Category: MK

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.

From the 2013 post, Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal”

The fact that most of the debate surrounding the unmasking of Trump personnel revolves around whether it was legal or not highlights just how superficial and ethically deranged our culture has become. If what she did was indeed legal, this is an enormous problem in the first place, one that privacy advocates and opponents of Big Brother surveillance have been warning about constantly since the gulag spying panopticon was put in place following 9/11. For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that what Susan Rice did was legal.

If her actions were indeed totally by the books, we need to use this incident as a rallying call to reform the laws immediately. Likewise, Donald Trump should be pushing such reform tirelessly from his bully pulpit, but given his authoritarian nature I doubt he will. Fortunately, Rand Paul is heeding the call.

As reported by The Hill:

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Yesterday, Mike Cernovich published explosive claims that Obama’s National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, has been behind the “unmasking” of certain Trump advisors in relation to their conversations with foreign officials under routine surveillance. He noted:

The White House Counsel’s office identified Rice as the person responsible for the unmasking after examining Rice’s document log requests. The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice’s actions, H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

“Unmasking” is the process of identifying individuals whose communications were caught in the dragnet of intelligence gathering. While conducting investigations into terrorism and other related crimes, intelligence analysts incidentally capture conversations about parties not subject to the search warrant. The identities of individuals who are not under investigation are kept confidential, for legal and moral reasons.

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Must Reads

Devin Nunes and the Tragedy of the Russia Inquiry (Bloomberg)

How Obama’s White House Weaponized Media Against Trump (The Hill)

The Young Turks Really, Really Don’t Want You to Compare Them to Breitbart (TYT have made some great hires lately, Mother Jones)

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Doubled Down on Threats to Punish Criticism of Israel (Nikki Haley is a total lunatic, The Intercept)

Women and People of Color Make up the Majority of the Trump Coalition (Matt Bruenig, Medium)

Racket of Rackets (James Howard Kunstler on the Healthcare industry)

U.S. Politics

See More Links »

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In my post published earlier this week, Recent TSA Molestation Video Proves Americans Have Become Authority Worshipping Slaves, I noted the following:

Yeah, it’s disgusting, inappropriate and anathema to a free people, but that’s the point. We aren’t a free people. We’ve become a bunch of authority-worshiping subjects toiling on a plantation dominated by multi-national companies who write our laws and manipulate our thoughts through corporate media. The worst part is we don’t do anything about it. We elect Trump and then puff our chests out yelling stupid slogans like MAGA, as molestations from the TSA get worse. Well done everyone.

I was pleased that the above paragraph connected with many people, but for those of you who think I was being hyperbolic, take a look at the following excerpts from a piece recently published at The Washington Post, Since 2007, the DEA Has Taken $3.2 Billion in Cash from People Not Charged with a Crime:

The Drug Enforcement Administration takes billions of dollars in cash from people who are never charged with criminal activity, according to a report issued today by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

Since 2007, the report found, the DEA has seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of involvement with the drug trade. But 81 percent of those seizures, totaling $3.2 billion, were conducted administratively, meaning no civil or criminal charges were brought against the owners of the cash and no judicial review of the seizures ever occurred.

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Open the Books is back in the spotlight today with another deep-dive report, this time looking into U.S. taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and federal payments into Ivy League colleges.

Below are a few key findings from the report, titled: Ivy League, Inc.

1. Ivy League payments and entitlements cost taxpayers $41.59 billion over a six-year period (FY2010-FY2015). This is equivalent to $120,000 in government monies, subsidies, & special tax treatment per undergraduate student, or $6.93 billion per year.
 
2. The Ivy League was the recipient of $25.73 billion worth of federal payments during this period: contracts ($1.37 billion), grants ($23.9 billion) and direct payments – student assistance ($460 million).
 
3. In monetary terms, the ‘government contracting’ business of the Ivy League ($25.27 billion – federal contracts and grants) exceeded their educational mission ($22 billion in student tuition) FY2010-FY2015.
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Earlier today, Edward Snowden posted the following tweet calling attention to a very important article published at Reuters.

Huge: USG confirms cyber offense funded at 9x rate of defense. Wonder why we can’t stop foreign hacks? This is why. https://t.co/qug3LY16Bt http://pic.twitter.com/q0Zhn7FRxG

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 30, 2017

The article highlights the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies spend 90% of their budgets on offensive capabilities as opposed to defense. The disastrous results of such an emphasis should be obvious to everyone, all you have to do is look at what this attitude has done to U.S. foreign policy, as well as domestic police departments. When you focus all your spending and energy on developing new weapons, the urge is to find an excuse to use them. Disastrous consequences typically follow (unnecessary SWAT raids and the wholesale destruction of countries).

When it comes to intelligence agencies, the focus on offense results in two horrible outcomes. Less cybersecurity for everyone and an ability for the government to spy on, and hence blackmail, the world.

Reuters reports:

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When I first started becoming aware of how sleazy, parasitic and corrupt the U.S. economy was, I only had expertise in one industry, financial services. Coming to grips with the blatant criminality of the TBTF Wall Street banks and their enablers at the Federal Reserve and throughout the federal government, I thought this was the main issue that needed to be confronted. What I’ve learned in the years since is pretty much every industry in America is corrupt to the core, more focused on sucking money away from helpless citizens via rent-seeking schemes, versus actually producing a product and adding value. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry is no exception.

Today’s post zeros in on a particular slice of that industry. A group of companies known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs. Companies that seem to extract far more from the public than they give back. It’s a convoluted sector that is difficult to get your head around, which is why we should be thankful that David Dayen wrote an excellent piece on the topic recently. What follows are merely excerpts from his lengthy and highly informative piece, The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices. I strongly suggest you read the entire thing.

Below are a few highlights from the piece published in The American Prospect:

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Last week, I published two posts on cyber security firm CrowdStrike after becoming aware of inaccuracies in one of its key reports used to bolster the claim that operatives of the Russian government had hacked into the DNC. This is extremely important since the DNC hired CrowdStrike to look into its hack, and at the same time denied FBI access to its servers.

Before reading any further, you should read last week’s articles if you missed them the first time.

Credibility of Cyber Firm that Claimed Russia Hacked the DNC Comes Under Serious Question

What is CrowdStrike? Firm Hired by DNC has Ties to Hillary Clinton, a Ukrainian Billionaire and Google

Now here are the latest developments courtesy of Voice of America:

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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

TSA treating law-abiding American citizens like livestock for the privilege of boarding a plane has been a festering problem for over a decade. Such demeaning “security” practices represent just one of many unacceptable privacy invasions we’ve allowed to happen to us as a people since being overwhelmed by irrational fears of terrorism following the attacks of 9/11. Such fears are never allowed to dissipate since they’re constantly reinforced and encouraged by corporate media, hack politicians and the military-industrial-intelligence complex looking to make money from imprisoning American in an all-encompassing surveillance grid panopticon where we cheer on our own enslavement.

Today’s story brings a very important yet unresolved issue back to the forefront of public discussion, where it should remain until this practice is done away with forever.

The Daily Mail reports:

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Most of you reading this are probably aware the U.S. auto market is a train wreck waiting to happen, but a recent report by Moody’s really puts the industry’s insane lending practices into perspective.

Reuters reports:

As U.S. auto sales have peaked, competition to finance car loans is set to intensify and drive increased credit risk for auto lenders, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report released on Monday.

“The combination of plateauing auto sales, growing negative equity from consumers and lenders’ willingness to offer flexible loan terms is a significant credit risk for lenders,” Jason Grohotolski, a senior credit officer at Moody’s and one of the report’s authors, told Reuters.

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