SOPA – The Burning Platform

WTF IS THE FCC DOING?

I received an email from a reader informing me about an interesting email she had just received. According to this email from the CEO of an independent TV station, the FCC is using your tax dollars to buy up every independent TV station in the country with the purported purpose to “improve” cell phone service and video on demand. My bullshit meter immediately flashes red.

We already know five corporations control 80% of the broadcasting outlets in this country and collude with the government and Wall Street to keep the sheep ignorant with ruling class sanctioned propaganda. We also know the government wants to control the internet through the FCC, using SOPA. Now we find out the government is using your tax dollars to buy up and eliminate independent TV stations across the country. They couldn’t possibly be attempting to squelch dissenting viewpoints from reaching the public. Could they?

Do you think your tax dollars should be used to reduce your ability to hear dissenting opinions?

Last week, we conducted a series of conference calls regarding MiND’s role in the broadcasting community, offering a unique combination of international, music, documentary and short-form programming. As we are contemplating some changes, we have decided to schedule two more viewer-input telephone conference calls and two public forums to be held at the MiND office. I hope you will find an hour to join us (the schedule is below).

Recently, the FCC (the Federal government agency which controls TV and radio licenses) contacted every TV station in the U.S. The FCC wants to purchase many TV broadcast licenses in order to supply wireless telephone carriers (such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc.) with additional bandwidth. This bandwidth will enable better cell phone service and improved video-on-demand on mobile devices.

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As you may know, our TV license is owned and operated by a nonprofit organization. The decision to continue as a broadcaster will be made by our organization’s Board of Directors. This is completely our organization’s decision. The government agency is simply making an offer to all television stations in the country; some stations will choose to accept the offer, and some will not.

The television industry is changing. Many of the programs seen on MiND’s channels are available from other sources. As a result, we are asking questions about the best way to serve the public interest: in the digital era, operating a television station is one of several available options.

If we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to invest the funds to develop new and exciting forms of public media for television, the Internet and other venues. Regardless of whether we continue to operate a TV station, our mission remains the same: to help people learn and understand the world.

And if we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to find a new home for most of the programs and MiND channels so that you will be able to continue to watch them with minimal interruption.

If you are interested in joining us for one of these conversations by phone or in person, please send an email with the subject line “Public Forum RSVP” to [email protected] and include the following information:

(1) Name

(2) Zip Code

(3) Email address

(4) Session you would like to attend:

If you have questions, or would like to schedule an individual conversation with me, please send an email to the above address and we’ll set up a time to talk.

Thank you for watching the MiND channels, and for your willingness to participate in this important decision.

Best,

Howard Blumenthal
CEO, MiND: Media Independence

CELL PHONE KILL SWITCH

I’m sure our beloved government and their cooperative mega-corporations have your best interest at heart in this matter. We all know that cell phone theft is a scourge on society and must be addressed before the thousands of other crimes being committed in our Orwellian state. Virtually every adult in America owns a cell phone. At least they thought they owned it. We already know the NSA knows everything you say, text, or send on your cell phone. The outrage from the sheeple has been deafeningly non-existent. The sheep trust their keepers as they are herded towards the slaughterhouse.

Now our keepers have quietly developed a scheme with their capitalist cronies at Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Verizon and the rest of the cell phone oligarchy to kill your cell phone when the shit hits the fan. Everything they do is in the name of safety – spy drones flying overhead, militarization of local police forces, mass surveillance of all electronic communications, trying to revoke the 2nd amendment, and pretending the 4th amendment doesn’t exist.

This kill switch is not to protect you. It is to control you. It puts the government in control of your communications. They know the shit is going to hit the fan in the next few years. They desperately wanted to pass SOPA to control the internet, but have failed thus far. They want to be able to shut down all electronic communication by those they consider enemies of the state who oppose their Orwellian tactics and control.

Know your enemy.

‘Kill Switch’ Included on All Cell Phones Made in U.S. by 2015

Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple
April 16th, 2014

According to a program launched yesterday by CTIA-The Wireless Association®, an international nonprofit that has represented the wireless communication industry since 1984, all phones manufactured in the U.S. after July 2015 will be required to contain a “kill switch” system that can remotely disable and wipe any cell phone’s data.

Although the “Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment” is a voluntary program, apparently all the major players have already happily jumped on board: “Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry’s largest trade group,” reported CNN.

And the supposed reasoning — anti-theft — sounds super phony, but just like everything else, it’s all for you and your safety of course:

Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from taking mobile devices by rendering phones useless while allowing people to protect personal information if their phone is lost or stolen. Its proponents include law enforcement officials concerned about the rising problem of smartphone theft. (source)

Yeah, because law enforcement really cares about whether or not your smartphone is stolen…unless it’s law enforcement stealing your phone from you in the first place because you’ve used the camera on it to protect yourself from police state activity by taking incriminating photos and videos of said law enforcement.

Well, now they won’t even have to physically take your phone from you, because apparently with just the push of a button, the phone can be remotely wiped clean of all data.

(On an aside, someone tried to break into my house and it took a whole day for the cops to even bother to show up…like they really give half a crap about whether or not your phone is stolen.)

As with every other trendy new technology advertised as making consumer’s lives just Jetsons-level awesome, there’s an obvious flipside that can be used (abused) for quite the opposite.

By the way, the 2014 CTIA Board of Directors and Officers include the higher ups (Presidents, CEOs and VPs, etc.) from many major communications companies including Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, Blackberry, AT&T, Sprint, Qualcomm, LG Electronics, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, U.S. Cellular, Nokia and Apple.

So it should be no surprise whatsoever that Nokia, Motorola, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular have all signed on to the kill switch program.

And remember, many of these companies are the same ones that voluntarily joined the NSA Prism program, allowing the government to track all your online communications and populate the government’s databases with your skimmed data.

In this day and age of dwindling privacy ala 1984, you would think there would be a major market for a privacy-respecting telecom, but it takes a lot of money to set up the infrastructure for that kind of thing, and it’s no secret that the U.S. intelligence community via sources like In-Q-Tel (the CIA.’s official venture capital firm) are the real backers incubating all the new technology these days:

Founded in 1999 as a way for the U.S. to keep up with the rapid innovation in science and technology, In-Q-Tel has been an early backer of start-ups later acquired by Google, Oracle, IBM and Lockheed Martin.

“If you want to keep up with Silicon Valley, you need to become part of Silicon Valley. The best way to do that is have a budget because when you have a checkbook, everyone comes to you,” said Jim Rickards, an adviser to the U.S. intelligence community who is familiar with the activities of Arlington, Va.-based IQT.

Given the increasing importance of cyber security and big data, it is a safe bet that the U.S. intelligence community will continue to lean on private-sector development in its behind-the-scenes fight against terrorism and other geopolitical threats. (source)

But as we all know, it was the U.S. military that invented the Internet in the first place, after all.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Contributed by Melissa Melton of The Daily Sheeple.

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!

– See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/kill-switch-included-on-all-cell-phones-made-in-u-s-by-2015_042014#sthash.VrkAaDXH.dpuf

2012 – YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY IN REVIEW

On January 8 of this year I posted my annual prediction article for this year – 2012 – The Year of Living Dangerously. Now it’s time to assess my complete and utter cluelessness when it comes to predicting things within a given time frame. Despite the fact that myself and everyone else acting like they know what lays ahead are proven wrong time and time again, we continue to make predictions about the future. It makes us feel like we have some control, when we don’t. The world is too complex, too big, too corrupt, too lost in theories and delusions, and too dependent upon too many leaders with too few brains to be able to predict what will happen next. This is the time of year when all the “experts” will be making their 2013 predictions. I haven’t seen too many of these experts going back and honestly assessing their 2012 predictions, which didn’t happen.

What I’ve learned is that “experts” usually have an agenda. Their predictions are designed to convince you to buy the stocks they recommend or purchase their newsletter. Many of these “experts” work for Wall Street, the corporate MSM, a political party or corporate interest. Half of the “experts” represent the status quo and want the masses to think everything is just fine and will steadily improve. The other half are fear mongers that want to scare you into buying their products with predictions of impending collapse at any moment. I like to read the predictions of a wide variety of pundits, bloggers, and so called journalists, while understanding they probably have an agenda.

Personally, I try to make my predictions based on the facts I observe and try to gather. My agenda is to prepare my family for whatever these facts tell me is likely to happen. My website is just a place for me to post my thoughts. I don’t depend upon it for a living and I have nothing to sell. That doesn’t mean that my biases, hopes, and desires do not color my predictions. As I reread my article yesterday, I found myself thinking, “when is this long winded gasbag going to actually make some predictions?” My article was supposed to make 2012 predictions but ended up trying to tie 2012 into the Fourth Turning Crisis paradigm. When I eventually got to the predictions, I realized that a monkey throwing darts could have done just as well. If I was one of those “experts”, I’d say that I wasn’t wrong, I was just early. Of course, that is a cop-out. Being early is the same as being wrong.

I’m more interested in why I was wrong. It seems I always underestimate the ability of sociopathic central bankers and their willingness to destroy the lives of hundreds of millions to benefit their oligarch masters. I always underestimate the rampant corruption that permeates Washington DC and the executive suites in mega-corporations across the land. And I always overestimate the intelligence, civic mindedness, and ability to understand math of the ignorant masses that pass for citizens in this country. It seems that issuing trillions of new debt to pay off trillions of bad debt, government sanctioned accounting fraud, mainstream media propaganda, government data manipulation and a populace blinded by mass delusion can stave off the inevitable consequences of an unsustainable economic system. But enough excuses. Let’s see how wrong I was:

All the episodes which will occur in 2012 will have at their core one of the three elements described by Strauss & Howe in 1997: Debt, Civic Decay, or Global Disorder.

This was a generic prediction. Those are a lot easier to take credit for as being right. Considering the country is about to go over the fiscal cliff, I’d say that debt has had a major impact in 2012. The disgusting political campaign, the anger over efforts to ban guns, urban violence, 20% of nation on food stamps, and real unemployment rate of 23% certainly prove that civic decay is accelerating. Uprisings in Egypt, Syria and across the Middle East intensified. Israel and Iran got closer to inevitable war. Japan and China are on the verge of conflict. The U.S. is still bogged down in Afghanistan and has failed miserably in efforts to democratize the Middle East. I’d say we have had a bit of global disorder.

At best, the excessive levels of sovereign debt will slow economic growth to zero or below in 2012. At worst, interest rates will soar as counties attempt to rollover their debt and rolling defaults across Europe will plunge the continent into a depression.

The best case scenario for European bankers and politicians came to pass in 2012. The GDP for the European Union went negative in the 3rd quarter of 2012. The southern European nations are experiencing depression level conditions with soaring unemployment, social unrest, and higher interest rates. But even Germany is experiencing a dramatic slowdown. The bankers continue to call the shots, with various debt schemes designed to keep the bankers whole, while throwing the people to the wolves. They have postponed the day of reckoning, but it is coming. They do not have a liquidity problem. They have a solvency problem. You cannot resolve a debt problem by creating more debt.

The truth that no one wants to acknowledge is the standard of living for every person in Europe, the United States and Japan will decline. The choice is whether the decline happens rapidly by accepting debt default and restructuring or methodically through central bank created inflation that devours the wealth of the middle class. Debt default would result in rich bankers losing vast sums of wealth and politicians accepting the consequences of their phony promises. Bankers and politicians will choose inflation.

This was an easy one. Bankers and politicians will never choose pain for themselves when they can shift it to the people. Bernanke and the rest of the world’s central bankers, in cooperation with their captured politicians, have chosen to inflate the debt away by printing money. They trust in the shallowness and ignorance of the masses to not notice as their standard of living steadily declines.

Controlling the distribution of data allows the oligarchs to falsify the true level of inflation and the corporate MSM dutifully spews the propaganda to the masses.

The European Union will not survive 2012 in its current form. Countries are already preparing for the dissolution. Politicians and bankers will lie and print until the day they pull the plug on the doomed Euro experiment.

I was 100% wrong in this assessment. The politicians and bankers are most certainly lying, but they have succeeded in keeping the EU intact. The dissolution would imperil too many bankers. Whether they can keep it intact through 2013 is another question.

The National Debt will be $16.5 trillion when the next president takes office in January 2013.

Barack Obama will be inaugurated on January 20, 2013. As of December 26, 2012 the National Debt stood at $16.34 trillion and according to Turbo Tax Timmy will hit the debt limit of $16.4 trillion on December 31. He will use accounting gimmicks and not fund government pensions to not exceed the limit, but the debt will continue to accumulate at a rate of $3.5 billion per day. The National Debt will be at approximately $16.47 trillion when Obama starts his 2nd term. Close enough for government work.

As debt servicing grows by the day, the economy losses steam. The excessive and increasing debt levels will lead to a renewed recession in 2012.

Despite the fact that the government and corporate media continue to report economic growth and a barely positive GDP, a recession did begin this past summer. Using a true level of inflation, GDP has been negative since 2006.

The horrific Christmas retail sales and declining corporate profits reveal the truth. Fourth quarter GDP will be negative and the government will eventually adjust the prior quarters lower. Excel spreadsheet models, fake inflation figures and seasonal adjustments cannot deny reality or the facts.

As foreclosures rise a self-reinforcing loop will develop. Home prices will fall as banks dump houses at lower prices, pushing millions more into a negative equity position. Home prices will fall another 5% to 10% in 2012, with a couple years to go before bottoming.

Another 100% wrong prediction. I again underestimated the willingness of corrupt Wall Street bankers, in cahoots with the Federal government, to fraudulently boost home prices by withholding foreclosures from the market and creating a fake housing shortage. The Feds have willingly used Fannie, Freddie and the FHA to guarantee more bad mortgage loans and put the taxpayer further on the hook for the billions of bad debt. Bennie has swooped in and bought up billions of toxic mortgage debt from the criminal Wall Street banks, while driving mortgage rates to record low levels. With this massive intervention, they have managed to increase home prices by 4% and increase home sales to levels 60% below the peak. Job well done.

The working age population will increase by 1.7 million, the number of people employed will go up by 1 million, but the official unemployment rate will drop to 7% as the BLS reveals that 10 million people decided to relax and leave the workforce. Surely I jest. The government manipulated unemployment rate will rise above 9%, while the real rate will surpass 25%.

I made what I thought was an outrageous prediction as an attempt at humor, but my outrageous prediction was closer to the truth. The working age population has grown by 3.7 million people, the number of employed people has gone up by only 2.7 million, 2.4 million people decided to kick back and leave the workforce, resulting in the unemployment rate “plunging” from 8.7% to 7.7%.

Measuring unemployment on par with the method used during the 1930s would put the level at 23% today. But you should trust the BLS. Why would they lie?

Ben Bernanke, Wall Street shysters and Barack Obama want you to be drawn in by the allure of short-term gains based on hopes of QE3. The stock market will be volatile in 2012 with stocks falling 20% when it becomes evident the country is going back into recession. Ben will try to ride to the rescue with QE3 as he buys up more toxic mortgage debt. Wall Street will do their usual touchdown dance celebration, but the bloom will fall off this rose fast, as quantitative easing has proven to be a failure in stimulating economic growth.Gridlock in Washington D.C., chaotic national conventions, and the implosion of Europe will contribute to the market finishing down by at least 15% for the year.

I hope you didn’t follow my stock market advice as it looks like I missed by only 25% or 30% with this prediction. It is amazing what zero interest rates for Wall Street banks, QE to infinity, high frequency trading supercomputers, and fake Wall Street earnings can do for a stock market. Since the recession has not been acknowledged and rigged corporate profits still sit near their peak, the stock market has continued to rise. I applaud the oligarchs for their ability to extract every last dime from the pockets of the middle class in their avaricious plundering of America. Bernie Madoff is proudly admiring their work from his prison cell.

The average price of oil will exceed $100 during 2012 resulting in the highest average gas price in history for American drivers. These high prices, along with various weather related issues will keep food prices elevated, with 5% or higher increases likely. This should spur a few more peasant revolutions around the globe.

I nailed this prediction. Americans paid the highest average price for a gallon of gasoline in history during 2012. Agricultural commodities like corn, wheat and soybeans soared by 7% to 20%, as the high oil prices and drought drove food prices higher. Meat prices will rise in 2013 as herds had to be thinned in 2012 because of the high feed costs. But don’t worry. The BLS will just adjust the food inflation away as they assume you switch from hamburger to cat food.

Gold will finish the year higher. As always, it will be volatile and manipulated by the powers that be. A drop below $1,500 in the beginning of the year is possible, but when Ben announces QE3, it will be off to the races. I expect gold to reach $1,900 by year end. Silver will be more volatile, but will likely reach $40 by year end.

Gold will finish the year higher for the twelfth consecutive year. It was volatile, with a high of $1,796 and a low of $1,527. It will finish the year in the mid $1,600s. Silver was equally volatile, but also up for the year. It ranged between $37.50 and $26. It will finish the year in the $30 range. The powers that be know that rising gold and silver prices reveal their deceitful inflationary master plan, so they use all of their market manipulative powers to suppress the prices of these metals. The higher our debt, the higher their prices will go. When the confidence game is revealed to be a Ponzi scheme, the prices of gold and silver will be unleashed.

Old line mall based retailers like Sears and J.C. Penney die a slow agonizing death as they stagger into the sunset like Montgomery Ward, Circuit City and thousands before them.

I was wrong about JC Penney. They are dying a fast agonizing death as the idiot savant from Apple has driven them straight into the ground, with sales plunging by 26% versus last year. It isn’t a matter of if, but when this employer of 159,000 declares bankruptcy. The “brilliant” (Jim Cramer says so) Eddie Lampert has Sears on a glide path to liquidation. This Christmas season will reveal these CEOs to be frauds.

The Occupy Movement will become more extreme with more disruptions of the economic system with less warning so the authorities don’t have time to prepare. I expect more cyber hacking into Wall Street, government, and media computer networks, causing disarray and uncertainty regarding financial information. I expect the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions to be overrun by protestors. The authorities will respond with excessive force, resulting in further violent protests in other cities.

Another 100% miss. The Occupy Movement splintered and petered out after being brutally dismantled by the armed mercenaries of the status quo. There were some cyber-attacks, but they caused minimal disruption. The masses are satiated with their techno-gadgets and reality TV shows. No one protested. No one cared.

The Federal government grows ever more panicked by the knowledge that its Ponzi scheme economy is going to collapse. This is why passage of the NDAA and the future passage of SOPA are so important to them. Imprisonment of citizens without charge and shutting down the only remaining means of truth – the Internet – are essential to retaining their power and control over the masses. At the same time, gun sales are at record levels. Critical thinking Americans can see the writing on the wall and no longer trust corrupt politicians of either party. Arming yourself and buying physical gold and silver is a prudent act in today’s world.

The outrage over SOPA, led by the alternative online media, stopped it from being passed. The tyrants continue their efforts to suppress free speech on the internet, as Facebook shuts down pages that do not conform to the corporate fascist government agenda. Gun sales are off the charts, as critical thinking people no longer trust the corrupt government. Physical gold and silver sales are soaring as critical thinking people no longer trust our corrupt economic system.

The ruling elite hand selected puppets for the 2012 presidential election are Obama and Romney. They are virtually interchangeable and both are acceptable to the Wall Street oligarchs. The monkey wrench in the gears is Ron Paul. He will run as a 3^rd Party candidate and focus a light on the crony capitalism that passes for free markets in America today. He will be vilified by both parties and their media mouthpieces, but if he gains traction I fear an unfortunate accident will befall him. Either way, he will have a dramatic impact on the debate and the outcome of the 2012 election.

With this prediction I allowed my hope to overcome reason. The oligarchs are too powerful. Ron Paul’s grassroots campaign made the oligarchs extremely uncomfortable. He drew huge crowds of young people on college campuses across the country. His message of liberty and freedom resonated with millions, but he was no match for the billionaires that call the shots in this country. He was silenced by the Republican establishment and chose not to run as a 3rd party candidate. The puppet on the left won the election. The puppet on the right retreated to one of his six mansions. Ron Paul rode off into the sunset knowing he gave it his best shot.

It seems more likely by the day that someone will do something stupid in or around Iran and the Persian Gulf will explode into a virtual hell on earth. The unintended consequences of such a development will far outweigh the intended consequences. The revolutions, protests, and brewing civil wars in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq will flare up even if Iran doesn’t explode into a shooting war. The tensions in the Middle East will keep oil prices above $100, despite a world plunging into recession.

The showdown between Israel and Iran did not happen in 2012, despite increasingly angry rhetoric. The stealth war with Iran began, as economic sanctions and cyber warfare have begun to destroy their economy and impoverish their people. Revolutions, riots, protests and civil war spread across the Middle East throughout 2012 resulting in high oil prices and a worldwide economic contraction which is picking up speed as 2012 comes to a conclusion.

China’s hard landing will arrive in 2012. Keynesianism on steroids has failed as they’ve built more than enough vacant malls, vacant cities, vacant condo towers, and bridges to nowhere. Property prices will plunge, exports will decline, and peasants will revolt as food and energy prices push them over the edge.

China has come in for a hard landing. With a government more corrupt than even ours, their reported economic data would make a BLS drone blush with pride. Property prices are falling. Exports are falling. But somehow they report economic growth of 7%. And the MSM dutifully reports this gibberish as truth. Unrest and protests are a daily occurrence in China, but they are immediately crushed. The Chinese authorities continue to clamp down on the internet and media. China’s economic system is a rotting Keynesian nightmare.

I also raised the generic possibilities of earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics and terrorist attacks. I noted that a terrorist attack in a public venue might cause a government over-reaction. Even though the slaughter of young school children by a deranged mental defective doesn’t constitute a terrorist attack, the reaction by government officials and their liberal control freak allies in the mainstream media are exactly what I feared. Every tragedy is used to gain more control over our lives and take away our Constitutional rights in the name of safety and security. The ignorant masses willingly give up their freedom and liberty, believing their Orwellian government protectors will look out for them. As we enter 2013, time grows shorter. The power hungry psychopaths continue to pillage and plunder. Our unsustainable economic system struggles under the weight of debt, despair and delusion as the endgame approaches. The willfully ignorant populace is lost in their techno-narcissistic dream world.

Will 2013 be the year it all collapses in a flaming heap of rubble? I don’t know. Maybe you should ask an “expert”.

It guarantees to be an interesting year. I’ll be hiring Bonzo the chimp to help me make my 2013 predictions in the next week or so.

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BAD WEEK FOR FREEDOM

“We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.”– Henry Miller

With each passing week it seems this country spirals further into the depths of a frightening dystopian fantasy reminiscent of Huxley and Orwell’s dark world of isolation, fear and government brutality portrayed in their masterpieces Brave New World and 1984. I keep speculating whether it’s me that’s crazy and not the things I’m witnessing on a daily basis. The President signs the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by an overwhelming majority of Congress, which allows the government to imprison American citizens indefinitely without charge. And there is barely a squeak from the docile masses as they are soothed by Obama promising to never use that part of the law. I bet you $10,000 a President will invoke that portion of the NDAA in the very near future.

Jon Corzine, a card carrying member of the ruling elite .01%, remains free to roam one of his five palatial estates after stealing $1.6 billion from the accounts of farmers, widows, and thousands of other “clients” of MF Global. In his spare time he raises money for Obama’s re-election campaign. The Federal government, Federal courts and Wall Street banking cabal have circled the wagons and declared the money just vaporized, even though it sits in Jamie Dimon’s vaults at J.P. Morgan. No one is being prosecuted for this deliberate thievery. The psychopathic Wall Street criminals have been getting away with murder for so long they act invulnerable to societal mores and scoff at our laws, rules and regulations. Those are for the 99%. When you control the politicians, regulators, courts, and mainstream media, it’s easy to get away with murder. The jackals and hyenas are laughing in their NYC penthouse suites as they continue to collect $20 million bonuses for a job well done.

After this past week I’m apoplectic with rage and fury as the rule of law has been discarded and the Constitution trampled upon by a wealthy connected oligarchy bent upon using their absolute power to further enrich themselves. The Wall Street banks that committed the largest financial crime in history, including: fraud in the inducement, forgery, fabricating documents, bribing rating agencies to rate toxic mortgages as AAA, selling fraudulent derivatives to customers, shorting the derivatives they sold to their customers, throwing millions of Americans out of their homes, charging inflated and bogus fees during the foreclosure process, and conducting a colossal cover-up, were slapped on the wrist and made to pay a miniscule $5 billion to the millions of victims of their crimes. Not one banker has been prosecuted. Not one person has gone to jail. Justice in this country is a putrid joke. There has been no outrage from the general public. The propaganda spewed by the corporate media instructs the masses to rejoice at this fair and just verdict. The truth is that 95% of the population didn’t know or didn’t care about the 50 state foreclosure-gate settlement. They were engrossed by the huge controversy over M.I.A. flipping the bird during the Super Bowl halftime show and whether Madonna was upset about the incident.

“Free” Healthcare

While this travesty of justice was playing out, we were treated to a glimpse into the future of healthcare in America administered by politicians and bureaucrats based upon vote count expediency. The government drones at DHHS mandated from on high that every woman in America would receive “free” contraceptives from their employers. Obama had made this decision and instructed his minions to implement his visionary dictate. The outrage and anger from religious groups and employers was instantaneous. Obama saw the 2012 election slipping away and reversed course within a day. He is quite the man of principle. His “solution” was to force insurance companies to provide “free” contraception to any employee of a religious employer that didn’t provide that coverage in their insurance plan. When I hear these sociopathic politicians use the word “free” when describing healthcare or any of their thousands of bankrupt government programs, I have an overpowering impulse to smash something. Insurance companies will not provide “free” contraceptives to women. Insurance premiums will rise for everyone.

Remember Obama’s assertion about his government takeover of healthcare:

“As a consequence of the Affordable Care Act, premiums are going to be lower than they would be otherwise; health care costs overall are going to be lower than they would be otherwise.”

The next government program that reduces costs, provides better service, and is more efficient than the private market will be the first government program to do so. Examples of government ineptitude, corruption and waste include: Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, the Energy Dept., the Education Dept., and the Dept. of War. Jonathan Gruber, MIT economist and chief architect of Obamacare and Romneycare, recently admitted the truth about Obamacare:

“After the application of tax subsidies, 59% of the individual market will experience an average premium increase of 31%. My findings reflect the high cost of folding state high risk pools into the [federal government’s] exchange — without using the money the state was already spending to subsidize those high risk pools.”

Based on what Obamacare has done for the American people before its full implementation in 2014, you’ll be begging for a death panel to put you out of your misery. The following “free” healthcare services were required to be covered by insurance companies in 2010:

Cover preventive care without co-pays or deductibles.
Allow adult children to stay on parents’ policies until age 26.
Increase annual coverage limits.
Cover children without regard for preexisting conditions.

Obama’s promise that families would save $2,500 per year in the future might come up a tad short, as insurance premiums skyrocketed by 9% in 2011. Not only have premiums soared, but many companies have increased co-pays from $10 to $25 for doctor visits.

Only a deceitful government busybody do-gooder would actually argue that forcing insurance companies to cover millions more Americans and cover pre-existing conditions would result in lower costs for the average family. I wonder what will happen in 2014 when 30 million more Americans are guaranteed “free” healthcare under Obamacare. The saddest part of this oncoming train wreck is that millions of willfully ignorant people actually believed the blatant lies and false storyline fed to them by sociopathic politicians who desire to control every aspect of their lives. These people believe they know what is best for you. They believe they are smarter than you. They do not care what means are required to achieve their ends of absolute domination over your life. Personal freedom, individual liberty and a critical thinking populace are the antithesis to the desires of the governing elite.

Home Sweet Home

The central planners within government and inhabiting the Federal Reserve are never in doubt that their theories, programs, solutions, mandates and schemes will achieve their desired outcome. The trouble for the American people is the desired result is not designed or planned to actually benefit them. The psychopaths drawn to politics, regulatory agencies, and government bureaucracies have no remorse or qualms about lying, utilizing propaganda, and instilling fear to achieve the ends that endorse their self serving agenda. Every dime of government spending is seized from the people by force or created out of thin air by an all knowing self-proclaimed Great Depression expert named Ben Bernanke. This Ivy League professor who has spent his entire life in academia and government thinks he knows which levers to pull to revive an economy that he destroyed. His wisdom is borne out in his prescient assessment of the U.S. housing market as it was imploding:

“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.” – July 2005

“House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals.” – October 2005

“Housing markets are cooling a bit. Our expectation is that the decline in activity or the slowing in activity will be moderate, that house prices will probably continue to rise.” – February 2006

“All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system. The vast majority of mortgages, including even subprime mortgages, continue to perform well. Past gains in house prices have left most homeowners with significant amounts of home equity, and growth in jobs and incomes should help keep the financial obligations of most households manageable.” – May 2007

It should be clear to everyone that Ben is a goddamn genius. You can see why the mainstream corporate media hangs on his every utterance. He has accepted no responsibility for his part in producing an epic housing collapse and the subsequent recession that continues to this day. His lack of conscience comes in handy as he has destroyed the finances of millions of senior citizens dependent upon interest income to make ends meet. Having no guiding principles or ethics allows him to declare with a straight face that inflation is well contained as gas prices approach $4.00 per gallon, food prices surge 10%, and his inflationary policies contribute to revolutions around the globe.

Last week this sage spoke to the Home Builders Association and left no doubt that he has no interest in what is best for the American people. His economic remedies are the exact opposite of what is needed to cure the disease of a debt ravaged society. Dr. Bernake’s prescription is more debt fueled spending by consumers to refill the coffers on Wall Street. This is not surprising considering he is nothing but a puppet of Dimon, Pandit, Blankfein and the rest of the Wall Street cabal. His speech revealed his allegiances:

“One of the effects of declines in housing wealth is to reduce the ability and willingness of households to spend. It appears that recent declines in housing wealth may be reducing consumer spending between $200 billion and $375 billion per year. That reduction corresponds to lower living standards for many Americans. And, importantly, lower sales of goods and services also reduce the incentives of firms to invest and hire, thereby slowing the recovery. Low or negative equity creates additional problems for households. It reduces financial flexibility: Homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages cannot tap home equity to pay for emergency health expenses or their children’s college educations.”

Whenever I read Bernanke’s words, I’m reminded of George Orwell’s quote about intelligent people:

“There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.”

This is a man who believes he knows better than the market. He’s an economics professor that doesn’t believe in the law of supply and demand as taught in Econ 101. He thinks he can control home prices. He thinks he knows the ideal interest rate. He thinks he knows just how much money printing will revive the economy. He believes a healthy economy is driven by artificially propping up home prices, encouraging people to spend money they don’t have, recommending that homeowners borrow against their homes ($3 trillion borrowed and pissed away from 2003 through 2008), and forcing banks to make loans to subprime borrowers – again. His solution to the millions of bank owned homes is to use the taxpayer owned Fannie and Freddie to initiate bulk discount sales of these homes to his friends in the .01% so they can turn around and rent them to their former owners. I wish someone could explain to me how this helps the 99%. It is another backdoor bailout of Wall Street on the straining backs of the American taxpayer.

Obama’s housing solutions in 2009-2010 included multiple home buyer tax credits, loan modification programs, and a myriad of other Keynesian claptrap spending schemes. Bernanke supported all of those measures. They spent $30 billion of your tax dollars in an effort to artificially prop up home prices. Home prices have fallen 10% since they threw your money down the rat hole where all government programs reside, and they continue to fall. These central government planners don’t like to publicize the fact they continue to operate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA as a way to shift losses from Wall Street to Main Street. Fannie and Freddie have lost $160 billion of your tax dollars since 2008, but amazingly the losses don’t show up in the Federal budget because reality has no place in politics or governmental accounting. The FHA just announced they will require a taxpayer bailout for the first time in their 78 year existence, as they lose $5 billion of your money per year on behalf of the Wall Street banking cartel. The toxic mortgages that don’t reside on the books of Fannie, Freddie and the FHA are sitting on Ben’s balance sheet. They reside, hidden from public view, in the “Other Assets” section of the chart below. His tripling of the Federal Reserve balance sheet was done for one reason only – to save the Wall Street bankers, their shareholders, and their bondholders. His actions have in no way benefitted the American people or the American economy.

It is mind boggling the degree to which central planners like Bernanke, Geithner, Obama and Congress will inflict their vision of how the economy and world in general should operate upon the trusting masses. The American people want to believe their leaders are doing what is best for them. They like dwelling in a land of delusion, security and luxury, where government guarantees to protect them from: terrorists; Iranian invasion; saving for retirement; looking out for their own health; educating themselves; and accepting the consequences of living above their means. Their ability to distinguish between truth and propaganda has been thoroughly degraded by years of government proscribed education. We have chosen to become a knowingly ignorant nation of true believers. There is no time for critical thinking while we anticipate our next tweet about the death of drug addicted pop singer. We have been taught to love our servitude.

“…most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”– Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

The fallacy of government protecting you, taking care of you and providing you “free” benefits is so ingrained in the American psyche that it is virtually impossible to voluntarily reverse the trend. The truth that Americans refuse to acknowledge is that nothing is free in this life. We are not entitled to own a home, a free education, free healthcare, or a comfy privileged existence. Everything government provides is taken by force from someone else. Everything government does has a cost. Americans have traded freedom and liberty for the appearance of safety and security.The cost is constant war, getting groped by TSA perverts, surveillance by government agencies, threat of imprisonment without charges and a $1 trillion price tag per year. The cost of “free” healthcare is mind numbingly ludicrous rules and regulations for doctors and patients, massive fraud, outrageously expensive procedures and medications, and a $100 trillion unfunded liability left for future generations. The ultimate cost of an overbearing, all controlling government will be economic collapse and revolution.

Who Decides?

“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin

The concluding act during this bad week for freedom occurred on Saturday in the great state of Maine. When it became clear that Ron Paul was going to win the Maine caucuses, the GOP establishment, that has already anointed Mitt Romney the Republican nominee, decided the people of Maine would be told who won. Using the excuse of an impending snowstorm (less than 1 inch), the powers that be cancelled the caucuses in Washington County where a large contingent of youthful Ron Paul supporters dominated. The Girl Scouts didn’t cancel their event in the same county that day. The men who cancelled the caucus are strong Romney supporters. This was a blatant Stalinist act of voter disenfranchisement. The GOP leaders declared those votes would not count in the totals. Despite this despicable act of rigging an election, Ron Paul doubled his vote percentage from 2008. His message of freedom, liberty, non-interventionism, sound money and self-reliance is reverberating across the land among young people who have not been programmed by the governing elite and the corporate mass media. The establishment will do everything in their power, including vote fraud, to prevent Ron Paul’s anti-establishment message from being heard.

A small delegation of authoritative, rich men continues to pull the strings in this country. The examples I’ve sited in the last week prove we are moving ever more rapidly towards what Friedrich Hayek described as a‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. The actions of the governing class point to no other conclusion as described by Simon Black:

Hundreds of thousands of mortgage contracts abrogated by the Federal government;
Suspension of gun rights by several local governments;
The continued criminalization of protest and free assembly;
Increased surveillance and police state tactics;
Authorization of military force and detention against the citizens;
Seizing and/or voiding pension systems into which workers have paid lifelong contributions;
Rejection of long-standing senior debt positions in favor of labor unions;
Executive and police agencies ruling by regulation and policy, not by legislative process;

When you pose the possibility of a dictatorship in America, the defender of freedom and democracy, old timers scoff and laugh off the possibility. We are the bright shining light on the mountaintop – that preemptively invades other countries; murders suspected foes with predator drones; imprisons and tortures foreigners in secret prisons; and plans to have 30,000 spy drones patrolling the skies over U.S. cities within the next few years. The government now has the authority to imprison U.S. citizens without cause for as long as they see fit. The government plans to lock down and control the internet. How could we possibly descend toward dictatorial rule? The conditions are perfect for sociopaths dwelling in government bureaucracies to make their move, as elucidated by Doug Casey:

“You may be thinking that what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia and scores of other countries in recent history could not, for some reason, happen in the US. Actually, there’s no reason it won’t at this point. All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time. Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Amin’s Uganda, Ceausescu’s Romania or Pol Pot’s Cambodia than there are today in the US. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.”- Casey Report

Call me a raging optimist, but I see positive signs that an irate tireless minority of Americans are coming to their senses and preparing for a showdown with the ruling oligarchy. The tremendous support for Ron Paul’s message among those under the age of 30 is inspiring. His devoted followers have incredible enthusiasm and will be a force to be reckoned with. The upcoming election will be won or lost based upon whether Ron Paul decides to run as a 3^rd Party candidate, spreading his inspirational message. The Occupy Movement is also being driven by people under the age of 30. Their courage and audacity in standing up to brutal establishment military tactics and focusing the attention of the world on the greed, avarice and corruption rampant throughout our economic and political system has given me hope that the good guys can win. Every day the Millenial generation gains strength as the power of the older generations slowly wanes.

The internet has proven to be the best weapon in the fight against the governing elite. It offers people the freedom to ignore government sponsored propaganda being blasted by the corporate media. Critical thinkers can connect with other critical thinkers, while seeking the truth and spreading ideas. You can examine websites like Zero Hedge, Jesse’s Café Americain, Of Two Minds, and Mish to comprehend what is really happening in your world. The tumult and outrage exhibited by millions when the despotic Congressional jackals attempted to pass SOPA and PIPA was inspirational. The people’s voice was heard loud and clear. The politicians ruling over our lives have no guiding principles or moral code. They peddle their votes to the highest bidder. They conduct polls to determine what their constituents want to hear and then shockingly tailor a message that voters find to be exactly what they think. These sociopaths only respond to one thing – being exposed as liars and thieves. When they are confronted by an irate citizenry they scatter like roaches in a West Philly row house kitchen when you turn the light on. Yes votes on SOPA turned to No votes quicker than the Federal government can spend a billion of your tax dollars (10 hours). Obama showed how principled his positions are by backtracking on his “free” contraception mandate in less than 24 hours. If we speak loud enough they will listen, or else.

The “or else” is reflected in the chart below showing gun purchases over the last ten years. Millions of good law abiding Americans are armed. The accelerating trend is a hopeful sign that we will not allow a small contingent of corrupt politicians backed by shadowy rich men (22 men have contributed 67% of all the Super Pac money in the GOP primaries), hiding from public view, to treat this country as their personal playground.

It was a bad week for freedom loving people, but I believe there are enough patriots left in this country to change our course. We are being buried under a blizzard of lies on a daily basis. We have a choice. We can support the existing corrupt crony capitalist establishment (Obama & Romney) or we can declare war on lies, deceit and misinformation by rallying behind the only person who would truly attempt to reverse decades of corruption, sleaze, incompetence, bloat, debt accumulation, and a warped version of free market capitalism – Ron Paul. He is the only public figure willing to level with the American people and tell them the truth. Will we let the concept of truth fade out of the world? The choice is ours.

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.” – George Orwell