Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The NSA’s two new spying facilities storing your data is SEVEN TIMES the size of the Pentagon
The NSA is now building a facility that will make it more than seven times the size of the Pentagon, making the secretive compounds the biggest in the country.
In addition to building a $1.9billion data center in Utah, crews also started construction on a computing center that is expected to cost $792million near Baltimore.
Together, the two facilities total 228 acres, much of which is dedicated to the collection of emails and phone calls that it was recently revealed the NSA stores without an individual knowledge.
Much attention has been paid to the secretive practices of the NSA since consultant Edward Snowden leaked classified documents proving that the intelligence agency had free reign to the electronic footprint of people, both in and out of the country, who used certain phone carriers.
NSA official Harvey Davis told Defense One that the Utah facility is ‘only brick and mortar’ but they need the space because ‘it’s required to be big’ as a result of their growing surveillance.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Chris Christie decries libertarians, praises Obama for being like Bush
Speaking at the Aspen Institute (to a gathering of establishment figures within the Republican party) Chris Christie praised president Obama for being like Bush and attacked Rand Paul and the ‘strain of libertarianism’ rising in both parties. Governor Bobby Jindal, Mike Pence and Scott Walker all echoed his concerns.
Sen. Paul’s staff fired back, “If Governor Christie believes the constitutional rights and the privacy of all Americans is ‘esoteric,’ he either needs a new dictionary or he needs to talk to more Americans, because a great number of them are concerned about the dramatic overreach of our government in recent years…”
Feds Seize $841,883 from Used Car Dealer Accused of—Well, Nothing
Reza Ella, an Iranian-American who owns a car dealership in Albuquerque, New Mexico, may or may not be a criminal. Federal prosecutors don’t know or won’t say. But last September, they seized $841,883 from Ella anyway because the man deposited it in increments of less than $10,000.
Anyone depositing more than $10,000 in the bank has to file a report with the Department of the Treasury—because terrorism/drugs. Making deposits of less than $10,000 so as to avoid filing said reports—called “structuring”—is illegal and can trigger asset forfeiture whether or not there is any underlying criminal activity.
Monday, July 22, 2013
‘How Money Walks’: Map Shows Cash Fleeing States With high Taxes
Capital will always seek and find friendly abodes and capital flight is happening in America and globally. High tax states and nations are witnessing huge drains on capital. Without capital, economies go bust and the people become impoverished while capital friendly places are experiencing economic stability and growth.
The Liberty Crier reports:
Have you noticed more Californians coming to New Mexico?
Judging from a study of wealth migration, it’s not just a feeling you may have — it’s true.
A fascinating map showing the amount of money flowing from state to state called “How Money Walks” shows that $950.09 million in wealth moved from California to New Mexico in the span of 15 years.
And while New Mexico’s economy has been sluggish, according to the map’s figures, more money has come into the state from other states than has come out.
The map’s author, Travis H. Brown, tracked the millions of people in the U.S. who moved from state to state, taking with them more than $2 trillion in adjusted gross income. Brown says Americans are fleeing high-tax states and moving to states that offer lower taxes.
The big losers? New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Case for Abolishing the DHS
On Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano resigned to take up a post running California’s university system. With her departure, there are now 15 vacant positions at the top of the department. That suggests it would be a particularly humane moment to shut the whole thing down. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was a panicked reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks. It owes its continued existence to a vastly exaggerated assessment of the threat of terrorism. The department is also responsible for some of the least cost-effective spending in the U.S. government. It’s time to admit that creating it was a mistake.
In 2002 the George W. Bush administration presented a budget request for massively increased spending on homeland security, at that point coordinated out of the Office of Homeland Security. “A new wave of terrorism, involving new weapons, looms in America’s future,” the White House said. “It is a challenge unlike any ever faced by our nation.” In proposing a new cabinet-level agency, Bush said, “The changing nature of the threats facing America requires a new government structure to protect against invisible enemies that can strike with a wide variety of weapons.” Because of “experience gained since Sept. 11 and new information we have learned about our enemies while fighting a war,” the president concluded that “our nation needs a more unified homeland security structure.”
More than a decade later, it’s increasingly clear that the danger to Americans posed by terrorism remains smaller than that of myriad other threats, from infectious disease to gun violence to drunk driving.