Monday, March 24, 2014

US Gasoline Retail Sales Since the Financial Crisis

Daily US retail sales of gasoline are down from 60,000 in 2007 to 20,000 today.

Must be the result of 'Cash for Clunkers' and more stringent mileage standards.

And stagnation in the real median income is certainly a positive factor in conservation.

No wonder the energy crowd is lobbying so hard for more pipelines and exports.

Another glorious victory for The Recovery.

Homeland Security Exercise Targets “Free Americans Against Socialist Tyranny”

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Food - The Ultimate Secret Exposed full version

Please Watch This Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WMwXlikoFrM

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Top Cancer Centers Off-Limits Under Obamacare

Some of America's best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation's new health care program.

Doctors and administrators say they're concerned. So are some state insurance regulators. An Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast.

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington's insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it's in less than half of the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.

In all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that responded to AP's survey said patients have access through all the insurance companies in their states' exchanges.

Those patients may not be able get the most advanced treatment, including clinical trials of new medications. Also, it's not easy for consumers to tell if top-level institutions are included in a plan.

"The challenges of this are going to become evident ... as cancer cases start to arrive," said Norman Hubbard, executive vice president of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Before President Barack Obama's health care law, a cancer diagnosis could make you uninsurable. Now, insurers can't turn away people with health problems or charge them more. Lifetime dollar limits on policies, once a financial trap-door for cancer patients, are also banned. The new obstacles are more subtle.

To keep premiums low, insurers have designed narrow networks of hospitals and doctors. The government-subsidized private plans on the exchanges typically offer less choice than Medicare or employer plans. By not including a top cancer center an insurer can cut costs.

The AP surveyed 23 institutions around the country that are part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. AP asked the centers how many insurance companies in their state's exchange included them as a network provider. Of the 19 that responded, four reported access through all insurers.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield officials said its network was based on research involving thousands of consumers and businesses.

"What we learned was that people are willing to make trade-offs in order to have access to affordable health care," the company said. "Our provider networks reflect this."

The Obama administration says it has notified insurers that their networks will get closer scrutiny for next year in the 36 states served by the federal exchange. Cancer care will be a priority, it says.

-- RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, AP

Saturday, March 15, 2014

KKK and Democratic Party: Partners in Killing Minorities Via Planned Parenthood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJjzGbi3re8&feature=player_embedded

All You Need to Know About Ukraine

By: Chris Tell at http://capitalistexploits.at/

A politician is a material incarnation of the absolute worst of human nature. Look around you, it's self-evident. Basic human nature is to survive. Once that is accomplished and we become comfortable, extremes in behaviour can develop. If you're a typical politician those extremes normally manifest as unchecked ego and unbridled power. A bad combination!

Putin is many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Yes he is dangerous, yes he is power hungry, but show me a politician that is not. Again, politics is where the worst of human nature congregates, like flies to shit.

Russian Pipeline network in Ukraine

Take a look at the map above. It tells you all you need to know about why Ukraine is in the cross-hairs of the world's super powers. It is about the Russian pipeline network that feeds Europe, plain and simple. Ukraine is, as you can see, a pretty damn important piece in the Russian energy distribution network.

This has nothing to do with Russians in Ukraine. "Brother Vlad" would gun those "countrymen" down in a heartbeat if they threatened his pipelines. He'd then return to his morning tea without a second thought. "Pass the toast Alina." Oh, and unless you have been drinking the western media Kool Aid, the Brits and Yanks would do the same. This isn't a cultural issue, it's a matter of ECONOMICS, POWER AND POLITICS.

The 64 million dollar question now is how far will the delusional, intellectually bankrupt "gentlemen" that inhabits the White House push this with Putin..?

Obama's foreign policy is a joke. The decisions coming out of this administration are nothing short of BRAIN DEAD. Imposing sanctions on Russia only serves to push Putin into a corner. If he backs down now he loses credibility, which means he can't, as it would be political suicide.

I cannot fathom what the Obama administration thought they would get out of imposing sanctions, other than further alienating the Russians and endangering millions upon millions of people in the region.

Did they really think Putin would roll over and say "Sorry gee, you know what you're right."?

Did they really think that the Europeans, who by the way Russia has by the balls (via control over the flow of natural gas), would see it in their best interests to follow the US and antagonize the hand that feeds them?

Did they really think that China would back them up on this one?

The US's "allies" and "friends" have not suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. This is the real price of the NSA spying.

The US has the world's largest , most sophisticated military. Spending on its military ($683.7B) alone is greater than the entire GDP of Afghanistan ($33.7B), where they have been unable to suppress the restless locals.

Antagonizing China and Russia is a dangerous game. One misstep and we could have WWIII on our hands, which would be most unfortunate.

- Chris

"If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country." - Vladimir Putin

The world is SCREAMING for a new financial system

March 14, 2014
Ambergris Caye, Belize
One of the key lessons we can take away from history is that the global financial system changes… frequently.
In ancient times, Roman coins were used across the region by Romans and non-Romans alike who engaged in trade and commerce.
Given how destructively successive Roman governments debased their coins, however, the reserve burden eventually fell to the Byzantine Empire, whose gold solidus coin became the dominant currency in world trade.
Over the centuries, this standard changed several more times. The Venetians, Florentines, Spanish, French, British, etc. each issued the world’s dominant currency at one point or another.
But the fundamentals of those currencies changed. Governments engaged in wanton debasement, mismanaged their economies, and accumulated massive debt levels. And eventually the world shifted to new currencies.
Since the end of World War II, the US dollar has been the dominant currency in the world.
And even though Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s convertability to gold and unilaterally abandoned the US government’s obligations under the Bretton Woods system back in 1971, the world has still clung to the dollar for the past 43-years.
But this is changing rapidly.
The Chinese, which have their own economic issues to deal with, are starting to dump Treasuries in record numbers.
Central banks are buying up more gold. Foreign countries are entering into bilateral currency swap arrangements with one another. And world governments are starting to (rather embarrassingly) demand that the US get its budget and fiscal house in order.
Most tellingly, though, member nations of the International Monetary Fund are starting to revolt.
As one of the major organizations spawned from the post-war financial structure, the IMF’s original goal was to ensure the smooth development of a new global financial system.
Over 180 countries have since become members of the IMF. But the organization runs on a quota system, with each member nation having a certain percentage of the IMF’s overall votes.
The US, for example, has the most power by far with a 16.75% share of the vote. Japan is a distant second with a 6.23% share.
This puts the US in the driver’s seat. And it’s been that way for decades.
But most of the other 180+ nations have had enough. And they’re pushing the United States to massively overhaul the current quota system.
Even typical allies are breaking ranks. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey recently told reporters at a financial conference that they will “actively lobby” the US to reform the IMF quota issues, and that “Congress must understand that it is in the interest of the US to reform the IMF. . .”
India. China. Just about everyone imaginable is pushing for major IMF reform. Everyone except the Land of the Free. The US government seems to like things the way they are. And Congress has been very intransigent in adopting any planned reforms.
These people have their heads buried in the sand so deep that they can’t even hear the rest of the world SCREAMING for a new financial system.
This is going to happen, whether the US wants it to or not.
And while no foreign government wants a collapse of the dollar, they do very much want an orderly rebalancing of the financial system. This is already under way.
The US government may pretend that everything is fine and dandy. But given the overwhelming objective evidence out there, folks who aren’t on board with this major trend are ignoring it at their own peril.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Most Evil And Disturbing NSA Spy Practices To-Date Have Just Been Revealed

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.

The man-in-the-middle tactic can be used, for instance, to covertly change the content of a message as it is being sent between two people, without either knowing that any change has been made by a third party.

- From Glenn Greenwald’s latest article: How the NSA Plans to Infect Millions of Computers with Malware

The latest piece from Greenwald and company on the unconstitutional spy practices of the NSA may represent the most dangerous and disturbing revelations yet. It’s hard for shadiness at the NSA to surprise me these days, but there was only one word that kept repeating over and over in my head as I read this: EVIL.
As a quick aside, Greenwald points out in the quote above how spam emails are used by the NSA to bait you into clicking dangerous links. This is a timely revelation considering I received one such email yesterday from a friend of mine. The email was sent to a wide list of let’s say “liberty-minded people” and webmasters associated with very popular sites. The link seemed shady so I texted him to ask if he had sent it. He hadn’t.
Earlier this week, during a talk at SXSW, Edward Snowden pleaded with people to use encryption. While he admitted if the NSA targeted you individually they could almost certainly “own your computer,” he stated that if people use encryption on a massive scale it makes the NSA’s attempts to monitor everyone at the same time much more difficult.

Apparently, the NSA is well aware of this threat. Which is why we now know that the agency has been dedicating significant amounts of taxpayer dollars toward an attempt to infect millions of computers with malware in an attempt at “industrial-scale exploitation,” which would lead to them “owning the net.”
As Mikko Hypponen, an expert in malware stated:

“The NSA’s surveillance techniques could inadvertently be undermining the security of the Internet.”

Move along serfs, nothing to see here.
From The Intercept:

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.

In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.

The implants being deployed were once reserved for a few hundred hard-to-reach targets, whose communications could not be monitored through traditional wiretaps. But the documents analyzed by The Intercept show how the NSA has aggressively accelerated its hacking initiatives in the past decade by computerizing some processes previously handled by humans. The automated system – codenamed TURBINE – is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”

Mikko Hypponen, an expert in malware who serves as chief research officer at the Finnish security firm F-Secure, calls the revelations “disturbing.” The NSA’s surveillance techniques, he warns, could inadvertently be undermining the security of the Internet.

It sounds like that is precisely their intent…

The NSA began rapidly escalating its hacking efforts a decade ago. In 2004, according to securet internal records, the agency was managing a small network of only 100 to 150 implants. But over the next six to eight years, as an elite unit called Tailored Access Operations (TAO) recruited new hackers and developed new malware tools, the number of implants soared to tens of thousands.

The agency’s solution was TURBINE. Developed as part of TAO unit, it is described in the leaked documents as an “intelligent command and control capability” that enables “industrial-scale exploitation.”

Earlier reports based on the Snowden files indicate that the NSA has already deployed between 85,000 and 100,000 of its implants against computers and networks across the world, with plans to keep on scaling up those numbers.

The intelligence community’s top-secret “Black Budget” for 2013, obtained by Snowden, lists TURBINE as part of a broader NSA surveillance initiative named “Owning the Net.”

The agency sought $67.6 million in taxpayer funding for its Owning the Net program last year. Some of the money was earmarked for TURBINE, expanding the system to encompass “a wider variety” of networks and “enabling greater automation of computer network exploitation.”

Your tax dollars at works slaves.

One implant, codenamed UNITEDRAKE, can be used with a variety of “plug-ins” that enable the agency to gain total control of an infected computer.

An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystrokes. And SALVAGERABBIT exfiltrates data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer.

The implants can enable the NSA to circumvent privacy-enhancing encryption tools that are used to browse the Internet anonymously or scramble the contents of emails as they are being sent across networks. That’s because the NSA’s malware gives the agency unfettered access to a target’s computer before the user protects their communications with encryption.

According to the Snowden files, the technology has been used to seek out terror suspects as well as individuals regarded by the NSA as “extremist.” But the mandate of the NSA’s hackers is not limited to invading the systems of those who pose a threat to national security.

In one secret post on an internal message board, an operative from the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate describes using malware attacks against systems administrators who work at foreign phone and Internet service providers. By hacking an administrator’s computer, the agency can gain covert access to communications that are processed by his company. “Sys admins are a means to an end,” the NSA operative writes.

But not all of the NSA’s implants are used to gather intelligence, the secret files show. Sometimes, the agency’s aim is disruption rather than surveillance. QUANTUMSKY, a piece of NSA malware developed in 2004, is used to block targets from accessing certain websites.

QUANTUMCOPPER, first tested in 2008, corrupts a target’s file downloads. These two “attack” techniques are revealed on a classified list that features nine NSA hacking tools, six of which are used for intelligence gathering. Just one is used for “defensive” purposes – to protect U.S. government networks against intrusions.

Before it can extract data from an implant or use it to attack a system, the NSA must first install the malware on a targeted computer or network.

According to one top-secret document from 2012, the agency can deploy malware by sending out spam emails that trick targets into clicking a malicious link. Once activated, a “back-door implant” infects their computers within eight seconds.

Consequently, the NSA has turned to new and more advanced hacking techniques. These include performing so-called “man-in-the-middle” and “man-on-the-side” attacks, which covertly force a user’s internet browser to route to NSA computer servers that try to infect them with an implant.

In one man-on-the-side technique, codenamed QUANTUMHAND, the agency disguises itself as a fake Facebook server. When a target attempts to log in to the social media site, the NSA transmits malicious data packets that trick the target’s computer into thinking they are being sent from the real Facebook. By concealing its malware within what looks like an ordinary Facebook page, the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive. A top-secret animation demonstrates the tactic in action.

The man-in-the-middle tactic can be used, for instance, to covertly change the content of a message as it is being sent between two people, without either knowing that any change has been made by a third party. The same technique is sometimes used by criminal hackers to defraud people.

“The thing that raises a red flag for me is the reference to ‘network choke points,’” he says. “That’s the last place that we should be allowing intelligence agencies to compromise the infrastructure – because that is by definition a mass surveillance technique.”

In many cases, firewalls and other security measures do not appear to pose much of an obstacle to the NSA. Indeed, the agency’s hackers appear confident in their ability to circumvent any security mechanism that stands between them and compromising a computer or network. “If we can get the target to visit us in some sort of web browser, we can probably own them,” an agency hacker boasts in one secret document. “The only limitation is the ‘how.’”

GCHQ cooperated with the hacking attacks despite having reservations about their legality. One of the Snowden files, previously disclosed by Swedish broadcaster SVT, revealed that as recently as April 2013, GCHQ was apparently reluctant to get involved in deploying the QUANTUM malware due to “legal/policy restrictions.” A representative from a unit of the British surveillance agency, meeting with an obscure telecommunications standards committee in 2010, separately voiced concerns that performing “active” hacking attacks for surveillance “may be illegal” under British law.

When even the GCHQ is questioning the legality of a surveillance program you know you’ve gone too far. Way too far.

Full article here

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Proved Reserves Of Oil, Gas, And Coal By Country

Click Here: Proved Reserves Of Oil, Gas, And Coal By Country

Proved Reserves of Fossil Fuels

Proved Reserves of Oil, Gas, and Coal by Country 2010
This data set shows the proved reserves of oil, gas and coal, by country in 2010. Values for gas and coal were standardized to million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe).

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy. June 2011.
Link: click here for more information

If You Think Everything will be OK Once Obama is out of Office...

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Four Beasts and a Little Horn

Four Beasts and a Little Horn

Daniel 7: Four Beasts and a Little Horn

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

RED ALERT VIDEO! RUN, DON'T WALK FROM THE U.S. STOCK MARKET...

CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91dYbMQ2RNo

Friday, February 21, 2014

How Are you going to Defend Yourself if The Government Takes Your Guns...? Video

How Are You Going to Defend Yourself if the Government Takes Your Guns?

Mother Opens Fire on Home Invaders to Protect Family

A trio of thugs had a brush with gunfire from a protective mother’s rifle in Detroit on Monday night

By Lily Dane On February 20, 2014

Mother Opens Fire on Home Invaders to Protect Family

A trio of thugs had a brush with gunfire from a protective mother’s rifle in Detroit on Monday night.
Surveillance cameras caught the entire ordeal.
The woman told WXYZ News that she “didn’t have time to get scared.” When she heard the door to her home being kicked in, she immediately warned the three teenage intruders and then opened fire:

“I let them know I had a gun once they were in the house. They said no you don’t so I shot off the first round. I wasn’t feeling anything at the moment, I got scared afterwards.”

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

GEAB N°82 is available! 2014, resumption of the of the global systemic crisis’

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-82-is-available-2014-resumption-of-the-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-normal-path_a15604.html

- Public announcement GEAB N°82 (February 16, 2014) -

The avalanche of liquidity from the Fed’s quantitative easing in 2013, allowed the world before’s tenets to wake up: indebtedness, bubbles, globalization, financialization… But all it took was a slight slowing down in the astronomical amounts injected by the US central bank every month for the rampant crisis, buried under these piles of liquidity, to reassert itself. As anticipated, the method of “resolving” the crisis by accentuating the excesses that caused it is ineffective, causing a crisis squared instead. All the same one can find an actual benefit: time is gained which everyone uses to their best advantage.

Throughout 2014, we will once again witness the global systemic crisis’ “normal” deployment, a phase of major transition between two global organization systems, a historic crisis that goes well beyond an economic-financial crisis, which we begin to see clearly. That’s why alongside the serious dangers to the stock exchanges, banks, real estate and, more generally, the economy, the agenda also includes the expansion of people’s anger and the rejection of current political systems, the worsening of geopolitical tensions and blocs withdrawing back in on themselves.

The timing belt of this renewal of the crisis is primarily driven by tapering (the reduction of the Fed’s QE programme) which, as we know, has immediately led to the tremors in emerging currencies. Beyond the negative impact that that has on the global economy, our team anticipates that these shocks will cause a boomerang effect on the US and finally unleash the chain of events of the Dollar’s massive devaluation, destabilizing everything that remains of the old system of which it’s the cornerstone.

Layout of the full article:
1. TAPER’S MISCALCULATION
2. THE END OF THE TENETS OF THE PAST
3. BREAK THE BANK?
4. PEOPLES’ ANGER

This public announcement contains an excerpt of section 1.

TAPER’S MISCALCULATION

A number of realities hide behind the Fed’s decision to progressively reduce its quantitative easing programme (1).
At the first is obviously it’s ineffectiveness as regards the real economy and especially the growing risks that it’s running in creating various bubbles and addictions and distorting any ability to understand reality. The second, without doubt, is the clinging to the desire to “show” that the situation is improving and that the Fed can pull out without risk. The third is less exemplary: aware of the emerging countries’ addiction to Fed liquidity created in 2013, its announcement couldn’t fail to trip them up. They now make headlines in the financial press, whilst the US situation has moved into the background. In fact, who remembers that Puerto Rico is in the process of exploding (2) (as anticipated in the GEAB n°77)? Or that Chicago can’t pay its debts (3), or that food stamps, the cornerstone of US Social Security, continue to be cut back (4) whilst an increasing number of households depend on them? Or finally that child poverty has reached levels which are difficult to imagine for a so-called developed country (5)?

2017 expiry Puerto Rican bond prices. Source : ZeroHedge.

However – with apologies for this easy re-run of a well-known advert – there is a second KissCool effect. To see it, we must distance ourselves and get back to basics at the risk of simplifying a global situation which currently no one really understands.

The Fed’s quantitative easing has resulted in a glut of liquidity in financial markets which have gone on to invest this money where true productive dynamics provide investment and fruitful opportunities: in the emerging countries. Obviously, this flood of easy money has artificially supported growth in these countries, which should have been lower in this time of crisis. Even worse, in 2013, it caused a revival of the world before’s tenets, a world in which money is only used to borrow more money, with a programme of re-financialization, more indebtedness, more Dollar addiction, the planet’s re-entanglement and further unbridled globalization without taking people’s interests into account (for example, providing a lifeline to the tedious negotiations over the trans-Pacific TPP and transatlantic TTIP free trade treaties), etc.

This soaking-up of Dollars by the only countries having sufficient growth to be able to use them explains, to a great extent, the lack of any Dollar devaluation or inflation in the US notwithstanding the Fed’s policy: the devaluation which should have gone hand-in-hand with such money creation has been absorbed by the rest of the planet’s economic dynamism.

But something has made the Fed no longer able to continue. Probably the fact that to have such an impact on the US economy, the quantity of money creation would have to constantly increase, which an increasingly number of people even in Federal Reserve circles were balking at doing. Staying at the same $85 billion a month level already corresponded in fact to a slowdown. In this case, better retreating and trying to escape from the trap.

Since the beginning of January the Fed has reduced its purchases by $10 billion a month, and by a further $10 billion a month from the beginning of February, to monthly purchases of $30 billion in mortgages and $35 billion in Treasury bonds currently. However, this decline in support means that a quarter of the indirect “aid” to emerging countries has gone… Therefore, it’s logical that there is a fall in economic activity in these countries and, consequently, their currencies (6).

Turkish Lire per US Dollar (USD/TRY), November 2012 – February 2014. Source: Yahoo Finance.

This is where the boomerang effect begins. First, Western investments in emerging economies are worth less since the currency is devalued; therefore, a portion of investors’ assets have well and truly disappeared, causing severe stress in financial markets. But, more importantly, to halt the decline of their currency, emerging countries’ central banks are selling their dollar reserves to buy back their own currency on the markets (7), resulting in a surplus of dollars and an increase in demand for the local currency, causing it to rise automatically (8). For example, in such a period Turkey, India, Brazil and Indonesia among others, have each offloaded in the order of tens of billions of Dollars per month (9).

This means that Dollar buyers, the emerging countries, have become sellers. In other words, the only countries able to absorb excess Dollars are now refusing them. Let’s recapitulate: the Fed and the Treasury continue to flood the world with $65 billion a month, but no one wants them… Where can they dump them now? In a few oil producing countries which still sell in Dollars, but especially in the US of course. And what can this country’s lifeless economy do with them? Not a lot… certainly less than the emerging countries did (10).

[...]

----------
Notes :

1 Source: Reuters (29/01/2014).

2 Sources: Reuters (07/02/2014), CNBC (07/02/2014).

3 Source: « Chicago is on the road to Detroit », Chicago Tribune (05/02/2014).

4 Measure adopted discretly together with the posted success of agricultural subsidy reforms. Source : New York Times, 05/02/2014.

5 Source: Washington Informer, 08/02/2014.

6 Our team considers that for once emerging countries' exchange rates are not related to moves in the Dollar, but economic reality.

7 A currency which they had to sell en masse, especially in 2013, to deal with the Dollar's de facto devaluation which caused other currencies to rise and risked slowing down exports.

8 The Dollar itself isn't falling immediately because the slight devaluation which should have taken place is, first, diluted by the amount of dollars in circulation and, second, offset by the fact that the Dollar is usually considered as a safe-haven currency against currencies which are reeling.

9 Sources: CentralBanking.com (« Central Bank of Turkey sells $2.5bn in one day », 23/01/2014), Vox (« Brazil’s central bank has intervened heavily, spending more than $50 billion and promising to double that by the end of the year », 25/09/2013), etc.

10 Somewhat indiscriminately, we must admit

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Discern Magazine - New Issue!

Click Here: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/237572/file-530027251-pdf/Discern_Vol1_No2.pdf?utm_campaign=Discern&utm_medium=Discern&utm_source=Discern%20Blast&

Ukraine - Live !

Click here to watch events unfold: http://espreso.tv/stream

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Intercept

Welcome to The Intercept

By Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill 10 Feb 2014

We are very excited to welcome everyone to The Intercept, a publication of First Look Media (FLM). The Intercept, which the three of us created, is the first of what will be numerous digital magazines published by FLM. Read more

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Strong, Clear Evidence Bill Clinton Is A Sexual Predator

February 8, 2014
Bob Barr joins Alex to discuss how when he was impeaching Bill Clinton in the 90′s there was strong evidence that he was a sexual predator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-WG63oV7pg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOcfxl_m35g&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puWaCQqjE4w&feature=player_embedded

Infowars.com

This article was posted: Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 3:43 am

Tags: domestic news, government corruption

Who Are the United States and Britain in Prophecy?

by David Treybig

The United States and Britain have held the most power during the past two centuries, and so many have wondered who these people are in Bible prophecy.

To see the connection between the ancient Israelites and the peoples of northwest Europe, from which came the settlers who founded the United States, see our article “12 Tribes of Israel Today: Who Are They?” That article cites biblical and historical records that make it possible for us to positively identify many of the people of Western Europe as the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Now we’ll more specifically consider the United States and Britain in prophecy.

Jacob’s blessing of Manasseh and Ephraim

Prior to Jacob’s death, his son Joseph brought his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim to Jacob so he could bless them (Genesis 48:1-6). In an unusual but perceptive move, Jacob placed his right hand on the younger boy, Ephraim, and his left hand on the older boy, Manasseh (verse 14). Normally, his right hand, representing a greater blessing, would have gone on the older child.
In blessing them and in explaining to Joseph that he knew what he was doing, Jacob said, “‘I know, my son, I know. He [Manasseh] also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.’ So he blessed them that day, saying, ‘By you Israel will bless, saying, “May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!”’ And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh” (verses 19-20).
Looking at modern history, we note that Britain became a great commonwealth of nations with an empire that stretched around the globe, while the United States became a great individual nation.

Joseph is a “fruitful bough”

An additional explanation by Jacob of what would happen “in the last days” to the various peoples and nations each of his sons represented is also revealing (Genesis 49:1). Speaking of Joseph, Jacob said, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall. The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him.
“But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), by the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers” (verses 22-26).

Fulfilled promises to the United States and Britain in prophecy

Joseph, representing his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, was destined to receive the greatest blessing among all the brothers. As for sheer size of territory controlled, the British Commonwealth has clearly been the group of nations best matching the prophecies related to Ephraim.
Describing the British Empire, listverse.com states: “At [its] greatest extent, the British empire was known as the largest empire in history, as it covered more than 13,000,000 square miles, which is approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area, and controlled more than 500 million people—again a quarter of the world’s population. As a result, the legacy it imprinted on these conquered lands is tremendous in terms of political reform, cultural exchanges and way of life. The English language, which it spread, is the second most-widely spoken language in the world today, and many [linguists] agree that English is the defacto standard language of the world. The British empire is definitely one of the most influential empires ever to have existed in human history.”
As for Manasseh, the United States best fits the biblical description of being a “great” nation (Genesis 48:19) due to its economy and military strength (“his bow remained in strength,” Genesis 49:24). The United States “represents 4.5% of global population but nearly 30% of its total GDP” (policymic.com). As a result, its citizens enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world. Regarding military spending, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute documents that in 2010 the United States spent roughly six times more on its military than the next closest nation, China.
While much additional documentation could be accumulated, these brief yet significant points identify Britain as Ephraim and the United States as Manasseh. It is important to recognize that God had not only promises but warnings for the United States and Britain in prophecy. See the related articles for more details.

Other Relevant Resources:

http://www.herbert-w-armstrong.com/books/UNITEDST/usbdirectory.html

US ‘leaders’ JOKE about OBVIOUS War Crimes, war lies, war murders: Arrest them

US ‘leaders’ JOKE about OBVIOUS War Crimes, war lies, war murders: Arrest them

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocih62dSJR8&feature=player_embedded

http://www.infowars.com/5-minute-video-us-leaders-joke-about-obvious-war-crimes-war-lies-war-murders-arrest-them/

Thursday, February 6, 2014

This is One of the Most Shocking Scandals I have ever Seen: Kids For Cash: Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals

Kids For Cash: Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/4/kids_for_cash_inside_one_of

2014-02-04

Today a special on "kids for cash," the shocking story of how thousands of children in Pennsylvania were jailed by two corrupt judges who received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities. We hear from two of the youth: Charlie Balasavage was sent to juvenile detention after his parents unknowingly bought him a stolen scooter; Hillary Transue was detained for creating a MySpace page mocking her assistant high school principal. They were both 14 years old and were sentenced by the same judge, Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is now in jail himself — serving a 28-year sentence. Balasavage and Transue are featured in the new documentary, "Kids for Cash," by filmmaker Robert May, who also joins us. In addition, we speak to two mothers: Sandy Fonzo, whose son Ed Kenzakoski committed suicide after being imprisoned for years by Judge Ciavarella, and Hillary’s mother, Laurene Transue. Putting their stories into context of the larger scandal is attorney Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center. The story is still developing: In October, the private juvenile-detention companies in the scandal settled a civil lawsuit for $2.5 million.

"Cash for Kids": Firms Behind Juvenile Prison Bribes Reach $2.5 Million Settlement in Civil Suit

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

German Television does first Edward Snowden Interview

German Television does first Edward Snowden Interview
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f93_1390833151#gPAQbqzFxovg6wp3.99

German Television Channel NDR does an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden.
Uploaded on LiveLeak cause German Television thinks the rest of the world isn't intereseted in Edward Snowden.
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f93_1390833151#gPAQbqzFxovg6wp3.99

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f93_1390833151

Scenes from a militarized America: Iowa family ‘terrorized’

By Radley Balko, Updated: February 4 at 10:37 am

Watch this video, taken from a police raid in Des Moines, Iowa. Send it to some people. When critics (like me) warn about the dangers of police militarization, this is what we’re talking about. You’ll see the raid team, dressed in battle-dress uniforms, helmets and face-covering balaclava hoods take down the family’s door with a battering ram. You’ll see them storm the home with ballistics shields, guns at the ready. More troubling still, you’ll see not one but two officers attempt to prevent the family from having an independent record of the raid, one by destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens.
From the images in the video, you’d think they were looking for an escaped murderer or a house full of hit men. No, none of that. They were looking for a few people suspected of credit card fraud. None of the people they were looking for were inside of the house, nor was any of the stolen property they were looking for. They did arrest two houseguests of the family on what the news report says were unrelated charges, one for a probation violation and one for possession of illegal drugs.
A couple other points about this story. First, note that the police say they knocked and announced themselves before the raid. The knock and announce requirement has a long history in U.S. and English common law. Its purpose was to give the occupants of a home the opportunity to avoid property damage and unnecessary violence by giving them time to come to the door and let the police in peacefully. As you can see from the video, the knock and announce today is largely a formality. The original purpose is gone. From the perspective of the people inside, there’s really no difference between this sort of “knock and announce” and a no-knock raid. (The covering of the officers’ faces is also troubling, though also not uncommon.)
Historically, the other purpose of the knock-and-announce requirement is to avoid the inevitable tragedy that can result if homeowners mistake raiding police for criminal intruders. As the requirement has been eroded, allegedly to protect the safety of police officers, we’ve seen plenty of tragedy — and many of those tragedies have been the deaths of police officers. There was another one just last December. And it almost happened here:

Prince’s son, Justin Ross, was in the bathroom when police burst in, and he was carrying a gun that he has the legal right to carry. “I stood up, I drew my weapon, I started to get myself together to get out the door, I heard someone in the main room say police. I re-holstered my weapon sat back down and put my hands in my lap,” Ross recalls.

Ross says he didn’t hear the police announcement until after one officer had already attempted to kick in the door. Had that officer been successful, there’s a good chance that Ross, the police officer, or both would be dead. The police department would then have inevitably argued that Ross should have known that they were law enforcement. But you can’t simultaneously argue that these violent, volatile tactics are necessary to take suspects by surprise and that the same suspects you’re taking by surprise should have known all along that they were being raided by police. Well you can, and police do, and judges and prosecutors usually support them. But the arguments don’t logically coexist.
Finally, note that police department officials say they “do not have a written policy governing how search warrants are executed.” That’s inexcusable. Most police departments do. But whether or not they’re governed by a formal policy, the use of these kinds of tactics for nonviolent crimes like credit card fraud is hardly unusual, and it’s happening more often, not less. I’ve reported on jurisdictions where all felony search warrants are now served with a SWAT team. At least one federal appeals court has now ruled that under the Fourth Amendment, there’s nothing unreasonable about using a SWAT team to perform regulatory inspections. To be fair, two others have ruled that such tactics are not reasonable. But it’s concerning that this would even be up for debate. We have plenty of discussion and analysis about when searches are appropriate. We also need to start talking about how.
Read more from Radley Balko:
How the drug war does more harm than drugs
There were a record number of exonerations in 2013. What does that mean?
Maryland cop kills dog in latest “puppycide”

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Eric Clapton Plays with Joe Bonamassa LIVE

Eric Clapton Plays with Joe Bonamassa LIVE

Click the link above Great music...

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Political chaos, statistical « smog », risk that the financial planet explodes… But solutions for the future continue to emerge

Political chaos, statistical « smog », risk that the financial planet explodes…

Public announcement GEAB N°81 (January 16, 2014) -

Historians, who usually consider that the 19th century runs from 1815 (Waterloo) to 1914 (the First World War) would certainly define the 20th century by the period 1914-2014, ending with the year in which the old system dies whilst a new one emerges. In this New Year 2014 welcome, then, to the 21st century!

We have symbolised 2013 as “the first steps in a chaotic world after” (1).

A year which was in effect the new century’s zero year and at the end of which solutions were emerging from all sides. At the beginning of 2014 the spotlight is henceforth on the Eurozone, China, Russia and the BRICS where the tools to shape the “world afterwards” are being designed with incredible rapidity: the “world before” is handing over to “the world afterwards”.

Nevertheless, there is a permanent risk of an explosion from the overheated financial planet driven by the incredible US imbalances… unresolved or little resolved. And the current transition period, certainly hopeful, is highly dangerous nevertheless. One danger is the statistical “smog” (2) which will probably characterise the year: first, the US economic and financial indices have lost any sense of direction by dint of being manipulated in order to hide the catastrophic reality; and second, the emerging world’s tools of statistical transparency aren’t sufficiently reliable to properly throw light on the reality. A collapse of visibility ongoing for several years on the one hand, the beginning of an organised transparency which the world economy needs to plan strategies on the other, in 2014 we are on statistical understanding’s trough of the wave. And that won’t be without its consequences.

Layout of the full article:
1. STATISTICAL « SMOG »
2. THE RISE IN INTEREST RATES AND THE COLLAPSE OF US REAL ESTATE
3. THE END OF STOCK EXCHANGE EUPHORIA?
4. POLITICAL CHAOS
5. 2014, THE CLEAR BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE OIL ERA
6. SOLUTIONS ARE ON THE MARCH

This public announcement contains sections 1&2.

STATISTICAL « SMOG »

The current period is particularly difficult to analyse. Central bank liquidity injections have hardly any historical equivalent and act insidiously like morphine; the stock exchanges move inversely proportional to countries health; finance and derivatives are completely out of control; the West and the US in particular are trying to hide their disastrous situation through benchmark signals which no longer say anything (like the unemployment numbers)… We have already analysed this “statistical fog” in the GEAB N° 73: the old world’s compasses are broken.

Markets bottle-fed by the Fed and not wanting to abandon the Dollar paradigm as long as there is any blood left to suck is largely responsible for this blindness. But just as the frog in boiling water doesn’t feel the temperature rise until it’s too late, having broken the thermometer is certainly convenient for maintaining the illusion but raises a suicidal trend: if the exit is already difficult to find in broad daylight, it will be impossible in the dark. As we have already said, the Eurozone has been fortunate to have been in full daylight for several years thanks to the “Euro crisis” and isn’t hiding its difficulties with a lorry load of liquidity (3), luck which isn’t benefiting the United States which is going blindfold to the precipice as we will see.

Change in major central bank balance sheets since August 2008, in percent. Source : Merk Investments

At the moment, one eye is blind and, sadly, the other can’t yet see. That part of the world which has emerged, the BRICS especially and China in particular, have only just started to build a statistical apparatus adapted to their international ambitions. Moreover, a number of Western addictions have been adopted by these countries, like the use of debt and deregulated finance, which pose new dangers. Thus China has begun to concern itself with its local government indebtedness, its “local government financing vehicles” (4) and its “shadow banking” of which no one has any idea of the size absent any reliable statistics (5). This shadow banking is both essential to finance small businesses and local communities and is uncontrollable at the moment… Hence Beijing’s acceleration to clearly see and get to regulate this sector, evidenced by the recent statistical work carried out here by the National Audit Office, where greater transparency has been demanded from Chinese banks, or as another example, the five-year prohibition on local authorities to build new government buildings with “shadow” financing (6). But despite these efforts at transparency which will quickly bear fruit, because the international situation needs a clear view, a few more years are necessary to have a reliable statistical apparatus in this country. Without counting that the Chinese government still needs areas of shadow for some time yet: one can’t switch on the lights without first having done the housework!

So, it’s with great caution that leaders must advance along a difficult path along which the absence of reliable indices prevents a proper understanding of the situation. Any anticipation/forecast/planning is, of course, much more difficult. However, if the emerging countries have extremely powerful dynamics that allow them some differences, mistakes can lead to dramatic consequences for the others. That’s why the Fed is doing a remarkable balancing job and up until now this tightrope walker has been talented enough to keep the country on the wire… so long as there is still a wire.

THE RISE IN INTEREST RATES AND THE COLLAPSE OF US REAL ESTATE

Meanwhile, the century which is ending continues its slow death. Despite all the Fed’s actions, despite its huge programme of quantitative easing, US bond interest rates are rising inexorably. We will detail the reasons in the Telescope section and show that this trend will continue in 2014.

US 10 year Treasury bond interest rate (in %), June 2012-January 2014. Source : MarketWatch

But a 1% interest rate rise on the 10 year note (from 3% to 4%) means a steady increase in the annual interest rate payments on the US debt in the order of $100 billion to $150 billion (7), nearly 1% of the public debt to offset whilst the Fed has begun to reduce its bond repurchase programme. But this isn’t the most painful. The following chart indicates something much more dangerous.

30-year mortgage rates, 2012-2013. Source : FRED.

The continued rise in US bond interest rates actually causes a similar increase in individuals’ borrowing rates. In 2012, 30 year mortgage rates were around 3.5%; now they are around 4.5%; a further one percentage point increase would therefore bring them to 5.5%. Yet at 3.5% a household could borrow $400,000 with monthly repayments of $1800, whilst at 5.5% it could borrow no more than $317,000 with the same monthly repayments: therefore it would need around a 20% fall in real estate prices (!) to keep the same purchasing power… As we have already seen in the GEAB N° 80, concern on this subject is becoming obvious (8) and 2014 will see a significant fall in US real estate prices as we will explain further in the Telescope section. Yet all the real estate finance works only on the assumption of rising prices (compare with 2007-2008); in addition, a huge number of Americans’ consumer loans are pledged on their houses and real estate market weakness would, therefore, spread throughout the economy. This is the really bad news of this beginning of year.

-----------
Notes:

1 Title of the GEAB n°70 (December 2012).

2 «Smog» describes the mixture of smoke and fog which regularly covered London during the Industrial Revolution.

3 This largely explains the lower growth. In the US, official growth in 2013 was only around $400 billion (around 2.5% of GDP) whilst the Fed injected more than $1 trillion into the economy… A "loss" of $600 billion. During the same period, the ECB withdrew around $1 trillion (€730 billion, source ECB) for almost no growth, a "gain" of $1 trillion. Who is in poor health? Look at the following chart as well.

4 Source : Ecns.ch, 08/01/2014

5 On this subject and what follows read Les Échos (10/01/2014), Bloomberg (09/01/2014).

6 Source : La Croix, 30/07/2013.

7 Evaluated from Wikpédia taking into account the distribution of US debt according to maturity.

8 See also the worrying article in MarketWatch (14/01/2014).

Jeudi 16 Janvier 2014

LEAP/E2020

Lu 4186 fois

In the same category:

Excerpt GEAB 75 (May 2013) - BoJ, Fed, ECB : with different methods, contrasting futures - 04/12/2013

15/01/2013 - A recommendation to Euro-BRICS leaders: Organize a mini Euro-BRICS Summit, ahead of the St Petersburg G20, in order to develop common strategic positions to exit the crisis and bring global governance into the XXI° century - 23/01/2013

Advice to the G20 leaders: The G20’s three strategic priorities in 2012/2014 to avoid a « tragic decade » - 10/10/2011

For 220 euros, have access to 7 years of GEAB archives! - 14/09/2011

Reminder - Open letter / London G20 Summit: Last chance before global geopolitical dislocation - 03/08/2011

The first half of the decade marked primarily by world geopolitical dislocation - 05/02/2011

GEAB N°81 - Contents

- Published on January 16, 2014 -

2014 –World political chaos, statistical « smog », risk that the financial planet explodes… But solutions for the future continue to emerge
At the beginning of 2014 the spotlight is henceforth on the Eurozone, China, Russia and the BRICS where the tools to shape the “world afterwards” are being designed with incredible rapidity: the “world before” is handing over to “the world afterwards”. Nevertheless, there is a permanent risk of an explosion from the overheated financial planet driven by the incredible US imbalances … (page 2)
Read public announcement

Anticipations 2014 : « 13 up and 13 down », 26 key trends
LEAP/E2020 decided to offer subscribers a brief panorama of 13 subjects which, according to our team, will strengthen during this year and of 13 others which, on the contrary, will have disappeared from the news by the end of 2014… (page 11)
Subscribe

Events calendar 2014
In order to anticipate the changes in 2014, it’s good to bear in mind the year’s upcoming events, including the world electoral calendar. We are, therefore, setting out a selection of events planned for 2014… (page 22)
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Investments, trends and recommendations
The UK economy
China goes electric
World imbalances… (page 25)
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GlobalEurometre - Results and analyses
This month, the overall view revealed by the GlobalEurometre is of a certain calming concerning the specific situation in Europe […] On the other hand, internationally, sentiment is much worse … (page 29)
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Special announcement
Discuss the world crisis using the specialised principles of political anticipation !
What's new in FEFAP political anticipation training… (page 33)

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