This Will Be the Big One

It's A Wonderful Lie of the Federal Reserve

Russia says NATO turning Ukraine into 'frontline of confrontation'

Russia said on Wednesday NATO was turningUkraine into a "frontline of confrontation" and threatened to sever remaining ties with the Atlantic military alliance if Ukraine's hopes of joining it were realized.

The Kiev parliament's renunciation of Ukraine's neutral status on Tuesday in pursuit of NATO membership has outraged Moscow and deepened the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

"NATO countries pushed Kiev to this counterproductive decision, trying to turn Ukraine into a front line of confrontation withRussia," Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told the Russian news agency Interfax.

"If this decision in the future takes on a military character (accession to NATO), then we will respond appropriately. Then there will be a complete severing of ties with NATO, which will be practically impossible to repair," Antonov said.

It is likely to take years for Ukraine to meet the technical criteria for accession to NATO and, even then, there is no certainty that the alliance is ready to take on such a political hot potato.

Yet Russia has made clear it would see the NATO membership of such a strategic former Soviet republic with a long common border as a direct military threat.

A NATO official, who asked not to be named, said it was solely up to Kiev to decide on its foreign policy.

"Should Ukraine decide to apply for NATO membership, NATO will assess its readiness to join the alliance in the same way as with any candidate. This is an issue between NATO and the individual countries aspiring to membership," the official said.

NATO has already boosted its military presence in eastern Europe this year, saying it has evidence that Russia orchestrated and armed a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukrainethat followed the overthrow of a Kremlin-backed president in Kiev.

Moscow denies supporting the rebellion, and is currently trying, along with Kiev and the rebels, to renew efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

A so-called "contact group" is expected to meet in Minsk on Wednesday to try to reinforce a shaky ceasefire and de-escalate the conflict, in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.

A truce agreed in September has been regularly flouted by both sides, but violence has lessened significantly in December.

The rebellion began shortly after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea fromUkraine in March.

Credit to Reuters

Russia on Verge of Junk

Russia may lose its investment-gradecredit rating for the first time in a decade after Standard & Poor’s said it’s considering a cut amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1998 debt default.

There’s at least a 50 percent chance that Russia will be lowered to junk within 90 days, S&P said in a statement as it put the country on negative credit watch. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings rank Russia one step higher than S&P, which lowered the rating one level in April to BBB-.

The move “stems from what we view as a rapid deterioration of Russia’s monetary flexibility and the impact of the weakening economy on its financial system,” S&P said.Oil prices at a five-year low and sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine have pushed the world’s biggest energy exporter to the verge of recession. The central bank in Moscow has spent one-fifth of its international reserves and increased benchmarkinterest rates six times since March, when Russia came under international sanctions after it invaded Crimea.

While the ruble strengthened for a third day as the government told state-run exporters to sell foreign currency, it’s still lost 40 percent against the dollar this year, the second-worst performer among more than 170 currencies tracked by Bloomberg after Ukraine’s hryvnia.Photographer: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

The ruble remained higher following S&P’s announcement, trading at 54.7005 per dollar as of 1:34 p.m. in New York, up 2 percent from yesterday. Dollar-denominated bonds fell, sending yields on notes due 2030 up 0.11 percentage point to 6.24 percent. Yields touched a five-year high of 7.64 percent Dec. 16.

Banking System
The costs to insure Russia’s debt against non-payment for five years more than doubled this year to 4.21 percentage points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 4 percentage points for Lebanon, which is rated B- at S&P, or six levels below Russia.

The S&P warning comes as Russia tries to avert a banking crisis. The central bank put National Bank Trust, the country’s 15th-biggest lender based on retail deposits, under its control yesterday, the first bailout since the currency crisis started.

Lawmakers rushed legislation through the lower house of parliament today allowing the Deposit Insurance Agency to buy stakes in banks before they face bankruptcy proceedings to keep the system stable.

The penalties imposed by the U.S. and its allies have locked Russian corporate borrowers out of international debt markets and curbed investor appetite for the ruble, stocks and bonds.

Capital Outflows
The central bank raised the key rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent in the early hours of Dec. 16, the biggest increase since 1998.

The economy may shrink as much as 4.7 percent next year, the most since 2009, if oil averages $60 a barrel under a “stress scenario,” according to the central bank. Net capital outflows may more than double this year to $134 billion.

Investors often disregard ratings companies’ credit grade and outlook changes.France’s 10-year yield, which was 3.08 percent when S&P removed its top rating in January 2012, tumbled to a record-low 1.339 percent on Aug. 15 this year.

Moody’s cut Russia’s credit score one level to its second-lowest investment grade in October, citing concern that the sanctions will hurt its economy. The continued erosion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves because of capital flight, low oil prices and borrowers’ lack of access to credit were also cited by Moody’s.

Credit to Bloomberg

50 Numbers From 2014 That Sound Fake But That Are Actually Real

2014 was quite a bizarre year, wasn’t it?  The past 12 months brought us MH370, Ebola, civil war in Ukraine, civil unrest in Ferguson, the rise of ISIS and the fall of the Democrats in the midterm elections.  Our world is becoming crazier and more unstable with each passing day, and I have a feeling that things are going to accelerate greatly in 2015.  

But for the moment things are relatively quiet as much of the world stops to celebrate the holiday season, so now is a good time to look back and see where we have been over the past year.  The facts that I am about to share with you sound false, but they are all quite true.  

If you doubt any of these facts, just click the link on the number to find the source.  It has been said that truth is stranger than fiction, and that was definitely the case during the past 12 months.  In no particular order, the following are 50 numbers from 2014 that sound fake but that are actually real…

2.5 – Researchers have discovered that characters in cartoons for children are 2.5 times more likely to die than characters in adult dramas.  But as long as those characters look cute and make funny noises it must be okay.

$4.20 – The price of ground beef just hit a brand new record high of $4.20 a pound.  Exactly 10 years ago, it was just $2.21 a pound.  What do you thinkClara Peller would say about this?

19.8 percent – This holiday season, nearly 20 percent of all American families are on food stamps.  But since the stock market is soaring, most of the rest of the country doesn’t seem to care.

$20 – If you want to “lock down that new man for Christmas”, you can buy a positive pregnancy test on Craigslist for just 20 dollars.

29.0 years – The average age when a man in America first gets married has reached an all-time high of 29.0 years.  Thus the need for the fake pregnancy tests.

31.1 percent – An astounding 31.1 percent of all U.S. young adults in the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket are currently living with their parents.  But the good news is that demand for tacky basement decor is at an all-time high.

33 percent – According to the Wall Street Journal, close to one-third of all Americans have a file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

34.6 percent – According to the CDC, 34.6 percent of all men in America officially meet the criteria for being obese.

36 – At this point only 36 percent of the U.S. population can name all three branches of government.

43 – The new EPA regulations issued while Barack Obama has been president are 43 times as long as the entire Bible.

45 percent – One survey discovered that 45 percent of all Americans “dread” the Christmas season.

48 percent – Only 48 percent of Americans can immediately come up with $400 in emergency cash without borrowing it or selling something.

50 – An MIT research scientist is warning that if current trends continue 50 percent of all children in America will be autistic by the year 2025.

50 percent – Half of all college graduates in America are still financially dependent on their parents when they are two years out of college.

52 percent – According to a survey that was conducted earlier this year, 52 percent of all Americans cannot even afford the house that they are currently living in right now.

54 percent – For the first time ever, more than half of all U.S. doctors support the legalization of assisted suicide.

57 percent – A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 57 percent of all Americans consider race relations in America to be “bad”.  That is the worst number in 20 years.

59 percent – One very disturbing recent poll discovered that 59 percent of Americans are in favor of torturing our prisoners.

60 percent – In the United States today, 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees are earned by women.

64 percent – It would be a great understatement to say that pornography is popular with men in America.  This is true even among men that are supposed to be religious.  For example, one survey discovered that 64 percent of all Christian men ages 31 to 49 look at porn at least monthly.

65 percent – One shocking new poll found that 65 percent of Americans believe that the government is “broken”.  The shocking part of the survey was that it was only 65 percent.

65 percent – According to a Census Bureau report that was released in December, 65 percent of all children in America are living in a home that receives some form of aid from the federal government.

70 percent – Right now, about 70 percent of all government spending goes toward dependence-creating programs.

78 percent – According to a Pew Research Center study that was released earlier this year, 78 percent of U.S. women “want a spouse with a steady job”.  Apparently the other 22 percent want an unemployed bum that stays home all day playing video games.

85 percent – 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are now made in China, and there is a rumor that Santa and his elves are considering a permanent move to the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

1979 – The United States has become the nation of the “permanent emergency”.  In fact, there has been at least one “state of emergency” in effect in this country since 1979.

7,500 – The worldwide Ebola death toll has surpassed 7,500 for the first time, but most Americans seem to believe that the crisis is over.  The truth is that it may just be beginning.

20,000 – Right now McDonald’s has 14,267 locations in the United States, but payday lenders have more than 20,000.

$30,000 – According to the Social Security Administration, 52 percent of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year.

80,000 – Back in 1980, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids conducted in the United States.  But today, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country.

100,000 – It is estimated that there are at least 100,000 underage sex workers in the United States.  In case you were wondering, yes that means that we are a very sick nation.

$1,000,000 – We are supposed to be a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”, but at this point more than half the members of Congress are millionaires.

1,400,000 – Thanks in large part to unchecked illegal immigration, there are now 1.4 million members of criminal gangs living in our cities.

2,400,000 – There are currently more than 2.4 million people behind bars in America, and since 1980 the number of people incarcerated in our prisonshas quadrupled.

2,500,000 – According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, there are now 2.5 million homeless children in the United States.

4,000,000 – Right now there are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

9,700,000 – Almost 10 million more Americans have enrolled in Medicaid since Obamacare first launched.

15,000,000 – More than 15 million Americans have cosmetic procedures done each year, and Christmas is the busiest season of the year for plastic surgeons.

30,000,000 – In America today, more than 30 million Americans are taking antidepressants.  And keep in mind that antidepressants are only one class of pharmaceutical drug.  Overall, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are currently on at least one prescription drug according to the Mayo Clinic.

$40,000,000 – More than 40 million dollars has been spent just on vacations for Barack Obama and his family since he has been in the White House.

49,000,000 – An astounding 49 million Americans are considered to be facing food insecurity at this point.

110,000,000 – Approximately one-third of the entire population of the United States (110 million people) currently has a sexually transmitted disease according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

156,600,000 – The population of Bangladesh (156,600,000) is actually larger than the population of Russia (143,500,00).  But nobody is scared of Bangladesh.

3,000,000,000 – For the first time ever, there are now more than 3 billion people on the Internet around the globe.  I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

$600,000,000,000 – Americans will spend more than 600 billion dollars this Christmas season.  That is an amount of money greater than the entire GDP of Sweden.

$1,200,000,000,000 – Student loan debt has hit a grand total of 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States.  That number has grown by about 84 percentjust since 2008.

$2,000,000,000,000 – The war in Iraq cost U.S. taxpayers more than 2 trillion dollars, but now a radical jihadist terror organization known as ISIS controls nearly a third of the entire country.

5,000,000,000,000 – There are now 5 trillion little pieces of plastic floating around in the oceans of the world, and lots more plastic is being dumped into our oceans every single day.

$18,031,021,541,347.52 – The current size of the U.S. national debt.  It increased by more than a trillion dollars during the fiscal year that ended a few months ago, and it is on pace to approximately double during Obama’s eight years in the White House.

$40,000,000,000,000 – There are five “too big to fail” banks in the United States that each have more than 40 TRILLION dollars worth of exposure to derivatives.  This is a “sword of Damocles” that could destroy our financial system and our entire economy at any time.  Let’s just hope that it does not happen in 2015.

Credit to Zero Hedge

Random Examples on Life Inside “Police State America”

We no longer have to ask foreign refugees what it is like living inside a police state. All we have to do is to read the daily accounts of innocent Americans being abused and murdered through the excessive use of force being used by local police who have been federalized by the Department of Homeland Security.

What used to be the beacon of hope, has rapidly become the spotlight of tyranny. I am speaking of America, both then and now.

When heinous acts of physical abuse were revealed in American prisons inside of Iraq, we should have considered that someday the same treatment would await American citizens. When we permitted our government the right to detain “terrorists” in Guantanamo without following the due process of law, shouldn’t we have realized that someday the same treatment would await you and me? And now that treatment is here. It is called the NDAA and the Executive Order 13603 which allows the government carte blanche to do what they will with American citizens without following the due process of law.

What follows in this article are both typical and daily examples of how a DHS federalized local police force will act like Stalin’s KGB and abuse its citizens. Acts of police brutality against American citizens is a daily event which takes place multiple times across our country. Not a day goes by that we do not see the unjustified use of deadly force used against innocent citizens and the perpetrators of this state-sponsored violence are rarely, if ever, brought to justice.

Unwarranted Search and Seizure

Why are the police obsessed with taking our DNA while stopping us for the most petty of traffic offenses? Twenty-six states and the federal government allow genetic swabs to be taken after a felony arrest and without a warrant. Each has different procedures, but in all cases, only a profile is created. About 13 individual markers of some 3 billion are isolated from a suspect’s DNA. And of course, the Obama administration is in favor of seemingly everything, including the taking of our DNA without a warrant.

Is the government doing this because they can, or because they have something nefarious planned for our future with regard to the misuse of our DNA?

Can anyone make some sense out of this Fourth Amendment violation?

The Unwarranted Abuse of Police Power


The following cases are occurring on a daily basis multiple times.

Consider what Chicago is doing with a two million dollar grant from the National Institute of Justice. The list was constructed from predictive schema of 400 people mostly likely to commit a crime and one does not have to have a criminal record to make the list.




Also in Chicago, and in a case of “I’ve got low friends in high places”, former Chicago police Superintendent, Jody Weis, who ordered the 2011 re-investigation of David Koschman’s death, recently stated that he’s concerned that high-ranking cops apparently fabricated a self-defense claim to avoid charging a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley with murder.



What moron appointed Acebedo to be Chief?

In Austin, Texas, the police arrest a female jogger, physically brutalize her for not carrying an ID and then their police chief, Art Acevedo defends the practice in public.

In Tennessee, even when you prove you are innocent of DUI, you are still guilty in a country where the DHS federalized police are judge, jury and executioner. The Tennessee Supreme Court decided last Thursday that the only use for roadside sobriety tests is to collect evidence against motorists, using them to convict individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). The high court justices overturned an appellate decision from 2012 that found a driver who passed six of the tests and should never have been arrested (view 2012 ruling). David D. Bell was arrested on May 13, 2009, even though the trial judge found no evidence of impairment in the sobriety tests when he reviewed the dashcam footage. This is a case of you are guilty because “we say you are”.

The above accounts are representative of reports of police state abuse of innocent citizens. You are no longer protected by the Constitution. You have no rights. And in what is, perhaps, the most disturbing outgrowth of this decent into tyranny, has to do with what the government plans to do with protesters.


This Is What Happens When a Good Cop Tries to Stop a Bad Cop From Killing Innocent Citizens

Cariol Horne, a former Buffalo Police Officer, stopped fellow Officer, Gregory Kwiatkowski, from choking a suspect to death AFTER the suspect had been placed in handcuffs. Horne was subsequently fired and is now fighting to receive her pension after 19 years of law enforcement service to her community.



Tell us your favorite story of life inside “Police State America”.

China's leader is telling the People's Liberation Army to prepare for war

Over the last several months, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have repeatedly exhorted the People's Liberation Army to "be ready to win a war." Xi has repeatedly called for greater military modernization, increased training, and enhanced overall readiness of the Chinese army, navy, and air force.

These repeated calls have alarmed China's neighbors from New Delhi to Washington. The question on everyone's mind: what is all this preparation for?

Is the Chinese leadership preparing for something? Are they gearing up for a military operation, or merely the option to carry one out? Or is there a more innocent explanation for all of this?

One credible explanation is that the Chinese leadership is pushing military readiness as part of the ongoing, national anti-corruption drive. Military anti-corruption efforts have been highlighted by the arrest and imminent court martial of Xu Caihou, a former high level military officer. Xu faces charges of embezzlement, bribery, misuse of state funds, and abuse of power, and is thought to have made at least $5.9 million by selling officer promotions.

Corruption in the Chinese military is thought to be widespread. Although the true effects are not known, it has resulted in ineligible officers being promoted, diversion of state funds, and sweetheart deals between military contractors and officials. Perhaps most importantly, time spent by corrupt officials making money is time not spent training the troops for conflict.

Although the Communist Party's message to "prepare to win a war" may seem bellicose, the government may simply be telling the military to stop making money on the side and just do their jobs.

Another possibility is that Xi and the Party are pushing for the Chinese military to adopt readiness levels on par with the Pentagon. The U.S. military, which is frequently deployed around the world, often on short notice, trains to a relatively high standard. Much of a typical deployment, such as operating planes from an aircraft carrier flight deck, is dangerous work that can only be safely accomplished by training to high level of proficiency.

It's quite possible that China wants the military to achieve this skill level too, for no other reason than to have it. This on the face of it does not imply aggressive intent, only a desire for a prepared military.

Of course, it's possible that the Chinese government has something more sinister in mind.

The Party may desire the ability to conduct military action overseas as a diversion from domestic issues. In recent years, China has used territorial claims in the East and South China Seas and the Taiwan issue to divert public attention from problems at home, even going so far as to organize protests. Political grievances, environmental pollution, food scandals, government land grabs, lack of affordable healthcare, and, most importantly, government corruption are all issues that have sparked civil unrest.

As the Chinese economy slows down, the Communist Party may be worried that decreased economic activity could lead to more domestic unhappiness. A military expedition that united the country behind the government could be an option they'd consider.

In 1982, the generals that ruled Argentina invaded the nearby Falkland Islands, a United Kingdom territory, in a bid to co-opt anti-government dissent. The junta ruling the country believed that invading the Falklands, regarded by Argentines across the political spectrum as belonging to their country, would rally the country around the government.

Unfortunately for the generals, military adventurism is a two-edged sword. The U.K. sent a naval task force to retake the Falklands and Argentina's ensuing defeat proved the downfall of the regime.

Thanks to its recent territorial spats, China has a wealth of option for adventurism, such as sending naval vessels to the Diaoyu Islands (known as Senkaku Islands to Japan) in the East China Sea, making a demonstration of force near Taiwan, or even picking a fight with smaller countries such as the Philippines. Well-trained armed forces are necessary even in operations short of war; a show of force can quickly become a demonstration of incompetence.

We don't really know what is pushing Xi and company's seemingly bellicose exhortations. Much of the decision-making taking place in the Chinese military is a black box opaque to the outside world. Maybe China is preparing for something. Maybe it isn't. Maybe they're preparing for something and even they don't know what it is.

Or maybe they're just telling their people to do their jobs.

Credit to the week