MiltonConservative: March 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015

TED CRUZ - MORE THAN QUALIFIED TO BE POTUS - 2016

http://www.tedcruz.org/

Pretty impressive...
• Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 - May 2008, Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in the entire country, not to mention the longest tenure in Texas history.
• Partner at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice.
• Cruz has authored 80+ SCOTUS briefs and presented 40+ oral arguments before The Court
• Cruz served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States
• Described as a ‘superb’ constitutional lawyer, the man’s considerable skills and laser-like focus were on display for all when he took oily reptile Eric Holder by the neck and made him
answer the damn question.
• In the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, Cruz assembled a coalition of 31 states in defense of the principle that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.
• Cruz presented oral argument for the amici states in the companion case to Heller before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
• In addition to his victory in Heller, Cruz has successfully defended the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools and the majority of the 2003 Texas redistricting plan. Cruz also successfully defended, in Medellin v. Texas, the State of Texas against an attempt by the International Court of Justice to re-open the criminal convictions of 51 murderers on death row throughout the United States.
• Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission
• Domestic Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.
• Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation
• Ted Cruz is currently junior US Senator from Texas. In order to win the 2012 Republican nomination for the Senate seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cruz had to defeat Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst -heavily favored/backed by the DC old-guard GOP- in the Republican primary runoff. In the event, TEA Party favorite Cruz crushed Dewhurst, 57-43%...
he then beat Democrat Paul Sadler in the general election by a similar margin, 56-41. Cruz is also endorsed by the Tea Party Movement and the Republican Liberty Caucus.
• AWARDS: “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business,” Chambers USA (2009 & 2010) “50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America,” National Law Journal (2008) “25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century,” Texas Lawyer (2010) “20 Young Hispanic Americans on the Rise,” Newsweek (1999) Traphagen Distinguished Alumnus, Harvard Law School
• On November 14, 2012, Cruz was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He is now spearheading efforts in the Senate to have root-and-branch...
Godspeed, Senator Cruz- I’m all in.

http://freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2015/03/ted-cruz-to-declare-presidential.html

Friday, March 13, 2015

Household Debt Soars in Canada, “Stability” at Risk (ZeroHedge)

Submitted by testosteronepit on 03/12/2015 20:41 -0400

Debt by Canadian households is a special phenomenon. Statistics Canada reported today that in the fourth quarter, household debt set another breath-taking record.

Earlier this month, even Equifax Canada, which is in the business of facilitating and increasing this indebtedness, had warned about it. The total indebtedness of Canadian households, according to its own measure, had jumped 7.7% from prior year, which had already been at record levels. The biggest culprits were installment and auto loans. Households are powering consumer spending, and thus the overall economy, with ever larger amounts of ultimately unsustainable debt.

A “a cautionary tale,” the report called it.

The rapid decline in oil prices caught many by surprise. And, that’s the point – consumers and business owners need to be more vigilant. When economic change happens, it can happen very quickly and can challenge previously observed stability of key economic and credit indicators.

In other words, as the price of oil collapsed, as housing stumbled, and as layoffs began – the “economic change” that “can happen very quickly” – the “stability” of different aspects of the economy, including household debt, is suddenly at risk. It’s a warning that consumers might buckle under that mountain of debt.

Now Statistics Canada weighed in. In Q4, household borrowing, on a seasonally adjusted basis, jumped by C$22.6 billion from the third quarter. Credit cards and auto loans accounted “for the majority of the overall increase.” Total household debt (consumer credit, mortgage, and non-mortgage loans) rose 1.1% from the prior quarter to C$1.825 trillion, with consumer credit hitting $519 billion and mortgage debt C$1.184 trillion.

And how did that impact households?

For the third consecutive quarter, disposable income increased at a slower rate than household credit market debt. As a result, leverage, as measured by household credit market debt to disposable income, reached a new high of 163.3% in the fourth quarter. In other words, households held roughly $1.63 of credit market debt for every dollar of disposable income in the fourth quarter.

For the moment, there is still one saving grace to this rising mountain of debt: interest rates have been coming down for years. So the debt service ratio, which measures household interest expense as a proportion of disable income, has been declining as a function of interest rates, though it inched up in Q4 to 6.8%

The chart shows how the ratio of debt to disposable income (red line, left scale) has been rising with a few exceptions, while the debt service ratio (blue line, right scale) has followed interest rates up and down:

The ratio of debt to disposable income picked up speed from 2001 on. It blew through the financial crisis even as US households were whittling down their debt by deleveraging and defaulting. Canadian households didn’t even stop to breathe. They kept spending and piled on debt at an astounding rate. Their incomes rose also, but not nearly enough. It wasn’t until 2011 that the red-hot growth rate started to lose some of its fire, bumping into all sorts of resistance from reality.

With interest rates getting pushed lower year after year, interest expense as a percent of disposable income – the debt to service ratio – has been declining. For the moment, these low interest rates keep the whole thing glued together.

And if interest rates ever rise even by a smidgen? The blue line would do what it started doing in 2006. It would roar higher. With consumer indebtedness at these levels, even a small increase in interest rates will make a big difference in the interest expense consumers would have to fork over.

The Bank of Canada – kicked into panic mode by the collapse of oil prices, the faltering housing market, vulnerable banks, and other nagging issues, including the indebtedness of the consumer, which it pointed out as a risk factor last year – suddenly cut its benchmark interest rate in January. In the past, it communicated such moves in advance. In January, it was a surprise move that shocked the markets.

Today, Rhys Mendes, Deputy Chief of the Bank of Canada’s Economic Analysis Department, told the House of Commons finance committee that the central bank would “not necessarily” be pressured into following the Fed’s rate increases this year. “The bank targets inflation in Canada, and decisions regarding monetary policy in Canada would be based on the outlook for inflation,” he said, presenting the central-bank smokescreen for keeping rates at near zero for other reasons.

The Bank of Canada will have trouble ever raising rates, regardless of the distortion and mayhem near-zero rates are causing. Households can no longer afford higher rates. They have too much debt and not enough income. Higher interest payments would eat into spending on other things. Higher mortgage rates would crash the still magnificent home prices. Consumers would buckle under their burden and default. Not to speak of the already struggling oil companies. And then there are the banks that have lent with utter abandon to all of them.

Years of low interest rates encouraged this dreadful level of leverage. Now it’s an albatross around the neck of the Bank of Canada, and for decades to come. And for the economy, it’s a high-risk burden that could quickly, as Equifax suggested, blow up.

Gravity is already very inconveniently inserting itself into Canada’s incredible housing boom. Read… Housing Construction Skids in Canada, but Crashes in the Oil Patch

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Black Mob Violence Spreads as the President Preaches Victimization in Selma

March 11, 2015

By Colin Flaherty

The President celebrated black victimization at his recent speech in Selma, but around the rest of the country, black people were making the successful transition from victim to predator.

Within a few days of the President’s Selma speech, black mob violence and black on white crime proceeded apace, much of it on video. None of it acknowledged as racial violence in local media.

Here is a smattering from around the country:

At Chuck E. Cheese outside of Cleveland, a large group of black people attending a birthday party said they were unhappy that one of the machines was not working. So they attacked the staff, sending five to the hospital with “serious” injuries, including a teenager girl who was knocked unconscious.

Much the way Congressman John Lewis reminded us on Sunday at Selma that he too was knocked unconscious.

This is just the latest is a series of recent episodes of black mob violence in Chuck E. Cheese stores around the country, including Long Island, Florida, South Carolina, St. Louis, Dearborn, California, Memphis, Commack, Beaumont, Colorado Springs and other places.

From Cleveland, let’s head to Albany, New York, where local journalistic luminary Casey Sieler simultaneously insists black mob violence and the Knockout Game 1) do not exist; 2) exist for very good reasons, like slavery.

While he tries to figure out how he can explain the existence of that which does not exist, the videos from Albany tell a story of regular and large-scale black mob violence. The latest came the night before the President’s Selma speech.

The rap group Migos was at the Armory in Albany and six people were stabbed, at least one person was robbed, and from the stage the members of Migos moderated — and encouraged — the large fight taking place in front of them.

“They are giving them hell now,” said a member of the group, gleefully, while chairs and knives and fists flew. On video.

City officials have tried to stop the Armory from having live entertainment because of the predictable violence, but they have not been successful.

In Queens two nights before the President’s speech, three black people were slashed with broken bottles at a Chedda Da Connect hip-hop concert. The Daily News reports more people were injured in the fighting and stabbing but they refused medical attention.

In Philadelphia, two days after two black people were arrested for the murder of a police officer, and one day before the President’s speech, a large group of black people were fighting, shooting guns and creating mayhem outside of a nightclub. Three people were injured, with one shot. Police fired on a car after they say it was trying to run them over.

In Kalamazoo two nights before the President’s speech, one man was shot after a large group of black people were creating violence, but he refused to cooperate with the police.

In San Bernardino, California, four nights before the President’s speech, a large fight involving two black motorcycle clubs left three people dead and four wounded. The fight later continued at the local hospital.

Large-scale black mob violence is also a regular feature of life in Rochester, New York. From the Lilac Festival to the Liberty Pole, Frederick Douglass High School to movie theaters, residents are resigned to the racial chaos.

The latest episode came during a basketball game the night before the President’s speech. Police had to use pepper spray to break up a large disturbance inside the Blue Cross Arena. The fighting and mayhem continued outside at the newly constructed Transit Center, also the scene of regular black mob violence, often on video.

In Houston, the night before the President’s speech, a championship woman’s basketball game was cancelled midway through the contest after a large episode of black mob violence — involving black players and cheerleaders from Southern and Texas Southern Universities.

A few days before that, a similar case of black mob violence broke out at a game between two black colleges, Tuskegee and Albany State. But this mayhem was limited to the cheerleaders of the black colleges. Cheerleaders and dancers from both schools were banned from the rest of the tournament.

In Fort Lauderdale, two days before the President’s speech, a black student punched a white teacher in the face.

According to WSVN, “[t]he punch stemmed from when the 62-year-old science teacher told a 12-year-old student that he was not allowed to bring a basketball into her lab. ‘I took the ball from him. I thought it was all solved, I said, “Now come in and sit down and let's get started,"' Stadnik said. ‘I was five feet away from him and “pow," came right up and coldcocked me in the face, and I said, “You just punched me in the eye. You just hit me."'"

Three days before the President’s speech, four black people were charged in the murder and home invasion of 94-year old Eva Carmichael. Police say there may be more people arrested.

In Senatobia, Mississippi, the night before the President’s speech, police responding to “an explosive situation” involving a “wall-to-wall” group of black people in a restaurant were accused of being too rough with the people who did not obey their orders to leave.

Black reporter Les Smith said he was not surprised by the mayhem that ensued in Senatobi, saying it was “bound to be volatile,” because of dozens of “teens” were “looking to extend the fun into late night.”

Even so, two mothers said their sons were treated with excessive force when they were arrested that night and other nights all because, said a friend, “for no reason.”

In Akron the night before the President’s speech, more than 100 black people were creating violence and disorder and challenged police when they were asked to leave a roller skating rink. And oh yeah, this has been happening there for a long time:

“Police say the rink has been the focus of the department’s Neighborhood Response Team because of a series of incidents involving teens fighting, blocking traffic, trespassing, menacing and stealing during the past two to three months,” said the Beacon Journal.

On a Greyhound bus bound for Columbus, Ohio three days before the President’s speech, a black woman attacked a state trooper, pushing her down the steps and off the bus. She then straddled and and punched her in the face. Other passengers came to the aid of the female trooper. All on video.

In Fort Collins, Colorado, the night before the President’s speech, police were attacked by a crowd of black people after shutting down a bar for having three times too many people in it. As black mob violence erupted in the parking lot, several men turned their attention to the cops.

According to the NBC affiliate in Fort Collins: “One man, Dominique Artrail Debow, moved toward the deputy and told people to fight the police. Another man, Jaishann Martis Dean, took a fighting stance against another officer, saying they could not arrest Debow. Dean was told to stop and did not, so a taser was deployed.”

The evening of the President’s speech, several black people were arrested for kidnapping and home invasion robbery in Dayton. One of the suspects was in the 17th day of his probation following his conviction for armed robbery. ““There was so much blood at that point I didn’t know what was happening,” one of the victims told the WHIO news. “I was trying to just give them what they wanted.”

In a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. the night before the President’s speech: “Two teenagers were injured and two vehicles damaged when a large fight broke out at Potomac Mills Mall,” said the Sun Gazette newspaper. None of the victims or suspects cooperated with police.

At the paper’s Facebook page, several white people objected to others who noted that all the people involved in that violence and similar episodes at that mall and other area malls were black. They said white kids do it too. None, however, supplied any links or specifics.

Many of the examples of black mob violence in suburban D.C. malls are documented in that scintillating best seller, Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry: The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.

The day of the President’s speech in Panama, Florida, a group of black people attacked Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott — a Heisman candidate — and two of his teammates. Bloody pictures and a video soon filled the internet, including one picture of a group of self-proclaimed thugs using Twitter to brag about the assault.

Prescott and his crew were in Panama for Spring break, attending a hip-hop concert by Waka Flocka, which cancelled its upcoming concert at the University of Oklahoma because it did not approve of racism at a fraternity.

And the day before the President’s speech, a Chicago school principal was still trying to explain to local and national media why white and Asian students were removed from a school assembly about “Black Lives Matter.” The remaining black students learned they are victims of white racism and violence, all the time, everywhere, and that explains everything.

Much like the President’s remarks when he was a law student at Harvard and his speech at Selma.

Colin Flaherty is an award winning reporter, best selling writer and the author of Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry: The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.