D.C. Protests for Eric Garner and Mike Brown Continue

Earlier tonight, I blogged about the
bizarre experience of listening to Canadian opera singers
perform an ode to the Lord Jesus all the while several hundred
people shut down a main Washington, D.C., thoroughfare to protest
gross racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Here
now, the photographic record of the day.

The demonstration began at 4 p.m. with fewer then 50 people at
the U.S. Department of Justice.

#DCFerguson protesters at the Department of Justice.

#DCFerguson protesters at the Department of Justice.

As night fell, the growing crowd made its way down
Constitution Avenue, where it went on to stage a series of
“die-ins” at various intersections in the vicinity of the White
House.

#DCFerguson protesters near the White House

#DCFerguson protesters near the White House

#DCFerguson protesters near the White House

Eventually the marchers wended their way up 14th Street, through
Chinatown, and to the steps of the courthouse at Judiciary Square.
From there, an organizer with a bullhorn announced they were going
to shut down Pennsylvania Avenue en route to the John A. Wilson
Building, home of the D.C. government. 

#DCFerguson marches through Washington, D.C.

#DCFerguson marches through Washington, D.C.

#DCFerguson marches through Washington, D.C.

#DCFerguson marches through Washington, D.C.

When I finally headed for home around 9 p.m., the protesters
were still at it, having pledged to continue marching, shutting
down as many streets as possible in their quest for justice.

The marchers’ demands are here. My live tweets of
the action as it happened are here.

And remember: Free Minds and Free Markets aren’t free!
Support Reason’s annual Webathon with a tax-deductible
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Eric Garner Protesters Swarm New York Tunnels, Squares, & Bridges; 100s Heading For 1 Police Plaza – Live Feed

Protesters chanting “Fuck the Police” or “I Can’t Breathe” have gathered all across the nation but the epicenter appears to be New York City in a massive show of defiance against the grand jury’s decision in the Eric Garner fatal chokehold case. Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges are blocked, various highways, multiple arrests in Times Square and around Rockefeller Center and now 100s of protesters are heading to New York’s 1 Police Plaza as helicopters hover overhead. Latest reports say objects are being thrown from buildings at NYPD officers…

 

Live Feed:

*  *  *

Across New York…

 




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Parents Shouldn’t Replace State Propaganda With Their Own Propaganda

Submitted by Daniel Amaduri (The Dissident Dad) via Mike Krieger's Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I want to share with my children everything I’ve learned over these past few years as I’ve abandoned my mental and emotional slavery and embraced personal sovereignty. Defending my children from the lies of statists and oligarchs is one of the most important things I can do as a parent.

However, a healthy concern I have is that I don’t want to merely replace the state. What I mean is I don’t want to eliminate state propaganda and brainwashing and merely replace it with my own equivalent.

My intentions are good as a parent, but I never want to allow my passion and perspective to become the automatic default belief system for my children.

As a dad who is always learning and trying to find his footing in a world filled with increasing levels of madness, I have written down 3 core values for myself as a father that I read aloud everyday:

1. Teach them to think for themselves

 

2. Respect

 

3. Learn together

Teaching Them to Think
The temptation to raise fellow activists is definitely there. My son and I even made a Nevada paper a few years ago when we met Ron Paul. Since then, I’ve pushed for common sense thinking lessons, rather than alliances with any one political belief.

I have found using everyday life as learning experiences helps the process. For example, after catching some fish with my son, we had the following conversation.

Me: It’s great that you caught fish. Should we eat them or give them to the neighbor? Because I heard they like fish.

Son: No. I want to eat them (4 years old at the time).

Me: What if the neighbor comes and takes one of our fish? Would that be okay?

Son: No.

Me: If the police came and took a fish, would it be right, then?

Son (after thinking about it for a few seconds): No. That’s my fish. I caught them.

The lesson here is that stealing is wrong. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the neighbor or a cop using civil asset forfeiture.

Respect
Treat other people how you want to be treated. Respect all life; it’s all a miracle.

Show respect to all beings, even the smallest of creatures that typically get stepped on for no good reason, is a virtue that will help children to think before they cause harm. It’s also a great way to view the world. To see violence for what it is – evil.

Learn Together
What a great way to learn… learning with your children. Take them to debates, documentary movies, visit the library together, and interact with people outside your typical comfort zone whenever possible.

Most importantly, follow up on questions you don’t know the answer to. You don’t have to pretend to be the immediate authority on everything just because your child asks you something. Encourage conversations and question everything.

Raising Adults
Ultimately, your kids are going to make their own decisions. Instead of trying to train them to believe what we believe, I’m going to focus my energies on teaching them to think, even when it counters the old man’s beliefs.




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You Know It’s A Bubble When…

Because nothing says rational equity markets like a 16-year-old penny-stock-day-trader who turned $10,000 into $300,000 this year…

Meet Connor Bruggermann – the new normal ‘investor’…

 

The son of a former vice president at JP Morgan who worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, 16-year-old Connor Bruggermann could well be the poster-child for what the Fed has wrought on the American public.

As The Verge reports, while his dad warned that with penny stocks “you could make money or lose money very, very quickly,” Bruggemann, on the other hand, embraced the chaos. For Bruggemann, as for many others, penny stocks were another outlet for that risky reward seeking. “There is a lot of fraud and manipulation, a lot of them are not legitimate companies,” he says. “It could be someone like you or I sitting here saying we have a $5 million deal with Panasonic, when in reality that’s not true.” According to the SEC, penny stock scams have surged over the last two years.

At home, in a room he shares with his older brother, Bruggemann has two monitors set up as a trading station. But most of the time, he tells me, “I prefer to trade on my phone.”

Risk management…?

“I guess the rule of thumb is, when you invest in a penny stock, expect to lose every dollar you put in. So there is always that risk,” he told me. “There have been several times where I put every dollar I’ve had on the line, and fortunately it’s worked out almost every time.” He stops, then corrects himself. “Every time! Or else I’d have nothing.”

Not everyone sees this as a great success story…

“There are NO prodigies, just bull markets,” says Howard Lindzon, an investor and founder of Stocktwits. He encouraged me not to cover Bruggemann’s story. Other traders I talked to were much harsher. “It’s bullshit. Trust me,” said one. “This is being orchestrated by a penny stock alerts product; it’s a marketing scam.”

But don’t worry, you can get in on this too…

While the promises on Bruggeman’s website are far less aggressive than “Get rich quick” schemes like Sykes’, there is an element of self-interest in creating a watch list of penny stocks. “If someone is going to pay me for what I’m trading, I don’t want to get in at a penny and they get in at a penny and a half.” Recommending stocks you already own without disclosing that fact is at the heart of many penny stock schemes.

 

It’s worth emphasizing here that, while The Verge could find no evidence of Bruggeman pushing penny stocks to his followers in an attempt to pump and dump shares, the basic nature of his website is fraught with that potential. Bruggeman says he is careful to indicate which stocks he is in and alerts followers when he enters and exits a stock. For now, the community following his watch list of stocks is fairly small.

 

“We have 16 people it’s emailed out to daily. My Twitter is a little over 1,000. They don’t subscribe to me, but if I tweet, sometimes they will follow my plays.”

But even he is a realist…

…and maintains no illusions about the world he’s playing in. “The company I’m in right now, the CEO got arrested for embezzling funds. He stole $185,000 from the Girl Scouts, before this.” What he likes about this world is that he is competing against people like himself, mostly small-timers he feels he can beat. “[In] penny stocks, you’re playing against high schoolers. You’re playing Division III.”

 

…

 

He keeps a copy of Michael Lewis’ new book, Flash Boys, on his dresser as a reminder that in their own ways, all markets have their unscrupulous players. Penny stocks are a risky game, he acknowledges, but “there is way more cheating on Wall Street.”

Read more here at The Verge…

*  *  *




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Reason Needs Your Money So That Damon Root Can Keep Pissing Off Supreme Court Justices!

stevens

Reason this week is asking you, our beautiful customers and
loyal antagonists, to donate your
hard-earned Bitcoin to our annual Webathon. Thanks to an
anonymous challenge donation, you can double
your money‘s effectiveness in the process, so that we can
deliver even more of the hard-hitting libertarian journalism and
analysis you’ve come to love. Like that from Senior Editor Damon Root.

What are Mr. Root’s bonafides? Try this: How many other
reporters do you know who are singled out for criticism by retired
Supreme Court justices looking to bolster their own tattered
reputations? That’s right, former Justice John Paul
Stevens
mentioned Damon by name—twice!—in a speech defending
the Court’s indefensible decision in the
Kelo v. City of New London eminent
domain case. Apparently the ex-justice was not pleased about the
fact that in
Root’s review of Stevens’ memoir, he accurately described
that 5-4 decision as an “eminent domain debacle.” As George
Harrison once sang, boo frickity hoo, John Paul!

Damon Root is so good about the Supreme Court, particularly the
effects of the increasingly
influential libertarian legal movement upon it, that he
has a brand new book out on the subject titled
Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme
Court. Here is what they’re asying about it in
the The
Wall Street Journal:

Confident, competent telling. In particular, [Root] powerfully
illustrates that Holmes, Brandeis and Frankfurter—the most
overrated justices in our history—had not the foggiest notion of
the Constitution.

A related fun fact about Damon: He can see the legal future
clearer than Omen
II.

In an August 2011 column on Obamacare, back when all the Smart
People were predicting a legal rout at the Supreme Court,
Root predicted
that Chief Justice John Roberts “may very well uphold the health
care law as an act of judicial restraint,” which Roberts promptly
did 10 months later. Seriously, almost nobody saw that coming.
Except the
craft beer–swilling, metal-loving, award-winning
scribe with the goatee.

And for those of you who glaze over at the sight of grown human
wearing comical robes, Root also serves up juicy historical
profiles of forgotten and/or surprising libertarian heroes:

Important final note: Damon is in no way related to
Wayne Allyn Root. In case you were wondering.

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The Most Depressing Time Of The Year In The Most Depressed Nation On The Planet

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Did you know that the rate of suicide is highest during this time of the year and that 45 percent of all Americans dread the Christmas season?  We are constantly being told that Christmas is the happiest time of the year, but mental health professionals tell us that the exact opposite is true.  For large numbers of Americans, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is filled with stress, anxiety, loneliness and family squabbles.  And for most people, the reality of the holidays never even comes close to matching up with the glittering ideal portrayed in movies and on television.  As a result, depression tends to spike during the month of December.  And of course Americans are quite depressed most of the time anyway.  In fact, one out of every ten Americans is on an antidepressant as you read this article.  No other nation in the world even approaches that level.  So right now we are in the midst of the most depressing time of the year in the most depressed nation on the entire planet.  What is wrong with this picture?

A lot of people start to feel down this time of the year, and they don’t realize that there are millions of others that are going through the exact same thing.  The following excerpt from a Psychology Today article explains that this is something that happens every Christmas season…

We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season.

So when we get depressed, what do we do?

Well, we do what we always do for depression.

We start popping pills.

Today, America is the most drugged up nation on the face of the Earth by a wide margin.  Just consider the following numbers…

-Americans account for about five percent of the global population, but we consume more than 50 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs.  At the moment, the number one selling pharmaceutical drug in America is called Thorazine.  It is used as a supplement to other antidepressant drugs.

 

–According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants.

 

-The number of people that are clinically diagnosed with depression is growing at a rate of 20 percent annually.

 

–The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole.  It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication.

 

-The percentage of women taking antidepressants in the United States is significantly higher than in any other country in the world.

 

-Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

 

–If all of these antidepressants are helping, then why are more Americans killing themselves?  The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 increased by nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2010.  The number of Americans that die by suicide is now greater than the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year.

Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea that the latest scientific studies indicate that many of these drugs could actually be quite dangerous.

For example, one recent study found that children that take antidepressants are more likely to attempt suicide…

High doses of brain-altering chemicals marketed as “anti-depressants” increase the likelihood of self-harm, rather than decreasing the risk, say Harvard health scientists in a study that analyzed data on 162,625 people.

 

Drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in children and young adults, according to the analysis. SSRI’s are the chemical substances which make up the antidepressants Prozac and Zoloft.

 

“Our findings offer clinicians an additional incentive to avoid initiating pharmacotherapy at high-therapeutic doses,” Harvard School of Public Health researchers said.

Another recent study found that pregnant mothers that take antidepressants are more likely to have babies with brain defects…

Almost one in five children born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy have a brain defect – called a “Chiari type 1 malformation” – according to a groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

The study, titled Rate of Chiari I Malformation in Children of Mothers with Depression with and without Prenatal SSRI Exposure, was published May 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

 

The researchers found that “children of depressed mothers treated with a group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy were more likely to develop Chiari type 1 malformations than were children of mothers with no history of depression,” according to their press statement.

Perhaps popping pills is not the solution after all.

If you are battling depression, one of the key things to do is to look at your diet.  What we eat and what we drink plays a massive role in how we feel and how our brain functions.  If you start eating better, your life will improve in a multitude of ways.

And certainly there are natural ways to battle depression.  If you want to learn more about this, Natural News has some great articles on the subject.

But more important than all of those things is the fact that most Americans today simply do not have anything to live for.

These days, most people just seem to be living for themselves.  They chase one form of entertainment after another, hoping that something will eventually fill the gaping holes that are constantly aching inside their hearts.  Many go to their graves never finding the fulfillment that they were desperately searching for all of their lives.

You have got to have something to live for that really matters. No matter how broken your life is right now, the key is to never, ever, ever give up.  As long as you keep fighting, there is always hope that things can be turned around.

So don’t give in to depression this Christmas season.

Yes, this world is an incredibly messed up place.

Yes, things are going to get a lot worse in the years ahead.

But that doesn’t mean that the future has to be bleak for you.

The best chapters of your life could be right around the corner, so don’t you ever, ever give up.

Hope Despair - Public Domain




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Ukraine Goes Full Orwell, Unleashes “Ministry Of Truth”

Officially called "The Ministry of Information Policy," Mashable reports the Ukraine government has established a department that critics are calling the 'Ministry of Truth' in a dystopian reference to George Orwell's 1984 (apparent instruction manual). Run by a close ally of President Poroshenko's close ally, while its main objective appears to be confronting Russia’s formidable propaganda machine, the Ministry is likely to also restrict free speech and inhibit journalists' work – particularly in war-torn eastern Ukraine, according to observers.

 

 

As Mashable reports,

At a demonstration outside parliament, Ukrainian journalists decried the new ministry, which deputies approved in the Verkhovna Rada late on Tuesday, along with the rest of the country’s Cabinet of Ministers.

 

About 40 journalists and activists from Ukrainian watchdog groups Chesno (Honest) and Stop Censorship! held posters that read “Hello, Big Brother." They urged lawmakers entering the parliament ahead of Tuesday’s session to vote against appointing Stets as its head.

 

The creation of the ministry comes on the heels of critical reports from journalists and rights groups about its use of controversial weapons in eastern Ukraine, as well as possible war crimes committed by its armed forces.

 

…

 

Ukraine's government is clearly frustrated with by its lack of success in disseminating its messages. “You must understand, we are being killed by [Russian] guns as well as their propaganda,” a top security official told Mashable when explaining why he supported the creation of the ministry.

 

A report released last month by The Interpreter website describes just how Russian propaganda works, and how effectively it is being used as a weapon of the Kremlin. The report outlines a “hybrid war” that combines disinformation “to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods” with “covert and small-scale military operations.”

Not everyone is buying into this…

A senior official in the Presidential Administration, who spoke anonymously because he feared repercussions from officials for talking to a journalist, said he was “very concerned” about the ministry and how it would be used.

 

“Honestly, I’m not sure such a ministry is needed,” the official said, adding that others inside the administration have also questioned the move.

 

"The way to fight Russian propaganda is with honestly and transparency, not trying to beat Russia at its own game."

But dictatorship appears to remain…

The Ministry of Information Policy was pushed through with little notice and even less debate on the parliament floor. That could be because the president himself pushed the concept on members of his party, the largest faction in parliament, and has great sway over the ruling coalition.

Details on how the ministry will operate are murky…

No documents were made available to the public or deputies, and Stets did not reply to Mashable's requests for comment. But Romaniuk fears the government has given itself "carte blanche."

 

Reporters Without Borders said it “firmly opposes” the information ministry. “Putting the government in charge of ‘information policy’ would be major retrograde step that would open the way to grave excesses,” said Christophe Deloire, the watchdog organization's secretary-general.

 

“In a democratic society, the media should not be regulated by the government. The creation of an information ministry is the worst of all possible responses to the serious challenges that the government is facing."

 

Journalists demonstrating at parliament likened the move to taking a step “back to the USSR.” Several held signs that combined the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle with the Nazi swastika.

 

“This is a fascist move,” one demonstrator told an observing who was arguing in support of the ministry. She said it would only lend fodder to Russia’s argument that Kiev is now being led by a “fascist junta.”

But the leader of the new ministry explained…

"I see it this way: different states with different historical and cultural experiences in times of crisis came to need to create a body of executive power that would control and manage the information security of the country," Stets wrote.

 

According to Stets, none of the current state structures could efficiently handle those tasks.

 

“The information and communications space remain uncoordinated now, full of contradictions and influence of foreign agents, and under conditions of geopolitical wars becomes a weak part of the country, a subject of enemy attacks,” he added.

*  *  *

1984 – it's not meant to be an instruction manual!!




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Could Falling Oil Prices Spark A Financial Crisis?

Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

The oil and gas boom in the United States was made possible by the extensive credit afforded to drillers. Not only has financing come from company shareholders and traditional banks, but hundreds of billions of dollars have also come from junk-bond investors looking for high returns.

Junk-bond debt in energy has reached $210 billion, which is about 16 percent of the $1.3 trillion junk-bond market. That is a dramatic rise from just 4 percent that energy debt represented 10 years ago.

As is the nature of the junk-bond market, lots of money flowed to companies with much riskier drilling prospects than, say, the oil majors. Maybe drillers were venturing into an uncertain shale play; maybe they didn’t have a lot of cash on hand or were a small startup. Whatever the case may be, there is a reason that they couldn’t offer “investment grade” bonds. In order to tap the bond market, these companies had to pay a hefty interest rate.

For investors, this offers the opportunity for high yield, which is why hundreds of billions of dollars helped finance companies in disparate parts of the country looking to drill in shale. When oil prices were high and production was relentlessly climbing, energy related junk bonds looked highly profitable.

But junk bonds pay high yields because they are high risk, and with oil prices dipping below $70 per barrel, companies that offered junk bonds may not have the revenue to pay back bond holders, potentially leading to steep losses in the coming weeks and months.

The situation will compound itself if oil prices stay low. The junk bond market may begin to shun risky drilling companies, cutting off access to capital. Without the ability to finance drilling, smaller or more indebted oil companies may not have a future. The Wall Street Journal profiled a few fund managers who are beginning to steer clear of smaller oil companies. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the oil and gas sector on November 25 to a “negative” outlook because of falling oil prices.

If oil prices stay at $65 per barrel for three years, 40 percent of all energy junk bonds could be looking at default, according to a recent JP Morgan estimate. While that is a long-term and uncertain scenario, the pain is being felt today. The FT reported that a third of energy debt issued in the junk-bond market is currently in “distressed” territory.

That begs the question; could a shakeout of the oil industry spark a broader financial crisis? Banks and other financial institutions could be overly exposed to energy debt. The Telegraph paints a dire scenario in which the debt bubble bursts because of low oil prices, leading to a cascading 2008-style financial collapse, at least in the junk bond market.

Such a scenario may be a bit overblown. Persistently low interest rates keep demand for junk bonds high, meaning oil companies will probably be able to restructure their debt and continue to access capital. Also, drillers will not immediately face an existential crisis because many have hedged themselves, locking in prices for a certain amount of production.

But a junk bond crisis could become more likely if oil prices stay low for an extended period of time. Once a few companies begin to default, the problem could quickly spread. Another variable is how quickly the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, which could significantly affect the attractiveness of the junk bond market.

Local and regional banks could be highly exposed as well, especially if energy loans make up a large share of their lending portfolio. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that banks like Oklahoma-based BOK Financial – with 19 percent of its loan portfolio made up of energy loans – could be the most vulnerable. Moreover, an economic downturn in regions that depend heavily on energy, such as Texas or North Dakota, could see a broader decline in demand for loans of all kinds. That could add to the pain for local banks.

Low oil prices are not just a problem for oil companies. Investment funds, hungry for yield in a low interest rate environment, have poured money into oil and gas. To be sure, we are far from a crisis at this point, but if oil prices don’t rebound, a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money.




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