50 Random Facts That Make You Wonder What In The World Has Happened To America

The Economic Collapse
July 4, 2010
 
Our world is changing at a pace that is so staggering these days that it can be really hard to fully grasp the significance of what we are witnessing. Hopefully the collection of random facts below will help you to “connect the dots” just a little bit. On one level, the facts below may not seem related. However, what they all do have in common is that they show just how much the United States has fundamentally changed. Do you ever just sit back and wonder what in the world has happened to America? The truth is that the America that so many of us once loved so much has been shattered into a thousand pieces. The “land of the free and the home of the brave” has been transformed into a socialized Big Brother nanny state that is oozing with corruption and has accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. The greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen is falling apart before our very eyes, and even when our politicians actually try to do something right (which is quite rare) the end result is still a bunch of garbage. For those who still love this land (and there are a lot of us) it is heartbreaking to watch America slowly die.

The following are 50 random facts that show just how dramatically America has changed….

#50) A new report released by the United Nations is publicly calling for the establishment of a world currency and none of the major news networks are even covering it.

#49) The state of California is so broke that Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered California State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law — $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

#48) A police officer in Oklahoma recently tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn’t breathe because they considered her to be a “threat”.

#47) In early 2009, U.S. net national savings as a percentage of GDP went negative for the first time since 1952, and it has continued its downward trend since then.

#46) Corexit 9500 is so incredibly toxic that the UK’s Marine Management Organization has completely banned it, so if there was a major oil spill in the North Sea, BP would not be able to use it. And yet BP has dumped over a million gallons of dispersants such as Corexit 9500 into the Gulf of Mexico.

#45) For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

#44) It has come out that one employee used a Federal Emergency Management Agency credit card to buy $4,318 in “Happy Birthday” gift cards. Two other FEMA officials charged the cost of 360 golf umbrellas ($9,000) to the taxpayers.

#43) Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo received $389,000 from the U.S. government to pay 100 residents of Buffalo $45 each to record how much malt liquor they drink and how much pot they smoke each day.

#42) The average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen to an all-time high.

#41) The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

#40) In the U.S., the average federal worker now earns about twice as much as the average worker in the private sector.

#39) Back in 1950 each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

#38) According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

#37) The federal government actually has the gall to ask for online donations that will supposedly go towards paying off the national debt.

#36) The Cactus Bug Project at the University Of Florida was allocated $325,394 in economic stimulus funds to study the mating decisions of cactus bugs.

#35) A dinner cruise company in Chicago got nearly $1 million in economic stimulus funds to combat terrorism.

#34) It is being reported that a 6-year-old girl from Ohio is on the “no fly” list maintained by U.S. Homeland Security.

#33) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

#32) According to a new report, Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality and far less efficiency.

#31) Some experts are warning that the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach as high as $1 trillion.

#30) The FDA has announced that the offspring of cloned animals could be in our food supply right now and that there is nothing that they can do about it.

#29) In May, sales of new homes in the United States dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.

#28) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has ranged between 300 to 500 to one.

#27) Federal border officials recently said that Mexican drug cartels have not only set up shop on American soil, they are actually maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona.

#26) The U.S. government has declared some parts of Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers.

#25) According to the credit card repayment calculator, if you owe $6000 on a credit card with a 20 percent interest rate and only pay the minimum payment each time, it will take you 54 years to pay off that credit card. During those 54 years you will pay $26,168 in interest rate charges in addition to the $6000 in principal that you are required to pay back.

#24) According to prepared testimony by Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs shorted roughly $615 million of the collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities the firm underwrote since late 2006.

#23) The six biggest banks in the United States now possess assets equivalent to 60 percent of America’s gross national product.

#22) Four of the biggest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup) had a “perfect quarter” with zero days of trading losses during the first quarter of 2010.

#21) 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#20) BP has hired private security contractors to keep the American people away from oil cleanup sites and nobody seems to care.

#19) Barack Obama is calling for a “civilian expeditionary force” to be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to help overburdened military troops build infrastructure.

#18) On June 18th, two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan and within 3 minutes 8 policemen surrounded them and placed them under arrest.

#17) It is being reported that sales of foreclosed homes in Florida made up nearly 40 percent of all home purchases in the first part of this year.

#16) During a recent interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she is actually in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman’s “right” to abortion.

#15) Scientists at Columbia University are warning that the dose of radiation from the new full body security scanners going into airports all over the United States could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated.

#14) 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

#13) The FDIC’s deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.

#12) The judge that BP is pushing for to hear an estimated 200 lawsuits on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster gets tens of thousands of dollars a year in oil royalties and is paid travel expenses to industry conferences.

#11) In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.

#10) U.S. officials say that more than three billion dollars in cash (much of it aid money paid for by U.S. taxpayers) has been stolen by corrupt officials in Afghanistan and flown out of Kabul International Airport in recent years.

#9) According to a report by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the baggage check fees collected by U.S. airlines shot up 33% in the first quarter of 2010 to $769 million.

#8) Three California high school students are fighting for their right to show their American patriotism - even on a Mexican holiday - after they were forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

#7) Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent of GDP. By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.

#6) The total of all government, corporate and consumer debt in the United States is now about 360 percent of GDP.

#5) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#4) In Florida, students have been arrested by police for things as simple as bringing a plastic butter knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a picture of a gun.

#3) School officials in one town in Massachusetts are refusing to allow students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

#2) According to one new study, approximately 21 percent of children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.

#1) Since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been murdered in abortion facilities across the United States.

Mexico Drug Gangs in Deadly Border Gunfight

Jo Tuckman
The Guardian
July 4, 2010

A week of bloodshed in the run-up to important Mexican regional elections culminated overnight in a savage gunfight between rival drug gangs in which at least 21 people were killed a few miles from the US border.

Police arrested nine people, six with gunshot wounds, after the predawn gun battle left dead bodies strewn across a rugged rural area known as a smuggling route. Shootouts between the different drug cartels are common, but the firepower on display was particularly large.

The violence provided an inauspicious backdrop to Sunday’s elections in which almost half of Mexico’s 31 states are voting for mayors, local deputies and governors. The campaigns have been marred by drug-trafficking violence, alleged paramilitary violence and espionage, as well as an ominous sense of a democracy on the edge. Around 27,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2007.

Alex Jones Show - June 22, 2010

Here is the link for the June 22/10 Alex Jones Show. It has reams of info on the border crisis in the southwestern US & how the federal government is using the Mexican drug/gang war to bring in the North American Union.

There are confirmed reports from even the mainstream media that up to 100 miles into the US & over 3 entire counties in Arizona are being shut down to Americans because of the Mexican military & drug gangs patrolling this area & kidnapping & killing both illegals & US citizens, as well as setting off carbombs in urban settings & various other nefarious activities

http://rss.infowars.com/20100622_Tue_Alex.mp3

Reports Surfacing of Multi-State National Guard Mobilizations

Eye witness reports from Georgia, Minnesota, Alabama, Kansas, and perhaps Texas suggest large scale mobilizations and deployment in progress for National Guard Units.

We were under the impression that National Guard in Georgia were being deployed to help evacuate Florida in the event of toxic fumes from the oil spill if the government decided to light the booms.

However, we are seeing reports from multiple states throughout the country.

The Minnesota mobilization has been confirmed by MPR News, as of May 20, 2010 but suggests deployment may not be immediate:

Soldiers and families around Minnesota know there’s a deployment in their future. Within the next few months, 2,700 Minnesota National Guard soldiers from around the state will get their training orders for deployment.

It’s not clear yet which units of the 1st Brigade Combat Team will be activated. But this alert marks the largest deployment of Minnesota military forces since World War II.

The Minnesota Guard deployment above is reportedly for soldiers deploying to the middle east next year.

Reports regarding the Georgia National Guard are from a person close to a soldier that is being deployed:

"Just got a call from my son…driving home from spring semester at North Georgia College. He is in the reserves and attending the Corps of Cadets there. He is telling me something big is up. Just got a call from his unit that they are mobilizing immediately. ALL GEORGIA UNITS. Unconfirmed at the moment. Don’t see anything on any big news besides Korea. Wonder if there is more going on there than we think….will break more as I find out whether this is a big deal or not."

From Kansas:

"My old friend who’s in the army and just got back from Iraq and is not due to go to Afghanistan until August was just deployed too. He’s reserved in Kansas, so it’s definitly not the oil. I don’t know if everyone has been deployed, only him.

I’m hoping it is something minor or just a coincidence, deployment from more than one state is DEFINITLY not a good sign. "

EDIT TO ADD: Just called his mom, I am talking to his mom right now. She doesn’t know what’s going on or where he’s going, he couldn’t tell her anything except “I love you and I am being deployed”. I am not one to be afraid because most things are just rediculous, but I’m am hoping this is just a mere coincidence.

Texas:

"I have lived in the Tomball, Texas area forabout 33 years. I know whats normal and whats not. I also workout side and can tell you the type of helo by the sound. With that in mind.

Today I have seen wave after wave of Blackhawks pushing hard toward the east/southeast over Tomball. These things were nose-down and they were moving. VERY NOT normal. Just thought I’d FYI."

Possibly Exercises?

A mobile Iraqi war zone has taken shape on the rolling plains and ridges of eastern Wyoming, the latest incarnation of an Army National Guard training exercise meant to quickly shape citizen soldiers into battle-ready warriors.

…The Wyoming National Guard’s Camp Guernsey is currently hosting the training exercise for the Nebraska Guard’s 67th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, which is scheduled for deployment to Iraq this summer. About 1,400 soldiers from the 67th and other units are honing their skills in the makeshift Middle Eastern environment for three weeks in May.

More Training:

The New York Air National Guard’s Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is participating in a large scale North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command air defense exercise designed to train military members to respond to potential scenarios that could affect the Continental U.S. May 16-20.

EADS is performing its homeland defense mission of detecting, identifying, tracking and possibly scrambling aircraft. Although held in Georgia, members from the unit will control the exercise missions from Rome, N.Y.

There has been no official confirmation from the US government or State governments involved. Mainstream news has yet to pick up this story.

Canadian and American Cops Run Training Exercise on New Hampshire Campus

Yet more evidence of the looming North American Union. Our jurisdictions are merging & become blurred more & more frequently

Question: What do the Canadian Mounted Police have to do with the University of New Hampshire Police Department and the New Hampshire State Police? Well, they believe it is necessary to conduct “training sessions” together.

The following is from the Media Relations section of the University of New Hampshire website. It is entitled “Don’t be alarmed. Training Underway.” Are citizens even alarmed anymore? It seems the cops, Homeland Security, Northcom, etc., hold these sort of events on a regular enough basis now that the public is more or less inured.

DURHAM, N.H. – The UNH Police Department, in cooperation with N.H. State Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, will be conducting an all-day training session today throughout campus using K-9 teams to practice searching for missing people in an urban environment.

I am still not clear what this has to do with the Canadians. Is there something they can learn from the Americans about missing people in urban environments?

Is BP Trying to Cap the Gulf Oil Well, or Keep it Flowing?

Mike Adams
Natural News
May 31, 2010
 
Today, I spent my time interviewing people on the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Louisiana. Several of those interviews were conducted on camera, and you’ll be seeing those videos as early as tomorrow here on NaturalNews.

Interestingly, it turns out that a lot of the people living on the Gulf Coast have a history of working with oil companies — and even on oil rigs. I spoke to several people who have a work history with BP, and two of them told me they are certain that British Petroleum is NOT trying to stop the oil coming out of the well. What they are trying to do, I was told, is SAVE the oil well so that they can capture the oil and sell it.

This claim stands in direct contradiction to what BP says. The company insists it’s trying to stop the flow of oil from the well. But if you look at BP’s actions, what they’re really trying to do is siphon off the gushing oil where it can be pumped to a tanker ship and sold as crude. It is a simple matter, by the way, for oil companies to separate water from oil. They do it all the time in oil fields all across America. So if they can siphon off the oil from the Deepwater Horizon well — even if it’s mixed with water — they can sell it for potentially billions of dollars.

It raises the question: Is the economic promise of captured oil causing BP to avoid using its best effort to cap the well?

Tapping, Not Capping

Notice that the new device they’re lowering onto the well is designed not to close it off but to pump the oil to an awaiting ship. This is a plan to “capture” the oil, not to seal off the well.

The mainstream media hasn’t picked up on this yet, by the way. To my knowledge, no one is yet reporting this story that BP may have never had any intention of actually capping the deep sea well.

We already know BP has been extremely dishonest with the media about this entire situation. By distorting the truth and lying to the public, BP has lost all credibility with almost everyone (Governors, Senators, journalists, etc.). So how can we trust that BP is actually trying to cap this well when there’s so much money to be made from allowing it to keep spilling oil that can soon be captured?

In other words, it’s in BP’s financial interests to avoid capping the well and claim the well can’t be capped when, in reality, what they may be trying to do is buy more time until they can lower a “capture containment device” onto the well head that can direct all the outflowing crude oil to BP’s awaiting tanker ships.

In talking to the people face to face here on Gulf Coast, I learned that Gulf Coast people don’t trust BP, and they don’t trust the company’s intentions. Today was the first I had heard of the BP agenda to “keep the well flowing” yet suddenly this theory makes sense. BP, after all, went through all the trouble and expense to drill the well. Why wouldn’t they want to cash in on the crude oil coming out of it?

To collapse the well and plug it for good would destroy BP’s chance to siphon off oil and sell it for profit (until at least August, when the pressure relief wells are expected to be completed). And that is perhaps the single most important reason why oil is still flowing out of that well right now.

As one person I interviewed today put it, “Why should a British petroleum company care about what happens to America’s shores?” After all, the financial payoffs to the businesses hurt by the spill may pale in comparison to the billions of dollars in profit to be had from tapping — not capping — the well and turning crude oil into raw cash.

There will be more to this story. Let’s see if the mainstream media picks up on this angle.

By the way, I don’t yet have conclusive proof that BP’s intentions are to avoid capping this well. It’s just a working theory based on people I’ve talked to here on the Gulf Coast who appear to know what they’re talking about. BP would obviously deny this, but then again BP has denied many things that we know to be true (like the fact that the beach cleanup crews specifically cleaned the beach on Grand Isle before Obama showed up, then left promptly as soon as he left).

If you haven’t yet, check out my CounterThink Cartoon on the BP oil spill at http://www.counterthink.com/

Also, watch for video interviews with the people on the Gulf Coast. We’ll be publishing them here on NaturalNews starting as early as tomorrow.

I’m headed to New Orleans tomorrow to check out the local scene there and see what else I can find out by talking to the locals on the front lines.

10 Of The Most Disturbing Facts About The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Now that BP's "top kill" solution has failed and oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico at a nightmarish pace, many people are wondering how bad things are ultimately going to get. The truth is that the United States has never experienced an oil spill of this magnitude, and environmentalists are telling us that we are literally witnessing the final hours of the cherished ecosystems along the Gulf Coast. Now, BP managing director Robert Dudley has come right out and admitted that it is possible that the oil flow from the leak will not completely stop until sometime in August. If this leak does not stop until August, then life in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Gulf Coast will never be the same again during our lifetimes. It is hard to even try to describe how much of a national tragedy this is. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now far, far, far worse than Hurricane Katrina in terms of the lasting damage that it will cause.

It is hard to even put into words how horrific this disaster is. But the more one looks into this oil leak, the worse it gets. In fact, there are a number of things that have recently come out about this leak that are beyond alarming. The following are 10 of the most disturbing facts that have recently come out about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill....

#1) Transocean, the firm hired by BP to operate the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, has just announced that it will distribute $1 billion in dividends to shareholders even as oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico.

#2) Not only that, but Transocean also says it will make a $270 million profit on the insurance policy for the rig.

#3) A dire report prepared for Russian President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning that the dispersal agent being used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico is about to cause the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history.

#4) In fact, a large number of fishermen have already reported becoming seriously ill - and many of them believe that the chemicals that BP is using in the Gulf are to blame.

#5) Matt Simmons, an energy adviser to former president George W. Bush, recently went on national television and claimed that "there's another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away" from the leaking riser and blowout preventer which everyone has been watching on the underwater cameras.

#6) Prominent oceanographers are pointing the finger at the Obama administration of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and of allowing BP to purposely deceive the public about the spill's true scope.

#7) Scientists are now telling us that the first oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill has entered an ocean current that could take it over to Florida and up the east coast of the United States.

#8) One oil industry expert is saying that oil could pour into the Gulf of Mexico for up to 9000 days if the leak is not sealed.

#9) Local shrimpers in Louisiana are estimating that it will be seven years before they can set to sea again.

#10) In a very sick twist, some Internet gambling websites are now placing odds on what species will be first to become extinct as a result of all the oil flowing from BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.