Reinke Faces Life

http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/tgif-liberty-in-america-during-the-great-war/

TGIF: LIBERTY IN AMERICA DURING THE GREAT WAR
by Sheldon Richman
August 15, 2014

*** begin quote ***

The Justice Department under Attorney General Thomas Gregory encouraged citizen surveillance through its link to the American Protective League, “a group of amateur sleuths and loyalty enforcers,” in Kennedy’s description. Said Gregory, “I have today several hundred thousand private citizens — some individuals, most of them as members of patriotic bodies, engaged in … assisting the heavily overworked Federal authorities in keeping an eye on disloyal individuals and making reports on disloyal utterances.” Kennedy says that by the end of the war, the APL had 250,000 members.

This was also the period in which the United States got the Espionage Act and amendments known as the Sedition Act. Under the authority of the Espionage Act, Postmaster General Albert Sidney Burleson banned publications from the mail or stripped them of their second-class mailing permits for even suggesting that Wall Street or the arms industry controlled the government. Criticizing the government was regarded as aiding the enemy.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, yes, Wilson, the “Peace President”.

And, American Liberty has never recovered.

# – # – # – # – #   

[Those of us who served in the “old Army” (pre-1985) would insist that the M1911A1 firing the .45 ACP meets all the requirements. The Thompson-LaGarde Tests of 1904 led the Army and the Cavalry to decide a minimum of .45 caliber was the most effective pistol cartridge. They noted, however, that training was critical to make sure a soldier could score a hit in a vulnerable part of the body. But it seems clear that the 1911 with the .45 round has one major drawback – it is too much of a pistol for female personnel to handle.]

# – # – # – # – #   

Interesting if this is true.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://prepperchimp.com/2014/07/14/video-incredible-up-close-footage-of-israeli-roof-knocking-bombing-technique/

*** begin quote ***

The “Roof Knocking” Technique used by Israelis in their latest attacks on Hamas have been labeled “controversial” and even “inhumane”. What is “Roof Knocking”? It is when an inert bomb or shell casing with no explosive warhead is dropped on a rooftop to create a loud and thunderous impact with the building letting those inside know that in a few minutes a missile or bomb with a live warhead will destroy the building. The “knock” is to allow people to exit the building rapidly with the intent on saving lives when the warhead strikes to destroy enemy missiles, weapons and equipment. What other military provides this great “service” to an enemy? What do you think of this technique?

*** end quote ***

Wow!

Stunning at the damage.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/07/10/poor-mans-polar-vortex-to-make-shocking-summer-return-in-eastern-u-s-next-week/

What happened to “global warming”?

Are we now back to “global cooling”?

Or is it all now “man caused climate change”?

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

What is Domino’s Pizza Doing in Our Schools?
Alex A. Kecskes
July 4, 2014
1:30 pm

*** begin quote ***

A Pie with a Pitch

The new “healthier” pizza also came with a hefty marketing pitch for the Domino’s brand. The company delivers its pizzas directly to schools. So their trucks, employee uniforms, insulated boxes and lunch-line placards ubiquitously brand the company’s red-and-blue logo into young impressionable student minds. Nutritionists fear this on-campus branding primes students to head for Domino’s after school or on weekends to devour its regular non-USDA pizza (Domino’s says it has no plans to sell the Smart Slice in shops).

*** end quote ***

Over and above my problem with the Gooferment Skrules concept, this smacks of Crony Capitalism!

And, if the children are exposed and indoctrinated into “corporate branding” throughout their youth, then how can they have “free will”?

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.seaside-heightsnj.org/

Important USPS Announcement
July 2nd, 2014

*** begin quote ***

The Postal Service has established a review process for certain Post Offices known as the POST Plan. The Seaside Heights Post Office was among the offices evaluated under the POST Plan criteria. The Postal Service is now soliciting community input through surveys to help determine the best course of action for providing postal services to your community.

After receiving the results of this survey, the Postal Service will examine the responses and, unless the community has a strong preference (more than 60%) for conducting a discontinuance study for the Seaside Heights Post Office and establishing one of the additional sources of services described below, the Postal service intends to maintain the Seaside Heights Post Office with 6 hours of window service each weekday. Current Saturday window service hours and access to delivery receptacles will not change as a result of the POST Plan realignment of weekday window service hours.

In addition to this survey, the Postal Service will hold a meeting at the Seaside Heights Municipal Court at 116 Sherman Avenue Set 2, Seaside Heights NJ, 08751 on 8/7/2014 at 6:00 PM to answer questions and provide additional information about the POST Plan. At the meeting, local management will share the results of the survey, answer questions, and solicit input regarding the time of day the Post Office will be open. Although survey results will be known and shared, the Postal Service will not make a final decision regarding this office until after the public meeting. This will enable the Postal Service to obtain all community input and opinions, from both the surveys and the meeting, before making a final decision.

The Postal Service is also seeking locally established businesses or organizations to serve as contractor-operated postal retail units in communities like yours. If you are interested in operating a postal retail unit, please visit the website at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/welcome.htm for additional information. Generally, these contractor-operated postal retail units will operate in combination with a community’s Post Office. However, selection of the third option in the survey indicates a preference of your Post Office to be studied for discontinuance with the establishment of a contractor-operated unit a a replacement for the Post Office.

If you are filling out the survey, please return it by 7/24/2014. We kindly request the inclusion of your mailing address so that we can ensure that one survey response is submitted per address. Please note that your response may be entered into a publicly accessible record.

Thank you for your cooperation. Please contact the Post Office with any further questions.

*** end quote ***

And if you don’t get your mail delivered in 08751, then you don’t count.

Argh!

Should just outsource the whole mess to Fed Ex and UPS.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/06/james-bovard/war-crimes-of-us-generals/

Happy Custer Massacre Day!
By James Bovard
JimBovard.com
June 28, 2014

*** begin quote ***

Mosby’s men were vastly outnumbered but they fought valiantly to try to stop Sheridan’s torching of the valley.   Sheridan responded by labeling Mosby’s men war criminals and announcing that they would be executed if captured.  The North stretched the definition of illegal enemy combatant at the same time it redefined its own war crimes out of existence.  Six of Mosby’s men were hung in Front Royal, Virginia in September 1864.

In the weeks after the hanging of his men, Mosby’s men captured 700 northern troops.  In early November, his troops hanged several captured Yankees in retaliation.  A sign was attached to one of the corpses: “These men have been hung in retaliation for an equal number of Colonel Mosby’s men, hung by order of General Custer at Front Royal.  Measure for measure.”  Recognizing the perils to his own troops, Sheridan ceased executing captured Mosby’s guerillas.

*** end quote ***

The War of Northern Aggression was a very uncivil war.

Imagine what will happen the next time some State seeks to secede?

I foresee it in the near future. 

No one can possibly pay the debt that has been run up.

Collapse is inevitable.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/obama-impeachment-gop-faces-three-huge-obstacles_062014

Obama Impeachment: GOP Faces Three HUGE Obstacles

Michael Thomas
Storyleak
June 23rd, 2014

*** begin quote ***

It does appear that the Repubs may be waiting for the midterm elections to take back the Senate, and restock the House even stronger.  In which case they may be waiting for a pretext to impeach both Obama and Biden. In which case the new Speaker’s wife just may move into Michelle Obama’s bedroom.

*** end quote ***

I have oft opined (not that anyone listens to me) that “impeachment” of a President is the power of the MINORITY party to remove a President that damages their future chances to “suck at the teat of Gooferment”. (Why else would they?)

I cite the R’s with Nixon. He resigned ONLY because the R’s said “you’re toast”. Not that they care too much about him, BUT he was going to take all of the other lifetime R’s down with him. (Rats and the sinking ship come to mind!)

This blog post illustrates another “impeachment method”.

Should the Sheeple be so “offended” by the sitting President’s conduct, (which I think is “egregious” even by today’s standards), that they vote in the opposite party with a sufficient plurality and majority (particularly in the Senate), that impeachment is a foregone conclusion.

While drastic, maybe the Sheeple can be interested to the point of voting.

Obamacare, immigration, VA, and the collapse of “foreign policy” might just be enough to have these sheep look away for DWTS and vote for real “hope and change”.

I hope that the Libertarian Party doesn’t shill for the D’s and save them.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #    

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/06/david-swanson/to-hide-the-brutality-of-us-imperialism/

So That’s Why They Kept the Drone Kill Memo Secret
By David Swanson
War Is A Crime.org
June 25, 2014

*** begin quote ***

The memo considers a section of the U.S. code dealing with the murder of a U.S. citizen by another U.S. citizen abroad, drawing on another section that defines murder as “the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.”

David Barron, the memo’s author, needed a loophole to make murder-by-missile a lawful killing rather than an unlawful killing, so he pulls out the “public authority justification” under which the government gets to use force to enforce a law. It’s a novel twist, though, for the government to get to use force to violate the law, claiming the violation is legal on the Nixonian basis that it is the government doing it.

Alternatively, Barron suggests, a government gets to use force if doing so is part of a war. This, of course, ignores the U.N. Charter and the Kellogg Briand Pact and the illegality of wars, as well as the novelty of claiming that a war exists everywhere on earth forever and ever. (None of Barron’s arguments justify governmental murder on U.S. soil any less than off U.S. soil.)

*** end quote ***

When the “King” kills his subjects, then we have tyranny.

Is there any doubt that the Gooferment has “crossed a very important Rubicon” with this memo?

No one can have any doubts now.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/06/joseph-mercola/butter-the-new-health-food/

Butter Is Back—Processed Foods Are Identified as Real Culprits in Heart Disease
By Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
June 24, 2014

*** begin quote ***

Flawed Nutritional Guidelines Have Created a ‘Pandemic’ of Heart Disease

Between 1920 and 1960, Americans’ butter consumption declined by over 75 percent, yet heart disease went from a relatively unknown condition to the number one killer. Consumption of trans fat radically increased in the mid-1950s, and rates of sudden death from heart disease have faithfully risen right along with trans fat consumption.

Today, there are 30,000 items in the American diet that contain trans fats, according to the FDA. That should give you an indication of just how prevalent these dangerous fats have become!

Basically, if you eat processed foods, you’re likely eating trans fats. Many products that claim to be “zero trans fat” simply have portion sizes that are so ridiculously small that the trans fat falls below the permissible limits and therefore do not need to be listed.

Authority Nutrition has assembled several graphs with side-by-side comparisons of obesity and heart disease trends with nutritional trends over time. These graphs make it easier to visualize how the low-fat recommendations have done you no favors whatsoever.7 For example, the following graph shows how the European countries that eat the least saturated fats have the highest risk of heart disease:

*** end quote ***

Why would anyone believe ANYTHING from the Crony Capitalists and their agent called “The Gooferment”?

This includes, but not limited to, FDA, USDA, CDC, … … … 

Argh!

Next we’ll find out that smoking is good for you. (Credit to Woody Allen for that bit of sarcasm.)

We have to think for ourselves.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/11004507-disability-beneficiaries-top-11-million-first-time

11,004,507: Disability Beneficiaries Top 11 Million for First Time
June 20, 2014 – 4:04 PM

*** begin quote ***

The number of Americans receiving disability benefits continues to exceed the populations of Greece, Tunisia and Portugal and is drawing closer to Cuba, whose population of 11,047,251 (as reported by the CIA) is just 42,477 more than the 11,004,507 Americans receiving disability benefits.

*** end quote ***

I have read that once someone goes on disability, they never come off.

And, is this substitute for lifetime unemployment.

How does one differentiate between “the truly needed” and the moochers?

Really, all charity must be private.

http://www.acton.org/public-policy/effective-compassion

*** begin quote ***

How are the poor best aided? After a thirty year governmental “War on Poverty” failed to reduce poverty in America, a consensus developed that the centralized entitlement approach of the federal government created more problems than it solved. Consequently, in 1996 welfare reform and its “Charitable Choice” provision paved the way for more involvement by the private sector, especially by faith-based institutions, in helping the poor make the transition from welfare to work. The welfare reform law of 1996 was a first step away from direct federal control of help to the poor and toward private sector solutions-but it was only a first step. The Acton Institute envisions a revivified civil society that is energetically involved in transforming the lives of the poor with a minimum of government intervention.

*** end quote ***

It’s a hard topic, but if the economy was booming, it wouldn’t as big an issue.

And the economy isn’t going to boom until the Gooferment is cut down to the bones.

Minimum wage, high taxation, and over regulation!

Then maybe the “little people” would have a chance.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2014/6/11/public-pension-plans-boom-and-bubble-forever-or-bust.html

Public Pension Plans: Boom And Bubble Forever Or Bust
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014 AT 1:28AM

*** begin quote ***

Public pension plans of states and cities have been in a heap of trouble for years. Promises of juicy pensions after a relatively short time on the job, with many decades of life expectancy remaining, are easy for politicians to make and buy votes with, and for unions to demand to please their membership. But they’re a tad expensive to live up to. Some have been involved in bankruptcies of their municipalities, including those of Detroit. Others are headed that way.

*** and ***

The best-case scenario, which is also the base scenario, assumes return on investment is 7.7% for all plan assets combined, for all years to come.

*** and ***

Assuming the unlikely scenario of an eternal return of 7.7% annually, some of these pension funds are in worse trouble than others. A small coterie, like the Louisiana State Parochial Employees fund, is funded over 100%. But most plans are in trouble. Some of the worst sinners: Alaska Teachers with a funded ratio of 47.9%, Connecticut SERS (41.2%), Illinois Teachers (40.6%), Chicago Municipal employees (37.0%), Illinois SERS (34.2%), Chicago Police (30.9%), or Kentucky ERS (25.8%). Some of the sinners are relatively small plans, but several are large, such as the Illinois SERS, Illinois Teachers, and Connecticut SERS. If markets were allowed to swoon, these babies would be wiped out.

*** and ***

And even that miracle, combined with the other miracle, a 7.7% return for all years to come, won’t be enough: it would still leave plans $1.1 trillion underfunded. Alas, if the rate of return drops to 5%, the hole will increase to $3.0 trillion, and plans would only be 50% funded. And at a rate of return of 4.0%, unfunded liabilities would jump to $3.8 trillion, and numerous plans would simply….

Reality is too ugly to contemplate. So now the hope is that the new rules – accounting for stock market surges in the year in which they occur – will trigger big gains immediately and drive up the funded ratios. Better not even think about the possibility that the stock market might stumble from current bubble highs or that a soupçon of chaos in the bond market would slam junk bonds and trigger a wave of defaults.

What these pension plans need in order to be there in the future, the report suggests, is a booming economy year after year and endlessly inflating asset bubbles. Otherwise, forget it.

Wiping out in one fell swoop six years of carefully orchestrated propaganda, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard admitted that the Fed had dropped the ball during the prior bubble that blew up the financial system, and that it’s dropping the ball again during the current bubble. 

*** end quote ***

So what does the average schmoe do?

Plan for pension defaults. Save in commodities. 

Does anyone really believe in 7+% returns forever?

In war movies, you always hear “get small in your hole”. I think that advice is good for fiscal crisis.

Always live modestly. Save in commodities. No “bad” debt; very little “good” debt.

I’m not sure that IRA / 401k is a panacea. I’m in it big time, but the politicians and bureaucrats must be looking at that pot of wealth longingly.

Argh!

YMMV

# – # – # – # – #   

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/06/09/hillary_clinton_we_came_out_of_the_white_house_dead_broke.html

*** begin quote ***

DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: It has been reported you’ve made $5 million making speeches, the president’s made more than $100 million.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, if you — you have no reason to remember, but we came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education, you know, it was not easy. Bill has worked really hard and it’s been amazing to me. He’s worked very hard, first of all, we had to pay off all our debts which was, you know, we had to make double the money because of obviously taxes, and pay you have at debts, and get us houses and take care of family members.

*** end quote ***

Are you kidding me?

What about the famous book advance?

Argh!

And never mind the whine about she was responsible for security? She just hired the people who did it. Guess she didn’t do such a good job!

And the response about Monica; “I am not going to comment on what I said back in the 90’s”. How does she get off with that response.

Also, don’t get me started on “What difference does it make?”

Argh!

I don’t understand the Liberal’s “Love Affair” with this woman.

We can also roll back the clock to Whitewater — when the Clinton’s defrauded poor black retirees out of their retirement dreams!

Argh! to the n-th power.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://dailyreckoning.com/how-gold-helped-iran-avoid-defeat-by-the-u-s/

How Gold Helped Iran Avoid Defeat by the U.S.
by Addison Wiggin.
Posted May 22, 2014. 

*** begin quote ***

By July 2013, the U.S. Treasury had figured that out… and so began stepping up enforcement of a ban on gold sales to Iran — “a tacit recognition by the United States that gold is money,” Rickards adds dryly.

*** and ***

By late last year, Iran and the United States agreed to resume negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. As part of that tentative agreement, President Obama removed the sanctions on gold purchases by Iran — one of the few ways he could ease Iranian sanctions without the say-so of Congress.

“For the time being,” Rickards concludes, “Iran had fought the United States to a standstill in its financial war, despite enormous disruption to the Iranian economy. The U.S.-Iranian financial war of 2012–13 illustrates how nations that could not stand up to the United States militarily could prove a tough match when the battlefield is financial or electronic.”

“Iran,” Rickards writes, “also demonstrated how financial warfare and cyberwarfare could be combined in a hybrid asymmetric attack.”

 *** and ***

Not so, says former Ambassador William Miller, who was stationed in Iran during the 1960s and is in contact with the current regime. “Sanctions only made them more defiant,” he tells the Los Angeles Times.

Want proof? Iran put the same offer on the table in 2003 — only to be spurned by the United States. Actually, it was a better offer from Washington’s perspective. Back then, Iran had only 164 nuclear centrifuges; by 2013, it had 19,000. That’s a heck of a lot more bargaining chips to hold once negotiations begin in earnest.

*** end quote ***

It’s well know that Sadam wanted to paid for “his” oil in gold just before the USA took over.

Now, Iran exposes that the dollar monopoly could be broken. 

I’m sure this lesson will not go unnoticed around the world.

And China is buying gold by the “dump truck”.

No secret — “stuff” is better than Washington’s paper IOUs.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://termlimits.org/

About Term Limits

Term Limits is still known as the largest grassroots movement in American history, and US Term Limits (USTL) was, and still is, the leader of that …

# – # – # – # – #   

Overdue! 

One thing the Dead Old White Guys got wrong.

# – # – # – # – #   

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/taxpayer-subsidies-for-unhealthy-foods/

Taxpayer Subsidies for Unhealthy Foods
What if billions in tax dollars were invested in healthier options rather than given to corporations to subsidize the very foods that are making us sick?

# – # – # – # – #   

I was especially shocked (“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca) that the Gooferment has give “hundreds of billions” to subsidize junk food.

Argh!

I’m not a fan of any taxing of anything. So, I’ll respectfully disagree with the idea of taxing the junk food. (Too much like Michael Bloomberg!)

But removing all subsidies is an idea I can support vigorously.

I never understood “parity payments”, “minimum price”, and other Corporate Welfare payoffs.

Argh!

Matter of fact, they could have stopped after “Taxpayer Subsidies”. I don’t want anything “subsidized”!

# – # – # – # – #   

http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a62f6d3a19ffbd4c6852a4c85&id=0eaf58a7dc&e=da6c31a530

We proudly filed a brief in the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon case. The Court ruled in favor of McCutcheon on Wednesday, a victory you helped secure.

In fact, it’s the latest in a string of victories in the area of campaign finance.

You’re going to hear a lot of misreporting and bad analysis about McCutcheon. I’ve already seen it. You’d think raping babies was just legalized, given all the hysterical shrieking.

Like Citizens United before it, the shrieking needs to be misleading to work. The exaggeration and outright lying has already begun. The ever-shrill Common Cause alleged that, The Supreme Court just…

gaveled in a new era of political corruption
made it easier to bribe politicians

The truth is, the McCutcheon decision was actually pretty mundane.

Before McCutcheon, an individual could donate only…

$2,600 to individual candidates
$32,400 to national party committees
$5,000 to political action committees

After McCutcheon, that same person could donate only…

$2,600 to individual candidates
$32,400 to national party committees
$5,000 to political action committees

Oh the humanity!

What ACTUALLY changed is the total amount that an individual could contribute in a political season. Before McCutcheon those caps were…

$48,600 to all candidates
$74,600 to all PACs and parties
For a total of $123,200

After McCutcheon, there is no cap.

The hysterical bawling about this decision is that now the rich will have more influence over elections… As if they didn’t have this influence already, under the silly, incumbent-protecting laws we’ve had since 1972!

But this Common Cause led bluster doesn’t make sense…

The individual contribution limits remain the same! Does anyone honestly believe that a mere $2,600 contribution is going to swing a federal election?

If not, then how much more “king-making” power has been granted to wealthy individual donors, now capable of giving to 20 or more candidates, when before this week, they could only give to 18 1/2?

Some will argue that there’s too much money in politics, and that these additional donations make that problem worse. To them, I recommend the article below.

As for the McCutcheon decision, this was a 5-4 victory. It was another step forward in a fight we’ve been waging for 14 years!

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion with the majority. For years, he’s been the leading voice in defense of the First Amendment. He argued that the Buckley v Valeo distinction, between expenditures and contributions, should be overturned. And that’s what we argued in the brief you funded.

But since our loss in McConnell decision (2003), we’ve had victories in Wisconsin Right to Life I and II, Citizens United, Van Hollen, and now McCutcheon that are unraveling these establishment protection schemes. And that’s why we consider this a victory.

We will, with your support, remain in the fight.

You can read the brief we filed here: http://www.downsizedc.org/blog-content/mccutcheon-ddcf-amicus-brief.pdf

You can read the decision here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf (corrected)

And you can support our continued efforts in the Courts here:
https://secure.downsizedcfoundation.org/contribute/

Jim Babka
President
Downsize DC Foundation

# – # – # – # – #   

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/suit-challenging-drone-strikes-that-killed-americans-16-year-old-boy-is-tossed/#p3

Suit challenging drone strikes that killed Americans, 16-year-old boy is tossed [Updated]
Judge says drone killings are US military and president’s prerogative.
by David Kravets – Apr 4 2014, 7:00pm EDT

*** begin quote ***

“The court’s view that it cannot provide a remedy for extrajudicial killings when the government claims to be at war, even far from any battlefield, is profoundly at odds with the Constitution,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in an e-mail. “It is precisely when individual liberties are under such grave threat that we need the courts to act to defend them. In holding that violations of U.S. citizens’ right to life cannot be heard in a federal courtroom, the court abdicated its constitutional role.”

*** end quote ***

This is tough one.

Basically the Gooferment can do what it wants.

But then couldn’t it always?

# – # – # – # – #