Tuesday, March 8, 2011
FBI: ‘Sovereign citizen' cases on the rise
Federal authorities are seeing an increase in the number of foreclosed and unoccupied homes in metro Atlanta being seized by members of an anti-government group.
"I'm not sure I can connect it with the economy, but we've seen a surge of these in the last year, in particular," Stephen Emmett, special agent in the Atlanta field office of the FBI, said Saturday. Emmet said federal and local authorities increasingly are running into confrontations with members of a sect known as "sovereign citizens."
"They're expanding throughout the Metro Atlanta area," Emmett said. "DeKalb has had their fair share of problems with them and now Clayton."
On Friday, Clayton County SWAT was called to a foreclosed home near Riverdale where a couple had been living illegally. SWAT members surrounded the house after getting reports the people inside had threatened violece against anyone who approached the house. Gideon Israel and his wife, Deborah, had been living illegally in the bank-owned, gray stucco house on Stimson way near Riverdale in the northwest part of Clayton County for a while and had submitted reams of fraudulent paperwork to county officials to try to block the eviction, according to Major Jeff Mitchell, who heads the enforcement division for the Clayton County Sheriff's Office.
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Will People Drive Less if Gas Hits $7 per Gallon?
Everyone has a breaking point. Some people went full RedBox when movie tickets hit $10.50, others swore off coffee when the price rose above $5 a cup.
But with the continued unrest in Libya and the upheaval all over the Middle East, oil prices are on the rise again and experts are warning that Americans may start paying dearly at the pump. How dearly? If you thought the nearly $4/gallon of gas from 2008 was a drag, The Huffington Post reports that those days may soon feel like a picnic.
One of Wall Street's most prominent energy analysts, Oppenheimer & Co.'s Fadel Gheit, said this week that people are not fully getting the picture.
"There is no cure for what's going on," he said, explaining that the political upheaval in such oil-producing countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran could lead to, yes, $7 a gallon gas.
Those six countries produced about 21.2 million barrels of oil a day amounting to 27 percent of global oil supply. If political uprisings continue and lead to likely oil disruptions and higher crude prices, we might see the highest prices we’ve ever seen at the pump.
The domino effect could also jeopardize the fragile economic recovery if currently booming stock prices take a tumble due to fears of cut backs as a result of a gas shock. Until Thursday’s rally, that effect already seemed to be in place, as the Dow Jones stock index slid 322 points in the week’s first three sessions.
Prices for a barrel of oil reached their peak in July 2008 at $147.27, and while they’re now just under $100/barrel, experts say they’re headed to $100-$130.
The average gallon of gas is around $3.17 now, expected to climb to $3.50 by spring and possibly as high as $4.25 a gallon by July 4. And if things go haywire in Saudi Arabia, forget about it, $7 a gallon may be the low end of things.
Will you drive if gas is $7 a gallon?
But with the continued unrest in Libya and the upheaval all over the Middle East, oil prices are on the rise again and experts are warning that Americans may start paying dearly at the pump. How dearly? If you thought the nearly $4/gallon of gas from 2008 was a drag, The Huffington Post reports that those days may soon feel like a picnic.
One of Wall Street's most prominent energy analysts, Oppenheimer & Co.'s Fadel Gheit, said this week that people are not fully getting the picture.
"There is no cure for what's going on," he said, explaining that the political upheaval in such oil-producing countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran could lead to, yes, $7 a gallon gas.
Those six countries produced about 21.2 million barrels of oil a day amounting to 27 percent of global oil supply. If political uprisings continue and lead to likely oil disruptions and higher crude prices, we might see the highest prices we’ve ever seen at the pump.
The domino effect could also jeopardize the fragile economic recovery if currently booming stock prices take a tumble due to fears of cut backs as a result of a gas shock. Until Thursday’s rally, that effect already seemed to be in place, as the Dow Jones stock index slid 322 points in the week’s first three sessions.
Prices for a barrel of oil reached their peak in July 2008 at $147.27, and while they’re now just under $100/barrel, experts say they’re headed to $100-$130.
The average gallon of gas is around $3.17 now, expected to climb to $3.50 by spring and possibly as high as $4.25 a gallon by July 4. And if things go haywire in Saudi Arabia, forget about it, $7 a gallon may be the low end of things.
Will you drive if gas is $7 a gallon?
These oil companies are NOT Robin Hoods. Hoods, yes, but robbing, not Robin.
Highway Robbery: When are we going to work up the
balls to say, “ENOUGH”?
These oil companies are NOT Robin Hoods.
Hoods, yes, but robbing, not Robin.
"I was out driving/just a taking it slow
Looked at my tank/ it was reading low
Pulled in a Exxon station/out on Highway One
Held up without a gun
Held up without a gun"
Springsteen's song could not be more true today.
Big Oil is once again riding high oil prices to large profits (see below) while American
consumers get stuck with a $2.7 billion gasoline bill in the first quarter of 2010
due to higher oil prices.
But the problems with oil go beyond these companies' profits. Rising oil prices also add more
filthy lucre to the coffers of hostile regimes, including Iran.
Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico is suffering a huge oil spill while taxpayers spend
billions of dollars paying for tax loopholes for Big Oil.
And Big Oil spends record amounts of money to pressure Congress to cement these loopholes
in place and defeat clean energy legislation. Adding injury to insult, big oil opposes energy
and global warming legislation that would reduce our reliance on oil.
www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nyc_sky_eyes_are_err_controllers_i53KM15YSsVNat1K3zXwjL
Spiking Oil, Plunging Economy
USA Watchdog
This weekend, violence continued to erupt in the Middle East. In Libya, the Gaddafi government launched counter attacks against the rebels. Many fear there is a full blown civil war brewing in that oil rich country.
Yemeni loyalists also staged counter attacks against anti-government protesters in hopes of dispersing them. They used sticks and stones, but still, 25 people were reported injured. All is not quiet in Egypt this weekend as the peaceful revolution there turned violent. Reuters is reporting, “Men in plain clothes armed with swords and petrol bombs attacked protesters in Cairo on Sunday night during a demonstration demanding reform of security services with a reputation for brutality, witnesses said.” (Click here for the complete Reuters story.)
Even Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, is seeing protests gain momentum. Officials are so worried, the security forces rounded up and detained nearly two dozen protesters in an effort to quell even the hint of revolution, but it may be too late. Reuters reported yesterday, “More than 17,000 people backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations in Saudi Arabia this month, the first one on Friday. A loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shi’ites has petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the kingdom.” Keep in mind, public dissent is frowned upon in that part of the world. (Click here to read the complete Reuters story.)
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More Jobs Mirage In February—BLS Continues To Overestimate Job Growth
VDare
The announcement on March 4 that 192,000 new jobs were created in February was greeted with a sigh of relief. But the number is just more smoke and mirrors, as I will show shortly. First, let’s pretend the jobs are real. What areas of the economy produced the jobs?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 152,000 of the jobs or 79% are in private services, consisting of: 11,700 jobs in wholesale trade, 22,000 in transportation and warehousing, 36,400 in administration and waste services (of which 15,500 are temporary help services), and 36,200 in ambulatory health care services and nursing and residential care facilities. Entertainment, waitresses and bartenders accounted for 20,000. Repair and maintenance, laundry services, and membership associations accounted for 14,000.
As one who has often reported the monthly payroll jobs breakdown, I am struck by the fact that these categories are the ones that have accounted for job growth for year after year. How can this be? How can Americans, who have had no growth in their real incomes and who are foreclosed from their homes and maxed out on credit card debt, car payments, and student loans, spend more every month in bars and restaurants? How can a few service areas of the economy grow when nothing else is?
The answer is that there were not 192,000 new jobs. Statistician John Williams estimates the reported gain was overstated by about 230,000 jobs. In other words, about 38,000 jobs were lost in February.
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Rothschild Bankers Looting Nations Through World Bank/IMF
Raymond L’Heureux and Richard Salbat
Sovereign Independent
The World Bank/IMF is owned and controlled by NM Rothschild & Sons plus 30 to 40 of the wealthiest people in the world. For over 150 years they have planned to take over the planet through money. The former chief economist of the World Bank, Joe Stiglitz, was fired in 2000. He pointed out to top executives that every country the IMF/World Bank forced their way into ended up with a crashed economy, a destroyed government, and some even broke out in riots. Former President of the World Bank/IMF Sir James Wolfensohn, would not comment on his dismissal.
Before Joe Stiglitz was fired he took a large stack of secret documents out of the World Bank.
These secret documents from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund reveal that the IMF required nations:
1. To sign secret agreements containing 111 destructive items. (I’d love to get a hold of that list)
2. To agree to sell off their key assets – water, electric, gas, etc.
3. To agree to take economic steps which are devastating to the nations involved.
If they do not agree to these steps they are cut-off from all international Import/Export. If you can’t borrow money in the international marketplace, no one can survive, whether you are people, corporations or countries. If that doesn’t work they overthrow the government and rewrite history.
The Argentina Plan
Inside documents from Argentina show the top-secret Argentine plan. This was signed by Sir James Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank. Argentina has had six presidents in five weeks because their economy is completely destroyed. This happened because they started out in the end of the 1980s with orders from the IMF and World Bank to sell-off all their assets, public assets, like their water system. Then they taxed the people. They created big government and big government handed it off to the private IMF/World Bank. They pay off the politicians billions in Swiss bank accounts.
Read Full Article
Sovereign Independent
The World Bank/IMF is owned and controlled by NM Rothschild & Sons plus 30 to 40 of the wealthiest people in the world. For over 150 years they have planned to take over the planet through money. The former chief economist of the World Bank, Joe Stiglitz, was fired in 2000. He pointed out to top executives that every country the IMF/World Bank forced their way into ended up with a crashed economy, a destroyed government, and some even broke out in riots. Former President of the World Bank/IMF Sir James Wolfensohn, would not comment on his dismissal.
Before Joe Stiglitz was fired he took a large stack of secret documents out of the World Bank.
These secret documents from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund reveal that the IMF required nations:
1. To sign secret agreements containing 111 destructive items. (I’d love to get a hold of that list)
2. To agree to sell off their key assets – water, electric, gas, etc.
3. To agree to take economic steps which are devastating to the nations involved.
If they do not agree to these steps they are cut-off from all international Import/Export. If you can’t borrow money in the international marketplace, no one can survive, whether you are people, corporations or countries. If that doesn’t work they overthrow the government and rewrite history.
The Argentina Plan
Inside documents from Argentina show the top-secret Argentine plan. This was signed by Sir James Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank. Argentina has had six presidents in five weeks because their economy is completely destroyed. This happened because they started out in the end of the 1980s with orders from the IMF and World Bank to sell-off all their assets, public assets, like their water system. Then they taxed the people. They created big government and big government handed it off to the private IMF/World Bank. They pay off the politicians billions in Swiss bank accounts.
Read Full Article
Gas up 33 cents — second biggest two-week jump ever
Private Lundberg survey says average cost of a gallon of regular nationwide is $3.51
Reuters/MSNBC
NEW YORK — Gasoline prices in the United States posted their second-biggest increase ever in a two-week period, due to the rise in crude oil prices stemming from the turmoil in Libya, an industry analyst said Sunday.
The national average for a gallon of self-serve, regular gas was $3.50 on March 4, according to the Lundberg Survey of about 2,500 gas stations, up 32.7 cents from the previous survey on Feb. 18.
The gross price increase was the biggest since the 38.44 cent-rise that occurred in the Aug. 26-to-Sept. 9, 2005, period following Hurricane Katrina, according to survey editor Trilby Lundberg.
Read Full Article
 |
| AFP image |
NEW YORK — Gasoline prices in the United States posted their second-biggest increase ever in a two-week period, due to the rise in crude oil prices stemming from the turmoil in Libya, an industry analyst said Sunday.
The national average for a gallon of self-serve, regular gas was $3.50 on March 4, according to the Lundberg Survey of about 2,500 gas stations, up 32.7 cents from the previous survey on Feb. 18.
The gross price increase was the biggest since the 38.44 cent-rise that occurred in the Aug. 26-to-Sept. 9, 2005, period following Hurricane Katrina, according to survey editor Trilby Lundberg.
Read Full Article
Saudi Arabia's stock market tumbles on fears of civil unrest
Fears of sectarian uprisings in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have set off the first serious wave of investor flight from the Gulf, compounding market turmoil as civil war in Libya pushes Brent crude over $116 a barrel.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock index has tumbled 11pc in wild trading over the past two days, led by banks and insurers. Dubai’s bourse has hit a 7-year low.
The latest sell-off was triggered by the arrest of a Shi’ite cleric in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province after he called for democratic reforms and a constitutional monarchy. The province is home to Saudi Arabia’s aggrieved Shi’ite minority and also holds the country’s vast Ghawar oilfield, placing it at the epicentre of global crude supply.
“Unrest in this region can have fatal consequences for the world,” said JBC Energy. “The plunge on the Saudi stock exchange can be interpreted as a sign of waning trust.”
In Bahrain, the island nation’s Sunni elite holds sway over a Shi’ite majority that is denied key jobs and has a token political voice, making it a trial run for Saudi Arabia’s near-identical tensions in the Eastern Province.
Read Full Article
 |
| Prayers in Saudi Arabia/ Wiki Commons image |
Telegraph
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock index has tumbled 11pc in wild trading over the past two days, led by banks and insurers. Dubai’s bourse has hit a 7-year low.
The latest sell-off was triggered by the arrest of a Shi’ite cleric in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province after he called for democratic reforms and a constitutional monarchy. The province is home to Saudi Arabia’s aggrieved Shi’ite minority and also holds the country’s vast Ghawar oilfield, placing it at the epicentre of global crude supply.
“Unrest in this region can have fatal consequences for the world,” said JBC Energy. “The plunge on the Saudi stock exchange can be interpreted as a sign of waning trust.”
In Bahrain, the island nation’s Sunni elite holds sway over a Shi’ite majority that is denied key jobs and has a token political voice, making it a trial run for Saudi Arabia’s near-identical tensions in the Eastern Province.
Read Full Article
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