Feds: No Right To Drink Raw Milk

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The Feds now claim the right to tell you what kind of food you can put in your mouth.

From World Net Daily:

“Attorneys for the federal government have argued in a lawsuit pending in federal court in Iowa that individuals have no “fundamental right” to obtain what food they choose.

The brief was filed April 26 in support of a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ban on the interstate sale of raw milk. Continue reading →

Ruby Ridge: Remembering The Lessons

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A 2002 article at the National Review Online revisits Ruby Ridge, which for over 15 years has been a rallying point for libertarians fighting the federal leviathan.

Remember Ruby Ridge: Ten years later, there are still important lessons.
By Timothy Lynch, August 21, 2002

Ruby Ridge” used to refer to a geographical location in the state of Idaho, but after an incident that took place there ten years ago today, the phrase has come to refer to a scandalous series of events that opened the eyes of many people to the inner workings of the federal government, including the vaunted Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now that ten years have passed, the feds will accelerate their ongoing effort to “move forward” and have the scandal declared “ancient history.” But the Ruby Ridge episode should not be soon forgotten. Continue reading →

Nina Simone Sings “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”

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The artistic genius of Nina Simone found expression not only in piano playing, singing, and composing (she despised the term ‘jazz’ and always called herself a black classical pianist), but also in passionate activism for civil rights. Simone embodied an individualist and nonconformist spirit that was truly libertarian…. Continue reading →

Where In The World Is Iraq’s Gold?

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A thought occurred to me late at night. Do you remember these stories from the Iraq war?

WASHINGTON (CNN) –For the second time in a week, U.S. troops have discovered what appears to be a cache of gold bars hidden in a truck, which could be worth just less than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to a Pentagon official. Continue reading →

Whither Gold?

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Update AM Friday, May 14:

Well, we woke up to gold bouncing over its highs and the market sinking, so we were ready to eat crow.

But now, gold’s retreated a bit and we’re willing to claim the mantle of Nostradamus once more. A see-saw is good for at least that. You get to read every move your way as a vindication of your clairvoyance and every swing the other way as fat fingers, dead cats, or black swans….and once the animal kingdom is exhausted, there’s always the stars we can blame it on….a Uranus or Mars transit somewhere is always good for at least a few technological glitches and nasty accidents.

Update 1:34 PM (Thursday, May 13):

As you can see below, my thinking on this is rather contrary to the mainstream. I freely admit my opinion is biased. I want gold prices to go lower so I can buy at a better price.

But as I watched the market today, I do see some slight signs of confirmation of the contrarian position. Both stocks and gold/silver are flat but the dollar is up. What does that mean? If gold is looking ahead to massive inflation, why would it not be up even more today? Instead it’s flat. Maybe it will fall later, just as it did after the fall of Lehman (although it took a month to do it then). In any case, today, it’s retreated just a bit, along with stocks. Continue reading →

Radio Interview: CFUV.UVIC.CA, May 10, 2010

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Update: Here’s Chris Cook’s radio interview of me on University of Victoria Radio, May 10, 2010.

I’m in the last third. As it was, we didn’t talk much about the crisis, except a bit at the end. We talked mostly about how libertarians suddenly became too dangerous to be allowed across the border.

ORIGINAL POST:

I’ll be talking with Chris Cook of The Peace and Earth Justice website and University of Victoria Gorilla radio show about the financial crisis and the call for regulation; also, about Canada’s increasing unfriendliness to free speech on political matters.

A Preview of the Program:

GR 05-50 101.9 FM 104.3 Cable ‘cfuv.uvic.ca

Monday May 10, 2010

5:00:00 3:00 Welcome to GR, etc. Gordon Campbell’s Liberal party has promised it will enact the Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST come hell or high water; and he may get plenty of both. To call the opposition to the tax popular in B.C. merely scratches the surface of the deep dissatisfaction felt in Canada’s westernmost province. After watching nearly a decade of service cuts, and relentless tax relief to corporations and the wealthiest of British Columbia’s citizens, more tax rises for the working class is about as welcome here as as communicable disease. Resistance to the proposed HST has organized, and petitions currently making the rounds in every voting jurisdiction are piling up signatures, hoping to reach a level that will force the government to back down. Brad Slade is a long-time labor activist and he’s the Regional Organizer for the South Island and the Islands with Fight The HST. Brad Slade in the first half.

And; what lies behind the recent economic meltdown in the United States?

Years of deregulation on high-flying financiers and the introduction of increasingly exotic investment vehicles created a bubble economy whose collapse now threatens the entire global economy, but who is to blame? Lila Rajiva is a journalist and author, whose book titles include: ‘The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media,‘ and ‘Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets’, co-written with Bill Bonner. Her articles are available on the internet at CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, and Lew Rockwell.com, and in mainstream sources such as The Washington Post and The Hindu.

Lila Rajiva and the politics behind financial calamity in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed on the view from Victoria’s burgeoning street society. But first, Brad Slade and B.C.’s tax revolt in the making.

5:03:00 21:00 Discussion w/ Brad Slade

“Welcome back to the show, Brad; it’s been a few months since your last visit here; what’s the latest on the Fight the HST front?”

5:24:00 1:00 Cart(s)

5:25:00 10:00 Janine Bandcroft

5:35:00 3:00 Music

5:38:00 21:00 Discussion w/ Lila Rajiva

Welcome back to GR, etc.

Just what lies behind the recent economic meltdown in the United States? Years of deregulation on high-flying financiers and the introduction of increasingly exotic investment vehicles created a bubble economy whose collapse now threatens the entire global economy, but who is to blame?

Lila Rajiva is a journalist and author, whose book titles include: ‘The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media,‘ and ‘Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets’, co-written with Bill Bonner. Her articles are available on the internet at CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, and Lew Rockwell.com, and in mainstream sources such as The Washington Post and The Hindu.

“Welcome back to the program, Lila; we initially planned to discuss an economics forum that took place in Vancouver over the weekend. What is that forum about, and why were you not in attendance?”

Market Take-Down

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Well, I know I promised to stay away from my blog. But a 1000 point drop in the Dow is reason enough to renege on a promise.

I’m going to state my considered judgment that that was no accident. It looked deliberate (like September, 2008) and seems to follow on other deliberate attempts to induce panic….(not that anyone needs to try very hard to do that, since the way governments are behaving nowadays is panic-inducing enough)

Why do I monger conspiracy thus?

Let’s review.

Rewind to the early part of April, a period that has occult significance, as it includes Hitler’s birthday (April 20). It also carries dark overtones from recent history in the US – the Columbine shootings (April 20, 1999), the Federal assault on Waco on April 19, 1993, and the WTC Oklahoma City bombing (April 17, 1995) and from WW II history (the NKVD’s massacre at Katyn in April 1940 , and several other important incidents related to the Nazi prison camps).

1. On April 10 we witnessed the “decapitation” of a large part of the leadership of Poland under the strangest of circumstances. Poland is a country that has been resisting the economic demands of the EU one-worlders and rearing its reactionary nationalistic head on several occasions, to wit., the devaluation of the zloty. The plane crash erased the bulk of the nationalists in government at one shot.

2. This mysterious crash was followed by another smaller but equally strange incident when Eurocontrol (correction: I read that the ultimate decision was not made by Eurocontrol but by EU members acting with coordination from Eurocontrol) over-reacted to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano and grounded the entire airline industry in many northern and western European countries, shutting down 70% of European flights and hitting the economy severely again. Hit two to the markets.

3. Around the same time we had whistle-blower Andrew Maguire outing JP Morgan market manipulation (March 23) and nearly becoming the victim of a hit and run driver (March 27).

This was followed immediately by widespread panic (around April 7) about the lack of physical gold in a number of vaults and behind the majority of contracts. That was hit three.

4. At the same time (April 16), there was the SEC filing of charges against Goldman Sachs. I’m all for flaying Goldman alive, but there’s no denying the “staged” elements of the case, its tardiness, and its potential to set off more litigation that could maul the banking industry badly. Hit four.

5. Now, against the background of street riots in Greece, with the EU tottering on its gouty feet, comes hit five –  a market plunge of historic proportions apparently from a bizarre trading “mistake.”

Update: 6. April 20, blow up of BP oil rig/

Add in a few other suspicious developments, and malice aforethought rather than chance seems the more plausible explanation….

Now was it Goldman’s High Frequency Trading programs sending a warning to investigators? Or was it the infamous Plunge Protection Team? Perhaps this was a message from the Federal Reserve to those who want to audit it…..that bill has now been “gutted.”

Was it a “fat finger” at Citigroup (denied by the firm) or a “black swan” out of Nassim Taleb’s Universa hedge-fund, as the latest reports suggest?

Taleb has denied it.

Who knows.

I have my own ideas, of course. But they’re no more than theory at this point.

Whoever did it, I suspect money was made both on the way down and the way up.

Jim Rogers on Goldseek radio had the best word for the whole frightening mishap. He said someone should suffer for it. This is New York, the HQ of the world capital markets. If the NYSE can’t get it right, time to get rid of them.

But of course, no one is going to go anywhere. No one is going to suffer for their mistakes. The only people who will suffer, as usual, is you, me, and the rest of the investing public.

Rexxfield On Google’s Sinister Defamatory Algorithm (Updated)

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Update (June 2): At the request of Michael Roberts, I have updated the excerpt from his excellent site, with the latest version deleting the previous version from this blog.

Original Post

Michael Roberts, Senior Investigator of Rexxfield.com writes about more dark behavior from Google that belies it’s claim to “do no evil.” Google, in case you don’t know it, is a highly political search engine, ranked at the bottom of privacy lists by surveillance experts, and known to be amenable to government influence in China and the US.

I’ve often noticed that the articles and sites that pop up on a yahoo, altavista, or bing search have much in common. But none of them is similar to what I get from a Google search. That suggests that Google is using algorithms that are quite different, and possibly quite opposed, to the normal SEO criteria – well-written, credible, or well-sourced material. Continue reading →

Back In A While…

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I’m traveling again, so this blog has been taking a back seat for a week or so, which is a shame, because I have a bunch of articles that are crying to be finished.

Anyway, I first thought I’d just post pieces without commenting, but looking for what I think are blogworthy tidbits of information is as time-consuming as writing an original comment or post myself, so for now, I’ll just sign off for a  couple of weeks to take care of things.

I’ll be on Chris Cook’s U Victoria show on May 8 May 10

‘ll post the details later tonight.

Vote Against Dodd Bill, Corker-Merkley Provision

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Fed Privately Audits Senate to Kill Audit; What You Can Do
Mish Shedlock, May 4, 2010

A bill sponsored by Ron Paul and Alan Grayson to thoroughly audit the Fed, passed the House. However in a brazen move that ought to offend the sensibilities of every citizen, the Fed is lobbying Senate members to water down the bill so that it is meaningless. Continue reading →