The Thing That Won't Die

The taxpayers won the first battle with the Fat Cat Bailout. But like most horror movies, the monster is not dead. One battle victory does not win a war. Congress will vote on a revised bailout bill Thursday. They're throwing a few superficial bones to taxpayers, but not changing the most onerous parts.

The Demopublican establishment and their Mainstream Media lackeys are applying the full court press. The McBama Ocain puppet, up to its eyeballs in Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac money, is pitching the Fat Cat Bailout at every campaign appearance. All the PTB has to do is twist 12 arms with enough bribery or threats.

Since Big Money controls most Senators and Representatives, and since PTB have the ability to threaten loss of funding for special projects, military bases, and even worse, it will take an all out effort by taxpayers to hold their Congresspeople in line. This is no time to sit back in distracted apathy!

Please call your Congressperson today! If they voted against the Bailout the first time, thank them and ask them to hold the line again. If they voted for it, ask them to vote against it this time. Here's all for all the information you need about this -- phone numbers, how they voted, etc. We've already seen how making your views known can kill this bailout. When politicians feel the heat, they see the light!

Alex Jones noted today that every major TV show was spouting the same talking points in favor of the "new and improved" version of the Fat Cat Bailout, now called a "rescue." They're going for the jugular, with blackmail using the fear factor to threaten our IRAs, pensions and 401-Ks. Don't fall for it.

Folks, depression or deep recession is already in the cards. There will be pain. The only question is how we can minimize the pain and get over it quickly, while retaining what's left of our freedom. If we lose our freedom, all we really care about will be lost.

The worst part of the Fat Cat Bailout is that "Treasury Secretary Paulson wants the absolute, unchecked and unlimited authority to buy or sell ANY mortgage related asset at ANY price he deems 'appropriate.' The man asked Congress to
a) Give him a $700 billion blank check, and
b) Let him be a law unto himself.

Lest we forget how much $700 billion is, the entire Department of Defense has the largest budget by far of any government agency -- the dollar figure was $479.5 billion for FY2008. Can you imagine the Secretary of Defense asking for the authority that Paulson wants? [Here's another view of what $700 billion can do.]

Whatever deal (if any) the Congress reaches, nothing in it matters more than whether Paulson got the degree of authority he asked for."

Paulson, who is reported to have walked away from Goldman Sachs with several hundred million dollars, would get a blank check and unconstitutional, unlimited power to do do whatever he wants to! Ben Stein shows the absurdity of this situation and proposes more commonsense measures. And you won't believe how they came up with the figure $700 billion!

Lest you find yourself being swayed by all the fear-mongering, see why Lew Rockwell says the defeat Monday of the Fat Cat Bailout is not only the precondition for a speedy readjustment and recovery, but also to maintain our freedom.

Harvard economist, Jeffrey Miron, was one of the 166 economists who sent a joint letter to Congress opposing the bailout. He writes that "In contrast [to bankruptcy], a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This 'moral hazard' generates enormous distortions in an economy's allocation of its financial resources."

Main Street is finally telling Wall Street they're mad as hell and not going to take it any more! For more pertinent information on the real nature and dangers of the Bailout, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (speculative, but plausible).

Perhaps you heard about how Nancy Pelosi imposed martial law in the House of Representatives to ram through the Monday vote in less than the required time. It's bad enough that too many elected officials don't read the bills, but when the leadership won't even give them time to read and consider them, you know we're in trouble.

Speaking of martial law, the announced stationing of US Army troops for stateside patrols is generating lots of concern. Bush's successful efforts to do away with the Posse Comitatus law prohibiting the use of the military for domestic duties was not done to combat "terrorism." It was for martial law. Let your friends know about this.

Stop the Bailout! Act Today!!

**News Flash!** According to Sen. Shelby, the Demo bailout plan includes $billions to go to ACORN and other favored Obama community organizations for them to use to handout and buy votes in November!

This is it! If we are to save our country, please act today to stop the Bailout!

Please do not delay. The vote may happen Friday.

If the Bailout passes, freedom will probably never return to America.

Ron Paul has the best summary of this swindle engineered by Fat Cats, for Fat Cats. If the people of this nation rise up in numbers and say "Enough is enough!" then we have a chance. Support is anemic among the people, and many Senators and Congressmen are afraid to vote for it. Here's a comic strip that says it all.

Ignore the Mainstream Media. They are controlled by the same people who want the Bailout!

You can find the phone numbers of your Senators and Congressman here. Call NOW, not later. Tell them "no more bailouts for Wall Street crooks!" Then pick your most detestable boondoggle -- the wars, illegal immigration, etc. and tell them the madness has to stop! We're bankrupting our country and selling out our children's and grandchildren's futures.

If you need more ammunition, read "Wall Street's Trillion Dollar Swindle," "No Amnesty for Wall Street," and look here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Here's Wolf Blitzer inverviewing Ron Paul. Paul deconstructs all the bogus arguments of Wall Street and Bush. Dr. Paul is perhaps the only person in Congress who understands what the problem really is. He says we can have a year or two of pain with no, or a decade of pain and loss of our freedom with the Bailout.

Please act today. Every phone call counts! Turn up the heat to they will see the light!! The future of America really does depend upon it.

The Government Will Not Save Us

Folks, the economic and geopolitical news is so fast and furious that I can hardly keep up. One thing is for sure: the government (and its cronies/owners) got us into this mess, and it sure won't be able to get us out. The chickens let loose by the creation of the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 are coming home to roost. It appears that we're rapidly moving into the fascist dictatorship many of us have feared.

The feds, under the guise of "homeland security," have created the necessary mechanisms for a domestic police state. The Army Times even reported that for the first time since the War Between the States that military troops will be on active patrol in America. Expect martial law to be quickly used to quell "domestic disturbances," i.e, riots, that will break out as the economy comes unglued.

If you've been thinking everything is going to work out "somehow" and haven't taken any steps to protect yourself, wake up now! It is time to put away some beans and rice, get some freeze-dried food (if you can find it), slash your expenses, get self-defense weapons if you don't have them (and practice), and start getting to know your neighbors. You're going to need them. We're going to need each other to get through this thing. I can't stress too much how dire our situation is.

You're going to need good information, too. I can't put out blog posts often enough to help you keep up. I list some excellent resources on this site. I highly recommend:

1. Alex Jones' Infowars.com. You can listen to his 4-hour weekly radio Monday-Friday 11am-3pm Central Time on the internet or get the podcast. He will help you understand the push to dictatorship and the New World Order.
2. Jeff Rense's excellent website features an eclectic range of news items and articles.
3. For intellectual ammunition, it is hard to beat the premier libertarian websites, LewRockwell.com and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is essential to understand the theoretical economic issues so that you're not swayed by emotional appeals to support bad policies.
4. Jim Sinclair's web site is a wealth on clear information on the economy and why you need to put a substantial portion of any liquid assets you have into gold and silver.
5. To keep up with what Ron Paul is doing and saying, check out the Daily Paul and Paul's Campaign for Liberty.
6. Information Clearing House has a great number of new articles daily.
7. Anti-War.com provides a vast, daily collection of news stories and opinion dealing with issues of war and peace.

These are many of my main sources. Most of them have a daily email digest which I strongly suggest you subscribe to. I don't take any of them as gospel truth. I view everything through the grid of my worldview base on an extensive theoretical framework governed by Christian theology and libertarian politico-economic theory, filled in with applications from experience and history. Then test everything for truth as you know it.

Devvy Kidd has an outstanding 2-part article, "Battle Plan for the 50 States." This is a great start for grassroots political action NOW! Take advantage of the economic shock and share this article with your friends. This November is the time to vote the worst state level politicians out of office so we can at least have some clout to make local impact. Print out this article and read it. And share it. And act.

If for any reason whatsoever you doubt the severity of our economic crises and need more motivation to take action, read the following:

1. Joan Veon's excellent articles from this week -- The Final Destruction of the Middle Class and US Dropped to Third World Status. She discusses the danger of the ""The Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory System," will hand over to the Federal Reserve the last vestiges of our financial sovereignty: savings and loans; state chartered banks; thrifts and credit unions; the entire mortgage and insurance systems, as well as oversight of the Payment and Settlement System of Wall Street. In addition, the Feds would gain oversee rights to all of America's financial markets." This capture of the entire US financial system under the czarship of former (?) international banker and current Treasury Secretary Paulson is the economic equivalent of the Patriot Act passed in the aftermath of 9/11. Call your Senator to protest. Here's more specific information.
2. Mike Whitney points out the most crucial provision in this act: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Sieg heil!
3. Here's a concise timeline of last week's significant events. This week shapes up to be just as tumultuous!
4. All of our Constitutional freedoms have eroded considerably. Here's a list of journalists arrested at the Republican National Convention. (Read the poem at the end.) We were surrounded by riot police in full swat gear, with loaded automatic weapons. Inside many of us Ron Paul supporters were searched by security goons looking for subversive literature like Ron Paul signs and bumper stickers.
5. Patrick Buchanan says "The Party's Over." This financial crisis marks the passing into a new age of a greatly diminished and more sober America. What we've experienced is not the failure of free markets, but of Gordon Gecko capitalism aided and abetted by bought-and-paid for politicians greasing the wheels for the greedy few to sheer us like trusting sheep.
6. Lew Rockwell interviews Ron Paul about the crisis.
7. And Lew writes about the social imperative of returning to sound money if we want a free, prosperous nation built on truth and justice.
8. Martin Weiss has a comprehensive list of sensible actions Congress can take to deal with this crisis. Pass it on.

There is so much more, but I fear I've already overwhelmed you. People are in shock. A friend told me she saw 3 different people crying as they were driving home in the five o'clock rush hour! So change is afoot. But we must not be victims. We must be proactive first for our families, and then for our communities. Wake up your friends and let's get busy!

Financial Tsunami - Category 3 and Growing

The financial tsunami is hitting more quickly than I imagined. I've been warning about it since I started this blog a few months ago. Today I'd say the tsumani is at least a category 3, with category 5 staring us in the face. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz today said things won't get better for at least two years, and I think he's optimistic. (He's the one whose recent book estimates the total cost of the Iraq war at $3 trillion or more!) I'm more inclined to agree with the estimate of a decade-long depression.

A friend just sent me a brief summary of current events: "In the space of roughly seven days you have just witnessed the near-simultaneous failure:
1. Fannie Mae
2. Freddie Mac
3. The FHLBs (Federal Home load Banks)
4. Lehman Bros
5. Merrill Lynch
...which, all totaled equals companies representing:
APPROXIMATELY SEVEN AND ONE HALF TRILLION DOLLARS
And we're not done yet.
Not even close.
On deck is AIG. "

Even in the turmoil, you can still make preparations to lessen the impact on you and your loved ones. Yes, choices are much more limited than they were even three months ago, but you don't have to be swept along like so much flotsam.

It is time to focus on your own liquidity. Cut your discretionary spending, pay off your credit cards, hang on to your job -- if you can. The ripple effects through the economy will leave many finances looking like the aftermath of hurricane Ike. Dave Ramsey has some excellent tools.

If you have savings, IRA's, etc., you need to protect them. Despite the large correction in the precious metals, it is very difficult to buy physical gold and silver. Worldwide investor demand for physical is up, while prices have fallen. It makes no sense. We are most likely headed for the worst of all financial worlds, a hyperinflationary depression, or hyperstagflation. The currency will be inflated to cover all the new obligations the Treasury takes on bailing out banks, investment firms, automakers, airlines, etc. Meanwhile, spiraling unemployment will bring economic activity to a crawl.

And please, invest in at least a 3-month supply of food for your family. Walton Feed has a 12-week backlog. But eFoodsDirect offers shipping in one week. Don't delay.

Make Jim Sinclair's excellent website regular reading. He will help you understand why there is no easy recovery from our predicament. If you have accounts with brokerage houses, you need to take delivery of any shares you want to keep. Here Sinclair tells you what you need to do to protect yourself. Better yet, get out of the stock market altogether. While the Plunge Protection Team is making the most massive cash infusions into the market to prop up the stock market, take advantage of this situation and get out now from anything vulnerable to the financial collapse. That's most everything. Forget about interest and dividends. Try to preserve what you have.

Watch this great video from MSNBC which explains what happened to Lehman Brothers. Now realize that Lehman was just a small part of this worldwide, interconnecting web. When the derivatives exposure of Long Term Capital Management almost toppled the financial markets in 1998, total derivative exposure to the world financial system was a small fraction of what it is today. Think of it as the puffed up egg whites topping a lemon meringue pie. Now squish all the air out of those egg whites. What is left of the egg whites? That's where our economy is headed.

This week I've seen two references (one being the bubble enabler, Alan Greenspan) to our current economic crisis as being a "once in a century event." Remember, the Great Depression of the 1930's started with the stock market crash in 1929. That's 79 years ago. So this may be Great Depression II.

Some of the major differences that today could make our current unfolding depression worse are:

1. We still had a gold-backed currency. Today we have a fiate currency in its death-throes, with a dollar today worth about what 2 cents was when the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913.


2. Many more people were self-sufficient, living on farms, being self-employed, having gardens, etc.


3. Today we've sent offshore much of our manufacturing base and many of our better service jobs. Paul Craig Roberts says the "New Economy" (remember that?) is now based off shore, and as a result, there is not nearly enough money to finance day to day government operations. He expects the government will raid private pensions in an attempt to make ends meet.


4. America was a more unified nation, with a proud culture, undergirded by sound values. Today we have a massive welfare culture, great social fissures due to the culture wars, a flood of illegal immigrants will too little assimilation, etc.


5. We're overextended militarily with two ongoing wars, a worn out military, more than 800 military bases in more than 150 countries. The maniacs in Washington seem intent on starting a war with Iran, and have been pushing the Russian Bear into a corner by encircling them with missles and missile defenses based in their border countries. Russia has warned of a new world war if either the US or Israel attacks Iran. (Did you see today's revelation that former Rep. Dick Armey accuses Dick Cheney of puposely lying to him about Saddam Hussein and alQaeda to get his vote for the war?)


6. The US Constitution seems to be dead and buried. The President claims the powers of a "unitary executive" (doublespeak for "dictator" and seems to think he has the right to kill anybody he pleases. The Patriot Act and its companions has set up the mechanism for martial law and a police state. If the Muslims really hate us for our freedom, then maybe they will leave us alone now, since freedom is now an illusion. I read and hear reports daily about new encroachments on our privacy and Constitutional rights. The American police state lies like a trap waiting to be sprung with the right provocation. (I still plan to report on the police state preview I experienced two weeks ago as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.)


7. Our elected officials, especially Congress, are the worst that money can buy. With the few exceptions of statesmen like Ron Paul, most of our elected Federal officials are bought and paid for shills for the interest groups that brought them to Washington. They're masters at the spin game, and they won't take a principled stand for what is best for America.


8. There are no significant differences between the candidates for President. Both have given their allegiance to AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. Both staffs are riddled with advisors that assure the established powers that nothing substantial will change, regardless of the rhetoric. Both seem ready to maintain the total surveilance police state and to continue with our wars in the Middle East and Eurasia.


9. There are many more differences to be sure, but these come to mind most easily. The bottom line is that we are ill-prepared for what is coming.
   

All of this makes me more pessimistic about the prospects for withdrawing from our wars of aggression. The historical response to massive domestic economic problems by dictatorial regimes is war. War is a great distraction and excuse for economic hardtimes. It justifies the command economy and suppression of political opposition. A draft for national service or the military is a convenient way to sop up unemployed civilians and give them a paycheck. See Orwell's 1984.

We've just opened a new front in the current wars with attacks in Pakistan. Bush has just taken another step toward war with Iran by imposing new sanctions on Iran's shipping industry. Lord Stirling interprets recent events as Bush agreeing to war with Israel. (See here also.) Take the likely WMD escalation along with Putin's threat to see this as the start of World War III, and we're really in trouble. God help us!

A while back I predicted the death of the dollar by 2013, the hundreth anniversary of the Federal Reserve. The way the Treasury is nationalizing and funding financial firms, with more to come, and the Fed creating money to fund the process, we may not make it that long.

Ever since I read Harry Browne's classic "How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation" back in 1970, I've been expecting the financial collapse. I covered some of this ground previously, as well as in many of my other previous posts. The financial "Masters of the Universe" have finally reached the limits of their ability to manage the economy. At best, American imperialism of the last decade of the 20th century will end as reaches its financial limits. At worst, it will end in a world war.

Maybe it just seems that way when it finally happens. The news has been so fast and furious that there is hardly time to assimilate it. One thing is sure: America is becoming more overtly fascist. We're are moving into one of the most difficult periods in American history. Pray that we come through it with our freedom intact.

Grace and Courage and Peace Be with You!
Porter