Land Of The Flea

The Fiscal Cliff’s Structural Endgame

"This Grand Bargain is coming apart as the promises made to everyone cannot possibly be met. Claims on welfare and disability programs are skyrocketing at the same time that the demographics of an aging populace are causing 10,000 people a day to enter Social Security and Medicare, the two costliest government programs. Meanwhile, the upper middle class that pays most of the taxes has been slammed with lower income and a devastating drop in their housing-based net worth." Continue reading →

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Social Security Ran $47.8B Deficit in FY 2012; Disabled Workers Hit New Record in December: 8,827,795

"The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses. The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collecting disability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December--up from 8,805,353 in November. The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185 in December." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSocial Security Ran $47.8B Deficit in FY 2012; Disabled Workers Hit New Record in December: 8,827,795

On ‘Intellectual Property’ and Pot

"Lawyers for Oakland pointed out in a court filing Tuesday that, while marijuana is regarded by federal law as a controlled substance with no medicinal value, the U.S. government’s own patents and research claim otherwise. One 2009 patent application, for instance, extols the pain-relieving and 'healing properties' of marijuana. The government’s own 2003 patent discusses the usefulness of 'cannabinoids' in treating 'ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases' as well as 'Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.' In July, the National Institutes of Health licensed the rights of the latter patent." Continue reading →

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How Much TSA Abuse Is Enough?

"What on Earth does the TSA have to do to bump up against some serious resistance? If you feel like you've been sexually molested, you can go and cry on YouTube, like Miss USA did, but that's about as much sympathy as you're gonna get. You were molested for everyone's protection. And let's not forget the recent firing of 400 TSA agents for massive theft. If Americans are OK with a genital grab here and there, why not expand it to other places besides the airport? The longer that this goes on, the more emboldened the state will get, and that's exactly what they'll (slowly, of course) start to do." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Much TSA Abuse Is Enough?

A look inside the federal civil forfeiture process

"Cave Junction grower Jedadiah Wissler, who allegedly supplied marijuana that was seized in 2010 in Texas while it was enroute to Florida, settled in a July agreement with federal prosecutors. Wissler dropped his claim to $44,542 seized from his residence along with some growing equipment, which included an automated marijuana-trimming device called a 'Twister.' He also dropped his claim for a pistol and an AK-47 WAGR-10 rifle with scope and bayonet. In turn, Wissler got to keep a seized pickup truck and unspecified assets in a local bank account, court records show." Continue reading →

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Privacy and the Government’s Dossier on You

"The bureaucracy is inscrutable and powerful. Its resources dwarf each person's. The purposes of this spy-bureaucratic machine are unknown to the individual. It is making decisions over lives but people are not privy to them and can't affect them. The power relationship between you and government is altered drastically when the government creates a dossier on you. You are in the dark. You are helpless and powerless. You feel that way, and you are. You are placed on the defensive. You no longer can act freely. Your freedom and your privacy both vaporize. You become fearful of speaking to others and expressing yourself because this is going into your dossier." Continue reading →

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The Really Scary Thing about the TSA

"TSA employees literally traded in their blue security uniforms, black TSA inspector jackets and TSA badges for a FEMA badge to help residents recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. This is a relatively benign use of the body grabbers. But it makes my point, the body grabbers can be taken off their body grab duties for other government activities. What if price inflation heats up and price controls are instituted? Will the body grabbers be sent out into the land to monitor against price increases and black markets developing? I fear we have not seen the end of the interventionist roles to be played by these characters. They are rested and ready." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Really Scary Thing about the TSA

Michael Reichert and the Road Pirates of Collinsville, Illinois

"The Collinsville PD conducts dozens of identical stops each week, and roughly half of its operating budget comes from seizures of cash and property through civil asset forfeiture. Despite the fact that Reichert was fired twice after being put on the so-called Brady List (police officers whose documented dishonesty disqualifies them from testifying in court) he is in charge of instructing other Collinsville officers in the dark arts of manufacturing 'probable cause' for vehicle searches. This makes a certain cynical sense when it’s understood that the Collinsville PD is engaged in a cut-throat competition with road pirates in the employ of four other police agencies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Reichert and the Road Pirates of Collinsville, Illinois

Will Grigg: Sex Predators in Uniform

"Orlando,Florida Police Officer Roderick Johnson allegedly did exactly the same thing that Justice, Illinois PD Officer Carmen Scardine was confirmed to have done: He is accused of taking a woman into custody and forcing himself on her sexually. Scardine remains at large and in uniform. The M.O. of Philip Emanuele, a former detective with the Eatontown, NJ Police Department, combined elements of Scardine's approach and that of Adam Sweres, a uniformed sexual predator from Pittsburgh. Emanuele has confessed to forcing a 24-year-old detainee to perform oral sex on him, using the threat of prison on a drug charge to browbeat her into becoming an informant." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: Sex Predators in Uniform

Glenn Greenwald: New York’s top court highlights the meaninglessness and menace of the term ‘terrorism’

"What the court is admitting here is amazing. It is saying that when someone is accused of terrorism, the rules governing trials and law completely change. All sorts of things that the state is normally barred from doing on the grounds that it is unjust suddenly become permissible when someone faces terrorism charges. Indeed, so 'prejudicial' are these special rules of 'justice' for terrorism cases that anyone convicted under these rules is, by definition, treated unfairly if terrorism is inapplicable. That's what has happened in the post-9/11 era: a whole new system of 'justice', with all new rules designed to ensure convictions and long prison terms." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: New York’s top court highlights the meaninglessness and menace of the term ‘terrorism’