How Secession Can Happen In The US

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No, this isn’t a novel. Sorry, the Ticker doesn’t do fiction, and especially not apocalyptic fiction.
I’m talking about reality here, in the wake of the failed Scottish vote.
Reuters reports:
(Reuters) – The failed Scottish vote to pull out from the United Kingdom stirred secessionist hopes for some in the United States, where almost a quarter of people are open to their states leaving the union, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
There’s no such thing as a “hope” when it comes to this. You either believe it would be good or you believe it would be bad.
Washington is likely to ignore those who think it would be good. But they should do something about it instead — although I’m quite sure they won’t. Indeed, not only won’t they do anything about it but neither will those political entities, such as the Libertarians, that could capitalize on this.
Let me note that a quarter of the electorate is radically beyond any vote count that the Libertarians have ever collected, yet they’re too idiotic to look at the economics of the matter and focus there.
Know where I’m going yet with this? Right here:
Today’s Census Bureau report on health insurance in 2013 shows that on the eve of Obamacare, whether you had coverage was largely a question of how much money you made….
….
But the chart above is still one of the best possible arguments for the necessity of Obamacare, by demonstrating that the government programs preceding the law are too narrow to cover the poor. It shows that even with the existence of Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and other assistance, health coverage in the U. S. remains a luxury good — one that the rich can afford but others struggle, in proportion to their income, to obtain.
Health “coverage” is a luxury good. It should be — and it should be an unnecessary purchase.
It is, by the way, exactly that the day after we enforce long-standing laws that are supposed to bear on the behavior in the medical marketplace, both by addressing the existing violators and removing the special protections that make much of what they do legal despite blanket laws that are supposed to make that conduct illegal everywhere in the United States.

This post was published at Market-Ticker on 2014-09-19.

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Escape Obamacare in One Bold Move

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In today’s episode, we feature a story from reader David F…
David wrote in last week.
His story crisscrosses so many themes we’ll cover in your episodes to come, we decided to publish it.
David’s story is also a perfect example of what happens when you seek solutions rather than dwelling on the problem at hand.
We hope you’re as inspired by it as we are…
‘My wife and I recently moved to Ecuador as a way of retiring early and escaping the ill-named ‘Affordable Care Act,’ before that convoluted health care system killed my wife.
‘We made the move last year and can’t believe the difference it has made in the quality of both of our lives.
‘The cost of living is very low, and we can actually afford to do the many things we’ve talked about during our previous life of 60-70-hour work-weeks.’
Why Ecuador, you ask?
The story begins when David’s wife, Barbara, was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney disease while they were still living in the States.
The diagnosis itself, as you can imagine, is enough to turn a life upside down.
But, on top of it all, David and Barbara were also hit with the stress of hefty bills and ‘the literal merry-go-round circus the medical community put my wife through,’ David told us.

This post was published at Laissez Faire on SEP 19, 2014.

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“Surprising” MH17 Crash Update

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The title of this article, “Surprising” MH17 Crash Update, is accurate only in the sense the average sheep believes the average mainstream media report.
Since that is the majority, the title is accurate. Mish readers, however, may find this report not surprising.
Reader Marina from Toronto explains via email ….
Hello Mish,
My name is Marina. I am a long-time fan of your blog and a friend of Nicole Foss at Automatic Earth.
I am also a volunteer translator for The Vineyard Saker website. Our team has just translated a very important report on the MH17 crash released by the Russian Union of Engineers.

This post was published at Global Economic Analysis on September 19, 2014.

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Congress brings Atlas Shrugged to America with this new bill

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September 15, 2014 Santiago, Chile
It was known as Directive 10-289, and it was the government’s last-ditch, desperate effort to control the collapsing economy.
The President, along with some of his senior advisors at the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources, all widely agreed that the only way out of the crisis was expand government power.
The directive was passed quickly, and among its key provisions:
‘Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment. . .’
‘Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business. . .’

This post was published at Sovereign Man on September 19, 2014.

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Prof. Flynt Leverett Dissects Obama’s ‘Insane’ Commitment to Never-Ending Middle East War

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Penn State University Professor and RPI Academic Board Member Flynt Leverett, as a panel discussion guest this week on CrossTalk on RT, dissectedUnited States President Barack Obama’s ‘insane’ commitment to ‘never-ending war in the Middle East.’ Leverett also addresses the US government’s arming and training of what he calls the ‘mythical’ moderate Syria insurgents. Leverett ominously concludes that US foreign policy has ‘helped in a big way to create’ the ISIS problem and that now the US government is moving forward ‘with pseudo-solutions that are only going to make the problem worse.’ For example, Leverett warns that further arming so-called moderate Syria insurgents will create more channels through which ISIS will obtain US and other weapons – just as such aid has done since the big US push to overthrow the Syria government began. Early in the discussion, Leverett places Obama’s Middle East policy in the context of the ‘strategically disastrous’ war on terror begun in the George W. Bush Administration:

This post was published at Ron Paul Institute on September 19, 2014.

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Scotland Will Stay In: The Betting Sites Were Right

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Once again, the betting sites had it right. The public opinion polls had it wrong.
The polls predicted a dead heat: too close to call. But it was easy to call, and the betting sites called it. The ‘no’votes smashed the ‘yes’ votes, 56% to 44%. It was not even close. The betting sites had been 80-20 in favor of ‘no.’ They had it right.
I figured the betting sites were right, and the polls were wrong. That’s why I went public and said Scotland would stay in the UK. I always stick with the betting sites. I ignore the polls if the betting sites are covering an event.
I knew Obama would win in 2012, and I said so repeatedly. I also said the House would stay Republican, and the Senate would remain Democrat. So accurate was InTrade on the Electoral College that it got 49 of the 50 states right.
Romney thought he would win. He did not trust InTrade and all the other betting sites. They all predicted Obama’s victory.
It’s a shame that InTrade went out of business. We were never told why…

This post was published at Tea Party Economist on September 19, 2014.

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‘YES’ SUPPORTERS CLAIM VIDEOS SHOW SCOTTISH REFERENDUM WAS RIGGED

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Despite a ten per cent margin of victory for the ‘No’ campaign in the Scottish referendum, some supporters of the ‘Yes’ camp are pointing to videos which they claim show evidence of vote rigging.

Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom after voters rejected independence by a margin of 55% to 45%. The pro-independence campaign claimed 1,617,989 votes but was defeated by the ‘Better Together’ campaign which obtained 2,001,926 votes. The turnout was 84.5%.
However, almost as soon as the vote count began last night, some were pointing to alleged examples of tampering.


This post was published at Info Wars on SEPTEMBER 19, 2014.

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Medical martial law declared in Sierra Leone; Ebola victims hunted like fugitives in house-to-house searches

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(NaturalNews) EBOLA ALERT: Medical martial law has now been declared in Sierra Leone while the government conducts a house-to-house hunt for Ebola victims who are being treated like “medical fugitives.”“Sierra Leone ordered its 6 million people confined to their homes for three days starting Friday,” declared the Associated Press today. [1]The outlandish cover story for this medical quarantine operation that will invade the homes of private citizens in an Ebola victim fugitive hunt is that volunteers will be handing out bars of soap. As the AP reports:…volunteers will try to identify sick people reluctant or unable to seek treatment. They will also hand out 1.5 million bars of soap…

This post was published at Natural News on Friday, September 19, 2014.

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Spanish Bond Risk Rises As Catalan Referendum “Dialog” Heats Up

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Early kneejerk exuberance in Cable and European bond risk is rapidly unwinding as the reality of a revolting youth raise concerns over social stability. Nowhere is that more evident than in Spain this morning as pro-Catalan independence supporters push the government for a referendum on their secession in November:
*CATALANS SAYING LOUDLY BUT GENTLY THEY WANT TO DECIDE: MAS *SPAIN GOVT OPEN TO DIALOG, HAS TO COMPLY WITH LAW: SAENZ *REFERENDUMS ARE NOT POSSIBLE IN SPANISH LAW, DEPUTY PM SAYS Catalan President Artur Mas says it is a mistake to think the Scottish “No” votes casts a shadow over Catalonia and is threatening Rajoy if he blocks the vote. Spanish bond risk is up 12bps off the lows of the day.
As Bloomberg notes,
*MAS SAYS SCOTS-STYLE REFERENDA ONLY WAY TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS *MAS SAYS CATALONIA PUSHING ON WITH INDEPENDENCE VOTE *MAS SAYS MISTAKE TO THINK SCOTS NO CASTS SHADOW OVER CATALONIA *MAS SAYS BLOCKING VOTES CREATES DIVISIONS *MAS SAYS RAJOY IS FUELING CATALANS’ AVERSION TO SPANISH STATE *MAS SAYS HE’LL CALL MEETING OF ALLIES IF RAJOY BLOCKS VOTE *MAS SAYS RAJOY CAN’T HOLD BACK CATALANS JUST WITH LAW

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/19/2014.

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Ebola Health Workers and Journalists Murdered In Guinea

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The BBC is reporting this morning that nine members of a team trying to raise awareness of Ebola have been murdered in Guinea. Some of the bodies were dumped in a septic tank on school grounds in the village of Nzerekore.
From the BBC:
The team disappeared after being pelted with stones by residents when they arrived in the village of Wome – in southern Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first recorded.
A journalist who managed to escape told reporters that she could hear villagers looking for them while she was hiding.
A government delegation, led by the health minister, had been dispatched to the region but they were unable to reach the village by road because a main bridge had been blocked.

This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on September 19th, 2014.

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Lesson of the Day: The Political Class Always Wins

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With a ramp up in fearmongering led by financial institutions and every UK political party, the preliminary votes indicate Scottish Anti-Independence Campaign Poised for Victory in Vote.
With 26 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities declared, the Better Together camp backed by Prime Minister David Cameron and the main U. K. parties had garnered 54 percent of the vote, while the ‘yes’ campaign led by Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond had 46 percent.
‘It does look like we have secured a ‘no’ vote,’ Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat and the most senior Scot in the U. K. government, told Sky News as the first results trickled in. ‘But a ‘no’ vote is also for change, it’s our responsibility to get on with that.’

This post was published at Global Economic Analysis on Thursday, September 18, 2014.

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Scotland Rejects Independence From Britain in a Close Vote

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Voters in Scotland rejected independence from Britain in a referendum that had threatened to break up a 307-year union, according to projections by the BBC and Sky early Friday.
The outcome was a deep disappointment to the vocal, enthusiastic pro-independence movement led by the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, who had seen an opportunity to turn a centuries-old nationalist dream into reality, and forced the three main British parties into panicked promises to grant substantial new power to the Scottish Parliament.
The decision spared Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain a shattering defeat that would have raised questions about his ability to continue in office and diminished his nation’s standing in the world.

This post was published at NY Times

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ISIS Update, Ukraine Wants Weapons and Money, the Feds Zero Interest Rate Policy Continues

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The following video was published by Greg Hunter on Sep 18, 2014
ISIS update, Ukraine wants weapons and money. Plus the Feds zero interest rate policy continues indefinitely. I truly don’t think a single general and many in Congress think President Obama’s plan to arm rebels and bomb in Iraq and Syria will work. Everybody says we will have to use ground troops if we are serious. We could have bombed ISIS months ago and didn’t, even though the Iraqi government was begging Obama to do so. It probably would have been much more effective back then. Why the delay? Why do we continue to let ISIS sell oil and make millions every day? Why don’t we sanction or bomb that? Both the House and the Senate agreed to arm the moderate rebels in Syria. Haven’t we already tried this?
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, is in Washington asking for money, and he’s getting it. The U. S. is chipping in more than $1 billion in various aid packages. The IMF is approving billions in future loans. Poroshenko also wants weapons and, so far, he’s not getting them, at least, that is the story coming out of the White House.
Finally, the Fed made a decision to continue the zero interest rate and easy money policies with no expiration date. If things were really recovering, wouldn’t the Fed be jacking up interest rates and trying to normalize? Of course, and that means the easy money policies are your tip-off that there is no real recovery.

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Obama says Ebola a threat to national security, but still won’t secure the U.S. southern border

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(NaturalNews) The worsening Ebola outbreak in West Africa has become so much of a U. S. national security issue that President Obama has ordered as many as 3,000 U. S. troops and personnel there to help deal with the crisis. But for some reason, the president doesn’t seem concerned enough about the spread of a virus with a 70-90 percent fatality rate to better secure the porous U. S.-Mexico border, through which hundreds of thousands of immigrants — many of them children — have streamed across for over a year. Obama’s actions come on the heels of an American doctor who contracted, but survived, the disease. The physician, Dr. Kent Brantly, told senators this week that there was no time to waste in combating the epidemic.“We can’t afford to wait months, or even weeks, to take action, to put people on the ground,” Brantly said, according to The Associated Press (AP). In announcing his recent actions, Obama pronounced the Ebola outbreak a crisis as well as a threat to global (and U. S. national) security. His plan to send U. S. military personnel to West Africa includes “an aggressive effort” to train healthcare personnel and erect field hospitals, AP reported. In all, the effort could wind up costing U. S. taxpayers in excess of $1 billion — but not one dime of that would shore up security along the U. S.-Mexico border.

This post was published at Natural News on Friday, September 19, 2014.

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New Zealand: The Other Internet Election

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Kim Dotcom, Online Renegade, Shakes Up New Zealand Election … It was not an ordinary political rally, but it has been anything but an ordinary election. The hundreds of people who packed Auckland Town Hall on a recent evening were regaled by speeches by Glenn Greenwald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder; and Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, the last two appearing by Internet video link. At the center of the show was the event’s organizer, Kim Dotcom, an Internet entrepreneur accused of mass copyright theft whose fledgling Internet Party stands a chance at winning seats in Parliament in the national elections on Saturday. – The New York Times
Dominant Social Theme: Put this renegade on trial, not at the head of a political party.
Free-Market Analysis: Yesterday we commented on the Scottish election and how Scotland’s referendum on leaving Britain was important because of its larger implications.
In this Internet era, elite control is continually waning. While, as we’ve discussed in the past, there may be a number of global strategic considerations that elevated the Scottish referendum, in the end those who are convinced of their innate “right to rule” may have guessed wrong.
Whether Scotland goes or stays (and at deadline the vote hadn’t concluded), the issues that the referendum has raised will remain relevant and discussion about them will only grow. That wasn’t supposed to be the result, and yet it is.
This is true in New Zealand, where the US government has been attempting to extradite Mega’s Kim Dotcom on copyright racketeering charges. The idea was that his now defunct Megaupload file-sharing firm encouraged illegal downloads.
Dotcom’s expensive home in New Zealand was raided (illegally) with the help of the FBI and the US has been trying to pry him loose from New Zealand ever since.

This post was published at The Daily Bell on September 19, 2014.

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Scottish “No” Vote Pushes S&P To New Record High; Cable, Yen Roundtrip On Quad-Witching Alibaba Day

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So much for any Scottish referendum vote “surprise”: the people came, they voted, and they decided to stay in the 307-year-old union by a far wider margin, some 55% to 45%, than most polls had forecast, even as 3.6 million votes, a record 85% turnout, expressed their opinion. The gloating began shortly thereafter, first and foremost by David Cameron who said “There can be no disputes, no re-runs, we have heard the settled will of the Scottish people.” Queen Elizabeth II, who is at her Scottish castle in Balmoral, is expected to make a rare comment on Friday.
The loser was graceful: speaking in front of an image of a giant white on blue Scottish flag, nationalist leader Alex Salmond conceded defeat in Edinburgh. Salmond laced his admission of defeat with a warning to British politicians in London that they must respect their last minute promise of more powers for Scotland. “Scotland has by a majority decided not, at this stage, to become an independent country. I accept that verdict of the people and I call on all of Scotland to follow suit in accepting the democratic verdict of the people of Scotland,” Salmond said.
Despite its loss, the Yes movement will be seen as a victory for the Scots. From Reuters:
Opinion polls showing a surge in Scottish separatist support in the two weeks leading up to the Sept. 18 vote prompted a rushed British pledge to grant more powers to Scotland, a step that has angered some English lawmakers in Westminster. In an effort to deflate that anger, Cameron vowed to forge a new constitutional settlement that would grant Scotland the promised powers but also give greater control to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Just as Scotland will vote separately in the Scottish parliament on their issues of tax, spending and welfare, so too England, as well as Wales and Northern Ireland should be able to vote on these issues,” Cameron said.
“All this must take place, in tandem with and at the same pace as the settlement for Scotland.”
Cast as a constitutional revolution, commentators said Cameron’s pledge of more powers to the constituent parts of the United Kingdom was aimed at sedating ‘the slumbering beast of English nationalism’.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/19/2014.

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50 Facts That Show How Far America Has Fallen In This Generation

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What has happened to America? Please show these numbers to anyone that does not believe that the United States is in decline. It is time for all of us to humble ourselves and face the reality of what has happened to our once great nation. For those of us that love America, it is heartbreaking to watch the foundations of our society rot and decay in thousands of different ways. The following are 50 facts that show how far America has fallen in this generation, but the truth is that this list could have been far, far longer…
#1 According to a survey that was just conducted, only 36 percent of all Americans can name the three branches of government.
#2 Only 25 percent of all Americans know how long U. S. Senators are elected for (6 years), and only 20 percent of all Americans know how many U. S. senators there are.
#3 Even if you include same-sex couples in the numbers, the marriage rate in the United States is at a 93 year low.
#4 For the first time ever, single Americans make up more than half the U. S. population.
#5 31.1 percent of American young adults in the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket are currently living with their parents.
#6 One out of every ten teen girls in America engages in ‘self-harm’. Cutting and burning are the most common forms that this ‘self-harm’ takes.

This post was published at End Of The American Dream on September 18th, 2014.

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IRS Thumbs Its Nose at Congress, Which Is Impotent

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Congress is impotent. The IRS is revealing this as never before. It is saying, loud and clear, that Congress cannot do anything to Lois Lehrner or any other IRS employee. Sorry; no emails. They went bye-bye into cyberspace. There are no digits. There is no smoking gun.
But what about the NSA? Doesn’t the NSA track everything? Store everything?
The NSA shares nothing with Congress. But Congress still comes up with its $45 billion a year budget.
How do we know this? Snowden put it on his thumb drive. He made back-ups.
The IRS didn’t.
What can Congress do about Snowden? Nothing.
What does it do with the NSA? Funds it.
What does it do about the giggling IRS? Funds it.
We read this:

This post was published at Tea Party Economist on September 18, 2014.

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Report: Terrorists Captured At Mexico Border… But Homeland Security Denies Any ‘Credible Threats’

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A report from Joe Biggs in early September indicated that a terror threat had been identified on the Southern U. S. border just outside of El Paso, TX. According to Biggs, the Vice President of the Border Patrol Council was reportedly silenced by Federal administrators and told to keep quiet about the possibility of Islamic State militants organizing for an attack within the domestic United States.
For their part, the Obama Administration completely denied the reports. On Tuesday DHS issued the following statement:
‘There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border’
But less than 48 hours later the Gateway Pundit reports that the U. S. government did, in fact, apprehend four suspected terrorists with ties to the IS organization on the border.


This post was published at shtfplan on September 18th, 2014.

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