Land Of The Flea

US regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws

"The federal agency charged with enforcing the nation's laws against money laundering has issued new guidelines suggesting that several parties in the Bitcoin economy qualify as Money Services Businesses under US law. Money Services Businesses (MSBs) must register with the federal government, collect information about their customers, and take steps to combat money laundering by their customers. The new guidelines do not mention Bitcoin by name, but there's little doubt which 'de-centralized virtual currency' the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had in mind when it drafted the new guidelines." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws

Business lobby moves to criminalize filming animal abuse on factory farms

"Bills being shopped in six states by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would make it a crime to film animal abuse at factory farms or lie on job applications, in hopes of shutting down animal rights activists who infiltrate slaughterhouses to expose ghastly conditions. The proposals mandate that evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours, or face a financial penalty. Several of the bills also make it a crime to lie on slaughterhouse job applications, which activists commonly do in order to get footage like the content of a video published by the HSUS, embedded below." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBusiness lobby moves to criminalize filming animal abuse on factory farms

NYPD faces class-action lawsuit over controversial stop-and-frisk policy

"A landmark trial challenging the New York police department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy began in a lower Manhattan court on Monday. The class action suit accuses the NYPD of violating the constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of innocent New Yorkers on a widespread and systemic basis. New York city police officers stopped 685,724 citizens in 2011, continuing an upward trend that began when Michael Bloomberg became mayor. Nearly nine out of 10 of those stopped in 2011 had committed no crime. The vast majority were black or Latino." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNYPD faces class-action lawsuit over controversial stop-and-frisk policy

Will Grigg: Prison Profiteers

"One aspect of drug prohibition that gets far too little attention is the fact that the drug war is immensely profitable for prohibitionists. No decent person has anything but contempt for Drug Kingpins – but it’s difficult to see how Prohibition Profiteers are any less contemptible. And they’re hardly the only people who have become wealthy by monetizing the misery generated in the prison-industrial complex. Public incarceration is the only consistently growing sector of our increasingly socialized economy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: Prison Profiteers

Chinese solar panel company defaults on $541 million worth of bonds

"One of the world’s top two solar cell and panel producers, targeted last year by US trade sanctions, Suntech said it had already entered an agreement with 60 percent of the bond holders to hold off legal claims while a debt restructuring can be negotiated. The European Union began an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar panels in September last year, followed by an anti-subsidy probe in November. The United States last October confirmed hefty anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar cell makers, adding to trade tensions between the two economic powers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese solar panel company defaults on $541 million worth of bonds

Stossel: No Regulation? No Problem

"Private companies found they could 'crowd-source' enforcement against fraud and low-quality products, in much the same way that Wikipedia discovered an encyclopedia could be created without a central organizer. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tells me that method 'works far better than the top-down system that it replaced.' We almost always assume that top-down government regulation is necessary, even though history says otherwise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStossel: No Regulation? No Problem

Stop Fooling Ourselves: Americans Can’t Afford the Future

"Simply continuing along the status quo is a vote for digging ourselves deeper as the constraints of the future arrive. Behavior change is necessary in order to improve our chances. At the core of the needed change is redefining prosperity. In modern society, it has largely come to be defined by material possessions, usually assuming that the more (and the more expensive), the better. In the future, we'd do much better to define it by: our health (both physical and emotional), our purpose, our ability to meet our needs sustainably, our relationships, our level of happiness. In sum, all things that were once valued much higher in our culture." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStop Fooling Ourselves: Americans Can’t Afford the Future

An Orwellian America

"We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. Now that credit is drying up, good jobs for the working class are gone forever and mass-produced goods are unaffordable, we find ourselves transported from 'Brave New World' to '1984.' The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is clearly sliding toward unavoidable bankruptcy. It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxley’s feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy." Continue reading →

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Appeals Court Ruling Throws Wrench in Maritime Drug Prosecutions

"Four foreign nationals were arrested after their fishing vessel with 760 kilos of cocaine was seized off the Panamanian coast three years ago. The ruling reversing their convictions has called into question current US war drug tactics on foreign territory and territorial waters. If upheld, the decision in US v. Bellaizac-Hurtado, could prevent the US from prosecuting suspected smugglers caught within the 12-mile territorial waters of South and Central America countries, and it may hinder US authorities from entering the 12-mile limit themselves while carrying out anti-narcotics operations. That would wreak havoc with US drug enforcement offensives." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAppeals Court Ruling Throws Wrench in Maritime Drug Prosecutions