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Turn Out The Lights U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wret

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December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
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October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
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September 14, 2017, 04:31:26 am Christian40 says: i have thought that i'm reaping from past sins then my life has been impacted in ways from having non believers in my ancestry.
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Author Topic: Turn Out The Lights U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wret  (Read 26007 times)
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« Reply #60 on: March 12, 2013, 12:37:50 pm »

And throw in alot of these high-profile criminal cases like Casey Anthony, Drew Peterson, Sarah Jo Pender, etc - pretty much high profile cases over people that are from the middle/working class segment of society. Ultimately, thanks to alot of the propaganda and "talking points" from the NWO-runned media et al, new laws are created out of the Problem-Reaction-Solution NWO model. You saw it during the Anthony case. Peterson got convicted b/c of a "heresy" law that Illinois passed before they arrested him. In both cases, there was no physical evidence. Ditto the Pender case, despite the prosecution painting her as a Charles Mason type.

Pt being that the more "new" laws they create out of thin air, the more "criminals" they will catch using these "new" laws, and the more people they lock up in prison.

The same can be said for the whole "war on drugs" propaganda - I had a friend years ago who's nephew got caught with a mere sandwich bag of illegal possession of drugs in his pocket, and despite this being his 1st offense, he was fortunate to get 3 years in prison(when federal law says a minimum of 10 for 1st offense). You would think probation would be the proper 1st offense term, right?
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« Reply #61 on: March 23, 2013, 04:00:09 am »

Jesse Jackson calls for mass protest against Detroit's emergency financial manager

The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined the fight against Detroit’s emergency financial manager on Friday, calling for mass, nonviolent protest in the city to fend off what he called an attack on residents’ voting rights.

Jackson and several other opponents to an EFM pledged to file a lawsuit next week challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s new emergency manager law. It takes effect Thursday and grants broad powers to the incoming emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, a Washington, D.C., bankruptcy lawyer.

“As opposed to having a city council that’s democratically elected and a mayor, you’ll have a plantocracy, a plantation-ocracy, replacing a democracy,” Jackson said.

rest: http://www.freep.com/article/20130322/NEWS01/130322040/Jesse-Jackson-calls-mass-protest-against-Detroit-s-emergency-financial-manager-

wow, why is that dirt bag even there? and HOW is that a racial issue? really? a plantation-ocracy? dude you had the gall to wipe Martin Luther Kings blood up off the landing, after you showed up after he was carted off, wipe it on your shirt, than go give a press conference and LIE about how you were there. Just amazing, Detroit needs real help not more shake down artists. 
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« Reply #62 on: March 23, 2013, 04:05:30 am »

Sprawling and Struggling: Poverty Hits America's Suburbs

 The number of suburban residents living in poverty rose by nearly 64 percent between 2000 and 2011, to about 16.4 million people, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of 95 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. That's more than double the rate of growth for urban poverty in those areas.

"I think we have an outdated perception of where poverty is and who it is affecting," said Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the research. "We tend to think of it as a very urban and a very rural phenomenon, but it is increasingly suburban."

Simons' situation is complicated by the fact she's a single mom. Poverty and financial insecurity among single moms is far higher than for households headed by single dads or two parents.

The rate of poverty among single mothers actually improved dramatically through the 1990s, thanks to a strong economy, more favorable tax breaks and the success of so-called welfare-to-work programs. But two recessions and years of high unemployment erased many of those gains.

rest: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100582664
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« Reply #63 on: April 02, 2013, 06:49:28 am »

Stockton bankruptcy can move forward, judge rules

A federal judge ruled Monday that Stockton is eligible for bankruptcy protection, over the objection of creditors who argued the city could come up with more money.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said Stockton can move forward with a plan to reorganize debt. He twice stated that the creditors had acted in bad faith and had refused to pay their share of the costs for negotiations.

"The creditors got a big black eye today," said Karol Denniston, an attorney who helped draft the legislation that guided Stockton's mandated mediation before filing for bankruptcy protection. "Now the stage is set for the real dogfight."

In late June, Stockton became the nation's largest city to fail financially. At that time, all eyes were on the port city of 300,000 as experts warned the action could set off a string of similar filings among cash-strapped municipalities. Since then, a half-dozen cities have filed for Chapter 9 protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, including the city of San Bernardino.

During the 90-day mediation period, Stockton's creditors refused to negotiate unless the city cut payments to the state pension plan, CalPERS.

By law, the negotiations were confidential, but that detail emerged during the three-day trial that concluded last week.

Klein said the creditors could not legally walk away from the table, but he left the door open for CalPERS obligations to be part of negotiations in the coming phases of the bankruptcy.

At issue will be whether U.S. bankruptcy law trumps California law, which says the pension plan must be funded.

The $900 million Stockton owes to the California Public Employees Retirement System to cover pensions is its biggest debt -– as is the case with many cities in California.

Stockton slashed its police and fire departments, halted bond payments, cut employee benefits and adopted an emergency spending plan that cut many city services. But the city continues to pay into the state pension.

Stockton's bankruptcy is expected to be closely watched for precedent, and could be appealed as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-stockton-bankrupt-20130401,0,7979388.story
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« Reply #64 on: April 02, 2013, 06:50:52 am »

State auditor: California's net worth at negative $127.2 billion

Were California's state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.

The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state's negative status -- all of its assets minus all of its liabilities -- increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue.

During the 2011-12 fiscal year, the state's general fund spent $1.7 billion more than it received in revenues and wound up with an accumulated deficit of just under $23 billion from several years of red ink. Gov. Jerry Brown has referred to that and other budget gaps, mostly money owed to schools, as a "wall of debt" totaling more than $30 billion.

Last November, voters passed an increase in sales and income taxes that Brown says will balance the state's operating budget and allow the debt wall to be gradually dismantled.

About half of the $127.2 billion in accumulated red ink came from the state's issuing general obligation bonds and then giving the money to local governments and school districts for public works projects, the auditor pointed out. The assets built with the bonds remain on local balance sheets while the bonded debt accrues to the state.

The remainder, however, is all on the state's ticket. "Expenses that exceeded revenues and increased long-term obligations resulted in an 81.4 percent decrease in the total net assets for governmental and business-type activities from the 20-10-11 fiscal year," said the report.

The report listed the state's long-term obligations at $167.9 billion, nearly half of which ($79.9 billion) were in general obligation bonds, with another $30.8 billion in revenue bonds, many of which were issued to build state prisons, whose "revenue" is lease payments from the state general fund.

The list of long-term obligations did not include the much-disputed unfunded liabilities for state employees' future pensions, nor the $60-plus billion in unfunded liabilities for retiree health care. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board and Moody's, a major bond credit rating house, have been pushing states and localities to include unfunded retiree obligations in their balance sheets and were they to be added to California's, it could push its negative net worth down by several hundred billion dollars.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/03/state-auditor-california-net-worth-at-negative-127-billion.html#storylink=cpy
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« Reply #65 on: April 02, 2013, 09:11:23 am »

I read the other day that if the high court strikes down Prop 8, hence legalizing gay marriages in CA, then married gay couples would be hit by a marriage tax penalty(which hits all married couples), hence having them pay more in taxes.

I'm not familiar with previous nations and empires(like the Roman Empire in the early 1st millennium) that fell b/c they went into deep debt, but I wonder what other agendas they got themselves into(like the homosexual agenda) in terms of acting out of desperation. I read awhile back that this was one of the reasons why the feminist agenda came about(ie-to get more taxes from the other half of the marriage).

I know we're living in the days of Lot now(and Romans 1 is coming to pass), but nonetheless you can't deny the heavy debt this country is in might also be playing a part in terms of embracing the homosexual agenda(in terms of getting more money).
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« Reply #66 on: April 04, 2013, 11:02:18 am »

http://washingtonexaminer.com/mcdonalds-want-ad-demands-bachelors-degree-two-years-experience-for-cashier/article/2526145
McDonald's want ad demands bachelor's degree, two years experience for cashier
4/3/13

With colleges producing more graduates, and youth unemployment at a sky-high 11.5 percent, even landing a job selling Big Macs is getting competitive.

Consider: A job opening at a Massachusetts McDonald's restaurant for a full-time cashier requires one to two years experience and a bachelor's degree.

"Get a weekly paycheck with a side order of food, folks and fun," offered McDonalds.

It is not clear if the fast-food restaurant really wants that kind of experience or is fishing for the highest-qualified applicants. The website for the Winchedon, Mass., McDonald's also lists jobs in Spanish.

Youth advocates said the ad is proof of how bad the employment situation is for kids. "Sadly we've taxed-and-spent our way to an economy in which there's intense competition for just about any job. Combine that with government meddling in the student loan market that has artificially inflated the cost of higher education and young people are getting screwed over even worse than the country overall," said Evan Feinberg, president of the Washington-based youth advocacy group Generation Opportunity.
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« Reply #67 on: April 04, 2013, 04:47:38 pm »

Quote
...Combine that with government meddling in the student loan market that has artificially inflated the cost of higher education...

Uh, meddling where they don't belong sure, but it's the colleges that have raised their tuition to astronomical levels that has resulted in a huge increase in student loan debt. The meddling that government has done is in who manages all those loans and determines who gets financing for those over-priced colleges. EdFund and ECMC is a good place to start to see just how much meddling and double-talk the government is spinning over education loans. The federal government bailed out the California student loan market without anybody even noticing to the tune of over 30 BILLION dollars.

Yeah, the government is meddling, but it is the schools themselves that have been raising their costs to students, forcing students to get loans if they want an over-priced, basically useless degree.
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« Reply #68 on: April 19, 2013, 05:47:19 am »

ACLU: Detroit Police Dumping Homeless Outside City

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan says Detroit police are removing homeless people from the popular Greektown entertainment district downtown and dropping them off miles away — sometimes outside the city.

Following a year-long investigation, the ACLU filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department and sent a letter to Detroit police demanding an end to what they call a “disturbing practice.”

“DPD’s practice of essentially kidnapping homeless people and abandoning them miles away from the neighborhoods they know – with no means for a safe return — is inhumane, callous and illegal,” said Sarah Mehta, ACLU of Michigan staff attorney. “The city’s desire to hide painful reminders of our economic struggles cannot justify discriminating against the poor, banishing them from their city, and endangering their lives. A person who has lost his home has not lost his right to be treated with dignity.”

rest: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/04/18/aclu-detroit-police-dumping-homeless-outside-city/
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« Reply #69 on: April 26, 2013, 06:07:50 am »

America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes

What is happening to you America?  Once upon a time, the United States was a place where free enterprise thrived and the greatest cities that the world had ever seen sprouted up from coast to coast.  Good jobs were plentiful and a manufacturing boom helped fuel the rise of the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the planet.  Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore were all teeming with economic activity and the rest of the globe looked on our economic miracle with a mixture of wonder and envy.  But now look at us.  Our once proud cities are being transformed into poverty-stricken hellholes.  Did you know that the city of Detroit once actually had the highest per-capita income in the United States?  Looking at Detroit today, it is hard to imagine that it was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world.  In fact, as you will read about later in this article, tourists now travel to Detroit from all over the globe just to see the ruins of Detroit.  Sadly, the exact same thing that is happening to Detroit is happening to cities all over America.  Detroit is just ahead of the curve.  We are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse that is eating away at us like cancer, and things are going to get a lot worse than this.  So if you still live in a prosperous area of the country, don't laugh at what is happening to others.  What is happening to them will be coming to your area soon enough.
 
The following are 24 signs that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes...
 
#1 According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.
 
#2 At this point, approximately one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
 
#3 Back during the housing bubble, an acre of land in downtown Phoenix, Arizona sold for about $90 a square foot.  Today, an acre in downtown Phoenix sells for about $9 a square foot.
 
#4 The city of Chicago is so strapped for cash that it is planning to close 54 public schools.  It is being estimated that Chicago schools will run a budget deficit of about a billion dollars in 2013.
 
#5 The city of Baltimore is already facing unfunded liabilities of more than 3.2 billion dollars, but the city government continues to pile up more debt as if it was going out of style.
 
#6 Today, the murder rate in East St. Louis is 17 times higher than the national average.
 
#7 According to USA Today, the "share of jobs located in or near a downtown declined in 91 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas" between 2000 and 2010.
 
#8 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.
 
#9 There are more than 85,000 streetlights in Detroit, but thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the lights that more than half of them are not working.
 
#10 The unemployment rate in El Centro, California is 24.2 percent, and the unemployment rate in Yuma, Arizona is an astounding 25.6 percent.
 
#11 It has been estimated that there are more than 1,000 homeless people living in the massive network of flood tunnels under the city of Las Vegas.
 
#12 Violent crime in the city of Oakland increased by 23 percent during 2012.
 
#13 If you can believe it, more than 11,000 homes, cars and businesses were burglarized in Oakland during 2012.  That breaks down to approximately 33 burglaries a day.
 
#14 As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police officers assigned to Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.
 
#15 The number of murders in Chicago last year was roughly equivalent to the number of murders in the entire country of Japan during 2012.
 
#16 The murder rate in Flint, Michigan is higher than the murder rate in Baghdad.
 
#17 If New Orleans was considered to be a separate nation, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate on the entire planet.
 
#18 According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center,  Mexican drug cartels were actively operating in 50 different U.S. cities in 2006.  By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 1,286.
 
#19 Back in 2007, the number of New York City residents on food stamps was about 1 million.  It is now being projected that the number of New York City residents on food stamps will pass the 2 million mark this summer.
 
#20 The number of homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased by a whopping 19 percent over the past year.
 
#21 As I noted yesterday, approximately one out of every three children in the United States currently lives in a home without a father.
 
#22 In Miami, 45 percent of the children are living in poverty.
 
#23 In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of the children are living in poverty.
 
#24 According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
 
As I mentioned at the top of this article, the decline of the city of Detroit has become so famous that it has actually become a tourist attraction.  The following is a short excerpt from an article in the New York Times...
 

But in Detroit, the tours go on, in an unofficial capacity. One afternoon at the ruins of the 3.5-million-square-foot Packard Plant, I ran into a family from Paris. The daughter said she read about the building in Lonely Planet; her father had a camcorder hanging around his neck. Another time, while conducting my own tour for a guest, a group of German college students drove up. When queried as to the appeal of Detroit, one of them gleefully exclaimed, “I came to see the end of the world!”
 
For much more on the shocking decline of one of America's greatest cities, please see my previous article entitled "Bankrupt, Decaying And Nearly Dead: 24 Facts About The City Of Detroit That Will Shock You".
 
So are there any areas of the country that are still thriving?
 
Well, yes, there are a few.  In particular, those areas that are sitting on top of energy resources tend to be doing quite well for now.
 
One example is Texas.  In recent years people have been absolutely flocking to the state.  There are lots of energy jobs, the cost of living is low and there is no state income tax.
 
But overall, things are really tough out there.  Over the past decade America has lost millions of good jobs to offshoring, advancements in technology and a declining economy.
 
Last year, the United States had a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than half a trillion dollars.  Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than 8 trillion dollars since 1975.
 
All of that money could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.  In turn, taxes would have been paid on all of that income which could have helped keep our cities great.
 
But instead, our politicians have stood idly by as we have lost tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs.  If you can believe it, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities have closed down permanently in the United States since 2001.
 
We have allowed our economic infrastructure to be absolutely gutted, and so we should not be surprised that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes.
 
And this is just the beginning.  The next wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching, and when it strikes unemployment in this country will eventually rise to a level that is more than double what it is now.
 
When that happens, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near our rotting, decaying cities.
 

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/america-the-fallen-24-signs-that-our-once-proud-cities-are-turning-into-poverty-stricken-hellholes
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« Reply #70 on: April 26, 2013, 06:30:03 am »

Child Hunger Is Exploding In Greece – And 14 Signs That It Is Starting To Happen In America Too

The world is heading into a horrific economic nightmare, and an inordinate amount of the suffering is going to fall on innocent children.  If you want to get an idea of what America is going to look like in the not too distant future, just check out what is happening in Greece.  At this point, Greece is experiencing a full-blown economic depression.  As I have written about previously, the unemployment rate in Greece has now risen to 27 percent, which is much higher than the peak unemployment rate that the U.S. economy experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  And as you will read about below, child hunger is absolutely exploding in Greece right now.  Some families are literally trying to survive on pasta and ketchup.  But don't think for a moment that it can't happen here.  Sadly, the truth is that child hunger is already rising very rapidly in our poverty-stricken cities.  Never before have we had so many Americans unable to take care of themselves.  Food stamp enrollment and child homelessness have soared to brand new all-time records, and there are actually thousands of Americans that are so poor that they live in tunnels underneath our cities.  But for millions of other Americans, the suffering is not quite so dramatic.  Instead, they just watch their hopes and their dreams slowly slip away as they struggle to find a way to make it from month to month.  There are millions of parents that lead lives that are filled with constant stress and anxiety as they try to figure out how to provide the basics for their children.  How do you tell a child that you can't give them any dinner even though you have been trying as hard as you can?  What many families go through on a regular basis is absolutely heartbreaking.  Unfortunately, more poor families slip through the cracks with each passing day, and these are supposedly times in which we are experiencing an "economic recovery".  So what are things going to look like when the next major economic downturn strikes?
 
A recent New York Times article detailed the horrifying child hunger that we are witnessing in Greece right now.  At some schools there are reports of children actually begging for food from their classmates...
 

As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains.
 
“He had eaten almost nothing at home,” Mr. Nikas said, sitting in his cramped school office near the port of Piraeus, a working-class suburb of Athens, as the sound of a jump rope skittered across the playground. He confronted Pantelis’s parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. Their savings were gone, and they were living on rations of pasta and ketchup.
 
Could you imagine that happening to your children or your grandchildren?
 
Don't think that it can't happen.  Just a few years ago the Greek middle class was vibrant and thriving.
 
And we are starting to see hunger explode in other European countries as well.  For example, in the UK the number of people receiving emergency food rations has increased by 170 percent over the past year.
 
This is one of the reasons why I get upset when people say that "things are getting better".  Yes, the stock market has been setting record highs lately, but things are most definitely not getting better.
 
Even during this false bubble of debt-fueled economic stability that we are enjoying right now, we continue to see hunger and poverty rise dramatically in America.
 
Since Barack Obama has been president, the number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 32 million to more than 47 million.
 
Will we all be on food stamps eventually?
 
Will we all become dependent on the government for our survival at some point?
 
According to the Boston Herald, even Tamerlan Tsarnaev was receiving government welfare benefits...
 

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.
 
State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits.
 
Isn't that crazy?
 
And yes, there are some people out there that are abusing the system.  In fact, the cost of food stamp fraud has risen sharply to approximately $750 million in recent years.
 
But most of the people on these programs really need the help.  Thanks to our incredibly foolish economic policies, there are not enough good jobs for everyone and there never will be again.  The percentage of Americans that are unable to take care of themselves is going to continue to rise, and the suffering that we are witnessing right now is going to get much, much worse.
 
Not that things aren't really, really bad already.  Here are some signs that child hunger in America has already started to explode...
 
#1 Today, approximately 17 million children in the United States are facing food insecurity.  In other words, that means that "one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life."
 
#2 We are told that we live in the "wealthiest nation" on the planet, and yet more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.
 
#3 The average food stamp benefit breaks down to approximately $4 per person per day.
 
#4 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps before they reach the age of 18.
 
#5 It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
 
#6 The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million.  That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996.
 
#7 According to Feeding America, "households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.6 percent compared to 12.2 percent".
 
#8 According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.
 
#9 For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.
 
#10 Approximately 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
 
#11 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.
 
#12 In Miami, 45 percent of all children are living in poverty.
 
#13 In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty.
 
#14 According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
 
For many more facts about the dramatic explosion of poverty in this country, please see my previous article entitled "21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know".
 
Unfortunately, most of the time statistics don't really tell the whole story.  Numbers alone cannot really communicate the soul-crushing despair that millions of American families are enduring on a daily basis at this point.
 
How can numbers communicate the pain that a child feels when her grandmother does not eat because there is not enough food for everyone in the family?  But this is what some families in America actually go through because there is not enough money...
 

Vanyshia tells about the sacrifices her Grandmother makes so that she and her siblings can eat. “Sometimes my Grandma can’t even eat because she has to feed me and my brother and sister. Sometimes I don’t eat as much as I want to because I leave some for my Grandma because I don’t want her to sit there and starve. Sometimes she doesn’t have enough money to buy food, so she has to go to the bank and borrow money. It makes me feel sad. I don’t want her to be hungry. I just feel sad sometimes,” says Vanyshia.
 
Things can be particularly tough when you are a single parent.  The BBC recently profiled a single mother that is struggling to raise two young children in Iowa...
 

"We don't get three meals a day like breakfast, lunch and then dinner," says Kaylie. "When I feel hungry I feel sad and droopy."
 
Kaylie and Tyler live with their mother Barbara, who used to work in a factory. After losing her job, she was entitled to unemployment benefit and food stamps - this comes to $1,480 (£974) a month.
 
But they were no longer able to afford to live in their house, which along with bills cost $1,326 (£873) a month, leaving little for food or petrol.
 
Kaylie supplemented their income by collecting cans along the railway track near their old home - earning between two and five cents per can.
 
For more examples like this one, I encourage everyone to go watch a recent BBC documentary entitled "America's Poor Kids" that you can see right here.
 
I wonder why we don't see more stuff like this on the mainstream news in this country?
 
Could it be that the mainstream media does not want to admit how bad things have really gotten?
 
All of this is also a reminder that we need to be generous to those in need.  Times are going to get much, much harder than this, and we are all going to need one another.
 
So do you have any stories of poverty or child hunger from your area of the country to share?  Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/child-hunger-is-exploding-in-greece-and-14-signs-that-it-is-starting-to-happen-in-america-too
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« Reply #71 on: April 26, 2013, 04:00:14 pm »

Quote
#8 According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.

Coincidentally, some of these so-called "Christian denominations" do just that, open their places as food pantries and soup kitchens once a week or so. No, not trying to say this is a bad thing per se, but nonetheless some of these denominations like the Presbyterians that do this have been hijacked by Luciferians.(ie-my previous church is SBC, and they opened up their place as a soup kitchen once a week or so) Either way, at the same time, they don't even preach the gospel.

Luke 14:34  Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Luk 14:35  It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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« Reply #72 on: April 26, 2013, 04:47:02 pm »

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...Either way, at the same time, they don't even preach the gospel.

Doctrinally, no they don't. But, one part of the reason, as I understand it, is that the federal government will not allow these religious organizations to preach to the people they feed under these "soup kitchens", or they lose their 501c3.

All they are doing is handing out food to people, and getting a tax break for it. And they continue to feed those people, whether the person is making any effort to feed themselves or not. Really, a function of the world, it's just another aspect of socialism that keeps people looking to Caesar to save them.
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« Reply #73 on: May 02, 2013, 11:13:41 am »

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/02/18013866-10-year-old-boy-among-victims-as-more-than-20-shot-on-one-chicago-day?lite=
5/2/13
10-year-old boy among victims as more than 20 shot on one Chicago day

A 10-year-old boy was shot Wednesday in Chicago toward the end of a day that saw at least three people slain and 20 others wounded, police and local media said.

The boy was standing on North Waller Avenue just before 8 p.m. when a group of men on a nearby street corner began fighting, said Officer Hector Alfaro, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.

During the melee, one of the men pulled out a handgun and opened fire, Alfaro said.

“I’m assuming he was shooting at the other individuals,” he added. “He wasn’t shooting at the child.”

The boy was wounded in the right buttock and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, Alfaro said. No information about his condition was available early Thursday, though Alfaro said he believed the child was “stable.”

Chicago detectives were continuing their investigation Thursday, and no arrests had been made, Alfaro said.

The city’s first 80-degree day in seven months brought a wave of violence, with an average of one per hour at one point, NBCChicago.com reported.

Three cases were fatal, according to NBCChicago.com:

Quote
A man in his 30s was found dead in an alley in the 1900 block of South Drake overnight. After midnight, the first murder of May happened in the South Shore neighborhood where a 27-year-old man was shot in the chest near his home at 68th and Cornell. Neighbors said the man was a father of three.

Another shooting happened in front of the University of Illinois-Chicago police station, where three men were struck around 10:40 p.m. A 19- year-old died. Police said he was a known gang member.

The violence came less than a month after the police department announced that crime in the city had fallen 8 percent in the year’s first quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, and 15 percent from 2011.

Murders fell by 42 percent in the quarter and shootings by 27 percent, the department said in a news release.

The Austin neighborhood, where the boy was shot, however, saw a rise last year in the numbers of murders and shootings, according to police statistics.

The district, one of 77 in the city of 2.7 million, had 26 murders in 2012, up from 19 the year before, and 116 shootings, up from 98.
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« Reply #74 on: May 13, 2013, 01:02:34 pm »

RPT-UPDATE 1-Detroit emergency manager: city "clearly insolvent"
5/13/13
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/usa-detroit-emergencymanager-idUSL2N0DU1K020130513?feedType=RSS&feedName=bankruptcyNews&rpc=43

By Nick Carey and Steve Neavling
    May 13 (Reuters) - Michigan's biggest city is "clearly
insolvent" and needs many fixes including to its pension system
and labor agreements to address its problems, according to a
report outlining the state of Detroit's finances.
    "The City of Detroit continues to incur expenditures in
excess of revenues despite cost reductions and proceeds from
longterm debt issuances," the city's recently installed
emergency manager, Kevyn Orr said in his first report. "In other
words, Detroit spends more than it takes in - it is clearly
insolvent on a cash flow basis."
    Detroit had only $64 million in cash on hand and current
obligations of $226 million on April 26, 2013-a negative net
cash position of $162 million, the report said.
    Operating expenditures have exceeded revenues by about $100
million a year since 2008, according to the report. The city had
an accumulated $326.6 million unrestricted deficit. Detroit is
projected to add an additional $60 million to the accumulated
deficit balance when the current fiscal year closes June 30. 
    The city will make $31 million in pension payments this
year, but will defer another $108 million in pension payments.
Orr stated that a city task force is reviewing the plans and
whether actuarial assumptions are accurate and funding is
adequate.
    The city also has $5.7 billion in unfunded retiree benefit
obligations.
    All told, Detroit has liabilities totaling $9.4 billion in a
variety of areas:  special revenue bonds, revolving loans,
pension obligations and other financial instruments. "Debt
service payments place a significant strain on the city's
budget," the report states.
    The city's retiree pool currently outnumbers active
employees by a 2 to 1 margin that is growing, the report said,
so Detroit "must address pension and retiree healthcare
liabilities as part of any comprehensive restructuring."
    On the labor front, Orr signaled he is prepared to take a
hard line with the city's unions. Noting that the state law
authorizes him to "reject, modify or terminate" any of the
city's 48 collective bargaining agreements, Orr states that he
is considering all options.
    "This power will be exercised, if necessary or desirable,
with the knowledge and understanding that many City employees
already have absorbed wage and benefit reductions," the report
states.
    The report also notes that a review of police, fire and
other emergency services is ongoing and that Detroit's
"infrastructure and public safety fleet are aged and decrepit,
which, in turn, increases the City's operating and repair costs
and decreases its productivity."
    The police and fire department both are in need of
restructuring, Orr found.
  Detroit must also evaluate "interest rates, amortization,
outstanding principal amounts, security interests, legacy
liabilities and all other aspects of short and longterm debt"
as part of a "comprehensive restructuring."
   "Significant and fundamental debt relief must be obtained to
allow the City's revitalization to continue and succeed," the
report says.
   Orr was installed by Michigan's Republican Governor Rick
Snyder in March to try to fix Detroit's finances through
bankruptcy if necessary. The city has been running a deficit of
around $100 million a year.
    In his report, which was required by law, Orr says the city
has obligations of "at least" $15 billion, some $2 billion more
than previously thought and will end this year with a deficit of
$125 million.
    Orr's report says Detroit is projecting a positive cash
balance through December 2013, adding "this is only as a result
of the significant amount of payment deferrals and amounts
borrowed from, and owed to, other funds, which is clearly not
sustainable in the long run."
    "Structural change must occur to address the City's
operating deficit and cash burn," the report adds.
    Detroit "will need to make significant investments to
upgrade capital assets so that it can provide necessary services
to its citizens and residents."
    Orr's report also notes that changes to the city's charter
and legislation may be required to reduce bureaucracy and
improve operations.
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« Reply #75 on: May 25, 2013, 08:34:06 am »

Cities Will Collapse Even Sooner Than We Fear

We have written several times about how major population groupings (ie cities) will collapse ‘shortly’ after the essential elements of life cease to smoothly flow in to them as needed.  When there’s no water, no sewage, no food, no gas and no electricity, things will unavoidably get very nasty.
 
In an earlier post we suggested that cities will decay into violent anarchistic morasses within a week or two.  In that article we were deliberately trying to look at a ‘best case scenario’ (don’t laugh – the collapse of cities taking a week or two is, alas, a best case scenario!).  Our projection was based on the ‘best case’ hope that people would remain passive for a few days and it would only be when people realized no help was coming and they were starting to starve that things would turn truly nasty.
 
One of our readers, ‘Lt. Dan’, wrote in to share his perspective of what might go down, and alas, it is not nearly as sunny and optimistic as our earlier best case hope.  His point is that violence will break outimmediately.  There will not be days of ambiguity before things start to fail.
 
He says that in known ‘hot spots’ in larger cities, the violence will start at once, and as soon as the violent offenders realize that the police response is inadequate (or totally missing) it will skyrocket in scope and extent.
 
This is a key issue for us, because it impacts on our decision about when to ‘Get Out Of Dodge’ (GOOD) and hightail it to our remote retreat.  How much time do we have to decide what to do between when a massive problem occurs and when the city becomes lawless?
 
Lt. Dan writes :
 

As a retired LEO with over 30 yrs dealing with “society” I have a number of thoughts on this topic. I grew up on a working farm not close to any major metro center but in adulthood joined a sizable metro PD.  So I have perspective from various angles.
 
The speed and spread of lawlessness with be much faster than most will think.  Even now in “quiet” times LE staffing is usually based on the lowest number of officers to reasonably handle a “normal” day.  Any event(s) beyond “normal” immediately overwhelm on-duty forces.  Planned events like anarchists protesting the latest capitalist conference allow time to plan for enough ON-DUTY personnel (plus resources from other agencies) to be available when violence breaks out.
 
In most major metro areas there are areas the police routinely avoid because they’re too hazardous.  The violent elements in these areas are constantly looking to explode their violence at a moment’s notice when the opportunity happens.  And when it happens it will spread like a ruptured gasoline storage tank afire.  LE forces will be quickly overwhelmed and retreat to a safe place/bunker for self-preservation.
 
Most LEO’s have families and a desire for self-preservation.  If the collapse involves monetary problems (like no paychecks) the officers will not be reporting to duty, they’ll be protecting their own.  When this happens the initial violent outbreaks will mushroom like a nuclear reaction.  If the officers are being paid yet, they’ll set up a “containment perimeter” IF they have enough manpower…. which is highly unlikely in a regional or national SHTF scenario.
 
On other really scary thought I never see mentioned is…. what happens to the tens of thousands of violent criminals in prisons??
 
In a farming community where religion/moral values are generally much higher than urban dwellers, the problems of violence will be much reduced.  Plus everyone usually knows each other so its harder to want to take advantage of them.  One tip for urbanites…..farmers are not working their butts off to feed the city slickers (who’ve been ridiculing them for years as hicks, etc) and they certainly will not welcome the urbanites showing up during a crisis.
 
We asked Dan about his comments and background, and he told us a bit more about how he has formed the views he has – and, let’s face it, thirty years in a major metro police department and retiring as a lieutenant gives him a lot of credibility, particularly on police related operational issues and on matters to do with how people will (mis)behave when given half a chance to do so.
 
Now that he can ‘tell it like it is’ we asked him in particular about something that opinions widely vary on – will the police bravely ‘man the battlements’ and fight to the last man in a failing and doomed effort to save civilization, or will they adopt – as he suggests above – a ‘my family first, everyone else second’ approach when they see the inevitability of a city’s collapse.
 
Dan replied :
 

When I first started on the PD in the 70′s I was stuck in the Comm room and on boring nights I’d actually read the Civil Defense binders (HUGE things) full of detail, much theoretical.  For example, upon receiving alert of a nuke attack we were supposed to call a long list of elected officials and city unit directors etc.  We all knew it’d be a total waste of time to call these clueless government people because all they’d do is panic and babble on the phone asking US what to do!
 
We (cops) talked openly in the Comm Room about what we’d do and we decided we’d immediately leave our posts and spend our remaining time with family.  The point being alerting totally clueless and incompetent “leaders” would do nothing except add to the panic and confusion over which we (cops) would have ZERO control over.
 
It is important to understand how much we can learn from past ‘lessons’ with breakdowns in cities (in the case of the US, the L.A. riots being a prime example) and how much we have to adjust for a future breakdown of society.
 
We suggest that the big difference is that in past events, the problem has been successfully contained to a restricted region, and the police have had, in effect, virtually unlimited reinforcements and resupply, and there has never been any question of what the ultimate outcome would be – of course law and order would triumph.
 
But in a future society-destroying event, none of this applies.  The police will have no resupply or reinforcement, and problems will break out in multiple locations.
 
We agree with Lt. Dan that very quickly, the police will see the unwinnable nature of the contest and will switch from attempting to defend a disintegrating society from itself, and will focus instead on attempting to ensure the safe survival of themselves and their immediate family and friends.
 
Summary
 
Lt. Dan puts it very vividly when he writes
 

[Violence] will spread like a ruptured gasoline storage tank afire
 
This means that if you have a GOOD plan and a retreat to go to, you need to be ready to activate this sooner than you might have otherwise hoped for.  As soon as you hear the first word of lawlessness, rioting, looting, and general disorder breaking out, you should accept that this will spread like wildfire across the entire city, and leave as quickly as you can.
 
Oh – one more unsettling thought.  How will you learn that violence has broken out in another part of the city if the internet is down, and radio and television stations are also down?  Even if some broadcasters remain in service, they’ll probably have limited sources of information and it might take a while for them to become appraised of events and to then broadcast them.
 
It is also reasonable to guess that broadcasters will be asked ‘not to spread panic’ and so initial reports of violence breaking out might be downplayed or omitted entirely.
 
Choosing when to bug-out is a difficult but essential issue.  You need to be willing to leave before it becomes too late, and with inertia and resistance to change and desperate hope all encouraging you to delay your decision, you need to fight these tendencies.  Better to leave ‘too soon’ and return back again some time later, safely; than to leave it too late and suffer the consequences.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/cities-will-collapse-even-sooner-than-we-fear_05242013
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« Reply #76 on: May 26, 2013, 07:10:22 pm »

6 dead, 11 wounded in Chicago during holiday weekend
5/26/13
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/26/18513859-6-dead-11-wounded-in-chicago-during-holiday-weekend?lite

With Memorial Day weekend underway, Chicago’s violence has spiked as six people were killed and at least 11 others were injured in shootings across the city.

The most recent fatal shooting occurred Sunday when a 42-year-old man was shot in the head and a 44-year-old female was shot in the back on Goose Island on the Near North Side.

The shooting occurred at 2:50 a.m. in the 1000 block of North North Branch Street.

The pair was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where the man, identified as Charles Jones by the Cook County Medical Examiner, was pronounced dead, according to Chicago Police news affairs Officer John Mirabelli.

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« Reply #77 on: May 31, 2013, 05:48:25 pm »

Detroit Citizens Protect Themselves After Police Force Decimated

As crime hobbles Detroit (9845MF)’s attempts to revive itself, the city is bolstering its police department by having unarmed citizens patrol the streets in a program that costs less than annual salaries and benefits for three officers.

Volunteers given radios and matching T-shirts help officers protect neighborhoods where burglaries, thefts and thugs drive away people who can’t rely on a police force that lost a quarter of its strength since 2009. With 25 patrols on the streets, the city hopes to add three each year. Meanwhile, the homicide rate continues rising.

Kevyn Orr, the Detroit emergency manager appointed by the state to supersede the mayor and city council, has called public safety crucial as he reorganizes a city running a $380 million deficit, teetering on a record municipal bankruptcy and struggling to provide services. Orr has said Detroit (AERPDTMI)’s turnaround depends on reversing a population loss of more than 25 percent since 2000.

“Nobody’s going to move back to Detroit as long as people don’t have a sense of security,” said volunteer Lorenzo Blount during his morning rounds in the west-side Grandmont area. “That’s what we’re trying to add in our neighborhood in our little way.”

Detroit once was an economic powerhouse fueled by the auto industry with 1.8 million residents in the 1950s. Now, its 701,000 residents live amid a landscape of blight, poverty, unemployment and crime. Viable neighborhoods are surrounded by deserted tracts with 40 percent of the city’s lots vacant or unused within its 139 square miles (360 kilometers) -- a vastness that makes it difficult to provide basic services and control the streets.
Finding Bodies
Police ranks there fell to about 2,500 from 3,350 in 2009. Interim Chief Chester Logan said in April the city must hire to replenish a force losing 25 officers a month to retirement.
In 2011, the dwindling department took over the 30-year-old neighborhood volunteer program to forge a more direct relationship and institute tighter standards, said Second Deputy Melvin Turner, who oversees the groups. Members, who now must pass criminal background checks, are paid from a $270,000 annual fund for mileage and incidental costs such as vehicle signs.

Thugless Life

Community groups are campaigning for the city to allow them to levy assessments on homeowners to pay for more patrols. A majority of homeowners would have to approve the flat fee, which would be mandatory.

“Police can’t be on every corner,” said Karen Moore, community security manager for the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation, a non-profit group of five neighborhoods spearheading the push for the special patrol levy. “You should be able to walk your dog, push kids in a stroller or use the parks. We don’t want a handful of knuckleheads to take away our quality of life.”

Data show crime diminishes in areas with active patrols, Turner said.

While homicides in Detroit (9845MF) rose last year to 411 from 344 the year before, other crimes were down 2.6 percent, according to Mayor Dave Bing.
Still, the 16,000 burglaries in 2011 compare with only 12,000 in Philadelphia, a city with more than double Detroit’s population, according to an FBI report. For all property crimes, Detroit ranked sixth -- 6,144 per 100,000 residents -- among U.S. cities with populations of 300,000 or more.

Retiree Posse

The city now looks to its residents to help themselves.

“It’s very important for people to get involved,” said Muhsin “Coach” Muhammad I, a patrol organizer in Grandmont. “In order for evil people to succeed, good people need to do absolutely nothing.”

Muhammad, who rode in a marked van with Blount, credited aggressive surveillance for cutting crime in the enclave of 800 mostly well-kept brick homes. Both men wore bright yellow vests, as did a trainee, Will Smith, 60 a retired teacher.

On Grandmont Street, their suspicion was aroused by a lone teen with a backpack strolling on a weekday morning, prime time for burglary.
“He should be in school,” Muhammad said. Blount drove slowly to make sure the boy saw them, making two passes.

“We may have prevented a crime today,” said Muhammad, a General Motors Co. (GM) retiree.

Eyes and Ears

Turner said neighborhood patrols document break-ins, vandalism, suspected drug dens and “strippers” who rip metal from homes to sell as scrap. They’re to call 911 if they see a crime in progress.

“We teach them to stay at a safe distance, get what information you can without putting yourself in jeopardy,” Turner said.
One group last year recorded a band of thieves stealing catalytic converters from cars, which led to arrests, Turner said.

To be certified, neighborhood patrols must have 12 volunteers who receive police-approved training, Turner said. Vehicles must have at least two volunteers who may not carry firearms or other weapons.

They fill in the city’s empty spaces. Detroit has 3.5 police officers per 1,000 residents, compared to Cleveland’s 3.70, according to an analysis by the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO based in Sarasota, Florida. However, Detroit police must cover an area nearly twice Cleveland’s 77 square miles.

Company Charity

Citizen patrols aren’t the only effort to bolster the force.

Eight area companies, including GM, Ford Motor Co (F). and Chrysler Group LLC, agreed to donate $8 million for 100 new patrol cars and 23 ambulances.

One business district this year will pay about $200,000 to hire off-duty officers, armed and using city cruisers, to guard a main thoroughfare. Wayne County sheriff’s deputies patrol some streets. And a joint city, state and federal program seeks to get repeat offenders off the streets.

The new police chief, James Craig, said he plans to move officers from desk jobs to the streets and to improve morale eroded by pay and manpower cuts. Craig, 56, a Detroit native, begins June 22 after two years as chief in Cincinnati.

“Police can’t do it alone,” Craig said in a phone interview. “We have to have vibrant, effective partnerships.”

Jim Ward, 75, is head of Greenacres neighborhood patrol. Ward, a Ford Motor Co. (F) retiree, said when the group began in 1986, the neighborhood had 130 break-ins among its 1,000 homes. That number dropped to 39 the following year, he said.

In the past two years, the patrol has doubled to more than 100 members, Ward said, thanks to door-to-door recruiting. Each member patrols at least two hours each month, and the group meets regularly with police. They use an e-mail network to spread the word of crimes and descriptions of suspects.

“We have an expression here: We don’t plan to take Greenacres back,” Ward said. “We’re not going to give it up in the first place.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-31/detroit-citizens-protect-themselves-after-police-force-decimated.html
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« Reply #78 on: June 01, 2013, 03:45:32 am »

Quote
Detroit once was an economic powerhouse fueled by the auto industry with 1.8 million residents in the 1950s. Now, its 701,000 residents live amid a landscape of blight, poverty, unemployment and crime.

There is only one reason for that decay...globalization.

The manufacturing industry has been gutted here, and moved overseas, so all those people in once booming cities, now have no jobs since the globalists within the US government have pushed jobs "offshore".

So you now have all those people that can't find jobs now, trying to survive in the world however they can. So that means a breakdown of society, as we know that the whole world lies in wickedness and unbelief, so that makes for a recipe of disaster.

Globalist elite's mission accomplished.
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« Reply #79 on: June 01, 2013, 08:27:16 am »

Detroit Blight Authority Secretly Eyes Next Demo Target

Detroit's self-anointed authority on blight has the cash to clear 15 more blocks, reports Bloomberg. Which lucky neighborhood will William Pulte put out of its misery this time? Nobody knows, of course! If our first DBA experience taught us anything, it's that blight clearance gets the most press coverage when executed like a poorly-planned surprise party. Mr. Pulte burns with the desire to demolish 13,000 homes per year, which Bloomberg unhelpfully reminds us is the equivalent tearing down Paducha, Kentucky. He's even asking the State of Michigan for permission to leave the basements of the targeted structures intact, which would save cash to be put towards more demolition. It would also turn the land into an unusable landfill, but we'll just fix that later, right? This next round of demolition is set to begin as soon as next month.

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2013/05/detroit-blight-authority-secretly-eyes-next-demo-target.php


· Detroit Survival Depends on Speed of Destruction [Bloomberg]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/detroit-survival-depends-on-speed-of-destruction.html

· Detroit seeks a quicker fix to blight problems [Det News]
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130506/METRO01/305060334#ixzz2Ump7EBz2
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« Reply #80 on: June 01, 2013, 11:57:46 am »

There is only one reason for that decay...globalization.

The manufacturing industry has been gutted here, and moved overseas, so all those people in once booming cities, now have no jobs since the globalists within the US government have pushed jobs "offshore".

So you now have all those people that can't find jobs now, trying to survive in the world however they can. So that means a breakdown of society, as we know that the whole world lies in wickedness and unbelief, so that makes for a recipe of disaster.

Globalist elite's mission accomplished.

I know this has happened over a long stretch of time, but nonetheless Lou Dobbs was repeatedly warning about jobs being shipped overseas when he was on CNN during the Bush II years. But of course no one would listen then b/c these "conservative" media outlets were always playing the "liberal media" card toward the MSM that would supposedly have liberal slanting news coverage all the time.

Not sure if Dobbs is a globalist gatekeeper, and if there was some Hegelian Dialectic going on then, but nonetheless, as we know the saying, "We were warned...".
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« Reply #81 on: June 11, 2013, 12:35:02 pm »

1 Dead, 11 Wounded in Chicago Gun Violence
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52162427
6/11/13

A woman was killed and at least 11 others were injured in shootings across Chicago.

April McDaniel, 18, was shot in the throat, authorities said, when gunfire erupted just before 5 p.m. Monday on the 5700 block of South Sangamon Avenue. Police said four others were wounded in the drive-by shooting in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood.

The shooting wounded a 15-year-old boy in the right leg, an 18-year-old man in the abdomen area, a 20-year-old man in the left hand and right knee and a 21-year-old man in the left leg, police said.

Paramedics initially took two people in critical condition to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and two people in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to Fire Media Affairs.

Fire Department officials said the 21-year-old man made it on his own to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center.

Elsewhere, shootings injured seven others.

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« Reply #82 on: June 18, 2013, 07:34:13 am »

Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit

Eventually the money runs out.  Much of America was shocked when the city of Detroit defaulted on a $39.7 million debt payment and announced that it was suspending payments on $2.5 billion of unsecured debt, but those who visit my site on a regular basis were probably not too surprised.  Anyone with half a brain and a calculator could see this coming from a mile away.  But people kept foolishly lending money to the city of Detroit, and now many of them are going to get hit really hard.  Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has submitted a proposal that would pay unsecured creditors about 10 cents on the dollar.  Similar haircuts would be made to underfunded pension and health benefits for retirees.  Orr is hoping that the creditors and the unions that he will be negotiating with will accept this package, but he concedes that there is still a "50-50 chance" that the city of Detroit will be forced to formally file for bankruptcy.  But what Detroit is facing is not really that unique.  In fact, Detroit is a perfect example of what the future of America is going to look like.  We live in a nation that is rotting, decaying, drowning in debt and racing toward insolvency.  Already there are dozens of other cities across the nation that are poverty-ridden, crime-infested hellholes just like Detroit is, and hundreds of other communities are rapidly heading in that direction.  So don't look down on Detroit.  They just got there before the rest of us.
 
The following are some facts about Detroit that are absolutely mind-blowing...
 
1 - Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, and in 1960 Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
 
2 - Over the past 60 years, the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.
 
3 - At this point, approximately 40 percent of all the streetlights in the city don't work.
 
4 - Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.
 
5 - 210 of the 317 public parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down.
 
6 - According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.
 
7 - Approximately one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
 
8 - Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.
 
9 - If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
 
10 - According to one very shocking report, 47 percent of the residents of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
 
11 - Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.
 
12 - Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police officers in the city of Detroit.  Today, there are only about 2,500 and another 100 are scheduled to be eliminated from the force soon.
 
13 - Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
 
14 - The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.
 
15 - Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".
 
16 - Right now, the city of Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.  That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.
 
As Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr noted last week, it took a very long time for Detroit to get into this condition...
 

“What the average Detroiter needs to understand is that where we are right now is a culmination of years and years and years of kicking the can down the road,” said Orr, adding that his proposal should not be seen as a “hostile act” but as a step in the right direction.
 
Does that sound familiar?
 
It should.
 
U.S. politicians have also been kicking the can down the road for "years and years and years".
 
But eventually you can't kick the can down the road anymore.
 
Sometimes it is helpful to step back and look at what we have done to ourselves over the past several decades.
 
For example, back in 1980 the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars.
 
And our debt binge has greatly accelerated under Barack Obama.
 
During Barack Obama's first term, the federal government accumulated more debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.
 
Isn't that insane?
 
In fact, if you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 184,000 years to pay it off.
 
The following are a lot more facts about our exploding national debt from one of my previous articles entitled "55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances That Every American Voter Should Know"...
 
#1 While Barack Obama has been president, the U.S. government has spent about 11 dollars for every 7 dollars of revenue that it has actually brought in.
 
#2 During the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. government took in 2.449 trillion dollars but it spent 3.538 trillion dollars.
 
#3 During fiscal year 2011, over a trillion dollars of government money was spent on 83 different welfare programs, and those numbers do not even include Social Security or Medicare.
 
#4 Over the past four years, welfare spending has increased by 32 percent.  In inflation-adjusted dollars, spending on those programs has risen by 378 percent over the past 30 years.  At this point, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.  Once again, these figures do not even include Social Security or Medicare.
 
#5 Over the past year, the number of Americans getting a free cell phone from the federal government has grown by 43 percent.  Now more than 16 million Americans are enjoying what has come to be known as an "Obamaphone".
 
#6 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, about 32 million Americans were on food stamps.  Now, 47 million Americans are on food stamps.  And this has happened during what Obama refers to as "an economic recovery".
 
#7 The U.S. government recently spent 27 million dollars on pottery classes in Morocco.
 
#8 The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar at a time when more families than ever are having a really hard time just trying to put any food on the table at all.
 
#9 During 2012, the National Science Foundation spent $516,000 to support the creation of a video game called "Prom Week", which apparently simulates "all the social interactions of the event."
 
#10 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the largest snack food maker in the world (PepsiCo Inc.) a total of 1.3 million dollars in corporate welfare that was used to help build "a Greek yogurt factory in New York."
 
#11 The National Science Foundation recently gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000.  They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.
 
#12 If you can believe it, $10,000 from the federal government was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes up in Michigan.
 
#13 The National Science Foundation recently gave a whopping $697,177 to a New York City-based theater company to produce a musical about climate change.
 
#14 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is studying the benefits of watching reruns on television.
 
#15 The National Science Foundation has given 1.2 million dollars to a team of "scientists" that is spending part of that money on a study that is seeking to determine whether elderly Americans would benefit from playing World of Warcraft or not.
 
#16 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $548,731 to a team of researchers that concluded that those that drink heavily in their thirties also tend to feel more immature.
 
#17 The National Science Foundation recently spent $30,000 on a study to determine if "gaydar" actually exists.  This is the conclusion that the researchers reached at the end of the study...
 

"Gaydar is indeed real and… its accuracy is driven by sensitivity to individual facial features"
 
#18 Back in 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
 
#19 The U.S. government spends more on the military than China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.  In fact, the United States accounts for 41.0% of all military spending on the planet.  China is next with only 8.2%.
 
#20 In a previous article, I noted that close to 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year.
 
#21 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year.  Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do.
 
#22 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do.
 
#23 During 2010, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000.
 
#24 The U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning $170,000 or more back in 2005.  When Barack Obama became president, the U.S. Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more.  By June 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense had 994 civilians earning $170,000 or more.
 
#25 During 2010, compensation for federal employees came to a grand total of approximately 447 billion dollars.
 
#26 If you can believe it, close to 15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually.  That list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.
 
#27 During 2010, the federal government spent $33,387 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators.
 
#28 During 2010, U.S. Senators pulled $72,370 out of the "Senate Restaurant Fund".
 
#29 During 2010, an average of $4,005,900 of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on "personal" and "office" expenses per Senator.
 
#30 In 2013, 3.7 million dollars will be spent to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
 
#31 During 2011, the federal government spent a total of 1.4 BILLION dollars just on the Obamas.
 
#32 When you combine all federal government spending, all state government spending and all local government spending, it comes to approximately 41 percent of U.S. GDP.  But don't worry, all of our politicians insist that this is not socialism.
 
#33 As I have written about previously, less than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person received financial assistance from the federal government back in 1983.  Today, that number is sitting at an all-time high of 49 percent.
 
#34 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for just 32 percent of all health care spending in America.  This year, it is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in the United States.
 
#35 The number of Americans on Medicaid soared from 34 million in 2000 to 54 million in 2011, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
 
#36 In one of my previous articles, I discussed how it is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
 
#37 If you can believe it, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
 
#38 In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits.  By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.
 
#39 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
 
#40 When Barack Obama first took office, the U.S. national debt was about 10.6 trillion dollars.  Now it is about 16.7 trillion dollars.  That is an increase of 6.1 trillion dollars in a little more than 4 years.
 
#41 The federal government has now run a budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars for four years in a row.
 
#42 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
 
#43 If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
 
#44 Some suggest that "taxing the rich" is the answer.  Well, if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
 
#45 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.
 
#46 The United States already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain does.
 
#47 At this point, the United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
 
#48 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times larger than it was just a decade ago.
 
#49 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.
 
#50 The U.S. national debt is now more than 37 times larger than it was when Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard.
 
#51 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first created.
 
#52 The U.S. national debt jumped more on the very first day of fiscal year 2013 than it did from 1776 to 1941 combined.
 
#53 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent.  If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.
 
#54 A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
 
#55 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay.  Kotlikoff speaks of a "fiscal gap" which he defines as "the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue".  His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead.
 
Please share this article with as many people as you can.  We are in the process of committing national financial suicide and time is rapidly running out to do anything about it.
 
Just like Detroit, a day is rapidly approaching when America will not be able to kick the can down the road anymore.
 
Sadly, our politicians don't seem inclined to do anything about it and most of the population seems to think that our exploding national debt is not a significant problem.
 
By the time it becomes clear how wrong they were, it will be far too late to do anything about it.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/rotting-decaying-and-bankrupt-if-you-want-to-see-the-future-of-america-just-look-at-detroit
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« Reply #83 on: June 18, 2013, 11:51:10 am »

Detroit is just an example of how things change when the overall focus changes in a society.

American cities have been built from the basis of the US being THE economic superpower it once was, with all the trimmings. We had the cash to expand and grow. The country was built up on selling stuff to other countries. Now manufacturing has been moved overseas, and the cash Americans had went with it, so all those cities that were built based on the past technically are no longer cost-effective to keep running under that model.

People should move out, and the city completely leveled, board by board, and clean up the land, then return it to the American people, and not the government under federal lands. No corporations, but individual civilian residents. Let the people decide how it will be, and what they want to make of it.

Unrealistic? Yep, because prophecy says all the cities of the world are coming down in due time. So the only real solution to urban blight, is to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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« Reply #84 on: June 19, 2013, 06:25:28 am »

10 Disturbing Tales From The Side Streets And Dark Alleys Of America

Every night Americans prove that they are willing to do absolutely horrible things to their fellow human beings.  Most of the time, we never even hear about the sick and twisted things that happen on the side streets and dark alleys of America.  Once in a while a particularly twisted story will get picked up by the news, but usually most Americans are pretty much able to isolate themselves from the depravity that is happening all around them.  Unfortunately, the social decay that is eating away at our society like cancer is spreading.  It is getting harder and harder for average Americans to keep the darkness at bay.  When it suddenly reaches out and touches your family, it can be absolutely shocking.  America is not the kind, loving and gentle place that is portrayed in our movies and on our television shows.  The sad truth is that America is becoming colder and meaner with each passing day.  Yes, there are definitely some Americans that are kind and compassionate, but they are in the minority.  As our economic decline becomes even more severe, the hearts of even more Americans are going to grow cold.  And people with cold hearts can do some absolutely terrible things.  The following are 10 disturbing tales from the side streets and dark alleys of America...

#1 Beaten, Robbed And Left Naked In A Cow Pasture In Florida

    A Florida man says that a first dated ended with him being beaten, forced to strip at gun point, robbed and then left in a cow pasture.

    A Flagler County Sheriff’s Office case report obtained by NBC News indicated that 34-year-old Shaun Paul Williams was found naked and bloodied on State Road 100 in Bunnell. Williams told deputies that he had met a woman named “Tree” about two weeks ago in Dayton and agreed to go out on June 14.

    When the woman picked him up on Friday, he discovered that two other men we also inside the vehicle. The woman explained that one of the men was her brother. She said that she needed to drop the men off at the brother’s home.

    But instead of going to a home, the brother instructed the woman to stop at an “empty cow pasture.” Williams said that he exited the vehicle to urinate and was struck in the head with a “hard metal object.”

    “Give me all your money and your clothes,” one of the men told him.

#2 Wendy's Customer Totally Loses It When They Put Cheese On His Hamburger


In recent months there have been a lot of videos posted on YouTube of crazed people yelling wildly at employees of various fast food chains.  The most recent example of this phenomenon to go viral is a video of a middle-aged man totally losing it after he discovered that Wendy's employees had put cheese on his hamburger.  You can watch the video here, but please be aware that it contains quite a bit of profanity and it is not appropriate for children to watch.  This is yet another example of how seemingly average people in America are becoming consumed with anger and frustration.

#3 Women Throwing Bleach Into The Eyes Of A Man On A City Bus In Boston

    MBTA Police are searching for three young women who they say threw bleach in the eyes of a bus passenger after robbing him of his money.

    The victim was returning home from work early Sunday morning, riding the #28 bus on Blue Hill Avenue through Roxbury, when it seems the trio sized him up.

    Officials say one female slapped the man about the head, while one went to work to search him for money.

    “One of the women puts her knee on top of his legs so he can’t get up and takes the money from his pockets,” MBTA Superintendent-in Chief Joseph O’Connor told WBZ-TV.

#4 The Wild Dogs Of St. Louis

    Dangerous dogs are becoming more of a problem in parts of north St. Louis County.

    It’s so bad, some people say they’re afraid to go out for a morning jog.

    Resident Carolyn Immer says she was attacked and now has a hole in her leg.

    “I felt like I was out in the middle of nowhere and there was nobody around to help,” Immer says. “I was screaming for a long time – it seemed like a long time lets put it that way.”

#5 Homeless In Dallas

    So as of today I am officially homeless.

    I won't bore you all with long sob stories.

    About a year ago lost my job of twelve years, couldn't find new work, made some bad financial choices, and today I sit in the public library on my old laptop typing away as all my posessions lay in three small suitcases very close to where I am sitting.

    I think this might possibly be the worst place to be homless, given the horrible heat.

    So I have seventy-five cents to my name, am not sure where I'll be putting my head down to sleep tonight, and was wondering if anyone else out there has been in a similar prediciment.

#6 Detroit - Dumping Ground For The Dead

    From the street, the two decomposing bodies were nearly invisible, concealed in an overgrown lot alongside worn-out car tires and a mouldy sofa. The teenagers had been shot, stripped to their underwear and left on a deserted block.

    They were just the latest victims of foul play whose remains went undiscovered for days after being hidden deep inside Detroit's vast urban wilderness — a crumbling wasteland rarely visited by outsiders and infrequently patrolled by police.

    Abandoned and neglected parts of the city are quickly becoming dumping grounds for the dead — at least a dozen bodies in the space of 12 months. And authorities acknowledge there is little they can do.

#7 Impaled On A Wrought Iron Fence In Chicago

    A man was murdered Sunday night by someone who struck him in the head, causing him to become impaled on a wrought iron fence in the South Side Burnside neighborhood.

    The 48-year-old victim was involved in a dispute with unknown individuals near his home in the 9100 block of South Greenwood Avenue about 8 p.m. Sunday when a male struck him in the head, police said.

    The victim’s head was then impaled by a wrought iron fence near the eye, police said. He then fell to the ground and struck his head again.

#8 Robbery Victims Locked In The Trunks Of Their Own Vehicles In North Miami

    CBS4 has learned of a horrible crime that has happened four times in the past two months in the city of North Miami. Gunmen have been forcing robbery victims in to the trunks of their cars while trying to get cash.

    North Miami Police Major Neal Cuevas says he is worried about “copycat criminals” who may one day take a life.

    One victim is speaking out exclusively to CBS4’s Peter D’Oench after being driven around in the trunk of his Mercedes Benz for two hours on Wednesday night. He was abducted at 8 p.m. while leaving his job and was finally rescued by police at 10 p.m. after discovering he had a cell phone in his trunk and after calling 911.

#9 Female Teacher Has Sex With Three Students In Oregon

    A Sherwood High School teacher has been arrested and faces sexual abuse charges, stemming from accusations of sexual contact with at least three students.

    A grand jury indicted Denise Keesee, 38, Monday on six counts of second-degree sexual abuse, according to the Washington County Sheriff's office. Keesee turned herself in this evening, said Sgt. David Thompson, a sheriff's office spokesman.

#10 A Police Officer That Shot Five Kittens While Children Were Watching

    The Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wants Humane Officer Barry Accorti fired for allegedly shooting five kittens in a home's back yard on Monday.

-----

    Accorti responded to a home Monday afternoon where a feral mother cat and her five kittens were living in a woodpile.

    He allegedly told the homeowner that shelters were full and that the cats would be going to kitty heaven. He then pulled out his gun and shot the five, 8- to 10-week-old kittens.

    Accorti allegedly told the homeowner that he isn't supposed to do this, but it was justifiable. The woman ran into the house to shield her children, who were screaming and crying.

So what do you think about these stories?

Do you have any tales like this to share?

Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/10-disturbing-tales-from-the-side-streets-and-dark-alleys-of-america
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« Reply #85 on: June 19, 2013, 10:08:00 am »

Quote
#9 Female Teacher Has Sex With Three Students In Oregon

    A Sherwood High School teacher has been arrested and faces sexual abuse charges, stemming from accusations of sexual contact with at least three students.

    A grand jury indicted Denise Keesee, 38, Monday on six counts of second-degree sexual abuse, according to the Washington County Sheriff's office. Keesee turned herself in this evening, said Sgt. David Thompson, a sheriff's office spokesman.

This seems to have become the "new norm" - remember the story in the 1990's(forgot her name) of a teacher in Mississippi who had an affair and a baby with one of her students, and it got a lot of national attention b/c everyone was disgusted by it.

Now? It seems like it happens rather regularly, and everyone goes on like it's nothing.

Quote
#10 A Police Officer That Shot Five Kittens While Children Were Watching

    The Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wants Humane Officer Barry Accorti fired for allegedly shooting five kittens in a home's back yard on Monday.

This is the kind of stuff that was in Hollywood products, in particular in the 1990's, especially in "comedies".

Pt being that first they condition the public via the media(in particular "entertainment") before it ends up becoming the "new norm" in real life.

And to boot, it's not exactly teenagers doing this, it's ADULTS.

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« Reply #86 on: June 19, 2013, 01:56:44 pm »

Yep, and it was adults that invented Bugs Bunny, "Wylie" Coyote, etc.

The world knew, and knows, exactly what it's doing in media. It's all mind games, they say based on science. Whatever. People who walk according to the flesh are susceptible to those games people play with images. Take a "Color Theory" or some graphics design class and you'll see what I mean.

One of my animation classes had at it's core Disney animation, which we picked apart to examine why they did what they did, etc. One of the books we had for the class was "The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation". Big coffee table book that goes into the history of Disney's animation department and the "science" of animating. If your going to work in animation, you will know Disney animation, as they set the current standard for how to make things move in 2d images, which is the basis for 3d animation.

That said, those animated cartoons were made that way for a reason. They knew how to affect the viewer emotionally with images. They also understand body language, and that's is why characters have such exaggerated movements and "bug eyes" when surprised, etc. They teach animators to make the body tell the story, so you don't really need to hear anything, but can convey the storyline just with image movement.

Indeed conditioning, as they have always intended to convey THEIR ideas on the viewer. Now if they are of the world, then obviously their message, their story, will be leavened and have no life in it.

And quite frankly, they teach animation and media with the intent to "suspend disbelief". They are literally trying to project an illusion, which truth be told, is a lie!

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" 2 Thessalonians 2:11 (KJB)
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« Reply #87 on: June 27, 2013, 01:23:47 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/detroit-faces-exodus-police-firefighters-152432884.html
6/27/13
Detroit faces exodus of police, firefighters

DETROIT (Reuters) - After years of pay cuts and reduction in their ranks, Detroit police officers and firefighters in the next week face a tough decision: Retire now or put their careers in the hands of Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who has the power to unilaterally cut their pay and benefits.

At least several dozen police officers and firefighters will retire early as they try to lock in benefits before Orr imposes new labor contracts, union officials told Reuters.

A large flight of veteran public safety workers could cause disruption in a city facing some of the nation's highest violent crime rates and a rash of arson fires. This in turn would raise the level of difficulty for Orr as he seeks to address Detroit's myriad urban problems.

Uncertainty over future pay and benefits for the city's 500 mid-level unionized police officers and 917 unionized firefighters is causing some to seek the exit, presidents of the two unions said.

Mark Young, president of the Detroit Police Lieutenants & Sergeants Association (LSA), said 200 of the 500 officers he represents are eligible to retire. He said many are "on the bubble" regarding a decision to retire before the union's contract expires next week.

By retiring now, members of the LSA and the Detroit Firefighters' Association could hope to lock in retirement benefits under their existing contract before Orr could impose cuts to pay and benefits -- a power granted him under Michigan's emergency manager law.

Contracts for the Detroit Firefighters Association, as well as for about 150 unionized emergency medical services workers, both expire June 30. The city's contract with the LSA expires July 6.

Any significant loss of lieutenants and sergeants could immediately damage the Detroit Police Department, said Eric Lambert, head of the criminal justice department at Wayne State University, located in the city.

"You lose the expertise and institutional knowledge if you have too many retire at once," said Lambert.

Orr has had little contact with leaders of public safety unions since his first few days after taking office on March 25, but he has said consistently that public safety is a top priority. He addressed union leaders along with creditors and pension trustees when he forecast large cost cuts and a possible bankruptcy filing in a large-group meeting two weeks ago.

Orr's spokesman, Bill Nowling, said the emergency manager knows a crowd of police officers and firefighters may soon leave. Orr's staff needs to and later this week intends to communicate "at least what our short-term intentions are," Nowling said.

"I know there are guys who are on the retirement bubble and they need all the facts," Nowling said. "We want everybody to make factual decisions and not emotional decisions. We want to provide them with the information to do that."

Orr is holding internal staff meetings and is "hopeful" he can clue the unions in on his plans in the next few days, Nowling added. After the internal sessions, Nowling said Orr can go say to union leaders, "This is what the future looks like, at least for the short-term, so everybody has a clear picture."

One possibility is that Orr may maintain terms of existing contracts for a period of time after expiration, Nowling added.

Police and firefighters are not eligible for Social Security checks because of their city-sponsored retirement funds, to which they contribute with every paycheck. But the city's police and firefighters pension systems are only 78 percent funded, according to estimates by Orr's office. The underfunding is below the 80 percent threshold at which the emergency law allows Orr to replace the board that manages the fund now.

Early retirement likely would not protect retirement benefits, regardless of whether Orr imposes changes or new terms are set under a possible bankruptcy filing. Orr earlier this month said there is a 50-50 chance that Detroit will enter bankruptcy.

"Whether you retire today or you retire two months from now, those two things are going to impact (retirement benefits)," said Nowling.

Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Firefighters Association, said he is frustrated by the lack of communication from Orr's office.

So is Young, who said, "I have to know what to tell my membership. Right now, we're reduced to collective begging."

Even as Orr decides how to handle pay and benefits, Detroit's new police chief, James Craig, must begin restructuring the police department he will lead beginning July 1.

Craig will "drive the restructuring" of the police department, Nowling said.

Craig is expected to focus on "community policing," which calls for more personal contact between officers and residents. Lambert of Wayne State said that a delayed benefit of new officers may be more openness to new police tactics.

If large numbers of sergeants and lieutenants retire early, Nowling said, Craig will need to promote from within. Around 400 active police officers now working in administrative jobs could shift to patrol positions after some retraining, he added.

The 1,900-member Detroit Police Officers Association has a contract that extends through June 2014. Its members took a 10-percent pay cut last July.

Mark Diaz, president of the police officers union, said the union five years ago represented about 3,000 active officers.

There were more than 700 members in the LSA five years ago, said Young.

Five years ago, there were 1,300 firefighters in the city, and that number has dwindled to 917, said McNamara

Since the beginning of 2012, about 140 firefighters have retired and not been replaced. The department is strapped in trying to cover the city's 139 square miles, he said, and cannot afford even a handful of retirements.

"We're on our last legs everywhere we go," said McNamara.
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« Reply #88 on: July 18, 2013, 04:08:23 pm »

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/reports-detroit-files-bankruptcy-6C10678946
Detroit becomes largest US city to file for bankruptcy
7/18/13

Detroit, saddled with more than $18 billion in debt, became the biggest U.S. city in history to file for bankruptcy on Thursday.

Once a symbol of America's industrial might and more recently an example of urban decay, crime and hopelessness, the home to the nation's automobile industry took the extraordinary step after months of negotiations with creditors failed.

“The fiscal realities confronting Detroit have been ignored for too long. I’m making this tough decision so the people of Detroit will have the basic services they deserve and so we can start to put Detroit on a solid financial footing that will allow it to grow and prosper in the future,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement. “This is a difficult step, but the only viable option to address a problem that has been six decades in the making.”

Snyder authorized the city's emergency manager to file for federal bankruptcy, saying it was the only option to restore the city and provide residents with necessary public services.

Kevin Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was hired by the state in March to lead Detroit out of a fiscal free-fall and made the filing in federal bankruptcy court.


Orr was unable to convince a host of creditors, the city's union and pension boards to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city's massive financial restructuring.

He laid out his plans in June meetings with debt holders, in which his team warned there was a 50-50 chance of a bankruptcy filing.

A number of factors — most notably steep population and tax base falls — have been blamed on Detroit's tumble toward insolvency.

Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s reached 1.8 million is now struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled Detroit, taking their tax dollars with them.

The governor's statement said that 38 cents of every city dollar goes toward debt repayment, legacy costs and other obligations. That was expected to reach 65 cents per dollar by 2017.

When Orr made his pitch to creditors, some were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than the 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.

A team of financial experts put together by Orr said that proposal was Detroit's one shot to permanently fix its fiscal problems.

Earlier Thursday, the Detroit Free Press, the city's hometown paper, said the filing would set off a 30- to 90-day period "that will determine whether the city is eligible for Chapter 9 protection and define how many claimants might compete for the limited settlement resources that Detroit has to offer."

If the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.

“We want to create an environment that attracts more families, young professionals and job providers to Detroit," Snyder said. "That will be a win for Detroit and a win for Michigan."
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« Reply #89 on: July 19, 2013, 04:14:49 pm »

Mich. judge rules Detroit bankruptcy unconstitutional

LANSING, Mich — An Ingham County judge says Thursday's historic Detroit bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution and state law and must be withdrawn.

But Attorney General Bill Schuette said he will appeal Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's Friday rulings and seek emergency consideration from the Michigan Court of Appeals. He wants her orders stayed pending the appeals, he said in a news release.

In a spate of orders Friday arising from three separate lawsuits, Aquilina said Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr must take no further actions that threaten to diminish the pension benefits of City of Detroit retirees.

"I have some very serious concerns because there was this rush to bankruptcy court that didn't have to occur and shouldn't have occurred," Aquilina said. "Plaintiffs shouldn't have been blindsided," and "this process shouldn't have been ignored."

Lawyers representing pensioners and two city pension funds got an emergency hearing Thursday with Aquilina, and she said she planned to issue an order to block the bankruptcy filing. But lawyers and the judge learned that Orr filed the Detroit bankruptcy petition in Detroit 5 minutes before the hearing began.

Aquilina said the Michigan Constitution prohibits actions that will lessen the pension benefits of public employees, including those in the City of Detroit.

Snyder and Orr violated the constitution by going ahead with the bankruptcy filing because they know reductions in those benefits will result, she said.

"We can't speculate what the bankruptcy court might order," said assistant Attorney General Brian Devlin, representing the governor and other state defendants.

"It's a certainty, sir," Aquilina replied. "That's why you filed for bankruptcy."

Devlin said Snyder has to follow both the Michigan Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.

Schuette's office issued a statement saying an appeal has been filed on behalf of the governor in all three cases before Aquilina.

"In addition, the attorney general filed motions to stay the trial court rulings and any future proceedings while the appeals proceed," spokeswoman Joy Yearout said. "Later today, we expect to file additional motions seeking emergency consideration."

Aquilina issued a declaratory judgment that says the bankruptcy filing violated the Michigan Constitution.

"In order to rectify his unauthorized and unconstitutional actions ... the governor must (1) direct the emergency manager to immediately withdraw the Chapter 9 petition filed on July 18, and (2) not authorize any further Chapter 9 filing which threatens to diminish or impair accrued pension benefits," she said in her order.

John Canzano, a Southfield, Mich., lawyer representing retirees, cautioned that Snyder faces no contempt of court implications if he doesn't follow the judge's instructions. But Canzano said he likely will return to court seeking further relief if Snyder doesn't instruct Orr to withdraw the bankruptcy filing.

Asked what the judge could then do, Canzano said: "I will have to do my homework."

Douglas Bernstein, a partner with Plunkett Cooney law firm in Birmingham, Mich., said Aquilina's ruling is surprising.

"This is generally how bankruptcies occur: You file bankruptcy when there is an impending crisis at the 11th hour," Bernstein said. "You file bankruptcies to stave off litigation."

University of Michigan law professor John Pottow said the issue could travel up the court system, all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court. Or it could be answered decisively and quickly in bankruptcy court.

"There's nothing that precludes a federal judge from adjudicating the constitutionality of the Michigan statute," Pottow said. "The bankruptcy judge can interpret Michigan law."

Aquilina, who like most of the judges on the Ingham court has a Democratic background, appeared prepared for her orders to be appealed.

"Let's get this moving to the Court of Appeals because that's where you all are headed," she said.

She also ordered that a copy of her declaratory judgment be sent to President Barack Obama, saying he "bailed out Detroit" and may want to look into the pension issue.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/19/detroit-bankruptcy-unconstitutional/2569481/
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