Dec 03
The USA Today is out with an article on the fading and failing infrastructure of socialist Havana, Cuba.
Dozens of large buildings in downtown Havana simply fall apart and collapse each year.
“Causes range from weather and neglect to faulty renovations and theft of structural beams.”
What about ‘code enforcement’? Government inspections? Government control and licensing of engineers?
Cuba has more than almost any society on earth.
Dec 02
The Drudge Report, which offers a balanced listing of headline links, is one of the world’s most-visited websites. Drudge Report frequently links to information and news which are not government approved.
For several years, government trusters have sought to undermine the impact of the Drudge Report by promoting more pro-government alternatives such as the Huffington Post. Untold millions have been dumped into building up Huffington Post as a Drudge alternative.
Today’s Drudge Report linked to a Wall Street Journal article reporting that the pro-government Huffington Post may soon require a paywall to survive.
Dec 02
Thousands of French citizens have taken to the streets wearing high-visibility yellow jackets to protest the government’s burdensome fuel taxes. Diesel and gasoline taxes have increased by more than 20 percent in recent months and the government expects to further increase tax burdens on the population.
Just as with the government of Australia, the government of France has imposed a variety of oppressive laws supposedly designed to empower government to stem manmade-global-warming-by-CO2.
Polls show 84 % of French people support the “yellow vest” protest movement.
78 % say the “climate change” reforms of President Macron will accomplish nothing at all toward the environment.
75% say the fuel tax harms the poor the most.
Hundreds have been arrested. Two have died during the past two weeks of traffic-stopping protests.
Source: Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting for Le Figaro daily and France Info radio
Dec 01
Nothing illustrates the failure of government like the recent wildfire casualties in northern California.
Residents fled helplessly while overpaid government bureaucrats failed–or refused–to protect their lives and property.
Meanwhile some very wealthy individuals paid for private fire protection.
Now The Hollywood Reporter is out with an interesting article about the allure of gated communities.
More and more housing developments are opting for gated access–with private patrol, security and fire protection.
While many ultra-rich are seeking the protection of gated communities, even poor people are able to afford various levels of private fire and security protection if they look hard enough.
Nov 30
Greeting cards tend to have a distinctive size and shape. More than one U.S. Postal worker has been recently caught stealing cash from them. See here.
This is despite the fact that U.S. Postal workers are paid at least twice what they would make in the private sector for the same work.
Nov 29
The company’s own legal division is not allowed to know about or criticize the operation.
The Intercept is out with a stunning report on Google’s efforts to help the Chinese government build a pro-government, censored, internet.
* Google has contracted with Chinese companies (and the Chinese government) to build a huge new pro-government version of the internet.
* Google is building the pro-government “dragonfly” internet in secret–even from the company’s own workers. Only a tiny percentage of Google’s employees are allowed to know any details about it.
*Google engineers who criticized the operation were immediately removed and placed in other divisions of the corporation.
* Records of peoples’ searches are immediately available to the government. This allows the government to find and arrest or kill anyone who searches forbidden topics.
* All searches are linked to the searcher’s personal phone number and location at all times.
* Normally, all new Google products or operations must be cleared with the company’s legal division. This company rule supposedly prevents Google from getting into legal trouble. However, the Dragonfly search engine is being built without the legal division’s approval (or knowledge).
Nov 23
The relentless temp data analyst Tony Heller has tracked claims that the Arctic is melting for years.
As the “mainstream” (meaning pro-government) news media has amped up claims that manmade global warming is melting ice in the Arctic away to nothing, Heller has repeatedly published satellite data showing the contrary.
Ice in the Arctic declined for a time during the years 2000 to about 2011 or 2012. But, according to Heller, ice in the Arctic is now at around the mean for the years 1981 – 2000.
“The scam is on its last legs,” according to Heller.
Nov 23
An astounding story from Ottowa, Canada.
Concern that “mainstream” (code for government-supporting) newspapers are dying has led Canadian officials to propose efforts to support the government-stenographer news media.
With the explosion of more truthful and critical alternatives, consumers will no longer pay to read pro-government propaganda.
The proposal will give Canadians a 15 percent tax credit for subscribing to online pro-government “news” institutions. Government agencies will decide which media outlets are deserving of government support. See here
Nov 11
The All-Seeing Eye of the State
French tax authorities now are using a powerful new tool to identify “tax cheats”: Facebook and other social media.
Government agents scour through people’s social posts to see if people are using cars, meals, or housing which appear to be ‘outside their means.’ See here.
Nov 11
The Omnipotent State Strikes Again
New York City’s government imposes so many taxes and regulations on short-term lodging entrepreneurs that the City recently sent dozens of armed agents to raid a condo complex.
The accusation? That several of the condo owners were making a few bucks by lending out their condos to NYC tourists. See here.
The City recently imposed an ordinance requiring short-term-rental providers and networks such as Airbnb to notify the government of all rental transactions in the City. Government investigators also employ teams of investigators to monitor social media to identify black-market renting.
