Thursday, November 19, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
The Feds are making a fortune stealing private property [feedly]
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The Feds are making a fortune stealing private property
// Personal Liberty Digest™
A new report out from the Institute for Justice reveals that the amount of money the federal government is raking in by seizing cash, cars and homes from Americans is rising dramatically.
In the second edition of its "Policing for Profit" report, the institute estimates that the Department of Justice seized $4.5 billion worth of Americans' personal property in 2014 through civil forfeiture.
Civil forfeiture allows the government to take cash, cars, homes and other property from people without ever convicting or even charging them with a crime. Often, victims of this government theft never see their belongings again.
Just 13 percent of the forfeitures that occurred between 1997 and 2013 were the result of direct knowledge that the property was used to commit a crime. The other 87 percent of forfeitures occurred under law enforcement's mere suspicion that the property was tied to a crime.
"Every year, police and prosecutors across the United States take hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, cars, homes and other property — regardless of the owners' guilt or innocence," the institute noted.
And it isn't just the police who are seizing property.
Consider this story from the report:
Lyndon McLellan runs a convenience store in Fairmont, N.C., and has done so without incident for more than a decade. All that changed in 2014, when the Internal Revenue Service used civil forfeiture to seize McLellan's entire $107,000 bank account. He did not stand accused of selling drugs or even of cheating on his taxes; in fact, he was not charged with any crime at all. Rather, the IRS claimed that he had been "structuring" his deposits — that is, breaking them into amounts of less than $10,000 to evade federal reporting requirements for large transactions. McLellan, like most people, did not even know what "structuring" was, let alone that it was illegal. His niece, who handles the deposits, had been advised by a bank teller that smaller deposits meant less paperwork for the bank, so she kept deposits small.
The government finally returned McLellan's funds after a legal battle and public outcry, but the small-business owner was still forced to foot hefty legal bills resulting from the incident.
There are hundreds of other stories like this from all over the country because the government has incentivized policing for profit at all levels of law enforcement and bureaucracy over the past couple decades.
In 1986, DOJ officials confiscated about $93.7 million worth of property through civil forfeiture laws. Last year, that number jumped to $4.5 billion, a 4,667 percent increase in just under 30 years.
Read the Institute for Justice's full report:
More information about civil forfeiture from Personal Liberty®:
"Police power is the foundation of the state""Maryland farmer fights to get back money the IRS stole through forfeiture""Christmas classic re-imagined: 'Twas the Night Raid Before Christmas""AG Holder moves against civil forfeitures""Another civil forfeiture horror story""House bill could curb IRS practice of seizing assets without probable cause""IRS seizes rural convenience store owner's career savings in another horrible abuse of civil forfeiture""Sorry, but the police can still steal your property""Small-business owner fights to reclaim money stolen by Feds""Who stole $2.5 billion from Americans? The answer might shock you""North Carolina store owner targeted in IRS civil forfeiture case is getting his money back""Lawmakers attempt dual check on federal power""A map that grades each state's asset forfeiture laws""Civil forfeiture shouldn't be this funny""In double win New Mexico civil forfeiture ban inhibits failed war on drugs""Rand Paul offers legislation to keep government from stealing innocent citizens' property""Minnesota ends law enforcement's civil forfeiture money grab""New Mexico puts an end to civil forfeiture"
The post The Feds are making a fortune stealing private property appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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Saturday, November 14, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
A five-story vending machine for cars just opened in Nashville [feedly]
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A five-story vending machine for cars just opened in Nashville
// The Verge
Buying a car is a hellish process. The reward for spending hours researching the right one is a trip to a local dealership — an experience that assaults the nerves in such a way that it's only rivaled by appointments with the dentist. But what if buying a car was easier than that? What if it was as easy as, say, a vending machine? A few years ago, a company called Carvana followed in the footsteps of companies like CarMax by trying to move the car buying experience completely online. The process of purchasing a car on Carvana's website includes all the steps that normally take place at a dealership: getting approved for and selecting financing, selecting a warranty, and signing the contract. It's a process that, in an interview with The Verge, Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia is quick to point out takes many Carvana customers 20 minutes or less.
This left customers with just one dealership interaction: choosing pickup or delivery. And Garcia says that, more often than not, Carvana customers were choosing pickup — so much so that a subsequent pickup store in Atlanta was a rousing success. Now, though, Carvana is adding some spice to the that experience.
It's coin-operated, of course
"We knew that if [customers] chose to pick up the car we would save some money, and so we could invest that money in giving them a really, really great experience," Garcia says. The result? A five-story, fully-automatic vending machine building for cars just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It's like the automated car delivery experience offered by Volkswagen in Germany, except this one is coin-operated.
"The experience itself is exactly a vending machine experience," Garcia says. "The customer even gets a customized, oversized coin that they drop into a slot." The coin triggers a robotic arm, which goes up and grabs the car that the customer purchased online. When the car comes down, it's transferred to another robot that drives the car down a hallway and parks it in a bay, where the customer receives their purchase. After that, Garcia says, customers can be walked through the features on their car, or even take it for a test drive.
In fact, Garcia says the funds aren't actually transferred until the customer takes the final receipt of the car and drives it off the lot. And even when that happens, Carvana offers a seven-day, "no questions asked" return policy. "We even proactively call them on the sixth day and remind them that their return policy is expiring to ensure that they're happy with the car," Garcia says. He calls the "test-to-own" period "way more useful to a consumer than four right turns around a dealership."
Watch your car moonwalk to you
The bet is that the Carvana vending machine will be expensive up front, but inexpensive going forward. By employing fewer staff, leasing less acreage, and carrying fewer cars, Carvana drastically lowers the overhead. It also allows them to sell cars for up to $2,000 less than most dealerships. Garcia's not sure sure whether the vending machine's customers will be local to Nashville or if they'll travel great distances for the experience — the company is offering $200 towards airfare and "white glove" service from the airport if they do — but he does sound confident that Carvana will eventually open up others around the country.
"I think it's going to be an incredible customer experience," Garcia says. "And I think if we've got the car that they're looking for, and we're selling it for $1,500 to $2,000 less, and we offer a purchase process that takes 20 minutes, and then you get to go to a vending machine and watch your car moonwalk to you? I think people are going to respond to that."
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Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Would you be shocked to learn what Obamacare is doing to state budgets? [feedly]
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Would you be shocked to learn what Obamacare is doing to state budgets?
// Personal Liberty Digest™
Remember all those Republican governors who held out on joining Obamacare and expanding Medicaid? They claimed no amount of matching federal money could offset the immense state-level costs.
To no one's surprise, it's turning out they were right — more right than even they might have predicted.
Not only would Obamacare, even if it had followed its ideal-scenario sales pitch, have been too expensive for state revenues to offset; it's even worse now that the numbers aren't adding up. Obamacare's projected sign-up rate has gone way off script; and in the Medicaid-expanded states, the subsidized enrollments are crippling.
"New ObamaCare enrollees and costs have exceeded estimates and threaten to swamp budgets," a headline in The Wall Street Journal warns:
The AP says that California expected 800,000 new enrollees after the state's 2013 Medicaid expansion, but wound up with 2.3 million. Enrollment outstripped estimates in New Mexico by 44%, Oregon by 73%, and Washington state by more than 100%.
This has blown holes in state budgets. Illinois once projected that its Medicaid expansion would cost the state $573 million for 2017 through 2020. Yet 200,000 more people have enrolled than were expected, and the state has increased its estimated cost for covering each. The new price tag? About $2 billion, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Enrollment overruns in Kentucky forced officials to more than double the anticipated cost of the state's Medicaid expansion for 2017, the AP reports, to $74 million from $33 million. That figure could rise to $363 million a year by 2021.
In Rhode Island, where one-quarter of the state's population is now on Medicaid, the program consumes roughly 30% of all state spending, the Providence Journal reports. To plug this growing hole, Rhode Island has levied a 3.5% tax on insurance policies sold through the state's ObamaCare exchange.
Rhode Island approved a 2015 budget of $8.67 billion. How much did it spend on Medicaid in 2014? Nearly $2.5 billion. And that was with the federal government's help.
If you live in one of the holdout states, did your newspaper of record blast your governor for declining to sign on with Obamacare? Did you see editorial after editorial ignoring the fiscal crisis that Obamacare promises to state budgets, only to make moral judgments on how deeply your red-state governor hates the poor?
And now that the cat's out of the bag, is that same paper of record vindicating your governor's decision? The federal contribution to state Medicaid funding is a time-released product with an expiration date. And if states are having funding trouble now, when part of the money's still free, just wait until they're floating the entire bill on their own.
The post Would you be shocked to learn what Obamacare is doing to state budgets? appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Food for Freedom
This is the system we are planning on. I know a guy that shut his down because he could not give away the food overages. It occupied a building about 12x20. He was not trying to sell me on it. I was there to look at his solar system and noticed it and asked about it. He didn't even want to talk about it.
http://megadroughtexposed.com/nht_v12/front-ctrl.php?param1=nht_v12&hop=0077491
Monday, November 9, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Watch This Jetpack Do Strange Things Near Ellis Island [feedly]
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Watch This Jetpack Do Strange Things Near Ellis Island
// Popular Science
JB-9 Jetpack In Flight
Jetpack Aviation
Most jetpacks aren't. The catchy term for personal flying devices includes ducted fans, rockets, engine-powered wing suits, and even hovercraft, but rarely does the device involved actually use jets. Perhaps aware of this incredibly misnamed category, jetpack makers Jetpack Aviation bill their JB-9 device as the "world's only jetpack." Here's what it looks like skirting the Statue of Liberty:
At their site, they describe themselves as Jetpack Purists, noting:
We believe a JetPack should be just that – a jet turbine powered backpack that is capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), is extremely light and small and can easily be carried around by the pilot. It should be powerful enough to lift the pilot quickly to thousands of feet above the ground but small enough to fit into the trunk of a car.
The company claims that the JB-9 offers a 10 minute endurance, a top speed over 10 0mph, and a maximum altitude of over 10,000 feet. The device also supposedly has its heritage from a long line of "jet belts," first built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here's a rocket belt tested for Popular Science in the 2000s:
The team of David Mayman and Nelson Tyler say that between them, they have 70 years of experience in jetpack design. After this design, they want to work on a four engine design, a virtual reality simulator to train jetpack pilots, and an automatically deploying parachute.
Watch it buzz Ellis Island below:
Video of World's only JetPack flies in New York
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Monday, November 2, 2015
100 year old film of Red Baron
> Subject: 100 year old film of Red Baron
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>> The following is a very rare piece of film, 100 years old. It shows Baron Von Richthofen, doing an external prior to a mission, as well as his putting on a flying suit prior to flight in cold weather. If you look close you will notice Hermann Goering.The Baron was shot down on 21 April 1918 by Roy Brown of the Royal Navy Air Services, a prelude of the R.A.F.. The Aussies also claim that one of their machine gunners on the ground shot the Baron down. UK & Aussie Doctors, after the autopsy stated that the fatal bullet was shot from above.The author of this has been very involved as a Director of the Roy Brown Museum in Carleton Place, the home town of Roy. Many letters have been written over the past 3-4 years and finally Roy Brown was inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame on 4 June 2015…To think this film is almost 100 years old! If you're interested in history or aviation, you cannot miss this footage. It was just posted online, and I've never seen anything like it. It's from 1917, and it's an up-close and personal look at the most legendary combat pilot who ever lived, the infamous Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen. Watch the extremely rare, extremely old footage and re-live history. ULTRA-RARE footage of the most famous fighter pilot ever.
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>https://youtu.be/XIiuyijwKRs
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