Category: US Politics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Friday, August 30, 2024
US COUNTING DOWN TO CRISIS, CATASTROPHE AND COLLAPSE / Politics / US Politics
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” – George Orwell
“The future’s becoming muddled. The lines of vision are narrowing. But now they’re desperate. All paths lead into darkness.” – Frank Herbert – Dune
Trying to decipher the path ahead becomes more difficult by the day. We are purposefully bombarded with misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda by the ruling class, designed to distract us from their real purpose, real agenda, and real plans to imprison us in their techno-gulag, eating zee bugs in our container sized hovels, using our government issued CBDCs to subsist, unless we dared to question the approved narrative – resulting in our social credit rating dropping into the domestic terrorist zone – getting us banned and shunned from society. This is the New World Order the Davos crowd has designed and will implement as a Great Reset, if they succeed in retaining and increasing control over the U.S. and the rest of the Western World in the next six months.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Want to make sense of the U.S. midterms? Watch this... / ElectionOracle / US Politics
Hi,
Well, it happened again: Here in the U.S., election pollsters have egg on their face. In the midterm elections, a "red wave" -- Republicans winning by a landslide -- didn't come ashore.
What we got instead was a strong show for the status quo: a Senate hold for Democrats and a narrow House majority for Republicans.
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Friday, April 01, 2022
Neither the FED nor US Government Can Print “Trust” / Politics / US Politics
In this period of great economic, financial, monetary and geopolitical uncertainty, Borge Brende, the current president of the World Economic Forum, stated that countries need to prepare for the next crisis today. Mr. Brende more importantly stated that “We have to focus on rebuilding trust. There is a lot of lack of trust”. That is a very insightful and timely observation. Stateside and nearer to home, a recent University of Michigan survey notes that confidence in US government policies is at its lowest since 2014.
At the same time, available statistics show that 84% of the people in China trust their government, while 81% of Indonesians and 79% of the people in India trust their governments. How does one explain, that those countries which the western world criticizes for being oppressive or lacking freedom, when polled rank higher in trust of their governments than western democracies?
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Thursday, March 03, 2022
Will There Be A 2024 US Presidential Election? / Politics / US Politics
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” ― George Orwell
“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” ― George Orwell
The smell of tyranny is in the air. The level of propaganda, disinformation, and mistruth has reached astounding heights, as the ruling oligarchy/Deep State/globalist cabal are thrashing about violently because their frauds are being exposed on a daily basis. This shift to the tyranny of force has massive implications for everyone on the planet. When every quote from Orwell’s 1984 applies every day to everything swirling around us, you begin to realize we are in the midst of a dystopian nightmare which gets more ghoulish by the day.
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Friday, November 26, 2021
Federal Reserve Asks Americans to Eat Soy “Meat” for Thanksgiving / Politics / US Politics
Let’s talk about the sudden setback in precious metals markets.
Metals got hammered on Monday and Tuesday. Gold prices fell back below the $1,800 level and silver is back down under $24.
Platinum and palladium also got hit hard. Interestingly, though, copper and most other commodities are holding up well.
The price takedown that was focused on precious metals specifically may have been a knee-jerk reaction to news from the White House.
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Sunday, March 28, 2021
A Nation of Sheep Ruled by Wolves, Owned by Sheep - Who is Shaking the Jar Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
In Part 1 of this article I documented the never ending false narratives used by those shaking the jar to keep us at each other’s throats. I will now show how 2020 was a turning point in history, with an accelerating decline of our empire in progress.
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Monday, February 01, 2021
US Fourth Turning Detonation / Politics / US Politics
“Americans today fear that linearism (alias the American Dream) has run its course. Many would welcome some enlightenment about history’s patterns and rhythms, but today’s intellectual elites offer little that’s useful. Caught between the entropy of the chaoticists and the hubris of the linearists, the American people have lost their moorings.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
“The ancients believed that each cyclical extreme, mirroring the hopes and fears of the other, helps generate the other. The night longs for the day, the day for night. In war, people yearn for relief from strife, leading to peace. In peace, people yearn to champion what they love, leading to war.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
When I started thinking about my annual beginning of the year article in early January, I tried to formulate a catchy title. Knowing we have entered the thirteenth year of this Fourth Turning, with the intensity of the crisis reaching an unparalleled level since November 4, I decided upon Fourth Turning Detonation. I immediately thought that might be too dire and figured I would change it later. After the first few weeks of the new year, I now think it might be grossly inadequate to describe what is coming in 2021.
It is easy to get distracted by the daily gyrations, ceaseless media propaganda, political theater, false narratives, and delusional beliefs of both the left and right, as this military empire built on debt and deceit spirals towards its fiery cataclysmic climax. Opposing forces have gathered themselves into position focusing on defeating their domestic enemies, with the left seeming to have strategic advantage but led by hubristic dullards, while numerous foreign adversaries circle like hungry vultures ready to pounce on the dying beast of an empire.
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Monday, January 25, 2021
The Dark Forces behind American Insurrectionists / Politics / US Politics
On January 6, 2021, a mob of white supremacists stormed the U.S. Capitol, presumably to overturn Trump's defeat. Their final goal may have involved assassinations of elected officials, however.
After the “failed insurrection,” dozens of the mob were found to be watch-listed in the FBI Terrorist Screening Database. Most are suspected white supremacists. But the ultimate goals of some may have been even darker.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors have targeted one of the mob’s most colorful figures, Jacob Anthony Chansley; the shirtless “QAnon Shaman” with a headdress of coyote skin and buffalo horns. "The intent of the Capitol rioters,” the prosecutors believe, “was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the US government.”
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Wednesday, January 13, 2021
CONgress "Insurrection" Is Just the Latest False Flag Event from the Globalists / Politics / US Politics
On 6 January 2021, a horny small-time actor with a crazy hairdo tried to take control of the USSA Capitol. Along with the rest of the band of merry misfits who are now on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
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Sunday, January 10, 2021
An Urgent Message to All Conservatives, Right-Wingers and Patriots / Politics / US Politics
For the past ten months on social-distance-media, every time someone dared to raise concerns about the Covaids insanities and inconsistencies, they were instantly accused of being right-wing Trumpist conservatives. Or conspiracy theorists. All of which are apparently the same thing.
Worried about the effects of a vaccine with a rate of adverse reactions already 50x higher than a flu shot? You must be a denialist reactionary. A CONSERVATIVE! Gasp.
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Friday, October 02, 2020
The Demise of American Democracy / Politics / US Politics
When the highest representatives of a community are eager to throw mud at each other. When arguments merely serve as a façade to convey anger, mockery or contempt, then history has just turned a corner. One period has come to an end, a new one begins. Since September 29, 2020 we know that in the United States of America democracy is undergoing a process of rapid disintegration – it is being torn apart by diverging forces.
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Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Only Thing Systematic Is The Destruction Of America / Politics / US Politics
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair was describing willful ignorance based upon who butters your bread. The rampant corruption of our society, as power has been consolidated into fewer and fewer hands, has resulted in our political, financial, cultural and economic systems being captured by a billionaire class who use their wealth to dictate the path we are forced to follow – or lose everything.
The sociopath class include the Silicon Valley social media titans, the billionaires running the six mainstream media companies, the rogue billionaires like Soros and Bloomberg who fund chaos and foment insurrection, the Deep State surveillance agency operatives like Clapper, Brennan, Comey and Mueller doing the bidding of the oligarchy, Wall Street criminals like Dimon, Paulson, and Blankfein doing god’s work, and last but certainly not least – Powell, Yellen, Bernanke and slimy Kashkari priming the pump for the never ending systematic pillaging of the nation’s wealth.
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Wednesday, September 02, 2020
If this is the brave new America ... / Politics / US Politics
Shoot a Black man in the back in cold blood by a merciless Kenosha, Wisconsin cop named Rusten Sheskey and watch the city burn; watch the right-wing rise; watch President Trump and his ministers of propaganda exploit; exacerbate an already hardened “base” with incendiary and threatening tweets; give credence to armed militias.
Two bold markers need be placed on the dates of the Kenosha shootings: the one for Jacob Blake and the other for Kyle Rittenhouse. While I might claim it has been “open season” on Black men for years by killer-cops and right-wing White supremacists, that season has now been expanded to include protesters. Clearly, the message from 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse to militias across the country—and to protestors—was delivered by his cynical act and, I predict, it won’t stop here, and hasn’t.
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Thursday, July 02, 2020
US Fourth Turning Reaches Boiling Point as America Bends its Knee / Politics / US Politics
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ― H.L. Mencken
After writing a particularly depressing article where I come to a logical conclusion, based upon the factual evidence of all previous Fourth Turnings, I always wonder whether I’m being too pessimistic and peddling doom, like many of the clickbait websites. The conclusions I reached at the end of my last two articles were particularly gloomy and made me wonder whether I was going too far. I thought maybe I was too pessimistic and my predictions of civil chaos and global disorder were overblown.
“A failure to meet the challenges ahead with bravery, grit, good judgement, adherence to our Constitutional principles, and a fair amount of luck, could lead to a defeat from which we will never recover. No one knows how and when the climax of this Crisis will play out, but the acceleration towards our rendezvous with destiny is in motion.” – Fourth Turning Accelerating Towards Climax – May 10
It just so happened I published my last article on May 24, predicting a 2nd Civil War. I figured we might have a couple years to prepare, as there is likely five to ten years before this Fourth Turning reaches a climax. Little did I know a black man with a long criminal background, high on fentanyl and resisting arrest in Minneapolis, would be killed by a white police thug named Derek Chauvin, who had seventeen complaints against him over his illustrious career, on the day after my article was posted. Oddly, it seems this murder will be our Fort Sumter/Pearl Harbor of this Fourth Turning.
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Thursday, July 02, 2020
Roosevelt 2.0 and ‘here, hold my beer' / Politics / US Politics
In accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency on July 2, 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of a “new deal for the American people” who had been ravaged by the Great Depression.
After winning the 1932 election by a landslide, FDR, as he came to be known during World War II, took immediate action to bring about economic relief to the unemployed through public works programs, and to undertake reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, hydroelectric power, labor and housing.
Roosevelt’s New Deal, which lasted from 1933-39, also vastly increased the scope of the federal government in the economy.
Agencies such as the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps were established to provide short-term aid, as well as temporary jobs, employment on construction projects, and youth work in national forests.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2020
US Red Shirts and the Boogaloo / Politics / US Politics
The race riots seen around the United States over the past few days are troubling for sure, but they are nothing new.
If there is one thing uniting the 50 American states of the union, historically, it is divisions over race, primarily Caucasian versus African American. It is disturbing to note that 157 years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and many decades after the race riots of the 1960s ushered in an era of equal opportunity and affirmative action, the United States is still struggling with questions of justice and inequality pertaining to its large black population.
Yet there is a marked difference between what is happening now compared to 100 years ago. During the period leading up to the 1920s, it was usually white people who instigated and participated in race riots. The purpose of these violent demonstrations was to assert white dominion rather than to express black anger and frustration.
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Wednesday, June 03, 2020
The Corona Riots Begin, US Covid-19 Catastrophe Trend Analysis / Politics / US Politics
President Trump recently successfully bullshitted the gullible mainstream media into believing that he was self medicating on the anti malaria Hydrosychloroquine, that includes side effects such as paranoia, delirium and herat attacks, so unlike Vitamin D, definitely not to be taken on a whim, bur rather after considering the evidence in its favour of actually working to combat a coronavirus infection for which there is a building case against as previous tweets by nut jobs have been exposed as being BS.
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Tuesday, April 07, 2020
US Coronavirus Blacktop Politics / Politics / US Politics
Benjamin Franklin once said; “Out of adversity comes opportunity.”
The adversity the United States now faces with the coronavirus pandemic is the worst national emergency the country has faced since World War II, more serious, far more deadly, than any natural disaster, 9/11, the War on Terrorism, the Korean War, maybe even Vietnam.
As of this writing, there are 211,143 cases and 4,713 deaths. More coronavirus patients have now died in the United States than in China, the pandemic epicenter, where extraordinary measures were taken to successfully contain it, including locking down entire cities (pop. 50 million), and contact tracing tens of thousands of people connected to those infected, so they could self-quarantine.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said he believes the virus could kill 100,000 to 200,000 before it is done ravaging the US population. That “middle of the road” estimate is at least double the 58,200 American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.
Depending how long this goes on, the economic fallout from covid-19 could be twice as bad as the Great Recession. A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance last week. If that keep up, one in three will be jobless by summer - more than during the Great Depression.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Coronavirus Fourth Turning - No One Gets Out Of Here Alive! / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I exposed the numerous false narratives being peddled to the masses, as this Fourth Turning is entering the intense phase headed towards an unknown climax.
I’ve been expecting the next shoe to fall in this Fourth Turning for years, but the financial elite have pulled the debt levers to keep the Ponzi scheme alive far longer than a reasonable person would expect. We are only six weeks into 2020 and it seems like a year’s worth of major events have already occurred. The year started with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.
For the next week the world was awash in rhetoric about World War III and possible revolution in Iran. Accusations of Trump using the Wag the Dog method to deflect the negative press from the impeachment hearings were rampant among the half of the country that despises Trump. Soleimani was lauded as a hero by the left and a terrorist by the right. Now, the entire episode seems like ancient history, as more interesting squirrels have arisen for the propaganda media to chase.
The entire month of January was occupied by the ongoing coup/impeachment against Donald Trump. Schiff, Nadler and Pelosi doing their best impression of the three stooges, conducted a laughable prosecution in the House, revealing this was nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid losing to Trump in a November landslide. The predictable trial in the Senate resulted in an acquittal and Trump’s popularity soaring to all-time highs, as independents realized the Democrats misused the power of impeachment for purely political purposes. Trump’s SOTU address infuriated Pelosi to such an extent it provoked her into acting like a petulant child, tearing up the speech. Future campaign ads wrote themselves.
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Monday, February 10, 2020
The US Constitution IS the Crisis / Politics / US Politics
A Review of Murray N. Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty, Vol. 5
The posthumous release of Murray Rothbard’s fifth volume of his early American history series, Conceived in Liberty, is a cause of celebration not only for those interested in the country’s constitutional period, but also for the present day as the nation is faced with acute social, economic, and political crises. The fifth volume, The New Republic: 1784-1791, stands with Boston T. Party’s 1997 release, Hologram of Liberty, as a grand rebuttal of the cherished notion held by most contemporary scholars, pundits on the Right, and, surprisingly, many libertarians who believe that the US Constitution is some great bulwark in defense of individual liberty and a promoter of economic success.
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Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Deep State 2020 – A Year Of Living Dangerously! / Politics / US Politics
“A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.” Tacitus, Publius Cornelius
The shocking crime being committed during this century under the unscrupulous initiative of a few evil men is ongoing and no longer hidden from those willing to open their eyes and see the truth. As conspiracy theorists have proven to be right through the sacrifice of Snowden, Assange, and other patriots for truth, the Deep State psychopaths have double downed and are blatantly flaunting their power and control over the levers of government, finance and media.
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Friday, November 15, 2019
America’s Exceptionalism’s Non-intervention Slide to Conquest, Empire - and Socialism / Politics / US Politics
When America established its new nation in 1776, its actions were guided by a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution which included a government subject to the consent of its people, liberty, and freedom of speech, religion, property, and assembly. As a new nation narrowly escaping oppression from England, it originally would not conquer any other nation. It was not going to follow the practice of colonialism and oppression that so many European nations embraced at that time. But somehow, over decades, America abandoned its original principles of non-intervention and ultimately became an empire ruling most of the world. It is the forces, causes and timing of this abandonment from its original exceptional principles of non-intervention to outward expansion, conquest, and its eventual consequences that is scrutinized in this article.
Herein, the term “exceptionalism” is applied to America’s form of government, its Constitution, and original principles of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries. However, the term “exceptionalism” was first used and popularized through Joseph Stalin in 1929 to portray America, which because of its capitalism and high standard of living was highly resistant to communist goals for advancing socialism in this country – and therefore was characterized as an exceptional nation. As we will read in this article America easily and rather quickly gave up its exceptionalism to embrace conquest.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Impeachments & Healthcare / Politics / US Politics
Many Democrats really want to impeach President Trump. According to a Pew Research poll conducted after the latest round of Democratic debates, 40% of Democratic respondents said that beating Donald Trump was the number one issue in the upcoming election. It’s not domestic policies, not foreign policy, not protecting any class of people, but simply making sure that, come January 2021, his name is not on the White House door.Obviously, this goes far beyond wanting one’s political party to win. I’m not going to list out reasons why. We’re all well-versed in the current political battles. But focusing on removing him from office either before or during the election leaves precious little time to discuss national issues.
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Monday, October 14, 2019
America's Ruling Class - Underestimating Them & Overestimating Us / Politics / US Politics
Do not underestimate the ‘power of underestimation’. They can’t stop you, if they don’t see you coming.” ― Izey Victoria Odiase
During the summer of 2008 I was writing articles a few times per week predicting an economic catastrophe and a banking crisis. When the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression swept across the world, resulting in double digit unemployment, a 50% stock market crash in a matter of months, millions of home foreclosures, and the virtual insolvency of the criminal Wall Street banks, my predictions were vindicated. I was pretty smug and sure the start of this Fourth Turning would follow the path of the last Crisis, with a Greater Depression, economic disaster and war.
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Saturday, September 07, 2019
Baghdad Donald / Politics / US Politics
For Donald Trump, it seems that these are the best of times except that they are the worst of times. How else to explain his contradictory demand that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 100 basis points despite his repeated claims that our current economy is "the best in the history of the United States?" That kind of "break glass in case of emergency" monetary policy is something that even the eldest among us have only seen once or twice. And those times have certainly been desperate.
As has been showcased in recent days, Trump can flip-flop faster than anyone in Washington. He wants capital gains indexing on Monday, only to abandon the idea on Tuesday. At breakfast, he wants expanded background checks for firearms, but drops the idea by lunch. But in his call to slash interest rates in a "great" economy, the president flip-flops in the same sentence.
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Sunday, August 25, 2019
Trump Floats Payroll & Capital Gains Tax Cues to Forestall Recession / Politics / US Politics
Gold and silver markets test some near-term technical support levels late this week, investors are focused on takeaways from the Jackson Hole symposium.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell headlined a list of other central bankers, academics, and financial elites at the annual Wyoming gathering. Powell was widely expected to signal a rate cut ahead during his speech on Friday. But many on Wall Street and in Washington were hoping he would make a bigger, broader commitment to monetary stimulus.
For his part, President Donald Trump is urging the Fed to slash rates by 100 basis points.
On Tuesday, President Trump also said he would consider new tax cuts to stimulate the economy. The following day, he appeared to change his mind, saying we don’t need tax relief after all because “we have a strong economy.
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Wednesday, August 07, 2019
The Fourth Turning Trump Economics / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I laid out the unsustainable economic conditions which will drive the next phase of this Fourth Turnings and detailed the economic factors which drove the previous three American Fourth Turnings.
Strauss and Howe, when writing The Fourth Turning in 1997, did not know the exact circumstances and events which would propel the next Turning. But their study of economic and demographic trends along with the attitudes of generations and historical precedents in prior Fourth Turnings, led them to conclude the driving factors of this Crisis would be debt, global disorder and civic decay.
As I watch what is currently happening in this country and around the world, it is evident to me they nailed it. The volcanic eruption in 2008 unleashed a torrent of molten lava, which continues to flow along channels of distress, but is currently threatening to burst free of these channels and wreak worldwide financial and physical devastation. A multitude of possibilities described by Strauss and Howe below are already happening or will happen in the next few years.
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Monday, August 05, 2019
A Tale of Two Cummings / Politics / US Politics
Last weekend, I noticed that two of the main newsmakers were both named Cummings, one in the US, the other in the UK. At first glance they don’t look like family, but I’ll readily admit I can’t be sure of that. What I do know is that both are symbolic of what’s wrong with the political systems they figure in.
Also last weekend, I saw a comment somewhere, think it was Twitter, that said something in the vein of: let’s hope the British don’t make the same mistake with Boris Johnson that the Americans made -and make- with Donald Trump, that is, labeling every single thing he does as “Bad”, because then they would lose all of their credibility, fast.
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Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Foreign Policy Betrayal of America / Politics / US Politics
Very little has changed when it comes to the elites who control public policy. Foreign affairs have been shaped by an un-American tribe of Judas' who seek to rule over real patriots. America has been systematically sold out for well over a century by deviants of our culture, economics, politics and especially religion. A legitimate foreign policy, above all, needs to protect our own country and her own people. Abdicating those responsibilities to benefit Israel is treason. Regretfully, most of the populace is so afraid of being labeled an anti-Semitic that they eagerly suspend rational thinking to be a kosher supporter.
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Monday, July 29, 2019
Why The Government Has Screwed Us Again / Politics / US Politics
I’ve got friends on both sides of the political aisle.Some are huge Trump supporters. They’re giddy over his tweets about “The Squad.” They think, why not call out people who demean the country? And if they don’t like it here, why don’t they just go anywhere else?
And how about enforcing the rule of law once in a while by sticking to our immigration policies? We’re not rounding up migrants because they come from other countries; we’re demanding that they comply with the law, which means leaving the country when their asylum claims have been denied after a hearing.
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Friday, July 26, 2019
Trump Kills the Tea Party / Politics / US Politics
After claiming to be the greatest at just about everything, Donald Trump has finally found an area where he can stake a credible claim. By negotiating a disastrous budget deal with Democrats, the President could become the greatest creator of government debt in the history of the country. While Trump is selling the two-year deal as a major victory because it increases military spending and removes the possibility of a government shutdown for two years, in reality, the agreement to suspend the debt ceiling and push annual deficits even further above the trillion dollar mark may only succeed in destroying the Republican Party as we know it.
The Tea Party wave of 2009 and 2010, a Republican movement born in reaction to the budget blowouts of the Obama Presidency, is now officially dead. It's ironic that as Trump hammered the final nail into the Tea Party's coffin, no one seemed happier than the corpse itself! There was hardly a word of discomfort from all the Republican Senators and Congressmen who had so loudly railed against debt when the other party occupied the White House. There is simply no legitimate way that Republicans will ever be able to argue again that they are the party of fiscal discipline. They may try, but only the most partisan and credulous voters will buy it.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Iran and the Dying Days Of the US Empire / Politics / US Politics
Something’s been nagging me for the past few days, and I’m not sure I’ve figured out why yet. It started when Donald Trump first called off the alleged planned strikes on targets in Iran because they would have cost 150 lives, and then the next day said the US would do sanctions instead. As they did on Monday, even directly targeting Trump’s equal, the “Supreme Leader Khameini”.
When Trump announced the sanctions, I thought: wait a minute, by presenting this the way you did, you effectively turned economic sanctions into a military tool: we chose not to do bombs but sanctions. Sounds the same as not doing a naval invasion but going for air attacks instead. The kind of decisions that were made in Vietnam a thousand times.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2019
We’re All Socialists Now / Politics / US Politics
Despite being probably robbed of the Democratic Party’s nomination by the Clinton political machine, the success of the Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign with his advocacy of “democratic socialism” was an ominous sign of things to come and, in some sense, more telling of the political climate than Donald Trump’s improbable victory in November, 2016. The millions of votes garnered by Sanders in the Democratic primaries has emboldened other socialists to seek political office while socialist ideas are openly spoken of with little fear of political recriminations.
Sanders has doubled down on his advocacy of democratic socialism in a recent speech at George Washington University, calling for the completion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s:
Today I am proposing we complete the unfinished work of Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Party by putting forth a 21st century economic bill of rights.*
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Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Democrats Double Down on Trump Show Trial / Politics / US Politics
A majority of the public by now is sick of the witch hunt. Just imagine the fatigue and revolting sentiments that ordinary Americans have for the elitists and brainwashed libtards that want to impeach President Trump. Interminable Congressional hearings with no reasonable chance for Senate removal from office are in itself an abuse of legislative provocative. The William Jefferson Clinton impeachment demonstrated that a Republican Senate had a prearranged agreement to acquit before the trial began. If two-thirds of Senators could be mustered to convict, the RINO Republicans would need to demonstrate they are closet NeoCons.
The show trial that the establishment 'Never Trumpers' would more likely be one of continued trashing by committees and endless media presstitute reporting. The Show Trials in the USSR had the purpose of protecting Stalin. The Marxist Democrats are the Amerika version of Bolshevism. Their aim is to maintain the Deep State in power. Maintaining the totalitarian culture of collectivism by systematically destroying our Constitutional Republic has reached a point of no return.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
The Deep State vs Donald Trump - US vs Them Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
In Part I of this article I discussed why the “Us versus Them” mindset permeates society and how Trump has become a lightning rod for hate. Now I will assess his progress in fighting the Deep State and try to peer into a murky future.
In addition to not being Hillary, the main reasons I voted for Trump was he promised to build the wall, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, he promised to end our foreign military interventions, he said he would bring fiscal sanity to the budget, he said the Federal Reserve had blown an immense stock market bubble, he questioned the fake economic data spouted by government drones, and he called out the fake news bullshit media. When I regularly assess his progress on these issues, the standard response from Trump acolytes is “Would you rather have Hillary?”. No, I would not. But that doesn’t get Trump off the hook for his failures in my book.
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Thursday, May 09, 2019
The Global Consequences of U.S. Executive Power / Politics / US Politics
(Or How Carl Schmitt Took Over the 21st Century White House)Since the Nixon era, the lure of executive power has increased in the White House. After decades of global integration, misguided policy decisions, legitimized in the name of ‘national security,’ can derail economic prospects in America and worldwide. The doctrines share a dark history.
The first administration to make explicit reference to the "Unitary Executive" was the Reagan administration. Typically, the practice has evolved since the 1970s, when President Nixon decoupled U.S. dollar from the Bretton Woods gold standard and trade deficits began to rise.
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Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Mueller Never Wanted The Truth / Politics / US Politics
Zero Hedge ran an article about omissions from the Mueller report and/or investigation. It’s instructive, but there is more. First, some bits from that article:
Major Mueller Report Omissions Suggest Incompetence Or A Coverup
Read full article... Read full article...Robert Mueller’s 448-page “Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” contains at least two major omissions which suggest that the special counsel and his entire team of world-class Democrat attorneys are either utterly incompetent, or purposefully concealing major crimes committed against the Trump campaign and the American people.
First, according to The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland (a former law clerk of nearly 25 years and instructor at the college of business at the University of Notre Dame) – the Mueller report fails to consider whether the dossier authored by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele was Russian disinformation, and Steele was not charged with lying to the FBI.
“The Steele dossier, which consisted of a series of memorandum authored by the former MI6 spy, detailed intel purportedly provided by a variety of Vladimir Putin-connected sources. For instance, Steele identified Source A as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” who “confided that the Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
Monday, May 06, 2019
Is Trump Foreign Policy Designed Backwards to Disrupt the Empire? / Politics / US Politics
According to US conservatives, Donald Trump’s MAGA has served to sharpen the bristles of US foreign policy reigning in the competing global powers with sanctions and far reaching power-plays in trade and weaponry, way beyond Obama and even Clinton.Even the death zombie Dems have to applaud Trump at times, when he bombs Syria on fake news or sanctions Russia even more or tries to overthrow the Venezuelan government with gangster tactics. The billionaires’ media finally finds its President then.
So, the self-serving assessment in Washington is that Trump the Terrible has been successfully compromised into fully supporting Empire games of endless war and chaos, just like his recent predecessors. The conclusion becomes there is simply is no resisting the US intelligence agencies that are the spearpoint for Congress’ faithful alliance with the Merchants of Death, 1tr a year and vastly growing.
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Wednesday, May 01, 2019
America’s Gradual Slide, Experience and Withdrawal From Vietnam - Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
Continuation from Part1 - Vietnam, Part I: Colonialism and National Liberation
The Kennedy Years
Before he became President, a tour of Vietnam convinced John Kennedy that the US must align herself with the emerging nations, and that Communism could never be defeated by relying solely of force of arms. His Indochina experience led him to that conclusion, as did a dinner conversation in New Delhi with Jawaharlal Nehru, who called the French as an example of doomed colonialism and said Communism offered the masses “something to die for” whereas the West promised only the status quo. War would not stop Communism, Nehru warned him; it would only enhance it, “for the devastation of war breeds only more poverty and more want.” In 1957 JFK declared in a Senate speech “The most powerful single force in the world today, is neither communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile – it is man’s eternal desire to be free and independent.”
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Sunday, April 28, 2019
Joe Biden Works for Donald Trump / Politics / US Politics
Joe Biden is working for Donald Trump, right? I haven’t heard either of them say it outright, but it’s the only reason I can see that would explain why Biden is running for president. And if Biden works for Trump, that means he works for Putin, because Trump is Putin’s puppet, no matter how often Robert Mueller denies it.
Then again, if we would suggest, purely hypothetically and for entertainment purposes only, that Biden is neither Putin’s nor Trump’s puppet, what on earth drives him to declare his candidacy as the oldest ever presidential candidate in US history? Biden will be Trump’s punching bag. There is so much wrong with and about the man, Trump’s not even laughing, just saying: “oh yes, please, bring it.”
Biden has the Anita Hill boondoggle to his name, there’s a huge nascent story concerning Ukraine, where he interfered, while vice-president, to benefit his son, and there are tons of women who will come with groping tales. This will be a very long list, as long as his career in Washington. Biden bumbles and stumbles for a living. Someone’s going to write a book about that someday.
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Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Mueller Report - Cover-up for Real Crimes / Politics / US Politics
If one listens to the Democrats or the mainstream media, the impression that is being fed to the American public is that the Trump investigation will just intensify. The sacred Grand Inquisitor, Robert Mueller once the darling of the witch hunt, is now a spineless hangman who failed to topple the king. After this tortured process of the Deep State cover-up, the central concocted reason for finding collusion with some imaginary Russian plot to fix the 2016 presidential election never provided the evidence to prove this establishment narrative. Pray tell; no boot licking toady would ever admit that the U.S. imperial empire ever intervened or staged subversion into foreign elections or governmental overthrows.
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Saturday, April 20, 2019
Is Political Partisanship Killing America? / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights was reportedly made “after getting a quick history lesson during a conversation on a different subject,” states a news story that has been making the social media rounds lately. It showed up on my Facebook feed.
Curious, I clicked on the link. The Reuters article went on to explain how ‘The Donald’ made the snap decision at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. The referenced conversation was between himself, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Both men are Jewish. No bias there.
“I said, ‘Fellows, do me a favor. Give me a little history, quick. Want to go fast. I got a lot of things I’m working on: China, North Korea. Give me a quickie.” Trump recounted to the amiable crowd.
Was the history lesson objective, giving a fair account of both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, leading the listener – Trump - to draw his own conclusion? Not a chance.
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Saturday, April 20, 2019
Trump - They Were All Lying / Politics / US Politics
A dear friend the other day accused me of defending Trump. I don’t, and never have, but it made me think that if she says it, probably others say and think the same; I’ve written a lot about him. So let me explain once again. Though I think perhaps this has reached a “you’re either with us or against us’ level.
What I noticed, and have written a lot about, during and since the 2016 US presidential campaign, is that the media, both in the US and abroad, started making up accusations against Trump from scratch. This included the collusion with Russia accusation that led to the Mueller probe.
There was never any proof of the accusation, which is why the conclusion of the probe was No Collusion. I started writing this yesterday while awaiting the presentation of the Mueller report, but it wouldn’t have mattered one way or the other: the accusation was clear, and so was the conclusion.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019
America Dancing On The Crumbling Precipice / Politics / US Politics
Dancing on the crumbling precipice The rocks are coming loose just at the edge Are we laughing? Are we crying? Are we drowning? Are we dead? Or is it all a dream?
The bombs are getting closer everyday “That can never happen here” we used to say Have these wars come to our doorstep? Has this moment finally come? Or is it all a dream?
Rise Against – The Violence
This recent song by Rise Against, inspired by the turmoil since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, captures the feeling of angst and uncertainty engulfing the world today. This Fourth Turning is entering its most violent stage, where blood will be spilled in vast quantities as an epic conflict between good and evil plays out across the globe. Eighty years ago, the bloodiest conflict in human history began, as the social mood turned dark and compromise was no longer a viable option.
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Friday, April 05, 2019
Warning Mr. Trump - Know Your Enemies / Politics / US Politics
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500.
Mr. President,
I write to you because I’m seeing something unfold that concerns you, and I have no way of knowing if you’re aware of it, nor have I seen anyone else mention it. That is, sir, you are being set up, a trap is being set for you, and unless you are aware of it, you may well walk into that trap eyes wide open.
It may not be in your briefing this morning, but the WikiLeaks organization has reported that high-ranking Ecuadorean state officials have told them Julian Assange will be expelled from their London embassy in a matter of “hours to days”. Now, I don’t know what your personal opinion is of Mr. Assange, maybe you think he deserves punishment for leaking secret files to the public.
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Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Progressives in Denial as Mueller Clears Trump / Politics / US Politics
All the fanfare with the release of the Mueller Report three page summaries has the corporatist and defiance media in a tizzy. The deranged progressive zombies that follow every word that Rachel 'MAD' Maddow, bleeds out are wiping their own tears that the preordained narrative to bury the Trump movement is premature. Sorry, no celebration for the duped, delusional dregs in search of the most dangerous obstacle to their Marxist redistribution wonderland. The hate machine that trashes all things Trump has perfected the 'Big Lie'. Accepting all the news that is unfit to print or the social media trolls which reinforce the 'Fake News' propaganda that the enlightened leftist cable toadies read off their Teleprompters, is like overdosing on a feel good drug before the inevitable crash.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Vietnam, Part I: Colonialism and National Liberation / Politics / US Politics
By late 1960’s America’s involvement in the Vietnam War had become the most divisive issue in the nation’s history since the Civil War of the1860s. This involvement extended over the terms of six Presidents making it America’s longest war. President Truman and his Secretary of State Dean Acheson believed that if Southeast Asia is swept up by Communism, as had China, and if Vietnam was allowed to fall, other countries in a domino fashion would follow suit.
The American people, born of anti-colonial revolution, were hostile to colonialists by tradition. President Roosevelt in his early years in public life had been a proponent of imperial control. Echoing very much the French mission civilisatrice (civilizing mission), FDR thought it justifiable and necessary for the United States to impose the blessings of her civilization on the more backward and less fortunate peoples, by force if necessary. But by the time of Pearl Harbor he had become a committed anti-colonialist. European colonialism had helped bring on both the First World War and the current one, he was convinced, and the continued existence of empires would in all likelihood result in future conflagrations. He went so far as to say that Western sway over much of Asia and Africa was no less threatening to world stability than German expansionism. Therefore, all colonies should be given their independence. FDR never retreated from his belief that the continued existence of European colonial empires undermined the peace of the world.
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Thursday, March 14, 2019
US Conservatism / Politics / US Politics
Commenting on my own essays has never been my favorite activity, because before you know it you land into Russian doll territory. But a few recent comments from readers have me rethinking that, for once.
Of course I understand that my expressed views over the past two years and change on the era of Donald Trump and his presidency do not please everyone out there, whether they’re long time Automatic Earth readers or new to the site. It’s just that a surprising -to me- number of people let their thoughts and opinions be shaped by media that primarily follow the color of politics and money, not objective facts.
Or perhaps it shouldn‘t be all that surprising, given the amount of attention the mainstream media still manages to gather. Then again, if the MSM would have been right on more issues, there would never have been a place for the Automatic Earth and many other ‘alternative’ media sources. So yeah, I’m a bit of two minds on that.
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Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Authentic American Populism / Politics / US Politics
In the age of President Trump the public characterization of an American First movement bears the sharpest criticism and condemnation from the Deep State and foreign enemies. Those sincere patriots who retain a valid historic understanding of the post World War II era, recognize that the New World Order was the actual victory of that contrived conflict. With the death of the American Republic, the globalist international community of oligarchs has imposed a planetary enslavement. Part of their goal is to obliterate independent nation states and destroy indigenous cultures. Genuine populism is the foe of this elite demonic crime syndicate, who is promulgating hell on earth.
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Friday, March 01, 2019
US House of Representatives Hits A New Low / Politics / US Politics
Perhaps against better judgment, I just can’t keep silent about the Michael Cohen’s in da House show performed on February 27. I was watching it and increasingly fearing for the future of America. We had all been able to read his prepared statement before he opened the party with it, and therefore we all knew there was nothing there. So why did this thing take place, and why were all the cameras and reporters there? Do we live in split realities these days?
Both before and after the gruelling -for the viewer- session, words like ‘explosive’ and bombshell’ were all over, so I thought I’d watch, since I might have missed something, but no, there was nothing, there wasn’t even a there there. Apparently, US House members are by now immune to being revealed as nutcases frantically phishing for evidence of accusations they formerly made but could never prove.
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Thursday, February 28, 2019
The US Constitution Myth / Politics / US Politics
One reason for the failure of the modern conservative and libertarian movements to scale back, in even a miniscule way, the now gargantuan US welfare/warfare state has been the misinterpretation of the US Constitution. Many conservatives have a slavish devotion to the document, placing it on a par with the Ten Commandments and New Testament.
A typical misunderstanding of the Constitution’s history and content appeared in this recent op-ed:
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Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Green New Art of the Deal / Politics / US Politics
There are lots of people talking about how they much disagree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, how silly she is, how dumb and impossible and irresponsible her Green New Deal is, but I think they’re missing a point or two. First of all: what’s the alternative? Who would you trade her for? Hillary? Feinstein? Pelosi? Bernie Sanders? Cory Booker?
Would you rather things stay the same? I can see that from the Hillary Pelosi camp, but not from any other Democrats – nor, obviously, Republicans. Three quarters of America must be dead sick of that cabal, the 50% that are GOP, plus the half of Democrats that would also prefer to vote for someone below 75 years old because 90% are themselves younger than that.
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Saturday, February 16, 2019
Schumer & Sanders Want One Thing: Your Money / Politics / US Politics
Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer have proposed legislation that would stop public companies from paying dividends or buying back their shares unless they first meet certain conditions.The senators aren’t worried about viability (companies are financially stable before they send cash back to their shareholders). Instead, they want to verify that companies have done enough to support employees before they give anything back to investors.
That’s not so subtle code for, “Make sure you redistribute wealth before giving anything back.”
The senators make their case by pointing to last year’s tax reform and how much of the corporate windfall was spent on stock buybacks (almost $1 trillion), even as companies refused to invest, closed locations, and fired employees.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019
A Government of Socialists / Politics / US Politics
Brace for the most bizarre government that Congress has ever seen in your lifetime. The Democrats installed a band of untested novices bent on adopting a socialist utopia. The House of Representatives has become a chamber of horrors that only libtard groupies could embrace and the Senate reflects the bluest of blue from metropolis and the coastal cultures. The gangland underworld families that make up the Deep State and are controlled by the Shadow Government elites have shifted tactics for electing the next generation of Federal legislators.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2019
US Border Barrier Solution / Politics / US Politics
Rational discourse has been the overriding casualty of the border war. The break down in language is more than semantics. It has elevated into a divergence of culture that no longer shares a common value system or a cherished dream. The camps of discontent reside in separate and distinct jurisdictions. Government has failed at every level. People have become so polarized that trust in a community of citizens has been discarded for the purity of totalitarian globalism. The continued controversy over a border barrier differentiates more than a line between two countries.
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Saturday, January 12, 2019
Trump's Impeachment? Watch the Stock Market / Politics / US Politics
Will Negative Social Mood Oust Trump? Watch the Stock Market
Special Q&A With Alan Hall on Elections and Impeachment
At the end of this article you'll have the opportunity to hear Alan discuss his impeachment research with ETV Correspondent Dana Weeks.
You cannot afford to miss Alan's insightful political analysis. Please login to view the interview after reading the article.
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Tuesday, January 01, 2019
2019 From A Fourth Turning Perspective / Politics / US Politics
“An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
“An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
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Monday, December 31, 2018
How to Fund Trumps Border Wall While Saving Lives / Politics / US Politics
President Trump and Congressional Democrats have decided to enliven the Christmas season with a game of chicken over President Trump’s proposed “border wall.” As a result, the federal government is partly shut down until the issue is resolved.
The President wants $5 billion to start building the wall. Democrats have offered just $1.6 billion. If the problem truly is money and not that the Democrats oppose a wall under any circumstances, there is a place in the federal budget to find all the money the President wants while saving thousands of lives a year in the process.
More than 700,000 Americans are afflicted with kidney failure. Of those, almost 30 percent live with transplant kidneys with the remaining 70 percent on dialysis. Under a 1972 law, the federal government pays for kidney dialysis for every American whose private insurance does not cover treatment. In 2016, the latest year for which data are available, Medicare spent $35.4 billion on patients with kidney failure (read: end stage renal disease).
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Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Political Theater Goes into Overdrive as US Government Shutdown Looms / Politics / US Politics
The Democratic party will be moving back into the control room in the House of Representatives.
Congress may commemorate the return to split government with a partial shutdown. The feud over construction of a border wall looks like it will not be resolved in time. It could be the first of many political dramas in 2019.
The debate over funding for the wall is theater, make no mistake.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
US Government Works Better When Divided / Politics / US Politics
The results of the U.S. mid-term elections were good news for not only the winners, but for most Americans. Yes, the federal government works better when divided, not unified. The 116th Congress—with the House of Representatives controlled by the Democrats and the Senate and White House under Republican command—may work better than the unified 115th Congress did.
The idea and evidence supporting this somewhat counter-intuitive idea was first presented to me many years ago by my good friend and collaborator, the late William A. “Bill” Niskanen. Bill was sharp as a tack. Indeed, he was one of Secretary of Defense McNamara’s “Whiz Kids” during the Kennedy-Johnson years. At the ripe old age of 29, Bill had a civilian rank equivalent to that of a brigadier-general. Bill was one to speak his mind, too. His sharpness and outspokenness occasionally landed him in hot water. Famously, while operating as the director of economics at Ford Motor Company in the mid-1970s, Bill publicly opposed U.S. government restrictions on the imports of Japanese automobiles, demonstrating why the restrictions would hurt Ford. For that infraction, Bill was sacked.
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Saturday, November 24, 2018
Trump's America, Front and Center / Politics / US Politics
Public infrastructure in the U.S. is in bad shape and has been so for many years. Washington has fingered the importance of doing something about the decrepit state of America’s infrastructure for decades. It’s the bipartisan thing to do.
President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers devoted a lengthy chapter in its 2016 Annual Report to the Nation’s infrastructure problems. Enter President Trump in 2017. The first thing out of his box was infrastructure. But, the “i” word faded away as rapidly as it entered President Trump’s lexicon. There was a little problem: the White House didn’t really have a fully developed infrastructure plan and most certainly had no legislative action plan. With last week’s elections, President Trump once again trotted out infrastructure, as did Nancy Pelosi—the most likely Speaker of the House, which will be controlled by the Democrats in the 116th Congress.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
US Economy Ten Points or Ten Miles to ‘Bridge Out’? / Politics / US Politics
In what has already been a very interesting week, we’ve witnessed distractions galore. Allegations of election fraud by pretty much everyone except the people who should be winning some of these elections if Americans truly wanted a different future. We already digress. Cognitive dissonance is fully on display. Just below the surface has been the buzz about DeutscheBank – probably the biggest elephant in the room right now. Well, check that. Make it the second biggest elephant. It’s been propped up for nearly a small dog’s life by powers that know if DB folds, their plans to consolidate more wealth from the small people of the world would be disturbed and they’d have to run Act III. Maybe, like QE, there are many more Acts yet to unfold.
It is a pretty certain bet that absolutely nothing will be done to change America’s destiny for the next two years thanks to a gridlocked government. Not that it had been doing much to change destiny anyway. There are certain ironies here, which are so rich, we’ve been compelled to write them down for perhaps another day, but not this one. Dragging names into this will only cause people to shut down, mentally running into their corner in the biggest binary brain battle ever.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Nationalists and Patriots / Politics / US Politics
If and when a former Rothschild banker starts telling us what the words in our respective languages actually mean, beware. Even if he has dozens of professional speech writers and spin doctors to do it for him. And even if the meaning and interpretation of words, though they may seem easily translatable, differ between English, French, German, Russian, Chinese to such an extent that Lost in Translation may appear to be an understatement.
But if you’re that Rothschild banker who became president of France through a process that nobody will ever understand, and you host the 100th commemoration of perhaps the worst war ever in history, to be ‘celebrated’ with ‘leaders’ none of whom have exhibited any memory through their actions of the ‘This must never happen again’ that the war ended with, you can expect to get away with bending both history and language.
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Mike Pompeo and John Bolton: Trump’s Tag Team of Death and Destruction! / Politics / US Politics
With the welcome departure of war mongering UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the Trump Administration’s neocon tag team of death and destruction – Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor (NSA), John Bolton – have enthusiastically taken up where the repellent Haley has left off. It is highly doubtful that the former Ambassador will meekly return from under the rock in which she crawled, but will reappear possibly as a primary challenger to her former boss in 2020, and, most certainly, as a Presidential contender in 2024.
Last week, Messrs Pompeo and Bolton were dutifully carrying forth Haley’s promises of mayhem to anyone opposed to US hegemony even if those “enemies” have never taken hostile action against the US mainland. Of course, threats and attacks against nations which have done nothing to America have never much mattered to the foreign policy establishment!
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Monday, November 12, 2018
What Is the Difference Between Democrats and Republicans? / Politics / US Politics
In Minnesota, democrat Keith Ellison had domestic assault charges lodged against him. His accuser filed a police report and exhibited bruising around her face. The accuser’s own adult son verified the assault. The voters of Minnesota elected Mr. Ellison as their attorney general.
In New York’s District 14, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the unopposed House of Representative seat after republicans withdrew support of their candidate, Anthony Pappas. Why? Mr. Pappas was accused of domestic violence. Apparently ‘believe the women’ only applies to democratic women with an ax to grind against republicans. So, logically, accusations lodged by women are fungible and dependent on political affiliation?
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Wednesday, November 07, 2018
The Fourth Turning & War Of The Worlds / Politics / US Politics
“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning– Strauss & Howe
The paragraph above captures everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen during this Fourth Turning. It was written over two decades ago, but no one can deny its accuracy regarding our present situation. The spark was a financial crash. The response to the financial crash by the financial and governmental entities, along with their Deep State co-conspirators who created the financial collapse due to their greed and malfeasance, led to the incomprehensible election of Donald Trump, as the deplorables in flyover country evoked revenge upon the corrupt establishment.
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Thursday, November 01, 2018
Trump Is America’s National Piñata / Politics / US Politics
It’s been quite a while since I first wrote that I resented the MSM (New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC etc etc) for effectively monopolizing the entire discussion about Donald Trump. Don’t remember exactly when I wrote that, do remember Jim Kunstler sent a mail and thanked me for saying it. Because he felt- and feels- the same way.
The 24/7 daily Trump bashing machine that was unleashed in late 2015/early 2016 meant that people like us had a choice of criticizing Trump where he needed to be criticized, but that would put us in the MSM camp, where we don’t want to be. And we don’t want to not criticize him either, because there’s so much that needs scrutiny.
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Friday, October 19, 2018
Savings – Not Tariffs Will Make America Great Again / Politics / US Politics
While the farcical Kavanaugh confirmation hearings dominated the news cycle for the past couple of weeks, little mention was made of a disturbing economic headline – the August US trade deficit. Despite all the bluster from the Trump Administration about “winning trade wars” and “trade wars are easy,” America’s trade imbalances for August were the highest ever and its deficit with its most contentious partner – China – reached an all-time high.
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Wednesday, October 03, 2018
U.S.- Mexico - Canada Trade Agreement / Politics / US Politics
Now that the most disastrous aspects of NAFTA have been removed from the new U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement; traders, business managers and the public will get to see the true sentiments of the globalists, who will feel the pain of losing their special commercial protections. Restricting genuine free trade has always been the main objective of the corporatists and internationalists. The basic question: has President Trump bucked the financial monopolists and transformed commerce with a dose of business reciprocity or is USMCA just a back door to establish a North American Union?
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Monday, September 24, 2018
Destroy America with Information Warfare / Politics / US Politics
The populace has been misled for decades by the information that comes from the establishment. Most people believe that foreign powers are the primary providers of disinformation. Few are willing to confront the reality that the most destructive culprits are the international monopolists who dominate the global economy. These plutocrats may be part of boards of public companies that are listed in the U.S. but their allegiance is with the globalist model of transnational economic hegemony. This commercial pattern supersedes any nationalistic obligation to accept President Trump's goal of making America great again.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2018
The Ritual Burial of the US Constitution / Politics / US Politics
In the wake of a number of the Lehman and 9/11 commemorations in America, and as a monster storm is once again threatening to cause outsize damage, we find ourselves at a pivotal point in time, which will decide how the country interacts with its own laws, its legal system, its Constitution, its freedom of speech, and indeed if it has sufficient willpower left to adhere to the Constitution as its no. 1 guiding principle.
The main problem is that it all seems to slip slide straight by the people, who are -kept- busy with completely different issues. That is convenient for those who would like less focus on the Constitution, but it’s also very dangerous for everyone else. Americans should today stand up for freedom of speech, or it will be gone, likely forever.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Obama's Zombie Followers / Politics / US Politics
Barack Hussein Obama has emerged from his crypt. One of the time-honored practices when a President leaves office has been that they fade into the obscurity of retirement. As witnessed with George W. Bush, the public has not been burdened with his political involvement or wisdom of his years as commander and chief. The same cannot be said about Obama, the perpetual narcissist former head of state. This globalist CIA President caused severe damage to the Republic that any rational citizen would readily admit. Yet, this failed X-President has never shed his vision of grandeur. If anyone doubts about this assessment just reflect on his latest 64-minute speech. President Barack Obama Rips President Donald Trump: Full Speech 9/7/2018.
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Thursday, August 30, 2018
Social Media vs the Constitution / Politics / US Politics
An ancient Latin saying goes: “Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi” (what is permissible for Jupiter, is not for an ox). It feels very much on topic when social media are concerned. And as the heat over their censorship is turned up, it may well be the decisive factor.
Reuters reiterates today that on May 23, Manhattan US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that Donald Trump’ Twitter account is a public forum and blocking Twitter users for their views violates their right to free speech under the First Amendment. The same, says the ruling, applies to other government officials’ accounts.
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Monday, August 27, 2018
Remembering Thousands of Children that Died Because John McCain Advocated Bombing Them / Politics / US Politics
Let’s try a different angle. How about the world through the eyes of children’s? I don’t want to dwell on John McCain, too many people already do today, but I would suggest that your thoughts and prayers are with the souls of the hundreds of thousands of children that died because McCain advocated bombing them. Or, indeed, 50-odd years ago, were bombed by him personally. I wanted to leave him be altogether, don’t kick a man when he’s down, but I can’t get the image out of my head of him singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”.
To remember that, perhaps the most vile and infamous thing he’s ever done (it’s in the top ten), and then see someone like Ocasio-Cortez say he was an “unparalleled example of human decency”, it’s almost comedy. But not as funny as when in the 2008 campaign the woman in the red dress asked him if Obama was an Arab, and he responded: “No, ma’am. No, ma’am. He’s a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about”.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
When the Constitution Hurts the US / Politics / US Politics
I’m not a fan of small spaces, and MRIs give me the willies.I understand that there’s no way the giant machine could collapse, and no possibility that I’ll run low on air, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.
Maybe President Trump has a similar issue, although not with small spaces.
Instead, the smell of new car leather might make him sweat.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Shape of Trump to Come / Politics / US Politics
I thought I’d make list of things we can expect to emanate from the White House over the coming year or so. I’m sure you will agree, wherever you stand on the political roller coaster, that there’s little chance things are going to be boring going forward. Here goes:
Trump will end the ‘monopolies’ of Facebook, Google, Twitter et al. The intelligence community will hate this, but they already hate him anyway, so why bother? And besides, it’s the only thing to do that makes any sense. The AT&T model might be useful, essentially creating Baby Bells, though the international reach of the companies may add a layer or two of complications.
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Friday, August 10, 2018
The Forrest Gump of All Future Democrat Election Losses / Politics / US Politics
Julian Assange has received an letter from the US Senate asking him to testify in front of them. What to make of that is not entirely clear. Far as I know, Assange offered such testimony multiple times, under the ‘right standards’. The Senate ostensibly wants this to take place behind closed doors, and it’s hard to see how that would fit Assange’s standards. But who knows?
What struck me was that the letter was signed by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA). and especially the latter runs like a red thread through everything that has to do with Assange and the US. It reminded me of what John Solomon said in his June 25 piece ‘How Comey Intervened To Kill Wikileaks’ Immunity Deal’ about Assange lawyer Adam Waldman, who according to Solomon has a ‘Forrest Gump-like penchant for showing up in major cases of intrigue’.
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Saturday, August 04, 2018
Red States vs Blue States - Breaking Down Trump’s Trade Wars / Politics / US Politics
There’s ideology.And then there’s reality and outcomes.
Unfortunately, the trade war overtures in the name of fairer competition, disfavors jobs in the red states far more than in the blue ones.
In Thursday’s issue, I looked at how curbing immigration is likely to be a major factor tipping us into the next recession.
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Thursday, July 19, 2018
Trump Manchurian President Embarrasses Putin By Farcically Blowing his Russian Agent Cover / Politics / US Politics
Trump effectively blew what little cover he had left of being Czar Putin's Manchurian President, as he lavished praise on the Russian Dictator whilst deriding his own law enforcement and Intelligence agencies and their evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, as Trump chose to side with Putin by following the Czar's script rather than the growing volume of evidence of Russian interference in the election that just days earlier had prompted the US to indict 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking of DNC servers. That were a likely response to Trump's own statements made during the campaign for the Russians to to hack and leak Hillary's emails as he continued with the theme at the Press conference in Helsinki.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Trump or Putin - who is the Master in the Art of the Deal? / Politics / US Politics
As summits go, this Trump/Putin melodrama has been billed with the lowest expectations. Style versus substance has been the focus of the Fake News Press. Low energy and boring is the assessment. Trump missed a great opportunity to lay out Putin on the carpet of public opinion. He got trumped by the wily KGB operative. So goes the coordinated condemnation by the U.S. media and talking heads. The internationalists in the foreign policy establishment suffer another blow in their plan to fire up the tension and brinkmanship with the Russian Bear. This attitude is vividly exemplified by that deranged spook and former director of the CIA, John Brennan: Trump's press conference with Putin 'nothing short of treasonous'.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Trump Treason? Get A Life! / Politics / US Politics
Yeah, just keep ’em coming, right, so that when the last one falls flat on its face people will have already forgotten about it and instead focus on the new one. It’s been the modus operandi of the US MSM ever since Donald Trump emerged as an actual presidential candidate, and they haven’t let go.
They realize by now that it divides the nation, it costs them a large chunk of their potential readers and viewers, and creates chaos all around, but the bottom line is it makes them money. Because those people who fall into the echo chamber trap, tumble into it fast and furious, and will gladly pay to read yet another installment of how bad the man really is.
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Sunday, July 15, 2018
The True Meaning of Russian ‘Collusion’ / Politics / US Politics
The indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose task it is to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and ‘Russians’, that was released yesterday by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, raises so many questions one has to be picky.
Many people have already stated that the report contains no proof of anything it claims, and that Mueller doesn’t have to prove a thing, because the 12 Russians he accuses will never show up in a US court. Many of course also have at least questioned the timing of the release, 3 days before the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki, of information Mueller and Rosenstein have allegedly been sitting on for months.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Failure of US Supreme Court Opinions / Politics / US Politics
Now that Brett Kavanaugh has been selected by President Trump to be the next Supreme Court Justice, the gladiator games of the confirmation process begins. Much of the attention will focus on the bitter hysteria that the Never Trump lunatics exhibit as they regress even further into denial. Those supporters who demand a Living Constitution are in a panic. They see the gains they have made over decades are fading with a court of Originalists and fear that Textualism will become the standard for the Supreme Court. The self-proclaimed enlightened zealots contend they are social justice warriors. In actuality they protect the corrupt institutions, practices and policies that progressives profess they oppose.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2018
America a Nation Built on Lies / Politics / US Politics
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men — men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” – Ellen G. White
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Thursday, July 05, 2018
Independence From What? / Politics / US Politics
There’s something wonderfully -though at the same time sadly- ironic in simultaneously contemplating America’s Independence Day and Greece’s NO! (OXI!) vote three years ago that was subsequently defeated by it own prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, at the behest of the European Union’s powers that be.
Where Americans managed to break free of their yoke in 1776, the Greeks did not. Indeed, they were betrayed by their own. There are certainly plenty of similarities with the Declaration of Independence to be made, plenty voices and forces that sought to defeat the Founding Fathers. In the end, the result is simple: the Americans succeeded in breaking free, the Greeks did not.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Open Borders Nihilism / Politics / US Politics
The nihilists that have debased our popular culture are composed of leftist hypocrite's hell bent on destroying our country. Hollywood weird is one of the most perverted lineage examples of tribal interlopers who produced the entertainment industry. No one should be surprised when the privileged rapists of our civilization become the loudest exponents of open borders. While they reside in gated citadels they depend on their feudal serfs to do the manual labor and chores to maintain the fantasy land existence in their virtual reality castles.
Imposing the purity of progressive intolerance upon the deplorables is written into film screenplays, TV series and music videos. The guardians for a utopian sanctuary society have no room to mix with family oriented producing citizens. The goal for the beautiful people is to eradicate the middle class and open the flood dikes to gate-crashers so that the tech obsessed and media elites can strip the nation of its independence and self-determination.
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Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Outrage at What the United States is doing to Children Across the World! / Politics / US Politics
Yes, you have every right to be outraged at the disgraceful treatment of children on America’s borders. But that does not give you the right to NOT be outraged by what America has done and is today still doing to children in, just to name a few places, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Be outraged, but don’t make it an echo chamber issue. Because if you do, you, too, are in a cage.
So if you see the wives of former presidents speak out about the child separation policies, ask yourself where they get the moral authority to speak out on such issues, after their husbands have bombed the crap out of many countries, killing many many children in the process. And don’t let’s get started about Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.
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Sunday, May 27, 2018
How Trump’s Ditching of Iran Nuclear Deal Affirms American Unipolarity with Obama’s help / Politics / US Politics
The Trump White House plans to break the Iran deal by sanctioning companies from Europe and Asia doing business in and with Iran. Ironically, President Obama paved the way to unilateral sanctions.For three years, the comprehensive nuclear accord (JCPOA) has offered Iran relief from US, UN and multilateral sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors. But recently that era came to a halt. “The United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” President Trump said on May 8.
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Sunday, May 27, 2018
Blackstone, BlackRock or a Public Bank for California’s Money? / Politics / US Politics
California needs over $700 billion in infrastructure during the next decade. Where will this money come from? The $1.5 trillion infrastructure initiative unveiled by President Trump in February includes only $200 billion in federal funding, and less than that after factoring in the billions in tax cuts in infrastructure-related projects. The rest is to come from cities, states, private investors and public-private partnerships (PPPs). And because city and state coffers are depleted, that chiefly means private investors and PPPs, which have a shady history at best.
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Friday, May 25, 2018
Trump “Victories” on Trade are Anything But / Politics / US Politics
Earlier this year when President Trump began beating the drums loudly, causing fear of a trade war (and assuring us that such a conflict could be easily won), I cautioned that he had no idea the trouble he was courting. Based on his spectacular misunderstanding of the power dynamic built in to international trade, he was also in danger of bringing a knife to a gunfight.
As the year has progressed, the underbrush has gotten thornier, Trump’s progress on trade has slowed, and now it has likely stopped altogether. Despite that, in true Trumpian fashion, the President has declared resounding victory. But a quick look back reveals the opposite to be true.
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Monday, May 21, 2018
Is Political Decentralization the Only Hope for Western Civilization? / Politics / US Politics
A couple of recent articles have once more made the case, at least implicitly, for political decentralization as the only viable path which will begin to solve the seemingly insurmountable political, economic, and social crises which the Western world now faces.
In the last few months, over 3,000 millionaires have fled the hopelessly corrupt and bankrupt state of Illinois. When asked, 47% of Illinoisans would like to leave the state which, over the last decade, has seen over a half million of its residents flee. Naturally, this exodus has exacerbated the Land of Lincoln’s financial straits to catastrophic levels.*
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Friday, May 18, 2018
Bringing the Wild West back to Alaska / Politics / US Politics
Amid Alaska's deep recession with no end in sight, it is the city of Anchorage that suffers the most. Beyond losing jobs and longtime residents on a sharp curve downward, Anchorage has been afflicted by a spike in crime, including violent crime. Downtown Anchorage is dying slowly.
That is quite a conundrum for a place that fate seemed destined to reward as beautiful and prosperous forever, given what the natural world already provides. The remedy I'd like to suggest for Southcentral Alaska is one that has brought sudden, massive economic growth to places far less likely to succeed than Anchorage.
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Thursday, April 19, 2018
The Civil War Is At Home in America / Politics / US Politics
Dr. D: Wonderfully said. Since no one will report, here’s what happened to that airstrike. The one where we declare a victory and go home (or try to).
They targeted 10 sites, yet after the Pentagon said it was a perfect mission, they only reported on 4. Who were the other 6?
Read full article... Read full article...Duwali airbase – 4 missiles fired, 4 shot down
Dumayr airbase – 12 missiles fired, 12 shot down
Baley airbase – 18 missiles fired, 18 shot down
Shayrat airbase – 12 missiles fired, 12 shot down
Marj Ruhayyil airbase – 18 missiles fired, 18 shot down
Damascus international airport – 4 missiles fired, 4 shot down
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
WINTER IS COMING - The Ongoing Fourth Turning Crisis Part2 / Politics / US Politics
“Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning the way you might today distance yourself from news, national politics, or even taxes you don’t feel like paying. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted. The Fourth Turning necessitates the death and rebirth of the social order. It is the ultimate rite of passage for an entire people, requiring a luminal state of sheer chaos whose nature and duration no one can predict in advance.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
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Tuesday, April 17, 2018
‘Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We’re finally on our own’ / Politics / US Politics
Neil Young pinned those lyrics to his song, ‘Ohio’. The tin soldiers were the National Guard and Nixon was the President. The song was about the Guard’s execution of four students at Kent State in 1970. But today, these lyrics seem truer than ever. Governments for the governed have turned on the governed. Governments conduct the business of governed in secrecy for the benefit of the government. Governments initiate acts of aggression against other peoples who have no representation in their government. The media is a propaganda arm of the government. The governed have no idea what is really happening. How do we ‘know’ anything today? In a vacuum of leadership, it does feel like ‘we are finally on our own.’
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Sunday, April 08, 2018
America 2.0 / Politics / US Politics
It’s Dr. D again. Told you he’s on a roll. He remains convinced America can re-invent itself. If only because it must.
Dr. D: Herbert Stein’s Law states “What Can’t Go On Forever, Doesn’t.” This is a neat summary of the present trade and currency imbalance. China makes real goods and the U.S. consumes them by typing digits on a keyboard. This is the very definition of what cannot go on forever.
• How long do you expect a nation can make nothing and consume everything?
• How long do you expect a nation without manufacturing, without a workforce, and now without a viable military to remain pre-eminent?
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Thursday, April 05, 2018
Trump Anti-Gun, Pro War, Big Government, Attacks Private Enterprise / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump has declared war on the free market, taking to Twitter again to bash Amazon for doing what he infamously and righteously did for decades: avoid paying extortion.
It seems Darth Hater is hellbent on forcing the wildly-successful e-retailer to fork up their profits because they used the notoriously inefficient and bankrupt Post Office to deliver goods to their millions of customers.
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Monday, March 26, 2018
The Future Is Uncertain And The End Is Always Near / Politics / US Politics
Spending a week driving around a western state 1,700 miles from my stomping grounds in Pennsylvania provides a different perspective on the level of economic, social and political degradation impacting the country. With a daily commute along the crumbling, crummy, gridlocked deathtrap roadways into West Philadelphia, the squalor and decomposition of our civilization is self-evident.
I live in a corrupt state with the highest gasoline taxes, highest tolls, massively underfunded government pension liability, failing government run public schools, suburban sprawl dotted with ghost malls, vacant industrial parks, and urban ghetto shitholes plagued by drugs, murder, welfare mentality, excessive taxes, and left wing politicians.
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Saturday, March 17, 2018
The War on the Post Office / Politics / US Politics
The U.S. banking establishment has been at war with the post office since at least 1910, when the Postal Savings Bank Act established a public savings alternative to a private banking system that had crashed the economy in the Bank Panic of 1907. The American Bankers Association was quick to respond, forming a Special Committee on Postal Savings Legislation to block any extension of the new service. According to a September 2017 article in The Journal of Social History titled “ ‘Banks of the People’: The Life and Death of the U.S. Postal Savings System,” the banking fraternity would maintain its enmity toward the government savings bank for the next 50 years.
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Friday, March 16, 2018
Nationalism, Not the Russians, got Trump Elected / Politics / US Politics
As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
Nationalism. Populism. Nativism. All of these words have been used to describe the reason for Donald Trump's unlikely rise to power, and while each is defined a bit differently, they all share the same over-arching principle: that Trump tapped into an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with status quo politics, of excessive liberalism, of pandering to minorities, of Washington insiders doing the bidding of high-paid lobbyists, and most importantly, a sense that Americans were losing their country to elites who no longer represented the majority.
In early February, 13 Russians and three Russian companies were charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election, adding fodder to the theory, often espoused by the left, that Russian intelligence agencies conspired to change the outcome of the election because they favored Trump over Hillary Clinton. The indictment said that Russians created bogus Internet postings, posed as American political activists, and bought advertisements, all with the intent to “sow discord in the US political system.”
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Jeff Sessions the Mr. Magoo Buffoon / Politics / US Politics
Pick your poison for the Trump administration's biggest failure. Russian demonization by the State Department, movement of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or adopting the threat of an aggressive use of nuclear weapons are all high on the list. All of these topics deal with foreign policy. However, the country ignores or dismisses such concerns because the bombs are not yet hitting our shores.
What does impact every inhabitant is that the rule of law has become an utter joke, especially under the regimes of the last three Attorney Generals. Sadly President Trump got snookered by former Senator Jeff Sessions when he was picked to lead the Department of Justice, better described as UNJUSTICE by anyone who has half a brain left to admit the true condition of the top cops, head attorneys or government pseudo magistrates.
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Wednesday, February 28, 2018
More State Regulations and Higher Minimum Wage / Politics / US Politics
Disputing that the economy is healthy has been an occupational job for decades. Still the government unemployment stats paint a picture that full employment is upon us. Undercounting the permanently discouraged may just be the largest category of growth that goes under reported. However the empirical data for the real causes and disincentives of both the employer and employee are usually glossed over. No doubt the shift in actual job requirements are constantly changing, but the effects of switching the ground rules makes some state governments non-competitive with other jurisdictions.
The New York Law Journal digs into the weeds to illustrate a proposed regulation that cannot help improve the plight of labor in 'No Help Wanted': The Regulation and Elimination of Retail Positions outlines an absurd example of governmental interference.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Goofy Indictments Divert Attention from Criminal Abuses at the FBI and DOJ / Politics / US Politics
“If the election is ‘disrupted’ by voters changing their votes due to Russians posting on Facebook, then the problem is not that Russians are posting on Facebook, the problem is that voters are changing their votes based on posts they read on Facebook.” Bill H, comments line Sic Semper Tyrannis “God help America. We’ve lost our damn minds.” Publius Tacitus
Robert Mueller’s Friday night indictment-spree, is a flagrant and infuriating attempt to divert attention from the damning revelations in the Nunes memo (and the Graham-Grassley “criminal referral”) which prove that senior-level officials at the FBI and DOJ were engaged in an expansive conspiracy to subvert the presidential elections by spying on members of the Trump campaign. The evidence that the FBI and DOJ “improperly obtained” FISA warrants to spy on Trump campaign affiliate, Carter Page, has now been overshadowed by the tragic massacre in Parkland, Florida and the obfuscating indictments of 13 Internet “trolls” who have not been linked to the Russian government and who are being used to conceal the fact that the 18 month-long witch hunt has not yet produced even one scintilla of hard evidence related to the original claims of “hacking or collusion”.
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Tuesday, February 13, 2018
GOP Adopts Democrat Big Deficit Spending / Politics / US Politics
If you ever had doubts that the Federal Government experiment has failed, the bipartisan busting of the budget has made it clear that Congress abdicates their sacred duty to defend the nation from internal enemies of the people. Forget the preposterousness argument that the United States must have the most expensive military to expand the evil empire that has been built up since the end of World War II. Real national defense starts at our own water's edge and needs to relinquish any absurd notion that our own safety is enhanced by having deployments to every corner of the globe. As long as the State Department expands their interventionism, diplomacy is scarified upon the alter of continuous military bombing. Eliminating the restrains of sequesters to tamp down the size and intrusions of gun boat intimidation are a step backward. Actual national defense is diminished by the garrison bases located far from our own homeland.
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Tuesday, February 06, 2018
Hostilities - Bitcoin, Stocks, America.... / Politics / US Politics
I don’t like going to the movies. Too much hassle, too many commercials and previews, too expensive, and 90% of the movies are worthless drivel, SJW inspired crap, or government buoyed propaganda. Last weekend was my wife’s birthday and she wanted to see a movie. When she shockingly suggested a western, I reluctantly agreed. So my wife and one of my sons got in the car and headed to an old Franks theater in Montgomeryville that only charges $8.50. I had seen a brief review of Hostiles on-line and saw it got a decent rating on rotten tomatoes. I was looking forward to being mildly entertained.
The next two hours and fifteen minutes of this dark, somber, violent, morally ambiguous treatise about the old west cannot be described as enjoyable. But I did find it riveting and thought provoking. Christian Bale, as Captain Joseph Blocker, mournfully carries out his duties without a single smile crossing his bearded countenance for the entire movie. The tone, atmosphere and message of this film reminded me of my favorite western and subject of the final part of my five part series based on Clint Eastwood movies – Unforgiven. One of the soldiers in Hostiles even has dialogue almost matching Will Munny’s foreboding exchange at the end of Unforgiven:
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Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Kalifornia Open Warfare on Business / Politics / US Politics
The People's Republic of Kalifornia is a prime example of centralized technocratic planning under the protection of a monolithic legislature that is entirely rooted in a Marxist "global warming" climate of totalitarian collectivism. Business in this cage of redistribution exists to support the extortion demands of the Sacramento commissars. Decades of reporting definitively conclude that the Golden State has depleted their wealth creation resources because of persistent disincentives and outright penalties for conducting legitimate business. The citadel of punitive regulations has been claimed by California, the undisputed champion of anti-capitalism.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Worse than Watergate - Release the Memo - Investigate Uranium One / Politics / US Politics
The utter farce of the Mueller investigation into Trump collusion with Russia demonstrates the most obscene and overwhelming pattern of government deceit and deflection in decades. Enough has been written on this trolling probe to convince sincere and honest people that the protection racket thugs are running a confidence game against the populace and has abandoned any prospect of justice. Still, the fake news gatekeepers that select what is suitable for the apathetic public to hear see or read keeps the fairy tale narrative going to prevent looking into the true crimes committed by the cabal of establishment globalists.
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Sunday, January 14, 2018
Oprah for President, Really? / Politics / US Politics
Being president isn’t like hosting a talk show or running a media brand. Oprah’s success in her field is no more indicative of her potential to be a good president than Trump’s success in real estate was. You can’t criticize Trump for having no relevant experience or evident understanding of public policy, then say that the solution for Democrats is just to throw up their hands and find their own celebrity to promote.— Paul Waldman, “Get a Grip, People. Oprah should not run for President”, Washington Post
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Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Failure of War Party Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
The continuous foreign policy failures of the entrenched establishment goes back well over a century. Notwithstanding, the missed opportunity with the collapse of the Soviet Communism has emboldened the war party of the American Empire to become the main existential threat not only to our own country, but to much of the rest of the world. The militarists who chant "Thank You for your Service" are actually committed to expand the Wounded Warrior dupes, who are expendable. The United States never learned the lessons of Viet Nam. Volunteering to fight in unnecessary foreign adventures has caused more gratuitous suffering than any improvised explosive device that blows off limbs.
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Wednesday, January 03, 2018
“The lie is the rock on which this republic rests.” / Politics / US Politics
I stole this quote from Andrew Jackson whose actual quote was, “The Bible is the rock on which this republic rests.” Of course, the United States is not the country, or republic, that is was when the extraordinary genius of Andrew Jackson graced the presidency. Jackson also once said, “One man with courage makes a majority.” With that courage, President Jackson exterminated the plague of a central bank, balanced the country’s budget, and left the US taxpayers owing no debt to anyone on the planet. Without Jackson’s courage, the country has been growing debt since he left office in 1836. Plantation slavery has been replaced with debt slavery and sovereign rule has been replaced by bankster domination. We can only pray, ‘Please Lord, send us another leader with Jackson-like courage’.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Nader Explains the Ongoing Collapse of the Democratic Party / Politics / US Politics
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right." John Kenneth Galbraith
The last presidential election was obviously, and by choice of the parties, a contest between the lesser of two evils. The Democratic candidate was the choice of the party insiders, and the Republican of people who had just had enough, and were willing to believe the unabashed nonsense of a conman in their desperation.
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Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Masters of Economic and Political Illusion – in Taxes, Debt, Government, and Markets / Politics / US Politics
We are a gullible people, and have become more so with the evolution and development of ever more persuasive propaganda. We accept many commonly popular economic or political “established facts” as truth almost without question. We forget or are ignorant of the fact that there are large well financed organizations in whose interest it is to provide us with information and views that will polarize our own thinking and values to parallel those of these powerful influences. In effect we are provided with the scaffolding for an illusion which we fill in according to our own personal, but mainstream media propaganda and other organization-channeled input. In creating such illusions it seems appropriate to paraphrase President Reagan’s comment: it’s not that we are ignorant, but that we know so much that simply isn’t so.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017
The Unbearable Slowness Of Fourth Turnings / Politics / US Politics
“The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium, midway through the Oh-Oh decade. Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
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Tuesday, November 07, 2017
When Civil Liberties are Violated by Government / Politics / US Politics
Behold, who really cares about civil liberties in a society that puts government as the final arbitrator of authority? Well, sadly the prospects for a rebirth in recognizing that individual liberties are the basis for a civilized union are more remote now than at any time in the last half century. Most people view civil liberties as defined by protecting the personage. Notwithstanding, constitutional freedom has an important component is maintaining a just and functioning government regime. Sinking into a despotic authoritarianism is the expected risk when governments go amok. However, inadequate attention is given to the discussion and study of what constitutes a responsible state power.
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Monday, November 06, 2017
Donald Trump tells me our best days are ahead. Once his tax cut plan is passed... / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump tells me our best days are ahead. Once his tax cut plan is passed, the future will be so bright I’ll have to wear shades.
Sometimes a single chart reveals the truth being obscured by the Deep State propaganda machine, working overtime selling their economic recovery narrative. The economy most certainly is booming for Wall Streeters and D.C. parasites sucking on the teet of Federal government largess. But for the average working deplorable, this supposed recovery has passed them by.
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Friday, November 03, 2017
Charts Showing Extreme Social Fragmentation in the US / Politics / US Politics
I’m going to show you three graphs that sum up the study discerning political polarization that has been conducted since 1994.
These three charts look at the years 1994, 2004, and 2017. Even as late as 2004, notice the broad crossover between the median Democrat and median Republican. And then notice how wide the divide is today.
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Saturday, October 28, 2017
CIA and FBI Prevent Trump Releasing JFK Assassination Smoking Gun Files / Politics / US Politics
Despite much fanfare and great expectations, President Trump barely released 10% of the files that were supposed to have been released on the JFK assassination after the FBI and CIA arm twisted Trump into withholding the full release of some 28,000 files under the excuse of impacting on National Security, protecting long dead sources, despite the fact that by law ALL of the files should have been released.
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Monday, October 09, 2017
EU Officials Out Of Step With Reality, Europeans Don’t See What’s Coming at Them / Politics / US Politics
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Imagine the following scenario.
Texas votes to secede from the United States, sparking bitter tension between Austin and Washington. A neo-Nazi party wins seats in the California legislature.
Cook County, home to Chicago, threatens to break away from Illinois to form its own state. Worried about losing such an economically vibrant region, government officials try to prevent the election from taking place.
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Monday, October 09, 2017
Donald Trump: Warmonger-in-Chief! / Politics / US Politics
If a world conflagration, God forbid, should break out during the Trump Administration, its genesis will not be too hard to discover: the thin-skinned, immature, shallow, doofus which currently resides in the Oval Office!
This past week, the Donald has continued his bellicose talk with both veiled and explicit threats against purported American adversaries throughout the world. In a cryptic exchange with reporters during a dinner with military leaders, he quipped:
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Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Why Left Wing Nuts Get Away with Murder / Politics / US Politics
"Once Upon A Time, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away" the left wing of the political spectrum were the vanguard of opposing the globalist warfare matrix. The anti-war movement changed the world in the 1960's and stopped the bloody carnage in Viet Nam. Judging by today's standards, that world is forgotten and the replacement culture has an attitude that preserving the empire is necessary no matter how trumped up the rationale is to maintain perpetual conflict. Choose the newest enemy; Jihad Islam, Russian nationalism, Chinese supremacy or North Korean belligerence and any dedicated internationalist can spin an argument why fighting the next war is necessary.
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Monday, September 25, 2017
A Constitutional Anniversary to Forget / Politics / US Politics
While not a jubilee year, last week marked the 230th anniversary of the US Constitution. Naturally, most of its devotees enthusiastically praised the document which by now is seen on a par with Holy Writ itself. An editorial from Investor’s Business Daily provides an example of such hagiography:
Read full article... Read full article...The Constitution’s beauty is that it not only delineates our rights
as Americans, but expressly limits and defines government’s ability
to interfere in our private lives. This equipoise between citizens’
duties, responsibilities and rights makes it the defining document
or our nation’s glorious freedom.
But America is wonderful largely because of the Constitution and
those who framed it . . . .
What we have is too precious to squander . . . .*
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Really Bad Ideas, Part 4: US Federal Flood Insurance / Politics / US Politics
As Hurricanes Harvey and Irma wreaked their havoc over the past couple of weeks, several interconnected questions popped up, the answers to which make us look, to put it bluntly, like idiots.
Why, for instance, are there suddenly so many Cat 4 and 5 hurricanes? Is this due to man-made climate change and is this summer therefore our new normal? The answer: Maybe, but that misses the point. There have always been huge storms (like the one that wiped Galveston, TX off the map in 1900, long before global warming was a thing), and barring another ice age there always will be. So the US east coast will remain one of Mother Nature’s favorite targets.
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Tuesday, September 12, 2017
September Will Be The Most Politically Unstable Month Of This Year / Politics / US Politics
This month will be busy for us macro monitors.
The FOMC meets September 19–20 and will likely hike rates another notch, launch its balance-sheet-reduction plan, or both. I will be very surprised if they don’t do either.
The greater suspense is elsewhere in Washington.
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Monday, September 11, 2017
The United States of Hubris / Politics / US Politics
If anyone should have any questions about whether the United States of America is not the most aggressive, warlike, and terroristic nation on the face of the earth, its latest proposed action against the supposed rogue state of North Korea should allay any such doubts.
Last week, the US circulated a draft resolution which it intends to present to the UN Security Council that would give the American Navy and Air Force the power to interdict North Korean ships at sea to determine if they were transporting “weaponry material” or fuel and that US forces would be given “the right” to use “all necessary measures” to “enforce compliance.”*
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Sunday, September 10, 2017
Only Political Dividing Line Left, Roots Based Politics / Politics / US Politics
Because of the rise of Globalism in the late 20th century the U.S. and Western Europe have recently seen stirrings of nationalist awakenings. Terrorism, turmoil in the Middle East and waves of Muslim refugees have fueled the trend.
Wikipedia says this about Nationalism; “a nation should govern itself, free from unwanted outside interference, and is linked to the concept of self-determination. Nationalism is further oriented towards developing and maintaining a national identity based on shared characteristics such as culture, language, race, religion, political goals or a belief in a common ancestry. Nationalism therefore seeks to preserve the nation's culture. It often also involves a sense of pride in the nation's achievements, and is closely linked to the concept of patriotism.”
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Monday, September 04, 2017
Christopher Columbus and the Falsification of History / Politics / US Politics
The Los Angeles City Council’s recent, crazed decision* to replace Christopher Columbus Day with one celebrating “indigenous peoples” can be traced to the falsification of history and denigration of European man which began in earnest in the 1960s throughout the educational establishment (from grade school through the universities), book publishing, and the print and electronic media. It is amazing that, as of yet, the federal holiday commemorating the Genoese explorer’s world- changing voyage has not come under attack. It is doubtful that in the current radicalized leftist ideological atmosphere, the national government’s recognition of Columbus will survive much longer.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The Swamp Strikes Back / Politics / US Politics
On August 21st many Americans witnessed the moon cast a historic but short-lived shadow across the United States. One day later, President Trump reversed his previously stated position on the 16 year old Afghan War, thereby eclipsing the possibility that the United States would finally come to its senses and rethink a failed strategy that is likely to fail for years, perhaps decades, to come. The abrupt change, in what had been a central plank in candidate Trump’s appeal to voters thirsting for change in American foreign policy, came hard after the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House. As a self-avowed nationalist, Bannon had represented a true break in interventionist Republican thinking that had entangled the United States in intractable conflicts around the globe. To put an exclamation point, Sebastian Gorka, the last remaining proponent of the Bannon perspective, was forced out of the White House. The counter-revolution appears to be complete.
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Thursday, August 24, 2017
Trump’s Fall - The Eclipse of the Presidency? / Politics / US Politics
As violent demonstrations linger domestically and nuclear risks loom abroad, the White House has flamed new domestic divisions, while paving the way for international trade wars. The coming fall will be the hottest - and potentially most violent - in decades in America.America is amid a great unease. While Charlottesville’s white supremacists and violent riots brought forward old race divisions and seemingly new hate groups, North Korea’s nuclear threats prevail.
In the fall, the White House and the Congress must also cope with a set of political time bombs, including the impending fight for the nation’s debt ceiling (US debt amounts to $20 trillion, or 105% of GDP), the 2018 federal budget, polarizing tax reforms, infrastructure spending and possibly another effort to overthrow Obamacare (i.e., The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ACA).
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Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Donald Trump Terrorist in Chief, “We Aren’t Nation-Building Again, We Are Killing Terrorists” / Politics / US Politics
Fear not, Donald Trump is just trying to rid the world of those pesky terrorists. But, wait a minute, if he’s using violence to annihilate the “terrorism” the US government created with the help of the CIA, Mossad, and Saudi Arabia, then who really are the terrorists?
That was a rhetorical question; we already know that all wars are a complete racket and that the major aim of all this violence is to continue to destabilize the middle eastern countries and continue to prop up the military industrial complex. Oh, and guard the poppy fields of course.
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Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Power Elites Launches Civil War Against Trump / Politics / US Politics
What you are witnessing is a full court press to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency. The endless dribble from every corner of the gate keeping controlled media, the careerist bipartisan hacks, the diseased swamp ridden bureaucrat rats and the cowards who wave the flag of the establishment globalist order, all have banned together to take out the America First agenda. Trump was elected by populist discontent, but is now being betrayed by every faction who fears meaningful change in a corrupt political system that rules over the common man. Make no mistake about the stakes. A forced resignation, a contrived impeachment or an assassination for all to see are now in play. The establishment will not settle for anything less. The people be damned, it is time to show just who rules the United States.
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Friday, August 18, 2017
US Civil War - FUNCTIONAL ILLITERATES TRYING TO ERASE HISTORY / Politics / US Politics
“True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them the desire to do right is precisely the same.” ― Robert E. Lee
I consider myself a student of history. I’ve always been fascinated by the personalities who drove events throughout history. I probably would have been a history major in college if I didn’t feel the need to make enough money to support myself and my family. I chose a business major and decided studying history would be my hobby. Over the years I’ve taken a particular interest in the Civil War. You could even call me a Civil War buff.
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Friday, August 11, 2017
Chicago is America’s Next Black Hole / Politics / US Politics
The Windy City is famous for a lot of things, including the biting winter breeze off Lake Michigan and blowhard politicians.Whether Chicago got its pet name from one or the other doesn’t really matter, since both fit.
But soon, the place also called the Second City will be known as something else: The municipal black hole.
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Thursday, August 10, 2017
North Korea Nuclear War Threat - It's Time to Support Your President / Politics / US Politics
A Guardian headline today shouts: “Trump Has Taken Us To The Brink Of Nuclear War. Can He Be Stopped?”. And I’m thinking that is such obvious nonsense, how dare you print it? The North Korea nuke build up has been going on for decades, and neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush nor Obama ever took any decisive actions against it. And now it all falls into Trump’s lap. But that doesn’t mean he’s ‘taken us’ anywhere at all. The last thing Trump wants is this.
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Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Trump, the CIA and the Yokeldom / Politics / US Politics
The western world is mired in a mile-deep political crisis and nary a soul seems to notice, or rather: everyone just sees their own little preferred echochamber tidbits of it. Which is not a good thing, because that crisis is bound to trigger other bigger crises that are much more damaging. And I’m sorry to say it, but Donald Trump is not your main problem. Not even close.
The main problem is the collapse of western political systems. While that is what brought Trump to power in the first place, he didn’t cause the collapse. The collapse is also what ‘gave you’ Brexit, and Trump didn’t cause that either. Moreover, in the next step, on the far end of all this, Trump may well be the only thing standing between you and CIA warfare. I know, who wants to hear that, right?! Who’s ready for that next step?
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Exposing the US Government As Terrorist Organization / Politics / US Politics
I recently had the opportunity to speak on Iran’s PressTV channel. It was great being able to speak a bit of truth about the state of the world and evil transgressions perpetrated by the US government on a relatively well-known network.
The first thing I was asked about was what kind of repercussions the US sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea will have? I responded by bringing up the great anarchist, Frederick Bastiat’s, quote “When goods don’t cross borders, Soldiers will.”
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Hacker Cracks US Voting Machine - If Politics Seem Messy Now, Just Wait / ElectionOracle / US Politics
It’s already widely understood that the electronic voting machines used by a growing number of US states are easy to hack. But just how easy may not be clear. Consider this from today’s Wall Street Journal:
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Saturday, July 29, 2017
America – Then and Now – Part 1 / Politics / US Politics
Yesterday Andy had a chance to go on Liberty Talk Radio and talk about what is going on economically. We decided that despite what we felt was a great show, that it didn’t even scratch the surface in terms of the differences between how things used to be and how they are now. Particularly disturbing is the relative lack of understanding or willingness to even accept the changes that have taken place by the majority of the population. The latter is called ‘normalcy bias’. It is something ingrained in each of us as a human and either reinforced or stunted by our experiences. We aren’t sure how far down the road of ‘Then and Now’ we’ll get in today’s installment. There may be future installments.
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Thursday, July 27, 2017
Congress Is Hopeless Against Trump’s Plans To Impose Trade Sanctions / Politics / US Politics
Trade is the global economy’s bloodstream. The more freely it flows, the better for all.
As David Ricardo explained 200 years ago, different peoples have unique characteristics that enable them to produce certain goods at lower opportunity costs than others can. Free trade gives consumers access to the best goods and services at the lowest prices.
However, what we now call “free trade” is not what Ricardo had in mind. We have instead managed trade designed to benefit certain favored parties and to disadvantage others.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Trump’s “America First” Trade Frictions Are About to Begin / Politics / US Politics
After the US-Sino Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, trade issues are alienating not only China and America’s NATO allies – but its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.As the Trump administration’s first US-Sino Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED) ended in Washington, it could only agree on three no’s: canceled news conferences, no joint statement and no new announcements on market access by the US to China, or by China to the US.
A simple scenario is that the CED has paved way to a major trade conflict between the US and China. Yet, despite tough political rhetoric, economic realities do not seem to support such a view, at least yet.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017
GOP Leadership Betrays Trump Voters on Obamacare & Debt / Politics / US Politics
The single-digit approval rating of Congress means precious few people still expect much from the politicians running Washington DC.
Expectations should now ratchet even lower as representatives once again demonstrate just how far their words are from their deeds.
We’ll start with healthcare. The U.S. Senate failed in yet another effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. The prospects for reform any time soon are approaching zero.
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Monday, July 24, 2017
Macbeth, King Lear and Trump / Politics / US Politics
Mea culpa. Yesterday I wrote Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?, and not long after publishing it, I figured I missed the target I was going for. Not 100%, and it’s not all bad, as people’s reactions have confirmed, but…
The thing is, Trump’s nomination of Anthony Scaramucci as White House Communications Director was not the main point of my piece. Tempting, because everybody knows the Queen song, but not the main one, and it certainly shouldn’t have been the title of the piece.
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Sunday, July 23, 2017
Scaramucci Trump's Phase2 - Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Will You Do the Fandango? / Politics / US Politics
So sorry to see Sean Spicer go, even if I never watch TV, so I only got snippets of his acting performances -and Melissa McCarthy’s. One of the very few SNL and other ‘comedy’ shows skids that was actually funny, in the same way that very few of the New York Times and Washington Post ‘articles’ on Trump have been actually news.
As I wrote to a friend earlier today, sure Spicer’s gone, but there’ll be other entertaining characters to replace him. Say what you will about the Trump administration, but never a dull moment. Having Mike Pence become president would kill all the fun.
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Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Discover Why A Major American Revolution Is Brewing / Politics / US Politics
I have written many articles on how extremely polarized our politics has become in the last decade. I’ve dedicated several Leading Edge newsletters to the topic. I talked about it at our 2016 Irrational Economic Summit. I even discuss it briefly in my new book, Trump, Brexit, and the Next Civil War, which will be available around mid-August.I talk about it so much because it’s related to the mega 250-Year Revolution Cycle sweeping over us right now. We’ll feel the effects of this cycle for decades to come… which I detail in my new book.
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Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Accepting a Society of Government Tyranny / Politics / US Politics
Rational thinking and moral conduct are rare in a society that has no respect for other individuals or succumb to the dictates of an all powerful government. Without free will, the dignity of the person is removed from the social relationship. Tyranny is not simply a state of mind, but is an imposition of compulsion designed to control the behavior of subjects of whatever form of government claiming legitimate rule.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2017
California Communists at War with America / Politics / US Politics
There has always been a distinct California disconnect from the heartland. Anyone who has travelled the lower 48 knows that the allure of El Dorado panned out when the gold mines ran out of bullion. That appeal transformed into a fantasy stargaze that has little to do with the values and traditions of our long history as a nation. In order to understand the query, California Dreaming or a Nightmare?; one needs to appreciate the reasons why the population migration has shifted over time.
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Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Shadow Government Hates America's Independence Day / Politics / US Politics
The only conclusion any honest American citizen can come to is that the Republic is dead. Once again the flags wave and the songs play as the parades march to celebrate another 4th of July. Picnic meals are eaten while children frolic in the warn sunshine of summer. Few people reflect on the true meaning that established the solemn commemoration of the nation's birth. The reality of this post federation of independent state sovereignty is that a centralized federal behemoth has superseded the original intent of Thomas Jefferson's vision: "That government is best which governs least". Today the society that exists demands compliance or compels obedience by way of punishment.
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Monday, July 03, 2017
Nikki Haley: Warmonger Extraordinaire! / Politics / US Politics
It must now be a prerequisite of those who become an American ambassador to the UN to possess certain characteristics and traits, the most important of which are rabid warmonger, child killer, and outright liar.
Remember it was Madeleine Albright when asked about the US blockading Iraq which prevented medicine and medical equipment from entering the country that resulted in the estimated death of a half a million children who coldly responded: “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.” Then there is Colin “Weapons of Mass Destruction” Powell who told a bald-face lie about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities which paved the way for the US destruction of the country.
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Monday, June 19, 2017
Trump White House Under Siege / Politics / US Politics
Washington is planning to extend sanctions against Russia, once again. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is getting ready to cope with a special counsel’s investigation which seems to focus as much on Trump as Russia.
Last Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that Congress should not pass any legislation that would undercut "constructive dialogue" with Russia. Yet, the Senate voted 97-2 to advance a bipartisan agreement to launch new financial penalties on Russia and to let the Congress intervene before President Trump can lift sanctions. Afterwards, Trump tweeted that he is the subject of the “single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history,” and one that he said is being led by “some very bad and conflicted people.”
Monday, June 12, 2017
US-China Ties in the Shadow of the Mueller Investigation / Politics / US Politics
In the foreseeable future, the Trump administration will be constrained by the special counsel’s Russia investigation. How will it impact the White House’s relations with China?It was a strange month. First, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who the center-right Democrats blame for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 electoral loss. In turn, the center-left Sanders-supporters attribute the loss to Hillary Clinton’s gross abuse of public office and funds, Bill Clinton’s corrupt Global Initiative, collusion with the Democratic Leadership Committee (DLC) and mainstream media.
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Monday, June 12, 2017
Will Trump Get Away With All of It? / Politics / US Politics
The good news for Trumptarians is that Donald J. Trump is not going to be legally impeached, indicted, removed from office or otherwise until his protectors and enablers are weakened first: Congressional Republicans. And they won’t be weakened until mid-term elections in 2018. In “Washington time” that might as well be the next century.
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Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Donald Trump is an Economic Ignoramus! / Politics / US Politics
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump has followed in the infamous footsteps of his presidential predecessors in the transition from candidate to chief executive. Invariably, every candidate for the presidency makes a whole host of promises, the vast majority of which are horrible and typically only exacerbate the problems they attempt to resolve. Among the proposals, however, there is an occasional bright spot. Yet, once elected the stupid polices are eagerly pursued while the good ones are quickly discarded.
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Monday, June 05, 2017
Regime Change in the Trump White House? / Politics / US Politics
No U.S. postwar president has managed to reset relations with Russia. Now the Trump administration must cope with a special counsel’s investigation. In the past, US efforts at regime change targeted foreign countries; today, the White House. How will it impact Trump’s stalled policy agenda?As I argued in spring 2016 (TWFR, April 25, 2016), US election is a global risk and it would continue to be fought after the Trump election win. But recently, these political struggles moved to an entirely new phase.
First, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reportedly only days after his request for increased resources to investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the election. Barely a week later, DOJ appointed Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI (2001-13) as special counsel overseeing the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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Saturday, June 03, 2017
In Defense of Trumpian Diplomacy / Politics / US Politics
Given the media's obsession with some of the President Trump's communication challenges, it was utterly predictable that the President's declaration that his trip to Europe and the Middle East should be considered a "home run" was met almost universally with ridicule. In truth, the President actually did accomplish a series of victories overseas, or at least laid important groundwork that should help advance American interests in ways that prior Administrations have failed to do. It's a shame that these developments have been ignored among the din of partisanship.
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Friday, June 02, 2017
Trump's 'Arab NATO' Vision is a Desert Mirage / Politics / US Politics
Thursday, June 01, 2017
President Trump’s Impending Resignation and Declaration of Victory / Politics / US Politics
This is what I predicted the day after Trump’s election.He has the impulse control of a grease fire. And he certainly can’t admit when he’s wrong, even though he changes his mind on one policy or view after the next.
There’s something disturbing about that. More disturbing than Richard Nixon’s paranoia that led to the Watergate scandal. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Trump’s Predatory Infrastructure Privatization Scheme / Politics / US Politics
Straightaway in office, Trump proved he’s an imperial/predatory corporatist tool - his rhetorical populism pretense, not real, his agenda hugely harming ordinary people at home and abroad.
Days after his election, Ellen Brown exposed his phony promised economic change, saying “his infrastructure plan appears to be just more of the same - privatizing public assets and delivering unearned profits to investors at the expense of the people.”
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Thursday, May 25, 2017
Rosenstein and Mueller: the Regime Change Tag-Team / Politics / US Politics
Let’s say you own a big US corporation but need help managing your domestic accounts. So you hire a bright, young man named Bruno who just graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters in corporate finance. And the first day on the job, you discover that Bruno has secretly employed a private detective who has obtained subpoena power to dig through all of your business accounts, all your investments past and present, all your taxes going back decades, and any personal transactions you might have made in the last 20 years or so. And, oh yeah, and he also has the authority to interview anyone he chooses, including people who might have a grudge against you or who lost money on one of your dodgy real estate deals or who simply doesn’t like the way you comb your hair. And, of course, Bruno knows that the information he gathers is going to be deliberately tweaked to look as suspicious as possible, then it’s going to be leaked to the press and splashed across the headlines, then it’s going to be presented as evidence to a Grand Jury, and then, finally– after months of excruciating testimony and nonstop mud-slinging– it will be used in criminal proceedings that will lead your removal as CEO of your corporation.
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Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Ian Bremmer: Trump Faces a Far More Dangerous Risk Than Impeachment / Politics / US Politics
by Patrick W. Watson : The words "Trump" and "impeachment" are often seen in the same sentence now. Few think it would happen. But there's no question another presidential impeachment attempt would be a wrenching experience for the nation.
Geopolitics expert and Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer doesn't worry about impeachment. Speaking at the Mauldin Economics Strategic Investment Conference on Tuesday, Bremmer said he sees a different and more worrisome risk.
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Tuesday, May 23, 2017
America's Southern Heritage is a Threat to the Deep State / Politics / US Politics
In an age where the accounts of history are no longer taught or the chronicles of past generations are lost to the consciousness of the current culture; all that is left is a fairy tale of deception designed to confuse, indoctrinate and eliminate critical thinking. Astute students of the War of Northern Aggression understand that the cessation of hostilities set into motion the forces of imperialism and the perversion of a Constitution with the addition of harmful amendments. Liberty was the primary causality of all the bloodshed and the institution of a totalitarian statist regime became the permanent outcome of the conflict.
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Thursday, May 18, 2017
The “Political Coup” Was Just Initiated In Washington D.C.! / Politics / US Politics
The financial markets have already “priced in” huge tax cuts, reducing red tape regulations and a massive increase in infrastructure spending.
Perhaps, the markets are now believing that the agenda is not going to occur with Al Green asking for Trump impeachment? This could result in a significant downturn for stocks if it were to unfold.
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Thursday, May 18, 2017
US Stock Market Slumps on Establishment / CIA Trump Impeachment Coup Plan / Politics / US Politics
The mainstream financial press as is nearly always the case in hindsight looked and found the smoking gun for Thursday's stock market Dow plunge of 372 points. As the latest attempts of the ruling establishment elite to entrap President Trump manifested in chaos so that he can be removed from office and replaced with a far more docile Mike Spence at their bidding. And so the establishment press directed by the CIA have been busy pumping out reams of Anti-Trump propaganda that paints a broad strokes picture that Trump really IS Putin's Manchurian candidate, a traitor even who gives America's darkest secrets to Czar Putin of Russia, who is playing his own game with glee.
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Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Sinister NYT Plot to Oust Trump from Office / Politics / US Politics
Likely colluding with anti-Trump dark forces, Times editors said his authority as president “does not extend to obstructing a federal investigation.”
No credible evidence proves it - only an alleged Comey memo not seen outside the Justice Department if it exists.
It cites him quoting Trump supposedly saying “I hope you can let this go,” referring the witch-hunt federal investigation into possible improper Michael Flynn connections to Russia - what never should have been initiated in the first place.
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Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Long Knives Out for Trump / Politics / US Politics
He’s a longtime establishment figure. How else could he become super-rich, able to be the GOP standard bearer, then president?
Yet he’s portrayed as an outlier. Undemocratic Democrats and media scoundrels despise him for preventing Hillary from getting the nation’s top job.
An unrelenting blitzkrieg persists to demonize, weaken and delegitimize him, a softening up process aimed at ousting him from office by forced resignation, impeachment or more sinister means.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2017
GOP Establishment Elite Plots Trump Removal / Politics / US Politics
Russia, Russia and all things Russia!
The drum beat never ceases. Only the most dense and easily manipulated buy into the bogus narrative that Trump is a Russian asset subject to blackmail. After all these pathetic months of disinformation from the Beltway District of Criminals, the absence of factual reality has become the most rare commodity in the public arena. The establishment panic over the enactment of a robust America First policy administration has the bi-partisan ranks of dedicated Statists scheming to remove President Trump from office by any means necessary. It should be obvious that marginalizing his presidency started the day of his election. Now the ground work is being set to trump up some phony story, absent of any definitive proof, that will entice the GOP never Trumpers, to join in with the deranged Democrats to remove their most threatening nemesis.
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Sunday, May 14, 2017
Trump Administration Shakeup Coming? / Politics / US Politics
The world’s most powerful position can be its most lonely, frustrating, unrewarding and dangerous when US dark forces oppose the chief executive’s agenda, key parts thereof - or if the incumbent is perceived to be too independent.
The “mess” Trump said he inherited is America’s debauched system, its ruthlessness, its war on humanity at home and abroad, its deep state power, presidents either serving its interests or else.
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Sunday, May 14, 2017
Revving Up War on Trump, Risks of Coup d’etat / Politics / US Politics
Instead of criticizing him for the right reasons, media scoundrels bash him for the wrong ones.
Dark forces in Washington want him weakened, delegitimized, ousted, and replaced by neocon Pence, an easily controlled establishment figure, their sinister agenda in good hands with him as president.
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
There’s a New Mafia in Town, American Dream Dead? / Politics / US Politics
Just look at this chart!
If you were born in 1980, you only have a 50% chance of making more money than your parents.
But if you were born in 1950, you had a 79% chance, according to research that Raj Chetty and his team of economists did.
That’s one heck of a drop!
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Comey and the End of Conversation / Politics / US Politics
You might have thought, and hoped, that recent events, such as the election of Trump as president of the US, or Brexit, or the rise of Marine Le Pen and other non-establishment forces in Europe, would, as a matter of -natural- course, have led to increased conversation and discussion between parties, entities, whose divisions were material in sparking these events.
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Monday, May 08, 2017
Trump’s Conversion into a Warmongering Neo-con - The Horror! The Horror! (Part Three) / Politics / US Politics
In Part One and Part Two of this article I detailed the decades of propaganda, false flags, and misinformation campaigns used by the Deep State to gain power and control over the U.S. government. When war or a financial crisis is necessary to keep the profits flowing, events will be steered to such an outcome. With the latest financial plundering operation running out of steam, the Deep State is pushing the world toward global conflict.
If at first you don’t succeed with a false flag gas attack, try try again. Knowing a vast swath of the American populace is incapable of critical thinking or able to discern between fake news and factual events, the Deep State and their media lackeys unquestioningly promoted the story of children being killed by a sarin gas attack by Assad. The photos of rescue workers helping victims without gloves immediately invalidated the narrative, as the rescue workers would be dead if they handled sarin gas victims without protective gear.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Save Liberty, Shut Down the Government / Politics / US Politics
Congress ended the week by passing a continuing resolution keeping the government funded for one more week. This stopgap funding bill is designed to give Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a long-term spending bill. Passage of a long-term spending bill has been delayed over objections to Republican efforts to preserve Obamcare's key features but give states a limited ability to opt out of some Obamacare mandates.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
What Trump’s Next 100 Days Will Look Like / Politics / US Politics
Reva Goujon : U.S. President Donald Trump approaches his 100-day benchmark on Saturday, a media deluge has already begun bemoaning the demise of the liberal order, celebrating waves of deregulation or simply blaming the president's rocky start on the "disaster" he inherited on taking office. Rather than wade into that predictable morass, we prefer to focus instead on what the next 100 days hold in store.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Real Reason Trump Why Reversed His Stance On NATO, China, and Mexico / Politics / US Politics
By Allison Fedirka Donald Trump has recently reversed his stance on a number of key foreign policy issues: NATO, Russia, China, and Mexico. From a geopolitical perspective, Trump’s remarks validated that limitations exist in the real world—even for the US president.
These limitations explain why he has backtracked on some of his key campaign promises.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Trump Is Among The Institutionally Weakest National Leaders In The World / Politics / US Politics
By George Friedman : During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump advocated for a more disengaged US foreign policy. Involvement in the world would be limited to actions in the interest of the United States.
On the surface, this was not an irrational argument. American involvement—chiefly militarily—has not yielded the outcomes the US hoped for in recent years.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Fed Drops MOAB on Wall Street, Swamp Creatures Sack D.C. / Politics / US Politics
Wall Street and our central bank are in for a rude awakening very soon! The idea that the US economy is on stable footing and about to experience a surge in growth is ridiculous. Hence, the consensus that the Fed can normalize interest rates and its balance sheet is nothing short of a bad joke...and it's on them.
For starters, the government's fiscal deficit for the month of March came in at $176.2 billion, which means the deficit 6 months into fiscal 2017 is $526.9 billion and running 15% over last year. If not for the calendar timing of receipts and payments, our government's deficit would be a year-to-date $564.0 billion or 23% above last year. In addition, there was an 18% decline in corporate income tax collection. We all know there was no corporate tax reform passed. So the credible conclusion must be reached that corporations are not growing there profits...they are actually shrinking.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Candidate Trump: 'I Love Wikileaks.' President Trump: 'Arrest Assange!' / Politics / US Politics
"I love Wikileaks," candidate Donald Trump said on October 10th on the campaign trail. He praised the organization for reporting on the darker side of the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was information likely leaked by a whistleblower from within the Clinton campaign to Wikileaks.
Back then he praised Wikileaks for promoting transparency, but candidate Trump looks less like President Trump every day. The candidate praised whistleblowers and Wikileaks often on the campaign trail. In fact, candidate Trump loved Wikileaks so much he mentioned the organization more than 140 times in the final month of the campaign alone! Now, as President, it seems Trump wants Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sent to prison.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
US War on Whistleblowers / Politics / US Politics
Truth-telling in America is endangered. Free and open expression is our most fundamental right, all others threatened without it.
Exposing government wrongdoing is courageous and essential. Obama waged war on press freedom and whistleblowing. Trump continues his outrageous agenda.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2017
On the Commemoration of World War I: From Woodrow Wilson to Donald Trump / Politics / US Politics
It is altogether fitting that the US attack on a Syrian airport, the dropping of a MOAB on defenseless Afghanistan, and the potential outbreak of nuclear war with North Korea have all come in the very month one hundred years earlier that an American president led the nation on its road to empire. President Trump’s aggressive actions and all of America’s previous imperialistic endeavors can ultimately be traced to Woodrow Wilson’s disastrous decision to bring the country into the First World War on April 6, 1917.
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Saturday, April 15, 2017
Trump 2013 is Against Everything That Trump 2017 Does / Politics / US Politics
In 2013, Donald Trump could have almost been mistaken for a Dollar Vigilante subscriber. He was against almost anything Obama was doing, was against all the wars and occupations, was against Obamacare and constantly pointed out all the corruption, criminality and waste in government.
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Thursday, April 13, 2017
Preparing for the Reign of the First Widow / Politics / US Politics
We believe the 6 April 2017 Tomahawk missile attack on Syria indicates that Donald Trump has concluded that the fiscal, economic and political situations in the United States are beyond repair, and that without continued, massive military interventionism and spending, U.S. GDP will plunge, taking all of his campaign commitments down with it. Therefore, he has capitulated to the agenda of the Deep State looters and war profiteers. Trump’s capitulation has profound personal and financial implications for the citizens of the United States and the world.
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Thursday, April 13, 2017
United Airlines "Just Kill Him" - A Symptom of New Fascist Reality In America / Politics / US Politics
I’ve never understood airlines overbooking their flights. What other industry does that?
“Hi, I’m here to pick up the painting I bought from you online.”
“Oh, there are two other people here who bought it too. I guess I sold it too many times, sorry. I’ll just have some armed men escort you out!”
It sounds crazy, right? But, when it comes to airlines it happens all the time.
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Trump Supporters Winning Gold Medal In Mental Gymnastics Trying To Justify His Actions / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump said one thing to get elected and then, once elected, did the other.
The fact that people are surprised is, in itself, the surprising part.
Hasn’t that been the history of democracy and politics since it was created?
Democracy is one of the most bizarre systems ever created, to begin with. Here is how you would explain it to a newbie:
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017
The Cost of a Trump Presidency / Politics / US Politics
Last Thursday’s wanton attack on a Syrian air field by the US and its bellicose actions toward North Korea have brought to the forefront the real cost of candidate Trump’s landslide victory last November.
Unlike most laymen, accountants, and financial analysts, economists look at cost differently. For economists, cost or more specifically, “opportunity cost,” means “a benefit that a person could have received, but gave up, to take another course of action. Stated differently, opportunity cost represents an alternative given up when a decision is made.”
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
The Trump-Xi Summit Paves the Way to New Realism in US-Chinese Trade / Politics / US Politics
Despite preliminary pessimism, the Trump-Xi Summit showed greater trade pragmatism than initially expected, even though it was overshadowed by a raw display of US military power.President Donald Trump says he developed a "friendship" with President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. However, U.S. missile attacks against Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria overshadowed the meeting. Apparently, the White House hoped to kill two birds with one stone: to show to al-Assad who was in control and to Xi what might happen to North Korea if China would not intervene more decisively.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Trumpism is the First Casualty of the War Party / Politics / US Politics
Are you starting to feel that you have been here previously and have gone through this same drill before? Wagging the kosher tail in front of the controlled media is a rerun that the gullible public never gets tired of. Those who question the orthodox narrative are condemned as disloyal or agents of a foreign power. However, for those who are "stuck on stupid", that alien country is never allowed to identify the Zionist cabal as the real force behind the imposition of the war party's continuous conflict in avoidable bloodshed. The Pavlovian trained domestic wieners that contest any suggestion of a false flag formula, refuse to face facts. The drum beat for Armageddon always works to divert from the true defiler that operates as a fifth column against the genuine national interests of America.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
After Trump's Syria Attack, What Comes Next? / Politics / US Politics
Thursday's US missile attack on Syria must represent the quickest foreign policy U-turn in history. Less than a week after the White House gave Assad permission to stay on as president of his own country, President Trump decided that the US had to attack Syria and demand Assad's ouster after a chemical attack earlier in the week. Trump blamed Assad for the attack, stated that "something's going to happen" in retaliation, and less than two days later he launched a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles (at a cost of $1.5 million each) onto a military airfield near where the chemical attack took place.
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Trump is the New Hillary - Attacking Syria Could Start World War III / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump Warns That Attacking Syria Could Start World War III
Yes, you read the headline right. Donald Trump has warned that attacking Syria could lead the US into World War III!
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Friday, April 07, 2017
US Syria Missile Attack and Symbols of Strength / Politics / US Politics
I don’t know anything more than anyone else does, outside of the decision makers’ circle, about the reasoning behind the Tomahawk missile attack on a Syrian airport. Have the US neocon warmongers won over Trump and the White House, as I see suggested? Have the Goldmanites? Is that the same group of people? If Trump has conceded to the warmongers, will Putin be next in line? Should Russia have pushed through when it had the upper hand in Syria, and ‘finished’ the job?
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Sunday, April 02, 2017
The Russia US Election Hacking Fiasco: No Evidence Required / Politics / US Politics
Here’s what bugs me about the Russia hacking story: Why would the media, whose credibility is already at its lowest point ever, go after Trump when they had no facts to back them up?
Why?
Do the media bosses really think that if they set their hair on fire and run around yelling, “The Russians did it, the Russians did it”, the American people will sheepishly nod in agreement?
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Wednesday, March 29, 2017
John McCain’s New World Order Is Under “Enormous Strain” / Politics / US Politics
Decades ago, John McCain was in Asia trying to kill people he didn’t know while living off the largess of money (taxes) stolen from hard working people in the US.
In any other reality but our current one he’d be considered a thieving mass murderer.
Unfortunately, in our current reality, some people call him a “war hero”.
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Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Foundation And Empire: Is Donald Trump The Mule? / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I analyzed the similarities of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy to Strauss & Howe’s Fourth Turning, trying to assess how Donald Trump’s ascension to power fits into the theories put forth by those authors. Now I will compare Trump to the most interesting character in Asimov’s classic – The Mule.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Trump Watershed Budget / Politics / US Politics
You have never seen an attempt to change direction in the Federal juggernaut, as outlined in the Trump budget to revamp discretionary spending. Bob Adelmann of The New American provides an apt appraisal in Trump’s “Blueprint” Budget Is a Policy Statement; Real Budget to Follow. For a full reading of this framework review the White House document. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, has delivered a bold variation from the normal accommodation to the political careerists and influence peddlers.
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Saturday, March 18, 2017
Angela Merkel in Washington / Politics / US Politics
Friday, March 17, 2017
The Only Article You Need to Read to Understand the Trump Phenomenon / Politics / US Politics
The following is an attempt to explain the Trump phenomenon. It is NOT a pro-Trump article; it is simply an explanation for how Trump accomplished what he did, and why so few predicted his success and the impact of his economic policies.
There’s a simple reason so few people in the media and in finance understand the economic impacts of a Trump Presidency.
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Thursday, March 16, 2017
Red States Have Had Their Say… It’s Now the Blue States’ Turn / Politics / US Politics
We’ve not seen this level of political polarization since the Civil War. And it’s not unique to the U.S. It’s happening around the world… a backlash against globalization.
The red states scored a massive victory when President Donald Trump won against the odds. Six states switched from borderline blue to borderline red during that election.
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Monday, March 13, 2017
The Trump Reset - Regime Change, Russia the Over Hyped Fake News SuperPower (1/2) / News_Letter / US Politics
The Market Oracle Newsletter29th December, 2016 Issue # 33 Vol. 10
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Sunday, March 12, 2017
Rediscovering Community Wizard / Politics / US Politics
We all live in and with a debt based system, so in the spirit of Keynesianism – perhaps we might want to try “borrowing” something of very great value from the past.Catherine Austin Fitts is former asst. sec. Federal Housing Administration [FHA] at HUD in the Bush I Administration. It was during her time in government that Fitts realized government finances needed to be re-engineered from the ground up – one locality at a time. When she left her post in government, she formed Hamilton Securities, which became a contractor to FHA.
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Friday, March 10, 2017
Trump Counter Revolution vs the Deep State / Politics / US Politics
In Part One and Part Two of this article I revealed how the Deep State’s fake data and fake news propaganda machine can be overcome by opening your eyes, observing reality, understanding how Fed created inflation has destroyed our lives, and why the election of Trump was the initial deplorable pushback to Deep State evil.
“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.” – H.L. Mencken
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Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Sound Money Is Rising at the State Level / Politics / US Politics
Inflation is the most pernicious of taxes levied by our government. Officials systematically devalue the Federal Reserve Note "dollar," then levy capital gains taxes on assets when their dollar price rises.
The "gains" are largely illusory. Rising asset prices over time reflect the fact that the dollar buys less of everything. But the tax obligations triggered by this inflation are very real.
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Monday, March 06, 2017
This Map Shows How Much Four US States Depend On Mexico / Politics / US Politics
Eighty-five percent of goods traded between the US and Mexico are transported by truck or railway, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Two-way trade across the border totals $1.4 billion per day and takes place at 25 major ports of land entry between the US and Mexico.
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Monday, March 06, 2017
Trump To Continue Bankrupting The US Through Foreign Wars / Politics / US Politics
Remember pre-election, how the theme was that a Killary presidency meant certain war? And, how a Trump presidency would mean friendship with Russia and bringing many of the troops home?
Well, so much for that! Trump is just as oriented toward war as Hillary. The difference is one of geography. Trump’s wars are located particularly in the Middle East. He is already looking even worse than Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack O'Bomber or George “Victory in Iraq” Bush.
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Friday, March 03, 2017
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Trump... / Politics / US Politics
...Follow the money, Sens. Collins and McCain.
“We are well past the time for any political niceties or benefits of the doubt. We need an independent and thorough investigation of Russia’s meddling in our democracy and its ties to the President and his allies,” wrote veteran CBS newsman Dan Rather on March 2. “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
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Thursday, March 02, 2017
Trump Before Congress / Politics / US Politics
His Tuesday address was long on making America safe for Wall Street, war profiteers and other corporate predators, short on what’s most needed to serve all Americans equitably and promote world peace.
He focused on increased military spending at a time major cuts are needed, combating terrorism without explaining ISIS and likeminded groups are US creations, used as imperial foot soldiers.
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Monday, February 27, 2017
Hillary Planning a 2020 White House Run? / Politics / US Politics
She tried and failed twice. Does she have another run in mind?
Reports suggest she may launch a TV talk show, featuring her as host, perhaps intending it to be platform for a third presidential campaign.
She considers herself party leader in exile, likely seeks revenge for losing to Trump. A TV show would be a way to bash him and serve as a self-promotion vehicle.
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Monday, February 27, 2017
The Border Adjustment Tax Will Make The Jobs Problem Worse / Politics / US Politics
Under the border adjustment tax (BAT) plan, imports will be penalized and exports rewarded… which theoretically, in a perfect world without pushback, would leave our economy nicely balanced and undisrupted.
But I doubt it will happen that way, because the importers and exporters are not the same businesses. I’ve written extensively about this topic in my three part series, "Tax Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Really Ugly" in Thoughts from the Frontline. (subscribe here for free.)
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
Trump Relinquishes Control of Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
The war party is back in power and the odds of normal relations with Russia have dropped to zero.
The appointment of Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster to the position of national security adviser indicates that Trump has done an about-face on his most critical foreign policy issue, normalizing relations with Russia. General Michael Flynn– who recently stepped down from the post following allegations of lying to Vice President Mike Pence –was the main proponent of easing tensions with Moscow which is a position that had been enthusiastically embraced by President Donald Trump. But McMaster does not support normalizing relations with Russia, in fact, McMaster sees Russia as a “hostile revisionist power” that “annex(es) territory, intimidates our allies, develops nuclear weapons, and uses proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries.” So, what’s going on? Why has Trump put a Moscow-hating hawk like McMaster in a position where he’ll be able to intensify the pressure on Russia, increase the provocations and, very likely, trigger a conflagration between the two nuclear-armed superpowers?
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Friday, February 24, 2017
When Was America’s Peak Wealth? / Politics / US Politics
A few days ago, I wrote an essay entitled “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, in which I posited, among many other things, that “..the Automatic Earth has said for many years that the peak of our wealth was sometime in the 1970’s or even late 1960’s” along with the question “..was America at its richest right before or right after Nixon took the country off the gold standard in 1971?”
That same day, I received an email from (very) long time Automatic Earth reader and afficionado Ken Latta, who implied he thought the peak of American wealth was even earlier. That turned into a nice conversation. I really like the way his head works to frame his words. And Ken knows what he’s talking about by grace of the fact that he was a witness to it all.
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Friday, February 24, 2017
California, Nestle and Decentralization - CalExit / Politics / US Politics
Nestle USA has announced that it will move its headquarters from Glendale, California, to Rosslyn, Virginia, taking with it about 1200 jobs. The once Golden State has lost some 1600 businesses since 2008 and a net outflow of a million of mostly middle-class people from the state from 2004 to 2013 due to its onerous tax rates, the oppressive regulatory burden, and the genuine kookiness which pervades among its ruling elites.* A clueless Glendale official is apparently unconcerned about the financial repercussions of Nestle’s departure saying that it was “no big deal” and saw it as an “opportunity,” whatever that means!
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Why the US Democratic Party Is Dead / Politics / US Politics
One more time.
My fear is that well-meaning people will focus on 'getting rid of Trump,' without considering what sort of leadership will replace him.
Hillary Part Deux? Or some other corporatist stooge from the GOP who runs a smoother, more polished con on the working class?
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Trump Chooses Hawkish National Security Advisor / Politics / US Politics
On Monday, Trump named hawkish Army Lt. General HR McMaster to replace Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor (NSA).
Political pressure lead to his unfortunate sacking for harmlessly discussing sanctions with Russia’s US ambassador.
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Sunday, February 19, 2017
Deep State Power v. Trump / Politics / US Politics
America’s deep state is divided on Trump. He couldn’t have been elected without enough support.
Post-inauguration, things changed. The balance of power shifted against him, leaving him vulnerable, already weakened this early in his tenure, unprecedented for a US president.
His record so far in office is another matter, though too soon to judge him definitively. Still, disturbing signs aren’t encouraging. More on this below.
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Saturday, February 18, 2017
The Flynn Fiascom, the Trump Revolution Ends in a Whimper / Politics / US Politics
The Flynn fiasco is not about national security advisor Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador. It’s much deeper than that. It’s about Russia. It’s about Putin. It’s about the explosive rise of China and the world’s biggest free trade zone that will eventually stretch from Lisbon to Vladivostok. It’s about the one country in the world that is obstructing Washington’s plan for global domination. (Russia) And, it’s about the future; which country will be the key player in the world’s most prosperous and populous region, Asia.
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Thursday, February 16, 2017
NSA, CIA, FBI, Media Establishment 'Deep State' War Against Emerging 'Trump State' / Politics / US Politics
The latest actions in the established military, intelligence corporate, media complexes systematic war on the Trump Presidency was to takedown the Presidents National Security advisor, Michael Flynn following leaks of conversations recorded between Michael Flynn and the Russian Ambassador by the intelligence agencies to the New York Times amongst other establishment media outlets. With the Democrats jumping on board the lynch mob bandwagon with cries of Treason!
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Trump A New Jacksonian Era? The Fourth Turning (2) / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I documented the populist administration of Andrew Jackson and similarities to Donald Trump's populist victory in the recent election. I'll now try to assess the chances of a Trump presidency accomplishing its populist agenda.
The Trumpian Era
Read full article... Read full article..."But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes." - Andrew Jackson
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Americans Will Pay For Trump’s “America First” Plan / Politics / US Politics
Jared Dillian says the American consumer will pay for Trump’s “America First” plan.
In a recent video interview with Mauldin Economics, Jared Dillian notes that Trump’s new “America First” trade policy is anti-free trade. Plus, given the Republican Party has been the champion of free trade for decades, Trump’s new trade policy does not sit well with many in the party.
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Monday, February 13, 2017
Trump a New Jacksonian Era? / Politics / US Politics
"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!" - Andrew Jackson
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Trump Plays Cat and Mouse with Iran / Politics / US Politics
Why is the Trump administration threatening Iran?
On February 1, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announced that the administration was “putting Iran on notice” after it tested a ballistic missile which the US sees as a violation of Iran’s treaty obligations. Flynn’s frigid tone made it clear that the administration is considering the use of military force. But why?
Under current UN resolutions (Resolution 2231), Iran is forbidden “to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Read that over again. Iran is not forbidden from testing ‘all ballistic missiles’ just missiles that are ‘capable of delivering nuclear weapons.’ The resolution could not be clearer. There’s no gray area here, none at all. Flynn is just fudging the resolution’s meaning, so he can rattle a saber. But, why? And why are other members of the administration, including the president himself, making equally belligerent remarks? In a tweet last week, Trump said, “I won’t be as ‘kind’ to Iran as Obama” which was followed by a speech by US Defense Secretary James Mattis who called Iran “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
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Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Trumpin' and Thumpin' Back to the 1930s / Politics / US Politics
With the Trump White House, America and a global economy will enter a highly divisive period – as evidenced by the debate about his economic, trade and infrastructure plans.
As long as Republicans sustain some unity in and between the White House, the Senate and the House of the Representatives, Trump will benefit from an unprecedented execution power.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Fake and False and Just Plain Nonsense News / Politics / US Politics
Two and a half weeks after the inauguration, and yes it’s only been that long, the media still don’t seem to have learned a single thing. They help the Trump campaign on an almost hourly basis by parroting whatever things, invariably judged as crazy, he says. One day it’s that negative polls are all fake news, the next it’s some list of underreported terror events. All of it gets an avalanche of attention provided by the very people who claim to be against Trump, but greatly help his cause by doing so.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Left Coast Liberals Dream for Secession / Politics / US Politics
As the consequences of losing control of the federal government seeps into their delusional entitlement, the ultimate statists of the Left scamper to find a method to regain power. A concept, whose day is gaining acceptance, is the Nation of Pacifica. With the incompatibility between the Trump Nation deplorables and the intolerant collectivists of Leftist state worshipers, the end game is rapidly approaching a final conflict that easily could erupt in a real civil war. Leave it to the beautiful people; their fantasia screen play scripts a peaceful dissolution of the disjointed union. A sample of their dialectic:
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Thursday, February 02, 2017
Red States vs Blue States - What’s Next: A Third and Potentially Lethal Trigger / Politics / US Politics
This past Monday I updated my Boom & Bust subscribers about an important new development in the civil war that I see brewing… or at least the possibility that the United States of America won’t remain the way we know it for much longer. We’re certainly no longer united. In fact, we’ve not been this polarized and divided since the Civil War.Unfortunately, the state we find ourselves in today has been painted on the wall for a long time! And my hierarchy of cycles – which includes the Spending Wave Cycle, the Technology Cycle, the Geopolitical Cycle and the Boom/Bust Cycle – have shown me for many years now what we have in store. And now a near 100-year cycle in globalization has peaked, much like the last one did when World War I started.
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Thursday, February 02, 2017
How Misconceptions Are Driving the US to Sociopolitical Disaster / Politics / US Politics
Throughout history, bad ideas such as those espoused by Marx have taken hold in the public arena and become institutionalized. This occurred despite the inherent violence required by a system in which individuals are forced to be subservient to the state. I’ve discussed issues like this previously, but I find it continues to be relevant today.
The iconic socialist revolutionary, Che Guevara, made the case that in a true socialist revolution, large swaths of the population had to die.
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Thursday, February 02, 2017
Trump Voters And The News Media Have Something In Common / Politics / US Politics
BY PATRICK WATSON : Donald Trump won the White House for two main reasons.
First, in the last 20 years, new technology and globalist “free trade” agreements combined to destroy millions of middle-class jobs. Particularly, manufacturing jobs. I’ve written about the future implications of this trend in Connecting the Dots (subscribe here for free).
Second, our political and business elites didn't recognize this was happening—or just didn't care. In either case, they failed to respond adequately. President Trump is a direct result of their negligence.
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Thursday, February 02, 2017
Pass the Gatorade - How Much Did the US Election Really Matter? / Politics / US Politics
We’ll start out this week by prepping you. This article is going to annoy quite a few people. We’ll warn you up front that neither of us subscribes to the idea of political parties or platforms. We have the Constitution; that is good enough for us. We credit people like Dr. Paul Craig Roberts for having the backbone to be one of the early people to break out the box of pins to pop the balloon of idiocy that has been floating around the past few months. What we’re talking about is the kind of idiocy we haven’t seen since 2008 when one side of the political spectrum swamped into Washington DC and absolutely trashed the place. We’ll see if the other side can do better.
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Thursday, February 02, 2017
Unrest Is The Only Growth Industry Left / Politics / US Politics
Benoît Hamon won the run-off for the presidential nomination of the Socialist party in France last weekend. The party that still, lest we forget, runs the country; current president François Hollande is a Socialist, even if only in name, but he did win the previous election. Hamon ran on a platform of shortening the workweek from 35 to 32 hours, legalizing cannabis and ‘easing’ the country into a universal basic income of €750/month per capita. He’s way left of Hollande, who has a hilariously low approval rating of 4%.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
A Better Solution Than Trump's Mexico Border Wall / Politics / US Politics
Just one week in office, President Trump is already following through on his pledge to address illegal immigration. His January 25th executive order called for the construction of a wall along the entire length of the US-Mexico border. While he is right to focus on the issue, there are several reasons why his proposed solution will unfortunately not lead us anywhere closer to solving the problem.
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Monday, January 30, 2017
Brace Yourself For The Battle Of the Senate Republicans / Politics / US Politics
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : On Jan. 20, Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States. For Trump (as with every president before him), all that he said up until that point consisted of promises.
But now, the focus must shift... from what he will do, to what he is doing. (Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, This Week in Geopolitics, and stay informed on the most important geopolitical developments)
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Monday, January 30, 2017
10 Things I learned From Meetings With Trump’s Transition Team / Politics / US Politics
I was in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.
That gave me the opportunity to set up a few meetings with members from Trump’s transition team (many of whom read my free weekly letter, Thoughts from the Frontline).
During those talks, I gained some insight into what the first 100 days, the first six months, and the first year of the Trump administration might look like.
Here’s a summary of my impressions.
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Sunday, January 29, 2017
Are Green Card Holders Safe From Trump’s Muslim Immigration Ban? / Politics / US Politics
His anti-Muslim order caused a firestorm of outrage nationwide, from relatives of affected individuals, activists, human rights groups, as well as state and local officials.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Trump’s order “doesn’t include green card holders going forward,” then reversed himself, saying “of course it does.”
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Sunday, January 29, 2017
Trump Muslim Green Card Ban Avoided Through Trump Golf Course Membership / Politics / US Politics
Trump trumpeted his blanket refugees and muslim bans from 7 mostly Islamic nations Friday that even includes partners in the war on terror such as Iraq that as Trump was busy signing the executive order with his shrunken hand were busy fighting ISIS in Mosul.
Apparently the muslim ban includes green card residency holders, so anyone from the 7 target nations AND other muslims nations in for 'extreme vetting' finding themselves outside the United States are now unlikely to find themselves able to get back into the United States. And the ban extends to third nations i.e. UK passport holders who originate from one of the 7 banned nations are also banned from entry into the United States.
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Friday, January 27, 2017
This America, beacon on the hill, will survive this challenge / Politics / US Politics
This is a globalized world. There is no changing this fact. There is no changing “climate science”. There is no changing the will of the people to be fair, when fairness commands it. There is no changing the slow-moving ascent of multiculturalism, racial integration and sexual equality; and no replacement for secular Democracy. Mr. Trump and the Republicans think it all can be unraveled with the stroke of a pen.
The masters of delusion might have convinced almost half of voters, but the other half will carry the torch into the future. The Women’s March in Washington and countless American cities proved their numbers don’t lie.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Alt Trump Builds that Wall, Bans Muslims But Not Saudi Terrorists / Politics / US Politics
Trump's pen has been busy this week signing off executive orders left, right and centre, from checking off the fossil fuel industries top 10 wish list, to authorising the start of construction of the "Trump Wall", to starting to implement a ban on muslims entering the United States from 7 nations, supposedly for reducing the risks of importing terrorism. Though the Alt-Facts President Trump chose to turn a blind eye to by far the greatest exporter of terrorist ideology, Saudi Arabia with it's wahabi puritanical ideology that petro-dollars has fuelled the export of since the 1970's. That and 15 of the 19 Sept 11th hijackers were Saudi's. But FACTS don't matter for America's Alt-Facts President for Trump cannot ban rich Saudi's as that will hit custom at his hotels and golf courses.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Police State Tactics Target Independent Journalists Covering Anti-Trump Protests / Politics / US Politics
First Amendment rights are too precious to lose. Without them, all others are at risk.
On January 20, six independent journalists were arrested in Washington for doing their jobs - covering protests during Trump’s inauguration.
They committed no crimes, yet face possible prosecution and imprisonment. The affected journalists include documentary producer Jack Keller, independent photojournalist Shay Horse, independent journalist Matt Hopard, free lance reporter Aaron Cantu, Vocativ journalist Evan Enger, and RT America’s Alexander Rubinstein.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Tweetonomics: Implications of @realDonaldTrump / Politics / US Politics
Faced with a Tweeter-in-chief, how are investors to navigate what's ahead? Is there a strategy behind President Trump's outbursts; and if so, how shall investors position themselves to protect their portfolios or profit from it?
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The Yoke Of Stupidity Is Strangling America / Politics / US Politics
California Governor Brown says the state budget deficit is growing and one of the reasons is the minimum wage increase that state voters just approved. Duh! State government worker pay is tied to minimum wages and as minimum wages go up, so too do government wages. That means the state government has to increase expenses and that calls for even higher taxes. Those extra taxes might be hard to raise as survey out revealed that in states and municipalities that elected to raise minimum wages, 75% of business respondents reported they were cutting back on hours and employees as a result. Duh! Can humans get any stupider? From my last post, the governor and the voters should have listened to the smartest man in California, Simon Salazar.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Does Trump Have a Magic Wand? I Simply Don’t Buy It! / Politics / US Politics
As Trump was inaugurated, it seems most people are feeling better about the economy. Even a more liberal analyst said yesterday in an interview that he thought Trump should raise the minimum wage to $15 to stimulate demand!Seriously?!
A Bernie Sanders, far-left strategy in a Republican Congress?
How delusional can you get?
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Monday, January 23, 2017
Trump's Foreign Policy An Unwise Inconsistency? / Politics / US Politics
Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald Trump's foreign policy positions have been anything but consistent. One day we heard that NATO was obsolete and the US needs to pursue better relations with Russia. But the next time he spoke, these sensible positions were abandoned or an opposite position was taken. Trump's inconsistent rhetoric left us wondering exactly what kind of foreign policy he would pursue if elected.
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Monday, January 23, 2017
United States Common Sense - 2017 / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I explored Thomas Paine's critical role in the creation of our nation. His Common Sense pamphlets inspired the common people to uncommon acts of courage and heroic feats of valor; leading to the great experiment we call the United States of America. Paine, Franklin and the other Founding Fathers produced a republic, if we could keep it.
John Adams championed the new Constitution precisely because it would not create a democracy, as he knew a democracy "soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." Their herculean efforts, sacrifices, and bloodshed have been for naught as we allowed our republic to devolve into a democracy and ultimately into our current corporate fascist warfare/welfare surveillance state. Sadly, we were unable to keep the republic Franklin and his fellow revolutionaries gave us.
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Sunday, January 22, 2017
Trump Talks Gibberish at Inauguration then Panic Runs to CIA to Prevent Assassination / Politics / US Politics
If you thought Trump was unhinged during the election campaign then you have not seen anything yet for he is truly showing all the hallmarks of turning into an American Pyscho! First we had his inauguration speech, which was far from being presidential, a stream of gibberish inter spiced with "america first" and "make america great again", something a rebellious teenager would have put together.
Now what would a sane President have been focused on following in the inauguration? Getting ones team together to start the hard work to rebuild america? Not Trump, his first order of business was the size of the inauguration crowd!
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Friday, January 20, 2017
The Trump RESET Starts on US Presidential Inauguration Day 2017 - What to Expect / Politics / US Politics
Donald Trump will be sworn into office at 12 noon today to become the 45th President of the United States that will trigger the 'Trump Reset' on that which has passed for the past 40 years, which my video series seeks to detail the key mega-trend geopolitical consequences of why the US under a Trump Presidency is trending for instance towards an inevitable war with China, economic, cyber and even outright military conflict, something that is deemed to be impossible by most today.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2017
How To Read Trump / Politics / US Politics
As President, Trump has pledged to reset the White House policies on “America First” basis. But will he deliver?
Around the world, there is great apprehension and much speculation about potential Trump scenarios. Nevertheless, not everything that is possible will happen, even with Trump in the White House.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Trump anti-Communist Counter Revolution / Politics / US Politics
The century anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution occurs this year. Any serious examination of The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union must conclude that the systematic eradications of millions and the ruthlessness of the Communist commissars rule was a miserable failure, even by Marxist postulates. Russia today is quite different from the Gulag Archipelago that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn experienced and wrote about. “And those who, like you and me, dear reader, go there to die, must get there solely and compulsorily via arrest.”
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Tuesday, January 17, 2017
The American Crisis - Common Sense 2017 / Politics / US Politics
Thomas Paine was born in 1737 in Britain. His first thirty seven years of life were pretty much a series of failures and disappointments. Business fiascos, firings, the death of his first wife and child, a failed second marriage, and bankruptcy plagued his early life. He then met Benjamin Franklin in 1774 and was convinced to emigrate to America, arriving in Philadelphia in November 1774. He thus became the Father of the American Revolution with the publication of Common Sense, pamphlets which crystallized opinion for colonial independence in 1776.
The first pamphlet was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, and signed anonymously “by an Englishman.” It became an instantaneous sensation, swiftly disseminating 100,000 copies in three months among the two and a half million residents of the 13 colonies. Over 500,000 copies were sold during the course of the American Revolution. Paine published Common Sense after the battle of Lexington and Concord, making the argument the colonists should seek complete independence from Great Britain, rather than merely fighting against unfair levels of taxation. The pamphlets stirred the masses with a fighting spirit, instilling in them the backbone to resist a powerful empire.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Obama Leaves, Hope Arrives, Will Stupid Stay? / Politics / US Politics
Obama’s presidential term will mercifully expire on 1/19/17. Hallelujah! He can quickly descend to his correct historical position as the second worst leader in american history beside the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson. Why is Wilson the worst leader ever? A brief synopsis follows.
1 - Wilson ceded power to the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 (an un-Constitutional act)
2 - Wilson gave us the 16th Constitutional Amendment giving the federal government power and authority to seize taxation from payrolls (another un-Constitutional act)
3 - Wilson injected the US into WWI at the delight of the central bankers who were kind enough to loan money for the butchery of humans around the globe.
4 - Wilson showed the first film in the White House. It promoted the good work of the KKK.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Trump’s First Foreign Visit to Meet Putin? / Politics / US Politics
Citing a London Sunday Times report, The Hill and Bloomberg said Trump’s first foreign trip as president is expected to be a summit with Vladimir Putin within weeks of his inauguration.
If the report is accurate, both leaders will meet in Reykjavik, Iceland. Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied it, tweeting “not true - report is 100% false.” A second tweet said “Nope, not true.”
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Saturday, January 14, 2017
President Trump vs the Deep State that Hides in Plain Sight / Politics / US Politics
The "Deep State" best describes the invisible labyrinth of power which truly controls the United States no matter which party is in power against which a President Donald Trump will find himself doing battle against as the following video illustrates by Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, who talks with Bill Moyers about what he calls Washington's "Deep State," in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. "It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war."
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Friday, January 13, 2017
2017: Change Can Be A Bitc h / Politics / US Politics
2016 brought a lot of changes, or rather, brought them to light. In reality, the world has been changing for many years, but many prominent actors benefitted from the changes remaining hidden. Simply because their wealth and power and worldviews are better served that way.
It’s entirely unclear whether we will ever get a chance to see to what extent the efforts to hide developments have been successful, or even been perpetrated at all, because we don’t know to what extent truth and reality will be accessible in the future.
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Thursday, January 12, 2017
Obama’s Deplorable Last Hurrah / Politics / US Politics
On Tuesday evening, Obama delivered his self-styled farewell address - as demagogic and duplicitous as all his others.
A separate article discussed what he left unexplained - the enormous harm he inflicted on humanity at home and abroad throughout his tenure.
His farewell address included a recitation of democratic rights he abhors - “among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” freedoms he spent eight years destroying at home and abroad.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2017
What Obama’s Farewell Address Won’t Say / Politics / US Politics
On Tuesday evening, Obama will deliver his farewell address from Chicago, his adopted home city. He’ll lie, deceive and misinform like he always does.
He’ll say nothing about arguably the most disgraceful eight years in US history. He betrayed the public trust from day one.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2017
President Donald Trump Seeks Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor as Mr BrExit / Politics / US Politics
The Golden Globes sparked another twitter tirade from President Elect Donald Trump following criticisms from Meryl Streep for Trumps mocking of a disabled reporter during the election campaign -
"But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It, it sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. It was -- there was nothing good about it. But it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It -- it kind of broke my heart when I saw it. And I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life."
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
Will Donald Trump Defy Expectations and Be a Peace President? / Politics / US Politics
It’s hardly likely given America’s rage for endless wars, gorging on them. Neocons infesting Washington demand them.
Enemies are invented to accommodate them. War profiteers depend on them. The indifferent public does nothing to demand they stop.
Yet what US leader in memory said getting along with Russia “is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad!” If Trump follows through on this rhetoric, imagine the possibilities for change.
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
The Trump Reset War With China: 2. The Putin Doctrine / Politics / US Politics
Trump's US election win amounts to a pressing of the RESET button on that which has passed for at least the past 40 years. Which demands a reappraisal of virtually everything to ascertain not just the impact of Trump but the trend reversal / rebellion underway amongst Western populations against the ruling elites that will impact on the mega-trend drivers of financial market trends for many years if not decades to come.
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Friday, January 06, 2017
The Fourth-Generation War / Politics / US Politics
Dear Paraders,
Welcome to 2017. As with every new year, or any stretch of 365 days into the future, we can expect surprises. Some good and some bad.
Of course, we can’t know the future. Therefore, we are left to our expectations and, I suppose, aspirations. For example, I await the arrival of President Trump with high hopes and an almost silly level of anticipation.
Oh, how I hope he continues deriding the political class so firmly attached to the carotid artery of the American people. Derision is all they deserve, and Trump does derision particularly well.
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Thursday, January 05, 2017
Attempted Coup Against Trump Continues / Politics / US Politics
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Understanding America's Global Role in the Age of Trump / Politics / US Politics
By Rodger Baker : The New Year, of course, is a time when many reflect on the past and look toward the future. The past provides potential lessons and cautions for those who would seek to find tomorrow's solutions in yesterday's actions. In his 1994 book Diplomacy, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote: "The study of history offers no manual of instructions that can be applied automatically; history teaches by analogy, shedding light on the likely consequences of comparable situations. But each generation must determine for itself which circumstances are in fact comparable."
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Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Trump's Self-Inflicted Policy Failures / Politics / US Politics
Even the most avid and enthusiastic Trump supporter needs to be critical of their most hopeful America First president. For a dose of reality and objective conviction, who better to rely on than Pat Buchanan? His article, Israel First or America First concludes with the fateful warning for President –Elect Trump. “Having America publicly reassert herself as Israel’s best friend, with "no daylight" between us, could have us ending up as Israel’s only friend – and Israel as our only friend in the Middle East. Bibi’s Israel First policy must one day collide with America First.”
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Sunday, January 01, 2017
President Donald Trump's 2017 New Year Message, BBC Fake News, Was 2016 a Dream? / Politics / US Politics
President Elect Donald Trumps's frank and truthful New Year Message to all americans of what to expect come January 20th. Whilst the mainstream media in a desperate attempt to survive has now decided to embrace fake news as illustrated by BBC. And lastly, did BrExit and Trump really happen? Or was 2016 all just a dream so that we are going to be waking up in a few short hours to January the 1st 2016.
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Saturday, December 31, 2016
Trump’s Praise for Putin’s Moral High Ground Exposed Obama’s Vindictiveness / Politics / US Politics
In response to Obama’s new sanctions on Russia, illegal by any standard, Trump praised how Putin handled his action, tweeting “(g)reat move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart.”
A follow-up related tweet said “Russians are playing #CNN and @NBCNews for such fools…they don’t have a clue! @FoxNews totally gets it.”
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Saturday, December 31, 2016
Barack Obama’s Legacy: War, Debt and Poverty / Politics / US Politics
As 2016 winds down, so does Barack O’Bomber’s $80 million in paid vacations and his legacy of war, debt and poverty.
It’s quite amazing how much one man can ruin a country while playing so much golf.
WAR
Just 12 days after being elected, Barack Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He accepted the prize in Oslo on December 10, 2009.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2016
New Year's Resolutions for Donald Trump and US Congress / Politics / US Politics
In the spirit of New Year's, here are four resolutions for president-elect Trump and Congress that will enable them to really make America great again:
1) Audit the Fed....and then end it: The Federal Reserve Bank's easy money polices have eroded the American people's standard of living and facilitated the growth of the welfare-warfare state. The Fed is also responsible for the growth in income inequality. Yet Congress still refuses to pass Audit the Fed, much less end it.
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Monday, December 26, 2016
Trump’s Economic Plan is a Betrayal of the People Who Voted for Him / Politics / US Politics
Trump’s economic plan has sent stocks ripping higher for six weeks straight. But what’s going to happen to stock prices when Congress gives Trump’s plan a big thumbs down? Has anyone thought about that yet?
And what about the Fed? Does anyone seriously think that Fed chairman Janet Yellen is going to sit on her hands while Trump launches a $1 trillion fiscal stimulus package that triggers a sudden burst of growth followed by a sharp uptick in inflation?
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Wednesday, December 21, 2016
The Trump Doctrine: A Work in Progress / Politics / US Politics
By Reva Goujon : The world is in a "frenzy of study," Henry Kissinger said in a recent interview. At home and abroad, strategists and pundits are trying to piece together a blueprint of American foreign policy under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump from a stream of tweets, some campaign slogans, a few eye-catching Cabinet picks, meetings at Trump Tower, and a pingpong match already underway with Beijing. Highbrow intellectualism can be a handicap in this exercise. Commentators among the Washington establishment have been quick to dismiss Trump's foreign policy moves outright as erratic and self-serving over the past few weeks. In an op-ed entitled "Trump Failed His First Foreign Policy Test," for instance, columnist David Ignatius admonished the president-elect for the "hot mess" his phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen precipitated. Trump makes people uncomfortable. It's what he does best, in fact. But how this quality applies to foreign policy is a question that merits deeper exploration than knee-jerk displays of stricken disbelief. After all, as Kissinger noted in his Dec. 18 interview, "a president has to have some core convictions."
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Monday, December 19, 2016
On the 225th Anniversary of the United States’ Bill of Rights / Politics / US Politics
This December, 2016, marks the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the US Constitution which would become known as the “Bill of Rights.” To secure passage of the Constitution, the framers of the document (the Federalists) had to agree that it would contain explicit language on individual rights.
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Sunday, December 18, 2016
Freedom in America Disappearing in Plain Sight / Politics / US Politics
The republic was founded “in strict secrecy,” Benjamin Franklin explained. When asked “what have we got, a republic or a monarchy,” he responded “(a) republic, if you can keep it.”
Today he’d say a coup to destroy it is underway in plain sight, the last vestiges of freedom fading with it - a fascist dictatorship emerging, far more ruthless and dangerous than others in world history.
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Saturday, December 10, 2016
CIA Warns Donald Trump is Putin's Manchurian Candidate! / Politics / US Politics
The CIA playing to their own agenda, one of concentration of power into their own hands let a political bomb off as we countdown to the inauguration of the America's CHANGE candidate Donald Trump. Change which the establishment elite that the CIA are part and parcel of want to try their hardest to limit the extent of materialising.
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Monday, December 05, 2016
Carrier Jobs And The Slippery Slope / Politics / US Politics
“Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences.” – Donald Trump
The reaction to Trump’s deal to keep 1,100 Carrier jobs in Indiana has ranged from outrage to adoration. There are so many layers to this Shakespearean drama that all points of views have some level of credence. I’m torn between the positive and negative aspects of this deal. If you’ve read Bastiat’s The Law and Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, you understand the fallacies involved when government interferes in the free market. Politicians and their fanboys always concentrate on the seen aspects of government intervention, but purposely ignore the unseen consequences.
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Friday, December 02, 2016
Trump Nominee Will Politicize Dept. of Justice / Politics / US Politics
In his successful run to the presidency, Donald Trump spent a lot of time talking about the Second Amendment and defending gun ownership. He spent very little time talking about the other amendments, other than to say he supported the Constitution. He knew his core support came from those who could effortlessly repeat a phrase, “Donald Trump supports my Second Amendment rights,” without knowing much more than that.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 01, 2016
America, is it Finally time for us to say Goodbye? / Politics / US Politics
few months ago my wife and I made a trip into the city from our small rural community for an evening of dining and visiting with some of her old childhood friends. We started our date with just the two of us at a well known vegetarian restaurant. Later we met up with the rest of the crew at a local park near the beach to watch some skits and some dancing while the sun went down over English Bay. It was a beautiful sunset in an amazing setting.
While we’re sitting and chatting in the bleachers of the small amphitheatre my wife’s friend asks us at which restaurant we ate. We told her and with a raised eyebrow she replies: “Really, Francis actually ate in a vegetarian restaurant? Wow. That must have been quite an experience for you!”
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Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Can President Trump Really Drain the Swamp? / Politics / US Politics
The glorious and providential intervention that provided the courage and motivation for millions of ordinary Americans to vote AGAINST the globalist system, which is the epitome for national betrayal is a once in a lifetime opportunity to eliminate the traitors in our society. Donald J. Trump is only a man. He is not the savior of our civilization, nor is he a miracle worker. Yet his election provides the last best hope that the forces of human enslavement, within our own power structure, can be defeated. Citizens who actually participate in the political process need to practice RealPolitik, when it comes to influencing or shaping public policy.
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Monday, November 28, 2016
President Trump Is Facing Lenin’s Dilemma / Politics / US Politics
George Friedman: When the Bolsheviks took power during the Russian Revolution in 1917, their intention was to create the dictatorship of the proletariat. They formed an army to fight a civil war against a counterinsurgency of monarchists who intended to destroy the Bolsheviks.
Vladimir Lenin, who led the revolution, appointed Trotsky to form the Red Army.
One problem was that he had never served in an army, let alone commanded one.
But Trotsky was chosen not because he had experience building an army. He was chosen because Lenin trusted Trotsky wouldn’t betray him.
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Monday, November 28, 2016
Fidel Castro and the American Empire / Politics / US Politics
The death of the brutal Cuban Communist dictator Fidel Castro closes the door, in some respect, on another disastrous page in US foreign policy history. For all the denunciations and criticism of Castro from conservative elements and exiled Cubans, his despotic rule was the outcome of decades of American imperialism which began with President William McKinley’s infamous decision to wage war on hapless Spain in 1898.
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Sunday, November 27, 2016
It's (sigh) President Trump / Politics / US Politics
When Sen. Barack Obama was running for the presidency and for most of his two terms, the Tea Party right-wing claimed he was born in Kenya, that he was a radicalized Muslim, and was unfit to be president. The rise of the Tea Party led to a rise of racist ideology and an increase of violence during political rallies.
After Sen. Obama’s election, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, said the Republicans’ primary direction was solely to block whatever the new President wanted to do. Other Republicans chimed in that President Obama was out to destroy the country. The country did not destruct under the Obama Administration.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Trump Moves as America Stands Still / Politics / US Politics
Ever since the November 8 election, it’s been hard to write anything that makes actual sense, as evidenced by just about everything I’ve read in the past two weeks, little of which was particularly elevating, because just like before the vote, and just like in pre- and post-Brexit Britain, all there is left in the US are deeply dug-in heels.
Everything and everyone is standing still; dug-in heels do that for you. Problem is, of course, that standing still doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re going to have to move or you’ll be left behind. Somehow it’s wonderfully ironic that Donald Trump is the only main character in this play who’s moving, and he does so in more ways than one. It’s like he’s going head first against the latest braindead internet craze, mannequin. If he does it on purpose, I commend him for it.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A Vote for Trump, Much in Spite of Who He is / Politics / US Politics
It’s hard to keep up with all the labels.According to the mainstream media, anyone who voted for Donald Trump is a hate-filled bigot who objectifies women, can’t stand immigrants, denies global warming, has no education, and earns less today than he did in 1999. He must be resentful that a black man occupies the White House today and apoplectic at the possibility that a woman might do the same thing.
That’s a lot to carry around… and it’s not who I am… even though I voted for Trump.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Donald Trump is just an ugly intermission between acts / Politics / US Politics
Mr. Trump, you have no mandate. You not only lost the popular vote by two million but the disparity between the popular vote and Electoral vote was historically unprecedented.
What you have is a constituency that mostly voted for radical change and who seem gleefully unaware that similar ultra-right, populist movements in the last century produced Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and, in recent decades, third-world banana republic thugs underwritten by Wall Street and the State Department for the purpose of dismantling social democracies to enrich private corporations, bankers and oligarchic nationalists.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Trump Negotiating NAFTA's Future, Mexico Economic Uncertainty / Politics / US Politics
In Mexico, uncertainty abounds over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and, in particular, his promises to change NAFTA. Although the next president will have the power to unilaterally pull out of the trade bloc, as he has threatened to do, congressional opposition and legal challenges from private companies may discourage him from doing so. Aside from the political and legal battles that would doubtless ensue, withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement would be economically painful, disrupting business continuity for companies around the world — including those in the United States. Still, Trump has a few options with regard to NAFTA. Instead of suddenly withdrawing from the deal, he could try to renegotiate certain aspects of it. He may even decide to leave NAFTA alone (although that seems unlikely given the emphasis he placed on the agreement during his campaign). Regardless of which path he takes, Trump will not be acting in a vacuum. His decision will likely depend on the cooperation of the U.S. Congress and of the trade agreement's other signatories, Canada and Mexico.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Donald Trump Grey Champion Assumes Command of America's Fourth Turning Crisis - Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I discussed the arrival of Grey Champions in previous Fourth Turnings; their attributes, deficiencies, and leadership skills; and why Donald Trump is the Grey Champion of this Fourth Turning - whether you like it or not. Now I will try to make sense of what could happen next.
Read full article... Read full article..."Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people. The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. For those who control the levers of power in Washington and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don't have your good in mind. The political establishment that is trying to stop us is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration and economic and foreign policies that have bled our country dry.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Trump Inauguration Day Protests Planned / Politics / US Politics
Protesting Trump’s inauguration misses the point. I’ve explained many times. America’s criminal class is bipartisan, democracy pure fantasy.
Deep state duopoly power runs things - one-party state governance with two right wings, independents entirely shut out. Media scoundrels are press agents for wealth, power and privilege exclusively.
Election-rigging made Trump president. Power brokers decided Hillary was too scandal-ridden to serve effectively. Her deplorable public record defeated her.
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Sunday, November 20, 2016
Grey Champion Assumes Command of America's Fourth Turning Crisis - Part 1 / Politics / US Politics
Read full article... Read full article...At each of these great gates of history, eighty to a hundred years apart, a similar generational drama unfolded. Four archetypes, aligned in the same order - elder Prophet, midlife Nomad, young adult Hero, child Artist - together produced the most enduring legends in our history. Each time the Grey Champion appeared marked the arrival of a moment of "darkness, and adversity, and peril," the climax of the Fourth Turning of the saeculum. - The Fourth Turning - Strauss & Howe
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Fear and the ‘Good American’ / Politics / US Politics
There is no one I know or meet whose life hasn’t been noticeably affected – even interrupted and disrupted – by Donald J. Trump. Many have been thrust into fear by his election.
As a warning signal, fear can prompt vigilance, alertness, caution and preparedness, as it is now doing in many. In this respect, fear is a healthy response to a perceived or potential threat. But, if allowed it can be a self-defeating mechanism that scrambles rational thinking, weakens defenses and disorients reality.
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Sunday, November 20, 2016
Donald Trump, Hollywood Films and End of Liberalism, Globalization and Americans’ Alienation - Global Impacts / Politics / US Politics
Men live, work, fight and flourish always under fear and threats. Fear is one of the central themes of so many fictions and other literacy and artistic works, including performing arts and computer games. Hundreds of films, including box office Hollywood Films, and Computer Games have been made on projecting the fear of aliens or beasts, the attack or invasion of aliens from unknown planets or regions with their peculiar faith, dress, culture, practices and languages and finally the emergence of a savior or liberator, sometimes a super human hero, who saves the Humanity and its culture from the inhuman and alien savages.
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Monday, November 14, 2016
Good Trump, Bad Trump – What’s Really Going On? / Politics / US Politics
We expected the Super Shemitah/Jubilee time period (which officially ends on November 20th with the end of the Catholic Jubilee) to be one of dramatic change and chaos.
And, did we ever get it!
Since the beginning of the Jubilee year, in October of last year, two massive events have happened. Brexit and Trump.
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Sunday, November 13, 2016
Trumpnomics – Reinventing Political Economy for America and Its Forgotten People and the World under Donald Trump / Politics / US Politics
The core of the economic policies of Donald Trump, on the basis of what he has said so far, is for rebuilding America and empowering its forgotten people. For the last twenty years American economy has been reduced into mere Corporate Economics centered on the Service Sector, ignoring the Primary Sector – Agriculture, Mining, Fishing, Diary and Rural America- and the Secondary or Industrial Sector that are the real backbone of America. As a result, America has acquired several characteristics of a Third World Country. Further, America has created a large number of the victims ,especially the rural people and the blue color workers , known as ‘ the forgotten people of America’ consisting of not only the white, but also the colored, including the Latinos, who made Donald Trump, the President of America.
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Friday, November 11, 2016
Trump & The Fed / Politics / US Politics
There is critical information in the first 45 seconds of the Donald Trump campaign video below. Now the election is over, and this nonpartisan analysis is not about campaigns, politics or who should have been elected - but some absolutely fundamental changes that could be on the way.
The video was Trump's closing argument for his election, and was released on November 6th.
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Thursday, November 10, 2016
Midnight in America / Politics / US Politics
Stunned political analysts are missing the most plausible argument explaining Donald Trump's unexpected victory. The misreading of the American electorate stems from the political class' acceptance of mistaken (and increasingly insane) economic dogma that has arisen over the past generation. Based on their flawed understanding of economics, the pundits could simply not understand why the electorate had become totally disillusioned.
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Wednesday, November 09, 2016
After The Trump Election Triumph / Politics / US Politics
The Trump victory was a "stunning surprise" to Washington and mainstream media. But it was very much in line with voter distrust in both Clintons and Washington’s ruling class.Politically, Americans are fed up. In cooperation with the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign had far too cozy ties with Wall Street, neoconservatives and Pentagon contractors, as well as mainstream media organizations; from CNN and New York Times to Huffington Post and Google.
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Tuesday, November 08, 2016
Washington’s Post-Election Gridlock and Africa / Politics / US Politics
After the bizarre 2016 election, Washington faces a slate of legal investigations, a massive political gridlock, the threat of new Cold Wars and possibly a contested election. What does it mean to Africa?Last July, FBI Director James Comey closed the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails and decided not to pursue charges, which resulted in broad criticism. Recently, Comey re-opened the case following a discovery of new emails. In addition to the Benghazi and FBI debacles, these efforts are likely to include some 50,000 emails from Wikileaks, particularly those of John Podesta, Clinton campaign manager and chair of the Center of American Progress (CAP).
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Monday, November 07, 2016
Regardless of How America Votes, Americans Want a Different Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
I have said throughout this presidential campaign that it doesn't matter much which candidate wins. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are authoritarians and neither can be expected to roll back the leviathan state that destroys our civil liberties at home while destroying our economy and security with endless wars overseas. Candidates do not matter all that much, despite what the media would have us believe. Ideas do matter, however. And regardless of which of these candidates is elected, the battle of ideas now becomes critical.
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Friday, November 04, 2016
This US Election is a Chance for the Republicans to Build a New Coalition / Politics / US Politics
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The election is far from over, and given the pattern of this election, nothing can be taken for granted. So while (at the moment) Hillary Clinton appears to be winning, less than two weeks remain.
I generally focus on the broad geopolitical forces that shape and reshape the world. But, there are two reasons to be interested in this US election.
First, shifts in the behavior of the US affect geopolitics globally. Second, this election has revealed some profound changes in the underlying dynamics of American politics.
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Friday, November 04, 2016
American Civil War II - Fourth Turning Intensifying (Part I) / Politics / US Politics
"History offers even more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation usually occurs around the climax of Crisis. If there is confrontation, it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war - class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or superpower war. If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nil - its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured." - The Fourth Turning - Strauss & Howe -1997
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Friday, November 04, 2016
The Office of the President of the United States / Politics / US Politics
Amidst the epic flood of political statements and media commentary that keeps on rolling in and on, there’s something that doesn’t seem to occur to most people, and it should. That is, the unfortunate but apparently inevitable discussion about all the unfortunate and/or illegal things that either candidate may or may not have done, must be seen in the light of the capacity in which -perceived- errors or even crimes are committed. It is essential to this issue.
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Wednesday, November 02, 2016
Regardless of Who Wins the US Election, Confidence in Washington DC Is ALREADY Shattered / Politics / US Politics
It just doesn't matter much whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins the election, at least in terms of gold and silver market fundamentals. That said, the contest itself is signaling something important precious metals investors should be watching intently.
This campaign is dragging whatever prestige is still associated with the Office of President into the mud. Few voters on either side bother to spend much time arguing the greatness of their candidate. When both Trump and Clinton carry more baggage than American Airlines, it's easier to focus on their opponent's shortcomings.
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Tuesday, November 01, 2016
The Fight Against The North American Union And Globalism Is In Standing Rock / Politics / US Politics
If you are one of the few people left watching the mainstream media, you’d think that the only thing currently going on has to do with Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
There is much more going on than that, however. Aside from the ongoing military tensions with Russia and the faltering economy, there is a stand-off currently happening that is barely being reported on in the mainstream.
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Monday, October 17, 2016
Iceland Today, the US Tomorrow? / Politics / US Politics
During the 2008 economic crisis, Iceland's government froze offshore accounts held by foreign investors in that country's currency, the krona. Recently, the government of Iceland announced it would unfreeze the accounts if the account holders paid a voluntary "departure tax," which could be as high as 58 percent. Investors who choose not to pay the departure tax would have their investment "segregated" into special funds that only invest in CDs issued by Iceland's central bank. These CDs are expected to only provide a rate of return of at most 0.5 percent a year. So investors in offshore accounts can thus choose between having their money directly seized via the departure tax or indirectly seized via the inflation tax.
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Monday, September 26, 2016
Martial Law Rolls Out Across the US As Jubilee Nears / Politics / US Politics
As we enter into the last week before the end of the Jubilee Year, the National Guard has been deployed in Charlotte, North Carolina and massive military convoys have been deployed in the streets of New York City.
This is a continuation of last summer’s Jade Helm seven-state military exercise that many in the area saw as a prelude to military occupation. After Jade Helm came the US Army Special Operations Command’s Unconventional Warfare Exercise 16 (UWEX 16) that ran in Texas through June.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Black NFL Atheletes - Why Stand for a Country That Can Gun You Down in Cold Blood? / Politics / US Politics
If black athletes in the NFL honestly think that African Americans who live under Old Glory are as ‘equally protected ‘as whites, then they should stand up during the national anthem and sing-along. But if they know that blacks aren’t getting a square deal, and that blacks can be gunned down at any time by trigger-happy cops who never face the consequences, then they owe it to themselves and their country to demand change by remaining seated.
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Friday, September 02, 2016
American Conservatives Are Turning to Putin / Politics / US Politics
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN: American conservatism has fragmented since 1991. It now looks very little like the movement presided over by Ronald Reagan.
One of these factions seems to be pro-Russian and views Russian President Vladimir Putin favorably. You can see this in Donald Trump’s speech on national security. He explicitly invited Russia to fight Islamist terrorism together. This is a shift.
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Saturday, August 27, 2016
This America, this house divided ... cannot stand / Politics / US Politics
In an election cycle that has scored the lowest in human decency, civilized behavior and speech; a cycle characterized by hate, viciousness, competing scandals, voluminous unproven allegations, scapegoats, fear-mongering, incitements to violence, death threats, and general moral decline bordering on decadence, I advise no child be exposed to any of it – none!
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Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Black Lives Matter - Obama’s Race War is No Accident / Politics / US Politics
What will it take for citizens to face up to the nature of the state of terror against the American people? All the attention about Islamic suicide fanatics provides ample cover to ignore the pathetic condition of race relations that has been a hallmark of the Obama administration. If a POTUS person of color was accused of festering discontent, the fable disinformation media would pay no attention to or paint the charges as racist. The liberal sociopaths that project the progressive culture are obsessed with smearing all dissent from their authoritarian oppression as based upon bigotry that objects to the supremacy of their multicolored Marxism.
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Monday, July 04, 2016
On July 4th Demand Freedom, Don't Celebrate The State / Politics / US Politics
As we gather with family and friends to celebrate the July 4th holiday we should remember that we are not celebrating the state, but rather commemorating an act of secession from an oppressive government. We are celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain - a daring move by the Founders inspired by a desire for liberty.
Thomas Jefferson famously said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." That does not only mean that we should be prepared to defend against foreign invaders. Perhaps more importantly it means that we must retain the lessons from the original American revolt and guard against a government that views the people as the enemy.
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Sunday, July 03, 2016
Independence Day Hypocrisy, Not Democracy / Politics / US Politics
On July 4, 1776, America gained independence from Britain. Everything changed but stayed the same under new management - the way the framers planned it.
Today we'd call them a Wall Street crowd - a deplorable bunch, including bankers, merchants, planters, ship owners, lawyers, politicians, judges, slave owners and traders, speculators, smugglers, privateers, and other type wheeler-dealers.
“We the people,” meant them, not us. They created a government of men, not laws. Property owners alone had rights. Ordinary people didn't matter, entirely left out.
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Monday, June 27, 2016
After 'Brexit,' Can the United States Exit a Few Things Too? / Politics / US Politics
Last week's UK vote to leave the EU may have come as a shock to many, but the sentiment that led British voters to reject rule from Brussels is nothing unique. In fact it is growing sentiment worldwide. Frustration with politics as usual, with political parties that really do not differ in philosophy, with an economy that serves the one percent at the expense of the rest of society is a growing phenomenon throughout Europe and in the United States as well. The Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump phenomena are but one example of a frustrated public sensing something is very wrong with society and looking for a way out.
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Sunday, June 19, 2016
Donald Trump vs The First Amendment / Politics / US Politics
If Donald Trump should become president, don’t expect his administration to be a transparent one or one that tolerates dissent and believes in the First Amendment.
At his campaign rallies, even those held at public venues, he forbids, according to his press advisories, “homemade signs, banners, professional cameras with a detachable lens, tripods, monopods, selfie sticks, back packs or large bags.”
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Wednesday, June 15, 2016
The Lies That Sustain US / Politics / US Politics
America has one of the best and fastest growing auto manufacturers in the world and no one seems to know the company. Let me explain.
The US D.O.P.E. (Department Of Pathological Embellishment - a.k.a. the ‘Commerce Department’) just put out some great news that was so obviously meant to stem the now 3-day selloff in stocks. The great news is americans are spending money like drunken sailors on leave. Of course, anyone with a brain cell knows very well that the DOPE is simply a vestige of Nazi-ism in that it is a propaganda wing of a regime intent on deceit. So, to make us happy, or to make us believe all is well, we are told that consumers are spending money and the economy is about to take off!!! Isn’t ‘next quarter’ always going to be the quarter the economy heats up?
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Monday, June 13, 2016
Fascism: A Bipartisan Affliction / Politics / US Politics
If neoconservatives and progressives truly understood fascism, they would stop using the word as a smear term. That is because both groups, along with most political figures and commentators, embrace fascist ideas and policies.
Fascism's distinguishing characteristic is a "mixed economy." Unlike socialists and communists who seek to abolish private business, fascists are content to let business remain in private hands. Instead, fascists use regulations, mandates, and taxes to control business and run (and ruin) the economy. A fascist system, then, is one where private businesses serve politicians and bureaucrats instead of consumers. Does the modern American economy not fit the definition of fascism?
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Saturday, June 11, 2016
Senators Embedded Within a Brain Fog / Politics / US Politics
The U.S. Senate—under the leadership of Mitch McConnell who once said his primary mission was to see that the Senate didn’t agree with anything President Obama said or did, and to limit him to one term—continues to be one of the nation’s leading obstructionists. This time, the Senate isn’t meeting to advise or consent to the President’s nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Garland was valedictorian in his class at Harvard College and a magna ***** laude graduate from the Harvard law school. He worked in the Department of Justice before becoming the chief judge on the D,C. Court of Appeals, having been confirmed by the Senate, March 1997.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Here’s Where the TSA Got This One Wrong / Politics / US Politics
My wife hates to fly. It’s not the planes that bother her, although she’s no fan of turbulence. It’s the security process. There’s something about passing through a low-level X-ray machine that can see through your clothes that gives her the willies. Who can blame her?And then there’s the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) agents themselves. Why is it that six or seven seem to be just hanging out while three of them work one security machine, as 200 people wait in line?
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Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Alan Greenspan Warns That Venezuelan Style Martial Law Will Soon Come To The US / Politics / US Politics
It seems barely a day passes now without some big name person warning of imminent collapse. The latest is Alan Greenspan.
In an interview on Thursday he told Fox News that Venezuela is now under martial law and that “America is next.” He said that what was happening in Venezuela was inevitably going to take place in the US.
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Monday, May 30, 2016
Long Live the Flags of Dixie! / Politics / US Politics
On May 19, the House of Reprehensibles passed a proposal that would essentially ban the display of Confederate flags from national cemeteries. The amendment was added to a Veteran Affairs spending bill.
Not surprisingly, House Speaker Paul Ryan allowed the measure to be voted upon in hopes of not disrupting the appropriations process. Yes, by all means Paul, the redistribution of taxpayers’ confiscated wealth should take precedent over a draconian attempt to eradicate a heroic symbol of the country’s past. Hopefully, Ryan will be ousted this November as both Speaker and Congressman for not only his consistent sell out to Obummer and the Democrats on the budget, but his lack of understanding and appreciation of what is arguably the most important period of American history.
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Monday, May 30, 2016
This Is Not The America My Parents Immigrated To In 1957 / Politics / US Politics
Not that I remember what America was like in 1957, as I was not yet five years old. Years later, when I was old enough to understand, they told me their story. Briefly, it goes like this.
Dad was born in Romania (Czernowitz in Northern Bulovina), but he identified (haha) as German because, well, his dad was German, his mom was German, they spoke German and kept German customs, and lived in a German community so, applying the “quacking duck” theory, that’s what he was. Mom was born in Yugoslavia (now, Slovenia), but she identified as German for the same reasons as dad did. The Nazi regime would refer to folks such as my parents as “Volksdeutsche” —- being German as a people or race, regardless of citizenship. More on that here.
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Sunday, May 29, 2016
Memorial Day Crocodile Tears from Those Who Create Wars / Politics / US Politics
A few million Americans may be thinking about it, but won’t be celebrating Memorial Day. For them, there’s not much to celebrate or to remember.
They’re the low-wage employees who may have to work all three days, without overtime; about three million workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Many work 30 to 35 hours a week, just low enough that their employers don’t have to pay for insurance, holidays, or sick leave. The corporate CEOs, of course, will be enjoying the long weekend at their alternate vacation homes in the mountains, or along the coasts, or at off-shore islands where they have found banks willing to hide their money and avoid U.S. taxes.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Senate Passes Bill Letting 9/11 Victims Sue Saudi Arabia / Politics / US Politics
The despotic Saudi regime is guilty of many high crimes. 9/11 isn’t one of them, the mother of all false flags, Washington responsible, perhaps complicit with Israel’s Mossad.
Bin Laden and Riyadh had nothing to do with what happened. Osama was dying in a Pakistani hospital at the time, expiring months later from natural causes.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2016
War, Debt, Default and Socialism - Just Another Day In America / Politics / US Politics
I've accepted that there are evil forces in this world that will do what they can to destroy you and your family in order to build globalism. From the Brussels bombings to the Panama Papers to the ongoing Syrian massacres and turmoil in the Middle East and the refugee crises, it is all planned out.
People have a hard time with that insight. It's very difficult to live with the idea that the top controllers of Western society are actively trying to kill you or at least destroy the society you live in.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: Puerto Rico Needs Urgent Action / Politics / US Politics
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew discusses Puerto Rico's debt crisis and corporate inversion deals in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
Lew on the need for urgent action in Puerto Rico: "Puerto Rico doesn't have decades. Puerto Rico has a crisis today. Right now, today in Puerto Rico, you have hospitals that have laid off hundreds of workers, closed beds, closed wings. You have a Zika problem developing without the funds to come in and prevent the disease from spreading. You have schools that are closing. You have broad economic stress that's leading people to leave the island. Almost 100,000 people left Puerto Rico last year. Let's just be clear, there's three and a half million American citizens, many veterans -- American citizens living in Puerto Rico. If Puerto Rico doesn't have a solution, that's three and a half million Americans who are plunged into chaos. That's why the need for action is so urgent."
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
One Year After: Freddie Gray and ‘Structural Statism’ / Politics / US Politics
When Freddie Gray was born in 1989, Baltimore hosted 787,000 residents and 445,000 jobs. By the time his fatal injuries in police custody provoked riots last April, the city’s population had fallen by one fifth, to 623,000, and its job base had shrunk by one quarter, to 334,000.
Little wonder that throughout his life, Mr. Gray had never been legally employed. Nevertheless, friends and family considered him “a good provider,” according to The Baltimore Sun.
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Thursday, April 07, 2016
America’s Ignorant and the Offended / Politics / US Politics
“If you've got a business. you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.” - Barack Obama
It takes an ignorant person to offend everyone.
America has become the land of the ignorant and the offended. Citizens remain profoundly ignorant of truth and everyone seems to be chronically offended. Maybe if people weren’t so ignorant, they wouldn’t be so offended.
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Monday, April 04, 2016
Vietnam War at 50: Have We Learned Nothing? / Politics / US Politics
Last week Defense Secretary Ashton Carter laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington in commemoration of the "50th anniversary" of that war. The date is confusing, as the war started earlier and ended far later than 1966. But the Vietnam War at 50 commemoration presents a good opportunity to reflect on the war and whether we have learned anything from it.
Some 60,000 Americans were killed fighting in that war more than 8,000 miles away. More than a million Vietnamese military and civilians also lost their lives. The US government did not accept that it had pursued a bad policy in Vietnam until the bitter end. But in the end the war was lost and we went home, leaving the destruction of the war behind. For the many who survived on both sides, the war would continue to haunt them.
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Monday, March 14, 2016
Climate Change Deniers, Loretta Lynch, and the Government War on Free Speech / Politics / US Politics
During her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch admitted that she asked the FBI to examine whether the federal government should take legal action against so-called climate change deniers. Attorney General Lynch is not responding to any criminal acts committed by climate change skeptics. Instead, she is responding to requests from those frustrated that dissenters from the alleged climate change consensuses have successfully blocked attempts to create new government programs to fight climate change.
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Wednesday, March 09, 2016
President Obama Peddling Fiction, Ignoring Fact / Politics / US Politics
In his seventh, and final, State of the Union address this January, President Obama, clearly looking to bolster his legacy as the president who vanquished the Great Recession, boldly asserted that "Anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction." Unfortunately for the President, more and more Americans seem to believe (with an adequate basis in proof) that the fiction is emanating from the White House.
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Monday, February 01, 2016
Ron Paul - Is U.S. Congress Declaring War on ISIS...or on You? / Politics / US Politics
Passage of Senator Mitch McConnell's authorization for war against ISIS will not only lead to perpetual US wars across the globe, it will also endanger our civil and economic liberties. The measure allows the president to place troops anywhere he determines ISIS is operating. Therefore, it could be used to justify using military force against United States citizens on US territory. It may even be used to justify imposing martial law in America.
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
Deep State: Inside Washington's Shadowy Power Elite - Video / Politics / US Politics
“Our plutocracy, whether the hedge fund managers in Greenwich, Connecticut, or the Internet moguls in Palo Alto, now lives like the British did in colonial India: ruling the place but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; to the person fortunate enough to own a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension, and viable public transportation doesn’t even compute. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?”― Mike Lofgren, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Another U.S. Constitutional Convention: An Idea Whose Time Has Not Come / Politics / US Politics
In the midst of the seemingly indeterminable presidential electoral campaign, some of the candidates have been asked about the possibility of convening a constitutional convention in the hope of addressing the nation’s most pressing issues, most ominously the gargantuan federal deficit now in excess of $18 trillion.
Governor John Kasich supports such a notion with the explicit purpose of passing a balanced budget amendment.
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Monday, January 25, 2016
Ron Paul Warns Congress is Writing the President a Blank Check for War / Politics / US Politics
While the Washington snowstorm dominated news coverage this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was operating behind the scenes to rush through the Senate what may be the most massive transfer of power from the Legislative to the Executive branch in our history. The senior Senator from Kentucky is scheming, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, to bypass normal Senate procedure to fast-track legislation to grant the president the authority to wage unlimited war for as long as he or his successors may wish.
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Sunday, January 24, 2016
Sarah Palin’s Quixotic Quest for Relevance / Politics / US Politics
She’s back and tightly holding Donald Trump’s coattails.
That’s right, Sarah Palin, having again found the media spotlight, is casting her shadow across the more thoughtful conservatives.
This past week she declared her undying love and support of Trump’s attempt to seize the presidency from the more experienced and knowledgeable candidates in the Democratic, Republican, and Green parties, and is blathering her way throughout Iowa, New Hampshire, and several early primary states to stir up Trump’s far-right base.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Ron Paul on When Peace Breaks Out With Iran... / Politics / US Politics
This has been the most dramatic week in US/Iranian relations since 1979.
Last weekend ten US Navy personnel were caught in Iranian waters, as the Pentagon kept changing its story on how they got there. It could have been a disaster for President Obama's big gamble on diplomacy over conflict with Iran. But after several rounds of telephone diplomacy between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, the Iranian leadership - which we are told by the neocons is too irrational to even talk to - did a most rational thing: weighing the costs and benefits they decided it made more sense not to belabor the question of what an armed US Naval vessel was doing just miles from an Iranian military base. Instead of escalating, the Iranian government fed the sailors and sent them back to their base in Bahrain.
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Sunday, January 17, 2016
New US Sanctions on Iran? / Politics / US Politics
With Iran celebrating international sanctions lifted on its entirely peaceful nuclear program, the US Treasury imposed new ones unilaterally and illegally - again solely for political reasons.
A Treasury press release said Iran’s ballistic missile program was targeted, unrelated to its nuclear activities.
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Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Obama's 2016 State of the Union Address - Brilliant Bullshit! / Politics / US Politics
On Tuesday evening I watched president Obama's state of the union address. It was brilliant.
Obama rang all the bells, dotted all the i's, and attacked all the ghosts. At times, he even made sense.
All in all, it was a brilliant effort, possibly his best speech ever, even though his speech was essentially bullshit.
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Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Your Guns Will be Consficated, Disarm Americans Ensure Full-blown Submission / Politics / US Politics
Ladies and Gentlemen; the Imperial Storm Troopers are ready to neutralize the threat from the American people against the Colonial Empire. Obama has declared war to the cheers of the progressive imbeciles, who are the most avid abettor of the Totalitarian Collectivist society. You may not get a visit from ATF, DHS or FBI any day soon, but you can be sure your society is being SWAT by the government domestic terrorists carrying out the wishes of a tyrannical regime. The political class and the underlings that implement their illegitimate dictates want to disarm the public out of fear the peasants may storm the castle. Guns and bullets are only instruments of protection. The crucial war on populist independence is waged against the minds, hearts and souls of thinking and fearless Americans.
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Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The U.S. Wants to Seize Your Passport…Here’s What You Can Do About It / Politics / US Politics
By Nick Giambruno
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a talented Russian writer and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union’s totalitarianism. He helped raise global awareness of the Gulag forced labor camp system.
For his efforts, the Soviet government stripped him of his citizenship in 1974. It did the same - and worse - to many other people it considered internal enemies.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Oregon Standoff: Isolated Event or Sign of Things to Come? / Politics / US Politics
The nation's attention turned to Oregon this week when a group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom seized control of part of a federal wildlife refuge. The citizens were protesting the harsh sentences given to members of the Hammond ranching family. The Hammonds were accused of allowing fires set on their property to spread onto federal land.
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Sunday, January 10, 2016
End Injustices Now, Not Later / Politics / US Politics
Gary M. Galles writes: Tim Carney recently highlighted how Iowa’s important early role in the Republican primaries has produced “a gravitational pull to pander” on the Renewable Fuel Standard. Its ethanol mandate is “an indefensible subsidy” to Iowans from others’ transportation and grocery budgets for, at best, highly questionable environmental benefits.
Carney cited examples of cognitive dissonance, such as between Chris Christie’s “I want the free enterprise system,” and “we should enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard,” and similarly between Carly Fiorina’s criticism that “government favors … the big, the powerful and the well connected,” and “I support the Renewable Fuel Standard as it currently stands.”
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Wednesday, January 06, 2016
America's Right-wing Fascism, Millennials and why good people must do something. And the time for doing it is Now / Politics / US Politics
America is to be judged by its citizens, not its politicians. But if Americans lose contact with one another; substitute real, tangible realities with virtual ones projected on internet and television screens; refuse to engage in the democratic process and choose passivity over involvement, nihilism over hope, fatalism over self-determination; remain complacent about if not ignorant of US actions and wars in the world; adopt definitions of themselves that are crafted by self-serving special interests, profiteers or merchants of war and hate running now for president from both political parties, they lose all concepts of who they are, what they stand for, and what really constitutes American values. As it stands, Americans are on the cusp of recognizing that they are losing their historic identity, or the one they embraced before 9/11. Some might feel "I like it just the way it is." Others might not and blame the government, blame the Fed, blame an ethnic minority, blame Obama, blame the other party, blame the terrorists, blame Islamists or blame today's "Hitler of the Moment", Vladimir Putin, whose endorsement of Donald Trump has signaled alarm bells even among some Kremlin defenders.
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Sunday, December 27, 2015
Christmas Wins Again! / Politics / US Politics
The mythical War on Christmas is over and once again Christmas won.
The war was created out of fairy dust, and then neatly wrapped up and delivered to religious right-wing extremists by pretend-generals Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and a cast of dozens who have seized the public airways.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Ron Paul - If You Want Security, Pursue Liberty / Politics / US Politics
Judging by his prime-time speech last week, the final year of Barack Obama's presidency will be marked by increased militarism abroad and authoritarianism at home. The centerpiece of the president's speech was his demand for a new law forbidding anyone on the federal government's terrorist watch list from purchasing a firearm. There has never been a mass shooter who was on the terrorist watch list, so this proposal will not increase security. However, it will decrease liberty.
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Friday, November 27, 2015
Terrorism on American Soil / Politics / US Politics
During this past week a three-year-old boy in Rock Hill, S.C., killed himself when he was playing with a loaded gun in his house.He wasn’t the only one in Rock Hill to die from a gunshot. In July, a man killed himself after shooting his wife, her son and the son’s girlfriend. The following month, someone killed a 30-year-old woman; someone else that same week killed a 27-year-old man.
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Monday, November 23, 2015
Donald Sutherland Confirms Hunger Games is Allegory for the United States / Politics / US Politics
Here is a short clip featuring Donald Sutherland, who acted in The Hunger Games movie series, to learn in some detail what he thinks about them. He says flatly, it is an allegory pertaining to the United States, which is just what I wrote about a year ago. You can see the Sutherland video clip:
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Monday, November 23, 2015
Who Should Pay For The Syrian Refugees? / Politics / US Politics
Last week the US House dealt a blow to President Obama's plan to resettle 10,000 Syrians fleeing their war-torn homeland. On a vote of 289-137, including 47 Democrats, the House voted to require the FBI to closely vet any applicant from Syria and to guarantee that none of them pose a threat to the US. Effectively this will shut down the program.
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Friday, November 20, 2015
Syrian Refugees and the Republicans’ Rhetoric of Hate and Fear / Politics / US Politics
Fear, laced with paranoia, is driving the American response against allowing Syrian refugees into the United States.
President Obama has said he would accept 10,000 refugees, all of them subjected to intense scrutiny before being admitted to the country. France, with a population about one-fifth that of the United States, despite the worst attack on its soil since World War II, will accept 30,000 refugees.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
The American Way of Endless Wars / Politics / US Politics
America is addicted to endless direct and proxy wars of aggression. Peace is anathema, social justice discarded to devote national resources to warmaking and militarizing the homeland.
Washington’s criminal class is bipartisan. Duopoly power rules, one party with two wings, serving monied interests exclusively, not a single identifiable administration, congressional or top-level judicial profile in courage, all in lockstep with what makes America the most feared and hated of all nations.
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Friday, November 06, 2015
Obamacare - The Gift That Keeps On Taking / Politics / US Politics
Isn't it interesting the mainstream media makes barely a peep about the ongoing and worsening Obamacare debacle. Healthcare premiums, co-pays and deductibles are soaring, while doctor and plan choices contract to a minuscule level. Recent surveys reveal the hardship being inflicted upon families across the nation. Those who are willfully baffled by the lack of consumer spending need look no further than Obamacare and its impact on the budgets of hard working Americans.
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Thursday, November 05, 2015
Government - The Most Devious Liars In The Room / Politics / US Politics
There were a few different stories coming out over the last few days that reveal the true nature of government and the apparatchiks who use disinformation, devious machinations, fraudulent accounting, and taxpayer money to cover up their criminality, lies, and the true state of the American economy. The use of government accounting tricks to obscure the truth about our dire financial straits is designed to keep the masses sedated and confused.
A few weeks ago, to great fanfare from the fawning faux journalists who never question any Washington D.C. propaganda, they announced the lowest annual deficit of Obama's reign of error.
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Monday, November 02, 2015
Sound Money Takes Center Stage in Presidential Campaigns / Politics / US Politics
Clint Siegner writes: Ron Paul put sound money issues on the national radar screen during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. His push to Audit the Fed introduced Americans to the sordid origins of our central bank. For the first time, large numbers of people began questioning the benevolence and wisdom of an institution, wholly owned by the nation’s largest banks, with total discretion to do whatever it wants in near total secrecy.
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Monday, November 02, 2015
Ron Paul - Save The Apologies, Just Stop Promoting War! / Politics / US Politics
Usually when politicians apologize it's because they have been caught doing something wrong, or they are about to be caught. Such was likely the case with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who recently offered an "apology" for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair faces the release of a potentially damning report on his government's conduct in the run-up to the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Constitution’s Big Lie / Politics / US Politics
One of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon Americans at the time of its telling and which is still trumpeted to this very day is the notion that the U.S. Constitution contains within its framework mechanisms which limit its power. The “separation of powers,” where power is distributed among the three branches – legislative, executive, judicial – is supposedly the primary check on the federal government’s aggrandizement.
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Monday, October 26, 2015
House Benghazi Hearings: Too Much Too Late / Politics / US Politics
Last week the US House of Representatives called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to appear before a select committee looking into the attack on a US facility in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. The attack left four Americans dead, including US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
As might be expected, however, the "Benghazi Committee" hearings have proven not much more than a means for each party to grandstand for political points.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
What is U.S. Congress Proposing Now? / Politics / US Politics
It's no secret that America's highways and bridges are a sham and the overall transportation system is in desperate need of funding.What is troubling is Congress' latest solution.
We pay for our highways and bridges through a tax on gasoline, which puts the cost of the transportation system squarely on users. Currently, the federal tax on a gallon of gas is 18.4 cents. That tax hasn’t changed since 1993, when gas was $1.16 per gallon, making the tax rate 19%.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Revolutionary Statists Means Lower Living Standards / Politics / US Politics
The latest crop of government supplicants lick up the promises of expanded social welfare from the charlatans that run for public office. The first Democratic Presidential debate was a deranged rally for the sickest sociopaths that a terminal society could find. The most radical proponents of insanity were not named Clinton, Sanders or O’Malley; no the mentally ill audience and the dullard clones that support the governance directives of the Democratic Party are most in need of professional mental help. Indeed, the ranks have fallen so far, from the standards under John F. Kennedy, that the party is no longer recognizable. With the paragon of their “Great Society”, the successors to FDR socialism have become the ultimate threat to what remains of the Republic.
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Tea Party is Drinking Too Much Decaf / Politics / US Politics
On December 16th, 1773 the Sons of Liberty in Boston, in protest of the Tea Act, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in a political protest referred to as the Boston Tea Party.
Following the Wall Street bail-outs in 2009, a political movement also protesting their lack of representation in government sought a reduction of the U.S. national debt and deficits by reducing government spending and lowering taxes. They were referred to as The Tea Party, named from the aforementioned Boston variety.
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Monday, October 12, 2015
U.S. Politicians Exploit School Shooting While Ignoring Bombing Victims / Politics / US Politics
Following the recent Oregon school shooting, many politicians rushed to the microphones to call for new gun control laws. President Obama even called on gun control supporters to "politicize" the shooting, while some members of Congress worked to establish a special commission on gun violence.
The reaction to the shooting stands in stark contrast to the reaction to the US military's bombing of an Afghanistan hospital run by the international humanitarian (and Nobel Peace Prize winning) group Doctors Without Borders.
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Monday, September 21, 2015
Blame America? No, Blame Neocons! / Politics / US Politics
Is the current refugee crisis gripping the European Union "all America's fault"? That is how my critique of US foreign policy was characterized in a recent interview on the Fox Business Channel. I do not blame the host for making this claim, but I think it is important to clarify the point.
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Monday, September 14, 2015
9/11 Memory: Fascism & Gold / Politics / US Politics
The ultimate patriotic act is to invest the life savings in Gold & Silver, which does honor to real money, shows disdain for paper merchants who rule the central banks, and forces nations to put forth honest sound money in usage. It is important to recall the 9/11 event, however based in reality, not the official story. Honor should be given to the 2500 victims of the mass murder event. The official story makes far less sense than the Kennedy assassination, while the two events appear to be front and back bookends of the same Fascist takeover of the United States Govt. The Patriot Act was a fascist manifesto, much like the Enabling Act installed in Germany over seven decades ago. The two acts have a 90% correlation and overlap, yet the American public remains largely in the dark on the similarity in template.
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Sunday, September 06, 2015
America’s Descent into Totalitarian Violence is Accelerating / Politics / US Politics
America’s descent into totalitarian violence is accelerating. Like the Bush regime, the Obama regime has a penchant for rewarding Justice (sic) Department officials who trample all over the US Constitution. Last year America’s First Black President nominated David Barron to be a judge on the First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
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Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Hurricane Katrina: A 10-year review of lessons NOT learned / Politics / US Politics
This week is the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the southeastern gulf coast by Hurricane Katrina.
More than 1,800 people died. There is no estimate for the number of pets and wildlife. Damage was estimated at more than $100 billion.
About 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded. In Mississippi, the water surge flooded as much as 10 miles from the beaches.
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Monday, August 17, 2015
The Seamless Web of Liberty / Politics / US Politics
Many people think the Internal Revenue Service was violating civil liberties when it harassed tea party groups. After all, the groups were targeted because they wanted to exercise their civil liberty to challenge government policies. However, the specific issue in the IRS case was the groups' application for tax-exempt status, which seems to be an aspect of economic liberty. In fact, the IRS case demonstrates that there is no meaningful distinction between civil and economic liberties. A true friend of the free society defends both civil and economic liberties.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Down with the U.S. Constitution! / Politics / US Politics
It has been quite an eventful and productive couple of weeks for the forces of statism in the former “land of the free, and home of the brave.”
The federal government’s highest court has enshrined “perversity” into law, guaranteeing untold amounts of future litigation while infringing on the right of freedom of association and, just as important, “disassociation” for those who rightly consider sodomy an abomination which wantonly mocks the Author of the natural law.
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Monday, July 20, 2015
Iran Agreement Boosts Peace, Defeats Neocons / Politics / US Politics
Last week's successfully concluded Iran agreement is one of the two most important achievements of an otherwise pretty dismal Obama presidency. Along with the ongoing process of normalizing relations with Cuba, this move shows that diplomacy can produce peaceful, positive changes. It also shows that sometimes taking a principled position means facing down overwhelming opposition from all sides and not backing down. The president should be commended for both of these achievements.
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Monday, July 13, 2015
Greece Today, America Tomorrow? / Politics / US Politics
The drama over Greece's financial crisis continues to dominate the headlines. As this column is being written, a deal may have been reached providing Greece with yet another bailout if the Greek government adopts new "austerity" measures. The deal will allow all sides to brag about how they came together to save the Greek economy and the European Monetary Union. However, this deal is merely a Band-Aid, not a permanent fix to Greece's problems. So another crisis is inevitable.
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Monday, July 06, 2015
For Normal Relations With Cuba, End US Interventionism / Politics / US Politics
Last week we saw an encouraging sign that the 50 year cold war between the US and Cuba was finally coming to an end. President Obama announced on Wednesday that the US and Cuba would restore full diplomatic relations and that embassies could be re-opened in each country by the end of the month.
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Sunday, July 05, 2015
United States Celebrates the Disastrous Secession From Great Britain / Politics / US Politics
Remnant Review
Lots of people celebrate July 4. I do not.
The Declaration of Independence justified armed secession. It was signed by a handful of lawyers on July 4, 1776. Secession was a way of transferring a great deal of power to colonial legislatures, where most of these lawyers were members. It was a way of replacing governors appointed by the King with governors elected by men of the colonies.
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Monday, June 29, 2015
Obamacare's Best Allies: The Courts and the Republicans / Politics / US Politics
By ruling for the government in the case of King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court once again tied itself into rhetorical and logical knots to defend Obamacare. In King, the court disregarded Obamacare's clear language regarding eligibility for federal health care subsides, on the grounds that enforcing the statute as written would cause havoc in the marketplace. The court found that Congress could not have intended this result and that the court needed to uphold Congress's mythical intention and ignore Obamacare's actual language.
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Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Why the TPP Agenda Is Straight out of Alice in Wonderland / Politics / US Politics
"Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
`No, no!’ said the Queen. `Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’
`Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. `The idea of having the sentence first!’
`Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.
`I won’t!’ said Alice.
`Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
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Monday, June 22, 2015
Will Seizure of Russian Assets Hasten U.S. Dollar Decline? / Politics / US Politics
While much of the world focused last week on whether or not the Federal Reserve was going to raise interest rates, or whether the Greek debt crisis would bring Europe to a crisis, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded a $50 billion judgment to shareholders of the former oil company Yukos in their case against the Russian government. The governments of Belgium and France moved immediately to freeze Russian state assets in their countries, naturally provoking the anger of the Russian government.
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Tuesday, June 02, 2015
US Senate’s Patriot Act Betrayal / Politics / US Politics
Watching the DC establishment respond to Senator Rand Paul’s efforts to sunset important aspects of the Patriot Act is like peeling back the skin of a decaying onion to expose the rot. Members of the Senate all take an oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. Well those “public servants” who are doing their perfected “Potomac Two Step” would have the public believe that next week’s vote on some version of the House passed USA Freedom Act will halt the NSA from their systematic violation of 4th Amendment protections.
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Monday, June 01, 2015
Export-Import Bank is Welfare for the One Percent / Politics / US Politics
This month Congress will consider whether to renew the charter of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank). Ex-Im Bank is a New Deal-era federal program that uses taxpayer funds to subsidize the exports of American businesses. Foreign businesses, including state-owned corporations, also benefit from Ex-Im Bank. One country that has benefited from $1.5 billion of Ex-Im Bank loans is Russia. Venezuela, Pakistan, and China have also benefited from Ex-Im Bank loans.
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Saturday, May 30, 2015
We Need Actual Free Trade, Not the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) / Politics / US Politics
Ryan W. McMaken writes: Brendan Nyhan at The New York Times seems to be under the impression that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has something to do with free trade. Nyhan writes that the TPP
Read full article... Read full article...is the latest step in a decades-long trend toward liberalizing trade — a somewhat mysterious development given that many Americans are skeptical of freer trade.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
U.S. Congressional Sellout on TPP Fast Track / Politics / US Politics
There is a simple reason why the Congress is held is such ill repute. Leadership in both parties are total agents for the Plutocrats that have systematically destroyed our economy with their globalist corporatist model that results in national impoverishment. The only startling pattern to this bipartisan betrayal is that the public continues to accept their excruciating fraud with only a whimper of discontent. BATR has covered the TPP Fast Track issue intensively. The most consistent observation is that the public, in this sinking economy, has ignored the impact that will accelerate, as the leaks from this secretive agreement become known.
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Monday, May 25, 2015
What Memorial Day Do You Honor? / Politics / US Politics
Many accounts will praise the sacrifices and deeds of those who fought in the American wars. Some versions will emotionally express their thanks and respect, while others will list their heroic actions. There is another viewpoint that seldom gets the attention that it deserves. Simply put, what is the true reason that all this blood was shed and the meaning of continued torment that follows, when the guns are silenced? Some will say, we just need to revere those who served. Others may dare to ask, why and what for?
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Sunday, May 24, 2015
Rethinking Edward Snowden: Unwitting Enabler of the Corporate-Libertarian-Technocratic State? / Politics / US Politics
Simply, I think the conundrum of enigmatic Edward Snowden is beginning to offer glimpses that somewhat validate an early and tentative hypothesis of mine. I supported his actions and even called him another "Paul Revere" (of sorts), a "hero"; but I also suspected his political philosophy would shape an outcome altogether undemocratic and oligarchic. Having voted for an unidentified 3rd party candidate in 2008; Ron Paul in 2012; and is now supporting Rand Paul, Snowden is promoting capitalistic/libertarian movements. Such movements, often wrapped in the flag of the "Republic", singing anthems to "Liberty" and demonizing central government, are enterprises - including those created around Snowden (e.g., Glenn Greenwald) - that exploit anti-government sentiments while whitewashing, even omitting the dangers neoliberalism poses; denouncing government surveillance but silent about the corporate side of the totalitarian state.
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Monday, May 11, 2015
The US Leads All Other Countries In Citizen Defection / Politics / US Politics
When it comes to extortion, or as they call it, income tax, the places where you want to be a citizen are colored green on the following map. Those countries have no income tax on individuals. The next best countries to be a citizen of, but not live in (as per the Permanent Traveller/Prior Taxpayer - PT Theory) are the ones shaded in blue. Those countries will charge you income tax if you are a citizen of that country AND also residing there... but if you are not residing there they will not charge you income tax.
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Wednesday, May 06, 2015
Beyond Baltimore: Political Looting of Nation's Wealth / Politics / US Politics
Clint Siegner writes: The CVS Pharmacy at the corner of North and Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore is a burnt-out shell. You probably saw the video last week. An angry mob carried the store’s inventory out by the armload, then set fire to whatever was left. Company officials are still deciding whether or not to rebuild.
Looting is not good for business in Baltimore. But it is absolutely fantastic for business in Washington DC.
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Monday, May 04, 2015
Ron Paul Warns USA FREEDOM Act: Just Another Word for Lost Liberty / Politics / US Politics
Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people.
While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley's case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no "terrorist" exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties.
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Saturday, May 02, 2015
U.S.A. Caught In Enormous Policy Vise - ZIRP & QE Destructive Influence / Politics / US Politics
Today is May Day, the international day of workers celebrated by most communist and deeply socialist nations. To be sure, Obama should come out of the closet with admission of not only his Muslim roots but his Marxist roots. By now, he could have easily promoted the holiday and had it moved from its longstanding September location to the May month. In honor of the holiday, the Jackass will outline the profound damage to the USEconomy, its recent destructive pressures, and the newest dynamics which assure a systemic breakdown. The outcome is being seen in widespread job loss, business shutdowns, a new war waged each year, and civil disorder prompted by a strange phenomenon hardly ever discussed.
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Friday, May 01, 2015
Baltimore Riots Whose Fault? / Politics / US Politics
I’ve seen the liberal lying MSM pondering how WE could allow the riots, looting, burning and lawlessness to happen, as if it is our collective fault. Obama stands before his teleprompter and pontificates about the need for us to end the poverty that supposedly led to Purge Night in Charm City. That term cracks me up. The city has so much charm, its football team once snuck out of town overnight and headed to Indianapolis. It has so much charm its baseball team was forced to play a game with no fans in the stands.
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Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic / Politics / US Politics
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." —Article IV, Section 4, US Constitution
A republican form of government is one in which power resides in elected officials representing the citizens, and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people . . . .”
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Monday, April 06, 2015
U.S. Democratic Party - Requiem For The People’s Party / Politics / US Politics
The Democratic Party of the United States is the oldest political party in the world by far. Some would suggest the Democratic Party is also the most successful political party at any time over modern history. It led the United States, in largest part, from near its beginning into becoming the sole superpower on the planet.Democrats have held a majority in one or both houses of Congress for 124 years of the past 188 years. There have been 15 Democrats elected to the Presidency serving 92 years in office, including 16 of 24 years through 2016. Democrats today control 41 of 99 state legislative chambers along with 18 governorships. Of US voters, 40% favor or lean toward the Democratic Party outpacing Republicans considerably at their 34% of the national vote.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
City of London's Ownership of American Colonies / Politics / US Politics
The misplaced reverence to the ill formulated U.S Constitution and hidden subjugation back to the City of London is one aspect of history that is not taught in government schools or discussed in institutes of higher education. This subject is probably new to most observers of the legacy from the Founding Father’s biggest mistake. Regular readers of BREAKING ALL THE RULES are familiar with the arguments made in the essays, In the beginning: Let there be the Articles of Confederation and Articles of Confederation was Preferable. Now the case for the betrayal of the purpose of the American Revolution needs to be explored.
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Monday, March 23, 2015
Ron Paul on America's Twelve Year Mistake in Iraq / Politics / US Politics
Twelve years ago last week, the US launched its invasion of Iraq, an act the late General William Odom predicted would turn out to be "the greatest strategic disaster in US history."
Before the attack I was accused of exaggerating the potential costs of the war when I warned that it could end up costing as much as $100 billion. One trillion dollars later, with not one but two "mission accomplished" moments, we are still not done intervening in Iraq.
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Monday, March 16, 2015
Green Light for the American Empire / Politics / US Politics
The American Empire has been long in the making. A green light was given in 1990 to finalize that goal. Dramatic events occurred that year that allowed the promoters of the American Empire to cheer. It also ushered in the current 25-year war to solidify the power necessary to manage a world empire. Most people in the world now recognize this fact and assume that the empire is here to stay for a long time. That remains to be seen.
Empires come and go. Some pop up quickly and disappear in the same manner. Others take many years to develop and sometimes many years to totally disintegrate. The old empires, like the Greek, Roman, Spanish and many others took many years to build and many years to disappear. The Soviet Empire was one that came rather quickly and dissipated swiftly after a relatively short period of time. The communist ideology took many decades to foment the agitation necessary for the people to tolerate that system.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The Paradox of America's Electoral Reform / Politics / US Politics
George Friedman writes: We are now in the early phases of selecting the president of the United States. Vast amounts of money are being raised, plans are being laid, opposition research is underway and the first significant scandal has broken with the discovery that Hillary Clinton used a non-government email account for government business. Ahead of us is an extended series of primaries, followed by an election and perhaps a dispute over some aspect of the election. In the United States, the presidential election process takes about two years, particularly when the sitting president cannot run for re-election.
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Monday, March 02, 2015
The Absurdity of "Reform" in Washington DC / Politics / US Politics
James Bovard writes: In the 1930s, peasants who were starving because of the Soviet regime’s brutal farm collectivization policy lamented, “If only Stalin knew!” Nowadays, American social scientists look at floundering federal programs and lament: “If only Congress knew!” And the solution is the “evidence-based” reform movement which will magically beget a new era of good governance.
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Monday, March 02, 2015
Ron Paul - Department of Homeland Security: What is it Good For? / Politics / US Politics
Late Friday night, Congress passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security for one week. This vote followed weeks of debate over efforts to attach a prohibition on funding President Obama's executive order granting amnesty to certain illegal immigrants to the Homeland Security funding bill.
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Friday, February 27, 2015
10 Reasons Washington Has War Fever / Politics / US Politics
"War is merely the continuation of policy by other means." – Carl von Clausewitz
The political elites, Federal Reserve and special interests that really run the show hiding behind Congress and the president of either party in America's closed two-party monopoly seem to be running scared in many regards. They rightly have many fears for their political future as well as the profits and survival of the major international corporations and banking interests that support the current political leadership and regime.
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Monday, February 23, 2015
U.S. Interventionism Kills Post-Coup Ukraine / Politics / US Politics
It was one year ago last weekend that a violent coup overthrew the legally elected government of Ukraine. That coup was not only supported by US and EU governments -- much of it was actually planned by them. Looking back at the events that led to the overthrow it is clear that without foreign intervention Ukraine would not be in its current, seemingly hopeless situation.
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Monday, February 16, 2015
Ron Paul Asks How Many More U.S. Wars? / Politics / US Politics
Last week President Obama sent Congress legislation to authorize him to use force against ISIS "and associated persons and forces" anywhere in the world for the next three years. This is a blank check for the president to start as many new wars as he wishes, and it appears Congress will go along with this dangerous and costly scheme.
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Friday, February 13, 2015
Fourth Turning Shadow Crisis War on Multiple Fronts / Politics / US Politics
In Part One of this article I explained the model of generational theory as conveyed by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning. In Part Two I provided an overwhelming avalanche of evidence this Crisis has only yet begun, with debt, civic decay and global disorder propelling the world towards the next more violent phase of this Crisis. In Part Three I addressed how the most likely clash on the horizon is between the government and the people. War on multiple fronts will thrust the world through the great gate of history towards an uncertain future.
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Thursday, February 12, 2015
US Sinks to 49th in World Press Freedom Index / Politics / US Politics
You may click on the chart below, or you may click on this link to the article and a very large, interactive chart with access to data, methodology, etc.
The US was 49th, as compared to 46th in 2014.
The UK was 34th, France was 38th, Spain was 33rd, Australia was 25th, Germany was 12th, and Canada was 8th.
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Texas and the Evils of U.S. Annexation / Politics / US Politics
Ryan McMaken writes: This year marks the 170th anniversary of the annexation of Texas by the United States government. Although Texas militias had gained de facto independence from Mexico in 1836, negotiations between Mexico and the United States continued for another nine years as the Texas government attempted to work out a long-term strategy for Texas. Most Texans (especially the Anglo ones) wanted union with the United States, and American settlers looking to move to Texas also wanted union to ease emigration and legal issues. Moreover, American slave owners saw the opportunity to admit another slave state to the United States to counterbalance the addition of northern free states from the Louisiana Purchase.
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Sunday, February 01, 2015
Delusional America / Politics / US Politics
Robert Parry is one of my favorite columnists. He is truthful, has a sense of justice, and delivers a firm punch. He used to be a “mainstream journalist,” like me, but we were too truthful for them. They kicked us out.
I can’t say Parry has always been one of my favorite journalists. During the 1980s he spent a lot of time on Reagan’s case. Having been on corporate boards, I know that CEOs seldom know everything that is going on in the company. There are just too many people and too many programs representing too many agendas. For presidents of countries with governments as large as the US government, there is far more going on than a president has time to learn about even if he could get accurate information.
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Sunday, January 25, 2015
Unjust and Undeclared Wars / Politics / US Politics
Raymond Matison writes: The history of the human race and war seem inseparable. For as long as history has been written, starting with etchings on clay tablets, recording and depiction of war has been an important part of it. Indeed, ancient and modern history books alike generally focus mostly on rulers and their conquests of lands and people. With this long history of warlike behavior, it is easy to believe that war is an endemic part of humans and our society.
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Thursday, January 22, 2015
U.S. State of the Union - We’ve Let The Clowns Come Way Too Far / Politics / US Politics
In yesterday’s State of the Union, Obama said The ‘Shadow Of Crisis Has Passed’, and the one and the only thing I thought was: ‘Good, so now we can tackle the crisis itself?!’. If speeches like the SOTU last night, and the reactions to it, make anything clear, it’s that the PR guys won the fight against critical thinking. Sure, there are people for whom that shadow has passed, but a president is supposed to be there for all Americans, not just for those who finance his campaigns and those of his successors.
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Monday, January 12, 2015
Ron Paul on the Lessons from Paris Attacks / Politics / US Politics
After the tragic shooting at a provocative magazine in Paris last week, I pointed out that given the foreign policy positions of France we must consider blowback as a factor. Those who do not understand blowback made the ridiculous claim that I was excusing the attack or even blaming the victims. Not at all, as I abhor the initiation of force. The police blaming victims when they search for the motive of a criminal.
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Monday, January 12, 2015
The U.S. Police Threat “Is Too High” / Politics / US Politics
The hypocrisy of American police is beginning to bother even law and order conservatives. The New York Police Department is rivaling the black community in Ferguson in keeping alive the murders of their community members.
We are constantly reminded of how dangerous it is to be a police officer. A total of 50 police officers were reportedly killed last year in the “line of duty,” but the police themselves managed to kill 1,029 Americans during the same time period, most of whom were unarmed and innocent of wrongdoings.
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Friday, January 09, 2015
U.S. Inner City Turmoil and Other Crises: Ron Pauls Predictions for 2015 / Politics / US Politics
If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege.
It didn't happen overnight. It took many years of neglect for our liberties to be given away so casually for a promise of security from the politicians. The tragic part is that the more security was promised -- physical and economic -- the less liberty was protected.
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Wednesday, January 07, 2015
What True U.S. Health Care Reform Would Look Like / Politics / US Politics
Matt Battaglioli writes: With the relatively recent passing of America’s new healthcare law; the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the topics of healthcare, health insurance, prices and reform have been particularly hot lately. This of course does not mean that the controversies surrounding the American healthcare system are anything new. Healthcare prices are getting higher with many hospital visits for certain conditions totaling bills of millions of dollars. Also, the laws regulating the industry are getting heavier by the day. People have known for a while that a solid reform of the system has been in order, though it is unfortunate that most of these people calling for reform have a tendency to find their influence for such reform across the ocean.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2014
U.S. Cops Can Enforce Non-Existent Laws With Impunity / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: Ignorance of the law is an excuse...if you are a cop. American police no longer need to know what the law says or to enforce it correctly. They can implement a non-existent law with impunity even if it results in the apparent violation of constitutional rights. This may have been apparent to many as a police practice but now it is now officially the law of the land. On December 15, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled on Heien v. North Carolina.
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Sunday, December 28, 2014
America's War on Palestine / Politics / US Politics
America one-sidedly supports Israel. Both countries partner in each other's crimes. United against Palestinian statehood.
Determined to keep 4.5 million Palestinians subjugated. Hostages on their own land in their own country.
Under militarized occupation rule. Afforded no rights whatever. Congressional members demand Obama veto Palestine's Security Council statehood resolution.
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Sunday, December 21, 2014
Obama's Party Joke Spotlights North Korea / Politics / US Politics
Don't Obamify His Name
Kim Jon Bama, AKA president Barack Obama delivered his own party joke at what was billed as his end-year conference and Q&A, December 19. This was two day's after Vladimir Putin did his own often light-hearted and boisterous same thing. Commentators warned us to only take what Jon Bama was saying as a last pirouette of presidential power and privilege, before Republicans take full control of the floors of both houses in January. So Obama was witty, formal, stern and forthright about finally ending the 50-year blockade of Cuba, a small island country run as the Castro family firm, and starting a spanking "new" crusade - against equally small and unimportant North Korea. Which has been US-blockaded about 60 years
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The United States and Cuba Begin Restoring Relations / Politics / US Politics
The United States and Cuba on Dec. 17 took their most assertive step in several decades toward normalizing relations. The most important announcements concerned the resumption of high-level political discussions focused on renewing formal diplomatic ties between the countries, which have been nonexistent since 1961. Cuban and U.S. officials will hold high-level meetings in the coming months, and the two countries will work toward establishing embassies in Havana and Washington. The United States will also immediately relax some sanctions on trade and travel to Cuba. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would loosen certain restrictions on financial transactions with Cuba, remove some restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba, and authorize the export of certain goods to the Cuban private sector. The U.S. State Department will also review Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Obama has the legal authority to immediately implement the measures he announced, but he left the issue of formally lifting the trade embargo up to Congress. Together, the announcements signaled a gradual process of reopening Cuba to the United States.
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Monday, December 15, 2014
CIA, Democracy, Quo Vadis, America? / Politics / US Politics
Where are you going, America?
I don’t like to discuss politics too much. There are not enough smart, kind and honest people in politics wherever I look in the world for me to want to have anything to do with that game. I’d just spend all my time wondering what kind of mindset it takes to want to tell other people what to do, and be in control of the millions, billions and trillions of dollars that are taken from these people on a daily, yearly, basis.
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Monday, December 15, 2014
Ron Paul - All I Want for Christmas is a Real U.S. Government Shutdown / Politics / US Politics
The political class breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when the US Senate averted a government shutdown by passing the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This year's omnibus resembles omnibuses of Christmas past in that it was drafted in secret, was full of special interest deals and disguised spending increases, and was voted on before most members could read it.
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Saturday, December 13, 2014
The American Inquisition - Torture Lobby Be Tortured? / Politics / US Politics
Torture is a crime under both American and international law. The Bush administration repeatedly broke the law from 2002 to 2006 by unleashing a wave of torture, kidnapping, and murder, all under the banner of its faux “war on terror.”
“Terror” is a wonderfully useful propaganda term developed by the Israelis and adopted by the Bush administration to dehumanize and delegitimize America’s violent enemies who were opposing US presence in much of the Muslim world.
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
America Should You Believe What They Tell you or What You See? / Politics / US Politics
Sometimes I wish I could just passively accept what my government monarchs and their mainstream media mouthpieces feed me on a daily basis. Why do I have to question everything I'm told? Life would be much simpler and I could concentrate on more important things like the size of Kim Kardashian's ass, why the Honey Boo Boo show was canceled, the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, whether I'll get a better deal on Chinese slave labor produced crap on Black Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, fantasy football league standings, the latest NFL player to knockout their woman and get reinstated, Obama's latest racial healing plan, which Clinton or Bush will be our next figurehead president, or the latest fake rape story from Rolling Stone. The willfully ignorant masses, dumbed down by government education, lured into obesity by corporate toxic packaged sludge disguised as food products, manipulated, controlled and molded by an unseen governing class of rich men, and kept docile through never ending corporate media propaganda, are nothing but pawns to the arrogant sociopathic pricks pulling the wires in this corporate fascist empire of debt.
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
U.S. Police State - Illinois Passes Law Making it a Felony to Video Police Abuse / Politics / US Politics
How to Stop Police Abuse
There's one way and one way only to stop police abuse: Criminally prosecute it, then allow civil penalties.
In a podcast today with Chris Martenson, Chris suggested civil penalties should come straight out of the police retirement fund, not taxpayer pockets.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
U.S. Declaring War on Russia? / Politics / US Politics
Michael S. Rozeff writes: The U.S. government is a bastion of reckless behavior, constantly and continually. The extent of damage inflicted upon the American people by U.S. governments is huge and incalculable. The latest addition to its record of recklessness is H.R. 758. This resolution passed the House with 95 percent of the House voting “yea”. The vote was 411 to 10 with 13 not voting.
The text of H.R. 758, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 4, 2014, is here. This resolution is directed against Russia. All quotes below are from H.R. 758.
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Monday, December 01, 2014
US Exceptionalism And White Supremacy / Politics / US Politics
Obama Fumbles and the World Burns
An excellent summary and analysis of why the Obama White House has been overwhelmed by what we can call “legacy policy”, and has become the most paranoid US administration in decades – far surpassing rven Georfe W Bush – is given by professor Joel Migdal in his latest book (' Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East ). Migdal traces the basic problem to US exceptionalism – the cornerstone of foreign policy since Roosevelt and Truman – being totally unsuited to a “multipolar world” in which the US has to engage with and against a shifting set of allies and enemies on constantly changing issues, where today's friend is tomorrow's rival and vice versa. Like others (including Kissinger and Brzezinski!) he divides the post-1945 world into the period ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-90, and what happened after a 10-year “reflexion and incubation period” ending in 2001.
Monday, December 01, 2014
Who Wants to be U.S. Defense Secretary? / Politics / US Politics
It seems nobody wants to be Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration. The president's first two Defense Secretaries, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, both complained bitterly this month about their time in the administration. The president's National Security Council staff micro-managed the Pentagon, they said at a forum last week.
Former Secretary Gates revealed that while he was running the Defense Department, the White House established a line of communication to the Joint Special Operations Command to discuss matters of strategy and tactics, cutting the Defense Secretary out of the loop. His successor at the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, made similar complaints.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2014
A Message to Ferguson: You Are Fighting The Wrong Battle / Politics / US Politics
Tensions in the US are high. Hundreds of millions of people have been extorted and many have been kidnapped and beaten. People are frustrated and demanding answers, and to find them they are looking to.... authority figures?
They've been well-trained. But it is not with these authority figures true liberation lies. It would be better for us all, as individuals, to look deep inside ourselves and find an inner calm that runs in all living beings and recognize the true terrorists.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Now The British Are Fleeing America / Politics / US Politics
Remember when Americans fled Britain and the monarchy? Well, now the British are fleeing from America and its modern tyranny...
Take London Mayor Boris Johnson, for instance.
Johnson has been London’s mayor since 2008 and is even planning on running for Parliament. His big mistake was being born in New York, though. Even though he moved at age 5, the US government wants him to pay capital gains taxes owed by American citizens earning income abroad.
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Monday, November 24, 2014
Defeat of USA FREEDOM Act is a Victory for American Freedom / Politics / US Politics
It will not shock readers to hear that quite often legislation on Capitol Hill is not as advertised. When Congress wants to do something particularly objectionable, they tend give it a fine-sounding name. The PATRIOT Act is perhaps the best-known example. The legislation had been drafted well before 9/11 but was going nowhere. Then the 9/11 attacks gave it a new lease on life. Politicians exploited the surge in patriotism following the attack to reintroduce the bill and call it the PATRIOT Act. To oppose it at that time was, by design, to seem unpatriotic.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014
On Obama and the Nature of Failed Presidencies / Politics / US Politics
George Friedman writes: We do not normally comment on domestic political affairs unless they affect international affairs. However, it is necessary to consider American political affairs because they are likely to have a particular effect on international relations. We have now entered the final phase of Barack Obama's presidency, and like those of several other presidents since World War II, it is ending in what we call a state of failure. This is not a judgment on his presidency so much as on the political configuration within it and surrounding it.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Obama Lame Duck in a NeoCon Congress / Politics / US Politics
That Nefarious Warrior Organism is eager to accelerate the next stage of the master plan. Under an openly NeoCon front, John McCain’s chairmanship of a Senate Armed Services Committee will get to pressure the public into believing that their national security requires vigorous interventionism. Before you think that the Democrats differ from this same post WWII strategy, it would be best to brush up on a necessary history lesson.
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Monday, November 10, 2014
Pols, Pundits and Bear Trappers / Politics / US Politics
The mid-term election results in Americacan speak volumes if one only could hear the truth within the cacophony created by a hundred political pundits who mix moaning about low voter national turnout (lowest since WWII) with feigned "surprise" over GOP advances; pundits who never are at a loss for impressing the impressionable by mixing their stewardship with bewildering statistics, charts, graphs, demographic breakdowns; all of which, of course, leads pundits to issuing hearty expositions, predictions and projections of the future - a future based on their speculative punditry.
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Monday, November 10, 2014
Ron Paul - What The Mid-Term U.S. Elections Really Mean For Peace and Liberty / Politics / US Politics
Did the election last week really mean that much? I took to my Twitter account on Tuesday to point out that the change in control of the Senate from Democrat to Republican actually means very little, despite efforts by politicians and the mainstream media to convince us otherwise. Yes, power shifted, I wrote. But the philosophy on Capitol Hill changed very little. The warfare/welfare state is still alive and well in Washington.
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Monday, November 03, 2014
Ron Paul - More Guns Plus Less War Equals Real Security / Politics / US Politics
Last week's tragic shootings in Canada and Washington state are certain to lead to new calls for gun control. The media-generated fear over "lone wolf terrorists" will enable the gun control lobby to smear Second Amendment supporters as "pro-terrorist." Marketing gun control as an anti-terrorist measure will also enable gun control supporters to ally with those who support any infringement on liberty done in the name of "homeland security."
As with most infringements on liberty, gun control will not only make us less free, it will make us less safe. Respecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms is the original and best homeland security policy. Restricting the right of people to arm themselves leaves them with no effective defense against violent criminals or a tyrannical government.
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Sunday, November 02, 2014
American Tariffs and Wars From the Revolution to the Great Depression / Politics / US Politics
James Bovard writes: Fair trade is once again a rallying cry for many Americans. Many contemporary leftists believe that the U.S. government should impose restrictions or tariffs on imported goods that are alleged to have been produced by underpaid or oppressed Third World workers. Few contemporary protectionists are aware of the sordid history of trade conflicts earlier in American history.
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Saturday, November 01, 2014
The Day Israel Attacked America / Politics / US Politics
One ally attacking another willfully is unheard of. Israel violated its special relationship.
What James Petras called "the first (instance) in modern history in which the imperial country cover(ed) up a deliberate major military assault by a supposed ally."
He referred to the 1967 USS Liberty attack. An intelligence-gathering ship. On June 8. In international waters. About 25.5 nautical miles northwest of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Hillary Clinton Could Be One of the Best U.S. Presidents Ever / Politics / US Politics
Cheap oil prices and the economic prosperity they bring can make politicians and investors look smarter than they are. In this interview with The Mining Report, Stansberry Research Editor Matt Badiali shares the secrets for finding underappreciated commodities and companies before they become overpriced, and names his favorites.
The Mining Report: You have said that Hillary Clinton could go down in history as one of the best presidents ever. Why?
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Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Principle, Rigor and Execution Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
U.S. President Barack Obama has come under intense criticism for his foreign policy, along with many other things. This is not unprecedented. Former President George W. Bush was similarly attacked. Stratfor has always maintained that the behavior of nations has much to do with the impersonal forces driving it, and little to do with the leaders who are currently passing through office. To what extent should American presidents be held accountable for events in the world, and what should they be held accountable for?
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Monday, October 27, 2014
Lunatics Running US Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: NEW YORK – Things seemed crazy in the US and Canada last week, with a shooting on normally tranquil Parliament Hill in Ottawa and a grisly hatchet attack on two New York City policemen.
Add in an American doctor who returned to the big city from Ebola-stricken West Africa and proceeded to run around all over town – from the Bronx to the west Village to a bowling alley in Brooklyn – just as he was coming down with the dreaded sickness. New Yorkers are a pretty tough bunch, so panic was mild, but in this crowded city, it was still a big scare.
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Monday, October 20, 2014
National Service is Anti-Liberty and Un-American / Politics / US Politics
Former Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently called on the government to force young people to spend two years either "serving" in the military or performing some other type of government-directed "community service." Neoconservative Senator John McCain has introduced legislation creating a mandatory national service program very similar to Reich's proposal. It is not surprising that both a prominent progressive and a leading neocon would support mandatory national service, as this is an issue that has long united authoritarians on the left and right.
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Sunday, October 19, 2014
Germ Warfare - The US Gave WMD's to Saddam to Attack Iran / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: Back in the 1990’s, journalists used to joke, “Of course we know Iraq has chemical weapons. We have the delivery receipts to prove it!”
The joke turned out to be the exact truth.
While covering Iraq in 1990 – just before the first massive US bombing campaign – I discovered the US and Britain had secretly built a germ weapons arsenal for Iraq to use against Iran in the eight year-Iran-Iraq War.
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Sunday, October 12, 2014
Has Obama Changed His Mind About Syria? / Politics / US Politics
The ISIS siege of Kobane continued overnight while cities across Turkey were set ablaze by Kurdish protestors. At least 19 civilians were killed by Turkish riot police who were trying to disperse angry crowds that had gathered to protest the government’s unwillingness to defend the predominantly Kurdish city. According to Hurriyet, “The worst violence was seen in Diyarbakır during a reported gunfight between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) supporters and Hizbullah, a radical Islamist group whose members are mostly Kurdish and who allegedly aided the state in the torture and killing of Kurdish activists in the 1990s.” (Hurriyet)
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Saturday, October 11, 2014
American the Broken State and How to Fix It / Politics / US Politics
The United States of America is not what it used to be. Unsustainable mountains of debt, continuous meddling by the government and Fed to “stimulate the economy,” and the US dollar’s dwindling status as the world’s reserve currency are very real threats to Americans’ standard of living. Here are some opinions from the recently concluded Casey Research Fall Summit on the state of the state and how to fix it.
Marc Victor, a criminal defense attorney from Arizona and a staunch liberty advocate, says there’s really no such thing as “the state”—“it’s just some people bossing other people around.”
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Friday, October 10, 2014
America is Truly a Country Run for the Few / Politics / US Politics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics headline this morning reads: “Payroll employment increases by 248,000 in September; unemployment rate declines to 5.9%.”
How can this be? US corporations are investing in buying back their own stocks, not in new business ventures that produce new jobs.
According to the Census Bureau’s Poverty Report, US real median family income has declined to the level of twenty years ago. Consumer credit and real retail sales are not growing. Construction is limited to rental units. Construction shows 16,000 new jobs, half of which are “specialty trade contractors” or home remodelers.
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Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Obama Abandoning the Saudis for Iran and Dooming the Petrodollar - Video / Politics / US Politics
By Alex Daley, Chief Technology Investment Strategist
I sat down with Jim Rickards, author of many best-selling economics and investing books, including his latest, titled The Death of Money. In this exclusive interview, Jim shares his view on the changes in US foreign policy—the newly announced partnership with Iran to help fight ISIS and recent moves away from the petrodollar deal with Saudi Arabia—and what they mean for the dollar, gold, and investment markets in general.
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Tuesday, October 07, 2014
U.S. State Sponsored Assassination Culture / Politics / US Politics
The ongoing failures of the Secret Service to provide proper protection for the President have political careerists in a tizzy. Scares that harm could come to the commander-in-chief, also worries the press. Ordinary citizens on principle, accept that the White House should be secure grounds. Rotating blame usually means that the buck does not stop on the oval office desk. Indeed, who could expect any President to be responsible for their own safety? Surely, policy decisions made as a government could not possibly have any bearing on the lunatics that harbor ill will towards our fearless leaders.
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Monday, September 29, 2014
Nihilism And The Unknown Future / Politics / US Politics
Reject Everything
Nihilism, as US president Obama said in August 2014 following the decapitation of journalist Jim Foley is most certainly ISIS in Syria and Iraq - but he called it an ideology, when in fact it is a non-ideology. Nihilism denies all “conventional knowledge” and “conventional reality”. The only possible future, the nihilists say, will be “exalted” or “ecstatic”. Otherwise, there is no future.
Nihilism is the path to nowhere for the punk killers of ISIS who meander from town to town and cut off human heads in town squares, to thrill the crowd here and there, but nothing more than that. Until the “ecstatic moment”, life will be a shadow play, for ISIS of a threatening and macabre type.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The Quick Slide From Hope to Despair As War Returns--If It Ever Went Away / Politics / US Politics
New York, New York: On the Sunday, the world came together to demand climate justice with massive marches of solidarity and positivity.
On the Monday, the UN prepared for its global climate summit with more than l00 Heads of State, some there as ornaments, others as advocates for changes in environmental conditions that threaten the survival of many nations and peoples.
On the Monday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called climate change Washington’s number #1 priority.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Bread, Circuses and Bombs - Decline of The American Empire / Politics / US Politics
"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions -- everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: Bread and Circuses." - Juvenal - Satire (100 A.D.)
Roman satirist and poet Juvenal was displaying contempt for a degraded Roman citizenry that had shunned civic responsibility, shirked their duties of citizenship within a republic, and had chosen to sell their votes to feckless politicians for assurances of bread and circuses. Rather than govern according to noble principles based upon reason, striving for public policies that led to long term sustainability and benefitting the majority of citizens, politicians chose superficial displays and appeasing the masses utilizing the lowest common denominator of "free" food and bountiful spectacles, pageants, and ceremonies in order to retain power.
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Monday, September 22, 2014
Ron Paul - Congress Votes for More War in the Middle East / Politics / US Politics
Last week, the House and Senate voted to rubber stamp President Obama's war plans for the Middle East. Both bodies, on a bipartisan basis, authorized the US to begin openly training and arming the rebels who have been fighting for three years to overthrow the Assad government in Syria.
Although the Syrian government has also been fighting ISIS and related extremist groups for three years, the US refuses to speak to the Syrians and has warned Assad not to interfere with the coming US attack on sovereign Syrian territory
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Obama Declares War on Syria, Why the Real Target is Assad Not ISIS / Politics / US Politics
Invoking the same ominous language as his predecessor, Barack Obama used a prime time presidential address on Wednesday to announce the beginning of a war on Syria. And while there’s no doubt that many Americans will be confused by Obama’s misleading focus on the terrorist organization named ISIL, the real purpose of the speech was to garner support for another decade of homicidal conflicts in the Middle East. The administration is as determined as ever to plunge the region into chaos, erase existing borders, and install its puppets wherever it can. ISIL–which is mainly an invention of western Intel agencies and their treacherous counterparts in the Gulf– conveniently creates the justification for another bloody invasion followed by years of occupation, subjugation, and revolt.
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Thursday, September 11, 2014
As More U.S. Bombs Drop, Empire Begins Fall / Politics / US Politics
On Wednesday evening, September 10, 2014, hours before the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, President Obama announced his decision to bomb Syria and deploy more troops inside Iraq. While the February events in Kiev could be seen marking the EU's capitulation to neo-fascism in Europe in submission to Washington's hegemonic diktats, Obama's arrogant militancy as presently expressed should be viewed as the beginning of the fall of American Empire. Whether it falls this year, the next, or in three to five years, it will end through military defeat, economic collapse and by forces from within that will - by necessity - fight for self-survival against their own government and their sectarian political oppressors and opponents. America will then inherit the mantle that Germany endured for over fifty years following World War II. At that, the rotating sphere of world dominance will have completed its cycle. Unipolar will be dead. The sun will have set in the West and risen in the East. Many will die fighting against the inevitable. Many will blame everyone but themselves.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The Scotland Black Swan / Politics / US Politics
Got a mail from a friend in Scotland late last night that got me thinking. “Unfortunately, using Ireland as a model of fracture, we may start blowing up each other.” I’ve been reading a lot lately, in between all the other things, about Scotland, as should be obvious from my essay (Jim Kunstler tells me I can use that word) yesterday, Please Scotland, Blow Up The EU, and sometime today a thought crept up on me that has me wondering how ugly this thing is going to get. I think it can get very bad.
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Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Crusaders, Sieges And Fortress America / Politics / US Politics
ISIS is More Menacing Than Russia
In a sometimes virulently anti-Russian but sophisticated propaganda piece, 1 September, D. K. Matai tells us that Russia, or Vladimir Putin, and the Islamic State, are “our” two greatest threats (“Islamic State or Russia? Ten Key Questions Towards Pragmatism” .http://tinyurl.com/q3dkq99).
Monday, September 01, 2014
President Obama Has No Middle East Strategy? Good! / Politics / US Politics
Last week President Obama admitted that his administration has not worked out a strategy on how to deal with the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a dominant force in the Middle East. However, as ISIS continues its march through Syria and Iraq, many in the US administration believe it is, in the words of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a threat "beyond anything we have ever seen."
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
U.S. Empire’s Bumpy Ride / Politics / US Politics
If you are one of those defeatist-type Americans, always alarmed over the dire fate of the US economy, actually believing 2 + 2 = 4, it may be best not to shift your glance to the state of US foreign policy today.
Obamaville’s geopolitical stance is harder to grasp than a BLS formula for unemployment is.
And if the thought is, quaintly, of defending the US shores and citizens you are decades behind the curve.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
U.S. Self Checkmate in War on Islam / Politics / US Politics
The result of this vast U.S. War Against the Muslim World is now so vastly complex, explosive and convulsive every day in new catastrophes that no one can possibly understand where it is all headed or what new cataclysms will erupt today or tomorrow or any time in the foreseeable future.
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Monday, August 25, 2014
Ferguson: The Iraq, Gaza War Comes Home / Politics / US Politics
America's attention recently turned away from the violence in Iraq and Gaza toward the violence in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown. While all the facts surrounding the shooing have yet to come to light, the shock of seeing police using tear gas (a substance banned in warfare), and other military-style weapons against American citizens including journalists exercising their First Amendment rights, has started a much-needed debate on police militarization.
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Thursday, August 21, 2014
Obama Fails As Schoolyard Bully / Politics / US Politics
When I think about what an American president should do, and should be, the first thing that pops into my mind is (s)he should be a peacemaker. It would seem to be the no. 1 requirement for someone who’s the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, and therefore the leader of the free world.
If that person is not a peacemaker, if (s)he is not focused on diffusing trouble and violence when and where they rear their ugly heads, how could the entire world possibly not be in a state of perpetual warfare? But here we are, there’s no such American leader in sight, and the prospects of one appearing anytime soon are zero.
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Iraq, Ukraine - Oh, What A Tangled Mess We Weave / Politics / US Politics
When first we practise to deceive!
The upper echelons in and behind various governments have had on their radar far longer than the media that serve them, and I also realize that Washington wants a leading role in that battle, but even then I still don’t really get what is going on these days.
I think perhaps that’s because I tend to give the American political machine too much credit when it comes to intelligence and insight and other qualities its managerial staff doesn’t exactly seem to be drowning in. But still. I get the idea that most of what Washington does is based on what someone I read today calls ‘solution selling’, and what I know as ‘the completion backward principle’.
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014
America is a Police State : Our Highest-Rated Speech of All Time / Politics / US Politics
By Olivier Garret, Chief Executive Officer
Never in my life have I seen a round of applause like this one… and at an event normally composed of conservative, introspective investors to boot. But most surprising of all - and I must admit in my bias here they were applauding a lawyer. A defense lawyer at that.
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Sunday, August 17, 2014
U.S. Empire of Death and Lies / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: Armed humanitarianism 2.0. That’s our new western version of old-fashioned 19th century imperialism, now feminized by President Barack Obama’s lady advisors, painted pink and accompanied by the kind of soft piano music you hear in ads for women’s products.
Last week, the Obama administration latched onto the plight of Iraq’s Yazidis who were being persecuted by those awful ISIS folks - just in jolly good time to divert attention from the massacre in Gaza.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Welcome to the New Crusades / Politics / US Politics
A Fine Vacation
President Obama had a plan. Take two weeks and have a fine vacation (not taking his problem to the United Nations) in Martha’s Vineyard, rapidly becoming the Graveyard of US foreign policy. Boots would soon be on the ground in Iraq, about 600 of them to start with, and the Kurdistan he studiously never mentioned as a thing or “near nation” that exists would soon receive US arms shipments. The ISIS or Islamic State which received funding, in Syria, from the USA's NED or National Endowment for Democracy, was now The Enemy. It seems to be threatening oil supplies...
Friday, August 15, 2014
America the Neighborhood Bully Recklessly Throws its Weight Around / Politics / US Politics
On June 30, U.S. authorities announced a stunning $9 billion fine on French bank BNP Paribas for violations of financial sanctions laws that the United States had imposed on Iran, Sudan and Cuba. In essence, BNP had surreptitiously conducted business with countries that the United States had sought to isolate diplomatically (sometimes unilaterally in the case of Cuba). Although BNP is not technically under the jurisdiction of American regulators, and the bank had apparently not broken any laws of its home country, the fine was one of the largest ever issued by the United States and the largest ever levied on a non-U.S. firm. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve made clear that unless BNP forks over the $9 billion (equivalent to one year's of the company's total earnings), the U.S. will prevent the bank from engaging in dollar-based international transactions. For an institution that makes its living through such transactions, that penalty is the financial equivalent of a death sentence. The fine will be paid.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Russia, Ukraine - Washington Chokes Truth With Lies / Politics / US Politics
Are Western propagandists fooling anyone but themselves?
The latest absurdity coming out of Ukraine, the EU and Washington is that the humanitarian aid that Russia and the Red Cross are trucking into the former Russian territories that comprise eastern Ukraine is a trick, a deception, a pretext for Russia’s invasion forces. Such a preposterous lie tells us that Western propagandists have no respect whatsoever for the intelligence of Western peoples.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
ISIS - The Latest Neocon Lies for War / Politics / US Politics
Patrick J. Buchanan writes:
U.S. air strikes since Friday have opened a corridor through which tens of thousands of Yazidis, trapped and starving on a mountain in Iraq, have escaped to safety in Kurdistan.
The Kurds, whose peshmerga fighters were sent reeling by the Islamic State last week, bolstered now by the arrival of U.S. air power, recaptured two towns. But the peshmerga have apparently lost the strategically important town of Jalawla, 20 miles from Iran, the furthest east that ISIS forces have penetrated.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Writing Off America's Losses In Iraq And Ukraine / Politics / US Politics
Spend and Defend
It is impossible to get exact figures and numbers on how many Iraqi civilians and American soldiers died in Iraq post-2003, nor on how much it all cost US taxpayers and the Federal government. We can probably say at least 4,500 American lives, over 100,000 Iraqi lives and $1700 billion spent doing what? Although star players in the rush to war in 2003 such as Paul Wolfowitz memorably said that “Iraq floats on a sea of oil – so we had to intervene” the lure of cheap oil was played down as the main war aim. Today, we can pretty much forget all about that. Obama's present fumbling in a so-called humanitarian war against ISIS will help oil prices upward at a time when basic supply-demand metrics are driving its price below the “magic three digit” level of $100 a barrel.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Politics of the U.S. Election Cycle and Policy Spin / Politics / US Politics
Political Spin
The Republicans are coming out in force on their criticism of President Obama`s decision to utilize primarily air strikes to thwart ISIS aggression in Iraq towards the Kurds and the minority Christian group the Yazidis.
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Monday, August 11, 2014
Why America is Ungovernable - The Republicans’ Civil War / Politics / US Politics
Back when the republican party was actually the party of small government it was possible for country club moderates (white guys and their trophy wives who love the status quo and want to preserve the tax breaks that make it possible), Christian conservatives (who want the bible to be the template for the US legal system) and libertarians (who want a limited government that exists almost solely to protect property rights and individual freedoms) to coexist. While disagreeing on some major issues like abortion and foreign affairs, they could unite on taxes, regulation, school choice and enough else to hold the party together.
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Sunday, August 10, 2014
President Obama Statement on Israel Gaza War / Politics / US Politics
President Obama delivers an update on the Gaza situation and U.S. position on Israel including authorisation of use of military force, a ball growing event.
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Friday, August 08, 2014
Iraq - Obama's No-Win Doctrine / Politics / US Politics
Innocent Mr Obama Addresses the Nation
Long ago in politics, in 2011, in his address to the nation from the East Room on March 18 the president said he had to act in Libya. Without international action, he said, there would be "atrocities against [the] people." and "many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners”. Obama in 2011 also said “The calls of the Libyan people would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun”.
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Thursday, August 07, 2014
The US Needs to Stop Meddling in Russia-Ukraine Politics / Politics / US Politics
West Point Speech & Foreign Policy Philosophy
It is ironic that President Obama in his West Point speech posited that the US couldn`t be the world`s police, and intervene in every single dispute all over the globe; and yet his foreign policy approach has ended up getting involved in every single dispute all over the world.
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Thursday, August 07, 2014
How Obama’s Support of Israel Undermines U.S. Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
Blasting Gaza into rubble has affected the average American in ways that U.S. politicians will learn to regret. The result will be more than simply bleeding hearts for dead Palestinian children (430 at last count). There is a deeper political effect happening, as young and old alike realize for the first time the cancerous lies coursing through the veins of the U.S. media and political system.
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Monday, August 04, 2014
We are America, the Exceptional Empire, Above All Law / Politics / US Politics
The USA does not rule the Universe. It does not rule the world. It certainly will never rule Russia and China. If America wishes to risk planetary destruction by waging a nuclear exchange to attempt any of the above, it will be stopped by other means. No country ever was, is, or ever will be above the laws of God and man.
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Sunday, August 03, 2014
Zionism And The American Dream / Politics / US Politics
Ideology Trumps Rationality
Zionists like to claim there “no limit expansion” doctrine for Israel is on a twin track with the so-called American Dream so we can ask this question. What about the Global Caliphate dream or nightmare of ISISI? Is that also “historically valid”?
We can forget the short-lived American foreign policy doctrine that Israel must be defended because, for a period of time, it controlled several major transport routes for oil from the Arabian peninsula to America and its allies in Europe. The “oil handle” for US aid of all kinds to Israel was short-lived but support to Israel is a cornerstone of foreign policy, and Congress is at this moment rushing to vote about $225 million to strengthen Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
US Failure: Unintended Consequence / Politics / US Politics
The contributors are many as actors in the American Tragedy, to cause the systemic breakdown failed state. Faulty monetary policy, economic policy, and political policy have caused the resulting failure. The primary perpetrators are the central bankers, led by Greenspan and Bernanke. These two men have done more to destroy the USEconomy, the US financial structure, the US currency, than any two men of prominence. To be sure, the Bush, Clinton, and Rubin gang played a huge role in the collapse. Their supporting cast of destructive actors is very long, like the serial bank criminals residing on Wall Street. To be sure, the system itself has played a key role in the harmful factors. The two most apparent harmful resident factors are the strong US labor unions and the influential environmental movement, which together encouraged the vast outsourcing of US industry at first to the Pacific Rim, and then fanning across the developing world. Both workmen compensation and OSHEA regulations interfered with US cost settings, but not as much as USGovt corporate taxes. The textile industry went to India and Pakistan, even Bangladesh. Call centers went to India, Philippines, even Costa Rica. The culprits are too numerous to cite.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Rogue States And Loony Tunes / Politics / US Politics
The Term No Longer Exists
According to the semi-official Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, published by the University of Michigan, the term “rogue state” ceased being used by any US agency or politician in year 2000. It says American foreign policymakers had used the terms "rogue," "outlaw," and "backlash" states almost interchangeably as the Cold War reached its end. It says that as early as July 1985, President Reagan asserted that "We are not going to tolerate attacks from outlaw states by the strangest collection of misfits, loony tunes, and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich". It was during Clinton's two administrations that “rogue state” had its heyday.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Ukraine MH17 - Washington Thinks Americans Are Fools / Politics / US Politics
At this point, you may want to consider making it personal. Your government, wherever you are in the west, but especially in the US, takes you for a bunch of fools they can feed anything at all and fully expect you to believe all of it. As for the media who convey government messages, it’s up in the air whether they too take you for a flock of dimwits, or are just plain fools themselves. As for your families, friends and neighbors, you decide.
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Monday, July 28, 2014
Will the US Destroy the World? - Don’t Expect to Live Much Longer / Politics / US Politics
European governments and the Western media have put the world at risk by enabling Washington’s propaganda and aggression against Russia.
Washington has succeeded in using transparent lies to demonize Russia as a dangerous aggressive country led by a new Hitler or a new Stalin, just as Washington succeeded in demonizing Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Qaddafi in Libya, Assad in Syria, Chavez in Venezuela, and, of course, Iran.
Monday, July 28, 2014
The Israeli Tail Keeps Wagging the US Dog / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: NEW YORK – In 1956, Britain and France were convinced that Egypt’s charismatic nationalist leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, was threatening what was left of their Mideast and African colonial empires. London branded Nasser, “Hitler on the Nile.”
So the British and French governments secretly enlisted Israel to invade and annex Egypt’s Sinai. British and French troops were to seize the Canal Zone in a supposed “peacekeeping mission,” march on Cairo, and install a puppet government there. Israel would keep the entire Sinai Peninsula.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
US Government Complicit in Israeli War Crimes Against Humanity / Politics / US Politics
Paul Findley writes: A section of the barrier — erected by Israeli officials to prevent the passage of Palestinians — with graffiti using President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote when facing the Berlin Wall, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” (Photo credit: Marc Venezia)
Virtually the entire U.S. news media and almost every national politician bends to the desires of Israel’s government regardless of its behavior, a reality that enables the persecution and even slaughter of Palestinians.
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Saturday, July 26, 2014
When the US Supports Israel, What Exactly is it Supporting? / Politics / US Politics
According to the Congressional Budget Office, “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $121 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance.” Other special benefits also flow to the Israeli military. Each year, the U.S. pays for about 20 percent of Israel’s overall military spending, and the total places Israel as the 16th largest military spender in the world. “In 2007, the Bush Administration and the Israeli government agreed to a 10-year, $30 billion military aid package for the period from FY2009 to FY2018.” Obama has renewed that pledge.
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Friday, July 25, 2014
USrael - Zionists in Control of America's Goyim Brainwashed Second Coming Slaves / Politics / US Politics
The U.S. Is the Only Country Which Supports Israel No Matter What It Does
Americans – living in a huge country which has never really been invaded, and as the sole superpower – are famous for being out-of-touch with how the rest of the world thinks.
So my fellow Americans will probably be surprised to learn that the U.S. is more or less the only country in the world which has a favorable view of Israel.
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Friday, July 25, 2014
Never Trust Anyone Over 30 / Politics / US Politics
I had reason to rent a vehicle for a day trip to a doctor located some 75 miles from home. I could not help but see a resemblance in the young man taking my application - a college graduate - to journalist Glenn Greenwald. I told him so. He said he didn't know the name. A late fifty-something couple booking a car to Logan airport in Boston didn't know the name either. "Do any of you know the name Edward Snowden?" I asked. They nodded yes.
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Monday, July 21, 2014
From Gore-Bore To Gore-War / Politics / US Politics
The Collapse of Concern
Time was, not many years ago when mainstream media was saturated with Al Gore genre material. One theme he particularly worked, to his own financial benefit, was the fear of massive coastal flooding and destruction as the Earth remorselessly heats up because we burned fossil fuels. Certainly for the last two or three years, this genre material and its fear theme have waned and may be dying. One reason was too much media hype, which cooled public interest in and fear of Heat Death. Opinion polls report ever less interest in the global warming issue or supposed issue. Apocalyptic climate change fell off the front pages, helped by what we can call a certain lack of gore.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Sanctions and Airliners - What’s the U.S. Empire’s Agenda? / Politics / US Politics
The unilateral US sanctions announced by Obama on July 16 blocking Russian weapons and energy companies access to US bank loans demonstrate Washington’s impotence. The rest of the world, including America’s two largest business organizations, turned their backs on Obama. The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers placed ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post protesting US sanctions. NAM said that the manufacturer’s association is “disappointed that the US is extending sanctions in increasingly unilateral ways that will undermine US commercial engagement.” Bloomberg reported that “meeting in Brussels, leaders of the European Union refused to match the US measures.”
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Monday, July 07, 2014
America Has Ceased to Exist - Video / Politics / US Politics
By Doug Casey, Chairman
“America is a marvelous idea, a unique idea, fantastic idea. I’m extremely pro-American. But America has ceased to exist,” says Doug Casey. Watch him in this fascinating interview with Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie discuss the political, social, and economic challenges the US must conquer as well as lessons we can learn from failed states.
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Monday, July 07, 2014
Ron Paul - Hobby Lobby Decision Creates Small Island of Freedom in Ocean of Statism / Politics / US Politics
This week, supporters of religious freedom cheered the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. The Court was correct to protect business owners from being forced to violate their religious beliefs by paying for contraceptives. However, the decision was very limited in scope and application.
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Monday, June 30, 2014
The Death of Independence - BREAKING ALL THE RULES! / Politics / US Politics
July 4th has been the national birth date since the inception of the country. Americans want to celebrate past glories because there are few reasons to believe that the current government or society is worthy of rejoicing. Deifying the Founding Fathers and their wisdom usually is rooted upon the construction of a constitution based on separations of powers and shared authorities with individual states. Lost in this commemoration is the concept of true and lasting independence.
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Monday, June 30, 2014
Ron Paul - Celebrate Independence Day By Opposing Government Tyranny / Politics / US Politics
This week Americans will enjoy Independence Day with family cookouts and fireworks. Flags will be displayed in abundance. Sadly, however, what should be a celebration of the courage of those who risked so much to oppose tyranny will instead be turned into a celebration of government, not liberty. The mainstream media and opportunistic politicians have turned Independence Day into the opposite of what was intended.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Is The FDA Laying The Groundwork For Resecheduling Marijuana? / Politics / US Politics
Like on most things the government sits well on the side of tyranny compared to the general public when it comes to marijuana policy. A record number of Americans believe marijuana should be legal:
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Thursday, June 12, 2014
Obamacare Obamination: This One-Act Tragedy Is Nothing But a Bill of Goods / Politics / US Politics
Shah Gilani writes: I’ve never before written anything about the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
That’s because I didn’t want to jump into the debate on one side or the other before letting some dust settle and seeing what there really is to see.
As the old Johnny Nash song goes, “I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way.”
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Monday, June 09, 2014
Obama's Foreign Policy Rhetoric Does Not Match US Actions / Politics / US Politics
President Obama's recent foreign policy speech, delivered at this year's West Point graduation ceremony, was a disappointment to anyone who hoped the president might be changing course. The failure of each US intervention thus far in the 21st century might have inspired at least a bit of reflection.
Monday, June 09, 2014
Taliban Release Video - America Does Do Deals with Terrorists - Surrender in Afghanistan / Politics / US Politics
The following video clip shows the Taliban releasing Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to U.S. special forces as they great one another as apparent equals as filmed by the Taliban ahead of which the U.S. released 5 senior Taliban commanders to the luxury of Qatar.
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Friday, June 06, 2014
US Foreign Wealth Confiscation Begins Under the Code Names FinCen, FATCA and FBAR / Politics / US Politics
We have been reporting on how the US government is using very nefarious and egregious methods on tracking its own citizen's financial information, fining them and even instituting the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as a form of subterfuge capital controls which is closing off international banking to Americans (as we reported yesterday in Mexico)
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Tuesday, June 03, 2014
California Top-Two Primary, Inviting ALL to our Election Night Campaign Party / ElectionOracle / US Politics
I sent this update Saturday but in case you missed it: The California top-two primary is June 3. If you live in California, we need your vote! I’m running for state treasurer and Laura Wells is running for state controller on a public bank platform.
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Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Ellen Brown - Infrastructure Sticker Shock: Financing Costs More Than Construction / Politics / US Politics
Funding infrastructure through bonds doubles the price or worse. Costs can be cut in half by funding through the state’s own bank.
“The numbers are big. There is sticker shock,” said Jason Peltier, deputy manager of the Westlands Water District, describing Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build two massive water tunnels through the California Delta. “But consider your other scenarios. How much more groundwater can we pump?”
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Monday, June 02, 2014
U.S. Mental Health Screening a Good Way to Decrease Liberty, Poor Way to Increase Security / Politics / US Politics
Last week Americans were shocked and saddened by another mass killing, this one near a college campus in California. We all feel deep sympathy for the families of the victims.
As usual, many people responded to this shooting by calling for new federal gun control laws, including the mental health screening of anyone attempting to purchase a firearm. There are a number of problems with this proposal. Federally-mandated mental health screenings would require storing mental health records in a government database. This obviously raises concerns about patient privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality, as well as the threat of identity theft. Anyone who doubts that these are legitimate concerns should consider the enormous privacy problems with the Obamacare website; some have even suggested that healthcare.gov be renamed indentifytheft.gov.
Sunday, June 01, 2014
California Primary - We Need Your Vote, Ellen Brown and Laura Wells / ElectionOracle / US Politics
Hi, the California top-two primary is June 3. If you live in California, we need your vote! I’m running for state treasurer and Laura Wells is running for state controller on a public bank platform. Only two candidates will go on to the November election, and it’s not possible to reach 37 million people without big money for TV ads; but we’re giving it our best shot!
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Saturday, May 31, 2014
An Open Letter to Edward Snowden - Stand Your Ground / Politics / US Politics
Dear Edward Snowden,
Rumor has it you are contemplating a return to your beloved country, the country whose crimes against liberty and justice forced you to take a moral, principled position by revealing truths about a surveillance state so wide-sweeping it is totalitarian - ever expanding in lawlessness and reach. Your efforts have been both reviled by the powerful and praised by the powerless. Your life has been threatened. You have been turned into a pariah and criminal by the very agents you sought to expose to divert focus away from them and place upon you. Now, after the rigors and humiliations you experienced you are considering a return to your country which has only persecuted and avenged you; a country led by a President and Congress whose war crimes, militarism, imperialism, desecrations of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will forever by seen as leading America into the greatest crucible in its history from which she may or may not recover her birthright.
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Monday, May 26, 2014
Memorial Day - Why War Is Inevitable / Politics / US Politics
Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July, Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.
Those who lose family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.
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Saturday, May 24, 2014
An Infamous Advisor for Obama and Putin / Politics / US Politics
Unusual Villain
Some people develop an undeserved bad reputation. It is typically the work of past enemies or the consequence of harsh fortune.
It is quite the unusual person though who develops a bad moral reputation only long after his life has ended, never considered so during his life. In the case of today’s main protagonist his reputation for calculating power-lust and purposeful deceit was earned by the reading of his texts centuries later; not due to any evil deeds of his own. The truly wicked seldom leave confessions of their hidden crimes and thoughts.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Why The US Department of Agriculture Needs Submachine Guns / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: On May 7, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) posted a notice on the government's Federal Business Opportunities site in order to solicit bids on an undisclosed number of submachine guns. The notice read, in part,
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts [sic] trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe [sic] or folding, magazine - 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.” [Note: spelling errors in original]
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Sunday, May 18, 2014
Operation American Spring Fails To Restore the Republic / Politics / US Politics
Christopher Cantwell writes: Suppose I said to you “Let’s get 10-30 million people to go down to Washington DC and force Barack Obama out of office!” What would you say? Might sound like a great idea at first, until you realize that I lack the capacity to organize millions of people to travel to the nation’s capitol on a workday. Especially when I predict people will wind up dead and in prison, it’s not exactly the most appealing thing for people to hire babysitters for.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2014
The Mythology of the U.S. Supreme Court / Politics / US Politics
Ryan W. McMaken writes: The Supreme Court’s recent decision on prayer at government meetingsreminds me that Supreme Court “season” is upon us, and for the next two months or so, we can expect to see the court decide on a variety of cases that can have profound impacts on the lives of citizens and non-citizens alike. The court’s decision in Town of Greece vs. Galloway has produced a lot of commentary on both sides, with much discussion about the dynamics between justices, and how Justice Kennedy must have been in a pro-prayer mood that day, since his decisions appear to be made on a variety of unknowable whims.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2014
American Crimes Against Humanity / Politics / US Politics
Every people has the right to self-determination, but only if it pleases a bunch of self-elected overlords and if it serves their purpose. How else can we interpret the fact that the Donetsk self-organized referendum was rejected by the West and even labeled criminal by the Kiev government that in turn is labeled criminal in Donetsk, all of whom say the May 25 across-Ukraine election is the real and legal thing, as the Donetsk region has already vowed to boycott that election? You can have a referendum to separate yourself from Ukraine, but only under Ukraine law. That is, the law of a government that has threatened to ban your language from being used where you live and that has been put in place, and maintained there, by armed groups that are shooting at you, must decide your right to self-determination.
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Monday, May 12, 2014
Ron Paul Asks - What Does The US Government Want in Ukraine? / Politics / US Politics
In several eastern Ukrainian towns over the past week, the military opened fire on its own citizens. Dozens may have been killed in the violence. Although the US government generally condemns a country's use of military force against its own population, especially if they are unarmed protesters, this time the US administration blamed the victims. After as many as 20 unarmed protesters were killed on the May 9th holiday in Ukraine, the State Department spokesman said "we condemn the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists."
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Sunday, May 11, 2014
U.S. State Department Bashing Putin’s Diplomatic Proposal / Politics / US Politics
It bears repeating what other articles stressed. Putin represents responsible geopolitical leadership. Obama is polar opposite.
Responses to Putin’s diplomatic proposal didn’t surprise. According to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki:
“(W)e need to see more from President Putin than simply calling for (Eastern Ukrainian referendums) to be postponed.”
Thursday, May 08, 2014
U.S. Gangster State – Where Is America’s Democracy? / Politics / US Politics
Anyone who looks carefully behind the veil of words cannot find democracy in America. For years I have been writing that the US government is no longer accountable to law or to the people (see, for example, my book, How America Was Lost). The Constitution has been set aside, and the executive branch is degenerating into Caesarism.
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Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Beginning of the End for Leaders Of the Free World... Humanity Awakens! / Politics / US Politics
The leaders of the "free world" are on the run. In many cases, they can’t go out and travel due to the risk of being arrested, protested or even having a shoe thrown at them.
In just the past few weeks, First Lady Michelle Obama, Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Attorney General Eric Holder have had to cancel appearances due to protests.
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Monday, May 05, 2014
China Displaces America, Ron Paul on Why We are No Longer Number One / Politics / US Politics
Last week World Bank economists predicted that China would soon displace the United States as the world's largest economy. The fact that this one-time economic basket case is now positioned to surpass the US is one more sign of the damage done to American prosperity by welfare, warfare, corporatism, and fiat money.
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Sunday, May 04, 2014
Obama And The Multipolar World / Politics / US Politics
Happy Change to Flaky Change
Its now a long time in US politics since Mr Barack Obama was Mr Happy Changey. His domestic critics love to pummel him with the slogans he used at the time – and tries hard to forget, today. The happy-change theme has gone. One key to this which his critics will never let him forget is that his slogans of the time never had any substance.
Were American supposed to be happy about uncontrollable debt and the stalking fear of the next 2008-style crash, company failures, more unemployment and – of course – massive bailouts and handouts for the real Happy Few? The 1% who predate and feed off everybody else. Who was Obama kidding?
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Saturday, May 03, 2014
Washington Intends Russia’s Demise / Politics / US Politics
Washington has no intention of allowing the crisis in Ukraine to be resolved. Having failed to seize the country and evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base, Washington sees new opportunities in the crisis.
One is to restart the Cold War by forcing the Russian government to occupy the Russian-speaking areas of present day Ukraine where protesters are objecting to the stooge anti-Russian government installed in Kiev by the American coup. These areas of Ukraine are former constituent parts of Russia herself. They were attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders in the 20th century when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the same country, the USSR.
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Thursday, May 01, 2014
Karl Marx Makes a Comeback — And That’s Okay / Politics / US Politics
A perfect sign of the times is the unexpected success of a 700-page economics text called Capital in the 21st Century by French college professor Thomas Piketty. As of April 30, it is the best-selling book in the world and is generating the kind of controversy that one would expect for what is reportedly an updating of Marxist theory for the Internet age.
I haven’t read it, so can’t comment on the book itself. But the subject is a good springboard for a look at the actual tragedy of Karl Marx, which is that his ideas got tried out in the real world.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Department Of (In)Justice Goes After Guns In Further Capital Controls / Politics / US Politics
The US government is attempting every possible angle to ensure Americans don't have access to guns. The latest is a new twist on capital controls being instituted by the Department of (In)Justice.
The DoJ is why financial institutions are refusing services to companies as diverse as gun shops, bitcoin businesses, marijuana dispensaries and even the porn industry.
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Monday, April 28, 2014
Ron Paul - Obama's Drone Wars Undermine American Values / Politics / US Politics
Earlier this month, CIA-operated drones killed as many as 55 people in Yemen in several separate strikes. Although it was claimed that those killed were "militants," according to press reports at least three civilians were killed and at least five others wounded. That makes at least 92 US drone attacks against Yemen during the Obama administration, which have killed nearly 1,000 people including many civilians.
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Sunday, April 27, 2014
US Government Can Kill US Citizens, But Not Strip Their Citizenship / Politics / US Politics
While Daniel Swalm researched his family's genealogy, he learned about a particular episode in which his grandmother, born and raised in Minnesota, was stripped of her US citizenship after marrying an immigrant from Sweden.
Under the obscure 1907 law called the Expatriation Act, a US born woman who married a foreigner was required to "take the nationality of her husband."
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Thursday, April 24, 2014
Putin’s Secret Weapon – How Russia Could Take Down America Without Firing a Single Shot - Video / Politics / US Politics
Here’s a startling fact most investors have never heard: During the last financial meltdown in 2008, when the U.S. economy was on the brink, Russian leaders met with China to persuade them to dump the dollar – and destroy the world’s reserve currency.
Before they could act, the Fed pumped over $700 billion into the economy and delayed their day of reckoning. Still, the threat remains. China holds over $1.2 trillion in U.S. debt today. And with their Russian allies, they could drop the dollar at any moment. This excerpt from our eye-opening documentary called “Meltdown America” explains the severity of this imminent threat:
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Thursday, April 24, 2014
The U.S. Is Now a Global Satanic Empire / Politics / US Politics
The rulers of the U.S. have just celebrated the most holy day of Christianity, Easter, by massive secret murders of Muslims from the skies by firing Hell Fire missiles into their impoverished homes, village gatherings, and old family automobiles.
These massive killings of the poor around the world with Hell Fire missiles from the heavens have become a Satanic Celebration for the U.S. totalitarian rulers. It fills them with blood lust, power lust, and blinding hubris.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
How to Avoid Losing All Your Money / Politics / US Politics
You know what's easier than making millions upon millions of dollars? Losing it...
This is the story of one sports great who thought he was investing conservatively. The problem? He was not investing conservatively at all. In fact he was investing in one of the riskiest assets available today - government bonds. His financial advisor did not advise him of that.
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Monday, April 21, 2014
Ron Paul on Nevada Standoff a Symptom of Increasing Authoritarianism / Politics / US Politics
The nation's attention has for the past few weeks been riveted by a standoff in Nevada between armed federal agents and the Bundys, a ranching family who believe the federal government is exceeding its authority by accessing "fees" against ranchers who graze cattle on government lands. Outrage over the government's use of armed agents to forcibly remove the Bundys' cattle led many Americans to travel to Nevada to engage in non-violent civil disobedience in support of the family.
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Saturday, April 19, 2014
America has Become a Police State / Politics / US Politics
Kourosh Ziabari writes: In the far past, I used to look skeptically at those who believed and maintained that the United States is moving in the direction of becoming a rogue, police state. After all, nearly every single American media outlet propagates this belief that the United States is a “beacon of freedom”, and many people around the globe tend to accept it. Moreover, every year, thousands of people from different parts of the world immigrate to the States in search of a better and more prosperous life, having believed in the hidden power of this beacon of freedom in revolutionizing their lives. But now, I’ve come to the understanding that this is not the whole story, and even those who wishfully move to America to realize their dreams, find after a while that their hopes were in vain.
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Friday, April 18, 2014
From Monroe to the Bush-Obama Doctrines, American KARMA is Long Overdue / Politics / US Politics
I wait for the first domino to fall on Empire. Will it be a bond collapse? Another total market meltdown? A right-wing/NRA/neo-Confederate fight to the finish against "central government" (Washington) and subsequent martial law? A cathartic race war in New York or Chicago or Detroit or LA against police violence, corrupt politicians, angry white men, phony liberals and decades of exploitation by the middle and upper classes who salute themselves for electing the first African-American president while continuing to institutionalize racism and poverty?
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Monday, April 14, 2014
Another Phony U.S. Budget Debate / Politics / US Politics
Anyone watching last week's debate over the Republican budget resolution would have experienced déjà vu, as the debate bore a depressing similarity to those of previous years. Once again, the Republicans claimed their budget would cut spending in a responsible manner, while Democratic opponents claimed the plan's spending cuts would shred the safety net and leave vital programs unfunded. Of course, neither claim is true.
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Friday, April 11, 2014
US Moves To Restrict Travelers Taking International Flights / Politics / US Politics
The US government is using the Malaysian Airlines flight 370 to tackle the "widespread lack of passport screening in all countries." The US is stepping up their processes. Already each passport of incoming visitors to the US is screened through multiple databases. After flight 370 disappeared, the US has started this process for all outgoing passengers.
"Coupled with this information and the new abilities to act on that information definitely makes air travel a lot safer," according to one government official.
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Monday, April 07, 2014
Ron Paul - Ft. Hood, An Avoidable Tragedy / Politics / US Politics
Last week we saw yet another tragedy at Ft. Hood, Texas, as a distraught Iraq war veteran killed three of his fellow soldiers before killing himself. It is nearly five years after the last Ft. Hood shooting, where 13 people were killed. These tragedies are heartbreaking and we certainly feel much sympathy for the families of the victims.
Wednesday, April 02, 2014
Obamacare Ship of Fools / Politics / US Politics
It was so fitting that Obama sauntered into the Rose Garden on April Fools day to proclaim the wonderful success of Obamacare. We are the fools for allowing this fool and his fellow fools in Congress to further bankrupt our country with this disastrous government run clusterf*ck. He is a dangerous empty suit. The only thing that mattered to him and his sociopathic control freaks in the last two months was hitting an enrollment number that he could tout as success. Making sure there are enough doctors in the plan or ensuring excellent healthcare services once you get sick is not part of their agenda. And they certainly don’t worry about the 7.1 million people paying their premiums. That’s the insurance companies’ problem.
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Monday, March 31, 2014
How to Avoid the Obamacare Penalty / Politics / US Politics
Laurence M. Vance writes: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but better known as simply Obamacare, is a collection of new taxes masquerading as a healthcare law.
Obamacare institutes new taxes on indoor tanning services, drug companies, medical device manufacturers, comprehensive health insurance plans, and health insurers. It increases the employee share of the Medicare tax (currently 1.45 percent) to 2.35 percent on that portion of income that is more than $200,000 for individuals or $250,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly. It also adds a new 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment income that will apply to the lesser of one’s net investment income or the amount of adjusted gross income in excess of applicable thresholds.
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Monday, March 31, 2014
Ron Paul - Aid to Ukraine Is a Bad Deal For All / Politics / US Politics
Last week Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill approving a billion dollars in aid to Ukraine and more sanctions on Russia. The bill will likely receive the president's signature within days. If you think this is the last time US citizens will have their money sent to Ukraine, you should think again. This is only the beginning.
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Sunday, March 30, 2014
The U.S. Empire vs. Eurasia / Politics / US Politics
The U.S. and its puppets, especially the E.U. and Nato, have been trying to weaken the rebuilding Russian empire as much as possible to contain it, while maintaining the U.S. Global Empire.
This has become a vital, crucial goal because of the rapid growth of Chinese power and the ever closer Alliance of Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Central Asia, Pakistan, etc.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Ron Paul, Richard Cobden, and the Risks of Opposing War / Politics / US Politics
Ryan McMaken writes: Since at least as early as the eighteen century, classical liberalism, and its modern variant libertarianism, have opposed warfare except in cases of obvious self-defense. We see this anti-war position clearly among the anti-federalists of eighteenth-century America (who opposed all standing armies) and more famously within George Washington’s Farewell Address. Thomas Jefferson frequently inveighed against war, although in moves typical for Jefferson, he acted against his own professed ideology on a number of occasions.
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Monday, March 24, 2014
Ron Paul - U.S. 'Democracy Promotion' Destroys Democracy Overseas / Politics / US Politics
It was almost ten years ago when, before the House International Relations Committee, I objected to the US Government funding NGOs to meddle in the internal affairs of Ukraine. At the time the "Orange Revolution" had forced a regime change in Ukraine with the help of millions of dollars from Washington.
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Thursday, March 20, 2014
An Injunction Against the First Amendment / Politics / US Politics
Vera Scroggins of Susquehanna County, Pa., will be in court Monday morning.
This time, she will have lawyers and hundreds of thousands of supporters throughout the country. Representing Scroggins to vacate an injunction limiting her travel will be lawyers from the ACLU and Public Citizen, and a private attorney.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Obamas America Starting to Look Like Maos Communist China / Politics / US Politics
Many like to watch movies or read fiction novels as a way to relax and get away from work and other stresses of day-to-day life. I, on the other hand, find non-fiction to be much more interesting than almost anything dreamed up by a fiction writer. So, when I want to relax and get away from things I like to read and watch non-fiction books and documentaries.
Given what is going on in China lately I have been nearly obsessed learning about China's history. It is easily one of the most interesting cultures on Earth with thousands of years of dynasties, warlords, communism, capitalism, wars and atrocities.
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Monday, March 17, 2014
Ron Paul - Why is Spying on Senate Bad But OK on Us? / Politics / US Politics
The reaction of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to last week's revelations that the CIA secretly searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers reveals much about what the elites in government think about the rest of us. "Spy on thee, but not on me!"
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Sunday, March 16, 2014
President Obama is The Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on America - Video / Politics / US Politics
Carey Wedler: Join me as I wreck my last artifact of support for the war criminal-in-chief!!
President Obama promised "change you can believe in". As Wedler shows, people believed but there was no change.
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Saturday, March 15, 2014
On Eve of Crimean Vote America Upholds Europe's First Fascist Government Since WWII / Politics / US Politics
An autobiography by an America writer, whose name now escapes me, described the day of May 7, 1915. Upon reading news of the sinking of the liner RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat, sudden silence was said to have fallen all around the people.
"Everyone knew this meant war!"
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Sunday, February 23, 2014
Ron Paul Warns - Leave Ukraine Alone! / Politics / US Politics
Last week Ukraine saw its worst violence since the break-up of the Soviet Union over 20 years ago. Protesters occupying the main square in the capitol city, Kiev, clashed with police leaving many protesters and police dead and many more wounded. It is an ongoing tragedy and it looks like there is no end in sight.
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Saturday, February 22, 2014
Obama, Let Them Eat Food Stamps / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: Early immigrants fled Europe to America because the New World offered a glistening promise: the classless society. It was not a society without rich and poor because freedom always produces an inequality of results. It was a society in which people were equal under fair laws and they could move fluidly from one class to another. The North American dream said people could rise by merit and hard work into economic independence and become the rulers of their own lives.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014
The American Public's Indifference to Foreign Affairs / Politics / US Politics
Last week, several events took place that were important to their respective regions and potentially to the world. Russian government officials suggested turning Ukraine into a federation, following weeks of renewed demonstrations in Kiev. The Venezuelan government was confronted with violent and deadly protests. Kazakhstan experienced a financial crisis that could have destabilized the economies of Central Asia. Russia and Egypt inked a significant arms deal. Right-wing groups in Europe continued their political gains.
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Sunday, February 16, 2014
The Merger of State and Commerce / Politics / US Politics
The Leviathan’s Thumb
Many observers of the US economy have come to the realization there are now few truly free markets left within 21st Century Western capitalism.
It seems all investments today are controlled to unfair advantage in some large way by the governments and financial firms operating the markets, especially the market in money itself. The newly-invented powers of the central banks to buy anything, to fund any bailout, can reach into any area of the economy, either to grant large favors or to inflict great pain, typically with the cooperation of the too-big-to-jail banks that own the Federal Reserve and its policies.
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Thursday, February 13, 2014
U.S. Caught Red Handed Attempting to Topple Ukraine's Democratically-Elected President / Politics / US Politics
“In the latest debacle for the US State Department and the Obama Administration, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on tape micro-managing Ukraine opposition party strategies with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. That the Ukraine regime-change operation is to some degree being directed from Washington can no longer be denied….The taped conversation demonstrates in clear detail that while Secretary of State John Kerry decries any foreign meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, his State Department is virtually managing the entire process.”– Daniel McAdams, “‘F**k the EU’: Tape Reveals US Runs Ukraine Opposition“, Ron Paul Institute
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Obamacare as a Jobs Killer / Politics / US Politics
Economic illiteracy is a hallmark of most political policies. The prime example of this principle is the idiocy out of the Obama administration that maintains that the Affordable Care Act is favorable to job seekers. The ranks of progressive euphoria reporting on the joys of Obamacare want to spin the latest Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis as favorable. As these imbeciles push out their demented dreams for a neo Great Society, the facts of trade and industry need to be buried in order to institute the total welfare state.
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Monday, February 10, 2014
Ron Paul Asks Will No One Challenge Obama's Executive Orders? / Politics / US Politics
President Obama's state of the union pledge to "act with or without Congress" marks a milestone in presidential usurpation of Congressional authority. Most modern presidents have used executive orders to change and even create laws without Congressional approval. However President Obama is unusually brazen, in that most Presidents do not brag about their plans to rule by executive order in state of the union speeches.
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Sunday, February 09, 2014
The American Dream is Dead, Obama Killed It / Politics / US Politics
If you follow the financial news, you already know that the American people are on an epic downer. Just check out some of these headlines I pulled up in a five minute Internet search and you’ll see what I mean:
Read full article... Read full article...“Gloom and doom? Americans more pessimistic about future” Las Vegas Review
Sunday, February 02, 2014
The State of the States: Post-Bernanke Bellum / Politics / US Politics
One can almost imagine ex-chairman Bernanke shaking his head in disbelief. (For the record, I cannot conceive of Simple Ben possessing the capacity for what follows, so this is an indulgence in creative writing.):
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Friday, January 31, 2014
IRA Accounts - Whose Money Is It, Really? / Politics / US Politics
I don't usually watch the State of the Union address, but when I do, I hear something different than most everyone else. As I recall, the State of the Union Address went something like:
"My fellow Americans, things do not look too good for our collective future.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Democracy was Won by the Few for the Many / Politics / US Politics
A reply given me by an Obama loyalist - a neighbor - several weeks ago could have been a replay of a reply given me in 2008 and 2012 when I warned Progressives and Democrats that Mr. Obama was not the person he pretended to be, nor the president they projected him to be. "He's disappointing, but he's still better than the opposition," quipped the loyalist.
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Monday, January 27, 2014
America Is a Vast Slave and Prison Nation / Politics / US Politics
The US has a vastly greater proportion of people than any other nation in various stages and degrees of police and military confinement and state control. These vast government gulags–”prisons” and “labor camps” and confinement camps in Russian–in the U.S. range from death row absolute control, maximum security prisons, all the way down to juvenile detention camps, probation, parole, minimum security prison camps, indictments, trials, jails and so on.
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Friday, January 24, 2014
U.S.Congress working on 2014 Immigration Infrastructure / Politics / US Politics
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew spoke with Bloomberg Television's Tom Keene at the World Economic Forum in Davos today and said he's growing confident Congress will overhaul the nation's immigration system and invest in infrastructure this year, "We have policy differences and those policy differences are legitimate and you have to work your way through them. I'm modestly optimistic that Congress will now want to get things done, whether it's infrastructure or immigration reform, on the model of what they did on the budget."
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
Does Everyone America Has a Lawyer on Speed dial ? The Chilling Economic Effect of Litigation / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: McDonald's is being sued again by a California woman who claims she was scalded by their hot coffee. In 1990, a New Mexico woman was awarded $2.9 million in a hot-coffee lawsuit against McDonald's; the award was later reduced to about $500,000. Meanwhile, a continent away, a New Jersey woman is suing a real estate developer for not disclosing the presence of a 'bad' neighbor when she purchased a house.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Popular Manifesto: Solutions For Restoring The United States / Politics / US Politics
Back in late 2004 during the first year of the Hat Trick Letter, my father had a conversation with me on his front porch. He was concerned about a negative streak in my perspective and a critical slant in my analytic work. He actually helped me in writing style, not content, like to correct errors in sentence construction. He pointed out lack of parallels, dangling modifiers, vague antecedents, and competing imagery. Many smaller discussions had taken place about a broken economy, absent industry from offshore efforts, debt buildup, enormous imbalances, the war machine emphasis, banker corruption, and unsound money itself. He always was concerned about the federal debt, citing it many times, and was alarmed later in 2006 when informed that foreigners held more than half our debt. He challenged me to produce solutions to the current difficult situation in the United States, an invitation to embark upon a positive streak. He was warned to be discouraged by the task.
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Sunday, January 12, 2014
Deregulation, Privatization, and Cheap Labor - Obama’s Corporate Plantations / Politics / US Politics
The man who promised to restore hope and bring change to America, has announced a plan to open five corporate plantations in the United States. On Thursday, President Barack Obama, whose policies have resulted in the greatest number of public sector job losses in US History (Public sector jobs have declined by 718,000 jobs since Obama took office.) announced the opening of five “Promise Zones” located in San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. According to an article in USA Today:
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Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Business Corporatracy - Twenty Years of NAFTA Sucking Sound / Politics / US Politics
Ah, what a better world the Free Traders built. With the rush to the bottom, the commemoration of the NAFTA 20th anniversary is a most hollow celebration. Those who have a memory of an actual economic prosperity, lament that H. Ross Perot’s warnings were ignored. Business literates urged the public to elect Perot as President. Establishment corporatist interests and corruptacrat officials joined forces to write a blueprint for economic consolidation and political futility. The fruits of this endeavor only satisfy the appetites of the select cabal of manipulation.
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Monday, January 06, 2014
Remember Fallujah? Iraq, the 'Liberation' Neocons Would Rather Forget / Politics / US Politics
Remember Fallujah? Shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US military fired on unarmed protestors, killing as many as 20 and wounding dozens. In retaliation, local Iraqis attacked a convoy of US military contractors, killing four. The US then launched a full attack on Fallujah to regain control, which left perhaps 700 Iraqis dead and the city virtually destroyed.
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Sunday, January 05, 2014
U.S. Congress Legislating Tyranny / Politics / US Politics
Police state lawlessness reflects official US policy. Numerous examples explain. Congress opposes fundamental freedoms.
It terrorizes most people. So do rogue US administrations. Washington is more ruthless today than ever.
Waging war on humanity is much worse. It's ongoing globally. It's reflected in congressional legislation.
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF - September 2001) approved open-ended permanent wars. They rage out-of-control. They do so at home and abroad.
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Wednesday, January 01, 2014
U.S. Economy 2013 Dense Fog Turns Into Toxic Smog / Politics / US Politics
In mid-January of this year I wrote my annual prediction article for 2013 – Apparitions in the Fog. It is again time to assess my inability to predict the future any better than a dart throwing monkey. As usual, sticking to facts was a mistake in a world fueled by misinformation, propaganda, delusion and wishful thinking. I was far too pessimistic about the near term implications of debt, civic decay and global disorder. Those in power have successfully held off the unavoidable collapse which will be brought about by their ravenous unbridled greed, and blatant disregard for the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution and rights and liberties of the American people. The day to day minutia, pointless drivel of our techno-narcissistic selfie showbiz society, and artificially created issues (gay marriage, Zimmerman-Martin, Baby North West, Duck Dynasty) designed to distract the public from thinking, are worthless trivialities in the broad landscape of human history.
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Monday, December 23, 2013
Ron Paul - Progress Toward Peace But Neo-con Dark Clouds Remain / Politics / US Politics
It is the time of year we feel a sense of joy and optimism. We are preparing for the holidays and looking to spend time with our families and friends. This year as we look back we see several developments that leave us feeling optimistic.
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Monday, December 23, 2013
Twerking Republican Politicians / Politics / US Politics
When Muhammad Ali proclaimed, “I am the greatest,” we knew—and he knew—it would psyche out his opponents, get media attention, and receive a bigger box office. But, in the sport of boxing, Ali probably was the greatest.
When Howard Stern proclaims himself to be the “King of all Media,” he knows—and we know—it’s simply a case of hyperbolic promotion, something some celebrities do to get even more promotion.
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Sunday, December 22, 2013
The Incredible, Shrinking Presidency of Barack Obama / Politics / US Politics
According to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, Barack Obama now ranks among the least popular presidents in the last century. In fact, his approval rating is lower than Bush’s was in his fifth year in office. Obama’s overall approval rating stands at a dismal 43 percent, with a full 55 percent of the public “disapproving of the way he is handling the economy”. The same percentage of people “disapprove of the way he is handling his job as president”. Thus, on the two main issues, leadership and the economy, Obama gets failing grades.
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Hope and Defiance - A Lot of Hope is Dangerous / Politics / US Politics
In the 1st installment of this article – May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favor – The Reaping, I addressed how wealth inequality created by men rigging the system and utilizing media propaganda ultimately leads to rebellion. In Part 2, I will show how hope and defiance can ignite the flame of liberty in the minds of men. Edward Snowden has ignited that flame.
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Monday, December 09, 2013
The Reaping of Wealth, Bread, Circuses & Reality TV / Politics / US Politics
“Human history seems logical in afterthought but a mystery in forethought. In every prior Fourth Turning, the catalyst was foreseeable but the climax was not.” - The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
We are five years into the Crisis that will not resolve itself until sometime in the 2020’s. No one can predict the specific events that will fundamentally change history over the next decade, but the catalysts of debt, civic decay and global disorder were evident sixteen years ago when Strauss and Howe wrote their prophetic generational history. The volcanic eruption occurred in 2008 when the worldwide financial system blew and the molten lava continues to spew forth and flow along the Federal Reserve created channels, protecting the corrupt establishment while incinerating senior citizens, the working middle class and Millennials. Deep within the volcano the pressure is building again as the mood of the country darkens. It will blow again and the economic, social, political and military distress will catalyze into a catastrophic emergency that will tear the fabric of the country asunder. The existing social order will be swept away and replaced by a new paradigm which could be better or far worse.
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Sunday, December 08, 2013
Defeated By The Taliban, Washington Decides To Take On Russia And China / Politics / US Politics
The several days of organized protests in Ukraine are notable for the relative lack of police violence. Unlike in the US, Canada, Thailand, Greece, and Spain, peaceful protesters have not been beaten, tear gassed, water cannoned, and tasered by Ukrainian police. Unlike in Egypt, Palestine, and Bahrain, Ukrainian protesters have not been fired upon with live ammunition. The restraint of the Ukrainian government and police in the face of provocations has been remarkable. Apparently, Ukrainian police have not been militarized by US Homeland Security.
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Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Central Banks and Pentagon Wars - Control Via Interlocking Complicity / Politics / US Politics
The reality is relatively simple even though the appearance is complicated and confusing. What are we talking about?
- Wars that are hugely profitable for a few individuals and businesses
- Unauditable Pentagon accounting
- Government debt that will never be repaid
- Levitation of S&P and bond markets
- Gold price suppression
- So much more
Monday, December 02, 2013
Ron Paul - You Cannot Negotiate With Iran? / Politics / US Politics
You cannot negotiate with Iran. That is what they told us for years. The Iranian leadership is too fanatical, they are not rational actors, they are "not like us." One US official even recently said that deception is part of the Iranian DNA. But just over a week ago negotiations between the five permanent UN Security Council Members plus Germany and the Iranians produced an historic agreement that may be first step toward a new era in US relations with the Middle East.
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Sunday, December 01, 2013
Iran Nuclear Deal is Not a Breakthrough But Prelude to War / Politics / US Politics
Tony Cartalucci writes: “…any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context—both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it.
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Friday, November 29, 2013
The Neocons Want Iranian Blood, Will the Comply? / Politics / US Politics
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: When, after the massacres at Newtown and the Washington Navy Yard, Republicans refused to outlaw the AR-15 rifle or require background checks for gun purchasers, we were told the party had committed suicide by defying 90 percent of the nation.
When Republicans rejected amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, we were told the GOP had just forfeited its future.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Thanksgiving: A National Day of Mourning / Politics / US Politics
Thanksgiving commemorates the successful harvest and the time Pilgrims gathered to give thanks. The Pilgrims shared a feast with their Native American neighbors, who had made possible their survival in the New England wilderness.
Writers and textbook publishers of American history have generally omitted or, if mentioned at all, glossed over historic accounts of genocide and inhumane treatment of American Indian populations.
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Thursday, November 28, 2013
TEDDY ROOSEVELT: US Statism’s Seductive Founder / Politics / US Politics
A recent work sought to identify and rank in a way the few US Presidents over the past century plus whose policies led to greater freedom in the economy. That list did not include, Theodore Roosevelt, TR, the trust-busting lion and hero of San Juan Hill.
To the consternation of many, the work ranked two Democrats, Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman, as possibly the greatest presidential freedom fighters for the economy since 1900. Supporters of several presidents claim other names should have been included, Teddy Roosevelt for one, Ronald Reagan for another and even Bill Clinton.
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
American Denial, Desperation and Despotism / Politics / US Politics
With the death of the American Republic, the headstone sums up the epitaph - stuck on stupid. People celebrate a "Politically Correct" mixed-race president as leader for a society of multiracial special interest groups as the maturing of the country. Very few writers describe the ways diverse and culturally conflicting factions clash with traditional values and tested institutions because any serious discussion, automatically presumes to be racist. Such an adolescent and narrow-minded attitude, surrenders to the forces of anti-intellectualism. It is time to liberate the fabricated guilt and face up to the certainty that our nation is a declared SOS zone.
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Monday, November 25, 2013
Can Karzai Save America from Afghanistan? / Politics / US Politics
After a year of talks over the post-2014 US military presence in Afghanistan, the US administration announced last week that a new agreement had finally been reached. Under the deal worked out with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the US would keep thousands of troops on nine military bases for at least the next ten years.
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Sunday, November 24, 2013
The 1961 JFK Speech that Kicked the American Dream into High Gear / Politics / US Politics
Katherine Smith writes: Our American dream of shopping for useless toxic stuff, an environmental nightmare, went into high gear after JFK was killed in 1963.
Would the planet be at serious risk, according to a massive United Nations Environmental Report, due to “the dangers of climate change, water scarcity, dwindling fish stocks and the pressures on the land and the extinction of species,” had John F. Kennedy not been assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963.
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Tuesday, November 19, 2013
America's New Police State Iron Curtain, Shutting Citzens In and Out / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: An iron curtain is slowly descending around the borders of America. When it falls, some people will be shut in; others will be shut out. It will be up to bureaucrats and agents with guns to decide which one of those people you are.
Changes in border policy are in the wind. On June 27th, 2013, the 1,300-page Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act passed the Senate and proceeded to the House of Representatives. Debate on the Act has focused on the path of citizenship being extended to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in America. This is controversial because Republicans fear that the new Americans, and especially Hispanics, will vote Democrat in upcoming elections. Happily, the bill has stalled in the House.
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Monday, November 18, 2013
America’s Chemical Weapons Hypocrisy, Conspiracy and a Forgotten History / Politics / US Politics
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: “The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” (J.Edgar Hoover,1895-1972.)
Since the fairy tale about weapons of mass destruction that can be launched against Western targets “within forty five minutes” is well past it’s sell by date, the trans-Atlantic hasbara industry has dreamed up a new Grim Reaper for Syria, their latest quarry: chemical weapons.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Economics of ObamaCare / Politics / US Politics
Near the end of Human ActionLudwig von Mises declared that it was the “primary civic duty” to learn the teachings of economics. The public’s growing furor over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — popularly known as “ObamaCare” — beautifully illustrates Mises’s point. No one has any business being shocked — shocked! — thatmillions of Americans will losetheir current health insurance (including the present, irritated, writer), because such an outcome was obvious all along. Furthermore, the hilarious snags with healthcare.gov are merely a sideshow; the true problems with ObamaCare run much deeper than a malfunctioning website.
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
How to Avoid Second Passport Scams and Traps / Politics / US Politics
By Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor, International Man
It's a predictable reaction that a government in need of cash will turn to destructive measures, such as currency creation and increasing taxes and regulations.
Unfortunately, those measures are just the hors d'oeuvres before a 10 course meal.
As they become progressively more desperate, governments throughout history and all around the world have always turned to more destructive policies, such as capital controls, price controls, people controls, official currency devaluations, wealth confiscations, retirement account nationalizations, and more.
Monday, November 11, 2013
The Subprime Nation Final Solution / Politics / US Politics
The MSM did their usual spin job on the consumer credit data released earlier this week. They reported a 5.4% increase in consumer debt outstanding to an ALL-TIME high of $3.051 trillion. In the Orwellian doublethink world we currently inhabit, the consumer taking on more debt is seen as a constructive sign. Consumer debt has grown by 5.8% over the first nine months of 2013, after growing by 6.1% in 2012 and 4.1% in 2011. The storyline being sold by the corporate MSM propaganda machine, serving the establishment, is that consumers' taking on debt is a sure sign of economic recovery. They must be confident about the future and rolling in dough from their new part-time jobs as Pizza Hut delivery men. Plus, they are now eligible for free healthcare, compliments of Obama, once they can log-on.
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Sunday, November 10, 2013
America Rumors of Food Riots, Realities of War / Politics / US Politics
Wendy McElroy writes: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spent $80M to fortify federal buildings in New York apparently in preparation for civil disturbances and possible food riots on November 1st. The DHS plans included armed private guards who would protect IRS and other buildings against attack by fellow Americans.
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Sunday, November 10, 2013
How American Socialism “Works” / Politics / US Politics
Shah Gilani writes: America isn’t a socialist country, but don’t tell our President that, or Congress, or the Fed, or the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks. Because to them, it is.
That’s because socialism works for them. And Hells Bells, it’s hard to knock what works.
If you can’t feel the yoke around your neck, or the bit in your mouth, trust me…you will.
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Friday, November 08, 2013
U.S. Government - The Greatest Threat to Life on Earth / Politics / US Politics
“No legal issue arises when the United States responds to a challenge to its power, position, and prestige.” Dean Acheson , 1962, speaking to the American Society of International Law.
Dean Acheson declared 51 years ago that power, position, and prestige are the ingredients of national security and that national security trumps law. In the United States democracy takes a back seat to “national security,” a prerogative of the executive branch of government.
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Obamacare, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Dysfunctional System Issues / Politics / US Politics
The Affordable Care Act is the single most contentious political action of my lifetime since the Vietnam War. It touches everyone in one way or another, and often in profoundly personal ways. Some see it is a godsend and others as an arrow aimed directly at the heart of the American experiment. Some will experience healthcare that is now available for themselves and their families for the first time, while others will experience the loss of a system that had served them well. The story in the Wall Street Journal this week of the cancer survivor Edie Littlefield Sundby, who lost her doctors and affordable care in the middle of a true life-and-death battle, is poignant. It turns out that not only can she not buy insurance that will cross state lines, she cannot buy insurance in California that will cross county lines!
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Monday, November 04, 2013
Ron Paul - What Was Not Said About Iraq / Politics / US Politics
October was Iraq's deadliest month since April, 2008. In those five and a half years, not only has there been no improvement in Iraq's security situation, but things have gotten much worse. More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq last month, the vast majority of them civilians. Another 1,600 were wounded, as car bombs, shootings, and other attacks continue to maim and murder.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Insurance Companies Profit from Obamacare / Politics / US Politics
No one can reasonably deny that the major Insurance Companies were the driving force behind the writing of the Affordable Care Act legislation. "The health care industry spent nearly $500 million lobbying for health care issues in 2012, and $243 million so far in 2013." Obamacare or Corporate-care: The Writing of the Affordable Care Act, sums up the process.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Obama Lies to Merkel on NSA Spying / Politics / US Politics
He lied claiming otherwise. He’s a serial liar. He’s a moral coward. He’s a war criminal multiple times over. He did what supporters thought impossible.
He exceeds the worst of George Bush. He plans lots more ways to prove it through 2016. Humanity may not survive the ordeal.
On October 27, Deutche Welle (DW) headlined “Media reports suggest Obama knew NSA spied on Merkel.”
Der Spiegel said NSA’s Special Collection Service (SCS) monitored her cell phone conversations since 2002. Obama lied telling Merkel he knew nothing about it.
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Monday, October 28, 2013
Ron Paul - Saudi Arabia Insists that the U.S. Fight its Battles, a Welcome Reset / Politics / US Politics
Last week it was reported that Saudi Arabia decided to make a "major shift" away from its 80 years of close cooperation with the United States. The Saudi leadership is angry that the Obama administration did not attack Syria last month, and that it has not delivered heavy weapons to the Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow the Assad government. Saudi Arabia is heavily invested in the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria, sending money and weapons to the rebels.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
ObamaCare: What If It Were Fire Insurance? / Politics / US Politics
What if ObamaCare were fire insurance? It would be very special. You could buy a policy after a smoke detector in your home started blaring.
When you hear “pre-existing condition,” think “blaring smoke detector.”
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
U.S. Foreign Policy from the Founders' Perspective / Politics / US Politics
Last week I discussed how the Founding Fathers might view the American debt crisis and the government shutdown. This week I thought it would be useful to consider how the founders might view foreign policy. I argued that on domestic policy they had clear principles, but unlike their ideology, those principles were never mechanistic or inflexible. For them, principles dictated that a gentleman pays his debts and does not casually increase his debts, the constitutional provision that debt is sometimes necessary notwithstanding. They feared excessive debt and abhorred nonpayment, but their principles were never completely rigid.
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Friday, October 18, 2013
Temporary U.S. Government Shutdown is Over, But Permanent Closure Would Not be So Bad / Politics / US Politics
By Doug Casey, Chairman
(Interviewed by Louis James, Casey Research)
The government shutdown is over, and many Americans are breathing a sigh of relief. But there's no reason to take a shutdown seriously in the first place, said famous resource speculator and libertarian freethinker Doug Casey in a recent interview—it was just a paid holiday for useless public employees anyway…
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
Obamacare's Creeping Terror on the Middle Class / Politics / US Politics
Garrett Baldwin writes: Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle delivered a stunning message that discourages and demotivates American workers from earning more income and promotes greater government dependency.
It's all thanks to sloppy incentives created by the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The Chronicle reported that Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said last week that workers in California should consider reducing their 2014 income and work hours in order to qualify for Obamacare subsidies.
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny / Politics / US Politics
“All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary.” – Strobe Talbott
How much longer are we going to protest and post online reports, rants, videos and launch campaigns that will hopefully raise awareness on issue after issue, problem after problem, as the situation gets worse? How much longer are we going to just keep crying about the need for change and pleading with puppet politicians in hopes that they will care about anything other than what their top campaign contributors think? At what point are we going to start acting like free and responsible citizens and stop acting like disgruntled servants waiting for our masters to save us and do the right thing?
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown Synopsis And Which Payment Are Due When / Politics / US Politics
Shutdown synopsis - Here's a summary of where things stand:
October 1 - Day 1 of the administration shuts down. The news shows veterans who can't visit the WWII Memorial, and cancer patients who can't advantage treatment trials at the National Institute of Health.
October 2 - House Republicans send a bill to the Senate that finances national parks, and veterans' programs.
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Monday, October 14, 2013
Ron Paul and the Price of Freedom / Politics / US Politics
The Gold Report: Doug, we are at your conference in Tucson, Arizona, the day after former Congressman and presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul gave the keynote speech to a sold-out crowd. How did you two first meet?
Doug Casey: It was about 30 years ago. Ron used to attend my Eris Society—named after the Greek goddess of discord—meetings in Aspen, Colorado. Everyone from Sonny Barger of the Hells Angels motorcycle club to Burt Rutan, inventor of SpaceShipOne, would meet to discuss ideas.
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Sunday, October 13, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown, Debt Default a Dress Rehearsal for Privatization of Federal State System? / Politics / US Politics
The “shutdown” of the US government and the financial climax associated with a deadline date, leading to a possible “debt default” of the federal government is a money making undertaking for Wall Street.
Several overlapping political and economic agendas are unfolding. Is the shutdown –implying the furloughing of tens of thousands of public employees– a dress rehearsal for the eventual privatization of important components of the federal State system?
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Friday, October 11, 2013
My Antidote to the Dirty Obamacare Pill / Politics / US Politics
I wish I never had to write this article, but I cannot put it off any longer. There are life-threatening secrets you need to know today.
In the fall of 2009, my wife Jo and I went to a town hall meeting in Illinois. The guest speaker was a member of the House of Representatives who served on the committee putting together the law now known as Obamacare. The Congressman stood next to a draft of the bill and answered our questions by reading straight from the text. Most of us left terrified, hoping the bill would never pass.
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Thursday, October 10, 2013
Ron Paul - The End of U.S. Dollar Hegemony / Politics / US Politics
By Nick Giambruno, Editor, International Man:
I spent the past weekend in Tucson for the Casey Research 2013 Summit, indeed a memorable and information-packed experience. It was truly a pleasure to meet with everyone who joined us.
Notably, it was extremely encouraging to meet so many intelligent people who had taken concrete steps to internationalize their savings and obtain a second passport—and thus reducing their exposure to whatever happens in their home countries.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
The Roots of the U.S. Government Shutdown / Politics / US Politics
In general, Stratfor deals with U.S. domestic politics only to the extent that it affects international affairs. Certainly, this topic has been argued and analyzed extensively. Nevertheless, the shutdown of the American government is a topic that must be understood from our point of view, because it raises the issue of whether the leading global power is involved in a political crisis so profound that it is both losing its internal cohesion and the capacity to govern. If that were so, it would mean the United States would not be able to act in global affairs, and that in turn would mean that the international system would undergo a profound change. I am not interested in the debate over who is right. I am, however, interested in the question of what caused this shutdown, and ultimately what it tells us about the U.S. capacity to act.
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Monday, October 07, 2013
Is Homeland Security Preparing for the Next Wall Street Collapse? / Politics / US Politics
The government seems to be getting ready for the next crisis. What about you?
Reports are that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup. An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to an op-ed in Forbes, that’s enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over twenty years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets. Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest. The question is, why?
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Monday, October 07, 2013
Effects of U.S. Government Shutdown on Paying Taxes and Economic Reports / Politics / US Politics
Garrett Baldwin writes: Welcome to the decade of the politicization of everything. With the government shutdown in its first week, it is starting to look more and more like this temper tantrum from both sides could lead up to the debt ceiling deadline.
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Monday, October 07, 2013
What Government Shutdown? These Facts Prove That Almost Everything Is Still Running! / Politics / US Politics
Michael Snyder writes: All of this whining and crying about a “government shutdown” is a total joke. You see, there really is very little reason why this “government shutdown” cannot continue indefinitely because almost everything is still running. 63 percent of all federal workers are still working, and 85 percent of all government activities are still being funded during this “shutdown”. Yes, the Obama administration has been making a big show of taking down government websites and blocking off the World War II Memorial, but overall business in Washington D.C. is being conducted pretty much as usual. It turns out that the definition of “essential personnel” has expanded so much over the years that almost everyone is considered “essential” at this point. In fact, this shutdown is such a non-event that even referring to it as a “partial government shutdown” would really be overstating what is actually happening. The following are 36 facts which prove that almost everything is still running during this government shutdown…
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Monday, October 07, 2013
Man Sets Himself on Fire, The Madness of Crumbling Empires / Politics / US Politics
Setting one’s self on fire is a form of the ancient practice of “committing suicide on the head of someone” to blame them for something serious. The modern form of this as a political protest has been world famous since the Buddhist monk’s self-immolation in South Vietnam which helped to galvanize the Buddhist majority against the U.S. and the U.S.-Francophile puppet regime. That single act against the repressors of Buddhists, the majority of people, was a crucial trigger in the national revolt that led to the total defeat of the vast U.S. war machine even thought it cost the Vietnamese many millions of dead, maimed, wounded, MIA’s, and destroyed families and lives. [Gen. Giap, who led that total defeat of the U.S. by a poor peasant guerrilla army died yesterday at 102.
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Saturday, October 05, 2013
Cut the Debt by Ending the Empire - Bring the Legions Home / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: NEW YORK – “Banana Republicans,” sneered the Democrat’s leader, Senator Harry Reid. It’s not certain if Reid was comparing his conservative Republican opponents to monkeys or citizens of a Central American banana republic.
Either way, Reid’s nasty remark captured the bitter animosity surging through the US Congress as the mighty United States faces running out of money on 18 October.
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
The Ministry of Truth Wants to Outlaw Free Speech / Politics / US Politics
Butler Shaffer writes: It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us in trouble. It’s the things we know that ain’t so.- Artemus Ward
I blogged, awhile back, on the comment made by a top federal official who, in responding to Edward Snowden’s Internet release of top-secret NSA documents, said that the government would be able to secure the return of such information. The implication was that the government could order Internet providers to reverse the processes by which such documents were distributed to millions of Internet users. Underlying this claim is the apparent belief that Internet providers function as a kind of storehouse of various kinds of information, to which users apply for access. It is not an exaggeration, in their world, to analogize a provider – such as Google – as a public library, making stored information available to users, and being able to demand its return to the “library.”
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Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Government Shutdown Proves Roads Not Possible Without Government / Politics / US Politics
It is often irritating for those of us who don't believe we need violent institutions (ie. government) to keep hearing the same refrain from non-believers over and over again, "But, what about my roads?"
We always reply, exasperated, that pavement is not impossible to have without theft and the fact that roads existed without government even in the US (as Walter Block wrote in "The Privatization of Roads And Highways"). And, TDV's own Gary Gibson has covered the topic many times including, "If One More Person Asks Me About the Roads...".
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Wednesday, October 02, 2013
U.S. Government - What Will "shut down"? / Politics / US Politics
Democrats and Republicans were unable to intention their contrasts over Obamacare and now the government is closed down.
Republicans in Congress declined to embrace a using bill unless it postponed the Affordable Care Act, the law conveying health protection to poorer Americans, which began to assume Oct. 1. Right away, the new monetary year begins; government authorities won't have the power to use money.
Monday, September 30, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown - A Grand Bargain for Liberty? / Politics / US Politics
As I write this, it appears that the federal government is about to shut down because the House and Senate cannot agree on whether to add language defunding or delaying Obamacare to the "Continuing Resolution". Despite all the hand-wringing heard in DC, a short-term government shut down (which doesn't actually shut down the government) will not cause the country to collapse.
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Saturday, September 28, 2013
Barack Obama - The Blackberry President / Politics / US Politics
TIME MOVES ON
At the height of his short-lived media acclaim and uncritical public support, Obama was happy to show he knew how to use, and liked his Blackberry cellphone. Time has also moved on for Blackberry. Like Nokia it missed the boat for upmarket Internet devices. It was unable to adapt to the surge of new and flashier gimmicks from Samsung and Apple. Blackberry is now a corporate disaster. On its August sales, it lost nearly $24 for every $100 of the dwindling sales it could garner. T-Mobile, the fourth-largest US wireless provider said it will no longer stock Blackberry devices in its shops and will only ship them when people make a written request.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tea Party Capitalism (with Chinese characteristics) / Politics / US Politics
- a dialogue
Bill: Jane, the bills need to be paid. The children can go without. I mean they can eat less - maybe one instead of two meals a day. As far as dentist and doctor visits, they can make do. We can't afford these things any longer. The bills come first! That's my politics; that's my ethics; that's my demand. I'm a right-wing Republican, a Tea Party Republican, and people like me are going to bring this country back to its roots - hard work, accountability and good values. If you don't like it, go live in China!
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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rumors Of Strikes Against Syria Are Seriously Exaggerated / Politics / US Politics
MARK TWAIN'S EXAGGERATED RUMORS OF DEATH
In 1897, Mark Twain was forced to deny he was dead – persistent rumors claimed he was. President Obama's Syria policy, if it can be called that has died many times in recent weeks. Its last known version was a promise from John Kerry that any military strikes would be “unbelievably small”.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Obama's Tipping Point and Implosion, Liar in Chief / Politics / US Politics
With a failed Presidency, Barak Obama is on the verge of becoming a perpetual buffoon in a skit on Saturday Night Live. Even with such public distain, the destructive policies of the rogue government merrily continue. The bipartisan cabal class of careerists operates as if they are permanently immune from public outrage. Up to now, they are correct. The Tea Party was hijacked and went dormant, the bulk of the anti-war opposition is AWOL and the government trolls within the occupied movement are now interning at Goldman Sacks. As for the throngs of Obama cult worshipers, who continue to place their faith in state decency and righteousness, are still on a pilgrimage to cash their loyalty checks. Yet, something has changed, but is it too late?
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Monday, September 16, 2013
Ron Paul - Has The Tide Turned Against the Warmongers? / Politics / US Politics
Will the history books record these past couple of weeks as the point when the tide finally turned against our interventionist foreign policy?
We began September with the Obama Administration on the verge of launching Tomahawk missiles at Syria. The missiles were needed, the administration claimed, to punish the Syrian government for using poison gas on its own people. There were reports that in addition to missiles, the administration was planning airstrikes and possibly even more military action against Syria. The talks of a punishing "shot across the bow" to send a message to the Syrian government also escalated, as some discussed the need to degrade the Syrian military to help change the regime. They refused to rule out a US ground invasion of Syria.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Weakest Economic Recovery on Record Means the Rich Get Richer / Politics / US Politics
Michael Lombardi writes: According to a study by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics, and Oxford University, the income gap in the U.S. economy in 2012 was similar to what it was in 1920s! (Source: Associated Press, September 10, 2013.)
In 2012, the income of the top one percent of earners increased by almost 20%; for the bottom 99%, their income only increased by one percent.
Monday, September 16, 2013
US Baby Killers Denounce Assad Whilst Putin Prospers / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: President Barack Obama foolishly backed himself into a corner during the growing Syrian crisis by issuing fatwas about mythological red lines. When his bluff got called, the silver-tongued president was left twisting in the wind.
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize should be rescinded and given, instead, to Vladimir Putin.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
The New American Militarism - How American's are Seduced by War / Politics / US Politics
"To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within it." -
Blaise Pascal
Bacevich is quite insightful. I should point out that the actual talk itself is about 25 minutes or so. The rest of this video is questions from the audience.
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Friday, September 13, 2013
America’s Last Capitalist - U.S. Presidents / Politics / US Politics
The 20th Century and since is replete with US Presidents who helped advance the steady march of statism the nation and the world so suffers from today, from Teddy Roosevelt all of the way to Barack Obama. Only four of nineteen US Presidents in office since January 1, 1900 can raise any claim to having advanced freedom in economic affairs in large, substantial ways during their term in office.
One of the four, the first in time, has a quite dubious claim.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Kerry Couldn’t Sell a Used Car / Politics / US Politics
After Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that President Bashar al-Assad avoid a war by handing over any chemical weapons his government possesses, Russia quickly seconded the motion, and Assad agreed to it. Just as quickly, aparently panicked by the possible delay or prevention of missile strikes, Kerry’s staff put out this statement:
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Friday, September 06, 2013
The Stockman Doctrine On US Imperialism / Politics / US Politics
NOT JUST THE ECONOMY, STUPID
David Stockman wades in to the attack on what he calls the “American Imperium”. Published by Lewrockwell.com, he claims that if Congress votes against Obama's war plans against Syria, this can “trigger the end of the American Imperium”. What imperium?
One thing is sure. The downsized US “imperium” certainly has imperial-sized debt, and Stockman knows a lot about how it happened – he was there as Ronald Reagan's OMB budget director in 1981-1985. As we also know, previous and past empires always crippled themselves by taking on real debt and fake wealth in the shape of colonies that weren't filled with gold or oil - but the US never had many formal colonies – Puerto Rico and Guam, for example, are not impressive for a would-be empire.
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Thursday, September 05, 2013
Syria and Second Passports / Politics / US Politics
By Nick Giambruno, Editor, International Man
All of us by now have seen the latest sales pitch from the Obama administration for yet another so-called "humanitarian intervention" in the Middle East. It is not hard to see that the case for war is a bunch of rubbish and will likely end in disaster for both Syria and the US.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
US Congress Lines Up Behind Drive for War Against Syria / Politics / US Politics
Andre Damon writes: Leading members of the US Congress have moved quickly to declare their support for President Barack Obama’s proposed resolution enabling the use of force against Syria.
The move to get a congressional authorization is aimed at providing a fig-leaf of legitimacy to a unpopular war that is based on lies. In this way it is similar to the 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force, which became the rationale for sweeping military attacks and domestic repression.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Yes, Obamacare Created Jobs. But Guess Who Got Them... / Politics / US Politics
Garrett Baldwin writes: One of the real Obamacare facts we've shared with you is how the Affordable Care Act will influence private employers to cut hours and jobs across the nation.
There is one group of workers, however, that is still raking in new job opportunities at a stunning rate, thanks to Obamacare.
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Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Obama Decides It's Safer To Buy Congress Than To Go To War Alone / Politics / US Politics
While still claiming dictatorial powers to start a war on his own authority, Obama put his unilateral attack on Syria on hold when he received a letter from more than 160 members of the House of Representatives reminding him that to take the country to war without congressional approval is an impeachable offense and when he saw that no country that could serve as cover for a war crime, not even the puppet British government and the NATO puppet states, would support America’s announced military aggression against Syria.
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Monday, September 02, 2013
The Virus of Imperialism / Politics / US Politics
In his famous 1898 essay, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain,” the great Yale University libertarian scholar William Graham Sumner argued that America had crossed the Rubicon, so to speak, and had become an imperialistic empire. It had become the Spanish empire. But Sumner was only half right. The conquest of Cuba was an imperialistic war, but so were all other American military adventures since the American Revolution. Apparently, even a man as brilliant and astute as Sumner was somewhat befogged by the endless and pervasive drumbeat of war propaganda.
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Monday, September 02, 2013
Ron Paul - Will Congress Endorse Obama's War Plans? Does it Matter? / Politics / US Politics
President Obama announced this weekend that he has decided to use military force against Syria and would seek authorization from Congress when it returned from its August break. Every Member ought to vote against this reckless and immoral use of the US military. But even if every single Member and Senator votes for another war, it will not make this terrible idea any better because some sort of nod is given to the Constitution along the way.
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Saturday, August 31, 2013
Obama - The War Criminal-in-Chief / Politics / US Politics
Obama, pushed by his Israeli and neocon masters, especially his National SecurityAdvisor, Susan Rice, who, in effect, functions as an Israeli agent, crawled far out on the limb, only to have it sawed off by the British Parliament.
In response, the “socialist” president of France, Hollande, who lacks French support forFrance’s participation in a US/Israeli orchestrated military attack on Syria, has crawledback off the limb, saying that, while everything is still on the table, he has to see some evidence first.
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Saturday, August 31, 2013
Remember Waco? U.S. Use of Gas To Kill Civilians / Politics / US Politics
Mike Holmes writes: One point that needs to be made, but rarely if ever mentioned, is that in the supposed rationale for US attack on Syria to avenge/prevent claimed civilian deaths by government gas attacks, the US government itself has used similar weapons openly as recently as the FBI/ATF attack on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco Texas in the spring of 1993.
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Saturday, August 31, 2013
France, America's New French Poodle, Who Used Chemical Weapons in Syria Attack? / Politics / US Politics
Most unexpectedly the British Poodle snapped at its Master's hand. It may have taken a decade of death, destruction and chaos that followed the doggy dossiers and bare faced lies that spewed from the mouths of Tony Bliar and George Bush as to why Iraq should be destroyed, and over 100,000 killed, all in the pursuit of non existant WMD stock piles that were said to target UK cities within 45 minutes from launch to strike. Virtually all Labour MP's and even some Tories were just not able to suffer the shame a second time of lying to the public in pursuit of an imperialist agenda.
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Friday, August 30, 2013
Will Nobel Peace Prizewinner Obama 'Go It Alone' In Attacking Syria ? / Politics / US Politics
CAMERON FIGHTS DEMOCRACY
In a stunning setback for UK Prime Minister Cameron's hopes for a quick nod through vote by Parliament for his government's war plan against Syria, his march to “punitive limited military action”, opening the potential for wider war in the Middle East hit a brick wall. British MPs defeated the government motion by 285 against 272 votes, August 29, as some MP’s shouted ‘resign, resign’. The junior coalition Lib Dem party of Nick Clegg is almost totally against the military adventure redolent of T. E. Lawrence days when the US, France and the UK could play judge and jury in the Middle East, but veteran Lib Dem party grandee and former Kosovo administrator after the 1995 NATO war against Serbia, Paddy Ashdown, Tweeted on August 30: “In 50 years trying to serve my country I have never felt so depressed/ashamed. Britain's answer to the Syrian horrors? None of our business!”
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Warlordism In The Mena – The Slide Towards World War III / Politics / US Politics
NO LONGER A FANTASY
For plenty of commentators like Michael Snyder of the Economic Collapse Blog, August 29, there are so many reasons to believe “punishing Syria” has the potential to spin out of control and spark a large scale international conflict, that we should be amazed TV anchorpeople in the so-called consumer democracies snigger to us about having to wait “just a little longer” for the missile or bombing fun. Before running the endless-brainless publicity or football talk.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
US False Flag - The Liefare Warfare State / Politics / US Politics
In his famous essay, “War is the Health of the State,” Randolph Bourne made an important distinction between country and state. One’s country is “an inescapable group into which we re born.” As such, “there is no more feeling of rivalry with other peoples than there is in our feeling for our family.” Country is “a concept of peace, of tolerance, of living and letting live,” wrote Bourne.
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Monday, August 26, 2013
Ron Paul - Middle of the Road in Healthcare Leads to Socialism / Politics / US Politics
The ever-expanding role of government in healthcare provides an excellent example of Ludwig Von Mises' warning that "The Middle of the Road Leads to Socialism." Beginning in the 1940s, government policies distorted the health care market, causing prices to rise and denying many Americans access to quality care. Congress reacted to the problems caused by their prior interventions with new interventions, such as the HMO Act, ERISA, EMTLA, and various federal entitlement programs. Each new federal intervention not only failed to fix the problems it was supposedly created to solve, it created new problems, leading to calls for even more new federal interventions. This process culminated in 2010, when Congress passed Obamacare.
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Sunday, August 25, 2013
Ron Paul - Private Property Is the Essence of Liberty / Politics / US Politics
This selection is taken from chapter 10 of A Foreign Policy of Freedom by Ron Paul, available in both print and ebook editions at the Mises Store.
Privacy is the essence of liberty. Without it, individual rights cannot exist. Privacy and property are interlocked. If both were protected, little would need to be said about other civil liberties. If one’s home, church or business is one’s castle, and the privacy of one’s person, papers and effects are rigidly protected, all rights desired in a free society will be guaranteed. Diligently protecting the right to privacy and property guarantees religious, journalistic and political experience, as well as a free market economy and sound money. Once a careless attitude emerges with respect to privacy, all other rights are jeopardized.
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Sunday, August 25, 2013
Government Should Not Define What a Reporter is—or Isn’t / Politics / US Politics
Sen. Diane Feinstein and a horde of members of Congress of both parties want to decide who is and who isn’t a reporter. Sen. Feinstein says a “real” reporter is a “salaried agent of a media company.”
She mentions the usual suspects—New York Times, ABC News. She dismisses part-time staff. She dismisses freelancers. She dismisses those who write, often without pay, for the hundreds of alternative publications, and often break news and investigative stories well ahead of the mainstream media. She dismisses anyone who, she says, “have no professional qualifications.”
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Sunday, August 18, 2013
Obama and the Egyptian Massacre / Politics / US Politics
Johannes Stern writes: Wednesday’s massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters by the US-backed Egyptian military junta shatters Washington’s hypocritical claims that its Middle East policy is based on democracy and human rights.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Government / Politics / US Politics
On June 12, 1987, in a speech near the Berlin Wall to commemorate Berlin's 750th anniversary, US President Ronald Reagan famously said to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." The destruction of the wall would serve as a symbol of Gorbachev sincerely trying to increase freedom throughout the Eastern Bloc.
Today, August 13, marks the anniversary of the day the building of the Berlin Wall began. In honor of that sad day I say, "Mr. Obama, tear down this government."
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Thursday, August 08, 2013
Washington Thinks American's Are Stupid Sheeple / Politics / US Politics
There’s the old saying that if the government fears the people, there is liberty, but if the people fear the government there is tyranny. The criminals in Washington not only do not fear us, they do not respect us. Washington looks upon Americans as stupid sheeple.
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Tuesday, August 06, 2013
In Obama's America, the Harder You Work, the Less You Make / Politics / US Politics
Garrett Baldwin writes: The harder we work, the less we make. That seems to be the mantra of the Obama recovery. That is, if we have a job.
In the last four years, real median household income has fallen during both the recession and the recovery. Amazing. It's like still standing in the muck after the ebb tide.
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Tuesday, August 06, 2013
The State And Terror - Bentham, Benthics And The All-Seeing Eye / Politics / US Politics
In a totally childish tantrum due to Putin's humiliating rebuttal of State Dept. attempts to extract Edward Snowden from Russia, it has issued lurid terror warning and closed nearly two dozen embassy and consulate buildings in “terror plagued” Middle Eastern and Arab countries, especially Yemen. Interpol has been wheeled on stage in this naked diversionary tactic, announcing that as many as 150 extremely dangerous prisoners with Al Qaeda links have escaped from prisons “in countries like Iraq and Libya”. When and how they escaped was not communicated. For European holidaymakers there is now the risk of a bearded terrorist being in the next-door-car to you in those traditional holiday 50-kilometre long, 6-lane traffic jams on highways leading to and from Mediterranean tourist venues. The person sitting next to you in those budget airline flights to the same venues could be a terrorist, armed with an explosive toothpaste tube, killer shoes, or whatever. But absolutely not a boxcutter!
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Monday, August 05, 2013
Why Won't They Tell Us the Truth About NSA Spying? / Politics / US Politics
In 2001, the Patriot Act opened the door to US government monitoring of Americans without a warrant. It was unconstitutional, but most in Congress over my strong objection were so determined to do something after the attacks of 9/11 that they did not seem to give it too much thought. Civil liberties groups were concerned, and some of us in Congress warned about giving up our liberties even in the post-9/11 panic. But at the time most Americans did not seem too worried about the intrusion.
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Sunday, August 04, 2013
Detroit Bankruptcy and the Drive Toward Dictatorship / Politics / US Politics
The bankruptcy of Detroit is being widely cited in the media as a model for the use of unelected officials and bankruptcy courts to rip up agreements and impose sweeping cuts on the pensions and health benefits of public employees, not only in Detroit, but in cities across the United States.
The Obama administration has rejected any federal aid to ameliorate the financial crisis of Detroit and counter the effort of state and city officials, fronting for the banks and bondholders, to use bankruptcy to gut workers’ benefits. This makes it clear that the Detroit bankruptcy is part of a broader nationwide policy that is being coordinated by the White House.
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Sunday, August 04, 2013
Washington's Fake Terror Threat / Politics / US Politics
Saturday, August 03, 2013
It will be madness in America soon, Out of control / Politics / US Politics
I bought a copy of USA Today Weekend at the supermarket and wanted to gag. A front-page lead story showing a picture of Edward Snowden's Russian permit was titled: "Welcome, Comrade Snowden" (Is John McCain now writing their headlines?). To read American mainstream news is to collide with an illusory but impenetrable wall of rigid propaganda (rah, rah, America #1; rah, rah, S&P 1700; rah, rah, Washington vs. a world of enemies). In short, the paper's almost one-million readers were encouraged. In so many words, "Don't worry about NSA. Congress has heard the American people and is now moving to reform it. Sleep well tonight, Senator Patrick Leahy is awake."
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Friday, August 02, 2013
How Obamacare Bailouts Work - A Struggling City's Best New Budget Tool / Politics / US Politics
Diane Alter writes: Call it an "Obamacare Bailout" - while millions of Americans look for ways to opt out of Obamacare, broke Detroit is trying to get its residents signed up as soon as possible.
You see, Detroit has grossly over-pledged its benefits, pensions and fully-funded health care plans to thousands of public sector employees for decades, while its tax revenue dwindled.
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Friday, August 02, 2013
Bradley Manning Still Facing a Lifetime With His Kidnappers / Politics / US Politics
Yesterday, Private Bradley Manning was charged and faces "up to" 136 years in a cage for being someone Thomas Jefferson would consider a patriot. Considering the world's oldest person died at 116 years old last month it is quite clearly a life sentence. For myself, at 42, I consider anything more than 10 years a life sentence. Not that I couldn't still have fun at 52... but a lot less fun with a lot more viagra.
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Snowden's Dad Confronts Tyrannical Obama / Politics / US Politics
July 26, 2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: Civil Disobedience, Edward J. Snowden, and the Constitution
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Monday, July 29, 2013
How the U.S. Empire Actually Functions / Politics / US Politics
ROCKWELL: Well, what an honor it is to have as our guest today on the show, John Perkins. I think that if Hollywood weren’t so connected to the Pentagon, maybe there’d be a movie about him, staring George Clooney. But there’s not a movie because of the sorts of books he’s written, especially Confessions of an Economic Hitman that was on The New York Times best-seller list for a year and a half and translated into 30 languages. He’s also author of The Secret History of the American Empire and his newest book, Hoodwinked.
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Sunday, July 28, 2013
Snowden Won't Face Torture in the U.S. Maybe / Politics / US Politics
WATERBOARDING - MAYBE
US Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter released to 'Wall Street Journal' 26 July and dated 23 July, told his addressee, His Excellency the Minister of Justice of Russia that National Security Agency 'leaker' Edward Snowden would not face the death penalty. Holder also promised he would not be tortured—in a new bid by the Obama administration to persuade Russia not to grant Snowden asylum or refugee status.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
The US Empire Prepares for War on China / Politics / US Politics
Amitai Etzioni has raised an important question: “Who authorized preparations for war with China?”http://yalejournal.org/2013/06/12/who-authorized-preparations-for-war-with-china/ Etzioni says that the war plan is not the sort of contingency plan that might be on hand for an improbable event. Etzioni also reports that the Pentagon’s war plan was not ordered by, and has not been reviewed by, US civilian authorities. We are confronted with a neoconized US military out of control endangering Americans and the rest of the world.
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Friday, July 26, 2013
How the US Became the USSR - Role Reversal / Politics / US Politics
I spent the summer of 1961 behind the Iron Curtain. I was part of the US-USSR student exchange program. It was the second year of the program that operated under auspices of the US Department of State. Our return to the West via train through East Germany was interrupted by the construction of the Berlin Wall. We were sent back to Poland. The East German rail tracks were occupied with Soviet troop and tank trains as the Red Army concentrated in East Germany to face down any Western interference.
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Is Obamacare Creating a Part-Time America? / Politics / US Politics
Frank Marchant writes: America has become a part-time nation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that in June part-time employees in the labor force reached an all-time high of 28 million, 3 million more than when the recession began in 2007.
The economy lost 240,000 full-time jobs in June and added 360,000 part-time jobs, the BLS noted. Of the 753,000 jobs created this year, 589,000 were part time.
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The U.S. Is a Failed State: Dissolve the Union / Politics / US Politics
America is a very sick patient with a curable cancer that, if left alone, will cause death. The cancer is the Union or the state known as the U.S.A. More commonly, the Union and the U.S.A. are referred to as the U.S. government, the federal government or simply the government. It is the body established by the Constitution that administers the powers described in that Constitution. Phasing out and dissolving the U.S. government, which can be done by constitutional means, will remove the cancer and restore a degree of health.
Ending the Union will certainly not cure all of America’s ills, because they trace back to wrong and false ideas. These are like bad habits, genetic and environmental factors that cause cancer. If they are not changed, the cancer will come back. The search for non-destructive politics is as never-ending as the search for health and longevity.
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Monday, July 22, 2013
Obama Arrogance, America, like Rome, Will Cross The Most Dangerous Line / Politics / US Politics
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of Rome, had a lot of time to think about what went wrong to cause the fall of the greatest empire in history. Here, for the first time, in this exclusive essay he tells the full story of the fall and gives Obama sage advice to our Chief Investment Strategist, Keith Fitz-Gerald on how to avoid the same fate in the US. Please forward this to interested friends or family members.
My name is Romulus Augustus. I was the last Roman Emperor. Though I only ruled a few years before giving up my throne on 4 September 476, I lived for at least another 25 years according to the tax records. I drew a pension until at least 507 according to Cassiodorus. And, in doing so, had plenty of time to think about what went wrong.
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Friday, July 19, 2013
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman Tragedy - Print the Legend / Politics / US Politics
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman tragedy has become one of those transcendent events that dominates the national discourse and throws light on dimly lit aspects of our society. Obviously, the case touches most closely on issues of race relations, media culture, and the politicization of the justice system. It also reveals how preconceived emotional commitments to a narrative can consistently trump demonstrable facts. These tendencies are also present in the polarized discussion about the persistent weakness of the U.S. economy. In both cases, the majority of observers have chosen to believe an emotionally comfortable narrative while ignoring a far more likely, ambiguous, and unsatisfying reality.
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Friday, July 19, 2013
Washington's New Jobs Strategy: Hire All the Lawyers / Politics / US Politics
Shah Gilani writes: It's the old saw that Washington seems to have down to an art: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
And once again, in an effort to help get the wheels of the US economy turning more briskly, the government has managed to grease the axle and flatten the tires at the same time.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
George Zimmerman, Is This Still America? / Politics / US Politics
Thomas Sowell writes: There are no winners in the trial of George Zimmerman. The only question is whether the damage that has been done has been transient or irreparable.
Legally speaking, Zimmerman has won his freedom. But he can still be sued in a civil case, and he will probably never be safe to live his life in peace, as he could have before this case made him the focus of national attention and orchestrated hate.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
George Zimmerman, Prosecutorial Abuse, and the Sorry Politics of Race / Politics / US Politics
As a somewhat casual observer of George Zimmerman’s show trial, I was surprised that it ended with a “not guilty” verdict, given how the politics of race had so infected the entire saga from beginning to the announcement of the jury’s decision. After all, not only was Zimmerman indicted on charges that assumed he had intentionally pursued Trayvon Martin with personal ill will and animosity with his being in that supposed frame of mind when he shot the teenager, but the very President of the United States already had effectively declared Zimmerman guilty of a racially-motivated murder.
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Monday, July 15, 2013
The Global Gulag - Psychotic Militarization of Law Enforcement / Politics / US Politics
"The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally bars the military from law enforcement activities within the United States. But today, some local and city police forces have rendered the law rather moot. They have tanks - yes, tanks, often from military surplus, for use in hostage situations or drug raids - not to mention the sort of equipment and training one would need to deter a Mumbai-style guerrilla assault."
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Unspoken Truth: Coup d’etat in America / Politics / US Politics
The American people have suffered a coup d’etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere “scrap of paper.”
An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints.
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Saturday, July 13, 2013
U.S. Arms Egypts Military For Crack Down on Democracy / Politics / US Politics
Bill Van Auken writes: The Obama administration has announced it will go ahead with the shipment of four F-16 fighter planes to the Egyptian military, signaling its intention to ignore US laws requiring a cutoff of aid to countries that have suffered military coups.
This gesture of support to the so-called interim government, which is dominated by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and its top commander, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, comes as the ruling junta is intensifying its police-state crackdown against supporters of ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Latest Obama Outrage: More People on Food Stamps Than Working Full Time / Politics / US Politics
Frank Marchant writes: This Obama economy has soup lines as far as the eye can see. It also appears that many could easily be standing in two, three or even four lines simultaneously!
There are 103.4 million people currently enrolled in any one of 15 subsidized federal food assistance programs. The most people in our nation's history.
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Tuesday, July 09, 2013
How the US Uses Democracy as a Weapon / Politics / US Politics
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: Understandably, the Muslim Brotherhood is enraged.
Having won the presidency of Egypt in free and fair elections after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, President Mohammed Morsi has been ousted in a military coup and placed under house arrest. Brotherhood leaders, convicted of no crimes, are being rounded up.
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Tuesday, July 09, 2013
America’s Deep Political Crisis / Politics / US Politics
America is in deep political crisis. Although the signs of it are abundant, the crisis is not widely recognized. When Americans finally do recognize the crisis, that is, if they recognize it and its causes, they will have not only to clean house but tear the house down and rebuild it. They will have to institute a new order. It will be best if it’s the old order of private property.
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Monday, July 08, 2013
Ron Paul - New Egyptian War, Americans Lose Again / Politics / US Politics
Looking at the banners in the massive Egyptian protests last week, we saw many anti-American slogans. Likewise, the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that was deposed by the military last week was very critical of what it saw as US support for the coup. Why is it that all sides in this Egyptian civil war seem so angry with the United States? Because the United States has at one point or another supported each side, which means also that at some point the US has also opposed each side. It is the constant meddling in Egyptian affairs that has turned Egyptians against us, as we would resent foreign intervention in our own affairs.
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Sunday, July 07, 2013
Jobs Report Shows America in Decline / Politics / US Politics
Headlines cheered America's June report. Bloomberg said "US Employers Added More Workers in June Than Forecast."
"Employment roared ahead in June." America's "economy is poised for faster growth as it shakes off the impact of tax increases and budget cuts."
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Friday, July 05, 2013
America: In Memoriam / Politics / US Politics
Christopher Casey writes: “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” — Richard Henry Lee, June 7, 1776
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Thursday, July 04, 2013
America's Independence Day Hypocrisy / Politics / US Politics
Ron Kovic's an anti-war activist. He was born on July 4, 1946. Vietnam combat left him paralyzed. He's wheelchair-bound.
His memoir titled "Born on the Fourth of July" became an Academy Award-winning film. Oliver Stone directed it. Tom Cruise played Kovic.
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Thursday, July 04, 2013
What Americans Used To Know About the Declaration of Independence / Politics / US Politics
"During the weeks following the [1860] election, [Northern newspaper] editors of all parties assumed that secession as a constitutional right was not in question . . . . On the contrary, the southern claim to a right of peaceable withdrawal was countenanced out of reverence for the natural law principle of government by consent of the governed." - ~ Howard Cecil Perkins, editor, Northern Editorials on Secession, p. 10
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Thursday, July 04, 2013
Forbidden Thoughts on the 4th of July / Politics / US Politics
Every nation celebrates its founding day. Ours is the Fourth of July.
Canadians will not be celebrating the Fourth of July. This may have something to do with the fact that in December 1775, the United States of America, which did not actually exist yet, sent two invading armies into Quebec, which was French Canada, in the hope that they could persuade the French to secede. George Washington thought this was a good idea. It made perfect sense politically, because the American Revolution grew out of the taxes imposed by the British government to pay for the debts it had incurred during the French and Indian War, which had led to the surrender of Quebec to the British by the French government in 1763. That war was started by George Washington in 1754 at the Battle of Jumonville Glen.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Snowden, The Man of Conscience Speaks From Moscow / Politics / US Politics
One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Will there be Riots Across America if George Zimmerman is Acquitted? / Politics / US Politics
Fred Reed writes: Watching the Zimmerman trial, I wonder whether we may not be in for big trouble. Racial hostility is much higher in the United States than it is allowed to appear. In the Twittersphere there is much traffic from blacks, saying that if Zimmerman walks, they will kill him themselves, riot, or kill random whites. On many sites around the web, whites of a sort not found on NPR are saying, “Bring it on.” This is not your granny’s recipe for domestic tranquility.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
How the Government Uses Citizenship as a Weapon Against You / Politics / US Politics
"The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon," writes whistleblowing hero Edward Snowden, surprising no one who has been paying enough attention in the past few years.
We've been saying this for years now ourselves. The time is coming when the gentle prodding of the USSA imperial police state will become a naked mugging with overt threats of violence and kidnapping. Capital controls and border controls to keep in both money and people are coming. What's happening to Snowden is just a taste of what's coming to Americans that the US doesn't consider nearly as troublesome.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
The End of American Independence Day / Politics / US Politics
The 4th of July should be a day of historic retrospection. For a proper understanding into the significance of the birth of the nation, start with an examination of the perennial BREAKING ALL THE RULES essay, The Meaning of Independence Day. Then contrast our circumstances and heritage in the article - Independence Day for Whom? Both of these columns are essential. If one forgets from where, how and why our country was created, it is impossible to appreciate the uniqueness of the American Revolution and the meaning of the "shot heard ‘round the world".
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Monday, July 01, 2013
Ron Paul - If You Like The Surveillance State, You'll Love E-Verify / Politics / US Politics
From massive NSA spying, to IRS targeting of the administration's political opponents, to collection and sharing of our health care information as part of Obamacare, it seems every day we learn of another assault on our privacy. Sadly, this week the Senate took another significant, if little-noticed, step toward creating an authoritarian surveillance state. Buried in the immigration bill is a national identification system called mandatory E-Verify.
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Washington Is Driving The World Towards The Final War / Politics / US Politics
“V For Vendetta,” a film that portrays evil in a futuristic England as a proxy for the evil that exists today in America, ends with the defeat of evil. But this is a movie in which the hero has super powers. If you have not seen this film, you should watch it. It might wake you up and give you courage. The excerpts below show that, at least among some filmmakers, the desire for liberty still exists.
Whether the desire for liberty exists in America remains to be seen. If Americans can overcome their gullibility, their lifelong brainwashing, their propensity to believe every lie that “their” government tells them, and if Americans can escape the Matrix in which they live, they can reestablish the morality, justice, peace, freedom, and liberty that “their” government has taken from them. It is not impossible for Americans to again stand with uplifted heads. They only have to recognize that “their” government is the enemy of truth, justice, human rights and life itself.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
US - UK Digital Totalitarianism. What is to be Done? / Politics / US Politics
All past warnings about NSA and GCHQ are now confirmed. It is a crisis of American and British democracies. A political columnist writing about an earlier AP spy scandal warned: "Anyone who speaks to the media about any matter has to assume that their phone numbers and contact information have been or could be made available to the government by secret court order."
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Latest Obama Outrage - First Family's $100 Million Vacation Trip! / Politics / US Politics
Frank Marchant writes: How much do you spend on your summer vacation? American households usually spend about $1,200 per person on summer vacations, according to a recent American Express survey.
Presidents spend more on their vacations than you or I. They have to. Air Force One and security does cost more than loading the Honda and heading to the beach.
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Ron Paul - Talking to the Taliban, What We Have Learned From Afghanistan? / Politics / US Politics
Last week the Taliban opened an office in Doha, Qatar with the US government's blessing. They raised the Taliban flag at the opening ceremony and referred to Afghanistan as the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" -- the name they used when they were in charge before the US attack in 2001.
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Friday, June 21, 2013
NSA Arm of Your Friendly Neighborhood Totalitarian State / Politics / US Politics
It makes no difference if Edward Snowden, who had fled to Hong Kong and revealed that the American government was spying upon American citizens, is a traitor or a hero.
Intelligence agencies from China, Russia, England, Israel, and maybe even Lichtenstein, probably already know that the National Security Administration (NSA) is collecting data of all the phone calls and emails of Americans, and linking them to conversations with foreign nationals. What is unsettling is that everything the NSA is doing is legal. Secret federal courts can issue secret warrants to agencies that maintain secret files.
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Friday, June 21, 2013
Even Sesame Street Can't Ignore America's Economic and Social Collapse / Politics / US Politics
Things have gotten so bad in the US that Sesame Street has its first character, Alex, who has to try to deal with the torment of having his dad in jail. This, believe it or not, is par for the course for Sesame Street.
Sesame Street has helped kids open up about all sorts of serious subjects that are commonplace in the USSA today, from hunger and divorce to their parents going off to commit terrorist acts on the part of the financial and political elite (military deployment). In fact, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent in a rape camp (jail) -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is sent overseas to commit acts of terrorism (military).
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
U.S. Creates Al Qaeda 2.0 in Syria: The Obama Administration is a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” / Politics / US Politics
A major transition in US counter-terrorism doctrine is unfolding.
While Barack Obama, following in the footsteps of George W. Bush, remains firmly committed to waging a “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), his administration is now openly supporting selected rebel units in Syria which are part of the Al Qaeda network.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
When the Scales Fall - U.S. Government is Losing Credibility / Politics / US Politics
That is both an obvious and a useless observation without a sense of the consequences. Maybe, there are none. Maybe, the accumulating doubt concerning Benghazi, IRS intrusions, and NSA confiscation of privacy are wearing thin. If the latter proves correct, how will the people express their disillusion: "Voting with their feet," so to speak? A glaring vulnerability is the gap between falling income and inflation. The government's numbers are propaganda, and seem to have worked. The Fed, Bureau of Labor Statistics, reporters, and the academics who are paid to polish Goebbelism into a scholastic veneer, state that annual price inflation is short of 2%. John Williams, proprietor of Shadow Stats, estimates that if the Bureau of Labor Statistics used the same methodology for calculating the CPI as in 1980, the monthly figure released and disseminated to the public would be 9.4% (as of November, 2012).
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
NSA PRISM, Edward Snowden, Who Are The Real Traitors? / Politics / US Politics
“I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American.” - Edward Snowden
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” - Samuel Adams
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
The Fourth Branch of Government is Killing Our Competitiveness / Politics / US Politics
Greg Madison writes: The United States claims a position as a world leader in many fields. And in a few of those fields, it still is. We like to think of ourselves as leaders in business, the free market, the entrepreneurial spirit. But the country is falling further and further behind in key competitive areas, giving up a lot of ground in the past 10 to 13 years.
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Governments Love Secrecy to Hide their Crimes and Totalitarian Ambitions / Politics / US Politics
"Governments, like married couples, are entitled to their secrets" has written Richard Cohen a few years back. Which secrets? Lines have to be drawn. A government shouldn't cover up crimes under the mantle of secrecy. It shouldn't conceal wrongful seizures and exercises of power. This government and the preceding one under Bush have concealed the fact that they were collecting information wrongfully, namely, information on private communications. The term "national security" cannot reasonably be invoked as an excuse for doing this because it's too vague, and almost anything can be construed as affecting "national security". The quest for catching terrorists cannot be offered as a reason because there are bounds on searches and invasions of privacy that have long standing and that specifically apply to government and policing activities. These governments have gone way beyond these bounds and then compounded their trespasses by attempting to keep them secret.
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