Obamacare fallout: The Obama Administration is projecting renewed confidence about its signature achievement — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — because the federal website with which some insurance customers must interface is now less buggy than before. But this is not real confidence — it is the best possible face, pasted over deep fears that have long beset every knowledgeable fan of the law. Continue reading “The Briefing, Issue XXIX”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — While the rest of North Korea’s top brass leaped to their feet before Kim Jong Un, clapping wildly in a requisite show of respect at high-level meetings, his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, often seemed nonchalant, at times even bored. Once considered the force behind the young leader, he displayed a bold insouciance that seemed calculated to show he was beyond reach.
So by purging his own uncle, Kim has delivered a more chilling message: No one is beyond reach, not even family. Jang’s fall from grace, accompanied by allegations from corruption to womanizing and capped by his dramatic arrest at a party meeting Sunday, has no doubt spooked Pyongyang’s elite. It also suggests Kim is still trying to consolidate the power he inherited from his father two years ago. Continue reading “Purge sends chilling message to NKorea’s elite”
Lew Rockwell offers us in Fascism vs. Capitalism a provocative and insightful diagnosis of the political and economic ills of our time. The situation that we face, he says, is dire; but, fortunately, he does not leave us without remedy. To the contrary, the wisdom of Mises, Rothbard, and their colleagues in the Austrian School offers the means to rescue us, and the inspiring leadership of Ron Paul shows us the way to put their ideas into practice.
In the first part of this exposé, I examined the origins and recent history of the Group of Thirty as a highly influential institution in the arena of global financial governance, bringing together top central bankers, financiers, policymakers and academics in the world of economic and monetary affairs.
More than three decades since it was founded in 1978, the Group of Thirty has maintained its reputation as a prominent institution in the financial world, continuing to produce influential reports and advocate for policies which are largely accepted and implemented across the globe. Continue reading “The Group of Thirty and Its Methods of Financial Governance”
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.
The memos, which come from a government involved in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, detail continued disputes in the talks over the deal. The documents reveal broad disagreement over a host of key positions, and general skepticism that an agreement can be reached by year-end. The Obama administration has urged countries to reach a deal by New Year’s Day, though there is no technical deadline. Continue reading “Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal”
A third term for President Obama? Impossible you say. Unconstitutional you say. True. The 22nd Amendment says, “No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.” In 1947 FDR had just been elected to an unprecedented fourth term. After twelve years in office, political cronyism was so deeply ingrained in public law and philosophy that Congress called a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of proposing the 22nd Amendment; subsequently ratified by three-fourths of the states and enacted into law. Continue reading “Is Obama Planning a Third Term as President & Is Congress Able to Stop Him?”
They are the real life fox and hound, their touching relationship proving that friendship can survive despite background and social pressure, or in the case of these two, natural instincts.
Every President, every politician, and every human being tells lies and engages in acts of hypocrisy. But Barack Obama does these things to a far greater degree than anyone else that I have ever known of. His campaign promises were so much better sounding than anyone else’s – no lobbyists in his administration, waiting five days before signing all non-emergency bills so people would have time to read them, putting health care negotiations on C-SPAN, reading every bill line by line to make sure money isn’t being wasted, prosecution of Wall St. criminals, ending raids against medical marijuana in states where it’s legal, high levels of transparency. Obama’s promises of these wonderful things sounded inspiring and sincere. They sounded so much better than the promises of any other President. So when Obama broke these promises, it felt so much worse than when other Presidents broke their promises. Continue reading “Obama supporters will go hysterical over this well sourced list of 462 examples of his lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc.”
The last of the Halloween candy has been eaten. The harvest moon is a radiant memory. The family festival of Thanksgiving has drawn us closer together. All of these warm seasonal memories can mean only one thing: It’s time for the Christmas haters to shift into high gear.
Who are the Christmas haters? Well, if we are to draw a conclusion from the hundreds of heartfelt and articulate commentaries currently on display on the Internet, they fall loosely into these self-identified groups: Jews, atheists, secular humanists and pagans. Continue reading “Trashing Christmas”
North Korea announced on Monday the dismissal of Jang Song Thaek, the once powerful uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, for what it described as a string of criminal acts including corruption, womanising and drug-taking.