Five important stories we’re paying attention to

Guest Post by Simon Black

Last week we started a new feature in Notes from the Field– a Friday roll-up of bizarre, often overlooked stories that my team and I think are worth following with great interest.

Based on the positive feedback we received from last week’s article, we thought we’d continue the trend. So here are a few important stories that we’re paying close attention to:

The City of Chicago Paid $113 million in police misconduct cases last year

Call me crazy, but this strikes me as a LOT of money to pay in settlements over police misconduct, which includes things like excessive force, brutality, etc.

In 2017 the Chicago police paid around $60 million in settlements… so the 2018 total of $113 million was almost DOUBLE that figure, nearly 100% growth in a single year.

What’s more– over the past decade, Chicago has paid out an average of one police misconduct lawsuit every two days.

That’s unbelievable. But perhaps the most unbelievable part is that the bill for these misconduct settlements are paid for by– you guessed it– the taxpayers.

And the first country to create a national DNA database is . . .

Rwanda — the African nation known for the 1994 genocide which killed up to a million members of a minority group — could become the first country to implement a national DNA database.

The proposal would require all 12 million citizens to submit DNA that will be stored by the government. The purpose is to crack down on rampant crime.

But the clear potential for abuse should be obvious… and sets an ominous standard for the rest of the world.

Amazon fever spreads as another business pulls out of NYC

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin was already getting publicly roasted over buying the most expensive apartment in NYC history for $238 million.

Just like the Amazon headquarters that had been planned for New York City, you would think residents would be happy to have that kind of capital injected into their economy. His property taxes alone would amount to millions of dollars each year.

On top of buying the most expensive apartment in New York, Griffin was also planning to move the headquarters of his $29 billion hedge fund to the Big Apple.

But protests over a tax break for Amazon (which led the e-commerce giant to pull out of its planned New York HQ2) are causing Ken Griffin to rethink those plans, citing what he calls “the current climate”.

No doubt this will be celebrated as another victory by the anti-capitalists.

US State Department denying visas to people investigating US war crimes

This one is really bizarre: the US State Department has revoked and will deny new visas to anyone involved in the International Criminal Court investigations of US war crimes in Afghanistan.

You read that correctly: the ICC is conducting a probe into allegations of war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan. But rather than cooperating with the investigation and being transparent about the proceedings, the government is trying to prevent them from entering the country.

Federal Reserve rejects a bank for being too safe

As a banker, this one has me totally perplexed.

There’s a new bank in the United States called “TNB USA”. Its business model is simple: park 100% of its customers’ funds in the Federal Reserve. They won’t make loans, they won’t gamble away their customers’ savings on the latest investment fad.

Yet when TNB applied for a master account at the Federal Reserve, they were REJECTED because the Fed thinks the business model is too risky.

That’s right. According to the Fed, NOT taking any chances with your customers’ savings is risky. Unreal. We’ll definitely be talking more about this one next week.

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10 Comments
Anonymous
Anonymous
March 23, 2019 4:23 pm

“This one is really bizarre: the US State Department has revoked and will deny new visas to anyone involved in the International Criminal Court investigations of US war crimes in Afghanistan.”

whoever wrote the above is beyond stupid. the us state dept. is finally acting in the interests of the country. screw off with this hippie dippie schitt, burning platform.

e.d ott
e.d ott
  Anonymous
March 23, 2019 5:53 pm

I spent sometime in Bosnia after the Dayton Peace Accords working with the US SFOR and NATO IFOR teams. It was a big eye-opener seeing how multiculturalism in Europe really works. One of the contingents everyone loved to hate was the UNHCR. Many of us were under the impression the bombs and foreign aid was being served up to the wrong people.
If the situation was turned around and the crisis had happened in America there’s no doubt foreigners would be rounding up Americans for war crimes based on EU idealism.
Think about it.

Donkey Balls
Donkey Balls
  Anonymous
March 23, 2019 6:05 pm

Anonymous, you don’t want the government to answer for war crimes? I guess you’re all for the Patriot Act, the NDAA and black sites too?

Donkey Balls
Donkey Balls
March 23, 2019 6:00 pm

It’s anti capitalist to oppose a tax break for large corporations? Another win for big companies that small companies don’t get but we call that capitalism?

Hmm, that’s weird.

Wow, the federal reserve is against a new bank doing things a safer way? Hmm, that’s weird. Maybe it’s not weird?

KaD
KaD
March 23, 2019 8:48 pm

Sending a muslim to college is like throwing pearls before swine.

Muslim student STABS PROFESSOR TO DEATH over “un-Islamic” “welcome party” at the college

Donkey Balls
Donkey Balls
  KaD
March 23, 2019 9:07 pm

KaD,

That made me laugh. Too funny. I hope the professor is a Trump hating liberal.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
March 23, 2019 10:42 pm

Just some quick thoughts – a page could easily be written about each of them

Chicago – not only are citizens STOLEN FROM to support the government’s army of occupation and their salaries, but because of “sovereign immunity” clauses in contracts, etc. the citizens end up on the hook for more millions after these freedom-hating, uniformed donut eaters kill, maim, and otherwise violate innocent citizens. The government monopoly on “justice” needs to end if freedom is ever to be restored.

DNA – once data was able to be computerized and analyzed at the drop of a hat, nobody was ever to be safe, especially from government. The technology has existed for well over a decade, to use the building blocks of DNA, automated equipment, and stored DNA “code” from an individual, to “recreate” any or all the DNA of the individual you wish. This can then be conveniently placed at any crime scene, murder scene, etc. to easily bring down an opponent in such a way that the citizenry applauds the application of “justice” and “fairness.” The DNA harvesting going on in the US by uniformed goons everywhere, is all part of that same problem – but Ancestry DNA, 23 and Me, and all the rest, are simply back doors for the criminal government to get all the DNA they want and need.

Corporate Welfare and NYC – The schizophrenia of our society is beyond belief. Unemployment is corrected by employment. Stealing from one group to hand to another is immoral. Government is force, violence, and theft. There is simply not enough money in the hands of every person in America, nor enough wealth produced by every citizen and company in America, to achieve the lofty “utopian” goals of the Progressives, the liberals, and the “greens.” Mises focused on “Human Action” as the basis of his look at economics, because humans are at the heart of every decision made that impacts the economy. You can push, steal, force, violate, only for so long, before the victim of your violence says enough is enough. NYC and other high tax states are finally seeing that in action to a degree that nobody can continue to ignore.

ICC Passports – Whether you recognize the “authority” of the ICC to prosecute anyone, it is quite clear to all that Bush, Cheney, and countless others (including members of the military), committed heinous war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere during that administration (I will leave out the dozens of other administrations that are guilty of these crimes in their own way). If our own government, media, etc. is too spineless, too complicit, too “owned,” too worthless, etc. to conduct investigations into these crimes, we should all applaud any and all outsiders who wish to conduct these investigations and make public their findings. The war crimes of our government (and others) are NEVER going to stop until people begin being held accountable – even if only in the court of public opinion. All of our presidents have gotten off far too easy because they hide behind the flag, start another war for distraction purposes, or are left off by the next president, mostly because the new guy knows that his war crimes will likely be just as heinous (and is generally right on the money with that assumption).

The Fed and banking – As we watch one credit/money processor after another harm private businesses because they sell guns, promote freedom, etc. and as we watch the liberals use the banks to shut down other freedom-oriented businesses or political causes, we must come to realize that the control of the banking sector by the Federal Reserve was NOT just about controlling 1/2 of every financial transaction. It was about controlling America itself. Sound money, non-fraudulent banking (no fractional reserves), and such, are the antithesis of the crimes the Fed commits on a daily basis. They simply will NOT allow that kind of banking to exist, despite its clear honesty. The banking system will collapse, and clearly the Fed will NOT allow anything to spring up and be in place as a counter to its failure.

Donkey Balls
Donkey Balls
  MrLiberty
March 23, 2019 11:31 pm

Mr. Liberty, you are my brother.