War on Christianity

Federal judge strikes down Mississippi religious freedom law, Obama appointee: 'It creates a vehicle for state-sanctioned discrimination'

A federal judge appointed by President Obama has struck down a Mississippi law – hours before it was set to take effect Friday – that would have protected the religious freedom of clerks and businesses that refuse to participate in same-sex marriages.

In his 60-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves stated that the law, known as the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,” or H.B. 1523, is unconstitutional and would “diminish the rights of LGBT citizens.”

“The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others,” Reeves said, according to CNN.

“HB 1523 does not advance the interest the State says it does,” he continued. “Under the guise of providing additional protection for religious exercise, it creates a vehicle for state-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s not rationally related to a legitimate end.”

Reeves also wrote: “Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together. But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religion freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens. It must be enjoined.”

State attorneys plan to appeal Reeves’ ruling, according to the Associated Press.

Reeve’s decision comes less than two years after he struck down the state’s statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.

In a statement to the press, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said he’s “disappointed” and anticipates “an aggressive appeal.”

“Like I said when I signed House Bill 1523, the law simply provides religious accommodations granted by many other states and federal law,” Bryant said. “I am disappointed Judge Reeves did not recognize that reality. I look forward to an aggressive appeal.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, also vehemently objected to Reeves’ decision.

“While Judge Reeves issued his decree under the cloak of darkness last night, the judge’s religious animus against the people of Mississippi is clear as day,” said Perkins, according to Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger. “Under this judge’s reasoning, any narrowly tailored conscience or religious freedom protections against government persecution would be invalid.”

Reeves’ reputation for anti-faith rulings 

As WND reported, Judge Carlton Reeves, who was nominated by Obama in 2010, once punished a school district for allowing a voluntary prayer at an optional awards ceremony.

Judge Reeves has established a reputation for going for the jugular when an issue of faith is at play.

He first ruled that a Mississippi school student’s rights were violated because she was offended by a prayer at a public school event.

Then he reached off campus, fining the school $7,500, for allowing a pastor to prayer at an optional awards ceremony.

The judge determined that Rankin County schools must work harder to excise Christian faith from its students’ education, and he threatened the district with a $10,000 fine if it happens again.

It was the ruling by Reeves regarding the school that later created a stir in Mississippi.

His decision resulted in the school’s band being benched from a halftime show at a football game, because as part of their musical presentation, they included the melody from “How Great Thou Art.” Columnist Todd Starnes at Fox News said the judge may issue an order, but the people may not necessarily bend to his whim.

He reported the people decided “a message had to be sent to the likes of Judge Reeves.”

“And what they A federal judge appointed by President Obama has struck down a Mississippi law – hours before it was set to take effect Friday – that would have protected the religious freedom of clerks and businesses that refuse to participate in same-sex marriages.

In his 60-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves stated that the law, known as the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,” or H.B. 1523, is unconstitutional and would “diminish the rights of LGBT citizens.”

“The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others,” Reeves said, according to CNN.

“HB 1523 does not advance the interest the State says it does,” he continued. “Under the guise of providing additional protection for religious exercise, it creates a vehicle for state-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s not rationally related to a legitimate end.”

Reeves also wrote: “Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together. But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religion freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens. It must be enjoined.”

State attorneys plan to appeal Reeves’ ruling, according to the Associated Press. Reeve’s decision comes less than two years after he struck down the state’s statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.

In a statement to the press, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said he’s “disappointed” and anticipates “an aggressive appeal.”

“Like I said when I signed House Bill 1523, the law simply provides religious accommodations granted by many other states and federal law,” Bryant said. “I am disappointed Judge Reeves did not recognize that reality. I look forward to an aggressive appeal.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, also vehemently objected to Reeves’ decision.

“While Judge Reeves issued his decree under the cloak of darkness last night, the judge’s religious animus against the people of Mississippi is clear as day,” said Perkins, according to Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger. “Under this judge’s reasoning, any narrowly tailored conscience or religious freedom protections against government persecution would be invalid.”

Documentation of hate against Christians

WND previously has documented the Big List of cases where there have been government rulings that removed religious rights from Christians.

Missouri State University, for example, dismissed a student from a counseling program for expressing opposition to counseling same-sex duos.

In Iowa, Gortz Haus Gallery and bistro owners Betty and Richard Odgaard were sued by a homosexual duo.

In Texas, David and Edie Delmore, who own a bakery, were approached by Ben Valencia and Luis Marmolejo about a cake for a “gay wedding.” They declined, referring the potential customers to other bakers. Subsequently, they claim their home has been vandalized and their son has been threatened with rape by a broken beer bottle.

One business even was attacked for answering a hypothetical question on the issue.

Family owned Memories Pizza in Indiana came into the crosshairs of homosexuals when an owner was interviewed by a local TV station in the aftermath of the adoption of the state’s religious freedom law. Responding to a reporter’s question, the owner said that while her restaurant serves “gays,” her Christian faith wouldn’t allow her to cater a “gay wedding.” The restaurant immediately became a focal point of outrage toward the law, with threats of death and destruction, causing the owners to shut down their business.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/federal-judge-strikes-down-mississippi-religious-freedom-law/#p9cDx0wuLiOdYwJE.99

Rancher beats EPA

Wyoming rancher thumps EPA on bogus wetlands violation by Bonner Cohen, 6/28/16

In a 21^st century replay of the biblical battle between David and  Goliath, Wyoming rancher Andy  Johnson felled the most powerful regulatory giant in the country, the Environmental \Protection Agency (EPA).

Johnson, owner of a small, 8-acre horse and cattle ranch in Fort Bridger, had been charged by EPA for violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) by putting a stock pond on his land. Because stock ponds are common on farms and ranches, they are expressly exempt from regulation by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the CWA. Being familiar with the CWA’s exemption, Johnson, in 2012, obtained the proper state permits and set about damning up Six Mile Creek, which runs through his land, to create the stock pond.

“Navigable Interstate Water of the United States”

Ignoring the exemption, EPA, in January 2014, ordered Johnson to restore the pond to its original condition or face fines of $37,500 a day. EPA says that Six Mile Creek is a tributary of the Green River, which, according to the agency, is a “navigable interstate water of the United States,” thereby making Johnson’s stock pond subject to the CWA jurisdiction. The agency also claimed that the sand, gravel, and rocks used to construct the dam constitute “dredged material” and ”pollutants” under the CWA. By the spring of 2016, Johnson was looking at $20 million in fines.

Accustomed to dragging small landowners and business owners through costly litigation, EPA no doubt assumed that Johnson would throw in the towel. He didn’t. Instead, he enlisted the services of the Sacramento, Cal.-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Cheyanne, Wyo.-based Budd-Falling law firm.

When the smoke cleared, it was EPA – and not Johnson – that capitulated. In a settlement reached in May, Johnson agreed to plant willow trees and temporarily limit livestock access to a portion of the pond. In exchange, Johnson and his wife will pay NO fines.

“They will not lose their property. They will not have to agree to federal jurisdiction or a federal permit, which would surely have entailed onerous conditions,” PLF attorney Jonathan Wood told the Washington Times (May 10). “In effect, the government will treat the pond as an exempt stock pond in exchange for Andy further improving on the environmental benefits he has already created.”

Johnson called the settlement a “huge victory for us as well as property owners across the country.” He added: “The next family that finds itself in our situation, facing ominous threats from the EPA, can take heart from knowing that many of these threats will not come to pass. If, like us, you stand up the overreaching bureaucrats, they may very well back down.”

Fear of Setting a Legal Precedent

Why did EPA back down? As EPA made clear from the very beginning, the Johnson case was ultimately about the agency’s jurisdiction to regulate a wetland under the CWA. The Obama EPA, through its proposed “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule is attempting – without congressional authorization – to expand its jurisdiction to bodies of water not envisioned in the CWA. A federal court has stayed implementation of the rule nationwide pending the outcome of the numerous lawsuits challenging the agency’s action. Having barely a leg to stand on in the Wyoming case, EPA may have decided this was the worst possible time to risk losing a precedent-setting wetlands case.

http://www.cfact.org/2016/06/28/wyoming-rancher-thumps-epa-on-bogus-wetlands-violation/?utm_source= CFACT +Updates&utm_ campaign=9ee9b12d54-Rancher_socks _it_to_EPA6_29_2016 &utm_medium=email&utm_ term=0_a28eaedb56-9ee9b12d54-270308565

Will Brexit’s Populism Sweep the U.S.?

An unexpected outcome of Great Britain’s referendum on whether British citizens wished that their country should stay in the European Union brought about shock and dismay in some groups as globalist and liberal allies were forced to reckon with a surge in populist anger.

With British politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, leaders in banking, media and business all in favor of remaining in the EU, the so-called “Brexit” decision has brought about much handwringing.

What the political establishment was surprised to discover was that despite a strong campaign in the press and online, older voters turned out in large numbers to reject the status quo that they felt was dragging their nation downward and tying it to the EU’s woes of debt, bailouts and illegal immigration, among other things.

In the end, an expected defensive bulwark against the forces of the “Leave” camp never materialized, and British Prime Minister David Cameron immediately resigned from his office in disgrace.

Former London mayor Boris Johnson appears to be all but assured of taking Cameron’s place as bankers, media pundits and progressive groups argue about the possible repercussions of this simple expression of voters’ will.

Could a similar event take place in America?

That is, could populist forces reject the Establishment order of trade agreements, international coalitions and obligations as well as the near-open-door policies of immigration of President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton?

Certainly, what seemed like an impossibility in the U.K. just weeks ago now looms like a wave that’s threatening to wash over the economic integration policies of both Europe and the U.S. in the coming years.

Political insiders are waking up to the possibility that candidates like GOP presidential contender Donald Trump in the U.S. and conservative nationalist politicians in Europe may have more respect and support among the common people than the media would have the average voter believe.

In fact, there may be a tide that will overwhelm the well-fortified armada of the current elite power structure that keeps the wheels of corrupt trade and industry turning in today’s hyper-capitalist environment.

Bloomberg Businessweek recently published a story entitled “Trump’s Coalition Looks a Lot Like Brexit Voters,” in which the publication declared that many U.S. voters’ “economic prospects have diminished in an era of globalization, and they feel that immigration is damaging their pocketbooks and their cultural identity. And they think the elites aren’t listening.”

In both countries, despite the respective national economies growing at a modest pace, wage growth has stagnated for years, if not decades.

Candidate Trump (who had backed the Leave forces prior to the U.K. referendum) declared that he saw similarities between his supporters and those advocating Brexit, saying, “I see a big parallel… People want to take their country back, and they want to have independence in a sense. They took their country back, just like we will take America back.”

Trump’s campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again”; the UK Leave campaign’s was “Take Back Control.”

Coincidentally, Trump took a victory lap following his virtual confirmation of becoming the GOP presidential nominee, traveling to politically vocal UK jurisdiction Scotland to open a golf resort there.

Although a majority of Scottish voters elected to side with the “Remain” camp in Brexit, Trump was correct that overall, British voters decided to “reject today’s rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people.”

It’s no coincidence that Hillary Clinton has in the past favored every trade deal between Europe and the U.S. such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that would ultimately cost the U.S. millions of jobs.

Just as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did, signed into law by her husband Bill during his presidential administration in the 90s, both the TTIP and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), a similar agreement covering the U.S. and Asia, will further gut America’s manufacturing base and weaken food and safety standards.

Despite renouncing her support of TTIP and TPP, many suspect that Clinton’s opposition to both agreements will fade or vanish completely if she’s elected to the nation’s highest office. (Clinton was recently caught deleting mentions of the latter in the paperback version of her book “Hard Choices” after they appeared in the hardcover edition.)

Most observers agree that Clinton will almost certainly continue and expand the destructive trade and immigration policies favored by President Obama (who incidentally had chided supporters of the Leave campaign prior to the British referendum when he visited the country recently).

Clinton’s support of the Remain camp in the Brexit brouhaha was a “bad judgment call” according to Trump. Like other Clinton judgments, this one seemed woefully out of step with what the voters actually desired, and come November, it’s quite possible that the Democratic candidate’s continued misestimation may cost her the very job she believes already belongs to her.

~American Liberty Report

http://www.americanlibertyreport.com/articles/will-brexits-populism-sweep-the-u-s/

Comments

Since this article was written, Boris Johnson has announced that he will not be the next PM.  Obama and most of the Congress supported “Remain” and are opposed to a “Populist” movement in the US, but it has already appeared in the Trump and Sanders campaign results.  Hillary’s support of “Remain” was a dumb move.

Obama and Liberal Republicans are in synch and are happy with the status quo.  That’s why RINOs are flirting with endorsing Hillary.

Traditional Democrat voters are defecting and joining Trump, especially “blue collar” and union members.  If uninformed US voters are attracted to the “taking their country back” message in the BREXIT, they may end up voting for Trump. If informed voters realize that the TPP would be our version of the EU, they may end up voting for Trump.

The BREXIT vote highlighted the fact that the EU bureaucracy was dictating suicidal policies like the Refugee Resettlement current Muslim invasion and Americans should know that Obama is the one dictating these UN policies in the US.  The Liberal US Congress is happy with this, because they would reveal their real allegiance if they came out in favor of Resettlement and UN Agenda 21.

Now everyone knows that the BREXIT “Leave” vote will not result in the disaster predicted by the status quo defenders and everyone wants the Muslim invasion to be reversed.  This could mean the end of the EU, the end of the UN’s recent power grabs and the end of the global warming scam.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Federal Spending Cuts

Time to end printing press money for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and the Fed) By Robert Romano, 7/1/16

Often times Congress does not get praised when members do the hard work on behalf of the American people to protect their interests. The House Financial Services appropriations bill is one such notable bill that you will hear almost nothing about.

The House Financial Services bill is an Article I bill. It will defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from getting printing press money from the Federal Reserve. The background here is that the Bureau is getting about $490 million a year from the nation’s central bank.

That is, without any votes in Congress, an agency inside the Fed with vast rulemaking powers into the nation’s economy is self-funding — with money from a printing press.

Defunding this unconstitutionally funded agency and subjecting it to traditional appropriations is a good first step.

As background, it should be noted that the Federal Reserve as a whole is self-funding including the CFPB, according to the central bank’s website: “Operating expenses of the Reserve Banks, net of amounts reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury and other entities for services the Reserve Banks provided as fiscal agents, totaled $3.9 billion in 2015.  In addition, the Reserve Banks were assessed $689 million for the costs related to producing, issuing, and retiring currency, $705 million for Board expenditures, and $490 million to fund the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

That includes employee expenses, which similarly come out of the printing press, which with maximum pay at $242,500 a year at the high end is about 18 percent more than what even Cabinet secretaries can receive and about 33 percent more than what regular federal bureaucrats receive including most political appointees.

CFPB employees can get even more than that, with maximum pay at $259,500 — making them among the highest paid employees in the federal government (even more than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) and second only to the President himself who makes $400,000 a year. On top of that, because the defined benefit retirement plans at the Federal Reserve are based on pay scale in the formula, pensions too would be well in excess of what typical federal government employees receive.

All at the discretion of the Fed’s Board of Governors, pursuant to Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act: “The Board shall determine and prescribe the manner in which its obligations shall be incurred and its disbursements and expenses allowed and paid, and may leave on deposit in the Federal Reserve banks the proceeds of assessments levied upon them to defray its estimated expenses and the salaries of its members and employees, whose employment, compensation, leave, and expenses shall be governed solely by the provisions of this Act, specific amendments thereof, and rules and regulations of the Board not inconsistent therewith; and funds derived from such assessments shall not be construed to be Government funds or appropriated moneys.”

And Federal Reserve employees are not even technically government employees — with the exceptions of the Fed’s Board of Governors, and the head of the CFPB, who are Senate-confirmed and are government employees and subject to a different pay scale — even though they’re issuing government regulations. As noted on the Richmond Fed’s website, “Employees of the Federal Reserve Banks are not government employees. They are paid as part of the expenses of their employing Reserve Bank.”

“Expenses,” indeed. More like, “We printed $3.9 billion to pay ourselves and set our own pay scales and pay out platinum defined benefit pension plans.” Since the rules for pay and pensions are set solely at the Board’s discretion and beyond the purview of Congress, the courts and even the President, it appears to be rife for abuse.

But, with the House legislation defunding the CFPB’s printing press money, that may be beginning to come to an end.

In a statement praising the legislation, Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning stated, “It will end the individual mandate under Obamacare, defend churches against IRS abuses. It will defund certain Treasury regulations regarding investments in overseas coal-fired plants. It will prohibit the Financial Stability Board from taking over and bailing out financial institutions under Dodd-Frank. It cuts off any funding for the Cuban military and intelligence. It defunds Net Neutrality. And it even comes in $1.5 billion under the previous year’s appropriations level.”

Manning added, “The Financial Services appropriations subcommittee led by Chairman Ander Crenshaw should be very proud of their work shown by their determination to not allow President Obama’s abuses of power to remain unchecked.  Americans for Limited Government strongly urges the passage of this legislation through the Rules Committee, the House of Representatives and Congress as a whole.”

Manning also urged action on an amendment by U.S. Reps. Sean Duffy and Tom Marino that would decrease funding to the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) account at the Department of Justice to offset $20.7 in illegal monies from legal settlements; an amendment by U.S. Rep. Ken Buck that would eliminate the salary of the IRS Commissioner who is currently under consideration for impeachment after lying to Congress; and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar who has an amendment to deny IRS employees bonuses given complicity in the targeting scandal against the tea party and other non-profit groups.

This is the way the power of the purse is supposed to operate, Manning said, concluding, “Using the Congressional power of the purse to limit the executive branch is exactly what the Framers intended when they implemented the separation of powers.” Action on the bill is expected after the July 4 holiday.

http://netrightdaily.com/2016/07/time-end-printing-press-money-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-fed/

Economic Fundamentals

The Next Panic Is About to Begin,  reprint from April 2016. The next panic is about to begin... 'The beginning of the end'... Three facts you need to know right now... The next dominoes to fall...

This isn't a typical Friday Digest.

This is the most detailed and timely warning I (Porter) have ever written. I hope you'll take it seriously...I know most of you won't. Later, you'll claim that you didn't see it, or you didn't take the time to read it. But the truth is... you just won't be able to process the facts I outline below.

And let me be clear: These are facts.

What you'll find below aren't views or opinions. Or the ramblings of some mumbling oracle. I'm not talking about "Kondratieff waves"... or George Soros' aching back. These aren't hunches or guesses. I'm going to show you, in real time, how the entire system of modern, paper-based finance is coming unraveled. It's happening right now. And I believe the panic will start in May. In fact, I believe for decades to come, the summer of 2016 will be recalled as the beginning of the end... a period of grand financial catastrophe. So I hope you'll read carefully. But I'm so afraid you won't. When I began my career in finance 20 years ago, the world (defined as the G20 – the world's major economies) had about $40 trillion of debt. Today, the global economy has more than $230 trillion worth of debt.

These obligations were not funded by patient saving, careful capital investments, a resulting gain to productivity, and increases to real wages and wealth. These credits were created, almost completely, by politicians and central bankers.

The world's elite allocated this paper to achieve policy goals. The "invisible hand" of the market didn't distribute it. And it has resulted in massive, mind-blowing excess capacity in nearly every industry that's heavily financed, such as Chinese real estate development, the global automobile industry, U.S. higher education, and of course the oil business, which saw a massive ($500 billion-plus) injection of credit in just the last six years.

What's important to grasp now is that these bubbles are not isolated – they are all connected, enabled, and continued through the coordinated actions of central banks. And these policies have reached their final "end game." The 20-year super-cycle of more debt, lower interest rates, and one financial bubble after another has finally reached its climax.

How do I know?

Because the same policies that for 20-plus years have driven finance-related profits higher have now inverted. Lower interest rates, additional debt, and more manipulation have finally led to lower earnings for the world's biggest companies and banks.

The volatility these policies have caused, the leverage that they created, and the resulting economic uncertainty are now all acting as a tax against prosperity. Every action in economics contains elements of diminishing returns. Economic stimulus is no exception. At some point, additional credit and lower interest rates can no longer propel an economy forward because the resulting overcapacity and overleverage cause more problems than they solve. Growth inevitably slows. Defaults inevitably rise. And sooner or later we'll see a panic. I believe that's happening now. Let me show you why.

I've been writing about the relationship between gold and the U.S. long-term Treasury bond since around 2010.

Think about these two financial instruments in these terms. On one hand, the U.S. Treasury bond is the monetary "brand" that stands for inflation, easy credit, and manipulation. Its value has increased, almost every year, in an almost linear fashion since the early 1980s. Gold, on the other hand, is an ancient monetary brand. The modern bankers say it's a "barbarous" relic. Gold stands for hard money, sound banking, and market-based interest rates. It is the bane of politicians and bankers.

Since the peak of the last major banking crisis (the 2011 European "PIIGS" affair), gold has gone down 32%. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks "constant maturity" long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds (TLT) has gone up 13%. Tracked next to each other, the "spread" between the rising value of "banker's money" and the falling value of "real money" has widened significantly, and all in favor of the bankers...

As long as belief in the central bank's ability to manipulate the markets and inflate financial assets remains intact, the value of the U.S. long bonds will rise and the relative value of gold will fall. But... when the turn comes... faith in the dollar will crumble. Faith in central bankers will evaporate. And the relationship between gold and the long bond will completely reverse. Here's that relationship over the last three months...

That's my first reason. The huge move in gold can't be explained unless you realize that the same people who have been manipulating the system for 20 years know the system is crumbling... and they're trying to get out. The huge move in gold is your most obvious sign. But it's not the only one...

Another obvious sign is corporate profits.

America's biggest corporations are a good way to judge the health of the global economy. When our best companies can't increase their earnings, we have a problem.

For the last 115 years (for as long as we have reliable records), two consecutive quarters of falling U.S. corporate earnings led to a recession 81% of the time, according to investment bank JPMorgan. The only occasions that a recession was avoided were when there was a significant central-bank action to boost monetary stimulus. So how are our corporate profits doing now?

The first quarter of this year marks the third consecutive quarter that saw a decline in U.S. corporate profits. And no, the problem isn't only a collapse in energy prices.

This decline in sales and profits might have been contained with aggressive central-bank action... but interest rates can't go any lower, not unless you want to start paying people to live in houses (through negative interest rates) and taxing people to use banks. If that happens, there's a good chance of sparking a global run on the banks. That's why I don't think you'll see negative interest rates much longer.

And there's a little-noticed bit of information about corporate earnings that I hope you'll recognize as being extremely unusual: Corporate revenues have now declined for five straight quarters. That's a longer downturn in corporate sales than during the 2008/2009 crisis. What's different now?

The central banks have run out of bullets. They can't push any more money or credit into the system without causing bigger problems than they solve.

In summary... the gig is up. The debt burden can't be carried any longer, not without causing overcapacity that destroys corporate profits.

The wealthiest and most experienced investors in the world have long known this day would come. That's why they're expecting a collapse in the paper-money system. They're working on a way to bolster the U.S. banking system with a gold-backed dollar (see the "Metropolitan Plan"). The last month – with gold up big and Treasury bonds down – is a tiny prelude for what's coming. It's a sign... a sign few have noticed...

I first began warning about the likelihood of a severe bear market in May 2014. I focused on the problems (the vast overvaluation) of the junk-bond market. I've been predicting a true catastrophe in the corporate-bond market ever since... and it has gone straight down almost the entire time. (And we've taken advantage of my prediction: All of our distressed-debt recommendations in Stansberry's Credit Opportunities have been profitable so far.) I still believe we're heading into a period of vast credit defaults, what I call "the greatest legal transfer of wealth in history."

Likewise, I've been warning for a long time about the "lions" that I believed would lead to a bear market in stocks and the "deviants" that showed just how bad some of our debt problems had become. I'd like to add three more categories of stocks for you to begin tracking, to see if my fears about a massive bear market and monetary collapse are coming to pass.

I want you to keep your eye on commercial real estate – as tracked by the Vanguard REIT Fund (VNQ)... the automobile industry – as tracked by General Motors (GM)... and the U.S. retail sector – as tracked by the SPDR S&P Retail Fund (XRT). The first two (commercial real estate and cars) are completely at the mercy of the credit markets. If we see a material reduction in the availability of credit, both of these industries will simply roll over... and the destruction will be immense.

OK... but why now? Here's one reason: The price of used cars has begun to decline. Automotive sources indicate they expect used-car prices to decline by 5% or 6% this year – the first declines since 2008. Used-car prices are key to leasing rates and thus to the availability of credit in the sector. The amount of subprime lending that has happened in autos since 2014 means that price declines will be larger than folks expect and that credit losses will be much worse. At some point soon, the gaudy "earnings" that GM has been boasting about will be revealed to have been nothing but stupid lending and leasing to folks who can't afford new cars and trucks.

Likewise, the U.S. consumer has been powering the global economy (thanks to a strong dollar and strong credit growth). Those trends are going to reverse, significantly, as our economy goes into recession. That will hurt the retail sector and, indirectly, commercial real estate, which always gets hammered during recessions and will get hammered doubly hard this time.

Think about the amount of empty mall space. It's great that Amazon's (AMZN) earnings are soaring, but what that also means is malls are dying. Sooner or later, all of this empty commercial space will begin to hurt commercial real estate in general. Those malls are going to end up as office complexes and apartments... something nobody has figured out yet.

Over the last five years (during the most recent boom), XRT shares are up 67% (compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 39% gain). That outperformance is purely a function of credit expansion. Commercial real estate, despite the drag of mall space, is up 34% over the last five years. Only GM is down... because despite the massive credit expansion, there's simply far too much global overcapacity for automotive firms to make any genuine profit. These sectors are going to completely fall apart this summer. And you'll know why.

So, what should you do with this information? Should you just go to bed scared tonight, but not change anything in your portfolio? After all, everyone knows you can't time the markets...

As I've been telling you (for years), what's happening in our markets right now isn't normal. This isn't just going to be a "correction" or even a regular bear market. What's happening right now is the end of a massive credit expansion and a global experiment in paper money that is unlike anything we've ever seen before.

Talking about these events as being an exercise in "market timing" is like folks on the deck of the Titanic talking about global warming. It completely misses the point. There have been periods in history – always after incredible credit inflations – when the markets themselves were destabilized to the point that there was nothing "efficient" about them. It's not that I object to the prices of stocks in the market. It's the global market itself that's broken. And if you don't think negative interest rates are the most "broken" thing you've ever seen in your financial life, you just aren't paying attention.

By the way, it's not just some raving newsletter lunatic in Baltimore who sees a calamity approaching. David Stockman, the former vice chairman of private-equity firm Blackstone Group (BX), sees the same thing in the markets today. So does Carl Icahn, one of the greatest investors of the last 50 years.

So what should you do? Please do something. Don't wait any longer. If you want to see if I'm right, wait until the end of next month. Stocks will be down big. Volatility will be up. And you will have lost a lot of money sitting on your hands. The essence of what you should do is simple: Raise cash, buy gold, establish some short positions, and ease into distressed bonds when they're trading at safe prices. (Warning: The last one isn't easy to do by yourself. Please consult our distressed-debt research in Stansberry's Credit Opportunities before you try this at home.)

Even if all you do is simply raise cash in your portfolio to 30% or 40%, I'm confident you'll beat the market this year. But... there's no reason you have to lose money at all. What's going to happen is a huge exchange of value... a legal transfer of wealth. And for our subscribers – who know what's happening, why it's happening, and how to profit from the situation – this year should be the best you've ever had as an investor.  See link for charts.

http://secure.stansberryresearch.com/the-next-panic-is-about-to-begin/#2

Obama’s World View

Obama spent his childhood in Indonesia where he attended Muslim schools and was indoctrinated to hate Western democracy by his Communist mother and grandparents.  His world-view is that of a Muslim, not an American.  When he says: “That’s not who we are”, he is not speaking for us.

Source; New Georgia Republican Leadership facebook

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

War on US Constitution

A U.S. Circuit Court judge just brazenly announced to the world that he gives no consideration to the actual Constitution, and he thinks other judges should follow his example.

In an op.ed., Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner stated plainly:  I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation.

Posner then wrote: "The original Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the post-Civil War amendments... do not speak to today."

And herein lies the problem. If the predominantly leftist judges and law school deans were honest, they would fully agree with Posner and the view of a "living" Constitution which allows these enlightened elites to invent whatever meaning for our Constitution that fits their cultural proclivities.

And this is precisely why our nation is collapsing at its foundation... and why we must rediscover our true birthright before it's too late!

Source: Grasswoots Action

Comments

American Communists do not like the US Constitution (as written).  Their judges prefer to use “case law” to justify their unconstitutional opinions.  This just compounds the errors and makes the “rule of law” malleable.

Further unconstitutional federal laws and state enabling laws come behind these erroneous opinions and codify the error. Government.

The US Constitution (as written) prohibits the federal from owning land, giving subsidies, managing the private economy and welfare. The enumerated powers limit the federal government’s footprint from having any say in education, energy, health, welfare, labor, transportation, housing, employment and most other parts of our economy.

These activities were not prohibited by the States and many of these were allowed to form in the States, like public schools and public transportation.  The federal government illegally included these activities as part of federal functions without waiting for proper Amendments to the Constitution to be ratified by the States.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader