Spain's Budget Minister says "Serious Budget Shortfalls in All 17 Autonomous Regions"; Prime Minister Announces $19.3 Billion Package of Tax Hikes; Cockroaches and the Theory of the Unexpected

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis 

By Mike Mish Shedlock











Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has finally admitted three things I have been saying for a long time

Spain's regions were in deep fiscal trouble if not bankrupt
Spain could not possibly hit its deficit targets for 2012
It is mathematically impossible for Spain to meet deficit goals without raising taxes,

Tyranny Is a Bipartisan Disease

From WashingtonsBlog, December 31, 2011




Extremists on Both the Right and the Left Like Tyranny

Lew Rockwell notes:


The most definitive study on fascism written in [the first half of the 20th century] was As We Go Marching by John T. Flynn. Flynn was a journalist and scholar of a liberal spirit who had written a number of best-selling books in the 1920s. He could probably be put in the

Pepe Escobar: Shifting Ground for Vital Resources

From Consortiumnews, December 27, 2011


As competition for oil, water and other resources intensify, global power relationships are shifting, providing backdrops for a string of conflicts from Iraq to Libya. Brazilian-born journalist Pepe Escobar, one of the most perceptive analysts of these trends, was interviewed by German Lars Schall.

By Lars Schall
Mr. Escobar, given your experience in

Obama Secretly Preparing for Syria Intervention

From Veteranstoday, December 29th, 2011:

Mainstream Media Now Peddles Old Syrian News They Censored for Months…as ‘New’ Developments  

   



…by  Sibel Edmonds





This morning I woke up to the following news headlines. Let me correct myself: This morning I found the US media and their quasi extension reporting on stale, at least 6-month old US operations on Syria. Now, that’s much better.

I

Architects of Euro Fail Lead Way To 2012 Danger Zone

DEEP STATE - MAFIA, MEDIA, MILITARY, MOSLEMS, MASONS, MOSSAD...

From aangirfan, DECEMBER 31, 2011:


A well nourished Sudanese man steals maize from a starving child during a food distribution at a feeding center in Sudan in 1998. Photo by Tom Stoddart.The CIA runs the USA, and other countries, using the 'Deep State'.According to John Glaser (The American Deep State by John Glaser - Antiwar.com):"The US defense budget is the largest piece of the budget..."

Ron Paul's Anti-Progressive Agenda

by Stephen Lendman



Compared to a rogue's gallery of Republican aspirants, supporters claim Paullooks good by comparison. Look again and think carefully about America in his hands.



True enough, he wants the Federal Reserve abolished. He calls it "dishonest, immoral, unconstitutional," and America's "great(est) threat to....security and prosperity."



"Out-of-control (and) secretive, (it)

Syria: Pepe Escobar Breaks Down Arab League Investigation

Free Syria Army includes foreign mercenaries armed & backed by very Arab League supposedly investigating Syrian violence.


 

The Puzzling Case of Stratfor and Anonymous

From The Daily Bell, Wednesday, December 28, 2011 – by Staff Report:







Stratfor was not breached in order to obtain customer credit card numbers, which the hackers in question could not have expected to be as easily obtainable as they were. Rather, the operation was pursued in order to obtain the 2.7 million e-mails that exist on the firm's servers. This wealth of data includes

PROFESSOR LINKS ISRAEL TO NORWAY TERROR ATTACKS

From aangirfan :












Professor Ola Tunander is an expert on security politics, naval strategy, submarine operations, geopolitics, the dual state, psychological operations (PSYOP) and Cold War history.
On 14 Dec 2011, we read that a Swedish professor has written about an Israel link to the 'Breivik attack'

Swedish-born Ola Tunander is a professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Ola

Israeli Group Claims Responsibility for Iraqi Bombings – Sort Of

From VeteransToday, December 27th, 2011


SITE Intelligence, Reputed Mossad Operation Claims to Credit Al Qaeda for Iraq Bombings

    … by  Gordon Duff,  Senior Editor


Mossad Bombings in Iraq Wrongly Credited to Al Qaeda


The recent round of bombings in Iraq, according to an Israeli source credited with endless false reports, phony bin Laden tapes and videos and numerous other obfuscations

The Tide Is Turning Against SOPA … And We Might Actually Succeed In Stopping It

From Washington’s Blog:



While a short week ago the Internet censorship bill - SOPA - looked certain to pass, the tide appears to be quickly turning.

Politico notes today:









The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill

Art Cashin Exposes The Behind The Scenes Panic In Europe

From ZeroHedge:


Think "all is fine" in Europe after today's largely irrelevant Italian bill auction (the auction was for 6 month debt - even Greece can raise that kind of money)? Think again. Here is the Fermentation Committee Chairman explaining why Europe is so hard pressed to create a fake sense of calm, allowing those who know the real story to take advantage of the situation while they

Martin Armstrong: The Coming Financial Border Controls: Its Berlin All Over Again

From Silverdoctors, Wednesday, December 28, 2011:





As nearly always, Martin Armstrong's latest is a MUST READ!!Armstrong discusses financial border controls, heavy doses of history pertinent to our current crisis, and describes that while the final outcome of our current debt crisis is likely to be hyperinflationary, the deleveraging of the housing market is resulting in deflation currently. 

Things That Make You Go Hmmm..... December 28, 2011

Hmmm December 28 2011
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Devil Deals

From  The Daily Reckoning, December 27, 2011 
By Bill Bonner

Occasionally, when we’ve had too much to drink, we lull ourselves to sleep with the notion that someone like Ron Paul might succeed. Maybe America won’t become a police state after all. Maybe it will abandon its empire and its imperial death-wish before it’s too late. Maybe it will cut its budget and save the dollar.

Maybe the zombies

Big Oil Provokes Iran

From LEFT HOOK

By Dean Henderson





Iran’s PressTV reported that on Saturday Iran’s Navy launched a ten-day exercise dubbed “Velayat 90” covering an area from east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden. The drill comes on the heels of the downing of several US & Israeli spy drones – the latest provocation by the West against Iran.

The Russian newspaper 

Iranian Vice Pres. Warns Iran Will Block Hormuz Strait If Sanctions Are Applied

Iranian soldiers prepare rockets on a [Hawk AA missile--editor] launcher during a military drill near the Strait of Hormuz. (AFP File Photo/Rouholla Vahdati/ISNA)

TEHRAN – No oil will be permitted to pass through the key oil transit Strait of Hormuz if the West applies sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned on Tuesday.

The threat was reported by

UK to close borders, evacuate expats if euro collapses

From RussiaToday Dec 27, 2011:

 As Eurozone nations sink ever deeper into crisis, the UK Treasury is working on a contingency plan for the single currency’s collapse. It includes capital control measures that, under EU rules, require agreement from most of the Union members. Britain is also prepared to close its borders and evacuate expats and holidaymakers from the effected countries. Robert

World War III Has Begun – It`s the First Asymmetric War Long Awaited by Pentagon Think Tanks....

From GeoPlotilicalNWO 













By Wayne MADSEN (USA) | 26.12.2011This war, declared by the United States unconstitutionally, is fought covertly and via proxies....




The Pentagon has already declared World War III and President Barack Obama and the Congress never even carried out their constitutional duties to approve the use of American military power for war.

One might reasonably

HEADLEY'S JEWISH LINKS

From aangirfan: 












David Headley, the American who has admitted planning the Mumbai attacks of 2008."CIA agent" David Headley met a lot of Jewish folks in India.He also took instructions from "CIA operative" Illyas Kashmiri of al Qaeda.Illyas Kashmiri tasked Headley to synchronise attacks: National Investigation Agency (NIA)India's NIA says that Headley was in India in 2009, the year

Syrian NGOs Working Directly With British Government, London-based “Syrian Observatory” Consorting Directly with UK Foreign Minister Hague

By Tony Cartalucci

In May 2011′s article “The Siege of Syria,” it was reported:

“The coverage by the corporate-owned Western media exclusively relies on “activists inside and outside the country,” the London-based “Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Centre” which apparently has no web presence, the Damascus Center for Human Rights which boasts memberships with the National Endowment for Democracy

A Doomsday View of 2012

By James Petras, 12.24.2011 

Introduction: The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Though even here their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises.


There are powerful reasons to believe that beginning in 2012, we are heading

2011 YEAR of the DUPE: One Year into the Engineered "Arab Spring," One Step Closer to Global Hegemony

Timeline and History

By Tony Cartalucci

Global Research, December 24, 2011

landdestroyer.blogspot.com


dupe (dp, dyp)

n.

1. An easily deceived person.

2. A person who functions as the tool of another person or power.

tr.v. duped, dup·ing, dupes To deceive (an unwary person).December 24, 2011 - In January of 2011, we were told that "spontaneous," "indigenous" uprising
had begun

NATO’s Assault on Syria - Webster G. Tarpley on Guns and Butter

From Guns and Butter - 
December 21, 2011

"NATO's Assault On Syria" with Webster Griffin Tarpley. Foreign journalists trip to Syria; religions and ethnicities; Syrian cities of Damascus, Qara, Homs and its Zahra neighborhood and hospital, Baniyas, Tartus, and Beirut, Lebanon; Russian Naval Base; death squads/snipers/ambushes and kidnapping; Syrian Army; foreign intervention.


Guns and Butter -

Mossad ran 9/11 Arab "hijacker" terrorist operation

From Opinion Maker January 27, 2011By Wayne Madsen



British intelligence reported in February 2002 that the Israeli Mossad ran the Arab hijacker cells that were later blamed by the U.S. government’s 9/11 Commission for carrying out the aerial attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. WMR has received details of the British intelligence report which was suppressed by the government of

Gary North on Interest

From Realcurrencies's Blog 

By Anthony Migchels










So at long last, Gary North has felt the need to say something about interest. Beside, of course, whatever he had to say in his massive 20 volume economic commentary on the Bible.
I’m glad he did.The fact that Austrian Economists felt they could ignore it, was bad news for the cause.Next, we’ll look at what he has to say, but first let’

Jim Willie: Paper and Physical Gold Price Divergence, COMEX On The March To Irrelevance

From MarketOracle, Dec 21, 2011

By: Jim_Willie_CB



Divergence between paper gold and physical gold price is happening, the process begun. Actual physical shortages have kept the price up. The naked shorting of futures has kept the paper price down. The fraud cases and lawsuits, with no hint of prosecution, provide the levered force to create much wider divergence, as traders and entire firms

How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S
produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in
Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in
the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car
companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very
profitable.

How can that be? The question is explored in a new

What The European Long-Term Refinancing Operation Really Is About

From SeekingAlpha, December 22, 2011 by Charles A. Smith 


EuroIntelligence says:




The best comment this morning on the impact of this operation came from Mark Schieritz, [Translated From German] who gives a downbeat/realistic assessment. He says the liquidity shower will have a marginally positive impact on the banking sector, in the sense that it reduces the probability of a liquidity

Democracy NOW! – A Tool of NWO Propaganda

From American Everyman, December 21, 2011

by Scott Creighton

Just a quick note: Democracy NOW! run by Amy Goodman, is a globalist tool used to spread propaganda to the liberal left. The proof of this is undeniable just look back at their articles supporting the false stories about the Libyan government crackdown on “protesters” in the early stages of the Libyan regime change operation and look

Money Power World Rule

by Stephen Lendman, DECEMBER 20, 2011



The late Georgetown University historian Carroll Quigley said in his book titled, "Tragedy and Hope:"



"(T)he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This

Free Syrian Army commanded by Military Governor of Tripoli

by Thierry Meyssan


In the wake of the "Arab Spring" and NATO interventions, both official and secret, Qatar seeks to impose Islamist leaders wherever possible. This strategy has led it not only to fund the Muslim Brotherhood and to hand Al-Jazeera over to them, but also to support Al Qaeda mercenaries, who will henceforth oversee the Free Syrian Army. However, this new scenario raises

ECB exposure to struggling eurozone economies has surged by 50% in six months

From Openeurope, Tuesday, December 20, 2011



Open Europe yesterday published a briefing note arguing that, although the ECB is unlikely to start acting as the eurozone's lender of last resort, it is already heavily intervening in markets. Open Europeestimates that, through its government bond buying and liquidity provision to banks, the ECB’s exposure to weaker eurozone economies has now

MUST LISTEN: JIM WILLIE '20-Lehmans ‘Flash Event’, the Libyan gold, the Comex shortage, the MF Global farce & Global Quantitative Easing to infinity''

From SGTbull07 DECEMBER 19, 2011

Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.Com is here to talk in his uniquely no-bull style about a 20-Lehmans ‘Flash Event’, the Libyan gold, the Comex shortage, the MF Global farce & Global Quantitative Easing to infinity… Buckle up. Also, read Jim Willie’s latest piece, Pathogenesis Of Central Bank Ruin.







Part 1: '20 Lehmans Flash Event & Libyan Gold' 





Part 2: ‘

Capital Account: Mish on Malfunctioning Bureaucrats, Gold's Recent Decline and Chinese Chicken

From CapitalAccount 19/dec/2011Watch more Capital Account @ http://www.youtube.com/CapitalAccounthttp://twitter.com/laurenlysterhttp://twitter.com/coveringdelta



Thousands of government workers reportedly are striking against austerity
in Italy today...meanwhile, the IMF announces it will release the newest installment of 3.8 billion dollars of portugal's bailout loan based on portugal's

Iraq War Ends With A $4 Trillion IOU

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The nine-year-old Iraq war came to an official end on Thursday, but paying for it will continue for decades until U.S. taxpayers have shelled out an estimated $4 trillion.

Over a 50-year period, that comes to $80 billion annually.

Although that only represents about 1% of nation’s gross domestic product, it’s more than half of the national budget deficit. It’s also

The creeping eurocratic monetary dictatorship for dummies

Open Letter to Noam Chomsky: Why are you "reluctant" to talk about 9/11? (You don't seem to be reluctant to discuss any other topic.)

From Reddit:











Dear Professor Chomsky,
You recently said...

On the conspiracy theories about 9/11, I'll comment, but reluctantly. There are far more important things to be concerned about, and these things can become an awful waste of time.
As for the theories, I don't think they can be taken very seriously. I think they are based on a misunderstanding of the nature of evidence, and

Census shocker: 1 in 2 Americans now live in poverty, or near it, while top CEO pay jumped 36.5%

From News From Underground :












This is why we’re getting martial law.
MCM
I.
Fortune 500 CEOs See Average Pay Rise 36.5% in 2010, While Report Indicates 1 of Every 2 Americans in or Near PovertySubmitted by mark karlin on Sat, 12/17/2011 – 2:03pm.Mark Karlin, Editor of BuzzFlash at Truthouthttp://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13212
II.
Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low incomehttp://

How George Soros Ended Up With MF Global’s Client Money

From Profitimes :












A warning to former MF Global segregated account holders: If the news has already been more than you can bear, please do not read this post — it may really push you over the edge
While the congressional hearings have been interesting, at times shocking, at other times even quite entertaining, Congress has yet to connect the dots. So I will do it

Things That Make You Go Hmmm - Such As Europe's "Comprehensive Solution"

From Zero Hedge: 

 Five months ago, Zero Hedge first boiled down the math of the European bailout as follows: "The Fatal Flaw In Europe's Second "Bazooka" Bailout: 82 Million Soon To Be Very Angry Germans, Or How Euro Bailout #2 Could Cost Up To 56% Of German GDP." And while everyone was assuming Germany would be delighted to go down for the proverbial insolvency "ride" one more time, we

Why would they possibly want a nuclear weapon?

Each star represents a U.S. military base. 










Tehran Times, Tuesday, 12/13:

Iran to hold war game practice to closing Strait of Hormuz.  "If the worlds wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure," says member of parliament.  
_________

Related:






US “Withdrawal” In Iraq Paves Way for US-Israeli Strike on Iran





IRAN-DRONEGATE: Empires Don't Apologize:

More Elitists via Venn Diagrams

From Economic Policy Journal, DECEMBER 17, 2011

I have posted once before the relationship between government and key Goldman Sachs employees, via Venn diagrams. Here is that diagram again, along with diagrams for top GE and Monasnato employees and their cozy relationships with government. (htGaryChartier)

Money supply explosion will lead to accelerating inflation

By Alasdair Macleod 2011-DEC-17
This article has been posted at GoldMoney, here.   





This is the time of year when City pundits produce their forecasts for the forthcoming year. Historically there has been little point to this exercise. Instead, here is the one chart which defines the background to all events in the coming years. It is the Mises Institute's True Money Supply (TMS) for

Unrest in Moscow – Funded by Washington

By Nile Bowienilebowie.blogspot.comDecember 4, 2011




In a sane world, any unnecessary pressure that could contribute to a potentially detrimental conflict between world powers would be avoided at all cost. As a testament to the mental health of the policy makers in Washington, an unprecedented amount of agitation has begun to build between Russia and the United States. Russian officials have

Lew Rockwell on Capital Account: Dollars, Defense and Drones...is time to head for the Farm?

From CapitalAccount  16/dec/2011


Watch more Capital Account @ http://www.youtube.com/CapitalAccounthttp://twitter.com/laurenlysterhttp://twitter.com/coveringdeltaWelcome to the Capital Account with Lauren Lyster. Sanctions on Iran's central bank slide through in a 660 billion dollar defense spending bill headed for the president's desk. The sanctions could cause oil prices to rise --

A satanic gaggle of war pimps, treasonous toads and insane Israel-firsters declares war on Ron Paul in order to start WWIII with Iran

 
From Antiwar, December 15, 2011


by Philip Giraldi 



One might regard the pledges made to Israel and its friends in the United States by aspiring presidential candidates as pro forma and vaguely amusing, but that would be a mistake. Policy commitments, even if they are lightly entered into, are a serious matter with real-world consequences. At the moment, the obligation to Israel goes far

Is Operation GLADIO on the rebound in Europe?

From Infowars

By Patrick Henningsen



Thirty years ago, Europeans were caught in a seemingly endless story of domestic terror which claimed thousands of lives over a generation – a disturbing epoche which was instrumental in bringing forth the modern domestic police state we have today. We now know that the wave of terror which swept across Europe then was run by a state-sponsored terror

Banana obamanation: WE HAVE CROSSED THE RUBICON

[By Eric Peters, from SHTFplan.com]

Do you suppose cows have any idea what’s coming as they’re marched down the chute? Or do they stare with bovine indifference at the tail and hind quarters in front of them, until they’re suddenly – and very briefly – startled by the man with the nail gun?Perhaps Americans will – likewise too late – ask themselves What Happened in the very near future.

The New Left - Neoliberal Climate Alliance

From The Market Oracle, Dec 16, 2011

By: Andrew_McKillop



CHOMSKY WRONG AGAINStrange causes throw together strange bedfellows with even stranger offspring. Naom Chomsky, always sure to place himself with the angriest-seeming part of the New Left crowd, has no problem ranging himself alongside the Climate Crazies despite them receiving yet another big setback, in Durban. Packing their

Late December 2011 Economic Rant

By Roger Mason

December 15, 2011






"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Every day the U.S.
becomes more and more a Third World backwater. Every indicator of third
world status is collapsing. Look at the employment chart direct from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1999 things really started going to hell

Jim Willie CB: Pathogenesis of Central Bank Ruin

From Goldseek.com DECEMBER 15, 2011
By Jim Willie CB, editor of the “HAT TRICK LETTER”


Central banks are the current sovereign debt market. It is a vacated market. They are the majority bidders via debt monetization. The monetary inflation has become the New Normal and a travesty. In perverse fashion, the financial markets celebrate the monetized purchases, even calling for higher volume. In

No to booze and bikinis: Islamists call for ‘sin free’ tourism in Egypt

From RT:



With two Islamist parties leading in the Egyptian parliamentary elections, some fear that the country’s tourism sector is going to be seriously redefined, and not for the benefit of Western tourists.



Tourism is Egypt’s top foreign currency earner accounting for 10 per cent of national GDP. Millions of Europeans head to Egypt for vacations every year attracted by luxury Red Sea

Western elite wage info-war to justify Syria invasion?

From VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 14 DECEMBER 2011:







by Igor Panarin


Escalating tensions surrounding Syria are preparation for aggression. Writer and political scientist Igor Panarin believes that part of the British-American and Israeli elite is waging an information war to justify a military invasion of Syria.









The mass protests that broke out in a number of Arab countries in 2011 were

Discredited German defence minister appointed special EU advisor

From Case about Bird Flu

By Jane Burgermeister










The comic potential is huge: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has been appointed special advisor to the EU Commission on internet freedom.
Die Welt was quick to seize the delightful moment when Guttenberg and the EU Commission finally buried their reputation under 20 metres of concrete.
http://www.welt.de/satire/article13766817/

Investigating the Pentagon’s African Holocaust

By Gearóid Ó Colmáin | Dissident Voice | December 14th, 2011



On November 29th investigative journalist and genocide expert Keith Harmon Snow testified before Spain’s Highest Court (Audencia Nacional) to support the indictments against 40 Rwandan officials for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the western-backed invasions of Rwanda and Congo/Zaire by Rwandan

James Corbett Interviews Michel Chossudovsky

From The Corbett Report:




13
DEC2011



Interview 433 – Michel Chossudovsky

Posted by Corbett






Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Michel Chossudovsky of GlobalResearch.ca joins us to discuss the worrying steps toward a greater middle east conflict that threatens to gulf the entire region. From Syria to Iran to Pakistan to Palestine, each situation represents a potential spark that

City not shielded by Cameron's veto, EU insists

(the euromess is getting weirder and weirder on a daily basis):





European
ministers have warned that the City of London is not shielded by David
Cameron's veto of the Brussels summit proposals and have vowed to impose
tough financial regulations on Britain anyway.


Amid chaotic confusion over the relevance
of the Brussels summit, including Britain's veto, Olli Rehn, the EU's
economic

Yes, the Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens

From Washington's Blog, December 13, 2011


Even at this 11th hour – when all of our liberties and freedom are about to go down the drain – many people still don’t understand that the indefinite detention bill passed by Congress allows indefinite detention of Americans on American soil.
The bill is confusing. As Wired noted on December 1st:


It’s confusing, because two different sections of the

Wow! China Gold Imports Spike 4,000% y-o-y

From Profitimes, December 14, 2011


UK-based International Business Times reports China’s gold imports spiking 50 percent in October from September, and soaring 4,000 percent from October of a year ago, to an all-time single-month record high of 85.7 tons.

Though India’s anticipated record gold imports of a 1,000 tons this year could slow due to signs of slowing jewelry demand from a recent

Capital Account: Gerald Celente on his Missing MF Global Money and the COMEX Gold Ponzi

From RT, December 13, 2011:

Today MF Global's former executives, the CFO and the COO, along with Jon Corzine, the former CEO, testified before the senate agriculture committee. They told the committee that they don't know how an estimated 1.2 billion dollars in customer funds went missing. Unfortunately, all three of them could not offer an explanation, with both Henri Steenkamp and Bradley

Internet piracy bill: A free speech 'kill switch'

From The Hill - 12/12/11

By Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government


What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas.

Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government

On the Titanic towards Economic and Democratic Disaster - Nigel Farage

_______

 Related:
Mega Fail: 17 Signs That The European Financial System Is Heading For An Implosion Of Historic Proportions

Europe’s Top Bank Regulator: “The Crisis Has Reached a Systemic Level”









3 Lessons From the European Mess






Sorting Out the Euro Mess






Europe Lays an Egg












The Great Unraveling


 The end of the EU













DEUTSCHE BANK: Austerity Is

Fearfully, the US Treasury's Secret, 75-Year-Old Fund and Its Dark History Has Been Exposed? ...

From The Daily Bell, December 13, 2011 – by Staff Report



 



After months of work, the video series on the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund is finally finished! Why you should watch these five videos: It is impossible to understand the world today without knowing what the ESF is and what it has been doing. Officially in charge of defending the dollar, the ESF is the government agency

US-Funded "Activist" Becomes President of Tunisia

From A-Z, the Arab Spring is Fake. 
by Tony Cartalucci

December 13, 2011 - The BBC hails Tunisia's assembly and their election of a new president in their article, "Tunisian activist, Moncef Marzouki, named president." What the BBC predictably fails to mention is that Marzouki's organization, the Tunisian League for Human Rights, was a US National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros Open

BS labs

From Twelfth Bough:






A13 has covered the Armageddon Virus and the big "debate" over whether or not to publish the research,because some terrorists could get their hands on it, so it is an ethical question. EVEN THOUGH they totally admit that you can't reassort deadly viruses in CAVES.

"These are not easy viruses to reconstruct," Professor Diane Griffin of Johns Hopkins University's

Military Spending In Perspective [Infographic]

From: Military Education (clik on the image to enlarge it):

Kevin Zees: Turn the Occupy Movement into a Neighborhood Handyman Service – Yeah, that’ll show the fat cats

From American Everyman 












by Scott Creighton

Kevin Zeese’s “Ode to Giving Up” is the blueprint for turning the Occupy Movement into a useless, spineless political mechanism like MoveOn dot org or the toothless and hijacked Tea Party. It is an effort by current self-proclaimed leaders of the movement to display their value to the elites by steering the angry and dispossessed back

Russia Protests Western Media Lies- What the media says and what the media doesn't tell you

by Tony Cartalucci Saturday, December 10, 2011 1. What the Media Says: From CNN: "Between 20,000 and 25,000 protesters had gathered in the capital, Moscow, Ria Novosti said Saturday, citing police. There have been no reports of unrest and security has been tight. Vladimir Ryzhkov, co-chairman of the Party of People's Freedom, said 40,000 people had massed and some 10,000 were headed to the main

The eco-fascist NWO conspiracy failed again at Durban. Yet still undead (like a freaking zombie vampire)

_______

 Related:












World Government Climate Deal Fails In Durban











The Climate Change Revolution Will Not Be Funded























Global Warming Hysteria: Pushing Rights of Nature at Durban

The ECB Is Taking On Massive Risks That Would Make Even Ben Bernanke Blush

From The Business Insider:













 
In his latest weekly letter, hedge fund manager John Taylor says that for all the experimentation and aggression that Ben Bernanke has exhibited, the risks to the Fed don't hold a candle to the risks facing the ECB right now.
He writes:

Even the name European Central Bank should catch in our throats as there is no Europe.  There is nocountry, no Treasury

You Can’t Print More Gold

From GoldSeek.com, Sunday, 11 December 2011

By Frank Holmes

CEO and Chief Investment Officer

U.S. Global Investors



What do you get when you mix negative real interest rates with stimulative money supply efforts by global central banks?

An exceptionally potent formula for higher gold prices that could send gold to the unimaginable level of $10,000 an ounce. Negative real interest rates and

The Core of the Patriot Act Was Drafted in 1995 … By Joe Biden

From Washington's Blog :




Everyone knows that the Patriot Act was drafted before 9/11.
But few know that it was Joe Biden who drafted the core provisions which were included in that bill … in 1995.
CNET reported in 2008:

Months before the Oklahoma City bombing took place, Biden introduced another bill called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. It previewed the 2001 Patriot Act by

Who said Ghadafi had to go

From London Review of Books

By Hugh Roberts



So Gaddafi is dead and Nato has fought a war in North Africa for the first time since the FLN defeated France in 1962. The Arab world’s one and only State of the Masses, the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyya, has ended badly. In contrast to the bloodless coup of 1 September 1969 that overthrew King Idris and brought Gaddafi and his

Britain Seethes, Germany Sulks, France Gloats; UK "Big Loser" Falls into "French Trap"?; Who is the "Real Loser"? Bazooka Math

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis 

By Mike Mish Shedlock










Yesterday, various news agencies reported that Hungary opted out of the treaty while Sweden and Czech Republic remained "undecided". However, the latest spin is that Hungary did not opt out yet and the gang of 26 will forge ahead without the UK.UK the "Big Loser" Having Fallen into "French Trap"? Last evening in German

Why Germans Love the Euro

From The Big Picture :
Click for larger chartVia NYT
Source:
While Germany Prospers, Unemployment Strangles OthersFLOYD NORRISNYT, December 9, 2011http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/business/in-euro-zone-germany-prospers-while-unemployment-strangles-others.html

Europe's blithering idiots and their flim-flam treaty

From The Telegraph, December 9th, 2011
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard




Merkozy has bulldozed Britain out of the EU (Photo: AFP)


What remarkable petulance and stupidity.

The leaders of France and Germany have more or less bulldozed Britain out of the European Union for the sake of a treaty that offers absolutely no solution to the crisis at hand, or indeed any future crisis. It is EU

Doug Casey - Is This the End of Western Civilization

Chomsky joins in the failed global warming apocalyptic NWO cult

From MarketOracle, Dec 09, 2011

By: Andrew_McKillop

In a recent New York Times article titled "Marching Off The Cliff" (6 December), Noam Chomsky brought together a mix and mingle of claimed facts including results from public opinion polls to advance his own climate change conspiracy theory. He wrote: "In 2009 the energy industries, backed by business lobbies, launched major campaigns that

The Euro: That Procrustean Bed...

From RT, 09 December, 2011
By Adrian Salbuchi 


Efforts by European leaders to shoe-horn a range of diverse countries into a rigid financial cage are doomed to fail. But that’s all part of a long-term plan for a global super-currency which can only bring more hardship to ordinary working people.

A question that more and more people are asking nowadays is, “What on Earth were the Europeans

He Chose Well

From Safehaven, Fri, Dec 9, 2011
By: Paul Tustain

David Cameron was today forced in Brussels to choose between the free market and the vanities of overreaching politicians...

Today is a very sad day. We believe that the markets are telling us that there is a horrible abscess in Europe, and that the Euro is the pus. We believe that fuelled by injustice, the infection of nationalism will now

Morgan Monetary Piracy

From Goldseek, 9 December 2011 

By George Smith
When a major fractional-reserve breakdown occurred in 1907, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton, endeared himself to the banking movement by declaring that "all this trouble could be averted if we appointed a committee of six or seven public-spirited men like J. P. Morgan to handle the affairs of our country." [Griffin, p. 448]

Breaking: Bomb Explodes At Italian Revenue Collection Agency In Rome, One Wounded

(Now it is getting interesting):


From ZeroHedge, 12/09/2011


Who thought violent reprisals by "the people" are only contained to Greece. Following news earlier this week of an attempt to take the life of the Deutsche Bank CEO using an explosive package, Il Sole 24 Ore now reports that a parcel bomb has exploded in front of Equitalia - the country's revenue collection agency - in Rome. Google

Climate FAIL from A to Z presented at Durban

By Marc Morano  –  Climate Depot

Below is the Introduction to the report. Full report is available here. (PDF)

INTRODUCTION:
Many of the proponents of man-made global warming are now claiming that climate change is worse than they predicted. According to an October 18, 2011 Daily Climate article, global warming activists claim that the “evidence builds that scientists underplay climate impacts”

ACARS CONFIRMED - 9/11 AIRCRAFT AIRBORNE LONG AFTER CRASH

From PilotsFor911Truth.org: 


 Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) is a device used to send messages to and from an aircraft. Very similar to text messages and email we use today, Air Traffic Control, the airline itself, and other airplanes can communicate with each other via this "texting" system. ACARS was developed in 1978 and is still used today. Similar to cell

EU COUNCIL STATEMENT TRANSLATION

From THE PRAGMATIC CAPITALIST :











The EU heads of state are out with a joint statement that appears to confirm what was reported late this afternoon – there is no bazooka on deck here.  In fact, it looks like a lot more of the same things we’ve been doing with an emphasis on more austerity – the one thing that is clearly not working.  You can read the full press release here.
The

The Rotten Heart of Europe

From CreditWritedowns, 9 DECEMBER 2011
By Frederick J. Sheehan


Frederick J. Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession  (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and "The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market" (Aucontrarian.com, 2009)
To Americans, European problems may seem as remote as they did in 1939. There is a

Europe's Disastrous Summit

From SeekingAlpha, December 9, 2011
by Felix Salmon 
I thought disasters were all meant to happen over the weekend? Somehow, in Brussels, EU leaders have contrived to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory on Thursday night, leaving Friday for finger-pointing and recriminations and wondering whether anybody who signed on to this deal has any chance at all of even getting re-elected, let alone

Detainment Camps Going Live: FEMA Seeking Subcontractors to Provide “Temporary Camp Services” In All 50 States

By Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com December 7th, 2011




For the better part of two decades FEMA detention camps were believed to be a figment of tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists. As more information over the years has been made available through alternative news researchers like Alex Jones in his full length documentary Police State 4 and former governor Jesse Venutra’s FEMA camp exposé, it is

Russia Threatens to Kill NATO War in Afghanistan

Clipped from www.thenewamerican.com
Following the Pakistani government’s recent decision to shut down NATO supply lines into Afghanistan indefinitely, Russian officials upped the ante by subtly threatening to close off northern routes for the occupation if the U.S.-led military alliance refuses to back down on a proposed missile defense system in Europe. According to analysts, such a move by

Europe’s Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy

From New Economic Perspectives, DECEMBER 07, 2011By Michael HudsonThis article was first published by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dec. 3, 2011, as “Der Krieg der Banken gegen das Volk.”


The easiest way to understand Europe’s financial crisis is to look at the solutions being proposed to resolve it. They are a banker’s dream, a grab bag of giveaways that few voters would be likely to

How Iran Acquired A Stealth Drone

By Moon Of Alabama
December 06, 2011 "Moon Of Alabama" -- It seems that Iran has acquired a U.S. stealth drone which was illegally flying within its airspace.
A secret U.S. surveillance drone that went missing last week in western Afghanistan appears to have crashed in Iran, in what may be the first case of such an aircraft ending up in the hands of an adversary.Iran’s news agencies asserted

Richard Daughty - Inflation Is to Be Feared

From GoldSilver.com, DECEMBER 05, 2011:

Inflation Or Deflation, Gold Will Outperform

From SeekingAlpha, December 6, 2011
By Robert Hallberg
History has taught us that certain assets perform better during inflation, while other assets thrive in a deflationary environment. There is a common perception that hard assets and commodities do well during inflation and poorly in deflation, whereas and bonds and cash have contrary performance. However, it is a misperception to lump gold

The Obama Regime Has No Constitutional Scruples

Misreading the fight over military detention

By Paul Craig Roberts December 05, 2011 "Information Clearing House" 
-- During an interview with RT on December 1, I said that the US Constitution had been shredded by the failure of the US Senate to protect American citizens from the detainee amendment sponsored by Republican John McCain and Democrat Carl Levin to the Defense Authorization Bill.

Global Financial Collapse: What makes it tick?

From RT, 06 December, 2011
By Adrian Salbuchi

The mind becomes confused and dismayed when confronted with chaotic situations it can hardly figure out - situations such as today’s Global Financial Woes. Maybe we’re looking too close-up. Let’s take a step back and look again...Complexity is often engineered into what are basically simple problems by people who benefit from manufactured

Montenegro Bought by Rothschild Family

Wednesday, 30 November 2011


Italian media state with certainty that the small coastal nation of Montenegro (pop. 650,000) is completely controlled by companies connected to the Rothschild family, which financed the project for Montenegro's independence, reports local daily "Dan".


It is stated that Nathaniel Rothschild celebrated his 40th birthday in Tivat this summer, and the

Thierry Meyssan Reporting from Syria

From 108morris108 5 Dec 2011 Thierry from Voltaire Net brings us up to date from Syria – I hope he will be making regular contributions. 
 Thierry Meyssan, French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two

Free book of the day: Rothbard - Power and Market: Government and the Economy

From Mises.org:


 File Format:Size (bytes)Created
Mises Store Link7/20/2005
PDF File1,193,7721/15/2007
ebook (.epub)647,58612/5/2011
Power and MarketWhat can government do to enhance social and economic well being? Nothing, says Murray N. Rothbard. Power and Marketcontains the proof. It will inoculate the reader against the even the slightest temptation to invoke the state as a solution to any

Is the World Spinning Out of Control?

From Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 5 DECEMBER 2011More Europe bailout news. Last week, the world was elated with news that the Federal Reserve and five other central banks got together to prop up Eurozone banks drowning on sour sovereign debt, but the crisis is far from over.  The latest scheme is for countries to trade sovereignty over their budgets in return for more bailout money. The Sunday

Gold and US Official Debt Instruments Held by Central Banks

From Jesse - Le Café Americain, December 05th, 2011If the Eurodollars chart wasn't enough heartburn for the paper-huggers, here is a chart from Ed Yardeni showing the correlation between the price of gold and the amount of US Treasury and Agency Debt held by Central Banks.

Personally I like to track the Eurodollars and the real interest rates, but this works about the same as I had suggested.

Merkel and Sarkozy meet in Paris: 'And now for our next coup...'

From Mail Online - Euroseptic: Mary Ellen Synon in Brussels By Mary Ellen Synon
It is 3 pm here on the Continent and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, have just come out of their meeting in Paris, the kick-off to the EU summit later this week.
The two – right, call them Merkozy -- have just told the Press they want a wholesale change to the EU treaties

Boiling Frogs: F. William Engdahl, Part 2 of New World Order Series

From Peter B Collins:


This is Part 2 of our interview series on the New World Order, part of the Boiling Frogs interview series, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.William Engdahl joins us to discuss the geopolitics behind the phony US war in Afghanistan, how the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured, and the crucial importance of restoration and

Pepe Escobar on The shadow war in Syria

From Antiwar Radio:


Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “The shadow war in Syria;” how Turkey is helping NATO and GCC foment a Syrian civil war; why the Muslim Brotherhood is best situated to replace the Assad regime, not the Syrian exiles favored by the US and Europe; Jordan’s susceptibility to an Arab spring revolution (not that King Abdullah II would mind much – he’d

Red Ice Radio - Peter Dale Scott - Norway's Massacre, Breivik & Deep Events

From RedIceRadio, 03/dic/2011:


Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. He was born in Montreal in 1929. An anti-war speaker during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, he was a co-founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley, and of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA).

It's Your Choice, Europe: Rebel Against the Banks or Accept Debt-Serfdom

From oftwominds By Charles Hugh Smith
The European debt Bubble has burst, and the repricing of risk and debt cannot be put back in the bottle.



It's really this simple, Europe: either rebel against the banks or accept decades of debt-serfdom. All the millions of words published about the European debt crisis can be distilled down a handful of simple dynamics. Once we understand those, then the

Russian RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles now on combat duty

(Just wonder why):


From Rian:


Yars mobile systems carrying RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles were recently put on combat duty with the Teikovo Missile Division in central Russia.


Related:
Why Moscow does not Trust Washington on Missile Defense. Towards a Pre-emptive Nuclear War? - By F. William Engdahl


Russia sends Black Sea Fleet ship to Mediterranean
America’s great game could

Black Friday Gun Sales Break Records

From ZeroHedge, by Tyler Durden on 12/03/2011 
Even as Joe Sixpack was maxing out that last credit card on useless gadgets (but not flat screen TVs as Corning was so nice to warn), he was making sure to have enough in store for that one final Plan Z purchase. Guns. As KNDU reports, "Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests from shoppers,  smashing the single day record with a

Paul Craig Roberts: Congress is Repealing the Constitution

From: RTAmerica , December 02, 2011:



There is a bill in the Senate that is attempting to keep torture alive as an interrogation technique. The National Defense Authorization Act is being debated in Congress and if passed, American citizens could be detained without a court hearing anywhere in the world. President Obama stated he will veto the bill if it should pass. Is Senate Bill 1867

Iran and the Strategic Encirclement of Syria and Lebanon

From Strategic Culture Foundation,  02.12.2011 

By Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA (Canada) 

The encirclement of Syria and Lebanon has long been in the works. Since 2001, Washington and NATO have started the process of cordoning off Lebanon and Syria.The permanent NATO presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Syrian Accountability Act are part of this initiative. It appears that this roadmap is

Kerry Lutz Interview with Chris Duane 12-1-11

from The Financial Survival Network:


Chris and Kerry continue their conversation on the death of the Fiat Money System. Europe and its large banks have been saved once again, but the end result can never be in doubt. Chris believes that we should all be opting out of the bankrupt system by holding physical silver. There’s going to be a lot of chaos, which is bad in the short term, but in the

The Next Steps in the Eurozone Crisis Will Lead into the ESM Dictatorship

From The Prudent Investor:


A downward spiral of short-lived political announcements that have declined from the superficious to the meaningless may fill the headlines of dutiful 24/7 news outlets.


But while attention is wasted on political gobbledygook, leading Eurocrats manage to steer the train wreck aka Eurozone towards greater centralization in Brussels that will ultimately lead to a

Bailouts, Bondage and Political Bankruptcy

 by Stephen Lendman
Europe and America perhaps face their gravest ever economic crisis. Growing millions are impoverished, unemployed, and out of luck.
Hunger and homelessness are increasing. So is unaddressed anger over handouts to bankers, not people facing crushing hardships.
Economist Michael Hudson calls finance a new mode of warfare. Generalissimo bankers run everything. Co-opted

The European Central Bank Fiddles While Rome Burns

By Ellen Brown opednews.com November 30, 2011
Fiddling While Rome Burns by media.photobucket.com
"To some people, the European Central Bank (E.C.B. ) seems like a fire department that is letting the house burn down to teach the children not to play with matches."  So wrote Jack Ewing in the New York Times last week.  He went on: 
"The E.C.B. has a fire hose -- its ability to print money. But the

Michael Hudson: Debt and Democracy – Has the Link Been Broken?

from naked capitalism: 
By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College


A longer version of this article in German was published in the Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung on December 5, 2011 [the FAZ provided this anachronistic note].


Book V of Aristotle’s Politics describes the

Capital Account: Reggie Middleton on MF Global, Goldman Sachs, and the Vampire Squid

From RT's CapitalAccount  01/dic/2011:


Barack Obama may seem calm when he talks about the eurozone crisis, but behind the scenes the financial times reports there is morbid fear about a meltdown in europe, and vice president Biden is heading to greece amidst austerity marches as part of the administration's attempts to quell the panic. But how does what happens in europe affect the Americans at

**RED ALERT**: Ann Barnhardt Says “GET THE HELL OUT. GET OUT OF ALL PAPER.”

From SGTReport:
by SGT:

I just finished listening to the most gripping, honest and frightening interview that I’ve heard in years. With credit to James Puplava at FinancialSense.com, I’ll share some of it with you here.It was with this shockingly candid letter to her clients and colleagues “The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse” that Ann Barnhardt closed down her

December 2011 Economic Rant

By Roger Masoneconomicrant.com, December 1, 2011

PATRIOTISM IS NOT LOYALY TO THE GOVERNMENT
PATRIOTISM IS LOYALTY TO THE CONSTITUTION

Gun bill S822 passed the House and will soon be passed by the Senate. This is going to list all concealed carry permit holders in a national data base. Then these permits will be severely restricted and subject to federal control. This is just another step