Infinite Unknown

- European Car Sales Drop To 20-Year Low, Germany Clobbered (ZeroHedge, June 18, 2013):

When the S&P, always so conveniently ahead of the curve, yesterday revised its forecast for Europe from growth in the second half of 2013 to 2014 one couldn’t help but golf clap, as well as wonder if they finally started looking at the fundamental depressionary reality on the ground instead of the rating agency’s infamous “models.” A depressionary reality confirmed by the latest car sales number for May which just hit a fresh 20 year low.

From AP:

European car sales hit their lowest level for the month of May in 20 years as the region’s recession dragged on, the European automakers’ association said Tuesday.

They meant depression instead of recession, but it’s an honest mistake. Continue reading »

Tags: BMW, Cars, Collapse, Economy, Europe, Fiat, General Motors, Global News, Mercedes, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Renault, VW

- Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit (Economic Collapse, June 16, 2013):

Eventually the money runs out.  Much of America was shocked when the city of Detroit defaulted on a $39.7 million debt payment and announced that it was suspending payments on $2.5 billion of unsecured debt, but those who visit my site on a regular basis were probably not too surprised.  Anyone with half a brain and a calculator could see this coming from a mile away.  But people kept foolishly lending money to the city of Detroit, and now many of them are going to get hit really hard.  Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has submitted a proposal that would pay unsecured creditors about 10 cents on the dollar.  Similar haircuts would be made to underfunded pension and health benefits for retirees.  Orr is hoping that the creditors and the unions that he will be negotiating with will accept this package, but he concedes that there is still a “50-50 chance” that the city of Detroit will be forced to formally file for bankruptcy.  But what Detroit is facing is not really that unique.  In fact, Detroit is a perfect example of what the future of America is going to look like.  We live in a nation that is rotting, decaying, drowning in debt and racing toward insolvency.  Already there are dozens of other cities across the nation that are poverty-ridden, crime-infested hellholes just like Detroit is, and hundreds of other communities are rapidly heading in that direction.  So don’t look down on Detroit.  They just got there before the rest of us.

The following are some facts about Detroit that are absolutely mind-blowing… Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Bonds, Children, Collapse, Crime, Debt, Detroit, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Police, Politics, Poverty

- For First Time Majority Finds President Untrustworthy: Obama Approval Plunges Among Young Americans (ZeroHedge, June 17, 2013):

Whatever the deteriorating economy could not achieve (courtesy of Ben Bernanke’s relentless bubble blowing and pumping of the S&P 500-driven “wealth effect” distraction) for the past four years, one NSA whistleblower succeeded in a few short days, when earlier today, CNN – hardly a media known for its criticism of the administration – released a new poll according to which not only did Obama’s approval rating drop by 8% in the past month, “one of the sharpest, fastest plunges in his presidency” to 45% from 53% (the first time the majority had a negative opinion of the president), not only did the majority find Obama to not be honest and trustworthy for the first time ever in his presidency, but Obama’s support with one of his core constituencies – young Americans under 30 – imploded, plunging by 17 points. CNN adds: “That’s particularly discouraging heading into 2014 because Democrats have felt they have a lock on the youth vote after the 2012 elections. “The drop in Obama’s support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.” Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S.

ZeroHedge’s Tyler Durden comments on this …

- GCHQ Intercepted Foreign Politicians’ Communications At G20 Summits (Guardian, June 17, 2013)

… article.

- NSA, UK Spied On Politicians, Intercepted Emails, Eavesdropped On Russian President’s Phone Calls (ZeroHedge, June 17, 2013):

The espionage scandal that keeps on giving has released its latest installment, once more courtesy of the Guardian, which on the eve of tomorrow’s starting G-8 meeting reveals that foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G-20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored, their phone calls intercepted, and fake internet cafes were set up on the instructions of the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the sister organization to the US NSA.Naturally, it wasn’t just the GCHQ – according to the Guardian, during the 2009 G-20 meeting there was an NSA attempt to eavesdrop on then-Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev, as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow.

And while broad espionage allegations can be deflected by pretending by the rhetoric-endowed and teleprompter-aided that only terrorist threats were targeted, it will be very difficult to explain why the national information super spooks used every trick of the trade to spy on the so-called leaders of the developed world.

The disclosure raises new questions about the boundaries of surveillance by GCHQ and its American sister organisation, the National Security Agency, whose access to phone records and internet data has been defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. The G20 spying appears to have been organised for the more mundane purpose of securing an advantage in meetings. Named targets include long-standing allies such as South Africa and Turkey.

Continue reading »

Tags: 1984, Barack Obama, Big Brother, Dictatorship, Edward Snowden, G20, GCHQ, George Orwell, Global News, Government, NSA, Obama administration, Politics, Stasi, Surveillance, U.K., U.S.

- Obama, Morsi, Plunge Middle East Into Chaos (Veterans Today, June 17, 2013, by Gordon Duff):

This week, President Obama  announced that US ”intelligence estimates” conclusively prove Syria has been using chemical weapons in Syria.  The US will now supply weapons and ammunition to Syrian rebels the Washington Post says are, not just Al Qaeda “affiliates” but working to destabilize and “Balkanize” Iraq as well:

“In an audio message posted online, the speaker identified as Baghdadi insists that a merger he announced in April with Syria’s al-Nusra Front, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, to create a cross-border movement known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant will go on.

Al-Nusra is an al-Qaeda affiliate that has emerged as one of the most effective rebel factions in Syria.”

Continue reading »

Tags: AIPAC, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Barack Obama, Bashar Assad, CIA, Dictatorship, Egypt, Fascism, France, Global News, Government, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Middle East, Military, Mohammed Morsi, Muslims, Neoconservatives, New World Order, Obama administration, Politics, Religion, Russia, Syria, Terrorism, Turkey, U.K., U.N., U.S., War, WMDs

From the article:

“The system is totally broken and everybody knows it”
– Sherman Mullin, retired former Lockheed F-22 program chief

The F-35 is also a total disaster:

- Test Pilots: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

- Pentagon Grounds F-35 Fighter Jet Fleet After Engine Crack Found

- F-35 (Ironically Known As ‘Lightning II’) Fatal Flaw: Lightning!

- Trillion-Dollar F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet Has Thirteen Expensive New Flaws

Delays, technical glitches and huge cost overruns in the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet program highlight the Pentagon’s broken procurement process.

A Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in flight during flight tests. (Lockheed Martin)

- F-22 program produces few planes, soaring costs (LA Times, June 16, 2013):

When the U.S. sought to assure Asian allies that it would defend them against potential aggression by North Korea this spring, the Pentagon deployed its top-of-the-line jet fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

But only two of the jets were sent screaming through the skies south of Seoul.

That token show of American force was a stark reminder that the U.S. may have few F-22s to spare. Alarmed by soaring costs, the Defense Department shut down production last year after spending $67.3 billion on just 188 planes — leaving the Air Force to rely mainly on its fleet of 30-year-old conventional fighters.

“People around the world aren’t dumb,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). “They see what we have. They recognize that our forces have been severely depleted.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Air Force, F-22, Global News, Government, Lockheed Martin, Military, Pentagon, Politics, U.S.

Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas

- UK planned war on Syria before unrest began: French ex-foreign minister (PressTV, June 16, 2013):

A former French foreign minister says Britain had been planning a war against Syria some two years before to the unrest broke out in the Arab country.

The statement by Roland Dumas came during a recent interview with French Parliamentary TV network, LCP.

“I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria,” said Dumas.

He continued by saying, “This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate.”

Responding to a question on the motive behind inciting violence in Syria, Dumas said, “Very simple! With the very simple aim! To overthrow the Syrian government, because in the region, it’s important to understand, that the Syrian regime makes anti-Israeli talk,” said Dumas

The former foreign minister added that he had been told by an Israeli prime minister a long time ago that Tel Aviv would seek to “destroy” any country that did not “get along” with it in the region.

Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Government, Israel, Middle East, Politics, Roland Dumas, Syria, U.K., War

YouTube Added. 15.06.2013

- Ron Paul blasts Obama on Syria war escalation (PressTV, June 15, 2013):

Former Congressman Ron Paul has sharply criticized the Obama administration for “escalating” the war in Syria by sending weapons to foreign-backed militants in the country.

“Today we heard from President Obama that the war in Syria will be escalated. He now has agreed to send weaponry in to assist the rebels. It’s escalation, that’s a proper word, because we’ve already been involved for quite a few months. We’ve been supporting the rebels for probably the past two years, supposedly for humanitarian reasons,” he said in a statement posted on YouTube on Friday.

“But now there is going to be a much more aggressive approach and we’re going to send weapons. There is a few problems with this, first off it’s war. Second thing is presidents are not supposed to start war without permission from the people through a congressional declaration of war,” Paul argued.

He also dismissed claims made by the White House that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the militants, saying the accusations are ill-founded and resemble the claims made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

“The language is the same. They use the same arguments. Weapons of Mass Destruction, poison gases, hundred people died, [and] the government has done this,” he said. “To me it’s all an excuse.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Iraq, Middle East, Military, Politics, Ron Paul, Syria, Terrorism, U.S., War, White House, WMDs

- Killing Your Own Veterans (Veterans Today, June 17, 2013)

Tags: Global News, Government, Israel, Military, Politics, Veterans

From the article:

“If creditors reject the plan, Detroit could be forced into what would be by far the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in US history.

Orr said there is a “50:50” chance the city will be forced into bankruptcy and that decision would likely happen in the next 30 days.

…

Detroit has also experienced a 26 percent decline in population since 2000, …”

- Detroit rock bottom: City announces $2.5bn debt default (RT, June 15, 2013):

Detroit said it will stop making payment on $2.5 billion of the city’s massive $18.5 billion debt and has asked creditors to accept 10 cents in the dollar of what the city owes them in a bid to avoid the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history.

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said the city would stop making payments on its unsecured debt in a bid to “conserve cash” for vital services like police and firefighters. He further said pension benefits both present and future along with healthcare would face cuts, while control over the city’s water and sewage would be turned over to an independent body.

Continue reading »

Tags: Bonds, Collapse, Debt, Detroit, Global News, Government, Politics, U.S.