On March 14, Connecticut resident Mark Steed delivered an articulate
response to the state legislature’s plan to roll back the Second
Amendment.
“This is the third day I’ve taken off of work to come here to, like
so many of the rest of us, to plead with you for us to keep our guns
because of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut,” the Vernon,
Connecticut, resident said. “If that isn’t inherently wrong, I don’t
know what is. That these bills are even in proposed form is scary
enough. That any of you could possibly be undecided is scary enough.
What are you looking at?”
He then proceeded to inform state officials what they are looking at –
the dismantlement of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights under the
irrational rubric of “common sense” and “gun safety,” two highly
misleading catchwords currently used by government and its corporate
media to cover the attack on the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights, the
Second Amendment.
“Adam Lanza commits a crime and I’m here to grovel and plead for my rights?” an outraged Steed said.
Connecticut officialdom went on to ignore Mr. Steed’s argument. On
March 18 an advisory panel convened to make proposals that if
implemented will destroy Second Amendment rights in the state. The
recommendations include required registration of all guns and mandatory
background checks for all buyers. The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has
forwarded the recommendations to Connecticut’s governor, Dannel Malloy.
The state currently has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the
country.
“The reason that your jobs are becoming so difficult is because
you’re coloring outside the lines of constitutional parameters,” Steed
told the officials. “That’s the bottom line. You are trying to marriage
up public safety with constitutional rights. The Constitution did not
guarantee public safety, it guaranteed liberty. And sometimes what comes
with liberty is tragedy, unfortunately.”
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Why Is The World Economy Doomed? The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers
Why is the global economy in so much trouble? How can so many people
be so absolutely certain that the world financial system is going to
crash? Well, the truth is that when you take a look at the cold, hard
numbers it is not difficult to see why the global financial pyramid
scheme is destined to fail. In the United States today, there is
approximately 56 trillion dollars of total debt in our financial system,
but there is only about 9 trillion dollars in our bank accounts. So
you could take every single penny out of the banks, multiply it by six,
and you still would not have enough money to pay off all of our debts.
Overall, there is about 190 trillion dollars of total debt on the
planet. But global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars. And the
total notional value of all derivatives around the globe is somewhere
between 600 trillion and 1500 trillion dollars. So we have a gigantic
problem on our hands. The global financial system is a very shaky house
of cards that has been constructed on a foundation of debt, leverage
and incredibly risky derivatives. We are living in the greatest
financial bubble in world history, and it isn’t going to take much to
topple the entire thing. And when it falls, it is going to be the
largest financial disaster in the history of the planet.
The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and a crisis at one major bank or in one area of the world can spread at lightning speed. As I wrote about yesterday, the entire European banking system is leveraged 26 to 1 at this point. A decline in asset values of just 4 percent would totally wipe out the equity of many of those banks, and once a financial panic begins we could potentially see major financial institutions start to go down like dominoes.
We got a small taste of what that is like back in 2008, and it is inevitable that it will happen again.
Anyone that would tell you that the current global financial system is sustainable does not know what they are talking about. Just look at the numbers that I have posted below.
The following is the global financial pyramid scheme by the numbers…
-$9,283,000,000,000 – The total amount of all bank deposits in the United States. The FDIC has just 25 billion dollars in the deposit insurance fund that is supposed to “guarantee” those deposits. In other words, the ratio of total bank deposits to insurance fund money is more than 371 to 1.
-$10,012,800,000,000 – The total amount of mortgage debt in the United States. As you can see, you could take every penny out of every bank account in America and it still would not cover it.
-$10,409,500,000,000 – The M2 money supply in the United States. This is probably the most commonly used measure of the total amount of money in the U.S. economy.
-$15,094,000,000,000 – U.S. GDP. It is a measure of all economic activity in the United States for a single year.
-$16,749,269,587,407.53 – The size of the U.S. national debt. It has grown by more than 10 trillion dollars over the past ten years.
-$32,000,000,000,000 – The total amount of money that the global elite have stashed in offshore banks (that we know about).
-$50,230,844,000,000 – The total amount of government debt in the world.
-$56,280,790,000,000 – The total amount of debt (government, corporate, consumer, etc.) in the U.S. financial system.
-$61,000,000,000,000 – The combined total assets of the 50 largest banks in the world.
-$70,000,000,000,000 – The approximate size of total world GDP.
-$190,000,000,000,000 – The approximate size of the total amount of debt in the entire world. It has nearly doubled in size over the past decade.
-$212,525,587,000,000 – According to the U.S. government, this is the notional value of the derivatives that are being held by the top 25 banks in the United States. But those banks only have total assets of about 8.9 trillion dollars combined. In other words, the exposure of our largest banks to derivatives outweighs their total assets by a ratio of about 24 to 1.
-$600,000,000,000,000 to $1,500,000,000,000,000 – The estimates of the total notional value of all global derivatives generally fall within this range. At the high end of the range, the ratio of derivatives to global GDP is more than 21 to 1.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Every single day, the total amount of debt will continue to grow faster than the total amount of money until the day that this bubble bursts.
What we witnessed back in 2008 was just a little “hiccup” in the system. It caused the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but global financial authorities were able to get things stabilized.
Next time it won’t be so easy.
The next wave of the economic collapse is quickly approaching. A full-blown economic depression has already started in southern Europe. Unemployment is at record highs and economic activity is contracting rapidly.
The major offshore banking centers in Cyprus are on the verge of collapsing. It was just announced that they will now be closed until Tuesday, but nobody really knows for sure when they will be allowed to reopen. And there is already talk that when they do reopen that there will be strict limits on how much money people can take out.
And now the IMF is warning that the three biggest banks in Slovenia are failing and that a billion euros will be needed to bail them out.
The dominoes are starting to tumble, and the United States won’t be immune. In fact, the greatest financial problems that the United States has ever seen are on the horizon.
But you can just have faith that Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress know exactly what they are doing and will be able to save us from the coming financial collapse if you want.
The mainstream media will provide you with all of the positive economic news that you could possibly want. They are giddy about the fact that the Dow keeps hitting all-time highs and they would have us all believe that we are in the midst of a robust economic recovery. You can listen to them if you want to.
But when you are tempted to believe that everything is going to be “okay” somehow, just go back and look at the numbers there were posted above one more time.
There is no way that the global financial pyramid scheme is going to be able to hold up for too much longer. At some point it is going to totally collapse. When that happens, will you be ready?
The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and a crisis at one major bank or in one area of the world can spread at lightning speed. As I wrote about yesterday, the entire European banking system is leveraged 26 to 1 at this point. A decline in asset values of just 4 percent would totally wipe out the equity of many of those banks, and once a financial panic begins we could potentially see major financial institutions start to go down like dominoes.
We got a small taste of what that is like back in 2008, and it is inevitable that it will happen again.
Anyone that would tell you that the current global financial system is sustainable does not know what they are talking about. Just look at the numbers that I have posted below.
The following is the global financial pyramid scheme by the numbers…
-$9,283,000,000,000 – The total amount of all bank deposits in the United States. The FDIC has just 25 billion dollars in the deposit insurance fund that is supposed to “guarantee” those deposits. In other words, the ratio of total bank deposits to insurance fund money is more than 371 to 1.
-$10,012,800,000,000 – The total amount of mortgage debt in the United States. As you can see, you could take every penny out of every bank account in America and it still would not cover it.
-$10,409,500,000,000 – The M2 money supply in the United States. This is probably the most commonly used measure of the total amount of money in the U.S. economy.
-$15,094,000,000,000 – U.S. GDP. It is a measure of all economic activity in the United States for a single year.
-$16,749,269,587,407.53 – The size of the U.S. national debt. It has grown by more than 10 trillion dollars over the past ten years.
-$32,000,000,000,000 – The total amount of money that the global elite have stashed in offshore banks (that we know about).
-$50,230,844,000,000 – The total amount of government debt in the world.
-$56,280,790,000,000 – The total amount of debt (government, corporate, consumer, etc.) in the U.S. financial system.
-$61,000,000,000,000 – The combined total assets of the 50 largest banks in the world.
-$70,000,000,000,000 – The approximate size of total world GDP.
-$190,000,000,000,000 – The approximate size of the total amount of debt in the entire world. It has nearly doubled in size over the past decade.
-$212,525,587,000,000 – According to the U.S. government, this is the notional value of the derivatives that are being held by the top 25 banks in the United States. But those banks only have total assets of about 8.9 trillion dollars combined. In other words, the exposure of our largest banks to derivatives outweighs their total assets by a ratio of about 24 to 1.
-$600,000,000,000,000 to $1,500,000,000,000,000 – The estimates of the total notional value of all global derivatives generally fall within this range. At the high end of the range, the ratio of derivatives to global GDP is more than 21 to 1.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Every single day, the total amount of debt will continue to grow faster than the total amount of money until the day that this bubble bursts.
What we witnessed back in 2008 was just a little “hiccup” in the system. It caused the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but global financial authorities were able to get things stabilized.
Next time it won’t be so easy.
The next wave of the economic collapse is quickly approaching. A full-blown economic depression has already started in southern Europe. Unemployment is at record highs and economic activity is contracting rapidly.
The major offshore banking centers in Cyprus are on the verge of collapsing. It was just announced that they will now be closed until Tuesday, but nobody really knows for sure when they will be allowed to reopen. And there is already talk that when they do reopen that there will be strict limits on how much money people can take out.
And now the IMF is warning that the three biggest banks in Slovenia are failing and that a billion euros will be needed to bail them out.
The dominoes are starting to tumble, and the United States won’t be immune. In fact, the greatest financial problems that the United States has ever seen are on the horizon.
But you can just have faith that Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress know exactly what they are doing and will be able to save us from the coming financial collapse if you want.
The mainstream media will provide you with all of the positive economic news that you could possibly want. They are giddy about the fact that the Dow keeps hitting all-time highs and they would have us all believe that we are in the midst of a robust economic recovery. You can listen to them if you want to.
But when you are tempted to believe that everything is going to be “okay” somehow, just go back and look at the numbers there were posted above one more time.
There is no way that the global financial pyramid scheme is going to be able to hold up for too much longer. At some point it is going to totally collapse. When that happens, will you be ready?
This article was posted: Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 6:53 am
TSA: Wheelchair Bound Veteran Chose To Attempt To “Walk” Himself
In a response to the attention focused on a wounded Marine’s account
of mistreatment at the hands of the TSA, the agency has denied any
wrong doing, saying that the wheelchair bound veteran made his own
decision to attempt to get up and walk through a body scanner.
The story broke earlier this week, with The Washington Times, among others, reporting that the TSA “forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined.”
The reports cited a complaint filed by fellow Marines traveling with the disabled veteran.
“It’s embarrassing to be told to take off your prosthetic leg. It’s embarrassing to be told to stand. You want to stand. You just can’t stand. I just think the TSA doesn’t get it,” fellow Marine Jim Phillips told news station 3TV.
Phillips contacted California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, an Iraq veteran, who wrote to the TSA in an official complaint.
“A TSA office asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own. With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficulty, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives,” Hunter said.
In a statement on its blog, the TSA responded to the claims, saying that “there has been a lot of misreporting”.
the agency claims that after reviewing the security video and interviewing its officers, 22-year-old Cpl Toran Gaal from California, who lost both legs in Afghanistan, was “not asked and did not remove his prosthetic legs.”
“The screening was done by the book and lasted a total of 8 minutes from beginning to end,” the TSA statement reads, also claiming that the screening at Sky Harbor International Airport was conducted by two veterans.
TSA Assistant Screening Director Jeff Perez reacted strongly to the claims of mistreatment, saying that as a former veteran himself, he took the claims “personally”.
“We did our own fact finding and spoke to the officers who were there. Not one said he was asked to take his prosthetics off,” Perez told reporters with 3TV.
When asked about the cctv footage of Gaal attempting to stand, Perez said it was his own choice to do so.
“He was given the option [of remaining in his wheelchair] and he opted to stand up because he wanted to expedite the process,” Perez said.
The TSA official claimed that no footage is available showing the secondary screening off to the side of the security zone, where it is claimed that the Marine was forced to remove his prosthetic legs.
Joe Kasper, Rep Hunter’s Deputy Chief of Staff, told the Daily Mail: “Witnesses said he took off his legs. At a bare minimum, he was at least asked to take off his legs.” Kasper added that Rep. Hunter included two photographs of the Marine in his letter to TSA, saying they confirmed Cpl Gaal’s complaint.
“Here’s the thing – TSA’s going to make you think what they want you to think,” Kasper said. “The Marine never complained. It was the people who were escorting him. They felt disrespected, they felt mistreated. The problem here is the situational awareness in the tone and lack of awareness.”
“There has to be a part on TSA to acknowledge there is an issue – not the leg issue, but the bigger problem that he and other veterans and the war-wounded need extra help. That’s what it’s all about and that’s what Mr Hunter was getting at,” Kasper added.
Once again this incident comes down to a case of who you choose to believe. Is it the veterans and other witnesses cited in multiple reports, and backed by a Congressman? Or is it the government agency that has been caught consistently lying to cover its own back?
In a failed PR attempt, the TSA also took to Twitter to deny that the incident took place as it was reported. Twitter users fired back a number of scathing responses directed at the TSA.
The story broke earlier this week, with The Washington Times, among others, reporting that the TSA “forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined.”
The reports cited a complaint filed by fellow Marines traveling with the disabled veteran.
“It’s embarrassing to be told to take off your prosthetic leg. It’s embarrassing to be told to stand. You want to stand. You just can’t stand. I just think the TSA doesn’t get it,” fellow Marine Jim Phillips told news station 3TV.
Phillips contacted California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, an Iraq veteran, who wrote to the TSA in an official complaint.
“A TSA office asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own. With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficulty, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives,” Hunter said.
In a statement on its blog, the TSA responded to the claims, saying that “there has been a lot of misreporting”.
the agency claims that after reviewing the security video and interviewing its officers, 22-year-old Cpl Toran Gaal from California, who lost both legs in Afghanistan, was “not asked and did not remove his prosthetic legs.”
“The screening was done by the book and lasted a total of 8 minutes from beginning to end,” the TSA statement reads, also claiming that the screening at Sky Harbor International Airport was conducted by two veterans.
TSA Assistant Screening Director Jeff Perez reacted strongly to the claims of mistreatment, saying that as a former veteran himself, he took the claims “personally”.
“We did our own fact finding and spoke to the officers who were there. Not one said he was asked to take his prosthetics off,” Perez told reporters with 3TV.
When asked about the cctv footage of Gaal attempting to stand, Perez said it was his own choice to do so.
“He was given the option [of remaining in his wheelchair] and he opted to stand up because he wanted to expedite the process,” Perez said.
The TSA official claimed that no footage is available showing the secondary screening off to the side of the security zone, where it is claimed that the Marine was forced to remove his prosthetic legs.
Joe Kasper, Rep Hunter’s Deputy Chief of Staff, told the Daily Mail: “Witnesses said he took off his legs. At a bare minimum, he was at least asked to take off his legs.” Kasper added that Rep. Hunter included two photographs of the Marine in his letter to TSA, saying they confirmed Cpl Gaal’s complaint.
“Here’s the thing – TSA’s going to make you think what they want you to think,” Kasper said. “The Marine never complained. It was the people who were escorting him. They felt disrespected, they felt mistreated. The problem here is the situational awareness in the tone and lack of awareness.”
“There has to be a part on TSA to acknowledge there is an issue – not the leg issue, but the bigger problem that he and other veterans and the war-wounded need extra help. That’s what it’s all about and that’s what Mr Hunter was getting at,” Kasper added.
Once again this incident comes down to a case of who you choose to believe. Is it the veterans and other witnesses cited in multiple reports, and backed by a Congressman? Or is it the government agency that has been caught consistently lying to cover its own back?
In a failed PR attempt, the TSA also took to Twitter to deny that the incident took place as it was reported. Twitter users fired back a number of scathing responses directed at the TSA.
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