America will face Riots, Marches, and Revolution

[vector7]

The Fourth Turning – Economic and Social Skies Over the United States Darkening

Politics / US Politics Sep 01, 2010 - 01:32 AM By: James_Quinn

William Strauss and Neil Howe published The Fourth Turning in 1997. This was before the internet bubble, before the housing bubble, before 9/11, before the two wars in the Middle East, and before the financial collapse of 2008. They made a strong case for their generational theory of history. Everything that has happened since 1997 supports their theory. We are currently in the early stages of the Fourth Turning.

In the last two chapters of their book, they describe the possibilities during a Fourth Turning. In the last section of the book they provide guidance on how to prepare responsibly for a Fourth Turning. Without preparation, the Fourth Turning is much worse. Below is a description of Fourth Turning possibilities, the preparations that were recommended by Strauss & Howe, and my assessment of how prepared we are as a country.


“What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning?

History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to uncurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – and perhaps even our nation – might never recover.

If America plunges into an era of depression or violence which by then has not lifted, we will likely look back on the 1990s as the decade when we valued all the wrong things and made all the wrong choices.”

“However sober we must be about the dark possibilities of Crisis, the record of prior Fourth Turnings gives cause for optimism. With five of the past six Crises. it is hard to imagine more uplifting finales. Even after the Civil War, the American faith in progress returned with a new robustness. As a people, we have always done best when challenged.

The New World still stands as a beacon of hope and virtue for the Old, and we have every reason to believe this can contine.

By the middle 2020s, the archetypal constellation will change, as each generation begins entering a new phase of life. If the Crisis ends badly, very old Boomers could be truly despised. Generation X might provide the demagogues, authoritarians, even the tribal warlords who try to pick up the pieces.

History is seasonal, but its outcomes are not foreordained. Much will depend on how tall we stand in the trials to come. But there is more to do than just wait for that time to come. The course of our national and personal destinies will depend in large measure on what we do now, as a society and as individuals, to prepare.”

Preparations Needed (1997 – 2006)

In their chapter on preparations for the Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe essentially tell Americans to grow up. Give up the bad habits that had become part of our life during the Unraveling. We needed to prepare as if a blizzard was headed our way.

“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.”

Their suggested preparations as a country and as individuals were:

America’s Recommended Preparations

• Prepare values: Forge the consensus and uplift the culture, but don’t expect near-term results.
• Prepare institutions: Clear the debris and find out what works, but don’t try to building anything big.
• Prepare politics: Define challenges bluntly and stress duties over rights, but don’t attempts reforms that can’t now be accomplished.
• Prepare society: Require community teamwork to solve local problems, but don’t try this on a national scale.
• Prepare youth: Treat childrenas the nation’s highest priority, but don’t do their work for them.
• Prepare elders: Tell future elders they will need to be more self-sufficient, but don’t attempt deep cuts in benefits to current elders.
• Prepare the economy: Correct fundamentals, but don’t try to fine tune current performance.
• Prepare the defense: Expect the worst and prepare to mobilize, but don’t precommit to any one response.

How America Prepared

No consensus on values was forged. The culture became more decadent and materialistic between 1997 and 2006. Get rich quick became the rallying cry. Institutions became larger and more unwieldy. Federal and state governments doubled in size between 1997 and 2006. They became addicted to tax revenue from the Internet and housing booms. They enacted thousands of new rules, regulations and laws. The debris has not been cleared. The country failed miserably in preparing politics. Blunt truthfulness about our national problems was needed from our leaders. Public purpose and collective duties should have been preached by our leaders. Instead, personal rights and entitlements were promised to every constituent. Corrupt politicians in Washington DC have fed the slide into cynicism, apathy and malaise with their false rhetoric and spineless inability to own up to the truth about the financial obligations that cannot be honored.

Society has not prepared for the Fourth Turning by stressing teamwork, civic duty, and self sacrifice for the betterment of our country. Local communities have not improved schools, housing, or transportation. People have continued to group themselves along party lines. The Millennial generation who will do the heavy lifting during this Fourth Turning have not been raised to understand how important their efforts will be needed in the next 15 years. We have not educated them properly and they have not been made to understand their importance. The elderly have not become more self sufficient. They have become more dependent. More entitlements have been passed for the elderly, making our fiscal picture much worse than it was in 1997. The elderly are prepared to wage a generational war for their goodies.

The preparation of our economy for the Fourth Turning has been a complete and utter disaster. We needed to raise the national savings rate in preparation for the difficult times ahead. Instead it went to 0%. We needed to reduce debt. We doubled it. We needed to balance the budget. The deficits are beyond comprehension. We needed to under consume. We consumed at hyper speed levels. Lastly, we needed to prepare for the inevitable major war that always accompanies a Fourth Turning. We needed to conserve our resources and build up our forces for the coming test. Instead, we wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives on worthless wars of choice in the Middle East. Our military is stretched to the breaking point. We are completely unprepared for a new major conflict.

Individual Preparations

• Rectify: Return to classic virtues.
• Converge: Heed emerging comunity norms.
• Bond: Build personal relationships of all kinds.
• Gather: Prepare yourself (and your children) for teamwork.
• Root: Look to your family for support.
• Brace: Gird for the weakening or collapse of public support mechanisms
• Hedge: Diversify everything you do.

How Individuals Prepared

Only you would know whether you are prepared for the Fourth Turning. Can you be counted on by your neighbors? Do you have a reputation as a person of honor and integrity? Are you a good citizen? Lone wolves will not fare well during a Fourth Turning. Team, brand and standard will be new catchwords. Appearances will matter. Society will deal justice in a brutal way. You need to know people who can help you. Personal relationships will be crucial. Face to face interaction with neighbors, fellow workers, the public, and the police will determine whether you are a good guy or bad guy.

People who work well in teams will more successfully navigate the Crisis. Children will need to be taught to excel in groups. They are likely to be indoctrinated by the government when danger rises. Your family members will be essential to your survival. Being a loner will not bode well for you during the Fourth Turning. Young and old will likely occupy the same household as other supports will disappear. Government benefits are likely to be dramatically cut. Dependence on authority should not be assumed. You will need to protect your wealth. Healthcare services could be limited. Being physically fit will be important. Being a generalist that can do many things well will make you more valuable during the Crisis. Having less debt will allow you more flexibility. The USD is likely to be devalued, so hedging your bets will be important. If the financial markets crash, will you survive?

As a country, we were completely unprepared for the onset of the current Fourth Turning. We were warned in 1997. We had time to prepare. Instead, we did the exact opposite of what needed to be done. We pressed the accelerator to the floor. Our actions have ensured that this Fourth Turning will be more deadly and brutal than it needed to be. Considering the two previous Fourth Turnings were Depression/WWII and the Civil War, the next 15 years will be grim. As Strauss & Howe point out, this test cannot be avoided:

“Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning the way you might today distance yourself from news, national politics, or even taxes you don’t feel like paying. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted. The Fourth Turning necessitates the death and rebirth of the social order. It is the ultimate rite of passage for an entire people, requiring a liminal state of sheer chaos whose nature and duration no one can predict in advance.”

The economic news worsens by the day. Worldwide tensions grow. There are fingers of instability throughout the system. All it will take is a grain of sand falling on the wrong part of the pile to initiate an avalanche of pain and suffering. Our Archduke Ferdinand moment awaits.



“Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse – or glory. The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition. The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis; all they suggest is the timing and dimension.

A Fourth Turning harnesses the seasons of life to bring about a renewal in the seasons of time. In so doing, it provides passage through the great discontinuities of history and closes the full circle of the saeculum.

The Fourth Turning is when the Spirit of America reappears, rousing courage and fortitude from the people. History is seasonal, but its outcomes are not foreordained. Much will depend on how tall we stand in the trials to come.”

[Ryan Ruck]

vector,
You mind cross-posting that in its own thread in the Survival forum?

[vector7]

No problem

Moved it here...

[American Patriot]

can someone tell me WTF is "The Fourth Turning"?

[American Patriot]

By the way, I DO know it is a book, I did look it up. I see the guy is writing about the perhaps host of upcoming books that talk of impending doom... but... "The Fourth Turning"?

I mean this is really only the third millennium.

[vector7]

Washington Faces Possible Armageddon Unlike Any Since Civil War

August 26, 2010 by Editor · Leave a Comment

The U.S. debt crisis represents a unique, unparalleled, and unimaginable convergence of circumstances yet, despite the utter gravity of our plight, nothing is being done to change our course. Washington must either muster the courage — and the support of the people — to accept the pain and make the sacrifices of a lifetime … or face the downfall of America.

Words: 938

Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com, provides below further reformatted and edited [..] excerpts from Martin Weiss’ (http://www.moneyandmarkets.com) original article* for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. (Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article reposting to avoid copyright infringement.) Weiss goes on to say:

The United States government and its agencies have, by far;
1. the largest pile-up of interest-bearing debts ($15.6 trillion),
2. the largest accumulation of unsecured obligations (over $60 trillion),
3. the largest yearly deficit ($1.6 trillion) and
4. the greatest indebtedness to the rest of the world ($4.8 trillion)… of any country in the world.

In proportion to the size of its economy, one important country, Japan, does have more debt than the U.S. Unlike Washington’s debts, however, nearly all of Japan’s are financed by its own citizens — loyal, long-term savers who are far less likely to pull out in a storm.
Despite the utter gravity of our plight, nothing is being done to change our course. To whit …

Consequence #1: Higher Interest Rates
Due to the avalanche of government borrowing to finance the deficit, there is no power on Earth that can avert sharply higher interest rates.

Consequence #2: Higher Bond Yields
All long-term bonds — whether issued by other government agencies, corporations, states, or municipalities — will also collapse, driving their yields through the roof because, when Uncle Sam has to pay more to borrow, they inevitably have to pay more as well.

Consequence #3: Higher Mortgage Rates
Rates on mortgages and car loans will surge. Why? For the simple reason that they’re also tied at the hip of long-term Treasury rates. If you want to take out a 30-year fixed mortgage (now close to 5 percent) on a median-priced home ($178,300), and you can afford a 10 percent down payment just …

a) a 1 percent rise in rates will drive your monthly payment from $861 to $962 [that's $1212 a year!]

b) a 2 percent increase will drive it to $1,068 [that's $2,484 a year!!) ...

c) and the kinds of rate increases possible in a bond-market collapse could drive it to levels only Midas could afford. Worse, if you go for variable-rate mortgages, balloon mortgages, or other now hard-to-get alternatives, the impact of surging interest rates will be even more traumatic.

Consequence #4: Stagnant Recovery
The fledgling recovery in housing and auto sales — the pride and joy of Washington's bailout brigades — will be toast.

Consequence #5: Lower Long-term Bond Yields
Institutions and individual investors holding piles of lower yielding long-term bonds will get killed which includes:

a) the U.S. households stuck with $801 billion in Treasuries, $979.5 billion in municipal bonds, plus a whopping $2.4 trillion in corporate bonds

b) banks and credit unions holding $199 billion in Treasuries, $228 billion in munis, $1.066 trillion in corporate bonds and, worst of all, $1.408 trillion in government agency (and GSE) bonds

c) insurance companies buried in Treasuries ($196 billion), munis ($444 billion), agency bonds ($469 billion) and a TON of corporate bonds ($2.180 trillion) and

d) private pension funds, state and local governments, and even their employees' retirement funds [which are] all loaded with similarly vulnerable bonds.

Not all of the [the above] holdings are of the long-term variety, but most are, and investors and institutions who own them, on behalf of millions of retirees, will suffer shocking declines in the market value of their portfolios. [In addition,] they could suffer a chain reaction of defaults, gutting their income stream and, worst of all, they now have some reason to fear the de facto default of the biggest debtor of all — the government of the United States of America. I doubt very much we will see THAT happen but two events are very possible, even likely, [namely]:

1. America will lose its triple-A rating
If the Wall Street rating agencies don’t have the moral fiber to announce downgrades, the marketplace will do it for them.

2. Our leaders will face an Armageddon unlike any since the Civil War.

Like California and Greece … like every household and any company … our government MUST cut back and accept the rest of the consequences:

#6: Declining home values

#7: Falling stock prices

#8: The end of the recovery
#9: And many, many more [dire consequences]!

Washington… will no doubt seek every [possible] alternative and try every other trick [to avoid either of the above scenarios] but, alas, no printing press can run faster than our foreign creditors can sell their U.S. bonds. No one will bail out America.

Ultimately, there is NO choice. Washington must either muster the courage — and the support of the people — to accept the pain and make the sacrifices of a lifetime … or face the downfall of America. Yes, we MUST bite the bullet!

*http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/armageddon-10-37926 (Money and Markets is a free daily investment newsletter from Martin D. Weiss and Weiss Research analysts offering the latest investing news and financial insights for the stock market, including tips and advice on investing in gold, energy and oil. To view archives or subscribe, visit http://www.moneyandmarkets.com.)

Editor’s Note:
- The above article consists of reformatted edited excerpts from the original for the sake of brevity, clarity and to ensure a fast and easy read. The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered.
- Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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- Submit a comment. Share your views on the subject with all our readers.
- Buy the book below from Amazon. It’s pertinent to this article and inexpensive too.

[Ryan Ruck]

Dozens Of Homes Burn aAross Detroit

9/7/2010

Detroit's Fire Commissioner told Action News fires were burning at 80 locations between 4:00pm and 8:00pm Tuesday. No word on how many homes and buildings were destroyed. Many of the destroyed homes were abandoned.

Multiple homes were destroyed on Detroit's east side.

On Moenart Street and Luce Avenue near Mound and McNichols 7 homes caught fire.

On Van Dyke near Quinn firefighters worked to control 20 homes. The fire spread across the city block to Robinwood Street. Firefighters say it’s possible the blazes in this neighborhood were ignited by a faulty transformer spraying sparks. Those sparks were carried by strong winds and started fires at a number of other houses. Folks on the block say they alerted DTE to the problem last week and nothing was done. Action News contacted DTE and they tell us they are investigating those claims.

An abandoned commercial building also burned near Chene and Hendrie on the city's east side.

On Detroit's west side four homes burned on Stoepel near Livernois and Margareta Avenue.

The Fire Commissioner told Action News during the height of the fires 236 firefighters were working. One firefighter was injured during the afternoon.

Strong winds are to blame for fueling many of the fires. The winds may also have prompted the flames. The Detroit Fire Department took calls on 140 wires down across the city from 8:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday.

DTE says 26,000 customers are without power in Wayne County.

Stay with WXYZ.com for updates.

[American Patriot]

Prelude to rioting.

Detroit, my good old home town....
http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm

Events

The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers executed a raid on an after hours drinking club or “blind pig” in a predominantly black neighborhoods located at Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue. They were expecting to round up a few patrons, but instead found 82 people inside holding a party for two returning Vietnam veterans. Yet, the officers attempted to arrest everyone who was on the scene. While the police awaited a “clean-up crew” to transport the arrestees, a crowd gathered around the establishment in protest. After the last police car left, a small group of men who were “confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go” lifted up the bars of an adjacent clothing store and broke the windows. From this point of origin, further reports of vandalism diffused. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side. Within 48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized, to be followed by the 82nd airborne on the riot’s fourth day. As police and military troops sought to regain control of the city, violence escalated. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested.

Causes of the Detroit Riot

The origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change.

Police Brutality

In Detroit, during the 1960s the “Big Four” or “Tac Squad”roamed the streets, searching for bars to raid and prostitutes to arrest. These elite 4 man units frequently stopped youths who were driving or walking through the 12th street neighborhood. They verbally degraded these youths, calling them “boy” and “nigger”, asking them who they were and where they were going. (Fine 1989:98). Most of the time, black residents were asked to produce identification, and having suffered their requisite share of humiliation, were allowed to proceed on their way. But if one could not produce “proper” identification, this could lead to arrest or worse. In a few notable cases, police stops led to the injury or death of those who were detained. Such excessive use of force was manifested in the 1962 police shooting of a black prostitute named Shirley Scott who, like Lester Long of Newark, was shot in the back while fleeing from the back of a patrol car. Other high profile cases of police brutality in Detroit included the severe beating of another prostitute, Barbara Jackson, in 1964, and the beating of Howard King, a black teenager, for “allegedly disturbing the peace”. (Fine 1989:117) But the main issue in the minds of Detroit’s black residents was police harassment and police brutality, which they identified in a Detroit Free Press Survey as the number one problem they faced in the period leading up to the riot. (Detroit Free Press 1968, Fine 1989, Thomas 1967). According to a Detroit Free Press Survey, residents reported police brutality as the number as the number one problem they faced in the period leading up to the riot. (Detroit Free Press 1968, Fine 1989, Thomas 1967).

Housing

Affordable housing, or the lack thereof, was a fundamental concern for black Detroiters. When polled by the Detroit Free Press regarding the problems that contributed most to the rioting in the previous year, respondents listed “poor housing” as one of the most important issues, second only to police brutality. (Detroit Free Press 1968, Thomas 1997:130-131). Detroit had a long history of housing discrimination stretching back to the turn of the century when black migrants first arrived in the city and middle-class African Americans sought to integrate predominantly white neighborhoods. During the 1940s and 1950s white Detroiters sought to block the entry of blacks into their neighborhoods by legal and extra-legal means, in one instance building a six-foot high, one-foot wide concrete wall along Eight Mile Road, to separate themselves from potential black neighbors. In a similar vein, white residents engaged in several bitter campaigns during the 1940s and 1950s to prevent the integration of public housing located in predominantly white areas (Farley et al. 2000:154-161) By the 1960s, despite with the movement of some blacks into formerly white neighborhoods, fact segregation had become more pronounced. The quality and cost of housing differed substantially for blacks and whites in Detroit, with black residents paying considerably higher rents than their white counterparts for equivalent accommodations. Only 39 percent of African Americans owned their own homes in 1960, as compared with the 64 percent of whites who were homeowners.

Urban Renewal

In Detroit, the shortage of housing available to black residents was further exacerbated by “urban renewal” projects. In Detroit, entire neighborhoods were bulldozed to make way for freeways that linked city and suburbs. Neighborhoods that met their fate in such manner were predominantly black in their composition. To build Interstate 75, Paradise Valley or “Black Bottom”, the neighborhood that black migrants and white ethnics had struggled over during the 1940s, was buried beneath several layers of concrete. As the oldest established black enclave in Detroit, “Black Bottom” was not merely a point on the map, but the heart of Detroit’s black community, commercially and culturally. The loss for many black residents of Detroit was devastating, and the anger burned for years thereafter.

Economic Inequality/Relative Deprivation

As an internationally recognized as a center of the automobile production, Detroit seemed to fare a little better economically than other American industrial cities in the immediate post-war era. But beginning in the 1950s, the big car manufacturers, Ford, Chrysler and GM began to automate their assembly lines and outsource parts production to subcontractors located in other municipalities and foreign countries. (Sugrue 1996:128) Detroit, like other cities, was deindustrializing and black workers, who had less seniority and lower job grades than white workers “felt the brunt” of this change. Young black men were particularly hard hit by the combination of deindustrialization with historical job discrimination in the automobile industry. According to historian Thomas Sugrue, young workers, especially those who had no post-secondary education, found that entry-level operative jobs that had been open to their fathers or older siblings in the 1940s and early 1950s were gone. “By the end of the 1950s, more and more black job seekers, reported by the Urban League, were demoralized, ‘developing patterns of boredom and hopelessness with the present state of affairs’ The anger and despair that prevailed among the young, at a time of national promise and prosperity, would explode on Detroit’s streets in the 1960s. (Sugrue 1996:147) Yet black Detroiters had higher incomes, lower unemployment rates and higher levels of education relative to their peers in other cities. Nonetheless these measures paled in comparison with the gaps in income, employment, and education in Detroit among whites and blacks. According to one long-time community activist, blacks in Detroit did not compare themselves to blacks in other cities. Rather, they compared themselves to whites in Detroit. Relative deprivation helped give rise to black militancy in Detroit.


Black Militancy

Despite the election of a liberal Democratic mayor who appointed African Americans to prominent positions in his administration, and despite Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh’s good working relationship with mainstream civil rights groups, a significant segment of the black community in Detroit felt disenfranchised, frustrated by what they perceived to be the relatively slow pace of racial change and persistent racial inequality. Local militant leaders like the Reverend Albert Cleague spoke of self-determination and separatism for black people, arguing that whites were incapable and or unwilling to share power. The civil rights movement was deemed a failure by these young leaders in the black community. At a black power rally in Detroit in early July 1967, H. Rap Brown foreshadowed the course of future events, stating that if “Motown” didn’t come around, “we are going to burn you down”.

Demographic Change

Like Newark, Detroit was swept by a wave of white flight. During the 1950s the white population of Detroit declined by 23%. Correspondingly, the percentage of non-whites rose from 16.1% to 29.1%. In sheer numbers the black population of Detroit increased from 303,000 to 487,000 during that decade. (Fine 1989:4) By 1967, the black population of Detroit stood at an estimated 40% of the total population. (National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders 1968:89-90). As in Newark, some neighborhoods were more affected by white flight than others. This was particularly true for the Twelfth Street neighborhood, where rioting broke out in the summer of 1967. “Whereas virtually no blacks lived there in 1940 (the area was 98.7% white), the area was over one-third (37.2%) non-white in 1950. By 1960, the proportion of blacks to whites had nearly reversed: only 3.8 percent of the areas residents were white. Given that the first blacks did not move to the area until 1947 and 1948, the area underwent a complete racial transition in little more than a decade.” Sugrue 1996:244)

This rapid turnover in population in the neighborhood brought with it the attendant ills of social disorganization, crime and further discrimination. It’s impact in the 12th street area was devastating. According to Sidney Fine, “The transition from white to black on Detroit’s near northwest side occurred at a remarkably rapid rate…In a familiar pattern of neighborhood succession, as blacks moved in after World War II, the Jews moved out. The first black migrants to the area were middle class persons seeking to escape the confines of Paradise Valley. They enjoyed about “five good years” in their new homes until underworld and seedier elements from Hastings Street and Paradise Valley, the poor and indigent from the inner city, and winos and derelicts from skid row flowed into the area. Some of the commercial establishments on Twelfth Street gave way to pool halls, liquor stores, sleazy bars, pawn shops, and second hand businesses. Already suffering from a housing shortage and lack of open space, Twelfth Street became more “densely packed” as apartments were subdivided and six to eight families began to live where two had resided before. The 21,376 persons per square mile in the area in 1960 were almost double the city’s average” (Fine 1989:4) This neighborhood would serve as the epicenter of the 1967 riot.

The tide there has turned... the "Big Four" are no more, but there is a city which is now mostly black, with hatred whipped into a frenzy by the "Race Card" constantly being played by the Left, and even today the White House itself.

Now you will have the same thing happening, in reverse. There will be riots by blacks though - this time to destroy all that is left in that city. No, I am not a "hate monger" and I don't believe that violence is the way to go, and especially not in that city, but I suspect it will happen soon enough.

When I lived there I witnessed more than one abandoned home burn to the ground, including one that was next door to me - and my own Uncle who was part of the station showed up to help defend our home against the flames lapping our roof - while they mostly allowed the house to burn to the ground.

A few months after that those same firemen and most of the police force in the city were threatened with firing if they "didn't move back into the city proper". A goodly portion of them lived outside of the City in the suburbs. Many quit outright, some like my uncle refused and fought back - he retired a few years ago as a Chief. Point is, the City wanted to bring those they paid back into the city to live and work there in the squalor that was the City in those days.

Coleman Young, the first Black Mayor of Detroit came in and told the "criminals" to "Hit Eight Mile and not look back". 75-80% of the whites moved that year.

"I issue a warning to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit; hit Eight Mile Road! And I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, or if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road.^]

Young's involvement in progressive and dissident organizations including the Progressive Party, the AFL-CIO, and the National Negro Labor Council made him powerful enemies, including the FBI and HUAC, where he refused to testify. He protested segregation in the Army and racial discrimination in the UAW. In 1948 Young supported Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, which he later viewed as a major mistake.

There was, I'm afraid a lot more in his words than meets the eye. Having grown up there, and listened to the hatred that was spewed daily (and the fights I was involved in simply because I was a white kid and my antagonists were black) gave me an insight many people will never have. Even after those days I never hated blacks, or any other race, I simply knew as you know that the sun will rise every day, that something was wrong with those people I had to deal with, and their hatred would someone consume them.

That time is here and now. Their hatred is all-consuming and the time is coming - and soon.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow, hadn't heard of ANY of this until I heard about it on Mark Levin's show (via a fill-in host).

LAPD Brass Plead for Calm; Protesters Egg Station

September 8, 2010

Police Chief Charlie Beck pleaded for calm and vowed his department would conduct an exhaustive investigation into a bicycle officer's fatal shooting of a drunken day laborer with a knife.

But his words did little to dissuade demonstrators, who spilled into the streets for a second straight night Tuesday — some to pray and light candles and others to pelt a police station near downtown Los Angeles with eggs, rocks and bottles.

Police reported 22 arrests on Tuesday night, mainly for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, Officer Karen Rayner said.

Officers fired at least two rounds of nonlethal foam projectiles at demonstrators, Rayner said.

At least one officer and a Univision reporter were slightly injured by thrown or slingshot-propelled objects, police told City News Service, and a man who fell off his bicycle suffered a head wound.

Some protesters pushed rolling metal trash bins at officers and tossed household items from apartment buildings.

"People were throwing televisions, air conditioning units, miscellaneous furniture and other objects from the windows," Lt. Cory Palka said.

Guatemalan immigrant Manuel Jamines, 37, was shot twice by a police officer Sunday afternoon near MacArthur Park, a poor neighborhood packed with recent immigrants from Central America.

In the wake of the protests, authorities scheduled a community meeting for Wednesday evening at a local school.

On Monday, four people were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor inciting a riot, and others threw rocks and bottles at police, slightly injuring three officers, Officer Bruce Borihanh said.

On Tuesday, about 300 protesters took their complaints to the police station only two blocks from where Jamines died, said Lt. Andrew Neiman. Officers tried to move the demonstrators away from the station and keep them away from the park.

A citywide tactical alert was called to free up officers to respond to the area, Rayner said.

Beck said the incident involving Jamines started when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.

The officers approached the suspect and told him in Spanish and English to put down the weapon. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department, Beck said.

Eyewitness accounts from six civilians, nine police personnel and two fire department staff indicate Hernandez fired twice "in immediate defense of life," Beck said. Jamines, 37, died at the scene.

Investigators recovered a bloody, 6-inch knife at the scene but didn't know where the blood came from.

"This was a very brief moment in time, just 40 seconds between first contact and the time of the shooting," Beck said.

Beck said the timeline was based on preliminary interviews. He said the department's Force Investigation Division will conduct a thorough, transparent probe.

The three officers involved in the shooting have been temporarily reassigned during the investigation.

Jamines had a wife and three children — ages 13, 6 and 8 — in his hometown of Mazatenango, Guatemala, according to his cousin Juan Jaminez, 38. He came to the United States six years ago to find work as a day laborer and spent most of his time looking for jobs in a Home Depot parking lot near his home.

Jamines was drunk but not dangerous, his cousin and neighbors said.

"Killing a drunk isn't right," said Juan Jaminez, also a day laborer. He and others described Jamines as a friendly, hardworking man who liked to drink on the weekends but wasn't violent.

"The officer who did this should be subject to discipline and a thorough investigation," said Juan Flores, 39, a cook at a downtown restaurant who knew Jamines. "We want to know, is he on vacation or is he fired?"

Flores said the officers should have used a non-lethal weapon to subdue Jamines.

Beck said the officer involved in the shooting didn't have a baton or stun gun with him. He said bicycle officers frequently do not carry the selection of non-lethal weapons found in patrol cars.

Juana Neri, 57, a Mexican immigrant housewife who lives nearby, pushed her grocery bag in a baby stroller past the corner where Jamines was killed.

"It's bad, what the police did, but what's worse is the silly stuff that people were doing here," she said, referring to Monday's violence. "We are not in our country, and with the problems that Hispanic immigrants have these days, it's better not to cause problems."

MacArthur Park was the site of a May 1, 2007, clash in which police officers pummeled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot rubber bullets into the crowd. Dozens of protesters and journalists were injured. Police said it began with a group of "agitators" outside the park throwing objects at officers.

Los Angeles police officers respond by firing nonlethal foam projectiles toward apartment buildings rooftops, as protesters climbed atop and threw objects at officers below.


Los Angeles police officers respond by firing nonlethal foam projectiles toward apartment buildings rooftops, as protesters climbed atop and threw objects at officers below, after they had protested the death of a Guatemalan immigrant by Los Angeles Police officers on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010


Los Angeles Police officers close 6th Street Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010, as police confront protestors who rallied against the police over the death of a Guatemalan immigrant by Los Angeles police officers Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010.


Los Angeles Police close 6th Street Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010, in Los Angeles as protestors rally over the death of a Guatemalan immigrant killed by Los Angeles police Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010.


Protestors in Los Angeles Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010, vandalize a police station department sign as they protest the death of a Guatemalan immigrant killed by police Sunday, Sept. , Sept. 5, 2010.


Protestors rally in Los Angeles Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010, over the fatal police shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010.


Los Angeles police officers in riot gear close 6th Street as protestors take to the street Monday, Sept. 7, 2010, in Los Angeles following a bicycle officer's fatal shooting of a knife-wielding man.


Protestors gather and march in Los Angeles Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010, over the death of a Guatemalan immigrant killed by Los Angeles Police officers Sunday, Sept. 5.

[Backstop]

This looks to me to be no more than an attempt to justify the 67 riots.

I have a relative that was on the Metro Squad during those riots. And it was as one-sided as the article claims.

http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm

I see no problem with this shooting.

If the illegal aliens don't like it, they can GTFO.

Matter of fact, they need to GTFO whether they like it or not.

Beck said the incident involving Jamines started when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.

The officers approached the suspect and told him in Spanish and English to put down the weapon. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department, Beck said.

Eyewitness accounts from six civilians, nine police personnel and two fire department staff indicate Hernandez fired twice "in immediate defense of life," Beck said. Jamines, 37, died at the scene.

[MagnetMan]

"Killing a drunk isn't right," said Juan Jaminez, also a day laborer. He and others described Jamines as a friendly, hardworking man who liked to drink on the weekends but wasn't violent.

Why don't people understand that the officers aren't going to do any standard sobriety tests if he's swinging a knife around. Plus if someone get's drunk and then takes out a knife in public, chances are he's violent or will be soon.

[American Patriot]

This is utter bullshit. This is an attempt to force the government's hand and get a bigger fight started, something to pull us ALL into the fray.

Look at the 3rd or 4th picture down. Note the POLICE sign, look at the tags.

Anarchists.

[Ryan Ruck]

This is utter bullshit. This is an attempt to force the government's hand and get a bigger fight started, something to pull us ALL into the fray.

Look at the 3rd or 4th picture down. Note the POLICE sign, look at the tags.

Anarchists.

Bingo! The professional shit-stirrers are out in full force!

[American Patriot]

Why can't the rest of the world get this, understand it?

Anarchists are the underlying cause in a lot of problems on all sides of the political spectrum.

[Ryan Ruck]

U.S. Poverty Rate Jumps Record Amount - 1 In 7 Americans Considered Poor In 2009: Report

September 12, 2010

The U.S. poverty rate has skyrocketed by a record amount under the Obama administration, with one out of seven Americans considered poor last year, according to a report Saturday.

The disturbing trend is an estimate of 2009 census data set for release on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.

Underscoring the depth of the recession, a projected 45 million people - or about 15% of the population - were poor last year. In 2008, 13.2% of the country lived in poverty.

The estimated 1.8 percentage-point increase in 2009 is the largest year-to-year uptick since the U.S. started calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high came during the 1980 national energy crisis, when the rate soared 1.3 percentage points to 13%.

In 2008, the federal government set the poverty level at $22,025 a year for a family of four.

The Associated Press based its projections on interviews with six census-tracking demographers.

The estimates follow Friday's White House news conference in which President Obama said a robust economy will eradicate poverty.

"The most important anti-poverty effort is growing the economy and making sure there are enough jobs out there," Obama said. "If we can grow the economy faster and create more jobs, then everybody is swept up into that virtuous cycle."

According to the demographers' projections, the working-age population took a hit in 2009. About 12.4% of Americans aged 18 to 64 were poor - up from 11.7% in 2008.

The 0.7 percentage-point jump is the largest since 1965.

[vector7]

Third world America

Collapsing bridges, street lights turned off, cuts to basic services: the decline of a superpower

by Luiza Ch. Savage on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 7:32am - 212 Comments


Danny Wilcox Frazier/Redux/ Robert Galbraith/Reuters/ Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

In February, the board of commissioners of Ohio’s Ashtabula County faced a scene familiar to local governments across America: a budget shortfall. They began to cut spending and reduced the sheriff’s budget by 20 per cent. A law enforcement agency staff that only a few years ago numbered 112, and had subsequently been pared down to 70, was cut again to 49 people and just one squad car for a county of 1,900 sq. km along the shore of Lake Erie. The sheriff’s department adapted. “We have no patrol units.

There is no one on the streets. We respond to only crimes in progress. We don’t respond to property crimes,” deputy sheriff Ron Fenton told Maclean’s. The county once had a “very proactive” detective division in narcotics. Now, there is no detective division. “We are down to one evidence officer and he just runs the evidence room in case someone wants to claim property,” said Fenton. “People are getting property stolen, their houses broken into, and there is no one investigating. We are basically just writing up a report for the insurance company.”

If a county without police seems like a weird throwback to an earlier, frontier-like moment in American history, it is not the only one. “Back to the Stone Age” is the name of a seminar organized in March by civil engineers at Indiana’s Purdue University for local county supervisors interested in saving money by breaking up paved roads and turning them back to gravel. While only some paved roads in the state have been broken up, “There are a substantial number of conversations going on,” John Habermann, who manages a program at Purdue that helps local governments take care of infrastructure, told Maclean’s. “We presented a lot of talking points so that the county supervisors can talk logically back to elected officials when the question is posed,” he said. The state of Michigan had similar conversations. It has converted at least 50 miles of paved road to gravel in the last few years.

Welcome to the ground level of America’s economic crisis. The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.5 per cent. One in 10 homeowners are behind on their mortgage payments. Home sales are at record lows. While the economy has been growing for several quarters, the growth is anemic—only 1.6 per cent in the second quarter of this year—and producing few new jobs.

Even with interest rates at unprecedented lows, there is anxiety about the possibility of a double-dip recession. Sales of existing homes are at their lowest level in 15 years, and new home sales plummeted this summer to the lowest levels on record. Property and sales tax revenues have shrunk. And nowhere is this more apparent than at the local government level, where officials are being forced to roll back the everyday hallmarks of modern civilization.

Cincinnati, Ohio, is cutting back on trash collection and snow removal and filling fewer potholes.

The city of Dallas is not picking up litter in public parks. Flint, Mich., laid off 23 of 88 firefighters and closed two fire stations. In some places it’s almost literally the dark ages: the city of Shelton in Washington state decided to follow the example of numerous other localities and last week turned off 114 of its 860 street lights. Others have axed bus service and cut back on library hours.

Class sizes are being increased and teachers are being laid off. School districts around the country are cutting the school day or the school week or the school year—effectively furloughing students. The National Association of Counties estimates that local governments will eliminate roughly half a million employees in the next fiscal year, with public safety, public works, public health, social services, and parks and recreation hardest hit by the cutbacks. A July survey by the association of counties, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors of 270 local governments found that 63 per cent of localities are cutting back on public safety and 60 per cent are cutting public works.


In August, the U.S. Congress passed a US$26-billion stimulus extension bill, aimed in part at saving teacher jobs. But it’s a finger in the dike.

Jacqueline Byers, director of research for the counties association, said many local governments have yet to confront the full impact of the real estate crisis on government revenues because they do tax assessments only every third year. A fundamental transformation is under way.

“When we come out of this recession we’re going to see government functioning very differently,” says Byers. “We are seeing more public-private partnership than we ever had for things like recreation and parks. We are seeing some of them privatize libraries. They lease the library to a private corporation that employs the workers who don’t carry retirement or health benefits.” Or they could wind up like Hood River County, Ore., which in August closed its three libraries altogether.
Some governments are looking for creative ways to replace plummeting property and sales tax revenues. Facing a US$1-billion budget shortfall, Montgomery County in Maryland appealed for corporate sponsors to step up and adopt porta-potties in its public parks. In the end, the privies were saved by a combination of park employees taking early retirement, a few private sponsorships, and a negotiated discount from the supplier, Don’s Johns.

Meanwhile, Montgomery County’s school system, banking on its reputation for high standards and test scores, took the unusual step of selling its curriculum to a private textbook publisher, Pearson, for US$2.3 million and royalties of up to three per cent on sales. As part of the deal, county classrooms can be used as “showrooms”—which critics said effectively turns students and teachers into salesmen for a corporation.

But the superintendent, Jerry Weast, told the Washington Post, “I tend to look at this from the perspective that we are broke.”

These cuts in infrastructure and education are more than just a temporary belt-tightening in response to a recession. They threaten long-term damage to American’s economic foundation—a foundation that has long been eroding. When the eight-lane Interstate 35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis in 2009, killing 13 people and injuring 145, the American Society of Civil Engineers warned that the infrastructure deficit of aging postwar highways and bridges amounted to US$1.6 trillion.

More than a quarter of America’s bridges were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Steam pipes have exploded in New York City and the levees failed in New Orleans.

Pages: 1 2 3

[Ryan Ruck]

Uh, Wee Problem Here On Grains...

October 8, 2010

God I hope you're not stuck short on these...

Oats...



Soybeans...



Corn...



That's bad news - those are all lock-limit up.

For those who have never traded commodities, there is a maximum daily price move. When that limit is hit trading stops.

What this means is that it is entirely possible for exactly one trade to go off at the limit price and lock trading. You're stuck with whatever position you have at that point.

If you're short and you lock-limit up the good news is that the damage stops (for that day) there.

The bad news is that there's nothing you can do about the damage, up to and including being driven into a margin call, which can bankrupt you.

This is just pure ugly... anyone who thinks this is "good news" in some way needs their head examined. This isn't a single crop, it's across-the-board.

"Here it comes" in the grains... and your food prices...

(Report on the wire relating to corn production expecting a poorer harvest... but man, the reflection everywhere else? I don't think this is that simple.)

[Ryan Ruck]

Grain Prices Surge on U.S. Supply Cuts, Boosting Food Costs

October 8, 2010

Grain and oilseed prices rose the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade after the U.S. government said supplies will be smaller than forecast last month, increasing the cost of producing food and fuel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its domestic corn- crop estimate for the second time in as many months, predicting a 3.4 percent drop from last year. While farmers will collect the most soybeans ever, the total will be 2.2 percent less than forecast in September, the USDA said. Global wheat inventories will be 1.8 percent less than projected last month.

Corn prices are near the highest level in two years, after surging 41 percent since June, as unfavorable weather hurt crops in the U.S., the world’s largest grower and exporter. The jump in feed costs today sent shares of Tyson Foods Inc., the largest U.S. chicken processor, to its biggest drop since July 2009 and revived concern that food inflation will accelerate.

“People have not come to grips with the rising cost of producing food,” said Michael Swanson, a senior agricultural economist at Minneapolis-based Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. farm lender. “Feed costs are going to balloon” for livestock, dairy and poultry producers, he said.

Meat and dairy producers may lose money if they haven’t already secured feed, Swanson said. Some hog producers may get 80 cents for a pound of pork that was produced with a $1 of corn, encouraging reductions in the herd, he said.

Compounding tight feed supplies for domestic buyers is the slumping dollar, which makes commodities cheaper for importers using other currencies, Swanson said. The dollar dropped below 82 yen for the first time in 15 years on concern the economic recovery is stalling.

Tyson, Smithfield

Tyson Foods, based in Springdale, Arkansas, fell $1.27, or 7.8 percent, to $15 at 2:18 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange. A close at that price would be the biggest decline since July 20, 2009. Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest pork processor, dropped 83 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $15.22, heading for the largest slump since July 16.

The cost of meat and dairy products will rise faster than the overall pace of food inflation next year, the USDA said on Sept. 24. Meat costs will rise 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent, while dairy gains 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent. Total food costs will increase 2 percent to 3 percent, up from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent this year, the USDA said.

Higher fuel prices and government subsidies will help ethanol producers cope with the higher cost of corn. Ethanol futures surged as much as 9.3 percent today, the most in five years. Gasoline prices have risen 13 percent since the end of August, while corn rallied 20 percent.

Price Limit

Corn futures for December delivery rose the 30-cent trading limit, or 6 percent, to $5.2825 a bushel as of the 1:15 p.m. close on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price reached a two- year high of $5.2875 on Sept. 27.

“Corn-demand rationing will occur for most sectors between $5.50 and $5.75 a bushel,” Alexander Bos, a grain analyst for Macquarie Bank Ltd. in London, said in a report to clients today. “Corn prices may “trade above $6 bushel within the next few weeks,” he said.

U.S. farmers will harvest 12.664 billion bushels of corn, down from 13.16 billion projected a month ago and less than last year’s record 13.11 billion, the USDA said today in a report. The average estimate of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News was for 12.977 billion bushels. Flooding in June and hot, dry weather in August cut Midwest yields.

“The government has shocked the grain industry with the huge cut in U.S. production,” said David Smoldt, the vice president of operations for FCStone LLC in West Des Moines, Iowa. “There will be some scrambling for supplies today.”

Smaller Inventories

Unsold U.S. supplies on Sept. 1, before next year’s harvest, will total 902 million bushels, compared with the month-ago forecast of 1.116 billion and 1.708 billion this year, the USDA said. Supplies will be the lowest since 1997.

“We will not produce enough to meet demand from domestic livestock producers, ethanol makers and overseas buyers,” Alan Brugler, the president of Brugler Marketing & Management Inc. in Omaha, Nebraska, said before the report. “We are going to run up the price to slow demand and encourage farmers to plant more next year.”

The U.S. soybean crop will be a record 3.408 billion bushels (92.8 million metric tons), compared with 3.483 billion projected in September and 3.359 billion gathered last year, the USDA said. August rains failed to boost yields, and the government reduced its acreage estimates. Analysts in the Bloomberg survey expected 3.501 billion bushels.

Soybean Prices

Soybean futures for November delivery soared the 70-cent trading limit, or 6.6 percent, to $11.35 a bushel in Chicago. The oilseed, used to make livestock feed and vegetable oil, has gained 26 percent since the end of June.

“The USDA surprised the trade with a cut in U.S. soybean yields and an unexpectedly large cut in planted acreage,” FCStone’s Smoldt said. “There are just too many uncertainties about global supplies” with dry weather already delaying planting in parts of South America, he said.

Global wheat stockpiles will total 174.66 million metric tons on May 31, down 1.8 percent from 177.79 million estimated last month, the USDA said. The average estimate of 13 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey was 177.43 million tons.

Unsold supplies in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter, may fall 5.4 percent to 853 million bushels (23.22 million tons), from 902 million bushels estimated in September, the department said. U.S. production was projected at 2.224 billion bushels, down 1.8 percent from the September estimate while up 0.3 percent from last year. The USDA also lowered its inventory estimates for the European Union and Canada.

Wheat Surges

Wheat futures for December gained the 60-cent limit, or 9.1 percent, to $7.1925 a bushel on the CBOT and are up 52 percent the past year, after drought ruined fields in Russia and too much rain diminished supplies from Canada.

“Possibly, there will be some switching from corn to wheat” in feed rations, said Tom Leffler, the owner of Leffler Commodities LLC in Augusta, Kansas. “The biggest thing is, end- users beware, because quite honestly, they’re screwed. Talk of $6 corn is very, very possible now.”

[Backstop]

Well that was rosy.

[American Patriot]

Guys, I'm really NOT a financial guy.

Someone explain this last few posts to me about grains.

Keep it simple