Who is The Grinch That Stole Christmas This Year?

Obama continually brags that the U.S. economy he created is robust while citing the confident American consumers leading the way to a vibrant, dynamic economy under his left-leaning Federal government policies and leadership. Instead, how about just praising good old fashioned American-style entrepreneurial private enterprise?

It's easy to take Obama at his word when Wells Fargo estimates an impressive $20 Billion dollars year-over-year growth in upcoming 2014 U.S. retail spending over the last 2013 holiday season. This boastful braggadocio certainly raises questionable doubts, however, as who and what comprises those figures; especially when its Obama pushing those numbers.

Based upon the recent excitement raised in September 2014 on the introduction with massive sales of over 10 million of the new generation iPhone 6, an enormous red herring surfaced. A telling clue was openly hidden which mislead the public to assume that they, the 'folks', were doing just fine as was a vibrant economy that could afford these pricey new iPhones as well as other consumer products too. That clue failed to report the realities about the retail consumer environment in the ongoing U.S. economy. In a Wall Street Journal commentary on iPhone sales, market analyst Miriam Gottfried stated, "Looked at in the short term retail spending in the U.S. is effectively a zero-sum game. And when one firm takes a bigger share of consumer wallets, others feel the pain." So, who feels the pain? That's a good question pointing to that hidden clue.

It turns out that U.S. consumers will spend $14 Billion dollars on iPhones, two-thirds of the projected $21 Billion year-end 2014 holiday growth. That leaves about one-third, $7 Billion dollars, to other U.S. retailers which also includes some anticipated carry-over year-to-year retail sales growth too. That is quite a drop in retail sales projections and a large lump of coal to shove into those retailers' Christmas stockings--Bah, humbug!

This 2014 Holiday season Apple is the 'retail grinch' who stole Christmas sales from all the other retailers. Simply put, the Apple successes have been a big flop for other U.S. retailers that sell mainstream commodities like clothing, accessories, household goods and home furnishings. For retail as a whole, the early forecasts for traffic and sales during the all-important year-end account for an estimated 40 percent of many retailers’ annual revenues. The 2013-14 percent sales increase [$21 Bil.] is +3.5%, an overall percent decrease; however if compared with less Apple iPhone sales [$14 Bil.] the increase [$7 Bil.] would only be +1.2% increase above 2013, the smallest increase since 2009 of +0.5%. [Obama's first full year in office] Refer to the 2003-13 National Retail Federation chart above, retail sales recorded by the world's largest retail association. 

Could the spring 2015 release of the new Apple watch portend more misery on first-quarter retail sales?--only time will tell and it's on Apple time!  

EMP Sends U.S. back to 'Stone Age'

A Low-tech EMP Nuclear Device detonated above the U.S. could kill millions, and we've done almost nothing to prepare. 

"In a recent letter to investors, billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer warned that an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, is "the most significant threat" to the U.S. and our allies in the world. He's right. Our food and water supplies, communications, banking, hospitals, law enforcement, etc., all depend on the electric grid. Yet until recently little attention has been paid to the ease of generating EMPs by detonating a nuclear weapon in orbit above the U.S., and thus bringing our civilization to a cold, dark halt."

"Recent declassification of EMP studies by the U.S. government has begun to draw attention to this dire threat. Rogue nations such as North Korea (and possibly Iran) will soon match Russia and China and have the primary ingredients for an EMP attack: simple ballistic missiles such as Scuds that could be launched from a freighter near our shores; space-launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can generate gamma rays and fireballs.

"Fritz Ermarth, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, said EMP has changed the face of modern warfare adding, “While the Cold War strategy of blasting cities is still in portfolio,” EMP is getting new emphasis. A major advantage they have is that they are cheap and easy to produce." He went on to say that because of its lack of preparation, the United States is way behind in terms of defense against an EMP threat.

With a nuclear device in hand, either produced locally or purchased from North Korea, all Iran would need is a delivery system. As former CIA Director under Clinton, James Woolsey noted that the common 50 year old technology SCUD missiles would do the job, the same ones that were routinely lobbed back and forth in the last Gulf War. Since an EMP only affects electronics within its line of sight, the higher the detonation, the larger the affected area. Any SCUD missile could be launched from a small fishing boat off the East Coast. A device detonated 100 miles over Indianapolis would put 70 percent of the population of the United States in the dark. 

Our Aegis missile system is designed to only fire at a target at mid-course or in its terminal, or reentry, phase. CIA Director James Woolsey claims President Obama has made it harder to design the Aegis missile system to strike targets in the ascent phase due to promises he has made to the Soviet Union.

In October 2013, Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas) introduced the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act. CIPA directs the Department of Homeland Security to adopt a new National Planning Scenario focused on federal, state and local emergency planning, training and resource allocation for survival and recovery from an EMP catastrophe. Yet this important legislation hasn't come to a vote.

What is lacking in Washington is a sense of urgency. Lawmakers and the administration need to move rapidly to build resilience into our electric grid and defend against an EMP attack that could deliver a devastating blow to the U.S. economy and the American people. Congress should pass and the president should sign into law the Shield Act and CIPA as soon as possible. Literally millions of American lives could depend on it.

FACTOID: The effects of EMP are known, because the nation already has experienced them. The missile “need not be accurate, it just needs altitude” to be successful. 

“Starfish Prime” was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the U.S. on July 9, 1962, before the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban treaty banned nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. A two megaton nuclear device approximately 100 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was launched via a Thor rocket and exploded 250 miles above a point 19 miles southwest of Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean.

The results included surprises and raised still-unanswered questions. William Graham, another member of the panel, said the EMP was 100 times larger than predicted and no one understood why. Sophisticated electronic equipment on the island of Oahu, almost 900 miles away, was severely damaged, but vacuum-tube based devices were unharmed. Over 300 streetlights stopped working, burglar alarms were activated and one telephone company’s microwave link was destroyed.

Free Syrian Army FSA Are Bad Actors

              Obama Refuses to call the 'Fight' with IS as a 'War'?                                   

It seems the only difference between the terrorists groups is that the moderate FSA, Free Syrian Army only wants to put a bullet in your head while the extremist IS, Islamic State only wants to behead you. Obama vetted these FSA soldiers and has supplied weapons. Obama calls FSA terrorists "Rebels". I call them "Murderers!"  Read on... Time to Face the Real Facts and Call it a War! 

Obama Has FSA Fight For Our U.S. Forces?

"The Obama administration has delivered weapons, supplies, and CIA-sponsored training to the Free Syrian Army. United States intelligence analysts estimate that the U.S. has had a hand in training as many as 20,000 FSA rebels. The U.S. reportedly provided the FSA with weapons such as rockets and TOW anti-tank missiles, which were supplied through back-channels in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

"The Free Syrian Army originally formed in July, 2011, at the start of the Syrian civil war. The group was initially composed largely of defectors from Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Armed Forces.

"Recent reports coming out of eastern Syria Monday revealed that several factions within the Syrian opposition force known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have pledged services to the Islamic State, the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Sources and eyewitnesses said that the FSA has handed over its weapons to the Islamic State in large numbers.

"The Free Syrian Army (FSA)" was said to be a “moderate” and “secular” force, which was used as the rationale by U.S. officials to supply the opposition force with weapons and training.

"Sources told Homs, Syria-based Zaman Alwasl newspaper that several factions within the FSA, including Ahl Al Athar, Ibin al-Qa’im, and Aisha have pledged to support the Islamic State."

On Tuesday, July 8, 2014 a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army said all of the area between Deir Ez-Zor, Syria, and the Iraqi border - a 90 mile stretch - has fallen to the Islamic State. The spokesman said that they not only controlled the territory, but had also taken over six Syrian oil and gas fields, along with a major pumping station that delivers oil to both Iraq and Syria. One of the captured oil fields included the al-Omar field, capable of producing 75,000 barrels of oil per day.

In a video proclamation, leaders in the town of al-Sahil said they “decided to swear allegiance” to the Islamic State and its leader: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

Shouldn't the U.S. itself go fight on its own terms in combat?

Hillary Overlooks the Bigger Picture Entirely

A Presidential Inquiry

An interviewer at the so-called 2014 “Women of the World Summit” asked Clinton, regarding her tenure as Secretary of State, what she was most proud of and what did she feel was unfinished and that she would love to have another crack at one day. Clinton struggled with both questions to fabricate a single accomplishment or to mention a failure.

On March 11, 2014 Hillary Clinton had answered, "My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well, I'm glad you asked!"...

"My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know… the remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didn’t do that and I’m proud of that. Very proud.  I would say that’s a major accomplishment.”  Say Whaaa??

Hillary Clinton: Thousands of Fake Followers on Twitter

Looks like Hillary is building up to run in the 2016 Presidential elections? Does she have any people behind her yet?  Let's take a look...

A verified @Faith4Hillary Twitter account purporting to be the “Faith and Value Voters for Hillary Clinton 2016″ appears to have purchased a large percentage of its 42.6k followers.

The website Twitter Audit determined that more than half of the account’s followers were obtained by “inorganic, fraudulent, or dishonest means,” and the similar website StatusPeople calculated that only 18 percent of the account’s followers were “good.” 

Per StatusPeople, the rest of the followers were either fake accounts or accounts that are inactive.

General Hillary Clinton's Battle Medals

Additionally, the account has a comparatively small amount of interaction via retweets and favorites compared to the amount of followers listed, which is indicative that the account is not being followed by real people.

A “fake” Twitter account is an account not run by an actual person or organization and is specifically created to boost a follower count. A variety of websites sell these accounts.

Other celebrities and politicians have faced accusations of artificially pumping up their social media presence. However, as @FaithVoters4Hillary isn’t Hillary Clinton’s personal account and considering Clinton hasn’t officially announced she will even be running in 2016, it’s a bit weird that steps are being taken to portray her as a candidate with a sizable “faith and values” fan base. We live in very interesting times. 

All Obama Policies Broke As A Joke

Obama is mentally tapped out, strapped for ideas, on the skids falling down the staircase of world events while doling out quick-fixes like living paycheck to paycheck only to come up short at the end. Like credit, Obama's credibility is limited and he's run it up and over his credit line. He is now in default on promises not delivered, alliance treaties not honored and national security intelligence data ignored which indicates his ideas are bankrupt and insolvent with no value at all.

The United States' global currency is 'its word as its bond'; in Obama's world 'it's as worthless as the paper it's printed on'. Meanwhile, Obama is running his printing presses day and night as he overinflates this U.S. currency to flood the world with meaningless promissory notes that never keep their promises. Countries cannot bank on any American guarantees for assistance. Obama's words are feckless as he doesn't know what to do as his failures come crashing down on his world.

Obama believes that America does not have the moral right to lead in the world. His passivity now really endangers all Americans here and then abroad because the other world powers see our weakness. In showing no sense of urgency, Obama publically admits at a recent White House press conference that he has no plans yet for the threat of the Islamic State Terrorism. It was reported that he was appraised over a year and a half ago about the Islamic State terrorists and chose to ignore it too--two U.S. jounalists are beheaded, what's next? One thing is true, Obama has turned his 'yellow-stripe' back on the American people!

Obama's terrorist policies are crystal clear, the terrorists are not considered armed combatants with no rights in a military setting. As such, military tribunals and punishment are not accorded those captured prisoners; instead, the Islamic acts of terrorists are treated as criminal acts. Terrorists are then given their civil rights, only accorded to U.S. citizens, then 'Mirandized' and given a lawyer; all which removes any opportunity to interrogate or debrief them further. Obama charged Attorney General Holder to investigate under auspices of the FBI these alleged penal code violations and bring the perpetrators to justice under our Federal Court System. Doesn't this action scream out, "OBAMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"