We will have a mirror site at http://nunezreport.wordpress.com in case we are censored, Please save the link

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Volcano Sends Pillar Of Fire 1,000m Into Sky

Mordor Volcano

With a pillar of fire stretching up into the clouds, this spectacular image captures the moment a volcano erupted in remote Russia.

The stream of lava rose up to a kilometre above the summit of Klyuchevskoy, one of the active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula in the east of the country.

The volcano, which erupts around every two years, is one of the largest on-land active volcanoes, according to the US Geological Survey.

It stands at 15,584ft on the north end of a belt of 30 active volcanoes.

The dramatic picture of Klyuchevskoy was captured by photographer Marc Szeglat on October 16 at a distance of approximately 9.5 miles from its concealed cone, as the volcano erupted for the first time in three years.

The explosion triggered by the eruption could be heard from 20 miles away.

In September 1994, an eruption caused disruption after it affected airline routes across the Pacific Ocean.

The active nature of the volcano, which first began erupting in 1697, means it is still rarely a target for climbers.

Credit to Sky News

Iran: Intel ties with Turkey have improved

Turkey moves away from Israel and gets closer to Iran: Despite the Turkish denial regarding claims that Ankara "gave identities of Israeli spies to Iran", voices in Tehran admit that the intelligence ties between the two countries have improved and are continuing to progress.

Iran's Ambassador to Turkey Ali Riza Bikdeli said that Tehran keeps close relations with the Turkish intelligence agencies. According to the newspaper Asharq Alawsat, the Iranian ambassador told reporters in Ankara that there has been great improvement in the cooperation between the two countries' intelligence agencies.

It was reported last month on the Washington Post that Turkey exposed an Israeli spy network operating in Iran. Columnist David Ignatius, who is closely tied with Obama administration officials, revealed that Turkey told the Iranian intelligence of the identity of up to 10 local spies, who met in Turkey with their Mossad operator. Turkey was quick to deny the report, claiming it is "baseless".


Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: AP)

This week the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited Tehran, several days after an interim nuclear deal was struck in Geneva. The talks between the sides naturally revolved around the Syrian crisis, where the two countries hold opposing worldviews.

However, when the meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers came to an end, Iranian FM Mohamed Zarif announced that Turkey and Iran agree that it is necessary to bring Syria to a ceasefire ahead of the peace talks in Geneva. The Turkish FM joined his Iranian counterpart's call.

The Iranian ambassador to Ankara added that Tehran is willing to aid Turkey to restore its ties with the Syrian regime, after significantly deteriorating following the war in Syria.

It is estimated that Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Iran next year and that Iran's PresidentHassan Rohaniwill arrive in Turkey next month.

Meanwhile, it was reported on the Turkish newspaper Zaman that Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and Erdogan have not spoken since March, when US President Barack Obama was visiting Israel.

Credit to Ynet

Recommendations for 2014

Ukraine unrest looks like planned action, not revolution

Why Are So Many Wealthy People Building Futuristic High Tech Security Bunkers?

The wealthy are spending more to protect themselves from all the rest of us than ever before. So why are they so concerned about the future? Do they know something that the rest of us don’t? Or do they just have the money to buy the type of security that the rest of us would if we could?


Image: Bunker (Wikimedia Commons).

Over the past few years, wealthy people all over America have been equipping their homes with futuristic high tech security systems that go far beyond the kinds of things portrayed in recent Hollywood films such as “The Purge“. We are talking about security bunkers with their own sustainable sources of food and water, hidden passageways that lead to ballistics-proof panic suites, and thermal heat detectors that can detect someone hiding up to 15 kilometers away. Most of these security measures will probably never even be needed if things stay pretty much as they are today. But if the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis continues to disintegrate and we see massive civil unrest in the years ahead, then those security measures are going to come in very handy indeed.

When it comes to prepping, sometimes it is the wealthy that are the most extreme. According to a recent Daily Mail article, the wealthy have become increasingly obsessed with home security in recent years…


Wealthy families across the country are shelling out millions to protect their loved ones from intruders, natural disasters or the apocalypse as home security goes increasingly sci-fi.

Companies that provide concerned homeowners with futuristic gadgets – and a priceless peace of mind – have revealed the growing demand of costly bunkers, passageways, panic rooms and recognition software.

Most people simply do not have the money for those sorts of things. But the wealthy do, and these days they have shown a willingness to shell out big bucks for extraordinary security measures that they hope will give them peace of mind. A recent Forbes article profiled the owner of a company called Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments (SAFE). He uses his own fortress-like home as a showcase for potential clients, and business is booming…


Al Corbi’s residence in the Hollywood Hills has the requisite white walls covered in artwork and picture windows offering breathtaking views of downtown Los Angeles, but it has more in common with NSA headquarters than with the other contemporary homes on the block. The Corbi family doesn’t need keys (thanks to biometric recognition software), doesn’t fear earthquakes (thanks to steel-reinforced concrete caissons that burrow 30 feet into the private hilltop) and sleeps easily inside a 2,500-square-foot home within a home: a ballistics-proof panic suite that Corbi refers to as a “safe core.”

According to Forbes, some of these homes that SAFE builds actually have “sustainable” security bunkers where families could potentially survive for multiple generations in the event of a major catastrophe…


SAFE’s bunkers operate on geothermal power and have sustainable food supplies, their own wells for water and full medical facilities. Many have amphitheaters, restaurants and health spas; for one client, Corbi designed a promenade with ceilings hand-painted with blue skies and “stores” displaying the family heirlooms. “These are things you would want to have personally, so right now it’s an ultimate entertainment area, but if there was a disaster you could go there and stay for a long time,” says Corbi.

A long time, indeed. He estimates that families could survive in the best planned of these luxurious strongholds for up to three generations. “They would be the new Adam and Eve, essentially, who would start up everything again.”

So what are the wealthy so concerned about?

After all, our politicians and the mainstream media keep telling us that everything is going to be just fine. So why are they going to such extraordinary lengths to prepare for the future?

Well, there are definitely some wealthy individuals that are among the 3 million preppers in the United States that are preparing for a future meltdown of society.

But many other wealthy individuals just want to make sure that their families are safe. Violent crime in the United States was up 15 percent last year, and anger toward the wealthy has risen to unprecedented heights since the last financial crisis.

Desperate people do desperate things, and without a doubt Americans are becoming increasingly desperate. In fact, these days criminals will go after just about anyone. For example, on Sunday someone actually ripped off the Salvation Army


The Salvation Army said someone broke into one of its community centers in Washington and stole donations collected through the charity’s Red Kettle Program.

Maj. Lewis Reckline, area commander of the Salvation Army National Capital Area Command said the Solomon G. Brown Corps Community Center was burglarized at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

And in South Carolina the other day, a group of thugs shot and killed a 76-year-old lady during an attempt to rob her home…


A 76-year-old woman was killed in a shootout as a gang tried to rob her outside her South Carolina home in the early hours of Saturday.

Dorothy Hendrix was shot twice by the gang of two men and a woman, but she managed to shoot one of her assailants in the stomach before dying of her wounds.

So it is understandable that the wealthy would want to try to insulate themselves from all of this. After all, they are huge targets for desperate criminals and thieves.

And when it comes to spotting intruders, some of the technologies being used by the wealthy these days are truly amazing. For example, one company out in Oregon actually manufactures infrared cameras that can spot the thermal heat signature of someone hiding 15 kilometers away


Another company, FLIR Systems, based in Wilsonville, Oregon, makes infrared cameras that can read the thermal heat signatures from anything nearby – even someone in a hiding place as far as 15km away.

Many of these technologies are very “cool”, but the sudden interest in them reveals something else about our society.

The level of trust in our society is rapidly breaking down, and people are scared.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that the level of trust that we have in one another is much, much lower than it was about 40 years ago…


For four decades, a gut-level ingredient of democracy — trust in the other fellow — has been quietly draining away.

These days, only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. Half felt that way in 1972, when the General Social Survey first asked the question.

Forty years later, a record high of nearly two-thirds say “you can’t be too careful” in dealing with people.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that most people can be trusted?

And why do you think that so many wealthy people are spending so much money on futuristic high tech security measures right now?


Credit to Infowars

Is "Terror" Event Coming Soon?

Depopulation of the Masses Has Begun



kissinger depopulation
Not a day goes by when we are not reminded that we are nothing but “useless eaters” who have been given the temporary right to exist on this planet by the generous elite. However, our continued existence is predicated on the notion that we have no rights, and as such, we should have no expectations. Through the tenets of Agenda 21, we are constantly reminded that we have no right to the resources on this planet. The elite own the water, the food and all other material assets.

Enslaving Humanity, One Sheep At a Time

Never before in the mankind, has a people, such as the citizens of the United States, enjoyed such political freedoms, resulting in self-determination over their lives as well as having enjoyed the affluence of the most prosperous middle class in human history. This experiment in American self-governance and resulting freedom, is nearly over. Both your perceived assets and even your life belongs to the minions representing the elite on this planet for as we transition from an industrial based economy to a post industrial society, in which most of us are no longer needed. Now, we know the meaning of Kissinger’s proclamation that we are nothing but a bunch of useless eaters.
It should be abundantly clear that when several officials and prominent people on this planet state that the planet would be better off if the human population was reduced from 7 billion to 500 million, that they really mean it.  Do you think that they are really kidding when the elite make such statements?

It Is the Same Everywhere

Everywhere on this planet, the elite are asserting their authority over the “useless eaters” who occupy space and consume “their” resources on this planet. The bulk of humanity are kept in metaphorical zoo-like cages on the planet and exist for the mere entertainment of the elite.
Literally, nothing belongs to the common people. The elite own the food, the water and all the shelter on this planet. In every country it is the same. The elite, by hook or crook, appoint their minions to government positions. The government subsequently creates the conditions whereby the whims of the elite are enforced, thus, enslaving the people.
The elite’s strategies slightly alter depending on the local politics. In China, in order to enforce Agenda 21 dictates of moving the masses from rural to stack and pack ghost cities, the whim of the elite is brutally enforced at the end of the barrel of a gun. In Uganda, when villages are needed in order to plant trees in carbon offset programs, the Uganda military simply burns down the villages and declares the inhabitants to be mere trespassers. And in America, when the elite wants what you own, there is a pretense of going through the constitutionally based courts under the guise of pseudo justice. However, the result is still the same.
America, there is an important question to consider. If we are so free, as we are constantly reminded that we are by the mainstream media, then why are we spied upon without provocation or cause? And if we are so free, then why is our ability to raise objections to the manner in which we are governed being systematically eliminated?

The Global Awakening Must Be Crushed

Zbigniew Brzezinski likes to keep his hand on the pulse of humanity. In the middle part of the last decade he warned his elite colleagues that Americans were beginning to wake up the elite’s agenda and that they must proceed with all due haste.
Most recently, Brzezinski warned of a global awakening that was very dangerous to their agenda. It is abundantly clear that the elite fear humanity’s sheer numbers and they know that the mainstream media is losing its control over humanity as the ratings of such MSM mainstays such as CNN are in the proverbial toilet. The blinders placed upon humanity by the MSM are slowly, but surely coming off.  If the elite want to maintain control, they must act quickly, according to Brzezinski.

The Pattern of Genocide

The numbers of humanity are a threat to the ruling elite and these numbers must be radically reduced, and reduced quickly. The pattern leading to genocide, throughout history, are remarkably consistent. In each case, the government attempts to stop the communications between dissident forces which could evolve into an opposition force which would oppose the unfolding tyranny. We are witnessing just such a movement as the government has repeatedly tried to close down the free expression on the internet.
Jay Rockefeller (D WVA) has attached a cyber-security amendment to the NDAA 2014 bill in Congress to mandate that precautions be taken to protect America’s cyber infrastructure and private entities. Those of us who represent private entities, will soon find our free access to the internet eliminated. The fact that this internet control bill is attached to the NDAA is no accident because this means that dissidents, posting anti-government rhetoric on the internet, can be snatched off the street and held indefinitely for their “terrorist” views.
There is a second and equally disturbing development in that the government has declared that the people of this country do not have the right to challenge the government on its unconstitutional actions. This is a position which fully exposes the fact that America is no longer a democratic republic, but rather a dictatorship which serves the elite. At issue is the ACLU’s right to sue the NSA for the unconstitutional  and unwarranted intrusions into the private lives of all Americans by spying on their every communication and their web-surfing habits. This position, taken by the government, validates my earlier point that we have no rights and are living under a dictatorship.

The Most Important Question of All

There is even a more important question. Why does this government feel that it needs to spy upon all the people? Billions if not trillions of dollars are being spent to this end. Why?
We should all be concerned that the police state practice of gathering private information on its citizens represents a practice that has never failed to result in genocide against at least a segment of its population. Therefore, if we use history as the judge of the NSA’s actions, we should all be hiding under the bed. Although, as an aside, I think it would be appropriate to imitate the anti-gun crowd in Colorado who stalk and harass the activists who are trying to recall politicians who are attempting to seize the guns of law abiding citizens. The police have told the Colorado activists that these stalking behaviors are acceptable. Therefore, I would propose that we make the NSA feel the same heat. Perhaps residents in the area of an NSA facility should subject their officials to the same level of harassment as are the activists in Colorado.

On a more serious level, we need to all ask where this is leading. We should all consider the fact that there is a certainty that the information being gathered by the NSA will be used against “undesirable” Americans. This is a civilized description for genocide. Does this allegation have any further substantiation than merely using the lesson of history? A cursory examination of the statements of the global elite, both past and present would indicate that we should all be a little more than concerned.

 Voices of Depopulation

I have come to believe that a great culling is in our future. Before you dismiss this statement as the words of a lunatic, maybe we should see if there is any corroborating evidence from people in positions of authority, both past and present.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, enthusiastically promoted the Thomas Malthus’ philosophy in the United States as she stated “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Perhaps these were merely the musings of two twisted individuals which do not represent any type of central philosophical belief. Unfortunately the theories of Malthus, Sanger and other population control advocates did not die with them. As I discovered, this is a reoccurring theme contained within the personal words of several dozen global leaders.
“Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind”.
Theodore Roosevelt
“Malthus has been vindicated; reality is finally catching up with Malthus. The Third World is overpopulated, it’s an economic mess, and there’s no way they could get out of it with this fast-growing population. Our philosophy is: back to the village”.
Dr. Arne Schiotz, World Wildlife Fund Director of Conservation, stated such, ironically, in 1984.
A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal”.
Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine
“There is a single theme behind all our work–we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it….” “Our program in El Salvador didn’t work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people…. To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females….” The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death….”
Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs
“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself”.
Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider – Founder and Secretary, respectively, The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991
“A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions”.
Stanford Professor ” Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb
“In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it”.
J. Cousteau, 1991 explorer and UNESCO courier
“I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today” and, “We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox”.
Dave Foreman, Sierra Club and co founder of Earth First!
We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren’t enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.”
Mikhail Gorbachev
“Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991
“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973
“Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger
“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac,” and “The elderly are useless eaters”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger
“World population needs to be decreased by 50%”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger
“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order”.
David Rockefeller
“War and famine would not do. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. AIDS is not an efficient killer because it is too slow. My favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world’s population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. “We’ve got airborne diseases with 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that. “You know, the bird flu’s good, too. For everyone who survives, he will have to bury nine”.
Dr. Eric Pianka University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert, showed solutions for reducing the world’s population to an audience on population control
No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation”.
David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations
“The present vast overpopulation, now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answered by future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, but must be met in the present by the reduction of numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever means necessary”.
Initiative for the United Nations ECO-92 EARTH CHARTER
“In South America, the government of Peru goes door to door pressuring women to be sterilized and they are funded by American tax dollars to do this”.
Mark Earley in The Wrong Kind of Party Christian Post 10/27 2008
Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years”.
Marjo Van Dijken (author of the bill in the Netherlands) in the Guardian
“Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature”.
Anonymously commissioned Georgia Guidestones
“If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels”.
Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund
Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing”.
David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club
The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes”.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of”.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries’ shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.”
Obama’s science czar John P. Holdren, Co-author of “Ecoscience”

Deny If You Must, but…..

In this article alone, there are 27 quotes from individuals representing the global elite who speak clearly on the desires of the elite who seek to significantly reduce the population. There are literally hundreds of more quotes which should concern the average “useless eater”.
There are people who will undoubtedly dismiss these quotes as the musings of people with too much idle time on their hands and they really don’t mean what they say. To these naive people, I would say that various governments, on behalf of their elite masters, murdered over 260 million of their own citizens in the 20th century. I contend that these 260 million people are merely the prelude of what is on the horizon. Consider the following quote from the late Congressman, Larry McDonald.
The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviet Union

Conclusion

I have related how recently retired members of FEMA and DHS have sought the company of like-minded people as they have sought refuge in remote locations in preparation for what is coming. Maybe we should pay closer attention to what people say as well as what some people are doing.
There can be little doubt that depopulation is a consistent theme of global leaders and the idea has been around for a very long time. Preaching drastic population reduction may be one thing, but when the actions match the stated intent, all of us would be fools to not pay close attention and act accordingly as circumstances warrant.
Credit to The common Sense Show

The Holiday Shopping Season Is Off To A Horrible Start


 
Michael Snyder

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent an average of 4 percent less over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend than they did last year. Overall, that means that approximately $1.7 billion less was spent at U.S. retailers compared to last year.

It had already been projected that this holiday shopping season would be the worst for retailers since 2009, but if these numbers are any indication it may be even worse than expected. So why is this happening? Well, basically the American consumer is tapped out.

The unemployment crisis in this country is actually getting worse, poverty is absolutely explodingand the middle class is being systematically eviscerated. In other words, you can't get blood out of a stone. Many retailers are offering extreme discounts in a desperate attempt to lure more shoppers, but the money simply isn't there.

According to Yahoo News, the decline in shopping over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend was the first decline that we have seen since the last recession...

Shoppers, on average, were expected to spend $407.02 during the four days, down 3.9 percent from last year. That would be the first decline since the 2009 holiday shopping season when the economy was just coming out of the recession.
The survey underscores the challenges stores have faced since the recession began in late 2007. Retailers had to offer deeper discounts to get people to shop during the downturn, but Americans still expect those "70 percent off" signs now during the recovery.

And according to the New York Times, Americans spent a total of 1.7 billion dollars less than they did last year...

Over the course of the weekend, consumers spent about $1.7 billion less on holiday shopping than they did the year before, according to the National Retail Federation, a retail trade organization.
“There are some economic challenges that many Americans still face,” said Matthew Shay, the chief executive of the retail federation. “So in general terms, many are intending to be a little bit more conservative with their budgets.”

But this downturn for retailers did not just begin this past weekend. There have been signs of trouble for quite a while now.

For example, posted below is a photo that one of my readers sent to me. Above is a photo of the Beverly Center Mall in Beverly Hills, California that was taken in the middle of the day on Tuesday, November 19th. She said that there "wasn't a soul in that mall and the employees were all standing, staring into space with nothing to do"...

So where are all of the shoppers?

Why aren't people out buying stuff?

Sadly, this is just the continuation of a trend that has been developing for more than a decade. The truth is that Americans are simply not spending money as rapidly as they used to.

Posted below is a chart that shows that the velocity of M2 in the United States is at an all-time low. In other words, the rate at which money circulates through our economy is frighteningly low and it continues to drop...



As you can see from the chart above, this decline in the velocity of money has been going on since the late 1990s. This is a sign of a very unhealthy economy.

Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is very heavily dependent on consumer spending. But consumers have to make money first in order to spend it. And right now we have a major employment crisis in this country.

At this point, the labor force participation rate in the United States is at a 35-year low, and an all-time record 102 million working age Americans do not have a job.

Meanwhile, the quality of our jobs continues to decline as well. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row, and right now the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

So should it really be such a surprise that consumers are totally tapped out?

The money simply is not there.

After accounting for inflation, 40 percent of all U.S. workers are currently making less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.

A recent CNN article profiled one of these workers. Carman Iverson is a 28-year-old mother of four that makes minimum wage at McDonald's. If it was not for government assistance, her and her four children would not be able to survive...

Iverson said she started working in 2012 at $7.25 an hour, and makes $7.35 an hour now after Missouri adjusted the minimum wage. She makes between $400 and $600 a month. Her rent is $650 a month.
When asked how she could pay her rent on those wages, she said she had a landlord who works with her. "I'm kind of on my last little leg, because I've been late on rent. I'm actually behind three months in rent.
"Sometimes I can pay it, sometimes I can't. I get paid twice a month, and both checks go to rent and the rest of it goes to utilities to the point where I don't have any money left to buy anything for my kids -- to buy them clothes, shoes or anything they need."
She said she manages to feed her four children on $543 worth of food stamps a month.But instead of fixing things, Barack Obama continues to pursue policies that will kill millions more good jobs. It is absolutely amazing that there are any Americans that still support this guy. For a long list of statistics that show how badly the economy has tanked since Obama entered the White House, please see this article.

You know that things are bad when increasing the number of Americans on food stamps by 15 million is regarded as an "economic accomplishment". In fact, a message recently posted on the official White House website says that "SNAP is boosting the economy right now" and that high food stamp enrollment is creating lots of jobs...

SNAP's effect extends beyond the food on a family's table--to the grocery stores, truck drivers, warehouses, processing plants and farmers that helped get it there.So why don't we just enroll all Americans in every welfare program?

Wouldn't that produce an extreme economic boom?

And actually under Obama we are already well on our way. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,49.2 percent of all Americans are currently receiving benefits from at least one government program, and the federal government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.

Yes, there will always be poor people that cannot help themselves that will need our assistance. But most Americans are capable of working if they could just find jobs.

Unfortunately, our jobs are being killed off and wages are going down. The middle class is being systematically destroyed and U.S. consumer spending is drying up.

The horrible start to this holiday shopping season is just the beginning.

Things are going to get much worse than this.



Credit to Activist Post

War On Democracy: Spain And Japan Move To Criminalize Protests





As might be expected as political and economic policy failures pile up and citizens become increasingly mad, the status quo is becoming increasingly authoritarian (recall blogger “Mish” was just fined 8,000 euros for a blog post).
In the latest disturbing news from a desperate power structure, the conservative government in Spain has passed an Orwellian bill titled the Citizens’ Security Law, which allows for fines of up to 600,000 euros ($816,000) for “unauthorized” street protests, and a 30,000 fine for merely having signs with “offensive” slogans against Spain or for wearing a mask.
This law is a perfect example of the increasing neo-feudalism being implemented across the globe by a corrupt, decadent and depraved status quo. Such laws must be immediately resisted or they will only get worse, much worse. It is quite obvious what the power structure in Spain in trying to do. It is putting into place an egregious punishment framework that could bankrupt a person by merely protesting. Such a threat is intended to make people not even consider their rights as human beings to express grievances to a crony government.
Instead of eye for an eye, it is like 25 eyes and a limb for an eye. If this does’t tell the Spanish people all they need to know about their government I don’t know what will. Below are some excerpts from a Reuters storycovering the law:
(Reuters) – Spain’s conservative government agreed on Friday to toughen penalties for unauthorized street protests up to a possible 600,000 euro ($816,000) fine, a crackdown that belies the peaceful record of the anti-austerity protests of recent years.

Street protests and strikes have became increasingly frequent in recent years following huge cuts to education and health spending aimed at shrinking Spain’s public deficit to adhere to European Union demands.

But in contrast to Greece and elsewhere, where many similar protests have turned violent, Spain’s have remained largely peaceful, despite unemployment of 26 percent, rising poverty, and changes in labor laws that make firing easier.

Among other measures, protesters who cover their faces at demonstrations could be fined up to 30,000 euros while “offensive” slogans against Spain or its regions could reap a similar sanction.

The government also plans a new law restricting labor protests.

“This law … attempts to criminalize the act of protest,” said United Left lawmaker Gaspar Llamazares, questioning whether it complied with Spain’s constitution. “The government is trying to turn its political opponents into delinquents.”

”Compare events in Spain with those of other countries around us,” wrote conservative columnist Jose Antonio Zarzalejos on the website El Confidencial. “This security law … will add the stigma of authoritarianism to the political failure of the PP.”
It’s not just Spain though. This sort of panic attack from desperate members of the status quo is popping up elsewhere. Japan is another example, and over the weekend I read that Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba compared demonstrations to “acts of terrorism.” From theJapan Times:
Citizens demonstrating against the controversial state secrets bill are committing “an act terrorism,” according to Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba.

In a blog post Friday, he wrote: “If you want to realize your ideas and principles, you should follow the democratic principles, by gaining as much support as you can. I think the strategy of merely shouting one’s opinions at the top of one’s lungs is not so fundamentally different from an act of terrorism.”
My take is that people worldwide will not stand for such nonsense. Increasingly citizens have very little to lose and if they all say no together, there is not much the state can do. Just look at how Ukrainians responded to a ban on protests. Hundreds of thousands of them filled the streets in defiance. Below is a video of just one of the many incredible street scenes from over the weekend. In this case we see demonstrators using a tractor to break police barricades.
Interesting times indeed.
Zero Hedge

Chinese Yuan Surpasses Euro, Becomes Second Most Used Currency In Trade Finance




Slowly but surely the Chinese currency is catching up to the world's reserve and moments ago, according to SWIFT, the Yuan just surpassed the Euro in trade (remember trade: that's how countries once upon a time would generate capital flows in a time when central banks weren't there to literally print domestic funding needs) finance usage leaving just the USD in front.
  • YUAN OVERTAKES EURO IN TRADE FINANCE USAGE: SWIFT
  • YUAN IS SECOND MOST-USED CURRENCY IN TRADE FINANCE: SWIFT
More from Bloomberg:
  • Chinese currency had 8.66% share in letters of credit and collections, or trade finance, in Oct., Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications says in statement today.
  • Euro’s shr in trade finance was 6.64% in Oct.
  • Top 5 countries using yuan for trade finance in Oct. were China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and Australia
  • Yuan mkt shr in global payments was 0.84% in Oct. vs. 0.86% in Sept.
  • Yuan payments value rose 1.5% in Oct. vs. 4.6% growth for all currencies: Swift
And so while the "developed" world is busy crushing its fiat through trillions in annual currency dilution and debasement in an attempt to make its exports cheaper and outtrade its peers through beggar thy neighbor policies (not to mention inflate away its debt), the leader of the "emerging" world, China, is doing just that.
Credit to Zero Hedge