That should go without saying but sadly there'll be so many female tools that will pull the lever for her if she runs that it will be sickening. This is why we Rand as the GOP nominee to provide a plethora of substance to at least put the issues of freedom and the status of this country out there for everyone to consider.

Santorum: "Load up the bombers and bomb Iran back to the 7th Century"

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans wooing Iowa's most active party members called Saturday for a stronger presence in the world but ran the gamut in tone and just how tough to get with America's enemies.

On Armed Services Day — and a day the Obama administration reported killing a senior Islamic State leader in Syria — most of the nearly dozen GOP presidential prospects at a state party dinner called for a more confrontational stance toward Iran.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum's answer for handling Iran, one of four countries on the U.S. list of nations accused of repeatedly supporting global terrorism, was to "load up our bombers and bomb them back to the seventh century."

Earlier in the day, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised U.S. commandos who had reportedly killed the IS leader, described as the head of oil operations for IS. Bush gave no credit to Obama, whom Bush accused of allowing the rise of IS by pulling back U.S. forces from Iraq.

"It's a great day, but it's not a strategy," Bush told reporters in eastern Iowa.

Although Bush joked lightly about the confused statements he made in recent days about whether he would have ordered the attack in Iraq in 2003, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told the GOP gathering Saturday night that it was a "valid question" to ask presidential candidates whether they would have invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul speaks during the Iowa Republican Party's Linco …
"We have to question: Is Iraq more stable or less stable since Hussein is gone?" asked Paul, who espouses some of the hands-off foreign policy of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tried to reject any assertion that the existing problems in Iraq were the result of the Republican president who ordered the invasion, Bush's brother George W. Bush.

"The person I blame is Barack Obama, not George W. Bush," said Graham, who criticized Obama for keeping a campaign promise to withdraw combat troops from Iraq. Of George W. Bush, Graham said, "He made the best decision he could."

More...http://news.yahoo.com/among-rivals-iowa-bush-tries-bounce-back-remarks-215022287--election.html

Obama and Rand Paul face off over the Patriot Act

WASHINGTON — – President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged the Senate to renew National Security Agency surveillance powers before they expire at midnight Sunday, as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul vowed to keep working to block the Patriot Act and the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.

“This needs to get done,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, asked what Obama was doing to round up votes, suggested, without naming him, that Paul needs to put the country first as he runs for the Republican nomination for president.

"Right now, I think what we're seeing is a difference of opinion on the Republican side of the aisle," Earnest said. "At some point, the political ambitions of individual members of the United States Senate are going to have to come second to the national security of the United States."

Obama called on the Senate to approve a House-passed bill that would change the phone record collection program while renewing less controversial Patriot Act provisions that also expire at the end of the month. The Senate rejected the House bill by three votes last weekend and is on a break until Sunday, just hours before the spying powers are scheduled to expire.

Obama said reauthorizing the surveillance efforts is “necessary to keep the American people safe and secure.”

“I strongly urge the Senate to work through this recess and make sure that they identify a way to get this done,” Obama said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/26/267822/obama-and-rand-paul-face-off-over.html#storylink=cpy

Wyckoffian logic says that this area of low volume/low volatility in the trading range is when most of the stock is now in strong hands. Everyone who wanted out is out, the punters are all waiting for a breakout, and a few interests are building up positions, further tiring out any weak hands who have stubbornly held on.

White House Implies Rand Paul Puts ‘Political Ambition’ Above National Security

White House press secretary Josh Earnest not-so-subtly called out Republican Kentucky senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul for his 10-hour long filibuster of the NSA’s metadata surveillance practices, accusing him of putting “political ambition” above national security.

EARNEST: All the hard work’s been done on this. I mean, it’s complicated policy, it’s working through the partisan politics that’s involved, trying to understand the technology that’s involved, the stakes are really high when it comes to our national security and when it comes to civil liberties of the American people. All of that’s been worked out, because of the President and his national security team working effectively with Democrats and Republicans.

The other thing I would point out is that every single Democrat in the United States Senate voted for this compromise. And right now what we’re seeing is a difference of opinion of the Republican side of the aisle. At some point, the political ambitions of individual members of the U.S. Senate are going to have to come second to the national security of the United States.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/26/wh-accuses-rand-paul-of-putting-political-ambition-above-national-security-video/

Bill Clinton (shell) company shows complexity of family finances

WASHINGTON (AP) — The newly released financial files on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's growing fortune omit a company with no apparent employees or assets that the former president has legally used to provide consulting and other services, but which demonstrates the complexity of the family's finances.

Because the company, WJC, LLC, has no financial assets, Hillary Clinton's campaign was not obligated to report its existence in her recent financial disclosure report, officials with Bill Clinton's private office and the Clinton campaign said. They were responding to questions by The Associated Press, which reviewed corporate documents.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide private details of the former president's finances on the record, said the entity was a "pass-through" company designed to channel payments to the former president.

Under federal ethics disclosure rules, declared candidates do not have to report assets worth less than $1,000. But the company's existence demonstrates the complexity of tracking the Clintons' finances as Hillary Clinton ramps up her presidential bid.

While Bill Clinton's lucrative speeches have provided the bulk of the couple's income, earning as much as $50 million during his wife's four-year term as secretary of state in the Obama administration, the former president has also sought to branch out into other business activities in recent years. Little is known about the exact nature and financial worth of Bill Clinton's non-speech business interests.

The identities of several U.S and foreign-based companies and foundations that Bill Clinton worked for have been disclosed in Hillary Clinton's recent financial report as well as in earlier reports during her stint as secretary of state.

Under federal disclosure rules for spouses' earned income, Hillary Clinton was only obligated to identify the source of her spouse's income and confirm that he received more than $1,000. As a result, the precise amounts of Bill Clinton's earned income from consulting have not been disclosed, and it's not known how much was routed through WJC, LLC.

WJC, LLC was set up in Delaware in 2008 and again in 2013 and in New York in 2009, according to documents obtained by The AP. The company did not appear among holdings in the Clintons' financial disclosure released last week or in previous Hillary Clinton disclosure reports between 2008 and 2013, when she resigned as secretary of state. Bill Clinton signed a document as its "authorizing person" in a corporate filing in Delaware in 2013.

A limited liability company is a commonly used business structure that provides tax advantages and limited legal protection for the assets of company owners and partners.

The purpose of Bill Clinton's U.S.-based company was not disclosed in any of the corporate filings in Delaware and New York, but State Department files recently reviewed by the AP show that WJC, LLC surfaced in emails from Bill Clinton's aides to the department's ethics officials.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150526/us-dem-2016-clinton-company-c60b86a6d2.html

Actually, Ron Paul unofficially started the socalled tea party back on Dec 16th, 2007 when his moneybomb commemorated the anniversary of the original tea party back before the American Revolution against Britain. Officially, Rick Santelli is/was a stock exchange floor commentator on CNBC (the US market channel) and there's a youtube of his rant back in '09 that sparked people across the board being pissed at the bank bailouts and the like. Republicans were becoming fed up w/ big spenders in their own party and many independents and democrats were on board.

However, the tea party got co-opted by Fox and certain elements of talk radio by taking what it formerly was (fierce opponents to spending) and trying to drive it into something different (patriotism, war, religion, etc) which defused the former importance and then alienated indies and democrats away from the new material that isn't up their alley. Then, as Rand Paul made the case that we shouldn't be arming terrorists in other countries a few years ago, the neocons along w/ Obama and Hillary had their way to create more terror outlets over their by screwing around in Libya and Syria and now we see what the fruits of all of this is.

The world economy is disturbingly close to stall speed. The United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8pc, the latest of the multinational bodies to retreat.

We are not yet in the danger zone but this pace is only slightly above the 2.5pc rate that used to be regarded as a recession for the international system as a whole.

It leaves a thin safety buffer against any economic shock - most potently if China abandons its crawling dollar peg and resorts to 'beggar-thy-neighbour' policies, transmitting a further deflationary shock across the global economy.

The longer this soggy patch drags on, the greater the risk that the six-year old global recovery will sputter out. While expansions do not die of old age, they do become more vulnerable to all kinds of pathologies.

A sweep of historic data by Warwick University found compelling evidence that economies are more likely to stall as they age, what is known as "positive duration dependence". The business cycle becomes stretched. Inventories build up and companies defer spending, tipping over at a certain point into a self-feeding downturn.

Stephen King from HSBC warns that the global authorities have alarmingly few tools to combat the next crunch, given that interest rates are already zero across most of the developed world, debts levels are at or near record highs, and there is little scope for fiscal stimulus.
"The world economy is sailing across the ocean without any lifeboats to use in case of emergency," he said.

More...http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11625098/HSBC-fears-world-recession-with-no-lifeboats-left.html

A woman was burned alive by depraved Islamic State militants after she refused to take part in an 'extreme sex act', a United Nations official has revealed.

Hundreds of women have been kidnapped by jihadi fighters who send the 'prettiest virgins' to slave markets in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where they are sold as sexual objects to the highest bidder.

Many are stripped naked and forced to undergo virginity tests before being sent to the twisted auctions, the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has said.

Zainab Bangura discovered the gruesome extent of crimes against young women – particularly from Iraq's Yazidi minority community – after collecting information from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097033/ISIS-burn-woman-alive-refusing-extreme-sex-act-reveals-official.html#ixzz3bHopy7Ri

Russia Is Using Mobile Crematoriums to Hide Ukraine's Dead

Russia is so desperate to hide its military involvement in Ukraine that it has brought in mobile crematoriums to destroy the bodies of its war dead, say U.S. lawmakers who traveled to the war-torn country this spring.

The U.S. and NATO have long maintained that thousands of Russian troops are fighting alongside separatists inside eastern Ukraine, and that the Russian government is obscuring not only the presence but also the deaths of its soldiers there. In March, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow told a conference, "Russian leaders are less and less able to conceal the fact that Russian soldiers are fighting -- and dying -- in large numbers in eastern Ukraine."

Hence the extreme measures to get rid of the evidence. “The Russians are trying to hide their casualties by taking mobile crematoriums with them,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry told me. “They are trying to hide not only from the world but from the Russian people their involvement.”

More...http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-26/putin-burns-his-dead-to-hide-ukraine-aggression

Looks like a breakout is on the verge of happening for litecoin so those interested in making some extra coin should consider adjusting their ports appropriately.

I remember reading certain articles of many wall streeters saying that every white board along their block has bitcoin on it so I suspect they're all waiting on this bitlicense to come on board before any serious considerations/actions will be taken by these types when it comes to purchasing on certain exchanges or dealing w/ any ETFs. Then, boom! What we see now are baby steps testing things out.

Inevitably, things have to adapt or change because the world financial markets have been deteriorating for decades now and it has only been accelerating in the last decade as the central bank money magicians have gotten away with manipulating the different currencies for their respective reasons. This kind of thing is what has been propping up the unsustainable big government levels here in the US and allowing the retarded interventionist foreign policy to keep on going.

It sure would be nice if more liberal types would crossover in the GOP primary to vote for Rand. The disingenuous ones would likely realize that Rand is the real threat to their lefty chosen one vote for a weaker candidate in the GOP primary so it's easier on them in the general election. Furthermore, many Rand supporters won't support anyone but him so that will drive down republican turnout in the general. Some care about the issues and the others have blind allegiance to the party.

Hard to feel sorry for these guys that undoubtedly put many non-violent plant growers behind bars. They were probably even taking more than their fair share from the dancers than usual because of the illegal status.

Post-riots, homicides in Baltimore skyrocket
This past month was the worst month for murder in twenty years.

Two people were fatally shot in separate incidents early Monday, continuing a run of violence in the city over the Memorial Day weekend.
The two killings increased this month's homicide total to 35 – Baltimore's deadliest month since 1999. There have been 108 homicides in the city this year.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/05/25/police-26-shootings-9-fatal-over-memorial-day-weekend-in-baltimore/

Looks like the homicide detectives will be working long hours for many months to come.

Rep. Brat and Sen. Paul: FREEDOM Act won't fix government overreach

After we have been so outspoken about the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone data, many have asked why we so strongly oppose the USA Freedom Act. The Freedom Act, which passed the House last week and now goes to the Senate, reauthorizes and reforms the parts of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire. While one of the reforms is an attempt to stop the government’s bulk data collection, the bill’s wording leaves considerable gaps in privacy protections, and that greatly concerns us both.

The Freedom Act directs phone companies, rather than the NSA, to hold certain data that the government can later search during an investigation. The act also limits the government to only asking for records based upon a “specific selection term.” Unfortunately, “specific selection term” is defined so broadly under the bill that it could include a whole corporation or a whole geographic region — a reduced form of bulk collection, but bulk collection nonetheless, and one that ropes in the records of many innocent people.

Additionally under the act, the standard required for initiating searches is much lower than what the Constitution calls for. The Fourth Amendment requires having “probable cause” that a crime has been committed before initiating a search, while the act lowers that bar to only “reasonable suspicion” — an unconstitutional standard.

While the USA Freedom Act certainly creates some very needed reforms, we’ve seen what happens when the executive branch isn’t limited by Congress’ checks and balances. We don’t like the broad language of “specific selection term” that leaves the discretion of how sweeping these dragnets can be to the people who have already shown they don’t mind violating the Fourth Amendment.

As recently as this month, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deemed this bulk collection of data to be illegal. Yet just a week later, with the passage of the Freedom Act and its broad language, the House of Representatives seems to have given the NSA the legal authority the court said it was lacking.
...
The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, blatantly lied to Congress when he denied the NSA spying program existed at all. During the recent IRS scandal, we also learned that this administration took confidential tax information belonging to political opponents. And the Justice Department was used to intimidate journalists who were critical of the administration.

More...http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_db5b9bef-a392-5bdc-a7d0-9a714f63f8f7.html

New Poll, Rand Paul leads GOP field in Washington State with strong support among gun owners

Washington Republicans are lining up for Kentucky’s Sen. Randal H. “Rand” Paul with strong support from gun owners, according to the May 18-19 Townhall/Gravis Insights poll of 523 Republican voters.

“Rand Paul has a national following that has not been reflected in our state-by-state polls, until we took at look at Washington State,” said Doug Kaplan, the managing partner of Gravis Insights, the Florida-based polling company that conducted the poll. The poll of Republicans carries a 4 percent margin of error.

Gravis Insights, a nonpartisan research firm, conducted a random survey of 1,032 registered voters in

Washington regarding potential election matchups and other relevant issues. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percent for the general election questions, 6 percent for the 256 Democratic respondents, he said. The poll was conducted using IVR technology and the results were weighted by anticipated voting demographics.

In other matchups, Democratic Sen. Patricia L. Murray leads her potential Republican challenger Rep. Catherine McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the House Republican Policy Committee, 51 percent to 40 percent.

A Murray v. McMorris Rodgers battle would pit the moderate congresswoman, who has led Republican support of Obamacare in the House, against one of the most partisan senators in the Democratic caucus.

Paul is the choice of 13.2 percent of Republicans, he said. The other top four candidates are: Wisconsin Gov. Scott K. Walker, 12.4 percent; former Florida governor John E. “Jeb” Bush, 11.5 percent; Florida’s Sen. Marco A. Rubio, 11.3 percent and Dr. Benjamin Carson with 7.6 percent.

“Paul comes to Washington with advantages, too,” Kaplan said. The senator’s father former Texas congressman Dr. Ronald E. Paul won the 2012 Washington caucuses with strong grassroots organization.

Sergio Gor, a spokesman for the senator, said: “Senator Rand Paul has worked very hard to grow the party over the last few years, his focus on issues like privacy and criminal justice reform gives him a unique ability to successfully engage the youth community.”

http://gravismarketing.com/polling-and-market-research/washington-state-pool-paul-leads-gop-field-murray-leads-mcmorris-rodgers-right-to-work-up-45-to-33/

FBI admits no major cases cracked with Patriot Act snooping powers

FBI agents can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Thursday that could complicate efforts to keep key parts of the law operating.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations.

The FBI did finally come up with procedures to try to minimize the information it was gathering on nontargets, but it took far too long, Mr. Horowitz said in the 77-page report, which comes just as Congress is trying to decide whether to extend, rewrite or entirely nix Section 215.

Backers say the Patriot Act powers are critical and must be kept intact, particularly with the spread of the threat from terrorists. But opponents have doubted the efficacy of Section 215, particularly when it’s used to justify bulk data collection such as in the case of the National Security Agency’s phone metadata program, revealed in leaks from former government contractor Edward Snowden.

The new report adds ammunition to those opponents, with the inspector general concluding that no major cases have been broken by use of the Patriot Act’s records-snooping provisions.

“The agents we interviewed did not identify any major case developments that resulted from use of the records obtained in response to Section 215 orders,” the inspector general concluded — though he said agents did view the material they gathered as “valuable” in developing other leads or corroborating information.



Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/21/fbi-admits-patriot-act-snooping-powers-didnt-crack/#ixzz3bGvAMgSM

Rand presented this in his filibuster as one of the main reasons that the bulk data collection is wrong over and above constitutional reasons. The neocons lie time and again saying that the Patriot Act and this bulk collection is what has kept us safe and now the facts are clear.

Rand Paul Breitbart op-ed: The Patriot Act Provides No Security At The Cost Of Our Liberty

Supporters of the NSA’s large scale spying on the American people claim the program has made our country safer. Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

This week, I stood on the Senate floor for over 10 hours explaining just that. We should never give up our rights for a false sense of security, but supporters of the PATRIOT Act are also presenting voters with a false choice. This week, the Investigator General reported that the FBI has not cracked a single terrorist plot thanks to the invasive spying powers implanted under the PATRIOT Act. Let me reiterate that: even the most vocal defenders of the spying program have failed to identify a single thwarted plot.

When will we realize that trading liberty for security is a monumental mistake? The Revolutionary War was fought to protect against writs of assistance, general warrants written by soldiers not judges. Our Founding Fathers believed that the right to be left alone—the right to be secure in your own persons—is the most cherished of rights.

Politicians like Senators Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-SC), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Governors Jeb Bush and Scott Walker have all endorsed the NSA domestic surveillance program. Alone among presidential candidates, I am leading the fight to end this unconstitutional program. They are threatening our rights, freedoms, and privacy by encouraging the NSA to continue their warrantless tapping of American’s cell phones, and all without good reason.

...

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/26/exclusive-rand-paul-the-patriot-act-provides-no-security-at-the-cost-of-our-liberty/