"Hundreds of people turned out across the Tri-State this weekend for what was billed as a 'Day of Resistance'. These are peace protests in support of the second amendment. Are these people really concerned about their second amendment rights? Vice President Joe Biden says 'No'." Continue reading →
"When it comes to zombies, nothing beats government. The feds have the power to force people to do things they would rather not do... notably, support bloodsucking zombies. So, when the elite landowners of Anne Arundel County, Md., got together with the environmental protectors and enlisted the power of government... you could be sure that money was going to change hands. In the event, some of it came to your humble zombie-fighting editor. You see, the idea was elegant. Subtle. And very profitable for those who understood what was going on. The landowners – often from old farm families – wanted to hold on to their land. But the cost of holding it was rising." Continue reading →
"In the clip below, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie tells a little girl that the fun thing about being Governor is that the lanes into the tunnels into New York City are cleared for him and that he doesn't have to wait in line. I once heard Fed chairman Bernanke give a similar answer. When asked what he liked about being Fed chairman, he said it was not having to go through TSA screening." Continue reading →
"Dominic Chu reports on an exchange between Credit Agricole Securities Analyst Mike Mayo and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon over capital ratios. Chu speaks on Bloomberg Television's 'Street Smart.'" Continue reading →
"Warren Buffett lined his pockets by making a government-subsidized investment in Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis. The just-confirmed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was given a huge bonus for leaving Citigroup several years ago. He was showered with money specifically for leaving the company to take a 'high level position with the United States government'. But Lew’s loot is pocket change compared to the $115 million that former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin received for helping to steer the company into financial collapse." Continue reading →
"Banks have a powerful incentive to get big and unwieldy. The larger they are, the more disastrous their failure would be and the more certain they can be of a government bailout in an emergency. The result is an implicit subsidy: The banks that are potentially the most dangerous can borrow at lower rates, because creditors perceive them as too big to fail. Economists have tried to pin down exactly how much the subsidy lowers big banks’ borrowing costs. In one relatively thorough effort, researchers put the number at about 0.8%. Multiplied by the total liabilities of the 10 largest U.S. banks by assets, it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy of $83 billion a year." Continue reading →
"In a letter to Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ralph Nader and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein point out that the drone-killings 'combine prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner in a single person'. Rather than allowing critics of this program to testify in Brennan’s confirmation hearings, Senator Feinstein has limited testimony to the nominee himself. The same Senator Feinstein, of course, is promoting severe restrictions on private firearms ownership. She sees nothing at all wrong with disarming the population while giving the president an unrestricted license to kill American citizens." Continue reading →
"Following the release of a secret Department of Justice memo this week that outlines the administration’s legal justification for killing U.S. citizens, a new Pew Research Center poll has revealed that a majority of Americans are torn over whether they support the government’s right to kill them anywhere at any time without due process." Continue reading →
"If the Obama regime is on the side of the government, as in Algeria, it will kill the rebels opposing the government. If the Obama regime is on the side of the rebels, as in Libya, it will kill the government’s leaders. Whether Washington sends a drone to murder Putin and the president of China remains to be seen. The elasticity of the Kill List and its easy expansion makes it certain that Washington will be involved in extra-judicial executions of those 'associated with terrorism' over much of the world. Americans themselves should be alarmed, because the term 'association with terrorism' is very elastic." Continue reading →
"Barack Obama will become the first serving US president to receive Israel’s presidential medal, from his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres on a visit to the Jewish state next month, Peres’s office said on Monday. 'President Obama has made a unique and meaningful contribution to strengthening the state of Israel and the security of its people,' it said in a statement. 'Barack Obama is a true friend of the state of Israel and has been since the beginning of his public life. As president of the United States he has stood beside Israel in times of crisis,' it added." Continue reading →