Monday, November 30, 2015

Local

Miamisburg to put taxpayers in debt to keep company from moving.

DP&L asks permission to raise electric rates.

Environment

When you realize the IPCC has nothing to do with science and everything to do with government, the global warming fraud becomes clear.

Immigration

Scandinavian countries shut borders in response to terrorist attack and refugee crisis.

Economy

Alcohol manufacturer bubble is not limited to Ohio.

Despite low oil prices and the pain they're causing the Saudis, they plan to build the world's tallest building in another signal of the skyscraper curse.

Target website crashes under cyber-Monday load as other struggle.

Businesses shrink products while keeping the price the same to hide inflation.

This article explains how printing money creates booms, busts and destroys wealth.
"Their zero-interest-rate policies caused a boom, which led manufacturers to overestimate demand… and induced them to borrow money at low rates to increase capacity… which led to an increase in steel production.
The increased supply led to a bust when real demand turned out to be less than projected."
Not just steel.

Free trade did not wreck American manufacturing. It boosts it.

Health Care

Vitamin D deficiency linked to premature births.

Virtual doctor visits sound silly. On the plus side, maybe people will realize the silliness, do research and become more healthy.

New contact lenses improve vision by changing shape of eye.

Malnutrition rampant in America.

Expiration dates mean next to nothing.

GM humans on the way in a couple years.

War

The War on Terror creates more terror.
"If that sounds harsh, consider the recently-released 2015 Global Terrorism Index report. The report shows that deaths from terrorism have increased dramatically over the last 15 years – a period coinciding with the “war on terrorism” that was supposed to end terrorism.

According to the latest report:
Terrorist activity increased by 80 per cent in 2014 to its highest recorded level. …The number of people who have died from terrorist activity has increased nine-fold since the year 2000.
The world’s two most deadly terrorist organizations, ISIS and Boko Haram, have achieved their prominence as a direct consequence of US interventions." 
Exactly.

The phony war on ISIS.
"“The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time. Why did we pass this information to the Americans? Either they were not controlling what their allies were doing, or they are leaking this information all over the place.”"
It gets worse.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Police State

Recent, famous warriors admit you can't stop terrorism.

Health Care

Reasons not to get  flu shot.
"Not so fast, says holistic family physician David Brownstein, M.D. “In the past, the flu vaccine hasn’t worked for most of us, and there’s no indication that it will this year,” he tells Newsmax Health.
“The flu vaccine has been around for over 30 years, and there is not one single study showing that any flu vaccine has helped prevent the flu in the majority who receive it,” says Dr. Brownstein, author of the newsletter Dr. Brownstein’s Natural Way to Health.
“Nor has it been shown to prevent flu complications, such as pneumonia, hospitalizations and death, in well over 90 percent who receive it. As usual, they are taking their best guess as to which strain of flu will be predominant, but they have no way of being sure,” he says.
Even when the flu vaccine matches the circulating strains of influenza, the shot performs poorly, and does not offer 100 percent protection, Dr. Brownstein argues."
But it causes side effects.

Politics

Because of their similarities; both love growing government, claim government is the solution to all problems, love warfare and welfare; I often call the last 15 years the Bush-Obama administration. Gary North uses the same term and believes the American people, at least Republican voters, get it.

Misc

Even Attila the Hun had had is good points.

War

To deal with the shortage of drone pilots, the Air Force employs civilians for surveillance only.

More on the French history of aggressive war.

Environment

Bill Gates headline speaker at the Paris global warming fraud summit.

France uses emergency powers to quell global warming protesters.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Regulation

Government airbags kill.

Education

Government schools stink.

Environment

Increasing CO2 increases plankton growth, refuting another fraud prediction.

Comparing the global warming movement to Jim Jones's cult.

Tax and Spend

Government controls the Catholic Church through funding.

Police State

NSA transfers bulk collection of data to telecoms this weekend. Big deal. The data is still collected and government still has access.

War

French blamed for bombing school in Mosul, killing twelve schoolchildren.

It's NATO and Israel on the side of jihadists against Syria and Russia in Syria.

Government lies about its war against ISIS.

Did Turkey shoot down the Russian fighter because US was considering allying with Russia after the Paris attacks?

Turkey funds ISIS, and the Russians know the attack was premeditated. More.

Unjustifiable panic caused by Paris attacks.

Sports

ESPN magazine writer recognizes economic and social cost of military promoting war at sports events.

Economy

Economics is about scarcity, property and relationships, but also trade-offs.
"“It is most valuable to think that there are two conversations happening during every monetary — or property — exchange.
“The first conversation is the one I am having with myself; when I give $3 for this fancy cup of coffee I am saying, “I value that coffee more than the $3 in my pocket.”
“The second conversation is the one the café owner is having with himself. He is saying, “I value your $3 more than the coffee I have for sale.”" 
Every transaction proves value is subjective. If value was objective, nobody would trade.

Finally somebody has exposed the fraud of Bill Gates's supposed philanthropy.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Environment

Demand for coal is growing, disappointing greens.

CO2 emissions flatten as the economy stalls.

Federal Reserve

You know the Fed's days are numbered when leftists like Ralph Nader question its actions.

Media

In case anybody doesn't get it, Donald Sutherland explains The Hunger Games is an allegory about US war and oppression.

War

China builds killer robots to fight terrorists. And others.

Turkey's reckless behavior.

Regulation

Another benefit for consumers from Uber: London taxis forced to take credit cards to compete.

Tesla Model X also fails US emissions standards.

Health Care

Budget tea bags contain poison, fluoride.

Socialism

Thanksgiving is a celebration of the triumph of free enterprise over socialism.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Tax and Spend

Freddie Mac hands out hundreds of billions in subsidies to billionaires.

Immigration

Refugees will overwhelm European welfare states.

Politics

Catalonian government approves plan to secede from Spain by 2017. Let's hope they do it and ignite a secession firestorm.

Economy

Another bogus statistic about US poverty claims 1.1 million Americans don't have a toilet.

I've warned about the car bubble for years. The loans are insane.

The economy keeps falling.
"Caterpillar (CAT) posted a disastrous 16% decline in worldwide retail sales this morning, meaning that its sales have now fallen for 35 straight months. As Zero Hedge noted, not only did US retail sales finally rollover and drop by 8% compared to prior year, but the rest of the world was a veritable bath of yellow blood:
…….. sales elsewhere around the globe were a complete debacle: Asia/Pacific (mostly China) was down -28%, a dramatic drop from the -17% a month ago, EAME dropping -13%, and Latin America down -36%…"
Yikes.

Federal Reserve

Swiss impose negative interest rate.

Education

Out of control student loans.
"The federal government began lending to students in 1993, pursuant to a reauthorized Higher Education Act, signed by Bush Sr. From 1993 to 2006, the federal government's student loan portfolio swelled, from $353 million to $109 billion, which amounted to 23% of total student loan debt."
Wow
"Since [2010], the federal government's share of all student loan debt has exploded up to 70%, with $885 billion worth of student loans."
Double wow.

Feds declare boy can shower naked with naked girls because he wishes he was female.

Environment

Researchers discover pattern that exposes corrupt scientific papers.

War

Downed Russian pilot says Turks broadcast no warning before shooting down his plane.

Russian jet posed no threat to Turkey.

Putin calls Turkey and allies accomplices of terrorists, and he's right.

The mainstream media discovers the US created ISIS to take over eastern Syria and western Iraq.
"A revealing light on how we got here has now been shone by a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became Isis) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.
Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”."
Oops.
"Which is pretty well exactly what happened two years later. The report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language. But the implications are clear enough. A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria." 
It's about time they figured it out.

Great observation:
"Saddam Hussein was the first Frankenstein’s monster U.S. policy created in Iraq, al-Qaida was the second, and now ISIS is the third." 
True.

French troops are all over Africa, so its military spending is high.

Pat Buchanan exposes the exaggeration of terrorist power.

Chart of deaths from terrorism shows deaths growing, so the war on terror is a failure. 


Police State

Police steal more stuff from Americans than criminals. More.

Florida police bust up senior citizen card game.

Cops are equal opportunity oppressors.
"A January 2014 Huffington Post headline read: “Nearly Half Of Black Males, 40 Percent Of White Males Are Arrested By Age 23: Study.”"
It doesn't fit the narrative.

Misc

Astronomers mistake filamentary Birkeland currents around planets and stars for dark matter.

Local

Ridiculous claims about hunger in Dayton area.
"The numbers are alarming. The most recent statistics show that 130,000 people are food insecure in the greater Dayton area. That equates to one out of every five people. Most heart-wrenching of all, 35,000 of them are children."
Ridiculous.

The rowing community, smaller even than the bike community, will benefit from river run. The idea that this will boost the economy is absurd. There's no business on the river to take advantage of the dozen people who will show up each week.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

You're more likely to die from a mass shooting in western Europe than the US. It's too bad this analysis is flawed by the selection of European countries, only counting those with mass shooting.

Health Care

Eight-year-old Americans show signs of heart disease.

Antibiotic resistance will get worse, and treating superbugs with antibiotics may make people sicker beacause antibiotics trash the natural immune system.

German researchers claim marijuana treats ADHD better than Adderall.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Police State

TSA strikes for higher wages.

Contrasting the deep state with the democratic state.

Socialism

The pledge of allegiance used to include a Nazi-style salute.

Environment

Only three white rhinos left.

Well-timed meta-study says there's no pause in global warming. Wrong.

Ultra-rich get richer off global warming fraud.

Having learned their lesson from the last end of snow prediction, new end of snow prediction puts date decades in the future.

NOAA whistleblowers dispute pause-buster study.

El Nino is not living up to exaggerated predictions.

Frauds exploit Paris terrorist attack in hopes of obtaining an agreement.

Prince Charles blames Syrian war on global warming. That's based on study claiming global warming will make Middle East uninhabitable. Sahara became desert 6000 years ago without SUVs.

Global warming blamed for rise of Hitler and Mussolini.

Regulation

Copyright aggression gets more goofy.

Economy

Yahoo risks alienating users by blocking access to email for users using ad blockers.

German newspaper company which did the same claims success.

War

NATO member Turkey shoots down Russian jet near Syrian border. Yikes. Extremely disturbing is an understatement.
"President Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian television shortly after the plane went down and was clearly furious, denouncing a “stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices” and warning that there would be “severe consequences.”"
Accurate and scary.
"Then there is the problem with where the plane actually came down. Admittedly the aircraft would not necessarily plummet straight down to mark the spot where it was hit, but the remains appear to have wound up comfortably inside Syria. A video of the plane’s downing also seems to show it being hit and then going directly down." 
This stinks.
"Why a relatively minor incursion, if it indeed took place, would warrant a shoot down has to be questioned unless it was actually a Turkish plan to engage a Russian plane as soon as it could be plausibly claimed that there had been a violation of airspace. Why would the Turks do that? Because Russia is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, apparently with considerable success, and Turkey has been extremely persistent in their demands that he be removed."
Turkey's rulers want to drag us into a war with Russia.

More.
"So here we have it: US-backed jihadists, including al-Qaeda, are using weapons supplied by Washington to fight the Russians and the Syrian government. A cozy arrangement, indeed." 
Nuts.

Claim there's no such thing as ISIS.  US rulers always want to centralize everything. This is like the kingpin myth in drone warfare and the war on drugs.

The CIA created the modern jihad movement to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan.

Washington is behind the wars in the Middle East.

Contrary to claim, Snowden isn't responsible for Paris attacks.

Health Care

Most US seeds are immersed in pesticides.

Conflicts of interest in science.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Education

School threatens nine-year-old with sexual harassment charge for puppy-love note.

Tax and Spend

Phizer inverts to Ireland to cut tax bill.

Wireless taxes skyrocket.

War

A new strategy of our rulers is to start a war somewhere, say Syria, then blame the war on global wawrming.

Much like Republican warmongers, Hillary wants to fight two wars in Syria, one against ISIS and the other against Assad, Iran and Russia.

Maybe the long history of French military oppression in the Middle East and Africa motivated the Paris terrorist attacks.

War profiteers and spies profit off Paris attacks.

Misc

Now scientists believe dark matter forms filaments around planets like Birkeland currents.

Discovery of syphilis in native American 170 years before Columbus refutes theory Columbus introduced it to Americas.

Local

Sinclair joins exclusive national drone organization.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Police State

NSA whistleblowers reveal greedy NSA killed effective anti-terrorist program because it wasn't expensive enough.

Local

Nearly 500 drivers harassed at checkpoints for one DUI arrest.

Health Care

Device filters blue light from TVs.

Bacteria evolve to resist antibiotics of last resort. Thank government health care for unkillable superbugs.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Environment

UK plans to shut all coal plants by 2025.

Regulation

Taxi owners sue NYC over Uber.

Article inadvertently admits net neutrality is uneconomical, sort of upside-down mercantilism.
"The rules, which telecom companies are trying to overturn in court, forbid phone and cable companies to accept money from Internet businesses like Amazon to deliver their videos to customers ahead of data from other companies. The rules, however, do not explicitly prevent telecom companies from coming up with "zero rating" plans like the one T-Mobile announced that use them treat, or rate, some content as free. "Everybody likes free stuff, but the problem with such plans is that they allow phone and cable companies to steer their users to certain types of content. As a result, customers are less likely to visit websites that are not part of the free package.""
So what?

Economy

Apple losing its way on UI design.

Misc

Discovery pin Chile ushes back colonization of Americas to 19,000 years ago. More.

Confirmation bias causes astronomers to believe they've confirmed the establishment theory of planet formation by coalescing gas, but they haven't.

War

More effective than government, Anonymous disables 1000 ISIS twitter accounts.

Former CIA director blames Snowden for Paris attacks. Scapegoat for government failure.

Every terrorist attack proves the war on terror is a failure.
"Since 2001 the US has expended enormous efforts to kill a handful of men – bin Laden, al-Zarqawi, al-Awlaki, and this weekend, Jihadi John. Others, many without names, were killed outside of media attention, or were tortured to death, or are still rotting in the offshore penal colony of Guantanamo, or the dark hell of the Salt Pit in Afghanistan.
And it has not worked, and Paris this weekend, and the next one somewhere else sometime soon, are the proof.
We gave up many of our freedoms in America to defeat the terrorists. It did not work. We gave the lives of over 4,000 American men and women in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, to defeat the terrorists, and refuse to ask what they died for. We killed tens of thousands or more in those countries. It did not work. We went to war again in Iraq, and now in Syria, before in Libya, and only created more failed states and ungoverned spaces that provide havens for terrorists and spilled terror like dropped paint across borders. We harass and discriminate against our own Muslim populations and then stand slack-jawed as they become radicalized, and all we do then is blame ISIS for Tweeting."
It can't work.

ISIS is a tool of the US and allies, but an unreliable one.

Theory attacks in France are designed to motive native French to mistreat Muslims in order to radicalize them.

ISIS mastermind in Paris ran numerous attacks but led a charmed life or was protected by western intelligence.

Worse Republicans make Obama look less bad on Syria and ISIS in which nobody will ally with Russians and Assad, but they should.
"If we declare a no-fly zone over Syria, or establish a "safe zone," we risk war not only with Syria, but Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
None of these allies of Assad will meekly stand aside while we take military action to deny the Syrian regime and army the right to defend itself and survive in its war against ISIS, al-Nusra and other assorted jihadists and rebels.
Having invested blood and treasure in Assad’s survival, and securing their own interests in Syria, they are not likely to submit to U.S. dictation. Are we prepared for a war against both sides in Syria?
Who would fight Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Syria alongside us?"
No kidding.

The new space race is a satellite arms race.

The US admits one base in Africa, but the real number is between 11 and 60.

Police State

Cell phone app will spy on TV and web surfing.

Apple apps ISIS uses to protect communications from spies could protect us all, but government will ban or undermine them soon.

Northern Illinois judge attempts to rein in stingray use, but it won't work.

NSA has already worked around superficial new government restrictions in the USA Freedom Act.

Chicago sends 100,000 corrupt red-light camera speeding tickets.

Carnegie-Mellon denies FBI paid for Tor-breaking software.

Health Care

GM salmon Frankenfish approved for human consumption in US. Without labeling. Worse, you know these will escape into the environment.

Government has made superbugs resistant to all known medicines.

Local

News SUV swallowed by road after water main break.

Socialism is the problem with Dayton's schools, so socialist reform can't work.

Largest drug seizure in county history shows drug trade is growing.

Education

Ohio students' test scores fall because of harder tests.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Regulation

People must be free to work for low wages.

War

David Stockman summarizes US intervention history in the Middle East since the end of the Cold War and uses my term Bush the Elder along the way.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Misc

Mineral analysis shows planets, asteroids and comets share minerals and therefore were formed the same way, contradicting the establishment view of solar system formation.

War

ISIS also killed 40 in Beirut, but the Paris attacks overshadow it.

Police State

Manhattan DA pressures Google, Apple and everybody else to end default end-to-end encryption based on Paris attack.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Police State

The justice system, not war, is the best way to deal with terrorists.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Police State

Edward Snowden advises how to regain privacy online.

Foreign Policy

The Saudis traded a discreet foreign policy for an overtly aggressive one, and they're squandering their oil resources.

Tax and Spend

Dayton is spending more than it takes in for the third straight year.

Friday, November 13, 2015

War on Drugs

The truth about drunk driving.
"For instance, drinking and driving and drunk driving. There is a distinction to be made here.
An important one.
Why on earth should it be illegal – a crime – merely to have been drinking and driving?
Emphasis on merely.
Put another way, why should it be a punishable offense to have been drinking when one’s driving can’t be faulted? Unless of course the object of the exercise is to impose a kind of low-rent Prohibition –  to punish people for drinking – this makes no sense at all.
But it does seem to be the object of the exercise."
And stealing money. And control. And power.

Police State

Ideas to reduce cop problems.

Socialism

My advocacy of the term crony socialism may be catching on.
"In the Western world democracy has been decapitated. In Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, and the United States itself, there is no connection between the will of the people and the policies of the government. Only in tiny Iceland did the people prevail over the banks. Everywhere else the people are forced to pay for the gambling losses and leveraged debts of the financial sector.
What we are witnessing is the re-enserfment of Western peoples."
Yep.

Immigration

Obama to speed and increase immigration of Syrian refugees.

Merkel's own party considers ousting her over immigration.

Africans refuse refugee return even with $1 billion aid package. What a disaster.

Education

Blacks exclude whites from black-only healing space at University of Missouri.

Tax and Spend

The spending increases agreed to by Obama and Republicans undo the minimal slowing of growth caused by sequestration.

Federal Reserve

True money supply growth falls to lowest level in seven years. We know what happened seven years ago.

Politics

Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are at opposite ends of the war promotion spectrum.
"Rand Paul had his best debate moment Tuesday when he challenged Marco Rubio on his plans to increase defense spending by $1 trillion. "
You have to be kidding. Good for Paul.
"Having called for the U.S. Navy to confront Beijing in the South China Sea, and for establishing a no-fly zone over Syria that Russian pilots would enter at their peril, Rubio seems prepared for a confrontation with either or both of our great rival nuclear powers. "
Nuts.
"With the exception of Rand and Trump, the GOP candidates appear to believe the road to the White House lies in resurrecting the attitude and policies of Bush II that cost them the White House. "
Special interests.

Clinton's internet companies stonewall congressional investigators but work with FBI.

Misc

Water existed during Earth's formation.

Local

Gas below $2/gallon all over the place. It won't last.

War

Contrary to Republican claims, military spending under Obama is near historically high levels. It won't last.

At least 60 dead and 100 hostages in coordinated terrorist attack at seven locations in Paris. This is another outrageous government failure. Despite ubiquitous spying, terrorists planned and carried out a highly coordinated attack. Despite France's oppressive gun control laws, the terrorists used guns and bombs. This happens in the Middle East all the time. US and western aggression there has brought those wars to Paris in blowback.

Shepard Smith on Fox News keeps linking the attack to ISIS with no evidence. Now he says one person arrested claims he's Syrian and with ISIS. We know Obama wants to send ground troops into Syria. Now he has his excuse. Convenient. A week ago Pat Buchanan described how the US was being sucked into war in Syria. That's a fait accompli now.

France declared martial law.

Apparently around 100 people were killed in the concert hall by two gunmen. That's what gun control does to law-abiding people.

Death toll reaches 153 and is expected to climb.

Paris attacks cut off Gore live broadcast from Eiffel Tower.

ISIS claims credit for coordinated suicide bombs in Lebanon.

Earlier today, Obama claimed to have contained ISIS.

The corrupt US wasting of money during war.

Reference.

Health Care

Gut microbes exhibit radically different DNA from anything known, suggesting a fourth domain of life.

New STD. They should call it Tinder.

US autism rate supposedly doubles. Pretty soon they'll say we're all autistic.

How to protect your vision as you age.

Economy

Excellent description of today's economy.

Every boom and bust are different, and the next will be different from the last.
"First of all, boom and busts do not necessarily occur in the same sectors or with the same magnitude from one monetary expansion to the next. The last financial crisis was concentrated in mortgages on the U.S. housing market, but this time around a bubble is forming in corporate spending, where monetary expansion is used to fund mergers, acquisitions, and to invest in one’s own company by buying its shares off the market."
OK, but don't discount a real estate bust. It'll be big too.

Americans buying lots of gold.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

War

Air Force Secretary admits aspirations to occupy and govern parts of Syria which requires more boots on the ground.

Tax and Spend

Lies the government is telling about US debt.

Politics

Leftists promote voter fraud.
"Voter ID laws have been challenged because liberal Democrats deem them racist. I guess that’s because they see blacks as being incapable of acquiring some kind of government-issued identification. Interesting enough is the fact that I’ve never heard of a challenge to other ID requirements as racist, such as those: to board a plane, open a charge account, have lab work done or cash a welfare check. Since liberal Democrats only challenge legal procedures to promote ballot-box integrity, the conclusion one reaches is that they are for vote fraud prevalent in many Democrat-controlled cities."
Obvious, but it should said often.

Republican establishment considers drafting Romney.

Trans protesters attack Caitlin Jenner because she's wealthy.

Environment

Global warming frauds disappear old article in which a fraud claimed Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past. They edit the old temperature data, so why not old articles?

Economy

Amazon provides two hour food delivery in major US markets.

When adjusted for cost of living, poverty rates in California and New York are worse than advertised.

Police State

Governments issue record number of requests for Facebook user data.

Of course the government records supposed privileged communications between prison inmates and attorneys. The government hates attorney-client privilege. It records everything it can regardless of the law. The only limitation on government spying is technology. Rulers will blame the contractor or say they never access those recordings. Baloney.

FBI paid Carnegie Mellon researchers $1 million to unmask Tor users.

Secret Service officer busted for child sexting.

Education

Sinclair gets FCC permission to fly drones at Calamityville.

Immigration

For years, all I've seen from Lew Rockwell and company is open borders idealism. I was the only libertarian I saw who disagreed. Recently Hoppe, thankfully, shot that down. Then separately, Ilana Mercer shot it down. Now Lew himself, referencing not only Hoppe but Rothbard has joined me.
"If every piece of land in a country were owned by some person, group, or corporation, this would mean that no person could enter unless invited to enter and allowed to rent or purchase property. A totally privatized country would be as closed as the particular property owners desire. It seems clear, then, that the regime of open borders that exists de facto in the U.S. amd Western Europe really amounts to a compulsory opening by the central state, the state in charge of all streets and public land areas, and does not genuinely reflect the wishes of the proprietors."
I never read this from Rothbard before, but it's the exact argument I made. It isn't that hard. I'm glad to see Lew, and hopefully his crew, coming around.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Environment

Thank goodness global warming activists are preparing for failure in Paris.

Under pressure from the government, VW is bribing owners to bring their cars in to have them made less efficient to satisfy EPA.

Education

Government has created academic welfare queens as illustrated by the anti-free speech and press at University of Missouri.

Misc

Blame progressive intellectuals for WWI.

Walter Williams elegantly dismantles the criticism of the 3/5 rule for slaves at the Constitutional Convention. God bless him.

Foreign Policy

The deception in US coup attempts against foreign governments.

US rulers keep inventing grand enemies: al Qaeda, then ISIS, and now Russia.
"Which leads us to our third candidate, which is Russia itself, and specifically Vladimir Putin’s Russia – because prior to the Russian leader’s rise to power, the former Soviet Union was considered a spent force. However, under Putin – who is routinely demonized as the second coming of Stalin – a vastly shrunken Russia is now characterized as a “revisionist” power which seeks to reclaim its lost empire by any means necessary. A nation with a rapidly falling birth rate, an economy that is on the skids, and a level of public health that is far below what it was during the Soviet era, is now being held up as the main obstacle to American military and ideological primacy across the globe.
How credible is that?"
But the Russians are cozying up to the Chinese, the real enemy. Will the real US threat please stand up?

Comparing Obamatrade to Obamacare.

Federal Reserve

Hackers stole data from 100 million bank customers and manipulated stock markets with the help of government officials.

The push to confiscate cash and impose negative interest rates. Why would banks allow themselves to be bankrupted this way?

Police State

In another example of how US spying is hurting businesses, Microsoft was forced to move servers to Germany and have them administered by a German company to protect user data.

One judge has authorized an outrageous surveillance net in Los Angeles, and it might be shut down the great consternation of the cops profiting from it.

Regulation

Senate committee bill confirms asteroid miners own what they homestead.

War

Even astronomy picture of the day is promoting the missile launch over San Francisco.

Suicide tops casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Regulation

New York state orders fantasy sports sites to stop taking bets.

Economy

Silicon Valley IPOs losing value.

In upside-down world, strong jobs report produces market sell-off.
"True, markets will have a hard time sidestepping last Friday’s strong jobs data, which to some all but guarantee a Fed interest-rate hike just in time for the holidays. The fear is that anticipation of the hike could lead to a repeat of the volatility we saw this summer."
We're screwed.

Banks holding $10 trillion in risky investments expecting government bailouts again.

I'm sitting at my PC disputing the death of PCs.

Foreign Policy

Obama challenges public to read unreadable TPP.

Media

With more viewers cutting the cord, networks cut back on commercials.

Tax and Spend

Of course Social Security outlays hit record. Baby bombers are retiring.

The long, slow default of Social Security.

Misc

World's largest billionaire bunker has supplies for ten years.

Politics

Political correctness is bullying. Playing offended is bullying. And not just of journalists.

We're supposed to believe that Hillary's allies want to shut down the FBI probe of her emails. This lends credence to the investigation to insulate against charges of corruption the FBI clears her.

Cruz proposes eliminating five cabinet bureaucracies. Now you're talking.
"Cruz argues in the plan he won't do it through executive action, but by working with Congress."
Then he's not serious. It's just political posturing.

War on Drugs

Drug overdose deaths dwarf all other injury causes of death - conveniently excluding medical error - and over half of them are prescription drug overdoses.

Immigration

I don't see how employers obeying the law can be considered gaming the system.
"Under federal rules, employers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro that have large numbers of H-1B workers in the United States are required to declare that they will not displace American workers. But the companies are exempt from that requirement if the H-1B workers are paid at least $60,000 a year. H-1B workers at outsourcing firms often receive wages at or slightly above $60,000, below what skilled American technology professionals tend to earn, so those firms can offer services to American companies at a lower cost, undercutting American workers."
Makes sense for businesses. Americans seriously overvalue IT workers.

Obama's hubris leads to judges overturning his amnesty.
"A federal appeals court said President Obama’s own words claiming powers to “change the law” were part of the reason it struck down his deportation amnesty, in a ruling late Monday that reaffirmed the president must carry out laws and doesn’t have blanket powers to waive them."
About time.

Illegal immigrant busted for voter fraud. They're almost impossible to catch.

Environment

If you accept the AGW premise, the Paris plan would cool the planet by 0.05 C, or next to nothing. It's about stealing money and destroying the economy, not global warming.

War

More evidence the Navy missile launches off the California coast were intended to scare Americans, not foreigners.
"How exactly would it enhance “national security” to test ICBMs in clear view of America’s second-biggest city? A hint was provided when The Los Angeles Times reported that:
“The Navy is considering posting additional photos — and possibly video — of the missile launches after the current exercises are completed, Daniels said, but it has yet to decide.”
This was more a demonstration than a test. That is the only plausible explanation for giving such a public light show."
Controlling us.
"The unnerving spectacle made its biggest impression on the Americans who saw it first-hand. And they were probably its chief intended audience. “Getting people really concerned in L.A.” is exactly what the regime wanted.
Why else would the government clear the skies to paint them with nuclear war games precisely when and where it would have the biggest audience with the best visibility: near a basin full of people in the most densely populated region in the country, at a time (around 6:00 pm) when it is nice and dark, yet millions would be out and about, returning from work, or heading out to dinner?
This was “Shock and Awe” for domestic consumption: an exercise in missile test terrorism. A spooked herd is an easily steered and stampeded herd. And what better way to spook the American herd than by giving it nuclear nightmares?" 
Exactly.

Police State

British bill gives government power to demand backdoors and jail people who leak them.

Fingerprints are less secure than passwords. Don't trust the government.

Government has been secretly collecting the DNA of newborns for decades.

It took six months to get indictments from the Waco biker shootout many believe was started by cops.

Misc

Scientists surprised by Pluto's moons.

Supposed ice volcanoes on Pluto.

Two-lobed, columnated structure attributed to black hole looks more like an electrical z-pinch.

Monday, November 09, 2015

Health Care

Yearly physical exams provide no health benefits. More.

The government blocks liability for vaccine injury compensation.

Junk food companies have hijacked government nutritional science the same as corporations have hijacked all government science as part of regulatory capture.

Socialism

Applying in-brain artificial intelligence to the bifurcated society created by socialism will lead to rulers being like gods and preventing the rest of us from accessing the technology.

Misc

Historical Tea Party really protested lower taxes and this article explains the opium connection.

Foreign Policy

Obamatrade monstrosity.
"The administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty legislation is 5,554 pages long, twice that of Obamacare and nearly 3 feet high, a legislative nightmare highlighted in a tweet from Sen. Jeff Sessions Monday.

The Alabama Republican used his photo to alert critics that because the bill is fast-tracked, it cannot be filibustered or amended.
Not only is the legislation filled with 2 million words, it measures exactly 2 feet high and weighs an amazing 100 pounds."
Thanks, Obama and Republicans who voted to fast-track this.

China emulates US when it claims islands and seas.
"Continued U.S. overflights or naval intrusion into the territorial waters of Chinese-claimed islands are certain to result in a violent clash, as happened near Hainan Island in 2001.
Where would we go from there?
China today is in trouble. She is feared and distrusted by her neighbors; her economy has lost its dynamism; and the Communist Party is riven by purges and rampant corruption.
If we believe this will be the Second American Century, that time is on our side, that Chinese communism is a dead faith, we ought to avoid a clash and show our opposition to Beijing’s excesses, if need be, by imposing tariffs on all goods made in China.
Or leave it alone completely. Tyrannical governments thrive on being threatened.

Immigration

Ryan wants to bring in more low-skilled immigrants to boost Democrats. Of course Republican cronies want this too, but politically it boosts Democrats.

Federal Reserve

China allows direct conversion from yuan to Swiss francs.
"The link will start on Tuesday, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System said in a statement, making the franc the seventh major currency that can bypass a conversion into the U.S. dollar and be directly exchanged for yuan."
Those dastardly Chinese!

Swedish banks removing ATMs in war on cash.

Politics

Obama successfully made race the center of his campaign, so Hillary is making gender the center of hers.

Opposition wins landslide against Myanmar's junta.

Women are more likely to abuse men than vice-versa.

Education

List of demands from non-football player protesters at University of Missouri includes ousted president admit his white privilege.

Economy

Phasing out unlimited data plans because bandwidth is a scarce resource. The laws of economics can't be denied.

Tax and Spend

After a billion spent on digitizing immigrant forms, only one is online.

Police State

Judge orders NSA to stop spying on a California lawyer. How about the rest of us?

Walmart tests facial recognition to spot thieves.

Cops can use Google to track people's movements over years.

Environment

Met office claims global temperatures are over 1 C higher than the industrial average for the first time. Everybody get scared.

War

The missile was visible from San Diego to San Fransisco. I thought nuclear missiles were for foreign targets, not domestic.

Rulers got exactly what they wanted. Not fear from Russians and Chinese. Fear from Americans. If they wanted to scare Russians and Chinese, they could have launched from off their coasts.

Navy launches second test missile.

American psychological association withdraws report on gay rape in the military. They forgot who their bosses were.

Terrorist leader caught trying to enter Europe as refugee.

Terrorist police captain kills five police trainers in Jordan including two Americans.

Freedom of Speech

Popular people don't need freedom of speech. Popular speech doesn't need protection. Uncontroversial speech doesn't need protection.
"Regardless though, the left, having ascended to cultural dominance, is no longer in need of free speech. After all, no one ever got in trouble for agreeing with the conventional wisdom. As Noam Chomsky said, “Even Goebbels was in favor of free speech he liked.”
On the other hand, the right is behind the eight ball in the culture wars and thereby supports the concept of free speech because they need it lest their very opinions be outlawed. In an economic sense, this could be called the “diminishing marginal utility of free speech.”
The law of diminishing marginal utility states that while keeping consumption of other products constant, there is decline in marginal utility that a person derives from consuming an additional unit of that product. In this case, the product is free speech. New leftists may have proposed unfettered free speech back in the early 1960s, but that was just because the right was the one in power culturally at the time. Free speech had a high utility to the left at the time and low utility to the right.
Now the situation has reversed. The right is at the disadvantage so it appeals to free speech. The left is ahead and no longer needs free speech, so it has discarded it." 
Yep.

Sunday, November 08, 2015

Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia's high oil production has all but killed OPEC.

War

Now the Navy is preparing people for missile attacks off Los Angeles.

NATO can't find an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Economy

Mysterious companies building $1 billion factories for electric cars looks like a bubble activity to me.

Politics

Cameron declares broadband to be a right and orders companies to deliver it.

Trump brings huge ratings, best in years, to SNL.

Environment

Decreasing megafauna is bad for the environment because of decreasing poop.

Every UN climate summit is hailed as the last chance.

Misc

How can a wolf-coyote-dog hybrid be bigger than wolves?

Health Care

Vaccine tyranny.

EPA used Monsanto research to leave Roundup unregulated.

Excessive medical intervention blamed for Americans' bad health. Don't forget diet.

Saturday, November 07, 2015

Federal Reserve

Fed money printing put us on the path to communism.
"So for those who remain in doubt, Japan is telling us where this giant monetary experiment leads to: Debt, stagnation and nationalization of industry. This is not a destination that any of us, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders, should be happy about."
Yep. This is why I don't understand the optimists.
"The more than four trillion dollars of government bonds purchased through the Federal Reserve’s QE program since 2008 now sit on account at the Fed. Although these purchases may have distorted the bond market, created false signals to the economy, and may loom as a danger for the future (when the bonds need to be sold), they are primarily a means of debt monetization, whereby the government sells debt to itself. But purchases of equities would involve a stealth nationalization of industry, and would represent a hard turn towards communism."
Sounds bad.
"The U.S. economy is slowing remarkably, and despite the continuous assertions by the Fed that rate hikes are likely in the very near future, I believe we are stuck just as firmly in the stimulus trap as Japan. The main difference between the U.S. and Japan is that Japan began this “experiment” from a much stronger economic position. Japan was a creditor nation, with ample domestic savings and large trade surpluses. In contrast, the U.S. started as the world’s largest debtor nation, with minimal savings, and enormous trade deficits. So if Japan, with its superior economic position, could not extricate itself from this trap, what hope does the United States have?" 
None.

Socialism

After electing a communist president, Brazilians wonder how so much went wrong.

War

British extremists may have bombed Russian jet out of Egypt. That explains why Britain shut down travel from there.

War on Drugs

Legalize meth and all other drugs.

Politics

The Reagan Myth.
"While he’s widely heralded for having slashed taxes, as Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming and friend of Reagan, confirmed, Reagan went on to raise taxes eleven times during his two terms.Moreover, in 1983, he raised payroll taxes to pay for Social Security and Medicare, i.e. “government-run healthcare.”
Reagan eliminated not a single government program, much less an agency. Instead, he strengthened those agencies—like the Departments of Energy and Education—that he originally pledged to abolish, and he even strengthened the profoundly intrusive Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Reagan created the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. As Murray Rothbard writes, “The Gipper deregulated nothing, abolished nothing.”
He concludes: “Overall, the quantity and degree of government regulation of the economy was greatly increased and intensified during the Reagan years.”"
Yep.

Economy

The number of 25 year olds living with parents has doubled since 2000 to 50 percent. Nuts.

Capitalism has been replaced by central-bankism.

Environment

NOAA blames extreme weather on global warming.

Record snow in Siberia correlates with brutal winters in northeastern US.

Obama officially killed the Keystone Pipeline now in hopes of promoting more destructive agreement in Paris.

Misc

White House pressured Mattel to give Barbie a brainy makeover.

As I expected, autonomous cars aren't as smart as they're portrayed.

Police State

As documented by whistleblowers, NSA exploits zero-day bugs before reporting them and it doesn't report all of them.

Two cops arrested for murdering boy after car chase. More.

The Guardian's interactive, updated page for people killed by police in the US.

Regulation

EU considers making hyperlinks a copyright violation. This would shut down Drudge and social media sharing so the establishment could take back control of speech.

Health Care

Bates method to improve near-sightedness.

Foreign Policy

TPP was leaked before, but this is the first official publication.

Health Care

Article claims companies don't want to make bazillions on new antibiotics. This is economic ignorance at its more profound.

Immigration

Texas border agent charged in decapitation murder of man.

Friday, November 06, 2015

Misc

Magma chamber found below Mt. St. Helens, as if it hadn't erupted before.

Well-deserved praise for slide-rules.

Politics

I've always said all women love the beauty of others. They never reject beautiful women. They are either lesbian (by trauma) or bisexual. This study says the same.

Supposedly Republicans are revolting against the establishment, but Carson and Rubio back Obamatrade TPP. Some revolution.

Tax and Spend

The first thing I remember learning about Mars's atmosphere as a kid was the solar wind stripped Mars of its atmosphere. 40 years later, NASA makes money by proclaiming this is a new, proven theory.
"However, around 4.2 billion years ago, the red planet had a much thicker atmosphere, making wet and warm -  similar to Earth."
They know that because they measured it. Wait. No they didn't.

Economy

Google misunderstands economics, wanting to standardize Android chips instead of allowing innovation.

Programmers should not call themselves engineers for obvious reasons.

Oprah made $100 million from her investment in weight watchers in a couple of weeks. Will she dump it and take her profit?

180 square foot shack on sale for $2 million in Palo Alto.

Local

Our rulers have so perverted and trashed the economy, young people want to live in cargo containers.

Environment

NOAA continues to resist Congressional subpoena without repercussions. This is a farce.

Even satellites report October was the warmest on record.

The climate continues to fail the frauds, so the American people continue to diminish global warming claims.

Antarctic ice growing.

The pause lengthens to 18 years, 9 months before Paris boondoggle.

Shadow organization orchestrated RICO20 allegations, and frauds will likely pay.

Thanks to Canada electing a Castro kid, Obama rejects Keystone Pipeline.

Unions slam Obama for killing the Keystone Pipeline.