Preparedness vs fear mongering

It's not a contradiction that has been lost on me, that I incessantly preach preparedness but mocked the hysteria surrounding Hurricane Irene this weekend. No doubt friends and family thought to themselves, but this is what you talk about all the time ... being prepared. However there is a contradiction lost on most people, that, while preppers like me are paranoid and irrationally worried about the future, when the government overreacts and whips up unwarranted hysteria, they're just looking out for your best interests. Hey, at least they didn't underreact!

Indeed, the ability to bug out should be on top of your preparedness checklist. And hey, if you want to bug out in the face of a relatively weak storm, there's no harm in that and I certainly won't criticize you. If I had still lived in NJ, three blocks from the ocean and only a few miles from where Irene made landfall, I probably would've moved inland, just in case my home got flooded, which my neighborhood was certainly prone to. 75mph winds are, frankly, more of a nuisance than anything.

What I'm talking about is blatant fearmongering from the media and the government. Today, the National Hurricane Center is on the defensive, although I'm not sure why. Sure, they predicted Irene would reach category 4 status, while it never got above 2. This was while the hurricane was still in the Caribbean. But I don't recall them telling anyone this was Katrina in the East, and even as the despicable mayor Bloomberg and Jabba the Hut, governor of NJ, were predicting Armageddon, the worst prediction that was made was that Irene would be a hurricane in name only as it hit New York City - with winds of 75mph, as opposed to 65mph in actuality.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg ordered the forced evacuation of 300,000 people, which I am happy to report, went mostly unheeded. But to force compliance with that evacuation, he ordered mass transit shut down a full 14 hours before Irene struck NY. This action was unprecedented; not even on 9-11 was mass transit shut down. Ditto NJ, where a state of emergency was declared 2 days before the hurricane hit, and mass transit shut down along the same timetable as New York City.

Today, damage control is in full effect, and the media and government spin is still in overdrive. Whereas prior to the hurricane they were hyping the danger, now they must hype the damage, lest the impression be given that they overreacted. While most people are clearing the twigs and leaves from their lawns, and pumping water from their basements, Obama holds press conferences with Napolitano, making sure people are adequately afraid of the hurricane's wrath long after it crossed the Canadian border. Jabba the Hut is claiming damage in his state alone could be in the tens of billions, a ludicrous assertion.

What we have just witnessed is the government and the media, under fire and losing support from the plebs, for good reason, trying to assert themselves to prove to people they are relevant. It was a test balloon set aloft to see how much hysteria could be whipped up over what was, in relative terms, a non-event. Just how much, exactly, are they able to dictate your reality? Can they make you abandon common sense and whip yourself up into hysteria when all indications are it's completely unwarranted?

I lived in NJ the first 36 years of my life, and, while not experiencing hurricanes on the same regularity and intensity as, say, Florida, I've experienced my fair share. My memory may not fully serve me, but, if the storm actually managed to maintain hurricane strength by the time it reached the cooler waters off the mid-Atlantic, only one was higher than category one (Gloria, 1985, category two). During any of these storms, I can't recall even losing power for any extended period. Even during Gloria, the worst hurricane I've seen, if power was lost it was not for more than a few hours; the most extensive damage I can remember was a neighbor's fence being destroyed, and my pool cover blowing off.

While there is always the danger of freak accidents happening, like a tree breaking in half during a particularly strong gust and falling on your house or car, or of course storm surge or flooding in coastal areas, these storms are of no particular concern. There are numerous weather events that occur yearly that can cause similar damage and life threatening situations - a severe thunderstorm, the numerous nor'easters that strike every year - yet by uttering the word hurricane they expect us to be adequately terrified and feign great anger and disdain if you're not.

What's just as maddening as the initial overreaction is the fear being spread that warnings during a more perilous event will then go unheeded. This is to say that people, lacking common sense or any ability to think for themselves, will only have the government and its kept media to rely upon to dictate to them how dangerous any given situation is. As if we won't take serious, on our own account, the approach of a category 4 storm, and then ignore the government's warnings because they overreacted the last time. I suppose for many people, this will be the case. I've actually been scorned by family members for not adequately expressing concern for their well-being, as if their well-being was ever really threatened. There is fantasy and there is reality: the fantasy was that this was a dangerous and perilous storm; the reality is the collective yawn would be palpable if they called it a nor'easter. Kind of dangerous, kind of destructive, but to the overwhelming majority of people, a nuisance. A minor inconvenience. While I wasn't there to witness this storm, I am certain I've experienced nor'easters that were far more perilous than hurricane Irene.

Meanwhile, I experience tornado warnings every two weeks or so, which never make national news, and therefore never prompt worried calls from friends and family. Your typical southern thunderstorm, with its violent lightning, high winds, and deluge rains, not to mention occasional tornado, is far more frightening than a low-end hurricane any day, I assure you.

The truth is, TPTB have spent many generations crafting a society based on fear. There is always something to be afraid of; your life is in constant peril. The more fear and panic they can generate, the more they can control your actions. They want you to look at the normal ebbs and flows of life as if it's a constant struggle to keep from being murdered by terrorists, getting sick from viruses, or being killed by minor weather events, etc. People who don't take these things seriously are castigated; others find your lack of concern, however warranted, insulting. As if it's based on a lack of love or compassion, rather than a refusal to think and feel how others try to make you think and feel. I don't ask, "How high?" when they tell me to jump, and I don't apologize for it. Is that a lack of compassion, or do I just have too much faith in people?

Or, is it that we need to grow a set of balls, and, while preparing for the worst, not make an apocalypse out of nothing?

People, in their hysterics, take severe issue with me calling this a non-event, ignoring everything else I've said. Of course an event occurred, and it cost many people dearly. But rather than treating this like it's the sort of thing that just happens, naturally, every day, somewhere in the world, people insist on relishing the role of victim, demanding the whole world feel guilty for not suffering along with them, or not showering them with empathy as if they were helpless children. Death is a part of life, and anyone who promised you a life free from danger, lied to you. Be prepared, not an hysterical victim.

On Sabbatical

I will try to post as much as humanly possible, but for the next several weeks or months I'll be writing an eBook, which will mostly be an amalgamation of essays I've written over the last 3 years. This, along with cultivating my fall garden, my job, and my family, will take up the bulk of my time. So keep dropping by, and I'll look forward to getting the book finished as soon as I can. It's going to be epic.

HALF of U.S. population will be obese by 2030 experts predict as the number could swell to 164 million Americans

You may not be free to do many things here in Amurr'ca, but at least you're free to eat yourself into total dependence on the State, and you'll have legions of morbidly obese slobs to tell you how beautiful you are. It's not about your appearance. It's about your complete lack of self esteem. It's about willfully succumbing to an establishment who wants a society full of fat, weak, and stupid people who can't fight back when they push us around, and wouldn't want to fight back at that. Why bite the hand that feeds you? And feeds you. And feeds you.

• By 2030 the number of obese Americans could increase from 99million in 2008 to 164million
• In the U.K. expected increase of 15million to 26million

  Daily Mail -

  About half of both men and women in the U.S. will be obese by 2030 if current trends continue, health experts warned today.
  
  Obesity is fast replacing tobacco as the single most important preventable cause of chronic non-communicable diseases, and will add an extra 7.8million cases of diabetes, 6.8million cases of heart disease and stroke, and 539,000 cases of cancer in the U.S. within the next two decades.
  
  Some 32 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women are now obese in the U.S., according to a research team led by Claire Wang at the Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University in New York.

  
  Epidemic: Approximately 32 per cent of men and 35 percent of women are now obese in the U.S.

Economic Growth Slows to Crawl, GDP Increase at 1%

Hurray for fake economic numbers that still suck. Save us, Ben Bernanke! Destroy the dollar some more, so everything costs more, and consumer spending continues to plummet, and businesses have to lay more people off to offset rising costs. That's how you fix the economy!

CNBC -

The U.S. economy grew much slower than previously thought in the second quarter as business inventories and exports were less robust, a government report showed on Friday, although consumer spending was revised up.

Gross domestic product growth rose at annual rate of 1.0 percent the Commerce Department said, a downward revision of its prior estimate of 1.3 percent. It also said after-tax corporate profits rose at the fastest pace in a year.

Chance of Recession Is as High as 80%: Study

For the sake of argument, I'll pretend we're not already in a depression. I've literally bet everything I have that the chance of there not being a recession is less than zero. There is about the same chance of there not being a recession (depression, really) as there is a house not burning to the ground if you were to douse it in gasoline and set it on fire. This crisis hasn't even begun.

CNBC -

A plunge in recent economic data puts the probability of a double-dip recession above 80 percent, according to modeling by Bank of America Merrill Lynch released Wednesday, reflecting the toll the U.S. debt downgrade, Europe’s woes and stock market volatility has taken on economic activity.

To be sure, the firm’s economic team warned more data is needed for it to raise its overall official prediction of a recession that high. Still, the recent dismal readings from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve and the University of Michigan were enough for Merrill to raise its overall probability of a contraction in the next year to 40 percent from 35 percent at the start of this month.

Ron Paul: Mobs In Europe A Sign Of Things Coming

It's going to be barbaric. If you have any means at all to get away from population centers, do so as soon as humanly possible. At the very least, arm yourself, and stockpile - stockpile - plenty of ammo.

Real Clear Politics -

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on the challenges in reining in government spending.

"There’s going to be an inflation tax to hit us and I am just afraid there will be people in the streets when they don’t get what they want," Paul told the FOX Business Network.

C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight

I shouldn't have to tell you that your reality is totally controlled by other people. Articles like this speak for themselves. But yeah, everything you think you know is complete bullshit.

New York Times -

In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.



The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego, according to several people who have read the manuscript. And he gives a detailed, firsthand account of the C.I.A.’s move toward brutal treatment in its interrogations, saying the harsh methods used on the agency’s first important captive, Abu Zubaydah, were unnecessary and counterproductive.

NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

Your government is at war. With YOU. What other civilian institutions has the CIA infiltrated. Oh, you mean like the media?

Associated Press -

New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a similar relationship with the CIA.

Glenn Greenwald: Obama upheld ‘evisceration of the rule of law for political elites’

The "rule of law" only applies to the plebs. And even then, there is no rule of law. An unjust law is no law at all. I digress.

I remember watching CNN or some establishment media outlet on my break at work, and the commentators compared the rule of law we have in America, because - get this - Strauss-Khan, an elite white establishment whore, had his rape charges dropped, while in Gaddafi's Libya, there is the law of rule. I literally laughed my ass off.

The Raw Replay -

Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald on Thursday blasted President Barack Obama’s mantra that the nation should “look forward, not backward” regarding alleged crimes committed by the Bush administration.

“Imagine if, for example, we decided to announce tomorrow that we were no longer going to prosecute murder or rape or child abductions because we didn’t want to ‘keep looking backwards,’” he said on MSNBC’s The Last Word. “What do you think would happen? Obviously there would be a lot more people engaging in murder, rape, and child abduction.”

Greenwald added that American political culture had “decided our highest political officials are free to break the law without consequences” and Obama had continued the “evisceration of the rule of law for political elites.”

“So political elites like Dick Cheney know that they can commit crimes with total impunity, and that is why he goes around proudly boasting about the crimes he has committed.”

3, 2, 1: Global Debt Meltdown

The Economic Collapse -

We are steamrolling toward a massive global debt meltdown, and at this point world leaders seem to be all out of solutions. Over the last 30 years or so, the greatest debt bubble in the history of the planet has produced unprecedented prosperity in the western world. But now that debt bubble is starting to burst and the bills are coming due. Many believe that "ground zero" for the coming global debt meltdown will be in Europe. Unlike the U.S. and Japan, the nations of the EU can't just print more money to cover their debts. Nations such as Greece, Portugal and Italy must repay their debts in euros, and those nations are rapidly getting to the point where their debts are going to overwhelm them. Unfortunately, major banks all over Europe are very highly leveraged and are also very heavily invested in the sovereign debt of nations such as Greece, Portugal and Italy. If even one EU nation defaults it will start tipping over financial dominoes. If more than one EU nation defaults it could cause a cataclysmic wave of bank failures all over Europe.

But Germany and the other more financially stable countries of the EU cannot bail out nations like Greece, Portugal and Italy indefinitely. Pouring money into Greece is like pouring money into a black hole. When you take money from financially stable countries and pour it into hopeless messes, you may stabilize things for a little while, but you also cause the financial condition of the financially stable nations to start deteriorating.

'Very Muted Growth' Coming for Next 10 Years: Faber

He's optimistic. Just wait until they break out the term negative growth. I love that one.

CNBC -

Both the U.S. and Europe are facing a decade of slow growth brought on primarily by the blunders of central banks, noted doomsayer Marc Faber said.

Investors should protect themselves by buying plenty of physical gold and putting it in a secure location, preferably outside the U.S., the author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom newsletter told CNBC.

"If I look at the politicians both in Europe and the U.S., I don't think that prospect (for growth) is very good," he said. "If I also look at the entitlement system and the government expenditures and the fiscal deficits and the debt overhang, I think for the next 10 years we'll have very muted growth in the Western world and standards of living for the average household will continue to decline."

Drought-Baked Fields in U.S. Dimming 2012 Wheat Outlook as Prices Rebound

We really shouldn't be eating wheat anyway, but this is yet another factor that is driving food prices up. They're not going to stop rising until long after they've surpassed your ability to pay for them.

Bloomberg -

A yearlong drought from Kansas to Texas has created the driest conditions on record for farmers preparing to plant winter wheat, dimming crop prospects for a second straight year in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter.

Dry weather already has cut output of hard, red winter wheat, the most common U.S. variety, by 22 percent from 2010, government data show. If drought persists into the planting months of September and October, next year’s harvest will be even smaller, and prices on the Kansas City Board of Trade may jump 50 percent to $13 a bushel, said Dan Manternach, a wheat economist with researcher Doane Advisory Services in St. Louis.

21 Signs That The New Reality For Many Baby Boomers Will Be To Work As Wage Slaves Until They Drop Dead

The Economic Collapse -

All over America tonight, millions of elderly Americans are wondering if their money is going to run out before it is time for them to die. Those that are now past retirement age are not going to be rioting in the streets, but that doesn't mean that large numbers of them are not deeply suffering. There are millions of elderly Americans that are leading lives of "quiet desperation" as they try to get by on meager fixed incomes. Many are surviving on Ramen noodles, oatmeal, peanut butter or whatever other cheap food they can find in the stores. There are some that are so short on cash that they will not turn on the heat in their homes until things get really desperate. As health care costs soar, millions of elderly Americans find themselves deep in debt and facing huge medical bills that they cannot possibly pay. A lot of older Americans would go back to work if they could, but jobs are scarce and very few companies seem to even want to consider hiring them. Right now caring for all of the Americans that have already retired is turning out to be an overwhelming challenge, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turned 65. A massive tsunami of retirees is coming, and America is not ready for it.

Sadly, most retirees have not adequately prepared for retirement. For many, the recent economic downturn absolutely devastated their retirement plans. Many were counting on the equity in their homes, but the recent housing crash crushed those dreams. Others had their 401ks shredded by the stock market.

Bernanke May Have to Go for 'Shock and Awe': Strategist

He's in large degree responsible for the sudden collapse underway. What other choice does he have than to accelerate the decline?

CNBC -

As global markets await hints of further stimulus in Fed Chief Ben Bernanke's annual speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this week, one strategist says the U.S. central bank may be forced to take extreme measures to prop up the U.S. economy.

"If the Fed really is going to go down the route of another round of unconventional policy making, I think they've got to go in for, what I called, shock and awe," Russell Jones, Global Head of Fixed Income Strategy at Westpac Institutional Bank told CNBC on Monday.

What they won't admit about measles outbreaks: Most children who catch measles were already vaccinated

Man, do they gnash their teeth at the vaccine refusers. There are so many idiotically obvious reasons why mandatory vaccines are useless, not the least of which is they obviously do not work. Another being, what "threat" are my unvaccinated kids to your vaccinated kids if the vaccines are supposedly effective? That's one question that never gets answered, yet they demand we keep our unvaccinated diseased children away from their vaccinated healthy children. It's pretty sickening to watch.

Regardless, the establishment's solution to this obvious contradiction is: vaccinate them again! Because, you know, it worked so well the first time.

Natural News -

Big Pharma, the CDC and other public health organizations tell the mainstream media (MSM) what to report about outbreaks and epidemics. So you may have the impression that recent measles outbreaks are occurring because of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination refusals.

According to official public health documents kept from public attention, the opposite is true. Many stricken with measles have had the full array of three MMR vaccinations.

In Texas schools, a criminal response to misbehavior

This isn't about discipline, and you'll see that as authorities drop the hammer and implement draconian responses to what was once normal childhood behavior, the behavior will increase. That's how it always works with government intervention.

Washington Post -

In a small courtroom north of Houston, a fourth-grader walked up to the bench with his mother. Too short to see the judge, he stood on a stool. He was dressed in a polo shirt and dark slacks on a sweltering summer morning.

“Guilty,” the boy’s mother heard him say.


He had been part of a scuffle on a school bus.

In another generation, he might have received only a scolding from the principal or a period of detention. But an array of get-tough policies in U.S. schools in the past two decades has brought many students into contact with police and courts — part of a trend some experts call the criminalization of student discipline.

Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans at Lowest Rates

Henry Ford once said, "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." That may have been true in his day, when most Americans weren't chemically lobotomized, but today, you can hear the collective yawn. Sure, the banks are stealing trillions of dollars, and destroying the currency, but they haven't taken away the TV yet.

Bloomberg -

Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage firms to their best year ever with $104 billion of profits.

By 2008, the housing market’s collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.

Children defy police in Washington, purchase illegal lemonade

This is how you win: non-violent, passive non-cooperation. We refuse to obey their fascist edicts, and force them to inflict their cruelty on us, for the whole world to see. Watch the female cop just seethe with hate for people exercising their rights, for not respecting her authoritah. She would break out her baton and start smashing skulls if she thought she could get away with it.

In a sane world, cops would be turning their badges in en masse. But they purposely recruit the type of people who have the IQ of a field mouse and get off on pushing people around. They also love war vets, most of which suffer from PTSD and are trained to destroy an enemy, not serve and protect people. Our citizens are an insurgency, and they are armed occupiers.

U.S. places $40 million chicken order

You're not buying enough chicken, so the United States government will buy it for you. Just don't expect it to be delivered to your front door. Meanwhile, production costs for chicken farmers is going up in large part due to the Fed's monetary destruction. People are buying less chicken because chicken costs more, due to the Fed's monetary destruction. People will continue to buy less chicken as prices continue to rise.

CNN -

The United States is stepping in to help bail out another American industry -- chicken farmers and meat processors.

The nation's chicken industry is having a difficult year. Chicken producers are struggling with higher costs of running their business at the same time that consumers are buying less meat.

USDA Signs MOU with Rockefeller’s Council on Foundations to Exploit Rural America

Agenda 21 being implemented by fiat. And you think the USDA is one of those extra-political entities that have nothing but your best interests in mind, and protect you from evil corporations who, if not for the USDA, would poison and pollute the land and your food. In reality, the USDA (and the FDA, and the SEC, etc) are staffed by lobbyists and lawyers for the same corporations and industries they're tasked to regulate. It's the epitome of the fox guarding the hen house. Or, who's watching the watchmen?

Food Freedom -

On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA has signed an agreement with the Council on Foundations “to provide new sources of capital, new job opportunities, workforce investment strategies,” and, last on the list but the heart of it: “identification of additional resources.”

The group will work with Obama’s newly created Rural Council, which Vilsack also chairs, to implement UN Agenda 21 – a 300-page, 40-chapter, “soft-law” policy that came out of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil in 1992.

Though couched in eco-friendly motives, Agenda 21 will “severely limit water, electricity, and transportation- even deny human access to our most treasured wilderness areas, it would monitor all lands and people. No one would be free from the watchful eye of the new global tracking and information system,” wrote Berit Kjos in 1998. (Patrick Wood believes that today’s smart grids are doing just that, and gives an excellent 40-minute speech here.)

If You Cannot Evacuate

Survival Blog -

Most of us do not have the funds to purchase and maintain a survival retreat, however there are effective things the ordinary citizen can do to help themselves and their families get through the troubled times ahead. I could write reams on this subject, but for the purposes of this article I will concentrate on a few basics to help your family get started on the path to survival.


I have been watching in horror for months as the U.S. government races towards the abyss. The British press truly nailed it when, after the debt ceiling vote was announced, the BBC referred to the vote as increasing the United States’ “overdraft authority”. Hurricane Katrina showed everyone with a brain that the government cannot and will not help you in the event of a disaster! Nuff’ said here.

Bad News

The Economic Collapse -

The bad news about the economy just keeps rolling in. If this is an economic recovery, what in the world is the next "recession" going to look like? Today there was another huge truckload of bad economic news. The stock market had another 400 point "correction", applications for unemployment benefits are up again, inflation is higher than expected, home sales have dropped again and Europe is coming apart at the seams. The financial markets have been in such a state of chaos recently that days like today don't even seem "unusual" anymore. But we should all be alarmed at what is happening. We haven't seen anything quite like this since the darkest days of 2008 and 2009. If more bad news keeps pouring in, we may soon have a very real panic on our hands.

I would have thought that my article yesterday, "20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012", would have contained enough bad economic news to last for a while. But today there was another huge bumper crop of depressing numbers.

Are you ready for the carnage?

Krugman Calls On Government To Manufacture War To Save Economy

You can't make this stuff up. And they'll do it too. They usually send out their army of hacks to talk this up, ludicrous as it all originally sounds, before they actually carry it out. And then when you point this out to the sleeping masses, that they were openly admitting they wanted to do this before it actually happened, you get laughed at like you're some kind of crazy person. But on a subconscious level, they know you were right. They just can't admit it.

Amidst “alien invasion” rant, many miss the point that NY Times economist was advocating a staged crisis

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet -

Amidst the melodramatic reaction to economist Paul Krugman’s eyebrow-raising rant about the impact an alien invasion would have on the US economy, many have missed the point, that Krugman was calling on the government to manufacture a staged event or a war to act as a smokescreen for the continued looting of the American people.

We've been warned: the system is ready to blow

Many of the sober economists and experts these predictions are coming from may have different - and sometimes lunatic - ideas for how this came about, or solutions to fix it. But the main central point is, it's all circling the drain, and, even if there is the chance it can all be fixed, there's also a very good chance they won't be able to, and then you'll be on your own, with nothing to sustain you but what you prepared for before the collapse.

London Guardian -

Only a new way of managing the global economy can prevent more mayhem in the markets and on the streets

For the past two centuries and more, life in Britain has been governed by a simple concept: tomorrow will be better than today. Black August has given us a glimpse of a dystopia, one in which the financial markets buckle and the cities burn. Like Scrooge, we have been shown what might be to come unless we change our ways.

There were glimmers of hope amid last week's despair. Neighbourhoods rallied round in the face of the looting. The Muslim community in Birmingham showed incredible dignity after three young men were mown down by a car and killed during the riots. It was chastening to see consumerism laid bare. We have seen the future and we know it sucks. All of which is cause for cautious optimism – provided the right lessons are drawn.

Markets Watch Fed for Hints of New Stimulus as Views on Economy Dim

QE3 is coming, or, more appropriately, QE. And when it does, you'll know for sure that economic apocalypse is inevitable. If you haven't figured that out already.

CNBC -

Some investors are hoping for a case of deja vu — that the Fed may hint at more stimulus at its annual Jackson Hole gathering as a panacea against a worsening economic outlook.

However, the buildup to the Fed's annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo., at the end of the week is likely to prove bigger than the event itself.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech there this coming Friday has been a major focus for markets and comes as investors fret that perhaps the economy is too weak to jump start itself.

Despite numerous sober economists who now admit the economy is being held back by the Fed's monetary policy. Therefore the obvious solution begins first and foremost with the Fed staying out of it all and letting the market work itself out, as it inevitably would, without all this central planning.

Goldman Sachs Slashes Its US GDP Forecast Again

Being that economic factors always score unexpectedly bad, worse than predicted, you can be sure that, even at these pathetically weak predictions, this is still an overstatement. You can be sure of this because the destruction of the economy is not accidental. It's the agenda.

CNBC -

Goldman Sachs said Friday that it is cutting the firm's estimates for U.S. growth in the second half of this year to between 1 percent and 1.5 percent, as it sees the economy "losing further momentum."

"In light of the downshift in the data this week, we are cutting our second-half growth forecasts further," Goldman said in a research note. It was the firm's third cut in GDP estimates in August.

Goldman now expects gross domestic product growth of 1.0 percent in the third quarter and 1.5 percent in the fourth — both down from 2.0 percent previously.

Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns

Utilities warn of higher rates because of pollution rules

New EPA rule could lead to rolling blackouts in Texas, PUC chairwoman says

Even if this were being done for benign reasons - saving the environment or whatever - they've still left us with no time and no warning. If you've been paying attention, you know that their intentions are malicious, and they've given you no warning because they want the aftermath to leave you destitute and desperate. If this were a benign campaign, all avenues would be pursued to make sure you had every opportunity to hedge yourself against this massive change in how we receive our energy. But it's all under the radar, or background noise, so that there's no sense of urgency, nothing really to worry about. And there's certainly no incentive to change the way you get your energy, except that the old way is about to become far more expensive, which they're really not talking much about in the first place.

The bottom line is, the grid as you know it is about to be destroyed. If you can't provide life's essentials independent of outside sources, you're going to suffer.

Washington Post -

Over the next 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency will finalize a flurry of new rules to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. Mercury, smog, ozone, greenhouse gases, water intake, coal ash—it’s all getting regulated. And, not surprisingly, some lawmakers are grumbling.

Industry groups such the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, and the American Legislative Exchange Council have dubbed the coming rules “EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck.” The regulations, they say, will cost utilities up to $129 billion and force them to retire one-fifth of coal capacity. Given that coal provides 45 percent of the country’s power, that means higher electric bills, more blackouts and fewer jobs. The doomsday scenario has alarmed Republicans in the House, who have been scrambling to block the measures. Environmental groups retort that the rules will bring sizeable public health benefits, and that industry groups have been exaggerating the costs of environmental regulations since they were first created.

US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024

War without end, forever and ever, Amen.

London Telegraph -

America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.


The agreement would allow not only military trainers to stay to build up the Afghan army and police, but also American special forces soldiers and air power to remain.

The prospect of such a deal has already been met with anger among Afghanistan’s neighbours including, publicly, Iran and, privately, Pakistan.

Japan Mulls Another Intervention Against the Yen: Report

All currencies must be devalued equally. The Dollar reached a record low against the Yen, which is to say, the Yen is not being devalued relative to the Dollar's devaluation. This is not the fault of the Fed's monetary policy destroying the dollar. No, the Yen is to blame for being "overvalued". When it fails to fall at the same rate as the Dollar, it is said to be "rising". So intervention is necessary. That is, they're going to print more of it, to create the illusion of "strength" for the Dollar. Maybe in international markets, but not at the grocery store. It's all fake.

CNBC -

Japan is considering intervening in the currency market again to stem further yen gains after the currency's overnight ascent to a fresh record high against the dollar, the Nikkei newspaper said on Saturday.

If the yen continues to rise, Japanese authorities will step into the market to weaken the currency, and will seek understanding for its unilateral action from its Group of Seven counterparts, the paper said without citing sources.

It's Official: The Media is Ignoring Ron Paul

Here's the deal: as I laid out in Excursions Down the Rabbit Hole, when a private cartel of banksters has total unregulated control of the monetary system for almost a hundred years, they are no longer part of the establishment; they are the establishment. Do not think of the healthcare industry, education, media, or government as entities separate from each other or from the cartel. They are all cogs in the same evil machinery. So as Ron Paul threatens the establishment - the media being the disinformation arm of the establishment - the media will either try to destroy or marginalize him.

Which is just as well. Even if there was a glitch in the Matrix and Ron Paul got elected, he is only one man. He still has to contend with a Legislature and Judiciary firmly in the camp of the establishment. Ron Paul's election would only, once again, instill false hope in the hearts of millions of people, who shouldn't be looking for a savior anyway, except the one they see in the mirror. View the charts here.

Shared Poverty - the Great Equalizer

More government ridiculousness. But I repeat myself.

Karen DeCoster
LewRockwell.com -

The USDA, a legalized, federal crime racket, has been authorized by President Obama’s "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" to choose three states - and Michigan is one of them - to participate in a pilot program where that turns the old saying, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" on its head. That is, qualifying Michigan school districts can participate in the pilot program where every kid gets a free lunch ..... and a free breakfast ..... and free snacks - and surely, it will be those nice, "healthy," sugar-loaded snacks recommended by our friends at the ADA (American Disease Association). Here is the Detroit Free Press article.

The psychobabble behind this welfare gimmick is this: kids who get free breakfasts and lunches and wait in line with other kids who pay for meals are stigmatized by the fact that they are getting a freebie and therefore, all the others know they must be poor. And that horrible, horrible shame leads "the children" to skip meals (so they have room for McDonald's and 7-11 Big Gulps on the way home). So in order to alleviate that humiliation, let's just give them all free lunches so we can't identify the parentally displaced children from the rest of the children! Parents will be asked to fill out surveys:

that includes income analysis to ensure that children, schools and the district will continue to receive millions of dollars in benefits and resources from the state and federal governments, as well as private grants. Program funding dependent on the surveys includes tutoring, after-school programs, field trips, technology and equipment, DDOT bus cards, free college testing, enrichment activities and others.

That most certainly will bring out the survey-responding honesty in parents! Beginning in 2014, this wonderful program that eliminates the stigma by spreading the misery will be available in all states so all children can be non-stigmatized by the all-inclusive stigma approach. You just can't make this crap up if you tried.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg pushing to eliminate conflict of interest laws, allow paid drug company shills to fill advisory positions

I didn't realize there was actually a block on such conflict of interest appointments. They must not pay much attention to them. But we don't need the FDA to regulate what we eat and what drugs we take. If we ate healthy food that doesn't need FDA regulation (ie whole, unprocessed organic food), there'd be no reason to take FDA-approved drugs.

Natural News -

At a time when drug industry corruption is reaching a pinnacle of public exposure, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is actually proposing eliminating one of the few pseudo-effective measures in place that restricts the agency from becoming a full-blown Big Pharma "rubber stamp" consultant.

In a recent announcement, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg stated that the agency may next year loosen certain conflict of interest restrictions that prevent scientists with financial ties to the drug industry from becoming members of FDA advisory panels.

Euro rallies, dollar/yen plumges to all-time low

The destruction of the dollar continues.

Reuters -
• Euro well supported, technical charts look positive
• Bank funding concerns rise, seen positive for dollar
• Options point to high risk of more franc volatility
• Dollar/yen plunges to record low

  The euro rebounded on Friday as an early sell-off lost steam on central bank demand and technical buying, although the currency was vulnerable due to fears about euro-zone banks and a gloomy global outlook.

  The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, plunged to a record low against the yen, with traders emboldened by a Wall Street Journal report citing Japan's top currency official saying Japanese authorities do not plan to intervene often.

Move to curb Swiss franc’s rise backfires

I posted about this the other day. Other countries are massively devaluing their currencies, but the fact that the Swiss franc is so more more valuable than other currencies is the fault of the...Swiss Franc, for being overvalued. By some kind of karma, efforts to devalue the Franc backfired, and it is now even more "overvalued".

Financial Times -

Traders shrugged off new measures by the Swiss authorities to stem demand for their currency, sending the Swiss franc sharply higher on Wednesday.

The Swiss franc jumped 2 per cent against both the euro and the dollar in a matter of minutes, as traders ignored the Swiss National Bank’s decision to almost double the amount of liquidity available to the money market from SFr120bn ($152bn) to SFr200bn. The increase, which compares with “normal” liquidity levels of about SFr30bn, has lowered already rock-bottom interest rates and turned some short-term rates negative.

Report: Apocalypse Actually Happened 3 Years Ago

Laugh. It's The Onion.

The Onion -

MENLO PARK, CA—Though the event went largely unremarked upon at the time, a report published Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that the apocalypse, or end of the world, occurred three years ago. "According to our data, the total collapse of all human civilization occurred on or around April 3, 2008," said foundation representative Jodie Palmenterri, citing numerous instances of environmental disaster, humanitarian catastrophe, and economic ruin as unambiguous signs that the world had ended. "Those who have worried for years that human culture was headed toward calamity can rest easy, because it already happened. We are living in a postapocalyptic world. This is it." Palmenterri went on to say that because the apocalypse does not resemble the eschatological predictions of any major religion, it's safe to assume the gods have all forsaken us.

Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

This is just stunning, on so many levels. Okay, first of all, the ludicrous: if we don't curb global warming, aliens might attack us. No, for serious. Read the article. Second, there is a well-known conspiracy "theory" known as Disclosure, which entails a staged extra terrestrial encounter as a false flag to implement some psychotic globalist scheme. But really...I thought global warming was supposed to wipe out humanity. How would we be a threat to some civilization many light years away if we're all dead?

London Guardian -

Rising greenhouse emissions may tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report for Nasa


When they see what a mess we've made of our planet, aliens may be forced to take drastic action.

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012

Objectively, the only hurdle that keeps us from seeing this is the exceptionalism and triumphalism we are brainwashed with from a very young age. America always triumphs. America is exceptional. We can do things that have led other countries to ruin. We don't know why, we just can. Make sure you watch the video towards the end of the article.

The Economic Collapse -

If you thought that 2011 was a bad year for the world economy, just wait until you see what happens in 2012. The U.S. and Europe are both dealing with unprecedented debt problems, the financial markets are flailing about wildly, austerity programs are being implemented all over the globe, prices on basics such as food are soaring and a lot of consumers are flat out scared right now. Many analysts now fear that a "perfect storm" could be brewing and that we could actually be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012. Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully our leaders can keep the global economy from completely falling apart. But right now, things don't look good. After a period of relative stability, things are starting to become unglued once again. The next major financial panic could literally happen at any time. Sadly, if we do see an economic apocalypse in 2012, it won't be the wealthy that suffer the most. It will be the poor, the unemployed, the homeless and the hungry that feel the most pain.

The following are 20 signs that we could be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012....

Police Chief Confirms Detaining Photographers Within Departmental Policy

Sodomize yourself with freedom. You love it.

Long Beach Post -


A photograph shot by Sander Roscoe Wolff on June 30 before he was detained by Long Beach Police

Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures "with no apparent esthetic value" is within Long Beach Police Department policy.

McDonnell spoke for a follow-up story on a June 30 incident in which Sander Roscoe Wolff, a Long Beach resident and regular contributor to Long Beach Post, was detained by Officer Asif Kahn for taking pictures of a North Long Beach refinery.¹

Symptoms of the Bush-Obama Presidency

Here is proof positive of the false left-right paradigm: Liberals who hated Bush still love Obama, and Conservatives who loved Bush hate Obama. At least some Liberals are somewhat principled. Be sure to read all of it.

Huffington Post -

Is it too soon to speak of the Bush-Obama presidency?

The record shows impressive continuities between the two administrations, and nowhere more than in the policy of “force projection” in the Arab world. With one war half-ended in Iraq, but another doubled in size and stretching across borders in Afghanistan; with an expanded program of drone killings and black-ops assassinations, the latter glorified in special ceremonies of thanksgiving (as they never were under Bush); with the number of prisoners at Guantanamo having decreased, but some now slated for permanent detention; with the repeated invocation of “state secrets” to protect the government from charges of war crimes; with the Patriot Act renewed and its most dubious provisions left intact -- the Bush-Obama presidency has sufficient self-coherence to be considered a historical entity with a life of its own.

Donald Trump’s candidacy received three times more coverage than Ron Paul’s candidacy

Make sure you get out and vote in their rigged elections. Wait in line behind people who might have voted for Ron Paul if only the media had told them he could've actually won. Ron Paul can't win, but Donald Trump, who became right by robbing people by exploiting loopholes in bankruptcy laws...he's our kind of guy. Plus, he's on The Apprentice!

The Raw Story -

Donald Trump received over three times as much news coverage than Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) this year, according to a report by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The report found that Trump was featured in 94 campaign stories by 52 major news outlets from from January 1 to August 14, but the same news outlets only featured Paul in 27 campaign stories.

Woman’s yard sale to pay medical bills gets shut down

At what point does the tyranny and oppression and utter lack of freedom overwhelm your retarded sense of "patriotism" and exceptionalism so that you finally - finally - stop turning a blind eye to the fact that our country has been turned into a Stalinist shithole? Of course, all this stemmed because the good citizen living down the street turned her in to the police.

Salem KATU -

Inflation picking up speed

Notice it's always someone or something else's fault for inflation. Not the massive money creation. Gasoline prices have crippled us for years but now, now it's causing inflation. But then again, in a roundabout way, this is true, since QE2 was responsible for the rise in gasoline prices in the first place.

CNBC -
[...]
Another report from the Labor Department showed the Consumer Price Index increased 0.5 percent in July, the largest gain since March, after falling 0.2 percent in June. That was above economists' expectations for a 0.2 percent gain.

Gasoline, which rose 4.7 percent after falling 6.8 percent the prior month, accounted for about half of the rise in CPI last month.

But core CPI—excluding food and energy—rose 0.2 percent after rising 0.3 percent in June.

I can't stress this enough: the CPI does not include food and energy prices, and they admit this freely. And no, they're not going to show you what inflation looks like when you factor in food and energy. That might make you perk your ears up and avert your eyes from your TV.

New DHS rules cancel deportations

All things being equal, this would be a serious, serious issue. On the one hand, you have grotesque violations of Americans' constitutional rights in the name of fighting terror. On the other, you have a government with no interest in securing our borders. This is egregious. But all things are not equal. The war on terror is an Orwellian fraud. And these new rules are a distraction. On the Right, people will rail against illegals being given amnesty. The Left will counter that the Right is racist, and the dust kicks up and all hell breaks loose. Divide and conquer.

Washington Times -

The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.

The move, announced in letters to Congress, won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had chided President Obama for months for the pace of deportations and had argued he had authority to exempt broad swaths of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Jobless Claims in U.S. Top Forecast

Bloomberg -

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, signaling the labor market is struggling two years into the economic recovery.

Jobless claims climbed by 9,000 to 408,000 in the week ended Aug. 13, the highest in a month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a rise in claims to 400,000, according to the median forecast. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls rose, while those receiving extended payments fell.

Reality is...

Most civilized people are out of touch with reality because they confuse the world as it is with the world as they think about it, talk about it, and describe it. For on the one hand, there is the real world. And on the other, a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our mind. These are very, very useful symbols, all civilization depends on them, but like all good things they have their disadvantages. And the principal disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality. Just as we confuse money with actual wealth, and our names about ourselves, our ideas of ourselves, our images of ourselves, with ourselves. Now of course, reality, from a philosopher's point of view, is a very dangerous word. A philosopher will ask me, "What do I mean by reality?" Am I talking about the physical world of nature or am I talking about the spiritual world, or what? And to that I have a very simple answer: When we talk about the material world, that is actually a philosophical concept. So in the same way, if I say that reality is spiritual, that's also a philosophical concept. And reality itself is not a concept. Reality is… - Alan Watts

For first time, more corn used for ethanol than livestock

Another reason food prices are rising...large percentages of crops are being diverted into worthless biofuel. And when I say worthless, I mean ethanol is a total piece of shit of a fuel. Even compared to gasoline, in every conceivable way. Not only does it destroy your engine, but it wipes out your gas mileage. I've seen this first-hand, since where I live you can actually get ethanol-free gasoline. There's no contest. You also may have noticed that since ethanol has been introduced into our gasoline, you're going through lawnmowers like gangbusters.

The Gazette -

For the first time ever, more of the corn crop may go into gas tanks than into the stomachs of cattle and poultry destined for kitchen tables.

The prediction drew little response last week when it was released by the USDA in its Crop Production and Supply/Demand Report for the 2011 crop season. The USDA kept its prediction for ethanol production demand for corn at 5.05 billion, but lowered demand projections for livestock feed by 100 million bushels to 5 billion bushels.

Big Sis’ Latest Terrorists: More White Americans

New DHS video ignores previous controversy over deliberate racial overtones

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com -

Despite causing controversy last month with a video that portrayed white middle class Americans as the most likely terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security has released yet another PSA that depicts an attempt to bomb a subway station not by Al-Qaeda Muslims, but well-dressed white people.

Obama Dismisses Farmer's Concerns About Regulations: 'Don't Always Believe What You Hear'

Yeah but...you can always read the bill. Notice Obama doesn't encourage this farmer to read the bill for himself. Just listen to what tell you, mundane.

Solar Flare Activity Prompting NASA to Convene a News Briefing Thursday in Washington

Economic collapse is what's most on my mind when I tell people they need to prepare for the grid to fail. But there are other factors as well, factors like a massive solar flare creating havoc with everything electrical. Which would be awesome, if you ask me.

Weather Tech -

Increasing solar activity and the threat that coronal mass ejections (CME) pose to Earth has prompted NASA to convene a news briefing at its Headquarter building in Washington on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday’s briefing has been arranged, space agency officials say, in light of new information coming from NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), spacecraft and other NASA probes. The briefing will feature new details about the structure of solar storms and the impact they have on Earth.

Companies paid more for wholesale goods, though inflation pressures muted

Notice this standard of tabulating inflation does not include food and energy prices. They admit it freely. Don't worry about the things you actually need; let's keep tabs on all the worthless crap we're pressured into borrowing towards or wasting our own money on. Food? Pshaw...tell me about how much my next iPad is gonna cost me.

Washington Post -

A key measure of wholesale inflation rose in July by the most in six months.

The measure, called core wholesale inflation, excludes volatile food and energy prices [emphasis mine]. It surged 0.4 percent last month.

Producer Prices Surge in July as Inflation Fears Ratchet Up

Inflation isn't something that just happens. Right now it is happening for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the currency is being devalued through massive money creation from the Fed's printing presses, and more will follow. Second, disasters, both natural and man-made, have destroyed crop yields all over the world, from Russia to Japan to America. There are other reasons but the item to watch most closely is the Fed's inflationary policies. The more they print, the more the dollar is destroyed, the more prices must rise. Especially when the dollar loses reserve currency status. This isn't difficult to predict.

CNBC -

U.S. core producer prices rose at their fastest pace in six months in July, pushed up by higher tobacco and light truck costs, according to a government report on Wednesday that could stoke inflation fears.

More Evidence: Slave Labor Not Cheap Enough; Walmart Has Ninth Straight Quarterly Decline in Sales

Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan -

As if the lowest consumer sentiment in three decades wasn’t enough, the largest retailer in the world provides yet more evidence that the consumer in the United States is being unabatedly destroyed:

…company comments about consumer spending showed the split between upper-income consumers who have jobs and are little affected by rising costs for food and other essentials, and lower-income shoppers who are struggling with stubbornly high unemployment and rising costs.

“This is exactly what we continue to see quarter after quarter. There’s just significant bifurcation here,” Edward Jones retail analyst Matt Arnold said.

Wal-Mart said same-store sales at its U.S. discount stores, by far its largest business, fell 0.9 percent in the second quarter, the ninth straight quarterly decline at domestic stores open at least a year.

10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The US Are Now More Likely Than Ever

Mac Slavo at SHTF Plan goes even further. Not only are they likely, but the Obama administration will incite them in order to clamp down further on our liberties. Either way, the descent into barbarism has begun.

The Economic Collapse -

You should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble. We have raised an entire generation of young people with an "entitlement mentality", but now the economy is producing very few good jobs that will actually enable our young people to work for what they feel they are entitled to. If you are under 30 in America today, things look really bleak. The vast majority of the good jobs are held by people that are older, and they aren't about to give them up if they can help it. It is easy for the rest of us to tell young Americans to "take whatever they can", but the reality is that there is intense competition for even the most basic jobs. For instance, McDonald's recently held a "National Hiring Day" during which a million Americans applied for jobs. Only 6.2% of the applicants were hired. In the old days you could walk down to McDonald's and get a job whenever you wanted to, but now any job is precious. The frustration among our young people is palpable. Most of them feel entitled to "the American Dream" and they feel like the system has failed them. Unfortunately, many of them are already turning to violence. But the economic riots and the civil unrest that we have already seen are nothing compared to what is coming. Americans are angry, and as the economy continues to collapse that anger is going to reach unprecedented heights.

Things the government approves that are more dangerous than raw milk

Yeah, but...like...isn't raw milk, like, gross and stuff? Doesn't it have vitamins and enzymes that are destroyed in the pasteurization process? What's all this healthy stuff for? It's scary!

Natural News -

Among all the raw milk madness happening right now, NaturalNews recently covered the biased information coming from government sources and how it makes dispelling the myths and regulations surrounding raw milk difficult.

The government's continual condemnation of raw milk's safety and presentation of false statistics meant to frighten the public have begun a fierce campaign against this wholesome and nutritious food. Yet more and more people are being made aware of the truth about raw milk's ability to improve nutrition and enhance health.

Jon Stewart: Why is the media ignoring Ron Paul?

Doesn't get any more clear-cut than this. The establishment does not want Ron Paul to win, so its whores in the media will tell you who not to vote for (Ron Paul), and most people will conform. Wouldn't want to be weird. Because that's what the media says Ron Paul is. You want to be hip and chic and cool. No, Bret Baier, please don't roll your eyes at me!

Walmart warns on US weakness

When Walmart starts warning we may be up shit's creek, maybe you should start taking things seriously. Or just pretend it's not happening and convince yourself one day it'll all be over and you can comfort yourself that you knew all along everything would be okay. And starve.

Financial Times -

Walmart, the biggest US retailer by revenues, warned on Tuesday that persistent weakness in the US economy was putting pressure on its low income consumers who are increasingly worried about unemployment and becoming more reliant on government assistance.

The struggling US economy is continuing to take its toll on Walmart’s domestic sales as it reported its ninth consecutive quarter of falling sales at US stores open at least a year. Comparable store sales at Walmart in the US, excluding fuel sales and purchases at Sam’s Club stores, were down by 0.9 per cent from a year ago.

Obama Ag Secretary Vilsack: Food Stamps Are A "Stimulus"

This makes perfect sense to tax feeding parasites who think money is just laying around somewhere with nothing to be spent on. This creates nothing. It simply redistributes wealth. It's money stolen from the productive to be given to the unproductive. I don't think even Keynes was retarded enough to think this could actually work.

Real Clear Politics -

Obama's Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: "Well, obviously, it's putting people to work. Which is why we're going to have some interesting things in the course of the forum this morning. Later this morning, we're going have a press conference with Secretary Mavis and Secretary Chu to announce something that's never happened in this country -- something that we think is exciting in terms of job growth. I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the foot stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times."

Video at the link.

Obama frets over 'lone wolf' attack as Sept 11 looms

The plebs are getting reckless. So time to ratchet up the fear; let them know why they need government, so they don't start getting any weird ideas. Ideas like, umm, we're broke and we need to shrink the size of government, shrink our military, destroy the National Security State. If they felt they could get away with another false flag attack, they would've done it already. As Obama's poll numbers plummet, they might just go for broke.

Yahoo News -

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday played down prospects for a spectacular Al-Qaeda attack 10 years after the September 11th strikes, saying he worried more now about solitary extremists.

"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack," he told CNN television during a campaign-style swing through Iowa.

Report: U.S. has lost $360M to insurgents and drug lords in Afghanistan

Think about how monumentally inept such a "blunder" would have to be. How do you lose over a quarter of a billion dollars to your supposed enemy? Don't think about it too much. Go outside and fly your flag and berate people who don't "support" the troops.

Politico -

The U.S. military has lost $360 million intended for combat and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan to the Taliban, criminals and local leaders during nearly a decade on the ground there.

A task force assembled last year by Gen. David Petraeus, then the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan and now the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, tallied the diversion of funds as part of a broader assessment of the war effort, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, after obtaining details of the report.

Study: 80 percent of antidepressant prescriptions are written for people without psychiatric conditions

If it looks like eugenics, walks like eugenics quacks like eugenics, smells like eugenics...it's eugenics.

Natural News -

There is a reason why antidepressants have become the third most commonly prescribed class of medications in the US, and it has nothing to do with their supposed efficacy (antidepressants do not actually work). According to a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs, nearly 80 percent of antidepressant drugs administered today are prescribed to people who do not even have psychiatric conditions.

Proof that the FDA's assault on raw milk has nothing to do with consumer safety

Pretty conclusive. Healthy food = illegal. Poison = GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe).

Natural News -

An astonishing two-thirds of all fresh chicken meat sold in grocery stores today is contaminated with salmonella (http://www.naturalnews.com/028661_c...). Diet soda is laced with aspartame, a chemical sweetener made from the feces of genetically engineered bacteria (http://www.naturalnews.com/030918_a...). "Natural" corn chips are made from genetically modified corn plants linked to widespread infertility when consumed by mammals (http://www.naturalnews.com/025001.html).

Perry: ‘I didn’t do my research’ on mandate for HPV vaccine

He didn't do his research - not on the actual safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, but on how the people and their representatives would react to his fascist edict. He is a paid tool of Big Pharma. Be sure to read the whole story.

The Raw Story -

Facing questions in New Hampshire last weekend, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) was confronted by someone wanting to know why he ordered all Texas girls to receive a series of injections to vaccinate them against human pappiloma virus (HPV), even without the completion of long term studies on the drug.

According to ABC News's The Note, he replied: "I signed an executive order that allowed for an opt out, but the fact of the matter is that I didn’t do my research well enough to understand that we needed to have a substantial conversation with our citizenry."

His mandate was almost immediately repudiated by Republicans across the state. The legislature revoked Perry's order six weeks later.

"But here’s what I learned," Perry added in New Hampshire last week. "When you get too far out in front of the parade, they will let you know, and that’s exactly what our legislature did and I saluted it and I said, 'Roger that, I hear you loud and clear' and they didn’t want to do it and we don’t, so enough said."

He instead suggested that people should just "opt in" for vaccines on their own initiative.

Moody’s Lowers Economic Growth Outlook

Whoop...Moody's said something bad about our economy. Fire up the Senate inquisitors!

Wall Street Journal -

Moody’s Analytics said its near-term outlook for the U.S. economy has fallen significantly in the past month wake of the debate over the U.S. debt ceiling and the downgrade of the nation’s credit ratings by Standard & Poor’s .

Moody’s Analytics, a sister company to credit-ratings company Moody’s Investors Service, now expects real gross domestic product to increase at an annualized rate of about 2% in the second half of this year and just over 3% next year, compared with its estimate a month ago for growth of 3.5% for the second half of this year and through 2012.

Meanwhile our current growth is a paltry 0.4%...not sure where they're getting these numbers from, but...well I do, actually. They're making them up. Because even when they tell you things are bad, they're lying. Things are worse than bad. But if you knew this, you might take steps to protect what you own, and then they can't rob you.

Swiss Ponder Battle Over Runaway Franc

The horrific side effects of globalism...other countries are devaluing their currency so much that they can't afford to buy Swiss products. Their solution? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The Swiss people will have their standard of living destroyed for the malfeasance of the rest of the continent. The disgusting thing is, the Swiss Franc is the culprit here, for being "overvalued" ... not the Euro, for being inflated into worthlessness.

Bloomberg -

Swiss National Bank Vice President Thomas Jordan said the central bank is assessing “a whole range of options” to prevent the franc, which reached a record against the euro this month, from making Swiss goods prohibitively expensive. Even a cup of coffee at Café St. Gotthard in Zurich costs $8.30, with one Swiss franc buying $1.2816 at today’s exchange rate.
[...]
“The franc is catastrophically overvalued,” said Blocher, a former justice minister for the People’s Party, Switzerland’s largest. “It’s almost like economic warfare -- to wage a war, you must use all measures at your disposal, and you must win.”

Why is George Soros selling gold and buying farmland?

He knows what's coming because he's in on the fix.

Natural News -

Food prices are skyrocketing all across the globe, and there's no end in sight. The United Nations says food inflation is currently at 30% a year, and the fast-eroding value of the dollar is causing food prices to appear even higher (in contrast to a weakening currency). As the dollar drops in value due to runaway money printing at the Federal Reserve, the cost to import foods from other nations looks to double in just the next two years -- and possibly every two years thereafter.

That's probably why investors around the globe are flocking to farmland as the new growth industry. "Investors are pouring into farmland in the U.S. and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar," reports Bloomberg magazine (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...). "A fund controlled by George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, owns 23.4 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA."

Ode to Theodore Kaczynski

The longer this crisis progresses the more the voice of Hindu philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti echoes in my head. Although many people will read this and be reminded of Theodore Kaczynski.

Most people don't know that Kaczynski was a victim of the profoundly sick society he hated, a guinea pig in a government mind control experiment known as MKULTRA. It is an irony of ironies that a grotesque government conspiracy turned Kaczynski into the poster child for paranoid conspiracy theories and enemies of the State – the Unibomber.

Haggard and reclusive, not to mention violent, Kaczynki's media caricature is the perfect contrast to so-called civilized society, a representation of what happens to crazy people who hate and fear God Government. Worshiping the State as most people do, there is no sympathy generated for what MKULTRA did to his mind, because such government conspiracies do not exist, except in the minds of crazy people like Ted Kaczynski. The propaganda employed here is nothing short of genius.

So most people will conjure images of the Unibomber when I say, this society is sick and needs to die; the sooner the better. Most of those people are sheltered in their comfortable little wombs, protected by the government's fake statistics and its media whores who sweep the cruelties and injustices of so-called civilization under the rug, making it oh, so easy for you to pretend none of it is happening, that we are at the peak of human existence, ever progressing, ever evolving, visions of a Star Trek future dancing in their heads, even while many of the great minds of today employ their intelligence in the service of madness, death, and destruction. You do not hear about the millions of people living in tent cities and shantytowns all over the country. The unemployment rate is grossly underestimated. Our standard of living is being eradicated, the value of our money being destroyed. Thousands of miles away, our illegal and immoral wars are slaughtering millions, our nuclear weapons are permanently contaminating the lands these people call home, causing horrific birth defects and exploding rates of cancer. The Third World and the famine, disease, and ethnic strife that defines it is not a product of an as yet to be civilized society. It is the direct and deliberate consequence of resource exploitation by the international banking cartel, who create money out of thin air to loan to the tin pot dictators who rule these countries, at interest that cannot possibly be paid back. None of this will bother enough people as long as the privilege to watch TV and obsess over distraction, trivium, bread and circus is not taken from them.

The people responsible for this are above those who hold office; they cannot be voted out, and have an infinite supply of money to buy off anyone new we vote in to office to change it all. And then, when all else fails, there is the Kennedy option (the government did not kill Kennedy, because government conspiracies do not exist). This disease has metastasized for almost a hundred years, yet we still think we can solve it through the democratic process that created it in the first place. Our republic, long dead now, was far more virulent back when this heinous system – the Federal Reserve – was created; it has had upwards of 98 years to wrap its tentacles around every essential aspect of our society – education, media, politics, medicine, food, etc. With over 500 members of Congress and only one Ron Paul, and our entire society on the precipice of the abyss, it is long passed saving even if it were worth saving.

Here is where Kaczynski and I part ways, again taking note that Kaczynski was insane because his mind was tampered with. The government, our society, are not the enemy here. The rot and disease that has infested our society is not the result of something external from ourselves. It is the direct and inevitable consequence of our own pathological collective egoic mind. For even if we can see the criminal matrix that dominates our lives, the consequences of casting it off and living truly free are even more frightening than the matrix itself. We know that runaway “defense” spending and welfare entitlements are unsustainable, yet woe betide the politician or figurehead that suggests cutting or eliminating them. We know our education system is rotten, yet, no matter how much our children degenerate into stupidity and helplessness, we demand more money be thrown at the problem without enacting any fundamental change (or, what Einstein referred to as “insanity”). Anyone who actually suggests we eliminate the Department of Education is scourged and crucified. We know the mainstream media is corrupt, yet we believe only their narrative. No, we will not vote for Ron Paul. We will cheerfully cling to the establishment whores we supposedly hate, willfully in denial of the fact that what the candidate says and what the elected does are always in stark conflict, as the astronomical debt we've accumulated – far and away too large to be attributed to the actions of one administration, or one Congress – goes up, up, up, despite the letter next to the name of those "in power".

Some people unconsciously dependent on this sickness will say I'm throwing my hands and giving up. As if the system is worth saving if we could just – this time...finally...after all these generations – get the right people into power. We've got to fight! Even if you could get the right people into power, people who would shrink the size of government to sustainable levels, if that were even possible under any circumstances, it would involve a level of responsibility most people are simply not willing to undertake, and most people would hate them more than the thieves they replaced. Turn off my TV and grow food? But government pays some fat stupid farmer to grow my food for me, or there's the McDonald's down the street. My diabetes? Cancer? Heart disease? Well, I'm the victim of bad genes. And besides, I don't wanna live forever anyway. Cut up my credit cards? Save my money? But I have to have the latest gadgets and adhere to fashion trends. What good does money in the bank do me if I'm not a hipster douchebag? Volunteer in my community? I don't even know my neighbors. Aren't I supposed to fear them, watching them, to make sure they're not al Qaeda? And who protects me from al Qaeda if the military and police (I repeat myself) are cut or – *gasp!* – disbanded? Buy a gun? Aren't guns evil? Can't I just dial 9-11 and hope help to arrives before I'm killed? Somebody tell me what to do!

And so, despite the establishment's caricature of people like me who are paranoid, violent, and dangerous, which I suppose is the predictable reaction when someone snaps at the hand that feeds them, I believe that, just as there is nothing that can be done, at least in the context of actually doing something, to reform and restore our society, there is nothing that needs to be done to cause it to die; allowing the society to die and truly reforming it are one and the same. Just as the respirator keeps someone in a vegetative state “alive”, our voluntary consent in this pseudo civilization is its sole support of life. There is no violence, no insurrection, no violent mobs, no riots, no tar and feathering, no destruction of property that needs to take place, although I am certain it will. When it is determined that someone who is clinically brain dead should no longer be kept alive, there is no action required, except to cease doing what was already being done to keep the body alive. You just pull the plug and mourn the dead and move on with your life.

And for me, the sooner this happens, the better. I've been accused of, and will now admit to, parading bad economic news as if I am cheering the demise of our society. Unlike Nero, I am not merely fiddling as Rome burns; I am ecstatically dancing around the fire. I've understood, going on three years ago now, that the day would come when our money became worthless. I have warned people of that eventuality since then, til I was quite literally blue in the face, to little avail that I'm aware of (as if this were my responsibility...as if I know better how others should live their lives). More importantly, I am prepared for it. I don't know exactly how the collapse will unfold, because there are just too many factors involved, but one thing I do know is, I won't be breaking into stores looking for food; I won't be killing my neighbor for his.

I know that, on a physical, mental, and spiritual level, my life in the post-collapse world will be infinitely more fulfilling than it is now. I will mourn the suffering and death of the many millions who will be culled as the State and the diseased egoic mindset that created it suffers its death pangs, those who were so addicted to the system that, at least on a subconscious level, they chose a meaningless death over freedom. Those of us left behind will continue to evolve the collective towards higher consciousness, which inevitably will bring freedom. If your loyalties lie with the State and the cruel and vicious society it created, my sorrow for what befalls you will be tempered by the knowledge that it was your choice, no one else's.