War

From arming and funding Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to using cyber-weapons and much more, the US government is the root cause of much terrorism.

"Even as the U.S. government confronts rival powers over widespread Internet espionage, it has become the biggest buyer in a burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell tools for breaking into computers. The strategy is spurring concern in the technology industry and intelligence community that Washington is in effect encouraging hacking and failing to disclose to software companies and customers the vulnerabilities exploited by the purchased hacks. That’s because U.S. intelligence and military agencies aren’t buying the tools primarily to fend off attacks. Rather, they are using the tools to infiltrate computer networks overseas, leaving behind spy programs and cyber-weapons that can disrupt data or damage systems."

Just as one would expect.

"This has become the shadow government’s modus operandi regardless of which party controls the White House: the government creates a menace—knowing full well the ramifications such a danger might pose to the public—then without ever owning up to the part it played in unleashing that particular menace on an unsuspecting populace, it demands additional powers in order to protect “we the people” from the threat.
Yet the powers-that-be don’t really want us to feel safe.
They want us cowering and afraid and willing to relinquish every last one of our freedoms in exchange for their phantom promises of security.
As a result, it’s the American people who pay the price for the government’s insatiable greed and quest for power.
We’re the ones to suffer the blowback." 

Exactly.

The US wastes hundreds of billions on weapons while the Chinese develop economic power.

War

Our Korea policy is stupid.

"Why, 64 years after the Korean War, a quarter-century after the Cold War, are we still obliged to go to war to defend South Korea from a North with one-half the South’s population and 3 percent of its gross domestic product?
Why are we, on the far side of the Pacific, still responsible for containing North Korea when two of its neighbors — Russia and China — are nuclear powers and South Korea and Japan could field nuclear and conventional forces far superior to Kim’s?
How long into the future will containing militarist dictators in Pyongyang with nuclear missiles be America’s primary responsibility?"

We should trade with North Korea.

Claim aggression against North Korea is really a prelude to war with China. This article explains why I'm skeptical.

Politics

Negative Trump policies.

Trump undermines free trade.

Praise for Trump's radical budget.

Another comparison of Trump to Jackson.

Leftist Silicon Valley psychopath CEOs.

Trump's plan to cut pseudo-science funding is a big step toward depoliticizing science.

Democrats are warning supporters there will be no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russians.

After Trump proposes cuts to Meals on Wheels, donations surge.

Economy

Inflation rises, but the economy stagnates.

The official inflation rate has reached the Fed's 2 percent target while the real rate is closer to 10 percent.

A freight train route from China to the UK will revolutionize trade to the consternation of US rulers but it will benefit Americans.

Don't start a trade war with China.

Economy

Americans benefit when companies move to Mexico.

Defending Trump's deal with carrier.

Foreign Policy

Trump's election killed TPP.

Americans overwhelmingly want a more peaceful foreign policy.

Foreign policy helped get Trump elected.

Court blocks Brexit until Parliament votes on it. Of course.

US ratchets up tension with Russia.

Foreign Policy

Why they keep trade deals secret.

Politics

Another downside to globalization.

"As one of my Twitter followers put it so succinctly: “Globalization: Where leaders from any country get to pick US Presidents.” As the Clinton campaign’s Robby Mook tears a page out of Joe McCarthy’s book and smears Donald Trump as being “Putin’s puppet,” the irony is that this election has seen foreign interference in American politics to an unprecedented degree – on Hillary’s behalf."

Great observation.

Trump is wrong on trade.

Foreign Policy

The New World Order and why Americans should care about Brexit.

"What was the bait and switch? This. Lure intellectuals and then politicians into a lobster trap of one-world government by means of the promise of greater wealth through free trade. Create free trade alliances that are in fact not free trade but rather trade managed by international bureaucrats. This is a combination of low tariffs and detailed regulations of production and distribution. Economic regulation favors large multinational firms that can afford lots of expensive lawyers. This regulatory system creates economic barriers against newer, more innovative, but under-capitalized competitors. In short, use the bait of greater national wealth to persuade national leaders into agreeing to a treaty-based international government that requires member nations to surrender much of national sovereignty. The final stage is the creation on centralized regional governments that absorb national governments into an immense international bureaucratic system that regulates most areas of life."

Speaking of TPP. Killing it would be a great victory too.

Washington's foreign policy is counterproductive to the interests of the American people but benefits rulers.

Politics

Elite media wants rulers to declare war on serfs after Brexit. Elite media lowers the curtain.

EU declares it will stop using English after Brexit.

The EU is about control, not free trade.

Review of Clinton's book "Hard Choices" is not favorable.

Huma's deposition about Clinton's emails released.

AG Lynch meets privately with Bill Clinton.

Politics

Don't ask, don't tell trans policy.

Rulers threaten protectionist trade policies to coerce Brits to stay in EU.

"A recent poll showed that if the UK could keep free trade with EU nations, the British people would vote overwhelmingly to leave the EU. To drum up support for staying in the EU, the UK government and quasi-government agencies, like the IMF and OECD, have issued continuous warnings about the costs of such a divorce. The IMF recently reiterated its forecasts that Brexit would have a significant negative effect on the UK economy with a drop in GDP anywhere between 1% and 9% over the long term.
The reality is that Brexit would probably only have a minor initial impact on trade or GDP and, on the contrary, would open up vast possibilities for the UK to exploit trade relations with other faster growing regions of the world without having to reach complex trade agreements that satisfy the vested interests of the other 28 members of the EU. "

I bet EU rulers would impose trade penalties until the EU collapses.

Politics

Establishment Republican loses primary over support for Obamatrade.

Politics

Fake studies claimed conservatives tended to exhibit psychotic traits, but when those studies were fixed, it turned out liberals tended to exhibit psychotic traits. More.

Counter-claim Google does not bias search results for Clinton.

Clinton Cash revelations expose corruption of Clinton Foundation.

Google supports terrible TPP treaty.

Politics

EU threatens Britons with trade sanctions if they Brexit.

Pro-Brexit poll jumps four points to 55 percent.

Google skews search results to favor Clinton.

Bill Clinton told former lover he slept with 2,000 women.

"Dolly says Bill told her he and Hillary - who he called 'The Warden' -needed to have a baby 'so we can appear to be a normal couple"

I always thought that. Exposing Bill as a slime might help Hillary. For it to work, she must be shown as a co-conspirator.

Bill Krystol wants to swing the election to Clinton by running a third party candidate from his magazine. This is a blatant attempt to elect Clinton. I'm skeptical this will happen.

Pat Buchanan lays out the foreign policy case against Clinton.

Democrats build a wall around convention hall.

Media

Criticism of Pat Buchanan for his support for protectionist tariffs.

Tax and Spend

Elon Musk spends money government steals from him to hire comic book designer to design space suit.

Mayor claims Apple abuses Cupertino by not paying taxes.

Phony free trade agreements.

"One of the biggest controversies in nineteenth century American politics was tariffs – with Big Business manufacturers for them, and farmers and producers of other commodities against them. Corporate behemoths wanted protection from foreign competition, while ordinary consumers wanted lower prices. Furthermore, tariff revenue was used to enrich crony capitalists in the industrialized North: the federal government subsidized the building of railroads, canals, and other infrastructure, while the beneficiaries of this largesse turned cheap tariff-free commodities produced in the South and West into high-priced manufactured goods. "

Protectionism is cronyism. More.

Comparing asset forfeiture to the income tax.

Foreign Policy

Google and other internet giants endorse TPP.

"Tech experts from every major advocacy group working to defend Internet users’ rights vehemently oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, but a trade association that represents major web companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and Uber just endorsed it.
The TPP was negotiated in complete secrecy by government bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists from industries that hate the Internet—including the ones that wrote terrible censorship bills like SOPA. It’s great for incumbent corporations, but terrible for individual internet users, startups, and the tech economy as a whole.
BREAKING UPDATE: reddit comes out saying they do not support the TPP, distances themselves from Internet Association statement." 

Good for reddit.

Economy

Free trade is key to economic success.

Gold-plated phones are a bubble activity.

Regulation

Underhanded TPP change.

"A sneaky and underhanded change to the TPP, spotted by the EFF and summarized here by Jeremy Malcolm, means much stiffer penalties for copyright "infringement:" Under the TPP's original terms, a country could limit the exposure of the owner of such a website to prison time, or to the seizure and possible destruction of their server, on the grounds that by definition their infringement didn't cause any lost sales to the copyright owner. (Note that they would be liable for civil damages to the copyright owner in any case.) Although a country still has the option to limit criminal penalties to "commercial scale" infringements (which is so broadly defined that it could catch even a non-profit subtitles website), the new language compels TPP signatories to make these penalties available even where those infringements cause absolutely no impact on the copyright holder's ability to profit from the work. This is a massive extension of the provision's already expansive scope."

Of course.

Police State

Headline implies since Apple has unlocked previous devices, it should unlock the terrorist's phone for the FBI, but you have to dive into the article to discover it's a different technical problem.

Snowden calls for Google to stand with Apple. Google does. Government won't let this stand.

NSA director blames success of Paris attacks on strong encryption.
Copyright police state treaty nearly finished.

"CETA contains provisions that would compel countries to implement Internet censorship through site blocking, anti-circumvention laws as seen in the US, and compel border security to seize digital storage devices (i.e. cell phones) at the border for the purpose of looking for copyright infringement."

Wonderful.