fed's failure to target assets and no countries leaving the EU. 

As always, reviews are in red and if you disagree, feel free to set us right.

(20/29) 69% Correct.

Theme : The year the world changed, for the worse. "That" guy is to blame. 

Like a bad divorce or a separating business, the business practices that were not only acceptable 10 years ago but commendable, become the 'I told you so' moments of the new age. People begin to turn on one another in droves as they need a raison d'etre for their pain, anguish and empty checkbooks. Surely they are not responsible in any way. It was THAT man, over there. He did this. He did this to us! And he must pay!

War!

•  Since the differences between ideology and practices could not be sorted out publicly, it now turns to the battlefield.  Civil war begins its shift to national wars.
• Assassination -  At least one moderate to major head of state is taken out. (Assad?) (Hugo Chavez kicks the bucket, Venezuela's VP think he's being targeted, a Bulgarian man starts the race to see who's going first, Tunisia puts opposition candidate Chokri Belaid down, Egypt is worried,  Nelson Mandela died. +1/1)
• Nationalism continues to build with major globalists leading the charge. (Beware the atrocities that will follow)  UKIP leads the way with talks of exporting people, the NY Times notes the increase in 'non-democracy'. +1/1
• In light of this, a final case for globalism builds - Talk starts to reemerge about the selfish nature of nation states and how nationalism is one of the main factors driving war. (Religion being the other)
• At least 3 moderate/major wars. (Muslim vs Christian, East vs. West.) (Bloodshed continues in Syria, but no actual wars to speak of... +0/1)
• Far East
• China 
• Severs some ties with the west. (EU and the US)I would think this would be economic in form, perhaps selling of some bonds? (Declares a military zone in the east islands, threatens the US repeatedly. +1/1)
• North Korea
• Attempts to solidify the region come with the north and south once again attempt to end the war and join sides. (No real overtures here. +0/1)
• Critical to the success of this will be Washington's influence
• West
• US 
• Defense wise, the US slows down as a 'world super power' 
• Bahrain (5th fleet being ostensibly kicked out?) (Happening already...) 
• Syria - Unsuccessful at drawing in Hezbollah in 2012, the US appears to be doubling down and create the script of 'mass genocide' in Syria to justify an invasion. If it succeeds, NATO will lead the way and Iran will be next. (Talks of 'chemical weapons' migrating lead to an Israeli strike on Syria, but there are no overt invasions. +0/0)
• Iran - Iran continues to be second on the priority list. If Syria falls, Iran is next. (Several attempts to topple the Assad government failed. +0/0)
  
• Iraq - Contractors are targeted (Lots of civil war issues, no overt targeting of contractors. A report over the weekend explains 2013 has seen an Al Quaeda "surge" +1/1)
• Pakistan
• Afghanistan
• Africa (Mali kicks off the new year. Yemen gets droned massively, the 'kill list' gets expanded.)
• Libya
• Uganda
• Sudan
• Chad
• Special forces focus - The US will continue its slowdown in combat strength but will continue to increase its special forces projection. This will be visible in minor skirmishes in lots of countries.(Women get added to the mix. An intervention in Mali. A carrier cannot be refueled. in Afghanistan the Spec Ops are causing havoc +1/1)
• Draft - Because of the slowdown in troop strength, a legislative attempt at reenacting the draft is attempted. (Charlie Rangel is still trying. +1/1)
• Mideast -
• Syria
• Egypt
• Iran

Terrorism/Blowback

• CIA sponsored terror attacks increase with frequency as the destabilization efforts continue. (Ukraine, Russia... it appears that the old Soviet Union is the target now. +1/1)
• Unfortunately, the ability to determine the difference between 'false flags' and legitimate terror begins to wane as the local populaces fight back.
• A commercial airliner is shot down by terrorists. Most likely the ordinance will trace back to Syrian rebels, which in turn will be blamed on Iran. (Nope, big fat miss here +0/3)
• Civil war expands
•  US - As flash robberies (organized crime) continue, the local police departments become overwhelmed. Yet, their priorities are out of order as 'revenue generation' continues to be the top priority. (The knockout game surges, flash mobs grow in size, police continue to respond. This is a hard one to gauge. So we're going to nix this one. +0/0)
• Police splinter - Federal/DHS faction versus the local sheriff. (In some cases, very vocally.)
• DHS/TSA morphs into a 'control agency'. (Detention pods, robots... +1/1)
• Feds desperately try to buy off the local cops (Tons of 'free' military equipment is not exactly new, but it's becoming exceedingly commonplace +1/1)
• Constitutional war
• 1st: Social Media sites get pinched as Bloggers, FB and other media experiences a sort of crackdown as 'subversive' material is sent the way of the memory hole.(The White House threatens Woodward and Lanny Davis, Biden's press office forces a college student to delete pictures, myriads of examples of Youtube, Facebook censoring articles due to content. (Related: Putin dissolves state media) +2/2)
• 2nd: Gun registrations/confiscations with a low level at first, perhaps registrations as some sort of 'peace offer'  (And CT/Feinstein beat me to the punch) (The DOJ is talking confiscation and buybacks, confiscation continues especially in New York +1/1)
• 4th: Highway checkpoints increase moderately as the TSA embraces its new 'mandate'. (DPS checkpoints, Sacremento is pointing guns at people, Ferry checkpoints in Galveston, Texas, The airports receive more thorough "detention pods", they try to circumvent public opinion by making them 'optional'. +1/1)
• The Republicans march to war - (States vs the Fed) - One moderate miscalculation on my part was the assumption that the power struggle between secessionist Republicans vs Statist Democrats would be played out at the Federal level. While accurate in that this is exactly where the problem metastasized as a result of the Federal election results and the subsequent hissy fit, it seems as though the narrative is shifting to a State versus Federal contest.
• The resistance starts with Obamacare and plays out in other issues like gun control as Republican governors stand up against the Feds.*(Perry makes a scene, South Carolina is set to nullify Obamacare, +1/1)

Economics

• Asia deteriorates. Now that the Chinese miracle has been staggered, look for problems to materialize in the East. Japan should lead the way here as they are way overdue.(Abenomics stutters, and ultimately falls, yet the Nikkei had a huge rally +1/2)
• EU 
• One country attempts to leave the Union.(Scotland indirectly looks to leave, but no one heads for the doors...yet. +0/1)
• US
• The United States credit rating is downgraded again. (In a possible shock move, it gets hit twice) (Fitch warns over the credit ceiling +0/1)
• The Federal Reserve
• QE3 'fails' (Read as it doesn't save corporatists from their bad decisions.)
• The Fed cannot continue to kick the can, because it is no longer a can, it's an F-150. This does not mean they will not do it, merely that the effect of it will no longer matter. (Congress seems a bit concerned, QE Infinity takes over +1/1)
• Inflation rot begins to show. (People are certainly noticing the 'non-inflation' inflation.)
• The Fed moves to a 'targeted asset revaluation program' - Inflating the entire economy won't work, so now the Fed will just declare that an asset or company is not worth X but 2X. (Moving the US to an overt command and control economy) I would imagine that GM's 'success' would be used as a justification.(Nope, and it finally comes out the GM is a huge failure, to the tune of $10 BILLION... +0/2)
• Healthcare spending skyrockets exponentially. (At least +20%) Especially on a corporate and governmental level (THE story of 2013, besides Syria is Obamacare...Obamacare hits Americans massively a year before it takes effect. +1/1  Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers’ filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010. Massive premium increases all across the board ranging from 19% - 106%. The architect admits that you will pay more.)
• This blows up several base line projections from the government. (What should more properly be called an absolute detonation in costs. +1/1)
• At least 30% of companies move to 30 hour work weeks. (Massive amounts of employees see their hours cut. +1/1)
• The student bubble explodes, a moderate to major movement eventually comes out of the college-debt scene.
• Corporations
• Apple takes a major shot to the head as sales start declining massively (At least 10%) The fanbois scream in abject horror that Apple is just fine even as their stock plummets (A 50% decline in screens ordered, Q4 numbers show a diminishing profit margin - 6.1% YoY and does not exceed expectations, the stock is down 40%, sales end up being flat in the US. + 0/1)
• Facebook - Put a fork in FB. Users abandon in droves as they migrate to Twitter, Google and other accounts that don't either 1) Make unusable updates continually 2) Sell your data (600k users jump ship in December alone. FB admits they're on the way out. Everyone else notices. + 1/1)

Chicago Pension Collapse, Right On Schedule

From our dear leader's home town - 

The woes of the city and the state of Illinois – which has its own, worst-in-the-nation, $100bn unfunded pension liability – have been driven primarily by the government’s failure to pay its share to keep its pension promises.

But this month, after years of inaction, Illinois passed a bill to tackle its unfunded pension liability. The state hopes the new law will save $160bn over the next 30 years – savings that will come from cuts in retirement benefits for state workers and forcing the state to make its pension contributions. The law has won plaudits as a first step towards fiscal reform. But it comes only after repeated downgrades that have left Illinois with the lowest credit rating of any US state.

 This is what always happens with supply/demand -

1. A group demands more than can be adequately funded.
2. Said group provides either research that 'proves NEW ECONOMIC REALITY' or infiltrates the representatives in order to take over.
3. The group promises pie in the sky fantasy scenarios in which 'everyone can be rich!'
4. Conservative groups which, rightly, observe this scenario is completely unsustainable are demonized by the group and marginalized.
5. The scenario is completely realized including the conservative's predicted dire consequences.
6. The group either mutates into a 'totally new group' with another 'NEW ECONOMIC REALITY' or the group seeks to impose its will via force. (War)

Indeed, these actions are so reliable, that one can predict future events off of these:

 Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that these projections factor in an economic recovery and do not include the current housing crisis let alone the Depression. Following the government time rule of 1/3 (to factor in the propensity of government to massively step up their idiocy) that would mean Illinois will be bankrupt in 2015 without a housing crisis.

Now, where do we currently stand?

“The pension crisis is not truly solved until relief is brought to Chicago and all of the other local governments across our state that are standing on the brink of a fiscal cliff because of our pension liabilities,” Mr Emanuel said after the state deal.

The Chicago teachers’ pension fund is roughly 54 per cent funded, far below the 80 per cent threshold considered healthy. But it is better off than the city’s municipal workers, police, labour and firefighters’ pension funds, which Fitch, the credit rating agency, estimates are collectively 33 per cent funded.

Well, well, well... lookie here... Half funded eh? And of that half funding, how much of that is "toxic derivatives"? (Translation - Non-existent assets)

This vindicates many, myself included, who for decades have been shouting that it is impossible to do economic acrobatics and screaming for the incarceration of the fraudulent hucksters who set these messes up. Further, it completely discredits those who are unable to perform basic math in order to understand that this situation is only, going, to, get.....worse....

Iran - A Critical Distraction

Just when the administration is getting it's collective posterior handed to it in the polls, comes an ooooutraaageous bit of 'DistractaConservative' catnip -

The United States released $8 billion in frozen assets to Iran on Sunday in a move meant to ensure Tehran’s compliance with a nuclear pact signed over the weekend, according to top Iranian officials.

Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht confirmed on Monday morning that the U.S. government had unfrozen $8 billion in assets that had been previously blocked by the Obama administration.

The confirmation followed multiple reports of the release on Sunday in the Arab and Iranian news outlets.

Iran will be provided with about $7 billion in sanctions relief, gold, and oil sales under a nuclear deal inked late Saturday in Geneva with Western nations.

Iranian officials lauded the deal as a path to opening up greater trade relations between Iran and the world.

Instantly the pundisphere exploded with commentary, memes and general outrage that the Axis of Evil could be getting one over on the American people. Mass finger wag ensued as palpable utterances of 'This administration...' could be heard echoing across the virtual halls.

Congratulations conservatives, you just bit on the bait.

Conservatism Resurging

The Washington Times spills why one should never give up as long as a man is still standing -

The competition to be the next Ted Cruz is extremely hot within the Republican Party, where a number of emerging challengers are hoping to capitalize on the newest brand name in conservative politics.

In Kansas, Milton R. Wolf opened his fundraising pitch to supporters last week by asking them whether he could be the next Cruz candidate. In Mississippi, Chris McDaniel announced his campaign to unseat Sen. Thad Cochran last week and welcomed the comparison to Mr. Cruz, calling it “a compliment.”

Then there’s Ben Sasse, a university president running for Nebraska’s U.S. Senate seat, who set state fundraising records by opposing Obamacare. He told the Lincoln Journal Star last week that he would have voted with Mr. Cruz to keep the government shut down last week, saying it was a better option than continuing to spend and run up debt.

“They’re tapping into the anti-establishment feelings that are really running high among Republican primary voters,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP consultant.

In 2000, the GOP was riding high on George W. Bush's election victory and whispers started emerging of a 'new dawn' in politics in America.In 2004, 'Red Statism' surged into mainstream acceptance with some questioning if it was even possible for the Dems to win again. 2006 brought the "people" back to the forefront who rode the wave all the way to the Whitehouse in 2008 and again in 2012. In eight short years, we went from a "red America" to a "blue America" with pundits questioning if control can ever be wrested from the opposition.

Yet, underneath it all, the seeds to a new paradigm were forming. Perhaps the watershed moment was on February 19, 2009, when Santelli unleashed a tirade on the COMEX floor, excoriating the Obama administration for refinancing policy. But this rant found its genesis in the dashed Presidential aspirations in the 2008 elections. After being routinely denied, ignored and flat-out cheated, the movement needed a new outlet.

And here we stand, just five short years later, observing an absolute groundswell in traditional conservatism storming the ideological gates of the enemy.

In short, never give up, never surrender.

Return of The Real Effect

My apologies to all of the daily readers. The last 6 months have been an absolute blitzkrieg of "life events". I'm dusting off the keyboard and setting up some new posts, which should be up shortly.

Assassination, Not Just for the High Profile Problems

The administration is proving that it's the enemy -

According to journalist David Lindorff, the FBI planned to assassinate the leaders of the now moribund Occupy movement “via suppressed sniper rifles.”
Lindorff cites a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Washington, DC-based Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.
The redacted document obtained from the FBI in Houston states:

An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.

The FBI confirmed that the document is legitimate.

For all those naysayers out there who continue to hold their heads high, invoking "whack job" and "nutter", you will be called to account one day and your refusal to view evidence will not be sufficient cause to prevent your prosecutions.

Slovenia, the Next Shoe to Fall?

Where Cyprus has left off, Slovenia looks to start -

Slovenia’s credit rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited “turmoil” in the country’s banking industry and said the government would have to offer lenders more financial support.

The rating was lowered two levels to Ba1 from Baa2, on par with Turkey, Moody’s said today, assigning a negative outlook. Five members of the 17-nation euro area are now rated junk by Moody’s. Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings both rate Slovenia at A-, the fourth-lowest investment grade.

“The first key factor underpinning today’s rating action is the ongoing turmoil in the country’s banking system and the high likelihood that the sovereign will be required to provide further assistance and capital injections,” Moody’s said in an e-mailed statement from New York. “Asset quality at the banks deteriorated considerably in 2012 and has continued to deteriorate since.”

Slovenia, which before the rating action was on course to sell dollar-denominated benchmark bonds, is struggling with its second recession since 2009. The government is working to fix its ailing banking industry with a 900 million-euro ($1.2 billion) capital boost and the creation of a so-called bad bank to cleanse lenders’ balance sheets and aid economic recovery. A detailed overhaul plan is set to be presented to the European Commission in Brussels by May 9.

Bond-market history indicates that the utility of sovereign ratings may be limited. Almost half the time, yields on government bonds fall when a rating action by S&P and Moody’s suggests they should climb, according to data compiled by Bloomberg on 314 upgrades, downgrades and outlook changes going back as far as the 1970s.

The yield on the government’s dollar note due 2022 rose two basis points to 5.66 percent at 6:55 p.m. in Ljubljana. 

Banking, previously the only public industry which when making bad decisions was allowed to charge the losses to the taxpayers. Think of this for a moment. The bankers have two buckets, their deposit bucket and their speculative investment bucket. (Note the term speculation. Not a guarantee.) It used to be that such funds were to be kept separate, so that if the banks speculations failed, the depositors would receive their money back, but the speculators (From the fund manager, to the VP to the CEO) would rightfully lose their shirts!

But not the new banking model. No, here if you make deposits, those are forfeit upon bankster request. and if that's not enough, you as a private citizen are compelled to invest in these hair-brained ventures via a specialized investment vehicle called taxes.

So to recap I've made this handy dandy payment model which outlines some of your obligations and rewards:

• Special access to discount rates at Central Bank: Banksters
• Leverage ratios in excess of 100:1: Banksters (But you had better adhere to that 36% DTI ratio buddy!)
• Large dividends on SIV investments: Banksters
• Mark-to-model asset evaluation: Banksters
• Large corporate bonuses: Banksters
• Deposit forfeiture during "restructuring": Depositor
• Large penalties due to instant bank account leverage (Overdraft): Depositor
• Insurance obligation via "restructuring" banks: Taxpayer
• Complimentary bankster cup complete with corporate logo: All yours baby!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ~ 1 Peter 5:8

Much ink has been spilled over the condition of the economy, nation and the world with the opinions basically falling into one of two camps.1) Things have hit a temporary blip down and can and will/are recovering. 2) Things have fundamentally changed for the worse and the 'rules' by which we gauge things are also changing, thereby rendering much of the so-called analysis absolutely moot.

Consider for a moment a few of the recent headline grabbers -

• Gun control
• Boston 'Patriot' massacre
• Ricin letters
• Gold crush
• Bitcoin inflation/pop...
• Cyprus
• Insider trading legislation
• Six strike policy
• North Korea's rise in rhetoric
• Bullet and equipment acquisitions
• The dollar rolling over

The half-life of market intervention is shortening and the cost of each intervention is inversely proportional to its effectiveness. New highs in the Dow are relentless despite massive poverty, low level home ownership and other such metrics.

One who is assessing the current world landscape is left in the regrettable position of proclaiming that the rules are now defunct and that something truly evil is on the horizon.

Republican Constitutionalism

The Boston terr'ists aren't getting much love from the GOP -

Carney said that the department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder support not trying the terror suspect as an enemy combatant in addition to the entire national security team.

A number of Republicans have called on the Obama administration to declare Tsarnaev an enemy combatant and put him in military detention in order to gather intelligence from him.

““It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” a group of GOP lawmakers led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement Saturday.

“The suspect, based upon his actions, clearly is a good candidate for enemy combatant status. We do not want this suspect to remain silent,” the senators said.

Graham said Sunday that while he wants the Boston suspect held as an enemy combatant to gather intelligence, he also thinks that Tsarnaev should ultimately be moved into the federal courts for trial because he is an American citizen.

The Obama administration argues that it can gather intelligence from Tsarnaev in the federal system, and military detention is not necessary.

If there was ever any doubt that there is only one, anti-Constitutional party in the United States, this should obliterate any of those pretenses. Let us keep in mind that these are at this time merely suspects that have not been tried, let alone convicted in a court of law. To be certain, there is evidence that these are the guys, but that is exactly why we have courts of law, to ensure that the evidence is heard and that the rights of the suspects are preserved.

The nonsense continues -

Tsarnaev has not been read his Miranda rights yet, as the federal government has invoked an exemption that allows those rights to be waived temporarily when there is a threat to public safety. He remains in serious condition in a Boston hospital, according to the FBI.

I'm pretty sure that the 'public safety' exemption exists in order to permit the police to bag a suspect that poses an immediate threat to the surrounding public and prevent the suspect from getting off because the "timing" of the reading of his rights happened to trample his 'right' to wave a hand grenade at a bus full of children. The fact that it has been three days and they still haven't read him his rights (C'mon people, we're talking about informing a person that he has rights as a citizen) shows just how far down this cesspool of 'Get the bad guys' we've sunk. Further, I am personally aware of many individuals who posed absolutely zero risk to the public safety who never received so much as a phone call, let alone their rights.

I'd like to pose the following questions to Mr. Graham:

1. Every day, gang warfare in the cities claims multiple lives. Is the standard for law enforcement now such that the brutality of an alleged crime is enough to strip you of your citizenship? If so, why is this standard not applied to present members of known foreign cartels openly operating in the United States? MS13 is one that comes to mind...
2. Have we disposed with the notion of trial by a jury of your peers in the United States?
3. Do you support the President's position of assassination of American citizens?

Keep in mind, it is not the veracity of the charges levied against these two that concern me. It's the process that's targeting them that could be subsequently turned on others that is the far greater threat to the American peace and safety from a malicious Federal/State tyranny.

Update:
Apparently the Wall Street Jornal agrees with the Republicans -

Which brings us to interrogating 19-year-old Dzhokhar if he recovers from his wounds. The flap over reading his Miranda rights is a largely irrelevant distraction. Under a 1984 Supreme Court decision (New York v. Quarles), police can invoke a "public-safety exception" to Miranda for a short period of time. Attorney General Eric Holder has embraced this exception as a way to show that the criminal-justice system can handle terrorists as well as the law-of-war paradigm favored by the Bush Administration. 

That's right, because the Supreme Court makes the laws... Just how long is that "short period of time"?And what about...the torture?

The important security issue isn't convicting Dzhokhar but finding out what he knows that might prevent a future attack or break up a terror network. This is where naming him an enemy combatant would be useful. Such a designation allows for extensive, long-term interrogation without a lawyer.

 This should be very simple to understand. IT.IS.NOT.THE.JOB.OF.A.SUSPECT.TO.BE."USEFUL"!
The Wall Street Journal is here arguing that they should be able to wave their hand and declare you - Without Rights. Why? So they can do "extensive, long-term interrogation without a lawyer", newspeak for torture the crap out of you so they can 'extract info'. Oh but wait, the Supreme Court says - Yah, that's OK too..

The Supreme Court has ruled that even American citizens—Dzhokhar is one—can be held indefinitely as enemy combatants. If he cooperates, the combatant designation can be revoked and he can always be transferred to the criminal-justice system for prosecution.

What a FARCE. WHAT A JOKE. "If he cooperates..." Read as - Say what we want and we'll let you go. This turns the very idea of justice on its head! They even admit as much. Just like the Patriot Act, you're ALL suspects...

Boylston Street sure looked like a battlefield on Monday, and so did Watertown on Thursday night. The artificial distinction is Mr. Paul's focus on geography. The vital distinction for public safety is between common criminals, who deserve due process protections, and enemy combatants at war with the U.S., wherever they are.

Oh the humanity. How can we ever deal with individuals who want to kill people? They need special laws becau

As for due process, the greatest danger to liberty would be to allow more such attacks that would inspire an even greater public backlash against Muslims or free speech or worse. The anti-antiterror types on the left and GOP Senators who agree that the U.S. isn't part of the battlefield are making the U.S. more vulnerable.

Demonstrably false. Democide. Look it up.

Further, the ole' 'You ain't safe unless you do what we want' is beyond cliche at this point. Seriously? That's the best you got?

Chechen Terrorists? Facts and questions, questions, questions...

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 are now, by virtue of the fact that they are being reported on, guilty.  That isn't to say that they actually performed the acts, merely that very few people will actually ask any relevant questions about the case, merely accept that the police got their 'perp' and that justice has been done.(Just taking a gander around the Weekly Standard  raises this little gem - "...Authorities still have to carefully piece together the details of how the brothers became terrorists,")

Yet any casual look into the history of law enforcement, let alone high-profile cases, reveals that police will admit that they could care less if justice is being done, merely that the guy(s) that they suspect of committing the act are bagged. 

Now of course this doesn't mean the opposite, that they didn't perpetrate the acts, it merely illustrates that the act of being accused/suspected is insufficient evidence to convict. 

Motive

The one big thing that is lacking here is the most critical as always - motive. 

• "The brothers’ alleged motive in Monday’s bombings remains unclear..."
• "...two law enforcement officials said there is a “Chechen connection” to the bombings. "
• Other than the fact that the brothers were from a 'terrorist region' (Who isn't anymore?), what real links to terrorism are reported? I think the obvious implication is - Suspects are Chechen and Chechnya has terrorism, Therefore a 'link' has been established.
• "...in the last several months, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had posted videos to YouTube indicating his interest in radical Muslim ideologies."
• "On a YouTube channel, Tamerlan created a video file called “Terrorists,” where he posted footage that has since been removed from view. He also shared other videos of lectures from a radical Islamic cleric. In one video, Arab voices can be heard singing as bombs explode from high-rise buildings"
• How do we know that this is his account?
• "Radical" is a subjective term.
• Where are the manifestos, the proclamations of  deadly intent? People who go ape like this generally leave behind some sort of proclamation before going off.
• Why would individuals that were effectively Americanized turn on a country that they had seemingly embraced?

General

• Kyrgyz officials said the family left the country about 12 years ago for Dagestan, and after a year there emigrated to the United States.
• The father worked as an auto mechanic. Jerry Siegel, owner of Webster’s Auto Body, in Somerville, Mass., said that the elder Tsarnaev worked for him for about 18 months and that he was an excellent mechanic who spoke very little English.
• “He was just a hard-working, strong, tough guy,” said Siegel. “He would get under a car in the middle of winter, did whatever I asked.”
• His wife is registered as a cosmetologist. She is facing a criminal trial in Natick, Mass., after police said they arrested her last year trying to steal up to nine women’s dresses from a Lord & Taylor store at a local mall.
• "Speaking to journalists in Dagestan Friday, the brothers’ father, Anzov Tsarnaev, said his sons never had any interest in weapons. “I believe my children were set up,” he said."
• The father would have a decent idea of the nature of his children.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

• Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a boxer who worked out at a martial arts facility in the Cambridge area.
• Tamerlan began boxing shortly after arriving in the United States. He registered with USA Boxing, the governing body for Olympic-style boxing, as early as 2003 and steadily rose through the ranks. By 2009, he reached the national Golden Gloves tournament in Salt Lake City, where he lost in a three-round decision bout with a boxer from Chicago.
• Colleagues all described him as athletic, and aggressive. “He was tall, taller than most of the guys, and tough,” said Paul Barry, vice president of the New England Boxing Association in Worcester, Mass., who once judged one of Tamerlan’s bouts.Tamerlan was arrested in 2009 for assault in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend, according to Spotcrime.com, an online source of crime information.

•  He was a 9/11 truther?
• Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name was placed on the National Counter Terrorism Center's database.
• Began gathering materials for the explosives at least two months ago, when he was spotted at a New Hampshire fireworks store. The store told the FBI that it sold $400-worth of fireworks in February to the accused Boston bomber. 
• "He just wanted the biggest, loudest stuff we had in the store," said Megan Kearns, the assistant manager of Phantom Fireworks
• Bought two large reloadable mortar kits during a two-for-one sale. She said she remembered Tamerlan because of his Russian accent. The store has since confirmed his purchase with store records.
• The amount of gunpowder that could be harvested from the kits -- less than half a pound -- would not have been enough to detonate the Boston bombs, Phantom Fireworks VP William Weimer said.

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev

• The younger brother, Dzhokhar, graduated in 2011 from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school in Cambridge. He was a quiet young man who was on the school wrestling team, said Deana Beaulieu, 20, who attended schools with him since the seventh grade
• The city of Cambridge announced two years ago that it had awarded a $2,500 scholarship to Dzhokar Tsarnaev, who was listed as a senior at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, a highly regarded public school whose alumni include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and NBA star Patrick Ewing.
• Ty Barros, 21, a former high school classmate of Dzhokhar’s, told The Washington Post that Dzhokhar was widely known as Jahar and was “a normal regular American kid.”
• He liked sports and listened to rap music with other kids hanging out in the Cambridge neighborhood around Norfolk Street, Barros said. “He was a fairly popular kid; he was a fairly friendly, nice kid,” Barros said.
•  In 2011, Dzhokhar graduated high school, where he was the captain of the wrestling team, and went on to study at the University of Massachusetts. He hoped to become a dentist.
• Dzhokhar was an avid skateboarder, and Sunday night before the Monday bombing he cruised down Norfolk Street toward the house where his family has lived, said Caprice Ruff, 18, a grocery store cashier who lives about five houses away, across the street, on the same block in Cambridge.
• FBI agents found "a large pyrotechnic" in his college dorm room

The 'Night of Terror'

• Witnesses reported hearing explosions and gunfire as the police apparently engaged the two men and local television footage showed one man lying spread out on the ground, with his arms out, surrounded by police.
  However, it is now thought that this man is not one of the suspects wanted by law enforcement.
  Police officials would not discuss the incident with reporters.
  When asked for information on the incident, Boston police spokeswoman Neva Coakley frantically told MailOnline, 'I don't know anything... I don't know anything at this point.'
• Police said they had conflicting reports on whether the brothers robbed a 7-Eleven in Cambridge, near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Thursday night. 
• Why rob a 7/11?
• They don't kill an anonymous car jack victim because he's foreign. Who escaped.
• So kill anonymous runners including foreigners, but not a foreigner who can identify you?
• They then shot to death an MIT police officer, 26-year-old Sean Collier, while he was responding to a report of a disturbance, investigators said.
• Ambushed the officer and shot him five times in the head
• Why were they at MIT?
• Why kill a security guard?
•  Shootout with police
• A shootout with police and then the older brother 'blows himself up'? 
• Reportedly the younger brother "Ran over" the older brother. Or the police ran him over.
• Why would the younger brother run his older brother over? 
• "Authorities gave no details on how his younger brother escaped."
• How did a nineteen year old, with little to no experience escape police when accomplished crooks can't get away to save their lives?
• 
  

Boston Bombing

• According to FBI sources who have spoken to CNN, still unreleased footage reveals that the suspects stayed at the scene to watch the devastation the two blasts created.
  'When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually,' said the official to CNN, who has seen the unreleased video.
  They acted differently than everyone else,' he added.
• FBI agent in charge in Boston, said Suspect No. 2 in the white hat was seen setting down a bag at the site of the second of two deadly explosions.
•  There is video of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev running away with his backpack.
• Video of suspect two planting his device exists, but the FBI has chosen not to release it because were the media to repeatedly show the suspects leaving the bomb, it might cause some people to overreact if they came into contact with them.
• Setting down "a" bag, is it "the" bag? Or is this circumstantial?
• Where did the 'expertise' and money to build the bombs come from? 
• How were the devices detonated? 
• Federal agents have analyzed the two pressure cooker bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack and confirmed early speculation that the other components were also built largely, if not entirely of commercially available items, including parts of a remote control toy car, BBs and small nails.

Apprehension and Investigation

•  Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is captured in a boat.
• Was unarmed.
• How can there be a 'standoff" with no guns?
• Throat injury 
• Caused by a gunshot wound, shrapnel from a suicide attempt, that will leave him unable to speak again
• Not read his Miranda rights. Stops "talking" after rights are read to him.
• A single gun, a Ruger 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,  was recovered. (the serial number on the firearm was obliterated)
• How did the brothers stage a shootout with only one gun?

My initial impression? Mixed. The initial evidence seems to lend credence to the thought that these two were at least in the area and perhaps set the backpacks. The older brother seems somewhat compromised, but where is the dirt on the younger? But add to that the increased military presence in the area and the lack of motive and I struggle to connect why they would have done it.

And that is a crucial piece of info.

Patriot Day Massacre - The Results

Regardless of the material facts, (who, what, where...etc...) when you respond to a 'terror attack' by rolling out the military and locking the city down...YOU LOSE. Period...end of discussion...

Who wants to bet that going outside is prohibited?



Nothing like waking up to sharp-shooters on your lawn...

All of this militaristic posturing is nothing more than boys playing with their toys. There are no swarms of rampant jihadis waiting for them behind the bushes, no tactical column advances flanking their position, no air support needed to stop the invasion.

Why not just launch drone strikes and level the block? After all, the fact that they are dead indicates that they were with al-quaeda and 'acceptable collateral damage'. Plus, it's totally legal to kill Americans now...

Won't you heartless bastards just think of America's children and get the terrorists?!?

Reality Check: Did the FBI know about Boston bombing beforehand?

FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather

Patriot Day Boston Marathon Massacre

What an odd day to blow up a marathon -

Multiple casualties are reported after at least two explosions rocked the area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the bloody chaos, while some witnesses reported seeing victims with lost limbs.

"Somebody's leg flew by my head," a spectator, who gave his name as John Ross, told the Boston Herald. “I gave my belt to stop the blood.”

Witnesses heard booms that sounded like two claps of thunder near the finish line inside the Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel, according to multiple local reports.

This would have had to have been a huge bomb to be amputating limbs from a distance here. And not just one, but two? Plus, there's the timing of the holiday which lines up with the 'let's blame the founders' mindset -

This is Patriot’s Day, which commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord, fought near Boston in 1775. Patriot’s Day is annually held on the third Monday of April.

Is a message being sent to "Patriots" worldwide? Will the culprit be someone who 'feels we need a new civil war'? Once again, we need more details before we can form substantive opinions.

Update:
A reported third bomb is detonated by police.

Update 2:
12 dead, 50 injured. (Waiting for that magic #13) Is it possible that Newtown victims were there?

Relatives of the victims of December’s school massacred in Newtown, Conn. were among those attending the race finish at a VIP area. It was not known of any of the relatives were among the casualties. 

Update 3:
Note the "international theme" to the area that was targeted. Don't be surprised if lines like 'This was an attack on the international community" start flying around.








Update 4:
A suspect is being guarded -

Authorities have a identified a suspect, who is currently being guarded in a Boston hospital with shrapnel wounds.

A fourth bomb is reported -

According to reports, authorities in Boston found two more explosive devices that had not gone off and police were dismantling them. The airspace above the city was ordered cleared as well.

A third explosion is linked by police to the other two -

Police confirmed a third explosion at JFK Library in Boston. It was unclear if the explosion was linked to the two earlier ones that took place at the Marathon.

Update 5: 
The suspect is a Saudi national.