Tuesday, July 9, 2013

RICK PERRY: “TIME TO PASS MANTLE TO NEW GENERATION OF BONEHEADS”

SAN ANTONIO (The Borowitz Report)—Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced yesterday that he would not seek reĆ«lection, telling supporters, “The time has come to pass the mantle of leadership to a new generation of boneheads.”
“I’ve had a good run,” he said. “But after twelve years, someone else who isn’t playing with a full deck should take a turn at the wheel.”
Reflecting on his twelve years as governor, Mr. Perry said that he had “no regrets” except for being incoherent the entire time.
Before leaving office, Gov. Perry said that he would propose three signature bills “just to let future Texans know how Rick Perry marked his territory.”
The first bill would require all voters in the state to have an I.D. with a photo of a white person; the second would force anyone filibustering an anti-abortion bill to ride a mechanical bull; and the third he could not remember.

GREENWALD'S COURAGE CAN BE CONTAGIOUS. SO CAN FEAR. CHOOSE.

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/7/8/greenwalds-courage-can-be-contagious-so-can-fear-choose.html

Greenwald is the journalist who broke the story of the century-to-date. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden handed him files that proved the NSA was gathering massive and illegal data on almost everyone, almost everywhere. In response to this leak (and others in the last three years), Obama is attempting to criminalize the act of investigative reporting. He prefers the alternative of a press that reports only what the state permits and never asks independent questions.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Secret move keeps bin Laden records in the shadows

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130708/DA7D6LJ82.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public.
The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act.
An acknowledgement by Adm. William McRaven of his actions was quietly removed from the final version of an inspector general's report published weeks ago.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS


Using a Multitude of Agencies to Defeat Rights

Thomas Jefferson included among the injuries inflicted by the King in the Declaration of Independence the trick of creating a multitude of agencies. He wrote:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
One reason the SEC and CFTC hate my guts is because I warned going back to 1985 that UNLESS they were merged, this competition among agencies would send capital offshore. The biggest hedge fund then was $100 million. They did not listen because each has their own lobbyists to perpetuate their existence. The cost to the taxpayer is huge and the competition decreases control. They have been incapable of every stopping anything right down to MF Global.
Creating a multitude of agencies defeats all democratic principles. As the AP has reported, they can shift responsibility from one agencies to another to hide evidence and to defeat even the Freedom of Information Act. The entire process is a joke. We nee smaller government with one agency not many. There were 7 agencies regulating the CDOs. They all approved them so what is achieved besides higher taxes.

A Whole New World


The rise in interest rates will have a major impact upon commercial and investment banks. Believe it or not, their models are incapable of forecasting major changes in trend. They are far too short-term oriented and are created by quants with no real historical debt. That was the subject of When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein. So databases even going back to 1971 are inadequate and cannot prepare society for what lies on the horizon. While many have attempted to mimic our computer model, they failed to grasp that I had the training in programming, physics, and trading experience. That enabled me to create a model ONLY because I had all three backgrounds. Otherwise, the trader does not understand programming or physics and the rocket scientists fo not know how to trade. Hence, they create models that collapse.
The trend we face is part of the serious flip in what we see ahead that will drive most people insane and as always separates the real from the imaginary trend. My sources have been the best globally BECAUSEeveryone realized that the model was unbiased and thus sharing info benefited everyone. I reported on GOOD sources that the Fed was making the rounds to the major banks warning them that their models we inadequate and that the must re-calibrate to take into consideration what we have been warning about – the shift from PUBLIC to PRIVATE. This isNOT speculation. The Fed may have finally been convinced about our long-term models that warn there will not be a flight to quality that goes into the Treasuries. That flight this time will be to the PRIVATE assets.
Corp-Treas%Here is a chart showing the shift when capital moves from treasuries to corporate bonds. When governments collapse, their debts areUNSECURED and you get nothing back because they have the tanks and guns. Smart money realizes that PRIVATE assets are better and indeed those who shifted survived. The history books, including even Galbriath’sGreat Crash, all painted the problem of the Great Depression as caused by the greed of corporations. They ALL omitted any mention of theSovereign Debt Crisis. Why? If they told the truth, the how do you sell socialism with government intervention? You cannot! So the shoe-shine boys were blamed and the Senate investigations never produced the conspiracy to short the market. They found everyone was long at the top except a very few.
Galbraith Great Crash
The seminal work on the Great Depression that EVERYONE used including the financial analysts and the quants creating models is none other than Gailbraith’s Great Crash. Nowhere in the index do you see any mention of the Sovereign Debt Crisis. If you base a model on falsehood you get the classic garbage in = garbage out. This is up there with theHYPERINFLATION stories that omit the fact that Germany was a communist revolutionary government. If you create bullshit, you only get losses and more bullshit. This is about survival. You have to questionANYONE who fails to tell the truth. What is their objective?
InvisibleHand-DanielleWhat I can say is this. There are people in government who want to silence me forever. There are also bankers who blame me for their impending fall. There are Goldbugs to want to silence me as well. The common thread running through all of this is theyBELIEVE that they can talk the markets up or down. So they see me as “influence” rather than putting a spot light on how the world REALLY TICKS. They think silencing me and they will win – government will keep control, bankers can continue to control government, and Goldbugs will talk gold up to $30,000. They are all fools who want to play demigod over the markets and society and all three blame anyone who disagrees for their own failures and do their best to eliminate them for good rather that entertain that perhaps Adam Smith was right after all – there is an invisible hand that rules the universe that cannot be deterred by oppressive laws, manipulations, or injustice. There is a whole new world waiting to be discovered once we conquer this corruption of man.

Ralph Nader: "Who's On The Run? They're NOT Pursuing The Criminals They're After The Right-Doers"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXTGb0wbDwk&feature=youtu.be

Independence Day Greetings to Edward Snowden

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35471.htm

On this Independence Day, I am wondering what the Founding Fathers would have made of Edward Snowden. The question is obviously a bit absurd, as they could hardly have imagined something like the Internet, or even the telephone, back in 1776. But they would have understood the ability of a government to seize the mail and to investigate and harass those suspected of disloyalty. And they surely would have understood the concept of risking one's future for the sake of one's ideals.

ARTHUR SILBER: They Finally Got Me

UN-FUCKING BELIEVABLE
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2013/07/they-finally-got-me.html


Ron Paul: US Egypt Policies Don’t Pass the Laugh Test

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35469.htm

A military coup in Egypt, resulted in the removal and imprisonment of the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, a closure of media outlets sympathetic to him, the house arrest of his advisors, and the suspension of the constitution. The military that overthrew Morsi is the main recipient of the $1.3 billion yearly US aid package to Egypt. You could say that the US “owns” the Egyptian military that just overthrew its democratically-elected leader.
The hypocrisy of the US administration on these events in Egypt is stunning.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Are We Really Free When Big Brother Is Systematically Turning America Into A Giant Prison?

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/are-we-really-free-when-big-brother-is-systematically-turning-america-into-a-giant-prison

Every year on July 4th we celebrate our "independence", but is America really free?  How could we possibly be free when "Big Brother" is constantly intruding in our lives in hundreds of different ways?  And I am not just talking about NSA snooping.  Sadly, the truth is that the United States is beginning to fully embrace a "police state" culture.  We have learned that the government monitors and keeps a record of all of our cell phone calls, emails, Internet searches, credit card transactions, and every piece of mail that we send.  But most Americans don't seem to care.  We are "encouraged" to report the "suspicious activity" of our neighbors to the authorities, we are told that having security thugs touch the private areas of our women and children at our airports is necessary "for our security", and 80,000 SWAT team raids are conducted each year in the United States.  But the American people don't seem to care.  America was once a great country, but now it is being turned into a giant prison, and only a small minority of the citizens are raising their voices in objection.

Paul Craig Roberts: Lawlessness Is the New Normal

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/paul-craig-roberts/us-international-lawlessness/

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130707&_r=1&

WASHINGTON — In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agencythe power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.
The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court’s classified decisions.
The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POST

Copper Riots of 1662

Alexis I Copper Riot 1662
Money has always been fiat whenever government gets involved. Aside from the debasements of England under Henry VIII and the Great Monetary Crisis of the 3rd century in Rome or the Great Monetary Crisis of 1092 in Byzantium, we even see attempts by city states like Florence. However, one of the great riots over money took place when the Russian government began producing copper coins and assigning them equal value to silver currency to meet expenses. The effort failed and silver vanished from circulation, and the entire economy collapsed. The copper money was was naturally devalued in purchasing power and then there was widespread counterfeiting operations since the official value of the copper coinage became far in excess of the cost of production.The economy collapsed into a deflationary black hole as businese collapsed and unemployment rose dramatically. This erupted into what has become known as the Copper Riots of 1662.
Tensions peaked when a black list of persons accused of being responsible for the economic slump was posted, and, though its authorship was unknown, it associated many prominent aristocrats and merchants with Poland, a nation whose Catholicity was considered sinister. At least 10,000 protesters gathered and marched to Kolomenskoye, which was the residence of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.. They now demanded that the ‘traitors’ be turned over to them. The Tsar, like politcians today promised to investigate and also promised to reduce the taxation. Nevertheless, the mob was satisfied with the political promises as is often the case. They they began their journey back to Moscow. However, back in Moscow, other rioters were destroying and looting the property of hated merchants the people assumed were responsible. The two groups merged and this time returned in greater number to confront the Tsar and make more demands.
The Tsar was now prepared and called in 10,000 troops who were ordered to suppression the crowd. Over a 1,000 protesters were brutally killed, quelling the mob, and many thousands more were later convicted and exiled or hanged.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Militarized police gone wild across America; terrorizing citizens, shooting pet dogs, behaving like occupying military force

http://www.naturalnews.com/041072_militarized_police_law_enforcement_paramilitary_training.html

America is rapidly devolving into the oppressive police state we've been warning readers about. Right now, cops are exhibiting thuggish, out-of-control "mafia" behavior as they run loose across America, terrorizing innocent citizens, shooting up the vehicles of people who are merely driving cars on public roadways, taking warrantless blood draws from drivers, shooting pet dogs of people who are merely filming police, raiding farmers at gunpointover raw milk and terrorizing young women for buying bottled water and cookie dough.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041072_militarized_police_law_enforcement_paramilitary_training.html#ixzz2YKmhjMFm

Mohamed ElBaradei, Former Diplomat, to Be Named Egypt’s Interim Prime Minister, Spokeswoman Says

BREAKING NEWSSaturday, July 6, 2013 1:38 PM EDT
Mohamed ElBaradei, Former Diplomat, to Be Named Egypt’s Interim Prime Minister, Spokeswoman Says
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat, will be named as Egypt’s interim prime minister, his spokeswoman said Saturday.
The news of his possible appointment came shortly after Mr. ElBaradei was summoned to the presidential palace by Egypt’s interim president, Adli Mansour, according to Egyptian news media.
Mr. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, said earlier this week that he had worked hard to convince Western powers of what he called the necessity of forcibly ousting President Mohamed Morsi, contending that Mr. Morsi had bungled the country’s transition to an inclusive democracy.
In the interview, Mr. ElBaradei also defended the widening arrests of Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood allies and the shutdown of Islamist television networks that followed the removal of Mr. Morsi on Wednesday by Egypt’s generals.

READ MORE »

http://www.nytimes.com?emc=edit_na_20130706

Botched Paramilitary Police Raids

http://www.cato.org/raidmap

An Epidemic of "Isolated Incidents"

"If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown . . . there would be reason for grave concern."
   —Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in Hudson v. Michigan, June 15, 2006.

An interactive map of botched SWAT and paramilitary police raids, released in conjunction with the Cato policy paper "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," by Radley Balko.

Let Freedom Reign This July 4th By Withdrawing All Assets From the Global Banking Slavery System

http://www.zerohedge.com/node/476057


4th of July DUI Checkpoint - Drug Dogs, Searched without Consent, Rights Taken Away, while Innocent


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-WMn_zHCVo#at=138

"Rutherford County Sheriff’s Deputy AJ Ross orders me to pull over and get out of my car, bullies me around, gets the drug sniffing K-9, lies about me having “Illegal Drugs” in the car, searches without consent, and tells me that it is ok to take away my freedom. All while not being detained. All this harassment because my window was not lowered enough to his preference. I broke no laws whatsoever. All of this on a day that we are supposed to be celebrating freedom and liberty. This checkpoint was in Murfreesboro, TN. At the end of the encounter, the officer did not want to give me his name when I asked him. After I repeatedly asked him, he finally gave it to me."

THIS IS BECOMING THE NORM. THE NEXT STEP WOULD BE BEING SHOT AND KILLED FOR QUESTIONING AUTHORITY.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Will Syria be the Start of World War III in 2014?

Saddam Hussein
The civil war in Syria has long-reaching consequences for the whole region. However, nothing is more serious than making the same mistake twice. While it is popular to demonize both the leaders of Syria and the former leader of Iraq Saddam Hussein, what both did was keep the religious zealots in check. The consequences for a fall in Syria could be far more devastating for the entire region in putting weapons in the hands of religious fanatics. The pictures of these people beheading captives with a knife carving their heads off like a piece of meat while cheering God is Great, should give pause to anyone blind to both sides of the issue. Removing dictators may be far worse than anyone suspects.
In Lebanon and Jordan, their economies are substantially impaired because of the fighting going on in Syria. In Iraq, increased activities of radical Islamist groups are starting to emerge that could eventually lead to a renewal of conflicts there as well over religion, which Saddam Hussein had previously kept in check. Turkey and Israel pursue their own interests in the conflict concerned about religious zealots as well. We see religion at the core of trouble in Turkey and Egypt.
Israel is deeply concerned what happens if Syria falls. They have been taking actions on their own. Will all the weapons then come into the hands of extremists if Syria falls? That will lead to war with Israel. Meanwhile, the USA has troops on the ground in Jordan at the border. They may be sent in as an excuse for some humanitarian mission that is attacked. The USA for political purposes could claim it is defending the people and take down the government, but keep control itself of the region. The BS put out that the USA wants to help the freedom fighters is just that – BS. They fear then far more and will only seek to retain control of Syria. Russia is keeping an eye on this region as well and this is their concern that the USA will grab the Middle East. Energy also plays a role. They see Iran with gas for Europe and to relieve European dependency on Russia, they need pipelines through Syria. So it is far from simply defending democracy, which neither the USA nor Europe actually have – we are Republics not Democracies.
parthian map
Syria has the potential to suck everyone into a major world conflict. This is something we have to pay attention to as we head into 2014. Behind the Curtain, the view on Capitol Hill is that we are in a “proxy” war really with Iran and Syria is secondary. Syria ia a buffer against Iran as was the case of Iraq. But removing dictators also allows the door to open for religious zealots. It is interesting how it was Iran (Persia) that was the chief nemesis of the Roman Empire known as Parthia. So perhaps history will always repeat.

The High Cost of Economic Decline Politicians Ignore

Jumper

1929 Suicide Jumpers
Whenever there is a deep economic decline with the economy imploding into a black hole of deflation, suicides skyrocket. The high cost of massive unemployment in Europe leads to massive desperation. As this erupts on a greater scale, what comes bursting forth is civil unrest and revolution. I cannot stress enough that before this is over you will pray forHYPERINFLATION. What we are facing is far worse – this is what destroys empires, nations, and city states, burying them in a common grave. A reader from Canada contributes this for everyone to read.
From The Globe and Mail:
In Italy, a sense of desperation

Friday, July 5, 2013

DAN NORCINI: Long Bond Chart Breakdown Continues

Friday, July 5, 2013

Long Bond Chart Breakdown Continues

The multi-decade bull market in US bonds is clearly over and with it comes an entirely new set of issues that the US government is going to eventually be forced to come to grips with. A monumental federal debt requires LOW interest rates to deal with the mathematics that can quickly make it completely unmanageable. Those days are now behind us.

Take a look at the following chart and you will see what I mean. I had expected that the long bond would find some buying support emerge near the intersection of TWO CRITICAL REGIONS. The first of these was a band of horizontal chart support near the 135 region. The second just so happens to be that region is also the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level of the rally off the secondary low in early 2011 to the peak last fall.

Guess what? The bond market collapsed through that level as if it did not even exist. Next stop looks to be the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level down near 131 now that the bonds have CLOSED BELOW the 200 week moving average.


Safe havens bonds are now firmly out of favor with the view that tapering of the bond buying program of the Fed (QE4) will now begin as early as September of this year. Rising interest rates are working to bring the US Dollar into increasing favor among global investors as most countries out there with major currencies are no where near to a period of rising interest rates.

It does appear that we are going to be entering a period of rising stocks, rising interest rates and a rising Dollar, all at the same time.

Pretty remarkable isn't it considering that trillions of those self-same dollars have been created by the Fed over the last few years? It just goes to show that demand for the US currency is phenomenal mainly because demand for the other major currencies is rotten!

Nicaragua Offers Edward Snowden Asylum, Venezuela Promptly Follows

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-05/nicaragua-offers-edward-snowden-asylum


"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua,"Nicaragua's Ortega said at a public event. Shortly thereafter, the new Venezuelan president Maduro also jumped on the bandwagon: "I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution."

Ex-Russian spy Anna Chapman tweets marriage proposal to Edward Snowden

IT JUST GETS CRAZIER EVERY DAY

Chapman, 31, was outed as a Russian spy posing as a real estate agent in New York City in 2010. Now, she’s a model and celebrity with the hots for the NSA leaker.
 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ex-russian-spy-hots-snowden-article-1.1389534#ixzz2YCGPbEX7

DAN NORCINI: Gold Undercut by Jobs Number

Friday, July 5, 2013

Gold Undercut by Jobs Number

Never mind the growing number of part time jobs, nor the rise in the unemployment rate, all the market looked at was the headline number of 195,000 jobs created compared to expectations of 165,000 and it was pretty much baked-into-the-cake that the tapering was going to begin in September of this year. 

That pulled the rug out from under both gold and the bond market as those markets plunged. Rising interest rates in what most investors believe is a NON-INFLATIONARY environment is serving to lure short sellers into gold and forcing an exodus among recent bottom pickers and even some long-time bulls.

As stated many times recently, gold is in a intermediate term bear market and as such, rallies are going to be sold by speculative forces until such time as the technical chart pattern changes.

I wish to remind readers of this site not to be sucked into taking aggressive long positions in anything gold right now unless you have deep pockets and can absorb further losses while you wait for the deflation/inflation psychology to shift. Trying to buy into a market like this right now is attempting to catch a falling knife - you are going to end up getting hurt.

One of the most important thing to learn if you are trading futures is that LEVERAGE can destroy you. Far too many of these self-appointed experts in gold, whether they be "analysts" recommending long positions based on their improper reading of that Commitment of Traders reports, or those who have gold to sell, simply do not recognize that the chart pattern in gold has shifted on an intermediate and shorter term time basis. When they glibly recommend long positions in gold, they are setting you up to get hurt badly when the trend reasserts itself as it is currently doing today.

If you are trading on the shortest of time frames (day trading) that is one thing as there will always be short term tradable bottoms as well as tops. However, to take a position in the gold futures market without a technical chart confirmation that the trend is changed is the same as having a financial death wish. Remember that....

Currently gold is holding above psychological chart support at the $1200 level which is near the cost of production. That level needs to hold or it will revisit the recent low near $1180. I have noted the extremely high volume day with ellipses. That area should attract buying if the bottom is actually in. We will see what happens. 

The mining shares are also falling lower today which is serving to bring additional sellers into the Comex. Through in the fact that the US DOllar is absolutely SOARING and proving to be the King of the Hill among currencies, gold has its work cut out for it if it is going to start any sort of sustainable rally to the upside.

Eleven revolutionary ways to celebrate your independence from the system on this July 4th

http://www.naturalnews.com/041061_July_4th_independence_day_personal_freedom.html

For this July 4th -- Independence Day -- you're going to see a lot of articles reminding us about the real history of Independence Day and how America fought for freedom against a tyrannical empire. Those articles are valuable and useful, but this year, I've decided to take a different approach: Let's celebrate all the ways you can achieve independence right NOW, today, in 2013.

So I've listed eleven ways to move yourself toward independence, which also happens to mean self-sustainability, self-reliance and self-worth. You may not be able to achieve full independence for each of these, but you can always increase your degree of independence so that you rely less and less on the system. This makes you a stronger, more resourceful and even a more dignified individual while honoring those same qualities in America's founding fathers.

So here are the eleven along with advice on how to achieve each of them:

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041061_July_4th_independence_day_personal_freedom.html#ixzz2YC4NosXs