…there are trillions of dollars at stake

….The frequency of the visible schemes, lies and necessary manipulations will exhibit in direct proportion as those who control the historic levers are confronted with reality.

They are losing control.  As such:
Point ONE – The Clinton campaign will never ever stop beating the drum of racial antagonism. Period. As water is wet, so too is the need of race to be utilized to benefit Clinton.  The scope of the promotion of that effort is in direct proportion to the geographic population density of the targeted constituency:

Racism is a political tool.

Point TWO – There is one political party in Washington DC. The UniParty.
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Finally some good news on the pushback to asset forfeiture…
(Via Reason) Some great news in asset forfeiture reform is coming out of Florida. S.B. 1044, approved by the legislature earlier in the month, was signed into law today by Gov. Rick Scott.
The big deal with this particular reform is that, in most cases, Florida police will actually have to arrest and charge a person with a crime before attempting to seize and keep their money and property under the state’s asset forfeiture laws. One of the major ways asset forfeiture gets abused is that it is frequently a “civil”, not criminal, process where police and prosecutors are able to take property without even charging somebody with a crime, let alone convicting them.
This is how police are, for example, able to snatch cash from cars they’ve pulled over and claim they suspect the money was going to be used for drug trafficking without actually finding any drugs.  (read more)

A ruling this morning from the Wisconsin Supreme Court (read here), rendered official what observers have long known for a long time:

Wisconsin Democrats did, in fact, launch a massive, multi-county “John Doe” investigation of the state’s conservatives, featuring extraordinarily broad subpoenas and coordinated “paramilitary” raids of private homes; the “crimes” that provided the investigation’s pretext were not crimes at all, but First Amendment-protected speech; and the legal theory underpinning the investigation was bunk, “unsupported in either reason or law,” as the court put it.

[…] On October 3, 2013, multiple Wisconsin conservatives were awakened by a persistent pounding on the door, their houses were illuminated by floodlights, and police — sometimes with guns drawn — poured into their homes. Once inside, the investigators turned the private residences of these innocent conservative citizens “upside down,” seeking an extraordinarily broad range of documents and information. These raids were supplemented by subpoenas that secured for investigators massive amounts of electronic information.

The court was obviously disturbed: (more…)

• *Greece has signaled its willingness to default on its upcoming IMF payment
• *Sets in place a plan to shift from Euros to a new issue of Greek controlled Drachmas
• *Tspiras boards a plane for Moscow
• *Seeks alternative creditors in Russia and China
• *A “Grexit” would be the de facto end of NATO and shift alliances in the Aegean from Europe to Russia
• *IMF formally withdraws staff from Athens….

Greece arrives at an existential fork in the road:  which way to turn? Continue to go West or strike out for an unknown path heading East ——————————————————————————————————————————–

The far-Left Syriza party of Greece, contrary to assertions of the European Monetary Union (EMU) has not agreed to further “austerity” measures, but has decided to double down on its threats to default on its IMF payments and align itself with Russia.

The Telegraph explains some of the backstory for Syriza’s popularity and rejection of “austerity” measures that don’t include significant debt write-offs (forgiveness).

“…One might righteously protest at what amounts to open blackmail by Mr Tsipras, deeming such conduct to be a primary violation of EU club rules. Yet this is to ignore what has been done to Greece over the past four years, and why the Greek people are so angry…

An apartment building for “middle class” Athens residents, in a “decent” part of Athens, 1 block from our 4 star hotel  (Jan 2015).  According to local social workers, 50% of the population of Greece has migrated from the countryside to Athens in an effort to find work and pool resources with other like-impoverished family members. (Click to embiggen detail)

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As a complement to Sundance’s article about the budget and “other peoples’ money”, this is a repeat post.

“The rich should pay their fair share.” 
…”when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”
“Nobody’s ideas or effort are really that much more innately valuable than that of their peers. You can, however, use your abilities to steal that much money.”
”The central lie here being getting rich through hard, honest work. I don’t think anyone has ever gotten rich without the determination of screwing other people out of their money.”
“Romney never created any jobs. He only created wealth for his partners. There is a big difference.”

The Nazis Were Socialists, Not Right-Wingers

Why both are presented in the media as “right-wing” when both Nazis and Fascists had socialist roots. Klavan and Whittle wonder whether nazism and fascism might be more similar to today’s progressive movement in the Democratic Party than to modern conservatism. Does President Obama have more in common with Mussolini than Thomas Jefferson? Find out.

 …F.D.R. in Hell (@FDRinHell)

Gov. Dannel Malloy has signed an executive order effectively enabling the indefinite suspension of civil rights in the state of Connecticut.  He’s given his Commissioner of the Department of public Health the ability to quarantine, or otherwise detain, any person or group suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus. 

Note…all this has been done “preemptively”, because no specific case has yet to be identified.

Checks  = None

Balances = None

All done for your own good… without due process…. on behalf of the State.

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The Struggle For Stupidity

And Standard, State, Stupidity at that

 

What 8th-Graders Were Expected To Know in 1910

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Update:  The social media photo posted throughout the blogosphere was not confirmed as the deceased Michael Brown and has been replaced. -ytz
Just as the Trayvon Martin narrative unfolded, as independent bloggers and researchers enthusiastically scour social media a truer, more complete picture of Michael Brown emerges as Sharpton remains on site in an attempt to manage and direct the “narrative”.
Although earning praise from local authorities for his “official” calls for “peace”, Sharpton’s ability to manage the narrative has been called into question by by black and white observers keeping tabs on the ever evolving and fluid situation from outside of the area of conflict.
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