Bill Kristol: ‘We’ll Have to Start’ New Party If Trump Wins Nomination

“I have said that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the most effective Democratic leader in modern times” wrote Cruz in Politico. He added:

But don’t take my word for it. Take Sen. Chuck Schumer’s, the vice chair of the Senate Democratic conference. Today Sen. Schumer summed up what’s wrong with Washington when he told Politico, “Sen. McConnell wants to see the Senate work. But the good news for [Democrats] is, to make it work, he has to do basically our agenda.”

Cruz also went after the record of Republican leadership in the Senate.

“Since taking control of the Senate, Republican leadership has joined hands with a majority of Democrats to thwart their own caucus’ efforts to stop the Obama agenda 24 times. During each of these 24 votes, this so-called Republican majority successfully passed legislation with a majority of Democrats in support and a majority of Republicans opposed.”

Last week, Schumer gloated over the Democrats’ win in the 2016 budget talks, and declared that:

“Well, if you would’ve told me this year that we’d be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill, with no poison pill riders, at higher [spending] levels above sequesters than even the president requested, I wouldn’t have believed it, but here we are… Almost anything, the Republican leadership in the Senate achieved this year, they achieved on Democratic terms… Democrats had an amazingly good year.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/21/sen-ted-cruz-goes-sen-mcconnell-democrats-puppet/

Nothing to see here

No sell out at all

The Republicans who infamously desire to be “The big tent party” could not give a crap about principles or anything else

As long as they get to be co-rulers and share power they are content with their position

That is why the party can’t abide Trump

Trump is less of a Democrat than John McCain

The difference though is that  it doesn’t appear that Trump plans on playing by the rules

And we all know that playing by the rules is essential to the game

 

Mitch McConnell: Sell out extraordinaire

 

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dealt a significant blow to President Obama’s global trade agenda Thursday, declaring that a sweeping pact with 11 Pacific Rim nations should not be sent to Congress for approval until after the 2016 elections — and maybe not until after Obama leaves office.

McConnell, who previously supported efforts to enhance Obama’s trade negotiating powers, signaled that he was undecided on how he would vote on the deal, but he was clear that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be defeated if it were sent to Capitol Hill next spring or summer, as the administration was planning to do.

“It certainly shouldn’t come before the election. I don’t think so, and I have some serious problems with what I think it is,” McConnell said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post. “But I think the president would be making a big mistake to try to have that voted on during the election. There’s significant pushback all over the place.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-warns-that-trade-deal-cant-pass-congress-before-2016-elections/2015/12/10/b8151f26-9f66-11e5-8728-1af6af208198_story.html

The scumbags don’t even try to hide it anymore

“Wait until after the election”

The Republicans don’t have a clue yet that a reckoning is coming

They don’t have a clue what Donald Trump is about

They try to be PC and talk back whatever he said and make distance between them and him

What they don’t get is that we, as a people, at least those on the right, frankly don’t give a shit anymore

We know that we are being fed nothing but lies

We know that our votes don’t count

We know that the Republicans are complicit in the destruction of our nation, our morals and our values

We know that things in our nation are really bad; much worse than admitted by the media or the lying politicians

And we have also realized that the rigged political system that is loved so by the likes of McConnell has utterly failed and has become nothing more than a sham

Now we are just waiting

Everyone knows that something ugly is coming

It is no longer a matter of if

It is now simply a matter of when

Go ahead Mitch, wait until after the elections to screw us in the ass

That will really matter

And BTW, before I forget, happy Friday everyone

Hillary Clinton tries to censor comedy skits about her; Demands that video be removed

“In what appears to be a first for a serious presidential contender, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is going after five comedians who made fun of the former Secretary of State in standup skits at a popular Hollywood comedy club.

A video of the short performance, which is less than three minutes, is posted on the website of the renowned club, Laugh Factory, and the Clinton campaign has tried to censor it. Besides demanding that the video be taken down, the Clinton campaign has demanded the personal contact information of the performers that appear in the recording. This is no laughing matter for club owner Jamie Masada, a comedy guru who opened Laugh Factory more than three decades ago and has been instrumental in launching the careers of many famous comics. “They threatened me,” Masada told Judicial Watch. “I have received complains before but never a call like this, threatening to put me out of business if I don’t cut the video.”

Practically all of the country’s most acclaimed comedians have performed at the Laugh Factory and undoubtedly they have offended politicians and other well-known personalities with their standup routines. Tim Allen, Jay Leno, Roseanne Bar, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Jim Carrey, Martin Lawrence, Jerry Seinfeld and George Lopez are among the big names that have headlined at the Laugh Factory. The First Amendment right to free speech is a crucial component of the operation, though Masada drew the line a few years ago banning performers—including African Americans—from using the “n-word” in their acts.

The five short performances that Clinton wants eliminated include some profanity and portions could be considered crass, but some of the lines are funny and that’s what the Laugh Factory is all about. The video features the individual acts of five comedians, four men and a woman. The skits make fun of Clinton’s wardrobe, her age, sexual orientation, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the former First Lady’s relationship with her famous husband.”

The rest here: http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/11/clinton-goes-after-laugh-factory-comedians-for-making-fun-of-her/

How dare anyone criticize the queen of cankle cackle

Imagine this power hungry beast as President

If she is willing to this during campaign imagine if she wins

 

Time for panic?

“Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.

Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands.

The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus alternative to the outsiders has emerged from the pack of governors and senators running, and there is disagreement about how to prosecute the case against them. Recent focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire commissioned by rival campaigns revealed no silver bullet.”

“According to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney — despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.

For months, the GOP professional class assumed Trump and Carson would fizzle with time. Voters would get serious, the thinking went, after seeing the outsiders share a stage with more experienced politicians at the first debate. Or when summer turned to fall, kids went back to school and parents had time to assess the candidates. Or after the second, third or fourth debates, certainly.

None of that happened, of course, leaving establishment figures disoriented. Consider Thomas H. Kean Sr., a former New Jersey governor who for most of his 80 years has been a pillar of his party. His phone is ringing daily, bringing a stream of exasperation and confusion from fellow GOP power brokers.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/time-for-gop-panic-establishment-worried-carson-and-trump-might-win/2015/11/12/38ea88a6-895b-11e5-be8b-1ae2e4f50f76_story.html

Panic from within the establishment

They now entertain the possibility that someone who will not play ball is about to be elected

They don’t care who wins

As long as it is JEB or Hillary

What happens if they get someone who will not go along with the new world order?

It could definitely throw a wrench in their plan

Their plan?

Yes, I know, black helicopters etc.

But there really is a “They” in “They say”

Look at Europe, Canada, Australia and the rest

We are behind the times here and are holding things up

Now it is time to accelerate

And that cannot happen if someone picks their ball up and goes home

Interesting times are coming

Hope everyone is strapped in for the ride

The dead elephant party

Compliments WRSA

China’s is the First Central Bank to Lose Control… It Won’t Be the Last

“The Big Crisis, the one in which entire countries go bust, has begun. It will not unfold in a matter of weeks; these sorts of things take months to complete. But it has begun.”

ALL of the so called, “economic recovery” that began in 2009 has been based on the Central Banks’ abilities to rein in the collapse.

The first round of interventions (2007-early 2009) was performed in the name of saving the system. The second round (2010-2012) was done because it was generally believed that the first round hadn’t completed the task of getting the world back to recovery.

However, from 2012 onward, everything changed. At that point the Central Banks went “all in” on the Keynesian lunacy that they’d been employing since 2008. We no longer had QE plans with definitive deadlines. Instead phrases like “open-ended” and doing “whatever it takes” began to emanate from Central Bankers’ mouths.

However, the insanity was in fact greater than this. It is one thing to bluff your way through the weakest recovery in 80+ years with empty promises; but it’s another thing entirely to roll the dice on your entire country’s solvency just to see what happens.

In 2013, the Bank of Japan launched a single QE program equal to 25% of Japan’s GDP. This was unheard of in the history of the world. Never before had a country spent so much money relative to its size so rapidly… and with so little results: a few quarters of increased economic growth while household spending collapsed and misery rose alongside inflation.

This was the beginning of the end. Japan nearly broke its bond market launching this program (the circuit breakers tripped multiple times in that first week). However it wasn’t until last month that things truly became completely and utterly broken.

A month or so ago,  China lost control of its stock market. Despite freezing the market, banning short-selling, arresting short-sellers, and injecting billions of Dollars per day into the markets, China’s stock market continues to implode.

Please let this sink in: a Central bank, indeed, one of the largest, most important Central Banks, has officially “lost control.”

The rest here from Zero hedge :http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-21/chinas-first-central-bank-lose-control%E2%80%A6-it-wont-be-last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI-iMy0aZM8

I seriously think that we are past the point that any of this can be stopped. We are in for the ride at some point in time and it is going to be a matter not when, but rather, how bad

Just remember that no matter how bad things are, wartime included, commerce continues.

Opportunity will be there for those wise enough to see them

How soon? I have been saying for almost a year now that it would probably be sometime in September

I am not afraid to make actual predictions

If I am wrong

Good for us

Happy Friday everybody

Obama sends out message celebrating Muslim holiday 2 hours before commenting on Muslim killing 4 marines

What a chump this moron is

I can’t even say more at the moment

Jeff Sessions: They Won the Vote, But Lost the ‘Trust of the American People’

“Americans increasingly believe that their country isn’t serving its own citizens. They need look no further than a bipartisan vote of Congress that will transfer congressional power to the Executive Branch and, in turn, to a transnational Pacific Union and the global interests who will help write its rules.

“The same routine plays out over and again. We are told a massive bill must be passed, all the business lobbyists and leaders tell how grand it will be, but that it must be rushed through before the voters spoil the plan. As with Obamacare and the Gang of Eight, the politicians meet with the consultants to craft the talking points—not based on what the bill actually does, but what they hope people will believe it does. And when ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don’t want the plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sessions-they-won-vote-lost-trust-american-people_976870.html

What’s wrong Jeff?

Starting to smell whats in the air?

Things are changing in this country and people are becoming disillusioned with the system

We don’t care to listen to you any more or follow your petty laws

Your time is coming and with every dirty treasonous deed

It comes one day sooner

What is coming has already started if you have eyes to see

You will realize that

It is not all doom and hopeless gloom for us

Think Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Bundy ranch and the countless other patriot stands being made

Think of the rising wave of anti police state sentiment that is sweeping the country

A new day is approaching and in that new day freedom will be viewed differently

True freedom

After 2 plus centuries, true liberty is trying to re-emerge

I don’t know about anyone else, but I plan to start making a stand anywhere I can that is within my range of operations

I plan on being in Huntsville to make a stand for Tyler Truitt and his right to be free

I plan on being any place possible to further liberty and the American dream of living in freedom

I Have given a lot for the cause already and It has cost me dearly

But that does not mean that I am finished

It only means that that I must become more dedicated

Unless things go horribly wrong, I will be meeting some of you in Huntsville

“We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them!” – William Jennings Bryan

Paul Ryan: You have to pass it before you can read it.

“What Ryan is trying to convince House Republicans to do is vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which would fast-track at least three highly secretive trade deals—specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)—and potentially more deals.

Right now, TiSA and T-TIP text are completely secretive and unavailable for even members of Congress to read while TPP text is available for members to review—although they need to go to a secret room inside the Capitol where only members of Congress and certain staffers high-level security clearances, who can only go when members are present, can read the bill.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/11/paul-ryans-pelosi-esque-obamatrade-moment-its-declassified-and-made-public-once-its-agreed-to/

There is nothing the fuck wrong with this at all. What could possibly be wrong with classified trade deals that the peoples Reps aren’t allowed to read?

The Republicans are proving once again that if you vote for them, your vote is wasted.

There is no stopping what is happening with a vote. There is no changing a system so far gone from it’s original form that it is unrecognizable.

Politics have failed us, politicians have failed us and now they drive us straight at the edge of the cliff.

When we hit bottom, just remember who was driving.

Ths will not be for restoration, but rather retribution.

Happy Thursday everyone.

Rand Paul threatens to filibuster Patriot act

“Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in an interview published Monday that he will filibuster a reauthorization of provisions within the Patriot Act.

“I’m going to lead the charge in the next couple of weeks as the Patriot Act comes forward,” the GOP presidential candidate told the New Hampshire Union Leader. “We will be filibustering. We will be trying to stop it. We are not going to let them run over us. And we are going to demand amendments and we are going to make sure the American people know that some of us at least are opposed to unlawful searches.”

Rand Paul threatens Patriot Act filibuster

Where are all the liberals now that hated the Patriot act when it was signed by Bush?  You would think that they would all be lining up behind Rand on this one.

It was horrendous then and still is now, no matter which side passes it.

That kind of mood…….

” They tell us, sir, that we are weak – unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of Hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.

Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.  The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged, their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable – and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Yeah, I am in that kind of mood. Our republic is in flames, our freedoms gone and all anybody can do is bitch.

A comment I left on a news article to an irate commenter.

“It is all in the ACT. Who is willing? I know in Olympia Wash. this coming Saturday some folks are willing to act. I know that in Bunkerville there were people that were willing to act. I know that I am willing to act. I know that when my time comes that I am willing to “Act like it”. But my question is with all the angry fed up people out there, are they willing to “Act like it” or just b@tch about it?”

See? This is why I smoked. Because I am an asshole.

TSA- Ground zero for the police state

From ThomasDishaw.com:

“TSA On The Highways Of America

The TSA has now migrated from the airports to enforcing checkpoints and roadblocks.  Sounds crazy, right? Well it is, and unfortunately it’s  true.  The Guardian reports the TSA’s mission is to turn the Unites States into a police state:

Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA’s snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations – and even running checkpoints on highways – never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA’s air marshal training center since the agency’s inception: “Dominate. Intimidate. Control.”

Anyone who rode the bus in Houston, Texas during the 2-10pm shift last Friday faced random bag checks and sweeps by both drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs (the latter being only canines necessary if “preventing terrorism” were the actual intent of these raids), all courtesy of a joint effort between TSA VIPR nests and three different local and county-level police departments. The new Napolitano doctrine, then: “Show us your papers, show us everything you’ve got, justify yourself or you’re not allowed to go about your everyday business.”

Leading the way in the police state takeover is Tennessee, as Forbes reports:

 In October Tennessee became the first state to conduct a statewide Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) team operation which randomly inspected Tennessee truck drivers and cars.”

The rest is here :http://thomasdishaw.com/tsa-megalomaniacs-dominate-intimidate-control/

Manning a TSA checkpoint should be made the most dangerous job in America. I am sure it will not happen though. Most people are content to submit and allow the shackles to be forged around their ankles.

Not me. I will continue my personal quest to consume as much liberty as I possibly can. Some fool cop will probably shoot me down someday for my “Dangerous actions” but if that is what it will be, then so be it.

The last time I encountered the police they stated in their report “He disobeyed our commands and walked towards us any which way that he pleased”.

Wow! My lawyer kept telling I was lucky I didn’t get shot. They told me to lift my shirt and turn around, which I did. Then they told me to put my hands behind my head and walk backwards towards them.

That I didn’t do. My hands were up and they knew that I was unarmed. I walked towards them ” Any which way I pleased” (Although I considered it a saunter).

This is the America that we live in and allow.

Boy, I am lucky that I didn’t get shot for walking “Any which way I pleased”

Later, the charges were dropped and they let the most dangerous man in America back onto the streets.

What if whites strike back?

Excellent piece from Mychal Massie:
“It would serve race mongers well to consider that even a docile old dog will bite you if you mistreat it often enough and long enough. Tangential to same is the reality of the “laws of unintended consequences.”

I’m tired of seeing, reading, and hearing white people blamed for everything from black boys not being able to read to whites being privileged because of the color of their skin. If I am tired of these Americans being used as scapegoats to further the agenda of race mongers, then it is a sure bet that those being unjustly vilified are especially weary of same.

This isn’t 1860 and it certainly isn’t 1955. There are no slaves in America and there are no Jim Crow laws dictating access based on skin color. Specific to that point it is time to remind people like Obama, Al Sharpton, and the New Black Panther Party that the racial discord they are fomenting can become the harbinger of their own peril.

Obama foments racial unrest and a racial divide to further his neo-Leninist agenda. Sharpton foments racial unrest for personal gain. The New Black Panther Party foments racial hostilities and the demonization of whites in the foolish belief they can bring about a Western version of apartheid where blacks rule.

Too many blacks have lost sight of the fact that it was Africans who were responsible for the enslavement of other Africans. It was war, invasion, conquest, and various caste systems that contributed to slavery. And although one would be hard-pressed to believe it from the invented myths that masquerade as fact, persons of color were not the only slaves.”

The rest is here: http://mychal-massie.com/premium/the-laws-of-unintended-consequences/comment-page-1/#comment-104563

Gun deaths for cops up up 56% in 2014, with 1/3 of those by ambush

Reuters:

“Gun related deaths of U.S. law enforcement officers rose by 56 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, with about one-third of officers killed in an ambush, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said on Tuesday.

Across the country, 50 officers were killed by guns in 2014 compared to 32 in 2013, according to the website of the non-profit fund, which aims to increase safety for law enforcement officers.

The most deadly states were California, Texas, New York, Florida and Georgia, the group said.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/30/us-usa-police-deaths-idUSKBN0K80Z820141230

I think we are about to see the Dorner principle come into effect here. Nationwide the death by firearm count was 50, death by traffic 49 and death by other causes 27.

I don’t think that we are going to see P.D. s paralyzed in fear and afraid to get in their cars because of traffic accidents, even though the death rate is only one below gun related deaths. But if you were to make those  same 49 traffic deaths be the result of car bombs. then there would be utter panic and fear.

It is the effect of being a target and having the shield of invincibility removed that creates the Dorner principle. It is the fact that they are being held accountable for something (Even if it was across the country) and their position gives them vulnerability and culpability, rather than the normal sense of strength and power.

I think that this is just the beginning of ambush shootings and sniping. In addition to the leftists and the tools there are a lot of fed up people out there. From criminals, to outraged  families of those killed unjustly and just fed up Jared Miller types, 2015 may prove to be a shooting gallery.

The big question is, how will they respond? A big paramilitary type presence or community outreach? They have to be careful and not overplay their hand or they will just escalate things farther.

Keep a careful eye to the whole situation as it will probably be the harbinger of things to come on the federal level in the future.

Putin speaks

http://rt.com/news/215523-crisis-payment-bear-chain/

“Putin used the vivid metaphor of a “chained bear” during his annual Q&A session with the media in Moscow in response to a question about whether he believed that the troubles of the Russian economy were payback for the reunification with Crimea.

“It’s not payback for Crimea. It’s the cost of our natural desire to preserve Russia as a nation, a civilization and a state,”Putin said.

The president said that even if “the Russian bear” started “sitting tight… and eating berries and honey,” this would not stop pressure being applied against the country.

“They won’t leave us alone. They will always seek to chain us. And once we are chain, they’ll rip out our teeth and claws. Our nuclear deterrence, speaking in present-day terms,” Putin said.

Just like WWII he is setting the stage. I think Putin is about to make a move and dare us to stop him.

The case against torture from a conservative perspective

Lately I have been getting a lot of flak on my position on “Enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects. I firmly believe that our country should not have institutionalized torture in any form, no matter what is at stake.

I don’t think that we as a country or a people should ever allow something like that to grow within any part of our government, police, or military. The main argument that I encounter is “Well, look what they do to ours and others that they capture”

That is the point; We are not them, we are Americans and to act like them would be, frankly, un-American. Why don’t we torture child killers to death? I know it sounds appealing, but we as a society, in our judgement of them, have also judged that we are not like them. Instead of a cruel and vicious death that would appease blood thirsty revenge, they are afforded the most comfortable death possible.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have no love for these people and if someone other than us were to torture them to death, I couldn’t care less. But we have to remember who we are as a people and as a country; We are the good guys and stand on our principles in righteousness.

Yes, I still believe in American exceptionalism; there are still a core group of Americans who represent the people and the ideals that this country was founded upon. It took Americans, the people who would not abide a king, to finally bring freedom and liberty into the world.

I am not exaggerating either about the difference between us and “them”. Read the quote below and you will get my point about “Un-American”

During the American Revolutionary War, George Washington and his Continental Army put the laws of war into practice regarding prisoners of war unlike their opponents who did not. The British believed that Colonial American soldiers were traitors and not entitled to POW status and would treat them as unlawful combatants and subject them to execution on the battlefield if captured as what happened at the Battle at Drake’s farm during the Forage War. The Americans took a different view. They believed that all captives should be taken prisoner. After winning the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Day 1776, Washington found himself left with hundreds of Hessian troops who had surrendered to the Americans. Washington ordered his troops to take the prisoners in and “treat them with humanity,” which they did. “Let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army,” Washington said.^[16] Some British and Hessian prisoners of war were paroled to American farmers. Their labor made up for shortages caused by the number of men serving in the Continental Army. (Wiki)

We have to decide who we are as a nation and personally, I don’t want to be a nation that tortures. Instead, I want to fight on the side that good old George fought on. If you do all things in righteousness, then when the battle comes to you, you are one hell of an opponent, knowing that right is on your side.

What is wrong when we have to keep prisoners on foreign soil because what happens there cannot be abided on American soil? What is wrong when you have to invent a special class of combatant so the treaties that we signed with good moral conscience don’t apply?

But in addition, there is more to it than just the moral component. Now that the government can declare terrorists enemy combatants, when can that be applied to us? Jose Padilla, an American citizen, was declared an enemy combatant and sent to Gitmo for 3 1/2 years. While he was there “Enhanced interrogation techniques” were used to attempt to garner information.

Eventually he was transferred stateside and tried and convicted in a civilian court. Yes, he was guilty, but how would we have known that without evidence being presented? Since when can a bunch of C.I.A. guys try convict and sentence someone?  How did we know that Padilla didn’t stumble onto something like fast and furious and got shipped out to shut him up? Only because of the fact that evidence was presented that in the end was used to convict him.

Now here is the the thing about his conviction; they never charged him with what they accused him of. He was instead convicted of conspiring to fight in foreign Jihad.

The supreme court ended up making a ruling that was pretty fuzzy, but only after an appeals court ruled that his detention was legal.

After the NDAA 2012 and it’s indefinite military detention provision, how many laws away are we from becoming Jose Padilla?

I don’t think that where our country is headed right now is where I want it to be. I don’t think that it should be filled with people who are willing to abide indefinite detention and torture. I think that it should be filled with men like Washington who are filled with compassion and righteousness and are willing to do the right thing.

I myself may be no Washington, but I sure as hell will speak out for the principles that he believed in, even if I do get a load of crap from people on my side.

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” George orwell

Beware: Putin, the wounded animal

From CNBC:http://www.cnbc.com/id/102273192

“Vladimir Putin is not a good man and not a good leader.

There, I said it … and the U.S. government basically began saying that eight months ago, when it joined with other Western nations in imposing a series of economic sanctions on Putin’s Russia.

The sanctions hurt Russia a bit, but now oil’s freefall is causing the ruble to crash and slamming that nation with a guaranteed recession or even depression.

Read MoreThe collapse of Russia in 3 charts

This would be something worthy of extreme vigilance for the U.S. government and investors alike even if Russia were a true democracy governed by at least semi-responsible leaders.

But it’s worse. Much worse.

Vladimir Putin has always been a lot more like a petty Latin American dictator than a statesman. Think about it: He made his bones in the secret police, consolidated his power with a ring of super wealthy backers, and he claps political opponents in jail at a moment’s notice.

Read MoreRetail platform FXCM halts ruble trade

In short, Putin is like a Augusto Pinochet or a Juan Perón … but with much more steely resolve, a massive military, and nuclear bombs.

But even with Putin’s extremely visible and frightening track record before us, it’s clear the Obama administration and even the investment community is still not prepared for the extent of the damage the Russian leader can unleash on his own people, on his neighbors, and on the U.S. financial markets.

There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. Vladimir Putin is wounded — and he’s not known for holding back.

His entire adventure in Ukraine this year is example of just how destructive and unpredictable Putin can be, and that all happened when oil was still trading at $100 a barrel.

Read MoreRussia says it will react if US imposes new sanctions

So what could he do now?

For all we know, Putin has already done a lot of the following things, but here’s just a partial list:

1. Launch another attack on Ukraine or another neighboring nation

2. Cut off energy supplies to the rest of Europe

3. Launch an all-out cyber war on Western and U.S. companies and government agencies

4. Nationalize foreign-owned or -controlled businesses inside Russia

The question is: do the White House and NATO realize the situation? Does Wall Street?

Despite some political bluster from President Obama after the hostilities began in last spring, I still think we’re dealing with an administration that thinks that light sanctions and negotiations will be enough to keep things from getting out of hand. Remember, this is still the president who told Putin’s top lieutenant back in early 2012 that he’d have “more flexibility” to deal with Russia “after my re-election.” He’s also still the president who mocked Mitt Romney during the election for saying Russia was a serious foreign-policy threat. And while John Kerry is now at the helm, this is still the same State Department that thought then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressing a make believe “reset button” was a good — and appropriate — response to a tyrant like Putin.

The Obama team’s lack of vigilance has almost been matched by Wall Street’s. Most of the discussions about Russia’s ability to drag our markets down centered around the Ukraine crisis earlier this year, with little talk about the overall stability of the nation and Kremlin itself. Only people like Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder took the appropriate tone when he started sounding the alarm bells in 2006 about Putin’s corrupt government and accomplices in the domestic Russian business world.

I’m still not sure that enough people in Washington and on Wall Street have yet grasped this reality: Romney was right. Browder was right. There is almost nothing Putin hasn’t already done to stay in power already.

Just imagine what he’ll do now that he’s been poked with a very sharp stick.”

A federal district court judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that portions of President Obama’s executive amnesty are unconstitutional

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/12/16/District-Court-Judge-Rules-Executive-Amnesty-Unconstitutional

Well, well, let’s see where this goes. Probably to the SCOTUS where they won’t take it because of lack of jurisdiction. Back to Congress’s court telling them that they have remedies in the constitution. Same game, different day.

Wonder if Barry actually wants to get impeached to try and fire up a race war? He has already said in the past he didn’t want to be POTUS without the senate.

Russia Defends Ruble With Biggest Rate Rise Since 1998

“Russia took its biggest step yet to shore up the ruble and defuse the currency crisis threatening its stricken economy.

In a surprise announcement just before 1 a.m. in Moscow, the Russian central bank said it would raise its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent, effective today. The move was the largest single increase since 1998, when Russian rates soared past 100 percent and the government defaulted on debt.

The ruble lost 2.5 percent to 66.0985 against the dollar as of 12:53 p.m., reversing an early gain prompted by the news.

The announcement, as well as its timing, underscored the financial straits in which Russia now finds itself. If sustained, the new higher rates would squeeze an economy that is already being hurt by sanctions led by the U.S. and European Union, and by a collapse in oil prices. Some analysts said they doubted the economy could withstand such high rates for long.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-15/russia-increases-key-interest-rate-to-17-to-stem-ruble-decline.html

Think Putin is going down without a fight? I don’t. Right now they are forcing the Russian bear into a corner.If the collective oil producers keep oil low for a long enough time they will leave Putin few options. Hard choices:Let your economy collapse or start pillaging foreign treasuries.
A man pushed to empire by events. What’s a Hun to do?
At this point I think we should just spare all of the bloodshed. We should have the champions meet on the field of battle and settle the score.
We can send Dear Leader out on a girls bike, wearing mom jeans and clutching a handful of healthy recipes to vanquish the blood thirsty half Hun. To the victor the spoils!!
What say you, comrades of New Russia west?

Bank of America issues dire warning

First this on oil prices:

” The Opec oil cartel no longer exists in any meaningful sense and crude prices will slump to $50 a barrel over the coming months as market forces shake out the weakest producers, Bank of America has warned.

Revolutionary changes sweeping the world’s energy industry will drive down the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG), creating a “multi-year” glut and a much cheaper source of gas for Europe.

Francisco Blanch, the bank’s commodity chief, said Opec is “effectively dissolved” after it failed to stabilize prices at its last meeting. “The consequences are profound and long-lasting,“ he said.

The free market will now set the global cost of oil, leading to a new era of wild price swings and disorderly trading that benefits only the Mid-East petro-states with deepest pockets such as Saudi Arabia. If so, the weaker peripheral members such as Venezuela and Nigeria are being thrown to the wolves.

The bank said in its year-end report that at least 15pc of US shale producers are losing money at current prices, and more than half will be under water if US crude falls below $55. The high-cost producers in the Permian basin will be the first to “feel the pain” and may soon have to cut back on production.”

And then this on the end of QE:

” Bank of America said quantitative easing in Europe and Japan will cover just 35pc of the global stimulus lost as the Fed pulls back, creating a treacherous hiatus for markets. It warned that the full effect of Fed tapering had yet to be felt. From now on the markets cannot expect to be rescued every time there is a squall. “The threshold for the Fed to return to QE will be high. This is why we believe we are entering a phase in which bad news will be bad news and volatility will likely rise,” it said.

“What is clear is that the world has become addicted to central bank stimulus. Bank of America said 56pc of global GDP is currently supported by zero interest rates, and so are 83pc of the free-floating equities on global bourses. Half of all government bonds in the world yield less that 1pc. Roughly 1.4bn people are experiencing negative rates in one form or another.

These are astonishing figures, evidence of a 1930s-style depression, albeit one that is still contained. Nobody knows what will happen as the Fed tries to break out of the stimulus trap, including Fed officials themselves.

The rest here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/oilprices/11283875/Bank-of-America-sees-50-oil-as-Opec-dies.html

Just great news isn’t it? Oh well, the ride has to start sooner or later.