(Via BizPac) A retired veteran, already up in arms over a budget deal cutting veterans’ retirement benefits, couldn’t believe what he got in his email inbox — a fundraising appeal from one of the deal’s architects.
Chuck Wooten, a retired chief master sergeant of the U.S. Air Force, exploded on U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.,in a scathing letter posted on his Facebook page. […]

Congressman Ryan,

Please note that this request by you for a cash donation from me is extremely unfortunate and very ill-timed. You see sir, I am one of the military retirees your “bipartisan” budget just impacted. You and every Republican (both in the House and Senate that voted to pass this travesty betrayed and broke trust with me and everyone like me. You may not know us by name, but we’re the people, Congressman, who answered our Nation’s call, some of us at a very early age to willingly serve YOU and others LIKE YOU so you could safely attend college and pursue your personal ambitions without fear of harm. (more…)

Because the economics behind this holiday season reflect the reality of fundamental change you probably will not see them discussed too much within the mainstream news; it just doesn’t fit the recovery narrative.
However, you don’t have to be an economist to understand Christmas expenditures.  It’s generally accurate that if your family spent less, the entire nation probably spent less for the exact same reason.
The worse news yet to reflect in the macro roll-up centers around Gift Card use.   Gift cards are not accounted for as economic sales on the shopping ledger until they are redeemed.  That statistic is yet to be determined.
(Via CBS)  […]  Deep discounts and extended hours could not get Americans to spend as much as stores expected this holiday season, so now retailers are cutting prices even more.
“Retailers overshot the mark, in terms of apparel supply,” said retail analyst Craig Johnson. “So there’s an imbalance of supply and demand in apparel, leading to all the dramatic promotions you’re seeing today.” (more…)

NEW YORK –  Hundreds of teenagers stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall in a wild flash mob that forced the shopping center to close its doors during day-after Christmas sales, sources said on Friday.

More than 400 crazed teens grabbed and smashed jars of candy, stole cheap items such as baby balloons and beat up security guards at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., merchants said.
A violent game of “Knockout” also broke out on the upper level of the mall — and one teen may have been carrying a gun, sources said.
The teens used social media to plan the mass looting, vowing to put the mall “on tilt” – or to raid it, according to posts on Facebook and Twitter.
Clerks, who scrambled to close up their shops, said they were terrified. (more…)

The progressive mantra of modern liberalism is flailing miserably everywhere you look and the media protestations of a “Do Nothing Congress” are flares shooting up from their encampments identifying exactly where they reside.

All around us are signs the various liberalist causes are visibly in the minority.   The odd thing is how willing the progressives are to out their failing positions.    Against the liberal yard-stick of emotional legislative advancement, which is diametrically antithetical to freedom, the media are proclaiming congress as failed.
However, when you consider that stopping intrusion by government into your life is a central tenant of freedom this congress is the most successful in a decade.
Coast to coast people are showing their pushback against the nanny state.    People are rising up, or using their TV remotes, or tuning their car radios, or expressing their voice, to reflect an ideology of freedom in opposition to the current federal administration and the beliefs they visibly represent. (more…)

Venezuela, in a squeeze for hard currency, devalued its currency for foreigners another 44%, following an initial devaluation of 32% by Chavez in February.  The move is seen as a necessity to keep Venezuela from defaulting on sovereign debt when reliance on excessively high levels of public spending has been the tool of Chavez and his successor, Maduro, to maintain their grip on power.  It is the 6th such major devaluation in a decade.
The move is essentially a bookkeeping sleight-of-hand – it allows the Venezuelan central bank to balance its books by “earning” more Bolivars for its oil export sales, at a time when overall sales volume has decreased dramatically.

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The New York Times reports that middle class Obama voters are less than happy with finding out that their private plans are being cancelled, and that the Obamacare plans are much more expensive than their private coverage.
The Times describes them as “frustrated”. (!)
…. “We are just right over that line,” said Ms. Chapman, who is 54 and does administrative work for a small wealth management firm. Because their plan is being canceled, she is looking for new coverage for her family, which includes Mr. Chapman, 55, a retired fireman who works on a friend’s farm, and her two sons. “That’s an insane amount of money,” she said of their new premium. “How are you supposed to pay that?”
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Kitty Werthman is a 85 year old survivor of the Anschluss and after WWII suffered for 3 years under Soviet Occupation.

She has been speaking out about Liberalism, Socialism and its incremental advancement for over a decade.  She is the President of the South Dakota Eagle Forum and has been an advocate for liberty and family issues for many years.

In 2003, she wrote an essay warning about National Identity cards (the REAL ID that the government has been trying to enforce), loss of free speech that was deemed politically outlawed and gun registration, among other topics.
More recently, she gave a speech in New Jersey to a Tea Party which a You Tube subscriber interspersed with quotes from Obama about socialism, universal healthcare, gun registration and gun control.
“How could a Christian nation, almost 100%, elect a monster like Hitler?  The truth is, at the beginning, Hitler did not look like or talk like a monster at all.  He talked like an American politician ….”
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This past Thursday, a town hall meeting hosted by Al Sharpton and the National Action Network in Chicago to address gun violence exploded into a revolt against: “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and black alderman in City Hall, with panel and audience members calling to vote out their elected officials.
One 82-year-old preacher even called for “Tea Party” style meetings in some of Chicago’s south side communities such as Altgen Gardens and Trumbull Park.  (via Breitbart)
[The last statement in the video is, well, um… just watch it]

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