In addition to having to pay back all of the money borrowed/printed by the Obama administration, we get to enjoy the effects of degraded dollar buying power in the form of higher prices for just about everything we use and consume.  While the state owned media and the Obama administration claim inflation is a non issue, prices of commodities tell a different story.  Below you will see another cost of bailing out banks and crony companies through the issuance of trillions of debt.

It’s not the speculators, it’s dollar degradation due to Obama’s failed monetary policy.  If it’s speculators, then they’re speculating on just about every commodity.  In my view, if there is anything that the speculators are betting on it’s more printing from this administration, which would be the reason for even more price increases.

With Gingrich’s new found popularity, it appears the GOP is on the verge of or at the very least, entertaining the idea of nominating another Republican in name only.  You would think the GOP learned from nominating RINO John McCain in 2008.

The only two things I need to know about Gingrich is he lobbied for the financial cesspools and tax payer leeches, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that he supports amnesty for illegal aliens.  The reasons on the  “why not Newt” list far exceed these but these are enough in and of themselves.  Gingrich is exactly what this country doesn’t need at this critical juncture in our history.

Today’s farcical unemployment report has a lot of people scratching their heads.  It’s a farce not because of how the rate is calculated, but because the media and the Obama administration are presenting the report as some sort of indication that the economy and job market are improving significantly.

Many people don’t understand how the unemployment rate can go down just because the Labor Force has been reduced.  Well here is how it works and it shows why most if not all reductions in the unemployment rate to date, are due to people giving up looking for work, thus reducing the labor force and not due to job creation.  Which of course, is what it’s all about.

First lets start with the formula used to determine the unemployment rate.  You can get this info from many sources, including the BLS but I chose a source that explains it simply. From ehow.com…

The formula for calculating the unemployment rate (expressed as a percent) is as follows:
Unemployment Rate = (Unemployed Workers / Total Labor Force) * 100

Here’s an example from the same site…

For example: A small country has a population of 15,000 people. Of the total population, 12,000 people are in the labor force and 11,500 people are employed. What is the unemployment rate? First, find the number of unemployed by subtracting the number of employed (11,500) from the labor force (12,000). So, 12,000-11,500=500. Therefore, 500 people are unemployed. Now, to find the unemployment rate, plug the numbers into the formula: Unemployment Rate = (500/12,000)*100 = 4.2 percent.

To keep things simple, let’s use their numbers but let’s reduce the labor force by 200.

Population = 15,000

Labor Force = 11,800 (12,000 – 200 = 11,800)

Employed people remain at 11,500 (no jobs added or subtracted)

Labor force minus employed people = 300 (11,800 – 11,500)

300 (unemployed people)/11,800 (labor force) = .0254 x 100 = 2.54% Unemployment rate.

So as you can see, the act of reducing the labor force alone will reduce the unemployment rate.  In the example above, reducing the labor force by 200 decreased the unemployment rate by 1.66% to 2.54%.

This illustrates how labor force reductions can be the primary reason for the unemployment rate reductions thus far.  It becomes the primary reason when the jobs created thus far are incapable of moving the unemployment rate lower to the extent it has.  Which has been the case thus far in Obama’s depression.

Today’s .5% drop in the unemployment rate was primarily due to the 315,000 reduction in the labor force not job creation, the latter being what the Obama administration would like you to believe.  So in essence, this failed administration has reduced the unemployment rate not by creating jobs but by manipulating the size of the labor force.  And he’s able to reduce the labor force figures because hundreds of thousands of people have given up looking for a job.  Get it?

A quick cruise around the internet will reveal a plethora of Black Friday/all is well media hype.  Meanwhile we have thousands of children and entire families who don’t have homes to call their own.  That is unless you consider a box delivery truck or Ford Taurus a home.  This, to me, is totally unacceptable for what is supposed to be the greatest nation on the face of the earth.  All is far from well in America.  Just ask the kids in this CBS 60 Minutes Video.

The video is heart wrenching.  Children shouldn’t have to live this way.  Parents should be able to parent.

The next time you read or hear “everything is fine and looking good”, remember these people.  When a family laments not having an I-Pad or the newest phone, show them this video.  Hopefully they will see the folly of their ways.

The outrage here is while we have entire families living in cars with little or no assistance available, the criminal entities that caused our economic meltdown are showered with $7.7 Trillion in taxpayer money.  We no longer have a government by the people and for the people. If this doesn’t change quickly, we won’t have America anymore.  Perhaps we don’t already.

He spear headed a campaign that resulted in over a thousand convictions as a result of the Savings and Loan crisis of the late eighties.  According to Black, this scandal is seventy times the size of the Savings and Loan crisis and we have had zero convictions to date.

In an effort to counter the mainstream media’s attempt to hide and disparage Ron Paul, I’m posting his latest campaign video here.  As it stands right now, Ron Paul is the best of the GOP offerings.  Not only will he beat Obama, he will stand against the political establishment and return the country back to the people.

Even Jon Stewart sees the hiding…

It’s been a long time since I posted last.  Truth be known, I’m disgusted and a tad depressed.  None the less I came across a must read article that I thought needed more exposure.  Hat tip to ZeroHedge and cross posted in it’s entirety.

Guest Post: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Part 3

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/16/2011 18:55 -0400

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Part 3

“You see in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.” – Blondie – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

“There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend. Those who have a rope around their neck and those who have the job of doing the cutting.” – Tuco – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The economic peril that we find ourselves confronted with, has been ninety-eight years in the making. The confluence of debt, demographics, delusion, and denial has left the country at the precipice of annihilation. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who control the money and those that are controlled by those who control the money. The last century has been marked by a methodical looting of the good (working middle class) by the bad (Federal Reserve & bankers) and supported by the ugly (Washington D.C. politicians). When historians pinpoint the year in which the Great American Empire began its downward spiral they will conclude that year to be 1913. In this dark year for the Republic, slimy politicians, at the behest of the biggest bankers in the country, created a private central bank that has since controlled the currency of the United States. This same Congress staked their claim as the most damaging group of politicians in US history by passing the personal income tax in the same year. These two acts unleashed the two headed monster of inflation and taxation on the American people.

The government began keeping official track of inflation in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was created. The CPI on January 1, 1914 was 10.0. The CPI on January 1, 2011 was 220.2. This means that a man’s suit that cost $10 in 1913 would cost $220 today, a 2,172% increase in ninety-eight years. This is a 95.6% loss in purchasing power of the dollar.  The average American does not understand the insidious nature of central bank created inflation. It makes you think you are wealthier while you are driven into abject poverty. The Federal Reserve and politicians have pulled the wool over your eyes. The CPI was 30.9 in 1964. Today, it is 223.5. This means prices have risen 723% since 1964. The only problem is your wages have not risen at the same rate, even using the government manipulated CPI. Using a true CPI figure, average weekly earnings are 64% below what they were in 1964. This explains why a family of five could live well with one parent working in 1964, but even with both parents working and accumulating debt in prodigious amounts, the average family cannot live as well today.

It is not a coincidence that the percentage of the working age population employed bottomed in 1964 at 59%. The participation rate rose steadily for the next thirty six years, topping out in 2000 at 67.1%. The employment to population ratio also bottomed at 55% in 1964. It rose to 64.4% by 2000. It seems that future historians will mark the year 2000 as the peak of the American Empire. Apologists for the Federal Reserve and politicians who have steered this country since 1964 would argue the increase in the percentage of the population working was a positive development. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The American middle class was forced to send both parents into the workforce just to keep up with the ever declining real weekly earnings. The Federal Reserve created inflation has methodically destroyed the American dream for the middle class. As both parents had to go into the workforce, American children were left to fend for themselves or be raised by strangers in daycare centers. The pressure of trying to keep up with inflation strained families to the breaking point. The number of divorces per thousand marriages was 10 in the early 1960s. It more than doubled to 22.6 by 1980 and still resides at 17 today. There are many factors for the disintegration of the traditional family unit, but the financial strain on families to maintain a consistent standard of living due to relentless inflation has been a key factor.

From the founding of our country there had been constant conflict between corrupt bankers trying to control the currency of the nation to further their own enrichment at the expense of the people and a few courageous leaders willing to fight them. The bankers won the century old battle in 1913.

Den of Vipers & Thieves

“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank…You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the Eternal, I will rout you out.” - Andrew Jackson

The First Bank of the United States was created in 1791. Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury, proposed this bank and convinced a hesitant President Washington to agree. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were against the concept. It favored the moneyed classes of the North versus the agrarian South. The bank was given a 20 year charter and President James Madison let it expire in 1811. He understood the true nature of the banking interests:

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance”.

Madison had to renew the charter in 1816 as the War of 1812 resulted in large government debts. Politicians always turn to bankers when funding wars and programs to get them re-elected. As usual, once unshackled, the bankers immediately caused a boom through their loose monetary policies. The Bank created a fake boom by 1818 through its reckless lending, which encouraged speculation in land. This lending allowed almost anyone to borrow money and speculate in land, sometimes doubling or even tripling the prices of land (remind you of another time in recent history?). In the summer of 1818, the national bank managers realized the bank’s massive over-extension, and instituted a policy of contraction and the calling in of loans. This recalling of loans simultaneously curtailed land sales and slowed the U.S. production boom due to the recovery of Europe. The result was the Panic of 1819. There was a wave of bankruptcies, bank failures, and bank runs; prices dropped and wide-scale urban unemployment struck the country. By 1819 many Americans did not have enough money to pay off their property loans. Do you see any difference between 1816 – 1819 and 2005 – 2011? Central banks don’t eliminate financial panics, they cause them. Booms and busts have always existed. They have become more common and extreme since the unleashing of greedy corrupt central bankers in the U.S., going back two centuries.

Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson became President in 1829 and proceeded to declare war on the Second National Bank. He was the first and only President in U.S. history to pay off the National Debt. He worked tirelessly to rescind the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. His reasons for abolishing the bank were:

• It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.
• It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
• It served mainly to make the rich richer.
• It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
• It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.

President Jackson believed that only Congress should be responsible for the issuance and control of the currency. Delegating that duty to powerful New York bankers was distasteful to him:

“If Congress has the right to issue paper money, it was given to them to be used … and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations”

President Jackson vetoed the extension of their bank charter in 1832. He redirected government tax revenue to other state banks.  The Second Bank of the United States was left with little money and, in 1836, its charter expired and it turned into an ordinary bank. Five years later, the former Second Bank of the United States went bankrupt. Those who believe that a central bank is essential to economic progress need to examine the “free banking” period from 1837 to 1861. In the last five years of the Second Bank’s existence prices rose by 28%. Over the next 25 years, prices in the U.S. fell by 11%. We experienced the dreaded deflation. Did deflation destroy America? Not quite. GDP grew from $1.5 billion in 1836 to $4.6 billion in 1861. Deflation is only fatal to debtors. Inflation is the friend of lenders and the moneyed classes.

The American Civil War brought about the National Banking Act of 1863, which created a network of national banks. Politicians always need bankers to fight their wars and Abraham Lincoln was no different. By 1870 there were 1,638 national banks. This did not eliminate the booms and busts that punctuate human history, but the booms and busts were not scientifically created by a small cabal of bankers. With thousands of banks, those who made bad lending decisions failed. The economy withstood the periodic panics and continued to grow. The GDP of the U.S. grew from $7.6 billion in 1863 to $39 billion by 1913, with virtually no inflation. The Federal government ran surpluses or very small deficits during this entire time period. These facts refute the argument that a strong central bank was necessary to keep our economic system operating smoothly. It seems the Big Lie was not invented by the Nazis.

Creature from Jekyll Island – Control the Money, Control the Country

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” – President Woodrow Wilson

Any impartial assessment of inflation throughout the history of the United States confirms that from the beginning of our nation through the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the Industrial Revolution, the country experienced virtually no inflation as bankers were kept from controlling the U.S. currency and our legal tender was backed by gold. The creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the closing of the gold window by Richard Nixon in 1971 unleashed a tsunami of inflation that continues to inundate our country today, killing the once prosperous middle class.

The Rothschilds of London understood that a fiat currency system would benefit the few (bankers & politicians) who understood it and the masses would be too ignorant to understand they were being screwed:

“Those few who can understand the system (check book money and credit) will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on it favors, that there will be little opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear it burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.”

The House of Rothschild had been the dominant banking family in Europe for two centuries. They were known for making fortunes during Panics and War. Some claimed they would cause Panics in order to take advantage of those who panicked. American bankers learned the lesson well. The Panic of 1907 was the used as the reason for creating the Federal Reserve. A small cabal of powerful U.S. banking interests understood that if they could control the currency of the U.S., they could control the country, its politicians, and its people.

In 1906, Frank Vanderlip, Vice President of the Rockefeller owned National City Bank, convinced many of New York’s banking establishment they needed a banker-controlled central bank that could serve the nation’s financial system. Up to that time, the House of Morgan had filled that role. JP Morgan had initiated previous panics in order to initiate stronger control over the banking system. Morgan initiated the Panic of 1907 by circulating rumors the Knickerbocker Bank and Trust Co. of America was going broke. There was a run on the banks creating a financial crisis which began to solidify support for a central banking system. During this panic Paul Warburg, a Rothschild associate, wrote an essay called “A Plan for a Modified Central Bank” which called for a Central Bank in which 50% would be owned by the government and 50% by the nation’s banks.

In November 1910 a secret conference took place on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. Those in attendance were: JP Morgan, Paul Warburg, John D. Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Colonel House, Frank Vanderlip, Benjamin Strong, Charles Norton, Jacob Schiff, and Henry Davison. From this meeting of the most powerful bankers and politicians in the country came the plan for a Central Bank. This conference was unknown until 1933. In 1935, Frank Vanderlip wrote in the Saturday Evening Post: “I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System.”

Behind the scenes these powerful men were formulating the plan for a Federal Reserve System. There was no outcry from the public to implement this plan. The public knew nothing of this. The Aldrich Plan was renamed the Federal Reserve Act and pushed forward by Paul Warburg and Colonel House. Warburg essentially wrote the Act and pressured Congressmen to see his way or lose the next election. Colonel House, who had socialist leanings, was the top advisor to President Wilson.

The Glass Bill (the House version of the final Federal Reserve Act) had passed the House on September 18, 1913 by 287 to 85. On December 19, 1913, the Senate passed their version by a vote of 54-34. More than forty important differences in the House and Senate versions remained to be settled, and the opponents of the bill in both houses of Congress were led to believe that many weeks would elapse before the Conference bill would be taken up. The Congressmen prepared to leave Washington for the annual Christmas recess, assured that the Conference bill would not be brought up until the following year. The creators of the bill then pulled the ultimate swindle on the American public. In a single day, they ironed out all forty of the disputed passages in the bill and quickly brought it to a vote. On Monday, December 22, 1913, the bill was passed by the House 282-60 and the Senate 43-23. This meant that the single most important piece of legislation ever passed by the Senate was missing the votes of 26 Senators because it was passed during the Christmas recess. President Wilson, at the urging of Bernard Baruch, signed the bill on December 23, 1913.

The Road to Hell is Paved by Central Bankers

“Banking was conceived in iniquity, and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen, they will create enough deposits, to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers, and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.” – Sir Josiah Stamp (President of the Bank of England in the 1920′s, the second richest man in Britain)

The results speak for themselves. The Federal Reserve has been in existence for ninety eight years and over that time the U.S. Dollar has lost 95.6% of its purchasing power. In other terms, the bankers who have controlled our currency since 1913 have generated 2,172% of inflation in just under a century. In the prior one hundred years, when the country was growing by leaps and bounds, there was virtually no inflation. I’m not sure the average person fully understands this concept. To put it in layman’s terms, something that cost $4.40 in 1913 will cost you $100 today. A pair of boys’ school shoes cost 98 cents in 1913. You could purchase three loaves of bread for 10 cents. You could purchase six rolls of toilet paper for 26 cents. The truly frightening impact on the American middle class has happened since Richard Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 and allowed the Federal Reserve to print money unfettered by consequences and slimy politicians to make irresponsible unfulfilled promises as bribes for votes. This chart should worry even the most ignorant of the masses.

Even with the proliferation of two worker households since 1971, household income has not come close to keeping up with the costs of daily living. The average American’s standard of living has declined dramatically over the last forty years and they don’t even know it. Americans have become the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of their own slavery through inflation and debt. It is not a coincidence that consumer debt, which was virtually non-existent prior to the 1960s, began to take off in the 1970s and went nearly parabolic from the early 1990s until the 2008 financial collapse. As the Federal Reserve and political class created inflation, which reduced your standard of living, the bankers who own the Federal Reserve and control the politicians used their slick marketing machine to convince you that acquiring goods using vast quantities of debt was just as good as buying things with cash you saved.

Who benefits from inflation and the issuance of trillions in debt to average Americans? Based upon the decades of gargantuan Wall Street profits, mammoth bonuses paid to bank executives, and fact that Washington politicians absconded with trillions from American taxpayers to save their Wall Street masters, it appears that bankers and politicians are the beneficiaries. A gutted, indebted, jobless, demoralized middle class were the recipients of the downside of inflation and debt. Without a Central Bank issuing a fiat currency, with no constraints, none of this could have happened.

The Federal Reserve is primarily responsible for the destruction of the American middle class. In 1915, according the Federal Reserve annual report, they operated with 35 total employees. Today, they operate with over 20,000 employees and the cost to operate the system exceeds $3.3 billion. The Federal Reserve has failed on every one of its stated mandates:

• It was created to stabilize the banking system and keep bank panics from occurring. Within sixteen years of its creation it caused the near collapse of the banking system and the Great Depression. The stagflation of the 1970s was caused by Fed policies. The Savings & Loan crisis was created by their policies. The internet bubble, housing bubble and eventual financial collapse were caused by Federal Reserve blunders. There have been 18 recessions since the creation of the Federal Reserve.
• The stable prices mandate has been a wretched failure, as the Fed has manufactured 2,171% of inflation and destroyed 96% of the currency’s purchasing power. This manufactured inflation has enabled the creation of our welfare/warfare state.
• The Federal Reserve mandate of moderate long-term interest rates has clearly not been met. The Fed Funds Rate has plotted a path of extremes over the decades, ranging from 0% to 19%, not exactly stable. The Federal Reserve has consistently set rates too low, leading to credit bubbles, which always pop and end in recession or depression.
• The mandate of maximum employment has also been a miserable failure. The easy credit policy of the Federal Reserve during the 1920s led to the Great Depression with unemployment rates exceeding 20%. Unemployment has averaged between 5% and 15% consistently since the formation of the Federal Reserve. The true unemployment rate today exceeds 15%.
• The Federal Reserve was supposed to supervise and control the activities of banks. Instead, under Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, they stepped aside and let banks take preposterous risks while giving an unspoken assurance that the Fed would clean up any messes they caused with their debt based enrichment schemes. This total dereliction of duty and gross regulatory negligence led the greatest financial collapse in history.

The American working middle class (Good) have been deceived by the Federal Reserve, the banks that control them (Bad) and the Washington DC political class (Ugly) into believing that a fiat currency, un-backed by gold, supported by systematic inflation is beneficial to their wealth. This has been the Big Lie for the last century and has positioned the country for an epic collapse. Presidential candidate Ron Paul has been the lone voice of sanity in Washington DC for the last two decades and his assessment of the Federal Reserve while questioning Ben Bernanke in 2009 needs to be understood by every American:

“The Federal Reserve in collaboration with the giant banks has created the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen. The foolish notion that unlimited amounts of money and credit created out of thin air can provide sustainable economic growth has delivered this crisis to us. Instead of economic growth and stable prices, (The Fed) has given us a system of government and finance that now threatens the world financial and political institutions. Pursuing the same policy of excessive spending, debt expansion and monetary inflation can only compound the problems that prevent the required corrections. Doubling the money supply didn’t work, quadrupling it won’t work either. Buying up the bad debt of privileged institutions and dumping worthless assets on the American people is morally wrong and economically futile.”

I’ve now completed three parts of the five part series, documenting the downfall of the great American Empire. Part four, Outlaw Josey Wales, will scrutinize the looting of America by a small group of powerful, connected, super rich men lurking in the shadows, but pulling the strings on our puppet politicians. Lastly, Unforgiven will detail the impending collapse of our economic system and the retribution that will be handed out to the guilty.

The smell of revolution is in the air.

It’s been a while since I posted.  I’ve been busy trying scrape some seed together for the holidays.  Nothing has changed since my last post.  The American lifestyle still continues down the path of unabated degradation while the Oligarchs continue to enrich themselves off the carcasses of the American common man.  Of course with the complicit blessing of our political leaders of all parties.

Yeah I’m pissed off.  Probably more now than when this debacle was in it’s infancy back in 2007.  And I’m not alone as this Youtube poster illustrates.  He spotlights the new kind of recovery brought to you by the Oligarchs and Washington’s complicit political thieves and their bought and paid for media.  The jobless, houseless and confidence-less recovery.  So as long as the robot driven stock market continues to rise and the too big to fail banks continue to exist without prosecution and claw back of our stolen money, it must be a friggin recovery.  Way to go cgreene.  Keep up the good work and if you need and/or want an ally, contact me.

If it weren’t so serious, it would be funny.  Jon Stewart exposes Ben Bernanke’s lies on this past Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview.

The damage this criminal (Bernanke, not Stewart) has caused the American people is incomprehensible.  Yet the press seems to focus on the likes of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  Which in my opinion is like focusing on Charlie Brown instead of Bin Laden.

A date that will live on in infamy…

The immense love of a loyal friend.

If you ever find anything like that, that loves you that much, it’s the most precious gift in the world.

Hat tip to Karl Denninger at the Market Ticker for this gem of a video that explains Quantitive Easing and the Federal Reserve’s present role in our current economic debacle.

He lied and we, the American people, each and everyone of us who holds or uses dollars, are paying dearly. And for who’s benefit? Not the common man but rather his bankster buddies.  Without Congressional approval, or anyone’s approval, Bernanke just raised taxes (in the form of dollar degradation) for every single American.  It’s estimated to be a 20% tax on every dollar you hold or spend.

Bernanke said under oath to Congress that he would NOT monetize United State’s debt.  Yet that is exactly what he is doing.  Only banana republics don’t prosecute this behavior.  Are we a banana republic now?

Here’s the proof. Make it go viral.

In the good old days of just a few years ago, many Americans used to live paycheck to paycheck.  People still do but today for many, it isn’t paychecks it’s government transfer payment to government transfer payment.  Transfer payments are the payments the government makes to social security recipients, people on food stamps and other social programs that dish out government checks.

To see the latest evidence of modern day breadlines, consider the following Walmart phenomenon.  Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, has it’s months end numbers skewed by hoards of shoppers who go out shopping just before midnight; for necessities like bread milk and baby formula.  You see, at the strike of midnight at the end of the month, electronic funds (transfer payments) are deposited in these shoppers accounts.  But the funds aren’t from their employers, not with over 15,000,000 people out of work, no the payments are from the government.

Over 40 million people are receiving food assistance and it shows as it impacts Walmart’s beginning of the month sales.  From the Wall Street Journal…

Watching Wal-Mart at Midnight

Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart’s U.S. business, at a Goldman Sachs conference last week, on behavior at a Walmart store around midnight at the end of a month:

“The paycheck cycle we’ve talked about before remains extreme. It is our responsibility to figure out how to sell in that environment, adjusting pack sizes, large pack at sizes the beginning of the month, small pack sizes at the end of the month. And to figure out how to deal with what is an ever-increasing amount of transactions being paid for with government assistance.

“And you need not go further than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month. And it’s real interesting to watch, about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs,and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight,when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get activated and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher.

“And if you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it. Otherwise, we are open 24 hours — come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m., come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason.”

The bold print in the last paragraph really says it all.  That’s probably why the U.S. is in mourning.

Mourning in America

November will be here before we know it.  It will be two years before citizens have this type of clout again.  Let’s make the most of it.

This is my third consecutive summer of discontent.  They coincide excactly with the mortgage and economic meltdown.  But hey the joke we have for a president says this was recovery summer.  Unfortunately, like his other attempts at governing by proclamation, this one failed too.  Hurry up November!

While I am not a Tea Partier, I probably most closely identify with the majority of their positions. What concerns me most about the movement is that it will be unduly influenced by the likes of Dick Armey a noted RINO (Republican In Name Only) and or Sarah Palin.  To maintain its effectiveness, it must remain a decentralized, grass roots movement.  So far it has done this.

USAToday recently took a bias free look at the Tea Party resulting in a very accurate portrayal of the movement.  Here’s a snippet, I encourage you to read the entire article.

Among consistent themes, they:

•Keep it local. Chris Littleton, head of a Tea Party group in Cincinnati, says the activists he knows are driven by “this sense that you have to own your backyard first.”

“I can’t fix what is happening in D.C.,” Littleton says. “But I can fix what is happening in my backyard. I can affect my township, my county, my city, my congressional district and my state.”

Those interviewed reject the idea of national leaders or centralized organizations running things.

“The normal thing that people are looking for is some sort of organized structure, driven from the top down,” says Mark Lloyd, chairman of the Lynchburg Tea Party in Virginia. “But … it’s more of an attitude, and the attitude is of course just visceral patriotism, and a focus on limited government, fiscal responsibility, constitutional government or governance and personal liberties.”

•Focus on fiscal issues. These Tea Party supporters say they emphasize fiscal conservatism and limited government over social issues.

In founding the congressional Tea Party Caucus, Bachmann says she focused on three ideas that she thinks unite the “various flavors” of the movement: “Act within the Constitution; we’re taxed enough already; and don’t spend more than you bring in.”

“We don’t get involved in the abortion issue, the gay-marriage issue, because we feel like that’s when it starts dividing people,” says Nita Thomas, leader of a group in Cincinnati.

•Reject forming a third party. “I don’t like third parties,” says Melanie Morgan, a former talk-show host who has been working with the Tea Party movement in California. “They don’t work. Ask the people who supported Ross Perot. We ended up with Bill Clinton for eight years.”

“There are plenty of alternative parties out there,” says Bradley Rees, a factory worker in Lynchburg who writes a blog and hosts an Internet radio show. “The Tea Party is best served by being a watchdog group independent of all parties.”

For me the attraction is the movement’s condemnation of the bank bailouts and stimulus as well as exposing the Oligarchy that truly runs this country, the Fed and those who control the “Too Big Too Fail” banks.  This is based on the movement’s firm belief in the rule of law and calling attention to its violations.  Secondarily I identify with their stand on having a smaller and less intrusive government.  I also agree that one party cannot be trusted over the other.

The article provides the most accurate depiction of the movement that I have come across to date.  If you want to understand what the Tea Party Movement is all about, and I can tell you it’s not what you hear on CNN, NBC or read in the New York Times, then you need to read this piece.

He’s right.  We have to find real bottoms in asset values across the board before we can heal.  There is no sign that is even being considered.

From the father of Tea Party Movement, Rick Santelli.

Earlier this year GM’s CEO Edward Whitacre claimed:

I am here to announce we repaid our government loans, in full and with interest. Five years ahead of the regular schedule.

Here it is right from the horse’s mouth.

It’s a lie

From the Washington Examiner’s “GM named in deceptive advertising complaint filed with FTC“.

The problem, according to CEI in its complaint, as well as a wide swath of financial and political analysts and media outlets, is simple: GM’s repayment of one of its government loans was made with funds the company received from another government loan as part of its $49.5 billion bailout deal last year.

This is like a homeowner saying they paid off their mortgage when all they did was refinance.

What makes this worse is that the government doesn’t believe corporate welfare and social engineering alone are enough payment to the powerful auto unions.  They must lie for them in addition to providing lavish gifts.  From the article above:

In fact, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner issued a statement praising GM’s repayment “in full” and cited it as evidence that the Obama administration’s economy recovery progam was working as intended for the automaker.

GM lies and the government swears to it.  No wonder the economy isn’t functioning.  It’s all based on lies and deceit.  No one trusts anyone, including the liars and the deceivers.  But the government would never join forces with a company or industry for the purpose of deceiving the public.  Right? Never. Unless you can find more evidence of collusion.

A week or so ago Obama was talking up the auto industry.  An industry run so poorly that it wouldn’t exist, except for Ford, without tremendous taxpayer capital infusions.  None the less, Obama touts:

President Obama drove the new Chevrolet Volt a few feet and proclaimed, “This car right here doesn’t need a sip of gasoline for 40 miles and then keeps on going after that.’’

Hey that Chevy Volt sounds like a winner.  That should put GM on the track to recovery.  Right?  From “The Value of a Volt“:

But wait, there’s more.  Almost four hundred million dollars in federal subsidies were pumped directly into the design and production of the Volt.  The initial production run consists of just ten thousand units, with 45,000 more planned for 2012 if sales are good.  This would add just over $7200 more in taxpayer subsidies to each Volt produced over the next two years.  Since 2012 production will be scaled back if early sales are disappointing, it might be more logical to add the subsidies to the first 10,000 units only, which would leave early adopters outside of California paying $33,500 for a car which actually costs $81,000 per unit, with taxpayers picking up the remainder.  It’s actually even worse than that, because GM expects to lose money on every Volt sale.  Those losses will be spread among other GM products, or perhaps wiped out with further taxpayer subsidies.

So here we have a failed company relying on a failed product to repair a failed industry which will shore up a failed United States economy under a failed administration.  The President, Secretary of Treasury and the CEO of failed company all proclaim this is the turning point.  I liked it better when the taxpayer weren’t in partnerships with companies that actually plan to fail.  Selling cars at a potential loss of $45,000 a piece is the definition of planning to fail.

If these lies, deceit and complicity aren’t enough for you, consider this.  From Industry Week, GM to Build New Vehicle at Plant in Mexico.

Will invest $500 million at plant in Ramos Arispe

General Motors will invest $500 million to produce a new vehicle and eight-cylinder engines in a plant in northeastern Mexico, a company spokesman said on August 4.

The decision was announced at a meeting on August 3 between GM management and Mexican officials, the spokesman said, without giving details of the new vehicle.

The investment in the GM plant in Ramos Arispe, Coahuila state, would generate 390 jobs, he added.

General Motors has been present in Mexico since 1935, where it has some 11,000 workers, four factories, an engineering center and a test circuit.

Hey let’s take a half billion of what we got from the taxpayer and retool/build a plant in Mexico and create 390 Mexican jobs.  Great idea!  Heck there are only 15 million unemployed Americans and the Mexicans will appreciate those jobs more.  With amnesty/comprehensive immigration reform stalled, at least Obama can get 390 Mexicans American jobs.  It’s not his 8 million American jobs for illegal aliens but it’s a start.

Let’s revisit that GM commercial as it should have been recorded.

The lessons to be learned here are simple.  First you can’t trust this administration’s portrayal of the economy.  They will team up with industry leaders to deceive the American public.  They will try to convince you that their ill planned remedies are working when nothing can be further from the truth.

The other lesson is you cannot believe anything said coming out of industries that are beneficiaries of Obama’s corporate welfare.  It’s a team effort.  The American people aren’t on the team, the administration and certain, favored industries and companies are.

A quick check of the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site reveals there are 14,885,000 Americans collecting unemployment benefits or classified as unemployed. Today, The Boston Globe reported that there are now 40.8 million food stamp recipients.  The participation rate of food subsidies increased 19% over last year and has set records for 18 consecutive months.

Modern Day Bread Lines

During the Great Depression, there were no food stamps or unemployment benefits.  Yet bread lines are an iconic symbol of the economic suffering experienced at that time.  In the thirties, people had to physically line up for assistance.  Today assistance is delivered to millions of mailboxes across the country.  If not for mailing the benefits, we would be witness to 55 million Americans standing in bread lines, with that number growing daily.

The Bread Lines of Yesteryear

The Lie of Obama’s “Recovery Summer”

Faced with a bloodbath in the mid term elections, the Zero administration (funny how “O” and zero are interchangeable) is trying to spin our economic misery as an economic recovery.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Need proof? Proof that covers most if not all aspects affecting our economy? Consider the following report highlighted on Zero Hedge:

The attached report provides the most in depth observation on the “future recession in an ongoing depression” which is arguably the best way the describe the current economic predicament. Raoul goes all out in describing he worst recovery in history, touches on [t]he complete disconnect between the world and the imaginary equity surreality, provides countless evidence the economy has not only not left the recession but is getting progressively deeper into it, shares several trade recommendations, and on occasion swear like a drunken sailor. A must read report for everyone who is sick of the CNBC/sellside daily onesided propaganda.

An excerpt from the report itself:

The worst recovery in history

While we are on the subject of how lousy things are; this is the worst economic recovery out of a recession in recorded history – and this comes after the second worst recession in 100 years.

The breakdown of GDP shows that pretty much the entire bounce in the economy was driven
by government spending and an inventory rebuild, both of which look to be topping out.
I’ve shown the following chart a few times but it speaks volumes. GDP would be a disaster if the Government hadn’t spent so much on stimulus – and thus we have to fear what will
happen when stimulus is withdrawn. The Keynesian aim of stimulating until the private sector gains traction, has thus so far failed …

And another…

The evidence of an ongoing Depression

What is more concerning is that behind the data that is suggesting that we will be in a recession in short order. we have a huge amount of data that suggests that we are still in the middle of a depression. Essentially. normal recessions see economic activity recover fully and surpass the previous economic peak.

Only in a depression does economic activity not regain its previous peak. Forget all the talk of a double-dip. A double-dip is a low peak in economic activity. as shown by the ISM. This time around we have had a full ISM up-cycle. thus this cannot be a mid-cycle slowdown or a double-dip.

It will be a separate recession in its own right. but it will be part of an ongoing depression.

Here is the full report.  It’s 55 pages and packed with up to date graphs and statistics.  It’s well worth the read.  If you’re short on time, start with pages 18 through 20.

GMI August

This coming November is the first chance we have to right the wrongs foisted on the American people.  Educate yourselves on the issues and the players and please vote accordingly.   To assure a keen sense of reality, don’t rely on the mainstream media for your “education materials”.

Arizona’s new law addressing illegal immigration, SB 1070, was partially struck down by a Clinton appointed justice, Susan Bolton.  Both common sense and a look at our Constitution support the idea that the decision was based on politics as opposed to precedent or the Constitution itself.

The LA Times writes: (emphasis is mine)

In her 36-page decision, Bolton wrote that the provisions would have inevitably “swept up” legal immigrants and were “preempted” by the federal government’s immigration authority.

Preemption has to be based on federal authority as it pertains to immigration.  Where does the federal government government get it’s authority from and what is it limited by? Specifically, the Constitution states in the tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The term immigration isn’t mentioned in the Constitution.  Thus it’s clear, the states never delegated the power to regulate it.  Some will argue however that under Article 1, Section 8, Congress was granted the right to regulate immigration because the states delegated the right to regulate naturalization.  This is the verbiage in the Constitution regarding naturalization:

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

The U.S.  Citizenship and Immigration Service says this about “naturalization”:

Naturalization is the process by which U.S. citizenship is granted to a foreign citizen or national after he or she fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines “naturalize” as follows:

1 : to confer the rights of a national on; especially : to admit to citizenship

Answers.com defines “immigrate” as follows:

To enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native.

Clearly naturalization and immigration are two distinctly separate terms.  One refers to the movement of people and the other refers to the process of granting citizenship.   It’s also clear that Congress was delegated the power to regulate naturalization as it is clear it was never granted powers to regulate immigration.  Immigration and naturalization are related terms that have totally different meanings.  To “naturalize” is not synonymous with to “immigrate”.

Bolton’s argument that the Arizona law is unconstitutional based on “preemption” of Congress’ power to regulate immigration is fallacious.  This is because Congress was only granted the power to regulate “naturalization”.  The power to regulate immigration has always been within the purview of the states.  Furthermore, those powers have never been delegated to Congress; thus Congress lacks the power to regulate immigration as per it’s Tenth Amendment.

While this administration gives lip service to the Constitution, it continues it’s assault on it and the people governed by it’s principles and laws.  As usual with Obama and his minions, potential cheap votes and retaining power trump the Constitution, the best interests of the country and that of it’s citizens.  The only good news here is that there are only 14 weeks before we the people can do something substantial.  With all the damage Obama is doing to this country at break neck speed, it is absolutely essential that he be stopped come this November.  Our collective futures depend on it.

**This was contributed to The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email brianbonner90-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.**

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