Alternative News

Google Says the FBI Is Secretly Spying on Some of Its Customers

"It is unlawful for any record-keeper to disclose it has received a so-called National Security Letter. But under a deal brokered with the President Barack Obama administration, Google on Tuesday published a 'range' of times it received National Security Letters demanding it divulge account information to the authorities without warrants. It was the first time a company has ever released data chronicling the volume of National Security Letter requests. National Security Letters allow the government to get detailed information on Americans’ finances and communications without oversight from a judge. The FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs." Continue reading →

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Riot Alert: Look Out Argentina, South Africa, Turkey and India

"If history teaches us anything, it is that inflation usually ends in violence. The Johannesburg-based economic research house ETM Analytics (www.etmstrategy.com), which has a strong Austrian bias, puts out a monthly 'riot alert' based on the speed with which countries are debasing their currencies. It has been scarily accurate in predicting where trouble is most likely to erupt. For all the press acreage given to the political causes of violence in countries like Syria and Egypt, it is difficult to side-step the obvious common denominator: inflation. A 10% rise in food prices can transform a hungry man into an angry man." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRiot Alert: Look Out Argentina, South Africa, Turkey and India

The Feds Promote Hunger and Poverty in America but the Kids Are Alright

"The tasty little lunch pictured above conforms to newly proposed federal regulations aimed at foods and drinks served in the nation’s public schools. Among other mandates, these regulations would cap serving sizes and calorie counts. Ironically, these proposals are part of the second round of regulations deriving from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, a laughable bureaucratic misnomer if ever there were one. The proposed regulations will also place a hefty fiscal burden on school districts and their long-suffering taxpayers. It is estimated that they will cost $127 million and require 926 thousand hours of paperwork to comply with." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Feds Promote Hunger and Poverty in America but the Kids Are Alright

Who Could Possibly Be Safe when Police Are Around?

"According to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, police were entitled to arrest, taze, and beat a teenager for the supposed crime of walking with his mother on a street in front of their own home. A police officer accosted the young man when he saw him approaching a woman who was walking a dog. It was quickly established that the woman was his mother. The trial court in the case also acknowledged that the victim was 'a fine young man, an excellent student, and active in sports, clubs and church activities.' The trial court ordered the victim of the unwarranted police attack to serve one day in detention." Continue reading →

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Eric Holder: Drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil are legal

"Attorney General Eric Holder can imagine a scenario in which it would be constitutional to carry out a drone strike against an American on American soil, he wrote in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. 'It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,' Holder replied to Paul’s question about whether Obama 'has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEric Holder: Drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil are legal

Whence the Housing Bubble?

"The chart below shows the ratio of the average existing home sales price to average household income. The long term average (LTA) of this ratio has been slightly above 3.0. At the beginning of 2001, however, it began to rise rapidly, reaching a peak 33 percent higher than the LTA during 2005, and then declining precipitously back to its LTA during 2008. Peshut’s chart also shows that, as of the beginning of 2012, Fed monetary policy had been unable to restart a bubble in the housing market unlike it had done in financial asset, farmland, and commodities markets. In fact housing prices were still falling both absolutely and in relation to household income." Continue reading →

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Challenge for Keynesian Anti-Sequester Hysterics

"Here’s some data from the International Monetary Fund showing that the Canadian economy enjoyed very strong growth when policymakers imposed a near-freeze on government outlays between 1992 and 1997. By the way, we also have a more recent example of successful budget reductions. Estonia and the other Baltic nations ignored Keynesian snake-oil when the financial crisis hit and instead imposed genuine spending cuts. The result? Growth has recovered and these nations are doing much better than the European countries that decided that big tax hikes and/or Keynesian spending binges were the right approach." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChallenge for Keynesian Anti-Sequester Hysterics

Penny Pritzker as Commerce Secretary?

"Rhamaland-based billionaire Penny Pritzker, who was the first to back President Obama's initial run for the presidency, has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next commerce secretary. Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is the 263rd richest person in the U.S., estimated net worth of US $1.7 billion. Pritzker has contributed to the presidential campaigns and exploratory committees of George W. Bush, Joe Lieberman, Bill Bradley, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain (2000), Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Pritzker was chairman of a Chicago-area bank that collapsed because of the aggressive subprime home mortgages it made before the crash." Continue reading →

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Thomas Sowell Exposes Dishonest Budgetary Scare Tactics, Cartoonists Mock Obama’s Hysteria

"Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do? The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThomas Sowell Exposes Dishonest Budgetary Scare Tactics, Cartoonists Mock Obama’s Hysteria

Behind the Scenes With The Trans-National Elite

"In the hallowed halls of the transnational elite, falling down drunkenness is viewed as just another day at the office. United Nations unelected senior level employees living off the labor of others are routinely voting thumbs up or down on another bloody 'humanitarian intervention' whilst incapable of exercising even basic motor skills. One wonders the state of the unelected rulers of the universe when matters such as the destruction of Libya are being put up for a vote. No wonder the United Nations was not able to see through the blatant lies of the NGOs advocating for a NATO-led invasion of Libya: they could not see beyond their own booze-filled snouts." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBehind the Scenes With The Trans-National Elite