I always get a kick out of the use of the blockchain technology without it having anything to do with bitcoin itself routine. Ya can't have one without the other.

This dude will be sacrificed accordingly. And all that, you can bet your bottom dollar on this.

Anyone else seen this? Great video of Ron and Rand Paul about foreign policy, currency wars and related issues. Good watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=236&v=oLr4bxz0reo

Plus the 2008 Ron Paul theme song from Angels and Airwaves: Ron Paul Revolution *Secret Crowds" which you all have to view just once - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otwKWzdu7Ps -> Rand Paul 2016 - Best political music video of all time - All of you have to see this.

Breaking: Rand Paul to sue IRS, U.S Treasury

Rand Paul is poised to become the first major presidential candidate in memory to sue the government he seeks to lead as president.

The Kentucky senator will take legal action against the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service for what he says is the denial of his constitutional right to vote on more than 100 tax-information treaties that the Obama administration unilaterally negotiated with foreign governments, The Washington Times has learned.

In what the suit says is a violation of Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, President Obama has not consulted the U.S. Senate about the treaties nor given the Senate an opportunity to approve or disapprove of the treaties. The administration calls them “intergovernmental agreements.” They require foreign banks to gather and share private financial information about millions of Americans living and working outside the U.S. — information they would not have to disclose to the U.S. government if they lived and worked in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/24/sen-rand-paul-sue-irs-us-treasury/#ixzz3e34LssWN

New Fox News poll: Rand tied for 4th at 9%

Bush - 15%
Trump - 11%
Carson - 10%
Rand - 9%
Walker - 9%
Rubio - 8%
Huckabee - 6%
Cruz - 4%
Fiorina - 3%
Santorum - 3%
Jindal - 2%

Bush pump w/ phony Trump in 2nd doesn't make sense.
foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/24/fox-news-poll-bush-trump-score-post-announcement-bumps/

AEI: The VAT is back (but don’t use the V word)

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) unveiled his plan to “blow up the tax code and start over.” His plan makes him the most recent public figure to propose a value added tax (VAT).

Senator Paul’s plan would repeal the Social Security and Medicare payroll and self-employment taxes, the corporate income tax, the estate and gift tax, tariffs, and some excise taxes. And, it would dramatically reduce individual income taxes, slashing rates to a flat 14.5% and offering a $50,000 exemption for a family of four while maintaining the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.

Of course, repealing and reducing those taxes would cause a large revenue loss. The plan would make up a little of the revenue loss by eliminating income tax deductions, other than for charitable contributions and mortgage interest. It would look to unspecified spending cuts to make up part of the revenue loss. But, the plan’s biggest revenue offset is a new 14.5% VAT.

If enough spending cuts come through to reach budget neutrality, the plan would significantly accelerate economic growth by dramatically reducing the tax code’s worst distortion, its penalty on saving and investment. But, this advantage would disappear if, as is likely, the unspecified spending cuts failed to materialize. In that case, the resulting deficits would crowd out investment, undoing the gains from the improved tax incentives.

If the plan includes enough spending cuts to make it budget-neutral, it would shift the fiscal burden downward. Those at the top of the income distribution would receive large tax cuts. Households lower in the distribution would make up the difference, bearing fiscal burdens from the spending cuts and the VAT that would outweigh their payroll tax relief.

By proposing a VAT, Senator Paul is following in the footsteps of Herman Cain, who proposed a 9% VAT (accompanied by a 9% retail sales tax) in the 2012 presidential campaign. Unfortunately, he’s following Mr. Cain’s footsteps in another respect, by steering clear of the V word and calling his VAT a “business activity tax.” Four years ago, I commented, “The biggest issue is one of truth in labeling. Mr. Cain should level with the voters by explaining that he’s proposing a VAT and allow them to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.” Today, I offer that same advice to Senator Paul.

...

aei.org/publication/the-vat-is-back-but-dont-use-the-v-word/

Hit piece so no linky.

Good grief, can't even comprehend how sucky it would be to be locked up for that long knowing how innocent I was. Large amounts of money are gonna be paid out and the taxpayers will be footing the bill as usual.

Rand Paul vs. Ted Cruz 2016 – Who Does The Grassroots Prefer? [PODCAST]

Senator Rand Paul’s bold flat tax proposal made waves when it was released this week, but Ted Cruz has supported a flat tax for some time. Why does Paul get all the credit, while Cruz is seen as the also-ran?

Today’s Freedom Report podcast dives into the upcoming summer budget battles which will pit grassroots conservatives against establishment Republicans. Cruz and Paul aren’t likely to succeed in achieving significant cuts to the budget, but both have a chance to win the hearts of the grassroots by bucking the establishment of their party.

Cruz and Paul agree on quite a few issues, but disagree on those where substantive policy reforms put set Rand Paul apart as distinct from Cruz. Paul’s filibusters on drones and the NSA have made him a darling of the liberty movement, while Cruz has set himself as more traditional conservative. Will the grassroots be forced to pick sides against one another? And if so, would that mean eventual defeat for both coalitions if a challenger such as Jeb Bush continues to lead in the polls?

Also, Cruz’s recent flip-flop on the TPA trade deal has some conservatives and libertarians wondering if he’s changing positions out of principle, or political expediency. The Texas senator was widely criticized by his base for initially supporting the TPA, but now calls it a “corrupt” deal. Will Cruz say or do anything to win the presidency?

Audio here...http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/rand-paul-vs-ted-cruz-2016-who-does-the-grassroots-prefer-podcast/#ixzz3e0HX87nW

Rand Paul: Taking A Stand Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America

Rand Paul joined the show this morning to discuss his new book, Taking a Stand. It’s been described as his “political vision in a book” and our conversation with Senator Paul focused mostly on his views on the “issues of the day.” One of  the twelve major Republican Candidates for President discussed extensively the issues he sees facing the Republican Party, including how the party relates to minority voters. He also discussed term limits for Congress, and why he believes he is the right man to “shake up the system.”

Listen to the audio from this Chicago radio station interview he did...http://wgnradio.com/2015/06/23/rand-paul-taking-a-stand-moving-beyond-partisan-politics-to-unite-america/

Now, contrast the above article w/ another one on the same focus and you'll see the extreme psychotic bent in the above.

Why Rand Paul Is Giving a White Nationalist's Money to Charleston Victims' Families

Late Sunday night, the Guardian's Jon Swaine reported that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was among Republicans who'd received campaign donations from Earl Holt III, the president of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens. On Monday morning, a spokesman for the presidential candidate said the money would go instead to the people whose lives were shattered by the Charleston church massacre.

“RandPAC is donating the funds to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to assist the victims' families,” said Doug Stafford, a Paul spokesman and strategist.

According to FEC records, Holt's donations preceded the start of Paul's official presidential campaign this year. He gave a total of $1,750 to RandPAC from July 2012 to April 2014. It's telling of the CCC's current low influence that those donations—as well as ones to Texas Senator Ted Cruz (whose team said he is returning the money), Iowa Representative Steve King, and even black Republicans Allen West, a former Florida representative, and Mia Love, a Utah representative—went unnoticed until shooting suspect Dylann Roof was said to cite the CCC in an online manifesto, and Swaine looked at the FEC records. According to the Guardian, Holt's most nakedly racist statements were heretofore lost in the toxic soup of online article comments.

More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-22/why-rand-paul-is-giving-a-white-nationalist-s-money-to-charleston-victims-families

How Rand Paul Believes He Could "Fix" Baltimore And Eliminate Poverty

Republican Presidential candidate Rand Paul says, if he were elected President, he would propose a few things that could "fix" Baltimore.

Paul tells Maryland's News Now with Bryan Nehman he doesn't think the Democrats have managed to fight poverty. He says the first thing to do is to see if anything that has been done to eliminate poverty over the past 50 years has worked.

"We've had a war on poverty for 50 years now and we've had cities run by Democrats," he states. "I don't think the war on poverty or Democrat rule has done much good at eliminating any poverty."

He states unemployment in Baltimore among young black men is 37%, which he says is worse than the Great Depression. That to him shows "utter failure." He believes we should change our strategy when it comes to fighting poverty.

Paul says he would change the tradition of sending tax dollars to Washington only to have Washington send it back for some politician to figure out how to use it and who gets it. He would propose "economic freedom zones" which essentially would not send any money to Washington, keeping it in the community and remaining with those who are earning it.

Audio and more...http://www.wbal.com/article/115737/21/how-rand-paul-believes-he-could-fix-baltimore-and-eliminate-poverty

GOP presidential contender Rand Paul to visit Denver

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is bringing his presidential campaign to Colorado next week to meet with local supporters.

The Republican will visit Choppers Sports Grill on South Madison Street in Denver at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. It’s Paul’s first campaign trip to Colorado since he announced his candidacy in April. The campaign said the candidate will meet with “constitutional conservatives, local business leaders and activists.”

The visit comes two days after the much-hyped Western Conservative Summit ends. Paul will not attend the summit, but seven of his rivals are planning to speak at the event and woo local activists.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2015/06/24/gop-presidential-contender-rand-paul-to-visit-denver/121435/

Rand Paul Refuses To Return Contributions From These White Separatists

Republican politicians scrambled this week to divest themselves of campaign contributions received from a donor tied to the designated white nationalist hate group that allegedly influenced Dylann Roof to shoot and kill nine African Americans at the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina last week.

While Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) quickly moved to donate the contributions he received from Earl Holt III to a fund established to help the victims’ families, this stands in stark contrast to his past handling of white separatist donors.

Though on most of Holt’s campaign contributions he identified himself as a “landlord” or as a “slumlord,” he has also served as president of the Council of Conservative Citizens — a group that calls itself “the only serious nationwide activist group that sticks up for white rights.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes the Council as “the modern reincarnation of the old White Citizens Councils, which were formed in the 1950s and 1960s to battle school desegregation in the South.”

Holt made multiple contributions to Paul’s leadership political action committee, RandPAC. A Paul spokesman said Monday that “RandPAC is donating the funds to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to assist the victims’ families.”

thinkprogress.org/election/2015/06/24/3673358/rand-paul-white-separatist-money/

Complete hit piece even though they acknowledge that the campaign gave the money to the church's fund. This is how the rabid left operates considering Rand's mission has been dipping into their pool of voters for quite some time so this is their attempt to neutralize it.

I sent you my comments but at minimum, this judgement was on payday - so shouldn't matter and things should slide to the good. I'd hope you'd agree.

I have other reserve ?s but will hold.

MARCO RUBIO CASTS DECIDING VOTE FOR OBAMATRADE WITHOUT EVEN READING IT

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Sen. Rubio cast the deciding vote for Obamatrade on Tuesday as it squeeked through the U.S. Senate 60-37, and his Senate office is still outright refusing to answer whether he even knew what he was voting on.

Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate, was the deciding vote necessary for the U.S. Senate to clear the final 60-vote threshold and eventually, later this week, send to President Barack Obama’s desk the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill that would fast-track at least three highly secretive trade deals that Obama has been negotiating for years.

TPA will, now that it’s going to pass, effectively ensure the congressional approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). The text of the TiSA and T-TIP agreements is currently entirely secretive, even to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and their staffs, though WikiLeaks did uncover several TiSA documents that leaked and prove the deal would surrender congressional power over U.S. immigration policy to the executive branch and perhaps to a newly created transnational entity.

More...http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/23/marco-rubio-casts-deciding-vote-for-obamatrade-without-even-reading-it/

Considering this is Ben Swann's site I can live with it. I never saw Rand going into this territory but he has w/ great confidence, which tells me he's very thoughtful on this. I haven't thought about this whole thing in recent times like I did many years ago but he obviously has some bait that he's looking to catch later on this. I'm surprised to not see any hit pieces at this point about him going this route.

Stop the conversation! The only thing that would matter here (and no, I didn't scan the middle pages) is that if Amazon would accept bitcoin, that they should actively advertise discounts for paying w/ it (I'm a broken record about that sort of thing but it is the apex of bitcoin payments). Unless this happens, this move would just add to selling pressure unless there is a residual demand to purchase w/ bitcoin to receive said discounts in such a large trading/good purchasing place. Don't ever fall for these stories of places accepting bitcoin unless they give a % off because you use bitcoin's utility to pay them. As it is, you pay a markup on bitcoin in most buying zones unless you catch it on an exchange where the risk is insolvency at some miniscule rate.

I can only imagine if a super noob came across this thread and thought, what the heck are these folks talking about. To them I say, just get a blockchain.info or coinbase wallet and enable two factor encryption (which is simple) so you can store your coins w/ plenty of ordinary safety. Guys, we need to be more friendly and welcoming towards the general public rather than messing around w/ technical hoopla and highlighting absurdly novelty storage products.

These guys have quite the resume of venture funding across the board. The top dog of Blockchain Cap, also being the chair of the BTC foundation, seems to have all the insight in the world to manage funds towards what he/they perceive as the best up and comers in the bitcoin space. Good to see.

New obesity statistics are out for the United States, and they show that nearly two-thirds of adults are at an unhealthy weight.

An analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday found that 75 percent of men and 67 percent of women ages 25 and older are now overweight or obese. That's a startling shift from 20 years ago when 63 percent of men and 55 percent of women were overweight or obese and a depressing sign that campaigns to get Americans to eat healthier and exercise more may be failing.

Based on information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67.6 million Americans were obese and 65.2 million overweight as of 2012. The CDC defines obese as having a body mass index of 30 or higher, and overweight as a body mass index of between 25 and 29.9.

This marks the first time that Americans who are obese outnumber those who are overweight.

Stopping Americans' propensity to supersize meals and lead sedentary lifestyles has become a national priority in recent decades with the launch of efforts like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" program aimed at children, state-funded interventions that have nutritionists going door-to-door to educate people about proper eating habits, and the Food and Drug Administration's move last week to ban transfats from the food supply.

Researcher Lin Yang from the Washington University School of Medicine, in a statement accompanying the research letter, called the data a "wake-up call" for more aggressive policies and practices to fight obesity.

"An effort that spans multiple sectors must be made to stop or reverse this trend that is compromising and shortening the lives of many," Yang said.

Yang said in an interview that there are many reasons driving the trend but “the biggest reason is how modern society has changed with technological development.”

“This has changed the dynamics of our lifestyle and how we travel to places, how we do our housework, what we do for work. We have more and more seating-based occupations, for example,” she said.

Yang, a post-doc researcher, said that the biggest increase between the most recent data and 20 years ago is an increase in the most severe obesity among non-Hispanic black women which jumped from 8 percent to 17 percent.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/06/22/americas-getting-even-fatter-startling-growth-in-obesity-over-past-20-years/