Is the U.S. government going to shutdown on March 4th, 2011? Possibly. The current temporary funding extension expires on that day. Speaker of the House John Boehner has pledged that the Republicans in the House will not pass another temporary funding extension that does not include “deep” cuts. Barack Obama has pledged that he will veto the 61 billion dollars of budget cuts that the House of Representatives has just passed. So now Boehner and Obama are playing a really bizarre game of chicken, and if neither of them blinks the U.S. government will shut down on March 4th. So what will that mean? Well, in a “government shutdown”, the entire government does not actually shut down. Rather, only “essential personnel” are kept on during a shutdown and only “essential services” are provided. Barack Obama would keep showing up at the White House and the U.S. military would continue to do their thing. But it would cause a temporary disruption to a lot of government activities that people normally rely on. (Read More...)
Isn’t It About Time That The United States Got The Heck Out Of The Middle East?
In Afghanistan right now, a one-legged Afghan Red Cross worker named Said Musa is sitting in a prison cell awaiting his sentence. Musa, a father of six children, was arrested by the Afghan government as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy last year. He was sentenced to death by an Afghan court that was established by the new Afghan government that the United States worked so hard to set up. He has been horribly mistreated for months. An Afghan judge has told him that he will be killed within a matter of days. So what was his crime? He was a Muslim that has become a Christian. Under Sharia law, that is punishable by death. Is this is the “freedom” that we have sacrificed so many American lives to bring to Afghanistan? This Christian father of six will be hung by the Afghan “democracy” that the United States has been “nurturing” and that U.S. soldiers have been working so hard to defend. (Read More...)
Debt, Debt, Debt – 15 Facts About U.S. Government Finances That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
If your family started spending nearly twice as much as it brought in every single year, how long do you think it would be before your family was completely and totally broke? Well, that is essentially what the federal government is doing. The U.S. government is so deep in debt at this point that it is hard to even try to describe it. Where do you even begin? Trying to put the vastness of U.S. government debt into words is kind of like trying to describe a great work of art by Michelangelo to a blind person. This year the U.S. government is going to go 1.645 trillion more dollars into debt. How can one possibly accurately convey just how large that amount of money really is? If you went out today and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you over 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars. Who can even comprehend such an amount? The U.S. government has mismanaged our finances so badly that it is hard to believe. We have sold our children and our grandchildren into perpetual debt slavery and not that many people really seem very upset about it. It is as if most of the nation is in a massive state of denial. (Read More...)
Is China Hoarding Gold In Anticipation Of A Global Financial Implosion? 10 Facts About Gold Fever In China That May Surprise You
China officially has gold fever. Chinese demand for gold in 2011 is being called “explosive” and “voracious”. China imported five times as much gold in 2010 as it did in 2009, and this year gold sales in China are projected to easily set another new all-time record. China produces more gold than any other nation on the planet and last year the Chinese consumed more than twice as much gold as Americans did. Yes, the Chinese are officially in love with gold. But why is that? Is it because they are concerned about inflation? Is it because the Chinese are losing faith in paper currencies? Are the Chinese looking to diversify? Has gold become a “trendy” status symbol in China? Or is something else going on here? (Read More...)
Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote To Renew The Patriot Act As America Is Slowly Transformed Into A Big Brother Police State Worse Than George Orwell’s 1984
For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home. As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a “terrorist” and that they are there to take him away. They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly. Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him. Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution. That’s right – because your son has been identified as a “terrorist” because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights. Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to “enhanced interrogation” because he has been identified as a “threat”. You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent. If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act. (Read More...)
47 Statistics That Indicate That Economic Stress Points In 2011 Could Be Setting The Stage For A Global Economic Meltdown In 2012
Is the world approaching a devastating global economic meltdown? Right now there are a large number of factors that are creating economic stress points all over the globe. All of the crazy money printing that the Federal Reserve and other central banks have been doing is putting inflationary pressure on agricultural commodities, oil and precious metals. Massive floods, horrific droughts and extreme weather patterns all over the globe are ruining crops and creating food shortages. Some nations are now actually hoarding food, and in other nations rising prices have sparked food riots. The price of oil has been moving back towards $100 a barrel, and if it stays at a high level for an extended period of time that is going to have very serious consequences for the global economy. In addition, the growing sovereign debt crisis could erupt again at any time. Half a dozen nations in Europe are on the verge of insolvency, Japan’s national debt is now well over 200 percent of GDP, and the global financial system is growing increasingly concerned about the exploding national debt of the United States. The truth is that the entire world financial system is a house of cards balanced on a razor’s edge and it could come down at any time. (Read More...)
Worst Freeze In 60 Years Wipes Out Entire Crops Across The Southwestern U.S. And Northern Mexico
Get ready to pay a lot more for produce at the supermarket. In early February the worst freeze in 60 years wiped out entire crops all across the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Already, it has been reported that some U.S. supermarkets have doubled or even tripled prices for certain produce items. Yes, you read that correctly. The price of certain vegetables is actually doubling or even tripling in many U.S. supermarkets. The really bizarre weather that we have been seeing all over the globe this winter is really playing havoc with food prices. The global price of food hit an all-time record during the month of January, and most observers expect food prices to continue to soar. Even before this recent horrible freeze in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, global food prices were pushed higher by unprecedented flooding in Australia and Brazil, and key agricultural areas of China are now experiencing their worst drought in 200 years. Things are getting really crazy out there. Produce prices in the U.S. are eventually expected to return back to normal levels, but this just shows how dramatically food prices can change when a major disaster happens. (Read More...)