USA Has Told Assad He Needs To Commence Handover Of Power In Syria by August Or Face Consequences

Bashar al Assad and John Kerry: which one looks more like a Scooby Doo villain worried?

The True State Of The US Economy: Retail Companies Reporting Sales Targets Missed

In the free world economies are only as financially healthy as the consumers that feed them.

And when one looks at the latest sales figures reported by six major American retailers today, they suggest the US economy (and therefore the economies of Europe, Japan and Australia - and China, India, Indonesia and others that rely on western consumers) have big problems that governments would rather we did not know about. You see all those major retailers missed their targets, not by a whisker or a cicarette paper or any other measure of a fine margin, but by significant amounts.

As Bloomberg observes, each of six companies, among which L Brands, Zumiez, The Buckle, Costco, The Cato Corporation and Fred's - that reported April comparable sales missed estimates compiled by Retail Metrics.

Among the reasons given by retailers for the weakness were the shift of Easter to mid-March this year from early April last year, and the old standby, rainy weather.

The worst miss was at Buckle, which fell short of estimates by a whopping 660bps*, followed by Cato’s miss of 500bps; L Brands’ Victoria’s Secret also missed by 500bps; on the other end, Zumiez’s April comp. sales missed estimate by just 60bps, the narrowest miss of group.

Investors promptly dumped the companies stock, sending the shares in L Brands Inc., owner of the Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works chains, plunging the most in six years to the lowest level since November 2014. Others did not do better: ZUMZ -8%, BKE -6%, COST -2.1%, CATO -1%, FRED -6%.

Which should not come as a surprise: considering in the past several months we have seen bankruptcies by famous retailers such as American Apparel, Caché, Wet Seal, Quiksilver, and Pacific Sun, Eastern Mountain Sports, Sports Authority, and just yesterday, Aeropostale, perhaps it is becoming clear why the state of both the American consumer, and the American economy, is as poor as it appears to everyone, if not those happy few who see nothing but green shoots and "fiction peddlers." Clearly 'the recovery' that did not happen is going to be another historic failure for Obama's failed Presidency


*bps - basispoints, i.e. one hundredth of one per cent, thus 100bps=1%


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Germany: Merkel's Christian Democrats Haemorrhage Support To Anti Immpigration Party AfD

Germany's Hausfrau - VolksfuhrerChancellor Angela Merkel's popularity is falling fast as the disaster of her 'open doors' immigration policy continues to divide German society and erode the popularity of the ruling coalition led by Merkel's Christian Democrat Union party, as frustrated German voters, wondering when their interests and concerns will once again be put ahead of sucking up to immigrants and appeasing minorities, switch their support to the anti - EU, anti - immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Recent polls for the ARD news  network put Merkel's Party and their Bravarian regional sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) at just 33 percent overall support, the lowest rating since October 2011 in trends regularly measured by pollsters

The other partner in the coalition government, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) which ruled Germany virtually unchallenged for several decades after World War Two, slumped to just 20 percent, a long way short of the 33 percent it enjoyed in 2005, according to the 'DeutschlandTrend' surveys, conducted for ARD.

Merkel's reputation as the most competent leader in the EU and de facto  political leader of the European Union has been savaged in Germany and abroad over her open doors policy for 'refugees' which because it does not distinguish between genuine refugees and economic migrants has seen the nation flooded with unskilled and illiterate peasants, criminals and jihadists.The numbers of migrants arriving in German has caused major strains in many German states, with new arrivals creating a burden on local authorities. More than 1.1 million entered Germany in 2015 alone.

Merkel's falling popularity has been accelerated by her isolating Germany within Europe and angering other her national leaders by negotiating unilaterally a deal with the gangster president of the terrorist state Turkey. Even though it is known Turkey has supplied arms to terrorist group ISIS, traded ISIS oil in international markets and has killed many thousands of Syrian and Iraqi Kurds in pursuite of President Erdogan's territorial ambitions, Merkel has promised to fast track Turkey's access to full membership of the EU and granted, on behalf of all 28 momber stes, though she was never elected thrir spokesperson, the right of visa free travel in the EU's schengen zone to 77 million Turkish citizens. Her plans to relocate refugees across all 28 member states according to a mandatory quota system (set by Germany and the EU bureaurats) have met huge opposition, particularly from Central European states.

The deal she brokered with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to return "irregular" migrants from Greece to Turkey in return for one Syrian being relocated from Turkey to an EU member state has drawn sever criticism at home. The deal is conditional on accelerating Turkey's accession to the EU and visa-free access for its citizens to the EU from June 2016 (Erdogan has already blackmailed the European Commission, the administration arm of the EU to the tune of €billions for help in controlling immigration into Europe, help which has not been forthcoming.

Only 33 percent of those surveyed in Germany said they favored visa-free entry to Europe for Turkish citizens. Only 38 percent endorsed the deal, designed to redistribute asylum-seekers stuck in Greece across the European Union. Poll: Over 60% of Germans Oppose Visa-Free Regime Between EU, Turkey

Merkel's calls for a pan-European response to the crisis — keeping open the border inside the Schengen zone — have been ignored as country after country closed their borders. Merkel has refused to compromise or consider capping immigrant numbers. This has caused anger in the CSU Party where leader  Horst Seehofer has had to deal with the flood of migrants coming over the border from Austria. Following the CDU/CSU Union's poor performance in recent regional elections, Seehofer said: "We should tell people that we get it and that we will draw the consequences from this election result."

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How Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter Use Censorship to Kill Free Speech

This blog has been a regular critic of the authoritarian attitudes of internet technology companies, particularly social media networks and certain Search Engine Operators. We have of course previously noted how certain organisations practice censorship and are more than willing to collaborate with government in advancing the politically correct, globalist agenda. While the companies involved, and governments deny this, and fans of big government and global tyranny among the user base screech 'conspiracy theory', anyone with a mind of their own can see what is increasingly happening with web content.

A new study by Onlinecensorship.org — a collaborative effort between the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Visualizing Impact reveals that social media sites and search engine operators have been collaborating closely with government agencies to control the type of content we may see online.
Most readers will know of people who have been kicked off the social networking site for designated periods of time for ‘violating community standards.’ Some may even have had their Facebook accounts closed permanently due to the site’s  ‘real names’ policy (while I have an account that is obviously a joke name  - and no, I'm not telling you what it is - that has never been questioned.).

“UNFRIENDING CENSORSHIP: Insights from four months of crowdsourced data on social media censorship” is the title of the report which is based on on data provided by users of major social networking sites between in 2015 and 2016. The study  asked users to submit reports when their content was reported or their accounts were removed from Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube.

“Account suspensions, the most stringent form of moderation, were the most frequent type of content takedown in our dataset,” the report notes.

After analysing the collected data across geography, platform, content type and issue areas, the analysis revealed a number of trends in social media censorship. Here are some highlights of the information gathered from 161 submissions across 26 countries, with content in 11 languages:

– Facebook was the most frequently reported platform, with account suspensions the most reported content type.

– Nudity and false identity were the most frequent reasons given for the removal of  content on Facebook.

– Of 119 reports received from Facebook users, 13% had been asked to prove their identity to Facebook under its name policy.

– Instagram users tended to report “inappropriate content” as the reason their content was taken down.

– Twitter takedowns tended to be linked to targeted abuse, harassment, or fraud/spam.

– Nearly half of copyright-related takedown submissions came from YouTube.

– 53% of users did not appeal the takedown of their content, 50% said they didn’t know how, and 41.9% said they didn’t expect a response. In four cases content was restored, but in 50 cases the user didn’t receive a response.

– There were widespread reports that flagging is being used for censorship, and 61.6% of users believed that this was the cause for the removal of their content.

“The content was the Wikipedia photo of human anatomy showing a man and a woman in full frontal nudity. It is against Facebook’s guidelines about nudity,” reads one case study.

Although measures were used to help verify reports — and users were given the opportunity to send screenshots to support their claims — onlinecensorship.org did not work with the social media companies to obtain their data. Consequently, the study does not claim to be representative of all content takedowns or user experiences.

EFF explained the importance of tracking how social media companies are regulating the speech of their users:

“As self-ordained content moderators, these companies face thorny issues; deciding what constitutes hate speech, harassment, and terrorism is challenging, particularly across many different cultures, languages, and social circumstances.” adding that while the U.S.- based companies don’t believe their policies constitute censorship, the purpose of onlinecensorship.org is to challenge this assertion by examining how such policies  may have a limiting effect on freedom of speech.

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Google, Facebook, Amazon: algorithms will soon rule our lives so we'd better understand how they work

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White House Official Cozied Up to Google Before Antitrust Lawsuit Was Shelved

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German Justice Minister Runs From Stage As Angry Audience Members Yell "TRAITOR!"

As audience for Labour Day speech get angry - Germany's left wing justice minister flees to his armoured Limo, accompanied by his armed bodyguards

The peoples' pushback against European federalisation and genocide of Europe's white working class by flooding nation states with third world immigrants continues to gather pace as, with the onset of warmer weather, the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe starts to increase towards last year's levels.

The latest politician to face the anger of citizens is Heiko Maas, the German Federal Minister of Justice, who was loudly jeered and shouted down as he made a Labour Day celebration speech on the 1st of May. Eventually unable to continue as the crowd vented their frustration at the social disorder that had arisen from uncontrolled mass immigration, Maas fled the stage. The audience repeatedly chanted "Traitor", "Leftist Rat", "Get out!", "We are the People" and "Maas must go!", eventually causing him to abandon the speech and take refuge in his official car, an armoured limousine, under the protection of armed bodyguards.

Maas has been one of the main proponents of expanding censorship laws to prevent free and open discussion of issues such as immigration, EU federalisation and climate change, he has demanded the persecution by the state of dissidents, and proposed fines and jail-time for everybody posting "hate speech" or "climate change denial" on social media.

He also rejects the concept of 'the German people', backing his party, the Social Democrats, in the opinion that Europe was always made up of immigrants and Germany's only chance of redemption for the eternal guilt of World War 2 is inviting as many Muslim immigrants as possible. In my not so humble opinion, guilt addiction is the most selfish of all left wing hypocrisies. And how does importing Mulims redeem guilt for the holocaust? Muslims to a large extent share Hitler's view of Jews.

The Social Democrats took devastating losses in regional polls across the Germany, losing to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) by a landslide in the last state election of Saxony, where he was making the speech.

Maas' party recently published plans to build 350,000 entirely new homes for "newcomers" to solve the "demographic crisis". In his speech the arrogant clown said that "the people shouting 'traitor' don't even know what's happening to them". But it appears that they know very well what is being done to them by Maas and his terrorist loving, German hating socialist colleagues.

The German people are confused and angry about why they're told that they have to be frugal and avoid having children because of the immense cost to the state and the environment, while simultaneously being hit with huge tax increases to fund an invasion by illiterate, unskilled third world peasants who have a penchant for raping white women and girls.

The people in the audience hence ridiculed him for the hypocrisy of celebrating advances in workers rights and wage equality while his party supports the import of millions of unskilled workers. That is what got the hypocrite chased off the stage.

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As if the EU does not have enough problems of its own, the Bureaucrats of Brussels seem determined to take on the middle's east's perpetual violent chaos by granting Turkey the right of visa - free movement throughout the Schengen zone for its 70million citizens and tens of thousands of jihadists

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Europe immigration burden
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Leaked Papers: White House Resorts to Blackmail To Save TTIP Trade Treaty

Most of this article is lifted from Sputnik News and republished under Fair Use terms in the public interest (see end)

The Obama administration has threatened to block all European car exports to the USA if EU member nations do not accept America’s genetically-modified and hormone-enhanced produce and suurender sovereign rights of nation to US Corporate Lawyers.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that 240 pages of text from the secret transatlantic trade deal (TTIP) obtained and leaked by Greenpeace Netherlands show that the US government is blackmailing the EU to force through the trade deal, despite vigourous resistance from EU nations.

US negotiators have specifically threatened to block European car exports if the European Union refuses to lift its ban on genetically engineered fruits and vegetables from the US a move that opponents to the deal point out will compromise consumer health and negatively affect Europe’s agricultural industry.

Greenpeace announced that it would release the smuggled text of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Monday, undermining unusual efforts by the EU and US to keep the details secret.

The authenticity of the documents has been confirmed by German DPA news agency sources. The documents demonstrate that the White House sought to pressure the EU to replace its precautionary consumer safety principle with the US approach of permitting food products to be sold until risks are proven.

What are the Safety Concerns Associated With the Consumption of Genetically Modified Crops?

The impact of genetically engineered foods, often associated with US agricultural multinationals including Monsanto, remain unknown in the long term, as these products are relatively recent. Often criticized, genetically-engineered produce allows for a greater yield and reduced product spoilage, as well as pest resistance, leading to lower prices at the store and some hope of alleviating world hunger.

Nonetheless, after the release of these products the US witnessed a spike in autoimmune diseases, and complaints of wheat sensitivity, or Celiac disease. Medium-term tests show no association between consumption of genetically engineered products and these ailments, leading the concerns to be dismissed as a fad among hypochondriacs.

More concerning, however, has been the large-scale die-off of US bee colonies that serve the vital natural function for pollinating crops. It remains to be seen whether the recent die-offs are related to genetically modified crops or to the potent glyphosate-based pesticides, including Monsanto’s Round-Up, that are routinely used on these crops.

Finally, Monsanto’s patenting of genetically-modified seeds has led to their litigation and seizure of small farms for intellectual property theft when natural cross-pollination led non-genetically modified crops to bear strains that included elements of the genetically modified 'Round-Up Ready' seeds.

Earlier this year we reported EU officials were trying to push through TTIP in the face of threats by several member nations to veto it because if the threat posed to democracy, and in defiance of huge public opposition to this power grab by corporate business.

During the 2016 US presidential cycle, Republicans and Democrats have come together to decry trade deals, citing a litany of economic and environmental concerns. Likely Republican nominee Donald Trump frequently cites NAFTA and CAFTA as examples that trade deals expand the US trade imbalance and destroy the middle class. Democratic insurgent Bernie Sanders similarly critiques international trade deals but also includes concerns about worker’s wages and rights as well as environmental degradation.

The odds-on favorite to become the next US President, Hillary Clinton, has long supported global trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA, passed under her husband’s administration in the 1990s. She lobbied for the Panama trade deal as Secretary of State, and referred to the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal as the “gold standard” over 45 times. Facing swelling frustration among younger and working class voters, Secretary Clinton now vows to oppose TPP and presumably TTIP.

With corporate supported trade agreements growing in unpopularity, the Obama administration is pushing ever more aggressively to advance the TTIP and TPP trade agreements prior to his departure in January 2017. The TPP trade agreement is expected to be passed without the full and proper consent of Congress during the post-election 'lame-duck' session of Congress. Similarly, it seems the White House seeks to prepare the TTIP for an expedited backdoor passage this year.

On Friday in New York, the lead US and EU negotiators – US Trade Representative Daniel Mullaney and the European Commission’s Ignacio Garcia Bercera – said they planned to reach a deal before Obama leaves office in January apparently out of awareness that free trade arrangements have become politically toxic.

Will the political legacy of the failed president Barack Obama and his disastrously incompetent administration be that he, the self styled peacemaker, joybringer and harmoniser, only succeeded in advancing a worldwide system of corporate fascism against the will of the public in the United States and worldwide, by blackmailing allies into acquiescence? That appears to be the plan?

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US-EU Trade Talks "De Facto Dead" Says German Trade Minister

President Obama was hoping to get two trade agreements to bolster his legacy in the waning days of his administration. Earlier this week however, the German Economy Minister stated the were 'de facto dead'. The US-Asia TPP talks have been dead as a doornob for some time although Obama is playing out a charade of having Congress vote on the draft, even though it will not be ratified by any important players around the Pacific Rim.

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TTIP Is Dead: Trade Talks Between EU And U.S. Have Collapsed, Germany Says
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, the so called free trade deal between the EU and the USA, have collapsed, German’s economic minister has announced. The cause of the collapse has been cited as failure to move forward on any of the major planks of the deal, which has been dogged by controversy and widespread opposition from all sides of the political spectrum.

TTIP document leak - A preview of the corporate fascism treaty from War On Want
The Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was teetering on the brink of failure before Greenpeace Netherlands obtained a massive swathe of leaked documents that prove the treaty is, as many people feared, a corporate power grab rather than a free trade arrangement. This exposure will not stop the fascist regimes of the European Union and the United States trying to push it through against massive public opposition. The ruling elites have only contempt for democracy and the people.
BoJo Was Correct – The EU Was A Nazi Idea


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Obama's Economy Is Bad; Clinton's Would Be Worse

It is the policy of this blog to give the personal opinions and perspectives og our contributors mixed with news reports from various press agency news feeds. The extract below breaks with that policy because it is from an official of the US Republican Party. We draw attention to it because Mr. Priebus echoes the warnings our contributers have been giving about the likely economic consequences of electing Hillary Clinton, which would be the same as we correctly anticipated of Obama's Presidency eight years ago, but mulitplied by ten.

And we feel qualified to comment although we are not American, because whoever is driving the US economy affects the whole world.

from Real Clear Politics

By Reince Priebus
May 02, 2016

On Thursday we learned the American economy expanded at an anemic rate of just 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year. It was the worst showing in two years and the third straight quarterly decline in economic growth.

The millions of Americans who continue to struggle in the Obama economy have been held hostage by this persistently weak growth. In fact, not only is the so-called “recovery” the weakest since the 1930s, Obama is on pace to become the first U.S. president in history to have never presided over a full year of growth averaging at least 3 percent. Add in the fact that the middle class continues to shrink while wages continue to stagnate, and Obama will likely leave office with one of the worst economic records of any president.

Despite all of this, Hillary Clinton doesn’t think he’s been given enough credit and even gives the president an “A” for his performance. That’s troubling, but what should concern Americans even more is what she is proposing to do.

Take Clinton’s plan to raise tax, for example. According to a recent study by the Tax Foundation, it would reduce economic growth by 1 percent, eliminate the equivalent of 311,000 full-time jobs, and lead to 0.8 percent lower wages.

That means if Hillary Clinton were president today and her tax plan was on the books, Thursday’s GDP report would have shown that the economy actually contracted. Today’s stagnant wages would be even smaller and fewer Americans would be able to find full-time work. She isn’t just offering the status quo of failed liberal economics, she’s promising to put it on steroids with potentially damaging consequences.

Read full article at Real Clear Politics


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No surprise then that a whistleblower has exposed Hillary's charity, 'The Clinton Foundation as a fraud.

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US-Created System In Iraq Is Collapsing: Protesters Storm Parliament

Protestors inside Baghdad's Green Zone (Source: New Straits Times, Malaya)

Less than two years ago, the US set up a puppet government in the mid-east state of Iraq when, following US pressure, on August 14, 2014 then prime minister al-Maliki agreed to stepped down and be replaced with Haider al-Abadi. Today, the regime is in chaos and the system set up by the US is collapsing. Yesterday protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr broke through a security cordon into the Green Zone, home to government buildings and foreign embassies and outside of which the official government reportedly exercises little power. Once inside the protestors stormed the Iraqi parliament forcing MPs to flee. The government declared a state of emergency across all of Baghdad.

Video from inside the building showed crowds waving Iraqi flags and shouting slogans in support of a Shi'ite theocracy in the nation. Supporters of Sadr, whose fighters once controlled swaths of Baghdad and helped defend the capital from ISIS, have been protesting outside the Green Zone for weeks, responding to their leader's call to pressure the government to reform.

Brig. Gen. Saad Mann, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, told an NBC news team in Bagdhad: "All gates that lead to Baghdad are closed. No one is allowed to enter into Baghdad, only those who want to leave Baghdad can do so. There is no evacuation for the American staff inside the American embassy," he said.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the American Embassy in Baghdad was not being evacuated, contrary to local reports. We expect that should the pro-US government fall, this will promptly change.

Security forces responsible for guarding the entrance to the area were not able to stop the demonstrators without opening fire so they let them in, the security source told NBC News. As a result, the protest is mostly peaceful for now even thought Saturday was the first time the protesters breached the compound's walls.


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TTIP: UK Report Shows Corporations Have Sued Canadian Govt For Over $2bn, Obama Claims ‘Did Not Happen’

One of the most controversial sections Trans Atlantic Trade And Investment Pertnership (TTIP) often called Obama Trade because of the way this corporate power grab will give global businesses the rught to overturn or ignore national law, is the rights it will grant corporations to sue governments if they think laws (for example trade, consumer protection, environmental protection, employment and human rights laws) constrain their profits in any way.

TTIP is based on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under which US Corporations have reportedly sued the Canadian Government for billions of dollars because Canadian laws were not aligned with US law and it was successfull claimed (in a court in the USA) that the differences limited their earning from trade in Canada. The American government (wouldn't you know) has always denied this. You can hear a recent denial from the lips of the pathological liar Barack Hussein Obama in this video. But don't be taken in because the aforementioned Barack Hussein Obama denies he is or hhas ever been a Muslim, yet video footage exists of him speaking of what "my Muslim faith."

A recently published report for the British government reveals, having drawn evidence from legal records, that major U.S. corporate businesses have sued the Canadian government for billions of dollars under a clause of NAFTA similar to the cortroversial Investment Protection chapter in TTIP. Despite this, U.S. President Barack Obama told a press conference in Germany this weekend (above) that "none of these [corporate law suits] had happened with the many trade agreements that currently exist".

Speaking about the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in a question and answer session with Germany Chancellor Hausfrau-Volksfuhrer Merkel on April 24, 2016, Obama made reference to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement clause of TTIP, which has become a major obstacle to the conclusion of TTIP as nations across Europe fears it will facilitate a wave of U.S. companies suing national governments across Europe in order to overturn laws that do not primarily serve corporate interests.

Obama said: "The issue of dispute settlement is something that has gained a lot of attention and attraction among those who generally oppose trade agreements. Keep in mind that the vast majority of trade agreements already contain such dispute resolution mechanisms. And the terrible scenarios that are painted in which suddenly corporations are going around suing countries so that they are not able to enforce their public health laws, or their financial regulations, or their environmental laws — none of these things had happened with the many trade agreements that currently exist, and that Germany and the United States and the EU and others are already a party to. So I think it’s important for us to look at the facts and not a bunch of hypothetical pronouncements."

But the UK Government report reveals that U.S. corporates up until 2013 have sued the Canadian government for up to $2 billion and that the UK “would be more prone to US claims than Canada”. The UK report is not yet publicly available, for confirmation that Obama lied CLICK HERE.

These suits were brought against the Canadian tax payer for issues such as governmental bans on additives, denial of licences, and the U.S. Parcel Service even sued the Canadian postal service for “anti-competitive practices”. In practice, the same kind of suit could be brought against Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), as being government-run makes it an effective monopoly and therefore “anti-competitive”.

So there you have the truth, as has long been said US trade treaties are invariably biased towards US Corporate interests and TTIP is probably the most blatant example to date of wrapping a corporate power grab in the guise of a 'free trade deal.' While Britain is an EU member there is no opt out. If you want your country to remain a sovereign nation rather than becoming a slave state in a USA dominated global tyranny, vote to get us out of the corrupt, corporate owned European Union.

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Former McDonalds CEO Warns Minimum Wage "Will Wipe Out 1000s Of Jobs"

by Arthur Foxake

This blog is not a big fan of McDonald's, their food does not appeal to us and their business practices are appalling. but they have been a very successful business over the past 50 years and so when a former CEO speaks out against one of the left's great sacred cows, the minimum wage.

For some reason that can only be related to their economic illiteracy, the left; USA's Democratic Party, UK's Labour Party and Europes Social Democratic parties seem to think the imposition of a minimum wage must improve the lot of 'the poor'.

Nothing could be further from the truth, we have written on the negative effect of minimum wage laws on the income of low wage workers. The first minimum wage scheme, The Speenhamland Poor Relief System, introduced in the late eighteenth century in England was disastrous for the people it was supposed to help. Faced with having to pay a legal minimum hourly rate, employers simply cut workers hours. Things are no different now, as former McDonalds chief Ed Rensi explained in a Forbes op - ed recently:

(While his words might shock the big government worshipping, Nanny State tit suckling 'progessives' should be no surprise to any rational businessman or accountant.)

"A $15 minimum wage won’t spell the end of [fast-food brands]. However it will mean wiping out thousands of entry-level opportunities for people without many other options." The $15 minimum wage demand, which translates to $30,000 a year for a full-time employee, is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of a restaurant business (and we add simple supply and demand fundamentals) - just "do the math" Rensi rants...

“They’re making millions while millions can’t pay their bills,” argue the union groups, suggesting there’s plenty of profit left over in corporate coffers to fund a massive pay increase at the bottom.

In truth, nearly 90% of McDonald’s locations are independently-owned by franchisees who aren’t making “millions” in profit. Rather, they keep roughly six cents of each sales dollar after paying for food, staff costs, rent and other expenses.

Let’s do the math: A typical franchisee sells about $2.6 million worth of burgers, fries, shakes and Happy Meals each year, leaving them with $156,000 in profit. If that franchisee has 15 part-time employees on staff earning minimum wage, a $15 hourly pay requirement eats up three-quarters of their profitability. (In reality, the costs will be much higher, as the company will have to fund raises further up the pay scale.) For some locations, a $15 minimum wage wipes out their entire profit.

Recouping those costs isn’t as simple as raising prices. If it were easy to add big price increases to a meal, it would have already been done without a wage hike to trigger it. In the real world, our industry customers are notoriously sensitive to price increases. (If you’re a McDonald’s regular, there’s a reason you gravitate towards an extra-value meal or the dollar menu.)

Instead, franchisees can absorb the cost with a change that customers don’t mind: The substitution of a self-service computer kiosk for a a full-service employee.

Rensi concludes on a sombre note...

I suspect that the labor organizers behind this campaign for a $15 minimum wage are less interested in helping employees, and more interested in helping themselves to dues money from their paycheck.

They’re unlikely to succeed in their goal of organizing the employees of McDonald’s franchisees, but they may well succeed in passing $15 into law in other sympathetic locales.

You’ll see their legacy every time you visit the Golden Arches, where “would you like fries with that” is a button on a computer screen rather than a phrase spoken by an employee in their first job.

While Mr. Reni is referring specifically to a familiar situation at McDonalds, similar things will happen in other businesses and industries. A business can only survive if it pays what the job is worth. And what the job is worth must be dictated by market rules and not by Barack Hussein Obama, Killary clinton and their elitist cronies.

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