The line jumped out at me from a recent CMC Markets morning note:
"China's credit rating agency Dagong downgraded the U.S. to A from A+ with a negative outlook, citing the increased debt limit and questions over creditor protection in the current political and economic environment."
America, you've been Dagonged. Here's the Daily Mail story.
The move "suggests that China may be getting more concerned about its U.S. exposure and that it may be stuck holding the bag should another financial or political crisis flare up," according to CMC Markets analyst Colin Cieszynski. China's problems have been well-documented -- including, depending on whom you talk to, a residential real estate bubble, rising inflation and questionable corporate governance. But the Asian powerhouse is also the top foreign holder of U.S. debt. That would be the debt that narrowly escaped getting downgraded by American ratings agencies in the wake of the theatrical U.S. debt ceiling fiasco.
So China has a direct stake in what happens south of the border, just as the rest of the world -- including Canada, increasingly -- has a direct stake in China's economy. Some commentators contend that the Chinese economy is sailing along on a bubble inflated by cheap government money and real estate speculation -- sound familiar, Canada? But it's hard to argue that in a world where the power balance is shifting from west to east, China's economic clout is rising as quickly as America's is falling.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
China downgrades America to A with negative outlook
Living Embodiments of an American Spirit
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
========
Living Embodiments of an American Spirit:
“I’ve been going to reenactments for more than 20 years, so I’ve had a chance to observe this phenomenon up close. In a time of all-encompassing and oppressive political correctness, when the ruling elites and their media acolytes control most of the information we get and tell us what to think, what opinions to hold, what to buy and what to wear, even when and where to go to war…there are some, the audacious and irascible few, who persist in thinking for themselves.
Just who are reenactors? The mainstream media has described them a weekend warriors, Civil War fanatics, even misfits, who should, as they say, “get a life.” What they really mean to say is “get their life,” fit into their worldview – the New World Order.
In their worldview, which now dominates the academy as well as the media, all the old heroes are to be discarded. Thomas Jefferson, we are told with sanctimonious relish, was a seriously flawed person who may have fathered offspring by one of his domestic slaves. Lee and his generals were part of the same corrupt bondage system.
For these crimes, the generation of 1776 and their grandsons of the 1860’s must be hollowed of their humanity and gutted of their greatness, brought down and reduce to the paltry, squalid place inhabited by more than a few present-day politicians and so-called leaders. Then, discredited, they are to be diminished and eventually deleted from our history books, except perhaps as footnotes to the revisionist history of America.
Why this attack on these two generations in particular? Could it be that these same elites want to stop us from looking up to men who questioned authority and fought for liberty? Who did so brilliantly and courageously? If they are to succeed in their goal of transforming citizens into consumers, to reduce us from those who would defend liberty to those whose only concern is for celebrity and fashion, they must teach us to avert our gaze from the likes of Washington and Jefferson, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Robert E. Lee.
What I admire most about reenactors is that they refuse to forget. They are not weekend warriors, for that implies frivolity and a lack of conviction. They are a living embodiment of an American spirit that is still alive and well despite pervasive and well-financed efforts to belittle, ridicule, marginalize, and neutralize it. They are warriors, as in Lee’s great series of victories, seven days a week.
There are still those among us who cherish the sacred memory of our ancestors, who value the traditions tested by the generations, whose lives vibrate yet in the distant chords of memory. These reenactments, entertaining as they are, fun as they are, are pathways between the generations, connecting old antagonists with new witnesses in an atmosphere of conciliation, compassion and understanding.
Take from us our media, our universities; take from us our libraries and our books; take our newspapers and our textbooks – take it all. With malice towards none and charity for all, we are here today and will never forget. We here today will long remember. Ronald F. Maxwell
(Civil War Reenactments, Ronald F. Maxwell, Chronicles Magazine, October 1999, page 6)
========
Living Embodiments of an American Spirit
The Communist Party USA endorses Obama for reelection
Although it escapes media attention, Obama is the second black American to be nominated to a party presidential ticket. The first was James W. Ford, the vice-presidential nominee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1932, 1936, and 1940. Ford was joined on the ticket by William Z. Foster in 1932, then perennial CPUSA presidential nominee Earl Browder in ’36 and ’40. Today’s Democratic Party platform is virtually identical to the CPUSA platform then, and it is noteworthy that a great many of NAACP “Spingarn Medal” recipients since the 1920’s have been black communists like WEB DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, A. Philip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, M.L. King, and Rosa Parks.
It is then no surprise that the CPUSA today endorses another black communist.
BT
It may be early in the campaign season, but the Communist Party USA already has seen fit to endorse Barack Obama for the 2012 election.
While noting he is disappointed with "some aspects" of the Obama administration's domestic and foreign policy, Sam Webb, chairman of the Communist Party USA, threw his support behind Obama's re-election bid.
In an article last week at People's Weekly World, the official newspaper of the Communist Party USA, Webb discussed the need for a third party consisting of the so-called working class and labor as well as "racially and nationally oppressed people, women, youth, immigrants, seniors, gay and straight."
Webb, however, recognized that such a party is not likely to emerge by next year.
"Millions who have to be at the core of this party still operate under the umbrella of the Democratic Party, albeit increasingly in an independent fashion," he noted.
Webb said that for communists there are major differences between Democrats and Republicans. He urged his supporters to continue to back the Democrats.
Wrote Webb: "Neither party is anti-capitalist, but they aren't identical either. Differences exist at the levels of policy and social composition. And despite the many frustrations of the past two years, the election of Barack Obama was historic and gave space to struggle for a people's agenda."
Rock Sugar - Shook Me Like A Prayer
Attorney General Releases Murdering Terrorists Upon Request
Godfather Politics
VERBATIM POST
============================
Attorney General Eric Holder, head of the Department of Justice, has been setting militant members of the New Black Panthers, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson free. Shabazz is the national head of the New Black Panthers and Jackson is a member of the Philadelphia Black Panthers and a Democratic Party official.
J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice attorney had worked in the Civil Rights Division where he had brought charges of violation of civil rights against two members of the New Black Panther group for voter intimidation. He had a strong case against the two men, but Attorney General Eric Holder refused to press the charges any further and both men were released and the case dropped.
As a result of the DOJ’s failure to support the prosecution of civil rights violators, Adams resigned from his position with the department.
Now Adams is reporting that Attorney General Eric Holder has released another black militant that makes Shabazz and Jackson look like choir boys.
Last year, Holder ordered the release of convicted murdere Marilyn Buck, a member of the violent Marxist group the Black Liberation Army. Buck’s rap sheet reads like an Al Qaeda training manual:
- Acquisition of weapons and ammunition
- Armored car robbery that resulted in the murder of a guard
- Bombing US Senate Building
- Bombing Ft. McNair
- Bombing Washington Navy Yard Officer’s Club
- Bombing New York City federal building.
- Participated in the conspiracies that led to the death of multiple police officers
In most states, Marilyn Buck would have been given a lethal injection or the electric chair. Instead, Attorney General Eric Holder ordered her to be set free because she supposedly: “expressed a dramatic change from her previous political philosophy.
The Department of Justice received a number of letters from teachers, professors, politicians and lawyers requesting that Buck be released. Adams points out that the one letter that most likely had the biggest impact was sent by Jill Elijah from Brooklyn, NY. In her letter, Elijah wrote:
“…a warm nurturing living arrangement is available to Ms. Buck in my home located in Brooklyn. . . . I and my family look forward to her joining our home.”
The letterhead used by Elijah for her letter to the DOJ was Harvard Law School. It turns out that Jill Elijah runs the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School. Also on the letterhead was the name of Charles Ogletree. Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard law School and Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. More importantly, Ogletree is a close friend and mentor to one Barack Obama and his daughter, Rashida was recently added to the staff of lawyers at the Department of Justice.
Adams ends with the following comments about the letters the DOJ received on behalf of Marilyn Buck and the implications it has on our society:
“Students of history often wonder how civilized countries can devolve into murderous nightmares. These letters provide a homegrown American example of sophisticates excusing murderous behavior because they agree with the murderer’s political philosophy. Simply, they are chilling.
Also chilling is that the militant and destructive ideas that fueled Buck’s murderous campaigns have gained creeping acceptability in American institutions. Teachers, professors, politicians and lawyers all clamored for Buck’s release. This acceptance is no simple oddity. It is a harbinger of danger.”
Gunwalker: It Must Have Been Eric Holder ... Or higher.
Now that the debt ceiling debate is over and done, let’s turn our attention back to Operation Fast and Furious and its alleged sister operations. The multi-agency operation (or operations) of the U.S. government allowed thousands of guns to be supplied to Mexican drug cartels, while American federal law enforcement effectively provided the straw purchasers and smugglers with the cover to operate with impunity.
Despite the tens of thousands of words of outrage written about the Obama administration’s botched Operation Fast and Furious, most of the focus has been on the horrific impact of the program as measured by the number of firearms smuggled over the border and the number of lives lost. Some attention has been consequently paid to the potential political and criminal impact of the operation and cover-up within the Department of Justice.
Sadly, the media has focused very little attention on the probable origins of the plot, or why Gunwalker was created as an adjunct of the longer-running and more successful Gunrunner campaign.
Of course, that may not be entirely true. The crack investigative reporters of print, network, and cable news organizations may very well have done the research and followed the various clues about the origins of Gunwalker to their logical conclusion, and then simply decided that the most probable story was one they not dare tell.
The story is this: no competent federal law enforcement officer would ever have concocted an operation as obviously doomed to catastrophic failure as Operation Fast and Furious.
Let us count the reasons why:
National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 08-05-11
====================================
VERBATIM POST
Injustice Everywhere
- 5 New Orleans LA cops found guilty on all 25 counts for fatal Danziger Bridge shootings & cover-up [0] http://ow.ly/1vmLc4
- Brea CA police sued by family of man suspected of robbery who was unarmed when fatally shot by cop armed with a rifle [2] http://ow.ly/1vmUWg
- Oakland CA police lose lawsuit for $200k to 2 black men strip searched in public during unwarranted traffic stop [3] http://ow.ly/1vmDhH
- South Burlington VT cop sued by woman falsely convicted on drug charge & man illegally detained & strip searched [3] http://ow.ly/1vmFvE
- Boynton Beach FL cop arrested after video shows he lied about arrest & planted gun on suspect, 3rd this week [0] http://ow.ly/1vmELJ
- Los Angeles CA Airport police officer suspended while investigated for alleged sexual assault of woman while on duty [0] http://ow.ly/1vnvFw
- Salt Lake Co UT sheriff’s dept sued by ACLU for man detained 39days after court ordered release & ICE hold dropped [3] http://ow.ly/1vnz4j
- US drug test used by US DEA & law enforcement agencies across US called into question by judges in DC & Colorado [0] http://ow.ly/1vnGx5
- 4 Washington DC cops accused of ignoring hate crimes by refusing to take report from 5 lesbians assaulted by 2 men [0] http://ow.ly/1vnuXE
- Centreville IL cop arrested on felony child abuse charges for allegedly injuring 2yr-old boy w/blow to the head [0] http://ow.ly/1vn7t0
- Edinburg TX cop gets probation for single felony misuse of police database in plea deal dropping pages of charges [0] http://ow.ly/1vnuqp
- Renton WA cops accused of shopping cyberstalking case to prosecutors to retaliate against cartoonist critical of cops[3] http://ow.ly/1vnOSB
- Plantation FL cop suspended 2days w/o pay for texting domestic violence victim that her toenail polish turned him on [0] http://ow.ly/1vn0cf
- Broward Co FL deputy transferred to all-male jail and “counseled” after claims of sexual misconduct at woman’s jail [0] http://ow.ly/1vnBEQ
- Gary IN cop accused of sex w/suspect assigned to motor pool after prosecutor says he won’t take cases from him [1] http://ow.ly/1vnOv8
- Belton MO cop shown grabbing teen’s butt on Quik-Trip store surveillance video in legal claim filed against city [3] http://ow.ly/1vnTIn
- Franklin Co NC sheriff reportedly admits to embezzling over $90k from drug fund & charity for kids, but not charged [0] http://ow.ly/1vnyS7
- Washington DC cop arrested on felony car theft charges for allegedly failing to return car he rented in 2009 [0] http://ow.ly/1vnxjd
- Orlando FL cop reprimanded for using unsterilized swab to test man’s mouth for drugs during stop w/o cause or consent[0] http://ow.ly/1vmWBR
- Brockport NY police lose defamation suit against newspaper in attempt to discover names of anonymous commenters [0] http://ow.ly/1vmVcH
- Luzerne Co PA deputy charged w/assault, burglary & harassment sfor allegedly attacking her ex-girlfriend’s girlfriend [0] http://ow.ly/1vmPJb
- 2 New Orleans LA cops, mom & son, plead guilty to multiple charges for attacking a bouncer at bar while off duty [0] http://ow.ly/1vmJzB
- Coventry RI cop fired by Law Enforcement Bill of Rights Panel 9mo after convicted of masturbating in front of 2 women[0] http://ow.ly/1vmFIY
- Bluffton SC settles suit for $86k to ex-police lt claiming she was wrongly fired for complaining about misconduct [4] http://ow.ly/1vmJzh
- El Paso Co CO deputy w/2 reckless driving convictions investigated after causing fatal crash by running red light [0] http://ow.ly/1vmJxX
- West Virginia state trooper subject of suit by flagger claiming he fell asleep at wheel when he hit her with cruiser [0] http://ow.ly/1vmDDh
- California Hwy Patrol officer arrested on multiple domestic abuse charges then a week later for violating order [0] http://ow.ly/1vmDp5
China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over
NEW YORK/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.
Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over concerns about the nation's budget deficits and climbing debt burden.
China -- the United States' biggest creditor -- said Washington only had itself to blame for its plight and called for a new stable global reserve currency.
"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.
After a week which saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global markets, the move deepened investors' concerns of an impending recession in the United States and over the euro zone crisis.
Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations will confer by telephone later on Saturday or on Sunday, a senior European diplomatic source said.
The source said the credit rating downgrade had added a global dimension on top of the euro zone debt issue, raising the need for international coordination.
"The G7 will confer by telephone. It's not yet confirmed whether it will be in one stage or in two stages, tonight and tomorrow," the source said.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, who would chair such a meeting under France's G7 and G20 presidency, said it was too early to say whether there would be an early G7 gathering.
In the Xinhua commentary, China scorned the United States for its "debt addiction" and "short sighted" political wrangling.
"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets," it said.
It urged the United States to cut military and social welfare expenditure. Further credit downgrades would very likely undermine the world economic recovery and trigger new rounds of financial turmoil, it said.
"International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country," Xinhua said.
An American Suicide
NoisyRoom
VERBATIM POST
================================John Boehner’s betrayal of Conservatives is complete, he pushed through the bill that is the death knell of America and all we have stood for. Promises were broken left and right. By raising the debt ceiling by trillions, he has given Obama and the Progressives a blank check to finish killing off the American way of life and our freedoms. No cuts in expenditures will ever materialize and the Cloward and Piven strategy will at long last be realized. Every politician who voted for this treachery needs to be voted out – if we even see another election that is. This bill is a farce – a complete horrific joke.
I would just like to ask Boehner, Cantor and the Republicans if it was worth it? I mean, I hope they paid you well for your betrayal of America. I really hope it was worth it because you will have to answer for it one way or the other at some point. I think you “misunderestimate” just how angry America is at you right now. But I’m sure you will figure it out.
Not one of you miscreants in DC has any courage or honor whatsoever. You are cowards and traitors. You are an embarrassment to America and to your forefathers. You are disgusting to us – you are hated, despised, reviled… I just wanted to make sure you knew that in case you had any doubts.
I am sure you feel smug. You feel that you are above it all. You might have even kidded yourself into believing you did the right and moral thing. But you are nothing more than elitist fools who will be culled with the masses in the end. Tyranny always ends that way. Oh yes, it is equal in the end. Equal in death. Equal in suffering. Equal in horror.
You have handed a dictatorship to Obama. Not only does he have the blank check I mentioned, but he will have the power to massively increase taxes and finish gutting our military. You have neutered our protectors and have doomed us as a super power. I weep today as I watch my country ending before my eyes. You could have stopped it, but instead you drove that car right over the cliff by hitting the gas pedal today. And you even had Tea Party Congressmen behind the steering wheel. Well done.
Don’t you know when you’ve been played? Really? This was Obama’s plan all along. Of course, if you hadn’t betrayed America (which was just a delicious bonus for the Progressives), Obama would have gone ahead and done it any way using an Executive Order to finish the job. We have been thoroughly infiltrated and a soft coup is now almost complete.
And now that you have totally trashed our ratings and currency, a crash is a foregone conclusion with hyperinflation for desert. Hello Weimar Republic, here we come… We are Greece. We are no longer America.
America deliberately put a Marxist/Communist in the White House. And now, his fondest dreams will come to fruition. An American suicide to the tune of thunderous applause as liberty dies a senseless death that has been planned for 100 years or more. The Progressives have fought brilliantly, I’ll give them that. How can any of you write this off to good intentions or incompetency? It is neither – it is a well-conceived and carried out battle plan. Sure, they let us win little battles here and there, but what they care about is the war. And I hate to break it to you guys, we are losing.
My family and I are preparing. We know what is coming. I pray that each and every one of you has the sense to prepare as best you can. Time is short. The fight is at hand. Stand together and take care of your families, loved ones, friends and neighbors. Show the bastards what real Americans are made of.
D2: A Note for Preppers
Global Guerrillas
VERBATIM POST
===================D2 is shorthand for the second global economic depression.
Unlike the Zombie apocalypse -- the complete collapse of civilization, nuclear winter, EMP wipeout, 99.99% mortality pandemics, etc. -- D2 is real, tangible, and here today.
You can't outlast D2 by stockpiling canned goods/bottled water, buying gold, or arming yourself to the teeth. It will stretch on for a decade or more.
The way to survive, even thrive, during D2 requires a different approach. It requires a vibrant and productive local economy. It requires people with the skills/equipment to contribute to it and the wherewithal to defend it if necessary.
Vietnam War Photographs
Wearing a bloody bandage over the left side of his face, medic Thomas Cole of Richmond, Va., cradles the head of Staff Sgt.Harrison C.D. Pell from Hazelton, Pa., of the First Cavalry Divison. (AP)
a
Vietnamese battalion commander Captain Thach Quyen interrogates a captured Viet Cong suspect. (AP)
A young Viet Cong suspect cries after hearing a rifle shot. His captors, Chinese Nung tribesmen in the service of the U.S. Special Forces, pretended to shoot his father, a ruse designed to make the boy reveal information about Communist guerrillas.(UPI)
An ammunition dump
struck by a shell explodes
in front of U.S. Marines.
The Marines were
under siege for
several months
at Khe Sanh.
This portrait was published
in NEWSWEEK
after Ellison was killed.
(Black Star)
Wearing a bloody bandage
over the left side of his face, medic Thomas Cole of Richmond,
Va., cradles the head of Staff Sgt.Harrison C.D. Pell from Hazelton, Pa., of the First Cavalry Divison. (AP)
Crew Chief James Farley, with his guns jammed and two wounded comrades aboard, shouts to his gunner. (LIFE)
In a supply shack, the tragic and frustrating mission over, Crew Chief James Farley weeps. (LIFE)
Marine gunner John Wilson, shouldering a rocket launcher, was part of a Marines reconnaissance force. He was killed in action twelve days later. (LIFE)
First-aid center, where wounded Marines were treated before being helped to air-evacuation points. (Life)
The photographer's shadow looms over an artillery position after North Vietnamese forces overran several South Vietnamese government artillery bases. (VNA)
The photographer's below were all KIA
Huynh Thanh My
Robert Jackson Ellison
Charles Richard Eggleston
Henri Huet
Larry Burrows
Kyoichi Sawada