"Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency Wednesday as violence raged across the country following a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. The nationwide state of emergency will begin at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT), the presidency said in a statement read out on state television." Continue reading →
"One Muslim Brotherhood member was shot dead and at least 11 people wounded in Egypt on Tuesday, security sources said, with the Islamist group accusing plain clothes police of firing on their march. Authorities have held back from clearing two Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, but the shootings and other street clashes showed Egypt remained dangerously divided. Some officials wish to avoid a bloody showdown that would damage the government's efforts to present itself as legitimate, while hardliners in the army and security forces fear they are losing face to the Brotherhood and want to move in." Continue reading →
"The neocon brothers-in-arms, Senators John McCain & Lindsey Graham, put out a joint Op-Ed in WaPo this morning. They attempt to pitch 'Democracy' to the Egyptian people, who ironically just witnessed their first democratically elected President overthrown in a military coup. I have a different proposal for the Egyptian people, and it's called Liberty. Now, I realize that the prospects of Liberty breaking out in Egypt are close to zero (after all, we're struggling immensely with the idea catching on here, in the so-called 'Land of The Free'). But speaking about Liberty can only help." Continue reading →
"After his administration issued repeated defenses of a National Security Agency monitoring program that collects Americans' phone and Internet data, Obama announced during a press conference Friday afternoon that reforms to the system will make the collection activities more transparent and 'give the American people additional confidence that there are additional safeguards against abuse.' Officials will also launch a new website next week that will serve as 'a hub for further transparency' for interested members of the public." Continue reading →
"Trevor Moore (Whitest Kids U' Know) tells us what we can do about the NSA wiretapping our phones." Continue reading →
"The day after his first inauguration, Obama proclaimed 'a new era of openness in our country.' Yet, in office, he’s driven state secrecy to new levels of absurdity. You may think that Americans have a right to know who we’re at war with, when the government thinks it can kill them, and whether the executive branch considers the personal data of all Americans “relevant” to terrorism investigations — but this administration begs to differ. As far as it’s concerned, you can’t handle the truth." Continue reading →
"Yellen comes out of the economic school of thought that holds the view that printing money can somehow boost the economy. In essence, she holds the thought that the economy can somehow at times get stuck, that prices at such time don't adjust to supply and demand and that thus money needs to be printed by the Fed via Wall Street cronies to distort prices via monetary and price inflation and fool the public into doing transactions they wouldn't do without the distortions. This is what is held these days as 'utterly unquestioned credentials.'" Continue reading →
"Tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully in the Tunisian capital on Tuesday evening demanding the resignation of the Islamist-led coalition government as the political crisis in the north African country grew. Around 40,000 people took to the streets of Tunis, according to police, while opposition leaders put the protest figures between 100,000 and 200,000. They waved Tunisian flags and chanted slogans against the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda that heads a three-part government coalition. The protesters were largely middle-class Tunisians from the capital, according to the Sunday Times." Continue reading →
"Letters to or from England were carried by private ship captains, who often hung a bag in the local coffeehouse to receive letters for shipment. The price was generally a penny for a single letter and two pence for a double letter or parcel. In 1591 the Crown had issued a proclamation granting itself the monopoly of all foreign mail, and in 1609 the Crown’s proclamation extended its own monopoly to all mail foreign or domestic. The purpose of this postal monopoly was quite simple: to enable governmental officials to read the letters of private citizens in order to discover and suppress 'treason' and 'sedition.'" Continue reading →
"We read Mr. Summers' commentaries regularly, in the Financial Times. We don't recall a single insight worth repeating or a single proposal that merits further discussion. Like Tom Friedman, he sees problems everywhere and finds solutions for them readily. And every solution he comes up with would be neat, logical, and disastrous. Unintended consequences? Has he ever heard of the concept? For him, reason has no limits...intervention has no risks...and the world has no black swans. Seeing no danger to further monetary stimulus, he will put the pedal to the metal and run at full speed...right into a brick wall." Continue reading →