1) The price for an ounce of Gold will again surpass $1000. This time, it’ll stay over $1000.

2) More of the same under Obama:
     -More war. Our presence in Iraq will continue. At best, there’ll be a decrease in troop levels. Troop levels in Afghanistan will increase. We’ll continue to have a military presence in about 130 of the world’s 190 countries. Only national bankruptcy, or the destruction of the dollar will bring the troops home. We may see the beginnings of this, but I don’t predict it’ll happen in 2009.
     -More government. Size and spending will increase under Obama.
     -More invasiveness. Washington will continue domestic spying, harassment, and illegal detention. The patriot act will not be fully revoked. US troops will take on an increased domestic role.
     -More support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Despite lip-service, Obama’s administration will continue financing, supporting and excusing the longest military occupation in history.

3) States and municipalities will consider bankruptcy.

4) The retail industry will be ravaged. It’ll never again be as it was.

5) The fault line will deepen between power and liberty. Despite Big Media’s best effort, the left vs. right paradigm will become less relevant. Expect increased tension over taxes, right to protest, right to bear arms, freedom of speech.

Last year’s predictions:

1) Corporate Media will believe their own propaganda and be astonished by Ron Paul’s success – starting tomorrow.

2) The push to attack Iran will resume once the presidential primaries are decided. If Israel bombs Iran, they’ll do so after the primaries, but before President Bush leaves office.

3) Our economic woes will be worse than predicted.
This is pretty evident.

4) The price of gold will reach $1000/ounce.
See here.

5) The threat of child predators will be leveraged as an excuse to regulate the internet, or internet access.
See here, and here.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) _ A group of Santa impersonators are on the naughty list of Arizona law enforcement officials.

A YouTube video posted Monday shows four people dressed as Kris Kringle, white beards and red hats included, covering three speed and red light enforcement cameras in Tempe.

Two are covered with boxes – one decorated with Christmas wrap – and the third is blocked with what appears to be a red sheet.

The Jackson 5’s “Santa Claus is coming to town” plays during the more than two-minute video.

At the end is a message that reads:

“Ho Ho Ho! Death to the surveillance state! Free movement for all people!”

The group that posted the video also wrote “lumps of coal to all of those who make it their business to watch and control.”
(from kfyi.com)

Developers Ask U.S. for Bailout as Massive Debt Looms (Read more from WSJ.com)

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it,’” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. “We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers. (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

“After urging Bush to fight the incoming administration’s desire to close Guantanamo, [neo-con chicken-hawk William] Kristol concludes with this:

‘One last thing: Bush should consider pardoning–and should at least be vociferously praising–everyone who served in good faith in the war on terror. . . . The CIA agents who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the NSA officials who listened in on phone calls from Pakistan, should not have to worry about legal bills or public defamation. In fact, Bush might want to give some of these public servants the Medal of Freedom at the same time he bestows the honor on Generals Petraeus and Odierno. They deserve it.’

In the Bush era, the Medal of Freedom has come to absurdly represent a reward for those who carried out policy failures at the urging of the Bush administration. By this standard, the implementers of torture and warrantless wiretapping certainly qualify for such a medal. ” (Read more from thinkprogress.org)

“Rep. Reyes: Since Torture Might Be Necessary, Obama Should Keep Torture Apologists Hayden, McConnell Reyes dismissed concerns over Hayden and McConnell’s records as apologists for torture. He insisted that that ‘there are some options that need to be available’ to interrogators — presumably beyond the Army Field Manuel — to get the best information:

Regarding the CIA’s alternative interrogation program, Reyes indicated that his recommendations concerned finding a balance so the agency does not use torture but can get valuable information from suspected terrorists or other detainees.

‘There are those that believe that this particular issue has to be dealt with very carefully because there are beliefs that there are some options that need to be available,’ Reyes said.” (Read more from prisonplanet.com)

“Over 650 scientists have put their names to a US Senate Minority report that challenges the contention of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change that there is a scientific “consensus” on the causes of global warming.” (Read more from infowars.net)

“I am a skeptic. . . Global warming has become a new religion.” – Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense. . . The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” – Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

See also:

-EU carbon trading system brings windfalls for some, with little benefit to climate

UPDATE: This popular video is incorrect in several respects. Bankers do not end up owning everything. They certainly profit from the transactions, but they sell their debts. $1,111.11 simply does not create $100k of new money in the banking system. The proposals at the end are sorely misguided. For accurate criticism of the monetary system, go to mises.org.

I’ve watched this educational cartoon approximately five times since discovering it a few months ago. It presents the simple, tragic absurdity of our monetary system.

For example, most people believe that if individuals, companies, governments all saved and got out of debt, society would be prosperous, when the opposite is true. If everyone began saving and paying off their debts, there would be no money. Money is debt. Without debt, there is no money.

Watch at least the first three parts for an explanation of this. As an aid, I summarize each part and transcribe the many great quotes presented in the videos.

Part 1

-Early banking.
-The shift of currency from gold to paper.
-The shift of goldsmiths from artisans to bankers.
-The evolution of lending gold, to lending depositors gold, to lending non-existant gold.
-Runs on the bank.
-Government legalizes lending fictional money.
-The advent of the fractional reserve system.
-Central banks supporting local banks.

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
- Woodrow Wilson

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
- Mayer Anselm Rothschild, Banker

I’m certain this diverges with the Austrian Economic point of view. I’ve heard this video series called socialist because it proposes government control of the monetary supply. I think the first two and half parts are an effective expose on the banking system. The ending is suspect.

See the rest:

part2
part3
part4
part5

Obama = more of the same

Citizen continues to challenge suspicionless Homeland Security checkpoints. Read all about him at CheckpointUSA.org.

“Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government” – Thomas Jefferson

“Executive Order 6102 was signed on April 5, 1933 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to prohibit the “hoarding” of privately held gold coins and bullion in the United States, in an attempt to address the causes and effects of the Great Depression. This Order was given under the auspices of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. The government required holders of significant quantities of gold to sell their gold at the prevailing price of $20.67 per ounce. Shortly after this forced sale, the price of gold from the treasury for international transactions was raised to $35 an ounce. The U.S. government thereby made nearly 15 dollars profit per ounce, and devalued the dollar by 69.3%. . . .

The limitation on private gold ownership in the U.S. was repealed by an act of Congress codified in Public Law 93-373 [1][2] which went into effect December 31, 1974. P.L. 93-373 does not repeal the Gold Clause Resolution of 1933 which makes unlawful any contracts which specify payment in a fixed amount of money or a fixed amount of gold. That is, contracts are unenforceable which use gold monetarily rather than as a commodity of trade.” (from NationMaster.com)

“Following the privately held Federal Reserve Bank causing the Great Depression, in 1933, astonishingly FDR literally stole gold from citizens, ordering them to hand their gold to the privately held Federal Reserve Bank in exchange for pieces of paper . In issuing this Executive Order, FDR exceeded jurisdiction and committed high treason by assuming law making power exclusively limited to the legislature and he committee treason by violating the core tenants of legal tender mandated by the U.S. Constitution. During this era the Banksters, whom FDR worked for, took control of the U.S.A., literally implementing Socialism (Social Security), assuming control of media (FCC), control of private corporations and their stock/notes (SEC) and he implemented unconstitutional socialistic taxation through a private mob called the IRS.” (from libertyforlife.com)

See Also:
-Executive Order 6102, full text
-Wikipedia: Executive Order 6102
-Marc Faber advises Americans to hold gold outside the U.S.

“Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea. Turbines and water mills need an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth’s currents are slower than three knots.

The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs.

As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity.” (Read more from telegraph.co.uk)