Rand Paul called out Republicans for becoming the definition of "intellectual dishonesty" by supporting the same spending increases with a Republican in office that they condemned when a Democrat was in office.
The post ‘There is No Conservative Party’: Rand Paul Proves Both Parties are ‘Hypocrites’ in EPIC Senate Rant appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
“Throwing more money at the Pentagon,” one critic argued, “will only double down on the Trump administration’s violence-first approach to the challenges we face.” (COMMONDREAMS) Peace advocates are denouncing the new bipartisan budget deal, which was produced to prevent another government shutdown, because of an “outrageous” decision to boost military spending while education, infrastructure, an urgent renewable energy transition, […]
This report was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com
While the mainstream media and general public tend to assume that every new day is bringing us closer to a better future, many alternative analysts focus on the underlying weirdness of our world and all of the crisis factors that average people don’t want to think about. I have to say, in my view the “weirdness” has been escalating rather swiftly lately, and I don’t think that very many analysts, alternative or mainstream, appreciate the potential consequences.
The most important issue of course has always been the global economy. With nearly every sector of our system resting on massively inflated financial bubbles driven by central bank fiat printing and artificially low interest rates, there is only one question that really needs to be asked: How long before a geopolitical or economic shock event takes down the entire house of cards?
The mainstream philosophy seems to be that the economy is now impervious to such events. As the media now argues often, stock markets in particular do not appear to care whenever international threats present themselves. I would argue that this is because nothing substantial has actually happened quite yet. We have had a steady build-up of domestic and global political tensions, but the markets have so far been presented with a world that is comfortably predictable. It is a dangerous world with numerous potential pitfalls, but still predictable nonetheless.
And this is the very odd position we find ourselves in. A system which grows progressively more unstable year by year, and a society that has grown ignorantly used to it. To wake people up to the threats ahead would require a surprise, a slap to the face, something entirely unexpected. Here are a few developing powder kegs around the world that may present such a shock.
U.S. Debt Ceiling And The Government Shutdown Battle
I think a lot of people are missing some major points on the government shutdown situation. First, consider this — every new deal to keep the federal government funded offers a shorter stopgap than the last. The latest deal would only keep funding in place for three more weeks, then the same conflict over budget and spending initiatives happens all over again. It is not outlandish to expect that one day soon we will be faced with weekly or bi-weekly funding battles in D.C., while the greater problem of the U.S. debt ceiling is generally ignored.
You see, the “fight” within the federal government is not so much over whether or not more debt is a “bad thing.” In fact, both sides support more debt and bigger government. Instead, the fight is over the allocation of funds (debt) to certain projects and away from others. Who gets the money? And how can a government shutdown be used as leverage to gain the upper hand politically?
The thing is, this is all theater. There are no “sides” to the debate in Washington, and there is no battle. This is all designed to condition the American public into believing that the two parties are separate and opposed when they are in fact not. Beyond that, the shutdown battle also achieves a certain stress factor for the economy that many people are not aware of.
Among alternative analysts, cynicism runs rampant over a government shutdown. “Who cares?!” many of them will say, “Let it shut down!” But there are some concerns here, primarily the concern of full faith in U.S. debt issuance.
While I am all for the notion of the federal government going the way of the Dodo bird, I do not think many alternative analysts are considering the trade-off required when the system does in fact “reset.” For example, while the U.S. Treasury is supposed to remain functional during a government shutdown and certainly remains functional during stop gaps and debates over funding, this internal conflict though theatrical in nature can still produce a lack of faith in Treasury bonds and the dollar internationally. And frankly, faith is all that our economy has left to sustain itself.
If the funding battle continues with ever shorter stop gaps or with an extended period of government shutdown, there is a possibility that the largest foreign investors in U.S. debt and the dollar will begin dumping their holdings. When this is done, it will be done quietly and will be fully denied if questions arise. If China, for example, begins decoupling from U.S. debt, we will not find out until it is far too late. The Chinese would seek to be the first to dump their holding in order to avoid a vast international rush for the exits. They would want to be the first to sell, not the last.
Again, if the funding fight continues to become more aggressive and more absurd, eventually we will see a foreign dump of U.S. debt, and with it an unprecedented crisis. Whether or not this “needs” to happen is not what I am debating here, only that when it does happen, there will be consequences for us all, and being prepared for them is essential.
Syria Back On The Table
So, if you thought the Syrian situation could not get any weirder, the past week might have been a surprise.
The last major development was Vladimir Putin’s orders to pull a large percentage of standing Russian troops from the region, leaving the Assad government particularly vulnerable. This move did not surprise me in the least. In fact, I predicted that Russia would step aside in Syria in interviews last year. I also wrote about the possible problems this would cause in my article ‘A Review Of The Most Disturbing Events Of 2017’. One of these problems would be Putin leaving the door wide open for a foreign force to invade Syria, drawing in other nations like Iran or Lebanon into the fight and expanding the war tenfold.
What did surprise me, though, was the brazen launch of forces into the region by Turkey in particular. Erdogen has been pecking away at Kurdish tribes in Syria for quite some time, but his latest measures are something entirely new. Keep in mind that Turkey is still technically a NATO member and an ally of the U.S., despite Erdogen’s anti-NATO rhetoric and threats to leave the multi-nation defense pact. Also keep in mind that the U.S. government is giving monetary and weapons support to the Kurds. So, to clarify, a U.S. ally is ignoring the tense situation in Syria and the possibility of triggering a wider regional war to hunt and destroy another U.S. ally, all while Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, etc., hover on the periphery waiting to jump into the fray.
This is not a recipe for diplomatic discourse. This is a recipe for disaster. Will Syria lead to WWIII as some people suggest? Probably not in the way most of them imagine. War takes many forms, including sporadic region by region conflicts, as well as economic conflicts. Global nuclear war is unlikely considering such an event would virtually vaporize decades of investment by the elitist establishment in control grids around the world. But, constant regional combat and financial disasters? THAT is a strategy that benefits them greatly.
North Korea And The Olympic-Sized Target
First let me say that the very fact that South Korea and the Olympic committee feels compelled to continue the games in the region at a time of such heightened tensions is extremely odd to me. The notion may simply be that the games will “heal” divisions in the Korean peninsula. I am not so sure about that…
I recently wrote about the North Korean war scenario and the potential false flag event during the Olympics in my article ‘Olympic Games In South Korea – Perfect Opportunity For A False Flag Attack?’. I would add to my analysis another interesting development; the negative response by South Koreans to the North’s participation in the Olympic games.
I have continually had to remind people that a war in North Korea would be the most effective trigger event for economic downturn and global distraction, though some skeptics seem to think the situation is going nowhere. Yet, all the elements are now present, including an array of naval forces ready for kinetic response, the escalation of North Korea’s missile technology to include ICBMs capable of striking the U.S. mainland, the war rhetoric grows on both sides, with the Department of Defense being the most aggressive, and now even the South Korean citizenry seems to be shunning diplomacy as they burn photos of Kim Jong Un during Olympic processions and demand a stop to cooperation with the North during the games.
This is a rather sharp break from the mainstream narrative in the U.S., which has told us that South Koreans are seeking generally passive and diplomatic relations with the North, and that the US involvement is universally unwanted. That is to say, the desire for conflict is not limited to U.S. warhawks and North Korean “fanatics,” it is also a large portion of the South Korean population that appears to prefer less-than peaceful solutions.
Add to this the latest CIA claims that North Korea’s nuclear weapons technology will be a full threat to the U.S. in a matter of months, and the news that North Korea’s armies are confiscating food stores from the citizenry at a greater rate than usual, and anyone with any sense can see what is developing here. CIA director Mike Pompeo has asserted that the Trump Administration will act to prevent North Korea from developing an arsenal of ICBMs capable of striking the U.S.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is going to end in war. There is no way around it.
The U.S. Dollar Continues Its Rapid Decline
I outlined this interesting development a couple weeks ago in my article ‘The Strange Case Of The Falling Dollar – And What It Means For Gold’, and so far it seems that the downward spiral of the dollar is continuing, now falling at a speed not seen since 2003.
This trend is very strange for a number of reasons – the most prominent being the fact that the dollar index is ignoring policy moves by the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates and reduce its balance sheet. Under normal economic conditions, this should trigger a dollar spike, not a dollar collapse. I predict that the Fed, under “new leadership” through Jerome Powell, will pursue highly aggressive fiscal tightening measures in 2018, including expanded interest rate hikes in the name of tempering the dollar’s decline.
If this takes place, the insane stock market bubble now in full steroid mode will feel a sudden swift kick to the nether regions. However, such a move may still not stop the dollar’s decline. This could be the first stage of the stagflationary crisis I and a few other alternative analysts have been warning about for years.
Growing Accustomed To The Weird
I think if you asked most people if they would have believed the developments of today were possible five to 10 years ago, they would say no. The danger is that when a society becomes too accustomed to instability and conflict, they become complacent in terms of their own security and their own freedoms. They might not even notice until it is too late that both necessities have been stolen away from them.
That great global slap in the face is coming, make no mistake, but the question is, can we prepare enough people for it in time to make a difference in the outcome? Reporting on these issues is often compared to “doom and gloom,” but really, it is an act of optimism. I and many other analysts are operating on the assumption that we can tip the balance by informing the public and creating a shield against calamity. Maybe this is a foolish assumption, maybe not. We shall see in due course.
***
If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here. We greatly appreciate your patronage.
You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com
After 8 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.
Due to the inability of elitists to come to a conclusion on how to spend money they don’t have, the United States government “shut down.” But, the hard truth is that during a “government shutdown” only about 25% of the government actually shuts down.
Only “non-essential” functions are actually shut down. Of course, that begs the question: why are there non-essential government functions to begin with? Nonetheless, on the whole, the majority of the government is open.
According to Joe Joseph from The Daily Sheeple, “even with the government shutdown, it would take a long time before it really starts getting ugly.” So basically, people are panicking for no reason.
“Don’t get me wrong, those 25% [of civil servants] who are affected, I’d hate to be in their shoes right now,” Joseph continued. “But I have to say that the majority of Americans that live in this country deal with a measure of instability when it comes to employment that civil servants don’t normally or are not subjected to.” Be that as it may, politicians are the problem here. This isn’t right or left, it’s politics and corruption that is fueling discussions and arguments about how to spend money they don’t have.
“I hate politcians. I just do. I mean, I’m sure some of them are very well intentioned, don’t get me wrong. But on the whole, you’ve gotta be a really shady, sneaky, snake to be a politician. A lot of people wonder why don’t men and women of honor ever run for office. It’s because they don’t wanna be caught dead around that place because of how corrupt and how bad it is and how much of a risk it would be for them to become corrupt if surrounded by a bunch of corrupt crocks and thieves and criminals. And that’s what they are! Let’s be totally and completly clear.”
Joseph also explained that government and civil servants are held to a much lower standard than those who choose to live their lives as freely as possible.
“We get villified, raked over the coals for the smallest things by government and by law enforcement and these people get awat with literal murder. Their decesions have profound effects on the lives of millions of Americans and they just don’t care.”
But to understand the shutdown, one should understand what type of person makes up “the government” and the many different types of money involved. It would take so long to make any sort of impact because funds have already been appropriated. So all the fear mongering is simply that and nothing more.
“This shutdown shouldn’t scare anybody. If anything, this is what’s SUPPOSED to happen when there is disfunctionality within governemnt. This is what’s supposed to happen when you don’t see eye to eye on things. You’ve gotta negotiate. Sometimes it can get nasty. But, I can tell you that this government shutdown and others like it, have been hyped in the past and it takes months before you really start to feel the pinch. Before you really start to feel that burn.”
All of this is true.
Despite all other bureaucratic functions ceasing to go on because of the government shutdown, our fearless rules ensured us that the War Machine will be just fine.
by Benny Johnson 1-20-2018
The government might be shut down Saturday morning, but that did not stop Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke from doing his job.
Early in the morning, Zinke could be found cleaning up trash on the National Mall and welcoming tours of schoolchildren to the World War II memorial with a smile.
“We’re not putting up barricades,” Zinke told The Daily Caller in an interview. “Absolutely not. We’re passing out brochures until we run out of brochures. I’ll be out here everyday.”
Zinke, and much of the federal government, has had the vast majority of staff furloughed due to the government shutdown.
The shutdown happened on Friday when Democrats refused to vote for a GOP budget bill that kept the government funded. A shutdown means all “non-essential” government workers get furloughed and the rest go without pay until Congress can pass a funding bill.
The last government shutdown was in 2013 under the Obama administration. For that shutdown, the Department of Interior made the controversial decision to close public parks, monuments and battlefields. The decision led to some comical and ultimately sad stories of children having their D.C. school trips canceled and veterans not being able to visit monuments built in their honor.
However, if you were looking for similar headlines under the Trump administration, keep looking.
In the first hours of the government shutdown Secretary Zinke was making plans for how to keep America’s public parks open. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Zinke met with public affairs and maintenance staff to run through a plan to keep memorials on the National Mall open. He then spoke with garbagemen who will be picking up trash on the Mall one last time before the city of D.C. takes over for them.
Zinke then got into his car and drove to the WWII memorial to greet visitors and hand out maps and helped with directions. “I spent the morning walking around, giving brochures out,” Zinke said. “I got a lot of thanks from both sides of the aisle. We will not weaponize our public lands.”
“The visitor experience will be diminished,” Zinke admitted, noting that some museums and public service will take a hit during the shutdown. “But to the degree possible, we will keep our public lands open. They should not be used as a political weapon.”
Zinke said public parks, monuments and the battlefields “belong to the people and not the government,” and noted that people will see a “significant difference” between the Trump administration and Obama’s in the way public lands are managed during a shutdown.
The post Sec. Zinke Will Spend Shutdown Ensuring Memorials, Parks, Stay Open appeared first on Oath Keepers.
After the Senate failed to get enough votes to extend government funding until February, efforts to prevent a government shutdown have all but failed.
This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
House GOP members have approached Speaker Paul Ryan about incorporating a vote to make public an explosive new FISA abuse memo as part of government shutdown negotiations.
The four-page document, circulated to the full House yesterday, is said to detail egregious abuses of surveillance by the FBI, DOJ and Obama administration against the Trump campaign during and after the 2016 US presidential election.
The facts contained in the Republican majority-authored report is said to be “jaw-dropping and demand full transparency,” according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), while the top ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee, Adam Schiff (D-CA) dismissed the memo as “profoundly misleading” talking points drafted by Republican staffers.
“Rife with factual inaccuracies and referencing highly classified materials that most Republican Intelligence Committee members were forced to acknowledge they had never read, this is meant only to give Republican House members a distorted view of the FBI,” said Schiff, adding “This may help carry White House water, but it is a deep disservice to our law enforcement professionals.”
The effort to integrate the Memo’s public release with the stopgap government shutdown bill is being led by Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina along with caucus co-founder Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Jordan confirmed that some conservatives had “highlighted” in continuing resolution talks that it was “extremely important” that the memo go public. He said it was not something they were requiring of the Republican leadership in return for votes. “But it was something we definitely talked about — that needs to happen,” Jordan added.
Meadows earlier referred to “subplots” of promises the Freedom Caucus was able to extract from the leadership before he agreed to support the continuing resolution.
“Mr Meadows and Mr. Jordan and many conservatives want to include in this negotiation a requirement that the House make public intelligence documents that highlight the unfair treatment of the president” by the FBI and the Justice Department, Gaetz said. –Bloomberg
“Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it, because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much,” said Meadows.
Several other GOP Congressmembers have weighed in as well. “I have read the memo,” tweeted Rep. Steve King (R-IA), adding “The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary. #releasethememo.”
Calls for the memo’s release have dominated social media since its existence was made known, with many suggesting it be leaked in similar fashion to Dianne Feinstein’s publication of transcripts of a closed-door testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by opposition research firm Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.
.@SenFeinstein is it possible for you to get a bladder infection long enough to leak
the FISA Memo?
America is asking. #ReleaseTheMemo #MAGA pic.twitter.com/uKwSmvkKSV— Carrie❤️America
(@carrieksada) January 19, 2018
So leak the memo. What"s all this nonsense. Leak it.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) January 19, 2018
Dear conservatives: you cannot fall for this fraud they"re perpetrating on you. They want you to focus on a memo that *only they* (Trump & GOP leaders) have the power to let you see. The only reason you can"t see it is because they"re concealing it. You must realize this, right? https://t.co/QQU16vcfZp
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018
Meanwhile…
Please be on lookout for the following individuals buying one-way tickets out of the US:
– Hillary Clinton
– James Comey
– Andrew McCabe
– Peter Strzok
– Bruce Ohr
– Barack Obama
– Nellie Ohr
– Susan Rice
– James Clapper
– Lisa Page
– Huma Abedin— thebradfordfile (@thebradfordfile) January 19, 2018
Why do things never seem to change no matter who we send to Washington? It seems like for decades many of us have been trying to change the direction of this country by engaging in the political process. But no matter how hard we try, the downward spiral of our nation just continues to accelerate. Just look at this latest spending deal. Even though the American people gave the Republicans control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, this deal very closely resembles “an Obama administration-era budget”. It increases spending even though we have already been adding more than a trillion dollars a year to the national debt, it specifically forbids the building of a border wall, it fully funds Planned Parenthood, and there are dozens of other concessions to the Democrats in it. As I previously warned, these “negotiations” were a political rout of epic proportions.
Perhaps many of us were being highly unrealistic when we expected that Donald Trump could change things. Because fixing America is going to take a lot more than getting the right number of “red” or “blue” politicians to Washington. Rather, the truth is that the real problem lies in our hearts, and the corrupt politicians that currently represent us are simply a reflection of who we have become as a nation.
The generations of people that founded this nation and established it as the greatest republic that the world had ever seen had far different values than most Americans do today.
So until there is a dramatic shift in how most of us see the world, it is quite likely that not much in Washington will change.
Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump spoke boldly about “draining the swamp”, but this spending deal very much reflects the swamp’s priorities. The Washington Post has published a list of eight ways that “Trump got rolled in his first budget negotiation”, and in this case the Post is quite correct…
1. There are explicit restrictions to block the border wall.
2. Non-defense domestic spending will go up, despite the Trump team’s insistence he wouldn’t let that happen.
3. Barack Obama’s cancer moonshot is generously funded.
4. Trump fought to cut the Environmental Protection Agency by a third. The final deal trims its budget by just 1 percent, with no staff cuts.
5. He didn’t defund Planned Parenthood.
6. The president got less than half as much for the military as he said was necessary.
7. Democrats say they forced Republicans to withdraw more than 160 riders.
8. To keep negotiations moving, the White House already agreed last week to continue paying Obamacare subsidies.
In essence, the Democrats got virtually everything that they wanted, and the Republicans got next to nothing.
Trump and the Republicans are promising that they will fight harder “next time”, but we have already heard that empty promise from Republicans year after year going all the way back to 2011.
Among many other conservative pundits, author Daniel Horowitz is absolutely blasting these “weak-kneed Republicans”…
Now, with control of all three branches and a president who sold himself in the primaries as the antithesis of weak-kneed Republicans who don’t know the first thing about tough negotiations, we are in the exact same position. Last night, President Trump signaled that, after not even fighting on refugee resettlement and Planned Parenthood, he would cave on the final budget issue – the funding of the border fence. But fear not, he’ll resume his demand … the next time!
This degree of capitulation, with control of all three branches, is impressing even me … and I had low expectations of this president and this party. They have managed to get run over by a parked car. It’s truly breathtaking to contrast the performance of Democrats in the spring of 2009 with what Republicans have done today with all three branches. At this time in 2009, Democrats passed the bailouts, the stimulus, the first round of financial regulations, an equal pay bill, SCHIP expansion, and laid the groundwork for other, bigger proposals, such as cap and trade and Obamacare. Then they got everything they wanted in the March 2009 omnibus bill, and a number of GOP senators voted for it. We, on the other hand, are left with nothing.
And even the mainstream media is admitting that the Democrats made out like bandits in this deal.
Just check out the following quotes…
If Trump can’t get his priorities funded now, do you think that the Democrats will somehow become more agreeable after he has spent a year or two in the White House?
Of course not.
If there ever was going to be a border wall, it was going to happen now.
If Planned Parenthood was ever going to be defunded, it was going to happen now. From this moment forward, the blood of every child that Planned Parenthood kills will be on the hands of every Republican that voted for this bill or that signed this bill.
The next “big battle” is going to be over a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but the truth is that “Trumpcare” is going to end up looking very much like Obamacare.
Instead of repealing it, the Republicans are trying to “fix” Obamacare, and that is kind of like going to the dump and trying to “fix” a big, steaming pile of garbage.
But like I explained earlier, we should not expect things to move in a positive direction in Washington D.C. until the values of those representing us change.
At this point, there are only a few dozen members of the House and a handful of members of the Senate that even give lip service to the values of our founders.
And until our values change, we are not going to send representatives to Washington that share the values of our founders.
Sadly, most Americans know very little about the history of early America. I would encourage everyone to look into why our founders came to this country in the first place, what they believed was most important in life, and how they viewed the world.
If we ever want to “make America great again”, we need to return to those values. Otherwise, we are just blowing a lot of hot air.
