From Federal Judge Susan Bolton to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, D.O.A.

I think Arizona's immigration law was long over due.

Unfortunately, the people of the United States no longer have a voice. The people have been marginalized to the extent that we are little sheep who only have one duty. We serve government and the elite and for that privilege, they ask us to send in our money. Taxes. That's the definition of being a good citizen. Shut your mouth and send in your money.

We have become slaves. Sure we have a vote, but our vote doesn't matter any more.

I am fucking pissed. I am sick of government telling a majority of it's citizens that you no longer have the right to decide what is best for you. Only government does.

Thus Judge Susan Bolton, a liberal Federal Judge appointed by Bill Clinton, blocked Arizona's law. That Billary Clinton and Barack Obama have many mutual friends and are friends themselves is not a coincidence. All three are morally bankrupt.

Trade any cattle futures lately, Hillary? Whitewater, Rezko, and a Bank in Illinois. Oh yea, I pay attention. Obama and the Clinton's have a lot of mutual friends.

So now, Arizona's law goes from Judge Bolton to the Ninth Circuit. A Federal Judge upholding Federal intentions. How novel. Bolton was probably afraid of Obama canning her like he did that Inspector General dude. You remember that guy? The one who caught Obama's friend, Mayor Johnson, stealing grant dollars?

That the ninth circuit is the most liberal court in the land is not news. I fully expect them to dilute Arizona's law even further. And if they don't, the Supremes laden with the likes of Sotomayor will shit can it. Not because it's the will of the people, which it is, but because people like Sotomayor can't get past their own selfish interests. They don't care what the will of the people is. We simply don't matter anymore. They legislate from the bench with opinions.

Arizona's immigration law is DOA. Contempt prior to investigation. All that remains is the formal burial. That will come soon enough. Not just for Arizona's statute, but for the ideals of a nation that still believe that this is a government for the people, by the people. It' not and it hasn't been for a long time. They will prove this once again.

It's Just Worthless Paper

The Plunge Protection Team. A secret society of elite bankers/investors who come in and buy stocks to keep the stock market propped up.

Complete bullshit. Maybe. Here's a link.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/2715-stock-rally-due-to-ppt-conspiracy

I'd like to believe this urban myth. But I can't. For two reasons, both of which make sense.

There is simply no place to put your money- anywhere and make anything close to a decent return. Thus the stock market has become the default investment vehicle. The businesses and people still working are doing quite well in a zero interest rate business and lending environment and they gotta park their dough somewhere. It's not that the stock market is such a great and choice vehicle for saving- it's just that everything and everywhere else sucks so bad, the market just sucks a little less.

The other reason. Good old fashioned greed. People do not waste money buying stocks with their own money if they think they are going to be essentially worthless.

Now the good news. We have to believe in the stock market fairy tale and the PPT whether we want to or not.

People may in fact spend someone else's money. Isn't that what fund managers, including hedge fund managers do? What about the Fed? Whose money do they spend?

Oh that's right. We can't audit them. Never mind. So in fact, the Fed could spend money on the market without anyone knowing, keep the market propped up, while they work out an exit strategy of their own.

In Holland 500 years ago, they had a tulip bulb craze that drove the price of tulips through the stratosphere. That is, until someone figured out that tulips were actually non essential and you really don't need them to live.

Stock certificates only have value because the buyer believes he will be able to sell them to someone else for more money. That's true until everyone figures out that stock certificates are just worthless paper. Non essential. Unfortunately, we have an entire nations retirement plans absolutely hinged to the stock market through 401k plans. Including mine.

Here's a toast to Santa Claus. May you actually exist in the form of the PPT. At least another 30 years or so.

Wir Focked, But Hey I Did Ok! *Waves Nobel Statue

Too funny not to post. Forgive the theft.

Obama Calls for National Dialogue on Changing the Subject

Washington, D.C.--President Obama called for a "national dialogue" on changing the subject today, saying all Americans would benefit from an honest and frank conversation about something -- anything -- other than the dismal state of the economy, unemployment, and the competence of his administration.

"This is a great and diverse nation," Obama told viewers in a televised address, "and there are so many things that should be contributing to our great national debate that have nothing to do with how our nation is governed, like the new trailer for the movie Tron: Legacy, that robot on YouTube that can flip pancakes, and the guy who robbed a bank in a Darth Vader costume."

Administration officials also pointed to "that new 55 percent alcohol-by-volume beer that comes inside an actual taxidermied squirrel koozie" as something "all concerned Americans should discuss with their neighbors and families."

We Can't Afford a Recovery

The U.S. has 109 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

That is 13.2 trillion in current debt+medicare+prescription costs+social security liabilities.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

The 13.2 trillion grows by about 500 billion per year at the cheap interest rates we are paying. Half of that 13.2 trillion is refinanced every year.

So what happens in a recovery?

Demand for goods and services increases as people have more money to spend. The Fed hikes interest rates to slow growth and inflation. And although more people are working and paying taxes- the interest rate hikes on that 13.2 trillion will more than offset any increase in tax receipts.

So there you have it. We have screwed the pooch.

Our only escape is to declare bankruptcy and eliminate the Federal Reserve. At the blog entitled the "Economic Collapse" they describe this in detail. The reason we have to have this economic collapse is evident. There is no stopping it. The greed of international bankers, as well as that of our domestic bankers, is without peer. That and a voracious government which simply can't stop eating itself. Headed by a buffoon that plays golf each week and runs around firing people that try to point out that he and his administration are buffoons.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Printing our own currency and issuing it interest free is do- able. In fact it already exists. It is called gold. So the bottom line is this. Any recovery will hasten the collapse. I think this administration knows that. Obama is caught in a lose lose situation. Did he inherit this mess? Yes of course. Has he done anything to stem the losses? No, in fact he has added to them. It would take great personal courage to dismantle the Fed and eliminate bankers and a banking system- which contribute mightily to these idiots in Washington.

Make no mistake about this. Lincoln may have inherited a civil war state but he had the courage to act on it. Obama inherited a mess every bit as bad as the civil war. Economic collapse. That he has done nothing and added to it- shows us what kind of leader he is. With any luck, Obama will exit and perhaps someone with a spine will realize we have to act NOW to have any kind of a chance.

Let's pray we don't have a recovery. This shit is going to get really bad if we do.

And They Wonder Why We Are Pissed...

Intuitively, I knew this was true. I guess I just didn't want to believe it. It was and still is, the time honored tradition of class warfare. Check out these statistics. It is far worse than even I believed.

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it

Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder in Recession

Related: ^DJI, ^GSPC, SPY, MCD, WMT, XRT, DIA

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From The Business Insider

Editor's note: Michael Snyder is editor of theeconomiccollapseblog.com

The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom

The Libertarian Party is a no brainer.

For the life of me, I don't get it. I simply don't understand why people can't understand that excessive government is the problem. And we have excessive government. Don't we all agree that we have too much government? Are there really people out there that think we need more government?

Our "two party" system is a travesty. Individually, these parties don't stand for anything anymore. It doesn't matter whether you steal my money and give it to the poor or deliver it to the elite. Once you've taken it from me, it's gone. But there is one thing both parties are very good at. Creating more government.

Without campaign reform, these two parties hold a monopoly. In fact, I don't think they'd survive any kind of anti-trust scrutiny as we apply it to business.

It's probably too late. The opportunity to stop them has long since passed. The elite have theirs, and now it's the welfare recipients turn to clamor for more. And when you take money from the people that do the work, and deliver it to the people that do nothing- you are near the end. Because the people with the capacity to work quit working (as you steal their work product) and the people with no desire to work continues to grow as they receive free money.

There was and still is only one solution. The Libertarian Party. Get government the hell out of our lives. Get rid of worthless agencies such as the "Energy Commission" which was created to solve our energy woes some forty years ago and has done absolutely nothing in that time. No measured results. Student loans? Where in the history of the U.S. or Constitution did it say that we'd make loans to people seeking an education? Who said that is a function of government? Should I dole out 200k so that some liberal arts major can get a sociology degree and then default on the loan? Insanity. Government run amok.

A flat tax. No accountants, no 2500 page tax code, no mortgage interest tax break for the ultra rich to build themselves castles. In fact, our entire tax code is the poster child for government gone wild. In a drunken stupor, most of us couldn't devise anything so unfair, complex, and ridiculously stupid as our current tax code. It absolutely encourages cheating. In fact, I believe one day in an enlightened world if we manage to survive, they will show kids in a history class the tax code as it exists today. The kids will roar with laughter. That was the law?

Identifying government as our problem is easy. The real problem is stripping the two parties that support this government waste- of their power. That's the issue. As long as the sheep are convinced that any vote for a third party is a wasted vote, we'll never be able to stop this.

Ever.

More Government Theft

Clipped a few minutes ago...

BusinessWeek reports that the Treasury and Labor departments are asking for public comment on “the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams.”

In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit in your retirement years.

Last year, I cashed out my 401k and took the 10% penalty. After 10 years of no return and at least another 10 years of no return, higher taxes, inflated and lost value- it wasn't a hard thing to do.

The last great cache of wealth left in this country are 401k accounts. About 13 trillion. Our confiscatory, thieving government will attempt to raid this house next. If they succeed- we will indeed have an economic collapse.

I have been saying this for over a year. We are about to enter one of the worst periods of time in this nation's history. So bad in fact, that virtually no asset class is safe. Think about that.