Video of the Day – Three Former U.S. Treasury Secretaries and a Facebook Executive Laugh About Income Inequality

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If there was ever a “let them eat cake” moment in modern American history, this is it.

Earlier this year, at 2015’s Milken Institute Global Conference, Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, was moderating a panel with three former U.S. Treasury Secretaries. The topic of income inequality was raised, and they all burst out laughing. The biggest uproar came from the man who orchestrated the 2008 banker bailouts, former Goldman Sachs CEO, Hank Paulson, as Sandberg enthusiastically claps her hands like a privileged, primped out Panem aristocrat. To the right of Hank is Clinton puppeteer Robert Rubin, and all the way to the left, Timmy Geithner.

You have to see it, to believe it:

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Interview with Paul Buitink of “Reinvent Money”

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Earlier this week, I sat down with Paul Buitink and Felix Moreno and engaged in a spirited and wide-ranging discussion about all sorts of macro issues. Besides a two part series on the Keiser Report last month, this is the only other interview I’ve done in 2015.

Sit back, relax and enjoy!

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Police State Desperation – Texas Sheriff Proclaims “Authority Comes from God”

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Don’t mess with Texas. Particularly not with Texas cops, who according to Hunt County sheriff Randy Meeks, get their authority from God.

Yes, Mr. Meeks was outraged at critics who pointed to a videotaped beating of a pregnant woman by one of his deputies. Like Goldman Sachs, his work is God’s work, or so he claims. So shut up and take it you stupid plebs.

From Raw Story:

A Texas sheriff said police critics should shut up because he believes law enforcement officers are granted their authority by God.

Randy Meeks, the Hunt County sheriff, published a print-only guest editorial in the local Herald-Banner, citing Bible verses to argue that police officers are tasked with enforcing law and order for a godly nation, reported blogger Brett Sanders.

The blogger posts screen shots from the guest editorial, which was published just days after a grand jury cleared one of Meeks’ deputies in the videotaped beating of a pregnant Air Force veteran during the investigation of a domestic dispute.

“Due to recent events, I can no longer be silent concerning what our country allows,” Meeks wrote. “It is amazing to me that the criminals who break into our homes and steal from us, those who sell drugs to our children, those who abuse innocent and defenseless children, those who rape our wives and daughters, those who commit cold-blooded murders are all innocent until proven guilty.”

Recent events. Ok. Are you referring to your deputing beating up a pregnant veteran, or the Massachusetts officer who recently lied about being shot at to cover up a car crash. In fact, the officer shot up his own car. From CNN:

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Welcome to America – Several Things to Ponder as the Saudi King Visits the White House

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As we speak, U.S. leaders are rolling out the red carpet for one of the most ruthless and barbaric governments in the world: Saudi Arabia.

This isn’t hyperbole. I’ve written a multitude of posts on this very topic over the years as a way to demonstrate the complete and total hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy. Which is not just anti-democratic, but one of the key contributors to violence and instability around the world.

Let’s start with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. An event I witnessed in person, and which has been used as the rationale for cracking down on privacy and all sorts of other civil liberties in the subsequent decade and a half. Time to get up to speed.

I strongly suggest closely reading all of the following. This is not conspiracy theory.

The New York Post Reports – FBI is Covering Up Saudi Links to 9/11 Attack

Must Watch Video – Congressman Thomas Massie Calls for Release of Secret 9/11 Documents Upon Reading Them

Two Congressmen Push for Release of 28-Page Document Showing Saudi Involvement in 9/11

Despite public calls from several Congressmen since 2013 to release these classified pages, the Obama administration continues to refuse. Why?

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The Dissident Dad – Humanity Washed Ashore

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Everyday, I help my children get dressed. Our 1 year old baby loves having her shoes put on, my 3 year old daughter is obsessed with princess dresses, and my 5 year old, who dresses himself, can be most often seen wearing a red Lighting McQueen shirt.

I look into their faces, and I see so much happiness and joy. I don’t even need to do or say anything, just look into their eyes, and my children smile back radiantly.

Despite all our advancements as a species, our iDevices, the internet of everything, travel, and the ability to deliver fresh produce around the world, humanity still suffers from unspeakable horrors due to an inability to see ourselves within our fellow humans. We are so obsessed with our own needs, our own egos, and our tribalism to understand we are all in this together. Through all the suffering, we continue to go about our lives, forgetting about the pain happening to so many of our brothers and sisters.

Although I am well aware of the realities of the world we live in, and despair about much of it often, something I saw this past week really hit home for me. A photo of a small toddler washed ashore recently brought me to uncontrollable tears.

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Bread and Circuses – The Shady, Slimy and Corrupt World of Taxpayer Funded Sports Stadiums

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Like pretty much everything in the modern U.S. economy, wealthy and connected people fleecing taxpayers in order to earn even greater piles of money is also the business model when it comes to sports stadiums. Many cities have tried to make voter approval mandatory before these building boondoggles get started, but in almost all cases these efforts are thwarted by a powerful coalition of businessmen and corrupt politicians. Sound familiar? Yep, it a microcosm for pretty much everything else in America these days.

To get you up to speed, here are a few excerpts from an excellent Pacific Standard magazine article:

Over the past 15 years, more than $12 billion in public money has been spent on privately owned stadiums. Between 1991 and 2010, 101 new stadiums were opened across the country; nearly all those projects were funded by taxpayers. The loans most often used to pay for stadium construction—a variety of tax-exempt municipal bonds—will cost the federal government at least $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies to bondholders. Stadiums are built with money borrowed today, against public money spent tomorrow, at the expense of taxes that will never be collected. Economists almost universally agree that publicly financed stadiums are bad investments, yet cities and states still race to the chance to unload the cash. What gives?

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Was the Turkish Government Caught Sending Weapons to ISIS in Syria?

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If you have any interest in geopolitics whatsoever, you need to be paying very close attention to the complete and total shit show that is Turkey.

Turkey is a close U.S. ally that has been nevertheless caught supporting ISIS is various ways this year. Why would a close U.S. ally be supporting ISIS? Great question. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions, but before we go into today’s piece, let’s revisit a post from a couple of weeks ago: Turkey Bombs Kurds Fighting ISIS, Then Hires Same Lobbying Firm Supporting U.S. Presidential Candidates. Here’s some of what we learned:

On the same day that Turkey announced it would help fight the Islamic State, Turkish forces began an airstrike campaign against one of the very groups that has been crucial to stopping the advance of the Islamic State.

Since the July 24 announcement, Turkey has launched several waves of airstrikes against elements of a Kurdish separatist group known as the P.K.K., which is widely listed as a terrorist group. But that group and its allies in Syria, who have been closely working with American forces, are pushing Islamic State militants out of areas they once controlled.

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The Oligarch Recovery – Study Shows Real Wages Have Plunged for Low Income Workers During the “Recovery”

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The following article from the New York Times is shameful in many ways. While the paper is forced to cover the undeniable fact that real wages for the lowest income Americans have plunged during the so-called “economic recovery” over the past six years, it fails to actually pin blame on the undemocratic, oligarch institution most responsible for this humanitarian crisis: The Federal Reserve.

Of course, I and many others have been saying this for years, but now more than half a decade into what is supposed to be a recovery, people are finally being forced to admit what this really is —  large scale theft.

In fact, Ben Bernanke and his crew of upward wealth distributing academics have pulled off the greatest wealth heist in American history. In its wake we have been left with a hollowed out, asset striped Banana Republic. Thanks for playin’ Main Street. Or more accurately, thanks for being played.

From the New York Times:

Despite steady gains in hiring, a falling unemployment rate and other signs of an improving economy, take-home pay for many American workers has effectively fallen since the economic recovery began in 2009, according to a new study by an advocacy group that is to be released on Thursday.

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Welcome to Liberland – The Tiny Strip of Land in Europe to Which 360,000 People Have Applied for Citizenship

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If we accepted everyone, we would be larger than Iceland.

– Liberland founder, Vit Jedlicka

If there was ever a sign that people are hungry, starving actually, for freedom and an escape from the corrupt and overbearing global status quo, this is it.

Welcome to the Free Republic of Liberland, seven square kilometers of unclaimed land between Croatia and Serbia, which intends to becomes the world’s newest, and most free, sovereign state. To prove Ron Paul’s contention that “freedom is popular,” Liberland has already received 360,000 applications for citizenship, including 600 architects.

Want to learn more? Watch this video:

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China Launches Biggest Military Overhaul in Decades as Warships Spotted Off Alaska for First Time

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It’s never a good sign when the world’s second largest economy announces the most significant revamp of its military in decades, at almost the exact same time that its economy implodes. Unfortunately, this is what just happened. From Bloomberg:

President Xi Jinping will as soon as this month announce the most sweeping overhaul of the Chinese military in at least three decades, moving it closer to a U.S.-style joint command structure, people familiar with the matter said.

The blueprint would unify the army, navy, air force and strategic missile corps under one command, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the proposal hasn’t been released. The plans call for thinning the ranks of officers and traditional ground forces, helping elevate the role of the navy and air force, to better project force in a modern conflict, they said.

Xi is preparing to unveil the proposal in the wake of Thursday’s World War II anniversary parade in Beijing, which will showcase his authority over the People’s Liberation Army and China’s growing clout in the region. The plan to mold the military into a force that meets Xi’s goal of being “able to fight and win a modern war” has been delayed for months as anti-graft investigators swept up dozens of current and retired generals, referring the PLA’s former top general to prosecutors in July.

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