Nato is killing women and children in Libya with its reckless bombing raids. NATO finally admitted that they killed civilians when a missile hit a home Souk al- Gomaa killing nine people including two children.
Congress voted on Libya and the numbers are in.
Yes= 180, No= 238 on defunding Libya. Funny how the Dems and GOP can never manage to defund an unjust war. Remember when the Democrats spent all of 2006 talking about "bringing the troops home"? And then when they were swept into power, they put on a 6 month show and relented to war in Iraq. Bush received every penny he wanted to continue his unjust war. Well, now the Republicans and Democrats have failed to defund Obama's illegal (and unconstitutional) war in Libya. Obama did not have proper authorization to attack Libya. His justification was that since American forces were participating in a NATO operation that he didn't need authorization from Congress. He's wrong.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 made it clear that the President needs authorization for the use of force. And since Libya didn't represent an imminent threat, the President has no ground to stand on.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 § 1541. Purpose and policy (c) Presidential executive power as Commander-in-Chief; limitation The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.
So let's see, did Obama ask for a declaration of war? No! Did Obama ask Congress for authorization? No! Did Libya attack America? No!
With this in mind, I think President Obama is in violation of both the United States constitution and The War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Although, I don't agree with Karl Denninger (the Tickerguy) on every issue, I agree with most of his ideas and frankly, I think his financial knowledge and investigative skills are top notch. Recently, Bill Still And Tickerguy managed to land a major meeting with a member of Congress. i won't say that I think that this is a sign that things are changing in Washington, but I must say that this is a welcomed surprise. At least someone in Washington is willing to listen to reason.
I particularly enjoyed Bill Still's Five Steps for Ireland
1. Reject the Euro
(I've been saying this for awhile. The concept of the Euro and European Zone is awful because each country has a unique economy with unique needs.
2. Withdraw From the EU
3. Reissue the Punt (Still insist that Ireland should make their own currency and avoid a debt system. I would add that they should back it by a series of commodities.
4. Stop Fractional Reserve Banking (Hallelujah! Why let the banks lend more than they have.)
5. No More Government Borrowing
At the beginning of the year, I predicted that at least one European country would break away from the EU and I'm as confident as ever. In fact, I will take it one step further and predict that Greece and Ireland will leave by the end of the year. Am I crazy?
The cavalry is not coming. There will be not a third party - Only a donkey and an elephant singing the same song Playing the same rugged game Selling the same lies On the same tv networks owned by the same corporations That bought the donkeys and elephants in the first place.
The cavalry is not coming. The polls will closed at 8, but most minds will not open at all. There will not be a savior, a messiah or politician Who will make everything right. Because you can’t clean a septic tank without getting dirty. Washington will not listen to you. They don’t care you They don’t think about you. They only think about how they can screw you.
No!
The cavalry is not coming. You can vote Republican or Democratic, Be black, white, red, yellow or blue But if you’re not Wall Street, They don’t give a damn about you.
Why?
Because they know that The cavalry is not coming. They know half of the kids in cities can’t read. They know most high schools indoctrinate rather than educate. Washington knows that most Americans would rather blame their neighbors than blame the masters. They people who really run this place we call America.
They know most Americans don’t see the Federal Reserve enslaving them. The government borrowing money it can never pay, So it can drop bombs on poor people in oil rich countries. They know the elections are rigged and candidates are selected by the masters. Washington knows they can’t get elected without the corporations So they don’t bite the hand the feeds them But what are they feeding us?
See-
The cavalry is not coming. If you want to be saved, you gonna have to save yourself.
For the last three years, I've been warning my viewers on Youtube about the inevitable collapse of the U.S. Empire. I've discuss how the U.S. government is so far into debt that it can't even paid off the interest on it's debts. Like all dying empires, the U.S. has over-expanded in Asia with unnecessary wars of greed, spent more than it can ever pay back, degraded into extreme corruption and devolved into a systemic ponzi model.
The state governments have massive amounts of pensions that are underfunded, many cities can't even provide basic services (such an education, fire protection and law enforcement) and the national economy has lost it's manufacturing prowess. Essentially, America has transported into a ponzi economy where everyone uses credit cards to buy cheap junk that is made in third world countries. So you see why I believe that this is fundamentally unsustainable. This economic model of largess spending will collapse, which begs the question:
So what the social consequences of an economic collapse?
I live in the most dangerous city in America: Flint, Michigan. It is a former automotive powerhouse that has been economically devastated by the exodus of General Motors and the overall trend of de-industrialization. Flint is one of the poorest cities in America. I consider it to be a less black, but smaller version the second most dangerous city in America: Detroit, Michigan. Both cities have experienced a major decline in its auto-industry, the massive white flight, epic crime waves, a collapse of its tax base, drastic population decline and a breakdown of basic services. Recently, Detroit, announced that it was closing half of its schools and cramming 60 students in a high school class.
When the money and resources disappear, human behavior changes. The dynamic shifts. Most people go into survival mode and every decision centers around oneself. Many people stop thinking about community and start viewing neighbors as competitors. A general sense of anger and apathy seeps through the community and transform the way residents interact with each other and the system that they perceive as their enemy.
I can't tell what will definitely happen, but I can use my experience to give you an educated guess.
1. Shock Most Americans were shocked when they heard about the shrinking of the Titanic. The normalcy bias makes it almost impossible to imagine the system collapse. People assume that just because the lights are on today that they will be on tomorrow. When the baby boomers see that their life savings are gone, many will chose to end their lives. Other will walk around in a daze. Many uppity 40-somethings who have been conditioned to believe that their life is only worth what they make, will kill themselves and their families.
2. Backlash Against the Government. If the dollar collapses, the food stamps benefits will not be able to keep up with rising food cost. The underclass (poor) and working class will feel abandoned. After watching Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and other Wall Street entities collect their tax dollars through a series of bailouts, the poorer Americans will violently attack a system that they perceive as screwing them over for the "big guys." That "Too Big To Fail" mantra won't go over so well when people are struggling to feed their kids, pay rent with a social security check that is losing its value. I expect riots and turn overs of federal and state government buildings.
3. Violence in Communities Gerald Celente said it best, "When people lose everything and have nothing to lose, they lose it." Do you really think that people are going to be content when the power company cuts off their lights. The poor will demand extreme tax increases of the rich and upper middle class, while the criminal class will exploit a weakening police presence. I expect to see a dramatic increase in murder, forcible rape, burglaries, assaults and robbery.
4. Class Warfare The working class and poor will not only blame the government and Wall Street, but the rich. The shrinking middle class will become a target of class warfare. The upper class will try to play the middle class against the working class and poor.
5. Police Crack Down Did you hear about that Iraqi War who was shot 60 times by a SWAT team in Tuscon, Arizona in an apparent drug raid. The only problem is that they didn't find any drugs. SWAT first claimed that he shot at them, but his gun was on SAFE. So they are now saying that he pointed his gun at them. Afterward, the SWAT team refused to let the paramedics into the house for over an hour. I assume he was already dead, but why did they behave in this matter. Jose Guerena, 26, was only the one of many police victims. So I fully expect the police to get very aggressive after the politicians put pressure on them.
6. Backlash Against Police There will be a call for "law and order", but the police will go too far. They will kill too many innocent people and the heighten state of anger in the black (and poor communities) will lead to an epic backlash. Criminals will target cops and their families, while the angry masses remain silent. Recently, a Miami cop was caught waving a gun in the face of a law abiding citizen after his buddies shot a suspect to death in his car. The idiot cop pointed his gun at the citizen (holding the camera) and his family.) It was the type of thug behavior that is becoming increasing common from the law enforcement community. Now ask yourself, do you honestly think that the police is going to alleviate the tension or sending an angry community over the edge?
Think about it, you've lost your job, your house, your wife's respect and now these cops who have been disrespecting you all of your life are pointing a gun at you.
Super criminals: No, I'm not talking about Superman's Doomsday, but when you have millions of highly educated young people facing a bleak future with few economic opportunities, you end up with a new class of criminals. Traditionally, most criminals have been pretty stupid, but when you have people with degrees in chemistry, physics, accounting and engineering, you're going to end up with smarter criminals.
7. Depression and transformation of Culture Some men will turn to drinking. It's no accident that Flint gets a lot of domestic violence calls. Some men will turn to drinking. It's no accident that Flint gets a lot of domestic violence calls. Alcoholism, drug use and domestic violence will likely soar. I also expect the declining marriage rate to drop at an even faster pace.
Disclosure: I don't believe that a man should get married. There's nothing that marriage offers that he can't already get. Plus, the divorce and family courts will screw him over in a big way.
Nevertheless, many women will not be interested in marrying a poor or working class man. And frankly, more men will fall into this category. Moreover, less men will want to get married because they will feel that they have little to offer.
8. Black Market and Bartering As the dollar dies, people will not only look to bypass the Federal Reserve, but skip the bureaucracy and taxes of government. People will use Swiss Francs, gold, silver and local currencies to by cost effective items on the black market.
9. Federal Government Becomes Irrelevant Simply put, it makes no sense for people in fiscally sound states such as Utah, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Vermont to continue paying for a federal government that feeds resources to unconstitutional wars and falling states such as California. Sooner or later, many people will question why we need a union. So I expect a block of states to attempt to break away from the union. This could lead to a civil war or a revolution. But the last possibility maybe the most disturbing.
10. Rise of Fascism The Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act were just the beginning. Now, the Supreme Court has declared that the police can enter your home without a warrant as long as they believe that you're destroying evidence. So what's stopping the police from lying? So much for the fourth amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures. We already have corporatism with the government bailouts of Wall Street, all we need now is extreme nationalism, militarism (the ever expanding war on terror) and an enemy. I think the TSA has been very clear who they consider to be the enemy. Not only do they have the power to examine you through a full body scanner, but if you refuse, they can molest you and your family via pat down.
So there you go, this is what I think will happen when the system collapses. Please share your thoughts.
What's fascinating is that now more and more people are acknowledging what I've been talking about for the last three years. Democratic pollster James Carville admitted that civil unrest was a very real possibility. Now, "Rich Dad" Robert Kiyosaki is talking about storing food, guns and ammo. I've almost annoyed my youtube subscribers with my continuing supply of emergency preparation videos. But it's wonderful to see higher profile people speak up about the issue. Robert Kiyosaki and his advisers offered a video presentation about preparing for the worse. I especially enjoyed exchange between Robert Kiyosaki and Mike Maloney.
Kiyosaki: There's two possible or extreme financial concerns, we can either go into a depression...or we go to hyperinflation Maloney: ...which is also a depression. Kiyosaki: Right. But we could also go to war which is one way that people think we can solve the problem.
Doesn't this remind you of Gerald Celente's warning "They're taking you to war."
Kiyosaki: But also what's happening -- in Phoenix, Arizona here, they just announced that they're laying off police officers, because they don't have any more money. At the same time, they're cutting off unemployment benefits,. Now, let's add one plus one together. What does that spell? BUY A GUN!
Thank God, some one said it.This guy has said what I've been desperately trying to tell people for the last three years. Cops can't prevent your from getting raped or killed! They can only go after the guy who did it. Whether they catch him or not is irrelevant if you're dead. What cracked me up about the presentation was when some guy in the back said that he had the food, but he would have to go to Robert for the guns. He took comfort in knowing that he cause feed his family if something happened.
Now as much as I encourage people to store food, I must say that if you don't have a means of protecting the food, you're probably wasting your time. Perhaps you won't need a gun, but if other people are hunger and you have food for your family, but no gun to protect it, then you'll be in a world of trouble.
As one of the other advisers said, "I have both guns and food." Everyone laughed and the no-gunner replied, "Well, I'm going to your house." More people laughed. What went you think about it, a good preparation plan can't involve going to someone's house. After all, don't you realize that people will go to your house, because you have food. And even more so, because you don't have a means of protecting it. And why in the hell would you tell people that you have food, but no guns.
Less Police + Less Economic Opportunities + Higher Inflation = You better get a gun!
In an earlier post, I highlighted the fact that Flint was the most dangerous city in the country, but the FBI under-reported the number of homicides in the city. When if that's going on across the nation.
You're a 42 year old man. You were the breadwinner of your family. You worked as an account manager at engineer firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The $180,000 salary allowed you to fund your 16 year old daughter's ballet classes, pay for your 14 year old son's membership on the junior varsity league hockey team and live comfortably with your wife in your $400,000 home in Oakhurst, Georgia.
Two years later, you've lost your job, you're up-side down in your mortgage, your wife went back to work, you're lifestyle has been cut back drastically and you finally realize that the so called "recovery" isn't happening. What do you do when your only daughter is going to college to major in anthropology and acquiring over $60,000 in debt every year? What does a working class man tell his 17 year old who has been accepted into the University of Michigan-Flint and he can't afford it? What does a High School Principal say to his graduating class when there are no decent jobs available? What can career adviser say to a 21 year old graduating college when the most significant job growth is coming from McDonald's going on a hiring spree?
More Americans are dealing with these questions than ever before. The housing market's collapse has surpassed the wreckage of the Great Depression, while the middle class is rapidly shrinking and the financial system is on the verge of another collapse. For many months, people have accused people such as myself of being a fear-monger for expressing my considers about the economy. They said that we were extremists for talking about an economic collapse and possible civil rest. Well, now, Democratic pollster James Carville is issuing a similar warning.
“But the country, if that is what we are doing, this is gruesome on people. This unemployment rate for this long is humanitarian crisis of the first magnitude."
James continues, "The aftermath of these things — kind of an academic book that is dry entitled ‘This Time is Different.’ What it concluded it is not different this time. They studied it, the aftermath of the financial crisis. What we are going through is imminently predictable. But this is a terrible thing that has happened to people’s lives."
Carville goes on to say that if the unemployment situation worsens,
"we will begin to see civil unrest in this country. I hate to say that. But I think it is imminently possible."
Frankly, I think Carville is wrong about this situation being the "aftermath." We've still in this mess. The writing is on the wall and people are starting to see it. A Newsweek/Daily Beast poll has found that most Americans are pissed. They're angry at Obama, the Republicans and even God. I'm serious. God has a 33 percent approval rating. Don't laugh, because this means that people maybe reaching the breaking point. And if another round of layoffs begin this summer, all bets are off.
The latest job numbers were released on Friday and they were embarrassing. Let me explain. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added a pathetic 54,000 jobs. Why is that pathetic? Zerohedge.com pointed out that we need to create a minimum of 250,000 jobs a month for the next 66 months to get back to where we were when the depression began. Good luck achieving that without a strong manufacturing base. I think we would need to add about 100,000 jobs to keep up with population growth. So when I heard that we created 54,000 jobs last month, I thought of the 50,000 people that McDonalds hired in April.
We lost....
8,500 jobs in Retail 29,000 jobs in Government 5,000 jobs in Manufacturing 3,400 jobs in Automotive
The official U3 unemployment number went up to 9.1% and the underemployment (U6) number dropped slightly to 15.8%, but these numbers aren't even close to reflecting the real unemployment situation in this country. John Williams (of Shadowstats.com) compels unemployment data the way the government used to before it begin it's low-balling tactics. he's calculating real unemployment at 23%. The government is claiming that we only have 13.9 million people unemployed, but obviously the self-employed are not being counted. So whether you are disappointed or embarrassed, the writing is on the wall. And soon most people will begin to see it.
I live in the most dangerous city in America. Last year, Flint, MI has the highest homicide rate in the country by far. I'm unable to move and I have a family that depends on me because of financial and health reasons. So I'm going to be in the mist of hell with the music stops playing and people realize that there's only one chair in the room. I hope you're preparing.
Mike Riddell, a fund manager at M&G Investments in London, seems to be experiencing what a lot of money people are starting to experience: REALITY.
"The last month has been a horror show for the U.S. economy, with economic data falling off a cliff..."
That's because it is falling off a cliff. The stimulus money has run out and the money printing has fail to save the economy. But it has succeeded in pumping inflation. The Japanese disaster is finally catching up with us. Japanese auto exports collapsed by almost 70%. Riddell writes,
"It seems that almost every bit of data about the health of the US economy has disappointed expectations recently,"
Let's see, pending home sales dropped by 11.6 percent in April. That's right! Over 11% in the middle of the Spring. Wholly rusted metal, Batman! Riddell continues,
"US house prices have fallen by more than 5 percent year on year, pending home sales have collapsed and existing home sales disappointed, the trend of improving jobless claims has arrested, first quarter GDP wasn’t revised upwards by the 0.4 percent forecast,"
In the week ending May 21, initial jobless claims hit 424,000. That's 10,000 more than the previous week and well above pre-2008 depression numbers. And yes, I used the D word. There is no recovery without a sizable increase in employment. The only people who are experiencing a recovery are the crooks on Wall Street. But now the market is being hit. So let's see if Michael Ruppert's economic collapse prediction comes true. He said July, by the latest.
I met with author Edward McClelland again. He's the author of the book "Young Mr. Obama." A year ago, I provided him with a tour of my hometown Flint, MI. We've talked about crime in Flint before, but recently the FBI declared Flint, MI to be the most violent city in America. I've predicted as much as early as December 2010. Statistically, the FBI under-reported the severity of the violence in Flint. The bureau claimed that Flint only had 53 homicides in Flint, MI. Now obviously, that is an extremely high number for a city with only 109,000 people. In fact, it's homicide rate far exceeded the second dangerous city (Detroit, Michigan). But as I told Edward, mlive.com has proven that Flint had at least 61 homicides in 2010.
Edward asked why Michigan had the top two cities in violent. The answer is simply. After the auto industry took a dive, the tax base dried up, the middle class fled the city and left a large class of poor and jobless youth. There simply aren't any opportunities for young people in Detroit and Flint and their parents don't have the resources to send them to decent schools or move them out of the area.
So that leaves one big question: If the FBI under-reported Flint's crime, what other cities are being under-reported? When I was earning my BA in criminal justice at the University of Michigan-Flint, I was taught that murder rates were usually accurate, because it's hard to hide bodies. But clearly, the FBI has been under-reporting homicides. So how did they exclude the extra murders?
FBI claimed that violent crime dropped 5.5 percent in 2010 while reported property crimes decreased by 2.8 percent. So when if the FBI has been low-balling other crime numbers? We know that police departments have been cutting back, so is it possible that property crimes are going down because there aren't even cops to answer calls?
For those of you who doubt that the FBI's homicide number is wrong, please view the chronological report of Flint's 2010 homicides. The names and dates are listed for each victim. I was living in Flint throughout 2010 and I remember reading about 2010 breaking the all-time high for number of homicides in Flint history. This town has been dangerous for the last 3 decades, but now it's getting worse.
I encourage you to view my interview with Edward about Chicago politics and Obama's early life.
