5-22-13 Links

Raid Of The Day: Jeffrey Miles A cop gets away with murder.

Employee Abuse Runs Rampant In America How did America go from the great middle class where people were empowered and respected in their jobs to this?

Syria: Disunited Insurgents Lose Qusayr The hundreds of insurgency “brigades” are disunited. The do not have the same motives and aims and therefor lack cooperation.

Effective Immediately: All Semi-Automatic Pistols Sold In California to Require “Micro Stamp” Ballistic Identification When a gun is fired, a tiny engraving on the firing pin etches a microscopic identifier onto the cartridge as it is expended by the firearm.

A New Spin on the Old Oil War All’s well at $100 oil — all isn’t well at $80 oil. And all hell breaks loose if prices stabilize even lower at, say, $60.

America Honors Its Worst They mock what they claim to represent. Many go to deplorable recipients.

Goods from kiosks at two malls seized The Department of Homeland Security says the sale of counterfeit goods poses a major security threat.

Deputies Watch Woman Die in Court This woman who was in debtor’s prisons was watched by cops as she died because she was faking it.

Adam Kokesh is a Political Prisoner The Bill of Rights is dead, buried and forgotten.

Israel’s racist and ethnocentric roots Even apartheid South Africa would have been ashamed to exalt advocates of “baby killers”, but in Netanyahu’s “Jewish state” rabbinical deviants are lauded as “Torah giants”.

China Moving to Thorium as Safe Nuclear Fuel The point is that thorium reactors, unlike uranium ones, cannot melt down or blow up.

Keystone XL Protester Faces 1 year in Jail For Speaking The Bill of Rights is dead, buried and forgotten.

Thomas Jefferson: “We Failed” Claim that Jefferson and the rest established freedom, but that’s NOT what Jefferson thought, and that is NOT what he said.

Why We Are Un-Governable Develop an aristocracy of bankers and politicians who, because they get first crack at those newly-created dollars, have become all-powerful.

Learning Versus Thinking “Forget what you know. Stop learning and start thinking.”

Latin Without Cicero An American woman of immoderate idiocy once asked me by email whether Mexico had paved roads.

Canada’s War on Weed Video jdu jour.

Rescue Angels Tattoos and Happy Endings There’s hope for humans after all du jour.

Seychelles: Farms crippled by heavy rains I don’t want to be ignorant of Africa anymore du jour.

Crystal Flowers At Micron Scale Self-Assemble In A Beaker I decided that I didn’t want to be stupid anymore du jour.

Self denial I decided that I didn’t want to be unwise anymore du jour.

Current Swell — Long Time Ago I’m glad I didn’t die before I heard this music du jour.

Suffolk Police Officer Lance Prager saves heart attack victim in Mt. Sinai Heroic cop du jour.

Newport News officer indicted on child sex charges Pedophile cop du jour.

Settlers attack West Bank farmer twice a week The real terrorists.

Lake Jackson — Bruce Powell

Patrick Henry Warned About Infringement on Liberty

At the conclusion of Virginia’s 1788 ratification convention, a meeting tasked with voting on the new Constitution, Patrick Henry strode to the assembly floor, convinced that the future of American liberty hung in the balance. In his mind’s eye, the great orator warned, he could see angels watching, “reviewing the political decisions and revolutions which in the progress of time will happen in America, and the consequent happiness or misery of mankind–I am led to believe that much of the account on one side or the other, will depend on what we now decide.”

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Two Cheers for ‘Isolationism’

A policy has to be judged by its results, and by that standard interventionism is a complete and total failure, as a look at the day’s headlines reveals.

We’ve heard several public officials say Al Qaeda has been effectively dismantled, with its top leadership – including Osama bin Laden – out of commission. But that doesn’t mean our open-ended “war on terrorism” is anywhere near its end – far from it. Wired reports that the Pentagon’s special ops chief, Michael Sheehan, when asked at a congressional hearing how much longer the war will last, answered “ten to twenty years.”

The mightiest army ever assembled on earth went to war with a ragtag bunch of Islamist nutjobs living in a cave somewhere – and it took them 30-plus years, trillions of dollars, and tens of thousands of casualties to defeat them? Is this what historians will write of our Thirty Years War on Terror?

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The Palliative Machine: Medical Monopoly Under the Corporation-State

The American medical system is corrupt, ineffective and unnecessarily costly. These outcomes are due to state violence on behalf of the politically connected elite (namely private insurers, physicians, pharmaceutical and medical device companies). Artificial scarcity, price-gouging, misallocation of research funding and the suppression of alternative (non-patentable) therapies can be ameliorated by revoking state-conferred elite privilege and re-establishing cooperative, mutualized healthcare financing.

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5-20-13 Links

Raid Of The Day: Doy Vanderburg They had an arrest warrant for David Lynn Martin, who was suspected of drug crimes. Unfortunately, their records were out of date. Martin had moved out months earlier.

Rethinking the middle-class The days of of relatively unskilled workers making huge sums in the mines has almost certainly come to an end.

Chaos in Turkey as police use tear gas and water cannons to put down rioters protesting over Syria Good for them.

AUMF, Never-Ending War, and America’s ‘Instruments of Tyranny’ The AUMF now emboldens the war hawks on the warpath to Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Libertarianism Doesn’t Pretend to Solve Socialist Woes Libertarianism provides the principles for a free society. It does not pretend to solve problems that socialism creates.

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood terrorist Fanatical homeschoolers? What next, drills against radical Chess Club members?

10 Amazing Charts That Demonstrate The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker Politicians from both political parties refuse to do anything to stop the bleeding because they think that the status quo is working just great.

Holder defends subpoenas for AP telephone records The Bill of Rights is dead, buried and forgotten,

For All the Deluded and/or Stupid People (which is most people), and a Second Iron Law Silber’s First Iron Laws: Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state.

‘Scientific’ liberals should accept results of science Maybe they should get off their computer models and go out and try some scientific methods.

Bill Kristol’s Empire of Death Being a neo-conservative means never being wrong, no matter how wrong you are.

‘Monsanto Protection Act 2.0′ Would Ban GMO-Labeling Laws At State Level Monsanto is trying to manipulate Congress to pass a Farm Bill that will wipe out citizens’ rights to state laws intended to protect their health and safety.

Reject These Voices….

The Brazilian State of Pará, Where Land is Power The region was once rich in cashew trees, which were razed to make way for cattle pastures.

Crony Capitalism Protects Wrongdoers, Harms Consumers, and Disrupts Markets The case for capitalism must rest on the willingness of free-marketeers to demand ethical conduct from corporations and politicians alike.

Edgar the Exploiter Video du jour.

Rescuing a dog (Nili) from the desert There’s hope for humans after all du jour.

Swaziland: Pauper’s funeral for acting Chief I don’t want to be ignorant of Africa anymore du jour.

Belgian Scientists: Double Standards In Climate Change I decided that I didn’t want to be stupid anymore du jour.

The Song Remains the Same I decided that I didn’t want to be unwise anymore du jour.

Deptford Goth — UNION I’m glad I didn’t die before I heard this music du jour.

Police Officer Rescues Owners From Hickory Hills Banquet Hall Fire Heroic cop du jour.

Northwest cop quit before prostitution arrest; warrant details allegations Pedophile cop du jour.

Settler Installs Mobile Home In Palestinian Land near Jerusalem The real terrorists du jour.

Winter’s Last Stand — Michael Bollino

U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect

Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over ‘Civil Disturbances’

U.S. Troops in Afghanistan (Photo: Senior Airman Sean Martin, U.S. Air Force)

The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “War on Drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military.

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Obama’s Bid for Unilateral Power over Elections

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”

— Joseph Stalin (1923), as quoted in The Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary by Boris Bazhanov.

To glimpse the political future of America, turn off the news, ignore public statements from officials, and follow instead the paper trail of executive orders issuing from the White House.

On March 28, President Obama signed an executive order entitled “Establishment of the Presidential Commission of Election Administration.” The president has created yet another administrative agency. This one is overseen by nine members, who will be unilaterally appointed by Obama and entrusted with a specific mission:

The Commission shall identify best practices and otherwise make recommendations to promote the efficient administration of elections in order to ensure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots without undue delay, and to improve the experience of voters facing other obstacles in casting their ballots, such as members of the military, overseas voters, voters with disabilities, and voters with limited English proficiency.

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The Age of Corporate Treason

Why are big, global U.S. corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the U.S.A., rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by American taxpayers whenever they’re in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the U.S. military.

Yet these corporate goliaths work their tax lawyers overtime to escape U.S. taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes. Imagine corporations, like General Electric, have not paid federal income taxes on U.S. profits for years.

Mega corporations have abandoned U.S. workers by entrenching “pull-down” trade agreements that make it easier than ever to ship jobs and whole industries to fascist and communist regimes abroad which keep their workers near serfdom. Remember, the U.S. has run large trade deficits for the past 30 years as a result of anti-American trade deals pushed by these global companies. These goliaths are pressing for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that will further pull down our economy. (See http://www.citizen.org/page.aspx?pid=1328.)

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5-17-13 Links

After Billions Are Made, Risks from Asthma Drug Emerge But it’s not profits before people, I swear!

Top Constitutional Experts: Obama Is Worse than Nixon Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition.

My Wall St Jrn op-ed: IRS Political Targeting Since FDR “In almost every administration since the IRS’s inception the information and power of the tax agency have been mobilized for explicitly political purposes.”

Israeli airport sorts passengers with ‘Jewish stickers’ and ‘Arab stickers’ That’s why Palestinians should wear yellow crescents as Jews in Nazi Germany wore yellow stars of David.

Inflation, Money Supply, GDP, Unemployment and the Dollar – Alternate Data Series

Cotati, California Cops Enter Disabled Vet’s Home, Taze Him in Front Of His Family Police state.

City sues ‘Robin Hood’ group over parking meter payments The city has to steal our revenue some way.

U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD: You Can’t Fix Stupid Attempting to suppress information on the Internet just draws more attention to the original information — which remains readily available.

US Prepares to Overthrow Malaysian Government Anwar Ibrahim himself was Chairman of the Development Committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1998.

Gun Free Zones: A Prevalent Delusion This is not because terrorists are afraid to die. But what they want is helpless victims.

China’s ‘Child Rape Isn’t Rape’ Law Is Sparking Outrage Having sex with anyone under the age of 14 was considered rape in China, consent or not, but the law was changed in 1997.

LAPD Cop Assaults Motorcyclist for Video Recording During Traffic Stop Just another episode in their unceasing war against cameras.

Solar Sailboat Shows How ‘Groovy’ Off-Grid Life Can Be If you’ve ever stared out your office window, wishing for a life less tethered, get ready to drool be mad an hell.

Secretive TPP Talks Re-Commence in Lima, Peru: They Can Shut Us Out, But They Can’t Shut Us Up They want a one world government run by corporations. See this too.

Pentagon Spec Ops Chief Sees ’10 to 20′ More Years of War Against al-Qaida Atop the 12 years that the conflict has already lasted. Welcome to America’s Thirty Years War.

The Folly of Nations Video du jour.

Watchira’s Story There’s hope for humans after all du jour.

Mauritania: Rosso: From remote villages shout their distress I don’t want to be ignorant of Africa anymore du jour.

Making Gold Green: New Non-Toxic Method for Mining Gold I decided that I didn’t want to be stupid anymore du jour.

Personality: Beyond Social and Beyond Human I decided that I didn’t want to be unwise anymore du jour.

The Heavy — How You Like Me Now? I’m glad I didn’t die before I heard this music du jour.

Officer saves girl trapped under SUV Heroic cop du jour.

Fmr. Davie Police Officer Sentenced To 10 Years For Sexual Molestation Rapist cop du jour.

“We don’t go to their homes throwing rocks, why do they do it to us?” The real terrorists du jour.

Cute and Curious! — Rainey Shuler

The Trick to Suppressing Revolution: Keeping Debt/Tax Serfdom Bearable

The 30 million whose labor funds the parasitic status quo don’t have to rebel; they simply have to stop going to work, stop starting enterprises, stop being productive.

Parasites must balance their drive to maximize what they extract from their host with the risk of losing everything by killing their host. This is the dilemma of the parasitic partnership of the central state and financial Elites everywhere: to extract the maximum possible in debt payments and taxes without sparking rebellion and revolution.

I have often commented on the current class structure, which paradoxically unites the interests of the top 1/5% of 1% and their political-class toadies and the bottom 50% who are drawing transfer payments/benefits from the state: both support the status quo because both receive direct benefits from it.

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