Month: August 2013

Serco: The Company That Is Running Britain

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– Serco: the company that is running Britain (Guardian, July 29, 2013):

From prisons to rail franchises and even London’s Boris bikes, Serco is a giant global corporation that has hoovered up outsourced government contracts. Now the NHS is firmly in its sights. But it stands accused of mismanagement, lying and even charging for non-existent work

In May this year, a huge company listed on the London Stock Exchange found itself in the midst of controversy about a prison it runs for the government – Thameside, a newly built jail next to Belmarsh, in south-east London. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate found that 60% of its inmates were locked up all day, and there were only “vague plans to restore the prison to normality”. The prison campaign group the Howard League for Penal Reform talked about conditions that were “truly alarming”.

Two months later, the same company was the subject of a high- profile report published by the House Of Commons public accounts committee, prompted by the work of Guardian journalist Felicity Lawrence. This time, attention was focused on how it was managing out-of-hours GP services in Cornwall, and massive failings that had first surfaced two years before. Again, the verdict was damning: data had been falsified, national standards had not been met, there was a culture of “lying and cheating”, and the service offered to the public was simply “not good enough”.

Three weeks ago, there came grimmer news. Thanks to its contracts for tagging offenders, the company was now the focus of panic at the Ministry of Justice, where it had been discovered that it was one of two contractors that had somehow overcharged the government for its services, possibly by as much as £50m; there were suggestions that one in six of the tags that the state had paid for did not actually exist. How this happened is still unclear, but justice secretary Chris Grayling has said the allegations represent something “wholly indefensible and unacceptable”.

The firm that links these three stories together is Serco. Its range of activities, here and abroad, is truly mind-boggling, taking in no end of things that were once done by the state, but are now outsourced to private companies. Amazingly, its contracts with government are subject to what’s known as “commercial confidentiality” and as a private firm it’s not open to Freedom of Information requests, so looking into the details of what it does is fraught with difficulty.

Read moreSerco: The Company That Is Running Britain

U.S. Beef Supply At 21-Year Low: Get Ready To Pay Up

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– Beef Supply at 21-Year Low: Get Ready to Pay Up (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 2, 2013):

I don’t follow the commodity markets as closely as I used to, but the following article related to beef prices really caught my eye. Last year’s drought and consequent spike in grain prices led to negative margins for cattle producers, who subsequently culled their herds. As expected, this has resulted in tighter supply today. We see this evidenced in the fact that retail ground beef prices were up 13% year-over-year in June, and the CEO of Ruth’s Chris mentioned during a recent presentation that they were forced to raise prices in February. While grain prices are much lower today, which should encourage expansion in cattle supply, this process will actually cause even more tightness in the near-term as more animals are set aside for breeding rather than slaughtered.

Don’t worry, you can always just eat the S&P 500.

From Bloomberg:

U.S. beef production is plunging to a 21-year low after surging feed costs spurred ranchers to cut herds, signaling record prices for consumers and higher costs for buyers from McDonald’s Corp. to Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

Production in the U.S. will decline 4.9 percent to 10.93 million metric tons in 2014, retreating for a fourth year, the government says. The herd on July 1 was the smallest for that date since at least 1973, according to the average of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Retail ground-beef prices in June were up 13 percent from a year earlier and near a record set in January.

Read moreU.S. Beef Supply At 21-Year Low: Get Ready To Pay Up

Editor of Tennessee Paper Fired For This Headline Critical of Obama

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– Editor of Tennessee Paper Fired for Headline Critical of Obama (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 2, 2013):

Does running this headline seem like a fireable offense to you?

“Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough.”

Apparently, the powers that be at the Chattanooga Times Free Press thought so. They may want to drop the “free press” part of the paper’s name going forward. The editor, who’s name is Drew Johnson, was accused of going against policy by changing the headline at the last minute, but he claims: “we change headlines all the time at the last minute. I had a filler headline in that stunk and thought of that Johnny Paycheck song.”

Read moreEditor of Tennessee Paper Fired For This Headline Critical of Obama

Obamacare Full Frontal: Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time

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– Obamacare Full Frontal: Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time (ZeroHedge, Aug 2, 2013):

When the payroll report was released last month, the world finally noticed what we had been saying for nearly three years: that the US was slowly being converted to a part-time worker society. This slow conversion accelerated drastically in the last few months, and especially in June, when part time jobs exploded higher by 360K while full time jobs dropped by 240K. In July we are sad to report that America’s conversation to a part-time worker society is not “tapering”: according to the Household Survey, of the 266K jobs created (note this number differs from the establishment survey), only 35% of jobs, or 92K, were full time. The rest were… not.

What is worse, however, is when one looks at job creation broken down by “quality” in all of 2013. The chart below does the bottom line some justice:

Read moreObamacare Full Frontal: Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time

‘Nazi Style’: Japan Constitution Revision Proposal Sparks Outrage

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– ‘Nazi style’: Japan constitution revision proposal sparks outrage (RT, Aug 1, 2013):

Japan’s Deputy PM has called on local politicians revising the constitution to learn from Nazi Germany when it amended the Weimar charter. Although he later retracted his words neighbors Beijing and Seoul said such militaristic remarks “hurt many people”.

“Germany’s Weimar Constitution was changed before anyone knew. It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don’t we learn the technique,” Japanese media quoted Taro Aso as saying during a far-reaching event in Tokyo.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to which Aso also belongs, has been keen to revise the US-imposed pacifist constitution, including war-renouncing Article 9, so Japan can use the right of collective self-defense as stipulated by the UN Charter. The LDP also wants to define Japan’s defense forces as a full-fledged military force amid territorial tensions with China and South Korea.

Read more‘Nazi Style’: Japan Constitution Revision Proposal Sparks Outrage

Snowden Thanks Russia For Asylum, Says ‘Law Is Winning’

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– Snowden thanks Russia for asylum, says ‘law is winning’ (USA Today, Aug 1, 2013):

A lawyer for the former NSA analyst says he has “no plans” to go to another country.

MOSCOW — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden thanked Russia for granting him temporary asylum Thursday and said “in the end the law is winning.

The former defense contractor left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where he has been holed up since June 23, and went by taxi to an undisclosed location.

“Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning,” Snowden said in a statement issued by WikiLeaks. “I thank the Russian federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations.”

Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s legal representative, told RT, a Russian television network, that the papers issued by the Russian Immigration Service allow him to live, work and travel in Russia for a year and can be renewed annually.

Read moreSnowden Thanks Russia For Asylum, Says ‘Law Is Winning’

Bradley Manning Leak Did Not Result In Deaths By Enemy Forces, Court Hears

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– Bradley Manning leak did not result in deaths by enemy forces, court hears (Guardian, Aug 1, 2013):

Counter-intelligence officer who investigated WikiLeaks impact undermines argument that Manning leak put lives at risk

The US counter-intelligence official who led the Pentagon’s review into the fallout from the WikiLeaks disclosures of state secrets told the Bradley Manning sentencing hearing on Wednesday that no instances were ever found of any individual killed by enemy forces as a result of having been named in the releases.

Brigadier general Robert Carr, a senior counter-intelligence officer who headed the Information Review Task Force that investigated the impact of WikiLeaks disclosures on behalf of the Defense Department, told a court at Fort Meade, Maryland, that they had uncovered no specific examples of anyone who had lost his or her life in reprisals that followed the publication of the disclosures on the internet. “I don’t have a specific example,” he said.

It has been one of the main criticisms of the WikiLeaks publications that they put lives at risk, particularly in Iran and Afghanistan. The admission by the Pentagon’s chief investigator into the fallout from WikiLeaks that no such casualties were identified marks a significant undermining of such arguments.

Read moreBradley Manning Leak Did Not Result In Deaths By Enemy Forces, Court Hears

Harvard: Scientists Establish Brain-To-Brain Control Between Humans And Animals

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– Brain-to-Brain Control Established Between Humans and Animals at Harvard (Activist Post, July 31, 2013):

Every day seems to bring new revelations in the area of neuroscience. Based on the recent whistleblower release of a secret DARPA mind control program at Arizona State University, and the subsequent takedown of those documents, it appears that ethical concerns in this field are indeed justified.
Obama’s BRAIN project appears to being paying dividends, as other recently leaked documents reveal a “nudge squad” program being developed to employ new, sophisticated narrative propaganda aimed at “shaping Americans’ behavior.”

Just in the past few weeks, we have also learned that scientists have been working on “neural dust” to create a remote-controlled computer pathway to the brain; and that scientists have been successful implanting false memories in mice.

Yes, the age of direct mind control is here.

Experiments in controlling gadgets and even drones have also been successful. So what’s the next logical step?

Read moreHarvard: Scientists Establish Brain-To-Brain Control Between Humans And Animals

Obamacare Is Going To Ruin Your Medical Care And Your Life (10 Reasons)

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– 10 Reasons Why Obamacare Is Going to Ruin Your Medical Care… and Your Life (Activist Post, July 31, 2013):

Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D

Of course you’ve heard of “liar loans”—in the heyday of subprime mortgages, unscrupulous lenders handed out mortgages to practically everyone with a pulse. “So you’re saying you make $100,000 a year? Great, check this box titled ‘McMansion.'”

We all know how this charade ended. Now Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., an acclaimed expert on the subject of Obamacare, warns that the delay of the employer mandate by one year will force Americans into a single-payer system, raising insurance premiums and encouraging “liar subsidies” that might prove fiscally devastating. Not to mention that under the new health care system, you may well end up dead… — Dan Steinhart Editor, Casey Research

Obamacare is a hodgepodge of new regulations, requirements, and penalties. I’d like to start by defining three terms, which, while obscure today, should begin to enter our everyday vocabulary as Obamacare continues to take effect:

Read moreObamacare Is Going To Ruin Your Medical Care And Your Life (10 Reasons)

Marc Faber On Central Banker Actions: ‘Insane People Don’t Realize They’re Insane’ (Video)

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– Marc Faber On Central Banker Actions: “Insane People Don’t Realize They’re Insane” (ZeroHedge, July 30, 2013):

While we know that the Fed will be forced to taper in the short-term as it desperately avoids the ‘appearance’ of outright monetization that a falling deficit will create, Marc Faber sums up the endgame perfectly in this clip: “I don’t think they will come to their senses for the simple reason that insane people don’t realize that they are insane.” Faber adds, “they think they’re doing a great job,” and in fact they believe – in general – that “if anything, we need to do more, not less.” The ‘forced-taper-to-plunge-to-untaper’ progression means it’s going to get worse; as Faber notes, QE/printing will continued indefinitely “until the system breaks down.” Having printed this much money with such dismal results, Faber concludes, “the Fed is completely clueless.”
Faber covers a wide-range of topics in this excellent interview – from Fed insanity and cluelessness to Gold confiscation and from China’s dishonesty to the destabilizing reality of Stability-hoping Keynesianism…

Will the Fed stop printing?

Read moreMarc Faber On Central Banker Actions: ‘Insane People Don’t Realize They’re Insane’ (Video)

Here’s Some Hard Data On The ‘Safest’ Fiat Currency

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FYI.

– Here’s some hard data on the ‘safest’ fiat currency (Sovereign Man, July 30, 2013):

July 30, 2013
Vilnius, Lithuania

Is there such a thing as a ‘safe’ fiat currency?

The term itself is as intellectually disingenuous as terms like ‘fair tax’ or ‘government innovation’.

But as we’ve been exploring recently why modern central banking is completely dysfunctional, it does beg the question– is any currency ‘safe’?

Let’s look at the numbers for some data-driven analysis.

Read moreHere’s Some Hard Data On The ‘Safest’ Fiat Currency

Why Another Great Real Estate Crash Is Coming

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– Why Another Great Real Estate Crash Is Coming (Economic Collapse, Aug 1, 2013):

There are very few segments of the U.S. economy that are more heavily affected by interest rates than the real estate market is.  When mortgage rates reached all-time low levels late last year, it fueled a little “mini-bubble” in housing which was greatly celebrated by the mainstream media.  Unfortunately, the tide is now turning.  Interest rates are starting to move up steadily, even though the Federal Reserve has been trying very hard to keep that from happening.  A few weeks ago, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed may start to “taper” the rate of quantitative easing eventually, the bond market had a conniption and the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries shot up dramatically.  In an attempt to calm the market, the Fed stopped all talk of a “taper” and that helped settle things down for a brief period of time.  But now the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries is starting to rise aggressively again.  Today it closed at 2.71 percent, and many analysts believe that it will go much higher.  This is important for the housing market, because mortgage rates tend to follow the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries.  And if mortgage rates keep rising like this, another great real estate crash is inevitable.

Read moreWhy Another Great Real Estate Crash Is Coming

Google Search Sparks Joint Terrorism Task Force Visit … Or … ‘Pressure Cookers, Backpacks And Quinoa, Oh My!’

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– pressure cookers, backpacks and quinoa, oh my! (Writing Out Loud, August 1, 2013):

It was a confluence of magnificent proportions that led six agents from the joint terrorism task force to knock on my door Wednesday morning. Little did we know our seemingly innocent, if curious to a fault, Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.

Read moreGoogle Search Sparks Joint Terrorism Task Force Visit … Or … ‘Pressure Cookers, Backpacks And Quinoa, Oh My!’

The Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy

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– The Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy (Economic Collapse, Aug 1, 2013):

There is one vitally important number that everyone needs to be watching right now, and it doesn’t have anything to do with unemployment, inflation or housing.  If this number gets too high, it will collapse the entire U.S. financial system.  The number that I am talking about is the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries.

When that number goes up, long-term interest rates all across the financial system start increasing. When long-term interest rates rise, it becomes more expensive for the federal government to borrow money, it becomes more expensive for state and local governments to borrow money, existing bonds lose value and bond investors lose a lot of money, mortgage rates go up and monthly payments on new mortgages rise, and interest rates throughout the entire economy go up and this causes economic activity to slow down.

On top of everything else, there are more than 440 trillion dollars worth of interest rate derivatives sitting out there, and rapidly rising interest rates could cause that gigantic time bomb to go off and implode our entire financial system. We are living in the midst of the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and the only way that the game can continue is for interest rates to stay super low.  Unfortunately, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has started to rise, and many experts are projecting that it is going to continue to rise.

Read moreThe Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy

U.S. Blasts Russian Asylum For Snowden

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– Furious White House Blasts Russian Asylum For Snowden (ZeroHedge, Aug 1, 2013):

The U.S. is “extremely disappointed” in the move by Russia to grant ‘temporary asylum’ to Edward Snowden, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters this morning. Carney appeared to add a threat, as the WSJ reports, he added that the Russian decision undermines law-enforcement cooperation between Moscow and Washington. Russia’s decision also threatens to derail a planned September summit in Moscow between Obama and Putin (oh to be a fly on that wall), as Carney advised “we are evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this.” Snowden’s earlier comments that “over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning,” did not help, adding that he thanks “the Russian Federation for granting  asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations.” US politicians see it a little differently, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-A.Z.) called the move “a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States.” Seems they are managing that all on their own.Via WSJ,

The U.S. is “extremely disappointed” in the move, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, adding that the Russian decision undermines law-enforcement cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

Read moreU.S. Blasts Russian Asylum For Snowden

Decoding The NSA: How The Agency Manipulates Language To Mislead The Public

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– Decoding the NSA: How the Agency Manipulates Language to Mislead the Public (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 1, 2013):

When we as a species use language to communicate and engage with one another, we have a certain understanding that certain words mean certain things. That is the entire purpose of language, effective communication between human beings that can be easily understood. As a result, we should be able to assume that when government bureaucrats utilize words that are commonplace within society, that these words represent specific commonly understood meanings. That would be a huge mistake.

Jameel Jaffer and Brett Max Kaufman of the ACLU have compiled an excellent list of some commonplace words used by the NSA to mislead us into thinking they aren’t doing the bad things that they are actually doing. Words such as “surveillance,” “collect,” and “relevant.”

From Slate:

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has been harshly criticized for having misled Congress earlier this year about the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities. The criticism is entirely justified. An equally insidious threat to the integrity of our national debate, however, comes not from officials’ outright lies but from the language they use to tell the truth. When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection—a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another.

Read moreDecoding The NSA: How The Agency Manipulates Language To Mislead The Public

Pakistan Bans Gold Imports For 30 Days

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– Pakistan Bans Gold Imports for 30 Days (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 1, 2013):

The latest buzz circulating around the gold market relates to news that Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) has decided to ban duty free gold imports for thirty days. Why you ask? Because those pesky Indians are using Pakistan as a conduit to get around the country’s recent 8% duty imposed on gold imports.

All of this of course begs the question: With the price of gold “plunging” over the past several months, why did Pakistan and India both feel the need to take such draconian measures against a barbarous relic that everyone is supposedly panic selling? If there is so much gold to be had and no one wants it, what’s the problem? Strange indeed.

From the The Express Tribune:

The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, took the decision to ban the import of the yellow metal for one month with immediate effect.

Read morePakistan Bans Gold Imports For 30 Days

XKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects ‘Nearly Everything A User Does On The Internet’

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– XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ (Guardian, July 31, 2013):

• XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history
• NSA’s XKeyscore program – read one of the presentations

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian’s earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden’s most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

“I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email”.

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden’s assertion: “He’s lying. It’s impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do.”

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

Read moreXKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects ‘Nearly Everything A User Does On The Internet’

Soy Lecithin: Why You Need To Avoid It

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Related info:

– Soy Products Linked To Cancer: 4 Convincing Reasons To Cut Soy From Your Diet Today

– Soy: It’s Bad For You And It’s Everywhere, Even in Vitamins! (Video)

– Shocking Photos Reveal Severe Damage Caused By GM Soy And Corn. GMO Feed Turns Pig Stomachs To Mush!

– Soy Milk Is Bad For You

– Soy Lecithin: How It Negatively Affects Your Health And Why You Need To Avoid It (Waking Times, July 30, 2013):

Soy Lecithin has been lingering around our food supply for over a century. It is an ingredient in literally hundreds of proceesed foods, and also sold as an over the counter health food supplement. Scientists claim it benefits our cardiovascular health, metabolism, memory, cognitive function, liver function, and even physical and athletic perfomance. However, most people don’t realize what soy lecithin actually is, and why the dangers of ingesting this additive far exceed its benefits.

Lecithin is an emulsifying substance that is found in the cells of all living organisms. The French scientist Maurice Gobley discovered lecithin in 1805 and named it “lekithos” after the Greek word for “egg yolk.” Until it was recovered from the waste products of soybean processing in the 1930s, eggs were the primary source of commercial lecithin. Today lecithin is the generic name given to a whole class of fat-and-water soluble compounds called phospholipids. Levels of phospholipids in soybean oils range from 1.48 to 3.08 percent, which is considerably higher than the 0.5 percent typically found in vegetable oils, but far less than the 30 percent found in egg yolks.

Read moreSoy Lecithin: Why You Need To Avoid It

George Soros Goes Long Herbalife, Makes It “Top 3” Position

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– George Soros Goes Long Herbalife, Makes It “Top 3” Position (ZeroHedge, July 31, 2013):

It just keeps going form bad to worse for William Ackman. The so-called retail expert tried to diffuse the situation today by announcing a massive $2 billion position in Airgas, only for Herbalife to go right back front and center, following news moments ago from CNBC that none other than George Soros has taken a long stake in Herbalife, and not just any stake but a “top 3” position. We haven’t done the math but the float out there must be getting dangerously low for Ackman: low enough to where the Volkswagen scenario we predicted in early January (just as we predicted the imminent epic short squeeze) may finally come in play as there is not enough float to cover Ackman’s short, and certainly not when the longs decide to pull all the borrow. If and when the Ackman margin calls hit, we hope that Soros will accept shares of Airgas as deliverable.

In the meantime, the stock is up 173% since December, or when we said to go long following Whitney Tilson’s “short.”

Read moreGeorge Soros Goes Long Herbalife, Makes It “Top 3” Position

Student Forgotten In California Jail Cell By The DEA For 5 Days Without Food Or Water

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– Student Forgotten in California Jail Cell by the DEA for 5 Days Without Food or Water (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 1, 2013):

Crazy story here from late April that I hadn’t heard about before. Daniel Chong will receive a $4.1 million settlement as compensation for being forgotten about in a holding cell for 5 days without food or water. In fact, his situation became so desperate that he was forced to drink his own urine in order to survive.

While a cash payout should be part of any sort of justice for Daniel, I wonder if any of the individuals responsible for this will be held accountable? That to me is the key point. Just as bankers simply pay a fine for egregious crimes that represent only a small part of their profit from the activity (but almost never face criminal charges), so too it seems the police and government bureaucrats almost never face serious repercussions for any their actions, no matter how heinous or unconstitutional.

From the Daily Mail:

The college student forgotten in a holding cell for five days without food or water, took a $4.1 million settlement from the Justice Department his lawyer announced Tuesday.

Read moreStudent Forgotten In California Jail Cell By The DEA For 5 Days Without Food Or Water