The Beacon

In this nation today, criminals are held up for admiration in movies, television, video games and literature; if it can be called that.

The Beacon




This isn't Baltimore. This is West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. It’s home, and today it’s comfortable.

This is where wealthy and poor people try coexisting with dignity and hope. There’ll always be problems between people. Whether those problems come from a historical nature that one race or another may never get past; we seem to be just “small town” enough to look each other in the eye and say hello or nod in recognition of our similarities. We can see each other’s aspirations to gain the greatness I believe God expects of us.

Here, at a place where racism WAS institutional, progress is made toward the realization of equality among all people. There’s African–American leadership at the city and state levels. Representatives of diverse races represent us in Washington. People of every race want the same things for their children.

We want equality, education and employment. We want freedoms we all should have as specified in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We all want a brilliance of future for our kids and grandchildren exceeding that which we've experienced or endured. For some, success is a goal not firmly grasped at times. Occasionally that roadblock is erected by stupidity and ignorance.

Does that mean racism? Yes and no.

Any employer refusing to employ a person simply because of race, creed or color doesn’t deserve success. But any person believes they’re entitled to success because they’re of a particular race, creed or color they should look at their attitude. They should examine their willingness to excel in the foundational elements of education and positive societal influence through affirmative performance as a citizen.

You come to be known for the quality person you are by the actions you perform and the strength of your character you demonstrate in day to day actions.

America‘s been concealed from our young. We no longer exalt our heroes who fought, suffered and died to establish the basis of this nation. We no longer praise and recognize the millions more who laid down their lives so we can enjoy the freedoms we now know. Even more young men and women place it on the line today so we don’t suffer the forced indignities of any dogma demanding compliance with cultural and religious philosophies foreign to our natures and in controversy to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We no longer give thanks for what we've been given. We seem to complain about what we haven’t yet received. We demand it rather than step up and earn it as our ancestors did.

In this nation today, criminals are held up for admiration in movies, television, video games and literature; if it can be called that. The decay of our values is accomplished through the poisoning elements of greed coupled with inconsistent parenting. We have children born and placed in “auto-pilot” mode as they enter school. We have families disjointed and displaced by drives for material success while sacrificing moral direction for our children. We have children birthing children and then allowing those children to be raised up by children in the street having no more experience in life than those they poorly mentor. This threatens their growth and prosperity.

We see the blind leading the visionless toward oblivion for themselves and for all of us as a society. We here the babble of discordant shouting and incoherent screaming of epithets more than we hear the directions given us on how to be better, to live better and to succeed with effort. You don’t succeed simply because you show up and complain. You don’t build by tearing others down.

You have to work for it. You have to invest your “sweat equity”. You have to bend your back and stand as a man or woman to reach the heights you can soar to in time. You can live in the shadow of despair you believe thrust upon you or you can cast a shadow of greatness you’re entitled to work toward and show your children and others accomplishment and victory can be yours, and theirs.

Your success becomes our success and our success can be the beacon lighting the way for our kids and America’s future.

Thanks for listening

By Sarge

CLOSED WALMARTS TO BE GUERILLA WARFARE STAGING AREAS IN RESPONSE TO INVASION

CLOSED WALMARTS TO BE GUERILLA WARFARE STAGING AREAS IN RESPONSE TO INVASION

 There can be no doubt that the internal events at Walmart holds the key to the end game of Jade Helm operations. Jade Helm and Walmart are inextricably linked and the existing evidence suggests one of two possible end game probabilities for Jade Helm.

1. Converted Walmart stores will be processing centers for FEMA camp political prisoners.
2. Some Walmarts will be used as supply and staging centers for an internal conflict within the United States.

In the past four weeks, I have watched over 100 videos on Jade Helm and Walmart. I have performed what researchers call a qualitative, or a descriptive analysis of the available facts. In performing this task, I have looked for patterns among the recent Walmart closings because it is clear that the closings coincide with Jade Helm. This constitutes Phase One of the analysis. In Phase Two, the findings from phase one are correlated to known or strongly suspected events connected to Jade Helm and/or other areas of concern related to national security. Subsequently, this kind of descriptive analysis can yield strong clues as to the true intent of where Jade Helm is headed and what the Walmart role consistes of in conjunction with Jade Helm.

Phase One: Common Characteristics of Walmart Closings

A series of representative videos are analyzed for commonalities which might reveal intent and purpose of the connection of Jade Helm and the Walmart closings.

The Local Media Discredits the Official Plumbing Excuse

You have heard the stories everywhere that Walmart is closing stores because of bad plumbing.  What are the odds that ALL of these stores would have plumbing issues.?It is not really plumbing issues at all that have led to these store closures. We already knew that. The real reason is perhaps more sinister because even the local media is not buying the Walmart plumbing excuse.



Closed Walmart: Brandon, Florida

This very amateurish report reveals a very consistent trend in that is reoccurring in the closed Walmarts in that concealment is the rule of thumb when it comes to these stores. Since when is it necessary to conceal plumbing operations from the public? In the following video, please note the containers which are being used to block the rear entrance of the store. This too, is becoming a consistent theme among closed Walmarts.



Roxboro, NC and Their Closed Walmart

In an email sent to both Steve Quayle and myself, we see the same pattern of using shipping containers as a means of concealment with regard to what is going on inside a closed Walmart.

Dave and Steve,
My mother just sent me these pictures of the parking lot of her local Walmart SuperCenter in Roxboro, NC.

Two things are new:
1. notice the newly cutout square in the parking lot replaced with new asphalt and with a new grate of some sort over it

2. notice all the shipping containers that were just recently put there


I do not know what this may mean, but I thought I’d share it with you guys.
Blessings,
J
Greenville NC
_____

The Hughes Exclusive Footage Inside Closed Peco Rivera Walmart As Cops Guard Dock and Entrances

Stephanie Hughes filmed this exclusive footage at the now closed Pico Rivera California Walmart Location. The store recently closed for highly suspicious reasons and, again, it certainly was not due to plumbing. Walmart had never contacted the local County to get permits for the plumbing work. Officials connected to the Walmart closing have now covered the windows with black tarp in another set concealment activities that we are witnessing around the country.

In another disturbing trend, this Walmart is surrounded with cops. Since when are cops needed to protect plumbers performing repairs? Also, as you can see from the video, officials have built a wall up inside of the store so no one can see whats going on past the Pharmacy area which is still open to the public in yet, another, act of concealment.

PLUMBING? REALLY?  Again, we see a multitude of cops at the receiving dock at the back of the store. What are they protecting, or better yet, hiding from the public?





Walmart Closing: Jade Helm Las Vegas

Of all the multitude of videos that I have reviewed, this video contains the most disturbing material and perhaps provides the best clues as to what is the real objective that is behind the closing the Walmarts.

First, I feel compelled to offer a warning related to bad language with regard to the following video. However, I felt the evidentiary value of the video outweighs the banning of the video because of repetitive foul language.

The most stunning piece of evidence offered in the following video is the tearing up of the Walmart flooring and replacing parts of the Walmart flooring with very thick cement floors. This speaks to the need to have a reinforced floor in order to host very heavy military equipment.

Another striking feature of this Walmart is that it is being allowed to stay open, in part, while product disappears from the shelves. There does not appear to the typical “Just in Time” deliveries going on inside this Las Vegas Walmart.  Another curious feature in the video is the absolute stripping of the walls of any related Walmart advertising and other signs. The empty walls are very telling as it is obvious that this Walmart is showing clear signs of being closed as product is being emptied.

On the outside of the building, the main electric Walmart sign has been taken down. Additionally, there are cameras all across the roof area of the store. What we are seeing here is the conversion of a Walmart store while the store is being kept open.





Phase One Analysis

In several videos I have examined, there are very consistent patterns which are present in this presentation. First, the closures are unlike any other store closures that I have witnessed in that extreme concealment of internal Walmart activities is the absolute and undeniable commonality in all of the store closures. In the past, when I have witnessed this level of concealment and secrecy, the intent being concealed is normally quite evil in its manifestations.

Another striking element related to the Walmart closures has to do with blockading the rear of each store. This indicates to me the need to temporally fortify the rear entrance so as to prevent incursions. I would expect that large and reinforced steel doors will replace these temporary barricades.

In all the store closures that I have seen, I have never witnessed this kind of police presence associated with an allegedly temporary closing for plumbing reasons. Since when do police find it necessary to guard plumbers?

It is also quite clear that Jade Helm is contracting with local law enforcement to provide security and to keep the curious away in an effort to maintain some kind of secret. Why use the police? Because the police would fit in better to the local landscape and will arouse less suspicion from the public than if military personnel were to be used.

In the final analysis, it is clear that the Walmart stores are being retrofitted for military purposes.

 Phase Two Analysis

 In one of the most stunning revelations made in the entire Jade Helm fiasco is the revelation by Judicial Watch of the existence of an ISIS camp a mere 8 miles from El Paso, Texas. Further, the anonymous letter I received from a Texas Ranger seems to confirm that local law enforcement is bracing for an ISIS incursion. In previous articles, I have revealed how the Pantex nuclear plant is a target of concern and previous articles proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the existence of SAM missiles 45 miles southeast of Lubbock, TX.

Clearly, and as I have repeatedly pointed out, Texas is preparing to be invaded by hostile forces and ISIS and their allies. This Sunday evening, on The Common Sense Show, I am hosting an officer from Special Operations Forces, Scott Bennett, who says that the U.S. government is sponsoring ISIS. The following email I received last night parallels the Bennett account of the origin of ISIS.
Dave- I read most of your daily articles.   In this Texas ranger article your talking about ISIS and Texas.  I have a source in government that has for a long time now told me- ISIS is part of our CIA and DHS. No doubt in my mind they are going to create a false-flag event to bring in martial law.
It is most important to realize that this is our fascist government beginning the overthrow of our country!  These bastards are now in charge of all important dept’s.in government.  It will be up to men like the Ranger here in this note, who will do the right thing and stand for his oath to our Constitution- Obama’s gang have already broken this pledge!…
Allen Hall


The Role of Walmart in the Coming Texas Incursion

Both the Allen Hall and the Scott Bennett accounts speak directly and indirectly to the fact that ISIS will be employed to carry out a false flag event(s) on American soil, hence, the preparations we are seeing in Texas for such an event. These preparations have taken an interesting twist when we consider what former Petty Officer, James Miles, says about his specific Walmart training in the following email he sent to me last night.

______

Good evening Mr Hodges,

  My name is James Miles, Former 2nd class Petty officer United States Navy.

     I am only slightly familiar with your show. However, I am part of a Facebook group Jade Helm Discussion. We are having a conversation about the Wal Mart closings and someone suggested I contact you about my personal experience in this sort of thing. From 2001-2005 I was stationed at Tinker A.F.B. as part of strat-comm. The VQ-4 squadron. Our aircraft was an E6-b/c Mercury 707 Platform. Our job was to conduct the looking glass as well as a myriad of other missions. It was a way of ensuring a survivable form or control over the nations nuclear forces.

     The reason all of this is relevant is because the parts of the squadron that were not aircrew were divided into what we called “tiger” teams. The mission would be to leave out for various parts of the country. Usually within 50-100 miles of an airstrip that could handle a 707 type aircraft. We would then recon, acquire and maintain our aircraft. When we were not at an airfield we would be at a secure location that would contain everything we needed for long term survival. This would usually be a Wal Mart that would have been taken by us. Plenty of food, medical supplies, clothes, bedding small arms and ammunition, even basic vehicle repair. It was to be the perfect command post to blend in with the population. Easily guarded. Especially in an emergency situation. The public would think we were security for the store even though we were there for an entirely different purpose.
     It is my contention that given the geographic locations of these stores, that we may indeed be looking at that. Command centers. I also am concerned because when we did our exercises, we never actually took over and shut down any Wal Mart. I do believe this may be a real world event unfolding. It is important to get correct information to those who can help. Logic tells me, that these are not being used as mass detention centers, Although, you could set temporary cells. Please be careful with any info you receive, or release. Many peoples lives may depend on it.

Thank you and God bless
 ____
 It is clear that Petty Officer Miles is speaking about the creation and maintenance of a covert and pre planned covert guerrilla warfare force which would be secretly prepositioned in an area that would likely be overrun by an invading force. The term, Viet Cong, kept going off in my head as I read the Miles email. What Petty Officer Miles is stating strongly matches the original Jade Helm “Master the Human Domain” documents. The documents talk about the insertion of stealth forces based upon the use of “infiltration techniques”. It is here that we are seeing the revelation of a third Jade Helm operational goal, the creation of a guerrilla warfare response team in a soon-to-be endangered area. The first two purposes of Jade Helm are dissident extraction (i.e. Ft. Lauderdale extraction drills) and martial law (i.e. the use of the 82 Airborne and various National Guard Units) to carry out the geographic isolation of troubled areas.



ISIS  made their presence known in Ferguson. What did Eric Holder know that we are just figuring out?

It has been alleged that agent provocateurs, from the Eric Holder run Justice Department, are behind the sharp increase in violence involving racial issues in Ferguson (twice), New York City and now in Baltimore. The fermenting of these riots provides the conditions needed to practice the implementation of martial law.

The aforementioned statement is bolstered by the  following video which comes from an original Pravda report which states that this summer,  the American military and the National Guard will be training to quell any civil unrest within the United States. The following report matches the intelligence I am receiving from multiple sources.

Conclusion

When I called for Texans to be prepared to be invaded, that call seems to be right on the money. I fully expect these closed Walmarts to once again, be open to the public once the needed changes are made to be “guerrilla force” friendly. These events would suggest that nothing nefarious will happen for six months, the length of the closing of the Walmarts, although that cannot be guaranteed.



 Finally, I would like  the readers to pause and consider how bad things could get in the Southwest. If the U.S. military has to prepare its soldiers to conduct guerrilla warfare training, while using Walmart as a covert base of operation on American soil, it speaks to the fact that the coming ISIS incursions are going to be dramatic. DUE TO THE FACT THAT CLOSED WALMARTS STRETCH ACROSS MUCH OF THE SOUTHERN U.S., SPEAKS TO HOW WIDESPREAD THE FOLLOWING ATTACKS ARE GOING TO BE IN THIS ISIS VERSION OF THE TET OFFENSIVE.

Finally, the Russians are speaking about an end game that nobody is talking about and that will be the topic of the next article in this series.

by Dave Hodges

Texas Rangers Brace for ISIS Led Invasion

Texas Rangers Brace for ISIS Led Invasion


I wrote an article two days ago entitled The Dual Purpose of Jade Helm. The following email, purportedly from a Texas Ranger supports my notion that Jade Helm more than likely has a dual purpose with the end game consisting of the enforcement of a brutal form of martial law and mass detentions.

______

Hello Mr. Hodges,

I have been a Texas Ranger for quite some time, and as such, I am privy to much of what is going on with regard to the Midland Walmart store closing, the presence of ISIS on Texas soil and our preparations to combat an insurgent threat.

I will not give you my rank or location because it would not be safe to do so. It is a waste of time to try and trace the IP#, etc., as I have taken steps to ensure that this note cannot be traced back to me.  I understand and  realize that you seem to have a growing issue with people who will not go on the record with their inside knowledge or first-hand observations, but you cannot understand the pressure and scrutiny that some of us are under. I am taking a big risk writing this email to you.

The main reason that I am writing to you is to encourage you to keep writing on the growing threat of infiltration in Texas and I suspect other states as well. The infiltration I am writing about is not just Special Forces that are going to conducting covert drills in our state. that is concerning and I agree with you this involves martial law.  For now I am talking about ISIS and the danger that they pose to all of us. Our intelligence indicates that they have enough manpower & firepower to subdue a small town. The Midland Walmart takeover by DHS is a national security move in which we have been told falls under the Continuity of Government provisions. The Threat Fusion Centers are providing related information on what it is we are facing but the information sharing is only in one direction and that is very concerning.

We expecting an attack on more than one Texas city or town by ISIS and/or any of their partners. I believe the information to be accurate. However, this makes the covert operations of groups like the Navy Seals and others under JH15 highly suspicious. We do not need the insertion of Special Ops into Texas towns and cities. I think that you are probably right about the intention of arresting political undesirables given what we know about JH15. I am of the opinion that whatever the mission objectives of JH15, they have nothing to do with the immediate threat. Therefore, I do not pretend to understand the full scope of JH 15 because there are unfolding operational details which are almost impossible to reconcile with what I already know to be fact based the evidence for what is going on.

Let me drop a bombshell that I have not seen you address. There are trains moving throughout Texas that have shackles inside some of the cars. I have not personally seen them, but I know personnel that have seen this. This indicates that these trains will be used to transport prisoners of some sort. I know from reading your articles that your default belief will be that these are for American political prisoners and will be transported to FEMA detention camps of some sort. We have been told by Homeland that these trains are slated for transporting captured terrorists, non-domestic. We are not sure we can trust this explanation because Homeland is keeping a lot from us and we are growing increasingly uncomfortable with their presence in Texas.

I wanted to tell also you that we believe that Pantex is a high value target for ISIS and much or our preparation is to thwart any action by terrorists against the facility.  I am wondering how in the hell you figured that out. Someone on the deep inside must be talking with you.
Keep writing Mr. Hodges, you and the underground media are making a difference. As I am sure you know, Colorado announced today that JH15 is suspended in that state. Unfortunately, we do not have that prerogative because we believe that we are under the threat of eminent attack here in Texas.

I do believe the ISIS threat is legitimate. But you are also correct to suspect the motives behind the JH15 drills. They are clouded in secrecy and we have been shut out regarding their operational intent. The people of Texas and all of the United States of America should be pushing back against JH15.

I will support the Feds in their preparation against ISIS. But the moment that this action turns against our locals is the moment I will perform my oath of office. I am not alone in this feeling. None of my brothers trust Homeland. We will have to see where this is going but I have a bad feeling.

You do your job and keep writing and I will do my job in upholding the Constitution
Thank You
_____

DHS Should Not Be Trusted Under Any Circumstances

Nobody, and I mean nobody should trust the Department of Homeland Security. The former head of the East German Stasi was paid $5 million dollars to set up the organization and it was patterned after one of the most nefarious internal police forces in the history of the planet.

We also know that Walmart has a very checkered past when it comes to being loyal to the American people and their liberties. If you recall, the Stasi “See something, say something” program was rolled out by Walmart on behalf of DHS. We know that Walmart product delivery logistics  was changed to match that of the military. And now we see Walmart willingly closing their doors and apparently doing the bidding of DHS. In fact, Rick Cleaves sent me the following reminder of this fact:

__

Dave, sometime after 911 DHS took over 3 entire floors of the corporate headquarters in Bentonville Arkansas. They have used all the cameras, outside and inside, to gather all the facial images of people in order to be stored in a data base to identify you and me. Probably license plates also.
This fits in very seamlessly for what is occurring now and in the very near future.
Rick Cleaves
___

A Ray of Hope

Yesterday, it was announced that Jade Helm drills will not be held inside of Colorado. The explanations as to why this decision was made are contradictory and shrouded in mystery. None the less, this action should give rise to the fact that the rest of us need to collectively organize and relentlessly push our local politicians to steadfastly refuse to cooperate with Jade Helm. In fact, any official, or individual who knowingly cooperates with Jade Helm should be viewed as a traitor against the American people and the Constitution.

From the Twilight Zone

Ever since AARP abandoned the welfare of its elderly membership and endorsed the death panels of Obamacare, I have mistrusted the intent of the organization. With the following video, I cast AARP in the same light as I do Walmart and DHS. This is freaky beyond belief.



Under the banner of predictive programming, you have been warned.



Conclusion

It is clear that the ISIS camp identified two weeks ago by Judicial Watch is of concern to Texans in the know. However, the elements of Jade Helm have nothing to with that threat. It is clear that Jade Helm extractions and martial law will follow the coming ISIS incursion and ISIS activities will be used as a cover to begin extractions. If there is another interpretation, I have not seen it. For now, this is the best information we have. Coupled with AARP freaky video, the American people have a lot on their collective plates.


by Dave Hodges

Give 'Em Hell, Bernie

Give 'Em Hell, Bernie

Bernie Sanders is more serious than you think



"Rolling Stone" - Many years ago I pitched a magazine editor on a story about Bernie Sanders, then a congressman from Vermont, who'd agreed to something extraordinary – he agreed to let me, a reporter, stick next to him without restrictions over the course of a month in congress.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/four-amendments-a-funeral-20050825

"People need to know how this place works. It's absurd," he'd said. (Bernie often uses the word absurd, his Brooklyn roots coming through in his pronunciation – ob-zert.)

Bernie wasn't quite so famous at the time and the editor scratched his head. "Bernie Sanders," he said. "That's the one who cares, right?"

"Right, that's the guy," I said.

I got the go-ahead and the resulting story was a wild journey through the tortuous bureaucratic maze of our national legislature. I didn't write this at the time, but I was struck every day by what a strange and interesting figure Sanders was.

Many of the battles he brought me along to witness, he lost. And no normal politician would be comfortable with the optics of bringing a Rolling Stone reporter to a Rules Committee hearing.

But Sanders genuinely, sincerely, does not care about optics. He is the rarest of Washington animals, a completely honest person. If he's motivated by anything other than a desire to use his influence to protect people who can't protect themselves, I've never seen it. Bernie Sanders is the kind of person who goes to bed at night thinking about how to increase the heating-oil aid program for the poor.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/sen-sanders-fights-to-reverse-liheap-cuts

This is why his entrance into the 2016 presidential race is a great thing and not a mere footnote to the inevitable coronation of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. If the press is smart enough to grasp it, his entrance into the race makes for a profound storyline that could force all of us to ask some very uncomfortable questions.http://digital.vpr.net/post/bernie-sanders-announce-presidential-run

Here's the thing: Sanders is a politician whose power base is derived almost entirely from the people of the state of Vermont, where he is personally known to a surprisingly enormous percentage of voters.

His chief opponents in the race to the White House, meanwhile, derive their power primarily from corporate and financial interests. That doesn't make them bad people or even bad candidates necessarily, but it's a fact that the Beltway-media cognoscenti who decide these things make access to money the primary factor in determining whether or not a presidential aspirant is "viable" or "credible." Here's how the Wall Street Journal put it in their story about Sanders (emphasis mine):
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sen-bernie-sanders-to-seek-democratic-presidential-nomination-1430257833

It is unclear how much money Mr. Sanders expects to raise, or what he thinks he needs to run a credible race. Mr. Sanders raised about $7 million for his last re-election in Vermont, a small state. Sums needed to run nationally are far larger.

The Washington/national press has trained all of us to worry about these questions of financing on behalf of candidates even at such an early stage of a race as this.

In this manner we're conditioned to believe that the candidate who has the early assent of a handful of executives on Wall Street and in Hollywood and Silicon Valley is the "serious" politician, while the one who is merely the favorite of large numbers of human beings is an irritating novelty act whose only possible goal could be to cut into the numbers of the real players.

Sanders offers an implicit challenge to the current system of national electoral politics. With rare exceptions, campaign season is a time when the backroom favorites of financial interests are marketed to the population. Weighed down by highly regressive policy intentions, these candidates need huge laboratories of focus groups and image consultants to guide them as they grope around for a few lines they can use to sell themselves to regular working people.

Sanders on the other hand has no constituency among the monied crowd. "Billionaires do not flock to my campaign," he quipped. So what his race is about is the reverse of the usual process: he'll be marketing the interests of regular people to the gatekeeping Washington press, in the hope that they will give his ideas a fair shot.

It's a little-known fact, but we reporters could successfully sell Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or any other populist candidate as a serious contender for the White House if we wanted to. Hell, we told Americans it was okay to vote for George Bush, a man who moves his lips when he reads.

But the lapdog mentality is deeply ingrained and most Beltway scribes prefer to wait for a signal from above before they agree to take anyone not sitting atop a mountain of cash seriously.

Thus this whole question of "seriousness" – which will dominate coverage of the Sanders campaign – should really be read as a profound indictment of our political system, which is now so openly an oligarchy that any politician who doesn't have the blessing of the bosses is marginalized before he or she steps into the ring.

I remember the first time I was sold on Bernie Sanders as a politician. He was in his congressional office and he was ranting about the fact that many of the manufacturing and financial companies who asked him and other members of congress for tax breaks and aid were also in the business of moving American jobs overseas to places like China.

Sanders spent years trying to drum up support for a simple measure that would force any company that came to Washington asking for handouts to promise they wouldn't turn around and ship jobs to China or India.

That didn't seem like a lot to ask, but his fellow members treated him like he was asking for a repeal of the free enterprise system. This issue drove Sanders crazy. Again showing his Brooklyn roots, Bernie gets genuinely mad about these things. While some pols are kept up at night worrying about the future profitability of gazillionaire banks, Sanders seethes over the many obvious wrongs that get smoothed over and covered up at his place of work.
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches/2012/crm-speech-1209131.html

That saltiness, I'm almost sure of it, is what drove him into this race. He just can't sit by and watch the things that go on, go on. That's not who he is.

When I first met Bernie Sanders, I'd just spent over a decade living in formerly communist Russia. The word "socialist" therefore had highly negative connotations for me, to the point where I didn't even like to say it out loud.

But Bernie Sanders is not Bukharin or Trotsky. His concept of "Democratic Socialism" as I've come to understand it over the years is that an elected government should occasionally step in and offer an objection or two toward our progress to undisguised oligarchy. Or, as in the case of not giving tax breaks to companies who move factories overseas, our government should at least not finance the disappearance of the middle class.

Maybe that does qualify as radical and unserious politics in our day and age. If that's the case, we should at least admit how much trouble we're in.

Congratulations, Bernie. Good luck and give 'em hell.


By Matt Taibbi

The Buck Stops Where?

The Buck Stops Where?

After the Clinton regime ordered the raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco and burned some eighty human beings alive, including about twenty children, Attorney General Janet Reno took “full responsibility,” knowing full well that she and the Clintons would never pay for the atrocity — at least not in this world. Our President Hussein took “full responsibility” for the drone strike in 4/15 that killed two hostages, but he will never really be held accountable. We have all heard of the “buck stops here” concept, yet no one ever seems to be held accountable for anything anymore. The riots in Baltimore are a case in point.

The excuse for the riots was the yet-unexplained death of a black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody. His death certainly looks highly suspicious, and it is true that a small but growing number of police officers are essentially criminals hiding behind badges. But Gray was a career criminal, not some honorable black man going about his business. As for the notion that blacks are being targeted by police, that there is an epidemic of police murders of blacks, it is totally false. Police kill more whites than they do blacks, despite the fact that blacks commit most of the crime.

But, assuming that Gray was murdered by the police (not proven), who is responsible for the ongoing federalization and militarization of the police that arguably has contributed to many of them becoming more brutal and violent? The Police Commissioner in Baltimore is a black man. Does not that particular buck stop with him? The mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is a black woman and a liberal Democrat. Is she not largely responsible for what happens or fails to happen in her city? And it was she who insisted on giving the rioters “space,” and her police repeatedly backed off and let the looters steal and wreck and burn. This is reminiscent of the way that LA police retreated from the initial riot at Florence and Normandie on 3/3/91, or the way the police in Ferguson failed to protect businesses from looting. Governor Larry Hogan is a white Republican, but Freddie Gray was not in the custody of state police when he died. The federal government has increasingly been selling military hardware to local police and giving them some training, as well as kicking back some local tax dollars to them — with strings attached. The last time I checked, Hussein was our President, and has been since 2009, and he is a Democrat and allegedly half black. He is in charge of the Executive Branch of our government (actually, he seems to be pretty much in charge of all of it). If the police are at least party equipped and trained by the Federal Government, isn’t Hussein responsible?

As for the looters themselves, those adorable “students” and “youths,” they are the human scum, raised on welfare, beneficiaries of affirmative action, who have been committing most of the crime in Baltimore (and other cities) for decades, often raping, robbing, beating, and murdering the white “racists” who so cruelly “oppress” them. As in Ferguson, L.A., and many other cities, all they need is an excuse to kick it up a notch and riot. And who turned so many inner city people into criminal parasites? The “liberals” are the ones who have systematically undermined marriage and the family and Judeo-Christian morality. They are the ones who have given welfare for votes, so that several generations have been taught that the world owes them a living. And it is “liberals” who have coddled criminals for decades, effectively teaching them that they can get away with anything. If at least the police had used force, even deadly force, at the very start of the looting, the riot might have been stopped. Of course, everyone says that such “brutality” would have “inflamed” the rioters, but, in fact, it is the lack of such a response that has caused one riot after another all over America.

And now it is too late. Baltimore will never recover from the riots, from crime, from wasteful spending, from misrule. And neither will America.

By William Stoecker

The Public Sector Is A Milk Cow For Private Enterprise

The Public Sector Is A Milk Cow For Private Enterprise


Social Security and Medicare are under attack from Wall Street, conservatives, and free market economists. The claims are that these programs are unaffordable and that the programs can be run more efficiently and at less cost if privatized.

The programs are disparaged as “entitlements.” The word has come to imply that entitled people are getting something at great cost to everyone else. Indeed, entitlements have become conflated with welfare.

In fact, Social Security and Medicare are financed by an earmarked payroll tax paid by employees. (Economists regard the part of the payroll tax that is paid by employers as part of the employee’s wage.)

According to the Social Security and Medicare trustees, Social Security as presently configured can pay full promised benefits for the next two decades and with current payroll tax and demographic trends can pay 75% of benefits thereafter. Medicare can pay full benefits for 12 more years and 90% of promised benefits thereafter.

It makes sense to look ahead–something that democracies seldom do–but there is no current crisis.

The Carter administration did look ahead and put in place a series of future increases in the payroll tax sufficient to keep the programs in the black for several decades into the future. Shortly thereafter in 1981 there was a claim that there was a short-term financing problem. The National Commission on Social Security Reform was created. Alan Greenspan was appointed chairman, and the commission is known as the Greenspan Commission.

What the commission did was to accelerate in time the payroll tax increases that were already in place. In my opinion, this was done in order to reduce projected federal budget deficits that concerned Wall Street and Republicans. The consequence of the accelerated payroll tax increases is that over the next decades the programs accrued large surpluses in the trillions of dollars that the federal government spent on other programs, substituting for the surplus payroll revenues non-marketable Treasury IOUs to Social Security and Medicare. Far from entitlements worsening the federal deficit, entitlement surpluses have reduced it.

The real Social Security crisis is that the government does not have the money to redeem its IOUs.

The government, of course, will print money to bail out the banks’ uncovered casino bets, but not to bail out the elderly from the theft of their funds.

The government has wasted trillions of dollars on wars that have enriched the military/security complex by killing, maiming, and displacing millions of peoples in seven countries, but Washington “cannot afford” Social Security and Medicare. Representing the people is not something “our” representatives do. They are too busy representing a handful of private interest groups such as the financial sector, the military/security complex, and agribusiness.

According to the propaganda, the problem faced by Social Security and Medicare is demographic. There are fewer workers per retiree to carry the burden of an 
“intergenerational transfer.” I have often wondered how this claim fits with the claim that the US is being overrun with illegal aliens who have numerous children. We constantly hear about how Texas, California, and other states are being taken back by Mexico.

As most employers of illegals deduct and pay the payroll tax and as illegals, being illegal, do not file for income tax refunds or stand to collect the “entitlements,” it is unclear that the demographic conclusion is correct.

Whatever the problem demographics pose to entitlement funding, the greatest problem has come from the offshoring of US high-value-added middle class jobs. The millions of US manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs such as software engineering that have been moved abroad in order to increase the personal incomes of corporate owners and managers have left a huge gap in the payroll tax base.

Few if any laid-off workers have found comparable employment, and millions have found no employment. In recent years new university graduates have also found their employment prospects limited by jobs offshoring.

To understand the real problem, all you have to do is to look at the official information on real median family incomes. There has been no growth for decades. The population is growing, but not median incomes, and the lack of jobs has resulted in a declining labor force participation rate. If incomes were growing, a higher payroll tax could be paid out of income gains.

The way to attack the entitlements problem is to bring the jobs home. This could be done by taxing corporations according to the location, domestic or foreign, at which they add value to their product. If they produce in the US, a low tax rate would apply. If they produce abroad, a high tax rate would be applied that negated the savings from producing offshore.

But this would not suit the interests of the owners and managers of capital. Their solutions are to raise the retirement age, to further falsify the Consumer Price Index by using the Chained CPI to understate Social Security cost of living adjustments, and to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

The first falsification of the CPI was the work of the Boskin Commission during the Clinton administration. The Boskin Commission destroyed the CPI as a measure of the cost of a constant standard of living by introducing “substitution.” To keep it simple and brief, if a price of an item in the weighted basket of goods used to compute inflation rises, a lower priced item is substituted for it. The effect, and most likely the intention, of “substitution” was to make more money available for non-entitlement programs by reducing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security. Payroll tax revenues are lumped together with other tax revenues, and the government funds itself from the total.

Three decades ago I was an advocate of privatizing Social Security or part of it. In those days returns from investments exceeded returns to Social Security. Moreover, private nest eggs not used up in retirement would become stakes for heirs, thus raising the wealth of the population. As the supply-side macroeconomic policy had cured stagflation, there was a strong prospect of a sustained market rise from which Social Security privatization would benefit.

However, after observing the deregulation of the financial system, the financialization of the economy, and the subservience of the Federal Reserve and US Treasury to “banks too big to fail,” it is impossible today to support for honest reasons the privatization of entitlements. Today financial markets are rigged by manipulation and a fantastic creation of money. Rigged markets can continue until the currencies that are being created in profusion collapse.

The reason Wall Street wants Social Security privatized is in order to collect fees for managing the money. Insurance companies want Medicare privatized in order to collect premiums, whether paid by individuals or the government as under Obamacare. Conservatives want rid of entitlements because they think they are welfare, underserved, the cause of the budget deficit, and because they are hard-hearted and lack compassion and any sense of social cohesion.

Free market ideologues do not like Social Security, because although it is paid for by the recipients of the benefits it is a government program. Alan Greenspan wanted to do more with his commission than to accelerate the Carter payroll tax increases. Greenspan stated his dislike of the Social Security system and thought it was inconsistent with a free or ideal society. However, he understood that Social Security could not be abolished at that time: “Our type of economy is far removed from where I would like to see it, but you have to be careful about moving from one type of society to another.” https://web.archive.org/web/20061008205611/http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=873

The ideological attack on entitlements is again underway. Wall Street is funding it and egging it on. Wall Street is looking forward to fees that will eat up all gains and in these days of negative interest rates eat up capital as well.

Privatization is one of the neoliberal hallmarks of Globalization. In the US prisons have been privatized and prisoners turned into almost free labor for private businesses. Privatized prisons and almost free labor have created a demand for more incarceration, which is the reason that the “free, democratic” US has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population.

The claim is always that it is cheaper to privatize than for the government to do it, but the evidence contradicts this claim. Consider the military, for example. Many of the functions that the military formerly performed itself are now contracted to private corporations, which is the reason for the extremely high cost of the US military. Russia, for example, is about twice the land mass of the US and defends itself with a small fraction of US military expenditures.

The privatized US health system is much more costly than national health systems. Privatized health care require profits for every element in the system. In contrast, national health care systems require no profits.

The reason privatization is popular in Republican and conservative ranks is that it creates lucrative incomes for connected private corporations. It is a way of shoveling public tax monies into private hands who return the favor with political campaign contributions and donations to conservative and free market think tanks.

Every privatization has been a scam, and the privatization of entitlements will be the biggest scam yet.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

The Dwindling US Economy

The Dwindling US Economy

The announcement today (April 29) of a barely positive GDP first quarter 2015 growth rate of 0.2 percent (two-tenths of one percent) is an intentional exaggeration.

Today’s GDP report is the “advance estimate.” There will be two revisions, with the first occurring in one month on May 29.

Although the “consensus estimate,” which is Wall Street’s estimate, declined dramatically over the past month, the consensus estimate was for 1.0 percent.

The BEA’s advance estimate bears the burden of impact on financial markets even though it is the least reliable estimate. Subsequent revisions receive much less attention. Because of its market impact, the advance estimate is fudged by the Bureau of Economic Affairs (BEA) in order not to upset financial markets keyed to the consensus forecast.

All indications are that the first quarter experienced negative GDP growth, that is, a decline from the previous quarter. However, if BEA reported a negative GDP when the financial markets were relying on positive real growth, the government’s Plunge Protection Team might be unable to prevent a substantial market decline.

Therefore, the BEA in its advance estimate reported a barely positive result that kept GDP out of negative territory. This gives financial markets a month to undergo an orderly reduction prior to the first and then second revisions of the advance estimate, or simply to forget the poor performance altogether until the second quarter advance estimate.

Maintaining stability and not shocking financial markets is now ingrained in US economic reporting. No government statistical department wants to be blamed for crashing the financial markets. So bad news leaks in slowly if at all.

Indications are that the second quarter 2015 will also have negative GDP growth, that is, a further decline. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) is likely correct that there has been no recovery from the prior recession, just bottom bouncing with stock and bond markets driven by the Fed’s outpouring of liquidity, the first half of 2015 will signal a second downturn in the US economy which is collapsing as a result of jobs offshoring and a deregulated financial system.

The real economic outlook, which will emerge from BEA in a month or two, should be obvious to anyone who had the introductory course to macroeconomics. The economy depends on consumer spending. Consumers have two ways of spending more. One way is from rising incomes. The other way is from rising consumer debt.

With the advent of jobs offshoring, real median family incomes ceased to rise. The ability of consumers to substitute larger debt burdens for the missing growth in their real incomes was used up by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s policy of expanding consumer debt in order to fill in for the missing growth in consumer income. Today consumer debt levels are too high for consumers to incur more debt. The only element of consumer debt showing an increase is student loans.

The offshored jobs were not replaced with the promised “New Economy” jobs. No one has seen any sign of the mythical New Economy jobs. The “New Economy” is the transformation of the once powerful US economy into a third world labor force where new jobs exist only in domestic non-tradable services (services that cannot be exported) such as retail clerks, hospital orderlies, waitresses, and bartenders. As there are not enough of these jobs to go around, the labor force participation rate has dropped sharply.

The United States is an economic basket case. Washington has given away the US economy to Asian countries with lower labor costs. The owners and mangers of capital have benefitted, but the vast bulk of Americans have suffered. As capital’s owners and managers are not sufficiently numerous to drive the economy with their expenditures, the fabled American economy is no more.

What will bring the US economy out of the second leg of the downturn? If massive federal budget deficits and zero interest rates could not correct the first leg of the downturn, what does fiscal and monetary policy have left in its arsenal?

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.