On Rights, Freedom, Liberty and Logic

Let's look at our latest example of police violating the rights of citizens -

Using the excuse of attempting to apprehend illegal immigrants, Border Patrol agents have set up a network of unconstitutional checkpoints inside the United States. In this video clip, informed citizen Steven Anderson provides a sterling example of how to stand up for your rights and prove that such checkpoints are unenforceable because they violate the 4th amendment.

The full exchange, courtesy of SHTF Plan, went as follows.

Anderson: Is this Nazi Germany now, that I have to show my papers?

Officer: It’s a simple yes or no. I need an answer or we can detain you until we figure out whether you’re a U.S. citizen.
Anderson: Well, you know what’s more simple is the fact that my freedom is a little more important than you seem to think. Setting up checkpoints where people have to prove that they’re a citizen is not something that America is supposed to be about. So, I’m not sure if you understand that.
Supervisor enters scene: Grunt
Anderson: Grunt
Supervisor: Just pull up over there (points to line of detained cars)
Anderson: No, thank you… I want to go free on my way. Here I am just going about my own business and I don’t need to stop at a checkpoint to prove who I am because this is America. Correct me if I’m wrong – did I stumble into Mexico or is this still the United States?
Supervisor: This is the United States.
Anderson: Therefore, I should have the freedom to travel unmolested, because I’m in America here.
(pause)
Supervisor: Ok, go ahead and go.

Part of the problem with the current batch of right wing idealists is that they literally do not know what they think. They circle around concepts endlessly and frustratedly throw their arms up wildly and proclaim that they are 'right' simply because they are. There is no discussion, there is no reason, there is merely an axiomatic appeal to 'Americana'. Follow the logic with me for a moment here...

We should search bags.
Why?
Because terrorists might get us.
True, but what about the 4th Amendment?
(Note the disconnect here)
What, you want to let the terrorists get us? You're FOR the terrorists. (Indeed, Bush said as much)

These conversations literally jump from logical step 3 to step 10 in one fell swoop. The arguer often switches back and forth between logic, history and emotional appeal not to win an argument, but to implement an agenda. Such is the state of many discussions happening across the country right now. The arguments put forth are commonly shifted into some sort of dualistic thinking there is only two teams playing and to not support the home team, is tantamount to treason.

But this is not the case as it can be effectively argued that the Republic is no longer alive because, as the book of Revelation stated -

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ~ Rev 2:4

Simply put, the Republic is built upon an idea that all men should be free to pursue their ambitions, free from government interference, provided they are not  violating the rights of their fellow man. It is to this end, that the laws, edifices and protectors of our nation, be they a police officer or a soldier are erected. They exist to protect the object of our sacrifice, namely our liberty. To the extent that an individual worships the sacrifice and not the object, is the extent that they have abandoned their duty and have begun to serve the creation instead of the creator. In the spiritual sense, this is the root of idolatry, as soon the individual can find no reason not to do something because they literally serve themselves.

More if I can get to it...

TSA and the Government, A Long Train of Abuse and Usurpations

Glad to see that many of the people are coming to the party, albeit late. True to form, The Real Effect starting covering this in 2005, shortly after it's inception. Let's revisit one such article -

As little as 10 years ago, the American spirit was largely resistant to any government controls proposed on our movement especially in our autos. The globalists, undaunted, started a massive PR war against the public to persuade the people to accept a large level of intrusion as being necessary to preserve the integrity of the Democracy.

I believe it began by convincing the populace that driving was a "privilege" not an inherent "right." After all, if you pay for the roads, car, gas, and police, why should you have access to something that you built? This eventually took form through licensing and registration in state DMV's and was used to centralize control of all movement to a state level.

Today, we have been convinced that we should accept tracking chips (pay-tolls), GPS and surveillance cameras on the road to improve manageability of a given city or road.

We have seen the "Click it or Ticket" campaign which has resulted in an increased 'awareness' in safety. And checkpoints. All in the name of safety of course.

Then came the Transport Security Agency's federally run intrusions into our personal lives by preparing us to dump our effects and get used to 'ID please' mentality. Ultimately, I and many others knew that this would lead to some type of tracing system to track all movements.

To illustrate just how bad the situation has become, consider the following examples of recent TSA abuse:

Military and Law Enforcement Powers

• The order to "freeze"
• Invasive and upgrading

Underclothes

• Woman has breasts exposed in public 
• Woman has nipple rings removed with pliers
• Underwear search of a reporter
• Man arrested for voluntarily stripping for TSA

Babies

• Babies stopped from boarding planes
• 18 month old on terror watch list

Children

• Prom night for students
• 7 year old groped in airport

Women

• Blogger Erin Chase
• Wendy James Gigliotti
• Ella Swift
• Rosemary Fitzpatrick
• Flight attendant

Elderly

• Woman grabbed in front of 7 year old

Handicapped

• The deaf are mocked and stolen from
• Breast cancer survivor forced to remove implant
• Bladder cancer man covered in urine (Video)

Crippling of response times

• O'Hare

Deployment in non-airport zones

• Lambeau Field, Green Bay - WI
• 8,000 unannounced screenings on semis and cars
• Hotels, shopping malls

Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response (VIPR) "a randomized search "where anyone entering an impacted area has to be screened."

• Savanah, GA
• Union Station Chicago, IL
• Union Station Los Angeles, CA
• Greyhound bus station Tampa, FL
• TN bus depots 
• Houston, TX

Political Targeting

• Senator Rand Paul detained

To illustrate the egregious nature of the beast, consider that Congress is exempt at the 68 airports. Furthermore, this type of behavior is not isolated to just the TSA, rather it is a true endemic that immediately threatens Americans freedoms, property and ultimately their lives.

Military Takeover

• Polish Troops in Illinois
• Operation Red Dragon
• Apache shooting of "insurgents"
• New Orleans Takeover
• National Guard VIPER teams patrol train stations

Police

• Woman dead after "welfare" check
• Woman shot in the face, mocked
• 86 year old woman tased
• NYPD beat a war veteran
• Troopers assault old man 
• License tase 
• Baltimore virtual lockdown
• War protesters arrested for violating 'free speech zone'
• NYPD go after suspicious people

Teachers

• Teachers spy on kids at home with laptops

Why even the lawmakers themselves are engaging in this behavior

• Obama to assassinate citizens
• Congressman assaults student
• Dream Act Rally
• McCain denies citizen rights
• PA Tax Amnesty Ad
• Perry to mandate Gardasil vaccination
• Chertoff building camps

Let's assume for a second that all the attacks are real,  why should we even be afraid of the terrorists when the government admits they created them in the first place and continues to aid them? No, we need to be afraid of he who makes the monsters.

Here is a partial list of the fake/government sponsored terror attacks thus far:

• Pearl Harbor
• USS Liberty (This incident started the Vietnam war)
• 1992 - World Trade Center Bombings
• 2005.10.06 - NYC Subway Attack Plot (2)
• 2006.02.10 -  LA Terror Tower Attack Plot
• 2006.05 - Canadian Chemical Plot
• 2006.06 - Canary Warf Plot
• 2006.06 - Sears Tower
• 2009.12.25 - Underwear bomber

Further, let's assume that you think you can avoid these checkpoints. The truth is, they will be coming to a city, train, and auto near you soon.

Soon after taking over the TSA earlier this year, the former FBI deputy director Pistole told USA Today that he will work to expand airport Gestapo zones. “Protecting riders on mass-transit systems from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority as ensuring safe air travel, the new head of the Transportation Security Administration promises,” the newspaper reported on July 17.

“Given the list of threats on subways and rails over the last six years going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there’s not the type of screening that you find in aviation,” Pistole said. “From my perspective, that is an equally important threat area.” In addition, Pistole said he would like to see TSA workers, including 47,000 screeners at 450 airports, to operate as a “national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts.” He wants to “take TSA to the next level.”

This is a resource and will be updated as necessary.

Right Foot!

The coming Republican storm builds in earnest -

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday his state won't expand Medicaid or set up an insurance exchange, joining a growing number of Republican governors who are rejecting two key parts of President Obama's health care law.

"I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Mr. Perry said.

He joins more than half-dozen GOP governors who have already said they won't increase the size of their Medicaid programs to cover Americans up to 133 percent of the poverty level, after the Supreme Court upheld most of the law last month but said states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion.

"I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab," Mr. Perry said. "Neither a 'state' exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better 'patient protection' or in more 'affordable care.' They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care."

You stand proudly Mr. Perry? If by stand, you mean awkwardly stumbling to a position after testing the political climate, ok we agree with you.

Perry is a shrewd, lying, cheating, political loser, not a principled individual as he continually demonstrates his support of illegal immigration, meeting with foreign heads of state and forcing drugs upon defenseless children.(Read this for most of his issues) If he really supported all of his bluster about 'leaving the union' and "rejecting power grab(s)", then he would have not supported half the issues he has and more importantly he would have not torpedoed the anti-TSA efforts in his home state in 2011.

Just as I predicted a rise in the Democrats due to Republican fatigue in 2006, it's easy to see the upcoming rise of nationalistic fascism that is brewing in the Republican party. The Democrats were allowed to take control to in part take the focus of the military misadventures of the US since 9/11. They were allowed to install a Marxist individual extolling the virtues of a Federal utopia via Hope and Change. But the populace is getting wise to Obama's antics and his half-life on the presidency is fading fast.

So it becomes time for the right shoe to take its step forward into an equally fascist, Christian system. Much like Germany got behind the rising star of one Adolph Hitler in the beginning of the 20th century, so too shall the supposed 'right' get behind an increasingly nationalistic and quasi-theocratic regime that will take all of the Federal power and aim it square at the Muslim Brotherhood Mideast and Russia, eventually targeting the Far East as well. (It's like they're working off a script...)

But just as the march to the police state in Germany was born out of a embarrassed national pride due to crushing war reparations incurred with the Treaty of Versaille, so too shall an economically castrated United States seek to regain its former glory by embarking on a program of progressive, systemic increase in death and destruction that first targets minorities and fringe people as well as the poor.

Indeed, we anxiously await its Phoenix rebirth.

TSA Wants Passengers to "Freeze"

Another policy goes into effect -

According to a friend of political commentator Lew Rockwell, the federal agency is now ordering travelers passing through security to “freeze” on command.

Explaining how he had arranged with his family to split up as they were passing through airport security, the correspondent, whose story is posted at LewRockwell.com, explains how he heard a commotion from a different security lane.

We heard a “freeze, freeze” or something like this coming from the output side of (false) security (where my wife was), followed by further barking of commands. From where I was, I couldn’t see much.”

“It turns out they were doing a new drill. They want all passengers to freeze on command. My wife told me later that she didn’t follow this order fast enough, so the subsequent barks I heard were directed at her.”

TSA supervisors expressed little other than disinterest when the man’s wife complained at being ordered around in such an overbearing manner.

This is exactly when I love to lambast the right on their myopic love of regulations. They claim they like free markets and yet when one shows up, the first thing they say is 'That ain't right, "WE" ought to fix that." Take for instance a commenter who runs a fairly prominent blog in SE Wisconsin posted to The Real Effect way back in 2005 in response to the Fourth freakin' Amendment being posted -

Come on Eric, what should we do?

At the time I opined -

We have to ask ourselves, 'Do we really want to continue suspending our only guarantee against the invasion of our rights by any dictatorial power now or in the future?'

Now, let's be honest here. We live in an entirely risk adverse society. Whole industries have cropped up around suing perfectly legitimate products produced by honest businesses because a research team failed to protect you from your own idiocy. Societal hand wringing shifts into overdrive as the shrill matronly harpies whore themselves out to the media demanding that 'someone stop this from happening to another person'.

Indeed, we live in the age of mandatory insurance everything and zero tolerance for anything the government deems unnecessary in our daily pursuit of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness safety. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves a collective nation of mama's boys asking the government not to impose another tax on us? Begging and pleading with the left not to take our sodas away? Groveling at the feet of the right to not support a national health plan. (Romney and the Catholic Church, I'm looking at you.)

And yet, we keep believing lie, after lie, after lie appealing to our oppressors to ease the yoke, to just, ya know, let us breathe...


History dictates that this is not going to end pleasantly for the oppressors or the oppressed. An armed populace will only take so much death before they start fighting back and when they do, the oppressors will quickly become the hunted.

Ask yourself, which side am I on? What principles do I support? How long until they arm these fools? What side of history will I be on when the axe falls?

Tony Robinson calls out British banking system

Pension Chaos as System Furthers Unfunded Narrative

...and 'poof', it's gone...

U.S. states and localities have run up more than $2 trillion of unfunded pension liabilities, Moody's Investors Service said on Monday, citing data on plans offered by 8,500 local governments and over 14,000 individual entities.

The Wall Street credit agency said that according to its estimate, the total liabilities for fiscal 2010 were more than three times the amount reported by local governments.

"Pension liabilities are widely acknowledged to be understated," Moody's Managing Director Timothy Blake said in a statement. Most states end their fiscal years on June 30.

Investors in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market are focused on whether states, counties, cities and towns can afford the pension benefits granted public workers.

So the local governments are lying about how much money is in the system and what their obligations are. Gee, where have we heard all that that before? In May 2011, after correctly identifying the debt ceiling crisis and its subsequent management, I continued with the following -

When austerity reality comes blaring through sometime in late 2011 to mid-2012, the perception of the public will continue to be that the government just needs more tools to fix the problem, if only those blasted patriots would give them to them. This will cause resentment to build on the part of some sheep orientated public towards some of those that perceive the correct problem. This resentment will be seized upon and used to conduct personal attacks on those who wish to actually solve the problem resulting in a despotic slide into semi-overt tyranny in the name of liberty and prosperity.

One has to only observe the absolute insanity which has gripped the state of Wisconsin to begin to see this playing out. One year ago, I covered the scenario under which this present system labors -

Pretend for a second you hired an individual to manage your finances. In turn, he would arrange schooling, water, police services, and a few other important items for you and your family of 4. Naturally, you would expect a bill. When that day comes, it says 50% on it... Not $10, not $500, but 50% of your $120,000. Outraged, you demand an explanation. What does it matter how much money you make you demand to know. I want to know how much you are charging. At this point, the individual feigns fear and arranges for the police that you paid for to arrest you and take you to jail for bill avoidance. 10 years later when you get out, you get a bill for not only his services, but your jail upkeep and food and just to rub it in - another bill for $250,000. His "debt" that you supposedly owe.

This is precisely why Romney will not change anything substantially. He is beholden to the same banksters that are robbing us blind. He is a trustee/puppet that dances long enough to distract the poor sheep so that the banksters can get away.

New Year Predictions 2012 - Review

New for 2012!

We've hit the half-way point of the year and as such, it's time to review our yearly predictions. The original post is posted here unmodified with all of the comments and scores listed in red text.
July Review: 36/75 - 48% accuracy (Not bad for 1/2 way through the year)

Yearly Theme: Are we responsible for our own actions?
This question becomes the fundamental litmus test for most every action and decision in the future.

War - 2012
The idea of a World War moves into the mainstream by becoming a probability instead of a possibility. People begin to realize that the only way presented to get out of this will be to fight. Let us pray that they realize who the correct people to fight are.(+0/1)


War Starts With Civil War and a Resurgence of Nationalism
Civil war leads the way as regional conflicts devolve into national wars. (Trayvon Martin in the US stokes racial tensions, the Chicago NATO summit stirs the pot and gets violent, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, lead the way. +1/1)
 
Nationalism takes center stage again as there is a temporary shift away from the "Union / Globalism" mentality in order to demonize and bury Nationalism once and for all. This can be observed in patriotic displays of loyalty to one's home country as the globalists demand fealty to their flag in an attempt to demonize it. (Well, well, well, it turns out that Bilderberg has been preaching the evils of Nationalism for almost 50 years. Pat Buchanan notes the 'rise of nationalism', Russia is "united", Israel is "united", +1/1)

The draft discussion becomes prevalent again. "Not enough boots to go around" combined with talks of "National Pride" and "Supporting one's country" (Nope, not yet. +0/1)

Outright War 
Start of the Asiatic war (Late Q3 - Q4) - With the US being over committed, it can't back up its positions in other countries, the East sees this and starts moving. Fires break out faster then they can be put out. (The US moves to 'defend' the Phillipines. +0/1) 

Theaters of war

• Asia East - The riots and revolutions that the citizens have been participating in need an outlet. The rulers will direct this to local conflicts. Police crackdowns will be brutal, efficient and deadly. (+0/2)
• Singapore - Led by an outright collapse in the market there. (The market positions, + 0/1)
• China - Peace is easy to keep when you can throw money at it.(Housing market collapsing +0/1)
• North/South Korea - Outright skirmishes, possibly full war. The new ruler of North Korea becomes convinced that he needs to demonstrate his and the country's resolve and the time is ripe. (Drills have started, and escalate, Obama visits, a missile launch, missing submarines, +1/2)
• Western Asia - especially deteriorate
• Pakistan - Civil war OR expulsion of US troops starts in earnest. (Q2 - Q3) (Start of talk of sanctions, demands an end to CIA drone strikes, demands of early elections. the US strikes back, Panetta admits we're at war, +1/1 )
• Afghanistan - As the US moves into other regions, the MEK begins targeting remaining US troops. (It starts, several soldiers are shot dead, two British soldiers shot, another soldier killed, a pullout by 2015? + 1/1)
• Mideast
• Syria  - It appears that the road to Iran lies through Syria. The US will try to draw in Hezbollah through "regime change". (Q1) (Nothing but net here! Kofi's plan fails and is resurrected, the US is planning "strategic communication" +1/1)
• Iran - Time will tell on this one. Iran is a tough nut to crack as opinion is running contrary to Western interests here. IF the US gets Syria, Iran is next. There has been a lot of posturing in 2011, but no one has been able to capitalize. Look for the moral justification route being presented via Iranian "guerrilla forces" "destabilizing Syria and attacking US or NATO "peacekeepers". (+0/0)
  
• Iraq - Destabilizes into sectarian violence with the north being especially unruly. (Bombings targeting Shi'ites kick things off, +0/1)
  
• Africa
• Uganda (The KONY 2012 video and it's follow-up stoke the fires, contractors set up spying missions, +1/1)
• North America
•  US
• Terror attacks - Like the 888 event, London's 2012 Olympics (+0/1)
• Mexico - The War On Drugs steps up on the borders in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California (Decapitation on the border, gang warfare +1/1)
  
• This authorizes a FEMA reaction to stem the violence. We might get to see U.N. refugee action (This is already starting to an extent) (+0/1)
• South America
• Venezuela (Chavez is still dealing with cancer, building drones with the Russians/Chinese, +0/1)

Economics
The major economic focus shifts dramatically from Europe to Asia. The economic downturn moves to Asia, setting the stage for war with these countries later. Stagflation takes hold most everywhere (+1/1)

• Asia
• China/Taiwan/US - Chinese economy fails (Even now, the government is desperately trying to cover it up) (China defaults on commodity shipments, the 'slowdown' goes mainstream, Beijing has a TON of empty houses, China is desperately trying to stop the recession, +1/1)
• Russia, China (Too bad I didn't articulate a prediction here - Russia embraces China +0/0)
• Europe
• The European Union implodes completely. (Europe staggers - France elects a new leader, Greece shifts gears and has bank runs and is on it's way out, +1/1)
  
• Global TARP (EFSF) fails as firewall after firewall is breached (EFSF is in trouble, Spain is having funding issues, Italy, Cyprus are in trouble, rumors of money,  +1/1)
• Ratings Agencies continue to downgrade countries and municipalities, not based on any metrics or logical sense, but rather out of a need to recognize the already obvious collapse that is in motion. (S&P weakly recognizes the problem and does nothing, coincidentally the ratings downgrade for JPM comes after the snafu, Italy is downgraded, +1/1)
• It may cease to exist nominally as the EU, but its Phoenix Transformation still awaits. (A banking Union is floated, +0/1)
• North America
• Canada staggers (Protests over tuition rises lead to riots, riots,  +1/1)
• Their housing market collapses by 10 - 20%. (Already starting, continuing, +0/1)
•  The United States
• Asset prices file in giant fits (20 - 40%) as positions are sold to protect themselves (Silver starts out +20% for January, Gold 11%, 2/29/2012 Silver flash smash to the tune of 10% in 1/2 hour, Electricity is spiking massively,. +1/1)
• Commodities
• Oil - Oil has solidified above $100. $130 - $150 is the next target with a Iran led upside of $200 - $250. (And the rally starts at $110, oil exploded upwards in Q1 but pulled back harder in Q2, +0/1)
• Gold - Gold and silver have temporarily bottomed. Gold takes out $1700 easily and quickly closes in on $1800. After it breaches $1900, there is a sell off as the wild market fluctuations come into play. (Q1 +  Q2-) Target range is $2000 - $2300. (Gold takes $1700 in the first month, $1800 in the second and collapses back to $1650. +2/4)
• Silver - Silver takes off like a lion again but also suffers just as badly. Initial stop is at $48 as it takes out the previous high. At this point speculators pile on and take it to $75. After this it gets destroyed back to the low $50 range. (Practice in Q1 gets it to $37 + 0/3)
• Copper - Decouples from industry and becomes a poor man's silver investment. (10 - 20% gains) (Copper takes off like a rocket +16% and then collapses back to the bottom. +1/1)
  
• Cotton
•  US Dollar officially goes inflationary. Printing comes in one form or another (Operation Twist 1 and 2, +0/1)
• Posts first official negative GDP. (In response, the market tanks) (GDP posts negative,+0/1)
• In response a Constitutional Crisis emerges (In truth it has existed for a long time) (Obama appoints positions and then 'chides' SCOTUS, North Dakota looks to jettison its property tax, Florida is suing the Feds over votes, Eric Holder invokes the magic words, Washington Times weighs in, Holder might be arrested, +1/1 - Seriously, there should be bonus points for this)
• More "desperate" Keynesian solutions are floated as a dramatic attempt to "shock" the economy back to life. If enacted, it will ultimately fail. (Ex-head of the FDIC 'humorously' floats giving every household $10 million!, Krugman just can't get enough,  +1/1)
  
• Citizens favor giving less people more power to "fix" it (Note - This is one of the goals these bloodsuckers want) (+0/1)
• Social programs are demanded in an attempt to 'restore America' but the economic argument now trumps 'societal values'. This leads to screeching about the inherit "injustice" present in the system as the freebies come to an end in austerity. (The Wisconsin recall election is the case model +2/2 )
  
• Things break down. As resources continue to dive, local alliances are formed to compete for these resources. (+0/2)
•  Corporations now rule (Corporate profits are up, JPM loses BILLIONS,)
• Repatriate the money - Corporations attempt to hide behind the Congress and demand a return of 'offshore funds'.(+2/2)
• At least one state (Illinois?) seriously contemplates bankruptcy (In the end it ends up being bailed out by the Fed) (Could it be California? Or perhaps Michigan? Obama floats 'helping', cities declare emergency, including Stockton CA,  +0/2)
• Food stamp use soars (College students are using it, +1/1)
• The U.S. College bubble begins to pop as longstanding institutions begin to slash their budgets to remain solvent. Some even discuss closing outright. (Start of the "education crisis".) This will be a long recovery as the perception that "education" = "money and success" will be difficult to break. (The problem is significantly worse then previously reported. Univ of California and one in N.C. is cutting departments, Univ of Florida is playing games and cutting IT. ACC has lost 10,000 students, student debt deliquincies surge.  +2/2)
• Student loans start to slow (Rate) Teachers will lead the calls for more funding to be thrown at colleges in an attempt to "save education". (The rate is still increasing +0/2)
  
• Existing home sales (SAAR) plummet by at least 10% with 15-20% being the more likely range. (4.5 million units to a bottom of 3.3 million units) Certain areas that were big on expansion before the crash, begin to resemble (Chinese) ghost towns. Eventually, gangs move into these areas abandoned by the local populace. (+ 0/3)
• Unemployment 
• Unemployment Weekly Claims rise again (450,000 to 525,000) range. (2Q)
• Unemployment Rate - Note: In 2011 I intentionally predicted a rise in the rate along with all of my other stunning positions for one reason. This is a non-lose scenario. If I predicted it would stay the same, it would obviously be correct. However, seeing my stunning clairvoyance on every other issue, why would I be so wrong on this one? Simple, because the government is fudging the numbers. By inaccurately predicting a rise, when one did not occur, it stands in sharp contrast to all the other prediction. One is left pondering - Just why is this number staying the same? (+ 0/1)

Culture
The mantra "The future is our hope" begins to become center to the recovery.  What is lost on everyone is that in order for this concept to work, you have to sacrifice now. You can't borrow from tomorrow at an inflated rate (interest) and expect tomorrow to be better when the underlying fundamentals have NOT changed. (+0/1)

Men want to marry less (See the rise of the "Sugar Daddy" enterprises +1/1) due to the parasitical nature of women. This results in a "marriage/woman crisis" down the road. (Marriage at lowest level ever +1/1) Churches begin to brow beat men into "growing up" and "accepting responsibility". (Already happening) (+0/1) This leads to a further schism in the churches as many churches become void of patriarchal leadership and shift aggressively to matriarchal influence. (This does not mean that men will not lead, but rather the male leadership will be massively influenced to the "injustices" being carried out on women. They will then accordingly enforce the desires of the female population.) (+0/3)

Feminism takes one in the eye as mothers decide it's not economically worth it to work, but would rather stay home and raise their children. (Commentators are beginning to call for a repeal of women's suffrage +1/1)


Metrosexual males start losing market value as they begin to be perceived as weak in the eyes of women everywhere as society stops valuing "fashion". (+0/1)


Crime nationally rises dramatically. + 20 - 30 % (Theft skyrockets, homicides increase and assault is up. Suicides increase.) (NY subways become even more dangerous with 31.8% increase in robberies, 'Organized shoplifting' rises,  +1/1)


Police become a gang (Us vs. Them mentality intensifies) Small - medium riots emerge as the police overplay their authority. (Nationalize?) The cost of policing goes up substantially due to hazard pay, deaths and low enrollment. (Already starting to happen.) This leads to turf wars - (Black vs black, black vs Mexican, cop vs gang, cop vs Fed) (Cop vs gang, the Black Panthers seize on the Trayvon Martin killing, racial shootings increase, summary executions, police shootings rise dramatically,  +3/4 )

Customers begin to get violent. (Ding, ding - McDonald's specifically is getting some issues and more, +1/1) The mantra has been get more for less these last 30 years, now individuals who have heard this their whole lives will run into the laws of supply and demand. (McDonald's raises their price of the $1 menu)
(They're doing it incognito. Change habits to $2 items and then remove the $1 items sloooowly. +1/1) 

Obamacare Stands - Long Live the Empire

The Ruling of the Century! comes down -

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld virtually all of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul, including the hotly debated core requirement that nearly every American have health insurance.

The 5-4 decision meant the huge overhaul, still taking effect, could proceed and pick up momentum over the next several years, affecting the way that countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

Really? And who gave us this lovely decision?

Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Roberts explained at length the court's view of the mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance.

Even though Congress called it a penalty, not a tax, Roberts said, "The payment is collected solely by the IRS through the normal means of taxation."

Noooo....Roberts stabbed the Republicans in the back? Who could have possibly seen that coming in 2005?!?

Look for Roberts to hold a conservative line for a while, disarming most arguments against his nomination. Then when key arguments come to SCOTUS, I believe he will suddenly become a Sandra Day and hand us over to the globalists.

What is deliciously ironic about this entire situation is that the purported destruction of liberty comes at the hands of the assuredly conservative man who was nominated by our last conservative president in the previous most important election evah! Proving that learning is not an option, conservatives are now doubling down to overturn this gross injustice in the newest most important election evah! by demanding the election of a new assuredly conservative individual that authored the precursor to the aforementioned destruction of liberty.

Seriously Republicans, you need to take those silly little partisan blinders off and realize that you are being played for chumps here.

Update:
Republicans waste little time in proving they are some of the most gullible out there -

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has raised $4.6 million since the Supreme Court ruled that President Obama's healthcare law is constitutional.

Romney started raising funds immediately after the decision, and in a message to supporters Friday morning his campaign spokeswoman said he had raised $4.6 million from 47,000 donations.

Let me 'splain this very sloooowly... Just like Roberts stabbed the conservatives in the back, Romney is going to do the same thing. Perhaps this fable can illustrate -

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too." The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."
 

  

War With Syria Reaches a Fever Pitch

Syria, War on! -

 French, British and Turkish military sources have suggested that elite British soldiers have entered Northern Syria and are operating ten kilometers inside the country in what is thought to be the first offensive western intervention against the Assad regime.

“Our military sources estimate that the British military drive into Syria, if confirmed, is designed to establish the first safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, to be followed by more Western military incursions to establish additional zones of safe asylum in other parts of Syria.” reports the Israeli intelligence website Debkafile.

Of course it's war on, the Syrians had the absolute audacity to shoot down a war plane operating in their airspace. Of all the nerve...Some democracies are just more valid than others I guess.

Checkpoints of the Future

At least they're starting to be somewhat honest about the future -

At a terminal being renovated here at Love Field, contractors are installing 500 high-definition security cameras sharp enough to read an auto license plate or a logo on a shirt.

The cameras, capable of tracking passengers from the parking garage to gates to the tarmac, are a key first step in creating what the airline industry would like to see at airports worldwide: a security apparatus that would scrutinize passengers more thoroughly, but less intrusively, and in faster fashion than now.

It's part of what the International Air Transport Association, or IATA, which represents airlines globally, calls "the checkpoint of the future."

The goal is for fliers to move almost non-stop through security from the curb to the gate, in contrast to repeated security stops and logjams at checkpoints.

After checking their luggage, passengers would identify themselves not with driver's licenses and paper boarding passes, but by scanning fingerprints or irises to prove they have an electronic ticket.

First of all, the cited problem of multiple stops and invasive pat downs was an idiotic unconstitutional national response to a barely understood tragedy. And like most hair-brained 'We must DO something!' schemes it has failed miserably. But then again, it has had the intended purpose of failing all along precisely so these extra invasive procedures could be put in place. Think it through once using the Hegelian Dialectic model -

Problem (Invasive pat downs) + Reaction (Collapse of airline industry) = Solution (Installation of advanced scanning instruments, possible nationalization of air travel)

But let's take it back a step further to get to the heart of the matter -

Problem (Radical terrorists) + Reaction (9/11 attacks) = Solution (Invasive pat downs)

We could keep doing this for a while, in fact quality control employs a technique called The Five Whys to understand the cause and effect relationship of a given problem. If one employs this technique, we are quickly able to see exactly why something happened. Take our current example in light of the official explanation for 9/11 -

Problem - We have new invasive security procedures.

1. Why? Because current security procedures are delaying travelers.
2. Why? Because we had to stop terrorists from hijacking airplanes.
3. Why? Because we were viciously attacked on 9/11.
4. Why? Because we maintain a foreign presence in Saudi Arabia.

So we see, the 'official' explanation from all parties on why we have these problems is ostensibly because of the United States' foreign policy. (It's officially called blowback.) So the correct national policy discussion would be - Should we be continuing to occupy foreign lands and risk another terrorist attack? (Note how that policy discussion never occurred. In fact Ron Paul was routinely marginalized for bringing this point up during the 2012 Presidential debates.)

There's a reason why Toyota's cars are dependable and popular. They figure out what the root problem is and they fix it! Unless we wish to learn the same lessons that Detroit is currently learning, nationally, I suggest we start employing this model a little more frequently.

War Page - Nations that the US Has Attacked

Current Wars
Aggressor

• Libya (2011)
• Pakistan drone attacks (2004 to present)
• Iraq (2003 to present) 
• Afghanistan (2001 to present) 
• Supports Taliban

CIA/Covert actions

• Uganda- In search of Joseph Kony
• Mexico - Operation Fast and Furious
• Yemen - Drone strikes on American citizens (155 dead in 2012 so far)
• Egypt - Arab spring 
• Somalia

Possible Wars

• Iran (2012)
• Syria (2012)
• China (2012 +)

Past Wars and Interventions

• El Salvador (1980)
• Libya (1981)
• Sinai (1982)
• Lebanon (1982 1983)
• Egypt (1983), Grenada (1983), Honduras (1983), Chad (1983)
• Persian Gulf (1984)
• Libya (1986), Bolivia (1986)
• Iran (1987), Persian Gulf (1987), Kuwait (1987)
• Iran (1988), Honduras (1988)
• Panama (1988)
• Libya (1989), Panama (1989), Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru (1989), Philippines (1989), 
• Panama (1989-1990), Liberia (1990), Saudi Arabia (1990)
• Iraq (1991), Zaire (1991)
• Sierra Leone (1992), Somalia (1992)
• Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993 to present), Macedonia (1993)
• Haiti (1994)
• Macedonia (1994)
• Bosnia (1995)
• Liberia (1996), Central African Republic (1996)
• Albania (1997), Congo/Gabon (1997), Sierra Leon (1997), Cambodia (1997)
• Iraq (1998), Guinea/Bissau (1998), Kenya/Tanzania (1998 to 1999), Afghanistan/Sudan (1998), Liberia (1998)
• East Timor (1999), Serbia (1999)
• Sierra Leon (2000), Yemen (2000), East Timor (2000)
• Yemen (2002), Philippines (2002) , Cote d'Ivoire (2002)
• Liberia (2003), Georgia/Djibouti (2003)
• Haiti (2004), Georgia/Djibouti/Kenya/Ethiopia/Yemen/Eritrea War on Terror (2004), 
• Somalia (2007)
• South Ossetia/Georgia (2008), Syria (2008)
• Yemen (2009)
• Haiti (2010)

And what is the true cost? $6 trillion dollars.

Note: This is a resource and will be updated as needed.

Russia, China and Iran Demonstrate a Show of Solidarity

Better watch your flanks West -

Iran, Syria, Russia and China are planning the “biggest-ever wargames in the Middle East,” according to an unconfirmed report on the semi-official Iranian news site Fars News. A Syrian official denied the claims.

According to the article, the four countries are preparing 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks for the massive joint maneuvers, which are to take place along the Syrian coast within a month.

The report states that Russian “atomic submarines and warships, aircraft carriers and mine-clearing destroyers as well as Iranian battleships and submarines will also arrive in Syria” and that Egypt has agreed to let 12 Chinese warships cross the Suez Canal for the exercises.

The West, particularity the United States is participating in the same kind of rhetorical hubris that historically besets an empire, right before it collapses. There have been appeals to historical righteousness (We were a moral country), proclamations of former economic greatness, and when all else has failed, outright threats (Iran, Syria) and bullying (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Uganda, China) as well as murder.

Yet delusion runs strong in the prideful. America has become a bankrupt, demoralized, de facto police state under the leadership of both political parties. If you doubt this, please view the chart below and note the trend of the last fifty years -

Nature abhors a vacuum and the former 'losers' of the world are organizing into at least partial display of America's former glory as predicted by this very blog, repeatedly. Unless the US wants to see itself suffer it's first very public defeat in a major war, we need to do some damage control in this country. Only when we have sufficiently removed the plank from our own eye, will we be able to see clearly to remove the speck from our neighbors.

Egypt Reverts to Tyranny

Proving once again that foreign entanglements just make the situation, worse -

Militants crossed from Egypt's turbulent Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel on Monday and opened fire on civilians building a border security fence, defense officials said. One of the Israeli workers was killed, and two assailants died in a gunbattle with Israeli troops responding to the attack.

Several hours after the attack, an Israeli airstrike killed two men riding a motorcycle in the northern Gaza Strip near the Israeli border. The Islamic Jihad militant group said the men were members on a "reconnaissance" mission and vowed revenge. Military officials said the incident was not connected to the earlier infiltration from Egypt.

In attempting to identify the chess pieces in the Religious War series, I posted to following about Egypt -

Egypt - health of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, elections? Who do they view as a bigger issue - Israel or Iran?

and

A good question will be - Will Egypt want to reconquer Gaza after 43 years of Israeli domination?

It appears that the question, accurately asked, has been answered. I had always viewed a resurgent Egypt as going over to the Muslim side, because the spiritual and psychological impact of this, especially upon Christians who are paying attention to eschatological  issues would be far too huge to pass up. It appears that position has been verified, if at least for the time being.

Of course, The Real Effect once again correctly identified this situation, before, during (2) and after it started occurring and will continue to predict where this situation is going. Look for the Muslims to continue coalescing into a collective army and for the Christians to start to do the same.

...war on.

Egypt's Military Takes Over - Spiritual Coup In Effect

The 2011 national resurrection continues unabated to set fuel for the fire -

Egypt's highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country's interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.

The Supreme Constitutional Court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.

The ruling means that parliament must be dissolved, state TV reported.

Parliament has been in session for just over four months. It is dominated by Islamists, a group long viewed with suspicion by the military.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, said that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution by Friday.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamist party, said SCAF leaders were taking matters into their own hands "against any true democracy they spoke of."

Once again, feeding into the Religious War series, Egypt is being used as a spiritual pawn in a global game of chess to galvanize the forces of the ease against the forces of the west. Yet, one of the difficult concepts to communicate clearly to some people, especially evangelical Christians, is their involvement in an overarching plot to pave the way for a globalist religion by pitting the Christians against the Muslims in a demonization move. They see the pieces moving and rightly assess that they are in peril, but then they make the fatal mistake of engaging in maligning the people instead of the leaders and movement.

True, they look different and have different tenets to their faith, yet you are being used against them just as much as they are being used against you. This is the sheer genius of this multi-layered satanic system. An individual can 'wake up' to the truth of one of the horrors perpetrated by one side, say the Muslims, but a blow-off plan is in place which quickly absorbs your efforts back into the system in another splinter group.

For instance, many Christians at this point will 'get behind' Israel by providing material and emotional support to the land formerly known as Palestine. What they often fail to realize though, is that support is then transmitted into an light center which is used to oppress the other side thereby completing the cycle and legitimizing the other sides critique of their persecution at the hands of Israel.

This is why the principle of  non-aggression is so viciously lambasted and debased as soon as possible solely because it is the only principle that works. This is an arch type of the self-sacrifice that Christians believe Jesus committed to set us free. This is why I also struggle with the supposed identity of many Christians who proclaim this sacrifice with their lips and yet deny it with their votes and acts towards their fellow man.

What we would do well is to realize that this game of chess is first and foremost a spiritual battle being waged at the highest order and secondly being carried out at levels of sophistication foreign to most of our thinking.

Overall, be generous to others when you think that you're 'awake' as you have probably discovered part of the plot, but are completely ignorant of the much higher acts of those unseen to you.

Russia Responds In Syria

Who wants a real war?

The Obama administration says Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and is warning about a dramatic escalation in the Arab country's 15-month conflict.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the delivery represents the "latest information." She says the U.S. is concerned as the helicopters "will escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

I love how Assad has a regime. It's not his government, it's an e-vil nasty thing specifically because we, the all-powerful United States, disagree with it. Of course, the rebels aren't anyone bad, like say Al-Quaeda. and there aren't any false reports, like baby slaughter going on... but you, my longstanding readers know better. Let us jump to the begining of 2011 -

Look for continued unrest with some governments getting overthrown. But as I indicated earlier, the globalists are literally banking on this to occur. We are still not there yet though. More riots need to take place, some shots, some new faces and then, we go to war.

and from this year's predictions -

• Syria  - It appears that the road to Iran lies through Syria. The US will try to draw in Hezbollah through "regime change". (Q1)
• Iran - Time will tell on this one. Iran is a tough nut to crack as opinion is running contrary to Western interests here. IF the US gets Syria, Iran is next. There has been a lot of posturing in 2011, but no one has been able to capitalize. Look for the moral justification route being presented via Iranian "guerrilla forces" "destabilizing Syria and attacking US or NATO "peacekeepers".

Russia getting involved is utterly predictable.(2006) We have been stomping around their territory (Georgia) for quite some time and they are not going to wait until we show up in Moscow to start doing something about it.

Personally, I feel this sort of escalation is good provided both parties restrain themselves. Imagine for a moment that you had a neighbor that liked to jump over your fence and violate your territory. So you install security cameras and an automated turret system. Yes, the situation has gotten ostensibly more hostile, but this is good because either the neighbor is going to cease and desist or is going to get his rear end handed to him. Either way, the conflict ends.

How does that saying go? Good fences make good neighbors...

Greece Planning Emergency Exit Capital Controls

Longtime readers remember the following from the 2009 NY predictions -

Think of it as a game of musical chairs where there are 300 million players and only a million chairs and the leader is reaching for the volume knob and if you lose, you lose everything you own.

Over the course of that post, I laid out the reasoning why 2010 would be a pivotal year in people's understanding that this was no ordinary recession. I went further in stating that 2011 would be substantially worse. To that extent, we present Vox's column from today -

Although Paul Krugman and a few other mainstream economists are finally beginning to admit that the U.S. economy is not only in a depression, but has been in a depression for some time now, their neo-Keynesian models, which are entirely quantitative, still do not permit them to understand how or why that is the case. With their singular focus on gross domestic product, or GDP, they completely fail to even try to understand how qualitative changes in outstanding credit market debt have a significant effect on the economy.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, or BEA, there has been just over $1 trillion in nominal economic growth since the second quarter of 2008, when the current economic crisis began – $1,066 billion to be precise. This is about 40 percent of the $2,564 billion of the economic growth that took place during the 15 quarters from 2004 to 2008 that preceded that period, which explains why the financial media has been describing the last four years as a slow economic recovery. There is GDP growth, but it is less than half what it had recently been; therefore, things are getting better. They’re just not getting better as quickly as everyone would like.

So, why do things feel so much worse than the economists are telling us they are? Because, due to the aggressive actions of the federal government, which doubled its outstanding debt in the last four years alone, there has been a significant qualitative change in the economy that does not show up in the quantitative measures.

How did we get here? Denninger explains this incredibly succinctly -  "Government cannot spend more than it takes in through taxation." Quite frankly, the government has turned into an uncle money bags which continually uses it's credit card to BUY VOTES. It doesn't MATTER what you want if you cannot pay for it because you will be dead soon after you get it.

It is to this extent that I penned the following, in September, of 2008, BEFORE THE CRISIS -

The long and short is they are bleeding the real assets out of the United States and passing them into foreign control. Make no mistake, they will bleed this country dry. Savings, checking, 401K, gold, assets, they want it all and will not stop until they get it. The only companies that survive will be those that primarily serve the industrial military complex. Overnight this country will be transformed into the new prison state for the Global Order.

Got that? The banksters created fraudulent 'monies' via credit emission that acted as a naked short against your purchasing power. They then created fraudulent derivatives that detonated, taking much of the 'economy' with it. After gouging you twice at that point, they then insisted that you via your tax dollars, bail them out for the insanity they created. And now, they're going to take whatever is left, because it 'belongs' to them -

European finance officials have discussed as a worst-case scenario limiting the size of withdrawals from ATM machines, imposing border checks and introducing capital controls in at least Greece should Athens decide to leave the euro.

Denninger rightly brings up Creditanstalt in this scenario as it reflects exactly the sentiment I was referring to back in Sept. of 2008 when I was comparing this downturn to THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Coincidentally, Vox gives us a good idea of just the amount of pain we have yet to go through -

In “The Return of the Great Depression,” published in 2009, I wrote that the debt/GDP ratio would have to fall from 3.75 to 1.5 before long-term economic growth could be expected to begin again. Thanks to the determined efforts of the Bush and Obama administrations to prevent that ratio from falling, to date it has only declined to 3.48. This suggests that we are presently only about one-tenth of the way through the Great Depression 2.0.

Got that? This is only 10% of the way finished and here comes the executioner's axe my friends...

UPDATE:
Denninger is kind enough to draw attention to the smoking gun -

The Federal Reserve’s detailed survey of consumer finances showed families’ median wealth plunged from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 — a 39 percent decline. That put them on par with median wealth in 1992.

Here's the problem though. As I keep continually pointing out, a large amount of that supposed 'wealth' was illusory as it was never actually there to begin with.In typical cowboy fashion, Americans were crowing about something that was never there. Think of it as a teen renting a Ferrari to land a hot model girlfriend, sure buddy, you got some cool things right now, but I don't look forward to the bill that will be coming in a month. (That and the lawsuit that your girlfriend turned wife hits you with after she figures out you've been lying to her.)

But we can't stop there, no, no,no.... We return to the earlier stat that Vox provided in which he stated that we are only 10% done with this correction. Let's assume that this is only half true and we're only looking at another 50% of correction. Using some horrible math, we come to the understanding that household wealth will decline a total of 240% by the time this is all finished.

Not possible you say? Well, we do have to honor our debts now don't we? And you need to work, to pay your portion off, right? Well, we just so happen to have these nifty little debtors camps that we're setting up until you get straight with the State... Of course, there is the trivial matter of interest...compounding interest...

Rand Paul Betrays Liberty Movement?

The news of Rand's 'endorsement' of Mitt Romney has absolutely ignited the Patriot movement today -

HANNITY: All right. First of all, before you say what I think you are going to say, did you check in with your congressman father, presidential candidate, I guess officially, finally dropped out of the race?
PAUL: Well, you know, my first choice had always been my father. I campaigned for him when I was 11 years old. He';s still my first pick. But you know, now that the nominating process is over, tonight, I'm happy to announce, that I'm going to be supporting Governor Romney.

The Real Effect
Based off the context of the interview, which was admittedly brief, I come up with the following points:

1. Rand is no fool. If you read the interview, he makes a point of bringing his and his father's issues to Mitt's table. Note the focus on the Fed and other issues. It seems as though Rand is trying to use the momentum of his father's campaign and the most likely inevitable nomination of Mitt at the RNC to paint Romney into a corner.
2. As in all other cases, do not look at his rhetoric, look at his actions.
1. He shut down the Syrian war earlier.
2. He's tussled with the TSA.
3. He's an adherent to many of his father's positions.

As such, one of two things is going to happen here. Rand Paul is getting into the shark tank with some of the nastiest, meanest creatures on the planet, he's either going to join them to save his skin or the sharks or going to try to eat them. It's up to him to try to reign the sharks in.

Either way, he has earned our attention and our respect, we owe him a bit of patience but he needs to be on an incredibly short leash for his own benefit.

What do I think is going to happen? I think Rand means well, but I know the Patriot movement sees this as selling out. Look for the Paul camp to splinter (This might be what the globalists want) as things start to get incredibly real. There's a chance that Rand might be positioning well to have some huge impact on the national scene if his father loses in Florida, but what good is it if your entire base (rightly?) abandons you? Either way this constitutes the first major throw down in the CFL group and will have some huge ramifications down the line.

Rand, you might lose all support over this, it better darn well be worth it.