Michael Krieger

My name is Michael Krieger, and I am the creator and editor of Liberty Blitzkrieg. I'm originally from New York City.

As far as my academic and professional background, I attended college at Duke University where I earned a double major in Economics and Spanish. After completing my studies in 2000, I took a job at Lehman Brothers where I worked with the Oil analyst in the Equity Research Department.  In 2005, I joined Sanford C. Bernstein where I served as the Commodities Analyst on the trading floor. About halfway through my time there, I started to branch out and write opinions on bigger picture "macro" topics that no one else at the firm was covering. These opinion pieces were extremely popular throughout the global investment community, and I traveled around providing advice to some of the largest mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds in the world.

I loved my job, but as time passed I started to educate myself about how the monetary and financial system functions and what I discovered disgusted me. I no longer felt satisfied working within the industry, and I resigned in January 2010.  At that point, I started a family investment office and continued to write macro pieces on economic, social and geopolitical topics. That summer, I drove cross country for six weeks and ultimately decided to leave the crowded streets of Manhattan for the open spaces of Boulder, Colorado, where I currently reside.

In the years that followed, I gradually recognized that my true passion centers upon writing on issues of significant societal importance given the extremely challenging times we live in. This realization culminated with me losing interest in financial markets and eventually launching this website in early 2012.

If you are interested in a more detailed description, replete with colorful anecdotes, of how I ended up making this bizarre professional transition, take the time to watch the video below.

https//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DcqMN-FXCIE?rel=0

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

TSA Agents Caught Gaming System so Male Screener Could Grope Attractive Passengers; No Criminal Charges Filed

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Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

– Benjamin Franklin

When a society becomes sufficiently afraid of an outside enemy, it can be manipulated into irrational responses that are then easily abused by those in power. This has been the sad story of America in the decade and a half since 9/11 (for more, see: How I Remember September 11, 2001).

The TSA is just one of many shady and generally useless government agencies (and private companies) involved in a massive money and power grab since the kickoff of the endless, Orwellian “war on terror.” Rather than preventing any terrorist attacks, the TSA is engaged in security theatre. This has become very obvious to me during my many trips between Denver and New York City over the past five years.

As someone who has never gone through a naked body scanner, I am particularly sensitive to where they are positioned and where they are not. In Denver, they are basically everywhere, yet interestingly, in the terminal serving Frontier Airlines at La Guardia in NYC there are none. This seems incredible to me given how big of a terrorist target it is. Somehow New York City is able to screen passengers just fine without the naked body scanners, yet Denver can’t? How is that the case? It’s the case because the expensive new screeners are nothing more than security theatre. Security theater that pays very, very well for the device manufacturers.

Yet, it is much more dangerous than this. Whenever you give bureaucracies absurd powers “to protect you,” what you’ll invariably end up with is egregious abuse in the name of “for your own good.” The latest evidence of this was recently revealed in the emergence of a scheme by two TSA employees at Denver International Airport to allow a male screener to grope specific passengers that he found attractive. Importantly, this scam couldn’t have occurred if metal detectors were used.

We learn from CBS4 News that:

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DEA Agents Caught Having Drug Cartel Funded Prostitute Sex Parties Received Slap on the Wrist; None Fired

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An internal Drug Enforcement Administration report showed the agency gave its agents a mere slap on the wrist for purchasing the services of Colombian prostitutes, sometimes with taxpayer money and sometimes as they let local police watch their weapons and personal property.

A summary of the internal report shows the DEA doled out punishments to 10 of its agents, which ranged from a letter of caution to a two-week suspension. None of the agents who participated in the parties was fired.

In one instance, money to pay prostitutes at a farewell party for a high-ranking DEA official was included in an “operational budget” that used government funds for the party, the report said.

Lawmakers expressed concern during the hearing that some of the government-funded sex soirees may have included teenagers.

– From the Washington Times article: No DEA Agents Fired for Colombia Prostitute Parties, Internal Report Reveals

Last month, I highlighted the “truth is stranger than fiction” story about how Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents were caught having sex parties with prostitutes hired by drug cartels. I ended that post with:

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Caught on Tape – Cop Who Shot and Killed Fleeing, Unarmed South Carolina Man Laughs About Shooting

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One of the biggest stories last week was the emergence of a video tape that showed a South Carolina cop shooting an unarmed man 8 times in the back as he fled (see: South Carolina Cop to Be Charged with Murder for Shooting Man 8 Times in the Back as He Ran Away). As he lay dead on the ground motionless, the officer went ahead and planted his taser next to the body to cover up the crime.

Now, audio tape has emerged of a conversation between the cop, Michael Slager, and a senior officer after the killing in which the officer is heard laughing about the shooting, and marveling at the incredible adrenaline rush it provided. They also discuss how to best handle the aftermath of the situation, and how nothing will really happen to him. Listen for yourself:

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All Hail Hillary – Iowa Students Locked in Classrooms as Clinton Arrives at College to Visit “Everyday Iowans”

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You can’t make this up. You really can’t.

So just days after oligarch extraordinaire Hillary Clinton finally put us out of our misery and announced her campaign for the U.S. Presidency, she decided it would be shrewd to kick things off by “having conversations with everyday Iowans” via a “van tour.” These aren’t my words, it is exactly how the PR stunt was marketed by her campaign. See:

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Naturally, the whole thing was staged, and the experience of most “everyday Iowans” was far from any sort of conversation. In fact, many were locked in their classrooms to prevent her highness from even having to view the rabble. The Des Moines Register notes that:

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New Report Finds $153 Billion in Corporate Welfare – Majority of Taxpayer Funded Public Assistance Goes to People Who are Employed

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve focused on the many dangerous myths people are encouraged to tell themselves by the various power structures. These myths prevent critical thinking and make people far more malleable and passive. I’ve discussed the stock market myth and the Hillary Clinton myth in some detail, but today I want to expound upon the public welfare, i.e., food stamp myth.

This myth has two components to it, which work brilliantly to manipulate two different segments of the U.S. population. On the one hand, the wealthy and upper middle classes who do not need public assistance have generally bought into either one of two notions about it.

1) That their tax dollars are actually helping out the poor, and they are happy to pay their share of it.

or

2) That those on public assistance are intellectually and professionally inferior to themselves, and that these people are just lazy deadbeats who should get off the couch.

Interestingly, neither of these perspectives are accurate, but they serve the corporate-state perfectly. The reason is that by dividing the affluent classes into two false memes they never actually see the issue for what it really is. At the same time, public assistance is actually padding corporate profit margins at the expense of society. I discussed this a couple of years ago in the post, McDonald’s Math: You Can’t Survive Working for Us. Here are a few excerpts:

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The New York Post Reports – FBI is Covering Up Saudi Links to 9/11 Attack

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Former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, who in 2002 chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11, maintains the FBI is covering up a Saudi support cell in Sarasota for the hijackers. He says the al-Hijjis’ “urgent” pre-9/11 exit suggests “someone may have tipped them off” about the coming attacks.

Graham has been working with a 14-member group in Congress to urge President Obama to declassify 28 pages of the final report of his inquiry which were originally redacted, wholesale, by President George W. Bush.

“The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier,” he said, adding, “I am speaking of the kingdom,” or government, of Saudi Arabia, not just wealthy individual Saudi donors.

Sources who have read the censored Saudi section say it cites CIA and FBI case files that directly implicate officials of the Saudi Embassy in Washington and its consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks — which, if true, would make 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war by a foreign government.

– From the New York Post article: How the FBI is Whitewashing the Saudi Connection to 9/11

One of the strangest aspects of the post 9/11 period has been the number of very intelligent people who intimately appreciate and fight against the innumerable crimes and thefts committed by the American oligarchy, yet simply can’t come to terms with the fact that the official story of September 11, 2001 is a heaping pile of bullshit. At the end of the day, I think it’s just a function of managing career risk. Having already achieved some level of public success, not many people will want to give the mainstream media the opportunity to attach “9/11 truther” to their name, thus tarnishing all the other work they do in the mind of the general public.

I’ve never claimed to know exactly what happened on that day. The only thing I’ve said is that we aren’t being told anything close to the whole story, and without the real story, the entire “war on terror” becomes a gigantic scam. I simply don’t believe that a few guys pulled off these attacks and brought down the World Trade Center without state backing. Once state backing enters the equation, the entire thing does indeed become a very real conspiracy. One that takes on special significance if the state sponsor is one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East. An ally that is unquestionably a ruthless, medieval-style monarchy that was itching to rid itself of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

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Video of the Day – New Jersey Man Dies After Police Dog Violently Attacks Him While He’s Pinned Down on the Ground

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The hits just keep on coming. Less than an hour ago, I highlighted the latest case of an unarmed U.S. civilian killed unnecessarily by police in Oklahoma. In that incident, the cop claims to have mistakenly pulled out his gun instead of a taser (see: Another Police Killing Caught on Tape – Oklahoma Cop Shoots and Kills Unarmed Man in Tulsa).

Well it turns out another extremely disturbing video showcasing the recent epidemic of “death by civilian encounter with police” has surfaced. This time it’s a Vineland, New Jersey man. We see how Philip G. White is already pinned to the ground and repeatedly pounded on by a police officer, when he is then subjected to a sustained violent attack by a police dog. The man died in custody.

First, as reported by Gothamist:

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Another Police Killing Caught on Tape – Oklahoma Cop Shoots and Kills Unarmed Man in Tulsa

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Just last week, I highlighted the extremely disturbing case of how a North Charleston, South Carolina police officer shot an unarmed man eight times in the back as he was running away and then planted evidence near the dead body to cover up the crime. In case you missed it, see: South Carolina Cop to Be Charged with Murder for Shooting Man 8 Times in the Back as He Ran Away.

If you’re like me, you would’ve hoped for at least a brief reprieve between citizen deaths at the hands of U.S. police, but you’d be sorely disappointed. I suppose it’s just an unfortunate reality of life in a nation where American cops killed more civilians in March alone than UK police have killed in the past 100 years.

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Jailed Bahraini Human Rights Activist Writes Open Letter to Obama from Prison

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There is no region in the world in which the U.S. government’s blatant disregard for human rights, and its shameless foreign policy hypocrisy, is more fully on display than the Middle East. I have spent countless hours writing about this topic (see links at the end), with Saudi Arabia being the focal point of my critique for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, Bahrain has its own litany of human rights abuses, for which Nabeel Rajab has in many ways become the official and unofficial spokesperson.

Bahrain’s abuses have been mentioned here before, although not nearly as much as they warrant; probably because it is really just a colony of Saudi Arabia and the U.S., and I have focused criticism on them instead. That said, before reading on, I’d go back and check out the 2012 article: Meet Amber Lyon: Former Reporter Exposes Massive Censorship at CNN.

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“He Woke up on 3rd Base and Thought He Hit a Triple” – A Community Banker Responds to Jamie Dimon

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The recent shareholder letter by JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon provides a crystal clear example of why it’s so dangerous to encourage and subsidize the corporate welfare babies known as the “Too Big to Fail” mega banks. The letter, which features a gigantic photograph of the executive seated casually with legs crossed in jeans, a shirt that appears almost uncomfortable around his neck in the absence of a tie, and all ten fingers touching flawlessly in what undoubtably took multiple takes to provide the sufficient creepiness factor (the presence of presidential cufflinks cannot be confirmed or denied), expounded on how well the mega banks performed during the financial crisis compared to the hundreds of small banks that failed.

This was understandably too much to handle for Camden R. Fine, president and chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America. He wrote a scathing piece in American Banker in rebuttal titled, Dimon’s Defense of Big-Bank Model: An Exercise in Hubris.

Here are some choice excerpts:

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