Join the Inside Bitcoins Conference July 30th in NYC!

After a tiresome, yet breathtakingly beautiful 7 hour drive from Boulder to Telluride, I finally made it to the Bluegrass Festival in time to catch Steve Martin play the banjo and close out day one with some incredible tunes.  Since I’ll be preoccupied through Sunday watching music and enjoying a few of days off, I … Read more

NYU: As Students Become Debt Serfs, “Star Professors” Buy Homes in East Hampton with University Money

The article below is just another sad example of the almost nonexistent moral base evident within the privileged elite of America today. While one graduating class after another is churned endlessly through the debt serfdom assembly line we call “higher education,” their “star professors” and university leaders are purchasing vacations homes in luxurious locations such as East Hampton.  Of course, it’s merely a symptom of the rot and corruption institutionalized at the top of the military-indsutrial-Wall Street complex flowing downward and infecting the entire culture, but it is an untenable social dynamic that will snap back with a vengeance upon all of us sooner rather than later.  From the New York Times:

Follow one of Fire Island’s quaint footpaths away from the ferry dock, past modest cottages and better-appointed vacation homes, to an elegant modern beach house that extends across three lots. A composition in bold, unadorned planes, it has a perimeter of green and two separate entrances, each outfitted with the long ramps that are the local custom. 

The house, which is owned by John Sexton, the president of New York University, was bought with a $600,000 loan from an N.Y.U. foundation that eventually grew to be $1 million, according to Suffolk County land records. It is one of a number of loans that N.Y.U. has made to executives and star professors for expensive vacation homes in areas like East Hampton, Fire Island and Litchfield County, Conn., in what educational experts call a bold new frontier for lavish university compensation.

Richard Revesz, who recently ended a decade as the dean of New York University Law School, lives with his wife, an N.Y.U. law professor, in a handsome West Village town house that was financed by N.Y.U. They also have a home on more than 65 acres near the Housatonic River in Litchfield County, also helped by an N.Y.U. loan, according to land records in both locales. According to the university’s most recently available tax return, they owe the university $5.7 million altogether.

He declined to comment on the terms of most of those loans, like interest rates and any provisions for forgiveness, citing the privacy of the parties.

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Idaho Dumps Private Prison Company Due to “Violence, Understaffing and Over-billing”

Regular readers know that I think the concept of “private prisons” is one of the worst ideas a society can possibly embrace.  While I am a small government person who strongly believes in decentralization and doing things at the local level, incarceration is something that should never, ever be driven by the profit motive. Particularly not in a country which already has 5% of the world’s population, yet 25% of the world’s prison population.  From the Idaho Statesman:

BOISE, IDAHO — Idaho prison leaders are looking for a new company to run the state’s largest prison after Corrections Corporation of America admitted to understaffing and overbilling for its work operating the Idaho Correctional Center.

The three-member Board of Correction made the decision during a meeting Tuesday evening, opting not to let an automatic two-year extension of CCA’s $29.9 million contract kick in when the current contract expires on June 30, 2014.

The Idaho Correctional Center has a been rife with problems for the past several years, with inmates bringing multiple federal lawsuits alleging rampant violence, a policy of understaffing and a practice of guards ceding too much control to prison gangs. The ACLU of Idaho sued in 2010 on behalf of inmates who said the CCA-run facility was so violent that inmates called it “Gladiator School;” that lawsuit resulted in a settlement in which CCA promised to make widespread management and staffing changes. In 2011 the company reached a financial settlement with one inmate, Hanni Elabed, who was beaten by a fellow inmate until he suffered brain damage while several guards watched.

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Meet the Military-Industrial-Wall Street Complex: Blackstone Hires General Wesley Clark

So how’s a private equity company snatching up homes all across America, pushing average citizens out of the market and then renting these homes back to the once middle class, but now indentured servitude masses supposed to hedge itself against future backlash?  Simple, put a former General and NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe on your payroll.  That’s exactly what Blackstone has just done.

According to Bloomberg, Blackstone has hired General Wesley Clark to “to advise on its investments in energy companies.”  This makes perfect sense since General Clark may be privy to information regarding which countries’ oil wells and refineries may be next in line or liberation by America.  From Bloomberg:

Blackstone Group LP hired Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and a one-time U.S. presidential candidate, to advise on its investments in energy companies.

Private-equity firms hire high-ranking executives and former officials to expand relationships with corporations and governments worldwide, as well as to benefit from their industry experiences. KKR & Co., the buyout company run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, hired former CIA director David Petraeus last month to run a new unit for public policy and economic research at the New York-based firm.

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The Liberty Mastermind Conference: Less than 2 Weeks Away!

The Liberty Mastermind Conference is now very close at hand, and everyone involved is extremely excited to meet each other, interact with the attendees and share ideas about how to restore freedom and the rule of law to this once great nation.  As a reminder, the conference will be held in Dallas the weekend of … Read more

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Discusses The Constitution, NSA Spying and Torture

When I was brought up we were taught that Communist Russia were the ones that were going to kill us, bomb our country and all this.  That Communist Russia was so bad because they followed their people, they snooped on them, they arrested them, put them in secret prisons…they disappeared them. These sorts of things … Read more

The Brazilian Spring: President Rousseff Booed at Soccer Match as 20,000 Set to Protest

A political earthquake has started to grumble underneath the streets of Brazil.  Last week, there was considerable violence in Sao Paulo, where as many as 100 protesters were injured including several journalists during demonstrations against a bus fare hike.  As is typical in cases of sudden bursts of widespread activism, it’s difficult to know in advance what event will catalyze a population already fed up with grievances.  In the case of Turkey, it was an announcement to raze a park and build a mall.  In Brazil, it is a hike in public transportation costs in a nation already frustrated with high inflation and rampant political corruption.

Today will be a very important test-case to see whether or not the unrest will escalate.  While it appears the “authorities” are expected to exercise restraint during what may be as many as 20,000 protesters in Sao Paulo today, these situations are inherently volatile.  It is particularly intense in Brazil after spectators at a soccer game this past weekend humiliated President Dilma Rousseff by booing him for more than a minute.  From Bloomberg:

As many as 20,000 Brazilians are expected to march in Sao Paulo today in what organizers vow will be the biggest yet in a wave of protests to rock Latin America’s largest economy in little more than a week.

Authorities are pledging to keep riot police at bay to avoid a repeat of clashes June 13 that left dozens wounded when rubber bullets and tear gas were fired upon activists protesting an increase in bus fares.

The demonstrations have grown larger and spread across the country as discontent about inflation and the economy mount, fueling dissatisfaction with President Dilma Rousseff.

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Mayor Bloomberg Compares the NYPD to a Paramilitary Force

“I don’t listen to Washington very much, which is something they’re not thrilled about.  I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.” – NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg in November 2011. It’s been a few weeks since New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exhibited one of his … Read more

The Scorecard: Snowden Approval Rating 54%, Obama 46%, Congress 17%

The results are in and they are devastating for the establishment.  There’s no spinning these poll result numbers. Americans rightly have almost no faith in their institutions of power and the cronies that are somehow in charge of them. Nor should they. The spilt in opinion on Snowden also exhibits a massive gulf between the older generation and the younger. This is very encouraging as time itself will sort this out. First from Time:

Fifty-four percent of respondents said the leaker, Edward Snowden, 29, did a “good thing” in releasing information about the government programs, which collect phone, email, and Internet search records in an effort, officials say, to prevent terrorist attacks. Just 30 percent disagreed.

But an almost identical number of Americans —  53 percent —  still said he should be prosecuted for the leak, compared to 28% who said he should not. Americans aged 18 to 34 break from older generations in showing far more support for Snowden’s actions. Just 41 percent of that cohort say he should face charges, while 43 percent say he should not.  Just 19 percent of that age group say the leak was a “bad thing.”

Now the latest from Gallup regarding Obama:

Screen Shot 2013-06-14 at 12.09.03 PM

Now Congress.  Also from Gallup:

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IRS Agents are Training with AR-15 “Assault Weapons”

Another day, another headline that must surely be “conspiracy theory,” but unfortunately for us all turns out to be conspiracy fact.  While Obama was rolling out intense anti-gun propaganda and demonizing “assault weapons” such as the AR-15, his Administration seems to have no problem with the political group targeting, corrupt beyond belief IRS using them in training.  It’s simply mind-boggling to think about this bureaucracy being armed with such weapons, and totally exposes what I wrote at length about earlier this year:  The Gun Control Hypocrite.  From Politico:

As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.

While Duncan acknowledges that the IRS has an enforcement division, he questions if that level of firepower is appropriate when they could coordinate operations with other agencies, like the FBI, especially in a time of austerity.

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