Author: The Freedom Watch Staff

This author has written 11091 articles

Alaskan town home to airport with no planes and harbor with no road

"Remember Alaska's infamous bridge to nowhere? Well, another town in 'Seward's Icebox' has upped the ante after building an unused $75.5 million airport and a $29 million harbor with no roads connecting to the town. The Aleutians community of Akutan is home to just over 1,000 seasonal workers and 75 full-time residents, though only about five boats. The Army Corps of Engineers, using $29 million in federal stimulus money, built the harbor." Continue reading →

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Yang Jisheng: The man who discovered 36 million dead

"50 years on, Chinese official history insists the famine of 1958-61 was a natural disaster. Agriculture was brutally collectivised, leaving peasants dependent on centrally distributed grain. Local cadres ordered the forced pooling of family kitchens, confiscating all ladles and punishing those who kept private food supplies. Then, as Mao ordered rapid industrialisation during the Great Leap Forward, the grain supplies disappeared. Simultaneously local officials, terrified of failure, began to report fictional bumper harvests. Mao, meanwhile, publicly humiliated any party leader who voiced doubts. The result was the greatest famine in modern history." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYang Jisheng: The man who discovered 36 million dead

China Will Build the Tallest Building In the World in Just 90 Days

"According to its engineers, this will be the tallest skyscraper in the world by the end of March of 2013. Its name is Sky City, and its 2,749 feet (838 meters) distributed in 220 floors will grow in just 90 days in Changsha city, by the Xiangjiang river. Ninety days! The skyscraper will be built in just 90 days at the unbelievable rate of five floors per day. They will be able to achieve this impossibly fast construction rate by using a prefabricated modular technology developed by Broad Sustainable Building, a company that has built 20 tall structures in China so far, including the that 30-story hotel." Continue reading →

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Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move

"Luo Baogen and his wife insist on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, China because they believe that the relocation compensation offered by the government is not enough. Now the only building left standing, the five storey block is a strange sight as cars drive around it while the couple remain living inside. In the People's Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on - but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement." Continue reading →

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Tell me again… which of these nations is communist?

"Tax rates across the board in the United States are set to increase dramatically in 2013. Currently the government will charge a 35% tax on the value of your estate that exceeds $5 million. If you happen to kick the bucket on January 1st, however, the tax goes up to 55%, and the exemption goes down to $1 million. This exemption is not indexed to inflation. Perhaps most shocking is increase in dividend tax rates, set to rise from 15% to as high as 43.4%. Ironically, the new government of the People’s Republic of China has decided the REDUCE their tax on dividends. Effective January 1st, the dividend tax rate in China will drop to a mere 5%." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTell me again… which of these nations is communist?

Cuba: No More Exit Visas!

"If Cubans can now leave their country freely, what will become of the Cuban Adjustment Act, that was signed during the Johnson Administration? This law gives any Cuban citizen admitted into the United States after January 1, 1959 and physically present for at least one year, to be admissible to the United States as a permanent resident. Unless the United States is prepared for a big influx of new Cuban residents, it will need to amend this law. Ironically, after Jan. 14, 2013, Cuban citizens will be more free and less regulated by their government to visit the USA than U.S. citizens will be to visit Cuba." Continue reading →

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Doug Casey on the America That Was – Now the United (Police) State of America

"This is just the beginning. As I've said before, I don't call the shots – just try to tell the truth as I see it. The point is that you couldn't assemble a list like this even 15 years ago. But now it's part of the firmament. Worse, it's going to grow. As the economy turns down over the next few years, the people – acting like scared chimpanzees – will ask the government to 'do something.' And it will. The trend is going hyperbolic." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDoug Casey on the America That Was – Now the United (Police) State of America

NSA Refuses To Release Secret Obama Directive On Cybersecurity

"An article in the Washington Post cited several US officials saying that Obama signed off on the secret cybersecurity order, believed to widely expand NSA’s spying authorities, in mid-October. In response to the move, lawyers with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (PDF) demanding that the Obama administration make public the text of the directive. The NSA responded to the FOIA request this week with a statement arguing that it does not have to release the document because it is a confidential presidential communication and it is classified." Continue reading →

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California gets face scanners to spy on everyone at once

"In a single second, law enforcement agents can match a suspect against millions upon millions of profiles in vast detailed databases stored on the cloud. It’s all done using facial recognition, and in Southern California it’s already occurring. Imagine the police taking a picture: any picture of a person, anywhere, and matching it on the spot in less than a second to a personalized profile, scanning millions upon millions of entries from within vast, intricate databases stored on the cloud. It’s done with state of the art facial recognition technology, and in Southern California it’s already happening." Continue reading →

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Montana lawmaker asks to be paid in gold

"A Montana state lawmaker is asking that he be paid in gold coins because of his lack of faith in the U.S. dollar amid a rising deficit. Jerry O’Neil, a Republican just reelected in his northern Montana district, says his constituents told him he was not honoring his duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which O’Neil and Gold Standard supporters say requires the government to print money backed by gold. So he wrote a letter to the state Legislature asking to be paid his public salary in gold. O’Neil said that he collects about $7,000 annually from the Montana Legislature." Continue reading →

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