Terror Threats and the Economy

So here is the headline from Fox News - State Department to keep some embassies closed, as lawmakers say terror threat 'specific’ and ‘serious'
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The article has this little line within it. "Rooney's comments followed Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press" that the threats are "very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11." Apparently, nobody has a memory. After 9-11 we were told that the intelligence agencies had failed because they didn't see anything coming. Now here is an interesting fact, if the President believes their is the possibility of an imminent attack, he gets to activate certain military groups and FEMA. Well friends, we are now on an alert. But, what if the real threat is not an imminent attack; but, was instead an imminent failure of the banking system? The preparations are basically the same.

YouTube - Keiser Report: Financial Tapeworms (E479)

YouTube - Big Bro 'genius' algorithms - Gerald Celente on Keiser Report

Mail Online - Consulates and the Vatican in chaos as HSBC tells them to find another bank. This is very very suspect. Basically, HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world was money laundering for drug cartels in south America and has to pay a $2 billion fine. Their reaction was to tell foreign embassies that they were no longer allowed to be a customer of the bank. How are those two things connected? They are not, we are told they are but it makes no sense. Oh, and they only have 60 days to get their money out.

What if there was something else going on. What if they are preparing for bail ins? Who wants to be the one that has to "bail in" a foreign countries embassy? That my friends would be an act of war. Stealing a nations money is an act of war. Here is something else to consider, this only made the papers today; but, the embassies were notified almost two months ago according to the article which says that the money must be moved by mid-August.

UPDATE:

There is a point to what I wrote above. The LIBOR scandal cost the world hundreds of billions, we don't even have a way to calculate how much was stolen from you and I. The banking system was manipulated in a manner that effected every loan's interest rate. The manipulation of the stock market, the commodities markets, the insurance markets and every other market has cost the world more than all of the wars we are currently engaged in. I want you to think about that. Maybe they should have a threat alert for the financial industry everytime they steal from us.

How many millions of people have lost their homes and jobs because of an economic system that rewards banks for making risky investments with your money and that allows them to keep the profits? The current economic system is un-sustainable (I hate to use that word) and procedures have been put in place for un-winding it, I have published links to those from the IMF, BOE, FDIC and others.

There is both a book and a movie called, "Gone With The Wind". It is about the Civil War; but, it is really about something more. It is about when a society goes through a complete change in power structure and format. We will see that great a change in our lifetime, in many ways we already have. When I was young, the United States was the industrial powerhouse of the world and now it is not. When I was young the United States was the country from which most of the world's new inventions came. The United States was the place to be because if you worked hard, kept your nose clean and acted responsibly, eventually, you could retire, and have your own home while your wife raised your kids in a safe community. That was the dream and that was the deal.

I could not tell my kids with a straight face that they have the opportunity to do as I did. You ever wonder why there are all these news articles about how college doesn't pay for itself lately? At the same time the most expensive colleges are making major outlays for new facilities. In the future we will see more and more colleges go away as fewer and fewer people can afford to go and those that do go will spend more and more for luxury.

We are about to fail and then we will restructure. When we restructure, it will be under a new set of rules. When a society restructures there are new opportunities and to be successful, you have to figure out what those will be. I believe the new "American Dream" will look as follows:

If you are entertaining (sports, art, video) you can live well.
If you can make apps that save people time or money, you can live well.
If you are incredibly brilliant and learn to do something that others cannot, you will live well.
If you are one of the insiders, you will live well.
If you are willing to police others or be in the military, you will get by as long as you continue doing so.

The best that our kids can hope for is to be able to get a 250 square foot apartment from 18 to 30 while being of use. If they continue to be useful, they can move into a 600 square foot apartment with their significant other and maybe even have a kid who is in daycare while the two of you work. The poor will live in the suburbs and the better off will live in the city.

Who is to blame, it is not Muslims. The future of America was caused by those who stopped caring about the country and seeing themselves as citizens of the United States and see themselves as citizens of the world, globalists. It is a mindset and justification for not helping their fellow citizens. Globalism does not believe in nationalism, in community. It is a vague concept that they care about everyone.

I go to this store about once a day, it is always promoting some charity and each time I go I contribute. I don't get a tax receipt for it at the end of the year; but, they know how much I contribute. Instead, the company takes the tax deduction for my contribution. These companies say they are worried that if they pay more than minimum wage or it goes up that they will not be able to hire anyone. Yet, they are willing to pay out money to charities. Have you ever thought about that, you see, they don't give out of concern, they give because they get a tax deduction. Everytime you buy something at certain stores (the one's that say that X percent of every purchase goes to charity), your gift is counted as the stores gift and they get a tax deduction for your gift. It causes the cost of your purchase to go up; but, the people who work for minimum wage don't get a raise.

Lets try this another way. If people who worked at McDonalds in New York got twice what they are now paid, it would make the cost of a burger go up about 7%; but, is not a tax deduction for McDonalds, no benefit to the company. Now if you paid McDonalds an extra 3% for each burger and they gave that money to a charity, they get a deduction. Does that make sense from a societal standpoint. I mean McDonalds could take that extra 3% and spend it on charities in other countries and still get the deduction.

Think about it this way. You pay an extra 3% on each purchase so that the company you buy from can increase their profit by 6% by deducting your charitable contribution from their costs. Would you be willing to pay a 3% increase if it went to McDonalds employees? In the end we all employ each other.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Please do not assume that every charitable contribution by a company is the same. I recently wrote about a family that gave a multi-million dollar car to be auctioned by charity. They gave the car away, it is not a tax write off in the same way. Their father bought the car with his earnings, he never intended to sell and never did. His family kept the car even after he died, it is not the same as a company structuring itself to benefit from the charitable contributions of it's customers. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates did not have to give a penny to charity, they did not do it from their corporations for tax breaks, they gave their own wealth away.

Just some stuff

Yahoo - Should apes have legal rights?. This is a trick, it is not my trick; but, I see it for what it is. Scream and yell about how animals should not have the same rights as humans. Or, if you prefer, scream and yell how all animals the same rights. Both sides are wrong. The question is, at what point is something human and deserving of "human rights">

I love my dog and it is still a dog. He will not cure cancer or have the same thoughts or feelings as a human, he is just a dog. Dogs can love and dogs can have pain; but, they cannot have the complexity of choices that we face in our lives. They have less influence over the universe, nature and others as we do. Rights come with responsibilities and dogs just are not that responsible.

So what do you do with a human-dog hybrid? That is the question we will need to address in the future. There was a movie called, "The Fly", good film. It was about a man who ended up being genetically fused with a fly. He ends up being more an more physically like a fly; but, in the end retains his human heart. Is that possible, can we be less human and still human? If you are genetically modified so that you have eagle eyes, are you still "human"? In the end, the question is not what it means to be an animal, the question is what does it mean to be human? If we brought back neanderthal, what rights would we give them?

Lets say that we traveled the universe and came upon a dead planet. On the planet we find lots of skeletons from all kinds of animals. We also find some devices that have gears and movement. The skeletons would not tell us which of the animals made the devices; but, we would know that at least of the animals on that planet had deserved some rights and had something more than just learned responses. At least one of the animals would have to had wisdom and insight.

Yahoo - Reuters - Doctor prescribes healthcare cost savings plans to governors. This is just so predictable. We have an aging population and with it comes increasing costs for healthcare. That should be obvious. The solution is to have the elderly go to the hospital less. The trade off is that the sandwich generation (that includes me) will get their parents home; but, will have to care for their parents and take their kids in too. There are not enough doctors and nurses to go around and trade offs will be made. For me, my parents are dead along with the rest of my elders.

These two articles are about real issues that we will all have to face over the next few years. Think deeply about what they mean rather than being surprised when you have to participate in the decision. Think first. Know what is coming and plan accordingly. The Powers that Be expect us all to be selfish and reactive and many of us are; but, I believe in us, in humanity and I believe we can continue to grow naturally and be better.