Obama_____________________________________________
President Barack Obama had his lowest-ever average approval rating during his sixth year in office, Gallup found in an analysis of its daily tracking polls over the past year.
(Politico, Jan 20th)
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/obama-gallup-approval-rating-2014-114399.html?hp=l2_4
President Obama spent much of Tuesday’s State of the Union calling for civility in politics — then taunted Republicans over his two election victories, after many of them applauded the looming end of his political career.
(Washington Times, Jan 21st)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/20/obama-calls-civility-then-immediately-taunts-repub/
Obama skips over guns in his sixth State of the Union Speech
(Guns.com, Jan 21st)
http://www.guns.com/2015/01/21/obama-skips-over-guns-in-his-sixth-state-of-the-union-speech-video/
VIDEO: Anonymous - State of The Union Warning to Obama
(Infowars, Jan 21st)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6CNj46-qqw
Immigration________________________________________
The United States and Cuba opened two days of historic talks in Havana on Wednesday to end decades of Cold War-era animosity and reestablish diplomatic relations. US deputy assistant secretary of state Alex Lee and Cuban foreign ministry official Josefina Vidal sat down for the first day of closed-door talks in the capital’s Convention Center, which will focus on migration issues.
(Daily mail, Jan 21st)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2919708/Cuba-host-highest-level-US-official-1980.html
Ana Zamora, who came to the United States illegally, is among the 22 people selected to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight’s State of the Union address. The White House describes Ana as a “letter writer, student, DREAMer.” She was bought here illegally as a child by parents who were themselves illegal aliens, and that’s exactly why she’s being honored by the White House.
If President Obama has his way, Ana and her parents will never be deported. They will be among the millions of “undocumented immigrants” who are allowed to stay in this country, something that is contrary to current law, but in accordance with directives issued by President Obama after Congress refused to enact his immigration plan.
(CNS news, Jan 20th)
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obama-invites-illegal-alien-be-guest-honor-sotu
Technology________________________________________
Giant humanoid robot overhauled and made wireless in bid to win $2m prize in US Government's 'Robot Olympics'.
-Atlas Robot built by Boston Dyanmics- which Google bought
-The Atlas robot is 6ft 2in tall and weighs in at 330lb
-Has even been taught to perform karate moves
(Daily Mail, Jan 20th)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2918821/The-Googlebot-cuts-cord-Giant-humanoid-robot-overhauled-wireless-bid-win-2m-prize-Government-s-Robot-Olympics.html
Japanese androids hold news conference, chat with baby droids
(Tech World, Jan 20th)
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/564265/japanese-androids-hold-news-conference-chat-baby-droids/
The investigative arm of the Department of Justice is attempting to short-circuit the legal checks of the Fourth Amendment by requesting a change in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. These procedural rules dictate how law enforcement agencies must conduct criminal prosecutions, from investigation to trial. Any deviations from the rules can have serious consequences, including dismissal of a case. The specific rule the FBI is targeting outlines the terms for obtaining a search warrant.
It’s called Federal Rule 41(b), and the requested change would allow law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search electronic data without providing any specific details as long as the target computer location has been hidden through a technical tool like Tor or a virtual private network.
(FEE, Jan 20th)
http://fee.org/freeman/detail/youll-never-guess-whos-trying-to-hack-your-iphone
While speaking with Russian news outlet RIA Novosti during a recent interview, Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said the former intelligence contractor specifically avoids Apple, and prefers a simpler device.
“Edward never uses an iPhone; he’s got a simple phone,” Kucherena said, according to Sputnik. “The iPhone has special software that can activate itself without the owner having to press a button and gather information about him; that’s why on security grounds he refused to have this phone.”
(daily caller, Jan 20th)
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/20/edward-snowden-says-iphones-are-loaded-with-secret-spyware/
Last November we highlighted Samsung’s global privacy policy, which advises users to, “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”
Michael Price, counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, wrote that the potential of his private conversations being shared with unnamed third parties now meant he was “terrified” of his TV.
(Infowars, Jan 21st)
http://www.infowars.com/samsung-responds-to-privacy-concerns-over-tvs-recording-personal-conversations/
Malvertising: It refers to malicious software, or malware, hidden in online advertisements. They can be animated ads or banners or pop-ups, said Brian Burch, vice president of Norton product marketing at the computer security company Symantec. In some cases, the user has to click on the ad to be infected with the malicious software. In other cases, simply having it appear in the browser is enough.
(Courier Journal, Jan 20th)
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/2015/01/20/malvertising/22045859/
Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it has taken steps to clamp down on "hoaxes" and fake news stories that can spread like wildfire on its 1.35-billion member online social network.
The company said it had introduced an option to allow Facebook users to flag a story as "purposefully fake or deceitful news" to reduce the distribution of news stories reported as hoaxes.
Facebook said it will not remove fake news stories from its website. Instead, the company's algorithm, which determines how widely user posts are distributed, will take into account hoax reports.
(Reuters, Jan 20th)
http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-clamps-down-fake-news-stories-202017892--finance.html
Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University pitted friends and family against an algorithm to find out which was better at determining a subject’s personality. The friends filled out a survey while the program computed the subject’s Facebook “likes.”
The researchers rated subjects on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. They found that, in most cases, the algorithm was better able to predict a person’s personality traits than close friends were able to do.
(Breitbart, Jan 19th)
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/19/facebook-is-the-best-predictor-of-your-actions/
Facebook is now cited in a third of all divorce cases, research has shown. A survey of legal firms’ caseloads revealed the social network is increasingly relied upon as proof of inappropriate behaviour.
Facebook unwittingly provides evidence of infidelity and new relationships, helps track people’s movements and records expenditure on everything from cars to holidays.
(Mirror, Jan 20th)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/facebook-now-crops-up-third-5011205
HealthCare.gov Sends Personal Data to Dozens of Tracking Websites
(EEF.org, Jan 21st)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/healthcare.gov-sends-personal-data
According to top secret documents from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden seen exclusively by SPIEGEL, they are planning for wars of the future in which the Internet will play a critical role, with the aim of being able to use the net to paralyze computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money.
(Spiegel, Jan 17th)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-snowden-docs-indicate-scope-of-nsa-preparations-for-cyber-battle-a-1013409.html
U.S. and World Economy_________________________________
A new study by a group of economics researchers suggests that the top one percent of the U.S. now hold as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, a lopsided split that is approaching levels not seen since early last century.
In the new report, Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics, claim that wealth inequality is approaching levels similar to those from just before the 1929 stock market crash that brought on The Great Depression.
(Breitbart, Jan 19th)
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/19/top-0-1-of-americans-hold-as-much-wealth-as-bottom-90/
One of Switzerland’s oldest private banks is to charge clients negative interest rates on cash balances over SFr100,000
(Financial Times, Jan 20th)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d16b13d6-a0d9-11e4-b8b9-00144feab7de.html
The central banks of China and Switzerland are planning to establish a yuan trading center in Zurich.
“A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the central banks of the two countries during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Switzerland. It is an important step in the internationalization of the yuan, especially in Europe,” said a government official.
(Russia Today, Jan 21st)
http://rt.com/business/224759-china-switzerland-offshore-deal/
Russia and China ‘Furiously’ Buying Up Gold As “a Global Currency Crisis – Albeit Unstated – is Underway”
(SHTFplan, Jan 21st)
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/russia-and-china-furiously-buying-up-gold-as-a-global-currency-crisis-albeit-unstated-is-underway_01202015
China economy grows at slowest pace in 24 years
(CNBC, Jan 20th)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102347969
Russian Food Price Inflation Reaches Up to 150% — Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office
(Moscow Times, Jan 21st)
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/514681.html
When President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address in 2009, 53% of Americans considered themselves middle class. Six years later, just 44% of Americans define themselves that way.
It’s no secret working Americans have been under duress for more than a decade, as wages stagnate, computers and robots displace human workers and wealth becomes concentrated among an alarmingly small portion of the population. Obama has promoted policies meant to help the middle class throughout his six years in office, yet the problem today is quite different than when he started the job in 2009—and it’s not clear Obama fully grasps the change.
(Yahoo, Jan 20th)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-the-middle-class-has-fragmented-under-obama-192028268.html
Health____________________________________________
A new peer-reviewed scientific study has found that soybean workers exposed to glyphosate suffer from DNA damage and elevated cell death.
(Natural Society, Jan 19th)
http://naturalsociety.com/new-study-monsantos-herbicide-chemical-damages-dna/
Following an oil pipeline leak and subsequent spillage of over 50,000 gallons of oil into the monumental Yellowstone River, cancer-causing chemicals have now been detected even within nearby water treatment plants which usher mass amounts of water meant for drinking.
(Infowars, Jan 21st)
http://www.infowars.com/cancer-chemicals-found-near-yellowstone-river-after-oil-spill/
Desperate students are still taking to Twitter to reveal the horrors of school lunch under First Lady Michelle Obama’s rules, including empty chicken nuggets and complaints that meals taste like “prison food.”
(Washington Free Beacon, Jan 20th)
http://freebeacon.com/issues/horrors-continue-under-michelle-os-lunch-rules/
World Military Operations___________________________
Snowden Confirms Chinese Hackers Stole F-35 Plans, Used to Build Superior Fighter J-31
(Epoch Times, Jan 21st)
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1211800-snowden-confirms-chinese-hackers-stole-f-35-plans-used-to-build-superior-fighter-j-31/
VIDEO: Military cyborg biker presented to Putin
(Russia Today, Jan 20th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=283bDqu92PY
Ukraine Crisis____________________________
The Ukrainian military draft for 2015 has come into effect. It’s expected to see 100,000 people joining the army in three stages throughout the year. The self-proclaimed Donetsk republic says the process is undermining peace agreements. The first stage of the draft, starting on Tuesday, will last ninety days and will seek 50,000 recruits. Two more stages will follow in April and June.
(Russia Today, Jan 20th)
http://rt.com/news/224347-ukraine-mobilization-intensified-shelling/
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of attacking its soldiers after crossing over into the country’s east to back pro-Russian separatists in violation of a September truce deal.
The allegations – met with initial silence by Moscow – could add further tensions to heated talks in Germany’s capital Berlin on Wednesday aimed at curbing a spike in fighting that has already killed 4,800 people and driven a million from their homes.
(Al Jazeera, Jan 21st)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2015/01/ukraine-accuses-russian-forces-attack-201512023331663876.html
War on Terror_____________________________________
A book written by one of the longest-held detainees of the US Guantanamo Bay prison was finally released on Tuesday, uncovering the abuse the prisoner underwent while in captivity, the book’s editor Larry Siems told Sputnik.
“It is the first and the only book to come out of Guantanamo, and written while in Guantanamo. I think it really opens up the world that the US Government has tried to keep secret for 13 years,” Siems told Sputnik.
(Sputnik, Jan 20th)
http://sputniknews.com/us/20150120/1017151243.html
The Islamic State’s staggering $200 million demand for two Japanese hostages may reveal the terrorist group’s desperation to maintain control of its sprawling caliphate, especially amid falling black market oil revenues from seized wells and pipelines, terrorism experts said.
(Fox news, Jan 20th)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/20/200m-ransom-demand-sign-isis-financial-desperation-say-experts/
Isis publicly execute 13 teenagers for watching Asian Cup football match
(IBtimes, jan 20th)
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-publicly-execute-13-teenagers-watching-asia-cup-football-match-1484233
E.U. nations plan “to share information, intelligence, not only with the European Union but also with other countries around us,” E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday after a meeting on counterterrorism with E.U. foreign ministers and top diplomats from several Middle Eastern nations.
(Washington Post, Jan 19th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/after-paris-attacks-eu-leaders-call-for-more-sharing-of-information-intelligence/2015/01/19/9a3e6438-9fe6-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html
Police State and Justice_____________________________________
More campus police officers armed despite falling crime rates
(Russia Today, Jan 21st)
http://rt.com/usa/224599-american-colleges-armed-police/
VIDEO: Man Indicted for Assault, Despite Police Being Caught on Video Viciously Attacking Him
(Free Thought Project, Jan 21st)
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/man-indicted-assault-police-caught-video-viciously-attacking/
VIDEO: Man shot by New Jersey police raising his hands
(AP, Jan 21st)
http://news.yahoo.com/video-shows-man-shot-jersey-police-raising-hands-150049422.html
At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public.
(USA Today, Jan 19th)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/
new evidence suggests that Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s pick to take DOJ’s reins from Eric Holder, may have gone beyond the accepted norms of prosecutorial conduct in her time in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch’s office appears to have let self-professed criminals walk free in exchange for their cooperation with her office, watched impassively as they committed further crimes, and intentionally kept the victims of those crimes in the dark — denying them their chance to seek tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution in direct contravention of federal law.
(National Review, Jan 19th)
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396640/loretta-lynchs-secret-docket-ryan-lovelace
Science__________________________________________
A year after creating organisms that use a genetic code different from every other living thing, two teams of scientists have achieved another “synthetic biology” milestone: They created bacteria that cannot survive without a specific manmade chemical, potentially overcoming a major obstacle to wider use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The advance, reported on Wednesday in Nature, offers what one scientist calls a “genetic firewall” to achieve biocontainment, a means of insuring that GMOs cannot live outside a lab or other confined environment.
(Reuters, Jan 21st)
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-create-genetic-firewall-forms-life-180212474.html
Corruption and Scandals_________________________
NFL referees allegedly never noticed the deflated footballs used by the New England Patriots, raising concerns that “Deflategate” involved more than just the team, especially considering the millions in bets surrounding the AFC championship game.
(Infowars, Jan 21st)
http://www.infowars.com/deflategate-nfl-refs-allegedly-never-noticed-deflated-footballs/
The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge on Tuesday to impose a fine of no less than $11 billion on BP for its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The request came on the opening day of a trial to determine the penalty the energy giant will have to pay for the catastrophe that killed 11 and covered vast stretches of the Gulf Coast with unrefined petroleum.
(Courthouse News, Jan 21st)
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/21/doj-asks-judge-to-put-bp-fine-at-11-billion.htm
Irony: 1,700 Private Jets Descend on Davos Economic Forum to Discuss Climate Change Agenda
(Infowars, Jan 21st)
http://www.infowars.com/irony-1700-private-jets-descend-on-davos-economic-forum-to-discuss-climate-change/
The mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor just days after he accused the president of directing a cover-up in the bombing of a Jewish community center two decades earlier has jolted the country with accusations of foul play coming from all sides.
(Reuters, Jan 20th)
http://news.yahoo.com/questions-mount-over-death-argentine-prosecutor-224356627.html
The forensic analysis on AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s body confirmed that there were no traces of gunpowder on his hands.
(Buenos Aires Herald, Jan 20th)
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/179980/no-gunpowder-traces-found-on-nisman?s-hands
In November 2008, British spies captured email messages addressed to reporters and photographers with at least a dozen international news organizations, many United Nations officials, workers at far-flung oil companies and tens of thousands of other people, according to a newly disclosed classified document.
The document, a spreadsheet of some 70,000 lines — each with a brief summary of the information gleaned from a single intercept — is contained in a cache of British documents that are among the classified trove leaked by Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency.
(NYT, Jan 19th)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/world/europe/british-spies-seized-emails-to-reporters.html?_r=0
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