it can’t happen here

Jacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

"We live under a governmental system in which the president, the military, the CIA, and the NSA now wield powers that the greatest dictators in history have wielded. The powers to assassinate people, to indefinitely detain people without due process or trial by jury, to kidnap and rendition people, to torture people, to subject people to LSD experiments, to invade and occupy foreign countries, to support coups in foreign lands, to install, train, maintain, and support brutal dictatorial regimes, to spy on and monitor the activities of people everywhere. In other words, the dark type of things that Americans used to complain that communist or totalitarian regimes were engaged in." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

Web’s Reach Binds N.S.A. and Silicon Valley Leaders

"Although Silicon Valley has sold equipment to the N.S.A. and other intelligence agencies for a generation, the interests of the two began to converge in new ways in the last few years as advances in computer storage technology drastically reduced the costs of storing enormous amounts of data. The sums the N.S.A. spends in Silicon Valley are classified, as is the agency’s total budget, which independent analysts say is $8 billion to $10 billion a year. Current and former industry officials say the companies sometimes secretly put together teams of in-house experts to find ways to cooperate more completely with the N.S.A." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWeb’s Reach Binds N.S.A. and Silicon Valley Leaders

Edward Snowden and the Wolf Who Cried Plant

"At some point, an emerging police state stops trying to hide or justify its nastiness and starts emphasizing and flaunting that nastiness — although it may do so subtly or indirectly instead of openly. Its minions no longer worry about convincing you they’re right. They’re content to just bully, threaten and scare you into submission. Naomi Wolf’s hypothesis is that the Snowden revelations may be an intentional instance of the latter — perhaps timed to distract attention from the trial of real whistleblower Bradley Manning — rather than an accidental failure of the former. Is she right? I don’t know. But the idea is far from outrageous, and should be taken seriously." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden and the Wolf Who Cried Plant

Ex-NSA official Thomas Drake on Snowden and the U.S. spy leviathan

"Thomas Drake, who was prosecuted for allegedly disclosing National Security Agency secrets years before Edward Snowden surfaced, says the U.S. government has an 'industrial-scale' surveillance system that 'the Stasi in East Germany would have drooled over.' Drake speaks with Reuters defense correspondent Andrea Shalal-Esa." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEx-NSA official Thomas Drake on Snowden and the U.S. spy leviathan

Name That Black Swan

"You might argue that a black swan event could occur at any time. That's true. But our current fiscal, monetary, and economic circumstances are so tenuous that the possibility of a black swan event hitting our economy is greater than usual. Indeed, the number of anomalous events that could take place is large enough that collectively they represent a high probability. And since we all live and work within an economic system and use money every day, the impact to us as individuals could be severe. So the question is this: what data are available now that show where we are most vulnerable to experiencing a black swan event?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingName That Black Swan

Diary of WWII German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin

"The 15-year-old Berlin schoolgirl, nicknamed 'Gitti', started keeping a diary in December 1942, when the German capital was being bombed nightly and the Nazi Holocaust was killing thousands. As a trainee secretary, she recorded her daily experiences to improve her stenography skills. Now, some 70 years on, her diary has been published for the first time in Germany and is being hailed as remarkable documentary evidence of how millions of Germans relied on collective indifference to endure the horrors of war and ignore the brutality of the Nazi rule." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDiary of WWII German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin

How the Patriot Act debate became about library records instead of phone records

"Civil liberties advocates said in interviews there is a simple reason for the disconnect: In the period immediately after the Patriot Act passed, few if any observers believed Section 215 could authorize any kind of ongoing, large-scale collection of phone data. They argue that only a radical and incorrect interpretation of the law allows the mass surveillance program the NSA has erected on the foundation of Section 215. The ACLU contends in a lawsuit filed last week that Section 215 does not legitimately authorize the metadata program." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow the Patriot Act debate became about library records instead of phone records

Effort to block NDAA indefinite detention fails in U.S. House

"Indefinite detention remains in effect, but this week an effort was made to fix the problem with the Smith-Gibson amendment to the 2014 NDAA act. This bi-partisan amendment, sponsored by Republican Chris Gibson of New York and Democrat Adam Smith of Washington, would have guaranteed any detainee a trial and prohibited the transfer of anyone arrested in the United States to military custody. As happened with the substantially similar Smith-Amash amendment last year, this effort failed by a close 226 to 200 vote on the floor of the House." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEffort to block NDAA indefinite detention fails in U.S. House

On This Day in 1933

"You were considered a hoarder and a slacker if you still resisted turning over your gold to the government. Roosevelt had only been in office for 101 days and while there was broad bipartisan support for inflationary policies in Congress, it’s safe to say that most of those who voted for FDR never expected him to confiscate private holdings of gold coins, bullion, and certificates. Roosevelt called the measure a temporary one (it wasn’t), and he followed it up by invalidating gold clauses in private contracts that obligated payment in gold dollars, which had the effect of devaluing the assets of bond and contract holders." Continue reading →

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Don’t Dismiss the Possibility of Gold Confiscation

"If you hold precious metals in your portfolio, there is a good chance you fear hyperinflation and the crash of fiat currencies. You probably distrust governments in general and believe they are self-serving and have no interest in your economic well-being. It is likely that your holdings in gold are your lifeline – your hope to get you through these times while holding on to your wealth. But have you ever given any thought to the possibility of having this lifeline confiscated by the authorities? It's an interesting thought that the greatest threat to gold and silver investment might not be the possibility of losing on the speculation, but the government taking it away from you." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDon’t Dismiss the Possibility of Gold Confiscation