Welfare-Warfare State

U.S. Leaving $7 Billion of Military Equipment Behind in Afghanistan

"Not only has the U.S. created a disaster with the unconstitutional invasion of Afghanistan, but now that they've been forced to retreat, they're leaving behind some stuff...$7 BILLION worth! The Washington Post reports: 'Military planners have determined that they will not ship back more than $7 billion worth of equipment — about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in Afghanistan — because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to ship back home.' What's $7 billion when you can always just turn on the taxpayer spigot? And doesn't Bernanke create $7 billion just in his sleep? What's the big deal?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Leaving $7 Billion of Military Equipment Behind in Afghanistan

The Never-Ending Story of Government Cost Overruns

"Why does virtually everything the government does cost more than we’re initially told? In 2009, for instance, I warned that Obamacare would be much more costly than advertised, so I certainly wasn’t surprised several years later when the numbers began to climb. Heck, I narrated an entire video warning that this would happen. There are probably an infinite number of reasons why government programs wind up being needlessly expensive, but I think most of them fall into these four broad categories." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Never-Ending Story of Government Cost Overruns

Tens of thousands of government workers hired to roll out Obamacare

"State offices that will run insurance exchanges are hiring tens of thousands, either on staff or through outsourcing firms. Federal agencies that are key to implementing the law, such as the Internal Revenue Service, plan to hire thousands more, and private non-profit groups backed by the White House are dispatching thousands of newly hired staffers and volunteers into the field. HHS spent $394 million through last March on contracts to set up state insurance exchanges it will run, according to a GAO report this week. Experts say at least 2.7 million younger, healthier people need to sign up to make the exchanges work financially." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTens of thousands of government workers hired to roll out Obamacare

Jacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

"We live under a governmental system in which the president, the military, the CIA, and the NSA now wield powers that the greatest dictators in history have wielded. The powers to assassinate people, to indefinitely detain people without due process or trial by jury, to kidnap and rendition people, to torture people, to subject people to LSD experiments, to invade and occupy foreign countries, to support coups in foreign lands, to install, train, maintain, and support brutal dictatorial regimes, to spy on and monitor the activities of people everywhere. In other words, the dark type of things that Americans used to complain that communist or totalitarian regimes were engaged in." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

Bill Bonner: How to Disappear Without a Trace

"Twelve years ago – when the 'homeland' was first invented (a smooth adaptation of Hitler's 'fatherland') and TSA agents began frisking grandmothers – the whole thing seemed like a joke. It looked as though America's leaders had gotten themselves into a hysterical panic. They thought al-Qaida really existed... that there were terrorist sleeper cells in every hamlet and burg... and that these infiltrators were about to wreak havoc on the nation. It was a preposterous lie, but we figured they'd come to their senses soon. Instead of coming to their senses, America's leaders began to see the advantage of a war that could neither be won nor lost." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: How to Disappear Without a Trace

Don’t Get Fooled Again — It’s Time to Dump Bonds Now

"The bond-market bust was a long time coming, if you’ve read my columns this year and last. But some investors — even big-time mutual fund managers — got caught flat-footed. Why? Just like real estate in the 2000s and tech stocks in the late 1990s, those bull markets were artificially extended for years, and those who got out early lost out on some of the biggest gains. But make no mistake. The real problem is what I’ve been harping on for several months: The bond market is a gigantic bubble, having been wildly inflated by too much cheap, easy money from the world’s central banks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDon’t Get Fooled Again — It’s Time to Dump Bonds Now

Xerxes Is On The Move

"At a cost of 'between $60 million to $100 million,' 'President Obama goes to sub-Saharan Africa this month,' reports the usually adoring Washington Post. A good part of the comitatus—'the sprawling apparatus that encompasses … the emperor’s household and its personnel'—is going along for the ride. Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingXerxes Is On The Move

Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit

"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 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. So don't look down on Detroit. They just got there before the rest of us." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit

Diary of WWII German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin

"The 15-year-old Berlin schoolgirl, nicknamed 'Gitti', started keeping a diary in December 1942, when the German capital was being bombed nightly and the Nazi Holocaust was killing thousands. As a trainee secretary, she recorded her daily experiences to improve her stenography skills. Now, some 70 years on, her diary has been published for the first time in Germany and is being hailed as remarkable documentary evidence of how millions of Germans relied on collective indifference to endure the horrors of war and ignore the brutality of the Nazi rule." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDiary of WWII German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin

The World’s Greatest Investor is Dead Wrong

"Contrary to the wisdom spouted by people like Mr. Buffett, gold’s movements are not about the economy. They’re not about geopolitical tensions. They’re not about inflation (and they’ve never been about inflation— a fact that four decades of correlation statistics handily prove). They’re not about what central banks are or are not buying. They are, instead, entirely about the direction of the U.S. dollar as a reflection of the U.S. fiscal situation. And as the last four decades have proven, the dollar will go down as America’s finances worsen. And that makes gold a buy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe World’s Greatest Investor is Dead Wrong