Preparing For A ‘Horrible Event’; The U.S. And Turkey Plan For Syria’s Collapse

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See also:

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente On Who Really Creates All These Wars And Why (Video)

– Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: ‘War Criminals Run The State Department And The Entire US Government’

– David Icke – Obama & The Agenda To Destroy America … And Bring On World Government, World Central Bank, World Army, World Currency & The Orwellian State (Video)

– Preparing For A ‘Horrible Event’; The U.S. And Turkey Plan For Syria’s Collapse (NPR, Aug 11, 2012):

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu got straight to the point in their joint news conference Saturday. They announced the creation of a new working group that will monitor what’s happening next door in Syria and prepare for crises.

One of those crises could include the possibility that the Syrian government decides to deploy chemical weapons against rebels or other perceived enemies.

Clinton says the new U.S.-Turkish working group needs to be ready for anything, including “the horrible event” of possible chemical weapons use, according to The Associated Press. The new working group will coordinate responses to any chemical attack should it occur.

Read morePreparing For A ‘Horrible Event’; The U.S. And Turkey Plan For Syria’s Collapse

Mitt Romney Would Have Paid Almost Nothing In Taxes Under Paul Ryan’s 2010 Budget

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– Mitt Romney Would Have Paid Almost Nothing In Taxes Under Paul Ryan’s 2010 Budget (Huffington Post, Aug 13, 2012):

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s assertion that programs like Medicare and Social Security are staring at bankruptcy did not stop the Wisconsin congressman from once proposing a federal budget that would have eliminated virtually all taxes on people like his new running-mate, Mitt Romney. (Hat tip: the Los Angeles Times.)

While Ryan’s positions have gone through a makeover of late, his 2010 version of the federal budget — which propelled him to become the so-called “intellectual leader” of the Republican Party — provided a straightforward plan for tax cuts.

Under Ryan’s 2010 proposal, taxes on income derived from capital gains, interest, dividends and inheritance would be eliminated. This would mean that Romney — who reported an income of $27 million in 2010, all of it from those sources — would have paid nothing in taxes, according to the Atlantic.

Read moreMitt Romney Would Have Paid Almost Nothing In Taxes Under Paul Ryan’s 2010 Budget

David Icke – Obama & The Agenda To Destroy America … And Bring On World Government, World Central Bank, World Army, World Currency & The Orwellian State (Video)

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YouTube Added: 31.07.2012

Description:

Unfolding daily…before your eyes.
A Trojan Horse…the enemy within.

Facedeals Facial-Recognition Cameras (Video)

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Facedeals, a new third-party app on Facebook, lets you sign up to be checked in by facial-recognition cameras at businesses. (redpepper)

– Facedeals checks you in with facial-recognition cameras (Los Angeles, Aug 10, 2012):

A new app is being tested in Nashville, Tenn., that can check in people on Facebook and send them offers using facial-recognition cameras.

Called Facedeals, the new service uses cameras installed at businesses’ front doors to read people’s faces as they enter. If the people who come in are users of the app, they will be checked in, and based on their “like” history, they would receive a customized offer.

To use the app, people first have to sign up. The app will then work with users to verify pictures of them to get a better reading of their face.

Read moreFacedeals Facial-Recognition Cameras (Video)

On Europe: ‘It’s A Ponzi Scheme To Be Honest With You’ (CNBC Video)

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– Mark Grant And Rick Santelli On Europe: “It’s A Ponzi Scheme To Be Honest With You” (ZeroHedge, Aug 14, 2012):

As Simon Hobbs noted this morning, Olli Rehn confirmed ahh that err “both the European Union and the ECB are ready to take action” but only conditional upon requests for aid. What is perhaps missed by most observers is what Rick Santelli and Mark Grant discuss in more detail in the short clip below. Greece managed to sell EUR4 billion short-dated bills this morning at remarkably low yields – not exactly the kind of thing that incentivizes political leaders to request aid – but how did they do it? Who bought it? Well, we suspect you know the answer but Mark Grant’s clarifying response to Santelli’s question concluded simply that the ECB-to-Greek-Banks-to-The-Bank-Of Greece-to-ECB circle-jerk is “in a sense, a kind of Ponzi scheme.” Santelli’s response that “it really is a rigged game” and that our reflexive response to the signaling of bond yields is remarkable given the manipulation; Grant agrees adding that “the real money guys are either out of Europe, getting out of Europe, or have cut back as much as they can” since simple math shows you that at some point Europe will have it’s ‘moment’.

Hobbs introduces, discusses Greece at around 3:00 and then Santelli and Grant take over at 3:40…

Japan Bans Radioactive Landlocked Salmon From Tochigi Prefecture

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– [Fishery products] JP Gov banned landlocked salmon from outside of Fukushima (Fukushima Diary, Aug 13, 2012):

Japanese government is eager to ship marine products, (cf. The young of the sardine from offshore Ibaraki in Pacific ocean will be shipped)

but excessive amount of cesium was measured from landlocked salmon from Watarase river in Tochigi.

It’s not even in Fukushima prefecture.

On 8/10/2012, Japanese government prohibited Tochigi prefecture from selling landlocked salmon from the river for measuring cesium more than 100 Bq/Kg, which is their safety limit.

Read moreJapan Bans Radioactive Landlocked Salmon From Tochigi Prefecture

Deep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves

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– Deep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Last week we wrote an article that to many was anathema: namely an explanation why everyone is deluding themselves in their expectation that the PBOC would ease, soft, hard, or just right landing notwithstanding. The reason? The threat that food inflation is about to read its ugly head which is “Why The Fate Of The Global Equity Rally May Rest In The Hands Of Soybeans.” This was merely a continuation of our observations from a month ago that as a result of the Black Swan being “deep fried” in 2012, that the threat of food inflation will keep key BRIC central banks in check for a long time. As of today the threat has become fact, because as China Daily reports “China will release corn and rice from state reserves to help tame inflation and reduce imports as the worst US drought in half a century pushes corn prices to global records, creating fears of a world food crisis…The release may prompt Chinese importers to cancel shipments in the near term and take some pressure off international corn prices, which set a new all-time high on Friday as the US government slashed its estimate of the size of the crop in the world’s top grain exporter.” Sure, as every other short-termist measure the world over, it may help with prices in the short-term, but will merely expose China, and thus everyone, to the threat of a much greater price spike in the future. Because just as the strategic petroleum reserve release did nothing to help gas prices, nor the short selling ban in the US and Europe did anything to help the underlying broken financial system, so this will merely force the local population to scramble and ration whatever food they can get asap, now that the government has admitted there is, indeed, a food inflationary problem.

Sure enough:

Bottom line – rationing is in full force, and given the continually declining state of the US corn crop, more will be needed,” said Christopher Narayanan, head of agricultural commodities research at Societe Generale.

Read moreDeep Fried Black Swan Lands As China Admits It Has A Food Inflation Problem, Releases Corn, Rice From Reserves

Are The Government And The Big Banks Quietly Preparing For An Imminent Financial Collapse?

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– Are The Government And The Big Banks Quietly Preparing For An Imminent Financial Collapse? (Economic Collapse, Aug 12, 2012):

Something really strange appears to be happening.  All over the globe, governments and big banks are acting as if they are anticipating an imminent financial collapse.  Unfortunately, we are not privy to the quiet conversations that are taking place in corporate boardrooms and in the halls of power in places such as Washington D.C. and London, so all we can do is try to make sense of all the clues that are all around us.  Of course it is completely possible to misinterpret these clues, but sticking our heads in the sand is not going to do any good either.  Last week, it was revealed that the U.S. government has been secretly directing five of the biggest banks in America “to develop plans for staving off collapse” for the last two years.  By itself, that wouldn’t be that big of a deal.  But when you add that piece to the dozens of other clues of imminent financial collapse, a very troubling picture begins to emerge.  Over the past 12 months, hundreds of banking executives have been resigning, corporate insiders have been selling off enormous amounts of stock, and I have been personally told that a significant number of Wall Street bankers have been shopping for “prepper properties” in rural communities this summer.  Meanwhile, there have been reports that the U.S. government has been stockpiling food and ammunition, and Barack Obama has been signing a whole bunch of executive orders that would potentially be implemented in the event of a major meltdown of society.  So what does all of this mean?  It could mean something or it could mean nothing.  What we do know is that a financial collapse is coming at some point.  Over the past 40 years, the total amount of all debt in the United States has grown from about 2 trillion dollars to nearly 55 trillion dollars.  That is a recipe for financial armageddon, and it is inevitable that this gigantic bubble of debt is going to burst at some point.

Read moreAre The Government And The Big Banks Quietly Preparing For An Imminent Financial Collapse?

UNITED-Continental Airline Pilots Forced To Fly With As Little As 3 Hours’ Sleep, ‘Worked Until We Drop’

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– NaturalNews exclusive: UNITED-Continental airline pilots forced to fly with as little as 3 hours’ sleep, ‘worked until we drop’ (Natural News, Aug 14, 2012):

Whistleblower pilots flying for United / Continental airlines warn that they are being “worked until we drop,” forced to pilot consecutive long-distance flights with as little as three hours’ sleep. In a series of secret meetings with NaturalNews, three United / Continental pilots described the “utter hell” they are being put through:”We are being worked until we drop,” one pilot to me in a recent face-to-face meeting in Texas. “United-Continental is flying us in violation of FAA legal requirements. Pilot fatigue is at red alert levels. This is an accident waiting to happen.”

The FAA requires pilots to have at least 8 hours of rest in any given 24-hour period. From the FAA’s website:

…a pilot is not allowed to accept, nor is an airline allowed to assign, a flight if the pilot has not has at least eight continuous hours of rest during the 24-hour period. In other words, the pilot needs to be able to look back in any preceding 24-hour period and find that he/she has had an opportunity for at least eight hours of rest. If a pilot’s actual rest is less than nine hours in the 24-hour period, the next rest period must be lengthened to provide for the appropriate compensatory rest.

But NaturalNews was told that United-Continental is operating in blatant violation of this rule. One pilot explained to me, in detail:

Read moreUNITED-Continental Airline Pilots Forced To Fly With As Little As 3 Hours’ Sleep, ‘Worked Until We Drop’

Pictures Of New Mexican President With Sinaloa Drug Cartel Lieutenant

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See also:

– High-Ranking Mexican Drug Cartel Member Makes Explosive Allegation: ‘Fast and Furious’ Is Not What You Think It Is:

It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels.

…

The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.

– Pics of new Mexican President with Sinaloa cartel lieutenant (MadCow Morning News, Aug 10 2012):

He hasn’t even taken office yet, but Mexico’s new President Enrique Peña Nieto has already got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Mexico City newspapers today reported the discovery of pictures of the not-yet-inaugarated new President in which he appears chummy with a man  arrested yesterday in Madrid and charged with importing 337 kilos of cocaine into Spain from South America.

The pictures, on the Facebook page of the arrested man, Celaya Rafael Humberto Valenzuela,came to light after the Interior Ministry in Spain held a press conference detailing his arrest in Spain in the company of a cousin of Sinaloa cartel honcho Chapo Guzman.

Read morePictures Of New Mexican President With Sinaloa Drug Cartel Lieutenant

Oregon Man Convicted Of Collecting Rainwater On His Own Property Surrenders And Begins Serving 30-Day Jail Sentence

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– Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater on his own property surrenders and begins serving 30-day jail sentence (Natural News, Aug 14, 2012):

If ever there were a perfect example of government inanity, this is it.

Maybe you didn’t know – and chances are excellent you didn’t – that if you have the audacity to collect rainwater and snow runoff on your own property, for your own consumption, you can and will go to jail for it.

Read moreOregon Man Convicted Of Collecting Rainwater On His Own Property Surrenders And Begins Serving 30-Day Jail Sentence

America’s Secret Drone War in Africa

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An MQ-1 Predator armed with Hellfire missiles flies over southern Afghanistan. Photo: Air Force

– Hidden History: America’s Secret Drone War in Africa (Wired, Ag 13, 2012):

More secret bases. More and better unmanned warplanes. More frequent and deadly robotic attacks. Some five years after a U.S. Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flew the type’s first mission over lawless Somalia, the shadowy American-led drone campaign in the Horn of Africa is targeting Islamic militants more ruthlessly than ever.

Thanks to media accounts, indirect official statements, fragmentary crash reports and one complaint by a U.N. monitoring group, we can finally begin to define — however vaguely — the scope and scale of the secret African drone war.

The details that follow are in part conjecture, albeit informed conjecture. They outline of just one of America’s ongoing shadow wars — and one possible model for the future U.S. way of war. Along with the counterterrorism campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen and the Philippines, the Somalia drone war demonstrates how high-tech U.S. forces can inflict major damage on America’s enemies at relatively low cost … and without most U.S. citizens having any idea it’s even happening.

Since 2007, Predator drones and the larger, more powerful Reapers — reinforced by Ravens and Scan Eagle UAVs and Fire Scout robot helicopters plus a small number of huge, high-flying Global Hawks — have hunted Somali jihadists on scores of occasions. It’s part of a broader campaign of jet bombing runs, naval gun bombardment, cruise-missile attacks, raids by Special Operations Forces and assistance to regional armies such as Uganda’s.

In all, air raids by manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft have killed at least 112 Somali militants, according to a count by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Fifty-seven innocent civilians also died in the raids, the nonprofit Bureau found. The dead jihadists have included several senior members of al-Qaeda or the affiliated al-Shabaab extremist group. In January, a drone launched three Hellfire missiles at a convoy near Mogadishu and killed Bilaal al-Barjawi, the mastermind of the 2010 bombing in Kampala, Uganda, that claimed the lives of 74 soccer fans.

In an escalating secret war, drones are doing an ever-greater proportion of the American fighting.

The Drones Are Coming

It wasn’t until relatively recently that U.S. drones were permanently stationed in East Africa. The military and CIA have operated armed versions of General Atomics’ one-ton Predator since 2001, but early on the remote-controlled warplanes were in high demand and short supply. Afghanistan and later Iraq monopolized the drones.

That was a big problem for the small U.S. force in East Africa struggling to keep tabs on increasingly radical, and dangerous, Somali militants. “The largest gap is knowledge,” Navy Rear Adm. Tony Kurta, former commander of U.S. troops in Djibouti, told Danger Room in 2009.

Read moreAmerica’s Secret Drone War in Africa

VOLUME CRASHES As S&P 500 Breaks Winning Streak And VIX Plunges To Five Year Lows

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– Volume Crashes As S&P 500 Breaks Winning Streak And VIX Plunges To Five Year Lows (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

The cash S&P 500 closed very modestly in the red – but tried its best into the end of the day-session to get green to make it seven-in-a-row. After-hours, amid heavier block size, S&P 500 e-mini futures (ES) pushed up to the overnight highs and tried to hold green but failed. NYSE volume plunged – almost unbelievably to be frank – to its lowest non-holiday-trading day volume in over a decade. Intraday ranges remain tiny and average trade size unremarkable as ES is still suffering from the post-Knight slashing in volume.

Credit underperformed once again – though a late-day surge up to Friday’s closing VWAP in HYG (on decent volume) suggested sizable sellers as opposed to buyers (though some arb against intrinsics is likely too). All-in-all, an odd day (again): TSYs unch (though was -3-4bps intra), USD -0.18% (EUR +0.38%), Gold/Silver -1.2%, WTI unch (after a plungefest earlier that recovered about half its loss), Copper -0.7%. VIX clattered down to a 13 handle into the close – the lowest close in over 5 years – but notably unlike March when we were down here – the term-structure is considerably steeper.

Tech and Financials were the only sectors green today as Materials and Energy underperformed. Equities and broad risk-assets remained relatively in sync and correlated but by the close, US stocks had become modestly rich. Are we witnessing Gross’ death of equities?

Stunningly – today’s NYSE volume was 3 standard-deviations below its 9 year trend lower on an EXPONENTIAL chart!!! – this is easily the lowest NYSE volume day of trading that is not a holiday!!

Just to be clear – and with no hyperbole – NYSE volume has trended exponentially lower for over 8 years and today’s volume was still a 3-Sigma outlier to the downside!!

Clearly something broke with Knight’s algo going full-retard! ES volume since has plunged from an average over the last 4 months of 2.2 million contracts to an average over the last few days of only 1.25 million contracts – a 45% plunge instantaneously!!

The plunge in realized volatility given the extremely low ranges of the last few days has dragged VIX to five-year lows – though the term-structure is at its steepest  in years also now…

Read moreVOLUME CRASHES As S&P 500 Breaks Winning Streak And VIX Plunges To Five Year Lows

It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges

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– Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: the CEO of failed commodity brokerage Peregrine aka PFG, Russell Wasendorf has been indicted on 31 charges of lying to government regulators regarding the failed brokerage’s operations. He faces a maximum sentence of 155 years’ imprisonment on the charges and fines of about $7.75 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa. There is also that whole $215 million in commingled and subsequently stolen client money but that’s another matter. In other words, just like Bernie Madoff, Wasendorf is going away for a long, long time for doing precisely what everyone else does: the first one for engaging in a ponzi even as now everyone acknowledges the entire system is one big ponzi – does that make it better and legitimate: apparently so; the second one for commingling client cash for personal benefit. As a reminder, this is what JPM did with $350 billion in excess deposit cash as part of its London whale trading fiasco, and broadly what every bank in the post Glass-Steagall world does with the roughly $8 trillion in total US bank deposits.More from the WSJ:

Mr. Wasendorf was arrested July 13 on charges of lying to regulators following a suicide attempt on July 9 that included a confession that authorities say detailed a nearly 20-year fraud against Peregrine’s customers. Regulators have estimated that about $215 million in customer money is missing.

Read moreIt only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges

Thailand: Senator ‘Accidentally’ Kills Secretary With Submachine Gun, Has Arrest Immunity, Faces $636 Fine

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– Thai Senator “Accidentally” Kills Secretary With Submachine Gun, Has Arrest Immunity, Faces $636 Fine (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

We had great hopes that following the return of Merkel from vacation, the VIX would finally post an uptick. Alas, it appears that the Fed’s new market desk head will not relent until the VIX is at or below 0 (alternatively, stock volume will hit 0 first, in either case confirming the death of equities as anything resembling a discounting mechanism, and validating it as a plaything of central banks). Which means that until reality does come back first slowly and then very fast, we have to focus on more “off the beaten path” news. Such as this one courtesy of BBC: Thai MP Boonsong Kowawisarat ‘accidentally kills secretary.’ With a submachine gun. In a restaurant. Has yet to be arrested. And faces a $636 fine if convicted.

Senator Boonsong Kowawisarat took out a 9mm Uzi submachine gun while waiting for food, the Bangkok Post reported.

He told police the gun accidentally discharged and his secretary was shot in the stomach.

Police say that the shooting happened in Phrae province, northern Thailand.

Police say that because Mr Boonsong was in shock after the incident, the restaurant owner rushed the secretary to hospital where she succumbed to gunshot wounds.

Read moreThailand: Senator ‘Accidentally’ Kills Secretary With Submachine Gun, Has Arrest Immunity, Faces $636 Fine

Aurora Massacre: James Holmes And The Llama

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– Aurora Massacre: Jimmy and the Llama (Aug 11, 2012):

At a time when the defense is trying to claim their client is bat-shit crazy, the Denver Post comes out with a story about what James Holmes was like just a short year ago. When he applied to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign neuroscience program they wanted him so badly they waved tuition and fees and offered him a yearly paycheck of $22,660 just to attend their school. Out of 150 qualified applicants yearly they take between 5-15. James Holmes was one of those.

How does James get from point A to point B? How do we get from one of the brightest students in the nation, a guy who’s love of knowledge made him want to study the mind, a student so desired they would offer to pay him cash to attend, to a guy practically drooling on himself in a courtroom seemingly with no idea where he was?

This is a link to his application file at UI. You should read it.(H/T sunshinez)

Back in March of 2011, the University of Illinois had him come up and they interviewed him…

“Those who met you … during your interview visit felt that your personal and professional qualities are truly outstanding and that you will be an excellent match for our program,” said the Illinois acceptance letter from professor J. Lee Beverly.” Denver Post

The Denver Post also references an article put out by the News Gazette which detailed his application history a bit more. Holmes was exceedingly bright, the kind of kid you want your child to be, the kind you wish you were.

“Holmes’ GRE quantitative score was 800 (94th percentile), his verbal score was 710 (98th percentile), and he had an analytical writing score of 4 (45th percentile), according to his UI application. His GPA was 3.94 out of 4.00, according to the application.” News Gazette

Scores don’t tell the whole story, that is true. For a better understanding of the way this young man’s mind works (worked?), you would need to listen to Holmes himself…

“I have always been fascinated by the complexities of long lost thought seemingly arising out of nowhere into a stream of awareness,” he wrote. “… These are the very cognitive processes which enable us to acquire information and retain it. They are at the core of what distinguishes us as people. Due to the seemingly infinite vastness of indefinite knowledge, we must be selective in our pursuits of knowledge. This is why I have chosen to study the primary source of all things, our own minds.” Denver Post

“Rational people act based on incentives for self-fulfillment, including fulfilling needs of self-development and needs of feeling useful and helpful to others. I look forward to fulfilling my quest to advance my knowledge and I plan to use my critical thinking skills by studying the subject I am passionate about, neuroscience.” News Gazette

Does that sound like the guy we saw sitting at the defense table blankly looking around or emoting various quizzical expressions? Does that sound like a “spitter” who needed to be gagged?

Read moreAurora Massacre: James Holmes And The Llama

Homeland Security To Purchase ANOTHER 750 MILLION Rounds Of Ammo … In Preparation For All-Out Civil War

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– Prepping for Civil War: DHS Set to Purchase Up to Another 750 Million Rounds of Ammo (Intel Hub, Aug 13, 2012):

The Department of Homeland Security has already purchased over 750 million rounds of ammunition as they lead up to what many believe will be a large scale confrontation with the American people.

Now, a new purchase order has been uncovered on the infamous FBO.gov website that includes up to another 750 million rounds of various types of ammunition.

The cover for the order is that the ammo is for “training” purchases yet this total purchase would mean that homeland security has ordered over a billion rounds of ammunition, bullet proof checkpoints with stop and go lights, riot shields, painted everyday Americans as terrorists, and worked in conjunction with the US Army to prepare for some sort of civil war.

“The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), Glynco, Georgia anticipates awarding multiple award indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity (IDIQ) firm fixed price (FFP) contracts for commercial leaded training ammunition (CLTA) of various calibers for law enforcement officer firearms training courses at the following FLETC facilities Glynco, GA, Artesia, NM, Cheltenham, MD and Charleston, SC and to other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies.

The Government guarantees a minimum of 1,000 rounds per year on each resultant contract. Contracts will be for a base year and four (4) 12 month option periods.”

In a video report on the End the Lie YouTube Channel, Madison Ruppert detailed the purchase and homeland securities apparent obsession with snatching up seemingly all the ammo on earth to the point of absurdity.

He also noted that even if this ammo was purchased strictly for training purposes, we simply DO NOT have the money to be buying hundreds of millions of rounds of ammo for agents who operate solely in the United States.


YouTube

The fact that there is an ever increasing likelihood of a financial collapse in America is another much speculated about reason for the recent ammo purchases and plan for civil war as a whole.

As Paul Joseph Watson noted in a recent article:

Read moreHomeland Security To Purchase ANOTHER 750 MILLION Rounds Of Ammo … In Preparation For All-Out Civil War

On GRExit, SPAilout, And Draghi’s White Knight

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– On GRExit, SPAilout, And Draghi’s White Knight (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Via Mark E. Grant, author of Out of the Box,

“There was a free lunch just once. It was when Eve gave the apple to Adam and we all know how that turned out.”

-The Wizard

As I stare out at the Maginot Line I will endeavor to predict the upcoming events in Europe for the balance of the year. I called Greece, Ireland and Portugal correctly so I have some standing here and while we all are only as good as our last call; I have my own small pin on which to dance. I think first and foremost that Greece falls by the wayside. I think as a matter of political reality, given the German polls, that Berlin will refuse to adequately fund Greece and that they will be forced back to the Drachma as a matter of Ms. Merkel’s desire for re-election. When this happens it will be a quite messy affair with some $1.3 trillion going into default which will also require the re-capitalization of the ECB and there will be a $90 billion hit in derivative contracts which may well affect certain banks past the point of what is currently recognized. The Greek banks, bankrupt now, will train off into the abyss and will be replaced by other European institutions. The honest truth is that the Greek debts have become so large and so impossible to pay that unless there is absolute debt forgiveness, which I think is politically impossible in Germany and a number of other European countries; the country must roll over as a matter of fiscal reality.

Read moreOn GRExit, SPAilout, And Draghi’s White Knight

AUSTERITY In Italy: Record Government Debt Load Now At €1.973 TRILLION – Debt Growth Surges To Record €9.5 Billion Per Month

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– Italy’s Latest Record Debt Load: Bigger, Faster, More

Italy just announced its all-time record high general government debt load at EUR 1.973 trillion. What is perhaps most stunning, given all the talk of austerity, cutting back, reforms, and change is that the size of this debt is growing at an ever-increasing pace that is simply stunning. Pre-Euro (1999), Italy’s debt was growing at a rate of just less than EUR 2 billion per month; in the eight years from then until the crisis in 2008, Italy’s pace of debt growth (fostered we are sure by the convergent cheapness of funding and their immutable belief in invincibility) almost perfectly doubled to EUR 3.8bn per month. Since 2008, and the onset of excess Keynesian ridicule we assume, Italy’s debt load has grown at a stunning pace of EUR 6.4 billion per month and perhaps most incredible; however, the last nine-months (since the peak ‘peak’ of the crisis in September of last year) has seen the pace of debt-load growth surge to EUR 9.5 billion per month. Sustainable levels of exponential debt growth – sure!

Italy’s General Government Debt Load…

Chart: Bloomberg

Germany: New Lawsuit Filed Against ESM Threatens Further Bailout Fund Delay

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– New Lawsuit Filed Against ESM Threatens Further Bailout Fund Delay (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Just as we were complaining about lack of newsflow, here comes Germany, coincidentally just as Merkel comes back from vacation, with an update from Karlsruhe that the Constitutional court, which may reject the ESM as is in its September 12th decision, will likely be delayed even more following the filing of a brand new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ESM.

From Handelsblatt, loosely google translated:

The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has received a further appeal against the euro rescue package, which could upset the timetable for the euro rescue. According to information from Reuters Online, a group of plaintiffs to the € critic Professor Markus Kerber has filed a constitutional complaint, including an emergency petition. The key message is: Since the last ten days at the European Court in Luxembourg, the complaint is similar to an Irish MPs to decide, the German judges would wait until the spoke on the matter higher court judgment. The original date expected for an announcement, the 12th September, at which they would decide on the fast track in terms of admissibility of ESM and Fiscal Pact was likely untenable.

Read moreGermany: New Lawsuit Filed Against ESM Threatens Further Bailout Fund Delay

Spiegel: ‘Investors Prepare For Euro Collapse’ – ‘Currency’s Days Seen Numbered’

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And now Germany’s Der Spiegel is reporting what we have been saying for years.

And “the dollar’s structure isn’t in doubt”???

What are they smoking?

‘Currency’s Days Seen Numbered’

– Investors Prepare for Euro Collapse (Spiegel, Aug 13, 2012):

Banks, companies and investors are preparing themselves for a collapse of the euro. Cross-border bank lending is falling, asset managers are shunning Europe and money is flowing into German real estate and bonds. The euro remains stable against the dollar because America has debt problems too. But unlike the euro, the dollar’s structure isn’t in doubt.

Otmar Issing is looks a bit tired. The former chief economist at the European Central Bank (ECB) is sitting on a barstool in a room adjoining the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. He resembles a father whose troubled teenager has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Issing is just about to explain again all the things that have gone wrong with the euro, and why the current, as yet unsuccessful efforts to save the European common currency are cause for grave concern.

Read moreSpiegel: ‘Investors Prepare For Euro Collapse’ – ‘Currency’s Days Seen Numbered’

Japan Times: Study Finds In 52% Of Butterflies ‘Abnormalities’ (Deformities, DNA Damage) From Radioactive Fallout

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– Radioactive fallout from Fukushima nuclear meltdowns caused abnormalities in Japan’s butterflies (Japan Times, Aug 12, 2012):

Radioactive fallout from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture created abnormalities among the nation’s butterflies, according to a team of researchers.

“We conclude that artificial radionuclides from the Fukushima (No. 1) nuclear power plant caused physiological and genetic damage” to pale grass blue butterflies, a common species in Japan, a recent article in Scientific Reports, one of on-line journals of the Nature Publishing Group, said.

Read moreJapan Times: Study Finds In 52% Of Butterflies ‘Abnormalities’ (Deformities, DNA Damage) From Radioactive Fallout

Bayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s ‘Secret’ Bond Market

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– Bayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s “Secret” Bond Market (ZeroHedge, Aug 13, 2012):

Think the attempted fake suicide by Bayou Capital’s Sam Israel which dominated the headlines for a few days in 2008 was strange? You ain’t seen nothing yet: as the following excerpt of Octopus, The Secret Market And The World’s Wildest Con by Guy Lawson via the Daily Mail explains, that was merely the anticlimatic culmination of an amazing tale of bogus London traders, ‘secret’ Bond markets, frontrunning the Fed, fake CIA and MI6 spies, ponzi schemes and staged murders.

Read moreBayou’s Ponzi, Vodka And Cocaine, Murder, And Frontrunning The Fed’s ‘Secret’ Bond Market