Egypt prepares for backlash as Morsi allies reject new regime

The Guardian
July 5, 2013

Ousted Muslim Brotherhood mobilises for day of protest as hundreds of party's members are seized



Egypt is braced for further dramatic events on Friday as the vanquishedMuslim Brotherhood called for a "day of rejection" following a widespread crackdown on its leadership by the country's new interim president, Adli Mansour.
Supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi, still reeling from the military coup that removed their leader from power, are expected to take to the streets after Friday prayers following a series of raids and arrests that decimated the Muslim Brotherhood's senior ranks and consolidated the miltary's hold on the country.
In a stark sign of Egypt's new political reality, the group's supreme leader, Mohamed al-Badie, who was untouchable under Morsi's rule, was one of those arrested.
Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said: "We are being headhunted all over the country. We are holding a mass rally after Friday prayers to take all peaceful steps necessary to bring down this coup." He called for demonstrations to be peaceful, despite fears that anger may spill over into violence.
State prosecutors announced on Thursday that Morsi, who is in military custody, would face an investigation starting next week into claims that he had "insulted the presidency" – a move that would appear to put an end to any hopes of a political resurrection.
At his inauguration on Thursday, Mansour, who was appointed as head of the constitutional court on Sunday, said this week's protests had "corrected the path of the glorious revolution that took place on 25 January 2011", and that continued revolution was needed until "we stop producing tyrants."
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Has the US lost control on debt market growth? Unbridled debt expansion at the nucleus of rising debt inequality in the United States. US total credit market debt now over 3 times larger than annual GDP.

MyBudget360
July 4, 2013


There is one charge that can never be leveled against Americans and that would be that we somehow have an aversion to debt.  To the contrary, our love with debt has blossomed into a full blow addiction.  People confuse access to debt with actual real wealth.  However as the foreclosure crisis has taught millions, you really don’t own something fully until the debt is paid off.  The problem with this addiction is that we are now going deeper and deeper into a debt filled spiral.  The Federal Reservehas positioned us into a market where debt is necessary, but this debt has to come at an artificially low rate.  Any hint that rates will rise causes the market to quiver like a teenager at prom.  This is troubling because it is a sign of addiction and probably, a belief that there is no longer an out clause.  Anyone that has seen the show Intervention realizes how difficult it is to combat a serious addiction.  First, there needs to be an acknowledgment of a problem.  We are still steps away from recognizing this as an issue.
Has the US lost control of the debt market?
Historically, we are in some deep uncharted waters:
us debt and gdp
Starting in the 1970s, the total credit market debt owed and US GDP went hand and hand.  This was fairly common.  After this point, there has been a major divergence between the two as the above chart highlights.  All of this has accelerated in the 80s, 90s, and even the 2000s.  So today, we are in a position where total debts owed are three times more than annual GDP.  Keep in mind that these are payments that need to be made at some point in time.
Total public debt itself is now larger than annual GDP:
us debt to penny
Source:  US Treasury
Total public debt now stands at $16.73 trillion.  What is fascinating is the psychology behind this.  People do realize that this will never be paid back right?  Who is going to pay this back?  Americans are back to record low savings rates.  Are we going to digitally print our way into economic prosperity?  The Federal Reserve seems to think so.
Yet multiple decades of this attitude has led us to this:
fed debt as a percent of gdp
For the first time in a generation total public debt is larger than our annual GDP.  We are spending more than we earn.  Keep in mind the last time we were in a similar position was during a time when the large part of the globe was at full-fledged war in the 1940s.  Building a solid credit reputation takes time.  Yet how long can we remain in a position where we continually spend more than we earn and simply fuel future spending on additional debt?
Consumption via debt
Study after study shows that many Americans simply do not save enough money.  Half of the country is literally living paycheck to paycheck.  Yet somehow, we are massively a consumption based economy:
consumption as a part of gdp
Consumption is still over 70 percent of our GDP.  Most of this is coming via access to debt.  Debt to purchase homes, student loans to pay for college, and easy access to debt for banks to speculate in global markets.  Yet in the middle of all this consuming and spending Americans are actually falling behind when it comes to building true wealth.
Punishing savers and growing inequality
The Fed is fully aware that there is no turning back on this uncontrollable debt train.  Interest payments on our debt are growing at a hefty pace.  This is why the Fed has enlarged their balance sheet to $3.3 trillion merely to keep interest rates low on a variety of items (primarily loans to banks and mortgages that by the way, are issued by banks and linked into government backed MBS).  For savers, this has turned out to be a tough deal:
6-month tbill
This is a negative interest rate environment.  With inflation tracking at 2.5 to 3 percent annually you are losing money simply by saving it.  So the underlying incentive is to spend what you have today or risk losing value as inflation erodes your purchasing power.
What this uncontrollable growth in debt has done has created the highest inequality in our nation since the Gilded Age:
gini us
This is how you can have 47+ million Americans on food stamps and a record high in the stock market at the same point in history.  This is how you can have 1 out of 3 Americans with no savings but the typical CEO makes 273 times what the average worker makes.  So why has this been the case?  Why is this massive expansion in debt causing so much more inequality?
First, you need to realize that most of the large amounts of debt are going to big banks.  Many of these banks have wealthy clients like hedge funds.  Many of these funds, are now funneling money back into the market by chasing rental properties for example.  Yet this low rate environment comes at a cost (depressed purchasing power, crowding out regular Americans, future debts to be paid, etc).  This easy access to money is also allowing Wall Street to leverage funding in speculating in global stock markets which don’t necessarily help Americans.  It clearly hasn’t helped when it comes to inequality or rising wages for the typical worker.  It also protects only a small portion of our population.  While inflation adjusted wages are back to 1995 levels, as the CEO wage highlights, a tiny segment is doing exceptionally well in this uncontrollable debt growth market.
As we initially said, access to debt in a debt based economy is similar to access to a large bank account.  If you can live in a multi-million dollar home courtesy of easy bank loans, you basically are living this lifestyle even if you are in deep debt.  You might not have enough for a European luxury car, but you can lease it.  This really is what the system is favoring.  Look at the T-Bill rate and tell me who is going to want to save especially when inflation is going to give you a negative rate?  So those with little to no savings (many Americans) are left in a paycheck to paycheck cycle losing purchasing power.  Those with access to the moresophisticated programs chained to debt, their leverage is increasing on the backs of the many.  If growing an economy was as simple as digitally printing money I think central banks would have been on that years ago.  Instead, it has become unfortunately a zero sum game where access to debt is used as a pawn to reshuffle real assets in the real economy to a smaller group of people (i.e., foreclose on homeowners, buy at fire sale prices, put it into a hedge fund, sell to Wall Street as a future income stream, rent it back to working Americans etc).  It is very likely that we have lost control of the debt markets and those suffering are the people with the least access to it.

Star Spangled Banner

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
July 4, 2013

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Obama to College Students: Do Not Celebrate Fourth of July

The Liberty Paper
July 2, 2013

As the country prepares to celebrate its independence from Great Britain President Obama had a completely different message for a group of Congressional Summer interns in Washington:

Obama Speaks to Congressional Summer Interns
Obama Speaks to Congressional Summer Interns
“America is a great country. There is no denying this. However, I caution you all as you step forward in your careers. Peer back into history and ask yourselves- Was a revolution truly necessary? Great Britain may not have had it completely right, but they had many things right. Take taxes for example. If your neighbor makes $1 Million a year, but you and your family can barely keep the heat on should he not help your family? God instructs us to help our neighbors. He does not instruct us to look down upon them though the windows of capitalism. Why then on the Fourth of July should you celebrate such a radical break from what is Godly and just? No doubt there are many voices warning you of the harm of big government. They are wrong. Government can provide you with what family and friends cannot. If this is gone what will you have?” 
Many in the crowd seemed uneasy, and desperate for some sort of clarification. Julie Barks, an intern from Louisiana State University, asked President Obama, “Are you saying we should not celebrate the birth of our country?”
President Obama responded, ”I believe we should celebrate where we are going. Celebrate moving forward. Not where we have been.”

Christian Arabs say Israel only country worth fighting for

Israel And Stuff
July 3, 2013

So, what has Israel’s Muslim Arab Knesset members so upset?

Growing number of Christian Arab youth are joining the Israeli army, openly identifying with the Jewish state.

By Ryan Jones

Arab Christian residents of Nazareth who proudly serve in the Israeli army and encourage their children to do the same are coming under increasing attack, and Israel is starting to take notice and come to their aid.
Elinor Joseph, was born 1991 into a Christian family from the Arab village of Jish, is the first Arab woman ever to serve in a combat role in the I.D.F.
Elinor Joseph, was born 1991 into a Christian family from the Arab village of Jish, is the first Arab woman ever to serve in a combat role in the I.D.F. – Photo courtesy IDF Spokesperson Office.
For a number of years now, a group of Nazareth Christians who are officers in the Israeli army have been actively recruiting young local Arabs to follow in their footsteps and serve the Jewish state.
Though not an officer himself, one of the main figures in this movement is Greek Orthodox cleric Father Gabriel Nadaf. Late last month, the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem, acting on demands from Muslim Arab members of Israel’s Knesset, threatened to fire Nadaf.
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Interior Minister Gideon Saar immediately called the priest to convey their support and offer their assistance.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Attorney General’s Office announced that it had opened an investigation into the activities of the Muslim Knesset members who pushed for Nadaf’s dismissal.
Hanin Zoabi Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
Arab MK Hanin Zoabi – Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
“It’s unacceptable that Arab MKs should think that they can be Trojan horses in the Knesset and send letters of incitement against a Christian priest who encourages young Christians to enlist in the IDF,” said Likud MK Miri Regev during a Knesset Interior Committee hearing on the matter.
Many Arab politicians vehemently oppose Arab participation in Israeli national service for fear it will legitimize the existence of the Jewish state (which pays their paychecks).
Meanwhile, the pro-Israel Arab Christians of Nazareth are becoming increasingly bold in their stance, and even dared to hold a public gathering late last month to toast the achievements of their new forum whose goal is convincing more young Arabs to join the army, as reported by Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper.
“We chose to hold the conference to demonstrate that nothing will deter us,” forum spokesman Moran Khaloul told the newspaper. “We don’t live in Syria, where Christians are not allowed to speak…or in Iraq, where churches are bombed. We live in a Jewish state, which is democratic and free. As Israeli Christians we see ourselves as part of this state and not as part of those who oppose it.”
Khaloul said that until now, many in the community had been too afraid to speak out, but that was going to change. Many are now even referring to themselves openly as “Israeli Christians.”


Morsi ousted, under house arrest, as crowds celebrate in Cairo

NBC World News
July 3, 2013
Mohammed Morsi

CAIRO — Mohammed Morsi, in office only a year as the first democratically elected leader of Egypt, was rousted from power by the military Wednesday as a euphoric crowd in Tahrir Square cheered his exit.
The former leader was placed under house arrest at the Republican Guard Club, a senior adviser to the Freedom and Justice Party and spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood said. Most members of the presidential team have also been placed under house arrest. 
Egyptian security forces also arrested the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and another of the movement's top leaders.
The commanding general of the armed forces, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said on Egyptian television that the military was suspending the constitution, which Morsi pushed through and which many Egyptians saw as slanted toward Islamists.

Ins Document Found: U.S. Certificate Issued To One East African-born Child Of U.S. Citizen In 1961

Before It's News
July 3, 2013

INS Hawaii Arrival Records Missing for Critical Week in 1961
INS DOCUMENT FOUND: U.S. CERTIFICATE ISSUED TO ONE EAST AFRICAN-BORN CHILD OF U.S. CITIZEN IN 1961
 
“The only certificate of acquired citizenry issued based on the grounds of birth to a U.S. citizen abroad was coincidentally also issued in the same time frame during which Barack Obama’s alleged birth date occurred on August 4th, 1961…
Dunham’s passport information was known to have existed from the 1960s, but was said by State Department officials to have been conveniently discarded as a part of an administrative order to make more file storage space in the 1980s…
Divorce decree documents for Dunham and Obama Sr. revealed that a conspicuously missing page from the section of the court proceedings declaring the custody of Obama Jr. is the same page which corresponds to other divorce records where a birth certificate would be required by a judge in order to determine original parentage at birth for a custody ruling based on HRS 571.”
 

 
By Dan Crosby
of THE DAILY PEN
 
IMPLICATIVE DISCOVERY: A government document found buried in the online reference section of aBoston Public Library archive bolsters a growing mountain of evidentiary data against Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president. The document indicates that a consular officer issued a single certificate of statutory citizenship, within the time frame including August 4, 1961, to a child born to a U.S. citizen between July 1st and December 31st, 1961 in the Kenyan region of Africa. The record also reveals that the certificate was the only one issued for this specific type of arrival in the U.S. over a span of more than 18 months, among thousands from other parts of the world.
 
*****************
 
A recently discovered rare immigration record found by researchers working on behalf of an ongoing investigation into the Constitutional eligibility of Barack Obama to hold the office of the U.S. presidency reveals that an American consular officer issued a single Certificate of Citizenship to only one passenger arriving in the U.S. from the Kenyan region of Africa between July and December of 1961.
The record shows demographic and status classifications for a passenger who was explicitly recorded at the INS Arrival Inspection Station as an individual being born to a U.S. citizen parent arriving from the Kenyan region of Africa between July 1st and December 31st, 1961.
This information and the dates of its documentation are disturbing given the rare nature of the issuance of certificates of citizenship for children who acquire their citizenship by birth to incoming U.S. citizens in this particular region of Africa.
These dates not only align with the alleged date of Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961, but also with evidence indicating that Ann Dunham departed from Hawaii beginning in February, 1961, shortly after her undocumented marriage to Obama Sr.The table below shows there were a total of 13 children of U.S. citizens who entered the U.S. from Africa’s Kenyan region. It also shows there were 11 from the United Kingdom in the same time in comparison, to demonstrate the consistency of this class of arrivals, regardless of the country of embarkation.
These children were classified by the INS upon arrival based on a passport which already named them when they departed from the U.S. prior, or they received requisite documentation, pre-approved by the U.S. before embarkation, which identified them specifically as children of U.S. citizens who were up to 18 years old.
However, a child who enters the U.S. who was not named on a passport prior to the use of that passport to depart the U.S. must undergo another form of identification process upon returning. A child who did not exist when the parent departed the U.S., in the absence of a passport, must be classified as one of three definitions, a non-resident alien, a derived citizen by parentage or marriage, or a child with acquired citizenship by birth or legal adoption by a U.S. citizen. The following table shows the quantity of children who were granted acquired citizenship from Africa.
 

 
Also supporting this data is the implication of an African trip by the absence of Dunham’s passport information which is known to have existed from the 1960s, but which was said by State Department officials to have been conveniently discarded as a part of an administrative order to make more file storage space in the 1980s.
We know Dunham used a passport at that time on at least one occasion for her departure with Obama Jr. to Indonesia where the two lived with Lolo Soetoro, Dunham’s second husband. If Dunham had filed for a “renewal” of an old passport, rather than for a new passport in the mid 1960’s for the Indonesian trip, which would have been the common practice for the life of a passport, this would have been indicated on the missing application which would have been included with the series of documents released by an FOIA request in early 2010.
 
 
The Immigration and Naturalization Service published its annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1963, for the year of July 1st, 1961 ending on June 30th, 1962. According to information on page 99 of the report the only certificate of acquired citizenry issued based on the grounds of birth to a U.S. citizen abroad was coincidentally also issued in the same time frame during which Barack Obama’s alleged birth date occurred on August 4th, 1961.
 
 
Successive yearly reports add COC recipients to their roster for previous years as applicants receive those certificates for the year they were born. Table 48 appears to show the data of the acquisition of citizenship by birth, not the year the COC is delivered. Review of later annual reports shows that each year’s COC by birth quantities increase as applicants born in those years receive the COC, regardless of the year of reception. However, in almost all cases, the COC is delivered for the child within a year of the birth date. COC delivery is often delayed while the circumstances of the birth abroad are confirmed for older births who might apply for retroactive COC. However, when a newborn child enters the U.S. bearing a foreign birth registration from an official medical facility or institution identifying the citizen parent, a COC is expedited based on the registration form, the parent(s) testimony and inspection of the child by the INS. In those cases, a COC may be delivered in days, not months or years.
According to the INS, Certificates of Citizenship are issued upon arrival in the U.S. to those who have acquired statutory citizenship (not natural-born citizenship) by birth to at least one U.S. citizen parent within the previous year while that parent(s) was temporarily in another country.
COC are notifications provided by the American Consulate Service, via the INS, to individuals born to at least one U.S. citizen abroad in order to provide interim citizen alien status while immigration status is processed and secured. COC are not issued to natural-born citizens or children born to non-U.S. citizen parents arriving in the U.S., nor are COC received through the same process as required for naturalized citizenship, according to the INS.

 
 

 
 
A COAC is issued to an arriving child from abroad who is:
- born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one parent with “alien” non-citizen status, or
- born in the U.S. to two alien parents who both naturalize after the child’s birth, or
- born abroad to a U.S. citizen who did not live in (or come to) the United States for a period of time prior to the child’s birth, or
- adopted and is permanently residing in the United States and can become a U.S. citizen by action of law on the date on which all of the following requirements have been met:
- The child was lawfully admitted for permanent residence; and
- Either parent was a United States citizen by birth or naturalization; and
- The child was still under 18 years of age; and
- The child was not married; and
- The child was the parent’s legitimate child or was legitimated by the parent before the child’s 16th birthday (Stepchildren or children born out of wedlock who were not legitimated before their 16th birthday do not derive United States citizenship through their parents.); and
- If adopted, the child met the requirements of section 101(b)(1)(E) or (F) and has had a full and final adoption; and
- The child was residing in the United States in the legal custody of the U.S. citizen parent (this includes joint custody).
There is yet other historical documented evidence supporting the plausibility that Ann Dunhampossessed a birth registration for Obama Jr. from Kenya. In 2009, divorce decree documents for Dunham and Obama Sr. revealed that a conspicuously missing page from the section of the court proceedings declaring the custody of Obama Jr. is the same page which corresponds to other divorce records where a birth certificate would be required by a judge in order to determine original parentage at birth for a custody ruling based on HRS 571.
As previously reported by Dr. Jerome Corsi of WND and other sources, the void of documented and testimonial evidence accounting for Ann Dunham’s presence in Hawaii between February and early August of 1961 implies that she had reasons to travel to Kenya shortly after her undocumented marriage to Obama’s alleged father in February of 1961.According to the widely accepted but highly suspicious uncorroborated account of events, Dunham would have been at least three months pregnant at the time of the marriage. It was documented that Obama Sr.’s father, living in Kenya at the time, denounced the marriage leaving the couple with a reconciliatory reason to travel there.
Following the completion of her classes at the University of Hawaii in winter 1961, the only evidence accounting for Dunham’s presence was months after the alleged marriage, in late August 1961. A transcript of registration to attend fall extension classes at the University of Washington, in Seattle, beginning in late August, 1961 was discovered in 2009.