httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQA_AM3EO88
Rep. Joe Garcia (D., Fla.) suggested “communism works” while discussing the U.S.-Mexico border and the amount of money and federal government jobs that are offered in border towns such as El Paso, Texas.
“The safest city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the America’s, which is Juarez. Right?” Garcia asked a Google Hangout participant.
Update 2: Thailand’s military suspends the 2007 constitution and dismisses the caretaker government.
Update: The Thai army has announced a nationwide curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. after declaring a military takeover of the government to restore order.
* * *
Two days ago, when reporting on the Thailand “non-coupy” martial law imposed by the army, which wasn’t in charge, but really was or something, we summarized the situation as follows: THAI MILITARY CHANNEL 5 SAYS MARTIAL LAW `NOT A COUP’. “Ah, gotta love the New Normal: full of non-coupy martial laws.” Moments ago, the New Normal regressed back to its Old Normal ways, when in a live statement on TV, the Thai army chief made the non-coupy coup coupy, and announced a military takeover of the government Thursday, saying the coup was necessary to restore stability and order after six months of political deadlock and turmoil.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHFXKb54lc8
by Michael Snyder
If you believe that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction, you really need to read this article. As we look toward the second half of 2014, there are economic red flags all over the place. Industrial production is down. Home sales are way down. Retail stores are closing at the fastest pace since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. U.S. household debt is up substantially, and in 20 percent of all U.S. families everyone is unemployed. In so many ways, what we are witnessing right now is so similar to what we experienced during the build up to the last great financial crisis. We are making so many of the very same mistakes that we made the last time, and yet our “leaders” seem completely oblivious to what is happening. But the warning signs are very clear. All you have to do is open your eyes and look at them. The following are 27 huge red flags for the U.S. economy…
#1 Despite endless assurances from the Obama administration that we are in an “economic recovery”, the number one concern for U.S. voters is “Unemployment/Jobs” according to a recent Gallup survey.
#2 Historically, sales for construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar have been a pretty good indicator of where the global economy is heading next. Unfortunately, sales were down 13 percentlast month and have now experienced year over year declines for 17 months in a row.
#3 During the first quarter of 2014, profits at office supply giant Staples fell by 43.5 percent.
#4 Foot traffic at Wal-Mart stores fell by 1.4 percent during the first quarter of 2014. Analysts seem puzzled as to why Wal-Mart is “underperforming“. Perhaps it is because the U.S. middle class is being steadily destroyed and U.S. consumers are tapped out at this point.
#5 It is being projected that Sears will soon close hundreds more stores and will eventually go out of business altogether…
See additional comments on Tea Party Nation.
Another day of “coincidences” to address another concept: character. The definition of character is simple: the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Good character, bad character, no character are all descriptions of an individual. No one talks about the character of a community or nation. I read the following account from Ann Barnhardt describing bad character:
I stopped into a church today intending to pray the whole Rosary (all 15 decades) sitting before Our Lord reposed in a tabernacle. I got through the Joyful Mysteries when a crazy man/professional panhandler entered the church begging for handouts. He zeroed in on me and wouldn’t relent. I tried to ignore him. Then… he touched me.
…
There were two men, excuse me, “men”, who were associated with the church sitting behind me, so I enjoined them to render assistance. [What I just did in that last sentence is called “foreshadowing”. Can you guess how THAT turned out??] They replied that there was nothing they could do. Ah, the battle cry of the post-Christian “man”: THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO!
I cannot imagine not defending a woman in a church (or anywhere else). A second coincidence involved what I call playing the “victim”. Instead of verifying both sides of a story, we tend to side with the “victim”.
Playing the victim to gain sympathy is effective: especially if you use some facts to bolster your case. In yet another of what is an unending series of attacks, the victim started with this statement: “Not to speak is to speak”. The correct Bonhoeffer quote is:
In this particular instance of “no character”, the woman representing evil uses a portion of a greater concept. This is a typical example of using a half truth as a truth to make a point. That is not to say that portions of this quote cannot be used to make a larger statement. My lower receiver on my AR-15 reads “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil” to remind me that it is our duty to the Lord to fight evil.
It is no surprise that people of bad character and no character are attracted to each other. Just as people of good character are attracted to each other. But it seems that people of bad or no character seek the approval of people of good character. A real life example is a man of bad character telling people of good character that he removed a child pornography virus from the computer of a common acquaintance to gain their approval. It always amazes me why people would trust people of questionable character.
But the real question is how do you determine the character of an individual? In our culture, most people would judge someone by their actions. The Bible teaches us the difference between good works and the path to salvation. The Bible also teaches us to keep silent about our works. Although it is counter intuitive, the man who consistently has to tell people about his actions usually is a man of bad or no character seeking approval where none is deserved.
The important next question is how do we determine the character of a nation? Contrary to individual salvation, there is no collective salvation for a nation as our pResident stated:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLgHlYjJvXk
Is it even appropriate to consider the character of a nation? The founding principles of our Republic are Sacred honor, morality and virtue. Does this apply to a nation or the people as a whole? What can be said about a nation which has condoned the murder of over 50 million babies through abortion? We can only measure the character of a nation by the character of its people. If the people of a nation are not willing to stand up to evil, we have no character as a nation. We cannot play the victim as a means to build character. And that is a hard lesson that has yet to be learned.
David DeGerolamo
by Brandon Smith
On the surface, the economic atmosphere of the U.S. has appeared rather calm and uneventful. Stocks are up, employment isn’t great but jobs aren’t collapsing into the void (at least not openly), and the U.S. dollar seems to be going strong. Peel away the thin veneer, however, and a different financial horror show is revealed.
U.S. stocks have enjoyed unprecedented crash protection due to a steady infusion of fiat money from the Federal Reserve known as quantitative easing. With the advent of the “taper”, QE is now swiftly coming to a close (as is evident in the overall reduction in treasury market purchases), and is slated to end by this fall, if not sooner.
Employment has been boosted only in statistical presentation, and not in reality. The Labor Department’s creative accounting of job numbers omits numerous factors, the most important being the issue of long term unemployed. Millions of people who have been jobless for so long they no longer qualify for benefits are being removed from the rolls. This quiet catastrophe has the side bonus of making it appear as though unemployment is going down.
U.S. Treasury bonds, and by extension the dollar, have also stayed afloat due to the river of stimulus being introduced by the Federal Reserve. That same river, through QE, is now drying up.
Last week we commented that based on TIC data, while “Belgium’s” unprecedented Treasury buying spree continues, one country has been dumping US bonds at an unprecedented rate, and in March alone Russia sold a record $26 billion, or 20% of its holdings.
So as Russia is selling record amount of US paper, what is it buying? For the answer we go to Goldcore which tells us that…
Russia Buys 900,000 Ounces Of Gold Worth $1.17 Billion In April:
The Syrian army offensive, launched Tuesday, May 20 to break the stalemate developing with rebel forces in the tussle for the Syrian Golan town of Quneitra, has raised forebodings in Israel and Jordan lest Assad’s troops bring the fighting up to their borders. So far, the rebel offensive has failed to break through to Quneitra – or even lay it to siege. The Syrian army command, although seriously short of fighting men man, has seized the moment for a counter-offensive.
The Jordanian army has accordingly deployed its 2nd mechanized division along the entire 380 km of the kingdom’s porous border with its Syrian neighbor in battle formation, along with its 60th armored battalion. All leaves have been suspended for officers and men serving in the border sector.
Earlier, the IDF augmented its border troops opposite the Golan and the Hermon range, according DEBKAfile’s military sources.
There was some trepidation yesterday when after the first day of Putin’s visit to China the two countries did not announce the completion of the long-awaited “holy grail” gas dead, and fears that it may get scuttled over price negotiations. It wasn’t: moments ago Russia’s Gazprom and China’s CNPC announced, that after a decade of negotiations, the two nations signed a 30 year gas contract amounting to around $400 billion. And with the west doing all it can to alienate Russia and to force it into China’s embrace, this is merely the beginning of what will be a far closer commercial (and political) relationship between China and Russia.
So far there have been no public pricing details on the deal which according to Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller is a “commercial secret”, and which is believed to involve Russia supplying 38 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China via a new eastern pipeline linking the countries.
According to Itar-Tass, the compromise between Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom and Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on Russian gas price is estimated at $75 billion, citing the Deputy Head of the National Energy Security Fund Alexei Grivach. The differences on the price for 38 and 60 billion cubic meters supplies a year were $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, he added, so the subject of the negotiations is quite a significant one.
by Sam Culper
A couple weeks ago at the NC PATCON, I moderated a very abbreviated discussion of the Appalachian Redoubt. There was some really good input, however, we didn’t get the opportunity to finish the discussion points. So I’d like to open the floor up to everyone’s input.
From an intelligence standpoint, I like the Appalachian Redoubt not because it’s a particularly great option but because it’s the best option east of the Mississippi. I used to view Texas in a similar light, however, I think it’s now apparent that Texas stands a real chance of being turned blue. Frankly, as Texas goes, so goes America. At a strategic level, if Texas becomes a democrat state through immigration reform and the creation of 10-30MM new Americans, it’s difficult to see how we’ll ever have another Republican president, maybe within my lifetime. I think that’s the last nail in the Republic’s coffin as national gun control legislation would be soon to follow. (The national popular vote was within five million, and the Texas vote was within 1.2MM.)
At any rate, I’m attracted to the Appalachians for the same reasons I’m drawn to the Mountain West, and ultimately why I decided to make the Mountain West my home a few years ago.
So I’ve come up with the top five factors with intelligence requirements that need to be discussed and answered if you’re going to build the Appalachian Redoubt. I love the idea and I’ll support the mission as best I can. (And, really, these factors apply to any Redoubt or retreat location.)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyvLSJDW7yY#t=1s
The pResident will ramp up his efforts to transfer power from Congress to the Executive branch by ‘picking up the pace’ on new executive orders. Whether this is a diversion from the multiple administration scandals or a power grab prior to the Fall elections, tyranny is rising in our nation.
As history has shown, when people believe that the government is acting in their best interest at the expense of freedom, tyranny’s ascension is unchecked. For a period of time. And the price the people will have to pay for their apathy and greed is always high.
David DeGerolamo
The White House will be “picking up the pace on executive actions,” as Congress focuses its efforts on the newly formed select committee investigating Benghazi, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer declared Tuesday.
In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, Pfeiffer argued that congressional Republicans are not interested in engaging on the economy, instead spending time “obsessively trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act” and “ginning up politically motivated investigations.”
“Given this dynamic, President Obama has only one option — use every ounce of his authority to unilaterally improve economic security,” Pfeiffer said.
