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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Do Certain Children Count More Than Others

If you listen to the American Press, you would think that Obama cares more about your children than his own. All of his efforts are "for the children" regardless if it is for ObamaCrapCare or gun control. Yet, he has no problem with using airstrikes to kill insurgents. The problem is that 11 Afghan kids were killed.  So are we to assume that Afghans have less value than Americans? If Obama was Republican, we would be hearing that from the fifth estate.

The discrepancy  between the two groups of children is glaring and concerning. Would we have the same difference if the children were those of right wing verses liberal parents right here in the US?  For those who forget, Ruby Ridge and Waco were examples. In both cases, children were killed by government agents, one in his mother's arms. Was there any outrage? Only from us right wing, bible thumping, gun totin' middle of America patriots.

We are warning you now. Sometime in the near future, a group of young American children will be killed by government agents and NO ONE WILL protest. There will not  be prayer meetings, there will not be memorials, there will be absolute media silence,  there will be no condemnation and there will be NO call for new legislation. You see there are different classes of all people. Afghan and those killed by government agents are worth less than those killed by mentally challenged idiots.

Conservative Tom





Presidential Administration Kills 11 More Children

April 9, 2013 by  
The current Presidential Administration evidently has a great deal in common with the Taliban when it comes to furthering agendas on the graves of dead children.
Rounding out one of the bloodiest weeks in the 12-year Afghan war, fighting between U.S.-backed Afghan forces and Taliban militants on Saturday left 11 Afghan children dead following a U.S. airstrike attempting to annihilate militants hiding in a remote residential area. The children were all between 1 and 12 years old.
children
Eleven Afghan children were killed in a drone strike Saturday. /SCREENSHOT
According to reports, officials claim that six militants were also killed in the drone strike.
As the U.S. government continues to pump taxpayer money into a war effort in Afghanistan that has been unsuccessful by most accounts, some estimate that an average of 4.8 children die each day in the country as a consequence of ongoing conflict. In Pakistan, where the United States carries out clandestine drone strikes in an effort to eradicate militants, child death tolls directly-related to the strikes hover around 200.
During a vigil for victims of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama had this to say about protecting innocent children:
Since I’ve been President, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by a mass shooting. The fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims. And in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and big cities all across America — victims whose — much of the time, their only fault was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The news of the most recent child deaths in Afghanistan makes it hard not to wonder: Does the President’s logic about the tragedy of children becoming the victims of brutal and terrifying murders at the hands of misguided madmen not apply when the goal is not taking away Americans’ rights, but rather continuing the government’s perpetual war?

Conservative Tom Update

Followers of this blog might have noticed that we have been out of contact for a couple days, we have an explanation. No, we have not been taken out by the Obama Administration, nor have gun haters decided to "off" me, it seems that two tiny kidney stones have done the job!  If you have never experienced this problem, you have not lived!

The first of two and the smallest (unfortunately) passed yesterday morning, however, we had not slept more than 60 minutes in the past 48 hours. Two trips to the emergency room for pain meds finally did its job. 

The larger of the two will have to be crushed sometime in the next couple weeks.  It is 1 cm in diameter and  that makes it too big to pass "normally." 

We suppose that we will have to modify some of our eating and drinking habits so that we don't have a re-occurance, but that will not effect our concern for this great country due to the abuses of the left, the Democrats and Obama.  Let's keep after them, even if they cause us pain!

The thing to remember, it can always get worse. Think back to May 2008. Has it gotten better? Not really!

Thanks for your concerns.

Conservative Tom

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

More Bad News About ObamaCrapCare

Those who still support ObamaCrapCare should read the following article from Forbes.  The ill effects of this poorly designed legislation is only topped by the upcoming disaster which will be the execution of this cluster.

Conservative Tom

The link is: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/04/07/look-out-below-the-obamacare-chaos-is-coming/

The Government Wants MORE Information On You

When does the government have enough information on you? Are you reaching a point where you say, no more? It looks like they are coming after everything about your life in an effort to put all of your data in one database. Sounds scary to us. What about you?

It is not the data collection, it is the mal-use of and abuse of that data that scares us. Anytime a government knows more about you than you do, is not a good time.

Conservative Tom

ATF Wants To Know Everything About You

April 9, 2013 by  
ATF Wants To Know Everything About You
PHOTOS.COM
The Federal government has already made great strides in ensuring that anonymity is a thing of the past with massive data-collection-and-storage facilities like fusion centers and a post-9/11 American legal structure that makes government’s ability to spy on citizens easier than ever.
And American citizens, for their part, have willingly placed themselves in a position to be spied upon with relative ease via addiction to social networking and reliance on technology that provides unprecedented convenience.
Unfortunately, for all of the joy of being instantly able to contact old friends or keep in touch with busy grandchildren on social networks or the benefits that come from always having a phone on hand that doubles as a computer, Americans pay a high price: There is no such thing as privacy. And even if you refrain from using the aforementioned technologies, someone you know has likely already unwittingly provided the surveillance state with enough information to include you in the dragnet.
A recent notice posted on the website of the Federal Business Opportunities reveals that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives  is currently seeking help putting together a “massive online data repository system.” The system, to be operated by the ATF’s Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information (OSII) for at least five years, would enable the agency to conduct ongoing automated searches and find links between people by scouring “structured and unstructured data.”
ATF officials are looking for a company capable of setting up a computer program that would compile databases of financial data, online information, vehicle registration records, phone numbers, addresses and all other manner of potentially identifying information in order to provide detailed records on American citizens searchable with just a few keywords. Using information gathered from social networks and other sources of publicly available data, the agency also wishes to be able to automatically establish connections between an individual and his family members, business associates and acquaintances without having to search more than one source.
While Federal agents can generally locate the aforementioned information using current investigative resources, the ATF says the database system it wants to implement allows it “quickly respond to problems, threats, etc.” spending as few man-hours on old-school detective work as possible.
That means ATF will be able to conduct no-knock raids, like that carried out against YouTube sensation Kyle Myers of the FPS Russia gun enthusiast channel, on more Americans and faster than ever before.

Gun Violence Is Inaccurate Use Of Words


Words have meaning and the current abuse of the word "gun violence" dehumanizes the perpetrator of the act. It assumes that the weapon, did it all by itself. No human interaction necessary. Instead we should be using the words to describe the idiot who killed--  "killer", "murderer" or "numb skulled knuckle dragging sleeze  bag."

Conservative Tom



What’s In A Name?

April 9, 2013 by  
What’s In A Name?
PHOTOS.COM
To the best of my recollection, sometime in the 1990s, the corporate media welded “gun” to “violence,” creating a rhetorical Frankenstein’s monster. With the exception of former Attorney General Janet Reno’s occasional combat operations against her fellow citizens, anytime a firearm featured into a crime, “gun violence” was blamed. People actually began falling victim to “gun violence” or “gun crime” or even “assault weapons.” Somehow, the Democrats managed to eliminate the perpetrators of crime, conjuring up images of walking, talking inanimate objects that loaded themselves and then hit the streets like the marching hammers in “Pink Floyd The Wall.”
And the American left sat up, brushed the crumbs off their bellies and began howling for someone to save them from the evil hordes of guns that had ruined their reverie. Not one ever noted the most important trait of phrases such as “gun violence,” “gun crime” and “assault weapons”: They’re idiotic deformations of the language.
To be sure, violence, crime and assault are certainly not idiotic. Anyone who has served in combat, worked in law enforcement, been victimized by a criminal or even observed unsupervised union thugs interacting with senior citizens who oppose Obamacare knows that real violence is really not funny. Nor should it ever be taken lightly. Therefore, when liberals attach “gun” to “violence” in an overt effort to demonize the implement by which violence is visited upon a victim, they’re diminishing not only the actions of the offender, but the suffering of the victim.
I often hear my fellow conservatives respond to liberal, anti-Bill of Rights activists by asking, “What about ‘knife violence?’” or positing some similar rhetorical argument. I say that kind of response is mistaken on two fronts:
  1. By demanding further qualifications (i.e., “knife violence,” “car violence” or “bat violence”), conservatives are ceding ground liberals don’t actually occupy. Once you say “knife violence,” you’ve acknowledged “gun violence” is a legitimate classification. It isn’t. Violence is violence.
  2. By ceding said ground, conservatives are allowing liberals to define the issue as being about inanimate objects rather than people. It may be clichéd, but “guns don’t kill people; people kill people” is indubitably accurate. Indeed, it’s a far more accurate assessment of the nature of crime and violence than mealymouthed platitudes liberals might form to cast blame on the wrong culprit.
From the dawn of recorded history until this very moment, no gun has ever inflicted violence on anyone, harmed anyone or killed anyone. Even in the rare cases of accidental discharge, the gun was merely a means of conveyance, like a car is to transportation. People hurt each other and themselves. Since guns are just hunks of metal and polymer, they can’t form intent, much less cause harm. Left to their own devices, guns are overengineered doorstops, paperweights and/or art.
Recently, The Associated Press announced the elimination of “illegal immigrant” and “islamist” from its stylebook. Evidently, that once-respected organization worries about the feelings of, well, illegal immigrants and islamists. By my own reckoning, both phrases lack a certain lyrical accuracy; I prefer the more legally accurate “illegal alien” and “islamofascist.” But I can’t help but notice that while The AP – and, hence, the corporate media — tries to adjust the lexicon to reflect the delicate sensitivities of criminals, it possesses no such compunction about the legitimate concerns of law-abiding Americans.

Monday, April 8, 2013

New Moves By Korea


We find the caption of the following article interesting in that it says "it could be" serious. Heck yes, you have a nut with a nuke and it is not serious!  Even more serious, the nut has to prove that he has the spine to stand up to the South and the US.  That is a very flammable situation. It will only take one minor miscalculation on either part and the war will be on again. However, this time it might involve nuclear weapons.  This would not be a good development.


The only question is will Kim Jong-un go that far? Will he launch if he thinks that he has been dissed or perceives some slight by the world. The only one who might know is the boy dictator and we doubt he has thought it out that far.

Each day that passes and tensions continue to ratchet up brings us closer to a conflict. Somehow, the US must get China involved to cool things down and give Kim the ability to brag to his people and his military that he gained something of value. Without that, we can expect nothing less than a war.

Time will tell. We hope that a conflict can be avoided.

Conservative Tom


THE LATEST MOVE BY NORTH KOREA THAT SHOWS IT COULD BE SERIOUS ABOUT NEW CONFLICT

North Korea Could do Fourth Nuclear Test, Pulls Workers Out of Joint Factory with South Korea
South Korean army soldiers pass by a barbed-wire fence during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea in Paju near the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, South Korea,Thursday, March 21, 2013. North Korea has threatened revenge for the sanctions and for ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies describe as routine but which Pyongyang says are rehearsals for invasion. Credit: AP
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Monday it will suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, pulling out more than 53,000 North Korean workers and moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.
The Kaesong industrial complex is the biggest employer in North Korea’s third-largest city, and shutting it down, even temporarily, would show that the destitute country is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the United States.
Pyongyang’s move follows weeks of threatening rhetoric and provocations aimed at Seoul and its U.S. ally following U.N. sanctions punishing the North for its third nuclear test, on Feb. 12. In recent days there have also been signs in Seoul pointing to an even larger provocation from Pyongyang, including another possible nuclear test or rocket launch.
The point of the threats and possible future provocations, analysts say, isn’t a full-scale war, which North Korea would certainly lose. It’s seen instead as an effort to force new, Pyongyang-friendly policies in South Korea and Washington and to boost domestic loyalty for Kim Jong Un, the country’s young, still relatively untested new leader.
The statement about Kaesong came from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of a key decision-making body, the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. It did not say what would happen to the 475 South Korean managers still at the Kaesong industrial complex. The statement also did not say whether the North Korean workers would be recalled immediately, and a South Korean manager at Kaesong said he had heard nothing from the North Korean government.
“North Korean workers left work at 6 o’clock today as they usually do. We’ll know tomorrow whether they will come to work,” said the manager, who declined to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to media. North Korea had asked South Korean managers to say when they intended to leave by Wednesday; the manager said he did not know whether he and his South Korean colleagues now will be forced to leave.
Members of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which is responsible for relations with the North, were meeting Monday to discuss the South Korean managers’ status but had yet to issue a statement.
The Kaesong complex is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement projects. Other cooperation projects such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain became stalled amid confrontation between the rival Koreas in recent years.
The complex combines cheap North Korean labor and South Korean know-how and technology. It is the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project from previous eras of cooperation. It is also a rare source of foreign cash for North Korea. South Korea’s Unification Ministry estimates that North Korean workers in Kaesong received $80 million in salary in 2012.
North Korea previously cut the communications with South Korea that had helped regulate border crossings, then last week barred South Korean workers and cargo from entering North Korea. Operations continued and South Koreans already at Kaesong were allowed to stay, but dwindling personnel and supplies had forced about a dozen of the more than 120 companies operating at Kaesong to close by Sunday.
“The zone is now in the grip of a serious crisis,” Kim said in remarks carried by the Korean Central News Agency. He said it “has been reduced to a theater of confrontation with fellow countrymen and military provocation, quite contrary to its original nature and mission.”
“It is a tragedy that the industrial zone which should serve purposes of national reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification has been reduced to a theatre of confrontation between compatriots and war against the North,” said Kim, who visited the complex Monday.
Kaesong is a rare source of foreign cash for North Korea. South Korea’s Unification Ministry estimates 53,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong received $80 million in salary in 2012.
North Korea, however, objects to portrayals in the South of the zone being crucial to the impoverished country’s finances. Kim said North Korea “gets few economic benefits from the zone while the south side largely benefits from it.”
South Korea’s finance minister, Hyun Oh-seok, said Monday that it is “quite ridiculous” for North Korea to be closing the border at Kaesong. “North Korea has nothing to gain from these kind of things,” he said at a news briefing.
Hyun said the government is looking at ways to help Kaesong firms.
A South Korean worker in Kaesong reached by the Associated Press on the phone said she did not know if North Korean workers would come to work Tuesday. She also said she didn’t know when she would return to the South.
“Everyone left work (for their living quarters at Kaesong) before we heard the news from North Korea,” she said, declining to be identified because she was not allowed to speak to reporters without authorization.
Daemyung Blue Jeans Inc., which does business in Kaesong, has not received any news from North Korea, CEO Choi Dongjin said. He said he heard news of the withdrawal on TV. He said he was trying to get in touch with his managers in Kaesong and hadn’t spoken with them since Monday morning.
“We have seven (South Korean) workers in Kaesong. We don’t know what to do about them,” Choi, who is in Seoul, said by phone.
North Korea has unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast in recent weeks. It has threatened to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and claimed it had scrapped the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War.
Last week it told foreign diplomats based in Pyongyang that it will not be able to guarantee their safety as of Wednesday. Embassy workers appeared to be staying put as of Monday but foreign ministries around the world were continuing to evaluate the situation.
Yet it has found itself increasingly isolated. China, its most important ally, drafted the U.N. sanctions with the U.S. and expressed unusual disappointment when Pyongyang announced last week that it was restarting a plutonium reactor to produce more nuclear-bomb fuel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Germany, said at a press conference that a conflict on the Korean Peninsula would make the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl “look like a children’s story.” He praised the U.S. for postponing a missile test in California that had been set for this week, in the name of lowering tensions.
The North’s threats against the United States are widely dismissed as hyperbole. North Korea is believed to have a handful of relatively crude nuclear weapons, but analysts say they’ve seen no evidence it can build a warhead small enough to put on a missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. A direct attack on the U.S. or its allies would result in retaliation that would threaten the existence of the ruling Kim family in Pyongyang, but there are fears the North could launch a smaller-scale attack.
Another possibility is a fourth nuclear test, or a missile test.
The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with “considerable range” to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch. His description suggests that the missile could be a Musudan missile, capable – on paper at least – of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).
Pyongyang’s warning to diplomats prompted South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s national security director to say Sunday that North Korea may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.
During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks – which also include China, Russia and Japan – that it abandoned in 2009.
The possibility that North Korea would conduct a fourth nuclear test has existed for some time. South Korea has long said the North prepared two tunnels for a nuclear test, but used only one Feb. 12.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae generated confusion about South Korean intelligence on the issue Monday in a parliamentary session. When a lawmaker asked whether there was an indication of increased personnel and vehicles at the North’s nuclear test site, Ryoo said “there is such an indication.”
After Ryoo’s initial comments, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said there are vehicle and personnel activities at the northeastern test site but they are seen as “usual” activities, not an “indication for a nuclear test.” Kim said North Korea can conduct a nuclear test anytime if decides to do so.
The comments in a parliamentary session were recorded on video, but Ryoo later told lawmakers he couldn’t remember making them and didn’t mean to say them. He said he was “startled” by reports carrying his earlier comments.

How To Save Your Life In A Shooter Situation


CAN AVERAGE CITIZENS REALLY SAVE LIVES IN ACTIVE-SHOOTER SITUATIONS? HERE’S WHAT EXPERTS FOUND

Can Average Citizens Really Save Lives in Active Shooter Situations?
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Should citizens defend themselves or remain passive during active shooter situations?
This is a controversial query that has been asked and revisited in light of recent mass shootings. And the question also spawned nation-wide discussion, once again, after a video being touted by law enforcement agencies across the country emerged earlier this year.
The clip, entitled, “Run. Hide. Fight,” features a reenactment of an emergency situation and tips for decisive action. Originally produced by the Houston Police Department, the video showed victims actively engaging and fighting against a fictional perpetrator.
And following the clip’s media coverage, it seems some research has emerged that does corroborate the notion that victims can help save lives by thwarting assailants. On Saturday, The New York Times published a report about this very issue, highlighting that some researchers and police, in the wake of recent mass shootings, are encouraging more active involvement from citizens.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of Police Executive Research Forum, told the outlet that there has been a paradigm shift. He said that the “don’t get involved, call 911″ advice is no longer pertinent, with “active shooter” situations requiring Americans to defend themselves — and the lives of others.
The transformation hasn’t only impacted citizen involvement. Police, too, are using more hard-hitting tactics. In an effort to save additional lives, rather than waiting for backup, first responders now go in and attempt to diffuse dangerous situations. Considering the death tolls seen in recent mass shootings, there simply isn’t time to wait for SWAT teams and other backup forces to arrive at crime scenes.
Here’s how the Times frames recent research that backs both citizen involvement and swifter police action:
Research on mass shootings over the last decade has bolstered the idea that people at the scene of an attack have a better chance of survival if they take an active stance rather than waiting to be rescued by the police, who in many cases cannot get there fast enough to prevent the loss of life.
In an analysis of 84 such shooting cases in the United States from 2000 to 2010, for example, researchers at Texas State University found that the average time it took for the police to respond was three minutes.
“But you see that about half the attacks are over before the police get there, even when they arrive quickly,” said J. Pete Blair, director for research of the university’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center and an author of the research, which is set to be published in a book this year.
In the absence of a police presence, how victims responded often made the difference between life and death, Dr. Blair said.
In 16 of the attacks studied, researches came to some intriguing findings: civilians played a key role in stopping the attacker in those cases. In three of the cases they shot the attacker, while in the other 13 instances they subdued him in some other manner.
“In other attacks, civilians have obstructed or delayed the gunman until the police arrived,” the Times goes on to say.
In short, the suggestion is that taking an active role instead of a passive one during an attack has saved lives.
Perhaps the most striking part of the research findings came when Dr. Blair and his associates studied survival rates at Virginia Tech. While in two classrooms students and teachers tried to hide or play dead after the killer entered the room, most of these individuals were killed.
But in a third classroom where professor and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu told students to jump from the second story window as he held the door to keep the shooter out, those in the room fared much better. The professor perished, but many survived. And in yet another classroom where a desk was placed against the door, every person lived.
“The take-home message is that you’re not helpless and the actions you take matter,” Dr. Blair told the Times. “You can help yourself and certainly buy time for the police to get there.”
So, it seems conventional wisdom has changed, with experts telling average citizens to learn the skills needed to defend themselves in the event of an emergency situation. Read the entire Times report here.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section. By the way, here’s the aforementioned video encouraging people to fight back, entitled, “Run. Hide. Fight”:
​This story has been updated for clarity.

Time Magazine's Useless Idiot


Yesterday, Joe Klein of TIME Magazine made a very stupid statement on the Chris Matthews' weekend show.  Calling anyone who loves this country anti-American and paranoid, probably is more a reflection of his and Matthews views than the average gun owner.

When people like Joe Klein speak such garbage you know two things about them. They are either uninformed and ignorant or they are so politically connected that they are in full propaganda mode. We don't know which one Klein is in but anything that he writes must be taken with a significant lump of salt.

Conservative Tom


TIME’S JOE KLEIN: IT IS ‘ANTI-AMERICAN’ AND PARANOID TO THINK THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT OPPRESS YOU


TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein appeared on Chris Matthews’ weekend show Sunday, where he asserted that it is “crap” and “anti-American” to think the government might become oppressive.
“…What do they need all those bullets for? I guess they just don’t feel very strong,” he began, laughing as he argued that we have become a “lot more wimpy” as a country because “these gun advocates at the NRA want these semi-automatic weapons.”
When Matthews asked how the “cowboy culture” factors in, Klein responded:
Well, I think that that’s at the root of it, but there’s something else that’s going on now that is really, really dangerous, and it’s this festering sense that we need to have these semi-automatic weapons because the government in Washington is about to oppress us.
And that is paranoia that these groups like the NRA, the Gun Owners of America — they feed this crap, and it really is anti-American.
Watch the entire exchange via Newsbusters, below:
(H/T: Newsbusters)

Is A Financial Crisis In The Offing?


You may have been wondering why there seems to be a lot of new crises occurring every day.We have. Whether it is the Second Amendment, Cyprus or North Korea, important and not so important issues (gay marriage) seem to be filling up our day. Is this all the magician's trick to distract us or are they real?  Bob Livingston, in the following piece, spells it out for us. We feel he is on target. Take the time to read him.

Conservative Tom 

Do The Multitude Of Crises Mean That The Endgame Is Near?

April 8, 2013 by  
Do The Multitude Of Crises Mean That The Endgame Is Near?
PHOTOS.COM
The elites love to play us for fools.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the proposal to steal 10 percent or more of the wealth of Cypriot savers in order to bail out the European Union banksters is not a blueprint for what would happen in future bailouts. “Cyprus is no template,” he said, according to the BBC.
After much hue and cry from the island’s masses and almost two weeks of bank holiday, the Cypriot elected class and the EU agreed to “let” Cypriots keep their savings up to 100,000 euros and steal only as much as 60 percent from savers who have more. This decision came, no doubt, after enough time had passed to let the Russian oligarchs remove their money from Cyprus’ jurisdiction — which would explain the sudden silence of Russian President Vladimir Putin after his initial objections to the plan.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s government is talking about a “deal” for that country’s savers similar to the one originally proposed in Cyprus, which would have seen the bank deposits of all that island nation’s savers looted by as much as 13 percent to prop up failing banks. Closer to home, the Canadian government’s latest budget calls for a “bail-in” regime for systemically important banks. This regime will allow customer accounts to be looted in the “unlikely event” one of the banks “depletes its capital.”
And so we see that the elites who control the world’s wealth are indeed working from one playbook. But perhaps Draghi is just being coy, for we also see that this or a similar plan has been put in place for the U.K. and the U.S.
A look into a joint document produced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Bank of England (BOE) shows a plan to “assign losses to shareholders and unsecured creditors” as a resolution strategy for failing banks. It also calls for “exchanging or converting a sufficient amount of the unsecured debt from the original creditors [depositors] of the failed company into equity. In the U.S., the new equity would become capital in one or more newly formed operating entities. In the U.K., the same approach could be used, or the equity could be used to recapitalize the failing financial company itself — thus, the highest layer of surviving bailed-in creditors would become the owners of the resolved firm. In either country, the new equity holders would take on the corresponding risk of being shareholders in a financial institution.”
The report, “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Intuitions,” was published in December 2012. It gives no exception for FDIC-guaranteed deposits.
The FDIC “guarantees” deposits up to $250,000. But the initial proposal for Cyprus gave a “haircut” to all accounts, including those guaranteed by government up to 100,000 euros, which indicates government guarantees are worth less than the paper they’re written on — or the strips of paper that represent money.
Of course, the FDIC cannot possibly cover all the current bank deposits should a collapse occur. So this new plan provides cover for the FDIC in the event of massive failure. The savings that savers thought were “safe” in their bank accounts will be seized and replaced by stock in the new bank that replaces the failed one, though only the “highest level” creditors will receive it.
Fractional reserve banking is a confidence game built on sand. Since banks lend out far more than they keep in reserve, the game collapses when confidence is lost. The EU/Cyprus debacle should have removed any confidence that money stored in banks is safe.
The elites are also eyeing pensions, individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s as a means of staving off collapse. There is currently almost $20 trillion in these American retirement funds, and stealing it in exchange for more government funny money would erase the current $16.7 trillion U.S. debt.
Keeping your money in banks and retirement funds accessible by the government and bankster thieves is a fool’s errand. The wonder is why more people have not recognized this — even through the fog of March Madness and “American Idol” — and bank runs in Europe and the U.S. haven’t begun.
The bankster elites know the current system is on borrowed time, even if the masses do not. Countries are now making moves away from the dollar as the world’s currency. Moammar Gadhafi was eliminated in part for this reason. Australia and China recently agreed to trade outside the dollar. China and Russia now trade oil outside the dollar. The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been discussing this move as well.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s money printing has debased the dollar but propped up the stock market, giving a false illusion of a growing economy. As Peter Schiff points out here, those giving Bernanke and/or President Barack Obama credit for sparking a rally are missing (or ignoring) that current market performance is based solely on the Fed’s activities.
Since 2008, the Fed has injected fresh cash into the economy with four distinct shots of quantitative easing and has added two kickers of Operation Twist. In recent months, the Fed has dispensed with the pretense of designing, announcing, and serving new rounds of stimulus and is now continuously monetizing over $85 billion per month of Treasury and mortgage-backed debt. The new cash needs a place to go, and stocks, which now often provide higher yields than long term Treasury bonds, and which offer much better protections against inflation, provide the best outlet.
But the four year rally has been punctuated by several sharp and brief drops. It is no coincidence that these episodes occurred during periods in which the delivery of fresh stimulus was in doubt. If the Fed were ever to follow through on its promise to exit the bond market, we believe the current rally would come to an immediate halt. This provides yet another reason to believe that stimulus is now permanent.
The Fed’s intervention has taken another form as well. It is and has been manipulating the gold price. It is doing so in a last-ditch effort to prop up the value of the dollar and prevent the dumping of the dollar by big holders like China, Japan and others, which would spark hyperinflation. In 2000, it took only $280 to buy one ounce of gold. But 12 years of wars, massive government and money printing debased the dollar to where it eventually took $1,900 to buy one ounce of gold.
Recognizing the danger this debasement represented, the Washington propaganda machine put out the word that gold was in a bubble. The Fed-owned “too big to fails” were ordered to short the precious metals market. This drove down the price to about $1,700, where it stayed until the Fed’s latest action at the beginning of April. It was then that the Fed sent out the word that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that people should sell their positions before this occurred. This illegal Fed action drove the price down even further; it’s now below $1,600 per ounce.
For those who recognize gold as a store of value, this presents an opportunity. It is one being taken advantage of by Russia, China and the 1.3 billion people who live in India — and by American gold bugs.
The budget deficit and growing debt can only be covered by money printing for so long. There is obviously no stomach in Washington for reining in spending. The U.S. government and many of the governments around the world are insolvent. Yet Obama continues to press for more spending and more wealth redistribution. His Administration is even encouraging mortgage lenders to loosen credit so as to lend to risky borrowers in an effort to create yet another housing bubble and another illusion that the economy is recovering. Congressional Republicans have offered no serious spending cut proposal either, and are content to play political blame-games with the Democrats.
When governments begin selling off their dollar holdings in quantity, all bets are off. Economist John Williams of Shadowstats believes that could happen as soon as May.
Meanwhile, Americans are being distracted by threats against Iran, threats from North Korea, created crises, assaults on liberties and the 2nd Amendment, and issues not under Federal government purview, like whether gays can marry. These distractions all serve to conceal the warning signs from the people.