Month: January 2016

New UK Government Website Lists Normal Teenage Behavior as “Warning Signs of Radicalization”

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The UK is at it again. Proving that no other people are capable of coming up with more mindless responses to the exaggerated threat of terrorism than the British.

The latest spectacle revolves around the completely idiotic website just launched by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, titled “educate against hate.” In reality, the only people who need educating are the clowns who put this this monstrosity together and thought it was a good idea.

First a little background from the BBC:

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So What Does Google Search Have to Say About Clinton vs. Sanders…

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This pretty much sums up how the general public feels about the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination…

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Democrats had better choose wisely.

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U.S. Ally Turkey Arrests Academics for the Crime of Signing a Peace Petition

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A senior Western official familiar with a large cache of intelligence obtained this summer told the Guardian that “direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking ISIS members was now ‘undeniable.’”

ISIS, in other words, is state-sponsored — indeed, sponsored by purportedly Western-friendly regimes in the Muslim world, who are integral to the anti-ISIS coalition. Which then begs the question as to why Hollande and other Western leaders expressing their determination to “destroy” ISIS using all means necessary, would prefer to avoid the most significant factor of all: the material infrastructure of ISIS’ emergence in the context of ongoing Gulf and Turkish state support for Islamist militancy in the region.

There are many explanations, but one perhaps stands out: the West’s abject dependence on terror-toting Muslim regimes, largely to maintain access to Middle East, Mediterranean and Central Asian oil and gas resources.

– From the post: So Who’s Really Sponsoring ISIS? Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Other U.S. “Allies”

There’s been a lot going on lately, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you missed the latest drama from of U.S. ally, and sometimes ISIS/al-Qaeda supporter Turkey.

Recently, a peace petition circled the globe calling on the Turkish government to end fighting against Kurdish militants in the country’s southeast, which has reportedly led to thousands of civilian deaths. By January 15th, 2,000 Turkish academics had signed the petition, which was too much for authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to handle. He not only publicly denounced the entire affair, he went ahead and started arresting people.

Nature reports:

Hundreds of Turkish academics are waiting to find out whether they will be prosecuted or sacked for spreading “terrorist propaganda”, after they signed a petition calling for violence to end in Turkey’s southeast, where government forces have been fighting Kurdish separatists.

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The DNC is “Feeling the Bern” – Debbie Wasserman Schultz Faces Serious Primary Challenge

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz has not had a great last couple of months. The Florida Congress member and embattled Democratic National Committee Chair has been repeatedly criticized for leading the committee both ineffectively and with a heavy hand, and for an alleged bias toward Hillary Clinton that has made the party’s presidential debates few and far between—one reason why the Republican candidates have dominated the political discussion. The progressive wing of the party base is volubly getting fed up with her.

Now, if the increased calls for her to step down from her post as party head weren’t enough, Wasserman Schultz is also facing the prospect of a tough primary challenge from the left. Liberal economist and longtime Wall Street–reform advocate Tim Canova announced last week that he will challenge Wasserman Schultz in the August 30 primary in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. Touting a platform that closely mirrors Bernie Sanders’s, Canova hopes that the energy Sanders has roused nationally could work to his advantage in the South Florida district. Given Wasserman Schultz’s prominence, the primary could turn into a referendum pitting the progressive wing of the Democratic Party against its establishment wing, in much the way the (successful) primary challenge by another economist, Dave Brat, against then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was a test of strength between the Republicans’ factions.

Over the years, says Canova, Wasserman Schultz has become less accountable to her district and more responsive to Wall Street. “She’s become such a corporate Democrat; she takes so much corporate money,” Canova says. “The way she talks the talk isn’t the way she walks the walk. That kind of unaccountable power needs to be challenged.”

– From the American Prospect article: Can a Sanders ‘Proxy’ Oust Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

The times they are a-changin’. It’s not often that that most interesting Congressional race in an election year proves to be a primary challenge, but that’s exactly how its beginning to look in 2016.

On August 30th, the head of the Democratic National Committee, and sleazy corporate politician extraordinaire, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, will face a serious primary challenge courtesy of Tim Canova in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. Haven’t heard of Mr. Canova yet? You will soon.

From The Hill:

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Two Things to Read on Martin Luther King Day

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When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men seek to perpetrate an unjust ‘status quo’, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.

– Martin Luther King Jr

The more I read of Dr. King’s words, the more impressed I become with his timeless wisdom, intellect and courage. On this day when we remember the man, it’s very important to appreciate two things. First, while MLK was a peaceful man, he was unquestionably a fierce revolutionary against the prevailing status quo. While his cause and struggle look so obvious in 2016, in his day many segments of American society considered him the enemy, including the U.S. government. For example, we now know that the FBI actually wrote him a letter suggesting he commit suicide.

As such, beyond his eloquent words, his message of love and a relentless fight for justice, we must also remember that the power structure was very much against the man and everything he stood for. Indeed, the reason “the state” is almost always on the wrong side of history, is because “the state” is typically nothing more than a collection of self-serving entrenched interests battling to preserve their wealth and power at all costs. All too often, such costs are the well being of the population in general. This is the situation we once again face in 2016.

To start, I want to share a post I wrote in 2013, titled, Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal”. Here are a few excerpts:

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Saudi Arabia is Buying Up American Farmland to Export Agricultural Products Back Home

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Just what we need, cornfield crucifixions.

Seriously though, this is very troubling. The Saudis are explicitly conserving their own resources at home, while exploiting land and water supplies here in America.

CNBC reports:

Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are scooping up farmland in drought-afflicted regions of the U.S. Southwest, and that has some people in California and Arizona seeing red.

Saudi Arabia grows alfalfa hay in both states for shipment back to its domestic dairy herds. In another real-life example of the world’s interconnected economy, the Saudis increasingly look to produce animal feed overseas in order to save water in their own territory, most of which is desert. 

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Peak Desperation – Clinton Campaign Deploys Strategist for Wall Street Mega Banks to Attack Bernie Sanders

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“She’s not doing the big rallies because she can’t get the big crowds,” said the Iowa Clinton ally. “Maybe people are too anxious over this, and that anxiety is spilling over into cautiousness and overthinking decisions. Everyone’s on edge given how much we’ve invested in Iowa.”

– From the Mashable article: Bernie Sanders is Surging in Iowa and Hillary Clinton’s Campaign is Freaked

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is absolutely imploding right now. When people get desperate, they do desperate things, and the latest move by the Clinton campaign reeks of putrid, panicked desperation.

What I am referring to are recent accusations that Bernie Sanders has “gone negative” by releasing the following television ad. Let’s take a watch:

This is literally one of the most gentle, benign campaign ads I have ever seen. Nevertheless, implying the obvious, that Hillary Clinton is a Wall Street funded tool, has her campaign running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Which goes to show you how completely terrified and vulnerable she is on this particular issue. As such, her campaign’s strategy is to spread this non-story throughout the media in an attempt to guilt the Sanders campaign into not aggressively using this key issue going forward. Let’s hope it doesn’t work.

Yet the best part in all of this, is that the firm working with the Hillary campaign to publicize this faux outrage, is the Benenson Strategy Group, a top strategist to Wall Street mega banks.

As reported by International Business Times:

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The Bitcoin Obituaries – Bitcoin Has Supposedly Died (Or Will Die Soon) 88 Times

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*Note: Since publishing this post, I was informed that Mike Hearn late last year had joined “investment bank-coin” private company R3. From Reuters:

Five more banks have joined a global consortium working on ways blockchain technology can be used in financial markets, the firm leading the project said on Thursday, as it brought in experts from the worlds of banking and technology. 

BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, ING, MacQuarie and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will join 25 other banks including JPMorgan and Citi in the initiative, led by New York-based financial tech firm R3.

R3 has also brought in bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn, as well as fincancial cryptographer Ian Grigg and bitcoin expert Tim Swanson. 

So it all makes a lot more sense now. Hearn had already jumped ship to “protect the status quo coin.” No wonder this guy is so disliked.

Yesterday, Mike Hearn published a piece on Medium aggressively attacking the current state of Bitcoin, specifically proclaiming that the project has failed. The first three paragraphs make his position perfectly clear. Quote:

I’ve spent more than 5 years being a Bitcoin developer. The software I’ve written has been used by millions of users, hundreds of developers, and the talks I’ve given have led directly to the creation of several startups. I’ve talked about Bitcoin on Sky TV and BBC News. I have been repeatedly cited by the Economist as a Bitcoin expert and prominent developer. I have explained Bitcoin to the SEC, to bankers and to ordinary people I met at cafes.

From the start, I’ve always said the same thing: Bitcoin is an experiment and like all experiments, it can fail. So don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. I’ve said this in interviews, on stage at conferences, and over email. So have other well known developers like Gavin Andresen and Jeff Garzik.

But despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly. The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards. I will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development and have sold all my coins.

The lengthy article then proceeds to explain precisely how he arrived at this conclusion. It mainly revolves the failure of Bitcoin XT to take off, something he blames on various parties, from short-sighted Bitcoin developers to Chinese miners.

So what should the Bitcoin community make of all this? Although I’ve been involved in, and following Bitcoin longer than most, I am most certainly not an expert. As such, I don’t feel comfortable responding in detail to the merits or lack thereof inherent in his piece. However, what I can tell you is that all of my friends with considerable technical expertise very much dislike Hearn. While they admit many of Hearn’s prior public criticisms outlining the issues facing Bitcoin are valid, they all think Bitcoin is better off without him. That’s pretty incredible considering how involved Hearn has been in a project they love.

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Liberty Links 1/14/16

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Below are links to some of the more interesting and important reads I came across today, but will not be publishing on in detail.

Computer Mogul Michael Dell Stands to Reap Billions From FCC Auction (The stench of cronyism here is unbearable, Wall Street Journal)

Canadians Are Going Loonie on Social Media About Skyrocketing Grocery Bills (Bloomberg)

Bank of America, Morgan Stanley Selling Uber Shares to Clients (High Net Worth muppet fleecing time, Bloomberg)

Lawsuit: Twitter ‘Knowingly Permitted’ Terrorists to Use Social Network (Absurd lawsuit, NBC News)

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Manhattan Luxury Real Estate Peaked Last February – Prices Now Down 8 Months in a Row

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William Ackman is a wildly successful hedge fund manager. He oversees $17 billion of mostly other people’s money. Forbes estimates his personal net worth at $1.7 billion. These facts alone would make him a prime candidate to buy the penthouse condominium at One57, the new luxury tower on West 57th Street.

And indeed, Mr. Ackman told The Times in a fascinating profile Sunday that he is the buyer of the 13,500-square-foot condo with an estimated price of $90 million. What is more shocking is what he plans to do with it.

Apparently content living with his family on the Upper West Side, he told The Times he was purchasing one of the most expensive properties in New York because “I thought it would be fun” and he and some close friends “bought into this idea that someday, someone will really want it and they’ll let me know.” They may throw the occasional party there.

– From the New York Times article: A $90 Million Condo Flip Shows What’s Wrong With Financial Capitalism 

Last fall, I published several posts detailing the clear evidence that London’s luxury home market had topped, as news emerged that sales for the most expensive units had plunged 26% year-over-year. This was significant since London represents the ultimate prize in the corrupt foreign oligarch/dictator portfolio. It was the canary in the coal mine for the entire global ultra-luxury real estate market, and we’re now seeing indicators that this trend is also becoming entrenched in America’s oligarch crown jewel: Manhattan.

A few weeks ago, Bloomberg published an important article that many of you may have missed since it came out on Christmas eve. It was titled, Manhattan Luxury-Home Prices in a Slide, Defying Broader Market, and here are a few key excerpts:

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