tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181012732024-03-07T16:41:17.988-06:00Reading Between the LinesPublished Monday through Friday by journalist, op-ed columnist, radio news-interview program host, Kenneth E. Lamb. "Reading Between the Lines" cuts through the clutter to let you see for yourself the real effect of the news on you. Be sure to check the full list of posts to the right of the Meet Kenneth E. Lamb column! Also check his blog from the upcoming book, "Andropause: A Man's Fate; a Woman's Fear" at andropauseeverymansfate.blogspot.comKenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.comBlogger347125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-20623629647339585822013-10-21T12:11:00.001-05:002013-10-21T12:11:51.899-05:00Video: “Nazi-style Orwellian police state” in America - Mark Dice gets California residents to sign a petition calling for it<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l02E4cj4Vvo?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-2258052545965605572013-10-18T10:47:00.000-05:002013-10-18T10:47:10.386-05:00Video: TSA Air Marshall arrested for taking pictures up women's skirts<iframe frameborder="0" height="385" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.newsinc.com/Single/iframe.html?WID=1&VID=25267617&freewheel=69016&sitesection=wtop&width=640&height=385" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-34606956415108268082013-10-17T15:06:00.000-05:002013-10-17T15:06:42.164-05:00In 2014, here are 10 things you should expect from ObamaCare<em>Submitted by Elizabeth Lee via <a href="http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/vppzx-2/ZHB">Casey Research</a>,</em><br />
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T<a href="http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/vppzx-2/ZHB">en Things to Expect from Obamacare in 2014</a></h3>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.</span></h3>
Obamacare's health exchanges opened on October 1. Hopefully you
weren't one of the unlucky guinea pigs who attempted to sign up with a
system so crummy that even the <em>Washington Post </em>is calling it a disaster.<br />
<br />
Given that the impact of Obamacare will only grow from here on out,
Casey Research asked acclaimed Obamacare expert Dr. Lee Vliet what we
should expect as the calendar turns to 2014.<br />
Importantly, Dr. Vliet is independent in every sense of the word. Not
only is she an independent physician, she's also a registered political
Independent, and has no ties to pharmaceutical, insurance, political,
or any other interests. Like any good doctor, she is professionally
concerned with one thing and one thing only: her patients. You'll find
her criticisms of Obamacare quite harsh, but only because she's
disturbed about the impact it will have on her patients.<br />
<h2>
Ten Things to Expect from Obamacare in 2014</h2>
By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.<br />
<br />
It's been clear to anyone paying attention that the October "rollout"
of Obamacare has been a turbulent, confusing disaster. Sloppy IT
systems and technological failures combined to cripple Obamacare's
sign-up systems. Security flaws put Americans at risk for identity
theft.<br />
<br />
In an almost comical understatement, President Obama summarized these
massive failures as "a few glitches." I think that Luke Chung, IT
expert and president of database solutions firm FMS, explained the
situation much more accurately:<br />
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
<em>"What should clearly be an enterprise
quality, highly scalable software application felt like it wouldn't pass
a basic code review. It appears the people who built the site don't
know what they're doing, never used it and didn't test it." </em></div>
<br />
Chung went on to call it a "technological disaster."<br />
<br />
Think about what this ineptitude means in the bigger debate about
Obamacare. The administration spent 3½ years and $698 million of
taxpayers' money to develop this software. They've known since earlier
this year that the system wasn't ready to support the rollout of the
exchanges. Yet they proceeded anyway, apparently unconcerned about their
faulty software costing Americans millions of hours of frustration and
lost productivity.<br />
<br />
These same bureaucrats continue to assume more and more control of
our medical care. What does their incompetence say about how they will
handle making life-or-death medical care decisions?<br />
<br />
Like a parasite taking over its host, Obamacare will commandeer
almost 20% of our economy, crowding out private options. With 2014 fast
approaching, what should we expect in its next phase?<br />
<br />
Here's my list Top Ten list for 2014:<br />
<br />
<strong>1. The expansion of Medicaid, with increased cost burden for taxpayers.</strong><br />
<br />
Medicaid is a combined state-federal program initially designed to
help the neediest among us. But it has burgeoned to cover medical costs
for about one in every five people. Today, Medicaid pays for two of
every five babies born in the United States, and three of every five
people in long-term care facilities in the US.<br />
<br />
Obamacare will add another <em>20 million </em>new Medicaid
dependents. According to the Kasier Family Foundation, that Medicaid
expansion will add an average of 13% to state budgets in costs for 2014
alone.<br />
<br />
Even though Medicaid was designed to help the poor, studies have
consistently shown that Medicaid recipients receive worse medical care
than people without <em>any</em> health insurance at all! Medicaid
patients have longer waits to see a doctor, fewer specialists to choose
from, and poorer medical outcomes overall. A particularly morbid piece
of evidence is that on average, Medicaid patients die sooner after
surgery than people who have no medical insurance.<br />
<br />
Essentially, Obamacare is forcing 20 million more Americans into second-class medical care with Medicaid.<br />
<br />
<strong>2. "Sticker shock" as the reality of higher health insurance premiums hits home.</strong><br />
<br />
The majority of Americans, especially those who are young and healthy
and therefore have paid low premiums in the past, are seeing their
health insurance premiums rise between 50% and 150%. Further, employers
are cutting full-time workers back to part-time by reducing employees'
hours per week from 40 to 29 or less, to avoid having to provide those
employees with expensive, Obamacare-compliant coverage.<br />
<br />
The "Affordable Care Act" has become anything <em>but </em>affordable for most people.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. Large and small employers are cutting health insurance benefits.</strong><br />
<br />
Obamacare expands the requirements for what all health insurance
policies must cover. So it's no mystery why premiums have risen:
Americans now must pay for a host of features, whether they want to or
not. For example, in my office, the women employees are all menopausal.
Yet Obamacare requires our small-business health insurance policy to
cover pregnancy and maternity care! That means our policy costs more.<br />
<br />
These higher premiums force employers to pass on the costs to
employees (in the form of higher co-pays and deductibles) and/or
customers (in the form of higher product costs). 2014 will bring even
higher premiums for most individuals and businesses.<br />
<br />
To deal with this onslaught of rising costs, businesses have a series
of bad options: fire or lay off workers, cut health insurance benefits
for everyone in the company, or reduce full-time employees to part-time
so they don't qualify for health insurance benefits, as I mentioned
above.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, some businesses will be forced into the worst option of all: going out of business.<br />
<br />
<strong>4. The employer-based health insurance policies that remain will have higher out-of-pocket costs for employees.</strong><br />
<br />
Because businesses must pay more to purchase Obamacare-compliant
plans, they will require employees to pay higher co-pays and deductibles
before coverage begins.<br />
<br />
<strong>5. Fewer types of health insurance policies can be offered under Obamacare.</strong><br />
<br />
Many small-business plans and existing physician networks are being
terminated due to the expanded coverage requirements under Obamacare. We
just received notice that our own small-business plan is being
terminated.<br />
<br />
Candidate and then President Obama promised, "You can keep your insurance plan." Nope.<br />
<br />
<strong>6. Many people cannot keep their doctors.</strong><br />
<br />
Candidate Obama promised, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your
doctor." But many patients who like their doctors are being forced to
find new ones due to changes in physician networks, as well as doctors
leaving insurance plans to start fee-for-service or "concierge"
practices.<br />
<br />
Sadly, when a patient is pushed out of a long-standing relationship
with a physician who understands their medical history, medical outcomes
often deteriorate. This is especially true for special-needs patients,
who often fall between the cracks when doctors are pressured to see 40
or 50 patients a day in five-minute visits.<br />
<br />
<strong>7. Further destruction of Medicare.</strong><br />
<br />
In 2014, Medicare patients will discover several unwanted changes:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>higher premiums for their supplemental policies</li>
<li>fewer types of Medicare supplement policies available</li>
<li>more cutbacks in Medicare-covered services</li>
<li>longer delays to see doctors, because many doctors are closing their
doors to Medicare patients due to the cuts in reimbursements</li>
<li>fewer cancer care specialists taking Medicare patients</li>
<li>higher costs for hospital-based cancer treatments, as private offices with lower costs are closed due to reimbursement cutbacks</li>
<li>fewer hospital-based surgeries being approved because as of October 2012, Obamacare rules <em>incentivize </em>hospitals (i.e., <em>paid more</em> by Medicare) to do <em>fewer </em>surgeries and procedures.</li>
<li>Medicare patients who sign the Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN)
agreeing to pay for services Medicare does not cover will find that they
now have higher out-of-pocket costs to pay for these non-covered
services.</li>
<li>Patients over 80 are already finding reduced approvals for certain
procedures and medicines. Expect to see more of this age-based rationing
as the Medicare cuts increase over the next decade.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<strong>8. Loss of ownership of your medical records</strong>.<br />
Your doctors, hospitals, and other health professionals are being
pressured to adopt electronic medical record systems and send patient
information to the federal government's medical database by 2015. If
they don't comply, they'll be penalized with reduced payments for
services.<br />
<br />
This means the government will own your personal, private
information, and you have no say in the matter. I consider this a
complete loss of your privacy, as well as a violation of the
Constitution's 5<sup>th</sup> Amendment "Takings" clause.<br />
<br />
<strong>9. More waivers and exemptions for the political elites and Democrat cronies.</strong><br />
<br />
The Obama Administration and its political appointee, HHS Secretary
Sibelius, have granted over 1,000 waivers and special exemptions to
various Democrat donors, political allies, unions, and others. Obama's
politically connected friends are the only Americans who won't suffer
under Obamacare's onerous regulations, ballooning costs, and 20 new
taxes.<br />
<br />
<strong>10. On January 1, 2014, the Individual Mandate to purchase Obamacare-compliant health insurance goes into effect.</strong><br />
<br />
"Mandate" may sound benign, but it carries the force of law. Those who do not comply face another Obamacare <em>tax</em>
(as the Supreme Court defined it), though called a "penalty" by
Democrats when they forced the healthcare law through Congress on a
partisan vote.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, Obamacare shifts a bigger burden onto
taxpayers and increases the number of people on the dole. In other
words, it pushes the US in the exact opposite direction it needs to go
to solve its massive debt problems.<br />
<br />
The most serious problems of Obamacare, however, will be felt at the
individual level. You're going to wait longer to see a doctor, you're
going to pay more for fewer treatment options, and healthcare quality
will deteriorate as doctors and hospitals go out of business.<br />
<br />
Obamacare seeks to replace the adaptability and efficiency of our
free markets with heavy-handed government control and micromanaging by
bureaucrats who don't have a clue about what really helps patients. We
need the opposite: <em>patient-centered, free-market</em> reforms.<br />
<br />
Such programs have been successfully implemented in states like
Indiana and businesses like Whole Foods and Safeway. They used health
savings accounts and other incentives to empower consumers to make their
own medical spending decisions.<br />
<br />
It's possible to reform and improve the broken payment system while
keeping our excellent medical care and innovative atmosphere that
relieves suffering and improves quality of life. Unfortunately,
Obamacare is pushing our country in the wrong direction.<br />
<br />
<em>Dr. Vliet writes as an independent practicing physician with
medical practices in Tucson and Dallas focused on issues of endocrine
aging in men and women from puberty to late life. Dr. Vliet is a
registered political Independent, and is also medically independent of
all health insurance contracts since 1986. Her allegiance is to and for
patients. Dr. Vliet is the 2007 Voice of Women Honoree by the Arizona
Foundation for Women for her pioneering work on the overlooked hormone
connections in women's health, and she is the author of six consumer
books on health topics. She has appeared on nationally syndicated radio
and TV shows discussing the healthcare law as well as a variety of
health topics for women and men.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Dr. Vliet was one of the speakers at the just-concluded 2013 Casey Research Summit. (<a href="http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/vpnpz-2/ZHB" target="_blank">Click here</a> to pre-order the complete Summit Audio Collection and save $100 off the normal price. This discount offer ends tomorrow.)</em><br />
<br />
<em>Dr. Vliet's medical websites are <a href="http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/vpna2-2/ZHB" target="_blank">www.herplace.com</a> and</em> <em><a href="http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/vpnd3-2/ZHB" target="_blank">www.InternationalHealthStrategiesLtd.com</a>. Follow Dr. Vliet on twitter @healthandcents</em>Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-75573282075582556822013-10-17T14:14:00.002-05:002013-10-17T14:14:53.098-05:00Media Research Center: Big 3 nets blame GOP for shutdown in 41 stories; blame Dems in zero - Ever wonder why they are called presstitutes?<i><b>Courtesy of the <a href="http://mrc.org/">Media Research Center</a></b></i><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Media_Research_Center_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Media_Research_Center_logo.png" width="458" /></a></div>
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For millions of Americans, big political contests such as
presidential elections and pivotal congressional hearings are still
largely witnessed through the lens of ABC’s, CBS’s and NBC’s evening
newscasts. According to Nielsen Research, more than 20 million viewers
tuned in over the past <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/evening-news-ratings-week-of-september-30_b199338" target="_blank"><strong>two</strong></a> <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/evening-news-ratings-week-of-october-7_b200072" target="_blank"><strong>weeks</strong></a> for the Big Three’s take on the shutdown drama.<br /><br />What
those viewers heard, according to a just-completed Media Research
Center study, was a version of the shutdown story that could easily have
emanated from Barack Obama’s own White House. The broadcast networks
invariably blamed Republicans for the impasse; spotlighted dozens of
examples of how Americans were being victimized; and ran scores of
soundbites from furloughed federal workers and others harmed by the
shutdown — even as they ignored examples of how the Obama administration
and Senate Democrats were working to make the shutdown as painful as
possible.<br /><br /><strong>■ Blaming Republicans.</strong> MRC analysts
reviewed each broadcast network evening newscast from the first day of
the shutdown (October 1) through the last night before a deal was
announced (October 15). Of the 124 full stories and brief items about
the shutdown or the pending debt ceiling deadline, 41 blamed Republicans
or conservatives for the impasse, 17 blamed both sides, and none
specifically blamed Democrats.<br /><br />This is an acceleration of the same trend the <a href="http://www.mrc.org/media-reality-check/mrc-study-even-shutdown-networks-dumped-most-blame-conservatives" target="_blank"><strong>MRC documented</strong></a>
during the two weeks prior to the actual start of the shutdown
(September 17 through September 30), when those same broadcasts ran 21
stories blaming Republicans, four blaming both sides, and none blaming
Democrats.<br />
<img src="http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/2013/october/Shutdown2.JPG" style="display: block; margin: 3px auto;" width="540" /><br />Network
reporters and anchors repeatedly instructed their audiences to blame
Tea Party extremism for the consequences of the shutdown. “This current
showdown and this current government shutdown traces its history back to
a determined core of GOP House members who are vehemently against
ObamaCare and were willing to shut down the government because of it,”
NBC anchor Brian Williams asserted on the October 14 <em>Nightly News</em>.<br /><br />The
next night, ABC’s Diane Sawyer similarly explained Fitch’s warning of a
possible downgrade of the U.S. government’s AAA debt rating: “A major
agency now threatening a downgrade, lowering America’s sterling
financial status in the world, and all because hardline members of
Congress have brought the U.S. to the brink.”<br /><br /><strong>■ Soundbites.</strong>
In 15 days, the networks ran soundbites from 23 federal workers (most
of them furloughed), 47 individuals whose lives had been hurt by the
shutdown, and 56 ordinary citizens condemning the shutdown. While most
of the negative opinion was directed at Washington in general, 17
singled out Republicans for blame, vs. only three castigating Democrats,
a nearly six-to-one ratio.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/2013/october/ABC%20World%20News%20With%20Diane%20Sawyer%20-%2006_33_46%20PM.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 4px;" width="267" />On October 1, for example, ABC’s <em>World News</em>
used a man on the street to spank conservatives: “I think the whole
‘holding the government hostage of ObamaCare’ is just ridiculous.” The
next night, the same network featured a woman scolding: “It’s a crime
and most of it is the Tea Party.”<br /><br />Within hours of the start of
the shutdown, the networks championed the plight of furloughed federal
workers, who at that point had been out of work for only a few hours. On
the October 1 <em>CBS Evening News</em>, furloughed Treasury worker
Peter Gamba complained: “It’s a nightmare for me financially. Actually,
it causes me a lot of anxiety and stress. I don’t sleep well at night.”<br /><br />Over on the <em>NBC Nightly News</em>
that same evening, reporter John Yang highlighted an EPA worker,
Elizabeth Lytle, who had already filed for unemployment benefits. Lytle
told NBC: “Right now, I’m terrified. I’m terrified to the point where,
okay, what’s going to happen?” <br /><br />Three days later, when the
shutdown was less than a week old, NBC correspondent Miguel Almaguer
profiled another out-of-work federal employee: “Wendy Robinson has been
furloughed. A single mom with three mouths to feed, today she got her
last paycheck. Robinson blames Congress.” Moments later, NBC viewers
heard Robinson complaining: “I’m at a loss for words, really, about it
because I’m not used to not giving my kids a Christmas.”<br /><br />Four days out of work, and Christmas is cancelled?<br /><br /><strong>■ Negative Consequences.</strong>
During the first 15 days of October, the network evening newscasts
highlighted 127 examples of ways the shutdown was hurting Americans —
from closed national parks and furloughed workers, to children denied
medical treatment for life-threatening illnesses and the suspension of
death benefits for the families of U.S. soldiers and Marines killed in
Afghanistan.<br /><br />The drumbeat of negative stories cast the shutdown
(and, by implication, those responsible) as downright scandalous. NBC’s
Brian Williams described the consequences as nearly criminal on the
October 8 <em>Nightly News</em>: “All kinds of people are getting cheated out of salaries, benefits, medical treatment.”<br /><br />Virtually
absent from the coverage was any questioning of the Obama
administration's tactics in implementing the shutdown. Eight stories
talked about the barricading of the open-air World War II Memorial in
Washington, D.C., a site that is normally accessible 24 hours a day.
None of the networks questioned why that particular memorial needed to
be barricaded.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/2013/october/LincolnClosed.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 4px;" width="267" />Similarly, CBS anchor Scott Pelley opened the October 2 <em>Evening News</em>
by saying “no one was more lonely on this second day of the partial
government shutdown than the President — President Lincoln. His
memorial, one of the many national park sites, forced to close.” The
steps of the Lincoln Memorial were <em><strong>not</strong></em>
off-limits to visitors during the Clinton-era shutdowns, yet none of the
networks challenged the Obama administration’s decision to ban the
public this year.<br /><br />All three networks emphasized the tragedy of
how furloughs at the National Institutes of Health meant patients with
potentially fatal illnesses — including children — would not be admitted
to new trials. On October 11, for example, ABC’s Jim Avila highlighted
for <em>World News</em> viewers the heart-breaking story of an
eight-year-old leukemia victim, Maddie Major, including a soundbite from
the girl’s mother, Robin: “It’s the most devastating thing in the world
to know that there could potentially be a cure for her, but because of a
stalemate in the government, we can’t research those options. It’s
mind-blowing.”<br /><br />Avila then theatrically confronted a Republican
congressman, Steve Womack, explaining: “He’s on the House committee that
oversees the NIH budget and he voted for the shutdown.” Of course,
Republicans never voted “for” a shutdown, but passed a series of bills
ensuring continued funding, but with amendments the Democratic Senate
rejected. Avila did not similarly put a Democratic Senator on the spot
for the failure to fund NIH.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/2013/october/NBC%20Nightly%20News%20-%2007_13_00%20PM.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 4px;" width="267" />Earlier,
on October 3, NBC correspondent Tom Costello showcased how “the mother
of an 18-month-old has been told her rare sarcoma could be terminal. But
without funding, any new NIH clinical drug trials are on hold.” <em>NBC Nightly News</em>
ran three additional stories mentioning the deferral of NIH trials and
the gravely-ill patients affected, but never once told viewers the House
had voted on October 2 to restore that funding, only to be rebuffed by
Senate Democrats.<br /><br />Indeed, only the <em>CBS Evening News</em>
bothered to mention — just once — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s
dismissive comment about restoring funding to enable life-saving
medicine to resume. On October 2, correspondent Nancy Cordes told anchor
Scott Pelley, “Reid was asked if he’d be open to funding cancer
research for kids only, and his response was, ‘Why would I do that?’”<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/2013/october/CBS%20Evening%20News%20With%20Scott%20Pelley%20-%2006_39_32%20PM.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 4px;" width="267" />For its part, the <em>CBS Evening News</em>
on October 7 devoted an entire story to the plight of the “thousands
who work for Head Start early education programs” and the families they
serve. Correspondent Michelle Miller talked to Danielle Smith, who works
for the program in Bridgeport, Connecticut: “I had parents who told me
‘I’m going to lose my job. If I don’t have child care, I can’t go to
work.’ They were asking for help and we said — I couldn’t help them.” As
the story ended, Pelley reflected: “Real consequences, for real
people.”<br /><br />The next day, the House passed a targeted funding bill that would have immediately restored Head Start. But Pelley’s <em>Evening News</em>
never brought that important follow-up to viewers. If the interruption
of Head Start’s services was deemed nationally important news, how come
the attempt to resume those services was not treated as equally
important?<br /><br />As the shutdown neared its end, the networks’ polls
found the American public more critical of the GOP than either Democrats
or the White House. While some blame can perhaps be assigned to
Republicans’ lack of a unified conservative message, the incessant
drumbeat of hostile, and slanted, media coverage surely took its toll as
well.<br />
<div class="signature">
— Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/RichNoyes" target="_blank">Follow Rich Noyes on Twitter.</a></div>
Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-86428063658015517272013-10-17T10:44:00.000-05:002013-10-17T10:44:34.081-05:00Video: Report on JPMorgan Chase new cash transaction limits and what it means to you<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8SguXvr_K4Q?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-73958843574400930762013-10-17T10:20:00.002-05:002013-10-17T10:20:43.793-05:00JP Morgan Chase limiting cash transactions and transfers for its customers - unless you are a monster-size customer, that is - prepping for a cash crash in America?<i><b>Below we have a video giving the background to the article that follows. We suggest you watch the video first, then read the article.</b></i><br />
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<strong>Paul Joseph Watson</strong><br />
Infowars.com<br />
<strong>Updated</strong> October 17, 2013 <br />
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<strong>UPDATE:</strong> Alex Jones: The fact that these
letters were being sent out to Chase customers was confirmed at the
time that we published, but in the last 24 hours we have confirmed that
even large businesses doing international transactions have also
received the same letters.</div>
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I personally visited Chase Bank and inquired about
setting up an account and asked if I could wire money out of the country
or withdraw the amounts of cash listed in their letter. I was told no,
and that I would have to “qualify” with them for a special type of
international bank account and would have to deposit huge amounts of
money and pay fees to be able to access those services.</div>
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<br /></div>
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What this constitutes is a war on cash and a war on
small business and individuals. Two years ago we saw a giant backlash
against Bank of America when they announced customers would be <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0930/Debit-card-fees-Why-Bank-of-America-will-charge-5-for-debit-card-use">charged for using their own money via their debit card</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left">
We have crossed the rubicon where now the currency has been so devalued
that you will have to pay money to have your money in a bank or use a
debit card.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
In saying that international wire transfers are too much
of a risk, Chase Bank might as well be bankrupt because it is telling
you there is no money to withdraw.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
This is where the mega banks have wanted to take us all
along – a total cashless society that destroys all privacy and allows
them to fine and fee the general population into serfdom. This is
clearly a major step towards capital controls as we saw with the Cyprus
bail-in.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
We are now receiving reports from business partners who
we know well that they are being told by their banks that similar
regulations to those adopted by Chase are coming within the next few
months.</div>
<div align="left">
Chase would not be implementing a business killing
strategy like this unless all other major banks were also planning to
follow suit. What we see is mega banks leading the way to set the
precedent that all the others will follow.</div>
<br />
Chase needs to issue a statement clarifying exactly why they are imposing these capital controls.<br />
<br />
It is clear that these regulations are being enacted for three
different but equally plausible reasons, all of which contribute to the
ultimate goal of sacrificing the global economy on the altar of
derivative monster zombie banks.<br />
<br />
1) Capital controls to prevent money leaving the country as the US
dollar continues to devalue. Note that Chase will allow international
wire transfers coming in, but not going out of the accounts. Note that
they are only concerned about “risks” when the money is being moved out
of the account.<br />
<br />
2) Forcing businesses to abandon cash and switching everything over
to digital currency that can be more easily tracked, traced and
controlled.<br />
<br />
3) Part of the preparatory phase for Cyprus-style bail-ins where the
government announces a new “tax” to gouge out a percentage of people’s
savings.<br />
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
Customers need to rally and speak out against this and
immediately move their money to smaller and local banks that will
promise to give them good service and not rake them over the coals. We
need diversity and competition within the banking system, not giant
zombie banks endangering the world economy with derivatives and cheating
their customers.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
It should also be noted that JPMorgan Chase <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/01/jp-morgan-s-food-stamp-empire.html">runs most of the welfare system and EBT cards</a> and really constitutes the top of the pyramid in the corporate-banking-governmental structure.</div>
<br />
Finally, we’ve seen the IRS <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/04/05/owe-irs-youre-not-going-anywhere/">attempting to bar Americans from leaving the country</a> simply
if the IRS has opened an investigation on them. This isn’t shades of
tyranny, this is hardcore authoritarianism and everyone should be
concerned. If you were planning on getting your money out of the
country, now is the time. If you haven’t withdrawn your cash from the
bank, you should have done it yesterday.Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-40652763447340417342013-10-17T10:05:00.003-05:002013-10-17T10:05:39.328-05:00EBay founder Pierre Omidyar blogs he will start a new mass media organization<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Business/images/world-billionaire/PierreOmidyar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Business/images/world-billionaire/PierreOmidyar.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i><b>By Pierre Omidyar </b></i><br />
<br />
<br />
As many of you know, I’ve had an interest in journalism for some time now. I’ve been working on <a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/">Civil Beat</a> for three years and through my philanthropic work at <a href="http://www.omidyar.com/">Omidyar Network</a> and <a href="http://www.democracyfund.org/">Democracy Fund</a>,
we’ve supported many efforts around the world related to media, citizen
engagement, and government transparency and accountability.<br />
<br />
Separate from my work with Omidyar Network and Democracy Fund, and as
part of my growing interest to preserve and strengthen the role
journalism plays in society, I explored purchasing The Washington Post
over the summer. That process got me thinking about what kind of social
impact could be created if a similar investment was made in something
entirely new, built from the ground up. Something that I would be
personally and directly involved in outside of my other efforts as a
philanthropist.<br />
<br />
I developed an interest in supporting independent journalists in a
way that leverages their work to the greatest extent possible, all in
support of the public interest. And, I want to find ways to convert
mainstream readers into engaged citizens. I think there’s more that can
be done in this space, and I’m eager to explore the possibilities.<br />
<br />
Right now, I’m in the very early stages of creating a new mass media
organization. I don’t yet know how or when it will be rolled out, or
what it will look like.<br />
<br />
What I can tell you is that the endeavor will be independent of my
other organizations, and that it will cover general interest news, with a
core mission around supporting and empowering independent journalists
across many sectors and beats. The team will build a media platform
that elevates and supports these journalists and allows them to pursue
the truth in their fields. This doesn’t just mean investigative
reporting, but all news. <br />
<br />
As part of my learning process, I recently reached out to Glenn
Greenwald to find out what journalists like him need to do their jobs
well. As it turns out, he and his colleagues Laura Poitras and Jeremy
Scahill, were already on a path to create an online space to support
independent journalists. We had a lot of overlap in terms of our ideas,
and decided to join forces.<br />
<br />
I believe that independent journalists like Glenn, Laura, and Jeremy
play an important role in our society. We’ll be working with them and
others, but we have a long way to go in terms of what the organization
looks like, people’s roles and responsibilities — all of those things
still need to be worked out.<br />
<br />
I’ll be sure to update you along the way as the new organization progresses. Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-41572517205225317872013-10-16T11:07:00.002-05:002013-10-16T11:24:15.539-05:00For Boehner, the writing is on the wall for the end of his Speakership as he becomes the Obama of the House<i><b>By Kenneth E. Lamb</b></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4886325332806877&pid=1.7" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4886325332806877&pid=1.7" width="484" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
For Boehner, this is the end. It is the most devastating disaster of his incompetence as a leader.<br />
<br />
So Obama and the Dems win again. They won because the Speaker is an
inept patsy for their power plays. He is incapable of managing his own
House, and now, again, the GOP looks the fool.<br />
<br />
He, and the rest of the so-called GOP leadership, again lost the
"words war" to the Dems.<br />
<br />
The Dems got America to believe the GOP is the
villain, and that all the Dems wanted was a "clean" Continuing Resolution - and
for some unknown reason the GOP never rebutted their wordsmithing by
calling it The Democrats Filthy Continuing Resolution - filthy with ObamaCare and its
catastrophic effects.<br />
<br />
I lost count of the number of bills the House passed to keep the
government funded - sans ObamaCare.<br />
<br />
The GOP even got to the point of
doing what it should have done first, and passed a bill to require the
Congress, its staffers, and the administration's political appointees - including the president, the VP, and their staffers - to sign-up for ObamaCare themselves -
without the ungodly federal subsidies to wipe out the payments from the
insured.<br />
<br />
(Note to House and Senate members: I want exactly the same Gold ObamaCare policy and federally subsidized net price as you are getting. Let's see your duplicitous selves produce that for me - and for all the rest of us getting stuck with this abomination. We'll be sure to ask when you're going to do that at your next Town Hall.) <br />
<br />
But Boehner and his gang of incompetents never got the idea across to America that it is the Dems in the Senate who were keeping the government shut down.<br />
<br />
No matter how many times Obama and Reid said they would not negotiate, no matter how many times they said they would not allow the government to be funded on any terms but their own, no matter how many times they lied about a so-called clean Continuing Resolution that was nothing more than a "take it or leave it" acceptance of what they wanted - Boehner and his crew never got the truth across.<br />
<br />
That is hard-core incompetence. <br />
<br />
Some will blame the MSM. Aren't we at a point now when it has been long enough that the GOP should have built bridges to the American public to make an end run around those propagandists?<br />
<br />
There are plenty of conservative outlets - starting with Fox - that offer a forum for communicating the truth; but the GOP could neither communicate the truth nor mobilize the people.<br />
<br />
That is also - even more so at this point - hard-core incompetence. <br />
<br />
And Boehner is in the power position that he must accept responsiblilty for not doing that.<br />
<br />
Of course, all this also lends credibility to the argument that the Congress is a bought-off group of campaign fund whores who do what the oligarchs tell them to do.<br />
<br />
If any member of Congress doubts that, get out of The Bubble and walk down the streets of your district or state and just ask anyone you meet. They won't lack for words to tell you off to your face.<br />
<br />
Throw in the reality that we now have a Fourth Branch of government - the Money Branch - embodied in the privately held FED and its bank owners - the TBTP (Too Big To Prosecute) Banksters and Wall Streeters, starting with Jamie Dimond - who are now the true source of funding the federal government, and America can see for itself the increasing irrelevancy of Congress in running the country.<br />
<br />
Treasury Secretary Lew's crocodile tears warning of fire and brimstone were nothing but a PR stunt in fear-mongering; so what did you expect him to say - that his boss Obama is a lying idiot and nothing big is going to happen to the stock market if the default deadline passes?<br />
<br />
Boehner should have vaporized Lew. But instead Lew got away with another Obama lie campaign without a peep from the Speaker. <br />
<br />
Let's face it: The stock market is not going to crash so long as the FED keeps printing money out of thin air.<br />
<br />
America went bonkers when the elites proposed $800-billion in 1-year for a stimulus plan; Bernanke and his bank-owned FED pump $850-billion into the asset-management firms in just 10 months.<br />
<br />
They dump over a trillion dollars a year into stocks through the scam call Quantitative Easing; and they have shipped well over a trillion dollars directly into European banks as well.<br />
<br />
If America only knew, and understood, the way it is getting looted by this TBTP criminal class. <br />
<br />
But because of the outright powerlessness of Boehner, the poster child for powerlessness, the charade plays on. Only now the House no longer calla the budget shots - the Senate, de facto, does.<br />
<br />
Congratulations Speaker Boehner, for abdicating the constitutional power of the House under your watch.<br />
<br />
<br />
So now the Senate will decide how to spend the money - and the House
will again relinquish its constitutional responsibility to decide who
gets how much, and when they get it.<br />
<br />
Boehner, do the right thing by us, our children, our grandchildren, and all who follow, and resign as Speaker. You have no respect
from the GOP or the nation.<br />
<br />
You have become the Obama of the House.<br />
-30-Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-56160311511007068282013-10-15T16:03:00.000-05:002013-10-15T16:03:26.870-05:00Video: When even MSNBC begins to "Get it": Dylan Ratigan Rages Over "The Extraction Of America" And The Bought-Off Congress<h1 class="title">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/A3BHujm3cpY?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe></h1>
Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-30070149311407925972013-10-15T14:21:00.000-05:002013-10-15T14:21:20.617-05:00Speaking of the bankster criminal class - FED whistleblower suit has FED begging to seal documents that prove it is part of the criminal gang<em>Submitted by Mike Krieger of <a href="http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/10/15/n-y-fed-looks-to-seal-documents-in-the-latest-whistleblower-case/">Liberty Blitzkrieg</a></em><br />
<br />
<em> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/10/11/business/GOLDMAN/GOLDMAN-tmagArticle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/10/11/business/GOLDMAN/GOLDMAN-tmagArticle.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Former senior bank examiner at the New York Federal Reserve, Carmen Segarra,blowing the whistle on the NY FED and Goldman Sachs</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</em><br />
<em> </em><strong>N.Y. Fed Looks To Seal Documents In Latest Whistleblower Case</strong><br />
<br />
As was widely reported last week in both the <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-10/goldman-whistleblower-sues-ny-fed-wrongful-termination">alternative media </a>and the mainstream <a href="http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/10/02/video-of-the-day-interview-with-matt-taibbi-about-jp-morgan-and-the-cnbc-presstitutes/">presstitute media</a>, former
senior bank examiner at the New York Federal Reserve, Carmen Segarra,
has filed a lawsuit against her former employer accusing them
of wrongful termination after she determined that Goldman Sachs had
insufficient conflict-of-interest policies. As usual, anything that
threatens to shed some light on the criminality at the most powerful
institutions in America is immediately labeled “top secret” or
“classified” and hidden from the public. Just as you would expect in a
Banana Republic.<br />
<br />
From Pro Publica:<br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">On Friday, the Fed asked for a protective order to seal documents in the case as well as parts of the complaint.</span> </strong>In
a letter to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, New York Fed counsel
David Gross said the information should be removed from the public
docket because it is “Confidential Supervisory Information,” including
internal New York Fed emails and materials provided to the Fed by
Goldman.</em><br />
<br />
<em>“These documents show that at the time (Segarra) left the employ
of the New York Fed, she purloined property of the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System,” Gross wrote, citing Fed rules that
prohibit disclosing supervisory information without prior approval of
the Fed.</em><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gross argues that the Fed’s obligation to keep bank supervisory records secret outweigh the public’s right to know.</span> </strong>“The
incantation of a ‘public right to know’ cannot ever be a license to
discharged employees that they may violate Federal law simply by filing a
complaint in Federal court,” Gross wrote.</em><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The New York
Fed has historically been one of the most opaque financial regulators
and maintains that it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act
because it is not a public agency.</em></span></strong><br />
<br />
What more do you need to know? America: Land of the Thief, Home of the Slave.<br />
<br />
Full article <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/ny-fed-moves-to-seal-documents-in-ex-bank-examiners-suit">here</a>.Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-62902995357328605842013-10-15T13:44:00.000-05:002013-10-15T13:44:29.565-05:00Jamie Dimon: Legitimate banking CEO who is clueless about his staff's criminal activity, or criminally insane mob boss calling the shots?<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://zerohedge.com/">ZeroHedge.com</a></b></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.mmoreviews.com/imgs/LSrw10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.mmoreviews.com/imgs/LSrw10.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
A few days ago many were shocked when JPM disclosed for the first
time that in less than four years, or since 2010, Jamie Dimon's den of <em>alleged </em>criminals has <em><strong>reserved a mindblowing $28 billion toward legal expenses. </strong></em><br />
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/JPM%20Litigation%20Reserve%20History_1.jpg"><img height="456" src="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/JPM%20Litigation%20Reserve%20History_1_0.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
In light of recent developments, investors may just want to round that number to a good, clean $30 billion, because as the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304330904579135603914964762">WSJ just revealed</a>, <strong>yet
another JPMorgan market manipulator has emerged in a seemingly endless
line of people whose shortcut to success at 270 Park Avenue has been to
manipulate assorted markets, be it Libor, Credit Derivatives,
Electricity, Aluminum, or Equities. </strong>We can now add FX to that, following news that one Richard "Dick" Usher, until 2010 at RBS, and since then JPM's London-based <a href="http://www.fxweek.com/fx-week/news/2225284/new-fx-roles-under-rohrbaugh-at-jp-morgan">head of G10 spot trading</a>, has been implicated in the infamous RBS FX London closing fax manipulation chat sessions. "<strong>The
group of traders in the chat rooms was known by various monikers
including "The Bandits' Club," and "The Cartel," the people said."</strong><br />
As a reminder, "the investigation of possible manipulation of
foreign-exchange markets got underway over the summer when the U.K.'s
Financial Conduct Authority opened an inquiry in response to concerns
voiced by industry officials. This month, the Swiss markets regulator,
Finma, said it was conducting its own inquiry in concert with other
regulators, and that "multiple banks around the world are potentially
implicated." In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun a
criminal investigation into possible rigging of currency markets,
people familiar with the matter said last week.... RBS started digging
through its records to look into potential foreign-exchange manipulation
by its traders around the same time that the FCA began its inquiry,
according to a person familiar with RBS's actions. The FCA declined to
comment."<br />
So where does Usher fit in?<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="quote_start">
</div>
<div class="quote_end">
</div>
RBS, based in Edinburgh, unearthed materials that indicated that Mr.
Usher participated in the electronic chat room with colleagues at other
banks, this person said. <strong>RBS, following its policy of alerting
regulators when it finds signs of potential misconduct by employees,
handed over those chat records involving Mr. Usher to the FCA, this
person said. It isn't clear what portion of the documents provided to
the FCA related to Mr. Usher.</strong><br />
<br />
People familiar with the matter say one area investigators are
looking at is the practice of currency "fixes," daily snapshots of
prices for currencies that are used by money managers and others for
valuing portfolios, among other purposes. The fixes—the most popular is
at 4 p.m. London time—are computed based on market activity during a
brief window.<br />
</blockquote>
The rest of the story is known, and was already covered previously, most recently in "<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-28/are-fx-markets-rigged-london-closing-fix">Are FX Markets "Rigged" At The London Closing Fix</a>?"
And now we know that at least one current (and likely many more) JPM
employee was actively engaged in riggind and manipulating yet another
market. Was he doing it in the past three years since he came on board
Jamie Dimon's Litigitanic? That is for the regulators to reveal,
although we are confident that there is nothing in the regulatory
rulebook that JPM can't "fix" with another $1-2 billion fine. <br />
As for Dick Usher's recent quoted exploits, here he is in an <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/85da6d24-21e5-11e2-9cb4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2hc4Az16k">October 2012 FT article</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="quote_start">
</div>
<div class="quote_end">
</div>
“People have turned from euro speculation to dollar speculation since QE3 but that’s not working out as they hoped – <strong>people aren’t getting bang for their bucks,” </strong>says Richard Usher, JPMorgan’s head of spot forex trading in London.<br />
</blockquote>
Dick sounds confused. Well Dick, all <em>"people" </em>need to get more "bang for their buck" is to rig markets just a little more. After all, if <em>"people" </em>get caught, all <em>"they" </em>will
have to do is pay a modest wristslap amounting to 5-10% of all the
profits from any illegal trades that added that extra "bang." That, and
fortifying the "fortress balance sheets" of their allegedly criminal
employers, will make them model employees in no time. <br />
<em>P.S. it goes without saying that retail investors <strong>just can't wait </strong>to
get back inside this perfectly efficient, unmanipulated, fair, honest
and regulated market, in which the same standard are used for everyone:
small trader and big. Why else would Eugene "Efficient Market
Hypothesis" Fama win the Nobel Prize earlier today?</em>Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-859872234879965382013-10-15T13:28:00.000-05:002013-10-15T13:28:15.598-05:00Sen. Harry Reid: Paying taxes is "voluntary"From his mouth to your ears . . .<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/H6q0slMhDw8?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-82187670605062879842013-10-15T13:17:00.001-05:002013-10-15T13:17:51.817-05:00The delusion of America's reitrement funds - they exist only in your imagination, not on the federal books<em>Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of <a href="http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-we-approaching-peak-retirement.html">OfTwoMinds blog</a></em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em><a href="http://fortuneaskannie.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/retirement_fund.jpg?w=340&h=255" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://fortuneaskannie.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/retirement_fund.jpg?w=340&h=255" width="640" /></a></em></div>
<br />
<br />
<em> </em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>If stocks, bonds and real estate all decline going forward, where are pension funds going to earn their 7+% annual yields?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>If we look at the
foundations of retirement--Social Security, stocks, bonds and real
estate--it seems we may have reached Peak Retirement.</b> Let's start
the discussion by noting that the primary Federal retirement
programs--Social Security and Medicare--are "pay as you go," meaning the
checks sent out to beneficiaries this year are funded by payroll tax
revenues collected this year from workers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Mish and I (as
well as others) have tirelessly pointed out, the "trust funds" for these
programs are phantoms of imagination. When these programs run deficits,
the government raises the money to fund the deficit the same way it
funds all its deficit spending--by selling Treasury bonds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These programs were
founded on a demographic illusion, i.e. that the number of retirees
(beneficiaries) would magically remain a small percentage of the
workforce paying payroll taxes. Alas, the number of beneficiaries is
rising fast while the number of full-time workers is stagnating.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Full-time employment and the number of Social Security beneficiaries:</b> the
ratio of full-time workers to beneficiaries is already 2-to-1, and set
to decline. Below 2-to-1, either payroll taxes will have to icnrease or
benefits will have to be trimmed, or some of both.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2013/fulltime8-13.png" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Public and private pensions are based on earning 7+% returns on investments in stocks, bonds and real estate.</b> Let's look at each asset class and reckon the likelihood of it earning 7+% into the future.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The stock market has traced out a multi-year megaphone pattern that presages a decline to a new low:</b> if
this megaphone pattern plays out, the S&P 500 could plummet from
its current level around 1700 to the 600 level. Were that to occur,
pension funds holding stocks would suffer catastrophic losses.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2013/3-bubbles.png" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Bonds are ripe for a reversal:</b> as
bond yields decline, the market value of existing bonds rises. This
also works in the other direction: as yields, rise, the market value of
all existing bonds declines. If the god-like powers of the Federal
Reserve turn out not to be so god-like and interest rates rise, the
market value of all existing bonds could fall dramatically.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bond market trends
rarely last 30 years, so the trend of falling yields is extremely long
in tooth and ripe for a reversal, for example, 10 to 15 years of rising
interest rates and declining bond values:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2013/10-year-Tbillx.png" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Housing has
rebounded weakly, but only as a result of unprecedented intervention by
the Federal Reserve and the Federal government:</b> The Fed drove
mortgage rates to historic lows, bought over $1 trillion in mortgages
and Federal housing agencies such as FHA guaranteed 3% down payment
mortgages to just about anyone with a full-time job and a middling
credit rating.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Banks have held tens of thousands of defaulted homes off the market to induce an artificial scarcity to drive prices higher. <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-03/meet-monster-housing-market-presenting-vampire-reos-which-65-americans-live-mortgage" target="resource">Meet The Monster Of The Housing Market: Presenting "Vampire REOs" Where Half Live Mortgage-Free</a> (Zero Hedge)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All this trillion-dollar manipulation and intervention generated the weak bounce that is now ending.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2013/case-shiller3-13c.png" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>If stocks, bonds and real estate all decline going forward, where are pension funds going to earn their 7+% annual yields?</b> Please
don't say "emerging markets," for those markets are imploding (see
India as an example) under the weight of speculative excess, asset
bubbles, capital flight, and to-the-moon credit expansion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If pension funds lose
significant percentages of their assets to market declines, earning 7%
will be the least of the problems. As for the Federal retirement
programs: if the erosion of full-time employment continues as a
long-term trend, Social Security and Medicare will both start running
massive deficits as the number of Baby Boomer beneficiaries continues
rising while the payroll tax base shrinks.</span>Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-18237248065987254562013-10-15T12:43:00.000-05:002013-10-15T12:43:07.777-05:00Video update: Will food stamps be shut down?<script height="545px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=3ce6404476914e86994d87aac3e4391b&ec=o1N2h1ZjqzomacOO2KBI-9qicDidZYvz" width="709px"></script><br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-47959945752653144892013-10-15T12:41:00.000-05:002013-10-15T12:41:48.328-05:00Is the foodstamp program only a couple of weeks away from a massive shut down?<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://zerohedge.com/">ZeroHedge.com</a></b></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jobcutnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EBT-Cards-Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="http://www.jobcutnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EBT-Cards-Map.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
When over the weekend, a <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-12/foodstamp-nation-turmoil-ebt-system-goes-dark-glitch-blamed">Xerox "glitch" shut down the EBT system</a>,
better known as foodstamps, for nearly the entire day across 17 states
leaving millions without "funding" to pay for food leading to dramatic
examples of the <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-14/shopper-stampede-ensues-when-foodstamp-glitch-removes-walmart-spending-limits">basest human behavior possible</a>,
some of the more conspiratorial elements saw this merely as a dress
rehearsal for what may be coming in the immediate future. While there
was no basis to believe that is the case, a USDA (the currently
shuttered agency that administers the <a href="http://www.usda.gov/fundinglapse.htm">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>)
memo obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center in Utah carries in it a
very disturbing warning for the 46+ million Americans currently on
foodstamps. <br />
To wit: <strong>"understanding the operational issues and constraints
that States face, and in the interest of preserving maximum
flexibility, we are directing States to hold their November issuance
files and delay transmission to State electronic benefit transfer (EBT)
vendors until further notice.</strong>" In other words, as <a href="http://fox13now.com/2013/10/14/utah-families-on-food-stamps-could-be-cut-off-soon/">Fox13News summarizes</a>, "<em>States
across the country are being told to stop the supplemental nutrition
assistance program for the month of November, pending further notice</em>."<br />
The full memo first posted on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crossroadsurbancenter?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline">Crossroads Facebook </a>page is shown below:<br />
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/Foodstamp%20USDA%20Letter.jpg"><img height="776" src="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/Foodstamp%20USDA%20Letter_0.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
<a href="http://fox13now.com/2013/10/14/utah-families-on-food-stamps-could-be-cut-off-soon/">More on this dramatic development </a>which, if implemented, would will result in significant unpredictable outcomes across the nation:<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="quote_start">
</div>
<div class="quote_end">
</div>
“<strong>This is going to create a huge hardship for the people we serve here in our food pantry</strong>,” says Bill Tibbits who is the Associate Director at Crossroads Urban Center.<br />
<br />
They posted a letter from the USDA on its Facebook page. It says in
part, “in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are
directing states to hold their November issuance files and delay
transmission to state electronic benefit transfer vendors until further
notice.”<br />
<br />
“What this means if there’s not a deal, if Congress doesn’t reach a
deal to get federal government back up and running, in Utah about
100,000 families won’t get food stamp benefit,” says Tibbits.<br />
<br />
<strong>In other words, tens of thousands of Utah families may not be able to feed their children come November.</strong><br />
...<br />
“<strong>People out here are going to go without food</strong>,” says
Loralee Smith whose been homeless since August and says the uncertainty
is making her uneasy about where her next meal will come from. “<strong>I’m
on food stamps, I don’t know if I’m going to get them, a lot of people
are on food stamps and they don’t know if they’re going to get them.”</strong><br />
<br />
Others say if SNAP shuts down, <strong>they’ll find a way to feed themselves</strong>.<br />
</blockquote>
One hopes such "alternative" feeding arrangements will be peaceful,
although in the most heavily armed nation in the world, and arguably the
one where a massive portion of the population is now fully reliant on
the welfare state for virtually every daily need, it is easy to see
cutting off daily bread to tens of millions has a less than happy
ending. <br />
As the report notes, for people out on the streets like Richard Phillips, "It could impact us and it’s going to cause problems <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>because you’re going to come to find out that people are going to steal and do what they have to do to survive.</strong></span>" <br />
Such a realization could come as a very unpleasant wake up call for
the millions of other Americans who still live in their Ivory Towers,
focusing on the daily gyrations of the S&P500, and largely oblivious
of how the rest of America lives.Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-69865677738346987572013-10-15T12:35:00.000-05:002013-10-15T12:35:06.749-05:00You need to ponder on this: Regardless of any rational thought, as long as the FED keeps pumping, the market will keep humping<i>Submitted by Lance Roberts of <a href="http://stawealth.com/daily-x-change/1847-5-things-to-ponder-this-week.html">STA Wealth Management</a>,</i><br />
<div class="highslide-gallery">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr align="left"><td><a href="http://www.paradoxprevention.com/images/Girl%20Thinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.paradoxprevention.com/images/Girl%20Thinking.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h2>
<i></i></h2>
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h2>
<i>"Despite the ongoing
antics in Washington the market remains less than 5 points (at the time
of this writing) from its all-time closing high. If the markets were
concerned about economics, fundamentals or potential default, stock
prices would be significantly lower. The reality is that as long as the
Federal Reserve remains convicted to its accommodative policies the
argument for rationality is trumped by the delusions of Mo' Money." </i></h2>
The debt ceiling debate continues into
its third week as the impasse between the Democrats and Republicans
continues unabated. The latest proposal to lift the debt ceiling, fund
the government and repeal a portion of the <i>"sequester,"</i> in
exchange for a 2-year delay of the economically damaging medical device
tax, was soundly rejected by the White House on Friday. Furthermore,
the House Republicans have sent up 14 separate funding resolutions to
keep portions of the government operating which, likewise, have been
rejected by the Senate. This leaves the House Republicans, at this
point, held <i>"hostage"</i> by the administration for a funding bill that would be <i>"political suicide"</i> for the party as a whole.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, like any good drama on
television, we are now left waiting and watching for the next
advancement in the ever evolving political showdown in Washington. In
the meantime here are 5 things to ponder as the week progresses:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>1) Corporate Earnings Continue To Stall</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I recently discussed in <a href="http://stawealth.com/daily-x-change/1810-analyzing-earnings-as-of-q2-2013.html">analyzing Q2 earnings </a>that:</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"In
order for profitability to surge, despite rather weak revenue growth,
corporations have resorted to four primary weapons: wage reduction,
productivity increases, labor suppression and stock buybacks. The
problem is that each of these tools create a mirage of corporate
profitability. The problem, however, is that each of these not only
have a negative economic consequence but also suffer from diminishing
rates of return over time."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That problem continues to impact forward
expectations as hope meets the reality of a weak underlying economy.
Barclay's recently noted that even with earnings expectations being
ratcheted downwards heading into Q3 <b>only 52% have topped revenue estimates while the n</b><b>umber of companies beating expectations plunged to its lowest since Q1 2009.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a class="highslide ageent-ru" href="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1offthestreet/Goldman-PctCompaniesBeat-Earnings-10141.jpg" target="_blank" title="Goldman-PctCompaniesBeat-Earnings-10141"><img alt="Goldman-PctCompaniesBeat-Earnings-10141" class="i_want_img2" height="" src="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1offthestreet/Goldman-PctCompaniesBeat-Earnings-10141.jpg" width="547" /></a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This erosion in earnings and revenue continues to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the <i>"markets are cheap based on forward estimates"</i>
argument as trailing reporting valuations now encroach on levels that
are historically consistent with bull markets peaks rather than the
beginnings of new bull markets.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="highslide ageent-ru" href="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/S&P-500-PE-Reversions-101413-2.PNG" target="_blank" title="S&P-500-PE-Reversions-101413-2"><img alt="S&P-500-PE-Reversions-101413-2" class="i_want_img2" height="" src="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/S&P-500-PE-Reversions-101413-2.PNG" width="547" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>2) The Truth Behind Employment</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2013/10/14/both_sides_stretch_the_truth_about_obama_labor_market_100665.html">John Dorfman from Real Clear Markets</a>
recently discussed a topic near and dear to my heart which is the
analytical approach of evaluating employment in the U.S. He stated:</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"To
begin, the civilian population of the U.S. aged sixteen and over has
grown from 234.9 million people to 245.9 million. This is the universe
of people that we need to follow to see what has happened in the labor
market. That is, since the population of potential workers has grown by
11 million, the goal of this column is to determine where all 11 million
of those people went.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Based on the national labor force
participation rate, we would expect about 7.1 million of our 11 million
people to join the labor force, either as employed or unemployed.
Instead, the number of people in the labor force increased by only 1.3
million-from 154.2 to 155.5 million people. That is an enormous,
unanticipated change in the proportion of people in the labor force.
Whether the change is demographic, due to labor market conditions, or
caused by government policies, something unusual is going on."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The point here is that employment growth
is being driven by population growth rather than real aggregate demand
from the economy. This is a topic I have discussed at length in the
past in regards to<i><a href="http://stawealth.com/daily-x-change/1694-the-labor-hoarding-effect.html"> "labor hoarding:"</a></i></div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"As you can see there have been very few months since the turn of the century where employment has exceeded population growth.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>This explains two things:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>1) Why the employment to population ratio has plunged along with the labor force participation rate; and</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>2) That employment gains, so far,
have been a function of businesses hiring only to meet the demand
increases caused by an increase in population rather than from a growing
economy.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The latter point is very important and relates directly to an issue that has been lurking silently in the background called <b>"labor hoarding."</b></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="highslide ageent-ru" href="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/Employment-fulltime-joblessclaims-080213.PNG" target="_blank" title="Employment-fulltime-joblessclaims-080213"><img alt="Employment-fulltime-joblessclaims-080213" class="i_want_img2" height="" src="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/Employment-fulltime-joblessclaims-080213.PNG" width="547" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>3) "They're Back" - Consumer's Ramp Up Debt To Make Ends Meet</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After a very brief and forced
deleveraging, by default, bankruptcy and forgiveness, the consumer is
back ramping up credit. In an attempt to make ends meet, as wages have
remained stagnant while the cost of living has increased since the end
of the financial crisis, consumers are quickly reverting to old habits.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to a recent <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101103819">CNBC article</a>:</div>
<div class="group" style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"As Washington is struggling with
debt and all its political ramifications, American companies and
consumers are embracing it, running up record amounts in 2013.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Whether it's corporate loans, all
quality levels of bonds or simple consumer credit, the debt party is
back on in the U.S., whether it's in the boardroom or the living room."</i></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Consumer credit of $3.04 trillion as of Q2, +22% over past three years</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Student loans +66% over past three years</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Total household debt is $13 trillion, almost back to 2007 peak.</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Government debt almost $15 trillion</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Through September junk bond issuance is a record $372B, +27% y/y</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>US loan volume is $1.53 trillion through Q3. +25% y/y</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Globally, syndicated marketed loans hit $2.93 trillion Q3, +15% annualized gain</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>High-risk leveraged loans global volume hit $1.23 trillion, highest since 2007</i></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>4) Economic Growth At Risk Due To Shutdown</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have repeatedly warned since the beginning of this year that the economy was at <a href="http://stawealth.com/daily-x-change/1490-gdp-digging-into-the-unexpected-decline.html">risk of a recession</a> due to extremely weak underpinnings, however, I have been clear that recessions don't just <i>"occur"</i> but are triggered by some sort of catalyst.</div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"However,
it is also not an absolute certainty that the many individuals in the
'no recession' camp will be right either given the fact that the data
revisions to much of the 2012 economic data, which will come later this
year, will likely shown an economy that is much weaker than currently
estimated. As stated above there is very little 'wiggle room' for the
economy at this point to absorb much of a shock. With real final sales
plugging along at 1.9% and the output gap above 6% the slack in the
economy is huge. As a reminder these numbers are generally levels more
associated with recessions and not four years into a recovery.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>A recession will inevitably come it
is simply part of the economic and business cycle. The Fed may be able
to slow, or distort, economic cycles but they cannot repeal them
entirely. Whether a recession comes this year, or next, is largely
irrelevant the issue will be the damage caused to investors by the
impending reversion as reality collides with fantasy."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As noted by Goldman Sachs (<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-13/goldman-slashes-05-q4-growth-how-much-more-gdp-government-shutdown-pain-there">Via ZeroHedge</a>) the risk to the economy currently is the government shutdown itself:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"From October 1-4, we believe the
shutdown probably reduced federal compensation by roughly $400mn per
day. We would expect the non-compensation aspects of the initial stage
of the shutdown to have been very modest. Overall, the first four
business days of the shutdown probably reduced growth by 0.16pp.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Going forward, the effect that the
ongoing debate will have on growth will depend on whether the agreement
reached over the coming days is limited to only a short-term extension,
or if a longer-term (i.e., through 2014) resolution is achieved. It also
of course depends on whether the shutdown is ended over the coming
week. As noted earlier, at this stage the duration of the agreement is
unclear, but it seems increasingly likely that the shutdown will be
ended with the resolution of the debt limit. <b>If a longer-term
resolution can be reached over the coming days, we would expect the
downside risk from the fiscal debate to be limited to about 0.5pp in Q4,
compared to our current growth forecast of 2.5%" </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a class="highslide ageent-ru" href="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1offthestreet/Goldman-economic-forecast-shutdown-101413.jpg" target="_blank" title="Goldman-economic-forecast-shutdown-101413"><img alt="Goldman-economic-forecast-shutdown-101413" class="i_want_img2" height="" src="http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1offthestreet/Goldman-economic-forecast-shutdown-101413.jpg" width="547" /></a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>5) Is The Market Reaching Extremes</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
John Hussman wrote an <a href="http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc131014.htm">extremely good piece</a>
this week on the markets and the current extensions being driven by
aggressive monetary policy. However, he notes that monetary policy is
not what saved the markets from the financial crisis:</div>
<blockquote>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>"Suffice it to say that I consider the stock market to be near the highs of a decidedly unfinished cycle.</i></div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The upshot is
fairly simple. We presently observe both a hostile long-term outlook
from a valuation standpoint, and a hostile intermediate-term outlook
from an estimated return/risk standpoint. </i></div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>I continue to
believe that much of the impact of QE is based on superstition - the
result of investors misattributing the 2009 market rebound to monetary
policy. It's certainly true that replacing $3.6 trillion of
interest-bearing securities with zero-interest cash encourages investors
to reach for yield in riskier securities, <b>but that's not what
ended the crisis. In hindsight, the risk of widespread bank insolvency
ended the instant the Financial Accounting Standards Board relieved
banks of any need for balance-sheet transparency, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123867739560682309">deciding</a> in early-2009 to abandon mark-to-market accounting.</b>
Of course, it seems more heroic to attribute the recovery to courageous
monetary policy than to applaud a handful of bureaucrats with green
eyeshades for caving in to Congressional pressure and moving the banking
system that much closer to a Ponzi scheme."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
The entire piece is
worth reading but that single point is not something that should be
readily dismissed and should answer the question as to why JP Morgan and
Bank of America are still in business despite the fact they are
continually in litigation for shafting consumers, homeowners and
investors. </div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>It's 8:30am And The Market Don't Care</b></div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
Despite the ongoing
antics in Washington the market remains less than 5 points (at the time
of this writing) from its all-time closing high. If the markets were
concerned about economics, fundamentals or potential default; stock
prices would be significantly lower. The reality is that as long as the
Federal Reserve remains convicted to its accommodative policies the
argument for rationality is trumped by the delusions of <i>Mo' Money</i>. </div>
<div class="largeText" style="text-align: justify;">
We have seen these <i>"Teflon"</i> markets before - do I really need to remind you what happens to a Teflon pan when you finally scratch the surface?</div>
</div>
Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-25085588851591045242013-10-15T11:58:00.000-05:002013-10-15T11:58:26.813-05:0022 reasons you should be very concerned about the US economy<em>Submitted by Michael Snyder of <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/22-reasons-to-be-concerned-about-the-u-s-economy-as-we-head-into-the-holiday-season">The Economic Collapse blog</a>,</em><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/global-economic-collapse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/global-economic-collapse.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Are we on the verge of another major economic downturn? In recent
weeks, most of the focus has been on our politicians in Washington, but
there are lots of other reasons to be deeply alarmed about the economy
as well. Economic confidence is down, retail sales figures are
disappointing, job cuts are up, and American consumers are deeply
struggling. <strong>Even if our politicians do everything right, there
would still be a significant chance that we could be heading into tough
economic times in the coming months. </strong><br />
Our economy has been in decline for a very long time, and that
decline appears to be accelerating. There aren't enough jobs, the
quality of our jobs continues to decline, our economic infrastructure is
being systematically gutted, and poverty has been absolutely
exploding. Things have gotten so bad that former President Jimmy Carter
says that the middle class of today resembles those that were living in
poverty when he was in the White House. But this process has been
happening so gradually that most Americans don't even realize what has
happened. <strong>Our economy is being fundamentally transformed, and
the pace of our decline is picking up speed. The following are 22
reasons to be concerned about the U.S. economy as we head into the
holiday season...</strong><br />
<strong>#1</strong> According to <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/165287/weekly-drop-economic-confidence-largest-2008.aspx" target="_blank" title="Gallup">Gallup</a>, we have just seen the largest drop in U.S. economic confidence since 2008.<br />
<strong>#2</strong> Retailers all over America are reporting
disappointing sales figures, and many analysts are very concerned about
what the holiday season will bring. The following is an excerpt from a
recent <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-07/what-keeps-retailers-night" target="_blank" title="Zero Hedge article">Zero Hedge article</a>...<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Chico’s FAS [CHS] Earnings Call 8/28/13:</span><br />
<br />
“<strong>Traffic was our issue in quarter two.</strong> In a highly
promotional and challenging environment, comparable sales result was a
negative 2.6 percent on top of a positive 5.6 percent last year and a
positive 12.8 percent in 2011.”<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">William-Sonoma [WSM] Earnings Call 8/28/13: </span><br />
<br />
“<strong>The retail environment, it seems to indicate there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there,</strong> that the promotional environment has not gone away and that the<strong> retail environment in general continues to be choppy</strong>, especially with the recent earnings releases and this global unrest, and we just don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Zale Corp [ZLC] Earnings Call 8/28/13:</span><br />
<br />
“Overall,<strong> we continue to take a conservative view of market conditions in both the U.S. and in Canada.</strong> That being said, we do expect to continue to achieve positive top line growth. <strong>We expect store closures</strong>
will impact our overall revenue growth for the year by about 250 basis
points. It represents net closures of approximately 50 to 55 retail
locations.”<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">DSW Inc. [DSW] Earnings Call 8/27/13:</span><br />
<br />
“<strong>We did have a traffic decline in Q2, sort of similar to what just about every other retailer in America has reported</strong>.”<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Guess? [GES] Earnings Call 8/28/13: </span><br />
<br />
“The Korean business continued to be strong as revenue grew in the
high single digits in local currency during the quarter. This was offset
with the <strong>weakness from China, where we are seeing clear
evidence of a pullback in consumer spending behavior because of the
slowdown in the economy</strong>.”<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Aeropostale [ARO] Earnings Call 8/22/13:</span><br />
<br />
“Our business trends in the second quarter did not change materially
from earlier in the year, which was disappointing given the level of
change we registered with the brand. <strong>This performance in the
third quarter outlook is being influenced by a challenging retail
environment, with weak traffic trends and high levels of promotional
activity.</strong>”<br />
</blockquote>
<strong>#3</strong> Domestic vehicle sales just experienced their largest "miss" relative to expectations <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-01/domestic-vehicle-sales-plunge-miss-most-jan-2009" target="_blank" title="since January 2009">since January 2009</a>.<br />
<strong>#4</strong> One of the largest furniture manufacturers in America <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/09/furniture-brands-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy/2790369/" target="_blank" title="was just forced into bankruptcy">was recently forced into bankruptcy</a>.<br />
<strong>#5</strong> According to the Wall Street Journal, the 2013
holiday shopping season is already being projected to be the worst that
we have seen <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-17/holiday-shopping-season-set-worst-2009" target="_blank" title="since 2009">since 2009</a>.<br />
<strong>#6</strong> The Baltic Dry Index recently experienced the largest 4 day drop that we have seen <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-01/global-growth-hopes-fade-baltic-dry-drops-most-11-months" target="_blank" title="in 11 months">in 11 months</a>.<br />
<strong>#7</strong> Merck, one of the largest drug makers in the nation, has announced the elimination of <a href="http://todaynewsgazette.com/merck-layoffs-2013/" target="_blank" title="8,500 jobs">8,500 jobs</a>.<br />
<strong>#8</strong> Overall, corporations announced the elimination of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/03/us-usa-economy-jobs-challenger-idUSBRE9920EP20131003" target="_blank" title="387,384 jobs">387,384 jobs</a> through the first nine months of this year.<br />
<strong>#9</strong> The number of announced job cuts in September 2013 was <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/03/us-usa-economy-jobs-challenger-idUSBRE9920EP20131003" target="_blank" title="19 percent higher">19 percent higher</a> than the number of announced job cuts in September 2012.<br />
<strong>#10</strong> The labor force participation rate is the lowest that it has been <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/the_cold_hard_facts_of_obamas_economy.html" target="_blank" title="in 35 years">in 35 years</a>.<br />
<strong>#11</strong> As I mentioned <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/30-statistics-about-americans-under-the-age-of-30-that-will-blow-your-mind" title="the other day">the other day</a>, the labor force participation rate for men in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket is at <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-01/millennials-devastated-american-dream-becomes-nightmare-most" target="_blank" title="an all-time low">an all-time low</a>.<br />
<strong>#12</strong> Approximately <a href="http://www.moneynews.com/nealasbury/full-time-part-time-jobs-workers/2013/08/29/id/522850" target="_blank" title="one out of every four">one out of every four</a> part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.<br />
<strong>#13</strong> Incredibly, only <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/05/only-47-americans-have-full-time-job" target="_blank" title="47 percent">47 percent</a> of all adults in America have a full-time job at this point.<br />
<strong>#14</strong> U.S. consumer delinquencies are <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101094310" target="_blank" title="starting to rise again">starting to rise again</a>.<br />
<strong>#15</strong> The Postal Service recently <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/01/news/economy/postal-service-default/index.html?hpt=hp_t2" target="_blank" title="defaulted">defaulted</a> on a 5.6 billion dollar retiree health benefit payment.<br />
<strong>#16</strong> The national debt has increased <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/us-adds-two-times-more-debt-economic-output-last-2-years_762311.html" target="_blank" title="more than twice as fast">more than twice as fast</a> as U.S. GDP has grown over the past two years.<br />
<strong>#17</strong> Obamacare is causing health insurance premiums <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/thanks-to-obamacare-employer-based-health-insurance-is-becoming-an-endangered-species" title="to skyrocket">to skyrocket</a> and this is reducing the disposable income that consumers have available.<br />
<strong>#18</strong> Median household income in the United States has fallen <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/median-household-income-has-fallen-for-five-years-in-a-row" title="for five years in a row">for five years in a row</a>.<br />
<strong>#19</strong> The gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is at an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/median-income-falls-inequality_n_3941514.html" target="_blank" title="all-time record high">all-time record high</a>.<br />
<strong>#20</strong> Former President Jimmy Carter says that the
middle class in America has declined so dramatically that the middle
class of today resembles those that were living in poverty <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/jimmy-carter-middle-class/2941391/" target="_blank" title="when he was in the White House">when he was in the White House</a>.<br />
<strong>#21</strong> According to a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/164363/americans-struggle-afford-food.aspx?utm_source=add_this&utm_medium=addthis.com&utm_campaign=sharing#.UjGrlgn-GGQ.twitter" target="_blank" title="brand new Gallup poll">Gallup poll</a>
that was recently released, 20.0% of all Americans did not have enough
money to buy food that they or their families needed at some point over
the past year. That is just under the record of 20.4% that was set back
in November 2008.<br />
<strong>#22</strong> Right now, <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/23116928-20618000-households-food-stamps-now-outnumber-all-households" target="_blank" title="one out of every five">one out of every five</a>
households in the United States is on food stamps. There are going to
be a lot of struggling families out there this winter, so please be
generous with organizations that help the poor. A lot of people are
really going to need their help during the cold months ahead.Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-38595806978422398742013-10-15T11:43:00.001-05:002013-10-15T11:43:23.554-05:00Wesley Pruden: Are the blind eyes of America's Left-wing "intellectuals" finally opening up about Obama?<i><b>Courtesy of washingtontimes.com</b></i><br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Why are intellectuals, sometimes the most intelligent among us, so dumb?<br />
<br />
This is the question that confounds everyone; some intellectuals most of all. The late <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/william-f-buckley-jr/">William F. Buckley Jr.</a>,
a certified egghead, once said he would rather be governed by the first
50 names in the Boston telephone book than by the professors at <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/harvard/">Harvard</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Another
wit observes that an intellectual is someone who so prefers theory over
experience that he would sit down on a red-hot stove, twice. You can be
too smart for your own good, and have the blisters on your bottom to
prove it.<br />
<br />
The intellectual romance with the clever <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/">Barack Obama</a> continues. Having invested so much in candy and flowers, they must ignore all the evidence of being dumped.<br />
<br />
<br />
His
cultivated demeanor and carefully applied patina of synthetic
sophistication, fraudulent as it may be, is what attracted the adoration
of intellectuals from across the political spectrum in 2008, says <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/charles-murray/">Charles Murray</a>, the social scientist and an intellectual with impressive books, studies and learned papers. He admits that he’s a dumpee.<br />
<br />
<br />
“It’s
kind of embarrassing to admit it,” he tells an interviewer for the
website Daily Caller, “but I responded in part to his rhetoric because
he talks just like me.<br />
<br />
<br />
“It’s his whole way of presentation of self
… of a little self-deprecation in the argument and picking out a nuance
here, which is all the ways that we overeducated people have been
socialized in the same way. It’s the way we carry on discourse. Along
with [seeing] what was a very engaging personality, I kind of ignored
things which … a lot of working-class people glommed onto right away.”<br />
<br />
Working-class stiffs, the people an earlier generation of political scientists called “<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/john-q-public/">Joe Sixpack</a>,” having earned their blisters and calluses by heavy lifting, are too smart to take a seat on the red-hot stove even once.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="pagebreak"></a><br />
<br />
Having
been to some big towns and heard some big talk, they were too smart by
miles to be taken in by a smooth-talking butter and egg man from
Chicago.<br />
<br />
“It’s not that I think he is not a patriot,” says <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/charles-murray/">Mr. Murray</a>,
“but remember the line, he said, ‘You didn’t build that.’ No American
is going to think you can say that, no matter what your political views
are, because it’s just disastrous to say that. He is clueless about this
country in some profoundly disturbing ways.”<br />
<br />
How could he not be
clueless about his native land, when he absorbed anti-American venom in
his tender and formative years as a child in the Third World? He was
deprived of the instincts and cultural intuitions that are the native
son’s birthright.<br />
<br />
No other American president in anyone’s
imagination would instruct the National Park Service to evict veterans
of World War II, many arriving in wheelchairs or moving with unsteady
gait on walkers and walking canes to see the long-awaited memorial to
the celebration and sacrifice of their unselfish generation.<br />
<br />
The veterans had run afoul of the instructions to the Park Service rangers to “make life as difficult for people as we can.”<br />
<br />
Then,
only days later, thousands of illegal aliens were invited to rally for
privilege and amnesty on the very soil where the veterans, American
citizens all, were forcibly told they were not welcome.<br />
<br />
Presidents
of all stripes usually think they’re special and should be treated that
way. But no president before him has guarded his privacy like President
<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/">Obama</a>.<br />
<br />
He
constructed his personal history with a ghost-written autobiography and
refused to answer questions. He let speculation about his birthplace
fester for months, stretching into years, before producing the evidence
that put the questions to rest.<br />
<br />
This raised no questions from the intellectual class. Why would he have done that?<br />
<br />
Inquiring minds didn’t want to know. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/">Mr. Obama</a>’s obsessive protection of personal privacy, however, does not extend to everyone else.<br />
<br />
The
government eavesdropping on telephone calls, the collection of Internet
correspondence, the probing into everyone’s underwear at the airport is
OK.<br />
<br />
The private man in the White House says so.<br />
<br />
So, too,
the intimate and intrusive questions asked by the health care schemers,
backed by the weight and authority of the Internal Revenue Service.
Inquiring intellectual minds don’t want to know about that, either.<br />
<br />
Fortunately
for all of us, the working-class stiffs, often untutored and even crude
in their impolite and impolitic curiosity, continue to “glom” onto the
holes in the story of how he would be “the uniting president” of “hope
and change.”<br />
<br />
His approval ratings have dropped into the 30 percent range. Obamacare now frightens most of us.<br />
<br />
The fraud and misrepresentation recognized years ago by <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/john-q-public/">Joe Sixpack</a> and his buddies is writ so large now that even an egghead can see it.<br />
<br />
<em>Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times.</em><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<br />Read more: <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/14/pruden-frying-eggheads-on-a-hot-stove/#ixzz2hoEoQJ00" style="color: #003399;">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/14/pruden-frying-eggheads-on-a-hot-stove/#ixzz2hoEoQJ00</a>
<br />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=ctd-fI3Dar4z1uacwqm_6r&u=washtimes" target="_blank">@washtimes on Twitter</a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-38120918732532368572013-10-15T10:42:00.000-05:002013-10-15T10:42:19.901-05:00Obama reduced to making snadwiches: The overthrow of Barack Obama by the last bastion of the Status Quo elites<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/321012/slide_321012_3006511_free.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/321012/slide_321012_3006511_free.jpg" width="610" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Reduced to making sandwiches - this is what Obama did while the congressional elites met to work out some kind of budget agreement. The fact that Obama was not involved shows that he is now irrelevant to running America; this is a type of coup overthrowing him and revealing who really holds the power in DC.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
If you didn't catch the story about Obama showing up at a volunteer
sandwich making charity, you missed the most incredible statement of
what Obama has become in the American political system.<br />
<br />
That he was outside the WH while budget warfare reigned on Capitol Hill tells you Obama is now completely irrelevant.<br />
<br />
They got rid of him because he is useless. If he had a part to play,
he would be in the negotiations - he doesn't have a part to play because
when things get serious, the elites know they have to get the
incompetent Obama out of the picture to get anything done.<br />
<br />
For all practical purposes this is the overthrow of Obama as
president. From this point forward, the new rulers are the Capitol Hill
elites. This is a subtle, but important coup against Obama.<br />
<br />
Now we contend with the last bastion of the Status Quo. The facade is
stripped away; what everyone always knew was true about his
incompetence is laid bare for all to see.<br />
<br />
The congressional elites now run the game, and Obama will do whatever
they tell him to do - including getting out of town so the adults can
get the nation's work done.<br />
-30-Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-74552611677198420892013-10-07T15:46:00.000-05:002013-10-07T15:46:10.023-05:00Al Sharpton getting targeted for Black Racist hate-speech with advertisers' boycott<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/085DHngdDx0?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe><br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-69997839032052546182013-10-07T15:44:00.000-05:002013-10-07T15:44:02.953-05:00The most transparant? Team Obama rules over a Reign of Fear against its former presstitute lapdogs<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://nypost.com/">nypost.com</a></b></i><br />
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<br />
<br />
Many reporters covering national security and government policy in
Washington these days are taking precautions to keep their sources from
becoming casualties in the Obama administration’s war on leaks. They and
their remaining government sources often avoid phone conversations and
e-mail exchanges, arranging furtive one-on-one meetings instead.<br />
<br />
“We have to think more about when we use cellphones, when we use
e-mail and when we need to meet sources in person,” said Michael
Oreskes, senior managing editor of the Associated Press. “We need to be
more and more aware that government can track our work without talking
to our reporters, without letting us know.”<br />
<br />
These concerns, expressed by numerous journalists I interviewed, are
well-founded. Relying on the 1917 Espionage Act, which was rarely
invoked before President Obama took office, this administration has
secretly used the phone and e-mail records of government officials and
reporters to identify and prosecute government sources for
national-security stories.<br />
<br />
Just two weeks ago, the Justice Department announced that Donald
Sachtleben, a former FBI bomb technician who had also worked as a
contractor for the bureau, had agreed to plead guilty to “unlawfully
disclosing national-defense information relating to a disrupted
terrorist plot” in Yemen last year.<br />
<br />
“Sachtleben was identified as a suspect in the case of this
unauthorized disclosure” to an Associated Press reporter, according to
the announcement, “only after toll records for phone numbers related to
the reporter were obtained through a subpoena and compared to other
evidence collected during the leak investigation.”<br />
<br />
Times reporter Scott Shane, whose e-mail traffic with a former CIA
officer was subpoenaed and seized, told me that the chilling lesson “is
that seemingly innocuous e-mails not containing classified information
can be construed as a crime.”<br />
<br />
Six government employees and two contractors, including fugitive NSA
contractor Edward Snowden, have been prosecuted since 2009 under the
Espionage Act for providing information to reporters.<br />
<br />
Many of the leakers could be characterized as whistleblowers rather
than spies; they publicized actions for which the government should be
held accountable. But the Obama administration has drawn a dubious
distinction between whistleblowing that reveals bureaucratic waste or
fraud, and leaks to the news media about unexamined secret government
policies and activities; it punishes the latter as espionage.<br />
<br />
After The New York Times published a 2012 story by David Sanger about
covert cyberattacks by the United States and Israel against Iran’s
nuclear enrichment facilities, federal prosecutors and the FBI
questioned scores of officials throughout the government who were
identified in computer analyses of phone, text and e-mail records as
having contact with Sanger.<br />
<br />
“A memo went out from the chief of staff a year ago to White House
employees and the intelligence agencies that told people to freeze and
retain any e-mail, and presumably phone logs, of communications with
me,” Sanger said. As a result, longtime sources no longer talk to him.
“They tell me: ‘David, I love you, but don’t e-mail me. Let’s don’t chat
until this blows over.’ ”<br />
<br />
Sanger, who has worked for the Times in Washington for two decades,
said, “This is the most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever
covered.”<br />
<br />
“Reporters are interviewing sources through intermediaries now,”
Washington Post national news editor Cameron Barr told me, “so the
sources can truthfully answer on polygraphs that they didn’t talk to
reporters.”<br />
<br />
A November presidential memorandum instructed all government
departments and agencies to set up pervasive “Insider Threat Programs”
to monitor employees with access to classified information and to
prevent “unauthorized disclosure,” including to the media.<br />
<br />
At the same time, revelations in the documents Snowden provided about
the NSA’s collection, storage and searches of phone, text and e-mail
data have added to the fear surrounding contacts between reporters and
sources.<br />
<br />
“People think they’re looking at reporters’ records,” Post
national-security reporter Dana Priest told me. “I’m writing fewer
things in e-mail. I’m even afraid to tell officials what I want to talk
about because it’s all going into one giant computer.”<br />
<br />
Will Obama recognize that all this threatens his often-stated but
unfulfilled goal of making government more transparent and accountable?
None of the Washington news media veterans I talked to were optimistic.<br />
-30- <br />
<br />
Leonard Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Washington Post,
is a professor of journalism at Arizona State University. This article
is based on his report “The Obama Administration and the Press,”
forthcoming from the Committee to Protect Journalists. From The
Washington Post.Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-69395487789859073502013-10-07T15:36:00.000-05:002013-10-07T15:36:06.122-05:00NY Giants so bad - they are even being banned from the TV at a downtown strip club<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://cbslocal.com/">CBSLocal.com</a></b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
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You know it’s bad when a strip joint doesn’t even offer solace.
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The Giants are the talk of the town these days, <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/?p=746249" title="LISTEN: Francesa Calls G-Men ‘Embarrassing, Ridiculous, Infuriating, Frustrating’">but for no reasons good</a>. At 0-5 and with their season looking more and more like a train wreck with each passing day, <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/10/07/giants-tuck-after-dropping-to-0-5-we-deserve-to-get-booed/" title="Giants’ Tuck After Dropping To 0-5: ‘We Deserve To Get Booed’">they are drawing the ire of their fans</a> and are becoming the butt of certain jokes usually reserved for the Jets.<br />
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Now, as if things couldn’t possibly get worse, they are banned from the airwaves at a popular gentleman’s club in Manhattan.<br />
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Yes, it’s true. We swear.<br />
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Following Big Blue’s bad <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/10/07/philly-backup-nick-foles-leads-eagles-past-winless-giants-36-21/" title="Philly Backup Nick Foles Leads Eagles Past Winless Giants 36-21">36-21 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday</a>,
Rick’s Cabaret, a Midtown strip club, decided it would not show Giants
games on its many high-definition and big screen TVs for the rest of the
season, the NY Post reported.<br />
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“After five straight losses, the crowd turned and started booing the
TVs. The girls had to work extra hard. We are the first club to ban the
Giants,” club spokesperson Lonnie Hanover told the Post.<br />
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The Giants are one of four winless teams in the NFL and could easily
be 0-6 by the end of Thursday night’s game in Chicago against the Bears
(3-2), who are very talented but have lost two in a row.<br />
The employees at Rick’s told the Post it’s hard out there when the Giants leave their clientele feeling blue.<br />
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“It has become too painful to watch the Giants lose week after week,” Rick’s Cabaret Girl “Monica” told the newspaper.<br />
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“Nobody throws a party better than Rick’s Cabaret. We are all about
fun, and it’s no fun watching the Giants anymore,” added Rick’s Cabaret
Girl “Lindsay.” “We love the Giants, but they get the crowd at our
weekend football viewing parties all depressed.”<br />
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“Alexandra” said everything was fine Sunday, until the Giants allowed the Eagles to score 17 unanswered points to end the game.<br />
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“There’s like a hundred sexy, topless girls here and everyone was
exceedingly happy until it became clear during the second half that Eli
Manning and the Giants were going to lose again,” she told the Post.<br />
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Hanover, the club’s spokesman, said the establishment just feels the customer is always right.<br />
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“We are responding to our audience wishes. We support (the Giants)
and we wish them well,” Hanover told the Post. “We will continue to show
all other NFL teams and sporting contests on our TVs.”Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-2698719345266160712013-10-07T15:12:00.001-05:002013-10-07T15:12:44.664-05:00Retro: When Obama opposed rasing the debt limit - it was Bush's fault<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/Obama%20Debt%20Ceiling.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/10/Obama%20Debt%20Ceiling.JPG" width="360" /></a></div>
<br />Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-30153861580388648512013-10-07T15:08:00.000-05:002013-10-07T15:08:26.707-05:00State Dept. begins to admit link between Benghazi and Al Qaeda - was Obama funneling arms to declared enemies of the United States - committing treason?<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://thedailybeast.com/">thedailybeast.com</a></b></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7J-egbmshqRRabcgfTsNsFzMNqeDZGphvXrtst3f2ECg1B57iLk4DuQHks1-0YTjK2XKbbunRe8Eev8xzmDPeI4Xkd0Y3QlXvCwzwWErCAalU8VqJE5deaqwETL7tQnUjKXO2g/s1600/benghazi+blood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7J-egbmshqRRabcgfTsNsFzMNqeDZGphvXrtst3f2ECg1B57iLk4DuQHks1-0YTjK2XKbbunRe8Eev8xzmDPeI4Xkd0Y3QlXvCwzwWErCAalU8VqJE5deaqwETL7tQnUjKXO2g/s640/benghazi+blood.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The U.S. government is now acknowledging, at least indirectly, a
significant al Qaeda connection to the 9-11 anniversary attacks on the
U.S. mission and CIA station in Benghazi.<br />
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On Monday, the State Department
designated the Mohammed Jamal Network (MJN) and its founder, Mohammed
Jamal as terrorists. The Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444549204578020373444418316.html">first reported</a>
on October 1, 2012 that fighters affiliated with MJN participated in
the Benghazi attacks. The Daily Beast and other news outlets have since
confirmed the report.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="body_text2" style="visibility: hidden;"></a><div class="text parbase section">
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Seth
Jones, the associate director for the international security and
defense policy center at the RAND Corporation, told the Daily Beast,
“There was at least one member and may have been more members from the
Mohammed Jamal network on the compound for the attack on Benghazi along
with members of Ansar al-Sharia and members of al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb.”<br />
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The
designation released Monday from the State Department does not mention
the network’s role in Benghazi. It does state that Jamal has been in
close contact with al Qaeda leaders since he traveled to Afghanistan in
the late 1980s. When Jamal returned to Egypt in the early 1990s he
became the operational commander for Egyptian Islamic Jihad. At the time
the group was led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is currently the leader of
al Qaeda.<br />
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Jamal’s
relationship with al-Zawahiri continued until at least 2012. When he
was arrested, Egyptian authorities found correspondence with the al
Qaeda leader on Jamal'ss laptop computer. The designation says in this
correspondence “Jamal asked for assistance and described MJN’s
activities, including acquiring weapons, conducting terrorist training,
and establishing terrorist groups in the Sinai.” The contents of the
seized laptop was first reported by an Egyptian newspaper and later
confirmed and published by <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/02/communications_with.php">the Long War Journal</a>, a website that closely monitors U.S. counter-terrorism activities.<br />
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Jones
said the Jamal network’s relationship to al Qaeda had been widely known
in counter-terrorism circles. “What’s new is that the government is
making it explicit and public that the Jamal network is linked to al
Qaeda,” Jones said.</div>
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The
State Department’s designation says Jamal formed the network in 2011
after he was released from an Egyptian prison during the country’s
revolution. It says that his network received funding from al Qaeda’s
Yemen affiliate and that Jamal himself has used that affiliate to
“smuggle fighters into training camps.” It also says suicide bombers
have trained at MJN traning camps and that Jamal has “established links
with terrorists in Europe.”</div>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="body_text7" style="visibility: hidden;"></a><div class="text parbase section">
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The
Obama administration has been reluctant to publicly draw a direct
connection to al Qaeda and the assault on September 11, 2012 that killed
Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. It took nearly two
weeks for the White House to<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/26/u-s-officials-knew-libya-attacks-were-work-of-al-qaeda-affiliates.html%20."> acknowledge the attacks were terrorism</a>.<br />
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The
unclassified version of the State Department’s Accountability Review
Board, the only official assessment of the attacks from the Obama
administration, makes two mentions of al Qaeda in the report. On page 15
it says the attacks took place as al Qaeda’s influence was rising in
eastern Libya. On <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323501404578165670317964006.html">page 2 it says</a>,
“The Benghazi attacks also took place in a context in which the global
terrorism threat as most often represented by al Qaeda (AQ) is
fragmenting and increasingly devolving to local affiliates and other
actors who share many of AQ’s aims, including violent anti-Americanism,
without necessarily being organized or operated under direct AQ command
and control.”</div>
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Rep.
Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah whose House subcommittee has
investigated the Benghazi attacks for more than a year, said the
designation Monday “draws the link closer to al Qaeda.” He added, “For a
long time the Obama administration would not even acknowledge al
Qaeda’s presence in Libya, obviously they were there and they were
active. I am glad he is now designated as a terrorist.” But he said it
begs the question why Benghazi was not mentioned in the designation of
Jamal and his network. </div>
Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18101273.post-59962641960729252562013-10-07T14:55:00.003-05:002013-10-07T14:55:54.997-05:00Truck drivers say, "Enough!" - plan to shut down DC beltway, "arrest" congress members Oct. 11<i><b>Courtesy of <a href="http://usnews.com/">usnews.com</a></b></i><br />
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Tractor-trailer drivers will intentionally clog the inner loop of the
Washington, D.C., beltway beginning on the morning of Oct. 11,
according to a coordinator of the upcoming "Truckers Ride for the
Constitution" rally.<br />
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Organizers of the three-day ride want to call attention to a litany
of trucker frustrations and express their disapproval of national
political leaders.<br />
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Earl Conlon, a Georgia trucker who is handling logistics for the
protest, told U.S. News tractor-trailer drivers will circle the beltway
"three lanes deep" as he rides with other participants to Congress to
seek the arrest of congressmen for allegedly disregarding the
Constitution.<br />
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[<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/30/dc-shutdown-is-full-speed-ahead-say-organizers-of-trucker-protest"><strong>EARLIER:</strong> Truckers Say Their D.C. Shutdown Is Full-Speed Ahead</a>]<br />
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The truckers circling I-495 will keep the left lane open for
emergency vehicles, Conlon said, but "everybody that doesn't have a
supporter sticker on their window, good luck: Nobody in, nobody out."
The trucks will be going the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit.<br />
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D.C. commuters who wish to be allowed past the convoy must have
"T2SDA" – an acronym for the event's original name, "Truckers to Shut
Down America" – written on their vehicle, he said.<br />
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"It's going to be real fun for anyone who is not a supporter," Conlon
said, "[and] if cops decide to give us a hard time, we're going to lock
the brakes up, we're going to stop right there, we're going to be a
three lane roadblock."<br />
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Zeeda Andrews, a former country music singer helping promote the protest, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/30/dc-shutdown-is-full-speed-ahead-say-organizers-of-trucker-protest">said last week</a>
participants would present demands to congressmen – including the
impeachment of President Barack Obama – and give the congressmen an
opportunity to agree to the demands in exchange for canceling the ride.<br />
<br />
[<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/10/2-million-bikers-snaking-toward-dc-can-parade-without-paperwork"><strong>RELATED:</strong> In D.C., You Can Parade Without Paperwork</a>]<br />
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But Conlon says that's not quite right.<br />
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"We are not going to ask for impeachment," Conlon said. "We are
coming whether they like it or not. We're not asking for impeachment,
we're asking for the arrest of everyone in government who has violated
their oath of office."<br />
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Conlon cited the idea of a citizens grand jury – meaning a pool of
jurors convened without court approval – as the mechanism for indicting
the officials.<br />
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"We want these people arrested, and we're coming in with the grand
jury to do it," he said. "We are going to ask the law enforcement to
uphold their constitutional oath and make these arrests. If they refuse
to do it, by the power of the people of the United States and the
people's grand jury, they don't want to do it, we will. ... We the
people will find a way."<br />
<br />
[<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/11/2-million-bikers-christian-activists-confront-911-gathering-formerly-called-the-million-muslim-march"><strong>FLASHBACK:</strong> Bikers and Christians Confront 9/11 Protest</a>]<br />
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It's almost certain that anyone attempting to "arrest" a member of
Congress would be arrested themselves for attempted kidnapping.<br />
<br />
Conlon and Andrews say Obama committed "treason" by allegedly
funneling weapons to al-Qaida-linked rebels in Syria. Members of
Congress who support arming Syrian rebels, Conlon said, are accessories
to the alleged crime. He identified House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as politicians he will
seek to arrest for alleged acts against the Constitution.<br />
<br />
Andrews said last week 3,000 truckers had RSVP-ed to the event, and
Conlon says he's now lost count of the number. He says he's receiving
around 100 emails a day from prospective participants.<br />
<br />
"What we want to do is go in nice and peaceful and keep it as
peaceful as possible... but if they decide to get ugly with us we're
going to do what we have to do," he said. "If all I get is one or two
congressmen walked out of there in handcuffs, that will be a shot across
the bow that will ripple across all branches of government. ... I hope
they are all civil enough and brave enough to step out onto the
congressional steps."Kenneth E. Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630352227473073379noreply@blogger.com0