Barack Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama ‘to keep China happy’

Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of "appeasement" toward China as its economic weight grows.

"Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests," he said.

Mr Obama’s decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a "splittist", despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee.

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: "Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing.

"This idea that if you are nice to the Chinese Communist Party up front you can cash in later is just wrong. If you lower the bar on human rights they will just move it lower and lower."

More evidence that China owns us. Yawn.

These are all Drudge headlines.

Arabs, China, Russia and France plan to dump dollar for oil trading

Obama renews health-care push

Obama’s pissed at his Afghanistan General for talking about Afghanistan

Mayor of New York declares that “We can’t just say everybody can go everyplace and do anything they want.” — without being monitored by surveillance cameras…

These ones all just made little hairs on my neck stand up. First of all, Every country that matters in the world is about to stop trading oil in US dollars. The dollar is about to tank again. Why would these countries make such a profound change? Because the US government and Federal Reserve have shaken the confidence of the ability of America to maintain its debt level without inflating the currency.

Why would they lack confidence in our ability to control spending? Well, how about spending trillions of dollars that we don’t have on universal health care? That’s link #2.

Why would they question the political leadership of the United States? How about because Barack Obama has shown that he has no international clout, and his Generals are apparently taking their concerns directly to the people instead of “advising” the president behind closed doors? Obama has an inability to make a decision on what to do in Afghanistan, and it’s costing him.

And finally, the mayor of the most important city in the world has decided that people shouldn’t just be allowed to go wherever they want and do whatever they do without being monitored by their government.

This is just TODAY. What does this stuff mean? It means freedom is being stripped from us. It means our personal property and reward for our labor is being devalued. It means that the country’s legacy of prosperity is being squandered, that our economy is being dismantled, that our influence in the world is in decline. And it’s all 100% the fault of the people who have “governed” us for the last 50 years and longer. Our economic stability has been sold to the Chinese and Japanese. Our freedom is being curtailed for our own “good.” And the top priority of the man who serves as president is to increase our indebtedness and decrease the control we have over our own lives.

Load up on guns, bitter clingers. The shit’s gonna hit the fan at some point.

What in the name of Christ is going on?

NEW YORK — New York’s iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China.

The Chinese consul, Peng Keyu, and other officials will take part in the lighting ceremony which will bathe the skyscraper in the colors of the People’s Republic until Thursday, Empire State Building representatives said in a statement.

I guess they are our masters now. Might as well kneel before them.

The US is too dependent on Japan and China buying up the country’s debt and could face severe economic problems if that stops, Tiger Management founder and chairman Julian Robertson told CNBC.

"It’s almost Armageddon if the Japanese and Chinese don’t buy our debt,” Robertson said in an interview. "I don’t know where we could get the money. I think we’ve let ourselves get in a terrible situation and I think we ought to try and get out of it."

Robertson said inflation is a big risk if foreign countries were to stop buying bonds.

“If the Chinese and Japanese stop buying our bonds, we could easily see [inflation] go to 15 to 20 percent,” he said.  “It’s not a question of the economy. It’s a question of who will lend us the money if they don’t. Imagine us getting ourselves in a situation where we’re totally dependent on those two countries. It’s crazy.”

From Mises, via Reboot The Republic:

Responsible freedom means self-reliance, self-discipline, self-denial. Only a nation which prizes these qualities is to be taken seriously as a defender of world freedom. Only a government which encourages them is fit to preside over a free nation. Nevertheless, our government has become the most formidable agency for restricting the area of our economic freedom.

Consider freedom to choose between consuming and saving. Since the family is our most cherished social institution, it seems reasonable that we should not be hampered in saving for our children and our own old age.

Yet for all practical purposes our government treats saving as an offense punishable by heavy fine. First it increases the difficulty of saving by burdening us with more and more onerous taxes to support its grandiose spending. Next, it decreases the money income from our savings by arbitrarily holding down the interest rate, that is, by official falsehood about the value of savings to producers. Then it employs inflation to reduce the buying power of whatever dollars we succeed in saving.

Yesterday, Obama challenged Wall Street by declaring that they will not be supported if their shit collapses again in the future:

“Hear my words: We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”

First off, I love that “hear my words” part. It’s very Moses, nay, Jesus. He could have sealed the whole thing with a well-placed, “Verily, I say unto thee…”

Anyway, his words, as usual, are completely empty. The entire financial system is built around taxpayer bailouts of banks that are too big to fail. He can say anything he wants, and usually does, but the fact is that Congress and the President will never let these guys fail.

Lehman Brothers was the exception that proves the rule. They let Lehman collapse, but the result of that was that JP Morgan just bought up all their assets for pennies on the dollar. Morgan got bigger, and thus, is less likely to be allowed to fail in the future.