Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Labor unions hid $3.3 billion they spent on elections with the Labor Department instead of filing them with the FEC.

"Union spending has reached $4.4 billion over six years, not the $1.1 billion previously reported. Even the proletariat favorite the Service Employees International Union, which proudly waves the flag of entry-level employment, proves that you can get very, very rich off of poor people."

Union fat cats are just as prolific at looting and buying elections as corporate fat cats.

ECONOMY:

Nine of the top 10 states for business dominated by Republicans.

"It is indisputable, however, that most of the top states that occupy the top of the list feature lower tax burdens, little union power, and bureaucratic regimes that are less inclined to get in the way of economic growth."

This is another example of the real, if slight, difference between Republicans and Democrats at the state level.

Unemployment is way worse than the government tells us.

The coming crash will take one of two forms:

"Regular readers of my work know that I have been outlining (and warning people about) two potential economic scenarios; as the West’s terminally-ill economies lurch towards their final collapse. These hollowed-out, debt-saturated economies would (will) either crash under the weight of their own insolvency; or our governments will create a hyperinflation death-spiral – in a last desperate attempt to avoid that bankruptcy event."
"While both paths represent utter, economic suicide; the road to ruin is much different in these two scenarios. This has severely limited the investment options and strategies for any prudent investor. Forced not only to “play defense” with our investing but to prepare for two more-or-less opposite events has made precious metals the one asset class which can protect investors from either of these fates."

This echoes what David Stockman also said:

"What most other economic commentators still totally fail to grasp is that the terminal, economic death-spiral in which virtually all Western economies are now trapped bears absolutely no resemblance to any other deflationary collapse in the limited experience of these pseudo-experts. In a “normal” deflationary episode, by definition the value of the currency in circulation rises. This makes that currency an effective “safe haven”.
Similarly, in previous deflationary episodes when our economies were still solvent, bonds also represented a safe haven: loaning money to the most reliable debtors, sovereign governments. Neither of these parameters exists today."

This is why predictions are so hard.

"Understand that what looms ahead of us is an economic cataclysm more severe than anything we have even read about in our history books, let alone experienced in our own lives."

It's going to hurt.

This total disconnect from reality is freaky.

"In Europe, a lot of people have finally started waking up to this reality; they at least understand that they’re dealing with serious problems that aren’t going away.
In the United States, I’m not so sure.
I just spent about a month on the ground in the US, and I came away with a feeling of tremendous discomfort. Never before have I seen such a massive disconnect between sentiment and reality.
Everywhere I went– Dallas, Los Angeles, Reno/Lake Tahoe, Denver, New York, and San Francisco, everything appeared to be fine. Shops and restaurants were full, the mood was light, and people seemed fairly optimistic that things were OK.
There was definitely no air of doom and gloom like there is here in Europe.
And yet, the real story in the US is disastrous:"

Certainly the media and the schools go a long way toward explaining this phenomenon, but not all the way. The problems are visible and the information is available to people with open minds.

"The massive disconnect between what the data tell us and people’s optimism are deeply concerning; it suggests that the majority of people are completely oblivious to what’s happening."

Yep.

TAX AND SPEND:

Six charts illustrate the welfare state run amok.

People flee Maryland's high taxes.

"“Virginia is now home to 11,455 former Marylanders, taking $390 million from the tax rolls during this three-year period,” the group said in a statement.
The Old Line State raised taxes and fees 24 times since 2007, taking $2.4 billion out of the economy, according to Change Maryland. One seminal tax was the “millionaires tax,” which imposed an added 6.5 percent tax on individuals making more than $1 million."

People don't like having their money stolen.

What are the consequences of Amazon paying state sales tax? Amazon is moving in and driving local businesses out of business. Why wouldn't it? If the government forces them pay sales tax as if they were a brick and mortar company, they might as well become a brick and mortar company. A huge, distributed, brick and mortar company that can undercut the prices of local stores. The plutocrats win again.

Understanding Obama's language and position on the Bush tax cuts.

"To begin with, Obama -- and nearly all media coverage of the decade-old tax cuts -- continues to discuss the "cost" of tax cuts as if Washington had first dibs on your money. Is the president arguing that the base line of spending includes all wealth and that anything the Internal Revenue Service doesn't take is something we have to "pay" for?"

Yes. Obama is a Marxist. He believes all wealth belongs to the state, and the state generously allows people to keep a little bit of what they earn. He believes the state allows rich people to keep too much, so he wants to raise their taxes. The same with the media.

REGULATION:

Obama shuts down Shamu show.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Laws in the US don't apply to oligarchs.

"Are you surprised to learn that [MF Global] customers still have not received their cash which regulators had assured them was sitting in segregated accounts? They are now hoping for a partial recovery in bankruptcy court. Does it surprise you that Corzine has not been charged with any crime and faces no liability for the money lost by innocent and unsuspecting customers? He has actually rented new office space on Wall Street and continues to exist as a pillar of finance in the US. As for the $1,600,000,000 lost, he is deeply sympathetic."

It's good to be the king. This might be the most important point in this essay:

"Between the CFTC, SEC, FINRA, and NASD there are bureaucratic mules of mediocre intelligence by the thousands tasked with regulating the industry. Instead of protecting you, they spend all of their time preventing people from entering the business in order to protect the oligarchs. "

That's their job, and they're very good at it.

Banks scamming customers on allocation and storing of gold.

"We (just) had an example of a client moving a substantial amount (of gold) from a Swiss bank to our vaults, and we found out the bank didn't have the gold. This was supposed to be allocated gold, but the bank didn't have it. We didn't understand why there was a delay (in our vaults receiving the gold), but eventually we found out why there was a delay (the bank didn't have the gold)."

Just avoid banks altogether.

EDUCATION:

What did we get for the government stealing twice as much money from us ostensibly for education?

"For example, the average 17-year-old’s NAEP score in reading back in 1971 was 285. In 2008 it was 286.
That’s what we got for doubling our education spending.
When you compare the U.S. to countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the results are even worse. Education reform activist Bill Costello points out that our annual “per-pupil spending in 2006 was 41 percent higher than the OECD average of $7,283, and yet American students still placed in the bottom quarter in math and in the bottom third in science among OECD countries.”
Or as they say down at offices of the teachers union, “money well spent!”"

No doubt.

HEALTH CARE:

Sorry, Judge, but the US became a dictatorship long ago. Richard Nixon created the EPA and began regulating Americans on his own authority. How is that not a dictator? I'm sure there are earlier examples. Heck, Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase without a constitutional amendment even though he knew he needed one.

WAR ON DRUGS:

While Americans are calling for a border fence, Mexican drug dealers are digging tunnels. And you know they're smuggling people through those tunnels too. I keep saying that the illegal immigrants piggy-back on the much more lucrative drug smuggling business. If you want to stop illegal immigration, legalize drugs.

WAR:

Nice summary of what neocons have wrought:

"In the shock of 9/11, George W. Bush was converted to global democratic revolution "to end tyranny in our world." And off we marched.
And after decade-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we reaped the harvest: 6,500 dead, 40,000 wounded, trillions in debt, a nation divided and pandemic hatred of America across the Islamic world."

Thanks, government.

Syrian opposition leaders exposed as CIA operatives. So the CIA is waging outright war in Syria.

POLICE STATE:

Stealing cars seems to be the government's newest racket.

The all-seeing eye I used to write stories about is here.

Here's another good reminder that laws are for us serfs, not our rulers.

"Waste no sympathy or admiration on Carol Price, the passenger who complained about her gate-rape to one of the TSA’s supervising sickos. Carol had called for said sicko so she could report her search as "inappropriate" (sic for "a criminal assault"); apparently, while explaining, she also demonstrated the molestation she’d just suffered for Supervising Sicko’s benefit – on Supervising Sicko. This "violence" – yes, the TSA’s precise term for doing unto its lackeys what they do unto us – got her arrested. Leviathan has scheduled her trial for July 3."

TSA can molest you, but you cannot respond in kind.

POLITICS:

Joe Biden stole my line about Obama being Bush on steroids, but he applied it to Romney. Apparently lots of people have used that line, but my first in print was Jan. 17, 2009, before Obama was inaugurated.

Thanks to the Bilderbergers, Obama is the first sitting president to be out-raised while running for re-election.

LOCAL:

OMG, the city is going to tear up more streets. They won't be happy until all the roads in town are impassible.

MISC:

More criticism of the War of 1812.

I have zero confidence in a report from corrupt ex-FBI director Freeh. This report stinks of corruption and propaganda. That Penn State officials allowed such a corrupt political hack do this investigation tells me the government really had them over a barrel and is screwing them for all they are worth. The regents probably made a deal to scapegoat Paterno and trash his reputation forever to save themselves from being prosecuted. I don't know if the government is carrying out a vendetta against Penn State and Paterno for something that happened in the past or if the government big-wigs just think that trashing Penn State and Paterno as thoroughly as possible is the best way to advance their personal interests.

For whatever reason, Google didn't allow me to find the term 'Freeh' when I searched this blog. Eventually I found it by brute force. This just backs up my opinion that government agents and their corporate subjects are killing Joe Paterno and Penn State for personal gain. Here's the article tried to link from the beginning:
"Why is Louis Freeh Suddenly a Hero?" As I wrote above, he's not.