Robert Lady, the fugitive former CIA station chief in Milan, has been freed and is reportedly on a flight home to the United States. Mr. Lady was convicted in absentia by an Italian court and sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Italy. A few days ago the fugitive spook was picked up by Panamanian border authorities as he entered from Costa Rica, and handed over to Interpol for extradition to Italy. However, Panama was instead persuaded by unknown means to hand Mr. Lady over to the USA.
In other news, fighting continues in Syria near the border with Turkey between US-backed Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters, who have established de facto control over the region.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, The Observer, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bernanke Confirms: “If We Were to Tighten Policy, The Economy Would Tank”
Just this week it was announced that not only are housing starts plummeting, but permit applications reported their “largest miss in history,” an indicator that the economy is not as healthy as it has been made out to be. And, while stock markets are hitting all-time record highs, what’s curious is that some of the world’s largest companies, including Intel, IBM, Google, Ebay and FedEx, are reporting significant consumer pull back and earnings below analyst expectations.
And if that hasn’t convinced you, then here is the reality of the situation directly from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the architect of the most massive economic recovery “plan” ever devised in the history of the world.
“I don’t think the Fed can get interest rates up very much, because the economy is weak, inflation rates are low,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee.
“If we were to tighten policy, the economy would tank.”
(Courier Mail)
What Helicopter Ben is saying, despite his pledge to start pulling back the monthly $85 billion (Over $1 Trillion yearly) in stimulus spending by mid-2014, is that if they stop injecting financial and bond markets with capital, the whole system is going to fall apart, just like it was going to in 2008.
There is no way out for Ben Bernanke’s policies. We’re toast either way. If we keep printing, we eventually hyperinflate our currency to oblivion, leaving our entire system of commerce at a standstill. If we stop printing the system “tanks,” as noted by the Chairman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Money is a commodity much like everything else. It is the fuel of barter and exchange. Like all commodities it is subject to the law of supply and demand: the more there is of it, the less the value of the individual unit or piece.
To regulate the supply of money, Congress has engaged the Federal Reserve System which is sacred cow number one in our inquiry. The Federal Reserve, in turn, is committed to creating a 2% inflation in the money supply each and every year. If the demand for money remains equal, a 2% increase in the supply must translate to a 2% decrease in its value. Just based on its fundamental policy, the Fed must necessarily destroy the purchasing power of money. The Fed is committed to devaluing our money. Why would Congress tolerate such a policy in view of its Constitutional mandate? Because Congress borrows money on a long term basis. Doing so in combination with intentional devaluation allows Congress to borrow good money today and pay it back with devalued money over ten, twenty and thirty years. So what’s wrong with that?
When the Fed or the government chooses to issue a bunch of new money into the market, it is indistinguishable from the money that is already in circulation. Those who receive it first — typically the member banks of the Federal Reserve and their owners — enjoy full value. It is only when the money begins to move through the economy that supply and demand reacts with devaluation. Those who receive it last get devalued currency. What is worse, the money they happen to already have is also devalued proportionately. Think this might tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer? Unfortunately, that is but one end of the attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The U.S. Government Will Borrow Close to 4 Trillion Dollars This Year
When you add maturing debt to the new debt that the federal government is accumulating, the total is quite eye catching. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government must not only borrow enough money to fund government spending for this year, it must also “roll over” existing debt that has reached maturity.
Of course the government never actually pays any of that debt off. Instead, it essentially takes out new debts to cover the old ones. So the U.S. government is actually borrowing far more money each year than most Americans realize. For fiscal year 2013, the U.S. budget deficit will be about $845 billion, but on top of that the government will also have to borrow about 3 trillion dollars to pay off old debt that is maturing.
Overall, the U.S. government will borrow close to 4 trillion dollars this year, and that number will likely be even higher next year. That is not going to cause a crisis as long as interest rates stay super low, but if interest rates begin to rise substantially, the game will change dramatically.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
10 Ways That the Iron Grip of the Big Brother Prison Grid is Tightening on All of Our Lives
Do you ever feel trapped in an invisible control grid that is slowly but surely closing in all around you? Do you ever feel like virtually everything that you do is being watched, tracked, monitored and recorded? If so, unfortunately it is not just your imagination. Our society is rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother prison grid by a government that is seemingly obsessed with knowing everything that we do. They want a record of all of our phone calls, all of our Internet activity and all of our financial transactions. They even want our DNA. They put chips in our passports, they are starting to scan the eyes of our children in our schools, and they have declared our border areas to be “Constitution-free zones” where they can do just about anything to us that they want. The Bill of Rights has already been eroded so badly that many would argue that it is already dead. The assault against our most basic freedoms and liberties never seems to end. The following are 10 ways that the iron grip of the Big Brother prison grid is tightening on all of our lives…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
99% of Terrorists Caught by the FBI Are Faked, Author Reveals
In an interview with AlterNet Radio, when asked if the FBI’s anti-terror operations were saving American lives, as the bureau itself has crowed, he essentially said it depends on how you define a legitimate anti-terrorism operation.
“I’d say that the majority of the foiled attacks that they cite are really only foiled attacks because the FBI made the attack possible, and most of the people who are caught in these so-called foiled attacks are caught through sting operations that use either an undercover FBI agent or informant posing as some sort of Al-Qaeda operative,” Anderson said.
“In all of these cases, the defendants, or the would-be terrorists, are people who at best have a vague idea that they want to commit some sort of violent act or some sort of act of terrorism but have no means on their own. They don’t have weapons. They don’t have connections with any international terrorist groups.”
Anderson, an investigative journalist by trade, said he based his estimation that only about 1 percent of FBI terrorism busts stemmed from legitimate, non-department-related operations on figures he collected in the decade following the 9/11 attacks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Hero Larry Grathwohl Dead
“We have just learned that Larry Grathwohl was found dead in his Cincinnati apartment,” colleague Doug Hagmann wrote in an email to Canada Free Press (CFP) this evening.
“Many of us are in shock tonight,” Tina Trent wrote in her blog.
The lifelong courage of Larry Grathwohl brought him legions of fans, many of whom will be heartbroken upon hearing this news.
It was Grathwohl who awakened America to the inherent dangers of Barack Obama in the run up to the 2008 presidential election when he described a meeting he attended where Bill Ayers and Weather Underground members talked openly about how they would have to murder an estimated 25 million people following the revolution they were then attempting to foment.
It was the delivery of a message to send the first shiver down spines of Americans who realized that Bill Ayers, the same unrepentant domestic terrorist, who had one of the first fundraiser for Barack Obama at his Chicago home, had also served with Obama on the Woods Fund a grant-making foundation and on the Annenberg Challenge, which dispersed almost a hundred million dollars to Chicago public schools.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Charles Barkley on Zimmerman Trial: “I Agree With the Verdict”
CHARLES BARKLEY: Well, I agreed with the verdict. I feel sorry that young kid got killed. But they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. Something clearly went wrong that night. Clearly something went wrong. I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid, but if you looked at the case and you don’t make it — – — there was some racial profiling, no question about it. But something happened that changed the dynamic of that night, and I know — that’s probably not a popular opinion among most people but just looking at the evidence I agreed with the verdict.
I just feel bad because I don’t like when race gets out in the media because I don’t think the media has a pure heart, as I call it. There are very few people have a pure heart when it comes to race. Racism is wrong in any, shape, form — a lot of black people are racist too. I think sometimes when people talk about racism, they say only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. I don’t like when it gets out there in the media because I don’t think the media has clean hands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colorado Judge Allows Recall Elections Against Anti-Gun Lawmakers
A Denver judge ruled Thursday that the recall elections against two Democratic state senators can move forward, setting the stage for either an historic vote — or another delay if the decision is appealed to the state’s supreme court.
Judge Robert Hyatt rejected attempts by Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron to have the petitions calling for their ouster tossed out because of their wording, which, they argued during hours of testimony on Wednesday, didn’t conform to the Colorado Constitution.
They made the same argument during hearings with the Colorado secretary of state, who had earlier certified that their opponents had collected enough valid signatures to trigger an election. They were rebuffed during that challenge as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit — Coming Soon to a City Near You
For 15 years, from the mid 1970’s to 1990, I worked in Detroit , Michigan . I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gunplay, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses and school yards. Trash everywhere!
Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it, and ignored it. Tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing, and food stamps!
With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10, and in one case, one woman birthed 24 children as reported by the Detroit Free Press, all on American taxpayer dollars.
A new child meant a new car payment, new TV, and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ flourish in Detroit . If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing.
Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America , outside of Richard Daley in Chicago , rode Detroit down to its knees… He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence, and arrogance. As a black man, he said, “I am the MFIC.” The IC meant “in charge.” You can figure out the rest.
Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.
As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state.
Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city for the free government handouts, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit . As the whites moved out, the Muslims moved in.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The practice of presidents awarding ambassadorships to big contributors or political supporters is not new, but President Barack Obama may be carrying it to an all-time low.
An analysis by The Hill, a congressional newspaper, said Mr. Obama has named 19 of his major campaign helpers to such posts, including a college classmate of his wife, Michelle. Nominations have gone to at least eight campaign donation bundlers, who raised between $477,000 and $2.36 million; a top prospect for the ambassadorship of Switzerland raised $3.15 million for the Obama campaign.
The relationship between the cash and the jobs, and the fact that big donors know during the campaign that if their candidate wins, London, Paris or Rome could await as a reward, indicate that Mr. Obama and other presidents who have done the same are perilously close to selling government positions for campaign dollars.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DOJ — Promoting Riots and Race Wars From Zimmerman Verdict
This week I interviewed former law enforcement officer, best selling author and talk show host, Carl Gallups on the Zimmerman case, verdict and response. He stated he had served in law enforcement in Florida and knew their law well. He said it was illegal in Florida (no doubt most states) to incite a riot of any kind. Yet, that is what Holder and the DOJ were doing through the trial, inciting protests and trying to seemingly manipulate outcomes.
Since the verdict, we see Holder and Obama ratcheting up the race war and riots. Holder continues his witch-hunt against Zimmerman with ‘further investigations’ ‘civil rights’…this and that. Obama has weighed in as well, making sure that America knew that Travon would have been what Obama’s son looked like if he had one.
No doubt a thrill for Holder and Obama is the violence and threats building all over America at the hands of the New Black Panther Party and continued manipulation and intrusion of Holder and the DOJ. The New Black Panthers predicted violence if Zimmerman got off and that is exactly what we are seeing.
In addition, the New Black Panther Party is encouraging a citizen’s arrest of George Zimmerman and offering a $10,000 bounty for this. There has been an increase in beatings and attacks along with staged riots, looting and racial violence across the country. They have also threatened to murder white people and would love Zimmerman to be murdered.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Former Navy Seal Tells of Forced Incarceration Under Obama Regime in 2009
“WHEN I WOKE UP, MY ARMS AND LEGS WERE IN CHAINS”
In an initial interview with The Post & Email, Mr. Harry Galvin Butler, III said that in late 2008 and early 2009, all he wanted to do was point out was that Obama was “a phony” and see Congress act on it in the interest of national security. Instead, he ended up spending virtually the entire year in federal prisons awaiting a “psychiatric evaluation.”
Butler is a proponent of the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment and perceived that Obama, by virtue of being “a phony,” was “playing with my Constitution.” He told us that Navy SEALS and other military members “hate phonies.” He has no previous psychiatric history or criminal record.
Last August, former Marine Brandon Raub was arrested by the Secret Service and FBI, taken into custody and placed in a psychiatric institution where he was told he would be forced to take medication which he did not want. He was freed approximately one week later after a federal judge reviewed his detention and found no probable cause by which to hold him. Raub’s plight was taken up by The Rutherford Institute, which is suing the government for an unspecified amount of money. In a May 22, 2013 press release, Rutherford stated:
The complaint, filed in federal court in Richmond, alleges that Raub’s seizure and detention were the result of a federal government program code-named “Operation Vigilant Eagle” that involves the systematic surveillance of military veterans who express views critical of the government. Institute attorneys allege that the attempt to label Raub as “mentally ill” and his involuntary commitment was a pretext designed to silence Raub’s speech critical of the government and that the defendants violated Raub’s rights under the First and Fourth Amendments.
Following Raub’s highly-publicized case, Rutherford revealed that hundreds of other military veterans had contacted them to relate similar stories of government intimidation and people “disappearing.” Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead stated that “Brandon Raub’s case exposed the seedy underbelly of a governmental system that is targeting military veterans for expressing their discontent over America’s rapid transition to a police state.“
Two days before announcing the civil rights lawsuit, Whitehead expounded on Operation Vigilant Eagle, which was launched by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and the FBI to observe “veterans” for alleged signs of “extremism” and “oppositional defiance disorder (ODD).” Whitehead also wrote:
That the government is using the charge of mental illness as the means by which to immobilize (and disarm) these veterans is diabolically brilliant. With one stroke of a magistrate’s pen, these service men are being declared mentally ill, locked away against their will, and stripped of their constitutional rights. Make no mistake, these returning veterans are being positioned as enemy number one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eye Witness to Michael Hastings Murder Says Body Not Charred Beyond Recognition
A witness to the aftermath of the Michael Hastings accident on June 18 in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California told Infowars Nightly News that the journalist’s body was not badly charred as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The LAPD and the Los Angeles County Coroner were “trying their best” to hide the body from the witness, who asked to remain anonymous, when it was pulled from the vehicle approximately three hours after the fire was extinguished, between 7:20 to 7:40 AM.
After the ferocity of the fire, the witness expected to see a body charred beyond recognition. “What I saw was the full body,” she told Infowars Nightly News, “with a completely burned face, up to say the shoulders. From the shoulders down I saw the whole body, completely intact, not burned in any way.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FAA Asks: Please Don’t Shoot Down the Drones
Earlier this week, one Colorado town floated the idea of letting its residents buy hunting permits for drones. Now, the FAA has responded to the proposal by telling Americans to please stop thinking about shooting down drones.
The proposal itself sounds more like a clever way to get Rand Paul-type libertarians to donate to a local government budget than a viable way to protect a town from federal drones. According to the draft of the proposed ordinance, residents of Deer Trail, Colorado could pay $25 a year for a drone hunting permit. And there’s a $100 reward for any successful downed drone, providing the unmanned aerial vehicle’s “markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.”
The man behind the Deer Trail proposal, who seems to be one of the few people in the town taking it seriously, knows the idea is against the law, but doesn’t really care. Phillip Steel, speaking to CNN, said “Is it illegal? Of course it is. But it’s also illegal to spy on American citizens…If they fly in town, we will shoot them down.”
The FAA, too, is taking the idea very, very seriously, it seems. The agency, which is already behind schedule to meet a 2015 deadline for new regulations governing drone use in the U.S., released a statement reminding Deer Trail that the federal agency is responsible for regulating the air space over the town, and indicating that they’d enforce existing laws to punish any enterprising drone hunters in Colorado or anywhere else
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Georgia Boys Face Murder Charges After Cold-Blooded Killing of Infant Being Strolled by Mother
[WARNING: * Disturbing Content *]
Sherry West, of Brunswick, Ga., says she was walking her 13-month-old son Antonio when she was allegedly robbed at gunpoint by De’Marquis Elkins, 17, and his 14-year-old accomplice. She had no money so one of the robbers told her, ‘I am going to kill your baby.’
Two Georgia monsters Friday shot and killed a helpless baby for nothing as he sat in his stroller.
The senseless point-blank execution came seconds after the killers — teenagers — shot and wounded the tot’s terrified mother in a botched robbery.
“Do you want me to shoot your baby?” one of them said, before ending the 13-month-old boy’s life, police said.
In a tear-ridden interview, Sherry West called her son Antonio a “beautiful baby.” www.kmov.com In a tear-ridden interview, Sherry West called her son Antonio a “beautiful baby.”
Little Antonio Santiago’s mom Sherry West, although wounded, gave cops a detailed description of the teens — a 17- and 14-year-old — who were arrested Friday.
West also gave a gut-wrenching account of what allegedly happened when the older boy pointed a gun at her.
[Comment: Note how the long article does not mention the word black once.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Getting Out From Under Obama’s Bus Before It’s Too Late
Not only does your government spy on all your emails and telephone calls through the billions of dollars supported NSA, they mass track you when you are out in your car driving to your annual check-up. When you use Park and Fly when away visiting grandchildren, the government is rifling through your parked vehicle, courtesy of a high-handed TSA, who, while they can’t keep terrorists from coming in and out of the U.S., stick it to the little people.
The government is not only spying on your every human move, it brags about spying on you through a complacent and even gleeful mainstream media.
Depression is a national threat when you turn on your television for a break and every talking head is jabbering about the power of the government spying on you — without giving you any advice about what to do or where to turn.
If you are a working journalist like Fox News’ James Rosen or a Canada Free Press’ Doug Hagmann, you are unwittingly infecting all your friends with the unshakeable NSA on their tail.
“As an aside during testimony on Capitol Hill today, a National Security Agency representative rather casually indicated that the government looks at data from a universe of far, far more people than previously indicated. (The Atlantic Wire, July 17, 2013)
[…]
With media pals in tow, the government is dictating what is news. George Zimmerman found Not Guilty by a jury is the only news. A 13-month-old helpless baby shot in the face while in a stroller pushed by his mother in Georgia, is not.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Helen Thomas: Who Broke Down Barriers as White House Reporter, Is Dead at 92
Helen Thomas, whose bottomless curiosity and an unquenchable drive made her a prominent White House reporter at a time when men dominated the profession, died Saturday at her apartment in Washington. She was 92.
Her death, which came after a long illness, was announced by the Gridiron Club and Foundation, where Ms. Thomas had been a former president.
Ms. Thomas covered every president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama for United Press International and, later, Hearst Newspapers. Colleagues called her the unofficial dean of the White House press corps. Her blunt questions and sharp tone made her a familiar personality not only in the sometimes parochial universe inside the Beltway but also to nationwide television audiences.
| [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) If the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data collection and spying schemes on Americans have made you reconsider the state of your privacy, you may be shocked to learn that some online merchants are also now using your personal data to rip you off when you shop online. According to new reports, some internet businesses are actually tracking users’ browsing histories and charging them more for goods and services if they visit “high-end” websites that sell expensive products.
As reported by the U.K.’s Guardian, some online travel merchants, for instance, are charging users more for plane fares and hotel stays if their browsing histories reveal a liking for expensive products and services. Users who visit websites that sell fancy jewelry, for example, or that promote lavish vacations could end up paying more for the travel services to get there, as opposed to other users whose browsing histories reveal a more frugal approach to life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
LA Times Covered Up ‘Looting for Trayvon’ Riot
Newspaper falsely reported crime spree was not connected to Zimmerman verdict
When a flash mob of around 40 teenagers went on a crime spree in Hollywood’s tourist center on Tuesday night, the LA Times reported that the riot was not related to the George Zimmerman verdict, contradicting a police official who later said the “protesters” were shouting “Let’s go mess up Hollywood for Trayvon,” as they conducted their rampage.
Wearing masks and hoodies, the teenagers, “invaded the busiest and most tourist-centric part of Hollywood, smashing windows, stealing cellphones, and assaulting passersby. The police described the incident as a “rolling crime wave,” reports Breitbart.
According to police, the mob charged down Hollywood Blvd., robbing stores, stealing a cash register and grabbing women’s purses. The riot was organized beforehand via social media — another slap in the face for many in the media who tried to downplay a multitude of threats made by Trayvon Martin supporters on Twitter to riot and loot. The police arrested 12 people, 11 of which were juveniles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Matthew Vadum: Patriot Larry Grathwohl, RIP
I learned today that Larry Grathwohl was found dead in his Cincinnati apartment.
No cause of death has been announced but my guess is it was natural causes. In the above 2011 photo Larry is shown at the right.
The Vietnam vet put his life on the line by infiltrating the Weather Underground Organization. He was in the inner circle of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. He told his fascinating tale in the recently reissued book, Bringing Down America.
Here is a link to a tribute by Tina Trent. I wrote an article about Larry in 2010.
Here’s what I wrote about Larry at pp. 35-6 of my 2011 book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
A health aide to a man with Down syndrome who died after being dragged from a Maryland theater had warned police that he would ‘freak out’ if they touched or spoke to him, according to an investigative file released Monday.
Robert ‘Ethan’ Saylor, 26, passed away from asphyxia minutes later, after three Frederick County Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed the flailing, 294-pound man as he screamed, cursed and cried for his mother, witnesses say.
Saylor’s offense, according to the file documents: He had not purchased a ticket for a repeat viewing of the movie Zero Dark Thirty.
The 98-page incident report and handwritten statements from 22 witnesses add new details to a case that remains in the spotlight six months after Saylor’s death on January 12…
The state medical examiner’s office found signs of ‘positional’ asphyxia, or having been in a position in which he couldn’t breathe. There was also unexplained damage to Saylor’s larynx.
The autopsy concluded Saylor would not have died had the officers not intervened. The autopsy also found that Saylor’s developmental disability, obesity, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and a heart abnormality contributed to the death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nationwise Rallies Demand “Justice for Trayvon”
(CNN) — The parents of Trayvon Martin joined thousands of Americans at more than 100 scheduled vigils in cities nationwide demanding Saturday what they described as justice for their 17-year-old son, who was shot dead last year.
“It’s overwhelming,” Tracy Martin told CNN at a rally in Miami attended by hundreds of supporters, many of whom chanted, “No Peace! No Justice!”
[ . . .]
Last week, a jury in Sanford, Florida, found neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2012 killing outside Tracy Martin’s house. Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, said he fired in self defense after Trayvon Martin attacked him. The unarmed teen was carrying a soda and a bag of candy.
On Friday, President Barack Obama said Trayvon Martin “could have been my son … could have been me, 35 years ago.”
He also encouraged more attention to racial profiling and “stand your ground” laws.
[Andrew McCarthy wrote, “The first thing to remember is that, with the Obama administration, there are no coincidences.” Barry Hussein’s blubbering Friday speech was clearly intended to gain publicity for and boost turnout at these rallies — which, be it noted, were organized by the notorious race-hate agitator Al Sharpton. Also, note the repetition of leftist memes in this MSM story: Zimmerman is a “white Hispanic,” Martin was an “unarmed teen.” Yeah, right — unarmed except for his MMA-style brawling experience, his 5’11”, 158-pound physique, and the hard concrete sidewalk he was using to inflict blunt-force trauma on the head of his hapless victim. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Noonan: A Bombshell in the IRS Scandal
No, it wasn’t confined to a few rogue workers in Cincinnati.
The IRS scandal was connected this week not just to the Washington office — that had been established — but to the office of the chief counsel.
That is a bombshell — such a big one that it managed to emerge in spite of an unfocused, frequently off-point congressional hearing in which some members seemed to have accidentally woken up in the middle of a committee room, some seemed unaware of the implications of what their investigators had uncovered, one pretended that the investigation should end if IRS workers couldn’t say the president had personally called and told them to harass his foes, and one seemed to be holding a filibuster on Pakistan.
Still, what landed was a bombshell. And Democrats know it. Which is why they are so desperate to make the investigation go away. They know, as Republicans do, that the chief counsel of the IRS is one of only two Obama political appointees in the entire agency.
To quickly review why the new information, which came most succinctly in a nine-page congressional letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, is big news:
[…]
It’s almost as if — my words — the conservative organizations in question were, during two major election cycles, deliberately held in a holding pattern.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare: Mandatory HIV Tests Coming?
Obama seems to be addicted to signing unconstitutional executive orders. The latest mandate from on high may eventually result in mandatory HIV tests for everybody between the ages of 15 and 65 years.
Of course, for now, this is just a “recommendation.” Funny thing about government recommendations, though, as that they eventually become mandatory, usually under some specious excuse of another.
For instance, protecting children from guns or evil homeschoolers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US government feeding propaganda to the American people
“For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government’s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?” (ForeignPolicy.com)
If you have ever wondered what would happen if you threw a truck load of cow manure into a fertilizer spreader, you’re about to find out!
It would seem that, finally, the Obama Administration has concluded that Americans are sufficiently stupid enough that they can now be plied with taxpayer funded lies gussied-up to appear as truthful messages from a “caring government” sometimes referred to as … Aunt Nanna.
The Obama Regime has decided we are dumb enough that we won’t even notice that we are being manipulated by the machinations of dark forces within a government gone rogue…
“Until this month, a vast ocean of U.S. programming produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks could only be viewed or listened to at broadcast quality in foreign countries. The programming varies in tone and quality, but its breadth is vast: It’s viewed in more than 100 countries in 61 languages. The topics covered include human rights abuses in Iran; self-immolation in Tibet; human trafficking across Asia; and on-the-ground reporting in Egypt and Iraq.” (ForeignPolicy.com)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Software Stores and Transcribes Thousands of Phone Calls at Once
A shadowy research and development agency attached to the Pentagon is paying a computer scientist $300,000 to develop a means of transcribing thousands of telephone conversations into text at once.
This would enable the government to create a database containing thousands or millions of telephone conversations — at least a public version of such a database that likely already exists in some form.
The database could be easily searched by government agents employing a simple search engine. That means agencies like the National Security Agency would be able to keep a record of millions of phone conversations and pull up what you said at any time.
The project has the euphemistic name of “Blending Crowdsourcing for Fast, Cheap and Accurate Analysis of Spontaneous Speech,” and it is being funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Wired magazine reported that the computer scientist being paid the $300,000 is Matt Lease of the University of Texas.
Wired writer Robert Beckhusen believes the ultimate goal of the project is to create a means of quickly transcribing telephone conversations into digital documents. That would make them far easier to read, store, and transmit. The ultimate goal is a database of conversations an agent could pull up on his computer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Profits Over Health is Monsanto’s Business Model
GMOs, genetically modified organisms, are a hot topic lately. Many people have safety concerns, some don’t know what to think. The term GMO, usually refers to laboratory created crops that began infiltrating our food supply in the mid nineties. However, most people still don’t understand the differences between hybridization and genetic modification.
Natural hybridization is nothing more than a cross between two closely related species — usually two plants. Hybrids have happened naturally throughout history via cross-pollination. Wind, water and animals are common facilitators in this process . Even when gardeners or farmers help the process along, hybridization has always occurred between closely related species. In the animal kingdom, an example of a hybrid is a mule, which is a cross between a male donkey and a female horse. Generally, mules are more patient, sure-footed and more willing workers than either parent.
In contrast, GMOs are created in labs by scientists combining organisms from two totally different biological kingdoms that could never be blended by the forces of nature alone. For example, Monsanto has crossed genetic material from a bacterial pesticide, Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), with corn. The goal was to create a pest-resistant plant. This means that any pests attempting to eat the corn plant will die since the pesticide is part of every cell of the plant. The resultant GMO plant, known as Bt Corn, is itself registered as a pesticide with the EPA so, if you feed this corn to your cattle, your chickens, or yourself, you’ll be feeding them an actual pesticide in every bite. Bt could never naturally become part of the corn seed…
Monsanto and the US Environmental Protection Agency were adamant the pesticide in GMO corn, Bt, would only affect insects munching on the crop. They claimed Bt toxin, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and would have no impact on animals and humans.
They were both proven dead wrong. Last year. doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec, found Bt toxin produced by GMO corn in the blood of 93 percent of pregnant women tested and in the umbilical blood from 80% of their babies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Racial Unrest Will Usher in Martial Law, Which the Current Administration Secretly Covets
Does President Barack Obama intend to star in your life as the tragic Trayvon Martin for the rest of his days in public office?
President Obama expanded on the acquittal of George Zimmerman at a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room yesterday noting that he once said if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin, but now revising revising that to “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”
Just saying the name “Trayvon Martin” will bring the name Barack Obama instantly to mind. Astroturfing 101 becomes Reality 101 as Obama claims ownership of all things Trayvon Martin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) America is a nation in great need of healing. It is a nation subsisting on a food supply poisoned with GMOs, pesticides and herbicides, suffering under an epidemic of chronic disease and nearly bankrupted by the gutting of the U.S. economy by parasitic Washington bureaucrats.
Thanks to politicians like Obama, America has been driven to the brink of financial disaster, and thanks to former presidents like Bush, the “land of the free” has been turned into a dystopian surveillance police state (which Obama then multiplied and expanded). At numbers never before seen in U.S. history, everyday Americans are unemployed, living on government food aid (over 100 million Americans!), and seeing the “American dream” slip away from them more and more rapidly as the reality of the bleak future fully sets in.
America is a nation in desperate need of healing: nutritional healing, medical healing, economic healing and racial healing.
So what does Obama do? He fans the flames of racial hatred and joins with the “racism industry” to spread hatred and mistrust for his own political gain.
Obama assaults the psyche of America
He is beyond shameless… he is destructive to the very psyche of America. Just as the nation needs to come together for the common causes that unite us all — GMOs, deadly vaccines, fluoride in the water, the Fed’s grand money theft, etc. — Obama keeps us divided along racial lines with trumped-up fear mongering and muckraking that’s intentionally designed to keep America divided…
And now the real truth finally comes out: The same media which outright refused to cover the March Against Monsanto — encompassing 450+ cities around the world — is going to spend the weekend headlining the far smaller marches that have been contrived by the racism industry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?
On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart’s former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
The police found 16 small marijuana plants in Mr. Stewart’s basement. There was no evidence that Mr. Stewart, a U.S. military veteran with no prior criminal record, was selling marijuana. Mr. Stewart’s father said that his son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have smoked the marijuana to self-medicate.
Early this year, the Ogden city council heard complaints from dozens of citizens about the way drug warrants are served in the city. As for Mr. Stewart, his trial was scheduled for next April, and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. But after losing a hearing last May on the legality of the search warrant, Mr. Stewart hanged himself in his jail cell.
The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment — from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers — American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties…
In 2006, 38-year-old optometrist Sal Culosi was shot and killed by a Fairfax County, Va., SWAT officer. The investigation began when an undercover detective overheard Mr. Culosi wagering on college football games with some buddies at a bar. The department sent a SWAT team after Mr. Culosi, who had no prior criminal record or any history of violence. As the SWAT team descended, one officer fired a single bullet that pierced Mr. Culosi’s heart. The police say that the shot was an accident. Mr. Culosi’s family suspects the officer saw Mr. Culosi reaching for his cellphone and thought he had a gun.
Assault-style raids have even been used in recent years to enforce regulatory law. Armed federal agents from the Fish & Wildlife Service raided the floor of the Gibson Guitar factory in Nashville in 2009, on suspicion of using hardwoods that had been illegally harvested in Madagascar. Gibson settled in 2012, paying a $300,000 fine and admitting to violating the Lacey Act. In 2010, the police department in New Haven, Conn., sent its SWAT team to raid a bar where police believed there was underage drinking. For sheer absurdity, it is hard to beat the 2006 story about the Tibetan monks who had overstayed their visas while visiting America on a peace mission. In Iowa, the hapless holy men were apprehended by a SWAT team in full gear.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rolling Stone’s Jihadist Rock Star
In a shameless display of the Left’s romance with the murderous enemies of America, Rolling Stone magazine has put a picture of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of its August issue, being released to newsstands today. An outcry of national proportions has ensued, best expressed by bombing survivor James “Bim” Costello, 30, of Malden, MA, who needed several pigskin grafts, and has three friends who lost legs in the atrocity. “I think whoever wrote the article should have their legs blown off by someone, struggle through treatment and then see who they would choose to put on the cover,” he said.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was equally reviled by the decision. “Why are we glorifying a guy who created mayhem in the city of Boston?” he fumed. “Why would we want to heroize this guy? He’s a terrorist. We don’t want him in our neighborhoods. We don’t want him on magazines. We don’t want him anywhere.” Menino also sent a letter to Rolling Stone publisher Jan Wenner, castigating the decision to give Tsarnaev “celebrity treatment,” further noting such treatment “reaffirms a terrible message that destruction gains fame for killers and their ‘causes.’“
At least five retailers, including CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Stop & Shop, the Roche Bros grocery chain, and Tedeschi Food Shops, a Massachusetts-based convenience store chain, have announced they will not be selling the issue. A statement released by CVS, which operates in 7,300 locations nationwide, illuminated the prevailing sentiment. “CVS/pharmacy has decided not to sell the current issue of Rolling Stone featuring a cover photo of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect,” it said. “As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Selective Silencing: Was Michael Hastings Murdered?
Based on my research as a professionally licensed investigator with nearly 30 years of experience, I wish to be on record that it is my professional opinion that investigative journalist Michael Hastings was murdered.
It was exactly one month ago today, on June 18, 2013, that Hastings, 33, was killed in a single vehicle crash in the darkest hours of the night on a deserted Los Angeles city street. According to official reports, Mr. Hastings was the driver and sole occupant of a 2013 model CLK250 Mercedes Benz traveling south on Highland Avenue at a high rate of speed when he reportedly struck a palm tree located in the median on Highland Avenue, near the intersection of Melrose, at 4:20 a.m. Pacific Time. Also according to official reports, Mr. Hastings’ vehicle burst into flames upon impact, incinerating the vehicle and everything inside, including his body.
Michael Hastings was a correspondent for Newsweek and extensively covered the war in Iraq. He was also a reporter for BuzzFeed and a contributing editor to Rolling Stone Magazine. It was in 2010 when he gained widespread attention for his profile of General Stanley McChrystal, then-commander of NATO’s security force in Afghanistan, in a revealing report titled “The Runaway General.” It was this report that led to the general’s resignation for his contemptuous remarks about Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Biden.
Although Mr. Hastings became well known for that article and reportedly received at least one credible death threat as a result, I do not believe that it was his previous work that led to his tragic and untimely death. The following will explain why.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Administration’s Race-Baiting Campaign
By Andrew C. McCarthy
The first thing to remember is that, with the Obama administration, there are no coincidences.
The attorney general of the United States is engaged in a shocking extrajudicial publicity campaign. Eric Holder is prosecuting George Zimmerman in the court of public opinion because he knows he wouldn’t have a prayer of convicting him in a court of law. Worse, in doing so, Holder is quite deliberately stoking resentment and tension — under the guise of leading a “national conversation” about race.
At precisely the same time, the United States secretary of health and human services has loathsomely injected race into the debate over Obamacare. Toward the conclusion of this week’s NAACP grievance fest, Kathleen Sebelius took the podium to demagogue Obamacare opponents. The fight against them, she inveighed, is reminiscent of “the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation.” She made these inflammatory remarks just as violence was erupting over Zimmerman’s acquittal in the Trayvon Martin shooting, no small thanks to Holder’s accomplice, Al Sharpton.
These episodes are not unrelated. They are coordinated.
[As were Barry Hussein’s sniveling remarks on Friday with today’s Al Sharpton-organized rallies. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
The Vaccine Hoax is Over. Documents From UK Reveal 30 Years of Coverup
Andrew Baker ( FFN),- Freedom of Information Act in the UK filed by a doctor there has revealed 30 years of secret official documents showing that government experts have
1. Known the vaccines don’t work 2. Known they cause the diseases they are supposed to prevent 3. Known they are a hazard to children 4. Colluded to lie to the public 5. Worked to prevent safety studies
Those are the same vaccines that are mandated to children in the US.
Educated parents can either get their children out of harm’s way or continue living inside one of the largest most evil lies in history, that vaccines — full of heavy metals, viral diseases, mycoplasma, fecal material, DNA fragments from other species, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80 (a sterilizing agent) — are a miracle of modern medicine.
Freedom of Information Act filed in the US with the CDC by a doctor with an autistic son, seeking information on what the CDC knows about the dangers of vaccines, had by law to be responded to in 20 days. Nearly 7 years later, the doctor went to court and the CDC argued it does not have to turn over documents. A judge ordered the CDC to turn over the documents on September 30th, 2011.
On October 26, 2011, a Denver Post editorial expressed shock that the Obama administration, after promising to be especially transparent, was proposing changes to the Freedom of Information Act that would allow it to go beyond declaring some documents secret and to actually allow government agencies (such as the CDC) to declare some document “non-existent.”
Simultaneous to this on-going massive CDC cover up involving its primary “health” not recommendation but MANDATE for American children, the CDC is in deep trouble over its decades of covering up the damaging effects of fluoride and affecting the lives of all Americans, especially children and the immune compromised. Lawsuits are being prepared. Children are ingesting 3-4 times more fluoride by body weight as adults and “[t]he sheer number of potentially harmed citizens — persons with dental fluorosis, kidney patients tipped into needing dialysis, diabetics, thyroid patients, etc — numbers in the millions.”
The CDC is obviously acting against the health of the American people. But the threat to the lives of the American people posed by the CDC’s behavior does not stop there. It participated in designed pandemic laws that are on the books in every state in the US, which arrange for the government to use military to force unknown, untested vaccines, drugs, chemicals, and “medical” treatments on the entire country if it declares a pandemic emergency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) For the first time in history, the number of people in the United States receiving assistance from the federal government to pay for food has exceeded the number of full-time, private sector workers, according to new data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Based on the latest available figures, the overall number of food welfare recipients today exceeds the number of regular working folks by nearly four million, and the gap is continuing to widen.
An ominous foretelling of America’s dire future, the more than 101 million people in America currently receiving government food aid represent nearly one third of the overall U.S. population. Comparatively, less than one third of the entire U.S. population, or roughly 97 million people, currently has a viable, full-time job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and this figure has been on the decline in recent years.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a total of 101,000,000 people currently participate in at least one of the 15 food programs offered by the agency, at a cost of $114 billion in fiscal year 2012,” explains one report on the announcement. “Of the 101 million receiving food benefits, a record 47 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.”
What this all means, of course, is that our once great nation, built by hard-working, innovative, and creative individuals from all walks of life, has devolved into one of the worst kinds of nanny states imaginable. Sure, there are still millions of honest, industrious people that are actually producing things and contributing positively to society. But these folks are increasingly having to bear the load of the welfare crowd, the ranks of which are constantly expanding.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Supreme Court Grants Another Huge Gift to ‘Big Pharma’
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that citizens who are severely injured, maimed or even killed by FDA-approved — but unreasonably dangerous — generic prescription drugs, have no right to seek compensation from the giant pharmaceutical companies which manufacture and market them to unsuspecting consumers, writes Ernest Canning.
In its 5-4 decision in Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. vs. Bartlett [PDF] (“Bartlett”), the Court annulled a $21 million judgment that had been awarded to New Hampshire resident Karen L. Bartlett. Her use of the generic drug, Sulindac, in 2004, produced catastrophic injuries when she suffered an acute toxic necrolysis (aka Stevens-Johnson Syndrome).
In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito described her injuries as “tragic” and acknowledged that over 65% of Bartlett’s body “was burned off, or turned into an open wound. She spent months in a medically induced coma, underwent 12 eye surgeries, and was tube fed for a year. She is now severely disfigured…and is nearly blind.”
For Alito, and the rest of the Court’s right-wing majority, the severity of Bartlett’s injury proved inconsequential when measured against Big Pharma’s bottom line and their interest in selling generic drugs, which account for 75% of the prescription drugs sold in the U.S.
As a result, as it applies to generics, for the first time in our nation’s history, FDA permission to market has been treated as a final stamp of approval as to the generic drug’s safety, irrespective of the scope of subsequently obtained scientific evidence that reveals otherwise.
Anyone who is now injured, maimed or killed by what turn out to be generic, poison pills are S.O.L…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Americans Detained for ‘Vatican is Hell’ Sign at St Peter’s
Five charged with unauthorized protest
(ANSA) — Rome, July 19 — Five US citizens were detained for holding up a sign saying “The Vatican is Hell” in front of St.
Peter’s Square on Friday.
They stand accused of holding a unauthorized protest, which in Italy requires specific permission from the authorities. It is reportedly not the first time the group has attempted to hold the impromptu demonstration.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The man appointed by Pope Francis to clean up the Vatican’s scandal-hit bank allegedly had a gay affair with a Swiss soldier and had to be rescued after getting stuck in a lift with a rent boy.
Monsignor Battista Ricca was recently appointed as Francis’s new prelate with responsibility for the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works which has been hit by years of financial scandal.
But according to an expose by weekly Italian news magazine L’Espresso, Monsignor Ricca’s own record is less than spotless.
The publication has claimed that Monsignor Ricca only got the position as IoR prelate after the supposedly powerful ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican airbrushed his CV.
According to the claims, Ricca took a Vatican diplomatic post in Uruguay in 1999 and caused shockwaves within the church when moved his Swiss army captain lover Patrick Haari in.
The publication claims that the allegations have been confirmed by a number of bishops, priests and laity in Uruguay.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Station Attacked Amid Tensions Over Ban on Muslim Face Veils
TRAPPES, France — About 250 people hurling projectiles clashed with police firing tear gas west of Paris, in apparent protest over enforcement of France’s ban on Islamic face veils. Five people were injured and six detained in the violence, authorities said Saturday.
The interior minister urged calm and dialogue, insisting on both the need for public order and respect for France’s Muslims. The incident in the town of Trappes on Friday night reflected sporadic tensions between police upholding France’s strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France’s No. 2 religion.
A few garbage dumpsters in the area were torched and a bus shelter shattered in the Trappes unrest. Spent tear gas capsules lay on the road Saturday near the police station at the center of the violence.
A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious eye injury in the violence, from a projectile of unknown provenance, Prosecutor Vincent Lesclous told reporters. Four police officers were injured and six people were detained in the violence, said an official with the regional police administration.
The violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.
France has barred face veils since 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kyenge Shows Appreciation for UN Stance on Racial Slurs
Italy’s first black minister likened to orangutan by Senator
(ANSA) — Trieste, July 19 — Italy’s first black minister expressed her appreciation of the United Nations’ Friday for slamming a recent description of her by a leading Italian politician in which she was likened to an orangutan.
“There are norms, there are penalties, there are a series of regulations and laws also to protect those who work in public office. I believe we also need to give ourselves these rules,” said Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge. The United Nations on Friday said it was “absolutely shocking” that Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto Calderoli had likened Kyenge to an orangutan. Since insulting Kyenge over the weekend, Calderoli has been pressured to resign by politicians from both the right and the left. But his own party, the anti-immigrant Northern League, has rallied around him, chiding critics for what they regard as a lack of a sense of humor. Prosecutors are investigating Calderoli for aggravated defamation and incitement of racial hatred.
While he is only the latest member of the League to make racial slurs against Congolese-born Kyenge since her appointment in April, he is the highest profile, having served as a minister in a government of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s ‘Sex-Party Pimps’ Found Guilty
Fede, Mora get 7 years prison, Minetti 5, plus bans from office
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Milan, July 19 — A Milan court on Friday sentenced three associates of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi for providing him with prostitutes, one of whom was a showgirl known as Ruby who was underage at the time. Lele Mora, a former talent scout, Emilio Fede, a TV anchorman, and Nicole Minetti, the ex-premier’s former dental hygienist and ex-Lombardy councilor, were convicted of organizing alleged ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties at Berlusconi’s Arcore residence in the closely watched case. Fede and Mora were both given seven-year prison sentences and banned for life from public office while Minetti was sentenced to five years in prison and banned from office for just as many years.
The three are expected to appeal. In their closing arguments, prosecutors compared Fede and Mora, to “tasters of fine wine” saying that they tested the girls before putting them into “the circuit of the Arcore nights”.
Signs that judges were expected to rule against the three began to show at the end of last month when Mora told judges he was “a passive accomplice” in the affair and that the evenings constituted “excess, abuse of power and degradation”. He later backpedaled before journalists, but said that during various periods spent in prison on bankruptcy-related charges, he “had the chance to think a lot,” that he no longer wanted to “eat rotten food” and he apologized to journalists and left-wing individuals at whom he had lashed out in the past.
In a related case, Berlusconi is also appealing a seven-year sentence and lifetime ban from office for paying Karima ‘Ruby’ El Mahroug for sex and then abusing his office in a lie to cover it up. In the several ongoing and previous trials, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly left-wing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.
His centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party on Thursday accused Milan judges of partisan bias in their tax-fraud ruling against the media magnate.
Berlusconi’s four-year term for inflating film-rights purchases at his Mediaset media empire, cut to one for an amnesty, as well as a five-year ban from public office was upheld by an appeals court in May, and the supreme Cassation Court will hear his appeal on July 30.
In a statement, the PdL said the series of trials was based on “an accusation so absurd and laughable that, in the presence of judges who are not totally compromised and non-partisan, (the trials) would be over before they begin, with a great saving of time for the judiciary and money for taxpayers”.
The PdL has been particularly outraged over the Cassation’s decision to hear his case allegedly so soon at the end of this month, supposedly depriving his legal team enough time to prepare.
The Cassation said it was forced to move on the case or risk it timing out under the statute of limitations, something that has happened a number of times in the media mogul’s previous legal entanglements.
PdL lawmakers have vowed to resign en masse if their leader’s ban from office is upheld.
Their threats and Berlusconi’s legal woes in general have added tension to an already unstable coalition government, cobbled together from the center left and center right after two months of post-election parliamentary gridlock earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kazakhs Ordered Police Raid From Interior Ministry Secretariat
Prefect Valeri’s version: “Ambassador Yelemessov demanded second swoop on residence”
ROME — The interior ministry’s secretariat was monitoring the Kazakh operation every step of the way. In fact the second raid on 29 May on the house at Casal Palocco where Mukhtar Ablyazov was believed to be hiding was decided in the office of prefect Giuseppe Procaccini. And police officers received the order from the Kazakh ambassador, Andrian Yelemessov. Shocking new details have emerged from head of chief of police staff Alessandro Valeri’s account of the two meetings with diplomats at the interior ministry. Confirmation comes from prefect Gaetano Chiusolo, head of the central directorate for crime (DCA), who received the ambassador’s instructions on his mobile phone. Their statements, together with those of other ministry staff members involved, have been forwarded to Parliament ahead of today’s scheduled no-confidence motion against interior minister Angelino Alfano.
Other documents included with the report drafted by prefect Alessandro Pansa reveal the seriousness and number of irregularities and omissions that occurred before Alma Shalabayeva and her six-year-old daughter Alua were repatriated as all the departments of the Italian police force were placed at the disposal of a foreign power. “I knew nothing”, Mr Alfano has always insisted before he was contradicted by prefect Procaccini, who pointed out that he had given him reports of the meetings held in his office. In any case, it would be difficult to claim otherwise in view of the total commitment to the operation displayed by investigators and their superiors.
Prefect Valeri says: “After 8 pm on the evening of the 28th, I received a telephone call from prefect Procaccini summoning me to his office for urgent communications. At the head of secretariat’s office, I found Ambassador Yelemessov and an adviser from his embassy. After introductions had been made, the head of secretariat informed me that the Kazakh authorities had reported the presence in Italy of a dangerous fugitive from justice. The ambassador himself described in detail the grounds for concern arising from the dangerous nature of the fugitive, pointing out that he was armed, accompanied by armed men and had links to international terrorism. He handed over a file on the fugitive, which contained an Interpol bulletin with an international wanted list. Prefect Procaccini gave me a copy. I put it to the ambassador that he should have gone to the police and he replied that he had discussed the matter that morning with the head of the flying squad, Renato Cortese, and given him the same information along with the precise location of the house where the fugitive was hiding. I called Cortese on my mobile and he confirmed that he had met the ambassador and had already arranged a search of the house for the early hours of the following day. I urged him to keep me informed”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: SEL Party Councillor Creates Uproar With Offensive Remark
(AGI) Rome — Chamber speaker Boldrini has intervened after a SEL councillor addressed a Northern League member using racist terms.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
[These are my views as a woman living in England, on how the culture and spirit of my country has changed over 50 years, why the country does not feel protected or strong any more, how it has lost, and is losing its values and decency, and how we are daily losing our free speech.]
Silent Fear
It has been just 2 months since the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. He was an off duty soldier of the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who made headline news in the UK. There must be very few people around the world who have not heard of how Lee was savagely attacked in a busy London street, after being run over, whilst walking back to his barracks. The attackers, 2 men by the names of Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, then hacked him to death, with knives and a cleaver, and attempted to behead him. Both were of British and Nigerian descent, and both were reported as being raised as Christians in the UK, and subsequently converting to Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
R.I.P. Britain’s Patient-Killing ‘Pathway to Death’ (and How ObamaCare Will Bring it to America)
Americans who wonder how their medical care will evolve once the Affordable Healthcare Act is fully implemented should turn their attention to the UK. After a sustained campaign by the UK’s Daily Mail, the so-called Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) that provided end-of-life care to thousands of patients in Britain’s government-run National Health Service (NHS) will be phased out over the next six to 12 months. This is due to the reality that an independent review board found “shocking examples of abuse” regarding the treatment of the system’s most vulnerable patients.
“We need a whole new system of better end of life care tailored to the needs of individual patients and involving their families,” said Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb. “I took the decision to launch this review because concerns were raised with me about how patients were being cared for and how families were being treated during this difficult and sensitive time.”…
According to excerpts obtained by the Daily Mail, patients were subjected to a catalogue of indignities. These included patients so heavily drugged they could no longer communicate with family members, completely eliminating the chance to say goodbye. “There have been too many coming forward to the review panel to say they left their loved one in a calm and peaceful state, able to communicate, for a short time, or with a doctor or a nurse for a check-up only to return and find a syringe driver had been put in place and their loved one was never able to communicate again,” the report states.
Patients had also been put on the pathway without consent. The Mail notes that last year as many as 60,000 patients “placed on the scheme were never asked for their consent, or their families were not asked, further revealing that many of those involved “found out by accident, and others recovered fully after relatives found out and got their loved ones taken off the pathway.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A 16-year-old boy was last night charged with the murder of a teenager who was allegedly standing up for his girlfriend after she was abused on Facebook.
Hassan Mahmood died in hospital after suffering a single stab wound to the back following the incident on Monday, West Midlands Police said.
The 15-year-old was attacked in Oaklands Park in South Yardley, Birmingham, at around 6pm.
West Midlands Police last night charged a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with Hassan’s murder. A second 16-year-old boy has been charged with assisting an offender in connection with the incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Five prison officers have been suspended after one of the men accused of hacking off-duty soldier Lee Rigby to death in Woolwich had two teeth knocked out.
The men were suspended from their duties from top-security Belmarsh Prison in south London after the alleged attack on Michael Adebolajo, 28, three days ago.
He had refused to obey officers’ instructions and had to be restrained, according to prison sources.
It is understood that five officers have to be on hand when Adebolajo leaves his cell.
Four of the officers were suspended on Thursday, while the fifth was suspended yesterday.
All of the officers are on full pay pending the results of the investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice confirmed that police are investigating the incident…
The unit in which he is being detained has the highest security classification in the country, and holds notorious terror suspects and dangerous felons.
Inmates have included Al Qaeda preacher Abu Qatada until his deportation earlier this month, and fanatic Abu Hamza, who was extradited to the US last year.
The cost of keeping each inmate in the unit is estimated at £65,000 a year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
A grandmother murdered in her own bed with a pitchfork and a wooden bat was beaten so savagely that her face ‘caved in’, a court heard.
Rhoda Youson, 57, was found dead by police who forced their way into her blood-spattered flat in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
A trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard there was ‘nothing left’ of her face after the sickening attack, in which she suffered multiple fractures to her skull, jaw and cheekbones and damage to her hands, shoulder and neck.
Homeless Anthony Hall, 47, denies Mrs Youson’s murder.
He was one of a number of homeless people that the ‘generous’ grandmother used to invite into her home and cook meals for, the court was told.
The trial heard Hall set upon Mrs Youson, who lived alone in the flat, with a garden fork and a bat on November 22 last year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police have been ordered to carry out an investigation into an ASBO banning a man from clapping or laughing near his neighbours after a court ruled it was breaching his human rights.
In what is one of the UK’s more unusual ASBOs, Stuart Hunt has also been banned from staring, waving objects and being rude and insulting in public.
He has appeared in court more than 100 times for alleged breaches of the order since it was first issued against him in 2007, yet in all that time he has never been convicted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is There Significant Oil Offshore Israel?
In November 2011, we noted: Natural gas is not the only energy source from the discoveries in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zones in the Levant Basin, there is oil in lower depths. UBS using Noble Energy estimates of recoverable oil of 4 billion barrels could result in Israel receiving almost $60 billion in additional revenues, equivalent to 23% of Israel’s GDP in 2010. That was the speculation nearly two years ago. Now there is a new drilling project by Noble Energy, Inc. (NBL-NYSE) and Delek Drilling Partners at lower depths in existing offshore gas wells that might prove out some of those estimates. If that happens, this could be another important fillip in Israel’s goal of energy independence. That important goal was first realized with the production of offshore natural gas in the existing Tamar field that began in March 2013. There may be oil at lower levels in the Leviathan gas field development project, say NBL and Delek. Bloomberg published a recent report on this important oil drilling project, “Israel’s Deepest Well Targets 1.5 Billion Barrels of Oil”. If these offshore drilling projects produce estimated oil targets the economic impact to Israel could be significant. Bloomberg notes: Houston’s Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) will probe 6,500 meters (4 miles) below the Mediterranean seabed later this year, targeting as much as 1.5 billion barrels of crude, equal to about 15 years of Israeli demand. While explorers have found enough natural gas in the past five years to turn Israel into an exporter, a major oil discovery would break new ground. The Middle East’s third-largest economy spends about $10 billion a year importing 98 percent of the oil it uses. Domestic production would increase tax revenue, boost the country’s balance of payments and reduce vulnerability to supply disruptions.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Drunken Brits, Angry Muslims and the Med Resort That’s the Front Line in a Culture War
Turkey is the only Mediterranean country where package tourism — and its excesses — have taken hold in a society that is predominately Muslim.
Little wonder, perhaps, that in Marmaris, the cheapest and most popular resort for UK tourists, tensions between God-fearing locals and hedonistic visitors have started to simmer in the summer heat.
‘These people want to drink and then behave like animals,’ said one worshipper, Sedat Cir, outside the Eski Camii mosque. ‘Of course, we try to ignore them. But they are rude and in this location, it’s just disrespectful.’
At the dockside, a group of men with Birmingham accents stripped to their underwear and jumped into a fountain. On the beach, dozens of couples lay canoodling, in various states of undress, as they awaited the sunrise.
‘We get visitors from all over: Russia, Holland and Scandinavia. But the British are the biggest group, and they behave the worst,’ said another passer-by, Cihan Bahik, 37. ‘They drink and drink until they lose their minds.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai: Janet Jackson’s Husband Fired Marte Dalelv (24)
Billionaire Wissam Al Mana, husband of famous popstar Janet Jackson, signed the letter of resignation for Marte Dalelv (24) after she reported being raped in Dubai.
The 6th of March this year Dalelv reported a colleague for rape while on a business trip in Dubai. Earlier this week, Dalelv was sentenced to 16 months in prison after being convicted for having extramarital sex, drinking alcohol without permission and giving false statement to the police.
“Unacceptable and improper behavior”
Ms. Dalelv received a letter from her employer Al Mana Interiors three weeks after she reported the rape, informing her that she was suspended from her position, effective immediately.
The ninth of april she got a new shocking letter: Her contract was terminated due to “unacceptable and improper behavior”. This time it was the company’s managing director, Mr. Wissam Al Mana, who himself signed the letter.
Got married
Al Mana and popstar Janet Jackson, the sister of Michael Jackson, got married in 2012. When they confirmed the marriage this February the news went worldwide.
“Last year we were married in a quiet, private and beautiful ceremony”, the couple wrote in a statement to the press.
“I think a man’s dream woman changes as he goes through different stages in his life. I’m fortunate to be dating my dream woman now,” he told Harper’s Bazaar in 2010 according to Gulf News.
Sacked by a billionaire
Wissam Al Mana is a businesstycoon in Qatar who is believed to be worth one billion dollars. His company has worked together, amongst others, with the luxury brand Herme’s on opening a high-end story in Doha, according to Trends Magazine, an international magazine about arab business, who wrote an article about Al Mana in 2009.
Al Mana Interiors in Doha and their role as a franchisee in the interior chain The One Total Home Experience is also mentioned in the article. Dalelv got recruited through The One for the job in Dubai, and on The One’s website Al Mana Interiors is promoted as The One’s Doha-store.
The One is owned by the swedish bussinessman Thomas Lundgren, which has recruited several Norwegians to work for him and their franchisees in the Gulf-countries. Mr. Lundgren has not replied VGs repeated attempts to get a comment.
Removed Facebook-pages
On their Facebook-page Qatar-based Al Mana Interiors informs that the company is led by the Saleh Al Mana-group, which is owned by the three brothers Hisham, Kamal and Wissam Saleh Al Mana.
This was also confirmed in a statement to the press in 2010.
The brothers owns over 50 different companies in the Gulf-region, Wissam Al Mana informs in an interview to Gulfconnoisseur.
Other companies in the Saleh Al Mana-group do sales of cares, cosmetics and real estate.
The Facebook-page of Al Mana Interiors have been removed since Friday morning and the company has not given any statements. The same goes for the Facebook-page of The One.
Personally signed the letter
Al Mana writes the following in the letter he personally signed:
Dear Ms. Dalelv,
Further to the suspension letter notified to you on 20th March 2013, we hereby inform you that you employment with Al Mana Interiors W.L.L. is terminated for misconduct and breach of your employment duties, effective immediately.
As mentioned is the suspension letter dated 20th March 2013, your employment agreement is termination due to your unacceptable and improper behavior during your last business trip in Dubai, which has resulted in your arrest by the Police Authorities in UAE.
The full and final settlement of any outstanding benefits can be discussed wih Mr. XXXX XXXXXX. At the same time, you are requested to hand in any company property given to you on account of company work.
The present letter has been given in accordance with article 61 of the Qatar Labour Law no 14 of (2004), and a copy of which will be submitted to the Labour Department, for their records.
Sincerely,
Wissam Al Mana
Managing Director
VG’s reporters have not recieved any comments from Al Mana Interiors or Wissam Al Mana, despite repeated requests.
| — Hat tip: The Observer | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Jihadists Battle Kurds in North-East
After clashes yesterday at Turkey border crossing
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JULY 18 — Clashes are ongoing in northeastern Syria between jihadists from the al-Nusra Front and Kurdish militias, who yesterday seized the Ras al-Ayn border crossing into Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Thursday.
Fighting is ongoing in the villages of Tal Alo, Karhouk and Agha, in Al-Hasaka governorat. Kurdish fighters from the Popular Protection Units (YPG) have seized the al-Sweidiya oil area, with heavy losses on both sides, SOHR reported. Locals reported a rebel battalion kidnapped 19 Kurdish university students on the road from Tal Tamer and al-Hasaka, and al-Nusra front fighters bombarded parts of Ras al-Ayn city.
Turkish forces returned fire after two civilians were killed by stray bullets from the Syrian side of the border in this same area, Turkish media reported yesterday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Iconoclast: Is a Kurdish Regional Government Rising in Syria?
While some in the US Congress argue for delaying weapons shipments to the Free Syrian Army, Syrian Kurds have been successfully claiming important territory in their heartland in Northeast Syria against the Islamist Al-Nusra Front and ISIS opposition forces. Democratic Union Forces (PYD) Kurdish forces have seized control of the important Ras al-Ain town on the Turkish frontier. Moreover they have seized checkpoints and weapons from Syrian Islamist forces.. PYD forces are also battling Islamist opposition forces for control of the major oil fields in the Hassakeh province in the countryâ€(tm)s northeast.
[…]
Given the vacuum in Syria created by the Assad regime war against the Free Syrian Army and Islamist militias that a new Kurdish Free State might be declared equivalent to that of the Kurdish Regional Government in adjoining Iraq. Because of the PYD association with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), this might raise concerns by the Erdogan government in Ankara. The Erdogan government concluded a cease fire with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan that went into effect in March 2013. Attacks on Turkish outposts by PKK militants in July 2013 could signal a short lived cease fire…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
US Preparing for Military Action in Syria, Top US General Says
President Barack Obama is considering using military force in Syria, and the Pentagon has prepared various scenarios for possible United States intervention.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Obama administration is deliberating whether or not it should use the brute of the US military in Syria during a Thursday morning Senate hearing.
Gen. Dempsey said the administration was considering using “kinetic strikes” in Syria and said “issue is under deliberation inside of our agencies of government,” the Associated Press reported from Washington.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soy-Based Lunch Kills 22 Children in India: Have GMOs and Pesticides Become Instant Killers?
(NaturalNews) At least 22 children in India have died as a result of eating soy-based school lunches served to them in the country’s Bihar state, according to new reports. The tainted lunches, which were loaded with genetically-modified (GM) soybeans and pesticide chemical residues, were given to the student victims as part of a U.K.-based government meal program similar to the one currently being implemented in the U.S. by Michelle Obama for American public schoolchildren.
The U.K.’s Independent reports that the culprit meals contained a blend of rice, soybeans and potatoes, and had apparently been doused with an unidentified new cooking oil that was later determined to be tainted with toxic crop insecticides. Early on, the school’s cook warned her superiors that the new oil appeared “discolored and dodgy,” but her concerns were ignored when school officials insisted that the oil was safe.
Not long after students ate the first meal served with the new oil, dozens of them began to vomit profusely and some developed severe diarrhea. Several of them had to be immediately rushed to the hospital for emergency care, which sent the school’s headmaster running for the hills — according to reports, she literally fled the school after first learning that students were becoming ill from eating the food.
“We feel that some kind of insecticide was either accidentally or intentionally mixed in the food, but that will be clear through investigations,” said R.K. Singh, the medical superintendent at the local children’s hospital in Patna, Bihar’s capital. “We prepared antidotes and treated the children for organic phosphorus poisoning,” he added, noting that early tests identified the presence of a toxic organophosphate chemical in the tainted food.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Panama: CIA Agent Wanted in Italy Freed, Washington Confirms
Faced extradition to Italy over 2003 abduction of Muslim cleric
(ANSA) — New York, July 19 — The CIA’s former Milan station chief Robert Lady, who was facing extradition to Italy from Panama for his role in the 2003 abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, has been released by authorities and is aboard a flight to the United States, the US State Department confirmed Friday.
The United States had been viewed as extremely unlikely to let him end up in a foreign jail, and expected to “exert pressure in all directions to make sure that does not happen,” said Milan prosecutor Ferdinando Pomarici earlier Friday.
Pomarici helped secure a nine-year conviction for Lady, who was detained by Panamanian police over an entry violation from Costa Rica and handed over to Interpol Thursday night on an international warrant issued by Italy. Italy and Panama do not have an extradition treaty and the US, which wields influence in the Central American country, is famously unwilling to hand its citizens over to foreign jurisdictions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maroni Calls UN Stance on Racial Slurs ‘Political’
‘It’s about our anti-immigration platform’
(see related) (ANSA) — Torrazza Coste, July 19 — Northern League leader Roberto Maroni on Friday said the United Nations’ rebuke of one of his party colleagues for likening Italy’s first black minister to an orangutan was due to the group’s stand on immigration policy.
“It’s not the UN, we know who it is. It’s those who continue to criticize me for the fight against illegal immigration,” said Maroni, who is also the governor of Lombardy.
A UN spokesman said it was “absolutely shocking” that Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto Calderoli had likened Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge to an orangutan over the weekend. Maroni has refused to pressure Calderoli, a League member, to quit over the comments.
His party has rallied around him, chiding critics for what they regard as a lack of a sense of humor. Prosecutors are investigating Calderoli for aggravated defamation and incitement of racial hatred.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Media Blackout: Illegal Alien Dragged Paralyzed Woman From Wheelchair, Raped Her
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
Since this reporter began documenting the crimes committed by illegal aliens, often times friends and family will ask the question “What is the worst one you’ve heard of?”
While there are far too many “worst ones” to name, or to even rank in any sort, as all have caused untold suffering to the victims as well as their families, one incredibly heinous crime which received no media attention does come to mind…
In May 2010, Joel Eliazar Ortega, 30, was sentenced to life in prison by Washoe County District Judge Patrick Flanagan, after the illegal alien pleaded guilty to raping a paralyzed woman.
On Oct. 30, 2009, Ortega approached the victim, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair, grabbed the chair’s handles and wheeled her into an alley behind a shopping center on North McCarran Boulevard, brutally assaulting her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Race to the Trough: Common Core Conundrum, Part 2
United by a common agenda, non-governmental special-interest groups have contributed to financing, writing, evaluating, and promoting new, national Common Coreeducational standards. Behind Common Core is big money from private philanthropies and companies, many of which stand to rake in billions off the Common Core boondoggle. The e-learning market alone is estimated to grow to $6.8 billion by 2015, up from $2.9 billion in 2010.
Having received millions in Gates’ grant money, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute gets the picture. In the Puget Sound Business Journal (2009), the institute’s vice president Michael B. Petrilli conceded, “It is not unfair to say that the Gates Foundation’s agenda has become the country’s agenda in education.”[1]
Of course, neither Bill nor Melinda Gates is a trained educator. Of instructional goals, Bill Gates agrees, “At the end of the day, some of those trade-offs will be made politically[Emphasis added.].” “If you can’t make it good,” Gates famously mused, “at least make it look good.”[2]
Enter, Obama’s brainchild, Race to the Top — more accurately, “Race to the Trough” of “free” grant moneys for educators who, by the way, aren’t its only beneficiaries. Industry giants who champion Common Core will no doubt profit handsomely. By mandating a computer for every child, Race to the Top generously”seeds the ed-tech ecosystem.”
Talk about a sweet deal. Promoting worldwide collaboration, the Gates have partnered with the Pearson Foundation. Having taken over one hundred of the world’s textbook publishing companies, Pearson is the biggest publishing company in the world and will supply required e-books in tandem with compulsory computers.[3]
Professor of Renaissance English Literature at Providence College in Rhode Island, Anthony Esolen characterizes Common Core standards as “mind-stunting, strictly utilitarian miss-education.” World class, they aren’t. Nor are these standards robust;yet advocates conveniently insist that standards cannot be changed, or errors corrected. After all, they are already printed and copyrighted.[4]
Problem is, by the eighth grade, standards fall two years behind international expectations. They fall even more behind by twelfth grade. Remember, the only authentic mathematician on the validation committee rightly refused to sign off on math standards.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Large Families That Rule the World
Some people have started realizing that there are large financial groups that dominate the world. Forget the political intrigues, conflicts, revolutions and wars. It is not pure chance. Everything has been planned for a long time.
Some call it “conspiracy theories” or New World Order. Anyway, the key to understanding the current political and economic events is a restricted core of families who have accumulated more wealth and power.
We are speaking of 6, 8 or maybe 12 families who truly dominate the world. Know that it is a mystery difficult to unravel.
We will not be far from the truth by citing Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Loebs Kuh and Lehmans in New York, the Rothschilds of Paris and London, the Warburgs of Hamburg, Paris and Lazards Israel Moses Seifs Rome.
Many people have heard of the Bilderberg Group, Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission. But what are the names of the families who run the world and have control of states and international organizations like the UN, NATO or the IMF?
To try to answer this question, we can start with the easiest: inventory, the world’s largest banks, and see who the shareholders are and who make the decisions.
The world’s largest companies are now: Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Let us now review who their shareholders are.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unraveling the World’s Secret Societies
Exclusive: Devvy Kidd identifies global players attending ‘harmless’ Alfalfa Club event
Nothing in politics happens by accident, so the saying goes and is absolutely true. Our constitutional republic has been under attack for more than a century by individuals who desire to rule the world. You and I are merely underlings who provide massive power and riches to them through the ballot box and our consumer dollars.
Unraveling all the organizations that yank the strings of American politics can be daunting. In 2005, I penned two important pieces for WND: “The treasonous Council on Foreign Relations” and “The treasonous Trilateral Commission.” Nothing has changed. Those two organizations are not some harmless think tanks. If you go to the CFR’s history page, nuggets of the truth are right there for everyone to see. Elihu Root headed the original CFR. The Rothschilds and Wall Street were instrumental in financing the Bolshevik Revolution. Root was the bag man to deliver $20 million to the Bolsheviks who were founded by mass murderer Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“In other news, fighting continues in Syria near the border with Turkey between US-backed Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters, who have established de facto control over the region.”
divide and sort-of-rule perhaps?
just plain [dung] stirring on the other hand?
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