I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO CATEGORIZE THIS FIRST SECTION OF NEWS BECAUSE ITS SO CRAZY!!!
STILL DONT BELIEVE IN FALSE FLAGS YET? HERE IS 42 WELL DOCUMENTED INSTANCES.
There are many documented false flag attacks, where a government carries out a terror attack … and then falsely blames its enemy for political purposes.
In the following 42 instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admits to it, either orally or in writing:
(Washingtons blog, feb 9th)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/41-admitted-false-flag-attacks.htm
Old people auctioned off to care homes on the internet: Anger over 'cattle markets for grannies' as councils accept lowest bids to save cash
he elderly and disabled are being ‘put up for auction’ by local councils on ‘eBay-style’ websites, with care firms then bidding to offer them a bed.
At least a dozen local authorities are listing vulnerable people’s details – including their age and what care and medication they need – before inviting bids from care homes in the area.
The bidding is sometimes open for only a few hours, at other times it can last for two or three days. The cheapest offer often wins.
(Daily mail, feb 9th)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2945079/Old-people-auctioned-care-homes-internet-Anger-cattle-markets-grannies-councils-accept-lowest-bids-save-cash.html#ixzz3RK0caiPB
A massive leak of documents from HSBC’s Swiss banking arm has revealed an array of sketchy dealings with wealthy individuals, including dictators and arms traffickers, through which the bank helped unsavory characters dodge taxes and avoid government scrutiny.
Among the unsavory characters exposed in the leak are a number of prominent donors to the Clinton Foundation. For example, the leaked documents detailed a five million Swiss franc cash transaction to British business mogul Richard Caring
(free beacon, feb 9th)
http://freebeacon.com/blog/hsbc-leak-clinton/
An 11th grade U.S. Government and Politics student believes only a fascist would make the statement: “We should not help the poor, it’s a waste of money.”
But the Nathan Hale High School student – who answered that on a quiz – found out he was “wrong.”
According to the quiz, it’s a conservative who believes that.
“When I picked my son up from school, he asked me what political party did I think thought ‘We should not help the poor, it’s a waste of money,'” the student’s mother, Heather Bronnson, tells EAGnews.
“I answered none, and a discussion took place,” she says.
“He answered ‘E’ which stood for Facism because he couldn’t imagine conservatives or liberals saying such a thing,” according to the mother.
Bronnson tells EAGnews she was “shocked” and “extremely angry” and it bothered her son “a lot.”
“If a 16-year-old believes that a Republican or conservative doesn’t believe in helping the poor, they may view themselves as liberals at a young age … and incorrectly,” she says.
political spectrum quizThe student, whom the mother did not want identified, actually got several of the answers marked wrong by the teacher.
(EAG news, feb 9th)
http://eagnews.org/school-quiz-conservatives-believe-helping-poor-is-a-waste-of-money/
Car Hacked on 60 minutes: "they were able to take control of many of the car's functions, including the braking and acceleration."
One of the vulnerabilities Kaufman and DARPA are working to eliminate that affects many is in the automobile. Cars today are loaded with computers networked to each other, and those can be hacked remotely. In a dramatic demonstration, he and his colleagues use a laptop computer to hack into a car being driven by Stahl. Much to her surprise, they were able to take control of many of the car's functions, including the braking and acceleration.
DARPA is working to invent "unhackable software" for small devices, which could solve security problems for many Internet of Things devices. The military got interested in this project in an attempt to secure its drones. Kaufman tells Stahl that cyberattack attempts on the U.S. military occur "every day" and that "the number of attacks is dramatically increasing. The sophistication of the attacks is increasing." He emphasizes his job is to get ahead of the trend. Kaufman showed Stahl a prototype of a program his department is developing to pinpoint and isolate any breached or compromised computer on the military network. "And before, it'd be completely invisible to us 'cause you're hiding among tens of thousands of computers around the world. Now you and I can see [it] very quickly." And, he added, "from here I could say, 'Let's shut that computer down. Let's quarantine that computer off.'"
(CBS, feb 9th)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-hacked-on-60-minutes/
Former Taliban commander Abdul Rauf, who recently pledged loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), was killed by a drone strike in Afghanistan.
Rauf spent six years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after he was captured by American forces in 2001.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency confirmed Rauf’s death, acknowledging ISIS’ presence in the country for the first time.
“Today at 1:28 p.m. [3.58 a.m. ET] in a successful operation, Abdul Rauf also known as ‘Khadim’ was killed along with his five companions in Sadat village of Kajaki district of Helmand province,” the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Afghanistan said in a written statement, NBC News reports. “He was the commander of [ISIS] in southern Afghanistan.”
Afghan sources, including a senior Afghan army commander and a provincial governor, told The Associated Press last month that the former Guantanamo detainee was recruiting fighters for ISIS in Helmand province, which is located in southern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border.
(breitbart, feb 9th)
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/02/09/drone-kills-former-gitmo-detainee-who-served-as-isis-chief-in-afghanistan/
UKRAINE CRISIS_______________
VIDEOS: A powerful explosion has occurred at a chemical factory in the city of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine as a result of artillery shelling by Kiev forces, Ukrainian officials have informed on their social network accounts.
(Sputnik, feb 9th)
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150209/1017984234.html
Faced with increasing pressure by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and other members of Congress to take a more active role in the conflict in Ukraine, Lamberto Zannier, secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said he is worried U.S. lethal aid will exacerbate the conflict.
“It may even lead down the line to more direct intervention of Russia in this conflict… Our objective remains that of de-escalating, so I think really the effort should continue to focus on that,” Zannier said at the Munich Security Conference.
“This carries a risk with it, and the risk is that this will strengthen a narrative we are seeing already appear on the side of the separatists, that they are fighting a war against Nato and against the west,” Zannier told the Guardian during an interview in Munich.
“And if armaments appear from those countries on the Ukrainian side, that will strengthen that narrative and might even push the Russians to take a more direct role in the conflict, because it might push Russia to see itself somehow threatened.”
(Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/osce-boss-says-arming-kiev-coup-regime-a-bad-idea/
Pro-independence fighters in eastern Ukraine say they have intercepted conversations between international mercenaries in Debaltseve speaking in four different languages – English, Polish, French and some Flemish.
Pro-independence fighters say there might be some foreign mercenaries among the pro-Ukrainian combatants who have been encircled near the city of Debaltseve between Donetsk and Luhansk.
“We have intercepted the talks in four different languages,” Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) deputy of defense Edward Basurin told the journalists on Monday. “Those are English, Polish, French and some Flemish.”
(Sputnik, feb 9th)
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150209/1018002154.html
Kremlin: Don't Issue Ultimatums To Putin
The words come as the EU suspends new sanctions - including visa bans and asset freezes - to give peace efforts a chance.
Vladimir Putin will not be spoken to in the language of ultimatums, a Russian radio station has quoted the Kremlin as saying.
Reports suggest German Chancellor Angela Merkel had given him until Wednesday to agree a peace plan over Ukraine or face new sanctions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Govorit Moskva radio: "Nobody has ever talked to the president in the tone of an ultimatum - and could not do so even if they wanted to."
The warning came as Mrs Merkel met US President Barack Obama to discuss the peace initiative, while the White House considers supplying weapons to Kiev.
(sky news, feb 9th)
http://news.sky.com/story/1424105/kremlin-dont-issue-ultimatums-to-putin
U.S. AND WORLD ECONOMY______________
A Day Of Reckoning For The Euro Has Arrived – 26 TRILLION In Currency Derivatives At Risk
This is the month when the future of the eurozone will be decided
This week, Greek leaders will meet with European officials to discuss what comes next for Greece. The new prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, has already stated that he will not accept an extension of the current bailout. Officials from other eurozone countries have already said that they expect Greece to fully honor the terms of the current agreement. So basically we are watching a giant game of financial “chicken” play out over in Europe, and a showdown is looming. Adding to the drama is the fact that the Greek government is rapidly running out of money. According to the Wall Street Journal, Greece is “on course to run out of money within weeks if it doesn’t gain access to additional funds, effectively daring Germany and its other European creditors to let it fail and stumble out of the euro.” We have witnessed other moments of crisis for Greece before, but things are very different this time because the new Greek government is being run by radical leftists that based their entire campaign on ending the austerity that has been imposed on Greece by the rest of Europe. If they buckle under the demands of the European financial lords, their credibility will be gone and Syriza will essentially be finished in Greek politics. But if they don’t compromise, Greece could be forced to leave the eurozone and we could potentially be facing the equivalent of “financial armageddon” in Europe. If nobody flinches, the eurozone will fall to pieces, the euro will collapse and trillions upon trillions of dollars in derivatives will be in jeopardy.
According to the Bank for International Settlements, 26.45 trillion dollars in currency derivatives are directly tied to the value of the euro.
Let that number sink in for a moment.
To give you some perspective, keep in mind that the U.S. government spends a total of less than 4 trillion dollars a year.
The entire U.S. national debt is just a bit above 18 trillion dollars.
So 26 trillion dollars is an amount of money that is almost unimaginable. And of course those are just the derivatives that are directly tied to the euro. Overall, the total global derivatives bubble is more than 700 trillion dollars in size.
(Economic collapse blog, feb 9th)
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/day-reckoning-euro-arrived-26-trillion-currency-derivatives-risk
The time for the final all-in bet has arrived.
As we explained yesterday, when we wrote that “Greece Gambles On “Catastrophic Armageddon” For Europe, Warns It “Only Has Weeks Of Cash Left“”, and as confirmed further by today’s fire and brimstone speech by Greek PM Tsipras, in which he not only did not concede one millimeter to Europe but raised the stakes even higher, by promising among other things to raise the minimum wage and to halt foreclosures, Greece is now betting everythingthat Europe will not allow it to exit, hoping that “this time is not different”, and the existential terror that would be heaped on the Eurozone as forecast in 2012 by the likes of Citi’s Buiter and IIF’s Charles Dallara, will still take place, and Europe will concede that spending a few more billion on Greece’s bridge program is worth to avoid what could potentially spiral into an out of control collapse.
To be sure, that is precisely what Yanis Vaourfakis implied today when he said that “if Greece is forced out of the euro zone, other countries will inevitably follow and the currency bloc will collapse, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday, in comments which drew a rebuke from Italy.”
(zero hedge, feb 9th)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-08/greek-finmin-warns-euro-will-collapse-if-greece-exits-says-italy-next
Raising the minimum wage has become the cause célèbre for many on the progressive left.
Most notably, Seattle has passed a $15 per hour minimum wage. In addition, California lawmakers are trying to pass a state-wide $13 per hour minimum wage and President Obama is supporting the increase of the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10.
The general public has generally been pretty ignorant regarding economics, so it’s understandable that many would fall for hollow populist appeals. However, a series of new studies on the minimum wage purport to show a low or non-existent impact on unemployment. Seventy-five notable economists even signed a petition to President Obama to raise the minimum wage.
This would seem at odds with basic economic theory. After all, demand curves are downward sloping, aren’t they? At some point, an increase in the minimum wage has got to cost jobs. If the minimum wage was increased to $100 per hour, obviously that would cost a lot of jobs. No one would disagree with this. So in that case, why wouldn’t increasing it to $10.10 per hour cost some jobs, right?
(mises.org, feb 9th)
http://mises.org/library/yes-minimum-wages-still-increase-unemployment
‘Peasants With Pitchforks’ Seen If Profits Get Any Fatter
Rob Arnott, chief executive and co-founder of Research Affiliates LLC, recently picked up the phone to share some thoughts on the current state of the stock market.
(bloomberg, feb 9th)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-09/-peasants-with-pitchforks-seen-if-profits-get-any-fatter
The recent surge in oil prices is just a "head-fake," and oil as cheap as $20 a barrel may soon be on the way, Citigroup said in a report on Monday as it lowered its forecast for crude.
Despite global declines in spending that have driven up oil prices in recent weeks, oil production in the U.S. is still rising, wrote Edward Morse, Citigroup's global head of commodity research. Brazil and Russia are pumping oil at record levels, and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have been fighting to maintain their market share by cutting prices to Asia. The market is oversupplied, and storage tanks are topping out.
A pullback in production isn't likely until the third quarter, Morse said. In the meantime, West Texas Intermediate Crude, which currently trades at around $52 a barrel, could fall to the $20 range "for a while," according to the report. The U.S. shale-oil revolution has broken OPEC's ability to manipulate prices and maximize profits for oil-producing countries.
"It looks exceedingly unlikely for OPEC to return to its old way of doing business," Morse wrote. "While many analysts have seen in past market crises 'the end of OPEC,' this time around might well be different," Morse said.
(bloomberg, feb 9th)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/citi-oil-could-plunge-20-172206724.html
1,700 RadioShack stores closing soon, some liquidating stock at 50% off. Locations in California, Washington, Idaho, Ohio, and even Puerto Rico affected.
In a new court filing Monday, RadioShack has formally announced the 1,784 stores that it will be closing between now and the end of March 2015.
The company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month, did not respond to Ars’ inquiry as to why these particular stores were selected.
(ARS technica, feb 9th)
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/1700-radioshack-stores-closing-soon-some-liquidating-stock-at-50-off/
POLICE STATE___________________
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling for demilitarization of America’s local police forces in the wake of the heavily armed response to the protests in Ferguson, Mo.
Paul, who is laying the groundwork for a presidential run, wrote in an Op-Ed published Thursday in Time that the Ferguson response looks more like war than a police action.
“Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies—where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement.”
He cited a Heritage Foundation report on federal anti-terrorism grants buying armored vehicles, armor, and heavy weapons for local cops.
“When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands,” Paul wrote.
(McClatchy, feb 9th)
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article2606696.html
Lawsuits call Ferguson jails debtors’ prisons
Federal class-action lawsuits filed Sunday against Ferguson allege that jails there operate as modern-day debtors’ prisons.
The suits were filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on behalf of 15 plaintiffs — referred to as “impoverished people” — who were jailed because they could not pay fines for traffic violations and other minor offenses.
“They were threatened, abused and left to languish in confinement at the mercy of local officials until their frightened family members could produce enough cash to buy their freedom or until city jail officials decided, days or weeks later, to let them out for free,” the complaint states.
The suits were filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by the non-profit legal organization Equal Justice Under Law, based in Washington, and the ArchCity Defenders, a local non-profit group; and by St. Louis University School of Law.
“We are seeking an injunction against the Jennings and Ferguson courts in order to stop them from consistently violating peoples’ rights and locking them in jail as a result of their inability to pay,” lawyer Thomas Harvey, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, said Sunday night.
(STL today, feb 9th)
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawsuits-call-ferguson-jennings-jails-debtors-prisons/article_a4360994-f557-5ae9-8080-8840e2724891.html
A 37-year-old woman has died after deputies in northern Virginia used a Taser stun gun on her while she was in police custody.
Fairfax County inmate Natasha McKenna of Alexandria was taken off life support Sunday and passed away, five days after she was stunned at the Fairfax County jail, according to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office says McKenna was being transported from the Fairfax County jail to the Alexandria city jail on Feb. 3 when she failed to comply with deputies’ commands and resisted them. A deputy then used a Taser to restrain her, sheriff’s Lt. Steve Elbert said Monday.
After being stunned, Elbert said a medic checked on and cleared McKenna, and that she was then moved to another area of the jail, where she began experiencing a medical emergency.
(CBS washington, feb 9th)
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/02/09/northern-va-woman-dies-after-being-stunned-by-deputies/
Lawsuit: Cops Put Bag On Woman’s Head, Strap Her To Chair And Choke Her To Draw Blood For DUI Test
"Officers used choke hold pressure points on her neck, until her body went limp"
A woman is suing a host of parties after it emerged that cops in Austin, Texas, forcably took her blood for a DUI test, in a scene that sounds more like something that would occur at a Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Caroline Callaway was arrested by a police officer after she refused to take a breath test during a routine traffic stop. Ms Callaway was taken directly to the Travis County jail where the shocking events unfolded.
Callaway’s attorney told reporters with Courthouse News that despite only “passive and verbal resistance” she was taken “to a small padded room, where she was surrounded by officers and strapped into ‘the chair,’ with her legs, wrists and shoulders restrained.”
(Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/lawsuit-cops-put-bag-on-womans-head-strap-her-to-chair-and-choke-her-to-draw-blood-for-dui-test/
A county court in North Carolina has moved to dismiss charges against a man arrested two years ago for drinking iced tea.
Back in April 2013, former Army Staff Sergeant turned rapper Christopher Beatty, AKA Xstrav, was filmed waiting for a friend outside of the Cumberland County ABC Liquor Store in Fayetteville, when a plainclothes officer walked up to him demanding to know what he was drinking.
The man, only verbally identifying himself as “police,” approached Beatty, who held out his drink at arm’s length, allowing the officer to read the label.
The officer grew irate after Beatty refused to allow him to hold the drink and asked him to leave the property for trespassing, despite Beatty attempting to explain he was there to make a future purchase.
The security officer, whom it later emerged worked with the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Commission, next wrestled Beatty to the ground and handcuffed him.
Beatty was subsequently arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting a public officer.
Last week Cumberland County District Court Judge Lou Olivera ruled the arrest unconstitutional, saying that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion, holding that all “fruit of the poisonous tree” evidence derived from the arrest was thereby inadmissible.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Scott said he disagreed with the decision, alleging it was a result of the current atmosphere of “anti-police sentiment.”
“It’s (a reflection of) what’s going on in many parts of the country,” Scott said. “If you arrest or attempt to arrest people, there appears to be great anti-police sentiment in certain quarters.”
The officer that arrested the man, Rick Libero, testified he “had reason to believe that it may (contain) alcohol” because of the way Beatty held the can.
Beatty’s attorney, Allen Rogers, countered by saying his client had no previous criminal history, and that he had held the can close enough for Libero to have caught the scent of alcohol. Additionally, Beatty’s speech did not appear to be slurred.
(Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/charges-dismissed-against-man-arrested-for-drinking-iced-tea/
Louisville Cop Arrested for Allegedly Assaulting Two Children; Previously Commended for His Work With Youth
Cop had multiple commendations for working with youth. Psychologist says she was kicked out of clinical program after reporting kids's allegations against him.
Jonathan Hardin, a police officer with the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), was arrested and suspended without pay, charged with assault, wanton endangerment, official misconduct, and false swearing, stemming from his alleged beating two students at the Olmsted Academy North, an all-boy public middle school (the only one in Kentucky) at which Hardin worked.
(Reason, feb 9th)
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/09/louisville-cop-arrested-for-allegedly-as
FREE SPEECH AND THE 1ST AMENDMENT_____________
A new decree that went into effect today allows the French government to block websites accused of promoting terrorism and publishing child pornography, without seeking a court order. Under the new rules, published last week by France’s Ministry of the Interior, internet service providers (ISPs) must take down offending websites within 24 hours of receiving a government order. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says the decree is critical to combatting terrorism, but civil rights groups say it gives the government dangerously broad powers to suppress free speech.
(the verge, feb 9th)
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8003907/france-terrorist-child-pornography-website-law-censorship
Plans to transfer control of Internet overseer ICANN from US hands to a globally representative body could be jeopardized unless a deal is reached before the 2016 US elections, the group’s chief warned Monday.
Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said opponents of the new oversight system may be deliberately trying to delay the transition set for September 30.
“ICANN has been waiting for this political window to open for 16 years,” Chehade told AFP as the group began a four-day meeting in Singapore.
“We don’t know what factors could affect the political window,” he said, adding however that “we do know that in 2016 there is a heavy political process in the United States”.
“Therefore the oxygen that is available to certain items may be very easily consumed by the electoral process.”
(Phys.org, feb 9th)
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-internet-polls-ceo.html
Speech the British government considers hateful should be outlawed and subjected to ASBOs, or Anti-Social Behavior Orders on Conviction, according to members of the British Parliament.
MPs have called on the “Crown Prosecution Service to examine whether prevention orders similar to those which can be used to restrict sex offenders’ online access could be applied to hate crimes,” the Daily Mail reports.
If convicted of committing a hate speech crime by the government, “determined” perpetrators could be blocked from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The All Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into anti-Semitism has added its weight to the call to sensor speech on the internet.
The government committee said the search terms “Hitler” and “Holocaust” were among the top 35 key words used on Twitter last summer during the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo recently admitted they “suck” at excluding speech governments consider unacceptable and racist.
In a memo, Costolo said Twitter will redouble its effort to “start kicking these people off right and left.” He said Twitter will make “sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them.”
In addition to censoring people the government considers racist or as perpetrators of hate speech, the report issued by the MPs calls for additional public funds to be used to cover the costs of security at synagogues.
The report also calls for “new guidance for teachers on handling the Middle East conflict in the classroom.”
“Britain is proud to be a multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy. It is something we have built over generations and which generations have given their lives to defend. We will not weaken our resolve now but instead redouble our efforts to stand up and defend the values we believe in,” David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, said after the report was released.
“This report has a vital role to play. There can be no excuses. No disagreements over foreign policy or politics can ever be allowed to justify antisemitism or any other form of racism, prejudice or extremism.
“While I am Prime Minister I promise we will fight antisemitism with everything we have got. Together we will make sure Britain remains a country that Jewish people are proud to call home – today, tomorrow and for every generation to come.”
(Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/britain-considers-law-equating-online-hate-speech-to-sex-crimes/
As I have discussed on many occasions, Verizon can’t seem to make up their mind about whether to publicly bash or praise Title II classification. In the last few weeks, Verizon’s CFO has publicly stated how little Title II classification would hurt any future investment. After his comments got national attention, the CFO claimed that his words were really taken out of context and that Title II would in fact hurt future investment.
In reality, the truth isn’t hard to figure out. Verizon privately loves Title II classification as it saves them billions in tax credits and subsidies. But Verizon hates Title II classification publicly as it would give the FCC the power to punish carriers who put forward plans that are completely anti-consumer and based on monopolistic power.
But, this recent story about Verizon and net neutrality is truly ridiculous. [CONTINUED IN ARTICLE]
(Android authority, feb 9th)
http://www.androidauthority.com/verizon-now-outright-lying-net-neutrality-585869/
HEALTH_____________________
If I were still a practicing ob-gyn and one of my patients said she was not going to vaccinate her child, I might try to persuade her to change her mind. But, if I were unsuccessful, I would respect her decision. I certainly would not lobby the government to pass a law mandating that children be vaccinated even if the children’s parents object. Sadly, the recent panic over the outbreak of measles has led many Americans, including some self-styled libertarians, to call for giving government new powers to force all children to be vaccinated.
Those who are willing to make an “exception” to the principle that parents should make health care decisions for their children should ask themselves when in history has a “limited” infringement on individual liberty stayed limited. By ceding the principle that individuals have the right to make their own health care decisions, supporters of mandatory vaccines are opening the door for future infringements on health freedom.
If government can mandate that children receive vaccines, then why shouldn’t the government mandate that adults receive certain types of vaccines? And if it is the law that individuals must be vaccinated, then why shouldn’t police officers be empowered to physically force resisters to receive a vaccine? If the fear of infections from the unvaccinated justifies mandatory vaccine laws, then why shouldn’t police offices fine or arrest people who don’t wash their hands or cover their noses or mouths when they cough or sneeze in public? Why not force people to eat right and take vitamins in order to lower their risk of contracting an infectious disease? These proposals may seem outlandish, but they are no different in principle from the proposal that government force children to be vaccinated.
(Ron Paul, Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/vaccine-controversy-shows-why-we-need-markets-not-mandates/
National media wages psychological terror campaign against Americans to set stage for government destruction of medical choice
A relatively small measles outbreak is now being whipped up with another media scare campaign; this time blaming "anti-vaxxers" and equating them with terrorists. Just as with 9/11, the media completely ignore actual facts and are wholly opposed to any real investigation of things like mercury in flu shots, faked vaccine science and the CDC whistleblower's admission of the vaccine-autism cover-up.
All real facts are thrown out the window, replaced by a media jihad against America which goes to great lengths to outright lie as often as possible. For example, Bloomberg.com knowingly misrepresents the medical freedom stance of Rand Paul, claiming Paul is opposed to vaccinations when, in reality, Paul supports vaccine choice.
Rand Paul, in other words, still believes in the principles of liberty for America. He believes the government does not own your body and cannot force you to be injected with the toxic chemicals intentionally added to vaccines. Sure, Rand Paul tweeted a photo of himself getting a booster shot just to demonstrate he's still pro vaccine, but I'm willing to bet he was actually injected with nothing more than a sterile diluent, not the actual vaccine powder itself which is where all the toxic heavy metals and chemicals are found. But that's just conjecture on my part. The point is that Rand Paul is a vaccine supporter, yet the media intentionally distorts his position to try to paint him as an anti-vaxxer for the simple reason that he believes in medical freedom.
This is how dishonest the national media has become on this issue: They will knowingly lie in order to push an agenda.
(Natural news, feb 7th)
http://www.naturalnews.com/048546_mainstream_media_terror_campaign_medical_choice.html
"The measurable presence of THC in a person's system doesn't correlate with impairment in the same way that blood alcohol concentration does"
A new study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds that drivers who use marijuana are at a significantly lower risk for a crash than drivers who use alcohol. And after adjusting for age, gender, race and alcohol use, drivers who tested positive for marijuana were no more likely to crash than who had not used any drugs or alcohol prior to driving.
(washington post, feb 9th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/09/stoned-drivers-are-a-lot-safer-than-drunk-ones-new-federal-data-show/
Liberals Bash Anna Dugger for Noting How Abortion Has Killed 16 Million Black Babies
Lefitsts outraged to hear facts on abortion genocide
Anna Duggar has done it now. Online “entertainment” news sites are up in arms that a woman would actually express her…gasp…opinion via Twitter!
The Duggars are known for being unapologetically pro-life, and they are absurdly hated by those who rabidly defend a choice their mothers never made (ironically being alive to spew their pro-abortion nonsense). What did Anna do that has E! Online, RadarOnline, FishWrapper, InTouchWeekly and even Mommyish and Opposing Views so riled? She retweeted a Black History Month meme that I created and posted, via The Radiance Foundation, to highlight abortion’s devastating impact in the black community.
“Human beings should be remembered not dismembered. Because of the violence of abortion, over 16 million black people are history. TooManyAborted.com #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter”
(Life news, feb 9th)
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/02/09/liberals-bash-anna-dugger-for-noting-how-abortion-has-killed-16-million-black-babies/
List of Oil and Gas Wastewater Wells Dumping into Aquifers Grows
A total of 532 injection wells are now suspected of dumping toxic wastewater left over from oil and gas extraction into protected clean water aquifer, according to California’s Water Resources control board.
(NBC, feb 5th)
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/The-List-of-Oil-and-Gas-Wastewater-Wells-Dumping-into-Aquifers-Grows--290997161.html
The monarch massacre: Nearly a billion butterflies have vanished
Threatened animals like elephants, porpoises and lions grab all the headlines, but what’s happening to monarch butterflies is nothing short of a massacre. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service summed it up in just one grim statistic on Monday: Since 1990, about 970 million have vanished.
It happened as farmers and homeowners sprayed herbicides on milkweed plants, which serve as the butterflies’ nursery, food source and home. In an attempt to counter two decades of destruction, the Fish and Wildlife Service launched a partnership with two private conservation groups, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to basically grow milkweed like crazy in the hopes of saving the monarchs.
Monarch butterflies are a keystone species that once fluttered throughout the United States by the billions. They alighted from Mexico to Canada each spring on a trek that required six generations of the insect to complete. Afterward, young monarchs about the quarter of the weight of a dime, that know nothing about the flight pattern through the United States, not to mention Mexico, fly back, resting, birthing and dining on milkweed.
The extinction of certain butterfly species is not unheard of. The blueberry-colored Xerces blue disappeared from San Francisco years ago, and recently Fish and Wildlife announced that two subspecies — the rockland skipper and Zestos in South Florida — haven’t been seen since 2004 and are probably extinct. On top of that, pesticide use has also caused a collapse of other pollinators — wasps, beetles and especially honeybees.
(washington post, feb 9th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/09/the-monarch-massacre-nearly-a-billion-butterflies-have-vanished/
PRIVACY________________
In responding to privacy concerns over their Smart TVs recording private conversations and sending them to a third party, Samsung admitted that voice data is “sent to a server” during the process.
Infowars first reported on the issue three months ago in November, but the story went viral over the weekend after being picked up by numerous technology websites.
The controversy stems from 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.”
After an Electronic Frontier Foundation activist made a chilling comparison between the Smart TVs and telescreens in George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984, Samsung was forced to respond, telling the Guardian that users could opt out of the voice recognition feature.
However, the company did admit that if consumers gave permission for the voice recognition feature to be activated, their words would be, “sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.”
(Infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/samsung-admits-private-conversations-being-sent-to-internet-server/
Judge Shoots Down Government’s Attempt To Gag Yahoo Indefinitely Over Grand Jury Subpoenas
California judge Paul Grewal continues to hold up his end of the “Magistrates’ Revolt.” Grewal was the magistrate who shot down the government’s open-ended request to grab every email in a person’s Gmail account and sort through them at its leisure. He was actually the second magistrate to shoot down this request.
The government went “judge shopping” after Judge John Facciola told it the scope of the request needed to be narrowed considerably before he would even think about granting it. The government decided it still wanted all the email and traveled across the country to see Judge Grewal… who told them to GTFO without even giving the feds the option to rewrite the request.
Grewal is once again siding with the public and acting as a check against government overreach.
(Tech dirt, feb 9th)
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150207/17081029950/magistrate-judge-shoots-down-governments-attempt-to-gag-yahoo-indefinitely-over-grand-jury-subpoenas.shtml
Church Asks Followers to Submit to Government, Call 911 on Suspicious Neighbors
A church hosting a law enforcement appreciation sermon asked its followers to pledge their allegiance to government this weekend, arguing that all state authorities throughout history have been ordained by God.
According to an anonymous visitor of the Gold Creek Community Church in Mill Creek, Washington, who provided exclusive photos to Infowars, attendees were ordered to submit to the state without question.
“They had police worship today and last week was military worship where they played clips of American Sniper…” the source said. “They were telling people to basically worship government and worship police no matter what. No mention of police brutality, no mention of the stingray systems grabbing our data…”
The church’s pastor, Dan Kellog, who is also reportedly a police chaplain, used the Romans 13 bible verse to justify his position. As noted by Infowars Paul Joseph Watson, Romans 13 has long been used by authoritarian regimes to force compliance.
Near the end of the sermon, members of the congregation were asked to raise their right hands and make a pledge, which included the promise to call 911 on “suspicious” neighbors.
(infowars, feb 9th)
http://www.infowars.com/church-asks-followers-to-submit-to-government-call-911-on-suspicious-neighbors/
U.S. GOVERNMENT______________________
Nuclear plants face EMP disaster as feds scramble for quick fix
Federal agencies that regulate nuclear power stations are rushing to address a potential threat from an electromagnetic pulse attack on the U.S. electric grid: nuclear power plant meltdowns.
The good news is that the issue and proposed fix are easy. The bad news is that there is growing concern that an EMP attack, either from a North Korean nuclear bomb or a solar storm, will occur first.
In focus are cooling pools used to store spent, but still radioactive, fuel rods used to make power. Cold water must continuously flush through or the rods can catch fire and explode, spewing killer radioactive smoke for miles.
Federal agencies believe an EMP attack would knock the power grid out for months. Most nuclear plants use diesel-powered generators for backup power to the water pumps and only store up to 17 days of fuel.
(Washington examiner, feb 9th)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nuke-plants-face-emp-disaster-as-feds-scramble-for-quick-fix/article/2559982
Top officials at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv met in late January with one of the main progressive groups working to tip the upcoming Israeli elections against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and helped facilitate the organization’s visit to the United States this week to learn political organizing techniques.
(free beacon, feb 9th)
http://freebeacon.com/issues/u-s-embassy-met-with-group-trying-to-influence-israeli-elections/
Clare Lopez, who served in the CIA for 20 years and is senior vice president for research and analysis at the Center for Security Policy, said the problem isn’t with working-level FBI agents, who know the jihadi threat is “nurtured” in mosques. The hindrance is from “higher-level” FBI management and the national security leadership, she insisted.
She said the FBI for too long has allowed itself “to be influenced by operatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates whose objective is to neuter U.S. national security defenses.”
(WND, feb 9th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/expert-fbi-neutered-by-muslim-brotherhood/#Yh5vm6OYH2GfKbDc.99
First it mounted a laser aboard a ship in the Persian Gulf. Now the Navy has publicly unveiled another futuristic weapon: the electromagnetic “rail gun.”
In development for years, the weapon would be able to fire a projectile at Mach 7, or seven times the speed of sound, hitting targets 110 miles away. (By comparison, a Hellfire missile travels a little over Mach 1.)
Instead of gunpowder as a propellant, it uses electromagnetic pulses, and the projectiles hit with such overwhelming force that they don’t need to be armed with explosives. The impact from traveling at such amazing speeds is enough, thank you very much. Lasers sizzle rather than go boom, as some have said. The rail gun definitely has one heck of a boom.
The gun made its debut at the Navy’s Future Force Science and Technology Expo at the Washington Convention Center this week.
(washington post, feb 6th)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/02/06/the-pentagons-electromagnetic-rail-gun-makes-its-public-debut/
Monday, February 9, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
NEWS FOR 2/7/2015 february 7th 2015 and 2/8/2015 february 8th 2015
U.S. GOVERNMENTS (feds and states)____________________
On Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast Barack Obama attacked Christians equating the barbaric actions of ISIS to Christianity.
The President used his warped and adolescent version of the Crusades and Inquisition to bash Christians.
He also blamed slavery and Jim Crow laws on Christians?
“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place. Remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. And our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”
But truth be told, Barack Obama’s drone bombings have killed more people in six years than the 300 year-long Spanish Inquisition.
Patrick Poole at PJ Media reported:
On Monday of this week the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published their annual study of deaths from U.S. drone strikes, and reported the following:
At least 2,464 people have now been killed by US drone strikes outside the country’s declared war zones since President Barack Obama’s inauguration six years ago, the Bureau’s latest monthly report reveals.
Of the total killed since Obama took his oath of office on January 20 2009, at least 314 have been civilians, while the number of confirmed strikes under his administration now stands at 456.
Research by the Bureau also shows there have now been nearly nine times more strikes under Obama in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than there were under his predecessor, George W Bush.
According to Wikipedia there were 1303 executions during the 300 year Spanish Inquisition. Another study put the execution total at around 2000 deaths.
(gateway pundit, feb 8th)
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/02/report-obamas-drone-bombings-have-killed-more-people-than-spanish-inquisition/
Obama Attends Prayer Breakfast With Sudanese Official Accused of Genocide
Concerns raised that Washington could soon normalize relations with Sudan’s rulers
Human rights activists are assailing the Obama administration for the president’s appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday with the foreign minister of Sudan, a country whose government is accused of genocide.
Activists also say the presence of the foreign minister, Ali Ahmed Karti, at the breakfast as well as reports of meetings with administration officials could signal that Washington is considering normalizing relations with Sudan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan in 2009 for war crimes and genocide in the southern region of Darfur, where the United Nations says government forces have killed as many as 300,000 people in non-Arab rebel tribes.
The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by the Fellowship Foundation on behalf of U.S. lawmakers, and is traditionally attended by the president. Sudanese and American activists promoted an online petition against Karti’s invitation and protested Thursday morning outside of the breakfast at the Washington Hilton.
(free beacon, feb 5th)
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-attends-prayer-breakfast-with-sudanese-official-accused-of-genocide/
The Obama administration is considering whether to declassify still-secret sections of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which examined Saudi Arabian support for Islamist militants, the White House said on Thursday.
Interest in the 28-page section of the report was raised after an imprisoned former al Qaeda operative, Zacarias Moussaoui, said in deposition transcripts filed this week that more than a dozen prominent Saudi figures donated to his group in the late 1990s. Saudi officials have denied this.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that following a congressional request last year the intelligence community was undertaking a review of the decision to classify the secret section. He did not say when it might be completed.
(Reuters, feb 6th)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/05/uk-usa-security-saudi-idUKKBN0L92O820150205
Memo Reveals Plan of U.S.-Funded Groups to Influence the Israeli Elections
A coalition of U.S.-funded progressive groups has planned a massive get-out-the-vote effort to influence the Israeli elections, targeting communities that are most likely to vote against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-leaning Likud Party, according to a confidential strategy memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The U.S.-based 501(c)(3) group Ameinu sent out the fundraising proposal for the campaign to American donors on Dec. 17, 2014.
The $3 million initiative is described in the document as “a massive, non-partisan Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign targeting selected demographic and geographic segments of Israeli society.”
The targeted groups listed in the memo—young secular Israelis, low-income secular Jews, and Arab Israelis—are communities that traditionally oppose right-leaning parties such as Likud.
(free beacon, feb 5th)
http://freebeacon.com/issues/u-s-groups-funding-liberal-gotv-effort-in-israel/
The Obama White House has finally released the names of the fourteen Muslim “leaders” who met with the President this past week. Among the group — which included a comedian, along with a hijab-wearing basketball player and a handful of left wing activists — were a select few individuals with disturbingly close ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood.
(breitbart, feb 7th)
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/02/07/the-muslim-brotherhood-comes-to-the-white-house/
As tax day approaches, here’s an enraging story; so many federal workers—especially at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—blow off paying taxes that legislation has been crafted to ban the offenders from receiving millions of dollars in bonus pay, which of course comes from public funds.
Federal employees were delinquent on $3.4 billion in taxes, according to a federal audit released last year yet Uncle Sam rewarded the violators with millions in bonus pay. At the IRS alone, staff members with violations received close to $3 million in awards on top of their regular salary. Some got the extra cash despite being cited for using drugs, making violent threats, fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits and misusing government credit cards, reveals the U.S. Senator, Pat Roberts of Kansas, who introduced the new law to stop the madness.
“This cannot be tolerated,” said Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance, in a statement. So the lawmaker recently introduced a measure (Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act) to stop the costly fraud, which has long been the norm in government. The law would require federal employees to be current on their income taxes—like the rest of us—and prevent those who are delinquent in paying federal tax liability from receiving a bonus or cash award. It’s pathetic that this culture is so flagrant that a law must be passed to correct it. The respective agencies should simply end this corrupt practice on their own.
Although tax-evading IRS employees aren’t the only ones benefiting from this fraud-infested system, the agency is the biggest offender. In fact, the previously cited federal audit, conducted by the IRS Inspector General, reveals that nearly 70% of IRS employees receive some sort of performance reward. This is especially enraging because the agency is perpetually embroiled in scandal, including a huge one uncovered by Judicial Watch; the IRS illegally colluded with other federal agencies to crack down on conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election cycle. In the last year JW has obtained droves of IRS records that expose the depth of the disgraceful scandal.
(Judicial watch, feb 7th)
https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/02/tax-delinquent-govt-workers-rewarded-bonus-pay/
Whistleblower: AG nominee in $1 billion Obama cover-up
New revelations are emerging that could implicate Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s attorney general nominee, in the world’s largest banking scandal.
As WND reported, Lynch, as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, oversaw the investigation in 2012 of drug-related international money laundering allegations against London-based HSBC Holdings LLC.
As a result of HSBC agreeing to a settlement requiring the international bank holding company to pay the U.S. government more than $1.2 billion in fines for money laundering, Lynch’s office agreed in return not to press criminal charges against any bank employee of the U.S.-based HSBC subsidiary.
The federal government’s unwillingness to prosecute HSBC was exposed by a former HSBC vice president and relationship manager in New York, John Cruz, who called the bank a “criminal enterprise.” Cruz was ignored by law enforcement authorities until he brought to WND 1,000 pages of customer account records that document his claims.
HSBC also used its power to temporarily shut down WND.com as the news site was breaking a series of stories on the mega-bank’s money-laundering practices.
In a telephone interview with WND, Cruz said the Obama administration “is continuing to cover up its role in the HSBC money laundering scandal.”
“The U.S. government never responded to the evidence I provided of money-laundering activity that I fully documented with records copied directly from HSBC accounts,” Cruz explained to WND after learning court papers were filed Wednesday objecting to the Justice Department stonewalling a FOIA request for the release of documents that could implicate Lynch in a massive cover-up of Obama administration involvement in international money-laundering of Mexican cartel drug money.
Lynch has never explained why the New York U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2012 chose to ignore the 1,000 pages of customer account records Cruz pulled from the HSBC computer system before he was fired by HSBC senior management uninterested in investigating his claim to have discovered illegal money-laundering activity at the bank.
“The official response of the IRS Whistleblower Office doesn’t say there was no fraud or tax evasion committed by HSBC in the money-laundering case,” Cruz explained. “The IRS simply says, ‘In this case, the information you provided did not result in the collection of any proceeds.’”
Cruz began working at HSBC on Jan. 14, 2008, and was terminated for “poor job performance” on Feb. 17, 2010.
(WND, feb 8th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/whistleblower-ag-nominee-in-1-billion-obama-cover-up/#HvjikmYXHDqjOmJS.99
Massive Utah cyberattacks — up to 300 million per day — may be aimed at NSA facility
Five years ago, Utah government computer systems faced 25,000 to 30,000 attempted cyberattacks every day.
At the time, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires thought that was massive. "But this last year we have had spikes of over 300 million attacks against the state databases" each day: a 10,000-fold increase.
Why? Squires says it is probably because Utah is home to the new, secretive National Security Agency computer center, and hackers believe they can somehow get to it through state computer systems.
(Salt lake tribune, feb 3rd)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/2135491-155/massive-utah-cyber-attacks-may-be
Virginia Latest State to Consider Taking More DNA Samples
Virginia is considering expanding the number of misdemeanor convictions that would require an offender to submit a DNA sample to a state databank
DNA collection in criminal cases is growing, with most states now taking it in at least some misdemeanors. New York became the first state to expand its databank to include all misdemeanors in 2012.
(AP, feb 7th)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/virginia-latest-state-taking-dna-samples-28796660
Pentagon Spent $504,816 on Viagra Last Year
Analysis: 80,770 hours of sexual enhancement
he Department of Defense (DoD) spent more than a half a million dollars on the male enhancement drug Viagra last year, according to government contracts.
Last year DoD also ordered $3,505 worth of Levitra, and $14,540 of Cialis, other popular erectile dysfunction drugs.
The contracts were filed under “Troop Support.”
(free beacon, feb 6th)
http://freebeacon.com/issues/pentagon-spent-504816-on-viagra-last-year/
One pill, 10 years: Ky. high court reviews vet's sentence
An injured Gulf War veteran with no prior felony record, Kidd was convicted of drug trafficking in a controlled substance in 2009 for selling a single pill and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
His sentence was probated on the condition that he leave Kentucky for five years. But when he returned to visit his ailing mother in 2012, a circuit judge in Lee County revoked his probation and ordered him to serve the 10 years, the maximum allowed by law.
To Public Advocate Ed Monahan, locking up offenders like Kidd is why Kentucky is wasting millions of dollars a year on corrections even as crime rates fall.
"We should not be imprisoning a wounded veteran for 10 years at an average year's cost of $21,906 … because he was technically in violation of his conditions of probation," Monahan said in e-mail.
(usa today, feb 8th)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/08/one-pill-10-years/23070929/
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced their plan to save salmon and steelhead populations in Oregon- that is to kill at least 11,000 double-crested cormorants for the next few years.
According to the statement released by the Army Corps for the final Environment Impact Statement (EIS), they can save the salmon and steelhead populations in Oregon if they will reduce the population of cormorants in the East Sand Island.
To kill the birds, the plan is to pour oil to their nests to stop the hatching process. This will be done once the plan gets approved.
According to Diana Fredlund, spokesperson for the Army Corps, the decision to kill the said bird species is hard but it is better than killing 18,000 cormorants by 2018.
(smn weekly, feb 8th)
http://www.smnweekly.com/11000-birds-to-be-killed-in-order-to-save-salmons/14558/
According to a report from the Associated Press, a provision in Colorado’s state constitution actually limits the amount of tax revenue that the state itself can bring in before it has to redistribute it to taxpayers. That means that instead of having all of the $50 million or so that Colorado collected over the course of 2014 going toward education and construction projects, like many expected, the state might need to send out checks to taxpayers. The AP reports that this has only happened six times in the state’s history, with disbursements equaling $3.3 billion. Even for those who were on the fence about marijuana legalization, it’s hard to be upset with free money, right?
For most people, this is probably fantastic news. For others, including the state’s lawmakers, it’s more of an annoyance. State lawmakers are hesitant to return the money to their constituents, the AP says, and it may result in another ballot measure to determine whether marijuana can be exempted from the state’s tax revenue limitation requirement. The reason lawmakers don’t want to redistribute the funds? Basically, they feel that the proceeds from the marijuana market should go toward offsetting the costs imposed by the marijuana market, or at least to the budgets that voters agreed upon when they cast their ballots in favor of legalization in 2012.
In all, if funds are redistributed, it would only amount to about $7.63 per adult, so it’s not exactly a windfall for the taxpayers. That’s around $30.5 million. Even though Colorado state officials were off on their initial estimates as to how much revenue the state would bring in during the first year, the redistribution of tax revenues does seem to indicate that the legalization experiment in Colorado has been a success.
(Wall st cheat sheet, feb 7th)
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/business/if-this-doesnt-make-you-support-marijuana-legalization-nothing-will.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3REOBRjHM
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BORDERS____________
The Homeland Security Department has set up hotlines for illegal immigrants who believe their rights under President Obama’s amnesty policy have been violated.
In a memo announcing the customer complaint line, U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked illegal immigrants to “please tell us about your experience” if they believe they were treated “contrary to the new DHS enforcement priorities.”
(Washington times, feb 8th)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/8/homeland-security-sets-up-obama-amnesty-complaint-/
Cameron County [Texas] Sheriff Omar Lucio said people should avoid crossing into Mexico as the threat of gun battles continue between rival criminal organizations in Matamoros and Reynosa.
Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera said the situation an ongoing fight between criminal organizations that control Reynosa and those that control Matamoros.
“The leaders of these organizations have been arrested or killed, and now we have a different type of violence performed by factions of these organizations that are still armed, and would like to continue existing,” said Correa-Cabrera, chair of the department of government at the University of Texas at Brownsville.
The professor said the situation has only gotten worse throughout the years and the violence is prompting alerts for American citizens traveling into Mexico.
(Valley central, feb 6th)
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1160096#.VNUPirDF8SY
Nebraska, Oklahoma in border war with Colorado over marijuana
(LA times, feb 7th)
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-border-war-20150207-story.html
Pope Francis: Apply Rule of Law When Dealing with Immigrants
In an address before prefects of a number of Italian cities Saturday, Pope Francis chose to dwell on the topic of immigration, and reaffirmed the need to follow an orderly procedure when dealing with immigrants, in accord with the dictates of the law.
Francis made reference to the “particular impact” of immigration into Italy, “linked to the increase in the world of violent conflict with its tragic consequences on people and on the economies of many countries.” The Pope said that particular skills are needed to deal with the large number of potential immigrants seeking asylum or simply a better life.
These skills include the ability to determine “the correct application of the rules” in the daily management of situations, which will guarantee “fidelity to the dictates of the law and other regulations,” as well as “the scrupulous respect of fundamental rights of every human person.”
The Pope also expressed his gratitude for the efforts made in coordinating the reception of thousands of men, women, and children arriving to the Italian coasts.
“Obedience to the law and the criteria of humanity that underlie it and loyalty to institutions constitute the indispensable framework in which you carry out your function,” he said.
This is not the first time that the Pope has pronounced on the question of immigration. [continued in article]
(breitbart, feb 7th)
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/02/07/pope-francis-apply-rule-of-law-when-dealing-with-immigrants/
U.S. AND WORLD ECONOMY_____________________
US government faces pressure after biggest leak in banking history
Questions for Department of Justice and IRS after disclosure of leak revealing HSBC’s private Swiss bank helped clients to conceal undeclared ‘black’ accounts
The US government will come under intense pressure this week to explain what action it took after receiving a massive cache of leaked data that revealed how the Swiss banking arm of HSBC, the world’s second-largest bank, helped wealthy customers conceal billions of dollars of assets.
The leaked files, which reveal how HSBC advised some clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities, were obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, CBS 60 Minutes and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The files reveal how HSBC’s Swiss private bank colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from domestic tax authorities across the world and provided services to international criminals and other high-risk individuals.
The disclosure amounts to one of the biggest banking leaks in history shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets. Of those, around 2,900 clients were connected to the US, providing the IRS with a trail of evidence of potential American taxpayers who may have been hiding assets in Geneva.
The data was leaked by a computer expert turned whistleblower working in HSBC’s Geneva office
(guardian, feb 8th)
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/08/us-government-biggest-leak-banking-history-questions-irs-taxes
Ecuador becomes the first country to roll out its own digital cash
Ecuador's Sistema de Dinero Electrónico (electronic money system) kicked off in December by allowing qualifying users to set up accounts, and it will begin acting as a real means of transaction this month.
Once the government flips the switch, the South American nation of 16 million will host the first-ever state-run electronic payment system. (Other countries, such as Sweden, use digital currencies widely, but they're not state-sponsored.) But the Ecuadorean government says the scheme is designed to support its dollar-based monetary system, not replace it.
(CNBC, feb 7th)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102397137
Having recently exposed the mainstream media’s lack of objectivity in “slanted and distorted” interviews, Rand Paul has turned his focus to another staple of the status quo – his father’s arch-nemesis, The Fed. As WSJ reports, Sen. Rand Paul unleashed a blistering attack on the Federal Reserve in Iowa on Fridasy evening, calling for an audit of the institution’s books and blaming it for fueling income inequality. “Once upon a time, your dollar was as good as gold,” he explained, adding “then for many decades, they said your dollar was backed by the full faith and credit of government.” Do you know what it’s backed by now? “Used car loans, bad home loans, distressed assets and derivatives.”
(zero hedge, feb 8th)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-07/rand-paul-explains-what-dollar-backed-used-car-loans-bad-home-loans-distressed-asset
The Obama administration’s student loan program had a shortfall of nearly $22 billion in 2014 – the largest of any government credit program in history
(free beacon, feb 6th)
http://freebeacon.com/politics/22b-shortfall-found-in-obama-administrations-2014-student-loan-program/
The 'Real Unemployment Rate' Ticked Higher in January
A number of economists look past the "main" unemployment rate to a different figure the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls "U-6," which it defines as "total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers."
In other words, the unemployed, the underemployed and the discouraged—a rate that still remains high. The U-6 rate rose in January to 11.3 percent, the first time in six months that it ticked higher. The trend in U-6 has been somewhat more volatile than in the main unemployment rate as well.
(NBC news, feb 6th)
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/real-unemployment-rate-ticked-higher-january-n301516
$1,200-a-Day Union Workers Force Shut-Down of 29 West Coast Ports
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that loading and unloading operations at all 29 West Coast ports would temporarily be suspended this weekend in response to union slowdowns that brought freight movements at the ports to a near standstill.
PMA members stated that they cannot afford the almost $1,200 per day cost to employ International Longshore and Warehouse Union members to do little work.
After Breitbart broke the story on Thursday that union members of the ILWU planned to “walk out within the week,” the PMA employer group announced they can no longer continue to pay workers the premium pay for diminished productivity.
With ILWU members continuing to withhold the needed crane operators and slow crane movements, shippers and their customers estimated they were losing $1 billion a day. But a complete shut-down is expected to raise the U.S. economic pain to $2 billion a day.
(breitbart, feb 7th)
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/02/07/1200-a-day-union-workers-force-shut-down-of-29-west-coast-ports/
Flights to Iceland are about to cost less than most domestic flights in the States. Icelandic airline WOW air will start its long anticipated mega deal, offering nonstop service from Washington area BWI Airport to Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport for $99. Better yet, the service will begin a month earlier than planned, May 8.
The $99 flight includes a seat, up to an 11-pound carry-on and even the taxes—makes you wonder where the money goes on some of those Delta flights. Like many airlines, extra legroom, extra luggage and pre-selecting seats will cost extra.
Be warned, the airline lacks any in-flight entertainment, so you’ll have to keep yourself busy. Also, there are no free meals—which may be a good thing—but you can easily purchase some duty-free munchies in the air.
(paste magazine, feb 4th)
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/02/99-flights-to-europe-are-coming.html
UKRAINE CRISIS________________
The leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France are aiming to meet in Belarus to continue to work to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Sunday that preparations are underway for her to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Wednesday.
Seibert said the decision follows an “extensive” phone call among the four leaders Sunday morning, during which further measures for a peace plan were discussed.
(USA today, feb 8th)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/08/leaders-ukraine-summit/23074663/
British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Friday that supplying weapons to Ukraine, an option under consideration in Washington, would escalate the ongoing conflict.
In an interview during the Munich Security Conference, Fallon told Reuters he fully supported a new effort by the leaders of Germany and France to try to halt the Ukraine conflict.
However, the Defence Secretary said territory taken by rebels since the Minsk agreement in September should “absolutely not” be recognized in any new ceasefire.
French President Francoise Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Moscow on Friday to discuss the escalating crisis in Ukraine, reportedly without informingthe US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is currently in Ukraine discussing Kiev’s plea for weapons.
The two leaders, who are part of the so-called ‘Normandy Four’ group along with Moscow and Kiev, agreed on the trip on Wednesday night, an unnamed French government official told AP.
(Russia Today, feb 8th)
http://rt.com/uk/230043-fallon-ukraine-weapons-statement/
Germany’s rejection of supplying weapons to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian rebels may heighten the domestic pressure on a reluctant U.S. President Barack Obama to deliver the arms.
Increasing numbers of senior military and State Department officials are joining Republican lawmakers in a push to arm Ukraine — an option the commander-in-chief personally opposes, according to three people familiar with the dynamics in the Obama administration. They asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pleaded against shipping lethal military support in a Saturday speech at the Munich Security Conference, will brief Obama in Washington on Monday on the issue and the German-French push for a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State John Kerry said he’s confident Obama will make his decision “soon” after the meeting.
(Bloomberg, feb 8th)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-08/merkel-objection-to-arms-for-ukraine-may-spur-backlash-for-obama
Russia is reportedly getting military bases in an EU state
Cyprus has offered Russia to have air and navy bases on its territory.
Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades announced that the country is ready to host Russian aviation and naval bases. The official agreement on military cooperation between the two nations is expected be signed on February 25, 2015, according to Lenta.ru .
(Business insider, feb 8th)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-getting-military-bases-eu-193847584.html
WAR ON TERROR_______________
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon said Sunday that $25 million worth of weapons and ammunition have arrived in Beirut, the latest American assistance to Lebanon's army as it fights Islamic extremists along the border with Syria.
Ambassador David Hale said the equipment includes more than 70 M198 howitzers and over 26 million rounds of ammunition and artillery "of all shapes and sizes, including heavy artillery."
Islamic extremists have launched several attacks on Lebanese troops over the past months in areas near the Syrian border, killing and wounding scores of troops. The most serious attack occurred in August, when members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State group captured two dozen Lebanese soldiers. They have killed four of them and still hold the rest.
(AP, feb 8th)
http://news.yahoo.com/us-shipload-weapons-ammunition-arrives-lebanon-114259011.html
While the world unified in the name of defending free speech against violent extremism in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris last month, British police were investigating people who purchased copies of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
That shocking revelation is contained in a letter to the Guardian from a woman who bought a copy of the magazine from her local newsagents in Corsham, Wiltshire, and was subsequently told that police had visited the store to obtain the names and addresses of four customers who had purchased the satirical weekly publication.
“To my surprise, a copy arrived last Wednesday week and although the standard of content in no way matches that of the Guardian I will cherish it. However, two days later a member of Her Majesty’s police service visited said newsagent, requesting the names of the four customers who had purchased Charlie Hebdo. So beware, your badges may attract police interest in your customers.”
(Infowars, feb 8th)
http://www.infowars.com/uk-police-investigated-people-who-purchased-charlie-hebdo/
The EU agency for judicial cooperation says the bloc needs to develop a common approach to lawfully intercept services like Skype and Viber, to help keep track of European militants arriving back home from the Middle East.
The measures were outlined in a Eurojust report, which was discussed by a committee of the European Parliament on Thursday, said Reuters after they saw the report.
Following deadly terror attacks in Paris last month, EU nations are worried about the danger of radicalized and trained Islamists returning from the Middle East. Militants have often used social networks to spread ideas, jihadist propaganda and recruit new members.
“The use of the internet for terrorist purposes creates an additional burden for investigations and prosecutions of foreign fighters,” the Eurojust report said.
The report touched on the fact that “the interception of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications (e.g. Skype, Viber, etc.) is problematic and seriously hinders relevant investigations.” It believes that “a harmonized approach at EU level may be necessary to address technical difficulties and legal challenges in the gathering and admissibility of e-evidence.”
Eurojust highlights the problem in securing convictions in suspected terrorist cases by pointing out that evidence tracked online may not be accepted in some courts due to national laws. The report urges cooperation between judicial authorities within the bloc.
“Eurojust recommends exchange of experience, including the collection and dissemination of best practice and challenges encountered by national judicial authorities in using information extracted from the internet as evidence in terrorism cases,” the report said.
In the wake of heightened security concerns, the European Commission has already announced it will require passengers flying to and from Europe to submit 42 pieces of personal data.
Some of the fields would not cause too many eyebrows to be raised, such as nationality or frequent flyer information. Others, such as meal preference or the number of one-way tickets bought are slightly more puzzling, according to the Guardian.
In December, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Nils Muiznieks said there was a need for increased transparency from intelligence agencies concerning their surveillance techniques.
Muiznieks insisted human rights violations relating to such mass surveillance could not be justified “by the fight against terrorism” or other “threats to national security.”
(Russia Today, feb 7th)
http://rt.com/news/230051-eu-terrorism-internet-surveillance/
Baghdad's decade-old nightly curfew ended after midnight Sunday, hours after bombs exploded in and around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 40 people in a stark warning of the dangers still ahead in this country under attack by the Islamic State group.
The deadliest of Saturday's bombings happened in the capital's New Baghdad neighborhood, where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a street filled with hardware stores and a restaurant, killing 22 people, police said.
"The restaurant was full of young people, children and women when the suicide bomber blew himself up," witness Mohamed Saeed said. "Many got killed."
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the bomber targeted Shiites, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor. The Sunni extremists now hold a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria in their self-declared caliphate.
A second attack happened in central Baghdad's popular Shorja market, where two bombs some 25 meters (yards) apart exploded, killing at least 11 people, police said. Another bombing at the Abu Cheer outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad killed at least four people, police said.
In Tarmiya, a Sunni town 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad, a bomb blast killed at least three soldiers in a passing convoy, authorities said.
(AP, feb 8th)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_IRAQ?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-07-13-19-22
As ISIS spreads its influence and rule not only in its caliphate of portions of Syria and Iraq but also in non-contiguous areas of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the FBI is opening up cases of suspects who may be tied to ISIS in 49 states of the United States.
(WND, feb 8th)
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/fbi-has-opened-isis-cases-in-49-u-s-states/#S5QugHP3AEyq1pAY.99
MAINSTREAM MEDIA___________________
There are five reasons that the mainstream media and the largest alternative media websites are always pro-war.
1. Self-Censorship by Journalists
2. Censorship by Higher-Ups
3. Drumming Up Support for War
4. Access
5. Censorship by the Government
[EXTREMELY DETAILED AND DOCUMENTED ARTICLE, CHECK IT OUT IF YOU DONT BELEIVE IT]
(Washingtons blog, feb 8th)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/u-s-reporters-always-pro-war.html
Becoming the first credentialed, well-known media insider to step forward and state publicly that he was secretly a “propagandist,” an editor of a major German daily has said that he personally planted stories for the CIA.
Saying he believes a medical condition gives him only a few years to live, and that he is filled with remorse, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany’s largest newspapers, said in an interview that he accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA and published them under his own name. Ulfkotte said the aim of much of the deception was to drive nations toward war.
Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western media, and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.
Dr. Ulfkotte is the author of a book currently available only in German, “Bought Journalists” (Kopp 2014.) Aged 55, he was also once an advisor to the government of German Chancellor Helmet Kohl.
The book has become a bestseller in Germany but, in a bizarre twist which Ulfkotte says characterizes the disconnect caused by CIA control of the western media, the book cannot be reported on.
Ulfkotte says:
“No German mainstream journalist is allowed to report about [my] book. Otherwise he or she will be sacked. So we have a bestseller now that no German journalist is allowed to write or talk about.”
(Global Research, feb 7th)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/editor-of-major-german-newspaper-says-he-planted-stories-for-the-cia/5429324
Long before Brian Williams was caught lying about his chopper coming under fire in Iraq, he claimed he’d stared down the barrel of a bandit’s gun as a teenager in sleepy Red Bank, NJ.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire magazine, Williams said a thief drew on him in the 1970s — leaving him “looking up at a thug’s snub-nosed .38 while selling Christmas trees out of the back of a truck.”
He told the tough-to-believe story at least four times, claiming he was trying to help a local church when the thief snatched his money on West Front Street and Riverside Avenue.
But longtime Red Bank residents think it’s a tall tale.
“I would highly doubt he’s telling the truth,” said Danny Murphy, who in the ’70s ran Danny’s restaurant , which was a few blocks from the alleged crime scene. “I find it hard to believe anyone was held up in this area in the ’70s. It was very safe.”
Les Carbone, 85, felt much the same way.
“Don’t listen to Brian Williams,” he said. “He’s going to tell you a lot of things. I doubt he was robbed at gunpoint. I was born in Red Bank, there were no crimes like that. Tell Brian Williams to stop lying.”
It was so safe, kids walked around alone at night back then, other residents said.
“It was never dangerous here,” said Yolanda DeMaria, 93. “It was a very peaceful town, a lovely town. It was a small town with a dress shop and a five-and-dime. No one locked their cars.”
(Page six, feb 8th)
http://pagesix.com/2015/02/08/residents-debunk-brian-williams-encounter-with-christmas-bandit/?_ga=1.73668562.13517081.1423409285
PRIVACY AND THE SPY GRID______________
SAMSUNG SMART TV PRIVACY POLICY:
"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."
The Samsung example is just the latest privacy-related concern involving smart TVs — many of which routinely require users to agree to having their viewing data sent back to the TV maker and shared by them with advertisers and others simply in order for them to gain access to the service. But the clarity of wording in Samsung’s privacy policy is impressive — given it amounts to a warning not to talk about private stuff in front of your telescreen because multiple unknown entities can listen in.
Creepy, tech-fueled privacy intrusions are rarely detailed as clearly as that. So full marks to Samsung for clarity. Albeit, as per usual, these warnings are contained within the most overlooked type of document on the Internet so will easily go unnoticed by the average user.
If the SmartTV owner does realize how ridiculous this is, Samsung does at least allow them to disable the eavesdropping voice recognition ‘feature’, and instead use a more limited set of predefined ‘voice commands’ — and in that instance says it does not harvest their spoken words.
However it will still gather usage info and any other text-based inputs for data mining purposes, as it also notes further down in the policy. So an entire opt-out of being tracked is not part of this very expensive package.
(tech crunch, feb 8th)
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/telescreen/
CLIMATE CHANGE_____________________
The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever
When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.
Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.
This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.
Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments.”
(telegraph, feb 7th)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/globalwarming/11395516/The-fiddling-with-temperature-data-is-the-biggest-science-scandal-ever.html
FLASHBACK: Meteorologist Anthony Watts on ‘adjusted’ U.S. temperature data: ‘In the business and trading world, people go to jail for such manipulations of data’
(climate depot, jan 10th 2013, updated feb 8th 2015)
http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/01/10/meteorologist-anthony-watts-on-adjusted-us-temperature-data-in-the-business-and-trading-world-people-go-to-jail-for-such-manipulations-of-data/
Death toll soars as cold snap hits UK
Official figures reveal that the death rate related to cold snaps in England and Wales is over 30% higher than normal for this time of year.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) some 28,800 people died in the fortnight ending January 23.
ONS said the flu virus and the cold snap are the main reasons behind the recent spike in winter deaths.
More than 25,000 people aged over 65 lost their lives due to the cold snap. 11,102 men and 14,129 women lost their lives in the fortnight to 23 January. The death toll among the elderly was 18,154 in the same period last year.
(Press tv, feb 4th)
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/02/04/396167/Nearly-29000-dead-in-UK-cold-snap
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