quadruple conscious musings of Joshua Trujillo

Reality: check: Dilemna: Nationalistic patriotism and the call of ...

2011-09-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Reality: check: Dilemna: Nationalistic patriotism and the call of ...: I would breifly like to get somethings off of my chest but before I start I want to make it clear that I am deeply sympathetic towards those...

I'm here now

2011-05-27T15:13:00.001-07:00

http://joshuatrujillo.org/

Qik

2011-04-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Obama Files

2011-04-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Infowars.com
April 26, 2011

Out today!

2011-04-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Buy it from my amazon store here!

The Nanny State Can’t Last

2011-04-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last week, Congress and the administration refused to seriously consider the problem of government spending. Despite the fear-mongering, a government shutdown would not have been as bad as claimed.It is encouraging that some in Washington seem to be insisting on reduced spending, which is definitely a step in the right direction, but only one step. We have miles to go before we can even come close to a solution, and it will involve completely redefining the role of government in our lives and on the world stage. A compromise was struck at the last minute, but until Democrats agree to rein in entitlement spending, and Republicans back off the blank checks to the military industrial complex, it all amounts to political gamesmanship.
Unfortunately, the compromises always seem to be just the opposite. Instead of the left agreeing to cut social spending and the right agreeing to cut military spending, the right agrees to more welfare and the left agrees to more warfare. In spite of all the rhetoric, we will go deeper in debt, the Fed will print more money, and the value of the dollar will continue to plummet. How long will it be before foreigners stop buying our debt, and hyperinflation arrives? Throughout history, empires have always overextended themselves through conquests and wealth transfers leading to eventual collapse, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union. We are headed in the same direction and it seems only the chaos of the collapse of the dollar will stop the spending spree. Arguing over funding for Planned Parenthood and NPR, though important, only shows that leadership in Washington either won’t face reality, or don’t understand how serious the problem is.
Of course, an actual government collapse would create serious problems for many people who have come to depend on government payments for healthcare, retirement income, their children’s education, and even food and housing. However, these so-called entitlement programs are unconstitutional to begin with and have engendered a culture of dependence on wealth transfer payments that is out of control. It concerns me greatly that instead of dealing seriously with our situation, so many in Washington would rather allow the chaos that will ensue when all of the dependent people are suddenly cut off. Better to look reality squarely in the face and tell people the difficult truth that government is simply not capable of managing people’s lives from cradle to grave as was foolishly promised. We face trillions in deficits with any of the budgets under consideration. Keeping those promises is, sadly, just not one of our options in the long run. Better to admit the nanny state is coming to an end and we are no longer working on “compromises” but a transition – to a sustainable way of life, one that respects the constitution, the rule of law and property rights.

Ron Paul’s article first appeared on his House website.

Gerald Celente: First Great War of The 21st Century Has Begun

2011-03-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Part 1

Part 2

Barack-a-lujah! I Have Seen the Light!

2011-03-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Cindy Sheehan
Infowars.com
March 22, 2011

Thanks to the helpful feedback I have received over these past two, or so, years, I have seen the enormous error of my ways.

I used to be against ALL wars and the use of violence, but (and I must admit a little confusion on this one, at first) now it seems that I am against wars, acts of war, and violence ONLY if a Republican is president. Now I understand with perfect clarity that it was good to protest Bush—and if the US-UN resolution against Libya was done when Bush was president, it would have been wrong—but now it’s “compassionate.” I must admit, I was a little shocked to find out that the US actually commits compassionate acts and, again, silly me—I thought most acts of war and war were for profit. I realize that only a jerk (or racist) would think that now. I have repented.

I cringe with embarrassment when I think of the wasted years imagining that there could be any other way to solve problems without killing more innocent people! It’s okay to bomb Libyans to save Libyans (or Iraqis to save Iraqis; or Afghans to save Afghans; or Yemenis to save Yemenis, etc) because a Democratic president who has been given the cover of the UN Security Council may bomb them. Yep, it’s all starting to make sense. With all the continuing conflicts, imagining a world without war was starting to seem useless—and now I know it was! Phew!

This is another kooky idea I had—that the Security Council of the UN oftentimes, if not always, bowed to the will of the global oligarchy—or should we say, OILigarchy. I chuckle, because apparently that notion was either dead wrong, or was just a fact of life up until January 20, 2009.

Here’s another mistaken notion that I labored under all these years: Torture is inhumane and a war crime. Up until just last week, I thought the US torture camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should be closed and that military tribunals should not resume—but President Obama signed an executive order to keep Gitmo open and resume military tribunals. Wow, it’s like from almost one day to the next, torture and illegal, indefinite detention became acceptable practices.

Pssst—since I am in confession mode, I want to, with a red face, confess something else. Please, I hope you laugh with me and not at me, but this is so hard to admit. I thought I learned that US citizens were to be arrested only with reasonable cause, given their due process, and THEN punished if found guilty. I must admit I still thought that was wrong earlier today, but when I was (not so) gently and repeatedly reminded that we have a change agent as president, the scales fell from my eyes and now I get it! If Barack Obama (D) thinks that a US citizen needs to be executed without a trial or even a handshake, then by golly that person must need to be killed. Barack Obama (D) is a Constitutional scholar after all and I am sure his interpretation of the Bill of Rights is the correct one. Who am I to argue? What a relief—thinking is so unnecessary and hard!

Now the skeptical, old and ignorant Cindy Sheehan would have thought that the US was only concerned with the regime in Libya “killing its own citizens” because Libya has large crude oil reserves, but that was before I reflected on the fact that Barack Obama (D) has told us that offshore drilling and nuclear power is safe! Like my new hero, Barack Obama (D) keeps saying, we do need to “reduce” US dependence on “foreign oil,” but not before we kill as many people as we must to get all of that oil. The old me also would have thought that we needed to entirely eliminate our dependence on petroleum and petroleum products all together, but if Barack Obama (D) says it’s safe, that’s good enough for me!

I just hope the people of Libya realize that it’s way more of an honor to be killed by a US bomb then by a Libyan bomb and what an honor it is that the US is paying attention to their internal strife, because we don’t always do that—we like to pick and choose—and Libya, it’s probably just a coincidence that we choose YOU because you have oil. My country would never do anything wrong when a Democrat is president and I will forget history, too, because I don’t need it anymore.

I also must admit that I used to spend a lot of time worrying about Pfc Bradley Manning being incarcerated and tortured at Quantico for allegedly dumping info about US policy to Wikileaks. Now, I believe that if he did that to my wonderful president, he must deserve the treatment he is getting. Manning, that traitor, is lucky President Obama (D) hasn’t just decided to drop a Hellfire missile on him from one of those righteous drones he loves to use! Additionally, if Obama (D) says that Manning’s treatment is “appropriate,” I believe him now. Worrying about Bradley was keeping me up at night and now I wish I had the money back that I incorrectly donated to his legal defense fund so I can send it to the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

The old axiom is true! Confession is good for the soul!

I hope with this confession and subsequent penance (10 Our Fathers, 20 Hail Mary’s and a pledge to vote Democrat for the rest of my life) that I am accepted back into the fold of the Democratic Party. I will also voluntarily swear to uphold healthcare for profit and to love Wall Street, the war machine, and the bankers with all my heart while detesting working people and those people who want to “kill Americans” for absolutely no reason.

In Obama I trust. What a relief! Having a conscience is very isolating.

Let’s Party with a capital D because if I can CHANGE, then there is HOPE for everyone and anyone else who are still lost wandering nearly alone in that wilderness of integrity.

Come home!

War is Peace!

Freedom is Slavery!

Ignorance is Strength.

2 + 2=5

Egypt: Preview of America in 2015

2011-02-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

The rioting and looting currently taking place in Egypt is primarily a result of massive food inflation and shows what all major cities in the United States will likely look like come year 2015 due to the Federal Reserve's zero percent interest rates and quantitative easing to infinity. On December 16th, 2009, NIA named Time Magazine's 2009 'Person of the Year' Ben Bernanke our 'Villain of the Year', saying he created "unprecedented amounts of inflation in unprecedented ways" and "When it costs $20 for a gallon of milk in a few years, Americans will have nobody to thank more than Bernanke."

What started out a few weeks ago as protests in Algeria with citizens chanting "Bring Us Sugar!" and five citizens being killed, quickly spread to civil unrest in Tunisia which saw 14 more civilian deaths, and has now spread to riots in Egypt where 300 Egyptian citizens have been killed. Food inflation in Egypt has reached 20% and citizens in the nation already spend about 40% of their monthly expenditures on food. Americans for decades have been blessed with cheap food, spending only 13% of their expenditures on food, but this is about to change.

NIA was the first to predict the recent explosion in agricultural commodity prices in our October 30th, 2009, article entitled, "U.S. Inflation to Appear Next in Food and Agriculture", which said we have a "perfect storm for an explosion in agriculture prices". A couple of months later in 'NIA's Top 10 Predictions for 2010' we predicted "Major Food Shortages" and said, "Inventories of agricultural products are the lowest they have been in decades yet the prices of many agricultural commodities are down 70% to 80% from their all time highs adjusted for real inflation". Over the past year, agricultural commodities as a whole have outperformed almost every other type of asset, with silver being one of only a few other assets keeping pace with agriculture. (On December 11th, 2009, NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade at $17.40 per ounce and it has so far risen 64% to its current price of $28.39 per ounce).

The world is at the beginning stages of an all out inflationary panic. Wheat, which NIA previously called on 'NIAnswers' its favorite investment besides gold and silver, is now up to a new 30-month high of $8.63 per bushel and has doubled in price since June of last year. Algeria bought 800,000 tonnes of wheat this past week, bringing their total purchases for the month of January up to 1.8 million tonnes, which was quadruple expectations. Saudi Arabia is also beginning to stockpile their inventories of wheat. Rice futures have gained 8% during the past few days with Bangladesh and Indonesia placing extraordinary large orders. Indonesia's latest rice order was quadruple its normal allotment and Bangladesh plans to double rice purchases this year. Meanwhile, the U.S., which is the world's third largest exporter of rice, is expected to cut production by 25% in 2011.

NIA considers rice to be one of the world's most undervalued agricultural commodities at its current price of $15.96 per 100 pounds and forecasts a move back to its 2008 high of $24 per 100 pounds as soon as the end of 2011. NIA believes cotton, at its current price of $1.80 per pound, may have gotten a bit ahead of itself in the short-term. In NIA's first ever article about agriculture on February 17th, 2009, we said that cotton's "upside potential is astronomical" at its then price of $0.44 per pound. NIA pointed to increasing sales to textile companies in China and the fact that cotton was down 70% from its all time high as reasons to be very bullish on cotton at $0.44 per pound. Early NIA members could have made 309% on cotton, but today we see much bigger potential in rice. The recent spike in cotton reminds us of the 2008 spike in oil. Although we believe cotton will ultimately rise above $3 per pound later this decade, we could possibly see a dip to below $1.40 per pound first.

Many people in the mainstream media have been criticizing NIA's recent food inflation report, claiming that agricultural commodity prices have very little to do with prices of food in the supermarket. CNBC's Steve Liesman, in particular, claims that "rising commodity prices won't cause inflation". Liesman has it backwards. NIA has never claimed that rising commodity prices cause inflation. Soaring budget deficits that the U.S. government can't possibly pay for through taxation causes inflation when the Fed is forced to monetize the debt by printing money.

Rising commodity prices are only a symptom of inflation. The reason NIA was so bullish on agricultural commodities going back two years ago when we produced our first documentary 'Hyperinflation Nation', is because while gold is the best gauge of inflation and is often the best tool for predicting future money printing, agriculture is where the majority of the monetary inflation ends up going after the Fed's newly printed money trickles down to the middle-class and poor. With gold prices already surging two years ago when we produced 'Hyperinflation Nation', NIA said in the documentary "food prices have the potential to surge most during hyperinflation".

One thing NIA is almost 100% sure of is that come year 2015, middle-class Americans will be spending at least 30% to 40% of their income on food, similar to Egyptians today. As NIA warned in its latest documentary 'End of Liberty', if you don't have enough money to accumulate physical gold and silver, it is important to begin establishing your own food storage, and store enough food to feed you and your family for at least six months during hyperinflation. Many store shelves in Egypt are now empty after recent panic buying, with shortages of nearly all major staple items throughout the country.

The U.S. Treasury is getting ready to sell $72 billion in new long-term bonds next week, as the U.S. rapidly approaches its $14.29 trillion debt limit. The debt limit is now expected to be reached by April 5th and Treasury Secretary Geithner warned the U.S. will see "catastrophic damage" if it isn't raised. With the Federal Reserve now surpassing China and Japan as the largest holder of U.S. treasuries, the real "catastrophic damage" ahead will be hyperinflation as a result of the U.S. government doing absolutely nothing to dramatically reduce spending. It is an absolute joke that Obama during his State of the Union address announced $400 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, but then the very next day, the Congressional Budget Office increased its 2011 budget deficit projection by $400 billion to $1.48 trillion.

Not raising the debt limit would be a good thing, as it would force Washington to live within its means. Sure, the stock market would collapse and the U.S. economy would enter into its next Great Depression, but at least it would save the U.S. dollar from losing all of its purchasing power. In fact, the standard of living for middle class Americans might actually improve if the government allowed the free market to put our economy into a depression, because goods and services would get cheaper.

The U.S. economy has become a drug addict that is dependent on cheap and easy money from the Federal Reserve. While Wall Street bankers took home a record $135 billion in total compensation in 2010, up 5.7% from $128 billion in 2009, this money was stolen from middle-class and poor Americans through inflation. The more monetary inflation (heroin) the Federal Reserve creates in order to satisfy the (in the words of Gerald Celente) "money junkies" on Wall Street, the more middle-class and poor Americans become dependent on unemployment checks and food stamps just to survive. Millions of American students are graduating college with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt but no jobs. Luckily for them (but not holders of U.S. dollars), NIA is hearing reports from both unemployed and underemployed college graduates with student loans that the government is reducing their required monthly payments by sometimes 90% or more based on their current incomes.

China and Japan recently saw their credit ratings downgraded, while the U.S. credit rating remains at "AAA". NIA believes it would make far more sense for the world's largest debtor nation to be downgraded instead of the world's two largest creditor nations. The Federal Reserve's second round of quantitative easing has yet to even reach the halfway point and the Fed already holds about $1.11 trillion in U.S. treasuries. By the time QE2 is over at the end of June, the Fed will own $1.6 trillion in U.S. treasuries, about what China and Japan own combined. Shockingly, Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig is already dropping hints about QE3. According to Hoenig, the Fed may consider extending treasury purchases beyond June 30th, 2010, (the scheduled completion date for QE2) if U.S. economic data looks disappointing.

With the Fed taking over as the largest holder of U.S. treasuries, China is beginning to rapidly move away from the U.S. dollar and into gold. In just the first 10 months of 2010, China imported 209 metric tons of gold compared to 45 metric tons in all of 2009, a stunning five-fold increase. While the western world is downplaying the threat of inflation as much as possible, Asian countries understand that hyperinflation is the most devastating thing that can possibly happen to any economy. The demand for gold in Asia right now is the most intense it has ever been, as they look to tackle rising inflation before it becomes hyperinflation.

The Chinese are so smart that families are now giving each other gold bullion as gifts instead of traditional red envelopes filled with cash. China is now on track to soon surpass India as the world's largest consumer of gold. The China Securities Regulatory Commission recently gave Beijing-based Lion Fund Management Co. approval to create a fund that will invest into foreign gold ETFs.

U.S. stock mutual funds saw $6.7 billion in net inflows during the past two weeks, the most in any two week period since May of 2009. The rioting, looting, and civil unrest in Egypt is now making the U.S. look like the safe haven of the world, even though it should be considered the riskiest place to invest. From the Dow's low in August until now, about $38 billion was actually removed from U.S. stock mutual funds, despite the stock market rising 20%. The Dow Jones has been rising from September until now solely due to the Federal Reserve printing around $350 billion out of thin air. When central banks print money, stock markets often act as a relief valve due to there being too much inflation going into the hands of financial institutions.

The U.S. M2 money supply surged by $46.6 billion during the week ending January 17th to a record $8.8623 trillion, following a rise during the previous week of $7.6 billion. The rise in the M2 money supply over the past two weeks of $54.2 billion equals an annualized increase of 16%. The M2 multiplier now stands at 4.218 compared to a long-term average of 10. When QE2 is complete, the Fed's monetary base will likely stand at $2.59 trillion. A return to the long-term average M2 multiplier of 10 means we are due to see a 192% increase in the M2 money supply and that is not even including a possible QE3 and QE4.

The U.S. economic ponzi scheme could unravel very quickly in the years ahead, with the velocity of money increasing much faster than anybody expects. As more Americans learn about NIA and become educated to the truth about the U.S. economy and inflation, a complete loss of confidence in the U.S. dollar could occur very suddenly. It is important for all Americans to prepare as if hyperinflation will be here tomorrow. At least in Egypt, their currency still has purchasing power and their citizens are trying to implement a regime change before it is too late. By 2015 in America, it will already be too late and the civil unrest here has the potential to be many times worse.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

Kill Switch

2011-01-31T13:55:00.000-08:00

Obama decries Internet shut-down in Egypt while his own administration prepares to enact same draconian powers to crush dissent during times of political upheaval in America

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, January 31, 2011
The Obama administration is busy attempting to pass legislation that would give the President a kill switch for the Internet in the United States while at the same time decrying Egyptian authorities for shutting down the Internet in a bid to deflate the unfolding revolution against Hosni Mubarak. The reason is simple – the government fears an Egypt-style revolt occurring in the U.S. and wants to block access to the world wide web if and when it happens.
Read story here.

Obama Fails to Address Inflation in State of the Union

2011-01-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

President Obama's State of the Union address last night did not make one single mention of inflation, when it is the belief of NIA that massive price inflation (especially food inflation) will become America's top crisis by the end of this calendar year. Obama's speech also failed to mention the Federal Reserve, the Federal Funds Rate being held near 0% for over two years, and the Fed's latest round of $600 billion in quantitative easing. Unless Obama addresses our nation's fiat currency system, nothing else he says has any meaning at all.

After the U.S. lost 8.36 million jobs over a two year period from December of 2007 through December of 2009, our economy has recovered 1.12 million jobs as a result of the Federal Reserve and U.S. government spending $4.6 trillion on bailouts and stimulus programs. That is over $4 million spent for each job created. Instead of bailing out Wall Street and allowing non-productive bankers to receive record bonuses, the U.S. could have sent a check for $550,000 to each middle-class American who lost their job.

When a central bank prints trillions of dollars out of thin air, you are going to see some type of a nominal uptick in economic statistics. Obama can brag all he wants about over 1 million jobs being created, but he continues to ignore what the ultimate cost of it will be. When a government has an annual cash budget deficit of over $1 trillion that cannot possibly be balanced by raising taxes, massive inflation is the inevitable outcome. Our real budget deficit, once you include increases in our unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is already north of $5 trillion. NIA believes the U.S. is now at serious risk of experiencing hyperinflation by the year 2015.

Obama proposed in his speech that "we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years" saying it "would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, and will bring discretionary spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president." The truth is, Obama's proposals, if successfully implemented, would not reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade. They would only cut $400 billion from proposed spending increases. NIA doesn't understand why Obama would even waste his breath talking about reducing the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade, when the Federal Reserve is creating $600 billion in monetary inflation over a period of just eight months. Americans who listened to Obama speak last night wasted over an hour of their time, because until the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and stops printing money, it will be impossible for the U.S. economy to truly recover and become healthy.

Even if the U.S. government cut all discretionary spending down to zero, we would still have a budget deficit from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone. Surprisingly, Obama admitted that most of the cuts he proposed "only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12% of our budget." When referring to the Deficit Commission's proposed spending cuts, Obama said "their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it". In what was Obama's most shocking statement of the night, he went on to say, "This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit."

This is the closest Obama has ever come to admitting that major cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are necessary, if we want to have any hope of ever balancing our budget. However, NIA is taking Obama's comments with a grain of salt. He immediately changed the subject in the very next sentence, claiming his health care reform law that was enacted last year "will slow these rising costs". He then continued to defend the law saying, "repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit."

One week ago, the new Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-189 to repeal Obama's health care reform law. The House's vote to repeal it is meaningless because it would never pass the U.S. Senate and even if it did, Obama would simply veto it. NIA believes the law should be repealed because it is impossible for government legislation to bring down health care costs. Only the free market can bring down health care costs and the health care reform law will impede the free market more than any piece of legislation has ever impeded the free market in any industry or sector in history. In our opinion, the new health care law is guaranteed to add trillions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade and there is absolutely no chance of Obama ever making the necessary dramatic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid until the U.S. is already in the middle of an outbreak of hyperinflation.

When it comes to Social Security, Obama said we need a "bipartisan solution to strengthen" it and "we must do it without putting at risk current retirees" and "without slashing benefits for future generations". In other words, nobody in Washington is even going to bring up the possibility of cutting or eliminating Social Security, because it would be political suicide for them. We need more honest representatives in Washington like Ron Paul who aren't afraid to speak the truth about the need to cut entitlement programs and inform the American public to the consequences of our government's deficit spending.

Most Americans think they don't have to worry about our country's national debt because our grandchildren are the ones who will ultimately be responsible to pay it off. Unfortunately, it won't just be our grandchildren who feel the pain of our deficit spending and monetary inflation. All Americans with incomes and savings in U.S. dollars along with all foreigners holding dollar-denominated assets will begin to feel the pain of our government's destructive actions in the very near future through massive price inflation and the U.S. dollar losing nearly all of its purchasing power.

One thing from last night's State of the Union address is very clear, Obama is not serious about cutting spending and nobody in Washington has any expectation of the U.S. ever returning to a balanced budget. NIA believes that this past week's dip in the prices of gold and silver is an unbelievable buying opportunity for Americans who already own precious metals as well as those wishing to buy precious metals for the first time. Sure, both gold and silver could dip lower in the short-term, but we can't try to time short-term fluctuations and we need to stay focused on the long-term destruction of the U.S. dollar. In future State of the Union addresses to come in another year or two down the road, the entire focus of the President's speech will likely be on inflation and the collapsing U.S. dollar. When that time comes and mainstream America becomes aware of what NIA members have known for years, we could easily see $5,000 per ounce gold and $500 per ounce silver, and everybody will regret not loading up as much as possible at these levels.

Welcome To 1984: Your Papers, Please

2011-01-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

Driving from California to East Texas, my daughter and grandson were 90 miles into the Lone Star state when traffic was stopped at a road block just outside the little town of Sierra Blanca.
Drug-sniffing dogs worked down the line of cars. Under treatment for a medical condition for which her California doctor prescribed medical marijuana, my daughter had a small amount in her luggage in the trunk. The dogs immediately sniffed it. She showed the police her medical authorization, but California law didn’t apply in Texas. She and my grandson were arrested, taken to jail and put into a holding tank with a dozen or more men and women who had been arrested for the same crime.
A few days later, singer Willie Nelson was arrested at that same checkpoint. My daughter was fined $550. Perhaps Willie got off just signing a few autographs.
A short time later my grandson and I drove back to California. A dozen or so miles after crossing into California, we were suddenly funneled into another roadblock… only this time it was manned by half a dozen armed Border Patrol agents.
We were asked to state our citizenship, and then carefully scrutinized by an unsmiling officer who finally waved us through.
An even more sobering surprise awaited us…
We were stopped at a second roadblock 20 miles later… and yet again 15 miles after that. Three roadblocks between the California border and San Diego!
Never in six decades of driving in the United States had I ever experienced being stopped at even one checkpoint. My only prior experience was in Nicaragua in 1956 when that country was under the strong-arm dictatorial rule of Anastasio Somoza. Every few kilometers my companions and I were stopped by armed soldiers, questioned and required to show passports. We were all grateful to be from the “land of the free,” where such things couldn’t happen…
The rise of checkpoints in America, as well as the indignities we suffer at the hands of airport Transportation Security Administration agents, is merely outward evidence of a much deeper net being cast around individual liberty.
According to a recent Washington Post investigative report, “Top Secret America,” a web of 3,984 Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, complete with technologies used on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, has been developed by the FBI. The process is constructing a database with the names and personal information of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom any local police officer or a fellow citizen might believe to be acting suspiciously.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who as Governor of Arizona built one of the strongest state intelligence organizations to stop illegal immigration and drug importation (the raison d’être for those roadblocks), has launched a "See Something, Say Something" campaign to encourage citizens to become informants. It started with traffic signs asking drivers entering the nation’s capital for "Terror Tips" and to "Report Suspicious Activity." Recently, she called on Walmart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders to join the surveillance network, admitting that, "This represents a shift for our country."
One can’t help but reflect on George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. Published in 1949, it is a nightmarish depiction of what life could be like if the repressive nature of government was extrapolated from those post-World War days into the future. Orwell’s prescience is unnerving.
Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker tallied the similarities between Orwell’s novel and today’s world in his 2003 book, The Blank Slate. The elements of that Orwellian nightmare are either proposed or already here. Government euphemisms… national identity cards… surveillance cameras on streets and in shopping malls, and drones… satellites in the sky… personal data on the Internet… endless wars with shifting enemies… dossiers in government databanks… and ever-increasing controls on the actions and statements of individual citizens.
From checkpoints and electronic strip searches at airports… to your banker being forced to report suspicious deposits to being locked up for not disclosing all of your assets to the IRS… the signs are clear: 1984 is here. Whether it’s a War on Drugs, Illegal Immigration, or Terrorist… it is all a war on individual sovereignty.
Winston Smith, the protagonist in Orwell’s novel, rebels against Big Brother. His fate is arrest and torture. O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party and the person in charge of torturing and converting Smith back into a docile slave, tells Smith about the future: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
Winston, tortured and barely able to speak, replies: “You could not create such a world… it is impossible to found a civilization based fear and hatred and cruelty… there is something in the universe, some principle, some spirit that you will never overcome.”
As the novel ends, Winston Smith has given up hope in such a principle. “Everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
There are many today who have found their own peace through a love of Big Brother. For those of us who believe in sovereignty, the spirit Smith believed in is still real. Individual sovereignty is the antithesis of a totalitarian world of surveillance, roadblocks and Newspeak. There is a principle, a spirit that can’t be overcome, and that is the determination to live free… I hope it survives.
Jack Pugsley
Chairman, The Sovereign Society

Dangerous Anti-government Revolutionaries!

2011-01-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

Milo Nickels
Activist Post
Anti-government sentiment is not cause for fear, a sign of insanity, or a precursor of tragedy. Quite the contrary. Anti-government sentiment signifies attentiveness, understanding, and a love of liberty. If you truly value freedom, then you absolutely must distrust and despise government with every fiber of your being. Why? Government has no ability, whatsoever, to give freedom to anyone. Government can only take freedoms away. Our founding fathers fully understood this fundamental truth. They did not view government as a potential source of good, but as a necessary evil. Although they understood that limited government would be necessary to protect individual citizens from each other, they also understood that the Constitution would be necessary to protect all citizens from the government. Our founding fathers knew that if they did not restrain the government with the constitution, then nothing would stop it from taking all of our liberties away. This is simply the nature of the beast.

Many people mistakenly believe that the first Amendment grants us freedom of speech. This is dead wrong. The first amendment tells the government that they are not allowed to take that freedom away. Many people mistakenly believe that the second amendment exists only to protect hunters so that they can feed their families. They are dead wrong once again. Our founding fathers expected our government to overstep its bounds, and the second amendment was intended to be our insurance policy to rise against those encroachments. The second amendment is a direct extension of the Declaration of Independence where it states:

...to secure [our unalienable] rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...

How do we abolish a government without arms? Our founding fathers were not liberal, government-loving, boot-lickers; they were revolutionaries. They completely and necessarily distrusted the government and hated tyranny. They expected that government would always try to steal freedom, and they expected people to rise up against the government whenever that happens. Indeed, our government was founded on the expectation that it couldn't be trusted.

Look at where we are now. Our government wants to pass laws where we can't speak out against it, wants to limit our second amendment rights, and they use the mainstream media to convince the masses that hating the government makes people crazy. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would be labeled as dangerous, extremist threats to our national security.

In a recent AP article titled, Dangerous Loners Hard to Catch Before They Act, Eileen Sullivan does all she can to illustrate cases where violent acts were committed by insane loners who held anti-government views. The obvious insinuation is that holding anti-government views makes one crazy and/or dangerous. Here are several excerpts from Sullivan's article:

The gunman accused of trying to assassinate Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six others, Jared Lee Loughner, was not on any government watch list that might have warned someone not to sell him a gun or caused police to investigate his unstable behavior.

It turns out there is not a list in the United States for people like Loughner.

Obviously, Sullivan is implying that there should be a list for "people like Loughner". The term "people like Loughner," however, could mean a million-and-one things. When Sullivan refers to "people like Loughner," she could be referring to white males, gun owners, crazy people, disruptive students, illogical bloggers, pot heads, fans of the Communist Manifesto, people who distrust the government, etc. etc. etc. Heck, just to be safe, we should place all of those groups on watch lists! Although I'm being sarcastic, I have no doubt that hacks like Sullivan would be okay with that.

The same goes for Joseph Stack, who flew his plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas, last February. Stack left behind a 3,000-word, rambling screed about his problems with the U.S. tax code.

Less than a month later, John Patrick Bedell shot two Pentagon guards. He left behind anti-government writings and cited conspiracy theories involving the U.S. military.

Richard Poplawski, too, left an online trail of racist rants and paranoid thoughts about President Barack Obama imposing a gun ban before he allegedly shot and killed three police officers in the Pittsburgh area in April 2009.

In the past two years, there have been at least six incidents in which disgruntled Americans, acting alone, have taken violent action into their own hands. In many of the cases, signs of government distrust and paranoia wouldn't have been enough to justify law enforcement intervention.

Six incidences in two years? SIX?!?! Of all the thousands upon thousands of violent crimes, murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, and atrocities that happened in America in the last two years, is Sullivan implying that these six are somehow symptomatic of a grand problem or a major threat? It appears to me that being unhappy with the government leads to violence far less often than being unhappy with one's marriage. Maybe we should place people who attend marriage counseling on watch lists too.

There are scores of domestic groups with members who oppose paying taxes, disagree with the government and voice their opinions eagerly. But their rights are protected by the First Amendment, and opposing taxes alone is not enough to trigger an investigation.

Pay close attention to the language and tone Sullivan uses here. She is careful to use the term "domestic groups" when describing people who oppose taxes, disagree with the government, or (god forbid) voice their opinions. Sullivan is fully aware that, thanks to the mainstream media constantly warning us about "domestic terrorists," we're being gradually conditioned to believe that any "domestic group" has evil and violent intentions. The word "terrorist" follows the word "domestic" just as readily as "jelly" follows "peanut butter." I wonder if Sullivan would ever point out that the girl scouts, the NAACP, and congress are all "domestic groups" as well. Also pay close attention to the second part of that passage. Sullivan actually bemoans that people's rights are protected by the first amendment, and implies that "opposing taxes alone" should be enough reason to trigger an investigation.

I would love to ask Sullivan her opinion of our founding fathers. Would she have wanted Thomas Jefferson and George Washington placed on watch lists because they opposed government, believed in gun ownership, spoke out against taxes, and even endorsed violent revolution as a necessary part of perpetuating liberty against the threat of tyranny? As I reread Sullivan's article, I can't help but notice one bit of irony. Sullivan points out John Patrick Bedell because he "left behind anti-government writings." Our founding fathers also "left behind anti-government writings." We know them today as the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

The American Dream

2011-01-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

theamericandreamfilm.com

New Beginnings

2011-01-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 11:11 – ‘By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.’

Things have to change in 2011. People have to open their eyes and see what is really going on. The hype message won't work this year, because there is a crisis in the land and it is exposing the agenda of the false prophets. They lied to us all while the getting was good and preached that 2010 was the year of growth, wealth, and financial independence, and yet they are downsizing their staffs and letting employees go? They didn't see this bad economy coming and they wanted to pretend it was not going to happen, but it has. You see, when the music concerts and plays/dramas stop, the truth has to be dealt with and many of our pastors are not equipped to hear from God for real and preach the truth! They know how to entertain and bring a sermon, but do they really know how to prophetically prepare for the coming turmoil of our nation? Now many are cutting corners and trying to make ends meet and some are using get rich schemes and totally distorting the Gospel message of Christ. What happened to the plenty, the financial blessing, and the harvest? I have news for you people of God, if you have been standing for the truth and righteousness, don't worry, you will have plenty. If you have stood up for the right thing and shunned the false thing, you will be blessed in this hour. 2011 is the year that will separate the real from the fake. No longer will folks just sit under a homosexual pastor, preacher, or choir director and allow them to totally suck the spiritual life out of them. We can't sit back and just be entertained and you cannot entertain away the pain! Folks need God now and it takes those that really know how to get to him to stand in this hour. We can't sit under pastors and preachers that are for the money and not the lives any longer.

God is separating and starting with the church so I encourage you to pray and fast until you hear from God about your situation this year. I'm not talking about laying off of sweets and sodas for a couple of days but I'm talking about really pushing the entire plate away, turning off the entertainment and hearing the voice of God. We have wasted so much time chasing these false prophets of Baal and these mega church messes. It's time to find out where your meals will be coming from for real. The day of the Bishop flying in the jets, flossing on the Oprah show, and living the life of a rock star, while the congregation suffers from lack of Spiritual nourishment is over. That won't work in this hour people. People need a real Word, a real relationship with God and some real answers from the Sunday sermon! They need pastors that have good marriages, good children, and success in their own homes to lead them in the time of lack and turmoil. God is putting an end to the game and he is transferring the wealth in this final hour to those that have been faithful to stand for him. Don't sow another dime to a ministry that is lead by a carnal, selfish leader. If they are not leading Spiritually, then they are not your spiritual leader! Open your eyes saints. The hour is late. If you want a new beginning and God's favor in 2011, do what he says and you will be sustained!

Suggested Reading: Psa. 55:22, Neh. 9:21, Psa. 112:2-3, Prov. 10:22

www.exministries.com

Obama the Chess Master

2011-01-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Thomas Paine said that “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” With decades of increasing criminality in all three branches of government, it would be pretty hard to argue with one of the great libertarian thinkers in our country’s history. And with Congress’s approval rating at a stunning 13 percent, it doesn’t appear that many people disagree with Paine’s analysis of government.

Now, with a new Congress in session, many are excited about the possibility that the accelerating, anti-Constitutional power of government over its one-time employers (now passively transformed into citizen serfs) will be reversed. But what is the likelihood that it will really happen?

In an outgoing flurry of legislation and attempted legislation (e.g., the infamous omnibus bill that Harry Reid was forced to pull the plug on), Democrats and progressive Republicans — especially the lame-duckers — flipped one last gigantic bird to American Main Streeters. Some were shocked at their audacity, but those of us who have endured decades of political sewage pouring out of Washington have become cynical to the point where politicians’ contempt for voters doesn’t even raise an eyebrow.

Having said this, the big question is, will the Republicans be able to start turning things around between now and 2012? I believe the answer to that question lies in how successful they will be at cornering President Barack Obama into no-win situations. Politics, you say? Yes, of course! Do you believe these fire-breathing, anything-goes political animals are going to respond positively to reason? BHO’s entire adult life has been one big, ongoing game of political one-upsmanship. And, giving him his due credit, he happens to be despicably good at it.

For example, regardless of which way the economy appears to be going on the surface, BHO will be prepared to take the high road. (I say on the surface, because the bowels of the economy are already rotted to the point where a total collapse is inevitable.) If the tax compromise produces a temporary, illusory effect on the economy, he will, without a hint of embarrassment, claim that he turned things around by endorsing a tax cut for all Americans.

On the other hand, if the illusion of a turnaround does not come about, his position will be, "To show bipartisanship, I decided to give Republicans a chance and go along with their insane idea to give billions of dollars away to the wealthiest Americans, and, predictably, it didn’t work. Now we’re going to get back to doing things my way so we can grow this economy." That will give him a perfect excuse for returning to policies that are based on a system that all straight-thinking people realize has never worked: Socialism.

So, as much as I hate to say it, I believe the tax-compromise legislation that came out of the lame-duck session is a bad sign of things to come. And keep in mind that two of the really good guys in the House — Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) — voted for it.

In all fairness, Ron Paul’s explanation of why he voted for the bill had merit. Being a strict anti-tax, anti-regulatory, Constitutionalist, Paul took a principled stand and said he would never vote for a tax increase on anyone, no matter how much bad stuff he had to swallow.

Ryan was not as clear, saying only that if taxes go up, “that’s going to harm the people I represent.” Which was true. But he also said, “A lot of people are making these political arguments, which are, ‘What is the proper political chess move against Obama?’ And that is not the way we should be thinking right now when it comes to jobs and economy.”

Were it not for the fact that the U.S. Government has become the intolerable evil that Thomas Paine alluded to, I would agree with Ryan. But the reality is that ours is a criminal, Constitutional-hating government, a government headed by an angry young Marxist intent on bringing the United States down to the level of third-world countries around the globe. Sorry, but it’s a chess game whether Republicans like it or not. And if they refuse to play, they will get checkmated all over the board by default.

That said, I have to agree, at least to some extent, with Charles Krauthammer, who believes that Obama snookered Republicans on the so-called tax-compromise bill. However, to me, the most important reason Republicans should not have gone along with the tax compromise is that it was a continuation of their decades-old habit of acquiescing to Democratic blackmail — and blackmail doesn’t work! With each new blackmail success by the Dems, the country moves further into debt, further to the left, and further into the tar pit of tyranny.

The Republicans should have checkmated the chess master in the White House on this one. By letting taxes go up on Jan. 1, they could have boxed Obama into a no-win situation: Lower taxes on everybody, no estate taxes and no extension of unemployment benefits. (I italicized the latter, because it was the real heart and soul of the blackmail, yet most pundits mentioned it only in passing, if at all.)

In this scenario, if Obama caved in and went along with a Republican version of a tax-and-spending reduction bill in January, he not only would have found himself with one or more primary challenges for the 2012 Democratic nomination, he very well might have lost. Which is why, in the final analysis, I don’t believe he would have given in to the Republicans.

More likely, he would have fought against them to the bitter end, even while the economy was moving toward the Greatest Depression. Then, he would have unashamedly blamed the economic holocaust on higher taxes — and Republicans could have had a field day campaigning on a promise to lower taxes on everyone.

It would have been a close call at election time because, let’s face it, Obama has 35 percent to 40 percent of the electorate locked up regardless of what he does. But he would have had to convince at least another 10 percent of the walking dead that higher taxes and spending would ultimately lead to something-for-nothing nirvana.

Either way, if Republicans make the mistake of running the wrong candidate (remember, the best they could come up with in 2008 was super-progressive John McCain!), they’re toast. But with a fearless tax-cutting, anti-spending libertarian-centered conservative, they could win.

Bottom line: I never worry about Democrats. With few exceptions, they are hopelessly lost souls. Trying to proselytize them is an enormous waste of the number of heartbeats one has left in his life.

I worry about Republicans, who seem eternally destined to giving in to Democratic blackmail because they believe they “have no choice.” Actually, strike the wordeternally. If Republicans don’t man-up soon, the job of fundamentally transforming the United States of America into a left-wing dictatorship cannot be more than a few short years away.

–Robert Ringer

Economic Consequences Of The “New World Order”

2011-01-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

Giordano Bruno
Neithercorp Press
January 5, 2011

A common misconception among less aware segments of the American populace is that the phrase “New World Order” was concocted by attention seeking “conspiracy theorists” in dank basement apartments and sinister mountain shacks across the country. In reality, anti-globalists and Constitutionalists had nothing to do with the term’s creation (and most of us have decent digs, too). The truth is that mumblings of a “New World Order” have been floating around various elitist circles for decades, and every once in a while, those mumblings are publicized in the mainstream media. Globalists created the warped ideal; we just point out that it exists. Lately, we haven’t had to try very hard…

As most readers here are probably already privy to, elitist spokesman George Soros (who for some reason reminds me of the bloated floating Baron Harkonnen from the movie ‘Dune’) recently let spill all kinds of NWO gossip in a candid interview with the Financial Times. If you have not seen it yet, or you believe only kooks talk about the New World Order, I suggest you watch the below interview twice for good measure:

What is most interesting about this interview is Soros’ focus on the fate of the dollar in the NWO. He openly confirms nearly everything I and many others have been warning about for the past three to four years in the span of only ten minutes! Why would Soros make such admissions? Well, I suspect that some elites believe that they should not have to hide their pet project for a “new order” from us lowly serfs, while others perhaps have been given the green light to start selling the masses on the supposed benefits of greater centralization. Soros literally tries to paint the collapse of America as “necessary”, and the devolution of the dollar as “healthy”, though I doubt that many people will be swayed by his charms. It’s hard to trust a guy that leaves a slime trail…

While Soros may not be the best used car salesman on the lemon lot, there are plenty of establishment media lackeys and fraudulent pundits that do have a knack for refining globalist talking points and making them more palatable to the public. What alternative economic analysts are now discovering is that there are actually two economies; the one that the MSM and the government presents, and the one we all actually live in. The year of 2010 was highly representative of this strange developing duality. So many malfunctions in terms of employment, debt, inflation, and bonds (especially municipals), and yet, so much “good news” pouring out of the networks. This is rather similar to the media frenzy just before the final market plunge of the Great Depression; government reports and mainstream news were overwhelmingly positive, right before the entire system took its last flaming nose dive into the gutter and stayed there for a decade.

If we are to take anything from the recent Soros interview, it would be that the globalists are closing in on their target for the implementation of their new world order, or “new economic order”, or whatever interchangeable label they happen to be using at the moment. But what does this mean for the rest of us? When George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Henry Kissinger, Nicolas Sarkozy, Vladimir Putin, Gordon Brown, and so many others mention their desire for a “New World Order”, what exactly are they referring to? In terms of the economy, how will this elitist philosophy change our lives, and our nation? To know our destination, we must first examine the path we are currently on. What have been the results of globalism and centralization so far? What is the most likely next step? Let’s review where the elites have led us up until now, and where they have expressly proclaimed they would like to take us in the future…

Harmonization: The Economic Sucker Punch

“Harmonization” is a very pleasant sounding term for a very insidious financial practice, and it is also something we will be hearing a lot about if the NWO design is allowed to continue. In order to understand what economic harmonization entails, one should research the mechanics and purpose behind monopolies. Monopolies are formed first and foremost to remove a very particular free-market factor; competition. Competition allows for the organic growth of markets by relying on the general populace to decide which business and financial models work best. Those models that do not pass the social test are ignored and allowed to die away, while those that pass are supported by the public and allowed to carry on. This natural order of commerce is supplanted when the largest suppliers (businesses or countries) form unions, fix prices, and squeeze out smaller entrepreneurs before they find an opportunity to present a superior idea or business model. By removing competition, monopolies take away the citizen’s ability to choose, or to even participate in the economy in any capacity beyond the role of mindless consumer.

Global harmonization works in a similar way, except in this case the monopoly is not over a specific product or resource, but the resources of entire continents. Competition among nations is squashed. As in the European Union, more successful countries are forced through unilateral trade agreements to transfer their wealth to faltering nations. Not only this, but the economic policies which once made them more competitive are scrapped and replaced with policies that deliberately stunt national growth. Decisions on what kind of commerce works best are no longer made by the citizenry, and are instead centralized into the hands of a select few. Any state that resists or strives for sovereignty is branded irresponsible, or even dangerous; a threat to the so called “balance”.

While globalists like Soros maintain that there are long term benefits to harmonization, including a better standard of living for everyone, in effect, harmonization only seems to make all countries equally poor.

IMF and World Bank lackeys love to bring up the plight of Africa when peddling harmonization and certainly African countries would benefit temporarily by siphoning capital from richer nations, but ultimately, it is the IMF, World Bank, and the UN that ravaged Africa in the first place with their loan sharking, resource theft, and attempts to interfere with African industrialization in the name of unsupported global warming arguments. (Hey, as soon as NASA or the Climate Research Unit in East Anglia makes the source data for their experiments available to the public instead of copping out and claiming national security privileges, I’m perfectly willing to give them a fair shake.) In the FT interview, Soros boasts about IMF allocations of SDR’s to needy African countries, as if they do it out of the kindness of their hearts. Anyone who has studied the history of the IMF knows that they do not do charity.

In the end, dirt poor nations might progress, but never enough to actually prosper, and all at the cost of finding themselves beholden to the IMF. This is the essence of the New World Order. This is the dark side that elitists never openly delve into; total centralization, total poverty, total control, no other options…

Middle-Class Beheaded

In a centralized global economy, financially secure classes of common people become a problem. The less the masses have to worry about everyday survival, the more time they have to question the system’s validity, or its leadership. Therefore, the globalist hierarchy benefits by removing such subsections of the population like the middle-class altogether. This process has already commenced in the midst of the engineered credit crisis, as well as the continued devaluation of the dollar that Soros speaks of so fondly.

Private wages fell to historic lows at the beginning of 2010:

http://www.usatoday.com/…

Prices on essential goods and energy are now inflating, despite falling demand:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-12-16/…

The U.S. housing market lost $1.05 trillion in value in 2009, $1.75 trillion 2010, and is expected to lose $9 trillion before it bottoms:

http://www.reuters.com/article/…

Real unemployment remains at a relentless 20%, while welfare benefits have been extended up to 99 weeks. Such a large portion of Americans have remained jobless for so long, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has now increased the upper limit of how long someone can be listed as jobless from two years, to five years:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/…

As forced globalization continues, “lucky” countries will see a complete disintegration of private home ownership, two working parents in every family, wage reductions to counter low demand, and price spikes in food and energy. In places like China with a long history of wage slavery, this is actually a step up! So it all evens out according to George Soros. Unfortunately, the U.S. is more likely to see hyperinflation, rather than a mere reduction in our standard of living. Currency destruction would decimate the middle-class in America. Soros hints at this probable future, but then glosses over it as a “painful but needed” change.

One question that no interviewer seems to put to these parasites is, who really “needs” the New World Order? Who benefits from its proliferation? Certainly not the middle-class, and certainly not the poor. So, who’s left to reap the spoils? Ask Soros. He knows…

Dollar On The Highway To Hell

Not to harp about the past, but in 2007/2008, stating that China was going to drop the dollar and dump Treasuries while converting to a consumer based economy causing the greenback to lose its world reserve status while the IMF introduced SDR’s as the new global currency did not exactly win me any respect in financial circles. I still get arguments from devout deflationists and random green-shoots proponents on occasion. Now, here’s George Soros TELLING YOU, for the most part, what is going to happen to the dollar, and sounding a lot like Neithercorp. It’s enough to give me the heebie jeebies.

Soros mentions the pending bilateral trade agreements being used by China to rout the dollar in Brazil and Argentina, but for some reason fails to point out Russia’s agreement to abandon the Greenback. He also fails to mention China’s numerous interest rate hikes or increased bank allocations which have utterly failed to stem inflation, leaving the government with only one other option; dump U.S Treasuries, allowing the Yuan to quickly appreciate giving Chinese consumers greater buying power to compete with rising prices. All that’s left is for our Treasury Dept. to finally release that delayed report accusing China of currency manipulation. Retaliation ensues, and down goes the dollar.

It’s not a question of IF this will happen, but WHEN? How long can the dollar truly hold out while interest rates remain at near zero, the private Federal Reserve continues its QE2 madness, and our national debt continues to grow beyond all imagining? Something has to give, and that something will be the rest of the world’s patience with the dollar.

Stall tactics are beginning to lose their effect. Rumors yesterday of a possible Fed rate hike did cause quite a stir, and even hit commodities, but frankly, I’ll believe that when I see it. A meaningful rate hike would make the Fed’s quantitative easing programs pretty difficult to pursue and knock the wind out of the Dow, considering the only thing propping up the whole farce is the constant flow of cheap fiat. When the central bankers turn to interest rate gossip to keep investors smitten with the dollar, it might be time to question whether or not foreign banks may be preparing for a policy change concerning U.S. Treasuries soon. This is, of course, all by design.

The bottom line is that the dollar has no place in the NWO. Soros admits it. Most other globalists have openly demanded it. I think in this case, they aren’t just feeding us propaganda.

Global Currency, Global Government, No More Fairytales

With all the talk in the MSM of global currency lately, I still have yet to see a viable argument for its usefulness. Just as with globalism, no real debate is pursued on global currency, only the presumption that such a step is “inevitable”. Sorry, but globalism is not inevitable, and neither is the rise of Special Drawing Rights (SDR’s). These are economic tools and methods which are enacted by a relatively small group of men. They are not universal laws of physics handed down by the gods.

A global currency changes nothing in terms of the problems already associated with our current collapse. It definitely doesn’t make anything better. While the IMF does claim to have ample gold reserves to back the SDR, almost every new paper currency starts out backed by PM’s or some other resource. The problem is that every currency under the control of central bankers and not the people ends up losing all tangible backing and becomes yet another fiat prison. The only purpose behind a global currency would be to streamline the centralization process; to perpetuate the psychology of globalism in the masses, making the construction of global government easier to introduce.

Would global government be as wondrous and as Utopian as it is always presented? Will we finally get our Star Trek uniforms and flying cars? Not a chance. Global governance will not be Utopia; not under men like Soros, and certainly not under the IMF. The promise of paradise has always been used to make people do stupid and horrible things, from the Assasseens of Iran spoken of by Marco Polo, to the Russian communist disaster of Lenin and Stalin, and beyond. Blind collectivism and feudalism has never led to peace, prosperity, wisdom, or spaceships propelled by dilithium crystals. What it HAS led to, consistently, is death, destruction, mayhem, and sometimes the loss of entire chapters of human knowledge. It leads not to enlightenment, but to the dark ages.

Once a system like this is instituted, its hold over younger generations is vicious. We have all grown up in the midst of the globalist experiment, and while many of us have broken free mentally, we still have never experienced life without the constant poison of elitist politics and prattle. Imagine a colonialist from the American Revolution visiting our time and witnessing all the freedoms, cultural and economic, that were stolen away from us before we were ever born. They would shriek in absolute horror and run for their musket!

There is a certain innocence and a certain joy inherent in true freedom, not just freedom of the mind as we have so far settled for today, but freedom of daily life. To live without someone always out to dominate you or your family; that is something I would like one day to witness, or at the very least make possible for tomorrow’s Americans. If the NWO is not confronted and dismantled, who knows how long it will be before another common man thrives free.

Breaking The Circle, Starting Anew

Stopping the advancement of the New World Order, at least in terms of economics, does not require a “magic bullet” scheme, a busload of lawyers, or even an audit of the Federal Reserve (though one would be nice). What it does require, is an alternative. Do most Americans participate in the corrupt establishment system because they like it? No. They participate because they feel there are no other viable options, and since very few government officials seem to be coming forward with said options, there is nothing to do but build a better system for ourselves.

This means average people starting their own alternative economies in their own communities based on trade, barter, and sound money (precious metals), in conjunction with fiat until the bottom finally falls out of the dollar. It means cutting down the weekly trips to Walmart and buying as many goods as you can from local Liberty Movement based providers. It means setting up statewide networks of micro-industries, farm and garden co-ops, and gold and silver distributors, and turning away from the NWO completely. It means a return to true free markets owned and operated by the people, without any interference from corporations or government.

If they want a centralized economy, then we decentralize the economy. If they want to break up legitimate community, then we support legitimate community. If they want to break down 10th Amendment rights, then we support the Constitutional imperative of the states to determine their own internal matters. If they want us to rely solely on the dollar, then we convert our dollars to gold and silver, and trade with each other. Neithercorp is now working on a project with Oathkeepers which we believe will make these alternatives a reality.

If anything is going to turn for the better, ever, that change is going to start with regular people. There is no other way around it. When the colonies of the American Revolution rebelled against the British Empire, they did so first by dumping the corrupt British economic system, and setting up their own free markets. They did not just declare independence; they took concrete actions which removed their dependency on their enemy. They forced the British to choose; accept that the colonies had their own system and move on, or attack the colonies, try to force them to conform, and expose British tyranny for all the world to see. The British chose the latter, bit off more than they could chew, and the rest is history. The point is that the colonists created a win-win scenario. We must do the same.

Some might claim that times have changed and circumstances are different, but this is irrelevant. The concept still applies, and is actually in use by the Liberty Movement already. The alternative media is a perfect example of how offering a better option to the public can destroy a controlled mainstream system, like that of the MSM. Their numbers are plummeting, while ours are skyrocketing. They are becoming obsolete, while we become more necessary. And all we had to do was offer the truth, and free participation. Imagine that…

As Soros points out in the FT interview, now is the time to act. We know what the globalists plan to do to our currency and our economy, so why wait around for the leaky ship to sink when we could be using that time to build a better boat? Now, it is our turn to act. We must set the pace. We must take matters into our own hands, before someone else makes the important decisions for us. We must determine our own destinies. There is precious little left to lose, and everything to gain.

New Beginnings

2011-01-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 13:4 – ‘The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing:
but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.'

Talk is cheap. You can talk about what you are gonna do for years. You can talk about how you are going to do it for years. You can keep rebuilding your life over and over again and keep getting "loosed" or "empowered" by conferences. You can keep getting new revelation and saying what changes you are going to make in your life. But until your revelation gets activation, you will still be right where you are! You cannot sit around and not work a job and expect money! You can't sit around and do nothing and expect results at harvest time! You cannot sit around and talk about all that you are going to do in this new year but keep the same old crazy work habits, the same old unfruitful friendships, and the same old low self worth and expect to get ahead in life. IT WON'T HAPPEN!!! Many times our problem is not spiritual, but it's the fact that we are not being diligent about our life managing.

There are rules in this life. Until God moves your gift into operation to produce for you, you must show diligence in your behavior. God does not hire bums either! He wants diligence and those that will do their best. I know so many people with all the talent in the world, but they half do everything! They won't work a job but then want to pastor a church! They won't manage the little money they have, but expect a financial breakthrough! They spend all the hours of every day doing for everyone and have no time to perfect their own gifts and talents. They hang around deadbeats and misfits but avoid people that are going somewhere in life or people that challenge them. And people like this always talk about what they are going to do but there is a simple rule to this. God's wants you to prosper, but first he wants you to show diligence in your business practices, your financial planning, and your life management. Every disciple Jesus chose was a hard working, diligent, businessman. He did not choose unemployed folks. He did not choose a broke disciple living off his momma or his girlfriend! He did not choose a shiftless person that talked it but did not walk it. He chose earthly successes and made them spiritually successful. Even the devil he chose was a great money manager. Whether you are president of a bank or in charge of french fries at a restaurant, be diligent in what you do. Saints of God, let's get it together in 2011. When I say that, I mean, get your life together. Don't talk it because you have said it so many times before. Just do it. What you do in your natural life is a reflection of how you will govern spiritual things. Sure you need more Jesus, but you also need good life management as well. God is watching!

Suggested Reading: Prov. 10:4, Prov. 12:24, Prov. 12:27, Prov. 21:5, Prov. 22:29, 2Cor. 8:22,

http://www.exministries.com/

NIA's Top 10 Predictions for 2011

2011-01-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

The National Inflation Association is pleased to announce its top 10 predictions for 2011.

1) The Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios will continue to decline.

In NIA's top 10 predictions for 2010, we predicted major declines in the Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios. The Dow/Gold ratio was 9.3 at the time and finished 2010 down 15% to 8.1. The Gold/Silver ratio was 64 at the time and finished 2010 down 28% to 46. We expect to see the Dow/Gold ratio decline to 6.5 and the Gold/Silver ratio decline to 38 in 2011. Later this decade, we expect to see the Dow/Gold ratio bottom at 1 and the Gold/Silver ratio decline to below 16 and possibly as low as 10.

2) Colleges will begin to go bankrupt and close their doors.

We have a college education bubble in America that was made possible by the U.S. government's willingness to give out cheap and easy student loans. With all of the technological advances that have been taking place worldwide, the cost for a college education in America should be getting cheaper. Instead, private four-year colleges have averaged 5.6% tuition inflation over the past six years.
College tuitions are the one thing in America that never declined in price during the panic of 2008. Despite collapsing stock market and Real Estate prices, college tuition costs surged to new highs as Americans instinctively sought to become better educated in order to better ride out and survive the economic crisis. Unfortunately, American students who overpaid for college educations are graduating and finding out that their degrees are worthless and no jobs are available for them. They would have been better off going straight into the work force and investing their money into gold and silver. That way, they would have real wealth today instead of debt and would already have valuable work place experience, which is much more important than any piece of paper.

Colleges and universities took on ambitious construction projects and built new libraries, gyms, and sporting venues, that added no value to the education of students. These projects were intended for the sole purpose of impressing students and their families. The administrators of these colleges knew that no matter how high tuitions rose, students would be able to simply borrow more from the government in order to pay them.

Americans today can purchase just about any type of good on Amazon.com, cheaper than they can find it in retail stores. This is because Amazon.com is a lot more efficient and doesn't have the overhead costs of brick and mortar retailers. NIA expects to see a new trend of Americans seeking to become educated cheaply over the Internet. There will be a huge drop off in demand for traditional college degrees. NIA expects to see many colleges default on their debts in 2011. These colleges will be forced to either downsize and educate students more cost effectively or close their doors for good.

3) U.S. retailers will report declines in profit margins and their stocks will decline.

Although most analysts on Wall Street believe retailers will report a major increase in holiday season sales over a year ago, NIA believes any top line growth retailers report will come at the expense of dismal bottom line profits. NIA expects many retailers to report large declines in their profit margins for the 4Q of 2010 and first half of 2011. Retailers have been selling goods at bargain basement prices in order to generate demand. Americans, being flush with newly printed dollars from the Federal Reserve, have been eager to buy up supplies of goods at artificially low prices. However, shareholders will likely sell off their retail stocks on this news. As share prices of retail stocks decline, retailers will begin to rapidly increase their prices by mid-2011.

4) The mainstream public will begin to buy gold.

Although the mainstream media continues to proclaim we have a gold bubble, it is impossible to have a gold bubble when mainstream America isn't buying gold. The average American is more likely to be a seller of gold through companies like Cash4Gold, in order to raise enough dollars to put food on their table. Most Americans today don't even know the price of gold. During the next 12 months, we expect to see a huge ramping up in the public's knowledge about gold. More Americans than ever will know the current price of gold and understand that it is real money. By the end of 2011, we expect the general public to begin looking at gold as an investment, just like they began looking at Real Estate as an investment in 2003. Sometime during the next six months, we believe you will overhear a stranger at a restaurant talking about investing into gold. We believe the price of gold could surge to as high as $2,000 per ounce in 2011.

5) We will see a huge surge in municipal debt defaults.

In the closing months of 2010, we saw yields on municipal bonds rise to their highest levels since early 2009. After 29 consecutive weeks of inflows into municipal bond funds, investors are now pulling money out of municipal bond funds by record amounts, with $9 billion exiting municipal bond funds in the five weeks leading up to Christmas. NIA believes there could be a small dip in municipal bond yields over the next couple of months as investors realize that municipal debt defaults might not be imminent, but we expect municipal bond yields to begin rising again by mid-2011 with a huge surge in municipal debt defaults coming in the second half of 2011. Although the Federal Government has a printing press that it uses in order to pay its debts, cities and municipalities do not.

6) We will see a large decline in the crude oil/natural gas ratio.

When we released our top 10 predictions for 2010, crude oil was $73 per barrel and we predicted that oil prices would rise to $100 per barrel in 2010. Crude oil ended up rising by 26% in 2010 to $92 per barrel, coming short of our outlook. However, it is possible our $100 per barrel oil forecast might be off by just a month or two. We wouldn't be surprised to see $100 per barrel oil within the first two months of 2011 and if so, we expect to see a huge movement in America this year towards natural gas.
The crude oil/natural gas ratio currently stands at 20. Historically, the crude oil/natural gas ratio has averaged 10 and based on an energy equivalent basis, crude oil and natural gas prices should have a 6 to 1 ratio. Brand new fracking technology has caused natural gas supplies in the U.S. to rise to record levels. Although our country might be flooded with natural gas, the natural gas fracking boom that is taking place across the U.S. today is causing ground water in the U.S. to become contaminated. Americans living near natural gas wells that use fracking, are finding that they can now light the water coming out of their faucets on fire. New government regulations are likely to crack down on natural gas fracking and this will come at the same time as American individuals and businesses begin to convert their automobiles and machinery to run off of natural gas. A large decline in the crude oil/natural gas ratio in 2011 is likely, possibly down to as low as 15.

7) The median U.S. home will decline sharply priced in silver.

For the past couple of years, being able to make ones mortgage payment has been the primary concern for the average American. In an attempt to support housing prices and keep mortgage interest rates at artificially low levels, the Federal Reserve has been implementing massive quantitative easing and buying mortgage backed securities. NIA believes the Federal Reserve will be successful at putting a nominal floor under Real Estate prices. NIA also believes that the Federal Reserve's actions will cause a massive decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, which will allow Americans to more easily pay back their mortgages with depreciated U.S. dollars.
However, the Federal Reserve will not be successful at reinflating the Real Estate bubble. In fact, in terms of real money (gold and silver), NIA believes Real Estate prices will decline to record lows. The median U.S. home is currently priced at $170,600 or 5,500 ounces of silver. Priced in silver, the median U.S. home price is down 16% from one month ago and 45% from one year ago. After the inflationary crisis of the 1970s, silver rose to a high in 1980 of $49.45 per ounce. The median U.S. home price in 1980 was $47,200, which means the median U.S. home/silver ratio declined to a low of 954.

With the Federal Reserve printing money at an unprecedented rate and record amounts of new homes built during the recent Real Estate bubble, NIA believes it is inevitable that the median U.S. home will decline to a price of 1,000 ounces of silver this decade and possibly as low as 500 ounces of silver. In 2011, we believe a decline in the median U.S. home price to 4,000 ounces of silver is possible.

8) Food inflation will become America's top crisis.

Starting a few decades ago and accelerating in recent years, America has seen a boom in non-productive service jobs, mainly in the financial sector. Most of these jobs were made possible by inflation. Without inflation, which steals from the purchasing power of the incomes and savings of goods producing workers, the majority of the jobs on Wall Street would not exist today and our country would be in much better financial shape because of it.
With most Americans in recent decades seeking non-productive jobs in the financial services sector because that is where they could access the Fed's cheap and easy money, very few Americans sought jobs in the farming and agriculture sector. In the 1930s, approximately 28% of the population was employed in the agriculture sector, but today this number is less than 2%. Agriculture currently makes up only 1.2% of U.S. GDP, compared to the services sector, which makes up 76.9% of U.S. GDP.

There is currently a major shortage of farmers in the U.S. and a lot of land that was previously used for farming has now been developed with Real Estate. To make matters worse, agricultural products now trade on the international market and Americans must now compete against citizens of emerging nations like China and India for the purchasing of food.

Prices of goods and services do not rise equally when governments create monetary inflation. Inflation gravitates most towards the items that Americans need the most and there is nothing that Americans need more to survive than food and agriculture. As the U.S. government prints money, the first thing Americans will spend it on is food. Americans can cut back on energy use by moving into a smaller home and carpooling to work. They can cut back on entertainment, travel, and other discretionary spending. However, Americans can never stop spending money on food.

The days of cheap food in America are coming to an end. The recent unprecedented rise that we have seen in agricultural commodity prices is showing no signs of letting up. In the past few days, sugar futures reached a new 30-year high, coffee futures reached a new 13-year high, orange juice futures reached a new 3-year high, corn futures reached a new 29-month high, soybean futures reached a new 27-month high, and palm oil futures reached a new 33-month high.

We estimate that it takes as long as six months for rising agricultural commodity prices to be felt by U.S. consumers in their local supermarket. Even if food producers and retailers accept substantially lower profit margins in 2011, we are still guaranteed to see double-digit across the board U.S. food inflation in the first half of the year. That is correct, let us repeat, NIA guarantees that Americans will see double-digit food inflation in the first half of 2011.

Shockingly, except for Glenn Beck (who was kind enough to feature our food inflation report), absolutely nobody in the mainstream media is doing anything to warn Americans about the food inflation crisis that is ahead. In fact, left-wing groups like Media Matters (funded by George Soros) have been working tirelessly to try and discredit NIA's research while reassuring Americans that they need not worry about food inflation. The truth is, when Americans realize that they can no longer take food for granted, we will likely see the outbreak of an all out food price panic with everybody rushing to the supermarket to stock up on goods before prices rise even further. The end result will likely be government price controls and empty store shelves, but NIA doesn't project this to occur until later this decade.

9) QE2 will disappoint and the Federal Reserve will prepare QE3.

The Dow Jones is now back up to 11,670, which is where it was in mid-2008 before the crash. NIA believes that most of QE2 has already been priced into the market, before the Federal Reserve even prints the $600 billion. At some point, we expect it to become apparent to all that the U.S. economic recovery is phony and stock prices are rising solely due to inflation. In our opinion, we will see some sort of catalyst that causes the stock market to sell off at some point and the consensus on Wall Street will be that QE2 will not be enough to save the U.S. economy. By the end of 2011, we expect the Federal Reserve to begin planning QE3. QE3 might be the final dose of inflation that causes the U.S. economy to overdose into hyperinflation.

10) Sarah Palin will announce she is running for President as a Republican.

NIA believes that Sarah Palin has been setup perfectly to run for President in 2012 and that she will announce her candidacy for the Republican nomination with great fanfare from tea party supporters in 2011. We give Sarah Palin credit for recently speaking out against the Federal Reserve's QE2 and warning Americans about the food inflation crisis that is ahead. Unfortunately, we believe Sarah Palin is not a true independent and is being controlled by the Republican establishment, which is just as responsible as the Democrats are for the financial crisis we have today. As President, Palin would be unlikely to implement the measures that are necessary to prevent hyperinflation. In our opinion, we need to elect a true libertarian candidate as President who will cut government spending, balance the budget, and restore sound money. NIA intends to support Ron Paul, if he decides to run for President.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

The year America dissolved

2010-12-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and
the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
The government was forced to print money in order to pay its bills, causing domestic prices to rise rapidly. Faced with hyperinflation, Washington took recourse in terminating Social Security and Medicare and followed up by confiscating the remnants of private pensions. This provided a one-year respite, but with no more resources to confiscate, money creation and hyperinflation resumed.
Organized food deliveries broke down when the government fought hyperinflation with fixed prices and the mandate that all purchases and sales had to be in US paper currency. Unwilling to trade appreciating goods for depreciating paper, goods disappeared from stores.
Washington responded as Lenin had done during the “war communism” period of Soviet history. The government sent troops to confiscate goods for distribution in kind to the population. This was a temporary stop-gap until existing stocks were depleted, as future production was discouraged. Much of the confiscated stocks became the property of the troops who seized the goods.
Goods reappeared in markets under the protection of local warlords. Transactions were conducted in barter and in gold, silver, and copper coins.
Other clans organized around families and individuals who possessed stocks of food, bullion, guns and ammunition. Uneasy alliances formed to balance differences in clan strengths. Betrayals quickly made loyalty a necessary trait for survival.
Large-scale food and other production broke down as local militias taxed distribution as goods moved across local territories. Washington seized domestic oil production and refineries, but much of the government’s gasoline was paid for safe passage across clan territories.
Most of the troops in Washington’s overseas bases were abandoned. As their resource stocks were drawn down, the abandoned soldiers were forced into alliances with those with whom they had been fighting.
Washington found it increasingly difficult to maintain itself. As it lost control over the country, Washington was less able to secure supplies from abroad as tribute from those Washington threatened with nuclear attack. Gradually other nuclear powers realized that the only target in America was Washington. The more astute saw the writing on the wall and slipped away from the former capital city.
When Rome began her empire, Rome’s currency consisted of gold and silver coinage. Rome was well organized with efficient institutions and the ability to supply troops in the field so that campaigns could continue indefinitely, a monopoly in the world of Rome’s time.
When hubris sent America in pursuit of overseas empire, the venture coincided with the offshoring of American manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs and the corresponding erosion of the government’s tax base, with the advent of massive budget and trade deficits, with the erosion of the fiat paper currency’s value, and with America’s dependence on foreign creditors and puppet rulers.
The Roman Empire lasted for centuries. The American one collapsed overnight.
Rome’s corruption became the strength of her enemies, and the Western Empire was overrun.
America’s collapse occurred when government ceased to represent the people and became the instrument of a private oligarchy. Decisions were made in behalf of short-term profits for the few at the expense of unmanageable liabilities for the many. Overwhelmed by liabilities, the government collapsed.
Globalism had run its course. Life reformed on a local basis.

Constitutional Judo

2010-12-15T12:01:00.000-08:00

By Giordano Bruno
Neithercorp Press – 12/15/2010
In all things, there exists a ‘point of balance’; a line that, if crossed, results in the sudden and expedient loss of our self-determinism and makes us subservient to the fickle whims of social, political, and physical gravity. We are “thrown” into the air, as it were, and the landing is rarely ever pleasant. The U.S. Constitution and the civil liberties it outlines is itself one of these historic points of balance. Its original purpose was to temper the most epic of grappling matches ever ignited; between the relentless constructs of government, and the individual freedoms of the common man. The ultimate problem inherent in this struggle is one of consistency, vigilance, and labor…
While the concept of the Democratic Republic and the Constitution was meant to remove suffocating class warfare from our political life and free us from the numerous dangers of elitism, invariably, those men who thirst for power over others find a way to insinuate themselves into any system, regardless of checks and balances, especially when the populace does not fulfill its necessary role as watchdog and tireless sentinel. Many Americans often assume that ‘the people’ derive their power from the Constitution, but the reality is actually reverse; the Constitution, in fact, derives its power from the people. Our duty (which some have forgotten) has always been to protect the rights and liberties inscribed on those pages of parchment. Not just to know those rights, or recite them, but to implement and defend them in our day-to-day existence. Without the constant nurturing cultural pulse of sound minds and courageous hearts, the Constitution dies.
Many in our society, instead of taking on the responsibility of preserving their freedoms, have instead handed it over to the trappings of government. The fatal error here is obvious; the corporatized and over-centralized political landscape of America’s government today does not hold the same values as the people it is determined to lord over. We have witnessed the parasitic possession of our system, know it to be corrupt, yet still seem to expect this bureaucratic monstrosity to cradle our liberties in good faith!
Government is a tool; a mechanical apparatus that can be used to either preserve freedom, or annihilate it. Its use depends upon those men who wield it, and the men who wield our government today certainly do not have the expansion of freedom in mind. In this article, we will examine the many points of contention (balancing points) brewing as our exceedingly globalist leaning political leaders overstep their bounds. Any one of these points, if allowed to falter by Americans, could throw the whole of our heritage into disarray…
Death By A Thousand Cuts
If you’ve been living at the center of the Earth for the past decade, or playing online games till daybreak battling for dominion of Castle Grayskull, then you may have missed out on the numerous attempts by our Government (under both major parties) to erode our freedoms one precious layer at a time. Some of these attempts have so far fallen flat, while others have been frighteningly successful. Here is just a sample of various recent actions and legislation designed specifically to swindle away your rights, if not the shirt right off your back:
Patriot Acts I & II: The Patriot Act is what I call “chameleon legislation”; it’s designed to be “open to interpretation” by officials and to be modified for whatever purpose they happen to deem fit at the moment. Ultimately, both Patriot Acts opened a terrible gateway to a world where any freedom is expendable, especially if it means stopping terrorists and “evil doers”. Of course, the manner in which terrorism is defined by proponents of the Patriot Act is wildly general. ANYONE could be defined as a terrorist, and any threat could be construed as a matter of national security. The true goal of this legislation was not to protect the public, but to untie the hands of the establishment when implementing further destructive actions, as well as to plant the fog of doubt into the minds of Americans as to the continued validity of the Constitution itself.
The Enemy Belligerents Act: The Enemy Belligerents Act is a perfect example of how the leadership caste of the Democrats and Republicans (who are neo-cons, not true conservatives) work in tandem to institute globalist policy. In this case, the act was introduced by the dastardly duo of John McCain and Joe Lieberman. To put it simply, this legislation, if fully imposed, would allow the government to label any person they choose, even an American citizen, as an enemy combatant. This means you could be arrested without being officially charged, imprisoned without a trial or legal council for an unspecified length of time, and no one, not even your family, would be told where you were. They should just re-name it the ‘Shanghai Act’, because it basically legalizes government piracy. The only problem is that this shanghai is less likely to end with tropical island adventure and more likely to end with you being tossed in a dark stinky hole in the middle of another Abu Ghraib surrounded by Blackwater mongoloids with a penchant for naked man dog-piles. Again, this is the kind of poison your government thinks up on a regular basis…
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645
The John Warner Defense Authorization Act: A bill passed by George W. Bush in 2007 with very little initial media coverage. Allows the Federal Government at the direction of the president to subvert Posse Comitatus and use the military within the borders of the U.S. as a police force without any consent from state governments. Also gives the office of the president unprecedented powers over the National Guard. Just add any real or engineered national disaster and what you get is a perfect recipe for Hurricane Katrina deluxe. Martial Law, here we come…
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5122
Establishment Of Northcom: Northcom (United States Northern Command) is, at bottom, the teeth behind legislation like the John Warner Defense Act. If martial law is declared in the U.S., it will be Northcom and its assigned military units that will stand at the forefront. Northcom’s stated mission is to “defend the homeland”, supposedly against terrorism, however, much of Northcom’s focus in annual exercises like ‘Vigilant Shield’ has been to prepare for civil unrest and continuity of government. Meaning, they train under the assumption the YOU will be the enemy. The first person posted to command Northcom was General Ralph Eberhart, the same man who was in charge of NORAD on 9/11. Apparently, if you ignore available intelligence and fail completely in your assigned duties, you get a promotion in the upper echelons of the military today, unless I missed something, and he didn’t fail…
Presidential Directive 51: A presidential action shrouded in secrecy and general cloak and dagger spookiness. When ignorant yuppies accuse the Liberty Movement of “paranoia”, I always point out PDD 51, and ask them if they are at least intelligent enough to be concerned. This order was initiated by George W. Bush and continued by Barack Obama, and is designed to give the president virtual dictatorial powers during a state of “national emergency”. It dissolves all states rights and places the entire country under the purview of Northcom, and Homeland Security. The guise of “continuity of government” is used as a rationale. Also allows the president to declare a state of emergency for almost any reason. Members of Congress and even some members of Homeland Security who have requested to read the entire directive have been denied. The bill is apparently so disturbing that Obama doesn’t even want those with security clearance to view the full document. Though I’m sure there is some grey area that can be exploited where classified materials are concerned, as far as I can tell from my research, Obama’s withholding of information on a directive such as PDD 51 from Congress is wholly illegal.
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-51.htm
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): Supported by both Bush and Obama. The word “foreign” is highly misleading. FISA allows telecom companies to supply the personal data and communications of anyone, including Americans, to the government without threat of civil retribution (lawsuit). Under Constitutional law, any invasion of privacy by government authorities must first be approved through an individualized warrant. The person or premises to be monitored must be specified, and the reason behind the surveillance must be clearly explained. FISA does away with all of these protections to your privacy and gives free reign to government to spy on whoever they choose without any oversight whatsoever. It even allows for mass surveillance, or data collation, on entire subsections of the populace. What I find most interesting about FISA is the way in which it brazenly breaks the barrier between government and corporate power. We all know about the revolving door in Washington, but in the past, the idea of the barrier was at least somewhat maintained for appearances, if nothing else. The trick to FISA is that “technically”, it is the telecoms that are doing the actual surveillance, and not government. This is, I’m sure, the argument that will be used by the Feds if FISA is ever taken to the Supreme Court under the Fourth Amendment. The reality, though, is that the telecoms and the government are one in the same, and to treat them as two separate legal entities is to blind one’s self to the facts. Now, Mussolini’s definition of fascism (the melding of government and corporate infrastructure into a single entity with a single purpose) absolutely seems to apply to the U.S.
Big Brother Technotronic Super Villain-esqe Surveillance Grid: Ever feel like you are being watched? Get used to it, says Homeland Security! CCTV cameras have doubled in most U.S. cities over the past two years, while New York has tripled theirs in only six months. The TSA has been given invincible IRS-like goon squad status and now fondles and x-rays airport travelers at will, storing biometric data without consent and generally treating people worse than cattle. Don’t care because you don’t fly? Don’t worry! Naked body scanners are coming to bus and train stations near you! Hell, if we don’t put a stop to this horror soon, the TSA may roll scanners out on street corners.
A friend of mine was recently on a trip to Boston and went to see the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest commissioned American war vessel still afloat. He related to me that his excitement was soon smothered when he realized visitors had to pass through metal detectors and security just to see the boat. I’m sure that the government is merely trying to prevent Al Qaeda from sneaking on board with box cutters, hijacking the ship, and sailing it into the Sears tower, causing the building to implode at near freefall speed.
The reason he was disenchanted with the experience was because he knew the metal detectors and security served little purpose, except to condition people into accepting that this was the norm. Everywhere you go, there DHS is.
Next of course would be easily tracked national ID cards, which were attempted a couple of years ago with little success under the Real ID Act. State compliance for the Real ID was postponed until May 2011, which is right around the corner. We’ll see if the states cave, or stand their ground. Finally, no surveillance society would be complete without citizen spies. Homeland Security is establishing its new “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign in your local Walmart. Yes, imagine the ghoulish face of cave troll Janet Napolitano leering down at aisle five as you attempt to save a dollar on frozen buffalo wings. She slobbers rhetoric about how you are surrounded by terrorists while you try to find that economy sized box of Count Chocula. Wouldn’t we all just feel safer?
Bailout Bills (All Variations): I find that a lot of people like to blame our current economic doomfest on one political party or the other, stumbling about in the dark in a sad attempt to trace the roots of the credit and mortgage collapse back to Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, etc. Everyone is desperate to play cheerleader for their team, not realizing that both teams are fake and almost every president since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 is to blame for selling out the American people to global banks. Let’s not forget, both Obama and Bush supported bailout legislation which is now widely considered to be an abject failure. The majority of Americans according to most polls apposed these bills, and yet they were still passed. What do the bailouts have to do with the loss of Constitutional rights? When the entirety of your country’s financial future is poured into the coffers of international banking elites and your currency is subsequently debased if not destroyed, leaving you with nothing but debt and supranational centralization, it is a certainty that a total loss of your rights will soon follow.
FDA Food Safety Modernization Act S. 510: Currently being considered for passage in the House. Yet another bill written in such a way as to make it wide open for interpretation by the authorities. First of all, the FDA has never been synonymous with “safety”, considering half the products they approve end up causing cancer or shrinking your testes. They would approve rat urine for mass consumption if a company like Monsanto wanted to market it. The FDA’s true roll has been to let major corporations violate safety regulations unobstructed while ruthlessly bringing the hammer down on smaller businesses. Now, the FDA has set its aim upon not just small farms, but personal gardens!
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510
The bill gives the FDA far reaching powers over what it terms “food production facilities”, which are defined as “any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation”. It also places all food production under the control of Homeland Security in the event of a “national emergency” (there’s that poorly defined phrase again). I have heard some organic growers and ranchers shrug off the bill, believing that the FDA would never take advantage of the broad interpretation and bring pressure on private gardens or food trade. This kind of naivety is always astonishing to me. When has a society ever opened a door to power that its government has not taken quick advantage of? In fact, the FDA has already begun harassing the Amish, of all people, for private farm trade, even without S. 510:
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/fda-agents-invade-amish-farm-in-pa/
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/05/01/2008-05-01_raw_milk_lovers_upset_over_amish_arrest.html
These are non-commercial farms, yet the FDA believes it has the authority to dictate their food production activities. If the government is willing to set its laser guided sites on a pacifist group that still rides around in horse and buggy, then they’ll definitely have no qualms going after the rest of us.
Anti-Constitutional Arguments For Dummies
Most people enjoy the advantages of freedom and are naturally conservative towards government, whether they realize it or not. Because of the rather unsavory past actions of the neo-cons (globalists), the word “conservative” has been sullied, and is now associated with corporatism and big government. However, real conservatism has always been quite revolutionary. True conservatives believe in the principle of limited government, and individualism above collectivism, which means they usually find themselves the target of establishment fury. True conservatives are almost always in rebellion against the system, because the system is almost always operated by those who are anti-freedom. Show me a self proclaimed conservative who supports proliferation of government with a smile and I’ll show you a very confused man.
The label “Conservative” should really be interchangeable with “Constitutionalist”, and once this is understood, anti-Constitutional arguments can be viewed without the blurred distractions of the false left/right paradigm. We begin to understand that the conflict is not between Democrat and Republican, Liberal or Conservative, because those terms have been warped and their meaning eroded. The conflict we face is instead between individualists (Constitutionalists), and collectivists (globalists).
We’ve all heard the gamut of anti-Constitutional arguments in the past, but almost always through the left/right filter. Let’s set that filter aside for a moment and consider a few of them once again more objectively…
Argument 1 – The Constitution is an outdated document and is no longer practical for the modern world:
I’ve heard this argument from both sides of the aisle once again indicating that left vs. right is all fantasy. Does a good idea ever become outdated? What about inborn instincts? Can the desire for freedom ever be impractical?
The suggestion that the Constitution is “too old” is ludicrous for many reasons. First, the idea of an independent republic is painfully new compared to the long wash of human empires filled with vast stretches of feudalism and tyranny. Globalism is often touted as the next step in the cultural evolution of man, but it is really a giant leap backwards compared to Constitutionalism, representing yet another old centralist autocracy marketed in a modern way. A global feudal state is still a feudal state.
Second, the guidelines of the Constitution are built upon social necessities that have never and will never disappear. The right to speak openly one’s opinions or observations without fear of government reprisal is not a right that we will ever find ourselves too modern to appreciate. The right to bear arms and defend oneself will always be essential to a culture that wishes to prevent despotism in its various forms. The right to privacy from all people, including the government, will never be programmed out of the public entirely. Every man has an innate need to live without being examined and judged as though he were under constant suspicion. Every aspect of the Constitution is archetypal, and therefore, as much a part of us our own eyes and ears. These things do not lose their usefulness, no matter what era we live in.
Third, I have yet to see a political dynamic that is more sincere and honorable than the U.S. Constitution. I have yet to see a social concept presented as an alternative to the Constitution that does not have an ulterior motive attached. If someone, anyone, can present a new system that improves upon the Constitution while retaining the liberties described in the Constitution, I would love to see it. I hear a lot of criticism of the Constitution by globalists, but I have never seen any of them present a workable replacement that the public would respect, or willingly accept.
Argument 2 – Some rights must be given up for the greater good:
I’ll tell you a little secret; there is no “greater good”, unless you are talking about personal conscience. If your version of the “greater good” demands that you supplant your personal conscience, then it is not “greater”, and it is not “good”.
Safety is usually the catalyzing issue that leads to relinquished liberties, but safety itself is an illusion. No government can promise you true safety. Life is dangerous, and filled with the unexpected. Get over it and stop projecting your fears on the rest of us. If someone really feels that they are in immediate danger of a terrorist attack, then they should build a concrete bunker for themselves and stay in it, instead of trying to impose a collective bunker made out of unconstitutional laws and government surveillance around all of us.
Ultimately, what IS the greater good in this situation? Is it an unaccountable globalist nanny state and the dissolution of all individual and national sovereignty for the sake of a few people’s delusions of security? Maybe I’m just reckless, but I’m not buying it…
Argument 3 – National sovereignty must be removed if we are to achieve world peace:
World peace sounds very nice, I admit, but anyone who thinks removing Constitutional boundaries and bowing to globalism is the cure for war is smoking something laced with a serious amount of something. Almost every war of the past century alone has been funded, facilitated, or outright ignited by the same types of global elitists who now demand that we centralize world economic and political power into their hands to end war. This isn’t irony, it’s actually very well thought out Hegelian gaming; a sort of anti-Karma that rewards evil and punishes the respectable.
We have been led to believe that peace requires some kind of Faustian trade; freedom for harmony. But, legitimate freedom is a harbinger of peace, and nothing, not even the promise of harmony, is worth trading it away.
Argument 4 – The government could never undo Constitutional liberties because we would just vote them out:
This argument shows a serious lack of insight into how our government actually functions. As I have pointed out, most of the anti-Constitutional legislation described in this article was supported by both major parties. Therefore, it would be logical to then consider that voting out one party and replacing them with the other makes little difference as to the policies the government pursues. Unless you are voting for third party or liberty based candidates, your stop at the ballot box was a big waste of time. Sorry, that’s just reality. The people who write in Mickey Mouse have more sense than most of the voting public. The point? Elections change very little on a federal level.
The argument is also sometimes reversed by nihilists, who claim that the American public is to blame for government corruption because they voted for said politicians in the first place. Again, how the public votes has little bearing on most major elections because they have not been given a real choice. I get more excitement when deciding between Coke or Pepsi.
Argument 5 – The Founding Fathers couldn’t live up to their Constitutional ideals:
Yes, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and he also tried to implement a gradual emancipation for all slaves. It’s a contradiction. Jefferson, like all the Founding Fathers, was living in the midst of a revolutionary age filled with contradictions and conflict. The fact that they were able to sort through much of this and form a nation that at least aspired towards equal rights and independence is nothing short of a miracle. Washington made many mistakes, and so did Adams. In the context of the era in which they lived, they still did extraordinarily well, and this world is immensely better off because of their contributions.
This argument is perhaps the most dishonest of those I’ve heard, because it seeks to dismantle the very tangible and beneficial accomplishments of the revolutionary period by defaming men who cannot defend themselves because they are long since dead. It is successful when used to target people who know only historical events or dates but do not know more about the characters of the figures involved. That is not to say we should blindly idolize the Founding Fathers, on the contrary, we should endeavor to see them as real human beings with strengths, as well as flaws. Those flaws do not discredit what they built. What men are able to achieve in spite of their flaws is often far more meaningful and valuable than what they lose because of them.
Moral Ambiguity In Times Of Crisis
Liberty is most threatened in moments of great duress. Desperation breeds reckless abandon, and such an atmosphere is suffocating to wisdom. Each point of balance in the struggle for freedom requires considerable focus, and that focus can be twisted, flipped, and wrenched by the shock of disaster. The preservation of Constitutional rights depends greatly on our ability to maintain a sense of integrity and discipline as a culture, even when all the world seems to crumble around us.
Fear makes the insane seem reasonable. Financial collapse, war, civil unrest, all of these calamities can tempt us to silence our dissent, to do things we would not normally do, or to concede that which is precious to us. Even now, that kind of fear has led to many unfortunate compromises. The good news is, there is no freedom taken, that cannot be taken back.
The question is, how much are we willing to endure to see that our ideals survive? How hard are we willing to work? How much of our time, effort, and energy are we willing to expend? If the answer is not “all of it”, then we have failed already. What we have covered so far is the present situation, and by no means does it have to continue. When drawing a line in the sand, that line must first be drawn within. We must promise ourselves that it is here we will not bend, we will not lose balance, we will not be thrown. All liberty depends most on this.

WikiLeaks, Bernanke, and Hyperinflation

2010-12-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

NIA is deeply disturbed by how U.S. politicians and the mainstream media have been calling for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be charged with treason. Some people in Washington are even calling for the assassination of Assange like he is some kind of a terrorist, all because he helped spread the truth about our country's foreign policy and other sensitive topics. The U.S. is in very serious trouble if it has now become a crime to speak the truth.

In recent years with the help of the Internet, there has been a rise in alternative media sites that speak the truth, while the mainstream media has simultaneously experienced collapsing television ratings and newspaper circulation levels. CNBC's average television show now only has 47,000 U.S. viewers in the 25-54 demographic, down 36% from one year ago. NIA's latest inflationary depression update video has already surpassed 47,000 views, and we don't have the advantage of being on cable television in 95 million American homes.

Americans today have an appetite for the truth. For decades, Americans were brainwashed into believing anything the mainstream media said as the truth. Now that America is waking up and realizing that they have been deceived and lied to their whole lives by the mainstream media, the media is losing its stranglehold over the public. The politicians and corporate elites who control the media are becoming very scared.

Although NIA is not a supporter of Assange, we are a supporter of constitutional rights and there is no more important constitutional right than our freedom of speech. If Americans don't take a stand now to protect their freedom of speech, the U.S. government soon might make it a crime to warn Americans about the hyperinflation that is ahead. With the current path our country is on, there is a chance that as the U.S. approaches the point of hyperinflation, organizations like NIA will be made illegal to exist in the U.S. Those associated with NIA and organizations like us may one day be charged with treason or targeted for assassination, just for warning Americans to get out of fiat paper money (U.S. dollars) and into real money (gold and silver).

If there is one American who deserves to be charged with treason, it is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Bernanke, this past Sunday on '60 Minutes', outright lied to the American public when he said that the Federal Reserve isn't printing money. Less than two years earlier on the same television program, Bernanke admitted that the Federal Reserve is printing money. However, back then, nobody was questioning the Federal Reserve's actions. Thanks to alternative media organizations that have worked tirelessly to help expose the Federal Reserve's dangerous and destructive actions, Americans are starting to finally question the Federal Reserve and Bernanke is now clearly on the defensive.

Bernanke's lie on '60 Minutes' that the Federal Reserve isn't printing money is similar to the lie he made under oath on June 3rd, 2009, when he testified in front of Congress saying, "The Federal Reserve will not monetize the debt." Today, the Federal Reserve is monetizing the debt (as admitted by both the Kansas City and Dallas Fed Presidents). When Bernanke uses the term "quantitative easing", he is insulting the intelligence of Americans. "Quantitative easing" is nothing more than printing money.

Bernanke said in his interview that the purpose of the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" is to keep interest rates low, but the yield on 10-year U.S. treasuries rose to a new six month high today. The truth is, "quantitative easing" is causing interest rates to rise because all of the money being printed is about to cause an outbreak of massive price inflation. The yield on the 10-year bond has risen by 38 basis points during the past three days alone and is now up to 3.26%. NIA continues to believe that interest rates have seen their lows and yields on the 10-year bond will likely rise above 4% in the first half of 2011.

When the 10-year bond yield rises to above 4%, instead of Bernanke admitting that he lied to the American public and his money printing actually caused interest rates to rise, Bernanke will likely claim that his "quantitative easing" just wasn't large enough. Bernanke will use rising interest rates as an excuse to expand the size of QE2 and/or possibly launch QE3. Remember, every 1% rise in interest rates means an extra $100 billion that will need to be spent each year on interest payments on our national debt. Rising interest payments on our national debt can only be paid by Bernanke printing even more money.

Bernanke promises that he won't let price inflation in the U.S. rise above 2%, but all Americans who live in the real world realize that price inflation is already well above 2%. Whether it be food, gas, heat, clothes, healthcare, college tuition, entertainment, or just about anything else, prices have risen over the past twelve months for just about all goods and services in America by a lot more than 2%. It is a real shame that absolutely nobody in the mainstream media has acknowledged this fact and called Bernanke out on it. Bernanke deserves to be impeached for his previous acts of perjury and for blatantly ignoring the price inflation that exists all around us.

Bernanke is currently leading a misinformation campaign that will prevent the majority of Americans from preparing for and surviving U.S. hyperinflation. Bernanke's misinformation campaign is similar to what took place in Weimar Germany in the 1920s when they experienced hyperinflation. In Weimar Germany, the misinformed public always focused on rising prices, but never understood that prices were rising because the German mark was losing its purchasing power.

The Germans believed that there was a shortage of marks and it was therefore necessary to print as many marks as possible. Germans placed all of the blame for their crisis on the symptoms of inflation. They blamed greedy tourists, selfish industrialists and profiteers, the wage demands of labourers, speculators in Germany who were buying foreign currencies and sending their wealth out of the country, and other nations that were buying up German assets with foreign currencies. They failed to grasp that it was their government's own printing of marks and increasing the money supply that caused the inflationary disease.

Bernanke is trying to convince the world that he can create an economic recovery through "quantitative easing" (printing money), without creating price inflation, because he claims to have the tools to unwind the Federal Reserve's massive asset purchases. He is trying to trick the world into believing that he has the ability to pinpoint an exact time in which the U.S. economy is recovering without massive price inflation, where he can exit his inflationary strategy before prices start to dramatically rise. Bernanke has no exit strategy that he can implement without sending the U.S. economy into the next Great Depression.

Bernanke, being a self-proclaimed scholar of the Great Depression, is not going to allow another one to occur. Bernanke didn't like the market's reaction when he allowed Lehman Brothers to fail (the only right decision he made during the whole panic of 2008). After the failure of Lehman Brothers caused the stock market to crash, Bernanke didn't allow another major U.S. bank to fail. NIA predicts that we will one day see Bernanke attempt to launch his exit strategy by raising the Federal Funds Rate, but as soon as the stock market begins to go south like in late-2008, Bernanke will reverse his decision and either lower the Federal Funds Rate again or leave it at artificially low levels until the U.S. dollar loses all of its purchasing power.

One organization out there that has perhaps played the largest role in helping expose the Federal Reserve's manipulation of gold and silver prices is the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA). NIA considers GATA's President Bill Murphy to be a hero for having the courage to expose evidence of gold and silver price manipulation at the CFTC hearing on position limits that was held on March 25th of this year. A short time after the hearing took place, Murphy was leaving a restaurant less than two blocks from where he lives when somebody jumped out from behind a wall and sucker-punched him with brass knuckles. He was knocked out cold and thought his jaw was broken. NIA just conducted a shocking interview with Bill Murphy that we will be releasing Friday evening. You will definitely want to listen to this interview.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

NIA Addresses Bernanke's '60 Minutes' Interview

2010-12-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2010
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was a guest on '60 Minutes' this evening and the National Inflation Association felt it was important to address Bernanke's comments.

Bernanke claims to be concerned primarily about two things: unemployment and deflation. Bernanke says between the economic peak and the end of last year, 8.5 million jobs in America were lost with only 1 million jobs being regained since then. He says it could take 4 to 5 years for the U.S. to get back to a "more normal unemployment rate of 5% or 6%".

The truth is, real unemployment in the U.S. today once you account for everybody who has given up looking for work as well as everybody who is underemployed, is already about 22%. NIA believes it is more likely that in 4 to 5 years from now, U.S. unemployment will rise to Great Depression levels. Bernanke's policy of printing money and creating inflation will not create jobs because the money the Fed creates is going to fund non-productive and wasteful U.S. government spending. The only jobs being created are artificial government jobs.

U.S. government spending is up 108% from 10 years ago. We have a U.S. government spending bubble that will eventually go bust by the U.S. dollar becoming worthless and the U.S. government no longer being able to meet its obligations. Bernanke says we should only be concerned about the long-term deficit because in "10, 15, or 20 years from now the entire budget will be spent on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest payments on the debt" and "there will be no money left for the military or other services the government provides".

The truth is, the U.S. currently has a budget deficit from just Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security alone and even if the U.S. got rid of all government spending besides Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, it wouldn't be enough to balance the budget (including changes in our unfunded liabilities). Countries usually see hyperinflation of their currencies once interest payments on their national debt reach about 50% of tax receipts, and the U.S. is at risk of seeing interest payments on its debt reach 50% of tax receipts in the middle of this decade. In other words, the U.S. should be concerned about surviving these next 5 years, before it worries about surviving the next 10, 15, or 20 years.

According to Bernanke, inflation is "very very low" and this is a major concern to him because we are very close to falling prices or deflation, which he says would lead to falling wages. Bernanke believes that with his $600 billion in "quantitative easing", the risk of deflation is now "pretty low" but if he didn't act, deflation would be a more serious concern.

The truth is, gold is the best gauge of inflation, not the government's phony CPI numbers. Gold is above $1,400 per ounce and near a new all time high. If deflation was as serious of a risk as Bernanke says, we would be seeing falling gold prices. Bernanke's quantitative easing has now made deflation absolutely impossible and Americans need to be concerned about the risk of massive inflation and perhaps hyperinflation. If we saw deflation, it would actually be a good thing because the savings and incomes of middle-class Americans would be worth more and prices for food and energy will become cheaper.

Bernanke says that those who look at the $600 billion in quantitative easing as being inflationary are "not looking at the risks of not acting". He says the Fed has "very carefully analyzed inflation every which way" and that fears of inflation are "way overstated". Bernanke claims it is a "myth" that the Fed is "printing money" because the "money in circulation is not changing in any significant way".

The truth is, the Fed's M2 money supply has risen by $44.9 billion to $8.8092 trillion over the past month. If you annualize this increase, we are talking about a 6.1% increase in the M2 money supply. All Americans who shop for food, gas, or clothes, realize that the U.S. currently has around 6% price inflation and the CPI's 1.17% rate way understates inflation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses geometric weighting and hedonics to understate inflation. The government's CPI simply cannot be relied upon.

Bernanke admitted in his 60 Minutes interview that he did not see the panic of 2008 coming. His excuse was that the Fed didn't have oversight of AIG or Lehman Brothers, and if the Fed had more powers they would have seen the crisis coming.

The truth is, there are many Austrian economists, including those who co-founded and are associated with NIA, who did see the panic of 2008 coming. Every Austrian economist who predicted the panic of 2008, now believes that massive inflation is in our future. It doesn't make sense for Americans to trust Bernanke about inflation when he was wrong about the housing bubble and just about everything else.

Bernanke went on to say that the reason the U.S. has the largest income disparity gap out of any country in the world is because of "educational differences". Bernanke claims that unemployment for Americans with college degrees is only 5%, compared to 10% unemployment for Americans with just a high school education.

The truth is, the reason for our income disparity gap is inflation. When the Fed prints money, it steals from the incomes and savings of the poor and middle-class and transfers this wealth to those on Wall Street who have access to the Fed's cheap and easy money. It has nothing to do with education. In fact, because of Bernanke making it so easy for college students to get student loans, the U.S. has a college tuition inflation crisis.

College tuitions now cost 60% of the median U.S. income, triple the rate of 20% which held strong from 1950 to 1980. Americans today who have college degrees are now worst off, because they are deeply into debt. The only reason their rate of unemployment is lower than those without college degrees is because those with college degrees are more determined to find jobs. If you ask any college graduate who has a job if their college degree helped them become employed, NIA believes the overwhelming majority of college graduates will tell you no.

Bernanke says that he is "trying to achieve balance" and "will not allow inflation to rise above 2%". He says the Fed can "raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to" and the Fed will have "no problem raising rates, tightening monetary policy, and reducing inflation when the time is appropriate".

NIA believes the time is appropriate to raise interest rates now. The real rate of inflation is already a lot higher than 2% and if Bernanke waits for the U.S. to be in an all out currency crisis, it will be impossible to contain inflation. The U.S. will have a major inflationary problem with rising precious metals, food, energy, and clothing prices, until the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to a level that is higher than the real rate of price inflation. If the Fed waits for real price inflation in the U.S. to be in the double-digits, it means we will need to see double-digit interest rates, which will send our interest payments on the national debt to over $1 trillion per year.

Bernanke says that all the Fed's quantitative easing is doing is, "lowering interest rates", but in fact, yields on the 10-year bond are now 2.97%, a new four-month high. NIA believes it is likely that bond yields will continue to rise dramatically in the months ahead, with 10-year bond yields likely to rise above 4% in the first half of 2011. The Fed's goal of keeping interest rates low is obviously failing. The bond bubble is getting ready to burst, which will collapse the U.S. government debt bubble with it.

Americans simply cannot trust Bernanke, who has continuously lied to the American public and been wrong about everything. All Americans need to realize that the real economic crisis is still ahead and it will come as a result of Bernanke's dangerous and destructive actions. Americans need to be preparing now for hyperinflation if they want to survive, because the U.S. government will soon no longer be able to provide for them.

It's the Bankers or Us

2010-12-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

TSA Gestapo Empire

2010-11-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

It doesn’t take a bureaucrat long to create an empire. John Pistole, the FBI agent who took over the Transportation Security Administration on July 1 told USA Today 16 days later that protecting trains and subways from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority for him as air travel.

It is difficult to imagine New Yorkers being porno-screened and sexually groped on crowed subway platforms or showing up an hour or two in advance for clearance for a 15 minute subway ride, but once bureaucrats get the bit in their teeth they take absurdity to its logical conclusion. Buses will be next, although it is even more difficult to imagine open air bus stops turned into security zones with screeners and gropers inspecting passengers before they board.

Will taxi passengers be next? In those Muslim lands whose citizens the US government has been slaughtering for years, favorite weapons for retaliating against the Americans are car and truck bombs. How long before Pistole announces that the TSA Gestapo is setting up roadblocks on city streets, highways and interstates to check cars for bombs?

That 15 minute trip to the grocery store then becomes an all day affair.

Indeed, it has already begun. Last September agents from Homeland Security, TSA, and the US Department of Transportation, assisted by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a counter-terrorism operation on busy Interstate 20 just west of Atlanta, Georgia. Designated VIPER (Visible Inter-mobile Prevention and Response), the operation required all trucks to stop to be screened for bombs. Federal agents used dogs, screening devices, and a large drive-through bomb detection machine. Imagine what the delays did to delivery schedules and truckers’ bottom lines.

There are also news reports of federal trucks equipped with backscatter X-ray devices that secretly scan cars and pedestrians.

With such expensive counter-terrorism activities, both in terms of the hard-pressed taxpayers’ money and civil liberties, one would think that bombs were going off all over America. But, of course, they aren’t. There has not been a successful terrorist act since 9/11, and thousands of independent experts doubt the government’s explanation of that event.

Subsequent domestic terrorist events have turned out to be FBI sting operations in which FBI agents organize not-so-bright disaffected members of society and lead them into displaying interest in participating in a terrorist act. Once the FBI agent, pretending to be a terrorist, succeeds in prompting all the right words to be said and captured on his hidden recorder, the “terrorists” are arrested and the “plot” exposed.

The very fact that the FBI has to orchestrate fake terrorism proves the absence of real terrorists.

If Americans were more thoughtful and less gullible, they might wonder why all the emphasis on transportation when there are so many soft targets. Shopping centers, for example. If there were enough terrorists in America to justify the existence of Homeland Security, bombs would be going off round the clock in shopping malls in every state. The effect would be far more terrifying than blowing up an airliner.

Indeed, if terrorists want to attack air travelers, they never need to board an airplane.

All they need to do is to join the throngs of passengers waiting to go through the TSA scanners and set off their bombs. The TSA has conveniently assembled the targets.

The final proof that there are no terrorists is that not a single neoconservative or government official responsible for the Bush regime’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the Obama regime’s slaughters of Pakistanis, Yemenis, and Somalians has been assassinated. None of these Americans who are responsible for lies, deceptions, and invasions that have destroyed the lives of countless numbers of Muslims have any security protection. If Muslims were capable of pulling off 9/11, they are certainly capable of assassinating Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Libby, Condi Rice, Kristol, Bolton, Goldberg, and scores of others during the same hour of the same day.
I am not advocating that terrorists assassinate anyone. I am just making the point that if the US was as overrun with terrorists as empire-building bureaucrats pretend, we would definitely be experiencing dramatic terrorist acts. The argument is not believable that a government that was incapable of preventing 9/11 is so all-knowing that it can prevent assassination of unprotected neocons and shopping malls from being bombed.

If Al Qaeda was anything like the organization that the US government claims, it would not be focused on trivial targets such as passenger airliners. The organization, if it exists, would be focused on its real enemies. Try to imagine the propaganda value of terrorists wiping out the neoconservatives in one fell swoop, followed by an announcement that every member of the federal government down to the lowest GS, every member of the House and Senate, and every governor was next in line to be bumped off.

This would be real terrorism instead of the make-belief stuff associated with shoe bombs that don’t work, underwear bombs that independent experts say could not work, and bottled water and shampoo bombs that experts say cannot possibly be put together in airliner lavatories.

Think about it. Would a terror organization capable of outwitting all 16 US intelligence agencies, all intelligence agencies of US allies including Israel’s Mossad, the National Security Council, NORAD, air traffic control, the Pentagon, and airport security four times in one hour put its unrivaled prestige at risk with improbable shoe bombs, shampoo bombs, and underwear bombs?

After success in destroying the World Trade Center and blowing up part of the Pentagon, it is an extraordinary comedown to go after a mere airliner. Would a person who gains fame by knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion make himself a laughing stock by taking lunch money from school boys?

TSA is a far greater threat to Americans than are terrorists. Pistole has given the finger to US senators and representatives, state legislators, and the traveling public who have expressed their views that virtual strip searches and sexual molestation are too high a price to pay for “security.” Indeed, the TSA with its Gestapo attitude and methods, is succeeding in making Americans more terrified of the TSA than they are of terrorists.

Make up your own mind. What terrifies you the most. Terrorists, who in all likelihood you will never encounter in your lifetime, or the TSA that you will encounter every time you fly and soon, according to Pistole, every time you take a train, a subway, or drive in a car or truck?

Before making up your mind, consider this report from Antiwar.com on November 19: “TSA officials say that anyone refusing both the full body scanners and the enhanced pat down procedures will be taken into custody. Once there the detainees will not only be barred from flying, but will be held indefinitely as suspected terrorists . . . One sheriff’s office said they were already preparing to handle a large number of detainees and plan to treat them as terror suspects.”

Who is cowing Americans into submission, terrorists or the TSA Gestapo?

Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
November 24, 2010

TSA Tactics Find Ominous Parallel in Nazi Germany

2010-11-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 21, 2010

The TSA is part of a larger effort to implement a slow motion surveillance and high-tech police state control grid in America. It is an element of the “alternative geography” of the military-corporate-intelligence establishment, an aspect specifically designed to acclimate Americans to the prospect of an ever encroaching police state. The tight integration of the corporate-government aspect of this alternative geography is demonstrated by the relationship the government has with the Chertoff Group, a public relations firm pushing naked body scanners founded by Michael Chertoff, the former boss of the Department of Homeland Security.
The new procedures defended over the weekend by Barry Obama from a NATO summit in Portugal are not about finding the next underwear bomber and protecting the American people from al-Qaeda. The latest procedures are designed to get the American people accustomed to the idea that the police, the alternative geography of the military-corporate-intelligence network, and the government will micro-manage and control the public and eventually all aspects of our private lives. Events reveal that the government is not interested in preventing an al-Qaeda attack, but keeping tabs on and when possible subverting opposition to its power.

Child subjected to TSA strip search.
It took Hitler and the Nazis nearly a decade to impose a murderous police state on the German people. In the wake of the staged burning of the Reichstag in February of 1933, the Nazis suspended the civil liberties of the German people and began a concerted effort to eliminate all opposition to their fascist regime. The Nazis would later stage a false flag incident known as the Gleiwitz incident in order to provide and excuse to invade Poland and start the Second World War.

Left unchallenged, government invariably evolves into a tyrannical force at odds with the interest of the people. Minus effective opposition, the people of Germany had little choice but to support Hitler and his ill-fated war.

Women stripped and then made to wait for their turn.
It has taken the federal government and its Department of Homeland Security – an agency on the drawing board well before September 11, 2001 – to implement police state tactics in regard to travel that far surpass anything devised by the Nazis.
Even before the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government planned to create and impose a police state control grid on the American people. For instance, the Bill of Rights crushing Patriot Act was devised well before the attack and its predecessor, the 1996 Antiterrorism Act, was rushed into law following the first suspicious attack on the World Trade Center and the equally suspicious attack in Oklahoma City. Habeas corpus law was forever changed by the law touted by then president Bill Clinton.
Armed with its new and draconian palette of laws and mandates, the federal government, including the FBI, the CIA, and the Pentagon, have exploited the September 11 attacks to go after the real enemy – the American people.

Coming soon to an airport near you — strip searches.

The Pentagon has surveilled the antiwar movement and the Department of Homeland Security with its state level partners in Missouri and elsewhere around the country have profiled entirely legal “rightwing” political organizations and individuals as potential terrorists. The corporate media, acting as the establishment’s ministry of propaganda, has amplified this absurd terrorist myth.

As the founders realized, government left to its own devices and unrestrained by the people invariably turns into a tyrannical leviathan. Groping TSA screeners and dangerous radiation naked body scanners are the public visage of the state as it slowly morphs into a high-tech tyranny.

Just as in Nazi Germany, the authorities-that-be are forcing women, children and men to strip search. Now it is happening in the United States of America, a supposedly free country.
President Barry Obama, DHS boss Janet Napolitano, and TSA director John Pistole have said naked body scanners will remain and the sexual molestation at America’s airports will continue.

“I understand how difficult it is, and how offensive it must be for the people who are going through it,” said Secretary of State Clinton today. Clinton said the government is “trying to do the right thing” by expanding the intrusive nature of the police state.

“Clinton has likely rarely, if ever, dealt with metal detectors, explosives swabs, full-body backscatter scanners or pat-downs as an air traveler since she began receiving Secret Service protection with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in 1992,” reports the Christian Science Monitor.

False Flag Terror And TSA Totalitarianism

2010-11-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

November 19, 2010 by Bob Livingston
A suspected bomb was found on a Munich-bound flight Thursday, a convenient coincidence in light of the growing revolt over the Transportation Security Administration porn show/grope fest going on at American airports.
For a little history, after 9/11 — where a bunch of Middle-Eastern cave dwellers are reported to have commandeered aircraft with box cutters and expertly flown them into the Twin Towers, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania after taking a couple of flying lessons — airport security was ramped up, nail clippers were banned and white-haired little old ladies were singled out for extra screening if their artificial hips set off the metal detector.
After Richard Reid (the shoe bomber) set his sneakers on fire after he was allowed on a plane that took off in Paris — despite raising red flags over his appearance, the fact that he had no luggage and failed to adequately answer the questions of French National Police interrogators — American travelers were forced to remove their shoes and open their carry-ons for inspection, and business travelers, men in wheel chairs and little old ladies were singled out for extra scrutiny that included, at times, a pat down.
After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab set his own crotch on fire on a plane he boarded in Amsterdam — despite being on the U.S. State Department’s no-fly list and not having a passport, but with the assistance of an Indian secret operative with ties to the Israeli Mossad and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency — American passengers were denied the ability to take liquids on planes and children, the handicapped and infirm were singled out and humiliated with increasingly intrusive searches.
Conveniently, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s new company just happened to be selling naked body scanners at the time, and the U.S. government snapped some of them up and began deploying them in U.S. airports. We were assured the dose of radiation received was harmless and that certainly they wouldn’t save the nude photographs that had TSA watchers all atwitter. We’ve since learned the radiation is harmful and the images can indeed be both saved and transmitted via the Internet.
After another false flag terror operation involving printer cartridges on a passenger-less cargo plane that departed from Yemen — in which investigators first said no explosives were found and then, a day after President Barack Obama announced there were indeed explosives, investigators changed their minds and began finding explosives everywhere they looked — the TSA announced it was buying $300 million more of the radiating naked body scanners and were henceforth going to treat all American travelers as common criminals, grab their private parts (children included) and squeeze the breasts of women and young girls. Refuse the groping and open yourself up to TSA investigation, as John Tyner has learned.
Meanwhile, we get reports that TSA agents are having fun at the public’s expense. One agent was fired for planting a bag of white powder in passengers’ bags and telling them he found drugs. Others pulled down a woman’s blouse, exposing her breasts, and laughed at her embarrassment. Agents forced a woman with a pacemaker to go through the scanners, despite the woman’s protests. Agents have made crippled, wheelchair-bound children get out of the chair and drag themselves through metal detectors. One agent made a mother drink the breast milk she had reserved for her baby. Another woman was removed from line and made to throw away her child’s sippy cup. One agent was recently recorded telling a passenger he gave up his rights when he bought an airline ticket. The stories of TSA stupidity go on and on.
Finally, finally the traveling public has had enough. They’re revolting, despite the mainstream media’s attempts at soothing the growing furor and downplaying the totalitarianism that has grown out of the TSA. Even R. Emmett Tyrrell, the founder of The American Spectator, has — disappointingly — joined in the chorus of those in government and the mainstream media who blame the Drudge Report for stoking a fire that, they believe, should not be stoked.
The fascists in charge of “airport security” — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA head John Pistole — are digging in despite the growing revolt by everyday Americans who value their health (they don’t want another dose of radiation) and their privacy (they don’t want photos of their naked bodies ogled by a bunch of TSA perverts in the airport or a bunch of panting juveniles on the Internet, and they don’t want to be touched in places reserved for lovers and doctors). Americans certainly don’t want their children subjected to such nonsense.
In a sign of government elitist hubris and arrogance, Napolitano this week went so far as to say that if Americans won’t submit to the TSA procedures they can find another way to travel. Now the fascists are deciding how you should travel.
Thankfully there are people who are willing to resist. A National Opt-Out Day is set for Nov. 24. Travelers are encouraged to opt out of the naked body scanners, forcing time-consuming enhanced pat downs. The goal is to shut down the system. Others are filing lawsuits over TSA abuses.
Some in government have gotten the message and taken up the cause. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), the only statesman still in Congress today, has introduce a bill that establishes that airport security screeners are not immune from any law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person.
Representative Ted Poe (R-Texas) said from the floor of the House that the scanners violate the 4th Amendment. Representative John Mica (R-Fla.) recently reminded airports they aren’t required to keep the TSA in charge of their screening and can employ a private company instead. The Orlando Sanford International Airport says that’s what it’s going to do.
The district attorneys of several states are now saying they’re going to investigate any complaints they get about TSA misbehavior.
Yesterday’s Munich terror scare will no doubt give the fascists more ammunition to try and increase their grip over airport security. If that doesn’t work, we’ve seen they’re not afraid to have covert operatives send another weak-minded but ineffective patsy onto a plane to try something to give the totalitarian TSA another reason to strip Americans of their rights and dignity.
This resistance has momentum, and travelers can’t waiver now. If they do, all hope is lost.
Editor’s note: If you have a story of TSA abuse you’d like to share or have recorded an audio or video of TSA agents in action, you can send them to freedomwatch@personalliberty.com. We will relay these to our readers and guarantee your anonymity. And if you participate in National Opt-Out Day, be sure you record your experience and send it to us.

Hell is for Children

2010-11-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

by Keith Johnson
(Some explicit language)

Somewhere in America, a seventeen-year-old boy is living the last year of his life.
He is in the first semester of his senior year. His grades have been good, and he expects to have enough credits to finish school early. He feels like he’s been in school his entire life. But he has no regrets. Along the way, he has made many friends. He took up an interest in baseball and found that he had a talent for playing the drums. He is in his prime. He’s lean, fit and healthy. His mind is sharp and he has an insatiable appetite for life.
He has also fallen in love—for the first time. She is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. He thinks about her all the time, and pines when she is not near. When they are together, they share wild fantasies about how they’d like to start a family and go into business for themselves selling sporting goods. He also wants to start a band—just for fun—and perform on the weekends at local venues.
Today, an Army recruitment officer gave an inspirational speech at his high school. The guy looked sharp in his clean, well-pressed uniform. He had a shaved head and two full sleeves of colorful tattoos on his bulging, tanned biceps and forearms. The boy had never considered a career in the military, but he did find a certain romance in it. Apparently, so did his girlfriend. As they left the gymnasium, she made a comment that unnerved him.
GIRL: He was kind of cute.
BOY: What?
GIRL: Well, there’s something about a man in uniform.
BOY: Really?
GIRL: Yeah…don’t get mad.
It was the first time he felt angry with her, and the first time they’d ever crossed words. He was overcome with feelings of jealousy, which caused him to say a few things he would later regret.
The drive on the way to her home was uncomfortable. When they got there, she leaned over to kiss him. But he did not reciprocate. Instead, he clenched tightly to the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. She stepped out of the car and slammed the door behind her as he screeched away from the curb. It was their first fight.
When he gets home, he steps through the front door and sees his father—glaring at the television—watching another one of his boring news programs.
BOY: What’s up, Dad?
DAD: Same shit. Goddamn Moozlims want to build a Mosque at Ground Zero. Can you believe that shit?
BOY: What’s a Mosque?
DAD: A place where they train terrorists.
BOY: Well…that’s no good.
DAD: No…it ain’t. I’m telling you, Son, if we don’t kill every last one of those Moozlims, they’re gonna take over the world. They breed like rabbits. Killing them all is the only way to stop them. If we don’t, they’re gonna institute Sharia law right here in the good old USA. And that’s no kind of world you want your kids growing up in.
BOY: What’s Sharia law?
DAD: The law of the jungle. These savages like to cut people’s heads off…especially Christians.
BOY: Yikes.
The boy retires to his room and clicks on the television. Inglourious Basterds is on HBO. He’s seen it before—many times—it’s one of his favorite movies. Quentin Tarantino is his favorite director. Brad Pitt is his favorite actor. And this is his favorite scene: where the “Bear Jew” is about to bash in the brains of a Nazi with a baseball bat.
The boy reaches under his bed and grabs the baseball bat that he’s used to hit many home runs. He looks it over as he works his hand across the wood. He isn’t thinking about baseball. He’s thinking about how he’d like to take that bat to the head of that military recruiter. But he quickly dismisses the idea. That would be foolish. But, damn, he sure would like to bash someone’s head in right now. How about one of them Moozlims? Dad wouldn’t have a problem with that.
BOY: Yeah, now that’s a good idea.
After the movie, the boy puts “Call of Duty” into his X-Box. He hasn’t played video games since he started dating. It was a good distraction. It kept him from obsessing over his girlfriend. To his surprise, he found that he was still a pretty good shot. In fact, it was as if he’d never stopped shooting. Over the past few months, he’d been regretting all of the hours he wasted playing games. But today, he wondered if it really was a waste of time? What if he could put these skills to work in the real world?
The next day, he pays a visit to the Army recruitment office. The same man who gave the speech at his high school gives him a warm welcome as he walks through the door. He has a strong handshake. The guy calls him “Brother.” The boy likes that. He never had a brother of his own.
The recruiter puts the boy at ease with his quick wit and raunchy sense of humor. He talks to the boy like a man, and the boy starts to feel like one. The recruiter tells wild stories about his adventures overseas. Then he rolled up his sleeves and shows the boy his tattoos. There’s a wild story behind each one of them too.
Then they got down to business. The recruiter tells the boy he could make up to $100,000 in his first year.
RECRUITER: Free housing, free food, free travel, lots of vacation time, up to $70,000 in education bonuses and another $20,000 signing bonus. Plus, you get free health care for life!
The boy is impressed, and then asks what the odds were that he would see any combat? The recruiter assures him that he would never have to step foot on a battlefield if he didn’t want to.
BOY: But I want to be on a battlefield. What’s the point of being a soldier if you can’t fight?
The recruiter straightens up in his chair and then rises to his feet. He gives the boy a stern and solid look.
RECRUITER: Brother…you don’t know how rare it is to find men of your courage. Most guys who come in here are just looking to make some easy money. But you’re different. You’re a different breed altogether.
BOY: I just don’t want Sharia law to come to America.
RECRUITER: That ain’t gonna happen. Not on my watch. Not as long as I have brave men like you fighting alongside me.
The boy is hooked. He was now a man, and about to become a very rich man in a very handsome uniform. That was sure to impress his girlfriend.
Later that night, the boy drives over to see his girl. He apologizes to her and presents her with a bouquet of roses. Then he tells her his plans. She cries.
GIRL: Is this all because of that stupid thing I said about that Army guy?
BOY: Well, maybe in the beginning. But if it weren’t for what you said, I would have probably passed up an opportunity of a lifetime. Jobs are hard to find these days. A few years in the Army will be good for both of us. We’ll have plenty of money and all sorts of benefits. Plus, they’ll pay my college tuition. I can take business courses, accounting…everything. I’m going to need to know all that stuff if we ever expect to open a business of our own.
GIRL: But I’ll never get to see you.
BOY: Not true. The recruiter said I get lots of vacation time and free travel anywhere I want to go.
GIRL: I don’t know.
BOY: Please…I know what I’m doing. But I need your blessing.
GIRL: Well…I guess you would look cute in a uniform. Way cuter than that ugly bald guy.
They laugh, and then they embrace.
Months pass. He is now out of school and has just celebrated his 18^thbirthday. He has passed his physical with flying colors and is preparing to be sworn in at the local VFW.
Dad is proud, and has already placed a “Proud Parent of a US Soldier” sticker in the back window of his F-150. Mom is in tears, but she is proud of her son as well. His girlfriend is taking pictures with her iphone.
After the ceremony, the boy walks up to the recruiter. They shake hands. The boy calls the recruiter by his first name and thanks him for all he’s done. The recruiter seems different now, as if he’s turned into a whole new person.
RECRUITER: Yeah…don’t mention it. By the way, you should probably get used to calling me Sergeant. OK, private? Now, how’s about you start making yourself useful by helping to fold up these chairs.
The next day, he prepares to board a bus. He’s on his way to boot camp. He is no longer a free man. He is property of the United States Army. He embraces his parents for the last time. He gives his girlfriend her last kiss. Then he boards the bus, never to be seen again.
Several months pass. It’s Thanksgiving Day in Afghanistan. The boy has learned that real combat is not like the kind waged on an X-Box. The opponents are a lot harder to kill. In fact, they’re way better shots than he could ever hope to be. These guys have never had toys to play with. They’ve been playing with real guns that they’ve been building from scratch since they were five years old.
There’s no pause button either, and you have to work a lot more body parts than your index finger and thumbs.
It’s hot, and he hasn’t bathed in a week.
He’s never heard screams like the screams he’s heard here. He’s never heard women cry the way they do here. He’s never seen children’s body parts carried away in the mouths of skinny dogs.
Then there’s the stench…that goddamn stench. He’ll never be able to shake that stench. War has a unique smell. It’s like gasoline mixed with blood, urine and shit. It hangs in the air. You can see it. Sometimes your mind plays tricks on you. You can almost swear that the stench clouds are taking on a life of their own. You see faces in the smoke, like demons or ghosts.
He came here to kill Muslims. But now that he’s here, he doesn’t want to kill anybody. He just wants to stay alive…and go home as soon as he can.
He’s forgotten all about Sharia law. There is no law here at all. Right now, he’d welcome any kind of law that would bring order out of all this chaos.
Something just bounced off his chest. Was it a bug? It stings. He feels like he just wet his pants, but her knows he didn’t pee. Is it sweat? He feels down around his waist. He looks at his fingers. There’s blood. He refuses to believe that he’s been shot. There must be another explanation. Then he feels a shooting pain, as if he’s been run through with a sword. He feels around his back for evidence of some kind of metal shank. But there is none.
BOY: Mommy, I need to come home. Can you come and get me? What the fuck am I saying?
He’s tired. He feels like a million insects are crawling around in his body. Maybe they’re there to help. Maybe they’re putting things back together.
BOY: Thanks, guys. Wake me up when…
He feels detached from his body. It is moving on its own. He is cold. He lies on his back and reaches for a blanket that isn’t there. He stares into the stench and breathes deeply. Now he’s urinating…and he’s deficating as well.
As he lays there dying, he isn’t thinking about patriotism, causes, America or any of that shit. This was a big mistake…and he wasn’t prepared to make this sacrifice. He never was.
Before the light goes out in his eyes, the last image that flashes through his mind is a crisp vision of the beautiful girl he left behind, and the last word that passes from his lips is…”Why?”
The following week, a 68-year-old Senator in Washington D.C. has just finished his breakfast. He scolds his maid for putting sugar in his coffee. He’s on his way to the floor of the Senate to introduce legislation that would increase the troop strength in Afghanistan. He climbs in to the back of a Lincoln Towncar. He’s making one stop on the way to the Capitol. He has an appointment at the spa for a rub down and a manicure.
Across town, a 61-year-old Republican Congressman ducks out the back door of his mistress’s townhouse. He’s in a hurry to meet with a lobbyist from AIPAC.
In Texas, a 64-year-old former US President, that lied his nation into a war with Iraq, tees up a golf ball at an exclusive country club.
In New York City, an arrogant, 61-year old political commentator for FOX News prepares to do a demonization piece on Islam. In the meantime, he lurches over a young female intern at the water cooler and creeps her out with his unsolicited flirtations.
None of these old men have seen a day of combat, but they’ve sure been responsible for many deaths.
They all had a nice Thanksgiving. All the kids were there. It was a nice break from all that hard work getting these wars in order.
Back home, the parents of the young boy have just learned of his death. Their lives are over.
Two months later, the parents fly to a special ceremony in honor of fallen soldiers. At the same time the parents are being seated, the President of the United States is in a back room, watching a game on ESPN as he jokes with Secret Service agents. An attaché comes in to tell the President that it’s time he made his entrance.
PRESIDENT: Shit! Oh, well…let’s get this thing over with. Put this game on pause. I’ll be right back.
The President puts on his “game face” and goes through the motions, offering his condolences to each parent as they take turns shaking the hand of the man who killed their sons.
When it’s over, the President returns to the back room.
PRESIDENT: Turn the game back on.
Before he takes his seat, he uses anti-bacterial soap to wash his hands. He hates touching strangers. As he washes his hands, he also washes his mind of the parent’s faces and the names of their dead children.
A year has passed since the boy died. His girlfriend has moved on. She’s no longer into guys with uniforms, and she’ll never date a soldier again. She’s met a much older man. He’s divorced. He owns a sporting goods store and plays in a band on weekends. She lost her virginity on the second date.
Nine months later…another soldier is born.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Senator Lieberman!
Merry Christmas, Congressman Boehner!
Happy New Year, Mr. President!

Goodbye, son.

Ron Paul Unleashes On TSA: “Enough Is Enough”

2010-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

In perhaps his most impassioned and irate speech to date, Congressman Ron Paul unleashed a tirade of vilification at the TSA and their security procedures that have stoked nationwide outrage, stating “enough is enough” as he introduced new legislation to that would open the way for TSA employees to be sued for groping Americans or putting them through dangerous naked body scanners, preventing travelers ‘from being treated like cattle’.

During a speech on the House floor last night, Paul said that the treatment Americans were being subjected to at airports proved that the country as a whole needs to stand up and tell the federal government, “enough is enough”.

“Imagine if the political elites in our country were forced to endure the same conditions at the airport as business travelers, families, senior citizens, and the rest of us. Perhaps this problem could be quickly resolved if every cabinet secretary, every member of Congress, and every department head in the Obama administration were forced to submit to the same degrading screening process as the people who pay their salaries,” roared the Congressman.

“Something has to be done,” Paul implored. “Everybody’s fed up. The people are fed up. The pilots are fed up. I’m fed up.”

Visibly infuriated, Paul said the traveling public were being treated like farmyard animals.

“If this doesn’t change, I see what has happened to the American people is we have accepted the notion that we should be treated like cattle. Make us safe, make us secure, put us in the barbed wire, feed us, fatten us up, and then they’ll eat us. And we are a bunch of cattle and we have to wake up and say we’ve had it…. It’s time for the American people to stand up and shrug off the shackles of our government at TSA at the airport,” he raged, encouraging people to support the national opt out day planned for November 24.

Paul’s legislation, the “American Traveler Dignity Act,” is expertly crafted because it gives the feds no room to maneuver. If he had merely called for an end to certain pat down techniques, the government could have weasled out of it by invoking terror threats or changing semantics. However, once it is established that TSA employees are not immune to assault and harassment lawsuits, they will avoid groping Americans for fear of being sued. Numerous lawsuits of this nature are already in motion.

Paul also addresses the use of naked body scanners, similarly opening the way for the TSA to be directly sued for producing images that are tantamount to pornography, and pedophilia in the case of children.

The bill is brief and gets straight to the point.

A BILL

To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.

No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual’s body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual’s parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.

Indeed, the district attorney’s office in San Mateo County, California has already promised to pursue charges against TSA employees whose behavior equates to sexual battery.

“If it is skin to skin, if someone were to take their hand and put it underneath somebody’s blouse and touch someone inappropriately and go skin to skin, that’s a felony, and if it’s done simply over the clothing, according to California law, that’s a misdemeanor,” said DA Steve Wagstaffe.

As we documented in the case of radio host Owen JJ Stone, the TSA is now ordering its workers to stick their hands down people’s pants and touch genitalia. In another case, TSA agents pulled down a 21-year-old woman’s blouse and started laughing and joking about her exposed breasts while other TSA workers expressed their wish to obtain video of the incident, presumably so they could masturbate over the naked woman.

TSA abuse is now so wildly out of control that new cases are emerging on a daily basis. In the latest example, a woman from Ohio had her breasts and vagina aggressively groped by a TSA worker at Dayton International Airport last week. Read about her experience here and watch the video below.

Napolitano, Pistole, and the rest of the feds hoped that they could lie and deceive the American people into backing down on this issue. Now the revolt against the TSA is growing bigger every day and shows no signs of abating. Indeed, some are even speculating that we could be witnessing the embryonic stages of a new rebellion that will lead to a fundamental shift in America’s political landscape, just as the end the fed rallies in 2007 and the town hall fury we witnessed in 2009 led to the creation of the Tea Party and the wider move against big government.

We need to throw all our support behind Ron Paul’s bill and hold lawmakers’ feet to the fire on this issue until the TSA’s power is completely rolled back if not the organization abolished altogether and airport security handed back to professional and credible organizations whose main concern is rational and successful security and not the ritual humiliation and degradation of the American people.

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
November 18, 2010

American Idle

2010-11-17T09:10:00.000-08:00

Live every day as if it were your last…
and then some day you’ll be right.~H.H. “Breaker” Morant~

History is not likely to speak well of today’s Americans. While the people of nations around the globe stand up to their oppressors, Americans sit idly by as their government runs roughshod over their life, liberty and property.
As we speak, large-scale protests and mass demonstrations continue in more than a dozen countries as citizens strike back against injustice, criminality and brutal austerity measures imposed by their corrupt governments.
In the UK, more than 50,000 students recently took to the streets to protest a spike in tuition costs.
In Greece, workers clashed with police outside the Finance Ministry over frozen pensions and cuts in their salaries.
In Germany, tens of thousands demonstrated over the weekend to protest government policies and social inequities in advance of Merkel’s Democrat party’s national meeting.
In early October, thousands of Icelanders stormed their parliament with renewed anger over the deepening financial crisis, and against those responsible for it. Many of their politicians were forced to flee out the back door, where they were pelted with eggs, flour and tomatoes.
In France, transportation and commerce was brought to a virtual standstill throughout vast portions of the country, as angry citizens railed against their government for increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Press coverage of these events gets little attention here in the United States. When the press does cover it, they portray the demonstrators as greedy layabouts who have become dependant on government handouts. In reality, people of these countries know full well that they are being made to do without in order to enrich powerful central banks that conspired with corrupt politicians to loot their economies. The people have had enough, and they’re letting their governments know it.
If only we had the same spirit. When will the American people recognize the full frontal assault being perpetrated against them? When will they realize that, they too, are being made to do with less, so that their corrupt politicians can fulfill the unlawful arrangements they have made with the very same central banks and financial institutions that are bringing down nations around the globe?
Right now, millions of Americans have lost (or are losing) their homes to foreclosure as a result of the same kind of collusion between politicians and the banking cartels.
In 2008, the banking elite threatened to shut down the U.S. economy unless corrupt politicians in Washington D.C. forced through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Though more than 90% of the American public voiced opposition to the bill, their words fell on deaf ears. To add insult to injury, the passage of TARP was actually celebrated by members of congress, who stood at the podium with broad smiles and giggled as they signed the hellish legislation.
Billions of taxpayer dollars went to the bankers to rescue them from foolish investments in mortgage-backed securities. The TARP funds were supposed to be used to clear the bank’s books and free up lending to the American people. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the bankers tightened lending even more and used their newfound wealth to pay debts, acquire other banks, pay huge bonuses to their employees, and engage in more irresponsible investment activities.
To their credit, the American people found the gumption to confront those politicians in town hall meetings across the nation. But the media—being the obedient lapdogs to the federal government that they are—quickly pounced upon these unhappy citizens; labeling them as dangerous upstarts who were working outside the parameters of civil and polite discourse that the government deems manageable. Raising your voice was equated with violence, hoisting signs was considered racist and gatherings were announced as potential staging grounds for domestic terrorism.
How absurd—that the mainstream media would think it could even be possible to kowtow the American people into compliance—especially when you measure these relatively mild examples of public opposition against the large-scale strikes and civil unrest we are witnessing in other countries.
But—ironically—many Americans did take the bait that the mainstream media was dishing out and decided to temper their speech after all. This was facilitated by Judas goats like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, who corralled the people like livestock into GOP controlled rallies that advanced the Republican agenda and insured them an easy victory in the mid-term elections.
Glenn Beck’s “Rally to Restore Honor” summoned thousands of disgruntled Americans to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Days before, he pleaded with his audience to abandon their signs and silly clothes because it was making them easy targets of ridicule by the “progressive” left. The people complied—and when they attended the function—they were treated to a ceremony of military worship and religious devotion to the state of Israel. It was a Hollywood production. It was organized, polite, and nobody raised their voice. People soon forgot about the imminent financial threats that were bearing down upon them. Instead, they embraced what every American should feel good about: a bloated defense budget and a toxic relationship with a country that has caused us nothing but trouble.
Shortly after the Beck event, the left staged a demonstration of their own. Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” was a mockery of demonstrations, an anti-demonstration if you will.
The people who attended that function did so—not to address the criminality of their government—but to mock those who did. They came out enmass to parody the “Teabaggers,” fellow citizens enraged over Obama’s spending policies and mandatory healthcare legislation.
Both events were completely partisan efforts, used to define the line between Democrat and Republican voters. Both events were used to quell dissent and stifle speech. Both were a success—but not for the American people. It was a success for the government, and a major testament on the power the mainstream media has over the American public.
Americans—in large part—have become nothing more than stupid, scared, spoiled rotten slaves to their favorite TV programs, politicians and electronic toys. Accusing them of such is just about the only thing that will make them angry. Americans still maintain that they are the freest, wealthiest and most moral people on the face of the planet. But they are the only ones who think so. In a Newsweek article entitled “Post Anti-Americanism,” Howard Fineman writes:
“When you read about America in European newspapers, what you are likely to find is a tone bordering on pity. The U.S. is depicted as a fraying empire of obesity, ignorance, debt, gridlock, stagnation, and mindless war. Sure, the iPad is cool, but it is evidence of what America was, not what it will be again. The stories are not angry, accusatory, or even ideological. It’s worse: they are condescendingly elegiac.”
I think most will agree that being pitied is far worse than being hated. Pity is leveled against those who are unwilling, or unable, to stand up for themselves. People of other nations pity us because they see in us what we are unable to see in ourselves: that we are weak.
But we weren’t always like this. In fact, just twenty years ago, we were far more resilient than we are today.
We’re closing in on the 20^th anniversary of the Rodney King beatings in Los Angeles. Almost twenty years ago, the American public was shocked and appauled as they watched one of the first incidents of police brutality—to ever be caught on tape—broadcast on television screens across the nation.
The ensuing trial was held in a predominantly white, suburban city (Simi Valley) that is a well known “Cop Land,” where off duty police officers from three counties reside in great numbers. The biased trial found the officers “not-guilty” on all counts.
Public outrage at the verdicts sparked the “L.A Riots” of 1992 that found thousands of people taking to the streets. Businesses were looted, cars were torched, and widespread violence spread through the city over a period of six hellish days.
Some may say that the manner in which the public used to express their discontent was unconstructive—but they certainly made their point. The United States Department of Justice was forced to bring federal charges against the four officers for civil rights violations. Two of the four officers were aquitted, but two were convicted and handed out 30 month prison sentences.
If the Rodney King beatings were caught on tape today, it would not even make the evenning news. The circumstances leading up to the arrest of King would most certainly be enough to close the books on any further inquiry, and any ensuing protests would be met with even more brutality from the police.
The King case pales in comparison to some of the more recent incidents of aledged police brutality.
Take the case of Jordan Miles for instance. Miles, an 18 year old black student, with no criminal record, was simply walking down a street in Pittsburg when he was approached by three plainclothes police officers. According to Miles, the officers did not identify themselves. Instead, they shouted, “Where’s the money…Where’s the gun?…Where’s the drugs?” Thinking he was about to be robbed, Miles ran and slipped on the ice. Before he could get to his feet, the officers converged and began beating, kicking and choking him. They also used a taser, thinking that he was concealing a weapon. No weapon was found. Miles sustained severe facial injuries. His face was swollen, almost to the point of being unrecognizable, and he continues to suffer from the severe physical and psychological pain caused by the assault. Eight months have since passed, and still, not one of the officers has been held accountable.
Compare that to the King case. King, a convicted felon, led police on a high speed chase. When he was finally stopped, he emerged from the vehicle and taunted the police officers. The officers ‘swarmed’ him and proceeded to beat him repeatedly with batons. At one point, when it was apparent that King was still making attempts to resist, a taser was used twice in an attempt to incapacitate him. It was later determined that King had a blood alcohol level that was almost twice the legal limit.
In reaction to the Miles brutality case, a few peacful protests and marches were held in the local community but received very little press. In reaction to the King case, part of an entire city burned to the ground and coverage of the riots and subsequent trials were nationwide spectacles.
American attitudes have changed. Today, the public cowers in fear of their oppressors. What’s worse is that a vast majority will stick out their tounges, as they lie bloodied on the street, and lick the boot of the man who put them there.
Late last September, Gene Cranick of Obion County, Tennessee watched his home burn to the ground as firefighters from neighboring South Fulton stood by without lifting a finger to help put out the blaze.
There seemed to have been a problem with a $75 annual fee that Cranick apparently forgot to pay for fire services extended to residents who live outside the city limits.
In addition to his house and all of his belongings going up in smoke, three family dogs and a cat shared the same fate.
But instead of expressing outrage, the browbeaten property owners actually came to the defense of the apathetic public servants.
Cranick’s wife, Paulette, doesn’t blame the firefighters. “They’re doing what they are told to do. It’s not their fault.”
How have we come to adopt these kinds of attitudes? Where is the public outrage? Is there any limit to what the American people will put up with?
Part of the problem stems from our society turning from one that loves liberty to one that loves the gifts that liberty brings.
For well over one hundred years, social engineers have indoctrinated Americans into believing that indulgence is synonymous with freedom. But nothing can be further from the truth. Freedom delivers one from dependency, while indulgence delivers one into it.
John Adams, an American statesman and champion of independence, feared that the American people would some day enjoy their newfound freedoms, but neglect the daily struggle required to protect them. Adams was well aware of the dangers of complacency, and warned that a society that chose indulgence over vigilance would quickly fall into the hands of tyrants, who would deliver a once free people back into the chains of bondage.
When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.
Adams went on to describe what would happen to that society once these destructive influences took hold.
The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society.
This is where we are today. We have become a self-defeating society, drunk off the spoils left to us by our forefathers. We have fallen prey to an elitist cartel of bankers and warmongers who have, and continue to, loot the population of its wealth and treasure.
But it isn’t too late to turn things around.
Right now, the American people have an opportunity to get back that old fighting spirit. On November 24, many Americans traveling abroad can stand defiant against their tyrannical government.
“National Opt-Out Day” is something that everybody can get behind, regardless of their partisan politics. Finally, across the board, we have found an issue that all can agree upon. We are not terrorists, and we refuse to allow our government to treat us as such. Let us make the TSA a poster child for tyranny and the over reaching of our corrupt government.
If you travel this holiday, refuse to allow yourself to be degraded and poisoned by the cancer inducing pornography scanners that have been installed in our nation’s airports. You won’t be alone. Perhaps that man or woman standing there next to you is someone you don’t see eye to eye with concerning the health care bill. But at least you can agree that having your body ravaged by strangers is something that no one should be forced to endure. At least that’s a start.
It might be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but fighting for your liberty and freedom always has been—and it’s about time we started getting used to that.
Keith Johnson
Revolt of the Plebs
November 17, 2010

Barack Obama: We Must Embrace Globalism And The Emerging One World Economy

2010-11-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

The Economic Collapse
November 12, 2010

Although it received very little coverage in the mainstream media, Barack Obama made some comments about globalism during his speech in Mumbai, India that were very eye-opening. As he was discussing the new realities of world trade in 2010, Obama warned against “those who see globalization as a threat” and he spoke of the “integrated world” in which we all now live. But is merging the entire globe into a one world economy, a one world financial system and a one world labor market really the best thing for the American people.

For the past two decades, all U.S. presidents have been heralding the benefits of merging the American economy with the rest of the globe. George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all steadfastly supported the emerging one world economy. These presidents have each used different terms to describe this process such as “globalism”, “globalization”, “an integrated world”, “the global economy” and even “a New World Order”, but they have all meant the same thing. All of these presidents have sought to integrate the United States even more deeply into the developing one world economic system.

Barack Obama showed very clearly how he feels about globalism when he made the following statement during his speech in Mumbai….

“This will keep America on its toes. America is going to have to compete. There is going to be a tug-of-war within the US between those who see globalization as a threat and those who accept we live in a open integrated world, which has challenges and opportunities.”

This is something that Barack Obama has obviously thought quite a bit about. In fact, during the same speech he warned that those supporting globalization will need to “guard against” those who would seek to put up barriers to the full integration of the economies of the world….

“If the American people feel that trade is just a one-way street where everybody is selling to the enormous US market but we can never sell what we make anywhere else, then the people of the US will start thinking that this is a bad deal for us and it could end up leading to a more protectionist instinct in both parties, not just among Democrats but also Republicans. So, that we have to guard against.”

But in this new “global economy”, aren’t jobs leaving the United States and heading to developing nations at a blinding pace? Of course, but apparently we are just supposed to shut up and accept this new reality. In fact, Obama says that persistently high unemployment is “a new normal” that we are all just going to have to get used to.

Virtually all of the proponents of globalism understand that the process of merging the United States into a one world economy will be at least somewhat painful for the American people. Our wages are going to have to go down and our standards of living are going to have to fall, according to them.

During this period of “adjustment”, a “struggling economy” is just going to have to be tolerated. In fact, Obama says that the U.S. economy might not be “fixed” for quite some time. Obama now claims that there is a limit to what the U.S. government can do to help the economy….

“Especially an economy this big, there are limited tools to encourage the kind of job growth that we need.”

But couldn’t Obama and the U.S. Congress pass laws that would discourage the offshoring and outsourcing of our jobs?

Of course.

Couldn’t they cut regulations and taxes and encourage firms to keep factories in the United States?

Of course.

But instead, Obama and the U.S. Congress have just been piling on more taxes and more regulations and have made the business environment in the U.S. so toxic that it is amazing that anyone is willing to stay in this country at this point.

Meanwhile, every single month more of our jobs, more of our factories and more of our wealth gets shipped overseas never to return.

Every day there is more depressing news about the U.S. economy. For example, it has just been announced that Harley-Davidson has decided to open a shiny new assembly plant in India. Meanwhile, formerly great American manufacturing cities such as Detroit have turned into rotting hellholes.

The American people are not being told the truth. The following are 20 reasons why Barack Obama is wrong, wrong, wrong about globalization….

#1 American workers are being merged into a global labor pool where they must directly compete for jobs with workers on the other side of the globe that make less than ten percent of what an average American worker makes. In such an environment, it is inevitable that jobs are going to flow away from areas where labor is expensive and to areas where labor is cheaper.

#2 Globalization has caused the U.S. trade deficit to absolutely explode. In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars.

#3 Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that China spends on goods from the United States. This represents a massive transfer of wealth from the American people to China.

#4 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#5 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.

#6 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#7 Even high technology industries are leaving America. Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#8 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent.

#9 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#10 With so much manufacturing leaving the United States, is it any wonder why people can’t find jobs? The “official” unemployment rate in the United States has been at nine and a half percent or above for 14 consecutive months.

#11 Today, there are at least 1.5 million “99ers” – those Americans that have completely exhausted all 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and that still do not have jobs.

#12 Our dependence on foreign oil also represents an absolutely shocking transfer of wealth from the American people to the oil exporters of the Middle East. Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use.

#13 Energy imports account for about approximately one-fourth of the U.S. trade deficit.

#14 In states such as Mississippi, people spend approximately 6.35 percent of their incomes just on gasoline, according to a recent report by the National Resources Defense Council.

#15 Americans end up paying to support American workers one way or another. Either they buy American-made products and services that provide jobs for American workers, or they pay to support unemployed American workers on welfare. Today, over 42 million Americans are on food stamps. A record number of Americans are receiving long-term unemployment benefits. One way or another, Americans are going to pay to take care of American workers.

#16 The U.S. trade deficit is running about 40 or 50 billion dollars a month in 2010. The United States spends 40 to 50 billion more on goods and services from the rest of the world each month than they spend on goods and services from us. That means that by the end of the year, approximately half a trillion dollars (or more) of our wealth will have left the United States for good.

#17 All of this wealth leaving the United States is having a huge impact on the standard of living of average Americans. Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.

#18 It is now just a matter of time until India is going to pass us as an economic power. In fact, the economy of India is projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2050.

#19 It is now being projected that China will soon dwarf us as an economic power. One prominent economist now says that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040. According to one recent study, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.

#20 China has been accumulating a gigantic mountain of dollars from all of the wealth we have been sending them each month, and they have been lending massive amounts of money back to us. Over the past few decades, the communist Chinese have been able to accumulate approximately $2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves, and the U.S. government now owes them close to 900 billion dollars. We constantly have to send top government officials over there to beg them to continue to lend us money. This is a direct threat not only to our financial system, but also to our national security.

So, in light of all of those facts, can anyone out there possibly defend Barack Obama’s position that globalization is good and that we should be happy that we are being merged into a one world economy?

Sadly, there are very, very few politicians in either major political party that will even talk about the negative effects of the emerging one world economy. It is almost as if there is an unspoken consensus that globalism is the future and that it is a good thing for America.

But it is not a good thing for America. Unless fundamental changes are made, America will continue to bleed wealth, will continue to bleed factories and will continue to bleed jobs.

The American people need to wake up and starting saying “NO” to globalization. If we continue to vote for politicians that support merging our economy with economies that allow workers to be paid slave labor wages, then we are going to see even more waves of horrific unemployment and we will continue to see the standard of living of middle class Americans diminish.

This is not a drill. America is being deindustrialized. The greatest economic machine in the history of the world is being dismantled.

Eventually, all of our cities are going to end up looking just like Detroit if we allow this to continue.

Is that what you want?

Amazon test, someone buy Toy Story to see if it works!

2010-11-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

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America’s Devolution Into Dictatorship

2010-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Paul Craig Robert
Infowars.com
November 11, 2010

The United States Department of Justice (sic) routinely charges and convicts innocents with bogus and concocted crimes that are not even on the statutes book. The distinguished defense attorney and civil libertarian, Harvey A. Silverglate, published a book last year, “Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent,” which conclusively proves that today in “freedom and democracy” America we have punishment without crime.

Today the erroneous belief is widespread that the executive branch is supreme and that the other branches of government are less than equal.

This same Justice (sic) Department, which routinely frames and railroads the innocent, argued in Federal Court on November 8 that the US government, if approved by the president, could murder anyone it wishes, citizens or noncitizens, at will. All that is required is that the government declare, without evidence, charges, trial, jury conviction or any of the due process required by the US Constitution, that the government suspects the murdered person or persons to be a “threat.”

The US Justice (sic) Department even told US Federal District Court Judge John Bates that the US judiciary, formerly a co-equal branch of government, has absolutely no legal authority whatsoever to stick its nose into President “Change” Obama’s decision to assassinate Americans. The unaccountability of the president’s decision to murder people is, the US Justice (sic) Department declared, one of “the very core powers of the president as commander in chief.”

The argument by the Justice (sic) Department that the executive branch has unreviewable authority to kill Americans, whom the executive branch has unilaterally, without presenting evidence, determined to pose a threat, was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center For Constitutional Rights.

The outcome of the case will determine whether the neoconservative and Israeli stooge, president George W. Bush, was correct when he said that the US Constitution was nothing but a “scrap of paper.”

It is my opinion that the American people and the US Constitution haven’t much chance of winning this case. The Republican Federalist Society has succeeded in appointing many federal district, appeals and supreme court judges, who believe that the powers of the executive branch are superior to the powers of the legislature and judiciary. The Founding Fathers of our country declared unequivocally that the executive, legislative, and judicial branches were co-equal, However, the Republican brownshirts who comprise the Federalist Society have implanted the society’s demonic ideology in the federal bench and Justice (sic) Department. Today the erroneous belief is widespread that the executive branch is supreme and that the other branches of government are less than equal.

If Americans have a greater enemy than neoconservatives, that enemy is the Federalist Society, a collection of incipient Nazis.

Disagree with me as you will, but now let’s look at this development from another perspective. I am old enough to remember the Nixon years, and I was a presidential appointee, confirmed by the US senate, in the Reagan administration. For those of you too young to know and those who are to old to remember, President Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment simply because Nixon lied about when he learned about the burglary of the Watergate office of the Democratic party.

Nixon lied about when he learned of the burglary, because he knew that the Washington Post would make an issue of the burglary, if he launched an investigation, to defeat his re-election. The military/security complex and the black ops groups in the US government were angry at Nixon for smoothing US-China relations. The Washington Post, long regarded as a CIA asset, hid behind its “liberal” image to bring Nixon down. Woodward and Bernstein wrote thriller-type reports of midnight meetings with “deep throat” in dangerous parking garages to get the scoop on the date of Nixon’s knowledge of the meaningless burglary.

Let’s assume that I have it all wrong. The fact remains that Nixon was driven from office because of the Watergate burglary. No one was harmed. Nixon did not kill anyone or claim the right to kill, without proof or accountability, American citizens. If the dastardly President Nixon had a Justice (sic) Department like the present one, he simply would have declared Woodward, Bernstein, and the Washington Post to be a threat and murdered them by merely exercising the power that the Obama administration is claiming.

Nixon might be too far in the past for most Americans, so let’s look at Ronald Reagan. The neoconservatives’ Iran/Contra scandal almost brought down President Reagan. It is unclear whether President Reagan knew about the neocon operation and, if he did, whether he was kept in the loop. But all of this aside, what do you think would have been President Reagan’s fate if he, or his Justice (sic) Department, had declared that Reagan had the power as commander in chief to murder anyone he considered to be a threat?

Instantly, the media would have been in an uproar, law schools and university faculties would have been in an uproar, the Democrats would have been demanding Reagan’s impeachment, and his impeachment would have occurred with the speed of light.

Today in Amerika, approximately 25 years later, the ACLU has to go to federal court in order to attempt to affirm that “if the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the president does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state.”

In reply, the Justice (sic) Department told the court that murdering American citizens is a “political question” that is not subject to judicial review. The “freedom and democracy” government then invoked the “state secrets privilege” and declared that the case against the government’s power to commit murder must be dismissed in order to avoid “the disclosure of sensitive information”

If the Obama Regime wins this case, the US will have become a dictatorship.

As far as I can tell, the “liberal media” and most Americans do not care. Indeed, conservative Republicans are cheering it on.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

Fall of the Republic HQ full length version

2010-11-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

9 Reasons Why Quantitative Easing Is Bad For The U.S. Economy

2010-11-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Buckle up and hold on – a new round of quantitative easing is here and things could start getting very ugly in the financial world over the coming months. The truth is that many economists fear that an out of control Federal Reserve is “crossing the Rubicon” by announcing another wave of quantitative easing. Have we now reached a point where the Federal Reserve is simply going to fire up the printing presses and shower massive wads of cash into the financial system whenever the U.S. economy is not growing fast enough? If so, what does the mean for inflation, the stability of the world financial system and the future of the U.S. dollar? The Fed says that the plan is to purchase $600 billion of U.S. Treasury securities by the middle of 2011. In addition, the Federal Reserve has announced that it will be “reinvesting” an additional $250 billion to $300 billion from the proceeds of its mortgage portfolio in U.S. Treasury securities over the same time period. So that is a total injection of about $900 billion. Perhaps the Fed thought that number would sound a little less ominous than $1 trillion. In any event, the Federal Reserve seems convinced that quantitative easing is going to work this time. So should we believe the Federal Reserve?

The truth is that the Federal Reserve has tried this before. In November 2008, the Federal Reserve announced a $600 billion quantitative easing program. Four months later the Fed felt that even more cash was necessary, so they upped the total to $1.8 trillion. Rest of story here

Resurrection

2010-11-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am resurrecting this blog with a new geopolitical twist to my normal musing that can be found on my facebook page.

One love for Chi

2010-08-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

what is quadruple consciousness?

2010-02-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Quadruple Consciousness
By Rudy Carrasco

I am a Christian. A follower of Jesus Christ. A guy trying to find out who I am and what God made me to do, so I can go out and do it. This is not easy for me, because I have a quadruple consciousness.

By quadruple consciousness, I mean I have inside of me four perspectives that influence the way I live my life. Here’s how they break down.

W.E.B. DuBois wrote in the early part of this century about the “double consciousness” experienced by African-Americans in the U.S. As fellow Americans, they are “insiders” in our society. Yet they are also “outsiders” because of their skin color and racism.

This “double-consciousness” is true also for Latinos. But for U.S.-born Latinos like me, there is an added twist.

Dr. Eldin Villafañe, associate dean of urban and multicultural affairs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, says that while we are insiders/outsiders in relation to mainstream society, we are also insiders/outsiders in relation to first generation Hispanics.

Though we are bilingual and bicultural, we are not totally accepted by our mostly monocultural, Spanish-language-dominant parents and authority figures. They perceive us as different–too norteamericano in behavior and Spanish-speaking ability.

As a result of these insider/outsider dynamics with the White mainstream and with first generation Hispanics, a third consciousness arises.

We who find primary identity with neither the mainstream nor with the mother country find it most readily in each other. In the Southwest, this is known as “Mexican-American” or “Chicano” identity. In Texas, these terms are joined by “Tejano.” In the northeast among Puerto Ricans, it’s “Boriqua” or “Nuyorican.” In Florida among Cubans, it’s “Cuban-American.” And across the nation, this third consciousness binds people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Latin American descent into “Latinos” or “Hispanics,” turning a U.S. census fiction into reality.

But for a second generation Latino trying to follow Jesus, add a fourth consciousness: an American Evangelical consciousness.

What does this all mean? It means confusion for a Christian young man trying to find his way. When these voices say different things, which should I follow? Shall I choose one perspective against all the others, or is it possible to integrate them?

Answering that question is the greatest accomplishment of my life.

DISCOVERING DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS: MEXICAN AND AMERICAN
I arrive at the understanding I have quadruple consciousness over a seven year period.

The first thing I understand about myself is that I am a Mexican. Born on July 28, 1967, I am the fifth and last child of Felisa Rivera, an immigrant from Mexico. My home environment is imbued with a sense of God’s sovereignty and a Trinitarian sense of unity, works of the Holy Spirit that a sociologist could just as soon ascribe to el fatalismo del indio and Mexican culture. My mother’s homemade guacamole and arroz con leche are the best around, and go especially well with Lucha Libre wrestling and old movies on Channel 34, the Spanish-language television station.

My watershed experience is the death of my mother. A few years after my birth, my father cuts my mother and her children out of his life. Already having lost two previous husbands, one by desertion and one to old age, my mother finds herself in proverbial hard straits. Her smoking and drinking increase, compounding a problem she carried all her life. As a child in Aguas Calientes, Mexico, pneumonia turned to rheumatic fever. She survived the ordeal, but with a heart enlarged four times the size of normal. Childhood tragedy, years of hard living, and, I believe, the lost love of my father literally break her heart. She dies in late 1973.

Upon my mother’s death, critical events transpire rapidly. Since no grandparents, uncles or aunts on my mother’s side of the family live in the states, and my father’s side of the family will not accept the children, the L.A. Superior Court judge will make Silvana, Andrew and myself wards of the court. I am down at the courthouse the day he decides our fate. Unless someone steps forward to claim us, the judge will disperse the three of us into the unknown vastness of the county foster care system.

On that day of reckoning, my eldest sister, five-foot one-inch Yolanda Olivas, stands before the judge and makes a Mexican declaration:

“I will take care of the children.”

The judge asks how she, a 20-year-old college sophomore on financial aid with no relatives to help, will accomplish this task.

“I’ll find a way,” she answers. “I have no other option.”

Yolanda’s stand culminates years later in university diplomas for each of her siblings. But the experience also opens my mind to a world that is not just Mexican. An American judge’s gavel seals my destiny. From that day forward, I understand that my life is inextricably bound to America.

DISCOVERING TRIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS: CHICANO
A few months later I discover I am not exactly Mexican or American, but something altogether unique.

Mexicans are people like my mother and her friends.

Americans are white people like the judge and my third grade teacher.

I am more like Chris and Edmund.

After winning custody of us children, Yolanda arranges for Lorenzo and Eugenia Gutierrez to care for us. Tio and Tia (“uncle” and “aunt”) are from my mother’s village in Mexico. They agree to keep us for two years until Yolanda graduates from college and can bring us to live with her. In Tio and Tia’s home live Chris and Edmund, my “cousins” through Tio and Tia and my gente through the generosity of extended Mexican kinship.

Early one morning I stand watching Chris shave in the bathroom. “Where are you going?” I ask.

“School.” He turns and looks straight at me. “I have a Chicano studies class.”

“What’s Chicano?”

Chicanos are people like him and me, he explains, who are Mexican but were born here, live here, and are kind of American, too.

“Are Tio and Tia Chicano?” I ask. Not really, Chris says. They act like they are still living in Mexico, and they don’t speak English.

Edmund walks in. Clad only in underwear, a muscular and bronzed god in the making, he grabs me and tickles me. I squeal loudly. From the other room Tia calls out, asking what’s happening. Edmund hollers back something in Spanish. His tickling turns to a rough, warm embrace of me.

“When will you be back?” he asks Chris.

“Can I go with you to the football game?” I say to Edmund.

He ignores me and negotiates with Chris. The three of us stand there for what seems like an eternity. Chicanos.

DISCOVERING QUADRUPLE CONSCIOUSNESS: EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN
Christmas break, 1980. I am conspicuous: One of a handful of Mexican-American teenagers aligned with 150 white teens doing evangelism in Mexico.

At first it is pure joy. I soak in Mexico, my mother’s country of origin. Though born in the U.S. and a rare traveler in Mexico, the kindness, politeness and solemnity of the people that imbue every part of life across the border are all familiar to me. Mexico is kin.

My co-laborers see things differently.

Some hold prejudice. These kids tell Mexican jokes of the dirty and lazy variety, ridicule English spoken with a heavy accent, and assume educational and moral poverty for all Mexicans. When I find the courage to stand alone, I chastise them.

Others push salvation of the soul to already-believing Christians while turning a blind eye to their material and social needs. When I raise the issue of non-spiritual needs, one youth leader warns me, suggesting I might stray into social gospel if I don’t watch out.

But most crushing to me is the indifference of my friends to my identification with Mexico. In retrospect, what could those white kids possibly understand about Mexico’s place in my heart? But as a teen sensitive about his identity, it hurts.

Paradoxically, for all my connection with Mexico, once inside its borders it is evident to all that I am an American.

My forthright, take-charge demeanor sets me apart from my Mexican peers. My command of Spanish translates into short, stunted conversations with any Mexican I meet. At each day’s end, I’m emotionally drained from trying to communicate with my Mexican brethren. In our dusty church van, crossing the border back into the U.S., I feel relief. But I feel alone.

A week later, I am back at my home church in Burbank. I explain to an adult my conflicting feelings while in Mexico. He listens, then tells me that what is really important is that I am a Christian. All that cultural stuff, all those mixed feelings, he says, aren’t that important. He quotes Bible verses to support his view.

I believe him. With his implicit permission, I wave a hand of faith and believe that all this complexity, all these cycles of joy and pain attached to my tri-culturalness, will go away. What’s important is that I have Jesus in my heart. I believe that for years.

CONFLICTS
Discovering that I have four perspectives inside of me that compete for my allegiance and attention is one thing. Navigating through high school and college with that kind of baggage is heart-wrenching for a young man who is looking for the one path he should follow. Consider the insider/outsider relationships I experience with each consciousness.

MAINSTREAM AMERICA

“I started my faith journey through a white organization, and went to a college where I was one of two Mexicans. When you are in this other world, it’s easy to think being white is what it takes to be good. Most of us who have made it a little bit or have been educated, that’s the world we learned to run in.” — Noel Castellanos, pastor, La Villita Community Church, Chicago, IL.

Inside: When I travel outside the United States, there is no doubt I am an American. I know America’s educational and social system well enough to succeed. I can debate nuances of American history from Plymouth Rock on. McDonald’s, network television, the Challenger disaster, Generation X, Michael Jordan, the savings and loan scandal: They all influence who I am. When I debate issues from a Latino perspective, some of my friends think I’m putting them on. To them I am just an American.

Outside: Race IS an issue. An underlying sentiment in American society these days is that racism exists most in the minds of African-Americans, Latinos, and other crying “foul!” Some say it plainly: You are making it up.

But for many Latinos, race consciousness is imputed onto us by mainstream Whites.

Ruben Navarette, Jr., author of the book “A DARKER SHADE OF CRIMSON: The Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano,” can tell you the exact day he began thinking of himself as a Mexican-American.

As a high school junior in Fresno, California, Ruben ran against two students, both close friends, for the office of school president. Since the student body was half Mexican-American and half-white, and since Ruben was the only Mexican-American, Ruben’s friends since childhood reasoned that if they both ran against Ruben they would split the white vote and Ruben would win. To Ruben’s shattering dismay, he learned that his friends were plotting to defeat him–because he was Mexican-American.

On my high school campus, the winds of the affirmative action debate blew hard. Tough classes, top grades, and top extracurriculars didn’t measure up when white students believed they were more deserving of scholarships and awards than I, whom they assumed inherently less qualified because I was Mexican-American. They rarely said it directly, but in innuendo and other roundabout ways, I got the message.

FIRST GENERATION HISPANICS

“If I say “Acosta” and not “Acosta”, am I ditching my Hispanic heritage and roots?”– Larry Acosta, Director, Hispanic Ministry Center, Santa Ana, CA.

Inside: Many of us were raised by first generation Latinos. Our mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles bridge the mother country and America. Strong family devotion, perseverance and long-suffering, memories of the past that live in the present, the supremacy of sincerity, people over time and material possessions: we inherit these virtues and others from them. We also inherit a significant portion of our identity; In my heart I became a man the day I placed a black Fedora on my head, just like Tio Lorenzo, and assumed his indomitable spirit and faithfulness.

Outside: Culturally and linguistically, we fall short in the eyes of our elders. We handle authority, conduct courtship/dating, spend our time, and plan the future differently. Many of us do not speak el idioma as well as they would like. The first generation registers its complaints. Somehow, they send a message that we receive, that we are not good enough, not Latino enough, greater sinners than they, and perhaps irredeemable. None of us second and third generation Latinos believe that. So our battle lines are drawn.

SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION HISPANIC/LATINOS

“Being called names in grammar school, being looked down on at my high school summer job on Wall Street because I was a Latina, these experiences silently killed my esteem. But my faith helped me turn pain into power. I was not quick to embrace the anger of the Left, because I didn’t feel that motivation by hatred could be sustained. I needed the love for my people and for my community that only Christ could give.” — Alexie Torres, Executive Director, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Bronx, NY.

Inside: Long an oppositional identity (“not American, not Mexican), Chicano is finally emerging as an affirmative ideology. We are for a fully democratic American society. We are for increased quality of life for all people. We welcome diverse influences into our world view. Our psychology and our heartfelt concerns transcend many borders, creating a true “world-view”. We are for making money and then sharing that money as broadly as possible.

As a 90’s Chicano in Los Angeles, I proudly watch a phoenix rise from the ashes of more than 500 years of history. The number one radio station in the city is the Chicano station, Power 106. “Power” captures its audience with a high-energy blend of rap and rhythm and blues. Throughout the city, we find Chicanos in prominent positions of power. In Old Town Pasadena, Chicano yuppies (CHuppies?), like beautiful, multi-hued peacocks, strut down Colorado Boulevard. These days I don’t feel so alone.

Outside: The frontlines purveyors of Chicano identity that I encountered at Stanford and often confront today hold anti-Catholic, anti-Christian positions.

The Catholic church, they say, is part of the system, part of the problem. And to Marxist-influenced Chicanos at prominent universities, the Evangelicos’ “pie-in-the-sky” theology is textbook opium.

While in college I tried to connect with these leaders but was not comfortable being around such anti-Christian people. I don’t think they wanted me — a gnat trying to let Christian faith influence Chicano ideology — around either. Despite its current resurgence, some suggest the Chicano movement will remain weak for its inability to accept and harness Christian faith, a force central to the lives of countless Chicanos.

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY

“My wife and I have an adopted son, Jacob, who is white. There will come a time in his life when he will want to identify with his natural parents. Where are my natural mother and father? What are they like? These are questions of longing, of identity, that all adopted kids eventually ask. Some parents respond to adopted kids’ questions with anger, saying, “WE are your parents.” But these parents do a disservice to that child by not letting him find out about their natural parents. In the same way, the Evangelical America that tells me not to pursue an understanding of my ethnic heritage is like these insecure parents. White folks want to identify with their European root, with Luther and Calvin, as well as with the Pilgrims and the forefathers. Me, as a Latino, I just want to soul search in the same way. I am like Jacob, wanting answers about my Hispanic heritage, about my Mexican roots.” Joel Alvarado, associate director, KAYIL Ministries, Los Angeles, CA.

Inside: I am an Evangelical. I studied the Reformation with the top Luther scholar in the world and traveled to Germany to touch it with my own hands. I attended a Bible college within the Christian college coalition. I was raised in a conservative Baptist church. I have worked with a wide variety of Evangelical churches, ministries and parachurch organizations. I have done street corner evangelism, and I practice friendship evangelism, here in the states and as far away as South Africa.

Outside: Billy Graham calls race the single problem he would eradicate if he could. Promise Keepers holds racial reconciliation as a central point of its agenda. Thankfully, thirty years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, Evangelicals are finally talking about race and culture issues. But throughout high school and college I was frustrated that most churches I knew couldn’t — or didn’t want to — address issues that were outside of the White mainstream.

In my home church in Burbank, I was encouraged to not think about myself in “ethnic” terms. But I wrestled with that perspective, because I was undeniably Latino just as I was undeniably Christian. I sought to find harmony between the two. And as Joel Alvarado points out, it is not fair to suggest that I ignore my racial and culture heritage when, in fact, the White mainstream openly identifies with its European and early American predecessors.

INTEGRATION
If all this information about quadruple consciousness, about insider/outsider dynamics in relation to each consciousness, if all this makes you weary and confused:

Imagine how I feel.

In high school, I am a visibly happy and successful student. But in ways only I fully know, I try on different identities, looking for an exact fit. Honors student. Street-corner evangelist. Basketball star. Tough homeboy. Surfer boy. Punk rocker. Editor-in-chief. Baby brother.

Nothing fits.

College life will provide an answer.

Biola University, mid-1980’s. I defy family, friends, school officials and conventional wisdom by applying only to Biola out of high school. In ninth grade I decide that if I am going to pay $50,000+ for a private university education, I will at least learn how to read and understand the Bible on my own, without having to wait until Sunday to hear pastor de-code it. With my matriculation into Biola, I also anticipate the revelation of my true identity.

No go. The monocultural, monopolitical environment I encounter inspires no new insights. When I open discussions on social or racial issues, or share the complexities of my personal perspective, few follow where I lead. I do soak up much Bible and theology, for which I am grateful. My roommate Al and I push the limits of faithfulness to Scripture (he keeps his left hand behind his back while writing a tithe check with his right). But when I leave Biola I am still thirsty.

Stanford University, late-1980’s. The social and psychological leap from a Christian college coalition school to the cutting-edge of postmodern intellectualism will be the catalyst for fusing my disparate parts into one purposeful whole. I find acceptance and loving support from my peers in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Phil Gibson, John Lee, Darrell Armstrong and so many others help get me through school, as well as to solidify deep parts of my inner man. But no one can tell me how to integrate my faith with the other parts of my self. When U2 sings “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” in my dorm cafeteria midway through my junior year, I know what they mean.

I feel torn. When I try to imagine my future, I can’t imagine anything. I can’t figure out who I am supposed to be. Mainstream America influences me greatly. I care deeply about first generation Hispanics. I live between those two worlds in a fuzzy Chicano mindset. And I want Jesus to tell me “well done, good and faithful servant” when I stand before his throne. I toy with making my life easier by ditching my faith.

But help is on the way.

Summer, 1989. Along with fourteen other students, I participate in an Intervarsity summer mission to Mississippi. Astonishment is mine when I visit the ministry center, health clinic, law office, farm, school, church and other community pillars associated with the Voice of Calvary and the Mendenhall Ministries. Before my very eyes, I watch the second chapter of Acts conduct its daily business. The power of Christianity to solve deep, historically rooted problems overwhelms me. I have new hope.

Hope anthropomorphises itself eight months later in the person of John Perkins.

One week before finishing my last class and graduating, Perkins lectures on campus. After the lecture, I learn he needs a writer. Five months later, I am his writer.

Over the next nine months I spend an extraordinary amount of time with Perkins. We debate and put to paper cutting-edge ideas integrating practical faith with the issues of our day. Together we travel throughout the nation sharing principles of Christian community development with the ever-growing army of Christians incarnating Christ in America’s inner cities. Up close and personal with the man many call a “modern-day Moses,” I come close to resolving my dilemma.

During those nine months I watch Perkins juggle his own private triple consciousness. Not only juggle, but master. His success, I decide, lies in deftly navigating mainstream America, the African-American community, and the Evangelical Christian community. In a single day I accompany him to speaking engagements at a downtown bank, a large African-American church, and a White-led urban nonprofit. All day long his message of Christian community development is the same, but the way he says it differs in each location. The results? Always the same: Bullseye! I witness this day-long cross-cultural communications coup on so many occasions that I am convinced: You can be whole and happy person while having a triple-consciousness.

Quadruple consciousness. Can it happen with quadruple consciousness?

Summer, 1991. High in the mountains above Puebla, Mexico, I discover my personal Rosetta Stone:

“Caminante no hay camino?Se hace camino al andar?” Sojourner there is no path/It becomes a path as you walk.”

These words come from a sad existential Mexican poem. The poem, which ends with the sojourner dying in the desert alone, his body covered by wind-blown sand, is not an obvious choice for Christian edification. But those two lines free me spirit.

Caminante no hay camino.

Until that moment, I had put my life on hold. I searched, and waited, for a person like me who had already resolved my dilemma. A person who would show me the path of life for a person like me, so I could walk it. Hope had turned to disappointment, and my disappointment grew greater each time I encountered a prospective role model, only to find no exact fit. But when I hear caminante no hay camino, I feel released. The thing I am waiting for, my path, will never arrive, so I can take my life off hold.

Se hace camino al andar.

Nevertheless, though my ideal path does not exist, se hace camino al andar suggests I can still walk forward. If there is no mainstream-living, first-generation-Hispanic-sensitive, Latino Evangelical Christian role model out there that I want to emulate, to build upon, to improve upon, then it is possible for me to make the path as I walk. Then the Scripture comes to mind: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I feel new.

Our God is truly a redeemer. From a myth of desolation he gives me a roadmap for a road that waits for me to build it.

MULTIPLICATION
In many ways my story belongs to the genre of American self-discovery. The issues and complexities I have described are not my sole province, but are embraced by a variety of Americans as well people whose lives transcend multiple borders.

But my story also has practical import. And is urgent.

The rapid growth among Latinos in the U.S. — at last official count 27 million — means heightened visibility of Latino issues in the American mainstream. Catching the eyes of Evangelical Christians are the many needs in poor, urban Latino communities. While many Latinos sprint down the fast track to success, others are plagued by low education levels, crime, gangs, teen pregnancy, and broken homes. Individuals, churches, and Christian ministries of all types are incarnating Christ in the midst of these needs. But the Scripture rings true: The harvest is great, but the laborers are few.

The laborers we need most, those representing the greatest hope for effective urban Latino ministry, are Latinos themselves. We know the urban situation, as most of us live in the city or just moved to the suburbs from the city. As Christians we are redeemed. With training, we can be highly effective in this vital work.

Yet while U.S. Latino Evangelicals number more than five million, urban ministers seeking to utilize Latino co-laborers invariably have difficulty finding them.

They ask ministries like the Hispanic Association of Bilingual Bicultural Ministries (HABBM) for help in finding such people. HABBM makes recommendations but in no way can fill the onslaught of requests received.

In a nation of 27 million Latinos and five million Latino Evangelicals, why is there a shortage of Latinos in urban ministry?

The reasons behind the shortage are many. One critical reason, I believe, is that many hopefuls are embroiled in conflicts associated with quadruple consciousness.

The Twentysomething Chicana journalist tells me she might leave her Latino congregation. The first generation pastor rejects suggestions by second and third generation young people in the church to adjust the worship style, use more English, and discuss topics more relevant to them. She has pleaded with the pastor for years, but to no avail. Now she has her eyes on a predominantly White superchurch, yet doesn’t feel entirely comfortable there. Last Sunday she had to drag herself to church.

A new generation listens as anti-Christian Chicano leaders bemoan the Church as part of what’s keeping our people back. The Chicano high schoolers who marched the streets in protest against California’s Proposition 187 turn and ask me why there weren’t more Christians protesting the initiative.

But those I wonder about most are the huge number of Latinos attending mainstream, White-led churches. HABBM conjectures that this group numbers possibly half of all U.S. Latino Evangelicals — more than 2.5 million people. I remember that I myself grew up in a mainstream White church, attended a predominantly White Christian college, and still almost dropped my faith. I can’t help but wonder: Are there others like me in that body of 2.5 million?