Truman Show USA – “Concerned Citizens” at Town Hall Meetings are Often Paid Actors

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Here’s a bothersome trend that seems quite fitting for the smoke and mirrors driven, celebrity obsessed, hologram society that America has become. A company known as Crowds on Demand is actually in the business of providing fake protesters for causes, fake entourages for wanna be celebrities and seemingly even fake supporters for unpopular corporate activities.

This just furthers my feeling that action is far more important than traditional protests in the 21st Century. They key to getting out of the mess we are in is to actively create a parallel economy and even monetary system adjacent to the current terminal one. That way, when this one blows up, we already have the infrastructure in place to move to another paradigm. One characterized by peaceful, voluntary human interaction and dominated by decentralization in virtually all aspects of human existence.

– From the 2013 post: Protesters for Hire: For a Few Thousand Dollars We’ll Buy You a Small Entourage

I first highlighted the company Crowds on Demand over two years ago in the above post. Turns out it’s much worse than I could have imagined.

From NBC News:

In Camarillo, citizens aren’t shy about expressing their opinions. But on a chilly Wednesday night in December, city officials say one man stood out.

For nearly three minutes, Prince Jordan Tyson is on camera telling city leaders what he later admits, is a lie.

In fact, Tyson, who is not from Camarillo, is a self described struggling actor from Beverly Hills and he now believes he was involved in a secretive new industry where actors are hired to try and sway public officials.

In this case, a construction project in Camarillo he says he was hired to criticize.

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Video of the Day – Cornel West Calls Hillary Clinton the “Milli Vanilli of American Politics”

This is too good not to share.

In case you’re wondering where the reference to Hillary characterizing inner city black youth as “super predators,” read the following: “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote”.

For more Hillary related articles, see:

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Liberty Links 2/22/16

Several days worth of links. Enjoy.

FBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible (For the can’t make this up files, TechDirt)

Decrypting an iPhone for the FBI (Bruce Schneier on Apple vs. FBI, excellent read)

Is Apple Picking a Fight With the U.S. Government? (Very good article from 2014, Slate)

Here’s a Way to Hold Wall Street Accountable (TruthDig)

Negative Interest Rates Are a Calamitous Misadventure (Telegraph)

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New York Times Editorial Board Endorses Economic Fascism – Supports Banning the $100 Bill

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I cannot overstate the significance of today’s New York Times editorial board endorsement of the elitist scheme to ban large denomination cash from public circulation. This is the latest example of the editorial board putting the interests of the establishment ahead of the citizenry, while at the same time employing a nonsensical argument to support its position which channels emotion rather than logic.

This public support for a de facto cash ban by the New York Times must not be viewed in a vacuum. It should be read in conjunction with its recent absurd endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. I highlighted that previously published piece of fiction in the post, A Detailed Look at The New York Times’ Embarrassing, Deceitful and Illogical Endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Here are a few excerpts:

The New York Times’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary consists of an unreadable, illogical piece of fiction. In this post, I will critique the paper’s position in detail, but first I want to take a step back and explain to people what I think is going on in the bigger picture.

In its endorsement of Hillary, the New York Times editorial board did such a sloppy job I can’t help but think it may have done permanent damage to its brand. Upon reading it, my initial conclusion was that the editorial board was either suffering from Stockholm syndrome or merely concerned about losing advertising revenues should they endorse Sanders. Then I thought some more and I realized my initial conclusions were wrong. Something else is going on here, something far more subtle, subconscious and illuminating. The New York Times is defending the establishment candidate simply because the New York Times is the establishment.

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Abenomics Fail – Safe Sales Soar in Japan as People Move to Store Cash Amid Negative Interest Rate Turmoil

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Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.

Only last week, the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi, sent a clear message to media organizations. Broadcasters that repeatedly failed to show “fairness” in their political coverage, despite official warnings, could be taken off the air, she told MPs.

Momii caused consternation after his appointment when he suggested that NHK would toe the government line on key diplomatic issues, including Japan’s territorial dispute with China. “International broadcasting is different from domestic,” he said. “It would not do for us to say ‘left’ when the government is saying ‘right’.”

– From the post: Japanese Government Cracks Down Hard on the Media Amid Pitiful Economic Performance

Just in case you still remain confused as to why global economists, technocrats and elitist thieves the world over are suddenly rushing to ban cash, today’s article from the Wall Street Journal should make their intentions perfectly clear. *Hint, it has nothing to do with stopping crime.

Here are a few excerpts from the piece, Japanese Seeking a Place to Stash Cash Start Snapping Up Safes:

TOKYO—Look no further than Japan’s hardware stores for a worrying new sign that consumers are hoarding cash—the opposite of what the Bank of Japan had hoped when it recently introduced negative interest rates.

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Video of the Day – John McAfee Proclaims “An Apple Backdoor is the End of America”

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When it comes to Apple vs. the FBI, you can listen to Donald Trump, or you can listen to someone who knows what he’s talking about. If you’d like to do the latter, take a watch.

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As the Apple vs. FBI Debate Rages, Congress Plots to Mandate Encryption Backdoors

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The more I read about the very public fight between Apple and the FBI, the more I become convinced the case merely represents the Lexington and Concord moment in a massive new crypto war. The surveillance state panopticon is extremely concerned that strong end to end encryption is increasingly being used in everyday consumer devices and applications, and has been scheming for a long time to figure out the best way to manipulate the public into accepting backdoor vulnerabilities.

To prove this point, I want to turn your attention to a few excerpts from an important Bloomberg article titled, Secret Memo Details U.S.’s Broader Strategy to Crack Phones:

Silicon Valley celebrated last fall when the White House revealed it would not seek legislation forcing technology makers to install “backdoors” in their software — secret listening posts where investigators could pierce the veil of secrecy on users’ encrypted data, from text messages to video chats. But while the companies may have thought that was the final word, in fact the government was working on a Plan B.

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Video of the Day – Watch Hillary Clinton Get Booed at Last Night’s Democratic Town Hall Debate

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Another gem to add to the Hillary files.

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Introducing “I Will Look Into It.com”

At a Democratic primary debate a couple of weeks ago, Hillary Clinton was asked about releasing the content of her Goldman Sachs speech transcripts. Here’s how she responded.

Fortunately, someone created a website to track the former Secretary of State’s progress…

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Japanese Government Cracks Down Hard on the Media Amid Pitiful Economic Performance

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Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.

Only last week, the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi, sent a clear message to media organizations. Broadcasters that repeatedly failed to show “fairness” in their political coverage, despite official warnings, could be taken off the air, she told MPs.

Momii caused consternation after his appointment when he suggested that NHK would toe the government line on key diplomatic issues, including Japan’s territorial dispute with China. “International broadcasting is different from domestic,” he said. “It would not do for us to say ‘left’ when the government is saying ‘right’.”

From the Guardian article: Japanese TV Anchors Lose Their Jobs Amid Claims of Political Pressure

I’ve commented on the spectacular failure of Japan’s “Abenomics” several times in the past, most recently in last summer’s post, Japan’s Economic Disaster – Real Wages Lowest Since 1990, Record Numbers Describe “Hard” Living Conditions. Here’s what we learned:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power vowing to drag Japan out of deflation and stagnation. His logic was that rising prices would drive higher salaries and increased consumption. More than two years on, prices are rising, but wages adjusted for inflation have sunk to the lowest since at least 1990.

A record 62 percent of Japanese households described their livelihoods as “hard” last year in a survey on incomes. A sales-tax increase in 2014 helped drive up living costs faster than wage gains.  At the same time, the Bank of Japan’s quantitative easing drove down the currency, boosting the cost of imported energy.

Fast forward a few months and things aren’t getting any better.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported:

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