GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Isn’t “price-gouging” satisfying the neediest?

Friday, July 31, 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2015/07/24/feds-open-probe-into-whether-airline-price-increased-in-wake-amtrak-crash/?intcmp=hplnws

AIRLINES
Feds probe possible price-gouging in wake of Amtrak crash
Published July 24, 2015FoxNews.com

*** begin quote ***

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Friday the government has opened a price-gouging investigation involving five airlines that allegedly raised airfares in the Northeast after a deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May disrupted rail service.

The Transportation Department released letters to five airlines — Delta, American, United, Southwest and JetBlue — seeking information on Friday.

“The idea that any business would seek to take advantage of stranded rail passengers in the wake of such a tragic event is unacceptable,” Foxx said.

DOT is exploring whether the price hikes violated federal regulations prohibiting airlines from engaging in unfair and deceptive practices and asked the airlines provide information of pricing and seat availability for a time period before and after the crash.

*** end quote ***

The Gooferment’s “price-gouging” is the free market allocating scarce resources to those who need it the most.

If the price is artificially low versus the demand, then there are shortages, queues, and rationing.

If the price is unacceptably high, then the consumer will seek alternatives — driving for one thing, the bus for another, or delay / change / cancel your trip. Perhaps even carpool. 

The free market will allocate based on price to the “neediest”.

That’s the “fairest” way to handle any allocation of a scarce resource; not with a Gooferment investigation.

And, doesn’t Amtrak belong to the Gooferment!

Argh!

Perhaps they are trying to distract us from their immoral, ineffective, and inefficient “running of a railroad” to the evil private airlines.

Argh squared!

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POLITICAL: HRC and politicians in general don’t know economics

Thursday, July 30, 2015

https://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/Hillary-Clinton-Capital-Gains-Tax-Scheme/2015/07/24/id/658840/

Hillary’s Inconceivably Stupid Capital-Gains Tax Scheme
By Larry Kudlow | Friday, 24 Jul 2015 09:44 PM

*** begin quote ***

So if investment is the problem, what does Hillary Clinton go out and do? She proposes jacking up the tax on investment. It’s almost inconceivably stupid. 

In her latest economic speech, Clinton proposes doubling the capital-gains tax rate on the profit made from asset sales (stocks, bonds, real estate) held a day less than one year up to two years. Right now, if you take a capital gain a day more than one year, you are taxed at a 20 percent rate. Actually, it’s 23.8 percent when you include the healthcare surtax. So under Clinton’s brilliant new play, you’d be taxed at 43.4 percent — the top individual cap-gains rate of 39.6 percent plus the 3.8 percent Obamacare surtax.

That means, instead of keeping 80 cents on the additional dollar of profit, you’d only keep 56.6 cents — a 30-percentage-point reduction in the take-home-pay reward for taking an extra dollar’s investment risk.
This will create a tall barrier to investment — what we don’t need. If you tax something more, you get less of it. 

*** end quote ***

I rant a lot about the corporate income tax. Only real people pay taxes. Corporations are merely fictions that hide the Gooferment’s taxes from sight. 

When you try to figure out how much tax you really pay, look at a can on beans and try to guess what percentage of the price is really hidden taxes. Don’t forget all the incremental taxes along the way from the bean field to the store. Argh!

And, who owns all the capital invested in stocks and bonds — pension funds.

So, the political class is robbing the taxpayers blind. 

Argh!

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GOLDBUG: Gold is on sale!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/24/gold-hits-5-12-year-low-set-for-worst-week-since-october/?intcmp=fnhpfbc

COMMODITIES
Gold Hits 5-1/2 Year Low, Set for Worst Week Since October
Published July 24, 2015
Reuters

*** begin quote ***

Gold has been hurt this year by expectations that the Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade, boosting the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while lifting the dollar.

“In the short term, investor sentiment is what actually moves prices,” Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini said. “It’s now likely that the Fed will hike rates this year, most likely in September … (and) investors are already showing that in their positioning. They’re becoming more bearish on gold.”

*** end quote ***

Gold is on sale!

Do you think the FED is ever going to be able to raise rates until after then next Presidential election? If then! If a D wins, it’s more of the same deficit, debt, and welfare spending. If an R wins, then the economy might have a chance to to stage a real recovery. Only if one of the “crazies” — Rand Paul, Carly Florin, Scott Walker, or maybe Ted Cruz — wins.

One thing is for sure, the Gooferment can’t print any more gold.

And, unless you think the Chinese and Russians are crazy, explain their accumulation.

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INTERESTING: A new word hormesis & “hormegeddon”

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

http://dailyreckoning.com/prepare-for-hormegeddon/

Prepare For Hormegeddon
by Bill Bonner.
Posted Jul 20, 2015 

*** begin quote ***

Finally, in 1943, two scientists published a journal article about this phenomenon and gave it a name: “hormesis.” It is what happens when a small dose of something produces a favorable result, but if you increase the dosage, the results are a disaster.

*** and ***

Hormegeddon is my shorthand way of describing what happens when you have too much of a good thing in a public-policy context.

Economists describe the “too much of a good thing” phenomenon as “declining marginal utility.”

*** end quote ***

Seems like our immoral, ineffective, and inefficient Gooferment has had a “declining marginal utility” for a century.

The question is how do we prune it back? Or hack it back!

Argh!

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MONEY: CAT retail sales indicates global depression

Monday, July 27, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/tyler-durden/forget-recession/

Forget Recession: According To Caterpillar There Is A Full-Blown Global Depression
By Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
July 23, 2015

*** begin quote ***

And the cherry on top: there has now been an unprecedented 31 consecutive months of CAT retail sales declines. This compares to “only” 19 during the near systemic collapse in 2008.

*** end quote ***

SO why is the stock market not going down?

The FED and its Zero Interest Rate.

The politicians and bureaucrats continue to borrow and spend to expand the welfare / warfare state.

Like the old war movie — i forget which — “get small in your hole”.

Bad times are coming.

Sooner or later, some very ugly chickens will come home to roost.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: More Gooferment involvement in “education”

Sunday, July 26, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/gary-north/take-a-federal-nickle-get-the-federal-noose/

S-1177: Common Core Will Be Imposed on Private Schools That Get Fed Funds
By Gary North
The Tea Party Economist
July 20, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Senate bill 1177 is a bipartisan measure to federalize education, all in the name of preserving local control.

It will be imposed on charter schools and all private schools that accept a nickel of aid.

As I said 30 years ago, “If you take the government’s nickel, you also take its noose.”

*** end quote ***

This is the last thing that “We, The Sheeple” should permit.

There is no Constitutional authorization for this centralization.

Where in the enumerated powers is it?

Argh!

“Inasmuch as the Constitution was never signed, nor agreed to, by anybody, as a contract, and therefore never bound anybody, and is now binding upon nobody; and is, moreover, such an one as no people can ever hereafter be expected to consent to, except as they may be forced to do so at the point of the bayonet, it is perhaps of no importance what its true legal meaning, as a contract, is. Nevertheless, the writer thinks it proper to say that, in his opinion, the Constitution is no such instrument as it has generally been assumed to be; but that by false interpretations, and naked usurpations, the government has been made in practice a very widely, and almost wholly, different thing from what the Constitution itself purports to authorize. He has heretofore written much, and could write much more, to prove that such is the truth. But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” Lysander Spooner (1808-1887), No Treason (1870) http://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm#no.6 

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VETERANS: Did Trump / MCCain dustup unveil some hidden history?

Saturday, July 25, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/sen-tokyo-rose-r-az/

John McCain: When “Tokyo Rose” Ran for President
By Ron Unz
The Unz Review
July 20, 2015 

*** begin quote ***

One factual detail, routinely emphasized by his supporters, is his repeated claim that except for signing a single written statement very early in his captivity and also answering some questions by a visiting French newsman, he had staunchly refused any hint of collaboration with his captors, despite torture, solitary confinement, endless threats and beatings, and offers of rewards. Perhaps. But that original Counterpuncharticle provided the link to the purported text of one of McCain’s pro-Hanoi propaganda broadcasts as summarized in a 1969 UPI wire service story, and I have confirmed its authenticity by locating the resulting article that ran in Stars & Stripes at the same time. So if crucial portions of McCain’s account of his imprisonment are seemingly revealed to be self-serving fiction, how much of the rest can we believe? If his pro-Communist propaganda broadcasts were so notable that they even reached the news pages of one of America’s leading military publications, it seems quite plausible that they were as numerous, substantial, and frequent as his critics allege

When I later discussed these troubling matters with an eminent political scientist who has something of a military background, he emphasized that McCain’s history can only be understood in the context of his father, a top-ranking admiral who then served as commander of all American forces in the Pacific Theater, including our troops in Vietnam. Indeed, the alleged headline of the UPI wire story had been “PW [Prisoner of War] Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral,” highlighting that connection. Obviously, for reasons both of family loyalty and personal standing it would have been imperative for John McCain’s father and namesake to hush up the terrible scandal of having had his son serve as a leading collaborator and Communist propagandist during the war and his exalted rank gave him the power to do so. Furthermore, just a few years earlier the elder McCain had himself performed an extremely valuable service for America’s political elites, organizing the official board of inquiry that whitewashed the potentially devastating “Liberty Incident,” with its hundreds of dead and wounded American servicemen, so he certainly had some powerful political chits he could call in.

Placed in this context, John McCain’s tales of torture make perfect sense. If he had indeed spent almost the entire war eagerly broadcasting Communist propaganda in exchange for favored treatment, there would have been stories about this circulating in private, and fears that these tales might eventually reach the newspaper headlines, perhaps backed by the hard evidence of audio and video tapes. An effective strategy for preempting this danger would be to concoct lurid tales of personal suffering and then promote them in the media, quickly establishing McCain as the highest profile victim of torture among America’s returned POWs, an effort rendered credible by the fact that many American POWs had indeed suffered torture.

*** end quote ***

Has “history” been “air brushed” in McCain’s favor?

Perhaps the exchange with Trump will pull down the “facade”!

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MONEY: Pension in your future — maybe, maybe not!

Friday, July 24, 2015

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/day-of-reckoning-for-american-pensions-is-fast-approaching_072015

Day of Reckoning for American Pensions Is Fast Approaching
Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple
July 18th, 2015

*** begin quote ***

For decades, local and state governments in the United States have made promises to their employees that they cannot keep. They guaranteed a certain level of income to retirees at a time when America was its most prosperous, and when most people didn’t live as long as they do now. Those lucrative pensions they promised are starting to catch up to them in a big way.

Earlier this week, Moody’s cut Chicago’s credit rating to “junk,” largely due to their $20 billion pension shortfall, and they put the City of Houston on notice. Many of the major pension funds use the stock market to bolster their savings, but despite record profits on Wall Street, it doesn’t seem like any of them reached their revenue goals. California’s Public Employees Retirement System only reached a third of the annual revenue they projected, and the state’s teacher fund failed to reach their goal. Overall, Moody’s found that the 25 largest public pension funds in the US have a $2 trillion budget shortfall.

*** end quote ***

So what will happen?

I’d look at Greece and, closer to home, the Delta Pilot’s pensions.

The Federal “Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation” does not insure plans offered by federal, state, or local governments.

So, I’d expect a severe “haircut”. Pensions, if we use the PBGC limits, would be reduced to about 57K per year.

I can imagine the riots when it happens, but happen it will. 

If I was planning on a pension for my golden years, then I meet with a fee-based register financial adviser to revise your plans. 

Argh!

Hard times ahead.

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RANT: Video record all suspect interrogations

Thursday, July 23, 2015

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/07/17/judge-kozinski-on-reforms-that-can-help-prevent-prosecutorial-misconduct/

The Volokh Conspiracy
Judge Kozinski on reforms that can help prevent prosecutorial misconduct
By Eugene Volokh July 17

*** begin quote ***

4. Video record all suspect interrogations. The surprising frequency of false confessions should make us deeply skeptical of any interrogation we cannot view from beginning to end. Suspects are frequently isolated and pressured in obvious and subtle ways, and when the process ends we often have very different accounts of what happened inside the interrogation room. In those circumstances, whom are we to believe? Most of the time, the judge and juries believe the police.

There may have been a time when we had to rely on such second-hand reports, but technology has now made this unnecessary: Video recording equipment is dirt cheap, and storage space for the resulting files is endless. No court should ever admit a confession unless the prosecution presents a video of the entire interrogation process from beginning to end. [Footnote: This practice has been adopted in England, Ireland and Australia, where the general rule is that all interrogations — and not just confessions — must be recorded on audio or video. However, Australia is the only country that explicitly provides that the consequence for failing to record is inadmissibility of the contents of the interrogation. In addition, a number of states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Minnesota, Montana and New Jersey, require all interrogations to be recorded and consider compliance with that requirement a factor in determining whether a statement made in an interrogation is admissible.]

It appears that change is underway. Just last year, the Justice Department reversed its century-old prohibition against recording interrogations and adopted a policy “establish[ing] a presumption that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the United States Marshals Service (USMS) will electronically record statements made by individuals in their custody.”

[Footnote moved: In fact, why don’t police officers wear body cameras at all times? It would protect the suspect and the police officer. See Steve Tuttle, Cambridge University Study Shows On-Officer Video Reduces Use-of-Force Incidents by 59 percent, TASER Int’l (Apr. 8, 2013) (the use of “officer worn cameras reduced the rate of use-of-force incidents by 59 percent” and “utilization of cameras led to an 87.5 percent reduction in complaints” by citizens against police officers); see also U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned (2014).]

*** end quote ***

If I ever get on a jury — which is so very unlikely when they ask you what bumper stickers you have on your car —then I would n’t believe anything a Gooferment employee says. 

Show me the victim and the video tape, then I’ll convict.

Otherwise, you have an uphill trek to convince me.

Whatever happened to the ethos that better a 100 guilty men go free than one innocent man got to jail?

Argh!

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POLITICAL: “extrajudicial comments about a matter pending before the court”

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/letter-kagan-ginsburg-acted-unethically-and-unlawfully/

WND EXCLUSIVE
LETTER: KAGAN, GINSBURG ACTED ‘UNETHICALLY AND UNLAWFULLY’
Constitutional experts call for review of Supremes’ marriage ruling
Published: 2 hours ago

*** begin quote ***
 
The motion said the “extrajudicial comments about a matter pending before the court violate Canon 3A(6) of the Code of Conduct for United States judges: ‘A judge should not make public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court.’”
 
The controversy resurfaced later, because even after being told of the appearance of a conflict of interest, Ginsburg again officiated at a same-sex wedding, as the New York Times reported.
 
The paper said that with “a sly look and special emphasis on the word ‘Constitution,’ Justice Ginsburg said that she was pronouncing the two men married by the powers vested in her by the Constitution of the United States.”
 
*** end quote ***
 
Have to admit that when SCOTUS decided to hear this matter that I thought three of the Justices were biased based on their previous statements and action — Stevens, Kagan, and Ginsburg.
 
Unfortunately, nothing seems to matter but the “Secular Progressive” agenda.
 
Everything gets swept away or ignored before it.
 
Anyone who expects “justice” in a Gooferment “court” will be sadly disappointed. 
 
I gave up on the Court after the Kelo decision.
 
Argh!
 
Hence my belief that “secession” is the only way to get back to a “libertarian” somewhat Constitutional Gooferment.
 
No man or group of men—including any group of men calling themselves “the government”—is morally entitled to initiate (that is, to start) the use of physical force, the threat of force, or any substitute for force (such as fraud) against any other man or group of men. “The Market for Liberty” Linda & Morris Tannehill (1970)
 
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RANT: Linking artificial sweeteners to bad results

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/is-diet-soda-bad-for-you/

Is Drinking Diet Soda Really Bad for Your Health?
The answer may surprise you
By Barbara Minton
Natural Society
July 18, 2015

*** begin quote ***

So why does this happen? To put it simply: artificial sweeteners. Zero-calorie sweeteners make drinks up to 600 times more sweet than regular sugar, setting the bar for satiation at a much higher level. Another consideration is that fake sugars can change the friendly bacteria living in the gut in ways that would increase susceptibility to the insulin resistance and glucose intolerance that precedes a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.

Women drinking two or more diet sodas a day experienced a 30% decline in their kidney function over the course of only a decade, says another study. Those researchers found that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose were to blame for the rapid degeneration of kidney filtration rates.

*** and ***

Renown Dr. Morando Soffritti recently confirmed what other scientists had observed as much as 30 years ago, documenting that consuming aspartame leads to a host of illness and disease that includes malignant tumors, lymphoma, leukemia, and premature death.

*** end quote ***

If I’d know this 30 years ago when it was a proven risk, then maybe I could have gotten my wife to stop drinking it.

Leukemia, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other side effects!

Someone should be hung.

Anyone care to tell me that the FDA is there to protect us?

Argh!

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TINFOILHAT: Russian report on MH17

Monday, July 20, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/russia-today/did-an-israeli-python-missile-destroy-mh-17/

Israeli-Made Air-to-Air Missile May have Downed MH17
 By Russia Today RT.com
July 17, 2015

*** begin quote ***

A report on Malaysian Airlines MH17 air disaster in Ukraine last year by a group of old-hand aviation security experts maintains that the Boeing might have been downed by an Israeli Python air-to-air missile.

The report was leaked via the private LiveJournal account of Albert Naryshkin (aka albert_lex) late on Tuesday and has already been widely discussed by social media communities in Russia.

The authors of the investigative report have calculated the possible detonation initiation point of the missile that hit the passenger aircraft and approximate number and weight of strike elements, which in turn designated the type and presumed manufacturer of the weapon.

*** end quote ***

Interesting read. 

The source is suspect.

Any more than if the US Gooferment produced a report.

Everyone has a vested interest.

I’d just like “the truth”.

There has to be a special circle of hell for those who shoot down civilian aircraft. A rare but too common occurrence.

Argh!

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RANT: Today I saw up close and personal the results of America’s “drug policy”

Sunday, July 19, 2015

2015-Jul-19

Today, a Mom, could have been any troubled young person’s Mom, unplug her child from life support.

The result of a drug overdose.

It wasn’t the first time, or the first warning signal, or the only time, but this was the last time.

When will “We, The Sheeple” wise up?

Just like during (alcohol) “Prohibition”, people were blinded, sickened, and killed by “moonshine”.

Making a prohibited substance “legal” MEANS clean known quantity of drugs.

It ALSO makes them so “less cool”.

Portugal demonstrates the way from criminalizing a basic human failing and turning it into a “medical” issue.

Unfortunately, the Drug Dealers, the “police”, and the politicians are all incentivized to keep the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” going regardless of the collateral damage — killing the youth, maiming those that survive, and scaring some with criminal records that they can never “outgrow” — allowing a flourishing “drug culture”, made “kool” by music, celebrities, and pop culture — and destroying our civil liberties in the process.

Now that I have time on my hands, I will never accept Drug Prohibition as a rational policy.

I hope that anyone who reads this NEVER votes for any politician who doesn’t promise on Day One of his term to eliminate the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”! Maybe one politician can’t do it, but they could have the courage of Doctor Ron Paul, aka Doctor No, who never voted other than his conscience.

And, I mean this at every level of the Gooferment. I don’t care if you’re running for dog catcher; you have to tell me how you are going to end this national / global insanity.

I’ve always felt this way since the 60’s, but now in my old age, I see its futility and stupidity.

Requiescat In Pacem, young Anthony. 

And I hope your Mom finds peace.

Dona Nobis Pacem

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RANT: Lauren Hill snubbed

Sunday, July 19, 2015

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2015/07/16/outrage-over-espn-giving-bruce-jenner-courage-award-over-lauren-hill/

OUTRAGE OVER ESPN GIVING BRUCE JENNER ‘COURAGE’ AWARD OVER LAUREN HILL
by WILLIAM BIGELOW
16 Jul 2015 

*** begin quote ***

The Internet sears with outrage over ESPN’s bestowal of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on the Athlete Formerly Known as Bruce Jenner rather than giving it to Lauren Hill, the utterly courageous 19-year-old woman who battled inoperable brain cancer while playing basketball for Mount St. Joseph’s.

Before she died in April, Hill had achieved a dream of her own, scoring the first and last basket when Mount St. Joseph’s defeated Hiram College 66-55 on November 2014. The courageous young woman, knowing she wouldn’t survive, decided to use her notoriety to raise money for cancer research; by last November, she had raised $1 million for DIPC Cancer Research.

*** and ***

The Los Angeles Times reported that a possible reason for the honoring of Jenner derived from a deal between ABC and Jenner. ABC televised the ESPYs and Jenner had granted an exclusive interview to ABC’s Diane Sawyer in April regarding the gender transition Jenner was undergoing. The interview grabbed huge ratings.

*** end quote ***

This is a disgrace, and why TV is dying.

I mean no ill will to anyone.

“Bruce” Jenner is working through his issues. And, I really feel sorry for his troubles.

That being said, ESPN / ABC / DISNEY has disgraced themselves. I used to think a lot of Disney and ESPN. ABC not at all. 

This demonstrates that this entity is all about “political correctness” and money.

So, I’ve put ESPN on my personal “ESAD” (“eat <synonym for excrement> and die”) list.

True; they probably won’t notice, but I will. 

I used to like to watch “sports” and PTI was particularly “fun”. Not any more.

Maybe if everyone turns the ESPN / ABC / DISNEY products off, then they will get the message.

Argh!

(I used to like the view before Rosie became the wicked witch of the west. And there was some balance on the politics. Just how out of touch it’s become is evidence by Whoopie being taken to the management woodshed to stop defending Cosby. It’s all about PC and $.)

Sadly, I’ve realize that it IS the “vast wasteland”.

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OUTRAGE OVER ESPN GIVING BRUCE JENNER ‘COURAGE’ AWARD OVER LAUREN HILL

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GOVERNACIDE: The death penalty — immoral and un-Constitutional?

Saturday, July 18, 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/15/missouri-executes-man-for-2001-killing-1-year-old-woman/?intcmp=latestnews

HOMICIDE
Missouri executes man for 2001 killing of 19-year-old woman
Published July 15, 2015
Associated Press

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These cases are very hard for me as pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian.

Now, I’m not going to argue the merits of the case, they seem pretty clear.

I will argue that the Gooferment has no authority to kill its “citizens”, “residents”, or anyone baring a “declaration of war”. At best, it can issue a “letter of marque and reprisal” (aka a get out of jail free card).

So that’s the conundrum.

The French had Devil’s Island. Surely, the USA could craft the same.

If a convict is so dangerous that the guard’s lives would be in danger (i.e., a Hannibal Lecter type), then I guess the guard’s right to life trumps the prisoner’s.

Even as horrific as this person’s crime was, I still don’t believe in the death penalty.

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VETERANS: 90-year-old WWII Navy vet evicted

Friday, July 17, 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/13/0-year-old-wwii-veteran-evicted-from-home/?intcmp=latestnews

MILITARY
90-year-old WWII veteran evicted from home
Published July 13, 2015

*** begin quote ***

A 90-year-old WWII Navy veteran has been evicted from the place he’s called home for the last 60 years in Buffalo, N.Y.

*** and ***

In a statement, the bank stressed its offers to help Hodges.

“We’ve worked on this case for more than four years, involved local not-for-profit agencies and even worked with private citizens who were willing to arrange for him to stay in the house for free,” said Zabel. “However, all offers of assistance were refused.”

*** end quote ***

Sounds like his daughter needs psych help.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: The death panels are back?

Thursday, July 16, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/bill-sardi/when-your-doctor-is-paid-to-tell-you-to-die/

Will Your Doctor Include Nutritional Therapy In End-Of-Life Discussions?
Medicare To Incentivize Death By Paying Doctors For End-Of-Life Talks
By Bill Sardi
July 13, 2015

*** begin quote ***

End-of-life consultations

Will your physician be recommending vitamin C, vitamin D, fish oil or vitamin B1 to your loved ones with hopeless terminal diseases?  I sincerely doubt they will.   Doctors say nutritional therapy is unproven, but it is certainly not disproven. 

Even if these nutritional therapies are of marginal benefit, they are non-toxic and inexpensive.  Even if just palliative (relieving pain or alleviating other discomfort) they would serve Medicare patients better than expensive toxic therapies.

Why is conventional medicine so reticent to conduct more convincing larger studies that employ nutritional therapy especially among terminal patients who have little or no hope? 

You can see from the evidence presented here, by not putting nutritional science into practice they are already culling the population and reducing Medicare costs by neglectful attrition.

*** end quote ***

The joke at the VA hospitals among old vets is that their doc is trying to kill them.

The joke at the Indian (Gooferment) hospital system is not to get sick in the last half of the year when they run out of funds.

Sarah Palin was excoriated for mentioning “death panels”.

But now the system is broke (by any measure — debt, deficit, or dishonest money — and they have to reach into their bag of tricks which only contains one thing — kill the old and sick.

Argh!

How dumb are “We, The Sheeple”?

Very.

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POLITICAL: Modern day zombies

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/bill-bonner/dont-feed-the-zombies/

Don’t Feed the Zombies…
By Bill Bonner
Bonner & Partners
July 11, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Simpleminded Narratives

But these headline reports give you only the public stories –simpleminded narratives that even voters can understand.

The hidden story – and the real story – is that these are all clashes, battles, and skirmishes in the Great Zombie War.

On the one side: honest workers, businesses, entrepreneurs, and households.

On the other: fixers, meddlers, thieves, layabouts, and criminals.

Is it really that easy to understand?

Probably not. But it helps us put things in perspective.

Take the proposal for a higher minimum wage. The Financial Times (Britain’s equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) is usually wrong about everything. But it is right today: “Politicians cannot ‘magic up’ a national pay boost.”

From the dawn of time until the moment you read this, politicians have never added one single cent to the wealth of the world.

They can move it around. They can suppress it. They can steal it and destroy it. But if you could add wealth by legislation, they would have gotten the hang of it long ago.

*** end quote ***

I always use the taxonomy — makers versus takers.

This introduces a new distinction to it — makers, takers, and politicians.

The “politicians” enable the “takers” to take and they get power by enabling their behavior.

How do the “makers” ever win?

It’s like having a parasite on a host. In some cases, like this one, eventually the parasites will kill the host.

I think the “makers” have to engage in peaceful non-violent non-cooperation. Oppose EVERY extension of political power over “We, The Sheeple”. REGARDLESS of how beneficial it sounds.

I’ll use the example of Obama-SCOTUS-care. It was not about “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, but something else! Control.

FDR’s WW2 Wage and Price Controls screwed up the “health insurance” marketplace by tying one’s health insurance to your employment. This was done with the Gooferment’s perverse tax code.

Your life insurance, car insurance, pet insurance has nothing to do with your emplyment. Hence it’s cheap and easy and competitive marketplace. 

Why is health insurance any different?

Because the Gooferment want to control the Sheeple.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: FBI reports are often admitted as evidence

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/07/08/fbis-amazing-trick-to-avoid-accountability/

JULY 8, 2015 | MATT CONNOLLY
FBI’S AMAZING TRICK TO AVOID ACCOUNTABILITY

Though FBI reports are often admitted as evidence, they are sometimes so unreliable that even a federal judge once refused to be interviewed unless he could review the report first. 

Matt Connolly is a former Deputy District Attorney of Norfolk County, Massachusetts

*** begin quote ***

How credible are the reports of interviews filed by FBI agents working a case? In fact, such reports are known to be so unreliable that in one case, a federal judge refused to be interviewed by agents unless he was allowed to review their report and make corrections.

*** and ***

The FBI’s process for handling 302s is hardly an ideal one for accurate recording and transmittal of what was said during an interview.

The process is thus: two FBI agents ask questions and listen to the answers—without tape recording or obtaining a certified transcript. Instead, they return to their office and, based on their recollection and any notes they may have taken during the interview, write up a summary of what transpired. Summaries are, in most cases, written hours later, sometimes even the following day.

*** and ***

It would be easy to remedy this ancient system of conducting interviews that has existed since J. Edgar Hoover became FBI director in 1924. Why not establish a rule that all interviews be electronically recorded? In this high-tech age it’s hard to conceive of valid arguments against mandatory electronic recording, except in instances where circumstances make it impracticable. Other than such exceptions, the most trustworthy evidence—the person’s voice—would be preserved.

The FBI did recognize the pressure to change it in 2006. Its reasons are specious, boiling down to it likes the way things are now done so why change? It also states there are no federal laws requiring it to record the conversations which allows it to refuse to do it.

The issue is straight forward: do we want the best evidence—a record of the words spoken between an FBI agent and another person—or would we rather continue with the evidence the FBI agent looking to solve a case figured she heard and decides to write down. It is time that Congress acts to require federal agents to do the same thing when they interview witnesses and suspects as they do when listening to intercepted communications… which is to record them.

*** end quote ***

Consequently, NEVER make any statement to any bureaucrat without making your own recording.

If you can’t, then just repeatedly assert your Fifth Amendment right.

Argh!

I remember a story back when a lawyer would not let his Client make any statement to the FBI that he wasn’t recording. Hence that interview never took place.

Trust no one in the criminal gang that calls itself “the State”!

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POLITICAL: Just say no to the Gooferment

Monday, July 13, 2015

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2015/07/09/poll-majority-of-americans-support-states-opting-out-of-federal-programs/

Poll: Majority of Americans Support States Opting Out of Federal Programs

*** begin quote ***

A recent Rasmussen poll indicates a growing number of Americans agree with James Madison and support state refusal to cooperate with the federal government.

The first key finding was that a majority of likely voters in the U.S. believe states should have the right to opt out of federal programs.

The poll indicates that 54 percent believe states should ignore federal programs they don’t agree with. The number jumps if the program includes unfunded mandates. A full 61 percent of likely voters think states should have the right to opt out of federally mandated programs if the feds don’t help pay for them.

*** and ***

In other words, even though the Court has found Obamacare “constitutional,” states can still opt out and refuse to implement or participate in its operation.

Madison established this principle before the Constitution was even ratified. Writing in Federalist #46, the “Father of the Constitution” addressed an important question: how do Americans keep a limited federal government from acting outside of its delegate powers?

Madison wrote that the states hold the key to checking federal power through a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union.” Additionally, he wrote:

“Should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand.”

*** and ***

In fact, as Madison brilliantly argues in Federalist #46, the system was set up that way. The founding generation never intended to establish a monopoly government centered along the banks of the Potomac. Without the ability of states to act against unconstitutional, or even constitutional, yet unpopular acts, the federal government becomes an entity with unlimited power.

When states opt out or refuse to participate, they create effective impediments and obstructions to federal powers

*** end quote ***

So, one must work from the bottom up.

Oppose Federal actions locally.

Non-violent non-cooperation.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Kate Steinle Collateral Damage

Sunday, July 12, 2015

https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/bill-oreilly-murdered-woman-illegal/2015/07/07/id/653924/

O’Reilly: Kate Steinle ‘Collateral Damage to Insane Far-Left Politics’
By Greg Richter   |   Tuesday, 07 Jul 2015 10:10 PM
   
*** begin quote ***

Katherine Steinle, the 32-year-old woman shot to death in San Francisco allegedly by an illegal immigrant, was “collateral damage to the insane far-left politics that have long corrupted the City by the Bay,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Tuesday.

*** end quote ***

Absolutely correct.

When will the mundanes aka sheeple aka low information voters wake up?

If ever.

Like MSNBC Chis O’Donnell and Rudy Giuliani recently agreed, the R’s want cheap labor and the D wan’t the votes.

So nothing will ever change, unless people get really mad.

Forget the TV and the internet, physically confront politicians, bureaucrats, and candidate demanding action.

  • Close the borders
  • Terminate visa programs with countries that send us or refuse to take back their criminals.
  • Tighten the immigration standards.
  • Cut welfare for corporations and “takers”. (Charity should be done by people who care.) 
  • Get rid of incumbent politicians.

And it better get done now!

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POLITICAL: How did Gooferment Skrules work out for Christians?

Saturday, July 11, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/bionic-mosquito/will-american-christians-resist-the-state/

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth
By Bionic Mosquito
July 8, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Dreher is right – the sky isn’t falling; it fell, long ago. Nothing has shifted tectonically with this decision.

It was American Christians that led the charge to public funding of education. Millions of American Christians continue to send their children to public schools today. The state will educate your children – how did that work out?

It is American Christians who demand that their Christian private schools meet all standards of government curriculum.

American Christians support the military and wars; the killing of countless millions of non-combatants – people who never presented a threat – does not cause a flinch. On every holiday, they turn their house of worship into a house of warship.

American Christians support the brutality of the State of Israel.

American Christians support torture.

American Christians leave benevolent good works to the state.

American Christians support the drug wars, turning individuals who – at worst – have an unhealthy habit or addiction into hardened criminals.

American Christians look to salvation by the state:

Voting Republican and other failed culture war strategies are not going to save us now.

*** end quote ***

Not so good.

I often relate the story of co-worker and schools:

He was of modest means with three children. He couldn’t “afford” to send them to private or Catholic school. So he had to send them to Gooferment Skrules where they learned “stuff” that was at direct odds to his religious beliefs. So he was taxed: for a “service” he really couldn’t afford, for a “service” he really didn’t want, and a “service” that contravened his moral beliefs that he wanted pass on to his children.

That’s some “freedom of religion”.

The socialists have capture the country by educational propaganda.

And Christians led that change.

Stupidity!

Now it’s so deeply ingrained that no one can conceive of freedom.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Streamline permit process means less bureaucrats needed?

Friday, July 10, 2015

http://www.economics21.org/commentary/energy-advantage-keystone-natural-gas-oil-07-09-15

Eleven Reforms to Extend America’s Energy Advantage
Oren Cass | 07/08/2015 

*** begin quote ***

Now may seem an odd time to emphasize the importance of increasing U.S. oil and gas production. Domestic output has reached an all-time high, prices have plummeted, and drilling activity is slowing in response. Job cuts in the industry are approaching 100,000. Headlines announce that the boom has already gone bust.

Yet failing to press America’s current energy advantage would be an enormous mistake. Demand forecasts indicate that any oil and gas glut is temporary. Further, U.S. energy policy, still based on an assumption of resource scarcity, is ill equipped to manage the new abundance. Indeed, America’s private sector has driven an oil and gas revolution in the face of an ambivalent federal policy.

A new report released today presents 11 reforms to help craft a smarter U.S. energy policy. Reforms 1-5 would amplify the boom, by enacting regulatory reforms to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. energy markets. Reforms 6-11 would extend the boom, by opening federal land and waters to energy development to replicate the extraordinary growth of tight oil.

*** and ***

4. Streamline permitting for natural-gas and crude oil export terminals. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has specifically cited the “number of permits and reviews required by federal and state law” as a cause of delays. Designate these natural-gas and crude oil export terminals in the public interest, without a need for case-by-case review, and enact a single approval process with clear timelines.

5. Exempt new and expanded natural-gas plants, new and expanded refineries, and new drilling sites and export terminals from the Clean Air Act’s and Clean Water Act’s new-source requirement. These heightened standards discourage refineries from retooling or expanding to accommodate new volumes and types of crude, weakening America’s energy advantage. Instead, existing standards should be applied to new energy projects.

*** end quote ***

Like that is ever going to happen.

The Keystone pipeline was entangled in a permitting process that made no sense to me as a Business Process engineer. Unless it was designed to slow, confuse, and frustrate.

How many bureaucrats does it take to say “hell, no”.

Argh!

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TINFOILHAT: Is there gold in Fort Knox?

Friday, July 10, 2015

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/former-us-mint-director-clueless-on-gold-in-fort-knox/

BULLIONSTAR BLOGS
Koos Jansen
Posted on 1 Jul 2015 by Koos Jansen
Former US Mint Director Clueless On Gold In Fort Knox
The Curious Case Of Edmund C. Moy

*** begin quote ***

1.3. The Gold In Fort Knox Is Not Yearly Audited

Quote three, “So once a year the US Mint police coordinates with the Treasury Inspector General, and coordinates with the Mint chief financial officer, and they have to audit the gold. When you take a look at these bars, each one is numbered. They have to be taken out, counted, and assayed, to make sure they still have everything in it that they’re supposed to. When it’s all done they’re put back in in the same order as they have been taken out. So when you take a look at these vaults, again I can’t tell you how much is in there and how they’re organized, but there is a lot of bricks in there.”

This is simply not true. The official story from OIG is that 100 % of the gold stored at Fort Knox was audited in between 1974 and 1986, although there is no US government department that has the audit reports – for more information please read my post US Government Lost 7 Fort Knox Gold Audit Reports. To repeat myself, after the gold was audited by the Continuing Audit committee all compartments were placed under Official Joint Seal. Currently, the OIG is said to inspect the seals every year, that’s all they do. Apparently Moy has always been unaware of the audit procedures at the US Mint while he was the Director of this institution and presents himself as an expert. Did Moy have any sight or control over the Deep Storage gold when he was in office?

*** end quote ***

What is there? And, probably, more importantly, who has claims on it?

The essence of having a ‘tin foil hat’ is to ask simple questions for which there is no credible answer. A tin foil hat doesn’t need to have an answer; just the question.

Here’s a great story that takes Edmund C. Moy’s freely made statements and points out the inconsistencies.

Argh!

And, once again, no one in the Elite feels any need to answer any Mundane’s question.

Eventually, “the Truth” comes out, but by then the villains have escaped justice.

Wilson knew that the Lusitania was carrying war contraband but needed an excuse to enter WW1.

FDR knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor but need an excuse to hide his economic failures with the Great Depression and wanted to use WW2 to restart the economy.

Truman knew that the Japanese wanted to surrender but he wanted to use the nukes.

LBJ killed JFK to prevent his peace initiatives and all the warfare / welfare state power elite covered it up.

And, on and on, … …

So before you condemn all the tin foil hats, think a little about the questions that we pose.

AND, more importantly, the implications on your liberty.

Scared yet?

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POLITICAL: The first memorial to go should be Old Abe’s

Thursday, July 9, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/thomas-dilorenzo/tear-down-that-monument/

Tear Down That Monument!
A “Progressive” Case for Demolishing the Lincoln Memorial

By Thomas DiLorenzo
July 8, 2015

*** begin quote ***

The totalitarian socialists among us who try to disguise their true beliefs by calling themselves “progressives” are currently in the middle of one of their periodic fits of hyper-PC hysteria. Upon learning that the mentally deranged, drugged-up little monster who murdered all those people in a Charleston church had his picture taken with a Confederate flag, the “progressives” commenced a new crusade to obliterate not only the Confederate flag from American memory, but also the memory of anyone in history whose views on race are not identical to theirs. They have even called for the demolition of the Jefferson Memorial; and the July 4 Daily Caller included an article about a Portland, Oregon teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in that city who has started a campaign to rename the school. The Daily Caller refers to Wilson as “a model progressive Democrat,” which he was, but he was also a racist and a white supremacist.

However racist Woodrow Wilson, the old Princeton University political science professor, might have been, his public utterances on race were nothing compared to those of the real darling and “model” of “progressives” everywhere (and of neocons everywhere as well) – Abraham Lincoln. The following is a sampling of Lincoln’s racist and white supremacist beliefs (“CW” stands for Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, followed by the volume and page numbers):

*** end quote ***

This article confirms my bias that Lincoln was the worst President.

http://wp.me/Pg9z-2ak 

On any basis, he was a “war criminal”.

He instructed his generals to make war on the civilians in the south.

No wonder there has been generations of hatred in the south.

In addition to all the other misrepresentations, the War of Northern Aggression was about taxation and tariffs.

Pure and simple.

But, I’m sure old Abe will never come off the FED’s five dollar bill. He made the FED possible with the income tax, debt, and warfare spending.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Where DID the Lake Titicaca Peru totora reeds come from?

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/they-came-before-columbus/

Review of : BEFORE COLUMBUS : The New History of Celtic, Egyptian, Phoenician, Viking, Black African And Asian Contacts and Impacts in the Americas Before 1492 By Dr. Samuel D. Marble
By Jim Leslie
Ancient America
July 8, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Soon after the Christian era started, China became the principal supplier of ceramics and pottery to the east coast of Africa. Marble asks that if these Chinese voyages were possible, why is it not plausible the same mercantile drive could also make crossing the Atlantic possible? Totora reed grows only in the fresh waters of the Nile and Lake Titicaca of Peru. Each is genetically identical to the other and it could not have found its way to the Andes unless carried by hand. Is this evidence of an African presence? Egyptians wearing birdlike hats with beaks wove the reeds to make boats for the Nile, and men wearing similar hats with beaks are shown in ancient artworks of Peru where reed boats were woven with the totora reeds in a pattern almost identical to that of ancient Egypt., Is this an accidental development by different peoples unknown to each other at about the same time and separated by half a world?

*** and ***

This book ranks at the top of the ‘Before Columbus’ entries for its breath of coverage of evidence known at that time. His literature research was extensive and all encompassing, yet he made it readable to the general audience.

I agree when Dr. Marble writes there is no sure way of knowing if the evidence in his book is actually what really happened. No evidence will convince everyone, for there is no way of knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s almost impossible for a defense attorney to prove the innocence of his client; the best he can do is to cast enough doubt in the minds of a few jurors so they will vote for innocence. Whether the client is guilty or innocent does not matter in the court of law.

Outside of mathematics there are no descriptions of events that work perfectly. Of course truth does exist somewhere in these vents, and Marble sites the newest tools available at the time – dendrochronology, blood type, C14, and ground penetration.

*** end quote ***

Fascinating stuff.

Perhaps EVERYTHING we know about history is wrong?

Fascinating stuff to me.

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