Puerto Rico Faces Bankruptcy: Watch YOUR Wallets

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

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A little less than a year ago I reported several times on Paul Ryan’s efforts to save banking profits by temporarily averting financial disaster in Puerto Rico. Then, I wrote:

May 24, 2016 I posted Paul Ryan Rescues Banksters, Globalists about Paul Ryan’s dastardly plans to force you (all of you) to pay Puerto Rico’s debts – all on behalf of the banksters of the world.

I said then:

The bailout will happen; consider it a done deal. Really $2 Billion or the whole $70 Billion is but a barely noticeable drop in the fed’s ocean of economic woe. Things like this add up though. When the whole system comes crashing down don’t count on the banksters to be found let alone lend a hand. They’re gathering the last of the cash (yours and mine) and preparing to flee. However, come hell or high water, the politicians will be easier to find. They’ll still expect to be re-elected. Remember this story and all the others. Hold them accountable or rinse and repeat with similar results.

U.S. Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), who actually has a Ph.D. in economics, has caught on to the theft and deception:

“This makes the bill truly Orwellian — it remove[d] the consent of the Puerto Rican people and creates a fiefdom for unelected officials chosen by President Obama.

“As economist Thomas Sowell said, ‘The fatal attraction of government is that it allows busybodies to impose decisions on others without paying any price themselves.’ Congress can’t even get its own fiscal house in order, but [passed] a bill to solve Puerto Rico’s problems.

“This bill should [have been] subject to ratification by the Puerto Rican legislature or a vote from the Puerto Rican people. As it stands, I [opposed] PROMESA because it turns free citizens into subjects.”

He’s only talking about the loss of autonomy of the people of Puerto Rico; the rest of the American people will be losing their money. Pay up, subjects.

Temporary is almost over. The law passed and the wayward territory was given a year to get settlements in order. Like so much else Ryan touches, nothing has happened.

Bankruptcy for Puerto Rico is looking ever more likely as the clock ticks down toward a May 1 deadline to restructure $70 billion in debt, ramping up uncertainty for anyone betting on returns from the island’s widely held U.S. municipal bonds.

When U.S. Congress last year passed the Puerto Rico rescue law dubbed PROMESA, it froze creditor lawsuits against the island so its federally appointed oversight board and creditors could negotiate out of court on the biggest debt restructuring in U.S. municipal history.

The freeze expires on May 1, however, and an extension by Congress is “not going to happen,” said a Republican aide to the House Committee on Natural Resources, which is in charge of territory matters.

A round of mediated talks is scheduled to begin on Thursday. But absent an agreement soon, a growing number of analysts say Puerto Rico will seek protection from creditors under PROMESA’s court-sanctioned restructuring process, akin to U.S. bankruptcy.

Forbearance deals could let negotiations continue past May 1, but a source directly involved in the talks said avoiding an eventual bankruptcy is “impossible.”

Bankruptcy wouldn’t be the worst thing for P.R. In fact, it might be the best thing, here and now. It could give the people of the island room to decide if they want to continue their local fiasco. Hopefully, it will stay local and with them.

I have a funny feeling Congress won’t stand idly-by as the banks lose $70 Billion. Time will tell.

This case may serve as a canary in the economic coalmine. Watch and see what happens when governments default – more will surely follow.

This might be a good time to decide if P.R. should be granted sovereignty.

Might be a good look at the relationship between Congress and Wall Street.

It might be fun or funny, but probably not…

State by State Guide to Tax Theft Rates

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Too often I focus on the criminal insanity emanating from Washington, D.C. The Empire also has 50 accomplices in the constant looting of your wallet. Martin Armstrong ran the numbers and came up with some informative maps.

Now filter in the State Income Taxes and what emerges is human nature. For all the people who complain about multinational companies moving offshore and then deny that it is tax related and try to characterize that as simply labor is cheaper, need to look more closely. The multinational companies I restructured we looked at the whole picture. Wages were a small part and only one component. What was the amount of social taxation on top of the wages, property taxes in a region, and then the corporate tax. Gee – it looks like the individual is making the same analysis.

The net migration of people within the United States mirrors the same thing taking place corporately on a global scale. They are leaving the highest taxed states and moving to the lower taxed states. Taxes are more than just what you pay, they push up the cost of living because everyone is paying a higher tax rate and raises all consumer goods. I took a friend out with his family down from NJ and they bought ice cream cones here in Florida. The bill was about half that of what they pay at the Jersey shore. I said see: high taxes ripple through everything within the economy raising the price of everything you buy. The net bottom line – taxes rob much more of your disposable income than anyone actually attributes to the government directly.

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Armstrong Economics / Attom Data.

This report focuses on the combined effects of property and income taxes. There’s an overlay map of the two: red for higher taxes, green for lower. Go for the green, if you want to keep your own.

Note: In some few of the states with positive income tax rates, said taxes do not kick in before a certain income level is reached, or they apply to certain types of income. For example: NH has no tax on “wages” but they tax investment incomes (while taxing the fire out of property).

Terror (Again) in Germany (Again)

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

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Same today as yesterday, the day before, tomorrow, etc., etc., etc.

  • The explosion hit Dortmund’s bus as it was leaving the team’s hotel, L’Arrivee
  • Defender Marc Bartra was injured in when the three explosions hit the bus
  • It is believed that he only suffered cuts to his hands from the shattered glass
  • ‘No element’ of the explosion points toward an organised terror attack
  • Police are assuming that the blasts were caused by ‘serious explosive devices’, set off by a mobile phone or a garage door-opening device
  • Police said the devices may have been hidden in a hedge near a car park
  • Tuesday night’s match was cancelled and has been rescheduled for Wednesday

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AP / Daily Mail.

It seems to have been targeted specifically at the soccer bus. And there were no deaths and only one severe injury. Still, we had better not take any chances. Better ban soccer, buses, and mobile phones…

I’ll Believe This When I Fly One: Dawn of the Flying Car?

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

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Little known fact: Perrin is (was) obsessed with flying cars. I have studied these concepts (they’re never anything more than a concept) for over 25 years. Every two or three years it’s the same thing: “The Flying Car is Here! Today! Err…Tomorrow! Soon…ish…. sometime. Sometime soon, maybe in a year or 40….” Like this, today:

IF flying cars are the future, the future is right now.

The first ever production-ready flying car is due to be shown off later this month at the world’s most exclusive supercar show – Top Marques Monaco.

Why chose between driving or flying when you could do both?

Built by Slovak pioneering company AeroMobil, the vehicle was first revealed as a concept in 2014, and now a much improved version is ready for the world’s richest to take for a spin and purchase if they wish.

Fully functional as both an aircraft and a four-wheeled car, it is powered by hybrid propulsion, with wings sweeping back against the body when the vehicle is in driving mode.

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The Sun.

“If”. If is the worst, damnedest word in the all of auto-aviation. “The future is here, today! Well, today is next month at the auto show … where the think will be a mock-up. Flight testing in 2019. On sale in 2022 2260 never….”

Spare me. That thing looks cool, much like the Moller Skycar … in 1990…

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Never. Took. Off. Moller / Wikipedia.

I’m waiting patiently as I have for the past 1,000 years or so. In spite of my (what?) 1,000,000+ miles driving experience, I really, really hate traffic. That, coupled with my rudimentary and aging flying skills, make me the perfect driver/flyer for this, the Moller, or anything else that will get me up over and off of the Interstates.

Must I duct tape a hang-glider to a dirtbike or something?

How about this?

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This will probably fly first.

*The ready solution is a Cessna and a rental car. Plausible, yes. But the flying car is – well, it’s the all in one package. 

The Empire Falters

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

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John Whitehead muses over the new, emerging wars of stupidity in conjunction with all the other wars, programs, policies, debts, and expenditures which are pushing the U.S. closer and closer towards fifth-century Rome.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. — James Madison

Waging endless wars abroad (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Syria) isn’t making America—or the rest of the world—any safer, it’s certainly not making America great again, and it’s undeniably digging the U.S. deeper into debt.

In fact, it’s a wonder the economy hasn’t collapsed yet.

Indeed, even if we were to put an end to all of the government’s military meddling and bring all of the troops home today, it would take decades to pay down the price of these wars and get the government’s creditors off our backs. Even then, government spending would have to be slashed dramatically and taxes raised.

…

The government is $19 trillion in debt: War spending has ratcheted up the nation’s debt. The debt has now exceeded a staggering $19 trillion and is growing at an alarming rate of $35 million/hour and $2 billion every 24 hours. Yet while defense contractors are getting richer than their wildest dreams, we’re in hock to foreign nations such as Japan and China (our two largest foreign holders at $1.13 trillion and $1.12 trillion respectively).

The Pentagon’s annual budget consumes almost 100% of individual income tax revenue. If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off, especially when it comes to paying the tab for America’s attempts to police the globe. Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America’s expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry at a rate of more than $57 million per hour.

…

The U.S. government spends more on wars (and military occupations) abroad every year than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety. In fact, the U.S. spends more on its military than the eight highest-ranking nations with big defense budgets combined. The reach of America’s military empire includes close to 800 bases in as many as 160 countries, operated at a cost of more than $156 billion annually. As investigative journalist David Vine reports, “Even US military resorts and recreation areas in places like the Bavarian Alps and Seoul, South Korea, are bases of a kind. Worldwide, the military runs more than 170 golf courses.”

…

Add in the cost of waging war in Syria (with or without congressional approval), and the burden on taxpayers soars to more than $11.5 million a day. Ironically, while presidential candidate Trump was vehemently opposed to the U.S. use of force in Syria, as well as harboring Syrian refugees within the U.S., he had no problem retaliating against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on behalf of Syrian children killed in a chemical attack. The cost of launching a 59 Tomahawk missile-strike against Syria? It’s estimated that the missiles alone cost $60 million. Mind you, this is the same man, while campaigning for president, who warned that fighting Syria would signal the start of World War III against a united Syria, Russia and Iran. Already oil prices have started to climb as investors anticipate an extended conflict.

Clearly, war has become a huge money-making venture, and the U.S. government, with its vast military empire, is one of its best buyers and sellers.

Yet what most Americans—brainwashed into believing that patriotism means supporting the war machine—fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the military industrial complex at taxpayer expense.

These facts and figures are staggering and Whitehead shoots on the low side of the costs involved. But he nails it that, whatever the cost, there benefits are nonexistent. Of course,the usual suspects are cleaning up. The rest of us are fleeced, lie to, and in some cases, maimed or killed.

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Not sure what these numbers refer to, if anything. Symbolism, this. Pagun View.

It’s always the internal affairs that bring down great nations and empires. We are no different. The problem is repeated throughout history: government’s run wild; the people are willfully blind. I can’t and won’t give any date as accurate as, say, 476 for the default – even that is speculative. But it’s coming, happening now, been happening…

“America first” would have gone a long way to “make America great again”. Make it just American again. Sadly, these slogans were empty as any and didn’t even remotely materialize.

The good news is that, eventually, life will go on. The average man in the Italian Alps circa 550 lived essentially the same life as his counterpart from 450. The getting there, getting through the end game, will require a little stamina and preparation. If you didn’t pay much attention to the recent past, at least give a little thought to the near future.

 

Nica: Cigars or Surveillance?

10 Monday Apr 2017

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I go ahead and call it: Nicaragua is the new Cuba – simply the best tasting cigars in the world (with some stiff competition from numerous countries).

Nica also has a long, sad history of civil strife, coupled with international meddling. The U.S. has been involved for decades as have the Russians. Now, the NZ Herald reports on new suspicions over a Russian facility outside Managua.

US officials are keeping a keen eye on a Russian complex nestled on the edge of a volcanic crater in Nicaragua.

The center, which is believed to be a satellite station, has been built near the Laguna de Nejapa in Managua – the capital of the Central American nation, according to Daily Mail.

The Washington Post reports the local government described the complex as, “simply a tracking site of the Russian version of a GPS satellite system”, but not everyone is convinced it isn’t something more sinister.

“Clearly there’s been a lot of activity, and it’s on the uptick now,” a US official and expert on Central America, told the newspaper.

Other officials said there are concerns the hub could be a “dual use” facility, meaning it could house equipment and workers with the ability to conduct electronic surveillance against American citizens.

From where the compound is located, it offers those who are based there a clear view of the US Embassy about 10 miles away in the heart of Managua.

I have no idea what is going on down there and, unless and until it disrupts the trade from Esteli or Jalapa, I don’t really care.

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Leave these folks to work. Smoke Shop Mag / Perdomo.

Nations spy on each other, tensions and reasons or not. That’s not my concern. My concern is earthy-flavored smokes. Let me make it clear to Washington and Moscow: leave my friends and sticks alone. Keep your braindead BS in Syria or Ukraine or anywhere else. Don’t make me come down there…

Well, This Isn’t Good

09 Sunday Apr 2017

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There is good news tonight: congratulations to Sergio Garcia on a Masterful performance at Augusta. One may have noticed a slight lack of color on CBS; they let the azaleas slip for once (no one is perfect, even the National). I guarantee the color will be back next year – along with many, many astounding changes (more on that later [HUGE doings in Augusta in years to come…]).

In Russia, the color is red. That’s what Putin is seeing and how he describes the line Trump crossed last week in Syria.

One of the things that got Trump elected was the fear that a second President Clinton would merely be a shill for the war parties, who would steer us uncomfortably close to armed conflict with Russia. Trump channeled his inner 2000-era W and promised a humble foreign policy. That all went out the window – missile tube, rather – last week.

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Honestly, I would have picked another man to piss off… Drudge.

From The Daily Mail:

The Assad regime has denied it was responsible and the Russians have claimed it was a ‘false flag’ incident carried out by jihadists who want to stir up tensions between Russia and the US.

President Trump infuriated Moscow when he authorised an airstrike on a Syrian air base on Friday, which killed at least six people.

British Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said today it was the ‘right call’ for the Americans to bomb the air base as retribiution for a ‘barbaric, immoral and illegal’ act by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who he described as a Russian ‘proxy’.
But in a joint statement the Russian and Iranians said: ‘We will respond to any aggression’.

The Sun reported that a joint command centre in Syria said: ‘What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.’

The Sun has a parallel story, perhaps most interesting because they dial back the rhetoric on the “definitive” narrative of the chemical attacks. Now, it’s only “suspected”. Next, will be privately written off and publicly ignored.

Right now, this all looks like two things: First, there’s tremendous rah-rah for Trump’s actions from the British Foreign Secretary. Second, there’s militant posturing from Damascus and Tehran. All well and good if it stays like that. Cooler heads might have a chance to prevail.

The British always have our backs. No change expected there. And neither Iran nor Syria have the ability to harm the U.S. in any significant fashion. It’s Russia that should worry sane people. They do have detrimental abilities.

Concerns mount that Kim-Jong Un(well) may have the ability to get one ICBM to Hawaii. Russia can get thousands of them everywhere. They can certainly disrupt American operations in Syria and the Med.

None of this is remotely good and it represents one of the major fears of last year’s campaign. Worst of all, is the fact that there is no rational basis for any of it – not for our intervention in Syria nor for anything but friendship with Russia.

To my previously dejected liberal friends, I say, “congratulations; it looks like your girl won after all”. To my Republican chums, I say, “congratulations; you elected Mr. Hilary Clinton”. To the rest of us, I say, “pray”.

The long odds are that this will all blow over. The short call is that it may blow up.

Developing…

 

About that Missile Strike in Syria

09 Sunday Apr 2017

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Virtually all American foreign policy and military action over the past 120 years has been based on lies and deception (and a desire to profit from destruction). Mr. Clinton’s Trump’s misadventure in Syria last week was no exception.

Speaking of foreign policy, it’s nice to once again have Amy Carter Ivanka Trump providing driving consultations on weighty matters.

DONALD Trump’s decision to rain down 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian air base was sparked by his daughter Ivanka’s “heartbroken” response to Assad’s chemical attack, insiders have claimed.

Trump has long opposed military intervention in Syria – both as a private citizen when he criticised Obama’s intervention in the region, and as President.

But the Republican firebrand is believed to have made his dramatic U-turn after being convinced by his daughter Ivanka’s impassioned response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons on Tuesday.

A source close to the first family said: “Increasingly, Ivanka is having more and more influence over her father.

The feelings… It was all the “beautiful babies” killed that got the attention of the White House. No word of concern, yet, for the other babies killed by the missile strike. Gotta break some eggs I suppose…

There is still no evidence whatsoever that Assad gassed anyone. Of course, evidence is no longer required. The government and the media need mere allegations, sensational or otherwise, and little else. The gullible public will believe what they’re told. Their goldfish-like attention span always expires by the time the truth comes out.

The truth, here, in the earliest stages of the aftermath, appears that ISIS or some other “rebel” group stored crude chemical weapons in a warehouse. These are the people Assad is fighting to free his nation from. The Russians are fighting them too. As part of the fight Moscow bombed the warehouse. Gases incidentally escaped and killed people.

The CIA (likely backing the “rebels” or whoever) knew all of this. Where known truths fail, lies will work. Blame Assad and drop some bombs. Stir the pot into further frenzy.

Ron Paul called it like it is:

“The peace talks have ended now. They’re terrified that peace was going to break out! Al-Qaeda was on the run, peace talks were happening, and all of a sudden, they had to change, and this changes things dramatically! I don’t expect peace talks anytime soon or in the distant future.”

Peace, Dr. Paul knows, isn’t very profitable for the Empire and its owners. The strike was worse than useless from a peaceful standpoint. It will keep the Syrian cauldron boiling. It keeps ISIS happy and busy. It destabilizes the already shaky region. It did nothing to ISIS operations in Egypt, Sweden, or anywhere else. And it risks further needless confrontation with Russia. Some beautiful babies are dead. But, hey, we’s tuff!

Now, if you will simply turn your attention back to the glowing screen on the wall, I think some men are playing with balls. Beer might be advertised.

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Money for jobs, schools, and healthcare?! That sounds like America first… Damn, even communist protesters get it… RT.

Terror Cairo (and Stockholm Updates)

09 Sunday Apr 2017

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The other day, following the truck attack in Stockholm, I quipped that Muslims were already offended about backlash from tomorrow’s attack. And tomorrow’s attack hit Cairo during Palm Sunday services at a Coptic church. Forty-three Christians were murdered.

An ISIS suicide bomber detonated outside an Egyptian church after being stopped from entering by three hero policemen in a double Palm Sunday massacre that killed 43 Christians.

CCTV shows the fanatic, dressed in a blue pullover, being turned away from the main gate at St Mark’s in Alexandria and being told to go through the metal detector.

He then passes a female police officer chatting to another woman, and enters a metal detector before an explosion engulfs the area.

The attack, which followed another devastating attack in Tanta, was thought to have been aimed at Pope Tawadros II, leader of the ancient Coptic church, who was worshipping in St Mark’s at the time.

The religion of pieces…

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EPA /Daily Mail.

Coptic Christians are maybe 10% of Egypt’s total population. Is that a little concern about minority rights I hear? Of course not. The homoglobos could care less, perhaps even being happy about the carnage as it fuels their scheme to destabilize the Middle East and coerce the West into a strange murder/suicide.

And red-bloodied, beer-bellied Americans don’t care. They don’t know where Egypt is or that there are any Christians in the country. It’s just another bunch of Muslims we outta nuke.

Historically, the Middle East has sustained long periods of inter-religious peace and coexistence, punctuated with short, extreme bouts of persecution. Outside influence (that means “your” government) currently seeks to maintain the current turmoil. Sad.

The target in Cairo was the Coptic Pope, who was present for services. In Sweden, site of the latest mass truck carnage and nightly general chaos, the target was white Swedish children.

A suspected terrorist targeted young children as he drove a hijacked lorry into a crowded shopping street in Stockholm, witnesses claimed last night.

Infants’ buggies were sent “flying through the air”, one Swedish broadcaster reported, as the vehicle zigzagged along the pedestrianised Queen Street shopping district and embedded itself in the window of a department store.

“It swerved from side to side. It didn’t look out of control, it was trying to hit people,” a second witness, Glen Foran, an Australian tourist, told Reuters. “It hit people, it was terrible. It hit a pram with a kid in it, demolished it.”

Of course, as ALWAYS, the primary attacker was well known to the police.

I found, then lost, some amazing comments from Stockholm locals. And I mean AMAZING. Despite a few years of open war in their streets and their children being targeted from massacre, many (most?) Swedes still openly deny reality. (This seems to be a universal Western condition).

The gist is this, and I lump and paraphrase: “It would be nice if our wonderful immigrant guests would reach out to us a little more. These attacks almost make us think they might not like us. I guess more needs to be done, more needs to be given. Poor, poor, confused refugees…”

Maybe, as twisted as his actions were, Anders Breivik was on to something. Maybe more needs to be done – to protect the locals from the invaders.

There is a mild debate, where legal and not presumed “racist”:

“You have one (side) saying ‘This is enough, we can’t have this. We must close the borders, throw everyone out,'” said Ulf Lundgren, a clergyman at Stockholm Cathedral. “Others say, ‘You can’t get security by closing the borders.'”

Stockholm seemed to be returning to normal slowly Sunday. Flags on most public buildings, including Parliament and the Royal Palace, flew at full-staff.

“If people who are here, seeking asylum, and treat us like this, it is not good,” Stockholm resident Lars Holm, 73, said after attending a service at the cathedral. “So now we have to have more security in our society, but still we don’t like to live in bunkers. We want to have, as before, a free life and we welcome people from abroad.”

Following decades of being commanded to be open and diverse, the confused populace is torn between not wanting to be exterminated and not wanting to be seen as a bunch of mean old xenophobes.

Well, dear friends, it is one or the other. Either be free, happy and safe, or be run over and raped to death. Listen to that one carzy side: “close the borders, throw everyone out.” Now.