Recovery: Record 23 Million American Households Receive Food Stamps

Mac Slavo
June 12th, 2013
SHTFplan.com

Just when you thought America was coming out of recession…
The number of American households on food stamps reached a new record high in March, according to new data released by the Agriculture Department.
The March numbers the USDA released Friday reveal 23,116,441 households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, each receiving an average monthly benefit of $274.30.
The number of individuals on SNAP did not break any records but remained high, with 47,727,052 people enrolled in SNAP, receiving an average monthly benefit of $132.86.
The number of individuals on SNAP hit a record high in December, with 47,792,056 people enrolled.
SNAP has been in the news in recent years and months as the program’s rolls have ballooned and the cost has quadrupled since 2001 and doubled since President Obama took office.
Nearly a quarter of the households in this country depend on the government to put food on the table.
One hundred million of our fellow countrymen  are enrolled in at least one welfare program aimed at helping them make ends meet.
Recovery?
This is a depression and it won’t be getting better any time soon.

Has the IRS Already Seized Your Medical Records?

By David Catron on 5.20.13 @ 6:09AM

If you think your intimate health information is private in the era of Obamacare, think again.

As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the complaint filed by “John Doe Company” in the Southern District of California, “stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians.”
Before I get to the feature of this case that will really scare the pants off you, a little more background: This tawdry tale began in 2011 with an IRS investigation concerning one former employee of “John Doe Company” pursuant to which a search warrant was obtained. This warrant didn’t authorize the seizure of anyone’s medical records, but the IRS agents “threatened to ‘rip’ the servers containing the medical data out of the building if IT personnel would not voluntarily hand them over.” They proceeded to seize the records “without making any attempt to segregate the files from those that could possibly be related to the search warrant.”
The leadership of “John Doe Company” attempted to make the IRS people understand that they had violated at least one federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and that “unreasonable searches and seizures” violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The agents were unimpressed. As the complaint phrases it, “After being put on notice of the illicit seizure, the IRS agents refused to return the records, continued to keep the records for the prying eyes of IRS peeping toms, and keep the records to this very day.” The IRS also refuses to reveal who has seen the records or where they are located.
It would seem pretty obvious that this is another abuse of power by the IRS at least as serious as the abuses that dominated the news all last week. Thus far, though, only conservative and libertarian publications have afforded it serious attention. Why so much focus on one story and none on the other? It’s those two words, “medical records.” The MSM is attempting to build a firewall between the IRS scandal and Obamacare. This is why the mainstream outlets are publishing so many columns and blog posts, like this one by Jonathan Cohn, assuring us that attempts to link the IRS scandal with Obamacare are “laughable.”
In reality, of course, they are inextricably linked. And not merely because the IRS can, as Cohn himself puts it, “use its power to pry into individual medical records or otherwise invade personal liberty.” They are linked because Obamacare and the President’s second most ill-conceived domestic initiative, the “stimulus” package, mandated that every health care provider in the country adopt the very technology, electronic health records (EHR), which renders such abuse possible. Before these mandates, it wasn’t possible to steal 60 million confidential records from any single entity except from the federal government itself.
This brings us to the most ironic feature of our government-mandated EHR technology. The system most frequently promoted by “reformers” during the health care debate was VistA, a system that had been implemented by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Thus, the technology mandated by Obamacare was largely inspired by VistA. But, as it happens, the most notorious medical record theft in history involved the VA. As CNN reported at the time, “The names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of about 26.5 million active duty troops and veterans were on the laptop and external drive, which disappeared while in the custody of a Veterans Affairs data analyst …”
You will note that the person from whom these records were stolen was not a doctor or a nurse, but a data analyst who was carrying around huge amounts of medical information on a laptop. And this is where you should begin to have real fears for your privacy. Your medical records, once the province of highly trained medical professionals, are now routinely accessed by all manner of individuals uninvolved in your medical treatment. And many of these individuals are not closely supervised by medical professionals. Indeed, many of the people who have access to your medical records are not supervised by anyone.
For example, if you visit the ER tonight, the hospital will send a claim to your insurance company. Before that happens, however, a diagnosis code must be assigned to your record. Who does that? Typically, it is someone in her pajamas who uses a laptop to remote into the hospital’s IT system from home after the kids are in bed. She is not a physician or a nurse, yet she peruses your records, interprets your doctor’s notes, and then chooses an ICD-9 code from a drop-down box. It is likely that no one employed at the hospital has ever met this person in the flesh. Hospitals increasingly connect with such contract coders via outside agencies.
Assuming this coder is completely honest and very productive, as are most of them, what happens if her eldest son is addicted to narcotics and knows that she has routine access to the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of thousands of people? He has a golden opportunity to commit identity theft. All he has to do is wait until she forgets to lock her screen when she gets up to toss a casserole into the oven or run to the bathroom. If he is computer savvy, and what adolescent isn’t, he can access and steal your information in a matter of minutes. Such opportunities arise every minute of every day, all across the nation.
The point here is not that electronic medical records are inherently bad. It is rather that, in their mad rush to pass Obamacare and the stimulus package, the President and his accomplices on Capitol Hill mandated clunky, insecure systems that can be abused by politicized government agencies, mismanaged by innocent but incompetent bureaucrats, or even breached by the kid next door. At the same time, they augmented the already-immense power of the IRS exponentially. Thus, Jonathan Cohn and anyone else who pretends that the IRS scandals have no implications for Obamacare is either delusional or dishonest.
Last week’s revelations concerning that agency’s treatment of Tea Party and anti-abortion groups demonstrates that the IRS is sufficiently corrupt to abuse its power. And its theft of 60 million medical records shows that it is also eminently able to invade the privacy of any American. I’ll conclude, then, with a little more food for thought: The class action lawsuit filed by John Doe Company involves 10 million patients, “roughly one out of every twenty-five adult American citizens.” And, since only 10 percent of the affected patients reside in California, the rest are obviously scattered across the nation. Are you one of the other 9 million?
Photo: UPI

Gold Buying Panic In China: 10,000 People Wait In Line For Their Chance to Own Precious Metals

image source

Mac Slavo
Activist Post

One day in the near future Americans will finally realize that their money is being devalued at a rapid pace. For the time being the price increases are somewhat muted by official announcements of inflation being under control at around 2% and purported economic recovery on the horizon. The Federal Reserve and the US government are doing everything in their power to maintain a perception of stability.

But what happens when all the machinations are proven to be fruitless during the next stock market crash and currency crisis?

That’s when people panic. That’s when they start mass selling assets that hold no true value, and shift their capital to physical goods that store and preserve wealth.

In China, where the central government has manipulated the currency, economic and financial markets for decades, the people have seen it all before. And they aren’t taking any chances.

While the paper price of gold and silver may have dropped nearly 25% this year, it’s clear that demand in the real world is soaring.

If you want to know what it’s going to look like in front of precious metals dealers when confidence in our government’s ability to manage this crisis is finally lost for good, then look no further than the streets of China.

The following pictures, taken in Jinan in the last 48 hours, depict some 10,000 Chinese citizens lining up to buy physical gold, providing all the evidence you need for the argument that gold is, in fact, money.

These are absolutely stunning.













Images from Caixin via Zero Hedge

The pictures are reminiscent of Americans lining up around the block during the gold buying sprees of the 1980s in an attempt to get their hands on physical gold and silver.

Just as is the case with food, guns, ammunition, Xboxes, and iPhones, when widespread demand strikes it’s nearly impossible to get your hands on the goods you need at a fair price.

Get yours now, before the panicked masses realize what has happened.

Other articles by Mac Slavo can be found at his site SHTFplan.com where this article first appeared.

Detroit rock bottom: City announces $2.5bn debt default

Detroit said it will stop making payment on $2.5 billion of the city’s massive $18.5 billion debt and has asked creditors to accept 10 cents in the dollar of what the city owes them in a bid to avoid the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history.
Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said the city would stop
making payments on its unsecured debt in a bid to “conserve cash”
for vital services like police and firefighters. He further said
pension benefits both present and future along with healthcare
would face cuts, while control over the city’s water and sewage
would be turned over to an independent body.
“We’re tapped out,” Orr was quoted by WWJ-TV as saying.
“We need to come up with a plan to restructure our debt
obligations and our legacy obligations going forward — that is:
pension, other employee benefits, healthcare, so on and so
forth.”
Orr continued that $1.25 billion would be set aside over the next
decade, $750 million of which will go towards public safety,
including funds for police, fire, streetlights and other
endeavors. The remaining $500 million will be for blight removal.
The emergency manager spent two hours with about 180 bond
insurers, pension trustees, union representatives and other
creditors holding Detroit debt on Friday in an effort to fix
fiscal problems which have left the city insolvent.
One bond holder present at the meeting who asked not to be
identified told Reuters Orr’s proposal was likely more than debt
holders would be able to accept.
“It’s just too much. It is an unprecedented amount to
ask.”
If creditors reject the plan, Detroit could be forced into what
would be by far the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in US
history.
Orr said there is a “50:50” chance the city will be forced
into bankruptcy and that decision would likely happen in the next
30 days.
“Financial mismanagement, a shrinking population, a dwindling
tax base and other factors over the past 45 years have brought
Detroit to the brink of financial and operational ruin,” Orr
said.
In a report issued to creditors on Friday, Detroit’s skyrocketing
debt, pension and healthcare obligations will sell to almost 65
percent of total city revenue by 2017, up from the current level
of 42.5 percent.
Detroit has also experienced a 26 percent decline in population
since 2000, while unemployment surged from 6.3 percent in June
2000 to 18.3 percent in June 2012, further shrinking the city’s
revenue base. Meanwhile, the city’s budget deficit is likely to
exceed $380 million by July 1.
Orr, who was appointed three months ago by Michigan Governor Rick
Snyder to salvage the city’s finances and operations, has been
met with skepticism by local residents who have accused him of
exaggerating the current situation.
“We feel that the bankers and the creditors who are here today
with the emergency manager are not going to negotiate in the best
interest of the people of the city of Detroit. And we are saying
that the same financial institutions that Mr. Orr is negotiating
with today are responsible in large part for the crisis that
exists in Detroit,” Abayomi Azikiwe, a protester outside the
meeting told PBS.
Leaders of some of Detroit’s 48 public sector unions were also
upset by the proposals, with water and sewage workers vowing to
strike over the privatization plans.

This article originally appeared on: RT

BANK OF AMERICA'S SENIOR LOAN COLLECTOR ADMITS TO LYING BECAUSE HE WAS TOLD TO LIE

Attached is an affidavit of a senior loan collector for BOA that was filed in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts under case number MDL 2193.
Simone Gordan stated the following under oath:
"Using the Bank of America computer systems I saw that hundreds of customers had made their required trial payments, sent the documents requested of them, but had not received permanent modifications. I also saw records showing that Bank of America employees have told people that documents had not been received when, in fact, the computer system showed that Bank of America had received the documents. This was consistent with the instructions my colleagues and I were given. We were told to lie to customers and claim that Bank of America had not received documents it had requested, and that it had not received trial payments (when in fact it had). We were told that admitting that the bank received documents would "open a can of worms" since the bank was required to underwrite a loan modification within 30 days of receiving those documents and it did not have sufficient underwriting staff to complete the underwriting in that time.... Site leaders regularly told us that the more we delayed the HAMP modification process, the more fees Bank of America would collect. We were regularly drilled that it was our job to maximize fees for the bank by fostering and extending the lay of the ... modification process by any means we could --- this included lying to customers. For example, we were instructed by our supervisors at Bank of America to delay modifications by telling homeowners who called in at their documents were "under review," when, in fact, there had been no review or any other work done on the file."
" Employees who were caught admitting that Bank of America had received financial documents or that the borrower was actually entitled to a permanent loan modification where discipline and often terminated without warning."
Bank of America did not merely lie to its customers. Bank of America makes a practice of lying to its own staff. While the use of a "nonperforming" loan are higher than the fees paid on a "performing" loan, the real reason for this outrageous behavior is that the banks are attempting to protect and maintain their receipt of outrageous sums of money that they have declared to be proprietary trading profits. The banks are mere intermediaries. They are not and never were principals or real parties in interest in any transaction between the homeowner and the investors who put up the money.
Read More jdsupra.com/legalnews/bank-of-americas-senior-loan-collector-30147/ …

The State of the Union and the Coming Financial Collapse

World Events and the Bible
The State of the Union is not well, as a matter of fact it is extremely ill. Let us analyze this fact. The population of the United States currently stands at about 315,000,000 souls. If we check in with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics we find 11,760,000 people are officially unemployed. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states there are89,705,000 working age Americans that are “not in the labor force”. This adds up to 101,465,000 working age Americans that do not have a job.

Remember, the entire population stands at just 315,000,000 men, women and children, meaning literally one-third of the entire United States is without work, including children!  How can the United States government then state the official unemployment number stands around 7%? Because they are the government.
Many will state the malls and restaurants are full, how can these numbers be correct? If you check our sources they are directly from the government’s own site. What we have is a manipulation of the numbers. Let us take a deeper look…
An article published by CNS News states, there were 72,600,000 people on Medicaid last year which is a new record. They continue by stating,

“The 72,600,000 enrolled in Medicaid in the United States in 2012 was more than the 65,630,692 people who lived in France last year, according to data published by the Census Bureau, or the 63,047,162 people who lived in the United Kingdom.
In fact, if Medicaid was a country rather than a U.S. government program it would be the twentieth most populous nation in the world, ranking just ahead of Thailand, which had 67,091,089 people in 2012, and just behind the Congo, which had 73,599,190 people in 2012.”

2012 was a record breaking year indeed. If we investigate further we find a record setting 46,609,072 people were on food stamps last year.

“The United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it’s ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the program every month of last year. 47,791,996 people were on the program in the month of December 2012.”

We also have a new record for those claiming Disability Benefits which now stands at 10,978,040 as reported by CNS News. They add,

“The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 million in April, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.
The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States now exceed the population of all but seven states. For example, there are more Americans collecting disability today than there are people living in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey or Virginia.”

The number of people currently receiving Disability Benefits in the United States now exceeds the entire population of Greece!
If this were not enough one-third of the entire population in Puerto Rico receives food stamps from the United States Government. Also known as your tax dollars.
Yet, the United States Government sees socialism as a way to “stimulate”the economy. Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee said,

“Amazingly, the federal government says that the more people we have on food stamps, the more it grows the economy. The Department of Agriculture proudly declares: ‘Each $5 in new [food stamp] benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community.’ “

The ideology that is used is that of a child is it not? The Lord proclaimed this would be so in Isaiah 3:4 which states, “And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.”
You simply cannot “stimulate” the economy by taking from those who have earned their money and giving it to those who have not. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “Socialists always run out of other people’s money.”That is exactly what is occurring. The total United States unfunded liabilities currently stands at a staggering $124,302,777,568,142 and counting faster than I can write this article. Your portion of the debt burden currently stands at $1,092,965. Will that be cash, check or charge? All jokes aside, this debt can never be repaid and it will in fact lead to utter financial collapse.
We no longer have the soup lines of old. Today, we have plastic EBT food stamp cards and a plethora of other benefits, some of which we have already documented. These benefits are deposited right into the users account. So when our society is told the economy will collapse, yet we see the malls and restaurants full and no soup lines this paints a false picture of prosperity which does not exist.
Truth be told, the entire global financial system is being propped up. We see that in the United States with the Federal Reserve’s never ending Qualitative Easing Program (money printing). Abroad they have their own methods of preserving their monetary systems which include printing money out of thin air and raiding their citizens bank accounts. Do not think for a moment this will not happen in the United States as well, for it has already started.
We will soon witness a collapse of the world’s entire monetary system nearly at once. Make no mistake about it, this entire plan is by design. After the collapse, the world will be presented with a solution to merge the nations of the globe into a single governed body. Many people refer to this as a New World Order. This has been discussed publicly by high level government officials for years which started with George Bush Sr. The entire world will embrace this proposed solution, my friends, we are not far from this event unfolding…
The system is in fact collapsing, the only question is… Are you aware of it?

Will Japanese Bond Market Collapses Be The Catalyst For The Whole Thing To Come Unglued?

Normally I’m the first one that points out to everyone that tptb can kick the can down the road a LONG time before the end game comes. However, even I think we are running out of road.
Japan really has me spooked. I’ve thought for years they could be the catalyst for the whole thing to come unglued, if they did something stupid. Well, they did, and if their bond market collapses because of it, that could pop the derivative bubble again.
As another poster noted, oil is another one to watch. In the US, gas gets too high, the economy crashes. Simple as that. We are far too dependent upon long chains of logistics for nearly everything to be able to afford high fuel prices.
But you know what, it will probably be something else that no one thinks about, or a small time player that takes down the rest. Maybe another Lehman-style collapse, maybe a country or even city default triggers the whole thing. Who knows. All I do know is all the crazy shit that has happened this year would not have been allow to be made public if we weren’t close. Either they are losing control, or they are on final approach and no longer care if the sheeple know…
The bond market is headed for a meltdown, and that collapse may bring down the governments of Japan, Europe and the United States, says Michael Pento, president of Pento Portfolio Strategies.
The U.S. government was about to collapse in 2008 until the financial system was bailed out, he tells Newsmax TV. “We took on $7 trillion of new debt and took interest rates to zero percent,” says Pento, author of “The Coming Bond Market Collapse.”
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Pento-bond-market-collapse/2013/05/12/id/504020#ixzz2WHrVGZJZ
GLOBAL DEPRESSION “Trigger Mechanism”: Collapse of Japanese Govt Bonds
http://investmentwatchblog.com/global-depression-trigger-mechanism-collapse-of-japanese-govt-bonds-10-year-now-at-1-japanese-bond-market-closed-nikkei-down-over-1000-points-as-japan-goes-so-goes-the-world/

The junk bond market is already in crash mode

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE
The Power of the Pattern shared that Junk Bond ETF’s were creating bearish rising wedges on 5/24, suggesting a two-thirds chance junk bonds would fall in price. (see post here)
The above 2-pack reflects a breakdown in price and a breakout in yields for a Junk bond ETF and a preferred Dividend ETF. Both are nearing short-term support, where a bounce is due!
The key to the bigger puzzle on junk is the inset chart, reflecting that effective yields on Junk are breaking higher (bullish for yields/bearish for price) from a bullish falling wedge and rates are still very low on a historical basis!
http://blog.kimblechartingsolutions.com/2013/06/junk-bonds-acting-rather-junkie-of-late-next-key-move-is/

US Bonds In “Panic” Mode
Based on Credit-Suisse’s Panic-Euphoria model of risk appetite, US bond markets are on the verge of the short-term capitulative “Panic” mode. Each time we have reached this level of ‘selling’ in the last 6 years, Treasury yields have compressed significantly. At the same time, equity risk appetite remains bearish and US credit risk appetite has resumed its decline (but relative to Treasuries they are significantly over-sold). Not a pretty picture…
Bonds hit “Panic” levels of risk appetite…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-13/us-bonds-panic-mode
US Regulator: Deutsche Bank ‘Horribly Undercapitalized’ 
A top U.S. banking regulator called Deutsche Bank’s capital levels horrible and said it is the worst on a list of global banks based on one measurement of leverage ratios.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.moneynews.com/Finance-News#ixzz2WEzBjqke
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
 NOMURA: Chinese Growth Could Fall Below 7% In The Second Half Of This Year

Downside risks have grown ‘significantly.’

http://www.businessinsider.com/nomura-chinese-growth-below-7-2013-6
The Markets Are Pricing In An Autumn Fed Tapering That The Economy Isn’t Ready For

The economy isn’t strong enough yet.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-economy-is-too-week-to-reduce-qe-2013-6
Deutsche Bank ‘Horribly Undercapitalized’: US Regulator
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100818126
For Stocks, “Headwinds Are Clear And Seem To Be Strengthening”
If stock markets really do their best to discount earnings six months ahead of time, then it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  ConvergEx’s Nick Colas’ monthly review of analysts’ revenue expectation for the Dow 30 companies finds that hopes for growth in the second half of 2013 continues to diminish.  The upcoming Q2 2013 results won’t be much to write home about either, with average top line growth versus last year of just 1.1% and (0.7% ex-financials), the lowest comps analysts have put in their models since they started posting expectations last year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-14/stocks-headwinds-are-clear-and-seem-be-strengthening
The Economy In Pictures
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-14/guest-post-economy-pictures