1/30/2015 January 30th 2015

THE 1% ELITE___________________


VIDEO: Code Pink Tries to Arrest 91-Year-Old Kissinger for ‘War Crimes,’ Get Smacked Down by 94-Year-Old George Shultz

(pj media, jan 29th)

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/29/code-pink-tries-to-arrest-91-year-old-kissinger-for-war-crimes-get-smacked-down-by-94-year-old-george-schultz/



GLOBAL CONFLICTS________________



Israel and Hezbollah are at war.  On top of everything else that is going on in the world, now we have a new war in the Middle East, and nobody is quite certain what is going to happen next.  Israel has been preparing for this moment for more than 8 years.  So has Hezbollah.  According to some reports, Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of 50,000 rockets since the end of the Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006.  If all-out warfare does erupt, we could potentially see tens of thousands of missiles rain down into an area not too much larger than the state of New Jersey.  And of course the Israeli military is also much more sophisticated and much more powerful than it was back in 2006.  If cooler heads do not prevail, we could be on the verge of witnessing a very bloody war.  But right now nobody seems to be in the mood to back down.  Hezbollah is absolutely fuming over an airstrike earlier this month that killed six fighters and a prominent Iranian general.  And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel is “prepared to act powerfully on all fronts” in response to a Hezbollah ambush that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven.  Just such an incident is what sparked the war between the two sides back in 2006.  But this time, a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could spark a full-blown regional war.

(Economic collapse blog, jan 29th)

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/next-war-middle-east-begun-israel-vows-act-powerfully-fronts




Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, created false pretenses for the invasion of Libya in much the same way neocons used fabricated intelligence as an excuse to launch a war against Iraq during the Bush era.

On Wednesday, the Washington Times reported the discovery of tapes recovered from Libya revealing Clinton had “developed tunnel vision and led the U.S. into an unnecessary war without adequately weighing the intelligence community’s concerns.”

An intermediary dispatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s son Clinton and the State Department had produced “stupid, stupid facts” that were sent to Congress in the lead-up to the NATO invasion of the north African nation.

Clinton argued the Gaddafi regime would engage in genocide and produce a humanitarian crisis in response to an Arab Spring uprising in Libya.

The so-called Arab Spring was aborderless color revolution-esque effort launched by the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy to reformulate the political landscape in the Middle East, beginning in Egypt.

“It was like the WMDs in Iraq. It was based on a false report,” Gadhafi’s son and heir apparent, Seif Gaddafi, said in a May 2011 phone call to then Democrat Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich.

“Libyan airplanes bombing demonstrators, Libyan airplanes bombing districts in Tripoli, Libyan army killed thousands, etc., etc., and now the whole world found there is no single evidence that such things happened in Libya.”

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/iraq-war-redux-hillary-clinton-manufactured-stupid-facts-that-led-to-the-invasion-of-libya/




Throughout this conflict every once in a while Ukrainian government officials have come clean about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

To the chagrin of the Obama Administration and NATO Russia has not invaded. This latest admission came twice today. Once by inference and the other a direct admission from Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Victor Muzhenko.

During a briefing with General Muzenko he announced that “To date, we have only the involvement of some members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Russian citizens that are part of illegal armed groups involved in the fighting. We are not fighting with the regular Russian Army. We have enough forces and means in order to inflict a final defeat even with illegal armed formation present. “- he said.

If that wasn’t embarrassing enough for the Poroshenko regime which has consistently stated Russia had invaded and that Ukraine is fighting the Russian Army, it was Petro Poroshenko’s own TV station Channel 5 news that broke the story!

Earlier in the day Ukrainian Military spokesman Lusenko said he was worried if a provocation happened Russia would justify bringing in the Russian army.

This was perfectly in line with General Muzenko’s statements which fully destroy western propaganda and agree the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a hoax.

(washingtons blog, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/kiev-announces-russian-invasion-ukraine-hoax.html




Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told CNBC that Russia would consider giving financial help to debt-ridden Greece—just days after the new Greek government questioned further European Union sanctions against Russia.

Siluanov said Greece had not yet asked Russia for assistance, but he did not rule out an agreement between the two countries if Greece came asking.

“Well, we can imagine any situation, so if such petition is submitted to the Russian government, we will definitely consider it, but will take into account all the factors of our bilateral relationships between Russia and Greece, so that is all I can say. If it is submitted we will consider it,” Siluanov told CNBC in an exclusive interview in Moscow on Thursday.

(CNBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102380840




Brazil's biggest city may cut water service to 2 days a week

The worst drought to hit Brazil's biggest city in decades may leave residents with water service only two days a week.

Sao Paulo water utility company Sabesp says a five days-off, two days-on system would be a last-ditch effort to prevent the collapse of the Cantareira water system.

The reservoir is the largest of six that provide water to some 6 million of the 20 million people living in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. The utility says Cantareira is now down to 5.1 percent of its capacity of 264 billion gallons (1 trillion liters).

(AP, jan 28th)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_BRAZIL_WATER_RATIONING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-28-14-26-57


Obama’s Israel Problem

(weekly standard, jan 28th)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-s-israel-problem_830240.html





WAR ON TERROR_________________



A man believed to be a Pakistani commander of Islamic State or Daish, Yousaf al Salafi, has confessed to law enforcement agencies in Pakistan to getting funds via the United States, according to a leading Pakistani newspaper siting its sources.

Al Salafi and two companions were arrested in Lahore, Pakistan on January 22, according to AFP.

“During investigations, Yousaf al Salafi revealed that he was getting funding – routed through America – to run the organization in Pakistan and recruit young people to fight in Syria,” a source close to the investigations revealed toUrdu-language Daily Express on condition of anonymity, according to its sister English newspaper The Express Tribune. The newspaper also claimed that Al Salafi was in fact arrested last year sometime in December.

Al Salafi also allegedly confessed to recruiting jihadists to send them to Syria and was receiving about $600 per person. He also admitted that he had been working with a Pakistani accomplice, who was reportedly the Imam of a mosque.

“The US has been condemning the IS activities but unfortunately has not been able to stop funding of these organizations, which is being routed through the US. The US had to dispel the impression that it is financing the group for its own interests and that is why it launched offensive against the organization in Iraq but not in Syria,” a source said.

(Russia Today, jan 29th)

http://rt.com/news/227195-islamic-state-us-funding/




Is the Taliban a Terrorist Group? Yes, One Created by the U.S.

Charles Krauthammer, Fox News and the neocon blogosphere are outraged by a remark made by White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz. Schultz said exchanging an Iraqi prisoner for a Jordanian pilot held by the Islamic State is not the same as the swap of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl.

He declared “the Taliban is an armed insurgency. ISIL is a terrorist group so we don’t make concessions to terrorists groups.”

Krauthammer said in response that the Taliban “slits throats. It attacks buses. It drives car bombs into markets and it’s not a terrorist group.”

The Taliban indeed engages in terror tactics, but what is omitted from the discussion is the fact they learned these tactics from the CIA.

The Afghan Mujahideen, elements that would later become both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, learned “sabotage skills” at Camp Peary, the CIA’s spy training camp in Virginia.

Others were given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent to Afghanistan with U.S. assistance to join the CIA-supported forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a drug-running warlord who was known for throwing acid at women dressed in Western clothes and for murdering a fellow student from a Maoist faction at Kabul University.

The program to train and fund murderous tribal cutthroats and defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was called Operation Cyclone. Many candidates were recruited at the al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, New York, and were trained by Ali Mohammed, a member of the U.S. Army’s elite Green Berets.

Following the defeat of the Soviet Union, the U.S., Britain, and the Saudis used Pakistani intelligence to create the Taliban.
(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/is-the-taliban-a-terrorist-group-yes-one-created-by-the-u-s/




US “Fighting” Terror Group with Fictional Leaders

US claims to be waging war against "Islamic State" whose various "al-Baghdadi" leaders do not exist

(Journal Neo, jan 29th)

http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/28/us-fighting-terror-group-with-fictional-leaders/




An eight-year-old boy in France was questioned by police after he allegedly made comments in school in praise of terrorists, police said.

The child triggered concern when he refused to take part in a minute's silence at his school in the southern city of Nice after Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, according to Marcel Authier, in charge of the region's public security.

The boy's teacher said the child also expressed "solidarity" with the gunmen.

"In the current context, the principal of the school decided to report to police what had happened," said Authier, who stressed no complaint had been filed against the boy.

"We summoned the child and his father to try and comprehend how an eight-year-old boy could hold such radical ideas," he added.

(AFP, jan 29th)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/French-police-question-8-year-old-over-terrorism-comments/articleshow/46050308.cms




Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last weekend that new anti-terror legislation to be introduced on Friday will, among other things, “criminalize the promotion of terrorism.”

Such a move, however, could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Canada and would not necessarily contribute to effectively fighting domestic extremism, according to legal experts.

The new bill, which could also include provisions for expanded police powers, was promised by the federal government in the weeks following the October attacks in Quebec and Ottawa that left two members of the Canadian Forces dead.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay suggested that the measures would, among a host of other consequences, allow authorities to target materials that may be contributing to the radicalization of Canadians, particularly online.

(CBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/new-anti-terror-bill-could-put-chill-on-freedom-of-speech-1.2935312




The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar by making contact with suspected Taliban associates in Afghanistan, multiple officials tell CNN.

(CNN, jan 30th)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/politics/bergdahl-swap-prisoner-militant-activity/index.html



ECONOMY________________



Occupied by Wall Street – The Latest TARP Taxpayer Screw-Job is Revealed: The Treasury-created market has benefited a few savvy investors, while saddling taxpayers with a loss

One story that I’ve told several times on this site has to do with the day TARP passed. How I got into work extremely early and starting irately yelling about how TARP represented the end of America as we knew it. There weren’t many people on the trading floor at the time, but my boss was there and he told me to take a “walk around the block.” I politely declined, but continued to seethe at my desk.

It’s almost shocking to see the horrific transformation that has occurred in the subsequent six years. It’s so bad, that many people now take things that would’ve been considered unconscionable just a few years ago as part of the “new normal.” There will be a horrible price to pay for this perspective.

The latest scam unveiled by the Wall Street Journal is just the latest example of how and why all the income during the oligarch recovery has gone to, well, oligarchs.

(Liberty Blitzkrieg, jan 29th)

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/01/28/occupied-by-wall-street-the-latest-tarp-taxpayer-screw-job-is-revealed/



Oil Collapse: “This Could Cause The Most Destructive Economic Situation Since the Great Depression”

With the price of oil hovering around $44 and U.S. oil inventories at record highs the general consensus is that the economy will soon see a boost in consumer spending as Americans will take their gas savings and spend it at retail stores.

But there’s a lot more going on with oil on a geo-political scale than can be pumped into a 30-second propaganda soundbite from financial pundits and talking heads. While lower prices may seem like a boon for the American economy, what’s been missing from mainstream assessments are the fundamental data points that show just how serious a problem we may be facing.

As you’ll see in the succinct breakdown by Future Money Trends in the micro-documentary below, we’ve got some big problems coming our way. It all starts with the fact that debt in the energy sector over the last six years has exploded to $1.7 Trillion on the hopes that oil would continue to trade at around $80 to $100. As we know, that’s no longer the case, which means that all of the companies who took out large loans are no longer able to service their debt.

The end result will be widespread defaults in the oil industry. It’s a recipe for disaster and one that will likely play out right before our eyes in coming months.

(SHTFplan, jan 29th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/oil-collapse-this-could-cause-the-most-destructive-economic-situation-since-the-great-depression_01282015




‘Two Percent Inflation’ and The Fed’s Current Mandate

The obsession now is to get price inflation up to at least a 2% level per year. The assumption is that if the Fed can get prices to rise, the economy will rebound. This too is monetary policy nonsense.

If the result of a congressional mandate placed on the Fed for moderate and stable interest rates results in interest rates ranging from 0% to 21%, then believing the Fed can achieve a healthy economy by getting consumer prices to increase by 2% per year is a pie-in-the-sky dream. Money managers CAN’T do it and if they could it would achieve nothing except compounding the errors that have been driving monetary policy for a hundred years.

A mandate for 2% price inflation is not only a goal for the central planners in the United States but for most central bankers worldwide.

It’s interesting to note that the idea of a 2% inflation rate was conceived 25 years ago in New Zealand to curtail double-digit price inflation. The claim was made that since conditions improved in New Zealand after they lowered their inflation rate to 2% that there was something magical about it. And from this they assumed that anything lower than 2% must be a detriment and the inflation rate must be raised. Of course, the only tool central bankers have to achieve this rate is to print money and hope it flows in the direction of raising the particular prices that the Fed wants to raise.

One problem is that although newly created money by central banks does inflate prices, the central planners can’t control which prices will increase or when it will happen. Instead of consumer prices rising, the price inflation may go into other areas, as determined by millions of individuals making their own choices. Today we can find very high prices for stocks, bonds, educational costs, medical care and food, yet the CPI stays under 2%.

The CPI, though the Fed currently wants it to be even higher, is misreported on the low side. The Fed’s real goal is to make sure there is no opposition to the money printing press they need to run at full speed to keep the financial markets afloat. This is for the purpose of propping up in particular stock prices, debt derivatives, and bonds in order to take care of their friends on Wall Street.

This “mandate” that the Fed follows, unlike others, is of their own creation. No questions are asked by the legislators, who are always in need of monetary inflation to paper over the debt run up by welfare/warfare spending. There will be a day when the obsession with the goal of zero interest rates and 2% price inflation will be laughed at by future economic historians. It will be seen as just as silly as John Law’s inflationary scheme in the 18th century for perpetual wealth for France by creating the Mississippi bubble – which ended in disaster. After a mere two years, 1719 to 1720, of runaway inflation Law was forced to leave France in disgrace. The current scenario will not be precisely the same as with this giant bubble but the consequences will very likely be much greater than that which occurred with the bursting of the Mississippi bubble.

The fiat dollar standard is worldwide and nothing similar to this has ever existed before. The Fed and all the world central banks now endorse the monetary principles that motivated John Law in his goal of a new paradigm for French prosperity. His thesis was simple: first increase paper notes in order to increase the money supply in circulation. This he claimed would revitalize the finances of the French government and the French economy. His theory was no more complicated than that.

This is exactly what the Federal Reserve has been attempting to do for the past six years. It has created $4 trillion of new money, and used it to buy government Treasury bills and $1.7 trillion of worthless home mortgages. Real growth and a high standard of living for a large majority of Americans have not occurred, whereas the Wall Street elite have done quite well. This has resulted in aggravating the persistent class warfare that has been going on for quite some time.

The Fed has failed at following its many mandates, whether legislatively directed or spontaneously decided upon by the Fed itself – like the 2% price inflation rate. But in addition, to compound the mischief caused by distorting the much-needed market rate of interest, the Fed is much more involved than just running the printing presses. It regulates and manages the inflation tax. The Fed was the chief architect of the bailouts in 2008. It facilitates the accumulation of government debt, whether it’s to finance wars or the welfare transfer programs directed at both rich and poor. The Fed provides a backstop for the speculative derivatives dealings of the banks considered too big to fail. Together with the FDIC’s insurance for bank accounts, these programs generate a huge moral hazard while the Fed obfuscates monetary and economic reality.
Lessons yet to be learned:

1. Increasing money and credit by the Fed is not the same as increasing wealth. It in fact does the opposite.

2. More government spending is not equivalent to increasing wealth.

3. Liquidation of debt and correction in wages, salaries, and consumer prices is not the monster that many fear.

4. Corrections, allowed to run their course, are beneficial and should not be prolonged by bailouts with massive monetary inflation.

5. The people spending their own money is far superior to the government spending it for them.

6. Propping up stock and bond prices, the current Fed goal, is not a road to economic recovery.

7. Though bailouts help the insiders and the elite 1%, they hinder the economic recovery.

8. Production and savings should be the source of capital needed for economic growth.

9. Monetary expansion can never substitute for savings but guarantees mal–investment.

10. Market rates of interest are required to provide for the economic calculation necessary for growth and reversing an economic downturn.

11. Wars provide no solution to a recession/depression. Wars only make a country poorer while war profiteers benefit.

12. Bits of paper with ink on them or computer entries are not money – gold is.

13. Higher consumer prices per se have nothing to do with a healthy economy.

14. Lower consumer prices should be expected in a healthy economy as we experienced with computers, TVs, and cell phones.

(ron paul institute, jan 28th)
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/january/28/two-percent-inflation-and-the-feds-current-mandate/



The WTF moment has arrived: the moment when the Chair of the "independent" Fed tells an audience of Democrats, away from the public, just what her plans for monetary policy are in private

(Zero hedge, jan 29th)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-29/janet-yellen-now-advises-democrats-what-feds-monetary-policy-plans-are



While banks are still the go-to solution for most consumers, 29 percent say they're keeping at least some savings in cash bills and coins, according to a new survey of 1,820 adults from American Express.
(CNBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102377632




Up to 30 million taxpayers will claim an exemption from Obamacare on their tax forms this year, the administration predicted Wednesday as officials tried to prepare the country and a skeptical Congress for the first wave of tax penalties under the Affordable Care Act.

Most Americans get insurance through their jobs or from a government program such as Medicaid, and will only have to check a box on their tax forms.

(Washington times, jan 28th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/20-percent-taxpayers-claim-obamacare-exemption/#ixzz3QKOSx9mr



HEALTH_____________________



Doctor Educating Public on Vaccines Receives Bomb Threats, Cancels Tour

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny announced that she has cancelled speaking appearances scheduled for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Gold Coast. The reason was due to pro-vaccine extremists calling for violence and making bomb threats against venue owners and their families in some cities originally scheduled for the healthy living seminars.
(Natural Society, jan 29th)

http://naturalsociety.com/dr-sherri-tenpenny-vaccines-bomb-threats/





For many, the measles outbreak at Disneyland is the proof that this matter should no longer be a choice.

Already, an unvaccinated Pasadena woman has been forcibly quarantined after her sister contracted measles.

But it is going further.


USA Today columnist Alex Berezow boldly proclaimed:

    "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail.

    Anti-vaxxers often claim the right not to put “poison” in their children’s bodies. That is ludicrous. A mountain of data has demonstrated that vaccines are safe and effective. Insisting otherwise is akin to believing that the moon landing was faked.

    Measles is perhaps the most infectious human disease. Virus particles can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. And measles is not a minor infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that before widespread vaccination began in 1980, 2.6 million people a year died from measles. About 400 people a day still do.

    Put simply, no person has the right to threaten the safety of his community. Like drunken drivers, the unvaccinated pose an imminent danger to others. They pose a lethal threat to the most vulnerable: the immunocompromised, such as HIV or cancer patients, and infants who have yet to receive their vaccines.

    Anti-vaccine parents are turning their children into little walking time bombs. They ought to be charged for endangering their children and others."



Tell that to the parents of Keira Driscoll, a five year old who died from very strain of the flu that she was vaccinated against just three days after receiving an immunization.

So, there you have it: people who create walking time bombs are terrorists; terrorists should be arrested; parents who don’t vaccinate should be arrested for weaponizing their children. Great.

However, this propagandist fails to point out, or perhaps even comprehend, that the real reason behind these deaths, though still quite tragic, is compromised immune systems – not the disease iteself. The vast majority of these deaths occur in populations who live without basic conditions of clean water, sanitation and sufficient levels of essential vitamins in their diet.

Like the flu, it tends to kill those who already have weakened or underdeveloped defenses against illness.

Measles poses relatively little risk to a healthy child. Pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon told CBS News:

    “This measles outbreak does not pose a great risk to a healthy child,” said Dr. Gordon. “And quite frankly I don’t think it poses any risk to a healthy child.”

    “Not meningitis, not the plague, not Ebola, they’d get measles. Measles is almost an always a benign childhood illness.“


Mortality from Childhood Diseases Was Declining Before the Vaccine Arrived

Overall, studies have shown that rising standards of living have done the most to decrease mortality from infectious disease – not vaccines.

The following chart shows that while the measles vaccine, first introduced in 1963, dramatically decreased the number of measles cases, the number of deaths from measles was already in a downward spiral, thanks to general advances in reducing childhood mortality, in part due to social focus on improving nutrition and hygiene.

Shutter to think, according to the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice, “the theory of ‘herd immunity’ is failing or was flawed to begin with” while a 2014 Council on Foreign Relations report found:

    “the most highly vaccinated populations are also those with the greatest number of outbreaks for those same infectious diseases. This was especially the case for measles, mumps, rubella, polio and pertussis outbreaks,” with the U.S. Canada and rest of the Western world leading the list.

(Shtfplan, jan 29th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/measles-police-state-parents-who-do-not-vaccinate-their-children-should-go-to-jail_01292015





Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn

Human geneticist: "We know the virus is changing quite a lot"

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea.

They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it’s able to jump more easily from person to person.

(bbc, jan 29th)

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097





U.S. GOVERNMENT_________________________


The U.S. Navy has unveiled new plans to employ robots to train marine forces in the future. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) on Tuesday launched a new experiment that it hopes will help create robots and other human surrogates for military training purposes.

As part of the study, being carried out at the University of Central Florida, the researchers have placed a human surrogate, which will greet and interact with people passing through the lobby of the university’s Institute for Simulation and Training. The study with the robot, which will be controlled by a human operator in another location, will continue for several weeks.

“Marine Corps training concepts continue to merge virtual and live components to create the most realistic, effective and affordable training for Marines,” Peter Squire, a program officer for ONR, said in a statement. “The way people react to and interact with the different surrogates in this study is crucial to understanding how we can improve our military training systems.”

According to the Navy, the study’s results will be used by researchers to demonstrate the use of surrogates in more complex situations that will require a greater amount of human-machine interaction.

(IB times, jan 29th)

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-navy-plans-use-robots-train-marine-forces-1797286




In 2011, 1 in 25 Americans was arrested. In a few years, if the FBI has its way, the federal government will possess the DNA of all of those people and more.

Under the radar of most lawmakers and journalists, the Bureau—with private industry and congress’ help—is pushing the most massive expansion of biometric state surveillance since the invention of the fingerprint.

Late last year, the FBI cut the ribbon on its one billion dollar biometrics database, called Next Generation Identification. Since NGI’s official launch, state and local law enforcement officials have been encouraged to submit face prints, fingerprints, retina scans, photos of tattoos and scars, and DNA collected from people nationwide to the FBI’s central database.

Those state and local officials can also search against the FBI’s biometrics store, if they want to identify someone. With NGI in full operation, the scary future of Minority Report infamy takes a giant leap forward into the world of non-fiction.
(Privacy SOS, jan 29th)

http://privacysos.org/node/1659




Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee that’s investigating Benghazi, said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify for a second time on the 2012 terror attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens.

“The chairman asked me back in September to inquire as to whether Secretary Clinton would testify,” Mr. Cummings said, CNN reported. “She immediately said she would and that she wanted to come in December, but if December did not work, she would come in January. She said, ‘I’ll do it,’ period. The fact is, she was very clear. She did not hesitate for one second.”

Mrs. Clinton’s first Capitol Hill testimony about the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attack didn’t go so well. At a January 2013 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, she engaged in a fiery exchange with Sen. Ron Johnson about the root of the attack, which the White House had painted as due to an impromptu protest that developed over a YouTube video that was critical of Muslims.

(Washington times, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-agrees-to-testify-again-on-benghaz/




Obama just picked a fight with border agents

The Obama administration’s starting to implement its executive actions on immigration from November 2014 — and their early guidelines just set up a fight with enforcement agents who are already ticked off at the White House.

Applications for the new “deferred action” program aren’t expected to open up until spring. But federal immigration agents are already being told to consider whether immigrants in their custody might qualify for the new program — and not to deport them if they might.

The new guidance that Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are receiving was reported by Breitbart Texas a few weeks ago, after receiving leaked documents from a Customs and Border Protection agent. (The Associated Press reported on a similar set of guidelines on Wednesday.) The leaks make it clear that the agents themselves are extremely unhappy that they’re being told not to deport immigrants who they know are unauthorized — and in fact, if anything, are being told to help them. Immigration agents have long distrusted the Obama administration’s commitment to enforcing immigration law aggressively. That relationship is about to get a whole lot rockier.
(VOX, jan 29th)

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/29/7945249/obama-border-ice




A Soros-funded group arguing to replace the U.S. passport with a North American passport appears ready to take up the mantle of championing the concept of a European Union-style regional government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, Mexico and Canada, fulfilling the dream of the late American University professor Robert Pastor.

The future of the U.S. lies in North America, not in the United States as a sovereign nation, contends the New America Foundation, a Washington-based leftist think-tank with ties to Jonathan Soros, son of famed leftist billionaire George Soros.

Appropriately named “New America,” the foundation believes the U.S. passport should soon become obsolete and replaced with a European Union-style passport issued for all citizens of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Citizens would be redefined by their regional identity as “North Americans,” echoing President Obama’s claim in Spanish in his Dec. 17, 2014, announcement of his executive actions to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, “Todos Somos Americanos,” or, “We are all Americans.

“The United States, Canada and Mexico are bound by a shared economic, environmental, demographic and cultural destiny. How we move forward together is key to our success,” wrote André Martinez, an editor with New America and a professor at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University; and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, a fellow at New America and a former adviser on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s policy planning staff, in an article titled “Why we need a North American Passport,” published by CNN.com.

“In recognition of our shared destiny, the three countries should create a North American passport that would, over time, allow their citizens to travel, work, invest, learn and innovate anywhere in North America. Work, tourist and student visas are necessities in the modern world to regulate the flow of people between sovereign states,” Martinez and Kurtz-Phelan declared.
(WND, jan 29th)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/u-s-passports-on-verge-of-elimination/




After Crying “Conspiracy Theory,” CNN Touts North American Union....Just a few years ago, it was all a baseless “conspiracy theory.”

Just a few years ago, it was all a baseless “conspiracy theory.” Now, promotion of a European Union-style merger between the United States, Mexico, and Canada is being shouted from the rooftops — by U.S. taxpayer-funded globalists writing in the very same media outlet, CNN, that tried to ridicule GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul over the North American Union issue just a few years ago. Indeed, according to the recent opinion piece by two mid-level operatives for the “New America Foundation,” the future of the United States does not rest with the U.S. Constitution, “We the People,” or even the Supreme Court. Instead, it “lies in North America,” claimed New America’s Andrés Martinez and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan.

(New American, jan 30th)

http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/north-america/item/20009-after-crying-conspiracy-theory-cnn-touts-north-american-union




POLICE STATE________________



New York’s New Elite Anti-Terror Strike Force to Target Protesters

“It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris"

According to Bratton, the 350-person “Strategic Response Group,” which is expected to receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security, will focus in on “disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities.”

“It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Bratton said.

Using such foreign terror attacks as justification, Bratton stated that the elite group would be specifically trained in the use of “high-tech weaponry.”

“They’ll be equipped and trained in ways that our normal patrol officers are not,” Bratton said. “They’ll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns — unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.”

Instead of only responding to alleged threats, the strike force will be tasked with permanently patrolling the city, “building relationships” with the community in the process.

“They never have a chance to really have time to build relationships, to work on the problems in these distressed neighborhoods,” Bratton claimed.

The unit is expected to cover multiple areas throughout the city after an initial pilot program in Manhattan and Queens, an idea Bratton believes will be widely received by New York City residents.

Bratton’s casual comparison of protests and violent terrorist plots is indicative of the government’s view on First Amendment-protected activity.

Leaked Department of Defense documents obtained by the ACLU in 2009 revealed that the federal government has consistently labeled protest as “low-level terrorism.”

Although Bratton failed to mention what specific “high-tech weapons” would be used, it is possible the unit will utilize equipment such as LRAD sound cannons and Stingray cell phone interceptors.

Given the state’s well-noted stance on protest, political groups from across the spectrum will undoubtedly be targeted.

A leaked New York State Counter Terrorism Bulletin provided exclusively to Infowars last June revealed that several peaceful Second Amendment groups in opposition to gun control were being targeted by law enforcement.

Despite Bratton’s claims regarding terrorism, the growing backlash from activists against law enforcement, linked directly to cases such as the choking death of Eric Garner, will almost certainly take center stage for the new unit.

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/new-yorks-new-elite-anti-terror-strike-force-to-target-protesters/




The Secret Service will be searching social media messages this Sunday to discern between real and bogus threats during the Super Bowl, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. But agents will not be using sarcasm-detecting software they have expressed an interest in buying, the agency said.

Social media-tracking technology is just one piece of surveillance gear the government will deploy for the face-off between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

(Nextgov, jan 29th)

http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2015/01/dhs-reveals-super-bowl-surveillance-techniques-kinda/104016/




VIDEO: A Seattle teacher has brought a lawsuit against the city of Seattle after he was pepper sprayed in the face by a police officer for no reason whatsoever while walking down the street.

Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher, was attending a peaceful march in Seattle on Martin Luther King Jr. day. He was leaving the event, while speaking with his mother on the phone, when he happened to be passing a police officer who was going nuts. The video shows how Hagopian caught a wash of pepper spray directly in the face.

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/video-seattle-cop-goes-nuts-pepper-sprays-people-passing-on-sidewalk/




An Alaskan public safety officer reportedly shocked an 11-year-old boy with a taser because he was asking about the device. According to the boy’s mother, he was tased by the officer after asking him what it felt like to get shocked. The officer then apparently gave the boy a live demonstration, hitting him in the arm with the barbs of the taser.

“They were talking about being Tased, and my son did ask to be Tased,” the boy’s mother, Terrie Ward, Juneau Empire newspaper.

Public safety officers are basically cops in every way aside from the fact that they are not sworn in and are not allowed to carry firearms while on duty. Public safety officers are used by police departments to patrol remote areas that they cant afford to staff with better paid officers.

Alaska’s Public Safety spokeswoman Megan Peters told reporters that investigators were working to determine “whether a crime was committed” or whether it was an “administrative matter for the tribal government.”

(free thought project, jan 29th)

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/11-year-old-asks-cop-taser-feels-like-tases/




City of Boston tickets Secretary of State John Kerry for failing to shovel

Failure to remove snow and ice from a sidewalk can result in a fine of $50 per day.

(Politico, jan 29th)

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/john-kerry-snow-shovel-ticket-boston-114748.html





TECHNOLOGY, PRIVACY AND THE SPY GRID___________



A new smart mattress hopes to create the perfect conditions for sleeping and waking up by controlling your house.

Luna’s new device fits around the mattress like a cover, and monitors whether those sleeping on it are asleep. When it senses that they are, it can power down lights or change heating settings. And when it detects that they’re waking back up, it can start brewing coffee or turn the lights back on.

And while you’re asleep, it will track the room temperature and how much sleep you get, creating the perfect conditions. The bed has “dual zone temperature”, which means that it can monitor differnet sides of the bed separately.

The device is being funded through a campaign on Indiegogo, which promises to “Turn Your Bed into a Smartbed”. It normally costs $249 (£165), but can be bought for $179 through the Indiegogo campaign.

(The indepedent, jan 29th)

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/luna-smart-mattress-will-turn-off-lights-when-you-go-to-sleep-get-coffee-ready-when-youre-waking-up-10010695.html





Turkey has been a bastion of Internet censorship for so long that EFF could write a regular feature called This Week in Turkish Internet Censorship and never run out of content.

Last year’s highlights included the Turkish government blocking Twitter and YouTube—bans that triggered widespread protest and were eventually lifted by order of the Constitutional Court, citing concerns over free expression. Now, less than a month into 2015, Turkish authorities are already using the threat of new bans to bully social media companies into blocking content for them.

What kind of content drives the Turkish government to make these threats? Political content. The ban on YouTube began mere hours after the posting of a top-secret government meeting on Syria allegedly depicting government officials discussing a possible false-flag operation on Turkey in an effort to drag Turkey into Syria’s war, as well as audio recordings that seemed to imply corruption among figures in PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan’s close circle. The more recent threats stem from a court-issued ban on publication of news related to an incident in which two Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) were stopped by a prosecutor who sought to have police search the vehicles. Signed proceedings related to the search were recently leaked on Twitter, allegedly showing that arms belonging to MİT were found in the trucks. Both Facebook and Twitter took down the content for users in Turkey in response to government bullying, though neither company is legally required to comply with a court order from a country in which they have no offices.

(EFF.org, jan 29th)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/facebook-caves-turkish-government-censorship

1/29/2015 January 29th 2015

THE 1% ELITE________________



The Davos World Economic Summit has long been a parade for the insider agenda, putting the power players’ plans for the world’s economies on display as a preview to their playing out for the rest of the year.

But so far, the 2015 elite retreat in the Swiss Alps has proven to be full of apprehension, and even horror… with many of its own members expressing regret at the world they have built.

These billionaires are not concerned with a fair or truly equitable world, of course. But they may well be concerned about having pushed the system beyond the brink, and triggering global collapse or unrest as a result of things gone way too far.

In 2015, it has become obvious that inequality has become just plain cynical, unsettling and, perhaps, downright revolutionary… and even the insulated, egocentric billionaires have taken notice.

(shtfplan, jan 28th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/this-chart-tells-a-story-americas-middle-class-thrived-after-wwii-and-died-under-obama_01272015



Senator Rand Paul re-introduces 'Audit the Fed' bill

(Reuters, jan 28th)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/senator-rand-paul-introduces-audit-fed-bill-164322038--business.html


OBAMA_______________________



Obama refers to himself 133 times in 33 minutes.

(PJ media, jan 27th)

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/27/watch-obama-refer-to-himself-133-times-in-a-33-minute-speech/




A larger number of Americans oppose President Obama’s executive actions on immigration than support it, according to a new survey. Among blue-collar workers, the opposition is even more stark.

A new poll conducted by Paragon Insights finds that 58 percent of registered voters oppose the president’s actions to block the deportation of up to 4 million immigrants in the country illegally, compared with 36 percent who support it. As the pollster notes, the question does not mention the White House’s decision to bypass Congress, but solely focuses on the president’s policy by asking, “Do you support or oppose Obama’s executive action?”

Among blue-collar workers, 62 percent oppose it, while 32 percent support it, a nearly two-to-one margin. That includes 47 percent of blue-collar workers who “strongly oppose” the executive action.

(national review, jan 28th)

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/397304/poll-large-majority-americans-oppose-obamas-immigration-actions-andrew-johnson




Obama jokes bomb in front of military audience...

"Secret Service does not usually let me get too close to an active weapons system"

(Breitbart, jan 28th)

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/01/28/military-silent-through-obamas-jokes-at-hagel-ceremony/




Gun Owners of America is blasting a congressional proposal that empowers Obama to unilaterally negotiate international agreements as “a ‘bait and switch’ scheme that could seriously impact the Second Amendment.”

House and Senate committees are currently preparing to hand Obama so-called “fast-track” trade promotion authority. It would enable the president to unilaterally negotiate the TransPacific Partnership, a trade and global governance agreement with the U.S. and 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Under fast-track rules, Congress would not be able to amend or even vet the completed agreement. It could only approve everything that Obama has included, including anything tucked away in the 99th page that no one really wants to talk about, or kill it.

Gun Owners of America warns fast track “delegates to Barack Obama the legislative authority to do anything he wants – absolutely anything – so long as he includes it in a ‘trade agreement.’”

Second Amendment defenders worry, for example, anti-gun measures such as gun or ammunition import bans could be relegated to the bowels of the so-called “trade agreement.” They say Congress would be unable to stop it “when every Establishment interest in Washington starts pushing Congress to immediately approve this ‘up-or-down’ deal.”

They point to the experience with the recently approved trillion-dollar “Cromnibus” spending bill, which included the largest funding increase in history for the federal gun database, empowered states to impose gun bans based on doctor’s orders and increased the budget for the ATF.

Fast track “is the same dynamic as the Cromnibus, and if we hadn’t just gone through that we wouldn’t see what will happen if they give him fast track,” Michael Hammond, legislative counsel with Gun Owners of America, told WND.

(WND, jan 29th)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/2nd-amendment-threatened-in-obamas-trade-plans/


U.S. GOVERNMENT_________________


Admirals, generals: Pentagon tapes indict Hillary

Recordings of top Pentagon officials in 2011 strongly criticizing Hillary Clinton for leading a State Department “march to war” against Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011 and for working with the Muslim Brotherhood confirm the conclusions of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi, according to members who spoke to WND.

CCB members said the recordings revealed by the Washington Times provide additional evidence to support the group’s interim report concluding the Obama administration “changed sides” in Libya, rejecting an effort by Gadhafi to abdicate and choosing instead to arm al-Qaida-affiliated militia seeking to forcibly oust the dictator.

(WND, jan 29th)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/admirals-generals-pentagon-tapes-indict-hillary/#K7ygE0CcSPUYPreF.99



NSA's Water, Power Supply Under Threat in State Legislatures

With federal reform elusive, state lawmakers and activists resume back-up plan to shut down mass surveillance.

(US news, jan 28th)

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/01/28/nsas-water-power-supply-under-threat-in-state-legislatures



DOJ’s Attempt To Turn 4th Amendment Into A ‘Useless Piece Of Paper’ Called Out By Justice Sotomayor

"Is that really what the Fourth Amendment should permit?"

(Tech dirt, jan 28th)

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150126/15515829825/dojs-attempt-to-turn-4th-amendment-into-useless-piece-paper-called-out-justice-sotomayor.shtml




A federal judge has dumped the bulk of a sprawling class action accusing smartphone makers of installing software that spies on customers, logs keystrokes and other data, sends information to telecom providers and drains batteries – in violation of federal and state wiretap laws.

Carrier IQ and various telecoms were hit in 2011 with a raft of class actions alleging that it used a device called IQRD to access smartphones while hiding its presence and subverting standard operating system functions or other applications.

A consolidated amended class action in San Francisco federal court alleges violations of the Federal Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Stored Communications Act, as well as multiple federal and state-law warranty and consumer-protection claims.

Carrier IQ agreed in principle to settle the class action this past November, leaving smartphone makers HTC, Huawei, LG and Samsung on the hook.

(courthouse news, jan 28th)

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/27/spying-claims-bounce-off-smartphone-makers.htm




An F/A-18 Super Hornet Navy fighter jet buzzed Berkeley Tuesday, and created quite the buzz on Twitter as its fast and loud flyover got plenty of attention.

One observer reported the jet as low as 300-500 feet. While radar indicated the plane only dipped to 2500 feet, it should be noted that the Berkeley Hills rise 1754 feet –which could put the pilot closer to the ground than first reported depending on when he began his ascent out of Berkeley’s airspace. UC Berkeley’s campus is mostly below 500 feet, with some buildings higher up on the hill.

“I thought it may have been an earthquake. Pretty much the entire building was shaking,” said Ryen Banihashemi. “I thought maybe some people were running on the roof, honestly I had idea. It was that loud.”

The jet fighter flew from Naval Air Station Lemoore, south of Fresno. On Wednesday, the base commander responded to complaints.

UPDATE: Tuesday’s Roaring Navy Fighter Jet Over Berkeley Was Just A Pilot Saying ‘Hello’ To His Brother At Cal

Public Affairs Commander Jeannie Groeneveld told KPIX 5, “To answer your question, A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet from Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, flew at 2,500-3,000 feet over Berkeley at approximately 2 p.m. PST Jan. 27. The F/A 18 was under Federal Aviation Administration control throughout the training flight. While training missions in the local area are common and the pilot was under positive FAA control, the U.S. Navy is investigating the flight to ensure the aviator complied with all FAA and U.S. Navy regulations.”

(CBS san francisco, jan 27th)

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/f-18-fighter-jet-buzzes-berkeley/



A former U.S. Army prosecutor who supervised sexual assault cases has been found guilty by a military jury at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, of charges including rape, forcible sodomy and assault, the Army said in a statement.

Major Erik J. Burris, 39, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, dismissed from the service and ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances at the end of a court martial that concluded on Sunday, the military said.

(AP, jan 28th)

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/26/4349387/ex-army-prosecutor-found-guilty.html


GLOBAL CONFLICTS_____________

The United States on Wednesday signed an agreement providing war-torn Ukraine with $2 billion in loan guarantees to help it with “near-term social spending” in 2015 and said it was prepared to step up sanctions against Russia if necessary.

After signing the loan agreement with Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew referred to Russian support for separatists in Ukraine which has led to the United States and the European Union imposing sanctions on Russia.

Saying the United States was opposing “Russian aggression,” Lew went on: “We remain prepared to do more (on sanctions) if necessary. To that end, we will continue to work with our allies to increase the pressure on Russia.”

(Reuters, jan 28th)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/us-ukraine-loans_n_6560682.html




Ukraine’s Government Is Losing Its War. Here Is Why...

Unless Ukraine gets the further ‘loans’ to prosecute its war against the residents in Donbass, they won’t even possibly be able to win this war...

The Ukrainian Government’s problem is that there just aren’t enough nazis, and there’s also not enough money, to do the amounts of killing that need to be done in order to enable Obama’s Ukrainian regime to retain the land in Donbass while eliminating the people there. The 90% of those people who had voted for the man (Viktor Yanukovych) whom Obama overthrew are far more numerous, and far more motivated, than are the vast majority of Ukraine’s soldiers.

America’s and Ukraine’s oligarchs cannot come up with the money to finish the job, but Obama’s big financial backer George Soros is now globetrotting in order to convince taxpayers throughout the West to provide the money to finish it, and the amount he’s coming up with as being necessary for the job is between twenty and fifty billion dollars. His entreaties appear to be falling upon deaf ears.

And that’s the real reason why Obama’s war in Ukraine is failing: there’s just not enough blood-lust for the task, either in Ukraine, or in “the West.”

There aren’t enough nazis, in either area. Obama had over-reached, when he overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014. Either he’ll have to yield-up the land in Donbass, or else he’ll have to yield-up the anti-Russian Government that he has imposed upon Ukraine. It’s one or the other, and he’ll have to choose which.

Either outcome will be embarrassing for him. But perhaps it won’t be quite as embarrassing for him as was his predecessor’s embarrassment regarding the Iraq War. (Of course, Republicans would be in their glory then, by saying “Obama lost Ukraine,” even though it was actually Obama who had seized Ukraine, to begin with — and Republicans would never criticize a President for doing a thing like that: it’s the sort of thing that Republicans are expected to do.)

On the other hand, it might turn out to be even more embarrassing than that for Obama, if he should happen to decide to go all the way here, and to push on for a nuclear war against Russia.

As regards the Ukrainian Government itself, they were placed into power by Obama’s action of coup, followed by this Ukrainian Government’s actions removing the Donbass residents from their electorate; and, so, the current members of the Rada, and of the Ukrainian Administration, cannot blame Obama; they are instead blaming Vladimir Putin and Russia — the country that Obama (like George Soros and so many other American aristocrats) hates, and that not merely the people whom Obama placed into power in Ukraine hate. Thus, on Wednesday, January 28th, RIAN news headlined, “Full Text of the Appeal for Recognition of Russia as Aggressor,”
(Infowars, jan 28th)

http://www.infowars.com/ukraines-government-is-losing-its-war-here-is-why/



Israel and Hezbollah Prepare for War: Generals say Israel faces greatest existential threat since establishment of the state

Israel has vowed a “disproportionate” response after two IDF soldiers were killed and seven wounded by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah in the Har Dov area near the Lebanon border.

The apparent attack follows the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi during an Israeli airstrike in the Golan Heights area of Syria. The January 18 attack also killed six members of Hezbollah.

On Monday, Iran warned of a response to the attack that killed Allahdadi.

“We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told IRNA. He said Israel had “crossed our red lines.”

“We absolutely condemn any such threats that come in any form,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded after the message was delivered to the United States through the Swiss embassy. The U.S. and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Following the attack on the IDF along the border, mortars hit an Israeli military position on Mt. Hermon. The mortar attack resulted in a closure of the site and the evacuation of civilians from a nearby ski resort, according to the BBC.

Israel then reportedly hit Hezbollah operational positions along the border. Lebanese officials said at least 50 shells were fired into the villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba near the Shebaa Farms area.

The Lebanese villages were targeted “to send a message to the Syrian regime that we view it responsible for what occurs on its territory and that there is a price to pay for allowing Hezbollah to use your positions,” IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN.

The Israeli response killed a Spanish UNIFIL member in Ghajar, a village on the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

(Infowars, jan 28th)

http://www.infowars.com/israel-and-hezbollah-prepare-for-war/




The former head of security for Diosdado Cabello, president of Venezuela’s national assembly and vice-president of the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), is claiming Cabello is also head of a leading drug trafficking gang, the Cártel de los Soles (“The Suns’ Cartel”).

The security officer is, Leamsy Salazar, that fled to the United States, and arrived in Washington on Monday, according to a translated article on InterAmerican Security Watch.

The news has been broadly reported in Spanish-language media, and Spanish-language social networking sites have been buzzing over the development.

Emil Blasco a Washington correspondent from Madrid’s Diario ABC sent a series of tweets on Jan. 26, stating that Salazar is seeking protection in the United States and will testify against Cabello, saying he is the kingpin of the Cártel de los Soles.

(Epoch times, jan 28th)

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1225839-venezuelas-vice-president-is-head-of-drug-cartel-claims-security-chief/



English Speaking Mercenary in Mariupol ID’d as Brit Leon Swampy From London, England

Identified through profile on popular Ukrainian social media site vKontakte

(the daily lede blog, jan 28th)

https://thedailyledeblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/english-speaking-mercenary-in-mariupol-idd-as-brit-leon-swampy-from-london-england/



PRIVACY AND THE SPY GRID_________________



Switzerland, facing an erosion of the banking secrecy laws that helped make it the world's banker, is now touting its reputation as a safe and stable haven to become a global data vault.

More and more companies are flocking to the wealthy Alpine country to stock data in an era of increasing espionage and hacking, and the Swiss are reaping the benefits of the paranoia.

"Data storage is the new Eldorado for Switzerland. It's a real boom," said Franz Grueter, the managing director of Green.ch, a leading data storage firm that has posted 30 percent annual growth since it was set up in 1995.

Thanks to Switzerland's long-held banking secrecy tradition, the country enjoys a global reputation for security and privacy.

But amid international pressure, the country is being forced to shed the protective shield that has made its banks so attractive, and has agreed within the next two years to automatically exchange account details with other countries.

While Swiss banks are suffering, the country's data storage companies are booming.

(AFP, jan 28th)

http://news.yahoo.com/swiss-bank-safe-haven-label-become-worlds-data-063213979.html;_ylt=AwrTWfzdGslUyDEAfdrQtDMD




The UK government today announced a plan to remotely control vehicles on roads using wi-fi technology in order to reduce traffic and offset global warming, the latest manifestation of the ‘Internet of Things’ that will stir up concern amongst privacy advocates.

A report released today by Ofcom, the government-controlled body which regulates communications in the United Kingdom, lays out a blueprint that could be realized in as soon as 10 years where cars would communicate with each other to “reduce congestion”.

The proposals are being billed by some media outlets as a means of solving traffic jams and taking the stress out of finding a parking space, while also serving to reduce “greenhouse gases” and offset global warming.

However, buried in the report is a detail that will horrify many libertarians and privacy advocates. The state plans to achieve this new high-tech solution by fitting sensors in all cars that would wirelessly send information to a “central traffic control system”. The control system would then react by imposing remote speed limits on each vehicle, a “shockwave effect” which would cause each one to brake and accelerate in unison.

In other words, in the name of reducing traffic and helping the environment, the government could at any time seize control of your vehicle against your will.

(Infowars, jan 28th)

http://www.infowars.com/uk-government-announces-plan-to-remotely-control-vehicles/




Every airline passenger flying in and out of Europe will have personal data including their bank card details stored on a police database, under new anti-terror plans.

The move by the European Commission would mean all information collected during check-in would be made available to the security services.

Civil liberties campaigners said the move would invade the personal privacy of thousands of air travellers, and called for it to be blocked.

But supporters of the plan, including most European interior ministers, say it will allow potential jihadists to be monitored as they travel across Europe.

(Telegraph, jan 28th)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11373504/Air-passengers-bank-details-to-be-handed-to-police-under-EU-anti-terror-plan.html




DEA plan to track drivers went much wider, new documents reveal

Officials tried to use license-plate readers to track travel patterns of Americans

‘This could be a really amazing level of surveillance we’ve not seen before’

(Guardian, jan 29th)

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/us-plan-track-car-drivers-documents




For the managers of West Virginia’s Consol Energy/Consolidation Coal Company, it was just a technological innovation to improve tracking of employees’ time and attendance, but for Beverly R. Butcher Jr. it was the Bible’s “Mark of the Beast.”

A jury sided this month with the general laborer, awarding him $150,000 in compensatory damages, reported the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram.

Butcher, an evangelical Christian, asserted he had been told he was required to submit to biometric hand scanning, even though he informed his employer in writing it was contrary to “his genuinely held religious beliefs about the relationship between hand-scanning technology and the Mark of the Beast and Antichrist discussed in the Bible.”

(WND.com, jan 29th)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/jury-awards-150000-in-mark-of-the-beast-case/?cat_orig=faith




Credit card data isn't quite as anonymous as promised, a new study says.

Scientists showed they can identify you with more than 90 percent accuracy by looking at just four purchases, three if the price is included - and this is after companies "anonymized" the transaction records, saying they wiped away names and other personal details. The study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published Thursday in the journal Science, examined three months of credit card records for 1.1 million people.

"We are showing that the privacy we are told that we have isn't real," study co-author Alex "Sandy" Pentland of MIT said in an email. His research found that adding just a glimmer of information about a person from an outside source was enough to identify him or her in the trove of financial transactions they studied.
(AP, jan 29th)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_DATA_PRIVACY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT




Internet company Google said on Wednesday that its video-sharing website YouTube is so inundated that staff cannot filter all terror-related content, complicating the struggle to halt the publication of terrorist propaganda and hostage videos.

Google public policy manager Verity Harding said 300 hours of video material is being uploaded to YouTube every minute, making it virtually impossible for all images to be filtered.

Harding spoke at a European parliament meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Alde) on a counter-terrorism action plan.

She said that “to pre-screen those videos before they are uploaded would be like screening a phone call before it’s made”.

(Guardian, jan 28th)

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/28/youtube-too-swamped-to-filter-terror-content



Reddit handed over user info for 58% of government requests

The website also received hundreds of request to remove content or links.

(computer world, jan 29th)

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2877852/reddit-handed-over-user-info-for-58-of-government-requests.html




A US government consumer watchdog agency called Tuesday for better privacy and security to be built into the myriad of connected devices, for fitness, smart homes or other uses.

The "Internet of Things" guidelines released by the US Federal Trade Commission stop short of a new regulatory effort but nonetheless provoked critics who said the agency is overstepping its authority.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, who announced the guidelines at a Washington conference, said the move is aimed at promoting "best practices" for these new devices but also noted that her agency has authority to crack down on violations of privacy or deceptive consumer practices.

"Not only is deeply personal information at stake but as you have more and more devices it means there is more potential for exposure," Ramirez told the "State of the Net" conference.

"If you want these new technologies to flourish, you want to make sure consumers understand what is happening, understand what is being collected, with whom that information is being shared, how this information is being used."

The FTC last year studied 12 mobile fitness apps and found they shared data with 76 separate entities.

Ramirez underscored the privacy concerns, saying that "if I'm wearing a fitness band that tracks how many calories I consume I wouldn't want to share that data with an insurance company."

The FTC report made no specific legislative recommendation for the Internet of Things but noted that in its workshops on the subject "there appeared to be widespread agreement that companies developing IoT products should implement reasonable security."

The guidelines would apply to the billions of devices which connect to the Internet including automobiles, refrigerators, toothbrushes, fitness trackers and other gadgets.

The agency urged companies to "build security into their devices at the outset, rather than as an afterthought" and to conduct a privacy or security risk assessment.

But the technology think tank TechFreedom said the guidelines appeared to be an attempt to regulate the nascent sector.

"At best, this is just another exercise in workshop theater; at worst, the FTC is trying to regulate the Internet of Things by stealth," said TechFreedom president Berin Szoka.

(AFP, jan 27th)

http://news.yahoo.com/us-watchdog-urges-safeguards-internet-things-211533323.html;_ylt=AwrBEiH7SMhUUyAAfhnQtDMD




POLICE STATE_______________


They appeared to be scenes from a frozen apocalypse.

Streets across the nation's largest city were empty, the only movement the changing traffic lights signaling to cars that weren't there. The subway system was shuttered, the city's pulse rendered still. Hardy souls who braved the snow were threatened with fines or arrest.

And it could be the new normal.

Though the snowstorm largely missed New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio staunchly defended their unprecedented, stringent restrictions, both saying they believed in landing on the side of caution and suggesting they would take such measures again.

"Would you rather be ahead of the action or behind? Would you rather be prepared or unprepared? Would you rather be safe or unsafe?" de Blasio asked Tuesday at City Hall. "To me it was a no-brainer: we had to take precautions to keep people safe."

Before the heavy snows even reached New York, officials closed schools, shut down bridges and tunnels, canceled commuter rail service and, for the first time ever in a snowstorm, closed the city's sprawling subway system at 11 p.m. Monday. A travel ban was put in place and drivers caught out on the roads were subject to arrest.

(AP, jan 28th)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150128/us-winter-weather-shutdown-politics-59f91d3d43.html




Cops Shutdown High School Kids Trying to Earn Money by Shoveling Snow: “They need a permit, unpermitted solicitation is not allowed"

Earlier this week, Matt Molinari and his friend Eric Schnepf, both seniors in High School, were going door-to-door advertising their snow shoveling services in advance of the storm. School was out, and instead of sitting inside and playing XBOX, these two young entrepreneurs felt the fire of enterprise and decided to turn their down time into an actual dime.

However, Molinari and Schnepf apparently didn’t realize that in order to make a dime you have to pay a quarter — to the state. When the two boys were out trying to rustle up some business during what they saw as an opportunity, along came the uniformed agents of the state, to put this unapproved business venture out to pasture.

(free thought project, jan 28th)

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-shutdown-high-school-kids-earn-money-shoveling-snow/


In response to increasing police militarization in the US, legislation proposed in the New Hampshire state House would implement a ban on state and local officials obtaining or using certain military weaponry acquired from the Pentagon or other sources.

(Russia Today, jan 28th)

http://rt.com/usa/227187-police-weapons-new-hampshire/


Mother wants independent autopsy after Denver police killed daughter

(AP, jan 28th)

http://www.ohio.com/news/nation/mother-wants-independent-autopsy-after-denver-police-killed-daughter-1.562369


ECONOMY___________________________


Why solar costs will fall another 40% in just two years

(renew economy, jan 20th)

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/why-solar-costs-will-fall-another-40-in-just-two-years-21235



What wouldn’t you give to put your money in a business that grew 74 percent in one year? There is such a business, the fastest-growing business in the nation: selling marijuana legally.

The investment firm ArcView Group, which also performs cannabis research, claims in its State of Legal Marijuana Markets that the legal marijuana business skyrocketed 74 percent in 2014, from sales of $1.5 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2014. The report states that California, Colorado, Washington, Arizona and Michigan have all seen their markets grow to more than $100 million, and that Colorado, which led the way as the first active adult use market, sold $805 million worth of marijuana in retail and wholesale.
(breitbart, jan 26th)

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/26/legal-marijuana-sales-grow-74-percent-in-2014/



Forget about peak oil, worry about PEAK FOOD!

The world has entered an era of “peak food” production with an array of staples from corn and rice to wheat and chicken slowing in growth – with potentially disastrous consequences for feeding the planet.

New research finds that the supply of 21 staples, such as eggs, meat, vegetables and soybeans is already beginning to run out of momentum, while the global population continues to soar.

(Independent, jan 28th)

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/have-we-reached-peak-food-shortages-loom-as-global-production-rates-slow-10009185.html




 China's yuan has become one of the five most widely used currencies in global payments, an international financial transactions agency announced Wednesday.

The yuan passed the Canadian and Australian dollars in popularity in December, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which provides communications between financial institutions and companies. It said the yuan now ranks behind the dollar, the euro, the British pound and Japanese yen.

(AP, 27th)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-yuan-joins-top-5-most-used-global-031840128.html




The number of children in the United States relying on food stamps for a meal spiked to 16 million last year, according federal data, signaling a lopsided economic recovery in which lower income families are still lagging behind.

The roughly one in five children who received food stamps in 2014 surpassed pre-recession levels, when one in eight or 9 million children were on food stamps, according to the U.S. Census survey of American families released on Wednesday

Republicans in Congress have sought to cut back on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or food stamp program as part of a larger plan to balance the budget.

Early last year lawmakers proposed $40 billion in cuts from the program over 10 years. The final farm bill signed into law trimmed $8.6 billion from the program, eliminating benefits for about 850,000 people, according to estimates by anti-hunger advocates.

(Reuters, jan 28th)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/28/usa-economy-families-idUSL1N0V71TD20150128




The United States does not rank among the Top 10 countries in the world for economic freedom, according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Index of Economic Freedom.

Instead, the U..S. ranked only 12th--after Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Ireland, Mauritius, and Denmark.

Estonia was formerly a part of the Soviet Union.

The Index rates economic freedom for countries on 10 quantitative and qualitative factors that are based on four pillars of freedom: rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency and open markets.

(CNS news, jan 27th)

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/were-no-12-report-us-not-among-top-nations-economic-freedom



HEALTH_______________



California health officials say electronic cigarettes are a health threat, especially to children, and should be strictly regulated like tobacco products.

A report released Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health says e-cigarettes emit cancer-causing chemicals and get users hooked on nicotine. California Health Officer Ron Chapman says new generations of young people will become nicotine addicts if the products remain largely unregulated.

E-cigarettes heat liquid nicotine from cartridges into inhalable vapor without tar and other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. E-cigarette makers say their products are far safer than tobacco.

(AP, jan 28th)

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/California-Declares-E-Cigs-Are-Health-Threats-290104881.html



The brains of psychopathic violent criminals have abnormalities in regions related to punishment that are not seen in the brains of violent criminals who are not psychopathic, according to new research using brain scans.

These MRI scans suggest that psychopaths don't grasp punishment the same way as other people, the researchers said. This is likely why psychopaths do not benefit from rehabilitation programs, as other violent criminals often do, the scientists report today (Jan. 28) in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

(live science, jan 28th)

http://www.livescience.com/49613-psychopaths-brains-punishment.html




A “plus-sized” model has become the first obese woman to be signed up by a modeling agency, with 29-year-old Tess Munster being hailed as an “important role model for women,” that is, if being a role model entails promoting a lifestyle linked with innumerable chronic health conditions.

Munster, who also goes by the name Tess Holliday, “has become the first woman of her size to be signed to a major modelling agency,” reports the Independent.

“She’s such an important role model for so many women,” Anna Shillinglaw, owner and director of MiLK Model Management, told the newspaper.

Munster is a staunch advocate of the #EffYourBeautyStandards campaign, which encourages women to have pride in their bodies, even if they are clinically obese.

Are the following health conditions linked to obesity something which women should aspire to?

- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Arthritis
- Indigestion
- Gallstones
- Some cancers (eg, breast and prostate cancers)
- Snoring and sleep apnoea
- Stress, anxiety, and depression
- Infertility

What’s next? Are we going to see a chain smoker or a drug addict signed up as the next big thing in order to encourage women to have pride in lung cancer or choking to death on their own vomit?

Munster is being signed up by a modeling agency based in the UK, where diseases linked to obesity cost the National Health Service £47bn ($71 billion dollars) a year, almost ten times the cost of treating smoking-related diseases.

(Infowars, jan 28th)

http://www.infowars.com/obese-model-hailed-as-a-good-example-to-women/


MISC. NEWS_________________________________



Jesse Ventura: 'American Sniper' is a liar

Ventura, a former Navy SEAL, won $1.8 million in a defamation lawsuit last year against the estate of the late Chris Kyle, the SEAL protagonist of the movie, which has sparked debate over whether snipers should be considered heroes. Ventura said Wednesday he won’t see the film partly because Kyle is no hero to him.

“A hero must be honorable, must have honor. And you can’t have honor if you’re a liar. There is no honor in lying,” Ventura told The Associated Press from his winter home in Baja California, Mexico.

(star tribune, jan 28th)

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/290119661.html




In a sign that America’s institutions of higher learning may be lost forever to the radical left, college students in Arizona can now take a class on “Hating Whitey.”

In line with the extreme academic discipline called critical race theory, which is prevalent on campuses across America, Arizona State University is now offering a course on “the problem of whiteness,” according to Campus Reform.

Critical race theory is a belief that relies heavily on the myth of institutional racism, the opinion that racism is inherent in America, brought on by white privilege and white supremacy.

And if that’s not bad enough, the class — ENG 401: “Studies in American Literature/Culture: U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness” — is being taught by a white man.

Leave it to a white academic elitist, beset with “white guilt” no doubt, to corrupt the minds of young Americans with a theory driven by identity politics that has little basis in reality.

(Bizpac review, jan 25th)

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/01/24/hating-whitey-arizona-state-stirs-pot-teaching-the-problem-of-whiteness-class-175119




A theme park near Nagasaki in southern Japan will open a smart hotel featuring female androids that greet guests, and robots that carry luggage and serve coffee.

Henn-na Hotel at the Dutch-inspired Huis Ten Bosch theme park will be partly powered by solar panels and guests will have the option of using facial-recognition software instead of door keys. Henn-na Hotel, meaning “Strange Hotel” in English, will feature three uniformed reception androids, four service and porter robots, an industrial robot arm serving as a cloak room attendant and several cleaning robots.

(It world, jan 27th)

http://www.itworld.com/article/2876635/androids-will-greet-guests-at-japanese-smart-hotel.html




Astronomers in Australia have picked up an “alien” radio signal from space for the first time as it occurred. The signal, or radio “burst”, was discovered on May 15, 2014, though it’s just being reported by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“The burst was identified within 10 seconds of its occurrence,” said Emily Petroff, a doctoral student from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology. “The importance of the discovery was recognized very quickly and we were all working very excitedly to contact other astronomers and telescopes around the world to look at the location of the burst.”

Emerging from an unknown source, these bursts are bright flashes of radio waves that emit as much energy in a few milliseconds as the sun does in 24 hours. “The first fast radio burst was discovered in 2007,” Petroff tells FoxNews.com, “and up until our discovery there were 8 more found in old or archival data.” While researchers use telescopes in Hawaii, India, Germany, Chile, California, and the California Islands to search for bursts, it is the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Eastern Australia that is the first to catch one as its happening.

(Fox news, jan 28th)

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/27944697/mysterious-radio-signal-from-space-caught-live-for-first-time



 A partial skull retrieved from a cave in northern Israel is shedding light on a pivotal juncture in early human history when our species was trekking out of Africa to populate other parts of the world and encountered our close cousins the Neanderthals.

Scientists said on Wednesday the upper part of the skull, the domed portion without the face or jaws, was unearthed in Manot Cave in Israel's Western Galilee. Scientific dating techniques determined the skull was about 55,000 years old.

(Reuters, jan 28th)

http://news.yahoo.com/prehistoric-skull-key-piece-puzzle-story-humanity-195134616.html

1/28/2015 January 28th 2015

THE 1% ELITE__________________

This is either the most interesting case of coincidental deaths or one of the most evil plots in modern history.

Western bankers are dropping dead all over the place - most of them youngish and in good health. There appear to be an unusual number of suicides and "unexplained" deaths.

Last year, 36 bankers died. There have been 3 already this year, including the latest - a Dutch financier who worked for Amro bank.

(American Thinker, jan 25th)

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/who_is_killing_the_great_bankers_of_europe.html



Davos economist Robert Johnson, who made headlines this week for revealing that the wealthy are buying secret hideaways as a hedge against global instability, warned in a subsequent interview that the elite are also afraid of more riots in the mould of Ferguson, Missouri.

(infowars, jan 28th)

http://www.infowars.com/davos-economist-elite-are-afraid-of-ferguson-style-riots/




INTERNET____________________



President Francois Hollande said Tuesday in Paris the government will present a draft law next month that makes Internet operators “accomplices” of hate-speech offenses if they host extremist messages. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he will travel to the U.S. to seek help from the heads of Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as well as Google and Facebook. Spokesmen for the companies did not immediately return requests for comment.

(Tech dirt, jan 27th)

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150127/10302029829/france-announces-plans-to-hold-internet-responsible-terrorism.shtml




Facebook recently announced that it would be adding a new feature allowing users to flag fake news stories.

If enough people flag a post, it’s not deleted but it’s algorithm is set so it appears far less frequently in people’s feeds, effectively killing any chance of the post going viral.

But here’s what they’re not telling you; This isn’t just about flagging fake news stories.

When utilizing the new flagging feature, users are presented with a series of options which also allow them to flag posts or memes which “annoy” them, posts which they find “distasteful”, posts which go against their religious or political views, or make fun of their beliefs.

This of course means Facebook can now be completely gamed by agenda-driven political sub-groups, governments or corporations to unfairly suppress information which challenges their position.

Note how this new system will allow Facebook to totally escape the backlash it would have otherwise received for censoring free speech by deleting posts. The posts are not deleted, they are merely relegated so that hardly anyone sees them. This negates the ‘Streisand effect’ – where the act of removing or censoring content only makes it more likely to receive attention elsewhere. Now you won’t even know if your post has been targeted for censorship, so you won’t be able to do anything about it.
(Infowars, jan 27th)

http://www.infowars.com/facebooks-new-feature-is-a-chilling-development-for-free-speech/




Two weeks after Zuckerberg said ‘je suis Charlie,’ Facebook begins censoring images of prophet Muhammad

(washington post, jan 27th)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/01/27/two-weeks-after-zuckerberg-said-je-suis-charlie-facebook-begins-censoring-images-of-prophet-muhammad/?tid=sm_tw




Tons of AT&T and Verizon customers may no longer have “broadband” tomorrow...

...25Mbps minimum would leave 19% of US homes without broadband access.

(ARS technica, jan 28th)

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/tons-of-att-and-verizon-customers-may-no-longer-have-broadband-tomorrow/



BLOGGING IS DEAD???

(Free beacon, jan 28th)

http://freebeacon.com/blog/blogging-is-dead/



Canada's electronic spy agency sifts through millions of videos and documents downloaded online every day by people around the world, as part of a sweeping bid to find extremist plots and suspects, CBC News has learned.

Details of the Communications Security Establishment project dubbed "Levitation" are revealed in a document obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and recently released to CBC News.

Under Levitation, analysts with the electronic eavesdropping service can access information on about 10 to 15 million uploads and downloads of files from free websites each day, the document says.
(CBC, jan 27th)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cse-tracks-millions-of-downloads-daily-snowden-documents-1.2930120




TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY________


It has been the holy grail of science fiction – an interface that allows us to plug our brain into a computer.

Now, researchers at MIT have revealed new fibres less than a width of a hair that could make it a reality.

They say their system that could deliver optical signals and drugs directly into the brain, along with electrical readouts to continuously monitor the effects of the various inputs.

‘We’re building neural interfaces that will interact with tissues in a more organic way than devices that have been used previously,’ said MIT’s Polina Anikeeva, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering.
(daily mail, jan 27th)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2927410/The-real-life-Matrix-MIT-researchers-reveal-interface-allow-computer-plug-brain.html




Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, will cut its massive workforce, the company told Reuters, as the Apple Inc supplier faces declining revenue growth and rising wages in China.

Under its flagship unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd <2317.TW>, the group currently employs about 1.3 million people during peak production times, making it one of the largest private employers in the world.

Special assistant to the chairman and group spokesman Louis Woo did not specify a timeframe or target for the reduction, but noted that labor costs had more than doubled since 2010, when the company faced intense media scrutiny following a spate of worker suicides.

Automation will be key to keeping labor costs under control in the long-term, Woo said, as the company pushes to have robotic arms complete mundane tasks currently done by workers.

But Woo noted that company chairman Terry Gou's previously stated goal of 1 million robots was "a generic concept" rather than a firm target.

(Reuters, jan 27th)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-apple-supplier-foxconn-shrink-workforce-sales-growth-102032643--finance.html


ECONOMY______________________


The Dow is now down 360 points on the day – its biggest point drop in 19 months. Perhaps more notable is that since the End of QE3, The Dow is now down 0.4% – but the fundamentals we hear you cry… The Nasdaq is today’s biggest loser, down over 2.2%

(Zero Hedge, jan 27th)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-27/dow-plunges-360-points-erases-all-post-qe-gains




U.S. stocks slumped Tuesday after some of the market’s largest companies reported disappointing earnings, taking investors on a turbulent ride that deepened the losses for the year.

The companies that rattled the market included Microsoft, Caterpillar and Procter & Gamble. Some also forecast weaker results in months ahead.

(seattle times, jan 27th)

http://seattletimes.com/html/stockmarket/2025551808_apxfinancialmarkets.html?syndication=rss




American Small Business Is Literally Dying

According to Gallup, the United States now ranks 12th in the world in business startup activity. Italy, one of the weaker countries in the Eurozone, has a higher rate of business startups than the US. This isn’t a statistical quirk. Entrepreneurship, the special sauce that launches new business, is in steep decline here for the first time ever.

“When small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise,” writes Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup. “And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.”

For six years, the number of small businesses closing has exceeded the number of businesses starting. The number of business deaths exceeded births in 2008 for the first time in US history and has gotten worse in the ensuing years. Since 2010, the rate of small business closures has increased.
(Breitbart, jan 28th)

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/28/american-small-business-is-literally-dying/




CBO Director Predicts Unsustainable Debt, ‘Heightening the Risk of Fiscal Crisis'

CBO Director Douglas Elmdorf testified that debt will exceed 100% of GDP within 25 years and continue to rise, a “trend that could not be sustained” and would eventually heighten “the risk of a fiscal crisis” before the House Budget Committee on Tuesday.

(brietbart, jan 27th)

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/01/27/cbo-director-predicts-unsustainable-debt-heightening-the-risk-of-fiscal-crisis/




The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released their annual Budget and Economic Outlook which sets the budget baselines and estimates for the whole year.

Buried in Appendix B of the report is CBO's attempt to provide an updated score of Obamacare. But that's not what they did.  They only scored the "coverage provisions" of the law, ignoring some fifteen tax increases which are also a part of Obamacare and its cost to taxpayers.
(ATR.org, jan 27th)

http://www.atr.org/cbo-still-refuses-score-obamacare-ignores-15-tax-hikes-healthcare-law#ixzz3QA9uADn6



U.S. GOVERNMENT_________________________


Americans hate the federal government now more than ever

According to a report released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index http://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/customer-satisfaction-reports/reports-2014/acsi-federal-government-report-2014, our satisfaction with the federal government has hit an all-time low (at least since the company began collecting data for this index in 2007). The federal government now scores a 64.4 out of 100 in terms of satisfaction (the average across all industries is 75 out 100). This is the lowest score across the 40 different industries – including industries like airlines, cable companies and others — that the ACSI measures, with the exception of Internet service providers.
(Market watch, jan 27th)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-hate-the-federal-government-now-more-than-ever-2015-01-27




Democratic members of Congress apparently aren’t going to be satisfied until American citizens are completely and utterly defenseless.

Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) has introduced a bill for consideration of the new Congress which would prohibit the ownership of certain types of body armor for civilians.

H.R. 378 would make it a crime to own Type III body armor which would be punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Yeah, 10 years in prison.

Of course, there are carve outs in the bill for state/federal employees and agencies. The bill does also include a grandfather clause for people who currently own this type of armor.
(Guns Saves Lives, jan 27th)

http://gunssavelives.net/blog/gun-laws/federal-bill-would-make-owning-body-armor-a-crime-punishable-by-10-years-in-prison/



How Bureaucracy and Big Government Ruined American Health Care
(Reason, jan 26th)

http://reason.com/archives/2015/01/26/how-bureaucracy-and-big-government-ruine




Obama Demands New Regulations After Drunken Fed Crashes Drone on White House Lawn

President Barack Obama called for increased regulation on unmanned aerial vehicles Tuesday after a drunken federal employee crashed a small drone on White House grounds.

Off-duty at the time of the incident, the unnamed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employee reportedly lost control of the drone while intoxicated near the White House Monday.
(infowars, jan 27th)

http://www.infowars.com/obama-demands-new-regulations-after-drunken-fed-crashes-drone-on-white-house-lawn/




Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Hosted at State Department

The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013.

(free beacon, jan 28th)

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/muslim-brotherhood-leaders-hosted-at-state-department/




A campaign to send letters to House GOP members urging them to find another House speaker because of John Boehner’s decision to give in to Barack Obama’s demand for amnesty and Obamacare funding moved above 575,000 just as Boehner, himself, was conceding that there were mistakes in the handling of those issues.

The “Dump Boehner Now” letter writing campaign allows voters to reach every single Republican House member with hard copy letters with FedEx delivery guaranteed.

The letter points out that the House had every power it needed – the power of the purse – to halt Obama’s plans to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already in the country, and to at least delay and chip away at Obamacare, after the huge GOP sweep of election results in November.

Then, voters gave the GOP an increased majority in the U.S. House and control of the U.S. Senate.

But Boehner compromised with Obama to carry on funding into 2015 for both Obamacare and amnesty.

(WND, jan 27th)

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/575000-letters-as-boehner-admits-amnesty-goofs/#0HPhWJfIlRCy4twx.99




New Attorney General Loretta Lynch defends amnesty, dodges IRS corruption

(WND, jan 28th)

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/ag-nominee-defends-amnesty-dodges-irs-corruption/#70itUl2RpAkqpyXJ.99




Feds to border agents: 'Inform' illegals about amnesty...

...Also ordered to ID jailed aliens who 'qualify' for release
(AP, jan 28th)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150128/us--immigration_overload-a135fed8ce.html


HEALTH____________________



POLICY/MANDATE NOW BECOMES LAW:

A California school district will release 66 students from a Riverside County high school by the end of the school day because they have not received immunization for measles. The move comes after a suspected case of measles at the school earlier this week.

The Palm Desert High School students cannot return to school until Feb. 9 or with confirmation that they've been immunized or proof of resistance as determined by a Titer test.

(usa today, jan 28th)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/28/california-measles-unvaccinated-students-sent-home/22479001/




Disabled beneficiaries have increased 49.7 percent from a decade ago in 2003 when there were 6,830,714 beneficiaries; and the number is up 14.3 percent from the 8,945,376 beneficiaries in 2009, the year President Obama took office.

One in three, or 35.2 percent, of people getting federal disability insurance benefits have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the latest data from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

(CNS news, jan 27th)

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/1-3-disability-have-mental-disorder-429-dc



Food Babe Victory: Major Beer Brand Removes Caramel Coloring

Newcastle, a UK brand, confessed to using what I would consider one of the most controversial food additives. Toasted barley is usually what gives beer its golden or deep brown color, however in this case, Newcastle beer is also colored artificially with caramel color. This caramel coloring is manufactured by heating ammonia and sulfites under high pressure, which creating carcinogenic compounds. If beer companies were required by law to list the ingredients, Newcastle would likely have to have a cancer warning label under California law because it is a carcinogen proven to cause liver tumors, lung tumors, and thyroid tumors in rats and mice”.

(Food Babe, jan 27th)

http://foodbabe.com/2015/01/26/breaking-news-major-beer-brand-removes-caramel-coloring/




Researchers from the Australian National Drug and Alcohol centre found that patients with chronic pain who used the drug said it eased their symptoms better opioid medications, which are highly addictive and can cause accidental overdoses.

The study analysed 1,500 patients, aged in their late 40s and early 50s, who suffered from conditions including back pain, migraines and arthritis, and were being prescribed with heavy-duty opioid medications, such as morphine and oxycodone.
(Independent, jan 27th)

http://www.infowars.com/cannabis-eases-chronic-pain-better-than-commonly-prescribed-opioids-study-suggests/



Girls who consume a lot of sugary drinks may enter puberty earlier than girls who don’t, Harvard researchers report.

Among nearly 5,600 girls aged 9 to 14 who were followed between 1996 and 2001, the researchers found that those who drank more than 1.5 servings of sugary drinks a day had their first period 2.7 months earlier than those who drank two or fewer of these drinks a week.

This finding was independent of the girls’ body mass index (a height-weight ratio that measures body fat), how much food they ate, or whether they exercised or not, the researchers noted.

“Starting periods early is a risk factor for depression during adolescence and breast cancer during adulthood. Thus, our findings have implications beyond just starting menstruation early,” said study first author Jenny Carwile, a postdoctoral associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston.

(US news, jan 27th)

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/01/27/soda-habit-may-prompt-early-puberty-in-girls-study-suggests




GLOBAL CONFLICTS_____________________


‘I Don’t Trust U.S.’: Fidel Castro Breaks Silence on Cuba-America Reconciliation

The 88-year-old Castro does not “trust the US, nor have I exchanged any words with them,” he wrote in a letter addressed to the student federation at the University of Havana and printed in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

However, “it does not mean I reject a pacific resolution to the conflicts,” Castro continues. “We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including our political adversaries.”
(Russia Today, jan 27th)

http://rt.com/news/226547-castro-letter-trust-us/




The body of Veracruz journalist José Moisés Sánchez Cerezo, missing since Jan. 2, has been found on the outskirts of Medellín de Bravo, Mexico, state prosecutor Luís Angel Bravo announced on Sunday. A former police officer confessed to participating in the murder, according to Bravo, at the behest of Medellín de Bravo Mayor Omar Cruz Reyes.

Sánchez Cerezo owned and edited a weekly community newspaper called La Unión. He was a vocal critic of Cruz Reyes, and posted several condemnations of the mayor on his Facebook page in the days prior to his disappearance.

On Jan. 2, a group of armed men charged Sánchez Cerezo’s home and removed the journalist by force as his son looked on. The men confiscated a cell phone, a camera and a computer.
(Latin Dispatch, jan 27th)

http://latindispatch.com/2015/01/26/missing-mexican-journalist-found-dead-mayor-accused-of-orchestrating-his-death/




Libyan Luxury Hotel Attacked in the Name of Intelligence Operative Abu Anas al-Libi

Left unmentioned in the reportage on the death of al-Libi is his linkage to western intelligence. He was connected to another prominent intelligence asset, Ali Mohamed, and was paid to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi.

Al-Libi was allowed to live openly in Britain until 2000. He was associated with MI6 asset L’Houssaine Kherchtou, an al-Qaeda member who later turned witness for a U.S. trial and was trained in surveillance techniques in Pakistan by CIA operative Mohamed in 1992.

The Tripoli Province of the Islamic State is connected to the CIA and Saudi effort to topple the al-Assad government in Syria.

The group “has been bolstered by the return to Libya from Syria and Iraq of up to 300 Libyan jihadists who were part of ISIS’ al Battar Brigade — deployed at first in Deir Ezzor in Syria and then Mosul in Iraq. These fighters supported the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam in Derna, a pro-ISIS faction,” CNN reported in November.

In June, it was reported that members of ISIS were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan.
(Infowars, jan 27th)

http://www.infowars.com/libyan-luxury-hotel-attacked-in-the-name-of-intelligence-operative-abu-anas-al-libi/



The Israel Air Force (IAF) struck Syrian army artillery targets late on Tuesday night in response to an earlier rocket attack carried out on the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon.
(jpost, jan 28th)

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-confirms-additional-strike-on-Syrian-army-targets-389194




CORRUPTION AND SCANDALS_________



More Prisoners Were Found Wrongfully Convicted in 2014 Than Ever Before
(MIC, jan 27th)

http://mic.com/articles/109286/more-prisoners-were-found-innocent-in-2014-than-ever-before-and-we-re-barely-even-looking?utm_source=policymicTWTR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social




Foreign Firm Funding U.S. Green Groups Tied to State-Owned Russian Oil Company

Executives at a Bermudan firm funneling money to U.S. environmentalists run investment funds with Russian tycoon

(Free beacon, jan 27th)

http://freebeacon.com/issues/foreign-firm-funding-u-s-green-groups-tied-to-state-owned-russian-oil-company/



Spanish judge charges 10 Catholic priests with child sexual abuse

(reuters, jan 27th)

http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-judge-charges-10-catholic-priests-child-sexual-171645018.html;_ylt=AwrBJR5fycdUr1AAfmjQtDMD



TurboTax knows your secrets:

Intuit (INTU), the company that makes TurboTax, maintains a database containing users’ Social Security numbers, names and other personal data — even for customers using the desktop version of the software who save their files on their own hard drives.

(usa today, jan 27th)

http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/01/27/turbotaxs-database-knows-your-secrets/



Phone Company ‘Outraged’ By Fraud, Abuse In ‘Obamaphone’ Program

(CBS denver, jan 26th)

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/01/26/phone-company-outraged-by-fraud-abuse-in-obamaphone-program/