happiLinks

Table Of Contents
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BIG PEOPLE, BIG MISTAKES 
MONEY
- Alternative Money ( Including Alternative Currencies)
- Quantitative Easing
- Monetary Reform
- Money Scams
- Bureaucrats' Lavish Salaries
- Free Money from Government and others   
 
HUMAN RIGHTS    
THE WORLD - BIG PICTURE
- Population
   - Immigration
HAPPIERNESS/UNHAPPIERNESS
SIGs (Special Interest Groups)
- Politicians/Lawmakers 
- Banks            

DEMOCRACY 
- Corruption
- Bloatwork

- Sef-Interest
- Politics 
   - EU (European Union)
- Values 
- Islam ( sharia law)
- Environment
- Economics 
   - Tax 
- NOTA
THINK TANKS/OPINION
FREE EDUCATION


===================
BIG PEOPLE, BIG MISTAKES

Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich sold Alaska to the US for only 7.2 million dollars
Russia and the United States signed a treaty selling Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million on March 30, 1867. The deal was considered a great achievement of diplomacy at the time.

See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/
Russia and the United States signed a treaty selling Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million on March 30, 1867. The deal was considered a great achievement of diplomacy at the time.

See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/
Russia and the United States signed a treaty selling Alaska to the US for $7.2 million on March 30, 1867. The deal was considered a great achievement of diplomacy at the time. $7.2 million is equivalent to $113 million in today's money.
http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/

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Gordon Brown sells 50% of Britain's gold at $275 an ounce
Quote from Nigel Farage on YouTube
"... As far as the economy is concerned, you told us that somehow you're the economic guru; you're the man that can save the world.
Well, I remember very well your first big act as chancellor when you sold 400 metric tonnes of gold on the world's exchanges at $275 an ounce. At today's valuation that would be $10 billion higher. But it isn't just the fact that you got it wrong, because we can all get it wrong. It was the fact that you announced in advance how much you were going to sell and on what day you were going to sell it. It was an error so basic that the average A level economic student, even in this educationally devalued times, wouldn't have done ..."
To see this clip, click at point 2:09 on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1waGanUNt0
The Telegraph also reported the above event on Jan.07,2009 by Christopher Hope,whitehall editor 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/4162054/Gordon-Browns-decision-to-sell-half-of-the-UKs-gold-reserves-cost-UK-5billion.html
Russia and the United States signed a treaty selling Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million on March 30, 1867. The deal was considered a great achievement of diplomacy at the time.

See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/

Konstantin Nikolayevich
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/
Konstantin Nikolayevich
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/history/04-04-2007/89041-alaska-0/
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Nick Leeson - Barings Bankrupt Singapore 
With a total loss of US$1.4 billion. Barings was declared insolvent on 26 february 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson

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"Peace For Our Time"
What Neville Chamberlain declared on 30th September 1938. 
Less than a year later, Germany and Britain were at war.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Agreement

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Napoleon himself acknowledged his invasion of Russia just before the 1812 winter, was a fatal mistake
"... 200 years ago, on June 24, 1812, a 600,000-strong army of French Emperor Napoleon 1 invaded Russia. Later, Napoleon acknowledged that the invasion in Russia was his fatal mistake. The conqueror of nearly the entire Europe didn't expect that after 6 months of fierce fights, his army will be totally defeated by Russians..."
Original source (difficult to access):
https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/2012_06_24/79171727/

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Hitler Invaded Russia confident of winning, but lost
"...The silence of that Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, was shattered at 3:15 A.M by the thunder of 7,000 German guns firing along 3,000 miles of frontier from Finland to the Black sea. Beneath that earsplitting barrage and escorted by 2,700 warplanes, 186 divisions - 154 German, 18 Finnish and 14 Rumanian - smashed forward into Russia..."
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/21/magazine/hitler-s-russian-blunder.html?pagewanted=all 
  

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Pres. Kennedy Invaded the Bay of Pigs and lost 
"...In 1961, US-backed exiles made a disastrous attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Mark White examines President Kennedy's role in the Bay of Pigs invasion and asks, was his mishandling of the operation as excusable as his supporters would have us believe?"

This article was first published in the May 2011 issue of BBC History Magazine.
http://www.historyextra.com/article/bbc-history-magazine/bay-pigs-invasion-why-fail-kennedy-cuban-catastrophe

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Britain's Prime Minister Asquith and Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey should not have enjoined Britain in the First World War 
"Niall Ferguson talks to Rob Attar, editor of BBC History Magazine, about why he believes Britain made a terrible mistake in joining the First World War a century ago."
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/first-world-war/%E2%80%9Cbritain-should-have-stayed-out-first-world-war%E2%80%9D-says-niall-ferguson
 
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Admiral Yamamoto mistakenly attacked Pearl Harbor even though he feared America's might, leading to Japan's defeat in World War II
"Why did Japan do it? Doing nothing is a viable strategic option, and oftentimes a good one. Imperial Japan would have been far better off had it forgone the attack on Pearl Harbor and confined its operations to the Western Pacific. 
Had Tokyo exercised some forbearance, it may have avoided rousing the “sleeping giant” that Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto reputedly said he feared so much. And even if it did awaken the American giant, it would have avoided filling him with what Yamamoto called a “terrible resolve” to crush Japan." 
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/pearl-harbor-why-japan-attacked-why-it-was-such-big-mistake-23541

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Angela Merkel's Worst Decision
"Nigel Farage got a standing ovation at a rally...where he said Angela Merkel's decision to maintain open borders during the refugee crisis was the "worst decision by any leader in modern political history."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/opinion/sunday/brexit-blair-farage-dowd.html
 ----------------------------
Tony Blair's Radical Turn Around
"...His report represented a radical pivot. He now believes that Brexit can never be undone "unless we have an immigration policy that makes sense of the fact that people do worry about pressure on services and wages that can come from large accumulations of migrant labor and frankly, anxieties people have about whether there's a cultural divide from migrants, particularly if they come from a majority of Muslim countries..."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/opinion/sunday/brexit-blair-farage-dowd.html

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Captain Edward Smith crashes the Titanic into an iceberg






Money lost in 1909:$7.5 million in shipbuilding costs
Inflation-adjusted: $168 million
The passenger liner, The Titanic, sunk on its maiden voyage from England to the United States in 1912. The Titanic was known as the unsinkable ship, specifically designed to make the long journey to America with no possible chance of sinking.
But one night, the ship crew ignored warnings of icebergs in their path and went onward. The ship hit an iceberg and scraped the entire right side, causing the boat to sink and killed 1,517 people.

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France - Ordering trains that were too wide
"...France spends $15 billion on trains that are too fat for 1,300 station platforms. The country that brought the TGV high-speed train to Europe has accidentally created another first – the TFT, or the Too Fat Train.
More than 2,000 new regional trains ordered by the French state railways company, the SNCF, are too wide to enter the old, rural stations that they are supposed to serve. To the indignation of national and local politicians, 1,300 platforms have to be rebuilt at a cost of at least €50m..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-rail-operator-orders-hundreds-of-new
trains-too-big-for-platforms-9412274.html 
   ===================
MONEY

Strip private banks of their power to create money 
https://www.ft.com/content/7f000b18-ca44-11e3-bb92-00144feabdc0

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The Accelerated Crash Course by Chris Martenson
Quote by Dr. Albert Bartlett "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."
Quote by In "putting it simply," Boston Federal Reserve, "When you or I write a check, there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check, there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money."
https://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse/accelerated
  
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How much does it cost to manufacture U.S paper money? 
http://mentalfloss.com/article/68650/how-much-does-it-cost-manufacture-us-paper-money

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To deal with climate change we need a new financial system - Jason Hickel
Although this article is about climate change, it clearly explains how today's fractional reserve banking system is wrong.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/nov/05/how-a-new-money-system-could-help-stop-climate-change

------------------------------
- Alternative Money (including Alternative Currencies)

Complementary Currency 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_currency

 --------------------------------------------------------------- 
The Ithaca Hour: A Community Currency Based on Barter 
"...Started in 1991, the Ithaca HOUR is the largest and oldest local currency system still operating in the United States. Mother talks with Paul Glover, the system founder..." 
https://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/ithaca-hour-zmaz93asztak


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LETSLINK UK - Uk Local Exchange Trading and Complementary Currencies Development Agency 
http://www.letslinkuk.net/

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- Quantitative Easing

The Globalist - ECB: Pushing Europe over the Edge  
https://www.theglobalist.com/ecb-pushing-europe-over-the-edge/

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The Globalist - A Better Alternative to QE for Europe 
https://www.theglobalist.com/a-better-alternative-to-qe-for-europe/

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Quantitative Easing For People
http://www.qe4people.eu/

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Financial Times (2007) - ECB injects euros 95 billion to aid markets 
https://www.ft.com/content/a8c5829a-466e-11dc-a3be-0000779fd2ac

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Quantitative Easing for People 
http://www.qe4people.eu/

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The Guardian - Britain's richest 5% gained most from quantitative easing – Bank of England
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/aug/23/britains-richest-gained-quantative-easing-bank

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Reuters - How about quantitative easing for the people?
http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/08/01/how-about-quantitative-easing-for-the-people/ 

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Happy - £50 Billion for the Banks, or £1,000 for Every Adult in the UK?
http://www.happy.co.uk/50-billion-banks-1000-every-adult-uk/

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Reuters - A breakthrough speech on monetary policy
http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2013/02/07/a-breakthrough-speech-on-monetary-policy/
 
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- Monetary Reform

Monetative - The organization demands a fundamental reform of the current monetary system
https://monneta.org/en/monetative/

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Money Creation and Inequality - An Underexposed topic 
http://positivemoney.org/2018/01/inequality/

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The 1930s Chicago Plan and the American Monetary Act 
http://www.monetary.org/the-1930s-chicago-plan-vs-the-american-monetary-act/2009/08
 
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Monetary Reform is the most important issue
"...but politicians worldwide won't talk about it..."  
~ David Icke
https://forum.davidicke.com/showthread.php?t=312365
 
------------------------------------
10 Good Reasons for Monetary Reform
"...Economic growth requires a proportionate increase in the money supply..."
~ Mark Joob ( Guest Author at Positive Money) 
http://positivemoney.org/2013/07/10-good-reasons-for-monetary-reform/ 

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Global Monetary Reform Benefits Humanity
"...monetary reform is likely the most important issue for people around the Earth to understand..."
~ Joe Bongiovanni
https://onenessofhumanity.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/global-monetary-reform-benefits-humanity/

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- Money Scam

How Central Banks Enrich the Few and Destroy Free Markets 
https://schiffgold.com/interviews/how-central-banks-enrich-the-few-and-destroy-capitalism-audio/

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Century of Enslavement:The History of the FED  https://www.corbettreport.com/federalreserve/

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Web Of Debt - By Ellen Hodgson Brown
http://www.webofdebt.com/

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The Banking Swindle - By Stock Jones
https://criminalbankingmonopoly.wordpress.com

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The Federal Reserve 1913 - Exposed 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVNjXvhoCk

------------------------------
- Bureaucrats' Lavish Salaries

70 years and half a trillion dollars later: what has the UN achieved? 
"...The United Nations has saved millions of lives and boosted health and education across the world. But it is bloated, undemocratic and very expensive..."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/07/what-has-the-un-achieved-united-nations

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1 of Every 5 Government Employees has a 6-Figure Salary 
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/1-every-5-government-employees-has-6-figure-salary-23837

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U.S. Should Rein In Lavish U.N. Salaries 
There are 80,000 plus U.N. employees. According to Heritage.org, "The ICSC calculates that U.N. employees in the professional and higher grades in New York earn a net remuneration (take-home salary) that averages 29.5 percent higher than that of equivalent U.S. civil servant grades in Washington, D.C. Moreover, U.N. employees enjoy benefits that in many cases exceed those of U.S. civil servants." 
https://www.heritage.org/report/us-should-rein-lavish-un-salaries

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UN Pay and Perks: After two years of US study, still a mystery
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/02/un-pay-and-perks-after-two-years-us-study-still-mystery.html

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U.S. tries, but fails, to discover how U.N calculates its expensive salaries
 "...The nonpartisan watchdog arm of Congress estimates that U.N. salaries, which are theoretically supposed to rise roughly in tandem with U.S federal civil servants, are as much as 30 percent higher than their U.S equivalents, depending on the assumptions used to calculate the ratio. That is without a variety of allowances, extra vacation time and other perks that U.N civil servants enjoy - not to mention that their salaries, unlike their U.S. counterparts, are tax free..."
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/13/us-tries-but-fails-to-discover-how-un-calculates-its-expensive-salaries.html

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- Free Money from Government and others

The largest basic income experiment in history just launched in Kenya
"...Beginning November 13, 40 villages will receive roughly $22.50 per month, no strings attached, for 12 years. At the same time, 80 different villages will get the same amount for just two years, another 80 will get a lump sum equal to the two-year amount, all totalling roughly 16,000 recipients..."
http://www.businessinsider.com/kenyas-basic-income-experiment-just-launched-2017-11

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Mark Zuckerberg Thinks Rich People Should Give Everybody Free Money
"Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg thinks society should consider giving everyone a universal basic income—a flat salary, regardless of employment, wealth, or need. And who does Zuckerberg think would pay for such handouts? Rich people like he will."
http://time.com/money/4795625/mark-zuckerberg-harvard-speech-universal-basic-income/

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Universal basic income: It's a human right to have enough money to live on
"To give people a greater share of the wealth through an unconditional, regular payment from the state. In its most basic form, a UBI will give everyone enough to live on. In terms of an amount, I would go for something along the lines of the poverty level – the minimum you need to participate in society – which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found to be about £17,000 a year (£325 per week). Several think tanks have costed plans of about £70 to £80 per week, which as a welfare rights advisor I know would make a massive difference to people who are struggling to get by now – but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that everyone should have enough to live on as a human right."
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/our-voices/battle-of-ideas/universal-basic-income-ubi-human-rights-money-poverty-help-living-costs-a8190326.html

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Basic Income for everyone?Yes, Finland shows it really can work
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/31/finland-universal-basic-income

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How To fight Poverty? It's Simple: Give Cash To Poor People
https://www.fastcompany.com/3049642/how-to-fight-poverty-its-simple-give-cash-to-poor-people

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What Would Happen If We Just Gave People Money
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universal-basic-income/
 
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Finland Plans to Give All Its Citizens $875 a month
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9bg8n3/we-asked-an-expert-about-finlands-plan-to-give-every-citizen-800-euros-a-month-800

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Canadian province trials basic income for thousands of residents
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-universal-basic-income-ontario-trial-citizens-residents-poverty-unemployment-benefits-a8082576.html

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India's Experiment in Basic Income Grants
"...Using randomized control trials (RCT) that compared the results in households and villages..."
http://isa-global-dialogue.net/indias-great-experiment-the-transformative-potential-of-basic-income-grants/

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Basic Income Trials In Africa
"...Today, nearly half the population of sub-Saharan Africa still live on less than $1.90 a day, causing widespread food insecurity and hunger..."
http://natureneedsmore.org/basic-income-trials/


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Canada Is About To Start Giving Away Free Money
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/canada-free-money_us_56df181ee4b0000de4063880

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Why The Government Should Give Everyone Loads Of Money 
https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/why-the-government-should-give-everyone-loads-of-free-money/
 
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Free money for everyone: will universal basic income ever happen? 
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/07/free-money-everyone-will-universal-basic-income-ever-happen

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Why we should give free money to everyone
"The most efficient way to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them."
~ Rutger Bregman
https://thecorrespondent.com/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39 

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Free Money For All 
http://www.freemoneyforall.org/ 

Grants.gov
https://www.grants.gov/

SBA.gov
https://www.sba.gov/loans-grants 

Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

===================
HUMAN RIGHTS

What are your Human Rights? 
http://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/
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Human Rights Here and Now - edited by Nancy Flowers (One-Liners)
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-5/8_udhr-abbr.htm
----------------------------------------------------  
Justice and Fairness 
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/justice-and-fairness/
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People Don't Actually Want Equality. They want fairness. 
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/people-dont-actually-want-equality/411784/
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Poverty Kills More People Every year than Either of the Top Killers - Heart Disease or Cancer 
https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Poverty-Kills-More-People-than-either-cancer-or-heart-disease

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Invest in people, build a world that works for all
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

https://www.philstar.com/world/2018/06/16/1824940/invest-people-build-world-works-all 



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We can advance human rights by starting energy access 
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/327981-we-can-advance-human-rights-by-starting-with-energy

==================
THE BIG PICTURE
      
End of the home owning dream: 20 years ago, two thirds of average earners aged up to 34 could afford their own house...now it's just one in four
"Since the mid-1990s house prices have grown seven times faster than incomes."
"Campaigners and politicians are demanding more houses are built in response."
"The government has pledged to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5397697/Home-owner-crisis-just-one-four-afford-home.html 

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Judge Jeanine Warns of Vulnerability of America's Power System 
The politicians who could pass the law to give some protection against this disaster are also looking after the interests of the power and electricity companies.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/01/26/judge-jeanine-pirro-warns-vulnerability-americas-power-systeM
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Philanthropy vs. Tyranny: Inside the Open Society Foundations' Biggest Battle Yet 
https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2015/9/14/philanthropy-vs-tyranny-inside-the-open-society-foundations.html
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What Just Happened at the Open Society Foundations? And What Comes Next? 
https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017/9/14/what-just-happened-at-the-open-society-foundations-and-what-comes-next 

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A decade on from the Financial Crisis, what have we learnt?  "...One of the inescapable truths of the past 10 years is that the central bank policies introduced to mitigate the crisis may be sowing the seeds of another one..."
https://www.ft.com/content/543359aa-8d0d-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d


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Three weeks that changed the world
"...It started in a mood of eerie calm, but then 2008 exploded into a global financial earthquake. Nick Mathiason and Heather Stewart look back at events that shook, and brought down giants banks..."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/dec/28/markets-credit-crunch-banking-2008 


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7 Things You Didn't Know About 3D Printing
http://mashable.com/2013/12/03/3d-printing-brandspeak/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-tech-link#lS5HO.pYBsqo
 
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- Population

Europe's Growing Muslim Population 
http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/

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- Immigration
Austrian Interior Minister says he wants to "concentrate"migrants in specific areas to keep Austrians safe
The leader of the OVP and Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz said
"Tusk is right when he says that mandatory refugee quotas have not worked in the EU, so I will argue that this incorrect refugee policy is changed."
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/12/interior-minister-concentrate-migrants-keep-austrians-safe/

===================
HAPPIERNESS/UNHAPPIERNESS
In 83 Million Eviction Records, a Sweeping and Intimate New look at Housing in America 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/07/upshot/millions-of-eviction-records-a-sweeping-new-look-at-housing-in-america.html

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Basing government policy on happiness or well-being is misguided
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/basing-government-policy-on-happiness-or-well-being-is-misguided/#Author
 
===================
SIGs (Special Interest Groups)

- Politicians/Lawmakers

Nigerian Lawmakers are the highest paid in the world 
"...In America, a Senator earns 174,000 US dollars and in the UK, a Member of parliament about 64,000 US dollars a year... A senator in Nigeria earns 240 million naira (about 1.7 million US dollars) in salaries and allowances and a member of the House of Representatives earns 204 million naira (about 1.45 million US dollars)per annum..."
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/nigerian-lawmakers-are-the-highest-paid-in-the-world/

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- Banks 

Big bank execs: What they take home

When times were good, the top executives from the largest U.S. banks made a mint. Below is the total compensation in 2007 for the 9 banks that received the first batch of government aid through TARP. 

This is a list of 9 banks with their top executives, salary, and total compensation. The Totals are... for Salary and .... for Total Compensation. https://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/ceopay/

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Banks Are Spending Billions To Make Rich People Richer 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-banks-stock-buybacks_us_58efc608e4b0da2ff85f2153

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The Banking Swindle 

https://criminalbankingmonopoly.wordpress.com/

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25 Reasons To Absolutely Despise Bankers And Their Minions

https://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/25-reasons-to-absolutrly-despise-bankers-and-their-minions/

Money is just an IOU, and the Banks are rolling in it
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity
  
====================
DEMOCRACY

- Corruption
'Clinton Cash' book review 
"Clinton Cash is a 2016 graphic novel about Hillary Clinton's use and abuse of the Clinton Foundation, her political positions since Bill Clinton left office and other scandals. 
https://soapboxie.com/us-politics/Clinton-Cash-a-Book-Review

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'Follow the Money': Schweizer Exposes How Political Elites 'Hide Corruption'
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/03/20/peter-schweizer-biden-kerry-mcconnell-chao-hide-corruption-china-deals?nmsrc=email&pos=4&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=scoop&utm_medium=email

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- Bloatwork

Top 10 Examples of Government Waste
1. The Missing $25 Billion
2. Unused Flight Tickets Totaling $100 million
3 Embezzled Funds at the Department of Agriculture - $5.8 million
4. Credit Card Abuse at the Department of Defense - $293,900
5. Medicare Overspending - $20 - $30 billion
6. Funding Fictitious Colleges and Students - $21.8 billion
7. Manipulating Data to Encourage Spending - $5 billion
8. State Abuse of Medicaid Funding Formulas - $70 billion
9. Earned Income Tax Credit Over payments - $8.5 - $9.9 billion
10. -------------
http://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/top-10-examples-government-waste

----------------------------------------------
Look at how many pages are in the federal tax code
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/look-at-how-many-pages-are-in-the-federal-tax-code
 
 -------------------------------------------
- Self-Interest
Bad government is our fault 
http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2012/03/06/bad-government-is-our-fault/


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Major Problem with the World by Millennial Challenge
https://www.millennial-challenge.com/single-post/2016/08/18/The-ultimate-career-ambition-1

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4 Ways Government Policy Favors the Rich and Keeps the Rest of Us Poor
"While most Americans struggle in the face of the recession, the rich are enjoying the benefits of policies that redistribute wealth upward-and crying class war if we complain."
https://www.alternet.org/story/152284/4_ways_government_policy_favors_the_rich_and_keeps_the_rest_of_us_poor

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Lobbying
"In 2003 there were around 15,000 lobbyists (consultants, lawyers, associations, corporations, NGOs etc.) in Brussels seeking to influence the EU's legislation. Some 2,600 special interest groups had a permanent office in Brussels."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying

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Lobbying in the United Kingdom 
"The professional lobbying industry has been rapidly growing since the mid-1990s and in 2007 was estimated to be worth 1.9 billion pounds, employing 14,000 people."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_in_the_United_Kingdom

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Lobbying in the United States 
"While the number of lobbyists in Washington is estimated to be over twelve thousand, those with real clout number in the dozens, and a small group of firms handles much of lobbying in terms of expenditures. A report in The Nation in 2014 suggested that while the number of 12,281 registered lobbyists was a decrease since 2002, lobbying activity was increasing and "going underground" as lobbyists use "increasingly sophisticated strategies" to obscure their activity. Analyst James A. Thurber estimated that the actual number of working lobbyists was close to 100,000 and that the industry brings in $9 billion annually."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_in_the_United_States

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How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy
" Something is out of balance in Washington. Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures - more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). It's a gap that has been widening since corporate lobbying began to regularly exceed the combined House-Senate budget in the early 2000s."
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/how-corporate-lobbyists-conquered-american-democracy/390822/

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The Truth about lobbying: 10 ways big business controls government 
"Lobbyists operate in the shadows - deliberately. As one lobbyist notes: "The influence of lobbyists increases when it goes largely unnoticed by the public." But if the reasons why companies lobby are often obscured, it is always a tactical investment. Whether facing down a threat to profits from a corporate tax hike, or pushing for market opportunities - such as government privatizations - lobbying has become another way of making money."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government

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Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks
"More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors' priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found."
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html

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Are think tanks the new lobbyists?
"Outgoing Heritage President Ed Fuelner earned around $1.2 million in 2011, according to the organisation's tax filing. By those standards, and if he earns more (which is expected) then DeMint will have a salary 700% times higher than his $174,000 salary as a senator. It used to be that the only way to obtain such a salary was being a lobbyist, and while some have decried DeMint's appointment because he is not a "serious scholar", thus pointing out that think tanks must maintain ideological and political independence, it is now anachronistic to think that think tanks and lobbyists are separate entities."
https://onthinktanks.org/articles/are-think-tanks-the-new-lobbyists/

--------------------------------------------------------    
Inequality
"Inequality is rampant in American life and is a key topic in the presidential campaign, but Harvard faculty members have been exploring its many facets for decades, and suggesting some solutions."
https://news.harvard.edu/story/series/inequality/

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The costs of inequality: Increasingly, it's the rich and the rest 
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-inequality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest/

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Why the Rich Are Getting Richer
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2011-01-01/why-rich-are-getting-richer

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10 Reasons Why Democracy Doesn't Work 
https://listverse.com/2013/06/16/10-reasons-why-democracy-doesnt-work/

----------------------------------------------------
What's gone wrong with democracy? 
Reader's comment "The Economist's essay What's gone wrong with democracy completely misses the mark. Democracy is not the goal. Individual liberty is the goal."
https://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do

----------------------------- 
- Politics

- EU (European Union)
Brussel's faceless bureaucrats REVEALED...and here are their endless perks you pay for 
This above article appeared in The Express, June 2016.
Here are a couple of examples of the generous salaries these officials pay themselves.

1. Mario Draghi, 68, President of the European Central Bank  
Salary: £279,576 plus allowances and pension.

2. Jean-Claude Juncker, 61, President of the European
Commission 
Salary: £245,629 plus a residential allowance of £36,844 and a monthly expense allowance of £1,135. Pension of £52,500 for life from age 65. 

3. Donald Tusk, 59, President of the European Council 
Salary: £235,000 a year plus allowances and pension.

 4. Martin Schulz, 60, President of the European Parliament 
Salary: £227,000 plus allowances and pension.

5. Federica Mogherini, 42, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (informally known as the EU foreign minister) 
Salary: £215,000 plus allowances and pension. 

6. Jonathan Hill, 55, One of 28 EU Commissioners 
Salary: £195,000 plus allowances and pension.

7. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, 50, President of the Eurogroup (Ecofin) 
Salary: Paid by the Dutch government as its minister of finance rather than the EU.
For more, click here
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/677905/EU-president-tusk-juncker-schulz-pay-perks-pensions-revealed-unelected
-----------------------------
10,000 European Union officials better paid than David Cameron 
"More than one in five European Union officials earn above £142,000, the salary paid to the British Prime Minister."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10847979/10000-European-Union-officials-better-paid-than-David-Cameron.html

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Term Limits for US Congress
https://www.facebook.com/TermLimitsforUSCongress/photos/a.645179678837451.1073741946.563221050366648/1135652843123463/?type=3&theater

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Uniting for a Great Brexit: Foreign Secretary's speech
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson today (14 February 2018) set out the path for an outward-facing, liberal and global Britain following our exit from the EU. 
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-speech-uniting-for-a-great-brexit


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Full Speech of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: Will Europe belong to Europeans?
https://visegradpost.com/en/2017/07/24/full-speech-of-v-orban-will-europe-belong-to-europeans/

----------------------------------------------------------------
UKIP's Nigel Farage describes the EU President's job as being so important that he's paid more than the US President
Quote from Nigel Farage to Mr. Van Rompuy, President of the EU:
"We were told that when we had a president, we'd see a giant global political figure, a man who would be the political leader for 500 million people, the man that would represent all of us on the world stage, the man whose job was so important that of course you're paid more than President (Barack) Obama."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/25/nigel-farage-herman-van-rompuy-damp-rag

See also the youtube clip on this quote, click at point 0:04 on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iulNvamNzeg

--------------------------------------------------------
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/06/15/eu-vote-enoch-powells-warning-beyond-grave/
 
-------------------------------------
Does Europe Really Need Fiscal And Political Union? 
https://www.socialeurope.eu/europe-really-need-fiscal-political-union

-------------------------------
- Values
Liberal Democracy Values
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/liberal-democratic-values-and-militancy/

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An Adventure in American Culture and Values
http://www.internationalstudentguidetotheusa.com/articles/culture.htm

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What are British Values?
http://www.doingsmsc.org.uk/british-values/

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- Islam (sharia law)

Sharia Law ( Islamic Sharia Law) 
http://www.billionbibles.org/sharia/sharia-law.html

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Pray for Europe as court of Human Rights to decide if Sharia Law can override a nation's civil law
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=23137

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- Environment
Pure Earth 
http://www.pureearth.org/

--------------------------------
Global Alliance on Health and Pollution 
https://www.pollution.org/  

---------------------------
- Economics
The Economics of Happiness - Official Trailer
"We have tuna fish caught on the east coast of America flown to Japan,processed and flown back to America. We have English apples,flown to South Africa to be waxed, flown back again to be sold to consumers. The whole process involves incredible quantities of waste."
https://www.localfutures.org/programs/the-economics-of-happiness/ 

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- Tax 
Corporate America Is Hiding $2 Trillion In Profit From The IRS 
https://thinkprogress.org/corporate-america-is-hiding-2-trillion-in-profit-from-the-irs-3d8436428225/
     
- NOTA
It's no joke: you can vote 'None of the above' in the provincial election
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8606286-it-s-no-joke-you-can-vote-none-of-the-above-in-the-provincial-election/
   
================
THINK TANKS/OPINION 

The 50 Most Influential Think Tanks in the United States  
https://thebestschools.org/features/most-influential-think-tanks/ 

Earth Institute - http://earth.columbia.edu/
Human Rights Watch - https://www.hrw.org/  
United Nations - https://www.hrw.org/topic/united-nations 
Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy - ITEP
Citizens for Tax Justice - CTJ
Brookings Institution - https://www.brookings.edu/

The Heritage Foundation - http://www.heritage.org/
- Eliminating Waste and Controlling Government Spending 
http://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/eliminating-waste-and-controlling-government-spending

-------------------------------------------------
Blog Post Slams Young Women Who Get Married, Raise Children
http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/01/26/blog-post-slams-young-women-who-get-married-raise-children

==================
FREE EDUCATION

INVESTOPEDIA ACADEMY 
https://academy.investopedia.com/
 
UDEMY 
https://www.udemy.com/

LBRY
https://lbry.io/news/20000-illegal-college-lectures-rescued
  
AMA UNIVERSITY ONLINE/OED 
http://www.ama.edu.ph/online-degree/
 
PragerU
https://www.prageru.com/
 
BigThink 
http://bigthink.com/
 
Academic Earth 
http://academicearth.org/
 
EdX 
https://www.edx.org/
 
Coursera 
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
 
Internet Archive 
https://archive.org/
 
Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/
  
Future Learn 
https://www.futurelearn.com/ 
 

Uda City 
https://www.udacity.com/
 
Alison 
https://alison.com/ 
 

TED 
https://www.ted.com/


SOVEREIGN MAN 
https://www.sovereignman.com/start-here/
 
 



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