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Obama to lay out first steps in gun policy talks after Newtown tragedy

With the shock and horror from Newtown giving way to anger and calls for action, President Barack Obama will announce his first concrete steps Wednesday in addressing the raging debate about gun policy.

Obama is expected to announce that Vice President Joe Biden will lead an inter-agency process to develop policy in the wake of the Connecticut elementary school massacre.

White House aides say Obama won’t announce major policy decisions Wednesday, but [...]

We Are Headed To A Historic Collapse Of The Financial System And US Will Lose Its Status As The Sole Superpower Which Will Bring About Global Chaos In 2013, With The “World After” Beginning To Emerge.

We Are Headed To A Historic Collapse Of The Financial System

Today 40-year veteran, Robert Fitzwilson, wrote the following piece exclusively for King World News. Fitzwilson, who is founder of The Portola Group, discusses the path we are on which lead to an unprecedented failure of the current monetarty system.

Below is Fitzwilson’s exclusive piece for KWN:

“Nobody who has ever watched the Navy’s Blue Angels acrobatic team perform ever walked away with [...]

BREAKING NEWS: Alan West wants ballots, voting machines impounded “Disturbing Irregularities”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —

Republican Rep. Allen West took the first steps in a legal challenge Wednesday in his closely watched re-election bid even as Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy declared a razor-thin victory.

West, the south Florida Republican who has made headlines nationally for his fiery tea party rhetoric, filed motions asking a judge to require elections officials to impound ballots and voting machines. Separately, his campaign alleged “disturbing irregularities” at [...]

WATCH LIVE: ‘Curiosity’ rover set to land on Mars

Are we alone? Or was there life on another planet? NASA’s $2.5 billion dream machine, the Mars Science Laboratory, aims to take the first steps toward finding out when it nears Mars’s surface on Monday.

Scientists have found signs of water on Red Planet, which is Earth’s neighbor, hinting that some form of life was once likely even though Mars is now a dry place with a thin atmosphere, extreme winters [...]

Greece Announces State Agency Closures

ATHENS–Greece’s newly elected government announced Tuesday the merger or closure of 21 state agencies, marking the first steps toward streamlining the country’s bloated public sector, as a delegation of international inspectors returned to Athens.

The entities employ a total of 5,256 people and are funded to the tune of about EUR40 million ($48.2 million) from the state budget, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Administrative Reform.

The 21 agencies–which include [...]

QE is Coming! Bleak jobs outlook raises heat on Fed: Chief of San Francisco reserve sees benefit of open-ended QE. Inevitably, monetization leads to inflation.

From ftadviser:

The US will make little progress tackling high unemployment before 2014 unless the Federal Reserve eases policy further, one of the central bank’s leading officials has warned in the run-up to a meeting next week where the option of QE3 will be on the table, reports the Financial Times.

Greece seeks more cuts as deadline looms

Greece’s newly elected government is seeking billions of euros of additional budget cuts – and [...]

FT: Syria clashes spill over borders

From FT:

Syrian tanks shelled the central city of Hama and parts of Homs came under mortar fire on Tuesday, opposition activists said, on the day President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to halt the use of heavy weapons and withdraw forces from urban areas.

The offensive, taking place on the day of a UN deadline for the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from cities, raised new doubts about the viability of Kofi [...]

Facebook is just a waste of time

by Jill Krasny

I’m quitting Facebook because it makes me feel like a loser.

I don’t mean reading posts about babies taking first steps and people flaunting their engagement ring makes me feel bad.

I mean that the simple act of logging in, scrolling the news feed and posting about something mundane I did isn’t worth my time.

I’m about to turn thirty, and as such, I’m looking at every decision in my life.

And after weighing the costs and benefits of [...]

There are riots in Greece because the riot police are using chemical weapons against peaceful protesters. To say that the Greeks don’t care is not correct. There were over a million people at #Occupy Syntagma over the summer:

READ and PHOTOS: I Was At #OccupySyntagma Square All Summer by Elias Theodoropoulos: http://99getsmart.com/?p=2381

And, if you think the Greeks are not fighting the TROIKA, you could not be more wrong. For one example, check out this little known story:

There is a little known story about war … a true war in the town of Keratea, located 50k outside of Athens.

Last summer, Greek mega corp giant, George Bobolas took the first steps towards [...]

Why Republicans secretly want to lose the 2012 election

From LewRockwell.com:

… Political conditions in the United States are ripe for new alignments, and the fundamental common sense constitutionalist is now found in lots of places they were never found before. Former Democrats, especially those that are antiwar, are increasingly coming to understand that the Federal Reserve and crony capitalism is responsible for both the warfare state and the welfare state. This awareness leads many Democrats to increasingly welcome a [...]

My take: President Obama hasn’t done an excellent job at leading, he’s done what he could with what was given him

by DearAgony

A lot of this folks have fallen into the “blame Obama” trap when a lot of what they “blame” him for is way out of proportionÂ.

Let’s start with the economy. When his predecessoÂr President Bush was still in power, the economy was in freefall, and what did President Obama do? He oversaw the passage of a massive economic stimulus package which the CBO has stated has helped add jobs [...]

“As sovereign credit downgrades continue to flow in and deposits in Europe’s weakened banking system flow out, a broader crisis in Europe appears to be imminent in 2011,” says Minerd.

CNN: 2011: Year of the bank run?

Unconditionally guaranteeing bank deposits is just such a policy,Â in a country where loan losses made the banks insolvent, job loss left many taxpayers penilessÂ andÂ deposits now at least double annual economic output.

And this time, given the unpopularity of bailouts and dysfunctional European politics, there is ample reason to fear the banking mess won’t so easily be swept aside.

“Facing facts like [...]

I have always had doubts about the stability of the single EU currency.

I remember a discussion in 2001 with some of my financial advisers who though the Euro would be as stable as the Deutsche Mark (DM). I said I do not believe it would be the case in the long run because the southern EU states have a long tradition of inflation-driven policies. The recent events have just proven those concerns. Besides, Germany (where I live) and other Central-European countries have [...]

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