Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, March 1, 2016


Hiya gang! Haven't "blogged" in a few days; have been focused on FB on the one hand and...

(*SIGH*)

...feeling depressed about the news in general on the other.

(*SHRUG*)

But... it is what it is!

So... as always... today's newsbites will be posted within the Comments Section!

 

4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/breaking-us-government-releases-its-2015-financial-statements-18735/?inf_contact_key=ed8253aa3d2aae1374e34455f071f23740b90748034036719863cf97556031ee

For 2015, the government reports $3.2 trillion in total assets.

“The Government held about $3.2 trillion in assets (mostly $1.2 trillion in net loans receivable (primarily student loans)”. Though student loans do not comprise the full $1.2 trillion, they are still a very significant proportion of the government’s “assets”.]

37% of the government’s total reported assets are student loans, which is now considered one of the most precarious bubbles in finance.

* MAKES YA PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, HUH?!

(*SMIRK*)

$1.2 trillion is similar to the size of the subprime mortgage market back in 2008. And delinquency rates are rising, now at 11.5% according to Federal Reserve data.

Plus, it’s simply astonishing that so much of the federal government’s asset base is tantamount to indentured servitude as young people pay off expensive university degrees that barely land them jobs making coffee at Starbucks.

On the other side of the equation are a reported $21.5 trillion in liabilities, giving the government an official net worth of negative $18.2 trillion.

This is down from last year’s negative $17.7 trillion and $16.9 trillion the year prior. It just keeps getting worse.

It’s not just the $18.2 trillion in negative net worth. Or the $41+ trillion (by their own calculations) in the Social Security shortfall.

The government of the United States is totally, desperately, hopelessly bankrupt. And they become even more insolvent with each passing year.

Nearly every single dominant superpower throughout history was eventually consumed by its unsustainable finances.

And in their decline from power, bankrupt governments rely on a simple playbook to desperately try to maintain the status quo by every means available.

They destroy freedom. They impose a police and surveillance state. They seize assets. They wage campaigns of violence and intimidation.

They impose capital controls. Cash controls. People controls. Whatever it takes.

This time is not different. The finances of the US government are obvious, as is the trend.

We’re not talking about what ‘might happen’ or ‘could happen’. We’re talking about what IS happening.

William R. Barker said...

http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/24/the-problem-with-looking-to-the-government-to-fix-flints-water/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydigest&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonu6zOe%2B%2FhmjTEU5z16uwrX6e%2Fh4kz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTcdgMrHYDBceEJhqyQJxPr3NLtQN191pRhLiDA%3D%3D

* JUST ANOTHER DAY IN OBAMA'S AMERIKA...

Oil-black water flowed through the pipes of Crystal City, Texas. That marks one more American city that cannot provide the most basic necessity of life. And as instances of government negligence like this proliferate, we continue to run to the government for help, instead of accountability.

Crystal City resident Nora Flores-Guerrero told reporters, “It looked like black sludge. They were comparing it to oil—that dark.”

And in the city of 7,500 people, the Washington Post has reported that every city official but one was facing criminal charges:

The mayor, mayor pro tempore, a council member and the city manager were arrested this month on sweeping bribery and conspiracy charges. And another member of the city council is in a federal detention center after he admitted to smuggling undocumented Mexican immigrants across the border.

None of those officials had given residents notice that they were flushing the city’s water tank, which officials later said “caused all sediments and deposits sitting on lower portion of tank to run through distribution lines.”

Crystal City is not the only place where people are looking for a clean drink of water.

Water trouble spread for the last two years in Flint, Mich. A class-action lawsuit claims that Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality violated federal law by failing to adequately treat the water supply, instead letting it erode iron water mains and lead service lines.

Even as lead leached into drinking and bathing water, residents like Rhonda Kelso were still paying taxes on the water: “You’re paying for poison. I’m paying for water that’s a toxic waste.”

Across the country in California, “water waste, gas leaks, poisoned water and foul air” in several cities triggered the ironic but understandable and typical response that in the face of a government-caused disaster, “everyday folks must appeal to larger governmental bodies for relief.” The appeal seems to be the usual response to government-caused disasters.

But the “larger governmental body” would be the Environmental Protection Agency, and on August 5, 2015, they were causing a disaster of their own: A deluge of 3,000,000 gallons of water laced with toxic heavy metal into the Animas River, Colo.

Then they shirked responsibility and got off scot-free, even though criminal prosecutions would likely have occurred if private parties had caused a spill a fraction of the size.

Harmful polluters should be held accountable. But we seem to have a double standard for how to treat those who negligently discharge polluted water, which is a criminal offense. If you work for the government, it’s OK. If you don’t work for the government, then tough luck: You’re going to prison. It isn’t fair, and it undermines respect for the legal system.

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.kvue.com/news/special-valley-prepares-for-next-wave-of-central-american-children/58049891

In 2014 some 260,000 [invaders], mostly unaccompanied [minors] from Central America, flooded across the U.S. border through the Rio Grande Valley.

Congress called for legislation, then-Gov. Rick Perry mobilized a thousand National Guard troops...

* WHO DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO STOP THE INVASION... WHO WEREN'T ACTUALLY ORDERED BY PERRY TO STOP THE INVASION... WHO WERE BASICALLY USED AS TAXPAYER-FUNDED PROPS FOR PERRY'S SOON TO BE ABORTED PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN...

...and the Eighty-fourth Texas Legislature pumped nearly a billion dollars into the Texas Department of Public Safety for border security.

* PISSED IT AWAY... JUST... PISSED IT AWAY...

That was more than a year and a half ago, and with everything that's happened, the question is what - if anything - has changed?

"Much has changed. Our processes have changed and improved," [claims] Omar Zamora, public affairs officer for the U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector. Agents of the RGV Sector man the front lines of the battle against drug trafficking and human smuggling. A massive new processing center in McAllen stands ready to hold up to a thousand people. A rare tour found it spotlessly clean and stocked with blankets and clothing -- and as it happens, it may soon be needed.

* SO... THEY'RE "MANNING THE FRONT LINES"... IN PREPARATION OF LETTING THE INVADERS STROLL RIGHT IN AND GRAB A TAXPAYER-FUNDED BLANKET AND BED...???

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE TELLING US! THIS IS THEIR... PLAN!

"In the past few months the number of unaccompanied alien minors unlawfully entering the U.S. soared to over 17,000 and the number of family units increased to 21,000," Chair Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) informed the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security in a February 4 hearing on Capitol Hill. "If these trends continue it is predicted there will be a 30% increase in the record high numbers we witnessed in 2014."

* AND WHAT EXACTLY IS GOWDY DOING TO... STOP... THE INVASION...???

William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

"They're still coming, not in the same numbers," Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia told KVUE in January. "I guess you could call it a mini-surge from Central America."

* YEAH... I BET THAT'S WHAT THE POLES SAID IN SEPTEMBER OF '39 - JUST A "MINI-SURGE."

(*SNORT*)

Like many in the valley, Garcia argues the military presence is scaring off business, despite F.B.I. crime statistics that show McAllen with one of the lowest crime rates for a large U.S. city. Unlike law enforcement, Garcia believes the troops and military hardware, "Just creates a bad image, a negative image of our area which we don't appreciate."

He argues funding would be better spent on local law enforcement, and a better solution would be more judges and legal resources to quickly sort out who can stay and who must go.

* WHY NOT... NOT LET THEM SUCCESSFULLY INVADE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

"They're saying, 'Here we are.' So you can add a thousand more folks there, but they're not trying to evade you," Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district includes part of the valley, told KVUE on a January stop in Austin. Cuellar carried a bipartisan bill in 2014 that would have expedited cases from Central America.

* "EXPEDITED." MEANING... LET 'EM IN FASTER...

While that bill never passed, "We also added about $750 million to help Central America beef up its security, fight the drug gangs, provide some economic assistance," said Cuellar, "Because the more people we get to stay over there, the less people come in."

* THREE-QUARTERS OF A BILLION DOLLARS PISSED AWAY...

Another $80 million has gone to help Mexico secure its southern border with Guatemala, where along with Honduras, the U.S. government has mounted an ad campaign warning what to expect from human traffickers. Zamora can tick over a list of abuses, "From child molestation to raping some of these Central American women, holding them for extortion for extra money, or leaving them out in the brush to die."

(*HEADACHE*)

* WHY... ARE... WE... GIVING... MEXICO... $80 MILLION U.S. TAXPAYER DOLLARS? (MR. GOWDY...???)

An official from the Guatemalan Consulate told KVUE that migrants are well aware of the risk, but are often faced with violence so desperate in their home country that they are willing to chance the journey.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) chairs the House Border Security Caucus, which toured the Valley in February. "If people figure they have a 95% chance of being allowed to stay and work and get government benefits, they're going to come no matter what they might hear on the street or on the radio or see in a leaflet," said Smith.

* ANY THOUGHT ON THIS... MR. GOWDY?