Lies And Distortions (again)

It's one of the hallmarks of life in this era - the constant, unending lies and distortions which come from various governments and of course, the MSM. The economy is a prime example. Just keep repeating "everything is great, everything is great" and it will come true. Nothing to worry about.

Hallelujah! - Unemployment Plunges Due To 354, 00 Americans Leaving The Workforce

The Bureau of Lies & Scams (BLS) just issued their seasonally adjusted, excel spreadsheet enhanced, monthly propaganda data for February. They have the balls to report that an economy that is hemorrhaging energy jobs, seeing retailers close stores by the hundreds, has seen manufacturing new orders decline for six straight months, has corporate profits falling, has real median household income sitting at 1989 levels and has seen 80% of all economic reports miss to the downside is creating 295,000 new jobs in the middle of the coldest, snowiest February in years. The BLS uses classic government logic. When in doubt, lie.

Of course, the BLS is still using their excel spreadsheet Birth Death model to add 132,000 phantom jobs into the calculation for all the small business hiring going on out there. It has already been documented that there are more businesses closing than opening in the US. This adjustment is a farce. It is untrue. It is more likely to be negative 132,000, which would eliminate virtually all the new jobs just reported. As usual the household survey reports an entirely different result than the blaring positive headlines in the corporate mainstream media.

A critical thinking person might wonder how the labor participation rate could go even lower (37 year lows) if the unemployment rate just reached a seven year low of 5.5%. The BLS counts on the faux journalists at CNBC and Marketwatch to not think critically. So you need to go elsewhere for some truth. Here it is:

• Here is the blunt truth. Last month there were 148.2 million working age Americans working and 101.5 million working age Americans not working. This month there are 148.3 million working age Americans working and 101.6 million working age Americans not working. Does that sound like progress or stagnation?
• The BLS expects you to believe that in the midst of a supposed economic recovery, 354,000 working age Americans decided to leave the workforce in one month because their financial situation is so sound. How stupid do they think we are, or are they so incompetent with their models and measurements that they just make this shit up?
• We should be so proud. The 92.9 million Americans not in the labor force is an all-time record. Who needs a job when you can “earn” a $50,000 per year life on welfare or SSDI. 

• What are the 1.5 million working age Americans who left the workforce in the last 12 months doing? What are the 13 million working age Americans who have left the workforce since 2008 doing?
• Since 2008 we’ve added 3 million jobs, while 13 million people have supposedly left the workforce, and the unemployment rate is supposedly lower today than it was in 2008. So the working age population is up by 16 million, we only have 3 million more jobs, but the unemployment rate has fallen from 5.8% to 5.5%. This is simply hysterical. The blatant lies, manipulation and utter bull**** is mind boggling in its outright dishonesty.
• How come the household survey says there are only 96,000 more people employed than in January, but the blaring headline only proclaims the 295,000 from the other survey? Propaganda at its finest.

Government reports are like the American Dream. You have to be asleep to believe them.

Another Dubious Jobs Report Paul Craig Roberts

According to the payroll jobs report today (March 6) the economy created 295,000 new jobs in February, dropping the rate of unemployment to 5.5%. However, the BLS also reported that the labor force participation rate fell and the number of people not in the labor force rose by 354,000.

In other words, the unemployment rate dropped because the labor force shrunk.

If the economy was in recovery, the labor force would be growing and the labor force participation rate would be rising.

The 295,000 claimed new jobs are highly suspect. For example, the report claims 32,000 new retail jobs, but the Census Bureau reports that retail sales declined in December and January. Why would retailers experiencing declining sales hire more employees?

Construction spending declined 1.1% in January, but the payroll jobs report says 29,000 construction jobs were added in February.

Zero Hedge reports that the decline in the oil price has resulted in almost 40,000 laid off workers during January and February, but the payroll jobs report only finds 2,900 lost jobs in oil for the two months.http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-06/did-bls-once-again-forget-count-tens-thousands-energy-job-losses

There is no sign in the payroll jobs report of the large lay-offs by IBM and Hewlett Packard.

These and other inconsistencies do not inspire confidence.

By ignoring the inconsistencies the financial press does not inspire confidence.

Let’s now look at where the BLS says the payroll jobs are.

All of the goods producing jobs are accounted for by the 29,000 claimed construction jobs. The remaining 259,000 new jobs–90%–of the total–are service sector jobs. Three categories account for 70% of these jobs. Wholesale and retail trade, transportation and utilities account. for 62,000 of the jobs. Education and health services account for 54,000 of which ambulatory health care services accounts for 19,900. Leisure and hospitality account for 66,000 jobs of which waitresses and bartenders account for 58,700 jobs.

These are the domestic service jobs of a third world country.

John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports: “As of February, the level of full-time employment still was 1.0 million shy of its pre-recession peak.”

Pessimism Ahead Of Key Eurozone Meeting On Greece

Greece has outlined reforms and suggested another aid plan ahead of a meeting of eurozone ministers on Monday (6 March) but negotiations are set to be difficult.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras set the tone on Friday in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel

"The thriller we saw before 20 February will return", warned the Greek leader, referring to last month's frantic attempts to get Athens and its creditors to reach preliminary agreement.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varofakis sent a letter, seen by the Financial Times, to the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, outlining seven reform proposals ahead of Monday's meeting.

The letter details measures to improve Greece’s budget management, tax collecting and public administration, fight tax evasion, raise state revenues and address the country’s humanitarian crisis.

It also suggests that both sides need to start looking at a new 'arrangement', to come after the end of the four-month prolongation of the current bailout.

"The Greek government believes that, very soon, the two sides ought to begin higher-level discussions regarding a ‘possible follow-up arrangement’," says the letter.

This should take the form of a "contract for the recovery and growth of the Greek economy", it continues.

The Greek government said "the (Eurogroup) meeting will discuss how Greece will use European funds to address the humanitarian crisis and unemployment."

Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras warned that success at Monday's meeting was "crucial" for Greece.

The 'Cataclysmic Conflict' Yet To Come

[This is a long article, but well worth reading in full. Below are just a few sample paragraphs]

Corporate-financier interests driving US foreign policy have long ago conspired to use Al Qaeda and other sectarian extremist forces to create a Pan-Arabian mercenary force with which to fight their enemies. Warned about in 2007 in a prophetic 9-page report by veteran journalist, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh, then exposed through documented evidence over the course of the past four years, and now incontrovertibly unfolding before the world's eyes, this criminal conspiracy against world peace and all of humanity can be seen in its full, horrific form. 

The war special interests in the United States along with its co-conspirators plan to wage across the planet encompasses not only the Middle East and North Africa, but also Russia, China, and beyond. It threatens the lives, peace, and prosperity of all on Earth. If it is not exposed, and the special interests driving it not undermined, uprooted, and purged from humanity, none will escape the dark days that inevitably lie ahead.

It was in 2007, in the New Yorker, that veteran journalist Seymour Hersh published his lengthy, prophetic report, "The Redirection Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" Within it, Washington, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv were exposed amidst a criminal conspiracy to use sectarian extremists in a proxy war against Iran and its allies in Syria and Lebanon. The impending conflict was described as "cataclysmic." 

The report stated explicitly that (emphasis added): 

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. 

And while the political "right" in the United States in particular feigns outrage and suspicion over the Obama administration's ties and support for sectarian extremist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood and factions with direct ties to Al Qaeda, it was exposed in Hersh's 2007 article that the Bush administration had in fact initiated this support.  Obama keeping the Oval Office's chair warm while this policy continues.

This support would manifest itself both in Egypt and Syria, where the Muslim Brotherhood, its political networks, and armed groups built within them, served as the foundation of unrest and violence that took place under the cover of regional US-engineered political subversion often referred to as the "Arab Spring." In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would succeed temporarily in seizing power. In Syria, the Brotherhood would trigger violence and eventually devastating, protracted war.

Perhaps throughout Hersh's 9-page report, the most sobering warning came from a former CIA agent in Lebanon. Hersh's report would state:

Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites.

And this is precisely what is now unfolding all across the Middle East and North Africa. A cataclysmic conflict driven by sectarian extremists waging war on minority groups across the region, with only Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah left to defend them - and with the United States and its allies doing everything imaginable to stop them from doing so.

Clearly the "French and the United States," cannot reprise their role as protectors of the region's minorities, since they have openly thrown in their lot - as predicted by Hersh in 2007 and as is evident today - with Al Qaeda and ISIS.

In essence then, the United States and its NATO partners knowingly and willfully handed the nation of Libya and its people over to Al Qaeda. Despite Belhaj's documented terrorist past and present, US politicians would meet with him, showering upon him accolades, praise, and continued political and military support. Among these politicians were US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham who met and literally shook Belhaj's hand while standing upon the ruins of Libya.

That McCain and Graham are both Republicans supporting terrorism, alongside a Democrat US President also allegedly supporting terrorism, illustrates perfectly that special interests own and control both sides of the political aisle, using opposing rhetoric to appeal members on either side, while both sides carry forward the exact same agenda. 

More recently, US news sources claimed Belhaj was now leading Libya's branch of ISIS. The Washington Times would report in an article titled, "U.S. backed rebel reportedly leads Islamic State in Libya," that:

Major news out of Libya as Abdelhakim Belhadj, the former head of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and a major player in the U.S.-backed overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, has reportedly joined the Islamic State and is leading its forces there. This according to The Blaze National Security journalist Sara Carter on Twitter, and Fox News’ Catherine Herridge in a Fox News report.

Western news sources had reported as early as November of last year that many of the so-called "rebels" in Libya had begun forming under the banner of ISIS. CNN in an article titled, "ISIS comes to Libya," claimed:

The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars carry the group's insignia. The local football stadium is used for public executions. A town in Syria or Iraq? No. A city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Libya. 

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union. 

The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their presence westwards along the coast, Libyan sources tell CNN.

This means that US politicians served a direct role in propping up ISIS in Libya, whether they claim it was incidental rather than intentional - a cautionary tale to be told as these very same politicians attempt a repeat performance in Syria and beyond.

The rebranding of NATO's terrorist proxies in Libya and attempts to literally back and arm Al Qaeda's Nusra front in Syria portend an impending conflict of a scale yet to be seen - one involving Libya's neighbor Egypt, and Syria's neighbor, Iran.

Egypt narrowly escaped subjugation by the West through the very same Muslim Brotherhood networks used to destabilize and destroy Syria. After initially bending to the sociopolitical currents unleashed by the 2011 "Arab Spring," the Egyptian military sprung back, ejecting the Muslim Brotherhood from power amid a military coup.

Egypt's new military-led government moved with merciless lighting speed in suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood domestically. Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members, including leaders have been rounded up, tried, and sentenced to death. The military-led government has exhibited zero tolerance both for militant groups within their borders, and street demonstrations agitated by US NGOs and used for cover behind which militants operate. 

The failure of the West's "Arab Spring" putsch with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its subsequent inability to stoke sufficient unrest from within Egypt's borders has led to the sudden and convenient conjuring of ISIS in neighboring Libya. Already, heinous acts of barbarity have been carried out against Egyptian citizens residing in Libya for the sole purpose of stoking sectarian flames within Egypt's borders. 

What is to come, and the purpose of unveiling ISIS in Libya, is a torrent of terrorism and militancy, backed by NATO, aimed directly at the Egyptian military and - if possible - into the heart of Egypt itself.

The ongoing violence in Libya and Syria is only the beginning. Should Egypt and Iran be mired in the same widespread violence, fueled by billions upon billions in cash, equipment, and weapons flowing from all corners of the Earth into the region, the "cataclysmic conflict" warned about in 2007 will finally come to pass.

Image: While NATO is clearly threatening Russia's borders in Ukraine, it is also creating a united front of sectarian extremists that will push through Russia's southern region. This is essentially Adolf Hitler's invasion of Russia, in slow motion, using the methods of 4th generation warfare - Operation Barbarossa and the Afrika Korps accounted for.  

It will not end in the Middle East. If successful in establishing hegemony there, the chaos will spread to all corners of the globe. First to southern Russia and western China, then beyond. The question of whether or not one will eventually be affected by this conflict is not a matter of if, but a matter of when.