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

Silk Road 2.0 Has Been Born…New Website Mocks the Feds

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The “authorities” can shut down website after website, but the tide of new technology and the human spirit itself cannot and will not be overcome. This is the hard lesson that statists and collectivists will be learning the hard way in the years to come, as decentralization and freedom stage a gigantic, peaceful revolution. A revolution that is already in full swing and gaining tremendous momentum with each passing day.

It took only a little over a month for Silk Road 2.0 to launch on the “dark web,” and there are already close to 500 illegal drug listings. As part of the new service there is even a new security feature that allows users to use their PGP encryption key as an extra authentication measure. The login page itself is even a parody of the Department of Justice’s seizure of the original site in early October. This is what you see when you visit:

Screen Shot 2013-11-06 at 2.21.58 PM

More from Forbes:

On Wednesday morning, Silk Road 2.0 came online, promising a new and slightly improved version of the anonymous black market for drugs and other contraband that the Department of Justice shut down just over a month before. Like the old Silk Road, which until its closure served as the Web’s most popular bazaar for anonymous narcotics sales, the new site uses the anonymity tool Tor and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to protect the identity of its users. As of Wednesday morning, it already sported close to 500 drug listings, ranging from marijuana to ecstasy to cocaine. It’s even being administered by a new manager using the handle the Dread Pirate Roberts, the same pseudonym adopted by the previous owner and manager of the Silk Road, allegedly the 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht arrested by the FBI in San Francisco on October 2nd.

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How a Routine Traffic Stop in New Mexico Turned into a Nightmare of Torture for David Eckert

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This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees.

– Shannon Kennedy, David Eckert’s attorney

2013 has been peppered with its fair share of outlandish and unacceptable stories from within the Banana Republic formerly known as the United States, but the following tale definitely jumps to the top of the list.

David Eckert was just your average U.S. citizen who had apparently failed to come to a full stop at a stop sign in Deming, New Mexico. The local police who witnessed this egregious criminal behavior sprung into action and immediately forced Mr. Eckert from his car. When he stepped outside, the officers claimed that he was “clenching his buttocks.” The sharp witted officers determined they must have a drug dealer on their hands, so they did what any upstanding, logical law enforcement officer would do. They obtained a search warrant for an anal cavity search.

It gets worse, much worse. Upon bringing him to a local hospital, the staff refused to conduct the procedure on ethical grounds. However, such a trivial obstacle wasn’t going to stop these super sleuths from getting their guy! They decided to drive him to another hospital, in another county, where the search warrant wasn’t even applicable. From that point he was subjected to torturous criminal behavior.

First his abdomen was x-rayed. When they found no evidence of narcotics, that wasn’t good enough for these determined officers. They performed not one, but two anal probes with their fingers. No drugs. Then they penetrated his anus to insert an enema three different times, and he was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers on several occasions. Still no drugs. Then he was sedated and forced to have a colonoscopy. Still nothing.

All of this for not fully stopping at a stop sign and supposedly “clenching his buttocks.” All of this completely and totally against his will, and much of it completely and totally illegal.

Update: Since I published this story I have been made aware of another incident of illegal anal probes from the same police department. Incredibly, the dog that is being used to sniff out these non-existent drugs isn’t even certified to do so in New Mexico. Read the article here.

More from local news station KOB4:

The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming.  According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn’t make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.      

Eckert’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks.  Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity.  While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.  

The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.”

But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

A review of Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.  

2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.  

4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.  

8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.  No narcotics were found.  

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Chris Christie is Backed by War Criminal Henry Kissinger for 2016 Presidential Run

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In the seemingness endless sham that is the false choice between a crony, Wall Street owned Democrat and a crony, Wall Street owned Republican, political analysts are already desperately scrambling to guess who the GOP will run against establishment hack Hilary Clinton in 2016 (who was recently paid $400k by Goldman Sachs for two speeches). … Read more

This is What Happens to Walmart Pork Before it Reaches Your Plate

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The cruelty inherent in animal factory farming is something that we as a species should find completely and totally unacceptable. Indeed, evidence shows that when people are exposed to the nightmarish conditions faced by factory animals prior to consumption they demand change. This is precisely why corporate interests have pushed ag-gag laws throughout the nation in an attempt to criminalize the exposure of these methods.

I am sure many of you have already been exposed to videos of shocking animal cruelty before. Even if you have, the video below created by Mercy for Animals is a very important watch. It exposes unthinkable abuse of tiny, helpless pigs for absolutely no good reason. These incidents were filmed at Pipestone System’s Rosewood Farms in Pipestone, Minnesota earlier this year.

WARNING: Parts of this video are extraordinarily disturbing. While I think it is important for people to watch it and be aware, it might be too much to handle for some.

More from the Huffington Post:

Undercover footage that appears to show horrifying conditions at a Walmart pork supplier has prompted investigations at a Minnesota factory farm.

Local law enforcement executed a search warrant at Pipestone System’s Rosewood Farms in Pipestone, Minn., on Oct. 9, following a complaint filed by animal rights nonprofit Mercy for Animals. The organization says an undercover private investigator collected first-hand evidence, including video footage, of inhumane treatment of pigs raised and slaughtered at the facility.

The hidden-camera footage appears to show pregnant pigs confined in tiny “gestation crates,” pigs being punched and abused, and piglets being thrown on their heads and mutilated without anesthetic.

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How the NYPD is in Bed with JP Morgan

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Under some Orwellian concept of citizen surveillance, the very Wall Street banks that proved they were a far greater threat to the United States than any foreign terrorist when they collapsed the Nation’s financial system in 2008, are part of a joint venture with the NYPD to use high-tech spy equipment to monitor the comings and goings of citizens in the streets of Manhattan – the majority of which, unlike Wall Street, are law abiding citizens.

– Pam Martens, from her recent article: Despite Eight Ongoing Criminal/Civil Investigations of JPMorgan, the Bank’s a Law Enforcement Partner With the NYPD

Michael Bloomberg made his priorities and strategy quite clear throughout his extended tenure as New York City’s mayor. It is far easier to demonize large sodas, salt and cigarettes than it is to go after the real criminals running wild in Manhattan. After all, why go after your billionaire oligarch finance pals when you can randomly stop thousands of disenfranchised, dark-complexioned serfs toiling in the barrios and forgotten areas of your neo-feudal city in order to look “tough on crime.”

It’s one thing to target the poor while protecting the very rich. We already know that’s been the central tenet of Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership strategy. That said, it is quite another to have the NYPD work side by side with JP Morgan employees (a company facing eight ongoing criminal/civil investigations) as some sort of law enforcement strategy. Yet, that is precisely what it has been doing.

NYPDbankster

More from Pam Martens of Wall Street on Parade:

Nothing reveals the incestuous, one-percent-mindset that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have with Wall Street than the next to last photo at this link. The photo shows an employee of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s number one target for financial fraud investigations, JPMorgan Chase, working inside a high security spy center in Lower Manhattan to — wait for it — help the New York City Police Department catch crooks.

While most law enforcement bodies around the U.S. would instantly weed out serial wrongdoers as job hires, Bloomberg and Kelly have created an art form out of joint policing ventures with Wall Street, operating both a rent-a-cop program with Wall Street as well as pumping at least $150 million of taxpayer money into the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center where Wall Street employees sit elbow to elbow with NYPD officers.

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The Definitive Chart on How to Identify a Terrorist

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A little over a year ago, I wrote an article titled:  You Know You Are a Conspiracy Theorist If… It proved a useful description of the varied afflictions that might overcome your fellow man on the path toward becoming a sentient human being. These include critical thinking, the enjoyment of nature and the distrust of … Read more

Picture of the Day: Bitcoin Reaches Record Market Capitalization of $2.64 Billion

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Oh the times they are a changin’. The total value of all the bitcoins in the world, something that didn’t even exist five years ago, is now worth $2.64 billion. While impressive, Ben Bernanke and his merry minions of monetary mayhem still create the equivalent of over 30 new Bitcoin markets every single month by … Read more

Meet Dark Wallet – How Crypto-Anarchists Will Store Their Bitcoins

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The greatest, most existential debate in the entire Bitcoin community revolves around how much (if any) cooperation there should be between the alternative currency network and state regulators. Fortunately, its decentralized nature allows the user to make many of his or her own decisions on the matter, something which I believe will only increase as … Read more

3D Printing Entire Homes and Neighborhoods May be Just Around the Corner

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3D-Printing, along with Bitcoin and crowd-funding have been three of the primary disruptive and positive innovations/technologies that have come to the fore in 2013, which have the potential to change human existence in extraordinarily positive ways. Although much of my attention on 3D-printing this year has been focused on the decentralized production of firearms, the … Read more

My 20 Minute Talk at the Liberty Mastermind Conference

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Back in late June, I traveled to Dallas to speak at a wonderful event called the Liberty Mastermind Conference and my 20 minute talk has now been uploaded to youtube.This was my first experience speaking in such a setting and I decided to use the opportunity to discuss my journey from a “‘respectable’ guy in … Read more