It was a violent holiday weekend across America, calling attention to the crumbling structure of the country's society to those whom are lucid enough to pay attention. In Peoria, Illinois, a mob started shooting fireworks at police, and in nearby Chicagoland, 5 were dead and 23 hurt by Tuesday morning, with one 22 year-old reportedly getting shot in the head after arguing with a driver. Milwaukee saw a surge of robbery in the Riverwest area. There is surveillance video of the "pack of wild teens who ransacked" a gas station. In Mobile, Alabama, a fight broke out in the downtown area, consisting of 300 people with one teenager having a bullet graze his face. In Baltimore, violence "erupted" after the fireworks show, leaving a boy shot and a man stabbed to death, and in Atlantic City, a brawl began Tuesday morning in a Casino, with 2 wounded (a 17 year-old shot in the leg and a 22 year-old in the chest). Further up the coast, 4 were killed and 9 injured in a "spree of violence", in Boston. These incidents will only get more common as the country continues to get sold out to the globalists, and people are left without work, more in debt, and with nothing to do. It was reported in January 2010 that the unemployment rate amongst America's teenagers exploded to 52.2%, "a post World War II high", and Charles Krauthhammer of FOX news saying Tuesday morning that the "middle-aged may never get employed again", with the average time between jobs now being 6 months. Top Obama economists are now admitting that the 'Stimulus' cost $278,000 a job, only adding or saving 2.4 million jobs, with the tab currently standing at $666 billion dollars. Laughably, the economists also reported that "as of two quarters ago, the 'stimulus' had added or saved under 2.7 million jobs--or 288,000 more than it has now. In other words, over the past six months, the economy would have added or saved more jobs without the 'stimulus'" (Anderson - The Weekly Standard).
Under Obama the national debt has risen from almost $10 trillion to about $14.5 trillion. Keynesian economics have utterly failed, as the United States is left with fewer options to 'save' its economy if another hit comes, and it most surely will with the Euro crisis coming to a head and China's inflation problem threatening to show itself on an international stage. This comes after the government declared the recession over two years ago, and Obama joking recently at his Council on Jobs that shovel-ready jobs were not as shovel-ready as "we expected". In Tony Harnden's "Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom", the author claims that Americans are not only down on the system like in the Carter years, but themselves: "A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that 39 per cent think that 'the current economic downturn is part of a long-term permanent decline and the economy will never fully recover'. That was up from 28 per cent last October. Last month, a CNN poll found that 48 per cent of Americans believe another Great Depression is somewhat or very likely." In this graph, supplied by Reuter's James Pethokoukis, we can see that the recovery is a lot slower than it has been in past recessions. To prove how bad it has gotten, New York City has begun rationing toilet paper on Coney Island, and on a subway train, a woman bathed herself to the horror of the other riders. Air conditioners are being stolen from back yards in Chicagoland, forcing residents of the Chatham neighborhood to put cages around the outdoor machines to protect them from thieves. In Minnesota, the government is still shut down with neither the Republicans or Democrats willing to budge on taxes as thousands of state employees go without work.
Europe is not looking much better. Portugal's debt was downgraded to Ba2 ("junk") on Tuesday by Moody's, and Greece is still reeling from the 2nd austerity measure which passed last week. Silver Bullion Eagle coins are reaching their highest demand in history because gold's price is rising too high for the average investor to buy, which ended the day on Wednesday with more than $30 gain per ounce and closed at $1,512.70 on the Comex division in the New York Exchange. The U.S. treasury continues to print, so the value of the dollar will also decrease in value. America's debt is already threatening to be downgraded by a major rating agency if the debt limit isn't increased by August 2nd. The Obama administration is working to get a deal to raise it by July 22nd; if not, America could see itself in a similar situation that Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain find themselves in, with its interest rates going up at an unsustainable rate. Quoting John Williams of Shadowstats.com: “Such a default would be a serious mistake, and it most likely will be avoided as political games push the limits of brinksmanship. An outright default likely would trigger massive dumping of the U.S. dollar, and it would accelerate movement to much higher U.S. inflation and, ultimately, to hyperinflation.” If you want to see an escalation of the violence and theft above, then you might not have to wait much longer. Yet Americans remain largely ignorant of what's going on around them, with Greg Hunter writing with relief that the distracting Casey Anthony case is over, and comparing it to a Roman Circus. It was reported on Friday that the unemployment rate in the U.S. grew to 9.2% from 9.1% in June. Jobs in nonfarms payrolls rose only by 18,000. This is "the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said [...], well below economists' expectations for a 90,000 rise (CNBC.com). The average workweek also took a hit, sliding from 34.4 to 34.3 hours. The June report caused stocks to open sharply lower and erased the week's gains, with the Dow falling down 109 to 12,611 at noon, and the S&P and Nasdaq also going down. This is further proof of the stagnation of the American economy, as Congress and Obama keep on twiddling their thumbs over a budget deal. As for Greece, Daniel Hannan in his article for the Telegraph, "Enough of this Greek face: everyone knows default is coming", says "no one seriously thinks that the measures adopted by the Greek parliament will end the crisis. In Brussels and in Athens, officials are conniving at an official suspension of disbelief." The Greek's fire sale of national assets has no chance of creating enough money to pay back the debts, and the only real solution for the country is to drop the Euro or default.
In other news, it broke recently that the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms program, Fast and Furious, was "facilitat[ing] the sale and transfer of guns to Mexico" (Alan Caruba - FSM). Ostensibly this was being used to justify further laws on the control of the selling of firearms, and according to the liberal Huffington Post article, "Obama Looking For Ways Around Congress on Gun Policy" Obama is trying to backdoor in new gun control laws. This should be worrisome to not only pro-2nd-amendment conservatives and gun enthusiasts, but all Americans who believe in freedom and the Constitution. From history, one of the main goals of tyrants is the confiscation of firearms because it leaves the population defenseless and more dependent on papa government to protect them. Some of the facts are startling and should highlight the real problem of gun control. 1. Thinking through the rampages which have happened across America in recent years, do you remember one at a gun show? The real issue is not people being armed, but people being unarmed. Most of these killing sprees happened in places where guns were not allowed. 2. These laws only hurt the law-abiding. The people who would hand in their guns would not be the criminals on the street, but good citizens wanting to protect themselves against thieves. This action would just ramp up aberrant activities, and the threat of government infringing on our lives. Maybe that's why Garry McCarthy, Rahm Emanuel's choice for police chief in Chicago, said that illegal guns in urban communities were the result of "government-sponsored racism" similar to "slavery, segregation, black codes, Jim Crow". These views are plain stupid. I suppose from the perspective of someone who grew up in Brooklyn guns may be seem a great evil, but McCarthy is clearly not looking at the bigger picture (or more likely, sold out to higher powers). A society where it is illegal to arm yourself would be an inherently less free one, a more dangerous one, and a worse one. The good people couldn't defend themselves or their property against robbery, the government, the corporations, or their neighbor. It would be one of the first steps on the road to despotism, and that's why the battle to defend our right to bear arms is one of most important.
It is looking increasingly likely that the only ones who will be able to legally own guns in the near future will be the police, the military, and the U.N. It was reported on Wednesday that Washington is prepared to keep a force of 10,000 soldiers in Iraq after 2011, the proposed pullout date, because of "concern that the pullout [...] would lead to intensified militant attacks" (Cloud and Parker - LA Times). Iraq is currently serving as a bulwark for other countries in the region worried about Iran's rising power. The U.S. and Tehran have been waging a mini war in Mesopotamia for over five years, with the Persians getting increasingly anxious now that their ally Syria is in dire straights. One only has to look at the titles of Western news article to see the intensifying rhetoric. In the Christian Science Monitor, "Is Assad losing Syria? As concerns grow, US urges halt to 'intimidation'", the US is becoming more convinced that Assad's time is up. Apparently there is a "dawning realization" among the West that Assad won't be able to "weather" the protests. This is incredible language and should make any awake American laugh out loud. Syria has been one of the largest antagonists in the region for decades, and this "dawning realization" should be a code word for "wanted the regime out from the beginning and actively instigated the Muslim Brotherhood uprising as well as stoked legitimate protests like we did in Libya". On Tuesday, Syrian troops entered "the city of Hama after thousands of residents took to the streets in defiance of a government crackdown on recent large protests" reported Aljazeera in the article, "'Shooting and arrests' in Syrian city"--with a bronze medalist from the 2004 Athens Olympics injured from a "shotgun blast" in the city. The uprising in Hama is particularly significant because it was here where Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez, crushed the Sunni-led opposition (which included the Muslim Brotherhood) 29 years ago. Over 20,000 are said to have died in that conflict in 1982, and the tension is still palpable with 60 killed earlier this year in protests. The international community is turning its back on Assad, most strikingly Turkey, which is "now threatening to enter Syria to create a buffer zone to insulate itself from a further onslaught of refugees" (Howard LaFranchi - CSM). Last week, Libya's Col. Gaddafi and his son had an arrest warrant placed on their heads by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a Mickey Mouse court if there ever was one, for apparent crimes against humanity, and France, Britain, and the US, want a similar fate for Assad.
Debka, a voice-piece for Israeli intelligence, claims Libya will be invaded within two weeks, first by British and French troops and then followed by Americans. A Russian envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, also believes Nato is gearing up for a ground operation, opining, ""I think that now we are witnessing the preparation stage of a ground operation which NATO, or at least some of its members... are ready to begin". There is a interesting interview with Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, where he says not to trust "them", the Western powers. I highly recommend viewing it because it presents a powerful alternate view: that the West betrayed Libya, a country which just years ago was touted as a great success of the Bush Administration's Islamic outreach. al-Islam claimed that the protests are a game, with the al-Qaeda backed rebels attacking government bases, forcing the soldiers to fire on them and ended the interview, saying "Listen, NATO and rebels both are in a hurry, they want to finish as soon as possible because they are hungry, they are tired, they want to share the cake. It’s like, for them, Libya is like fast food, like McDonald’s, fast. Because everything should be fast: fast war, fast airplanes, fast bullets, fast victory. But we are very patient, because we are in our country, it’s our country, we live here, we die here. One day, the French will go back to Corsica and France, the Italians will go back to Sicily and Italy, the Danish will go back to Denmark, the Canadians will go back to Toronto, and Libya will be back to the Libyans." A pro-Gaddafi rally was held in Tripoli's Green Square last week, in support of the leader. However, the Russian envoy for Gaddafi's departure, Mikhail Margelov, said he may be ready to depart if certain guarantees were met, including France unfreezing his assets and "providing immunity from the United Nations war tribunal". Gaddafi also wants his son, al-Islam to stay in the country and take part in the election if he were to depart. According to Debka, "The Obama and Sarkozy administrations are working together on a plan to convene an Israel-Palestinian peace summit in Paris on Sept. 2 shortly after the Libyan war is brought to a close"--hopefully after a four-way agreement between the U.S., French, Gaddafi, and the Libyan rebels, and then a power-sharing "administration in Tripoli between the incumbent government and rebel leaders". Ostensibly, both presidents expect this to showcase a triple victory: "two diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East and a US-French victory in Libya" (Debka).
Tensions are high across the Middle East, with Emirates 24/7 News reporting that Iran is "ready to close the Strait of Hormuz", the strip of water between Iran and Oman which connects the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. According to Wikipedia, "It is the only sea passage to the open ocean for large areas of the petroleum-exporting Persian Gulf. About 15 tankers carrying 16.5 to 17 million barrels of crude oil pass through the strait on an average day, making it one of the world's most strategically important choke points. This represents 40% of the world's seaborne oil shipments, and 20% of all world oil shipments." The Revolutionary Guards commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari said about the shipping lane on Monday, "In light of the strategic position of the Strait of Hormuz, this issue has never been taken off the agenda, [... and] we have not stopped there... we are seeking to use our defence capabilities in open waters, This means that should the enemy try to pose a threat against the Islamic republic from outside the Strait of Hormuz, we will have the power to retaliate in kind. This strategy is now on our agenda." The Mohammad-6 war games continue this week and end on Friday, with continued posturing by the Iranians on the heels of firing the Shahab-3 rockets, which reportedly can hit American bases in the Middle East and Israel. On the Fourth of July, the American day of Independence, Iran ridiculed America through PressTV, which is completely controlled by Tehran, saying, “America is no longer the land of the free. It is now ruled by oligarchs and corporatists. And it is no longer governed by the rule of law. The rich, the powerful and the politically connected abide by their own, very different, set of laws.” In January 2010, Abbasi Davani, was made vice president of the Persian country and head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. This is significant, because just two months prior he underwent an attempted assassination outside his home in Tehran. At the time he was employed as a physics professor, but Western sources believed this was just a cover for his work as a leading expert in weaponization. Iran blamed Mossad for the assault. His rise in the political system should put fear into the hearts of Europe, the U.S., and Israel, showing that Tehran is heading at full speed down the path of attaining a nuclear warhead. The article by Yossi Melman, "All signs say Iran is racing toward a nuclear bomb", states that "Abbasi Davani said Iran has developed an advanced centrifuge model whose rotors spin at greater speed, thus enabling the enrichment of a larger amount of uranium in a shorter time. Such centrifuges, he said, will be constructed at the second uranium enrichment site that Iran built secretly near the Revolutionary Guards base just outside of Qom." Qom is both a strategic location and a holy city according to Melman. Hardline Shia believe that the arrival of the 12th Imam is imminent, and the country should prepare for it, with Ahmadinejad telling the UN to prepare for a perfect man, the coming Imam. Ali Khamenei is also based out of Qom and has the ultimate power of whether the Iranians will go nuclear or not. On Saturday, the country fired a long-range missile into the Indian Ocean.
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