Weekly News Wrap-Up 2.17.12
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The big story is the continued threat of World War III in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, this week, sanctions are not working on Iran; and the U.S. Senate is talking about a “time table” to stop Iran’s nuclear program. A new bi-partisan resolution says that containing a nuclear armed Iran is not an option. These are just two more signs that war in the Middle East is approaching. The only question is when? Meanwhile, the UN condemned Syria for its brutal and deadly crackdown on protesters. The UN and Arab League are calling for Bashar Assad, Syria’s leader, to step down. That will not happen without a fight, and Iran and Russia are reportedly continuing to arm Syria.
In other news, President Barack Obama released his 2013 budget proposal this week, and it is chocked full of new taxes and cuts to deductions. The budget calls for things like taxes for 401-K plans and health insurance premiums and limits to charitable gifts and other write offs. According to a new report from Senator Rob Portman, the U.S.is set to hit the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling before Election Day. The country is burning $132 billion a month.
Slog.com is reporting at least two big banks are planning on a Greek Default by March 23. The only question worth asking after that is who’s next–Italy, Spain or Portugal, anyone? Foreclosures are going to spike as a result of the $26 billion “robo-signing” deal. That’s what Realtytrac.com reported yesterday. USAWatchdog.com predicted this on Monday. This may be one of the reasons that Thestreet.com is reporting 165 U.S. banks are on the brink of collapse. Greg Hunter gives you all these stories and more in the USAWatchdog.com Weekly News Wrap-Up.
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About the Author
Greg Hunter
Greg is the producer and creator of USAWatchdog.com. The site’s slogan is “analyzing the news to give you a clear picture of what’s really going on.” The site will keep an eye on the government, your financial interests and cut through the media spin. USAWatchdog.com is neither Democrat nor Republican, Liberal or Conservative. Before creating and producing the site, Greg spent nearly 9 years as a network and investigative correspondent. He worked for ABC News and Good Morning America for nearly 6 years. Most recently, Greg worked for CNN for shows such as Paula Zahn Now, American Morning and various CNN business shows.
Greg, Great Report. Keep up the good work. The truth, something that has been lost, sinse the Days of Merill and Cronkite.
Thank you Bobby for your support!
Greg
Greg, the Obama Administration will not, I repeat, will not, impose any hot war attack against Iran. Iran plays good poker and Iran knows the present administration has no cards in the hole. I say this even though the Administration claims all options are on the table. Simply put, the present Administration has no stomach for such a strike. No matter what the Senate does it needs a presidential approval to do such a strike; to be redundant, Obama will not agree and any resolution by the Senate is just posturing for the upcoming election. That leaves Israel to go alone which it might in the near future. The result of that is anyone’s guess, however Israel will survive having just attacked nuclear facilities and not the Iranian army or Terhan.
Syria is more of a present problem and this Administration will not go in there either, but will covertly give arms. MSM is reporting the Pentagon is sending drones around the area as we speak. The Syrian situation will soon be over as its government cannot maintain its authority under the pressure of civil war which is growing rapidly against it. Who takes over, who knows, but no WW111 because of Iran or Syria. Russia and China will yell, pound their fists in the UN, but can’t do an damn thing about Iran or Syria if no hostile strikes of intervention is done by the US. My bet is they will just watch and let Syria fall and allow Iran to strike back at Israel and tell Israel enough is enough after the little guy in the well’s nuclear program is put back about 5 years. Personally, I’m for intervention to stop Iran from becoming nuclear but if played right, with the right amount of reality on the ground, when Syria becomes unstable Iran will be out of friends in the region and only have a a few thousand cowardly hezbollah to do their bidding against civilians who can be handled in about a week by Israel. Their 10,000 low grade missiles will be dampened pretty quickly.
Now for the real issue, the banks! I believe that we are on the brink of another banking collapse, and if you aren’t one of the large political class banks who our esteem leaders rely upon for their riches, such as Bank of America, then many will not be bailed out this time and allowed to fail. The banking “crisis” as they will spin it will commence withing about a year. Remember, the Dow is almost 13,000 now so a correction due to the “banking crisis” will allow the bears to take it down a couple of thousand and still appear viable without a complete collapse as they spend more into a Greece like state. The next four years will be more inflation, stagflation, and select bank failures to appear viable to the people, with MSM continuing to talk about a recovery just around the corner. Real estate prices will continue downward but not in free fall.
In summary, no actual war or WW111, Iran becomes non-nuclear with a possible regime change after the guy in the well fails to deliver, Israel survives, Syria is toppled, Russia loses any prestige in the middle east, China continues to beg and threaten for unfair trade status to be allowed to continue to steal from us, and the US becomes weaker, the middle class is thinned, more working poor and who knows what after about 5 years out.
Art,
Yes man, the real issue is the banks. In any calamity it always come down to the banks. Thank you for the comment and analysis.
Greg
Its hard to know what to believe. Some say theres no recovery, others say there is. I will say this and that is that the area I live in (South Carolina upstate) is on fire economically. Major businesses are hiring, new industry is moving in. If you want a job, you can find one if you have any kind of skills at all. Now its not housing related but I would imagine it would have a positive effect on housing at some point. It just doesn’t look like things are about to colapse.
James T,
Texas is also doing well and so is North Dakota. The entire economy is not down just most of it. I am happy it is reasonably good where you are. Thank you for the reporting from the real world.
Greg
There is way to much uncertainty or volatility for any type of aggregate recovery right now. You may see hotspots flare up in America which show signs of recovery (Think Tourist spots or certain cities) but your not going to see the old manufacturing jobs return. The banks continue to suck the life out of the economy and this is a very very volatile part of history.
Greg…
I manditorily check about 7 news sites a day, with yours being one of my top 3. Your weekly roundups are something I now look forward to with anticipation.
You are VERY good at what you do, so plz don’t stop. I depend on your site to know what is truly going on in the world. And even though most of today’s events lean toward the grim, it’s nice to make my own personal decisions based upon knowledge rather that msm illusion.
You have true courage and are to be commended for doing the excellent work you do at great personal risk.
Is someone hasn’t thanked you today, well…thank you.
Fred,
Thank you Fred for your kind words and for supporting this site!!!!
Greg: what is becoming more obvious as the war drums are getting louder, is that a war is being planned to distract from the coming financial implosion. The majority of the propaganda that is spewed by the MSM on the danger of Iran is ludicrous (cf the more dangerous N.Korea and Pakistan capabilitites) and the situation on our southern border where it has already been proven that not only is Hezbollah working with the mexican drug cartels, but there is also ample evidence that many citizens from “terrorist” nations have been smuggled across the border.
AndyB,
One scenario taking shape is that when it crashes it will be all Iran’s fault. Iran has already cut off oil exports to some EU countries. This is financial war a real war cannot be far behind.
Greg
re:”165 banks are on the brink of collapse”—The second biggest bank listed-1st Mariner Bank-was involved in a hostile takeover attempt of The Bank of Glen Burnie. Thousands of very sensitive documents were stolen by spy firm Beckett Brown International. You can google “Corporate Espionage and Racketeering Out-Of-Control” to read more about that. You can also google the Premier TV Special “In the Crosshairs of Justice–Corporate Dirty Tricks Exposed” and go to http://www.spygate.org for more BBI crimes in addition to bank break-ins
Thank you John Dodd for the info and comment!!!
Greg
Banks and Defaults: Greg, you talk about the fears and potential dire consequences associated with sovereign and bank defaults, but you don’t say a word about accountability for the people behind the problems and the corruption. How about some justice rather than bash the efforts of those trying to do something to keep this nation afloat? What happens when people in this country don’t have money to buy food and provisions?
There’s lots of money flowing into politics these days. Sure doesn’t look like hard times to me.
Lowering flags for service men and women who paid the ultimate price. Remember when the Bush administration wouldn’t even let the press photograph their coffins upon return? Fortunately a landowner in Lafayette, CA had the spunk to erect some white crosses on his land next to the BART station to commemorate each life lost in Iraq.
Deficit: What about the 1% folks who are not paying up on the $385 billion owed to the IRS after audits?
Gold: What happens someday if people find out that the gold they thought they owned is not there, quality is not there or people skip with the gold or money? If the market dries up, will some goldshark come along and offer pennies on the dollar? Will gold consumers blame government for not regulating this better?
Inching toward war: I can’t think of any young folks in the majority American demographics of today who would give up their corporate job or lifestyle to go fight a war over some nuclear reactor half way around the world. On the other hand, some see military as a means to VA benefits after serving a couple of years. Anyway, I don’t see war happening.
Enjoy your reports.
LD
Debt Ceiling: What do you want
LFDjr,
None of this would have happened it the blanks exercised good lending practices. As far as the other stuff good points but I can’t include everything. Thank you for your support and comment.
Greg
great job…Meredith Whitney will be on CNBC wednesday morning 2/22/12 between 4am to 6am pst (7-9am est). Haven’t heard from her in awhile, like to hear what she has to say.
rrrobert,
Me too and I’ll bet she breaks some news. Thank you for the heads up.
Greg
Good reporting Greg
Indeed we seem to be headed off a cliff. How do we look at world events to begin making decisions concerning a direction toward our good? Are events just “unintended consequences” of world systems in place world wide or is there a man behind the curtain telling us to pay no attention to him (Wizard of Oz)?What to believe? Did David Rockefeller really say 2.5 billion people on our planet is sustainable? If so, what does this tell us about a possible World War III?
There seem to be (in my humble opinion) two teams which may or may not be at odds with one another. One is “Communist” (Brezinski’s team), the other Fascist (Kissinger’s team. Both teams seem to believe us incapable of making decisions toward “the greater good”. The only difference being Brezinski,s team seems more benevelant toward the worlds inhabitants. At any rate the world has seen the results of both teams attitudes and actions before. We’ve been there, done that.
It is certain neither team likes the Occupy Movement and people like Greg pointing out what should be clear to all. Not sure if I would behave any different if I had a lifestyle like theirs to protect.
Still I would need to be stopped, wouldn’t I? We need a new system based on a belief, there is technology, resources and man/woman power enough for all to have a fear free life. At least much closer than we have now. How to rid ourselves of Psychopath’s and Sociopath’s is our dilemma.
Mr Hunter
As always top shelf reporting. Global war is the end game, I am sure it will precede the collapse of the dollar. No country in world history, (that I can remember reading about) being the worlds dominate power has ever withdrawn home and declared bankruptcy without a fight. It is only after the war and defeat such a withdrawal happens. We run the printing presses until we cannot print anymore, and then we confiscate what we can by whatever means necessary. Maintain the ship of state as long as possible, that is the name of the game. Very rough water ahead.
sensetti
sensetti,
Concise and spot on my friend! Thank you.
Greg
so we let the banks slide on a trillion and then turn around and tax the crap out of everyone else. seems perfectly reasonable to me.
so we are going to war again. wonder why. certainly not to protect out rights and freedoms.
hmmmm…..
i no longer worry about the government. it’s the sleeping majority that really has me bothered.
You know what I find most interesting about this is I watched the Secretary of Defense Leon Peneta testify last week that there is NO evidence that Iran is developing any weapons yet that did not seem to make it in the news of the white house for that matter. Welcome the the military industrial complex!
Presactly, mark. When belief prevails the facts become irrelevant.
Welcome to Phantazy Land, where the intrigues and nightmares
of psychopaths dominate the hopes and dreams of just plain folk.
For Greg and his well-informed and very intelligent commenters,
just a couple of small corrections. First, only the Navy and Marines
fly the flag at half-mast. All you land-lubbers fly it at half-staff.
Second, no need to worry about WW-III starting; it ended with
the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was called “The Cold War” even as
many thousands died in the “service” of their various countries
and millions more suffered death as “collateral damage”.
All is not dreary, however. There are some positives resulting from
that conflict between the Evil Empire and the not-so-Evil Empire.
Here is a nautical version of “turning swords into plowshares” . . .
Ship’s Final Resting Place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg5f1dkBKP0
Vandenberg Opens to Divers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcRLuZfMgw
Vandenberg Finally Sinks Off Key West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbqmKV-SQLU
Hope this has given you a little lift in the midst of the dreariness.
For those who can’t get enough of the dark side, continue.
USNS Vandenburg images from the movie, “Virus” (1999)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=510_JXMBIto
To tie a ribbon on it all, a quote from A. Einstein :
“I don’t know what weapons will be used in WW-III,
but WW-IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
“if you want to go to war so badly, declare it through congress as the US Constitution allows. The people should have a voice. Their children will be the ones dying”-Ron Paul
Mike,
Amen brother!!
Greg