Poverty in the UK Doubles Over the Past 30 Years, Despite Robust “Economic Growth”

by

One of my favorite lines about the current oligarch theft continuing to occur throughout the world is courtesy of the “Artist Taxi Driver,” who likes to state:

“This is not a recession its a robbery.”

Truer words were never said, but this theft goes back a lot further than the latest economic catastrophe. As we all know by now, real median wages haven’t increased in the U.S. for the past 45 years, while at the same time, so-called economic growth according to traditional metrics has exploded higher. As yesterday’s article from the Guardian below demonstrates, this is not just an American problem. It is pervasive throughout the Western world.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Heading Into Midterm Elections, Confidence in Congress Hits Record Low 7%

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 10.51.15 AMIt’s no surprise to anyone that Americans have zero faith in their so-called “Representatives.” The vast majority of these folks are lying, thieving, white-collar criminals, and we all know it. The real question is what, if anything, are we going to do about it?

I’m not someone who believes in centralized power, and I question whether in a world with the technological connectivity we have today, if we actually need to vote for someone else to vote for us. This seems like an extremely inefficient and outdated process. I haven’t yet come to my own conclusions on what specifically might be a preferable system, but I am certainly a proponent of decentralizing government and the political process itself. For more on this concept, I suggest, reading the following post from last week: The Coming Digital Anarchy.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Coming to a Protest Near You…A Drone That Blasts Pepper Spray

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-18 at 12.38.44 PMWhat’s a crony status quo to do when it is ultimately confronted with an unruly mob of plebs frustrated with the fact median wages haven’t increased in forty five years, while the 0.01% has stolen everything in sight with the help of the Federal Reserve and corrupt Washington D.C. politicians?

Well, naturally you’d launch the South African made Skunk Riot Control Copter, fully equipped with a suite of high-definition and thermal imagine cameras, strobe lights, speakers and a pepper spray firing paint ball gun which can fire 80 shots per second!

We learn from The Verge that:

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Blockbuster Report from WND – Jordanian Official Claims Americans Trained ISIS

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-17 at 3.26.39 PMJust yesterday, I wrote what I think was one of my most important articles of 2014, titled: America’s Disastrous Foreign Policy – My Thoughts on Iraq. The key point of the entire article came at the end when I noted that:

So in the course of less than a year, the Obama Administration has proposed an alliance with al-Qaeda in Syria and now an alliance with Iran to fight those very same forces.

If you didn’t get a chance to read that piece yesterday, it’s important to do so before reading further.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

The Nuclear Waste of Debt Issuance – Wave Division Plans $150 Million in PIK Bonds to Pay Owners a Dividend

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-17 at 2.10.06 PMIn 2014, I’ve focused extensively on America’s latest credit bubble due to the fact I believe we have now entered the final “crack-up boom” phase where things just get downright ridiculous. In early May, I wrote an article highlighting the triumphant return of some of the worst practices of the pre-financial crash era in the post: Is the Credit Bubble Popping? Carlyle Group Warns on Frothiness and Junk Bond Deals Get Pulled. In it, I noted two particular types of resurgent debt deals:

The first of these are known as “dividend deals.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, you might not believe what they actually are. Basically, dividend deals are when companies owned by private equity firms tap the credit markets, and then a sizable percentage of the money borrowed is used to cut a check to the private equity owners themselves. Often times, the remainder of the debt is used to refinance existing debt.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

An Android Hack Intentionally Creates False Data on Your Cell Phone to Fool Authorities

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-17 at 12.07.15 PMAn increasing concern amongst journalists, activists and just about anyone else who values their privacy is that a bad cop, TSA agent or other bully in a costume will commandeer your cell phone and search its contents. This isn’t just a theoretical issue either, it seems to happen quite often, and is an important enough issue that it went before the Supreme Court early last month. I covered this issue in my post: Can Police Search Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant? The Supreme Court is About to Decide.

I haven’t been able to figure out if there’s been a judgement in that case, so if you have any information, please post it in the comment section. Nevertheless, it appears Android hackers have decided to take matters into their own hands and have developed a new technique that purposely reprograms your phone to lie. Scientific American reported on this in the article, A Phone That Lies for You. We learn that:

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

America’s Disastrous Foreign Policy – My Thoughts on Iraq

by

But in the years they were getting started, a key component of ISIS’s support came from wealthy individuals in the Arab Gulf States of Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes the support came with the tacit nod of approval from those regimes; often, it took advantage of poor money laundering protections in those states, according to officials, experts, and leaders of the Syrian opposition, which is fighting ISIS as well as the regime.

“Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait and that it’s coming from the Arab Gulf,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. “Kuwait’s banking system and its money changers have long been a huge problem because they are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria and now Iraq.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been publicly accusing Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS for months. Several reports have detailed how private Gulf funding to various Syrian rebel groups has splintered the Syrian opposition and paved the way for the rise of groups like ISIS and others.

– From the excellent Daily Beast article, America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS

The world is a very complicated place, and the Middle East is a particularly difficult region to try to get your head around. Between decades of colonialism, gigantic oil reserves, governments that are essentially feudal kingdoms, and the never-ending and always shifting Western government propaganda that often changes the targets of demonization on a whim, it’s no wonder people are so confused.I’m not writing this post proclaiming to be an expert on the region, nor am I saying I have all of the answers. What I am trying to do is give my perspective based on what I have seen so far, and more importantly, ask readers to ask their own set of questions.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Hilarious T-Shirt Parody of Hillary 2016: “I’m Ready…for Oligarchy”

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-15 at 6.13.13 PMDan McCall is no stranger to this site. Last summer, I highlighted the battle between the founder of politically themed T-shirt company Liberty Maniacs, and none other than the National Security Agency  (NSA) itself. Apparently, the NSA didn’t like Dan’s hilarious t-shirt that read: The NSA -The Only Part of Government that Actually Listens. In case you missed that post the first time around, here it is: Nothing Better to Do – The NSA Goes After Parody T-Shirts.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

National Geographic Reports – Chemicals Causing Infertility in Pigs are Present Throughout Human Consumer Goods

by

Some of the same chemicals found in the pigs’ semen storage bags are routinely used in packaging food for humans and are known to migrate into food. 

Cyclic lactone, for instance, is a common by-product in adhesives used in potato chip bags and sliced meat packages. It was one of the chemicals found in high levels in the semen bags that had been used on the farms with the highest rates of reproductive failure.

Another chemical found in high levels on those farms: a compound called BADGE, a derivative of the notorious bisphenol A (BPA). It’s the building block of epoxy resins that form the basis for 95 percent of food and beverage can linings in the U.S.

– From the excellent and troubling article recently published by National Geographic, Infertility in Spanish Pigs Has Been Traced to Plastics. A Warning for Humans?

One of Liberty Blitzkrieg’s primary themes in 2013 was “food fraud.” When I use that term, what I am really referring to is the troubling fact that many of the things we consume are not what they seem to be based on what is represented by the package. From a study that showed food fraud in the U.S. was up 60% year-over-year, to pink slime in meat and the fact that the majority of “tuna” served isn’t actually tuna, the examples are seemingly endless.

If all of that wasn’t enough to convince you of how important it is to be aware of exactly what you put in your body, I don’t know what is. This is precisely why Monsanto (possibly the most evil corporation on earth) is so aggressively fighting GMO labeling bills such as the one recently passed by Vermont.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Cop Who Punched Occupy Wall Street Protester Receives $120K Annual Pension from the NYPD

by

Screen Shot 2014-06-14 at 1.37.52 PMAlthough I have focused a lot of my attention on the systematic mistreatment of the homeless in 2014, this is merely a symptom of a much larger cancer. That is, the very powerful and very rich abusing their status and edge to aggressively dominate and subjugate average citizens.

The manner in which this often manifests is that the full weight of the law bears down with tremendous force on the plebs for the most minor infractions, while the status quo receives blanket immunity from any and all prosecution. I’ve covered several examples of citizens being abused by law enforcement for no good reason on this site in 2014. Some notable examples are:

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.