Sunday, January 26, 2014

HSBC Cash Withdrawal Limits Spark Fears of Banking Crisis

Guest post by Mac Slavo

In early 2013 the country of Cyprus locked down private banking accounts and restricted access to depositor funds. It was the first widely documented instance of a “bail-in,” as bank officials and European regulators determined that bad loans taken on by the banks were now the responsibility of the banks’ customers. This led to a country-wide confiscation of 10% or more of all customer funds. In the heat of the Cyprian financial panic banks limited cash withdrawals to around $300 and ramped up security to prevent angry Cypriots from breaking down the doors.

What happened in Cyprus was big news all over the world, but within a few news cycles, once European and American officials assured the people it was a limited-scope event, the general population swept potential fears under the rug. No one really reported on the fact that the European Union quickly instituted new regulatory policies that would force bail-ins across the entire continent should such a crisis take hold again. Likewise, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured Americans that the crisis in Cyprus and Europe posed no risk to the US financial system, citing FDIC insurance for U.S. bank depositors as the safety net that would prevent a similar situation in the United States.

The United States, Europe, China and all of the world’s developed economies are, if officials are to be believed, completely immune to what happened in Cyprus. The current belief by the best and brightest is that these countries are simply too big to ever be faced with a total collapse of their banking systems.

But what if they were wrong? What if private debt reached such obscene levels that the loans taken on by lenders could never be repaid? What if a country like China, which holds trillions of dollars in cash reserves and has modern central banking regulations, did face such a problem?

Couldn’t happen, right?

Did You See The New York Times Magazine’s ‘Planet Hillary’ Cover? I Fixed It For Them. Again.

You're welcome.


Click here for my first attempt.


California's Diabolical Plans to Shred the Bill of Rights

Guest post by NRA-ILA

In 1976, the Brady Campaign, then known as the National Council to Control Handguns, said that the first part of its three-part plan to get handguns and handgun ammunition made "totally illegal" was to "slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country." This month, anti-gunners finally got that wish in California.

America's two largest handgun manufacturers--Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger--have announced that they will stop selling new semi-automatic handguns in California, rather than comply with the state's "microstamping" law. The law applies not only to entirely new models of handguns, but also to any current-production handgun approved by the state's Roster Board, if such handgun is modified with any new feature or characteristic, however minor or superficial.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the law was "intended to help police investigators link shell casings found at crime scenes to a specific gun." That's pure spin, however. In reality, the law, signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is intended to terminate semi-automatic handgun sales and, over time, semi-automatic handgun ownership in the state. "Microstamping" will solve few, if any crimes and it is only a matter of time before a proposal to expand the law to include other firearms will follow.

20 Warning Signs That a Global Economic Meltdown is Near

Guest post by Michael Snyder

Have you been paying attention to what has been happening in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey and China? If you are like most Americans, you have not been. Most Americans don't seem to really care too much about what is happening in the rest of the world, but they should. In major cities all over the globe right now, there is looting, violence, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks. We are not at a "global crisis" stage yet, but things are getting worse with each passing day. For a while, I have felt that 2014 would turn out to be a major "turning point" for the global economy, and so far that is exactly what it is turning out to be. The following are 20 early warning signs that we are rapidly approaching a global economic meltdown...

#1 The looting, violence and economic chaos that is happening in Argentina right now is a perfect example of what can happen when you print too much money...

For Dominga Kanaza, it wasn’t just the soaring inflation or the weeklong blackouts or even the looting that frayed her nerves.

It was all of them combined.

At one point last month, the 37-year-old shop owner refused to open the metal shutters protecting her corner grocery in downtown Buenos Aires more than a few inches -- just enough to sell soda to passersby on a sweltering summer day.

#2 The value of the Argentine Peso is absolutely collapsing.

#3 Widespread shortages, looting and accelerating inflation are also causing huge problems in Venezuela...

Larwyn's Linx: Obama solicits ideas for ways to evade Constitution

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Nation

Obama solicits ideas for ways to evade Constitution: Susan Crabtree
Trey Gowdy: House Republicans are scapegoat-of-the-day for Obama: BPR
Fail: WH Document Says Obama Should Distance Himself From Congress: RWN

“Schumer Suggests ‘Electoral Reform’ to ‘Lessen Grip of Tea Party’”: ProWis
Lindsey Graham DARES Conservatives to End his Misguided Career: Reaganite
Cuomo's New Spin on an Old Mantra: RWN

Despite Constant Attacks, Conservative Ideas Gaining Support: RIck Jensen
Eric Holder: America is Still a Nation of Racist Cowards: Jennifer Burke
Russian student arrested for bomb building in Pennsylvania: BPR

Economy

H1-B Scammers Invent a University and Get Away with It for Years: CIS
Newest Harvard study about income inequality the left will want to bury: BPR
The FT Goes There: "Demand Physical Gold": ZH

Barack's Pogrom: Rising Tide of Hatred Against 'Evil' One Percent: AmPower
HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals: Bob Howard, BBC
Budget gimmickry in Connecticut: Robert Lavelle

Scandal Central

WH to launch another taxpayer-funded Ministry of Truth Division: Sister Toldjah
Benghazi whistleblower: Don’t even think about blaming Stevens: Hot Air
Eric Holder: Voter ID Used to ‘Depress the Vote’ of People Who Don’t Support GOP: Noah Rothman

Media

Media Not Very Curious about D’Souza Indictment: Rick Moran
Famous Gay Rights Activist Now Also Famous for Child Pornography Habits: R.S. McCain
Newspaper conglomerate considers building massive database of gun owners: Patrick Howley

Senate Conservative Fund Touts Oklahoma’s Jim Bridenstine to Replace Tom Coburn in Senate: MagNote
When a CNN Sports Dolt Tries to Explain Chicago’s Gun Problem With Laughable Results: Publius
Did You See New York Times Magazine’s ‘Planet Hillary’ Cover? I Improved It: Sooper

Outlaws in Connecticut: Chris Muir
Allen West Crushes Progressive Kook Christopher Hahn: Scoop
Lobbyist Kit Bond vs. Senator Kit Bond: MoTorch

World

Grateful recipients of 180 Million dollars in Canadian foreign aid destroy a church and beat the Pastor: BCF
20 Early Warning Signs That We Are Approaching A Global Economic Meltdown: ZH
NC DOJ: Illegal Aliens Can Forget About In-state Tuition: John Hawkins

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Animated iWatch Concept Is the Most Realistic You've Ever Seen: Mashable
Microsoft retains weapon to silently scrub XP: Gregg Keizer
This may be the ocean’s most horrifying monster (and you’ve probably never heard of it): Deep Sea News

Cornucopia

How to dress like a liberal in three easy steps: AWD
When Will the Revolt Start?: Downgrade Diary
The Cheese Stands Alone. (Not because it’s so smelly): MOTUS

Saturday Uninformed Voter Joke: Denny
Trauma Inducing: Western Rifle Shooters
Great Therapy: Denny

Image: Reaganite Republican Sunday Funnies
Sponsored by: Send a pink slip to Mitch McConnell: support Matt Bevin for Senate

QOTD: "KELLY: When you say they have a fear of changing America, that sounds like a veiled reference to people of color, that they’re afraid of minorities, which is what was suggested, and that’s been suggested before about the tea party. I’ll give that one to you, Colonel West, as a tea party politician yourself.

WEST: Well, I think it’s quite laughable to say that the tea party is racist when people say that I’m quote unquote a darling of the party. But let’s talk about the constitutionality behinds this, and Chris, you can laugh all you want. That just shows your immaturity. First of all, let’s talk about the first amendment right that the American citizens have to petition their government for redress of grievances. Now, when Senator Obama was running for election he was railing against George W. Bush, calling him un-American, unpatriotic over a nine trillion dollar debt. Now Americans who show concern about a 17.3 almost $17.4 trillion debt are now demonized and attacked when this is a serious concern. And when you look at a poll at a poll that just came out back in December, 72% of Americans are more so concerned about big government than they are about big business or even big labor, so I think that is a very valid point." --Via Right Scoop

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Did You See The New York Times Magazine’s ‘Planet Hillary’ Cover? I Fixed It For Them.

Reading Sooper Mexican, this idea popped into my head.


Sorry about that.


Obamacare: A welcome mat for IRS horrors

Guest post by Tori Richards

So you’ve maneuvered the Obamacare website, plugged in your top-secret information and found out how much you are paying.

And for some of you, it turns out you qualify for a government subsidy — making the premium sound like a bargain. But signing on that line to accept the government’s cash also means you’re making a deal with the devil.

The government hasn’t told you this subsidy comes with a price — even more intrusion into your everyday life, said Joshua Archambault, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Government Accountability.

“What people don’t know is that their potential for being audited goes up dramatically,” Archambault said. “You have to release twice as much personal information than an applicant for private insurance and, depending on your income, you could actually end up owing upwards of $10,000 or more.”

Archambault has studied Obamacare extensively and his findings can be found on website his foundation created, UncoverObamaCare.org. In a report co-written with a tax attorney, ObamaCare Tax Credits and the IRS, Archambault said President Obama has asked for $440 million and 2,000 more agents for the Internal Revenue Service, ostensibly to stem an increase in tax-credit fraud.

BOEHNER ON LENO: An embarrassing, wheezy, boozy debacle that proves he's unfit to be Speaker

Guest post by Ken McIntyre

House Speaker John Boehner didn’t show leadership in his late-night chat with Jay Leno by blaming fellow Republicans for a government “shutdown” over Obamacare, the CEO of The Heritage Foundation’s political action arm said today.

“By now, everyone should understand President Obama was the driving force behind the partial government shutdown because his first and only priority is protecting his failing health care law,” Michael A. Needham, chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America, told The Foundry.

The ever-shakier implementation of Obamacare proves that conservatives who tried to stop it were correct, Needham said.

Boehner, making his debut last night on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” said some in the Republican conference created “a very predictable disaster” in October by disagreeing “tactically” over how to delay Obamacare.

“You learn that a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk,” Boehner told Leno. “So I said, ‘Do you want to fight this fight? I’ll go fight the fight with you.’ But it was a very predictable disaster.”

The Ohio Republican also took a veiled swipe at Heritage Action [Ed: and other groups], which had argued in favor of efforts by conservatives to defund Obamacare. “My problem was with some Washington organizations who purport to represent the Tea Party, who I think mislead them,” he said. “There’s nothing I could do that was ever conservative enough for them.”

On What The Arrest Of Dinesh D'Souza Should Mean To Americans

As Maetenloch observes:

Coincidence: Hollywood's only conservative group is getting close IRS nonprofit scrutiny

Another Coincidence: James O'Keefe Group Being Audited by NY. Again.

Yet Another Coincidence: Dinesh D'Souza Indicted For Election Fraud

Still Another Coincidence: IRS Proposes New 501(c)(4) Rules That Just Happen to Cover Most Tea Party Groups

Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin's 'John Doe' Subpoenas

Secret investigations targeted coincidently at most prominent conservative groups in WI who can only now legally talk about their harassment. If you want to see what American fascism would look like, well this is it.


Fascism, straight up, to paraphrase a hideous, tattooed fascist.



Francis W. Porretto suspects that time is up. Based upon recent developments, he may be more right than any of us were willing to admit.


Larwyn's Linx: House Conservatives Plot Takedown of GOP Leadership's Amnesty Plans

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

House Conservatives Plot Takedown of Leaders' Amnesty Plans: Matthew Boyle
Feds Finally Crack Down on 2012 Campaign Finance Fraud: Nice Deb
Writing on the Wall Department: Liberty's Torch

An obscure French pamphlet from 1850 predicted today’s America: Blaze
Gallup Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Amnesty: RWN
Journo QOTD: "the most secretive WH I have ever dealt with": Sister Toldjah

Economy

Anecdotes From Home Depot Employee: Mish
Let’s compare Michelle Obama’s birthday party with Laura Bush’s: YoungCons
Emerging Market Contagion Spreads; Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey: Mish

I know how to ramp margins for one more year!: ScadInvest
Santelli Slams Central Bank Policies: ZH
27,000 Unemployment Recipients Received Someone Else’s Tax Info: NBC CT

Scandal Central

Dissent is Forbidden: Obama Looks to Jail Another Film Maker: JWF
Dinesh D’Souza Indictment Raises Questions: Christopher Spencer
Obama Goes After Me As His Political Enemy, Wants To Destroy My Freedoms: Walid Shoebat

Climate & Energy

Will Obama Discuss “Climate Change” During The 2014 SOTU?: RWN
Ron on Global Warming: Denny

Media

Love in the Time of Obama: Matthew Continetti
Obama blames unpopularity on Limbaugh, Fox News for making him into a ‘caricature’: BPR
Hilarious: State Senator names pro-gun bill “Piers Morgan Act”, Piers Morgan freaks out!: YoungCons

‘Helpless and Hopeless Creatures’: R.S. McCain
5 Horrific Examples of Cultural Decay in America: John Hawkins
Barack Obama's Legacy: The Establishment of Lawlessness in America: MB

Mark Steyn Out At NATIONAL REVIEW?: James Fulford
Brit Hume’s epic rant on abortion inspires Ted Cruz, goes viral: BPR
Hobby Lobby made a Video about Obamacare and Religious Freedom… and it’s Awesome: YoungCons

World

Benghazi Report: We’ve Been Lied To: Susan Brown
Iraqis flee as al-Qaida takes over: Allen West
EXCLUSIVE: New York Times Slammed for Bias on Billboard in Front of Times Square HQ: Algemeiner

Will Chuckie Schumer demand Tina Turner pay his Reich Flight Tax?: W.C. Varones
She Killed Three Men for ‘Fun’: R.S. McCain
Can a Tweet Put You in Prison? It Certainly Will in the UK: Daily Beast

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Coming To Google: Click On Ad, Get Free Ride To Merchant Or Restaurant?: Ginny Marvin
Beware! Bats hide in your jQuery!: SpiderLabs
Freebie: Roundicons Icon Set (60 Icons, PNG, SVG, EPS, AI): Smashing

Cornucopia

American Goskino …: Protein Wisdom
Did you see Lady M’s “shout out” to Big Guy’s dedicated “grassroots army?”: MOTUS
If this “NFL Bad Lip Reading” video doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will: YoungCons

Image: EXCLUSIVE: New York Times Slammed for Bias on Billboard in Front of Times Square HQ
Sponsored by: Send your pink slip to Mitch McConnell: support Matt Bevin for Senate

QOTD: "“I don't know why in the world House Republicans would move on immigration legislation in 2014,” said Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina.

Representative Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma said securing the border is a far more urgent priority than discussing the citizenship of illegal aliens in the U.S. because of the savage violence at the border.

“We have on the border of the United States 100,000 dead bodies just south of our border,” Bridenstine said. “We focus on Syria because that’s where the president wants to focus, while we have a crisis on our own southern border. And it’s because we have an insecure border.”" --Matthew Boyle

Friday, January 24, 2014

Convicted EPA Official: Yes, Obama Wants to Eradicate Capitalism.

And all this time I thought Democrats believed in free will and 'choice':

WASHINGTON — The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released today the deposition transcript of former Senior EPA official John Beale. Beale was sentenced to prison last month for defrauding the federal government of nearly $900,000 while posing as a secret agent for the CIA.

On page 21 of the deposition, Beale revealed the ultimate goal of the EPA and the Obama administration to “modify the DNA of the capitalist system.” The deposition reads:

“There were several phases of this project as we had outlined it. There’s an enormous boy of literature on the subject. Sometimes it’s referred to sustainability literature, sometimes it’s referred to green economics. And so phase 1 of the project was for me to become very familiar and transversant with that literature. Phase 2 would have been out and interviewing academic experts, business experts, people in other countries that are doing things.

  “And then phase 3 would have been coming up with specific proposals that could be – could have been proposed either legislatively or things which could have been done administratively to kind of modify the DNA of the capitalist system…”

IER Senior Vice President Dan Kish released the following statement in response to Beale’s sworn deposition:

“This is the smoking gun. For years, we have been saying the real agenda behind this administration’s energy and environmental policies is just what President Obama has said it is: to fundamentally transform America.

  “In his testimony under oath, Beale, perhaps unwittingly, has laid bare the administration’s end goal. The President’s policies are not about carbon, they are not about coal, they are not even about energy and the environment. They are about fundamentally altering the DNA of the capitalist system. These policies are not about energy, but power.

  “Beale was ordered by EPA administrator to head the agency’s climate change efforts. Today’s publicly released deposition means that McCarthy has many more questions to answer about her bad judgement regarding Beale and the true nature of the administration’s climate action plan.”

To read the full deposition, click here.

For those asleep at the switch over lo these many years: it's called the Cloward-Piven Strategy. Share with your family, friends and colleagues.

Time's a wastin'.

SHADES OF NAZI GERMANY: Chuck Schumer Calls for Government Suppression of Law-Abiding Citizens

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Free Speech: The IRS scandal is not only not over but is getting worse, with a call by New York's senior senator for the already-politicized agency to use its power to tax to destroy the conservative grass-roots movement.

Arguing that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision allowed Tea Party groups to "funnel millions of undisclosed dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government," Charles Schumer wants the IRS and other government agencies to take on the Tea Party through their administrative powers.

"It is clear that we will not pass anything legislatively as long as the House of Representatives is in Republican control, but there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies," Schumer said in a speech before the leftist think tank Center for American Progress.

Calling for the IRS to use its powers to resume war on the First Amendment and free speech he doesn't like in the hopes of electing more Democrats, Schumer said: "We must redouble those efforts immediately."

Schumer was the author of the 2010 Disclose Act that failed to make it through Congress but would have required the disclosure of corporate donors to tax-exempt organizations, and membership and donor lists of the groups running "issue" ads.

"The bill was designed to embarrass companies," Schumer admitted, and its "deterrent effect should not be underestimated."

Advocating the use of government power to harass and intimidate political opponents is nothing new to Schumer. Along with Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Al Franken of Minnesota, he sent a similar letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman in February 2012 asking the IRS to investigate 12 conservative groups he accused of violating their tax-exempt status and engaging in coordinated political activity.

This effort to use government power to fundamentally transform our political system more along the lines of the Venezuelan model includes new IRS rules for 501(c)(4) organizations that would redefine "candidate-related political activity" and make virtually everything such tax-exempt political groups do a taxable activity.

Bad (Blue) News for Mitch McConnell

BadBlue.com is a real-time news portal that promotes stories based upon social media discussion. The more discussion, the higher on the page the headlines rise.

Which means the top story earlier today was getting a boatload of social media buzz.


Listen to the interview.

Matt Bevin is the real deal.

If you have the wherewithal, consider helping him out and hand Mitch McConnell a nice fat pink slip.


OBAMAGENICS: The Holmes-Holdren Reproductive Services Act

Guest post by Lee Cary


ObamaGenics wouldn’t be a blue jeans clothing line featuring Mrs. Obama but a bold, new progressive initiative and a descendent of the 20th Century American eugenics movement – the subject of Edwin Black’s book “War Against The Weak.” 
Eugenics was, according to Paul A. Lombardo, author of “Three Generations of Imbeciles,” “entirely consistent with the even larger social movement that was key underpinning of eugenic activities: Progressivism.” (p. 17)

The eugenics movement marshaled support from agencies in 32 states where laws passed concerning the “socially inadequate.” The goal: Purge society of the “unfit.” The tool: Forced sterilizations that numbered about 60,000 between the adoption of the first state eugenics law (Indiana, 1907) and the repeal of the last law (N. Carolina, 2003).

California alone tallied 20,000 sterilizations between 1909 and 1979. But the California count hasn’t stopped. In July 2013, The Center for Investigative Reporting’s website revealed that “Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals.”   

Larwyn's Linx: The US Chamber of Commerce Versus America

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Nation

The US Chamber of Commerce Versus America: Michelle Malkin
Obama blows through debt ceiling in 3 months: WyBlog
Tea Party still living rent-free in Schmucky Schumer's head: JWF

CT citizens not registering “assault weapons”, “high-cap” magazines: Bob Owens
SCOTUS Abramski ruling could limit Obama's radical gun-control aims: Emily Miller
DOD Lets U.S. Soldiers Keep Religious Beards, Tattoos, Piercings: Breitbart

Wendy Davis Backers Now Mocking Greg Abbott for Being Paralyzed: LifeNews
Obamacare support hits (another) new low: Bluegrass Pundit
Wendy Davis Touts Her New Idea, Which Is Already State Law: Bryan Preston

News from around the (banana) Republic: Cold Fury
Fact-Free Liberals: Part IV: Thomas Sowell
Quotes: Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood: Diane Dew

Economy

Union leaders getting rich with money taken from members: RWN
Obamas, Bidens spent $295,437 on just one vacation weekend: Paul Bedard
White House warns GOP: Raise the borrowing limit without strings: Times

Scandal Central

Ted Cruz Calls for Special Prosecutor to Investigate IRS: RWN
Of Course: Conservative Group of Actors Being Harassed by the IRS: JWF
Who Paid for Michelle's 50th Birthday Bash? Carney Won't Say.: BPR

Dinesh D’Souza Indicted for Campaign Finance Fraud: Colin Campbell
D'Souza Co-Producer Claims Indictment Politically Motivated!: Scoop
Look At What Wendy Davis Left Off of Her Website: Bryan Preston

Geithner Threatened Standard & Poor's With Retaliation After Downgrade: IBD
New From Citizens United: Hillary’s Benghazi Testimony, One Year Later : Scoop
Fast and Furious: DoJ Inspector General looking into missing third gun: Toldjah

Climate & Energy

Global Warming Scientist To Be Cross-examined Under Oath: Ace
Europe Retreats From Clean-Energy Ambitions: NatlJrnl

Media

AWESOME: CNN interviews Matt Bevin on his race against Mitch McConnell: Scoop
Wendy Davis Fanboi Andrea Mitchell Downplays Dishonest Bio: 'She Slightly Altered Her Resume': MRC
Excited Chris Matthews: Hillary Might Win 60% of the Vote in 'Sweeping' 2016 Landslide!: MRC

Prospects For A Resurgent Tea Party In 2014: Sarah Marie Brenner
Government Privacy Board: NSA Metadata Collection Is Illegal: Ace
Sundance Film Review #1: Afronauts: MOTUS

World

Obama Administration to Israel: Call Off the Jews, Please: Seth Mandel
The world's most ancient Christian communities are being destroyed and no one cares: The Week
Sweden turning to capitalism as money for government spending runs out: Knight

Obama's Iran nuke includes secret side deal: FAM
Military pulls MRI machines for treating troops from war zone: AirForceTimes
‘Top Secret’ Documents Implicate Obamas, Clintons: Shoebat

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

CNN Sites Get Hacked: Syrian Electronic Army claims responsibility: Techland
Google's ready to give away over $2.7 million to folks that hack Chrome OS successfully: Michael Gorman
Developer tells Google about Chrome browser listening risk: Nancy Owano

Cornucopia

Who Goes Nazi?: Dorothy Thompson, Harper's (August 1941)
If Alison Howard Is With Us, Who Can Be Against Us?: Robert Charette
Barack Hussein Soebarkah?: Jason Kissner

Image: If Alison Howard Is With Us, Who Can Be Against Us?
Sponsored by: Send your pink slip to Mitch McConnell: support Matt Bevin for Senate

QOTD: "...the Chamber [of Crony Capitalism] has already spent close to $50 million lobbying for amnesty, and you will realize that the fix is in. All of the top House Republicans – Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy, and Ryan – along with the largest establishment lobbying empire, plan to push amnesty even with Obama in the White House.

Let this seep in for a few minutes. The entire force of the GOP establishment is being applied towards Obama’s most cherished agenda item for his second term, not towards fighting Obamacare and the debt ceiling. While Americans are concerned about out-of-control government, Obamacare, debt, and jobs, these clowns are concerned about illegal immigrants, foreign lobbies, and special interests." --Daniel Horowitz

Thursday, January 23, 2014

EXCERPT: Live Q&A with Edward Snowden: Thursday 23-Janury

Edward Snowden:

Not all spying is bad. The biggest problem we face right now is the new technique of indiscriminate mass surveillance, where governments are seizing billions and billions and billions of innocents’ communication every single day. This is done not because it’s necessary ... but because new technologies make it easy and cheap.

I think a person should be able to dial a number, make a purchase, send an SMS, write an email, or visit a website without having to think about what it’s going to look like on their permanent record. Particularly when we now have courts, reports from the federal government, and even statements from Congress making it clear these programs haven’t made us any more safe, we need to push back.

This is a global problem, and America needs to take the lead in fixing it. If our government decides our Constitution’s 4th Amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures no longer applies simply because that’s a more efficient means of snooping, we’re setting a precedent that immunizes the government of every two-bit dictator to perform the same kind of indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance of entire populations that the NSA is doing.

It’s not good for our country, it’s not good for the world, and I wasn’t going to stand by and watch it happen, no matter how much it cost me. The NSA and the rest of the US Intelligence Community is exceptionally well positioned to meet our intelligence requirements through targeted surveillance — the same way we’ve always done it — without resorting to the mass surveillance of entire populations.

IT'S OFFICIAL: This sign from the Pro-Life March has gone viral

Via @VictoriaTaft:



BEND OVER, AMERICA: Paul Ryan Introduces GOP Plan For Amnesty

Preamble:

Let this seep in for a few minutes. The entire force of the GOP establishment is being applied towards Obama’s most cherished agenda item for his second term, not towards fighting Obamacare and the debt ceiling. While Americans are concerned about out-of-control government, Obamacare, debt, and jobs, these clowns are concerned about illegal immigrants, foreign lobbies, and special interests. --Daniel Horowitz

I'd encourage you to read the comments at Yahoo! Finance, which are running -- oh -- about 100-to-1 against.

Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday told Texas business leaders eager for changes to immigration laws that House Republicans will tackle reform in pieces and ruled out negotiations with the Senate on its comprehensive measure.

The Wisconsin Republican didn't offer a timetable ahead of next week's GOP House caucus annual retreat, where Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said immigration will top the agenda.

Supporters of an immigration overhaul are renewing hopes that 2014 could bring the first sweeping changes in decades. Ryan expressed optimism at a luncheon hosted by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce but reiterated an insistence among GOP lawmakers that reforms happen piecemeal.

"Let's just say it's eight bills — I don't know. These will represent a smart approach ... We don't want to get into a situation where we end up with some big 1,000-page bill. But we do realize there are things that have to be sequenced."

...President Barack Obama has signaled he's open to a piecemeal approach but has said all the components must be done in the end. Ryan said Boehner will lay out principles that will include border security and enforcement of immigration laws — an area where Ryan says Republicans "have a hard time trusting" Obama.

Ryan, who heads the House Budget Committee, favors a way for immigrants living in the country illegally to "come out of the shadows" without granting amnesty. He told the audience that immigration "is good for America" and the economy but said the government must keep track of who's coming and going.

So the establishment GOP, thanks to tens of millions of dollars slathered around by the Chamber of Crony Capitalism, intends to drop Obamacare as an issue and jam Amnesty down America's throat.

Oh, and it's not just Ryan saying it. Number three doofus Kevin McCarthy, the political equivalent of a ventriloquist's dummy, is on the same page:

The third-ranking House Republican, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), said he backs granting legal status, but not a new pathway to citizenship, to millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally... “The principles aren’t written yet, but in my personal belief, I think it’ll go with legal status that will allow you to work and pay taxes,” McCarthy said.

Couple this with the news that the Chamber has already spent close to $50 million lobbying for amnesty, and you will realize that the fix is in. All of the top House Republicans – Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy, and Ryan – along with the largest establishment lobbying empire, plan to push amnesty even with Obama in the White House.

Let this seep in for a few minutes. The entire force of the GOP establishment is being applied towards Obama’s most cherished agenda item for his second term, not towards fighting Obamacare and the debt ceiling. While Americans are concerned about out-of-control government, Obamacare, debt, and jobs, these clowns are concerned about illegal immigrants, foreign lobbies, and special interests.

So they're in favor of legalization, but not citizenship? That's as much of an oxymoron as "Congressional Ethics".

Here's a hint, boys. No amount of money from the Chamber of Commerce will be enough to save Ryan, Boehner and McCarthy from the political wrath of the American people.

No amount.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

15 Startling Photos: the Bloody, Anti-Russian Riots in the Ukraine

Two protesters died in Kiev today as anti-government protests intensified.

The crisis began in November when President Yanukovich decided to shun a trade pact with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia.

Events became more violent on Sunday after the opposition called for a mass rally to protest against new legislation coming into force on Wednesday which will ban anti-government protests.

Photos from the last several days:



The 3 Types of "Income Inequality" Religious Extremists

Guest post by Biff Spackle

With disturbing regularity, pundits great and meager decry a familiar and reviled foe of progress known as "income inequality."

Under the rubric that income inequality is inherently evil, unfair, or overly capitalistic, three distinct sub-sects of this odd religion have emerged.

The "Wall Street Needs More Regulation" Tribe: Tyler Cowan of George Mason University is emblematic of this group. Cowan is concerned with the growing disparity of wealth between the top one percent and the remainder of society. He believes it is linked to structural problems with our society -- especially Wall Street's ne'er-do-well financial engineers -- that can only be solved by big government.

In 2011, for instance, Cowan wrote that he was unsure whether "the new financial regulation bill [Dodd-Frank] will help" and offered several endorsements of its key features. Cowan seems to have missed the century-long tidal wave of regulation already levied upon the financial industry with government inevitably destroying that which it claims to protect (housing, student loans, etc.).

The thousand-page Dodd-Frank bill -- which was never read by lawmakers -- confers immense and unconstitutional powers on an unelected bureaucrat (Richard Cordray, the head of the CPFB). The law, in fact, nationalizes even greater swaths of the financial industry, hamstrings the free market, and creates yet another massive, authoritarian, Politburo-like policy-maker.

It is but one more complex spiderweb of regulatory edict that is certain to fail just as surely as Fannie Mae imploded in 2008.

Never does Cowan publicly list America's richest people. Of the top 10 wealthiest individuals in America, three are self-made (Gates, Ellison, and Bloomberg). Of the next 10, four are self-made (Bezos, Page, Brin and Zuckerberg, who is 29 years old). In fact, if you descend down the Forbes 400 list, you will find self-made billionaire after self-made billionaire and few of the Wall Street hedge fund operators and bankers Cowan so decries.

In fact, Cowan's vaunted income inequality metric has been driven not by Wall Street but by technological innovation and the network effect.

It has given a bright 23-year old the opportunity to turn down an offer of $3 billion for a company he founded just two years ago.

It has given a bright 17-year old the opportunity to sell a mobile app he developed in high school for $30 million.

In fact, a vast, interconnected, and vibrant fabric of computing machines has and will continue to revolutionize value creation in the United States. And somehow Cowan missed it.

The "Robots Will Steal All Our Jobs" Tribe: Mike Shedlock is the archetype of the robophobes, publishing one fear-mongering article after another, seemingly on a weekly basis. A sampling of his headlines may help offer some perspective into the mindset of this particular brand of Luddite:

Meet "Baxter" the Robot Out to Get Your Minimum-Wage, No Benefits, Part-Time Job, Because He's Still Much Cheaper; Fed Cannot Win a Fight Against Robots
Carl the Robot Bartender Mixes Drinks and Chats With Customers
Future of Medicine: Meet Sedasys - Your New Robot Anesthesiologist
Robotic Outsourcing; Food Preparation Robots Invade China, Japan, US; Who is to Blame, and What Can be Done About It?
$210,000 Cow Milking Robot; Presenting the "Astronaut A4 - A Natural Way of Milking"; How Far Off is the Completely Robotic Farm?

There are more. But the last one is particularly striking: since the dawn of human history, increased automation has marked the cultivation of food. From men tilling fields and picking crops to massive farm machinery and crop-dusters, mechanization of farming has improved the lives of billions of people.

And somehow "robots" will disrupt that trend?

Each new innovation -- a robot is but one example -- creates entire new ecosystems to plan, design, build, and service.

The 1730 invention of the flying shuttle dramatically accelerated the process of weaving and production of cloth. This innovation in turn led to incredible new opportunities for entrepreneurs to supply raw materials, service machinery, create new families of finished products, and the like.

You may know it as the Industrial Revolution.

And always the Luddites like Shedlock predict the demise of good-paying jobs, whether on the farm or at the loom. Never do they seem to contemplate that the process of creative destruction renders obsolete certain roles while simultaneously creating vast and unpredictable opportunities.

Whereas the blacksmith and the elevator operator no longer appear in our society, tens of thousands of new types of jobs have more than supplanted them.

Even the lowly pencil defies the ability of any human to fully comprehend -- let along perform -- its construction.

Automation in the form of ubiquitous robotics is absolutely no different than any other revolutionary improvement in speed, quality and delivery of products and services.

It would seem that Shedlock and his ilk somehow missed the Industrial Revolution and every other transformative period of human history.

The "Statist" Tribe: Paul Krugman, on the other hand, belongs to the dogmatic school of progressive thought. In this case, you can read progressive as Doctrinaire Marxist.

Krugman, whose inane posturing and reflexive hypocrisy have been thorougly exposed as pure, unvarnished idiocy by historian Niall Ferguson, pretends to belong to the Cowan tribe.

But his cheerleading of Communists like Bill DeBlasio gives away the game. Krugman is a Statist; his religion is government; and any of his bleatings -- income inequality or otherwise -- are designed to lobby for increasingly centralized and authoritarian government.

As the French painfully discovered with their one year flirtation with Marxism, collectivism can't work, won't work, and has never worked in all of human history.

And somehow Paul Krugman and his fellow ideologues missed that part of history class.

What's 1,000 times worse than income inequality? Income equality.

In truth, North Korea represents the ideal for those who fight for income equality with its one man at the top worth tens of billions of dollars while the entire civilian population starves, largely impoverished.

In spite of the Democrats' efforts, there is no better society on the planet to simultaneously improve society and to enrich oneself than the United States.

Income inequality -- in fact, wild inequality -- is healthy and desirable.

Perhaps one day the would-be regulators, the Luddites, and the Marxists will pick up some history books and discover the wonders of the free market. But, then again, I'm a dreamer.