for life and liberty

Fed links leveraged ETFs to 1987 crash

"Federal Reserve economist Tugkan Tuzun has warned leveraged exchange-traded funds could be the next problem for the stock market and could trigger a crash similar to that in 1987. Leveraged ETFs set out to generate multiples of daily index returns by gearing their portfolios twice or three times over. Turzun points to portfolio insurance, generally blamed for triggering the 1987 crash. Thanks to their trades, and their gearing, leveraged ETFs can have an outsized impact on the market. Tuzun argues that a 1% move in broadly-based market indices can produced rebalancing flows totaling $1 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed links leveraged ETFs to 1987 crash

Lexicon Shift Alert: global warming gets another name change

"The White House has changed its vocabulary again — first 'global warming' was changed to 'climate change' — and now the correct name of the scam is 'carbon pollution.' It’s a way to paint carbon dioxide as if it were black soot billowing out of industrial smokestacks. Carbon dioxide is actually what humans exhale, and it’s food for plants." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLexicon Shift Alert: global warming gets another name change

The Secret History of G.I. Joe

"Joe, like much else in his era, was hardly what he seemed. Launched the year Lyndon Johnson ran for president as a peace candidate against Barry Goldwater while his administration was secretly planning the large-scale bombing of North Vietnam, Joe, too, was involved in a cover-up. For if Joe was a behemoth of a toy soldier, he was also, though the word was unmentionable, a doll. War play Joe-style was, in fact, largely patterned on and due to a 'girl' -- Mattel’s Barbie." Continue reading →

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5 Myths Used to Justify Death By Drone and America’s Assassination Policy

"America’s never-ending war on terrorism is almost always depicted in the mainstream media as a military and intelligence agency fight on a global battlefield. But it is also a propaganda war where the public is fed inaccuracies from Washington, especially when it comes to overseas killings by U.S. military drones. Here are five myths perpetuated by the military and its weapons makers that seek to make Americans feel good about drones and the White House’s policy of targeted assassinations." Continue reading →

Continue Reading5 Myths Used to Justify Death By Drone and America’s Assassination Policy

5 Myths Used to Justify Death By Drone and America’s Assassination Policy

"America’s never-ending war on terrorism is almost always depicted in the mainstream media as a military and intelligence agency fight on a global battlefield. But it is also a propaganda war where the public is fed inaccuracies from Washington, especially when it comes to overseas killings by U.S. military drones. Here are five myths perpetuated by the military and its weapons makers that seek to make Americans feel good about drones and the White House’s policy of targeted assassinations." Continue reading →

Continue Reading5 Myths Used to Justify Death By Drone and America’s Assassination Policy

On Target Pressure Points: Educational Compliance

"As John W. Whitehead explains in his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, our nation's children are not being spared from the police state mentality which is slowly gripping all aspects of American society. While parents get ready to send their children back to school, Whitehead provides a chilling reminder that the police state mindset is pervasive in our public schools, with students becoming the victims of inflexible zero tolerance policies, mass surveillance, and arrest for childish, noncriminal behavior." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOn Target Pressure Points: Educational Compliance

On Target Pressure Points: Educational Compliance

"As John W. Whitehead explains in his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, our nation's children are not being spared from the police state mentality which is slowly gripping all aspects of American society. While parents get ready to send their children back to school, Whitehead provides a chilling reminder that the police state mindset is pervasive in our public schools, with students becoming the victims of inflexible zero tolerance policies, mass surveillance, and arrest for childish, noncriminal behavior." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOn Target Pressure Points: Educational Compliance

Baltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

"Corrections officer Jennifer M. Owens pleaded guilty Tuesday to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the Baltimore City Detention Center for an inmate, a gang leader who fathered two children with her and whose name she had tattooed on her neck. Owens, 31, of Randallstown, Md., is one of 13 female corrections officers who were indicted in April on charges of smuggling items into the state-run jail for Tavon White, a leader of the Black Guerrilla Family, enabling him to run a thriving drug enterprise inside the detention center. She is the first guard to enter a guilty plea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

Baltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

"Corrections officer Jennifer M. Owens pleaded guilty Tuesday to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the Baltimore City Detention Center for an inmate, a gang leader who fathered two children with her and whose name she had tattooed on her neck. Owens, 31, of Randallstown, Md., is one of 13 female corrections officers who were indicted in April on charges of smuggling items into the state-run jail for Tavon White, a leader of the Black Guerrilla Family, enabling him to run a thriving drug enterprise inside the detention center. She is the first guard to enter a guilty plea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

Anthony Gregory: The Habeas Corpus Myth

"We know many things about habeas corpus. We know that it goes back to the Magna Carta and that the U.S. Constitution affirmed this bulwark of Anglo-American liberty. We know that habeas prohibits jailing people without cause, and that it remained healthy throughout U.S. history, except during wartime, until George W. Bush’s 2006 Military Commissions Act. And we also know that in 2008, the Supreme Court guaranteed basic due process rights for Guantánamo’s inmates. The trouble is that none of these things are true." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnthony Gregory: The Habeas Corpus Myth