America’s breathtaking ignorance on our decline

World According to America

By John Blythe

The photograph above is one that I found on the internet and it is meant to be funny, although it certainly illustrates how ignorant America has become on just about everything, while we continue to experience increased decline at an accelerated basis.

Newsflash: We’re not a superpower anymore and we’re not number 1 anymore!

For the third year in a row, we have had an annual budget deficit of over $1.3 trillion. Unfortunately, many Americans have no idea how staggering this is becoming. Since 1976, we have had negative trade deficits every single year because the United States does not produce enough of its own product. In other words, we spend more than what we take in. America has become the principal world consumer, if you will.

Currently, the U.S. federal tax revenue is roughly over $2.2 trillion, while our national debt is more than $14 trillion and the unfunded liabilities is now more than $116 trillion.

Does anyone have any idea how much $116 trillion is? It is unsustainable. This is the money that is supposed to be used for Medicare and Social Security programs. So for someone that is currently 25 years of age, by the time they turn 65, that is if the United States is even in existence at that point, they will most likely not receive any of those benefits.

According to the National Inflation Association, even if you taxed everyone in this country 100% of their personal income, it still would not be enough to fully fund the U.S. Federal Government. Even if the antisemitic sycophant himself, George Soros gave his entire multi-billion fortune to the government, it would only fund this nation’s budget deficit for about two weeks. But we have people out on Wall Street shouting tax the rich!

Wall Street protests spread worldwide

Rome protests (AP)

By John Blythe

The Occupy Wall Street movement spread worldwide this weekend. The protests, which started in New York City about a month ago with people on the left, on the right and down the middle, are calling for reforms to government, stopping corporate corruption, voicing social inequality and providing the redistribution of wealth.

On Saturday, protests in the United States continued in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis and Oklahoma City; and spread rapidly across the globe to Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, London, Sydney, Paris, Munich, Madrid and Cape Town.

While a majority of these protests were peaceful, this was not the case in Rome. The protests turned into a mass riot, as participants set fire to vehicles and the Italian police had to use tear gas to maintain civility, while in London, there were reports that the British police use batons to beat some of the activists who were too out of control.

In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, some protesters held up photos and signs of the “so-called” Cuban revolutionist Che Guevara. Do any of these protesters realize that Guevara, despite being a communist, was also a racist and a fascist? Besides, Bosnia seceded from Yugoslavia to escape the collapse of communism during the 1990’s and now here we have protesters calling for communism to return.

Or am I wrong?

Was Iranian assassination plot, an inside job?

Manssor Arbabsir, alleged Iranian mastermind

By John Blythe

There are some lingering questions that have come up ever since the alleged plot unfolded on Tuesday about an Iranian American citizen with ties to Iran’s government, planned to conspire with a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate a Saudi Ambassador and blow up an Israeli embassy in Washington.

The accused mastermind behind the plot, Manssor Arbabsir, was charged by the U.S. Justice Department for conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack on American soil. Manssor’s friends however, have a completely different viewpoint on this. Manssor was a used car salesman in Texas and his friends and associates say this was a man who could barely afford to pay his bills or keep his auto records straight, let along pull off a major terrorist attack.

In another interesting twist, the plot was released to the news media on the same day that Congressman Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee stated that he would subpoena documents relating to Attorney General Eric Holder’s role in “Operation Fast and Furious”, which led to the ATF’s sale of more than 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

Perhaps the same Mexican drug cartels that were planning on helping Manssor assassinate the Saudi Ambassador?

Global economy showing no signs of improvement

Global Economy

By John Blythe

In case you didn’t hear, the stock market has been doing well. On Monday, the Dow was up 330 points and has been rather mixed the last two days. In fact, economist Scott Brown of Raymond James, said “after this weekend, the market is expecting something big and concrete that will put the crisis behind us.”

This should be a huge sigh of relief, right?

Not so fast.

If anything, the global economy is on the brink of becoming a much worse scenario than was initially projected. The only reason why the stock market was up the last two days is because German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, presented a plan to solve the European debt crisis by the end of this month.

Well that’s great. The only problem is that both Merkel and Sarkozy are rather reluctant to say much about their approach to solving the crisis. If they have real solutions, they should simply inform the global public about the plan.

U.S. thwarts Iranian terror/assassination plot

By John Blythe

Iran has apparently taken its act of aggression to a new level today as the U.S. Justice Department thwarted a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir and to bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington.

A joint conference between U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller, uncovered the plot which tied Iran’s Government to deadly Mexican drug cartels when an American born Iranian met with an undercover DEA agent in Texas who was posing as a cartel member to wire $1.5 million into a New York bank which would have carried out unspecified bombing targets of restaurants where the Saudi Ambassador may have been and thus potentially killing hundreds of other people.

The American born Iranian was arrested last month, while one of the other co-conspirators is still at large and presumably in Iran.

California passes ‘DREAM’ act for illegal aliens

Dream Act supporters

By John Blythe

California Governor Jerry Brown signed the controversial “DREAM” Act into law on Friday which would allow illegal aliens access to tax payer supported financial assistance for college tuition. As a result of the DREAM Act now signed into law, illegal aliens will be eligible for financial aid to all of the UC California and Cal State University systems and 112 community colleges

The controversial bill proposed by Democratic State Assemblyman Gil Cedillo was approved along party lines in the State Legislature, however opponents of the new law such as Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who tried to pressure the Governor to veto the bill, insists that California already offers in-state tuition for young people in the country that are here illegally.

Obama inciting the Wall Street protests

President Obama (AP)

By John Blythe

President Obama’s “so called” stance on civility seems to be dwindling to an end these days. Yesterday, he called the GOP leaders in the House of Representatives to prepare to “get run out of town” because they have not voted on the jobs bill.

Here’s a news flash to the President: Members of your own party in the Senate won’t even support your jobs bill!

As reported in a recent commentary of Independent Word, there are major discrepancies of the jobs plan including how to save American jobs from being exported to communist China and how it will be paid for. The President said it would already be paid for and it would not affect the deficits. Well, he ended up lying about that one, didn’t he?

And his inconsistent statements are having an impact on the Wall Street protests. While President Obama has come out now to support the Wall Street protests, Vice President Joe Biden recently stated that he compared the protests to the Tea Party members. Remember, Tea Party protesters were upset over government spending which the President ignored, and now he is essentially supporting the same angry group of protests on Wall Street.

It wouldn’t hurt to also mention that a large sum of the President’s campaign contributions come from Wall Street.

The larger picture is that we are fighting fascism in this country. Wall Street owns the Federal Government. This is no secret. Tea party members protested the bail outs and government spending and now Wall Street protests are calling for an end up corporate greed and corruption. Certainly, there are some striking parallels between the two and the news media tends to lean one way, while politicians and celebrities like Michael Moore who don’t know what the hell is going on, use this as a catalyst to support Obama.

What needs to happen is for the Tea Party and the Wall Street protests to forget both parties and identify the problem: That Wall Street owns the Federal Government and it is all interconnected in a plan to create a new world order dominated by communism.

President Obama is supporting and manipulating the protesters because he realizes that his re-election is headed for a disaster. He has proven to be an ineffective leader with poor communication with both Congress and the American people and his policies have failed this country.

At the moment, he is desperate to try anything, even if it means brainwashing the people that want to see and feel a real change and experience a real revolution.

UN blocks resolution against Syria

Protesters in Syria

By John Blythe

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can breathe a huge sigh of relief that his country’s allies have supported him by vetoing a resolution of the United Nations Security Council that would have taken aggressive action on the Syrian Government for its crackdown on protesters.

Yesterday, Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN Security Council used veto power and blocked the resolution for allowing any intervention in Syria. Earlier this year, protests similar to the ones seen throughout the Middle East, broke out against the al-Assad regime who began to use military force.

Russia in particular has shown disappointment in the United States’ aggressive NATO bombing of Libya which began in March to try and remove longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi, in the name of “humanitarian” crisis.

Oh, and don’t forget all that oil!

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice was apparently angry over the turn of events in the security council. But perhaps Mrs. Rice should acknowledge that it is not the responsibility of another country to intervene in another country’s situation and they need to step up to the plate and take care of themselves.

Bashar al-Assad meanwhile insinuated a very swift warning that if the U.S. or NATO intervenes in his country, he will order Hezbollah to begin attacking Israel with the number of missiles they have at their disposal, along with the major support they have from Iran.

This is all we need at the moment, one huge war breaking out in the Middle East, but then again, I predicted that this might be the case several months ago.

So at the moment, al-Assad can continue his reign over the Syrian people, but the United States needs to realize that this “humanitarian” effort and all of the economic aid that has been poured into these countries is part of the reason why the United States is bankrupt and we are currently going through a major financial crisis.

Here’s an idea: Since Russia and China both vetoed the UN security council resolution, why don’t either of these countries step up diplomacy and talk with Al-Assad directly to stop the repression against his people?

The coming of an "American" Spring?

Wall Street protests

By John Blythe

Thousands of protesters organized on Wall Street two weeks ago and since then, protests have spread across the country from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles. Over the weekend more than 700 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge while demanding for the reform of corporate America.

There are some interesting parallels with relation to the Tea Party and the Wall Street protests. The liberal left in the country has criticized the Tea Party since 2009 because they have called for smaller government, less taxes and decrease in federal spending. Now the conservative right in this country are calling the Wall Street protests an act of trying to reform capitalism.

Here’s the real truth. The Tea Party does have active liberals who want to see a decrease in major government and the Wall Street protests also has conservatives who are fed up with corporate greed and corruption. Some on the right are saying that the Wall Street protests should be held in Washington, D.C. There is some truth to this, because the root of our problems stem from Washington D.C. I can’t think of anything better than to see the Tea Party and the Wall Street protesters unite as one! We could have a real revolution for a change.

But we sometimes fail to acknowledge that the real people that put our failed politicians in Washington to begin with, are the powers of Wall Street and the powers of unions. After all the $700 billion blank check bailout was specially designed for them and their cronies, kindly paid for by you, the American tax payer.

Some of the protesters on Wall Street have called for rather radical changes such as replacing capitalism with communist ideals. In this country, communism cannot work. We saw the dismantling of communism in countries in the late 1980’s: Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia as people wanted real democracy. But it seems like some people in this country which established democracy, want to see the United States revert to communism because it is more “fair” even though the people of those European and Asian countries fled to escape its wrath!

Al-Awlaki killing sparks controversy

Anwar-al-Awlaki (AP)

By John Blythe

Friday’s predator drone strike in Yemen which killed long time U.S. born al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was cited as a victory in the government’s on-going “war on terror”. Al-Awlaki’s death marked the second blow to al-Qaeda since its leader, Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALS back in May.

Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and gradually became radicalized by Islamic extremism, had an instrumental role in provoking the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as connections with Major Nidel Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed more than ten military servicemen and women in November of 2009 and the attempted Christmas day airplane bomber only a month later.

However al-Awlaki’s death has sparked a great deal of controversy over the weekend.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Candy Crowley on CNN’s Sunday show “State of the Union” that President Obama should correct his criticism of the Bush Administration’s role in finding suspected terrorists. Cheney praised Obama’s stance on taking necessary measures to stop terrorism, but says his administration has overreacted to former President Bush’s policies on terrorism in the post 9/11 era.

For example, the Bush Administration was heavily criticized in violating the Geneva Conventions and allowing enhanced interrogation techniques on terror suspects. However the Obama Administration has twice now, allowed for the killing of two al-Qaeda leaders and one of them happened to be a U.S. citizen. Yet there does not seem to be much condemnation from the same critics. What is the real difference here?

Under the Bush Administration, which I was not a fan of, captured and interrogated terror suspects, but in the Obama Administration, which I am also not a fan of, they simply went into a country and killed them. Some on the left and the right are arguing that regardless of al-Awlaki’s association with al-Qaeda, he should have been given due process since he was a U.S. citizen even though he was on the “kill or capture” list.

White House spokesman Jay Carney stated today that the Obama Administration does not support torture, and does not owe the Bush Administration any apology for criticizing its role on stopping terrorism.

But to focus on pressing the point on al-Awlaki. There are some lingering questions. Why it took so long to track down al-Awlaki in his ties to al-Qaeda? For years now, the terrorist network has been a dominate force in Yemen trying to overthrow the regime of our ally, President Ali Abdullah Saleh who was injured in a bombing earlier this year during the Yemeni uprising. Furthermore, why was al-Awlaki invited to dine at The Pentagon shortly after the 9/11 attacks, even though al-Awlaki had ties to three of the 9/11 hijackers who slammed Flight 77 into The Pentagon that day?

At the end of the day, I am perfectly happy with the deaths of bin Laden and al-Awlaki as the scumbags had it coming. However I do find the hypocrisy between both the far left and the far right simply incredible when it comes to policies under the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration as it applies to the rule of law.