732: Psych!

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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 23:33

Are you aware of hexagons on a day-to-day basis? Do you ever find yourself being less aware of hexagons than you would perhaps like to be? Is it hard to find time in your schedule to be as aware of hexagons as you might otherwise be?

While it is certainly true that "every month is Hexagonal Awareness Month," or indeed should be, it is an inescapable fact of modern life that not all of us can be aware of hexagons all the time. Hexagonal Awareness Month is a time for those who might otherwise not be aware of hexagons to become more aware of them, and for those of us who are aware of hexagons to be even more aware of them. It is the one awareness month that unites us all as a people, and binds us together as a society.

The ancient and sacred rite of Hexagonal Awareness Month is among the most hallowed times of the hexagonal year. The first recorded observance was in 2012, but it has possibly been celebrated in one form or another since the early Neolithic era. Ancient structures in the Near East indicate at least a rudimentary awareness of hexagons among early agricultural peoples, and hints of hexagonal consciousness can be seen throughout the historical era.

It is likely that Hexagonal Awareness Month will continue to increase in popularity in the coming years, as more and more sentient beings throughout the planet ascend to new, higher states of hexagonal consciousness.

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

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Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:00

Propaganda in the United States is propaganda spread by government and media entities within the United States. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public.

Domestic[edit]World War I[edit]The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government produced posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon the use of propaganda.[1]

World War II[edit]During World War II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt government used means to circumvent this official line. One such propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".[1]Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II.

In 1944 (lasting until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities.[2] The core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.[2]

Another means was the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding of the war policies under the director Elmer Davies. It dealt with posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and influential non-governmental organizations during the war and immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.

Cold War[edit]During the Cold War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.

War on Drugs[edit]The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988,[3][4] but now conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998,[5] is a domestic propaganda campaign designed to "influence the attitudes of the public and the news media with respect to drug abuse" and for "reducing and preventing drug abuse among young people in the United States".[6][7] The Media Campaign cooperates with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other government and non-government organizations.[8]

Iraq War[edit]In early 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation, colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.[9] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts.[10] On 22 May 2008, after this program was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.[11]

The Shared values initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution, in post-9/11 America.[12] Funded by the United States Department of State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared values messages for key Muslim countries.[13]

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act[edit]The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Ad Council[edit]The Ad Council, an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various private and federal government agency sponsors, has been labeled as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government" given the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government.[17]

International[edit]Through several international broadcasting operations, the US disseminates American cultural information, official positions on international affairs, and daily summaries of international news. These operations fall under the International Broadcasting Bureau, the successor of the United States Information Agency, established in 1953. IBB's operations include Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Alhurra and other programs. They broadcast mainly to countries where the United States finds that information about international events is limited, either due to poor infrastructure or government censorship. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the Voice of America from disseminating information to US citizens that was produced specifically for a foreign audience.

During the Cold War the US ran covert propaganda campaigns in countries that appeared likely to become Soviet satellites, such as Italy, Afghanistan, and Chile.

Recently The Pentagon announced the creation of a new unit aimed at spreading propaganda about supposedly "inaccurate" stories being spread about the Iraq War. These "inaccuracies" have been blamed on the enemy trying to decrease support for the war. Donald Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying these stories are something that keeps him up at night.[18]

Psychological operations[edit]The US military defines psychological operations, or PSYOP, as:

planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.[19]

The Smith-Mundt Act, adopted in 1948, explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at the US public.[20][21][22] Nevertheless, the current easy access to news and information from around the globe, makes it difficult to guarantee PSYOP programs do not reach the US public. Or, in the words of Army Col. James A. Treadwell, who commanded the U.S. military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003, in the Washington Post:

There's always going to be a certain amount of bleed-over with the global information environment.[23]

Agence France Presse reported on U.S. propaganda campaigns that:

The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.[24]

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the document referred to, which is titled "Information Operations Roadmap." [22][24] The document acknowledges the Smith-Mundt Act, but fails to offer any way of limiting the effect PSYOP programs have on domestic audiences.[20][21][25]

Several incidents in 2003 were documented by Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel, which he saw as information-warfare campaigns that were intended for "foreign populations and the American public." Truth from These Podia,[26] as the treatise was called, reported that the way the Iraq war was fought resembled a political campaign, stressing the message instead of the truth.[22]

See also[edit]References[edit]^ abThomas Howell, The Writers' War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II, Historian, Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 795 - 813^ abSteven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing^National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 of the Anti''Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. 100''732, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, footnote 6, page 3 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999), Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, pp. 9''10 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109''469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1732^Barstow, David (2008-04-20). "Message Machine: Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand". New York Times. ^Sessions, David (2008-04-20). "Onward T.V. Soldiers: The New York Times exposes a multi-armed Pentagon message machine". Slate. ^Barstow, David (2008-05-24). "2 Inquiries Set on Pentagon Publicity Effort". New York Times. ^Rampton, Sheldon (October 17, 2007). "Shared Values Revisited". Center for Media and Democracy. ^"U.S. Reaches Out to Muslim World with Shared Values Initiative". America.gov. January 16, 2003.

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:44

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 18:22

Looking back at the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, it's amazing how quickly it all happened. In hindsight there were a few early-warning signs, but the true scale of the disaster publicly unfolded only in the final moments before it became apparent that Lehman was doomed.

First, for purposes of drawing a parallel, let's re-cap the events of 2007-2008:

There were few early indicators of Lehman's plight. Insiders however, were well aware: In late 2007, Goldman Sachs placed a massive proprietary bet against Lehman which would be known internally as the ''Big Short''. (It's a bet they would later profit from during the crisis).

In the summer 2007 subprime loans were beginning to perform poorly in the marketplace. By August of 2007, the commercial paper market saw liquidity evaporating quickly and funding for all types of asset-backed securities was drying up.

But still '-- even in late 2007, there was little public indication that Lehman was circling the drain.

Probably the first public indication that things were heading downhill for Lehman wasn't until June 9th, 2008, when Fitch Ratings cut Lehman's rating to AA-minus, outlook negative. (ironically, 7 years to the day before S&P would cut DB)

The ''negative outlook'' indicates that another further downgrade is likely. In this particular case, it was the understatement of all time.

A mere 3 months later, in the course of just one week, Lehman would announce a major loss and file for bankruptcy.

And the rest is history.

Could this happen to Deutsche Bank?First, we must state the obvious: If Deutsche Bank is the next Lehman, we will not know until events are moving at an uncontrollable and accelerating speed. The nature of all fractional-reserve banks '-- who are by definition bankrupt at all times '' is to project an aura of stability until that illusion has already begun to implode.

By the time we are aware of a crisis '' if one is in the offing '-- it will already be a roaring blaze by the time it is known publicly. It is by now well-established that truth is the first casualty of all banking crises. There will be little in the way of early warnings. To that end, we begin connecting the dots:

Here's a re-cap of what's happened at Deutsche Bank over the past 15 months:

In April of 2014, Deutsche Bank was forced to raise an additional 1.5 Billion of Tier 1 capital to support its capital structure. Why?1 month later in May of 2014, the scramble for liquidity continued as DB announced the selling of 8 billion euros worth of stock '' at up to a 30% discount. Why again? It was a move which raised eyebrows across the financial media. The calm outward image of Deutsche Bank did not seem to reflect their rushed efforts to raise liquidity. Something was decidedly rotten behind the curtain.Fast forwarding to March of this year: Deutsche Bank fails the banking industry's ''stress tests'' and is given a stern warning to shore up it's capital structure.In April, Deutsche Bank confirms its agreement to a joint settlement with the US and UK regarding the manipulation of LIBOR. The bank is saddled with a massive $2.1 billion payment to the DOJ. (Still, a small fraction of their winnings from the crime). In May, one of Deutsche Bank's CEOs, Anshu Jain is given an enormous amount of new authority by the board of directors. We guess that this is a ''crisis move''. In times of crisis the power of the executive is often increased.June 5: Greece misses its payment to the IMF. The risk of default across all of its debt is now considered acute. This has massive implications for Deutsche Bank.June 6/7: (A Saturday/Sunday, and immediately following Greece's missed payment to the IMF) Deutsche Bank's two CEO's announce their surprise departure from the company. (Just one month after Jain is given his new expanded powers). Anshu Jain will step down first at the end of June. J¼rgen Fitschen will step down next May.June 9: S&P lowers the rating of Deutsche Bank to BBB+ Just three notches above ''junk''. (Incidentally, BBB+ is even lower than Lehman's downgrade '' which preceded its collapse by just 3 months)And that's where we are now. How bad is it? We don't know because we won't be permitted to know. But these are not the moves of a healthy company.

J¼rgen Fitschen will step down May 2016. Jain will step down at the end of this month.

How exposed is Deutsche Bank?The trouble for Deutsche Bank is that its conventional retail banking operations are not a significant profit center. To maintain margins, Deutsche Bank has been forced into riskier asset classes than its peers.

Deutsche Bank is sitting on more than $75 Trillion in derivatives bets '-- an amount that is twenty times greater than German GDP. Their derivatives exposure dwarfs even JP Morgan's exposure '' by a staggering $5 trillion.

With that kind of exposure, relatively small moves can precipitate catastrophic losses. Again, we must note that Greece just missed its payment to the IMF '' and further defaults are most certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

Not good.

And if the dominos were not adequately stacked already, there is one final domino which perfects the setup.

Meet Tom Humphrey. He heads up Deutsche Bank's Investment Banking operations on Wall Street.

He was also head of fixed income at Lehman.

Prior history.

History never repeats. But it does rhyme. In market terms, it tends to rhyme just about every 7 years.

-NQ

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:17

Charleston shooter Dylann Storm Roof was reportedly taking a drug that has been linked with sudden outbursts of violence, fitting the pattern of innumerable other mass shooters who were on or had recently come off pharmaceutical drugs linked to aggression.

According to a CBS News report, earlier this year when cops searched Roof after he was acting suspiciously inside a Bath and Body Works store, they found ''orange strips'' that Roof told officers was suboxone, a narcotic that is used to treat opiate addiction.

Suboxone is a habit-forming drug that has been connected with sudden outbursts of aggression.

A user on the MD Junction website relates how her husband ''became violent, smashing things and threatening me,'' after just a few days of coming off suboxone.

Another poster on the Drugs.com website tells the story of how his personality completely changed as a result of taking suboxone.

The individual relates how he became ''nasty'' and ''violent'' just weeks into taking the drug, adding that he would ''snap'' and be mean to people for no reason.

Another poster reveals how his son-in-law ''completely changed on suboxone,'' and that the drug sent him into ''self-destruct mode.''

A user named 'Jhalloway' also tells the story of how her husband's addiction to suboxone was ''ruining our life.''

A poster on a separate forum writes about how he became ''horribly aggressive'' towards his partner after taking 8mg of suboxone.

A website devoted to horror stories about the drug called SubSux.com also features a post by a woman whose husband obtained a gun and began violently beating his 15-year-old son after taking suboxone.

According to a Courier-Journal report, suboxone ''is increasingly being abused, sold on the streets and inappropriately prescribed'' by doctors. For some users, it is even more addictive than the drugs it's supposed to help them quit.

As we previously highlighted, virtually every major mass shooter was taking some form of SSRI or other pharmaceutical drug at the time of their attack, including Columbine killer Eric Harris, 'Batman' shooter James Holmes and Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza.

As the website SSRI Stories profusely documents, there are literally hundreds of examples of mass shootings, murders and other violent episodes that have been committed by individuals on psychiatric drugs over the past three decades.

Pharmaceutical giants who produce drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil spend around $2.4 billion dollars a year on direct-to-consumer television advertising every year. By running negative stories about prescription drugs, networks risk losing tens of millions of dollars in ad revenue, which is undoubtedly one of the primary reasons why the connection is habitually downplayed or ignored entirely.

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71FOLLOW Paul Joseph Watson @ https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:31

I was not raised in a racist home or environment. Living in the South, almost every White person has a small amount of racial awareness, simply beause of the numbers of negroes in this part of the country. But it is a superficial awareness. Growing up, in school, the White and black kids would make racial jokes toward each other, but all they were were jokes. Me and White friends would sometimes would watch things that would make us think that ''blacks were the real racists'' and other elementary thoughts like this, but there was no real understanding behind it.

The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. I kept hearing and seeing his name, and eventually I decided to look him up. I read the Wikipedia article and right away I was unable to understand what the big deal was. It was obvious that Zimmerman was in the right. But more importantly this prompted me to type in the words ''black on White crime'' into Google, and I have never been the same since that day. The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens. There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?

From this point I researched deeper and found out what was happening in Europe. I saw that the same things were happening in England and France, and in all the other Western European countries. Again I found myself in disbelief. As an American we are taught to accept living in the melting pot, and black and other minorities have just as much right to be here as we do, since we are all immigrants. But Europe is the homeland of White people, and in many ways the situation is even worse there. From here I found out about the Jewish problem and other issues facing our race, and I can say today that I am completely racially aware.

Blacks

I think it is is fitting to start off with the group I have the most real life experience with, and the group that is the biggest problem for Americans. Niggers are stupid and violent. At the same time they have the capacity to be very slick. Black people view everything through a racial lense. Thats what racial awareness is, its viewing everything that happens through a racial lense. They are always thinking about the fact that they are black. This is part of the reason they get offended so easily, and think that some thing are intended to be racist towards them, even when a White person wouldnt be thinking about race. The other reason is the Jewish agitation of the black race. Black people are racially aware almost from birth, but White people on average dont think about race in their daily lives. And this is our problem. We need to and have to. Say you were to witness a dog being beat by a man. You are almost surely going to feel very sorry for that dog. But then say you were to witness a dog biting a man. You will most likely not feel the same pity you felt for the dog for the man. Why? Because dogs are lower than men. This same analogy applies to black and White relations. Even today, blacks are subconsciously viewed by White people are lower beings. They are held to a lower standard in general. This is why they are able to get away with things like obnoxious behavior in public. Because it is expected of them. Modern history classes instill a subconscious White superiority complex in Whites and an inferiority complex in blacks. This White superiority complex that comes from learning of how we dominated other peoples is also part of the problem I have just mentioned. But of course I dont deny that we are in fact superior. I wish with a passion that niggers were treated terribly throughout history by Whites, that every White person had an ancestor who owned slaves, that segregation was an evil an oppressive institution, and so on. Because if it was all it true, it would make it so much easier for me to accept our current situation. But it isnt true. None of it is. We are told to accept what is happening to us because of ancestors wrong doing, but it is all based on historical lies, exaggerations and myths. I have tried endlessly to think of reasons we deserve this, and I have only came back more irritated because there are no reasons. Only a fourth to a third of people in the South owned even one slave. Yet every White person is treated as if they had a slave owning ancestor. This applies to in the states where slavery never existed, as well as people whose families immigrated after slavery was abolished. I have read hundreds of slaves narratives from my state. And almost all of them were positive. One sticks out in my mind where an old ex-slave recounted how the day his mistress died was one of the saddest days of his life. And in many of these narratives the slaves told of how their masters didnt even allowing whipping on his plantation. Segregation was not a bad thing. It was a defensive measure. Segregation did not exist to hold back negroes. It existed to protect us from them. And I mean that in multiple ways. Not only did it protect us from having to interact with them, and from being physically harmed by them, but it protected us from being brought down to their level. Integration has done nothing but bring Whites down to level of brute animals. The best example of this is obviously our school system. Now White parents are forced to move to the suburbs to send their children to ''good schools''. But what constitutes a ''good school''? The fact is that how good a school is considered directly corresponds to how White it is. I hate with a passion the whole idea of the suburbs. To me it represents nothing but scared White people running. Running because they are too weak, scared, and brainwashed to fight. Why should we have to flee the cities we created for the security of the suburbs? Why are the suburbs secure in the first place? Because they are White. The pathetic part is that these White people dont even admit to themselves why they are moving. They tell themselves it is for better schools or simply to live in a nicer neighborhood. But it is honestly just a way to escape niggers and other minorities. But what about the White people that are left behind? What about the White children who, because of school zoning laws, are forced to go to a school that is 90 percent black? Do we really think that that White kid will be able to go one day without being picked on for being White, or called a ''white boy''? And who is fighting for him? Who is fighting for these White people forced by economic circumstances to live among negroes? No one, but someone has to.

Here I would also like to touch on the idea of a Norhtwest Front. I think this idea is beyond stupid. Why should I for example, give up the beauty and history of my state to go to the Norhthwest? To me the whole idea just parralells the concept of White people running to the suburbs. The whole idea is pathetic and just another way to run from the problem without facing it. Some people feel as though the South is beyond saving, that we have too many blacks here. To this I say look at history. The South had a higher ratio of blacks when we were holding them as slaves. Look at South Africa, and how such a small minority held the black in apartheid for years and years. Speaking of South Africa, if anyone thinks that think will eventually just change for the better, consider how in South Africa they have affirmative action for the black population that makes up 80 percent of the population. It is far from being too late for America or Europe. I believe that even if we made up only 30 percent of the population we could take it back completely. But by no means should we wait any longer to take drastic action.

Anyone who thinks that White and black people look as different as we do on the outside, but are somehow magically the same on the inside, is delusional. How could our faces, skin, hair, and body structure all be different, but our brains be exactly the same? This is the nonsense we are led to believe. Negroes have lower Iqs, lower impulse control, and higher testosterone levels in generals. These three things alone are a recipe for violent behavior. If a scientist publishes a paper on the differences between the races in Western Europe or Americans, he can expect to lose his job. There are personality traits within human families, and within different breeds of cats or dogs, so why not within the races? A horse and a donkey can breed and make a mule, but they are still two completely different animals. Just because we can breed with the other races doesnt make us the same. In a modern history class it is always emphasized that, when talking about ''bad'' things Whites have done in history, they were White. But when we lern about the numerous, almost countless wonderful things Whites have done, it is never pointed out that these people were White. Yet when we learn about anything important done by a black person in history, it is always pointed out repeatedly that they were black. For example when we learn about how George Washington carver was the first nigger smart enough to open a peanut.

On another subject I want to say this. Many White people feel as though they dont have a unique culture. The reason for this is that White culture is world culture. I dont mean that our culture is made up of other cultures, I mean that our culture has been adopted by everyone in the world. This makes us feel as though our culture isnt special or unique. Say for example that every business man in the world wore a kimono, that every skyscraper was in the shape of a pagoda, that every door was a sliding one, and that everyone ate every meal with chopsticks. This would probably make a Japanese man feel as though he had no unique traditional culture.

I have noticed a great disdain for race mixing White women within the White nationalists community, bordering on insanity it. These women are victims, and they can be saved. Stop.

Jews

Unlike many White naitonalists, I am of the opinion that the majority of American and European jews are White. In my opinion the issues with jews is not their blood, but their identity. I think that if we could somehow destroy the jewish identity, then they wouldnt cause much of a problem. The problem is that Jews look White, and in many cases are White, yet they see themselves as minorities. Just like niggers, most jews are always thinking about the fact that they are jewish. The other issue is that they network. If we could somehow turn every jew blue for 24 hours, I think there would be a mass awakening, because people would be able to see plainly what is going on.

I dont pretend to understand why jews do what they do. They are enigma.

Hispanics

Hispanics are obviously a huge problem for Americans. But there are good hispanics and bad hispanics. I remember while watching hispanic television stations, the shows and even the commercials were more White than our own. They have respect for White beauty, and a good portion of hispanics are White. It is a well known fact that White hispanics make up the elite of most hispanics countries. There is good White blood worht saving in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and even Brasil.

But they are still our enemies.

East Asians

I have great respent for the East Asian races. Even if we were to go extinct they could carry something on. They are by nature very racist and could be great allies of the White race. I am not opposed at all to allies with the Northeast Asian races.

Patriotism

I hate the sight of the American flag. Modern American patriotism is an absolute joke. People pretending like they have something to be proud while White people are being murdered daily in the streets. Many veterans believe we owe them something for ''protecting our way of life'' or ''protecting our freedom''. But im not sure what way of life they are talking about. How about we protect the White race and stop fighting for the jews. I will say this though, I myself would have rather lived in 1940's American than Nazi Germany, and no this is not ignorance speaking, it is just my opinion. So I dont blame the veterans of any wars up until after Vietnam, because at least they had an American to be proud of and fight for.

An Explanation

To take a saying from a film, ''I see all this stuff going on, and I dont see anyone doing anything about it. And it pisses me off.''. To take a saying from my favorite film, ''Even if my life is worth less than a speck of dirt, I want to use it for the good of society.''.

I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.

Unfortunately at the time of writing I am in a great hurry and some of my best thoughts, actually many of them have been to be left out and lost forever. But I believe enough great White minds are out there already.

Please forgive any typos, I didnt have time to check it.

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:24

It' s time to ban a certain hate-filled flagI'm a big fan of the first amendment. I don't like the idea of outlawing speech. But if the media says that some form of speech is a problem, then I think we should immediately ban it. I'm thinking in particular of one hate-filled flag that incites violence among many people, especially in the south. If a flag is a cause of such violence, shouldn't we ban it?

That's why I'm calling for the Mexican flag to be banned. In Mexico, perhaps, it's harmless, but in the United States, all it does is foment hatred and violence. Look at the violencecommitted by illegal aliens, many of whom are from Mexico:

In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

Today, about 55,000 criminal aliens account for more than one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, and there are about 297,000 criminal aliens incarcerated in state and local prisons

A Congressional Research Service report released in August 2012 found that over a 33-month period, between October 2008 and July 2011, more than 159,000 illegal aliens were arrested by local authorities and identified by the federal government as deportable but nevertheless released back onto the streets. Nearly one-sixth of those same individuals were subsequently again arrested for crimes

Why are so many illegals committing crime? I believe it is because of their Mexican nationalist ideology, which is fomented by foreign nationalist symbols like the Mexican flag, which now increasingly flies in America in places like here, here, here, and here.

As liberals are against flags that promotes divisiveness, they should support moves to ban the flag of Mexico from flying in America, except at embassies and consulates (and Los Angeles and El Paso are not embassies and consulates). When do you think liberals will get on board this effort?

(Abridged version originally published in AT)

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There are a lot of claims about how supposedly objective tests discriminate against minorities. Most recently there are claims that tests for teachers have too many "white questions". Now the Supreme Court has ruled that killers must have a certain minimum IQ to be executed.CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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A question for Nancy Pelosi: who is a better kisser, Obama or Boehner?

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Court: doctors can give abortions via skypeThere's a lot of limitations on what we can do, like eating food with transfat, or drinking soda in large cups, but the government places these limitations benevolently because its concerned for our health. That's why we can't pick insurance plans with only the health coverage we want any more. But when it comes to abortions, however, anything goes. If you want your babies brain suctioned, drilled, fried, or scrambled, there's a veritable IHOP menus of ways to end your pregnancy. In light of this an Iowa court has decided that doctors can administer some abortions via video conferencing.CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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Charleston shootings spark alarming surge of WhiteophobiaIn the wake of the white gunman who shot black church goers in Charleston, South Carolina, there has been a surge of Whiteophobia. Media outlets are making much of the fact that the gunman is white while the victims were Black, as is almost always the case in nearly 7% of all murders of black people.CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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It's time to put a woman (Mrs. Obama) on food stampsI was delighted to hear that we are getting that very dead white man, Alexander Hamilton, off the ten dollar bill. What did he ever do to deserve being there anyway? (Aside from being the first Treasury Secretary and setting up our financial system. But really, what has he done for us lately?)CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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We need to work harder to keep state & national parks closedEvery time someone visits a state or national park chances are they disturbing precious wildlife. Birds that were singing mating calls will forget the words. Male deer who were battling with each other for the right to mate with the females will suddenly get shy, creating an opening for the maimed, blind deer to mate with the herd. Fish swimming upstream to spawn will get disoriented, and swim instead into lower income downstream tributaries filled with dangerous "gansta" fish.CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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Woman refuses to have children for fear they will be whiteThe HuffPo has the touching story about a woman named Ali Michael, burdened with being White, who refuses to have children out of fear that they too will be white.CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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Tests for teachers found to have too many white questionsWhen I was in school, I was always frustrated by tests where the questions were geared to Asians or Blacks or Eskimos; not being in any of these groups, I simply couldn't answer such questions! For example, while I could easily answer questions about adding or subtracting apples, or pears, whenever a question asked about adding or subtracting igloos, the question would be so alien to me that my mind would draw a blank!CONTINUE READINGTell us what you think on Facebook!

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Archived Version

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 05:48

What happened in a church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday night is a lot of things, but one thing it's not is "unthinkable." Somebody thought long and hard about it. Somebody thought to load the weapon. Somebody thought to pick the church. Somebody thought to sit, quietly, through some of Wednesday night bible study. Somebody thought to stand up and open fire, killing nine people, including the pastor. Somebody reportedly thought to leave one woman alive so she could tell his story to the world. Somebody thought enough to flee. What happened in that church was a lot of things, but unthinkable is not one of them.

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What happened in a Charleston church on Wednesday night is a lot of things, but one thing it's not is "unspeakable." We should speak of it often. We should speak of it loudly. We should speak of it as terrorism, which is what it was. We should speak of it as racial violence, which is what it was.

We should speak of it as an attack on history, which it was. This was the church founded by Denmark Vesey, who planned a slave revolt in 1822. Vesey was convicted in a secret trial in which many of the witnesses testified after being tortured. After they hung him, a mob burned down the church he built. His sons rebuilt it. On Wednesday night, someone turned it into a slaughter pen.

We should speak of it as an assault on the idea of a political commonwealth, which is what it was. And we should speak of it as one more example of all of these, another link in a bloody chain of events that reaches all the way back to African wharves and Southern docks. It is not an isolated incident, not if you consider history as something alive that can live and breathe and bleed. We should speak of all these things. What happened in that church was a lot of things, but unspeakable is not one of them.

Not to think about these things is to betray the dead. Not to speak of these things is to dishonor them. Let Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, look out her window at the flag of treason that is flown proudly at her state capitol and think about these things, and speak of them, before she pronounces herself so puzzled at how something like this could happen in South Carolina, the home office of American sedition.

Let Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeb Bush, both of whom want to lead this troubled country, consider what it meant to absent themselves from campaign events in Charleston and think of these things and speak of them before they turn to their consultants about whether or not staying in a grieving city was what a leader should have done.

Let the elite political media that follows the two of them, roughly thrown into a maelstrom of actual news, look out onto the streets of Charleston and realize that politics exist for the purpose of governing a country, and not simply to entertain it.

Let Squint and the Meat Puppet think about these things and speak of these things before inviting Donald Trump, who is a clown and a fool, to come on national television and talk about his hair. Not to think about these things is to betray the dead. Not to speak of these things is to dishonor them.

Think about what happened. Think about why it happened. Talk about what happened. Talk about why it happened. Do these things, over and over again. The country must resist the temptation present in anesthetic innocence. It must reject the false comfort of learned disbelief and the narcotic embrace of concocted surprise. There is a ferocious underground fire running through American history. It rages unseen until it flares again from the warm earth. It has raged from the death of Denmark Vesey in 1822 to the death of the Reverend and state senator Clementa Pinckney on Wednesday night.

This was not an unspeakable act. Sylvia Johnson, one of only three survivors of the massacre, is speaking about it.

"She said that he had reloaded five different times'... and he just said 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go.'"

There is a timidity that the country can no longer afford. This was not an unthinkable act. A man may have had a rat's nest for a mind, but it was well thought out. It was a cool, considered crime, as well planned as any bank robbery or any computer fraud. If people do not want to speak of it, or think about it, it's because they do not want to follow the story where it inevitably leads. It's because they do not want to follow this crime all the way back to the mother of all American crimes, the one that Denmark Vesey gave his life to avenge. What happened on Wednesday night was a lot of things. A massacre was only one of them.

I just started an internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and I wanted to share something. On my first day, the COO of the lab talked to me and some other interns as part of our orientation. He said something that I think needs to be shared. He said, "I'm not going to tell you that global warming is real, or that climate change is real." He went on to tell us that a lot of climate research goes on at the lab, but I thought it was pretty significant that one of the top scientist at one of the top climate research labs would admit this up front. I would normally put this out on social media and you tube, but the lab has a policy about making political statements while identifying as someone who works at PNNL. I don't want to lose this job before I even get started. I figured you guys might find it interesting, since the bogus nature of climate change news comes up often on your show.

Thank you for your courage,

anonymous

According to the book of knowledge, radioactive waste doesn't eat itself.... See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste ...I started listening to your show and even went back a few episodes...I found your slant to smell a little like bill o'reilly, and I determined that although I used to like John C., I have determined your misinformation to be detrimental to your stated mission.

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:18

Phys.Org Mobile: Humans will be extinct in 100 years says eminent scientistJun 23, Earth/Environment

Professor Frank Fenner

(PhysOrg.com) -- Eminent Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner, who helped to wipe out smallpox, predicts humans will probably be extinct within 100 years, because of overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change.

Fenner, who is emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, said homo sapiens will not be able to survive the population explosion and ''unbridled consumption,'' and will become extinct, perhaps within a century, along with many other species. United Nations official figures from last year estimate the human population is 6.8 billion, and is predicted to pass seven billion next year.

Fenner told The Australian he tries not to express his pessimism because people are trying to do something, but keep putting it off. He said he believes the situation is irreversible, and it is too late because the effects we have had on Earth since industrialization (a period now known to scientists unofficially as the Anthropocene) rivals any effects of ice ages or comet impacts.

World population growth chart.

Fenner said that climate change is only at its beginning, but is likely to be the cause of our extinction. ''We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island,'' he said. More people means fewer resources, and Fenner predicts ''there will be a lot more wars over food.''

Easter Island is famous for its massive stone statues. Polynesian people settled there, in what was then a pristine tropical island, around the middle of the first millennium AD. The population grew slowly at first and then exploded. As the population grew the forests were wiped out and all the tree animals became extinct, both with devastating consequences. After about 1600 the civilization began to collapse, and had virtually disappeared by the mid-19th century. Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond said the parallels between what happened on Easter Island and what is occurring today on the planet as a whole are ''chillingly obvious.''

While many scientists are also pessimistic, others are more optimistic. Among the latter is a colleague of Professor Fenner, retired professor Stephen Boyden, who said he still hopes awareness of the problems will rise and the required revolutionary changes will be made to achieve ecological sustainability. ''While there's a glimmer of hope, it's worth working to solve the problem. We have the scientific knowledge to do it but we don't have the political will,'' Boyden said.

Fenner, 95, is the author or co-author of 22 books and 290 scientific papers and book chapters. His announcement in 1980 to the World Health Assembly that smallpox had been eradicated is still seen as one of the World Health Organisation's greatest achievements. He has also been heavily involved in controlling Australia's feral rabbit population with the myxomatosis virus.

Professor Fenner has had a lifetime interest in the environment, and from 1973 to 1979 was Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at ANU. He is currently a visiting fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the university, and is a patron of Sustainable Population Australia. He has won numerous awards including the ANZAC Peace Prize, the WHO Medal, and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. He was awarded an MBE for his work on control of malaria in New Guinea during the Second World War, in which Fenner served in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps.

Professor Fenner will open the Healthy Climate, Planet and People symposium at the Australian Academy of Science next week.

More information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/easter.html

(C) 2010 PhysOrg.com

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Phys.Org Mobile: Humans will be extinct in 100 years says eminent scientistJun 23, Earth/Environment

Professor Frank Fenner

(PhysOrg.com) -- Eminent Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner, who helped to wipe out smallpox, predicts humans will probably be extinct within 100 years, because of overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change.

Fenner, who is emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, said homo sapiens will not be able to survive the population explosion and ''unbridled consumption,'' and will become extinct, perhaps within a century, along with many other species. United Nations official figures from last year estimate the human population is 6.8 billion, and is predicted to pass seven billion next year.

Fenner told The Australian he tries not to express his pessimism because people are trying to do something, but keep putting it off. He said he believes the situation is irreversible, and it is too late because the effects we have had on Earth since industrialization (a period now known to scientists unofficially as the Anthropocene) rivals any effects of ice ages or comet impacts.

World population growth chart.

Fenner said that climate change is only at its beginning, but is likely to be the cause of our extinction. ''We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island,'' he said. More people means fewer resources, and Fenner predicts ''there will be a lot more wars over food.''

Easter Island is famous for its massive stone statues. Polynesian people settled there, in what was then a pristine tropical island, around the middle of the first millennium AD. The population grew slowly at first and then exploded. As the population grew the forests were wiped out and all the tree animals became extinct, both with devastating consequences. After about 1600 the civilization began to collapse, and had virtually disappeared by the mid-19th century. Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond said the parallels between what happened on Easter Island and what is occurring today on the planet as a whole are ''chillingly obvious.''

While many scientists are also pessimistic, others are more optimistic. Among the latter is a colleague of Professor Fenner, retired professor Stephen Boyden, who said he still hopes awareness of the problems will rise and the required revolutionary changes will be made to achieve ecological sustainability. ''While there's a glimmer of hope, it's worth working to solve the problem. We have the scientific knowledge to do it but we don't have the political will,'' Boyden said.

Fenner, 95, is the author or co-author of 22 books and 290 scientific papers and book chapters. His announcement in 1980 to the World Health Assembly that smallpox had been eradicated is still seen as one of the World Health Organisation's greatest achievements. He has also been heavily involved in controlling Australia's feral rabbit population with the myxomatosis virus.

Professor Fenner has had a lifetime interest in the environment, and from 1973 to 1979 was Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at ANU. He is currently a visiting fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the university, and is a patron of Sustainable Population Australia. He has won numerous awards including the ANZAC Peace Prize, the WHO Medal, and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. He was awarded an MBE for his work on control of malaria in New Guinea during the Second World War, in which Fenner served in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps.

Professor Fenner will open the Healthy Climate, Planet and People symposium at the Australian Academy of Science next week.

More information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/easter.html

(C) 2010 PhysOrg.com

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 10:54

Species are disappearing about 100 times faster than normal rateExperts warn it could take Earth millions of years to recoverThey say humanity would likely disappear early on in the processPrevious extinctions caused by natural disasters, but this is man-made By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

Published: 13:47 EST, 19 June 2015 | Updated: 04:16 EST, 20 June 2015

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Earth is entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence, researchers have declared.

A team of American scientists claim that their study shows 'without any significant doubt' that we are entering the sixth great mass extinction on Earth.

The study says that species are disappearing at a rate 100 times faster than would normally be expected - and that is a conservative estimate.

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This chart shows the enormous uptick in species loss over the last century. Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct.

320 EXTINCTIONS SINCE 1500 Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct.

Populations of the remaining species show a 25 percent average decline in abundance, and the situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life.

Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 percent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered.

Large animals '' described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide '' face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events.

And such a catastrophic loss of animal species presents a real threat to human existence, the experts warn, as crucial ecosystem 'services' such as crop pollination by insects and water purification in wetlands is also put at risk.

At the current rate of species loss, humans will lose many biodiversity benefits within three generations, according to Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, who led the research.

'We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on,' Prof Ehrlich said.

The study warns that humans are are precipitating 'a global spasm of biodiversity loss' - and that the window for conserving threatened species is rapidly closing.

Prof Ehrlich said: 'The study shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event.'

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that even with extremely conservative estimates, species are currently disappearing up to about 100 times faster than the normal rate between mass extinctions, known as the background rate.

'If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on,' said lead author Gerardo Ceballos, of the Universidad Aut"noma de M(C)xico.

The authors fear that 75 per cent of the species on Earth today could be lost in just two generations' time.

The sixth mass extinction on Earth has officially begun

HOW HUMANITY HAS RUINED THE EARTH The human population growing in numbers, per capita consumption and economic inequity has altered or destroyed natural habitats, the researchers say.

They said the main impacts were:

Land clearing for farming, logging and settlementIntroduction of invasive speciesCarbon emissions that drive climate change and ocean acidificationToxins that alter and poison ecosystems 'We emphasize that our calculations very likely underestimate the severity of the extinction crisis, because our aim was to place a realistic lower bound on humanity's impact on biodiversity,' the researchers write.

To history's steady drumbeat, a human population growing in numbers, per capita consumption and economic inequity has altered or destroyed natural habitats.

Large animals '' described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide '' face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events

Now, the specter of extinction hangs over about 41 percent of all amphibian species and 26 percent of all mammals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which maintains an authoritative list of threatened and extinct species.

'There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead,' Ehrlich said.

THE FIVE GREAT EXTINCTION EVENTSFive times, a vast majority of the world's life has been snuffed out in what have been called mass extinctions, often associated with giant meteor strikes.

End-Ordovician mass extinctionThe first of the traditional big five extinction events, around 440 million years ago, was probably the second most severe. Virtually all life was in the sea at the time and around 85% of these species vanished.

Late Devonian mass extinction

About 375-359 million years ago, major environmental changes caused a drawn-out extinction event that wiped out major fish groups and stopped new coral reefs forming for 100 million years.

End-Permian mass extinction (the Great Dying)The largest extinction event and the one that affected the Earth's ecology most profoundly took place 252 million years ago. As much as 97% of species that leave a fossil record disappeared forever.

End-Triassic mass extinctionDinosaurs first appeared in the Early Triassic, but large amphibians and mammal-like reptiles were the dominant land animals. The rapid mass extinction that occurred 201 million years ago changed that.

End-Cretaceous mass extinction

An asteroid slammed down on Earth 66 million years ago, and is often blamed for ending the reign of the dinosaurs.

A broken Earth: Researchers say a new study shows 'without any significant doubt' that we are entering the sixth great mass extinction on earth.

Despite the gloomy outlook, there is a meaningful way forward, according to Ehrlich and his colleagues.

'Avoiding a true sixth mass extinction will require rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species, and to alleviate pressures on their populations '' notably habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain and climate change,' the study's authors write.

Ceballos added: 'I'm optimistic in the sense that humans react - in the past we have made quantum leaps when we worked together to solve our problems.'

The researchers hope their work will inform conservation efforts, the maintenance of ecosystem services and public policy.

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"I am going to murder you. Do you understand me? When I get out of here I am going to find you and murder you".

That was the thanks I got from the shithead asshole doper I pulled out of a wrecked car tonight. Of course, there was a wrestling match happening and he was, thankfully losing so he was more than a little irritated. He kept trying to spit in my face, but i had seen that coming and bagged his head in a spit hood. It's mesh so he can see and breathe but it still lets a fine mist of saliva through. I was only a couple inches from his face but that was where i needed to be to leverage his arm and shoulder down to keep him from swinging. Close enough to keep him pinned, just far enough to not get my face bitten off. I miss the old days when we could just use a pillowcase over the head. We'd draw a smiley face on it with a sharpie and there was no mesh and a lot like throwing a blanket over a birdcage it sometimes chilled a motherfucker out. Took the piss and vinegar right out.

I laughed the other day when I saw some dork with a " Zombie Response Vehicle" sticker on his truck. I fight zombies all the time. Normally I'd swing back with the ol Velvet Hammer (Versed) or some Special K (Ketamine) but this shit escalated pretty fast. I don't even know what this dude was on. Nobody really seems to care anymore. Apparently the cooks and chemists are altering the street drugs, adapting them, changing them just enough to not be detectable by standard hospital lab tests. Lots of docs aren't even testing these patients anymore because the results typically come back negative. It doesn't really matter as the treatments are mostly toxidrome based. Treatment and support of the constellation of symptoms, not necessarily a reversal of a particular drug. I'm guessing this is contributing to artificially low reporting on this type of thing.

Anyway.. Its 0400hrs and I think I'm wound down enough to try and sleep for a couple hours before I go home and do my best to be a good dad and a good husband and have a nice little Saturday.

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Source: FCW: The business of federal technology

Sat, 20 Jun 2015 11:52

Defense

DISA five-year plan treats cyber as warring domainBy Sean LyngaasJun 16, 2015The Defense Information Systems Agency has released a five-year strategy that calls on Defense Department personnel to treat cyberspace like a war-fighting domain by enabling maneuvering on DOD networks.

''We will execute synchronized [DOD information network] command, operations and cyber defense missions to ensure freedom of maneuver for the war-fighter and mission partners,'' the document states.

''We're waking up to realizing that there is a lot more that needs to be protected, there [are] a lot of better ways that we need to protect'' DOD assets, said DISA Director Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins. The department intends to ''employ our principles of war '' whether it is maneuver, speed [or] surprise'' '' in cyberspace, added Hawkins, who spoke June 16 at an AFCEA conference in Baltimore.

The plan outlines general goals for the agency, including cutting costs by getting rid of ''duplication in production and operations,'' and delivering IT services through commercial and DISA-managed cloud services. The document is short on specifics for carrying out the goals. Those details may come via a separate ''strategic roadmap'' that DISA is planning to release in October.

The plan also includes a list of six technological areas that are ''the most critical for DISA to understand, acquire and evolve over the next five years.'' Those six areas are:

Networking technologies that will help consolidate various network enclaves into a ''single, integrated transport network.''Computing and storage technologies that offer flexibility and interoperability.Unified capability technologies that will improve productivity and information sharing.Mobile-device and mobile-application technologies that will help transition to an environment where DOD employees can work from anywhere.Cyber technologies that will help the department withstand major attacks.Network operations technologies that will ''ensure the continuity of cyber domain operations in the face of disruption and attack.''DISA officials said on June 16 that Army Maj. Gen. Alan Lynn, the agency's vice director, will replace Hawkins as director sometime this summer. Hawkins announced in January that he would retire.

About the Author

Sean Lyngaas is an FCW staff writer covering defense, cybersecurity and intelligence issues. Follow him on Twitter: @snlyngaas

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Source: Signs of the Times

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:41

(C) claffra/iStock

The lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness is spreading. First Germany, then Holland, and Austria, and now -as we noted was possible previously - Texas has enacted a Bill to repatriate $1 billion of gold from The NY Fed's vaults to a newly established state gold bullion depository. "People have this image of Texas as big and powerful ... so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold," and the Bill includes a section to prevent forced seizure from the Federal Government.From 2011:

"The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund's board."

The decision to turn the fund's investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment's board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

"Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what's the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services," Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. "I look at gold as just another currency that they can't print any more of."

And now, after we noted the possibility previously,as The Epoch Times reports, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Friday, June 12, that will allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository. In addition, Texas will repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to the new facility once completed.On the surface the bill looks rather innocent, but its implications are far reaching. HB 483, "relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository" to store gold and silver coins, was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione.

Capriglione told the Star-Telegram:

"We are not talking Fort Knox. But when I first announced this, I got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold ... in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful ... so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold."

But isn't New York, where most of the world's gold is stored, also big and powerful? Why does the state of Texas want to go through the trouble of building its own storage facility?

There are precisely two important reasons. One involves distrust in the current storage system. The second threatens the paper money system as a whole."In a lot of cases with gold you may not have clear title to the metal.You may have a counterparty relationship that makes you a creditor. If the counter-party has a problem unrelated to gold, they can default and then you become an unsecured creditor in bankruptcy," said Keith Weiner, president of the Gold Standard Institute.

This means you get whatever is left after liquidation, often just a fraction of the initial value of your holdings.

"This exact scenario happened with futures broker MF Global. I knew people who had warehouse receipts to gold bars with a specific serial number. But that gold had an encumbered title and they became unsecured creditors in bankruptcy," said Weiner.

In Texas, two big public pension funds from the University of Texas (UoT) and the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) own gold worth more than $1 billion.

Being uncomfortable with holding purely financial gold in the form of futures and Exchange-traded Funds, University of Texas actually took delivery of the gold bars in 2011 and warehoused it with HSBC Bank in New York.

At the time pension fund board member and hedge fund manager Kyle Bass explained: "As a fiduciary, which I am in that position to the extent you own gold and you are going for a long time, and it's not a trade. ... We looked at the COMEX at the time and they had about $80 billion of open interest between futures and futures options. And in the warehouse they had $2.7 billion of deliverables. We are going to own it a long time. You are on the board, you are a fiduciary, so that's an easy one, you go get it."

Bass is implying that there is much more financial gold out there than physical, and that it is prudent to actually hold the physical.

Taking the gold to Texas would then also solve the counter-party risk. "In this case it's going to be a depository, the gold is going to be there, they are not going to be able to lend it out and it won't serve as collateral for other transactions of the bank." said Victor Sperandeo of trading firm EAM Partners. "Because if the bank closes, you are screwed."

"I think that somebody was looking at that, we better have this under our complete control," said constitutional lawyer and gold expert Edwin Vieira, of the Texas bill. "They don't want to have the gold in some bank somewhere and in two to five years it turns out not to be there."

So far most of the attention has focused on the part of the depository and the big institutions. However, the bill also includes a provision to prevent seizure, which is important for private parties who want to avoid another 1933 style confiscation of their bullion by Federal authorities.Section A2116.023 of the bill states:"A purported confiscation, requisition, seizure, or other attempt to control the ownership ... is void ab initio and of no force or effect."Effectively, the state of Texas will protect any gold stored in the depository from the federal government.

And free from the threat of confiscation, private citizens can use gold and silver as money, completely bypassing the paper money system.

"People can legally do that with gold contracts. The difficulty is the implementation. Now Texas has set up a mechanism with the depository. We have accounts in that institution and can easily transfer back and forth certain amounts.So we can run our money system a gold or silver basis if we were so inclined,"said Vieira.

This would not be possible if the gold is stored in a bank because of the risks of bank holidays and bankruptcies. It would also not be possible if the federal government could confiscate gold.

According to Vieira, this anti-seizure provision rests on Article 1, section 10 of the Constitution of the United States, which obliges the States to not make anything tender in payment of debts apart from gold and silver coin.

"If someone from the Department of Justice comes along you are going to see legal and political fireworks. The state is going to say 'we need to have a mechanism to make gold and silver money. This is pursuant to the constitutional provision we have. You can't touch this. Our state power on the constitutional level is more powerful than any statute you may pass,'" said Vieira.

Because one of the litigant parties is a state, the case would go directly to the Supreme Court.

"We are talking about something completely new in terms of the legal playing field. This is no longer a fringe concept," he adds, but cautions about a possible fight with the federal government: "We will have to see how committed the governor and the attorney general are."

Official Statement from Governor Abbott:Governor Greg Abbott today signed House Bill 483 (Capriglione, R-Southlake; Kolkhorst, R-Brenham) to establish a state gold bullion depository administered by the Office of the Comptroller. The law will repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas. The bullion depository will serve as the custodian, guardian and administrator of bullion that may be transferred to or otherwise acquired by the State of Texas. Governor Abbott issued the following statement:

"Today I signed HB 483 to provide a secure facility for the State of Texas, state agencies and Texas citizens to store gold bullion and other precious metals. With the passage of this bill, the Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state."

* * *Is this the first step down a road to secession? Notably, they'll need that gold to establish their own country once they win the potentially imminent war with the US military which starts on Monday (Jade Helm).* * *This implicit subordination of The Fed's gold sends a more ominous signal of rising fears of confiscation and leaves us wondering just how long before every state (and or country) decides to follow Texas' lead?

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Source: Signs of the Times

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:53

With one of the largest government data breaches in US history, hackers have potentially gained access to the personal information of every federal employee. That includes the darkest secrets of nearly 14 million people, including drug addictions, psychiatric diagnoses, and even extramarital affairs.Every US federal employee seeking a security clearance must go through the exhausting process of filing a Standard Form 86 (SF 86). As many have pointed out, the form is so meticulous that an individual could fill out over 115 pages.

Those pages detail almost everything about an employer's life. Family members, spouses, and neighbors are just a few of the aspects listed. But the forms also dig deeper, examining personal information a person's own mother may not be aware of. Psychological treatments, outstanding debts, drug use, sexual history - even sexual fantasies. The idea being that the government needs to be aware of any facets of a person's life which could be exploited.

The bad news: whoever hacked into the Office of Personnel Management now knows all of the information they could ever need to blackmail every federal employee.

"It's kind of scary that somebody could know that much about us," a former US diplomat, speaking anonymously, told Reuters.

One example given by officials is of a retired 51-year-old military employee. In filing his security clearance, he listed that he had engaged in a 20-year affair with the wife of his former college roommate. While he entrusted this information to the US government - a red flag on a polygraph test could have ruined his chances at a security clearance - he had not told his wife about his infidelity.

While that individual eventually came clean, confessing to his wife other "key people in applicant's life," it's exactly the kind of potentially damaging information that foreign governments could use to convince a high-level official to provide confidential material.

Even the private affairs of a federal employee's family and associates could be utilized. SF 86 forms list the names of all foreign contacts, and those individuals could be tracked down and either kidnapped or blackmailed to sway a government official.

Details about a federal official's debt could also be exploited, providing foreign intelligence services with an idea of which employees could be bribed, and even for how much. Drug abuse history could be another way for governments to manipulate an individual who may prefer to keep darker aspects of their lives secret.

Then there is the possibility that hundreds of intelligence officers could now be compromised.

"The potential loss here is truly staggering and, by the way, these records are a legitimate foreign intelligence target," General Michael Hayden, former CIA and NSA director, told Reuters.

Intelligence officials note that the names obtained through the data breach could be cross-referenced against the publicly available names of embassy employees to root out undercover operatives.

"Negative information is an indicator just as much as positive information," the US diplomat said.

While US officials have linked the hacks to the Chinese government, they have yet to provide any evidence for the assertion. Beijing denies any role in the cyberattacks.

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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 23:28

The Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, said the group was now undertaking "serious efforts" to develop their chemical weapons arsenal.

Speaking to the Australia Group, which is composed of nations against chemical weapons, she said: ''Da'esh [Isis] is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons,'' Ms Bishop added.

Ms Bishop's speech is the latest concern that Isis is attempting to acquire nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, after India warned the extremists could obtain a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.

It was reported in March that Isis had been attacking Iraqi soldiers with roadside bombs containing chlorine gas in fighting around Tikrit, after footage emerged showing plumes of orange smoke emerging for the bombs.

It follows similar allegations that the extremists had released toxic gases in the eastern district of Kobani, during the siege of the town on the Syrian border, although it could not be confirmed.

Read More: Isis publicly beheads three men for blasphemyTheresa May warns of Isis threat to UK with nuclear weaponsIsis claims it could buy first nucelar weapon from PakistanMs Bishop added: ''Apart from some crude and small scale endeavours, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention to acquire and weaponise chemical agents has been largely aspirational.

''The use of chlorine by Da'esh [Isis], and its recruitment of highly trained professionals, including from the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development.''

They seek to undermine and overthrow that order '' and as we have seen, are prepared to use any and all means '' any and all forms of violence they can think of to advance their demented cause.

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:39

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- Extremists in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria unleashed a savage rise in violence between 2013 and 2014, according to new statistics released by the State Department. Attacks largely at the hands of the Islamic State and Boko Haram raised the number of terror acts by more than a third, nearly doubled the number of deaths and nearly tripled the number of kidnappings.

The figures contained in the department's annual global terrorism report say that nearly 33,000 people were killed in almost 13,500 terrorist attacks around the world in 2014. That's up from just over 18,000 deaths in nearly 10,000 attacks in 2013, it said. Twenty-four Americans were killed by extremists in 2014, the report said. Abductions soared from 3,137 in 2013 to 9,428 in 2014, the report said.

The report attributes the rise in attacks to increased terror activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria and the sharp spike in deaths to a growth in exceptionally lethal attacks in those countries and elsewhere. There were 20 attacks that killed more than 100 people each in 2014, compared to just two in 2013, according to the figures that were compiled for the State Department by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.

Among the 20 mass casualty attacks in 2014 were the December attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan that killed at least 150 people and the June attack by Islamic State militants on a prison in Mosul, Iraq, in which 670 Shiite prisoners died. At the end of 2014, the prison attack was the deadliest terrorist operation in the world since Sept. 11, 2001, according to the report.

Terror attacks took place in 95 countries in 2014, but were concentrated in the Mideast, South Asia and west Africa. Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria accounted for more than 60 percent of the attacks and, if Syria is included, roughly 80 percent of the fatalities, the report found.

The rise in kidnappings is mainly attributable to sharp increases in mass abductions by terrorist groups in Syria, notably the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. In Nigeria, Boko Haram was responsible for most, if not all, of the nearly 1,300 abductions in Nigeria in 2014, including several hundred girls from a school in Chibok. By contrast, fewer than 100 terror-related kidnappings were reported in Nigeria in 2013, according to the report.

The terrorism statistics are an annex to the State Department's annual "Country Reports on Terrorism," which is mandated by Congress and surveys terror attacks and trends over the course of the previous calendar year.

Friday's reports noted the "unprecedented seizure" of territory in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State in 2014 along with its continued demonstrated ability to recruit foreign fighters to join its cause and the emergence of self-proclaimed affiliates notably in Libya, Egypt and Nigeria. It also pointed out a rise in the number of so-called "lone wolf" attacks in the West and the use of more extreme methods of violence by terrorists to repress and frighten communities under their control.

At the same time, the reports said regional and international efforts to counter the Islamic State and other groups were starting to make inroads.

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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 15:15

Scholen kunnen bij het speuren naar radicalisering onder hun leerlingen binnenkort gebruik maken van speciale software die alarm slaat als er op schoolcomputers gezocht wordt op de term 'jihad' of 'IS'.

Op die manier kunnen ze leerlingen makkelijker in de gaten houden die zoeken of spreken over de jihad. Het systeem geeft een waarschuwing als tieners op schoolcomputers zoeken op woorden als jihadbruid of YODO (You only die once), schrijft het AD.

ZIE OOK: Vraag voor Rutte: Wanneer stapt u nu eens op?

Een vertrouwenspersoon kan na een melding via de eigen pc een screenshot maken en in actie komen. Het systeem is eigenlijk ontwikkeld om digitaal pesten tegen te gaan, maar wordt door bedenker stichting Importunus nu uitgebreid om radicalisering aan te pakken. Het ministerie van Onderwijs ondersteunt scholen 'bij het signaleren van radicalisering', maar laat de uitvoering ervan aan de scholen zelf, zegt een woordvoerder tegen de krant.

RTL Nieuws/ANP

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 11:49

CHICAGO (AP) '-- The American Medical Association has adopted policies against nonmedical vaccine refusals and for transgender people in the military.

The nation's largest doctors' group says parents should not be able to refuse to have their kids vaccinated for personal or religious reasons. That's because of the health risks unvaccinated kids pose to others.

At its annual policymaking meeting in Chicago on Monday, the AMA said it would support efforts to end those exemptions in state immunization mandates.

The AMA also adopted a policy saying there's no medically valid reason for the military's ban on transgender service members. And it agreed to organize efforts to create guidelines for assessing whether older physicians remain competent to safely treat patients.

The group has considerable lobbying clout and its positions tend to influence policymakers.

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Source: Signs of the Times

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:53

California is going full totalitarian, but is anyone surprised?The state's controversial and tyrannical mandatory vaccine bill has jumped another hurdle on its path to becoming law.

Yesterday, California lawmakers approved the bill, which requires all schoolchildren be vaccinated before being permitted to attend public or PRIVATE schools unless they have a MEDICAL exemption.

That's right: they are not going to allow religious or philosophical/personal belief exemptions to vaccinations any longer if this passes the full Assembly.

From the text of the bill:

(a) As used in this chapter, "governing authority" means the governing board of each school district or the authority of each other private or public institution responsible for the operation and control of the institution or the principal or administrator of each school or institution.

(b) The governing authority shall not unconditionally admit any person as a pupil of any private or public elementary or secondary school, child care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day care home, or development center, unless, prior to his or her first admission to that institution, he or she has been fully immunized.

If you have an unvaccinated school-aged child in California, your only option for education will be homeschooling (which is arguably far better than public indoctrination centers anyway, and likely better than most private schools).If the bill becomes law, California would join Mississippi and West Virginia as the only states with such authoritarian requirements.

How long until other states follow, though? Some think that this law would encourage lawmakers in other states to limit non-medical exemptions too.

Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, one of the bill's authors, said

"SB277 is about freedom. Freedom from deadly, crippling contagions that are now preventable through the science of vaccination."

I don't know about you, but I think this bill is the antithesis of freedom.The bill was approved after five hours of emotional testimony from hundreds of opponents.

From the Associated Press:

Opponents of the legislation say they should have the freedom to decide what's best for their child and that the bill would unfairly deny students a public education.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said he was not convinced that there was a health emergency because of insufficient vaccinations.

"I think that really stretches the facts to the point of really almost being sort of a scare tactic," he said before voting against the bill.

Naturally, those who support the bill cite the Disneyland measles "outbreak" as justification for taking away parental (and children's!) rights - even though measles is a relatively benign disease and the majority of those who contract the illness during "outbreaks" in the US are...vaccinated.Santa Monica pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon testified against the bill. He sought to separate the bill from the December measles outbreak, noting that all those cases of measles occurred outside a school environment:

"If SB277 had been in place last year, this outbreak would have proceeded in much the same manner," he said.

No matter what you personally think about vaccinations, laws like these set a dangerous precedent.This is a violation of civil and religious freedoms.

It is not moral nor ethical to force people to submit to medical procedures that carry the risk of serious injury or death.

Who owns your body, or those of your children?

The government, it appears.

About the author

Lily Dane is a staff writer forThe Daily Sheeple, where this articlefirst appeared. Her goal is to help people to "Wake the Flock Up!"

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Source: Signs of the Times

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:42

(C) Reuters / Kim Hong-Ji

Seven new cases of MERS have been confirmed in South Korea, bringing the total to 145, while thousand's of people have been quarantined. A patient in Slovakia is also being tested, as the WHO has called for an emergency meeting to tackle the outbreak.Four of the new patients in South Korea confirmed on Sunday are believed to have caught the deadly virus after coming into contact with patients at Seoul's Samsung Medical Center, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry.

Another of the victims is believed to have contracted MERS as he drove an infected patient to a hospital. The last two cases have been linked to two separate medical facilities.

Over 4,000 people are currently being kept in quarantine as a precaution, after they were in close contact with potential MERS suffers, since the first case was confirmed on May 20.

So far, 15 people have died in South Korea as a result of the latest MERS outbreak.

This week, experts from a 16-member joint mission from South Korean and World Health Organization (WHO), warned that the outbreak is "large and complex," while more cases should be expected.

The WHO is also urging those people who have possibly been exposed to the virus, not to travel, especially during the incubation period.

Despite the WHO warning, a man in Slovakia has been hospitalized after possibly contracting MERS. Doctors in Bratislava are expecting to receive test results from Prague on Sunday, after testing a 38-year-old South Korean male, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.

Local media claim the patient may have come into contact with the virus, while working as a subcontractor for Kia motors, a Korean car manufacturer, at a factory in the city of Zilina, Slovakia.

Meanwhile, the WHO announced it will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address the outbreak. The conference will provide technical updates on epidemiology and offer advice on future preventative actions in response to the South Korean outbreak, the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease first surfaced in 2012.

MERS comes from the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that killed about 800 people worldwide in 2002-2003. There is currently no cure or vaccine for the disease.

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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 23:27

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan '-- Pakistani authorities expelled the U.S.-based aid agency Save the Children from the country on Thursday, sealing its office in the capital and giving staff members 15'‰days to leave because of ''anti-Pakistan activities,'' according to the Interior Ministry.

The move, which could have a chilling effect on dozens of charities that work in Pakistan, was carried out after extensive monitoring of the group's members and activities, a ministry official said in an interview.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, declined to discuss the specific reason for the action. But the move appeared to be related to long-standing allegations of Save the Children's ties to the Pakistani physician recruited to help the CIA gain information about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts prior to the 2011 U.S. military mission that killed him in northwestern Pakistan.

Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper published a photograph of the eviction order directing all ''expatriates'' in the organization to leave the country within 15'‰days. It was dated Thursday.

Save the Children, in a statement released by its Fairfield, Conn., headquarters, said that all 1,200 staff members in Pakistan were Pakistani, and there were no expatriate staffers working there.

The statement confirmed that the Islamabad office ''has been closed and sealed off today [June 11] by the Pakistani authorities'' and said that ''Save the Children was not served any notice to this effect.''

The statement said: ''We strongly object to this action and are raising our serious concerns at the highest level.'' The CIA declined to comment.

A copy of the Pakistani order was also sent to officials in Pakistan's provinces, where the charity does most of its work, as well as to the country's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Save the Children, a nongovernmental organization, advocates for poor and neglected children in 120 countries. It has worked in Pakistan for 35'‰years, its statement said. It said its health, education and other programs last year ''reached more than four million children and their families'' in ''close collaboration with government ministries across the country.''

Pakistani intelligence officials have viewed the group with suspicion since shortly after the U.S. military raid that killed bin Laden in May 2011 in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, where U.S. officials later said he had been living for six years.

In 2012, intelligence officials accused Save the Children of working with Shakil Afridi, whom the CIA had hired to conduct a hepatitis immunization survey in Abbottabad to try to gain intelligence on bin Laden. The then-director of Save the Children's Pakistani office was called to testify before a government inquiry into the Afridi case, and several foreign officials of the organization then in the country were told their visas would not be renewed.

Afridi was convicted of treason and sentenced to 33'‰years in prison. His sentence was later reduced by 10'‰years by an appellate court.

In a 2012 interview with CBS News, a Save the Children executive in Pakistan denied the organization did anything improper. But the executive said Afridi had attended training programs that had been sponsored by Save the Children.

Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller in Washington and Shaiq Hussain contributed to this report.

Read more:

Months before U.S. raid, bin Laden considered leaving Pakistan compound

After years of tension, anti-American sentiment ebbs in Pakistan

CIA: No more vaccination campaigns in spy operations

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Tim Craig is The Post's bureau chief in Pakistan. He has also covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the District of Columbia government.

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:37

SAINT PETERSBURG - Agence France-Presse

Russian gas giant Gazprom on June 18 agreed a plan with Shell, E.ON and OMV aimed at building a new gas pipeline to Germany, the companies said in a statement. In the memorandum of understanding, Germany's E.ON, Austria's OMV and Anglo-Dutch Shell would join up to construct the new route under the Baltic Sea from Russia with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year, the statement said.

The project, for which no timeframe was given, would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline currently linking the two countries.

The announcement comes as Russia seeks more routes to deliver its gas to the European Union avoiding crisis-hit Ukraine, despite the 28-nation bloc insisting it wants to cut its dependence on Russia.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the new pipeline would help ''contribute to enhancement of safety and reliability of gas supplies'' to European markets after the agreement was signed on the sidelines of Russia's showcase investment forum in Saint Petersburg. ''New projects are important for satisfying energy demand, particularly as Europe's domestic production of natural gas declines,'' Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, said in the statement.

Russia and the West are currently locked in a bitter standoff over the Kremlin's meddling in Ukraine and a gas dispute between Kiev and Moscow has threatened energy supplies to the EU.

Russia was forced to abandon plans to build a South Stream pipeline to southern Europe in the face of opposition from Brussels.

In its place Gazprom is set to start work on a new route through Turkey in the coming months, with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras possibly set to sign a deal in Saint Petersburg to extend it to Greece.

June/18/2015

PHOTO GALLERY

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Source: Signs of the Times

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:41

(C) AP Photo/ Visar Kryeziu

Macedonia continues to go through a political crisis, after Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and the leaders of the four main political parties in Macedonia failed to reach an agreement on settling the crisis earlier this week.Western media claims that Nikola Gruevski, the current Prime Minister of Macedonia, created the crisis that puts his government at risk, EUobserver reported.

Recently, Gruevski was accused of mass illegal surveillance, election fraud, as well as abuse of the country's justice system and media.

Now the European Commission wants to send the government in Skopje a list of tough rule-of-law reforms. If Gruevski doesn't react and there is no action taken by his government, the Commission will stop backing Macedonia's EU entry talks, EUobserver said.

Macedonia has been a candidate country for EU accession since 2005. However, negotiations haven't made any significant progress and there are many obstacles that stand in the way.

Gruevski and Zoran Zaev, the Macedonian opposition leader, agreed to hold early parliamentary elections in April 2016. However, the two politicians can't agree when Gruevski must step down.

Zaev wants Gruevski to step down in October so that a technocratic government can prepare fair elections. According to Zaev, if Gruevski doesn't step down, he will rig the new elections in 2016, EUobserver said.

Gruevski, on the other hand, said the majority of Macedonians support his government and if the elections were held today, his party would win them easily.

Macedonia has been mired in political crisis since the elections in April 2014. The opposition blames the government of current Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for the country's social and economic problems, aggravated by corruption.

In May, opposition groups staged mass anti-government protests in the Macedonian capital of Skopje that drew thousands of demonstrators.

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Source: Signs of the Times

Sun, 14 Jun 2015 23:20

(C) Sputnik/ Vitaliy Ankov

China on Wednesday launched a cargo train service connecting its far western Xinjiang region with Moscow, Chinese media reported.The railway authorities in Xinjiang said the additional cargo train service linking the region's capital Urumqi with Moscow would contribute to the economic development of the autonomous region, which is seen as a "core area" of the Silk Road economic belt, Xinhua news agency reported.

Since March 2014, Xinjiang has opened cargo train service to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and also Chelyabinsk in Russia.

By the second half of the year, more than three cargo trains will run between Xinjiang and the destinations in Russia and also central and western Asia per week.

The trains will be able to transport $8.1 billion of cargo a year, local officials said.

The first freight train service linking a Chinese province to neighboring Russia was launched when a cargo train from the northeast Heilongjiang Province set off on its maiden journey to central Russia on March 1, 2015.

The Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013, includes countries situated on the original Silk Road running through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The initiative calls for the integration of the region into a cohesive economic area through building infrastructure, increasing cultural exchanges, and broadening trade.

In October 2013, Xi Jinping proposed the second branch of the project, the so-called Maritime Silk Road, to run through Southeast and South Asia.

In February 2014, President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, reached a consensus about the construction of the "Belt and Road," as well as its connection with Russia's Euro-Asia Railways.

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:22

Rachel Dolezal, the former president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, who was "outed as white" last week after allegedly pretending to be black for nearly a decade, is also an "an award-winning Mixed Media Artist," according to her art blog.

Dolezal received an MFA from Howard University in 2002, where, according to her blog bio, she majored in "experimental studio" and minored in sculpture. (Note: On Howard's Art Department website, there is no evidence of an experimental studio major.)

Dolezal received a scholarship to the university and, although there was no option on the application to identify herself as black, her mother has claimed that she may have insinuated that identity "because her portfolio of art was all African-American portraiture."

Judging from her art blog, Dolezal appears to work primarily with acrylic paint, charcoal and collage. Her paintings, frequently depicting black subjects, feature titles including "Afrika," "Reconstruction," and "The Great Escape," which a family member of hers dubbed "The KKK Stuck in the Brown Space."

In the credit information for "Afrika," Dolezal writes: "I used pieces from clothing, sports, national geo, & other magazines to bring together different 'pieces' of the earth & the human experience, in this face of our mother as a tribute to the Motherland." Needless to say, the images are problematic considering Dolezal's recently revealed circumstances.

Aside from the glaring issues of cultural appropriation and deceit rooted in the images, there also appears to be some plagiarism involved. Twitter user Jolie Adams recently juxtaposed one of Dolezal's acrylic paintings titled "The Shape of Our Kind" with J.M.W. Turner's 1840 work "The Slave Ship." As you can see, the works are nearly identical.

Dolezal's version of the image constitutes the middle panel of a triptych, accompanied by the poetry of her biological brother and published writer Josh Dolezal. She makes no mention of Turner's work, although commenters on her blog certainly do. The first comment, posted by user isabelleduvall, reads: "No shoutouts to JMW Turner?" and others quickly follow suit.

As of publication of this post, over 2,000 Twitter users have accused Dolezal of plagiarism.

If Dolezal's cocktail of vigorous artistic appropriation and artistic "blackface" appeals to your aesthetic tastes, lucky for you: Two of her works are available for purchase on eBay. The two charcoal on elk hide portraits depict an older black man and a young black child.

The caption for the drawing above reads: "A hand-drawn charcoal depiction of a black man adorns elk-hide leather -- bridging Rachel's youth spent hunting elk in Montana with her deep involvement in the black civil rights movement."

If you're interested, bidding starts at $5,000, and for just $50,000, you can own the charcoal immediately.

So far, no bids.

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:34

Zeese began his advocacy career as Chief Counsel for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1980 and served as NORML's Executive Director from 1983 to 1986. During his time at NORML he helped stop the spraying of herbicides on marijuana in Mexico and the United States, and he became a leading advocate of the medical use of marijuana.[2]

He has since been involved in helping found such drug policy reform efforts as the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Drug Policy Foundation (later merged with other organizations into the Drug Policy Alliance), and he worked with Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's "Mayor's Working Group on Drug Policy Reform", and the "Journey for Justice," a protest march on Washington. He worked to bring public attention to the death of Esequiel Hernandez Jr, a high school student killed by Marines on the U.S.-Mexico border in Redford, Texas. Zeese is currently president of Common Sense for Drug Policy an organization dedicated to reforming drug policy and expanding harm reduction.[2]

Zeese was director of the Ralph Nader-connected group Democracy Rising, an organization which worked to prevent and then end the 2003 Iraq War. From December 2007 to April 2011, he directed the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics which includes as projects two efforts TrueVoteMD and VoteTrustUSA, both of which work for a voter verified paper audit trail with electronic voting.[2]

In October 2008 TrueVote.US encouraged an email letter writing campaign in response to a report the previous week finding Virginia was one of the least prepared states for Election Day problems such as long lines, broken machines and software malfunctions. However, the hundreds of emails crashed the system, making it more difficult to get out electronic absentee ballots. Zeese stated the purpose of the campaign was for "elections officials to know people are watching and for people to know they want adequate voting machines." In response to election officials request they call off the email campaign, Zeese did so saying "We made our point."[3]

As reported by the Washington Post, Zeese has entered into the debate over the allegations of impropriety by Justice Department lawyers in opinions being used to justify the Bush Administration's "advanced interrogation techniques". Zeese has filed a formal request with the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel for the disbarment of the lawyers who wrote the memos used as justification for interrogation methods that many consider to be torture.[4]

Zeese worked on the 2003 gubernatorial campaign of Green Party candidate Peter Camejo in California. He was the spokesman (press secretary) for Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential campaign.[2][5]

Zeese writes for CounterPunch. He has been published in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post as well as on web outlets like Common Dreams, AlterNet, Dissident Voice, The Raw Story, LewRockwell.com, and Z Magazine. He is the author of several books.[2]

Zeese is currently the codirector of It's Our Economy and an organizer with PopularResistance.org

2006 U.S. Senate electionEditAfter months of campaigning, Zeese received the senate nomination of the Maryland Green Party was also nominated by the Libertarian Party of Maryland in April 2006 and the Populist Party of Maryland in June, the first time all three parties had nominated the same candidate. However, in early April 2006, the Maryland legislature passed SB 129, which held a candidate can be nominated by only a party with which he is registered. Therefore he ran on the Maryland Green Party ticket.[6][7]

Zeese called his campaign the "Unity Campaign" and ran on a reform platform that advocated the withdrawal of U.S. troops and corporate interests from Iraq, economic justice and end to corporate welfare (which he calls "big business socialism") and electronic voting reform.[8][9] He also was a vocal critic of the "hawkish" Israel lobby in the United States[10] and the Israel's 2006 bombing campaign against Lebanon.[11] He challenged incumbent U.S. congressman Ben Cardin, who has close ties to the Lobby, to break his silence on Israeli wrongdoing.[12]

Zeese received the endorsement of several leading third party figures including his former employer Ralph Nader.

Zeese was included in the publicly televised final Senatorial debate on Friday, November 3, 2006. In it urged the audience to reject the major parties, saying: "Change has not come from status quo parties, it's come from the outside."[13][14] Zeese finished third in the voting receiving 27,564 votes for 1.5% of the total vote.[1]

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 11:38

(C) The Rundown Live

Have you ever wondered how a politician disliked by most could fill a room with screaming supporters giving the perception they have your local communities support?Look no further than a company called "Crowds on Demand", a company whohires multi-talented actorswho are experts ofimprovisational theatreto provide the illusion of support for a candidate. Nothing draws a crowd,like a crowd.

The company who has provided its services for athletes, artists and fashion people has recently admitted to providing services for both Republican and Democrat candidates.

Ceo and founder Adam Swart was emailed a few questions about his services by activist Ian Cioffi. The company owner was asked if his system is proven to work in U.S. politics?

Swart claimed, he has done work for "dozens of candidates in the US primarily but not exclusively Republican. Mostly they are candidates who suffer from lack of enthusiasm/turnout at rallies and in need of a 'game change' (sorry, that's a loaded term now!). The candidates have been primarily congressional/senate candidates. We've only worked with one (serious) presidential candidate thus far.".

So what other benefits could a company of this magnitude offer?

Adam went on to express that they could even go miles further with their expertise and can give a sense of legitimacy for the candidate.

"I have found our approach has led to increased poll numbers and, in many case made the margin of victory for a few reasons: A) Photo-ops at rallies. Having a diverse group of people (race/gender/age) around the candidate is critical especially for those who are constantly followed by reporters but even for those who only get a couple pieces per day. B) Enthusiastic crowds bring more media attention and shift the narrative onto grassroots supporters. Press always want to understand why people support candidate x or candidate y.Giving them great footage of enthusiastic supporters speaking about their love for the candidate provides great quotations C) Gives a sense of legitimacy for the candidate among their existing supporters. When they see lots of enthusiastic folks at rallies, they feel like they're backing the right horse. D) Bolsters the candidates' self-confidence. Some candidates knew about the paid crowds and other times we have been hired by outside organizations. In both cases, seeing more supporters gave them the confidence to up their game on stage."

When the founder of Crowds on Demand was asked "what reassurances do you offer that the crowd does not leak the fact that they were paid to arrive?"

Swart responded in an email that "We have all crowd members sign binding non-disclosure agreements. Our crowd members work for us on a regular basis and understand we value discretion given the sensitive nature of the business. The 'leak' issue has only happened on one occasion over the past three years. "

Adam Swart believes he is just making fame into a business. He touts that 10 of my guys are more effective than a 100 bodies in a recent interview.

When asked if his business is disingenuous or fake on the speaking on wealth podcast, he responded that "what we do is get people to pay attention to your event, to your product, no ones gonna say they are going to love it, but ordinarily there are many potentially talented artists who we work with, talented fashion people, talented athletes...".

So next time you go to a political rally and see fans so undeniably in love with a candidate with no rational reason, ask yourself is this person being paid to be here? Are you supporting a fake politician?

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Wed, 17 Jun 2015 23:14

Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:22pm EDTBy Greg Roumeliotis and David Henry

(Reuters) - Jimmy Lee, one of JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) most senior investment bankers, died on Wednesday, the bank's chief executive said in a statement. He was 62.

Lee felt shortness of breath while running on a treadmill at home on Wednesday morning, according to a person briefed on the matter who requested not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The sudden death surprised colleagues who were working with Lee as recently as this week.

"We're in total shock," said one senior JPMorgan banker.

A vice chairman in the investment banking group, Lee advised some of the world's biggest companies on deals, including buying rivals, selling themselves, and raising money.

He advised on the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines to form United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N), the takeover of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones by News Corp (NWSA.O), and the initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N).

Lee started his career with Chemical Bank in 1975, where he was one of the first to break up big corporate loans into small pieces to sell to other banks. These "syndicated loans," allowed banks to share risk on transactions and finance much bigger deals than they could on their own.

Along with junk bonds from bankers like Drexel Burnham Lambert's Michael Milken, syndicated loans helped fuel the leveraged buyout boom of the 1980s.

Chemical Bank merged with Manufacturers Hanover and a series of other banks to form what is now JPMorgan Chase. Over time, Lee built a junk bond business, a private equity advisory group, and a merger advisory group.

"Jimmy was a master of his craft, but he was so much more '' he was an incomparable force of nature," Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive, said in the statement.

LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

Lee was a legendary rainmaker, but like a classic old-line banker, he cared about risk on the loans he was making, because JPMorgan would suffer when loans went bad. Enrico Dallavecchia, a former senior risk executive at JPMorgan, recalled meetings with Lee in the 1990s to decide whether the bank should make big loans.

"He was ahead of his time in terms of understanding risk," Dallavecchia said. "If he felt that the returns were not high enough for the risk, he would turn down a deal, even if people underneath him were telling him to do it," he added.

Lee's clients viewed him as a gatekeeper to the hundreds of billions of dollars that JPMorgan lends out as well as money from bond investors.

In a statement Henry Kravis, co-chief executive of private equity firm KKR & Co LP (KKR.N), praised Lee for "constantly finding new financing sources."

Kravis added, "He built lasting relationships unlike almost any banker I have ever known."

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc FB.N, posted on her company's website that Lee "believed in us long before many others did '' when we were a small company with little revenue he told us and anyone else who would listen how much potential he thought Facebook had."

Lee is survived by his wife, Beth, and three children, Lexi, Jamie and Izzy.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and David Henry in New York, Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba, Dan Wilchins and Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York,; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Leslie Adler and Bernard Orr)

Email Article>> Next Article: Fed says U.S. economy strong enough to handle rate hike

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Tue, 16 Jun 2015 18:18

Colt, which has been making guns for 160 years, on Sunday sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

The company, based in West Hartford, Conn., said the filing with allow an "accelerated sale" of its business operations in the U.S. and Canada.

Sciens Capital Management, an investment management firm in New York with a stake in Colt, has agreed to purchase the company's assets and assume its liabilities.

Colt said it "intends to continue its normal business operations through the accelerated sale process" and will keep its management team in place, including CEO Dennis Villieux.

The company has been struggling financially and missed a $10.9 million interest payment on its debt in mid-May.

Related: Iconic gunmaker Colt is on the brink of bankruptcy

"While entering Chapter 11 protection in the absence of a consensual agreement with our noteholders was not our preference and we do not take it lightly, we are confident it is the best path going forward," said Keith Maib, chief restructuring officer of Colt Defense, in a statement.

He said the filing will allow Colt "to restructure its balance sheet while meeting all its obligations to customers, vendors and employees."

The process is expected to take 60 to 90 days, said Colt.

Colt has been one of the leading names in the gun industry ever since the 1840s, when the Texas Rangers adopted Sam Colt's revolver for the Wild West wars against the Native Americans. Some 70 years later Colt developed the 1911 semiautomatic .45 caliber pistol, which was used for more than 80 years by the U.S. Army, through both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.

Related: My 'Lethal Weapon' moment with Beretta

Colt is still a supplier to the U.S. military, with its M4 carbine and M203 grenade launcher. But military spending is winding down, which has affected sales. The company also lost its competitive edge against rivals like Smith & Wesson(SWHC) and Sturm Ruger(RGR).

Colt, which built its business on handguns, has failed to capitalize on the current popularity of handguns for concealed carry. Colt makes compact pistols like the Mustang and Defender, but customer seem to prefer Glock, especially its newly released pistol, the G43.

According to Kevin Starke, gun industry analyst for CRT, there Is also a problem with leadership, and it's "hostile" relationship with Colt's workers.

Related: AK-47s: Soon to be make in USA

CNNMoney (New York)June 15, 2015: 7:43 AM ET

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:15

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:07

As used in this chapter'--

(1)the term ''international terrorism'' means activities that'--(A)involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;(B)appear to be intended'--(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or(iii)to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and(C)occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;(2)the term ''national of the United States'' has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;(3)the term ''person'' means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;(4)the term ''act of war'' means any act occurring in the course of'--(B)armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or(C)armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and(5)the term ''domestic terrorism'' means activities that'--(A)involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;(B)appear to be intended'--(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or(iii)to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and(C)occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.Source

(Added Pub. L. 102''572, title X, § 1003(a)(3),Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4521; amended Pub. L. 107''56, title VIII, § 802(a),Oct. 26, 2001, 115 Stat. 376.)References in Text

Section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, referred to in par. (2), is classified to section 1101(a)(22) of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality.Prior Provisions

A prior section 2331 was renumbered 2332 of this title.Amendments

2001'--Par. (1)(B)(iii). Pub. L. 107''56, § 802(a)(1), substituted ''by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping'' for ''by assassination or kidnapping''.Par. (5). Pub. L. 107''56, § 802(a)(2)''(4), added par. (5).Effective Date

Pub. L. 102''572, title X, § 1003(c),Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4524, provided that: ''This section [enacting this section and sections 2333 to 2338 of this title, amending former section 2331 of this title, and renumbering former section 2331 of this title as 2332] and the amendments made by this section shall apply to any pending case or any cause of action arising on or after 4 years before the date of enactment of this Act [Oct. 29, 1992].''Short Title of 2004 Amendment

Pub. L. 108''458, title VI, § 6601,Dec. 17, 2004, 118 Stat. 3761, provided that: ''This subtitle [subtitle G (§§ 6601''6604) of title VI of Pub. L. 108''458, enacting section 2339D of this title, amending sections 2332b and 2339A to 2339C of this title, and enacting provisions set out as a note under section 2332b of this title] may be cited as the 'Material Support to Terrorism Prohibition Enhancement Act of 2004'.''Short Title of 2002 Amendment

Pub. L. 107''197, title I, § 101,June 25, 2002, 116 Stat. 721, provided that: ''This title [enacting section 2332f of this title and provisions set out as notes under section 2332f of this title] may be cited as the 'Terrorist Bombings Convention Implementation Act of 2002'.''Pub. L. 107''197, title II, § 201,June 25, 2002, 116 Stat. 724, provided that: ''This title [enacting section 2339C of this title and provisions set out as notes under section 2339C of this title] may be cited as the 'Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Convention Implementation Act of 2002'.''

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:05

In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina, two particular phrases have been used in the media to describe the attack '-- ''hate crime'' and ''terrorist act.'' Soon after the initial reports of the tragedy, the authorities threw both around when discussing the matter with reporters, sometimes letting their emotions get the better of them. That is, what Dylann Roof did was terrible, but until the official investigation is complete, the use of either descriptor won't be completely accurate.

But that hasn't stopped FBI Director James Comey from discounting the use of ''terrorism'' and ''terrorist act'' to describe Roof's crimes. At a press conference in Baltimore on Saturday, Comey said that the agency was currently investigating whether or not Roof committed a hate crime, but not terrorism:

''Terrorism is act of violence done or threatens to in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry so it's more of a political act and again based on what I know so more I don't see it as a political act.''

The Bureau has a rather large and ever-evolving code of definitions for the various kinds of terrorism and terrorist acts. However, the basic definition is quite simple:

The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.''

Check out the clip below, courtesy of CNN:

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[h/t KTUL][Image via screengrab]

'-- '-->> Follow Andrew Husband (@AndrewHusband) on Twitter

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:55

The Obama administration does not support imposing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria where the Assad regime is allegedly using chlorine gas as a chemical weapon because that would involve military action against the regime, potentially to the benefit of terrorist groups fighting there, according to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power.

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:37

"People who think he's a joke and fool need to be careful because by the end of the campaign, the joke may be on them." That's how Joe Scarborough summed up the surprisingly respectful analysis of Donald Trump candidacy on today's Morning Joe.

Introducing the segment, Joe Scarborough suggested that if Trump sticks to a Perot-like populist message, he could get 15% of the primary vote. When Joe turned to Steve Schmidt, this NewsBuster expected the former McCain campaign manager and establishment Republican to dump on Trump. But to the contrary, Schmidt agreed heartily with Joe and went on to make the case that Trump is channeling widespread popular resentment, is the man people would want to see in a debate, and could be "very impactful" in the race. John Heilemann was similarly respectful of Trump's potential, saying he "doesn't play by the rules and is fearless," and receives serious, generally favorable local coverage in places like Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:36

[See NewsBusters for more.] ABC on Thursday used the tragic shooting in South Carolina to wildly speculate and link other topics. Reporter Pierre Thomas offered, "Remember, the new attorney general, who is African-American, is a daughter of the south and the child of a Baptist minister." In a separate segment, correspondent Good Morning America's Paula Faris interjected, "One trending topic is whether or not South Carolina will fly the Confederate flag on top of the state capitol at half-staff."

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:35

MP3 Link

This week on CounterSpin: It hasn't been probing media coverage that's roughened the road for the corporate power grab known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now stalled in Congress despite Barack Obama's personal appeals. How is it that a deal that mega-corporations want, and most political elites wouldn't dream of challenging, hasn't shot through like a greased pig? We'll talk about public interest activism '-- the missing piece in much top-down media coverage '-- with Kevin Zeese of the group Popular Resistance, part of the Stop Fast Track coalition.

Also on the show: Beltway paper The Hill captured it in a headline, ''EPA Gives Republicans New Ammo in Fight Against Fracking Regs.'' And to many, that's just what the agency did with a new study that, to hear media tell it, found that fracking doesn't pose any widespread harm to drinking water. Is that really what the science said? We'll hear that story of spin and more spin from Wenonah Hauter of Food and Water Watch.

And, as usual, Janine Jackson takes a look back at the week's press.

LINKS:

''The Rigged Trade Rebellion To Stop Fast Track Begins!'' by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers 6/5/15Popular Resistance: ''National Organizing to Stop Fast Track''''EPA's Fracking Study Has Industry's Oily Fingerprints All Over It,'' by Wenonah Hauter (Food & Water Watch, 6/4/15)

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:32

More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.

While being interviewed by Today co-host Savannah Guthrie on Thursday, Charleston pastor John Paul Brown used the horrific shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. church to condemn America's gun culture: ''America has this great love affair with guns and anybody can get them, whether they're mentally disturbed, whether they're crazy, whether they're part of a hate group. Just give them a gun, everybody has a gun and nobody wants to police it or reign it in.''

Brown added: ''And so when you look at this country and the direction it's going in, it's just a lot of violence everywhere. It's almost nonstop.''

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:14

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly engaged in a heated battle with South Carolina Democratic Representative Todd Rutherford on Thursday evening over Ruthford's dubious claims that he made hours earlier about how the alleged gunman in the deadly Charleston church shooting had sought guidance from ''things like Fox News'' as it supposedly offers ''hate speech.''

The roughly three-minute exchange revolved mainly around Rutherford's belief that alleged shooter Dylann Roof was a viewer of the Fox News Channel (FNC) where it ''continues to cover stories as to whether the President is truly the President'' and inferred that it enabled him to claim during the massacre that ''black people are raping white women.''

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 05:08

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

On Thursday's network evening newscasts, CBS and NBC did their parts in touting the supposed state of race relations in America with CBS's Scott Pelley holding up the deadly shooting in Charleston as ''com[ing] at a time of increasing mistrust between blacks and whites'' while NBC's Harry Smith proclaimed that the ''virus'' of racism from the 1960s ''never died.''

After a segment on President Obama's attempts to push through gun control measures, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley shifted gears to introducing a report from correspondent Jim Axelrod by bemoaning that church shooting ''of course comes at a time of increasing mistrust between blacks and whites.''

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 04:59

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

Rachel Maddow became the first member of the MSNBC community on Thursday evening to express her support for recently removed NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and took time on her eponymous show to opine that she's ''really happy'' he will be joining her on the cable network since she ''believe[s] in redemption'' and ''second chances.''

After summarizing the news regarding the decision, Maddow wanted to make clear that ''nobody at this company asked me to make this statement'' and while she speculated that she was ''causing some schpilcus somewhere in this building because I'm talking about this,'' she felt that she owed it to viewers ''to tell you what I know'' and ''also to tell you what I think.''

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Sun, 21 Jun 2015 04:55

Crossposted on Newsbusters.

On the June 18, 2015 edition of PBS's Tavis Smiley show William Hurt the star of AMC's Humans (a science fiction show that addresses the future of artificial intelligence) assured PBS's Tavis Smiley that self-aware androids weren't the monster to worry about. No the real threat, according to the star of the 1988 hit Broadcast News, was ''global warming.''

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 10:52

A friend of Dylann Roof, the man charged over this week's shooting in a church in South Carolina, has told BBC News that the suspect had told him a week earlier he wanted to attack a local university.

Christon Scriven, 21, told the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan that Mr Roof "wanted to shoot that school up - UCA university of Charleston - it's 3 miles up the street from that church."

Mr Scriven said Dylann Roof "had no intention of harming those people in that church".

He also said that he had "never said anything racist, never treated me any different".

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 05:07

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:58

President Barack Obama expressed sorrow and anger the morning after a gunmen fatally shot nine people at a South Carolina church, and said it's time for the nation to ''reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence doesn't happen in other advanced countries.''

''I've had to make statements like this too many times,'' Obama said Thursday. ''Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.''

President Barack Obama speaks about the shooting deaths of nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., from the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, June 18, 2015. (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

''We don't have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,'' Obama said, joined at the podium by Vice President Joe Biden. ''But let's be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.''

Police arrested 21-year-old Dylann Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, during a traffic stop Thursday morning after he allegedly opened fire Wednesday night at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Authorities are investigating it as a hate crime.

Obama said he and first lady Michelle Obama know several members of ''Mother Emanuel,'' including the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, who was among those killed.

''To say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families doesn't say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel,'' Obama said. ''Any death of this sort is a tragedy, any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy. There is something particularly heartbreaking about death happening in a place in which we seek solace, and we seek peace, in a place of worship.''

Obama said Emanuel is ''more than a church, this is a place of worship that was founded by African-Americans seeking liberty. This is a church that was burned to the ground because its worshippers worked to end slavery.''

And the fact that it's a black church, Obama said, ''obviously also raises questions about a dark part of our history,''

''This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked. And we know that hatred across races and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals,'' he said.

But Obama said the show of unity across Charleston in the wake of the shooting ''indicates the degree to which those old vestiges of hatred can be overcome,'' and invoked the word of Martin Luther King Jr. after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

Still, his strongest comments were in regard to the need to address the issue of gun violence in America.

''It is in our power to do something about it,'' Obama said. ''I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. At some point it's going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.''

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:48

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Fri, 19 Jun 2015 05:26

A very odd encounter took place during Tuesday's deposition of Hillary Clinton's adviser Sid Blumenthal at the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Former House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) entered the closed-door hearing uninvited, only to be swiftly escorted from the room by Benghazi committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

''The pair briefly exchanged hushed words in a nearby hallway before Issa stormed off, throwing an empty soda can into a nearby trash bin,'' The Hill reports.

Gowdy returned to the hearing, apologized for the interruption, and deferred questions about the encounter to Rep. Issa.

''Issa conducted his own lengthy investigation into the deadly 2012 siege in Benghazi, Libya, when he was chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. At one point, he called the former secretary of State to testify,'' The Hill recalls, noting that Issa made another attempt earlier in the day to visit the Blumenthal interview, only to discover it had adjourned for lunch.

Neither Issa nor Gowdy appears to be offering any further details on the argument, or Issa's purpose in visiting the hearings. As Breitbart News reported this morning, Blumenthal turned over some correspondence related to Benghazi that was somehow never tendered by either former Secretary of State Clinton or the State Department, leading to considerable anger from congressional investigators.

If Rep. Issa was swinging by the Blumenthal hearings to express his anger about the concealment of these documents, he didn't have to worry, because Rep. Gowdy was mad enough for both of them.

''I think it's noteworthy that no committee of Congress that has previously looked into Benghazi or Libya uncovered these memos, and I will leave it to you to figure out whether there was a failure to produce on the former secretary's part or a failure to produce on the Department of State's behalf. Clearly the committee should have gotten this information sooner,'' Gowdy told reporters before entering the hearing.

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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 23:31

(C) Unkown

We have just received a deeply unsettling video of a police officer choking and shooting a child with a taser gun yesterday afternoon, Saturday June 13.More details are coming out, and we do not have the victim's name yet, nor the officer's name, but we do know this happened in Fallbrook, California. A witness at the scene provided us the following information.

The child was 13-yrs-old (on the video other witnesses assume he's "15 or 16'" but our sources say he is in fact 13). He was riding on his skateboard with other young boys behind a shopping center, and there happened to be a patrol car parked nearby.

At some point an officer inside of the patrol car told the 13-yr-old child to "get in the car."

The child replied, "Why?"

The officer then warned, "You don't want to get dropped."

Witnesses say that at this point the child became scared and continued skating to a safe place away from the officer.

That is when the officer got out of his vehicle and began slugging the child on the back, according to witnesses.

The cop then "dropped" the child to the ground. At this point several witnesses pulled out their phones and began recording.

The cop can be seen in the video tackling and wrestling the child to the concrete.

But then the unthinkable happens. The video shows the cop locking the child in what appears to be a rear chokehold.

As the child is being choked from behind, the officer uses his free hand to bring his taser gun up to the child's back and shoot it into his spinal area. The child can be heard screaming, flipping around, and his legs can be seen firing up and down in pain.

The officer then shouts, "Put your f***ing hands behind your back!"

The child can be heard saying "I can't" while screaming.

The next tasering is even more horrendous. The cop literally has the child pinned down to the concrete, and begins tasing his back again. The child's body can be seen convulsing uncontrollably, his legs flinging up into the air backwards, suggestion serious cardiac problems at this point or possibly seizures.

The other witnesses are heard getting angry and pleading with the cop to stop the attack, saying "He's just a kid!"

The cop drags the child up and forces him into the patrol car '-- the child looks visibly injured or motionless. During the final moments of the scene, the officer still has his taser gun out and begins approaching the witnesses. The witnesses are heard asking a nearby citizen for help.

"It was scary," one of them told FilmingCops.com.

"We thought he was gonna start tasing us too."

The video then cuts out. The witness said that after the video ended, the cop went around to everybody and demanded their phones to delete the footage.

Fortunately, he was not able to delete all of it. One phone made it out with the footage, which is what you see below.

Other officers showed up, but according to witnesses, those officers did not know what had just occurred. The officer who did the tasing told them that his "arm was injured" as if he was the victim in all of this. He requested to be hauled away in an ambulance, apparently.

Warning: this video is graphic.