America's Robber Barons Return

U.S. politicians and public servants once lectured the world that a thriving democracy needed a rising middle class.  Now they only need make twenty phone calls to hear the opinions of people with over 50% of our nation's wealth. 

Ari Cheers Hillary's Snowden Attack

Ari Fleischer's Freedom Switch continued from the private sector.  The Intercept reported:

Hillary Clinton asserted at Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden “stole very important information that has unfortunately fallen into a lot of the wrong hands.”

She seemed to be darkly intimating that the information Snowden gave to journalists in Hong Kong before he was granted asylum in Moscow also ended up with the Chinese and/or Russian governments.

But that conclusion is entirely unsupported by the evidence; it’s a political smear that even the most alarmist Obama administration intelligence officials have not asserted as fact.

As Snowden has repeatedly explained, after turning over copies of the heavily encrypted files to reporters, he destroyed his own before he left Hong Kong.

Fleischer applauded Hillary's performance at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.  The attack on individual rights is fully bipartisan.  Those who dare to get in the way will be attacked.  Hegemonic powers can assert without challenge.  Evidence, who needs it?

Update 4-1-17:  I awoke on April Fool's Day to learn the CIA can disguise its computer hacking as coming from America's political enemies, Russia, China, Iran and/or North Korea.

Freedom's Switch Hits Rail

Journal Media Group reported:

Railroads may have found a new weapon in their fight to keep information about oil train shipments from the public: a federal rule that was supposed to increase transparency.

The final rule ends the existing disclosure requirements next March. Railroads no longer would be required to provide information to the states, leaving emergency responders to request details about oil train shipments on their own, and the public would be shut out entirely.

 

The switch floored those who submitted comments in favor of increased transparency.

Floored yet again by the Obama administration's words vs. actions.

Washington Times reported:

The Pentagon’s new thick book of instructions for waging war the legal way says that terrorists also can be journalists.

The Freedom Switch is nearly complete.  Just need global businesses to have private arbitration panels to supersede U.S. law and ensure their perpetual prosperity.

Former Public Servants Simultaneously Press for TPP

What are the odds that fourteen former chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (Naked Capitalism) and eight former Agriculture Secretaries (National Hog Farmer) would sign letters supporting the act that will pave the way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

What does the public's know about these agreements?  Very little.  We have no right to know.  I take it the twenty two letter signers got access to these highly restricted documents, which are kept secret from the general public.  Otherwise, they recommended something of which they are ignorant.

New Zealanders recognize when politicians are blowing smoke on an issue.  Today they protested the TransPacific Partnership in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Trade has good and bad consequences.  Our leaders want to keep the public in the dark.

Candidate Obama on Trade Agreements

Contrast this with his administration's pushing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Leaked copies of the deal give corporations preferred legal channels that bypass our judicial system.

U.S. corporate money is now political speech and corporate trade beefs may soon be above the law. Obama had six years to act on his NAFTA concerns. He's violating those very concerns in his administration's handling of TPP negotiations. I would call it irony but it's more like political chicanery.  Obama will be handsomely rewarded for his service to the Billionaire Boys.

Police State Eliminates Basic Legal Protection

Findlaw reported the arrest of a public defender trying to represent their client:

"This is not Guantanamo Bay. You have an absolute right to have a lawyer with you when you're questioned."

It's the freedom switch and it's dimming daily.

Parent Obama's Fist

President Obama will not stand for justice or truth.  Those who reveal illegal activities conducted by the federal government must be punished.  Here are two theories.  One, such actions prompt the President's parental rage.  Such actions must be smashed by the full force of government power:

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Obama's fist is never used on his friends, however crass, corrupt and deceitful.

“’If the president’s hair is on fire,’ he retorted, ‘I want to know who the f**k set his hair on fire.”

In theory one. Obama has his own lighter.  The second possibility is Obama is aloof and disconnected.  The rage comes from those below him, like Dennis Blair, John Brennan, former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Occam's Razor suggests the simplest answer is usually is the best.  Therefore, the federal government's retaliatory impulse is led by fist bumping Obama.  He appointed his side show of power freaks.