Nov 04

Today’s News 4th November 2017

  • The Economic End Game Continues

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

    In November of 2014 I published an article titled 'The Economic End Game Explained'. In it I outlined what I believed would be the process by which globalists would achieve what they call the "new world order" or what they sometimes call the "global economic reset."

    As I have shown in great detail in the past, the globalist agenda includes a fiscal end game; a prize or trophy that they hope to obtain. This prize is a completely centralized global economic structure, rooted in a single central bank for the world, the removal of the U.S. dollar as world reserve currency, the institution of the SDR basket system which will act as a bridge for single a global currency supplanting all others and, ultimately, global governance of this system by a mere handful of "elites."

    The timeline for this process is unclear, but there is some indication of when the "beginning of the end" would commence. As noted in the globalist owned magazine The Economist, in an article titled "Get Ready For The Phoenix," the year of 2018 seems to be the launching point for the great reset. This timeline is supported by the numerous measures already taken to undermine dollar dominance in international trade as well as elevate the International Monetary Fund's SDR basket. It is clear that the globalists have deadlines they intend to meet.

    That said, there have been some new developments since I wrote my initial analysis on the end-game strategy that I think merit serious attention. The end game continues, faster than ever before, and here are some of the indicators showing that the "predictions" of the globalists at The Economist in 1988 were more like self-fulfilling prophecies and 2018 remains a primary nexus point for a re-engineering of our economic environment.

    Using The East To Dismantle The Petrodollar

    As I mentioned in last week's article, 'Lies And Distractions Surrounding The Petrodollar,' there has been silence and often disinformation in the mainstream when it comes to the quite open and obvious international pivot away from the dollar as the defacto purchasing mechanism for oil. This trend is only set to accelerate in two months as China begins fulfilling oil contracts in the Yuan instead of the dollar.

    The problem is that even in the alternative media there is a continuing myth that Eastern nations are angling to "break away" from the international order. I often see the argument presented that the loss of the petrodollar can only be a good thing for the world. I am not here to comment on whether the end of oil-denominated in dollars is a good or bad thing. I am here, though, to point out that there is absolutely no indication whatsoever that major eastern powers like Russia and China are acting to undermine the existing globalist system.

    On the contrary, China and Russia remain, as ever, heavily partnered with the IMF as well as the Bank for International Settlements, and their ties to international banking monoliths like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are long established.

    Eastern political and economic officials have consistently called for a new reserve system supplanting the dollar, this is true. But what so many analysts seem to overlook is that they ALSO call for that new system to be dominated by the IMF.

    The delusion that the financial world operates on is that the IMF is "controlled" by the U.S. It is not. It is controlled by international bankers, who have no loyalties to any specific country. Once one understands this fact, the systematic sabotage of the U.S. makes perfect sense, as well as the collusion between China, Russia and the IMF. America is a sacrificial appendage of the globalist edifice and is being torn down piece by piece in order to feed the creation of something new and perhaps even more sinister.

    As George Soros proclaimed back in 2009, the "new world order" would rely in part on China as a replacement economic engine for the globalist machine and depend far less on a diminishing United States. China would serve as a smaller engine, but a replacement engine none the less.

    China is more than happy to oblige the globalists with a concerted  and incremental program of de-dollerization. But this does not mean that the end-goal is a "petroyuan." No, the goal is for the IMF to assert the dominance of the SDR basket system as a reserve hub. And, China is now the flagship market for the SDR after its recent induction into the fold. There will be no single reserve currency after the dollar is brutalized. At least, not until all currencies are homogenized through the SDR basket and finally replaced with a single global currency unit. Until then, the IMF or the BIS will dictate nation-to-nation trade and monetary exchange.

    It only follows that this highly-volatile rebirth of the global financial order would begin in part with the dollar's loss of petro-status. The oil trade is the one defining element that gives the dollar a fundamental edge over all other currencies. It is the closest thing we have to commodity backing for the dollar and it is an advantage no other currency in the world can yet boast. There are many ways to destroy the dollar, but the BEST method would be to end its petro-status.

    The Global Currency Unit Is Already Here

    One argument I used to hear often from naysayers on global currency was that there "is no monetary unit with enough liquidity to replace the dollar." Of course, these people have no understanding of the SDR basket and how it could be used to envelop and absorb most if not all currencies into a single reserve mechanism. That said, I understand the confusion. When people think of currencies, they think of physical tickets of measurement; they want to see a piece of paper with symbols, or, they want to at least see a brand name for the product, which is what all currencies really are.

    When The Economist in 1988 called for a global currency to launch in 2018, they were perhaps not aware of the exact form the destructor would take. Even in 2014 I was not fully convinced we had enough evidence on what that unit of measurement would be or look like. Today, it is clear as crystal — the one world currency system will not only be a cashless system, but it will also be based on digital blockchain technology.

    As I examined in my article 'The Globalist One World Currency Will Look A Lot Like Bitcoin,' while some politicians and banking moguls publicly attack blockchain-based products like Bitcoin or Etherium, in the background they are actually heavily invested in these systems and are even building their own. With central banking mascots like Ben Bernanke becoming keynote speakers at blockchain conferences, it is not exactly an elusive secret that the global banks love blockchain tech.

    Even major elitist corporations like Amazon appear ready to adopt blockchain products as currencies.  So, one needs to ask the question:  If the blockchain and Bitcoin are such a dire threat to the centralization of the establishment, why are they rapidly laying all the groundwork necessary for blockchain systems to replace paper currencies?

    What is interesting to me is that even in the highly vigilant world of alternative economics, which is well aware of the trend towards a global currency system, blockchain systems are still revered as if they will save us from central bank tyranny. Very few people have noticed that The Economist call for a 2018 one world monetary framework has arrived slightly early; it has been right under our noses for several years. With blockchain-based methods of exchange, a replacement structure for the dollar and all other national currencies is not very far away.

    The Federal Reserve Implosion Program Continues

    I remember back before 2008 when the media almost never treated actions at the Federal Reserve as major news.  In fact, I remember back when the average American had never even heard for the Federal Reserve, and some believed the very existence of the institution was a "conspiracy theory".  Now, the nomination for the new Fed chair is at the top of the news feeds, but for all the wrong reasons.

    The changing of the Fed chair is absolutely meaningless as far as policy is concerned.  Jerome Powell will continue the same exact initiatives as Yellen; stimulus will be removed, rates will be hiked and the balance sheet will be reduced, leaving the massive market bubble the Fed originally created vulnerable to implosion.  Equities in particular display the behavior of an out of control bullet train similar to the 2006/2007 bubble, or even the delusional exuberance prominent before the crash of 1929. 

    All of this optimism is dependent on two things – dumb blind faith that all investors will continue to act in perfect concert to always "buy the dip", and, continued faith that central banks will forever step in to obstruct and reverse any market correction.

    An observant person, however, might have noticed that central banks around the world seem to be acting in a coordinated fashion to remove stimulus support from markets and raise interest rates, cutting off supply lines of easy money that have long been a crutch for our crippled economy.  The Bank of England raised rates this past week, as the Federal Reserve indicated yet another rate hike in December.  The Europeans Central Bank continues to prep the public for coming rate hikes, while the Bank of Japan has assured the public that "inflation" expectations have been met and no new stimulus is necessary.  If all of this appears coordinated, that is because it is.

    Fed policy is not dictated by the Fed chair, and it is certainly not dictated by Donald Trump. As former chairman Alan Greenspan openly admitted, the central bank does NOT answer to government, it is an autonomous policy making machine.  Fed chairs are as easily replaced as lawnmower parts; they are mascots for the banking system, nothing more.  Once they are "nominated" by the president, they take their orders from another source entirely, and I would even question the validity of the nomination process and how the original list of candidates is chosen.  For the real puppeteers at the Fed, one would need to look to an organization outside the U.S., called the Bank for International Settlements.

    Many Subtle Changes Add Up To Unprecedented Instability

    I think it is vital for people to consider time when it comes to economics. Changes we think were abrupt during historic moments of crisis were often not abrupt at all. Almost all financial crisis "events" were preceded by years if not decades of growing but subtle cracks in the foundation. If you were to travel back 10 years ago and explain to the average person (or the average mainstream economist) what is happening today, he would probably scoff indignantly. Yet today these things are accepted as commonplace, or ignored as unimportant.  Time and short attentions spans are the bane of free societies.

    The skeleton of the "new world order" economy is right in front of us. The triggers for explosive change have already been planted. What concerns me is, when these changes come to fruition and crisis follows, will the masses even notice?

  • "It's Okay To Be White" Signs Found At Maryland High School

    The ‘Politically Incorrect’ thread on 4chan has done it again.

    Sparking media attention surrounding a white nationalist movement to post signs in public areas including academic institutions that say, “It’s okay to be white”.

    Readers of the blog, organized on social media and used the cover of Halloween to post “It’s okay to be white” across various academic institutions in the United States.

    One of the most publicized stories is coming from a Maryland High school this morning of an unidentified man posting signage on numerous doors early Wednesday morning.

    School officials at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland removed the signs before students arrived. Security footage from the school was released on Thursday showing someone in a grey hoodie and blue jeans posting the signs on as many as 10 exterior doors.

    “We are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident. Our research so far has indicated that this may be part of a concerted national campaign to foment racial and political tension in our school and community,” Johnson said.

     

    He also said, “I want you to know that Montgomery Blair is a very smart, diverse and inclusive community and we will not fall victim to attempts to divide us”.

    Posted on 4chan, the call to action was to bait the politically correct leftist media…

    Video shows someone who is triggered by an “It’s okay to be white” sign ripping it down from a pole.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    “It’s okay to be white” signs showing up in Alabama

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    More signage at University of Maryland

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Bottomline: The Divided States of America is heading for a very bad day, as the population continues to be fragmented. More evidence that social tensions have not abated, but are compressing and the next ‘Charlottesville event’ is around the corner.

  • All Of The World's Money And Markets In One Visualization

    Millions, billions, and trillions…

    When we talk about the giant size of Apple, the fortune of Warren Buffett, or the massive amount of global debt accumulated – all of these things sound large, but they are actually extremely different in magnitude.

    That’s why, as Visual Capitalists' Jeff Desjardins explains, visualizing things spatially can give us a better perspective on money and markets.

    How Much Money Exists?

    This infographic was initially created to show how much money exists in its different forms. For example, to highlight how much physical cash there is in comparison to broader measures of money which include saving and checking account deposits.

    Interestingly, what is considered “money” depends on who you are asking.

    Are the abstractions created by Central Banks really money? What about gold, bitcoins, or other hard assets?

    A New Meaning

    However, since we first released this infographic in 2015, “All the World’s Money and Markets” has taken on a different meaning to us and many others. It’s a way of simplifying a complex universe of currencies, assets, and other financial instruments in a way that people can understand.

    Numbers represented in the data visualization range from the size of the above-ground silver market ($17 billion) to the notional value of all derivatives ($1.2 quadrillion as a high-end estimate). In between those two extremes, we’ve added many other familiar measures, such as the GDP of California, the value of equities, the real estate market, along with different money supply metrics to give perspective.

    The end result? A visually pleasing, but enlightening new way to understand the vast universe of global assets.

    Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

    *  *  *

    To get “All the World’s Money” in book or poster form, go to the Kickstarter page now. Deadline: Oct. 31, 2017

  • What To Do If All Hell Breaks Loose During Tomorrow's "Antifa Uprising"

    Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

    Tomorrow is November 4th, the date that has been bandied about by wannabe Communists and people who hate the President since last summer as the starting date of their uprising.

    Cities across the country have planned events (find the list of locations here) and I’ve gotten photos from people in small towns all over the place of signs with the ominous warning, “November 4th It Begins.”

    Now, before we delve into prepping for this, please know that there is every chance this is a tempest in a teapot. It’s most likely that anywhere from 20 to 200 people will show up with their signs, chant mean things about the President, maybe throw a rock through a window, and go home. If you aren’t near these locations, you probably won’t even know it’s going on unless you check the news. So, while you should be prepared for anything (as usual), you shouldn’t be afraid.

    But…considering the fact that this is on every media outlet everywhere (the NY Times actually allowed it to be promoted with a full-page ad on November 1), the possibilities of all hell breaking loose should at least be considered.

    I’ve cited before Newton’s Third Law of Physics which states “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” From Antifa, the threats of violence are becoming more extreme. And if this gets crazy, there WILL be a reaction. 

    A lot of folks are sick and tired of being pushed around, threatened, and censored by these ironically named Anti-Fascists. You need only check out the comments section on any article about the potential event to know that some fed-up Americans intend to push back and counter-protest. Hard. I  have talked to more than one member of the military who says, “Bring it on.” Tensions have the potential to boil over.

    If your goal is to be out there in the thick of things because you believe it is your obligation to do so, this article probably isn’t for you and I offer you my very best wishes for your safety.

    If you are planning to avoid any conflict and focus on keeping your family away from trouble, you can be prepared for the possibility that civil unrest erupts. By planning ahead, we can avoid the fear, panic, and confusion that leads people to rush to the store and clear the shelves like a horde of hungry locusts.  We can stay away from the angry masses, the rioters who will use any excuse to steal, and the hungry people who are determined to feed their kids no matter who stands in their way.

    Whether the next few days lead to pandemonium or even martial law to crack down on unrest, a prepared mindset, a defense plan, and a well-stocked home can help to keep you and your family out of harm’s way. My personal goal is the safety and security of my family. This is my primary responsibility.

    In her article Anatomy of a Breakdown, Tess Pennington wrote:

    “When you take the time to understand how a breakdown behaves and how it progresses, only then can you truly prepare for it.

     

    This glimpse into a systemic breakdown is based on an isolated, limited disaster or event where emergency responders have been deployed. I must emphasize that all bets are off if the event is wide spread, affecting multiple tens of millions of people simultaneously.”

    Spend today getting ready, just in case. Here are the most vital things that you can do to be prepared for civil unrest.

    Get home

    In a perfect world, we’d all be home, watching the chaos erupt on TV from the safety of our living rooms.  However, reality says that some of us will be at work, at school, or in the car when unrest occurs.  You need to develop a “get-home” plan for all of the members of your family, based on the most likely places that they will be.

    • Devise an efficient route for picking up the kids from school.  Be sure that anyone who might be picking up the children already has permission to do so in the school office.
    • Keep a get-home bag in the trunk of your car in case you have to set out on foot.
    • Stash some supplies in the bottom of your child’s backpack – water, a snack, any tools that might be useful, and a map.  Be sure your children understand the importance of OPSEC. (Here’s a school kit that won’t get your kid expelled, but in this situation, your children should NOT be encouraged to set off on their own.)
    • Find multiple routes home – map out alternative backroad ways to get home as well as directions if you must go home on foot.
    • Find hiding places along the way.  If you work or go to school a substantial distance from your home, figure out some places to lay low now, before a crisis situation.  Sometimes staying out of sight is the best way to stay safe.
    • Avoid groups of people.  It seems that the mob mentality strikes when large groups of people get together.  Often folks who would never ordinarily riot in the streets get swept up by the mass of people who are doing so.
    • Keep in mind that in many civil disorder situations the authorities are to be avoided every bit as diligently as the angry mobs of looters. Who can forget the scenes of innocent people being pepper sprayed by uniformed thugs in body armor just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

    Stay home

    Once you make your way home or to your bug-out location … STAY THERE.

    By staying home, you are minimizing your risk of being caught in the midst of an angry mob or of sitting in stalled traffic while looters run amok.  In most scenarios, you will be far safer at home than you will be in any type of shelter or refugee situation. (Obviously, this isn’t true in all cases – you must use common sense before hunkering down.)

    This is when your preparedness supplies will really pay off. If you are ready for minor medical emergencies and illnesses, a grid down scenario, and a no-comm situation, you will be able to stay safely at home with your family and ride out the crisis in moderate comfort.

    Be sure you have a supply of the following:

    • Water
    • Necessary prescription medications
    • Food and an off-grid way to cook it (Do NOT rely on mail order stuff for an event starting tomorrow – get your supplies locally)
    • Or food that requires no cooking
    • First aid supplies
    • Lighting in the event of a power outage
    • Sanitation supplies (in the event that the municipal water system is unusable, this would include cleaning supplies and toilet supplies)
    • A way to stay warm in harsh winter weather
    • Over-the-counter medications and/or herbal remedies to treat illnesses at home
    • Survival and first aid manuals (hard copies in case the internet and power grid are down)
    • Alternative communications devices (such as a hand-crank radio or a ham radio) so that you can get updates about the outside world
    • Off-grid entertainment:  arts and craft supplies, puzzles, games, books, crossword or word search puzzles, needlework, journals

    Be prepared to defend your home

    Sometimes despite our best intentions, the fight comes to us.  Even though we stay home, something about our place draws the attention of an unsavory person or group.  Defense is two-fold.  Your best defense is avoiding the fight altogether. You want to stay under the radar and not draw attention to yourself.

    The extent to which you strive to do this should be based on the severity of the unrest in your area. Some of the following recommendations are not necessary for an everyday grid-down scenario but could save your life in a more extreme civil unrest scenario.

    • Keep all the doors and windows locked.  Secure sliding doors with a metal bar.  Consider installing decorative gridwork over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
    • Put dark plastic over the windows. (Heavy duty garbage bags work well.)  If it’s safe to do so, go outside and check to see if any light escapes from the windows. If your home is the only one on the block that is well-lit, it is a beacon to others.
    • Don’t answer the door.  Many home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access to your house.
    • Keep cooking smells to a minimum.  If everyone else in the neighborhood is hungry, the meat on your grill will draw people like moths to a flame.
    • Keep pets indoors. Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun”.  Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.
    • Remember that first responders may be tied up.  If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself.  Also keep in mind, as mentioned earlier in the article – the cops are not always your friends in these situations.
    • Don’t be drawn outside. Sometimes, thugs will try to engage people by damaging their car or property outside.  Going outside, you will likely be outnumbered.  In most cases, you’ll be better off just calling the insurance company the next day.

    If, despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill intent, you must be ready to defend your family.

    • Many preppers stockpile weapons and ammunition for just such an event.  When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation.  Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force.
    • Have a safe room established for children or other vulnerable family members.(Here are instructions – you may be able to put something together quickly, depending on your home.)
    • Plan an escape route.  If the odds are against you, devise a way to get your family to safety.
    • Have a plan to deal with a fire. Fire is often used in situations like this. Be sure to have well-maintained fire extinguishers in case of a small blaze.

    What about a martial law event?

    While many of the officers involved most likely just want to resolve the situation and go home to their families, the methods that are often used are not methods most of us wish to encounter.

    In a highly charged situation like this, police and military are trained to use the most efficient methods to speedily shut down a conflict. These methods can include tear gas, sound cannons, and outright physical assaults on citizens. It’s important to note that fear can be a powerful motivator when deciding how much force is appropriate when addressing a threat. Cops are just as subject to fear as the rest of us. 20 cops with shields and batons would be quite reasonable to fear an angry mob of hundreds of shouting people.

    Your safety when interacting with officials during a martial law situation does not rely on the intentions of police officers and military. It really doesn’t matter if they are trying to crush your rights under a jack-booted heel, or whether they are trying to benevolently keep people safe and re-establish peace and harmony.

    Here are some suggestions to help keep you safe when dealing with cops and soldiers.

    • Avoid crowds. If you are in the midst of a crowd, you’ll be considered part of the crowd and treated exactly like everyone else in that group. If they get tear-gassed, so will you. It’s guilt by association. If the crowd is violent, and you are part of the crowd, you will also be considered violent, and you’ll be dealt with accordingly. Legally, you are actually guilty if you are part of a group that is violent.
    • Be polite. If you have to interact with officers, be courteous. You won’t restore the Constitution by arguing with them or threatening them. It’s fine to assert your rights – you don’t have to allow them to search your house without cause, for example, but do so civilly. Belligerence will get you nothing but a beat-down.
    • You don’t get to explain. In a highly charged situation, the cops probably aren’t going to listen to you when you try to explain that you’re just taking that baseball bat in your hand over to your nephew’s house so he can hit some balls in the backyard. No matter how innocent your intentions are, if you’re walking like a duck, you’re going to be treated like a duck. Training will kick in, and perceived threats will be immediately neutralized by whatever means the cops find necessary.
    • Stay home. It really isn’t worth risking your physical safety to go see what’s going on.

    Underneath the uniform, cops are human.  I’m not justifying the brutality, the methods they sometimes use, or the assaults on journalists. Cops are just as likely to be swept up in a herd mentality as protesters and rioters are during a high-stress situation. By understanding this, you can be better prepared.

    *  *  *

    Every civil unrest scenario is different.  You must make a personal plan based on your environment, your neighbors, and the type of situation that is occurring in your area.  By thinking ahead, you’ve already improved your family’s chances of surviving unscathed.

  • Do Not Break Your iPhone X

    With the iPhone X, Apple’s re-designed anniversary iPhone, official launch today, we saw the familiar images of people lining up in front of Apple Stores around the world to be among the first ones to get their hands on the new device.

    Despite the X’s lofty price – it starts at $999 for the smaller 64 GB model, making it the most expensive iPhone to-date – it’s safe to say that Apple could sell a lot more units on Friday than it can possibly produce by then. When the iPhone X became available for pre-order last Friday, it was sold out within minutes and the estimated delivery time currently stands at 5 to 6 weeks.

    But, as Statista's Felix Richter notes, to all those quick or lucky enough to get an iPhone X anytime soon, our advice is: do not drop it.

    Infographic: Do Not Break Your iPhone X | Statista

    You will find more statistics at Statista

    According to Apple’s official support website, the company’s latest smartphone is just as expensive to repair as it is to acquire.

    Repairing the screen alone will set you back $279 or nearly twice what you pay for a new iPhone 8 screen. If you’re unlucky enough to break more than just your screen, you’ll be out $549 to get your phone fixed.

    Oops…

  • Kyle Bass Interviews Mark Cuban: "AI Will Help The FANG Stocks Crush Bitcoin"

    Entrepreneur and TV personality Mark Cuban is one of the most visible businessmen in America (present occupant of the Oval Office aside) – though whether his reputation is warranted or not is open to debate. LIke Trump, he is a master of self-promotion – he authored a popular business book – the aptly titled “How To Win At The Sport Of Business” (Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks) – and is one of the hosts on a popular network reality TV show, “Shark Tank.”

    And in an interview Kyle Bass for RealVision Television, Cuban shares his opinions on artificial intelligence and ICOs, which our readers know are two of the most-overhyped tech trends of the year.

    But first, Cuban and Bass warm up with some small talk about parenting, where Cuban readily shares his strategy for raising kids to not become, in his words, “entitled jerks.”

    MC: It's like, you want something? You have to earn it. It may be doing math. Like, with my 8-year-old, it's math for money. You have to answer math questions to earn $1 or $5.

     

    With my middle daughter, it's reading a non-school book. So, I'll give her a history book or a biography. And she'll make $20. If it's over 300 pages, she can make more.

     

    And then my oldest daughter is a challenge. My 14-year-old, that's a whole different beast. All those things worked up until this year.

     

    So, we're working through trying to figure out what kind of jobs she can do. So, the point being that, I want them to recognize like I did growing up, that you have to earn what you're going to get and that it's just not going to be waiting for you. And so, whether that amount is $5 million like I have now or $10 million when they get to 30, then who knows? We can adjust. But it's I think now is really where it matters and the habits that I get them into now are important.

    While Shark Tank doesn’t pay as well as some of his other ventures, Cuban says doing the show is a labor of love. He says he enjoys hearing stories from parents about how watching shark tank inspired their kids to become more entrepreneurial.

    In one notable aside, Cuban confirmed what many dedicated “Shark Tank” fans have probably suspected for years: The producers intentionally pick some of the more outlandish pitches (remember Cougar Energy? The energy drink shot marketed toward tired, single, middle-aged woman?) to inject a little excitement into the show.

    Though sometimes the silliest pitches can yield surprisingly strong returns, Cuban said.

    MC: Yeah. Because it's TV, right? So, I invested in a guy – so when I first did the show – I came on as a guest 7 years ago. And there was a guy that did a little dance – I want to draw a cat for you, right? And I gave him $25,000 for a third of his company, and all we did was draw stick figures of cats. And he charged $10 a pop. And people were buying them. And so, literally, I got probably a 50% return of my $25,000 investment.

     

    And also, on top of that, I got hired to do 10 cats at $1,000 apiece by somebody because the silliness of it is what sold. But I made the investment, not because I wanted to draw cats, right, but because he was really good at SEO. And so sometimes you see somebody who doesn't really know how to manifest their skill set. So, you start with them here, and we did some things there, and then we took his creativity and pushed him into other areas. And now he's on to bigger and better things, which is great by me.

    Bass then moved on to asking Cuban a few questions about how he manages his $3.3 billion.

    Cuban said he doesn’t think about investing strictly in terms of monetary return. When he chooses companies to invest in, he thinks in terms of the company’s overall impact.

    Moving on, Bass asked how Cuban how he thinks about passing on his wealth to his children.

    Cuban says he’s considering a similar approach to Warren Buffett whereby he leaves either $5 million or $10 million to each of his children in his will, with conditions so they don’t receive the money until they’re thirty. Cuban often speaks about how his teenage work experience selling garbage bags and delivering newspapers helped prepare him for life as an entrepreneur.

    Cuban: So, when I wrote my will initially, it was $5, and not till they were 30, right? So that I wanted them to go through life. And I know my wife, if she outlives me – probably will – she'll fill in the blanks like she does today, right? Like, my kids want money today, it's like, how are you going to earn it? I'm not that dad that says here's a present, right, here's a bank account, here's a debit card, just use it, or whatever– no. Here's your Amazon account. Not at all.

    Their conversation soon turned to global central bank policy, and how aggressive money printing by the largest CBs has helped distort the global cash-to-GDP ratio, which now stands at around 170%, compared to historical levels of just 40%…

    KB: Yeah. So, when we think about– global cash balances today are the largest they've ever been. So when I think about what happened is – the first QE that happened in the US, and Europe, and Bank of Japan, Bank of England had to fill a hole, right? There was there was a hole.

     

    Given the global financial crisis – global financial institutions were insolvent. They had to print that money. They had to inject it-

     

    MC: No question.

     

    KB: – in the banks. And that's something that you and I would have done if we were running these institutions. Whether or not we agree with expanding fed balance sheets, we'd have to do it. So, the second part was the part that felt good, the part where we started to see some growth, and started to see cash getting distributed. And the interesting thing is it was fed policy was unintentionally distributed to the wealthy because the wealthy are the only people that could use leverage and assets, and they don't spend it right away.

     

    MC: And because of this drop in the stock market, people who could afford to lease got out of the market. And because so many people lost their homes, whatever savings you had, you used to try to save your house and to try to reimagine your life, if you will, and recreate your –

     

    KB: Exactly right.

     

    MC: And so, you've got a greater disparity in standards of living, and that's where we are today.

    However, this excess liquidity created by the central banks will eventually evaporate as advances in artificial intelligence and automation trigger a deflationary spiral as they push more humans out of the labor market.

    Cuban believes that – for better or worse – automation will change the world, and that companies should be proactive about engaging in it.

    Ultimately, this trend will benefit tech stocks like Amazon and Apple. The biggest tech companies, Cuban said, are going to continue to swell in size, influence and profitability.

    KB: – so innovational that we've had good deflation. But I think now, when you look at the price of just about anything in life, it's going up. My view –

     

    MC: See, I would disagree. Right. I think artificial intelligence is going to change everything, everything, 180 degrees. I've been in the tech business. I started selling PCs in 1982, right? I started selling local area networks – we were the first companies – my first start-up in 1983. I sold that, and then I started trading just tech. I started a hedge fund – started just trading tech stocks – sold that within 90 days. And then we started streaming, then first hide – all these things have happened that have changed how we do business, changed how we lived our lives, changed everything, right, the internet. But what we're going to see with artificial intelligence dwarfs all of that.

     

    KB: And you think it will be deflationary?

     

    MC: Yes. Because there's going to be –

     

    KB: Because it displaces jobs?

     

    MC: A lot of jobs.

     

    KB: OK. That's not good.

     

    MC: Well, you can make arguments, right – it's not a question of how it plays out over 100 years. It's a question of how plays out over 10 years, 20 years, right? Who knows what exactly – But I can tell, at the beginning, which jobs are going to be displaced. I can tell you the real estate is going to be displaced. I've talked to major companies that, they're asking me, Mark, we're going to have all this extra real estate in all these towns. What are we going to do with it? Do you have any ideas? And I'm talking to them about –

     

    KB: Because they're going to be centralizing their operations?

     

    MC: Just fewer people.

     

    KB: Fewer people.

     

    MC: Yeah. Just fewer people. So, the concept of you calling in to make an appointment to have somebody pick up your car to get your oil changed, right– someone will still drive to get your car, but there's going to be no people in transacting any of it.

     

    KB: That's terrible.

     

    MC: It is what it is.

    Cuban says he agrees with Vladimir Putin’s assessment that whichever country wins the AI innovation race could wind up controlling the world.

    KB: Or best professors, for that matter. They're pulling them out of school.

     

    MC: Exactly right. And so, Vladimir Putin says the winner in AI controls the world. China puts together a future plan saying whoever dominates in AI– and they're subsidizing Tencent, Alibaba, et cetera, right?

     

    KB: They know it's a race.

     

    MC: It is a race. We cut our Office of Technology and Science to one person who was an assistant to Peter Thiel. That's where we stand. So, we talk about infrastructure jobs, robots are built in Germany, and they're getting bought by Chinese companies. In some respects, I think some Japanese companies bought as well. We don't build robots here very well, right? I just invested in my first robotics company, Hirebotics that puts robots into companies. They're in Kansas City, I think it is, now.

     

    But they lease and rent and sell robots into all these different types of circumstances to replace people, right? But I had to learn. I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing. It's going to happen with or without me. But I wanted to learn what was going on. Those building up a robotics industry here, investing in our AI industry here, that's the new infrastructure. Because if we don't do it, and China or Russia win those wars, we're SOL. We're out of luck, right?

     

    And so, when we talk about the price of assets going up – if you're talking about intellectual assets, if you're hiring, like we were just saying, the price is skyrocketing. Montreal has become the center of the universe for computer vision. It's not US-based schools that are dominating any longer in those areas. We've got lots more kids – MIT, all different schools, right? And kids are starting to realize there's a place for them to go. And I'm out there telling people, the first trillionaire is going to come from somebody who comes up with something – 

    Asked for his opinion on digital currencies, Cuban likened the inherently deflationary bitcoin to a work of art that appreciates as it ages.

    But in Cuban's view, the biggest tech stocks will eventually outperform bitcoin as they master the ability to innovate while also achieving massive scale.

    KB: It's just a digital asset that's a collectible? Yeah.

     

    MC: Right? And in this particular case, it's a brilliant collectible that's probably more like art than baseball cards, stamps, or coins, right, because there's a finite amount that are going to be made, right? There's 21.9 million bitcoins that are going to be made. And if enough people hold and don't sell, and enough people borrow to buy, just like we saw in the stock market. Because look, as much as a share of stock is ownership in a company, that's the all-time lie, right? You have no authority, no ownership.

     

    KB: Unless you control it.

     

    MC: Yeah. Unless you're the controlling shareholder, or you are willing to spend a lot to make a lot of noise.

     

    MC: It depends on what my expertise would be, right? I mean, I always tell people to  focus on what you know. And if you don't know, just put it in an SPX cheap fund, right? And maybe, now, I might say, OK, put 5% in Bitcoin or Ethereum, just red or black, right? Because it's like artwork, but it has –

     

    KB: A finite amount of artwork.

     

    MC: There's a finite amount of artwork, right, or baseball cards. But yeah, I would just tell people an SPX fund. Because I think the job of America is still business. And I think, whatever benefits will come from AI or whatever, is going to–

     

    KB: Filter into –

     

    MC: Yeah. And I think the FANG stock's are going to crush them. My biggest public holding is Amazon.

    …Before the conversation turned to ICOs. Cuban insists ICOs are “an opportunity” though he says he avoids the “speculative” side of the market….which is confusing because the market is a massively speculative bubble where products are rare and “pitches” are legion.

    KB: And then, when you move into ICOs, how do you think about ICOs? You mentioned
    to me, it's a seat license.

     

    MC: Yeah. That's exactly right. ICO tokens really are an opportunity – there's two there's two different ways to look at ICOs, right – one, as a quote unquote, "investment vehicle," which I don't, right? Again, that's just a scarcity play. It's like it's like an IPO in some respects. It's just, if the float is small, and you can convince enough people on the road show to buy, it's going up, right?

    In summary, Cuban is categorically bullish about AI and ICOs, which is unsurprising. After all, he’s a tech guy who made his fortune selling broadcast.com to Yahoo in what turned out to be an ill-fated acquisition for the once-mighty internet giant. Still, if one has billions of dollars to invest in projects based on their purported “impact”, so-called “opportunities” in the ICO market are never in short supply.

  • Scientists Look For A Cure For Politically Undesirable Behavior

    Via GEFIRA,

    The ‘Free World’ has taken on where the Soviet scientists and psychiatrists left off.

    German and American scientists of renowned Universities in Bonn and Lübeck do research on treatment for politically undesirable behaviour like their Soviet colleagues from the infamous Serbsky Central Research Institute in Moscow. In the Soviet Union people who protested the system had to undergo psychiatric treatment.

    Vladimir Bukovsky, a world-known dissident survived one and described it. The same will be the fate of the so called Free World’s citizens if they fail to conform to the idea of a multi-cultural society. The powers that be have given a signal, and obliging, complaisant scientists are already busy working on bettering our collective and individual psyche. Apart from homophobia and Islamophobia, xenophobia is another psychiatric condition that needs to undergo therapy…hormonal therapy.

    Throughout history, the world has been torn by two opposing factors that face each other with daggers drawn. These are natural biological, and unnatural forces, or reality and dystopia. It is natural for a human being to want to possess things and work as little as possible; to counter it, dystopian socialists, communists or Christian heretics came up with an idea of a society governed by the principle: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

    It was supposed to work. And it failed miserably everywhere it was installed and implemented, from Cuba to East Germany, to the Soviet Union, to North Korea. 

    The human being, an evolutionary extension of the animal world, is endowed with certain indelible features at the genetic level. Group loyalty and fear of aliens are among them. Man cannot survive alone. Mankind is not a biologically monolithic, homogeneous family. Rather, it is made up of human groups (clans, tribes, nations, races) that as a result of their long development are moving apart from each other. Biology is the basis on which human communities create culture and ultimately civilization, not the other way round.

    Human groups, which have come into being as a result of living separately from each other for ages and so have developed incompatible cultures and religions, compete for resources i.e. for survival. Since man cannot make it through life on his own, he is a part of a group (clan, tribe, nation). In order for the group to function well and safeguard its (and simultaneously its members’ survival success), each group member is equipped with two psychological mechanisms (i) in-group loyalty and (ii) out-group enmity.

    Group members collaborate, and support each other even to the point of sacrificing themselves for the whole. That’s the origin of altruism. Defection to another group means weakening one’s own group and strengthening the alien group, which has always been regarded as the gravest mortal sin: treason. (Dante’s hell has Judas Iscariot in its centre, which is the severest punishment for it). Altruism towards members of the out-group is something between in-group loyalty and defection. Its exuberant instances are technically referred to as pathological altruism.

    The phenomenon can be compared to the rivalry among soccer teams. The team’s (survival) objective is to win the cup. The prize will be shared by all team members. In order to achieve it, each one of them has to cooperate with the others: no cooperation with members of any other, opposing, team is thinkable. A team’s player may want to sacrifice his personal career for another player from the same team by helping him to score as many goals as possible and thus becoming the team’s star, or by fouling the opposite team’s player and thus risk being sent out of the playground (death), thus enhancing the chances of his team’s win, but the same will not make things easier on the playground for any member of the opposing team. Helping members of the other team means lessening the chances for winning the cup (survival) of one’s own team and, ultimately one’s own chances.

    If my well-being and survival depends on that of the group that I am a member of, and, conversely, if my group’s survival is contingent on the cooperation, altruism and self-sacrifice of its members, including me, then in-group loyalty is in high demand whereas out-group (pathological) altruism is detrimental. That’s evolutionary mechanism. That’s game theory. That’s common sense. Everybody knows it. So do social engineers.

    Since social engineers have come up with the idea of building new, multi-racial, multi-national, multi-religious, multi-cultural societies, they have encountered the natural barrier: xenophobia, which is another name for in-group loyalty and out-group avoidance. Xenophobia is a biological mechanism imprinted at the genetic level that carries a survival advantage. It tells an individual to create bonds with members of the same group and be on his guard against aliens. To put it in plain language: xenophobia is practised at the very basic personal level each time parents warn their offspring to be wary of strangers: not to open the door to them, not to trust them. So modern social engineers have a problem. They need to overcome this deeply rooted biological barrier.

    A sign has been given, most probably followed by substantial grants and other financial incentives, and so scientists got down to work to find a cure for xenophobia. One of the research teams included psychologists and psychiatrists from Bonn, Tulsa, and Lübeck scientific institutions. Urged by the increasing globalization and the mass migration of peoples, as they say, the mentioned scientists, who otherwise dutifully recognize the evolutionary advantage of the in-group loyalty/out-group exclusion, nevertheless set themselves a task of demonstrating whether oxytocin can enforce the acceptance of aliens and reduce xenophobic out-group rejection. To this end they devised experiments in which subjects were asked to donate a certain amount of money to people in need, either compatriots or refugees. Before the experiment the subjects were screened for the level of xenophobia. During the experiment the subjects were either allowed to act on their own, or were exposed to peer pressure or were administered oxytocin intranasally. It turned out that (i) refugee-directed donation among the subjects scoring low on xenophobia were significantly increased by oxytocin, whereas (ii) oxytocin alone was not enough in the case of the subjects scoring high on xenophobia: their out-group avoidance (or parochial, as it is patronizingly named, altruism) could only be overcome by the orchestrated operation of oxytocin and peer pressure.

    The conclusions are obvious.

    Citizens of host countries must be forced to accept the influx of aliens whether they like it or not. If they do not comply then, in the name of high-flown ideals of universal brotherhood of men, they will be forced either by peer pressure or by oxytocin or by both.

    Oxytocin suits this purpose very well as this hormone raises the emotional well-being, it so to say oh-so humane. Like Aldous Huxley’s soma in his book Brave New World. The human being with his biologically-driven likes and dislikes is not to be tolerated, he must be changed. By ideological interaction or by chemistry. He must not be left alone. He must accept what he does not like not merely passively. He must be made to like what he previously disliked.

    There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. The ‘Free World’ has taken on where the Soviet ‘scientists’ left off.

  • This Chart Warns America's Opioid Crisis Is About To Get Worse

    The simple chart below from the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime beautifully illustrates the next leg up in America’s opioid crisis. 

    If you thought today’s situation was bad – think again. Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opium just logged a record crop harvest this year doubling last year’s production. Some how – some way, Afghanistan’s opium will find its way into a neighborhood near you.

    According to VOANEWS,

    Last year, poppies were cultivated on 201,000 hectares, yielding 4,700 tons of opium, up 46 percent from 2015.

     

    Sources told VOA’s Pashto service more than 10,000 tons of opium were produced this year. Opium then can be refined into heroin.

     

    The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that opium accounted for some 16 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product last year, including more than two-thirds of the entire agricultural sector.

     

    In addition to fueling insecurity, violence and insurgency, the drug production is discouraging private and public investment, a UNODC report said.

    This is a bad sign for President Trump who opted to call the opioid crisis a ‘public emergency’ rather than a full-blown ‘national emergency’.

    Highlights from Trump’s opioid crisis speech: 

    • In 2016, more than two million Americans had an addiction to prescription or illicit opioids.
    • Since 2000, over 300,000 Americans have died from overdoses involving opioids.
    • Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States, outnumbering both traffic crashes and gun-related deaths.
    • In 2015, there were 52,404 drug overdose deaths — 33,091 of those deaths, almost two-thirds, involved the use of opioids.
    • The situation has only gotten worse, with drug overdose deaths in 2016 expected to exceed 64,000.
    • This represents a rate of 175 deaths a day.

    Visualizing Afghanistan’s opium production verse America’s opioid overdose deaths…Notice the correlation?

    The opioid epidemic ‘getting worse instead of better,’ public health officials warn…

    As President Trump embarks on a twelve-day, five nation Asia tour, we the American people trapped state-side, should batten down the hatches for the next wave of opioids set to flood America’s streets.

    Perhaps, while President Trump is in China, he could talk to the Chinese about fentanyl, otherwise if left ignored – expect synthetic opium in a neighborhood near you.

  • "He's A Pedophile": More Shocking Testimony Of Kevin Spacey's Criminal Sexual Behavior Emerges

    Though Netflix pulled the plug this week on House of Cards after actor Kevin Spacey admitted to sexual assault on a 14-year old, it appears that Spacey's character Frank Underwood – a Machiavellian figure who wielded power by any means possible – may be a truer reflection of Spacey's actual personality and behavior than many in the film industry would care to admit. Yesterday multiple cast and crew members of the now defunct Netflix series came forward to tell CNN that Spacey created a "toxic" atmosphere on set in which his aggressive sexual behavior was something, as one camera assistant said, "everybody saw" – but which few formally complained about for fear that their careers would end. 

    The CNN story was published the same day that yet another man has come forward to say he had a sexual relationship with Kevin Spacey at the age of 14 – which included an attempted rape – while Spacey was an adult working on Broadway. Similar to now substantiated allegations against powerful movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the floodgate of accusations has now opened against Spacey, and it is likely that more will continue to emerge in the coming weeks. Both embattled figures, who were until very recently among the most powerful in Hollywood, now say they are "seeking treatment" in isolation as accusations are quickly turning into police investigations in different parts of the globe. 


    Kevin Spacey/WireImage via Vulture

    And in the midst of this week's fallout, it's not only Netflix that has quickly dropped Spacey, but the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that he will not be honored at the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award, having this week revoked his reward. But also like Weinstein, who appears to have assaulted women over a period of multiple decades, Spacey's behavior was apparently known all around Hollywood, to the point that it was referenced in a punchline in a 2005 episode of "The Family Guy".

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Meanwhile, the testimonies from the House of Cards cast and crew couldn't be more shocking. One detailed account given to CNN from an unnamed former production assistant appears to have taken place in Maryland, near the House of Cards filming location:

    The former production assistant who spoke with CNN said Spacey sexually assaulted him one afternoon when the assistant was assigned to drive to an offsite location to pick up Spacey and bring him to the "House of Cards" set, which is located about 30 miles outside of Baltimore.

     

    The production assistant says that when he and Spacey were just minutes away from the set and while the car was moving, Spacey, who was driving, put his hands down the production assistant's pants. The production assistant told CNN that the touching was nonconsensual.

     

    "I was in a state of shock," he said. "He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there."

     

    The production assistant asked that what happened next in the car not be described, for fear that it would identify him.

     

    Once they had arrived on set, the production assistant says he helped the actor take his belongings from the car to Spacey's trailer on set. While the two men were in the trailer, the production assistant says, Spacey cornered him, blocked his exit and made inappropriate contact with him.

     

    "I told him, 'I don't think I'm ok with this, I don't think I'm comfortable with this,'" the production assistant said. That's when the actor became "visibly flustered," fled the trailer, got in his car and left for the remainder of the day, according to the production assistant.

    But perhaps just as scandalous is the behavior of the show's supervisors after the man issued a complaint. The production assistant told CNN that a supervisor merely told him to ensure that he's never alone with Spacey on set, after which the sexual harassment stopped long enough for him to slowly feel comfortable driving Spacey to the set once again. "I have no doubt that this type of predatory behavior was routine for him and that my experience was one of many and that Kevin had few if any qualms about exploiting his status and position," and the production assistant continued to tell CNN, "It was a toxic environment for young men who had to interact with him at all in the crew, cast, background actors."

    Other crew members had similar stories of aggressive and unwanted physical touching which came to define the way Spacey interacted with young male employees on the set: "He would put his hands on me in weird ways," one crew member said. "He would come in and massage my shoulders from behind or put his hands around me or touch my stomach sometimes in weird ways that in normal everyday conversation would not be appropriate."

    When asked why the crew member didn't complain to management, he said he feared that his career would be over: "That's the worst part about this whole thing. I would love to be able to speak out about this kind of stuff and not fear." But it seems such fear permeated the environment on set, and made everyone afraid to speak on what might not even be defined as an "open secret" as it appears to have been normalized by a management team which consistently looked the other way for fear of upsetting their powerful and legendary starring actor.

    As yet a further House of Cards crew member told CNN:

    "All the crew members commented on his behavior," the former camera assistant said. "What gets me is we have to sign sexual harassment paperwork before the start of the show and apparently [Kevin Spacey] doesn't have to do anything and he gets away scott-free with this behavior." CNN confirmed that Spacey was given guidelines regarding sexual harassment in the workplace.

     

    Colleagues never complained because they were afraid of losing their jobs, the former camera assistant said.

     

    "Who is going to believe crew members?" he said. "You're going to get fired."

    According to one female employee Spacey couched his behavior in terms of "games" and "play fights" which would routinely take place with young males and would be quite out in the open. "It was very known that Kevin was inappropriate, and males I worked with complained to me about how they felt uncomfortable," she told CNN. "Kevin does this thing which was play fights with them in order to touch them," which specifically involved him approaching "multiple people" to "say hello, greet them, shake their hand and pull their hand down to his crotch and touch their crotch. I have friends say he reached up their shorts on set."

    In response to the allegations of Netflix management turning a blind eye while essentially giving Spacey free reign, Netflix issued the following statement: 

    "Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly. On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC [Media Rights Capital, which produces the series], we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn't scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time."

    MRC also told CNN in a separate statement that they have implemented "an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew" – though clearly it seems all too little too late. 

    On the other side of Atlantic in the UK, multiple employees and cast members of the Old Vic theater in London, where Spacey was artistic director from 2004-2015, have similarly come forward with multiple allegations – this to the point that the Old Vic has announced its own confidential complaints process for any victims. 

    Meanwhile, another man has come forward with chilling details involving Kevin Spacey's early career on Broadway when the actor was in his 20's living in New York City. He told Vulture in a bombshell interview published the same day as the CNN investigation that Spacey "groomed" him while a minor at the age of 14 for a sexual relationship after the two met at a youth acting workshop that Spacey led. 

    The full interview contains lengthy and shocking lurid details of the victim's account, and concludes with the following bombshell assertions of the victim: 

    I would call him a pedophile and a sexual predator. When I turned 25, I looked at every 14-year-old boy I could see, to try to understand what those men had seen, because I still on some level thought I had been a tiny adult…

     

    He is a pedophile. When you look at his statement, you realize also he’s profoundly narcissistic. He thinks this is about being caught that he’s gay. And then he is spinning it, right? “Oh, people like gays now. So I’ll throw them that. I’ll say I’m gay and I will betray my whole community and do something else that conflates pedophilia with male homosexuality.” That’s great. Thank you for that. And that was probably the thing that made me want to talk more than anything else. How repulsive that was.

    During the time period, the victim who remains unnamed for fears over his safety (though Vulture says it thoroughly collaborated multiple aspects to the story), says that he fled Spacey's apartment after the then 24-year old Broadway actor tried to rape him.

    Meanwhile, when it comes to legal terms and the question of whether a formal investigation against Kevin Spacey can take place, though some states don't have a statute of limitations on child sexual assault crimes, New York's is one of the least favorable toward victims in the country (both Anthony Rapp – the first to come forward, and the latest victim who spoke to Vulture – appear far beyond the NY statute of limitations for filing criminal charges).

    However, the latest revelations from House of Cards crew members were obviously more recent in time, and thus are subject to formal police investigation and prosecution. And though we can image that any average citizen would certainly be aggressively pursued by criminal prosecutors, it remains to be seen if Hollywood's celebrity elite will be held to the same standards.

Digest powered by RSS Digest