NSA makes final push to retain most mass surveillance powers

London Guardian
January 11, 2014

The National Security Agency and its allies are making a final public push to retain as much of their controversial mass surveillance powers as they can, before President Barack Obama’s forthcoming announcement about the future scope of US surveillance.

Security officials concede a need for greater transparency and for adjustments to broad domestic intelligence collection, but argue that limiting the scope of such collection would put the country at greater risk of terrorist attacks.

In a lengthy interview that aired on Friday on National Public Radio (NPR), the NSA’s top civilian official, the outgoing deputy director John C Inglis, said that the agency would cautiously welcome a public advocate to argue for privacy interests before the secret court which oversees surveillance. Such a measure is being promoted by some of the agency’s strongest legislative critics.

Inglis also suggested that the so-called Fisa court have “somebody who would assist them with matters of interpreting technology”, which also has the potential to recast the court’s relationship with the NSA.

Read the entire article

Israelis, Palestinians on Ariel Sharon's Death

Wall Street Journal
January 11, 2014

Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Israel mourned the loss of one of its greatest leaders." As Israelis shared their thoughts on the controversial former prime minister, some Palestinians celebrated Sharon's death.

Our Officials Are Never Going to Admit Fukushima Radiation Health Risks

Investment Watch
January 10, 2014

TRUTHstreammedia

In the RT.com article “Officials reject concerns over 500 percent radiation increase on California beach,” Dean Peterson, county environmental health director, is quoted as saying, “It’s not something that we feel is an immediate public health concern” and “We’re not even close to the point of saying that any of this is from Fukushima,” in regard to these crazy radiation spikes off the coast of California.

A) Saying it isn’t an immediate public health concern is *NOT* saying it isn’t a health concern, B) who cares about what they feel, I don’t feel like I trust that guy, and C) they never will be close to saying that any radiation anywhere is from Fukushima because they will never say it, period.

After all, we have officials who will raise the allowable radiation limits and shut off radiation meters before they will ever admit there’s a risk from something they obviously don’t know how to fix (or don’t want to even really try to fix) and ultimately cannot control.

The bottom line? “Move along here people, there will never be anything to see here…”

Main Source: http://rt.com/usa/fukushima-geiger-ca…

The Plundering of South Sudan

Activist Post
January 11, 2014

image sourc

RT's report "Who is to blame for the crisis in South Sudan?" gave a succinct background on the warring factions inside the new "nation" of South Sudan and the Western genesis of the conflict. The report would state: 

The SPLM has received support from the US and Israel throughout the duration of the civil war fought between southern rebels and Khartoum, which has historically had unfriendly relations with the West and has moved very closely to China in recent times to jointly develop the country’s oil wealth prior to the separation. Romantic notions for self-determination did not motivate the West to support southern secession; the objective was to partition Sudan and deprive Khartoum of economically relevant territory in the south where most of the oil fields lie. In exchange for the financial, material, political, and diplomatic support received from the West, the new government in Juba endorsed a ‘Faustian pact’ with its sponsors to open its economy to international finance capital and multinational interests. The government in Juba even applied for IMF membership before it had even officially gained independence from Sudan.

The piece would continue by laying out the current dilemma for the West: 

Despite supporting the South’s independence with diplomatic muscle and military aid, the United States has been unable to gain a foothold in the country’s oil sector; Juba’s crippled economy remains dominated by Asian companies, primarily from China. South Sudan must rely on pipelines that run through Khartoum to export its oil, and the two countries produced around 115,000 barrels of oil per day in 2012, less than half the volume produced in the years before South Sudan's independence. Both sides have nearly gone to war over disputed oil fields that straddle a poorly demarcated border. Judging from the poor economic performance of both countries since the partition and the dramatic loss of the life in the ongoing crisis, the experiment of South Sudanese independence is failing.

Read the entire article 

Parks and Wildlife Officers Now Heavily Armed As Military-Style “Force Multipliers”

shtfplan.com
January 11, 2014

You best not be a terrorist or homegrown radical extremist hiding out in the boonies of the Texas wilderness, because if you are you may well come face-to-face with the Parks and Wildlife Department’s newest rapid deployment “Scout Team.”

The unit is made up of 25 highly trained game wardens capable of deploying anywhere in the state of Texas within four hours. Armed with AR-15s, BDUs, and kevlar helmets, the team’s mission according to the TPWD website involves border operations, dignitary protection or any form of high-risk law enforcement, such as serving felony arrest warrants or hostage situations.

As The Dallas Observer’s Brantley Hargrove notes, “the militarization of every possible law enforcement entity in America is complete.”

[The team] is modeled after what military types call a “force multiplier,” which basically means that these guys can shoot a bunch of bullets. 

[…] 

“We’re steeped in tradition and very mindful of our past,” said special ops chief Grahame Jones. “It’s an important part of who we are, but we have to look to the future.” 

And the future is a camo AR. Now, if Texas truly intends to secede, it’s got its own military force ready and waiting. We’ve even got a Navy! TPWD has 564 vessels, including a 65-foot gulf patrol ship, and gunboats mounted with .30 cal machine guns.

 Maybe we’re a little paranoid here, but doesn’t it strike you as a bit odd that every possible government related entity in this country – be it federal, state or local – is being heavily armed with assault rifles, weaponized drones and battle wagons?
The Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, property code enforcement teams, and now Parks and Wildlife are all putting Department of Homeland Security’s multi-billion dollar budget to good use.
What, exactly, are these organizations planning for?
Do they know something big is about to go down?
Or is the intention here to strike fear into the populace by instilling in us that America is now a battlefield and the government is ready to go to war with anyone that stands in its way?

Exposed: Hillary Clinton's Sex Scandals

Center for Western Journalism
January 11, 2014



Video produced by http://www.westernjournalism.com Produced, written, and edited by Kris Zane. Narrated by Tom Hinchey

Ariel Sharon Dead At 85: Will Prophecy Now Come To Pass?

Before It's News
January 11, 2014

Ariel Sharon is dead at the age of 85. Who was Ariel Sharon? Truthloader investigates in the newly released video below. Will the ‘Ariel Sharon prophecy’ now come true? The second video below talks about that prophecy further. The first video below is controversial; viewer discretion is advised.

Related article: http://werhit-mathenyahu.blogspot.com/2014/01/rabbi-predicts-messiahs-coming-after.html

Peter Schiff : An Imaginary Recovery Does Not Create Real Jobs

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
January 11, 2014

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., is not one to bite his tongue when it comes to exposing the phony "Recovery" rhetoric of the main stream media, and the current administration.

In his latest update on the Schiff Report, Peter shows once again that the administration is merely playing a "numbers game" (and a bad one at that) when it comes to the amount of jobs created, and the percentage of unemployment in the U.S..



According to Peter, the Wall Street gang had been waiting with baited breath, expecting to see a robust December jobs report which would validate their strong belief in a so-called "recovery".

The official estimate was 200 thousand jobs that were expected to be created, and yet Wall Street was even more optimistic, expecting as high as 225 to 250 thousand jobs - however, reality kicked both the administration and Wall Street in the teeth with only 74 thousand jobs created.

This is the lowest amount in three years.

The main stream media has once again praised the efforts of Obama and his administration for such a great job of bringing about the "recovery", but Peter points out that over half of the jobs created in December were temporary jobs, and that there were fewer jobs created in 2013 and there were in 2012.

So much for a recovery.

The unemployment rate dropped slightly in December from 7% to 6.7%, but again this is "smoke and mirrors". The reason for the drop was again due to the amount of workers dropping out of the labor force, which in turn drops from the amount being counted and therefore causes the percentage rate to drop. Abra Cadabra!

The real unemployment rate is closer to 23% approximately.

The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. - shadowstats.com

Peter brought out many other interesting facts to expose the phony teleprompter propaganda brought forth by Obama and his loyal minions in the media as well.

You can catch the Schiff Report  Live Weekdays 10am to noon ET onhttp://www.SchiffRadio.com

Buy Peter Schiff's newest book at http://www.tinyurl.com/RealCrash
Friend him on http://www.Facebook.com/PeterSchiff
Follow him on http://www.Twitter.com/PeterSchiff

Children who watch too much TV may have 'damaged brain structures'

Daily Mail
January 10, 2014

*The more time a child spends watching TV, the more profound the changes

*It leads to more grey matter in the regions around the frontopolar cortex area of the brain -      towards the front and side of the head

Watching too much television can change the structure of a child's brain in a damaging way, according to a new study.

Researchers found that the more time a child spent viewing TV, the more profound the brain alterations appeared to be.

The Japanese study looked at 276 children aged between five and 18, who watched between zero and four hours TV per day, with the average being about two hours.

Too much TV can change the structure of a child's brain in a way which can lead to lower verbal intelligence

MRI brain scans showed children who spent the most hours in front of the box had greater amounts of grey matter in regions around the frontopolar cortex - the area at the front of the frontal lobe.

But this increased volume was a negative thing as it was linked with lower verbal intelligence, said the authors, from Tohoku University in the city of Sendai.

They suggested grey matter could be compared to body weight and said these brain areas need to be pruned during childhood in order to operate efficiently.

‘These areas show developmental cortical thinning during development, and children with superior IQs show the most vigorous cortical thinning in this area,’ the team wrote.

Read the entire article

Levin: Obama Is 'an Economic Illiterate...Who Takes Responsibility for Nothing'

CNS News
January 8, 2014

Discussing President Obama's remarks in the White House Tuesday, Mark Levin called the president an "economic illiterate" during Tuesday evening's radio show.

The president encouraged Congress to extend unemployment insurance at the White House Tuesday in front of several Americans who lost their benefits last month. 

Levin: "So there's Obama today, with about ten people behind him, which demonstrates what a failure he is, and what a failure his policies are.  And, of course, they don't even get the irony of the damn thing.  And, he says among other things, cut one, go:

Obama: "But, although the economy has been growing, and we've been adding new jobs, the truth of the matter is, is that the financial crisis was so devastating that there's still a lot of people who are struggling, and in fact, if we don't provide unemployment insurance, it makes it harder for them to find a job."

Levin: "Isn't this frustrating as hell?  We have an economic illiterate as president of the United States who takes responsibility for nothing.  Responsibility for nothing.  So, this is because the financial crisis was so devastating that all these people are still unemployed.

"Not him.  Not Obamacare.  Not Dodd-Frank.  Not massive regulations pouring into society day after day.  Not his massive tax increase a year ago.  Not his attacks on capitalism, his push for economic redistribution, none of that has [an] effect on our economy.  It's the devastating financial crisis, because, you know, ladies and gentlemen, we've never had devastating financial crises, have we?  Well why did it take Reagan two years to come out of one, and this guy is still in one?"

Auschwitz : The Forgotten Evidence

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
January 10, 2014

Ohio Refuses Real ID Federal Laws

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News
Mark Matheny
January 10, 2014



In April, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly will begin enforcing the REAL ID Act, a measure requiring Americans to produce federal government-approved identification upon demand.
In order to ensure that all Americans carry the national ID card, the REAL ID Act establishes standards for driver's
licenses that must be met by states. DHS reports that to date 21 state governments have complied with the federal mandates.
One of those states, however, has now backed out of the REAL ID program.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/...

Privacy concerns have scuttled state plans to meet all federal "Real ID" standards, which could result in Ohio driver's licenses not being accepted as sufficient identification to board airplanes and enter federal buildings.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stori...

Enforcement of the REAL ID Act will begin in April, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced. The enforcement will start in steps within restricted areas of DHS headquarters, followed by a phased approach with substantial enforcement in 2016.
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/...

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Ohio Refuses to Enforce REAL ID Standards

The New American
January 10, 2014

"Your papers, please."

This is a phrase that Americans should get used to hearing.

In April, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly will begin enforcing the REAL ID Act, a measure requiring Americans to produce federal government-approved identification upon demand.

In order to ensure that all Americans carry the national ID card, the REAL ID Act establishes standards for driver’s 

licenses that must be met by states. DHS reports that to date 21 state governments have complied with the federal mandates.

One of those states, however, has now backed out of the REAL ID program.

Ohio's Columbus Dispatch reports:

Privacy concerns have scuttled state plans to meet all federal “Real ID” standards, which could result in Ohio driver’s licenses not being accepted as sufficient identification to board airplanes and enter federal buildings.

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles decided about five months ago to back off the Real ID compliance plan approved by the federal Department of Homeland Security, but it never made a public announcement about the change.

Ohio state officials take issue with Homeland Security’s demand that all relevant personal data, including birth certificates and medical records, be stored and shared with the federal agency.

The Buckeye State also rejected the federal government’s offer of facial recognition software that will scan license photos making it possible to track people forever, even if they change names or addresses. Of course, as this “one-person one license” standard is a federal program, every individual who carries a state-issued ID will be able to be tracked no matter where they go in the United States.

“The objection is that it’s not acceptable in many circles in Ohio to do facial recognition on everyone who comes in to get a license,” said Joe Andrews, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, as reported by the Dispatch. “People have concerns we are trampling their rights if we do this,” Andrews added.

Remarkably, similar concerns have been expressed by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as well.

In an op-ed published in the Washington Times last May, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) evoked the images of dictatorships of the past and their citizen registration policies:

Forcing Americans to carry around an identification card to affirmatively prove citizenship offends our basic concept of freedom. Wanting to avoid a “papers please” culture in our country is also why conservatives oppose federal universal gun background checks. We oppose such measures not because we don’t believe in common-sense rules or regulation — but because we are wary of giving the federal government this kind of centralized power over our daily lives.

These draconian ideas would simply give government too much power.

Consolidating immense power is the true purpose of the REAL ID Act, and Ohio is right to refuse to cooperate in the scheme. In fact, other states should follow suit and force the federal beast to stay inside its constitutional cage.

Read the entire article

Americans Who Fought in Fallujah Watch al Qaeda Make Comeback

abcnews.go.com
January 10, 2014

The crack of gunfire shattered the quiet following afternoon prayers in Fallujah on Thursday, an Iraqi city that U.S. forces once wrested from al Qaeda-linked forces in fierce and bloody fighting and is now a fresh battleground for the terror group.

Inside the ancient city, just 43 miles from Baghdad, Iraqis are once again braced for a siege and say security has declined precipitously over the past year. On Thursday, Iraqi interior ministry officials declared that half of the city was occupied by a brutal wing of al Qaeda called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

What little peace this city has seen in the past decade came at the expense of dozens of American Marines who fought al Qaeda-backed insurgents in two battles in 2004. They finally eliminated the al Qaeda forces in a house by house, alleyway by alleyway battle in which Marines had to contend with booby traps, roadside bombs and insurgents who fought with near suicidal determination.

Read the entire article

People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels

Zero Hedge
January 10, 2014

Curious why despite the huge miss in payrolls the unemployment rate tumbled from 7.0% to 6.7%? The reason is because in December the civilian labor force did what it usually does in the New Normal: it dropped from 155.3 million to 154.9 million, which means the labor participation rate just dropped to a fresh 35 year low, hitting levels not seen since 1978, at 62.8% down from 63.0%.

And the piece de resistance: Americans not in the labor force exploded higher by 535,000 to a new all time high 91.8 million.

The jobless, laborless recovery continues to steam on.

Part 12 : How Reagan And Pope Conspired to Destroy Communism

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
January 10, 2014

Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Mark Matheny on BlogTalkRadio

Vatican Linked To Nazi Germany – Pope Benedict XVI one of Hitler’s Youth

Before It's News
January 9, 2014

Nazi Germany has more ties to the Vatican Jesuit order then I’d personally like to consider. But the truth is, I’ve done much research these last couple of days and the evidence is too striking not to believe.

Upon my investigation not only did I discover Hitler’s role in Jesuit Catholicism, but also the Vatican’s tie to Nazism today. Nazi beliefs did not leave when Hitler left, nor did they arrive when Hitler arrived, nor are they out of the Vatican today. Anti-Semitism and the Hitler mindset reminds a good portion of the order today.   

But let’s start from the beginning with Hitler’s parents.

Adolf’s father—Alois Hitler—was baptized a Roman Catholic and remained one his entire life. His received a Catholic burial and was buried on church property upon his death.

Adolf’s Mother—Klara Hitle—was a devote Roman Catholic and attended church regularly. She too received a Roman Catholic burial and was buried next to her husband on the church property, upon her death.  

Here are images of the church they were buried at….

Mein Kampf  Hitler’s famous book, was edited by a Jesuit Father, named Bernhard Staempfle . Many seem to ignore the fact that this is a direct endorsement, of the Jesuits, to Hitler’s book. (The Secret History of the Jesuits Page 138)

Furthermore, the Black Pope during the reign of Hitler was, Wlodimir (Vladimir) Ledochowski, who was the superior general of the Jesuit order. During his time a document was created by Pius XI denouncing anti-Semitism (Jewish hatred). Although Pius XI tried to pass this legislation,  Ledochowski, suppressed the document and was a proud supporter of anti-Semitism.

Add to that the fact that Ludwig Kaas, a Roman Catholic priest and prominent German politician leading the Centre Party (a Catholic Political Party), aided Hitler in obtaining votes. Kaas gave a speech outside Reichstag voicing the Party’s support for the Enabling Act, an Act which gave Adolf Hitler the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag (a legislative body in German)… This Act is sickly similar to the Patriot Act enacted by Bush and was a major step in instituting the dictatorship of Hitler.

The main reason the Vatican was a key supporter of Hitler was so that he could sign a Concordat deal with them. Eugenio Pacelli or Pope Pius XII, who became Pope after Pius XI, was a supporter of the deal also.  

According to Wikipedia:

“The Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat) is a treaty between the Holy See and Germanynegotiated during its transition into Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) on behalf of Pope Pius XI and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen [Chancellor to Hitler] and President Paul von Hindenburg on behalf of the German government respectively. The treaty guarantees the rights of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, but Nazi breaches of the agreement began almost as soon as it had been signed, leading to protest from the Church, including in the 1937 Mit brennender Sorge encyclical of Pope Pius XI.

The Reichskonkordat is the most controversial of several concordats between Germany and other nations that the Vatican negotiated during the pontificate of Pius XI. It is frequently discussed in works that deal with the rise of Hitler in the early 1930s and the Holocaust. The concordat has been described by some as giving moral legitimacy to the Nazi regime soon after Hitler had acquired quasi-dictatorial powers through the Enabling Act of 1933, though Hitler himself is not a signatory to the treaty and the treaty does not make mention of Hitler, or the Nazi Party. The source document is addressed to President Paul von Hindenburg.

The treaty places constraints on the political activity of German clergy of the Catholic Church. This contributed to a decrease in the previously vocal criticism of Nazism by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Germany, after September of 1933 when the treaty was ratified. From a Roman Catholic church perspective it has been argued that the concordat prevented even greater evils being unleashed against the Church. Though some German bishops were unenthusiastic, and the Allies at the end of World War II felt it inappropriate, Pope Pius XII successfully argued to keep the concordat in force. It is still in force to this day.” 

“At a time when the heads of the major nations in the world faced the new Germany with cool reserve and considerable suspicion, the Catholic Church, the greatest moral power on earth, through the Concordat expressed its confidence in the new German government.” Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany

Pope Pius XII not only signed the Concordat but also aided the Nazi and played a central role in getting Hitler to power. Franz von Papen, Chancellor to Germany, was another Catholic nobleman and politician associated with Hitler. 

“The picture shows the signing the Concordat by Cardinal Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII). Far Left is Prelate Ludwig Kaas. Seated second from his left is Franz von Papen (a German nobleman, Catholic politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany (Reichskanzler) in 1932). Standing at the far right is Vatican prelate, Montini, later to become Pope Paul VI.”

Front, from left to right, Franz von Papen, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels

Catholic Symbolism mixed in with Nazism

“Germany and the Holy Roman Empire” by Gerald Flurry 

“The Vatican was so appreciative of being recognized as a full partner (with Hitler and the Reich) that it asked God to bless the Reich. On a more practical level, it ordered German bishops to swear allegiance to the National Socialist regime. The new oath concluded with these significant words: ‘In the performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the welfare and the interest of the German Reich, I will endeavor to avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it’” (op. cit., pp. 430-432. Book listed below). 

Read the entire article

Language – The War Behind All Wars

NewsSum
January 9, 2014

The war behind all wars is a war on words; a war on language.  For instance, in today’s world independence is overshadowed by “inter-dependence”, incessant talk of “democracy” overlooks our constitutional republic, “pooling” is now a substitute for sovereignty, “globalization” takes precedence over nation-states, economic growth has morphed into “sustainable development”, “liberty is co-mingled with “freedom”, and constitutional declarations of war have been replaced with the “approval” or “authorization” for war.  The reason for the turnaround is that a modification of vernacular is necessary to bring about a global transformation of society.  And that is exactly what the parasitic side show circus freaks that run our world intend to do. 

George Orwell, being thoroughly versed in the nefarious techniques of statists, knew of the need for a new grammar system for the “proles” and spoke of it in his work 1984.  He wrote:

 “By 2050- earlier, probably- all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared.  Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron- they’ll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.  Even the literature of the party will change.  Even the slogans will change.  How could you have a slogan like “freedom is slavery” when the concept of freedom has been abolished?  The whole climate of thought will be different.  In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now.  Orthodoxy means not thinking- not needing to think.  Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

Ray Bradbury vexed in the same vein when he quipped the following in Fahrenheit 451: 

“More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don’t have to think, eh?  Organize and organize and superorganize super-super sports.  More cartoons in books.  More pictures.  The mind drinks less and less.”

 Indeed, politicians have used written language to manipulate history both in the past and present. This is no different today than it was during the time of Stalin.  As George Woodcock states in his book Orwell’s Message: 1984 and the Present: 

“Such standard works of misinformation as the Soviet Encyclopaedia changed constantly with the party line, so that in successive editions Trotsky was first the hero of the Civil War, then an agent of the Mensheviks, and the western powers.” 

Lastly, we can see from Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University, that the subterfuge has even infected the field of economics: 

“There is nothing in the math of economic theory that pins down the government’s word choice and each labeling convention will produce a different reported time path of debt, deficits, taxes, and spending. At their heart, these measures are linguistic and convey nothing about a country’s underlying fiscal policy – only about what the government decides to put on and keep off the books.” 

Given all the sinister signposts along the way, we should have foreseen this pathetic ploy and its resultant ramifications coming.  For the intention to reconfigure the entire political and economic landscape of the world was openly announced as far back as 1614.  In that year a lodge of German Rosicrucians initiated a program of outward expansion with the publication of a leaflet announcing the presence of the Order in Hesse’s largest principality, Hesse-Kassel.  The shortened name of the pamphlet was Fama Fraternitatis.  Its full title, translated into English, is as follows: Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World, together with the Noted Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, inscribed to all the Learned and Rulers of Europe.

Read the entire article

Prophetic Heavenly Signs: Darkened Sun & Blood Moon (Video)

Before It's News
January 8, 2014

DAHBOO7 believes he has found a “rare pattern  of a darkened Sun and Blood Moon” looking through his bible for signs that match what he sees in the heavens with the solar eclipse and the upcoming four blood moons, and claims that what he found was so rare that it won’t happen again for at least another 500 years.

Watch as he takes you through his journey to come to the conclusions he does and as he states very clearly is “You can decide for yourself if it’s garbage or if it means something,” but he makes it clear that it means something to him.

Susan Duclos owns/writes Wake up America

That’s rich: Poverty level under Obama breaks 50-year record

Washington Times
January 7, 2014

Fifty years after President Johnson started a $20 trillion taxpayer-funded war on poverty, the overall percentage of impoverished people in the U.S. has declined only slightly and the poor have lost ground under President Obama.

Aides said Mr. Obama doesn’t plan to commemorate the anniversary Wednesday of Johnson’s speech in 1964, which gave rise to Medicaid, Head Start and a broad range of other federal anti-poverty programs. The president's only public event Tuesday was a plea for Congress to approve extended benefits for the long-term unemployed, another reminder of the persistent economic troubles during Mr. Obama’s five years in office.

“What I think the American people are really looking for in 2014 is just a little bit of stability,” Mr. Obama said.

Although the president often rails against income inequality in America, his policies have had little impact overall on poverty. A record 47 million Americans receive food stamps, about 13 million more than when he took office.

The poverty rate has stood at 15 percent for three consecutive years, the first time that has happened since the mid-1960s. The poverty rate in 1965 was 17.3 percent; it was 12.5 percent in 2007, before the Great Recession.

Enlarge Photo

About 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, which the federal government defined in 2012 as an annual income of $23,492 for a family of four.

President Obama’s anti-poverty efforts “are basically to give more people more free stuff,” said Robert Rector, a specialist on welfare and poverty at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“That’s exactly the opposite of what Johnson said,” Mr. Rector said. “Johnson’s goal was to make people prosperous and self-sufficient.”

The president’s advisers defend his policies by saying they rescued the nation from the deep recession in 2009, saved the auto industry and reduced the jobless rate to 7 percent from a high of 10 percent four years ago.

Gene Sperling, the president’s top economic adviser, said Mr. Obama has pulled as many as 9 million people out of poverty with policies such as extending the earned income tax credit for parents with three or more children and reducing the “marriage penalty.”

“There are things that this president has done that have made a big difference,” Mr. Sperling said Monday.

The White House again is pushing for an increase in the federal minimum wage, this time advocating a Senate bill that would raise the hourly rate to $10.10 from its current $7.25. Mr. Sperling said that action would lift another 6.8 million workers out of poverty.

Read the entire article

Say hello to my little friend, inflation: Shrinking packages, higher tuition, rising healthcare costs, real estate values jumping all the while household incomes remain stagnant.

MyBudget360
January 8, 2014

Only those deep in denial think that inflation is not occurring in the economy.  You only need to look back 10 years to see how nutty things have become.  Is the price of a car more or less than it was 10 years ago?  How about the price of tuition?  Real estate?  Healthcare? Inflation is alive and well in the economy.  You even have many cases at grocery stores where you pay the same for less.  Sure, the price didn’t go up but you are paying more for less of the product in what is usually termed dis-inflation.  Access to debt has created some of the biggest bubbles in spite of real household income falling back to levels last seen in the 1980s.  This is why juiced up sectors like real estate and higher education are seeing runaway price hikes.  Say hello to my little friend, inflation.

Shrinkage in the package

I’ve noticed a good number of examples with companies shrinking packages to mitigate rising costs or to squeeze out more profits.  This has occurred with chips, crackers, and even tuna cans.  The latest product to go this way is with the popular Chobani brand of yogurt:

“(CNBC) Shrink a product and customers will notice, Chobani recently found out when it downsized some of its yogurts early last month.

Following the move, many fans logged onto Facebook and Twitter to complain of yogurts that shrank to 5.3 ounces from 6 ounces – a roughly 12-percent decrease.

“We kind of wanted to be more consistent with ourselves and the category more,” said Peter McGuinness, Chobani’s chief marketing and brand officer, noting that most competitors’ single-serve yogurts are 5.3 ounces, as are several of Chobani’s recently launched products. Before the switch, customers often wondered why Chobani’s larger yogurts contained more calories and sugar than rival cups.”

It is interesting to see this unfold.  Now on the CPI scale, this change doesn’t register as inflation since the price for the same product is the same.  But you are getting less.  Of course the CPI misses a lot of important things including using the owner’s equivalent of rent (OER) measure instead of your actual PITI from your mortgage payment.  This makes no sense even though it missed the first housing bubble entirely and is missing inflation yet again in the raging housing market.

One of the most massively debt addicted sectors is with higher education.

CPI tuition component up 60 percent in last 10 years

The CPI looks at tuition and misses other items like books, fees, and other costs associated with going to college that have also seen stunning rises in cost.  Even with that said, the CPI has registered an impressive 60 percent increase in tuition over the last 10 years:

Of course there is no 60 percent rise in incomes for young college graduates.  What do you expect from a sector that doesn’t examine the ability to repay debts carefully?  This is why you can have for-profit paper mills taking in billions of dollars mostly because of government subsidies.

Fed balance sheet

While one bubble is blowing in the east, another bubble is blowing in the west.  The Fed has allowed banks to recover via a shadow bailout and has created an artificial system where banks have prime pickings of distressed real estate crowding out regular income constrained households.  The outcome?  A massive amount of buying in single-family homes is now from investors.  Home prices are up 13 percent over the year yet incomes are not.  Here is the Fed’s balance sheet:

The result?  More income from cash strapped households is now going to rents or mortgages.  In other words, too much debt chasing too few goods.

Real income and total credit market debt

All of this would be of little concern if incomes were actually rising.  They are not:

Real household incomes are back to levels last seen nearly a generation ago.  Of course, most of the recent gains have gone to the top 10 percent of our population that control 75 percent of all wealth in the system.  How does the public keep up then with these rising costs?  By going into deep debt yet again:

The total amount of debt outstanding didn’t even skip a beat in this crisis.  Last year, over 90 percent of non-housing debt growth occurred because of auto loans and student debt.  Who in the world believes that inflation is not occurring?  It really is time to say to our new friend, inflation.

VIDEO: German WWII Survivor Says Obama is Hitler’s Political Son

MrConservative
January 6, 2014

A survivor of Hitler’s murderous WWII era German empire says that Barack Obama is essentially the notorious German madman’s political son, the heir of his political style, if you will.

Austrian Kitty Werthmann (some sites misspell her name as Katie Worthman, for some reason) was a child just before WWII broke out and lived in the failing Austrian empire when her countrymen decided to elect Adolph Hitler as their leader in the 1930s. That’s right, “elected” him. He didn’t conquer them with arms.

Werthmann notes that Hitler got 98 percent of a democratically derived vote when he and his Nazi Party–the National Socialists–promised to bring Austrians the same high standard of living that Germans then enjoyed.

He didn’t come into Austria with guns blazing. He came with soothing words and happy talk.

Hitler “sounded like an American politician,” Werthmann has said many times.

“Now you might ask how could a Christian nation, elect a monster like Hitler,” Werthman said. “The truth is at the beginning Hitler didn’t look like or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician.”

The elder survivor of both Hitler’s horrors and the Soviet conquerers that came after him has been warning Americans not to fall for smooth-talking politicians like Hitler and Obama. This is a Christian nation, she tells us, and we shouldn’t forsake God for a second coming of Adolf Hitler.

We should never give up our God, our Constitution, or our guns.