We can pretend that the Constitution, which was written to hold the government accountable, is still our governing document, but the reality of life in the American police state tells a different story. “We the people” have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.

The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, etc), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called named of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded to such an extent that what we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago.

Most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights. A recitation of the Bill of Rights — set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, the courts and the like) — would understandably sound more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we truly possess.

His maxim, however, can equally be applied to policymakers in the eurozone’s creditor states. Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl backed the single currency as both a fair price for reunification and as a mechanism to fix the new Germany into Europe. The euro would mark the route to a European Germany and provide a roadblock against a German Europe.

Mr Kohl’s offence — the original sin, I would say, at the launch of the single currency — was to shy away from spelling out to German voters the inescapable meaning of the bargain. It still goes unsaid. In short, Germany is the biggest beneficiary of European integration. The EU supplies the democratic stability and economic certainty on which its prosperity has been built. No country has more to lose from a break-up.

“Your average conservative consumer of information is very, very familiar with the name George Soros, but I think they’re less familiar with the interaction and the infrastructure between George Soros, the Vatican, the Catholic Church, and every one of its sub-organizations — the Conference on Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services,” Malkin said.

“People need think very carefully if they sit in Catholic Church pews on whether they are going to donate to the annual Thanksgiving fund, because that is multiple, multiple millions of dollars that’s going to go straight into amnesty shills that operate as a compassion network when really what they are is a smuggling network,” Malkin said.

“And you’ve got all these Bishops every day attacking our president and our country … you had [Pope Francis] bragging just the other day about how he loved the criticism from the faction, the small faction of us — I’m a Catholic as well — who are defending American sovereignty,” Malkin said. “He relishes that fight.”

The Catholic Church has deep economic incentives to promote mass illegal and legal immigration to the US, as the vast majority of new arrivals to the country derive from Mexico and Central America, which are heavily Catholic, as Breitbart News has chronicled.

Over the years I have reported the findings of scientists, engineers, and architects that indicate that the official story is false. I had an open mind for two reasons. One is that having been an engineering student, I could tell the difference from a building falling down from asymmetrical structural damage and a building blowing up.

The other is that having been involved in policy issues in Washington for a quarter century I knew that such a humiliating defeat suffered by the world’s only superpower at the hands of a few Muslim terrorists would have brought instant demands from the White House, Congress, and media for investigation into how every aspect of the American national security state failed simultaneously on one morning. Instead the White House resisted the 9/11 families demands for an investigation for one year and never delivered a forensic investigation.

Instead, the country was given a 9/11 Commission Report that was merely the government’s official story of what happened. No heads rolled. No one was fired or even reprimanded. To hold no one accountable for such a massive failure and humiliating defeat is not a believable response if the official 9/11 story is true.

It is much easier for government to deceive people in a democracy where people assume everything is above board than in a dictatorship where they know it is not.

The major factors outside of Germany’s control – US trade wars and tariffs – are unlikely to change anytime soon. Demand across the continent, which could improve German exports, is also likely to remain weak.

What Europe, and especially Germany, needs is a state-funded investment programme to spur innovation and domestic demand. So far, this kind of programme has proven extremely difficult. Most European states are fiscally conservative, with the narrative of austerity (not spending beyond your means) dominating the eurozone and Germany in particular.

But there are signs this could be changing. Reports are surfacing that Germany – in recognition of this looming downturn – is looking for ways to take on new debt to invest in economic growth and take advantage of the fact that borrowing levels are at an historic low. Hopefully this investment will not come too late to avoid a prolonged recession.

In 1943, Henning Webb Prentis Jr wrote what was later called the Prentis Cycle which describes an eight step cycle of civilization:

1) Bondage to Spiritual Faith

2) Spiritual Faith to Courage

3) Courage to Liberty

4) Liberty to Abundance

5) Abundance to Selfishness

6) Selfishness to Apathy

7) Apathy to Dependency

8) Dependency to Bondage

And the cycle thus returns to the beginning. To describe step six of the Prentis Cycle, it’s the point where many lose the sense that they must work hard to achieve prosperity. Instead, they grow too comfortable living off the sacrifices of previous generations. A microcosm of this is the all-too-common 30-year-old man still living on his parents’ couch.

The act of taking without giving grows commonplace to the point where it emerges as a rising political ideology. Hard work, patience and discipline crumble away like rust hit by wind. Does this sound a lot like the current state of America? Unfortunately, today’s cultural climate also bears striking similarities with step seven, from apathy to dependence.

At this stage, an increasing number of people don’t have the ability – or even the desire – to work fruitfully. Dependence on the system is seen as the only means to provide their basic – and even their indulgent – needs. The idea of self-determination fades away as the masses give more power to politicians who promise more “free stuff.”

IBM will install a Q System One quantum computer at one of its facilities in Germany, partnering with the Fraunhofer Society - an applied research institute - to build a research unit and community around it. Quantum computers could operate millions of times faster than today’s advanced supercomputers. The technology is based on quantum bits, or qubits, that can be ‘superposed’ on each other, exponentially increasing the amount of information that can be processed.

IBM’s current Q System One machine has 20 qubits. Building a research community around the project has the potential to create “a unique concentration of skills”, Jetter told Reuters, drawing parallels to the origins of Silicon Valley in the United States.

Droughts, heat waves, and wildfires are growing more intense and dangerous from global warming and rising greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, we’re not reckoning with scientists’ predictions that worst-case weather scenarios will be more likely — and common — if we don’t change course. Only 41 percent of the American public believes climate change will affect them personally, a 2018 survey by Yale and George Mason University found.

Phoenix, Arizona, is susceptible to a heat wave that COULD peak at a staggering 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Southern California COULD face a wildfire that burns 1.5 million acres of land. Tampa, Florida, COULD see 26 feet of storm surge flooding from a hurricane, just below the record-breaking 28-foot storm surge of Hurricane Katrina.

In every case, these “Big Ones” COULD be huge disasters not just because of geography and proximity to threats, but also because of decisions to build homes and offices in certain places, ignoring nature. Many other communities in the same regions have similar vulnerabilities.

Fifty attorneys general are joining an investigation into Google over possible antitrust violations, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the initiative’s leader, announced Monday. The news confirms reports last week about the bipartisan investigation into Google’s practices. The probe includes attorneys general from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. California and Alabama are not involved in the probe, Paxton said at a press conference.

Other attorneys general at the media conference emphasized Google’s dominance in the ad market and use of consumer data. “When there is no longer a free market or competition, this increases prices, even when something is marketed as free, and harms consumers,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican. “Is something really free if we are increasingly giving over our privacy information? Is something really free if online ad prices go up based on one company’s control?”