News Items

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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Portrait of the American Oligarchy – The Very Troubling Income and Wealth Trends Since 1989

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One of the primary purposes of Liberty Blitzkrieg is to dispel the myth that America is politically a democracy and economically a free market, and prove that it is in fact a centrally planned oligarchy. If the people were well aware of this and fine with it, that’s one thing, but my contention is that the vast majority of the public is merely buying into the myth. This is why the population is so passive and easily controlled. They simply don’t understand what is happening to them. The proverbial frog slowing boiling to death.

Whenever I note that real median incomes in America haven’t increased for decades, many people have a hard time believing it. Nevertheless, as John Adams famously proclaimed: “facts are stubborn things.” Indeed they are, and an article published today by Bloomberg View provides some disturbingly stubborn facts that must be admitted to and faced. We learn that:

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This is How Hillary Does Business – An Oil Company, Human Rights Abuses in Colombia and the Clinton Foundation

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The details of these financial dealings remain murky, but this much is clear: After millions of dollars were pledged by the oil company to the Clinton Foundation — supplemented by millions more from Giustra himself — Secretary Clinton abruptly changed her position on the controversial U.S.-Colombia trade pact. Having opposed the deal as a bad one for labor rights back when she was a presidential candidate in 2008, she now promoted it, calling it “strongly in the interests of both Colombia and the United States.” The change of heart by Clinton and other Democratic leaders enabled congressional passage of a Colombia trade deal that experts say delivered big benefits to foreign investors like Giustra.

The details of her family’s entanglements in Colombia echo talk that the Clintons have blurred the lines between their private business and philanthropic interests and those of the nation. And Hillary Clinton’s connections to Pacific Rubiales and Giustra intensify recent questions about whether big donations influenced her decisions as secretary of state.

– From the International Business Daily article: As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations

Decades ago, Bill and Hillary Clinton made a conscious decision to prioritize money and power over the struggles of the poor, weak and dispossessed. The key to their success has been the ability to continue to falsely portray that the commitment to the less fortunate is the guiding principle of their lives.

The other day, I wrote about the dangerous myths people tell themselves (see: The Stock Market Myth and How the Japanese Middle Class is on the Precipice Thanks to Abenomics). For most Democrats, the myth of the Clinton family remains an unassailable tale they tell themselves to this very day, despite piles of evidence to the contrary.

As I read more and more about the Clintons in the run up to her 2016 coronation, it has become clear that the Clinton Foundation represents the clever and core vehicle used to funnel ever more money and power to the family, all the while looking charitable. It’s pretty genius actually.

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The Dissident Dad – Free Your Mind, Part 2

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Last week, I chose to take on a different tack and put together a list of 50 things to try instead of, or in addition to, going straight to college. It’s a lengthy list, so only the first 25 were posted last week. Here is the rest of the list:

26) Volunteer at a Zoo: Zoos contain a great wealth of information, and they’re an awesome place to volunteer. You get to meet other animal lovers, learn how animals are cared for (like bears and lions), and possibly even get to take part in their care yourself. It’s something very few people get to do!

27) Write Songs: Lyrically, songs take a bit of work. You’re working with both a beat and verbal flow, which requires a strong grasp of the English language (or another) and fitting things together. This makes it a strong creative outlet, and could even lead to a job writing lyrics for others.

28) Learn to Drive Race Cars: Most of us have had that desire to get behind the wheel of a race car and take it around the track. Or even just go on a drag strip. Learning how to drive a car in these extreme conditions requires great hand-eye coordination, and fast reflexes. But if you master it, you could actually get sponsored to drive cars!

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How NSA Surveillance Was Birthed from the Drug War – The DEA Tracked Billions of Phone Calls Pre 9/11

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The now-discontinued operation, carried out by the DEA’s intelligence arm, was the government’s first known effort to gather data on Americans in bulk, sweeping up records of telephone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime. It was a model for the massive phone surveillance system the NSA launched to identify terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks. That dragnet drew sharp criticism that the government had intruded too deeply into Americans’ privacy after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked it to the news media two years ago.

The similarities between the NSA program and the DEA operation established a decade earlier are striking – too much so to have been a coincidence, people familiar with the programs said. Former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker said, “It’s very hard to see (the DEA operation) as anything other than the precursor” to the NSA’s terrorist surveillance.

The extent of that surveillance alarmed privacy advocates, who questioned its legality. “This was aimed squarely at Americans,” said Mark Rumold, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “That’s very significant from a constitutional perspective.”

Holder halted the data collection in September 2013 amid the fallout from Snowden’s revelations about other surveillance programs.

– From today’s USA Today article: U.S. Secretly Tracked Billions of Calls for Decades

The drug war is something that wouldn’t even exist in a rational, mature and intelligent civilization. Not only is it ineffective, invasive and brutish, but we now know that the almost religious zealousness with which it has been pursued by its proponents has led directly to the current unconstitutional surveillance state. If not for our acquiescence to the “war on drugs,” would the authoritarian statists amongst us have been able to usher in the even more dangerous but similarly endless “war on terror?” Personally, I doubt it.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of the DEA, let’s not forget the recent scandal: Government Report Finds DEA Agents Had “Sex Parties” With Prostitutes Hired By Drug Cartels

Moving along, today’s excellent article from USA Today is a must read. Here are some excerpts, but I strongly recommend reading the entire thing:

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